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Taipei, May 7 (CNA) The World Health Organization (WHO) inviting Taiwan to attend its upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) as an observer, but for the first time doing so under the premise of the so-called "one China" principle, is widely seen here as the first challenge for President-elect Tsai Ing-wen ().
Taipei, May 7 (CNA) Premier Simon Chang () confirmed Saturday that an invitation from the World Health Organization (WHO) for Taiwan to attend its upcoming World Health Assembly (WHA) has been passed on to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which will take over the reins of power from the Kuomintang on May 20.
derbies, the Ottawa Valley's Renfrew Mercury ran an advertorial Report from Parliament written by Conservative Member of Parliament Cheryl Gallant on the much heavier subject of

for RenfrewNipissingPembroke also claims that livestock producers would be put out of business as these extremists believe we all should be plant-eaters only.

I assume those extremists and alarmists Gallant writes about would include the thousands of scientists around the world working everyday on further understanding the issue of climate change and the ways we can deal with it. And I would also assume that would include vocal leaders for carbon pricing from her own party, like the former leader of the Reform Party Preston Manning.
Oil prices jump as Fort McMurray wildfire slows down oilsands production

Canada is the 3rd largest oil suppliers next to Saudi Arabia and Venezuela ... it's going to hurt the Canadian economy when we are already screwed from having a do nothing Liberal Gov't.

The price of crude is rising today as the wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta., slows oilsands production.The Wood Buffalo region of Alberta is the economic heart of the province, and key to world oil markets. It produces more than half of Canada's oil each day and is an important exporter to the United States.While the oilsands plants themselves are not at risk at this moment, production has not just slowed down, but in some cases has stopped because the plants can't operate at full capacity without staff. The entire population of Fort McMurray has been evacuated, thousands of homes have been lost and it's unclear when the city will be habitable again.Production has shut down at Shell's Albian oilsands mines, as well as at Suncor's base mines north of Fort McMurray. Production has been curtailed at other Suncor operations, as well as Syncrude, Husky and Connacher."But not because it's at risk," said Tim Pickering, chief investment officer at Auspice Capital. "But because of the people issue. Of course, they're being sensitive to their employees and family issues."The market is now estimating that between 600,000 and 800,000 barrels are off-line. World oil production is around 96 million barrels a day, and is oversupplied by approximately one million barrels a day, with lots of oil in tanks, so even if oilsands production slows in the short term, it should not have an effect on the world price in the long term.But in the medium term, the question becomes how to operate the oilsands without its key staff. Last year, Fort McMurray's population stood at 78,000, with a shadow population of 43,000. Most of the shadow population lives in work camps around the oilsands operations. Many of those workers have been sent home to other parts of the country because the camps are now housing residents evacuated from Fort McMurray.But a substantial number of Fort McMurray's permanent residents live in the city and commute daily to work at the oilsands plants. Just one bus line, Diversified Transportation, carries 14,000 passengers a day to and from oilsands plants. It has seven routes a day from the Timberlea neighbourhood to the Syncrude plant. Timberlea is one of the neighbourhoods that has suffered serious losses in the fire.While the energy sector has put into place its emergency response plans, the question is whether those plans include the displacement of a significant portion of the workforce.Crude oil is trading higher by approximately three per cent this morning, in part because of the production slowdowns and questions about how long they will last."Ultimately, will this mean that the global surplus of crude will get winnowed down faster than we thought previously," said Judith Dwarkin, chief economist at RS Energy Group in Calgary."It really depends on how much is shut in and how long it's shut in, and we just don't know at this point how quickly the operators will be able to re-establish production at previous levels.""What makes the Canadian energy sector great is that we have highly skilled people, and these people are now in a very difficult state," said Gaetan Caron, former head of the National Energy Board."The most significant impact in the short term and the midterm is the people whose lives have been affected; their priority right now is to stay safe and go back eventually to a normal life. That will have an impact on the resources available to companies in terms of the experience, the know-how, and the knowledge."...............................
The voice over the intercom announced the duration of the flight would take five hours to travel the 2,000 miles from Santiago, Chile.

I guess waiting five more hours for arrival to a place I have wanted to explore since I was a kid was doable.

In 1722, a Dutch explorer encountered a remote volcanic island deep in the Pacific on Easter Sunday and named the island in honor of that day.

Easter Island is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. That human life exists here is a miracle in itself. The nearest inhabited land that has around 50 residents is Pitcairn Island and is a daunting 1,289 miles away. Even though Easter Island belongs to Chile, the Polynesian culture of the island doesnt feel very South American.

Our plane landed on the small island runway and taxied to the simple terminal. Stepping from the plane, the tropical warm air was such a contrast to the arid coast of Northern Chile.

I was ready for a break from long bus rides and the constant work of navigation it takes to travel. It is impossible to get lost on the island. You could walk from one side to the other in 6-7 hours. This offers a chance to relax and get lost, knowing you would soon discover a way to get found.

Outside the doorway of the terminal, a woman held a sign with my name. The owner of Korinas guest house, she greeted me with a big smile. Next, she placed a lei of beautiful flowers around my neck.

I was excited. I have always wanted to hang out with the mysterious stone heads of Easter Island. And now, after all these years, another dream was about to come true  five days on Easter Island.

First order of business was to organize and take an island tour.

Easter Island is rich with culture and history. Getting an overview of the island on a tour would help put this into perspective.

According to our oral history, the moai (carved statues) represent our ancestors. They always faced the village to give mana or power to the villagers, our tour guide explained. The island has an estimated 887 moai. The heaviest statue weighed 86 tons and generated questions for years as to how they moved it from the quarry to the coast.

By 1868 none were left standing, toppled by internal fighting on the island.

Historians believe the diminishing resources on the overpopulated island resulted in deforestation, instability and conflict on the island.

Any standing moai has been re-erected with financial support from the international community.

Our guide continued, So the history of Easter Island is one possible metaphor for the future of our planet if we dont find a way to take care of our natural resources.

Not satisfied with one visit to the moai, I rented a motorcycle with a desire to explore at my own pace and time.

I woke early the following morning. It was still dark, an hour before the sunrise. Outside, I jumped onto my rented motorcycle and set off down the road. After going a short distance, I discovered the front tire was flat.

A choice had to be made; there was no place open to put air in the tire until 5 a.m. Miss the sunrise or take a chance on a flat tire? I decided to roll the dice and ride slower on the flat tire. Off I went in search of a sunrise with a flat front tire and dodging horses that roamed the open countryside road. I love this kind of adventure.

I arrived just in time to watch a stunning sunrise behind a row of 15 moai. A flat front tire was not going to stop a dream from being fulfilled.

Later in the morning, I headed back to the rental agency and inflated the front tire. There was more island yet to explore, more places to experience and more people to meet.

Every night, I watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean to mark the passage of time.

It became a ritual for me and a celebration for the fulfillment of a dream  a visit to Easter Island. After the last sunset, I smiled with a sense of peace. It was time to go home.
A sound not heard for many years just came across Uzbekistan's southern border -- the sound of rocket fire from Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's Ariana TV reported that the Taliban attacked an Afghan border post in the Kaldor district of Balkh Province during the night of May 2. Ariana showed General Mir Hayma Haidari saying the attack was beaten back and there were no casualties among Afghan government troops.

That probably won't be much consolation for Uzbek President Islam Karimov. He knows where Kaldor district is located: just east of Uzbekistan's southernmost city of Termez, the gateway to Afghanistan.

Rockets from fighting in Afghanistan hit Termez in September 1997. When the Taliban captured the Afghan border town of Hairaton, in Kaldor district, in August 1998, it sparked panic in the Uzbek capital. Hairaton is on the other side of the river that divides Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, the Amu-Darya. Karimov personally went to Termez just days after Hairaton's capture to assess the situation.

Uzbekistan and President Karimov had to live with the Taliban at the doorstep for three years. Karimov was among the happiest of people when the United States started its military campaign in Afghanistan in the wake of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in September 2001 and chased the Taliban from the area.

But in the last few years the Taliban has made its way back and spread out across northern Afghanistan. Afghan fighting has reached the borders of both Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan's Central Asian neighbors, in recent months.

Uzbekistan had been spared because there was relative calm in Balkh Province. Until this year. Since March, government forces in Balkh have been busy clearing districts of Taliban fighters. But as of May 2, the Taliban was clearly still present in the district of Kaldor.

Balkh Governor Atta Mohammad Nur said in March that there were not only Taliban militants in his province but fighters loyal to the extremist group Islamic State. These latter militants might be remnants of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, sent to northwestern areas of Afghanistan by their leader, Usman Ghazi, after he swore allegiance to Islamic State and before Ghazi was killed in November 2015.

Uzbekistan has another complication to consider. There is a long-standing rivalry for power in Balkh between Governor Nur and Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum. For much of the last 30 years, the provincial capital -- Mazar-e Sharif -- was Dostum's stronghold.

Dostum has come to personally lead operations against the Taliban in provinces to the west of Balkh (Baghdis and Faryab) four times since the summer of 2015, an effort on which the two former warlords have professed unity. However, competing rallies by supporters of Nur and Dostum in Mazar-e Sharif in late March raised tensions in the city and worried officials in Kabul. So there is the danger of infighting between Nur and Dostum that would leave the border with Uzbekistan vulnerable on the Afghan side.

This already happened once, in 1997, when Abdul Malik, one of Dostum's commanders, rebelled and chased Dostum from the region. Malik then announced he was siding with the Taliban and invited the militants into Mazar-e Sharif, where Malik then switched sides again and massacred large numbers of Taliban fighters.

Dostum eventually ousted Malik and regained control, but his greatly weakened forces were no match for the Taliban, who returned in August 1998 and had little trouble capturing Mazar-e Sharif.

Further complicating the situation for President Karimov is that during the 1990s Uzbekistan supported Dostum, providing Mazar-e Sharif with free electricity, and possibly much more. Tashkent saw Dostum as the guardian of the gates to Uzbekistan.

One couldn't blame Nur for wondering not only about Dostum's intentions, but Tashkent's as well.

Uzbekistan's side of the border has been fortified and refortified over the course of two decades. Reportedly, Uzbekistan just sent more forces to the border with Afghanistan in April after Uzbek border guards were involved in shootouts that left three Afghan nationals dead. There is no possibility of any force making a successful incursion across the Amu-Darya into Uzbekistan.



But the May 2 rocket attack on an Afghan border post could very well feed the Uzbek government's paranoia about its own population and potential enemy sympathizers. Uzbekistan's citizens know what that means; many remember well the mass arrests of the late 1990s when the Taliban last made its way to the Uzbek border.

With contributions from RFE/RL Uzbek Service Director Alisher Sidik
Kazakh police detained about two dozen people in Almaty on May 7, in an apparent effort to preempt a protest. Several were detained in the city's central square, while others were apprehended outside their homes. Kazakhs have been protesting for two weeks in several cities over government plans to start large-scale privatization of farmland. But activists gathering in Almaty on May 7 said that they did not plan to protest, but only to place flowers at a monument in honor of Defenders of the Fatherland Day, a national holiday. All of those detained were released within a few hours. (RFE/RL's Kazakh Service)
CEDAR RAPIDS  On Wednesday evening, Feb. 18, 1959, Marlene Mickey Padfield went to the Kozy Inn restaurant in Cedar Rapids with Arthur Scott Jr., an 18-year-old part-time Coe College student involved in community theater.

Padfield, an aspiring actress, had recently moved from Mount Vernon High School to Lisbon, and after struggling to fit in, had dropped out of school in order to pursue acting roles in Cedar Rapids. Padfield and Scott left the restaurant sometime between 12:15 and 12:30 a.m.

The beautiful and talented young woman was never seen alive again.

Gone Cold: Exploring Iowa's unsolved murders Gone Cold: Exploring Iowa's unsolved murders is a year-long collaborative effort by Iowa news organizations to revisit some of the most brutal

A farmer traveling an isolated dirt road between Cedar Rapids and Mt. Vernon-Lisbon discovered her partially clothed skeletal remains two months later on April 29.

Wrapped into the larger mystery of Padfields death are many smaller ones, such as how the young men who served as pallbearers were selected, why the family left town and Padfields apparently rocky relationship with her classmates.

Plus, there are the mysteries of the current whereabouts of many of those young people she associated with in Cedar Rapids after dropping out of Lisbon High School to work and pursue acting roles.
DES MOINES  Iowans crowded around two separate memorials Friday to honor law officers and soldiers who have died in the line of duty and to say thank you to the ones still serving or are suffering from the effects of protecting others.

Gov. Terry Branstad did double duty at events on the state Capitol grounds, first honoring four fallen peace officers  including two from Des Moines killed in a head-on collision last March  and then moving up the hill to unveil a new granite plague honoring survivors of the Vietnam War.

We really cant say thank you enough to those who have served our nation, Branstad told several hundred people gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial that he helped unveil in 1984.

Now, as the nations longest-serving governor in his sixth term, Branstad was back to showcase a new Iowa Vietnam War In-Memory Memorial Plaque dedicated to the honor of the Iowans who for many years have suffered from the effects of their duty in Vietnam and Southeast Asia during conflict from 1961 to 1975.

Branstad said the plague was a tribute to Vietnam veterans selfless sacrifice, especially under difficult circumstances without the appreciation they deserved from their countrymen.

Retired Col. Robert King, executive director of the Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, many military men and women who served during the Vietnam war era continue to suffer and have had premature deaths related to their service as a result of Agent Orange-induced illnesses, post-traumatic stress injuries, and a growing number of other registered causes.

King said the new plaque reflects on those Iowans who are hidden casualties of Vietnam and provides a lasting monument to their memory and service.

Its really nothing short of inspirational, Branstad told those in attendance.

Earlier, at the nearby Peace Officer Memorial outside the Oran Pape State Office Building, uniformed police from around Iowa gathered to honor four fallen officers: Iowa Board of Parole field agent Albert Paul, who died in February 1938; Ames Police Sgt. Howard James Snider, who died in June 2012; and Des Moines police officers Susan Louise Farrell and Carlos Bernabe Puente-Morales, who were killed in a March 26 head-on car crash on Interstate 80 that claimed four lives.

Before going to Des Moines, Puente-Morales spent three years patrolling the city of Dows for the Franklin County Sheriffs Office.

Former Franklin County deputy remembered for dedication, professionalism DOWS  A former Franklin County sheriffs deputy killed on duty with Des Moines police over 

Today we honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, said Jeff Ritzman of the state Public Safety Commissioners office.

It is because dedicated, selfless, extraordinary officers like the men and woman we are honoring today that we can go about our day to day lives with a sense of safety and security, Ritzman told family members, dignitaries and law officers who had gathered at the memorial.

Today we remember those officers who didnt make it home to their families.
CLEAR LAKE | The Clear Lake Fire Department battled a vehicle fire Saturday morning on the Avenue of the Saints.

At 8:26 a.m. the department was called to the Avenue at mile marker 188 in the west-bound lane. Upon arrival the CLFD found a Toyota Camry, driven by Clear Lakes Matt Ochoa, fully involved with fire.

The fire was quickly extinguished. The Camry is a total loss.

The CLFD was assisted by the Clear Lake Police Department and the Iowa State Patrol. No injuries were reported.
MASON CITY | Three Mason City residents police say sold methamphetamine to undercover buyers face criminal charges.

Paul Nieman, 48, and Kristina Weis, 40, were each charged with one count of felony delivery of methamphetamine.

Cierra Kirsten Schmith, 26, of Mason City, was charged with two counts of felony delivery of meth.

Nieman, Weis and Schmith were arrested as part of three unrelated investigations conducted by the North Central Iowa Narcotics Task Force, officials say.

All were accused of delivering meth to someone cooperating with the task force: Nieman and Weis in October 2015, and Schmith two times in November 2015.

Nieman remained jailed on Friday afternoon.

Weis and Schmith were released on bond.
OSAGE  An Osage teen convicted of second-degree murder in the 2012 death of his mother has been sentenced to up to 50 years in prison.

Noah Crooks, 17, was sentenced Friday during a hearing in Mitchell County District Court. He was also ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to his father.

Crooks was 13 in March 2012 when he shot his mother, Gretchen, multiple times with a .22-caliber rifle in their rural Mitchell County home. Since being convicted he has been at the State Training School in Eldora.

Under Iowa law, those who receive a youthful offender deferred sentence as Crooks did, must have a hearing in district court before their 18th birthday so a judge can rule on their fate as an adult.

Crooks turns 18 in July.

Walk: Osage teen who killed mom could get no prison, 50 years OSAGE | An Osage teen convicted of murder could be sentenced to no time in prison or ordered

District Judge James Drews sentencing options ranged from release with probation to up to 50 years in prison.

During the sentencing hearing, Drew said he was denying probation because, I am concerned with your lack of apparent empathy until recently. It causes me to wonder if you are truly remorseful.

Crooks will be held at the Mitchell County Jail until it is determined whether he will return to Eldora or be transferred to the North Iowa Detention Center until his 18th birthday.

Crooks attorney, William Kutmus, said he would appeal the sentence and anticipates it could go to the Iowa Supreme Court.

He said he thought his client should be released with one year probation.

Before Drew announced his decision, the prosecution and defense offered starkly different opinions on where Crooks is at in his life.

County Attorney Mark Walk said the psychologist at the training school wrote in his report, I see a developing antisocial personality disorder, with several psychopathic characteristics and the prospect of rehabilitation is nil.

Osage teen convicted of murder has hearing set to determine fate OSAGE  A sentencing to determine the adult fate of an Osage juvenile found guilty of second

Kutmus countered by saying the psychologist at the training school was not a trained child psychologist and his report was outdated and irrelevant.

Our own expert said the exact opposite, said Kutmus. Nobody can predict the future.

Prior to the sentencing, Crooks, who was shackled and dressed in a striped jail uniform, read a letter to the court.

Over the last six to eight months, I have begun to show remorse for what I did. I am not the person I was then. I learned to show empathy.

I regret taking my moms life. I understand there are consequences. I have turned my life over to God and I want a relationship with my family again.

Following Crooks comments, several impact statementss were read by family members, with the most powerful coming from his father and grandmother.

Crooks father, William, said Something told me to stay home that night. If I hadnt stayed I dont think I would be here today. She didnt deserve to be shot 22 times. She deserved so much more than that.

William Crooks said he visited his son several times at Eldora, pushing him to talk about his mother. In the past four years, you have never once spoken about your mother. You have shown no remorse.

Four years is not enough to pay for taking your mothers life. Im sorry; I love you, Noah, but to let you out would ruin so many more lives.

Crooks grandmother, Beverly Brahm, said, I love Noah with all my heart. He has grown while at the school, but I have never seen any empathy this entire time. He never showed any empathy growing up. I used to keep my dog and the other grandchildren away from him.

I want him safe and I want society safe from him. Releasing him is not an option.

In his sentencing, Drew said, Noah, you have done some good things at the state training school. As an aside, I am glad to hear you got a relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope you are sincere. It will help you a great deal.

However, in the proceedings today, there has been a common theme  your lack of emotional response of remorse or empathy. I recognize you are a young person. You just havent been willing to deal with what you have done, Drew said.

Crooks to spend years at state training school OSAGE  Noah Crooks will live at the State Training School in Eldora until his 18th birthday

Im hopeful but not convinced you are yet rehabilitated. Maybe you dont care, but to release you on probation at this time would not be appropriate.
OCEANSIDE, California  As a young man, Jeremy Spaunhorst had a Marine Corps poster in his bedroom.

They had a lot of pride, and I wanted to be one of them, said Sgt. Spaunhorst, who joined the Marine Corps in 2010 after high school.

A Gerald, Missouri, native, he comes from a military family, with three of his four brothers in the Army or Navy.

Spaunhorst was previously stationed as an infantry squad leader at Twentynine Palms Base in southern California for five years before coming to Mason City as a recruiter.

He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011 and 2013, and also served at the U.S. Embassy in Yemen in 2014, where he provided security.

My first deployment in Afghanistan was pretty hectic as we did a lot of operations, he said April 21 at Camp Pendleton. At that point in the war, we were dealing with a lot of bad guys who kept us very busy.

As a squad leader, Spaunhorst would meet with Afghani elders to ask what the Marine Corps could do for them.

A lot of people think infantry Marines just destroy, but we win the hearts and minds of people by building schools and medical facilities, he said, describing a practice developed during the Vietnam War. We wanted to show that we cared and that we were there to help.

A farmer would regularly bring the Marines explosive devices he dug up and would tell them to stay away from certain unsafe areas, Spaunhorst said.

West Fork teacher trains like a Marine in San Diego SAN DIEGO, California  As the sounds of gunfire piped over speakers April 19, a West Fork H

But while he was in Afghanistan, Spaunhorst missed his daughters birth and first birthday.

Its very hard, because all I want to do now is spend time with her, he said of his daughter, now 2, of whom he has shared custody.

As a recruiter, he is responsible for 21 high schools and two community colleges. He recently worked with two recruits who were received at boot camp April 18 in San Diego  Jonah Ringham, 20, and Tyler Knudtson, 21, both Lake Mills High School graduates.

The two had an initial strength test April 21, which included a 1.5-mile run, pull-ups and as many crunches they could do in two minutes. Its a shortened version of the branchs personal fitness test, which is administered every six months.

Today is a big day for them, but I think theyre well-prepared, Spaunhorst said.

Knudtson did 13 pull-ups, 55 crunches and a 12:10 run; Ringham, 21 pull-ups, 80 crunches and a 10:40 run. Both greatly surpassed the minimum for males  two pull-ups, 35 crunches and a 13:30 run.

But Spaunhorst says hell recruit individuals who can do anywhere from zero to 30 pull-ups.

Its all about how much heart you have, and about not quitting, he said.
MIAMI, Fla., May 7, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - World Patent Marketing, a vertically integrated manufacturer and engineer of patented products, announces the Adhesive Medical Wire Strap, a medical invention that will provide added security to patients wearing medical tubes and wires.

"The Medical Adhesives & Sealants Manufacturing market is worth $2 billion," says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. "The industry will maintain its growth over the next five years. Technological advancements in the medical adhesives segment continue to increase their applicability to new surgical procedure."

"The healing process of patients in hospitals often requires them to be attached to medical wires or tubing," says Jerry Shapiro, Director of Manufacturing and World Patent Marketing Inventions. "This is to provide proper medical treatment in order to speed up the recovery process but sometimes, it can accidentally get detached from the patient due to constant movement. The Adhesive Medical Wire Strap is a medical invention which will solve this issue and help in the healing process."

The Adhesive Medical Wire Strap is a medical invention designed to secure medical wires and tubing as well as prevent it from getting entangled with one another. It is made up of two adhesive tapes which are connected together with the use of a Velcro strap in the middle. The adhesive portion of the invention is placed on the skin of the patient to keep the bundle of wires or tubing in one place. So even with regular movement, these will not come off or get entwined with each other.

"The Adhesive Medical Wire Strap came into existence whale my one year old daughter was hospitalized for three days," says inventor Ashley A. "There was no proper way to hold her, or for her to get comfortable and sleep with multiple wires hanging from her body. This medical strap sticks to the patient's body navigating all the wires to one area. Thus allowing the patient to not get tangled, also giving easier access for the nurses to find the wire they need without moving the patient all around. It is adjustable for wires to be easily added or taken away, and will work with any body size. Hospitals, nursing homes, and special care clinics need this medical strap to make life easier for the patients and the people taking care of them."

Harriet Kelly, a nurse from a local hospital in Texas, has this to say about the Adhesive Medical Wire Strap: "One of the common things that I accomplish during my shift is having to untangle wires and tubing of patients. With the aid of the Adhesive Medical Wire Strap, these wires and tubes will no longer get entangled due to our patients' constant movement."

The Adhesive Medical Wire Strap is a medical invention which will provide comfort and efficiency in many, if not all medical facilities.

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.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/worldpatentmarketing/04/prweb13314922.htm
LOS ANGELES, Calif., May 7, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - World Patent Marketing, a vertically integrated manufacturer and engineer of patented products, announces the Paciflavor, a baby invention that calms babies down using a flavored pacifier.

"The Durable Baby Goods Stores is worth $ 5 billion," says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. "This industry faces tough competition from mass merchandisers and department stores and competition has intensified over the past five years."

"Babies often need something to suck or chew on," says Jerry Shapiro, Director of Manufacturing and World Patent Marketing Inventions. "Babies who are teething most especially need something to chew on. Paciflavor is a baby invention that not only helps in the child's sucking reflexes and teething stages but it also calms them down."

The Paciflavor is a baby invention that gives infants and kids something to suck on and has a yummy flavor to boot. When the mother's milk has run out or the bottle has turned empty, babies will need something to suck on. It has a nipple and a holding ring as well as a mouth shield that is big enough to help the baby avoid choking and swallowing the nipple. The mouth shield also includes a body that complements the pacifiers open proximal end. The different flavors included in this invention soothe the baby while improving on their sucking reflexes and relieving them of their teething pains. Also, just like other pacifiers, it helps prevent SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

"Pacifiers have long been a way of calming and soothing babies," says inventor Jo Ann P. "The Paciflavor is a baby invention that comforts teething children and satisfies their sucking reflex. It comes in many flavors that they are sure to enjoy. Also, parents can rest easy since these kinds of items are known for reducing the risks of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."

Lane Smith, a mother of two and a parenting blogger from Concord, CA, has this to say about the Paciflavor: "This baby invention stops babies from crying; in most cases, addressing their sucking reflex calms them down. Its wonderful flavor helps soothes the baby they suck on the pacifier's nipples. Every baby should have one and every parent should buy one for their children."

The Paciflavor is a baby invention that not only soothes the baby but also gives them a variety of flavors which they can happily suck on.

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.

This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/worldpatentmarketing/04/prweb13314897.htm
GyanOne wrote:

The answer is (A).



Lets set up the answer first, before we evaluate the possible answer choices. Yield is the amount of crop grown on a piece of land. When compared on a per planted acre basis, crops in Brazil have much lower yield (68%) when compared by crops in Canada. However, when compared on a per agricultural acre basis, Brazilian crops have a higher (115%) yield than Canadian crops.



Now lets evaluate the answer choices.



(A): CORRECT. If Brazilian crops have a lower planted yield than Canadian crops, then the only way for Brazilian crops to have a greater agricultural yield is if a greater portion of every agricultural acre is planted in Brazil than it is in Canada. Imagine this: if both Brazilian crops and Canadian crops had the same planted yield, and Brazil had a greater agricultural yield, we would conclude that this must be because a greater proportion of every acre is planted in Brazil than in Canada. Since the Brazilian planted yield is less than the Canadian yield, this must certainly be true.

(B): This is the wrong inference. It is possible that a majority of acreage in Canada is planted - the only truth, as we saw, is that on a per agricultural acre basis, Canada has a lesser percentage of its acreage planted than Brazil does. It is possible that Canada has 80% of its acreage planted while Brazil has 95% of its acreage planted. Would you call 80% less than a majority? No.

(C): This cannot be inferred. The question discusses yields on a per agricultural acre basis. There is no mention of the total acres of unplanted acreage in Canada or Brazil. It is possible that Canada has a greater number of total planted acres than Brazil does - only they are more sparsely planted than the Brazilian ones. Incorrect.

(D): This is the wrong inference following the logic in option (C) above. Incorrect.

(E): This cannot be inferred - it is possible that Canada produced more crops, even if by using its land less efficiently. Incorrect.

If you draw a diagram for this as you are reading the stimulus, it's a lot easier to see what's going on without getting entangled in the per planted, per agricultural acreage mumbo jumbo.Draw two big boxes representing Brazil and Canada's agricultural acreage (agricultural acreage is bound to be bigger than planted acreage). Inside the Brazil box, draw five smaller boxes representing planted acres and write 68 (representing crops yielded) on each of them. Similarly, draw three smaller boxes inside Canada's big box and write 100 (crops yielded) on each. this is what the stimulus is saying. that per planted acre, brazil yields only 68% of canada's per planted yield. but in terms of the bigger box or agricultural acreage, brazil yields more than canada. so what is the question saying? there is just more planted acres in brazil than in canada. if u look at per planted acre, u see that canada yields more, but if u look at the total crops produced, brazil wins by virtue of it having more planted acres.Armed with this understanding, you can attack the choices.A. this is in line with our understanding. definitely a contender if not THE answer.B. a majority of canadian.... majority? this is not descriptive enough. FAIL.C. more total acres were unplanted in Can than Bra. close but total acres? it's trying to be tricky. we are talking about planted and agricultural acres and now total acres just brings the whole of the land mass into picture. Vague, beyond, irrelevant, whatever. FAIL.D. Sounds reasonable but the second part of this choice- canada has more unplanted than planted- is saying too much and also it says "acres" doesn't specify agricultural or planted. FAIL.E. This sounds reasonable but the stimulus talks in terms of percentage- that brazil yields 68% less per PA but 115% more per AA. but the numbers that form the base for those percentages are unclear. this becomes that data sufficiency question where both statement 1 and 2 are together insufficient.Hence A.Hope this helps.
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Spa Castle's Queens location has finally reopened, after a two-month shutdown that the city mandated when a six-year-old nearly drowned in a pool in February. That incident was one in a string of unfortunate occurrences at the Korean mega-spa: a couple weeks prior, a transgender man alleged that he was barred from using the spa's locker rooms and nude bathing areas, and in 2014, a dead man was discovered floating face down in a hot tub after suffering a heart attack.

In its inspection following February's near-drowning, the Health Department found that the pool vents drew "excessive suction," so much so that the six-year-old was pulled underwater and held there. The investigation further revealed that staff didn't make adequate efforts to resuscitate her (she was reportedly resuscitated by another patron, not Spa Castle staff). When the elderly man was discovered dead in 2014, witnesses similarly alleged that Spa Castle staff weren't immediately clear on how to perform CPR.

According to the Health Department, the College Point facility was given permission to reopen in late April, after it submitted a revised and updated safety plan; corrected and addressed all violations; proved that its staff were properly certified and trained; proved that it had sufficient numbers of staff; and passed a full inspection. The spa also had to update all of its public signage and disclosures to be in accordance with its revised safety plan, and had to meet all Health Code engineering requirements.

"Since the Health Department closed the pools at Spa Castle in February, the establishment has undergone a rigorous process to correct violations and has met our requirement to implement a new safety plan," a Health Department spokesperson said. "The Health Department has also required Spa Castle to sign an agreement that will allow us to intervene swiftly, if the establishment fails to comply with our safety requirements. We will continue monitoring the pools and performing frequent inspections to protect the safety of people who visit this spa."

Queens State Senator Tony Avella warned that the city should be skeptical going forward, and not trust that this will be the end of Spa Castle's problems: he said that while he was glad to see that the Health Department had Spa Castle overhaul its safety protocol, "we should not and cannot expect that Spa Castle will suddenly self-police itself in the absence of oversight."

In a statement, a spokesperson for Spa Castle said that "we have worked with the Health Department for many months and endured a closure that put 150 employees out of work at enormous cost to their families. We have agreed to abide by higher-level safety standards that normally apply only to swimming pools, including the stationing of fully qualified lifeguards. To our knowledge, these standards have been applied to no other similar spa facilities in the City of New York. We welcome all efforts to improve safety and will continue to provide a destination that our guests can rely on. We ask only that such safety measures be applied fairly and across the board."
I'm finding it difficult to come up with a halfway-quippy intro to this weekend's subway changes: a week's worth of grey skies and rain has cast a thick fog over my brain, and though some might say the sun will return one day, I have already sunk into a dark hole and resigned myself to a life of cold, wet, and gloom. Plus, 14 subway lines have changes this weekend, and for the first time since March, I'm sticking around to deal with them. But hey, at least the L train is running normally...for now.

Join me in my misery:

1 trains are not running in either direction between 137 St and Van Cortlandt Park-242 St, from 11:30 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Shuttle buses will run in segments between 137 St and 168 St, 168 St and 191 St, and between 207 St and Van Cortlandt-242 St.

Woodlawn-bound 4 trains will run express from Grand Central-42 St to 125 St, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 7:30 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Also during those times, Woodlawn-bound 4 trains will skip Astor Pl.

5 trains are not running in either direction between Eastchester-Dyre Av and E 180 St, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 7:30 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Shuttle buses will run instead. 5 trains also won't run in either direction between E 180 St and 149 St-Grand Concourse from 7:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sunday, and will operate every 20 minutes between Bowling Green and 149 St-Grand Concourse.

6 trains are not running in either direction between Pelham Bay Park and Parkchester, from 3:30 a.m. on Saturday to 10 p.m. on Sunday. Shuttle buses will run instead. Also, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Bronx-bound 6 trains will run express from Grand Central-42 St to 125 St, and will skip Astor Pl.

34 St-Hudson Yards-bound 7 trains will run express between 74 St-Broadway and Queensboro Plaza from 3:45 a.m. on Saturday to 10 p.m. on Sunday.

A trains will run local between 125 St and 168 St, from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Also, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Inwood-207 St-bound A trains will run express from Canal St to 59 St-Columbus Circle.

C trains are not running in either direction between 145 St and 168 St from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Also during those times, 168 St-bound C trains will run express from Canal St to 59 St-Columbus Circle.

D trains will stop at 135 St in both directions from 12:01 a.m. on Saturday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Also, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 6:30 a.m. on Sunday, and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Norwood-205 St-bound D trains will run express from 36 St to Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr.

World Trade Center-bound E trains will run express from 71 Av to Queens Plaza from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 7 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Also, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, World Trade Center-bound E trains will skip Briarwood and 75 Av. During that time, Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer-bound E trains will skip Spring St and 23 St.

F trains are not running in either direction between Coney Island-Stillwell Av and Church Av, from 11:30 p.m. on Friday to 4:30 a.m. on Monday. Shuttle buses will run instead. Also, from 11:30 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday, Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer-bound F trains will run express from 4 Av-9 Sts to Jay St-Metrotech. During that time, Jamaica Center-Parsons/Archer-bound F trains will skip 14 St and 23 St, and Church Av-bound trains will skip Sutphin Blvd, Briarwood, and 75 Av.

G trains are not running in either direction between Church Av and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts, from 11:15 p.m. on Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday.

Manhattan-bound N trains will run express from 59 St to Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday. Also during that time, Brooklyn-bound N trains will skip 49 St.

Brooklyn-bound Q trains will skip 49 St, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday.

R trains are not running in either direction between 59 St and 36 St, from 11:45 p.m. on Friday to 6:30 a.m. on Sunday and from 11:45 p.m. on Sunday to 5 a.m. on Monday. From 6:30 a.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday, Manhattan-bound R trains will run express from 71 Av to Queens Plaza, and from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, they'll run express from 59 St to Atlantic Av-Barclays Ctr. And from 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, downtown R trains will skip 49 St.
A federal U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head at Pier 40 in Manhattan yesterday, according to police. He was 42 years old.

Police say the incident occurred at around 11 a.m. inside Pier 40 in Hudson River Park in Chelsea. The unidentified agent apparently walked into the building and shot himself with his .40 caliber service pistol. A Walk in the Park reports that park goers were only a few feet away at the time. "It was a heartbreaking, heartbreaking," one witness told the blog.

The agent was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. ICE says he worked at a field office in lower Manhattan, and they are working with the NYPD on investigating his death. "Tragically, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation officer from the New York field office suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and has passed away," ICE said in a statement yesterday. "The agency is not releasing further details pending notification of the officers next of kin."

If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.
Nearly a year after the U.S. National Archives released hundreds of photographs documenting Vice President Dick Cheney on September 11, 2001, FRONTLINE has obtained a collection of never-before-seen photos of President Bush on that day, taken by White House photographer Eric Draper.

The set, which was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the the Kirk Documentary Group, follows Bush on that day, starting with his visit to the Emma E. Brooker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla, which is where he was informed of the attacks. Bush then addressed the nation from a holding room at the school, flew to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana on Air Force One, and met with senior advisers, including Karl Rove and Chief of Staff Andrew Card, before heading back to the White House.

At 8:30 p.m. that night, Bush addressed the nation from the Oval Office. You can watch the speech below:

The photos are appropriately somber, and Bush looks rather bewildered and overwhelmed in the face of crisis. "Capturing that story was difficult, Draper, who was the president's personal photographer, told the website Storybench in an interview. I had to focus on being in the right place at the right time and push back the emotions that I was feeling to truly capture the story. Everyone did their job that day and I knew my job was to have a crystal clear focus to document what was in front of me, for others to place it into history.


When sophomores at Susan E. Wagner High School were asked to do a project that combined a social issue with photography and visual arts, Meghan Callahan Scarcella and Andrea Gonzalez were thrilled: here was an opportunity to bring the school's attention to rape culture and consent. Gonzalez volunteered to pose with her back bare of clothing, and instead covered with phrases such as "MY BODY MY RULES," "NO MEANS NO," and "YOU DON'T OWN ME," and Scarcella took a series of photos. The resulting artwork was briefly displayed in the high school's lobbybefore being removed by administrators, as the Staten Island Advance reported.

The art was removed because it showed Gonzalez without clothing covering her back, students said, and because it could potentially offend some students because of their religious beliefs. Administrators said that they were concerned about the artwork because Gonzalez, 15, is a minor.

"I was so excited and I wanted people to see this," Gonzalez told CBS. "I wanted people to be aware of consent and the rape culture that is in our society."

Like many high schools, including another on Staten Island, Wagner has a strict dress code that primarily targets female students, deeming tank tops, halter tops, sheet tops, midriff-exposing tops, and "revealing" shorts or skirts to be inappropriate. It's not clear whether the school would have removed the artwork had it featured the bare backs of male students.

"The whole point is that girls are always sexualized," sophomore Grace Hall told the Advance. "If it was a photo of a guy's back, no one would object."

Gonzalez and Scarcella have reportedly agreed to revise the work and put it back up in the lobbythis time, the words will be written on t-shirts.

In a statement, Wagner principal Gary Giordano said that "we encourage and welcome the artistic expression of our students. The piece was addressed across art classes sparking meaningful conversations among students and teachers on a host of themes around social consciousness."

When the art was first banned, students circulated a petition to have it reinstatedbut now that Scarcella and Gonzalez have reached an agreement with the school, that petition has now been amended, and is now intended to spread the original image as much as possible. As of Saturday afternoon, the petition had garnered 1,266 signatures.


At the behest of eight elected officials, the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will test 20 buildings in the East Village for lead, all of which are owned by Raphael Toledano, a landlord who's been repeatedly accused of tenant harassment. DOHMH previously tested three of Toledano's buildings514 East 12th Street, 235 East 5th Street, and 233 East 5th Streetand found that concentrations of lead dust in the buildings' common areas far exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency's hazard standards. At 233 East 5th Street, concentrations were 16 times that standard.

Rent-regulated tenants living in Toledano's buildings, organized as the Toledano Tenant Coalition, have further alleged that the landlord has arbitrarily denied their lease renewals, ordered them to vacate their apartments, and intimidated them.

"There have been layers of dust in my building and apartmentso much that I was told by my doctor to wear a dust mask in my own house," said Holly Slayton, who lives in Toledano's building at 510 East 12th Street. "My daughter, who is seven years old, just had an upper respiratory infection. The illegal work in our building has left cracks in the hallway walls. We do not feel safe in our own homes. I have lived in New York City for 22 years and have never been treated so badly by a landlord."

On Thursday, State Senator Brad Hoylman, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh, City Councilmember Rosie Mendez, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, and City Councilmember Corey Johnson penned letters to both Toledano and DOHMH Commissioner Mary Bassett, asking Bassett to have DOHMH inspect the rest of Toledano's buildings for lead and demanding that Toledano cease harassing his tenants. According to Gottfriend, Toledano is already being investigated by the State Attorney General and Tenant Protection Unit.

"Numerous constituents have contacted our offices alleging that they have been baselessly denied lease renewals, served frivolous notices to vacate, intimidated by your agents, or even threatened with disruptive construction and uninhabitable living conditions," the officials wrote to Toledano. "Let us be clear: these actions are both unacceptable and unlawful. We wholeheartedly support our constituents in the Toledano Tenants Coalition, and demand that Brookhill Properties immediately cease the alleged acts of harassment."

Brookhill Properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shortly after Toledano took over management at 444 East 13th Street last March, tenants there began reporting harassment: he allegedly threatened at one point to drop dynamite on the building and then let everyone 'figure it out themselves,' and in May, Toledano gave the tenants fruit baskets and wine in place of gas and hot water.

That building is among those now being tested for lead contamination, along with 97 Second Avenue, 66 East 7th Street, 58 St. Marks Place, 510 East 12th Street, 334 East 9th Street, 332 E 6th Street, 329 East 12th Street, 327 East 12th Street, 325 East 12th Street, 27 St. Marks Place, 253 East 10th Street, 231 East 5th Street, 229 East 5th Street, 228 East 6th Street, 223 East 5th Street, 221 East 10th Street, 125 West 16th Street, 329 East 6th Street, 95 East 7th Street, and 332 East 9th Street.

"Every tenant has the right to a clean, safe place to live," Brewer said. "When landlords use construction to make homes uninhabitable or deny legally-guaranteed services like water or cooking gas, they must be held accountable."


If Mark, our first gospel, was completed about the year 70 in the common era, how accurately were stories about Jesus being remembered before they were written down?

This prewritten period of uncongealed memories about Jesus is the focus of Bart Ehrmans newest book, Jesus Before the Gospels. Ehrman teaches at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While much of his work is for scholarly consumption, he has written a number of best-sellers for the general public. They include Misquoting Jesus; Jesus Interrupted; Forged; How Jesus Became God; and just published, Jesus Before the Gospels.

Ehrmans approach is strictly historical. He readily admits that he is not interested in theology per se, nor interpreting texts. He is the wrong writer to turn to if you are looking for a defender of the faith. But if you are intrigued about how the Jesus movement developed historically, Ehrman is your man. He provides fascinating and challenging insights whether you are a believer or not. Ehrmans own journey is an attention-getting story as well. It began in fundamentalism at the Moody Bible Institute, evolved into evangelicalism at Wheaton College, migrated into mainline Christianity during his years at Princeton, and ended up more or less an agnostic by the time he arrived at Chapel Hill. Not surprisingly, he infuriates fundamentalists and some evangelicals, who have developed something of a cottage publishing industry to refute his studies.

Hundreds if not thousands of books have been written about the historical Jesus. Why bother with another one? What makes this book unique is the fact that Ehrman applies the insights of modern memory science to the question of how the sharing of memories shaped the gospels before they were written down.

Whether it is something that happened yesterday or decades ago, memory molds our understanding of the past and the present. Besides, as modern researchers in memory readily point out, memories are fluid. Most of the time we remember things fairly well. But then there are times we just dont recall the past accurately. Furthermore, what we are experiencing in the present affects our memory of a past event. Thats even the case with eyewitnesses. Jim Hunt, a good friend of mine who is a trial lawyer, informed me that the U.S. Supreme Court has observed that "juries seem most receptive to, and not inclined to discredit" eyewitness testimony. At the same time, the Supreme Court "has recognized the inherently suspect qualities of eyewitness identification evidence, and described the evidence as notoriously unreliable. Why would early Christians be exempt from the same forces that shape and form memories and how stories are told?

Virtually every reader of the New Testament notices inconsistencies. In one gospel, Jesus delivers his great sermon on a mount. Another recalls it being on level ground. Maybe Jesus gave two sermons in two different places. Or maybe there was one sermon remembered two ways. Possibly it was his stump speech, which he delivered multiple times. I personally like that theory. What about the feeding of the multitudes? Was it 4,000 or 5,000? Two different events? Or one event remembered two different ways? This news shouldnt shock anybody. The gospels are composed of multiple memories transmitted orally in Aramaic before being written down in Greek. That leads to the question, how dependable are these early memories? My conclusion is that they are reasonably good and that there are fewer distortions or inventions than Ehrman suggests.

Ehrman, in my opinion, underestimates the social and cultural compactness of many Jesus memories. Both geographically and time-wise the oral tradition partakes of a small amount of territory and a relatively short period of time. In the first and second generations after the death and resurrection of Jesus, there would have been numerous people who had encountered him, his family, followers, and acquaintances. Their sharing of memories by word of mouth formed the basic message of the gospel. Some of these memories were written down within a generation and used in early Christian worship. We know for certain that Paul was actively writing in the early 50s. James, the brother of Jesus and the bishop of Jerusalem, was well-known and respected during this period. Some scholars suggest there was a proto-Mark gospel circulating in the early 50s. Additionally there is the Q source (Q is shorthand for the German word Quelle, meaning source), which was likely a collection of early Jesus sayings that Matthew and Luke used in writing their gospels. Ehrman is correct, though, when he says that memories of events were shaped by their current circumstances.

Some Ehrman critics think hes out to bash Christian origins. I dont think so. In fact, just about every minister or priest has learned about biblical criticism in seminary. If you arent threatened by history and realize that even historians have their own filters, insights from memory research can deepen our understanding of Jesus. The net result is that we can better appreciate the origins of the gospels and early Christianity. Whether or not God oversaw this process, of course, is a matter of faith and not history. My hunch is this book may get your Christian dander up. You will probably argue with some of the conclusions. But Ehrman will give you a fresh look at how the gospels coalesced from a kaleidoscope of early Jesus memories.
BILLINGS -- Former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns was memorialized Friday in Billings by 500 people representing 30 years of Montana politics.

Burns, Montanas longest-serving Republican senator, was remembered as a fount of country wisdom and a storyteller with a Tom Sawyer-esque childhood. Burns died April 28 of natural causes at his Billings home. He was 81.

He was interested. He was invested and he felt like we were all part of something bigger and what was important about each of us was inside of us, that kernel of something that we had to give to other people and that other people had to give to us, said Keely Godwin, Burns daughter. And thats why he loved stories, and he was a great storyteller.

By his own admission, Burns was a trial-and-error kind of guy. He joined the Marines after failing as a college student. He became a livestock auctioneer, then radio broadcaster.

His first foray into politics was as a Yellowstone County commissioner, for which he decided to run because he thought 4-H and FFA werent getting enough attention at the county fair. He held the county commissioner job for less than two years before challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. John Melcher, a Democrat, who had represented Montana, first in U.S. House then the Senate, for more than 20 years.

His advice to friends and family alike was to be serious about your job by never taking yourself too seriously.

Burns stirred controversy with his remarks about minorities and women. He was also criticized, but never penalized, for his relationship with lobbyists. But voters recognized his commitment to Montana and made him the longest serving Republican senator in state history.

He never let mistakes define the people that he knew because he never let his mistakes define him, Godwin said. His favorite thing to say to me, which unfortunately I think he said more than he wanted, was We all spend 15 minutes a day doing dumb things. And the trick to success is dont go over your quota.

Burns son, Garrett, said his father should be remembered in tall tales, embellished or not. The senator was the wry protagonist in several of his own tales, which took place in his home state, Missouri.

In Davies County they have a round jail. It rotates sort of like a revolving door. Dad actually spent a night in that jail as a kid. He would illegally fish the local streams as a kid with his friends, Garrrett said. They would tie a line or a rope to their overalls with a slipknot and walk knee deep in the stream with the bait trailing behind them. If trouble would arise, or a sheriffs car would happen by, they would pull the slipknot and the bait and rope would harmlessly go downstream.

Eventually, the sheriff did catch them. The boys had tied the wrong knot and it tightened as they tried to pull it slack. Burns and his friend were taken to jail to give them a scare. Their parents were called.

His friends' parents told the officer, Right away well be down to pick up our boy. But Russell, Conrads father, said Well, just hold him for the night. Ill be by to pick him up for school in the morning. Garrett said. Dad spent the night in jail. That was the last time Conrad fished without a license.

As attendees hiked up the Metra stairs to the service, they could be overheard telling Burns anecdotes, many of which had been told throughout the week.

State Sen. Taylor Brown, who Burns mentored in radio broadcasting and politics recalled for The Gazette Burns penchant for thinking big, a trait credited for the promotion of rural broadband Internet service written into the federal Telecommunications Act, which Burns sponsored.

It was on display on Dec. 13, 2000 ,when the Supreme Court certified the month-old Florida election canvass, giving the U.S. presidency to George W. Bush. From his office in D.C., Burns called Brown to say that having two westerners like Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the White House required something special from Montana.

Burns wanted Brown to round up enough horses for the Montana delegation, Burns, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus and Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg and Republican Gov. Judy Martz. As other states dignitaries walked in the inaugural parade, Montanas would ride horseback.

Burns 18 years in the U.S. Senate coincided with half of Baucus 36 years in office. Burns was a high-ranking member of Senate Appropriations, while Baucus was a high-ranking member of the Senate Finance committee, which meant every dollar spent in Congress passed through a Montana senators committee.

The arrangement was like controlling the goalposts at both ends of the field, former Burns Chief of Staff Dwight MacKay told The Gazette. It was a time when Montana infrastructure didnt want for much, and research at the states universities took large steps forward.

We have never in our entire statehood had a powerful senator on one side of the aisle on Appropriations Committee and a powerful senator on the other side of the aisle on Finance. They could see eye-to-eye on quite a few things important to Montana agriculture, important to business, Brown concurred. Not everything, but on the important things, those two men in positions like that accomplished many things. It wont happen again. It will never happen again in your lifetime, but it was a great time for Montana.

The attendees at the service included Democrats Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who narrowly defeated Burns in 2006. Republicans Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke, Attorney General Tim Fox and former Gov. Marc Racicot.

There were elected officials both, Republican and Democrat from each of the last four decades.
SPRINGFIELD (AP)  Illinois collected $1.6 million from late-vehicle registration fines in April to more than double its year-to-date haul from the same period last year as residents go without renewal reminders because there's no budget.

Last month's fines bring the total this year to $6.5 million. Illinois collected nearly $3 million in fines during the same four-month span last year. Last year in April, the state collected about $756,700 in fines.

The Illinois Secretary of State's office provided the figures to The Associated Press. In all, 327,696 motorists have been fined $20 each this year for not renewing their license plate stickers on time. Last year during the same time, that number was 149,037.

The office stopped mailing renewal reminders in October to save an estimated $450,000 a month on postage because the state hasn't had a budget since July 1. Majority Democrats and Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner have failed to agree on a budget, with Rauner demanding they implement pro-business reforms and curb the power of unions among other things and Democrats insisting he focus on the annual spending plan.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Jesse White has encouraged residents to sign up for electronic reminders. So far, 2.1 million people have signed up for email reminders, 1 million more than were signed up last year, according to his office.

Pending legislation would suspend the fines until reminders can be mailed again. But the bill has moved slowly, even though it's had unanimous support from lawmakers. The Secretary of State's office also supports the measure.

The bill was introduced in November, passed the House last month, and cleared its first Senate committee on Wednesday.
DECATUR  Joshua D. Joyner, a 26-year-old Decatur man with four prior burglary convictions, is being held in jail on $75,000 bond after police detectives found that he allegedly cashed in hundreds of dollars in stolen coins at a grocery store and coin shop.

At the time of his arrest, he was also wanted in connection with residential burglaries that occurred Jan. 15 on the 2100 block of North Oakcrest Court and Feb. 7 on the 400 block of North Oakcrest Avenue.

On March 19, a West End resident reported the burglary of his home on North Summit Avenue, which occurred between the hours of 5 and 9:20 p.m. Entry had been made through a broken window.

An estimated $1,200 in loose change had been taken, in addition to many rare coins, including an 1856 gold dollar.

A neighbor reported seeing a man rolling a suitcase to an SUV in the alley at about 8:40 p.m., said an affidavit by Decatur police detective Jeremy Appenzeller. The male got into the front passenger seat of the vehicle and the SUV drove away.

Officers contacted the Kroger store, Fairview Plaza, to investigate possible use of its coin machine. They were told that at 9:09 p.m. on March 19, a male deposited 2,758 coins into the Coinstar machine, for a total of $612.88.

When the customer presented the voucher from the machine at the customer service desk, he presented a state ID, which identified him as Joyner. Surveillance video showed Joyner getting into a silver-colored SUV.

When detectives contacted Decatur Coin and Jewelry, 104 N. Main St., they found that Joyner sold 30 coins to the business on March 22, including 22 silver dollars and a foreign coin. On April 5, the business owner told police Joyner tried to sell him an 1856 gold coin the previous day.

Joyner was located and arrested on Wednesday and booked into the Macon County Jail on three preliminary burglary charges.

Joyner allegedly sold a digital camera to Decatur Jewelry and Pawn, 1065 W. Pershing Road, that matched the serial number of a camera stolen from the Oakcrest Court home in January. A laptop taken from the Oakcrest Avenue residence in February was also found at the pawn shop.

In his most recent burglary conviction, Joyner was sentenced on Aug. 7, 2009 to 10 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections for a residential burglary on the 1700 block of East Division Street. He was also convicted of striking a police dog and resisting a peace officer in that case.

He is due in court for his arraignment in his most recent case by Thursday.
DECATUR  Attorneys representing the city of Decatur filed a motion Friday seeking to dismiss the latest version of former police Chief Brad Sweeney's lawsuit against the city.

Sweeney has alleged that his Feb. 4 firing was retaliation by City Manager Tim Gleason for refusing to speak in favor of a local gas tax, and because Sweeney objected to Gleason's use of a police car and driver to reach the St. Louis airport for a personal trip.

Gleason and the city have contended in court filings that Sweeney never objected to Gleason's use of the police car, and that Gleason had multiple other reasons to fire the former chief.

It its motion to dismiss, the city argues that Sweeney did not refuse to participate in Gleason's use of the police car. If Sweeney believed the ride was a violation of law or policy, allowing it makes him an accessory to the act.

Public policy cannot embrace circumstances where a chief of police can cast a blind eye to the laws, which he is charged to enforce, for his own benefit, or the benefit of another, the document says.

Sweeney's initial complaint was dismissed at an April 12 hearing; he filed an amended version April 22.

Many of the legal arguments pertain to the trip to St. Louis, which took place May 7, 2015, after the annual Greater Decatur Chamber of Commerce State of the City address. Gleason caught a flight to California to attend an event related to his son's Army service.

He has said that former Mayor Mike McElroy told him to take a police car and driver to accommodate his travel plans while allowing him to attend the breakfast, his first as city manager.

Sweeney's lawsuit alleges that he objected to Gleason's use of the police car, saying later that it would not happen again. Their relationship was difficult afterward, the lawsuit says.

The city's motion finds fault with Sweeney's argument that he reported Gleason's alleged violation of the law to his supervisor, who was also Gleason.

When only the violator is told, the violation of law remains a secret, the motion says. The 'disclosure' then exists as a tool for the claimed whistleblower to use against or to leverage the violator.

In the event the lawsuit is not dismissed, the city's attorneys argue that multiple elements of Sweeney's complaint should be stricken.

One example is a letter from the Illinois Department of Employment Security, dated March 14, that says Sweeney was not fired for misconduct at work. Sweeney attached the letter as an exhibit to the most recent complaint, but the city argues that the letter is not admissible in court, citing both state statute and case law.

Attorneys for both sides have declined to comment.

Sweeney is represented by Jon Robinson. The city is represented by Jerry Stocks and Ed Flynn.
BLOOMINGTON  Gov. Bruce Rauner said Friday he hasn't had a chance to review legislation proposed to help financially struggling nuclear power plants in Clinton and the Quad-Cities, but he considers nuclear power important to the state's energy mix.

Answering questions during a visit to Bloomington, Rauner said, Nuclear plants have have a lot of good-paying jobs that he doesn't want to lose.

But he added, I'm concerned when a big company says in order to stay in Illinois, they need a big taxpayer subsidy.

Exelon Generation, owner of the two plants, said the Next Generation Energy Plan unveiled Thursday contains financial relief needed to keep the two nuclear plants open, along with other steps to promote low-carbon energy sources and energy efficiency. The company on Friday laid the groundwork for closing the plants if the proposal fails.

Rauner said he supports nuclear power and thinks it is important for the state to have a broad energy mix.

The Exelon Generation proposal would create a new zero emission standard that would let nuclear plants take advantage of financial breaks available to low-carbon sources like wind and solar power. A company executive said will create a level playing field for all clean energy sources to compete.

In comments on first-quarter earnings Friday, Exelon CEO Chris Crane he has been given authority from the board of directors to begin the process of early retirement for the two money-losing plants if a legislative solution is not reached before the end of the spring session in four weeks.

The Clinton and Quad-Cities plants lost $800 million between 2009 and 2015, Crane said.

"We can no longer continue to sustain the ongoing losses," Crane said.

A state study of the impact of closing the two plants ahead of their scheduled retirements shows the loss of about 4,200 jobs and $1.2 billion in economic activity tied to the plants within four years of closure.

Michael Shellenberger, president of Environmental Progress, urged Rauner and Illinois lawmakers to support the prposed bill.

"If Illinois legislators fail to act quickly to pass legislation, the state will lose 23 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources, and carbon emissions will skyrocket the equivalent of nearly 2 million cars over the next two years," said Shellenberger, a former opponent of nuclear power who now is a strong supporter.

Nuclear plants lose out on the subsidies paid to solar and wind firms in 30 states, including Illinois, under the state-based renewable portfolio standards, Shellenberger said.

"If Illinois nuclear plants received a fraction of the subsidies solar and wind receive, or were included in the Illinois portfolio standard, there would be no need for this legislation," Shellenberger said.
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Consumer products conglomerate Spectrum Brands says the jobs of 15 employees at its Middleton headquarters will be outsourced to India over the next several months.

Spokesman Dave Prichard said the workers, in accounting-related positions, were told in mid-April that three of their jobs will end July 1, the others in late October.

Obviously, we deeply regret the impact that this has on these employees, he said. It is possible that some of the employees will find other positions within the company; they will be encouraged to apply.

With roots dating back 110 years to the French Battery Co. in Madison, Spectrum Brands includes such products as Rayovac batteries, Remington shavers, George Foreman grills, STP motor oil and Kwikset locks.

Ironically, the outsourcing news comes as the company prepares for a big expansion of its building at 3001 Deming Way  with financial help from the city of Middleton  to accommodate future hiring.

The timing also coincides with the final months of a five-year agreement between Spectrum Brands and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC) for a $4 million loan. The loan will not have to be paid back if Spectrum has kept 470 full-time employees in the Madison area and invested at least $40 million in equipment or building improvements by Sept. 30.

Prichard said the company currently has nearly 600 employees in Middleton and is advertising to hire another 60 people there, about half of them new positions.

Thats well over 470, Prichard said. Thats why, long-term, we decided to expand the building.

Statewide, Spectrum Brands has 1,100 employees, Prichard said, with battery factories in Portage and Fennimore in addition to the Middleton offices.

He said the outsourced jobs will go to an Indian company being used by Spectrum Brands hardware and home improvement division, based in California. It will give the company longer-term ability to flex up quickly if we do more acquisitions, he said.

It is the first time the company is shifting jobs from the Madison area to India, Prichard said.

As a condition of the WEDC loan, Spectrum Brands has to make annual reports to the agency and WEDC is required to conduct two site visits, agency spokesman Steve Michels said. He said the last visit was in August 2014.

Spectrum Brands has reported to WEDC that it has invested $71 million in capital improvements.

The company moved its headquarters from 601 Rayovac Drive, on Madisons West Side, to a more-than-200,000-square-foot building in Middleton, built and owned by Livesey Co. and completed in fall 2013. Livesey Co. plans to spend at least $5 million on a 30,000-square-foot addition.

Spectrum Brands 33-acre former headquarters and technology center at 630 Forward Drive remains vacant. Owned by a New York group, the city assessors office values the property at $11.9 million.
A longtime Oshkosh financial adviser for Thrivent Financial for Lutherans stole cash by the buckets-full from one of her elderly clients, according to the findings of an administrative law judge.

Jean Walsh-Josephson was ordered to pay more than $1,500,000 in civil fines and restitution at the start of numerous legal actions based on accusations she stole $4 million from elderly clients over the past 10 years.

Walsh-Josephson, who faces more than 20 criminal charges of forgery, theft and resisting an officer in Winnebago and Outagamie counties, also had her insurance license revoked in the state civil action dated April 21 by an administrative law judge for the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance. The order can be appealed.

The judge, Rachel Pings, called the victimization abhorrent, with no mitigating circumstances whatsoever.

In one case, a 70-year-old widower in September 2010 walked into Walsh-Josephsons business, 44 Financial, with two five-gallon buckets of cash. They counted $302,399, with which he wanted to buy an annuity, live off the interest, and donate the principal to charity. Instead of investing the money, Walsh-Josephson gave him a phony receipt, kept the money and sent him checks from a bank with the word Thrivent in its name, of $974.76 monthly for 49 months. She also sold him a phony funeral policy for $5,000, according to the final order and decisions findings.

From that victim and two others detailed in the order, Walsh-Josephson took $508,203.09 in savings, inheritances and insurance policy cash-outs, but did not invest it in Thrivent products as promised, the order notes. She had one client cash in her existing, legitimate policies in favor of the phony investments.

She was accused by OCI of 37 instances of misrepresentations to her customers and 26 falsifications of one clients signature.

For those civil violations she faced fines of twice the amount gained, and $1,000 per misrepresentation, totaling $1,053,406.18 She was ordered to make restitution of $508,203.09.

Pings order notes Walsh-Josephson is facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing $3.5 million from 16 elderly customers over the past 10 years.

Police believe she targeted elderly customers who were either unmarried or widowed and groomed them to trust her with their finances ... providing them with dinner or taking candy to nursing homes, the order states.

She would get the clients to write checks to her business account instead of to Thrivent, transfer the money to a personal account, and spend it on a lifestyle more extravagant than she would otherwise been able to afford. That included, Pings wrote, lavish decor, expensive furnishings, high-end appliances, enormous amounts of clothing, a Cadillac SUV and Harley-Davidson motorcycle and plastic surgery.

She was caught by Oshkosh police when she skimmed $400 from a $1,500 customer transaction, Pings wrote.

The judges order can be appealed. Walsh-Josephsons lawyer, Kevin Musolf, of Appleton, was not available for comment.

Thrivent Financial said in a statement, The trust of our members is foundational to Thrivents mission, and the individual in question is no longer with the organization. We take these allegations seriously and have contacted clients of the former financial representative. We continue to fully cooperate with appropriate authorities.

Pings wrote in her opinion that the financial adviser offered virtually no defense.

The Department of Financial Institutions suspended her securities agent registration in August when the first criminal charges were filed. That was terminated in January.
A town of Cottage Grove man was sentenced Friday to five years of probation for setting the fire that burned a home where a sexual offender, released from a state treatment facility, was supposed to live.

Russell A. Speigle, 51, who will also serve three months of jail time, apologized for the ordeal he put his family through by setting the fire to the home at 4721 Gaston Circle on Feb. 22, 2015, and to his neighbors for the worry he put them through. He said he takes full responsibility for the fire.

I acted alone, without cooperation or encouragement from anyone, Speigle said. My motive was not revenge or retaliation. There was no profit motive. I took no pride in destroying someones private property. At the time, I saw it as a desperate last resort to circumstances with no good options.

That circumstance was the decision by state authorities to house released sexual predator Howard Nyberg at the house, a decision that Speigle and his neighbors fought by various measures, including trying to buy the house from its owner and also by convincing the town of Cottage Grove board to create an ordinance banning sexual offenders from being settled in its borders.

Speigles lawyer, Bruce Rosen, also said it was a personal situation for Speigle, who had told nearly nobody that as a youngster, he had been the victim of another sexual offender who was eventually brought to justice. Rosen said that man kept a log of all of his victims, and Speigle was one of 35 names on the list.

Speigle initially denied setting the fire, despite burns that police saw on his face soon after the fire and other evidence that showed he had purchased gasoline cans prior to the fire just like the ones seen on motion-activated cameras that were placed at the home by the Dane County Sheriffs Office after an earlier suspicious fire there in December 2014.

Last month, however, Speigle pleaded guilty to the arson charge.

Nobody was ever arrested for the December 2014 fire, and Deputy District Attorney Corey Stephan said Friday that there is no evidence that Speigle was involved in setting it.

The house has been repaired, but Nyberg lives elsewhere.

Stephan, calling Speigles actions simply an act of vigilante justice, asked for eight years of probation with a year in the Dane County Jail as a condition of probation. Rosen asked for five years of probation with no jail.

Dane County Circuit Judge Josann Reynolds said that while it was appropriate that Speigle receive no time in prison, she said not sending him to jail for at least part of his sentence would send the wrong message, and signal to others that vigilante justice is OK in Dane County.

Lets state the obvious, Reynolds said. As parents and law-abiding citizens, no one wants his next-door neighbor to be a sexual predator.

She said she understands why the neighbors would fight the move so vigorously. However, theres not a place in society for vigilante justice, she said.

Reynolds sentenced Speigle to nine months in jail, but stayed the first six months of it, leaving him with three months to serve. He will be allowed to report to jail to start his sentence at a later date.

Reynolds said that by being charged in the case Speigle and his family were subjected to very real consequences, including public humiliation.

Speigle will also now carry a felony conviction, she said, and with it, he wont be able to show his children how to hunt, which he had wanted to do, because he will no longer be able to own or possess a firearm.
Gov. Scott Walker issued an executive order Friday declaring a statewide energy emergency following the temporary shutdown of the West Shore pipeline.

According to the executive order, a portion of the pipeline between Milwaukee and Green Bay was shut down after an anomaly was detected.

To circumvent potential gasoline and diesel shortages in the state, Walkers order waives various federal and state limitations on the number of hours petroleum carrier drivers can work weekly.

Walker said he took action to give truck drivers the flexibility to work more hours to alleviate a potential petroleum supply shortage, especially as consumers look to higher fuel costs in the summer months.

As the demand for fuel rises with the summer season, its crucial we have a plan in place to ensure Wisconsin travelers have the fuel they need to not only explore our great state but also continue their normal business operations, Walker said in a statement.

The energy emergency will last as long as petroleum drivers are providing assistance, or up to 30 days.

David Boone, spokesman for the West Shore Pipe Line Co., said the company identified unique conditions during a physical inspection that required further analysis. Boone said the additional testing is expected to take several weeks and will likely impact deliveries to Green Bay facilities.

Boone said that the inspections were a part of an initiative to inspect the entire length of the pipeline after a recent repair to a section of it running through the Jackson Marsh Wildlife area, and that there was no indication of a pipeline failure or gasoline leak.

In 2012, the state Department of Natural Resources issued a drinking water advisory in the town of Jackson after tens of thousands of gallons of gasoline spilled from degraded sections of the West Shore pipeline.
MUSCODA  Not so long ago, our state was heralded as a national model for clean, accountable and open government. Other states sought to emulate Wisconsins system of government.

We cannot say this today.

Perhaps the most notable reason is the unwillingness of our legislators to pass or even discuss nonpartisan redistricting of Wisconsins congressional and state legislative districts.

My fellow Republicans now have an opportunity to join like-minded Democrats in support of this method of redistricting following the 2020 census. Wisconsin should emulate Iowas 36-year-old redistricting law.

Iowa does redistricting right. Since changing its system in 1981, Iowa has entrusted its nonpartisan Legislative Services Bureau to draw its congressional and legislative voting districts. The Iowa bureau draws new district boundaries after each major census without regard to partisan political advantage.

If maps drawn by the bureau fail to pass both houses of the Iowa Legislature two times without amendments, Iowa lawmakers may then debate and amend the legislation as is done for any other proposals. So the Legislature could conceivably ignore the maps drawn by the Iowa bureau and draw partisan maps.

But that has never happened in Iowa. In the four redistricting processes since the Iowa law took effect in 1981, the Iowa Legislature has always passed the nonpartisan maps created by the Legislative Services Bureau without ever going to a third vote.

Republican Gov. Terry Branstad signed Iowas most recent redistricting legislation into law in 2011, following a bipartisan vote of 78 to 18 in the Republican-controlled House, and a similar vote of 37 to 13 in the Democratic-run Senate. This bipartisan support of nonpartisan-drawn voting districts has been the norm in Iowa. Republicans also controlled the executive and legislative branches of their state government when nonpartisan redistricting was established more than 30 years ago.

Iowa voters enjoy more competitive general election than in Wisconsin. The Iowa model also keeps communities of interest together and districts compact.

The cost to Iowa taxpayers for nonpartisan redistricting is negligible. No attorneys are involved, and the most significant and extra expense for Iowa taxpayers in 2011 was the cost for transporting Legislative Services Bureau members to three mandated public hearings in different Iowa locations for public inspection and comment.

Wisconsins recent redistricting effort cost taxpayers over $2 million for lawsuits and court challenges.

When the Democrats controlled the Wisconsin Legislature, they drew districts to their advantage. So did the Democrats in 2011 in Illinois. When partisan politicians of any political stripe are left to decide congressional and state legislative boundary lines, they cannot resist the temptation to draw the lines for political self interest.

Because of partisan redistricting, Wisconsins members of Congress and the Legislature now choose their voters. It is supposed to be the other way around. We, the people, are supposed to choose our congressional and state legislative representatives.

But now, Wisconsin voters have virtually no say in who represents them in Madison and in Washington. We still vote. But the outcome is rarely in doubt.

We can do better. Nonpartisan redistricting is supported by an overwhelming majority of Wisconsin voters, as shown by the results of several county referendums on the subject.

Republicans and Democrats should not delay the enactment of Iowa-style redistricting in Wisconsin. Bills modeled after Iowas system were introduced in the Legislature last year but never received a public hearing. Similar legislation will very likely be introduced early next year.

I urge legislators of both political parties to announce their support for this reform during this important election year.
MONDOVI  Of all the ills plaguing American Indian communities, what hits home the hardest is the scourge of suicide.

The rate of suicide in Indian country has increased by at least 60 percent since 1999, according to a newly released report by the National Center for Health Statistics. In the past 15 years, suicide among Native women rose 89 percent.

Moreover, the study concludes the actual number of American Indian suicides may be underreported by 30 percent.

For years, Indian country has suffered the highest suicide rates among all racial or ethnic groups in the nation. Poverty, violence and alcoholism are only a few of the constant contributing factors that drive so many Native people to despair. Generations of abuse in the forms of racism, loss of indigenous languages and the devaluing of ancient traditions, culture and spirituality have had a devastating impact on American Indian dignity and self worth.

Suicide is more than a public health issue for Indian country. It is a monetary issue. American Indian nations are losing the battle to save their peoples lives because there simply are not enough mental health dollars available to effectively treat the problem.

The American Indian health care system is shamefully underfunded because the federal government has refused to fully honor Indian treaties. Tribes signed away rights to large amounts of land and access to natural resources in exchange for promised health care, education and other needed services.

But the U.S. government broke those promises long ago and continues to shatter them today.

Every budget cycle, Congress consistently underfunds even basic health care services for American Indians. It is no wonder American Indians have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and mental illness in the country.

The few dollars that do make it to tribal hospitals and clinics are spent on triage and other crisis treatment, not mental health services.

In Canada, indigenous people face many of the same health challenges as American Indians. Recently, a number of First Nations people there have started occupying federal buildings to call attention to the high suicide rate of their young people.

It has been decades since American Indian activists caravanned to Washington, D.C., in what was dubbed the Trail of Broken Treaties. Those activists took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in protest of the U.S. governments mistreatment of Native people. Significant Indian federal policy was changed because of that occupation.

For American Indians, the right to decent health care is long overdue. But the federal government shows no interest in mending its broken treaties with tribes. Perhaps its time for Native people to pay another visit to the nations capital.
UPDATE: Hultgren's people want us to be sure and run the whole statement - so we will. See below the fold:

"I don't know if I'll ever be," Hultgren said. "I haven't yet been able to reconcile his differences with my strongly-held beliefs on family and religious freedom which I believe are the foundation for our country's well being and identity."

"I am not sold on Mr. Trump -- not yet," Hultgren said in a statement released a day after Gov. Bruce Rauner said he won't endorse Trump.

PLANO - Not in the #NEVERTRUMP movement, and not in the #TRUMP2016 gang, U.S. Rep. Randy Hultgren (IL-14) told local Daily Herald reporters that he's "not ready yet" to commit to backing Trump in the fall.

People in Illinois and across the country are frustrated. I am frustrated, too. Families and small business owners are worried about the economy and fear for their ability to continue to thrive under the weight of the heavy hand of government. We are facing a point in our history where we look at our children and grandchildren and fear that their future will not be bright and hold the promise of opportunity for all. Under strong pressure, I have taken tough votes to get our country back on track. Donald Trump has done a good job of voicing those frustrations, and many find his backbone to stand up to big government and special interest groups something they can trust. We need solutions, and I expect our next President to work to heal our divisions and pass real solutions to these problems. I am not sold on Mr. Trumpnot yet. I don't know if I'll ever be. I haven't yet been able to reconcile his differences with my strongly-held beliefs on family and religious freedom which I believe are the foundation for our country's well being and identity. We are entering a new phase of the campaign where historically voters gain a clearer picture of what the candidate actually stands for.

Hultgren's answer was more information than Congressman Peter Roskam's (IL-06) office was willing to share. Congressman Bob Dold (IL-10) has been critical of the presumed GOP nominee.

UPDATE: Bob Dold told John Howell Friday that Trumps comments about women, Latinos, Muslims, and prisoners of war were what made him decide against supporting Trump. He plans to write-in a candidate.

For me these comments all together are not about uniting a country, its quite the opposite, Dold said, and so for me I will not support Donald Trump and certainly I think that there are others that have some pretty significant reservations.

And while Congressman Adam Kinzinger (IL-16) has yet to go on record, he's indicated privately that he's no fan of the businessman. He at first backed Jeb Bush and then switched to Marco Rubio. Since then he's been quiet on the topic.

Everyone of those seeking re-election in November will deal with Donald Trump being at the top of the November ballot. No word yet on the matter from downstate Republican Congress members John Shimkus, Rodney Davis or Mike Bost.
Said Danford, There are those who want to eliminate the pro-life and pro-marriage planks from the Illinois Republican Platform. Pat Brady is one of them.

As a pro-lifer, Mr. Danford described the pro-life philosophy as one based on truth. An invitation was extended to pro-lifers in attendance to be in Peoria, Illinois on May 19 -21 to become delegates. At that time the 17-member Platform Committee will meet and decide upon the conduct of the Republican Party.

As the issue of selecting state delegates to attend the Republican Convention this summer in Cleveland, Ohio is front and center in the news, Mike Danford , First Vice Chair of the Lake County Republican Party, was on hand to speak. A state convention is held every four years. The 2012 Illinois Republican Party Platform , as approved on June 9, 2012 at the Illinois Republican State Convention in Tinley Park, Illinois, has in it "Embrace of The Traditional Family" and "Embracing The First Freedom: The Right to Life platform planks.

A Pro-Life Legislative Forum, sponsored by Right to Life Lake County and Right to Life McHenry County , was held on Saturday morning, April 30th, 2016, at Marytown, Libertyville, IL. Hosting the event was Bonnie Quirke, Lake County Pro-Life Chair. A free breakfast was served preceding the speakers. Updates on legislative pro-life bills were presented by state representatives representing Lake and McHenry Counties. They included State Representative Barbara Wheeler , District 64; State Representative Sheir Jesiel , District 61; and newly appointed State Senator Dan McConchie , District 26.

If enough votes are garnered to bring about a minority report, and if that report is voted upon and passed, a portion of the Republican Platform could be destroyed. The result would be an IL Republican Platform similar to the one at the national one. This would not be acceptable. The pro-marriage and pro-life planks must remain in the IL Republican Platform. If you can't attend all three days, Saturday is the most important day, as this is day voting takes place. As Danford reminded attendees, "You are the hands and feet of the party, be active or be trampled over."



Elisa Bouc (from STOP ERA) and Bonnie Quirke of McHenry Right to Life

Equal Rights Amendment update

An update was given on the Equal Rights Amendment (EPA) by Elise Bouc, STOP ERA Chairman in Illinois. In speaking about the Equal Right Amendment (EPA), Elise Bouc noted that despite the defeat of the Amendment in 1977, it still remains an issue today. Just what does equal rights mean in the Equal Rights Amendment? See here an article by Elise Bouc published at Illinois Review in November of 2014. If enacted, in light of this poor wording of the amendment, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex" , no decision made could be based on gender, thus making it impossible to defend traditional marriage. State EPA's have been used in courts to overturn restrictions on abortion and to mandate public funding for abortions.

After the formulation of the "three-state strategy" for ERA ratification in 1995, ERA bills have been introduced in one or more legislative sessions in nine of the unratified states (Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, and Virginia). With only three more states needed to ratify and then retroactively pass ERA in Congress, Illinois has been the focus of EPA since 2003. The Illinois House, but not the Senate, passed an ERA ratification bill in 2003. In 2011, 2012, and 2014. An attempt was made this year to pass ERA in the Illinois Senate, but it failed on Tuesday, April 29, when at the last moment the sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment decided not to bring it up in Senate committee hearings. But EPA is not dead in Illinois. Forces will be gathered to pass the bill in the future. This must not be allowed to happen. It is urgent that Illinois State Senators be called and told not to approve ERA if and when they might have another occasion to do so in the near future.

Following Elise Bouc's presentation, Eddie M. Corrigan, Legislative Correspondent and Staff Assistant to Rep. Peter Roskam's District 6 office, Washington, D.C., Rayburn House Office Building (1-202-225-4561), spoke on behalf of Rep. Roskam. Corrigan noted that Rep. Roskam, as a member of the pro-life conference, has helped push the pro-life movement. According to Corrigan, History is on our side. The Republican Caucus, under the pro-life leadership of Jim Durkin, is 100% unwavering pro-life with 47 members in the House and 20 in the Senate. There are pro-life Democrats, but not enough to pass pro-life legislation.

Pro-life Elected Legislators Speak: Wheeler, Jessel, and McConchie

Rep. Barbara Wheeler, District 64, is in her second term and 3rd session. Having never before conducted a pro-life legislative forum to explain about the bills being put forward relative to pro-life and anti-pro-life groups, she found Bonnie Quirk receptive to holding such an event. For as Wheeler explained, Legislators can only do what they are able to do. The rest is up to concerned citizen constituents. As to lobbyists, they are not all being equal. Some lobbyists help pro-life legislators get their bill filed. Wheeler spoke about pro-life legislation filed so far in 2016. Rep. Wheeler filed four out of the seven bills. A description of the bills will follow later on in the article.

Rep. Sherry Jessel, District 61, ran for office to fight for life. Her district extends up to the Wisconsin border. When elected Jessel was advised to focus on fiscal issues. Although very important to Jessel, she views the pro-life issue as the building block of our culture. Ms. Jessel further noted the difficulty of being pro-life in todays society, of being true to who you are and what you believe. Rep. Jessel filed one of the seven pro-life bills filed in the House so far in 2016, HB 6078  Abortion Clinic Regulation (Health and Safety) bill. Jessel explained how the process for a bill begins when sent to the Rules Committee. From Rules a bill is assigned to a specific committee for review. As both committees are dominated by members of the Democrat Party, it's difficult for a pro-life bill to pass Democrat scrutiny to be heard on the House floor. If by chance a pro-life bill should pass in the House, it would move on to Senate, where it would be even less likely to pass, before moving on to the governor to be signed into law.

Senator Dan McConchie was sworn-in on April 20, 2016 to represent the 26th District of Illinois by Lake County Judge Daniel Shanes, accompanied by his wife and two daughters. McConchie won a heavily-contested three-way primary last month. McConchie month. McConchie has spent his career working in nonprofits as an advocate for the weak and vulnerable both at the beginning and end of life. As a national expert on state legislation, he is committed to bringing his experience in legislative strategy, marketing, coalition building and grassroots advocacy to furthering Governor Rauner's pro-growth agenda in Springfield.

Senator McConchie related what his first day as senator was like when driving down to Springfield the day after he was sworn in to join fellow reform-minded legislators actively working to return power back to the people and get our state on the right track again. As the bills were announced rapid fire one after another for voting in the Senate Chamber, McConchie, not being familiar with the background of some of the bill, watched how others he trusted were voting. One time McConchie's plan of action backfired, when in voting yes, McConchie didn't realize that those voting Yes had all changed their vote to "NO"! In the near future Senator McConchie will be opening a district office in Lake Zurich. McConchie noted how the process to pass a bill in the Senate is similar to the process described by Rep.Jossel in the House.

House-sponsored pro-life bills in 2016 (Go to www.ilga.gov to follow the bills)

Listed below are the seven pro-life Illinois General Assembly Legislative bills sponsored so far in 2016. Most didn't make it out of the Rules Committee. Only two of the seven listed did - HB 5022 and HB 58917. Both bills were introduced by Rep. Barb Wheeler, where they died when put into a bad House committee and then subcommitted by the chairman.

HB 4392 (Pritchard-Reis) Create4s Choose Life Fund to allow Choose Life decals on plates.

HB 4421 (Rep. Wheeler) - Ultrasound Opportunity Act.

HB 5686 (Rep. Wheeler) - Prohibits any uses from aborted fetal tissue.

HB 5817 (Rep. Wheeler) - Requires Public Health to report 5 or more deaths or complications from abortions [currently, will only report if over 50 from abortions].

HB 4421 (Bryant) - 20 week abortion ban.

HB 6078 (Rep. Jesiel) - Abortion Clinic Regulation (Health and Safety) bill.

HB 6566 (Rep. Wheeler) - Bans abortions for sex selection and birth defects.

Four pro-abortion bills that are now before the Illinois House requiring action

A Pro-Life action alert was issued for these four pro-abortion bills that are now before the Illinois House. Your action is needed. Call your state representative to vote "no" on all four!

HB 887 (Williams) - Amends the Illinois Insurance Code. Makes a technical change in a section concerning the insurability of newborns. This bill is coming over to the Senate!

SB 1564 (Biss, Gabel) - under this bill, crisis pregnancy centers,pro-life physicians and hospitals will be forced to participate in abortions against their consciences. Provides a list of places where a woman could reasonably be able to receive an abortion.

HB 4013 (Feigenholtz) -Removes all prohibitions on using taxpayer funding for all abortions throughout the full nine months of pregnancy under Medicaid and more.

HB 5576 (Nekriz) - Contraceptives paid by insurance bill.

Emphasized was that pro-life legislation must continue to be put forward in the House, even though the current make-up of the General Assembly isn't favorable to having the bills passed. The conscience of voters can be pricked by talking about an issue, which helps in adding pro-life legislators to the Illinois Senate and House. 10 more pro-life members are needed in the Senate and 13 in the House to obtain a majority. While it is often stated that Illinois is a blue state, it is really a purple state. Pointed out is that there is only a 4.6% difference in the way citizens vote in state legislator races between Democrats and Republicans.

House Witness slips a way for public to make a difference

Educating the public is important. Signing witness slips is one way the public can make a difference in bills put forward in the House. Launched by the House in March of 2012 as a new venue for citizens to participate in the legislative process by filing witness slips online, and reported at the time by Illinois Review, the House allows citizens over age 13 to file witness slips online which provides a way for virtual participation in the House proceedings. The online witness slip entree can be found at http://witnessslips.ilga.gov. Select the committee where a particular bill is assigned, find the bill on the committee's schedule, then fill out and submit the form provided for the particular bill online.

In addition to calling your state representative and senator, dont neglect Governor Bruce Rauner. Personal letters rate high. Governor Rauner needs to be informed to stand firmly with the Republican caucus in the Illinois General Assembly. To write: Office of the Governor, 207 State House, Springfield, IL 62706 and Office of the Governor, James R. Thompson Center, Chicago, IL 60601.

Pro-life candidates introduced:

Judy Martini (R - Fox Lake, District 5) received the Republican primary nod and will face Democrat Gloria Charland in the race for Lake County Board District 5. They are seeking to replace longtime Lake County Board member Bonnie Thomson Carter, a Republican who is not seeking re-election.

Having run unopposed in the primary, Michael Amrozowicz is the 2016 Republican candidate for District 31 of the Illinois State Senate. Illinois' thirty-first state senate district is presently represented by Democratic Senator Melinda Bush. As a Navy man Amrozowicz is used to fixing things, describing himself as a "conservative who serves Christ.

Special guests introduced:
Despite Flipping in Surf 4 Times in a Year, Marines Say New ACV Is the Future of Amphibious Warfare

Some Marine veterans familiar with the vehicle and its operations have worried about the reliability of the ACV.
The eligible candidates can appear for the walk-in interview on May 8 at 9:30 am.

Class 8th students can apply to lCAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research Jobs

By India Today Web Desk: lCAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR), Kerala has invited applications for recruitment in various posts. The eligible candidates can appear for the walk-in interview on May 8 at 9:30 am.



Vacancy details:

Total posts: 3

Name of the posts:

Professional: 1

Administrative Assistant: 1

Assistant (Climber cum Pollinator): 1



Eligibility criteria:



Educational qualification

Professional: The candidates should have acquired a Master's degree in Life Science from a recognised university or institute.



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Administrative Assistant: The candidates should possess a diploma in Electronics/Computers from a recognised university or institute.



Assistant (Climber cum Pollinator): The candidates should have completed class 8 from a recognised board or institute.

Age limit:

Male: The candidates' age should be up to 35 years old.



Female: The candidates' age should be up to 40 years.



Age relaxation would be provided to the candidates as per the government rules.



Selection process: The candidates will be selected on the basis of their performance in the interview.



How to apply:

The eligible candidates can attend the walk-in interview at Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR), Research Centre, Palode, Pacha PO-695562, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.



Important date and time:



Date and time of the interview: May 8 at 9:30 am

Venue: Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR), Research Centre, Palode, Pacha PO-695562, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

For more details, candidates should visit the official website.

Click here to get latest updates on government jobs in India.



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In the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and Indian School Certificate (ISC) results, which were announced on Friday, May 6 students from Mumbai and Odisha topped the charts.

By India Today Web Desk:

In the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) and Indian School Certificate (ISC) results, which were announced on Friday, May 6, students from Mumbai and Odisha topped the charts.

Class 12:

With 99.75 percent, Aadyaa Maddi of Lilavatibai Podar School topped the ISC or class 12 exams.

The second position was also bagged by Mumbai's Mansi Puggal with 99.50 percent while the third position was shared by Arkadeb Sengupta and Kavita Desai from Kolkata who scored 99.25 percent.

Class 10:

Abineet Parichha from Odisha, who scored 99.2 percent, topped the ICSE or class 10 exams.

The second position has been shared by four students- Sudarshan R (Bangalore), Isha Sethi (Mumbai), Manan Manish Shah (Kandivali) and Jyotsana Srivastava (Lucknow) who scored 99 percent. The third position has been shared by 10 students with a score of 98.8 percent.

The results were declared at 3 pm on the official website of the Board, which is cisce.org.

The pass percentage for ICSE increased marginally by 0.01 percent and for ISC it rose by 0.18 percent as compared to last year nationally. Southern region had the best performance across the country.

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) saw girls outshining boys in both the classes.

Why were the results declared two weeks earlier?

The Live Ink Character Recognition (LICR) technology helped the board in declaring the results earlier.

What is LICR?

"LICR captures and digitises the marks entered on the top-sheets of the answer scripts, and instantly encrypts and transfers the captured data to the Council's cloud-based servers directly from the evaluation centers," Arathoon said, according to PTI.

"This significantly reduced the time required for compilation of results as the system automatically totals the marks awarded by the examiners and also applies the question-paper rubrics, hence eliminating any possibility of manual totalling and manual rubric application errors," he added.

The examination mark sheets and pass certificates for class 10 and 12 will reach the schools by May 14 and May 10 respectively, the council announced.

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Read: NEET Vs CET 2016: All you need to know

Read: NEET, MHT CET 2016: Check out the paper analysis here

Get latest updates on exam notifications and scholarships across India and abroad here.





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The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) declared the results for the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), on the afternoon of Friday, May 6, 2016.

By India Today Web Desk: The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) declared the results for the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), on Friday afternoon, i.e. May 6, 2016.

The results for the Class 10 were declared by the board on its official website, the link for which is cisce.org.

Here is the list of the top 3 rank holders of ICSE Class 10:

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Abineet Parichha: This boy from Odisha has scored 99.2 percent and ranked 1st position in the Class 10 exams.

Sudarshan R (Bangalore), Isha Sethi (Mumbai), Manan Manish Shah (Kandivali) and Jyotsana Srivastava (Lucknow): All four of them have shared the second position by scoring 99 percent marks.

Karan Agrawal of St Paul's School, Rourkela, Odisha along with 9 others have gained third rank by obtaining 98.8 percent marks across the country.

The pass percentage for ICSE increased marginally by 0.01 percent as compared to last year's national statistics. Southern region had the best performance across the country.

The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) saw girls outshining boys in both the classes.

The Live Ink Character Recognition (LICR) technology helped the board in declaring the results two weeks earlier, as compared to previous years.

Read: ICSE, ISC 2016 results declared: Check the percentage of toppers here!

Read: ISC Results declared: Top three rank holders

For information on more latest news and updates, click here.

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In its bid to provide equal opportunities to all, the Supreme Court on Friday, May 6 clarified that the students, who appeared in National Eligibility Entrance Test-I (NEET) on May 1 for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses, cannot be permitted to re-appear in NEET-II, scheduled to be held on July 24.

By India Today Web Desk: In its bid to provide equal opportunities to all, the Supreme Court on Friday, May 6 clarified that the students, who appeared in National Eligibility Entrance Test-I (NEET) on May 1 for admissions in MBBS and BDS courses, cannot be permitted to re-appear in NEET-II, scheduled to be held on July 24.

SC's Verdict:



"Those students who had appeared in the NEET Phase-I shall not be permitted to appear at NEET Phase-II but the students who could not appear in NEET Phase-I may appear in NEET Phase-II," a bench of Justices A R Dave, Shiva Kirti Singh and Adarsh Kumar Goel told the PTI.



On state exams:



Changing its stand on the subject, the bench hinted that it may consider allowing states to conduct their own tests to continue with the admission process for current academic year alone

However, it deferred the decision on this aspect till May 9 when Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar who is scheduled to apprise them about the stand of the Centre

"The issue with regard to those students who had appeared or who are due to appear in examinations conducted by the States in accordance with their State laws, shall be decided after hearing the Solicitor General," the court said

"In view of the request made by the Solicitor General, hearing is adjourned to May 9, 2016," the bench said.

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The court restated its earlier view on private colleges holding their separate entrance tests saying "it is clarified that no examination shall be permitted to be held for admission to MBBS or BDS studies by any private college or association or any private/deemed university."



Medical Council of India's (MCI) take on the matter:



During the brief hearing, the MCI, which had earlier opposed the plea of some states, has said that they should be allowed to continue with their entrance tests, however, told the court that they can be permitted "only for this year".

The Solicitor General said that the Centre would be convening a meeting of all the stakeholders in a day or two on issues related to NEET and would apprise the court about the outcome on May 9.

Earlier, the apex court had said that unaided private medical colleges across the country cannot be permitted to go ahead with their pre-scheduled tests for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses.

The apex court had earlier commenced the crucial hearing on the pleas of state governments, private medical colleges, and minority institutions like CMC Vellore and Ludhiana seeking nod to hold pre-scheduled separate entrance exams for MBBS and BDS courses.



Stand of States in this matter:



The states, opposing NEET, alleged that there are marked differences in the syllabus for the state entrance tests and the NEET.

Read: ICSE, ISC 2016 results declared: Check the percentage of toppers here!

Read: ISC Results declared: Top three rank holders

For information on more latest news and updates, click here.

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The militants were identified as Ashfaq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Dogipura, Ishfaq Ahmad Baba, a resident of Tahab and Haseeb Ahmad, a resident of Brao Bandyun.

By Press Trust of India: Three Hizbul Mujhahideen militants were killed today in an encounter during a search operation in Kashmir's Pulwama district.

A joint team of police and army segregated the Panzgam village in Pulwama district after receiving intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the area, an army official said.

Troops from Rashtriya Rifles, Special Operations Group and CRPF surrounded the Panzgam village on Friday and the encounter started around 3.30 am.

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As the forces started conducting the search operation, the hidden militants fired upon them, triggering an encounter, the official said.

They were identified as Ashfaq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Dogipura, Ishfaq Ahmad Baba, a resident of Tahab and Haseeb Ahmad, a resident of Brao Bandyun.

Three weapons have also been recovered from the encounter site.

The search operation is still on.

Incidents in Kashmir blown out of proportion: Alok Nath



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By Harish V Nair: A first-of-its-kind report based on interview of 373 death row convicts across the country released on Friday has revealed that 80 percent of them suffered custodial violence.

It also says of the 92 prisoners who said that they had confessed in police custody, 72 (78.3per cent) admitted to making confessions due to torture.

"Of the 270 prisoners who spoke about their experience in police custody, 216 (80 per cent) admitted to have suffered custodial violence. Amongst the states with 10 or more prisoners, Haryana has the highest proportion of prisoners (100 per cent) who were tortured in police custody, followed by Gujarat (94.7 per cent), Kerala (91.7 per cent) and Maharashtra (91.3 per cent). Of the 92 prisoners who said that they had confessed in police custody, 72 (78.3 per cent) admitted to making confessions due to torture" said the report 'Death Penalty Research Project' by students of the National Law University.

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Shockingly, 25 per cent of the prisoners in the study were either juveniles, or very young (between ages of 18 and 21) or very old (above 60 years old) when the crime was committed. This is startling as the Supreme Court in 1980 held that "if an accused is young or old, he shall not be sentenced to death. The interviews were done from June 2013 to January 2015.

Is Indian legal system biased against the economically weak and the disadvantaged vis-a vis awarding extreme punishments like death sentence? Until now it was in the realm of speculation. But now it has been confirmed by this empirical data on the subject.

The study found 79.8 per cent of those given the death penalty belonged to backward classes, SC/ST or religious minorities. It gives an impression that gallows are only for the marginalised. The first thing when a person is arrested is his access to a lawyer. The poor may not get it while the well-off do.

"The discussion around the death penalty in India should not be limited to executions and must also focus on the experience of prisoners living under the sentence of death. Given the harsh conditions of confinement and uncertainty associated with the death sentence, it also becomes essential to consider the time spent by these prisoners under death sentence", says Anup Surendranath, Assistant Professor at National Law University who headed the project.

Also Read

From the Magazine: Why capital punishment is the answer?

Rape and sexual offences: Crime & punishment in India



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The government aims to make Delhi the most preferred destination for starting new businesses by framing easy policy so that all industries and new IT-based startups can start their business here.

By Shashank Shekhar: As neighboring Gurgaon and Noida have emerged as preferred destinations for multi-national companies (MNCs), tech giants and small and medium-sized enterprises, the AAP government on Friday constituted an Entrepreneurship Council, an advisory body aimed at attracting new entrepreneurs to set up their ventures in the Capital.

The government aims to make Delhi the most preferred destination for starting new businesses by framing easy policy so that all industries and new IT-based startups can start their business here. The policy will also encourage Delhi-based business houses to shift back to the city.

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Announcing the council, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said ease of doing business is a part of AAP's manifesto. The council will consist of members from industries and will work under the aegis of the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC).

"Existing procedures have to be simplified, some new policies have to be made in this direction," said Kejriwal adding that the council would comprise two kinds of people - business enterprises and angel investors.

The patron of the eight-member council is Delhi Industry Minister Satyendra Jain, while the chairman will be Naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani. The council is likely to submit its recommendations in three months.

Also Read

MNCs beat Indian companies as preferred place to work: Survey



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The tourism department is officially supporting the Lotus Temple's candidature for UNESCO's famous roster as part of a string of measures to showcase Delhi's cultural legacy.

By Baishali Adak: With three UNESCO World Heritage Sites- the Red Fort, Qutub Minar and Humayun's Tomb - history-rich Delhi is the first stop for many tourists, foreign and domestic. Now, the AAP government wants to give them more reasons to visit as it pushes for the city's enduring whispers from the past to resonate globally.

The tourism department is officially supporting the Lotus Temple's candidature for UNESCO's famous roster as part of a string of measures to showcase Delhi's cultural legacy.

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The dossier for the temple, also called Bahai House of Worship, is being prepared by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). It will be submitted to UNESCO by September 2016.

The move comes about a year after the Centre quietly withdrew Delhi's name from the UNESCO World Heritage City race. Among the many differences between the Delhi government and the Centre, this too has become a bone of contention.

Simultaneously, the department of archaeology is working on a Heritage Secretariat, a nodal agency to govern the city's historic sites. Currently, the 1,200-odd monuments of significance in the city - as listed by historian Maulvi Zafar Hasan in 1918 - are split between the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Delhi government, three municipal corporations and Delhi Development Authority (DDA). In future, the secretariat will discuss the "philosophy of conservation in the Capital and how it can earn the title of a UNESCO World Heritage City," an official said.

No Indian city has so far made it to the coveted list. Delhi Tourism Minister, Kapil Mishra, told MAIL TODAY, "The Lotus Temple gets more footfall daily than even the Taj Mahal. It's the city's pride and we are going to extend every possible help to the Bahai Temple authorities. This includes both financial and by means of promotion." It's a beautiful monument, he added.

INTACH Project Coordinator Annabel Lopez, said, "Such an entry to the UN has to have the local government's endorsement. Further, it has to ensure that the site and buffer zone of OUV (Outstanding Universal Value), as mentioned in the dossier to UNESCO, remain undisturbed. Currently, our worry is about the high rises of Nehru Place. Other than the existing EROS Corporate Office building, new structures must not compromise the temple's setting and backdrop."

The Bahai Temple came up only in 1986 compared to the Qutub Minar or Red Fort that are centuries old. "It is an excellent piece of modern architecture in India," Annabel said. "As per an analysis by UNESCO, new buildings are fewer to ancient buildings in its World Heritage Sites list. Therefore, to fill this gap, it is actively encouraging modern heritage entries."

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After the Lotus Temple dossier is submitted in September, a site review will be conducted by the International Council on Monuments and Sites in October 2017. A final decision will be taken by a UNESCO committee in 2018.

A department of archaeology official said, "We are continuously pushing for Delhi to get the UNESCO tag. Whenever the central government is ready and the city's nomination is forwarded again, we want an expert body to be ready. The Heritage Secretariat will have the answers to all queries coming from UNESCO."

Such a declaration by the UN body would help bring more investments into Delhi tourism. Ajay Kumar, director at INTACH, said, "A nodal agency is required to look into deencroachment, restoration, uplift and tourism potential of each monument in the city. Further, there are hundreds of monuments under the jurisdiction of our municipal corporations languishing in the byways of north, south and outer Delhi. They need to be taken care of too."

Also Read

Indian National Trust for Art to restore 18 monuments in Delhi

Delhi's heritage sites grapple with neglect and encroachment

250 Delhi monuments to get fresh lease of life



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Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today clarified that he has no intention of political mudslinging and he will investigate all named by Italian court and hunt down the big fish involved in the multi-crore AugustaWestland chopper scam.

By India Today Web Desk: Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today clarified that he has no intention of political mudslinging and he will investigate all named by Italian court and hunt down the big fish involved in the multi-crore AugustaWestland VVIP chopper scam.

"Who are involved (the names) in the scam will be determined after investigation agencies are able to track the money trail and track many other things they are doing . So, let them do their job. I can only say that there must be some big fish because this process was driven for about five years from bottom to top by relaxing so many clauses at different levels. So there has to be someone powerful who could have driven this. Whereas former IAF chief SP Tyagi was there for some time, there were some other people for some time, they could have been part of it which I don't know. But they can't be the full of it," Parrikar told India Today TV 's Gaurav Sawant.

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On being questioned about Congress' allegation that Brijesh Mishra, who was a civil servant in the NDA, reduced the service ceiling height (from 6,000 mts to 4,500 mts) and increased the cabin height of the chopper, Parrikar said Mishra only suggested to do so after consulting the PMO and the SPG to increase the vendor base.

Small fish so far, will hunt down the big ones Will investigate all named by Italian court IAF officers/bureaucrats came and went: that force remained Complex money trail. Some traced back to India MoD has sent all papers to ED/CBI MoD is monitoring the probe Have not named any politician One guiding force pushed deal from 2005-10 No comments on Arun Shourie. Respect him a lot No political mudslinging by me Will only probe deals where corruption is suspected: not Rafale (no deal signed yet) Will not let defence preparedness suffer

"...Brijesh Mishra's letter clearly says increasing cabin height by 1.8 metre may be a desirable parameter. He didn't write about compulsory parameter. If you read the CAG report it is very clear and they haven't denied it. In May, there was a meeting under first NSA and then under Defence Secretary where this parameter of '1.8 metre cabin' was made compulsory. Now, they have changed the scenario. The moment you made it compulsory, you eliminated the guaranteed competitor who had passed the test," the defence minister clarified.

Earlier, Parrikar had said that Congress created single vendor situation in AgustaWestland deal and the scam could have been stopped in 2012.

AgustaWestland was alleged to have paid Rs 375 crore as bribe to secure the Rs 3,700-crore contract to supply 12 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force. The contract for purchase of helicopters for the use of VVIPs was signed in 2010. The previous UPA government later scrapped the deal over charges of kickbacks.



ALSO READ:



AgustaWestland scam: Manohar Parrikar's 8 latest revelations

Manohar Parrikar: We want to know who instigated, supported, benefitted from the chopper scam



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An Italian court held last month that bribes were paid to clinch the Rs 3600-crore VVIP helicopter deal. The judgment has created political uproar as the court referred to a handwritten document of a middleman suggesting that Sonia Gandhi and her political adviser Ahmed Patel were paid off.

By Mail Today: As the Italian court verdict on the AgustaWestland deal rocked Parliament, the judge who heard the case punctured the Congress' defence that there is no evidence against party president Sonia Gandhi. Speaking to a TV channel, judge Marco Maiga said he has not given a clean chit to any Indian politician and the judgment is not a final one. Saying that bribes given went beyond the Tyagi brothers, who are cousins of former Air Chief SP Tyagi, a prime suspect in the corruption case, the judge put the onus on Indian investigators to establish the kickback trail.

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An Italian court held last month that bribes were paid to clinch the Rs 3600-crore VVIP helicopter deal. The judgment has created political uproar as the court referred to a handwritten document of a middleman suggesting that Sonia Gandhi and her political adviser Ahmed Patel were paid off.

The Milan Court of Appeals - equivalent of an Indian high court - has given details of how bribes were allegedly paid by helicopter-maker Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland to Indian officials through middlemen to clinch the deal. The order reportedly mentions the name of Tyagi at several points. The judge, however, maintained that his verdict was only against senior officials of the chopper company and middlemen who had paid bribes to some officials in India and that it was up to Indian investigators to follow the money trail.

Asked about the cooperation received from the Indian government as he had mentioned substantial disinterest on clarification of facts in the case on behalf of Indian side, he said "all we had was a copy of the CAG, request for proposal, agreement copy and nothing more than that".

Meanwhile, the CBI questioned former IAF Chief SP Tyagi for the third consecutive day besides quizzing advocate and former board member of Aeromatrix Gautam Khaitan The agency has called the then assistant chief of Air Staff (Plans) NV Tyagi to be examined in connection with the alleged irregularities in the deal. Sources said NV Tyagi was part of a team of senior officials who were involved in the deliberations to reduce the specifications of the helicopters for the VVIPs. They also claimed that Khaitan during his questioning admitted setting up IDS Tunisia. IDS Tunisia is a subsidiary of IDS India. The company was one among the many through which the alleged bribe was routed by the middlemen from AgustaWestland to other countries, the sources said. CBI officials, not willing to be on record, claimed that Khaitan only admitted setting up the company and not any alleged transfers of funds through it. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which has been probing the money laundering angle in the case, has summoned Tyagi and his cousins besides realty firm Emaar MGF's boss Shravan Gupta.

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Gupta's name cropped up after it was found that the alleged middleman Guido Haschke was an independent director of the firm between September to December 2009. The ED, in its charge sheet filed last year in a court, had claimed to have detected flow of alleged kickbacks sent from abroad to companies of the accused Gautam Khaitan and cousin brothers of the former IAF chief.

Also read:



Shashi Kant Sharma should have quit and joined Agusta probe: VK Singh

Day 2: Tyagi grilled by CBI for nine hours in connection with the AgustaWestland chopper scam





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Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut's battle doesn't seem to end anytime soon and has only got murkier by the day. After Sonam Kapoor and Vidya Balan, Akshay Kumar has also opened up on Hrithik-Kangana's much-talked about legal spat.

By India Today Web Desk: Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut's battle doesn't seem to end anytime soon and has only got murkier by the day. And now Bollywood celebs have also started breaking their silence on Hrithik-Kangana's much-talked about legal spat.

Akshay Kumar, who stay in the same building where Hrithik stays, told Indian Express, "The war is not happening in Bollywood. It is happening right in my building (Akshay and Hrithik reside in the same building). It's time for both to end it. I hope it happens soon. It's been going on for some time and everyone is having fun at their expense."

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Just yesterday Sonam Kapoor had come out in support of the Queen actor. In an interview with India Today, Sonam had said, "I am very very impressed with the way Kangana handled this situation. I don't know who is at fault though."

Not just Sonam Kapoor supported Kangana, Vidya Balan also spoke in the favour of the Tanu Weds Manu actor. Vidya, at the trailer launch of her upcoming TE3n, had said, "I really think it is none of my business to be judging anyone but I have the greatest admiration for Kangana because she is standing up for herself."

Hrithik and Kangana's battle started after Kangana referred to him as 'silly-ex' in an interview. And since then, their legal spat has taken many twists and turns. The latest reports were that Kangana has finally recorded her statement.

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Alden Ehrenreich will play the famous space smuggler Han Solo in the Star Wars spin-off movie after Disney and Lucasfilm finally made a decision to cast an actor to step into Harrison Ford's shoes.

By Bang Showbiz: Alden Ehrenreich has landed the role of young Han Solo in the Star Wars spin-off movie.

ALSO READ: Star Wars - Harrison Ford wanted his Han Solo to die in the sixth instalment



The Hail Caesar! actor is reportedly finalising the deal with Disney and Lucasfilm but has been offered the highly sought-after part, following an extensive search that saw the studios audition almost a dozen young Hollywood actors to step into the shoes of Harrison Ford - who originally played the iconic space smuggler in the science fiction franchise.

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Alden, 22, beat off competition from Whiplash star Miles Teller, The Fault In Our Stars actor Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood and Eddie The Eagle's Taron Egerton, all of whom were eager to take on the desirable role.

Few story details have been revealed about exactly what events in Han Solo's life prior to his appearance on screen in Star Wars A New Hope in 1977 will be told, however, it is known that Han and Chewbacca will be reunited in the upcoming origins movie.

The LEGO Movie's Phil Lord and Chris Miller are set to direct, and the pair confirmed it will be centred on the pair.

What's more, prior to Disney's 2012 purchase of Lucasfilm, the 'Star Wars Expanded Universe' line of books and comics described several stories about Han's younger days and it is thought these will inspire the plot line.

The film is currently thought to be titled Han Solo A Star Wars Story and is set to be released on May 25, 2018.

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"If they think they can threaten us, they are sadly mistaken," Sonia thundered at a show of strength at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.

"We want this message to reach Nagpur, from where the RSS controls the Modi government," Sonia Gandhi said.

By Amit Agnihotri: Sensing the mood in the BJP camp over the Agusta scam, the Congress hit the streets saying it won't be cowed down by the ruling party's vendetta politics and pressed for a Supreme Court monitored CBI probe.

"If they think they can threaten us, they are sadly mistaken," Sonia thundered at a show of strength at Delhi's Jantar Mantar.

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"We want this message to reach Nagpur, from where the RSS controls the Modi government," she said.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi also spoke at the rally saying the party would not tolerate the BJP's vendetta politics.

Terming the protest a save democracy rally, Sonia led senior party leaders in a march towards Parliament and courted arrest along with Manmohan Singh and Rahul. They were released shortly thereafter.

Hours later, Congress chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia launched a counter offensive against the BJP inside the Lok Sabha saying Sonia was a lioness and the ruling party was scared of her.

Defending Sonia, Scindia said her name does not figure anywhere in any authenticated document in the Agusta deal.

Rahul, seated nearby, listened quietly to Scindia, who quoted from the order of the Milan court Judge Marco Maiga to argue there was no case against Sonia. "We have no evidence against Sonia Gandhi. Only a mention of her in the facts, Mrs Gandhi has only been indicated as someone who will fly in the VVIP helicopters," Scindia quoted from the Milan court order.

Noting the Congress too was in favour of a fair probe in the scam, Scindia demanded the Supreme Court should monitor the investigation.

He also quoted Agusta middleman Christian Michel as having said, "I have never met one single Gandhi ever in my life. Not a letter, not a message, not a mention (their's) in any memo. I am absolutely sure that no money was ever paid to the Gandhis."

The Congress leader further cited Michel as having said that he was pressured to implicate the Gandhis in the deal.

Trying to turn the tables on the BJP, Scindia questioned the Rafale fighter jets deal with France that is being pursued by the centre.

"The BJP must answer why it signed a deal of 36 Rafale aircraft for 9 billion dollars when the UPA had bargained for 125 aircraft for 10 billion dollars," said Scindia.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar responded by saying that the Rafale deal was still not through and that the government was trying to negotiate a better price than the UPA.

Also Read

Congress's Agusta Kranti: Gandhis, Manmohan Singh, others continue march after brief detention

Sonia is a suspect, should be quizzed: Swamy's latest 10 salvos in Agusta case



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Talking to India Today, Yadav said that the UP Government was intent on building an international airport in Agra due to its tourism and industrial potential.

By Siraj Qureshi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has slammed the Centre for building an airpot in Jewar instead of constructing the International Airport in Agra it had promised in 2013.

Talking to India Today, Yadav said that the UP Government was intent on building an international airport in Agra due to its tourism and industrial potential and Centre's vested interests in constructing an airport in Jewar is preventing it.



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"When a proposal for Hirangaon in Firozabad was sent to the union civil aviation ministry, the ministry demanded that a proposal be also prepared for Jewar, which was subsequently prepared and sent. The union government's priorities became clear when the Hirangaon project was set aside and Jewar was approved as the site for the new airport. It remains to be seen if the Union government will ever build an airport in Hirangaon," Yadav added.

Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber secretary Vishal Sharma also expressed his disappointment over construction of airport at Jewar instead of Agra and accused Modi from deviating from his promises made during in his November 2013 speech in Agra.

"Whenever the Union MoS for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma visited Agra, he promised that he will lobby in the central government for an airport in Agra. The minister was made aware from time to time about the benefits of an international airport in Agra in terms of industrial and tourism development," Sharma said.

"With the airport in Jewar being finally approved, despite being less than 150 km away from Delhi airport according to regulations, it is clear that the Government of India is working on an agenda which is completely different from what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had professed in his November 2013 speech in Agra, "Sharma added.

Tourism Guild president Arun Dang expressing his concern over declining state of tourism in the city said, "Both the Central and State governments were treating Agra as a plaything for their political game of chess."

Dang further pointed out that if international airport is not constructed in Agra, the tourism industry of this city will continue to die a slow and painful death.

Meanwhile, commenting over the recent row over empty water train for drought-hit Bundelkhand that arrived at Jhansi, it was a publicity trick.

"The central government has sent an empty train and is publicizing this as if it had sent millions of litres of water for UP Bundelkhand was not so badly drought stricken that it would require a water train and UP had no need for this empty train," Yadav said.



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By PTI: From K J M Varma

Beijing, May 5 (PTI) Chinas investments in India, Pakistan and other South Asian countries climbed to USD 12.29 billion and the regional trade crossed USD 111 billion as the worlds second largest economy seeks to make inroads into the subcontinent with its Silk Road initiative.

Chinas cooperation with South Asian nations will be very broad thanks to growing shared interests and market demand, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce Gao Yan said.

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A round of key projects has been launched following the China-proposed Belt and Road (Silk Road) Initiative to promote economic growth of the countries and boost regional cooperation, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Gao as saying.

By the end of 2015, Chinas direct investment in South Asian countries stood at USD 12.29 billion and South Asias investment in China totalled USD 890 million, she said.

Besides plans to step up investments in India China launched USD 46 billion Economic Corridor with Pakistan through Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK). The corridor to connect Western China to Pakistans Gwadar deep seaport on the Arabian Sea in the south was announced last year.

China, the largest single lender to Sri Lanka, also invested over USD seven billion in the island nation.

Last year, trade grew 4.9 per cent from the previous year to USD 111.22 billion between China and eight members under the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation initiative, including Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan, Gao said.

The India-China bilateral trade totalled to USD 65.16 billion last year with trade deficit in favour of Beijing mounting to USD 48.68 billion.

Gao spoke to the media here today ahead of the 4th China-South Asia Expo and the 24th China Kunming Import and Export Fair, which will be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province from June 12 to 17. PTI KJV ZH

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By India Today Web Desk: Jadavpur campus was on a boil on Friday after rival group of students clashed over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

The fracas began after the film's screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.

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The state-run varsity's alumni association, which runs the Triguna Sen auditorium, had decided to cancel the booking for a pre-release screening of the film in their hall. The producers, however, went ahead with the screening at an open-air space in the campus saying they have support from another group of students. "The students arranged a bed-sheet and turned it into a screen to see my film. Many watched it and realised it's not what they were thinking. It is a realistic film," Agnihotri, who has in the past made films like Hate Story and Goal, told PTI.

According to reports, some girls were also molested by 'outsiders' and later a complaint was filed against them.

The filmmaker claimed he was manhandled and gheraoed by some students and even the glass pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion.

He wondered why people were scared of the screening of the film which he describes as the boldest political film ever made in India. "The film, which stars Anupam Kher and Arunoday Singh in important roles, has so far been screened in a number of educational institutes throughout the country. I faced some issues and non-cooperation from some people during the screenings," Agnihotri said. Even as the screening was going on in the evening after classes were over, the agitators carried on with a protest demonstration near the spot.

The agitating students said they have nothing against the screening of the film, but were protesting against the divisive content in the film. "We all know Kher's views in the whole debate on whatever happened in JNU. He is acting in this film which has divisive content. We are protesting against that," Sounak Mukherjee, a first year MA student of English department, said.

JU VC Suranjan Das said the state varsity had no role to play in the cancellation of the screening. "The hall doesn't belong to us. It is not controlled at all by us. We have no role to play in the screening or cancellation," he said.



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By India Today Web Desk: A court in New Delhi on Saturday summoned Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly using derogatory term for referring to policemen. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has been asked by the court to appear on July 14 pertaining to the case.



Kejriwal has been summoned by the Saket court for calling the policemen 'thulla'.



During an interview to a television channel in July 2015, Kejriwal had allegedly used the word 'thulla' to describe Delhi policemen.

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ALSO READ:

Kejriwal attacks Modi over inaction in AgustaWestland chopper scam



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By PTI: Kuala Lumpur, May 5 (PTI) Facebook has opened its office here in Malaysia, expanding its presence in Southeast Asia, which is the social media giants fastest growing market.

Facebook Southeast Asia managing director Kenneth Bishop said the launch of its office here marked a milestone for Facebook in Malaysia.

"We are committed to helping Malaysians and businesses connect in more meaningful ways. Our local team in Malaysia will be focused on helping businesses tap into this unprecedented opportunity to connect with todays mobile- first consumers," he said.

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Southeast Asia, he said, is the fastest growing region for Facebook and Malaysia, a mobile-first country with a mobile penetration rate of 144 per cent, is driving the growth.

Bishop said that Facebook Malaysia had more than 18 million Facebook users and 6.5 million people on Instagram.

Malaysian also ranks 10th globally for the number of friends, which is 60 per cent more than the global average.

"In Malaysia, 94 per cent of people discover products and brands on Facebook, and 62 per cent make a purchase after discovery," he said.

The opening of the local office is part of its expansion in the region following the launch of the Philippines office last month.

Each month, 241 million people use Facebook across Southeast Asia, 94 per cent of them via mobile while globally, 1.65 billion people now use Facebook. PTI JB AMS AKJ AMS

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By India Today Web Desk: Those who have fond memories of watching Indian television's first superhero Shaktimaan, while growing up have a reason to rejoice, as the hit show is slated to make a comeback on the television.

The plot of the show revolved around the protagonist Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri, a newspaper photographer--essayed by actor Mukesh Khanna--whose superhuman alter ego Shaktimaan battled against the evil forces of the world.

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The show's reboot will see the 57-year-old actor make a comeback on telly. Working hard to get in shape before the show, the veteran actor told the following to Times Of India, "We are planning the return of Shaktimaan on television and the discussions are going on with few channels. I can't committ the date but you will get to see it soon. I am working on my look and body for it. I have already lost 8 kgs and will be losing another 8 kilos. I am not trying to get six pack abs. I want to try and match up with the look that I had 15 years back. People relate to me as Shaktimaan and I can't offer the role to anyone."

While some might feel that Khanna's too old for the role, the actor feels otherwise. He told the same publication, "I was very young when I played the role of Bhishma Pitamah in Mahabharat. I feel an actor can't be restricted due to age. I feel age is just a number. It depends on how you look and if you will be able to pull off the character with full conviction."

Also read: Exclusive: Barun Sobti reveals why he chose Satya Ki Kiran for his TV comeback

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Clashes broke out on Friday evening at the university campus over a screening of Vivek Agnihotri's film slated for a country-wide release on May 13. Tension began after organisers decided to continue with the event despite permission being cancelled by Jadavpur University's alumni association at the Triguna Sen auditorium inside the campus. The university administration claimed that the auditorium functions independently under the aegis of the association and they have no control over it.

Initially, permission was granted to "Think India", under whose banner ABVP had organised the screening. However, on Thursday, the alumni association cancelled the permission citing "model code of conduct" imposed due to ongoing assembly elections in the state. Following which the organisers decided to go ahead with the screening at an open ground inside the campus on Friday.

Soon, a scuffle broke out between the organisers and a section of students from the Federation of Arts Students (FAS) and Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU) who protested against the filmmaker with black flags.

Protestors blocked Agnihotri's vehicle raising slogans against him and said they were opposed to the entry of ABVP activists accompanying him. "They want to espouse Hindutva propaganda by citing freedom of expression. If some students wish to screen the film, we don't have any problem but we won't allow people like Agnihotri, the BJP and ABVP inside Jadavpur campus. Jadavpur is a democratic place and there is no space for fascists here," said Shounak Mukherjee, a member of the Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU).

Agnihotri, whose film faced similar opposition at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru university earlier tweeted, "They didn't like that film exposed them so they got violent with the organising students."

While ABVP managed to screen the film reportedly critical of the Naxal movement, protesting students held a parallel screening of 'Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai', a documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. However, things turned ugly when the two sides came to blows and four of the organisers were held captive by protesting students over allegations of molestation. Later they were handed over to the police by the university administration.

However, in a late night drama, hundreds of BJP and ABVP workers led by Roopa Ganguly assembled at the university gate to release their supporters held 'hostage' by students inside. It was after the intervention of Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das and the police, that the ABVP men were released.
Sources in the security establishment also told Mail Today that the Ikagar Sagar, the taxi driver who was killed by the terrorists could be involved in drug peddling. "After verifying his antecedents it is suspected he was part of a smuggling ring," said a senior officer.

By Abhishek Bhalla : An assessment by security forces has established that Pathankot terrorists were directed by a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) 'handler' who was also running a narcotics syndicate confirming fears of a terror-drug cartel nexus.

Sources in the security establishment also told Mail Today that the Ikagar Sagar, the taxi driver who was killed by the terrorists could be involved in drug peddling. "After verifying his antecedents it is suspected he was part of a smuggling ring," said a senior officer.

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It was always suspected that the attackers took routes used by drug smugglers but this is the first time a concrete link has been established.

Seven security personnel were killed and several others wounded when Pakistani terrorists owing allegiance to Pakistan-based JeM, attacked the Pathankot Air Force base after breaching the border on January 2.

Narco smuggling in Punjab from across the border has been rampant with thousands of youth being victims of substance abuse. Sources say since there is good network of couriers ensuring the smooth clearance of consignments from the border areas the kingpins are never nabbed. The ruling Shirimoni Akali Dal government in Punjab has blamed BSF for the drug menace in Punjab as a result of drug trafficking from Pakistan but the force has strongly refuted such allegations.

However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probing the Pathankot terror attack has said there is nothing to suggest an inside hand. "There is no doubt that terrorists came from Pakistan. Ikagar's background is not part of the probe as he is dead and nothing can be established," the officer added.

This is significant in the backdrop of the recent Parliamentary panel report that made scathing observations about government's poor handling of the situation. The panel also said the role of narcosyndicate active in border areas of Punjab, should be investigated as the terrorists might have taken help of channels or networks used by smugglers to infiltrate the border, shelter and carry out terror attack.

"Something is seriously wrong in the country's counterterror establishment and the airbase's security was not robust," the panel report said.

The committee recommended that in view of the serious attacks from across the international border in the area, the government should pay attention to effectively sealing the border through enhanced patrolling, fencing, flood lighting etc.

But it seems no lessons have been learnt from the Pathankot attack to plug the gaps in border security to ensure zero infiltration from Pakistan. A recent intelligence report just ahead of a Pakistani team's visit to India for probing the Pathankot said that a group of terrorists entered India again from Pathankot to carry out strikes in Delhi hotels and hospitals.

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The report named former Pakistan army personnel Mohammed Khurshid Alam who along with six 'hardcore' terrorists who had entered India.

"On February 26, 2016 at around 2030 hours he, along with six others, crossed over to India through Pathankot, Punjab-Pakistan border," the intelligence note said.

Also Read

Pathankot attack: NIA releases photos of terrorists ahead of Pakistan SIT's visit

Parliamentary panel slams Centre for Pathankot attack



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After giving the fans a sneak peek of Hrithik Roshan's upcoming film Kaabil in the first teaser, director Sanjay Gupta has finally released the first look poster of the film.

By India Today Web Desk: After giving the fans a sneak peek of Hrithik Roshan's upcoming film Kaabil in the first teaser, director Sanjay Gupta has finally released the first look poster of the film featuring the Bang Bang actor. Sanjay took to Twitter to share the first look.

HERE IT IS.

The first look poster of #Kaabil. pic.twitter.com/0tsyjknEse Sanjay Gupta (@_SanjayGupta) May 6, 2016

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The first look shows Hrithik's intense and mysterious eyes and a lit candle's reflection inside it. The film's tagline is 'The Mind Sees All'. Hrithik also shared the first look of Kaabil on his social media accounts and wrote, "Blinded by a million eyes watching me ...when in fact I am the observer, I am the watcher .. The minds eye sees all. #KAABIL (sic)."

Not much is known about the plot-line of Sanjay Gupta's film, the first look and the teaser have added to the curiosity in Hrithik's fans. Apart from Hrithik Roshan, the film also stars Yami Gautam in the lead role. Reportedly, the Sanam Re actor will play the role of a blind girl in the film.

In an earlier interview, Yami had told IANS, "I am very excited to get such a huge opportunity to star with him (Hrithik). I am nervous to share screen space with him. He is a big star and someone whose work has inspired me every time. I am sure he will be amazing to work with. So, I am really looking forward to work with him."

The film has been produced by Hrithik's father Rakesh Roshan and interestingly, the film will complete its entire shooting in just three weeks.

Directed by Sanjay Gupta, Kaabil will hit the screens on January 26 next year. Here's the teaser:

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A 'reformed' thief in Karnataka is going around apologising to every person he ever stole from. Here are a few other cases like his, in which thieves got in touch with the people they robbed, only to apologise.

By India Today Web Desk: Recently, Karnataka witnessed a rather unusual episode: a thief, who lived a life of crime for 30 long years, has been revisiting every house he ever stole from only to apologise.

Armed with a slogan and the Tricolour, Shigly Basya is making sure his victims know how sorry he is for his deeds.

Not only that, the 46-year-old 'reformed' thief has been going around giving speeches on poverty and education with catchphrase, "A house for the poor and education for the downtrodden".

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Speaking to TOI, Basya said, "I have seen thousands of criminals in my 30 years as a lawbreaker. Most criminals commit offenses due to poverty and illiteracy".

Having burgled more than 260 houses, he is now on a mission to to visit each of them to apologise and help his victims get back what he stole from them. And Basya is making this journey completely on foot, having already covered 50 km from Haveri to Bengaluru.

Strange as it may sound, this is not an out-of-the-world occurrence. There have many reports worldwide of thieves revisiting the people they robbed from to say sorry, for reasons varying from a guilty conscience to a life-altering experience.

Here are a few of such cases:

1. Apologies via Facebook

Earlier in March, a teenager broke into a gift shop in Manitoba, California, but couldn't escape without being captured on the store's CCTV camera. However, that is not how he got caught.

After tracking the thief down on Facebook, store owner Stefan Tergesen sent him a friend request, instead of getting him arrested. This, in turn, guilt-tripped the young thief into admitting to his actions and apologising.

Talking to the store owner, this is what the boy had to say:

Source: Stefan Tergesen/ Facebook

2. Sorry in pink

In January, a family in Fair Oaks, California, had a brush with a thief who stole their two-year-old's gift package from their door step. However, the unknown thief returned the package from where it was taken with an apology note.

"Was going to steal your package but it's for a kid. Sorry for the inconvenience. - Have a nice day," read the note scribbled in pink.



Thief Returns Stolen Package With Note: Sorry For The Inconvenience https://t.co/OjmyOvB6CE FOX40 News (@FOX40) January 23, 2016

3. Thanks for the apology. Here's a 20.

A 24-year-old burglar, Kevin Derbyshire, and his partner-in-crime stole jewellery worth 10,000 pounds from 74-year-old Loretta Smith in Greater Manchester, UK, in 2014.

But after being arrested, Derbyshire sent Smith a letter from prison, apologising for putting her through the experience. He wrote: "To the victims of the really horrible crime I have committed, I just want to say that I am really sorry for my stupid actions".

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Touched by his response, and upon learning that Derbyshire had a child, Smith sent him 20 pound.



4. A great big fat... SORRY!

When 55-year-old Eileen Remedios was robbed of her bike, she posted this note on a lamppost: "Please return my bike. It is old but loved and will be frightened without its owner".

A nurse by profession, Remedios hadn't quite expected for the note to have any effect. But when she returned to the patient's house from where her bike was stolen, she found a note for her under the doormat

And outside the house, chained to a nearby lamppost, was a her bike. In case you're wondering, here's what the note said: "A great big fat...SORRY! From 'The reformed Bike Thief'. (I never mistreated it)".





I love the random stories on the Metro: Thief sees pleading note and returns stolen bike: http://t.co/9yMHbEy0Yw The Jaffacake (@TheJaffacake) September 12, 2013

If only the big-time scammers and money-launderers had the same kind of conscience.

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Sadiq Khan's victory, was confirmed shortly after midnight inside London's futuristic glass and steel city hall following a day of mixed news for Labour in elections elsewhere in the country.

Sadiq Khan, Labour Party candidate, speaks on the podium after hearing the results of the London mayoral elections, at City Hall in London. (Pic: AP)

By Reuters: Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver, became London's first Muslim mayor on Saturday, seeing off a Conservative challenger who attempted to link him to extremism and securing a much-needed win for his opposition Labour Party.

Khan's victory, which also makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital, was confirmed shortly after midnight inside London's futuristic glass and steel city hall following a day of mixed news for Labour in elections elsewhere in the country.

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Dealt a crushing blow in Scotland, where it came third behind the Scottish National Party and Britain's ruling Conservatives, Labour did better than expected in England, saving its left-leaning leader from an early challenge.

But the big prize was the London mayor vote, which pitted Khan, 45, who grew up in public housing in inner city London, against Conservative Zac Goldsmith, 41, the son of a billionaire financier.

"This election was not without controversy and I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division," Khan said in a short speech after the results.

"I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer, it only makes us weaker and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."

Plaudits for Khan flooded in from as far afield as New York, whose mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter: "Sending congratulations to London's new mayor and fellow affordable housing advocate, @SadiqKhan."

Khan's 13.6 percent margin of victory over Goldsmith was the widest in a London mayoral election in 16 years, showing that a bitter campaign marred by accusations that Khan had links to extremists and charges of anti-Semitism within Labour ranks had failed to deter his voters.

The Labour lawmaker replaces Conservative Boris Johnson, who ran the city of 8.6 million people for eight years. A top campaigner for Britain to leave the EU, Johnson is seen as a contender to succeed David Cameron as party leader and prime minister.

The Conservatives were keen to keep hold of the post, which does not run the City of London financial district but has influence over government in lobbying for the capital. The mayor is responsible for areas such as policing, transport, housing and the environment.

Khan, looking exhausted after a much delayed result, made an emotional speech referencing his Pakistani father, who he said would have been "proud that the city he chose to call his home, has now chosen one of his children to be the mayor."

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ACCUSATIONS

Khan held his lead in the opinion polls, despite accusations by Goldsmith that he has shared platforms with radical Muslim speakers and given "oxygen" to extremists.

Khan says he has fought extremism all his life and that he regrets sharing a stage with speakers who held "abhorrent" views. The Labour Party accused Goldsmith and the ruling Conservative Party of smearing Khan.

Goldsmith denied the charge, saying he had raised legitimate questions over his opponent's judgment - but the tactics do seem to have backfired, with some voters interviewed by Reuters saying they found the campaign "disgusting and slimy".

While fighting those charges, Khan, a former human rights lawyer, also distanced himself from the newly elected Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after a row over anti-Semitism.

The Labour leader ordered an inquiry into charges of anti-Semitism after suspending Ken Livingstone, a political ally and a former London mayor, for saying Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism.

The impact of the crisis was difficult to gauge in the election of more than 2,700 local officials and new devolved authorities in Scotland and Wales.

Compared to the last regional elections in 2011, Labour's share of the vote was down 9.2 percent in Scotland and 7.6 percent in Wales, allowing a strong showing for the anti-EU UK Independence Party before a referendum on membership of the bloc on June 23.

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But, with fewer losses in England than expected, Corbyn was able to rally enough support to prevent an early challenge.

Corbyn, who was elected as party leader last year on a wave of enthusiasm for change and an end to 'establishment politics' among mostly younger members, welcomed some of the results and said he would fight to re-establish Labour in Scotland.

"We hung on and we grew support in a lot of places," he said.

But he did little to quell criticism of his leadership in a party which has moved from crisis to crisis, the latest the row over anti-Semitism forcing Corbyn to suspend Livingstone.

Richard Angell, director of Labour activist group Progress, said the party had to refocus on issues that concern voters.

"Corbyn need to shake up his operation, kick out Ken Livingstone as a first step to nailing the anti-Semitism problem and focus on voter-friendly policy," he told Reuters.

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As Nitish Kumar is back in the national arena after imposing prohibition in his state, the only state after Gujarat to do so, he seems to be trying to consolidate his position as a national leader. In the coming days, the Janata Dal-United supremo will be traveling to Kerala, Jharkhand and later Uttar Pradesh with his national ambition in mind, a situation that will be suiting Lalu the most.

Its been close to six months that the Mahagathbandhan government headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was formed in Bihar but the honeymoon period appears to have ended earlier than expected and now the Janata Dal-United is thinking beyond Bihar. So, RJD chief Lalu Prasad may once again start dreaming of having an in-house chief minister of Bihar.

As Nitish Kumar is back in the national arena after imposing prohibition in his state, the only state after Gujarat to do so, he seems to be trying to consolidate his position as a national leader. In the coming days, the Janata Dal-United supremo will be traveling to Kerala, Jharkhand and later Uttar Pradesh with his national ambition in mind, a situation that will be suiting Lalu the most.

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The Bihar chief minister is moving towards attaining national acceptability as a leader who can take on PM Narendra Modi in 2019, while back in Bihar the RJD boss is working tirelessly to strategise how to have an in-house for chief minister's post once again. (Remember, in the 90's how he hurriedly made his wife Rabri Devi the chief minister of Bihar overnight).

Lalu himself is not eyeing the top post for himself, not that he does not want to but because of his conviction in fodder scam and subsequently being debarred by the CBI court from contesting polls for 11 years. (Remember, Lalu has been sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment after his conviction and according to law, a person cannot contest polls for 6 years post completion of his term of punishment).

Lalu is trying to create a perception in the political as well as the bureaucratic circle that it's the 10, Circular Road, which was in command of the government at this point of time. (Lalu along with his wife Rabri Devi and minister sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi live at this address). He already showcased the clout he hold in the government when he compelled Nitish Kumar to hand over the deputy chief ministerial post to his son Tejaswi and another ministerial berth to his elder son Tej Pratap.

As per the initial strategy, Lalu is making all efforts that the Bihar chief minister doesn't get advertisements of certain departments which are being looked after his sons Tej Pratap and Tejaswi. It all started in March this year when Nitish tried to scuttle the rise of Lalu's minister sons in the government. Various ads appeared in national dailies where Nitish ensured that only his pictures were highlighted in departments ads that were held by Tej Pratap and Tejaswi.

On March 26, Nitish tried to cut to size Tej Pratap Yadav when only his picture appeared in newspapers relating to an event concerning Health Ministry.

On the very next day, Nitish again figured prominently on an ad relating to the road construction department but there was no picture of the concerned minister Tejaswi Yadav.

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A miffed Lalu could not take it any further and on March 30 there was an ad of the road construction department where picture of Tejaswi Yadav figured but this time Nitish was missing.

The ad war that began in March continues as another ad concerning Tejaswi's road construction department appeared in national dailies where picture of Nitish was missing. It's a deliberate ploy that was mastered by Lalu to push his son Tejaswi as frontrunner for Bihar chief ministerial post in 2020. Tejaswi's experience as deputy chief minister for five years will only add to his credentials as an able leader to lead the state.

RJD spokesperson Manoj Jha adds that a graduating from the post of deputy chief minister to chief ministerial post was a natural process but cautions that the things are premature at the moment.

"Sushil Modi was also deputy chief minister and didn't he nurture chief minister dreams, it's a natural step to graduate from deputy CM to CM but I think it's premature at the moment. Nitish Kumar is trying to stitch an anti-BJP alliance but remember, he has not become a prime ministerial designate of such an alliance", says Manjo Jha.

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JD-U spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan says that time has not come to become uncomfortable as of now as Lalu bats for Tejaswi. Ranjan said "The government is working fine and there is total coordination...The situation has not come to get uncomfortable."

Well, at the moment things might appear pre-mature but behind the scene Lalu Yadav is working over this blueprint. It may be noted that when Nitish Kumar became JD-U president as was out with his national vision of a "Sangh Mukt Bharat", Lalu smelled complete power. He did not waste a minute to support Nitish as prime ministerial candidate. And why should he complain if his "chota bhai" goes to Delhi, Bihar will automatically be his and so he will get an in-house chief minister in form of Tejaswi Yadav.

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Touted as one of the best hikes of the world, the existence of the Annapurna Circuit trek in the western Himalayan belt is in danger due to road construction. We take you on the classic trek-perhaps for the last time.

A trekker halts to enjoy the view of the Nilgiri peak, which forms part of a wall known as the Grand Barrier. Picture courtesy: India Today Travel Plus

By India Today Travel Plus: Himalayan scenery notwithstanding, the Annapurna circuit presented loads of cultural experience while we took breaks in the relative luxury of tea houses along the way. Massive 7,000m peaks like Annapurna, Manasulu, and Gangapurna dominated the horizon and became our constant companions. We went from Hindu to Tibetan to Gurung culture, from village to village, through streams and waterfalls, sometimes crossing suspension bridges that swayed with the wind. We walked by prayer wheels unlocking the prayers by rotating them clockwise. We savoured steaming ginger tea and yak cheese pizzas, but delighting in the simplicity of daal bhaat. We prayed in temples and monasteries creating a tryst between nature and God. The highlight of the trip was crossing the formidable Thorung La pass (5,416m) that left us breathless. By the end of our journey from Besisahar to Jhomsom, my husband, Krishnan and I had completed the half circuit (167km) by foot in the span of 12 days, collectively losing 10 kg weight.

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With good reason to believe that the new road construction would render the Annapurna circuit with only a few kilometres of hike worthy trails, we embarked on one of the most incredible journeys of our life-possibly the last batch of trekkers that will talk about the Yarsa Gumpa (Himalayan Viagra) that grows on the slopes of Annapurna. With road construction already in progress, it became a race against time for us to embark on the Annapurna circuit before it was too late and we hoped to experience the vestiges of this legendary route.

Our trek started from Besisahar (760m) through terraced rice fields and teahouses with interesting names like "Peace, Love and More Love". Tea house trekking has been made popular in some of Nepal's trekking routes to enable the backpacker to carry only basic amenities while enjoying good food, comfortable mattresses and sometimes hot showers.

On the way to Manang. Picture courtesy: Suman Ramasundaram/India Today Travel Plus

As we ascended to the higher regions, the air and vegetation got thinner and the temperatures cooler. Krishnan seemed rather perturbed by the number of villages perched high above the mountains that seemed almost impossible to reach. Our guide, Lal Bahadur (LB) had the habit of stating the obvious and Krishnan had the habit of overwhelming him with tough questions.

"See that village up there on the cliff, that's Bhahundanda," LB said.

"Why are there villages that high, LB?" Krishnan asked jokingly in reply, much to LB's bewilderment.

Bhahundanda was our destination for lunch and seeing how high it was scared us a good measure. If you knew LB, you would realise that the little guy had no sadistic bone in his body, and yet there were moments of doubt.

"Only flat ground today, ma'am. No hilly."

And if we pointed out the ominously steep climb that we met just minutes after his declaration, he would reply sincerely, 'Oh that, ma'am, is Nepali flat.' I soon developed a dislike for Nepali 'flats'.

On the third day, after a particularly difficult uphill trek, I was ready to call it quits when I saw a magical place lying below in an open valley, on the banks of a river with a waterfall roaring on one side and horses running on the shallow river bed. This was the village of Tal. We soon resumed our hiked with renewed energy and a happy heart to Dharapani, another village with beautiful views of the gorges.

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We hiked with some splendid and awe-inspiring views of Manasulu, the 8th highest mountain in the world. We reached the first Tibetan village of Chame. Chame was the biggest village in the circuit with stores that stocked things from hiking pants to boots. It had taken us 5 days to get here. In this very remote village in the Nepal Himalayas, in a tea house, we saw a Tibetan family huddled around the TV, grandma and all, paying rapt attention to Katrina Kaif dancing to Chikini Chameli.

There are many waterfalls along the way that make for interesting hurdles. Picture courtesy: Suman Ramasundaram/India Today Travel Plus

En route to Pisang, we passed a massive granite rock that looked like a giant skateboarding ramp. It was called the Paungi Danda, which translated to 'Gateway to Heaven". I, though, wasn't ready for that yet. Upper Pisang, situated on the steep mountain slope, is a village completely built of stone and offers some majestic views of Annapurna II. After we got to the tea house, I took a side trip up to the monastery for better views. As I sat there on the steps in complete solitude, a lama appeared with tea, offered me a mug and left without saying a word.

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The last rays of the sun, the furious fluttering of the prayer flags, the peace of the monastery and the views of Annapurna while sipping a cup of tea-so I did enter that 'Gateway to Heaven'.

All through the trek, we kept hearing about a mystical place called Manang. We saw sign boards pointing to Manang. We saw yaks being led to Manang-at least they looked like they were going someplace important. Though Thorung La was our ultimate challenge and motivation of this long odyssey, Manang held an air of intrigue. After 8 days of hiking, we reach the arid moonscape of Manang at 3,500m and had our first sea-buckthorn juice.

We opened the window of our room in the Yeti Hotel and were awestruck. Nowhere in the world would I pay as little as a few hundred rupees for this kind of view. The majestic Gangapurna peak with its glacial lake in mint blue was right next to my window to touch. All night I could hear the roar of avalanches.

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As we left Manang and took a last lingering look at the stone walled settlement in the shadow of the Gangapurna mastiff, I couldn't help but think of what this enigmatic land would look like a few years from now. The completed road will allow tourists to bypass all the charming villages and drive straight up to Manang in two days, where many trekkers would take rest the night before crossing the pass. This route will possibly destroy the thrill of reaching the pass that once took two weeks of an incredible journey. This would also make way for short trips, resort style tourism and commercial luxuries. Possibly generate income, but also pollution.

After two more days of moving like slugs due to depleting oxygen levels, we reached the base of Thorung La from where we would start an early ascent the following day at 5am in order to cross the pass before the storm could hit. It got very cold and we were bundled up with our last reserves of winter clothing. To say that day was the most difficult and challenging of the hike would be an understatement. Just an hour into the steep ascent, I felt giddy and had to lie down till I felt like I could go on. Still very weak and gasping for breath, I kept moving conjuring up rescue helicopters and magic carpets, instead of enjoying the breathtaking view.

Jhomsom airport, one of the most scenic airports in the world serves backpackers and pilgrims coming to Muktinath Temple. Set in the dramatic backdrop of Dhaulagiri peak, the flight to Pokhara is a breathtaking and nerve-wracking experience. Picture courtesy: Suman Ramasundaram/India Today Travel Plus

Those snow clad peaks were seemingly mocking my vain fortitude. Krishnan seemed to be having similar moments of trance mingled with painful migraines. Since we were not foreign to high altitude trekking, we recognised the signs and trudged along, possibly breaking some world record in slow walking.

A cluster of prayer flags on a sign board marked Thorung La. We had made it! Not ecstatic, but very thankful, we regained some of the fading energy for a few congratulatory pictures and then prepared ourselves to descend. We were shocked at the dramatic change in scenery. From snow clad peaks, we were treated to the austerity and awe of high desert landscape. We sent in a few words of encouragement to our knees and off we went. With more oxygen, we started showing human symptoms and even smiled at each other.

Mukthinath (3,800m) is a well-known Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage site and it seemed like there was a role of the divine in ensuring our safety. From here on, it was civilisation and we encountered tourists of the other kind who drove from Jhomsom. They were dizzy and nauseas owning to low oxygen levels and very little acclimatisation.

They were surprised on how Krishnan and I were so much at ease, skipping around like mountain goats. We were on a complete oxygen high and loving the energy that flowed through our bodies after the gruelling trek. Next day, we got ourselves packed with 20 others in a small van and headed to Jhomsom on road through the Kali Gangaki valley. That van ride made me realise how lucky I was to not let the last 12 days whiz past me like this without fully realising the beauty of nature.

Itinerary

Day 1: Besisahar (820m) to Bhulbhule

Day 2: Bhulbhule (840m) to Jagat

Day 3: Jagat (1,300m) to Bagarchap

Day 4: Bagarchap (2,160m) to Chame

Day 5: Chame (2,710m) to Lower Pisang

Day 6: Lower Pisang (3,250m) to Humde

Day 7: Humde (3,330m) to Manang

Day 8: Manang (3,540m) to Yak Kharka

Day 9: Yak Kharka (4,050m) to Thorang Phedi

Day 10: Thorang Phedi (4,450m) to Thorung Pass to Muktinath (3,800m)

Day 11: Muktinath to Jhomsom

Checklist



Even though this trek is threatened by the road construction, all is not lost. This region still has some amazing treks.



Road construction has been completed only to Chame. After which you could hike all the way to Muktinath. The trip though shortened by 4 days, is still spectacular.



From Manang, there are some lovely side hikes like Tilicho Lake, Ganga Tal, or trek to the ancient cave of the '100 Rupee lama' who blesses you for a 2100 offering. Just walking around the medieval stone alleys of Manang where you see flocks of sheep, snot nosed kids, prayer wheels will transport you in time. Spending 3 to 4 days in Manang doing these hikes is quite rewarding.

The upper Mustang Valley, bordering Tibet, is open to tourists now. From Jhomsom, this trek is a great way to see a unique culture, a place which hasn't been affected by modernisation.

The Annapurna base camp trek, another popular and challenging trek in this area starts from Pokhara.

The Royal Trek from Pokhara got its name after the Prince of Wales passed this way in 1980. Offers some amazing views of the Annapurna and Machhapuchhare, popularly known as the Fish Tail peak.

Getting there

Fly to Kathmandu and spend the night at the Yak and Yeti hotel with tremendous character.

www.yakandyeti.com. Start early for Besisahar. It takes 6 hours by road. After reaching you should start trekking the same day.

To do in Kathmandu: Walk up to Thamel and get lost in the labyrinth of narrow roads lined with China made hiking gear and an amazing selection of mountain books. Stock up on anything you might need for the hike.

Hire a guide: Annapurna circuit can be done without a guide or porter, as the trails are very clear, though guides can be very helpful in making your trek easier and safer and they will always run ahead to book a good room in the tea house. You can hire a guide at Besisahar.

When to go: May or October to get clear views. Monsoons from June to August will be uncomfortable, cloudy and you will have leaches for company. December to April months will be snowed in.

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Mila Kunis is to star in a remake of 2014 Norwegian action comedy Jackpot alongside Breaking Bad actor Bryan Cranston.

By Bang Showbiz: Mila Kunis and Bryan Cranston are to star in new movie Jackpot.

The 32-year-old actress and the 60-year-old actor are to play lead roles in the action comedy, which is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian film of the same name directed by Magnus Martens, according to Deadline.

The Lone Range hunk Armie Hammer is also rumoured to be joining the cast and Jennifer Garner is also in talks to join the line-up.

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Jackpot is based on a Jo Nesbo story about a man armed with a shotgun who wakes in a strip club to discover he's surrounded by dead men and police guns aimed at him.

Annie director Will Gluck is directing the remake and The Expendables writer Dave Callaham is scripting the project.

No studio is attached to the project yet but Jackpot is set to spark a bidding war when it is touted at the Cannes Film Festival and it is hoped production will start this summer.

Kunis will next be seen in comedy Bad Moms in which she stars with Kristen Bell and Christina Applegate.

Cranston has also joined the cast of the English language remake of French film Intouchables, in which he will appear opposite Kevin Hart.

The Breaking Bad star will also star with Garner in Wakefield - directed by Robin Swicord - and in Pablo Escobar crime drama The Infiltrator.

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Minister for Education and State Government Spokesman, Naeem Akhtar, rubbished the reports of land being allotted in Kashmir or anywhere in the valley for any housing project in the name of Sainik Colony.

Minister for Education and State Government Spokesman, Naeem Akhtar that that any attempt at creating doubts on a non-existent issue are against the interests of the people of the State.

By Ashraf Wani: The State Government today denied allotment of any land in Kashmir or anywhere in the valley for residential colonies for armed forces personnel.

"Like some other sections of the working class and professionals, the ex-servicemen belonging to the State have been demanding land for a housing colony, but no allotment of land for any such project has been made anywhere in the Valley," Minister for Education and State Government Spokesman, Naeem Akhtar said.

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Akhtar rubbished the reports of a project named Sainik Colony being rolled out and said such reports are highly motivated and parochial with an aim of disturbing peace in the state at a time when tourism and business activity has just started picking up.

"Unfortunately, with the onset of tourism and business season in Kashmir, there has been a perpetual effort by certain vested interests to disturb peace in the State," he said.

Stating that any attempt at creating doubts on a non-existent issue are against the interests of the people of the state, Akhtar urged the stakeholders including the civil society representatives to be cautious of the designs of such elements.



Akhtar asserted that such unsettling efforts seem to be completely out of place at a time when consensus is building across the political divide in the country over safeguarding, protecting and upholding the special status guaranteed to Jammu and Kashmir in the Indian Constitution.

"We once again reiterate the State Government's commitment in this regard which has been clearly restated in the PDP-BJP 'Agenda of Alliance' as well," he said.

Meanwhile, Kashmiri separatists have threatened mass agitation if state land is allotted for setting up residential colonies for armed forces personnel in Srinagar or elsewhere in Kashmir Valley.

The idea of setting up Sainik colonies in Srinagar and elsewhere was coined by BJP's Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay in May last year. The idea was to accommodate soldiers and families of those killed in the line of duty. However, Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar later commented that allotting land was a state subject the matter has been forwarded to Jammu and Kashmir government.

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Ranbir Kapoor is known to be one of the chain smokers in the film industry. The Tamasha actor had sworn that he would quit smoking on various occasions, but couldn't stick to his resolution of entirely giving up his habit of smoking. But now the actor has found a new way to get rid of it. The Barfi actor has switched to e-hookahs.

By India Today Web Desk: Ranbir Kapoor is known to be one of the chain smokers in the film industry. The Tamasha actor had sworn that he would quit smoking on various occasions, but couldn't stick to his resolution of entirely giving up his habit of smoking. But now the actor has found a new way to get rid of it. The Barfi actor has switched to e-hookahs.

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For those who don't know about e-hookahs or electronic hookahs, they look just like real cigarettes or pipes. And some even like pens or USB memory sticks. According to the makers, e-hookahs are a safer alternative for those who are finding it hard to quit smoking.

And now Ranbir has chosen this alternative to overcome his habit. According to a report in DNA, a source said, "People trying to quit smoking cold turkey complain about missing the ritual as much as the physical withdrawal. A friend of Ranbir suggested he try out the electronic hookah to give up smoking. Smoking an e-hookah or a vape pen is now en vogue with the youth. Some of these devices have no tobacco, no nicotine and no tar resins that are otherwise present in cigarettes or conventional hookahs. A key reason for their growing popularity is that they offer a similar experience to smoking."

"Ranbir really wants to quit smoking so he was willing to try it out. Now he carries the e-hookah instead of a pack of ciggies with him and is often seen smoking it. He's making a serious attempt at least to kick the habit," added the source.

Earlier, Ranbir's ex-girlfriend Katrina Kaif made him undertake therapeutic non-smoking sessions. Last year, the two went to The Original FX Mayr Health Center in Austria, which helps people kick their smoking habits. Ranbir has also been accused of violating the Rajasthan Prevention of Smoking Act while shooting for Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and was fined for the same.

In an earlier interview with Times Of India , the Rockstar actor had said, "I don't have the willpower but one day I will. I keep saying next birthday next birthday... soon I will be 40-45 and doctor will say, ab toh chhodna hi padega."

On the work front, Ranbir Kapoor is busy shooting for his upcoming film Jagaa Jasoos.



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Ilaiyaraaja and Kamal Haasan are joining hands after a gap of ten years for the film Sabash Naidu. Over the years, Kamal Haasan-Ilaiyaraaja duo has churned out numerous hit albums including Guna, Virumandi, Aboorva and Hey Ram.

By India Today Web Desk: Kamal Haasan in a tweet said that it is always fun to work with Ilaiyaraaja. The actor recently teamed up with the maestro for the upcoming film Sabash Naidu.

Kamal took to Twitter to share his excitement about starting the film.

Working with Raja fun as ever. Ready to trod the untrodden. Looking forward to that date. When TN meets LA District 78 of LA Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) May 6, 2016

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Over the years, Kamal Haasan-Ilaiyaraaja duo has churned out numerous hit albums including Guna, Virumandi, Aboorva and Hey Ram. After a gap of ten years, the two have come together for the comedy drama.

ALSO READ: Akshara Haasan to work in Kamal's Sabash Naidu

ALSO READ: Shruti Haasan to romance Hollywood actor Manu Narayan in Sabash Naidu

Sabash Naidu is a spin-off of Kamal's 2008 film Dasavatharam. Ulaganayagan is bringing back the popular Balram Naidu character in the upcoming film, which is directed by Rajeev Kumar.

Sabash Naidu, a trilingual film, will be simultaneously shot in three languages - Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi. The film is titled Sabash Kund in Hindi.

The movie also marks the first coalition of Kamal Haasan and his daughters- Shruti Haasan and Akshara Haasan. Shruti will be seen as Kamal's daughter in the film while the Shamitabh actor will work as the assistant director in the film.

Veteran Telugu comedian Brahmanandam and Ramya Krishna are also part of the film's cast. Saurabh Shukla will reprise the role of Brahmanandam in the Hindi version.

The film will be mostly shot in the USA, and the crew is flying to Los Angeles on May 10.

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By India Today Web Desk: Salman Khan is said to be dating Romanian TV personality Iulia Vantur. Ever since the two were spotted together for the first time, the gossip mills have been abuzz with the rumours of their relationship. The Dabangg actor turned 50 last year and is possibly one of India's most eligible bachelors.

ALSO SEE: Salman Khan secretly engaged to Iulia Vantur? Is that a ring on Salman's finger?

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ALSO READ: I loved the rumour about my engagement to Iulia Vantur, says Salman Khan

But now the latest buzz is that Salman is going to marry Iulia this year. Although there are no confirmed reports on Salman's marriage plans, but a blind item in Mumbai Mirror suggests that the Sultan actor might tie the knot this year. The report also states that Salman's mother is unwell and thus wants her son to be taken care of by his wife.

"SO the not-young and single superstar may well be married by the year's end. The forever bachelor has decided that nuff's nuff. We hear his current girlfriend, a foreigner, may soon end up being the most powerful woman in the film biz. Not an enviable spot we assure you, for it isn't her love that will make him pop a ring. Rather it's his ailing mum, who wants to see her baby boy well taken care of. Oh, the more things change," a blind news on Mumbai Mirror said.

Earlier, there were rumours that Salman is secretly engaged to Iulia. But when the Bajrangi Bhaijaan was asked about these reports, he laughed off saying, "There is a lot of buzz about a lot of things about me, which is never true. Yes, I read what is written, hear what is said, and my right answer to your question would be that I am indifferent to all of it. The small things don't bother me at all, but they bother my parents. And that really bothers me."

On the work front, Salman Khan will next be seen in Ali Abbas Zafar's film Sultan. The film is set to hit the theatres on Eid this year.

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Eulalio Sevilla Tordil, 62, a police officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service, was arrested in a doughnut shop near the site of the second of Friday's two shootings, police said.

Montgomery County, Md. Police Captain Paul Starks speaks to the media in the parking lot outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda (Pic: AP)

By Reuters: Police on Friday arrested a federal officer suspected in a two-day shooting rampage in the Washington suburbs that killed his wife and two apparent strangers and revived memories of the "Beltway sniper" attacks of 2002.

Three others were wounded in the three separate attacks.

Eulalio Sevilla Tordil, 62, a police officer with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service, was arrested in a doughnut shop near the site of the second of Friday's two shootings, police said.

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He had been suspected of killing his wife and shooting a bystander on Thursday in Prince George's County, Maryland.

When two more shootings broke out in neighboring Montgomery County on Friday, investigators turned their attention to Tordil, who had threatened to commit "suicide by cop," police said.

A plainclothes officer spotted Tordil in a Dunkin' Donuts. Police kept him under watch as he walked in and out of stores, but waited until he returned to his car before arresting him, Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger told a news conference.

"We did not want to have a shootout when he was taken into custody," Manger said.

Surrounded by officers with their weapons drawn, Tordil surrendered without a fight after about five minutes, police said.

Charges should be filed on Friday and Tordil will make a court appearance on Monday, Montgomery County prosecutor John McCarthy said.

The first of Friday's incidents began with a confrontation in a parking lot at Westfield Montgomery Mall in affluent Bethesda, Maryland, where two men and a woman were shot, police said.

One of the men died, the other was in critical condition, and the woman's life was not considered in danger, police said.

The second shooting took place about half an hour later, killing a woman at the Aspen Hill Shopping Center in Silver Spring, some 8 miles (13 km) away.

The victim of Thursday's shooting was Tordil's estranged wife, Gladys, a high school chemistry teacher who was shot as she went to pick up their two daughters from another school.

Tordil was on leave, having surrendered his gun and badge after his wife obtained a protective order to keep him away, an official with the Federal Protective Service said.

The three-week Beltway sniper ordeal in 2002 rattled Washington and its suburbs until John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who was 17 at the time, were captured. Malvo was sentenced to life and Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran, was executed in 2009.

Also Read

Shootings at two Maryland shopping centers kill 2, wound 2



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Leading celebrities of South Indian film industries - Rana Daggubati, Shruti Hassan and Anirudh Ravichander - were present at the SIIMA press conference.It was announced that the fifth edition of the award ceremony will take place in Singapore.

By India Today Web Desk: South Indian International Movie Award's (SIIMA) fifth edition is all set to take place in Singapore this year. In a press conference that was held in the country, the organisers revealed that the grand ceremony will be held at Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore on June 30th and July 1.

ALSO READ: Sabash Naidu - Shruti Haasan to romance Hollywood actor Manu Narayan

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Leading celebrities of South Indian film industries - Rana Daggubati, Shruti Hassan and Anirudh Ravichander - were present at the SIIMA press conference.

In a report published in Pinkvilla Shruti Haasan was quoted as saying, "I am so excited SIIMA is back! It has always been one of those events all of us in the South Film Industry looks forward to. And with a huge following of South Indian Movies in Singapore, there couldn't be a better place to celebrate SIIMA. I am sure it is going to be amazing fun meeting fans and catching up with my co- stars".

SIIMA recognises both artistic and technical talents of south Indian film industries and honours the artists annually. Accolades are given to people from the four major film industries of the southern part of India - Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

On the work front, Rana Daggubati will be next seen in Ghazi, the first-ever Indian film on submarine warfare. He is also shooting for SS Rajamouli's Baahubali 2.

Meanwhile, Shruti Haasan is busy with Suriya's S3, and she is also starring in her father's upcoming comedy drama, Sabash Naidu.

(Picture Courtesy: Yogen Shah)

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The images hints that it will have plastic covers on the top and bottom, similar to what we see on a few other Android phones.

By Javed Anwer: Right now the attention of the world is focused on the Moto G4, which will be launched on May 17, but the Moto X is not too far behind. The flagship Motorola phone is likely to arrive on June 9 and some of its spy shots have started appearing on the web. One of the leaked images on a Chinese website hints that the new Moto X for 2016 will be the first Moto phone with a metal body.

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Although, it may not have the unibody design. The images hints that it will have plastic covers on the top and bottom, similar to what we see on a few other Android phones, to make sure that there is no metal interference with the cellular or data signals.

The leaked image hints at a slight redesign. The phone seems to have rounder curves, thinner bezels and a redesigned camera module topped with a very large glass cover. The dual-flash seems to be under the glass cover. The usual Moto motif in Batman style is present on the back cover.

Also, it doesn't look like that there is a fingerprint scanner on the back. The upcoming Moto G4 will have the scanner on the front and it is possible that Moto X 2016 too will have it somewhere under the screen.

For now not much is known about the hardware inside the Moto X 2016. But it is safe to say that it will have top-of-the-line processor (possibly Qualcomm Snapdragon 820). It is also possible that the Moto X 2016 may debut at a relatively higher prices. Lenovo, which owns Motorola, is restructuring its phone business this year. The company is positioning the Vibe phones, which are sold under Lenovo brand, as mainstream phones while the Moto phones have been deemed more premium.



Also read: Moto G4 is coming: Launch date, price, top features and everything else you should know

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"But you have to respect him. He's going after drug gangs, pedophiles. That's more important than a little time without zap-zap (WhatsApp)," said a 26-year-old woman.

By Reuters: Judge Marcel Montalvo joined some of Brazil's top politicians as one of the country's most-hated public figures when he ordered a 72-hour shutdown of WhatsApp this week, abruptly cutting off the messaging service for some 100 million users.

But none of the young women staring at their cell phones and tapping away on the now-restored WhatsApp in a patch of shade outside Montalvo's courthouse in the small city of Lagarto were among the haters.

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Even as the judge prepared to rule on cases involving their loved ones in a courthouse compound that is heavily guarded and sits behind a high, electrified fence, the women expressed understanding for a man known locally as fiercely dedicated to fighting crime.

"It was a pain at first. We use zap-zap all the time," said Marcielle Santana, 26, using the universal slang term in Brazil for Facebook-owned WhatsApp.

"But you have to respect him. He's going after drug gangs, pedophiles. That's more important than a little time without zap-zap."

Montalvo ordered Brazil's main telecom operators to block WhatsApp on Monday for 72 hours after it failed to produce for the court messages supposedly traded between members of Brazil's most powerful drug gang.

In March, he ordered the imprisonment of a Brazil-based Facebook executive for failing to comply with a previously attempted block on WhatsApp. The executive was jailed and freed after a day.

This week, Montalvo's order was lifted by a higher court about 24 hours after it went into effect. A similar temporary block of the messaging service occurred last December after a judge in Sao Paulo state ordered it shut for failing to share information in a criminal case.

WhatsApp officials have repeatedly argued they cannot turn over to judges material that they do not possess. Their encrypted messaging service does not store user-generated content on any servers, they say.

The block of WhatsApp ignited such an outcry in Brazil that a congressional commission on Wednesday recommended a bill that would bar authorities from blocking popular messaging applications.

Facebook Inc's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also weighed in, calling on Brazilians to demand that WhatsApp never be blocked again.

Nancy Andrighi, a minister at Brazil's National Council of Justice, a federal watchdog over judges, on Tuesday gave Montalvo two weeks to explain his decision to block WhatsApp. If the council finds the judge abused his power, it could take disciplinary action against him.

Despite all that, Montalvo's reputation in Lagarto and the surrounding area remains positive even after his nearly year-long battle with WhatsApp and Facebook - principally because of his hard-line stance against surging crime, often linked to drug gangs, in the city.

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FROM CLASSROOM TO POLICE PROTECTION

Montalvo, the son of shoe shiner, spent 20 years as a schoolteacher in the Sergipe state capital Aracaju, Montalvo. He told a Lagarto radio station last year that he became a judge in 2004 after deciding that teaching was not doing enough to help young people.

Montalvo declined on Thursday to give an interview to Reuters about the WhatsApp case, citing judicial secrecy and the delicate security situation surrounding the arrival that day of eight gang suspects to his court.

The area, part of Brazil's impoverished Northeast, grew rapidly during the two terms of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, thanks to a commodities boom and surging government spending during his eight years in office that began in 2003.

But crime grew along with the population, as the rural poor flocked to jobs at expanding food processing plants and with the opening of a large medical faculty of the Federal University of Sergipe. Lagarto is now home to 103,000 people, a jump of 25 percent over the 2000 Census.

Not all has changed, though.

Despite the glittering medical campus and neat downtown shops, churches and government buildings, horses graze on roads near the courthouse, which sits beside manioc and coconut fields and overgrown empty lots. Vultures circle overhead in the strong tropical sun.

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"We're still in the country, but we aren't the little, dusty northeastern town that everybody has in their mind," said Rilley Guimares, Lagarto's municipal secretary of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. "The attacks on Lagarto have been offensive."

Montalvo's willingness to take on criminals, including the PCC, the notorious So Paulo-based drugs, guns and extortion cartel, has earned him death threats.

He lives under 24-hour police protection and spends much of his time wearing a bullet-resistant vest, said Eduardo Maia, president of the Lagarto chapter of Brazil's bar association, the OAB.

Maia was partly supportive of Montalvo, saying that the judge was facing the same challenge raised by Apple Corp's refusal to help the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation access encrypted messages on an iPhone used by one of the shooters in an attack in San Bernardino, California.

"Under Brazilian law, Montalvo's order was perfectly legal," Maia said. "WhatsApp and Facebook weren't providing or storing information that our Internet laws require them to keep, and for them to criticize the judge for that is rather arrogant."

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The problem, Maia said, is whether that law can be "met by any company, and was the order proportional to the problem the judge was trying to solve?"

"I don't think so," he said. "But that debate is going on everywhere."



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Even in absence of the new revelations about the origins of the Obama administrations optimistic claims about Rouhani, these groups have regularly highlighted ongoing human rights abuses and other activities that seem to indicate the persistence of decades-long behaviors even under the Rouhani administration. In some respects, as with the rate of executions since Rouhani was elected in 2013, the situation has gotten noticeably worse.

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in Iran has indicated that in 2015 alone, the regime carried out executions of at least 966 people. Groups like the NCRI have been keeping track of hangings so far this year and have seen similar trends. The NCRI indicates that at least 55 people were executed in the month of April alone, and that another 10 were hanged in just the first three days of May.

Most of the victims of this capital punishment are reportedly non-violent drug offenders. Meanwhile, some individuals are condemned to death in Iran for offenses that would not be recognized as crimes in other modern nations. Many of these are vaguely defined under terms like enmity against God, which clearly reflect the governments ongoing commitment to its theocratic identity.

That identity is further underscored by the occasional implementation of religiously-based corporal punishments, sometimes literally reflecting the principle of an eye for an eye. On Friday, the NCRI issued a statement calling upon the United Nations and all major human rights organizations to make efforts to stop the Iranian judiciary from blinding a prisoner as a form of punishment.

The person in question, Mojtaba Saheli, already had the blinding sentence carried out on one eye in March of last year. He was reportedly then given the opportunity to raise money to escape further punishment, in line with the countrys fundamentalist Islamic laws. Having been unable to do so, he is now in imminent danger of having acid administered to his remaining eye.

Claims about a lack of reform or moderation in the Iranian government are also reflected in the plight of many of the people who are not subjected to capital or corporal punishment but are simply serving long, unjustified prison sentences. Among the latest examples of these people are three Iranian journalists and the brother of a journalist living outside of the country, who were given sentences ranging from five to 10 years this week.

An Iranian Human Rights group commented on their cases once again on Friday and pointed out that the corresponding crackdown on journalism in general puts reporters at ever-increasing risk. Furthermore, the Campaign pointedly indicates that whereas past arrests have been directed mostly by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the recent crackdown has largely been prosecuted by the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence, which is directly answerable to President Rouhani.

This observation provides further support to those who argue that the Rouhani administration has not been pursue a reform agenda in line with earlier campaign promises and the optimism of some foreign observers.
The profile credits Rhodes with helping to create that narrative, which portrayed the negotiations as a product of newfound moderation within the Iranian regime following the 2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani. This characterization of Rouhani as a moderate was buttressed by campaign promises related to civil rights and freedom of the press, but was quickly undermined by critics such as spokespersons for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, who saw Rouhani as a longstanding regime insider whose ideology and attitudes are broadly aligned with those of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

This dismissal of Rouhanis supposed moderate credentials has been further justified during his three years in office by the evident lack of progress on any of the aforementioned campaign progress. Human rights organizations and the international media have at various times quoted former Rouhani supporters as saying that they had withdrawn their support following the election, as a result of the absence of expected reforms.

By most accounts, the sole exception to this pattern of reformist words without deeds was the nuclear agreement, which was largely negotiated between representatives of the Obama and Rouhani administrations, with additional input from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China. Rouhani was generally credited with helping to see negotiations to their conclusion despite opposition from Khamenei, the ultimate authority in all Iranian affairs. However, in light of this authority, it was understood that Rouhani would not have been able to proceed with negotiations without the blessing of the supreme leader, even if it was only offered begrudgingly.

Now, the New York Times editorial threatens to undermine the notion that the so-called moderate president was a major driving force behind the nuclear deal. In its commentary on the story, the International Womens Forum says that the most meaningful part of the negotiations began in mid-2012, about a year before Rouhani was elected. This implies that whatever political calculations Supreme Leader Khamenei made to justify newfound compromise in the nuclear sphere, it was made independent of any major moderating pressures from inside the government.

The American Thinker adds that the 2012 backroom negotiations were the result of President Obamas preexisting commitment to a grand bargain with Iran. The profile of Ben Rhodes supposedly suggests that he and the president work in concert to shape a helpful narrative around that commitment, in order to justify the pursuit of an agreement and to more easily pass that agreement through the US Congress.

The American Thinker goes on to emphasize that this latter point is especially significant in light of the amount of difficulty that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action did in fact face at the stage of congressional approval. A resolution of disapproval was defeated despite majority opposition, as a result of Democrats exploiting filibuster rules. A handful of Democrats publicly joined the entirety of the Republican Party in opposing the deal. These facts strongly suggest that the agreement would have been defeated by US legislators if it had been supported by a weaker narrative regarding changes in US-Iran relations.

Now that Obamas and Rhodes supposed manipulation of public sentiment has been revealed, it cannot directly impact the ongoing enforcement of the JCPOA. But the information will almost certainly be utilized by the Republican Party, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, and other staunch critics of the Iranian regime to further support the argument that Rouhani does not represent a trend toward moderation within that regime.

All indications are that this argument will also continue to be buttressed on the Iranian side by statements and activities that demonstrate continuation of much of the same behavior that had caused Iran to be a subject of such skepticism for Western policymakers. Many journalists and commentators have observed that anti-American rhetoric from Khamenei and other hardliners has only intensified in the wake of the nuclear agreement. Whats more, the Rouhani administration has joined in some of that rhetoric, as when the president himself ordered Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan to ramp up the Iranian ballistic missile program in defiance of calls for restraint from the US and others.

Recently, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps struck a similarly defiant note on the issue of the American presence in the Persian Gulf, saying that Iran would close off the Strait of Hormuz in response to theoretical threats from the US. On Friday, Voice of America news reported that the US Navys Fifth Fleet had responded to this threat by accompanying commercial vessels through the strait. But this response was short-lived, and it is not clear whether the quick end to this practice was ordered out of concerns about antagonizing Iran or simply because the US and its allies do not take such threats seriously.

Certainly, as Voice of America points out, Iran lacks the naval strength to enforce such a closure, even though it makes similar threats on a recurring basis. This recurrence is likely directed at a domestic audience, and it is accompanied by frequent proclamations of Irans supposed military strength and readiness for war. A number of public statements to this effect were made last month on the occasion of the countrys Army Day, when military officials claimed, for instance, that a tank based on technology from the mid-20th century was as good as advanced Russian tanks that the Islamic Republic has been seeking to purchase.

Bolstering this same rhetoric, Iran is keen to claim victory over the US, as it did in January when 10 US sailors who had strayed into Iranian territorial waters were seized at gunpoint by the IRGC. Although the sailors were released within one day, Iranian state media broadcast images of the incident for weeks afterward. The IRGC officers involved were given Irans highest military awards, and the regime has plans to build a statue commemorating it.

The Strait of Hormuz threat gives Tehran a similar opportunity to present itself as a viable adversary to the West. An article that appeared at Business Insider on Friday claimed that this and similar threats are made for two main reasons: to bolster oil prices and simply to exploit American weakness. The article suggests that the regime sees particular opportunities to pursue the latter goal in the wake of nuclear negotiations. As the Ben Rhodes profile highlights, those negotiations are arguably indicative of the Obama administration being committed to reconciliation with Iran regardless of the current nature of its governance and foreign policy activities.
[May 06, 2016] Intrusion Inc. Announces Financial Release Date and Conference Call

RICHARDSON, Texas, May 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Intrusion Inc. (OTCQB: INTZ), ("Intrusion") will announce first quarter 2016 financial results on Tuesday, May 10, 2016. The press release will be published over the wire services after the market closes. The release will also be available on the company's web site at www.intrusion.com. Intrusion management will review the Company's financial and operational progress for the first quarter 2016 during a conference call later that day at 4:00 P.M., CDT. Interested investors can access the call at 1-877-258-4925 (outside the United States, please dial 1-973-500-2152) at 4:00 P.M., CDT. For those unable to participate in the live conference call, a replay will be accessiblebeginning May 10, 2016 at approximately 7:00 P.M., CDT until May 17, 2016 by calling 1-855-859-2056 (if outside the United States, 1-404-537-3406). At the replay prompt, enter conference identification number 9365800. In addition, a live and archived audio webcast of the conference call will be available at www.intrusion.com.



About Intrusion Inc. Intrusion Inc. is a global provider of entity identification, high speed data mining, cybercrime and advanced persistent threat detection products. Intrusion's product families include TraceCop for identity discovery and disclosure, Savant for network data mining and advanced persistent threat detection. Intrusion's products help protect critical information assets by quickly detecting, protecting, analyzing and reporting attacks or misuse of classified, private and regulated information for government and enterprise networks. For more information, please visit www.intrusion.com. We develop, market and support a family of entity identification, high speed data mining, cybercrime and advanced persistent threat detection products.

Contact

Michael L. Paxton, VP, CFO

972.301.3658, [email protected] Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20030703/INTRUSIONLOGO To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/intrusion-inc-announces-financial-release-date-and-conference-call-300264565.html SOURCE Intrusion Inc.

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MACOMB -- Western Illinois University's Spring 2016 Academic Honors Convocation held at 2 p.m. May 13 in Western Hall will honor College, Departmental and Honors scholars and students who have earned academic distinction throughout their Western Illinois University careers. Students will receive a medallion for each honor, which they will wear at Commencement ceremonies.

Centennial Honors College Scholar

Hannah F. Drake of Charleston will graduate with a bachelor's degree in forensic chemistry with highest academic distinction, Summa Cum Laude. She is also the Forensic Chemistry Departmental Scholar and an Honors Scholar. In Spring 2015, Drake received an honorable mention in the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.

For 2015, she was named the University's recipient of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois' Student Laureate Award. During her time at Western, she served as resident assistant for (UHDS). She also served as president of the American Chemical Society Chemistry Chapter at Western. She has plans to obtain her doctorate and pursue a career in inorganic chemistry and would like to conduct cutting-edge research in green methods of heavy metal removal from water and soil samples. Drake is the daughter of Mike Drake and Lynette Drake.

Departmental and Honors Scholars, Academic Distinction

Hannah F. Drake, of Charleston, forensic chemistry, Centennial Honors College Scholar, Forensic Chemistry Departmental Scholar, Honors Scholar, will graduate with highest academic distinction, Summa Cum Laude

Nathan T. Lee, of Tuscola, law enforcement and justice administration, Honors Scholar, will graduate with academic distinction, Cum Laude

Daniel Joseph Nosbisch, of Dieterich, law enforcement and justice administration, Honors Scholar, will graduate with highest academic distinction, Summa Cum Laude

Susan Ashley Parks, of Effingham, athletic training (kinesiology), Honors Scholar, will graduate with high academic distinction, Magna Cum Laude

A Departmental Scholar is an outstanding degree candidate in an academic major as determined by the faculty in the major department. An Honors Scholar is a student in the Centennial Honors College who has completed a set of honors requirements and has achieved a grade point average of at least 3.4 on a 4.0 scale.

Approximately 10 percent of graduating seniors achieve academic distinction, which is designed as Summa Cum Laude, highest academic distinction, with a minimum grade point average of 3.90; Magna Cum Laude, high academic distinction, with a GPA of 3.75-3.89; and Cum Laude, academic distinction, with a GPA between 3.60-3.74.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  The union for Illinois home-care workers who must abide by new rules limiting overtime hours filed an unfair labor practices charge Friday against Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration.

In its complaint, SEIU Healthcare Illinois argues that the state Department of Human Services should have negotiated overtime rules with it before they took effect on May 1.

SEIU, which represents about 24,000 workers who make $13 an hour caring for disabled people in their homes to save the higher cost of nursing-home care, submitted the claim to the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

Terri Harkin, vice president in charge of home health care for SEIU, said Rauner is using the policy as leverage to extract concessions in negotiations to replace the union's contract with the state, which expired June 30. Human Services spokeswoman Marianne Manko chastised SEIU for trying to salvage a system that endorses what she said was "slave labor."

A Jan. 1 federal rule decreed that home-care workers on the clock more than 40 hours a week be paid time-and-a-half for overtime. Rauner, managing a state with a multibillion-dollar deficit and no approved budget plan, ordered a limit to overtime. Human Services said additional workers would have to be brought into homes where the caretaker worked more than 40 hours.

"In unilaterally implementing the new cap and throwing the system of care in disarray, the Rauner administration has violated the law," Harkin said in a statement. "But this is not just illegal policy  it hurts people with disabilities."

Manko said the policy doesn't ban or cap overtime, but rather it requires workers to justify the hours they report on the job. She said other state agencies and private-sector employers follow such policies.

The caretakers say it's impossible to find people to do the sometimes-unpleasant work, part-time, for $13 an hour. An Associated Press analysis last month found that caretakers  usually family members  report working up to 18 hours a day. Before Jan. 1, those hours were paid at straight time.

Manko, who previously suggested it's fraudulent for workers to claim they are on the clock three-quarters of every day, said she was surprised by SEIU's labor claim.

"How can SEIU allow its members to work 90, 115 hours a week?" Manko said. "In any other profession, that would be called slave labor. Yet the very people arguing against the overtime rule are the ones racking up extraordinary hours."

Melissa Mlynski, executive director of the Illinois Labor Relations Board, said the complaint will be assigned to an investigator who will interview people from both sides. It could take up to three months. Mlynski then would decide whether the issues presented require a hearing before an administrative law judge.
Big Ags control of the non-refundable, federally chartered Research & Promotion programs  more commonly known as commodity checkoffs  reached new heights April 19 when the House Appropriations Committee approved the U.S. Department of Agricultures $21.3 billion 2017 budget.

Tucked 34 pages into the pending bills 217 pages of bureaucratic thatch was this thorn: Since commodity Research and Promotion boards  USDA-appointed checkoff boards   ... are not agencies of the federal government, nor ... funded with federal funds ... the Committee urges USDA to recognize that such boards are not subject to the provisions of 5 U.S.C. Section 552.

Section 552 of 5 U.S.C. is the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, the rules of how each (federal) agency shall make available to the pubic information on how government works.

In short, the USDA funding bill, approved by a voice vote, will prevent any farmer, rancher or taxpayer from filing a Freedom of Information request on any aspect of how the 22 federally mandated checkoffs collect and spend more than $500 million a year.

This move to darkness arrived April 11, when, according to the Capital Press, a Salem, Oregon, weekly ag newspaper, 14 commodity organizations requested the change in FOIA policy on behalf of their related checkoff fee-funded boards in a letter to the Appropriations subcommittee that deals with USDA funding.

Not surprising, several of the groups that signed the letter have been reprimanded by USDA for illegal use of checkoff money. For example, a May 1993 column (just the second Farm and Food File I wrote) explained how a USDA audit of the relatively new, non-refundable soybean checkoff uncovered $405,219 of questioned costs by the checkoffs key contractor, the American Soybean Association.

How did a freelance journalist like me working alone in the middle of an Illinois cornfield get the audit results?

I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service, the overlord of all federal checkoffs.

Later, a February 1997 column exposed how the National Pork Producers Council, the chief contractor for the pork checkoff, had hired a Washington, D.C. consulting firm to spy on activist groups whose philosophies, it explained, might have an effect on the pork industry.

Unbelievably, the activist groups NPPC were monitoring as part of an ongoing $100,000 checkoff-sponsored effort  illegal under checkoff law  included the National Farmers Union and Nebraskas Center for Rural Affairs.

Checkoff rule-bending continues. A partial, 2013 USDA audit of the beef checkoff showed that $216,000 had been spent on non-checkoff activities. One was an international airline ticket for an officials spouse.

In 2015, an FOIA request compelled the American Egg Board, the egg checkoff, to turn over documents that exposed how its leader illegally tried to organize a public relations campaign against a vegan competitor because  Im not kidding  the competitors mayonnaise recipe did not include eggs.

Last August, the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that a federal lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the U.S. and others against the pork checkoff could go forward.

The suit, based on information obtained through an FOIA request, alleges the checkoffs $60-million purchase of a marketing slogan from the NPPC, its former contractor, now funds NPPC programs to influence legislation and government policy, all illegal under checkoff rules.

Given this checkered past, it's little wonder big commodity groups are now pushing Congress to declare federal checkoffs off-limits to the FOIA: nearly every time anyone looks, mistakes  often whoppers  are found.

But saying federal checkoffs arent federal doesnt mean theyre not. In fact, all were established by a federal body, Congress; all are managed by boards appointed by a federal official, the secretary of agriculture; and all are overseen by an agency within a federal department, USDA.

Moreover, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia declared checkoffs to be government speech in a 2005 beef checkoff case, a phrase most checkoffs cheered at the time.

For Big Ag now to push the House  without one public hearing  to declare otherwise is hypocritical, anti-democratic and shameful.

But we already know that, dont we? After all, with more than 20 years of checkoff violations to their credit, most commodity groups that serve as checkoff contractors have little credibility left.
Sister Catherine Seiker, RSCJ, 1920-2016. Sister Catherine, a Religious of the Sacred Heart, died April 2, 2016, at her orders retirement home in Atherton, Calif. She was born at the family farm a mile north of Elmwood. After beginning her career teaching, she served as a business manager, treasurer and had responsibility for a number of the order's construction and remodeling projects.

Sister Catherine is pre-deceased by her parents, Edward Seiker and Mary Cecilia Stander; sisters, Mary Meredith and Anne Pope; brother, Francis Seiker. Sister is survived by her brother, Vincent (Theresa) Seiker of Lincoln.

Her final services and burial were at the Home. Catherine's Nebraska family and friends will gather for an afternoon of remembrance on September 18 at St. Mary's in Elmwood. Memorials may be sent to The Society of the Sacred Heart, 4120 Forest Park Ave., St. Louis, MO 63108, or to Elmwood's St. Mary's Catholic Church, c/o Sue Ronhove, 904 S 226th St., Eagle, NE 68347.
Oregon Pianist performs Saturday

Pianist and composer John Nilsen will share his folk-rock and Gospel sound at 7 p.m. Saturday at Havelock United Methodist Church, 4140 N. 60th St.

Based in Oregon, Nilsen is founder of the Magic Wing recording label and has recorded 19 solo and group albums with his band Swimfish. He blends his folk-rock sound with traditional hymns for a worship experience.

The concert is free, but a freewill offering will be taken. For information, contact the church at 402-466-6736.

Compline talk/worship is Sunday

First-Plymouth Church, 2000 D St., hosts its monthly Compline worship service at 7 p.m. Sunday.

People of all faiths are welcome to share in this holy time of candlelit prayer. There is no preaching, no hymn singing and no words spoken at all during this ancient service of schola cantorum chants.

The service is 38 minutes long, and the only thing people do is light a candle.

Prior to the service, the Rev. Jim Keck, senior pastor at First-Plymouth, will present, Traditions, from 6:20 to 6:50 p.m. in the chapel. He will talk about why ancient traditions still matter in the modern world. The discussion is free and open to all.

For information, call 402-476-7565 or go to firstplymouth.org.

Hildegard Center awarded grant

Humanities Nebraska recently awarded a $2,000 grant to Lincolns Hildegard Center for the Arts to support the Sesquicentennial Traveling Photo Exhibit Bridges: Sharing our Past to Enrich the Future in 2017.

The project, sponsored by the Hildegard Center in partnership with the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Nebraska Tourism Commission, recently completed its call for photographs capturing historic images and hidden treasures in each of the states 93 counties. More than 800 photographs were submitted and are now being juried.

Winning photos, to be announced this month, will be showcased in a traveling exhibit that will travel to six regions across the state during Nebraskas Sesquicentennial in 2017.

Trinity hosts adult lemonade party

Trinity Infant and Child Care Center will hold an an Adult Lemonade Party from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday to raise money for a new playground at its location, 16th and A streets.

The party will be held at Firespring, 1201 Infinity Court. The evening includes barbeque, silent auction, cash bar and live music by The Bottle Tops.

Tickets are $35 per person in advance or $40 at the door. Tickets are available by calling Trinity at 402-475-9731 or emailing trinity16a@trinitylincoln.org. Donations toward the playground fund can be made to "Friends of Trinity," 1345 S. 16th St., Lincoln, NE 68502

Animal Blessing at First-Plymouth

First-Plymouth Congregational Church, 2000 D St., will offer an animal blessing as part of its 11:59 a.m. May 15 worship service.

The program is free and open to people of all faiths. All well-behaved animals on leashes, in crates or cages are welcomed inside the sanctuary. Photos of animals not present also will be offered blessings.

Following the service, outside in the courtyard, the clergy will offer an individual blessing, certificate and guardian charm.

For information call 402-476-7565 or go to firstplymouth.org.

Meeting set for Wesley Heritage Tour

The Rev. Earl and Eunice Higgens will host an informational gathering about all-inclusive Wesley Heritage Tour at 4 p.m. May 15 at Saint Paul United Methodist Church, 1144 M St.

The tour to England is Nov. 8-16.

Sponsored by Educational Opportunities, the educational and spiritual journey will take travelers to many of the important places where John and Charles Wesley lived and served in England including Epworth, Oxford, Bristol and Wesleys London.

Brochures about the tour are available by calling 402-438-6256 or emailing eehiggens@windstream.net.
With the wits and tenacity of a gumshoe, Annie Himes quickly solved the inner workings of the University of Nebraska-Lincolns online course listing.

A little academic sleuthing, not to mention the obsessive streak the detective gets putting all of the pieces together, is necessary for someone working on graduating with three majors and five minors in four years.

But for Himes, who arrived at UNL in fall 2012 with nearly two semesters of college credit from Papillion-La Vista High School, becoming an acolyte of the UNL Honors Programs required her to focus on academic planning.

Soon enough, she was seeing all the connections.

I would just look at all the different majors and minors and all the different requirements and how they could fit into my plan, Himes said.

One class fulfilled a requirement for her global studies major while also serving to advance her minor in womens and gender studies. Professors soon pointed out that certain classes for her major also worked toward a minor.

Theres a ton of overlap and it just took a lot of strategic planning on my part, Himes said. Sometimes I didnt get to take the classes I really wanted to take because I had to take the classes that filled requirements for three or four other areas.

Thats as close as she gets to complaining.

The Fulbright scholarship winner -- one of 11 at UNL this year -- will be among the 2,800 UNL students who take part in spring commencement ceremonies which begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Pinnacle Bank Arena Saturday.

Himes, who moved to Omaha from Lincoln, before high school, already is looking past graduation and past the stack of diplomas shell be receiving for completing majors in Russian, history and global studies, with minors in Spanish, English, human rights and humanitarian affairs, womens and gender studies and political science.

This fall, shell return to Russia to begin teaching English as part of the Fulbright program. She wants to continue learning more about the language and culture, as well as begin a career fighting for human rights and the rights of women.

Himes started studying Russian her freshman year of high school. While her classmates were conjugating verbs in Spanish class, she said, she was seeking a different challenge.

Luckily, her Spanish teacher also doubled as Papillion-La Vistas Russian teacher, and as quickly as she switched majors from biochemistry to history in college, Himes transferred from French to Russian in high school.

It was so different, and I knew so little about Russia and the Russian language that I wanted to try something new, she said.

The experience put her on an advance track at UNL, where she was able to take advantage of an intensive summer program at Middlebury College in Vermont to deepen her understanding of the language spoken by an estimated 150 million people worldwide.

Himes took what she learned at both UNL and Middlebury to a study-abroad experience in fall 2014, a turbulent time in Russia following its annexation of the Crimean peninsula and backing of separatist groups in Ukraine.

In the heart of St. Petersburg, she said, she found warm and inviting people.

Living with a woman named Nina in a central neighborhood of the city of 5 million, she took classes alongside other Americans, talked with native speakers, toured museums and took in the Russian ballet.

A lot of people were really nice to me and really curious about where I came from -- especially young people, she said. They would ask me where I was from and thought it was cool I was from America and shocked I was studying abroad in Russia.

The short time Himes spent there helped deepen her love of the language and culture.

She saw subgroups emerge from within the monolithic Russia often seen by the West -- hipsters, for example -- as well as activists fighting for gay rights in a country notorious for suppressing them.

As part of the Fulbright Program, which was established in 1946 by the U.S. Department of State, Himes will return to a university in a smaller city in Russia this fall -- maybe half a million people -- to teach English.

My main objective, and the reason they send us over there, is to speak with students, so they can speak with a native English speaker, learn about the culture with someone from America and really just connect the culture with the language, Himes said.

She said she wants to connect with Russian students on a level deeper than the geopolitics by giving them a real picture of what politics are like, what race relations are like, what it means to be different in America.

For a consummate planner like Himes -- who, despite her busy class and volunteer schedule, keeps a clean desk -- finding an entry point Russian students can use to understanding America, especially in an election year, should be a cinch.

There is a lot of nuance just like there is in Russia, and I want to introduce America as a nuanced place just like Russia, she said.
Five peregrine falcon eggs on the Capitols west promenade are about to hatch, but its unlikely all of them will.

For the past two years, only a portion of the eggs conceived by the pair of peregrine falcons that have made a nest atop the Capitol have hatched, said Joel Jorgensen, nongame bird program manager at the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

This year, the female falcon named Ally and the male called 19/K are guarding five eggs in their nest on the Capitol's 18th floor. Jorgensen said they're likely to hatch within the next week or so.

Ally has laid a similar number of eggs each of the past two years. Last year, one chick hatched. The year before, two hatched but died after being blown off the building by a thunderstorm.

Jorgensen noted that Ally is 15 and 19/K is 12, which could be affecting the fertility of the eggs.

The birds have become local celebrities of sorts, with a live camera feed providing constant coverage of their lives to thousands of viewers around the world. Find the Peregrine Falconcam at outdoornebraska.gov/falconcam.

Im just excited people are still interested, Jorgensen said.
WASHINGTON -- The tweets and emails started immediately after Donald Trump's victory Tuesday night:

"You've got a promise to keep, bub."

"Get ready to eat it."

"EAT IT!!!"

To them, I say: Con gusto.

Seven months ago I said I would eat an entire column, newsprint and ink, if Trump won the nomination, calculating that Republican voters were better than Trump. The Republican voters let me down: Though a majority didn't support him, enough did, and no viable alternative arose.

But you, the reader, have revived my faith in America. I put out a call for recipes and you responded, via Twitter, Facebook, email and the comments section. Through the magic of crowdsourcing, I have discovered that eating newspaper can be downright mouth-watering. This is going to be huge! We are going to build a big, beautiful meal -- and Mexico is going to pay for it.

On Thursday, May 12, after readers have voted for their favorite newspaper cuisine, acclaimed chef Victor Albisu of Washington's Del Campo restaurant will select and prepare a wide variety of newsprint-based dishes. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post's James Beard Award-winning food critic, will be on hand to taste and judge the dishes, and I will eat them -- streamed live on the Post's Facebook page.

I've dispensed with the unhelpful suggestions from readers that I consume my column with hemlock, cyanide or excrement. And though I appreciate all the Hannibal Lecter references, I won't be eating the column with fava beans and a nice Chianti, nor will I be eating it with crow (it's out of season), although Robert Howland, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, suggested a crow-free crow pie that sounds tasty.

Many readers proposed ways to get the paper down painlessly: Blended in smoothies. Folded into bearnaise, marinara or jerk sauce. Wrapped in bacon. Topped with Sriracha, mustard or ketchup. Or shredded and mixed with Parmesan cheese.

Reader "Mhitchons" posited that "newsprint dissolves well in scotch, bourbon, whiskey or any other potent alcohol." Mary Ann Liebert suggested "mustard or vodka. Maybe both."

"NotDeadYet" suggested jalapeno-infused tequila blanco, and Nathan A. Wallace thought a Grand Marnier, flambe style. But the many suggestions that I pair the meal with Trump wine give me indigestion.

A large number of readers said eating the newspaper in any form but raw would be cheating. "Man up! No sneaky dodging!" argued Jeffrey Drummond.

I disagree. There's no reason why a newspaper shouldn't go down easily. In addition to Albisu's original suggestion -- newspaper chilaquiles in tomatillo-jalapeno sauce, crispy newspaper dumplings, saffron rice and newspaper-smoked lamb, newspaper-lined tacos, ground newspaper falafel, newspaper Wagyu steak, candied-newspaper waffles and newspaper-stuffed churros -- there are many other promising dishes to consider for this feast.

John Bussey, my old editor at the Wall Street Journal, suggests a "fresh vegetable soup, generously seasoned with garlic and herbs and reduced on a low flame for one news cycle."

Sara Polon, otherwise known as "Soupergirl," a Washington soupmaker, submits an "Indian-style mulligatawny with toasted newspaper."

Probably the most creative recipe came from Shava Nerad via Twitter -- ersatzbrot, a bread made with sawdust fed to German soldiers in World War I.

Several readers -- "JC," "CalithDem" and Roy Wakefield among them -- went with the British classic of fish and chips, while many others -- including Emmanuel Touhey, Becky Timmons and Dan Grosz -- thought meatloaf would be the right choice.

Linda Garceau sent me a recipe, in French, for fish cooked in newspaper, but it appears the removal instructions -- "degager le papier" -- disqualify the dish. And Douglas Peterson took great care in emailing a highly detailed recipe for Trump steaks (18 column inches Washington Post shredded in 3-inch strips, 1/2 -inch wide).

Nearly every world cuisine was represented: German beef and newspaper cabbage rolls (Mark Gibson), a Louisville newspaper Hot Brown (Mark Linton), blueberry newspaper pancakes (David Umansky), newspaper matzo brei (Adam Wizon), newspaper lasagna (Andrea Stone), newspaper spanakopita (William Hamby) and Trumpkin pie with newspaper and yams ("MArlington Thomas").

Among the most popular comments was from "ACounter," who suggested soaking the newspaper in water first "to get as many of the chemicals out as possible. And before you eat the soaked paper, don't forget to soak yourself -- in your favorite alcoholic beverage."

Unnecessary. These newsprint dishes will be delectable. But another six months of Trump? That will require a stiff drink.
In 2014, the Obama Administration decided that the best way to manage our nations growing illegal immigration problem was to grant a sweeping executive amnesty to upwards of 4.5 million illegal aliens. These programs, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) and an expanded version of an earlier executive amnesty, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), would grant beneficiaries temporary legal status and work permits.

Thankfully, 26 states, including Nebraska, cried foul, arguing that the administration was overstepping its constitutional authority while foisting additional costs on the states.

These states, including our Nebraska Attorney General, filed a lawsuit against the federal government, and the case is working its way through the court system. Lower courts have sided with Nebraska and the other states, placing the presidents edict on hold, until the Supreme Court decides the issue in June. The original 2012 DACA program was not a subject of the lawsuit, but in principle it entailed the exact same executive overreach and additional costs to state governments.

As if scripted from a Laurel and Hardy movie, 31 Nebraska state senators approved a bill allowing the illegal aliens covered under the 2012 DACA program to apply for professional and commercial licenses in our state.

This vote by 31 state senators not only undermines the rule of law but also the premise of Nebraskas own lawsuit  namely, that the president lacks the constitutional authority to grant legal status and work authorization for entire classes of illegal aliens.

Wisely, Gov. Pete Ricketts vetoed this irrational bill. However, his veto was overridden by the Legislature, effectively endorsing the presidents 2102 unconstitutional abuse of executive authority. As a result, illegal aliens covered by the 2012 program are now able to obtain licenses to drive school buses, teach our kids, sue our citizens as lawyers, and perform surgery.

Either Nebraska respects the rule of law, or it doesnt. It cant have it both ways. Our legislatures action was absurd, and its compassion misplaced. Numerous recent college graduates in Nebraska and across the nation are struggling to get a foothold in our economy. Our youth, often yoked with heavy debt, would likely jump at the opportunity to fill the jobs our state legislature handed illegal aliens. If the 31 senators wanted to demonstrate their compassion, they should welcome lawful citizens who seek opportunities to obtain professional credentials in Nebraska, not illegal aliens subject to deportation should the next president choose to end DACA.

The Obama Administrations refusal to enforce federal immigration laws, together with benefit packages like the one recently enacted by our state legislature, is tantamount to standing at the door and ringing the dinner bell for illegal aliens to enjoy a feast. While newly arriving illegal aliens are not covered by DACA, the program conveys the message that the United States has an ethical obligation to allow minors and their families to remain. We are already seeing the practical effects of this perception. The border rush that for the last few years has been comprised mostly of unaccompanied minors is now overtaken by family members who are rushing the border at twice the pace they did in 2015, with 32,000 family member apprehensions in the first six months of this fiscal year.

The Legislatures action further incentivizes illegal immigration, while undermining the states own principled stand against the presidents dangerous breach of our Constitutions Separation of Powers doctrine. The Nebraska senate should reconsider this misstep at the beginning of their next legislative session and undo this wrong-headed law.
Nebraska lawmakers should take action to give poor Nebraskans more breathing room from aggressive collection of medical bills.

As reported in a ProPublica story in last Sundays Journal Star, Nebraska is flooded every year with thousands of lawsuits to collect medical debts.

Its cheap and easy to file civil suits in Nebraska. All a collection agency has to do is pay the $45 filing fee.

About 79,000 debt collection lawsuits were filed in Nebraska courts in 2013, according to ProPublica. On a per capita basis, that figure is extraordinarily high. In comparison, only 30,000 collection lawsuits were filed in New Mexico, which has about the same size population. The filing fee there starts at $77 for small debts.

It should surprise no one that medical expenses are a major source of indebtedness in Nebraska. When Nebraska Appleseed reviewed bankruptcies in three counties in 2013 it confirmed that medical debt was a significant factor in bankruptcies. For example, in Otoe County almost one-third of all filings had 30% or more of medical debt.

The negative impact that declaring bankruptcy has on an individual and a family is obvious. But the impact also takes a toll on the rest of the community, as merchants and other creditors lose income.

It should be pointed out that the incidence of medical debt in Nebraska is partially due to the states refusal to expand health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

But repeated attempts to expand coverage have been defeated, with opposition from Gov. Pete Ricketts and previous Gov. Dave Heineman.

The situation has been profitable for Credit Management Services in Grand Island, where a staff of 200 keeps busy filing lawsuits. CMS alone files about 30,000 collection lawsuits a year.

How aggressive is CMS? ProPublica found a case in which CMS emptied a debtors bank account 11 times over the course of two years, even though in all but three instances the debtor had under $100. One garnishment netted the company $6.50.

In one case, a $66 chiropractic bill transformed into a $275 court judgment after court costs, attorney fees and interest were tacked on, wrote Paul Kiel of ProPublica.

Raising the filing fee for a lawsuit is one tactic to slow aggressive collection. (A higher filing fee would not necessarily impede access to the court system for low-income Nebraskans because they can apply for a waiver.)

Other responses are also possible. Katherine Owen, managing attorney in Legal Aid of Nebraskas Omaha office, suggested that lawmakers could increase the amount of property that is exempt from seizure, for example.

Any attempt to curb the aggressive collection of medical debt in Nebraska is sure to run into a buzz saw of opposition from Nebraskas collection agencies, judging from the unsuccessful lobbying that CMS did against a $1 increase in the filing fee proposed by Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln this year.

But clearly poor Nebraskans who have the bad fortune to get sick or injured need some protection. Collectors can too easily send families into a vicious downward spiral into bankruptcy. The current system is bad for those individuals and bad for Nebraska as a whole.
She is my hero. I could listen to her talk all day long. I want to be just like her someday. Ive lost count of the number of times my college students have gushed after visiting with Senator Kate Bolz.

Most might not expect a local politician to be considered a hero by 19-year-old college students. Over the past four years Kate has demonstrated how deeply she cares for all Nebraskans. Her commitment to quality opportunities for educational access from early childhood to college is admirable. This year alone, she introduced legislation which passed to support out-of-school programming for at-risk children through community learning centers.

Last November, Kate hosted a town hall meeting on the Union College campus to understand the needs of students, faculty, and administration in public and private institutions. When she interacts with individuals, she engages in the conversation as if they are the most important people in the world. She models how to appreciate our differences, a prized quality in this contentious election season.

Please vote for Senator Kate Bolz, local hero, to serve again as the District 29 representative so that she may continue to advocate for our best Nebraska.

Shawna Herwick, Social Work Program Director, Union College, Lincoln
I am not a Trump supporter, but Georges amnesia for politics is amusing. He stumbles over his own statistical logic when he states a conventions sovereign duty is to choose a plausible nominee who has a chance to win, not to passively affirm the will of a mere plurality of voters recorded episodically in a protracted process. Uh, George, you apparently think an election is a process to affirm your vision of the status quo. However flawed, George, you are still stuck with, in a phrase, an election. People vote. Someone with the most votes wins. A plurality of votes goes to a candidate who astounds poor George. Ironically, its a world of Georges own creation. His acid tone, trumpeted by the Krauthammers, the Thomases, the Limbaughs, slowly sizzled and steamed the political climate. Years of attack politics turn the acid spigot at you and your kind. You, sir, are the status quo Trump supporters despise, and, as you, they are not afraid to speak out using their best weapon: the ballot box.
OMAHA -- Donald Trump swooped into Nebraska on Friday, tailoring his familiar campaign message to include a promise to clear the path for beef exports while urging Nebraskans to put an exclamation point on his march to the GOP presidential nomination.

"We gotta win Nebraska," Trump shouted, pointing ahead to Tuesday's Republican presidential primary election.

The fact is that Trump essentially has wrapped up his party's presidential nod, but he flew Friday to Nebraska and then on to Oregon to build momentum for the general election campaign.

Several thousand supporters gathered in the Werner Enterprises corporate hangar adjacent to Eppley Airfield to greet Trump on a warm spring afternoon. Police estimated the crowd in the open hangar at 3,000; Trump suggested it was 10,000 or 11,000.

Gov. Pete Ricketts introduced Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee and as a president who would "chart a new course for our country" after eight years of the Obama administration.

"We know we need to take back our country," the governor said.

Trump welcomed Ricketts' late endorsement, suggesting that "I'm starting to like the Chicago Cubs again." The extended Ricketts family owns the Cubs, and had funded some anti-Trump TV advertising.

In remarks directed at Nebraska and its beef export market, Trump said: "I will get rid of those tariffs in Japan (and) make sure China buys your product."

The rally was interrupted several times by the shouts of a few protesters who were escorted out of the hangar by police. The first young protester who was ejected left to a chorus of boos with a middle finger extended in the air.

The crowd included a large number of young Trump supporters along with a number of state senators who are Republicans.

Trump's 40-minute speech included the familiar litany of promises to "make America great again," build a wall to to keep immigrants from crossing the border with Mexico illegally, and "knock the hell out of ISIS."

Looking ahead to his anticipated general election struggle with Hillary Clinton, Trump noted that "when Bernie (Sanders) said Hillary suffers from bad judgment, I wrote that down."

Trump referred to "crooked Hillary" a number of times.

"We'll be back," he promised. "And we're going to make America great again."

Trump made no mention of Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse, who has urged Americans to draft a presidential candidate who would provide a third choice between Clinton and him.

Earlier, former Gov. Dave Heineman, honorary chairman of Trump's Nebraska campaign, suggested that "Americans want change and I feel the same way."

"A political elite establishment in Washington is the problem and both parties are at fault," Heineman said during an interview prior to Trump's arrival.

Trump is going to win the Republican nomination "because he touched a nerve," he said.

"No question Donald is going to say some controversial things that make us uncomfortable," Heineman said, "but it's a choice election," with the alternative being Hillary Clinton.

None of the leading Nebraska Republicans supported Trump prior to his surge toward the nomination this week, but there has been a rush to the side of the presumptive GOP nominee since Texas Sen. Ted Cruz withdrew from the race.

Blown out by Trump in Indiana earlier this week, Cruz canceled a scheduled rally in Lincoln on Wednesday where Ricketts may have been prepared to endorse him.

Nebraska Republicans will vote Tuesday in a presidential primary election that was designed to bind the state's 36 delegates to the GOP national convention to vote for the primary winner on the first two ballots.
Former Gov. Dave Heineman and Nebraska's two main travel associations say State Tourism Director Kathy McKillip should lose her job following a scathing state audit.

While not naming McKillip directly, a five-page letter from the travel groups called the Nebraska Tourism Commission mismanaged and urged the commission board to "effectuate a change in staff leadership."

Heineman's response was more direct.

"The current executive director ought to be fired," he said Friday during a rally in Omaha for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Later on Friday, Gov. Pete Ricketts joined the call for McKillip's ouster, saying the misappropriation of state funds was an embarrassment.

McKillip, who is paid more than $86,000 per year, has said financial and documentation issues revealed by the audit were honest mistakes, and that many could be blamed on growing pains of starting a new state agency.

Tourism was a division within the state Department of Economic Development until 2012, when lawmakers spun it off into an independent agency overseen by nine appointed commissioners.

Heineman dismissed McKillip's defense Friday.

"She's been a state employee; she knows the rules," he said. "What she did was wrong."

Auditors listed dozens of questionable expenditures and documentation issues, including $4.4 million in cost overruns on contracts with the commission's main advertising firm, Bailey Lauerman. The extra $4.4 million  which more than doubled the original value of the contracts  wasn't properly documented by commission staff, auditors said in their 79-page report released April 29.

In their Friday letter, the Nebraska Travel Association and the Nebraska Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus said staff leadership at the commission had been "less than forthcoming" about the reasons behind its recent budget shortfall.

When a Travel Association representative asked if contract overruns were to blame, "commission staff replied curtly that they did not know what contracts we might be talking about," the letter says.

The letter also notes "the commission director's dogged refusal to accept that the budget difficulties experienced this fiscal year were her own doing and not, as she continues to maintain in response to the audit report, the work of the Legislature."

Both travel groups have representatives on the Tourism Commission's board.

At a meeting Tuesday, the board appointed a subcommittee of four members who will examine the audit results and make recommendations to address them. That group includes members from local visitors bureaus.

Heineman said he believes Tourism should be placed back under the Department of Economic Development.

The travel groups said the commission should remain independent, but a change in management is the only way to restore public trust.

"The audit report provides clearer insight into mismanagement that has been hampering the tourism industry for an extended period," they wrote. "The lack of proper management, as well as the lack of truthfulness, professionalism, civility, and cooperation with partners who merely want to help, have led to schisms in the commission and industry, skepticism by state policymakers and leaders, and further distrust."
Few settlements are born from names like desolation or banishment, yet Ravenna, Nebraska, overcame these very descriptions. Today, far from desolation, the area is home to 1,400 people and an 83-acre state recreation area complete with boating ramp, fishing and camping sites.

As the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad proposed building west through Buffalo County, the federal government began plans for protecting railroad workers and resultant settlers from possible Native attacks. To that end, Gen. Patrick Connor, Fort Kearny post commander, proposed a summer or sub fort 20 miles north and east of the fort. The proposed site was on the south bank on a bend in the South Loup River in what would become Garfield Precinct, Range 14, Township 12.

On May 14, 1864, a detachment from Company E of the Iowa 7th Cavalry stationed at Fort Kearny was sent to build a temporary fortification as a base for a four-month area expedition. Actual construction amounted only to a square earthworks with two sod-roofed buildings. One was a barn, the other a barracks to quarter troops. The installation was called Post South Loup Fork for its location but also became known as Post Connor for the general who ordered it.

Two, perhaps partially apocryphal, accounts are offered for the posts two nicknames: Fort Desolation and Fort Banishment.

The first says troops sent there were accused of stealing or illegally requisitioning a barrel of whiskey from the Fort Kearny commissary. It was euphemistically termed a drinking problem and supposedly led to a mutiny against the commander. The other story claims that some members of the 7th Cavalry took grain and cattle by force from the settlers they were sent to protect from the O.K. Store at Grand Islands settler-built Fort Independence. The men who were then sent to Post South Loup Fork named it Fort Desolation or Fort Banishment.

Whatever the reason for its establishment 30 miles from anywhere, the fort existed for only a few months before being abandoned that August, although some accounts say it lasted until October. There were no Native encounters at the fort, but one man was killed by Natives while delivering mail from Fort Kearny. Settlers razed what remained of the two buildings for firewood in 1871. A 1947 flood finished the job, removing all traces of it, even the earthworks.

Erastus Smith, a former railroad employee, calculated that the immediate area would be an obvious route for a subsequent railroad and purchased land from the Union Pacifics federal land grant and settled on Beaver Creek, later known as Mud Creek, in 1874. Smith established the first area post office, which he named Beaver Creek in 1878, and patiently waited for the railroad to begin its survey.

When the Burlington & Missouri River Railroads survey crew finally arrived in 1886, they noted the deserted soldiers quarters from the fort on their map. Smith sold 30 acres of his land to the railroads Lincoln Land Co., which platted a 30-square-block town about a mile from the deserted fort, along with a railroad siding and depot. Rollo Phillips of the land company asked Smith if he wanted to name the town Beaver Creek after the post office, but he declined and Phillips assigned the name Ravenna after the town in Italy. Streets were similarly given the names of Alba, Padua, Genoa, Milan, Corinth, Verona and Sicily. The establishment of Ravenna also effectively destroyed the chances of the nearby village -- variously called Nantasket or Trocnov -- ever becoming a station on the Burlington.

Railroad construction crews reached Ravenna in June 1886, with the first scheduled passenger train arriving from Grand Island on July 1. Later that month the post office was officially named Ravenna, and the village was incorporated in October.

Ravenna's favorite son, John Pesek, was born in February 1894 just outside of town. By 14, he was wrestling pigs, steers and men from local threshing crews. Pesek went on to be on the U.S. Olympic wrestling team and later traveled the world as a professional wrestler, billed as The Nebraska Tiger Man. In 2005, he was inducted into the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame.

Ravennas current population is nearly equal to its peak of 1,700 in 1920. A Nebraska State Historical Society marker in the Ravenna Lake State Recreational Area tells the area history as well as the story of the nearby Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Not to be bested by Omahas Ak-Sar-Ben, each spring Ravenna celebrates Annevar with absolutely no mention of desolation or banishment.
Ten Thousand Villages, a non-profit fair trade store at Eighth and P streets, will celebrate World Fair Trade Day next Saturday, May 14. The event is sponsored by community radio station KZUM 89.3 FM.

The store will be open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and will offer visitors a variety of multicultural performances and activities designed to raise awareness of the benefits of Fair Trade for both artisans and consumers. The global theme, Be an Agent for Change encourages learning about and acting upon the principles of Fair Trade. Children can participate in a Secret Agent scavenger hunt, Fair Trade fortunes, and other activities. There will also be Fair Trade food and beverage sampling throughout the day.

Special performances will include: Orgullo Latino (Latin Proud) Mexican folkloric dancers 9:30  10:30; Less Talk More Polka 10:30  11:30; Marcia Claesson and her Amazing Autoharp 1 to 2 p.m.; Azraq (the Midwest Middle East Project: Music and Belly Dancing) 2 to 3:30 p.m.; and Daniel Martinez, guitar, 6 to 7 p.m.

Henna with Steph will be available 10 to 11:30. Liz Holdren will talk about Ellie Pooh paper products and her experiences at the elephant sanctuary in Sri Lanka between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

World Fair Trade Day is celebrated in over 70 countries on five continents on the second Saturday in May. Events highlight Fair Trade as a way to eliminate poverty and exploitation, climate change, and economic hardship of those who are most vulnerable.
Religion Today

St. Paul has guest speaker

Bishop Rance Allen will be the guest speaker during the 35th anniversary celebration of Bishop Lawrence L. Kirby at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 11, at St. Paul Baptist Church, 1120 Grand Ave. Allen is the pastor of New Bethel Bountiful Blessings Ministries in Toledo, Ohio.

Gospel of John and mothers celebrated at services

The Gospel of John and mothers will be celebrated during the 9 a.m. traditional service Sunday, May 8, at Bethania Lutheran Church, 4120 Wright Ave.

Attendees learn how in holy baptism we become believers in God, have our robes washed in the flood of Christs forgiveness, and receive the gift of life forever with all the saints. Coffee and treats will be served after the service.

Gospel of John is focus

The Gospel of John will be the focus of the Vespers service at 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 7 and the 9:15 a.m. traditional service on Sunday, May 8, at Living Faith Lutheran Church, 2915 Wright Ave. Attendees will learn how in holy baptism we become believers in God, have our robes washed in the flood of Christs forgiveness, and receive the gift of life forever with all the saints. Noah Ollila will be baptized during the traditional service.

A contemporary style worship begins at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 8, at the Sturtevant Sportsplex, 10116 Stellar Drive, Sturtevant.

Clothespins are a symbol

The A Quart of Music quartette, Ellen and John Schmidt, Diana Pavao and Vern Peterson, will honor Mothers Day with songs, and in A Canticle for Clothespins during the 9 and 11 a.m. services Sunday, May 8, at Olympia Brown Unitarian Universalist Church, 625 College Ave.

The Rev. Dr. Tony Larsen will explore some of the small odd things in life that connect a person with the larger realities. He is basing his sermon on his mother as an example. She used clothespins for everything, he explained.

Summer worship schedule resumes at Grace

Grace Lutheran Church, 3700 Washington Ave., resumes its summer worship schedule. Services will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, and 7:45 and 10:30 a.m. Sundays.

Annual revival planned at Searching Together

Searching Together Missionary Baptist Church, 825 21st St., will hold its annual revival at 6:45 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, May 9-11.

Siena Retreat Center schedules programs

These programs will be held at the Siena Retreat Center, 5637 Erie St.:

A Heartwarming Evening with the Writings of Hildegard of Bingen, 7 p.m. Friday, May 20. Attendees will learn about key themes of Hildegards teachings and reflect on her writings using the lectio divina prayer style of her Benedictine tradition. The evening will conclude with evening prayer (vespers) incorporating Hildegards spirited words of wisdom. Cost to attend is $10.

St. Hildegard of Bingen: Herald of Holism, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 21. Join a day with St. Hildegard, learning about her understanding of human being, the touch of humor in her relationship with God and her holistic view of health. The day will include time for reflection, prayer and sharing. Cost to attend is $35 including a $10 non-refundable deposit, noon meal and supplies.

For more information or to register for a program, go to www.SienaRetreatCenter.org or call 262-898-2590.
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300k looted from cooperative

An unidentified group today looted Rs 300 thousand from the Sana Kisan Sahakari Sanstha, a cooperative, at Pragatinagar of Sanoshree Taratal Municipality in Bardiya district.
Art in the open

One story that most children like to listen to is the story of Ruby Bridges, an African American child who challenged segregation in schools back in 1960s Louisiana. Her tale has a visceral effect over students for its setting is familiar to them
Canadian wildfire disrupts evacuation convoy

The only land convoy evacuating the Canadian city of Fort McMurray has been disrupted due to 200ft (60m) flames flanking the road, officials say.
Change is good?

It really doesnt matter who becomes our next Prime Monster. Our politicians do not want to change the system. They are happy with the share-the-loot culture
Deadly disease in southern Humla

A deadly flu-like disease is rapidly spreading in the southern region of Humla already killing 18 people in the last three weeks.
Eager participants throng 13th Handicraft Trade Fair

The second day of the 13th Handicraft Trade Fair being held at Bhrikuti Mandap saw large crowds snapping up domestic and foreign handmade products. Textiles, silver jewellery, metal craft, handmade paper, wood craft, ceramics, incense, paintings, beads, stone craft, bamboo products, gold ornaments, gems and herbal products are displayed from 177 stalls and six pavilions.
From the margins

Why this recourse to a 20-year-old novella? It is precisely because many of the changes in the past two decades have been largely cosmetic that Ular still rankles
Fugitive arrested after 13 years

A fugitive on the run for the past 13 years and charged with attempted murder has been arrested from Tanahu district on Friday.
Govt to recall envoy to India

Hot on the heels of a dazzling drama of regime change, the government on Friday decided to recall Nepals Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaythe first casualty of the cancellation of President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris planned visit to the southern neighbour.
Insurance premium collection crosses Rs100b for first time

Insurance premium collection by Nepals life and non-life insurance companies has crossed the Rs100 billion mark for the first time, the Insurance Board (IB) said. Life insurance accounts for 87 percent of the premiums.
Journos wage: Media orgs object to cabinet decision

Nepal Media Society (NMS), Broadcasting Association of Nepal (BAN) and Radio Broadcasters Forum (RBF) on Friday said that they were dismayed by government decision on minimum salary of working journalists.
Labour's Sadiq Khan elected London mayor

Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London - boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland's elections.
Leaders criticise Deuba for immature move

Two dozen Central Working Committee (CWC) members of the Nepali Congress on Friday expressed their displeasure at the party having been kept in the dark about the unsuccessful attempt to topple the CPN-UML-led government.
Madhesi, Janajati forces boycott House meeting

Madhesi and Janajati parties affiliated to the Federal Alliance (Sanghiya Gathabandan) boycotted Fridays Parliament meeting to protest the governments apathy towards addressing their concerns related to the new constitution.
Maoist-UML accord violates SC ruling, CPA

The leaders have reached the deal to protect their respective positions in power, which is condemnable to say the least - Charan Prasai, rights activist
Ncell capital gains tax issue enters Parliament

Nepali Congress leader and lawmaker Gagan Kumar Thapa on Thursday tabled a proposal of public importance at the Parliamentary Secretariat, seeking discussion on the issue related to capital gains tax (CGT) on Ncells ownership transfer and claiming the transaction is taxable as per Nepals tax laws.
Nepali ambassador to China to return on Monday

After completing four years and four months as Nepali ambassador to China, Mahesh Kumar Maskey is all set to leave for Kathmandu on Monday (May 9).
No agreement on Dahal as next PM: Thapa

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa said there was no agreement reached to make UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal as the Prime Minister of national unity government.
One killed, two injured in road accident

One person was killed and other three injured in a road accident at Madhyabindu Municipality-7 of Nawalparasi district along the East-West Highway on Saturday.
Prez visit to southern neighbour put off

President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris visit to India has been cancelled. She was scheduled to embark on her first official visit on May 9.
Saudi prepares to hire 1m workers

Saudi Arabia has initiated the process to hire one million migrants to meet the growing demand for workers in the kingdom.
Student unions join govt team to review school fees

The Ministry of Education has brought students union on board its team to review the fee structure and admission cost of private schools.
Syndicates block roads for 2nd day

Syndicate enforcers associated with Transporters Entrepreneurs Committee and Prithvi-Highway Bus Operators Committee obstructed the movement of public vehicles to and from Gorkha Bazaar for the second consecutive day on Friday, forcing travellers to walk to their destinations.
The revolution begins

Pilots dont get to see the world, they just get to see the airports. In every corner of the world there will be people who will receive you with great love
The weavers of Terhathum

As we travelled through Terhathum over the next days, we met some of the women who have taken to preserving this unique and skilled method of intricate pattern making.
Three quake-hit districts witness increase in poverty: Study

Three districts Rasuwa, Sindhupalchok and Sindhulihit by the devastating April 25 earthquake have witnessed a significant increase in poverty as a result of the disaster, a study carried out by the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF) said.
US election: Jeb Bush refuses to back Donald Trump

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has said he will not vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump in November's presidential election.
Yes, its hard to to tell when one enters the city limits

Yes, they will make the city more inviting

Maybe ... does it really matter?

No, the signs in place are fine

No, it would be a waste of taxpayer dollars

Vote

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Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 55F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Cloudy skies this evening will become partly cloudy after midnight. Low near 55F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
AUBURN  May is Pink Out Month, and May 19 will be Pink Out Day in DeKalb County cities and towns.

Elected officials, including mayors and state Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, met recently to sign individual proclamations for each community as well as a state proclamation from the House of Representatives.

We are so proud that our local elected leaders are participating in this important initiative to educate women of the importance of breast screenings and encourage women to care for their health, said Shelley Smaltz, co-chair of the Tri Kappa DeKalb County Pink Out.

The proclamation emphasizes Pink Out DeKalb Countys mission to raise awareness in the community, educate about early detection and save lives.

To help achieve its goals, Pink Out DeKalb County has planned events throughout May dedicated to increasing public knowledge about the importance of early detection of breast cancer. It is working with several corporate sponsors, professional associations and retail stores to ensure the Pink Out message is heard by thousands of women and their families.

Tri Kappa will host its second annual Pink Out event Wednesday, May 19. Pink Out Day events include:

 Francines Friends Mobile Mammography from 1-8 p.m. on 6th Street in downtown Auburn;

 a Health and Wellness Fair from 4-7 p.m. on 6th St.;

 a Pink Lemonade Social followed by a Pink Parade starting at 6 p.m. at Eckhart Public Library; and

 a tribute ceremony at 7 p.m. on 6th St. with Dr. Trina Chapman-Smith and special guest Amy Nan.
The next time you sit down to watch Star Wars, try this little experiment.

Instead of focusing on Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and the rest of the films marquee stars, shift your attention to the movies peripheral players. All those extras dressed up as Jawas and Tusken Raiders and other alien creatures. All those Stormtroopers. All those nameless X-wing fighter pilots. Whats their story?

With his documentary Elstree 1976, director Jon Spira set out to put a face to some of the faceless denizens of that galaxy far, far away.

From the ill-fated bounty hunter Greedo (played by Paul Blake) to the Stormtrooper (played by Anthony Forrest) who was persuaded that these werent, in fact, the droids they were looking for, Spira turns the spotlight on the supporting players and extras of the Star Wars universe and explores the unexpected, and sometimes awkward, ways in which their brief involvement in George Lucas space opera has altered their lives.

For most of these people, this was a moment in their lives, a job they did for a couple of days, Spira said by phone from his native England. That this thing that was seemingly insignificant to them in their younger days is the thing that everyone lauds them for and gives them endless kudos for  I think that sits uncomfortably with some of them. That internal conflict is really what interested me and why I wanted to make this film.

At the best-known end of the films spectrum, there are the actors David Prowse, who physically embodied Darth Vader but whose voice was dubbed by James Earl Jones. And Jeremy Bulloch, who played the bounty hunter Boba Fett in both The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi. At the other, virtually anonymous end, there are extras such as Laurie Goode, known to fans as that one Stormtrooper who bumps his head walking through a door, and Derek Lyons, who is seen for a fleeting moment standing beside Princess Leia as she hangs a medal around Han Solos neck in the final scene of Star Wars.

Spira was drawn into the world of Star Wars by happenstance a few years ago when a student in a screenwriting class he was teaching named John Chapman mentioned by chance that he had been a nameless X-wing pilot in Star Wars. Though his role had been utterly minuscule and he had never acted in anything of note afterward, Chapman told Spira he had nevertheless attended numerous Star Wars conventions over the years, signing autographs for die-hard fans, something about which he felt a great deal of ambivalence.

I went out to Johns car and he had all these cardboard boxes full of stacks of 8-by-10 glossy photos of him, Spira recalled. I went home that night and stuck Star Wars on, and I realized that all you could see was the back of his head and for two frames you can kind of see the side of his face. I just thought that was fascinating.

As revealed in Elstree 1976 (named for the production studio outside London where much of Star Wars was filmed), even among the less well-known figures in the films, there are subtle hierarchies at play. Extras and supporting players of varying degrees of recognizability in the universe jockey with one another for fans attention  and cash  on the convention circuit. For an actor like Angus MacInnes, who played the X-wing fighter known as Gold Leader, finding himself spurned by autograph-seekers in favor of an actor like Bulloch, whose face was never shown on screen, can sting.

For his part, Bulloch, 71, initially felt reluctant to participate in Spiras film and be placed on the same level as extras. After all, his fearsome bounty-hunter character is a longtime fan favorite  a Boba Fett spinoff film is rumored to be in the works  and he himself has had a distinguished acting career dating to the late 1950s.

I was against it, straightaway, he said. Having acted for 50 years, you start getting proud about the work youve done in theater  30 different plays. But then I thought, Well, these people are going to show that this amazing thing happened to them, that they were a part of Star Wars. That part of it is terrific.

Spira funded the film through Kickstarter and never approached Lucasfilm at any point for its input. This isnt a film about Star Wars, he said. Its a film about these people  and Lucasfilm doesnt own these people.

He admits that he isnt sure how the universe of Star Wars fandom will receive Elstree 1976, which approaches the beloved franchise from a far different angle than the typical adoring making-of documentary.

Star Wars meant a huge amount to me growing up, but I didnt come to this film as a fan at all, he said. Part of what were struggling with at the moment is people misunderstanding it and I think some people being disappointed because they think its going to be a fan film and it ends up being this bizarre, melancholy, bittersweet look at peoples lives.

That said, all those interviewed for the film express their love and respect for the Star Wars franchise that has had such an enduring impact on their lives.

Were all very lucky, Bulloch said. My youngest granddaughter was watching Star Wars and she said, Can I watch the bit with you in it? Im like, Well, I wasnt in it much  there, thats me. She said, Well, now youve gone  you went in a ship somewhere! He laughed. Its lovely to get that kind of reaction from the grandchildren.

Part of what were struggling with at the moment is people misunderstanding it and I think some people being disappointed because they think its going to be a fan film and it ends up being this bizarre, melancholy, bittersweet look at peoples lives. Jon Spira, director of Elstree 1976
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (TNS)  Shrubs expanding northward into a warming Arctic  and growing taller as they did  paved the way for moose to expand their range northward too.

Thats the finding of a recent study by scientists with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The long-legged ungulates were absent from Alaskas northernmost tundra regions in the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, but in recent decades, populations have spread along the rivers and streams that flow into the Arctic Ocean, said the study, which was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

The proliferation of woody plants along rivers and streams made that moose expansion possible.

Those plants grew to only about 1.2 yards tall in the period around 1860  meaning snow covered most of them in winter, leaving little opportunity for animals to graze, according to the scientists calculations. But by 2009, the riparian plants in were growing to nearly 2.19 yards in height, allowing many more moose browse to poke out of the snow.

Photos show the spread of shrubs since the mid-20th century, but figuring out plant height back to the 19th century required calculations based on temperature records, said Ken Tape, an ecologist with UAFs Institute of Northern Engineering and the studys lead author. A strong correlation exists between temperature and plant height, Tape said.

It turns out that summer temperatures have increased 23 percent since 1860, he said.

Thats actually huge, like an eight-week summer to an 11-week summer, he said. A 23 percent increase in temperature means a doubling of shrub height.

Previous work by Tape and others, detailed in a 2011 study, shows how shrubs have spread into various parts of the Arctic  mostly alders in northern Alaska but also willows, evergreen bushes and birch in various parts of northern Canada and Russia.

The North Slope moose are the northernmost in North America and are right on the edge of the worldwide distribution, Tape said. For the most part, moose habitat in the circumpolar North ends where the trees do, he said.

But were seeing that break down as moose move into the tundra, he said.

The shrub growth  and movement of moose  is limited to the stream and floodplain areas that thread through the tundra, he said. For the most part, the rest of the tundras vast expanse still lacks tall plants and the animals that eat them, he said.

Moose are confined to whats sticking out above the snow, he said. Youre not going to see a moose standing out on the tundra.

The northward and westward shift of Alaskas moose population mirrors a similar shift in the population of snowshoe hares, the subject of an earlier study led by Tape.

To reconstruct the changes in moose distribution, Tape and his colleagues used a combination of historic records and modern observations. They did field work in 2010 to measure the height of shrubs growing along the Colville River and Chandler River, areas where North Slope moose congregate. They used a trove of photographs showing how riparian  that is, stream-side  shrub cover spread over northern Alaska from 1950 to 2000, changes detailed in a 2001 study that Tape co-authored. They used data from sediment cores that preserve records of past Colville-area vegetation and show how it has changed over time.

The absence of moose in these areas during the 19th and early 20th centuries is backed by archaeological information, reports from Alaska Natives and documents left by early explorers, the study says. Moose populations have since spread  not just to the far north of Alaska but also to similar areas in Canada and Russia, the study says.

By the 1970s, aerial surveys recorded a population of 1,550 to 1,700 moose on the North Slope, about half of them in the middle Colville River drainage; by the 1980s, moose had colonized Northwest Alaska.

Four decades ago, there were Alaska Native elders who remembered the time in the early 20th century when no moose were in the region, Tape said. Today, it is difficult to find someone with a memory that goes that far back, though indigenous observations of moose absence are available in written records, he said.

Evidence shows that moose roamed the North Slope during a period much further back in time, the study points out. Moose bones have been found in Colville permafrost sites that date back to about 3,000 years ago, Tape noted. Past work by the USGS describes moose and humans arriving on the North Slope at about the same time as the demise of large ice age mammals like the woolly mammoth, between 14,000 and 10,000 years ago. A similar shrub expansion seems to have occurred at the end of the Pleistocene era.

The modern shrub expansion and the incursion of moose into the more northern region appear set to continue over the long term, the study says.

Increases in shrubs and earlier snowmelt have occurred across most of the Arctic, notably along the northern edge of moose distribution, so increases in abundance and extended northward distribution of moose are anticipated elsewhere, it concludes.

But in the shorter term, the North Slope moose population has been volatile, prompting some hunting restrictions. The reasons for sudden drops in recent years are not yet known, Tape said. Habitat expansion is not the only factor affecting wildlife, and the moose could have been affected in recent years by wolf predation, parasites and disease or other forces, he said.
U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse, has won the support of student leaders at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

As her last official act, two-term Student Association President Kaylee Otterbacher honored Kind with the Higher Education Advocate of the Year Award at a ceremony on the UW-L campus. At a time when passion for higher education and the UW System has been hard to find, she said Kind has been a big supporter of the university and its students.

How fortunate we are to have a legislator who is an advocate of higher education, she said.

Otterbacher and the student association didnt give out an award last year. At the time, Otterbacher said it was hard to find someone who showed a passion for higher education and students at a time of budget cuts and attacks on higher education.

The Student Association saw many UW System advocates throughout the budgeting process, but not to the extent that students needed these past few months, student association public relations director Chris Stackhouse said last year when the announcement was made. Students needed a champion during this past budget cycle and moving forward, and we look forward to finding that champion of students and higher education in Wisconsin.

This year, Rep. Kind stood out for his commitment to higher education and to UW-L specifically, Otterbacher said. He formally announced his higher education affordability proposals earlier this year on the UW-L campus and has made efforts to speak to students about higher education issues, not just other politicians and campus administrators.

He was also one of the few legislators that listened when the Student Association went to Capitol Hill to lobby in January, Otterbacher said. Students and Kinds views on higher education and student debt are aligned, she said, and Kind honored the students of UW-L by inviting her to attend this years State of the Union as his guest.

He is one of our biggest advocates, she said. Students need a champion this coming budget cycle and moving forward.

After accepting the award, Kind said it has been a joy to work with the students at UW-L, who are emblematic of the quality of the campus. With six of the 11 UW System campuses in his congressional district, Kind said college affordability is one of his priorities, and he is focused on helping to make student loans more affordable through refinancing and on protecting the Pell Grant program.
WINONA, Minn  As 40 Lewiston-Altura kindergartners piled off the school bus at Rockie Hill Bison farm in Winona Friday morning, it didnt take long for them to see their first big, burly buffalo.

I can see a buffalo already! a student exclaimed, as the group followed farm owner Gail Griffin to the start of their tour.

Gail showed the kindergartners bison horns, fur and other artifacts, explaining how buffalo differ from cattle. Gail and her husband, Dave, started the farm in 1992, when Dave bought three bison from a friend whod won a herd in a card game.

Today, they have more than 85 of the grass-eating animals, which are native to Minnesota.

Bison is their real name, and buffalo is their nickname, Gail told the group.

The kindergartners visited the farm Friday as part of the Lewiston-Altura school districts Farm-to-School program, thanks to grants from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Statewide Health Improvement Program.

Rockie Hill bison burgers are offered daily for high school lunches, and bison jerky is available a la carte, Lewiston-Altura nutrition director Vickie Speltz said. Younger kids get a chance to sample the meat several times throughout the year.

At the farm, Gail led the kindergartners up onto a trailer, and Dave towed them with his tractor out to the pasture, where the buffalo grazed a grassy hillside, some of them opting to cool off in a small pond.

As the tractor came to a stop, the buffalo shifted into a tighter group. About a dozen mothers with newborn calves kept their distance.

Youll see them lift their nose, trying to smell us, Gail said.

Do buffalo like to come over here? asked kindergartner Lauren Murphy.

The younger ones do, Gail answered, as theyre usually the most curious.

Sure enough, a few smaller buffalo were soon nosing around a few yards away from the tractor.

I see them shedding over there! another kindergartner piped up.

Buffalo have some interesting habits, Gail told the group. They shed their winter coat each spring. They like to roll around in bare dirt, which helps keep bugs off. They make permanent trails in the landscape. They also really like being near the pond.

They love to swim, and the babies are swimming within a day or two, Gail said.

Bison, which are out in the pasture year-round, can also predict the weather, Gail said. Before a storm, the bison will gather in the north pasture. In the winter, theyll huddle and face the wind.

Bison were nearly extinct due to over-hunting in the early 1900s but have made a comeback lately on farms like Rockie Hill. Their meat is increasingly sought after because it is low in fat and cholesterol, and all the bison are raised without extra hormones or antibiotics.

Gail is the executive director of the Minnesota Buffalo Association and said despite an increasing number of bison producers across the state, demand still outpaces supply.

Rockie Hill slaughters 16 to 18 bison each year, and they dont travel more than 30 miles from farm to plate, Gail said. Theyre processed at Ledebuhrs and sold to businesses and schools.

The kindergartners could be forgiven for not paying attention to all the nitty-gritty details, though. They were busy watching the animals wallow in dirt patches, drink water from the pond, urinate and munch grass.

When the bison got bored looking at the tractor, they galloped to the far side of the pasture with surprising grace.

Theyre awesome, Murphy said. I just want to ride one.
A controversial frac sand mining company that recently opened a site in Wisconsin is facing opposition to plans for a sevenfold expansion of its underground mine in Clayton County, Iowa.

Pattison Sand Co. has requested rezoning of 746 acres of land from agricultural to heavy industrial for eventual expansion of its underground mine from its current size of about 100 acres. The site, which includes surface mining on some of its 1,600 acres, lies along the Mississippi River directly across from Bagley, Wisconsin. Many of its roughly 150 employees live in southwestern Wisconsin.

Since Pattison Sands Clayton County site began operations in 2005, it has racked up more workplace violations than any other industrial sand mine in the United States, according to data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, analyzed by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Among the violations is a 2008 accident in which a front-end loader with a defective rear-view mirror backed over a worker, killing her.

Patrick OShaughnessy, a professor of occupational and environmental health in the University of Iowa engineering college, told members of a county committee studying expansion on April 28 in Elkader, Iowa, that it would be wise to review the mines record and reputation when considering the proposal.

There are good apples and there are bad apples in every industry, from swine rearing to sand mining, OShaughnessy told the committee before a crowd of more than 60 people. Is this someone who has flagrant violations constantly, or is this someone whos typically got a good sense of safety for their workers, environmental consciousness, and they want to be a good neighbor?

Nevertheless, OShaughnessy told members of the Mine Reserve Expansion Study Committee that residents living around the proposed expansion face a low risk of inhaling airborne silica particles from the mine. Inhaling silica can cause silicosis, an irreversible and sometimes fatal lung disease that can lead to cancer and tuberculosis.

The mine produces sand for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which involves injecting water, fine-grained sand and chemicals at high pressure to break apart underground rock and release trapped oil and natural gas.

History of violations

According to the Centers analysis, between April 2005 and January of this year, Pattison Sands site in Clayton County had 934 MSHA violations for which the company paid $279,000 in fines. Wedron Silica Co. in Illinois  the industrial sand mine with the second most violations in that time period  received 501 violations.

According to the data, little has changed since a 2013 Wall Street Journal analysis found that mining safety officials had cited Pattison Sand more than any other sand or gravel mine in the country. Among the violations identified by the Center, 235 were racked up since January 2013.

In addition, the Center found that 55 Pattison Sand employees have filed workers compensation claims for injuries sustained at the Iowa location between 2005 and January of this year. Claims include fractures, dislocations, sprains, hernias and heat prostration. Two of the claims were filed for respiratory problems.

In an interview, Christopher Hensler, district manager for MSHAs north central district, said the regulatory agencys inspectors have spent a lot of time at Pattison Sands Iowa site, but the sheer number of violations does not necessarily indicate a larger problem.

The bulk of their violations are very simple electrical violations and defects of equipment that affect safety, he said.

One 2008 violation involving defects of equipment, however, resulted in a fatality. In that incident, a front-end loader backed up, striking and killing a worker. MSHAs investigation report found the accident was caused in part by the equipments defective rear-view mirror and the lack of visible reflective material on the employee. Pattison Sand was fined $70,000 for that violation.

A 2014 fire and multiple roof collapses in 2011 also generated violations that resulted in temporary shutdowns. The collapses and an ensuing legal battle shuttered the underground portion of the mine for several months in 2011 and 2012.

Other infractions at Pattison Sands Iowa site include exposing workers to harmful airborne contaminants, failing to have protective equipment and clothing, and neglecting to provide at least two escapeways to the surface in the mine.

Andy Garcia-Rivera, a former industrial hygiene compliance officer for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, said although mines do tend to have many violations, the number of infractions Pattison Sands Iowa location has amassed is unusual.

It tells me that theres something wrong, said Garcia-Rivera, who also directed environmental, health and safety compliance for the University Wisconsin-Madison campus. Sometimes employers do take shortcuts.

Official defends company record

Tim Adkins, who joined Pattison Sand 14 months ago as its health and safety director, said after the April 28 meeting that claiming Pattison Sands record is the worst in the industry is a terrible, terrible, misconception and an out-of-context statement to make. He attributed some of the past violations to lack of experience by the Pattison family, who used to store and ship grain from the underground caverns that are now mined.

When they (Pattison Sand) went into the mining industry, they didnt know about the mining industry. Theyd never dealt with MSHA. They didnt know MSHA regulations, said Adkins, who has over 40 years of experience as a health and safety professional, including over 35 years in mining.

Adkins added that underground mines such as Pattison Sands generate more violations because they are inspected twice as often as surface mines, four times a year versus two.

Pattison Sand is a good player, good operator, Adkins said. They care about their employees, they take extra steps to go above and beyond MSHA requirements, MSHA standards.

But even when compared to other similar underground mines, Pattisons track record is not stellar. In 2010, 2011 and 2014, the companys Iowa mine had above-average rates among underground metal and nonmetal mines of violations deemed significant and substantial by MSHA. Data prior to 2010 were not available.

Adkins said Pattison Sand works very closely with MSHA to ensure compliance. That was not always the case.

In 2011, Pattison Sand sued the agency after it shut down the majority of the underground mine following multiple roof collapses, including one in which at least 30 tons of rock fell onto an excavator; the miner operating it was unhurt. The lawsuit and appeals kept the underground part of the mine closed for several months.

Besides Pattisons Iowa mine, MSHA lists only two other underground industrial sand mines in the country. Both are located in Pierce County, Wisconsin, and operated by the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Co. Since 2005, one of the mines has received 279 violations  a fraction of the number racked up by Pattison. The other, operating only since 2008, has received 127 violations.

Opponents continue to fight

At the April 28 meeting in Elkader, 37 people submitted comments raising questions about Pattison Sands record of MSHA violations, burning at the companys Iowa site, workers respiratory problems, conflicting results of air quality studies and dust.

Kathy Kachel, who attended the meeting, blames Pattison Sands Iowa mine for the white sand she dusts inside her house. She lives in Bagley and can see the facility from her porch. Kachel would like to see it shut down.

There is a proliferation of silica (sand) at this point for fracking, Kachel said. Its not healthy for anybody  the environment, the wildlife, my grandchildren.

In Wisconsin, Pattison Sand operates a surface mine in Bridgeport, about a 30-minute drive northeast of its Iowa site. Four Bridgeport residents and the Crawford Stewardship Project, an environmental group that promotes sustainability and local control of natural resources, tried unsuccessfully to block that mine. Its status is currently listed as intermittent based on the number of hours worked at the site.

Since it began operating in August 2013, the Bridgeport mine has received seven violations for which the company paid $824 in fines. Those violations include failing to notify MSHA before starting operations, neglecting to prepare a material safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical the mine uses or produces, failing to provide first aid materials, and failing to provide safe means of access to travelways.

Garcia-Rivera said violations at mines that are not yet fully operational, such as Pattison Sands Bridgeport site, are to be expected. MSHA is only required to inspect such intermittent surface mines once a year. The mine expansion committee plans to meet again on Wednesday.

Pattison Sand is a good player, good operator. They care about their employees, they take extra steps to go above and beyond MSHA requirements, MSHA standards. Tim Adkins, Pattison Sands health and safety director The bulk of their violations are very simple electrical violations and defects of equipment that affect safety. Christopher Hensler, district manager for MSHAs north central district. There are good apples and there are bad apples in every industry, from swine rearing to sand mining. Is this someone who has flagrant violations constantly, or is this someone whos typically got a good sense of safety for their workers, environmental consciousness, and they want to be a good neighbor? Patrick OShaughnessy, a professor of occupational and environmental health at the University of Iowa
Dogged by low oil prices, Wisconsins once-booming frac sand mining industry is down but not out.

An industry trade magazine will host a two-day conference next week in La Crosse where the goal is to provide practical knowledge  along with hope that oil prices will eventually rebound and North Dakota drillers will again buy their fine-grained sand.

Even as layoff notices have become a nearly monthly occurrence at Wisconsin sand mines, the frac sand industry is poised for a rebound.

Were still here, said Marty Lehman, president of the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Association. Weve been through this before. Its a cyclic industry.

The conference, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, is expected to draw 300 to 400 people to the La Crosse Center, where topics will range from mining techniques and management to the market outlook and even how to open a frac sand mine.

Promoters say the Frac Sand Insider conference will help producers prepare for that future while weathering immediate market uncertainties.

It will be the first time the conference  now in its third year  has been held in Wisconsin.

Were looking to provide hope, said Mark Kuhar, executive editor of Rock Products magazine, the parent publication of Frac Sand Insider. One of the best places you can find hope is when you get together with your peers.

Kuhar said sand producers are also looking for ways to improve their processes.

Theyre looking for ways to do it better, he said. Every efficiency you can come up with in tough times is an extra dollar.

For years, companies have mined the fine-grained silica sand prevalent in western Wisconsin for industrial use. But advances in a gas and oil mining technique known as hydraulic fracturing created enormous demand for the sand, which is used to open cracks in underground rocks.

According to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources records, there are now 129 mines and processing facilities in the state. But falling oil prices have led North Dakota drillers to idle wells, and the demand for sand has plummeted, idling many of those mines.

Frac sand producers have announced plans to lay off nearly 190 Wisconsin workers so far this year, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the states mass layoffs reported by the Department of Workforce Development. About 120 workers were laid off last year at three sites in Monroe, Eau Claire and Chippewa counties.

For the people who supply sand the question becomes how do we maintain a viable business, Kuhar said. If youre a big company  its easier to ride the wave. If youre a smaller company its a little harder to maintain.

Despite the industry optimism, the outlook is not sunny.

According to the market analysis firm PacWest, demand for proppant sand peaked in the final three months of 2014 at 30 billion pounds. It is expected to bottom out near the end of 2016 at something less than half that amount, said Thomas Jacob, lead analyst for the industry publication ProppantIQ.

While demand is expected to rebound in 2017, Jacob does not expect a return to 2015 levels in the next two years.

It will be a very, very slow recovery, he said.

Anti-frac groups on alert

Despite the outlook, environmentalists and anti-mining groups are not dropping their guard.

I think people can expect this industry to be around for a long time, said Kellan McLemore, a staff attorney for Midwest Environmental Advocates. There are a ton of proposed operations just waiting to go on line. We get notices from citizens almost weekly about mining companies buying land or securing mineral rights.

The Wisconsin DNR has not been effective in regulating the industry, McLemore said, which raises concerns about the health impacts of fine dust on neighboring residents and the release of waste water and sediment into public waters.

MEA has objected to the DNRs proposed new storm and waste-water permit for mines, saying it does not comply with the federal Clean Water Act.

Others are focused on banning frac sand mining at the local level. A coalition of more than 10 regional organizations is planning a rally outside the La Crosse Center on Tuesday.

This is really a wildcat industry. It cant be regulated well with the resources we have, said Doug Nopar of the Land Stewardship Project, which is pushing for a mining ban in Winona County, Minn. Its time to just say no.
Donald Trump on Tuesday became the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, winning the Indiana primary and knocking rivals Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio out of the contest. He promised to unify Republicans even as many senior party members vowed never to support him.

Meanwhile, Sen. Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton. And while she continues to hold what appears to be an insurmountable lead in delegates, he promised to continue campaigning against her.

What does this all mean? What lessons are to be learned? Whats next in this seemingly unprecedented presidential election? Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk debate the issue.

Joel Mathis

Republicans are in disarray. It would be tempting to take pleasure in their distress, except for one thing: Donald Trump now stands a step away from the presidency. That is good for no one, not even Democrats who think (possibly wrongly) the presidential campaign will now be a cakewalk for their nominee.

There is no arguing with Trumps die-hard supporters, who possess an unshakeable faith that their candidate will change things in need of changing. Perhaps, but bulls change things in china shops  and Trump appears likely to have similarly destructive affects on American politics and culture.

Outside of the die-hards, though, are Republican Party loyalists who find themselves split. Some are going along with Trump rather than allowing Hillary Clinton to be elected. Some are refusing to back his campaign. And some, I imagine, are still trying to decide the best way forward.

To them, I say this:

On the day he won the Indiana primary, Trump accused Ted Cruzs father of having involvement in the JFK assassination  and he did so based on an uncorroborated story from the National Enquirer tabloid. Do you want such a man to have access to the nations nuclear codes?

Trump came to prominence in Republican politics by peddling discredited theories that President Barack Obama was born outside the country and thus is an usurper in the White House. Do you want such a man to have access to the nations nuclear codes?

Trump has spoken admiringly of the Chinese governments massacre of democracy activists at Tiananmen Square, and offered a kind appraisal of Vladimir Putins strength of leadership. Do you want such a man to have access to the nations nuclear codes?

The examples go on and on.

We dont talk about this much  except in euphemism, mostly  but the president of the United States is uniquely and singularly empowered to end all life on the planet if he chooses. Temperament matters. Character matters. Any reasonable assessment of Trump will conclude he is deficient on both fronts. He does not deserve your vote.

Ben Boychuk

Heres a prediction: Donald Trump is going to win the general election in November.

Ridiculous, you say? You may be right. Then again, the election so far has been ridiculous. All signs point to a resounding Trump defeat, but all of the signs so far have been wrong.

If the election was held today, and if the United States was a pure democracy that elected presidents through a national plebiscite instead of a constitutional republic with an Electoral College, Trump would probably lose.

After all, the RealClearPolitics national polling average has the erstwhile reality TV star trailing Hillary Clinton by just over 6 points  which is a meaningless number this far out, but it fills newspaper columns and helps pundits sound marginally more knowledgeable about the intricacies of presidential politics.

Trouble is, all of the predictions so far about Trump have been wrong. Not just wrong, but laughably wrong. And since I made many of those predictions, Im happy to make this one about Trumps prospects on Nov. 8 with the expectation that my record of failed prognostication will remain unbroken.

Do Trumps negatives outweigh his positives? Yes. In historically unprecedented ways, the pollsters tell us. People really dont like him. Except for all the people who voted for him.

And those people arent all bigoted idiots. The exit polls tell us a lot about who is voting for Trump and why. Yes, he draws white men without college degrees. But hes also drawing voters from across all incomes and education levels. Those voters are worried about the economy, which has limped along since 2008. They detest the Republican Party and its leaders. They want somebody  anybody  who can make real change.

But the main reason Trump wins? Clinton is a drag. She looks old and sounds tired. She is the Bob Dole of the Democratic Party  the presumptive nominee because its her turn. She couldnt even put away a crank socialist. Why does anyone suppose she could saunter past Trump into the White House?

I wouldnt vote for Trump for all the bourbon in Kentucky. I prefer my candidates to be conservatives who pay more than just lip service to the Constitution, rather than rabble-rousing populists. But the country clearly wants something else. Well, by God, theyre going to get it.
Jim Villa, a longtime ally of Gov. Scott Walker who has led the University of Wisconsin Systems communications and lobbying efforts for the past two years, will leave UW later this month to lead a real estate organization.

Villa will become the CEO of NAIOP Wisconsin, the state chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, which is based in Milwaukee. He said in an interview that his decision to leave the UW System was motivated by a desire to return to real estate, the industry he left to join UW, and to take a job closer to his home in West Allis.

UW System President Ray Cross wrote in an email that Villa has been a tremendous advocate for the UW System in his work as vice president of university relations.

He has helped strengthen our relationships with the state Legislature while building new partnerships with leaders and stakeholders throughout Wisconsin, Cross said.

Villa said he believes the UW Systems relationships with state lawmakers are in a better place than they were when he joined the administration in 2014.

People are at the table and having conversations, Villa said, though he acknowledged there are still challenges for UW.

Legislators cut the Systems funding by $250 million in the 2015-17 state budget  a smaller reduction in funding than the $300 million cut Walker proposed  and made changes to tenure and shared governance policies that infuriated faculty members.

Its unclear whether lawmakers, who will soon consider the UW Systems next budget, will restore funding or cut it further.

Once chief of staff in Walkers Milwaukee County executive office, Villa was also an aide to the governors campaign. Villa listed Walker as his top reference when he applied for the UW System job.

Democrats and some UW faculty members blasted the decision to hire Villa, criticizing his ties to Walker; he has frequently been cited as an example of what they consider Republican lawmakers growing influence over UW administration.

Villa defended his ties to the governor, saying they have benefited the UW System.

I tried to use those to open doors and conversations that I thought would help the university, he said.

Villa said he is leaving his job with a much deeper appreciation for the university system.

I have a new and even better respect for the president, the Regents, chancellors and certainly faculty, Villa said. Its been educational.

In 2011, authorities in a John Doe investigation into Walkers Milwaukee County executive office searched Villas home on suspicion that he was involved in an alleged bid-rigging scheme and work for a political action committee on county time. Villa was never charged in the now-closed investigation.

Villas last day will be May 13.

His position will be filled on an interim basis by Jessica Tormey, Cross chief of staff and a UW administrator who also has ties to a Republican lawmaker. Tormey was chief of staff to state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, for 10 years before joining UW in 2007.
A large dairy operation that spilled manure into Castle Rock Creek in February has also failed for an undetermined length of time to prevent rainwater and snow melt from carrying potentially harmful pollutants down steep hillsides toward the popular trout stream.

The owner of Misty Morning Dairy near Fennimore in southwestern Wisconsin has told state regulators that he has fixed most of the smaller problems they documented in a March 17 inspection, a Department of Natural Resources spokesman said Friday.

But the owner still has not built long-promised concrete structures to keep nutrient-laden stormwater from leaching out of feed stored on the Wood Road property for the more than 1,700 animals it was estimated to house, DNR wastewater engineer Mark Cain said Friday.

He has told us he just can cant afford to do it right now, he said.

Runoff of nutrients from animal feed and manure from farms is regulated because it contributes to unnatural weed and algae growths in lakes and streams.

When the owner missed a July 1, 2014, deadline to add stormwater control structures to the existing hillside feed storage area, DNR regulators told him he needed to regularly empty the storage bunkers to minimize the problem, Cain said.

At one point, the owner said construction on new feed storage structures would begin June 1, Cain said.

During the March 17 inspection, DNR employees said they found signs such as bacterial growths, feed particles and a visible sheen on the ground that indicated nutrients from feed storage had washed down the hill and at least to the edge of the roadside ditch that feeds into the creek.

And on that day, Misty Morning owner Randall Mouw told the agency that it wouldnt be possible to begin work on a new feed storage structure by June 1, DNR officials said in a notice of violation issued April 8.

Mouw, who purchased the property in 2011 and has had financial challenges as he expanded the operation, didnt respond to requests for comment Friday.

In the notice of violation, the DNR told Mouw he could face a $10,000 penalty and be required to pay damages for fish killed by the manure spill if he didnt comply with terms of his permit to run a concentrated animal feeding operation, or CAFO.

Mouw has since told the DNR he has made needed changes including keeping manure-laden sand on a concrete pad to minimize runoff, eliminating an unauthorized pile of solid manure that was discharging bad-smelling liquid, keeping records on disposal of dead animals, and tracking levels in two lagoons that can hold a total of 7.2 million gallons of liquid manure, Cain said.

Mouw disposed of dead cattle in piles of solid manure that were being composted. One pile was in a place on the farm that wasnt properly equipped for composting, the DNR said. Disposing of dead cattle in an authorized manure compost pile is allowed, but inspectors found bones and rotting material indicating the carcasses werent being turned to allow decomposition without strong odors, Cain said.

Improper storage of manure-laden sand had resulted in a ditch on the property being filled with material that had washed away, the inspection report states. The ditch ended on a hillside where rainwater flowed down to a roadside ditch that leads to the creek, Cain said.

The inspection report includes a map indicating five paths rainwater follows down the hill away from the farm to ditches and other routes that end in Castle Rock Creek.

When Mouw bought the property, it had fewer than the 1,000-cow threshhold that requires a CAFO permit to ensure proper handling of the large amounts of feed and manure that will be present. In 2011, he applied for a CAFO permit, but withdrew the application, saying investors had dropped out of the project, Cain said.

In March 2013, the owner called the DNR to ask for help preventing a 1-million-gallon manure pit from overflowing, according to a DNR environmental cleanup report.

The farm was filing for bankruptcy and could not pay haulers to empty the pit, so the DNR hired a private waste hauler for $50,000, which Mouw later repaid, DNR officials said.

Ten months later, the DNR issued Misty Morning a CAFO permit. The owners said they had 1,340 animals in 2013, and projected the number to increase to 1,719 in 2014.

CAFO permits forbid discharges of pollutants into surface water. When violations are discovered, the DNR asks permit holders to voluntarily make changes. Often, a permit holder will request an enforcement conference when informal negotiations dont lead to agreement on what must be done. Mouw hasnt requested such a conference, DNR spokesman Jim Dick said.

The DNR has the option of sending the violation to the state Department of Justice, which can seek monetary penalties in court.

The March 17 inspection at Misty Morning Dairy was prompted by a Feb. 18 spill the dairy estimated at between 30,000 and 120,000 gallons. A hose came loose from an unattended pump in the middle of the night as manure was being moved from one lagoon to another, the DNR said.

The manure ran down the hill, then through culverts and into spring flows for two miles to Castle Rock Creek, which is listed by the state as an outstanding resource water and Class II trout stream.

On Feb. 22, DNR fisheries personnel found about 50 dead fish, but deep pools were too murky to be sure there were not more. A later survey of the creek found fewer than 50 live adult trout in one stretch where 200 to 400 were found in previous counts.

The DNR said it planned to release hundreds of extra yearling trout, but it will be years before they grow to the 17-inch size anglers are accustomed to catching.
No charges for officers in hostage shooting death  NEENAH, Wis.  Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel said Friday that he wont file criminal charges against two police officers who shot and killed a hostage during a gun battle at a motorcycle shop last year, saying prosecutors wouldnt be able to overcome a likely self-defense argument in court. The officers mistakenly but honestly believed Michael Funk was a threat because he was armed and they had taken fire moments earlier as they tried to storm the shop, Schimel said.

Amber Wilde case being investigated as murder  GREEN BAY, Wis.  Authorities are investigating the 1998 disappearance of a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student as a murder, and they have also outlined a possible motive in the case, according to court documents that were recently unsealed. Wilde was 19 and pregnant at the time of her disappearance. According to the court documents, the father of her child was engaged to someone else and upset about the pregnancy.

UW relations head leaving for real estate organization  MADISON, Wis.  The University of Wisconsin Systems public relations and lobbying director is leaving the post at the end of next week to lead a prominent real estate organization. Jim Villa, who was previously Gov. Scott Walkers chief of staff when he was Milwaukee County executive, will be taking over as CEO of NAIOP Wisconsin, the state chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association. Villa has worked in the real estate industry in the past and took the job as vice president of university relations in 2014.

Gun owner sues over firearms ordinance  ST. CLOUD, Minn.  A man arrested in St. Cloud for openly carrying an assault rifle is suing the city, claiming his constitutional rights were violated. Tyler Gottwalt, who has a permit to carry a gun, argues the citys gun law is more restrictive than the state statute on carrying firearms in public. The local law allows a person to carry a handgun in public with a permit, but prohibits firearms that arent carried in a case or broken apart.

Northshore Mining workers back on the job  SILVER BAY, Minn.  More than 400 workers at Cliffs Natural Resources Northshore Mining are back on the job  the first major callback of workers in several months on northern Minnesotas Iron Range. Cliffs Natural Resources announced in November it was temporarily shutting down Northshores taconite mine in Babbitt and processing plant in Silver Bay. Government leaders and industry officials blame the more than 2,000 Iron Range layoffs over the past year on cheap subsidized Chinese steel dumped on U.S. markets.
CAIRO (AP)  An Egyptian government official has blamed the animated Tom and Jerry series for allegedly spreading a culture of violence.

The accusations by Salah Abdel-Sadek, head of State Information Service, which is affiliated with the presidency, came at a forum held in Cairo this week. Abdel-Sadek told academics, media specialists, and public figures who had gathered to discuss violence that video games and cartoons are to blame.

The remarks are starkly at odds with the political reality of Egypt.

The Mideast country is struggling with a home-grown Islamic insurgency and regularly sees heavy-handed security measures used against protesters. Thousands of political dissidents are imprisoned.
MADISON  With the April election of Rebecca Bradley, five of the Wisconsin Supreme Court justices are now women  comprising the largest female majority of justices on any state Supreme Court in the nation.

While the state trails the national average in percentage of female judges in courts at all levels, the female percentage on the state Supreme Court, 71 percent, is greater than all other states, according to the National Association of Women Judges.

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack calls them the mighty five.

I think its just a sign of the times, said Roggensack, 75, the second female chief justice of the states highest court. Women are working more now and have been for quite some time so theyre getting to the point where they are eligible for these kinds of positions and in the past they were not.

In 1976, Gov. Patrick Lucey appointed Shirley Abrahamson to the court, marking the first time a woman held the position of Supreme Court justice in Wisconsin. She remained the only female on the bench for nearly 20 years, and served as chief justice from 1996 to 2015.

Former justice Janine Geske won election in 1993, becoming the second woman on the high court. Since 2007, females have made up a majority of the court.

Kate Berry, an attorney with the Brennan Centers Democracy Program at New York University School of Law, said historically, courts dont always stay diverse once a woman or racial minority is elected or appointed to the bench.

Theres a little bit of a mythology that once you get an individual on the court that has otherwise never been on the court before  that is a turning point, she said. That hasnt been proven to be true  there are a number of reason why courts struggle with diversity.

Wisconsins high court is different because it has sustained a presence of women on the court, Berry said.

National studies show that the behavior of a court, or the way it decides legal issues, doesnt remarkably change with the addition or subtraction of male or female judges.

The two best studies we have on this right now actually show that the effect of increasing female judges is relatively muted, said UW-Madison political science professor Ryan Owens, who studies judicial issues.

But theres one exception  cases of sexual discrimination in the workplace. The more female judges deciding such cases, the less easy it is for employers to successfully challenge them, Owens said.

The likelihood of a judge deciding in favor of the party alleging discrimination decreases by about 10 percentage points when the judge is a male, according to Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging, a 2008 study by political science professors Christina L. Boyd and Andrew D. Martin at Washington University and Lee Epstein of Northwestern University. Likewise, the study found that men were significantly more likely to rule in favor of the person alleging discrimination when a woman serves on the panel.

Both effects are so persistent and consistent that they may come as a surprise even to those scholars who have long posited the existence of gendered judging, the professors wrote after reviewing sex discrimination lawsuits filed in the federal courts between 1995 and 2002.

Even courts that have male judges with daughters tend to be more sympathetic to a womans experience of discrimination when deciding cases, Berry said.

According to a 2015 study conducted by Emory University political science professor Adam Glynn and Harvard Kennedy School professor Maya Sen of data on the family lives of U.S. Courts of Appeals judges, judges with daughters consistently voted in a more feminist fashion on gender issues than judges who have only sons.

The study concluded the result was driven primarily by Republican judges.

More broadly, this result demonstrates that personal experiences influence how judges make decisions, and this is the first article to show that empathy may indeed be a component in how judges decide cases, the professors wrote.

Justices on Wisconsins high court agree  saying their backgrounds have more influence on their how they decide legal issues than their gender.

Having been a trial court judge for ten years and then having sat on the Supreme Court for nine years now, I do not think that female judges necessarily decide cases any differently than male judges, said Justice Annette Ziegler, who has been on the court since 2007 and is up for another 10-year term in 2017. Were all very different people with different backgrounds and different personalities and we bring different things to the bench.

Justice Rebecca Bradley said while she didnt see a practical impact of having five of seven justices be females, she pointed out the historic significance of the current courts makeup.

For me professionally, I think its a significant milestone to have five out of seven justices be women and its rewarding to be part of that, said Bradley, whose 2015 appointment to the Milwaukee district of the Court of Appeals marked the first time that court had become all female. I think its an indication that in the legal and judicial profession, women have an opportunity presented to them that I think decades ago they didnt.

Rick Esenberg, president and general counsel of the conservative legal group Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, said the only time the court may have decided cases along gender lines was in 2001, when the court ruled 4-3 to allow a man who owed $25,000 in child support for his nine children be banned from fathering any more children while on probation for five years.

The courts four male justices ruled that a man who refused to pay child support could be banned from having any children for five years unless he could prove that he could support all of them, or go to prison for eight years.

The courts three female justices, liberals Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Ann Walsh Bradley and conservative Diane Sykes, dissented, saying that having children is a basic human right guaranteed by the Constitution.

Esenberg said that is a notable exception for a court that typically rules along party lines.

We have five women on the state Supreme Court and we have three who are so-called conservative judges and two who are more liberal judges. Obviously they think for themselves, and have their own judicial philosophy, said Esenberg. In this case, gender does not dictate destiny, it turns out.

Abrahamson and Justice Ann Walsh Bradley did not return phone calls and emails seeking an interview.

For me professionally, I think its a significant milestone to have five out of seven justices be women and its rewarding to be part of that. I think its an indication that in the legal and judicial profession, women have an opportunity presented to them that I think decades ago they didnt. Rebecca Bradley, Wisconsin Supreme Court justice
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The much-ballyhooed and biannual Echo Park Craft Fair will be taking over Silver Lake's Mack Sennett studios for the weekend, if you're still looking for a Mother's Day gift.

Yes, the Echo Park Craft Fair is in Silver Lake, not Echo Park. It was originally housed in cofounder Beatrice Valenzuela's Echo Park backyard when it began way back in 2009, and then moved downtown for a spell before finding a home at the historic Mack Sennett studios.

The fair has also grown exponentially since its backyard origins: the most recent iteration hosted over 3000 guests and featured 70 artists. This weekend's event will feature close to a hundred carefully curated art, design and food vendors.

The vibe is very Kinfolk-meets-Ladies-of-the-Canyoneclectic and refined handmade goods, cold-pressed juices, and lots of cool girls in oversized hats and the men who love them.

Rachel Craven, the fair's other founder, describes her and Valenzuela's shared aesthetic as relaxed, artful California bohemian.

Based on past years, it's safe to say there will be nary an objet in sight that isn't exquisite, intentional, artisanal and very likely locally-sourced. Certain corners of the converted soundstages can occasionally verge into Portlandia territory, but that's a small price to pay for a world of low-key chic. And speaking of prices, don't expect to find much of anything on the cheap.

Of particular note are Craven's gorgeous textiles and linen dresses, Valenzuela's handmade leather sandals, the vintage dresses from Tavin boutique, and Clare Crespo's Deli Post stationery collaboration with Paper Chase Press, which is new to the fair this year.

The spring Echo Park Craft Fair will be at Mack Sennett Studios at 1215 Bates Ave in Silver Lake from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission tickets are $10 and available at the door or here.
Today, we visit a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as this place is, its name provides evidence of very real danger. We are exploring Death Valley National Park.

Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. It has nearly 1.4 million hectares of desert and mountains.

There are mountains that reach more than 3,000 meters into the sky. The valleys Badwater Basin area is the lowest land in the Western Hemisphere. It lies 86 meters below sea level.

Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can cause sudden floods on the floor of the valley. But, during summer months, the air temperature has been as high as 57 degrees Celsius.

The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful.

Within Death Valley National Park is evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide.

In many areas of Death Valley, it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This has created unusual and beautiful rock formations, with colors of red, brown, gray, yellow and black.

In other parts of Death Valley, there are lines in the rock. The lines are evidence of the past presence of water. The area was deep under an ocean for many thousands of years.

Much of Death Valley is flat and extremely dry. In fact, scientists believe it is the driest place in the United States. In some areas the ground is nothing but salt. Nothing is able to grow in this salty ground.

However, it would be wrong to think that nothing lives in Death Valley. The valley is full of life. Wildflowers grow very quickly after even a small amount of rain. Some desert plants can send their roots down more than 18 meters to reach water deep in the ground.

Several kinds of birds live in Death Valley, as do mammals and reptiles. Visitors might see the dog-like animal called the coyote, or wild bighorn sheep, or other animals like the desert jackrabbit, the desert tortoise, and a large reptile called a chuckwalla. Many different snakes live there too. Some are dangerous, like the one sidewinder rattlesnake. It is an extremely poisonous snake with long sharp teeth, or fangs.

Throughout history, Native Americans found ways to survive in Death Valley. Rock art and other remains show that humans lived in the valley as far back as 9,000 years ago.

Death Valley is a huge place. It extends more than 225 kilometers across the southern part of California into the neighboring state of Nevada. The valley is part of the Mojave Desert.

The area got its name in 1849. That was the year after gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people from around the country traveled to the gold mining areas of the state. They were in a hurry to get there before other people did.

Many people were not careful during their travels. One group trying to reach California decided to take a path called the Old Spanish Trail. By December they had reached Death Valley. They did not have to survive the terrible heat of summer, but there was still an extreme lack of water. There were too few plants for their work animals to eat. The people could not find a pass through the tall mountains to the west of the valley. Slowly, they began to suffer from a lack of food.

To survive, they killed their work animals for food and began to walk out of the valley. As they left, a woman in the group looked back and said, Goodbye, death valley. The name has never been changed.

Death Valley officially became a national park in 1994. It is the largest national park in the lower 48 states.

More than one million people visit the park each year.

Titus Canyon is one of the most popular places to visit in the park. It has huge mountains, colorful rocks, ancient rock art and rare plants. There is even a ghost town, a town that has abandoned by all its residents. Death Valley is full of ghost towns.

Many people visit Death Valley in late winter and early spring, when wildflowers come to life there. The harsh desert floor becomes very colorful.

This year, some people called the wildflower display a super bloom. The National Park Service called this years bloom the best the park has experienced in a decade. Many rare storms in October brought a lot more rain to the valley than normal. During one storm, almost 8 centimeters of rain fell in the park in just five hours. Death Valley usually gets only five centimeters of rain per year.

Some visitors come to Death Valley for just a day. Tour buses bring travelers from Las Vegas, Nevada. They ride around the park in their bus, visit several places and are back in their Las Vegas hotel by night.

However, many other visitors stay in the park. The most popular area to stay in is Furnace Creek. Furnace Creek is the largest area of human activity within Death Valley National Park. There is a hotel, as well as places to camp.

The historic Inn at Furnace Creek is a beautiful hotel that was built of stone nearly 90 years ago. The inn is built on a low hill. The main public room in the hotel has large windows that look far out over Death Valley. Hotel guests gather near these large windows in the evening to watch the sun make long shadows on the floor of the valley and on the far mountains.

This beautiful image seems to change each minute. The sun slowly turns the valley a gold color that deepens to a soft brown, then changes to a dark red. As night comes, the mountains turn a dark purple color, then black.

Usually, visitors are very quiet as they watch the setting sun. A few try to photograph it. But the valley is too huge to capture in a photo. Most visitors leave only with the memory of the fiery sunset in the extraordinary Death Valley National Park.
American Douglas Lindsay left prison last November -- after 19 years and 28 days.

He had been given a life prison sentence for selling the drug crack cocaine. President Barack Obama reduced his sentence last year.

Lindsay is one of 306 people who had sentences for nonviolent crimes reduced by the president, who calls the United States a nation of second chances.

Lindsay told VOA he knows many former prisoners have a hard time finding work after their release. I was lucky, he said.

Lindsays younger brother helped him get a job at a local pasta producer near his brothers North Carolina home. He now loads big boxes of pasta for shipment to stores.

Douglas Lindsay was 28 when he was sentenced, and 47 when he left prison.

At the time of his arrest, he had completed a college study program. He was hoping to marry and have children.

I had all the dreams of a young man - marriage, children, a good job and that house with the white picket fence, he said.

Lindsay said he got his lifetime sentence when others arrested with him claimed he was their leader. That wasnt true, Lindsay said. He was a nobody in terms of drug sales, Lindsay said. But those who said he was a bigger player received short jail terms and got Lindsay the longest possible sentence  life.

No, Im not bitter, Lindsay said.

What is the biggest change since he went to prison? Technology, he said. There were no smart phones in 1997. Now everyone is spending all their time looking down at their phones, he said.

The criminal justice system, which Lindsay recently left, is now the center of a major reform effort.

The U.S. Congress is considering bills to reduce required long prison sentences for non-violent crimes  mostly for selling drugs. The required sentences were set by federal laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s.

President Obama stopped the federal government from asking people seeking government jobs if they were ever jailed for a crime. Now that question can only be asked when the government is ready to make a job offer.

Last month, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an order giving voting rights to over 200,000 ex-prisoners. That leaves only three U.S. states that block most ex-prisoners from voting.

Obama explained the current changes this way: Now, plenty of people should be behind bars, he said. "But the reason we have so many more people in prison than any other developed country is not because we have more criminals. Its because we have criminal justice policies, including unfair sentencing laws, that need to be reformed.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, over 2.2 million people are held in federal, state and local prisons. About 650,000 people are released from prison every year.

Most need jobs.

In 1988, Marshall Shackelford needed a job. He had been in prison since 1984. When he got out, he took over care of his two children  ages 4 and 7.

Shackelford found a warehouse job at Mays Chemical in Indiana. That job was just so important to me, he said. I had to take care of my children.

Over the years, Shackelford worked his way up to warehouse supervisor. And Mays Chemical continues to employ ex-prisoners. Shackelford said Mays asks people with a criminal history to find a person respected in in the community to 'speak up for them.'

This does two things, he said. It makes them develop a relationship with someone who is respected in the community and to live up to the recommendation that they got for the job. He said ex-prisoners working at Mays have done as well or better than other employees.

Michael Santos was released from prison in 2013, after serving 25 years for selling cocaine. It would be hard enough, he said, for people released from prison to find jobs  even if there was no 'discrimination.'

People returning after long sentences in prison find their friends and family back home have moved on. And they come home often without any money, and without the skills needed in todays job market, Santos said.

Santos now heads a business helping people entering and returning from prison.

Molly Gill is with a group called Families Against Mandatory Minimums. She said reducing sentences for non-violent offenders has won support from both conservatives and liberals because it saves money and it is the fair thing to do.

But she wishes a bill under consideration in the U.S. Senate would do more to reduce sentences for non-violent crimes. As she notes, those coming home after long sentences have the hardest time finding jobs.

The National Center for Victims of Crime said it is important the damage done to victims and their families not be left out of reform efforts. Victims rights must be at the core of all reforms, the group said in a statement.

Devah Pager teaches sociology at Harvard University in Massachusetts. She has looked at the problems facing people after they are released from prison.

In one study, she had people apply for jobs, all with the same experience, except some said they had been convicted of a crime. Those that listed past crimes got called back only half as much as those who did not list past crimes.

In another study, Pager looked at promotions for people who entered the U.S. military. She found people who had criminal records move quicker to better paying positions than those who did not.

In her opinion, the military did a good job making sure those with criminal records could handle military service. And Pager said it is possible people who served time work harder -- grateful someone gave them a chance and not ever wanting to return to prison.

Im Bruce Alpert.

Bruce Alpert reported on this story for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or share your views on our Facebook Page.

___________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

crack cocaine  n. a very powerful form of the drug, cocaine

pasta  n. a food made from a mixture of flour, water, and sometimes eggs that is formed into different shapes (such as thin strips, tubes, or shells) and usually boiled

probation  n. a situation or period of time in which a person who has committed a crime is allowed to stay out of prison if that person behaves well, does not commit another crime

recommendation  n. the act of saying that someone or something is good and deserves to be chosen

core  n. the central part of something

apply  v. to seek a position

grateful  adj. feeling or showing thanks


Fewer high school students in the United States were ready for college in 2015, say recent test results.

Only 37 per cent of seniors scored at or above proficiency level in reading. The number of seniors scoring at or above the proficiency level for mathematics fell to 25 per cent.

The test is called the National Assessment for Educational Progress, or NAEP. It is also known as the Nations Report Card.

The U.S. Department of Education has used this test to measure the ability of students in several subjects across the country since 1969.

The Education Department collected the scores of 13,200 students for the 2015 mathematics test and 18,700 students for the reading test. The department released the results of those two tests in April.

The results showed that average mathematics scores have changed little over the past 10 years. But they also showed the average reading score has decreased 5 points since 1992.

The National Assessment Governing Board is the organization that administers the test. Bill Bushaw is the executive director of the organization. He told the Wall Street Journal that he was unhappy with the lack of progress in increasing the skills and knowledge of students.

These numbers arent going the way we want, Bushaw said. We just have to redouble our efforts to prepare our students to close opportunity gaps.

The test is scored into four different levels: below basic, basic, proficient and advanced. But the level that officials consider to be college ready is not completely clear. Andrew Ho is a measurement expert who works at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

He also helps manage the Nations Report Card. Ho told National Public Radio that being college-ready means scoring somewhere between proficient and basic. "This is the [major] problem of standards," Ho said. "You can come up with a different and seemingly defensible standard every day over coffee."

But, Ho said, the Nations Report Card is the best test for examining how the average student in the U.S. performs. Unlike state tests, all students take the same national test and face the same standards. None are trained on how to take the test.

This means officials can measure the skills and knowledge of students rather than their test-taking abilities.

One major concern is that high schools are not demanding enough from their students. Despite the decrease in test scores, the Education Department reported the high school graduation rate in America was 82 percent in 2015. This is the highest graduation rate ever.

If you get right down to it, the reading and math required by NAEP, the ACT, the SAT, colleges and careers is much greater than what high schools are saying is sufficient," Ho told NPR.

Another issue is that the number of students scoring at the below basic level is increasing. The number of students scoring below basic in math increased from 35 percent to 38 percent between 2013 and 2015. The number of students who scored below basic in reading also increased 3 percentage points to 28 percent in 2015.

Peggy Carr is the acting director for National Center for Educational Statistics, the part of the Education Department in charge of the test. She told the Wall Street Journal that officials think that the lower numbers are not connected to education policies, but to the number of students who are staying in high school. Carr said more students who were at risk of leaving high school without graduating took the test this year.

This means more students with histories of poor performance had their abilities measured. Testing more of this type of student may be why the number of students performing at the lower end increased, she suggested.

There is a widening of the gap between higher and lower-ability students, Carr said.

Students are not able to use their scores toward the college admissions process the way they do with SAT and ACT scores. That is why some educators claim that students do not try their best on this test. Carr told the Wall Street Journal that the motivation of students is hard to measure. But things like the number of answers left blank shows the level of student interest is the same as in past years. At the time of the test, 42 percent of test-takers said they had been accepted into a four-year college.

Im Jill Robbins.

Pete Musto reported and wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

Now its your turn. How prepared for college are high school students in your country? Does your country provide nationwide tests to measure studentsabilities? Let us know in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

_________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

senior  n. US a student in the final year of high school or college

proficiency  n. ability to do something well

report card  n. a written statement of a student's grades that is given to the student's parents (the "Nation's Report Card" is a report to the citizens about how the public schools perform)

administer  v. to manage the operation of (something, such as a company or government)

opportunity gap  n. the ways in which race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, English proficiency, community wealth, familial situations, or other factors contribute to or perpetuate lower educational aspirations, achievement, and attainment for certain groups of students

basic  adj. forming or relating to the first or easiest part of something

advanced  adj. far along in a course of progress or development

standard n. a level of quality, achievement, etc., that is considered acceptable or desirable

defensible  adj. able to be thought of as good or acceptable

graduation  n. the act of receiving a diploma or degree from a school, college, or university

ACT  abbr. A test used to test high school students for college admissions in the U.S.; originally an abbreviation of the name American College Testing

SAT  abbr. A test widely used for college admissions in the U.S.; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, then the Scholastic Assessment Test

sufficient  adj. having or providing as much as is needed

motivation  n. a force or influence that causes someone to do something
LEXINGTON, Neb. - The Lexington Early Learning Academy continued their long-standing partnership with St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital with their annual Trike-A-Thon Thursday.

The Trike-A-Thon teaches ELA students how to ride their trikes and bikes safely, while also raising funds for St. Jude.

On Wednesday, School Resource Officers Luke Pinkelman and Chad Reutlinger spoke with students about safety. On Thursday, it was time to saddle-up and get to riding at the Dawson County Fairgrounds.

The Trike-A-Thon featured live and silent auctions, raffles, homemade tamales for sale, face painting, and burgers and hotdogs in the 4-H building.
New Delhi: CBI on Saturday questioned cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief SP Tyagi  Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep  besides advocate Gautam Khaitan for nearly eight hours asking exhaustively about finances, firms established by them and their relations with European middlemen in Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal.

The sources said questioning revolved around accounts of IDS Tunisia and remittances received by it.

They said some documents which Khaitan was not carrying on Friday were brought by him.

CBI claimed that Khaitan was being evasive during questioning and "concealing" information.

Agency sources said the Managing Director of IDS Infotech Partap K Aggarwal and CEO of Aeromatrix Info Solutions Pvt. Ltd Praveen Bakshi have been called in connection with its probe in the case.

It is believed that their firms were used to route alleged bribe money in India.

Former Air Force Chief SP Tyagi has also been called on Monday again for a fresh round of questioning.

The sources said Aggarwal, Bakshi and Tyagi have been called after some new facts have emerged during the questioning of the four accused on Saturday.

Sanjeev Tyagi has not denied his relations with European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa saying that they have known him since five to six years before the order was placed.

He has said that the payments received by him were for power sector jobs which were all received through proper banking channels with income tax paid on them. He has said that payments received from middlemen were not for helicopter deal but for some power sector job.
Editor's note: This article, which was published on 9 May, 2016, is being republished in view of the Enforcement Directorate's decision to take possession of land worth Rs 64.93 crore soon in Panchkula, which was allotted to the Associated Journals Limited by the Haryana government in 2005 after a quasi-judicial authority recently approved its order.

Fresh trouble is brewing for the Gandhi family, with the Haryana state government filing a First Information Report (FIR) for the illegal allotment of prime land in Panchkula, estimated to be worth roughly Rs 100 crore, to the Associated Journals Ltd (AJL). AJL is the parent company of National Herald, the now defunct mouthpiece of the Congress Party.

The move follows a Firstpost expose of 29 December 2015 detailing the file movement that showed how former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda overturned legal and official advice from within his government to first illegally re-allott the plot, then condone delays and defaults, even going so far as to extend additional unwarranted and unprecedented favors, including camouflage aid to the firm.

The FIR (No. 3 of 2016) has been registered in the State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) Police Station, Panchkula, against officials of AJL, the then chairman (Hooda himself) of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the then chief administrator of HUDA and others, under Sections 409, 420, 120B of the Indian Penal Code along with Section 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988. The SVB is the main investigative unit of the Vigilance Department.

However, it is learnt that the state government has decided to refer the case to the CBI rather than investigate it independently. This is because the case requires an expanded jurisdiction as AJL has offices across the country and also because it involves several powerful politicians.

The FIR, which reads like a synopsis of the Firstpost expose translated in Hindi, alleges abuse of power to fraudulently prepare false records to allot the plot at a lower rate, causing a loss of Rs 62 lakh to the state exchequer. The issue of camouflage aid has been highlighted. This is the first FIR against land allotment to AJL and its outcome will have a bearing on the case filed by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in a Delhi court against the Gandhis for allegedly usurping the assets of AJL (details below).

Panchkula plot history

The institutional site No C-17, Sector 6, Panchkula measuring 3,500 square metres, was first allotted to AJL on 24 August 1982 for the purpose of publishing a newspaper but had to be resumed (taken back by the state government) when AJL failed to construct even after 10 years of possession.

Persistent attempts by AJL to restore the allotment failed during the tenure of the Congress regime under chief ministers Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal because they chose to follow the rule book. However, matters took a favorable turn for AJL after Bhupinder Singh Hooda took over as chief minister and immediately began to throw legal issues to the winds.

The sequence of events recorded in AJL's Panchkula file history with HUDA shows that the intent behind acquiring the institutional plot was purely that of asset acquisition rather than the stated purpose of running a newspaper since construction on the plot  that was acquired in 1982, resumed in 1996 and later illegally re-allotted in 2005 by a the Hooda regime  took place only after 31 years in 2013, and only after exhausting all further leverage options. Even today, though the construction of the building may be complete, Navjivan, the Hindi daily that was supposed to be published from there, is nowhere in sight.

FIR fuels AJL matter

In 2013, economist, lawyer and BJP leader Subramanian Swamy took the Gandhis, their companies and associated persons to court on charges of cheating and breach of trust to grab valuable land assets across Lucknow, New Delhi, Mumbai, Indore, Bhopal and Panchkula under AJL.

As per the complaint filed in the court of the metropolitan magistrate, the Indian National Congress first granted an interest-free loan of Rs 90.25 crore ($13 million) to AJL, owner of the National Herald newspaper which was established in 1938 by Jawaharlal Nehru with the support of 5,000 other freedom fighters who also became shareholders.

Soon after, a closely held company, Young Indian (YI) was incorporated on 23 November, 2010 with a capital of Rs 50 lakh. On 13 December, 2010, Rahul Gandhi was appointed director of YI while Sonia Gandhi joined the board on 12 January, 2011. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi together hold 76 percent equity in Young Indian while the rest is equally held by Congress leaders Motilal Vora and Oscar Fernandes (12 percent each). YI has been described by Rahul Gandhi's office as a "not-for-profit company" which has commercial operations.

On 26 February, 2011, AJL allegedly approved the transfer of its Rs 90.25 crore loan along with all its properties (alleged to be now worth up to about Rs 5000 crore ($740 million) to YI. Swamy has alleged that the loan was either not repaid, or repaid in cash, which is in violation of Section 269T of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Motilal Vora has been the chairman and managing director of AJL since 22 March, 2002. The company had 1,057 shareholders as of 29 September 2010, as per the annual return filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi, party leaders Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey, Sam Pitroda and YI are all accused in the matter (for which they had to make a personal appearance in the Patiala House courts on 19 December 2015.

Other Hooda probes also connect to Gandhis

Hooda is already under probe by the Justice SN Dhingra Commission for his role in the illegal grants of licences to hundreds of private companies, including Robert Vadras land case, involving his company Skylight Hospitality and DLF.

A CBI enquiry into 14 other plots allotted in violation of due process by Hooda is already ongoing on the reference of the state government.

The Panchkula land allotment, which records all the persistent, violations committed during the UPAs term at the Centre with a Congress regime in the state, suggests the Congress has a lot of explaining to do for its wanton political patronage of AJL.

Initially, both the Gandhis and Hooda were daring the government to initiate inquiries to establish allegations of wrongdoing. Now that these inquiries are on full swing, both parties have started accusing the BJP governments at the centre and in Haryana of pursuing vendetta politics.

FIR in National Herald Case by Firstpost
Panaji: Goa police on Saturday arrested a woman who allegedly "sold" a 16-year-old girl to the expelled Congress legislator Atanasio Monserratte. She surrendered before the Crime Branch in Panaji on Saturday.

The police were looking for the woman, Rosy Ferros, whom the victim had referred to as "aunty" in her statement since 4 May. She and the girl's mother have been booked for trafficking.

Police also conducted 'panchnama' (crime scene inspection) at a four-star hotel at Miramar beach in Goa where Monserratte, former education minister, allegedly met the victim for the first time with Ferros.

Monserratte was arrested two days ago and sent to police custody for allegedly "buying" and sexually exploiting the girl. The victim's mother too was arrested.

Ferros surrendered before the Crime Branch at around 12:30 pm on Saturday, and was formally arrested later in the afternoon after questioning, a senior police officer said.

The girl, in her statement to the police, had claimed she was sold by her mother to Monserratte in March for Rs 50 lakh. Ferros allegedly brokered the deal.

Monserratte, MLA from St Cruz constituency, was on Friday remanded to three-days' police custody by a magistrate's court.

He would be presented before the Goa Children's Court on Monday.

The MLA has denied the allegations claiming that he had sacked the victim from her job at his lifestyle store at Miramar beach for stealing cash.
New Delhi: The indefinite hunger strike by JNU students entered the 10th day on Saturday, even as students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar withdrew his fast due to medical reasons.

So far, six students have withdrawn their fast against the punishment by the university in connection with the 9 February event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, while 14 others are continuing with the hunger strike.

Kanhaiya, who is out on bail after his arrest in a sedition case, was discharged from AIIMS on Friday, after treatment for mild dehydration and ketosis.

"Kanhaiya was back on campus last night and due to his health condition doctors advised him to discontinue with the fast. He has been advised bed rest for few days and also has to undergo some medical tests. While he has withdrawn the fast, he will continue with the agitation," a statement from the JNU Students Union said.

The health reports of other fasting students mentioned high ketone levels, low BP and weight loss.

JNU Teachers Association has called for a relay hunger strike, on Saturday, in protest against the administration. Alumni of the varsity will also join the protesting students and form a human chain on Saturday evening.

The JNU administration had on Friday appealed the students and teachers to not invite outsiders saying it might vitiate the academic atmosphere and peace on campus. The administration also asked the students to refrain from using "direct or indirect coercive measures and come forward for dialogue and discussion".

Terming the hunger strike to be an "unlawful activity" JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar had earlier this week appealed to students to put forward their demands using "constitutional" means and asked them to come for a "dialogue" to resolve the matter.

Five members of ABVP, who had also gone on hunger strike last week, called off their stir on Wednesday claiming they have got an assurance from the JNU administration that their demands will be considered.

Two other students  Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya  were arrested along with Kanhaiya in the sedition case.

While Kanhaiya has been slapped with a penalty of Rs 10,000, Umar, Anirban and a Kashmiri student, Mujeeb Gatoo have been rusticated for varying durations. Saurabh, who is the lone ABVP member in JNU Students Union, has also been slapped with a fine of Rs 10,000 for blocking traffic.
Kolkata: BJP in West Bengal on Saturday termed Jadavpur University as a "hub of anti-national elements" and accused the Opposition CPM and the varsity's Vice-Chancellor of supporting them, a day after rival groups of students clashed on the campus over screening of a political film.

"Student unrest has become a common phenomenon in JU. The screening of a film, cleared by the Censor Board, was stopped illegally. The trend of CPI(M) and Left-backed student unions of JU has been to stop anything that is against their ideology, which is totally against the country's democratic set up. We condemn it," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told PTI.

"Jadavpur University is a hub of anti-nationals. Left-backed students unions are breeding ground for anti-nationals and that is why we have seen anti-India slogans being raised by a section of JU students," he alleged.

Accusing the varsity's VC of supporting anti-nationals elements on the campus, Ghosh demanded that his role be probed. "We will inform the Center of the activities going on inside the JU campus," he said.

Rival groups of students had yesterday clashed on the varsity campus over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' triggering chaos during which some girls were allegedly molested and BJP actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter its premises.

The fracas began after the film's screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.
Srinagar: Three militants were gunned down on Saturday in a fight with security forces in south Kashmir's Pulwama district, police said.

"Three local militants belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit were killed today morning (Saturday) in Panzgam village of Pulwama district, a senior police officer told IANS.

Troopers from Rashtriya Rifles, special operations group and central reserve police force surrounded Panzgam village late Friday and the encounter started around 3.30 am.

"When the cordon around the hiding militants was tightened, they resorted to indiscriminate firing at the surrounding security men triggering an encounter.

"Firing at the encounter site has stopped, but search operation was still on".
Kolkata: A day after the screening of Vivek Agnihotri's controversial film "Buddha in a Traffic Jam" triggered clashes at the Jadavpur University here, a section of students have called for a protest march on Saturday against "planned fascist attacks" in educational institutions.

Advocating 'Indomitable Jadavpur', the agitators have appealed to the student community from West Bengal to participate in the protest march at the varsity playground in the evening.

"The students of this country are facing the fascist rage directly, and since they are trying to confront their ideas and challenging their role in education, the students everywhere in this country are being threatened, beaten up and even murdered.

"Today, Jadavpur University is also facing similar planned fascist attacks on its autonomous space. So we appeal the student community of this state to join us in a rally to protest against such kind of fascist makeover of the educational institutions," said a statement from the students.

Calcutta University students have also expressed solidarity with the agitators.

The Jadavpur University authorities on Friday filed a police complaint against four outsiders - three of them ABVP activists - for allegedly molesting female students of the varsity during a commotion over an open-air screening of Agnihotri's film "Buddha in a Traffic Jam".

With the campus on the boil over the screening of the movie, that faced loud protests from a large section of Left-leaning students loyal to the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) and sparked clashes, vice-chancellor Suranjan Das blamed the JU Alumni Association for granting permission to the organisers to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium and then cancelling it.

The agitators claim the movie "is a debatable one for its misrepresentation of the tribal resistance against neoliberal attacks and the attacks on Dalits on behalf of the state."
New Delhi: Amid a political slugfest between the Samajwadi Party and BJP over the water crisis in Uttar Pradesh, especially in drought-hit Bundelkhand region, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav is set to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday.

"The chief minister will formally meet the prime minister here tomorrow (Saturday), where issues relating to governance and drought and water scarcity will figure," an informed source said here.

In Lucknow, the state government on Thursday accused the Centre of "playing politics" over drought and said nobody had requisitioned water from the union government as there was not much need.

The Samajwadi Party on Friday raised the issue of an empty water train reaching drought-hit Budelkhand, even as Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien stressed that there should be no politics over water.

SP members also staged a walkout from the upper house on the issue.

Naresh Agrawal, raising the issue in the upper house, said: "The train that arrived was empty... it did not have water. Centre can help only when states seek help; we asked for money for making a dam in Bundelkhand."

He called for the resignation of the concerned central minister.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the centre is ready to extend all help, and the issue should not be politicised.

"If there is drought anywhere in the country, we all should be sensitive towards it. There is no need to do politics about that. There is a special package for Bundelkhand, it should be used properly. Centre is ready to provide more help," he said.

Kurien pointed out that no one should play politics over water.

"In the name of water and drought nobody should play politics. I would also request that this point may be talked, and settled," said Kurien.

In his explanation, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the train was supposed to be filled in Agra.

"We usually fill the tanker in the same state where water has to be supplied. That train was to be filled in Agra," said Prabhu.

He also said he had spoken to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday.

Agrawal however stressed that the state did not ask for a water train, but for tankers and money for digging tanks and constructing dams.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati said that the Centre and state should coordinate and help the people of Bundelkhand.

Nearly 50 districts are facing drought in Uttar Pradesh. In such a situation, the Centre and state government should rise above party politics and work together to solve the water crisis, Mayawati said.

"The state government maintains that the train sent was empty... We want to say that the government should have used whatever water was there in the train," she said.
New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohor Parrikar on Friday told Parliament the wrongdoers in the AgustaWestland chopper deal will be punished while Congress president Sonia Gandhi took to the streets to hit back at the government.

In a sign of escalating bitterness over the helicopter deal, Parrikar asserted in the Lok Sabha that the CBI will be able to fix the wrongdoers unlike in the Bofors scam where the accused were not brought to book.

"I can assure you all, I will not fail. What we could not do in Bofors, we may be able to do in AgustaWestland," he said in response to a discussion.

His response came on queries from members including BJP's Anurag Thakur, Kirit Somaiya and Nishikant Dubey, Saugata Roy (Trinamool Congress) as well as Jyotiraditya Scindia (Congress).

The Bofors AB company of Sweden was accused of giving kickbacks to win a bid to supply 155 mm field howitzer guns to India.

Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who was being sought in India for allegedly being a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal, died in July 2013.

Outside parliament, Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi took to the streets, warning the Narendra Modi regime not to take the Congress as a "weak" party.

After the government rejected a Congress demand for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the chopper deal, Congress members, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, walked out of the Lok Sabha.

Address thousands of supporters near Jantar Mantar in the heart of the capital, Sonia Gandhi accused the government of working under RSS' diktat.

Amid incessant shouting of "Sonia Gandhi Zindabad!", she said: "I want to caution the government that they should not make the mistake of considering the Congress weak.

"A strong message should go from here and it must be heard not only by those in Raisina Hill but those also in Nagpur, on whose directions the Modi government is functioning," she said in a brief speech.

Gandhi's reference were to the Prime Minister's Office at Raisina Hill and the seat of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur.

Attacking the Congress, Parrikar tried to show sympathy to former defence minister AK Antony and dubbed him "bechara".

"Bechare Antony sahab ke haath baandhe they (A helpless Antony had his limitations)," Parrikar said, adding that once an arrest was made in 2012 in Italy in the case, "Antony was virtually in panic".

"Because Antony wanted to protect his image," Parrikar said. "Within two or three hours, Antony moved the file, cleared papers and ordered a CBI probe."

He also said the field trials of the chopper outside India were initially opposed by Antony. "But he was later convinced to change his stand."

The minister said the CBI sat over the matter and "did nothing" till January 2014.

The debate was punctuated with sarcasm and humour from both sides.

Congress MP Scindia attacked the BJP for making veiled attacks on Sonia Gandhi. "Sonia Gandhi is a lioness whom they are scared of," he said.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has taken to launching sallies against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from four different fronts. This signals that their conflict is going to be a fight to the finish between them. On one of these fronts, Kejriwal was compelled to open as a defensive measure, so to speak. This was because of the Centres attempt to circumscribe the Delhi government or, from another perspective, not to let it expand its turf.

The battle on this front is over the powers the Constitution vests in the city-state government, involving furious exchanges over interpretations of laws governing the arrangement between the Delhi government and the Centres representative, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung.

Kejriwals objective in this battle is to ensure that the BJP does not make inroads into his citadel of Delhi, nor hamstring his government from functioning effectively. Battles prompt rivals to engage in propaganda. Kejriwal seeks to project Modi as unforgiving of his rivals who trounce him, as also violating the spirit of federalism. The BJP, in turn, portrays Kejriwal as one who brooks no Constitutional limits, wishing to acquire power not legitimately his.

The battle on this front is desultory and will likely continue till 2019, when the country will choose its 17th Lok Sabha, unless the courts decide before it whether the Centre or the states interpretation of the Constitution is right.

In recent months, Kejriwal has opened three other fronts against Modi, widening the theatre of conflict to the point that it is appropriate to call it war. The second of four fronts has seen Kejriwal move away from the Oppositions standard criticism of the ruling party, to firing stinging volleys against Modi. His tactics is to criticise both the Prime Ministers policies and the Sangh Parivars ideology.

Thus, for instance, we have seen Kejriwal derisively describe the much-celebrated Standup India, Startup India as Sit Down India, Sleep India. He has been vociferous in protesting the new tax imposed on jewelers, as he had been against the curb on withdrawal from the provident fund before this policy was rolled back. Perhaps the most audacious of Kejriwals attacks on this front has been the manner in which he lit into Modi for inviting Pakistani investigators to probe the terrorist attack on the Pathankot air base. Indeed, AAPs hostility against Pakistan mimics the antipathy that the BJP would customarily demonstrate towards that country in its Opposition days.

Not only did AAP volunteers protest in Pathankot during the visit of Pakistani sleuths there, but Delhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra transcended the bounds of propriety in calling Modi an ISI agent. And when Pakistan claimed that there was no proof its own involvement in Pathankot, even suggesting India might have mounted it, Kejriwal said it was a slap on Indias face, thanks to our PM.

On 5 April, Kejriwal tweeted, Some channels saying Pak backstabs again  Did these channels believe that ISI would finally agree that ISI was involved (?) He referred to Modis surprise visit to Pakistan in December and wondered, rather condescendingly, whether he inquired from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif why he had organised the attack on Pathankot. Kejriwal added, There has to be a deal between the two and we demand that the PM make this deal public.

The AAPs over-the-top attack on Modis Pak policy risks alienating the doves, who are mostly Leftish and voted in substantially large numbers for the party in Delhi  and likely to do so in Punjab as well.

Kejriwal has seemingly turned hawkish on Pakistan because he seeks to exploit the disenchantment among BJP voters regarding Modis Pakistan policy. Before he became Prime Minister, Modi had triggered hope among his supporters that he would somehow stare down Pakistan. Their hope now stands dashed.

It to them Kejriwal is addressing as he takes potshots at Modis Pakistan policy. AAPs own surveys show a degree of overlap between its voters and the BJPs, many of whom opted for Modi at the Centre and Kejriwal in Delhi. He hopes to persuade them that there exists a chasm between Modi as Opposition leader and Modi as Prime Minister, that he is not true to his word.

This tactics of Kejriwal was also evident in his approach to the recent controversy at the National Institute of Technology, Srinagar. He tweeted saying that for the crime of chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai, the BJP government (because of its alliance with the PDP) beat up students and lodged FIR. Another tweet of Kejriwal pointed out that in Kashmir the BJP beats up those who say Bharat Mata Ki Jai, and in rest of India who dont chant the same slogan get beaten up.

Kejriwals objective on this front is to wean away the middle class supporters of Modi, hoping they would rally behind AAP. He is telling them that Modi has failed to satisfy their craving for militant nationalism.

The risk of alienating his own Leftish supporters in the middle class is counter-balanced through increasingly sharp attacks on the Sanghs ideology than before. On Ambedkars birth anniversary, Kejriwal tweeted, Modi is not India, RSS is not Sansad (Parliament), Manusmriti not Constitution. Then again, Let them teach Savarkar, we will teach Ambedkar.

AAP also recently invoked the popular adage  moonh meain Ram aur bagal mein churi  to describe the Sangh. Significantly, the Delhi government filed cases against TV channels accused of running fake videos of the 9 February meet in JNU, prompting even Kejriwals bete noir, Prashant Bhushan, to tweet, Kudos to AAP government.

The third front Kejriwal has opened is to question the integrity of Modi, evident from his insistence that he should offer for public scrutiny his BA degree from Delhi University.

Of all the battles on different fronts, this one is most engaging for the public, largely because it involves no complexities of interpretations. Either the Prime Minister did his BA from Delhi University or he did not.

Kejriwal hasnt been silenced even though Modis degree was published in a national newspaper. He wants Delhi University to upload it on its website. It is an unprecedented demand  degrees are not open to scrutiny by the public.

However, the Universitys invoking of the privacy clause is unlikely to wash with the doubting public. After all, a mere piece of paper can pose no security threat to anyone. Delhis notorious grapevine is already working overtime.

It is the fourth front which, politically speaking, is perhaps the most interesting. It has AAP putting in its crosshairs both the BJP and the Congress. It emerged noticeably as soon as the Westland scam rocked the nation.

This can be gleaned from Kejriwals tweets. On 27 April, Kejriwal said  Shouldnt those named in the Italy court order be immediately arrested and interrogated? Got the CBI to raid me, but not the Congress. Another tweet of his portrayed BJP president Amit Shah standing with folded stands and requesting Sonia Gandhi to disclose how much money she took. Kejriwal continued, Is this the way to carry out investigation?

Kejriwals objective on the fourth front is to ensure AAP retains its identity of being both anti-BJP and anti-Congress. It is to also convey to the people that the BJP and the Congress may snipe at each other, but dont go the whole hog against each other.

His tactics of not letting people forget about the corrupt past of the Congress seeks to enhance the cost for those parties which are mulling an alliance with the Congress. This is linked to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In that election, Modi will remain the defining issue. None of the non-BJP parties, including the Congress, are in a position to win a majority on its. Through the four fronts Kejriwal has opened against the Prime Minister, he possibly hopes to emerge as the predominant anti-Modi symbol, a status one of the Gandhis would wish to claim. It ties in neatly with AAPs decision to expand out of Delhi and go national.

Modi hasnt personally countered Kejriwals attacks, presumably believing that any engagement with his doughty rival would only enhance his stature. But his generals have engaged AAP. It is seen as Modis style of retaliation. For instance, this was how the CBIs raid on Kejriwals office last year was popularly perceived. Modis generals cant be as effective in waging the war as he can be. Perhaps Modi has chosen silence over entering into verbal jousts with Kejriwal because he possesses an enviable arsenal as Prime Minister. But exercise of brute power in political battles only helps the underdog. (Remember the Emergency)

It is possible Modis silence could lead to his political encirclement. To belatedly break out of it through use of power only will only make him unpopular and weaken him, of which there are already early signs. The gains of it may not necessarily accrue to Kejriwal, but the loss is bound to be Modis and his party.

Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, has as its backdrop the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It is available in bookstores.
For the Congress, options are limited. Its battle has to be political. The BJPs attack on it has been well-orchestrated and the relentlessness of it reflects sound planning. The party has done a brilliant job of being in power yet leaving the main opposition on the defensive all the time. Its winning the perception game at the moment and the challenge before the Congress is to reverse the process. While corruption matters, including the AgustaWestland and the National Herald cases, will finally be decided by the courts, it will be a long time for any conclusion. So the task for the party is to swing public opinion in its favour in the intervening period.

It seems to be a really tough task. The Save Democracy rally yesterday where all senior Congress leaders made the routine noises indicates why. In fact, the biggest shortcoming in it was the routineness of it. The Congress president uttered the expected lines, as did Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders. If you were looking for a punch in it  the hint of a cornered party giving it all to its counter attack  it was conspicuously absent. If the party wanted to be seen as the target of political vendetta and witch-hunting, it didnt come across convincingly.

Its possible too many years in power has dulled the street-fighting ability of the Congress and along with political power it has lost public sympathy too. The bigger problem, however, is the partys refusal to accept the reality. The Gandhi family stopped being a vote-puller long, long ago. They are no different from any other Congress leader at this point. Sonia and Rahul are no Indira Gandhi. The latter fought her battles within the party and outside as a political warrior. She had the spunk and the power of conviction. If she could project herself as the wronged person in the face of the corruption cases against her, its because she had that force of personality too.

That is not the case with the present leadership. Even if the Gandhis come clean in all the cases it would hardly make a difference to their popularity or that of the party. The problem is the Congress will simply refuse to acknowledge it. If the party faces the prospect of being a dead party after the 2019 elections, it has only itself to blame.

Now, consider this situation. Towards the end of this year or early next year the BJP will have the numbers in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress, which has been flaunting its muscle in the Upper House, may still make noise but it wont be a force the government would be too worried about anymore. It will have its way in all important matters. The Congress will need to go back to the streets to find its feet again. And it wont be easy.

In the two years after the humiliating loss in 2014 general elections, the party has done precious little to revive itself. In the states, where the party should be focusing all its energy, theres no change visible. It is yet to come up with a message or a method to woo back the lost constituencies. If the BJP slides in popular perception, the gainer by default wont be the Congress anywhere. Other players have started efforts to fill the vacuum left by the latter. It wont be a surprise if a party like Arvind Kejriwals AAP marks its presence in several states at the cost of the Congress.

The point is while the BJP has strategised well to train its guns on the Gandhis and keep the Congress in a perennial fire-fight mode, the latter has done little to look beyond the trap of its own making. Will the party make amends? Not likely. Even if it does, it will be too sluggish. Too long in power dulls your reflexes and instincts.

Are we predicting the end of the Grand Old Party? Well, that's best left unanswered.
Nainital: Suspense mounted on Saturday on the fate of the nine disqualified rebel Congress MLAs with the Uttarakhand High Court reserving its judgement for May 9, a day ahead of the floor test in the state Assembly for sacked Chief Minister Harish Rawat to seek a confidence vote.

"The hearing has been concluded. I will pronounce the judgement at 10.15 AM on May 9," Justice U C Dhyani said in brief remarks counsel at the conclusion of nearly three hours of arguments on both sides.

While ordering the floor test, the Supreme Court had said that the disqualified MLAs cannot participate in the voting if they continue to remain disqualified at the time of voting.

The court had observed that "if they (disqualified MLAs) have the same status" at the time of vote of confidence, they cannot

participate in the voting in the House.

The court had also said, "However, our observation in praesenti will not cause any kind of prejudice to the merits of the case of disqualified Members of Legislative Assembly, which is sub-judice before the High Court."

At present, in the 70-member assembly, BJP has 28 MLAs, Congress has 27, BSP has 02, while there are three independent MLAs and one belongs to Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) lawmaker. Nine MLAs are Congress rebels and one is a BJP rebel.

Senior Supreme Court lawyers Kapil Sibal and Amit Sibal argued on behalf of the Speaker while CA Sundaram and Dinesh Dwiwedi represented the disqualified rebel MLAs.

Counsel C Ariyama Sundaram, appearing for the disqualified MLAs, argued that the Speaker's action against them was "biased" that went against tenets of natural justice.

He contested the three grounds on which the action against the MLAs was taken. He asked what was wrong in the Congress MLAs writing a joint memo to the Governor with their BJP counterparts seeking a division of votes on the Appropriation Bill.

Sundaram said writing a joint memo was an act of dissent which was healthy in democracy and not defection within the meaning of the 10th schedule of the Constitution.

If according to the Speaker the Appropriation Bill was passed by the Assembly, then how does the question of rebel MLAs voting with the BJP in the Assembly arise, he asked.

The Speaker's action was defended by counsel Amit Sibal who said the action of the rebel MLAs going with the BJP MLAs in the same bus to the Governor and later in the same chartered aircraft outside Uttarakhand in the company of BJP General Secretary Vijay Vargiya showed their ideological compatibility.

The rebel MLAs parading before the Governor with the BJP MLAs also amounted to defection under the anti-defection law, Sibal said.

Sundaram maintained there was nothing wrong in the rebel MLAs going with the BJP MLAs which he said was not an issue of ideology nor did it attract the provisions of the anti-defection law as it did not amount to defection.

Countering Kapil Sibal's argument that the Speaker's action in matters related to the legislature could not be challenged, Sundaram said any action fell under the scope of judicial review.

"Factors that the Speaker relied on for disqualifying the MLAs like a joint memorandum to the governor seeking a division of votes on the appropriation bill, their going along with opposition party (BJP) members to the Governor then their going in a chartered plane to Delhi cannot serve as a ground for their disqualification," he said.

The Speaker's own claim that the appropriation bill was passed by voice vote shows there was no ground for disqualifying the MLAs under the anti-defection law, Sundaram said.

"The Speaker says the bill was passed, the chief minister says the bill was passed, the division bench says it was passed, then where is the ground for disqualification?," he argued.

Demanding division of votes on budget is a member's right and travelling in a bus to the Governor with a complaint against what they thought was wrong has nothing wrong about it, he said.

Sundaram also claimed that the bus was provided to the MLAs by the state government and the aircraft referred to by the Speaker as a chartered flight was a Spicejet commercial flight from Dehradun to Delhi.

Kapil Sibal countered his argument by asking whether there were commercial flight operations from Dehradun to Delhi after 1 AM in the night. He also said if they knew about all this why did they not tell the Speaker or the court about it.

Lawyer Amit Sibal said merely claiming is not enough and asked the rebel MLAs to produce evidence in support of the

argument that it was a Spicejet plane or the bus was provided by the state government.

He also showed a video clipping to the court in support of the argument that the bus was not provided by the state government.

However, Justice Dhyani said the verdict will be based on whatever documents have been made available to court already as evidence from both sides in support of their arguments.
CAIRO An Egyptian court on Saturday sought the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and documents to Qatar.

The final ruling is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

The verdict against former president Mohamed Mursi, who is charged in the same case, was postponed to the same day.

The three journalists, one Jordanian, were sentenced in absentia. Two of them work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. They can appeal.

The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.

Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.

Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.

Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt's then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi.

Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt's most organised political group.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Pyongyang: North Korea's ruling party is preparing to bestow a new title on leader Kim Jong Un, another clear sign that the third heir to North Korea's dynasty is firmly in control despite his country's deepening international isolation over one of his key ambitions, to keep developing more and better nuclear weapons.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday said the agenda for the congress included reviewing the works of the party's Central Committee and Central Audit Commission, revising party rules, electing Kim to the top party post and electing a new central leadership for the party.

The new title would likely elevate Kim to a level equivalent to his late father and grandfather, who held the title of general secretary of the Workers' Party a mostly symbolic move to demonstrate the young leader is in full control and ready to begin a new era of his own.

Kim is already head of the party, but with the title of First Secretary.

Kim opened the lavish congress with a brief speech on Friday that singled out North Korea's advances in developing nuclear weapons and rockets capable of putting satellites into orbit, as examples of the country's progress in the face of international criticism and tough sanctions that threaten to further stifle its struggling economy.

Along with being high political theater filled with pomp and ceremony the congress is being held in a lavishly decorated hall decked out with bright red banners and flags bearing the party's hammer, sickle and pen symbol the gathering is a major milestone for the young North Korean leader, who was not yet born when the previous congress was held in 1980.

Kim called the congress a "historic" milestone in a grand struggle pitting the North against "all manner of threats and desperate challenges by the imperialists."

He said it would "put forward the strategic line and tasks to keep ushering in a great golden age of socialist construction and the direction of advance of our revolution."

The reference to what the North claims was a successful hydrogen bomb test in January brought a standing ovation from the more than 3,400 delegates at the congress. To put a finer point on his defiant message, outside observers believe, the North may be preparing to conduct another nuclear test soon, possibly before the congress is over.
Why are we as Indians so surprised and horrified that Donald Trump could be elected President of the United State. Racist, bigoted, crude, crass, with no idea of foreign policy, intent on being divisiveness, hostile, provocative and dangerous...oh, yes, egotistical, maniacal and totally out to lunch.

Perhaps we should stop for a minute and think. Do all these labels apply to an army of elected individuals in India? You can start at the highest echelons of political command and go right down the various tiers of the power pyramid and find dozens of people who would fit the bill today, just as they have in the last 68 years.

I have my own favourite list and you have yours and collectively we would probably be able to mark down at least 75 desi donalds whose bigotry and foolishness, whose racist attitude and absurd commentaries would put the guy leading the presidential race in the shade.

At 75, I am being modest. Go to the State level and between sycophancy, brown nosing adulation and the hubris and arrogance of our Chief Ministers and their legislative minion, Donald Trump is a sweet little ducky. What gives us Indians the right to believe that it is only our prerogative to elect religious fanatics and corrupt and venal people with no saving graces. Why cant the Americans do the same?

We fall for crap all the time. The promises of each election lie dead by the wayside but that does not stop us from voting for people who hit our buttons of suspicion, insecurity and fear. They play us and we fall for it.

See, those people who are not like you are the reason you are in such bad shape, vote for me and I will rid you of the menace. I will clean the place up.

Come on, the names resonate in your mind, spill onto your lips, they are in command at the moment, playing and preying on our weaknesses. Just like Donald telling us half truths, strumming our fears with his fingers, calling on the people to let him lead them to a new frontier. We have been doing much the same since 1947.

Lets play devils advocate. We blame the USA for playing global policeman. Donald wants to bring Americans home and end that role. And that makes us angry.

He wants to build walls to keep illegal people out because they contribute to crime. Ask anyone in Delhi how he feels about the Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan ghettos in the neighbourhood. Donald Trumps central theme is Lets make America great again.

Change the name of the country and go back through our electoral history. There's not an iota of difference.

I am watching Arnab Goswami castigating the Americans on Wednesday night for some report that has come out on Indias religious intolerance. Everyone is outraged. Who can be more racist than the US. From New Delhi to Honolulu, he paraphrases, people are asking how the US can dare talk about racism. Even if we overlook the fact that Honolulu is part of the US, why the indignation? Ignore the American report. It is not our almanac or our yardstick, why do we care what they say? Ask people from eastern states how secure they feel.

Then he goes on to rake Donald Trump over the coals. And how does it matter to you and me if the people of the USA want to make him their leader?

We elected Laloo Prasad Yadav, Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati, Smriti Irani, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Karunanidhi, a thousand others, didnt see the Americans getting their knickers in a twist.

Donald Trump doesnt want you to come to his country. Fine, dont go. Donald Trump wants Make in USA. How is that different from Make in India. He says the US owes 419 trillion and it needs a businessman to bring it back. Arent we doing much the same chasing hidden bank accounts.

Is he a racist monster or a pragmatist when he says that well educated blacks have an advantage over whites. Affirmative action combined with the guilt of the past makes for a formidable force. Any different from our multi-reservation approach to unequal equality.

Bring back jobs from China and Mexico, says this horrible man, give them to Americans. Why is that different from reversing the Indian brain drain that we keep moaning about.

Get rid of waste, fraud and abuse in every single agency, says Donald. Did Arvind Kejriwal say anything different?

Two months ago Trump said, time to figure out who are allies are. And we are complaining about that in India. We havent been able to figure out our friends in seven decades.

He said, we have a problem with radicals. Doesnt India?

Donald Trump is the perfect Indian politician. Since we vote so many of his ilk into power why should we mock the Americans for doing the same.
ISTANBUL Two prominent Turkish journalists were sentenced to at least five years in jail for revealing state secrets on Friday, just hours after a gunman tried to shoot one of them outside the courthouse in Istanbul.

Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, who was unscathed in the shooting, was given five years and 10 months. Erdem Gul, the newspaper's Ankara bureau chief, was sentenced to five years. They were acquitted of some other charges, including trying to topple the government.

The case, in which President Tayyip Erdogan was named as a complainant, has brought widespread condemnation from global rights groups and increased fears about freedom of the press in Turkey, a NATO member and EU candidate country.

Hours before the verdict was handed down, an assailant attempted to shoot Dundar. In full public view, before a courthouse, the attack marked an alarming development in a country already grappling with bombings by Kurdish insurgents and spillover of violence from neighbouring Syria.

The man shouted "traitor" before firing at least two shots in quick succession. A reporter covering the trial appeared to have been wounded.

A Reuters witness said the assailant was detained by police. Before the shooting, he had approached reporters, saying he had been waiting since early morning and hoped Dundar would be found guilty. His motives and background were not immediately clear.

"We experienced two assassination attempts in two hours: one by firearms, the other by law," Dundar told reporters following the trial. "There will always be concerns that the orders of the highest office played a role in this ruling."

The two journalists are free pending appeal. The court also decided to postpone a hearing on separate charges of links to a terrorist group until the outcome of a related case.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department in a statement voiced concern about the verdicts and called on Turkish authorities to "support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society."

No one was immediately available for comment at Erdogan's office after the ruling.

Dundar and Gul had faced up to life in jail on espionage and other charges for publishing footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency taking weapons into Syria in 2014.

'HEAVY PRICE'

Erdogan has acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border in January 2014, belonged to the National Intelligence Organisation and said they were carrying aid to Turkmen battling both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State.

He has accused the journalists of undermining Turkey's international reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price", raising opposition concerns about the fairness of any trial.

"We say the incident we covered was a crime, not our coverage," Dundar said. "And for that we were confronted by the president. He acted like the prosecutor of this case. He threatened us and made us targets."

Under the ruling AK Party, which was founded by Erdogan, Turkey has seized control of opposition newspapers and broadcasters and cut the satellite feed of a pro-Kurdish channel, accusing them of terrorism-related activities.

"This case isn't based on law, it's political," said Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the opposition Republican People's Party.

'SYSTEM' ON TRIAL

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the verdict.

"What was really on trial was the Turkish criminal system, which is guilty of gross misconduct," said the New York-based group's executive director, Joel Simon, in a statement.

Journalists have been targeted in the past. Last month senior Turkish security officials were among 34 defendants put on trial accused of links to the murder of a prominent Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, a decade ago.

Dink, who ran a newspaper serving Turkey's 60,000 Christian Armenians, was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Istanbul street in 2007.

Gul and Dundar spent 92 days in jail, almost half of it in solitary confinement, before the constitutional court ruled in February that pre-trial detention was unfounded because the charges stemmed from their journalism.

Erdogan said he did not respect that ruling.

(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Diane Craft)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
ISTANBUL Turkish police detained two more suspects on Saturday over the attempted shooting of a prominent Turkish journalist as he waited outside an Istanbul courthouse for a verdict in his trial.

A gunman attempted to shoot Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the secular Cumhuriyet newspaper, on Friday, hours before he was sentenced by the court to more than five years in jail for revealing state secrets.

The attacker shouted "traitor" before firing at least two shots in quick succession. Dundar was unharmed but a journalist covering the trial, which has caused widespread alarm about freedom of the press in Turkey, was injured.

The assailant, who has since been identified as a 40-year-old from the Anatolian city of Sivas, was detained at the scene.

Turkish police detained two suspects reported to be the gunman's associates, Anadolu reported, citing police. No one was immediately available for comment at Istanbul police offices.

The court sentenced Dundar to five years and 10 months and his colleague Erdem Gul to five years for publishing footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency taking weapons into Syria in 2014.

They had faced up to life in prison and were acquitted of some charges, such as attempting to topple the government. The two are free pending appeal.

President Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged that the trucks, stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border in January 2014, belonged to the National Intelligence Organisation. He said they were carrying aid to Turkmen battling both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and Islamic State militants.

Erdogan, who was named as a complainant in the case, has accused the pair of undermining Turkey's international reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price", raising opposition concerns about the fairness of any trial.

Under the ruling AK Party, which was founded by Erdogan, Turkey has seized control of opposition newspapers and broadcasters and cut the satellite feed of a pro-Kurdish channel, accusing them of terrorism-related activities.

Journalists have been targeted in the past. Last month senior Turkish security officials were among 34 defendants put on trial accused of links to the murder of a prominent Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, a decade ago.

Dink, who ran a newspaper serving Turkey's 60,000 Christian Armenians, was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Istanbul street in 2007.

(Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Digby Lidstone)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Remember Malcolm Turnbull's taxpayer-funded $300,000 lunch in China? Turns out it really cost more than $500,000.

The Prime Minister rubbed shoulders with some of China's richest and more powerful people at the gala lunch  the grand finale of a week-long Australian trade and investment showcase  in Shanghai last month.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Lucy Turnbull at the Australia Week in China gala lunch in Shanghai on April 14. Credit:Andrew Meares

China is Australia's largest trading partner, with two-way trade valued at $150 billion last year.

Government tender documents at the time revealed the lunch would cost taxpayers at least $284,962 in catering, plus venue hire. But another contract notice  released weeks later  shows Austrade also paid Hong Ling Dai Event Management $233,641 to organise and run the lunch.
Australia's federal police would be forbidden from sharing information about drug crimes if it could result in the death penalty under major changes being considered by the Turnbull government.

Just after the one-year anniversary of the executions in Indonesia of Australian drug smuggling ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, a parliamentary review led by retiring Liberal MP Philip Ruddock has called for new guidelines to prevent such cases ever occurring again.

Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015. Credit:Anta Kesuma

The bipartisan report recommends the Australian Federal Police obtain guarantees that prosecutors in partner countries will not seek to apply the death penalty in drug cases before sharing information. In situations where such guarantees cannot be obtained, the AFP should withhold the information.
The Baird government has rejected a call to more strictly regulate brothels through licensing and a specialist police unit, arguing it would recriminalise prostitution and put the health of sex workers at risk.

Instead, the onus will remain on local councils to take action against suspected illegal brothels through toughened planning laws.

Pupils pass a sign for a massage parlour believed to be operating as an illegal brothel near Hornsby Girls High School. Credit:Jessica Hromas

The Sun-Herald has reported on an increase in suburban brothels opening in breach of planning laws under the guise of massage parlours, at inappropriate locations including near schools.

Hornsby Council last year failed in an attempt to have a brothel 50 metres from a school shut down, after evidence collected by a private investigator who had sex with a prostitute was rejected by the court as not sufficient.
The Baird government's plan to sell one of the largest coastal plots still available in the city is capturing the attention of major developers keen to build in the Long Bay prison complex.

The closure and sale of the Malabar jail and construction of a new, larger prison in south-western Sydney will be accelerated as the government seeks to cope with a record number of inmates.

The state government has accelerated plans to sell Long Bay jail. Credit:Sahlan Hayes

The 32-hectare jail site will be sold for hundreds of millions of dollars to developers, although no firm timeline for the closure of the prison has been released.

It is likely the government's property development arm UrbanGrowth NSW would be called upon to create a master plan for the future of the site, which is on the state heritage register.
Cairo: An Egyptian court handed down preliminary death sentences on Saturday to six defendants on charges of leaking secret state documents to Qatar in a case involving deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

Dr Morsi was not among the six convicts, who include two employees for the Qatari television network al-Jazeera.

On Sunday, unidentified gunmen killed eight policemen dressed in civilian clothes, including an officer, in an attack on a police vehicle in Helwan, just south of Cairo, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said.
I think we should focus on the other important issues at stake in the November election: the right of women to have an abortion, election fraud, gun control, high prescription prices, crime, etc.
Japan's ambassador to the United States weighed in on the U.S. presidential election debate Friday by arguing against the "America first" stance of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and stressing the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Without mentioning Trump by name, Kenichiro Sasae told a Washington forum that Japan had come up unexpectedly in the election debate, showing that nothing could be taken for granted in terms of the long-standing U.S.-Japan alliance.

"In the presidential elections, there are arguments whether the United States is going for the isolationist stance," Sasae said. "I don't want to see that kind of United States.

"I want to see the United States to be strong and come with a strong robust position, not really thinking of the United States only," he said.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, has portrayed Japan, a long-time treaty ally of the United States, as a free-rider on security. He has suggested that Tokyo might need nuclear weapons to ease U.S. financial commitment to its defense  anathema to the only country ever attacked by atomic bombs.

"I know that there has to be a debate about how to get this country strong but the question is whether you could be strong without a proper role around the world," Sasae said.

"It is important not to undermine: one, the value of the U.S.-Japan alliance; two, the geopolitical implications of emerging or resurgent powers in the world; three, the capability and strength of the United States."

Sasae also stressed the importance of the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal currently held up in the U.S. Congress, saying its passage was crucial to maintaining U.S. economic leadership in Asia.

Trump outlined a clear "America first" foreign policy in a speech late last month, vowing that if he were elected president, U.S. allies in Europe and Asia would have to fend for themselves if they did not pay more for the U.S. defense umbrella.

In spite of concerns in Japan about the implications of a more isolationist U.S. foreign policy, especially in the face of an increasingly powerful China flexing its muscles in Asia, Japan's prime minister said on Thursday that Tokyo hoped to be able would work with whoever becomes U.S. president.

Shinzo Abe said Japan's alliance with the United States was the foundation of peace and prosperity in Asia and would be increasingly important regardless of who was president.
More than a dozen men have been arrested in Pakistan for the death of a teenage girl whose body was found in a burned-out van.

The killing in the village of Makol, near Abbottabad, rocked Pakistan when it emerged that about two dozen men had held a council and decided on the murder as a form of honor killing.

When local residents finally managed to put out the flames that had engulfed several vehicles April 29, they found the charred body in the back seat of one of the vans.

Body identified

Police said the body was that of Ambreen Riasat, a local teenager whose supposed crime had been to help a friend elope.

The thinking was that they would create such a precedent that no girl would dare run away again, and no boy would dare lure a girl away, and no car owner would help such a couple," police officer Naseer Ahmed.

Police said Ambreen was killed before the car was set on fire, but a neighbor said he heard her shouting for help while the car was burning.

Fourteen suspects are in custody -- all of them are related to another girl who had eloped in mid April with a boy from another family.

Police said the the men taken into custody had decided to punish Ambreen for her role in the elopement.

'My home is destroyed'

Ambreens father recalls his horror as he learned the details from police and the media.

Im like a dead man. My home is destroyed. If I knew who did it I would have destroyed them too and then called the police," Riasat Khan said.

To add to the tragedy, police have also arrested Ambreens mother for obstruction of justice. They claim she knew that Ambreen had been taken but refused to tell them. She denies knowledge of how her daughter disappeared.

The families of the accused said they are innocent.
The election of Sadiq Khan as London's first Muslim mayor is a sign of changing times for Britain and its population of nearly 3 million Muslims.

"He is a Muslim. We are Muslims. This is a great opportunity for the Muslim people," said Mohammed, a 69-year-old businessman in East London's largely Muslim Whitechapel neighborhood.

Mohammed immigrated to Britain from Pakistan more than five decades ago at a time when there was little accommodation for Muslims.

"When we came, there wasn't any halal food at all, he said. But these days, you just name it  you can get every halal product selling in the United Kingdom."

Across London, there are halal butcher shops and many products on mainstream British supermarket shelves, from potato chips to cookies, labeled as halal.

Open city

Khan's victory represents a departure from the past in many ways.

In the previous six decades, London has grown from a homogeneous city to a booming, vibrant, cosmopolitan and multicultural capital that draws people from all over the world.

Tony Travers, a political analyst at the London School of Economics, told VOA that Khan's rise to be chief of this seat of the former empire "will undoubtedly be taken as evidence that London and Britain are broadly comfortable with substantial immigrant and minority populations."

"London, in particular, is likely to be viewed as a cosmopolitan and open city," Travers said.

But final results of elections across Britain show a wider polarization among the larger British population, especially on the issues of immigration and the demographic change that Khan's rise to high office represents.

Few victories

Khans election was one of the few victories for Britains Labour Party, which on Thursday suffered what analysts say was its worst defeat in more than a century.

Voters in localities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland dealt the Labour Party a blow, exposing the stark differences between London's progressive, multicultural population and voters elsewhere who see their nation in decline and losing control of its borders.

The latter sentiments have fueled the Brexit movement for Britain to leave the European Union. It is an issue that British voters will decide in a June 23 referendum, and political analysts say Thursday's races show how close a decision it will be.

Travers calls Khan's election "a remarkable day for British Muslims," and says it suggests "British voters are happy to see Khan as a mainstream Labour politician, which he is."

High levels of integration

In the span of one generation, Khan, 45, symbolizes how Muslims in Britain have gone from outsiders who were allowed in to fill labor needs during Britain's postwar reconstruction to members of the ruling elite.

I want every single Londoner to get the opportunities that our city gave to me and my family, the opportunities not just to survive, but to thrive, the opportunities to build a better future for you and your family, Khan said in a speech after election officials confirmed his victory.

Like the voter Mohammed, Khan's parents immigrated from Pakistan nearly five decades ago and arrived to a world of disenfranchisement and financial struggles, but also of hope and opportunity.

Khan's father worked as a bus driver and his mother as a seamstress, and the family lived in public housing. Khan went on to become a human rights lawyer, a city council member, and then a government minister.

"It's nice to see change," Mohammed told VOA. "Mr. Kahn, I think, can do a lot for the community."

Party loyalty

Some voters who did not vote for Khan told VOA they did so out of loyalty to the Conservatives, not ethnic or religious considerations.

Polls said the top issues in the mayor's race were the rising cost of housing and transportation. Khan's promises to freeze public transportation fares resonated with many.

The race was marked by bitter allegations.

Khan's main opponent, Conservative Zac Goldsmith, accused him of having links to an extremist cleric, London imam Sulaiman Ghani, with whom Khan has appeared in photos. Khan denied the allegations.

Khan's election also showed that many London voters looked beyond fears triggered by terrorist threats, the recent attacks in Paris and Brussels, and memories of the 2005 suicide attacks by four extremists that killed 52 people in London.

Era of empowerment

For British Muslims, Khan's election is the beginning of an era of empowerment in a city where each day they are seen less as foreigners, a notion acknowledged by politicians both on the left and the right.

Steve Baker, a Conservative member of Parliament, believes Britain is doing a better job of integrating its Muslim minority than previously.

"I'm very confident that we're having high levels of integration, which are getting better as the generations pass," he told VOA. Khan's success in the mayoral race, he said, "is in fact an indication of the high levels of integration we have in the U.K."
Donald Trumps unorthodox foreign policy views could dramatically affect the United States standing around the world if he's elected president in the fall.

But a group of former Republican administration officials and academics may have more impact. They are weighing the consequences of his policies for the Republican Party and whether they would join his administration.

Some elements of the Republican foreign policy establishment pushed back against Trumps views earlier in the campaign season and after his April foreign policy speech in Washington.

Those concerns intensified after the unexpectedly quick resolution of the Republican nomination process, when Trumps resounding win in the Indiana primary knocked Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich out of the race.

Establishment support

Now the establishment must decide whether it will support a nominee whose foreign policy lacks definition and direction.

What is his foreign policy? Where will this guy go? retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson pictured Republican policymakers asking.

Wilkerson served as then-Secretary of State Colin Powells chief of staff during the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq War and has been highly critical of the Bush administrations decision-making process in that war.

He agrees with Trumps assertion that the Iraq invasion was a disastrous mistake for the United States but worries about Trumps decisiveness.

Will he be so inexperienced when he walks through that Oval Office door that the director of the CIA to the director of national intelligence to the secretary of state, you name it, secretary of defense will capture him and the next four years will be him bouncing off the walls trying to decide which one of the bureaucracies to support with his point of view? he said.

Building criticism

Trump routinely cites his business experience as a skill set that can transfer into the realm of diplomatic negotiations and calls for an America-first approach to foreign relations.

That approach could be attractive to Americans, according to a Pew Research poll released this week. It found 57 percent of Americans are wary of global involvement, saying the United States should deal with its own problems and let other countries deal with their problems as best as they can.

I do not believe theres an analogy here between a business deal and a negotiation on behalf of a country where national security is at stake, says Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration.

He has no appreciation whatsoever of the importance of allies and alliances  all he does is insult them all the time and say theyre not doing enough, and it worries many of the allies in Asia and the Middle East and Europe," he added.

Over a hundred leading national security and foreign policy officials, many of whom held posts in previous Republican administrations, signed an open letter earlier in the campaign season saying they would be unable to support Trump as the nominee, calling his vision of American influence and power in the world wildly inconsistent and unmoored in principle.

I dont think he has a coherent foreign policy. Its mostly slogans, says Abrams.

Trumps campaign team reportedly reached out to a number of establishment foreign policy and national security experts in early April, with little success. But the now-settled reality of a Trump nomination may significantly alter those calculations.

Abrams says the foreign policy advisers who end up joining the Trump campaign will have ways of justifying their decision.

They want jobs, they want access. In other cases, they are optimists and think the world will teach him lessons, he said. They think that no president can do whatever he wants to do. Theres the Pentagon, theres Congress to deal with.

General election calculations

Abrams says there will be two key decision points. What if his campaign reaches out to you? And then the next test  well, what if he wins?

If Trump wins, the decision will get tougher.

Then you can say to yourself, said Abrams,  'I need to do it for the country.' It isnt anymore about helping him win the election; we only have one president at a time.

That argument will be especially attractive if Trump chooses centrist secretaries of state and defense who can appeal to specialists seeking to provide moderating influence on Trumps views.

Trump has shown signs of moderating his language to adapt to a general election strategy that will appeal to a broad array of American voters. If he can do the same with his views on foreign policy, he may be able to convince more members of the foreign policy establishment.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, who has declined to endorse Trump, talked with the candidate after his foreign policy speech. The senator told reporters last week, I think his campaign, like anybody who hasnt been in the public arena before, is evolving.

The man who touts the art of the deal may then become the candidate for the art of the compromise.
The top State Department envoy on human rights will travel to Vietnam next week to pave the way for a visit by President Barack Obama later this month.

Tom Malinowski will urge Hanoi to "release political prisoners without condition and encourage further reforms that will help to make Vietnam's laws consistent with its international human rights obligations," the State Department said in a statement released Friday.

Vietnamese officials have voiced hope that Obama's visit will result in the full relaxation of the "lethal weapons" embargo on the Southeast Asian nation.

The U.S. partially lifted its three-decade ban on lethal arms sales to Vietnam in October 2014, but that move has drawn criticism from various rights groups, including New York-based Human Rights Watch, which has long protested Hanoi's treatment of opposition figures and ethnic and religious minorities.

Hanoi has long denied accusations from human rights organizations regarding media censorship and restriction of Internet access, saying it does not jail dissidents but imprisons only convicted criminals.

The shift in U.S. policy comes at a time of increasingly aggressive Chinese territorial claims to large swaths of the resource-rich South China Sea, where Vietnamese maritime patrols have faced off against Chinese naval forces on several occasions.

The State Department has said that because the U.S. is aware of human rights concerns about Vietnam, all sales will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Russia says it has brokered a 72-hour extension for a local cease-fire in the ravaged Syrian city Aleppo, where recent fighting between the Syrian regime and rebels has left nearly 300 people dead.

Russias Interfax news agency said an initial two-day cessation, which expired early Saturday local time in Syria, had been extended at Russias initiative.

The news agency said Russia's Defense Ministry also announced that a cessation for a northern region of Latakia had been extended for 72 hours.

The United States and Russia announced localized truces for Latakia and the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta last week in a bid to help keep a nationwide cessation of hostilities announced in February from unraveling.

Mounting violence in Aleppo and other regions threatened to derail political talks between the Syrian regime and opposition as well as the multinational effort to fight the Islamic State.

Broader goal

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. welcomed the extension of the cessation in Aleppo, which has reduced the violence. But he said the U.S. was continuing to seek broader results.

Our goal is to get to a point where we no longer have to count the hours and that the cessation of hostilities is fully respected across Syria, Kirby said in a Friday statement.

Earlier Friday, Kirby said the United States had not ruled out the prospect of working with Russia to broker more localized truces in Syria if needed.

The United States and Russia are co-chairs of a cease-fire task force. Russia has been using its leverage with the Assad regime and the United States has been using its influence with the opposition to try to curb the countrys unrest.

Airstrike at camp

Shortly after the United States and Russia confirmed the initial reaffirmation of the cease-fire in Aleppo on Wednesday, at least 28 people were killed in an airstrike on a Syrian refugee camp in Idlib province, near the countrys border with Turkey.

It is unclear who carried out the strike on the Kamounda camp, where internally displaced Syrians have gathered. U.S. officials said they were seeking more information.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said the attack could have been carried out by the al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group that is not included in Syrias cease-fire.

He said based on the nature of destruction at the camp, it could have been either intentionally or by mistake struck from multiple rocket launchers, which are often used by al-Nusra Front terrorists in the area.

Stephen O'Brien, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said suspicion for the attack would fall on the Syrian government, and that the United Nations would hold accountable whoever was responsible for this "abominable act."

Possible war crime

Separately, a spokesman for Ban Ki-moon said Friday that the U.N. secretary-general was outraged by the seemingly calculated attack against civilians, which could constitute a war crime.

The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee also pointed a finger of blame at the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

It is absolutely disgusting that the regime is targeting families who were forced to flee their homes, spokesman Salem al-Meslet said in a Friday statement.
When Lamiya Hachi Bashar escaped the house of an Islamic State fighter in Iraq in mid-April, she thought months of enslavement and IS terror were finally over.

But on her way to freedom outside the Iraqi town of Hawija, Bashar, 18, lost her sight in a blast from a land mine explosion. Her face was severely disfigured.

Her right eye is pretty much gone, but her left eye can recover, said Kurdish doctor Husain Bahrari, who treated her. She also suffers from extensive facial laceration.

IS violence

Bashar, one of thousands of Yazidis who have suffered under systematic violence by IS, is facing a bleak future. Her doctor told VOA that her complex injuries require treatment that is not available in Iraq.

There needs to be a plastic surgery quickly to avoid scars that are unrecoverable, Bahrari said. A young girl her age needs that.

But Bashar is waiting to get an entry visa to Germany and is facing uncertainty about who is going to pay for medical procedures, a German charity attempting to help her said.

She's 'traumatized'

We are trying to get her to Germany, but the visa process is slow and were limited on resources, said Mirza Dinnayi, head of the German-based Air Bridge Iraq. The poor girl is traumatized and needs to resettle somewhere else. But this is not possible now.

When IS attacked Bashars village of Kojo in August 2014, she and 12 members of her family were taken prisoner.

Around 5,000 Yazidi men and women were captured by the militants that summer. Some 2,000 of them managed to escape or were smuggled out of ISs self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria, activists say.

I was kept in a prison with my family for one month before they took me and my two sisters along with hundreds of the girls to [IS capital] Raqqa, Bashar told VOA.

VOA could not independently verify Bashars story.

While in IS captivity, Bashar said she was sold five times as a sex slave and faced mental and physical abuse. One IS leader in Mosul forced her into making suicide belts and preparing car bombs.

Marriage refused

IS fighters were coming many times to take them, she said. He [one IS militant] asked me to marry him. ... I told him, I wont do this and I wont help you. He hit me with hoses and floor squeegee handles. There was nothing left he didnt use to beat me.

Bashar was later sold to an IS doctor in the Iraqi town of Hawija, where she met two other Yazidi girls, Almas, 8, and Katherine, 20. They were able to secretly contact their relatives, who arranged with a middleman to facilitate their escape.

In mid-April, the girls started their dangerous journey to escape IS slavery to Iraqi Kurdistan. An Arab family also accompanied the girls, Bashar said.

Their facilitator took the group out of the city in a car, Bashar said. Their guide told them to avoid land mines that IS placed to stop people from fleeing.

Katherine stepped on a mine, and all I saw after that was a bright light in front of my eyes, Bashar said. I called Katherine and Almas but all I heard was an ah from Katherine.

The girls died at the scene, their bodies left in a field. Bashar, who was injured, does not remember how she was rescued. Family members say her guide took her to the Kurdish Peshmerga.

After initial limited medical treatments, Bashar is waiting at the home of relatives.

The German group trying to help her said it could take six months before Bashar can get a resettlement visa.

To avoid further delays, we have applied for a three-month treatment visa, which I hope will be ready soon, charity worker Dinnayi said.

Future medical care

When she is in Germany, there will be donation campaigns to get her the funds she needs for medical care.

However, I cant say how long this will take, Dinnayi said.

The mayor of the Yazidi town of Sinjar, Mahma Khalil, said the Kurdistan region has done its best to help thousands of Yazidi victims but has limited resources.

We ask the U.N., humanitarian organizations and other countries to help them recover, he said.

Despite her trauma, Bashar remains optimistic and grateful.

I would rather stay here blind than being with them [IS] sighted, she told VOA.
TWIN FALLS  The tiny house movement could be making its way to south-central Idaho.

Inspired by what he saw on popular television shows, Ben Thompson took on a new project: The tiny house sitting on a trailer in Rupert is less than 200 square feet but is complete with toilet, shower, cooktop and two lofts. While he doesnt intend to live in it himself  with his wife and children  he saw the potential for it in the area.

I see it as a growing trend, said Thompson, whos asking $38,000 for the mobile house. You can live with a small amount of stuff and still be comfortable and happy.

Tiny houses are popping up across the nation a growing trend for people wanting to downsize or live simply. Theyve been featured in blogs, websites, television shows and news reports. And they may even emerge as an alternative to homeless shelters.

While Magic Valley residents are showing interest in tiny houses, town houses and transitional housing, there are sometimes zoning ordinances or building code hurdles to overcome.

A public hearing is scheduled Tuesday in Hagerman for a proposed tiny house ordinance. Resident Tom Collins applied for a special use permit a few months ago to put a small house on his property in Hagerman.

They wanted to downsize their house, Planning and Zoning Commissioner Bud Huntley said. Theres other people who are in favor of it. They want to downsize, too.

But the City Council, following the commissions recommendation, denied the special-use permit in February. Huntley said neighboring residents were concerned a tiny house would decrease the value of their own homes. Also, a homeowner wouldnt pay taxes on a home that size, he said.

In Hagerman, residences  either manufactured or stick-built  must meet a minimum 1,000 square-foot requirement, Huntley said.

Following the denial, Collins and Carl Legg, with Cracker Box Homes, have drafted a proposed ordinance to allow tiny houses. The City Council will make the final decision.

Its going to be interesting, Huntley said.

Rupert Zoning Administrator Paul Aston said planning and zoning ordinances in the city do not specify a house size, but there are lot size requirements. If a tiny house is a secondary residence on a property, code would not prevent it being there if the lot were big enough, he said.

Building permits are needed only for structures larger than 200 square feet.

Thompson, owner of the Rupert tiny house, believes there is a need for housing for those who cant quite afford a traditional home, or who need a guest house.

But building a tiny house is somewhat risky, he said, because its in a gray area for many cities. Thompson built the house in a couple of months in Kimberly, and finished it in Rupert. Since posting it online, he moved to Wisconsin but continues to hear from interested Rupert residents. He also has been contacted by the HGTV series Tiny House Hunters.

Renee Carraway-Johnson, zoning and development manager for Twin Falls, said she doesnt see tiny houses picking up as a trend here.

If someone wants to live in a small house on wheels, it would have to be in a licensed trailer park that allows it, she said. If the home were permanently placed on a lot, the lot would still need to meet any other requirements for improvements, which could be cost-prohibitive.

We dont regulate the size of homes, she said.

Several months ago, a builder wanted to place multiple tiny houses on a lot. Planning and Zoning was working through the issues when the builder pulled out.

If somebody wants to do something, and its safe, well help them, Carraway-Johnson said.

Other Housing

Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar said the city is beginning to see some other alternative housing developments.

I have heard there is a demographic for housing options that arent single family homes, Barigar said. Smart entrepreneurs will tap into that and develop the services that people are demanding.

Carraway-Johnson said shes had several calls come in for apartment complexes and retirement communities.

The marketing thats occurring is showing theres some need for alternative residential development, she said.

The north part of town could see at least two retirement communities and one transitional care facility on either side of Pole Line Road.

Several developers have also shown interest in bringing town houses or row houses to Twin Falls. Last week, the Planning and Zoning Commission turned down a proposal from Dennis Hourany for a zoning district and zoning map amendment on nine-acre property adjacent to the future South Hills Middle School.

Hourany proposed building 22 town house buildings with 88 residential units.

Carraway-Johnson said commissioners denied the request after hearing from about 15 nearby homeowners, who were concerned about the building height and proximity to their lots. High density was also a concern.

Its maxed out for what the code will allow, she said.

Hourany may make changes to his proposal. He did not return phone calls for comment.

Carraway-Johnson suggests developers communicate with neighboring property owners before they appear before the Planning and Zoning Commission.

I think our task is always to be receptive to ideas and see if they can be incorporated into our communities, she said.
TWIN FALLS  A teenage boy was slain in a what police are calling a drive-by shooting just before 4 p.m. Saturday while he rode his bicycle near Canyon Ridge High School.

About a dozen police officers, the county coroner and county prosecutor had descended on the normally quiet upper-middle class residential neighborhood near the North Pointe subdivision by 4:30 p.m. and yellow police tape blocked off several streets.

Police have not released the boys name and are still trying to reach his next of kin.

Saturday night, police were talking with witnesses to identify suspects.

A police statement said several leads indicate that the shooting was an isolated incident and there is no threat to the public.

This is unusual all around for our area, city spokesman Joshua Palmer said.

By all accounts, the neighborhood is quiet and has the familiar signs of suburbia: the smell of charcoal from barbecue grills and kids running through backyards.

Residents were shocked this kind of violence could happen so close to home. Some heard five shots. Others heard four. All looked on  some with cellphones out taking pictures  as investigators scanned the crime scene for evidence with an infrared gun. Evidence like casings or blood might not be seen with the naked eye  especially on the rocky entrance to the subdivision where the body fell.

One woman who lives in the subdivision but wanted to remain anonymous said she heard five shots but didnt see a shooter. This kind of violence, she said, is unheard of.

Nothings happened like this before, she said. This is a quiet neighborhood.

Her neighbor, a long-time resident who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said she hasnt noticed anything unusual in the neighborhood leading up to the drive-by shooting.

Ive lived here 19 years and Ive never heard anything like this, she said.

Crime-scene investigators worked Saturday afternoon, holding a white sheet that blocked the body from view. His bicycle, shoes and a pair of sunglasses on the ground were the only things visible.

Based on witness accounts, investigators are looking for a dark-colored car. The search sent police scrambling all across the city looking for suspects.

During the search, police pulled over a black Dodge Charger near Norco on Pole Line Road. The names of the people in the car were checked and they were released.

Several people reported seeing a man held at gunpoint by police near Falls Avenue and Frontier Road. Police said no one was arrested.

Meanwhile, across town police were searching for another person down in Rock Creek Canyon. Police said that incident was unrelated.

The Twin Falls Police Department is saddened by this act of violence in our community, Police Chief Craig Kingsbury said in a statement. We are designating our resources to identify and apprehend the suspects in this incident, and we want to assure the community that we will bring those responsible to justice.

The incident is the second time in as many days a gun has fired in public in Twin Falls. On Friday, a middle schooler accidentally discharged a handgun in a classroom at Robert Stuart Middle School, less than a mile from the scene of Saturdays shooting. No one was injured, and three students were arrested.

The subdivision shooting is the first gun-related homicide in Twin Falls County this year. Four gun-related homicides happened in 2015.
United Methodist Women to Meet

JEROME  The Jerome United Methodist Women will meet at 12:30 p.m. Thursday in the church parlor, 200 S. Buchanan, in Jerome. Dessert will precede the Mothers Day program. Ladies of the community are invited. Information: Jane Nellis at 208-324-3202.

Rev. Mike Holloman will lead worship at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Scott McClure will serve as liturgist. Sunday School meets at 10 a.m. in the parlor, followed by coffee and fellowship.

Members of the church are collecting items for health kits to be sent to United Methodist Committee on Relief. These will be distributed to people around the world in times of stress and great need.

The annual yard sale and bake sale will be held June 3 and June 4 in the church basement. Proceeds will be used for mission work. Information: 208-324-2981.

The Impact of Pentecost United Methodist Church

FILER  The Impact of Pentecost is the title of Pastor Penny Hodges sermon at 11 a.m. at the Filer United Methodist Church at the corner of Fifth and Union Streets. Fellowship time will follow the service in the Fellowship Hall.

A basement sale will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 14 at the church. A Church Clean-up Day is also scheduled May 14. All are welcome to attend to share in the work. Donations of white paint, paint brushes, rakes and weed pulling supplies are appreciated.

Worship, Meditation and Discussions at Unity

TWIN FALLS  Come and join us for worship, meditation and discussion at 10 a.m. Sunday in Room 248 of the College of Southern Idahos Taylor/Student Union Building. Mediation occurs each Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the CSI Chapel (2nd floor of the SUB). Unity is the home of the DAILY WORD, published since 1924, which includes daily affirmations for a more spiritual life. Unity is a non-denominational faith and we honor the universal truths in all religions. Discover what Unity has to offer by contacting the Rev. Kathleen McKevitt at 208-421-1078 or by going to unity.org.

Unitarians to Discuss The Strength of the Pack is the Wolf

TWIN FALLS  Wanda and Bryan Jennings from the Boise Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will visit the Magic Valley Unitarian Fellowship tell us about their vision of The Strength of the Pack is the Wolf from Kiplings poem The Jungle Book.

Unitarian Universalists covenant to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person; justice, equality and compassion in human relations; and acceptance of one another. Newcomers of all religious paths, or none at all, are welcomed. We are handicapped accessible. Please park in the rear of the building. Child care is available. The Magic Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meets at 10 a.m. Sundays at the Vendor Blender and Event Center, 588 Addison Ave. W., in Twin Falls.

Liberty Quartet Concert Schedule at Reformed Church

TWIN FALLS  The Liberty Quartet will present a concert at 6 p.m. May 14 at the Twin Falls Reformed Church, 1631 Grandview Dr. N., in Twin Falls.

Liberty Quartet is a full-time traditional Southern Gospel Quartet based in Boise. Liberty currently averages 50,000 to 70,000 miles a year ministering in up to 150 performances for church services and concerts. There is no fee for admission, but a love offering will be taken in support of their ministry.

Ascension Church Welcomes Transition Minister

TWIN FALLS  Ascension Episcopal Church welcomes the Rev. Canon Lucinda Ashby as celebrant for Holy Communion at the churchs 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. worship services Sunday morning. Ashby is from the Diocese of Idaho office in Boise and is Ascensions transition minister.

Ashby is the daughter of missionary parents and was raised in Latin America and New Mexico. She has served in both large and small parishes and has a passion for welcoming everyone into the body of Christ.

Ascension Cafe, the adult discussion group, will meet from 9:10 a.m. to 9:55 a.m. led by Tim Dodd. Youth Sunday school begins at 10 am. Child care is available from 9:45 a.m. until after the 10 service. A fellowship coffee hour will be held after the 10 a.m. worship service.

An in-gathering will be held during May for Ascensions outdoor Labyrinth, located on the northeast side of the church. Donations toward needed items (pavers, certain colored lava rock and bark) are appreciated. The display is located in the gathering area of the church. Walkers will participate in World Labyrinth Day at 1 p.m. Saturday. The community is welcomed to experience the Labyrinth at any time.

Wednesday Bible Study and 12:15 worship service are both on break in May. A sign-up sheet for summer Bible Study is available on the parish hall bulletin board. Knit-Us-Together, the handwork group, meets from 1 to 3 pm.

Ascension Episcopal Church, 371 Eastland Drive, is handicapped accessible. Information: 208-733-1248 or www.episcopaltwinfalls.org.

To submit information about church events and news. Contact Matt Gooch at mgooch@magicvalley.com. Limit submissions to less than 400 words. Deadline is 5 p.m. Wednesday for publication on the Saturday religion page. Please insert Church News in the email subject line.
TWIN FALLS  Four men gathered together to pray, but they didnt simply bow their heads.

Instead they put their arms on each others shoulders and formed a small ring as others around them prayed in groups of two or more. They prayed for the government and its leaders, media, church and family.

Members of the Twin Falls community gathered Thursday to celebrate the 65th annual National Day of Prayer in Twin Falls City Park.

Patty Cameron of Twin Falls stood near some trees as a musician sang and played the guitar inside the City Park bandshell. Cameron didnt attend last year because of work. But this year she made a point to attend the National Day of Prayer event in Twin Falls.

I think its so important that we are gathering together as a community, Cameron said. Prayer is so powerful and effective. We need as a nation to take time to pray.

This years theme was Wake Up America based on Isaiah 58:1a: Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet.

The National Day of Prayer was established as an annual event in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman. The observance of the National Day of Prayer is founded on the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion and can be celebrated by all Americans.

Since 1952, every President has written a proclamation calling for a National Day of Prayer.

President Barack Obamas proclamation was read during the event. National Day of Prayer takes place the first Thursday of May every year.

Local organizer Elaine Proost and two other women formed the first event in Twin Falls shortly after 9/11. When the two women moved from the area, Proost continued to coordinate.

We can pray publicly and seek God, said Holly Borchardt, an organizer of this years event. Thats so powerful. Prayer is a fundamental thing we do as believers. Theres so much value in bringing people together in a public way.

Speakers for the day included the Rev. Jeremy Vines of Full Life Family Church in Twin Falls.

Prayer is essential communication, Vines said. And communication involves speaking and listening.

Vines told the audience of about 50 people that prayer in America has often been reduced to ordering off of a fast food menu.

Instead of asking God for what we want, Vines said. What does He want us to do for Him? ... If we truly want America to be great again, it will take a lot more than a day or prayer.
TWIN FALLS  The attorney running against Grant Loebs for Twin Falls County prosecutor has filed a tort claim against Loebs and the county, part of which cites a federal law that doesnt apply to Loebs as an elected state official.

Mark Guerry is threatening to sue Loebs, Twin Falls County and the state of Idaho for $10 million, 20 times the amount allowed by law. Idaho code limits tort claims to $500,000.

This is exactly the sort of reckless incompetence that makes this man unqualified to serve as Twin Falls Countys Prosecuting Attorney, Loebs said in a statement.

The tort claim is just the latest twist in an increasingly bizarre campaign by the Republican challenger. Guerry has accused Loebs and a district judge of misconduct. Those accusations resulted in a bar complaint against Guerry that could see him stripped of his license to practice law.

In the tort claim, Guerry says Loebs has violated his First and 14th Amendment rights and accuses him of violating the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts the political activity of certain government employees.

Because Loebs is an elected state official, the prosecutor is not restricted by the Hatch Act.

Until now I have refrained from any comment about the bizarre rantings of my opponent, Loebs said Friday.

Today, however, he filed an utterly frivolous and incompetent Notice of Tort Claim against Twin Falls County.

Loebs called it ironic that Guerry is suing the county he hopes to represent as prosecutor.

Hes also suing for punitive damages, which are not allowed in Idaho law against government entities, Loebs said. Any competent attorney would know all of this.

As for alleged violations of the Hatch Act, Loebs pointed out that its a federal law barring certain federal employees from engaging in federal campaigns.

It has no effect in Idaho, Loebs said. And, even if it did, would not by its very nature apply to elected officials.

In his claim, Guerry said Loebs has used media to incite bias, public derision, public criticism, and distrust, of Guerry.

His third claim is, more than anything, just laughable: that I have manipulated and exploited the media to be biased against his campaign, Loebs said. I think its clear that he has done that himself.

Guerry did not answer a call for comment Friday afternoon. He has previously said he would not speak to media, but he appeared for a TV interview Friday.

Guerry, a Castleford resident who has spent the bulk of his career in private practice, announced his candidacy for county prosecuting attorney in March.

Last month he announced he was withdrawing from the race to focus on the bar complaint against him, which he said was made by District Judge Richard Bevan. Guerry accused Bevan of misconduct in a Facebook post but later told the Times-News editorial board he had no proof the accusations were true.

Its probably not a wise thing to do, Guerry told the newspaper board. Its probably not a fair thing to do.

Guerry later announced he was back in the race based on significant, unsolicited input from his supporters.

As for the tort claim, the county now has 180 days to respond, either by settling or denying the claim. If the county denies the claim or does not respond, Guerry can file a lawsuit.
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TWIN FALLS  Three students are in custody after one fired a handgun inside a Robert Stuart Middle School classroom Friday afternoon. No one was injured and police are calling the incident an accidental discharge.

A 14-year-old boy had two guns inside his bag, said Joshua Palmer, spokesman for the Twin Falls Police Department. One gun was reported stolen and the other had an altered serial number.

After questioning the 14-year-old and others, two more students were arrested, Palmer said.

All three face juvenile charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, altering the serial number on a firearm, possessing a firearm on school property and unlawful discharge of a firearm. They are being held at the Snake River Juvenile Detention Center.

Palmer said its possible an adult could be charged if one gave the guns to the students or knew they would be brought to the school.

The student was in an advisory class when the gun fired into a table leg at approximately 12:45 p.m., Twin Falls School District spokeswoman Eva Craner said in a statement. The teacher in the classroom immediately called the principal and school resource officer who reported to the classroom within seconds of the incident. The student immediately turned the gun over to the principal, and other law enforcement officials reported to the building.

It was unclear how the gun was fired. Palmer said the student was either setting the bag down or reaching into the bag when it fired. The gun was not pointed at anyone and the student was not displaying it, Palmer said.

The school immediately called the parents of students who were in the class when the gun fired, Craner said. Other parents were notified about 2 p.m. by an automated phone message from Superintendent Wiley Dobbs.

The area of the school where the gun was fired was evacuated, but police directed the school not to lock down, Craner said.

(Police) determined that the situation had been contained and there was no continuing threat to students, she said.

Many of the schools 1,000 students were off campus participating in a community clean-up project. Others who were at the school had no idea anything was awry.

Parents may have known before some students, Craner said in a phone interview. We do have a safety protocol and it was followed. All of the safety procedures worked very well.

Its the first time a gun has been fired in an Idaho school since 2013 when an Idaho State University professor in Pocatello accidentally shot himself in the foot during a lecture, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun research group.

The after-school routine at Robert Stuart seemed uninterrupted about 3:15 p.m. as parents lined the roadway and parking lot to pick up students. But parents expressed concern about what happened even after receiving the message that the situation was under control.

Youre just never sure and youre worried, Arturo Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez left work early Friday to pick up his daughter, who typically takes the bus home from school.

The first thoughts that went through Martha Olszynskis mind were Columbine and Sandy Hook, said the mother of an eighth-grade daughter. Olszynski always picks up her daughter after school, but she went to the school earlier than normal Friday immediately after receiving the automated message.

You just have a million questions, she said.

The district has a strict no-gun policy and only school resource officers are allowed to carry guns, Craner said.

While we regret that one of our students chose this action, we are relieved and heartened that our staff and law enforcement worked together to a safe conclusion, Craner said in the statement.

No one with institutional knowledge can remember a gun being fired at a Twin Falls school, Palmer said. He said there have been instances of a student bringing a gun to school in the past, but officials couldnt recall one ever firing in a Twin Falls school.

Police did not release the names of the arrested students.

Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said he cannot comment on juvenile cases, but said nothing will happen before Monday and that they will not be arraigned in adult court.
TWIN FALLS | Coloring can alleviate stress, anxiety and is a creative trend many adults are embracing.

Now that outlet will go toward helping others.

Hands On, a Twin Falls paint-your-own-pottery shop, will hold a coloring party from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month.

The tiles will be donated to the future Behavioral Health Crisis Center in Twin Falls. The intention is to install the tiles as a wall mosaic at the new center.

"Its very relaxing when you actually get to sit down and paint something," said Robin Dober, owner of Hands On. You can forget about all the hustle and bustle at work or at home and just enjoy the moment.

At the Coloring Party, participants can paint ceramic tiles which have a pre-drawn design on them in the style of a coloring book page. Tiles are $10 each and all have a whimsical design on them so all that participants need to do is simply add a little color. For those who are unable to attend the event Wednesday, Hands On will be offering the tiles throughout May. In exchange, you will receive free studio time to paint something for yourself. People can also donate $10 and have a Hands On studio assistant paint a tile for you.

To get more information, call Hands On at 208-736-4475 or email Dober at robdob18@gmail.com.
I am voicing my support for Rep. Stephen Hartgen District 24 on May 17. I was fortunate to be in Class 36 Leadership Idaho Agriculture this year; as a class we were given an Idaho Water Rights assignment. I had limited knowledge of the history of Idahos water and Rep. Hartgen took time out of his busy schedule to give myself and another Class of 36 member an interesting history lesson. He invited us to his home, offered us refreshments and started talking about the controversial water problem we have in Idaho from the beginning until present time. We sat at his kitchen table for approximately two hours taking notes and learning as much as possible. I appreciate his down-to-earth easy attitude and giving us his time and knowledge so unselfishly.
It is my pleasure to support the re-election of a fine man, Mr. Grant Loebs, for prosecuting attorney for Twin Falls County. As Minidoka County prosecuting attorney, I have countless opportunities to work with Mr. Loebs. His leadership, intelligence, dedication, work ethic and professional demeanor highly impress me.

For many years, Mr. Loebs has represented the 5th District Prosecuting Attorneys as a board member of the ldaho Prosecuting Attorney Association. As a diligent and dedicated board member of IPAA, he has personally affected many great changes for Twin Falls prosecution, the 5th District and statewide. His expertise is valued and his influence and experience is irreplaceable.

One of his greatest attributes is the ability to lead, train and support a group of talented and dedicated prosecutors and staff who effectively deal with difficult cases, heavy caseloads and who expertly navigate the complex issues that arise in and out of the courtroom. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Mr. Loebs is an enjoyable person who relates well with employees, attorneys, government officials, law enforcement and the community that he serves.

Mr. Loebs ss an excellent prosecuting attorney, who has spent most of his life seeing justice served for the people of Twin Falls County. His experience, leadership and dedication to Twin Falls County coupled with his work ethic make him an excellent prosecuting attorney. I fully support Mr. Grant Loebs for re-election.

Lance D. Stevenson

Rupert
The Democratic Republic of Congos (DRC) opposition candidate Moise Katumbi has claimed on Thursday that security forces plan to arrest him after they surrounded his home.

The move comes days after the opposition coalition endorsed the former governor of the mineral-rich Katanga province for president.

This is Kabilas response to my presidential bid! Katumbi tweeted in French and English.

I sent a letter to the (UN mission) MONUSCO seeking their protection because I am in danger, my security is not guaranteed, he told AFP.

On Wednesday, Congolese officials said they were investigating into allegations that Mr. Katumbi was using American mercenaries. Katumbi, who has made millions of dollars subcontracting for mining companies, called that a grotesque lie.

Dangerous tensions have been steadily rising across Congo as the presidential election approaches. Kabila, who has been in office since 2001, faces term limits and is supposed to step down this year, but he has not indicated he will do so.

Katumbi, 51, who announced his candidacy on Wednesday, is wildly popular across Congo. Other opposition leaders have begun to coalesce around him. He is credited with doing a good job running what was then called Katanga Province from 2007 to 2015. He resigned to join the political opposition.
When cinema first came to India in the early 20th century, it caused the ruling British a few headaches. The excitable natives", according to the English press, were going to be subjected to provocations that they were entirely unfit to handle.

The chastity of white women would come under severe threat if the Indians were allowed were allowed a free rein in the cinema theatres, with all the verisimilitude of the silver screen before them. Consequently, more than fifty regulations were drawn up to regulate and control the exhibition of films in India.

With the advent of Independence, one would have thought that such arguments would have been driven out of the country along with the British. Instead, they were largely replicated in the 1952 Cinematograph Act, the newly minted Indian Parliaments legislation for dealing with the cinema.

The Act established what, in technical language, is known as prior restraint": that is, it required filmmakers to obtain clearances from a certification board (commonly known as the censor board") before their films could be screened for the public. In other words, the Cinematograph Act authorized a government body to forbid the exercise of the freedom of expression (i.e., films) even before it could enter the marketplace of ideas.

Prior restraint is considered to be a particularly draconian kind of restriction on free speech, since it prevents speech from ever reaching an audience. Courts all over the world, and for a long, long time (as far back as the 1760s, in England) have taken a dim view of prior restraint, holding that while the state may prosecute and punish those who engage in speech or expression that breaks the law, it cannot prevent a person from publishing or expressing herself on the ground that once she does so, it would break the law.

Allowing this would decrease the costs of censorship to a vanishing point: the state could censor whatever it wanted, and then it would be up to citizens to run around making representations, or filing cases, trying to enforce their right to free speech. Ultimately, placing such power in the hands of the state would impoverish the marketplace of ideas immeasurably.

In addition to imposing prior restraint, various guidelines framed under the Cinematograph Act were extraordinarily broad and vague. For instance, indecorous or suggestive dressing" and sensuous postures" were placed beyond the pale. Lowering the sacredness of the institution of marriage" and excessively passionate love scenes" were also condemned. What remained, then, of the filmmakers freedom of expression? The answer, of course, is not much".

The constitutional validity of the Cinematograph Act and its attendant guidelines was challenged by filmmaker K.A. Abbas. In 1970, the case came to be decided by our old friend, Chief Justice Mohammad Hidayatullah, whofive years earlierhad upheld the ban on Lady Chatterleys Lover on the grounds that it would tend to deprave and corrupt the morally vulnerable, and had adopted an 1860s English test for determining obscenity".

What resulted was another entertaining display for the spectator, and another setback for the freedom of expression under the Constitution.

It was pointed out to the Chief Justice that while books were not required to submit to a legal regime of prior restraint, filmmakers were forced to jump through the censor boards hoops. This discrimination between the different media of expression was illogical and arbitrary.

The courts response was to begin by dismissing the distinction altogether. Pre-censorship is but an aspect of censorship," it held, and bears the same relationship in quality to the material as censorship after the motion picture has had a run. The only difference is one of the stage at which the State interposes its regulations between the individual and his freedom. Beyond this there is no vital difference."

For the reasons discussed above, this spectacularly misses the wood for the trees. But then the court attempted to distinguish between films and the written word. What was it that made films special? According to the court:

 it has been almost universally recognised that the treatment of motion pictures must be different from that of other forms of art and expression. This arises from the instant appeal of the motion picture, its versatility, realism (often surrealism), and its coordination of the visual and aural senses. The art of the cameraman, with trick photography, vistavision and three dimensional representation thrown in, has made the cinema picture more true to life than even the theatre or indeed any other form of representative art. The motion picture is able to stir up emotions more deeply than any other product of art. Its effect particularly on children and adolescents is very great since their immaturity makes them more willingly suspend their disbelief than mature men and women. They also remember the action in the picture and try to emulate or imitate what they have seen."

In this way, the infantile natives of the colonial imagination, unable to handle the effects of the cinema, transformed themselves into the infantile citizens of the judicial imagination, unable to detach themselves and calmly process the instant appeal of the motion picture".

The courts thought process came to the fore in a very revealing comment: while arguing in favour of social interests overriding individual freedom, the court referred to the state as a parens patriae, a technical legal term, which originated in Roman law, that primarily refers to the right of the state to substitute itself in place of negligent parents or guardians of children (or disabled adults).

The state, it is argued, should be able to look after those who are unable to look after themselves. Only, in K.A. Abbas vs the Union of India, the Supreme Court treated the entire citizenry as unable to look after itself!

Chief Justice Hidayatullahs squeamish personal morality, which was so much in evidence in his holding that Lady Chatterleys Lover was an obscene text, came to the fore once more in the K.A. Abbas case, when he upheld the guidelines in toto and rejected the challenge of vagueness.

The guidelines, he held, were nothing more than concrete manifestations of Article 19(2) of the Constitution, which allows for reasonable restrictions upon the freedom of speech and expression in the interests of, among other things, morality.

According to Chief Justice Hidayatullah, phrases like seduction", class hatred", and indelicate sexual situation" were all within the understanding of the average men". He then adopted the guidelines under obscenity law lock, stock and barrel into the Cinematograph Act, ending with a flourish:

We may view a documentary on the erotic tableaux from our ancient temples with equanimity or read the Kamasutra but a documentary from them as a practical sexual guide would be abhorrent."

The K.A. Abbas judgement, therefore, was a complete defeat for the cause of freedom of expression under the Constitution. It gave constitutional imprimatur to the entire regime of film censorship in India, legitimized prior restraint on entirely spurious grounds and upheld extraordinarily vague and ideologically motivated restrictions.

The annals of Indian free speech law are filled with film censorship cases, long battles against the censor all the way up to the Supreme Court, whether it is Bandit Queen or Tamas. They are also filled with heavy-handed censorial action that has repeatedly suffocated filmmakers in a moralistic and ideological embrace.

The next time, then, that we curse a particularly arbitrary act of the censor board, it might be worth remembering that the institution, the guidelines which it operates under and the law that created it were all sanctified by the highest court in the land. Some of the blame, surely, must lie there as well.

Gautam Bhatia is a New Delhi-based lawyer. His book Offend, Shock, or Disturb: Free Speech Under the Indian Constitution is available on Amazon.

Case Studies is a series that looks at why we have the laws that we have and what it means to change them.

Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com

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The recent clampdown on surge pricing by the Delhi and Karnataka governments has ignited an intense debate on the models pros and cons and efforts to curb it. Surge pricing refers to the extra charge that kicks in during peak hours in areas when demand for cabs spikes sharply.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone so far as to claim that surge pricing is nothing but daylight robbery", while the spokespersons of cab aggregators such as Uber have claimed that it is just a market-clearing mechanism to ensure cabs are available for their customers who value them most at a particular point of time (and are willing to bear the extra cost).

The debate has already polarized opinion in the country, but it is important to understand why it evokes such intense passions in cities as diverse as Sydney, Paris, New York and New Delhi.

Uber has not just annoyed its rivals in the transport industry (such as auto and taxi unions) who quite understandably want to see a regulatory clampdown on cab aggregators, but also its own customer base. New Delhi is not the first city where customers have expressed outrage over surge pricing, and it is unlikely to be the last.

Many customers who accept surge pricing when they are faced with that option end up bitching about the firm, often on social media. The reaction is even more severe when there is an emergency, such as during the December 2014 hostage crisis in Sydney, where a masked gunman held people captive in a cafe.

As the central business district was evacuated by the police, surge pricing automatically kicked in. Customers were appalled by Ubers seeming insensitivity to the situation, and the outrage forced it to suspend surge pricing and instead offer free rides.

According to several economists, such outrage springs from ignorance: many customers are simply not aware of the logic of markets, and get upset when prices surge, forgetting that they benefit from a lower waiting time because of this feature.

In a 2015 research paper, economist Steven Suranovic of the George Washington University writes that public misunderstanding" of surge pricing rather than surge pricing itself acted as a market imperfection. Suranovic contends that surge pricing is even more essential during emergencies since it can prevent panic buying, hoarding and time wasted when supplies run out and prices dont rise.

For instance, snowstorm warnings are known to empty shelves of milk, eggs and bread in US towns where snowfalls are irregular even when it is known that the storms effects may last no more than a day or two, he points out.

... Higher prices in emergencies seem especially egregious because the people who must pay the higher prices to the profiteering merchants are already suffering from the negative impacts of the emergency," writes Suranovic. It seems that the market adds insult to injury. In fact, though, something very different happens. In these situations, the higher prices actually serve the people in the market by sending the appropriate signal of sudden scarcity. That signal forces consumers to self-assess whether their own need for the good is as high as the current price and inspires alternative suppliers in other regions to move products into the area. These responses are what help everyone by allocating the available supplies fairly from greatest to lowest need and by reducing the scarcity with new supplies. Thus, while it may seem as though people are being injured even more with the high prices, it is keeping prices low that will increase the distress of the people in need."

Fearing public condemnation and regulatory action (many states in the US have anti-price gouging laws), retailers and other companies avoid raising prices even when they anticipate that supplies will run short. But this leads to inefficiencies, Suranovic says.

In such instances, the ability to access such goods is a matter of luck, and many people are penalized for not being able to reach stores in time. Suranovic argues that companies such as Uber can help educate the public by demonstrating to them and explaining through public relations campaigns how price increases can ameliorate market shortages more effectively.

To address the growing criticism against its surge pricing model, Uber commissioned a study last year to help analyse and explain its impact. The study, conducted jointly by two Uber-affiliated researchers and an assistant professor at the University of Chicago, used proprietary data to show how surge pricing helped in clearing markets and reducing waiting times by both encouraging suppliers (drivers) who were enticed by the higher charges, and limiting demand (from riders) by signalling that a ride in that area at that point would be costly.

In the example they analysed, surge pricing was operational for just a few minutes before normal fares were restored. Contrasting this example with another night when demand for cabs spiked but surge pricing was not in effect (owing to technical problems), the authors of the study point out that in the latter case, waiting times were long and several demanders (or riders) were left without cabs. The absence of surge pricing was economically inefficient, the study concluded.

According to independent research by Nicholas Diakopoulos, an assistant professor at the College of Journalism, University of Maryland, surge pricing may be actually reallocating the supply of cabs or drivers rather than raising them.

Using data available from Ubers website for a duration of four weeks, Diakopoulos showed that when surge prices kicked in at a certain locality, waiting times did fall subsequently in that area, but waiting time in a neighbouring locality went up, presumably because drivers from that area moved to the former area.

In response to Diakopouloss analysis, an Uber spokesperson claimed that an analysis of such a small, short-term sample of data cannot capture long-term patterns".

Diakopoulos contended that surge pricing may not always have the intended effect on supply (or drivers), especially if the surge lasted only a few minutes, and ended even before drivers could reach their destinations.

Uber claims that surge pricing has a long-term educative effect on drivers, signalling to them when and in which areas demand is likely to surge. Such a view fits in with what the company believes is its central function in the transport business: to add and manage liquidity.

As this interesting article in The Guardian about Ubers conquest of London points out, the firms innovation lies in bringing liquidity to the transport management industry. Liquidity is typically associated with stock markets rather than the transport industry. But then, Uber is not really a transport company. It is more like an exchange that matches the needs of those using its platform: drivers on one side and riders on the other. Hence, its quest for managing liquidity and its emphasis on surge pricing as a mechanism to do so.

This also explains why the tribe of economists and investment bankers admire Uber and are rooting for the success of its surge pricing model. For them, this is what the future looks like, or at least should look like. One such enthusiast even argued that surge pricing can be applied to price smoothies in the future.

According to most economists, the absence of surge pricing leads to economic inefficiencies: it denies users products and services that they are willing to pay for. When firms fear that raising prices at a time of shortage (or emergency) will invite public condemnation or a regulatory clampdown, they refrain from doing so, and this leads to long waiting times or queues, which in their view is avoidable.

Ubers customer base is mostly middle class or rich. It is a class that engages in a range of market-based transactions daily and has gained most from the rise of capitalism. It is unlikely that they have no appreciation or understanding of the forces of demand and supply that determine market prices.

They are often quite willing to pay surge" prices while buying a highly valued share from the stock market or a masterpiece from an art auction. Yet, many among them appear to be unwilling participants in Ubers experiment to carry the logic of markets to its natural conclusion.

To understand why, we need to perhaps turn our attention to the insights of behavioural economists, who, unlike conventional economists, seem to have more empathy for Ubers customers than for the company.

One of the pioneers of the field, Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, argued in his latest book Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics that temporary spikes in demand, from blizzards to rock star deaths, are an especially bad time for any business to appear greedy".

Thaler argues that to build long-term relationships with customers, firms must be seen as fair" and not just efficient, and that this often involves giving up on short-term profits even if customers may be willing to pay more at that point to avail themselves of its product or service.

I love Uber as a service," writes Thaler. But if I were their consultant, or a shareholder, I would suggest that they simply cap surges to something like a multiple of three times the usual fare. You might wonder where the number three came from. That is my vague impression of the range of prices that one normally sees for products such as hotel rooms and plane tickets that have prices dependent on supply and demand. Furthermore, these services sell out at the most popular times, meaning that the owners are intentionally setting the prices too low during the peak season.

I once asked the owner of a ski lodge why he didnt charge more during the Christmas week holiday, when demand is at a peak and rooms have to be booked nearly a year in advance. At first, he didnt understand my question. No one had ever asked why the prices are so low during this period when prices are at their highest. But once I explained that I was an economist, he caught on and answered quickly. If you gouge them at Christmas, they wont come back in March. That remains good advice for any business that is interested in building a loyal clientele."

Thalers insights are based not just on anecdotes, but spring from a long body of research on these issues. In a landmark 1986 study conducted jointly with his Nobel Prize-winning colleague Daniel Kahneman and Jack Knetsch of Simon Fraser University, Thaler showed that community standards of fairness dictated when and how far companies could raise prices.

Markets often failed to clear in the short term because such notions of fairness prevented companies from raising prices when demand rose, they pointed out. The study was based on interviews that elicited the views of people on several scenarios where a company changed prices or wages. For instance, an overwhelming majority of participants considered it unfair of a hardware store to raise the price of snow shovels when faced with a sudden increase in demand the morning after a snow storm.

In her 2008 book, The Price is Wrong, Sarah Maxwell of Fordham University writes that a fair" price is one that is seen to be both acceptable and just. In other words, a price is deemed fair not only because it meets ones personal standards but also because it meets societys standards.

When a price is seen to be socially unfair or deemed to be in violation of social norms that companies are expected to follow, it leads to an intense emotional response. If the outrage does not force the company to behave in line with acceptable norms, consumers can often go to great lengths to punish such firms.

When Amazon was found to be charging different prices to different customers, it led to an outcry against such price discrimination. The company said it was merely testing its discount strategy and offered to refund all of the customers who paid a higher price.

Even Apple Inc. felt obliged to offer compensation after trying surge pricing in 2007. The first iPhone was sold at $599 for two months, then the price was cut to $399. Steve Jobs had to apologize for charging different customers differently.

Conventional economic analyses assume as a matter of course that excess demand for a good creates an opportunity for suppliers to raise prices, and that such increases will indeed occur," wrote Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler in the above-mentioned paper. The profit-seeking adjustments that clear the market are in this view as natural as water finding its level and as ethically neutral. The lay public does not share this indifference. Community standards of fairness effectively require the firm to absorb an opportunity cost in the presence of excess demand, by charging less than the clearing price or paying more than the clearing wage."

Conventional economists have, of course, taken cognizance of the reluctance of companies to alter wages and prices in many markets, but they have largely considered this to be a rigidity" that prevents markets from working as they should. What behavioural economists see as a feature of human society, conventional economists view as a bug. They would much rather have a society in which we behave exactly as economics textbooks predict!

Ubers battle to make surge prices acceptable is, therefore, a test case, as Suranovic points out. If Ubers model becomes widely accepted, it will open the doors for similar market-clearing" mechanisms in other industries.

Maybe restaurants will experiment more with dynamic pricing. You may find your favourite pizza priced at Rs300 one day and at Rs3,000 on another.

Maybe theatre tickets will be priced dynamically and instead of just the weekend premium that you are expected to shell out, you will find prices varying for each show depending on whether the demand is high or low for that slot.

Maybe hospitals will begin to adjust charges for surgeries based on demand. Such a world, even if uncertain, will be more economically efficient.

Would you like to live in such an Uberized world, where each market increasingly resembles the stock market? Ultimately, it is us who will decide what the future will be like through our choices of the kind of products and services we consume, and the kind of companies we choose to reward or punish.

If enough of us really want to live in such a society, we will also elect governments that allow such a society to flourish, and not one that acts against price-gouging.

As Kahneman, Knetsch and Thaler noted, social norms of fairness are not entirely immutable: An initially unfair practice (for example, charging above list price for a popular car model) may spread slowly until it evolves into a new normand is no longer unfair."

It is possible though that Uber loses the battle of perceptions and gives up on surge pricing. One recent report suggests that it might do just that. It will then go the way of Amazon and Apple and end up enforcing rather than disrupting prevalent social norms of fairness.

In either case, it will be an exciting battle to watch, and one that holds the key to what future markets will look like.

Economics Express runs weekly, and features interesting reads from the world of economics and finance.

Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com

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If grizzly bears are delisted and hunting is authorized, Montanas season will be so restrictive that the state will not allow the shooting of any bear traveling with another bear to avoid killing a female.

The take-home for the hunting season is that it would be very conservative and designed to limit the harvest of females, said John Vore, Fish, Wildlife and Parks Game Management Bureau chief.

To that end, season dates would also be designed to protect females. Since sows with cubs emerge from dens later in the spring and go into hibernation earlier in the fall than males, Montana is proposing its spring season to run between March 15 and April 20 and the fall season between Nov. 10 and Dec. 15.

The rough outline of the proposed season, mandated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is contained in an agenda item for next Thursdays Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting, which will start at 8 a.m. in FWPs Helena headquarters.

Montanans have not hunted grizzly bears since 1991. The animals were listed as a threatened species in 1975 and were protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Who hunts

Whether to even hold a grizzly hunting season will be decided at the end of each year. At that time wildlife officials from Montana, Wyoming and Idaho will review all grizzly bear mortalities, from natural deaths to collisions with cars and bears removed for killing livestock. If the mortalities exceed certain preset limits, no season will be held.

If there is an allowed harvest, it would be split among the three states, likely with Wyoming having a larger take because it contains more Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem grizzly bear habitat, Vore explained. Montana contains 27 percent of the GYEs grizzly habitat.

The tristate harvest limits would be hammered out each year by wildlife officials from the states.

Vore said there would be no attempt in Montana to allow hunters to remove whats known as management bears, those that are causing problems. That was tried in the past and met criticism for not being a fair-chase hunt and therefore unsportsmanlike.

Opposition

Jane Goodall, the noted African chimpanzee researcher, is the latest to add her voice to a chorus of opponents to a GYE grizzly bear hunt.

Their future isnt secure yet, because they face so many threats to their survival, she said in an email released by the Humane Society.

Goodall is among 58 scientists who submitted a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday objecting to the agencys proposal to remove protection for GYE grizzlies. Public comment is being taken on the USFWS proposal until May 10. Critics have said the agencys 60-day comment period is too brief to review all of the voluminous documents.

Hunt units

Montana would carve its portion of the Greater Yellowstone grizzly bear habitat into seven management units that would range east from the Montana-Idaho border to Butte, and then south to the Wyoming border and include the Beartooth Mountains. Each unit will have its own harvest quota. If the quota is reached the unit would be closed.

We dont want a whole bunch of bears coming out of any one place, Vore explained.

Other restrictions Montana has proposed include: Making it illegal to take a bear in its den; a mandatory hunter orientation course for license holders; a 12-hour reporting period for harvests and mandatory check within two days; and the closure of a season would occur within 24 hours of reaching either the female quota or the male quota.

Licenses

A Montana grizzly bear license would cost $150, $1,000 for nonresidents. But in most years it would be unlikely that any nonresident licenses would be issued since they are only given out at a rate of 10 percent of the resident licenses issued.

The licenses would be issued through a drawing. Anyone drawing a grizzly license would have to wait another seven years to apply again. If a hunter shot a grizzly it is a once-in-a-lifetime trophy, the hunter would not be allowed to apply for a license in Montana again.

These are very conservative regulations with a capital V, Vore said.

Any hunting season is also reliant on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services pending decision, which is likely to be challenged in court by wildlife advocates. So Montanas first grizzly bear hunting season in decades could still be a long ways off, if ever.

Public comment on FWPs proposed season will be taken at the Thursday commission meeting and remain open through 5 p.m. on June 17. The commission will take final action on the grizzly bear hunting proposals at its July meeting.
Meet Chi Chi! This fluffy, 12-year-old is looking for a quiet home where she can relax a live like a queen! She enjoys napping and cat treats. Chi Chi is described as friendly, playful and a lap cat! Come visit Chi Chi at the Humane Society of Western Montana, 5930 Highway 93 South in Missoula. Hours are 1-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and noon-5 p.m. on Saturday. The Humane Society would like to thank those who stepped up to celebrate community through the Give Local Missoula online giving event! Your support makes it possible for us to continue Saving Every Animal. Every Time. You can learn more about the work we do and check out adoptable pets online myhswm.org.
The Montana Human Rights Bureau found the Missoulian did not discriminate against former editor Sherry Devlin on the basis of her age or gender.

In February, Devlin filed a lawsuit in Missoula County District Court against Lee Enterprises, the Missoulians parent company, as well as Missoulian publisher Mark Heintzelman, claiming that she was discriminated against, demoted and subject to a hostile work environment leading up to her resignation in November 2015.

The HRBs investigation report deals with a much more limited scope than the issues brought up in Devlins lawsuit, specifically addressing if the companys treatment of Devlin discriminated against her on the basis of age or gender.

The preponderance of the evidence shows Heintzelman set a high standard for the style of leadership he asked of the news editor, and both he and Devlin found she wasnt suited to that style of leadership, HRB investigator Dennis Unsworth wrote in his reports conclusion. She was demoted because she wasnt able to meet Heintzelmans expectations.

Cory Laird, Devlins attorney, said he would not be commenting on the HRBs report or the status of the lawsuit at this time.

Devlin, 61, had been at the Missoulian for 30 years, and was the editor from 2005 until the summer of 2015, when she became features editor after the newspaper hired Matthew Bunk to be its editor in August. Bunk resigned in April.

In her lawsuit, she claims that days after Heintzelman was hired as publisher in September 2014, the two of them had a conversation in which he told her they should work on an exit strategy for her to leave her position. Devlin said she told Heintzelman she wished to stay as the editor.

In the HRB report, Heintzelman said he had been concerned about Devlin's performance and leadership ability after he arrived at the paper, and had been told by McGowan that she had been confrontational with him and other department heads. Heintzelman also told her the paper, which she was responsible for, "had not changed in 10 years."

After Bunks hiring, Devlin was moved to the newly-created role of features editor. In the HRB report, the Missoulian said Devlin had recommended the new position in April 2015, asked to be the one who filled it, and set her salary, which was roughly half what she had been making as editor.

Devlin denies requesting to be made features editor.

Devlin said by the end of March 2015, she believed her choice was either to pick a different job or be fired, the investigation said.

The HRBs investigation report includes interviews with several former and current Missoulian employees. Many of the staff members interviewed said Devlin had not mentioned that she felt she was being treated differently based on her age or gender, and that they didnt feel the company had a bias in those areas.

Among those interviewed were Jim McGowan, the former publisher who Heintzelman replaced. McGowan is also a party in a lawsuit in which the Missoulian is suing him and other previous employees after they started a marketing and advertising agency upon leaving the company.

McGowan told the investigator that two months after Heintzelman was hired, he asked McGowan if he had any dirt on Devlin, and that he should have gotten rid of (Devlin) when he had the chance.

He said while he and Devlin disagreed at times, she was probably the hardest working person Id ever worked with, and called claims that she lacked innovation crap. He did however say other department heads at the company had reported that she was abrasive to work with, a sentiment echoed by members of the companys circulation and advertising offices.

Jim Coulter, the former general manager of the Missoulian-controlled Ravalli Republic, said Heintzelman had asked him for notes and emails of past troubles with Devlin.

Former city editor Justin Grigg, who resigned in April, told the HRB investigator that while Heintzelman told the news staff Devlin had made the choice to step aside as editor, she had told him otherwise, but that she had not mentioned the concept of age or gender discrimination.
A 61-year-old man who prosecutors say was carrying 35 pounds of marijuana in his truck was arrested after being involved in a rollover crash near Frenchtown.

Steven Elmer Spanbauer was booked into Missoula County jail shortly before 7 a.m. Friday and faces a felony drug possession charge.

According to a court affidavit, sheriffs deputies had responded to a crash at an exit of Interstate 90 near Frenchtown earlier in the day. Officers saw a number of bags filled with what appeared to be marijuana around the vehicle, which had rolled over in the crash.

Spanbauer allegedly said a dealer had paid him to deliver the drugs from Washington to a location further east of Missoula, although he did not specify where. The marijuana was in 70 packages of roughly eight ounces each, for a total of 35 pounds, he said. The drugs recovered were labeled with names including Blue Dream, Royal Kush and Moby Dick.

Spanbauer also told deputies he had a series of drug-laced edibles from a Spokane-based shop as well, and that he was going to be paid around $1400 to make the delivery.

He is also charged with a felony for possession of property subject to criminal forfeiture for the $546 law enforcement found in his car, which Spanbauer allegedly said was his gas money.

In court on Friday, Justice of the Peace Karen Orzech set Spanbauers bail at $25,000, and allowed him to be screened for pretrial supervision release.

The only thing I really know about Mr. Spanbauer is his birthday and telephone number, she said. Hes primo for a flight risk.
The Missoula International Airport has received $1.3 million in federal funding to construct a new taxiway, according to airport director Cris Jensen. The money comes from the Federal Aviation Administrations Airport Improvement Program.

This grant will be used to develop a general aviation area that will help bring new business to the airport and, of course, new jobs to Missoula, Jensen explained. So this is not just exciting news for us here at Missoula International, but for the community as a whole.

Senator Jon Tester, a member of the Appropriations Committee that recently reauthorized the FAA, released a statement lauding the funding.

Not only will the residents of Missoula profit from these infrastructure investments but Montanas economy will also benefit from our increased capacity to transport visitors both inside and outside the state, Tester said. The Missoula International Airport is a critical economic driver for the region and this funding will help support commerce and tourism to western Montana.

The airport is also looking at hiring a consulting firm to begin planning a $42 million terminal improvement in the next few years to handle increased growth in passengers.
BILLINGS  Former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns was memorialized Friday by 500 people representing 30 years of Montana politics.

Burns, Montanas longest-serving Republican senator, was remembered as a fount of country wisdom and a storyteller with a Tom Sawyer-esque childhood. Burns died April 28 of natural causes at his Billings home. He was 81.

He was interested. He was invested," said Keely Godwin, Burns daughter. "And he felt like we were all part of something bigger, and what was important about each of us was inside of us, that kernel of something that we had to give to other people and that other people had to give to us. And thats why he loved stories, and he was a great storyteller.

By his own admission, Burns was a trial-and-error kind of guy. He joined the Marines after failing as a college student. He became a livestock auctioneer, then radio broadcaster.

His first foray into politics was as a Yellowstone County commissioner, for which he decided to run because he thought 4-H and FFA werent getting enough attention at the county fair. He held the county commissioner job for less than two years before challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. John Melcher, a Democrat who had represented Montana first in U.S. House then the Senate for more than 20 years.

His advice to friends and family alike was to be serious about your job by never taking yourself too seriously.

Burns stirred controversy with his remarks about minorities and women. He was also criticized, but never penalized, for his relationship with lobbyists. But voters recognized his commitment to Montana and made him the longest-serving Republican senator in state history.

He never let mistakes define the people that he knew because he never let his mistakes define him, Godwin said. His favorite thing to say to me, which unfortunately I think he said more than he wanted, was We all spend 15 minutes a day doing dumb things. And the trick to success is dont go over your quota.'

Burns son, Garrett Burns, said his father should be remembered in tall tales, embellished or not. The senator was the wry protagonist in several of his own tales, which took place in his home state, Missouri.

In Davies County they have a round jail. It rotates sort of like a revolving door. Dad actually spent a night in that jail as a kid. He would illegally fish the local streams as a kid with his friends, Garrett Burns said. They would tie a line or a rope to their overalls with a slipknot and walk knee deep in the stream with the bait trailing behind them. If trouble would arise, or a sheriffs car would happen by, they would pull the slipknot and the bait and rope would harmlessly go downstream.

Eventually, the sheriff did catch them. The boys had tied the wrong knot and it tightened as they tried to pull it loose. Burns and his friend were taken to jail to give them a scare. Their parents were called.

His friends' parents told the officer, Right away well be down to pick up our boy. But Russell, Conrads father, said, Well, just hold him for the night. Ill be by to pick him up for school in the morning,  Garrett Burns said. Dad spent the night in jail. That was the last time Conrad fished without a license.

***

As attendees hiked up the Metra stairs to the service, they could be overheard telling Burns anecdotes, many of which had been told throughout the week.

State Sen. Taylor Brown, who Burns mentored in radio broadcasting and politics, recalled for The Gazette Burns penchant for thinking big, a trait credited for the promotion of rural broadband Internet service written into the federal Telecommunications Act, which Burns sponsored.

It was on display on Dec. 13, 2000, when the Supreme Court certified the month-old Florida election canvass, giving the U.S. presidency to George W. Bush. From his office in D.C., Burns called Brown to say having two westerners like Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in the White House required something special from Montana.

Burns wanted Brown to round up enough horses for the Montana delegation, Burns, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg and Republican Gov. Judy Martz. As other states dignitaries walked in the inaugural parade, Montanas would ride horseback.

Burns 18 years in the U.S. Senate coincided with half of Baucus 36 years in office. Burns was a high-ranking member of Senate Appropriations, while Baucus was a high-ranking member of the Senate Finance committee, which meant every dollar spent in Congress passed through a Montana senators committee.

The arrangement was like controlling the goalposts at both ends of the field, former Burns Chief of Staff Dwight MacKay said. It was a time when Montana infrastructure didnt want for much, and research at the states universities took large steps forward.

We have never in our entire statehood had a powerful senator on one side of the aisle on Appropriations Committee and a powerful senator on the other side of the aisle on Finance. They could see eye-to-eye on quite a few things important to Montana agriculture, important to business, Brown concurred. Not everything, but on the important things, those two men in positions like that accomplished many things. It wont happen again. It will never happen again in your lifetime, but it was a great time for Montana.

The attendees at the service included Democrats Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who narrowly defeated Burns in 2006. Also in attendance were Republicans Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Ryan Zinke, Attorney General Tim Fox and former Gov. Marc Racicot.

There were elected officials both, Republican and Democrat from each of the last four decades.
The hospital, in turn, said in medical records that it was unable to do more for Mr. Purdy. Doctors tried for weeks to find a bed at a rehabilitation center  especially difficult for patients on Medicaid  only to have him change his mind on the day of his discharge and go home. He told a nurse he planned to kill himself but was never admitted to a psychiatric ward. The records are not clear about whether he went home with a prescription for anti-clotting medicine; his mother said he did not.

Saving Mr. Purdy from a bullet in the back was not enough. The poor pockets of the Bronx from which he carved his itinerant life created hurdles that made it hard for a gunshot survivor to stay alive.

Mr. Purdys long path to death wound through a bathtub in a public-housing project where a brother lifted his limp 181 pounds in and out of the water. Before that, Mr. Purdy lingered for six weeks at Lincoln Medical Center, a well-regarded hospital for trauma care that  like many institutions across the country  struggles to care for paraplegics.

This is just another case where societys ability to care for people in a multidisciplinary way is not always so perfect, especially in underserved populations, said Dr. Ronald Simon, the former chief of Lincolns trauma division and one of the doctors who oversaw Mr. Purdys treatment.

While the challenges of his care illuminate broad problems in how the health care system treats the poor and permanently disabled, Dr. Simon and outside medical experts said the hospital appeared to have met the relevant treatment standards and that Mr. Purdy might have unwittingly hastened his death by leaving.

He spent much of his last 47 days trying to prove he could return from injury and get justice on his own, without the help of doctors or detectives.
Readers discuss midwifery and why some mothers opt not to give birth in a hospital.

To the Editor: Re American Home Birth Is Dangerous, (Sunday Review, May 1): Amy Tuteur refreshingly addresses problems in the American system of home birth. She teases out differences among midwives and issues a rallying cry to make this practice safe. For this, I applaud her. But what is missing in these conversations about home birth is why women would want one in the first place. There is a woeful lack of introspection among obstetricians as to why the experience of hospital birth is so abhorrent to some women. As an anesthesia resident at a large academic center in New York, I saw firsthand why.

The number of cesarean sections hovered around 30 percent most days, well above the World Health Organization recommendation of 10 to 15 percent, but some days it was 75 percent. I saw women bullied into epidurals by their nurses, who would tell them, You will never get through this without one. And special, extraordinary scorn was reserved for women who chose to have a home birth. Crazy, irresponsible and child abuse were terms I heard in the staff break room.

When given the choice between a home birth and a hospital birth rife with paternalistic interactions and a real loss of patient autonomy, some women choose home birth. While I agree we need to make this practice safe, I dream of a hospital that makes the choice irrelevant.

MEREDITH KATO

Portland, Ore.

The writer is an anesthesiologist.

To the Editor: The essay about home birth by Amy Tuteur raised concerns about midwifery that warrant further discussion. Its important for women, as they are planning childbirth, to trust that their birthing team is qualified to give them the best possible care. Thats why the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists are working to address basic educational competencies to practice midwifery in the United States in line with international standards at the same time that we improve integration of midwives into the obstetric care team through the U.S. Midwifery Education, Regulation and Association work group. In countries where integrated models of midwifery care exist, as delineated by the International Confederation of Midwives, both maternal and newborn outcomes improve.
Paleosol lecture at Tech

Debra Hanneman will discuss her work on paleosols and continental sequence stratigraphy in southwest Montana at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 12, at the Mineral Museum on the Montana Tech campus. A paleosol is an ancient soil buried under millions of years of sediment deposits and converted to rock.

Hanneman holds a Ph.D. from the University of Montana and taught geoscience at Mount Royal College in Canada and Montana Tech. In 1991 she created Whitehall Geogroup Inc., which specializes in mineral assessment, hydrogeology, oil and gas, paleontological resource evaluation, and geologic mapping and manages the Geopostings.com and Earthmaps.com websites.

Naturalist hike set Saturday

Montana State Parks will host a naturalist hike at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, east of Whitehall.

The first naturalist hike of the year will explore the park for early season wildflowers and migratory songbirds. This easy 1- to 1.5-mile hike will cover the short Nature Loop area and the bottom of the Greer Gulch Trail. Hikers will meet at the Main (lower) visitor center. Details: 406-287-3541.

Bannack plans seasonal cleanup

DILLON  A cleanup is planned from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 14, at Bannack State Park, 25 miles southwest of Dillon.

This is a rare opportunity to see how Bannack is preserved and be a part of the process. The buildings being cleaned include the Hotel Meade and Masonic Lodge/schoolhouse. Bring gloves and a long sleeved t-shirt for cleaning windows. Details: Dale Carlson, 406-834-3413.

DAR announces winners

The Silver Bow DAR chapter recently announced the winners of the Daughters of the American Revolution Good Citizen Contest. They are chapter winner Maggie Althaus, Granite High School, Philipsburg; Amelia Wood, Anaconda High School; and Liam Devine, Butte Central High School.

The contest is open each year to high school seniors who show the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism to a high degree, according to DAR.
Jerry Schuyler will be Montana Tech's commencement speaker at the 116th ceremony on Saturday, May 14.

The university is expecting to award 596 degrees and certificates to 567 students.

Schuyler holds a bachelor of science degree in petroleum engineering from Montana Tech, class of 1977. His speech is titled "Seven Practical Lessons to Career Management."

In addition to his oil and gas career involvement, Schuyler has been an active supporter of Tech. He is a founding member of the Petroleum Engineering Industrial Advisory Board and has served as chairman. He was elected as a Distinguished Alumni in 2004. He has served on the Tech Foundation for many years. Most recently he was elected to the Tech Chancellor's Leadership Council.

Schuyler is chairman of the board of publicly traded Gastar Exploration Ltd., based in Houston, Texas. He was elected to the board in August 2014. Schuyler is also an independent director of Yates Petroleum Corporation based in Artesia, New Mexico.

Schuyler also served as independent director for publicly traded Rosetta Resources Inc. from December 2013 until the company was sold in 2015. He also served as independent director for Gulf Coast Energy Resources LLC from 2010 until the sale of the company in April 2015.

Prior to his board assignments, Schuyler joined a private start-up oil and gas company, Laredo Petroleum Inc., in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as executive vice president, chief operating officer, and board director in 2007. He was promoted to president and chief operating officer in 2008. He retired in 2013. During Schuyler's tenure, Laredo grew from a private-equity-financed startup company with no assets into a publicly traded company listed on the NYSE with a total enterprise value of about $5 billion.

Prior to joining Laredo, Schuyler was executive vice president responsible for domestic exploration and production with St. Mary Land and Exploration Co. and later Dominion Exploration and Production. Earlier in his career of 22 years with ARCO, he held a variety of positions, including Prudhoe Bay Field Manager, Manager of Worldwide Exploration and Production Planning, and President of ARCO Middle East and Central Asia.

"Jerry and his wife Julie have been great ambassadors for Montana Tech, and we are pleased they will join us for commencement weekend and help make this a special event for all our graduates and their families," said Tech Chancellor Don Blackketter.
HELENA  As far back as last May, Montana's former lieutenant governor believed she was being pushed off the 2016 ticket.

An email sent from the personal accounts of former Lt. Gov. Angela McLean to Gov. Steve Bullock on May 20, 2015, says Chief of Staff Tracy Stone-Manning told the lieutenant governor Bullock was considering a different running mate.

The message was made public Friday as the governor's office released three years' worth of emails sent from Bullock's personal account.

Similar requests for the emails were made by three news organizations  the Lee State Bureau, the Associated Press and Montana Television Network  in December. The organizations received the same set of documents.

It first appeared the governor and other staff members were using personal email accounts to conduct state business after a batch of emails released last December included messages McLean sent from her personal email account to Bullock's personal account.

Friday's release included about 350 pages of emails. For the most part the emails are typical of what elected and appointed officials and state employees send  the only thing exceptional about them is they were sent from private accounts and therefore not likely to show up in standard requests for public documents.

In one email, McLean wrote: "Tracy confirmed for me this morning that you are indeed considering a different running mate. In fact she indicated you have instructed her to be proactive with two paths: one that includes me and one that does not.

"I guess I am learning ambition is a funny thing and realizing the full consequences of standing up for what you believe is right. It really is the hardest thing."

A day later McLean wrote that she believed there was a "short list" of replacements developed by Bullock, Stone-Manning and others. She wrote to the governor, "make sure if you are visiting with folks they know that I will not be leaving the post until the term is up."

McLean quit in November to work for the Commissioner of Higher Education.

The emails give insight into how McLean thought the governor viewed her.

"Not sure how or if we will ever get there on the Governor valuing me, the job I do or even the Constitutional post of LG but I do know you and (Senior Adviser) Adam (Schafer) are working on it," McLean wrote in an email to Stone-Manning on July 2 at 4:15 a.m. She copied the governor.

She also wrote, "Finally, when you get a chance we should visit about how word has gotten and is continuing to get downtown about our office politics."

Later that morning, Bullock forwarded the message to deputy chief of staff Ali Bovingdon's personal email account, saying: "Wow." Bovingdon replied with the same: "Wow."

McLean had a meeting in September 2015 with the governor's budget director Dan Villa that she wrote "concerns me very much." She said the two talked about how Villa had "distanced himself," and she said she asked about how they could work together going forward. Villa said the two had different portfolios and that the two "did not cross."

"He further said, 'either you are on the team or you are not.'"

She said she was "deeply troubled by the message and tenor."

McLean forwarded an email to Bullock's personal account after the meeting, saying "Just FYI. I am deeply concerned about the environment in which I am expected to work."

Things seemed more amicable in 2014.

In April of that year, McLean was sending Bullock emails about now-candidate-for-governor Greg Gianforte speaking at Montana Tech's commencement ceremony. She asked Bullock about groundwork for the 2016 election.

In May 2014, Bullock called McLean "LG Extraordinaire" in an email to an employee with the Helena school district. That Novemeber in an email about education issues, she called Bullock "the greatest Governor Ever in the Milk Way!"

McLean wrote in October "It seems conversations are key for us moving forward as a team.  This partnership is important and I am willing to do whatever it takes to make it work and to give you the support you need. I'm counting on six years of it."

McLean and Bullock discussed staffing moves in November 2014, and it appeared he trusted her with information he hadn't shared with others yet.

On Nov. 18, 2014, at 2:38 a.m., she wrote: "This is an exciting time and I can appreciate the angst that comes with it. Thinking about the changes the next few days  wondering if you might be too. As you move forward with each step let me know if I can help, if you need an ear or a BEER (we haven't done that!)

"Remember what I said about looking over your shoulder and who would be there  in a good way!"

Robert Saldin, a political science professor at the University of Montana, said the emails reinforce the governor's explanation of how events unfolded.

"Maybe now we have a few more of the blanks filled in regarding the timing and whatnot," he said.

The first message produced in the request was sent two days before Bullock took office, with the governor reaching out to key staff about a speech to the Montana Chamber of Commerce.

Early emails discuss lighting the capitol dome at night, Otter Creek environmental impact statements, and how the move to the governor's mansion went. The governor and Commissioner of Higher Education Clayton Christian emailed frequently using private addresses over the three years of requests.

In one message from 2015, Bullock forwarded an email about Medicaid expansion sent by a constituent to his state account to his personal account then forwarded it to his policy adviser for health and families with the comment "The haters gonna hate hate hate hate .," which is a lyric from a Taylor Swift song.

When unapproved genetically modified wheat was found at a Montana State University research facility in 2014, former Bullock Chief of Staff Kevin O'Brien sent an email about the issue from his personal account to the personal accounts of Bovingdon and Bullock talking about when the incident was detected, who was involved, what would happen if a reporter were to call, and that eight Japanese wheat companies were coming to Montana that month.

Some emails were were sent exclusively between personal addresses while some had a mix of personal and state accounts, meaning the content of the emails would appear in public records requests. Some were forwarded from state email to personal accounts then onto other private accounts. About three-quarters of the emails Bullock sent from his private account went only to private addresses of staffers. Additionally, public employees used private accounts to send more than 150 emails to Bullock's private account.

Bovingdon said it's a "matter of logistics" and that it might be easier to reach the governor on his personal email account when he's traveling or on the weekend. Nearly two-thirds of the emails sent or received by Bullock's private accounts were sent between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.

The governor uses a personal cellphone that has access to both his work and personal email accounts.

Huff said he had no idea about how secure the emails sent through private accounts are. He also said he hasn't heard about any policy changes as a result of the request.

It took five months to produce the emails. The governor voluntarily allowed access to his email account, said Andy Huff, Bullock's chief legal counsel, who said he'd never seen a similar request and called it unprecedented.

The request took so long, Huff said, because legal research had to be done to see if Montana's public records laws allowed for accessing the private email accounts of public officials. That question is still unanswered, Huff said, because Bullock volunteered access to his account.

Huff didn't review emails that had been deleted or were in the account's trash, and he also didn't review a Gmail account sometimes used by the governor. Huff said the governor told him he doesn't use that account often.

Saldin said for the most part Montanans don't believe the use of personal email accounts by the governor and his staff is a big deal. "I just think to the average voter out there this is probably something that's not going to be perceived as a big deal," he said. "To the extent any of this is going to be of interest is the issue with McLean."
ORIGINAL NOTICE OF PUBLICATION

(Dissolution of marriage)

Upon the Petition of

Soledad Zumaya,

Petitioner,

and Concerning

Cesar Zumaya,

Respondent.

TO THE ABOVE NAMED RESPONDENT:

You are notified that a petition has been filed in the office of the clerk of this court naming you as a respondent in this action, which prays for dissolution of marriage. The attorney for the petitioner is Jean Pfeiffer of Muscatine Legal Services, whose address is 122 East Second Street, Muscatine, Iowa 52761. That attorney's telephone number is 563-263-8663; facsimile number 563-263-8667.

You must serve a motion or answer within 20 days of receiving this notice and within a reasonable time thereafter, file your motion or answer with the Clerk of Court for Muscatine County, at the courthouse in Muscatine, Iowa. If you do not, judgment by default may be rendered against you for the relief demanded in the petition.

YOU ARE ADVISED TO SEEK LEGAL ADVICE AT ONCE TO PROTECT YOUR INTERESTS.

If you require assistance of auxiliary aids or services to participate in court because of a disability, immediately call your district ADA coordinator at 563-263-6511. (If you are hearing impaired, call Relay Iowa TTY at 1-800-735-2942).

STATE OF IOWA JUDICIARY

Case No. CDCD037067

County Muscatine

Case Title SOLEDAD ZUMAYA VS. CESAR ZUMAYA

THIS CASE HAS BEEN FILED IN A COUNTY THAT USES ELECTRONIC FILING.

Therefore, unless the attached Petition and Original Notice contains a hearing date for your appearance, or unless you obtain an exemption from the court, you must file your Appearance and Answer electronically.

You must register through the Iowa Judicial Branch website at

http://www.iowacourts.state.ia.us/Efile and obtain a log in and password for the purposes of filing and viewing documents on your case and of receiving service and notices from the court.

FOR GENERAL RULES AND INFORMATION ON ELECTRONIC FILING, REFER TO THE IOWA COURT RULES CHAPTER 16 PERTAINING TO THE USE OF THE ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:

FOR COURT RULES ON PROTECTION OF PERSONAL PRIVACY IN COURT FILINGS, REFER TO DIVISION VI OF IOWA COURT RULES CHAPTER 16: http://www.iowacourts.state.ia.uslEfile

Scheduled Hearing:

If you require the assistance of auxiliary aids or services to participate in court because of a disability, immediately call your district ADA coordinator at (563) 328-4145. (If you are hearing impaired, call Relay Iowa TTY at 1-800-735-2942.) Date Issued 05/04/2016 08:03:44 AM District Clerk of Muscatine County

/s/ Traci Harper
JOHNSTON, Iowa  A Muscatine bank was among 13 Iowa banks receiving Best of Iowa Awards from the Iowa Bankers Association.

First National Bank, Muscatine received a silver award in the loan campaigns category.

The Best of Iowa Awards recognize excellence in community relations and bank marketing, including efforts to promote branding, deposits, loans, customer service and staff programs, and social media marketing. The awards were presented during the IBA's Marketing Conference, held at the West Des Moines Marriott on April 28.

"Iowa bank marketers provide innovative and inspiring marketing and community programs that are critical to their bank's success  and to the success of our local communities," said John Sorensen, president and CEO of the IBA. "They help Iowans to discover financial resources and community programs to help grow companies, expand job opportunities, become homeowners  and build stronger communities. We're happy to have this opportunity to celebrate and recognize these successes."

Approximately 98 percent of the banks in Iowa are members of the IBA and are eligible to participate in the Best of Iowa Awards competition. A panel of judges from the Indiana Bankers Association selected the award winners based on their objectives, strategy, execution and results.
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 []
MyBroadbands latest broadband survey results show that Vumatels fibre-to-the-home is the best fixed-broadband service in South Africa.

For the survey, MyBroadband partnered with Dr. Liezel Korf to ensure accurate results and high-quality research.

The Q2 2016 broadband survey was completed by 4,267 South African broadband subscribers.

To avoid duplicate entries and survey manipulation, a unique token system was used where only invited users were allowed to complete the survey.

The surveyed users are all part of the MyBroadband community, and are therefore typically IT professionals and tech-savvy individuals.

Fixed-broadband services with the most loyal subscribers

To test subscribers satisfaction with their broadband service, they were asked one question: How likely is it that you would recommend your current broadband service to a friend or colleague?

A 10-point scale was used to rate the likelihood that a user would recommend their service  where 0 is not at all likely, and 10 is extremely likely.

Known as the Net Promoter Score, the results of this question provide a good measure of the loyalty of consumers towards their providers.

The table below provides a summary of the results. It should be noted that services marked with an asterisk (*) had a low number of respondents, which can result in less representative figures.

Fixed Broadband Services Broadband Service Mean Score Vumatel fibre 9.30 Cybersmart Lightspeed* 9.00 Fibrehoods FTTH* 9.00 MetroFibre via Greencom* 8.00 VDSL 7.93 NeoBroadband fibre* 7.64 Telkom LTE (fixed service) 7.59 Telkom FTTH 7.31 Vodacom FTTH* 7.17 ADSL 6.81 Neotel wireless 6.42 iBurst wireless 5.25 MultiChoice Smart Village fibre 4.94 Wireless Internet Service Providers Broadband Service Mean Score WiruLink* 9.00 Level-7 Wireless* 8.64 Megasurf Wireless* 8.17 Sonic Wireless* 8.10 Amobia Wireless* 8.08 BitCo Wireless 7.72 Snowball Wireless* 6.67

More on broadband

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The best 10GB mobile data deal in South Africa
Communications Minister Faith Muthambi has called on all citizens to pay their TV licences, which will allow the SABC to discharge its public broadcasting service mandate with ease.

Delivering the Department of Communications Budget Vote, Muthambi also announced that a TV licence is no longer needed for the set-top box subsidy registration process.

We have in the recent past noted a slow registration take-up by citizens due to the TV licence requirement and insufficient funding to conduct public and consumer awareness campaigns, said Muthambi.

Together with the SABC management we have since resolved to de-link the TV licence requirement from the STB subsidy registration process.

Muthambi has also instructed the SABC to clean up the TV licence database so accurate information on who owns a TV set in South Africa is available.

More on TV licences

How to cancel your TV Licence

Paying your TV licence online? Watch out for this security flaw
The debate about online privacy versus the battle against crime was given new life this week with an attempt in Brazil to ban the popular messaging application WhatsApp.

A well-known and strict judge in a regional area of Brazil issued a court order banning WhatsApp for 72 hours in the whole country on Monday, because of problems he was having getting information from the company that owns the app.

That company is Facebook, which bought the app for US$19 billion in 2014, and it was allegedly not cooperating by handing over data from customers in a drug-running case that the judge was presiding over.

One billion users

The app has become very popular with smartphone users in many parts of the developing world since it provides a free messaging service that rivals SMS.

In February this year, the company said the app was used by one billion people, nearly one in seven people on the planet. The number of users in Brazil is said to be about 100 million people.

But the issue with WhatsApp and other similar apps, including Wickr, is that they guarantee end-to-end encrypted communications. Its this feature that is very popular with those who value personal privacy.

For criminals, it provides a secure channel for avoiding surveillance of any kind.

The only way their planning and operations can be accessed by law enforcement agencies, if they are communicated via WhatsApp, is with the cooperation of the company holding the data.

But Facebook says it has no power to access the user data anyway. This case appears to echo the same sentiments as those displayed in the recent Apple versus FBI mobile phone incident.

WhatsApps co-founder and CEO Jan Koum issued a statement via Facebook explaining why it did not have the data the court was requesting:

Yet again millions of innocent Brazilians are being punished because a court wants WhatsApp to turn over information we repeatedly said we dont have. Not only do we encrypt messages end-to-end on WhatsApp to keep peoples information safe and secure, we also dont keep your chat history on our servers. When you send an end-to-end encrypted message, no one else can read it  not even us.

Different cultures

The case is another instance of the lack of clarity between large US-based telecoms and social media companies over collaboration and cooperation with international governments.

The issue of access to and use of data collected from social media is again happening in a framework of different cultures, varying unexplored attitudes to privacy and within authoritarian legislative systems.

This case had a short term (and potentially longer term) and successful conclusion. The WhatsApp suspension was lifted after 24 hours by another judge.

But this is not the first time the WhatsApp service has been banned in Brazil. In December 2015, it was banned for 48 hours. This was also lifted after about 12 hours.

Then, in March, the same Brazilian judge who ordered this weeks ban ordered the vice president of Facebook in Latin America, Diego Dzodan, to be detained by authorities regarding lack of access to WhatsApp data. He was released after 24 hours.

In all cases, the aim of the judges has been to obtain information about alleged criminal activities such as drug trafficking. The approach may seem heavy-handed, but that could be about to change.

Brazil is looking at changes to its legislation governing the use of the internet that could see an end to any attempts to shut down any app across the whole country.

One reform, proposed by lower house deputy Esperidiao Amin, would allow the blocking of specific individuals or IP addresses suspected of illicit activity.

Its less dramatic than withdrawing the service from the whole of the Brazilian population, he told Reuters.

Across borders

But this latest case highlights several issues. First, there is an ongoing debate about the nature of the internet and social media.

Liberal democracies have an expectation of a right to privacy, but within them, there is an equal demand for efficient law enforcement, solutions to major crime and provision of national security and protection from terrorism.

Second, companies such as Facebook need to walk carefully and work across different cultures and legal systems to achieve the balance between the demands for security and privacy. Its often hard to see how these can be achieved.

Third, cybersecurity and privacy legislation is still in its infancy in many under-developed economies and advanced applications are being accessed in economies where the legal boundaries are not clear.

Thankfully, it is very hard to envisage a situation such as this occurring in a country such as Australia, where there has been a more engaged debate over the tension between technology, legislation and privacy.

In more developed economies, the problems that arise from the tension between privacy and national security have had much more debate, but have not necessarily been resolved for all citizens.

Jill Slay, Director, Australian Centre for Cyber Security, UNSW Australia

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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Making WhatsApp pay Vodacom and MTN will chase away investors
SAN FRANCISCO  A popular arts school that is one of San Francisco's largest property owners has illegally removed hundreds of residential units from the city's tight housing market, San Francisco said in a lawsuit filed on Friday.

Academy of Art University acquired buildings that are zoned for use as apartments and other residences and converted them to student dorms without permission from San Francisco officials, City Attorney Dennis Herrera said.

The conversions were intended to accommodate the school's swelling student rolls, which have boosted its profits, but they cost the city roughly 300 residential dwellings, he said.

"Academy of Art quite simply is an egregious land use scofflaw, and its defiance persists at the worst possible time for our residents," Herrera said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.

James Brosnahan, an attorney for the university, said Herrera's lawsuit was premature. The university has been working with planning officials to resolve the city's concerns, and has offered the city two properties for low income housing and $10 million. It has also agreed to increase its housing stock in the future through new construction, Brosnahan said.

"A point that is missed is the students," he said. "You have a lot of low income art students, painters, sculptors, that are affected by this lawsuit today."

The lawsuit comes after a decade-long fight between city officials and the university over its alleged violations.

Herrera said in the suit that the university has "cavalierly" changed the use of over 22 buildings in San Francisco, including by turning office space into classrooms. He also accused the university of violating other rules, including building code and signage requirements, and said it has stalled and negotiated in bad faith over the years.

The lawsuit calls on a judge to declare a number of university properties a nuisance and order the school to stop using them. It also seeks fines.
In what could be the largest private sale of a Napa County lodging and shopping property, the Vintage Estate of Yountville has sold for $148 million.

On April 26, Brookfield Hotel Properties of Maryland bought the 22-acre Napa Valley property from the Egan, Ghilotti and Sandbach families.

We are thrilled to acquire this iconic property and are excited to be part of this community, said Shai Zelering, managing director, operations and asset management for Brookfield Hotel Properties.

The company declined to comment on the sale price, which was calculated by the Napa County Assessors office from deed records.

The mixed-use estate includes the Vintage Inn and the Villagio Inn & Spa, two restaurants, a spa, meeting space, a three-acre vineyard and more than 43,000 square feet of retail and office space in the V Marketplace.

Brookfield is still in the early stages of plans for the property, but we are committed to maintaining the Vintage Estates reputation as a favorite place of both residents and visitors to Napa, Zelering said.

The propertys name will remain the Vintage Estate, and it will remain open and fully operational throughout the transition, said a news release.

Other Napa County hotel property sales have approached or exceeded $100 million mark in recent years. The Bardessono hotel, also in Yountville, sold for $85 million, the Carneros Inn sold for $62 million, the Harvest Inn in St. Helena for $55 million, Andaz Napa for $72 million and Silverado Resort for approximately $110 million.

Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality, which specializes in the sale of California hotels, called the Vintage Estate a trophy in an A+ location. It has 22 acres of land, which is virtually impossible to find, he noted.

However, even though $148 million sounds like a lot, I think its working out to be a good investment for the buyer at that price, Reay said.

California hotel sales are down 35 percent in the first quarter of 2016, he said.

The market is starting to flatten out in terms of revenue increases and lenders are pulling back from hotel loans, or making them at much higher rates. Its a completely different market today than six months ago. 

Reay explained that in 2015 financing for hotels was readily available and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) were very active buyers.

But in the beginning of 2016, we had a decline in the stock market and hotel REITs were hit very, very hard. Those companies were no longer in the market to buy. Financing became more difficult.

When Vintage Estate came on the market in 2015, higher prices might have been considered, but then some bidders likely dropped out because of financing, which opened an opportunity for Brookfield, said Reay.

According to the Assessors office, the land and structures were assessed at $45 million before the sale, which comes to $500,587 in property taxes per year. With a reported purchase price of $148 million, the estimated future property tax bill could be three times that amount.

Mark McDermott, senior vice president at CBRE Hotels, was one of the listing agents for the property.

While the Bardessono sale last year was notable for its price per key, the Vintage Estate sale is notable because of the size of the property, and it continues to solidify Napa Valley as an investment grade location for both national and international capital, he said.

Were seeing premier hospitality assets like this trade at investment metrics that were previously reserved for gateway urban destinations like San Francisco and New York.

In economic terms, the town and the county should benefit significantly from the new owners plan to invest in the property and elevate its performance, said McDermott.

When you have a change in ownership of a longtime, family-owned property that plays such a significant role in our small town like the Vintage Estate has, initially its a bit concerning, said John Dunbar, Yountville mayor. However, talking with the new owners leadership team, Im confident in their commitment to maintaining and even elevating the quality of experience and service.

The sizable investment displays a strong desire to keep Vintage Estate a premiere global destination property and a major asset to Yountville, Dunbar said.

This sale reinforces the findings in Visit Californias 2015 Economic Impact report released this (past) week touting tourism as a significant and growing piece of the Bay Areas economy, said Clay Gregory, president and CEO of Visit Napa Valley.

According to that report, Napa Valley visitors spent $355 million on accommodations in 2015, the highest percentage of all spending and an increase of 15 percent over 2014.

It also shows the very positive state of the valley and its image in the world of hospitality, said Gregory.
Richard and Carolyn Czapleski plan to build a small winery so they can produce their Canard Vineyard wines on the 25-acre property theyve farmed near Calistoga since 1983.

The heart and soul of Napa Valley is small farmers, Richard Czapleski told the Napa County Planning Commission on Wednesday.

They won approval to build a 10,000-gallons-a-year winery at 1016 Dunaweal Lane with up to 70 visitors a week and eight marketing events with up to 30 guests apiece. The approval came by a 2-1 vote, with two commissioners absent.

In many ways, this is a model application, Commissioner Heather Phillips said.

But she saw a flaw. The proposal includes taking the lower story of a two-story building with a den and garage built in 2013 and converting it into an office, barrel storage area, tasting area and restroom.

Napa County has a policy to discourage people from building homes and barns with the purpose of turning them into wineries. It says the county does not generally support such conversions if the building has been built or substantially modified within five to seven years.

Phillips expressed concern that approving this project would set a precedent. She wondered what legal argument the county could then make to turn down someone who came in tomorrow seeking conversion of a one-year-old building.

This application seems to me at cross-policy, with no truly compelling reason to justify an overruling, Phillips said.

While that proposed conversion prompted a no vote from Phillips for the project, it didnt bother Commissioners Terry Scott and Michael Basayne.

The county needs to keep focused on the ball, Scott said. The ball is encouraging more small wineries.

Otherwise, were going to end up with a totally corporate or venture capitalist environment, which is the owners of most large wineries we have in the valley now, Scott said.

Basayne said the county shouldnt be so hung up on preventing a conversion for this type of small winery that he agreed is the heart and soul of Napa Valley.

I feel this is, indeed, a very modest project  were not looking at something that is a mega event-center, Basayne said.

A county staff report recommended approval. While noting the building conversion issue, it said most of the wine production will take place elsewhere on the property on new covered pads.

St. Helena resident Geoff Ellsworth said the commission for the present time should turn down proposals for all new wineries on agricultural land. He called on the county to study the cumulative impacts new wineries and winery expansions are having on traffic, water, noise and other factors.

Gary Margadant of Vision 2050 wanted assurance that the Czapleskis will follow the conditions of approval. He pointed to a recently resolved county code compliance case dating to 2012 in which the county said the Czapleskis had held wine tastings and wine events on their property without a permit.

A judgement stipulation endorsed April 8 in Napa County Superior Court calls for the Czapleskis to pay a $56,000 fine, of which $20,000 is stayed unless they have another violation.

They made some errors in the past which they have admitted and have paid for it, Scott said. And they have resolved to do the right thing and go through the process to obtain a use permit for a small winery.

Canard Vineyard makes and stores its wine at another location. A minimum of 90 percent of the grapes for their new winery will come from their property, a county report said.

Commissioners Anne Cottrell and Jeri Gill werent at the meeting.
For nearly a dozen young winemakers from Europe and South America, Napa resident Linda Hansen is like a second mother.

During each years harvest season, Hansen said, hundreds of international winemakers stay with host families in Napa and Sonoma. Hansen has been hosting visiting winemakers since 2009 and typically hosts one to three of these interns at a time. Most are in their twenties, and some are fresh out of college. Many refer to Hansen as their Napa mom or Cali mom.

It brings great joy to my heart to mentor and welcome them to Napa and into my life, Hansen said. Many times this is the first experience to travel and live outside of their respective countries.

These young interns are hired by wineries for harvest (from the end of July to December), Hansen said, and fulfill various roles in the winemaking process. Most return to their home countries after harvest, but some are offered continued employment.

One of Hansens former guests, Antonio, was a sommelier from Italy with an Oenology degree. He was offered a job in Napa to work as a wine ambassador in a tasting room, she said.

Hansen, who works in human resources in the wine industry, said finding housing in the Napa Valley can be the biggest challenge the interns face. As someone who loves traveling and experiencing different cultures, it felt like the perfect fit to open her home to these young people.

I welcome every person into my home with open arms and heart, Hansen said.

Former intern Florencia Gomez said Hansen takes on a motherly role for everyone who stays with her. Visiting a foreign country is full of challenges, Gomez said. To have a sweet and amazingly loving woman like Hansen to share in all of those new experiences becomes a significant highlight in your life, she said.

I know for sure that for all of those who have lived in her house, she has been that person who took care of us when everything was unknown, Gomez said.

Hansen, who grew up on a farm in Minnesota, traveled extensively before settling in Napa in 2008 to fulfill her dream of working in the wine industry. Over the past several years, shes hosted 10 international winemakers, mainly from Argentina and Italy.

All of the interns have a different personality, and we always get along, Hansen said. Communication and compromise are essential in any living situation. We become family and a part of each others lives for life.

Hansen makes sure her guests experience American traditions like Halloween and Thanksgiving. During December, Hansen said many of the winemakers visit Oregon to stay with her extended family and celebrate the holidays.

Hansen gets paired with her guests based on applications and questionnaires theyve filled out to find a good match. Hansen also networks with the wineries and receives referrals from former interns.

Besides the language barrier, many of these young winemakers need guidance as they experience day-to-day life in America, Hansen said. She helps them with transportation, opening bank accounts, buying food and other daily tasks.

For Hansen, the time spent caring for these young people and helping them navigate life in America creates a lasting bond that extends well beyond harvest season.

As a group, they share dinners and wine tastings and bond through their conversations and shared experiences traveling around the Bay Area. Hansen has even joined Gomez on a hot air balloon ride and a tandem skydiving trip.

I am grateful to have this amazing cultural exchange and experience in my life and hope to continue each harvest season, Hansen said. And, I hope this year to visit some of my extended family in Argentina.

Hansen said she enjoys being an ambassador for the U.S., the Napa Valley, and the wine industry. She hopes all of the interns she hosts have a wonderful, unforgettable experience.

I am a very curious person and love to travel, Hansen said. I have a great appreciation for wine, and it is always fun to live vicariously through the winemakers.
By transforming a showpiece house to look less Tuscan and more Napan, a developer has received the green light to build that home and 17 others.

Nearly three months after a dispute over the design of a mansion froze progress on the Brioso Reserve, the city Planning Commission finally gave its approval to Lafferty Communities for the 7.2-acre development in north Napa. The San Ramon builder is working with Presidio Residential Capital to build 18 homes averaging about $1 million off an extension of Luke Drive west of Highway 29, within sight of the vineyards of the unincorporated county.

The plans approved Thursday night included a complete exterior overhaul for the mansion that, at nearly 5,000 square feet, is intended as the projects showcase. The original, Tuscan-style conception of clay roof tiles and stone facing divided city planners, who in February delayed a vote on the project rather than try to reject the mansion while accepting the remaining homes.

I dont understand the Italian villa thing. This one kind of looks like it got dropped there, Commissioner Gordon Huether said at the time. I dont understand what relationship it has with the rest of the neighborhood.  It looks so discordant. Even if I did like fake Italian villas, I wouldnt like it there.

Lafferty returned on Thursday with a far more traditional look to the mansion. Though its interior floorplan was largely unchanged, its tile roofing and high-arched front windows were replaced by board-and-batten siding, a shingled roof and stone wainscoting intended to echo the character of the surrounding areas beyond the city limits.

We took to heart your opinion that this is a rural area that is transitioning, and (that) a farmhouse is more in keeping with the history of Napa than an Italian villa, Mark Forster, the companys vice president of acquisitions, told commissioners of the change.

Eight floor plans will be available to Brioso home buyers in various sizes and finishes  including the same wood-sided farmhouse-style treatment that Lafferty offered to redesign its showcase house.

Lafferty also agreed to minor changes to some of the designs for Briosos smaller homes, including smaller second-story windows, rafter tails at roof edges and some redrawn rooflines. But commissioners appeared most gratified by the move to make the developments most visible property blend in better with its surroundings.

The Italian villa being replaced by a farmhouse was a super good call, said Huether. Youre looking at something thats much better integrated into the neighborhood, added Commissioner Beth Painter.

The design changes were the final push for a project that first gained city approval as Mayacamas Vista Estates. Although the City Councils approval in 2011 locked in the layout for the homes, it required the builder to gain separate approval for the home designs.

Briosos creators estimated last year the housing subdivision, with floor spaces starting at nearly 3,000 square feet, would cost $17 million to build and produce a retail value of at least $21.8 million.

The Brioso project was one of two housing proposals accepted by the city on Thursday. Later, commissioners approved West Pueblo Estates, a cluster of 19 homes near West Pueblo Avenue.
Valley Oak High Schools Friday Night Live students have been working all year to educate students and parents about the dangers of underage drinking while also making positive changes in the community.

Last month, public safety agencies put on a two-day simulation of the consequences of a fatal vehicle accident, Every 15 Minutes, for Valley Oak students.

During this school year, students in the Friday Night Live activity have been educating themselves about drug and alcohol issues and working with merchants to enforce state laws involving minors.

Why did a dozen students join Friday Night Live?

To spread the word about what can happened when you drink and drive, said Leo Ramirez, 19.

To make a difference and help future kids, said Kevin Satterfield, 17.

To learn more and prevent my sister from doing it, said Maria Ramirez, 17.

The students at this alternative high school are part of a statewide program to encourage teenagers to make healthy decisions regarding drugs and alcohol. Friday Night Live programs are in other Napa County schools, including New Tech High School, Justin-Siena High School, American Canyon High School, Salvador Elementary School and at the Calistoga Teen Center. Club Live, the middle school chapter of Friday Night Live, is at Calistoga Junior-Senior High School.

School evaluations shows that the students have had an effect on their peers, especially during the Every 15 Minutes program, said Julie Lovie, Friday Night Live program advisor at Valley Oak. You guys have touched the hearts of the entire student body, she told students on Tuesday.

Their Every 15 Minutes video featuring the vehicle death simulation had reached 2,826 people on YouTube as of Thursday morning.

The students have helped organize several other programs and events at the school, including presentations featuring ThinkFast Interactive, Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the use of drunk goggles and marijuana goggles.

Students have been visiting local markets and liquor stores, informing them about laws regarding advertising and other things to consider in their retail spaces.

The students said that the A & B Market on Old Sonoma Road and Jefferson Liquors have both made positive changes to alcohol advertisement placement and displays. The markets now adhere to state law, Lovie said.

According to the so-called Lee Law, off-sale alcohol retailers (liquor stores, grocery stores) are required to cover no more than 33 percent of their window space with advertising or signs and that signage must be placed so that law enforcement personnel have an unobstructed view of the interior of the store, including the cash register.

By abiding with this law, Lovie said that the youth who pass by these stores or who shop at these stores will see less advertising for alcohol and cigarettes.

Lovie said that the students are the ones who have noticed how easy it can be to get alcohol or how some businesses in town didnt regularly check IDs.

The students said that alcohol is easy to steal and not just those tiny bottles that sit near the counters. Full-size bottles of Fireball and other liquors are sometimes in easy reach.

Alcohol is often located near items that teenagers are buying like chips, snacks and sodas, students said.

Valley Oak students have been working with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) and the Napa Police to ensure that laws are being enforced.

Friday Night Live has brought the students together to work on something they care about, Lovie said. The students attended an Every 15 Minutes retreat and will be able to attend the Youth Traffic Safety Summit in Anaheim this September.

To support Valley Oaks efforts, the program was awarded a $5,000 grant through the California Friday Night Live Partnership.
UNITED NATIONS

Kazakhstan calls for nuclear-free world by 2045

Kazakhstan is seeking to encourage a wide-ranging discussion of the role of religion in fighting extremism and terrorism, and it is calling for a nuclear free world by 2045, the 100th anniversary of the United Nations, as the Central Asian nation makes its first bid for a seat on the Security Council.

Kazakh Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov spoke at two high-level meetings at the United Nations on Friday, laying out his nations vision for a more peaceful and tolerant global society.

Another area he says where Kazakhstan could lead by example is nuclear weapons. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev got rid of all the nuclear weapons the country inherited following the break-up of the Soviet Union and is hoping the world will follow his example.

NAIROBI, Kenya

Kenya closing camps with hundreds of thousands of refugees

The Kenyan government says it will close two refugee camps, including one of the worlds biggest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges.

Karanja Kibicho, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, said Friday the closure of the camps will have adverse effects and called on the international community to collectively take responsibility for the humanitarian needs that arise.

Kibicho says the government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which works with humanitarian organizations looking after the welfare of refugees.

Its not the first time Kenya has threatened to send home the more than 550,000 refugees. International rights group Amnesty International has condemned the move saying its reckless and could lead to the involuntary return of refugees to countries where their lives could still be in danger.

MOSCOW

Russian, Japanese leaders plan peace treaty consultations

A meeting between the leaders of Russia and Japan has ended with no indication of whether significant progress was made toward resolving a territorial dispute that has overshadowed Moscow-Tokyo relations since World War II.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met Friday with Vladimir Putin at the Russian presidents Sochi holiday residence.

After the meeting, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the two confirmed readiness to develop an intensive political dialogue and that consultations on a peace treaty would be held in June at the deputy foreign ministerial level.

Abe has been pushing to make progress in the dispute over the Russian-held islands, called the Northern Territories in Japan and the southern Kurils in Russia. The row has kept the two countries from signing a peace treaty formally ending their WWII hostilities.

MADRID

Chinese billionaire treats 3,000 workers to paella in Spain

The billionaire founder of Chinese conglomerate Tiens Group treated 3,000 of his best salespeople to a traditional Spanish paella dinner during a free Madrid trip that also includes a bullfight and a tour of King Felipe VIs Royal Palace.

The smiling crowds washed down heaping plates of paella with sangria Friday at a massive spread of picnic tables in a riverside park during the event footed by Li Jinyuan and organized by Chinas U Tour travel company.

U Tour deputy manager Zhang Xilai says the tour for the group of mostly health care products salespeople cost 7 million euros ($8 million).

The trip comes a year after Li took 6,400 to France.

Zhang says fewer salespeople went this year because of higher sales targets and stiffer competition in China.
I am responding to the people who took the time to share their opinions, both pro and con, regarding my recent letter The Journey of a Naive and Disappointed Citizen (March 23).

In that letter I was addressing two issues:

A. Sharing my disappointment in Mr. Dodds lack of response to my specific questions on the matter of physician-assisted suicide.

B. Asking Mr. Dodd if he applied religious values in his decision to support physician-assisted suicide legislation

Let me address item A  I think a legislator and his office are more effective if they respond to a constituent, no matter how sensitive the questions raised. That response could be in writing or by phone, for example. But at least give the constituent the respect of a thoughtful response. Mr. Dodd did neither. He is a disappointment to me because of that. However, recently some friends and I invited him to lunch prior to his St. Helena town hall meeting. His aide did respond, and I am grateful for that, though Mr. Dodd was not able to accept our invitation.

Item B - concern was expressed about the religious tone in my letter. Let me try to distinguish between sharing of religious values and the imposition of a religions tenets from which those values derive.

Public discourse regarding law and societal norms are driven by the ideas, values, and opinions of those involved, whether they be constituents, legislators, or the general public.

Where do those ideas, values and opinions come from? I suspect from a variety of experiences, including our family, our associates, our friends, our reading, our belief systems, whether religious or otherwise, etc.

It seems to me ideas, values and opinions derived from religious belief, not the religious tenets from which they are derived, are reasonable ideas for persuasive public discourse. I believe most people voicing those religious values do not intend to enshrine the religion's tenets into law.

As an example, legislation regarding physician-assisted suicide is not supported by some constituents, for pro-life reasons. Those pro-life reasons are, for many, based on religious beliefs. The same holds true on the question of abortion.

Are those people trying to suggest the Fifth Commandment Thou shalt not kill should be adopted into a law? I suspect not.

But are they trying to argue for the application of a value derived from that commandment to specific issues facing a society? Yes. Is that allowed in a democratic society? Yes

Is it permissible for a legislator to apply his/her religious values to a societal issue? I think so. If I dont believe that value is appropriate to the issue, I will argue and vote against it.

Does that mean he/she is, therefore, implementing a tenet of his/her religion into law? I dont think so.

Does the legislator owe constituents a response if asked whether he applied his/her religious values to a legislative issue and his reasoning for doing so? I believe the legislator does.

Some people are concerned when religious values are applied to public discourse and issues. History shows there should be concern, but a strong, educated democratic society can withstand those who aim to impose their religions tenets into law.

And that same kind of society can weigh the possible benefits of religious values applied fairly, respectfully, and honestly in public debate.

Jake Arcanin

Napa
Thanks so much to everyone for the overwhelming support for Silverado Orchards Retirement Community. All over town, people tell me what a bad idea it is to remove on-street parking along Pope Street, especially in front of our senior residence, because it threatens senior citizen access and safety.

Were seldom involved in politics, but this issue dropped in our laps. What we prefer doing is serving the senior citizens of St. Helena and the Napa Valley in the best way possible, as we have for the last 38 years.

Personally speaking, seniors are near and dear to my heart. In reality, seniors are simply older versions of you and me -- except theyre full of more life experiences and wisdom. Seniors have a voice and a vote  and deserve our greatest respect. Thats why the process of this parking removal proposal has been so disturbing, because I have seen proponents wrongly treat our seniors with disrespect and condescension.

People often ask me 'whats the latest?' After the Feb. 3 Active Transportation Committee meeting that made front-page news in the Star and Register and even a controversial cartoon, a lot has happened and yet the issue is still back at square one.

After the Feb. 3 Active Transportation Committee meeting and following public controversy, we were emailed by St. Helena Public Works Project Manager Tobias Barr, who stated that we are taking the parking concerns  seriously and evaluating keeping parking in place  adjacent to Silverado Orchards.

The alternative removes parking across the street, in front of the four single-family homes. Ive spoken with the owners and they all support bike lanes and dont believe the loss of on-street parking will impact them. With that said, we plan to pursue the design alternative, which will keep on-street parking in place in front of your facility.

Then St. Helena Public Works asked us to come to a meeting at their office, which we did. Public Works Director Steve Palmer, Tobias Barrs boss, only joined us on speakerphone from his home in the Sacramento area. Palmer stated that he had heard that removing our Pope Street parking might expose senior citizens to being hit by cars and other risks but he preferred the plan to remove parking anyway.

It was like the Tobias Barr email never happened. But then Palmer decided to see if the citys engineers could develop the alternative plan that did not remove street parking in front of Silverado Orchards, but transferred the parking removal to the other side of the street.

A month passed and Public Works emailed us saying that they had a complete updated design that saved Silverado Orchards parking. The updated plan is excellent and was done by Glen White Wright of Green Valley Consulting Engineers who has done work for the city before.

However, after all that, Palmer is still going to recommend his original plan to City Council on May 10, and all were really talking about is moving a bike path a few feet one direction or the other, but with major safety and access impacts if Palmers plan succeeds.

What does all this mean? On Tuesday, May 24, the City Council will be presented with both plans, the original and the updated that meets the needs of the community. Fortunately, Palmer agreed to let the City Council decide the future of St. Helena.

Its vitally important for senior citizens and many others not to have to park on the opposite side of the road and cross a very busy Pope Street.

We would greatly appreciate your input and involvement on this proposal. Once its done, its done for good! Pope Street wont be re-striped twice. If youd like to see both plans blueprints or discuss this proposal further, please contact me at 963-3688. Thanks again.

Kerry Baldwin, owner

Silverado Orchards Retirement Community
We wanted to create a product that would stand the test of time. Equal attention, love, and care were placed on both the artistic and technical aspects of the work.

The release last year of 10, on ZOHO Music, marked a decade of musical innovation by Gabriel Alegrias Afro- Peruvian Sextet, its program richly infused with Alegrias trademark synthesis of folkloric Afro-Peruvian rhythms, jazz, and other musical strains.



Now Alegrias Saponegro Records is preparing to release an audiophile vinyl edition of 10 on June 24the first such record in the history of Afro-Peruvian music.



We wanted to create a product that would stand the test of time, says Alegria. Equal attention, love, and care were placed on both the artistic and technical aspects of the work.



The resolution of the recording process was maintained at 88.2kHz at 24 bits (rather than 96k) for reasons that included simple integer-ratio sample rate conversion in order to avoid the phase shifts and ringing of anti-alias filtering at 20kHz. It also meant less data to be moved around as compared to 96kHz.



Julio Ortega, the Peruvian mixing engineer, felt that this sampling rate offered the best option for capturing the heart and soul of Afro-Peruvian music. Specifically, the sound of Afro-Peruvian percussion instruments, which are made entirely from wood (no skins), made it necessary to find a sampling rate and bit depth that would capture their great profundity. The Peruvian cajon, which in the hands of Freddy Huevito Lobaton includes a great dynamic range and varied accents, posed a challenge not only of sound, but of the space surrounding its sound, including the spontaneous shouts and calls known as guapeo.



For all of these reasons, it was imperative to maintain the entire project at high resolution, says Ortega. One of the keys was to capture the 60Hz and 40Hz frequencies of the cajon without having them confused with those of the double bass or kick drum. With the 88.2kHz sampling rate at 24 bits, we made the most use of the physical space that contained the instruments during the recording. Further, in order to avoid problems of distortion with future plug-ins, such as those found in Universal Audio, it was important to keep the internal DAW process at 32 bits. All of this in preparation for the move to vinyl.



The end result is a 33-RPM vinyl that was duplicated under the highest standards by Morphius Records onto 180-gram audiophile quality vinyl. In order to meet the demands of air space of the music, says Ortega, we needed to take full advantage of the available bandwidth and so it is possible to hear the movement created by each instrument, as it should be, where the cajon lays the sonic foundation of heartfelt interpretations by masterful artists.



10 is a concept album showcasing carefully chosen American and Peruvian standards arranged in the Afro- Peruvian style. Guest artists including bass legend Ron Carter, Grammy Award-winning pianist Arturo OFarrill, Yellowjackets keyboardist Russell Ferrante, and tabla expert and Miles Davis alumnus Badal Roy augment the sextet, half of whose players are based in Alegrias native Lima and half in New York City. Weve brought together jazz musicians with eminent Peruvian musicians, and were the glue that holds it together, says Alegria.



Freddy Huevito Lobaton, a founding member of the sextet, is a master of Afro-Peruvian percussion who grounds the band in the folkloric textures of the box-like cajon, the cajita, and the quijada (made from the jaw bone of an ass). Drummer Hugo Alcazar, also a founding member, incorporates the cajon into his drum kits polyrhythmic feel, while American-born drummer Shirazette Tinnin gracefully navigates the predominantly 12/8 beats. Alegria shares the front line with tenor saxophonist Laura Andrea Leguia, a tremendously expressive player who helped found the band. Peruvian criollo guitarist Yuri Juarez provides expertly calibrated rhythmic support and telegraphic solos. In New York, bass duties are shared by two veteran masters, Puerto Rican-born John Benitez and Nigerian-American Essiet Essiet.



Born (1970) and raised in Lima, Peru, Gabriel Alegria has divided his time between Peru and the United States throughout his life. After receiving his bachelors degree at Kenyon College in Ohio, Alegria enrolled at City College of New York and earned an M.A. under the tutelage of Ron Carter. He then returned to Peru for seven years, five of them spent in the trumpet section of the Lima Philharmonic while moonlighting as a jazz and rock musician around the capital city. He relocated to Los Angeles and spent four and a half years at the University of Southern California, where the Afro-Peruvian Sextet first came together in 2005. While at USC (he earned his doctorate in 2007), Alegria studied, worked, toured, and recorded with his mentor Bobby Shew, vocalist Tierney Sutton, trombonist Bill Watrous, and keyboardist/composer Russell Ferranteall of whom contributed to the sextets debut CD, Nuevo Mundo (Saponegro Records, 2008).



The band released three more albums on SaponegroPucusana (2010), El Secreto del Jazz Afroperuano (2012), and Ciudad de Los Reyes (2013)in its crusade to spread Afro-Peruvian jazz music to the world, says the trumpeter.



Gabriel Alegria and his Afro-Peruvian Sextet will be performing album release shows 6/17 at Club Bonafide, New York City, and 6/26 at the Pittsburgh Live Jazz International Festival. The group returns to Club Bonafide 7/16 and 8/20.

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YEREVAN.  Armenia needs to declare to the world that the Lenin-Stalin crimes cannot be grounds for the South Caucasus, since numerous examples have shown that they have not become a basis for other countries.

Ambassador Ara Papyan, Modus Vivendi Center Director and political scientist, told the aforesaid to Armenian News-NEWS.am, as he reflected on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

He recalled that the Government of Armenia has discussed the bill on the countrys recognition of the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh).

[But] I have always favored uniting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia, Papyan noted. He stressed that there are considerable respective legal grounds, especially the February 24, 1920 League of Nations report-proposal, according to which the whole area was recognized as the territory of Armenia.

Therefore we [i.e. the Armenians] need to raise the issue of occupied territories of Armenia, the analyst said.

As per Ara Papyan, Armenia needs to ask the international community to support in liberating Armenias territories, which still are under Azerbaijani occupation.

Nagorno-Karabakh has always been a de jure territory of Armenia, he added. We simply have liberated a small part of that territory.
A delegation of bishops and priests of the different Churches of Jerusalem visited the Armenian Patriarchate to extend Easter wishes to the Patriarch and his community, informed the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

All the Jerusalem Churches have the tradition of meeting in the different bishoprics, in a warm-hearted and fraternal ambience, exchanging greetings and good wishes during the two major liturgical feasts  Christmas and Easter.

In his remarks, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop Fouad Twal, assuredafter the 101st anniversary of Armenian Genocidehis Armenian brothers of prayers for all Armenians facing the terrible situation of suffering that they endured and continue to endure, in certain countries.

We recall the events of the genocide and pray they will never be disregarded. Sadly, though we are told never to forget, many do...

The Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, in turn, warmly thanked Patriarch Twal and the present leaders of Churches, while recalling in turn how the Paschal mystery constitutes the heart of the faith of all Christians. He also mentioned the support and assistance given by the Latin Church and the Vatican during the genocide: A support that Armenians will never forget.
The anonymous source who transferred documents of the Panamanian law company Mossack Fonseca the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, made a statement in which he explained the motives of his decision. On May 6 his statement was uploaded on the websites of the German newspaper and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Suddeutsche Zeitung confirmed the authenticity of the receive statement titled "The Revolution Will Be Digitized. "

The main motive of the source, known as John Doe , for transferring the "Panama archive" to the media, was a desire to overcome property inequality and bring corrupt officials to justice. Mossack Fonsecas documents, as he said, showed "injustice" , on which the work of companies that register offshores and the inactivity of governments is based, that makes registration of such companies in the "tax havens" possible. Moreover , Mossack Fonseca used its influence to write and bend laws worldwide to favour the interests of criminals over a period of decades.

As for himself, he said he does not work for any of the governments or intelligence services , either directly or as a contractor , reports RBC. Thus, he will not pass the data base containing 11.5 million documents to the tax authorities of any countries for nothing. He endorsed the decision of ICIJ not to disclose the documents  I, however, would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able, he promises.

In exchange for the cooperation he wants to be ensured with immunity from prosecution. Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, he said. He points to the other informants who became the victims of persecution : Edward Snowden who revealed the National Security Agency documents " stranded " in Moscow , Bradley Birkenfeld the author of the Swiss banks leaks was sentenced to sensible time of imprisonment, Antoine Deltur, source of the publications of Luxembourg tax benefits is now standing a trial in Luxembourg court. In addition, John Doe calls on the governments of all the countries to ban the creation of offshore companies.
Yair Lapid: Israel is deeply concerned over Russia and Iran's military ties

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The misfortune took place in a small village of Badi in the Indian Adhya Pradesh state: 80 cases of suicide have been recorded there since the beginning of the year. The local residents attribute the happening to a "demonic presence" in the village, but the scientists think the causes behind the suicides have to do with the excessive use of pesticides.

In fact, Badi has reported more than 350 suicides in the last two decades, its population being around 2,500, RT reports.

The village head blames evil spirits in all this. However, psychiatrist Dr Srikanth Reddy told Times of India the suicides are related to depression and schizophrenic episodes among villagers, possibly due to excessive use of pesticides, apart from financial stress. In his words, chemicals can influence the human organism, as a result of which depression and even schizophrenia can develop.

In an attempt to prevent the death epidemics, alcoholic beverages were banned in the village, but this only resulted in the villagers running to neighboring settlements in search for spirit.

Khargone district, where Badi village is located, is included in the list of the poorest regions of India.
For Nagorno-Karabakh, the rivalry between Armenia and Azerbaijan is a conflict where Russia has lingered behind the scene, arming both sides, German Zenith magazine writes.

In summer 2014 the ceasefire line, known as the Line of Contact, saw the most serious instances of violence since the Nagorno-Karabakh war ended in 1994. These violent events continued into 2015, with types of weapon deployed that the two sides had not previously used. Regional experts warn of the danger of military escalation of a conflict that they like to describe as frozen, although we shouldnt rely on the freeze continuing. The violence getting out of hand cannot be ruled out, which could lead to greater military confrontation.

Some of them consider the Karabakh conflict even more dangerous than the one between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh is seen as the key conflict in the South Caucasus, more so than the conflict between Georgia and its secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, even though that led to the Five-Day War between Russia and Georgia in 2008.

Exactly the Karabakh conflict creates the main obstacle for the regional cooperation, which included three Transcaucasian republics and the country, which the function of a land bridge between Europe and Asia is usually attributed to.  It constitutes a major obstacle to regional cooperation that involves all three South Caucasian states, and one that thereby restricts the oft-quoted function of this region as a land bridge between Europe and Asia.

True, a corridor has developed between the Caspian and Black seas, between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey through pipelines and new rail and road arteries, but this corridor bypasses Armenia.

In contrast to Georgia, where an EU monitoring mission is stationed on the administrative borders with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in Nagorno-Karabakh there is no appreciable international monitoring along the ceasefire line, the Line of Contact. Thousands of soldiers and snipers face each other over this minefield-strewn, tunnel-pocked line. The description of the border as the line of contact has a cynical edge, when contact refers primarily to the clash of arms.

Its hard for the Armenian side to expect peace, considering the bellicose statements from Baku and the absence of guarantees for Nagorno-Karabakh.

Civil society in authoritarian regimes generally has a poor standing, particularly those who promote dialogue with the opposing side in a conflict. In Azerbaijan, the states dealings with civil society have hardened considerably over the last two years. Numerous journalists, human rights defenders and scientists, who called for a dialogue with Armenia, have been arrested and imprisoned.

This conflict should increasingly appear on the international political agenda. The European Union has so far taken a restrained approach to this issue and left mediation to the OSCE and its Minsk Group. Nagorno-Karabakh should be a theme in international politics, with Russia needed as a partner, but it has been overshadowed by the crisis in Ukraine. Russia is moreover a shady actor in this conflict, arming both sides to a considerable extent, even though it has a particularly close security and political relationship with Armenia.

Another external actor, Turkey, has been developing its influence in the South Caucasus region in the post-Soviet era, above all in the economic sphere. It can hardly play the role of neutral mediator in this dispute, as it sees Azerbaijan as a brother country, while Armenias relationship with Turkey is in historical terms deeply troubled, the article reads.
YEREVAN. - At the moment the possible meetings on the Karabakh issue can be directed at ruling out the recurrence of the Azerbaijani aggression against Artsakh.

Armenian FM Edward Nalbandian told the aforementioned at the meeting with the representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Armenian National Committee (ANC) Central Council and regional committees and offices Saturday.

The ARF-D delegation was headed by the Armenian National Committee Central Bureau head Hakob Ter-Khachaturian, Armenian MFA reports. They have arrived in Yerevan to take part in the ANC conference.

The meeting was also attended by the Deputy FMs and ARF-D Secretary General, as well as members of the supreme body of the Armenian ARF.

FM Nalbandian briefed in detail the ANC committee members on the large-scale military actions unleashed by Azerbaijan against Artsakj and efforts aimed at overcoming them. He also responded to various questions of ANC representatives.

Referring to the prospects for the negotiation process, Nalbandian said: At the moment the possible meetings can be directed at ruling out the recurrence of the aggression in early April, creation of relevant incident investigation mechanisms for the unconditional implementation of the 1994-1995 tripartite agreement on establishing and strengthening ceasefire in the conflict zone, including introduction of investigative mechanisms of ceasefire violations. These steps will create relevant conditions for continuing the talks.

Reference was also made to the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, support to the economic development of Armenia and other issues on the pan-Armenian agenda.

Besides, the consultation addressed the measures taken towards the enhancement of Armenia-Diaspora ties.

The meeting participants exchanged ideas on the foreign political activity carried out by Armenia in bilateral and multilateral formats. Apart from this, the participants touched on the situation in the Middle East, Syrian crisis and international fight against terrorism, as well as pressing international and regional issues.

It was agreed to hold meetings in this format periodically.
Government spokesman said that the meet will be organised with the help of industrial houses like FICCI, PHDCCI, CII and Assocham and the selection should be done by NRI department of the state.

It is the second Pravasi meet as first UP Pravasi meet was held in Agra from January 4 to 6.UNI MB CJ RSA 2334

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Army's 21 KAMAW guarding the Gujer Dori area near LoC in the sector detected some suspicious movement during the wee hours of Friday.

When the forces challenged the infiltrators, they started firing ensuing fierce gun battle in which an army soldier, sepoy Ramesh Chand Yadav sustained serious bullet injuries.

He was immediately airlifted to army's 92 base hospital for treatment. However, he succumbed to his injuries.

Paying tributes to the martyr, Lieutenant General Satish Dua, GOC Chinar Corps saluted the courage and selflessness of the soldier. The cause will be taken to its logical conclusion. (ANI)
Film aficionados from Goa and neighboring states are in for a treat as ninth edition of Goa Marathi Film Festival is set to bring in showers of fun, excitement and thrill of Marathi cinema from June 3. The three day event to be held on June 3-5, and has a remarkable lineup of movies, educational workshops, interactive sessions, star studded primers and noteworthy celebrity appearances. According to the organisers Sanjay Shetye, Dnyanesh Moge, Shripad Shetye of Winsan World., the much awaited multi starrer movie One Way Ticket, the story of inter-related destinies, would have its world premiere at the festival. The story of One Way Ticket goes to show how a lifetime can be lived and experienced in a span of only eight days. The movie boasts of exotic locations in countries such as Spain, Italy and France and is the first Marathi movie to be filmed on a cruise. Directed by Amol Shetge, the movie stars Shashank Ketkar, Sachit Patil, AmrutaKhanvilkar, Gashmeer Mahajani and Neha Mahajan in lead roles. During the festival Dot Com Mom, the first Indo-American Marathi film, will be premiered. Dot Com Mom, directed by Meena Nerukar, portrays an emotional relationship between a mother and her son.This is the first time that 11 producers have come together for film which has been majorly shot in the United States. Others films to be showcased include Katya Kalijat Ghusali, a national award winning film based on a play by the same name. This film also marks the debut of Shankar Mahadevan and directorial debut of Subodh Bhave. Ranga Patanga is another film to be showed during the festival. It has won best film and best direction award at the Pune International Film Festival this year. More UNI AKM NV SHS RJ PM1239 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0139-720009.Xml
Security forces burst teargas shells and resorted to lathicharge to disperse demonstrators in Pulwama, where three militants were killed in a fierce encounter early this morning with security forces. A house was completely damaged and a police constable was injured in the encounter. Meanwhile, a complete shutdown was observed in Pulwama district, in protest against the militant killing. Immediately after the encounter ended, people, mostly youths and women, took to streets at villages Tahab, Dogripora and Bandina and adjoining areas, raising pro-freedom slogans. However, when the demonstrators were marching towards main road, security forces and state police immediately swung into action and resorted to lathicharge to disperse them, which had no impact. Later, security forces burst teargas shells to chase away the agitators, who were pelting stones. Business and other activities remained paralysed elsewhere in the district in protest against the militant killings. Work in government offices and bank was also affected. Educational institutions also wore a deserted look as students stayed away, apprehending of violence. Transport was also off the roads. However, traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway was plying as additional security forces had been deployed on both sides of the highway at sensitive places to prevent stone pelting on vehicles.UNI BAS QAB RJ PM1120 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-719873.Xml
Senior Police Superintendent of Patna Manu Maharaj told UNI that a joint team of Patna police and Muzaffarpur police led by him,conducted raids at several hide-outs in Patna City and Danapur locality, leading to arrest of four criminals involved in the bank loot.

"During the late night operation, Rs eight lakh were recovered from the arrested criminals", Mr Maharaj said, adding that they were also involved in loot of Rs 50 lakh from Axis bank at Maripur under Kazi Mohammadpur police station area in Muzaffarpur district on April 27.

All the arrested were being interrogated and formalities of handing them over to Muzaffarpur police were being completed, the S P added.UNI KKS KK RJ NS1213

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Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not 'nailing' culprits in controversial AgustaWestland deal, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today said he had no guts to send Congress president Sonia Gandhi behind bars and was talking big on the basis of work done by Italian court. ''Our prime minister has not allowed the investigation to move an inch forward. Italy court has named Sonia Gandhi, Ahmad Patel and several other Congress leaders. Mr Modi doesn't have guts to take action against them,'' Mr Kejriwal said in one of the most stinging attacks on Mr Modi. Addressing party volunteers this morning at Jantar Mantar here, Mr Kejriwal said Mr Modi was scared to act against Ms Gandhi and that he doesn't have courage to arrest her in the chopper scam. Taunting the Prime Minister, Mr Kejriwal wondered if people had elected him to leave everything at the mercy of Italian court, which reportedly named her four times during hearing the AgustaWestland bribe case. ''Agar humare PM Sonia ji ko jail bhejte to humara seena bhi 56 inch ka ho jata (Our chest would have become of 56 inch, had our PM sent Sonia to jail),'' Mr Kejriwal said drawing loud cheers from his party workers. The Chief Minister said BJP chief Amit Shah and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar were making pleas before the Congress president rather taking action and asked Mr Modi that why he was so scared of Ms Gandhi. Charging the NDA government with inaction on the guilty, Mr Kejriwal said, ''In past two years, BJP has done nothing on AgustaWestland. He accused Mr Modi of not taking action against Ms Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra, despite the alleged irregularities in land deal, and said it seemed as if he had adopted Mr Vadra. ''Why doesn't Mr Modi send Robert Vadra to jail? He will get a CBI raid conducted on Kejriwal(me), but not on Robert Vadra,'' he quipped.More UNI RG SW 1425 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-720133.Xml
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO), raised as Chief Engineer Roads, Ladakh, today celebrated its 56th birthday today in all over the state with with great vigour and enthusiasm. Out of 73 roads in India identified as strategic Indo-China border roads (ICBR), 61 have been entrusted to BRO with a length of 3410 km. Out of 61 ICBRs with BRO, 19 roads of length 625 km have been completed and connectivity has been achieved on 24 roads, a Defence Ministry Spokesman said. The celebration on saturday kicked off with special pooja at different units followed by Sainik Sammelan Barakhana (community feast) was organised for all ranks. He said Pr oject Beacon in J&K was raised as Chief Engineer Roads (Ladakh) during the first week of May 1960 which was later redesignated as Chief Engineer Project Beacon. This is the oldest project of Border Roads Organisation initially looking after the entire J & K state. Later, projects Sampark and Himank were raised for Jammu and Ladakh regions respectively to ease out the workload of this project. Project Himank aptly known as Mountain Tamers, is located at the highest inhabited place in the world between great Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges. It is responsible to maintain line of communication through highest motorable road to highest battlefield in the world and from highest airfield to the highest lake. Currently, this project is instrumental in development of road infrastructure at Eastern Ladakh and other strategically important roads in Ladakh Sector.MORE UNI BAS QAB RJ PM1314 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-719982.Xml
An Assam Rifles jawan apprehended an NSCN (KN) cadre with arms in Dimapur town, while he was moving in an auto-rickshaw. According to a statement issued by the PRO of the Inspector General of Assam Rifles (North) today, the personnel of 37 Assam Rifles under the aegis of Headquarters 6 Sector Assam Rifles conducted an operation and apprehended the armed NSCN (KN) cadre on April 27. The operation was launched, based on confirmed information about the movement of an NSCN (KN) cadre with weapon. The armed cadre was moving in an auto-rickshaw towards Power House, Half Nagarjan, when he was intercepted. During the search, a nine mm pistol with magazines was recovered from the suspected NSCN (KN) cadre. On spot questioning, the apprehended cadre admitted himself to be a 'Rajapeyu' of NSCN (KN) and revealed that he had brought the recovered weapon from Designated Camp, Khehoi for sale to a potential customer. The arrested a ultra, along with the recovered items, was later handed over to Police Station, the statement added. UNI AS KK RJ NS1303 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-720002.Xml
Criminals shot dead an agent of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), when he resisted their loot bid at his house under Sultanganj police station area in the district late last night. Police said here today that six armed criminals stormed into the house of LIC agent Neeraj Rai in Krishnagarh locality, with an intention to loot cash and valuables. They opened fire on Mr Rai, causing serious injuries to him when he resisted them, police added. "The injured LIC agent was rushed to Bhagalpur Medical Collega Hospital in serious condition, where he died during the treatment", police said. Raids were being carried out to nab the criminal. The body had been sent for post-mortem examination, police stated.UNI XC-KKS RJ NS1323 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0212-720039.Xml
The court of District and Sessions Judge (Second) Krishna Kumar awarded the punishment to these eight accused who were involved in kidnapping of businessman Chanchal Kothari.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on all the eight

On December 30, 2012 scrap trader Chanchal Kothari was abducted near Bajla Chowk. After receiving the information, police swung into action and were led then Deoghar SP Subodh Kumar. Police managed to catch the kidnappers at the bordering areas of Jharkhand and Bihar and rescued Kothari safely.

An FIR was lodged by the victim's brother at Town Police Station, in this connection.UNI XC-AK KK RJ AS1423

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Sleuths of Bihar state vigilance bureau today arrested ASI Rangalal Tiwary, posted at Town police station, while he was accepting Rs 10,000 as bribe from a person to extend favour in a case pending against him. Official sources said here that a native of Ismailpur village had lodged a complaint with vigilance bureau that Mr Tiwary was demanding Rs 10,000 as bribe from him to dispose off a pending case. On the basis of complaint, a trap was laid and Mr Tiwary was caught red handed by sleuths of vigilance bureau while he was receiving Rs 10,000 as bribe in Town police station premises, the sources said, adding that arrested ASI was being brought to Patna for his production before the special vigilance court after his thorough interrogation. UNI XC-KKS AKM SW AS1610 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-720302.Xml
India and seven other nations comprising the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) will evolve strategies and agree on commitments to ensure the protection and security of children of the region at a two-day meeting being held here from May 9. The landmark meeting, being hosted by the Ministry of Women & Child Development, will be preceded by a two-day technical consultation focusing on critical issues of child protection and violence in the region. Delegates from the governments and civil society organisations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will assess progress and developments of the past decade of regional effort and identify priorities for SAIEVAC for the next five years. Home Minister Rajnath Singh will deliver the keynote statement to the 4th Ministerial Meeting. Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Sanjay Gandhi will chair the meeting. Ministers of the member countries are expected to participate and make statements to provide the high-level regional leadership to set the course for SAIEVAC's next period of regional action. India will showcase some of its major initiatives like Trackchild and Khoya Paya, Childline-1098and POCSO Act among others. MORE UNI SD SW 1720 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0005-720468.Xml
Suspense spiked over the issue of voting rights to nine disqualified Uttarakhand MLAs in vote of confidence in the state assembly on May 10, with the High Court today reserving its order in a petition against the disqualification of these Congress rebels till Monday. A bench of Justice U C Dhyani heard pleas from petitioners as well as respondents and then reserved its order till May 9, a day ahead of the crucial floor test that will decide fate of the deposed Harish Rawat-led Congress government in the politically rattled hill state. Prior to this, the disqualified legislators had made representation before the court praying for early hearing in the case. Pleading for petitioner MLAs C Aryama Sundram, argued that Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal's action against them was biased and it was against the tenets of the natural justice. He questioned, "What was wrong in Congress MLAs writing a joint memorandum to Governor K K Paul with their BJP counterparts to press division of votes on the appropriation Bill." According to him, the joint memorandum was an act of dissent which is healthy for democracy and it was in no way defection within the meaning of the 10th schedule of Constitution. The Speaker's action was defended by counsels for respondents who pleaded that parading the MLAs before the Governor was an action of the act of defection under the anti-defection law. They added that the act of rebel MLAs going to the Governor in the same bus with BJP MLAs and later in the charted flight outside the state in the company of BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya showed their ideological compatibility. The argument was strongly contested by the rival side. The pleadings from both the sides lasted for about three hours. After arguments Justice Mr Dhyani informed "The hearing has been concluded and I will pronounce the judgement at 10:15 am on May 9". The Supreme Court had made it clear yesterday that the disqualified MLAs would not be allowed to vote if their status remained unchanged at the time of trial of strength in the state assembly. The apex court had also said their observations would not cause any kind of prejudice on the merits of the disqualified MLAs in the matter of their appeal in the High court. In the 70-member Assembly, the BJP has 28 MLAs , the Congress 27, the BSP two while three are independents and one belong to the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. Nine MLAs are Congress rebels and one is from BJP. Now, the question is if the HC permits them for voting, the fate of the Rawat government hangs in balance and if these legislators remained as disqualified, prospects of the Rawat's government appear bright. Speculations are rife about survival of the Rawat government. Both the camps are bracing up to face the challenge. They are trying all tricks of the political game to thwart any design to poach their MLAs ahead of the floor test on Tuesday. The floor test will involve 27 Congress MLAs, 28 BJP MLAs, six PDF members and one nominated member. A total of 32 votes are needed to the deposed government in the House with effective strength of 62. Meanwhile, Mr Vijayvargiya has met party state leaders and discussed thread bare strategies for the floor test. Both the sides are blaming each other for "horse trading" before the confidence vote. While state BJP president Ashok Bhatt has accused Mr Rawat of indulging in such practices, Mr Rawat smelt rat in the frequent visits of the BJP leaders from Delhi to the state capital ahead of the floor test. As per the current status, with the nine disqualified Congress MLAs not participating, the six MLAs of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) that supported the Congress government in the state could hold the key to the floor test outcome. PDF leader Mantri Prasad Naithani said the front would vote for Mr Rawat.UNI SS-NB SW 1714 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0089-720479.Xml
Amid growing shrill against the Narendra Modi Government by Opposition parties, Janata Dal(U) president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today yet again favoured strongly a national level grand alliance to dislodge the BJP government at the Centre in the next general elections. Addressing reporters in the poll-bound Kerala state capital, Mr Kumar said secular and progressive minded people should join hands to explore prospects of such a alliance. ''I am for it,'' he said and appealed to progressive and secular minded people to come together and form a grand alliance with programme based maximum unity. In Lucknow, Bihar CM's close confidant and party General Secretary KC Tyagi today minced no words to clarify that right now, Mr Kumar was not in the race for the Prime Minister's post, he was just trying to stitch an alliance-Maha-Gathbandhan on the pattern of one that defeated the BJP at Bihar hustings. Mr Tyagi told reporters that Mr Kumar was a fit candidate for the post of PM, but right now, he was not claimant of this slot for 2019 general elections. He said if any other party claims that Mr Nitish Kumar is taking a lead for the coveted slot, they ( JD-U) could not checkmate such statements or that of other party leaders also.More UNI Team NB-SS RSA 1852 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0089-720841.Xml
The Congress today sought to corner Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of his date of birth, asking him to tell the truth about his degree of graduation and different birth dates presented in different certificates. In a regular media briefing, party spokesperson Manish Tewari presented at least three sets of certificates purportedly relating to Mr Modi showing different date of birth in the documents.According to Prime Minister's official website the date of birth has been written as September 17, 1950 while in a school leaving certificate issued by VN High school, Vad Nagar, Gujarat to one Narendra Damodardas Modi it is 28 August, 1949. And in another certificate from Delhi University, Mr Tewari said one person named Narendra Kumar Modi filled an application in which the birth date is mentioned as October 1, 1958. Mr Tewari said the Prime Minister should clear the controversy and tell whether he was born in 1949 or 1950 or 1958. He said the issue is pertinent as from 2001 to 2016 as many as 70 RTI queries regarding his date of birth and graduation as well as post-graduation degrees have rejected on the grounds of privacy confidentiality. To a question, the Congress spokesperson said the issue of asking religion of his party president Sonia Gandhi under RTI, which was rejected, could not be compared with birth date controversy of the Prime Minister. He said questions have been raised in the public domain with regard to his date of birth. "In the interest of probity and in the interest of clarity, the Prime Minister should come out with truth," he said. The party was also contemplating to raise the issue in parliament on Monday. UNI MK-RBE DJK SW 1816 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-720641.Xml
Ahead of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar's visit to UAE from May 18, a flotilla of three warship today arrived at Dubai to demonstrate India's commitment to maritime relations with countries in the Gulf region. Indian Naval destroyer ship INS Delhi and INS Tarkash and fleet taker INS Deepak will remain anchored at Dubai for four days. During the visit, the crew of Indian Navy ships will undertake professional interactions with the UAE Navy towards enhancing co-operation between the two forces, an official statement said here. In addition, the Indian Navy officers would interact with senior Government and military authorities. The visiting ships are also likely to conduct exercises with the UAE Navy. There had been flurry of exchanges on military and political level between the two sides in recent time. Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited UAE, which is second largest trading partner, and Indians are the largest expatriate community in the Gulf nation. "The current visit seeks to bolster the strong bonds of friendship between the two nations and contribute to security and stability in this vital part of the Indian Ocean region," said the statement. UNI MK DJK SW 1854 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0090-720747.Xml
Addressing an election campaign at Panoor for Jantha Dal (United) candidate KP Mohanan, who was also the state Agriculture minister in Kannur district, Mr Kumar said the communal and fascist forces are gaining strength in the state, so the society should work in coordinance manner to keep up the secular features.

The development and administrative system in the state has been established by following the secularism style, he added.

Mr Kumar said that Agriculture sector has improved a lot and has helped the farmers unlike in any other states due to the intervention of Agriculture minister K P Mohanan and Congress led UDF United Democratic Front (UDF) government during the last five years.

He called the people to vote in favour of Congress led UDF for the continuity of development .

The Bihar Chief Minister also said the people should be cautious more about the growth of BJP in the state .

However, Mr Kumar said that in a secular state like Kerala the growth of BJP is a concern and it would be a danger to the secularism, he pointed out.

JD(U) National secretary Arun kumar Sri vasthava, Bihar former Minister Shyam Kumar, JD (U) state secretary Dr Vargheese George, UDF district leaders and Mattanur constituency JD(U) candidate K P Prasanth Kumar also attended the function.UNI AK CJD DS SW 1849

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:Union Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today said the BJP-led third front will either form a government in Kerala, as other fronts will not be able to form a government without the assistance of the BJP. Talking to newspersons here, Mr Sadananda Gowda said the political situation of Kerala is in favour of the BJP and its alliance partners in the ensuing assembly elections, compared to the past, after he received the feedback during his campaign for the party in the past five days.. The minister said earlier the BJP contested alone in Kerala, but this is the first time his party has forged an alliance with with six parties, including Bharat Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS)-led by SNDP leader Vellappally Natesan, Janathipathiya Rashtriya Sabha (JRS)-led by C K Janu and Tribal leader, Kerala Congress (Thomas). Mr Gowda said earlier the BJP could not create a viable impact in the minds of people of the state and could cause a dent in the opposition vote bank. The party, however, has become a force-to-reckon with and is confident of forming a stable government, he said, adding, the politically conscious people of Kerala are no longer polarised between the CPM and the Congress. The minister said the vote share of BJP was seven per cent earlier, and has been increased to 16.5 in the last local body elections in Kerala, compared to the CPM-led LDF and Congress led UDF that lost seven and nine lakh votes respectively.. Mr Gowda said the appeasing policy of UDF would not augur well for the State. For instance, when the Union Government allotted a All India Medical Science(AIMS) centre to the State, the Kerala Congress(M) demanded it for Kottayam, and the IUML was insisting it for Malappuram district. However, the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy could not provide land for AIMS till date, and this led to delay in setting up the Centre in the State, he lamented. The minister scoffed at the allegation that the BJP and Congress are hand-in-glove in some constituencies like Uduma and Manjeswaram. On the contrary, the CPI(M) and Congresss are hobnobbing with each other to oust the BJP at any cost, Mr Gowda alleged , adding, the Congress and the CPM in Kerala would forge an alliance by following the footsteps of their counterparts in West Bengal in near future.UNI AK KVV AK 1800 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0324-720462.Xml
Chinar Corps Commander Lt Gen Satish Dua led all ranks to pay a befitting tribute with full military honours to its valiant soldier Sepoy Ramesh Chand Yadav who had attained martyrdom yesterday during an operation in Kupwara.

Homage was paid to the valour and sacrifice of the late soldier in a solemn ceremony held at Badami Bagh Cantonment.

Late Sepoy Ramesh Chand Yadav was a member of the Army team that foiled an infiltration bid along LoC in Keran sector. A group of militants attempting to infiltrate was intercepted by alert troops deployed on the LoC and in the ensuing encounter, Sepoy Yadav sustained gun shot wounds and succumbed to the injuries.

Pride and honour for the martyr was all palpable as the Gen Dua and all ranks of Chinar Corps laid wreath to salute the soldier's final journey.

Wreath was also laid on behalf of the Northern Army Commander.

The Corps Commander said such exemplary acts always serve as an inspiration to the present and future generations and go on to further steel the resolve of all soldiers. UNI BAS RSA AN1847

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The Congress legislators today urged Odisha Governor S C Jamir recommend to President Pranab Mukherjee to dissolve the State assembly and impose President's Rule invoking Article 356 of the Constitution following breakdown of constitutional machinery.The Congress MLAs led by leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan and submitted a memorandum seeking his intervention in the breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the state.The memorandum alleged that the Odisha government through its spokespersons and ministers have openly said the leader of the opposition will never be allowed to participate in any discussion unless he begs unconditional apology."This is something unheard of, it said and accused the ruling party of paralysing the proceedings of the house for two full days.Never in the parliamentary practice, a leader of the opposition is not allowed to have his say on the floor of the assembly, the memorandum said, adding that this amounts to denial of constitutional rights of the member's of the legislative assembly."It further said, if a ruling party with brute majority is determined not to allow the opposition to have their say it amounts to breakdown of the constitutional machinery."The Congress MLAs appealed to the Governor to invoke article 356 of the constitution of India and recommend to the President of India for dissolution of the assembly.UNI BD-DP AKM SW RK1735 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-720485.Xml
: In an indirect attack on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, AICC Vice President Rahul Gandhi today said "Tamil Nadu does not need a government, which is run by a person, who stays behind four walls." Addressing an election rally, here, Mr Rahul said, Tamil Nadu does not need a government that crushes the Opposition. The State does not need a government, which is run by a person, who stays behind four walls and does not even have the decency to come out and see what happens when floods created havoc in Chennai and in the entire state last year. "I have come from Delhi to see what happened to Tamil Nadu, to help and to render assistance poor people. But the Chief Minister could not walk out of her house," he rued. Mr Rahul also said, in politics, there are two types of leaders. One leader is like a river flowing into the sea of people. He embraces people, listens to people, talks to people and he gets understanding from the people. Those closer to people, listens to people, he realises the wisdom of people and and understands that he can only remain humble in front of the people. "There is another type of leader. That leader is like an Island. That person does not care about what the people are saying. He does not go to listen to the people. He does not embrace people. Because, he thinks that knowledge and understanding is with him only," Mr Rahul reasoned . More UNI GSM KVV AK 1905 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-720874.Xml
Police sources today said past midnight the dacoits attacked a house on Hirak Road where they looted ornaments from a woman worth Rs 50,000.

She was also manhandled by the dacoits. In a separate incident, they later stormed into the house of ChamuVaidya where they looted ornaments worth more than Rs 14 lakhalong with Rs 15,000 in cash.

The lady of the house was alone as her husband had gone out of station and her sons were based abroad.

Further probe was on.UNI XC-AK AD SW AS1934

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DSP Law and Order D N Banka today said late last night the criminals were nabbed from near Kendriya Vidyalaya (One).

A country-made pistol and couple of live cartridges have also been recovered from their possession. He said the trio were planning to execute a crime when theywere apprehended by the police.

Upon seeing the police the criminals who were in a group of six to seven started to flee from the spot but three of them were nabbed. The DSP said that soon the others would also be nabbed.UNI XC-AK AD SW AS1935

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He said on specific information, a police party laid a naka at Ram Munshi Bagh. During the naka checking, a Tavera was intercepted and 500 grams of charas was recovered from Ali Mohammad Lone son of Mohammad Yousuf Lone resident of Shalpora Sopore.

A case under NDPS Act was registered against him and investigation was taken up.UNI BAS SW AS1933

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Acute drought conditions prevailing in Maharasthtra, Uttar Pradeshand Karnataka were today reviewed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief ministers Devendra Fadnavis, Akhilesh Yadav and B Siddaramaiah and recommending the use of technologies like GPS and remote sensing for water conservation and recharge structures. During the high-level meetings with senior officials of the three state governments, the PM stressed on the use of technologies like GPS, remote sensing and satellite imaging for water conservation and recharge structures and Today's meeting was among a series of meetings the PM is holding with Chief Ministers of 11 drought-affected states, to see what can be done to mitigate the problems posed by drought, and focus attention on medium to long term measures. With Uttar Pradesh hit by a severe drought, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav sought nearly Rs 11,000 crore from the Centre under various heads for the extreme water cirisis in Bundelkhand. Besides Mr Yadav, senior officials from the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments, were present. Initiating the discussion, the Prime Minister said the Centre and states have to work together to mitigate the problems faced by the people due to drought and called for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing. Later talking to reporters outside the Niti Aayog, Mr Yadav said, ''We have water in our dams but the problem is how to take the water to villages, which is why we demanded tankers. But they sent a water train. How can you take a water train to villages?'' he asked. Water trains are being used by the Centre to transport much-needed water in Latur district of Maharashtra which is in the grip of drought after water bodies dried up. The need to change cropping patterns based on scientific advice, use of drip and sprinkler irrigation,and fertigation for increasing water use efficiency, community participation, especially women, for betterwater management, was stressed during the meetings. MORE UNI SD RSA 2021 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0005-721071.Xml
Delhi Police today released four out of ten suspected Jaish-E-Mohammad terrorists, who were detained on May 4 when it claimed to have foiled terror plot aiming to strike big in the capital by arresting three members of its module. Sources said the four were released three days after being questioned by sleuths as adequate evidence was not found against them. Out of four freed, three are residents of East Delhi's Chand Bagh locality and the other from Ghaziabad's Loni area. They were let off from the Special Cell's Lodhi Colony office this evening.On May 4, senior police officials told reporters here that three JeM terrorists--- Sajid, Shakir and Sameer Ahmadhave been arrested from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Following their arrests, several other sympathisers of the terrorist group have been rounded up and are being questioned,'' a senior police official said on May 4.UNI RG RSA 2039 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0377-721091.Xml
: All India Congress Committee (AICC) vice-president Rahul Gandhi today charged that the Tamil Nadu chief Minister J Jayalalithaa never met the people of the state and she thinks she is very clever and knows everything by sitting in her own island. Addressing a public meeting here, Mr Rahul also charged that on the one hand, she promised and gave Rs.5,000 worth of freebies during the last election, and, on the other hand, she took Rs.65,000 from each family of this state through liquor sale in the last five years. He said in Tamil Nadu holy river Cauvery, which is running and reaching to all the people for drinking and agriculture purpose. The same way leaders like Kamaraj, MGR and Karunanidhi were reached the people and hearing their problems to solve. But, Ms Jayalalithaa never met the people and also never hear their problems. Giving example, he said in this city, pump and jewellary manufacturing are famous and reverred in the entire country. They are facing lot of problems and the chief minister never and heard their problems. While narrating a story, Mr Rahul Gandhi said that a nine standard girl Sathya hailing from Theni district was living happily with their parents. Once this government opened a wine shop in their town, her father became addicted and sold his house and property to drink liquor. Her mother also passed away after some time and now Sathya is become orphan. The same way people of the state will become orphan ,if she was voted to power again in this election. He said, she has increased the TASMC shop from 1800 to 6800 in the state. Mr Rahul said y said the late Congress leader Kamaraj introduced Mid-day meal scheme, even after several bureaucrats opposed it and this scheme has benefited a lot of poor children and it has become popular all over the country. He promised once his alliance was voted to power, they will re-introduce prohibition of liquor in Tamil Nadu and wipe out the corruption, apart from taking stringent action against corrupt elements. UNI KS KVV AK 2040 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-721139.Xml
Addressing the party workers, he said after years of struggle a separate state of Jharkhand was carved out, however, the present state government has adopted dual policy against the 'adivasis' and the'moolvasis'.

"BJP has played with the sentiments of the locals by announcing the domicile policy," he said and urged the Jharkhand Governor to intervene into the matter and cancel the policy.

Earlier, the JMM party workers and leaders took out a procession inthe city and later staged dharna before the DC office here.

Later, the leader handed over a memorandum to the district administrationaddressed to the Governor.UNI XC-AK AD CJ RSA AN2006

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Senior Police Superintendent Manu Maharaj said here today that acting on a tip-off, a raid was conducted in a hotel under Kotwali police station area, leading to seizure of nine bottles of IMFL from there.

"Manager and a staff of the hotel were also arrested in thisconnection late last night," Mr Maharaj said, adding that all police stations had been directed to remain alert on consumption and illegal trade of liquor, to enforce the prohibition strictly.

In another operation, 32 bottles of chemical mixed spirit being sold as IMFL supplied by military canteen was seized and two people were arrested in this connection at Mainpuri village under Danapur police station area in the district.

People were being cheated as they were purchasing fake foreign liquor, said the Police Superintendent and added that all the arrested persons were being interrogated in this connection.UNI KKS AD RSA AN2128

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The Ao Students' Conference (AKM) has appealed to the Nagaland Government to initiate necessary action for the repairing of the school buildings that were severely damaged by storm on May 1 in Mokokchung district. In an appeal letter addressed to the SSA mission director, AKM President L Jemti Longchar and General Secretary Bendangkumba Aier stated that after the damage assessment and coordination with the department concerned of the district, it was found out that six schools were affected. The AKM pointed out that roofs of the schools were blown away or damaged by the uprooted trees and electric poles. The storm also destroyed most of the properties and important documents files in those schools, it stated. Further, AKM stated that most of the students in the affected area were now attending their classes in temporary arrangement made by the community and the authorities of schools causing immense hardship to the students and the teachers. It said in some villages the school students were attending the classes at the school veranda for the past few days. Therefore, AKM has requested the responsible authority to repair damaged schools so the school could function normally. UNI AS AD RSA AN2139 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-721147.Xml
Nagaland Police received 'National Award for Smart Policing' for the SMS based Vehicle Monitoring System (NPSVMS), instituted by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). In a statement by the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Zone-2, Dr K P A Ilyas, IPS said the award for the 'best practice in the category of Road Safety and Traffic Management' was presented to Nagaland Police by Union Minister for State for Home Affairs, Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary at a function held at FICCI auditorium in New Delhi yesterday. Nagaland Police was among the six state polices selected, for making presentations on the best smart policing initiatives across the country after the award ceremony. It said the jury chaired by former Home Secretary G K Pillai includes-- Manjari Jaruhar, former Special DG, CISF, N Ramachandran, former DGP Meghalaya, Alok Bansal, Director of India Foundation, Milan Narendra, Director of Government Advisory Services, EY, were the other jury members.It further said the FICCI President Harshavardhan Neotia, former Home Secretary G K Pillai, Joint Secretary of Home on Police Modernization T V S N Prasad were among those present on the occasion. The Vehicle Monitoring System was conceived by Nagaland Police Department and executed by Ben Imchen, a post graduate from IIT Delhi. UNI AS AD RSA AN2203 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0214-721201.Xml
Maharashtra state former chief minister and MPCC president Ashok Chavan today said state chief minister Devendra Fadanvis should take all party delegation instead of government officials with him to meet Prime minister Narendra Modi to discuss the issue. Mr Chavan was on tour along with MPCC secretary Ramkishan Ojha, former minister Madukar Chavan and MLA Basavraj Patil to visit drought affected parts in affected Osmanabad district.Addressing mediapersons, he said the Opposition leader in assembly have experience about the governing so the Chief Minister must take all the such leaders along with him while going to meet with PM.''The drought is not limited with BJP and Shiv Sena led government. Affected people and farmers are unhappy with them because they are not providing quick relief or help instead of discussinglong term polices of water conservation,'' he remarked. Mr Chavan added, ''Our state government situation is like operation is successful and patient is dead.'' '' Chief Minister's demand of Rs 10,000 crore for Drought Relief Help from Central Government and World Bank is too late,'' he said.If Mr Fadanvis has not good knowledge about governance then why officials are not listening to him, he said.On the Shiv Sena, who is alliance partner of the BJP led government, blaming the BJP government, he said ''both are pickpocketers but Sena is blaming the BJP.'' He also appealed to he SS to come out from the government and join with Congress on the issue of drought. UNI XR-VKB RSA 2306 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-721215.Xml
Seven people died and 25 others were injured when a Recong Peo-bound state bus fell down in a deep gorge near Jogindernagar of Mandi district tonight.Police sources said Himachal Pradesh Transport Corporation bus, driven by a newly recruited driver, fell down near Golu of Joginderngar carrying about 40 people. Seven were reported dead on the spot and casualty may go up. Rescue operation have been hampered due to darkness of night. However, the rescue teams have been sent to evacuate the injured trapped in the wreckage of bus, which fell down in150 feet deep gorge.The accident occurred when Dharmshala-Recong-Peo bus fell down at 2045 hrs near Golu in Mandi district of Joginderngar subdivision. Most of the injured having fatal injuries were rushed to the PGI Chandigarh while others were admitted in Jogindernagar Hospital. Deputy Commissioner and SP are on the spot along with rescue team.UNI ML CJ RSA 2325 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-721297.Xml
In addition to helping the Saudi-led coalition invading Yemen, the US has deployed a small number of troops on the ground to battle Al Qaeda militants around a key port city, the Pentagon has admitted. The US military has been providing limited support to the coalition led by Saudi Arabia in the fight against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters on Friday. While Davis would not disclose the number of troops or their location, Pentagon officials confirmed that the US force was deployed near the near the city of Al-Mukalla, a port in the southern Hadramaut region of Yemen under AQAP control. The US was providing intelligence, maritime support, airborne intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, aerial refueling, and medical aid to forces loyal to the Saudi-backed government in Yemen, as well as Saudi and Emirati forces engaged around Al-Mukalla, The Washington Post reported. These operations are separate from the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthi rebels, which began in March last year. The US has assisted the Saudis with mid-air refuelling and some reconnaissance capabilities, Pentagon officials said. At least 10,000 people have been killed since the Saudi bombing campaign against Yemen began in March 2015, after the Riyadh-backed president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi accused the Houthi rebels of an illegal coup.The Saudi ground campaign has stalled in the face of fierce resistance. The war has ravaged the impoverished country, with over 80 percent of its 25 million inhabitants now requiring some form of aid, and more than a million displaced by the fighting, according to the UN. In addition to unspecified ground forces, the US Navy has an Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) off the coast of Yemen, providing medical support. The group consists of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, the USS Boxer amphibious assault carrier, and the two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, USS Gravely and USS Gonzalez. It set sail from San Diego on February 12. --IANS ahm/ ( 340 Words) 2016-05-07-04:02:10 (IANS)
Philippine election hopefuls campaigned for a final day today amid the drama of a late intervention by the country's outgoing leader to try to block maverick mayor Rodrigo Duterte from winning the presidency.President Benigno Aquino caused a stir yesterday with a call for candidates to collaborate against Duterte in a last-ditch move to stop the "Trump of the East" from converting his runaway popularity into victory in Monday's vote.Philippine politics is no stranger to controversial characters and the firebrand Duterte is one of its most divisive, alarming opponents with his advocacy of extrajudicial killings as a deterrent against rampant crime and illegal drugs.There were no signs today of Aquino's idea taking hold. Some experts said it could backfire on his chosen successor, Manuel Roxas.Roxas invited rival Grace Poe for talks aimed at derailing Duterte, who has a double-digit lead in the latest opinion polls, but met a resounding "no". Vice-President Jejomar Binay's team described Aquino's call as "hollow".Political analyst Prospero de Vera said the government had seen the writing on the wall for its candidate and it needed to change tack."This is all part of the administration's messaging to project that Manuel Roxas has the momentum," he said."They need these dramatics to prevent allies in the provinces from jumping ship," de Vera said.The five candidates have major rallies planned later today, the final day allowed for campaigning. Duterte was a clear leader in final opinion polling with a lead of 11 points over Poe, with Roxas close behind in third.Duterte, 71, is the alternative candidate who has lit up the race with his incendiary rhetoric and image as a loose cannon.Experts say his recent surge, and Poe's popularity, represents public disenchantment with Aquino's administration.That sentiment has perplexed investors and some Western governments given the robust performance of the Philippine economy under Aquino. However, criticism by opponents that it has not translated into jobs or better livelihoods for millions of poor appears to be resonating.Poe's pro-investment, anti-poverty platform is striking a chord, however, as is Duterte's promises of a war on crime and his profanity-packed speeches during a campaign that bears the emblem of a clenched fist.Duterte's campaign manager, Leoncio Evasco Jr, described Aquino's call for a united front against the Davao city mayor as desperate."It also further unmasks the true character of the Aquino regime - one that in the face of debacle will abandon ship and run like a headless chicken," Evasco said in a statement. REUTERS SDR SHS PM1051 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-719857.Xml
Thousands flocked to the capital of Bosnia's Serb statelet today for the reopening of a historic mosque destroyed during wartime, a ceremony seen as encouraging religious tolerance among deeply divided communities.Twenty years after the devastating war between its Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, Bosnia remains split along ethnic lines, with rival groups blocking reconciliation and reform needed to join the European Union.The return of Muslim believers to the rebuilt Ferhat-Pasha mosque in the largely Serb city of Banja Luka, capital of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, offers hope for change to many.But tight security showed the ceremony, to be attended by top Bosnian officials and Turkey's outgoing Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, was seen as a high-risk event. Turkey has contributed to the cost of rebuilding.About 1,000 police officers patrolled the streets as buses arrived with Muslims from across the country. Traffic was barred from the city centre and alcohol banned.The 16th-century mosque, under UNESCO protection as an outstanding example of Ottoman architecture, was blown up 23 years ago. A parking lot was built where it had stood.Many believe its destruction was ordered by Bosnian Serbs aiming to erase any traces of Muslim heritage in the once multi-ethnic city.During a ceremony to lay a foundation stone for the mosque in 2001, Serb nationalists attacked visitors and dignitaries, wounding dozens and killing one Muslim.It took 15 years for Bosnia's Muslims to obtain construction permits and funds to rebuild the mosque. Thousands of pieces of rubble from the original building were used after being recovered from the Vrbas River and a garbage site where they were dumped.The day it was levelled, May 7, is now the Day of the Mosques in Bosnia, where 614 mosques were destroyed during the 1992-95 war.Today, only 10 per cent of Banja Luka's pre-war Muslim and Croat population remains in the city following a Serb campaign to ethnically cleanse territories for their Serb statelet."I am excited," said Ajsa Nezirovic, 64, a Muslim from Banja Luka. "I know it will never be the same again but this may allow at least some people to feel welcome back to the city.""I only want this opening to pass peacefully and without any incident as tensions still run high," said Tatjana Kecman, a Serb, also from Banja Luka."The mosque is rebuilt but our children have no jobs, and pensions are poor. We were all much better off before," said Fejhila, 58, a Muslim who stayed in Banja Luka during the war.Efendi Husein Kavazovic, head of Bosnia's Islamic community, told local daily Nezavisne Novine on Friday the reopening could be a force for good, but added:"We are still far away from honestly looking into each other's eyes and saying: 'We are sorry. We are truly sorry.'"War casts a long shadow here, with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic jailed for genocide only in March. The United Nations says Bosnian Serb backing for secession from the fragile Bosnian state is a challenge to the 1995 peace settlement. REUTERS SDR AS1410 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0431-720094.Xml
An Egyptian court today sought the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and documents to Qatar.The final ruling is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.The verdict against former president Mohamed Mursi, who is charged in the same case, was postponed to the same day.The three journalists, one Jordanian, were sentenced in absentia. Two of them work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. They can appeal.The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt's then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi.Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt's most organised political group.REUTERS AKC BL1833 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0432-720794.Xml
A local Sufi leader has been hacked to death in Bangladesh in a suspected Islamist killing. Police said, villagers last night found Mohammad Shahidullah's body in a pool of blood in a mango grove in Rajshahi. He had been missing after leaving home yesterday morning. The incident took place two weeks after the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the killing of a liberal professor in Rajshahi district. Police said the killing of the self-proclaimed Sufi master was "similar" to a recent spate of murders of religious minorities in the country. Sufi Islam is a mystical form of Islam popular in rural Bangladesh but considered deviant by many of the country's majority Sunni Muslims. Suspected Islamists have carried out dozens of murders of atheist bloggers, liberal voices and religious minorities in recent years including Sufi, Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus, Christians and foreigners. In the past five weeks, two gay activists, a liberal professor, an atheist activist and a Hindu tailor were hacked to death by suspected Islamist militants. Some of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State group and a local branch of al-Qaida, although Dhaka denies their presence in the country. UNI SHK RSA SW 1940 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0430-720997.Xml
The sudden fiery outburst occurred when a tanker providing gas to a local bakery in Khartoum caught fire, spewing flames over large parts of Omdurman marketplace, Sudanese newspaper Alrakoba reports.

A fountain of fire and billowing black smoke can be seen in footage taken by an eyewitness at the scene on Saturday morning.

As people appear to approach the flaming gas tanker a huge explosion engulfs the area shattering windows of nearby buildings.

A number of residential properties and shops were reportedly damaged in the explosion, while at least 16 people are being treated at Omdurman Hospital for burn injuries.

Pictures of the incident have surfaced on social media, showing how the large explosion and thick smoke could be seen from across the River Nile.

One image shows extensive smoke damage to a mosque, while in another a vehicle can be seen entirely destroyed by flames.

Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the incident and have been inspecting nearby houses for structural damage.

--IANS ahm/

( 204 Words)

2016-05-08-02:48:03 (IANS)
What had happened to the action governor and father of free education in Enga?

I was stunned by the news, and tried to make sense of it.

On Friday night, the first item in my news feed was an article on Sir Peter Ipatas (pictured), Governor of Enga Province, calling on Engan university students to quit the student protest or lose their scholarship privileges.

Every time I log on to Facebook, I expect a new post and, sure enough, there is something new each time.

SOCIAL media have made it possible for me to be apprised of hot issues in Port Moresby even though I am not anywhere nearby physically.

Why had he come out publically from his silence to disapprove of whats happening in Port Moresby  students protesting against the prime minster for not complying with a warrant of arrest and avoiding being interviewed?

It saddened me to read these comments from a highly respected leader like Sir Peter. Engans respect him, so too do people in the highlands provinces and across PNG.

If Sir Michael Somare and Sir Mekere Morauta saw fit to call on Peter ONeill to step down (maybe because they smelled something sinister), why not Sir Peter Ipatas?

I mean, there was the drama of the disbanded Task Force Sweep and the police commissioner acting in ways beyond normalcy in closing down the fraud squad  the only remaining anti-corruption unit that could prosecute cases.

Commissioner Bakis actions and media releases had the fingerprints of the prime minister all over them.

And, although there was a court order restraining Baki from intervening with fraud squad officers, he seemed desperate to ensure that it faced a similar fate as Task Force Sweep. Unfortunately for him he failed and his actions have earned him four different contempt of court charges that he needs to answer.

Peter ONeill, with his lawyer, Tiffany Twivey, also charged with perverting the course of justice, tried a slip rule application  an attempt by the Prime Minister to delay the anti-corruption investigations against him  which the Supreme Court has now dismissed.

All these avenues seemed designed to delay or completely stop investigations into corruption and they have apparently been almost completely exhausted.

What are the prime ministers fallback plans now that will make news headlines? Will there be another drastic move to avoid being investigated?

Meanwhile, Mr ONeill has denied that PNG is heading for an economic crisis; explaining that the country is merely confronting well known global challenges. In an outburst to a PNG could be Greece type story by Fairfax journalist John Garnaut, he said Garnaut had been banned from entry into PNG and his reports carried no water as they were simply avenging the ban.

But Mr ONeills statements that all is well were contradicted by a report from his own Treasury and by many independent economists. And now there is a serious foreign exchange problem.

In Port Moresby, civil society anti-corruption groups and UPNG university students backed by academic staff are planning a coordinated protest tomorrow. This protest has been banned outright by the police, casting a shadow over this democratic country and freedom of speech. Things have turned nasty and there is more than a whiff of irregularity.

So Papua New Guinea, where is your freedom to peacefully protest? Why was a peaceful protest banned so easily by police? Is prime minister Peter ONeill above the law sufficient to escape a warrant of arrest?

Why is Sir Peter Ipatas making a threat to Engan students? Is PNGs economic outlook really as poor as claimed by Fairfax journalist John Garnaut? Why are the prime ministers statements contradicted by the Treasury analysis and the views of independent economists?

All good questions. All worth answering.
The result was that prime minister Peter O'Neill retaliated by briefly stopping Australians from travelling to the autonomous province.

Last year's Australian budget revealed that a new diplomatic mission would be established in Bougainville, causing a major diplomatic row when the Papua New Guinean government claimed it had not been consulted.

THE Senate Estimates Committee in Canberra has been told Australias foreign affairs department has killed off a plan to establish a diplomatic post in Bougainville.

The Special Broadcasting Service has reported that foreign affairs boss Peter Varghese (pictured) has now acknowledged that Australian officials did not seek permission from the PNG government at the highest level before making the announcement.

Mr Varghese explained that his department had sought a permanent base in Bougainville because there is a large Australian aid program in the province.

"It was not handled in the end to anyone's satisfaction," Mr Varghese told the Senate estimates hearing on Friday.

As a result of the diplomatic brouhaha, Australia's then high commissioner to PNG, Deborah Stokes, made an early exit from her posting.

SBS reported that Mr Varghese said his department had learned a lesson from the experience and properly consulted the PNG government before announcing a new mission for Lae in this year's budget.

But it has not tried to reinstate its plan to locate one in Bougainville, which  facing a referendum on independence before 2020  is a matter of great sensitivity to the PNG government.
This is an exciting time for Zonta International. Members around the world are planning a trip to the 63rd Zonta International Convention in Nice, France, July 2-6. Over 2,000 Zontians from 32 districts around the world will meet to learn about our programs and our foundation, to vote for international officers and service projects, and to attend workshops on leadership, advocacy, the U.N. and the 2030 agenda for sustainability. Its also a chance to network with old Zonta friends and make new Zonta friends from all around the world. Watch for more news in July or August in my article about the convention.

On Saturday April 30, the leadership of Zonta District 2 took a chance and pioneered a new idea when we held our first-ever online area workshop. It was a pleasure to sit at my desk for just over an hour and learn more about our updated Zonta International website (zonta.org) and our new Zonta membership program with over 60 other Zontians from New York and Canada instead of spending a whole day traveling. Our international webmaster in the Chicago area took time out of her weekend and joined us for this amazing event. Our international representative from Africa, Princess Josephine, and our international president, Maria Jose Landeira Oestergaard from Denmark, both congratulated us on a very successful premiere event. We put New York on the Zonta map by our innovation! Special thanks to Gov. Candace Edwards for stepping up and trying something new and Theresa Harris, our district PR chair, for sharing her event planning and technical savvy with the district and making this happen!

On Monday evening, May 2, 12 amazing women from central New York met for an informational meeting to organize the first new Zonta Club in District 2 since the 1970s, the Zonta Club of Skaneateles. The new club will be dedicated to Zonta Internationals global efforts on behalf of women and girls worldwide. We will learn about and support the international programs of Zonta that work to empower women politically, legally, professionally and in all facets of life. We will be a new model for clubs, somewhere between our longtime clubs like the Zonta Club of Auburn that hold monthly dinner meetings and our e-clubs like Zonta E-club of USA that hold all their meetings electronically. The new club will be voting on its final structure soon, but from the informational meeting, the charter members are interested in six short meetings a year. Our meetings will focus on womens issues and advocating for women locally and internationally. We will support the funds of Zonta International, which also give back to our local communities via the scholastic awards that are given in all districts.

The Zonta International Foundation creates innovative projects to help empower women via our partnership with U.N. agencies that help women.

At the Nice Convention, Zontians will be hearing about the Zonta projects for the next biennium. Some are continuations of successful projects from the past biennium, some are new for this biennium:

 "Towards Elimination of Obstetric Fistula and the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality and Morbidity in Liberia"

 "Let Us Learn Madagascar: An Integrated Program for Adolescent Girls"

 "Initiative for Adolescent Girls in Niger: Knowledge for Dignity"

 "The Future We Want: Creating Sustainable Foundations for Addressing Human Trafficking and Unsafe Migration of Women and Girls in Nepal"

In the 2014-2016 biennium, more than 50 fistula survivors were rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities; more than 10,000 girls in Niger are receiving literacy and financial training and age-appropriate life skill education to empower them to delay marriage until at least age 19; and nearly 600 students in Vietnam have made positive changes after participating in the Gender Responsive Schools project.

We have also provided women opportunities to further their careers by contributing $1.1 million to more than 194 women with our Amelia Earhart Fellowship, Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship and Young Women in Public Affairs Award.

If you want to know more about past or upcoming Zonta International Projects, you can find them at zonta.org. Please like any of the many Zonta pages on Facebook or visit zonta.org or zontadistrict2.org to learn more about Zonta. Zonta International also has presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. Please join us online if you are interested in exploring our work on our mission of empowering women.
The Sexual Assault Victims Advocate Resource of Cayuga Counseling Services held it annual Java with the Gents fundraiser Friday at the Springside Inn in Fleming.

The event features community men pouring local wine for guests, and is part of the agency's Sexual Assault Awareness Month programs.

The event included silent and Chinese auctions, guest speaker and Gold Award winner Jeremy Caster, a family-style dinner and raffles.

SAVAR assists victims of sexual assault and their families.
SKANEATELES  Perhaps the old saying is true  the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

A couple of Skaneateles Middle School girls learned that lesson Friday afternoon as they handed Sean McLeod  the Auburn native and professional choreographer  a cup of creme brulee.

"Did you know creme brulee is my second favorite? Chocolate chip cookies are my favorite," McLeod exclaimed to the audience of middle schoolers and professional dancers. "I eat creme brulee around the globe."

With that, McLeod launched into a two-hour workshop for the students in the high school audience that followed a similar one the evening before. Dancers from his Sean McLeod's Broadway company sat alongside middle- and high-school actors on the stage ready to listen to their leader.

He encouraged those who had never met one another to greet one another  not just with a simple wave or handshake but with a hug, as McLeod said that is the best way to leave an impression and be remembered.

"That should be something you do for the rest of your natural born life," McLeod told the group. "They're going to remember you for the rest of their life. They will be genuinely happy to see you."

Colleen Anna, the middle school music teacher who leads the drama program at that level, said the workshop  similar to the Kaleidoscope Dance Theatre workshop put on for high schoolers last fall  was funded through a grant from the Skaneateles Education Foundation.

The fall workshop consisted of two three-hour sessions, but Anna said the foundation's support this time around meant McLeod could host a week-long artist-in-residency called the Project for Community program.

The program culminates in a performance put on by McLeod and his dancers Saturday in the Skaneateles High School auditorium.

As well as McLeod and his dancers displaying their routines for the audience, Anna said the middle schoolers will perform a number from their recent production of "Seussical Jr." while the high schoolers will perform a number from their recent production of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang."

All of the students will then dance alongside the professionals for the finale.

Anna said McLeod's workshops go beyond teaching students how to dance and how to perform by showing them how to incorporate life skills such as confidence and compassion in their work both on stage and in the classroom.

"He's trying to teach us dance, but he's really looking to help make us happier and more successful in what we're doing," she said. "It's quite an experience for young kids getting to be up there for a couple of hours with professional dancers from New York City. It doesn't happen every day."

Those principles, Anna said, are ones that she tries to build into the preparation for each year's production in the middle school  lessons such as taking care of one another and one's families and backing up words with actions.

"It's just a whole different way of putting a show together," she said, noting that McLeod treats the students and his dancers equally. "He says the same things to these company members."
Venezuelan reprimanded and discharged for illegal entry

He made the point while pleading the case of his Venezuelan client Yomar Alexander Aurea Mata, 38, who yesterday pleaded guilty before San Fernando Magistrate Ava Vandenburg-Bailey, on a charge of entering this country illegally.

WPC Hema Singh, of the Immigration Department, South, laid the charge.

The defence attorney told the court that his client, a mechanic and labourer, entered Trinidad hoping for a better life for his family.

Mata, married and a father of two, the attorney noted cannot access supermarkets as he would like for basic food items due to economic hardships in Venezuela.
4 nabbed for womans murder

From as early as 8 am, officers under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police Surujdeen Persad and Senior Superintendent Simboonath Rajkumar along with Superintendent Hendron Moses, Sgt Didier, Cpl Tewarie, PCs Gordon, Williams and others cordoned off several areas in Tamana where they carried out searches. During the eight-hour operation, four men were arrested.

Two others are still being sought and sources revealed that one of the four has already began giving key information to investigators.

They are to be handed over to officers of the Homicide Bureau for questioning.

Goora was on her way home last Wednesday afternoon when she was stabbed once in the stomach by a man.

Officers yesterday walked several miles into forested areas in Tamana and searched several homes. The victims mother Nalini Boodoo said her daughter will be cremated today following a funeral service at their home. Boodoo remained in a state of grief over the untimely demise of her daughter and said that in 2014 her daughter was chosen as a recruit for the TT Police Service but opted out when she was informed that she had to stay at Barracks.

She said her daughter got the job at the Ministry of Health a year ago and she was very comfortable. According to Boodoo, on Wednesday afternoon her daughter left work shortly after midday and made her way home. It was while walking toward her home, that she was accosted and stabbed
41 firearms seized this year, in Northern Division

He noted a spike in robberies, a high amount of firearms and the belief that criminals are becoming more organised as the main causes of concern for police in Northern Division.

But he assured the police remain one step ahead of criminal elements in the division, because of their hard work and the assistance of the public.

With the commitment of the police officers in our division, we are one step ahead, I can assure you, Moses said. Police recovered six firearms in the Northern Division, which included a Mac 10 Sub-Machine gun, served several warrants which resulted in the arrest of 75 persons and served 500 fixed penalty notices for errant driving.

In one incident, a member of the public called the St Joseph Police, after noticing three suspicious looking men in her area. When police responded and investigated, they found the men, searched them and found a firearm.

Police officers later discovered that they were preparing to rob a nearby grocery store.

The three men, from Laventille, Chaguanas and Southern Trinidad, were all arrested and have since been charged. Police encouraged the public to continue sharing information with them and added that it was because of their assistance, officers are able to retrieve these illicit firearms.

What you see here is a clear indication that anyone can come to the police in the Northern Division and see the results of the information that they gave to us, said Moses as he displayed the recovered firearms.

The public is supporting us and we are here to let the public know that whatever it takes for use to give them that level of satisfaction, we are here for the long haul.

To all the police offices, I must let you know that the Commissioner of Police and the executiv e, both in the Northern Division and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service at large, have extended gratitude to you, and you will be commended for work well done
Sex in the classroom

The teacher confronted the two students and ordered them to end the copulation.

The two were allowed to fully clothe themselves and were taken to the office of the Dean, Sumatee Akalloo. While in the Deans Office the parents of the two teenagers were contacted and a report made to the Rio Claro Police Station.

Woman Police Constable Davis interviewed the two students and the female was taken to the office of the District Medical Officer where a medical examination revealed she was sexually active. Further, it was found that semen was present in her body.

The girl was prescribed drugs to prevent pregnancy.

Both students were interviewed and officers of the Child Protection Unit (CPU) were contacted. The two students were again interviewed and allowed to return to their respective homes.

Newsday understands that the two are now facing suspension while a police probe is continuing.

The girl has since confessed of only recently becoming sexually active and expressed remorse for her action.

Newsday understands that a file is to be prepared by officers of the Child Protection Unit and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will then be consulted for advice on the matter.

Yesterday, students of the school were counselled that under the law, they are all minors, and should not engage in sexual acts as this could lead to criminal prosecution.

Investigations are continuing.
Businesswoman: Were not the criminals

The Claxton Bay bar owner told Newsday she has no other choice now as investigations have now been launched into the death of the bandit.

On Thursday, Curtis Pierre, 16, who was cornered and beaten on her premises during the he staged with another bandit on April 26, succumbed to his injuries at the Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital. His accomplice managed to escape but not before firing several shots at patrons as he fled.

You see how life unfair, said John, a businesswoman for over 40 years in the rural community.

The gunman fired shots which narrowly missed hitting my customers. I could have dropped down from heart attack. People could have died that day and today the police are on us. Police come and took a report and asked to see the piece of wood my son used to hit that bandit, she said.

It was reported that the teenager was one of two persons who entered PJs Restaurant and Bar at Mt Pleasant Road, Forres Park in Claxton Bay and announced a hold-up. Several patrons were robbed at gunpoint of cash and cell phones.

Chinese national, Lui Luo, who operates a roulette machine in the bar was also beaten and robbed. The teen bandit was cornered and beaten by patrons and Johns son who ran at him as he (Pierre) was trying to force his way into a bedroom at the back of the bar. John said she was most upset that a close female relative of Pierre told media that persons went too far in beating Pierre. I find that is so boldface. The boy was kicking down the door to come inside the house and all my son did was fight back in defence of himself and two children who woke up with the noise.

All the patrons who were earlier robbed while a gun was pushed in their faces, they reacted too and beat the bandit. We are not the criminals here. We are law-abiding citizens, John cried. He may have been a teenager yes, nobody saying no.

But he came here to rob and hurt people. He did not come here with any food intentions, and that woman could say the people who beat him went too far? I am trusting in God because we did nothing wrong here. We defended ourselves, she insisted. Residents said they were in full support of John and threatened mass protest if anyone is arrested in the village over the bandits death. We will protest because although what happened was unfortunate, we must say to these bandits that, enough is enough!, said a resident. Investigations are continuing.
Mom, dad, son in court for ganja

Indra Beharry, 54; her husband Ralph, 58, and their son Raymond, 29, appeared in the San Fernando First Magistrates Court before Senior Magistrate Nanette Forde-John on the charge.

A party of officers from the Mon Repos Police Station on Thursday searched the familys home at Navet Road, Mon Repos and according to charges read out in court, allegedly found illegal narcotics in the ceiling in the kitchen.

The marijuana  36 packets  were secured in a plastic container and together weighed 34 grammes.

Cpl Crawford laid the charge.

Indra and her son pleaded not guilty, however Ralph pleaded guilty saying he uses it as a tea for his asthma problems.

Attorney Shaun Teekasingh, who represented the trio, noted that Ralph, a mason, has five previous convictions  two for marijuana possession, one for cocaine possession and the last for using obscene language.

Beharry, a housewife, the attorney added, had neither previous convictions nor pending matters.

Her son however has a pending matter for kidnapping and no convictions.

The magistrate granted $45,000 surety bail to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace to both the father and son. Magistrate Forde-John granted $20,000 own bail to the housewife.

They are to reappear in court on June 3. Attorney Cleydon Seedan prosecuted.
Jamaican flees to TT after witnessing crime

Prosecutor Sgt Kassiram Lutchman told the court that in January 2015, immigration officials served Rhoden with a deportation order as he overstayed his time in Trinidad. Rhoden was ordered to leave by March 3, 2015. He failed to do so and Sgt Joseph Coraspe of the Immigration Department, located, arrested and laid the charge against him.

Standing before the magistrate unrepresented by an attorney, Rhoden said he got sick and was unable to leave.

Rhoden continued that prior to entering Trinidad, he witnessed a crime and became fearful for his life. On the advice of his mother, he fled to Trinidad. He sold furniture to earn a living. The magistrate noted that her hands are tied as she was only able to address the matter for which he was before the court. She suggested that he address his concerns to the National Security Minister.

Former Minister in the Ministry of National Security attorney Subhas Panday, who entered the courtroom on another matter, on hearing of Rhodens plight, assured he will meet with both the foreigner and the complainant.

Thereafter he would write to National Security Minister Edmund Dillon with the hope that Rhoden is granted asylum.

The magistrate fined Rhoden $500 to be paid within ten days, failing which Rhoden will serve three months simple imprisonment
PHOENIX -- On June 30, 2013, members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots worked to protect the town of Yarnell from an approaching wildfire. Only one of the crews 20 firefighters survived.

The tragedy of the Yarnell Hill Fire captivated grieving audiences and Fernanda Santos, Phoenix bureau chief for The New York Times. In her book, The Fire Line, Santos tells the story of how 19 men lived and died.

What was it about this story that was so significant you decided to go beyond news reporting to do in-depth research for a year and write a book?

I remember the date specifically: it was July 24, 2013. Some officials from Arizona State Forestry took a group of reporters to the site where the hotshots died. While they were presenting the different theories they had as to why they left the black, which was an area the fire had already burned at the top of a ridge and came down to a canyon to an area that was still covered with unburned vegetation, I became intrigued by this chain-link fence that they put around the area where they had deployed their shelters. The space was so small and I began asking myself what it was about these men that led them to stay together when they were faced with this wall of 40-, 50-foot-high flames coming their way. Why is it that none of them ran? That was the question that I set out to answer when I decided to write this book.

How did you battle the emotion that you were clearly feeling: Getting so connected to firefighters families while also trying to stay outside of the story?

My main goal when I talked to the families was to be fair. I did speak to all of the 19 families. I wanted to meet these men, men who werent around here anymore. I wanted to understand what they were about: Why they wanted to fight fires, what got them into this career and into that crew specifically. I wanted to be fair to their story. Being fair doesnt necessarily mean that you need to be completely emotionally removed from the story. I cried as I wrote my book, I laughed as I wrote my book, I got mad as I wrote my book. There were moments when I would get up from this office and go grab a coffee or take a walk because it was a lot to bear. I think that the key is to always remind yourself that youre not writing the book for your characters or youre not writing the story for the people that you interviewed. Youre writing their story for the world to consume.

Can you recall a few moments where those emotions were pulled out of you?

There is one chapter where I talked to Danny Parker, the father of Wade Parker, one of the hotshots, going to the area where they died and helping to bring the bodies out of the mountain. Danny didnt know who among the bodies was his son. There was no way of telling because they were badly burned and they were all in body bags at that point. Danny brought each and every body out of the mountain. He helped to carry each of the 19 guys. He said to me, Those boys, they were all Wade to me that day. It spoke really to the significance of this story as not just a story of a bunch of individuals, but really a story of a community of firefighters, of parents, of neighbors just really grieving together these deaths.

What was the most shocking element that you uncovered?

I dont know if there was a shocking element. My discovery was in looking for one person or a group of people to blame, I was doing a disservice to the guys of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and the wildland firefighting community. These are not people who make decisions carelessly. When they make a decisions theyre focused on the best possible outcome and they make those decisions with the best information they have at hand. Who am I to judge that at that moment they didnt think that was the best possible thing they could do? Leave the black, go down a canyon and go toward a ranch in a town where the fire was threatening, knowing that they still had some time to get there. Of course, all of these calculations didnt pan out.

I shouldnt focus on finding blame because blame has a whole other meaning in this world. Blame has sort of a negative connotation, but in this case it wasnt negative. They were not on a suicide mission. Thats when I broke the shackles and said, Let me just pursue this story the way that I always wanted to pursue it, which is a story about people. A tragedy that happens to have fire as a setting, but also a story of triumph or victories, of friendship, of brotherhood.
34 charged by WASA

That is definitely part of the dry season plan. Also, I have instructed WASA to revisit their leakage policy so that they could deal with leakages in a more timely manner, also their water distribution services of truck-borne water, he had said.

WASAs corporate communications manager Daniel Plenty, said five persons in north Trinidad, 16 in south Trinidad and 13 in Tobago were charged in relation to the restrictions placed by WASA.

When asked about the fines, Plenty said the fines were small and did not want to indicate the sum. However, he said the restriction has not been lifted as yet.

WASA was also instructed to revisit their leakage policy so that they could deal with leakages in a more timely manner, and also their water distribution services of truck-borne water. Although Antoine had assured that there was adequate water during this intense dry season, citizens were cautioned to use the water wisely.

He said there was surface water in the reservoirs, ground water that could be accessed through wells, and desalination water.
SAVE OUR CHILDREN

At a media workshop at the Hyatt Regency on Wednesday, Childrens Authority director Sharifa Ali-Abdullah, disclosed that 5,000 complaints of child abuse were made in one year, including 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse.

Yesterday, Sinanan called for urgent Government action on the Childrens Authoritys revelations and shared his own startling insights based on his everyday experiences in a decade-long career as a teacher.

I cant say that Im totally surprised with the numbers. While the head of the Childrens Authority may have expressed alarm at the high incidence, from where we sit as teachers we have been getting these cases that we have had cause to intervene in, in many cases, Sinanan said.

He said that under the Sexual Offences Act and Childrens Authority Act, teachers are mandated to report to the police any cases of known or suspected childabuse, although what happens afterwards is out of any teachers remit. We do get quite a few reports and we do have to intervene, he related.

Ill tell you this - children who are being sexually abused usually take on a different persona.

Through our experience over the years in dealing with children, it is not very difficult to detect. You see mood-swings, you see anxiety attacks, violent outbursts and they can resolve issues and their interpersonal skills are poor. Yet the problem does not end with diagnosis of abuse, he said.

STATE FAILING CHILDREN Where we have a problem is when you know for a fact that a child is being abused, the State does not have enough facilities where you can place children safely knowing that theyd be cared for and that there are qualified, competent staff there to take care of them and meet their emotional needs. Sinanan said this dilemma is also faced by the police, to decide if to move a child from an abusive home. You have to weigh the options.

This is an abusive environment but its also the home of the child, these are the parents, and if you are going to remove you have to be absolutely certain that when you remove the child to protect the child from the abuse that is being meted out at home, that you dont put the child in a place where his/her needs are not met and he/she is subjected to more abuse, as in many of the care homes that is a problem. Sinanan accused the State of having long abdicated its duty to vulnerable children to provide childrens homes, saying many are run by NGOs and religious groups. Thats a lament of the Childrens Authority - where do you put them? He said a lack of accommodation is all part of the dilemma faced by teachers trying to intervene to help abused children.

Also noting a risk of retribution by an abuser against a child complainant, Sinanan mulled the dilemma of intervention, saying, You might actually be putting the child at greater risk.

The abusers may want to take it out on the child. So its a very, very delicate call on our part as teachers in treating with these matters, especially in schools where we have children coming from the lower socio-economic backgrounds. It is quite rampant.

Its a reality we have learnt to live with. We try. We do whatever we can under the ambit of the law. DAUGHTERS ABUSE FOR $$ Sinanan confirmed Newsdays suspicion that some poor families live off the earnings of their underage daughters. I actually know of not one but many cases - personally as a dean, as a form teacher and as a school administrator - where the mother will actively encourage men to visit their home to be with the 14 or 15 year old daughter.

Thats a source of income. Thats the unfortunate psychology of poverty. Sinanan confirmed Newsdays query that even in the care homes, there is a lot of abusing taking place. It is a sad indictment of our society. He said when a teacher is called to intervene in a situation, these are some of the realities that must be weighed up.

How do you establish that abuse is occurring? How do you remove the child? How do you protect the child? Mulling cases where the child returns to an abusive environment, he said a teacher will wonder what will happen to the child and will the abuser extract revenge against him/her if learning of the childs report to the teacher? So we are not really surprised at the statistics.

I would have dealt with this over many, many years. Sinanan also revealed that a concerned teacher may be at risk himself/herself trying to help an abused child, recalling a tragic tale of Tobago from the 1990s.

The child came and reported the abuse and the perpetrator came and killed the teacher, Emelyn James.

Sinanan said schools need to have more guidance counselors and social workers, the latter who can go into homes to assess children and engage with parents. He hopes counselors are placed in each primary school to help unearth a childs social problem at an earlier stage when hopefully it is easier to treat.
Hindu Women: Outlaw child marriages

Laws that permit the marriage of young girls with parental consent in cases where the male is several years her senior is in reality permitting statutory rape or child abuse, the HWO said.

The group added, Such oppressive laws cannot be allowed to remain on the statute books. The HWO recalled that in November 2011, then prime minister Kamla PersadBissessar opened the discussion at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Australia and the it began its advocacy aimed at changing the legislation.

By May 2013, our organisation presented a petition with close to 1,000 signatures to former legal affairs minister, Prakash Ramadhar, at the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Port-of Spain, the HWO stated.

The group said in its public discussions on the the issue, it became fully aware of the ill effects of teenage pregnancy, the fact that adult men were preying on minors, and the adverse impact of early marriage on the health and education of teenage girls. The HWO observed that Gayatri Pargass, human rights lawyer attached to the former Gender, Culture and Youth Affairs Ministry, while discussing the contradictions in the various marriage Acts of TT, noted that on the one hand, the age of consent for sexual relations under the Sexual Offences Act was 16 years [at that time] but it was right for girls and boys under the age of 16 to marry and have sex. At another public discussion, the group continued, Dr Mark Robinson described teenage pregnancies as a national disaster. He revealed that around 100 girls under 16 gave birth every month at the Port of Spain General Hospital.

He did not give the figure for the number of botched abortions that presented for the same period.

The HWO said the Family Planning Association of TT (FPATT) has publicly identified the need for collaboration among key stakeholders in the field of sexual and reproductive health as they seek to remove the negativity and sensationalism surrounding sexual health and treat it as a social concern which necessitates a mature societal and collaborative response. In September 2014, the Caricom Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) approved a Strategic Plan to reduce the number of adolescent pregnancies occurring in each country of the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean by at least 20 percent over the period 2014 to 2019. The HWO said a major component of this thrust is to ensure that by 2019, all adolescent girls and boys have access to age-appropriate comprehensive sexuality education (at least by the age of ten) as included in national school curricula implemented in all schools, and through informal education modalities for those adolescents not in schools.
Say sorry, pay $360,0000

In a precedent setting move, Justice Vasheist Kokaram also ordered Roget to apologise within 14 days, in a form acceptable to Ragoonath or settled by the court, and the sum of exemplary damages - which amounted to $160,0000 - will be reduced by 50 percent.

The judge yesterday gave his decision on the quantum of damages to be paid by Roget. Justice Kokaram in March had ruled that Roget did defame Ragoonath during a press conference in November 2014.

In his ruling on a preliminary point, which determined if the words used by Roget at the press conference which attacked Ragoonath, Justice Kokaram held that the union leaders defamatory statements would have caused her to be, shunned or lowered in the estimation of right thinking persons, of her as a human resource manager of NP.

Ragoonath filed a claim for libel after Roget made statements about her alleged actions as Human Resource Manager of NP over an industrial relations dispute between NP and OWTU. The dispute had gone to the Industrial Court which ruled that 68 employees were to be reinstated.

The judge said it was clear to any reasonable reader, viewer or listener that Rogets complaint about Ragoonath, went well beyond any simple allegation and imputed vindictiveness and motivated by bad mind. Rogets defence was based on the classical common law defence of qualified privilege at common law founded on the reciprocal relationship of duty and interest. In his 32 page written ruling on compensation yesterday, Justice Kokaram noted that saying Im sorry maybe a difficult proposition for a wrongdoer.

On the one hand an apology for conduct which has caused injury may have legal consequences and on the other it may be perceived as a sign of weakness, he said, but pointed out that in litigation of defamation actions where words have caused hurt, embarrassment, the simple words, Im sorry maybe valuable.

The judge noted Ragoonath suffered hurt by Rogets words which caused her to be shunned and ridiculed.

Her children were affected and she felt compelled to leave her job at NP; found it difficult to get work elsewhere and eventually settled for a less paying job. She still carries the emotional hurt, Justice Kokaram said, noting that in addition to damages, court ordered apologies could pay an appropriate equitable relief in Ragoonaths claim.

Apologies as a court ordered remedy is often ignored and seen perhaps as a misnomer in the law of remedies...In this case the Court cannot ignore the value of an apology, he said.

Contacted for comment, Ragoonath indicated she was relieved and overjoyed that her name has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Although I am a strong woman, this was an extremely stressful and humiliating experience.

I was publicly vilified for something I did not do.

It almost destroyed my career. My family was put through Hell and I am happy that justice was served. I look forward to receiving Mr Rogets public apology, as he did not attack me in private.

No one is above the law and this kind of bullying, threatening behaviour must stop, she said.

Ragoonath was represented by attorneys Anand Ramlogan SC, Kelvin Ramkissoon, Kent Samlal and Douglas Bayley while Douglas Mendes SC and Anthony Bullock, represented Roget.
Trinis flee wildfire

This tally was given by a member of the Trinbagonian Cultural Association of Edmonton, Nate Seecharan. The organisation has been pitching in to assist TT nationals many of whom are said to have lost homes and all their belongings.

The organisation, Seecharan said, is currently compiling a record of TT nationals to determine how they were directly affected by the inferno. Seecharan said most of the Trinidadians were from other part of Canada and were involved in the oil and gas industry in Fort Mc Murray. Many of them took turns residing in the Fort Mc Murray area working two weeks at a time in the energy sector, and would be off for a week when they returned to their families in the other Canadian areas.

Seecharan himself is a safety officer in one of the energy companies in Edmonton that has not been directly affected by the fire, but he is one of the leading members of the Trinbagonian Cultural Association. As far as he could tell, no Trinidad and Tobago nationals were injured, but he said many of them who actually settled in Fort Mc Murray would have lost everything.

Seecharan praised the evacuation effort undertaken by the Alberta authorities describing the operation as a text book evacuation which went smoothly despite the extent of the disaster.

He said the Trinidad and Tobago nationals were well treated by the authorities. A massive convoy was under way yesterday to move evacuees stranded at oil field camps north of Fort McMurray, through the community to safe areas south of the Canadian oil sands capital. Most of the Trinidad and Tobago nationals were among evacuees to Edmonton where people were said to have been providing relief including opening up their homes to evacuees.

The Alberta government is providing cash to the 80,000 evacuees from the fire to help them with their immediate needs. Premier Rachel Notley said her cabinet has approved a payment of $1,250 Canadian per adult and $500 Canadian (US$387) per dependent at a cost to the province of $100 million Canadian (US$77 million). She told a briefing in Edmonton that she wants people who were forced from their homes to know that the government has their back. The fire is reported to have torched 1,600 homes and other buildings.

The mass evacuation has forced as much as a quarter of Canadas oil output off-line according to estimates and is expected to impact a country already hurt by a dramatic fall in the price of oil.

(See Page 27A)
Minister confirms drug shortage

He was responding to a question about the shortage of drugs in the nations pharmacies with regard to free drugs through the Chronic Disease Assistance Plan (CDAP) during a news conference yesterday.

The minister said this was nothing new to the public sector.

The shortages this year would have been exacerbated by the (general) election in 2016. Where you have a new Government you have to prepare a national budget, therefore because of late elections, you had a budget that was read in late September. When you have a budget read that late it means that releases for ministries dont come until much later. Deyalsingh said they were able to avoid a total crisis as they were able to get stocks for private pharmacies. In the case of oncology drugs, what we did at the NWRHA was go to the second line drugs which were available.
Rowley meets with Carlyle Group

The meeting between Rowley and Rubenstein was with a view to attracting investment by the group in TT. Founded in Washington DC in 1987, the Carlyle Group is an American multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation. The group has US$178 billion of assets under management across 125 funds and 164 fund of funds vehicles.

Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dennis Moses accompanied Rowley to this meeting. Following the meeting, Rowley and the TT delegation left Washington DC for New York City where the Prime Minister was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Medgar Evers Colleges Inaugural International Education Awards Ceremony.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister and his delegation will leave for London, where he is expected to
Minister: Nothing in law to allow ganja cultivation

There have been calls for the herb by several sectors of society to legalise the use of marijuana .

Deyalsingh said the Dangerous Drugs Act gives the Minister of Health the authority to do things as far as Cannabis is concerned .

Permission to import and cultivate .

However, the Act gives the minister authority based on the attended regulations to the Act. The regulations support the dangerous drugs act which gives the minister the authority to allow the importation of medical marijuana. There were two occasions where the minister did grant permission for the importation of medical marijuana to CAREC and the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, for research purposes .

The regulations that support the act allows for that. However, there are no regulations to support the part of the act for cultivation, so the minister of the day cannot issue any licence for permit for cultivation, Deyalsingh said during a weekly news conference at the Health Ministrys head office, Park Street, Portof- Spain, yesterday. He said one must apply to the ministry for a licence to import the oil for research purposes .

You can import the cannabis oil, not the herb, Deyalsingh said .
The Coconino County Sheriffs Office is asking the public for help in locating an Arizona State University professor reported missing in Oak Creek Canyon.

Debra Schwartz of Tempe was last seen camping by herself the morning of May 4 at Pine Flat Campground. According to the Sheriff's Office, she was supposed to either check out Friday morning or pay for another day. When she never showed up, the campground host went to investigate. Schwartz's vehicle, tent and personal belongings were all still at her campsite but she was missing.

The Pine Flat Campground host then called the local 911 dispatch center to report her as a missing person at about 9 a.m. According to the Sheriffs Office, there is concern for Schwartz's welfare.

Schwartz is a 59-year-old white woman who is 5-foot-4-inches tall, weighs about 160 pounds and has green eyes and brown hair. It is unknown what kind or color of clothing she was wearing when she disappeared.

Sheriff's Office deputies and Search and Rescue are combing the area around Pine Flat in Oak Creek Canyon, and an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter from Kingman is conducting searches from the air.

Anyone with information about Schwartz should call the Coconino County Sheriffs Office at (928) 774-4523 or 1-800-338-7888. Anyone who wants to provide information but wishes to remain anonymous may call Silent Witness at 774-6111 or (877) 29-CRIME, submit a tip online at www.coconinosilentwitness.org, or text the word Flagtip along with your information to 274637 (CRIMES).
What you need to know about the Octagon Art Festival on Sunday in Ames

news
BJP will expose the double standard of Kerjriwal's Party: Satish Upadhyay

New Delhi, Sat, 07 May 2016 NI Wire

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Kejriwals activism on Augusta Westland case is a conspiracy to weaken the case with the help of Congress Party

Now BJP will expose the double standard of Kerjriwals Party, his connivance with corrupt and communal forces like Congress & Lalu Yadav through public movement and compel Kejriwal Government to start action against Sheila Dikshit and her corrupt Ministers

Kejriwal who has been claiming to end corruption now should answer why he is silent on the DJB scam of 400 crore rupees under Sheila Government raised by his Minister Kapil Mishra in August, 2015

New Delhi, 7th May: In a Press Conference today BJP Delhi Pradesh President Shri Satish Upadhyay, Leader of the Opposition Shri Vijender Gupta and Pradesh General Secretary Shri Ramesh Bidhuri have said that the Aam Aadmi Party of Kejriwal is helping Congress Party and Sonia Gandhi who are accused of corruption and the activism of Aam Aadmi Party demanding the arrest of Sonia Gandhi in Augusta Westland Case is actually a conspiracy to help Sonia Gandhi indirectly. They said that how weak is the resolve of Kejriwal to end corruption was seen in the year 2013 when Kejriwal formed Government in Delhi with the help of Congress Party and again it was seen when he suppressed the investigation of the scam of 400 crore rupees by Sheila Government in DJB which was revealed by his own Minister. Media Incharge Shri Praveen Shankar Kapoor and Spokesperson Shri Harish Khurana & Shri Ashwani Upadhyay were also present in the press conference.

Shri Satish Upadhyay said that be it the Augusta Westland Scam, Coal Scam or 2G-3G Scam during the Manmohan Singh Government all were to a great extent committed under the protection of Congress President Sonia Gandhis family. Central Government is getting these cases investigated and action will be taken by following the complete procedure and the guilty persons will be sent to jail. Speaking on the demand for the arrest of Sonia Gandhi in August Westland Case by Arvind Kejriwal, Shri Upadhyay said that Kejriwal wants that Government should arrest Sonia Gandhi without full investigation under political and a weak case is submitted in the court so that Sonia Gandhi and other accused persons may get advantage. This way Sonia Gandhi and accused persons may escape punishment and after that Kejriwal may come with Sonia Gandhi on the national stage.

Shri Upadhyay further said that the entire politics of Chief Minister Kejriwal is in view of the forthcoming Punjab Assembly Elections. He wants to come to power in Punjab and Akali BJP alliance is a great hindrance for him and the Congress is also posing danger in his campaign. Kejriwals politics is to malign of the image of big leaders and today also he is playing politics with this strategy. Previously he had personally made allegations against the then BJP President Shri Nitin Gadkari and he failed in it. Some months ago he accused Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley but he was silenced by the legal action taken by Shri Jaitley. In view of the forthcoming Punjab Assembly Elections Kejriwal is talking about deal between Congress and BJP on Augusta Westland Case whereas the people of the Country want to know about the deal in a meeting between Kejriwal and Sandeep Dikshit in December, 2013 after which Kejriwal formed Government with the support of Congress and since then he does not talk about the corruption of Sheila Dikshit Government.

Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Shri Vijender Gupta said that we dont need to give any proof about the commitment of Kejriwal and his party on the issue of corruption. Last one year of the Kejriwal Government speaks for itself. Kejriwal used to claim that he had proof of 370 pages against Sheila Dikshit Government. Perhaps in the year 2013 itself in the deal with Sandeep Dikshit the original copy of the proof was returned to the Congress Party. But the silence of Chief Minister Kejriwal on the Tanker Scam of Rs. 400 crore during Sheila Dikshit Government revealed in a letter written by his Water Minister Shri Kapil Mishra, exposes his real character.

Presenting the copy of the letter written by Minister Shri Kapil Mishra on the 28th August, 2015 before the Media Persons Shri Vijender Gupta said that why the Kejriwal Government does not make the report public regarding the DJB Scam of Rs. 400 crore during Sheila Dikshit Government mentioned in this letter? Who is the powerful person about whom Kapil Mishra had written that Kejriwal Government will be under crisis if the report becomes public?

Shri Vijender Gupta said that he has been fighting legal battle against the corruption of the then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit but I failed to understand why Delhi Government is not allowing FIR in the cases related to CWG or Power Discoms against Sheila Dikshit Government ? He said that this plea of the Government that action against Sheila Dikshit is not progressing due to ACB is ridiculous ? If ACB is not taking action then who is stopping Kejriwal Government from going to court ? The Government should come forward and file case against Sheila Dikshit Government on the basis of 370 pages proof.

Shri Gupta also said that the falsehood of Kejriwal Government in the power discom case is also known to everyone. For the purpose of creating a vote bank he has given subsidy to a particular section of society out of the public fund but he has also failed to get the accounts of the power discoms till the year 2013 audited just like the Sheila Dikshit Government. Shri Gupta also said that in place of taking the excuse of CAG or the Court for audit of the accounts of Discoms, Kejriwal Government has an option to place the truth before the people  Delhi Government have 49% shares in the power discoms and this way the Energy and Finance Ministries of the Government have entire accounts of power discoms with it. Why Kejriwal Government does not make it public ?

Pradesh General Secretary Shri Ramesh Bidhuri said that Arvind Kejriwal who is very much worried about Augusta Westland Case should tell the people what action he has taken against his own corrupt Minister Asim Mohammad Khan from whom he has taken resignation.

Shri Bidhuri has also asked Chief Minister Kejriwal that why he has not taken action against his own MLAs who had committed bungling in the purchase of CCTV Cameras and installing street lights just after coming to power ?

Shri Bidhuri also said that the Chief Minister Kejriwal easily questions the honesty of other people but there is no morality in him. When he talks about the deal in Augusta Westland Case then the country wants to know that under which deal he had embraced Shri Lalu Yadav is supporting Bemula and Kanhaiya but is silent in the incidents of rape and murder of Dalits in Kerala. Kejriwals silence is baffling in the cases related to compensation to a dalit Doctors family or in the case of the murder of a Doctor by Bangladeshi Jhuggiwalas.

Shri Upadhyay, Shri Gupta and Shri Bidhuri said that Delhi BJP will expose the double standards of Kejriwals Part, his connivance with corrupt and communal forces like Congress & Lalu Yadav through public movement and compel Kejriwal Government to start action against Sheila Dikshit and her corrupt Ministers

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The highlight for me this past week in the Next Generation Communications Community was my participation in the Nokia Bell Labs (News - Alert) celebration of inclusion in the invite-only 100th birthday of the Father of Information Theory, Claude Shannon (see below). This is not to minimize what readers will see was a lot of other interesting news and insights.





News

In the news, readers should download the Obama Administration white paper, Big Data: A Report on Algorithmic Systems, Opportunities, and Civil Rights, which talks about the potential that big data and associated technologies have to positively impact the United States.

In other industry news, of note was the announcement by community host Nokia (News - Alert) that while Ooredoo may not be a household name to many readers; it is a major player in the Middle East, and thanks to a three-year agreement with Nokia it is on track to become the most connected nation in the Middle East. And, reflecting the importance of next generation computing and communications to the electric utilities industry, also of note was the announcement that Oracle (News - Alert) plans to buy Opower for $532 million, which the company says will make it the largest provider of cloud services to utilities.

Features

As noted at the top, Nokia Bell Labs honored Claude Shannon the Father of Information Theory

For anyone in the information and communications technology (ICT) industries, if you were not aware and you really need to be, we all owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Claude Shannon. His groundbreaking work on computing, cryptography, and communications literally laid the theoretical foundation for modern communications, computing and cryptology by explaining how the world could be use binary coding to capture and communicate information.



Other features included:

The second posting of my two-part series on a recent Nokia white paper, Gigerabit Technical Playbook, a technical guide for communities looking to take matters into their own hands in accelerating broadband deployment and adoption. This week I looked at: active equipment deployment, network operations and selecting a trusted partner.

I also continued my series on the 5 recommendations that governments can employ to accelerate broadband adoption. This week was #4 on the list and devolved into the importance and impact of inclusive and/or social offers as part of the mix.

And, in our last feature, Gary Holland, ION Verticals Marketing, Nokia, explains the importance of cloud data center interconnect.

Weekend Reading

It is time again for the weekly reminder that the community home page, with constantly up-dated news, whitepapers, videos, podcasts and case studies, is designed as your place to get caught up on industry buzz and insights.

A few choices I recommend are the following recent articles from TechZine:

Cloud interconnect  where network and cloud meet

Digital home opportunity for service providers

In addition, check out the links to other outstanding community resources such as the Digital Ideas section, along with links to eBooks and blogs are there for your reading pleasure.
1. James Conca, Forbes  Will The Truth About Chernobyl Ever Come Out?

Yes, it already has, but the truth is so much more boring than the assertions of megadeath, that it generally gets ignored. Today, April 26th, marks the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, and it is well-known that only about a hundred, not thousands, of people died as a result of radiation, and mostly those were emergency workers, not the public.

2. Neutron Bytes  Dan Yurman, New paradigms emerge for innovation and investment in advanced nuclear energy reactor designs

Designers of advanced nuclear reactors seek to bridge the gap between concept and prototype. While it is early for investors and potential customers to easily pick winners from an increasingly crowded field of advanced reactor projects, new patterns of investment, including public/private partnerships, are creating opportunities for entrepreneurial developers.

3. Yes Vermont Yankee  More bad news for Vernon: Guest Post by Guy Page

Vernon Vermont, Vermont Yankees town, is suffering a perfect storm of bad financial news. First, the town tax revenues took quite a hit when VY shut down. Next, many townspeople hoped for a proposed gas-fired plant which would take advantage of the VY switchyard, and would increase town tax revenues. The gas-fired plant wont be built, though, because Kinder Morgan has cancelled the pipeline that would have supplied the proposed plant. In the latest bad news, TransCanada is planning sell the Vernon Dam and the state of Vermont is thinking of buying it. A state purchase would also take Vernon Dam off the town tax rolls. These are depressing times for a pretty little town in Vermont.

4. Nextbigfuture  International Tokomak Fusion project delayed another ten years and will cost $4 billion euro more and there are better energy project choices

ITER chief Bernard Bigot said the experimental fusion reactor under construction in Cadarache, France, will not see the first test of its super-heated plasma before 2025 and its first full-power fusion not before 2035.

The previous planning, which foresaw first plasma by 2020 and full fusion by 2023, was totally unrealistic, said Bigot, who succeeded Japans Osamu Motojima at the head of ITER early last year

Bigot, the former head of French nuclear agency CEA, also said he expects the new delay will add 4 billion euros of cost overruns to the 14 to 15 billion euros estimated so far.

5.

Nextbigfuture provided an update of the other nuclear fusion projects such as

General Fusion in Canada

Tri-Alpha Energy

Helion Energy

Lockheed Fusion

EMC2 Fusion

LPP Fusion

Dynomak Fusion

MagLIF at Sandia

Muon Fusion Japan
Shaping the Army Network: 2025-2040, is a guiding document to provoke thought and a means to inform and shape research, development and experimentation to ensure that the US Army maintains a technology edge in future conflict.

The five main focus areas are

dynamic transport, computing and edge sensors, data to decisive action, human cognitive enhancement, robotics and autonomous operations cybersecurity and resiliency.

They are leveraging the capabilities of the Internet of Things, software-defined networks, advanced analytics, diverse sensors and actuators and self-healing networks.

Basically they desire a global mesh network that connects every soldier and all their devices with intuitive ease of use and automation that anticipates what information and communication is needed.

The US army of 2040 will be a dynamic global hive mind directing a global combat force.
PHOENIX -- Gov. Doug Ducey said this afternoon he intends to sign legislation to provide health care to 30,000 children of the working poor.

The announcement by the governor came slightly more than an hour after the Senate, over the objections of Republican legislative leaders voted 16-12 to restore the KidsCare program in Arizona. It has been moribund since enrollment was frozen in 2010 in a budget-cutting move.

The House had given its blessing Thursday night.

Ducey had never publicly supported the program. There was no explanation from his press aide about the decision.

But even with Ducey's signature, there may be hurdles. Senate Majority Leader Steve Yabrough, R-Chandler, said he anticipates a lawsuit, saying SB 1457 is illegal.

That's because the provision to restore KidsCare was attached to language dealing with eligibility of disabled students to continue to get vouchers to attend private and parochial school at taxpayer expense. Yarbrough said that violates a provision of the Arizona Constitution that says legislation can deal with only one subject.

But Rep. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, one of the architects, said there is a connection between the two subjects and that the legislation will survive any legal challenge.

Hanging in the balance is whether the state will expand its existing health programs.

Medicaid provides free care to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of three, that is about $27,700 a year.

It is funded on a 2-1 match with federal and state dollars.

There is a separate federal program known as the Children's Health Insurance Program which provides coverage for the children in families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, about $41,100 annually for the same family.

Arizona joined that program in 2001, with then-Gov. Jane Hull noting there is a 3-1 match of federal to state dollars. It became known in Arizona as KidsCare.

In 2010 however, with the state facing a deficit, lawmakers decided the state could not afford its share. So they refused to sign up anyone new and enrollment, then about 45,000, dropped to about 1,000 today.

What changed is that Congress has decided to fully fund CHIP programs through 2017. But when Arizona Republican legislative leaders balked, other Republicans joined with Democrats to line up the votes and find procedural ways to bypass the blockades thrown in their path.

In the end, Arizona Senate President Andy Biggs, who had killed an earlier House-passed bill, opted on Friday to simply allow a vote. But he was clearly displeased about being outmaneuvered.

The Senate president said he wasn't buying arguments that there would be no cost to the state. But he said even if that were not the case, Arizona shouldn't be lining up for the federal dollars.

Biggs, who is running for Congress, said the national debt increased by more than $1 trillion in the last six months and now stands at $19 trillion.

"While every program ... has an advocate and a desire to accomplish a certain albeit potentially even altruistic or beneficent purpose, at some point one realizes that perhaps we can't afford every program,'' he said.

And Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, was unimpressed by arguments that Arizona has been the only state without a CHIP program.

"Well, kudos to us,'' she said.

That still leaves the legal question -- assuming Ducey signs the measure.

The Arizona Constitution says that "every act shall embrace but one subject and matters properly connected therewith.'' Yarbrough, who is an attorney, said SB 1457 does not comply.

"Frankly, if someone chooses to file suit, I suspect they will be successful,'' he said. And Yarbrough said if the attorney general attempts to defend the law all that will do is run up legal bills.

But Brophy McGee pointed out the underlying bill dealing with vouchers contains language about evaluating children to see if they need such help.

"So this would just make qualifying for KidsCare part of that plan, which I think is an excellent, excellent addition to that plan,'' she said. And Brophy McGee said both parts of the bill -- vouchers and KidsCare -- deal with children with needs.

"These kids fall through the cracks all the time,'' she said.

"There are so many ways to catch them,'' Brophy McGee continued. This creates another bridge to a healthy kid who can learn.''
There's a new case of travel-related Zika in Seminole County, according to the state health department.

Malloy predicts there will be more travel-related cases of Zika in CT, and he wants travelers to be prepared. That means that, while pregnant women and women planning on having children were already pretty anxious about Zika, parents of toddlers and older children are now becoming concerned as well.

"It's important to note that all countries which have reported, detected Dengue and Chikungunya virus outbreaks during the last years, that's 15 years, are considered at risk for having outbreaks of Zika", said Sylvain Aldighieri, Zika incident manager for Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), reported Politico. According to the statement, the fetus has "various deformities".

Nebraska's Ricketts endorses Trump after parents spent millions against him

Nebraska's GOP primary is Tuesday, with a prize of 36 national delegates. "He is totally against that and that is my number one". Many of those in attendance were more effusive in their hopes, pledging to help elect a full slate of Republicans in the fall.

CDC officials say that for the Zika virus to turn up in this country, a mosquito would have to be exposed to the virus by biting an infected person who contracted it while traveling. In addition to Catalonia, cases have been reported in Madrid (27), Aragon (10) and Castilla and Leon (9). If you must travel to one of these areas, talk to your healthcare provider first and strictly follow steps to prevent mosquito bites during your trip.

The response time for diagnosing Zika virus has improved, and results can be obtained in five days. Brazil reported the first cases in the Americas of local transmissions of the virus past year.

Microcephaly is a birth defect in which a baby has a smaller-than-normal head, usually because the brain has not developed properly. This includes The Caribbean and many countries in South and Central America.

US House Speaker not ready to back Trump as Republican nominee

Asked to again confirm that Ryan was saying he can't support Trump, the speaker said , "Yeah, I am basically saying that. Ed Rollins, who ran Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign, joined the pro-Trump Great America PAC as a senior strategist.

The study states that the method of infecting the mosquitoes with Wolbachia will involve inserting the bacteria into mosquito eggs, which then pass the bacteria along to the offspring.

A British biotech company will deploy genetically modified mosquitoes on the Cayman Islands to control the spread of the Zika virus and other mosquito-borne diseases.

Like Brazil, the United States has a long history of disease control initiatives and a good system for monitoring reportable diseases.

Trump's national debt plan would send rates soaring

Nick Muzin , senior adviser to the campaign of Ted Cruz: "I am a Republican and want to vote for the Republican nominee, but Mr. Democrats are generally steering clear of the Republican infighting, letting the party's leaders tear at each other.

Be proactive - Use the "Flag as Inappropriate" link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts. But that is of little value to women who discover they are pregnant weeks after traveling or are uncertain when they became pregnant.
Nebraska is facing one of the worst droughts in years. We see the effects of this drought in our everyday lives. When driving down the highway, we see our once verdant landscape replaced with yellowing and desiccated crops and plant life. This dryness provokes hardships for the economy and a
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Moroccan Outiti Bouziane has won lately the Energy Globe Award 2016 for the liquid sewage treatment project carried out in the province of Al-Haouz, suburbs of Marrakech, one of the worlds popular travel destinations.

The wastewater treatment project, carried out in the rural village of Asselda in a bid to improve the living conditions of the local inhabitants, represents a model for other remote local communities.

Besides collecting rainwater, the wastewater plant helps break down solids to produce a cleaner, more environmentally friendly effluent. The treated and recycled water can be re-used for irrigation and other purposes.

The Swiss Energy Globe Award celebrates successful environment protection projects. The prize was founded in 1999 by the Austrian energy pioneer Wolfgang Neumann. Its goal is to present successful sustainable projects to a broad audience so that they can be a source of inspiration.

According to Wolfgang Neumann, the protection of the future of the planet and the right of future generations everywhere to live healthy and fulfilling lives should be a human right for everyone.

The Eenergy Globe Awards aim to raise awareness, showcase best practice solutions from a variety of countries, to motivate people to contribute their share and to convince governments to provide the necessary framework.

The Awards are presented in the categories earth, fire, water, air  representing the ancient Greek four elements  in addition to the youth category, symbolizing the future.

The 1st prize in each category is endowed with 10.000 Euro. From all over the world, some 800 projects and initiatives are submitted annually to compete for this award.
A swing set with the swings burned away sits in a residential neighborhood destroyed by a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The record-breaking wildfire that has engulfed the city of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, over the past week may yet still double in size, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said on Friday night, warning that, in no way is this fire under control. The Associated Press reports that due to bad weather conditions, including continued high temperatures, dry weather, and high winds, the fire grew on Friday from impacting around 100,000 hectares to more than 156,000 hectares, and another likely two-fold increase in size would encompass additional forested areas, possibly reaching the border of the neighboring province, Saskatchewan, some 90 kilometers east of Fort McMurray. In all, as much as 300,000 hectares (1,100+ square miles) may have either been burned or still be on fire by the end of Saturday. The fire has been so intense, it has even created its own weather at times, complete with lightning that has helped start new fires.

GRAPHIC: How the Fort McMurray wildfire spread. Follow our live blog for #ymmfire updates https://t.co/oir1YQuqNI pic.twitter.com/rRnZUp7Np2  CBC News (@CBCNews) May 6, 2016

The massive fire, now being called The Beast by many of the 500 firefighters battling it, is also expected to reach the Suncor oil fields 30 kilometers north of the city, though officials believe the facility will be resistant to the fire because oil sands mines are typically cleared of the vegetation that a wildfire would need for fuel, and because the facility has two accomplished industrial fire departments on site.

A convoy of evacuees drives south as flames and smoke rises along the highway near Fort McMurray. Photo: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

According to the CBC, at least 80,000 residents have been successfully evacuated from Fort McMurray, where the fire has destroyed at least 1,600 homes and buildings, and where smoke has at times reduced visibility to as little as 10 meters. One piece of good news is that officials reported on Saturday that firefighters have been able to keep the fire away from whats left of the city for the past two days, and the great news is that due to the high evacuation rate, no deaths or injuries have been reported thus far, which is remarkable considering the harrowingly narrow escapes captured on video and later shared online by fleeing residents. In addition, many evacuees have now had to relocate more than once as previously safe areas have been put at risk by the growing fire and dangerous smoke levels.

A displaced person at a makeshift evacuee center in Lac la Biche, Alberta. Photo: Cole Burston/AFP/Getty Images

Some $44 million (CAD) has been donated to assist victims of the fire, as many in the country have sought to support those affected. (Donation information can be found here.) Many of the evacuees have sought refuge by heading to the city of Edmonton in the south, traveling in large convoys past the fire and the many devastated neighborhoods.

Seen a lot of this in Edmonton these last few days. #ymmfire #cbcnl pic.twitter.com/ra0fciuQMe  Terry Roberts (@TRobertst) May 7, 2016

One evacuee watched his house burn down on his smartphone via a home security webcam while sitting in his truck after having escaped the fire just 20 minutes earlier:

And here is part of an emotional interview one overwhelmed firefighter gave to the CBC, reacting to being called a hero by others:

Economically, the fire and resulting evacuations have led to a 25 percent reduction in the countrys oil production, as oil sands mines in the area have moved their workers to safety and shut down. The ultimate long-term impact on the Canadian economy, which has already been damaged by the low price of oil, remains to be seen. The Alberta oil sands comprise the third largest oil reserve on the planet.

Officials now expect the fire to continue being pushed off to the northeast, away from threatened (human) communities and into the wilderness forests. Mike Flannigan, a wildfire researcher at the University of Alberta, told VICE News that if the current damage estimates  in the neighborhood of $8 or 9 billion  turn out to be correct, the fire will have been the most costly natural disaster in Canadian history.
Guido Menzio Photo: University of Pennsylvania

On Thursday, an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse was delayed so that authorities could investigate concerns about Guido Menzio, a world-renowned Ivy League economist from Italy, whose scrawling of equations, combined with some ethnic profiling, had worried a fellow passenger, according to Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell. After the regional jet had finished boarding in Philadelphia, the passenger apparently passed a note to a flight attendant after she saw her seatmate, the curly-haired, olive-skinned Menzio, scrawling on a notepad, and the plane eventually returned to the gate where the passenger and then Menzio were escorted off and questioned.

Rampell reports that according to American Airlines, the woman had complained of being sick, then explained to authorities that in fact she was anxious about the presence of Menzio and his math-making. Authorities told Menzio he had been suspected of terrorism, but when he told them who he was and showed them his calculations, they confirmed he wasnt a threat and he was allowed to return to his seat and continue his delayed flight to Toronto, where the University of Pennsylvania professor was due to give a talk on a paper he had co-authored about menu costs and price dispersion. No government agency was involved in the incident. Menzio said he was treated respectfully by security personnel, and the pilot had seem embarrassed over the mixup, but that he was troubled, understandably, by a security protocol that is too rigidin the sense that once the whistle is blown everything stops without checksand relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless. In a now-deleted post detailing the incident on Facebook, Menzio also worried that Trumps America is already here.
Photo: Nicholas Doyle/ Courtesy of Common

This weekend, residents will begin moving into New Yorks newest experiment in communal living: a blocky red-and-white building in Williamsburg, nestled snugly against the BQE. Its run by the company Common, which sells co-living, a relatively new product thats a start-up version of rental roommate shares. The Williamsburg building is Commons third and the largest in the city; there are 51 bedrooms, priced between $2,250 and $3,190 for month-to-month rent. Some of those bedrooms look out on the freeway, but think of them as race-car beds for grown-ups. The glass is remarkably soundproof, and you can pull the blinds if you dont want the motorists to see your junk.

After accepting applications for the last several months, Common reports that the Williamsburg building will open at 80 percent capacity. And now that the model has gained a foothold in New York, its worth thinking through what, exactly, co-living means. What constitutes the start-up worlds version of the ideal home? What might co-living show us about the ways tech is remaking our lives?

Common is not the only company to venture into co-living; and, while it announced $7.35 million in series-A funding last year, its not even the biggest. In a 2015 pitch to investors that won the company a $10 billion valuation, the co-working giant WeWork projected that co-living would account for 21 percent of its profit by 2018. The companys valuation has since climbed to $16 billion, and members started moving into the first WeLive co-living space  110 Wall Street, where 20 floors will eventually house 600 residents  in January.

With their furnished accommodations and short-term leases, these brands sell friendlier, spiffier, higher-profit-margin renditions of what might otherwise look a bit like extended-stay hotels (or the worlds fanciest SROs). Instead, they promise convenience, style, social connection. Its a version of communal living that suggests tech utopia in its ultimate test case: with Nest thermometers, and Casper mattresses, and a house Slack channel, so you can see whether anyone else wants Seamless without having to yell down the hall. This particular utopian vision is, of course, unhampered by any squeamishness about money. Previous experiments in communal living had failed because nobody was ever able to write the check, WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann told Fast Company. A capitalistic kibbutz is not a bad idea.

Recently, Wayne Congar led a tour of Commons first residence in New York, a brownstone on Pacific Street in Crown Heights. Congar is the co-founder and creative director of Mayday, a creative agency that helped design the space; his visitors came from Creative Mornings, a breakfast lecture series for the creative community.

The Pacific Street house was a failed condo project before Common arrived. Members began moving in last October, paying rents that started at $1800 for a furnished bedroom. (Average rent for a studio in the neighborhood is $1656, according to a recent report.) Its right off Franklin Avenue, a site of rapid gentrification in recent years, and the bay windows that run up its facade look out on Pacific Street and the landmarked 23rd Regiment Armory, which currently serves as a homeless shelter.

The tour group had crowded into the living room of the parlor-floor apartment. Like a spread in the West Elm catalogue, or a nice Airbnb, it was neutrally well-appointed in a way that suggested access to Instagram and some money but nobodys taste in particular: a vaguely mid-century sofa, a colorful throw, an assortment of hard-to-kill plants. In the living rooms of each of the buildings four suites were the same plants, the same throw, the same couch.

Its really a user-experience-design issue, Congar said, of the living room. Its where a lot of those UX design speculations about how people were going to use the spacesnone of them were more wrong than here. For example, the large set of bookshelves along one wall  this thing [the bookshelf] is a kind of user-experience idea  was originally crowded with succulents, baskets, statues, knickknacks, and other eclectic moments. But it turns out that when people live in an apartment, they tend to fill shelves with their own (less photogenic) stuff: like, in this case, a UX Design Immersive course certificate. This discovery prompted laughter from the group.

Utopians have always dwelled at extremes  think of the Puritans, Shakers, or hippies on farms  but their goals and ideals say something about the larger world they inhabit, and the available fantasies of how it might be improved. In place of the communards passionate beliefs, co-living proposes an array of convenient amenities. The collective conviction in this case is that you shouldnt have to call a super, commit to a lease, choose a couch. As a business proposition, rental real estate wouldnt necessarily seem like it has much to do with tech; but as a mentality, co-living is pure Silicon Valley  it is life rendered frictionless. In this model, the everyday hassles involved in sharing an apartment (remembering to buy toilet paper, reminding your roommate to buy toilet paper instead) are not the minor responsibilities of adulthood but situations to be disrupted. The co-liver, freed from such obligations, can devote his or her time and energy to, say, designing user experiences for Seamless or Casper or Nest. Indeed, many of the current residents work in tech.

*

Scrubbed of the hippie grime evoked by co-op and commune, co-living asks that participants come together not for lentils and chore wheels but for such generational favorites as karaoke and fitness classes. Co-living aligns itself with co-working  and if there is an implied ideology to be found here, it lies in the blurring thats encouraged between work and home. The first WeLive sits atop seven floors of WeWork co-working space in the Financial District, and its interiors share WeWorks brand of ambient morale-boosting: Better Together read posters throughout; custom wallpaper depicts synchronized swimmers. Brad Hargreaves, the founder of Common, previously co-founded General Assembly, the Flatiron coding academy (which once offered co-working spaces as well). Students struggles finding housing helped inspire his new venture, and General Assembly was one of the first places Common sought members.

As it is for start-up employees, togetherness is part of the package, and co-living also asks a willingness to blur public and private  a tendency the present era of technology already encourages. After all, if youre always sharing your life in attractively designed apps, why not share it in an attractively designed apartment, too? Why would you ever want to be by yourself, and without the possibility of networking? The hope is for members to spend most of their time at home enjoying shared amenities and forging friendships. This means cultivating an atmosphere that might allow co-living to transcend the vast economy catering to 25-year-old men who dont want to take care of themselves  to be something more than the Soylent of home.

We dont want to become a hacker house, we dont want to become a frat house, Hargreaves told me. Its really important to have a diverse community in here, because we dont want to get pigeonholed into one use case. Common chooses its members through applications, interviews, and background checks. Hargreaves said that the gender balance so far skews only somewhat male, roughly 60-40 or 65-35; members range in age from 19 to 43. They tend to work in tech, media, and creative.

The first residents to move in at WeLive were a mix of employees, their friends, and WeWork members. They share a willingness to live even more of a fishbowl existence than a co-living situation might ordinarily entail. At a Sunday-night house dinner in April, a videographer roamed the communal dining room as residents enjoyed takeout and wine. The companys founders regretted not having documented WeWork more thoroughly from the beginning, explained one resident community manager. They wanted to make sure WeLive was filmed from the very beginning. Another resident, a project architect, was roommates with a WeWork designer and herself currently applying for a job planning WeWorks Mexico City location. I dont understand how Im going to live a normal life after I leave here, she said, contemplating the departure from co-living Eden.

The Common Pacific Street house has a communal dining room downstairs as its signature offering  on the tour, Congar called it a place to swap ideas, concepts, working models. (Another house might get a game room or a wellness area.) Along the walls hung posters bearing Commons community values: These are expressed as imperatives, and include Be Present, Open the Door, Keep Evolving, Lend a Hand, Stay Curious, and Love the Journey. At a recent party, members took Polaroid selfies and taped them to the poster of the community value they liked best. Keep Evolving led the pack, with 17 members photos; Lend a Hand trailed, with six.

Many observers have described the product offered by Common and WeWork as dorms for adults, and its not hard to see why. But it would be a mistake to read this simply as meaning that theyre juvenile, or coddling (or, for that matter, expensive). Dorms are another place where life and work and public and private all converge in a few rooms filled with someone elses furniture  a situation thats either invigorating or nightmarish, depending on your temperament. Navigating these circumstances requires someone with the diligent friendliness of an R.A. to nudge everyone into getting along. In the Pacific Street basement, past the end of the big table, is a lounge area with couches and haphazardly placed rectangular beanbags the size of a bed for a golden retriever. These, Hargreaves said, were a late addition, specifically intended to cultivate an atmosphere of casual camaraderie. When we opened, this space back here was immaculately laid out, everything was placed, and so nobody used it, he explained.

*

In the months since Commons October launch, the company has strived to adapt to its members habits. Originally Common ran potluck dinners every Sunday, but no one really cooked, so it was mostly Seamless potluck, Hargreaves said. They just did their own hackathon, which is never something we would have thought of, he reported. So we bought them some whiteboard paint. We try to support stuff theyre doing as opposed to do stuff on our own.

The Williamsburg building offers some couples rooms with private baths. (Its one of the things we saw people wanted, Hargreaves said. And I dont think having a shared bathroom is core to the community experience.) It lacks the Nest thermostats featured in previous properties; each room now has an air-conditioner residents can control personally. And, in another move toward a more conventional rental arrangement, Common recently introduced the ability to commit to a 6-month or 12-month stay in exchange for a discount on rent. We found that actually the majority of people took us up on that, Hargreaves said.

I have not, I admit, ever really considered my home as a user experience. From the vantage point of a post-college arrival in New York, though, its not so hard to sympathize with the co-livers impulse. Youre in a new city, unmoored  where do you live? With whom do you hang out? And how do you get the Wi-Fi going? If you had the money to make someone else answer these questions for you, wouldnt that be a relief?

In one of Common suites open-plan kitchen-living room, blue tape on the floor marked where a tiny bedroom would be carved out of the shared space. It was the same size as the smallest and cheapest bedrooms at the Pacific Street house, which were the ones that had rented the fastest. A second line of blue tape inside the first marked where, despite appearances, a bed would indeed fit.

This was one of the interesting discoveries, Hargreaves said. That people actually dont care that much about the rooms size; they really care about the price and the location.

The certainty that somewhere theres someone willing to pay a lot of money to live in a closet  provided that the closet is near some coffee shops and the subway  seems less like a discovery than like a New York real-estate truism. But these calculations get more complicated with time. One WeWork communications executive told me that the company fully intends to welcome families at WeLive someday, which will mean finding a way to comfortably accommodate toddlers alongside work-hard-play-hard young adults. Surveying the current building, with its open-plan whiskey bar and white-sheepskin throw pillows, this seemed a long way off. If co-living succeeds in the long term, it may be less through innovation than old-fashionedness: The current tech boom is more precarious than New Yorks housing scarcity. Still, others have tried and failed to make co-living pay. The company Campus ran houses in the Bay Area and New York before folding last year, reporting that they were unable to sustain an economically viable business.

Steven She, a 32-year-old data engineer, moved from Toronto to New York about eight months ago for a job at a startup; he works out of a WeWork in Lower Manhattan and lives at a Common house in Brooklyn. He said he liked the events and activities Common offered, although lately hed been attending less frequently.

Ive started dating this girl, and now the roommate situation does actually become a bit awkward, he said. I still really like that community aspect, but itd be nice to have my own kitchen, on the weekends, to cook.

Commons setup was something he imagined making sense for him maybe for another year or so. I asked him about the new couples rooms, with their private bathrooms. He laughed. That could very well be an option, he said. But it would require convincing his girlfriend. Shes probably not as open to the concept. Yet.
Nom, nom, nope. Photo: Jon Edwards /Getty Images

If theres one thing you can count on, its that just about anything you can dream up turns someones crank.

From fantasizing about being trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey to sitting on pies or rubbing bread on your face, if you can imagine it, someone will probably jerk off to it. Its a brave new world, this internet of ours!

Except in China. If you live in China and your particular fetish involves babely young webcammers sensually eating bananas  or being watched sensually eating a banana yourself  youre out of luck. Regulations are cracking down on this socially harmful way of getting your daily potassium, according to Chinas CCTV News.

Commenters on CCTVs Facebook page are in a tizzy about the matter. One person wrote, Seriously? Bananas? Summer is coming, and that means popsicles. Do you have any idea what you can do with popsicles that melt and slowly drip in the cleavage? Thats way more intense than bananas! Your leaders are useless, their only job is to censor shit, and they cant even do it correctly. Another commenter, obviously a prodigious sexter, wrote, Not only banana, sometimes I think dirty when I see an eggplant! (You and me both, pal.) Others suggested that the government would come for hot dogs, cucumbers, and other phallic foods next.

So far the Chinese government hasnt issued any statements regarding the moral dubiousness of pimple-popping videos, which is a huge relief.
It was almost a year ago, when having tumbled in early 2015, oil proceeded to rebound strongly into the summer, where it traded at about $60 for three months, before U.S. production resumed resulting in the next big leg lower which culminated with this Februarys drop to 13 year lows. At that point a comparable rebound to last year materialized, and just like last year, the pundits have emerged claiming that there will be no further downside. Incidentally, we covered this comparison previously in "For Oil 2016 Is Setting Up To Be A Rerun Of Last Year."





(Click to enlarge)

However, unlike last year, not everyone is (wrongly) convinced that this time the rebound in oil will be sustainable. One very prominent company that is already preparing for the next oil crash is the world's largest shipping company, Danish conglomerate A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S (also known as Maersk). Related: 500,000 Barrels And $1 Billion In Losses: The True Cost Of Canadas Wildfire

Maersk is perhaps best known for its pragmatic, even downright bearish outlook on the global economy. Recall that three months ago, the company admitted in its annual report that "demand for transportation of goods was significantly lower than expected, especially in the emerging markets as well as the Groups key Europe trades, where the impact was further accelerated by de-stocking of the high inventory levels."

The company's CEO, Nils Andersen, told the FT in February that "it is worse than in 2008. The oil price is as low as its lowest point in 2008-09 and has stayed there for a long time and doesnt look like going up soon. Freight rates are lower. The external conditions are much worse but we are better prepared." Related: Shells Profits Plunge 83%

It is the risk that the current 60 percent rebound in oil prices from 2016 lows is just another temporary bounce that has forced Maersk to start preparing for the next oil crash. The company's CEO is confident that since the world keeps producing more petroleum than it can consume, it is "adapting its cost base to prepare for the risk of lower crude prices" according to Bloomberg.

As a result, Maersk's oil unit is already exploring bigger cost cuts than previously planned. "The price will obviously be driven by the balance between supply and demand and there will be oversupply for many months still, he said by phone from Copenhagen. "It definitely cant be ruled out that the oil price will fall again."

To be sure, Andersen is ultimately bullish on higher oil price... he is just not bullish on the path that oil prices will take to his higher price target: "I have previously said the oil price was too low, but its very plausible that the balance between supply and demand will continue to be unfavorable, Andersen said. Related: The Shale Sector Just Got Two Critical Wins  In Two Different States

Recent cost-cuts by Maersk have drastically reduced its breakeven oil price: in its latest full year forecast, the company predicted it can now break even with oil at $40 to $45. It previously said oil needed to trade at about $45 to $55 in order to avoid a loss. "Were happy weve reached the goal we set, Andersen said. We will definitely work on cutting costs even further."

As it continues to cut costs, we expect that Maersk will soon be profitable with oil in the $30, if not lower. Which is precisely the contingency Maersk is actively preparing for.

By Zerohedge

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Changes are on the way for redbar, the bar and restaurant located at 2245 E. St Francis Ave.

Although notable differences wont be evident for a few weeks, co-owner Carrie Wisniewski says plans are in the works, including expansion of the appetizer selection, the addition of soups, wraps and a variety of new sandwiches, and the launch of new weekly specials, including a pizza and pitcher offering featuring locally made pizzas with a variety of toppings, slider night, a build-your-own burger night and $2 hot dog specials on Sunday afternoons during Brewers games.

The changes will be implemented under the leadership of long-time bartender and industry veteran, Jocelyn Drake, who will assume oversight of kitchen operations, along with forging partnerships with local purveyors, including Canfora Bakery, Buddys Meats and Tower Chicken.

"The idea is to promote community," says Wisniewski. "We also want to support these other local businesses that offer amazing products by incorporating them into redbars menu."

In lieu of a more traditional fish fry, the restaurant also plans to offer Friday night fish specials which will change weekly. Brunch is, apparently, also on the list  a new offering which Wisniewski says will eventually roll out on Saturdays and Sundays. Brunch offerings will change as often as weekly, offering customers new things to try each time they come by.

"In the end, we want redbars food to be both creative and well made," says Wisniewski. "The goal really is to offer something for everyone. Nothing fancy, but definitely quality."

Chef Henninger departs

The changes come on the back of news that Chef Sean Henninger, who took over kitchen operations at the bar just over a year ago, will be departing his post to open Popolo Pizzeria, an Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Mineral Point.

"We are really very excited about Sean's new endeavor," says Wisniewski. "He has been a friend for many years and he has really helped us move into the food service area of this business. He will be sorely missed at redbar. But it was always the plan for redbar to be his place to regroup, refuel and refocus on his dream of owning his own place. So, we wish him well."

Henninger, who is the former owner of Times Square Pizza and Atomic Chocolates, had been looking for a space to reopen his popular business after plans fell through to move it to a new location in 2014. So, when the opportunity arose to take over a full, established kitchen  which also contains an Italian pizza oven  in Mineral Point, he says it was an offer he simply couldnt refuse.

During his tenure with redbar, Henninger introduced a menu that encapsulated both comfort food favorites, along with more creative takes on classic dishes, also set a bar for pub food that rose above the usual.

"At this point, Im really going off to open my dream restaurant," notes Henninger. "Its everything Ive wanted in a place of my own and I cant wait."

Of his time at redbar, he notes: Im really grateful for the opportunity to work with and for them. At this point, theyve got a good base and system in place that they can build on, and I wish them all the best moving forward."

Henningers last evening in the Redbar kitchen will be Saturday, May 7.
I am OMI | Events | People | Places | Participate

Al Harris

If you've attended a community group meeting in the OMI, you've likely met Al Harris. Al and his wife Mary are true neighborhood leaders, working for the last 25 years to improve the OMI in all areas: business development, safety, expansion of social services, transportation, and neighborhood beautification. It's hard to finder a friendlier guy than Al Harris, and he graciously sat down for an interview with fellow OMI resident Maria Picar. Some of Al's thoughts and memories:

His outlook on OMI's future: "I'm really pleased that we're getting a brand-new library on Ocean Avenue, and so that's moving forward. When they complete the undergrounding of the wires and the artwork for Ocean Avenue and all the other amenities that are planned, I think we're going to be very, very pleased with the way the community's going."

On rebuilding Ocean View Rec Center (to be renamed after Minnie and Lovie Ward): "First of all, I think it definitely is appropriately named. [...] Because everyone knows the Wards have done a lot to enhance this community over the years, including having their house shot up at one point, fighting drug dealers. So this is a great honor. Our Rec Center is so old and termite-infested, that it's going to be really nice to have a new facility. We've been working really hard with Park and Rec to make sure that we got the type of Rec Center that we all can be proud of."

On being a Buddhist: "...there's a Buddhist phrase that says like, 'When you're in Rome, do as the Romans do.' So there's no restrictions on what you can celebrate, what you can eat, how you should dress, everything. Everything is inside of you. Happiness is inside of you. The whole thing is to bring that out in a very positive way and to contribute to society. I hope we try to do that in any way that we can, from being a neighborhood activist to just trying to be good people."

On San Francisco: "I like when they say, the world's greatest city. That's it. This is it."

Read the complete Al Harris interview!

Images: 1) Al Harris, August 2003. (WNP photo)



Contribute your own stories about the OMI!

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The founder of an online underworld bank that allegedly laundered billions of dollars for criminals was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Arthur Budovsky, 42, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering on January 29, three days before the scheduled start of his trial in New York.

He was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine by US District Judge Denise L. Cote, who noted that Budovsky did not express any "genuine remorse".

"The significant sentence handed down today shows that money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime," Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell for the Justice Department's Criminal Division said in a statement.

"Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky ran a digital currency empire built expressly to facilitate money laundering on a massive scale for criminals around the globe," US Attorney Preet Bharara for the Southern District of New York was quoted as saying.

Prosecutors said Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve operated an alternative digital currency that helped cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder the proceeds of illegal activity.

The company was a "financial hub" for Ponzi scheme operators, credit card traffickers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals, authorities said.

The system became operational in 2005. By the time it was shut down in 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than 5.5 million user accounts, including more than 600,000 in the United States, the US Department of Justice said.

Overall, it had processed more than 78 million financial transactions with a combined value of more than $8 billion.

The digital exchange mechanism, which allowed depositors to mask their identities, was similar to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Budovsky, who was arrested in Spain in May 2013, had renounced his US citizenship and acquired Costa Rica nationality in an apparent bid to avoid prosecution.

As part of his plea agreement, Budovsky admitted to laundering between $250 million and $550 million in criminal proceeds linked to US-based Liberty Reserve accounts.

Six other people with ties to Liberty Reserve face charges in the case that involved police and investigators from 17 countries.

Co-defendants Maxim Chukharev and Mark Marmilev, who also pleaded guilty, were sentenced to three and five years respectively.

Two others are set to be sentenced on May 13, while another two remain at large.

Explore further Virtual currency founder extradited to face US charges

 2016 AFP
PHOENIX -- Doctors who lie about whether they've examined patients before recommending medical marijuana are subject to criminal prosecution, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The justices acknowledged the 2010 voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act does grant immunity to physicians against being charged with any crimes in connection with writing the written recommendations for patients.

But Justice Clint Bolick, writing for the unanimous court, said that does not mean doctors are free to break other laws, even if the act involves a marijuana recommendation. And Bolick said that's the case here.

Arizona law allows those with certain medical conditions to obtain up to 2 1/2 ounces of marijuana every two weeks. But they must first get a written recommendation from a doctor.

Court records show a confidential informant working for the Navajo County drug task force went to the office of Robert Gear, a naturopath, to get a recommendations. She completed a medical questionnaire and medical records statement provided by Gear's staff and disclosed information about her medical history and physical condition.

Rules adopted by the state Department of Health Services require doctors to review a patient's medical records for the past 12 months before writing a recommendation.

In this case, the woman said she had seen other doctors during that period but did not "have a complete set of medical records'' with her. But she agreed she would either request that her records be sent to Gear or that she would bring them to the doctor on her next visit.

Gear issued the written certification anyway. He was indicted on charges of forgery and committing fraudulent schemes and artifices.

A trial judge threw out the charges based on the immunity provisions of the 2010 law, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeals. Bolick said both decisions were wrong.

He said the law spells out doctors cannot be prosecuted for providing written certification. Nor can they be charged with a crime for exercising their medical judgment that a patient would benefit from marijuana.

What Gear was charged with, Bolick said, was certifying that he had reviewed the patient's medical records for the prior 12 months when he had not done so. And Gear attested that "the information provided in the written certification is true and correct.''

Bolick rejected Gear's contention that the immunity extends to anything related to the certification, saying such an interpretation "could lead to troublesome outcomes.''

"For instance, would immunity extend to theft or sexual assault committed in the course of a physical examination conducted during the certification process?'' the justice asked.

The justices rejected arguments that subjecting doctors to criminal prosecution would chill the willingness of doctors to give advice to patients on medical marijuana.

"Nothing in our opinion should be read to limit or threaten such protected activities,'' Bolick wrote.
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Anglers in Arizona have a chance to cast their lines for a new species of trout at several Mogollon Rim and White Mountain-area lakes this season.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department plans to stock about 18,000 tiger trout in Becker, Carnero, Willow Springs and Woods Canyon lakes.

The fishs brown and gold pattern looks like a cross between a cheetah and a tiger.

Already, the fish are swimming at Becker Lake, two miles northwest of Springerville, and Carnero Lake, about 15 miles west of Springerville. Others will be released into Willow Springs and Woods Canyon lakes, both about 30 miles east of Payson, on the week of May 23, said Mike Lopez, regional fish program manager for Game and Fish.

This is the first time Game and Fish has introduced tiger trout into Arizona waters -- usually the department stocks rainbow trout, said Nick Walter, public information officer with Game and Fish. The individuals being stocked average 10 inches in length, Walter said.

The department received the tiger trout fingerlings for free from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources last summer.

They are a brown-brook trout hybrid, and as a result of this forced hybrid cross, the fish are sterile, or unable to reproduce.

If they do get out of reservoirs they're not going to establish populations somewhere where don't want them, Lopez said.

Game and Fish will use this year to study the fish -- how well they grow and persist and how well anglers catch them. If the fish do well and anglers like them, Game and Fish will try to get more of the trout in the future and build it into a long-term program, Lopez said.

In terms of behavior, the fish tend to be fairly aggressive so fish managers had to be careful in selecting where to let them loose, he said.

Becker and Carnero are closed systems so fish can't accidentally escape while Woods Canyon and Willow Springs lakes feed into streams that are already populated by brook trout and brown trout that were stocked decades ago, Lopez said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also reviewed the fish releases and determined it to be low-risk, he said.

So what should anglers expect from the fish?

Ive heard they tend to swim around in little packs and tend to be more active in the mornings than in the evenings, Lopez said. They also tend to be aggressive predators and prefer feeding on small fish, Walter said.

Lopez suggested flies and lures that imitate small fish.

Special regulations apply at Becker and Carnero. Only artificial lures and flies with single, barbless hooks are allowed and there is a two-trout daily bag limit at Carnero. It is catch-and-release only at Becker.

At Woods and Willow Springs, where higher numbers of tiger trout are expected to be stocked, the standard six trout aggregate bag limit applies and bait is allowed.
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This is an old article from 2015 that has somehow resurfaced. From one perspective it is off the Egyptian topic, but from another it is an eye opener to the legality or illegality behind what some may consider mere tweets. And I don't agree with the argument behind the article either.

Gizmodo, by Matt Novak







An American teenager was sentenced to 11 years in prison today for providing material support to terrorism. But Ali Shukri Amin, just 17 years old, never committed violence in the name of radical Islamic terrorism. His crime was running a Twitter account that celebrated the terrorist group and taught others how to send money through Bitcoin.

Amin ran a Twitter account called @Amreekiwitness with roughly 4,000 followers before it was shut down. The account regularly posted positive tweets about ISIS and included tutorials on how to send money to them by using Bitcoin. The Virginia teenager also helped instruct one teenage ISIS recruit on how to get to Syria to fight for the terrorist organization.

ISIL continues to use social media to send their violent and hateful message around the world in an attempt to radicalize, recruit and incite youth and others to support their cause, John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General for National Security said in a statement. More and more, their propaganda is seeping into our communities and reaching those who are most vulnerable.

This case is obviously just the beginning in our battle against ISIS in an age of easy communication. And it raises concerns surrounding the prosecution of people who use social media for unpopular and illegal causes. Are terrorist-minded retweets kind of endorsements that rise to the level of criminal prosecution, as Maddie Stone put it earlier this month? Should Americans be prosecuted for advocating violence and teaching people how to fund that violence even if they themselves have never picked up a gun?

Amins case serves as a reminder of how persistent and pervasive online radicalization has become, Andrew G. McCabe, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBIs Washington Field Office said in a statement. The FBI, through our Joint Terrorism Task Forces, remains dedicated to protecting the United States against the ongoing violent threat posed by ISIL and their supporters.

No rational human being is doubting that ISIS is a cancer on the world. But when American teenagers are tweeting dumb pro-ISIS propaganda from their bedrooms, we have to ask ourselves whether thats worth not just jail time, but a decade of it.

[The Hill]
FORT EDWARD | A parolee who was found to illegally have two handguns at his home last fall was sentenced Friday to up to 7 years in state prison.

Kenneth A. Hayward, 27, of Granville, pleaded guilty last month to third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a felony, in connection with an October arrest at his Aldous Road home.

He was charged after personnel from the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision found that he had two handguns, a .380-caliber and .22-caliber, that he apparently purchased out of state and brought to New York for "protection."

The guns were not registered, and Hayward is a felon who was on parole for a 2013 burglary at the time, a case that was his second felony burglary conviction in less than 5 years.

Washington County Judge Kelly McKeighan sentenced him to 3 1/2 to 7 years in prison, which would be served in addition to the time he owes on the 2013 case.
HEBRON  Zoning might seem like a simple way to stop unwanted development from coming to town.

But its not that easy, said Hebron Planning Board Chairman Zane Parry.

Even with zoning, you cant keep things out. You can just tell them where to put it, he said.

The possibility of zoning has been floated in response to a proposal for a residential center for troubled youth at Camp Hebron. The camps owners decided to accept a purchase offer from another buyer.

But the original proposal isnt dead  the organizers are considering another, smaller property. They wouldnt say where it was, except that it was in Hebron.

Its the second such proposal in the last decade for Hebron.

In response to that proposal, the topic of zoning is expected to be raised at Mondays Town Board meeting. Town Board member George Flint said that while he didnt like the idea of zoning, the lack of it has painted a target on Hebron.

With zoning, projects could be limited to certain areas. But its not an all or nothing affair.

Hebron is somewhat unusual in that land owners are given wide authority over their land.

Schuylerville, for example, also has no zoning but has an extensive site plan review overseen by the Planning Board. That board was able to win major changes to a controversial Family Dollar store this year.

But the Hebron Planning Board wouldnt even see a design for a camp for troubled youth.

I think they could just do it, Parry said.

Any property owner could just build what they wanted, he said, adding that the same is true if someone bought a house to convert into a residential treatment center.

If they were buying a house, we couldnt do anything, he said.

He isnt a fan of zoning. But he said the town might want to consider the example of Charlotte in Chautauqua County.

Thats the one I like, he said, adding that he was against zoning for Hebron.

Officials from Charlotte spent years on their zoning plan, they said. They heard all the concerns: owners didnt want a plan so detailed as to regulate their fences and other small changes. But they wanted a plan that would protect their town.

In the end, they created a commercial-industrial zone along Route 60, their main street. They also created a small commercial zone in Charlotte Center, a crossroads that had a few small businesses.

The rest of the town was zoning agricultural-residential, with limits that keep the town essentially agricultural.

But zoning Hebron would be even harder, Parry warned.

We dont have a village. We dont have a school. We dont have a gas station. We dont have a post office, he said. Its so rural, how would you even zone a residential zone?

But without zoning, a camp for troubled children could go anywhere. And that is exactly why Jesse and Andrew Brand decided to build their camp in Hebron, they said.

Theres no zoning laws, so theres zero chance they can stop us, Jesse Brand said.
To outside observers, in particular western media, Egyptians are split and divided. To them, every crisis that befalls Egypt brings it closer to the change they want. Egyptians then go against one another: some come out to condemn while others to praise, some appreciate and others demean. You would think that Egyptians have parted, each group going its own way.

At face value, dozens of groups exist in Egypt: the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, Islamists, Nasserists, April 6 Movement followers, socialists, revolutionists, activists, media gurus, and the press, only to name a few of many. Each of these groups holds the regime and government, and most of the time, the president, himself, accountable, unable to solve crises if not creating them.

I dont deny that blunders and crises do happen; this is a given. We carry years of baggage that leave us untrained, uninformed, and even dysfunctional. Mismanagement reigns, and the concept of due process is non-existent, the manual for such an approach thrown out the window in the 50s.

But that doesnt mean that todays Egypt is losing ground or is coming unhinged at the waist. Quite the contrary, after every crisis, Egypt and todays regime, which have become synonymous with one another, come out even stronger as Egyptians rally around their leader.

After every crisis, the majority of Egyptians side, appropriately at times and blindly at other times, with their president. They immediately rummage threw their old papers, footage, and photos, and pull out what proves the regime did not cause the crisis and handled it properly. They find precedence that shed light on the crisis; they refute the attacks of opponents.

And they are so angered by the criticism that ignores achievements and zeroes in on disappointments that they go overboard in their attack.

After the opening of the Farafra Project where thousands of acres were planted and harvested and where villages were established to accommodate thousands, some came out to call for a feasibility study. You would think that a feasibility study that renders the project feasible post facto is futile. Egyptians, at one level fuming at another appreciative of the project, told the critics off.

When foreign media go against Egypt, Egyptians, including ambassadors, businessmen, the diaspora and regular Egyptians, flare up and go on the defensive leaving comments after precise articles and writing letters to newspapers condemning their approach.

When an Egyptians called on Italians not to visit Egypt because Egypt is bloodthirsty for its own children, that is after Regenis murder, Egyptians were livid.

After some accused the president of selling the Islands of Tiran and Sanafir, Egyptians dug deep into history to discover what proves their opponents wrong. Documents, maps, and correspondence from the early 1900s to the early 2000s were discovered and brought to the limelight.

I doubt that Dr. Bassem Youssef would ever think of returning to Egypt let alone imagine he can ever revel in the publicity and the money making programs he enjoyed before his bias ridicule of Egypt, its president and his efforts. Bassem Youssef has burned his bridges.

Some considered the Press Syndicate raid, as some would like to call it, an unprecedented crackdown on journalists. The police had a warrant to arrest two young journalists hiding inside. Members of the syndicate stood their ground, defended their domain, and called for the resignation of the Minister of Interior and the presidents apology amongst a long list of demands.

Immediately afterwards, Egyptians sided with the ministrys action and went after the Syndicate. The words of the two detained journalists were highlighted where Mahmoud Saka incited citizens to kill officers and cause chaos utilizing a hashtag #ChaosIstheSolution. Some boycotted newspapers and donated the price of a newspaper to Long Live Egypt.

They stood on the Syndicate's steps and held their shoes up high, a sign of repugnance in current terms; a journalist wouldve been terribly harmed had the police not protected him and led him out of the proximity of the Syndicate. On social media, the Syndicates board of directors were negatived in a similar fashion to how the Syndicate negatived the Minister of Interior. In fact, many Egyptians opted to avatar the ministers image until his negatived photo is removed.

This goes to show that Egyptians have stopped taking anything sitting down. They may take it further than necessary, but they are adamant to step up the intensity of their role. More importantly, they have a voice and a say.

In fact, a solidarity like no other now exists between the president and Egyptians, something those who would like to go against Egypt should heed.

And while some think that Egypt is on the cusp of yet another change, I see Egyptians and Egypt becoming a force to be reckoned with.
The fetish priestesses dressed in their regalia, were not allowed to enter the court room, the Ghana News Agency reports.

Armed with small and short brooms, they stood behind the door to the court until the accused person was called and whisked away by security personnel.

On March 4, this year, Amegavi was arraigned for possessing a pump action gun, a pistol, a military uniform and two pairs of military boots, the military uniform had his name tag and a rank of sergeant, the GNA reports.

He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of firearms and military accouterments without lawful authority.

Prosecuting Chief Inspector E. Afful told the court that the complainants in the case were policemen from the Mamprobi Police Station, the court remanded Amegavi into Police custody.

On February 29, the Tema Abbafoitse, who is also the National President of the Ghana Psychic and Traditional Healers Association, sent a letter to the Mamprobi police station to assist in tracing Amegavi for an investigation for holding himself as a member of the Association and practicing as a traditional healer.

The police complainants invited Amegavi to the police station for questioning.

Prosecution said during questioning, an informant alerted the Police that Amegavi had in his possession guns and he has been seen in a military uniform, the prosecutor said the police retrieved the gun and a pistol from Amegavi.

The following day, the police search his room and found the military ware.
The MP for the Okere Constituency in the Eastern Region had three armed robbers break into his home in Tema at 12.30am on Thursday morning, he said they held him and his wife hostage for nearly 45 minutes, taking laptops, mobile phones and an undisclosed amount of money.

Speaking with Joy FM, Bowte said he heard some noise, opened his eyes and saw about three people holding pistols to he and his wife.

They started ransacking the whole place and took my wifes jewellery and some other things. It was a near-death experience and I was praying and consoling my wife as one of the armed men held a gun to us in our bedroom,

He said he had improved security at his residence after the MP for Abuakwa North, JB Danquah-Adu, was allegedly murdered in his home two months ago. The trial of the suspected killer, Daniel Asiedu is ongoing.

I changed all my locks and added additional security and we are still in the process of improving security in my house here and in the constituency, he said.

His daughter who was in another room managed to call the police.

On Thursday the Accra Regional Police Command arrested two security officers over the robbery.
The caution was contained in a statement released by the department, which said:

"We wish to remind employees that the deadline for registration of the e-zwich is indicated above the CAGD will suspend the salaries of employees who do not register for the e-zwich cards by the deadline.

However, at ameeting held between the 12 labour unions in the country who form the Forum, the Finance Ministry, and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations on Thursday agreed to suspend the programme.

The meeting also concluded that no worker should have his name deleted from the payroll for failing to submit an e-zwich number and particulars to the CAGD.
On Thursday, May 5, the Supreme Court ordered the Electoral Commission to delete from the electoral roll names of persons who have not established qualification to be on the register. This includes deceased persons, minors, and persons who registered with NHIA cards.

Some have argued the court did not order the removal of names of persons who registered with the NHIA cards from the electoral roll.

But Nana Asante Bediatuo said his clients did not seek the deletion of names of persons who registered with NHIA card but it sought the deletion of ineligible persons from the roll, and that is what the court has granted.

The EC in its response after receiving a certified copy of the judgement said amongst other things that it would use the exhibition process to clean the register.

The Commission noted that in accordance with the provisions of CI 91, Registered Voters will be given the opportunity to verify their registration details at all polling centres nationwide with the use of verification machines.
"This is an exercise in self indictment driven by the Kwasia bi nti logic," he said on News File on Joy Fm.

Asiedu Nketia speaking yesterday on a current affairs programme on Joy News channel said "We are the people who create the problems and we turn to blame the Electoral Commission, referring to the current brouhaha surrounding the Limited Voter Registration.

The two main political parties have been accusing each other of malpractices during this exercise. The NDC has been accused of busing people form Togo and Ivory Coast to register.

In Tamale North, parliamentary candidate for the NDC Alhassan Suyihini has been accused of sending minors to go and register by an EC official.

The NPP has also been accused of registering minors in the Ashanti region .

Kwaku Baako said if indeed Asiedu Nketiah admitted that all political parties engage in such act including his party the police should take the matter up
There have been been reported cases of violence, chaos and confusion at some registration centers, while in other centers, the exercise has been characterized with long queues and faulty registration machines.

Speaking at a press conference after the Supreme Court had ordered the EC to clean the voters register of minors, dead people and those who registered with the National Health Insurance card, deputy chairperson of the EC, Georgina Opoku Amankwa, said they will consider extending the registration exercise after a holistic review.

After the exercise we will look at it holistically and see whether it merits an extension, she said in response to a question as to whether the Commission was considering extending the registration due to the hitches recorded so far.

According to her, a decision in that regard has been agreed on yet but said they would consider that option after reviewing the entire exercise.

Opoku Amankwa also disclosed that the EC has sent another team to the University of Ghana (UG), Legon, to help speed up the registration process.
It ordered the EC to clean the voters register in a case brought to it by the former Peoples National Convention Youth Organiser, Abu Ramadan.

Speaking to Joy New, Nketia said the desire for an unfair advantage by politicians is at the heart of the political tensions in this country during elections.

NDC and rival party NPP have been accusing each other of engaging in electoral irregularities, like registering minors, non-Ghanaians and intimidating applicants in the Limited Biometric Voter Registration exercise which is expected to end on Sunday.

Nketia said it was hypocritical for politicians to blame their rivals, and that they would register minors when presented with the opportunity.

Most of the problems are created by political parties [because of] their desire to outwit each other, he said.

That is why I always have problems when all the blame is being heaped on the Electoral Commission, There is no way the EC by itself can conduct such exercise without the cooperation of political party agents.

The General Secretary told Joy FM he has been advocating for years that state institutions deal ruthlessly with electoral offenders to no avail.

If you have a situation where there is reluctance on the part of the Electoral Commission or state institutions to punish electoral offences.we will continue to have these type of problems.

However, National Youth Organiser of the New Patriotic Party, Sammy Awuku has rejected the claim of collective responsibility for electoral offences.
That is the finding of US psychologists, who say a close friendship is linked with both a sexually and emotionally satisfying relationship, and was the first study of its kind to link friendship to sexual outcomes to this extent.

Laura VanderDrift, assistant professor of psychology and one of the authors, said finding a partner who was "first and foremost a friend" was a good predictor of the long-term success of a relationship, the UK Independent reported.

"It leads to better relationship outcomes over time, including a more satisfying relationship, a better friendship with one's partner, and even greater sexual satisfaction."

The study was carried out at Purdue University in Indiana and published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

It surveyed 184 people who had been in relationships for 16 months or more and asked them what they valued most about their relationship.

Among the options were companionship, friendship, sharing new experiences together and sex.

Those couples who said friendship and companionship were the most important factors had the highest satisfaction rates for the sexual side of their relationship.

Dr VanderDrift said that couples trying to improve their relationship could solve several problems at once simply by focusing on being friends.
It was Tracy Cox, principal of Greenbrier Christian Academy in Chesapeake, Virginia, who entered Anaya for the Nicholas Maxim Special Award for Excellence in Manuscript Penmanship. The national Handwriting Contest is an annual event sponsored by Zaner-Bloser to promote legible handwriting, and Anaya managed to win first prize.

Speaking of Anaya, Cox told ABC News: "There is truly very little that this girl cannot do.

"She is a hard worker. She is determined. She is independent.

"She is a vivacious and a no-excuses type of young lady."

Anaya's parents, Bianca and Gary Ellick are proud of their daughter, who they said has always been precocious - tying her shoes, getting herself ready, and attempting to do things herself before asking for help, according to reports.
A nine-year-old girl, one of the 65 girls rescued by the troops from Sambisa forest has pleaded to return to her Boko Haram husband in Sambisa. To press home her point, the girl has embarked on an hunger strike.

While the girl continues to insist on going back to the forest to see her husband, it has also been discovered that about 12 other rescued girls were pregnant while others have already been delivered of babies.

Borno state Governor, Kashim Shettima, revealed this when he visited the headquarters of the 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Maimalari Cantonment to officially receive the Boko Haram hostages from the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major General Victor Ezegwu.

Vanguard reports that most of the rescued hostages comprising 27 children, over 30 young girls and a few women including two Camerounians have been indoctrinated by the sect, having been with them for as much as three years in the worst case. Some of them confessed that they were willing to go back to Sambisa to meet their husbands.
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The Commandant of the agency in the state, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Sokoto.

He said that the suspect had confessed to being initiated into the business by a fellow Corps member.

He said the suspect had boarded a luxury bus from Onitsha in Anambra, to Sokoto, from where she would board another bus to Gumi in Zamfara, when she was arrested at a check point in Sokoto.

The commandant said that investigation had already commenced to fish out those who initiated her and their source of supplies, in order to prosecute them.

`` We will charge the suspect to court as soon as we are through with our investigation," he said.

The suspect told NAN at the NDLEA Command, Sokoto, that she regretted her action, and that she did not know how her parents my would feel about it.

``I am ashamed of myself; this is my first time of engaging in this illegal business.
A statement by Bem Goom, the Deputy Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Education on Friday in Abuja, said the accident occurred at the Lagos  Ibadan expressway on May 3.

``Malam Adamu, on behalf of the Federal Government expresses his deepest sympathy to the government and people of Kano State over the irreparable loss.

``His sympathy also goes to the parents, teachers, relatives and friends of the deceased students.
In a report by Nation Newspaper, though the planned sale of the attack aircraft is still subjected to review by Congress. the country has been dedicating more intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to the campaign against terrorism.

ALSO READ: US seeks to approve attack aircraft for Nigeria in fight

In another report by Reuters, U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Michael Franken, a deputy commander of the Pentagons Africa Command, told a Washington forum last week that there now are 6,200 U.S. troops  most of them Special Operations Forces  operating from 26 locations in Africa.
This is contained in a statement by the Head of Public Relations Department in NIMASA, Hajia Lami Tumaka, on Friday in Lagos.

The statement said that Peterside said this when he led a delegation to a meeting with the United States Commercial Service, West Gulf Maritime Association and the Texas Southern University, Houston.

The director-general called for greater collaboration with Nigeria's international partners to grow skilled indigenous manpower for the development of the Nigerian maritime industry.

``The industry is capable of taking over from oil as the nations highest revenue earner, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes Peterside saying.

He said that the agency would need the expertise of the Texas Southern University on shore-based technical training of maritime personnel to improve on its capacity to regulate maritime activities in Nigeria.

Peterside called on members of the West Gulf Maritime Association to take advantage of the potential in the Nigeria maritime industry to invest in the sector.

The director-general assured the association of the agency's commitment to effectively end the scourge of piracy in Nigerian waters as well as regulate the sector for economic prosperity of all stakeholders.

In a welcome address, the Commercial Counsellor in the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, Mr Richard Ryan, assured the director general of the cooperation of the embassy, adding that the embassy would forge closer commercial ties with NIMASA to grow the maritime sector in Nigeria.

According to the statement, other officials of the university who took turn to brief the delegation offered technical cooperation in the areas of capacity building, ICT -based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR).
In a statement issued by the Assembly's Director of Information, Sunday Adeleke on Friday, May 6, it said last week, the assembly still commended Buhari's intervention on the Ilorin-Jebba road.

The publication is false, malicious and a fragment of the writers imagination as each offices in the House of Assembly complex and the two entry points to the complex have the portraits of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Senate President, GovernorAbdulfatah Ahmed, the Speaker, Dr Ali Ahmad, and the logo of Kwara State," Adeleke said.

It would be recalled that the House in its motion only last Wednesday May 3rd in a unanimous resolution that was widely reported commended President Muhammadu Buhari over his intervention on the Ilorin-Jebba road following agitations by the entire Houses of Assembly of Kwara and Niger States.

It now beats imagination of focused Nigerians that the House that commended the president will 24 hours later remove his portraits from offices, corridors and other places in the complex," he said.
Ojukwu gave the assurance at the state police headquarters after addressing officers and men of the command, according to a statement by the Public Relations Officer, Mr Ebere Amaranth, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Saturday.

``I will partner with you (officers and men), all relevant stakeholders as well as the good people of Enugu State in my assignment.

``There will be enhanced partnership with sister security agencies and the media for effective crime prevention and control in the state, the statement said.

He had also served as the Assistant Commissioner, Force Public Relations Department, Abuja, and Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Imo Command.

He was also deputy commissioner of police in-charge of CID, Zone 7 police headquarters, Abuja, and was named the commissioner in-charge of Force Public Relations Department, Abuja.

Thereafter, he became the commissioner of police in-charge of Kogi.
She further said the over 10,000 jobs were created through a special entrepreneurship programme for Nigerian women.

We developed a program for women entrepreneurs. A World Bank team supported us, and again we achieved spectacular results. We used a portion of the budget to incentivize young entrepreneurs, 40 and younger, who would register their businesses, get peer learning and mentoring, and a grant if they won a business planning competition.

In the first round, only 17 percent of the applicants were women. But more than 50 percent of small and medium-sized firms in Nigeria are run by women. So we held a second round just for women, setting aside about US$8 million dollars. About 64,000 thousand people applied. We ultimately selected 1,200 women to receive grants of US$10,000 to US$90,000and they created about 10,000 new jobs.
Oyo-Ita said this at the opening of a retreat organised by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for its staff.

The Head of Service, who was represented by the Head of Procurement, Mr Akindele Oyefeso, said the theme of the retreat, ``Government Policy Formulation/Strategy and Sustainable Development, was apt now in the life of the nation.

``Mere developments are not enough; societies must go for sustainable development if the earlier joy is not to turn to later misery, or the blessing to become a curse.

She commended the Bureau for the retreat, saying it is a very healthy thing to do.

According to Oyo-Ita, her office acknowledges the BPPs efforts to ensure that the culture of due process had root in public procurement.

She said:``We share your belief that transparency, efficiency, fairness and value for money are the inalienable fundamental principles of sound public procurement.

``We promise to be by your side every inch of the way as you journey to entrench these principles in our nations public procurement system.

``For if we get it right in our public procurement, we will get it right as a nation.

A former Special Adviser to the President on Due Process, Prof. Kunle Wahab, said Sections 5 and 6 of the Public Procurement Act 2007, which highlight the functions and powers of the bureau, should be reviewed.

``The time has come for you to note and examine the negative perceptions of the stakeholders and the general public and correct these where necessary.

Wahab said the bureau was indeed living up to expectations and urged it to develop guidelines for the procurement process in education, health, judiciary, military and the National Assembly.

He also encouraged the bureau to source research grants in different areas of public procurement that might be made available to universities to improve the system.

He recommended that branches of the bureau should be established in the geo-political zones to achieve its set goals and objectives.

The BPP Acting Director-General, Mr Ahmed Abdu, said the aim of the retreat was to reorientate the staff on the expectations and policies of the President Muhammadu Buhari's administration.

He said this would remind them of their roles in the effort to reform public procurement to move the nation forward.
In a report by Daily Trust, he decried the perennial communal conflicts in many parts of Cross River Central senatorial district saying it is not only sad but shameful.

I am ashamed of these developments in my locality at a time we are expected to show optimum understanding and common working relations, Usani said.

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'I hereby decry insinuations of political underpinnings to those irresponsible acts because ascribing political notions to acts of barbarism is an attempt to down play criminality which ought to be dealt with decisively,' the minister said.
Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind
Ever sampled Templeton Rye whiskey? That's only a small taste of the story behind Iowa whiskey.

See how the story began with "Whiskey Cookers: The Amazing True Story of the Templeton Rye Bootleggers," an award-winning documentary detailing the now well-known Prohibition bootleggers from Templeton, Iowa.

The film will have its TV broadcast premiere at 9 p.m. Sunday on WQPT, PBS Quad Cities. You can also view Ken Burns documentary, "Prohibition," on Sunday. Catch the pair of films again on WQPT at 9 p.m. Thursday.

A century after Prohibition, the film looks at how the town of 400 people, comprised of mostly German-Catholic immigrants, banded together to keep the spirit of beer and liquor alive while facing anti-German xenophobia.

Dan Manatt, the director of "Whiskey Cookers," stumbled upon the story of Templeton while exploring family history. His parents live in nearby Audubon.

"I grew up hearing the story of Templeton over and over again and I thought it would make for a good documentary," Manatt said.

As Manatt and his team dug through newspaper clips and other archives, he uncovered more of a story than he expected.

"It wasn't just a few farmers hiding in their basement," he said. "It was a full blown out conspiracy and the whole town was in on it."

The whole town includes the banker, butcher, the priest and a few mayors.

"The breadth of the conspiracy was pretty surprising," he said. "These were a lot of German Catholics who love their beer and spirits, and didn't want to be told by the government they couldn't have it."

Doug Miller, who lives in Davenport, produced "Whiskey Cookers."

"WQPT does a terrific service of showcasing independent documentaries, and we are so grateful to get our broadcast premiere in the Quad-Cities," Miller said. "I think it's going to resonate with a lot of people in our area."

The film's storyline spans the Prohibition era, which ended in 1933, and does not address the modern Templeton Rye Spirits company. Still, the film could inform your modern drinking experience, Manatt said.

"When you're drinking this Iowa whiskey, I think it's interesting to know where it came from and where it started all those years ago," Manatt said. "There's a lot to this story people might find surprising."
The shooting death of a 15-year-old Jescie J. Armstrong during an alleged armed robbery last week Rock Island sent shock waves through the community and those who knew him.

Whats just as shocking is that the accused triggerman, Kire G. Carr, is himself a teenager.

It is a very sad story of what goes on here in our community, Rock Island County States Attorney John McGehee said Wednesday after Carr made his first court appearance.

Youth violence is a problem that is not unique to Rock Island. Since January, police on both sides of the Mississippi River have responded to several violent incidents committed by teenagers.

Those incidents include a 15-year-old boy who battered a 17-year-old girl who was found near a convenience store and a 12-year-old boy who was beaten with bat bricks and a hammer in Davenport.

Gary Thrapp, owner of Beyond the Baseline in Davenport, couldn't say for sure whether youth violence has gotten worse in the Quad-Cities, but I know Im more scared about what the future looks like.

When you hear of so many shootings, and its getting closer to home, were feeling like it is right next door, he said. Thats the feeling we have to have because that helps us take action.

Thrapp and LaMark Combs, a Davenport Community School District facilitator, co-founded the Quad-Cities Youth Summit, which they say is one part of a strategic plan to help reduce violence in the community.

On Thursday, more than 100 Davenport seventhgrade students were invited to Beyond the Baseline to engage in discussions about the causes of violence and what can be done to prevent it.

If we were to make a comprehensive plan for our community to reduce violence from all different directions, one element of that plan is to get the youth involved and empower them so they can help or be part of the process to make change, Thrapp said.

Students also heard from police officers, elected officials, business owners, school leaders and others about how they can make positive choices.

Amaya Sykes, 13, a Smart Intermediate School student, said recent acts of violence in the community have caused her to lock her doors out of fear.

The best way to help prevent violence, she said, is to be an good example to others.

Go to school and study, go to college and be a good person instead of being violent and being in a gang, she said.

Joey Martinez, 13, a student at Williams Intermediate School, said violence in the community definitely concerns me because its not right.

Combs, a candidate in the race for Scott County sheriff, said that over the years, the community has seen an increase in violence because of gangs.

Theyre pretty much going around and recruiting young people, especially in the junior highs, Combs said.

All kids are at risk of being influenced, he said.

Thats the reason were trying to reach them today because they are at the critical age when theyre ready to go to high school, so we want to catch them now before they enter high school and experience a lot more peer pressure, he said.

Representatives from various community organizations, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Boys and Girls Club and Iowa Works of Eastern Iowa, were on-hand to show the kids the resources available to them.

Thrapp said the best way to reduce violence is for everyone in the community  from elected officials and school leaders to business owners and health organizations  to pull together.

The moment we start pointing fingers at one group is the moment that were really going backwards, he said.

Jerry Jones, executive director of the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island, agreed.

We need to provide our youth with as many positive outlets for their energy, their intellect and their talents, he said. The police cant do that. Its not their job.

The center offers after-school programs with an academic emphasis and programs that give kids opportunities for social interactions and recreational activities, such as dodgeball and even geocaching.

The center also provides substance abuse and teen violence prevention presentations at schools in Rock Island, Jones said. They encourage kids to think strategically about the future and make good decisions.

In that regard, it does indirectly influence their decision-making as far as violence is concerned, Jones said.
Big Ags control of the non-refundable, federally chartered Research & Promotion programs  more commonly known as commodity checkoffs  reached new heights April 19 when the House Appropriations Committee approved the U.S. Department of Agricultures $21.3 billion 2017 budget.

Tucked 34 pages into the pending bills 217 pages of bureaucratic thatch was this thorn: Since commodity Research and Promotion boards USDA-appointed checkoff boards  "are not agencies of the federal government, nor funded with federal funds the Committee urges USDA to recognize that such boards are not subject to the provisions of 5 U.S.C. Section 552.

Section 552 of 5 U.S.C. is the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, the rules of how each [federal] agency shall make available to the public information on how government works.

In short, the USDA funding bill, approved by a voice vote, will prevent any farmer, rancher or taxpayer from filing a Freedom of Information request on any aspect of how the 22 federally mandated checkoffs collect and spend more than $500 million a year.

This move to darkness arrived April 11, when, according to the Capital Press, a Salem, Oregon, weekly ag newspaper, 14 commodity organizations requested the change in FOIA policy on behalf of their related checkoff fee-funded boards in a letter to the Appropriations subcommittee that deals with USDA funding.

Not surprising, several of the groups that signed the letter have been reprimanded by USDA for illegal use of checkoff money. For example, a May 1993 column (just the second Farm and Food File I wrote) explained how a USDA audit of the relatively new, non-refundable soybean checkoff uncovered $405,219 of questioned costs by the checkoffs key contractor, the American Soybean Association.

How did a freelance journalist like me working alone in the middle of an Illinois cornfield get the audit results?

I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with USDAs Agricultural Marketing Service, the overlord of all federal checkoffs.

Later, a February 1997 column exposed how the National Pork Producers Council, the chief contractor for the pork checkoff, had hired a Washington, D.C., consulting firm to spy on activist groups whose philosophies, it explained, might have an effect on the pork industry.

Unbelievably, the activist groups NPPC was monitoring as part of an ongoing $100,000 checkoff-sponsored effort  illegal under checkoff law  included the National Farmers Union and Nebraskas Center for Rural Affairs.

Checkoff rule-bending continues. A partial, 2013 USDA audit of the beef checkoff showed that $216,000 had been spent on non-checkoff activities. One was an international airline ticket for an officials spouse.

In 2015, a FOIA request compelled the American Egg Board, the egg checkoff, to turn over documents that exposed how its leader illegally tried to organize a public relations campaign against a vegan competitor because  Im not kidding  the competitors mayonnaise recipe did not include eggs.

Last August, the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., ruled that a federal lawsuit filed by the Humane Society of the U.S. and others against the pork checkoff could go forward.

The suit, based on information obtained through a FOIA request, alleges the checkoffs $60 million purchase of a marketing slogan from the NPPC, its former contractor, now funds NPPC programs to influence legislation and government policy, all illegal under checkoff rules.

Given this checkered past, little wonder big commodity groups are now pushing Congress to declare federal checkoffs off-limits to the FOIA: nearly every time anyone looks, mistakes  often whoppers  are found.

But saying federal checkoffs arent federal doesnt mean theyre not. In fact, all were established by a federal body, Congress; all are managed by boards appointed by a federal official, the secretary of agriculture; and all are overseen by an agency within a federal department, USDA.

Moreover, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia declared checkoffs to be government speech in a 2005 beef checkoff case, a phrase most checkoffs cheered at the time.

For Big Ag now to push the House  without one public hearing  to declare otherwise is hypocritical, anti-democratic and shameful.

But we already know that, dont we? After all, with more than 20 years of checkoff violations to their credit, most commodity groups that serve as checkoff contractors have little credibility left.
Agnes Shvckahosee of Tama, Iowa, said her ancestors once lived in what now is the Iowa Quad-Cities. She is a member of the Meskwaki tribe and connected to the Sac and Fox tribes that once inhabited the bluffs and valleys now known as Rock Island.

My maiden name was Davenport, the 89-year-old said. My ancestors lived here and it's where they got my maiden name.

She was back in Davenport on Friday for the first of three days of the Algonquin River Powwow of Champions. About 2,000 people from about a dozen tribes are expected to attend the powwow on Credit Island, Davenport, traveling from many states and Canada, organizers said.

Those tribes include Meskwaki, Kickapoo, Comanche, Kiowa, Navajo, Cree, Potawatomie, Northern Cheyenne, Menominee, Ojibwe, Dakota and others from the states of New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and the plains provinces of Canada, said Meskwaki elder Conrad Brown, who organized the event.

The weekend will include arts and crafts booths, traditional Native foods and traditional Native dance and music. The Mississippi River Indian Alliance of the Quad-Cities is sponsoring the event along with the Friends of Credit Island.

Like many others gathered on Credit Island, Brown said he attended the annual powwow at the Black Hawk State Historic Site in Rock Island. But over the years, the numbers dropped off. So, he decided to start another powwow that he hopes will draw big crowds again.

The Mississippi River is considered sacred to my people, he said. Indian tribes used to come here to Credit Island to trade goods. That is where it got its name, because they were given credit until they brought back furs to pay for supplies.

This all fits into the history of this island. And this is giving them all the chance to pay homage to this place where their ancestors made their homes.

Algonquin was the main language used by many tribes, so many of the local tribes also fall under the Algonquin umbrella, Brown said.

Cindi Kachnic of Longmont, Colo., used to live in the Quad-Cities, and her children and grandchildren still do. In her booth, she was selling traditional Native items, including beads.

I am a Lakota, she said. I not only like this for the music and heritage, but it is a fun event. I enjoy being with people from our own culture. We are a proud people, very proud of our ancestory.

Dana Warrington, of Keshena, Wis., is from the Northern Traditional Menominee tribe. He will participate in some of the dancing.

Dance is a form of expression, he said.

Shvckahosee was soaking in the sun and the fellowship on Friday with her granddaughter, Lourdes Avalos, who is a member of the Sac and Fox tribe of Oklahoma.

Usually, we dance. But this time we decided not to dance. For once, we wanted to just watch and enjoy, Shvckahosee said.

I am just trying to get connected into the powwow circle, Avalos said. That means to just make friends.

Brown said he hopes this powwow will become an annual event and grow in numbers.

Hopefully, it can work out and hopefully it can get bigger, he said.
By questioning the fundamentals of America's global role, Donald Trump has given Hillary Clinton a chance to lift her game -- by explaining why continued international engagement is in America's interest and the world's.

If Clinton can't counter Trump's "America first" rhetoric, and make the case that U.S. leadership is still crucial for our security, she won't be a strong president. And she won't have public support for the policies needed to rebuild American credibility.

Trump's critics sometimes argue that his neo-isolationist views are so extreme and dangerous that they shouldn't have a platform. But the polls make clear that many Americans agree with him. The questions he's raising about unsuccessful foreign wars and ungrateful allies deserve good answers.

A real debate about America's role abroad would be one of the benefits of this campaign, lifting it, at least partially, out of the rancorous mudslinging that's ahead. Trump caricatures America's alliances in Europe and Asia; Clinton needs to explain why they matter.

We won't know officially until July if Trump and Clinton will be the nominees, but it certainly looks that way now. This matchup gets sneers from many commentators, but it would be a good test for both. Mr. Reality Television will meet reality. The author of "Hard Choices" will have to show she can make them, and explain them to the country.

The great election campaigns in American history -- think 1860, 1932, 1940 -- came at inflection points for the country. The nation faced existential crises, and the public was sharply divided. The elections clarified choices and made good leaders better.

Abraham Lincoln won a four-way race in 1860 on an anti-slavery platform that helped trigger Secession; Franklin Roosevelt won in 1932 with a mandate for what became the New Deal; his triumph in 1940 over Wendell Willkie was a repudiation of the isolationist movement and moved the nation toward eventual war with Germany and Japan.

The election of 2016 is a similar fork in the road. Trump, the insurgent candidate, is challenging many of the foreign policy assumptions that have prevailed since 1945. He thinks NATO is too expensive and that Japan and South Korea should defend themselves, with nuclear weapons, if necessary.

Trump's venomous rhetoric about Mexicans and Muslims obscures the core of his message -- and its appeal for many Americans who are tired of paying the bills for others' security. Many commentators savaged Trump's April 27 foreign policy speech, in effect likening it to putting lipstick on a pig, but he made five serious arguments: America's resources are overextended; U.S. allies aren't paying their fair share for defense; America's friends think they can't depend on us; rivals no longer respect us; and America lacks clear foreign policy goals.

Take the question of NATO: It's an unfortunate fact that support for the trans-Atlantic alliance is gradually eroding in the United States. A poll last year by the Pew Research Center showed that just 49 percent of Americans had a favorable view of NATO, compared with 53 percent in 2009. That's why Trump's diatribes resonate with his neo-isolationist base.

Clinton needs to answer this critique directly. She needs to explain why America has a stake in a messy world. She needs to offer a clear explanation of how she would restore the credibility of American power without entangling the country in unwinnable new conflicts. She's seen as more willing to use military force than President Obama, but what would that mean in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and the South China Sea?

One reason Clinton should welcome the bruising campaign ahead is that if she can rebut Trump, she has a better chance to be the strong president that America and the world need. A Pew poll back in January found that just 35 percent of the public thought Clinton would be a "good" or "great" president. Trump's number was worse, but that shouldn't be reassuring. Clinton doesn't just need to win; she needs to learn to be great.

Bob Gates, the former defense secretary, put the matter bluntly in accepting an Atlantic Council award here Tuesday. "Contrary to the views of some politicians, continuing American global leadership is in our own economic, political, and security interest. ... America turning inward not only will make the world more dangerous for others, but also for us."

Clinton's challenge is to convey this message in a way that connects with the voters. If she can do that, she'll probably win -- but, more important, she'll be better able to lead the country as president.
DES MOINES  U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz opened a two-day swing through Iowa on Friday by praising the state's leadership in "this clean energy revolution" with its emphasis on wind, solar and biofuels that will aid in reducing dependence on foreign oil and bolster energy security.

Moniz said he was impressed by Gov. Terry Branstad's expectation that 40 percent of Iowa's electricity would come from wind energy by 2020, and he called Iowa "forward-looking" in coupling its low-cost, reliable energy with economic development.

The energy secretary's comments came at the start of a regional stakeholder meeting focusing on the U.S. electric power system, including the integration of new technologies, changing market conditions and evolving grid operations. Moniz said he expects the public input will lead to a new set of recommendations later this year for federal policymakers to consider in the future.

"Energy security remains a major issue," said Moniz, who noted America's oil production is up but the nation remains an importer and the energy insecurity of other nations makes it an important international issue as well.

The Obama administration is interested in increasing fuel efficiency in vehicles, focusing on the "electrification" of vehicles and developing alternative liquid fuels, "like advanced biofuels," to reduce the dependency on imported oil, he said.

Moniz said Friday's regional discussion in Iowa was part of the second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review, an integrated study of the U.S. electricity system. The initial phase examined key infrastructure needed for transmission, storage and distribution of energy, while the current installment is focused on the electric power system from generation through transmission and distribution to end use.

Branstad told Moniz that Iowa "has come a long way in the last 33 years" since being the first state to establish a renewable fuel standard "and we're not done." He said Iowa is moving ahead with wind, solar and geothermal energy.

The energy secretary is scheduled to deliver the commencement address today at Iowa State University, Ames.
The federal government has announced a program to provide $1.3 billion in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the farm loan relief program funded from $3.1 billion set aside in the Inflation Reduction Act allocated toward assisting distressed borrowers of direct or guaranteed loans administered by USDA. The law was passed by Congress and signed by Biden in August. The money anounced Tuesday is the first round of payments designed to help farmers hard hit by pandemic-induced market disruptions or climate-driven natural disasters including drought stay in business or re-enter farming. The USDA says additional programs are to come.
Congratulations to the class of 2016! To all high school, college and technical school students now approaching graduation in South Dakota, I commend you for reaching this milestone.

After years of studying, taking tests and writing essays, youve finally made it. Congratulations on all you have achieved.

Most of you probably already have a good idea of what youll be doing next  what additional education youll seek or what career youll pursue.

Whether youve decided to stay in South Dakota or pursue a career or education elsewhere, I hope youll ultimately consider a future here in our state.

There are a number of reasons to consider living and working here.

First, we have the lowest unemployment rate in the nation at 2.5 percent, compared to the national rate of 5 percent. Job opportunities are better here than in most places.

Secondly, the tax burden in South Dakota is low. We are among only a few states without an income tax, meaning you can keep more of the money you earn  money that can repay student debt, buy a house someday or replace that car you drove into the ground in school.

Third, not only do people keep more of the money they earn in South Dakota, but that money will buy more here than in other places. According to a U.S. Department of Commerce report, South Dakotans experience a very low cost of living in the United States.

We dont spend as much money on housing, insurance, food and the other everyday needs. In fact, we have some of the lowest costs in the nation.

In New York, California, Washington, D.C., or many other places, you will find costs that are 12 percent, 15 percent, even 18 percent higher than the national average. In South Dakota our costs are only 88 percent of the national average.

Now some people will say, South Dakota may have a low tax burden and low cost of living, but I wont get paid as much if I live there.

Actually, when it comes to per capita personal income, we fare pretty well. Nationally, we rank in the top half. And, if you adjust the per capita personal income to add cost of living and taxes, we rank fifth in the nation.

After I graduated from USD, I hitchhiked my way to Chicago to attend law school at Northwestern. Id lived in South Dakota my whole life, and I was ready for something bigger, something more exciting. I wanted to experience life in the bright lights of a big city.

I finished school and decided to stay in Illinois for a few years to practice law. Still, over time, I came to miss seeing the stars at night, enjoying the wide open spaces and having the company of friendly, down-to-earth people.

I was glad to have experienced something new and different, but I was ready to come home to something better.

My hope is not that you will never venture outside of our state, but rather that you would consider a more permanent future in South Dakota.

Most of all, I hope you will come to realize, as I did, that your dreams can come true right here at home.
After a very cool, wet, snowy week we finally got a dry enough day to continue with our plans to brand on Saturday. Several brandings were postponed due to high moisture levels. As much as we love the moisture, it was good to see and feel our sun again on Sunday. It looks to be a pleasant, dry week on tap.

A pot-luck wedding shower for Caden Smiley and his fiance, Jori Broberg, took place on Saturday evening at the church in Union Center. It was a fun filled night with a mock wedding. Jade Keffeler played the bride and a good time was had by all. Their wedding is coming up on June 18 and the couple is registered at Target and Runnings.

Donna Cammack and Kathryn Spirng made a trip to Sturgis last week to pay several a visit. They visited Cecil Remington who is currently in the nursing home that is connected to the Sturgis hospital. They then visited Dot French in her assisted living residence. They also visited Bobby and Aggie Jones in Sturgis.

This is the last week of school for the Faith seniors. It is a bit earlier than most as it is also finals week for most who are attending colleges and universities. The Faith graduation will be on May 14 at 3:00 pm. Sturgis seniors will graduate on May 22.

Faith traveled to Rapid City Christian for a track meet on Tuesday. They looked forward to a nice day for a track meet. They will have a meet on Friday as well.

The double homicide that happened last week took everyone by surprise in the little town of Faith, SD. Sad sitiuations happen like that all too often, but it is rare in such a small, close knit town. Many have a connection somehow. However, the community is strong and continuing to work and focus on life as usual as much as possible. Sincere condolences go out to the victim's family members and we will continue to keep them in our thoughts and prayers.

The community of Red Owl is currently raising funds to upgrade their community hall. They hope to add a bathroom and others upgrades to their building.

A pot luck dinner was held after church on Sunday at the Community Baptist Church of Union Center. Edna Smith attended church services in the country that day. Adessa Hewitt sang a solo during the music portion of services and she sang with perfect pitch and a smile on her face from beginning 'til end.

On Saturday, Donna Cammack picked up her sister, Dolores Fallon, and they went in to Sturgis to the baby shower for Amanda (Cammack) Westendorf. The baby shower was hosted by Melanie Cammack and Valerie Seaman. She is due in June. Donna and Dolores, then went to visit their sister, Karen and Gene Kinney. They also stopped in to see Bobby and Aggie Jones. Upon returning to Union Center Donna attended the shower for Caden Smiley.

As a reminder, the rural schools are still collecting receipts from Lynn's County Market as well as Family Thrift. One may drop them off in the envelope that hangs on the bulletin board of the Cow Town Mall in Union Center.
A large exercise of military aircraft has been scheduled for June 7 to June 9 in the Powder River Training Complex northwest of Rapid City.

During the training, people living under the following PRTC military operations areas can expect to see multiple types of aircraft utilizing the areas simultaneously: Powder River One, Powder River Two, Powder River Three, Powder River Four, and Gaps A, B and C.

There is also potential for loud noises associated with sonic booms. All B-1 supersonic activities will occur above 20,000 feet and all transient fighter supersonic activity will occur above 10,000 feet. People living under Powder River Two, Powder River Three and Gap B can expect to be affected.

This exercise is designed to train aircrew under realistic scenarios that support full spectrum operations against modern threats and replicate today's contingency operations.
Republican party leaders may have worried that Donald Trump would not only lose the general election for the presidency, but would so poison the image of the party as to cause Republican candidates for Congress and for state and local offices to also lose.

Now they seem to be trying to patch things up, in order to present an image of unity before the general elections this fall.

Regardless of how that attempt at patching up an image turns out, Trump's candidacy could be not only a current political setback for Republicans, but an enduring affliction in future elections.

For decades after Republican President Herbert Hoover was demonized because the Great Depression of the 1930s began on his watch, Democrats warned repeatedly, in a series of later presidential elections, that a vote for the Republican candidate was a vote to return to the days of Herbert Hoover.

It was 20 years before another Republican was elected president. As late as the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan was called by the Democrats' Speaker of the House, "Hoover with a smile." When a high official of the Reagan administration appeared before Congress to explain the administration's policy, a Democratic senator said, "That's Hoover talk, man!"

Actually, it was a policy proposal the opposite of that of the Hoover administration, but who in politics worries about the truth? The point is that Hoover was still being used as a bogeyman, more than 40 years after he left office, and nearly two decades after he was dead. Trump's image could easily play a very similar role.

The political damage of Donald Trump to the Republican party is completely overshadowed by the damage he can do to the country and to the world, with his unending reckless and irresponsible statements. Just this week, Trump blithely remarked that South Korea should be left to its own defenses.

Whatever the merits or demerits of that as a policy, announcing it to the whole world in advance risks encouraging North Korea to invade South Korea  as it did back in 1950, after careless words by a high American official left the impression that South Korea was not included in the American defense perimeter against the Communists in the Pacific.

The old World War II phrase  "loose lips sink ships"  applies on land as well as on the water. And no one has looser lips than Donald Trump, who repeatedly spouts whatever half-baked idea pops into his head. A man in his 60s has life-long habits that are not likely to change. Age brings habits, even if it does not bring maturity.

Nations around the world risk their own survival when they ally themselves with the United States in the fight against international terrorists  and we need their cooperation in that fight, in order to track down hidden terrorists and the hidden money that finances them.

If nations cannot have confidence in American commitments and American leadership, we are not likely to get their cooperation. And the stakes are life and death.

What the Republican establishment once feared most  that Trump would lose the nomination and run on a third party  now seems to be a danger that has passed. But a far larger danger to something far more important, American society, is that Trump could be elected President of the United States.

Those who talk about "the will of the people" need to know that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton represents the will of the people. Polls repeatedly show these two with the highest negative reactions of any of the candidates in either party. A majority of the people polled have negative reactions to each.

Hillary Clinton's much-vaunted "experience" has been an experience in carrying out a policy that has failed disastrously from the Middle East to Ukraine to North Korea. We don't need more of that kind of experience.

What was once feared most by the Republican establishment  a third party candidate for President  may represent the only slim chance for saving this country from a catastrophic administration in an age of proliferating nuclear weapons.

If a third party candidate could divide the vote enough to prevent anyone from getting an electoral college majority, that would throw the election into the House of Representatives, where any semblance of sanity could produce a better president than these two.
ST. IGNATIUS  The Flathead Joint Board of Control on Friday afternoon issued a news release calling this weeks election of irrigation commissioners corrupted and outlining what it says happened in the months leading up to an election the board says it canceled and will ignore.

Lake County Attorney Steve Eschenbacher said he disagrees with many of their assertions, and that the three challengers who beat incumbents on Tuesday were duly elected under the law.

It remained a possibility that one or two of the three irrigation districts that comprise the joint board would meet on their own and seat some or all of the challengers that the FJBC as a whole says it will not swear in.

The chairmen of the three districts, meantime, have postponed a regularly scheduled joint board meeting on Tuesday, when new commissioners would normally be sworn in, for at least a week, FJBC Chairman Boone Cole told the Missoulian on Friday.

The board voted 9-2 on April 22 to cancel this years elections until such a time as it is satisfied with the administration of an election.

***

Although the press release says it is being made on behalf of the Flathead Joint Board of Control of the Mission, Jocko and Flathead Irrigation Districts, two FJBC commissioners from the Flathead District say the issuance of a press release or its wording was never discussed or voted on in a joint board meeting.

I did not know anything about it, said commissioner Paul Guenzler, who joined commissioner Dick Erb in opposing the cancellation of the election.

I did not see it before it was issued, Erb said after it arrived in his email inbox Friday. I see some major inconsistencies in what it says, and what happened. It should have been circulated among board members before it went out.

The press release says the controversy began in 2015, when it says the county changed past practices and decided corporations with out-of-state addresses were ineligible to vote.

Eschenbacher has said a previous deputy county attorney had determined that state law limits Montana elections to qualified Montana voters. It was also determined, according to the county attorney, that out-of-state voters could legally designate a qualified proxy to vote for them.

The FJBC disagreed with Lake Countys interpretation of the law as it prevents fee-land owners serviced by the Flathead Irrigation Project from participating in district elections, the press release says.

Communications between the county and the board at that time were meant solely to open discussions that unfortunately never occurred during or after the 2015 special district election, according to the release.

***

This year, the FJBC says, Lake County officials again undertook a review of Montana statutes and determined that all irrigated fee-land parcels held by entity or multiple parties must first designate a voting member before being provided with an actual ballot.

This new interpretation differed from years past, the press release says. Despite the change in interpretation, the county failed to provide electors notice of this new requirement and failed to advise electors that they would not be mailed a ballot unless and until the designation was executed and returned to the Lake County Elections Administrator. Nor did Lake County timely notify the FJBC of any responsibility of the FJBC to require designations be returned prior to providing an elector an actual ballot.

Responded Eschenbacher, The part about this being some newly found requirement is actually in the boards own bylaws.

Montana statute, the FJBC said in the release, does not allow the withholding of ballots under the new unilaterally imposed statutory interpretation.

FJBC requests to meet with county officials and to have them provide supporting documentation were ignored, the press release says.

When it learned that nearly 800 ballots had been withheld from electors because completed voter designation forms had not been executed, notarized and returned to the Lake County Election Office, FJBCs legal counsel met with Lake County Deputy Attorney Wally Congdon according to the release.

The board, in the press release, claims that the attorneys mutually agreed that the best course of action was to cancel the election and reschedule a new election at the earliest possible date.

Eschenbacher says Congdon told them the only way the board could cancel the election is if it had a legal basis to do so, and that there was no legal basis.

***

The county mailed out 2,392 ballots prior to the election, and did not mail out 754 that had not complied with the requirements.

Of those, 177 voters did comply prior to 8 p.m. on May 3, when the elections closed, Lake County Elections Administrator Kathie Newgard said, and were provided ballots. That leaves 577 who did not complete the forms, making them ineligible, Eschenbacher said.

For them to claim that ballots that could not legally be sent out should have been sent out is untenable, Eschenbacher said.

Voters receive one vote for each irrigable acre they own. Someone with five irrigable acres has five votes; someone with 500 irrigable acres has 500 votes.

In the elections in dispute, David Lake beat incumbent Shane Orien 40,304 to 15,275, and Janette Rosman defeated incumbent Wayne Blevins 30,038 to 25,531. Both those seats are in the Flathead Irrigation District.

In the Mission District, Ray Swenson beat incumbent Jerry Laskody 5,098 to 2,932.

There were two seats open in the Jocko Valley District as well, but only two candidates who filed to run  FJBC chairman Cole and Jennifer Kaplan, who would be new to the board. No vote occurred for the Jocko seats and normally, both would be declared winners by acclamation.

But it remained unclear whether the board would seat Kaplan either, since it maintains there was no election to begin with.

It is still the intention of the Flathead Joint Board of Control on behalf of the separate irrigation districts to reschedule a fair and legal special district election at the earliest possible date, allowing all irrigate fee-land owners equal participation in government, Fridays press release said in closing.

In the meantime, it apparently plans to continue operating with three commissioners whose terms have expired, and with the possibility that those separate irrigation districts might, on their own, swear in Tuesdays winners.

As with much else in the matter, it remained unclear what would happen then.
Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa



Kathmandu, Nepal: Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa has claim that the incumbent government would be dissolved only after holding parliamentary and local body elections.



Speaking at a function in Kathmandu on Saturday, DPM Thapa, who is also the chairman of the Rastriya Prajatantantra Party Nepal (RPP-Nepal), the third largest ally of the incumbent government, made such a claim to hold the elections.



The governments claim to hold the parliamentary and local body election is taken importantly as it has come in the mean time when the incumbent government is saved from the dissolution.



The soured relationship between the government ally and the agitating parties including with the main opposition Nepali Congress would further be widen as the agitating parties are protesting the existing federal structures of the country.



Similarly, the Nepali Congress would not accept the government proposal to hold the local body elections without resolving the differences.



The government has no threat and no questions would be arise to hold the elections in the country as people are suggesting the government not to accept any threat from nowhere, so the government would initiate process to hold the elections immediately, Thapa said.


sacw.net - 7 May 2016

The conception of a representative government that would enable the devolution of administrative responsibilities to districts and villages; a socialist system in which the state would control the means of production so as to ensure the fairest distribution of goods, power, and service to its members; the good of society would be considered a responsibility of the state, but the state would serve as an administrator and a distributor, not as a disseminator of ideology or doctrine; instituting educational and social schemes for marginalised sections of societyathis worthy manifesto has been replaced in J & K with an agenda that encourages mainstream Indian financial institutions to play a decisive role in the State, through the fixing of prices on the national and world markets, cartels, and a variety of educational and cultural institutions. How representative are the new elites brought to power through the electoral process, or even unwitting or willing agents of mainstream powers and agencies?

This is how I see the gist of the contemporary problem in Kashmir: a conflict driven by nationalistic and religious fervour, with each side, India and Pakistan, pointing to the violence and injustice of the other, and each side, India and Pakistan, pointing to its own suffering and sorrow, while ignoring the irreparable loss of lives, unredeemable loss of productive years, unsalvageable loss of properties and sources of livelihood, and the deep-rooted sense of despair of Kashmiris.

The insurgency and counter insurgency in the State has gone through a series of phases since 1990, but repressive military and political force remains the brutal reality, which cannot be superceded by seemingly abstract democratic aspirations. After the forces of separatism reared their heads in J & K, the Indian Union exacerbated the violence and disorder by deploying belligerent and tactless methods. For instance, on 1 October 1990, Indian paramilitary forces razed the bazaar of Handwara, a town located in the Northwestern part of the Valley. This action, taken after a guerilla attack, resulted in the indiscriminate killing of a large number of civilians. Subsequently, the landscape was tarnished by shanty-like bunkers with firing positions adorned with Indian flags and nationalist slogans, underlining the brutal repression of regionalist and anti-establishment aspirations. The systemic erosion of democratic rights in J & K, which has been the underlying theme of Indiaas and Pakistanas policy toward Kashmir since the dawn of independence since 1947, cannot go on forever. Events that are celebrated in the rest of India are overtly mourned in Kashmir. 26 January 2011, particularly, showcased the apathy of the people of Kashmir to the absurdity, bigotry, and spectacle that the nationalist politics of the BJP created.

While the reaction of the State government to the melodramatic and blustering attempts of the BJP to hoist the Indian national flag in Lal Chowk was designed for the Congress palate, it should not erase our memory of the duplicity of the Congress in enabling Murli Manohar Joshi to hoist the Indian national flag in Kashmir amidst tight security in 1992. If the Congress oracular aHigh Commanda had decreed that the achildren of a lesser god,a Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, be indulged by allowing them to raise the Indian national flag, which is the principal ideological unifier across political and caste divisions in India, the State government, in all likelihood, would have complied. J & K is replete with such examples of political dogmatism, undemocratic methods, and state sanctified brutality. The territory has been benighted by reprehensible misgovernance and trammeled by a militarised culture.

J & K is an example of a territory manipulated by New Delhi and Islamabad reliant on the political and military prowess of their patrons. This strategy, which New Delhi espouses without making any bones about it, has had the adverse effect of stunting the development of civic and democratic structures conducive to suffrage and participatory democracy. The erosion of aindigenousa opposition in J & K has delegitimised the voice of dissent and radicalized antagonism toward state-sponsored institutions and organisations. The exposure of Indian democracy as a brutal facade has instigated disgruntlement toward Indian democratic procedures and institutions in the state. The cause of the independence and/ or autonomy of J & K have been thwarted by both India and Pakistan. Beijing is also worried about the ramifications that Kashmiri independence would have in Tibet. In India, the BJP keeps harping on the balkanization of J & K along religio-ethnic lines, first propounded in 1950 by Sir Owen Dixon, the United Nations representative for India and Pakistan.

I reiterate what I have reinforced in my earlier writings: I cannot emphasize enough the need to create access for marginalised Kashmiris to a community perspective, or a reference group. Avenues for rehabilitation must be created, so those who have been brutalized can work through the discourse of oppression and victimhood into developing the construction of their identities as survivors. Victims of brutality can politicise their identities within clear conceptual frameworks, instead of inculcating the ahabit of silence,a which is a dangerous habit. We cannot refuse to deal with a landscape that has been radically transformed by struggle. The politics of representation cannot undermine the oppositional force of indigenous movements. A carnage that wiped out the bloom of youth, dreams of surpassing the banality of life, ambitions of carving their own destinies and charting their own paths, of many of our children, cannot be dismissed as the obdurate stubbornness of an uncivilized people or mere asummer unrest.a

I felt so hopeless and disillusioned for a while, because of how the terrible disturbances in Kashmir became mere collateral damages, and did not motivate either the State government or New Delhi to bring about structural changes that would substantially address inequities and injustices. Because of my despair at the hijacking of a haunting mass mobilisation by mainstream organizations and separatists, and at the dearth of coherent political discourses in Kashmir, I was quiet for a while, until I realised that it was important to avoid the ahabit of silencea at all costs.

(Nyla Ali Khan is a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma, and member of Scholars Strategy Network. She is the author of Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism, Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir, The Life of a Kashmiri Woman, and the editor of The Parchment of Kashmir. She is editor of the Oxford Islamic Studiesa special issue on Jammu and Kashmir.)
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"As is often the case for him  especially these days  he had a hand in every facet of the album-making process, recording in his home studio, co-producing with respected engineer Justin Niebank, writing or co-writing every number, laying down lead-guitar tracks, and singing a lot of the background vocals".

"For Down to My Last Bad Habit, his 18th studio album, it would have been easy for Vince Gill to kick back a bit. After all, when you've sold more than 26 million albums, won 20 Grammys, and earned 18 CMA Awards (including two Entertainer of the Year trophies), you've done it all, right"?

It ain't exactly all country but it's DARN good. The baby faced country star Vince Gill is a storyteller and gifted musician. If you do not follow Nashville music or the country Genre, you may not know who he is. If you got this far in this review, I assume you at least know him. But for the non-country fans you can find more about Vince Gill here His last album is a self-produced collaboration with some friends and recorded in his home studio in Nashville, Tennessee. Being a mega music star is a brand in and of itself. Success allows you to have your own recording studio in your home or compound. It also allows you to pretty much record whatever the hell you want to and with a history of success, the record company will most likely publish it.Having your own recording studio means you can spend hours experimenting and over dubbing yourself with background vocals, instruments and harmony without the cost of studio rental which can get expensive. However, if you are a super star like Vince your studio is most likely state of the art.Here is the short bio from his website:When I said it ain't country, I had some hopes readers would at least want to hear a couple of the songs on this album. It is a throwback to 1980's blues. I try to have wide-ranging taste in music and for the most part I enjoy it all. Forgive me Stan, but I even had a few favorite Bee Gee and Donna Summers songs from the disco era.Here is the track listing:1. Reasons for the Tears I Cry (Vince Gill)3. Me and My Girl (Vince Gill)4. Like My Daddy Did (Vince Gill)5. Make You Feel Real Good (Vince Gill)6. I Can't Do This (Vince Gill, Catt Gravitt, Brennen Hunt)7. My Favorite Movie (Vince Gill and Ashley Monroe)8. One More Mistake I Made (Vince Gill, Adrianne Duarte)9. Take Me Down* (Vince Gill, Richard Marx, Jillian Jacqueline)10. I'll Be Waiting for You** (Vince Gill, Leslie Satcher)11. When It's Love (Vince Gill, Richard Marx)I offer two cuts off this album. First is a good twist on the words. Vince wrote this when he met one of his friends in a cafe and asked how he was doing. The reply "Well, I'm down to my last bad habit". If you are a songwriter, you take a napkin and write that down. After it peculates for a while you may end up with this song.As an aside: This is not on the album but if you really want to see a tribute done right, watch Vince and Patty Loveless tribute to George Jones at the Opry . He almost did not make it through this. The song was written by Vince for his brother who committed suicide but he applies it to George who outlived or whipped the ass of his demons.The second song, which is on this album is his song written specifically about the late George Jones. Needless to say you can't talk about country music without mentioning George. George's nickname for Vince was "Sweetpea" and they had a close relationship. Vince tells George's story in this song.
 "Gutting Habeas Corpus: The Inside Story of How Bill Clinton Sacrificed Prisoners Rights for Political Gain" | Main | Drug war and tough-on-crime legislation (and even more judicial discretion) keeping Ohio's prison population growing 

May 6, 2016

Commissioner of U.S. Commission on Civil Rights expresses concerns to Senator Grassley about efforts to reduce federal prison sentences

A helpful reader just forwarded to me a fascinating, lengthy letter authored by Peter Kirsanow, a long-serving Commissioner on the US Commission on Civil Rights, expressing concerns about federal sentencing reform efforts. I recommend everyone following the current debats over federal statutry sentencing reforms to read the full letter, which can be downloaded below. These extended excerpts from the start and body of the letter (with footnotes removed but emphasis preserved from the original) should help explain why I find it fascinating:

I write as one member of the eight-member U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and not on behalf of the Commission as a whole. I also write as a person who lives in a high-crime, predominantly African-American neighborhood. The purpose of this letter is to express my concerns about the Sentencing Reform Act of 2015, particularly the various provisions that reduce the length of prison sentences. Three years ago, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held a briefing on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commissions [EEOC] revised guidance on the use of criminal background checks in hiring. The guidance was motivated by many of the same concerns that seem to underlie the Sentencing Reform Act  primarily that minority men, particularly African-American men, are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated and have criminal records, a concern about burgeoning prison populations, and a sense that as a society we should focus on rehabilitation, not retribution. During our briefing, witnesses testified about the difficulty ex-convicts face in obtaining employment, a very real and troubling concern. But one would have concluded from the briefing that rehabilitation was the norm for ex-offenders, stymied only by a callous society that refused to give them a second chance. One also would have thought that ex-offenders were essentially indistinguishable from non-offenders. Further research revealed this to be far from the truth.... The Sentencing Reform Act is predicated on the belief that rehabilitation is not only possible, but likely. Yet scholarly literature indicates that a person who has been convicted of multiple offenses is always more likely to offend (again) than is a person who has never offended. Indeed, even a person who has been arrested only once is always more likely to be arrested than is a never-arrested person.... We can rest assured, then, that a substantial number of released prisoners will re-offend. Who are their victims likely to be? It is likely, given the disproportionate presence of AfricanAmerican men in the prison population, that any relaxation of sentencing or early release will disproportionately benefit African-American men. Indeed, the racial disparity in incarceration is widely acknowledged to be the primary motivation for sentencing reform on the Left, and perhaps in some corners of the Right as well. Those African-American men will then return to their communities, which are more likely to be predominantly African-American. It is therefore likely that the victims of those released early will also be disproportionately likely to be black. This is not surprising  people tend to live in communities predominantly comprised of members of their own racial or ethnic group. White ex-offenders are therefore likely to victimize other white people. But the drive for sentencing reform is motivated by concern over black offenders, and so it is worth noting that their future victims are also likely to be black. If we are going to play the disparate impact card, which is much of the impetus behind sentencing reform, we should note that the disparate impact works both ways. Yes, blacks are disproportionately likely to be incarcerated. But the lives not lost or damaged because of their incapacitation due to incarceration are also disproportionately likely to be black.... There is one other thing I would like to note. Everyone at least tacitly acknowledges that much of the political pressure behind this bill is animated by a sense of racial grievance  that African-American men are incarcerated at higher rates than their presence in the population. Yet one of the reasons why we have some of these stiff sentences is because when crime was rampant, African-Americans protested the violence visited upon their communities and asked the government to get tougher on crime. If we relax sentencing, there is a very good chance that crime will go up, it will disproportionately go up in African-American communities, and then some of the same people who are presently supporting sentencing leniency will be demanding harsher penalties because of the increasing crime in their communities; and, if recent history is a guide, they will claim the increase is due to racially discriminatory policies. Download Letter re Sentencing Reform Act May 5 2016

May 6, 2016 at 02:49 PM | Permalink

Comments

The reason why most people re-offend: the causes or reasons for their offending are never "cured" or addressed through incarceration. Add to that labelling theory -- society is callous, the federal government has no expungement process and the stain is permanent -- and its a vicious cycle. Incarceration never "stamps out" crime, it just removes crime from the general population into small little prison cells, out of sight and out of mind. Drugs are available in prison. Fraud, sex and murder are committed in prison. There are "victims" in prison too.

Jobs -- you expect convicts to be released, denied jobs, discriminated against and not to re-offend? Of course, its all the convicts' fault. Sure, anything else you want to add?

Sentencing reform is not about disparate impact alone, although this letter seems to be motivated on it to the exclusion of anything else. Sentencing reform is necessary because for offenders its become a vicious cycle and for society too costly of a cycle to bankroll. A single offense mars a person for life and more often than not leads to dizzying periods of incarceration with little to no focus on rehabilitation or reintegration into society leading to, you guessed it, re-offending, which costs tax payers money! There is anecdotal and empirical evidence from several red and blue states and even other countries to support the argument that a criminal justice system that focus on restorative justice and integration rather than retribution or predictive analytics of recidivism fares a lot better in the long run.

Posted by: Marc B. | May 6, 2016 2:58:58 PM

Well said. Most are getting out eventually anyway. Complete straw man.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | May 6, 2016 3:51:39 PM

He fails to address the studies of those people released "early" due to the crack guideline change. Their recidivism rate was no higher than that of other folks released "on time."

Posted by: defendergirl | May 6, 2016 4:06:42 PM

"But the lives not lost or damaged because of their incapacitation due to incarceration are also disproportionately likely to be black...."

This point would have greater salience if it weren't the case that white cops are gunning down black youth almost every day. It's hardly a point in favor of incarceration that it spares black men from the black thug when it just sets them up to be shot by the white officer.

Posted by: Daniel | May 6, 2016 4:31:28 PM

Look around a little. This guy is just another closed-minded, old, right-wing hack-nutter. This coming from an open-minded, middle-aged, right-wing non-hack, non-nutter.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | May 6, 2016 9:07:00 PM

with his bald head and river boat gambler mustache, he looks streo type and fixed minded. very uncreative thinking and should just be ignored.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | May 7, 2016 4:24:06 PM

I won't hold the bald against him, but the waxed mustache and Russian surname are bizarre on a black man.

Posted by: Fat Bastard | May 7, 2016 7:54:21 PM

I find it hard to take anyone with mustache like that seriously unless they're in a barbershop quartet. At least get rid of the waxed ends, this is 2016 not 1916.

Posted by: Ed | May 9, 2016 4:36:40 PM

One of the most amusing parts of this to me is that the source for his statement "even a person who has been arrested only once is always more likely to be arrested than is a never-arrested person...." is none other than himself, in at the very least a mischaracterization of Blumstein's findings.



Posted by: Dilynn Roettker | Jun 28, 2016 3:28:20 PM

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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.


As mentioned briefly yesterday, more shooting has been going on in the Castro for When We Rise, the ABC documentary mini-series written by Dustin Lance Black, and based in part on the forthcoming memoir of the same name by local activist and author Cleve Jones. As part of that shoot, on Thursday, the current home of Gyro Express at the corner of 18th and Castro was briefly transformed into the 1970's-era Star Pharmacy, as you can see in the photos above and below. Star Pharmacy was, in reality, across the street in the current home of Walgreen's (498 Castro), as Curbed points out, and is notable in the LGBT history of the neighborhood as the first place in the city to post a public notice about the "gay cancer" that would ultimately be known as HIV.

Walking home, and seemingly back in time, to 1979 when Gyro Xpress was a pharmacy. #tbt #whenwerise #castro #sanfrancisco #california A photo posted by @thealmightyt on May 5, 2016 at 5:25pm PDT



As the Chronicle tells it in this roundup of local landmarks in LGBT history, early AIDS activist Bobbi Campbell used the front window of the pharmacy to post a flyer, with the headline "Gay Cancer" in October 1981, showing photos of Kaposi's sarcoma lesions  Campbell was the 16th person in San Francisco to be diagnosed with the rare cancer which doctors would later discover was a result of HIV's toll on the immune system. You can see a photo of men reading the flyers here. Being the first person to come out publicly as having been infected, Campbell would come to be known as the "AIDS poster boy," and would also help write the first ever safe-sex pamphlet, distributed by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence in 1982, before the wider medical community had even determined that the disease was sexually transmitted  Campbell himself had a Sister alter-ego, Sister Florence Nightmare, and he was also a registered nurse.

Star Pharmacy would later close in 1985, the same year that San Francisco recorded 1,000 people dead from AIDS, most of them men. Bobbi Campbell died from complications from the disease in 1984, at the age of 32. As neighborhood resident Leonard Matlovich, famous for being on the cover of Time in 1975 coming out as being gay in the military, said of those 1,000 people, "Almost all of these men lived within a six-block radius of the Castro and Market intersection. The neighborhood, once flush with sexual liberation and political empowerment, now found itself under mortal attack from an invisible enemy."

Walgreen's took over the location, and just a couple years later, because of the volume of illness in the neighborhood, set a prescription sales record.

A plaque is now in the works to be installed on the outside of Walgreen's documenting the spot where the neighborhood first began to learn about, and discuss, the epidemic facing them.

Matlovich has his own plaque, across the intersection and on the side of the building that is home to Gyro Express and the fake Star Pharmacy, highlighted by a rainbow mural that was added in 2015. Matlovich lived in an apartment in that building prior to his death in 1988.


The double murder trial of Darnell Williams concluded Friday with guilty verdicts in the slayings of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in Oakland on July 17, 2013, and 22-year-old Anthony Medearis in Berkeley two months later. As CBS 5 reports, "Emotions erupted in the Oakland courtroom filled with family and friends of the young girl."

The murder of Carradine, who was fatally shot as she answered the door of a friend's grandmother's house, where she was having a sleepover, shocked the Bay Area as a standout act of violence in what is often a tragically repetitive narrative gang-like warfare and street shootings in Oakland.

The prosecution successfully convinced the jury that Williams committed the shooting in retaliation for the murder of his friend, 26-year-old Jermaine Davis, just hours earlier. Williams had apparently concluded, along with associates, that the culprit in Davis's murder was Antiown "Twanny" York, and the house into which he indiscriminately shot was the home of York's baby mama, according to witness testimony. As the story went, the doorbell rang, the young girl answered, and Williams fired several shots into the home, killing her as well as wounding a 7-year-old girl, a 4-year-old boy, and the 63-year-old grandmother who was babysitting.

A key witness for the prosecution was Williams's then girlfriend Britney Rogers who was with Williams the night of Carradine's murder. She testified last month that she and Williams were up all night afterwards, and then saw on the news the next morning that a young girl had been killed, to which Williams responded "fuck that bitch."



Previously: Key Witness Takes Stand In Trial Of Man Accused In 2013 Killing Of 8-Year-Old Girl In Oakland
For my personal work, I preferred strange, edgy subjects, Charles Gatewood wrote in his 1975 monograph Sidetripping, published with text from his friend and collaborator William S. Burroughs. Gatewood, a renowned photographer who passed away last week at SF General, might have proudly declared himself a member of any such "strange" or "edgy" group, and at the least, he was granted honorary status and plenty of access to the subcultures he studied.

As website BoingBoing observes, Gatewood's first published pictures, of the musician Bob Dylan, may still be his most famous. In particular, one highly-syndicated image, Dylan With Sunglasses and Cigarette, led to the beginning of his long career with Rolling Stone magazine.

Gatewood later extended his subjects, in his words on "Sidetripping," to naked beer hippies, sadistic cops, hollow-eyed strippers, preening transvestites, punks, drunks, weenie-waggers, militant Jesus freaks and dope-crazed protestors. You know the types.

According to an obituary in the New York Times, Gatewood, who was 73, died as a result of injuries sustained when he threw himself from his Bernal Heights balcony. There is no doubt that his death was the result of a suicide attempt, as he left several notes behind," his sister, Betty Gatewood, said. He received palliative care until his death on April 28th.

Born in Illinois and raised and educated in Missouri  his degree from the University of Missouri was in anthropology, a field in which he would always see himself Gatewood began taking photographs in Stockholm, Sweden. There, in graduate school, he captured touring jazz musicians, and in 1966, he moved to New York's Greenwich Village.

Gatewood's photos of David Bowie and Rod Stewart, or his works studying tattoo artists and body manipulators, focused on the underground and fetishistic. He was known for his portraits of 1970's Mardi Gras, too, and starting in the 80's, when he moved to the Bay, he studied general San Francisco deviance. But Gatewood knew danger and derangement wherever he saw it: Consider his 1984 book of photographs of financial workers, called Wall Street.

"I want to make photographs that kill," Vice quoted Gatewood this January, as he prepared what would be one of his last shows. Im bringing back images of things that people don't want to look at, don't want to deal with, Gatewood told Popular Photography in 1985. That makes them uncomfortable. It hits too close to home.

In his honor, OTHER Cinema of Valencia Street will host the US premiere of Carl Abrahamsson's documentary about Gatewood, "Once the Toothpaste is Out of the Tube." That screening takes place tomorrow, and is "an hour's worth of tributes and shorts, including clips from his self-released VHS 'Weird San Francisco.'"

If someone you know exhibits warning signs of suicide: do not leave the person alone; remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt; and call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.
Perhaps spurred to action by last summer's exhaustive reporting by Forbes on the for-profit school's allegedly shady real estate dealings, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera today filed a lawsuit against the Academy of Art University alleging the school illegally converted over half of the forty buildings it owns while in the processing of amassing a real estate empire. So reports the Chronicle, which quotes Herrera as saying that enough is enough.

The conflict between city officials and one of the city's largest property owners is nothing new. Indeed, it has been going on for ten years, with the previous salvo being the declaration by the Planning Department that 75 percent of Academy of Art buildings are illegal. In implementing their real estate scheme for profit, the Chron reports the suit reading, Academy of Art President Elisa Stephens has "flagrantly ignored and flouted the zoning and planning restrictions applicable to their properties that govern all San Francisco property owners.

At particular issue appears to be the company's alleged removal of affordable housing stock from the market to make way for student dorms. Not so, says the Academy's lawyer in a press release sent to SFist. "The Academy has provided affordable housing for students within existing buildings," reads the release, "those students likely could not afford to live in San Francisco otherwise."

At stake in the lawsuit could be hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid fines for code violations committed by the school, which they have so far refused to pay. At least one San Francisco Supervisors thinks it's about time.

"This institution has been playing San Francisco for a fool," observed Supervisor Aaron Peskin, "and the merry-go-round is finally going to stop."

Related: Planning Department Confirms 75 Percent Of Academy Of Art Buildings Are Illegal

Supervisor Wiener Goes After Serial Code Violators Like (Ahem) Academy of Art

Forbes Comes After Academy Of Art, Their Low Graduation Rate, And Their Shady Land Use Dealings
Mission PD protesters packing up. They say #Frisco5 are at hospital. pic.twitter.com/cAZAufKwi0  Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) May 6, 2016

Welp, some people wondered after yesterday's unproductive phone call with Mayor Lee if the hunger strikers were going to give up the fight, and it looks like the answer is maybe, but not quite yet. We see via a few tweets that activists are packing up the tents that appeared two weeks ago outside the Mission Police Station, and reportedly the Frisco Five have all gone to the hospital.

Mission Local has video below of a spokesperson saying that the five will "continue to strike" at the hospital, but their health can now be monitored more closely.

Growing increasingly weak on day16 of strike all members of #Frisco5 have been taken to hospital to be monitored pic.twitter.com/uZwtxRzTMY  Mission Local (@MLNow) May 6, 2016

SF Weekly notes today that the Frisco Five's act of nonviolent protest is the longest hunger strike in recent memory, and almost definitely the longest in San Francisco history, now in its 16th day.

Whether or not they will take doctors' orders to eat, or get hooked up to IV's, is unclear at this point, but the public visibility of their strike is ending, and just in time for today's rain.

The strikers have pledged not to eat, and only to consume coconut water and water, until the mayor agrees to fire SFPD Chief Greg Suhr, in recognition of the department's responsibility for the lives of four men fatally shot by officers in recent years under questionable circumstances: Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, Mario Woods, and most recently, homeless man Luis Gongora. Weirdly, however, in a statement on Thursday (via Indybay), the strikers also included the 2011 death of Kenneth Harding, who was determined to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound  initial reports and a video suggested he had been killed by police, however an investigation concluded that Harding, who was armed with his own gun, had accidentally shot himself in reaching for the gun to shoot at the police, and the police only fired after he had discharged his weapon. His fatal wound to the neck came from a .38 caliber bullet, and SFPD officers only carry .40 caliber weapons, as was revealed just days after his death. Possibly none of the officers' shots actually hit Harding, though he was struck in the leg by a bullet of unknown caliber. But try telling that to Indybay.

Previously: Mayor Lee Has Phone Call With Hunger Striker And Little Is Accomplished
When a San Francisco family was reportedly kicked off a plane over their child's peanut allergy, their story received national attention. But now, says the kid's father, the family is getting virulent hate mail on the subject  no, not just nasty comments or Facebook mentions (both of which are distressingly common in this day and age)  some people were so incensed by the fairly benign story that they tracked the family down and started sending them angry emails.

Here's how it all began: Bay Area parents Kyson and Sara Dana had just boarded a flight from Provo to Oakland Monday, when Sara informed a flight attendant that their two-year-old son, Theo, had a severe allergy to peanuts.

"My son has a peanut allergy, is there anything you can do, like can you not serve peanuts around us, is there anything you can do to help accommodate for that?" Kyson told Fox 13 his wife asked the attendant on the Allegiant Air flight.

"My wife said, 'We're obviously flying on the plane, and we recognize the risks. We have an EpiPen with us,'" Kyson says.

When they got to their seats, Fox 13 reports, the parents "wiped their seats down with the sanitation wipes and got settled in," as a second flight attendant notified those seated around the Dana family of the peanut situation "And it seemed like the situation was resolved."

But then a third flight attendant told them "We've spoken to... the pilot, and we are going to have you removed from the plane," Kyson says, claiming to him that they had spoken with a medical professional and determined that allowing them to fly would be unsafe.

Following the incident, Allegiant first seemed contrite, with a spokesperson telling the Danas "allow me to offer my sincere apology for the inconveniences this incident has caused for you and your family...We regret that you were denied boarding due to any misunderstanding regarding the severity of your childs peanut allergy."

The airline took a harder line when contacted by CNN, which picked up the story this morning. In a written statement to the broadcast network, the airline said that "The Dana family indicated to our flight crew that their son had a severe peanut allergy. The flight crew then contacted a third party organization that advises Allegiant and other carriers when making decisions about the safety of passengers with potential medical issues onboard an aircraft...The third party organization, which includes on-call medical doctors available to provide guidance, advised that the family not fly on that specific flight."

The airline gave the Danas "tickets on another carrier," Allegiant told CNN, but according to Fox 13 it was "a generous Provo Airport worker" who "secured them a new flight at no cost and with a different airline, then personally drove them to the Salt Lake City International Airport to fly home."

I'm super surprised that:



A) @CNNTravel is running our story

B) people are literally sending me hate mail over it. Haha whaaat??   Kyson Dana (@kysondana) May 6, 2016

It was that CNN attention, as well as, I suspect, the patriarch's easily-googleable name that led to this story's rather odd postscript. Kyson Dana, a SF-based UX and visual designer, quite reasonably has a personal website in which his contact details are easily found. From there, it appears, some opted to drop him a line...mainly to tell him to shove it. For example, this email, which Dana tweeted:

Here is the latest email I received. Who even bothers taking the time?

\_()_/ pic.twitter.com/zMu3tkaufq  Kyson Dana (@kysondana) May 6, 2016

According to American Board of Allergy and Immunology Certified allergist Dr. Kay Walker, who spoke to Fox 13, the Danas weren't actually being "drama momma"s, the airline was. Characterizing the Danas' rejection from the flight as "unreasonable," Walker says that plane passengers with peanut allergies are always advised to "alert the airline, wipe the seat area down with sanitation wipes, and avoid eating airline food," making the Danas' behavior pretty normal.

If one takes those steps, they should be safe to fly, Walker says, though nut dust, "when it settles, could possibly harm you--even though that is also rare."

Less rare, it seems is the ire of people eager to castigate a parent for their efforts to care for their child. Hang in there, Dana family, and take comfort in the knowledge that every one of these angry emailers lives a life significantly sadder than yours.
Following the hospitalization Friday of the hunger strikers now known as the Frisco 5, a call went out on IndyBay to their supporters, whom some are calling the Frisco 500, for a vigil and rally at UN Plaza between 3 and 5 p.m. to "gather in a peaceful loving show of support and solidarity" for the strikers. As you can see in the video above from CBS 5, the group eventually made their way to City Hall where staged a sit-in after business hours, and clashed with sheriff's deputies who attempted to close and lock the doors of the building at 5 p.m.

As Mission Local reports, the City Hall demonstration was actually joined at 6:30 p.m. by a separate demonstration that was happening Friday afternoon outside Mission Station. A group of about seven activists who remained behind after the five hunger strikers went to the hospital got into a confrontation with police and Public Works officials as various belongings from the sidewalk camp were removed and "bagged and tagged" for retrieval. Word spread and this protest grew, until this group joined the others at City Hall and attempted to enter the building themselves. By evening, about 200 people were gathered inside and outside the building, according to KRON 4.

The interaction with deputies was angry and physical at times  and one or a group of protesters took one of the metal detectors inside the building's doors and threw it down the steps outside  with some protesters occupying doorways in order to let more people inside the rotunda.

Protesters reportedly gathered around the closed door to Mayor Ed Lee's Office (he wasn't there), banging on it and blowing whistles and chanting for the removal of Police Chief Greg Suhr, as the Chronicle reports. Some also chanted for the recall of Lee. Then, "A line of sheriffs deputies formed in front of the office and the protesters moved to sit at the top of the buildings main staircase, chasing away a handful of couples getting married."

Per Mission Local:

Several scuffles broke out between protesters and deputies, who used their batons to corral the resistant crowds, oftentimes pushing individual protesters against columns and the two security desks that flank the city hall entrance. Crowds pushed back against the lines of deputies attempting to advance them towards the city hall exit. Some protesters were roughly arrested by deputies. One man was dragged across the floor by his arms by deputies before being zip tied and taken away. At least three reporters were pushed on the floor and against desks by deputies despite identifying themselves as members of the press.

As CBS 5 reports via Eileen Hirst at the Sheriffs Department, 25 people were arrested in total and booked for trespassing. Mission Local had that number at 18. Deputies warned protesters that they could face arrest if they remained past 8 p.m.

Protesters refusing to leave City Hall. Kicked a metal detector down the stairs. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/uWmE65rax6  Elissa Harrington (@EHarringtonNews) May 7, 2016

KRON 4 quotes protester and organizer Nanci Armstrong saying, "This movement is not about confrontation with the police. We are not holding this line because we are at war with them, we are holding this line because they are at war with us."

Conservative site Breitbart posted the video below to Twitter of one protester verbally confronting minority deputies outside City Hall, calling them "Uncle mother-you-know-what Toms," and saying, "We don't feel safe just because you look like us."

Protester taunts police at San Francisco City Hall #frisco5 protest. pic.twitter.com/HWB6QpIu2u  Lee Stranahan (@stranahan) May 7, 2016

In total, the protest lasted over seven hours, with protesters ultimately pushed out of City Hall and stragglers remaining to dance on the steps of the building and taunt the deputies who remained in riot helmets, lined up in front of it, around 11 p.m.
A prominent former public defender, Marla Zamora, was found stabbed to death in the backyard of her Potrero Hill home Friday, and police already have a prime suspect in custody. As the Chronicle reports, neighbors say Zamora's alleged killer was a man who was found inside the home when police arrived just before 11 a.m., and he was covered in blood. It remains unclear what his relationship to Zamora may have been, however police are saying this was not a random act.

Update: ABC 7 reports that the suspect taken into custody was Zamora's nephew. An anonymous source tells SFist that Zamora's nephew had been living with her. He has not yet been publicly named, but police have confirmed the relation, and that he has been arrested for the crime.

Zamora, 65, spent 29 years in the San Francisco Public Defender's Office, as ABC 7 reports, and was most well known in recent years for defending Edwin Ramos in his 2012 trial for the murder of a father and his two sons in the Mission. The case made national headlines because Ramos mistook one of victim Tony Bologna's sons for a rival gang member, and shot into their car from another car, killing all three.

Zamora's neighbor, who may have been the one who called the police Friday, says he heard screaming and saw Zamora's body in the backyard, according to ABC 7. The murder took place on the 400 block of Arkansas Street.

Current SF Public Defender Jeff Adachi said to the station, "Marla had a heart of gold. She was everything you would want a public defender to be. She fought hard, she had tremendous compassion for her clients, and she handled some of the toughest cases." He added, "For obvious reasons, our office would not be able to represent anyone charged [in this case]. Marla Zamora was one of us."

Zamora is survived by a daughter who lives in Los Angeles.

Update 2: The suspect has been identified as 19-year-old Angelo Zamora, as the Chron reports, and he's being held in custody by the Sheriff's Department while being treated at SF General for an undisclosed medical condition.


SIOUX CITY | Aladdin. Wicked. Lloyd Webbers Phantom of the Opera. Certain plays will never see the light of stage at Lamb Arts Regional Theatre.

The founders have said repeatedly that, if it cant be done well, they wont do it at all.

Some productions are just too costly or technically advanced to do it justice with the resources available to them. Thats not to say they wont take a risk.

With the second-to-last show of Season 36, theyre jumping in at the deep end with Mary Zimmermans Metamorphoses, which is set in and around a pool of water.

If you always play it safe and never throw yourself out there, never risk, its just not as fulfilling, not as exciting, Russ Wooley said. I knew this one was going to be a big one. We prepared. We did risk. We stepped out, putting an 8-by-12-foot pool of water in the middle of the stage. But you need to do that. It needs to be a little scary every once in a while.

"Metamorphoses," which runs through May 22, is a modern adaptation of Ovid's classic tales in a series of vignettes with characters including King Midas, Apollo, Orpheus and Eurydice. Though the myths are more than 2,000 years old, certain virtues and vices of the human condition ripple through time from the ancients to contemporary life.

Using poetry, music, movement, dramatic and comedic storytelling and song, the 90-minute play explores a range of universal emotions of love, loss and power in moving and profound ways.

Wooley, who is directing the play at Lamb, first saw Metamorphoses several years ago at New Yorks Circle in the Square Theatre.

I left that evening having some of the most indelible memories of a theater piece that Ive ever had, he said. There are some images I still have of that show and feelings that I want to bring to our audience.

Metamorphoses premiered at Northwestern University in 1996 as Six Myths and later had a run at Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago. With a change of title, the play opened off-Broadway in 2001 before it became a Broadway production at Circle in the Square, earning Zimmerman a Tony Award for best director in 2002.

The Broadway production was impressive. It had a giant swimming pool. Actors would go in for a dip and the water would be up to their armpits.

Its not armpits here, Wooley said.

On one end, its about a foot deep. On the other, its about 5 inches. When the actors step in, the water creeps up from ankles to shins.

No matter the depth, its a captivating element that lends visual and auditory interest. You might even call it the 18th actor on stage because the pool plays such a big part.

Wooley considers it a brilliant move on Zimmermans part to place the plays action in water, a common symbol of renewal, rebirth or transformation, but working out the technical aspects posed a challenge.

The cast and crew quickly discovered that the water needed to be heated. They also had to place containers under the stage to control any spills, but Wooley assures audiences it won't turn into a scene from SeaWorld where the front row gets soaked.

There are a couple scenes where some splashing does go on, Wooley said. It certainly wont be like Shamu.

So come on in. The waters fine.
BOYDEN, Iowa | Natural gas is back on for the residents of Boyden after being shut down overnight while a damaged natural gas line was repaired.

On Friday, a farm tiling contractor damaged a Northern Natural Gas line that serves MidAmerican Energy in Boyden, said Ruth Comer, a MidAmerican spokeswoman.

The incident affected 277 customers in Boyden, Comer said, and MidAmerican personnel worked Friday night to shut off gas service to the customers.

MidAmerican technicians began relighting pilot lights and checking appliances at homes beginning at 7 a.m. on Saturday, Comer said. By Saturday afternoon, all customers either had their natural gas restored or had received a notice from the technicians.
SIOUX CITY | Smoke from wildfires in Canada and Minnesota covered Siouxland with a blanket of haze Saturday morning, reducing visibility and air quality.

According to a special weather statement issued Saturday morning by the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls, the smoke is from a wildfire in northern Alberta, Canada, and another in northern Minnesota.

The smoke moved southward into Sioux City and the surrounding areas during the morning hours Saturday, reducing visibility and filling the air with the smell of smoke.

An air quality map from the National Weather Service in Des Moines showed Sioux City's air quality at "moderate" levels at 10 a.m., with portions of the state to the north and east in the "unhealthy" to "very unhealthy" range.

The NWS statement said the decreased air quality and visibility was to continue in many portions of Iowa through Saturday afternoon, with visibility decreasing to 1 to 3 miles around Interstate 80.

The smoke could result in respiratory irritations or complications, the statement said, especially for people with asthma or other respiratory problems.

Conditions were expected to improve throughout the afternoon on Saturday.
CHICAGO -- If indeed the road to hell is paved with good intentions, a good example is the philanthropic funding of education reform.

The latest victims of moneyed saviors are the students and families formerly served by the North Carolina New Schools Project, which had been started 13 years ago with a five-year, $11 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It abruptly shut down in late April due to financial problems, according to the Raleigh News & Observer, which reported that the project was begun to restructure secondary education by creating smaller high schools. It had been sustained with private foundation grants and some federal and state money after the initial Gates Foundation contribution ended.

It's unclear what the fallout of this particular closure will be -- i.e. how teacher support and student achievement will be impacted -- but it's an example of how even well-meaning interventions from rich donors can end up backfiring on the people they are intended to help.

"Free money" for schools seems like a harmless, if not a totally wonderful, windfall -- especially for districts with high needs and poor funding. But such gifts rarely prompt the questions: What really happens when this money shows up, and who really benefits?

One in-depth case study, "The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools?" by Dale Russakoff, is required reading.

Released last fall, "The Prize" is a behind-the-scenes look at what happened after then-Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker, Gov. Chris Christie and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg collectively pledged $200 million in private donations to fix Newark's failing schools.

Spoiler alert: Five years later, the whole thing fell apart and everyone involved moved on to shinier objects to play with. Everyone except the schoolchildren and families of Newark, that is.

"The Prize" is, effectively, a handbook for what not to do if you have money to spend and the desire to "transform" a community's schools. Mainly: Don't swoop in from elsewhere with no knowledge of a community's residents, their past travails or their current desires for their kids' education, and start "reforming" with sticks rather than carrots.

To be sure, at the time that Zuckerberg et al. decided to save Newark's schools, the district was a textbook case of crumbling, failing schools that seemed to be in existence to serve the school's bureaucracy rather than the students.

Still, Russakoff's tense and highly detailed account of what happened illustrates how the lavish amounts of money actually let governments off the hook for ensuring sustainable resources to educate Newark's kids into the future. Plus, it starved neighborhood schools of funding in favor of installing charter schools that performed only marginally better than the local schools they replaced. All while alienating the parents and community members the "reformers" were parachuting in to help.

The best aspect of "The Prize" is that it lets no one off the hook -- not the spotlight-craving politicians, the pricey education-reform consultants, community members who cared more about saving school jobs than educating kids or, for that matter, the audiences who screamed with glee when Zuckerberg, Booker and Christie announced their Newark plans to Oprah Winfrey's adoring studio audience in 2010.

This high-visibility media hit was how most residents of Newark learned that their kids' schools were going to be improved by politically driven actors who set absurd expectations for improving academic outcomes in insanely short timeframes without either the buy-in or consent of the families who would be affected by the sweeping changes.

The disgusting and shameful details of just how traumatized the community was by the poor economy and decades of neglect, how broken Newark schools were and how callously the implementation of harsh new initiatives was handled are far too numerous to list here.

But to give you a taste: The school superintendent appointed to enact the reforms threw a party to show donors how great everything was going -- and hired bodyguards to ensure that no angry parents or community members spoiled their fun.

Russakoff's book underscores that money isn't a silver bullet. And it makes those of us who deeply want public education to be better for low-income and minority children ask ourselves a series of important questions.

What do we mean when we say we want to "save" public education? Is "free" money for improving academic achievement really free? And, perhaps most important, what happens when philanthropists' attention to improving local education wanes?
DES MOINES | It cost the Republican Party of Iowa roughly $1 million to review its 2012 presidential precinct caucuses and train staff and volunteers for future caucuses and elections, Republican chairman Jeff Kaufmann said Saturday at a meeting of Iowa Democrats who are kicking off a similar review process.

Kaufmann stressed the importance of that training as he shared Republicans caucus review experiences with the Democrats.

If I could boil it down to what was most important for us, it was that constant, non-stop training, Kaufmann said.

Saturdays was the first meeting of the Iowa Democratic Partys caucus review committee, which was established to discuss any changes party leaders and members believe should be made to the Democrats presidential nominating process.

The 2016 Democratic caucuses produced the partys closest-ever victory margin and second-highest turnout. That brought extra attention to issues and criticisms, including some large lines and crowds, insufficiently trained staff and contested results.

The review committee, chaired by former Congressman Dave Nagle, will meet periodically throughout the summer before reporting back to state party leaders with any recommendations.

Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Andy McGuire told committee members There is no suggestion that is off the table, but many party leaders for weeks have been saying its unlikely the committee will recommend dramatic changes like moving toward a simpler straw poll.

At the heart of that resistance to change is Iowas first-in-the-nation caucus status, and a gentlemans agreement, as David Oman, former state Republican Party chairman, described it, with New Hampshire, which follows Iowa in the presidential nominating process with the nations first primary election.

Its extraordinarily unlikely, Nagle said. We dont want to change the fabric of it, and we also dont want to jeopardize our relationship with New Hampshire. You start moving to absentee ballots and you start moving to straw polls, and you start threatening your relationship with New Hampshire.  Were going to look at it. Its not off the table. But its got some obstacles to overcome before we would actually move in that direction.

Multiple review committee members expressed a desire to make the caucuses more inclusive to encourage even better turnout.

Norm Sterzenbach, a committee member from Des Moines who has extensive experience working for the state party and on Democratic campaigns, said he hopes the committee can explore ways to suggest changes that make the caucuses better while remaining respectful of the early-voting relationship with New Hampshire.

I hope we can look at the caucuses from a big-picture perspective and start conversations with New Hampshire about how we can simplify our process and address some concerns  while also maintaining that relationship with New Hampshire so we can keep that bond, Sterzenbach said.

At Saturdays meeting, committee members heard from Kaufmann and former state Republican Party chair David Oman about their post-2012 review, and from Richard Bender, a longtime member of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Harkins staff and the architect of the Democrats caucus system.

Bender acknowledged some of the criticisms of the current Democratic caucus system -- including a lack of absentee ballots and that its not a pure, one-person-one-vote system -- and gave his views of the benefits of the current system, in which Democrats gather in groups to express support for a candidate.

I think it works as a reasonable balance of things, Bender said.

In addition to stressing the training component, Kaufmann said a system that allows the caucus results to be verified and published fosters more trust from the public. One criticism that emerged from this years Democratic caucuses was the inability, because of its design, to produce a recount.
Every business has a different set of goals. But increasing profits is a pretty universal objective for businesses of all sizes. There are plenty of different ways to go about working toward that goal. Members of our small business community shared some simple steps you can take in the list below.

Test Your Financial Literacy

To make sure that your business is on the right track financially, youll need to make sure that youre financially literate enough to make that determination. This Sageworks post includes a quiz made to test out your financial literacy so that youll be better equipped to make those tough decisions.

Focus on Managing Your Payroll

Payroll management is part of running a business that can sometimes get neglected. But its incredibly important for you to have people dedicated to managing your payroll operations and transactions, even if you have set processes in place. Hmd Ali explains more in this post for The Raymond Solutions.

Form Habits That Lead to Long Term Success

Making a quick dollar is nice. But youll need to think differently if you want your business to actually succeed over the long run. That means you have to form habits that can actually lead to long term success, as Martin Zwilling shares here in the Startup Professionals Musings blog. You can also see conversation surrounding the post over on BizSugar.

Avoid These Usability Mistakes That Destroy Mobile Conversion Rates

If you want your business to make money in 2016, you need to be able to convert mobile customers. That means that your site or platform needs to actually be usable for people on mobile devices. So you need to avoid the usability mistakes outlined in this post by Jeremy Smith in the Jeremy Said blog.

Convert Blog Visitors Into Customers

Having a lot of blog readers or visitors can be great for your business. But that alone wont necessarily make you any more profitable. Instead, you can check out this post by Neil Patel and work on converting all of those blog visitors into actual paying customers.

Understand That Your Products Are Commodities

No longer are products just products. In this Kexino post, Gee Ranasinha explains why businesses now create products that are also seen as commodities to consumers. And the BizSugar community also share thoughts on the post too.

Consider Changing Your Legal Structure for Tax Year 2016

If you got hit hard by taxes this year, you might want to consider changing your businesss tax structure for the coming year. In this CorpNet post, Nellie Akalp discusses some ways you might be able to change your businesss structure so that you could benefit come tax time.

Keep Track of Your Online Reputation

You already know that your reputation is important. But it can also have an impact on your businesss bottom line. This post by Rachel Strella of Strella Social Media includes some tips for tracking and managing your online reputation. And BizSugar members comment on the post here.

Follow These Investment Tips for Beginners

Investing can be a tricky game, whether youre personally investing what youve made from your business or making investments specifically to help your business grow. But this Noobpreneur post by Ivan Widjaya includes some investment tips specifically aimed at beginners.

Use These CRM Tools to Skyrocket Your Success

Any business that wants to make money needs customers  and more specifically, loyal customers. If you want to keep your customers happy and engaged with your business, youll need some kind of CRM system. Apple Pineda shares some options in this post on the RightMix Marketing blog.

If youd like to suggest your favorite small business content to be considered for an upcoming community roundup, please send your news tips to: sbtips@gmail.com.
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
Its back! On February 20th, 2016 the great city of Chicago will play host to a second edition of Uppers & Downers, the worlds premiere coffee beer event. Last years event was a remarkable display of liquid cultural unity between the coffee and beer worlds, and this years event promises to be even bigger and better. Guests should expect dozens of coffee beer experiments from some of North Americas top craft breweries, alongside a high-flying multi-roaster espresso experience from several notable new wave coffee roasters.

Tickets are now on sale for this event! Click here to reserve yours today, with ticketing split into two sessions, both on Saturday, February 20th.

Uppers & Downers is a collaboration between Michael Kiser, founder of the much-lauded beer culture phenomenon Good Beer Hunting, and Stephen Morrissey, a World Barista Champion and creative advisor currently based in Chicago. The duo co-founded Uppers & Downers event in 2015. This years event is presented in collaboration with Intelligentsia Coffee, La Marzocco Home, Goose Island Beer Co., and Thalia Hall, an extraordinary historic music venue in Chicagos Pilsen neighborhood that will again host Uppers & Downers.

Sprudge is delighted to be participating in the main event this year, but for the truly beer + coffee geeky among us, were teaming up with Good Beer Hunting for a special Sunday session on February 21st, featuring favorite pours from the event and a live taping of the popular Good Beer Hunting podcast. This event will be hosted at 2pm the Good Beer Hunting Studios in Logan Square, with just 35 tickets made available for $15 apiece. Tickets for this intimate retoxification event will be on sale shortly.

Heres the confirmed breweries and espresso service so far for the Thalia Hall event! More will be added as we draw closer to the big day, plus some exciting (and surely quite necessary) food vendors will be joining the fray. This post will update around once a week or so as more partners are added.

Beer

Goose Island Beer Co + Intelligentsia Coffee

Firestone Walker + Intelligentsia Coffee

Half Acre Beer Co. + Dark Matter Coffee

Perennial Artisan Ales + Sump Coffee

Solemn Oath Brewery + Intelligentsia Coffee

Angry Orchard + MadCap Coffee

5 Rabbit Cerveceria + Gaslight Coffee

4 Hands Brewing + Goshen Coffee

Metropolitan Brewing + Metropolis Coffee

Off Color Brewing

Penrose Brewing

Central State Brewing + Dark Matter Coffee

Whiner Beer Co. + 4 Letter Word Coffee

Begyle Brewing + Ipsento Coffee

Oskar Blues + Hotbox Roasters

Espresso

Intelligentsia Coffee, Chicago, IL

Ruby Coffee Roasters, Nelsonville, WI

MadCap Coffee, Grand Rapids, MI

Gaslight Coffee Roasters, Chicago, IL

Goshen Coffee, Edwardsville, IL

Counter Culture Coffee, Durham, NC

Ipsento Coffee, Chicago, IL

Sump Coffee, St. Louis, MO

Metropolis Coffee, Chicago, IL



Much more information here via Good Beer Hunting.

Photos from the 2015 Uppers & Downers event by Eva Deitch, courtesy of Good Beer Hunting.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The previous toll at the April 29 collapse of a six-story building in Huruma Estate in northeastern Nairobi stood at 43 dead.

"It has been a delicate operation and the community helped to save the 140 alive from the scene. The number of the dead may increase. So far 18 people are hospitalized at the KNH (Kenyatta National Hospital)," NDMU deputy director Pius Masai said as quoted by Kenyas the Daily Nation newspaper.

Masai added that the rescue operation may finish by Sunday as 50 people remain unaccounted for.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the images posted by 38 North on Friday, the overall levels of activity at North Koreas Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site are low, however, vehicles have been spotted at what is believed to be the Command Center, which is a possible indication of preparations for a new test.

"Structures located approximately 6 kilometers [3.7 miles] south of the test facility are believed to be the Command Center for nuclear tests. While the historical record is incomplete, it appears that vehicles are not often seen here except during preparations for a test. No vehicles or people were observed at this facility on imagery from May 2. However, what appears to be four closely-parked vehicles are present on May 5," 38 North explained.

In late April, 38 North released commercial satellite imagery showing that North Korea was resuming excavation operations at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, with similar activity observed at the facility as that seen three days prior to the February 12, 2013 nuclear test.
Taliban launched the offensive overnight to take control of security posts in the northern Ghaziabad district, Afghanistans Khaama Press news service said, citing local officials.

According to the province's governor, Wahidullah Kalimzai, a member of the Afghan army was killed and three others were injured in the attack.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the BBC broadcaster, the police fear that Islamic extremists may be behind the incident which took place in the city of Rajshahi.

The killing comes amid a streak of hackings in the Asian country. Last week, a Hindu tailor was hacked in central Bangladesh. Daesh jihadist group, banned in multiple countries including Russia, claimed responsibility for the attack.

A leading gay rights activist and another man were hacked to death in the capital city of Dhaka last week, with an al-Qaeda affiliate claiming responsibility for the attack.
The last time Sberbank entered the debt market was in February 2014 when the bank issued 10-year subordinated eurobonds worth $1 billion, with a yield of 5.5 percent.

In April, Sberbank Deputy Chairman Bella Zlatkis announced that the bank would issue new eurobonds.

"I think there will be a lot of foreign investors. They know how to bypass anti-Russian sanctions," she was quoted as saying by Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten.

In 2015, Sberbank issued over 150 yuan-denominated letters of credit for Russian businessmen working in China, the banks subsidiary, Sberbank CIB, reported earlier.

In December 2015, Sberbank CEO Herman Gref announced that in 2016 the bank would launch its first yuan-denominated products.
BAKU (Sputnik)  At the same time, a sharp increase in prices is not expected, the minister noted.

"The price of oil on world markets will grow gradually in late 2016 as well. According to the most optimistic estimates, [the prices] could reach $55-60 per barrel," Aliyev said, as quoted by the Trend news agency.
Russia has long complained about the size of the discount for low quality Urals crude, compared to Brent prices. After oil slumped by half over the past two years Russia is now facing the risk of a growing budget deficit, due to falling dollar oil incomes.

Having its own futures market would improve Russian oil prices, as well as help domestic companies generate extra revenue from trading, Rybnikov added.

At the same time, analysts told Bloomberg that now it is too early to predict the success of the initiative.

The Russian governments system of approvals for shipping crude from different ports and pipelines could also mean subdued interest from western refiners, because some export volume adjustments could be politically motivated, Ehsan Ul-Haq, senior oil market analyst at KBC Energy Economics, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.

The volatility of the Russian ruble, which will be used for futures margins, also has caused concern among companies, he added.

In order to attract foreign traders, the Russian Central Bank is preparing legislative measures to grant non-Russian companies access to exchange-traded commodities and their derivatives, the bank said in an e-mail. The financial regulator will help Spimex start using futures to price oil for exports.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The wildfire is one of the two forest fires burning along the border, officials with the Manitoba governments wildfire program said as cited by CBC on Friday afternoon.

Winds are pushing the flames from both of the fires east into Ontario, the officials said.
LONDON (Sputnik)  Sadiq Khan from the UK Labour Party has been officially named as the new mayor of London, becoming the first Muslim to hold the post.

"I promise to always be a mayor for all Londoners for every London regardless of your background," Khan said in the early hours of Saturday, as quoted by The Telegraph.

The election results showed that Khan received 44.2 percent of votes and defeated his main rival Conservative Zac Goldsmith, who won 35 percent.
For humanitarian reasons we must accept women and children if it is necessary; the Holy Father [Pope Francis] also calls for that Men should be armed and sent to fight for the freedom of their countries, Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, who served as Agriculture Minister in 2011-2015, also opposed the so-called Dublin system of relocating asylum seekers arriving in countries on the fringes of the European Union to other states within the bloc.

Poland will never agree to such [a system of] redistribution, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.
The fire reportedly remains out of control, though, it has not spread over new territories since early Saturday. Therefore, the evacuation of residents is not relevant at the moment, the SVT Television reported, citing local rescue services.

However, according to the channel, the rescue agencies have not ruled out the evacuation.
Vard is Norway's and one of Europe's most easterly towns, which lies in close proximity to the Russian border on the Kola Peninsula. According to Postol, the time for the establishment of the new American radar in Norway close to Russian territory has been chosen badly.

"From the Russian point of view, the prospect of placing the new radar in Norway as part of the missile defense system is another example of very serious evil intentions of the United States against Russia," Postol said.

The expert argued that the Norwegian government should seriously reconsider these plans. According to him, they might pose a serious danger to the country's security as Norway might be drawn into the conflict between the superpowers.
"I never dreamt I could be standing here today as Mayor of London. I promise you I will always do everything in my power to make our city better," Khan pledged.

Khan, 45, comes from a family of a Pakistani bus driver. Goldsmiths campaign focused on Khans family background, trying to brand the former state minister for transport, also the first Muslim to hold the post, as well as the first Asian, as a supporter of Muslim extremists.

Khan is succeeding the Conservatives Boris Johnson; his victory ends eight years of Conservative control of City Hall.
ROME (Sputnik)  The campaign began at 12:00 GMT.

"Some 300 people are taking part in our campaign, including representatives of embassies of Russia, Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan," Natalya Pereslavtseva, the action's coordinator, told RIA Novosti.

A similar campaign also took place in Milan on Saturday. It will also take place in Venice and Naples on May 8 and May 10, respectively.
If the EU is really trying to normalize relations between Belgrade and Pristina it should have given something to Belgrade too because this would motivate both sides to move faster, Pavle Dimitrijevic said.

Even though EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was quick to personally bring the good news to Kosovo, not everyone in the EU appears to be happy about this.

Above all Britain, whose Justice Secretary Michael Gove said that if the EU wanted to take in new members then the British should think about getting out because the five potential new members of the EU  Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Turkey  would result in millions more people having the right to move to the UK.

Nearly 200,000 Kosovans have left for the EU over the past 12 months alone.

Just as German Chancellor Angela Merkel was meeting Kosovos visiting Prime Minister Isa Mustafa in Berlin in March, his brother illegally entered Germany to ask for political asylum there.

Kosovo, with a population of 1.8 million joins Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia in a current crop of neighboring countries in the process of being added to a list of those whose citizens are not required to obtain a visa prior to travel in Europe.
According to the RT television channel, the protesters are demanding that Austria allow refugees to enter the country.

The UN refugee agency estimates that over 17,000 migrants arrived in Italy in the first three months of 2016 after crossing the Mediterranean Sea. Most of them are from the Middle East and North Africa.
ROME (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, hundreds of members of the so-called Black Bloc  an Italian anarchist movement  as well as activists from Austria, Germany and Spain, gathered for a pro-refugee rally at the Brenner Pass, amid Viennas plans to build a fence to restrict migrant access through the crossing.

Italys military police, the Carabinieri, had to reportedly defend themselves against the Italian Left activists with batons and shields. Tear gas has also been used by the law enforcement, the ANSA news agency reported.

Clashes between police and the protesters have caused injuries to at least one police officer and resulted in dozens of demonstrators being arrested.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the ITV television channel, Rees beat former mayor of the city George Ferguson by 30,000 votes.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn travelled to Bristol to congratulate Rees, saying he was "another Labour mayor who will stand up for their city."

Earlier in the day, Labour Partys Sadiq Khan was sworn in as the new mayor of London, becoming the first Muslim to hold the post.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The British Medical Association (BMA) announced Saturday it would re-enter negotiations with the government on the issue of labour contracts for the junior doctors in England who have staged several walkouts in recent months on the issue.

"The BMA has agreed to re-enter talks with the government on outstanding issues in the dispute, which include, but are not limited to, unsocial hours. Junior doctors concerns extend far beyond pay, and our principle in talks will be to deliver a fair contract that does not discriminate against women or any other group, one which addresses the recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS [National Health Service] and which provides the basis for delivering a world-class health service," chairman of BMAs Junior Doctor Committee Johann Malawana said.

Britain's Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans in early 2016 to introduce a new employment contract for junior doctors in England under which doctors would be paid less for weekend shifts, sparking major protests in a number of cities.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, almost 2,000 people protested calling for Chancellor Angela Merkel to step down. A counter-demonstration also took place, with around 7,500 people rallying for tolerance.

"So far, our colleagues carried out more than 40 detentions So far, 13 colleagues were reported injured. Three vehicles were set on fire," the central operations division of the Berlin police said on its Twitter account.

According to local media reports, come 1,700 policemen were deployed to ensure the rallies are carried out peacefully. Several activists managed to break through the police cordon, with law enforcers using tear gas.
Popular opinion in Brazil reveals skepticism about the veracity of the impeachment proceedings and the allegations against da Silva after learning that the documents that triggered the investigation were provided to Brazils judiciary by the United States spy agency NSA, who accessed the information by illegally surveilling the Brazilian president, the Workers Party, and PetroBras.

Additionally, Brazilians consider the lead advocate for Rousseffs impeachment proceedings, Eduardo Cunha, to be a notably corrupt politician. Cunha has been implicated in the recently-released Panama Papers, using offshore accounts to hide kickbacks and is also believed to have 23 additional offshore accounts in Switzerland.

Over the past 24 hours Cunha has been ordered to step down by Brazils Supreme Court as he is facing a criminal prosecution of his own, on allegations of corruption.

The possibility now exists that Brazils Supreme Court may move to nullify the earlier impeachment vote in the lower house, effectively terminating what some view as a coup detat. The removal of Cunha provides new fodder for the Workers Party and Rousseff supporters that the impeachment is a political ploy.

On Thursday, Loud & Clears Brian Becker sat down with Brazilian journalist Victor Fraga to discuss the unfolding drama surrounding the governmental gamesmanship.
MEXICO CITY (Sputnik)  Bolivia is preparing to sign contracts on the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) with Peru and Paraguay, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced.

"These days we are preparing it, the agreement will be signed with Peru and Paraguay," Morales confirmed on Friday, as quoted by La Razon.

According to Morales, the agreement will help Bolivias state-owned oil and gas company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to provide services internationally.
According to Davis, the US troops were deployed about two weeks ago and will stay for a short term in a "fixed location" to support the operations of the Yemeni and the United Arab Emirates forces in their efforts to route AQAP fighters out of the city of Mukalla.

Since 2014, Yemen has been engulfed in a military conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and Shiite Houthi rebels, the countrys main opposition force, supported by army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

AQAP militants have taken advantage of the internal conflict, taking control of Mukalla in April 2015.

According to the Pentagon, the United States has conducted several airstrikes on AQAP targets in Yemen in the past weeks. A coalition of mostly Gulf Arab states led by Saudi Arabia has been conducting airstrikes on Houthi positions at President Hadi's request since March 2015.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The United States has expressed concern over the sentencing of two prominent Turkish journalists to over five years in prison, for publishing an article on Turkey supplying weaponry to Syrian rebels.

"The United States is concerned by the guilty verdicts issued today in the trial of Cumhuriyet Editor Can Dundar and Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gul, who were convicted of leaking state secrets stemming from their journalistic work. We reiterate that the United States supports freedom of expression, and we call on the Turkish authorities to support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society," the US State Department said in a Friday statement.

Can Dundar and Erdem Gul from the Cumhuriyet opposition newspaper were arrested and placed in pre-trial detention in November 2015 for publishing an incriminating article and footage in the daily on May 29. Their investigation concluded that Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks had carried containers with artillery shells, machine gun rounds and mortar shells to Syrian rebels.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier in the day, the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement reportedly launched a rocket that hit the Israeli southern regional council of Eshkol. No injuries or damage have been reported.

"The IDF will not tolerate terrorists opening fire onto Israeli territory and will continue to act severely against any attempt to disturb the peace of [its] communities," the IDF said, as quoted by The Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Henningsen said that what the US is doing is called a "strategy of confusion" in terms of public relations. It is aimed at making a number of contradicting statements on the situation so no one can understand what is actually going.

"This is used to basically obscure and cover up what is essentially a dirty war going on the ground in Syria right now," he said.

The expert also commented on the possible reasons behind Washington objecting to Russias actions and proposals on Syria.

"I think its out of frustration. Russia came in with a very clear objective back in October, 2015 and they achieved that objective by a lot of peoples estimation. [] This upset everybody because the US was saying that Russia was being dragged into a quagmire. At every turn the narratives that are being conjured up by the State Department are getting knocked down and disintegrating," he said.

Henningsen noted that the US has spent millions of dollars on the "Aleppo is burning," a PR campaign to create a so-called "no bombing zone" like it was with the "no-fly zone" and "safe zone" before.

"This is a public relations war with a level of sophistication weve never seen before," he concluded.
CAIRO (Sputnik)  The defendants' documents will be handed over to Egypt's mufti for the sentence approval. Morsi will be adjudicated on June 18, the Arab country's television channels broadcast.

The sentence that may be announced next month would become the third for the former Egyptian leader after last year he was given a life sentence on charges of spying for foreign intelligence and sentenced to death over a mass jailbreak incident in 2011 during political demonstrations that contributed to the resignation of then-President Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi, now 64, won the presidential election in Egypt in 2012 to become the first democratically elected president of the country. The following year, he was ousted by the Egyptian military after large-scale anti-government protests.
Lately there has been fierce battles taking place in the city and civilians were caught in the firing line. The situation was worsened by the fact that part of Aleppo is still controlled by rebels of al-Nusra Front, and to them the truce does not apply. The extremists have continued to shell the residential areas.

Is it an armistice? In the morning the shelling started, missiles started flying on people's heads. We ask the Syrian army to protect us, a resident of Aleppo said.

Another man openly admitted that some people believe that a ceasefire is not an option. He said, People want stability, they want to live in safety. A temporary ceasefire is nothing to us. We are tired of bloodshed! Aleppo is drowning in blood! These 48 hours will pass and death and destruction will come back to us.

On one hand, the truce in Aleppo is a great achievement in the framework of Syrian peace process negotiations. The parties have expressed hope to protect the civilians.

But on the other hand, some believe that the silent mode will give the terrorist groups an opportunity to regroup and procure new ammunition and weapons. One man has even said that he believes that the supply will come from Turkey.

In fact, the truce does not help here. We need a radical solution to the problem, specific military and political action. We are already very tired. This truce will last two or three days and then everything will be as before, insurgents will take up arms once again. Therefore, a temporary truce is not an option, a local resident said.
Even if Syrian extremists do not receive MANPADs from the US, they could still buy the shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles on the black market.

The Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, are another possible source. Riyadh has long provided financial assistance, as well as weapons to those trying to overthrow Bashar al-Assad.

"There is definitively concern about it," an unnamed defense official told the Daily Beast. "If [MANPADs] were to be introduced, there is a real worry that [Daesh] would target the coalition and eventually target civilian aircraft."

Two Syrian military aircraft were reportedly downed using anti-aircraft missiles earlier this year. Syrian rebels acquired MANPADs from government stockpiles in the early months of the conflict. Additional missiles were reportedly provided by Qatar.

Syrian MiG-21 was downed by MANPAD shot near Kafr Nabudah on March 12, 2016 at 2.41 p.m. The aircraft was performing airspace control tasks    (@mod_russia) 13  2016 .

In recent weeks, Syrian rebels have increasingly pressed Washington and its allies to send anti-aircraft weapons in case the ceasefire, brokered by Russia and the US, does not hold. Meanwhile, Moscow has made every effort to help the fragile Syrian peace process move forward.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The clashes left 21 other soldiers with the IRGC wounded, Hossein Ali Rezayi added, as cited by the ISNA news agency.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with government forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups. A ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia came into force across the country on February 27, however it excludes terrorist groups such as al-Nusra Front and Daesh, both of which are outlawed in Russia.

Since late 2011, Iranian soldiers have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces. According to Iranian media reports, over 400 Iranian army personnel have been killed in the fighting in Syria since the start of the conflict.
In an interview with Sputnik Nasuh Mahruki criticized the following measures saying that, the State should take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of its citizens and stop the attacks, instead of distributing brochures with ridiculous advice. If it cannot cope with this challenge, the only effective way to save one is to leave the dangerous region by any means possible.

The head of the union further spoke about how normal life in Kilis has become impossible. In a healthy, normally functioning society, the state must not allow the occurrence of such a situation, which is directly threatening the lives of its citizens. It must use all of its resources to stop this.

The government, meanwhile, is limiting itself to releasing leaflets with such tips as where to hide better and how fast to run, if you hear the sound of an approaching missile, Mahruki said.

According to him such actions by Turkeys government are totally unacceptable as it must find a solution as fast as possible to put an end to rocket attacks on its border towns.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Al-Nusra Front jihadist group has continued fighting near the Syrian city of Aleppo, shelling its district and an airfield, the Russian reconciliation center said in an information bulletin on Saturday.

"Militants of Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist grouping have continued conducting warfare near Aleppo. Within last 24 hours, they have performed 2 shellings with multiple launch rocket systems against Sheikh Maqsood and al-Nairab airfield. Terrorists took efforts to launch offensive on Sheikh Maqsood from Ashrafiyah," the bulletin, posted by the Russian Defense Ministry, said.

The Russian reconciliation center also reported that five ceasefire violations were registered in Syria over the last 24 hours in the provinces of Aleppo and Latakia.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The next US administration will carry out a review of the overall US nuclear posture, including of forces in Europe, former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear and Missile Defense Policy Brad Roberts told Sputnik.

"The US posture in Europe will certainly be part of the overall review that the next administration does," Roberts said.

Each new US president since 1993 has undertaken a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)  a comprehensive Department of Defense-led assessment of the security environment and the role of nuclear forces within that context. The review then establishes US nuclear policy, strategy and force posture for the next five to ten years.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  The current wars waged by the United States and its allies in Iraq, Yemen and Syria have depleted US reserves of precision guided missiles (PGM), senior Department of Defense officials have complained, according to US media reports.

"This issue has caught the attention of leadership inside the Pentagon, which has raised the need for faster PGM deliveries as an example of how the [foreign military sales] system needs reform," Defense News said on Friday, citing a financial study from Guggenheim Securities.

The Guggenheim Securities report said the demand for more precision-guided air-to-surface missiles by US and allied forces had seriously run down domestic stocks.
In a letter last month, Senators John McCain, Bob Corker, Jack Reed and Claire McCaskill called on President Barack Obama to complete the deal.

"Denying the requests will not preclude these countries from purchasing fighter aircraft with advanced capabilities from foreign providers, including perhaps Russia. America must not lose an opportunity to expand our influence in the Middle East and ensure continued US industrial dominance by ceding the field to our competitors or adversaries," the senators wrote in the letter, which was provided to The Wall Street Journal.

According to the article, the deal includes the delivery of F-16 jets manufactured by Lockheed Martin as well as F-15 and F/A-18 aircraft, both made by Boeing.
Earlier, US Navy Commodore Ollie Lewis told CNN that "we have to consider there is an adversary ready to challenge us in the undersea domain and that [America's] undersea superiority is not guaranteed." Former NATO commander James Stavridis recently called Russian subs as posing "an existential threat to US carrier groups."

Lukanin doubts that the US would develop a submarine resembling the Yasen class, since the Pentagon has another strategy. "The Americans have traditionally developed heavy offensive weapons, including cruise and ballistic missiles. They don't have defensive fleet, except for the Coast Guard," he explained.

"Russia has traditionally pursued a defensive strategy. All Russian weapons serve for defensive purposes. The Americans, on the other hand, adhere to an offensive approach that is based on suppressing an adversary with their might," he added.

Last week, the first Yasen-class submarine in service with the Russian Fleet successfully completed its first combat training mission. The Severodvinsk executed a flawless precision strike against a land-based dummy target using a Kalibr cruise missile during a routine military exercise in the Barents Sea.
Washington might see things differently, but it is Ankara's view that matters in this context and the Turkish strongman had grounds to be concerned.

Erdogan's recent visit to Washington did not go particularly as planned. The Turkish president travelled to the US to take part in the Nuclear Security Summit, but he also wanted to meet with Obama. The White House refused to accommodate Ankara's request. This came in sharp contrast to Erdogan's state visit to Washington in 2013 and the overall tone of relations.
At the same time, Russian cannot leave Damascus without military assistance, the expert said. A total pullout would be a political defeat and undermine all combat achievements.

"In fact, Vladimir Putin doesnt seem to be ready to leave Syria without a Russian military presence. Rumors are going around that in summer Russia may send its only aircraft carrier  the Admiral Kuznetsov  to Syria. Putin may replace aircraft with an aircraft carrier," Rodier told Atlantico.

Furthermore, the analyst praised the role the Russian military has played in the Syrian crisis, saying that "Vladimir Putin acted faultlessly."

"In fact, the Russian engagement saved the situation. Backed by Russian airstrikes, the Syrian Army managed to launch an offensive against terrorists across the country," Rodier said.
These efforts paid off. In 2014, the US, the largest contributor to NATO's budget, launched the 1$ billion European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) in response to Crimea's reunification with Russia and Moscow's supposed role in the Ukrainian civil war.

The ERI's budget for fiscal year 2017 skyrocketed to $3.4 billion. It will be used to fund new command and control centers, rotational deployment, more war-games and prepositioned military equipment on the bloc's eastern flank. Further plans include permanently stationing a third brigade in Europe.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The messages were mailed, in particular, to the prime ministers of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

"Our countries honor the special memory of the great feat of the soldiers-liberators who gave their lives for the Motherland, for the freedom and happiness of posterity. Current and future generations will always remember the unyielding courage of the soldiers that fought in the Great Patriotic War and the selfless dedication of the home front workers," the press service stated in a statement.
Earlier this week, the Kurdish language news television network NRT News reported that the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) urged local authorities to take "serious steps" towards holding the independence referendum. The KDP is led by Masoud Barzani, who has served as the president of Iraqi Kurdistan since 2005.

In March, Barzani confirmed that the vote would likely take place in October.

Both Masoud Barzani and Muhammad Haji Mahmoud emphasized that the vote will not automatically lead to independence, even if the majority of Iraqi Kurds back the move. "It is a card and a mandate in the Kurdish hands to negotiate it with the Iraqi government, the regional powers, and the West," the latter explained.

Barzani's son, Masrour Barzan, who serves as Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, called Iraq "a conceptual failure" that has compelled different ethnicities "to share an uncertain future" although they have "little in common."

"It is time to acknowledge that the experiment has not worked. Iraq is a failed state, and our continued presence within it condemns us all to unending conflict and enmity," he wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post.

To remain invested in a state [Iraq] that has repeatedly failed is folly. Kurdistan has built foundations of a successful, prosperous state.  Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) 6  2016 .

Amicable divorce, Barzani argued, is the only option remaining on the table. An independent Kurdistan, in his opinion, will bring greater security and stability to the region plagued by sectarian violence. A sovereign nation will also be better positioned to tackle Daesh. In addition, it will gain access to international markets that would help to solve Kurdistan's financial troubles.

On Iraq, I explained: The mentality in Baghdad does not accept partnership. Iraq's falling apart; we've done what we can to hold it together  Masrour Barzani (@masrour_barzani) 4  2016 .

Iraqi Kurdistan is an autonomous region in northern Iraq, well-represented in federal institutions.

Local authorities have flayed Baghdad for failing to deliver on its promise to transfer 17 percent of the national budget to the Kurds under an oil and profit-sharing deal. They have also been unhappy with Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi's attempts to reshuffle his cabinet by establishing a government of technocrats.
"He is obviously trying to centralize as much power as possible to himself and his presidential position. So many people are seeing this as an attempt to move Turkey into a dictatorship," journalist William Whiteman told Sputnik Radio.

According to Svetov, if Erdogan seizes absolute power in Turkey he will continue to "twist Brussels arms."

After Davutoglus resignation, many experts said that Erdogans son-in-law Berat Albayrak would be appointed as prime minister.

"If Albayrak is appointed Erdogan will be the full-fledged sultan of Turkey and will dictate terms to the EU," the analyst suggested.

At the same time, the analyst noted that Davutoglus resignation may be a gesture toward Russia.

"Media reported that it was Davutoglu who ordered to shoot down the Russian bomber in Syria. Probably, his resignation is Erdogans signal to Russia. It may be an attempt to shift responsibility for the incident to Davutoglu in a bid to restore ties with Moscow. Probably, Erdogan thinks that Russia will have dialogue with the new Turkish prime minister," Svetov said.
BERLIN (Sputnik)  The foreign minister stressed that only a political solution can bring peace to the Middle East country.

"After all, we have a framework acceptable to all, talks in which all key players are together since Vienna and Munich: the United States and Russia, as well as Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. This is far from guarantee of success, but it is more than we had achieved in the past five years. We must build on. We can not afford another five years of war, displacement and destruction in Syria," Steinmeier told Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung newspaper.

The UN Security Council Resolution 2254 was adopted last December. It reaffirms the previous agreements to end the bombardment of civilians in Syria, bring the entire spectrum of political groups in the war-torn country to the negotiating table and promote a lasting political resolution to the crisis.
Later on Friday, Turkish police detained a suspected gunman. Two new suspects were detained on Saturday, the Dogan news agency said.

Dundar and Gul were arrested and placed in pre-trial detention in November 2015 for publishing an incriminating article and footage in the Cumhuriyet on May 29. Their investigation concluded that Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks had carried containers with artillery shells, machine gun rounds and mortar shells to Syrian rebels.
Virtually unlimited access to Western assistance has 'freed' the Ukrainian political establishment from carrying out serious economic and political reforms in the country and only heightened its interest in maintaining the status quo, American scholars, political risk consultant Neil A. Abrams and Professor M. Steven Fish of the University of California at Berkeley noted.

Over the past 25 years the West has funneled billions of dollars in post-communist Ukraine in order to transform it into "a law governed state" and a "competitive market economy"; however, again and again the West's initiatives have been crashing on the rocks of corruption and asset-grabbing in Ukraine.

"Only in rare instances have reforms gone beyond artful pandering to Western donors. The reason is simple: Since 1991, when Ukraine gained independence from the Soviet Union, a powerful political and business establishment has wielded uninterrupted control of the Ukrainian state. Not even popular uprisings in 2004 and 2014 or changes of executive power in 1994, 2005, 2010 and 2014 managed to dislodge this elite," Abrams and Fish wrote in their article for the Washington Post.
MOSCOW (Sputnik)  According to the BBC, Nobel laureate for economics Prof Finn Kydland, Aaron Ciechanover, who won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Nobel laureate for medicine Sir Richard Roberts visited Pyongyang as North Korea hosted its first Congress of the ruling Workers' Party since 1980.

"We didn't come to criticise them you cannot turn penicillin into a nuclear bomb You don't pressurise via making people sicker," Ciechanover said in Beijing as quoted by the British broadcaster, speaking of the anti-Pyongyang sanctions.

Roberts, in turn, said he was "quite impressed" with the progress North Korean scientists had reached.
Klapper's report reads : "Secretary of State John Kerry warned Syria's government and its backers in Moscow and Tehran on Tuesday that they face an August deadline for starting a political transition to move President Bashar Assad out, or they risk the consequences of a new US approach toward ending the 5-year-old civil war."

According to the American journalist, the White House is unlikely to authorize the deployment of extra US troops in Syria, instead "US allies like Saudi Arabia might be able to give the rebels new weapons to fight Assad, such as portable surface-to-air missiles."

It seems Washington is not shy about cooperating with Saudi Arabia and Turkey despite the fact the two realms are up to their eyeballs involved in arming and funding terrorists in the region.

Cartaculli quotes the Independent report that says the two countries [Saudi Arabia and Turkey] are backing the Jaish al-Fatah group (the Army of Conquest) a joint command structure for Syrian jihadists that includes al-Nusra Front.

Washington is well aware of "co-mingling" between the US-backed "moderate" rebels and powerful al-Nusra Front terrorists. However, the Pentagon and the CIA have so far failed to "separate" the Syrian moderate opposition from Islamists.

The geopolitical analyst points out that although the White House possesses all political and military tools to eradicate the "roots" of the Middle Eastern terrorism it hesitates to do it.

Washington policymakers regard al-Qaeda's affiliate al-Nusra Front as a convenient tool to pressure the Syrian government into making political concessions.

Remarkably, Cartalucci stresses the US senior officials had no scruples about collaborating with Islamists in Libya, referring to the fact that back in 2011 US Senator John McCain found himself shaking hands with the commander of US State Department-listed foreign terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG)  de facto al-Qaeda in Libya.
"The regulations and programs of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been formulated in such a way as to avoid the danger of turning democracy into a dictatorship of one man with all the other threats that are associated with that. Meanwhile, we are now face to face with this exact danger. It is very, very real.

The former Secretary General further said, The president should not interfere in the internal affairs of the party; he is obliged to be loyal to this oath and his promises. In the world there are many examples of how chaos threatens to spread if the Head of State trails off from these principles and intervenes in the internal affairs of the party or the country's neighbors.

He stressed that the main duty of the head is to establish order and maintain stability in the country, and not to create conditions that threaten to plunge the country into chaos.
Politicians from Germany's ruling coalition also voiced their concerns over Davutoglus decision to resign. They said that Davutoglu's departure will pave the way for the countrys president to rule unchecked.

In my opinion the European Union will do whatever Erdogan tells them to do. The EU is in no position to dictate anything to Erdogan given the political situation over the last two years. I dont consider Davutoglu more liberal. I think there was a difference between Erdogan and Davutoglu in terms of how they wanted to implement their vision over domestic and foreign policy, but seeing Davutoglus articles and publications I would consider him to be more ideological, more Islamist than Erdogan himself, Yavuz said.

The analyst further spoke about the relations between Erdogan and the EU. According to him, as long as Merkel supports Erdogan, the EU will not change or suggest any policy change to Erdogan.

I dont think that EU is more ethical than Erdogan. These are politicians and each one of them tries to remain in power.

The analyst further spoke about Turkeys budding relationship with Saudi Arabia and the recent visit by Prince Salman to Turkey.
"As an interim measure while the regulatory process to remove Belarus from the ACL [Area Control List] moves forward, Global Affairs Canada will normally issue export permits for the export to Belarus of goods and technology that are not specifically listed in the Export Control List. This practice will take effect immediately," the diplomatic body added.

On February 15, the EU Foreign Affairs Council partially lifted sanctions against 170 Belarusian nationals and three companies. The council, however, extended its arms embargo for 12 months and kept four Belarusians on its sanctions list.

The sanctions against Belarus were gradually imposed from 2002 to 2010. The most serious package of restrictions was adopted in 2010 after the presidential elections in Belarus and the authorities crackdown on a mass protest that followed. They included visa bans and financial restrictions on some 200 Belarusian individuals, including President Alexandr Lukashenko, and several entities.

The West has accused the Belarusian authorities of persecuting the political opposition and violating citizens basic rights and freedoms, in particular, freedom of expression. Lukashenko has insisted that the accusations were groundless.
Ivan Melnikov of the Russian Communist Party also noted "the brilliant foreign policy which has been thought through like a game of chess, in the spirit of the most glorious and powerful pages of the great Russian history."

Valeriy Ryazansky, who heads the social politics committee in the Russian upper house, pointed out that Russia managed to make BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) instruments of political dialogue in the international reality.

According to Igor Lebedev of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the country yet again declared itself as a strong state.

"Russia stated that the unilateral world where all decisions were made and are made under dictation of one state came to an end," Lebedev told RIA Novosti.

Deputy head of the Russian State Duma Defense Committee Frants Klintsevich speaks of modernization of the Russian armed forces.

"The last four years have definitely been a breakthrough in this sector. Nowadays we have one of the most modern militaries in the world," he said.

Principles of Internal Politics
He was on the ground conducting reconnaissance and target acquisition for Russian warplanes, which were providing support for Syrian government forces, when his position was compromised and he found himself surrounded by terrorist fighters.

Rather than be captured, he called in an air strike on his own position that killed him and several of the enemy.

His body was recovered by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and returned to Russia for a military ceremony and proper burial.

President Vladimir Putin awarded Alexander Prokhorenko the countrys highest military decoration, Hero of the Russian Federation, last month and a family in France sent his mother their Second World War medals in appreciation of her sons heroic conduct.


At the top of a mountain

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War in 2015, servicemen at the Center for Mountaineering and Survival climbed Mt. Elbrus and set up a banner there.

In January 2015, Russian climbers also set up the Victory Banner on the top of the highest peak in South America, Aconcagua, in Argentina. According to the team leader Pavel Romanovich, the idea was born a few years ago, when they has been preparing to conquer the highest peak in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Underwater

In April 2015, athletes from the Yakut diving club "Aquastar" dove with the Banner of Victory to the bottom of the ice-covered Lena river.

In May, the same year, Sakhalin's customs commandos carried the Victory Banner to the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk.

"Our grandfathers achieved victory conquering a lot of difficulties [], so our dive we have devoted their immortal dead," team member Maxim Kotov told RT.
Water from Russias Altai region in western Siberia would be delivered to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China via Kazakhstan.

We will hold consultations with our colleagues from Kazakhstan on the issue shortly, Tkachev told reporters after the meeting.

Alexander Tkachev proposed to invite experts from Russia and China to discuss the details of the transfer. About 70 million cubic meters of water may be sent to the Chinese region yearly.
The citys debtor-prison policy, which was found in violation of both the Constitution and Colorado state law, has been discontinued. The pay or serve policy meant that people who could not pay their fines for non-criminal offenses, such as panhandling, were imprisoned for one day for every $50 that they owed.

Three quarters of the time, the people jailed for being broke had been brought to court for an offense that carries no jail time under the relevant statute. Yet jailed they were, as the city treated poverty as a criminal offense, Think Progress explained.

Under the settlement, 66 pay-or-serve victims will be paid $125 for each day they were illegally jailed.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  Romanian hacker Guccifer who claims to have breached Hillary Clintons e-mail server says he spoke with an agent from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) while being extradited to the United States.

"They came after me, a guy from the FBI, from the [US] State Department," the hacker, whose real name is Marcel Leher Lazar told Fox News in a phone interview released on Friday, adding that the conversation with the FBI agent was recorded and lasted one hour and twenty minutes.

Earlier this week, Lazar told Fox News that it was "easy" for him to hack US former Secretary of State Hillary Clintons personal e-mail server.
The first public Immortal Regiment event was held in the Siberian city of Tomsk in 2012. By 2013, it 120 cities joined the event and that number grew to 500 cities and towns in seven countries by the following year.

The first US march was held in the city of New York on May 3 of last year. This year, the event has expanded to include Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Orlando, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington. Overall, organizers millions of people are expected to take part in marches around the world. Last year, an estimated 12 million participated in Russia.

In Washington, activists are marching from the White House to the World War II Memorial on the National Mall.
She expects several hundreds to attend the event and tell the stories of their heroes despite the fact that the Immortal March falls on a workday in Germany.

Paris and Strasbourg residents will witness the procession a day earlier. In the French capital, its coordinator Tatyana Campeau told that RIA Novosti French and Italian resistance soldiers descendants are expected to join the children and grandchildren of Soviet veterans.

The Immortal Regiment plans to march from the Place de la Bastille to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery, where they will lay wreaths at the monument of Soviet partisans and members of the French resistance.

In London, the Immortal Regiment will march on May 9 from Trafalgar Square to the Palace of Westminster. Campeau, the events coordinator, says the purpose of the march is "to get together to honor the memory of their own families, to carry their loved ones portraits high overhead  be they army or navy veterans, logistics workers, partisans, Nazi camp prisoners, blockade fighters, resistance fighters, children of the war who will never be able to go on the parade themselves."

"We will demonstrate that we value, respect and acknowledge the price that our families and our veterans paid for peace," Campeau said.
A similar point of view was expressed by NYT . However, the author noted that with this performance Russia also wanted to emphasize its "underappreciated role" in the liberation of Palmyra.

At the same time, CNN focused on top security measures rather than on the performance itself, describing it as a "surreal moment".

"For many of the international reporters it was a surreal moment, but Russians said it was a moment of pride," the media source wrote.

The Atlantic, for its turn, wrote that "the Russian and Syrian governments hailed Palmyra's recapture as proof of the success of their coalition against extremism." The media source also paid attention to the fact that the war in Syria is still not over.

A similar opinion was expressed by Deutsche Welle. According to the media source, Russia organized the concert to attract the world's attention to its role in Palmyra's liberation.

"Russia used orchestral culture on Thursday to win international kudos after helping Syrian President Bashar al-Assad recapture the UNESCO World Heritage Site from Islamic State militants," the article said.

Daesh, outlawed in Russia, seized Palmyra in May 2015 and destroyed part of its historic ruins, which are a designated UNESCO World Heritage site. On March 27, forces loyal to Damascus and backed by the Russian Aerospace Forces liberated the city.
In this week's Rewind Robert Smith offers a special salute to all of the great mothers we have known over the years as we observe Mother's Day this Sunday. He also recalls a great equine 'mother' who was a central part of one of the truly great families of mares to ever grace our sport.

I would like to extend a very Happy Mother's Day to everyone in the Rewind audience on this special day. We all owe much to our own mother and also to many other great women who have been part of our extended families and thus had an effect on our upbringing and well-being. I was privileged to have a wonderful mother who of course has long since departed but I thank her for her love and understanding and apologize for not paying closer attention to her words. To my wonderful wife, I am forever indebted for her dedication to motherhood and also our daughters who have learned from her caring example.





Dalyce Blue and owner-driver Dr. John Findley (then at age 34) receive a sterling silver tray from Race Secretary George Giguere at Richelieu Park in November 1958. Dalyce Blue and owner-driver Dr. John Findley (then at age 34) receive a sterling silver tray from Race Secretary George Giguere at Richelieu Park in November 1958.

Back in August of 2012 the great mare Dalyce Blue was officially enshrined in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in the "Legends" Category. An honour well-deserved and undoubtedly a bit overdue. Horses that are bred, trained, driven and owned by the same person for an entire lifetime are pretty special and also somewhat of a rarity nowadays. This is a story I believe worth telling and a horse worthy of remembering for a variety of reasons. I feel personally a bit privileged to have had many good "chats" with Dr. John Findley about this wonderful mare; a few of the tales I may have even heard twice!

One of the truly great and memorable trotters of a half century ago is still well remembered by veteran race fans; she is unlikely to ever be forgotten. Her name, Dalyce Blue was a "special" name in a long succession of well thought out monikers by her breeder, owner and most often driver, Dr. John Findley of Arnprior, Ont. The good Doctor, who is now a spry 91 years young, named some of the foals of the mare Sheila Lee after beauty queens or at least the inspiration for their names came from that direction. The idea all came about many years previous to this when "Doc" was met in the winner's circle at Connaught Park by Dalyce Smith (no relation) as part of a promotional event. He asked permission of the then "Miss Canada" to incorporate her name and the idea caught on. Obviously the colts didn't get the same treatment getting names like Arnprior.

Dalyce Blue was a foal of 1956, the result of a mating between Ezra Blue (a sire that Dr. Findley still raves about) and a Madawaska Farm mare called Sheila Lee that raced with distinction on the trot for the Findley Farm dating back to the days of Thorncliffe Park. Dalyce was the mare's second foal and a good one she was, following in the footsteps of her full sister Cathy Diggles -- a Futurity winner and another outstanding trotting pupil from the Findley Stable.

Dr. Findley recalls that sometimes the best decisions you make are not always necessarily well planned. His first plan was to breed Sheila Lee to a well-known horse of the day called The Diplomat, a pacing horse with a trotting-based pedigree. Due to circumstances beyond his control this was not possible and the choice of Ezra Blue was made and he has never regretted it for a moment.

The young Dalyce started her racing career in 1958 at age two and did it with the style and class that would mark the remainder of her career. Brought along slowly in the Findley camp, she made her career debut on July 25th at Arnprior winning both heats of a $200 Purse event. After racing at several locations, she finished out what was then considered a very good freshman season, winning eight of her nine starts and putting over $3,000 in the Findley bank account. Her speed record was 2:09.4 taken on her last start at Richelieu Park, a time that made her the first two-year-old Canadian-sired trotter to take a record under 2:10. A bit earlier she had also trotted a mile in 2:10 flat at Montreal.

She went on to a lengthy career racing on both sides of the border in colt and aged competition, earning a lifetime total of $90,000. She was even an entrant and money winner in the 1961 Maple Leaf Trot...I believe driven by Keith Waples when Dr. John was injured. She competed as an entry along with stablemate Peaches Atom (John Hayes Sr.) in the race won by Tie Silk. When Dr. John talks about this special mare, he does so with a special passion in his voice for not only what she did for him but also what he learned from being around her.

The picture accompanying this piece at the top has a "cute" story attached to it and I hope I have it correctly recorded. The track management at Richelieu Park had decided to honour Dalyce Blue as well as another outstanding performer that season: Homestead Dan, a three-year-old owned by Osler Burrison of the Rice Lake area who had both recorded excellent mile times for their age and gait. The plan was to present a silver tray to each following an upcoming race. In the case of Homestead Dan, it was announced when this would take place and perhaps the Montreal fans knew with certainty that if "Dan" and driver Jack Gordon were already scheduled into the winner's circle it might be a good time to bet him. Well, as most people know, things are not always predictable in a horse race and as fate would dictate Homestead Dan made it to the winner's circle but NOT as the race winner, just to collect his silver tray. The Montreal race fans were some upset and were not too shy in displaying their displeasure.

Thankfully when it came to Dalyce Blue's turn, Richelieu Park management decided to hold the ceremony before the race, not following despite the rock solid assurance from Dr. Findley that he would win the race (which he did ). In this case everything went "according to script" and the presentation took place in a friendly setting.

Dalyce Blue Wins The Suffolk Downs Three-Year-Old Trot - 1959

In September of 1959 Dalyce Blue was shipped to East Boston, Mass. to Suffolk Downs, a rather unusual spot as it was known mainly as a thoroughbred track. This year a Standardbred meeting was offered and the Stakes program was a most lucrative one. On opening night Dalyce Blue was an upset winner in the headline event, trotting home in 2:04.3 to take the major share of the $28,400 purse. She beat a select field of 10 that included Sara Black, who was considered almost unbeatable that season as she won 12 of 15 starts. Also included in the field was Tie Silk, a horse that later became well known to Canadian fans.

Additionally Dr. Findley won another event on the card with Leezoff thus making him the meeting's temporary leading driver. In notching the win, Dalyce Blue became the first Canadian-sired trotting filly to ever win a colt race beating an "Open" field (meaning both colts and fillies). At the same time her sub-2:05 mile made history as the first Canadian-sired filly to do so at age three. The Suffolk Downs track was a one-mile track. Despite competing for lesser purses through much of the year, Dalyce earned an unbelievable total of $36,021 during her sophomore season. Early in her career she proved her versatility as she competed against older horses and at times even pacers.

Dr. Findley related a humorous story that apparently followed the stunning defeat by Dalyce Blue over heavily favoured Sara Black. "In those days news travelled pretty slow. When Robert Walker (driver of Sara Black) returned to Roosevelt some grooms from his stable came out to greet him and to presumably get the details of the latest win. They soon learned that she did not win and when asked who did win, he replied, "Something sired by Ezra Blue!"





The winners circle festivities at Suffolk Downs in Boston, Mass. following a stunning victory by Dalyce Blue The winners circle festivities at Suffolk Downs in Boston, Mass. following a stunning victory by Dalyce Blue

Once the racing career of Dalyce Blue was over, last racing at the age of seven, she went on to a highly successful career as part of the broodmare band at Dr. Findley's Madawaska Farm. Following her first foal, Greenmantle (by Philip Frost), being The Black Douglas a top class trotter of the early 1970's who gained career earnings of over $ 270,000, and also Crimson Duchess (pictured below) a successful colt performer. All were raced in the Findley Stable. 





Pictured above is Crimson Duchess (Duke Rodney - Dalyce Blue) with Dr. John at the controls Pictured above is Crimson Duchess (Duke Rodney - Dalyce Blue) with Dr. John at the controls

Although Dalyce Blue was foaled at the Findley farm in 1956, her life story began many years previous to this. Way back in 1916 John Findley Sr. travelled to the Old Glory Sale in New York in search of racing talent to bring back to his home in Arnprior nestled in the Ottawa Valley. His original intention was perhaps not fulfilled but he did bring home a well-bred trotting mare named Minnie Watts. She in turn foaled Miss Chilcoot who the senior Findley later sold. Many years later when she had reached the age of 20 or so young John repurchased her for $100 plus an additional $40.00 to have her shipped home.

Despite the lateness of her life cycle at the age of 21 Miss Chilcoot foaled a mare called Sheila Lee who as outlined above became the dam of Dalyce Blue. In the fullness of time a total of eight generations of horses descended from the original purchase back in 1916. Truly a story of unequalled proportions and a testament to the importance of mothers, be they human or equine.

I think it only appropriate to salute a "Mother Horse" on this special weekend that we celebrate Mother's Day.
Some sophomores who had been flying just under the radar at two took advantage of breaks by the divisional favourites as Pennsylvania All-Stars kicked off the afternoon portion of a Kentucky Derby doubleheader at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono.

Three $30,000 divisions for state-bred three-year-old trotting colts and geldings were featured on the first of two cards bookending the Kentucky Derby.

In the opening cut, Tyson picked a good time to break his maiden. In control of the situation for the last half, Tyson's :28.3 quarter closed out a 1:55.4 mile for driver Corey Callahan, trainer Trond Smedshammer, and the ownership combine of the Purple Haze Stables LLC, American Viking Racing Stable, Anderson Farms, and Marc Goldberg.

The altered son of Donato Hanover stayed steady throughout the mile while his main rivals kept knocking themselves out of competition -- first 2-5 chalk Love Matters, then quick-leaving Pilgrims Tide (6-1), and finally pocketsitting Hollywood Highway (7-1), who had yielded command to 9-2 second choice Tyson and his move in front of the stands the first time. Tyson went on to an easy 2 length win over Edinburgh, with Will Self rallying for a distant third.

Mikkeli Hanover, named after the Finnish countryside oval where Varenne once set the world standard for five-eighths mile tracks, might have a little ways to go to come close to the talent level of that one. According to driver Yannick Gingras, hes still a little green and yet he was able to lower his mark three seconds by winning his division by a length in 1:56.3.

The Andover Hall colt, the 7-1 third choice, made a second move to go to the lead past the 5/8, then benefited when favourite Massive Clout -- who had followed him down the back and had retucked in the pocket behind him -- made a break on the far turn, leaving Mikkeli with a four to five-length lead late on the turn. Second choice Granite State and Marion Gondolier came on with late bids, but they had to settle for minor honours behind Mikkeli Hanover, who is trained by Ron Burke for his Burke Racing Stable LLC, Weaver Bruscemi LLC, Crawford Farms LLC, and Panhellenic Stable Corporation.

The third division was also the fastest, and it produced a second All-Stars winner for driver Captain Corey Callahan in 14-1 shot Hititoutofthepark. He worked to the lead at the quarter, shook off the first-over challenge of favoured Make Or Miss (that colt eventually broke), and then staved off potential rocket rocket Lagerfeld by a head in 1:55, lowering his lifetime best by a tick, with Cloud Nine Hanover third. The Yankee Glide ridgling, a five-time winner at two, is conditioned by John Butenschoen for owners Give It A Shot Stable, Kurt Welling, and VIP Internet Stable LLC.

The evening card, which is scheduled to start just after the windup of the Thoroughbred classic, is highlighted by the inaugural editions of a pair of Pennsylvania-sired stakes for three-year-old pacers, the $561,500 Pennsylvania Classic Final for the males and the $313,800 Miss Pennsylvania Final for fillies. Both morning line favorites, the filly Darlinonthebeach and the colt Check Six, won the fastest elimination of their respective events a week ago, both clocked in 1:50.4. Also on the night card is the $50,000 Van Rose Invitational Pace, a showdown between red-hot rivals Rockeyed Optimist and Bit Of A Legend N.

(with files from PHHA/Pocono)
Trot Insider has learned that longtime harness racing industry participant Alfred (Alf) Charles Smith of Ingersoll, Ont. passed away peacefully with family by his side at Alexandra Hospital on Thursday, May 5. He was in his 86th year.

Beloved husband of the late Betty (Wellar) Smith (2005). Loving father of the late Bruce (Janet), Beth Ellery (Frank), Allen (Cathy), Susan House (the late Mike), and Randy. Cherished grandpa and great grandpa to many, including driver Lorne House. Dear brother of Mary Almost, Pat Bradfield, and Shirley Kerr (Bill). Alf was predeceased by four brothers and two sisters.

Friends will be received at the McBeath-Dynes Funeral Home, 246 Thames Street South, Ingersoll on Monday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m to 9 p.m. The funeral service will be held from the funeral home on Tuesday, May 10 at 1 p.m. with Reverend Meghan Nicholls officiating, interment to follow in Ingersoll Rural Cemetery. Memorial donations to Ingersoll Rural Cemetery Operations Fund (cheques accepted) would be appreciated.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Alfred Smith.
Try to imagine what policing will look like in the future. Microwave heat cannons and sound bazookas dispersing rowdy crowds? Robocops patrolling the streets while whirring drones keep watch from the sky?

Or maybe well arrive at a world where all crime is wiped away, where people peacefully coexist in sleeper pods while life is played out through virtual reality helmets.

Maybe.

The more realistic picture, according to police technology experts, is that surveillance and the collection and analysis of information will play a central role in solving and preventing crime.

The public safety regime of tomorrow, in other words, is all about data. This is the future of policing, says Christopher Schneider, an associate professor of sociology at Brandon University in Manitoba.

Cops in the coming decades will gather information online, interact with the public through social media and even use data gleaned from the Internet and past crimes to predict and prevent future law-breaking, Schneider says. This is already happening, to varying degrees, in American cities and places such as Vancouver and Toronto, where police used a program to comb through Twitter to gather evidence for a recent online harassment trial.

Policing as an apparatus is going to be much more mediated, and its going to be much more community-oriented than it currently is, through the Internet, through social media, Schneider says. This is going to expand the gaze, as it were, toward crime and deviance.

The nexus between police and the public they serve has already expanded beyond the traditional 911 call. (If youre even more of a troglodyte, just yell: Help! Police!) Ritesh Kotak, a police consultant for agencies in Canada and overseas, said tools such as social media have created space for the co-creating of public safety, with new and convenient avenues to report crimes and follow police data shared over the Internet.

Thats where its headed with next-generation 911. Thats where its headed with the ability to see something and communicate right through our smartphones with police, Kotak said. Data is the currency of the future.

With an open data mentality and deeper engagement through social media, Kotak added, police forces can repair and engender trust with the citizenry. People feel like theyre part of something, he said.

But data collection can also be used for more futuristic means. Ryan Prox, a special constable with the Vancouver Police Department, is one of the pre-eminent experts in the emerging field of predictive policing. Prox prefers to call it crime forecasting, in which police forces use complex computer programs that churn through mountains of data to try and predict when and where future crimes will occur.

This has yet to catch on in full force in Canada, but police in cities such as Los Angeles and Miami have signed on to predictive programs designed by companies such as PredPol, Prox explains. PredPol uses three data points  time, place and type of crime  to draw up boundaries in which crimes are most likely to occur, then local police patrol these areas in the hopes of catching the bad guys.

Prox cautions, however, that little independent scientific research has been done on these programs in the U.S. and suggests they may not be as accurate as their makers claim.

Thats why hes spearheading a six-month predictive-policing pilot project in Vancouver, which began Feb. 1, that uses an intricate software program designed by a team of mathematicians and geospatial engineers. The program sifts through crime data as far back as March 2001, including the time, place and nature of an offence, Prox says. But it also considers 60 non-crime factors, such as neighbourhood income, area traffic density, locations of illicit graffiti and even wind speed, to forecast the probability of a future crime being committed in the coming hours within a 100-metre radius of a given location.

Plainclothes cops will be dispatched to monitor these areas, with uniformed officers on standby to make an arrest in the event that a crime is witnessed, Prox says.

Tests have already shown a 60 to 70 per cent accuracy rate for some property crimes such as break and enters, which are easiest to predict because theyre high frequency and often involve repeat offenders, Prox says. The more police use the program, the more data they have and the more accurate officials hope it can become.

It sounds really sci-fi goofy, he laughs, but they basically call it an artificial learning neural network. Thats the mathematical model.

The endgame of such programs, Prox says, is maximum police efficiency. In an era of ballooning police budgets  now more than $1 billion a year in Toronto, for example  that could be a welcome prospect.

But critics point to controversial information-gathering programs such as carding in Toronto, which many argue disproportionately target visible minorities. To rely on such practices to fuel computer software programs that dictate how cops are deployed could entrench existing police biases, Schneider says.

Are we going to then be criminalizing certain people, certain segments of the population? Who are the police going to be looking at? he asks.

Prox acknowledges this is a legitimate concern, but says the Vancouver police program only considers data from crime reports and other objective factors. Its generated by the public rather than fuelled by the cops themselves.

Others have brought forward concerns about how predictive policing will affect individual rights. Brenda McPhail, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Associations Privacy, Technology and Surveillance Project, says the main worry is that the types of data currently used to forecast crime will expand to include more personal information  social media posts, online purchase histories, travel bookings or location data from public Wi-Fi use.

This could not only invade individual privacy, it could erode the presumption of innocence, McPhail adds, citing court decisions in Canada and the U.S. that have suggested it is disproportionate to comb through data of many individuals to find a single criminal.

The concern is that it is the thin edge of a wedge, she says. Before any such programs are implemented, we as a society need to compare the benefits with the costs, particularly the costs to our rights and civil liberties. We need to consider the risks.

Such worries go beyond crime-forecasting programs. Some point to privacy issues in the face of intensifying means of surveillance, such as the extensive camera networks that are used by police in Fresno, Calif., where police can monitor live feeds throughout the community through their Real Time Crime Center.

David Lyon, a Queens University sociologist and head of the schools Surveillance Studies Centre, has argued that peoples lives are being watched to the point that it already makes sense to label many western countries surveillance societies. Lyon is co-author of a 2014 book on the subject, in which he and his colleagues argue were at a historic turning point for the expansion of surveillance measures, developments with obvious consequences for privacy and state power.

Much of this can be viewed as part of a social shift towards a so-called safety state, where more and more government policies  and police actions  are justified through fear of danger, says Charles Raab, a political science professor at the University of Edinburgh.

As long as there are some plausible reasons to think we live in exceptionally dangerous times  such as terrorist attacks in big cities  there will be public fears and demands for more security and safety, says Raab. Other values, such as equality, fairness and the exercise of rights and liberties, are constrained by the imperative to make everything safe and secure.

This isnt inevitable, Raab says. But with terrorism and climate change dominating the media and politicians routinely emphasizing this danger in their quests for votes, safety will continue to be a top social priority.

And that probably means the police of tomorrow will find ways to use our data and train cameras on us in an effort to keep us safe.

SCI-FI POLICING

The police of tomorrow could have a vast arsenal of tools at their disposal, instruments of force and surveillance that could have sprung from the imagination of some sci-fi master.

Laser guns

These have already been used by the American military in Iraq, and some predict police could pick them up next. With names like Dazer Laser and PhaSR  the latter developed by the U.S. Air Force  these guns are meant to disorient or temporarily blind people with beams of green light. Its pitched as a non-lethal force alternative, not unlike the Taser or (if youre old school) billy club.

Microwave heat gun

The L.A. County sheriffs department hatched a short-lived plan in 2010 to acquire an Active Denial System to control unruly prison inmates. Built by a company called Raytheon, these microwave cannons shoot a beam of heat that hurts but apparently doesnt injure people. It could be used as a non-lethal means of crowd control.

X-ray vans

The New York Police Department caused a stir last year when it emerged that it is using Z Backscatter X-ray technology in vans for surveillance. The citys civil liberties union has been pushing the cops to release more information about the vans. Its possible this policing tool could be used elsewhere.

Sound cannon

Though already in the possession of a number of police forces, Long Range Acoustical Devices (LRADs) have only been used a few times  at Occupy Wall Street in Manhattan and at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh in 2009. The Toronto police acquired four of them as the city prepared to host its own G20 Summit in June 2010. Designed to disperse crowds or force people to follow instructions through long-range bursts of extreme noise, LRADs have been on hand for protests in places such as Ferguson, Mo.

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Hatsune Miku needs no introduction for most fans of Japanese culture. For those who aren't fans of Japanese culture, or are fans but have somehow been living under a rock for the last half a decade, she's a virtual voice given life by fans. Her teal twin ponytails and futuristic appearance hide within them a surprisingly versatile voice. On April 30, 2016, Hatsune Miku would make her northern California debut at San Francisco's Warfield theater.

This is not Miku's first time in the United States. She played at the 2011 Anime Expo in Los Angeles when Vocaloid was at a fever pitch. That show sold out the entirety of Nokia Theater (now Microsoft Theater) and remains the only concert in Anime Expo history to do so. Three years later in 2014 Miku would hold concerts in two venues; the first would be in Los Angeles, again at the Nokia Theater, and the second at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. The 2016 MIKU EXPO takes things to an even greater level upon its return to North America and boast a total of fifteen concerts in ten cities (including a stint in Canada and Mexico). Most of the locales holding concerts, and some which aren't, will also hold satellite events like a film festival and drawing sessions. For more on these, please look here.

Before we get any further I'd like to address the "what/who is Miku?" question. Miku is everyone and everything. Miku is who you want her to be. Miku is a collaboration. She's a character with a voice and that voice sings and says whatever you want it to. Everything starts with a musician or producer needing a vocalist and that's where Miku fills in. Once you have a complete song someone is bound to create a visual in the form of a character design. After that, a music video. Many musicians, producers, artists, and editors have never met each other in person but they come together under one word, one name: Miku.

That's what gives Vocaloid its strength.

Today the historic Warfield theater in downtown San Francisco would hold a daytime concert followed by an evening concert. Only two other cities would receive this treatment and I'm glad San Francisco was one of them. This gave you flexibility; if you couldn't make the daytime show because it was too early and you were coming from afar the evening show was your choice. If you were like me and packing your weekend (and the surrounding days) with events then the daytime concert helped spread things out. Unfortunately my DSLR would have to stay home (no photo passes are available for any of the shows) and that means calling in a five year old point-and-shoot camera. I probably could have just taken the DSLR anyway as there were people spending the whole show with one arm holding a camcorder in the air, though...

The weather was bright and sunny with temperatures in the 70s. Perfect day for a concert. Electronic band Anamanaguchi would serve as the opening act for the digital diva and their music fits very naturally with each other. If you can time it correctly, you can jump out of the room and hit the merch table towards the end of their set and avoid the oncoming rush of people during the break. This is probably the best time to buy because before the show, during the break, and after the show were absolutely packed with people. I walked out with the Miku-on-a-Negi shirt and San Francisco poster. Each concert will have its own unique poster and yes, they do give out poster tubes!

The heart of a Hatsune Miku concert, besides Miku herself, is the holographic display screen and the whole reason Miku can appear on stage. It's set up in the middle of the stage and this is how Miku and her compatriots appear. Viewing angles are roughly 140 degrees but towards the sides the fact you're looking at a psuedo-3D image on a 2D plane becomes evident. Stay out of the extreme sides and you should be fine. One fun thing about the display screen is that glowsticks reflect off it which has the effect of effectively doubling the number in the room.

In Japan, the use of glowsticks at anime concerts is a core tenet. In America that's not really the case but there's an easy fix for that. Every attendee who walked through the door of the Warfield theater was granted a glowstick or two (gotta have one for each hand!) to join the rest of the crowd. Veterans either brought their own King Blade LED wands or bought the official ones. Official ones were available online for a short period of time as well as a small quantity at the venue. The official ones were tuned to the program and automatically changed color depending on the song (that or everyone is really good at quickly color syncing and I didn't notice). As for what you do with the glowsticks? Pump your fists in the air to the beat and have fun. Every song has its ebb and flow and that's what you'll work with. If in doubt, follow the crowd. A more advanced set of movements involve complex twirls, arm swings, thrusts, and jabs but you should leave those for later. For those who wish to go down that rabbit hole look up wotagei.

First up was an intro for the whole Vocaloid cast that would be joining us this afternoon. Vocaloid is not just Hatsune Miku. She has compatriots in her forebears Kaito (themed blue) and Meiko (red), siblings Rin and Len (yellow), and contemporary Megurine Luka (pink). The Vocaloid would not be the only ones on stage and a live band would provide the music, although with a more rock-oriented slant thanks to the band's instruments. That's part of what makes a Miku concert different than just listening to the songs at home. The arrangement is different when it's live and you get to be amongst hundreds of others who love the same thing you do. You could tell the crowd were fans from the chants of "Miku! Miku!" and "I love you, Miku-chan!"

There are hundreds, thousands, of Vocaloid songs out there that makes selecting a set very difficult. Safe bets would be on hyper popular songs like "World is Mine," "Love is War," and "Magnet." Some English songs were sprinkled in like "Ten Thousand Stars" and "Glass Wall." Each of Miku's fellows also showed up with selections like "Remote Control" performed by Rin and Len and "Change Me" performed by Meiko. Many fans knew the words to the songs and even the scant opening bars of a song could trigger an outburst from them as they recognized a favorite. The selection heard tonight is only a fraction of the whole and there is enough material for dozens of concerts. Miku could easily perform a completely different set at every single Miku Expo stop without breaking a digital sweat.

The theme for the 2016 MIKU EXPO is "Blue Star" by HachioujiP and would mark the end of the main set. A few unfortunates walked out during the break between that and the encore. Lesson: never leave until the lights turn on and they're trying to kick you out. Fans chanted "An-core-ay!" (the rough pronunciation of encore in Japanese) and "Miku! Miku!" until she reappeared on stage. The three-song closer included the 2014 MIKU EXPO theme "Sharing the World" by BIGHEAD and a couple other songs. The very final song would have Miku, seated at a piano, playing a somewhat somber tune. All good things must come to an end and this was ours. Just as easily as she appeared in a cascade of color and light Miku exited the stage in the same manner, this time for good. Thankfully she is an ideal that lives on in the hearts and minds of millions and can never truly be gone. Chances are we will meet again. After today's showing, I hope we have made an impression on Crypton to come back to San Francisco in the future.

Bottom line? If you're nearby, you owe it to yourself to go see it. You're in for a good time. Los Angeles, you're up next.

LIVE BAND:

Drums: Kensuke Itou

Bass: Tsuguhito Konno

Guitar: Takahiro Misawa

Keyboard: MEG.ME

SET LIST:

1 World is Mine feat. Hatsune Miku (by ryo/supercell)

2 The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku feat. Hatsune Miku (by cosMo)

3 Two-Faced Lovers feat. Hatsune Miku (by Wowaka)

4 Unhappy Refrain feat. Hatsune Miku (by Wowaka)

5 Worlds End Dancehall feat. Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka (by Wowaka)

6 Magnet feat. Hatsune Miku & Megurine Luka (by Minato)

7 Weekender Girl feat. Hatsune Miku (by HachioujiP and kz(livetune))

8 Deep Sea Girl feat. Hatsune Miku (by Yuuyu)

9 Glass Wall feat. Hatsune Miku (by Guitar Hero Piano Zero)

10 Snowman feat. Kaito (by halyosy)

11 Change Me feat. Meiko (by shu-t)

12 Tokyo Teddy Bear feat. Kagamine Rin (by neru)

13 Butterfly on Your Right Shoulder feat. Kagamine Len (by noripy)

14 Remote Control feat. Kagamine Rin & Len (by JesusP)

15 Love is War feat. Hatsune Miku (by ryo/supercell)

16 Last Night, Good Night feat. Hatsune Miku (by kz(livetune))

17 Ten Thousand Stars feat. Hatsune Miku (by CircusP)

18 Just be Friends feat. Megurine Luka (by Dixie Flatline)

19 Secret Police feat. Hatsune Miku (by BuriruP)

20 The Singing Passion of Hatsune Miku feat. Hatsune Miku (by cosMo)

21 Sekiranun Graffiti feat. Hatsune Miku (by ryo and Dixie Flatline)

22 Tell Your World feat. Hatsune Miku (by kz(livetune))

23 Blue star feat. Hatsune Miku (by HachioujiP)

Encore 1 Sharing the World feat. Hatsune Miku (by BIGHEAD)

Encore 2 39 feat. Hatsune Miku (by Deco*27 and Sasakure.UK)

Encore 3 Star Fragment feat. Hatsune Miku (by Eiji Hirasawa)

FULL EVENT SCHEDULE:

MIKU EXPO Concert Series

4/23 Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater

4/30 San Francisco, CA - The Warfield (day and night shows)

5/6 Los Angeles, CA - Microsoft Theater

5/14 Dallas, TX - The Bomb Factory

5/17 Houston, TX - NRG Arena

5/20 Toronto, ON (CA) - Sony Centre for the Performing Arts

5/25 Chicago, IL - The Chicago Theater

5/28 New York, NY - Hammerstein Ballroom (day and night shows)

6/1 Monterrey, MX - Auditorio Banamex

6/4 Mexico City, MX - El Plaza Condesa (day and night shows)

6/5 Mexico City, MX - El Plaza Condesa (day and night shows)

MIKU EXPO Digital Stars

4/22 Seattle, WA - FRED Wildlife Refuge feat. Mark Redito, Pete Ellison, Meishi Smile, Boaconstructor, Hojo

4/29 San Francisco, CA - Codeword feat. Qrion, Airynore, Grimecraft, Seimei

5/5 Los Angeles, CA - The Lash feat. Mark Redito, Meishi Smile, rkestrate, 2ToneDisco, TDoyle, DZZ, B&L All Stars

5/27 New York, NY - Littlefield feat. Hachiojo P and others

MIKU EXPO Let's Draw!

4/24 Seattle, WA - Northgate Mall

4/26 Portland, OR - Clackamas Town Center

4/28 Emeryville, CA - Emeryville

5/2 San Jose, CA - Stevens Creek Boulevard

5/4 Los Angeles, CA - Huntington Beach

5/8 San Diego, CA - Mira Mesa

5/10 Austin, TX - Arboretum

5/12 Dallas, TX - Lincoln Park

5/15 Houston, TX - River Oaks Shopping Center

5/23 Chicago, IL - Old Orchard, Skokie (with Hachioji P)

5/27 New York, NY - Tribeca (with Hachioji P)

MIKU EXPO Short Film Festival

5/1 San Francisco, CA - New People Theater - 12PM/130/3/430/6

5/21 Toronto, ON (CA) - Jackman Hall at the Art Gallery of Ontario - 1130AM/130PM (with Crypton CEO Hiroyuki Itoh)

6/3-6/5 Mexico City, MX - Cinemex Reforma - 1PM/3
One incumbent is running in the five-candidate race for two open seats.
A federal appeals court on Friday overturned an order requiring Washington health officials to provide competency evaluations to mentally ill defendants within seven days of a judges order, but justices said there should be limits on the wait-times for these defendants.

A three-judge panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that the state Department of Social and Health Services has failed to comply with its own goals designed to protect the constitutional rights of mentally ill people charged with crimes. But the judges said an order issued last year by U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman in Seattle setting a seven-day deadline for competency evaluations went beyond what the Constitutional requires.

Delays in getting treatment and evaluations of criminal defendants has been a problem in several Cowlitz County cases.

The most recent involves Sergey Fedoruk, who is awaiting a new trial on allegations that be murdered his brother-in-law in Kelso in 2011. Fedoruk waited in jail for weeks for a bed at Western State, leading Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Stephen Warning last October to fine the state $2,000 a day for additional delays in treating Fedoruk.

In 2011, suspected car thief Maunu Williams waited in jail more than six months, unable even to enter a plea, because Western State had not room to admit him for an evaluation of his competency to stand trial. And in 2005, burglary suspect Alec Bolic was held in the Cowlitz County Jail for four months awaiting a competency evaluation at Western State. At most, he would have served 30 days in jail if he had just pleaded guilty.

In its ruling Friday, the appeals court sent the case back to federal court to address its findings. In addition to reworking the part of the injunction that sets time limits, the court also wants Pechman to take into account a new law passed in 2015 that requires competency services within 14 days of a court order. It set a non-binding seven-day goal but gave the state two weeks.

The lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and Disability Rights Washington, who filed the lawsuit against the state, said overall, they were pleased with the appeals court ruling.

They said they were heartened that the court affirmed a key feature of Pechmans order: the need for an injunction to ensure that the rights of individuals with mental illness are respected.

This is an important ruling because people with mental illness suffer real harms when they are warehoused in jail waiting for court-ordered services, said Emily Cooper, staff attorney for Disability Rights Washington. Jails are not therapeutic settings, and their condition deteriorates when they spend day after day in jail.

The lawyers said they were also happy that the court said the state must conduct competency evaluations within a reasonable time.

Whether the ultimate ruling is seven days or 14 days, it will clearly be a tremendous improvement from the weeks and months that some individuals had been waiting in jail for evaluations when the suit was filed, said ACLU of Washington attorney La Rond Baker.
Red tape or legitimate health concern?

Since December, a small group of volunteers called Stone Soup has been cooking food and feeding homeless people on days soup kitchens and food banks are typically closed.

But Cowiltz County Health officials have said the meals, previously held outside the Longview Salvation Army, dont meet health codes. Though Stone Soup has not been shut down, organizers still are trying to figure out how they can work with health officials to continue.

Local homeless people have expressed relief that they could enjoy a hot meal instead of eating food salvaged from garbage cans. Volunteers eat alongside those they serve.

If its good enough for them, its good enough for me. They dont get scraps. They get good food, co-organizer Pat Ryan, 44, said at a March feeding event.

Later that month, however, county health officials asked the group to move into a commercial kitchen and obtain a food handlers permit. Jesse Smith, an environmental health specialist for the agency, said Friday that the groups volunteers must cook most of the food  with the exception of baked goods  on site in order to comply with health regulations. The food cant be cooked in residential kitchens because they cant be inspected, Smith said.

However, Ryan said he couldnt move to the Salvation Armys kitchen because the organization would require Stone Soup to obtain a $1 million liability bond.

I wasnt able to do that because were not a nonprofit, nor do we do it for profit.  No insurance company would touch us, he said.

For now, Ryan said, the group will continue to serve the precooked food but at a new location: the courtyard of the Cowlitz County Administration Building along Fourth Avenue in Kelso.

Smith said the health department will meet with the group Saturday during its normal meal time to discuss ways to help them meet health codes.

Were going to give them time to straighten it out. Were not going to shut down an operation for the needy at this point, Smith said. We want to work with them and give them plenty of time.

Ryan said volunteers will use a handwashing station Saturday. Though he said he understand the rules, he said he feels the Saturday meals qualify as a potluck and shouldnt be subject to health inspections. Ryan said everyone brings a dish and eats together, including the volunteers.

However, Smith said the events dont qualify as a potluck.

They cant really do potluck style to feed the needy, he explained. You cant expect homeless people to bring food.

Despite the roadblocks, Ryan said hes undeterred.

Its something I believe in, and Im not going to stop. Ill do what I can do somewhat conform to the rules to make them happy because at some point you have to follow the rules, he said. Until then, I plan on feeding people.
hidden

As Apple slugs it out with FBI on privacy issues, India Friday said strong encryption technology to secure data and communications in smartphones, including those made by the US-based firm, is a challenge for law enforcement agencies.

It said however that a tool for mobile forensics has been developed to handle smartphones including Apple.

"Smart phones including phones by Apple Inc. employ strong encryption to secure the data stored and to protect the communication. Such Encryption technologies pose challenges to Law Enforcement Agencies throughout the world including India," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He said the government has taken note of media reports about the dispute between the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and Apple Inc.

FBI had taken Apple to court to force it to break into the encryption-protected iPhone 5c. Backed by technology giants such as Google and Facebook, Apple is opposed to assisting the agency in unlocking the iphone, saying it would have wide-reaching implications on digital security and privacy.

Prasad said that considering the challenges involved, government regularly interacts with all stakeholders to address the issues and implement solutions keeping in view security, service and developmental needs of the country.

He said that research and development activity is also being carried out on a continuous basis to upgrade tools and technologies with the emerging new devices and software, including smartphones.

"As part of this programme, a tool for Mobile forensics has been developed, which handles Smart phones including Apple phones," Prasad said.

He, however, denied any proposal with the government to introduce backdoor or a key for smart phone encryption.

PTI
Naina Khedekar

We've been hearing about Google's carrier billing plans for some time now, and finally it is here. Idea Cellular has teamed up with Google to offer its prepaid users the option to buy apps, make in-app purchases and so on, adding the purchase amount directly to monthly bills, and negating the use of credit cards.

So, Idea Cellular subscribers, both prepaid and postpaid, will be able to buy apps through direct carrier billing. This move could help boost app/in-app purchases. In fact, at the recent Reliance Games PGConnects, we had a quick chat with Anurag Sachdeva, Country Director (India & South Asia) at Rovio who emphasises how credit card limitations is one of the barriers at revenue generation in India. Idea is known to have teamed up Angry Birds-maker Rovio too.

At the same event, Amit Khanduja, CEO of Reliance Games told Firstpost, We (India) are not an extension of what you launch in the US or the UK. We have unique requirements like content not only localised in language but also regional, payment methods people are applicable to here, as credit card penetration is minimum and only at the higher end of spectrum.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. P. Lakshminarayana, Chief Operating Officer  Corporate, Idea Cellular, said, Idea has been at the forefront of the internet revolution and has built a robust network through an extensive 3G and now 4G rollout. With capabilities to provide wireless broadband services to nearly 880 million Indians, Idea is well poised to take the lead in the way content is served to an increasing army of digital savvy users. This tie up with Google Play creates a vast set of opportunities for Idea subscribers and also builds a secure gateway to the digital world.

This option will make purchases easier considering that there is less than 3 percent credit card penetration in India. Bango CEO Ray Anderson said, "Taking Google Play carrier billing to India is a major milestone for Bango. India offers enormous potential for online commerce. We are pleased to provide Ideas 182 million subscribers with a universal payment method so they can enjoy the complete app store experience, and to expand the reach of carrier billing in the Google Play store.
tech2 News Staff

Samsung's mid-range Galaxy A series lineup might be getting a new addition in the form of the Samsung Galaxy A4. The listing for the device was spotted on Zauba and reported via MobileExpose.

The device is apparently code-named SM-A430U and if the listing is to be believed, boasts of a 5.5-inch touch screen. The display is Full HD (1920x1080). There is currently no information on the remaining hardware, chipset or camera, but judging by the listing, the device is expected to retail between Rs 25,000 and 30,000 in India.

Zauba is claimed to be "India's leading provider of commercial information and insight on businesses. The team behind Zauba Corp have one goal - to be your sole resource for critical information. We gather data from a number of official sources and third parties to give you all the information you need, in one easy to use website."

The Samsung Galaxy A series consists of the Samsung Galaxy A3, A5, A7 and A9. The A3 features a Snapdragon 410, 1.5GB of RAM and a 4.7-inch display. The A5 throws in a 5.2-inch Super AMOLED display, Exynos OCta 7580 and 2GB of RAM, the A7 gets a 5.5-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon 615 and 3GB of RAM. The A9 features a 6-inch Super AMOLED display, a Snapdragon 652 and 3GB of RAM.

A Galaxy A4 has been expected to fill in the gaps for some sometime now.
Violence marks 4th phase UP polls; 4 killed

Dhaka, May 7 (UNB) - The fourth phase of elections to 703 Union Parishads (UPs) in 87 upazilas of the countrys 46 districts were held on Saturday amid stray incidents of violence, leaving at least four people killed and injuring over 100.



Two of the deceased were killed in Rajshahi after the voting, while one each was killed in Comilla and Thakurgaon during the polling.



The balloting began at 8am and continued till 4 pm without any break. The Election Commission postponed balloting in 51 polling stations due to violence and various irregularities.



In Rajshahi, two people-- Siddiqur Rahman, 28, and Momtaz Ali, 35-- were killed and at least 30 others, including five policemen, were injured in a series of clashes among the supporters of two chairman candidates and police during vote-counting in a centre at Sharundi village in Bagmara upazila.



Witnesses said the clash broke out as supporters of Awami League-rebel candidate Shahidul Islam attacked the supporters of AL-nominated chairman candidate Jan Boksh as they brought out a procession at Aushpara UP after the voting.



Chases and counter-chases took place during the 30-minute melee. On information, Rab members appeared at the spot and brought the situation under control firing four gunshots, killing Siddiqur and Momtaz on the spot.



In Comilla, Taposh Chandra Das, 38, son of Kanu Chandra Das of Chandla village, was stabbed to death and five others were injured in a clash between the supporters of two member candidates at Chandla Bazar in Brahmanpara upazila of Comilla during the election.



The clash took place following an altercation between the supporters of two member candidates -- Sultan Ahmed and Rezaul Karim -- of Chandla union parishad in front of Chandla Primary School polling centre around 11 am.



In Thakungoan, Azizul Islam, 30, son of Nazrul Islam of Machkhuria village of the upazila, was killed and seven others were injured in police firing in a polling centre in Paria union of Baliadangi upazila in the afternoon.



Upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Abdul Mannan said the clash broke out between the supporters of two member candidates over snatching ballot papers around 1:30 pm at Kaldanga Dakhil Madrasah polling centre.



The unruly supporters also assaulted presiding officer Mujibur Rahman which prompted police to open fire, leaving Azizul dead on the spot, he said.



According to reports reaching the UNB news desk, over 100 people were also injured in Laxmipur, Chandpur, Gazipur, Munshuganj, Feni and Narsingdi districts during the election.



At least 50 people were injured in separate clashes during the elections to eight unions in Sadar and Raipur upazilas of Laxmipur while 30 people in Matlab (south) and Shaharasti upazilas of Chandpur, seven in Kaliakoir upazila of Gazipur, five, including a cop, in Chhagolnaiya and Sadar upazila of Feni, five in Tongibari upazila in Munshiganj and another in Raipura upazila in Narsingdi.



Besides, nine BNP-backed chairman candidates boycotted the union parishad election race in Pabna, Natore, Brahmanbaria, Feni, Narsingdi and Manikganj districts on Saturday on various allegations.



Three BNP chairman candidates boycotted the polls in Tatibandha, Sagorkandi and Raninagar unions of Sujanagar upazila of Pabna while one in Natore, Brahmanbaria, Feni and Manikganj each and two in Narsingdi alleging vote rigging and irregularities and obstructing their supporters in casting votes, forcing his agents out of the centre and also casting fake votes.



Besides, police arrested nine people, including Nurul Azim Rony, 26, general secretary of city unit BCL along with a pistol, from a poling centre in Hathazari upazila in Chittagong during the election.



Police also recovered a 9mm pistol, 15 rounds of bullet and a magazine after searching the body of the BCL leader.



Meanwhile, the separate mobile courts sentenced six people, including a presiding officer, to different terms of jail in Sherpur and Munshiganj for vote rigging.



Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Rakibuddin Ahmad claimed that the 4th phase of the Union Parishad (UP) election was held peacefully amid huge turnout of voters as the commission took actions based on field reports.
Pir aide hacked dead in Rajshahi

A follower of a pir (spiritual leader) was hacked to death by some miscreants at Jumar para in Tanor upazila here on Friday night. The deceased was identified as Shahidullah, 60, a resident of Mahanandakhali area of Nowhata municipality of Poba upazila. He was follower of Pir Imam Mahadi of Goalondo upazila in Rajbari district. Victims son Russel Ahmed said that his father went missing on Friday morning when he was going to Rohonpur Golabari village in Gomostopur upazila in Chapainawabganj district. Local people spotted Shahidullahs slaughtered body in the mango orchard of local Abul Hasan in the area in the evening and informed police, said Abdur Razzak, officer-in-charge of Tanor Police Station. Later, police recovered the body and seized a bag which was found near the body. The body was sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for an autopsy. Russel also said his father had a long standing dispute with one Piar Ali of the area over a land. His father might have been killed over the land related dispute or for being a follower of the Pir, he added. --Rajshahi, May 7 (UNB)
Abe terms 'breakthrough' in talks with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) welcomes Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sochi on Friday.

AFP, Moscow :

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday hailed a potential breakthrough in a decades-long territorial dispute with Russia, after talks with President Vladimir Putin, Japan's foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

"The prime minister said that today he could feel a breakthrough, he could make a breakthrough in the currently stagnated negotiation," Japanese foreign ministry press secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said.

Tokyo-Moscow relations are hamstrung by a row dating back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the four southernmost islands in the Pacific Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

Japan and Russia's lingering tensions have prevented them ever signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II hostilities, hindering trade and investment ties.

Abe, in a rare visit by a G7 leader to Russia, met Putin for talks at his holiday residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with their talks focusing on the dispute.

"The prime minister said that Mr Putin also shared ... the same feeling" and the leaders "agreed today that they themselves directly get involved in the negotiation," Kawamura said.

Putin and Abe agreed to "promote negotiations by employing a new approach without being bothered by the old previous thinking," Kawamura said.

"This is literally a new element," he said, without giving more detail.

"Japan is not just our neighbour, it is a very important partner for us in the Asian-Pacific region," Putin told Abe at the start of the meeting.

"We have certain questions that demand special attention, maybe for this reason we must devote special attention to building relationships," the Russian leader added.

The Kremlin had dismissed hopes of any major breakthrough towards resolving the dispute at Friday's meeting, while playing up Abe's visit as a symbol of warming ties despite Western attempts to isolate Putin.

The leaders held talks lasting more than three hours, including a tete-a-tete section, in what Abe called "an extensive, frank and candid exchange of views," Kawamura said.
RANGPUR: Ganojagoron Mancha, Rangpur Unit brought out a rally to celebrate upholding of death sentence of Jamaat Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami by Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday.
FSIB signs deal with SHARP

Samah Razor Blades Industries recently launched Sharp titanium blade in the market. Senior Vice President (global sales) Arnob Chatterji, Managing Director Abdus Sattar, Chief Operating Officer Emdadul Haque and Director (sales) Monaem Biswas of the compa

Sirajganj Correspondent :

First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) signed an Agent Banking agreement with Socio Health and Rehabilitation Program (SHARP) for launching agent banking in Sirajganj.

Md. Mustafa Khair, Deputy Managing Director of First Security Islami Bank Limited and Md. Showkat Ali, Director of SHARP signed the agreement on behalf of their respectives sides..

Among other Azam Khan, Head of Marketing & Development Division, Md. Golam Kibra, Deputy Director, Md. Salim Reza, Manager Admin, SHARP and other high officials of both companies were also present on the occasion.
Progs to observe Tagore's birth anniv



The government has taken elaborate programmes to observe Rabindranath Tagore's 155th birth anniversary today.

The main programme would be held in capital's Osmani Memorial Auditorium at 3pm. President Abdul Hamid is scheduled to inaugurate the programme as chief guest. Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor would chair the occasion while Secretary of the Ministry Aktari Mamtaz would give welcome speech.

The theme of the anniversary celebration is "Rabindranath in 21st Century" and eminent Rabindra researcher Professor Sanat Kumar Saha would deliver memorial speech at the inaugural ceremony.

A 30-minute-long cultural episode managed by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy would be in the inaugural ceremony where Rabindra, Baul songs would be presented. In addition, Arts of Rabindranath would be exhibited.

Apart from Dhaka, the birth anniversary of the noble laureate would be observed with due festivity in Shilaidah of Kushtia, Shahjadpur of Sirajganj, Patisar of Naogaon, and Dakhkhindihi and Pithabhog of Khulna where he had attachment. Local administration would organize Rabindra fair, discussion and cultural programmes.

Besides, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy would organize three-day long art exhibition and cultural programmes while Cultural Affairs Ministry and Bangla Academy would publish pamphlets and posters.

Moreover, Dhaka University authority would also observe the day with due respect.

Bangladesh Missions abroad would also organize various programmes to mark the day.

Bangladesh Television and other private television channels would broadcast the inaugural ceremony and other programmes while Bangladesh Betar would telecast it.
Dhaka to join D-8 ministerial talks in Cairo

UNB, Dhaka :

Bangladesh will participate in the fifth ministerial meeting on D-8 industrial cooperation to be held in

Cairo, Egypt from May 9-11. Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu will lead a three-member Bangladesh delegation in the meeting. The delegation, led by Amu, leaves here for Cairo on Sunday morning, said an official at the Industries Ministry on Saturday.

Senior Industries Secretary Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan and Deputy Secretary M Aminur Rahman will accompany the Industries Minister.

D-8, also known as Developing-8, is an organisation for development cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.

Ministers of the D-8 countries will attend the meeting and emphasise boosting joint investment and technical cooperation among member states.

The establishment of D-8 was announced officially through the Istanbul Declaration of Summit of Heads of State/Government on June 15, 1997.
6 killed, 300 injured

AL men fight among themselves amid massive vote rigging, gross irregularities: Ctg BCL GS held with arms

Police intercepted a snatcher while snatching ballot boxes from Abdullahpur Govt Primary School Polling Centre in Akhaura during 4th phase UP polls on Saturday.

Sagar Biswas :Widespread violence accompanied by massive vote rigging and gross irregularities marred the Saturday's elections in 703 union parishads leaving at least six persons killed and over 300 injured across the country.The victims were identified as Tapas Chandra Das, 25, hailed from Comilla, Hossain Mia alias Suman 26, of Narshingdi, Mahabubur Rahman, 18, of Thakurgaon, Zahidul Islam Bulu, 35, and Siddiqur Rahman,28, both from Rajshahi. All of them were activists of ruling Awami League --- either working for party-nominated candidates or supporters of rebel candidates of the ruling party.Apart from them, a member of Border Guard Bangladesh [BGB] Mahmudul Hassan,30, was killed following a misfire from his own weapon at Madarganj upazila auditorium bathroom in Jamalpur district at about 3:10 pm. He was on election duty during the incident.Superintendent of Jamalpur Md Nizam Uddin told The New Nation that the death was not violence related. "He was in the camp at that time," the SP said. According to information received in Dhaka yesterday, two persons -- named Zahidul Islam Bulu and Siddiqur Rahman -- were killed and 10 others were injured during a tripartite clash among police and supporters of two rival candidates at Aushpara under Baghmara upazila in Rajshahi at about 4:30 pm yesterday.But unconfirmed sources said that the number of death was four in Baghmara due to police firing to disperse the conflicting mob. When contacted, Superintendent of Police in Rajshahi Abul Kalam Azad told The New Nation last night that "two persons" were killed and four others injured in the clash.The Election Commission suspended voting of 16 unions of Baghmara fearing further massive violence. Earlier on Friday, the EC had asked local MP Enamul Hoque to leave the area for allegedly creating influence in favour of his candidates.In Comilla, Tapas Chandra Das was killed during a clash between the supporters of two 'member' candidates at Chandla Bazar [ward no-1] of Madhavpur union under Brahmmanpara union. Six others were also injured at that time. "The victim died when supporters of 'member' candidates Rezaul Karim and Sultan Ahmed were locked in a bloody clash over casting of false votes. He was chopped to death on the spot," Officer-in-Charge of Brahmmanpara police station SM Badiuzzaman said.In Thakurgaon district, Mahabubur Rahman of Machkhuria village was shot dead by the police at Kaldanga Madrassa centre of Paria union under Baliadangi upazila at about 2:30 pm, police said. Seven others also received bullet wounds during the police fire as supporters of two opponent candidates were locked in a fierce clash. Local administration suspended voting in that centre after the incident."The clash erupted between the supporters of two 'member' candidates over snatching ballot papers at Kaldanga Dakhil Madrasah polling centre," Upazila Nirbahi Officer [UNO] Abdul Mannan said. In another incident, the rival groups hacked to death Md Sumon, who was a supporter of Awami League rebel candidate, at Sreenagar union under Taipura upazila in Narsingdi yesterday noon.Meanwhile, about 19 candidates so far have boycotted the election raising accusation of vote rigging. Besides, voting was suspended in at least 51 polling centres.Over 300 persons were also injured during the clashes, chases and counter-chases across the country. About 20 persons, including four police personnel and two presiding officers, received bullet injuries during the clashes in different unions of Chittagong, Feni and Noakhali. At least 10 persons received bullet injuries during a fierce clash between the rivals of two 'member' candidates at a polling centre at Shuvapur union under Chhagolnaiya in Feni district. Twelve others were also hurt during the incident.Besides, the miscreants snatched away magazine from ASI of Police Rabiul after a good beating at Rampal in Munshiganj.Bangladesh Chhatra League's [BCL] general secretary for the Chittagong City Unit Nurul Azim Rony was arrested along with a foreign made 9mm pistol and 15 bullets from outside a polling centre at Hathazari Upazila yesterday morning."We've handed over the arrestee, the BCL's Chittagong city chapter leader, to the local police station," Superintendent of Police in Chittagong KM Hafiz Akter said.The law enforcers arrested an associate of chairman candidate Akhteruzzaman in charge of carrying a loaded shotgun inside a vote centre at Alampur union in Kusthia. A chairman candidate was injured in an attack by miscreants at Jalirpar union under Maksudpur upazila in Gopalganj district. Two presiding officers were nabbed red-handed for casting fake votes in twp polling centres under Baxiganj upazila in Jamalpur. Besides, an activist of Awami League was arrested red-handed while stuffing ballot at Dewkhola primary school in Mymensingh.Police arrested chairman candidate Harun-ar Rashid from Chilakhal Primary School centre at Shalti Gopalpur union under Mithapukur upazila in Rangpur district. According to local police station, he was accused in a case relating to arson attack on a bus that killed six persons at Mithapukur two years back.Interestingly, the Election Commission yesterday said that the fourth phase of the UP elections were 'relatively better' then the previous three phases amid reports of clashes and suspension of voting in several centres.Election Commissioner Abu Hafiz said, "The election was better this time compared to the previous phases. We wanted an election free of irregularities. However, voting was suspended in some places due to irregularities."
ASI stabbed in city

Staff Reporter :

One Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of Police was stabbed by unidentified miscreants in front of Sundarban Square Market of city's Gulistan area on Saturday.

The injured is Mohammad Anis, In-Charge of Nawabpur Police Outpost under Bangsal Police Station of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The police officer was admitted at Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) in critical condition.Bangsal Police Station Officer-in Charge (OC) Nur-e-Alam Siddiqui said that Anisur Rahman came under attack around 9:30am inside a lane at Gulistan. The attackers hacked him at random, injuring his ears, neck, chest and leg, the OC said.

DMP Commissioner Asaduzzaman Mia visited injured cop at DMCH, the police official said.

However, Police identified two attackers in this connection. The identified miscreants to be shown arrest soon, the OC said.


Peer's aide murdered in Rajshahi

Six killed in 7 months by militants

Staff Reporter :

A aide of a Peer (spiritual leader) was hacked to death by unidentified criminals at Tanor Upazila in Rajshahi on Friday night.

The deceased was identified as Shahidullah, 65, a resident of Mahanandakhali area of Nowhata Municipality of Poba Upazila. He was follower of 'Peer Imam Mahadi' of Goalondo Upazila in Rajbari district.

Witnesses and police said, Shahidullah was found dead in a mango orchard. The miscreant slit throat and stabbed his right arm. When contacted, Abdur Razzak, Officer-in-Charge of Tanor Police Station said police recovered the body after being informed by locals on Friday evening. "It seems he was hacked first and then slaughtered."

He added local people spotted Shahidullah's slaughtered body in the mango orchard of local Abul Hasan in the area in the evening and informed police.

This killing is the latest in the spate of grisly murders that has been haunting the northern region since last year. Recently, a Rajshahi University Professor was murdered in similar fashion in the district.

Talking to journalists, victim's son Russel Ahmed said that his father went missing on Friday morning when he was going to Rohonpur Golabari village in Gomostapur Upazila in Chapainawabganj district.

"But my father did not return home. My father was a follower of "Torika Ponthi" (a particular spiritual path) and might have had enmity with followers of other path," he said. Russel also said his father had a long standing dispute with one Piar Ali of the area over a land.

"My father might have been killed over the land related dispute or for being a follower of the Peer," he added. Victim's son Russel Ahmed filed a case in this connection with Tanor Police Station. Police also seized a bag which was found near the body. The body was sent to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital for an autopsy.

The northern region has been plagued by at least 14 untoward incidents for the past seven months that relate to militancy and resulted in death of at least six people, including a foreigner.

There have been attacks on temples of the Hindu minority, mosques belonging to Shia minority and murder attempts of Christian pastors and others.

Responsibility of all those attacks, bomb blasts and killings have been claimed by militants.


Nizami to be executed this week!

Staff Reporter :The all out preparations have been taken to hang war crimes convict Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Chief Maulana Motiur Rahman Nizami.The jail authorities are awaiting for judgment copy hang the former minister in the Dhaka Central Jail, Jail Headquarters sources said. The attested copy of the verdict may reach the Jail Headquarters through International Crimes Tribunal by Monday and the sentence will be executed on Wednesday or Thursday if Nizami does not apply for president's clemency, they said. Earlier, Jamaat-e-Islami on Thursday claimed that its party chief Nizami would not seek clemency from any man except Allah. "After receiving judgement copy on Monday or before, he jail administration will start the hanging procedure," Prasanta Kumar Banik, Jail Super of Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2 told The New Nation on Saturday. Nizami would be asked if he would seek presidential clemency, admitting his guilt, the Jail Super said. "If he decides against seeking clemency from the President, or if the President turns down his clemency petition, the government will be free to execute the death sentence," he said. The time and place of execution depends on the government, the Jail Super said.The jail authority may execute him within two to three hours after getting instruction from the government, said Prasanta Kumar. He added that the family members will get further chance to meet Nizami before the execution. Meanwhile, a ten-member team of the family members met him at Kashimpur Central Jail Part-2 on Friday morning. Jamaat-e-Islami on Thursday claimed that its party chief Nizami would not seek clemency from any person but the Almighty Allah. The party will observe nationwide haratl today (Sunday) following the judgment. Earlier, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) upheld the death penalty to the war crimes convict Nizami. After the verdict, one of Nizami's counsels, SM Shahjahan, said that Nizami and his family will now decide whether to seek presidential clemency.According to jail officials, Nizami heard the news of the Supreme Court rejecting his appeal on radio in his cell on Thursday afternoon. He will be executed in the Dhaka Central Jail after maintaining all legal procedures. "10 members of his family including his wife, two sons, daughter, son-in law, two daughters-in law, two nephews, grand child visited him," Jailor Nasir Uddin of Kashimpur Central Jail said. He said that the close relatives were allowed to stay for 40 minutes with the top leader of country's biggest Islamist party which opposed the emergence of Bangladesh.Another senior official of the prisons department said that the 73-year-old war crimes convict is likely to be executed in the Dhaka Central Jail, but simultaneous preparations were underway at Kashimpur Jail also."The execution is likely to take place in the Dhaka Central Jail, and at the same time we have asked the officials of Kashimpur prison to remain ready to carry out the process in two hours' notice, if required," said the official, requesting anonymity.Nizami, a former lawmaker and minister has been in jail since 2010. He was arrested for trial in a special tribunal which handed him down death penalty on October 29, 2014 on charges of mass murder, arson, loot and rape.Nizami, who headed the infamous Al-Badr special militia, challenged the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) verdict in the Supreme Court which upheld the original judgment on January 6 this year.In his last legal efforts to save the neck, Nizami then sought to get the judgment reviewed by the apex court itself, which on Thursday dismissed his last appeal, clearing the way for him to walk to the gallows.Attorney General Mahbub-ey Alam earlier said that unlike ordinary death row convicts, Nizami could be hanged anytime as set by the government after the final verdict of the Supreme Court though he would get the chance to seek the presidential clemency.
Shab-e-Barat on May 22

The holy Shab-e-Barat, the night of fortune and forgiveness, will be observed in the country on May 22 as the Shaban moon was not sighted in Bangladesh sky on Saturday. The National Moon Sighting Committee took the decision at a meeting at the Islamic Foundation's Baitul Mukarram office in the evening, said a handout.The meeting was held with Religious Affairs joint secretary M Amzad Ali in the chair.According to Muslim belief, Shab-e-Barat is the night when Allah arranges the affairs of the following year. On Shab-e-Barat, Allah writes the destinies of all the creations for the coming year by taking into account their past deeds.
Western cos suspend business with 103 apparel factories

Kazi Zahidul Hasan :At least 218 western apparel companies have stopped buying cloths from about 103 local garment factories after they failed to initiate workplace safety codes suggested by the Accord and Alliance, industry insiders said.Among the factories, 23 were supplying apparels to European fashion brands and 80 to North American buyers and retailers which are belonging to the Accord and Alliance.Terming the decision a 'harsh' one, industry leaders said that the move has forced the factories to wrap up production leading to jobless hundreds of workers.The Accord and Alliance supported by European clothing brands and North American retail chains has been launching a joint effort to improve workplace safety in Bangladesh garment industries in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza factory collapse on April 24 in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people. "It's a worrying development when the local industry has initiated a major safety overhaul as per the suggestions from the global buyers," Faruque Hassan, Senior Vice-President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told The New Nation on Saturday. He said, most of the export-oriented apparel factories inspected by the inspectors from the Accord and Alliance have already initiated the task of workplace safety and rest of the factories will go with them soon.The western brands and retailers which suspended their business with the local factories are small and medium ones. Even their financial position was not sound."Safety overhaul in their plants has huge cost involvement so that they have to be given at least six months time to complete the task," said Faruque Hassan. He further said that if we look all the things, the decision of the western buyers seems to be unrealistic. We will sit with them immediately seeking review of their decision. According to him, the task of factory up-gradation, structural, electrical and fire safety fixes would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. When asked, the BGMEA leader said that larger factories can generally pay for those changes independently, or have access to a growing number of affordable financing arrangements backed by wealthy customers.But the smaller factories do not have access to affordable financing leaving them exposed with unfinished the task to upgrade their workplace safety.
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.

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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.
CARTERVILLE  A bouquet can say a lot.

Thanks for being my mom. I love you. Get well soon. Rest in Peace. Just because. Congratulations. Please forgive me. You're a great friend.

Thats probably why, even as many mom-and-pop type businesses have folded, the local floral industry has maintained a steady  albeit downsized  presence in many communities.

Independent pharmacies and locally owned drug stores are less common, gone the way of the five-and-dime stores. But look around, and youll find a locally owned florist still thriving in many small communities across Southern Illinois.

Just what is the power of the flower?

Any woman, you take something to them, they feel the joy, said Steve Conder, who is the head designer and manager at Weller Florist on North Division Street in Carterville.

Without a trace of irony, owner Jan Mestas said many women swoon over the sight of flowers because theyre not man-made.

Theyre pure natural beauty, she said.

And the best part? They just sell themselves.

You just put this (a bouquet) in front of a woman and they just talk, she said.

In other words, flowers can express emotions with a flawless, timeless grace that often escapes mere humans. And that can really come in handy when a guy walks or talks his way into a jam.

What Mestas and Conder deliver is part art and part science. Each bouquet is unique, a labor of love.

Through the years, theyve heard it all. Theyve been there for births and birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, Mothers Days, Christmas holidays, anniversaries, fights and funerals.

In that way, theyre a bit like the neighborhood therapist  or the magic genie in a vase.

They listen. And they ask questions, such as is she feminine or outdoorsy and what colors does she prefer in clothing or home decor. For the clueless about what to order, they build a bouquet they believe will fit the recipients tastes. And then theres a matter of the size of the arrangement, which can come down to one's budget and preferences  arrangements can run from $15 to several hundred dollars, depending on if they are picked up or delivered, and how far it's going.

Sometimes, Conder said, size of the arrangement is requested in relation to the size of the transgression.

When a man comes in who is feeling a little guilty, Mestas said they level with him: How big is the dog house? Little dog house or big dog house? She laughs and points to a giant, beautiful arrangement of pastel flowers. Thats the big dog house.

If its really bad, they dont care what you spend because theyre trying to fix it, Conder said.

While Conder and Mestas have both been drawn to floral work since their teenage years, and consider their careers a calling, it's not easy work. Similar to doctors, florists have been known to prepare for deliveries through the night. Conder said he's watched the sun come up at work in the days leading up to a busy holiday, such as Mother's Day. On those days, he has been known to run home to shower, and the head back in.

Christmas/Chanukah season is the top grossing holiday for the floral industry at 30 percent. Valentines Day comes in third at 20 percent, outpaced ever so slightly by Mothers Day, which comes in second at 24 percent, according to AboutFlowers.com, which tracks the floral industry.

The Southern stopped by the shop to speak with Mestas and Conder on Wednesday, and already working overtime, they were looking ahead to even longer days Thursday through Saturday, as hundreds of arrangements were scheduled to be rushed out the door to moms across the region  ensuring they arrived in advance of Sunday: Mothers Day.

The National Retail Federation reports in a survey that 66 percent of those celebrating Mothers Day will buy mom flowers. In doing so, theyll spend a combined $2.4 billion in 2016. It's one of the major holidays that keeps the local industry alive, Mestas said.

"Not everybody has a lover, but everybody's got a mother," Conder said with a laugh about the holiday's flower rush.

This time of year, Mestas said she doesnt think about the long hours. She stays focused on the customer, imagining her joy when the delivery arrives.

Giving joy to others is what drives her, along with keeping alive the strong tradition of the Weller Florist name, which she kept when she bought the store a decade ago from the Weller family. The floral shop has roots dating back 80 years, she said.

Still, Mestas said she looks forward to Sunday, when she can rest a little knowing that all the deliveries have reached their destinations. Mestas said she hopes to spend Mothers Day with her children.

But no flowers for her, she tells them. Mestas said she spends too much time talking to them at work, coaxing her beautiful little colleagues into behaving and putting smiles on her clients faces, to need any more at home to deal with.

So what does the florist hope for on Mother's Day?

Just a nice meal, she said.
MARION  Before seniors at Marion High School walk across the stage to receive their diploma, they must turn in the technology that helped guide them through a digital era of education.

Educators at Marion High School are brimming with excitement after the first year of the 1:1 tablet program which all high school students had Chromebooks to aid them throughout the year.

I think it has gone extremely well, said educator Rick McCall. I think it has gone better than even expected.

The school is in the process of collecting about 250 Chromebooks from graduating seniors. Those same tablets will be reissued to incoming freshman, while returning students will be able to take their equipment home for the summer.

McCall said the tablet program has really pushed the envelope for differentiated learning. He said there are students who may learn better off of a screen, those who learn from listening to a lecture and then students who learn from reading a sheet of paper. He said this program has given students several different options.

He said the program has gone so well, the high school had to increase the amount of access points in the building to handle the amount of usage.

Marion Community Unit School District No. 2 Superintendent Keith Oates said it makes sense for the district to embrace teaching digital citizenship instead of fighting it. He said digital learning isnt going anywhere.

These kids are constantly accessing digital access all the time through their smartphone, iPad and other devices, so it doesnt make sense for them to come here and we give them an outdated textbook, he said.

As for future expansion plans, Oates said the plan is to reconfigure the network at the junior high to handle the amount of usage needed in the fall of 2017. The district may provide those students with Chromebooks as well, but Oates isnt sure those students will be talking the equipment home.

But, the idea is still to have enough tablets for each student to access the technology when needed, he said.
Find your district: http://www.elections.il.gov/districtlocator/addressfinder.aspx

Cue the trumpet call. Fling open the starting gates. Let the political horse races begin.

This years elections for state House and Senate seats representing Southern Illinois may prove to be one of the most competitive cycles this region has seen in years.

There are competitive races this year for almost every House and Senate seat in deep Southern Illinois. The only exception is that Rep. Jerry Costello II, D-Red Bud, is yet unchallenged. Parties have until the end of May to fill vacancies in cases where no candidate from a respective party ran in the March primary.

I think one of the differences now is, indicated by so many competitive races and particularly those in Southern Illinois," said John Jackson, visiting professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, "the fact that (Bruce) Rauner is governor and Rauner has so much money and can put so many resources into these House and Senate races that its a whole new ballgame in some ways.

Incumbency advantage

In this region, as it is across the state, incumbency has long represented a candidates best chance of winning re-election. The districts have been considered relatively safe for the political leaders, and turnovers are rare outside of a planned retirement or advancement. For example, Republican Mike Bosts run for Congress in 2014 opened up the 115th House District seat he held for about two decades.

In this election cycle, the 58th Senate District seat is an open race as Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, who has served since 1995, announced he didnt intend to seek re-election, given that he would have had to move to run in the same district. His house was drawn out of the 58th district when new districts maps were finalized in 2011.

But this year may see a shakeup  or at the very least, a real attempt at one  by challengers taking on incumbents from both parties.

There have been past election cycles in Southern Illinois that have seen similarly full slates of candidates by both parties. But political observers note that many of the challenges this year are more serious prospects than some have been in the past. Theres also a heightened interested in state politics at present given the state is in an 11th month without a budget.

Southern Illinois, an area with an oversized reliance on state institutions for jobs, and on state benefits for people who are low-income, is feeling the detriment of the impasse in Springfield particularly harshly. The much-watched and anticipated presidential election may further bring large numbers of people to the polls, compared to previous election cycles. County election officials are bracing for a high turnout on Nov. 8 and the weeks leading up to Election Day, when early voting begins.

Races to watch

At the top of the must-watch races is the contest to fill Luechtefelds seat between former Lt. Gov. Sheila Simon and retired Marine Paul Schimpf, who gained name recognition in 2014 when he made a statewide, unsuccessful bid for attorney general.

But other races where incumbents are seeking re-election are also gaining attention, and one or more lawmakers may find themselves in a vulnerable position. Thats shaping up to be true for freshman Rep. Terri Bryant, R-Murphysboro, who has been in a tight spot with several funding measures opposed by Rauner but supported by many in her district.

Shes being challenged by Marsha Griffin, a Jonesboro Elementary teacher who has the early and enthusiastic backing of labor. Griffin has issued numerous news releases slamming Bryant over budget votes, with headlines saying that she continues to turn her back on seniors, students, for again failing students and for siding with millionaires.

Bryant has argued that some of the votes the Democratic leadership has forced were disingenuous because they lacked a dedicated revenue source. Bryant has said she's in support of responsible measures to fund higher education and social services. But some high-profile SIU officials have privately expressed disappointment, even those who share her political party.

Like most things under the dome in Springfield, the issues are generally more complex than either candidate portrays on the campaign trail. But when it comes to winning elections, time will tell which sound bites will stick.

Longtime incumbent Democratic Reps. John Bradley, of Marion, and Brandon Phelps, of Harrisburg, are also being challenged by candidates who have the potential to put them on notice. Republican Dave Severin, who is taking on Bradley, is a business owner from Benton, and president of the Benton Grade School Board.

Scott Schulter, an Air Force veteran and diesel mechanic from Crab Orchard, also has announced his intentions to run under the Libertarian Party. The petition period for third-party candidates runs through June 27, and Schulter said he is still working to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot. Other third-party candidates also could still join the field in this or other races.

Republican Jason Kasiar, who is challenging Phelps, is a pharmacist and pharmacy store owner in Eldorado, and also is president of the Eldorado Unit 4 School Board.

Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, who has successfully fended off several challenges in the past, has a serious opponent in Harrisburg Mayor Dale Fowler, a Republican, who is also business development officer at Peoples National Bank.

While the opponents appear to have the ability to put up a serious challenge, more will be revealed as the election season moves from spring to summer to early fall, the time at which the money generally hits in waves, and the campaign commercials hit the air.

Big money

When it comes to Democratic incumbents, the Democratic Party, under the direction of House Speaker Michael Madigan, and labor unions, have been heavy funders, helping fend off challengers and deter would-be challengers.

Jackson said Rauners known deep pockets, both his personal wealth and that of his friends and associated campaign arms, probably gave some of the Republican challengers more confidence leading up to their decisions to run.

He blew away $9 million in the primary the way I might, maybe, waste $10, Jackson said of the wealthy Republican governor.

He noted that Rauner and his associated campaign outfits spent millions of dollars during the primary weighing in on just a few races. In the two most high-profile races, in which the governor supported Democratic incumbent Rep. Ken Dunkin who was unseated by Juliana Stratton, and Republican opponent Bryce Benton, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Sam McCann, Rauner came out on the losing end.

In this area, there are plenty of people fed up with Rauner, as well as Madigan, as the months stretch without a budget, so it remains to be seen how the money they respectively dish out to candidates will affect voters' attitudes as it relates to the candidates receiving their support. While it may seem as if a candidate would benefit from saying no to money from either, but the bottom line is that its extraordinarily difficult to win a campaign without large sums of donations or independent wealth.

Thats what makes them competitive races, Jackson said. The Republicans will tie everyone who is running on the Democratic side  whether theyre even running for the House  to Madigan, and the Democrats will tie everyone to Rauner, and thus the question will be: Is one more unpopular than the other?
A Missouri woman hurt in an early Saturday morning wreck on Interstate 57 has died from her injuries, Illinois State Police reported.

Police said they learned of the womans death from the Evansville-based coroners office in Vanderburgh County, Indiana.

Police had reported earlier that Patricia Huston, 70, of Bloomfield, Missouri, had suffered major injuries after losing control of her vehicle on the interstate.

She had been first taken to Franklin Hospital in Benton and then flown to Deaconess Hospital in Evansville.The wreck occurred at 7:35 a.m. at milepost 71 in Franklin County.

Police said Huston was driving a black, 2015 Kia Forte northbound on the interstate. As she attempted to pass another northbound vehicle, Huston drifted onto the left shoulder and lost control.

Her vehicle crossed the median and both southbound lanes. It then left the roadway and overturned multiple times, police said.

-- The Southern
Fifty-five volunteers, 38 of them women, spent Saturday April 30, building the latest Edisto Habitat for Humanity home in Orangeburg.

This is my home. Thats what makes it very special, said recipient Dinah Johnson, a native of Orangeburg and graduate of Claflin University.

Construction on Johnsons home began with a commemoration of Habitat for Humanitys National Women Build Week. The observance encourages more women volunteers to be part of the nonprofit Christian organizations work to eliminate poverty housing.

Habitat for Humanity volunteers and builders throughout the nation wear green to celebrate Women Build Week.

This is the one week of the year where we make the best effort to include as many women as possible, but not to exclude the men, said Jamie Bozardt, executive director of Edisto Habitat for Humanity. It helps us to build relationships with the women in [the] community, businesses and organizations. We find along the way that folks always return.

Johnsons home marks the 73rd home that Edisto HFH has built in the Orangeburg County area since its founding in 1991. Edisto HFH was one of the 1,500 HFH affiliates selected to receive the $5,000 donation from Lowes that helped make the day possible.

It is a wonderful experience to give back to the community to help families that are in need, to put a smile on their faces and take the burden off the homeowners and help the community out, said Standrica Browning, a department manager at Lowes Home Improvement store in Orangeburg.

I know everyone wants to be [a] homeowner, and just pitching in helping out the community is a great experience that Lowes enjoys being involved in  giving back to the community and helping homeowners love where they live, Browning added.

Johnson started the process towards becoming a HFH homeowner five years ago. She mentioned that fear was one of the main reasons she never became a homeowner before.

She is the first sibling in her family to graduate from college and own her own home.

Partner families like Dinah Johnson, who are committed to having a better life and are committed to helping others in the program who will soon become their neighbors, are what our program is to be about  its not just building homes, but building up communities and families in Orangeburg, Bozardt said.

In addition to Lowes, donations from other community members, organizations, businesses, churches and volunteers throughout the county helped make Johnsons $87,000 home a reality.

Allied Air provided a hot dog lunch for those volunteering at the April 30 event and St. Matthews First Baptist Church helped with the houses vinyl siding.

Edisto HFH encourages Orangeburg County residents to visit its store at 260 John C. Calhoun Drive, where Habitat homeowners like Johnson work hard to complete the volunteer hours necessary to become a homeowner.

In order to receive a Habitat for Humanity home, applicants are required to give 350 hours of volunteer time to the program, have a need for housing and be able to make monthly payments on a 25-year, zero-interest mortgage.

Bozardt notes that Edisto Habitat for Humanity is in need of additional volunteers and donations.

For more information on how to donate, volunteer, or participate, call Jamie Bozardt at 803-536-2300.
Six years ago, Missouri resident Kalen Ross seemed to be heading down the wrong road.

He was suspended from high school for three months, but did not let that determine his future.

I was on my computer day and night, Ross said. I learned how to design and saw how stuff was created. I watched hundreds of YouTube videos.

It was really his only option, as his mother took away his phone and game systems.

During that period, he picked up design skills, which led to a successful graphic design business.

Ross returned to school in February 2011. He graduated as his high schools salutatorian.

On Friday, Ross became the first male on his mothers side of the family to graduate from college when he walked across the stage with a degree in digital media. He joined 620 students in South Carolina State Universitys commencement ceremonies at the Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

Ross said his professors and advisors all encouraged him to do his best.

They presented me with a number of opportunities whether inside or outside the classroom, Ross said. They pushed me to greatness. The relationships I have developed here have been the best thing that has happened to me.

Ross will head to Atlanta to work for Kellogg as a territory sales representative, an opportunity presented to him by the university.

Ilisha Skinner, who graduated with a degree in social work, described the day as very emotional.

This is one of my greatest accomplishments so far, Skinner said.

She plans to stay and work in Orangeburg.

I like the love within the city and the people I have met here so far, she said.

Morgan Whetstone received her degree in speech pathology and audiology. She is staying at S.C. State for graduate school.

I have worked very hard to get here and it is kind of bittersweet, Whetstone said. I am excited to go but I really dont want to but I love this university and the people here.

A thundershower delayed ceremonies for about 20 minutes and forced those in attendance to seek shelter until the storm passed.

As commencement began, the clouds parted, prompting a cheer from those gathered.

Some of those in the audience brought banners with photos of their beloved graduates, while others donned pins and t-shirts.

Tobias Kelly had two pins for his mother Jessica Akewright, who received a masters degree in rehabilitation counseling.

Despite raindrops and a cold wind, the 8-year-olds spirits were not dampened.

It is cold but I am really, really excited to see my mom graduate, Kelly said. This is my first time seeing my mom graduate.

Entertainer Sheryl Underwood, co-host of The Talk, provided a bit of humor and a bit of seriousness to the 2016 graduating class.

She encouraged the graduates to make sure they are examples to the world of what an S.C. State graduate is like. She said in a world of social media, what is posted online can make or break a persons career.

Dont embarrass South Carolina State, Underwood said. Dont embarrass your family.

Underwood said the graduates are now adults and need to act like adults.

Get a job, pull your pants up, Underwood said.

Ladies, learn how to keep a secret, she said. Everybody does not need to know your business. You are a graduate. Use your brain.

Underwood encouraged the graduates to also use their education to better humanity.

Let the brain God gave you channel you to your destiny, Underwood said.

Underwood also provided three pieces of advice.

Let your haters be your motivators; if somebody gives you lemons, make lemonade and remember that somebody is always watching you, she said.

Following her address, Underwood received an honorary doctorate of humane letters.
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Giving up was never an option for Helen Chappell, who at age 69 has the distinction of being the oldest graduate in Claflin Universitys 2016 class.

It took 50 years, but the Florida native will receive her bachelors degree in sociology/criminal justice administration at Claflins 146th Commencement Ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday at the South Atlantic Seventh-day Adventist Worship and Convention Center, 514 Neeses Highway, Orangeburg.

I didnt tell a lot of people I had previously attended college, she said. I have been very fortunate throughout my life but I knew I would never be truly satisfied until I earned my degree. I just did not know how or when it would happen. This just shows you the Lord knows what we dont.

Chappell vividly remembers what caused her to leave Claflin just before Thanksgiving 1966 only a few months after she arrived on the campus.

Chappell said Orangeburg seemed like a big city at the time, especially for a country girl from Sanford, Fla. But she adjusted well and felt the people at Claflin were like family.

I immediately felt I belonged, Chappell said. It felt good to be in college.

But one day she decided to take part in a talent show for freshmen students. Chappell doesnt remember feeling nervous about taking the stage and even dreamed, at one point, about a career as an actress.

But that all changed once the pianist began playing Stevie Wonders Blowin In The Wind, and her performance was not what she intended.

I was singing in one key and the piano was in another, she said. I was very embarrassed.

That night Chappell made the decision to pack her bags and take a bus back home to Sanford.

Was I a perfectionist? I guess I wasnt strong enough to go through with it and get up the next day for school, she said.

After leaving Claflin, Chappell made a promise to herself that by age 26, she would return to college and graduate. But she went back home to Florida and married a high school sweetheart.

The couple had five children  three girls and two boys. She later divorced but a second marriage took her to Winter Haven, Florida.

In 1993, Chappell began working for the city of Lakeland as a typist. A year later she began working in Lakelands City Hall.

Chappell found a passion for customer service and for 19 years, she was one of the most familiar faces and well-liked personalities at city hall.

Youre kind of the usher at the door, she said describing her former job. Youre representing who you work for. Im not representing myself, but a team of people bigger than myself.

When she retired in March 2012, the city honored Chappell. A commemorative plaque was affixed to her desk and city officials proclaimed March 9 Helen Chappell Day in honor of her service.

With a longtime career behind her and nothing tying her down to Lakeland, Chappell began to reflect on her short time at Claflin and what it would mean if she could finally finish what she started.

It started with a photo





Back when Claflin University was Claflin College, students would visit Cecil Williams photography studio to have pictures taken. Chappell sat for a photo session back in 1966 and learned not too long after that Williams had put her portrait up in his window.

I felt like wow  Im a star, she said.

More than 40 years later, a Google search revealed Williams was still in Orangeburg. She contacted him and discovered he also had the photograph.

Chappells son called it a miracle. She said it was just the start of her reconnecting with Claflin.

In 2011, Chappell contacted Michael Ziegler, Claflins director of admissions, and began the process for being re-admitted to the University. She took a tour of the campus during the summer, marking the first time she had returned since 1966.

It felt like time had stood still, she said. It was like deja vu. The place was speaking to me and calling me back home.

Chappell enrolled in the sociology/criminal justice administration program in the Center for Professional and Continuing Studies. She wanted a degree that offered a diversified curriculum and was compatible with her interest in government and public service.

Working with people was a big part of my job during my 19 years with the city of Lakeland, Chappell said. Ive always had a passion for helping others.

When Chappell started classes in the fall of 2012, her classmates were a mix of students from different ages and backgrounds  baby boomers and millennials. Being around students who were considerably younger was daunting at first. But she discovered they had more in common than she expected.

Initially I thought I was the old lady in the class but that was not the case, she said. We learned from each other. I shared with them some of my experiences and I learned a lot from them. They saw in me that learning really is a life-long process. And I recognized that this generation will be the visionary leaders of the future.

An internship with the Orangeburg County Sheriffs Office taught Chappell that customer service could lend itself to community outreach. Whether it was conducting a wellness check on senior citizens in the community or assembling bags with safety information for children and families, Chappell found her experience in serving others was transferable to a public safety agency.

Customer service is the same everywhere. Its all about delivery, she said.

Chappell also settled into campus life, volunteering in the Center for Professional and Continuing Studies and riding in the programs first-ever float in Claflins annual homecoming parade.

She also found a temporary church home at New Mount Zion Baptist Church.

Those moments helped remove any doubts she had about returning to Claflin.

The campus life was so inviting. It was like a family, she said. I never thought about taking the bus again.

Helen returned to Claflin for intrinsic reasons to complete her education, said Dr. Cindye Richburg, executive director of the Center for Professional and Continuing Studies and one of Chappells instructors. She could have gone to any other school, but she left Florida and returned to Orangeburg to finish what she started at Claflin. It takes perseverance and motivation and she definitely has those qualities, Richburg said.

Chappell is not sure what she will do after graduation, but she is considering a second career in counseling. Its something that, along with better officer training, she feels could be an answer to some of the issues facing law enforcement agencies in minority communities

I feel like I can be effective in youth and adult counseling, Chappell said. I enjoy working. I feel like Im capable of doing more. If I dont, Im selling myself short.
SRS deer hunt registration

AIKEN  More than 1,300 hunters are expected to participate in the annual SRS Deer Hunt Program at the Department of Energys Savannah River Site.

The program is managed by the SRS management and operations contractor Savannah River Nuclear Solutions.

For the general public, hunts will be conducted on four Saturdays in November and December. The hunts are dog drives, lasting a half day and beginning in the morning.

Hunters are selected by a lottery system for two categories, stand hunters and dog owners. The first step of the application process is to read a mandatory safety briefing, which then links to the application.

To begin the application process, visit http://www.srs.gov/general/deer_hunt/hunt.htm

According to SRNS deer hunt manager Joe Solesby, safety and security are always a top priorities at SRS. Auditors are placed throughout the hunting area to ensure the safety of the participants and support staff.

Since 1965, SRS has provided optimal deer hunt opportunities for thousands of sportsmen. The site has more than 150,000 acres of land on which the annual deer hunts are conducted. Harvesting deer has proven to be the safest and most effective manner to control the SRS deer population and lower the incidence of animal-vehicle collisions on the site.

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Oyster season to close May 15

South Carolinas season for oysters and mussels will close on Sunday, May 15, at one half hour after official sunset, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. Clam season will close on Tuesday, May 31 at one half hour after official sunset.

Coastal waters will remain closed to recreational and commercial shellfish harvesting for oysters and clams until the fall when water temperatures begin to cool making the shellfish once again safe for harvesting and consumption. Shellfish harvesting is expected to reopen Oct 1.

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Youth takes a shot of a lifetime

Patrick Lanford, a S.C. Department of Natural Resources Take One Make One youth hunter from Pawleys Island in Georgetown County, had never harvested a turkey before. Patrick gave it his best shot on April 23, and what a shot it was.

As the sun started creeping up that morning, S.C. Department of Natural Resources 1st Sgt. Ryan Williams, who mentored the hunt, recalls: The birds were 20 feet away and you could feel the gobbles." This is all it took to give Patrick a permanent case of turkey fever. With trembling hands, Patrick pulled that first shot and harvested not one but two turkeys. A double kill is an incredible feat for any turkey hunter, let alone a novice.

DNRs Take One Make One program is designed to teach safe hunting practices to youth who have no previous outdoor hunting experience. Take One Make One emphasizes teaching safe and ethical hunting. Youth ages 10-17 are paired with experienced hunters on group hunts around the state. visit http://www.dnr.sc.gov/education/tomo/

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DNR recognizes volunteers

The S.C. Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Education section recently held its Annual Hunter Education Volunteer of the Year Banquet. The banquet recognized volunteers who assist in teaching hunter education classes and mentor on youth hunts.

The department recognized all the volunteers that have put in many hours for youth education around the state during a banquet in Columbia on April 28. Donald Beckwith of Region 1 & 3 was recognized as the recipient of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) 2016 William W. Matthews Jr. Take One Make One (TOMO) Volunteer of the Year Award. Albert Crowley of Chesterfield County was recognized as the 2016 State Hunter Education Instructor of the Year.

Regional volunteers recognized for their dedication includes in Region 3: Swamp Fox Armory: Darrell Tracht, Tim McGuire, and Nathan McArthur

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Santee Cooper fishing

Bass: Good. Steve Harmon reports that a large group of fish are post-spawn, and another big wave should move up to spawn on the April full moon. Pre-spawn fish can be caught around shallow cover on soft plastics while post-spawn fish have pulled out slightly deeper.

Crappie: Good. Captain Steve English reports that crappie can be found in the shallows as well as around mid-depth brush where they will eat minnows.

Catfish: Fair to good. Captain Jim Glenn reports that the best catfish bite is coming in 20-30 feet of water on cut shad.

Striped Bass: Fair to good. Captain Jim Glenn/ Packs Landing reports that the striper spawn continues and fish are being caught in the top of the system on artificials, live herring and cut herring.

Bream: Fair to good. Captain Steve English reports that bluegill are staging in anticipation of the full moon, while a few shellcracker are already shallow.
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Everton soundly beaten by jubilant Foxes

, 7 May,



Leicester City 3 - 1 Everton



Kevin Mirallas scored a late goal but it was scant consolation on another miserable afternoon for Everton's travelling faithful Kevin Mirallas scored a late goal but it was scant consolation on another miserable afternoon for Everton's travelling faithful

Everton played the gracious guests at Leicester City's coronation, barely putting up a fight against the new Premier League champions who coasted to victory at the King Power Stadium.

Jamie Vardy scored twice and passed up the chance for a memorable hat-trick when he skied a second spot kick over the crossbar while Andy King slotted home to make it 2-0 by the halfway stage.

Kevin Mirallas, on as a second-half substitute for Oumar Niasse and a rare bright spot among the outfield players for Everton, scored a late consolation for the Blues but it wasn't nearly enough to dampen the jubilation among Foxes fans as they marked their inconceivable title triumph with an emphatic win.

With Phil Jagielka, Seamus Coleman and Gareth Barry out injured, Roberto Martinez started with young defender Matthew Pennington at centre-half alongside John Stones, Tom Cleverley in defensive midfield and deployed Bryan Oviedo as a makeshift right back again despite his horror show at Anfield last month.

Article continues below video content

Niasse started in the same team as Romelu Lukaku for the first time, with Aaron Lennon and Ross Barkley designed to provide attacking support but there was precious little of it from Martinez's men despite their clear dominance of possession.

If Leicester were distracted by their week of celebrating since the title was confirmed last Monday and the presentation of the trophy at the end, they didn't show it and it took them just five minutes to exploit the visitors' glaring weaknesses when defending crosses.

King took advantage of oceans of space wide on the right to swing in a cross and Vardy pounced on it to knock it past Joel Robles with a first-time finish.

King himself almost doubled the advantage in the 10th minute when he was picked out by another accurate delivery from the right but he planted his header straight at Robles who caught it gratefully.

Christian Fuchs was then almost in as he steamed towards the Blues' box but Lennon had tracked back smartly and dispossessed him with a last-ditch tackle.

Everton had plenty of the ball but struggled to create much going forward but when Oviedo was played in on the overlap to centre for Lukaku in the 16th minute, Marcin Wasilewski toed it away before the Belgian could get to it. Lennon caught hold of a bouncing ball off a corner but fired well wide.

Meanwhile, at the other end, N'Golo Kante hammered a shot goalwards that Robles initially spilled but was able to gather at the second attempt.

Riyad Mahrez, Leicester's usual star of the show was kept unusually quiet by the combination of Leighton Baines and Cleverley but he played a decisive role in the home side's second goal after 32 minutes. The Algerian danced into the area and between two white jerseys, was slide-tackled by Baines but the ball fell straight to the untracked King who swept home.

Everton improved slightly at the start of the second half and should have halved the deficit almost straight away when Niasse was put clean through but all he managed to do was put the ball straight into Kasper Schmeichel's head as the keeper raced out of his box and the ball was cleared.

The ball came back in again from the other side and Lukaku tried to back-heel in from close range but again Schmeichel was on hand to preserve his clean sheet. And the Dane was there again to deny Lukaku with a point-blank save just before the hour mark when Stones knocked down a corner and the striker nodded goalwards.

Fuchs found himself in on goal again shortly afterwards but was foiled by Robles's out-stretched leg as Leicester threatened to deepen Everton's embarrassment but the Spaniard's save only delayed the inevitable. Three minutes later, Vardy beat the linesman's flag and was bearing down on goal but was tripped by Pennington leaving referee Andre Marriner with no choice but to award a penalty.

Vardy slammed it home, taunted Robles rather unnecessarily as he wheeled away and Leicester were 3-0 up. It should be been 4-0 seven minutes after that but after Darron Gibson had chopped down Jeffrey Schlupp with a late tackle in the box and Vardy was handed a second penalty, the England striker blazed over the bar.

Three more decent openings for Vardy went begging, one where Pennington robbed him of the ball brilliantly at the last second, while Oviedo forced a save from Schmeichel with a shot from distance but it was Mirallas, a 62nd-minute

introduction for Niasse who grabbed Everton's goal with a fine individual goal. His determined run took him past a couple of defenders before he benefited from a fortunate bounce that put in to a one-on-one situation with Schmeichel whom he beat with a neat side-foot finish.

Was to be as good as it would get on a miserable day for Everton who were humbled again in front of a televised audience keeping the focus squarely on Martinez whose time at Goodison Park must surely be coming to an ignominious close.

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Bahrain's Authority for Qualifications & Quality Assurance of Education & Training (QQA) has launched a new blog via the national portal bahrain.bh to enable direct communication between the authoritys chief executive Dr Jawaher Shaheen Al Mudhahki and the public; alluding to everything related to the work of QQA.



Through the blog, the CE will discuss a set of topics related to the authoritys mission and the importance of the National Examination results that commonly reflect the overall performance level of Grades 3, 6, 9 and 12 students.



Other topics also include the quality of performance of public and private schools, universities and institutes; in addition to touching upon the National Framework of Qualifications placement and listing processes.



Connecting with the public via this Blog on QQAs responsibilities as well as working with its stakeholders, is based on the Authoritys keenness to directly interact with them as well as collecting their opinions and suggestions. The Blog is considered as a channel to achieve this direct and swift communication which allows the ability to discuss all aspects related to the quality of education and training, developing and enhancing performance and the processes of the National Framework of Qualifications in the Kingdom of Bahrain, said Dr. Al Mudhahki.



The chief executive also confirmed that the opinions and suggestions submitted via this Blog will be, without-a-doubt, welcomed and appreciated. Furthermore, interaction with QQA will assist in observing the opinions and responding to enquiries.



Such initiative portrays the overall picture of education and training in the Kingdom and unquestionably contributes to supporting the development of education and promoting its quality in our beloved country.



Dr Al Mudhahki expressed her appreciation for all those who will take the time to interact with QQA via the blog; as such interaction forms a true partnership that the Authority seeks to attain with the community  seeing that it is a benefit for all including the Authority, public, concerned persons, students, parents, relevant parties and stakeholders. This interaction also reflects and implements the directions of our visionary leadership in communicating with the people.



According to her, the blog, available on the national portal, aims at increasing eParticipation in an effective method that is distinguished with its speed in communicating with the public and decision-makers in Bahrain to shape the relevant solutions and taking appropriate decisions.



The idea of the blog was previously implemented by a number of officials and ministers to interact with the public and answer their enquiries, she added.-TradeArabia News Service




Two prominent journalists were sentenced to at least five years in jail for revealing state secrets on Friday, just hours after a gunman tried to shoot one of them outside the Istanbul courthouse.



Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, who was unscathed in the shooting, was given five years and 10 months. Erdem Gul, the newspaper's Ankara bureau chief, was sentenced to five years. They were acquitted of some other charges, including trying to topple the government.



The case, in which President Tayyip Erdogan was named as a complainant, has brought widespread condemnation from global rights groups and increased fears about freedom of the press in Turkey, a NATO member and EU candidate country.



Hours before the verdict was handed down, an assailant attempted to shoot Dundar. In full public view, before a courthouse, the attack marked an alarming development in a country already grappling with bombings by Kurdish insurgents and spillover of violence from neighbouring Syria.



The man shouted "traitor" before firing at least two shots in quick succession. A reporter covering his trial appeared to have been wounded.



A Reuters witness said the assailant was detained by police. Before the shooting, he had approached reporters, saying he had been waiting since early morning and hoped Dundar would be found guilty. His motives and background were not immediately clear.



"We experienced two assassination attempts in two hours: one by firearms, the other by law," Dundar told reporters following the trial. "There will always be concerns that the orders of the highest office played a role in this ruling."



The two are free pending appeal. The court also decided to postpone a hearing on separate charges of links to a terrorist group until the outcome of a related case.



No one was immediately available for comment at Erdogan's office after the ruling.



Dundar and Gul had faced up to life in jail on espionage and other charges for publishing footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency taking weapons into Syria in 2014.



"HEAVY PRICE"



Erdogan has acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border in January 2014, belonged to the National Intelligence Organisation and said they were carrying aid to Turkmen battling both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State.



He has accused the journalists of undermining Turkey's international reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price", raising opposition concerns about the fairness of any trial.



"We say the incident we covered was a crime, not our coverage," Dundar said. "And for that we were confronted by the president. He acted like the prosecutor of this case. He threatened us and made us targets."



Under the ruling AK Party, which was founded by Erdogan, Turkey has seized control of opposition newspapers and broadcasters and cut the satellite feed of a pro-Kurdish channel, accusing them of terrorism-related activities.



"This case isn't based on law, it's political," said Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the opposition Republican People's Party.



"SYSTEM ON TRIAL"



The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the verdict.



"What was really on trial was the Turkish criminal system, which is guilty of gross misconduct," said the New York-based group's executive director, Joel Simon, in a statement.



Journalists have been targeted in the past. Last month senior Turkish security officials were among 34 defendants put on trial accused of links to the murder of a prominent Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, a decade ago.



Dink, who ran a newspaper serving Turkey's 60,000 Christian Armenians, was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Istanbul street in 2007.



Gul and Dundar spent 92 days in jail, almost half of it in solitary confinement, before the constitutional court ruled in February that pre-trial detention was unfounded because the charges stemmed from their journalism.



Erdogan said he did not respect that ruling.  Reuters
Saudi Arabia published the names on Friday of four people it said were Islamic State fighters killed in a raid by security forces outside Makkah, and vowed to protect the country from further attacks by the group.



Security forces shot dead two of the men and two others blew themselves up during the attack in the Noman valley, located between Makkah City and Taif Governorate on Thursday.



The raid followed a spate of shootings and bombings against security forces which raised concerns about security in the world's top oil exporter.



The Ministry of Interior official spokesman said that members of the cell started firing at security, who responded and killed two terrorists while the two others blew themselves up using explosive belts.



The security authorities later released details of the killed terrorists:



*Saeed Ayedh Saeed Al Duair Al-Shahrani : A 46-year-old, whose name was announced on the list of wanted persons in connection to the bombing of emergency forces mosque in Asir province as well as the bombing of Al-Mashhad mosque in Dahdha neighborhood in Najran, in addition to the killing a retired security man.

*Mubarak Abdullah Fahad Al-Dosari: A 25-year old, whose name was announced on the list of wanted persons mentioned above and was among those escaped from Dhurma rest house.

*Mohammed Suleiman Al-Saqri Al-Enzi - A 46-year-old, whose name was announced on the list of wanted persons on in connection with the armed attack on worshipers in Al-Mustafa mosque at Al-Dalwah village in Ahsa Governorate as well as the bombing of Al-Anoud in Dammam, in addition to the bombing of Imam Ali bin Abi Talib mosque in Qudayh town, Qatif Governorate. He was was among those fugitives who escaped from Dhurma rest house and considered an expert in explosives.

*Adel Abdullah Ibrahim Al Mjmaj - A 27-year-old, who was previously arrested for his connection to a rally that took place in Qassim province demanding the release of detainees, and he had a connection with Yasser Ali Al-Hudi who was killed in Bisha security confrontation. He disguised in womens clothes to wear explosive belts.



The security forces seized 2 explosive belts ready to be used, 15 explosive devices with triggers and cables, 4 Kalashnikov machine guns, 2 pistols, a large quantity of ammunition and magazines and bags containing aluminum powder and metal parts that are used to charge improvised explosive devices.



Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV reported that explosive devices and pistols had been found after Thursday's shooting and showed images of the four men's faces and dates of birth.



The interior ministry also said gunmen shot and killed a Saudi policeman on duty in a village close to the site of Thursday's raid.-Reuters
Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and restructured some big ministries in a major reshuffle apparently intended to support a wide-ranging economic reform programme unveiled last week.



The most eye-catching move was the creation of a new Energy, Industry and Natural Resources Ministry under Khaled Al Falih, chairman of the state oil company Aramco. He replaces the 80-year-old oil minister Ali Al Naimi, in charge of energy policy at the world's biggest oil exporter since 1995.



But major changes were also made to the economic leadership, with Majed Al Qusaibi named head of the new Commerce and Investment Ministry, and Ahmed Al Kholifey made governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama), the central bank.



The changes, announced in a series of royal decrees, go far beyond Salman's previous reshuffles since he became king in January last year, and also put the stamp of his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, author of the Vision 2030 reform programme, on the government.



Prince Mohammed's programme has been presented as a sweeping rethink of the entire way that Saudi Arabia's government and economy will function to prepare for a future that is less dependent on oil income.



Some of the most important elements of the plan, which will be fleshed out in coming weeks, involve creating a massive sovereign wealth fund, privatising Aramco, cutting energy subsidies, expanding investment and streamlining government.



The plan also seeks to boost revenues by increasing the number of foreign pilgrims outside the main annual Haj, and encouraging Saudis to spend money at home by creating more entertainment opportunities.



Prince Mohammed's dizzying rise since his father became king has astonished Saudis and, in becoming second in the line of succession behind his cousin, he has swept past dozens of other contenders.



The 80-year-old Naimi, for his part, has for two decades been the most influential man in world energy, able to move oil markets with a mere word, but his influence had appeared to decline sharply under King Salman. He has been appointed as an adviser to the royal court.



Falih has long been seen as a leading contender to replace him. Like Naimi a career Aramco man, he was chief executive of the oil giant from 2009 until last year, when he was made company chairman and health minister.



Whether he will play the same role as Naimi did in the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), or in crafting Saudi oil policy, remains unclear, however.



The new Sama governor, Kholifey, is promoted from deputy governor for research and international affairs. He replaces Fahd al-Mubarak, who has held the post since December 2011.



A veteran of Sama and graduate of King Saud University in Riyadh and Colorado State University, Kholifey had also served from 2011 to 2013 as executive director for Saudi Arabia at the International Monetary Fund in Washington.



He is set to take over a central bank with more limited functions than it had under his predecessor. While SAMA remains responsible for monetary policy, it will no longer act as the country's biggest sovereign wealth fund because a larger one is being created under the Vision 2030 reforms.



Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf, who has held the post since 1996, remains in place. However, other economic departments have over the past year taken over some of his ministry's responsibilities.



Saturday's decrees broke up the Water and Electricity Ministry, with the water portfolio added to a new Environment, Water and Agriculture Ministry, and electricity added to the new energy ministry.



Those changes may help Saudi Arabia to cut subsidies, reduce domestic power and water consumption, make sure that energy pricing meshes clearly with industrial development goals, and that nuclear and solar policy are more carefully integrated.



"The merging of ministries is opening the door to efficiency gains that the government is keen to enforce," said John Sfakianakis, a former adviser to the government and head of economy at the Jeddah and Geneva-based Gulf Research Centre.



Two other senior economic figures, royal court adviser Yasir al-Rumayyan and former SAMA governor Mohammed Al Jasser, were appointed advisers to the Secretariat General of the Cabinet.



Tawfiq al-Rabeeah, formerly commerce minister, was appointed health minister in place of Falih, Suleiman Al Hamdan was appointed transport minister, and the Pilgrimage Ministry was renamed the Haj and Umrah Ministry.



The royal decrees also merged the ministries of labour and of social affairs into a new department, and created a new Commission for Recreation and Culture.-Reuters
Thirteen Iranian soldiers were killed in a battle with Islamist militants over a village near the Syrian city of Aleppo, Tehran said on Saturday, in one of Iran's biggest single-day losses since it sent forces to support President Bashar Al Assad.



Russia meanwhile said that a truce in Aleppo itself had been extended until Monday.



Islamist forces seized Khan Touman village, about 15 km southwest of Aleppo, on Friday and dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the fighting.



The attack was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.



Iran's Fars news agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded.



Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates posted videos and photos on social media of what appeared to be the bodies of Iranians or Shi'ite militiamen who were killed in Khan Touman. They included footage of wallets, personal documents and Iranian currency.



Iran, along with Russia, has been a principle ally of Assad in the five-year-old civil war, while Gulf Arab states and the West have supported various rebel factions. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement has also been operating in Syria against the rebels.



A senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Assad in a meeting with the president in Damascus.



"Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by Fars.



Iranian proxies, including Afghans and Iraqis as well as Lebanese, have been involved in Syria from as early as 2012.



While Tehran previously said its support was limited to advisors, it has been more open about the extent of its role since Russia intervened on Assad's side last year.



Iran has been particularly involved in campaigns around Aleppo in northwest Syria, which was the country's commercial and industrial center before the war and is now divided between government and rebel forces.



Fighting in the countryside to the south of Aleppo has escalated in recent days despite a ceasefire in city itself since Wednesday.



The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though, with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000.-Reuters
Meet award-winning artisans and buy their products at Kerala Arts and Crafts Village
Since filing for bankruptcy protection in January, Arch Coal has faced questions over how it would pay for mine cleanup and compensate unsecured creditors and whether it would honor its commitments to employees.

A restructuring plan filed in federal bankruptcy court this week provides few answers.

The St. Louis-based mining firms filing was largely silent on the subject of reclamation, a topic of growing prominence since the coal industrys fortunes headed south. Arch is one of three mining firms in the Powder River Basin to file for bankruptcy in recent months. The operator of the Black Thunder mine near Wright has $485 million in unsecured cleanup costs, or self-bonds as they are often called.

Arch, in court filings, outlined the danger posed by its cleanup bill.

To the extent the debtors (Arch) are unable to maintain their current level of self-bonding, owing to legislative or regulatory changes or changes in the debtors financial condition, their costs would increase, and it could have a material adverse effect on their financial condition and results of operations, Archs attorneys wrote.

Mining firms are required to obtain reclamation bonds to maintain a mining permit. Many have elected to self-bond, an option available to financially healthy firms. The designation allows companies to use their own assets as collateral on future cleanup costs.

But environmentalists argue that option should no longer be available to companies in Chapter 11. Wyomings self-bonding regulations do not allow a company to self-bond unless it has been in continuous operations in the state for five years. State regulators have said restructured companies would have difficult meeting that standard.

Archs plan isnt much of a plan when it comes to bonding for reclamation. Archs filings have almost nothing to say about self-bonding, except that its a risk factor for Arch. What my clients want is a plan that will replace Archs self-bonds with real bonds, said Jim Burghardt, a bankruptcy attorney representing the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Western Organization of Resource Councils. Thats what will minimize risk to Wyomings land and taxpayers.

Environmentalists fear Arch will seek to negotiate another settlement with state regulators, as it did during bankruptcy proceedings. In that instance, the company and state Department of Environmental Quality agreed to a deal that gives Wyoming a $75 million super-priority claim, or 19 percent of its cleanup costs. That agreement terminates when Arch reemerges from bankruptcy.

A DEQ spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

Logan Bonacorsi, an Arch spokeswoman, said the company has yet to settle on a plan.

As part of the restructuring process, we will be evaluating ways to satisfy the bonding requirements on our reclamation obligations when we emerge, she wrote in an email to the Star-Tribune. That process will take time and is ongoing.

Slightly more clarity was provided on the topic of employee benefits. The company said it intended to honor its previous commitments, but noted it reserved the right to change them as needed.

Arch also said it intended to meet the minimum funding requirements for its pension plans.

Unsecured creditors, meanwhile, will not be so lucky. When Arch filed for Chapter 11 protection, the company said it would offer junior lenders up to 4 percent stake in the company  or whatever was left over after senior lenders were paid.

But Arch removed the equity stake available to junior lenders in its restructuring plan. Unsecured creditors, who hold roughly $2.87 billion in Archs debts, would now only be eligible to receive the leftovers.

Senior lenders are effectively offered ownership of the restructured company under the terms of the plan, in keeping with Archs initial proposal.

Arch Coal shareholders are not in line to be paid.

The plan will now go to a vote. But first all sides will gather for a hearing June 9 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to determine if Arch provided adequate disclosure of its restructuring plan. The company needs only the approval of either its secured or unsecured creditors to proceed with its proposal.
Vicki Burger noticed over Christmas that sales at her downtown Casper bookstore were declining.

She attributes the drop in revenue to the downturn in the Wyoming economy due to a bust in the energy industry. Many oil and gas workers have been laid off and, in turn, moved out of the state. Those who have remained may not have disposable income for books.

Burger said her customers have always been devoted to shopping locally, so shes optimistic her business will be sustainable.

The community has really shown a strong desire to shop local and they are understanding of the importance of the community identity thats provided by small independent business owners, Burger said. If all youre doing is shopping at chains, then youre making sure that this community looks like every other community along the interstate.

Burger opened Wind City Books, on Center Street, in 2007 with a friend. Though her shop has never gone through a bust before, she doesnt blame those affected by the energy industry for finding new ways to economize.

She realizes smaller budgets may drive more people toward online shopping. But Wind City Books has an online store with prices comparable to Amazons, Burger said. She also stresses the importance of communicating with shoppers and offering recommendations, which may bring customers in to browse rather than turning toward the Internet.

She does think theres more the city can do in terms of urban development to attract more people, and shoppers, downtown. Shes enthusiastic about the David Street Station, a public plaza in downtown Casper thats set to open before August 2017.

I think its very important to the community to have a central area that draws people downtown  Burger said. The more things we can provide in terms of locations for community functions, such as the downtown plaza will offer, the more we will be able to keep our community entertained and interacting.

By bringing people downtown and exposing them to the stores there, its more likely theyll shop there, Burger said.

She also thinks the city could restore some older buildings downtown to create more businesses and bring more revenue. Many buildings have vacant upper stories, which could be turned into condominiums or used for office space, she said.

Burger said downtown restoration should be a top priority when trying to drive more tourism in the city.

A lot of those things would make the downtown more attractive and draw more interest, she said.

In the meantime, shes scaling back at her bookstore to save money. Two of her employees moved away by choice and she hired only one worker to replace them.
Underneath ice sheets in Wyomings northwest corner lie secrets to the past.

The secrets tell stories about how people lived in the area up to 10,000 years ago, where animals migrated and what vegetation grew.

And because of climate change, theyre starting to reveal themselves.

A team of scientists from the University of Colorado, Montana State University and the U.S. Geological Survey recently received the triennial $100,000 Camp Monaco Prize to begin to document just those clues. The title, Biodiversity of the longue duree: melting ice and the synergy of humans, bison, bighorn sheep, and whitebark pine in Greater Yellowstone, explains the breadth of work the researchers hope to complete.

At its most basic, the study will show who and what lived in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem during what periods. At its most promising, it could unlock secrets to not only our past but also our future in a warming climate, said Craig Lee, one of the award winners and a research scientist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado.

If all of the ice that has preserved that artifact over the last 10 millennia is gone, it doesnt matter to me if its anthropogenic climate change or not  if we dont react to this, we face an unparalleled loss not just in terms of cultural material and archaeology, Lee said. We are making decisions now that our grandchildrens grandchildren will be dealing with, and we dont want it on us that we let it go.



The grant will be the second Camp Monaco Prize awarded by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, University of Wyoming and Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. The first went to Wyoming-based photographer Joe Riis and researcher Arthur Middleton, who spent years studying and documenting massive elk migrations in and out of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem.

Their work has received national acclaim and was featured in the most recent issue of National Geographic.

This years project won in part because it touched on multiple areas  ecology, archaeology and climatology  and also because of its implication for biodiversity worldwide, said Charles Preston, senior curator of the Draper Museum of Natural History at the Buffalo Bill Center.

Hopefully we can paint a picture of what these areas looked like in the distant past, he said. Projecting forward is really trying to understand how climates have changed over the years in normal cycles and maybe even develop some predictability during the current climate change regime.

The time element is also critical.

These are melting so quickly, he said. When they melt, there is a very limited time to get into the field and collect material and study it before it is destroyed or impaired.

It will also be a way to connect years of past research with even more scientists, Lee said.

While the project has three main contributors, Lee hopes it will ultimately include dozens or more researchers from across the globe.



Before explaining the project in detail, its necessary to clarify the difference between an ice patch and a glacier. Glaciers, which coat some of Wyomings highest peaks and the Earths poles, are constantly moving. That means when something falls in them, be it an arrowhead or dead bison, it is covered, moved, shifted and eventually spit out like a conveyer belt.

Items will stay in them for a few hundred years.

Ice patches, on the other hand, are too small to move. That means what fell inside of them 400, 1,000 or 10,000 years ago, is likely still there if it hasnt melted.

Its those things Lee, and fellow researchers David McWethy with MSU and Gregory Pederson with the USGS hope to uncover.

The field of ice patch archeology  studying, collecting and cataloging artifacts found in the ice  is a relatively new one. It was developed in the late 90s and early 2000s. Lee first became involved in 2001.

Mountaineers have long known ice holds artifacts  everything from dropped hats to preserved bodies. In 1991, Otzi the Iceman was found in the Alps between Austria and Italy. People who found him thought he was a hiker, Lee said. Scientists later discovered he was the most complete Neolithic mummy ever discovered.

Lee, the project leader, brings expertise in archaeology and ice patch research. The greater Yellowstone area likely experienced movement and migrations from tens of tribes during the course of many millennia.

Artifacts found in the melting ice sheets would have implications not just for our understanding of early people, but will also be critical pieces of history for tribes.

And the ice patches dont only hold evidence of humans. The study will also tell researchers, and the public, about what wildlife and plants made their home in the Yellowstone ecosystem.

We hope to find clues as to why there are so many artifacts and wildlife remains at these high elevation settings. What motivated people and wildlife to these places and do intervals represent unusual periods of climatic variability or change? wrote McWethy in an email from his current work station in Chile.

The research could also help scientists know whats coming.

Understanding how vegetation and fire changed in response to past climatic conditions will help us predict how vegetation and fire activity will change in the future, he added. We may also better understand how wildlife may respond to warmer conditions.

In a practical sense, the scientists will be taking core samples of ice to examine and date samples of things they find inside including macrofossils, charcoal, pollen, bones and ancient DNA. They have permits to collect the information on federal land and then are required to share what they find with the public.

Work will begin this summer, and results should be available as early as midwinter.

If the work isnt done now, as global temperatures increase and ice keeps melting, the answers to untold cultural and scientific questions could be lost.
Wyoming is home to a great number of firsts for me. My first time wrangling a calf, my first fish caught fly fishing, my first time standing beneath the Tetons. Experiences that I will treasure for the near and distant future.

Recently, I confessed to a coworker that I had never seen a buffalo outside of photos and illustrations. After being corrected that the animal I was referring to was actually a bison (though I have never seen a buffalo in real life, either) it had become my mission to see one.

The bison is the quintessential American animal. A symbol of the West and an enduring reminder of Americas past, yet to me they were no more real than a jackalope or a unicorn.

As a biology major in school I was particularly aware of the largest land mammal in North America. Considering their scientific name is Bison bison bison, I suppose I should have known then that they were not technically buffalo.

The day we departed for Jackson was what I thought to be the day I finally saw a bison.

It wasnt. We saw elk, mountain goats, and even a muskrat along the highway. But we saw absolutely no bison. A little disheartened that evening, I woke up the next day with renewed excitement.

Today will be the day, I thought.

As we left Jackson for Casper, it happened. Driving along the road I spotted the unmistakable outline of a bison. True to my earlier misinformation about the animals identity, I yelled out Buffalo! as my coworker came to a stop to let me out.

The lumbering herbivores are the perfect combination of strength and fragility. I was completely enchanted by the creatures as they moved through the field. I couldve lingered near them for the duration of the day, but we had a schedule to keep. So I watched them out my window until they slowly faded away into the distance.
Portions of central and southwestern Wyoming were under flood warnings or flood watches for most of Saturday, as more than 4.5 inches of rain fell in some areas.

A flash flood watch remains in effect until through 6 p.m. Sunday evening in Natrona County and other areas of central and southwest Wyoming. Flooding was expected in Casper and surrounding communities including Mills and Evansville.

Heavy rains have created hazardous road conditions with road closures in Fremont County on Saturday evening. No unnecessary travel alerts have been issued in Lander and surrounding highways, according to information from the Wyoming Highway Department and the National Weather Service.

At least one accident occurred Saturday evening, when a car went into a washout on the Old Wind River Highway south of Fort Washakie, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Murrell said. The section of road is closed as well as Wyoming Highway 132 near Ethete, known as the Blue Sky Highway.

Turn around, dont drown -- meaning if you get to a spot of the road covered with water, you dont know how deep it is or how fast its going, Murrell said. Dont travel through flood roadways because you dont know the integrity of the road or how fast the water is flowing.

Lander is experiencing its third wettest weather event dating back to 1891 with more 4 inches of rain as of Saturday evening, Murrell said.

The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Saturday for the Little Wind River south of Riverton, with an expected crest of 8.5 feet exceeding flood level of 8 Sunday afternoon, Murrell said. Significant flooding of homes could occur in Hudson and areas of Lander because of high water, he said.

Crews in Natrona County placed sandbags in the Brookhurst subdivision and on Blackmore Road in Evansville to prevent damage from more rain predicted for Saturday evening, Natrona County Emergency Manager Stew Anderson said.

People need to be aware that its extremely saturated out and be prepared if we get heavy rain, Anderson said. Theres a possibility of flash flooding in those low-lying areas  the creeks and drainages.

Authorities issued a flash flood warning Saturday for Natrona County after heavy rains drenched the area. The warning, which was in effect for much of Saturday, covered the east-central portion of the county.

No major damage was reported after heavy rains dropped more than 1.5 inches in the Casper area overnight Friday, Casper Fire-EMS Captain Patrick McJunkin said. Minor flooding closed a few streets Saturday morning and early afternoon, and some basements likely flooded, he said.

Emergency management in Casper and Natrona has been keeping a close eye on things, National Weather Service meteorologist Brett McDonald said Saturday morning. The rain has tapered off this morning after the heavy rainfall last night, so were not seeing any immediate threat right now. But were expecting some more rain this afternoon and into the evening hours.

The right northbound lane of Interstate 25 near milepost 185 in Casper was closed Saturday morning due to flooding. A rock fall in Wind River Canyon also closed a lane on U.S. 20 between Boysen Dam and Thermopolis Saturday morning, National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Baker said.

The National Weather Service warned of possible mud slides near steep terrain.

Heavy rains were also reported in other parts of Wyoming including Fremont, Lincoln and Sublette counties. More than 4.5 inches fell in the La Barge area. There was flooding in ditches and lowlands between Lander and Fort Washakie, with overnight rainfall amounts from 1.5 to 3 inches, McDonald said.

Lightning likely started a fire when it stuck an oil tank on a Mustang Energy production well site about 12 miles south of Wamsutter, Wamsutter Fire Department Chief Dustin Davis said. The fire started about 9:45 a.m. and was put out by about 11 a.m., he said.

A winter storm warning also was in effect through Saturday night in the Wind River and southern Absaroka ranges, where 15 to 30 inches were possible, according to information from the National Weather Service.

Snow levels were generally expected to be at or just above 8,500 feet. Some of the western mountains, like the Salt River and Wyoming ranges, could have seen snow levels down around 7,000 to 7,500 feet.
When the economy was booming, you couldnt find housing in Converse County towns. Energy workers would come in to work a 10-day shift and then go back to their families in other areas, said Converse County School District Superintendent Dan Espeland.

Now, he sees for-sale signs going up throughout Douglas, evidence that next year there will be fewer kids in his schools.

Layoffs announced March 31 at two coal mines meant hundreds of workers lost their jobs in Converse and Campbell counties. Those two school districts are anticipating that by next year, they will suffer severe drops in enrollment as families leave. But enrollment cuts are only half the story, school officials say. Lawmakers also voted to cut about $36 million from K-12 over the next two years.

Campbell County is part of an 11-district coalition asking lawmakers to reconsider those cuts.

Education budgets are going to be hit hard, officials say. The amount of money guaranteed to districts from the state depends on the number of students in the classroom.

Campbell could lose 200 to 250 students by the fall, said Don Dihle, business manager for the district. Even if that drop was 150 students, it would still result in $600,000 cut to the districts 2017-218 budget.

For a district the size of Campbell, with an enrollment of 9,000, to lose 150 students in a year such as this is highly likely, Dihle said in an email. In fact, we would be extremely pleased if our numbers only decline by 150 in the upcoming year.

Campbell is down 205 students since a count in October, about a 2 percent decrease, according to Superintendent Boyd Brown. However, numbers from the beginning of the year to the end consistently drop, he said.

Last year, there was a decrease of 161 students between October and April. In 2012-2013, the district lost 233 in that period, according to Browns records.

We dont believe we have lost any more or less then the last four years, he said. Its not an anomaly for us yet.

Converse, a smaller district, hasnt experienced a steep decline this year. They have about 35 fewer students now than the same time last year. But the drop is likely to continue, Espeland said.

Schools have no way of determining exactly how many families will leave due to the energy downturn, or when they will leave, he said. But many families in Converse are dependent on the oil and coal industries.

In visiting with our principals, they estimate that about a third of our families are somehow impacted by the energy industry, either oil or coal, Espeland said. The potential for us to lose a lot of students is very high.

The superintendent believes many families will wait to move as they look for other employment and consider their options, he said.

We really dont know for sure what will happen, he said. A lot of it will be depend on how long this bust situation lasts. The longer it lasts, the more likely we are going to lose students.

The district cut its supplies budget by 5 percent and left five empty elementary teacher positions vacant, Espeland said.

Both Converse and Campbell are awaiting the start of the school year with unease.

A climate of uncertainty has gripped Gillette with rumors circulating of further layoffs and families packing up and leaving, Brown said.

There is all kind of information out there, and you cant chase it, he said. Well deal with it the best we can, and know we try to serve all of our students.
Incumbent Bill Pownall announced Thursday that he will seek re-election in the Wyoming Legislature for House District 52. Why? Because the 60-year-old, whos held the seat for two years, says hes just settling in.

That first year is kind of a learning experience. Well, actually the first two years is pretty much a learning experience. Youre learning procedures and the process of how to draft a bill, and things of that nature, Pownall said. And also youre working with other legislators, their needs throughout the state.

Its that rapport that you build.

Pownall, a Republican, serves Campbell County. He was born and raised in the area, a third-generation rancher and businessman who also worked 38 years in law enforcement.

One of the biggest concerns surrounding his hometown is the economy. With the recent mining layoffs, not to mention the declining oil and gas industry, Pownall is witnessing a bust unlike any other.

I have never seen it to where we have all the mineral industries take a fall. We have the coal industry thats down and took a dramatic drop in their prices, and obviously the issues that theyre having with all the regulations that the federal government has put out, Pownall said. And of course then, the oil industry, the gas and so forth there has taken a terrible beating. And not only that, Campbell County has uranium. Uraniums down.

As long as Ive lived here, Ive never seen everything go to heck all at one time.

Pownall believes his two years of experience in the seat will serve the county best during these tough economic times. He believes in a common sense approach to government, and that the state is in need of a business environment free from government interference.

The lawmaker resigned as Campbell County sheriff in 2014 after he was accused of influencing a drunken driving investigation involving his son. Pownall later criticized the prosecutor who was involved, saying she had waged a personal quest against him.

Pownall will face a primary challenge from Nicholas De Laat, a 35-year-old political novice. De Laat is a Michigan native and Navy veteran whos lived in Wyoming for 10 years.

The primary election is Aug. 16. The general election is Nov. 8.

To just go down there and do one term, I dont believe you basically do justice to the citizens, Pownall said. Youve got to go back. Once you build a rapport to work with other legislators, it benefits your community and obviously the folks in the state because you learn a little more as youre down there a little longer.
Editor:

I am writing in response to a recent article I read in the Casper Star-Tribune about Elizabeth Horsch retiring after a long teaching career and service on the school board. While I do not know of Elizabeth personally, my colleague E. Gerry Meyer, UW professor emeritus of chemistry, told me about the important role Elizabeth has played in science education.

Gerry recalled that while Elizabeth was teaching chemistry at Kelly Walsh High School, she was recognized by the Wyoming Chapter of the American Chemical Society with a teacher of the year award. We now call this the Vernon C. Bulgrin High School Teaching Award with the purpose of recognizing outstanding Wyoming high school chemistry teachers. Gerry also told me that Elizabeth helped send many Kelly Walsh students to the University of Wyoming over the years.

One of the strengths of the education system here in Wyoming is the small-town nature of the relationships between high school teachers, community college professors, and the faculty here at UW. While we need to continually build and nurture these relationships, here in Wyoming we have a strong history of truly outstanding educators that love what they do and try to work together for the best interests of our students.

Elizabeth epitomizes some of the stars we have working in high schools around the state. As the chemistry department head I know that the whole system relies on the relationships between high schools, the community colleges and UW. Our state is facing hard economic times and we need to work together to give hope and new opportunities to young people from Wyoming.

I hold great optimism in the potential of students from Wyoming and truly feel privileged to live and work in this state. I especially like her statement that asking questions and pushing barriers is the heart and soul of education. I agree, and end this letter using the framework of a popular TV commercial. Buying chemicals and supplies for high school chemistry lab: $500. The impact high school teachers like Elizabeth Horsch have on young people interested in science: priceless.
Editor:

I couldn't let the antiquated rhetoric in David Saxton's May 3 letter, "Dems hurt average workers on climate change," pass without comment. Here is one example of how far America and the world have evolved beyond climate science denial.

In December, Exxon Mobil executives met with the Houston Chronicle's editorial staff. On Dec. 7, the Chronicle published a story about the meeting titled "Exxon Mobil backs carbon tax."

The story opens with these words: "Exxon Mobil Corp. executives on Monday said that without major international coordination on carbon pollution, the Earth's average temperature would be on track to rise by about 2.5 degrees Celsius over the next century. That means the planet would face the worst effects of climate change, including droughts and rising sea levels." The story goes on to say that Exxon Mobil has been in favor of a revenue-neutral carbon tax for years as the most efficient carbon pricing mechanism.

Following up on Dec. 29, the Chronicle came out with a major editorial titled "Here are five things that politicians need to do in the fight against climate change."

Heres the Chronicles list of what America needs: 1) a national carbon tax; 2) effective regulation of methane leaks; 3) more research into energy efficiency, energy storage and decarbonization; 4) removal of regulations set up to block wind and solar power from entering the market; and 5) serious preparation for the inevitable consequences of climate change.

Perhaps this editorial from the principal newspaper of the petrochemical capital of America will encourage a few of those still stuck in the denialist bubble to move on.
NEW YORK (AP)  U.S. airlines have been pressing the government to act to reduce the intolerably long security lines at the nation's airports. Now, they're even asking passengers for help by sharing their frustration on social media.

Lines during peak hours at some airports have topped 90 minutes. The airlines already are warning customers to arrive at the airport two hours in advance, and are fearful the situation will only get worse with a record number of travelers expected this summer.

Earlier this week, the Transportation Security Administration said it would increase staffing at security checkpoints and boost the number of bomb-sniffing dogs to help the lines move more quickly. The agency also is asking Congress for more money to hire additional screeners and pay existing ones overtime.

Both sides have encouraged travelers to enroll in the TSA's expedited screening program called PreCheck. But the airlines also want travelers to do something that comes more naturally: complain.

Airlines for America, the industry's trade group, just launched a website called iHateTheWait.com , encouraging fliers to post photos of the lines on Twitter and Instagram along with the hashtag #iHateTheWait. Presumably this will make Congress more aware of the problem  and let fellow travelers know what they're in for when they get to the airport.

The group's spokeswoman Jean Medina, said the campaign is "raising awareness of the issue and serving as crowd-sourced (wait time) information."

While the number of travelers is on the rise, there are fewer agents to screen them. The number of front-line screeners was cut by 10 percent in the past three years, based on the assumption that travelers would enroll in PreCheck. They did not.

The airline trade group, which represents Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, said on the iHateTheWait website that engaging in the social media campaign will "help cut wait times for everyone who flies."

TSA spokesman Michael England would not comment about the site but said the TSA's goal is to keep all passengers safe and suggests that passengers get to the airport two hours early for domestic flights.

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Follow Scott Mayerowitz at twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/scott-mayerowitz.
The man was heard by workers saying something to the effect of you all ruined my life as he walked through the building, and may have been looking for someone, sheriffs spokesman Ralph Gonzales said. The names of the gunman and the victims havent been released.

Ex-Alamo managers say theyve overcome bullying

HOUSTON  A group that served as guardian of the Alamo for more than a century said Wednesday it had prevailed over the bureaucratic bullying of a Texas agency with the states acknowledgement that about 38,000 books and artifacts at an Alamo library dont belong to the state.

The Daughters of the Republic of Texas filed suit in March 2015 against the Texas General Land Office, alleging the agency headed by George P. Bush unilaterally declared the state owner of the organizations private library collection. That came after Bush announced he was ending the groups management of the downtown San Antonio mission-turned-fortress.

The Texas Attorney Generals Office, in a Bexar County court filing last week seeking dismissal of the lawsuit, said that with the possible exception of a few items still being reviewed, There is no ownership dispute in this case.

Wire reports
Acquiring a top industry certification was not easy for Concrete Designs Inc., but it was an important part of its plan to recover from the effects of the Great Recession, which threatened to close the almost 60-year-old business.

The Tucson company, which has specialized in architectural precast concrete products such as columns, balusters, moldings and trim since 1958, has expanded its offerings into cast stone. Much like precast concrete, cast stone is an ornamental or functional masonry product.

After a multiyear process, the company recently became a member of the Cast Stone Institute, which certifies product quality through testing and inspection. Members must also undergo a recertification process every two years.

We saw the opportunity because there are no certified plants west of Texas, said Nathan Hartzell, owner of Concrete Designs. Were able to offer customers in Arizona and California a local source to get a certified product.

Cast stone is designed to simulate cut limestone and has an acid-etched finish. It is predominantly used on the East Coast, he said, and architects from that region tend to specify its use out West.

Even though precast and cast stone are both essentially made of sand, cement and a few additives, Hartzell said, in an architects mind there is a difference.

It took CDI almost three years to be certified, with special testing every month, reports to be filed quarterly and surprise inspections.

But its worth it for a couple of reasons, he said. It opens up a whole new market to us and it gives our customers confidence that were meeting all these standards so our product will be superior.

Opening up a testing lab and sending some employees for special training has not only benefited them through certification, its also improved the companys traditional offerings, he said.

It required us to be a lot more scientific with our mixing system than artistic, because (precast concrete) is really an artistic look, but this made us get really methodical on how we do things, Hartzell said.

Acquiring the certification is part of the companys diversification efforts after the housing crisis and recession. During the height of the housing boom, about 90 percent of CDIs business came from residential sales. Today, almost 60 percent comes from commercial projects.

The business has also started networking with commercial architects.

A crazy ride

CDI was started by two geologists, Donlon LoBiondo and Keith Martin, in 1958. The two owned the business until it was bought in 1996 by Oldcastle, one of the largest building material manufacturers in the world.

Deby Wiest, who had been manager under the original owners, stepped up to run the company for Oldcastle. Hartzell joined CDI in 2006, becoming manager in 2009 just as the economy went into a free fall.

I became manager and we had a horrible 2009, a horrible 2010 and a really bad 2011, he said.

Oldcastle was hurting globally and tried to sell the Tucson company, but found no takers. After Wiest and Hartzell failed to find a buyer, Oldcastle was ready to shutter the business. But Wiest wasnt about to give up.

Deby came into my office, closed the door and said we should buy it, Hartzell said. They made a deal with Oldcastle, bought the company and equipment and signed a five-year lease on the property.

They were on their own in 2012 and started to build the business back up. Then, in 2013, Wiest died. It was a huge blow for everybody, he said.

The following year, Oldcastle moved to sell the property. Using a Small Business Administration-backed loan and support from Oldcastle, Hartzell was able to buy the land below market price.

They said: We know what youre doing. This covers our numbers in our books so if you can come up with this, were OK. I owe those guys a lot, he said. Its been a crazy ride.

So far, sales are up 25 percent from 2012, and the company has 35 employees.
PHOENIX  State lawmakers agreed Friday to alter state laws to alleviate the conflict-of-interest problems of the newest member of the Arizona Corporation Commission.

On a 32-22 margin the House approved language to effectively overrule the opinion of a commission attorney, who said Andy Tobin could not vote on certain electric rate cases if SolarCity had intervened. Tobins son-in-law works for the firm.

The approval came just hours after the House had killed the same measure on a 22-31 vote.

The measure now heads to Gov. Doug Ducey, who is likely to sign it.

Ducey named Tobin to the Corporation Commission, which hears rate cases for utilities including Tucson Electric Power, in January following the resignation of Susan Bitter Smith. She quit after Attorney General Mark Brnovich said her outside employment on behalf of Cox Communications and the Southwest Cable Television Association made it illegal for her to hold office.

It was subsequently learned that Mike Coomer, who is married to Tobins daughter, is an inventory control specialist for SolarCity.

That company is not regulated by the commission. But it has been in the middle of fights with regulated utilities over rates the commission will let them charge customers who generate their own power with rooftop solar units  units manufactured and sold by SolarCity.

When Nevada utility regulators adopted changes in rates sought by utilities there, SolarCity laid off workers. That raised the question of whether a similar decision by the Arizona commission would endanger the job of Tobins son-in-law.

Based on that, a commission attorney told Tobin he could not vote on any matters involving SolarCity.

Theres also the issue that Tobins brother works for Cox Communications. But Tobin said thats on the side of the company that handles cable television and not its telephone service.

To fix the problem, lawmakers added language to existing laws to say it is not a conflict of interest for public officials to vote on matters involving a relative if that person works for a firm with at least 25 employees and does not have authority over the firms management or budget decisions.

That appears to cover both of the situations involving Tobin.

No one voting on the measure Friday detailed their opinions. Tobin previously said he believes he would still be effective on the five-member panel even if he could not vote on issues where SolarCity is involved, because the panel deals with many issues.

But Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix, said its wrong to try to change the law to fit the problem. Conflicts of interest cant be amended away simply by changing a definition in statute or simply by running a bill and making that conflict of interest magically disappear, he said.
A former 1950s-era gas station near the University of Arizona is to become a beach-themed taco and burger restaurant this fall.

For passers-by, Jimmy Hulas will vaguely remind them of the two-pump service station and auto shop that has sat on the corner of North Fourth Avenue and East University Boulevard since the early 1950s, an anchor of the north end of the business district. But inside the 1,900-square-foot building at 802 N. Fourth Ave., youll think youre beachfront, with brightly painted walls, palm fronds draped above the bar, photos of Bob Marley and surfboards hanging on the walls.

The restaurants owners, David Blair of Tucson and Jim Onken of Phoenix, will keep the exterior intact, including the garage doors on the repair bays, according to plans approved on April 28 by the Tucson-Pima County Historic Commission. In an email interview, Blair said the old metal garage doors will be replaced by glass, and a sail-themed covered patio will be added.

The only true modifications will be aesthetic in nature, said Blair, a longtime homebuilder in Tucson.

The idea is to maintain the integrity of the building, whose first resident was Fourth Avenue Tire & Service Station from the early 1950s through the early 70s, according to city directories from the time. The building also was home to Wendt West Auto Enterprises in the 1980s and, as late as 2009, the Fourth Avenue Service Station.

The building lies outside of the West University Historic Zone, which includes buildings built in the 1930s and earlier. The zone is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, which establishes development standards and design guidelines for new construction and alterations of existing historic buildings, according to city officials.

Plans by Blair and Onken, who also is a homebuilder, call for remodeling the interior of the building and adding a bar, kitchen and dining areas.

The interior will be completely remodeled and look like a restaurant, not like a service station, Blair said. It is a fun, casual, relaxed atmosphere; order at the counter, food delivered to your table in seven to eight minutes. Average cost probably $10 per person.

Jimmy Hulas is known for its array of fish tacos topped with everything from guacamole and street corn to pineapple mango salsa and coleslaw, and towering burgers including the popular Burnt Reynolds topped with bacon, egg and Lays potato chips. The restaurant chain also serves craft beers and cocktails at its nine Florida locations, including its Winter Park flagship that opened in 2011; a 10th Florida location is to open soon.

Tucson will have the second of the chains restaurants outside of the Sunshine State; an outpost opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in February.

Blair said neither he nor Onken, whose two daughters attend the University of Arizona, have extensive restaurant experience. But in another life both worked for Intrawest Resorts, a Canadian resort management company whose properties include Colorados popular Steamboat Ski Resort. Blair also spent time years ago working for a restaurant, he said.

The Fourth Avenue Merchants Association says its too early to tell if Jimmy Hulus will fit in with the eclectic nature of the avenue, whose only other chain restaurant is a locally owned Dairy Queen. The avenue, known for its hipster chicness, is a mix of mostly independently owned shops and restaurants including Food Conspiracy Co-Op, The Hippie Gypsy, several of the citys most popular night clubs including OMalleys, The Hut and Ches Lounge, and one of the citys oldest eateries, Carusos Italian Restaurant, which has been on North Fourth Avenue for more than 75 years.

(I) cant think of a better Tucson location and am confident it will fit in, Blair said. Tucson is becoming  or arguably has been  a good food town. Tucson likes Mexican dishes, people like fish, throw in a great location and good proximity to the UA, and Jimmy Hulas felt Tucson was a natural fit.

Only time will tell if Jimmy Hulas is a fit, says Fred Ronstadt, executive director of the Fourth Avenue Merchants Association.

We love the eclectic nature of this part of Tucson. Everything happens on Fourth Avenue, he said. I think over time the avenue has evolved. I dont know if Jimmy Hulas will succeed or not, or if the community will embrace it.

But he said that after years of the building being vacant, I think anybody would be excited to see a property thats been underutilized, undervalued, to be utilized.

I certainly think revitalizing any part of Fourth Avenue thats vacant or empty has a benefit for the whole avenue, added Carusos general manager Salvatore Zagona Jr., the grandson of founder Nicasio Zagona.

Blair said he and Onken are completing the kitchen design and will soon submit their plans to the city. They hope to get the necessary city approvals in June so they can begin work. They hope to open in mid-September, he said.
As Lili DeBarbieri watched kids sled down New Mexican sand dunes in 2008, Daisys story crept into her mind for the first time.

She imagined a pocket mouse, lost in a sea of sand. In search of her burrow, the mouse encounters a hungry kit fox, a nonchalant lizard and a sand-sledding child.

It was the makings of DeBarbieris first childrens picture book Sand Dune Daisy: A Pocket Mouse Tale.

I chose wildlife that was specific to the whole Southwest, and not New Mexico or Utah or anything too local, DeBarbieri said, despite the books inspiration at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. I thought about what it would be like to put myself in the shoes of a little mouse lost in their environment.

DeBarbieri, a Phildelphia native, has called Tucson home for nine years. A picture book on the natural world of the Southwest was only a matter of time.

DeBarbieri grew up around evergreens, not cacti. She had never seen a coyote before moving here.

I think its just kind of a natural response to being in a different part of the country, DeBarbieri said. You become into all of these local things  the desert and surviving in the desert and what that means.

DeBarbieri works as a program instructor out of Woods Memorial Library. As part of her day job, she visits Tucson Unified School District schools to teach students about the resources available to them at the libraries.

She never planned on becoming a writer, never studied journalism, never pursued creative writing.

Yet her portfolio includes three books on Arizona culture: A Guide to Southern Arizonas Historic Farms and Ranches: Rustic Southwest Retreats, Location Filming in Arizona: The Screen Legacy of the Grand Canyon State and Sedona Verde Valley Art: A History from Red Rocks to Plein-Air.

She also freelances for a few local magazines, blogs for Hobby Farms and works as a Tucson stringer for Agence France-Presse, along with giving presentations on her areas of research, specifically film in Arizona.

I wasnt one of those people with any career goals to be honest, DeBarbieri said. I was interested in a lot of things, mostly travel, so I would try to do something and then I would kind of want to move on to something else. But thats very much who I am.

Writing, though, seems to be the interest that endures.

Its kind of a blueprint structure for exploring different interests, like movies or art or ecology, she said.

Some of her experiences come together in Sand Dune Daisy  another travel experience at Mongolian sand dunes overseas, the weeks spent researching the social behaviors of prairie dogs in Utah, her high school love for writing fiction.

I really enjoyed the stories of Beatrix Potter growing up, and I thought they were cute and fun and really reflected the animals in a nice way, she said. And you learned things and thought, Oh, mice do that and kittens do that.

In one chapter of DeBarbieris life, she found herself working on a project watching prairie dogs for weeks. She grew to love the colony  and the fox that patiently waited each day to pick off a rodent.

Through that she found inspiration for the critters in her book.

Watching nature in action was very special, she said.

And that stood out to Mira Perrizo, the editorial director of Big Earth Publishing in Boulder, Colorado.

It fit the right criteria, Perrizo said. We do books on the Southwest and we like books that are topical like this one, which is about the sand dunes of the Southwest. And, I thought it was a cute story.

Because it was published through Big Earth Publishing company Westcliffe Publishers, it had to have a nonfiction component, Perrizo added.

I wanted to do this book, so I had her stick in these little side notes, she said.

So in addition to a glossary in the back, the book is full of wildlife facts.

The first copies with illustrations by M. Fred Barraza of New Mexico were published in December, after DeBarbieri spent years searching for a publisher.
When San Harrisons daughter, Lex Thompson, called one December morning to say she was sending an email, Harrison thought nothing of it.

Harrison, whos lived in Tucson more than 20 years, and Thompson, who lives in Marietta, Georgia, regularly have coffee together over the phone on Sunday mornings.

But this time Thompson wanted to make sure Harrison had her laptop handy for their chat, under the guise of showing her mother photos of the work she did on her house.

However, the remodel wasnt nearly as shocking as the photo Thompson would show her next.

I said Mom, I have some great news. Your girls are looking for you, Thompson said. All I heard on the other end of the line was this massive gasp.

The photo Thompson actually wanted her mother to see was of the twin daughters she had painfully placed for adoption 50 years ago.

I said I gotta take a minute because I knew I was gonna fall apart at the seams, Harrison recalled, her voice breaking. So, it took me a while to open it  she just let me talk for a little bit.

When I finally opened it up and saw them I fell apart because I knew it was them ... and I knew God had answered my prayers. When God does stuff like that, he doesnt do a crap job. When he does stuff like that he does it good.

Help us find our birth parents

Twin sisters Lisa Hoepner and Tina Salava were celebrating their 50th birthday on Dec. 24 by hanging out with family and friends at Salavas Wisconsin home. The group was drinking wine and chatting, when one friend asked if the women had thought of looking for their birth parents, since their adoptive parents were deceased.

They had, of course, but didnt have a plan.

I was like I guess, but what are we gonna do, put it on Facebook? and they were like Yeah lets do it right now, Hoepner recalled.

Hoepners niece got to work on signs for the women to hold. They read: Help us find our birth parents. Born in Green Bay, WI on Dec. 24, 1965 (St. Vincent Hospital). Please share!

The twins each held up one part of the sign. Someone snapped a picture and put it on Facebook.

It wasnt planned or prepared at all, Hoepner said. We took the picture and I kinda forgot about it. I went away for the holiday.

In a matter of five days, the photo was shared more than 30,000 times on Facebook and had landed in Thompsons news feed.

Tuesday following their birthday, Hoepner got an interesting phone call while she was at work.

My husband called and said I got the strangest email,  Hoepener said.  This lady said she might be your half sister. 

Painful Decision

When San Harrison found herself single and pregnant at the age of 19, she was fully prepared to keep her baby and raise her.

She had a good job as a data entry clerk and thought she could take care of one baby.

However, two days before she gave birth, she was told she was having twins.

I knew there was no way I could spread myself thin enough, she recalled. I didnt have a good support system. I had good parents, but their hands were full with seven kids. I knew I couldnt rely on other people to take care of me ... I didnt know if I was gonna be single for a long time. I had a decent job and all, but a babysitter for two kids all day long? What kind of life would I give them? I knew in my heart that I had to let them go.

Harrison decided to place the twins for adoption when they were born.

The experience was so painful and traumatic for Harrison she decided she had to release them fully, meaning she would not try to contact them later in life.

She made that decision early on as a way to cope and because she didnt want to interfere with their lives.

I determined at that time it was the only way I could handle it, Harrison recalled. Even in the judges chamber, I would break down and cry. It was a traumatic experience for me, but I did what I felt I had to to give them a life. I released them so they could have a good life.

It took a few years to recover from that grief.

They were born on Christmas Eve, Harrison said. It was really hard for me. I just prayed and one day it just lifted. I knew that they were OK ... and although I would think about them off and on, the pain wasnt there anymore.

Wonderful lives

Hoepner and Salava said they led full, wonderful lives with their adoptive parents in Wisconsin and that their adoption was never a secret.

I dont remember not knowing, Hoepner said. I remember Mom and Dad telling us we were special because we were chosen. They got to pick us. We thought that was a great thing because we got to be adopted.

Their parents also adopted a son and eventually had a biological child of their own.

We lived a full life with an incredible family, Salava said.

The twins adoptive father died in 2001, their mother in 2014.

Shocking news

Harrison eventually married and had three more children. Only one of them  Thompson  knew anything about the twins.

Thompson found out in 2004 on a trip to Wisconsin when her grandmother died. Her parents had divorced, so she went to see her dad. He spilled the beans.

The previous December, Josh (her brother) had twins and my dad and I were talking about twins, Thompson said. My dad said, It must have been really really hard for your mom to give up the twins. And I was like What!? His face got ashen and he said Please dont tell your mom. It wasnt my place. So I asked him to fill me in.

Later, Thompson got more details from her mother.

I was absolutely shocked because Mom has been an open book with us. There wasnt anything we couldnt ask her, Thompson said. But I was old enough to think if this is something she didnt tell us, there was a good reason. It was the way she had to deal with it.

And I was respectful of her role as a woman who is a mother to other children, Thompson said. I cant imagine what it would be like to give up a child. So woman to woman, I could appreciate where she was coming from. I never felt ill will toward her on it.

When the photo of the twins hit Thompsons news feed that Sunday morning, it was because her father had seen it and knew it had to be the twins. So he reposted it, with no comments, in hopes that Thompson would see it because she was the only one who knew.

However, Thompson wasnt the only one of Harrisons kids to see it.

The Facebook post also made it to the news feed of her daughter, Kalyn Galvez-Latneau.

My thought as I scrolled on past was Hm. They sure look like Mom. Maybe its all the German genes in Green Bay that causes everyone to look alike, Galvez-Latneau recalled. I didnt think anything of it, and kept about my day.

Harrison knew her other two kids would be stunned by the news of their siblings, but spent the rest of that Sunday and the next day telling them.

When this happened it was a shock. I contacted each of them, Josh and Kalyn, as quickly as I was able to, Harrison said. I told them they had sisters and they found us. They were so awesome in their responses. Theyre just really loving, caring children. There was no harsh judgement or negativity. Lex loves that shes not the oldest one anymore.

When Galvez-Latneau got the call from her mother saying she needed to sit down and talk with me urgently, in person and alone, she worried something was wrong.

Though relieved that was not the case, she wasnt sure what to say when her mother delivered the news.

I didnt know how to react and I wondered how this beautiful lady must have felt holding this secret so close all these years, Galvez-Latneau said. I was numb and the room was spinning. My mom and I have always been super close so this was a tremendous shock.

Galvez-Latneau had some difficulty processing the fact that her mom probably wouldnt have told her about the twins had they not found her.

I had to really work at letting that go and loving my mom for who she was and where she was, Galvez-Latneau said. It was a journey to wrap my mind and heart around this additional side to the mother I had been so close to growing up and all my adult life.

The Sisters meet

When Hoepners husband gave her the message that Thompson had called, she immediately returned the call.

The women decided a conference call would be the best way for all four of them  Thompson, Harrison, Salava and Hoepner  to get acquainted.

Before that, Thompson called the registrar in Green Bay to see if there were any other twins born that day, just be be sure. There werent.

She also sent pictures of her mother as a teen to the twins. When they saw her picture, it cinched the deal  looking at her was like looking in a mirror, they said. They knew she was their mother.

They talked for two hours during the conference call that night, getting to know each other.

There is nothing that could have gone better, Hoepner said.

They discovered that Thompson would be in Orlando, Florida, at the same time Salava would be for work. Hoepner, Salava and Thompson arranged to meet.

Oh man, we got along so easily, Thompson said. It was beautiful. I remember coming up the hotel elevator and I saw the two of them standing quite a ways down the hallway and they yelled, Lex! And I thought Why am I walking? I should be running. So I started running toward them. The faucets in my eyes turned on. It was an immediate connection.

I never thought this day would come

On April 1, two days before Harrisons 70th birthday, she met her twins face-to-face for the first time.

While she waited, her daughter-in-law, Heather Harrison, sat with her, camera in hand.

Lex texted that they were close, Harrison recalled. I turned and as I did, I saw the car pull in and I said Theyre here, Heather. 

Heather grabbed the camera and filmed as San sped to the door.

Tears fell as soon as she saw the twins get out of the car. The three women embraced, looked closely at each others faces, and cried.

I never thought this day would come, Harrison told them.

The emotions were overwhelming.

It was like when I opened the picture on the laptop. I couldnt believe the joy in my heart, San said. When I stepped out there I said Oh my God, its my girls. I just became a basket case for a little while. I was just overwhelmed with joy and those two precious girls came right up and hugged me, held my face and let me look at their faces ... It was just a beautiful, beautiful experience.

They spent the next three days talking, going through pictures, comparing likes and dislikes and catching up.

Hoepner and Salava brought a disc full of photos of big moments from their childhood  going home with their adoptive parents, first communion, graduations, weddings  everything a mom should be at, Hoepner said.

You could just see her drinking it in and absorbing everything, Salava said. It was like she was living vicariously through us. You could see she was so happy we had a great life and didnt give us to people who didnt really want us. It was fun to share with her. It was fun to see her laugh and see the pain on her face when she saw one of me with a broken nose at two. She was just so grateful.

Grateful, indeed  for the parents who raised her twins and for the chance to finally be a part of her daughters lives.

I am so grateful for them. You could see it on their faces  the wonderment  they had, Harrison said. I got to see pictures of the day they arrived, where they grew up, the things they did. They told me about times theyd sit in their room and talk quietly and try to figure out things about who their mom was. It was like an unfolding of all the years that I missed and it brought me up to the current. I got to see their lives.

Tina did the narrating. Shes a trip and a half. The things they got into ... They just spattered it all out there so I knew who they were  the good, bad and ugly. It was just terrific.

The twins discovered that they take after their mothers side of the family. They have the same mannerisms, same build and same interests.

Oh my God, Lisa looks just like San, Salava said. Its just freaky to me. Thank God because were gonna look great at 70 if we look like her.

The funny thing is I hugged her first and I remember thinking she feels like Tina and when Tina hugged her it was like, You feel like Lisa,  Hoepner said. We are very similar in height and size. We like the same foods and dislike the same foods. It was interesting to sit in her living room. She had the same things on her coffee table as I do ... Tina and I always thought the things we are so much alike in was because we are twins, but it was because we are like the family.

Early Mothers Day

On April 3, the whole family got together to celebrate Harrisons 70th birthday. Everything flowed naturally, not only between the twins and their mother, but also with their other siblings.

The amazing thing was when I finally met my sisters in person, their hugs, smiles and connectivity with the family was unreal, Galvez-Latneau said. It was as if they had always been there growing up with us, a part of the family, the entire time. We found that I looked most like Tina and had the personality most like Lisa. All of us were noticing the mannerisms which, despite being raised separately, we all shared. It was wild and fun.

The celebration was everything Harrison ever wanted  her kids all together for a picnic at her sons Tucson home.

Though the twins live hundreds of miles away, the family stays in close contact through texting, email and phone calls, almost daily, and plans to visit again as soon as they can.

Both twins thanked Harrison for the life they have been able to live and recognized the kindness in her decision to let them go.

The one thing that Tina and I always talked about was what a selfless act that was, Hoepner said. If there was any way I could just thank her and be able to hug her and hold her and talk to her and just to know her ... this was just so much more. It gives me chills. We are so fortunate.

Thats the part that touched Harrison most.
Former Pima County Supervisor Ann Day was killed in a crash this morning, hit by a car that jumped a median and struck her Prius head-on, officials say.

Its just sad because heres this lady in her mid-to-late 70s, early in the morning, probably just driving home, and you just cant prevent that, theres nothing she could do," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said.

The 23-year-old driver of the other car is suspected of impaired driving, and was seen driving erratically at excessive speeds before the crash, Nanos said.

Day was driving eastbound on East Ina Road near the Westward Look Resort on Tucson's northwest side shortly before about 8 a.m.. The driver of a Chevrolet Impala crossed the median and crashed into her Toyota, authorities said. Her vehicle was then struck by a pickup truck that was behind her.

Nanos said a doctor was riding his bicycle nearby, and a Northwest Fire battalion chief and a Marine paramedic all saw the crash and tried to assist, but no one was able to help Day.

She was pronounced dead at Banner University Medical Center at 8:37 a.m.

Nanos said the vehicle that hit Day had been seen by witnesses bouncing off of curbs and driving at a high rate of speed in excess of 80 mph before the crash. Later statements from the driver led deputies to suspect he was on some sort of drugs, and a toxicology screen was conducted, the sheriff said. The driver was in the hospital for injuries related to the crash and had not been arrested as of Saturday afternoon.

Deputy Ryan Inglett, a sheriff's spokesman, said the driver of the pickup also had serious injuries but they were not life-threatening.

I worked with her for a long time. She was a very capable and reasonable co-worker on that board, Supervisor Ray Carroll said Saturday. She was a very loyal and treasured friend of mine.

Day, 77, a Republican, represented the countys District 1 until she decided to end two-decades of political service by in 2011 by not seeking re-election.

Day, the sister of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day OConnor, called herself a "cowgirl from the Lazy B" ranch, a Star profile in 2011 said.

Day served 10 years in the state Senate and 12 years representing District 1, which runs north of the Rillito and includes Oro Valley, parts of Marana and the Catalina Foothills.

Her downtown office was filled with mementos and relics, from cowboy poetry to pictures of her grandchildren and a photo of her father branding a calf. Her grandfather, H.C. Day, started the Lazy B in 1880 and served as the chairman of the Board of Supervisors in Graham County.

Day's upbringing on the rural Eastern Arizona ranch gave her an independent streak that shaped her politics, the Stars 2011 article noted. That streak served her in a legislative caucus that often ran counter to her moderate breed of politics. It helped fuel her reputation as a consumer advocate, spearheading reforms in the HMO industry and helping establish cancer patients' rights to clinical trial treatments, the article said.
PHOENIX  Arizona is going to restore a program it shelved six years ago to provide health care to the children of the working poor.

Without comment, Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation Friday to allow Arizona to accept federal dollars to restart the KidsCare program. Backers say it could help about 30,000 children.

The governors action came just hours after the Senate, over the objections of Republican legislative leaders, voted 16-12 to restore the KidsCare program in Arizona. The House had given its blessing Thursday night.

Ducey never publicly supported the program. He has always been open-minded to it, said press aide Daniel Scarpinato. Its common sense and it will help kids.

But even with Duceys signature, there may be hurdles.

Senate Majority Leader Steve Yarbrough, R-Chandler, said he anticipates a lawsuit saying SB 1457 is illegal.

Thats because the provision to restore KidsCare was attached to language dealing with eligibility of disabled students to continue to get vouchers to attend private and parochial school at taxpayer expense.

Yarbrough said that violates a provision of the Arizona Constitution that says legislation can deal with only one subject.

But Rep. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, one of the architects, said there is a connection between the two subjects and that the legislation will survive any legal challenge.

The measure is an expansion of the states existing Medicaid program that provides free care to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of three, that is about $27,700 a year.

It is funded on a 2-1 match with federal and state dollars but administered by the state.

This measure deals with a separate federal program known as the Childrens Health Insurance Program. It provides coverage for the children in families earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, about $41,100 annually for the same family.

Arizona joined that program in 2001.

Then-Gov. Jane Hull said the move made financial sense, noting there is a 3-1 match of federal to state dollars.

It became known in Arizona as KidsCare.

In 2010 however, with the state facing a deficit, lawmakers decided the state could no longer afford its share.

So they directed that no one new be signed up. And enrollment, then about 45,000, now is fewer than 1,000.

What changed is that Congress has decided to fully fund CHIP programs through 2017.

That, however, was not enough to sway Republican legislative leaders. In fact, Senate President Andy Biggs refused to even give a hearing to a House-passed bill to reinstate the program.

So rank-and-file Republicans joined with Democrats to line up the votes and find procedural ways to bypass the blockades thrown in their path.

On Friday, Biggs opted to simply allow a vote. But he was clearly displeased about being outmaneuvered.

The Senate president said he wasnt buying arguments that there would be no cost to the state.

But he said even if that were not the case, Arizona shouldnt be lining up for the federal dollars.

Biggs, who is running for Congress, said the national debt increased by more than $1 trillion in the last six months and now stands at $19 trillion.

While every program ... has an advocate and a desire to accomplish a certain albeit potentially even altruistic or beneficent purpose, at some point one realizes that perhaps we cant afford every program, he said.

And Sen. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, was unimpressed by arguments that Arizona has been the only state without a CHIP program.

Well, kudos to us, she said.
A teen asleep in his bed survived being slammed through a bedroom wall early Friday by a stolen SUV that smashed into his northwest-side home.

Three teens in the stolen vehicle  a 16-year-old boy who was driving, and an 18-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl who were passengers  were not injured, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson police spokesman.

The incident started about 1:30 a.m. when Tucson police received a LoJack signal about a stolen vehicle near West Grant and North Silverbell roads.

Officers searched for the vehicle in squad cars and with a helicopter and confirmed it was reported stolen by the time it was located near Interstate 10 and West Cortaro Farms Road.

The SUV raced away when officers tried to stop it, but police decided not to chase it because that was determined to be too dangerous for a property crime, Dugan said.

Within minutes, Dugan said, officers in the helicopter reported the car had wrecked into a house in the 7400 block of North Oldfather Road, near West Ina Road.

The SUV hit the homes living room wall before tearing into the teens bedroom. The vehicle hit the wall where the teens bed was located, pushing the bed  with the teen in it  across the bedroom and through an exterior wall.

The sleeping teen has serious injuries, but they are not life-threatening, Dugan said. The house was condemned.

The 16-year-old driver was arrested on suspicion of felony criminal damage, aggravated assault and endangerment; the 18-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor; and the 14-year-old girl was arrested on suspicion of auto theft.

Police are conducting a board of inquiry into the officers actions because there was a serious injury accident after they attempted to make contact with the SUV, Dugan said.
With visibility severely reduced at milepost 376, the Arizona Department of Transportation closed 60-plus miles of the interstate in both directions from east of Willcox to Lordsburg, New Mexico.

ADOT personnel stationed at the scene will close the highway in the interest of safety when conditions warrant and detour traffic on US 191 and US 70 through Safford. Those planning to travel this route should budget extra time in case of delays and be aware of the potential for blowing dust to appear suddenly, ADOT officials said in a news release.
PHOENIX  State lawmakers sent Gov. Doug Ducey legislation Friday to allow lawsuits against cities to challenge their gun regulations.

SB 1266, approved by the House 31-23, is designed to add teeth to existing state laws that prohibit local communities from enacting firearms laws that exceed what the Legislature has permitted. It says a court that finds there was a knowing or willful violation of state law can assess a civil penalty up to $50,000 and remove public officials from office.

The measure aimed largely at Tucson, which has refused to repeal two gun regulations that former Attorney General Tom Horne concluded in 2013 are beyond the citys authority.

One allows police to request a breath sample from someone who has negligently discharged a firearm and appears intoxicated. Horne said Arizona law bars cities from passing ordinances relating to the discharge and use of firearms.

Horne also said Tucson cannot require people to report the loss or theft of a gun to police because it relates to the possession or transfer of firearms, something the Legislature has said is solely within its purview. And Horne said the $100 civil penalty for failing to report a missing gun conflicts with another law that bars gun ordinances that have a penalty greater than what exists in state law.

The city has ignored Hornes formal legal opinion. Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, sponsor of SB 1266, said this legislation would ensure that does not happen.

There was no debate on the measure.

Sex education

Citing the Bible, claiming being gay is a voluntary lifestyle and saying homosexuality causes AIDS, the Senate killed a proposal its sponsor said would allow schools to provide accurate sex education.

Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Phoenix, said state law allows schools to develop courses designed to teach students about AIDS. Those laws require the information to be appropriate to the grade level offered, be medically accurate and promote abstinence.

But Quezada also noted the law makes it illegal for schools to include anything that promotes a homosexual lifestyle. It also forbids portraying homosexuality as a positive alternative lifestyle.

Quezada said the language is outdated and actually results in schools that do have such programs being unable to help students avoid disease.

Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs, D-Phoenix, said prohibiting a discussion of homosexuality leaves a whole bunch of students at risk.

Students are going to engage in sexual activity whether we teach them about it safely or not, she said. Whats worse, Hobbs said, is that the current laws suggest that homosexuality is simply a lifestyle.

Its something theyre born with, she said. Theres a lot of science behind that.

But Sen. Steve Smith, R-Maricopa, disagreed.

Theres a lot of science that says it isnt, he said. Anyway, Smith said, if the goal is safe sex, then schools should be stressing the safest of all sex: none at all.

Instead it seems like were teaching our second-, third- and fourth-graders how to put condoms on cucumbers instead of how to teach abstinence like we used to in the good old days, he said.

This is about AIDS education in our school, Smith said. And if you think its OK to allow discussion in our schools of what directly causes AIDS to be OK, I think thats completely out of bounds.

Quezada said Smith was missing the point.

He said the law already allows sex education and already allows teaching about AIDS. He said limiting what teachers can say leaves a hole in the curriculum.

You are not talking to certain kids who need to hear that conversation in the classroom, Quezada said.

Vacation rentals

Cities and counties are on the verge of losing their authority to keep property owners from renting out their homes for short-term and vacation rentals.

Without debate the Senate on Friday gave final approval to SB 1350, which is designed to preclude local governments from barring such rentals because a property is not classified as a hotel. The measure now goes to the governor.

Ducey is expected to sign the restriction as it is in line with his vision to have Arizona be the leader of the sharing economy. He sees online services like Airbnb that links up property owners and renters to be similar to Uber and Lyft, which connect motorists with people needing a ride.
PHOENIX  Cities and counties would get new powers to register sober-living homes under the terms of legislation given final House approval Friday.

Rep. Noel Campbell, R-Prescott, said he crafted the measure specifically to deal with what he said has been an explosion of facilities in his community designed to provide a place to live for people dealing with drug and alcohol addiction. They are not medical facilities but more like halfway houses, some for former prison inmates.

But HB 2107 would apply statewide.

Communities could demand things like the name of the property owner or who is leasing it. More to the point, they could require the facilities provide a written copy of supervision requirements for the residents as well as operation plans that include the rehabilitation process.

During legislative hearings, neighbors complained about noise and criminal activity. Campbell called its a health, safety and wellness issue.

But opponents of HB 2107 questioned the necessity for a state law.

I do see that Prescott is really struggling, said Rep. Celeste Plumlee, D-Tempe. But she said communities already have the power to deal with nuisances.

Rep. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe, was more direct in his opposition, pointing out that addicts who are in recovery are protected by federal law against ordinances designed to restrict where their homes can be located.

This unnecessary, permissive bill encourages adoption of discriminatory ordinances, violates a persons right to privacy regarding their health care and creates regulatory burdens for entities providing a much-needed service, he said.

But Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, dismissed those concerns.

This is not about denying health care to anybody, he said.

This is about supervision of those people who are supposed to be closely supervising the operation of these facilities and who, in many cases, are not, Finchem said. And because they are not, they are not functioning in the best interests of the community or the people who are supposed to be being given rehabilitation care.
ALBUQUERQUE  An Albuquerque mother who pleaded guilty in one of the state's most high-profile child-abuse deaths has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

An emotional Synthia Varela-Casaus was sentenced Friday in the 2013 kicking death of her 9-year-old son, Omaree, in a case that sparked a number of state reforms.

Last month, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.

An autopsy found Omaree died from severe internal bleeding caused by blunt-force trauma. Prosecutors say Omaree tried unsuccessfully to get help from authorities because of previous abuse.

Court records show that Varela-Casaus had initially told police her son fell from a toy spring horse.
PHOENIX  The fate of a voting rights lawsuit could depend on whether a federal judge believes current practices discriminate against Native Americans in particular or rural residents in general.

Bret Healy, an expert witness for members of the Navajo Nation, testified Tuesday about how much more time it takes for an early ballot to be received at reservation addresses than in urban centers.

On top of that, Healy said, it can take up to 10 days for something mailed from certain reservation locations to make it to the county seat to be tallied.

He told Judge Murray Snow that this gives reservation residents far less time to consider their options before they have to mail them off. And in some cases, Healy said, it is physically impossible for a reservation resident to get a ballot, mark it, mail it back and have it received by the current deadline of 7 p.m. Election Day.

All that is relevant because the attorney for Navajo Nation members, Chris McClure, wants Snow to order that any ballot from a reservation address postmarked by that deadline has to be counted, even it does not arrive at county election offices until days later. He contends the current state deadline violates federal voting rights laws because it discriminates against Native Americans.

The judge, however, said hes not sure its that clear and simple.

He said the issue of having less time to return early ballots and get them in on time applies whether youre Navajo, whether youre Hopi, whether youre Caucasian, Latinx.

Its a matter of geography, Snow said.

McClure did not dispute that point. But he said research shows a high correlation between the reduced time to vote early and the Navajo Nation.

And I think similar situated tribes would probably fall under the same problem, McClure added.

The effect on Native Americans is crucial to McClure winning his case.

Federal law says states may not take actions that have a disparate effect on groups that have been historic victims of discrimination. Without evidence of disparate effect, McClure cannot use the Voting Rights Act to demand changes to state election procedures.

Snow was clearly skeptical of the claims about this being about race, saying that non-Indians in rural areas  and even those living on reservations  would have the same burdens.

McClure, however, said the issue should be seen from a different perspective.

Just because the Native Americans live in more desolate areas, have less resources available ... does not justify having it be harder for them to vote based on their geography, he said.

He said the shorter time they have to return their ballots isnt their fault.

They have done nothing to impact their opportunity other than to live on the lands that have been their tribal lands forever, essentially, he said. And that should not be some reason they lose the opportunity to have their votes counted.

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs is asking Snow to dismiss the lawsuit.

Hobbs attorneys did not dispute that mailings from many reservation addresses take longer. But Marty Harper, one of her lawyers, said this has nothing to do with actions by the state  or the requirement for ballots to be in the hands of county officials by 7 p.m. on Election Day to be counted.

Harper told Snow that challengers must first show the deadline itself causes a discriminatory burden on Navajo Nation members living on the reservation. And then, he said, they have to show some connection between the deadline and any social and historical inequities that have been suffered by tribal members. He said there is no such evidence.

Theres another factor Snow has to consider, Harper added.

Plaintiffs must show a discriminatory intent or purpose, or a substantial or motivating factor behind the law that sets out the deadline for receipt of early ballots, he said. And they dont.

McClure, however, argued the legal test is different. He said the key is whether members of the tribe have a way to vote that gives them the same opportunity as those who are not Native Americans.

And he said there is clear evidence that non-reservation residents can mail ballots at the last minute and have them counted, while voters living on the reservation not only get their early ballots later, but then have less time to mail them back.

That factor, McClure said, is amplified by the fact that many reservation addresses have no home mail service. Those residents have to drive somewhere to pick up their ballots, bring them home, fill them out and then get them back to the post office, he said.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  Convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks and is fighting to avoid extradition to the United States, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early Saturday.

Lawyers for Guzman, who was recaptured in January, have filed multiple appeals against their client being sent to the U.S., and Mexican officials have said it could take as long as a year to reach a final ruling. There was no immediate indication that the transfer could be a sign that the process is nearing conclusion.

The Sinaloa cartel boss was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a security official told The Associated Press, without giving a reason. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mexico's National Security Commission said in a statement that the transfer was in line with security protocols, and it has rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a security strategy implemented last September.

Jose Refugio Rodriguez, an attorney for Guzman, confirmed that he was sent to the Cefereso No. 9 prison. He said Guzman's defense team was not notified beforehand, and one of his lawyers was traveling to Juarez to try to meet with their client.

"I don't know what the strategy is," Refugio told The Associated Press. "I can't say what the government is thinking."

Guzman faces charges from seven separate U.S. attorneys' offices, including in Chicago, New York, Miami and San Diego.

"El Chapo" first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001. He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape the Altiplano lockup the following year through a mile-long tunnel dug to the floor of the shower stall in his cell.

Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.
CAIRO (AP)  An Egyptian court on Saturday recommended the death sentence against six people, including two Al-Jazeera employees, for allegedly passing documents related to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.

A verdict on Morsi, ousted by the military in July 2013 after one year in office, and four other defendants in the case, will be announced June 18, judge Mohammed Shirin Fahmy announced. Morsi's co-defendants include his office director and private secretary.

The two Al-Jazeera employees  identified by the judge as news producer Alaa Omar Mohammed and news editor Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal  were sentenced in absentia along with Asmaa al-Khateib, who worked for Rasd, a media network widely suspected of links to Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood was banned and declared a terrorist group after Morsi's ouster.

"Al Jazeera media network rejects the absurd allegations that they (Mohammed and Hilal) were in collaboration with the elected government of Mohammed Morsi," a spokesman for Al-Jazeera said in an email to The Associated Press.

Egypt's relations with Qatar have been fraught with tension since the ouster of Morsi, who enjoyed the support of the tiny but wealthy Gulf state. Cairo also accuses Al-Jazeera's news coverage of Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East of bias in favor of militant Islamic groups.

Last year, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi pardoned two imprisoned journalists from the Al-Jazeera English news network.

Mohamed Fahmy, an Egyptian-born Canadian, and Egyptian Baher Mohamed were arrested in December 2013. They were sentenced last year to three years in prison for airing what a court described as "false news" and coverage biased in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The prosecution of the two, along with Australian Peter Greste  deported in February last year  drew strong international condemnations.

Their long-running trial was entangled from the start with the wider political enmity between Egypt and Qatar following Morsi's ouster.

The three other defendants for whom death sentences were recommended Saturday are documentary producer Ahmed Afify, EgyptAir cabin crew member Mohammed Keilany and academic Ahmed Ismail, according to Saturday's verdict.

Fahmy, the judge, said case documents pertaining to all six would be sent to the Grand Mufti, Egypt's top religious authority, for his review.
Help India!

By Shafeeq Hudawi, Twocircles.net

Kozhikode: If statistics from National Crime Records Bureau are taken into consideration, it becomes clear Kerala has been on a steady decline in terms of preventing atrocities against the Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes in the state.

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A query by one of the media persons in the state, in the wake of the brutal murder of Dalit woman Jisha at Perumbavoor in Eranakulam, revealed that according to the figures with NCRB, 951 cases of crimes against Dalits were recorded in 2014. These include murder, rape, kidnapping and abduction, robbery and arson. The crime rate against SC and ST in Kerala stood at 27.3 while the national crime rate was 17.2. In 2013, a total of 891 crimes were reported while the cases were 934 in 2012. These include IPC crimes in congruence with the SC/ST (PoA) Act, IPC crimes without SC/ST (PoA) Act, the Protection of Civil Rights Act, the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act and other SLL crimes against SCs.

Dalit activists say that the lot of cases go unrecorded owing to various facts. According to them, a few of the suspects get convicted as most of the cases will not reach the courts.

However, what is bewildering is that if one were to check state records, it paints a completely different picture. State Crime Control Bureau statistics show that only 550 cases were registered under SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act- 2015 during 2008 and 2015, with last year showing the worst figures with 89 cases.
Help India!

By A Mirsab, TwoCircles.net,

Fridays Bombay High Court decision in regards with the ban on slaughter of bulls/bullocks in Maharashtra is neither completely against the governments amendment to Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act nor does it restrict beef eaters from consuming beef in Maharashtra.

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The high court tried to keep balance between the interests of both by allowing ban on slaughter of beef in the state while also allowing people to consume beef imported from other states. Thus the decision is in fact a win-win situation for both.

The court was hearing over several writ petitions and PILs filed by activists, lawyers and farmers challenging the beef ban and the constitutional validity of the amended law. After reserving the order in January this year, the division bench of Justice A S Oka and Justice S C Gupte on Friday provided its detailed reasoned judgment of 245 pages.

Highlights of the judgment

The division bench justified the prohibition imposed in state on slaughter of a cow, bull or bullock and upheld the constitutional validity on ban of slaughter, transport or export of products made from bovine flesh within the state.

The court struck down the provision of law dealing with procurement of beef from outside Maharashtra. Terming unconstitutional and in violation of the Right to Life, the court said preventing citizens from possessing the flesh of a cow, bull or bullock slaughtered outside the state amounts to prohibiting a citizen from possessing and consuming food of his choice.

Meaning, the court struck down provisions for conviction of a person for one year and a fine of Rs 2,000 for import of such meat. It also struck down the right of police or any other authority to stop or search a vehicle carrying bovine flesh slaughtered in another state.

Regarding another section of the amended Act, under which the burden of proving innocence on being arrested for slaughter, transport, export, sale, purchase or possession of beef is on the accused, the court held it unconstitutional saying that it is easier for the prosecution to provide evidence that the slaughter was in contravention of the Act than for the accused to bear the burden of showing otherwise.

The provision allowing right to police or any other authority to stop or search a vehicle used or intended to be used for the export of cow, bull or bullock is also struck down by the court.

Implications of the Judgment

Beef can now be imported from other states in Maharashtra and restaurants can serve beef without any hesitation. The court clearly said when a person procures beef from a place where it is legal to consume and possess beef, the law cannot prohibit him from eating it here.

Random arrests for possession of beef are likely to go down because the court has put onus to prove the guilt of accuse on police. Police will have to prove that the accused had knowledge that the beef so seized was not slaughtered outside of Maharashtra, which is very difficult to prove.

The slaughter houses can now see beef and the butchers will be able to sell exported beef as long as they keep a proof to show that the beef is procured from outside of Maharashtra.

Now that restaurants in Mumbai and Pune can legally serve beef, the import will increase in Maharashtra and thus the need of exporting bovines from Maharashtra to adjacent states will increase. Therefore even though the ban on transporting cows, bulls and bullocks for the purpose of slaughter in other states will still be in force but it would give rise to smuggling of bovines at the borders of state.

During Eid-ul-Dhuha (Bakr Eid) Maharashtra Muslims will now be able to sacrifice bullocks or bulls outside of Maharashtra in the adjacent states and can bring its meat to Maharashtra. The Bombay High Court judgment will be a respite for them as they would be able to carry beef without fear of being beaten up by radical right wing activists.

Related:

HC upholds Maharashtra beef ban, decriminalises possession


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S&S AgriSource becomes a leading US alfalfa exporter to China Updated: 2016-05-07 23:05 By MAY ZHOU in Houston(China Daily USA)

Lisa Yang, founder and CFO at S&S AgriSource Holding. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

It all started with a hay named alfalfa, which, like a seed, gave birth to S&S AgriSource Holding. In less than a decade, the little seed grew and spread, enabling S&S to become an agriculture company drawing investments from both Chinese and American investors.

Widely grown throughout the world, alfalfa is a premium forage primarily used for high-producing dairy cows because of its high-protein content and highly digestible fiber, and secondarily for beef cattle, horses and sows.

"Many people are surprised when they learn that China is buying hay from the US. Apparently it doesn't seem that cool compared to importing aircraft. But the fact is, agriculture products are China's main import from the US, and alfalfa makes up to 1 percent of the total imports,'' said Lisa Yang, founder and CFO of Houston-based S&S AgriSource.

As for alfalfa, China has been the biggest buyer of the product from the US since 2014. In 2015, China accounted for 45 percent of the total amount of alfalfa exported from the US.

"We believe the market will continue to grow due to China's dairy sector growth and its resource and infrastructure limitations," said Yang.

By 2015, S&S AgriSource had become the fourth-biggest US alfalfa hay exporter to China. The company's total exports accounted for 18 percent of all alfalfa imported by China. Its clients include China dairy giants such as Yili, Modern Dairy and Bright Dairy.

S&S AgriSource's major operations are located in Western states, such as California, Idaho, Utah and Arizona, where plants produce the most hay for exporting.

"Our people in the purchase department live and travel between different fields all year round; some of them can't stay with their families for most of the year. They are our backbone," she said.

Most of the company's 30-plus employees are Chinese who graduated with an American university degree, according to Yang.

"It's not easy for an international student to get a job after graduation, especially considering the additional cost a company needs to pay to sponsor a foreign worker when the economy is stagnant. But we want to help those hard-working young people with the American dream to succeed and grow with us. We even consider offering company shares to our excellent employees, all of whom will have the opportunity to become shareholders in the coming years," said Yang.

To gain a firm foothold in the industry and secure a stable supply of alfalfa, S&S AgriSource has kept moving up the production chain.

In 2013, the company acquired a 72,000 square-foot warehouse in Long Beach, California. The warehouse is strategically located by a railroad and 20 minutes away from Long Beach Port. The company can transport alfalfa from inland farms for pressing and packaging and ship to China by boat with low transportation costs.

In 2015, the company moved further up the production chain by purchasing more than 1,200 acres in Idaho to grow its own alfalfa. "The land is of USDA certified organic soil for growing alfalfa. We integrated our production chain upstream so that our company can develop sustainably. We now compete in the production line, from growing and processing to exporting," said Yang.

With China's announcement of its second-child policy, Yang believes that China's demand for dairy products will continue to grow and the company will grow with it. "We are currently looking to purchase alfalfa farm land in Arizona. We are ready to purchase an additional 2,800 acres," she said.

While completing its production chain, S&S AgriSource has developed a nine-step quality- control process for alfalfa as well as a reference tool to ensure quality.

"We strictly select our cooperating farmers and the fields for growing crops. Our alfalfa hay is tended by farmers all with several generations of growing experience," said Yang. "As of now, we are working with China to develop our quality control system into an industry standard."

The company's alfalfa hay business has expanded beyond the US, according to Yang. It also gets hay from other countries such as Spain and Argentina to meet customers' different demands.

"Since establishing the company, we strongly believe agriculture represents the future. It's where humans become themselves and what life ultimately relies on," Yang said.

With this belief, the company is expanding beyond hay into grain, beef and cattle trading.

"China's appetite for beef is growing fast. S&S AgriSource started exporting high-quality beef from Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil to China last year," Yang said. S&S AgriSource has recruited a professional team with more 30 years' experience in the beef industry.

Short on land and water, China's need for imported agricultural products will continue to grow.

"We know China better than elsewhere as we were born and grew up there. We feel honorable and mission-driven to provide the best of the world's agriculture products to feed the people in the county. Our mission is to be the most reliable exporter, professionally serving our customer. We work to be the first choice when Chinese partners want to import alfalfa or other agriculture products from the US," said Yang.

With S&S AgriSource s business success, has come a sense of social responsibility. The company initiated a program in China to provide milk to a few hundred poor elementary school students in Shandong, and Yang said she hopes to mobilize more people to help.

Another program gives scholarships to college students at China Agricultural University, Yang said.

Yang also is using her personal money and working with a partner in China to build a k-12 primary school in a poor rural area in China. She also hopes this will work as a platform for AgriSource employees to make contributions for the good of society.

"At S&S AgriSource, we respect mother nature, and work for clean food and a bright future. We believe in doing the right thing, believe in sun and soil, and we believe in AgriSource's future," Yang said.

mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com
Parrot species in US cities may rival that in native Mexico Updated: 2016-05-07 07:40 By Assoclated Press in San Diego(China Daily)

US researchers are launching studies on Mexico's red-crowned parrot - a species that has been adapting so well to living in cities in California and Texas after escaping from the pet trade that the population may now rival that in its native country.

The research comes amid debate over whether some of the birds flew across the border into Texas and should be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Parrots in US urban areas are just starting to draw attention from scientists because of their intelligence, resourcefulness and ability to adapt. There is also a growing realization that the city dwellers may offer a population that could help save certain species from extinction.

Parrots are thriving today in cities from Los Angeles to Brownsville, Texas, while in the tropics and subtropics, a third of all parrot species are at risk of going extinct because of habitat loss and the pet trade.

Most are believed to have escaped from importers or smugglers over the past half-century, when tens of thousands of parrots were brought into the United States from Latin America.

Scientists only now are starting to study them.

After doing most of his research in places like Peru, Donald Brightsmith is concentrating on the squawking birds nesting in Washingtonian palms lining avenues and roosting in the oak trees in front lawns in South Texas.

"Parrots in urban settings are of great interest to me," the Texas A&M University biologist says. "I see these as kind of future insurance policies."

Brightsmith has received a two-year grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to get an official count on the state's red-crowned parrot population and determine whether threats against them are increasing.

Raucous birds

The loud, raucous birds have been shot at by angry homeowners and their young poached from nests.

In San Diego, a $5,000 reward is being offered for information on the killings of about a half-dozen parrots found shot this year.

The research could help drive ways to maintain the population that prefers the cities and suburbs.

"It's more of an urban planning, landscape, ecology issue and not so much how do we protect an area of pristine nature," he says. Brightsmith would like to team up with scientists in California.

Researchers want to someday study the gene pool to determine whether there are still genetically pure red-crowned parrots that could replenish the flocks in their native habitat.

"We could have a free backup stock in the US," Brightsmith says.

In Mexico, biologists are working on getting an updated count. The last study in 1994 estimated the population at 3,000 to 6,500 birds, declining from more than 100,000 in the 1950s because of deforestation and raids on the nesting young to feed the pet trade.

"We suspect the population in South Texas could rival the number found in the wild in Mexico," says Karl Berg, a biologist at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who received a grant to study the red-crowned parrot in Brownsville.

Biologists estimate the population at close to 1,000 birds in Texas and more than 2,500 in California, where they are the most common of more than a dozen parrot species.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 2011 listed it as an indigenous species because it is thought the parrots flew north across the border as lowland areas in Mexico were cleared in the 1980s for ranching and agriculture, though ornithologists debate that.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service that same year announced that the red-crowned parrot warranted federal protection because of habitat loss and poaching for the pet trade. It remains a candidate, and the agency reviews it annually.

Protection

Some in the pet trade fear that a listing under the Endangered Species Act could prevent them from breeding the birds and moving them across state lines.

Conservationists question whether any of the birds are native to Texas and should be listed when there are so many species in need of protection in the United States.

"It seems odd to me," says Kimball Garrett, a parrot expert at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. "I don't know that there is enough evidence to show the birds flew for hundreds of miles from their native range and went across the border."

Brooke Durham says the birds need more protection. Durham runs a parrot rescue center called SoCal Parrot in the town of Jamul, east of San Diego, and treats up to 100 birds a year.

Recently at her sprawling home-turned-sanctuary, dozens of birds were being nursed for broken bones and pellet gun wounds. Most were red-crowned parrots.

Animal cruelty laws offer about the only protection for the birds in California, because they are not native to the state or migratory.

"People complain about the noise, but they're just not educated about the birds," she says. "They don't realize these birds are endangered."

Parrots interact at SoCal Parrot, a parrot-rescue center, in Jamul, California. Researchers are launching studies on Mexico's red crowned parrot - a species that has been adapting so well to living in cities in California and Texas after escaping from the pet trade that the population may now rival that in its native country.Gregry Bull / Associated Press

(China Daily 05/07/2016 page16)
S. Korea, US agree to step up pressure on DPRK Updated: 2016-05-07 19:26 (Xinhua)

SEOUL -- South Korea and the United States agreed on Saturday to mount pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as the DPRK was holding its party congress for the first time in 36 years.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se phoned with US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day and reached the agreement, the ministry said in a press release.

"(They) agreed to keep sending strong warning messages together with the international community to deter additional nuclear tests and provocations by the DPRK," the ministry said.

The DPRK leader Kim Jong Un on Friday celebrated the "great success" of the country's nuclear program at the seventh congress of the ruling Workers' Party.

The two officials also shared their assessment of the DPRK's ongoing ruling party congress and the possibility of further "provocations" by Pyongyang, according to the press release.
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Viet Nam News -HA NOI  The Embassy of Israel in Viet Nam, the Ministry of Science and Technologys Market Development and Science and Technology Enterprise Department, and the Centre of Business Studies and Assistance will co-organise a start-up contest entitled Start Tel Aviv 2016.

The contest was organised following the success of the Startup Israel contest in 2014 and 2015.

This year, the contest is unique in that it is open only to female candidates in an effort to promote the roles of women in the start-up community.

Registration forms should be sent to the following email address: political@hanoi.mfa.gov.il before May 25.

Start Tel Aviv is an international start-up competition held by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tel Aviv city authorities.

Representatives of the best start-up companies will be selected from 30 countries worldwide and will have chances to participate in a five-day study tour in Tel Aviv to learn about the start-up ecosystem there.

Joining this years competition, participants hail from Norway, the UK, Germany, Spain, Finland, Italy, Korea, India, Japan and Russia.

This is an opportunity for Vietnamese representatives to learn and exchange experiences in a dynamic and cross-cultural environment.  VNS
Viet Nam News -HA NOI  Nearly 27,700 ".vn" domain names were created in the first three months of this year, increasing the total number of ".vn" domain names to 354,608.

This information was revealed by the Ministry of Information and Communications.

There were also 222,660 Vietnamese domain names created in the first quarter of this year, bringing the total number of Vietnamese domain names to 971,679.

Regarding the management of the Vietnamese domain names, the Viet Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) in mid-April said the centre had implemented a purification programme that freed inactive Vietnamese domain names from the beginning of March.

The programme aims to avoid wastage of the nations Internet resources. More than 25,000 Vietnamese domain names were purged a month after the programme was adopted.

The purification programme will continue until December this year.

In the first quarter, VNNIC also organised two training courses on the management of ".vn" domain names with registrations in Ha Noi and HCM City.

These training courses will enhance the quality of management for ".vn" domain names.

The ministry said the total number of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) addresses in Viet Nam hit nearly 15.8 million in the first quarter. The IPv4, the fourth version in the development of the Internet Protocol, is one of the core protocols of standards, based on internet working methods and routes most of the traffic on the Internet.

According to the ministry, Viet Nam has completed its targets for the second phase of the national action programme on IPv6 and is ready to move to the third phase. IPv6, the upgraded version of IPv4, with larger address space, will help deal with IPv4 exhaustion.

Implemented on May 6, 2013, the national IPv6 network is stable with nine ISPs connected to the VNIX system domestically and many others connected internationally.

According to statistics revealed by international organisations, the IPv6 usage rate of Vietnamese customers reached 0.03 per cent from the earlier zero per cent .  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese shares were mixed for a third day on the two local exchanges yesterday, while blue chips continued to attract foreign investors with positive quarterly performances.

The benchmark VN Index on the HCM Stock Exchange rose 0.8 per cent to close at 606.52 points, rallying 2.5 per cent over the last four trading days.

The banking sector was driven up by Vietcombank (VCB), Vietinbank (CTG) and Military Bank (MBB), which all saw higher profits in the first three months of 2016 from last years figures.

VCB, CTG and MBB recorded a year-on-year increase of 62 per cent, 54 per cent and 13.8 per cent in their net profits during the first quarter, respectively.

They also became attractive to foreign investors, whose buying volumes accounted for at least 38 per cent of total trading volumes in these three banks.

By the end of yesterdays session, VCB and CTG had jumped 3.2 per cent and 3.6 per cent each, while MBB was up 1.3 per cent.

Additionally, large-cap stocks in other sectors also made gains and boosted local markets.

Property developer Vingroup JSC (VIC) added 1.9 per cent, and foreign purchasing volume represented more than a quarter of the stocks trading volume.

In the consumer goods industry, food producer Masan Group (MSN) advanced 2.1 per cent. Foreign investors bought nearly half of the stocks trading volume yesterday.

In the agriculture sector, Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAG) and its subsidiary HAGL Agricultural JSC (HNG) bounced back after a two-day decline, making these two stocks attractive to investors.

HAG and HNG rose 1.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent after falling 7.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent in the previous two sessions.

Cell phone retailer Mobile World Investment Corp (MWG) was up 1.9 per cent to lift the retail sector after the company saw a year-on-year increase of 80 per cent in the first-quarter net profit to VN418 billion (US$18.6 million).

Other large-cap stocks that supported the southern market included the Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam (BID), PetroVietnam Gas Corp (GAS) and HCM City Securities Corp (HCM).

Meanwhile, the HNX Index on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange ended nearly flat at 80.37 points, extending a three-day decline of 0.4 per cent.

The northern bourse was pulled down by Bao Viet Securities Corp (BVS), insurer PVI Holdings (PVI), PetroVietnam Technical Service Corp (PVS) and Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank (SHB).

Both local markets exchanged nearly 168 million shares worth VN2.78 trillion ($123.6 million), a decrease of 10 per cent from Thursdays trading value.  VNS
Interdisciplinary inspection team are inspecting at Thien Ngoc Minh Uy company.  Photo CAND

Viet Nam News -HA NOI  The Ministry of Industry and Trade planned to officially announce in mid-June results of the inspection to scrutinise seven multi-level marketing companies following the Lien Ket Viet scandal that defrauded 60,000 victims, officials said at a meeting yesterday.

Nguyen Phuong Nam, the ministrys deputy head of Competitive Management Department, said there had been no official conclusion to the inspection so far as it was a complicated issue.

In the near future, the department would focus on three areas including enhancing check-ups on multi-level marketing companies, increasing peoples awareness, and revising some legal documents related to the issue.

The department submitted to the Government that they should revise the Decree No 42 on multi-level marketing companies. The draft would be completed by the end of this month with an aim to tighten the activities.

Earlier, the ministry had announced the establishment of an inspection team, managed by the MoIT and police forces to oversee the operations of four Ha Noi-based multi-level marketing firms, including Thien Ngoc Minh Uy, Lien Ket Viet Nam, Lien Ket Tri Thuc and Thang Long Franchise.

Other firms subjected to such inspections include Unicity Marketing Viet Nam in HCM City, Amway Viet Nam in southern ong Nai Province, and Lien Minh Tieu Dung Viet Nam in northern Bac Ninh Province.

The formation of the inspection team is the latest move by authorities to manage pyramid-type businesses in Viet Nam after the Lien Ket Viet multi-level marketing firm was caught swindling about 60,000 people in more than 27 cities and provinces nationwide, appropriating a total of VN1.9 trillion (US$85 million) since 2014.  VNS
HA NOI Vietnamese cultural researcher and author Huu Ngocs latest book entitled Viet Nam: Tradition and Change will be launched in Ha Noi soon.

At 98 years old, Ngoc is among Viet Nams most famous scholars and among the countrys keenest observers of traditional Vietnamese culture and history.

The new book, edited by Lady Borton and Elizabeth Collins, is a selection of the authors essays which had been printed in his book Wandering through Vietnamese Culture, the only English language book to win Viet Nams Gold Book Prize.

The book is an introduction to the countrys rich history, culture, and daily life.

The book is published by the Viet Nams The Gioi (World) Publishers and the USs Ohio University Press.

After the launch in Ha Noi, it will be published by the Ohio University Press in the US in June.

On the Ohio University Presss website, the book is described as an accessible and erudite primer on Vietnamese history and culture from one of Viet Nams finest minds.

The authors central themethat all tradition is change through acculturationtwines through each of the books ten sections, which contain Huu Ngocs ideas on Vietnamese religion, literature, history, exemplary figures, and more. Taken on its own, each brief essay is an engaging discussion of key elements of Vietnamese culture and the history of an issue confronting Viet Nam today, said the website.

For twenty years, Ngoc wrote a Sunday column in French for Le Courier du Vietnam (The Viet Nam Mail). An English version appeared as Traditional Miscellany in Viet Nam News. He collected 1,255 pages from these essays into the book Wandering through Vietnamese Culture. VNS
LONDON  Londons new mayor Sadiq Khan thanked voters for choosing "unity over division" as he was elected Saturday, becoming the first Muslim leader of a major Western capital.

In a second round run-off, the son of Pakistani immigrants beat Conservative multimillionaire Zac Goldsmith with 57 per cent, or 1.3 million votes, giving him the largest personal mandate of any British politician.

Khan swept to victory despite repeated accusations from his rivals, including Prime Minister David Cameron, that he sympathised with Islamic extremists -- which he denies.

"This election was not without controversy and I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division," the 45-year-old said in his acceptance speech, to cheers from supporters.

"I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear doesnt make us safer, it only makes us weaker, and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."

As he spoke, the mayoral candidate for the far-right Britain First party, Paul Golding, turned his back.

The victory offered some cheer for Labour after setbacks elsewhere following regional elections across Britain on Thursday, as a row over anti-Semitism in the party that has damaged leader Jeremy Corbyn continued to rage.

"Congratulations Sadiq Khan. Cant wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all!" Corbyn tweeted.

Khan replaces the charismatic Boris Johnson and ends the Conservatives eight-year hold on the London mayoralty, a position that has responsibility for transport, housing, policing and promoting economic development.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was among the first to tweet his congratulations to "fellow affordable housing advocate, @SadiqKhan. Look forward to working together!"

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo added on Twitter that Khans "humanity, progressivism will benefit Londoners."

The victory was also hailed in Tooting, a multi-ethnic area of south London where Khan lives and where he grew up in social housing, before becoming first a human rights lawyer and then a member of parliament.

"Sadiq Khan will have a unifying factor because he is Muslim, an immigrant, he is from (the) working class, so he understands the working class people and he can associate with them," said Shahzad Saddiqui, a local businessman.

Labour losses elsewhere

Labour fared less well in other elections on Britains "Super Thursday", in which 45 million Britons were eligible to vote.

The party came third in elections for the devolved government in Scotland, a one-time stronghold, behind the Conservatives, in a vote won by the incumbent pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP).

Labour retained power in the Welsh assembly, although it lost one seat, and with 118 of 124 results declared, maintained all but one of its local councils in England.

Corbyn, a veteran socialist who has faced opposition from centrists in his party since being elected last year, said his party had "hung on" and surpassed expectations.

But critics said Labour should have made more gains given the splits in the Conservative government ahead of the EU referendum on June 23, and its unpopular spending cuts.

Matthew Goodwin, politics professor at Kent University, said Labour was in "serious trouble".

"The Labour party is now third in Scotland for the first time since 1910 and it has failed to make a serious impression in southern England," he said.

Persuade not divide

SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will lead the separatist party into its third successive government in Edinburgh, although the party lost its outright majority.

She announced she would lead a minority administration, and played down talk of a fresh independence referendum to follow the unsuccessful one in 2014.

"The SNP will always make our case with passion, with patience and with respect but our aim is to persuade not to divide," Sturgeon said.

The other big story in Scotland was the success of the Scottish Conservatives, who came second with 31 seats.

The party has been deeply unpopular in Scotland since the 1980s premiership of Margaret Thatcher but its fortunes have turned around under current Scottish leader Ruth Davidson.

Davidson is a charismatic and openly gay 37-year-old whose cheery, no-nonsense style and proficient use of social media has fuelled her partys success.

Elsewhere, the anti-European, anti-immigration UK Independence Party (UKIP) secured its first seat in the Welsh assembly and two seats in the London assembly.  AFP
Director of the Viet Nam National Productivity Institute, Nguyen Anh Tuan, spoke with Hai Quan (Customs) newspaper about the reasons for low domestic labour productivity and ways it can be improved in the near future.

The Vietnamese are assessed to be hard working and dedicated labourers, but our labour productivity remains lower than other countries in the region. What do you think about this?

Viet Nam is one of three countries that rank lowest in terms of labour productivity in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc. Domestic labour productivity has steadily risen 3 per cent each year since 2000, especially in fields of industry and construction. Although this is helping to narrow the gap in labour productivity between Viet Nam and other ASEAN countries, the gap between Viet Nam and developed countries is still wide.

Many surveys have show that employers do not evaluate Vietnamese labourer working skills as low. However, they lack capacities for communicating, adapting to working environments, obeying work regulations, team work, logical thinking and other necessary soft skills in dealing with situations at work.

So, what are the reasons?

There are a range of reasons behind the countrys low labour productivity. First, we fail to take advantage of science and technology. Only when we make use of advanced technology to manage labour productivity will it improve.

Second, impacts from the market add to the situation. For examples, in several sectors, output is unstable, and this also results in low labour productivity. Another reason causing low labour productivity is complicated administrative procedures that companies have to face. Low labour productivity is partly due to employers, when they do not install modern and hi-tech equipment for labourers for example. Some employers fail to encourage their labourers to have ideas about raising labour productivity.

What should we do to boost domestic labour productivity?

To do that, the country is required to focus on three factors: capital, science and technology, and human resources. Viet Nam is a developing country, so at this stage, investment capital plays a key role in economic growth. The more we run low-productivity sectors, the lower our nations labour productivity will stay. Hence, pouring more capital into install advanced equipment and improve management skills is highly recommended.

We should learn from the experiences of other countries on how they enhanced their labour productivity. Japan is one good example. They really succeeded in doing that in the past.

For example, in 1950s, the quality of made-in-Japan products was not as high as now. After research, Japanese experts designed models to raise their labour productivity and the quality of their products. These were the 5S and Kaizen models. [The 5S model is one of several lean manufacturing tools designed to improve workplace efficiency through facility-wide organisation and cleanliness. 5S was developed in Japan and stands for the Japanese words seiri (tidiness), seiton (orderliness), seiso (cleanliness), seiketsu (standardisation) and shitsuke (discipline). Kaizen is the Japanese word for continuous improvement. Kaizen methods can be used to improve the results of any firm and can be used in your personal life. Kaizen is used to describe a company culture where everyone, from the CEO to the front desk clerk, regularly evaluates his or her work and thinks of ways to improve it. The concept is that small steps on a regular basis will lead to large improvements over time.]

There is one rule that we need to remember in order to boost our labour productivity. It is raising wages for labourers and providing them better welfare.

Applying science and technology is very important to enhance labour productivity. However, for small- to medium-sized enterprises, they do not have enough capital to invest. Could you give some advice to them?

Enterprises, especially small- to medium-size enterprises, have to identify which issues related science and technology they need to invest in. It is momentous for them to calculate how much interest they gain when they pay one ong to invest. That is the most important thing for encouraging and motivating them to invest in science and technology.

Surveys have discovered that many enterprises are confused about identifying which issues related science and technology they should put money into. They are advised to carefully assess the demands of customers and the market, and how much money customers can afford to pay to buy their products. Then they should build a roadmap to get the highest effectiveness from their investments.  VNS
HA NOI  Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong suggested that Viet Nam and Kuwait promote bilateral co-operation in fields of their strengths in order to deepen their ties.

The Party leader promoted the initiative during a reception for Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah in Ha Noi yesterday.

He welcomed the Kuwaiti Prime Ministers official visit to Viet Nam and took the occasion to express joy at the development of bilateral ties over the past 40 years.

General Secretary Trong informed his guest on the outcomes of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, as well as the implementation of the countrys major policies in domestic development and external relations.

Viet Nam appreciates the effective assistance that Kuwait has extended to its national development, he said.

The Kuwaiti Prime Minister praised Viet Nams achievements in national development and the countrys position in the region and the world.

He said Kuwait hopes to boost co-operation with Viet Nam in all fields, particularly in investment, energy, commerce and education-training.

In another meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, both sides affirmed their determination to further develop their partnership across trade, oil and gas, investment, development assistance, labour and education-training.

Hailing the efficiency of the bilateral partnership in the field of oil and gas, the Kuwaitis leader expressed wises that both sides will put into operation the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex as scheduled.

He also took note of Viet Nams proposal to provide the country with more preferential loans for rural infrastructure and poverty reduction via the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

The Prime Minister also promised to consider the continued granting of scholarships to Vietnamese students to study Arabic and the admission of more Vietnamese workers to the country.

On the Middle East and East Sea issues, the two sides shared the view that active solutions are needed to settle disputes and conflicts, ensuring peace and stability in the region.

They also expressed support for the settlement of disputes by peaceful means in line with international law, respect for UN principles and the avoidance of intervening in other countries internal issues.

The two Prime Ministers condemned terrorism and asserted their support for global efforts to counter terrorism on the basis of respecting the UN Charter and international law.

Both expressed wishes for further information exchanges and continued mutual support at international forums.

On the occasion, the Vietnamese leader also accepted his guests invitation to visit Kuwait. The visit will be arranged via diplomatic channels.

Following the talks, the two Prime Ministers witnessed the signing of co-operation agreements on culture, arts and sports; a deal within the framework of the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex; and another agreement between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Viet Nam and Kuwait.

Vietnamese President Tran ai Quang in his talks with the Kuwaiti Prime Minister yesterday lauded the outcomes of talks between the two Prime Ministers, which reached numerous measures to boost bilateral ties.

He expressed his appreciation for Kuwaits support in development aid and oil co-operation that Viet Nam has received for many years.

Viet Nam and Kuwait should engage more in the fields of education-training, politics, trade and multilateral diplomacy, Quang noted, adding that he will continue directing the implementation of the agreement sealed by both Governments.

Human resources and agro-fishery-forestry production are Viet Nams strengths, which match demand in the Kuwaiti market, the President said.

Agreeing with his host, the Kuwaiti Prime Minister said his country wants to stimulate its traditional partnership with Viet Nam.

Favourable conditions created by the Vietnamese Government for Kuwaiti enterprises operating in the country are the driving force behind Kuwaits efforts to lift bilateral trade revenue with Viet Nam, he stressed.  VNS
Students have lunch at a school in HCM City. HCM City officials have suggested setting up standard kitchens at both private and public schools to ensure safe, hygienic meals.  Photo laodong.com.vn

HCM CITY  HCM City officials have suggested setting up standard kitchens at both private and public schools that have over 1,000 students to ensure safe, hygienic meals.

Many schools use outside food caterers to provide meals to students.

At a workshop held on Thursday in HCM City, Nguyen Thi Huynh Mai, the deputy head of the Food Safety and Hygiene Division, said that five food poisoning cases had occurred in the city in the first four months, compared to a total of six last year.

Of the five cases, more than a half occurred at schools, Mai said. There were no cases in 2012 and 2013.

The latest food poisoning case was at Tran Quang Khai Primary School in District 1, she said.

The division discovered the main cause for poisoning because Chinese barbecue pork was contaminated with bacteria of Staphylococcus aureus and enterotoxins.

The lunch was provided by one processed-food supplier, she said.

The total fines imposed this year rose to VN48 million (US$2,133).

She said that through inspection and analysis, most of food poisoning cases were found due to bacteria contamination during processing.

Twenty-four per cent were caused by improper food storage, she added.

Most food poisoning cases occurred in March, April, July and August when there was a transition from the rainy season to sunny season. This is a favourable condition for the development of illness-caused bacteria, Mai said.

Of total food poisoning occurring between 2012 and the first four months of 2016, 52 per cent of 25 cases involved meals provided by the suppliers, she said.

The best way to reduce food poisoning is to require schools with 1,000 students and above to set up a standard kitchen to provide lunches, Mai said.

Currently, 1,620 schools have kitchens, and 318 processed-food suppliers provided meals to schools.

Pham Thanh Long, a representative of the city Department of Education and Training, said it would require schools with enough facilities to set up kitchens.

Processed meals provided by food suppliers are outside the management of the education sector. This is a shortcoming, Long said.

Pham Van Khoa, deputy head of educational division in District 3, said that setting up standard kitchens were difficult because of limited space.

Tran Thi Nga, principal of Hong Ngoc Primary and Secondary School in Tan Phu District and former rector of Phan Chu Trinh Primary School, told Viet Nam News that areas for kitchens were encompassed in school's construction design.

However, many schools do not have kitchen. Some of them dont have enough classrooms, and they must take advantage of the areas for classrooms, Nga said.

To serve lunches to all-day students, they work with processed food suppliers, she added.

When using processed food, prices for lunches are higher than meals made by the schools kitchen. Moreover, lunches transported from the suppliers facility to school are not hot and delicious, she added.

Public schools have an advantage in that they can ask studentsparents to contribute money for setting up kitchens, Nga said.  VNS
Traffic congestion in ong Van Cong Road on the way from District 2 to Cat Lai Port.  Photo vnexpress.net

HCM CITY  The HCM City Peoples Committee has instructed relevant agencies to clear congestion on roads leading to Cat Lai Port in District 2, especially Nguyen Thi inh Street and the My Thuy intersection.

The Department of Transport, the police and Sai Gon New Port Corporation have been tasked with drawing up proposals for several projects like upgrading the Eastern Belt Road, building Ba Cua Bridge, widening Nguyen Thi inh Street, developing inland waterway transport on the ong Nai River, and building Tang Long and Ong Nhieu bridges on Nguyen Duy Trinh Street to improve traffic flows in the area.

Some other projects are encouraged to be carried out in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. They include a road between Rach Chiec Bridge and Ha Noi Highway and expansion of Nguyen Duy Trinh Street, which connecting Ring Road No 2 with the Phu Huu Industrial Park in District 9.

According to the Peoples Committee, the transport department also plans to build roads linking Cat Lai Port with Ring Road No 2 and Phu Huu Port. It has been asked with upgrading the section of Ring Road No 2 from the My Thuy intersection to Rach Chiec Bridge.

The latter, to cost VN268 billion (US$12 million), is expected to be completed by 2018.

Cat Lai Port, situated in HCM Citys eastern gateway, has for long been a traffic congestion hotspot with an average of 16,000-17,000 trucks making trips to it daily.

The city administration has called for proactively resolving the problem by setting up more entry points to the port and adding more lanes on several roads among other measures.  VNS
HCM CITY  Nearly 600 officials and volunteers of the Viet Nam Red Cross Society yesterday participated in the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day celebration in HCM City.

The day is an annual celebration of the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, with more than 80 million members and 16 million volunteers.

More than 400,000 volunteers are participating in the work of the Red Cross, including blood donation, first aid, emergency response, health and social care, and preparing for natural disasters, said oan Van Thai, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Red Cross Society.

The society calls on everyone to be involved in the humanitarian movement, Thai said.

Over the 70 years since its inception, the Viet Nam Red Cross Society has contributed significantly to the international humanitarian cause, he added.

Various charity campaigns have been effectively implemented across the country, including Tet (Lunar New Year) for the poor and victims of Agent Orange, blood donation campaigns, cow banks for the poor, and community health check-ups and treatment.

Last year, the Red Cross Societys HCM City Chapter received donations worth VN348 billion (US$15.5 million), an increase of 20 per cent compared to 2014.

The volume of blood donated to the Red Cross in HCM City was 221.944 blood units, accounting for 17 per cent of the countrys blood donations.  VNS
The central banks of and Iran have reached an arrangement to use European banks to process pending oil payments to Tehran, India's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Reuters, unlocking $6.4 billion in stalled funds.

Buyers of Iranian oil were prevented from using global banking channels to clear their transactions after sanctions were imposed on Iran in 2011 over its nuclear programme. With the end of those sanctions in January, after an agreement to curb the programme, Iran is finally gaining needed access to the funds.

Iran hopes the money will revive its moribund economy and raise Iranian living standards as well as help to integrate the country into the global economic system.

Indian refiners have been holding 55 per cent of its oil payments to Iran after a route to make payments through Turkey's Halkbank was stopped in 2013, although payment of some of those funds was allowed after an initial temporary deal to lift the sanctions.

"There is an agreement between ( and Iran's) central banks. European banks will be the clearing agent. They will be dealing with Iranian banks and we have to pay those European banks," Pradhan told Reuters in an interview.

He did not elaborate further, saying the finance ministry was dealing with the issue.

Also because of the previous sanctions, Indian refiners have been depositing 45 per cent of their oil payments to Iran in rupees with India's UCO Bank.

Tehran has been using the funds, currently about 130 billion rupees ($1.95 billion) to import non-sanctioned goods from .

Indian government sources said during Pradhan's visit to Tehran last month Iran had asked India to consider clearing the oil payments through Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIH) of Germany, Central Bank of Italy and Halkbank of Turkey.

One of the sources said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ruled out channelling funds through Halkbank.

"Halkbank's Iran-related foreign trade activities with Iran have been carried out since 2004 ... Halkbank will continue its operations in accordance with international law," a senior Halkbank official told Reuters.

No immediate comment was available from EIH and Central Bank of Italy.

The government sources said Indian refiners will remit funds to Iran through state-owned UCO Bank.

UCO Bank's chairman did not respond to calls from Reuters to his mobile phone.

Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on April 5 India will make payments to Iran in a staggered manner.

"Oil companies are working out the banking arrangements in coordination with Iranian counterparts and payments will be made by them presumably over time with minimal impact on the market," an RBI spokesperson said on Thursday.

Despite the sanctions, India continued its engagement with Iran and was among a handful of countries that sourced oil from Tehran.

Iran was India's second-biggest oil supplier before the sanctions hampered its trade relations.The country is set to import at least 400,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil in the year from April 1.

($1 = Rs 66.5330)
today recalled its Ambassador to India over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyaya had a "confrontation" with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli regarding the cancellation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari's scheduled visit to India, Nepalese Foreign Ministry sources said.

The conversation between Oli and Upadhyaya reportedly took place after the cancellation of the President's trip.

The Nepalese Cabinet had decided to recall Upadhyaya after his brief conversation with the Prime Minister, they said.

Bhandari was scheduled to visit India from May 9 as the state guest at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee. She was also scheduled to participate in a 'Shahi Snan' in Ujjain's Simhastha Kumbh on May 14.

Earlier in the day, government sources in New Delhi said, "We have learnt that Nepali President Bidyadevi Bhandari's official visit to India has been postponed by the Nepali side. We understand that this is on account of the political developments in ."



Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, has been charged with indulging in anti-government activities.

He has also been accused of visiting Madhes districts of southern along with Indian envoy Ranjit Rae without informing the Foreign ministry, The Kathmandu Post reported.

The Nepalese diplomat has been also charged with involvement in toppling the Oli government, it added.

Prime Minister Oli yesterday survived a threat to his government after a U-turn by Prachanda-led Maoists who decided not to withdraw support to him "for the time being".
Alex Tyer, 19, told police he went to a hotel on La Porte Road to meet a woman, and he was approached by two men when he pulled up.

He said he was struck on the head, and the suspects took his wallet, cell phone and $100 in cash and fled. Tyer attemped to follow them but was unsuccessful, police said. He reported the incident to Cedar Falls police at 3 a.m., and Cedar Falls police notified Waterloo officers.
OSAGE  An Osage teen convicted of second-degree murder in the 2012 death of his mother has been sentenced to up to 50 years in prison.

Noah Crooks, 17, was sentenced Friday during a hearing in Mitchell County District Court. He was also ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to his father.

Crooks was 13 in March 2012 when he shot his mother, Gretchen, multiple times with a .22-caliber rifle in their rural Mitchell County home. Since being convicted he has been at the State Training School in Eldora.

Under Iowa law, those who receive a youthful offender deferred sentence as Crooks did must have a hearing in district court before their 18th birthday so a judge can rule on their fate as an adult.

Crooks turns 18 in July.

District Judge James Drews sentencing options ranged from release with probation to up to 50 years in prison.

During the sentencing hearing, Drew said he was denying probation because, I am concerned with your lack of apparent empathy until recently. It causes me to wonder if you are truly remorseful.

Crooks will be held at the Mitchell County Jail until it is determined whether he will return to Eldora or be transferred to the North Iowa Detention Center until his 18th birthday.

Crooks attorney, William Kutmus, said he would appeal the sentence and anticipates it could go to the Iowa Supreme Court. He argued his client should be released with one year of probation.

Before Drew announced his decision, the prosecution and defense offered starkly different opinions on where Crooks is at in his life.

County Attorney Mark Walk said the psychologist at the training school wrote in his report, I see a developing antisocial personality disorder, with several psychopathic characteristics and the prospect of rehabilitation is nil.

Kutmus countered by saying the psychologist at the training school was not a trained child psychologist and his report was outdated and irrelevant.

Our own expert said the exact opposite, said Kutmus. Nobody can predict the future.

Prior to the sentencing, Crooks, who was shackled and dressed in a striped jail uniform, read a letter to the court.

Over the last six to eight months, I have begun to show remorse for what I did. I am not the person I was then. I learned to show empathy.

I regret taking my moms life. I understand there are consequences. I have turned my life over to God, and I want a relationship with my family again.

Following Crooks comments, several impact statements were read by family members, with the most powerful coming from his father and grandmother.

Crooks father, William, said Something told me to stay home that night. If I hadnt stayed I dont think I would be here today. She didnt deserve to be shot 22 times. She deserved so much more than that.

William Crooks said he visited his son several times at Eldora, pushing him to talk about his mother. In the past four years, you have never once spoken about your mother. You have shown no remorse.

Four years is not enough to pay for taking your mothers life. Im sorry; I love you, Noah, but to let you out would ruin so many more lives.

Crooks grandmother, Beverly Brahm, said, I love Noah with all my heart. He has grown while at the school, but I have never seen any empathy this entire time. He never showed any empathy growing up. I used to keep my dog and the other grandchildren away from him.

I want him safe, and I want society safe from him. Releasing him is not an option.

In his sentencing, Drew said, Noah, you have done some good things at the state training school. As an aside, I am glad to hear you got a relationship with Jesus Christ. I hope you are sincere. It will help you a great deal.

However, in the proceedings today, there has been a common theme  your lack of emotional response of remorse or empathy. I recognize you are a young person. You just havent been willing to deal with what you have done, Drew said.
CEDAR FALLS  A recently suspended student was readmitted to Holmes Junior High School by the Board of Education on Thursday following a brief closed session.

Board members unanimously approved the readmittance starting the next day.

The student began serving a 20-day suspension April 11. The board approved the suspension after the fact April 25 and set a series of requirements for the student to meet before returning.

Among them were successful placement at the Behavior Intervention Center or at home under parent supervision, completion of a substance abuse evaluation and follow through of any recommendations and meeting with juvenile corrections services officer if assigned and completing any requirements. Satisfactory academic progress, good attendance and no disciplinary incidents were also required. The student was barred from any other Cedar Falls Community Schools properties or activities during the suspension.

The district keeps confidential personal details about the student, such as name, age and gender. No details were released concerning what led to the suspension.
WATERLOO  Democratic 1st District congressional candidate Monica Vernon isnt taking anything for granted in the lead-up to the June 7 primary.

Vernon, a former Cedar Rapids City Council member, and supporters held a brief grand opening of her Waterloo office Saturday morning.

She then got to work making one-on-one contact with voters.

Its going to take all of us, Vernon said. We have a month here, and then weve got to go get Rod Blum, and I know I can send him packing.

Vernon and former Dubuque lawmaker Pat Murphy are vying to take on incumbent U.S. Rep. Rod Blum, R-1st District, in the general election.

Vernons short speech focused on her priorities  an economy that works for everyone, protecting Social Security, increasing the minimum wage and equal pay for equal work.

Pointing to Murphys repeated criticisms of Vernons Republican past, state Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Waterloo, stressed Democrats need to work together to win. Vernon switched parties in 2009.

In Waterloo, we stick together as Democrats, and more importantly we win together, said Danielson, a firefighter. He noted the International Association of Fire Fighters recently endorsed Vernon.

Danielsons sentiment was echoed by Gary Kroeger. Kroeger spent about 10 months as a primary opponent of Vernon before opting to run in Iowa House District 60, which includes parts of Cedar Falls and Waterloo. He endorsed Vernon the next day.

She listened to me. Let me repeat that, a candidate, a politician listened, Kroeger said. Monica is a person before a politician, and thats why I wholeheartedly endorse her, and we are going to work hard this next month.

He said Vernon shares his progressive values.

The Vernon campaign office is at 217 W. Fourth St., in Waterloo.
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If youre looking to try out an online casino, there are several things that will help you make a decision. Heres what you should look for when choosing an online casino

 Are they regulated? A lot of the larger ones have licenses issued by the authorities in their respective regions, so its worth checking this first.

 Do they offer games from different software providers? Some casinos just use one software provider and limit your selection. This is fine if you like playing those types of games but you may want to check other casinos as well.

 What does their payout percentage look like? The payout rate refers to how much money you can expect to win after every bet. A high payout rate means youll be able to play more often without having to worry about losing all your money. Its also important to know the minimum and maximum bets allowed on each game. If youre going to play roulette, for example, then you probably dont want a casino with a minimum bet of less than $2.50 or even lower than that.

The players used to play the game slot online in the land based casinos in the past time. But now with time after the invention of the online casinos players play the game slot online. Online platform provide the players with the convenience in playing and even better winning. Even after keeping a good percentage of the profits, they distribute good funds to players.

 How many games do they offer? There are lots of different types of games to choose from. Roulette, blackjack and poker are some of the most popular options, but you might find slots, video pokers, video bingo and others as well. You can usually filter these games down to only show the ones that interest you best, so make sure that your list isnt too long!

 Is there a bonus offer? Many online casinos offer free bonuses as part of their welcome package  which includes new players being awarded 100% up to $10 instantly, for example. These offers are great but not everyone has access to them all the time (and some require you to deposit real money). If youd prefer to avoid paying a fee, some casinos offer no-deposit bonuses where you can get a certain amount of funds before you need to put any actual money into the account. These are usually offered alongside welcome bonuses, so make sure you read both parts of the terms and conditions carefully before signing up.

 Does it offer live dealer games? Live dealers are much preferred by many over regular virtual versions, so it pays to check this option out too. Most online casinos now offer live dealer games in addition to their regular offerings, allowing you to experience the thrill of the real thing without needing to leave home.

Now that youve got an idea of what to look for when choosing an online casino, heres some tips for making the right choice

It really comes down to personal preference. No two people are exactly alike, so everyone has an opinion on what they like and dislike about each casino. That said, here are some things to consider in order to narrow down your choices

 Popularity. Check out reviews, forums and Facebook pages to see what other people think of the casino. Also, ask around at work or friends houses who they would recommend to you. You could always take a look at the casinos website too, to see what kind of information they provide about themselves.

 Reputation. Find out what the general public thinks about the casino. Check out any customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot, Amazon and Google Play to find out more. As far as gaming goes, you can also check out the Better Business Bureau to see whether there have been any complaints against the casino.

 Security. Make sure the casino uses SSL encryption to secure its transactions, meaning that your private data stays safe during transactions. Other than that, look for security seals on the site itself and verify that theyre legitimate. You can also check out the casinos privacy policy to see how they handle confidential information.

 Payment methods. Its good to have multiple payment options available, especially if you plan to play frequently. Its also nice to find a casino that accepts cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. If youre worried about safety, you can always opt for a credit card or PayPal instead.

With all those criteria in mind, heres our top picks

Betway:

Betway is a relatively new UK casino offering online gambling to residents of the United Kingdom and European Union. They offer hundreds of games across both land based and digital platforms, with plenty of top software providers like Net Entertainment, Microgaming and Yggdrasil Gaming Network. With a generous welcome offer that gives players 100% up to 100, you really cant go wrong with Betway.

Coral Casino:

Coral Casino is operated by the same company that runs the famous Caribbean casino, Grand Reef. Like many casinos, Coral Casino offers a wide variety of games, including plenty of video slots and table games. New players can benefit from a huge 100% match bonus up to 1000, while existing customers enjoy 25% cash back on deposits made within 48 hours of opening an account.

Ladbrokes Casino:

Ladbrokes Casino is owned by the same company as the famous bookmaker that started life in 1921. With more than 500 games from leading software providers such as Amaya, NetEnt and Microgaming, you wont be disappointed by the quality of the games here. New players get a 200% match bonus up to 500, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

Paddy Power Casino:

Paddy Power is another Irish-owned casino that operates throughout Europe. Not only does Paddy Power Casino offer traditional casino games like blackjack, roulette and slots, but it also provides a full range of sports betting, including football, tennis, boxing and horse racing. New players can receive a massive 100% match bonus up to 200, while existing customers can claim 35% cashback on their first three deposits.

William Hill Casino:

William Hill Casino is one of the biggest names in the industry, operating in Europe, Asia and North America. Founded in 1984, this online casino has more than 400 games to choose from, including slots and table games, with a wide array of software providers like WagerLogic, Big Time Gaming and Rival.

Bonus: 100% Match Bonus up to 100  Register Now

Betway: 100% Match Bonus up to 100  Claim Now

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ATLANTA, GA, May 07, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- To help celebrate their 10-year partnership with Camp Sunshine at Sebago Lake, Tropical Smoothie Cafe announced the launch of "Share The Sunshine" campaign to identify and send deserving families to the upstate-Maine camp that offers a fun experience to children with life-threatening illnesses. Camp Sunshine is the only program in the nation offered year-round with the distinction of having been designed to serve the entire family in a retreat model. The program includes on-site medical and psychosocial support.



"Typically, it takes about $2,500 to cover the costs of sending a family to Camp Sunshine," said Jennie Hong, Senior Director of Brand Marketing and Strategy for Tropical Smoothie Cafe. "We've been supporting Camp Sunshine through nearly $4 million in donations over the past 10 years... but we wanted to do more. That's why we're asking everyone to please share stories - either their own, a friend's, or a family member's in the hopes of giving them a much-needed bright spot in their lives."



To make a nomination and help Tropical Smoothie Cafe share the sunshine, fans can simply go online to http://www.TropicalSmoothieCafe.com/ShareTheSunshine to submit a family's name and share a story of why they could benefit from a Camp Sunshine Trip. Tropical Smoothie Cafe will select at least ten families from the submitted nominations to attend the camp. Selected families will be notified following the completion of National Flip Flop Day, which takes place on Friday, June 17th. National Flip Flop Day has become an annual tradition in the Tropical Smoothie Cafe system where Jetty Punch, a strawberry banana smoothie, is given away to everyone who walks through the cafe doors in flip flops from 2p - 7p. All the brand asks is that guests make a donation to the Camp Sunshine effort. Last year the brand raised $1 Million and looks forward to another successful year on its tenth anniversary.



"How do you make a difference," asked Mike Rotondo, Chief Executive Officer for Tropical Smoothie Cafe. "Be bold, do the things that people say can't be done and stop at nothing to achieve your goals. This year we set a goal to raise a million dollars to support as many Camp Sunshine families as possible and I have no doubts we will do just that on this milestone anniversary."



About Tropical Smoothie Cafe

Founded in 1997, Tropical Smoothie Cafe is a fast-casual restaurant concept inspiring healthy lifestyles across the country, with over 484 locations nationwide. With snack and meal options for any time of day, Tropical Smoothie Cafe serves smoothies, salads, tacos, wraps, sandwiches, and flatbreads. The rapidly growing franchise has received numerous accolades including being ranked on Entrepreneur's 2015 Franchise 500, 2015 Fast Casual Top 100 Movers and Shakers and Nation's Restaurant News' 2015 Top 200.Tropical Smoothie Cafe is seeking qualified franchisees to expand throughout the United States in markets such as Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio, among others. For more information, visit http://www.TropicalSmoothieFranchise.com.



About Camp Sunshine

Camp Sunshine is a year-round retreat located in Casco, Maine, 30 miles from Portland on Sebago Lake. Since its inception, Camp Sunshine has offered comfort, hope, and support to over 43,500 individuals from 48 states and 23 countries. Camp Sunshine is currently the only full-time facility in the nation whose sole purpose is to provide respite for the whole family. The camp programs provide respite to children with life-threatening illnesses and their immediate families through various stages of the child's illness. The program is free of charge to all families, and includes 24-hour onsite medical and psychosocial support. Bereavement groups are also offered for families who have lost a child to an illness. For more information, visit the website at http://www.CampSunshine.org or call (207) 655-3800.



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How to watch and what to know about South Dakota State at North Dakota
WASHINGTON  House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday definitively ruled out a bid for president this year, insisting that the partys choice should emerge from the group of candidates who pursued the GOP nomination. Count me out, he said.

In a brief news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, the Wisconsin Republican sought to tamp down rampant speculation that he could end up as the partys standard-bearer if front-runner Donald Trump and the other candidates flame out at a contested convention.

We have too much work to do in the House to allow this speculation to swirl or have my motivations questioned, said Ryan, who was the 2012 vice presidential nominee. Let me be clear: I do not want, nor will I accept, the Republican nomination.

Ryans comments come as a contested convention looks likelier by the day. Ryan and his aides have continually denied the speaker has presidential ambitions this year, but their statements have not put the issue to rest. Thats partly because Ryan also denied he wanted to be speaker last fall after then-Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation, but he ended up with the job anyway.

Tuesdays appearance was an attempt to shut down the speculation once and for all, and end what aides said has become a major distraction to Ryans work as speaker. Yet it may not be enough to quiet the talk about Ryan, given the unpredictable twists of the GOP presidential primary.

So let me speak directly to the delegates on this: If no candidate has a majority on the first ballot, I believe you should only choose a person who actually participated in the primary. Count me out, Ryan said. I simply believe that if you want to be the nominee  to be the president  you should actually run for it. I chose not to. Therefore, I should not be considered. Period.

Trump looks unlikely to accumulate the necessary delegates to clinch the nomination ahead of the July Republican convention in Cleveland. That would allow his lead challenger, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, to make a play for the job. A third hopeful, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, trails in the delegate count.

Yet party leaders fear neither the erratic Trump nor the polarizing Cruz could beat likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November. They also fear the GOP wont be able to hold onto control of the Senate with Trump or Cruz at the top of the ticket.

So if neither Trump nor Cruz can get the delegate votes necessary as balloting progresses at the convention, chaos could result  and along with it, the potential for some other Republican whos not currently running to emerge. As a young and charismatic conservative, popular with donors and with some conservative activists, Ryans name has been at the top of that list for months.

Ryan is also seen as a possible candidate in 2020. Early in the campaign season he announced he would not be making a run in 2016, yet some of his own actions fueled the talk. Hes delivered high-profile speeches calling for a more principled politics, and his staff uses social media to promote developments as varied as Ryans recent trip to the Mideast and his decision to give up impatience and anxiety for Lent.

Ryan insisted Tuesday that such moves have been aimed at communicating on behalf of House Republicans, though he has yet to unveil the policy proposals hes been promising. Removing the presidential speculation would put Ryans focus squarely on his day job as the leader of the House, and he faces several key tests soon.

In a long-brewing embarrassment, its become plain that Ryan has all but given up hope of passing a budget for the upcoming budget year. Ryan orchestrated four budget efforts as chairman of the Budget Committee over 2011-2014 but now cant produce one as speaker. Boehner, his predecessor, presided over five successful budgets.

Under the governments arcane budget law, the House is supposed to produce a budget by April 15. But a tea party revolt over Ryans embrace of last years bipartisan deal with President Barack Obama to increase spending by the Pentagon and domestic agencies has left him well short of the votes he needs.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor in Washington and Scott Bauer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.
About 200 investors, entrepreneurs and technology transfer professionals listened to appeals on Tuesday from innovators at New Mexicos major research institutions for funding and assistance to take new technologies to market.

The event, held at the Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, marked the first time that the states three research universities and the national laboratories have all come together to showcase innovation from around the state in a single, joint forum. But thats now likely to become a regular activity organized by Innovate New Mexico  a new umbrella group set up to collectively coordinate technology commercialization efforts statewide, said Lisa Kuuttila, the University of New Mexicos chief economic development officer and head of the Science and Technology Corp., UNMs tech-transfer office.

Its a really opportune time to bring everyone together and leverage our collective assets, Kuuttila told participants during a panel discussion. For folks coming from out of state, its much more efficient to have one central place to learn about the technologies of interest to them at our different institutions.

Attendees heard pitches from researchers at UNM, New Mexico State University, and the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology, and from scientists at Sandia National laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Technologies ranged from new medical devices and processes to novel inventions in water treatment, consumer electronics and optics and photonics.

UNM, for example, discussed advances in infrared imaging at the Center for High Technology Materials and development of a new, all-natural method for killing disease-carrying mosquito larvae with essential plant oils. New Mexico Tech showcased a novel water desalination process that could substantially lower costs for the oil and gas industry to clean produced water. And NMSU revealed a newly developed polymer coating to protect against corrosion from hydrogen in pipelines and other infrastructure used to transport and store that fuel.

The labs offered a range of technologies as well, such as a non-invasive detection device from Sandia to potentially identify pathogens in a persons breath rather than through blood or urine samples.

Apart from technologies pitched in the event, more than a dozen startups from all the universities and labs showed off products and services in trade booths.

Corporate technology scouts and investors from out of state said they were impressed.

Ive seen some amazing technology here, said Hsiaoli Chen, senior manager for licensing and innovation at ThermoFisher Scientific, a global biotechnology company based in Boston. Its even more than I expected.

Participation by the national labs proved a particularly strong draw for Chen and others.

The fact that Sandia and LANL are involved with this really caught my eye, said Ashwin Rao of Daikin America, a Japanese firm that makes air conditioners and chemicals for lubrication and other purposes. The labs are a well-known source of innovation, and by working together with the universities, theyre creating a great ecosystem here.
NAME: Idalia Lechuga-Tena

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic

OCCUPATION: Bilingual Consultant

RESIDENCE: Albuquerque

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: State of New Mexico, Communications Director, NM Medicaid Electronic Health Records Incentive Program; founder and CEO, ILT International, LLC, a consulting firm that provides services on government affairs, marketing, public relations in English, Spanish, Italian, French; Pete Dinelli for Mayor of Albuquerque, campaign manager; New Mexico House of Representatives, House Majority Office, majority analyst for 2010 and 2011 sessions; city of Albuquerque, Office of the Mayor, assistant to Mayor Martin J. Chavez; lived in the SE Heights since 1994; past president, La Mesa Community Improvement Association; helped organize International District Festival; first naturalized female from Mexico to ever serve in the NM Legislature.

Candidate questions

1. If the states revenue downturn persists, would you favor trimming state spending or increasing taxes as a primary response? Please specify which cost-cutting or revenue-generating measures you would prefer.

2. Do you support or oppose raising New Mexicos minimum wage, currently $7.50 per hour? If so, by how much?

3. Do you support or oppose the current policy of including student achievement as part of teacher evaluations? If you support the policy, what percentage of the evaluation should achievement account for.

4. Do you support or oppose legalizing recreational marijuana use in New Mexico?

5. Current state law requires early-grade reading intervention. Coupled with that, do you support or oppose legislation that would automatically require some third-graders without adequate reading skills to repeat the grade level?

6. To provide more money for early childhood programs, do you support or oppose taking more money out of the states largest permanent fund on an annual basis? If you are in support, what sort of accountability measures would you favor?

7. Would you support or oppose the creation of a state ethics commission that publicly releases complaints and holds open hearings?

8. Do you support or oppose making New Mexico a so-called right-to-work state, by changing state labor laws so that nonunion employees would not have to pay union fees as a condition of employment?

9. Do you support or oppose banning abortions after 20 weeks in New Mexico?

10. Do you support or oppose a law banning coyote-killing contests? Do you support or oppose banning trapping and poisons on public lands?

11. Do you support or oppose updating the current prohibition in the law on assisted suicide in order to allow aid-in-dying under certain medical circumstances?

12. Do you support or oppose a change that would earmark the states existing vehicle excise and gasoline tax revenue for state road projects?

13. Do you support or oppose allowing retired law enforcement officers to return to work while still collecting pension benefits to shore up department staffing, if the program protects the solvency of the retirement fund?

14. Do you support or oppose opening the states primary elections to voters who arent affiliated with either major political party?

15. Do you support or oppose expanding the states three-strikes law for repeat violent offenders?

16. Do you support or oppose enacting a cooling-off period before former lawmakers could lobby the Legislature?

17. Do you support or oppose passing a law that would allow local governments to impose curfews on minors under the age of 16?

18. Do you support or oppose archiving webcasts of all legislative meetings for public access?

19. Do you support or oppose establishing a salary for legislators?

20. Should public employees, including teachers, be prohibited by law from serving in the Legislature? Please explain.Personal background

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state? If so, explain.

EDUCATION: University of New Mexico with degrees in Economics and Political Science, with a concentration in International Politics. Universidad Publica de Navarra in Pamplona, Spain / Summer School Paris, France. Published Academic Research: The Positive Effects of the Immigration Spectrum in the United States in the Economic and Political Sector, written in Spanish, English, French; attended Kirtland Elementary School, Wilson Middle School, and Highland High School. .

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: idalia4nm.com

1. We must diversify and grow economy and streamline state government. We should look for areas in which we can save money, never on the back of employees or at the cost of cutting much needed services. We must find ways to grow our economy to compete with our neighbors, invest in small businesses and our film industry.

2. The minimum wage is so far behind where it should be. I believe in $15 an hour. I support a minimum wage in New Mexico indexed to the consumer price index, but it must start at $15 an hour. In the 2016 legislative session, I supported and co-sponsored a bill that Rep. Luciano Lucky Varela, D-Santa Fe, sponsored to increase minimum wage.

3. Student achievement should always be part of teacher evaluation. Student progress should be an element of teacher evaluation, but not on high stakes testing. The testing companies are making hands over fist on these deals, but our children are not benefitting. I support 3-tier licensure and rewarding excellence.

4. I support legalizing. Our local police officers have more important things to do, and weeks in jail and a record that prevents someone from finding a job is just too harsh for simple possession, especially for young people. I do think this issue should be placed on the ballot.

5. Oppose. NM has a good retention law already, one that gives teachers and parents a say in retention Those retentions are a last resort and done when the experts (teachers, school personnel) and parents agree.

6. Support. Early childhood education is essential to all of our children. We must provide an opportunity for all of our children.

7. Support. It is time.

8. Oppose. I voted against this law at the 2016 legislative session. Every state that has passed right to work legislation has noticed a rise in worker injuries and benefits and wages have gone down. This is not the right direction for New Mexico.

9. Oppose.

10. I support a law banning coyote-killing contests. I support banning trapping and poisons on public lands.

11. Support.

12. Support.

13. Oppose.

14. Support.

15. Oppose.

16. Support.

17. I supported this legislation in the 2016 session.

18. Support.

19. Support.

20. Of course not. We are a citizen Legislature.

Personal background:

1. No

2. No

3. No
NAME: Debbie Sarinana

POLITICAL PARTY: Democratic

OCCUPATION: Math teacher, Manzano High School

RESIDENCE: Albuquerque

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: I will bring my experiences as an educator, veteran, long-time resident of the district and mother to advocate and serve in the interest of our children, students and families.

EDUCATION: Achieved National Board Certification in Early Adolescence Mathematics, 2012; Masters of Arts in Secondary Education-Mathematics, University of New Mexico, 2007; Bachelor of Science in Education, New Mexico State University, 1983; APS High School Summer Algebra Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 2010; La Meta-Math Institute, University of New Mexico, 2009-2011; La Meta-Program for Math Teachers, UNM, Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics, 2005-2006; Manzano High School, 1978

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE: debbieforhd21.nationbuilder.com

Candidate questions

1. If the states revenue downturn persists, would you favor trimming state spending or increasing taxes as a primary response? Please specify which cost-cutting or revenue-generating measures you would prefer.

2. Do you support or oppose raising New Mexicos minimum wage, currently $7.50 per hour? If so, by how much?

3. Do you support or oppose the current policy of including student achievement as part of teacher evaluations? If you support the policy, what percentage of the evaluation should achievement account for.

4. Do you support or oppose legalizing recreational marijuana use in New Mexico?

5. Current state law requires early-grade reading intervention. Coupled with that, do you support or oppose legislation that would automatically require some third-graders without adequate reading skills to repeat the grade level?

6. To provide more money for early childhood programs, do you support or oppose taking more money out of the states largest permanent fund on an annual basis? If you are in support, what sort of accountability measures would you favor?

7. Would you support or oppose the creation of a state ethics commission that publicly releases complaints and holds open hearings?

8. Do you support or oppose making New Mexico a so-called right-to-work state, by changing state labor laws so that nonunion employees would not have to pay union fees as a condition of employment?

9. Do you support or oppose banning abortions after 20 weeks in New Mexico?

10. Do you support or oppose a law banning coyote-killing contests? Do you support or oppose banning trapping and poisons on public lands?

11. Do you support or oppose updating the current prohibition in the law on assisted suicide in order to allow aid-in-dying under certain medical circumstances?

12. Do you support or oppose a change that would earmark the states existing vehicle excise and gasoline tax revenue for state road projects?

13. Do you support or oppose allowing retired law enforcement officers to return to work while still collecting pension benefits to shore up department staffing, if the program protects the solvency of the retirement fund?

14. Do you support or oppose opening the states primary elections to voters who arent affiliated with either major political party?

15. Do you support or oppose expanding the states three-strikes law for repeat violent offenders?

16. Do you support or oppose enacting a cooling-off period before former lawmakers could lobby the Legislature?

17. Do you support or oppose passing a law that would allow local governments to impose curfews on minors under the age of 16?

18. Do you support or oppose archiving webcasts of all legislative meetings for public access?

19. Do you support or oppose establishing a salary for legislators?

20. Should public employees, including teachers, be prohibited by law from serving in the Legislature? Please explain.Personal background

1. Have you or your business, if you are a business owner, ever been the subject of any state or federal tax liens?

2. Have you ever been involved in a personal or business bankruptcy proceeding?

3. Have you ever been arrested for, charged with, or convicted of drunken driving, any misdemeanor or any felony in New Mexico or any other state? If so, explain.

1. Education and other state priorities are already running on tight budgets. Rather than cutting programs that would harm our state and most vulnerable, I support closing tax loopholes and revenue raising measures that require the rich and out of state corporations to pay their fair share of taxes.

2. Yes, I support raising the minimum wage to $10-$15 an hour. New Mexicans deserve to be paid a living wage for their hard work and we should calculate a fair wage that makes sense for our state.

3. This policy necessarily ties teacher pay to student test scores. The problem with that system is that teachers are incentivized to teach to a test and student learning suffers. I support adequately funding education, and giving teachers the tools they need to succeed in the classroom.

4. This questionnaire began with the revenue crisis that our state is facing. Weve seen this experiment play out in other states and the data tells us that when legalization efforts are properly regulated and taxed they can bring in a lot of money to fund our state priorities.

5. Automatically holding our kids back without parent involvement when these kids reach the third grade is a harmful approach to dealing with our education crisis. Instead, we should focus our efforts on properly funding early childhood education and implementing a student-learning plan that involves parents throughout the process.

6. I believe the permanent fund could be a proper sustainable funding source for early childhood education. This money is sitting at over $10 billion dollars and the interest it generates should be invested in our children. Lawmakers should also continue to monitor the fund levels on a regular basis.

7. Yes, I believe that we need an independent ethics commission to investigate credible complaints and to hold elected officials accountable for corruption and mismanagement. No one is above the law and an independent election commission would go a long way toward restoring the publics trust in our state government.

8. No, everyone has the right to work, but everyone also has the right to work for a fair wage and under fair working conditions. I dont support measures that are aimed at creating barriers for workers to organize, communicate their concerns and hold their leaders accountable.

9. I oppose measures that would interfere with a womans right to make her own health care decisions, especially when her life is at risk. Those are personal decisions that should remain between a woman and her doctor.

10. I dont support coyote-killing contests that do not respect wildlife. If there are concerns about coyotes then we should come together to find an ethical and effective solution to controlling our native wildlife populations.

11. Everyone has the right to die with dignity. We should respect life decisions that are made between terminally ill individuals, their families and their doctors. I dont believe that the government should interfere to prosecute doctors who are respecting their patients wishes.

12. Yes, we should adequately fund our roads. When we dont properly invest in our infrastructure our economy suffers.

13. No, I dont support double dipping measures that allow officers to collect retirement benefits while they are receiving a proper salary for the job they are performing. It sets a bad precedent that is unfair and that would inevitably jeopardize the solvency of our states retirement fund.

14. Maybe, party primaries are in place to allow a self-selecting group of voters to elect their partys leadership. When we force groups to open that process we start to interfere with their constitutional right to associate. However, we should also encourage unaffiliated voters to participate in our democracy.

15. No, these efforts have not worked to reduce crime in other states and its not clear that the result would be any different in New Mexico. We should focus on passing reforms that will actually make our communities safer.

16. Yes, this is one common-sense measure that will help remove the influence of money in politics. We must stop the revolving door that incentivizes lawmakers to be more concerned with securing their next high paying job with a special interest group than with addressing their constituents needs.

17. No, I dont support measures that create more ways to criminalize our youth without actually making communities safer. Also, this measure could lead to other civil rights violations because its unclear how law enforcement officers will be able to differentiate between a 16-year-old and other young adults.

18. Yes, I support measures that increase government transparency.

19. Yes, because public office would be more accessible to average New Mexicans. Currently, people cant afford to run for office unless they have a flexible employer or are retired. People should have the opportunity to represent their community and NM would benefit from a new pool of talented leaders.

20. No, it does not make sense to restrict teachers and other community members from participating in our democracy. These individuals are also full time citizens who understand the needs of our communities. They engage with kids and parents on a daily basis and add valuable perspectives to our Legislature.

Personal background:

1. No

2. No

3. No
The University of New Mexico is investigating the local chapter of the fraternity Sigma Chi in connection to allegations of sexual assault, according to a UNM official.

Information about dates or individuals involved in the allegations wasnt immediately available on Friday afternoon.

The Office of Equal Opportunity, an office on campus that investigates sexual assault and harassment, confirmed Friday they were investigating.

OEO confirms an investigation into the Sigma Chi fraternity is underway, and is asking anyone with information pertaining to the organization regarding sexual misconduct or sexual assault to please contact OEO at 277-5251, a news release said.

The complaint originated at a meeting of the Interfraternity Council on Monday April 25.

President of the fraternity Matthew Pierce said the organization is complying fully with the university and OEO. He referred requests for national comment to the national offices of Sigma Chi.

The investigation comes on the heels of a Department of Justice into the way UNM handles allegations of sexual assault and harassment, and found UNM sometimes failed to comply with federal laws regarding such incidents.
A Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office deputy who was on a traffic stop found nearly 40 pounds of marijuana stuffed in a duffel bag and trash bag Thursday.

The driver, 25-year-old Jonathan Skeen, now faces drug trafficking charges.

A BCSO deputy noticed Skeen was driving too slow in the right lane and impeding traffic Thursday, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.

The deputy pulled him over.

As I was speaking to him I noticed he was nervous, he would avoid eye contact with me, his hand was shaking as he handed me the rental agreement, the deputy wrote in the complaint.

The deputy asked if he could search Skeens car and Skeen said yes. So the deputy searched the car and found a white plastic trash bag full of marijuana. Inside a black duffel bag, were 27 bags of more marijuana.

The total weight was 39 pounds.

Skeen was arrested and charged with trafficking a controlled substance and booked into the county jail, where he remained Friday evening.
PHOENIX  A man convicted of fatally shooting a Phoenix police officer in 2010 has been sentenced to natural life in prison.

Danny Ledezma Martinez was convicted last June on two counts of first-degree murder in the death of Officer Travis Murphy.

In November, Maricopa County Superior Court jurors sentenced Martinez to life in prison on one murder charge, but were not unanimous in their decision on the second charge for premeditated murder.

A judge sentenced Martinez on Friday.

The 29-year-old Murphy was fatally wounded when shot multiple times while responding to a suspicious person call on May 26, 2010.

Authorities later found Martinez hiding in a backyard shed at a home near the shooting scene.

Murphy was a father of two and had been a Phoenix police officer for four years.
SANTA FE  The former head of the organization that puts on the annual Santa Fe Indian Market has been indicted for embezzling money from a charity fund to aid victims of the catastrophic tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

In a Santa Fe County grand jury indictment handed down this week, John Torres-Nez, 50, is charged with two counts of embezzlement for allegedly taking money from the fund while he was the director of artist services for the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA). He denies the charges.

One count says that between April 2011 and January 2012 Torres-Nez embezzled more than $20,000 from the tsunami relief fundraiser and the other count says he embezzled a check worth $4,153 from Native American Artists for Japan (NAAJ) on Sept. 15, 2011. Money for the charity fund was raised from sales of items donated by Indian artists.

Torres-Nez, now curator of visitor engagement and exhibits at the San Bernardino County Museum in California, said Friday, Im completely blindsided by all of this. Im 600 miles away and Im trying to understand whats happening. Im waiting for my attorney to provide some kind of guidance.

He said the allegations are unfounded. I have a lot of artists supporting me (who) dont believe this, he said. Its completely untrue. I have a lot Id like to say, but Id rather keep my mouth shut for now.

Torres-Nez was promoted to chief operations officer of SWAIA in October 2012 and headed Indian Market for one year before stepping down in March 2014. He went on to help found the alternative Indigenous Fine Art Market (IFAM), which debuted the same weekend as Indian Market in August 2014.

State Police started investigating the tsunami relief fund in October 2014 after some donor artists raised concerns about where the money went. A search warrant affidavit filed in court then said there was no sign that money from the art sales was transferred from a SWAIA PayPal account to the intended Red Cross disaster relief fund.

The affidavit said SWAIAs financial administrator determined that checks from the fundraiser were deposited into a 1st Community Bank account which was also used by John (Torres-Nez) to receive his paycheck from SWAIA while employed there.

IFAM board secretary Abby Lewis told the Journal in 2014 that Torres-Nez had copies of checks from his Native Cultural Resources to Red Cross-Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Relief Fund totaling $33,547. She said the checks said on the memo line, NAAJ via SWAIA.

SWAIA released this statement Friday: Its unfortunate that IFAM founder John Torres Nez was indicted by the grand jury  The investigation was launched at the request of several inquiries by donating artists, financial donors and supportive purchasers. SWAIA had limited information to provide and the State Police, when informed of the circumstances, decided to open an official investigation For the sake of the artists who trust John Torres Nez, SWAIA hopes that this finds resolution quickly.
They crossed each other on the sea that separates us, the Cuban boat people and the Adonia on its inaugural sail from Port Miami to Havana. Ships passing in the night without lasting significance, except the Cubans made the treacherous voyage in a rickety homemade vessel.

They were fleeing their homeland, risking their lives.

The Americans were in party mode: Ahoy, La Habana, here we come!

Fathoms new cultural cruising line left the Miami skyline behind to salsa music, passengers already sunning poolside, others pining to smoke a Cuban stogie, a dance teacher preparing his cultural immersion lesson of salsa and Colombian cumbia so Americans could better interact with Cubans.

As the cruisers made the overnight trip to Havana  among them 16 Cuban-born Americans nostalgic for a peek at the lost homeland  Cuban migrants headed the other way, hoping to touch U.S. soil. Their American Dream can now, theoretically, include a cruise back home.

The Adonia sailed into Havana to views of El Morro, once one of Cubas most feared prisons and the site of summary executions by Fidel Castros newly installed government  executions without fair trial led by none other than Che Guevara, now an iconic T-shirt symbol.

The bullet holes on the rock walls remain. The Fathom itinerary says that passengers in this people-to-people voyage get history lessons on board. Hopefully, the geographically challenged cumbia lesson wasnt a prelude to cluelessness, and the history course doesnt end at pirates of the Caribbean and the sinking of the Maine.

The seven men and two women fleeing all that history Americans yearn to experience reached Key Largos shore at the break of dawn Tuesday, disembarking at Travel Town Trailer, an RV park, according to the Keynoter.

They left behind in the mangroves an improvised vessel made with collected wood, tin and sails made from bed sheets. And a statistic, too: 60 Cubans have arrived by boat since Thursday in five perilous trips across the Florida Straits.

Passengers on Adonias sold-out sail disembarked in a new air-conditioned terminal named Sierra Maestra after the mountain range in eastern Cuba from where the bearded Castro brothers waged their guerrilla warfare.

According to reports, it took a mere 15 minutes to clear customs and immigration despite the small herd of media and close to 700 American tourists.

In Havana, a large crowd greeted passengers, waving flags and high-fiving. Most didnt see, however, what happened to a Cuban who showed too much enthusiasm for them.

He wore a huge American flag draped around his shoulders and was being interviewed by a TV reporter when an older man questioned his allegiance to the Revolution. A pro-government mob took their cue and went to work yelling, Viva la Revolucion! Remember Bay of Pigs!

In less than 15 minutes, the Cuban police had hauled Daniel Llorente Miranda to jail.

The 52-year-old waved goodbye from the back seat of the police car, clutching the flag to his heart.

Any meaningful change is elusive, but travel is running full throttle.

Carnivals Adonia makes history and the Cuban boat people are well on their way to breaking last years record.

Fabiola Santiago is a columnist for the Miami Herald. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
A prophet of peace has passed. Daniel Berrigan, a Catholic Jesuit priest, protester, poet, dedicated uncle and brother, died last weekend at age 94.

His near-century on Earth was marked by compassion and love for humanity, and an unflinching commitment to justice and peace. He spent years in prison for his courageous, peaceful actions against war, living and practicing the gospel that he preached.

He launched movements, inspired millions, wrote beautifully and, with a wry smile, shared his love of life with family, friends and those with whom he prayed and fought for peace.

Dan, his brother Philip Berrigan and several others peacefully raided a draft board in 1967 and poured their own blood on the records to signify the blood being spilled in the war. A year later, on May 17, 1968, just weeks after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., they and seven others famously removed draft records from the Catonsville, Md., draft board and set fire to them with homemade napalm, singing a hymn around the pyre until they were arrested.

Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house, Dan Berrigan wrote in the statement released by the group before the action, as they knew they would be arrested. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise.

The actions of the Catonsville Nine, as the group would come to be known, ratcheted up the intensity of anti-war actions everywhere.

Some individuals had burned their draft cards before then, but after the Catonsville action, it became an increasingly common tactic to demonstrate actual and symbolic opposition to the war. We have chosen to be powerless criminals in a time of criminal power. We have chosen to be branded as peace criminals by war criminals, he said.

Daniel Berrigan was convicted and, before turning himself in to serve his sentence, went underground. Despite being on the FBIs Most Wanted list, Berrigan popped up around the country, giving anti-war speeches.

He spoke at a large rally at Cornell University, where he was the campus chaplain. Afterward, as the FBI and police closed in on him, Berrigan hid inside one of the Bread & Puppet political theater troupes giant puppets. Thus disguised, he exited Cornells Barton Hall, eluding arrest.

Authorities finally caught up to him on Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, and arrested him. A famous photo captured the moment, as a smiling Father Berrigan is shown being led, handcuffed, by two joyless FBI men who were on the island posing as bird-watchers.

Given the fact that the American machine is not working well, either in its inner gears, or in its meshing with the world, good men must take action, he wrote in his memoir, No Bars to Manhood. Some of them  must be willing to go to jail.

In 1980, Berrigan, again with his brother Phil and others, broke into a General Electric missile plant in King of Prussia, Pa. They hammered on missile nose cones, damaging them beyond repair, and poured their blood on the damaged parts. Their action that day launched the Plowshares Movement, which has grown into a global movement. Plowshares actions are inspired by a line from the Old Testament, Isaiah 2:4:

They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.

Dan Berrigans fight for peace challenged the U.S. government, the Pentagon and his own Catholic Churchs hierarchy. For that last sin, he was banished by the church from the United States. His exile included trips to Latin America and South Africa, which, far from curing him of his commitment to fight injustice, only strengthened it.

We last saw Berrigan, whom we and so many others affectionately called Father Dan, two years ago in the retirement home for elderly Jesuits, at Fordham University in the Bronx. At 93, he was frail, but his eyes twinkled when we gave him his favorite food: ice cream.

His devotion to ice cream and social justice earned him his own flavor of Ben & Jerrys, as well as a lifetime supply of their ice cream for him and the Catholic Worker movement he so loved.

Daniel J. Berrigan lived his life true to his calling, literally practicing what he preached. Rest in peace, Dan Berrigan, just as you lived.

Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
SANTA FE  The Republican Party of New Mexico reversed itself Friday night and said it would not charge members of the press $100 to cover its state convention this month.

The GOP said in a news release that reporters wont have to pay for a press pass after all.

The Quadrennial Convention Committee had originally decided to charge for press access in an effort to help pay for the costs of hosting the convention, but it was never their intent to discourage press from attending, state GOP spokesman W. Tucker Keene said.

The party had announced earlier in the day that the news media members would be charged, along with others attending the convention on May 21.

New Mexico reporters havent previously had to pay for press credentials to cover such meetings and the Democratic Party said it wont cost anything to cover its state convention.

The GOP will be electing delegates to the Republican National Convention at the state gathering, scheduled for 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Sandia Resort & Casino.

He said convention costs other than renting space include staffing, security, acquiring the voting technology and renting the iPads necessary to run it, web page design, and printing and designing thousands of programs and other materials.

Delegates and alternate delegates to the convention would pay $85, and guests, candidates and campaign staff $50, according to the announcement.

The New Mexico delegation to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 18-21 will consist of 24 people. Three of those are automatic delegates, the state chairman and the national committeeman and national committeewoman.

The remaining 21 delegates  along with 21 alternates  will be elected, three from each of the three congressional districts and 12 from the state at large.

Delegates pay their own way to the national convention, a cost projected by the GOP to be upwards of $4,000.

Democrats hold their state convention June 25.

Democrats understand the important role the press plays in our democracy, said spokeswoman Felicia Salazar. We are proud of our two very qualified candidates running in our primary, therefore we will not be charging a fee for press to cover our convention.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson introduced hundreds of real estate industry people to a concept he called Cities 3.0 on Monday during a joint appearance with Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry at NAIOPs regular lunch meeting.

Albuquerque had a short life as a 1.0 city, and it never became a 2.0 city. But it has been evolving into a 3.0 city since the day Robert Oppenheimer began building his lab on a mesa west of Santa Fe. Thanks to Johnson, we now know what to call what weve been doing.

Johnson introduced his ideas in 2014 at his inauguration as president of the United States Conference of Mayors. He said then that the first cities  Cities 1.0  were built around ports, navigable rivers and transportation routes and served as centers of trade.

Like Socorro, Algodones and a number of other villages, Albuquerque was just one of several outposts along the Rio Grande designed to protect and serve excursions between El Paso and Santa Fe. It wasnt until the late 1800s that Albuquerque began to develop as a city, thanks to the arrival of the railroad and the opportunity to trade with the rest of the country.

Cities 2.0, Johnson said, had factories and big industry smokestacks and became destinations for immigration. Albuquerque was too short of water and too far from markets to develop a significant manufacturing sector that produced exports, and its local market was too small to support much industrialization. The Industrial Revolution passed us by.

In the new era of Cities 3.0, Johnson said, The city is a hub of innovation, entrepreneurship and technology.

Sound like anyone you know? Almost. Albuquerque is home to some of the brightest materials scientists, computer scientists, energy scientists and medical scientists in the country. Astonishing technological breakthroughs are the norm in our city.

What has been missing is entrepreneurship, which I contend is the worst legacy of our dependence on federal government spending. Satisfying a government contract encourages compliance and rule-following. Entrepreneurship requires defiance and rule-breaking.

Fortunately, Burquenos from city officials to our educators to the folks running business incubators to our business community in general are aware of the problem and motivated to find a solution.

Even better, the sector of our economy that has depended on federal spending is facing the choice of adapting to a world of declining budgets or disappearing altogether. This will lead to tough survivors who learn how to innovate and compete for private-sector business.

Johnson described the role of city government in Cities 3.0, and some of what he described had a familiar ring.

A 3.0 city has to find new ways to deliver services, Johnson said, just as Apple delivers music without operating a music store and Amazon delivers books without operating a bookstore. City road repair crews used to roam the city looking for potholes to fill, which meant some especially egregious potholes could chew up car tires for months before being discovered.

Today, a citizen can use a smartphone to take a photo of the pothole and send it to the road crew. The phones GPS system locates the pothole exactly. In Albuquerque, this service is delivered by the citys 311 app. You can download it from the cabq.gov website.

Police officers used to cruise around the city hoping to stumble onto crime and responding to service calls. These days, the Albuquerque Police Department collects mountains of data to run through computers so analysts can tell officers where, when and how certain crimes are likely to occur. Cops can get there before the bad guys leave.

Cities 3.0 have to build the right infrastructure to support the innovative and entrepreneurial, Johnson said. This includes good transportation, high-speed Internet connections, citywide Wi-Fi, and stimulating urban environments. Albuquerque has installed a good Internet backbone in parts of the city.

Though many citizens oppose it, if the new Albuquerque Rapid Transit bus system works, it will connect city centers, each with a unique identity, and produce the kind of streetscapes that stimulate commerce and civic life. If the citys Innovation District works, entrepreneurs will find the ideas, support and financing they need in the center of town.

Johnson is trying to build on Sacramentos assets. We can do the same. We know how to manage scarce water supplies, knowledge that can find an export market internationally. The government put its solar energy evaluation center at Sandia National Laboratories. The University of New Mexico Cancer Center knows more about the genetics of certain cancers than anyone else in the world.

It took abundant water, access to markets and lots of capital to create a 2.0 city. It takes only will and imagination to be a 3.0 city. This should be Albuquerques era.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Winthrop Quigley at 823-3896 or wquigley@abqjournal.com. Go to ABQjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
The University of New Mexico is investigating the local chapter of the fraternity Sigma Chi in connection with allegations of sexual assault, according to a UNM official.

The Office of Equal Opportunity, an office on campus that investigates sexual assault and harassment, confirmed Friday it was investigating.

OEO confirms an investigation into the Sigma Chi fraternity is underway, and is asking anyone with information pertaining to the organization regarding sexual misconduct or sexual assault to please contact OEO at 277-5251, a news release said.

Information about dates or individuals involved in the allegations wasnt immediately available Friday afternoon.

The complaint originated at a meeting of UNMs Interfraternity Council, a group made up of members from the campus fraternities, on April 25.

Matthew Pierce, president of the fraternity, said the organization is complying fully with the university and OEO. He referred requests for comment to the national offices of Sigma Chi, which couldnt immediately be reached for comment.

Langston Bowens, a representative of the UNM chapter of Phi Gamma Delta to the council, said he raised the issue and asked the council to investigate because of previous complaints filed against the fraternity stretching back to 2013.

When you have so many cases year after year after year, even if the individual people are punished, what that means is the chapter in question, where all these things are happening, theyre being negligent, Bowens said.

The last time Sigma Chi made the news was in 2012 when a student committed suicide at the fraternity house and was found days later.

Prior to that, Sigma Chi lost its charter in 2002 for violations that included on-campus drinking and vandalism. That followed a 2000 incident in which fraternity members used masking tape to draw a swastika on a car owned by an African-American woman who had parked outside the house. Sigma Chi got its charter back in 2006.

The investigation comes on the heels of a U.S. Department of Justice report into the way UNM handles allegations of sexual assault and harassment. The report found the university sometimes failed to comply with federal laws regarding such incidents.
HATCH  Students here are nothing if not creative about how they get online after school to do homework.

They park at the Hatch Valley High School and siphon the schools wireless signal, working on their smartphones or laptops. They go online using cellphone data, running up their parents bills. They go to the homes of friends and relatives who can afford Internet access or live somewhere that broadband is available.

Its what Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel calls the homework gap: the divide between students who do have access at home, and those who dont.

She and Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., heard these stories this week from students, parents and teachers at Hatch Valley High in a visit designed to highlight the digital divide faced by rural communities across the country.

Seven in 10 teachers assign homework that requires online access, Rosenworcel said.

But FCC data show that one in five households in New Mexico doesnt have Internet at home. The gap worsens in rural areas and on tribal lands, where 61 percent and 80 percent of residents, respectively, lack fixed Internet access, according to a 2016 FCC report on broadband.

There are 5 million households in this country with school-age children that have no online access, Rosenworcel said, citing data from the Pew Research Center. That sounds like a lot. But to me it also sounds like a number we can fix.

Jonah Madrid, a slight freshman wearing a black T-shirt and braces, told Rosenworcel and Udall that he doesnt have Internet access at home. He uses mobile data until he hits the limit.

Sometimes, I cant get my work done, he said. My parents are hard on me. If I cant do my homework, I start panicking. Its almost like, back then, you used to write on paper. Its like leaving your notebook at school. You cant do that work, because you dont have access to it on the Internet.

Even in this digital age  in which not having online access might seem unthinkable to many students in Albuquerque  Internet is often unavailable or unaffordable in rural parts of the state like the chile-growing region around Hatch.

Telecommunications firms are often reluctant to spend money laying expensive digital infrastructure in sparsely populated areas, where the customer base is small.

Where access is available, it isnt always affordable for low-income households.

In a 2015 analysis of Census data, Pew found that nearly one-third of households with school-age children and an annual income under $50,000 lacked a high-speed Internet connection at home. The gap was highest for black and Hispanic households in that bracket: 39 percent and 37 percent, respectively.

Eighty-seven percent of Hatchs 1,600 or so residents is Hispanic and about 30 percent live below the poverty line, according to the Census Bureau.

Closing the digital divide has been a priority for Udall.

Why should everybody have it? Because in the past the way weve done well as a country is to connect all of us, Udall said. We connected ourselves through the railroads. We connected ourselves through highways. We connected ourselves through telephones. But the Internet is tremendously important in this day and age.

Rosenworcel described approaches to closing the gap such as outfitting school buses with wireless signals so students can do homework on the ride home; encouraging libraries to lend wireless hotspots so students can connect at home when they need to, and expanding telephone service subsidies to cover broadband service.
SANTA FE  Albuquerques heavily Democratic House District 21 repeatedly returned the same lawmaker, Mimi Stewart, to the Capitol for two decades. But, since she went to the Senate to fill a vacancy at the end of 2014, there has been upheaval.

Her appointed successor, Democrat Stephanie Maez, served only nine months before resigning after her son was charged with murder.

Maezs successor, Democratic Rep. Idalia Lechuga-Tena, was then narrowly appointed to the seat  on a 3-2 vote  with the backing of two Republicans and one Democrat on the Bernalillo County Commission.

Now, as Lechuga-Tena makes her first run for election, she faces two rivals in the June 7 Democratic primary who also sought appointment to the seat last year: Debra Sarinana and Amanda KinKaid.

There is no Republican on the ballot in November in the Southeast Heights district, a narrow corridor that straddles Interstate 40 and portions of Central Avenue, and includes part of the International District.

Lechuga-Tena, 32, is a self-employed marketing and public relations consultant. She worked for the state Human Services Department, dealing with electronic health records, before taking her House seat. She was an assistant to former Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez and campaign manager for mayoral candidate Pete Dinelli in 2013. Both are Democrats.

She collected about $8,000 in contributions, according to a report filed last month, and lent her campaign another $22,635.

Born in Mexico, Lechuga-Tena has acknowledged that she voted twice in elections before she became a U.S. citizen in 2007  an honest mistake, she has said. She said she didnt realize when she registered to vote while a student at the University of New Mexico that she had to be a citizen.

Lechuga-Tena said she has lived in the Southeast Heights since she was 10 and in the community she now represents since 2002. But she was outside District 21 and said she moved four blocks into the district to be considered for appointment to the House seat.

I just dont believe a district divides a community, said Lechuga-Tena, who stresses that she has headed a local neighborhood association a couple of times.

Candidate KinKaid, although born and raised in Albuquerque, is also new to House District 21. She said she relocated from Rio Rancho and changed her voter registration before the County commission made its appointment last year, but she was disqualified for not living in the district.

KinKaid, 35, has worked at the Legislature in media relations for the House during the 2011 session and as analyst for a House committee in 2013.

She also ran the Pre-Prosecution Diversion Program for first-time, nonviolent felony offenders in the 13th Judicial District Attorneys Office in Sandoval County for about a year.

Currently employed at an optical shop, she also worked for years at a Harley-Davidson dealership.

Ive worked really hard my whole life in a variety of very interesting jobs, she said. The Legislature, she said, would be a great opportunity to get out there and make some change.

She had collected $900 for her campaign as of the April 11 report.

Candidate Sarinana, who goes by Debbie, is touted by her supporters  including Stewart  as the candidate with the deepest roots and best understanding of the district where she grew up.

A math teacher at Manzano High School, her alma mater, she was the choice of the other two Democrats on the Bernalillo County Commission when Lechuga-Tena was appointed in November.

Sarinana, 55, was born in Albuquerque and raised in the legislative district, and has taught math and science at middle schools and at Manzano for the past 15 years. Before that, she was in the Air Force Reserve and worked at the Armys Yuma Proving Ground and White Sands Missile Range as a computer programmer and teacher.

She returned to the district in about 2000 as a single mother of three.

I didnt move into the district to run. This is my home.  I feel like I know what the kids need and the parents need, and Im going to fight to get it, Sarinana said. By her count, she has taught almost 2,000 students and she is endorsed by the American Federation of Teachers-New Mexico.

She reported contributions of $6,285 in the first round of reporting on April 11.

Stewart said in a fundraising letter that, even though she has her own primary race in June, she is putting considerable effort into helping Sarinana win the seat, calling her an honest, committed and hardworking Democrat who shares my values.
SANTA FE  New Mexicos state auditor is looking into what practices led to the backlog of more than 5,400 untested evidence kits from sexual assaults and rapes at law enforcement agencies and evidence vaults across the state.

State Auditor Tim Keller announced Thursday a special survey of eight police departments and sheriff offices aimed at identifying root causes of the backlog, and providing better policies and written standards to prevent untested kits from piling up again.

Without the additional review, the state runs the risk of spending substantial resources to clear the backlog now, only to find itself with a new backlog of kits in a few years, the state auditors office said in a statement.

New Mexico is among states, including Ohio, South Dakota and Kentucky, that have recently launched efforts to track down and process untested kits as they became aware of backlogs. New Mexico state lawmakers and the governor approved additional funding in February to help clear the untested evidence.

Kellers new audit will span state law enforcement agencies from Hobbs to Farmington and includes the Albuquerque Police Department.

A coordinator for the training for sexual assault examiners says the special audit is not punitive and will include some professional assistance for police agencies that may be strapped for cash.

We have to learn how this happens so that it doesnt happen again, said Connie Monahan of the nonprofit New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs. These are large white envelopes and large brown bags. How did people not see this?

The kits typically hold DNA evidence, such as pieces of hair or swabs from a victims body, which can help investigators solve a crime or possibly link a solved case to other crimes.

Test results are entered into a database that can lead officials to discover whether an assailant is a serial offender.

The special audit will include the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office, the Curry County Sheriffs Office, the Farmington Police Department, the Gallup Police Department, the Grant County Sheriffs Office, the Hobbs Police Department and the Las Cruces Police Department.
Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has broken just about every political rule and precedent this election cycle, so what difference would it make if he broke one more?

If Trump wants to gain credibility with voters who are either wary of or vehemently opposed to him becoming president, he should borrow from the British system and name a shadow cabinet.

For those unfamiliar with the term, a British shadow cabinet is made up of a group of senior people from the opposition party who create an alternative cabinet to that of the government. The role of shadow ministers is to criticize government ministers. If their party wins a majority in a future election, most are frequently appointed to cabinet positions.

If Trump were to adopt such a strategy now, it would present him with several opportunities. First, each of his appointees, presumably, would be people with knowledge and experience Trump lacks. Second, his shadow cabinet members could focus on what they consider the failures of a particular government agency or program and offer alternatives to make it better. Third, some of Trumps shadow cabinet could recommend doing away with cabinet agencies and programs by making the case that they cost too much and fail to live up to their purpose.

In Britain, the shadow cabinet is presided over by the opposition leader. In Trumps shadow cabinet, his choice for vice president, who should be named before the convention to allow the public time to become comfortable with his choice, might be the one to keep his people focused on their goal. Should Trump win, all of the shadow cabinet members could be nominated to real cabinet positions.

How would this work? The shadow minister for education could make the case for the dissolution of the unnecessary Department of Education, which was Jimmy Carters promise to the teachers unions in 1976 in order to gain their endorsement. DOE educates no one and is another one of those Washington bureaucracies that thinks it knows better than local school districts and parents how best to educate. The shadow minister might also make the case for school choice, focusing on poor and minority children trapped in failing government schools whose liberation would offer them a chance to succeed.

The shadow minister for defense would look at wasteful spending by the military and by members of Congress who like to spend money on defense projects in their states and districts for things the military doesnt want or need. The F-35 fighter jet is just one of many bad examples. The airplane has been way behind schedule in development and cost overruns have added to the price, now around $1 trillion. A withering 2015 report by the National Security Network, a D.C.-based think tank, according to Fortune.com, maintains that The F-35 fighter jet will find itself outmaneuvered, outgunned, out of range, and visible to enemy sensors.

Trump should also promise a flat or fair tax, elimination of the Internal Revenue Service and a top-to-bottom audit of the federal government. Programs that do not perform well and within budget should either be eliminated or turned over to the private sector. This idea can be sold to voters based not only on their antipathy to Washington, which Trumps campaign has helped channel, but also for the sake of coming generations who will be saddled with the bill. Are we so selfish that we want ours now without concern for the financial burden we are placing on our grandchildren and their kids?

A shadow cabinet might work and it would be different. Like Trump.
Roughly 50 Rio Rancho students have declined to take the controversial PARCC assessment during the past month  dramatically fewer than the 160 in 2015.

The drop is in line with the rest of the state, which hasnt seen the kind of large-scale demonstrations that hit a year ago, the first time New Mexico administered the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test.

Paul Lockhart, Rio Rancho Public Schools director of research, assessment, data and accountability, thinks parents and students have gotten more used to PARCC, which measures math and English comprehension in third through 11th grades.

It is experience more than anything, he said. Even last year, there was a student at Cleveland (High School) who thought his mom was going to refuse the test. The kid ended up testing and called home to mom to say, This isnt a big deal. Thats just one example.

Under RRPS policy, parents who want to remove their children from testing must talk to the school assistant principal or another administrator to discuss their concerns.

Lockhart said these conversations help dispel myths about PARCC  for instance, the belief that students are testing eight hours a day for 30 days.

Last year administrators were able to convince a third to half of the concerned parents to allow their kids to take the exam, according to Lockhart. Those who werent swayed could proceed with the opt out by signing a form used for district tracking.

Lockhart said he is happy with Rio Ranchos system, which is more moderate than the approach in districts like Las Cruces and Farmington, where all students must take the exam unless they have a medical reason.

Still, RRPS does not believe parents really have the right to opt out, according to spokeswoman Beth Pendergrass.

We call them refusals here just because we feel like opt-out implies that there is an option for students not to take the test, and we really dont think there is an option, but parents have refused to allow their kids to take the test, she said.

The New Mexico Public Education Department also believes that there is no refusal option, citing federal mandates that students complete statewide assessments.

This February, Secretary of Education Hanna Skandera stressed that districts could lose government funding if they fall below 95-percent participation in PARCC because the U.S. Department of Education is taking a tougher stance on the rule.

Schools already drop a letter grade if they dont meet the 95-percent threshold.

Last year, RRPS was well within the requirement at around 98.5 percent participation, and no schools lost letter grades.

Albuquerque Public Schools did have over 20 schools fall a grade, though the district as a whole was above 95 percent.

Critics say PARCC is too long, too difficult and basically unfair because its computer format rewards wealthier children who have greater access to technology.

More than a thousand New Mexico students walked out of classrooms last spring to protest the assessment, which is designed to align with Common Core standards and raise the bar, according to Skandera.
Learn about Oaxacan Cuisine and Oaxacan Mezcal in the Global Market on Sunday, May 8.

Ronda Brulotte Brulotte will discuss the sociologically complex field of production, marketing, consumption, and connoisseurship surrounding Oaxacan mezcal as it emerges in the global market, according to an event news release.

Not only is mezcal Oaxacas fastest-growing rural industry, it connects the region to an emergent network of producers, brokers, and consumers across the U.S.-Mexico border and beyond.

Mezcal may be joining more well-known foods of Mexican origin commonplace in U.S. markets (corn, chile, chocolate), but its circulation as a food/beverage commodity is distinctly tied to the creation of a new class of global food consumers; at the same time, its growing popularity is spurring the social and economic reorganization of producer communities, according to the release.

Brulotte is Associate Professor of Anthropology and an affiliated faculty member of the Latin American and Iberian Institute at the University of New Mexico. She earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology (2006) and M.A. in Latin American Studies (1999) at the University of Texas at Austin.

Her teaching, research, and scholarship focus on tourism, material culture, critical heritage studies, and the anthropology of food. She has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in Oaxaca, Mexico since 1998 and is currently writing a book about mezcal production in the region, according to the release.

The lecture will be held at the Albuquerque Museum of Art, 2000 Mountain NW. Admission is $15 for AIA Members, $20 for non-members and free admission for students younger than age 26 with ID. To register or for information, visit abqinternational.org.
A roundup of recent expansions, additions, new services and other news from firms across the country.

BRAZIL

Baker Tilly International has added two new firms in Brazil: 4 Partners (which actually has six partners, and 44 professional staff), and Controle (which has three partner,s and 180 professional staff). The two Sao Paulo firms will operate as Baker Tilly Brasil.

CALIFORNIA

Intacct, San Jose, secured an additional $40 million of financing in a new debt facility with Silicon Valley Bank.

CONNECTICUT

BlumShapiro will participate in the 3rd Annual Junior Achievement Career Walk on May 11, giving 30 students from three different West Hartford high schools an opportunity to gain a better understanding of job opportunities in their community. Participants will visit a variety of West Hartford establishments  accounting, banking, finance, marketing, retail, food and beverage and others. The program begins and ends at BlumShapiro.

ILLINOIS

Michael Silver & Co. CPAs has been named one of the 2016 Best Places to Work In Illinois by The Daily Herald Business Ledger, the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, MRA-The Management Association, the Small Business Advocacy Council, the Greater Oak Brook Chamber of Commerce, and Best Companies Group.  Grant Thornton LLP has launched Grant Thornton Fixed Asset Services, which combines the firms tax know-how with Bloomberg BNAs fixed assets cloud-based software platform to provide corporate tax departments with a turnkey solution to reduce the burden of fixed-asset management.

INDIANA

The Indiana CPA Society has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Indiana by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce for the fifth consecutive year, ranking third among small companies.

MICHIGAN

Clayton & McKervey, Detroit, has introduced a new logo and Web site on May 2. The design was created by Perich Advertising + Design.

NEW YORK

Accordion Partners, New York, has launched its Financial Accounting & Advisory Services Group, providing operational accounting, performance improvement and technical accounting support. Rich Medor has joined the company as a managing director to head the new practice group.

PARAGUAY

Abaco Public Accountants, a three-partner firm with 50 professionals in Asuncion, has joined Baker Tilly International.

PENNSYLVANIA

The Tax Accounting Group of Duane Morris LLP is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its creation in 1981 as the firms first ancillary practice. The practice has grown to over 60 service lines in more than 45 industries, serving clients in 48 states and 25 foreign countries.

Send your firm announcements to AcToday@SourceMedia.com.
The decision of a public school in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, to remove a student with aspirations for having a better life for himself and his family all because his father is a tea seller, has attracted a lot of public derision on social media and other platforms.

This decision of the school authorities is being seen as bizarre in a country whose Prime Minister has expressed pride over the fact that he also once sold tea on a railway platform in Gujarat and rose to greater heights by sheer willpower and determination.

Questions are now being asked that if such practices are being encouraged, then how can anyone progress and how can India progress.

As now of now the concerned student, Arihant Jain, is at home, and the matter has reached the office of the District Magistrate of Baghpat, and he has ordered the DIOOS, Baghpat, to conduct an immediate inquiry into the incident related to the Mahavira Academy School in Baghpat Districts Baraut Tehsil and give him a report for further action.

Arihants father, Mangatrai Jain told ANI that he is not a well-educated person, and that he has been supporting his family by selling tea. He said that it was his desire to see his son become a doctor, and described the latter, a student of class five, as a bright and smart child and one who has performed with distinction so far.

Mangatrai Jain asked, The countrys prime minister, Narendra Modi, also sold tea. Does it mean that a child whose father sells tea today does not have the right to study or cannot study? Will a school such as this one be allowed to continue with its authoritarian ways?

Jain further claimed that his son has spent the past two years at home and is mentally depressed. The irony of it all is that the school authorities are refusing to come on camera.

The question uppermost in everyones mind is will action be taken against the school and those who run it? And, will Arihants future be saved and will this policy of children of tea sellers not being allowed to study or attend school end?

Baghpats District Magistrate Hriday Shankar Tiwari said, When the Modi government is trying to raise the literacy rate by facilitating the education of downtrodden, this sort of situation cannot be allowed to prevail or be tolerated.

We will look into this issue again and make sure the student is admitted again in the school. An enquiry has been ordered into the issue to look into why this happened, Tiwari told ANI.

Mangatrai Jain said, I have told the District Magistrate that after this investigation is conducted, if nothing positive comes out of it, I will approach Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. I have asked for her time.
May 6, 2016

As Russia and the United States continue discussions on what a real cease-fire in Syria might look like, Moscow insists that Kurds be included in the Geneva peace talks. The idea, by and large, is shared by the moderate Syrian opposition and Washington, while Ankara understandably opposes the idea.

At the same time, Russia's position on the Kurds is more nuanced than it may seem. In their relations with Kurds, Russian decision-makers face two major narratives that are creating a dilemma.

On the one hand, some Russian analysts and diplomats believe that because of the size of the Kurdish population and the military power Kurds have exercised in Syria and Iraq, at some point there will be some kind of a Kurdish statehood in the region. Those who share this idea note that the Middle East is undergoing a massive transformation. The Kurds are playing a key role in vital battles against the Islamic State (IS) and other extremist groups, and they might use their victories to legitimize their claim for statehood. In other words, this camp believes Moscow should be prepared to address what the Kurds might see as a historic opportunity.

"In some form or other, they will get their statehood  sooner or later," a member of the Russian Presidential Commission on Interethnic Relations told Al-Monitor.

On the other hand, there are more cautious observers, including some in the government, who understand well that a drastic fragmentation of the region would inevitably trigger profound and unpredictable consequences and could backfire on those who sponsor it. Without a doubt, such a development also would deteriorate relations with affected countries  Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Proponents of this idea urge the Kremlin to stick to its advocacy for strong states as guarantors of regional stability. They are positive that Russia should support more delicate arrangements, such as autonomy. That, in their view, would represent an adequate compromise between central governments and the minority groups demanding independence. They say a new vision for the Middle East should involve ample powers for national minorities  not only Kurds, but also Yazidis, Christians, Druzes and others.

In Syria's case, Russia is using a mix of the two approaches. It sees federalization as a way to preserve the unity of the country; however, the problem is persuading Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The Kurds as well as Assad may respectively see federalization as a prologue for their subsequent independence and a virtual partition of the country. Bearing this in mind, Moscow would not end its commitment to Assad's forces, but rather support Kurds in their fight against IS, mainly through Russia's channels with Iraqi Kurds as well as direct air cover. This may be a sign that even if Moscow is not currently promoting federalization publicly, it is ready to embrace the idea fully. By building contacts with both Syrian Kurds and the central government of Syria, Russia is laying out its own foundations for such a change.

The policy pattern is not new for Moscow. In 2007, when Russia opened its Erbil consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan, Russians abstained from a number of lucrative projects to avoid irritating Baghdad. Likewise, when it supplied Iraqi Kurds with arms and ammunition in March, it did so mostly through the central government of Iraq, to show that it was not undermining the state's integrity.

So when the Rojava Self Rule Administration opened its first overseas representative office in Moscow on Feb. 10, it was a sign that Syrian Kurds were seeking to promote at least two causes: Have Moscow support autonomy in Syria under a new constitution, and make sure Russia guarantees preserving their autonomy after the war in Syria ends.

Certainly, Moscow was proud to become the first to host such an institution; similar offices will soon be opened in France, Germany and maybe even the United States. The office, however, was given the legal status of a nongovernmental organization  not a diplomatic mission. Even more tellingly, there were no active-duty Russian government officials, diplomats or even members of political parties present at the opening ceremony. Their absence showed that even though Russia is tempted to exploit this resource, it understands it might echo negatively with Damascus and Ankara, which both expressed rare unanimity in their opposition to Kurdish autonomy in Syria  although each for its own reasons.

At the same time, Russia had its own interests in hosting the office. Two of these interests were self-oriented, including Moscows intent to build ties with the Kurds and its attempt to send a message to Assad that it has other options.

The other two interests had external aims, one of which was to pre-empt the Americans. Washington has long supported Kurds militarily. Yet, the United States was reluctant to move closer to Syrian Kurdish groups, with the US State Department rejecting "self-ruled, semi-autonomous zones inside Syria."

From the Russian perspective Moscow and Washington are not entirely rivals in their military support for the Kurds. Instead, there's a "division of responsibilities"  the Kremlin anticipates a potential political struggle for influence in the future. Thus, having an early edge in its political relations with Kurdish groups was a strategic calculation.

The second external interest had to do with Turkey and was based on three principal considerations:

Moscow saw that Ankara perceived the creation of a Syrian Kurdish autonomy as a dangerous precedent for Kurdish autonomous regions elsewhere, which eventually could unite into a state.

Given the Turkish perception of the Syrian Democratic Forces as an ally of the Kurdistan Workers Party, even a strong autonomy restricted to Syria would aid Kurds in Turkey politically and militarily.

The autonomy would bury Ankara's intent to take control of northern Syria to create a buffer zone between Kurdish enclaves in Syria and in Turkey. Powerful Kurdish groups from both countries have lobbied Moscow about the idea. Because Russian-Turkish relations are at a low point, this represents potentially great leverage for Moscow.

Russia's once-friendly relationship with Turkey is precisely what makes Kurdish groups wonder if Moscow's strong and continuous support for them will last.

"Kurds are concerned whether Russia's alignment with us is temporary. If this is the case, Moscow will forget about us as soon as its relations with Ankara are restored," a leader of the Kurdish diaspora in Russia told Al-Monitor.

Though Moscow has expressed a genuine interest in Kurdish issues, so far it has been cautious in offering actual support. This is driven in part by the Kurds' history of internal conflicts and varying approaches to achieving their goals. And, at times, some groups have expressed less-than-friendly attitudes toward Moscow.

Nevertheless, there's no question that Moscow's vision for the future of the Middle East includes greater representation for the Kurds. Thus, the Geneva process is just the first step in embracing them, with future political engagement to follow, whatever form that might take. But it's evident there will be no cookie-cutter approach in Moscow's policies toward Kurds.
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Captain America: Civil War" opens in theaters May 6, 2016. (Disney)

Marvel Studios -- and by extension Disney -- is not so much in the movie business as it is in the money-printing business with a now 13-film franchise that will soon gross more than $10 billion.

While modern motion pictures are often an assemblage of data points wrapped in a balance sheet and shipped to the public in the hopes of boosting quarterly profits, there can be an occasional moment when a bit of magic shines through the numbers. "Captain America: Civil War" is the formulaic, distilled essence of a Hollywood blockbuster, a film with all the authenticity of a genetically engineered ear of corn or an imitation handbag.

But when Captain America smacks Spider-Man with his shield or when Ant-Man is flying on the tip of a Hawkeye arrow or crawling in Iron Man's suit, none of that processed-food feeling makes one damned bit of difference.

Yes, "Civil War" is the inevitable outcome of 12 prior movies, a decade of comic, film and television synergy and the product of an immeasurably large marketing machine. Yet it is an undeniable achievement and one almighty good time.

Admittedly, parts of the plot feel a bit recycled: Iron Man/Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), feeling the burden of collateral damage in previous Avengers missions, agrees to the Sokovia Accords, a United Nations pact that would govern and supervise the Avengers and their superhero allies. In Stark's view, this is a less bad alternative to disbanding the team altogether, and this less bad theme of freedom versus security has been used in other MCU films. Iron Man and Captain America (Chris Evans) have also come to blows in previous films, and the One True Bad Guy Behind Everything could have been pulled from almost any other movie.

But, again, this movie is more than its borrowed or rehashed parts. The story, which draws both from the "Winter Soldier" and "Civil War" comic storylines, is actually pretty clever in that it gives Captain America personal reasons for his break from the government. In the Marvel "Civil War" comic event, Captain America opposed the Superhuman Registration Act simply because he didn't like the idea of heroes unmasking and submitting to oversight. Here, he still has the same distrust for authority, but he's also looking to protect his friend Bucky Barnes, the Cold War sleeper agent known as the Winter Soldier. Weaving these stories together was far better than a simple retelling of "Civil War," even as perhaps the civil liberty aspect of the debate was lost among everything else in the film.

It certainly wouldn't be an MCU film without some attempt to setup previous installments, and in "Civil War," we get that with the introductions of both Black Panther and Spider-Man. Wakandan King T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is a fine new character in the universe, and his action scenes are pretty good. They'd be great if not for the similarly new presence of Spider-Man, who -- if given another 10 minutes of screen time -- would have stolen the movie completely. Tom Holland is a pitch-perfect teenage incarnation of Spidey, and Marisa Tomei is a particularly inspired choice for this-isn't-your-dad's Aunt May. If you don't catch another superhero movie before 2017, "Spider-Man: Homecoming" will be the one to watch.

Finally, it's probably unfair to directly compare "Civil War" to "Batman v Superman." But since I'm not a particularly fair person and with similar themes and Iron Man's weird Bruce Wayne turn at the end, I'll do it anyway. "Civil War" is energizing and delightful. "BvS" was depressing and continued to plumb the well that ran dry with "The Dark Knight." "Civil War" is like a party with your friends that ends in a fight that you just can't stop watching. "BvS" was like sitting in a doctor's waiting room for hours only for the doc to (finally) come out and poke you in the eye for no good reason.

Huh. Guess they're not that comparable after all.

2016 Superhero Movie Power Rankings:

1. "Captain America: Civil War"

2. "Deadpool"

3. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice"
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While Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has issued or participated in hundreds of decisions during his two terms on the Alabama Supreme Court, he is primarily defined by his stances on two issues - the Ten Commandments and gay marriage.

His refusal to remove the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Supreme Court resulted in his removal from the high court in 2003 and a complaint issued Friday by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission regarding his public stances and orders on same-sex marriage could see him removed from the bench again.

Here is the timeline of events of Moore's career and the two issues that have seemingly defined that career:

Jan. 15, 2001: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is sworn into office with a pledge: "God's law will be publicly acknowledged in our court."

July 31, 2001: Moore installs Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda during the night without telling the eight associate justices, but allowing a Christian television ministry to film it. Moore says, "To restore morality we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs."

Oct. 30, 2001: Lawsuits are filed on behalf of three lawyers seeking removal of the monument from the Alabama Judicial Building. The suits say the monument "constitutes an impermissible endorsement of religion by the state."

Nov. 18, 2002: U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson of Montgomery orders the monument removed for violating the constitution's ban on government establishment of religion. He wrote, "The Ten Commandments monument, viewed alone or in the context of its history, placement, and location, has the primary effect of endorsing religion."

July 1, 2003: Three-judge panel of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejects Moore's appeal. The court visualizes what might happen if Moore's monument were allowed: "Every government building could be topped with a cross, or a menorah, or a statue of Buddha, depending upon the views of the officials with authority over the premises."

Aug. 5, 2003: Thompson gives Moore an Aug. 20 deadline to remove the monument from its public setting in the rotunda, or face the possibility of fines against the state.

Aug. 14, 2003: Moore says he has "no intention" of removing the monument, and lawyers suing to have it moved file a complaint against Moore with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission for defying a federal court order.

Aug. 20, 2003: Moore refuses to move monument by deadline after losing pleas to the U.S. Supreme Court and 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A crowd of monument supporters grows at the building; some are arrested for refusing to leave the monument.

Aug. 21, 2003: Associate Justices of Alabama Supreme Court unanimously overrule Moore and order the monument moved by the building's manager. The eight justices write that they are "bound by solemn oath to follow the law, whether they agree or disagree with it."

Aug. 22, 2003: State Judicial Inquiry Commission charges Moore with violating six canons of ethics for disobeying a federal court order to move the monument. He is suspended with pay pending trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

Aug. 25, 2003: Monument supporters file suit in federal court in Mobile seeking to block the monument's removal. It is filed on behalf of two Alabama residents described as Christians who believe "the United States was founded upon Jesus Christ" and their freedom of religion is being violated.

Aug. 27, 2003: The monument is moved out of the rotunda of the Judicial Building to comply with the federal court order. A federal judge cancels a hearing on the lawsuit filed by monument supporters seeking to block the monument's removal.

Nov. 3, 2003: U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Moore's appeal of court order to remove monument.

Nov. 14, 2003: Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously orders Moore removed from office as chief justice.

June 6, 2006: Moore loses bid for Republican nomination for Alabama governor to incumbent Bob Riley.

June 1, 2010: Moore loses bid for Republican nomination for Alabama governor, this time to Robert Bentley who won in a runoff against another candidate.

Nov. 6, 2012: For second time, Moore is elected to six-year term as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

Jan. 11, 2013: Moore is sworn in as Chief Justice a second time. "We've got to remember that most of what we do in court comes from some scripture or is backed by scripture," Moore says after taking the oath of office.

Jan. 23, 2015: U.S. District Judge Callie V.S. "Ginny" Granade rules Alabama's marriage laws outlawing same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Moore, who has long been publicly critical of same-sex marriage, is critical of Granade's ruling. "For one district judge to overturn the laws of Alabama -- she can't do that ... Federal rules don't allow her to do that," he says.

Jan. 28, 2015: The Southern Poverty Law Center lodges the first of four complaints to the Judicial Inquiry Commission stating that Moore has violated judicial canons of ethics for his public comments on same-sex marriage. The complaint comes after Moore writes Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and says he will stand with the governor "to stop judicial tyranny."

Feb. 3, 2015: Moore writes an advisory letter and memorandum to the state's probate judges saying they are not required to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples despite Granade's ruling.

Feb. 3, 2015: The SPLC files a supplement to its JIC complaint, citing comments Moore made about same-sex marriage on a radio talk show. Moore had responded "that's a very hard decision" when asked what he would do if the U.S. Supreme Court ruled state bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.

March 3, 2015: The Alabama Supreme Court orders probate judges to halt the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses. Roy Moore does not vote on that order.

June 27, 2015: The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 majority opinion, legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

July 29, 2015: The SPLC files another supplement to its JIC complaint, stating that Moore was continuing to violate judicial ethics through numerous speeches suggesting the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage shouldn't be followed.

Jan. 6, 2016: Roy Moore issues an administrative order to state probate judges advising them they "have a ministerial duty not to issue any marriage license contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act" and adding that the orders by the Alabama Supreme Court from March 2015 - before the U.S. Supreme Court's decision - were still in effect.

Jan. 6, 2016: The Southern Poverty Law Center sends its third supplement to its original complaint to the Judicial Inquiry Commission saying that Moore "continues to flout and violate the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics."

April 27, 2016: Roy Moore holds press conference and accuses the Southern Poverty Law Center and groups of "atheists, homosexuals and transgender individuals" of bringing a politically motivated complaint about his administrative order to probate judges not to issue same-sex marriage licenses gay marriage to the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama.

May 6, 2016: The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission issues complaint against Moore. The move suspends Moore from the bench, with pay, while the charges are pending before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. The court of judiciary could remove him from the chief justice job for the second time in his career.

Information in the timeline came from the Associated Press and AL.com archives
A 7-year-girl was stabbed Friday afternoon by an unknown man while in her school's Dayton, Ohio playground, according to reports.

The second-grade student at the World of Wonder School suffered serious injuries in the attack and is being treated at Dayton Children's Hospital, police told the Dayton Daily News.

A group of children were at recess when a trespasser walked into the playground at around 1:30 p.m. and stabbed the girl, according to the report.

The motive behind the stabbing is unclear.

David Lawrence, Dayton Public Schools chief of school innovation, told members of the media that the school is located in a neighborhood that "struggles with crime issues."

There's usually one security guard on duty, but school officials said additional security will be at the school in the days ahead.

Dayton police said the suspect is a black man believed to be 18 to 20 years old with short hair and 5-foot 8 inches to 5-foot 10 inches tall. He remains at large.
For the second time in his career, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore faces charges before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary and potential removal from office.

Until that court hears and rules on those charges, Moore will be suspended with pay from his position atop the state's highest court.

On Friday, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission forwarded charges to the commission, accusing the chief justice of violating judicial ethics in his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Despite a ruling by a federal judge in Mobile making same-sex marriage legal in Alabama last year, and in the face of a United States Supreme Court ruling last year making its legality the law of the land, Moore instructed probate judges throughout Alabama to ignore those higher courts and to refuse to issue licenses to same-sex couples.

Moore's actions led the Southern Poverty Law Center to file complaints with the commission, which acts much in the same way as a grand jury. When it receives a complaint, the commission investigates and decides whether to forward charges to the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

The process remains secret unless charges are made, as happened Friday evening. Unless Moore reaches a settlement, he will be tried before that court.

On Friday evening, SPLC President Richard Cohen said that Moore has disgraced his office and should be removed.

"He is such an egomaniac and such a religious zealot that he thinks he can ignore court orders with impunity," Cohen said. "For the sake of our state, he should be kicked out of office."

This is the second time Moore has faced such charges. In 2003, the Court of the Judiciary removed Moore from office after he installed a washing machine-sized monument of the Ten Commandments in the state judicial building in Montgomery. Moore refused a federal court order to remove the monument, leading to his removal from the state's highest court.

His obstinance this time, though, is worse, Cohen said.

"This time, he has instructed every probate judge in the state to violate a court order," he said.

Reached by phone Friday evening, Moore said he was ready to fight what he called the LGBT agenda.

"The Judicial Inquiry Commission has no authority over the administrative orders of the chief justice of Alabama or the legal injunctions of the Alabama Supreme Court prohibiting probate judges from issuing same-sex marriage licenses," Moore said. "The Judicial Inquiry Commission has chosen to listen to people like Ambrosia Starling, a professed transvestite and other gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, as well as organizations that support their agenda."

While the judicial inquiry commission charges were pending in 2003, the most senior judge took over as chief justice.

This time, the most senior justice is Lyn Stuart, who was first elected to the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000.

According to her online court biography:

Stuart is a native of Atmore, Alabama, attended public schools and graduated from Escambia County High School. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Education from Auburn University with high honor in 1977 and her Juris Doctorate degree from The University of Alabama School of Law in 1980.

She worked as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama under former Attorney General Charles Graddick. She also served as Executive Assistant to the Commissioner and Special Assistant Attorney General for the State Department of Corrections. Upon moving to Baldwin County, she became an Assistant District Attorney for Baldwin County on the staff of District Attorney David Whetstone.

In 1988, she was elected District Judge, and was re-elected in 1994. Former Gov. Fob James appointed Justice Stuart to the Circuit bench in January 1997. She was elected, without opposition, to a six year term in 1998.
Hundreds of migrant domestic workers marched in the Lebanese capital Beirut this week to mark International Workers Day and to denounce their own working conditions. The demonstrators called for the implementation of ILO Convention 189, which stipulates that domestic workers have the right to at least one day off per week and a minimum wage.

Of the 200,000 migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, most work as live-in maids, and they primarily hail from the Philippines, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. They cannot enter or leave the country for any reason without obtaining explicit written permission from their employer, making them vulnerable to exploitation.

Some of the most blatant violations of the rights of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon include excessive working hours, withholding of salaries, beatings and sexual abuse, and withholding of passports to prevent them from leaving. However, the workers are not protected by Lebanese labour laws. Last year, in an effort to improve their situation, migrant domestic workers in Lebanon moved to form their own labour union.
Ibrahim Helal, who is among three reporters sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt, says his case is political.

Former director of news of Al Jazeeras Arabic channel Ibrahim Helal, who is among three journalists sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt, has slammed the verdict against him as politically motivated.

Helal, who was among six in total given the death sentence on Saturday for allegedly leaking state secrets to Qatar, told Al Jazeera that there were inconsistencies in the case and the charges were part of a wider government campaign against press freedoms.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Al Jazeera Network said it received the ruling with shock, agitation and condemnation.

The ruling is unprecedented in the history of journalism in the world; it represents a stab in the back of the profession and freedom of expression worldwide.

The global and Arab journalistic organisation and the international community should not stand silent in the face of the manipulation by [the Egyptian government] of a well-established state institution, namely the judiciary, to intimidate free journalism and threaten journalists lives rather than enforcing justice.

Al Jazeera rejects Egypts allegations that the network was collaborating with former president Mohamed Morsis elected government.

The main inconsistency is that we as journalists are accused of cooperating with the Muslim Brotherhood and the government of Qatar  because the media regime, the media tycoons in Egypt are making propaganda every day that Qatar is a big supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood, Helal said.

READ MORE: Egypt journalists demand dismissal of interior minister

It does not make any sense that the Muslim Brotherhood and Qatar needed me to mediate between them.

No right to appeal

He also explained that he has no right to appeal the verdict, but expressed hope that he would be cleared of the charges in the future.

As a person who was sentenced to death in absentia, I do not have any right to appeal or be represented legally  I do not believe that anything legal can help because the legal course has been hijacked politically for the last three years.

But I have never been in any political organisation, I have never done any harm to my country, and I believe that will be cleared one day.

Another Al Jazeera journalist, also tried in absentia, is Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan.

Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, identified as a reporter with the pro-Brotherhood Rassd news outlet, was also sentenced to death in absentia.

The case of Morsi, who is also charged for espionage for Qatar, was however, adjourned.

The judgment will either be approved or reduced in June after consultations with Egypts mufti, the highest Sunni religious leader in the country. The court may or may not consider the muftis feedback.

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is not binding but is usually respected by courts.

Morsi has already been sentenced to life and 20 years in prison in three separate trials.

Overthrown in 2013

Muslim Brotherhood-backed Morsi was overthrown by the military in July 2013 after mass protests a year after he took office as the first democratically elected leader.

Senior leaders in the Muslim Brotherhood and their followers have been sentenced to death in different cases since military leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi overthrew Morsis government.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which has since been banned, has dismissed the sentences and other harsh verdicts as politically motivated.

The Egyptian government has repeatedly said that the countrys courts operate independently.

I believe that this is a weak point in the Egyptian system, which might bring catastrophes to the whole country , especially when it comes to freedoms and human rights, Al Jazeeras Middle East Analyst Yahia Ghanem said on the judgment.
Survivors tell Al Jazeera they have no place to go to, as a ceasefire due to end on Saturday was extended by 72 hours.

Condemnation has mounted over deadly air strikes on a camp for displaced people in northern Syrias Idlib, as a ceasefire that was due to end on Saturday was extended by 72 hours.

Women and children were reported to be among 30 killed in Thursdays raids near the Turkish border, which also wounded more than 50 others.

I came out and I saw my son bleeding in his abdomen and his shoulder, and I couldnt find my daughter and her children and then I found her dead. Praise be to God, Um Mohamed, a survivor, told Al Jazeera.

I have only this girl left, she is 11 years old.

Another survivor told Al Jazeera that there was no safe place for refugees.

Where are we supposed to go? Tell me a safe place I can go to. Death is the same, if it is here or back home we all die the same, Mostafa said.

A video posted online showed emergency workers covering charred victims with blankets and carrying them away.





In pictures: Death rains down on Syria as ceasefire wobbles

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nation secretary-general, said that he was outraged by the attack and demanded those responsible must face justice.

The Syrian regime and its Russian ally, which have carried out intense air strikes in Aleppo and surrounding areas in the past few weeks, denied involvement in the deadly attack.

A tenuous ceasefire has been in place since February brokered by Russia and the United States, but Damascus has continued to bomb rebel-controlled areas in Aleppo that was not part of the deal. Nearly 300 people have been killed in the recent upsurge of violence.

Opposition activists say the camp was targeted by two air strikes. But the Syrian military said on Friday that it did not target the camp, state news agency SANA reported.

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen OBrien, also called for an immediate, impartial and independent investigation into the air strikes.





All parties to this appalling conflict should understand that they will one day be held accountable for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

The strikes in Idlib province, which is controlled by al-Nusra Front and rebel allies, came as a 48-hour ceasefire took hold in Aleppo to the east.

That truce was due to end early on Saturday, but Moscow and Washington announced that it would be extended by 72 hours.

Elsewhere in Syria, in Hama province, regime forces launched an assault against a prison in the central city of Hama aimed at ending a mutiny, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

The mutiny began on Monday after an attempt to transfer inmates to the military-run Saydnaya prison near Damascus.

Human Rights Watch said it had received WhatsApp messages from inmates saying that security forces were attempting to storm their prison block, using tear gas and rubber bullets.

It said the assault raises major concerns about possible excessive use of force.

The Aleppo halt in fighting is part of international efforts to revive the February ceasefire and galvanise peace talks to end a five-year war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.
Three siblings were burned alive after their home was set ablaze by candles the family used due to electricity crisis.

Palestinian political factions have traded accusations of blame over three siblings who were burned alive after their home was set ablaze by candles the family was using due to the ongoing electricity crisis in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Officials in the Gaza-based Hamas movement and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority have traded barbs over the deaths, with each accusing the other of bearing the responsibility.





More than 600 Palestinians came out on Saturday for the funeral of the three children, whose home was engulfed in flames a day earlier in the al-Shati refugee camp in the north of the coastal enclave.

With leaders of the Hamas political organisation and local armed factions in attendance, the mourners decried the deaths of Rahaf, Yousra and Nasser al-Hendi, who were between one and four years old.

Mohammed al-Hendi, 30, their father, recalled his last day with his children.

We were at the beach and came home to find there was no electricity again, he told Al Jazeera at the funeral. They were sleeping, and I went out to bring dinner. When I came home, they told me my children were burned alive.

Dozens of relatives and neighbours came to the Hendi familys charred home in al-Shati after the funeral to express their condolences.

Standing in the blackened remains of the half-collapsed home, their grandmother Umm Fadi sobbed heavily as she recollected the last time she saw the children at her home a day before they died.

They were so happy because we bought them clothes for Ramadan, and I cooked for them, she told Al Jazeera.

Then they were burned to death in those clothes.

Tragedy

With the assistance of Egypt, Israel has imposed a tight siege on Gaza since Hamas took control of the region in 2007. The blockade severely restricts residents access to electricity, fuel, medicine, food and humanitarian goods.

Since late 2009, Israel has launched three major military offensives in Gaza, leaving much of the region in ruins.

The whole world is aware of the suffering of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority is the one who is responsible for this, said Hamas member Ehab al-Badrasawi in an interview with Al Jazeera at the Hendi family home.

Many Gaza residents blame the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority for the Blue Tax, a tariff which significantly increased the price of fuel that makes operations possible for Gazas sole power plant. In April, the authority announced a summer-long exemption from the tax.

Despite grants from the Qatari government, internal Palestinian political divisions and Israels ongoing siege of the strip have rendered any solution to the electricity crisis unlikely.

PA complicity

In March, PA President Mahmoud Abbas spiked a proposal to build additional electricity lines to support Gaza, where power cuts have extend to 18 to 20 hours a day in some districts.

Alluding to Israeli air strikes in Gaza in recent days, Hamas senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday that the PA is complicit in the electricity crisis due to the latters cooperation with Israel.

The enemys planes burn the land and the homes, and the crippling siege and its accomplices burn our children  and the lights of our future, Haniyeh said.

Who has been taking $70m a month in taxes from Gaza? Who has been collecting fuel taxes? Who refused to enlarge the power supply from Egypt to the Gaza Strip and refused to build a pipeline to provide Gazas power station with gas to increase its capacity?

President Abbas telephoned the grieving family on Saturday to express his condolences, and the PA has offered to rebuild the Hendi familys home, according to local media reports.

In a statement released on Saturday, PA spokesman Yousef Mahmoud decried Hamas for false accusations, insisting that the deaths were a tragedy for the whole Palestinian people.

The PAs press office did not respond to Al Jazeeras requests to comment further.

Rage and anger

Talal Abu Zareefa, a representative of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestines political bureau, called on the international community to press Israel to end its siege of the strip and demanded that Palestinian factions unite to solve Gazas many humanitarian crises.

The world should apply the necessary pressure on the Israeli occupation to lift the siege of Gaza and let the Palestinian people live like any other nation in the world, he told Al Jazeera at the Hendi home.

Mukhaimer Abu Saada, a political analyst and professor at Gazas Al Azhar University, explained that the tragic incident highlights the ongoing political divides between Hamas and the PA, but it is not a new type of incident in Gaza.

The mood among Palestinians in Gaza is rage and anger at both the Hamas movement and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah, he told Al Jazeera.

But Palestinians are also very angry at Hamas because they have been here nine years without being able to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians here in their daily lives, Abu Saada said.

The house is being rebuilt, but there is no solution for the two million Palestinians in Gaza in the foreseeable future.

Back in al-Shati, grieving father Mohammed al-Hendi said: The world should come to Gaza and see how we are living. Look at what is happening to the people of Gaza; see our situation here.

Ezz Zanoun reported from the Gaza Strip: @EzzPress

Follow Patrick Strickland on Twitter: @P_Strickland_
Pentagon says the deployment aims at assisting Arab coalition fight al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula.

The Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time that it has deployed troops to Yemen more than a year after pulling out following military intervention by the Arab-led coalition.

The security void created after more than a year of war between loyalists of exiled government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the Shia Houthi rebels has been exploited by the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said on Friday that the United States military had also stepped up air strikes against AQAP fighters in the war-torn country.

A very small number of American military personnel has been working from a fixed location with Yemeni and Arab coalition forces  especially the Emiratis  in recent weeks around Mukalla, a port city seized by AQAP a year ago, Davis said.

This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organisation in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that, the spokesman added.

He said the troops were helping the Emiratis with intelligence support, but declined to say if they are special operations forces.

AQAP fighters have now fled Mukalla and other coastal areas, due to the government offensive.

The US is also offering an array of assistance to partners in Yemen, including air-to-air refuelling capabilities, surveillance, planning, maritime security and medical help.



String of attacks

The Pentagon previously had more than 100 special operations forces advising the army in Yemen, but pulled them out early last year as the country collapsed.

The US Navy also has several ships nearby, including an amphibious assault ship called the USS Boxer and two destroyers.

AQAP took advantage of the chaos of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels to expand its control in southern Yemen, including the seizure of Mukalla.

The Pentagon announced it has carried out a recent string of strikes on AQAP in recent weeks, outside of Mukalla.

We have conducted four counterterrorism strikes against AQAP since April 23, killing 10 Al-Qaeda operatives and injuring another, Davis said.

The US periodically targets AQAP in Yemen, including a strike in March on a training camp that killed more than 70 fighters.

The group claimed responsibility for last years attack in Paris on the staff of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, and has been linked to more than one attempt to blow up aircraft bound for the US.

The Yemen conflict has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
Reports by pollster YouGov said 62 percent had no Muslims in their private friendship and family circles.

The majority of Germans have limited contact with Muslims and know very little about their religion, according to a new poll.

According to the survey drawn up for dpa news agency by pollsters YouGov, 62 percent of non-Muslim respondents said there were no Muslims in their private circle of friends and family.

The surveys release on Friday followed the political tensions unleashed in the country after about 1 million mainly Muslim refugees entered the nation last year, fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East.

Its about 60 years since migrants from Turkey began arriving in Germany to help fill the acute gaps in the nations workforce resulting from the countrys so-called economic miracle after World War II, with about 4 million Muslims now living in the nation.

The countrys right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been making big gains in a series of recent elections, has now adopted an anti-Islam stance as part of its new manifesto.

In addition to declaring that Islam does not belong in Germany, the AfDs platform called for a ban on minarets.

In the meantime, support for Chancellor Angela Merkels conservative Christian Democrat-led political bloc has slumped since the mass influx of refugees began eight months ago as many of its voters have switched to the AfD.

The AfDs new manifesto and its concerns about Islam sparked widespread condemnation from political and religious leaders.

Islam part of Germany

But in an interview on Thursday with the daily Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung, Volker Kauder, a key Merkel ally, said while Muslims were part of German life, Islam had not shaped Germany historically and culturally.

But just so there is no misunderstanding: The Muslims themselves are a part of Germany, there is no question about it, said Kauder, who heads the parliamentary group of the Christian Democrats and their Bavarian-based allies, the Christian Social Union.

While insisting that freedom of religion was enshrined in the nations constitution, Kauder said that Islam also took on forms that we can never accept in Germany.

Still, the YouGov results showed there was much more contact between younger Germans than the older generation with about half those surveyed aged between 18 and 24 saying Muslims were among the people they knew.

But 52 percent of non-Muslim Germans told YouGov they had little knowledge of Islam with every fifth person surveyed saying they knew nothing about the religion.

At the same time, however, 68 percent of Muslims described their knowledge of Christianity was good or very good.
Revolutionary guards lose 13 soldiers with 21 wounded after clashes in Khan Touman just south of Aleppo.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards have lost 13 troops in Syria in recent days with 21 others wounded, Iranian media reported .

It was Irans biggest loss of forces within such a short time, based on official figures.

The names of those killed and when their remains will be repatriated will be announced later, the Guards said on Saturday.

All were from Irans northern province of Mazandaran, Hossein Ali Rezayi, a Guards spokesman in the region, told the ISNA and Fars news agencies.

The deaths and injuries occurred in Khan Touman village just south of the city of Aleppo, the official IRNA news agency reported a Guards statement as saying.

Pro-government troops had driven rebels out of Khan Touman in December, but on Friday rebels led by the al-Nusra Front captured the strategic village.

Around 30 pro-regime troops were killed in the battle said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Iran is Syrias main regional ally, sending financial and military aid, including military advisers and volunteer forces from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, to prop up President Bashar al-Assads regime.

Dozens of Iranian advisers have been killed in Syria since late 2015, including Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Saturdays news came as Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met Assad in Damascus and assured him of Tehrans support.
Right-wing gathering far outnumbered by two protests against xenophobia and racism in German capital.

Thousands of protesters gathered in the centre of Germanys capital Berlin to counter an anti-immigration demonstration.

The right-wing gathering was far outnumbered by the two counter demonstrations against xenophobia and racism.

Police estimated that around 7,000 people had turned out for the counter rallies.

The right-wing gathering, under the motto Merkel has to go, was attended by only 1,000 people, after organisers had registered 5,000.

About 1,700 police were out on the streets.

READ MORE: Germany fears far-right radicalisation over refugees

So far everything has been peaceful, police spokesman Wilfried Wenzel said. By the late afternoon there had not been any arrests.

However, there had been several minor clashes between different groups of protesters.

A counter-demonstration For Solidarity in Berlin by an anti-Nazi group was attended by around 4,500 people holding banners and placards saying Refugees welcome and Against racism and rightist violence.

A Walk for Openness and Tolerance of the Protestant Church was attended by another 2,400 people.
Rain of up to six times the monthly average is soaking parts of Australia.

A cloud band over Australia, more than 3,000km long, has brought rain from the Kimberley in Western Australia, to Adelaide in South Australia.

After the driest wet season in 11 years, the Kimberley is currently being saturated with heavy rainfall welcomed in lowland cattle stations, but a flash-flood risk in the mountain gorges.

Its quite likely that every state in Australia will receive some rain from this system, even the desert outback west of Queensland. The air mass is tropical in origin so contains a lot of moisture which is producing a lot of rain.

Western Australia has recorded the most rain so far; Mandora in the southwest Kimberley, has posted a 24 hour total of 134mm. This is nearly six times the may average.

In the 24 hours to 9am local time on Saturday morning, West Roebuck, near Broome, recorded 67mm of rain. Thats more than six times the average for the entire month of May in just one day. Even Telfer, a remote mining town in the Great Sandy Desert, boasted 70mm of rain. That represents four times the May norm.

It started raining on the sandstone monolith of Uluru, on Thursday morning. The nearby town of Yulara has racked up a total of 59mm. May is the second wettest month in this part of Australia but even so, this is twice the monthly average.

Before the system clears, it has the potential to deposit anything up to 100mm of rain over South Australia and the outback of Queensland and New South Wales.
In Lebanon, many Syrians who fled the war simply want to return home, and have little interest in resettlement.

Beirut, Lebanon  Caught between a civil war and Europe, which does not seem to want them, Syrian refugees in Lebanon are struggling to find a place to call home.

Among them are Asim and Zeinab, who have been married for 20 years and are the parents of two children. (Their names have been changed to protect their security.) Before the war, they owned land in their hometown of Talkalakh, and worked in construction and tending olive trees.

Now, they live in an informal tent settlement in northern Lebanon, and own nothing.

We used to celebrate every occasion. We used to fast during Ramadan and buy clothes and toys for our children. But we stopped celebrating anything. We stopped fasting, because of bad living conditions and lack of income. We dont feel joy any more, Zeinab, 40, told Al Jazeera.

In May 2011, the Syrian army raided their hometown. With their two-month-old son, Fahim, and 13-year-old daughter, Rama, Zeinab and Asim fled over the al-Kabir River into Lebanon.

Asim and Zeinab are two of the more than one million Syrians who have registered as refugees in Lebanon since the Syrian civil war began. A total of 1.5 million Syrians are estimated to be living in Lebanon, including those who are not registered refugees.

READ MORE: Syrian refugees in Lebanon live in fear of deportation

Despite their growing frustration and depression, Asim and Zeinab have ruled out attempting to be resettled in Europe.

We would not consider the option [of going to Europe]. I prefer to eat a piece of bread with salt here  close to my country, rather than die abroad, where no one knows me, said Asim.

He walks every day to a nearby hill, from where he can see the roof of his home in Talkalakh. He hopes that eventually, the time will come when he can take his family back to Syria.

Salwa, a 52-year-old widowed mother of 13 who is renting a home in northern Lebanon, feels similarly. My dream is to go back to Syria to rebuild decent graves for my children and to see my family reunited, said Salwa, who is from the village of al-Zara, near Homs.

Her daughter Ramia died when shells hit their house in the spring of 2014. Just two months later, her sons Youssef and Mahmoud were killed during clashes between rebels and the Syrian army near the Krak des Chevaliers, a 12th-century Crusader castle.

My boys did not deserve to die. We never thought that one day we would be living in garages in Lebanon. We feel humiliated, said Salwa. But I never thought of going to Europe. How could I abandon my family and go to an unknown place? I dont want to go anywhere except to my country, as I have God and my children as priorities in my life.

Salwa used to run a successful shoe shop, but today she is struggling to make ends meet, and often has no money to buy basic products like milk or bread.

Every refugee I talked to said that they would like to go back to Syria, said Dana Sleiman, spokeswoman in Lebanon for UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency. In the ideal world, refugees want to go back to Syria as soon as they can. They wish to stay here [in Lebanon] not because they like it, but because they are close to home.

We never thought that one day we would be living in garages in Lebanon. We feel humiliated. But I never thought of going to Europe. How could I abandon my family and go to an unknown place? by Salwa, a Syrian refugee living in Lebanon

But, Sleiman added, resettlement to Europe could be the only chance for the most impoverished Syrian refugees to secure a better future for their children. The percentage of Syrian refugees in Lebanon living under the poverty line  approximately $3.84 a day  drastically increased from 49 percent in 2014 to more than 70 percent in 2015.

Single mothers and people with specific healthcare needs are prioritised for resettlement. Sleiman explained that UNHCR officers will analyse the database of registered refugees and contact those whom they believe meet these criteria.

Yet it is unlikely that more than a small percentage of Syrian refugees will be resettled.

Resettlement is definitely a good option. However, [it is] available only for a limited number of Syrians, while the vast majority will stay in Lebanon waiting for the war to end, said Hala El-Helou, adviser to the Ministry of Social Affairs in Lebanon.

READ MORE: Lebanon  No formal refugee camps for Syrians

The Lebanese government, along with experts and humanitarian agencies, has warned the international community not to lose sight of the Syrians who will stay in Lebanon and will need more humanitarian assistance.

Helou admitted that Lebanon was not prepared to host 1.5 million Syrians, and does not have a long-term plan to deal with the spike in its population. Lebanon does not have job opportunities for Syrians, [nor] for Lebanese, Helou said. The presence of refugees is not the only crisis Lebanon is facing.

The solution for Lebanon, Helou believes, must be in finding a peaceful solution inside Syria  and then attracting international investment to Lebanon, to generate job opportunities for both Lebanese and Syrians.

Sami Atallah, executive director at the Lebanese Centre for Policy Studies, said: The key is to be proactive in creating jobs [in Lebanon], reducing the cost of such services as electricity or water. This requires serious efforts going beyond humanitarian assistance.

In Syria I worked as a mechanic, but would you think of repairing your car when a war breaks out? Everything was suspended. People were dying every day, recalled Mahmoud, 52, who escaped the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs after clashes between rebels and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad erupted in October 2011.

As a father of 11 children, Mahmoud was determined to create stable living conditions for his family upon their arrival to the village of Aidamoun in northern Lebanon.

When we came, we did not have anything to start a new garage. I used to borrow screwdrivers from my clients to work on their cars. The Polish aid agency PCPM provided us with cash for rent, so I was able to invest half of my income to buy necessary tools, Mahmoud told Al Jazeera.

Wojtek Wilk , the chief executive of PCPM, explained that direct financial assistance allows refugees to set up new businesses or find other types of employment. PCPM extends its cash-for-rent programme also to Syrian refugee families with men unable to find decent employment in Lebanon, because we know that if a man is unable to sustain his family, he might be pushed by the extreme poverty to go back to Syria and join one of the armed groups to get any income, Wilk told Al Jazeera.

We want to prevent it. If this person is a refugee in Lebanon, we want this person to stay in relative safety in Lebanon until they can return to Syria, Wilk added. Since 2012, PCPM has assisted 17,000 Syrian refugees in northern Lebanon with funding from the Polish foreign affairs ministry.

In Wilks opinion, Mahmouds family is a positive example, because they were able to become financially stable.

Its true that we are living in good conditions, better than other refugees, Mahmoud said. But we are not lying down, or smoking cigarettes and shisha, waiting for the money to arrive. We are sleeping under the car and working hard for our earnings.

Despite Mahmouds success, he does not consider Lebanon his new home. I am not as happy as if I was in Syria. I wish I could go back. We would go even today, on foot, if only it was safe.
We look at the why diamond sales slumped in 2015. Plus, Nigerias property investors cashing in on Boko Harams retreat.

As the saying goes, diamonds are forever, yet with rising production costs and shrinking demand from China  the second largest diamond market after the United States  the industry is in the rough.

More than 130 million carats or 26,000kg of diamonds are produced each year. Globally, there are natural diamond reserves  more than 600m carats  to guarantee another four years of production, with Australia, Russia, DR Congo and Botswana being the worlds biggest producers.

Last year, the blue moon diamond sold for a staggering $48.8m  a record for diamond sales. Despite this, 2015 was a bad year for sales with rough diamond inventory clogging up production pipelines.

We speak to Stephen Lussier, chief executive of De Beers retail arm Forevermark about why 2015 was a poor year for sales, how weaker global economic growth affects the demand for luxury consumer goods  diamonds are mostly sold as jewellery  and how diamonds are getting rarer as the global supply dries up.

We also hear from Alain Vandenborre, founder of the Singapore Diamond Investment Exchange about the culture of trading diamonds  largely localised, manual and opaque  and an initiative to bring transparency to trading.

Also on this episode of Counting the Cost:

Thailands modern-day gold rush: Although Thailand currently only has one operational gold mine, the country has the reserves for more to come. Thailands sole mine is profitable with over $2.2bn worth of gold being poured in the past 15 years. But this mine is an important test for future operations with people saying the mining activities are poisoning their communities, and campaigning for the government not to renew the mines licence when it runs out on May 13.

Turkish Airlines flies high: Turkish Airlines has become a global contender within the commercial aviation industry: In 2015, it reported a record profit of $1.7bn; in the first quarter of this year it flew 14.2 million passengers  thats a 10 percent increase for the same period last year; and it now flies to 285 places, making the carrier the fourth largest in the world by number of destinations. We speak to Temel Kotil, chief executive of Turkish Airlines, about its goals, how passengers have grown by 30 percent annually in the past decade, and the importance of an airline to a countrys growth.

Nigerias property boom: Property investors in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri are benefiting from a rise in real estate prices following the retreat of Boko Haram fighters. Many of those now profiting bought houses at cheap prices from residents escaping the fighting. We visit one street where at the height of the crisis people sold their land for $1,000; that land now costs as much as 10 times that. Returnees are struggling to house themselves, with new owners refusing to sell back property at even double the price.
Labours Khan became the first Muslim mayor of London comfortably beating his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith.

Voters in London have made history by electing the Labour partys Sadiq Khan as their mayor, giving him the largest political mandate in British history with more than 1.3m votes.

The son of a bus driver who emigrated from Pakistan became the first Muslim mayor of a Western capital after a bruising and hard-fought campaign.

His Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith was criticised for attempting to link Khan to Muslim extremists, a move condemned by many within his own party.

But given Khans margin of victory, voters seem to have rejected the negative campaigning.

Khan has now promised to be a mayor for all Londoners but will his victory set an example for the rest of Europe?

Presenter: Laura Kyle

Guests:

Anita Vasisht  Immigration Lawyer, who filed a complaint to police about the Conservative Mayoral Campaign.

Talha Ahmad  Spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain.

Joe Twyman  Head of Political Research for Europe at YouGov.
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Day By Day, Night After NightCraig Hopkins424 PagesISBN: 978-0-9654927-2-0Self Published2008Blues/rock guitaristhad "IT."What this is has little directly to do with his tone, monster technique, clothing choices or even stage presence. This "IT" has everything to do with the fact he played with the same intensity in front of five people as five thousand people. He knew he had a physical gift (huge, strong hands and forearms), but, more importantly, he knew he had the gift of direct communication from his soul to that of each individual listener through his music, and that this was a spiritual thing. He gave it his all, his entire being, every note, every night.Vaughan almost single-handedly revived the blues in the '80s, bringing it to a new generation who could now appreciate the deep emotional power of this seemingly simple music.Author Craig Hopkins has spent almost twenty years collecting every scrap of information, including tour lists and set lists, about Vaughan that he could find and verify about his life and works, almost day by day. Hopkins himself asks about the book, "Is it a biography? A chronicle? A 10,000 piece puzzle? A doorstop?," and his greatest strength as an author is that he is hardly there. Most of the actual words are quotes from personal interviews with those who grew up with, played with, lived with and loved Vaughan, arranged chronologically. When needed, Hopkins provides connecting thread to keep the story moving.The result is that in Stevie Ray Vaughan: Day By Day, Night After Night, Vaughan the guitar god is made into a three dimensional living, breathing, crying and introspective human being, with his early years being particularly strong. "Early" here means before the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, booed 1982 Montreux Jazz Festival, Texas Flood explosion which vaulted Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble onto the world stage, seemingly out of nowhere.As this wonderful 400+ glossy page, 8 1/2" x 11" book unfolds, the shy, scrawny kid, who only wanted to keep up with and hang with his older guitar-playing brother,, latched onto the guitar, and devoted himself one-hundred-percent to mastering the instrument and getting inside the music and playing styles of his idols, which included, andIt is very tempting to re-tell the story here, but suffice it to say that the end result of reading this book is to watch a video of Stevie Ray Vaughan performing and to be able to see the young kid inside the grown man who is playing his heart out. For two late examples of his no-holds-barred style, see these two clips from the 1989 Presidential Inauguration Concert: with Albert Collins playing "Frosty" and a blistering rendition of his theme song, Texas Flood , complete with a string break. He is clean, happy to be alive and "flooring it."At Vaughan's last gig, the Alpine Valley Music Theater Festival,says it all about Vaughan's set which immediately preceded his own:"[It was] beyond anything I could even describe. I think the best way to describe it was to have been in my shoes in the dressing room watching the monitorI could sit in my dressing room with the door open and hear him from the stage and see him on the TVknowing I had to go out later and play. And what was happening was, I was actually so bowled over and so in love with this guy that was playing on stage from the heart completely, you know, that I started to feel ashamed of what I was going to do. 'Cause I was gonna go out there and do Cream songs and do different kinds of music and here was one guy playing one kind of music in one kind of way, and it made me feel, 'Are you ever gonna be like this?' That's the way I felt: 'Are you ever gonna get topoint, the point you are watching right now?.'"Visit Hopkins' site for everything Stevie and information about this historically important book.
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Its the talk among some pundits that conservatism is dead, after political hodgepodge Donald Trump presumptively won the nomination of the Republican Party.

Not so fast.

It is also fashionable nowadays to claim we need to stop wistfully harking back to Reagan. Maybe thats partly true. Culture has changed for the worse since then. But he did manage to build huge coalitions, and they win elections. Success still speaks volumes today.

To start, lets define conservatism basically as he did: (1) fiscal discipline, free enterprise, constitutionally limited government, and low taxes (economics and freedom); (2) moral standards (social); (3) and peace through strength (defense).

The need for these fundamentals is too great to conclude conservatism is dead.

What we need, however, are the right people to speak about it in the national media and implement it through legislation in the government.

First we need to get our bearings about our spokespersons.

1. Where are you on the right side of the political spectrum?

Lets start with you and me and Reagan. Are you a moderate-centrist? A plain conservative? Or hard-core?

Reagan, a plain conservative (as am I), resisted conservatives on his right flank whom he labels in his autobiography: Right wingers (p. 153); radical (p. 171); diehards (p. 206); hard core (p. 322); and ultra pure (p. 322).

Lets wrap them up into one term: turbo-conservatives.

People get this spectrum confused, and I believe this confusion is the source of the problem. Its a sad fact that so many people (not all, by any means) who have access to the national media, particularly the radio mics, are actually turbo-conservatives, while they thunder. Im a Reagan conservative!

No, its their brand of conservatism that is so ugly and repulsive. He would distance himself from them.

To quote Trump, Youre fired!

How do we change this bad image (moving beyond my fantasy of firing about 75% of them)?

2. Conservatism is (or should be) all about people.

Do you sneer at compassionate conservatism? Dont. We need it.

In the church culture where I have spent my adult life, a would-be leader needs to spend time with people before they take him seriously. If a hot-shot seminarian comes around spouting Bible verses, we dont pay much attention to him until and unless he is willing to work in the Compassion Ministry and ladle out soup in the kitchen, distribute food in the park where the homeless hang out, and teach Bible studies to the unsophisticated.

The old slogan is true: people dont care how much you know until they know how much you care.

Said more relevantly to this post: people dont care about how many arguments for conservatism or constitutionalism you make until they know how much you care for them.

Challenge: Have the national TV and radio pundits and politicians spent time literally ladling out soup in the Food Bank -- even once in their life, not to mention once a month? Have they distributed food to the homeless in the park? (I dont mean contribute money to charity only. Please do.) Have they done the nitty-gritty, dirty work without the national spotlight during the campaign? Or are they too busy strutting around like prima donnas and knocking people over to get in front of the camera?

While governor, Reagan actually showed up in person -- in the barrios in East Los Angeles and into black neighborhoods and listened to them.

Turbo-conservatives wouldnt dream of doing such things. Instead they thunder against populism!

Well, if populism = caring for ordinary people, then turbo-conservatives, both politicians and national pundits, should embrace it.

One criticism against Romney is that he was perceived (wrongly) not to care about ordinary people, while voters believed (also wrongly) that Obama cared about them. Obama won.

Its no good to say, I care! A politician or national pundit must actually show it and send out the vibe that he really does.

In todays campaign Trump is always using American superlatives (were good at that), if not grammatically, then in spirit, to build people up. The wonderful people of Indiana! I am sooo grateful! Theyre great, great people! It feels genuine.

And he relates to people: Hillary talks about the West Virginia coal miners as if theyre not real people. Well, they are! She wants to shut down their industry! I promise to get it back! Were going to win again! Uplifting. Hopeful.

His vocabulary is limited, but then so are ordinary peoples vocabulary. Cruz went around telling his small campaign audiences how hes the only conservative in the race. That was true, but making the case for conservative values was too abstract.

A recent book says politicians need to do retail politics in certain sections of swing states, if conservatism has any chance of succeeding in winning elections. True. But caring for people needs to be a way of life; it needs to get down into ones soul.

With Trumps caring vibe manifesting in populism, he just might defeat aloof, self-regal Hillary in November.

Formula: sincerely caring for humans = winning elections.

3. Incremental decrease in the scope and reach of government is the only way to succeed.

Reagan writes in his autobiography: I never thought we could cut costs so fast that wed balance the budget overnight. I knew it would take time. There were too many programs that people based their lives and businesses on; you couldnt pull the rug out from under all of them at once (p. 335).

Too many government programs on which people built their lives. Amazing. He wanted to trim them, but he had to do it gradually. A sharp contrast with todays turbo-conservatives. They have gleefully shut down the government, just on purity of principle alone.

It is a true criticism that Trump doesnt understand the national debt and the need for entitlement reform. But at least people are reassured that he wont pull the rug out from under them -- certainly not Social Security and Medicare (note the word care in Medicare). Irresponsible of him? Perhaps, but he may come around in his first term (if he wins) and conclude entitlements need incremental reform.

4. Winsome, attractive, friendly conservatives must represent conservatism.

In addition to the caring message, heres what we need in the future from politicians who represent conservatism:

They are secure and comfortable in their own skin (Trump has this in spades);

They have lots of charisma, a nice smile; the it factor; not angry, but uplifting and hopeful (Reagan);

Theyre intelligent, but not necessarily intellectual; theyre very effective speakers, without abstractions and big words (Trump has the small, concrete vocabulary down pat);

They think quick on their feet, before talk shows, debates, interviews, and town halls; not a lot of verbal gaffes (Cruz and Rubio were very articulate);

They reach out to centrists and build a Big Tent (Trump might be able to do this); they dont needlessly offend voters (Trump might lose because of this).

They have great soulstitanic stature (Reagan again).

We wont get all of these attributes in one person, but some would be enough.

Lets wrap it up.

So far Trump is not the nominee to represent conservatism. We will have to wait four more years (if he wins).

Conservatism today, however we repackage it, is not dead. It can be appealing, if we get the right conservativesthe peopleto represent it.

James Arlandsons website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Reagans balanced and reasonable politics, Gov. Reagans Secret Missions (his outreach to minorities) and What New Conservatives believe Part One and Part Two.
If you are so disgusted with the outcome of this years primary campaign that you just want to stay home in November, think about what Allen West has to say about that. The downballot races are now even more important, to add some direction and counsel for the next president, Trump, if he beats Hillary. If Hillary wins, then we will need a determined opposition to slow her down in a different way than the current Congress thinks is appropriate to do.

Meanwhile, this should be a good time to talk about what might be done differently in the future.

Some people have already started proposing changes in the process, like all states being required to hold primaries with proportional outcomes based on vote totals. The problem here is that we do not have national elections. Instead, we have 50 individual state elections. The Constitution recognized this, that each state will decide how its elections will be conducted, not the federal government, not the political parties. Fifty states would have to independently agree to make the requested change or the Constitution would have to be amended. That would be a tough one to pull off.

Who likes open primaries? Ive never understood the justification for them, that it shows the particular party is open to all? Really? If someone isnt committed enough to register as a member of the party, what do you lose by not letting them vote in your primary? The next thing you know, just anyone could run for office as a party member.

Registering with a party is usually, but not always, easier than acquiring voter ID, so its time for that practice to be stopped. Crossing party lines to vote in the other partys primary so you can help determine who your own favorite party will have as an opposing candidate is an old practice, so there must be some reason for doing it. Closed primaries will lend some integrity to a party process that is badly lacking in it.

With the states having control over their own primaries, whos going to make them all take place on the same day? Iowa and New Hampshire will never go for that idea. They get too much attention by being early, attention that they dont get at any other time, not to mention the economic benefit of so many visitors spending money in those states for endless months. The media would complain, too, that it couldnt adequately cover all of the states at once.

What would be the advantage of the primaries all occurring on the same day? Im not sure that getting it all over with quickly is a good idea. The long primary campaign is a sort of trial by combat for candidates who say they want to be president for the next 4/8 years. That makes a short primary period good for showhorses. We have to do better. Voters also need time to learn about the candidates, more than they can ever do in a short campaign. Just think about some of the early media favorites who fell by the wayside in time: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Rudy Giuliani. Shorten the primary period and the media will decide who is our candidate for us.

We need time for multiple debates and time to think about them. We also need to end the headline-driven debacle that we all now endure. Who benefits more from this other than the media?

In the current debates, the media asks stupid and/or irrelevant questions. The candidates then try to look as if they are meaningful, because no matter what, they know they are targets for eminent ridicule at the moment of inquiry. Then there are the gotcha when did you stop beating your wife questions that the media loves. Some candidates get them. Some dont. It usually shows and irritates viewers.

The reason the media is involved is because the networks are more willing to broadcast a debate if their own news people are part of the show. They go for questions they can hype the answers to afterward or which might help them look better to their bosses, not those that might help anyone decide which candidate is the best potential president.

There is a better way, a much simpler way. Give each candidate five minutes in turn to speak at a single podium with a single microphone with a timer driven cutoff switch. Repeat as needed. Let them speak on whatever subjects they choose, or require all to speak on the same subjects at some point during the night. No gotchas. No headline hunting. No interruptions by other loudmouthed candidates. By giving the candidates leeway to speak, their choices will be telling and you can learn more about them than how they dodge questions or call names. This process may not rise to the level of Lincoln/Douglas, but it isnt shameful, as the current practice is. If the networks dont want to broadcast such events, CSpan or PBS will.

The complaint that is freshest in my mind at the moment is the role of the media in candidate selection. No matter the rationale, giving one candidate three times the media coverage of another, or the others, is helpful only to the one, whether intentional or biased or not. Emotion beats intellect in politics, but it should be the voters emotions, not a reporters, that prevails.

Excuses aside, when members of the media broadcast that one candidate is the best and show an incomplete picture of his activities and comments, freedom of the press has become political propaganda. That may suit you if your candidate has won, but the pendulum always swings and may bump your favorite aside the next time.

The idea of the press, as the Founders saw it, was that the populace was given a more complete picture of the politics of a given event, so they could make an informed choice. If we are each to have the right to vote, as the Constitution says, then we should also have the right to be fairly and adequately informed or our rights will have been compromised or denied. To express this in another way, when a news sources publications are written so as to have a disparate impact on one candidate versus any other, the source should proclaim itself to be opinion based, not news based. Those which are opinion based should be governed by freedom of speech rights and restrictions, the same as the rest of the citizenry. Those which are news and fact based, should still be governed by freedom of the press rights. That makes the words, not the source, the critical factor, and that is the way it should be, especially now that so many can speak out so publicly.

If we must restrict the freedom of the press, we should first take note that the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and religion, and the Second Amendment right to bear arms have restrictions on them as well, as do other amendments. The right to vote, if compromised by anothers right to publish opinions and statements that are in anothers own selfish best interests and without regard to mine, is being denied to all of us, even members of the media, because there has not been an honest discourse regarding the candidates or the issues.

It is commonly said that one persons rights do not compromise another persons rights. Opinion based journalism crosses that line, and needs to be changed.
The nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee in Cleveland in July, and his possible election in November, will change American politics indelibly.

First of all, it will change the demographics of the Republican Party, lately a party divided between a mainstream conservative establishment and a growing populist conservative grassroots base.

The beginning of this divide took place in 1964, when an "outsider" (Senator Barry Goldwater) won the GOP nomination asserting values and beliefs that were jarring not only to Democrats, but to establishment moderate Republicans, who would have preferred New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to be their standard-bearer. Mr. Goldwater then lost badly in November, but his flag was picked up after a politically unfortunate interregnum with Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew (both of whom finally resigned in disgrace) by Ronald Reagan, a fading movie star who had been elected governor of California.

In 1980, much to the surprise of many observers, Mr. Reagan won the presidency from a hapless one-term incumbent (Jimmy Carter) with the key help of some blue-collar Democrats, and he followed that victory with a landslide in 1984 against Mr. Carter's vice president, Walter Mondale. He accomplished this with even more blue-collar and middle-class voters who had previously been electing Democrats.

Much as the Democrats and their media allies like to portray Republicans as plutocrats, exploiters of the poor, and religious fanatics, that image is now a half-century or more out of date. (In fact, most of the new super-rich are liberal voters and donors, and many liberals are for anti-free speech political correctness and are feverishly anti-religious). Corporate America has been tilting to the Democrats for years, and the party that championed the founding of the state of Israel has now become predominantly (and shamefully) anti-Israel.

Most Republicans today are struggling entrepreneurs, blue-collar and lower-income white-collar workers who hold traditional social values and religious beliefs. The old upper-income, Ivy League-educated GOP establishment has dwindled, although it has maintained a hold on conservative institutions.

There are divisions within these ranks. Social conservatives often resist social changes in American society, while "libertarian" conservatives embrace them. Some conservatives are pro-free trade internationalists; others have U.S. interests as a priority. There are differences about the use of the military. The conservative grassroots are not a monolith.

One casualty of this evolution of the Republican Party has been the turning away from a former centrist base that included pro-choice and "moderate" Republicans, sometimes call "RINOs" ("Republicans in name only"). This cleavage paralleled an equivalent cleavage on the Democrat side, in which "pro-life" and traditionally religious centrist liberals were systematically drummed out of the party.

Donald Trump's emergence turns this upside-down. A former liberal Democrat (as was Ronald Reagan), super-rich, educated at a top Ivy League university, Trump nonetheless speaks the language of the new class of Republican conservative grassroots voters. He annoys, with that same language, the old establishment political class of the GOP, who have for years now enjoyed the votes of the new class but ignored their concerns, anxieties, and aspirations.

Although I did not at all see the Trump phenomenon coming, and he was not my preferred candidate for president in 2016, I now see what I have described in recent months as a "mutiny" of voters. The working crews of the Republican and Democratic Parties have risen up against the captains and officers. In the case of the Democrats, the mutiny has been partly put down for the time being, but in the case of the Republicans, the mutiny is succeeding, with a stowaway named Donald Trump as the new captain.

It is a self-delusion for the old GOP mainstream to believe that Mr. Trump is destined to lose the 2016 election and that all will revert back to normal in the Republican Party after that election. The columnist George Will personifies this kind of thinking. He calls any conservative who supports Mr. Trump a "quisling"  a term derived from the name of a Norwegian fascist politician who became the puppet leader of that nation under Hitlerian control during World War II. Mr. Will, who for years has picked losers to be nominees of the Republican Party, typifies the snobbery that has alienated so many grassroots conservatives. Mr. Will is a bright, articulate, and often thoughtful essayist on public policy issues, and I often agree with his views but not his elitist disdain for anyone who disagrees with him.

There has been a mean side to Donald Trump's discourse in the 2016 campaign, including three among many instances: his put-down of Marco Rubio as "little Marco," his denigration of John McCain's distinguished war service, and his completely wrong and mean-spirited description of Tom Ridge as a "failed Pennsylvania governor." (Mr. Ridge was probably the most accomplished chief executive of the Keystone State in the post-war period.) Some of Trump's language about women was not merely politically incorrect, but plain crude and sexist. Most observers, myself included, put a focus on this, and not on the larger strategy Donald Trump was pursuing this campaign year, and we missed the connection the New York businessman was making with the Republican grassroots on other issues.

If Donald Trump the GOP nominee is merely a duplicate of Donald Trump the nomination aspirant, he will likely fail in November. Knowing his experience and his ego, I think that is unlikely, but should he fail to be elected president, the republic will survive.

The Republican Party, on the other hand, will not be the same whether Mr. Trump wins or loses. A new generation and a new class of conservatives have taken over the ship (as has also happened in the Democratic Party), and from now on (as far as we can see on the political horizon), it will not ever again be politics as has been usual in the USA.
In July 2015, The Center for Medical Progress began releasing videos that featured Planned Parenthood executives discussing fetal tissue sales.

The videos sparked so much public outrage, some in the pro-life movement, like House Speaker Paul Ryan, called for an end of Planned Parenthoods government funding (the organization received $1.5 million in government grants in 2014).

But theres one source of Planned Parenthoods funding that never enters the conversation -- a secret weapon since the beginning.

Unions.

In 1921, Margaret Sanger began opening illegal birth control clinics under what became Planned Parenthood. She was incredibly controversial, in part because of her membership in the New York Socialist Party and several arrests.

Sangers advocacy ranged from eugenics to segregation and sterilization. In her book, Woman and the New Race, Sanger wrote:

No more children should be born when the parents, though healthy themselves, find that their children are physically or mentally defective.

One foundational part of Sangers advocacy was Big Labor.

Sangers union alliance began with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), co-founded by her close friend and Americas most radical labor leader, William Big Bill Haywood.

Sanger participated in various strikes along the East Coast and even solicited $50,000 to defend the 100 IWW leaders indicted by a federal grand jury for espionage and intimidation during WWI.

She brought radical labor into her home, as well. She openly admitted, Our living-room became a gathering place where liberals, anarchists, Socialists and I.W.W.s could meet.

Sanger argued that population control was in the best interest of her union friends, concluding chapter twelve in Woman and the New Race with:

[Labors] enemy is the reproductive ability of the working class which gluts the channels of progress with the helpless and weak, and stimulates the tyrants of the world in their oppression of mankind.

The Internet has helped spread Sangers legacy. Planned Parenthoods viral marketing campaign I Stand with PP provides a public platform for allies to voice their support.

But this support does not just stem from your friends on Facebook and celebrities on Twitter. Unions have made it very clear: they stand with PP, too. Fourteen spots on the I Stand with PP supporters page belong to unions.

Planned Parenthoods current president, Cecile Richards, began her career organizing low-wage workers in the hotel, health care, and janitorial industries. Previously, Richards served as the deputy chief of staff for California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (D), who has received a total of $2.8 million from labor organization PACs throughout her career.

After leaving Pelosis office, Richards took over as president of America Votes, a Democratic electoral coalition that cites nine union partners and was co-founded by Andy Stern, the former SEIU president CBS called, the most important labor boss in America.

Not only was Richards the keynote speaker at the United Auto Workers (UAW)s annual legislative conference in 2012, she is also married to Kirk Adams, former SEIU vice president.

Whether it is personal or through personnel, Planned Parenthood advances union-friendly legislation and ideas and in return, unions give generously to their friends in pink.

Some union money goes toward union officials paychecks (just ask the 448 labor bosses who made at least $250,000 in 2015 alone) but a significant amount is reserved for political activity. Planned Parenthoods PAC received almost half a million dollars from AFSCME in 2014.

In 2015, I Stand with PP groups had financial flows amounting to a whooping $678,000 with the AFL-CIO, $174,000 with AFSCME, and $2.6 million with the NEA. Just a year prior, $1.5 million came from SEIU, which included a $20,000 sponsorship to Planned Parenthood.

Between 2012 and 2013, Planned Parenthood reported SEIU as an independent contractor and paid the union $1.8 million for telemarketing services. In a 2015 press release SEIU Internationals president, Mary Kay Henry, made her gratitude public:

We stand united with our allies at Planned Parenthood efforts in Congress to de-fund Planned Parenthood must be stopped.

Other Big Labor bosses have pledged their allegiance, too. AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka, said we support [Planned Parenthoods] core mission, and in 2015, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president, Randi Weingarten stated, standing with Planned Parenthood is the right thing to do.

An analysis of Planned Parenthood annual reports from 1999 to 2014 revealed the organization has performed 4.4 million abortions.

Those are 4.4 million souls who wont be competing for union jobs, just as Sanger and her labor allies planned.

Paige Halper is the Athena Worker Freedom Fellow at The Center for Worker Freedom, a special project of Americans for Tax Reform. phalper@atr.org
American history is replete with presidential love and hate involving our next-door neighbor, Mexico. President James Polk invaded Mexico in order to take California and the southwest from Mexico. Objecting was Congressman Abraham Lincoln. President Woodrow Wilson invaded Mexico twice in two years. Are we in a hate period now, hate fueled by radio talk shows, television personalities and presidential candidate Donald J. Trump?

Trumps campaign against Mexico will destroy his run for the presidency. His emotional charges that Mexico is ripping us off because we have a trade deficit with Mexico makes no sense when we run a trade deficit with Germany (the home of his family) that is 30 percent higher than with Mexico. We have trade deficits of $23 billion with Italy and Trump says nothing. We have a trade deficit of $33 billion with Ireland and Trump says nothing. Trump ignores the fact that Mexico buys more from us than all European countries combined.

The worst insults lie in his charges that Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals -- though some are good people. Insult: His advocacy for building a wall on the border and having Mexico pay for it, a declaration he made again -- with a smirk on his face -- on the same Bill OReilly program in which former Mexican president invited Trump to Mexico belies any possibility of Trump softening his insulting wall declaration.

If he thought it is shameful for Hispanic kids to flip off Trump supporters and to F bomb them, he is going to be really surprised at the ultimate Mexican flip-off; i.e. they arent going to vote for him.

Many Hispanics voted for Richard Nixon, for Ronald Reagan, they voted for both Bushs (George W. Bush received 44 percent of the Hispanic vote), they voted for John McCain (31%) and slightly less for Mitt Romney (27%). McCain and Romney lost because they needed at least 35 percent of the Hispanic vote.

What needs more detailed explanation is the makeup of the Hispanic vote. There are 55 million Hispanics of which 65 percent are of Mexican origin. Mexican-Americans are located in key regions that have serious voting consequences; to wit: most are in two of the three largest states, Texas and California. They also dominate in New Mexico and have significant populations in Chicago, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Washington State.

The other Hispanics are Puerto Ricans in New York, New Jersey, and a growing number in Florida. Cubans have large numbers in Florida. We must dissect polling of Hispanics and how the polling is conducted and published to understand the Hispanic vote.

There is no Hispanic polling; that is, no real polling. If a pollster talks to Puerto Ricans in New York City or New Jersey, the pollster will get a Puerto Rican response. If a pollster talks to a Cuban in Florida the pollster will get a Cuban response. If the pollster talks to a Puerto Rican in Central Florida the pollster will get a Floridian answer which may be different than one from Northeast Puerto Ricans.

But when a pollster talks to a Mexican- American in Texas or Colorado, California or Nevada, the answers to pollster questions might very well be the same yet different from those of the Northeast Puerto Ricans or even the Puerto Rican Floridians.

In other words, there is no Hispanic vote. There is a Mexican-American vote, a Northeast Puerto Rican vote and a Floridian Puerto Rican and Cuban vote.

Puerto Ricans tend to be very liberal Democrats and vote into the 90th percentile for Democrats no matter who the candidate is. That is true in both Florida and the Northeast. The Cubans in Florida are splitting their votes, as the refugee cohort is aging and younger Cubans feel differently from those who escaped Communism. The Mexican-American voter is different. He has never voted in the 90th percentile for Democrats.

For example, Evangelical Mexican immigrants who have attained citizenship and who have been in the country more than ten years voted 80 percent for George W. Bush in 2004. Of those who had been citizens only five years, 50 percent voted for Bush. More than fifty percent of Mexican Americans with college educations who lived in suburbs voted for Bush.

California Mexican-Americans vote Democrat if they have less than college and vote as much as 40 percent or more for Republicans if they have some college or degrees. Puerto Ricans voted in their traditional mode of more than 90 percent for John Kerry in 2004 no matter their educational level.

To discern how a presidential candidate might fare in a general election, one needs to know where the pollsters polled and among which ethnicity. One must also know the educational level of the polled.

So when one sees a poll result of, say, Donald Trump polling 25-30-35-50 percent of Hispanic voters, that poll must be discarded for several reasons. If the polling is done by phone landlines, the poll is worthless as most Hispanics use cell phones. If the poll is of registered voters, the poll is worthless because only likely voters count in polls. [TL2] If the poll doesnt break down ethnicity/national origin, the poll is worthless because Puerto Ricans do not think like the majority Mexican Americans on many fronts.

Hispanic polling is worthless because Puerto Ricans are 90 percent or more Democrats, and they are concentrated in the northeast where Republicans dont fare well. Only polls taken in swing states like Florida or Virginia or Colorado count in assessing a potential Hispanic vote. National Hispanic polls are worthless in trying to discover Hispanic preference for president.

In other words, can Donald Trump carry any significant numbers among Hispanics in November? It only matters in Florida and Colorado. He cant carry California and its 55 electoral votes. If he doesnt carry Florida he has no chance anyway. Ditto Colorado. He has no chance in New York or New Jersey -- the Puerto Ricans will never vote for him; they didnt vote for George W. Bush. Mexican Americans loved George W. Bush. They do not like Donald J. Trump and because they dont -- he has no chance to win in November.
Just friends, but not like before just about sums up the present relationship between the Obama administration and Saudi Arabia. It is not a divorce, but rather an estrangement or separation in a less than happy marriage. In happier, days the two countries have been involved economically, politically, and militarily. Now the former Saudi intelligence chief has called for a "recalibration" of relationships. The next U.S. President must attend to the issue.

In 1938, Standard Oil of California (Chevron) found oil in eastern Saudi Arabia. In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 14 met aboard a cruiser in the Suez Canal with Saudi king Abdul Aziz ibn Saud who brought eight sheep on board to cook for dinner. Military ties were enhanced in the common resistance against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-1989, in the Gulf crisis in 1991, and in the war against Saddam Hussein in 2003.

There were and still remain mutual interests, but changes have occurred. For the U.S., the oil of Saudi Arabia was once vital, but the U.S. is now less dependent on oil imports. For the Saudis, the purchase of U.S. weaponry, now said to be at least $95 billion, has been and remains crucial, but the Saudis are less dependent on the U.S. for military security.

Cooperation continues. The Saudis have been involved in the U.S.-led air strikes against ISIS targets in Syria, thus symbolizing that the response to ISIS is international, not simply Western. The U.S. has supplied intelligence and logistical support to the Saudi campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. The two countries cooperate in intelligence sharing against terrorist activity in the Middle East.

At the same time, differences have become more pronounced, leading President Barack Obama to refer to the Saudis as "our so-called allies." Part of the reason is that Saudi Arabia, under the new king, Salman, has recognized that that the Obama administration is reluctant to become involved in a Middle East conflict, as was shown in the refusal to take military action regarding the crossing of the "red line" in Syria in August 2013, unless the security of the U.S. is threatened.

There are a considerable number of differences between the Saudis and the U.S.: Saudi financing of terrorists and Islamist extremism, human rights abuses, the Obama acceptance of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, Saudi actions in the war in Yemen, the Assad regime in Syria, Iran, the Saudi help to 9/11 terrorists and to al-Qaeda, and Saudi funding of madrassas with their religious teaching of Wahhabism. Above all, the Saudis area fearful of what they see as the Obama tilt to Iran and especially are critical of the Iran nuclear deal.

The Saudis are therefore playing a more assertive policy  one that includes the use of military force. The kingdom is able and willing to play such a role. It has an estimated 268 billion barrels of oil in reserves, 16 percent of world reserves, and $630 billion in financial reserves, though it is using about $60 billion a year.

However, the regime now faces a number of issues, among them the decline in oil prices from $115 a barrel in 2014 to $35 in 2015, the growth of world competition in oil production and the increase in fracking by other countries, the emphasis on reduction of fossil fuels, the disenchanted young, and the strength of ISIS. Young people, under 30, make up two thirds of the population, and a considerable number have no jobs. The unemployment rate is more than 11 percent.

The key to political and economic changes and plans by the Saudis is the role of the most influential and energetic member of the ruling family, the 30-year-old Prince Mohammed bin Salman, son of the 80-year-old King Salman, who became king in January 2015. The prince is deputy crown prince, defense minister, controller of the economy, and chairman of the Supreme Council of Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil-producing company, with oil reserves estimated at 261 billion barrels.

In foreign policy, Saudi Arabia has taken steps independently of U.S. policy. It had already broken diplomatic relations with Iran and now seeks militarily to counter Iranian intervention in Yemen and Syria. It has also tried to create a 34-nation Islamic coalition against terrorism. Prominent Saudis have met with Russian president Putin and China's leader, Xi Jinping.

The Saudis are interested in building a military-industrial complex and a government-owned military holding company. They propose that at least 50 percent of military purchases go to local industry. In 2015, defense spending was $87 billon, the third largest amount in the world by a country.

Proposed economic changes from the dependence on oil, which accounts for 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of government revenue, may be more important. The stated ambition of the prince is to change the economy from an oil-funded, government-dominated system to a more private business role, emphasizing privatization and private investment. Stability depends on the outcome, since Saudi Aramco has played a dominant role in the domestic economy, in the workforce, in power and water utilities, in 139 government schools, in health care, and in approving loans and venture capital investments.

This will mean changes in Saudi social affairs, since oil accounts for more than three quarters of state income at about $162 billion. They would include privatization in areas such as health care and education and investing in manufacturing and higher taxes on goods. They would also entail accountability in public administration and the creation of better universities.

The next American president must decide whether Saudi Arabia can be considered an ally of the West or as the home and fountain of Wahhabism, the most extreme form of Islam. The enigma for the West is whether the new assertion of power by the political leaders can limit, if not end, the impact of Wahhabism, with its control over education, judiciary, and the role of women and its support of terrorist groups.

Any decision for the U.S. must balance the contribution of the Saudis to the fight against terrorism with the reality of the continuance of an oppressive and authoritarian Saudi regime that defines criminal intent as anything that undermines public order or questions Wahhabism and is responsible for an increase in beheadings in 2015, as well as the execution of 47 men on terrorism charges.
Admitting that the political situation is extremely volatile, the non-partisan Cook Political Report has shifted 11 states toward Democrat Hillary Clinton for the November election.

The Hill:

This has been an exceedingly unpredictable year, the analyst said. Although we remain convinced that Hillary Clinton is very vulnerable and would probably lose to most other Republicans, Donald Trump's historic unpopularity with wide swaths of the electorate  women, millennials, independents and Latinos  make him the initial November underdog. Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin were all shifted from toss-up states to leaning Democratic. The solid Republican states Missouri and Indiana were downgraded to likely Republican. New Mexico is now solidly Democratic, and North Carolina is a toss-up after leaning Republican. The analyst also shifted Arizona and Georgia from likely Republican to leaning Republican. Cook also moved one House race toward Democrats: Nebraskas 2nd Congressional District, which was considered solid for Republicans and is now classified as a toss-up race. Maines 2nd District was the only reclassification that favored the GOP, going from solid Democrat to likely Democrat. The Report classifies congressional districts in Maine and Nebraska because they are the only two states that dont award their Electoral College votes on a winner-take-all basis.

Take this survey as a starting point for Trump. It highlights the fact that it will be an uphill battle for the Republican to overcome his historic negatives in order to win the White House.

It can be done, but Trump has to either shore up his support among millenials, minorities, and especially women or find a way to depress the turnout for those groups. The latter might be easier considering what Trump has been saying on the campaign trail.

The bottom line: Clinton has a much larger margin of error than Trump, who will need the stars to align perfectly in order for him to win.
Oh, the irony! Hillary Clinton, addressing an enthusiastic crowd in Los Angeles Thursday, did what she does when excited and enthusiastic: she yelled. But in this instance, her message was the bromide Democrats use whenever Republicans are winning an argument. Wed be a lot better off if we actually talked to each other instead of yelling at each other. The video, courtesy of the Washington Free Beacon, is a hoot:

While I despise Hillary Clinton, I dont think I am being unfair in pointing out that she has one of the most unpleasant voices ever in a public figure when she is yelling. Maybe it isnt her fault. Maybe the underlying anger, jealousy, and sense of injury that have animated her lust for power and her abhorrent treatment of people less powerful than she is now being expressed in her grating, emphatic tone. Maybe it is an anomaly of her vocal chords. Whatever the source of her repulsive tone when she is excited, angry, and emphatic, she would be wise to stay calm and speak in a soft tone of voice, letting the microphones and speakers to the work of amplification.

But Hillary is not one to take advice from conservatives. So I hope she continues to make her points with energy, and adoring crowds of femininst abortion enthusiasts and aggrieved minorities excite her while the cameras and microphones record her for posterity.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi met for 30 minutes with former Mexican president Vicente Fox to discuss ways that Mexico could help the Democrats defeat Donald Trump in November. Fox also referred to Trump supporters as lazy, TV-watching drunks.

And I thought I had seen and heard everything this election season.

Washington Examiner:

In an exclusive interview with theWashington Examiner Friday, former Mexican President Vicente Fox also said that he is "becoming a fan of" Clinton, who he compared to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and he disparaged Trump supporters as lazy, uneducated, TV watching drunks. He complained that that Mexico buys billions of dollars of items from the United States that create 10 million American jobs, but Trump supporters still "don't respect us." He added, "We need to wake up that citizen. We need them to take them away from the TV and drinking beer, to working hard, to getting the skills, to getting knowledge, and they will come along, like everybody else." On a media tour to promote an anti-Trump, "compassionate, intelligent leadership" agenda, he said that he met with Pelosi at the airport in Mexico City Sunday and discussed ways he can help convince Latin American immigrants in the United States to reject Trump. "What I've been saying here, I told her. Count with us, with all Mexicans, to support the Democratic Party because you've done much better with us than the Republican Party," he said. "We will never convince any Mexican either in the (United) States or in Mexico or any Latin American in the States or Latin America to support this false prophet," he said. He repeatedly called Trump "stupid," and a "false prophet," and called on Americans to "wake up" and reject the Republican. He even slapped Trump's tweet on Cinco de Mayo that he was eating a taco bowl made by in the Trump Tower Grill. Fox said Trump "is going to get an indigestion. That's not Mexican food." Fox's disagreements with Trump are well known, so during the interview he focused on those who support the Republican, calling on them to educate themselves on why Trump's policies are wrong. "It's fear that's making you follow Trump," he said.

So what's worse? Pelosi's near treasonous collusion with Mexico to interfere in an American election or Fox's racist views on Trump supporters?

Answer: Both are equallly abhorrent, and the Obama State Department should immediately call in the Mexican ambassador to the U.S. and lay down the law.

Wait...what am I saying? The Obama State Department? Forgive me. For a moment I forgot that our State Department does little to protect or promote American interests.

Perhaps they'll want to give Fox a humanitarian award for sticking his nose in an American election.

You can be damn sure that if an American ex-president actively plotted to interfere in a Mexican election, Fox would be the first face in front of the camera railing against "the ugly American." Fox was a hypocrite while in office, and he's even worse now.

What sort of sanction should the ethics committee impose on Pelosi? Will they even bother to look into it? As much as Democrats hate Republicans and vice versa, after hours, most of them are great chums. I doubt she'll even get a slap on the wrist.

What a sad commentary on the Democrats' views of democracy and American independence.
Rush Limbaugh said someone he thought was his friend texted the following during Cruz's speech suspending his campaign. Thank God Cruz is done! I couldn't be happier. Listening to his sap makes me sick. Rush said the text made him furious.

Here is the line in Cruz's speech that ticked off Rush's once assumed friend.

There is no substitute for victory. There is no substitute for the America that each and every one of us loves with all our heart, that we believe in with all our heart, and that together we will restore as a shining city on the hill for every generation to come.

Anyone repulsed by Cruz's statement is not my patriot brother or sister.

Political analysts and pundits are chiming in, criticizing Ted Cruz the person for not being enough of this or too much of that. Keeping silent, I roll my eyes and tune them out. Trying to change these super-smart political expert minds would be fruitless.

I will concede that the Cruz campaign may or may not have made a few missteps. But with Trump out there breaking every campaigning rule in the book and speaking off the top of his head, don't tell me Cruz blew it because he was not a perfect enough candidate, too this or not enough that.

For crying out loud, Ted Cruz is an awesome human being. Period! The man walks tall. In debating issues vital to our country, Cruz is peerless. When called upon to stand up for We the People, he truly is Lion Ted. Therefore, I will not criticize Ted. Nor will I agree with those criticizing Ted for being who he is.

This remarkable man deserves so much better.

For years, I have lamented our side's pattern of trashing and throwing our heroes under the bus. Sharron Angle, Joe Miller, Chris McDaniel, and Sarah Palin to name a few. First we whine about the GOP establishment being complicit in furthering the Democrat/left's agenda. Courageous, sincere patriots, committed to breaking the GOP's pattern of betrayal, step up and enter into the extremely leftist-favored political arena.

When our conservative gladiators enter the arena, Democrats, the left, the GOP establishment, and mainstream media team up to stop and destroy them forever. The evil coalition launches its standard 24/7 character assassination shock-and-awe attack. Phase two includes endless absurd lies and extremely well funded dirty tricks. Whenever one of our candidates falls short of winning due to the behemoth opposing them, our advisers and voters blame the candidate for being too this or not enough of that. Then we throw our courage warriors on the junk heap of tainted and forever unelectable conservatives. In other words, if only our candidate would have mastered politically walking on water, we could have won or retained the seat. The disloyalty sickens me.

This political season, many voters threw social and moral issues out the window. For the most part, Cruz stood alone vowing to investigate Planned Parenthood's horrific dead-baby-body-parts-chop-shop business, apparently a non-issue with many voters. Cruz recognized and vowed to fight LGBT activists' aggressive assault on our religious liberty, silencing and jailing Christians. Apparently defending religious liberty is a non-issue with many evangelicals.

In essence, many voters shouted, No, not this man. Give us Barabbas! This is the truth of how many voted.

I also reject conventional wisdom that says Cruz is done, too damaged to be the leader of a national resurgence of conservatism. Hogwash!

Over sixty years of life experiences have taught me to trust God. I am telling you, folks  there is something truly unique and special about Ted Cruz, an anointing on his life. Ted is still a young man. At some point, Cruz will come back shining brighter, bigger, and better. Great leaders are always hated and despised because they are a threat to lesser men. Eagles really do fly alone. Thank God for giving Ted Heidi, his strong helpmeet.

My prayer is that despite unimaginable pressure to conform to the Washington cartel status quo, Ted will remain a peerless, fearless warrior for We the People and a defender of our Constitution. I am pretty confident that Ted will always be our Ted. Still, I call upon all believers to keep Ted and his family in their prayers.

Regarding Ted Cruz, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American

Chairman: The Conservative Campaign Committee

LloydMarcus.com
Last Monday, Jeannie DeAngelis told American Thinker readers about the plight of baby Jose Manuel Villamizar Zambrano, a victim of the economic ruin brought to Venezuela by the socialism of Hugo Chavez and his successor dictator, Nicolas Maduro:

Jose is 5 months old and in need of a complicated heart operation. The baby must receive treatment between the ages of 4 and 6 months. At the time of the familys correspondence with Dr. Ogilvie, Jose was 5 months and 20 days. According to the letter when the parents brought the child to the free hospital for care, because of old broken down equipment and the high cost of treating him, he and his parents were turned away. Put simply, free health care sent a baby boy, who could be easily saved, home to die. Here is a portion of the letter to Dr. Ogilvie, which said: From the hospital Central Tachira sent in February 2016, a folder with all documents to the Children Cardiologico baby in Montalban - Caracas. We were there on Tuesday, 26 April this year and was informed that the hospital was not operating as it had damaged the equipment to catheterization and operation entity.

AT readers opened their hearts to Baby Jose. So far, over seven thousand dollars has been raised. Notice that his lips are blue:

And Dr. Ogilvie in Venezuela is doing what she can to use the money to get help. It is not so easy, because nothing is easily available in Venezuela, a country where stores run out of essentials, where toilet paper is in severe shortage and where functional medical equipment does not even at work in hospitals.

Please stay tuned. We will update you as your generosity is put to work in a country gripped by socialist madness.

And thank you, AT readers!
Chances are that Donald Trump and his foreign policy crowd have not been reading The American Thinker. I would rather believe that Trump & Co. are just endowed with common sense and a genuine concern for the American interest. This also happens to be in the best interest of most people in the world  except for the jihad war crowd.

American Thinker and like-minded people have been yelling into the storm for almost eight years now, but we can't take credit for Trump's common sense in foreign affairs. Good sense guided American policy long before the Rise of the One.

The great exception to ordinary common sense has been Obama himself.

Donald Trump has been attacked as a populist lowbrow, but he has just given a foreign policy speech that makes more sense than any blowhard fantasy coming from the left. The Don didn't promise to roll back the rising oceans, like King Canute, but instead he presented sensible policy goals to get us out of the swamp.

Trump is promising to be pro-American, in contrast to Obama's fantasy policies that ended up killing hundreds of thousands of people abroad for no discernible reason at all. Obama bombed Libya for no stated reason except the obvious lie that we were going to stop genocide. Instead, things got much worse, and today Libya is still entangled in an avoidable civil war.

But the biggest, most desperately needed step has already been taken by Trump, even before the election.

Donald Trump has named the enemy in the Jihad War. He calls it "radical Islam." That's good enough, because it labels the war theology of jihad as the real enemy. We do not hate Muslims. We hate their indoctrination into a pre-medieval desert theology that makes war on infidels a first duty for every believer.

President El-Sisi of Egypt gave a very brave speech six months ago calling for a change in Islam, to stop the madness of a billion Muslims being told by the ulema, the priesthood, that they are obligated to make endless war against the rest of us.

This may sound like ordinary common sense, but common sense has been painfully missing during the Obama years.

Trump doesn't have to be a genius to figure it out.

The name of the enemy, whether jihad or radical Islam, has been absurdly covered up by Obama and the left, both here and in Europe.

That has been a deliberate and malignant psywar strategy.

Everybody knows who the enemy is, yes, but you can't even define a military strategy without pinpointing those who started and pursued the war against America and the West.

That would be the followers of the jihad war theology of radical Islam.

Obama's failure to point out the enemy has allowed jihad to shape-change into al-Qaeda, ISIS, "Sunni terrorists," "Syrian refugees," Mogadishu pirates, Wahhabis, Salafists, Boko Haram slave-stealers in black Africa, Sudanese genociders against Christian and native African tribes, Hamas, Hezb'allah, the Blind Sheik, Valerie Jarrett's family, Huma Abedin's jihad movement, and Obama's half-brother Malik, the Muslim Brotherhood financier. All of them have been allowed to pretend to be separate from jihad, because the liberal media go along with the lie.

But jihad is one of the five "pillars of Islam," and every child is indoctrinated to know that. Jihad is a duty that Muslims are supposed to follow.

Obama's failure to name the enemy has forced the TSA and Homeland Security to carefully avoid checking 25-year-old males named Mohammed with a shifty look in their eyes, smoking underwear, and some easily forged passport  because of course the United States can never "profile" criminals and terrorists. That would be racist!

Instead, we are searching every little granny whenever she takes a trip to the grandchildren.

Failure to name the enemy has allowed the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Bandar bin Sultan, to stay in this country even after the 9/11 assault. Failure to name the enemy has allowed Obama to spend billions  or is it trillions?  on what is supposed to be homeland security.

Trump's foreign policy speech will be read by Vladimir Putin and President El-Sisi of Egypt, by the genocide-peddling mullahs of Tehran, by ISIS and its morally subhuman backers  like Turkey and Saudi Arabia  and even by the hopeless EU autocrats, who have made such a mess of Europe that regular people are finally rebelling against them.

Under Obama and the European left, things have gotten screwed up to an amazing extent. Obama is a sort of genius in screwing things up.

It will take consistency and some wisdom to fix the mess.
House speaker Paul Ryan's refusal to support Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president has led to a break with two of his most trusted allies in the House.

Reps. Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia and Dennis Ross of Florida, key Ryan lieutenants, say they can't understand their leader's position and would hope that he supports Trump down the road.

Politico:

I honestly dont understand what Pauls thinking  I dont get it, said Westmoreland, who is retiring after this year. I try not to give advice to the speaker, but I think it just really brought about, in my opinion, even more confusion to this thing. Trust me, I havent been on the Donald Trump bandwagon, but I will support him, and I disagree with Ryans comment, Ross said. I think its time we unite (and)  extend an olive branch and start working this out. The sharp rebuke from two senior, longtime GOP leadership allies is a rare sight in the House. It highlights a schism in the lower chamber that's expected to grow next week when Congress returns from recess and some House Republicans line up behind their leader and others rally around the GOP standard bearer-in-waiting. Ryan and Trump will meet face-to-face Thursday at Republican headquarters in Washington to see if theres any way to reconcile their differences in both style and substance. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus will play counselor, after Ryan said Thursday he could not support Trump and Trumps camp fired back Friday morning Ryan has no business being speaker if he can't back the party's pick for president. Lawmakers will be asked to take a side: the young, conservative budget wonk that his party establishment clamored for to run for president himself? Or the bombastic bomb-thrower whose rocked the party with his surprise voter-appeal. Ryan's choice of words  that there are "lots of questions" about Trump that conservatives want answered, "myself included"  suggests that his stand might be partly or even mostly a calculated attempt to try to mold the unwieldy nominee into one who thinks and acts more like the speaker.

Ryan has to know that unless he supports the nominee of his party, he can no longer serve as speaker. Even those who hate Trump have to realize that fundamental fact of life. You simply can't have the highest ranking Republican in government opposing his party's presidential nominee. It would be ludicrous and a source of endless attacks on Trump by Democrats.

It will also lead to a possible defeat by Ryan in the Republican primary in August by wealthy business executive Paul Nehlen, who has come out in support of Trump.

So unless Ryan can iron things out with Trump this week, I think there's an excellent chance he will resign or be kicked out. There's just no room in the party for a speaker of House whose appearances on the Sunday news shows between now and November will be all about why he isn't supporting Trump rather than advancing the Republican agenda.
Mark Twain reportedly said, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." It was a caution to those who rely too much on statistics and not their own eyes and ears.

Sierra Rayne (whom I greatly respect) has again posited that protectionism increases GDP while free trade reduces it, that trade does not make a country rich, and that there is good trade and bad trade. To prove his thesis, he offers a graph showing a negative correlation in GDP growth compared to trade as a percentage of GDP covering the period of time before the regulatory avalanche:

There are a few problems.

A significant reason for the British to sign a peace treaty with the United States was to keep the trade of the former colonies while denying it to the French. Certainly the British thought trade was beneficial to the health of their nation.

The super genius among the founders, Benjamin Franklin, had this to say about trade:

Perhaps, in general; it would be better if Government meddled no further with Trade, than to protect it, and let it take its course. Most of the Statutes, or Acts, or Edicts, Arets and Placaarts of Parliaments, Princes, and States, for regulating, directing, or restraining of trade; have, we think, been either political Blunders, or Jobs obtained by artful Men, for private Advantage, under Pretence of public Good.

Okay, you say; those are opinions of men, but do they have any scientific basis? Lets look at the source material Dr. Rayne cited in his article, Historical Aspects of U.S. Trade Policy by Douglas A. Irwin.

Irwin discusses what happened when President Jefferson halted trade for a period of two years. We had, in effect, total protectionism. This is a perfect scenario for scientists, as they always want to reduce as many variables as possible so that a thesis can be tested without extraneous noise. Here is what the author concluded:

Monthly price data allow us to observe the dramatic impact of the embargo: the export-weighted average of the prices of raw cotton, flour, tobacco, and rice, which accounted for about two-thirds of U.S. exports in the United States, fell by one third within a month or two of the embargo. The price of imported commodities rose by about a third as the number of ships entering U.S. ports fell to a trickle and imports became increasingly scarce. According to my calculations, the static welfare cost of the embargo was about 5 percent of GDP.(4) Thus, the embargo inflicted substantial costs on the economy during the short period that it was in effect. The embargo, along with the dramatic reduction in trade as a result of the War of 1812, is commonly believed to have spurred early U.S. industrialization by promoting the growth of nascent domestic manufacturers. Joseph Davis and I used his newly available series on U.S. industrial production to investigate how this protection from foreign competition affected domestic manufacturing. On balance, the trade disruptions did not decisively accelerate U.S. industrialization as trend growth in industrial production was little changed over this period.

So, according to Irwin, in an almost total protectionist system, GDP fell 5% while industrial growth stayed stagnant.

Trade is trade. It is the same throughout the world. After all, people carry on trade, and people are the same all over the world.

So lets look at China and India.

In the 1960s, millions of Chinese starved to death. They were living behind the Bamboo Curtain, in a system of almost perfect protectionism. In the early 1970s, the United States opened up trade with China. Today, according to the World Bank, the Chinese trade as a percentage of GDP is about 42%. Did trade make China the second largest economy in the world (some say first), or was it something else?

For years, India was a net importer of food; the Indians could not feed themselves. In the very recent past, they have become one of the largest exporters of food in the world. Trade as a percentage of GDP is roughly 49%. Did trade make India wealthy, or was it something else?

Dr. Rayne makes the suggestion that some trade is good, and some trade is bad. This is indeed a slippery slope. Who is to determine what trade is good and what trade is bad? Would you rather trust some faceless bureaucrat in Washington with a bunch of letters after his name or Joe Doaks, who is operating a business on Main Street? I believe that the answer is self-evident.

In closing, Dr. Raynes source, Douglas Irwin, has shown that Jeffersons policy of protectionism negatively affected GDP by about 5%. Today China and India are wealthy and have trade ratios as a percentage of GDP well over 35%.

Finally, I would suggest that we dont want government defining what is good trade and what is bad trade. Those who are legally engaged in trade should decide what and with whom they wish to trade. After all, trade is a benefit to both parties. Otherwise, why engage in it?
Introduction

Do we have a good one for you today  the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium goes up against the Galaxy S7. Both devices are made of glass and metal  both devices have a solid build and look like a premium flagship. Sony did round off the edges somewhat, but it is still a squared rectangle. The Galaxy S7 has a more rounded look at the corners and they sculpted their metal edges to make it somewhat easier to hold and pick up off a flat surface. Lets look at some of the similarities between these two devices before we look at each one individually.

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The Xperia Z5 Premium and the Galaxy S7 have very few things in common. They both use a Snapdragon processor, but different models, both sport a 32GB of internal memory and both offer expandable memory. The Z5 and S7 both take great pictures but use different methods to obtain them. Both have a fingerprint sensor and both offer Qualcomms Quick Charge 2.0 for their batteries. The Xperia Z5 Premium and the Galaxy S7 both enjoy IP68 certification for dust and water repellency and both have non-removable batteries. They have the usual suspects  WiFi, Bluetooth (v4.1 on the Z5 and v4.2 on the S7), GPS, NFC, and a microUSB v2.0 port for charging and data transfer.

Please take a deliberate look at the detailed Specifications Comparison chart below and here you will see just how these two great devices stack up against one another  click on the View Full Comparison link at the end of the chart to expand the details. After that, we will look at each device in greater depth and point out some of its pros and cons. From all of this information, we will try to determine the winner based on specs and execution of design and functions.

Specifications

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Sony Xperia Z5 Premium

Spotting a Sony Xperia smartphone is easy to do  it will be the one that looks like a rectangle block, well-constructed out of metal and glass, with a premium look and feel, good battery life, an FHD display, and a great camera. The problem Sony has is getting their devices on carriers in the US. The Xperia Z5 Premium follows that same recipe except that Sony took the display and jumped it from a 1080p display, bypassed the QHD display, and went directly to a 4K display with 806 PPI. A 4K display would be a reason to jump for joy, except the 4K is in service only when needed and most of the time it is running at 1080p to conserve battery life. The internal components are those used in early 2015 smartphones, but the Z5 Premium was not available until December.

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The technical highlight of the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium has to be its unusual display  it is a 5.5-inch IPS LCD 4K with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 and an astounding 806 pixels-per-inch (PPI). However, the 4K resolution is only on when you are actually watching something that takes advantage of the 4K, and right now, there is not much 4K content. The rest of the time, it operates in 1080p or Full HD mode  the resolution of choice for Sony. Sony has something against QHD and it all boils down to conserving battery life. The Z5 Premium uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core processor with four cores clocked at 1.5GHz and four cores clocked at 2.0GHz. The Z5 Premium packs 3GB of DDR4 RAM and 32GB of internal memory but has the option to expand an additional 200GB via a microSD card.

Sony was the first smartphone manufacturer to realize the importance of including a great camera, and that commitment continues today  even without using OIS. Sony used their new 23MP sensor on the Z5 Premium and included phase detection autofocus (PDAF), an f/2.0 aperture, and an LED flash. For the front facing camera (FFC), Sony put in a 5.1MP with wide-angle for selfies and video chatting. When it comes to power, the Z5 Premium uses a large 3430mAh non-removable battery that Sony claims will get you through two days and incorporates Quick Charge 2.0 that will give you a 60-percent battery charge in 30 minutes.

The Xperia Z5 Premium does have dual stereo front-facing speakers, and will work on AT&T or T-Mobile networks in the US. It will come in Chrome, Black or Gold and will cost you close to $800.

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Samsung Galaxy S7

The Samsung Galaxy S7 came to us with no big surprise this year  the same metal and glass look, the same size, and with the newest of processors. Samsung also did something smart this year  one Galaxy S7 and one Galaxy S7 Edge with a slightly larger display. This causes less confusion and less chance of cannibalism between models. Now that the Galaxy S7 has been outed since February, it has to go up against older flagships, like the Z5 Premium, as well as the newer LG G5 and the newest device, the HTC 10. Lets see if it has what it takes to compete with Sonys last flagship, the Z5 Premium.

The Galaxy S7 has a beautiful 5.1-inch Super AMOLED always-on display with a QHD resolution and 577 PPI. The Galaxy S7 uses either the newest 64-bit Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor with dual cores clocked at 1.6GHz and dual cores clocked at 2.15GHz if you live in the US or in another country you will get an Exynos 8890 octa-core processor with four cores clocked at 1.6GHz and four cores clocked at 2.3GHz. The Galaxy S7 packs 4GB of DDR4 RAM, offers 32GB of faster UFS 2.0 memory, and allows room for expansion up to 200GB via a microSD card.

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Samsung made some big changes in the camera area that were rather shocking considering how good the Galaxy S6 camera performed. They replaced the 16MP camera with a new Dual Pixel 12MP camera that has a larger sensor than the old 16MP used. This allows it to take in more light and detail for better low-light shots. The aperture increased to f/1.7, they included a faster phase detection autofocus (PDAF), auto HDR and retained the OIS. Worried customers that questioned Samsungs decision can rest easy as the new Galaxy S7 tied with the HTC 10 in DxOMarks testing as the best mobile camera currently available. The Galaxy S7 uses a 5MP wide-angle lens with a large f/1.7 aperture and Live HDR for its FFC allowing for excellent low-light selfies and video chatting. The S7 includes a large 3000mAh non-removable battery and comes with Quick Charge 2.0 and quick wireless charging as well.

What other features distinguishes the Galaxy S7 from the Xperia Z5 Premium? We have to start with the display  it is beautiful to view, uses always-on technology, and is always using the QHD resolution. You can also use Samsung Pay to make mobile purchases just about anywhere you can swipe a credit or debit card. The Galaxy S7 also has a heart rate monitor, oxygen saturation sensor and quick wireless charging. The Galaxy S7 measures 142.4 x 69.9 x 7.9 mm, weighs in at 152 grams and is available in Black, White, Gold and Silver, costing about $670.

And The Winner Is

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Summary

With the price of the Samsung Galaxy S7 so much lower, it makes it easy to pick the Galaxy S7 as the winner of this comparison. The display on the Z5 Premium may use 4K on occasion, but the Galaxy S7 display uses QHD all of the time. It also uses Samsungs Super AMOLED and always-on technology. The 820 processor and 530 GPU in the Galaxy S7 are superior in every way to the Z5s processor. The S7 Edge offers more RAM, faster UFS 2.0 memory, certainly equal or better camera technology and a battery with built-in quick wireless charging. It also has the ability to do Samsung Pay mobile purchases, the inclusion of a heart monitor and oxygen saturation sensor.

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The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium is naturally a solid device, but except for the 4K display and great battery life, it simply has nothing over the Galaxy S7. It uses last years processor and GPU, less RAM, slower internal memory and has a very expensive price. If you are in love with Sony devices, then the Z5 Premium will make you happy, but if you want the superior smartphone in this comparison, the Galaxy S7 is the logical choice.

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AMU foreign ministers express 'total' support for Sarraj Call for terms of Skhirat deal to be respected

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, MAY 6 - The representatives of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya have expressed their "total" support for Libya's government of national unity led by Premier Fayez al Sarraj at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) in Tunis, it emerged on Friday. The meeting ended on Thursday with the reading of a joint statement also calling on the parliament of Tobruk to ensure that the terms of the UN-brokered political agreement signed in Skhirat, Morocco, are fully met. The AMU council of foreign ministers also highlighted the need to preserve Libyan sovereignty and unity and reaffirmed its opposition to foreign intervention in the country. (ANSAmed).




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Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard, Steve Swallow, Andando el Tiempo (ECM)

As Carla Bley looks forward to her 80th birthday on May 11, ECM is releasing one of the most absorbing albums of her career. From the first notes of her three-part title suite, the Brahmsian gravity of Bleys writing transfixes the listener and demands close attention. At the piano, the clarity of Bleys musical intelligence intertwines with Andy Sheppards saxophone mastery and Steve Swallows transformation of what he recently called this rock and roll instrumenthis electric bass guitarinto a medium of unprecedented subtlety.

As profound as they were in the previous Bley-Sheppard-Swallow album, Trios, Andando el Tiempo goes a degree further into emotional depth. If the listener doesnt know from Bleys brief liner note that the suite is about a friends ensnarement in addiction, agonies of treatment and ultimate victory over drugs, the music nonetheless clearly speaks of fall, struggle and redemption. Her use of relaxed tango rhythms is an impotant part of what maintains the suites urgency. Bley attributes the title of Saints Alive to, an expression used by old ladies on the porch in the cool of the evening when they exchanged especially juicy gossip. Juicy, perhaps, but in this telling not hilarious. The piece has a crepuscular relaxation about it. It is a long conversation between Bley and Swallow, with Sheppard interweaving concluding tenor sax commentary.

On Soprano sax, Sheppard makes the most of Naked Bridges/Diving Brides, which Bley wrote as a wedding present for him and his wife Sara. It incorporates phrases from Mendelssohns wedding march with Bley harmonies that Mendelssohn might have been pleased to know. The title refers to Peking Widow, a poem by Paul Haines, who has collaborated with Bley on several projects. This album, which seems destined to be considered one of the years best, is a feather in the cap of ECMs Manfred Eicher, who produced it.

The album was recorded in Lugano, Switzerland, in November of last year. Our video of Andando el Tiempo came from the Paris club New Morning a few days earlier. Mrs. Bley introduces the piece in French. Be prepared to listen to her slowly. In the video, the configuration of the suites sections differs from that on the album.
The Kirck and Bourry Hospital is named after Arunachal Pradeshs first two Catholic martyrs. The new facility will be the only of its kind in a radius a few hundreds of kilometres. The building is completed; all it needs now is beds, medical equipment, and US$ 200,000 to pay for them. Nuns have come from Kerala to run the hospital.

Itanagar (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The new "Krick and Bourry" Hospital funded by the Diocese of Miao (Arunachal Pradesh) is ready to open to the public. It will serve a population of four million people.

The medical facility was just completed, after years of work, and will be run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, whose convent was also recently opened.

The beautiful hospital building is ready. The Sisters have moved in and are ready. Now all we need to do is purchase the necessary medical equipment and beds, said Bishop George Palliparambil, bishop of Miao.

For the latter, another US$ 200,000 are needed, the prelate added. Then, the facility should be up and running by the end of the year.

The hospital, which has been under construction for years, will be the only health facility within hundreds of kilometres and will serve a population of four million of people."

It is located in the village of Injan and is named after the first two Catholic missionaries who reached the region.

In 1854, Fathers Krick and Bourry were on their way to Tibet when they were killed in Somme, a village in Arunachal Pradesh. The canonisation process of the two servants of God is underway.

In mid-April, the convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart was also inaugurated. The nuns came from Palai (Kerala) to run the new facility.

Until now the lack of a proper medical facility was a source of great concern for local residents, said a member of the local district council. We all hope that the new hospital will be a reality soon, she added. People are eagerly waiting for its opening.
Mai Chen, Auckland-based Managing Partner of Chen Palmer Public and Employment Law Specialists, has been named in The Economists Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life.



The list recognises the achievements of individuals who have used their position to make an impact on diversity and includes well-known public figures such as the Dalai Lama, Bill Gates, Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie and Malala Yousufzai.



I was shocked really, Chen said when asked how she felt about the announcement. There are some fantastic people there and I didnt expect to be amongst them. Its very gratifying but you wake up every day and you do your best and you dont expect recognition.



Despite her modesty, Chen has an impressive background leading up to this point in time.



Most recently, I have completed the superdiversity stocktake and its implications for business, government and New Zealanders. Ive also published a piece on the impact of superdiversity on democracy and electrical and referenda laws.



These reports have been downloaded almost 94,000 times since November 2015, she said.



Chens interest in diversity started when she arrived in New Zealand as an immigrant. Since then, she has worked at the United Nations, argued human rights cases, set up New Zealand Asian Leaders (NZAL), established the Superdiversity Centre for Law Policy and Business, and was the inaugural chair of New Zealand Global Women.



Ive always been active in these areas and its simply the importance of ensuring that all New Zealanders and all people can maximise their full potential, she said.



While at the UN, Chen worked on what became the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. She also worked on the UN Womens Convention and wrote a book on the subject upon returning to New Zealand.



Ive spent a lot of years of my life thinking about this area, she said. Im just pleased to be able to make a contribution and I intend to keep on doing it.
The Law Council of Australia announced it will be launching a national campaign on legal aid funding after the 2016 Federal Budget handed down this week confirmed the government would be standing behind cuts announced in the 2014-15 Budget, as well as further cuts in 2017.These cuts, according to the Law Council, will strip $12.1 million from community legal centres and $4.5 million from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services.Law Council president Stuart Clark has declared legal aid in a state of crisis.The ongoing funding crisis in legal aid means thousands of disadvantaged and middle Australians are having to represent themselves in court, causing untold stress and injustice. Without legal aid, many Australians ignore their legal problems with devastating consequences, he said.Commercial law firm Gilbert + Tobin has taken a stand against individual offices in the workplace, saying they incredibly stifling to collaboration.The firm, which traded its Park Street office for Barangaroo this week, announced it would be trialling a completely open plan work system with no private offices.In a highly flexible and dynamic environment, you need to think about and breakdown as many barriers to communication as you can, managing partner Danny Gilbert told Australasian Lawyer.Finally, Italys highest court, the Supreme Court of Cassation, has been praised after ruling that theft of essential sustenance out of dire necessity is not a crime.The ruling came after Roman Ostriakov stole around $6 worth of cheese and a sausage from a supermarket Genoa, Italy, when he couldnt afford anything to eat back in 2011. He was caught, tried, found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of 100.Former Washington DC public defender, Alec Karakatsanis, applauded the decision, noting a recent case in the US where the US Supreme Court failed to protect a homeless man who received jail time after stealing vitamins from a grocery store.It's incredible to me that American courts think of the crime as the homeless person stealing, not as the fact that we live in a society where there are hundreds of thousands of homeless people, Karakatsanis said.
Hi



I have 485 visa and now i want to call my wife in the dependent. I got married after i got my 485 visa. She is living offshore, so can anyone please help me with the process? Like the forms i need to fill up
Hello,I am a bit lost at the moment and tried for ages to get enough information through official sites etc. but couldn`t figure it out as of yet.I hope someone can help me here.I have been to australia on the working holiday visa for two years now.This visa is up now but about a year ago i met my partner.We cant go on a defacto visa because he was married to an englisch girl in 2012 and as i understand it, he`ll have to wait five years before being able to sponsor anyone again.It didnt really bother me in the beginning because I wanted to get a visa myself anyway. For I am a speech therapist in Germany, i was hoping to be able to get a skilled migration Visa for Australia.I passed the OET with the required results and got all my paperwork translated and verified.BUT...to get the accreditation of the" speech pathology association of Australia"I will have to have a portfolio (in english - so I can`t do it back home) and therefore I need to have an internship or volunteer position with a speech pathologist.What kind of visa would I need for an unpaid internship?and/or would it be of more use to go for a study-visa (I would like to further my qualifications anyway) and is it allowed to do an internship on this visa while i am attending courses aswell?And can I still apply for a skilled migration visa as soon as I get the accreditation?Financially I`d be able to support myself from savings and wouldnt even need his support.Because of my partner it became quite an urgency for me to be able to be in australia and as I am 30yrs of age , this is a serious relationship for me.I dont know if anyone was in the same/similar situation and could give me some advice but I hope to find some help here.Thanks in advance!Ange
However Honda expects the BR-V's sales to be diesel-driven considering the preference for diesels among SUV buyers.

Honda's largest-selling vehicle, the City, is seeing a shift in variant demand, as consumers in India are increasingly opting for the petrol version of the sedan, due to the regulatory uncertainty over diesel.



Honda is primarily known for its prowess in petrol engines but with the launch of the City, the carmaker saw as much as 40 percent of the vehicle's sales coming from the diesel variant. Now, however, with the shift towards petrol, owing to the uncertainty over diesel, the percentage is down to 30 percent, according to Raman Kumar Sharma, senior vice president and director, Honda Cars India who spoke to Autocar India on the sidelines of the launch of the BR-V in Mumbai.

However, this shift may not impact the BR-V, as Honda feels the bulk of sales will come from the diesel engine as the SUV segment is still strongly in favour of diesels. Interestingly, the diesel offers only a manual gearbox while the petrol offers a choice of both manual and automatic.

In 2013, the carmaker had to bring about a major change in its investment strategy towards diesel cars, when demand started shifting from petrol. When asked about Hondas approach to the shift to petrol, Yoichiro Ueno, President and CEO, Honda Cars India Ltd said, We have petrol and diesel in all the models that we sell. These cars are produced in same factories, and we are trying to achieve the best flexibility in order to meet the change of demand towards petrol vehicles.

Also read:

Delhi diesel ban reflects unstable policy regime: SIAM



Supreme Court extends ban on diesel vehicles above 2,000cc
AMG

Before we move on to the details of this particular example, which friends call PT1 (Prototype 1), allow us to remind you the origins of the Pachetto Tempesta (this can be translated into velocity package).At this year's Geneva Motor Show, Pagani introduced the $2.5 million Huayra BC , but as it happens with such elite automakers, the company didn't want to make the 100 customers who had acquired "standard" Huayras feel left behind. This is where the Tempesta story steps in, as we're dealing with a kit that can be retrofitted to the Huayra coupe.However, when an upgrade like this ends up costing $160,000 (make that 160,000 plus VAT, if you happen to be reading this from the Old Continent perspective), you'll want to pay special attention to the package.While the details of the update, which ups the ante on all fronts, are mentioned in the piece of footage below, we want to return to the PT1 Huayra Pachetto Tempesta - the prototype now has over 250,000 miles (400,000 km) on it, which makes it a veteran.Nevertheless, don't imagine the machine is in any other condition than an ideal one. The piece of footage below, which comes from TheSUPERCARDRIVER, takes us to the Pagani UK factory, allowing us to get a detailed view of the PT1.In fact, the clip also includes driving footage, with the focus being placed on the way the new titanium exhaust changes the voice of the-sourced twin-turbo V12 in the middle of the car.P.S.: Since we mentioned the aural part of the experience, the video shows that even Pagani employees miss the soundtrack of the Zonda.
The average fuel economy for new vehicles sold in April fell 0.1 mpg to 25.2 mpg from March levels, reports the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI).

This decline likely reflects the increased market share of pickup trucks and SUVs. Fuel economy is down 0.6 mpg from the peak reached in August of 2014, but still up 5.1 mpg since October of 2007, according to UMTRI researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle.

The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index  an index that estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver  was 0.81 in February 2016, which is 0.03 lower than the value for January.

This value indicates the average new-vehicle driver produced 19% lower emissions in February than in October of 2007, but 3% higher emissions than the record low reached in both August of 2014 and August of 2015.

This is the first time the value fluctuated this year; the value had previoulsy remained unchanged since January, when it increased 0.2 mpg from December of 2015.
Airplanes that fly themselves already exist and the accepted wisdom is that were not too far from the day when all airplanes will be robotically operated. But maybe not. At the first annual Sustainable Aviation Foundation symposium in Redwood City, California, three experts in the field were asked about the immediate prospects for commercial autonomous aircraft and they offered three different opinions.

Joshua Portlock, founder of a survey drone company called ScientificAerospace, told attendees at SAF that the hardware and technology exist for reliable autonomy and that the only thing preventing it is the regulatory apparatus. I have a different view, said Willam Parks, chief engineer of Aerovironment, an engineering and design company with alternative aircraft experience extending back more than two decades. The more I work with autonomous aircraft, the more impressed I am with pilots, Parks said. He said the problem with autonomous systems is that even at their current high state of development, they simply arent good at detecting and correcting anomalies without human intervention. And there always are anomalies. When systems arent working right, its very hard to figure out why, said panel member Kevin Jones, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in nearby Monterey, California.

All three panel members reported different experiences and attitudes with regard to robotic airplanes. People in general, who are not pilots, worry about collisions, Jones said, But I talk to my friends who are pilots and theyre not worried at all, he added. Park compared acceptance of autonomous flight with acceptance of elevators without operators. I nothing goes wrong, people will get used to it, Parks added, but it will be gradual.
7 May 2016 10:15 (UTC+04:00)

Representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Azerbaijan, who earlier departed to the frontline zone, visited the Azerbaijani district of Terter, the district's executive authority told Trend May 6.

The trip to the frontline zone was organized by Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry.

The diplomats met with the district's head, Mustagim Mammadov, who informed them about the major damage inflicted to Terter by the Armenian shelling.

Afterwards the diplomats viewed the houses shelled and destroyed by the Armenians, as well as the affected office buildings and land plots in the villages along the line of contact and in the center of the Terter city.

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.

Starting from April 27 evening until 04:00 (GMT + 4) April 28, the Armenian armed forces were firing at the Azerbaijani settlements and the Azerbaijani army positions in the Terter and Aghdam districts of Azerbaijan.

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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Representatives of the diplomatic corps accredited in Azerbaijan, who earlier departed to the frontline zone, visited the Azerbaijani district of Aghdam, the district's executive authority told Trend May 6.

The trip to the frontline zone was organized by Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry.

The diplomats met with the head of the Aghdam district executive authority, Ragub Mammadov, who informed them about the damage inflicted to the district as a result of the Armenian aggression.

Mammadov also informed the diplomats about the latest developments along the frontline.

Starting from April 27 evening until 04:00 (GMT + 4) April 28, the Armenian armed forces were firing at the Azerbaijani settlements and the Azerbaijani army positions in the Terter and Aghdam districts of Azerbaijan.

"More than 100 private houses and an office building were destroyed, two civilians were killed, six people were wounded as a result of the shelling of villages in the Aghdam district by the Armenian army," said Mammadov.

He also informed the diplomats that the Armenians fired at a secondary school in the Sarijali village.

The representatives of the diplomatic corps visited that school as well and got acquainted with its condition after the shelling.

Then the diplomats visited the Chamanli village, also shelled by the Armenians. They viewed the houses destroyed in the village and met with its residents.

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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7 May 2016 10:37 (UTC+04:00)

The Defense Ministry has redeployed the military hardware to training sites with the aim of improving combat readiness of the troops, Azertac repotrs.

Command points were established on routes and roads for ensuring security of the movement of military hardware and personal, the Ministry said.

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7 May 2016 11:00 (UTC+04:00)

The rhetoric about recognition of the "independence" of Nagorno-Karabakh is an attempt to exert pressure not only on Azerbaijan, but also on the OSCE Minsk Group, says Nadana Fridrikhson, political analyst, journalist and expert at the Cube analytical center.

Speaking to Trend May 6, Fridrikhson said the hostilities in early April actually canceled the existing status quo in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

She says that in the current situation, when there are all the prerequisites for the start of a war, Armenia is trying to get on the nerves.

"De jure "recognition of independence" of Nagorno-Karabakh may provoke Azerbaijan into military actions because Baku will have no other choice," added the expert.

Fridrikhson also believes that the confrontation between Moscow and Ankara will affect the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia's Foreign Ministry made a statement on May 5 saying that the rumors about the decision of the Armenian government regarding two MPs' initiative to recognize the "independence" of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region are groundless.

The statement read that the government's decision doesn't mean approval of that initiative.

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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7 May 2016 11:17 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Zakir Hasanov has today met with Latvian Ambassador to the country Juris Maklakovs, Azertac repotrs.

Mr. Hasanov hailed Azerbaijani-Latvian military cooperation, describing it as successful within NATO programs.

The Minister also praised the political and economic cooperation between the two countries.

Mr. Hasanov underlined that Latvia has always supported Azerbaijan`s territorial integrity and condemned Armenia`s occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

Touching upon the recent escalation of tension on the line of contact, the Minister noted that Armenia was a main threat to regional stability. He stressed the importance of settling the conflict within international legal norms and principles and according to UN Security Council resolutions.

The Latvian Ambassador hailed relations between the two countries, and added that Azerbaijan was an important partner of Latvia in Europe.

He underlined that the expansion of military cooperation with Azerbaijan was among key priorities for his country.

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7 May 2016 10:26 (UTC+04:00)

An attempt of recognizing the "independence" of Nagorno-Karabakh is another Armenian provocation, Arye Gut, Israeli expert on international relations and specialist on the South Caucasus, told Trend via e-mail May 6.

The expert said that the so-called "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic" is a separatist terrorist puppet formation, created by Armenia.

"Armenia is geopolitically and economically dependent on the Kremlin's ambitions," he said.

"In the current situation Moscow would not allow Armenia to make decisions itself. In case of recognizing the "independence" of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia will provoke a conflict itself."

"This will mean disrespect for the norms and principles of the international law, the peace process and once again prove the terrorist nature of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's current regime," the expert stressed.

The expert added that the statutes of the international law are only a piece of paper for President Sargsyan's regime.

Armenia's Foreign Ministry made a statement on May 5 saying that the rumors about the decision of the Armenian government regarding two MPs' initiative to recognize the "independence" of Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region are groundless.

The statement read that the government's decision doesn't mean approval of that initiative.

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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7 May 2016 14:14 (UTC+04:00)

Politicians like the pro-Armenian senator Mark Kirk are responsible for fanning the flames of injustice and human suffering in regions such as the South Caucasus, Denis Jaffe, a US military analyst, wrote in his article posted on The Hill.

There, on one side of the geostrategic spectrum there is a pro-Western US ally Azerbaijan, which has its legally recognized territories occupied by neighboring Armenia, which is on the opposite side of the geostrategic and ideological spectrum, wrote Jaffe.

Despite similarities that these nations have due to centuries of friendship and living side by side, there are also key ideological and cultural differences, said the article.

Azerbaijanis made a philosophical choice of a strategy of peaceful development and modernization with no territorial ambitions based on selective historical claims, whilst Armenia chose the path of territorial aggrandizement and claims (against nearly all of its neighbors), ethnic cleansing (99 percent of the population is now Armenian) and embracing terrorism as a way of achieving their goals (members of such terrorist organizations as ASALA are celebrated as national heroes to this day), the author wrote.

Armenia is an extremely poor country from which Armenians are running away in droves, said the article.

Military occupation is expensive for the country in terms of both financial and human cost, according to the author.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Armenia is spending 4.2 percent of its GDP on military, said the article.

No wonder that in the opinion of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Armenia's shift away from a war footing would also help Armenia's economic development and improved standards of living, said the author.

But Armenian government is not hearing this advice, in major part because of prominent politicians like Sen. Mark Kirk, who was the co-chairman of the Congressional Armenian Caucus and received the top score of A+ from an Armenian lobby's annual ranking of members of Congress, Jaffe wrote.

Instead of heeding the advice of so many independent and authoritative analysts and instead of at least refraining from rhetoric that is directed against a US and Israel ally nation of Azerbaijan, Sen. Kirk like the other members of Congress he cites support the illegal Armenian military occupation of Azerbaijan's territory and disregard Azerbaijan's right of self-defense, and blatantly ignore four UN Security Council resolutions - for which the US voted - that call for unconditional withdrawal of all occupying forces of Armenia from Azerbaijan, said the article.

"Perhaps he has forgotten that Azerbaijan was among the first to support the US and NATO mission to Kosovo, and sent its peacekeepers battalion to serve there (it did the same for Afghanistan and Iraq as well)," Jaffe wrote.

The author believes that Sen. Kirk is not the most credible person to dispense any advice or threaten "consequences" to US allies that pursue their inherent right to self-defense.

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 us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
7 May 2016 10:35 (UTC+04:00)

The US is not a competitor to Azerbaijan in the European gas market at all, says Amos Hochstein, the US Department of State special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.

Azerbaijan's gas resources will be supplied to Turkey and Europe, and these supplies are critically important, he added speaking to Trend May 6.

Hochstein said the US gas supplies will in no way get to the region of Europe, where the Azerbaijani gas is to be supplied.

"We can only supply maybe to Lithuania, Spain and Portugal, so I don't see it as a competition," he explained.

Hochstein went on to add that there won't be any competition between the Azerbaijani and the US gas in the future, because the gas Azerbaijan will supply to Europe has already been sold.

"We are not competitors, we are partners," he added.

The US started the export of liquefied natural gas to Europe in April 2016. The first tanker from Louisiana, the US, arrived in the Portuguese port of Sines on April 27.

The first gas from the Azerbaijani field Shah Deniz is expected to reach Europe via the Southern Gas Corridor in 2020.

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7 May 2016 11:54 (UTC+04:00)

The US is looking to see how it can play a role in diversification of the Azerbaijani economy, as well as the energy security of Azerbaijan itself, says Amos Hochstein, the US Department of State special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.

"I think the current market conditions have been painful and are painful for Azerbaijan," he said May 6.

The Southern Gas Corridor originates in Azerbaijan and the country is critical for the energy security of Europe, added Hochstein.

Azerbaijan can play not only the role of producer and seller into Europe, but also the role of a transit point in the region, Hochstein said, adding he thinks it will be a very good thing for Azerbaijan and incredibly important for Europe and Central Asia.

"I believe that we continue to have close relationship with Azerbaijan and work closely together on expanding that," he added.

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7 May 2016 09:46 (UTC+04:00)

The Azerbaijan-EU business forum, organized by the country's Economy Ministry, will be held in Baku May 18, the ministry said.

The business forum will focus on expansion of cooperation in the spheres of trade and investments.

Moreover, the representatives of European and Azerbaijani companies will become familiar with the business environment in Azerbaijan and Europe.

Various panel discussions and bilateral meetings will be held during the forum.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the EU countries stood at $1.53 billion in the first quarter of 2016, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee.

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7 May 2016 11:27 (UTC+04:00)

With the start of construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), no obstacles will remain for the project 'Southern Gas Corridor', which involves delivery of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said.

He made the remarks at the meeting with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the UK Irfan Siddiq in connection with completion of term of his diplomatic activity in Azerbaijan.

At the meeting, the minister expressed confidence that relations between Azerbaijan and the UK will continue to expand.

"The UK company BP is a reliable strategic partner of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said. "During the period of more than 20 years of the company's activity, the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan was given a boost, a large system of production and transportation of energy resources created in the Caspian region, new technologies attracted to the region."

"The signing of a new agreement to develop a block of oil fields 'Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli' (ACG), the work on the gas field 'Shah Deniz' and other energy projects lay the foundation of the Azerbaijani-UK cooperation for the decades to come."

The minister said that the timely implementation of the project 'Southern Gas Corridor' is a key priority for Azerbaijan.

"Laying the foundation of TAP gas pipeline will be held May 17 in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, and then no obstacles will remain to implement the 'Southern Gas Corridor'," Aliyev said. "The expansion of this project and the construction of interconnectors to meet the gas needs of Balkan countries are important issues."

In turn, Siddiq praised energy policy pursued by Azerbaijan and said that the UK government will continue to further support Azerbaijan.

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

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7 May 2016 11:42 (UTC+04:00)

Turkmengas State Concern and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) signed a protocol on the evaluation commission's results on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper wrote May 4.

The signing ceremony was held with the participation of IDB President Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al-Madani and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who was in Saudi Arabia on an official visit on May 1-3.

The headquarters of the IDB, established in 1973, is located in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).

"The IDB fully supports President Berdimuhamedov's initiative on the implementation of the TAPI large-scale project," Al-Madani said. "TAPI's positive results have economic and social aspects."

Al-Madani said that this project has special significance for the socio-economic recovery, stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan.

"Thousands of new jobs will be created due to the construction of a new gas pipeline," he added. "The modern social infrastructure has been formed. This will positively improve the standard of living."

The main document for the TAPI, called the Ashgabat Interstate Agreement, was signed in 2010.

The groundbreaking ceremony for TAPI's Turkmen section was held in mid-December of 2015.

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7 May 2016 12:13 (UTC+04:00)

The alternative to Nord Stream 2 is the acceleration of the Southern Gas Corridor, says Amos Hochstein, the US Department of State special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.

"The alternative to Nord Stream 2 is the acceleration of the Southern Gas Corridor and the acceleration of the LNG terminal [construction] in Croatia and Greece, as well as the IGBP [Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria]," said Hochstein on May 6. "Those are the best answers, they are far more efficient, they are more cost effective and they contribute rather that decline energy security."

Hochstein went on to say that he is looking forward to represent the US in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on May 17 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

He said TAP is a groundbreaking pipeline that has commercial, as well as geopolitical implications for Azerbaijan, for the Caspian region, Turkey and Europe.

"Despite the fact that there has been no US cooperative involvement or financial involvement in this pipeline, we have still seen this pipeline as a top priority for the US national security of the last several years," added Hochstein.

Meanwhile, as he said, the Nord Stream 2 project is not compatible with vision of the Energy Union, nor is it compatible with energy security, overall unity and national security for Europe and the closest neighbors.

"The US is deeply concerned about a pipeline [Nord Stream 2] that would endanger the economic viability of Ukraine and Slovakia," he said. "That would move the overall energy security and Energy Union's concerns significantly backwards."

The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. It envisages the transportation of gas from the Caspian Sea region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.

At the initial stage, the gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. Other sources can also connect to this project at a later stage.

As part of the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz development, the gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline.

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7 May 2016 21:25 (UTC+04:00)

President Hassan Rouhani underlined development, consolidation and deepening of bilateral ties between Tehran and Ashgabat, IRNA reported.

According to the report of the Presidential Office on Saturday, President Rouhani made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov.

Rouhani said that the two countries have had joint successful cooperation with each other and this should be expanded in line with interests of the two nations.

Iran, as a gate to connect Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf and southern waters and Turkmenistan as an access gate to the Central Asian states and even east of Asia, should try to develop and strengthen all-out ties with each other, the president said.

President Rouhani said that the two countries may develop cooperation in Caspian Sea, protection of environment in the region, assisting to compile and accelerate legal regime of the Caspian Sea.

Fight against drug trafficking, establishment of security and stability in the region, confrontation with the terrorist and extremist groups are among other fields of cooperation, Rouhani added.

President Rouhani also underlined the need for multilateral cooperation between Iran, Turkmenistan and other countries of the region, and said that multilateral cooperation will lead to development of economic relations, strengthening stability, unity and consolidation among regional states.

Meredov conveyed greetings of Turkmenistan president to his Iranian counterpart and by referring to cultural and historical commonalties between the two nations, called for all-out development of ties between Tehran and Ashgabat.

He appreciated Iran's supports for Turkmenistan in regional and international circles and organizations and underlined the necessity to use all capacities and opportunities for cooperation in direction of all-out ties upon good neighborliness, equality and common interests.

Meredov said that fight against terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking has always been emphasized by senior officials of Iran and Turkmenistan.

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The head of the Kern County Probation Department has been accused of sexually harassing his secretary for more than a year and then retaliatin
While Saturday, May 7, 2016 will be Graduation day for many St. Petersburg College students, for one soon-to-be-graduate, the day symbolizes her recovery from an abusive relationship that almost killed her.

Four years ago, Melissa Dohme, 24, was beaten, stabbed 32 times by her then-boyfriend

Despite advice against it, Dohme returned to school after the incident

On May 7, Dohme will graduate summa cum laude with a degree in business

Four years ago, Melissa Dohme was stabbed 32 times by her then-boyfriend, Robert Burton, who then nearly beat her to death.



Burton is now serving a life sentence for his crime, but despite justice being served, the crime left Melissa broken, confused and scared.



Dohme, a former nursing student, remembers when she decided to take control of her situation.



The therapist told me that I shouldn't go back to school because I would be really disappointed with myself when I go back and don't do well, and I'll never be the student that I was before, said Dohme.



Thats when she took that prognosis and turned it into a challenge. She started going to school full-time, working and healing her physical and mental wounds. It wasnt easy at times, but she kept one thing in mind.



My ex-boyfriend tried to take my life from me," said Dohme. "Take all my opportunities, take my education, take everything from me. And I wanted to prove to myself and everyone that he didn't win. I won. I can do this.



On Saturday, Dohme will graduate summa cum laude, with a degree in business. She says her work will continue with Julie Weintraub's Hands Across the Bay, speaking publically about her abusive relationship, to help others who may be in similar situations.



She's also engaged to be married later this year to one of the first responders who helped her after she was attacked.



And though her college days are over, Dohme's nose will still be in a book. She plans to write a book about her experiences and resilience. Dohme says she's learned more over the past four years than just what earned her degree.



You can do anything you set your mind to," said Dohme. "Never let anybody tell you you can't do something. I've learned I'm very determined, and I'm actually smarter than I think I gave myself credit for."
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is currently grappling with deep polling deficits in most of the swing states that will decide the race for the White House.



However, some Democrats are warning against taking those states, namely Florida, for granted.

Strategists see parallels between Trump's rise and Gov. Rick Scott's wins in Florida

Scott benefited from elements that should not factor in Trump's efforts during the general election



America's biggest battleground state is also one that has been won twice by Gov. Rick Scott, in 2010 and 2014. Like Trump, Scott was a wealthy political neophyte able to attract the support of disenfranchised conservative voters.



"Rick Scott won in the same way that Trump has won the nomination, by completely controlling the narrative," said Steve Schale, a Democratic strategist who helped run President Obama's Florida campaigns. "Scott did it by buying it. Trump's done it by earned media. And so, you've got to assume he's going to have a big microphone. He's going to be able to define the election in a lot of ways and it's going to be close."



Scott, however, benefited from higher-than-average Republican midterm election turnout, and even then won by extremely narrow margins. Trump isn't likely to enjoy a comparable tailwind.



The issues at hand in a presidential contest also differ considerably from those in a gubernatorial election. Trump's campaign trail threats to withdraw from NATO and reshape America's role in the Middle East, some Democrats predict, will cost him the support of national security-minded voters.



"When Americans look at choosing a president, they realize that they're doing more than just an executive," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). "They're doing a leader of the free world, and they're electing a person to be commander-in-chief."
Your look ahead at the stories and events that will be talked about this week.
SAN ANTONIO  A man who was charged with three counts of aggravated robbery on Tuesday had been booked into the jail more than a dozen times prior to his most recent arrest.

According to public records, Anthony Mari, 32, has had numerous charges filed against him in Bexar County including assault, theft, unlawful restraint, criminal mischief, violation of a protective order and others.
To continue following the latest news and information for Bedfordshire and surrounding areas, simply enter your full postcode below
Benedict Cumberbatch has said filming the battle scenes for The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses was "brutal".

The Sherlock star, 39, plays Richard III in the concluding part of the BBC Two adaptations of Shakespeare's history plays.

The first series of The Hollow Crown, broadcast in 2012, comprised Richard II, Henry IV parts 1 & 2, and Henry V, with Ben Whishaw winning a Bafta for Richard II.

The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses also features the very best of British talent and covers Henry VI Part I & II, and Richard III.

Viewers can expect to see bloody recreations of the battles over the throne of England between the House of Lancaster and the House of York, two branches descended from Edward III.

Cumberbatch admitted training for the Shakespearean epic was "tough".

"We were carrying around weapons of steel and aluminium, which were props but could still do a great deal of damage," he said.

"We were fighting in fields and in rivers with water literally up to our chests. It was brutal. The broadsword as a weapon could crack your skull open with just a glancing blow."

He added: "It really is such a barbarous way to go about winning power. I'm in awe of it. The training was tough - all of us would come away from training looking shell-shocked and pale."

Cumberbatch heads an impressive ensemble cast who are dramatising the lives of key historical figures over the next three weeks.

Theatre director Dominic Cooke is at the helm for all three films.

Viewers will see Dame Judi Dench as the Duchess of York, Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville portraying the Duke of Gloucester, Undercover's Sophie Okonedo as Queen Margaret of Anjou and Being Julia's Tom Sturridge in his Shakespearean debut as King Henry VI.

The line-up also includes Line Of Duty duo Keeley Hawes as Queen Elizabeth and Adrian Dunbar as Plantagenet.

Dame Judi, playing opposite Cumberbatch as his screen mother, jokingly referred to her character as an "old bag".

She paid tribute to the star who won plaudits for his portrayal of Alan Turing in The Imitation Game.

"He's a terrific actor and he did the most spectacular reading," she said.

"He'd just come back from the Toronto Film Festival the night before, after doing all those crazy junket interviews, walked in and then read the whole of the Henry VI plays followed by Richard III."

The 81-year-old added: "He has that ability not to take himself too seriously, as well as being a terrific actor."

Saturday's first instalment opens with Henry VI Part I with Bonneville, Okonedo and Dunbar, alongside Sir Michael Gambon as Mortimer.

The Downton Abbey star pointed to his character's pivotal role in maintaining peace.

"It is Gloucester's death that unleashes the Wars of the Roses," Bonneville said.

"The stability he represented was a certain kind of peace. You take out the central pillar of any society, then you create a vacuum. I'm not making grand claims for this, but you see it in Yemen, or Iraq, or Syria."

On the same theme, he stated: "In the play, you see the dukes piling in and chaos begins. This is the heart of the Wars of the Roses."

Asked if The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses will introduce Shakespeare to new audiences, Bonneville said he was sure it would.

"People shy away from these plays, but our version is very accessible," he said.

:: The Hollow Crown: The War Of The Roses, Henry VI Part 1 is broadcast on May 7 on BBC Two.
Decca Aitkenhead is one of the UK's most respected journalists. But when, two years ago, her name appeared across the press in the headline rather than the byline, it was a sign things had gone terribly wrong in her life. She had found herself as the bewildered and shell-shocked subject of a national news story.

Catastrophe struck out of the blue while she and her partner Tony Wilkinson were on holiday in Jamaica with their two young sons. They'd had a stressful few months juggling work, children and the ambitious renovation of a farmhouse in Kent when Decca suggested they return to their favourite holiday spot in the Caribbean.

Early one morning, Tony and the couple's eldest son Jake went for a beachside stroll, leaving Decca to her yoga stretches. From where she stood outside their hotel room she caught a glimpse of her four-year-old's head bobbing in the surf. He'd been pulled out to sea and his father went in to save him.

She raced down to the beach and could see that Tony, who was not a strong swimmer, was struggling to bring Jake to shore. She went in too, and all three were caught in a powerful rip-tide.

Decca eventually managed to get to shore with Jake and expected Tony to be right behind her. Instead, as she looked on in horror, he was dragged further out to sea. By the time a rescue team had got to him and pulled him out of the water, it was too late. He died in front of them on the sand.

When the unthinkable happens, the journalistic reflex is to provide an account. Aitkenhead has done so in her new book, All At Sea. It is a lucid, gripping and heartbreaking memoir of her love story with Tony, and the terrifying and abrupt manner in which she lost him. When he was alive, Tony often badgered her to write about him - he was convinced that his life would make a brilliant book. But it was only after he died that she realised he'd been right.

Aitkenhead has said the book was written in an agitated burst, like "running over hot coals". It was only afterwards she became aware that the act of writing had been driven by a hidden impulse - one tied up with denial.

"At various points, I discovered that I actually, somewhere subconsciously, thought that he was coming back," she says. "One of them, funnily enough, was when I finished writing the book. And I realised when I gave it to the editors and the editors said lots of amazing things about it and they were really happy, and I thought: 'Well, why am I not feeling any sense of achievement? Or why is nothing good coming in with their kind words?' And I realised that somewhere along the line I thought that if I was really good, if I wrote a good enough book, it was going to bring him back."

We are in The Groucho Club for lunch. Aitkenhead is a tall, glamorous creative professional. However, the thick blonde mane is not her own hair, and the perfectly arched eyebrows are tattoos. Last year, just as she and her sons Jake and Joe were finally starting to emerge from their fog of grief, disaster struck again.

She was in the shower when she found a lump in her breast and a biopsy soon after confirmed she had cancer - the same disease that had killed her mother when she was 39, and Decca was just nine.

"I've been a compulsive planner all my life," she says now. "I love plans. I had a fairly clear idea of where I was going to go to university, what I was going to study. I knew I was going to be a journalist when I was about 12 years old."

But now, with her family ruptured by tragedy and her body recovering from chemo, the idea of future plans holds little concrete meaning.

"It's absolutely bizarre now to be 45 years old and have less idea about where our life is going than I did when I was 15 and I hate it. Because on the one hand I think, 'instead of just feeling crippled by a sense of loss, how about trying to reinvent the experience as a kind of freedom?'"

She explains how she reels from one day to the next, between different, and equally unlikely, possibilities for her family's future, thinking one minute of going to live in San Francisco, or "going to live in a yurt, in a commune and knit yogurt".

But in truth, it's about imagining them all into a different reality, anything other than the painful one they are living through right now.

"Meanwhile, all I'm actually trying to do is get through the day ... I thought I knew who I was going to be bringing my kids up with, and we'd found the house where it was all going to happen, and then it was a complete illusion."

Though she likes order, Aitkenhead has always had little interest in convention. Which explains how she ended up in a relationship with Tony. She was in her early 30s and married to the press photographer Paul Hackett when they first met.

She and her husband had moved to a new house in Hackney, and Tony was a neighbour. A tall, commanding, dreadlocked local who knew and chatted to everybody, he lived a few doors down with his Californian wife and their young daughter. For the sake of appearances, he ran a property development company, but in fact he was a career criminal and wholesale cocaine dealer.

They started out as friends - Tony would drop in regularly to Decca and Paul for cups of tea. With her reporter's nose and interviewer's skill, she eventually drew out his life story.

Born as a mixed-race kid to a white British teenager, he was given up for adoption. He had a stint in foster homes, where his early experiences were of emotional neglect until, by chance, he was adopted by a stalwart, lower middle-class couple who, despite his increasing delinquency, never wavered in their love for him.

Though they always stood by him, the Wilkinsons couldn't control their son. As a teenager, Tony ran away to London and became a Soho hustler. Soon after, when his prostitute girlfriend was abducted by her pimps, he shot them. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and served five.

As her marriage began to flounder, Decca found herself spending more and more time with Tony. As a couple, she admits, they seemed an utterly implausible match. She inhabited arts and media circles, he sold drugs on council estates and was "heavily addicted" to crack cocaine. But there was something about Tony's outsider status that appealed to her. She'd grown up in "genteel poverty", the daughter of radical intellectuals who regarded the cosy certainties and bourgeois values of middle-class life with contempt.

"I could never have seen myself living with somebody who got up in the morning, put on a suit and tie and went to work for the London Review of Books and gave speeches at Chatham House in the evening. That person would be really interesting, but I just can't quite see myself in that emphatically middle-class life," she says.

"It's so much to do with class. Because I never really belonged to the middle classes. I just couldn't see myself as a fully fledged member. I just couldn't. Whereas Tony's completely heterogeneous approach to the world meant that he was friends with people from all walks of life, and barely noticed that they were from different walks of life. That was part of it. It was in no way contrived on his part whatsoever. Not at all. The only thing he really noticed was race. That was the only category distinction that he noticed between people."

Initially, her family were horrified at her new relationship, and for a long time she was estranged from them. But Tony defied both typecasting and expectations, and, after meeting Decca, steered his life through an unexpected plot twist worthy of a Hollywood script.

When, after six months together, Decca left him because of his addiction to crack, he went to Narcotics Anonymous and started therapy. He never took crack again. Soon after, he stopped dealing drugs and went back to education, getting his degree and eventually a job with the now-defunct charity Kids Company as an outreach worker, mentoring troubled teenagers.

"Lots of people have been very curious about how I could have fallen in love with a man who had a violent history," Decca says today. Especially as she's been a committed pacifist since she was a teenager.

"One thing that I would say, and this comes under the context of my difficulties about not really fully belonging to the middle-class, one of the things I've always found deeply alienating about the vast majority of middle-class men is that I realise that they are physically scared of men who live on council estates and don't wear suits to work and don't talk like them and don't read the newspapers that they read.

"That upsets me so much - that they have a physical fear of them, almost as if they are wild animals or something. I find it really alienating, because you can't claim to be this liberal person who believes that everyone is equal. That's not true if when you see someone in a hoodie on a night-bus, your first instinct is that you get an animal response that the person represents a physical threat to you."

For her part, Decca has never been someone much bothered by fear or anxiety - she's got to the age she is now without succumbing to the contemporary tendency to catastrophise. So she was horrified when, in the aftermath of Tony's death, she found herself fearful for the first time ever.

"What had happened in the course of my relationship with Tony was that without me noticing, I had become used to there being somebody to protect me. And in the early months after he was gone, I felt absolutely naked and frightened, and I thought 'God, is this going to be who I am? How do you know if this is now a permanent state of affairs?' And I'm so relieved that it was a temporary state of affairs," she says.

It was harder still to witness the crisis of confidence that followed in her sons, particularly the eldest.

"I felt towards the end of the first year after Tony's death, to some extent their fearlessness had come back, and then when I got cancer Jake became very anxious and fearful, and that was unbearable. I thought they can't withstand two disasters and retain their robust fearless relationship with the world, and that's impossible to ask of them. But I have had a sense in the last month or so, with both of them, that they do have some of their old boldness back. And I'm eternally grateful that I'm not still panicking ... I wouldn't have known who I was. That's someone that I don't ever want to be."

The only thing, she says, that she can be hopeful about is that her sons can get through the upheaval without losing confidence in the world.

"I'm not Pollyanna-ish. I don't think, 'ooh, let's look on the bright side'. It's not really in my nature. I think if they've learnt resilience from this, then they're going to be stronger. Because the whole time you are worrying, are they going to be broken? Is this going to define them forever? Or are they going to have a sense of perspective, and empathy and resilience. Of course I pray that it's the latter."

In the meantime, both she and Jake have been seeing therapists. For Jake, the idea was to help him deal with the survivor's guilt he'd been wrestling with in the aftermath of the accident. In her case, she explains, it was prompted by the huge responsibility she now carries as the single parent of bereaved sons.

"If two little children are depending on you, then you can't make them pay the price for anything that's wrong with you, and they will if you don't get it sorted out."

She finds it useful to have a professional perspective on how they are managing.

"When you live with a partner, or you have a partner, somebody is noticing what you are like. A lot. But if you don't have a partner, even if you see lots of people all the time, you are seeing them for lunch, or for school pick-up. These are discrete meetings that you organise, which isn't the same as this open-ended period of exposure.

"I think we all underestimate our reflex to perform, but nobody can perform for their partner. Or for your children. And so, because I don't have a partner, there is no one who knows what I'm really like, then the only people that will be noticing it are the kids, and they won't be able to tell me. So for them I think it's probably quite helpful if I'm seeing somebody."

It's tempting, she admits, especially when shaping life's messy chaos into a narrative, as she did for her book, to succumb to our need to upswing at the end, to tie things off neatly on a positive note. Of course, it is never that simple, but there are, nonetheless small, important signs of green shoots.

She's back at work again, and physically, there is improvement every day since she stopped cancer treatment at the end of last year.

"Six months ago I felt I had the body of an 80-year-old, and gradually it's coming down by decades. There is a sense that everything is going in the right direction - nothing is getting worse, my hair is getting longer, my tiredness is receding, my scars are healing."
DUP leader and First Minister Arlene Foster celebrates with party colleagues at the Belfast count centre last night

The DUP is on course to maintain its Assembly strength with Arlene Foster returning as First Minister following a its electoral success.

And while Sinn Fein has consolidated its second-place position, its vote share was down and republicans sustained a bloody nose from People Before Profit in West Belfast.

But there was looming disaster for new SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, who only had four seats in the bag as counting closed for the day.

Meanwhile, the Ulster Unionist comeback heralded by leader Mike Nesbitt appeared to have been stopped in its tracks, as he was only halfway towards his minimum target of 16 seats as the first day of counting finished.

The fallout from the election could make it more likely that the SDLP and UUP, or possibly both, will go into Opposition.

Alliance, meanwhile, had won just five seats at the end of the first day.

On the all-important vote share figures, the DUP had more than 29% last night, with Sinn Fein on 24%, UUP on 12.6%, SDLP on 12% and Alliance on 7% - all down on their statistics in the last Assembly election in 2011.

Sinn Fein was down the most, by 2.9 %.

The DUP plan to make Mrs Foster the focus of its campaign - derided by many commentators - appeared to have paid off, with the prospect the party could even exceed its 38 seats in the last Assembly.

Mrs Foster said it was looking "very good".

"Overall, I'm very content," she told the Belfast Telegraph.

"We're very conscious that when it comes, in some cases, to the last seat, it can be down to a handful of votes, so we'll wait to see what happens," she added.

"But I have to say that, initially, it looks very good for the party and I have to thank people for putting their trust in the party and me as First Minister."

On criticism of the "presidential" style of the party's campaign that put her front and centre, she said: "I think the criticism probably came from the media.

"I think the electorate has given them their answer."

After topping the poll in her Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency with more than 8,000 votes, she added: "I'm confident that I am going to be the First Minister and that's down to the people of Northern Ireland. They made their choice and I'm very grateful for it."

Despite Sinn Fein's vote share being down in initial statistics, Martin McGuinness - who scored a personal victory by topping the poll in his native Foyle, to which he had returned from Mid Ulster - insisted the party could still secure 30 seats.

That is the target because it would give the party the automatic right to initiate a petition of concern in the Assembly.

"In all probability all major political parties will go down a bit - not that significantly in my view," he said.

"At this stage, we can say with considerable confidence that the ball park figure of 28, 29, 30 MLAs is eminently achievable (for Sinn Fein), even at this early stage.

"I think that is a pretty remarkable performance."

The turnout was only slightly down on the previous election, with a day of good weather said to have been a factor in offsetting fears that apathy among the electorate would emerge as the real winner. In 2011, 674,103 people went to the polls out of an electorate of 1,210,009, a turnout of 55.71%.

On Thursday, 703,744 ballots were cast out of a possible 1,281,595 - giving a 54.91% turnout, the Electoral Office confirmed.

Among the day's main surprises, the People Before Profit Alliance was poised to secure two Assembly seats after Gerry Carroll topped the poll in Sinn Fein's West Belfast heartland, with party colleague Eamonn McCann on the cusp of joining him in Foyle.

High-profile casualties included independent John McCallister, who lost his seat in South Down after nine years.

Others are going the other way, returning to Stormont after an absence of several years.

They include the Alliance's Naomi Long and Sinn Fein's Michelle Gildernew.

Ulster Unionist Jenny Palmer, who quit the DUP amid allegations she had been bullied, took a scalp from her former party when she was elected in Lagan Valley, and her leader Mike Nesbitt admitted being surprised to top the poll in his Strangford constituency.

On the challenging slopes of politics, controversy-hit former DUP Health Minister Jim Wells was re-elected in South Down, while once-rising SDLP star Fearghal McKinney lost his seat in South Belfast.
(left to right) Pundit Paul McFadden, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood and People Before Profits Eamonn McCann share a joke at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

AS the curtain fell on day one of the the Foyle constituency count, the unforeseen cat amongst the pigeon was Eamonn McCann who took take the sixth seat when no one was looking.

Second shock of the day was the elimination of Sinn Fein's Maeve McLaughlin leaving Foyle constituency with no female representatives.

Almost 50 years after the veteran campaigner first stood for election to local government, Eamonn McCann will almost certainly snatch the sixth seat from under the noses of Sinn Fein and SDLP.

This must surely be seen as a fail for Sinn Fein who set out to take the third seat from the SDLP by bringing Martin McGuinness from his secure seat at Mid Ulster even though they should return two seats.

As the results of the first count were announced shortly after 2pm an audible intake of breath could be heard as the returning officer, Patrica Murphy revealed the People Before Profit's candidate had polled 4,176 first preference votes.

Exiting the Foyle Arena for the night, Eamonn McCann said: "The number of first preference votes just about met our expectations.

"We set ourselves a bench mark of 4,000 and we knew we would get a seat if we got that and unless there had been a very unexpected and eccentric pattern of transfers it looked like we would take the sixth seat."

Raymond McCartney was the first Sinn Fein member to get across the quota of 5,672 after Maeve McLaughin's shock elimination.

Waiting on the final declaration that would see Martin McGuinness elected he was nonetheless insistent that the party had not failed.

He said: "I would not use the word failure, we held our two seats. We did set out to take three seats but I think the party that will be most disappointed in this constituency will be the SDLP who will drop to two seats."

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Picture by Brian Little/Presseye Caral Ni Chuilin and Gerry Kelly are elected in North Belfast at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast on Friday for Belfast North, South East and West constituencies Assembly Election Count. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press Nichola Mallon is elected in North Belfast at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast on Friday for Belfast North, South East and West constituencies Assembly Election Count. Photo Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press First Minister Arlene Foster (DUP) with party colleague Lord Maurice Morrow celebrate their victory in Fermanagh South Tyrone as part of The Northern Ireland Assembly Election 2016 at Omagh Leisure Centre. First Minister Arlene Foster at the election count in Omagh. Picture by John McVitty / Press Eye Catherine Seeley (left) and John O'Dowd (right) of Sinn Fein celebrate their re-election as counting of votes continues at Banbridge Leisure centre for Upper Bann constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. : Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Catherine Seeley and John O'Dowd of Sinn Fein celebrate their re-election as counting of votes continues at Banbridge Leisure centre for Upper Bann constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Sinn Fein's John O'Dowd (left) waits as the counting of votes continues for the Upper Bann constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections at Banbridge Leisure centre in County Down. Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 - The assembly election count for Upper Bann continues into it's second day today in Bainbridge Leisure centre, with four seats left to be filled. Pictured: Sinn Fein candidate John O'Dowd pictured deep in thought at the second day of the count in Banbrigde. Picture by Philip Magowan / Press Eye. Philip Magowan Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 - The assembly election count for Upper Bann continues into it's second day today in Bainbridge Leisure centre, with four seats left to be filled. Pictured: Ulster Unionist candidate Joanne Dobson has been elected after stage nine, and celebrates with friends, family, and party colleagues. Picture by Philip Magowan / Press Eye. Philip Magowan Richie McPhillips of the SDLP (second left) celebrates being elected in the constituency of Fermanagh & South Tyrone as counting continues at the Omagh count centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections.Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Ulster Unionist Jo Anne Dobson celebrates election in Upper Bann with son Mark. Michael McHugh/PA Wire PA Rosemary Barton of the UUP celebrates being elected in the constituency of Fermanagh & South Tyrone as counting continues at the Omagh count centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Press Eye - Valley Leisure Centre - Count Centre - 7th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Stewart Dickson, Alliance, elected. The count continues for the second day at the Valley Leisure Centre for East Antrim. DUP leader Arlene Foster MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone makes time for a quick cup of tea as counting continues at the Omagh count centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Brian Lawless/PA Wire PA Rosemary Barton (UUP) being congratulated by Tom Elliott, MP during The Northern Ireland Assembly Election 2016 at Omagh Leisure Centre. picture by John McVitty / Press Eye Daniel McCrossan (SDLP) elected West Tyrone as part of The Northern Ireland Assembly Election 2016 at Omagh Leisure Centre. picture by John McVitty / Press Eye Press Eye - Valley Leisure Centre - Count Centre - 7th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Returning officer Janet Goodall announces Stewart Dickson, Alliance, elected. The count continues for the second day at the Valley Leisure Centre for East Antrim. Press Eye - Valley Leisure Centre - Count Centre - 7th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan The count continues for the second day at the Valley Leisure Centre for East Antrim. Press Eye - Valley Leisure Centre - Count Centre - 7th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan (L-R) Daragh Monaghan, Noel Williams, Sandra Dickson and Stewart Dickson. Stewart Dickson elected. The count continues for the second day at the Valley Leisure Centre for East Antrim. First Minister Arlene Foster (DUP) arriving today Saturday for The Northern Ireland Assembly Election 2016 at Omagh Leisure Centre. picture by John McVitty / Press Eye Daniel McCrossan (SDLP) elected West Tyrone as part of The Northern Ireland Assembly Election 2016 at Omagh Leisure Centre. picture by John McVitty / Press Eye @Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland- 6th May 2016 Mandatory Credit -Brian Little/Presseye DUP's Simon Hamilton, after being successful elected for Strangford at the Assembly Elections at the Aurora Leisure Centre, Bangor. Picture by Brian Little/Presseye (left to right) Pundit Paul McFadden, SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood and People Before Profits Eamonn McCann share a joke at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Newly elected DUP MLA's for Belfast South, Emma Little Pengelly and Christopher Stalford celebrate their victory at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Newly elected DUP MLA for Belfast South, Emma Little Pengelly speaks at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Newly elected DUP MLA for Belfast South, Christopher Stalford speaks at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Alliance Party's Paula Bradshaw celebrates after become the MLA for Belfast South at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, during the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Newly elected MLA SDLP candidate for the Belfast West Claire Hanna, (centre) celebrates with supporters at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Sinn Fein candidate for Belfast West Pat Sheehan speaks with media after being returned for another term during the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness is interviewed outside the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan UUP's David Trimble(left) at the count. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness is interviewed at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Trevor Lunn with Amanda Grehan. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Fein), who was elected in the Fermanagh South Tyrone count at Omagh Leisure Centre. picture by John McVitty / Press Eye Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Harold McKee, elected with Jim Wells. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Emma Little-Pengelly, DUP at Titanic exhibition Centre in Belfast. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness is interviewed outside the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams with party colleagues at Titanic exhibition Centre in Belfast. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker A party activists wears a DUP rosette at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams with party colleagues at Titanic exhibition Centre in Belfast. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Gerry Carroll, People Before Profit Alliance looks at his portrait after being elected in West Belfast at Titanic exhibition Centre in Belfast. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Arlene Foster, relaxing after being elected in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. picture by John McVitty, Enniskillen, Co.Fermanagh / Press Eye Gary Middleton of the DUP is kissed by his wife Julie after election in Foyle, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PA PA Alliance Party's candidate for east Belfast Naomi Long is congratulated after it is announced she has made the quota. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Emma Little-Pengelly, DUP at Titanic exhibition Centre in Belfast. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 - The assembly election count for Newry and Armagh takes place in Banbridge Leisure Centre. Pictured: DUP Upper Bann Candidate Sydney Anderson is elected into the Assembly after the second count. Picture by Philip Magowan / Press Eye. Philip Magowan Alastair Patterson (UUP) at the Election Count at Omagh Leisure Centre. Picture by John McVitty / Press Eye George Robinson of the DUP (centre blue suit) is elected an MLA for East Londonderry as counting of votes continues at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PA PA Sinn Fein candidate Martin McGuinness arrives at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry, as counting of votes continues in the the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PA PA The assembly election count for Newry and Armagh takes place in Banbridge Leisure Centre. Pictured: DUP Upper Bann candidate Carla Lockhart topped the poll on the first count with a total of 7993 votes. Picture by Philip Magowan / Press Eye. Philip Magowan Martin McGuinness arrives the Foyle Count in the Foyle Arena in Derry. Picture Martin McKeown. Inpresspics.com. Alex Easton, DUP after being successful on the first count for North Down for the Assembly Elections at the Aurora Leisure Centre, Bangor. Picture by Brian Little/Presseye Vote counters distribute surplus votes during the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections count at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Mairtin O Muilleoir, Sinn Fein candidate for Belfast South, applauds the news that he has been elected as an MLA during the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Maurice Bradley of the DUP (centre) celebrates his election as an MLA for East Londonderry, as the counting of votes continues at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry in the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire PA PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 DUP's Ian Paisley Jnr at the North Antrim count, held in Ballymena. Cliff Donaldson PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Sinn Fein's Daithi McKay at the Ballymena count. Cliff Donaldson DUP leader Arlene Foster (L) gives a victory sign alongside DUP chairman and fellow candidate Lord Morrow (R) after being elected at the Northern Ireland Assembly count at Omagh Leisure on May 6, 2016 in Omagh, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Mairtn i Muilleoir, Sinn Fein candidate for Belfast South, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA PACEMAKER PRESS 06/05/2016. 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Votes are counted at Omagh Leisure centre as Voters took to the polls across Northern Ireland. Pictured is DUP leader Arlene Foster with Lord Morrow. PICTURE MARK MARLOW/PACEMAKER PRESS PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Gerry Carroll, People Before Profit Alliance is elected in West Belfast at Titanic exhibition Centre in Belfast. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. Pic Colm Lenaghan/Pacemaker OMAGH, NORTHERN IRELAND - MAY 06: DUP leader Arlene Foster jokes as she attempts to take a photograph of a party colleague after being elected at the Northern Ireland Assembly count at Omagh Leisure on May 6, 2016 in Omagh, Northern Ireland. Two hundred and seventy six candidates are contesting 108 seats across the province. The Democratic Unionist Party are predicted to return as the largest political party in the province with Arlene Foster also returned as First Minister of the power sharing government with Sinn Fein the second largest party. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images OMAGH, NORTHERN IRELAND - MAY 06: DUP leader Arlene Foster (C) celebrates with party members after being elected at the Northern Ireland Assembly count at Omagh Leisure on May 6, 2016 in Omagh, Northern Ireland. Two hundred and seventy six candidates are contesting 108 seats across the province. The Democratic Unionist Party are predicted to return as the largest political party in the province with Arlene Foster also returned as First Minister of the power sharing government with Sinn Fein the second largest party. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) Getty Images Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. People Before Profit Alliance candidate Gerry Carroll celebrates after it is announced he has made the quota to be elected an MLA. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Alex Maskey (centre) of Sinn Fein is congratulated by fellow candidate Pat Sheehan (left) and his brother Paul Maskey (right) after being elected as MLA for Belfast West, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Friday May 6, 2016. See PA story ULSTER Election. Photo credit should read: Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Sinn Fein candidate for south Belfast Mairtin O Muilleoir pictured at the count. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: North Down & Strangford counts in Aurora Leisure Complex in Bangor. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. The Alliance Party's David Ford looks over the numbers during the count. Picture By: Matthew Bohill Pacemaker. NI Assembly Elections Foyle and East Londonderry count Dup candidate Gary Middleton. Photo: Lorcan Doherty / Presseye.com Lorcan Doherty The Alliance Party's David Ford looks over the numbers. Picture: Matt Bohill PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 (L-R) Jane McCallister with her husband Independent John McCallister and SDLP's Margaret Ritchie. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: North Down & Strangford counts in Aurora Leisure Complex in Bangor. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Michelle McIlveen, DUP pictured after being elected, reaching the quota for election on the first count. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. People Before Profit Alliance candidate Gerry Carroll celebrates after it is announced he has made the quota to be elected an MLA. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Artist Brian John Spencer draws a caricature of DUP leader Arlene Foster, as he is watched by Guy Spence (left), DUP Deputy Lord Mayor of Belfast and Christopher Stalford, DUP councillor for Balmoral, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: North Down & Strangford counts in Aurora Leisure Complex in Bangor. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Michelle McIlveen, DUP pictured after being elected, reaching the quota for election on the first count. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: North Down & Strangford counts in Aurora Leisure Complex in Bangor. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. UUP's Mike Nesbitt pictured after being elected, reaching the quota for election on the first count. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: North Down & Strangford counts in Aurora Leisure Complex in Bangor. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. UUP's Mike Nesbitt pictured after being elected, reaching the quota for election on the first count. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: North Down & Strangford counts in Aurora Leisure Complex in Bangor. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. UUP's Mike Nesbitt pictured after being elected, reaching the quota for election on the first count. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. DUP candidates for south Belfast Christopher Stalford and Emma Pengelly is congratulated after her quota is announced. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. DUP candidate for south Belfast Emma Pengelly is congratulated after her quota is announced. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. Alliance Party's candidate for east Belfast Naomi Long is congratulated after it is announced she has made the quota. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. DUP candidate for east Belfast Joanne Bunting(centre) is congratulated after it is announced she has made the quota. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. DUP candidate for east Belfast Joanne Bunting is congratulated after it is announced she has made the quota. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Sinn Fein's Linda Dillon, Michelle O'Neill and Ian Milne celebrate after being elected for Mid-Ulster, at the Ballymena count. PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Paul Girvan of the DUP tops the polls in South Antrim. Picture Matt Bohill. PACEMAKER PRESS 06/05/2016. 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Votes are counted at Omagh Leisure centre as Voters took to the polls across Northern Ireland. Pictured is DUP party leader Arlene Foster arriving at the count centre in Omagh. PICTURE MARK MARLOW/PACEMAKER PRESS PACEMAKER PRESS 06/05/2016. 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Votes are counted at Omagh Leisure centre as Voters took to the polls across Northern Ireland. Pictured is DUP party leader Arlene Foster arriving at the count centre in Omagh. PICTURE MARK MARLOW/PACEMAKER PRESS Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections. DUP candidate for south Belfast Emma Pengelly(second from left) pictured with party colleagues including MP for north Belfast Nigel Dodds(right). Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Nichola Mallon, SDLP candidate for Belfast North, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Emma Little-Pengelly, DUP candidate for Belfast South, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections.Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA (left to right) Nelson McCausland, DUP candidate for Belfast North, Diane Dodds, DUP MEP, William Humphrey and Paula Bradley, DUP candidates for Belfast North, Nigel Dodds, DUP MP for North Belfast and Frank McCoubrey, DUP candidate for Belfast West, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Bundes of ballot papers for Anna McCloskey, Independent Party candidate, Martin McGuinness and Meave McLaughlin, Sinn Fein candidates, as the counting of votes continues at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry in the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Counting of votes continues at the Foyle Arena in Londonderry in the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Niall Carson/PA Wire PA Bundles of ballot papers are placed beside each corresponding candidates name, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA People Before Profit Alliance candidates Gerry Carroll for Belfast West and Fiona Ferguson for Belfast North, chat at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Fra McCann, Sinn Fein candidate for Belfast West, at the Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, where the counting of votes continues in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Jim Wells arrives at the Lesiure Plex in Lisburn and is refused entry because he does not have photographic ID with him. He is delayed for a short time before he is admitted to the centre. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Jim Wells arrives at the Lesiure Plex in Lisburn and is refused entry because he does not have photographic ID with him. He is delayed for a short time before he is admitted to the centre. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Jim Wells arrives at the Lesiure Plex in Lisburn and is refused entry because he does not have photographic ID with him. He is delayed for a short time before he is admitted to the centre. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections Counting underway at the Banbrige count centre A count supervisor sorts voting papers at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast, after elections to decide the make-up of the next Stormont Assembly. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA A volunteer counts ballot papers at the counting centre at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast, after elections to decide the make-up of the next Stormont Assembly. Liam McBurney/PA Wire PA Volunteers empty a ballot box in the counting centre at the Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast PA PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections Counting underway at the Banbrige count centre PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections Counting underway at the Banbrige count centre PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections Counting underway at the Banbrige count centre PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections Counting underway at the Banbrige count centre PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Northern Ireland Assembly elections Counting underway at the Banbrige count centre PACEMAKER BELFAST 06/05/2016 Ballot boxes for the Foyle Constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly election are opened at the count centre in the Foyle Arena. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: East & South Antrim count at Valley Leisure Centre Glengormley. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. The votes first have to be verified - checking that the same number of papers are inside the ballot boxes as those given out by polling station staff. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: East & South Antrim count at Valley Leisure Centre Glengormley. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. The votes first have to be verified - checking that the same number of papers are inside the ballot boxes as those given out by polling station staff. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: East & South Antrim count at Valley Leisure Centre Glengormley. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. The votes first have to be verified - checking that the same number of papers are inside the ballot boxes as those given out by polling station staff. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: East & South Antrim count at Valley Leisure Centre Glengormley. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. The votes first have to be verified - checking that the same number of papers are inside the ballot boxes as those given out by polling station staff. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Pacemaker Press Belfast 06-05-2016: NI Assembly election: East & South Antrim count at Vally Leisure Centre Glengormley. The process of counting votes in the Northern Ireland Assembly election has begun. Two hundred and seventy-six candidates are competing for 108 seats across Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies. The votes first have to be verified - checking that the same number of papers are inside the ballot boxes as those given out by polling station staff. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Counting begins at the Titanic Convention centre in east Belfast for the North, East, South West constituencies. Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 6th May 2016 Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan The count gets under way at Lisburn Leisure Plex count centre for Lagan Valley and South Down candidates. Press Eye - Lagan Valley Count Centre - 6th May 2016 Photograph By Declan Roughan Pacemaker Press Belfast 05-05-2016: NI Assembly election: Voters are heading to polls across Northern Ireland to cast their vote for the Assembly elections. Alliance Party leader David Ford pictured at Second Donegore Presbyterian Church, polling station in Co. Antrim after casting his vote. Picture By: Arthur Allison. Sinn Fein supporters holding sample ballot sheets, showing people how to vote, camped outside St Teresa's Polling Station in West Belfast Photopress Belfast Sinn Fein supporters holding sample ballot sheets, showing people how to vote, outside St Teresa's Polling Station in West Belfast Photopress Belfast Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 UUP Leader Mike Nesbitt arrives with his wife Lynda at Gilnahirk Primary School to make his vote on Polling day. Picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 UUP Leader Mike Nesbitt with his wife Lynda at Gilnahirk Primary School to make his vote on Polling day. Picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press DUP Leader, Arlene Foster, arriving with councillor Paul Robinson and friend Rhona McMahon at Brookeborough Controlled Primary School to cast her vote in today's Assembly Election. DUP Leader, Arlene Foster, speaks to a local resident after arriving at Brookeborough Controlled Primary School to cast her vote in today's Assembly Election. Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote in polling stations around Belfast. Pictured are canvassers outside Welcome evangelical church in the Woodvale area of West Belfast. picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote at Holy Trinity Primary School n West Belfast. Pictured is West Belfast's Sinn Fein number 1 candidate Pat Sheehan with a young one direction fan. Picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote in polling stations around Belfast. picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote in polling stations around Belfast. Pictured are canvassers outside Welcome evangelical church in the Woodvale area of West Belfast. picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote in polling stations around Belfast. Pictured is DUP cllr Brian Kingston [left] outside Edenbrooke ps. picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press Pacemaker press 05/05/2016 Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote in polling stations around Belfast. picture Mark Marlow/pacemaker press SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and his wife Rachel with baby Rosa arrive to cast their vote at the Model Primary School in Derry on Thursday morning for the NI Local Assembly Elections. Picture Margaret McLaughlin  please by-line 5-5-16 Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness and fellow candidates Maeve McLaughlin and Raymond McCartney arrive to cast their vote at the Model Primary School in Derry on Thursday morning for the NI Local Assembly Elections. Supported by Mitchel McLaughlin and Martina Anderson MEP. Picture Margaret McLaughlin  please by-line 5-5-16 SDLP leader Colum Eastwood's wife Rachel with baby Rosa arrive to cast their vote at the Model Primary School in Derry on Thursday morning for the NI Local Assembly Elections. With Mark Durkan MP and former SDLP leader. Picture Margaret McLaughlin  please by-line 5-5-16 Press Eye - Belfast - Northern Ireland - 5th May 2016 Voters take to the polls across Northern Ireland as voting begins in the 2016 Northern Ireland Assembly Election. Voters cast their vote at St. Teresa's Primary School Polling Station in west Belfast. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye Election candidates Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, Raymond McCartney and Maeve McLaughlin after casting their vote at the Model Primary School in Derry on Thursday morning for the NI Local Assembly Elections. Picture Margaret McLaughlin  please by-line 5-5-16 / Facebook

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Whatsapp @Press Eye Ltd Northern Ireland- 6th May 2016 Mandatory Credit -Brian Little/Presseye Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt success on the first count for Strangford for the Assembly Elections at the Aurora Leisure Centre, Bangor. Picture by Brian Little/Presseye

"The party that will be most pleased I suppose is People Before Profit whenever Eamonn is, as I predict elected tomorrow."

All eyes had been on the performance of SDLP leader, Colum Eastwood and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister and while at one stage, a single vote separated the pair at the end of the day both were certs to make it across the finish line.

The SDLP must undoubted by devastated to lose their third seat after Gerard Diver's poor poll.

He had been co-opted to the Assembly in January this year by the SDLP as Pat Ramsey's replacement but a disasterous interview on the Steven Nolan show impacted in the toll booths.

A total of 16 candidates had their names on the ballot paper in Foyle - three of them Independents but at the end of counting last night two of them - Kathleen Bradley and Maurice Devenney had gone as had Alan Dunlop for the Conservatives, Mary Hassan for the Green Party, Julia Kee UUP, John Lindsay CISTAP and Chris McCaw, Alliance.

Any damage Maurice Devenney had hoped to do to his former party the DUP that he resigned from in extremely acrimonious circumstances in February fell to nothing.

DUP's Gary Middleton was first elected with a comfortable margin over the quota of 5,672 with a total tally of 6641.

Speaking after he was deemed elected, the buoyant DUP man said: "We have had a really positive campaign, we have been up and down lane-ways and we really enjoyed the campaign even though it was difficult, there was a lot of dirt thrown at us but we got through it and thankfully the people came out and put their support to us."

Final tally saw Colum Eastwood and Mark H Durkan elected for SDLP, Martin and McGuinness and Raymond McCartney elected for Sinn Fein, Gary Middleton elected for the DUP and Eamonn McCann elected for People Before Profit.
Sinn Feins Linda Dillon, Michelle ONeill and Ian Milne celebrate after being elected for Mid Ulster, at the count in Ballymena

Sinn Fein showed it could comfortably survive in Mid-Ulster without Martin McGuinness.

The Deputy First Minister was elected in Mid-Ulster in 1998 but switched constituencies this year to run in his home area of Foyle.

Any fears that the loss of such a high-profile candidate would hit their vote were quickly discounted by Sinn Fein as all three of their candidates romped home in the first count in Ballymena's Seven Towers Leisure Centre yesterday.

Ian Milne (SF) topped the poll with Michelle O'Neill, the outgoing Stormont Agriculture Minister, and former Mid-Ulster District councillor Linda Dillon who replaced Martin McGuinness, also getting elected.

Veteran SDLP politician Patsy McGlone came second in the poll as four of the six seats were quickly snapped up.

Late last night it looked as if the Ulster Unionist Party's Sandra Overend would be elected along with one of the DUP duo of Willie McCrea and Keith Buchanan.

Amidst joyous Sinn Fein scenes, poll-topper Milne told the Belfast Telegraph: "I'm delighted personally but it is a team effort and we are delighted our three candidates have been elected." Michelle O'Neill said Sinn Fein stood 15 females out of their 39 candidates which she said showed they are "serious about electing women".

She added: "So I look forward to being joined by a lot more women before the end of the day."

O'Neill said she was delighted that another female MLA - Linda Dillon - is going to join their team.

Ms Dillon said: "I feel very privileged and honoured to have been voted in in Mid-Ulster."

She said: "I don't see myself as filling Martin's shoes necessarily, but delighted the party made that move and that it pays off for us in Foyle in terms of Martin getting the third seat.

"Martin's always been a great advocate for people coming through, particularly women, so he will be very proud that a woman has taken this seat."

The SDLP's Patsy McGlone said although the turnout reduced by 5% from the last election, the party's percentage share had gone up. He said: "To be elected with a surplus on the first count is very heartening.

"The constituency work, health issues, housing issues, education, planning, that's the type of stuff that gets you re-elected and that's where those first preferences were coming from right along.

"You don't want to be a face, you want to be someone who's there for people when they need you. Priority is to get stuck back into the work and continue doing what I have done for a number of years, continue with a good service to the electorate."

With it looking likely that Sandra Overend would grab a seat it remained to be seen which one of the DUP two would make it over the line.
Geraldine Martin fell 45ft on the first night of her holiday in Spain

A fundraising drive to repatriate a critically ill Belfast woman after she fell from a balcony in Spain four weeks ago has been launched by her devastated family.

Geraldine Martin, a mother-of-three and grandmother-of-six, fell 45ft during the first night of a holiday in Murcia.

The 54-year-old suffered a catalogue of injuries including a broken pelvis, arm, ankles and ribs after the third floor plunge.

She is also being treated for an abscess in the abdomen and pneumonia. She is under heavy sedation and been placed in a medically-induced coma.

Doctors attempted to release Ms Martin from ventilation on Tuesday, but reintroduced the support as she was struggling. On her admission she was given a 10% chance of survival, which doctors now say has increased to 50%.

Relatives are pleading with the public to help them raise the 15,000 needed to transport her and a medical team to a hospital here via a ferry, as she is too ill to fly by air ambulance.

Sister-in-law Martine McCullough said the whole family was distraught, and Ms Martin's daughters Leanne (30) and Nicola (34) and son Gerard (36) have been keeping a vigil by her beside.

Different members of the family will be taking turns to fly out in the coming days and weeks.

"It's been an absolute nightmare for the whole family, but it's an absolute miracle that she has survived," Mrs MuCullough said.

"Nobody knows what happened, other than Geraldine fell from the balcony on her first day.

"One day we get good news, then the next day it can all change.

"Doctors brought her out of the coma and she seemed to be responding, she was trying to smile, then today we have been told she has a bleed and they don't know where it is coming from.

"The doctors have said that there is a nasty abscess in her abdomen, which they need to deal with first before they can even think about treating her different broken bones - she's just so frail at the minute. They tried to insert metal plates into her broken pelvis but it caused her to go into shock, and the fall punctured her lung, so her lung has now collapsed too."

Although Ms Martin did not have additional travel insurance, she did have her European Health Insurance Card, which means that her treatment is free within the European Union.

The fundraiser is to ensure there is enough money to bring Ms Martin home once doctors deem her fit enough, where family and friends can visit and care for her.

"We just all want her home so we can support and look after her," Mrs McCullough added.

The family now plans to host a fundraising and raffle evening in the Glenowen Inn, Glen Road, Belfast, on May 14. Tickets are available at venues throughout west Belfast and from Mrs McCullough.

You can help the family by visiting their JustGiving page
Joanne Bunting (centre) of the DUP celebrates after being elected as MLA for Belfast East at the Titanic Exhibition Centre

A victorious Naomi Long was last night smiling over all her face which had been moist with tears in private after the last time she stood for election in east Belfast.

The Alliance Party's deputy leader who cried along with her party workers after she lost her Westminster seat to the DUP a year ago has now fought her way back to frontline politics by winning a seat in the Assembly.

In 2015 she styled herself the 'Ginger Ninja' but last night she was hailed a real-life champion by the party she seems destined to lead before long.

Mrs Long came second in the Assembly poll behind the DUP's Joanne Bunting who was branded by a number of commentators in the run up to the election as 'Joanne Who?" even though she's a former Mayor of Castlereagh.

Mrs Bunting said she'd been expecting to be involved in a dogfight to win one of the last seats in East Belfast where former DUP leader Peter Robinson had been an MLA until he retired earlier this year.

"I thought I would be slogging it out at the end but it's a lovely surprise to have topped the poll. I am honoured to be representing the people of east Belfast," said Mrs Bunting, who served on Castlereagh council for 11 years.

But she's no stranger to Stormont either. "I have worked in the Assembly for 18 years, the last nine of them in the Chief Whip's office. So I am familiar with the workings up at Stormont though this will be a whole different ball game."

Mrs Bunting had 5,538 first preference votes, just 56 more than Mrs Long who revealed that she had considered pulling out of politics altogether after she was defeated at the Westminster election last year.

"It was an option," she said. "I didn't rush back into politics. I took my time because I wanted to be sure I was doing the right thing. But the passion was still there and I wanted to be back as part of the team at Stormont."

Mrs Long said she was hopeful that her running mates Chris Lyttle and Tim Morrow would win a second, and possibly a third one in what she added was the party's best-ever vote for any constituency in an Assembly election.

Mrs Long and Mrs Bunting may have been elected on the first count but the return of any more candidates was significantly slower. The PUP's high-profile councillor in east Belfast, Dr John Kyle, threw in the towel early on saying he was disappointed that he had not done better at the polls.

The DUP were confident that they would retain their two seats in East Belfast through Sammy Douglas and Robin Newton.

The party's East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson, who was an ever present at the count in the Titanic Exhibition Centre, said that the absence of his predecessor Peter Robinson during the election campaign had not been a factor or a mystery.

"Arlene is the party leader. Peter has retired but he still takes a keen interest."
A man who was caught on CCTV attacking police during a riot last year has been sent to Hydebank Young Offenders Centre

A man who was caught on CCTV attacking police during a riot last year has been sent to Hydebank Young Offenders Centre.

Warehouse worker Michael Morrison (19), from Highfield Drive in Belfast, will spend 16 months in detention followed by 16 months on supervised licence.

He was seen wearing various Union flag items during the riot in the Woodvale Road/Twaddell Avenue area - including a bow tie and sunglasses.

Crown prosecutor Simon Jenkins told Belfast Crown Court that trouble flared in the area on July 13 last year when a large crowd gathered in response to a Parades Commission determination not to allow Orange lodges and bandsmen to return past the Ardoyne shops.

The crowd that gathered in the Woodvale and Twaddell Avenue area attacked police with missiles including bricks, bottles and stones, injuring more than 20 officers.

Morrison was part of the crowd and was captured on video from around 8.10pm to 9.40pm.

Mr Jenkins said that during the 90-minute period Morrison was seen throwing around 15 objects at police.

At one point he was observed baring his backside at officers and hiding his face with a Union flag. He was arrested a month later and admitted he was the male in the CCTV footage.

Judge Alistair Devlin spoke of the harm caused by the riot and handed Morrison a 32-month sentence for "extensively, actively participating" in it.
Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness is hugged by granddaughter Cara after his election in Foyle.

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has hailed her party's "tremendous" performance in the Northern Ireland Assembly election after an unexpected repeat of its best ever Stormont haul.

The 38 seats won by the party is the same number it secured in 2011 in an election many, including party strategists, viewed as a one-off historic high water mark.

While much of the campaign focused on whether Sinn Fein could eclipse the DUP as the region's largest party - a possibility Mrs Foster herself repeatedly warned of - in the event the gap between the two main Stormont parties actually grew, albeit slightly.

Sinn Fein's 28 seats was one short of its tally in 2011. It was also shy of the significant 30 seat threshold that would have handed the republican party extra power to veto Assembly legislation.

In an election that saw most of the main parties consolidate their seat strength, there were also some notable victories for the smaller parties, with the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) and Green Party both winning two seats each.

The DUP's showing is undoubtedly a strong validation of Mrs Foster's leadership, coming six months after she replaced the retiring Peter Robinson.

"It has been a tremendous election and I feel very energised by the fact the people have put their trust in us," said Mrs Foster, who topped the poll in her own Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency.

"It's a strong endorsement of the direction of travel. We set out a five-point plan for a safer, stronger Northern Ireland, that is what have discussed right across the country as I criss-crossed across the country.

"We got a very warm reception for it and that has shown in the ballot boxes.

"The people have spoken, we have now received mandates and we must now put those mandates into action."

Mrs Foster will now return as Stormont First Minister. The former Ulster Unionist, who defected to the DUP in 2004, said she "wanted to get things done" in the term.

"I am very determined, and I am incredibly proud to be the leader of this great wee country that we call Northern Ireland and I am looking forward to leading it over the next mandate," she said.

Over the coming days, the emphasis will shift to negotiations between the main parties on the shape of the new coalition administration, its agreed programme for government and which parties will take on which ministerial portfolios.

Two things are different in the wake of this election - firstly, the talks on the programme for government are taking place before the executive is formed and, secondly, parties can now avail of the recently-established option of forming an official opposition rather than entering the executive.

Of the 108 candidates elected to Stormont, the DUP has 38, Sinn Fein 28, the Ulster Unionists 16, the SDLP 12, Alliance eight, PBPA two, Greens two, with the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) and independent Claire Sugden winning one each.

The SDLP and Ulster Unionists both had disappointing elections.

The SDLP, the once dominate power within nationalism, has dropped two seats on its 2011 tally. Though the UUP repeated the 16 seat haul of 2011, it did not make the in-roads leader Mike Nesbitt had confidently predicted. Reflecting on the outcome, Mr Nesbitt said: "Not great but not bad".

For the Alliance Party, which also won eight seats in 2011, it was a case of "as you were".

Long time Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he was pleased with his party's performance, insisting it had to viewed in the context of the "challenges" the executive had faced in the last mandate, highlighting the economic downturn and UK Government "austerity policies".

"That is pretty remarkable performance given the challenges we have faced over the course of the last Assembly term," he said.

The Sinn Fein veteran said he was now looking forward to the "new Assembly and new executive" and focusing on what could be delivered.

Whatever the exact make-up of the next power sharing administration, it is sure to face vocal criticism from the opposition benches.

The two seat pick-up by the socialist People Before Profit Alliance was a remarkable feat for a party with no previous representation in the chamber.

PBPA's Gerry Carroll topped the poll in Sinn Fein's west Belfast heartland while veteran civil rights campaigner Eamonn McCann won a seat for the party in Foyle.

The Green Party also secured two seats in the new mandate, with party leader Steven Agnew and Clare Bailey winning through.

Jim Allister, leader of the TUV and arch-critic of the last administration, retained his seat, though failed to bring any colleagues in with him.

Ms Sugden, who was co-opted during the last term into the seat held by the late independent David McClarty, won a berth at Parliament Buildings in her own right.

Among the high-profile political casualties were independent unionist John McCallister, who lost his South Down seat after nine years, and outgoing DUP MLAs David McIlveen and Ian McCrea. Former SDLP deputy leader Dolores Kelly also lost out in Upper Bann after being edged out for the sixth seat by outgoing Sinn Fein education minister John O'Dowd.

The Alliance Party's Naomi Long and Sinn Fein's Michelle Gildernew will be making a return to the Stormont benches after previously serving as MPs.

Jenny Palmer, who quit the DUP amid allegations she had been bullied, took a seat from her former party when she was elected for the Ulster Unionists in Lagan Valley.

Former DUP health minister Jim Wells, who was embroiled in a series of controversies in the last term, was also re-elected in South Down.

The SDLP faced a tight battle to retain its single seat in West Belfast with Alex Attwood narrowly pipping the DUP's Frank McCoubrey by 89 votes.

In South Belfast, Claire Hanna, who was co-opted into the Assembly when former SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell stood down, proved successful in her first test at the Assembly polls and was elected just after midnight.

Her running mate, former television reporter Fearghal McKinney was eliminated at stage 10.

Colum Eastwood, who was embarking on his first election as SDLP leader, retained his seat in Foyle.

Sinn Fein's Culture Arts and Leisure Minister Caral Ni Chuilin was also returned for another term in North Belfast, as was Gerry Kelly.

Former DUP political adviser Emma Pengelly, who was co-opted into the last Assembly, won a seat in her own right in South Belfast, as did former DUP Belfast deputy mayor Christopher Stalford.

The turnout of 54.91% was down, but only slightly, on the 55.64% in the 2011 Stormont election.
It was a bittersweet moment for Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt in Strangford where he topped the poll on an otherwise difficult day for his party.

However, after a tense 10 stages of counting at the Aurora Leisure Centre in Bangor, his party colleague Philip Smith retained the UUP's second seat in the constituency in a narrow victory over Joe Boyle of the SDLP.

The second UUP seat in Strangford had previously been won by David McNarry in 2011, but then lost when the veteran politician defected to Ukip.

The DUP defended its three seats, returning former ministers Michelle McIlveen, Simon Hamilton and Jonathan Bell. Mr Bell dedicated his win to his mother who recently passed away, declaring in his acceptance speech, "this one's for you mum".

Ulster Unionist relief meant heartbreak for the SDLP after Mr Boyle missed out at his fourth attempt to win the first ever nationalist Assembly seat in Strangford.

Mr Boyle said it would be his last attempt after being narrowly defeated in 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2016.

"This is the exact same position I have been in three times before, so I won't say I was too hopeful," he said. "This was my last year running, my last chance, I will be 60 soon.

"Strangford is a difficult constituency. I don't think there is any other constituency where you are up against three ministers and a party leader."

Mr Nesbitt topped the poll on first preference votes just ahead of the DUP's Michelle McIlveen, but described it as "bittersweet" as he voiced his concerns about whether his party's second candidate, Philip Smith, would be elected.

In his acceptance speech he paid tribute to Mr Boyle.

"Democracy can be cruel ... you put yourself in a lonely place and sometimes a hurtful place," he said.

"Does anyone know what it feels like to be Joe Boyle? He has stood four times and come very close - at lunchtime he must have felt he had an unassailable lead only to have it whittled and whittled away.

"I just want to say how deeply sorry I am."

Speaking earlier, Mr Nesbitt said he was "shocked, pleased and very thankful" to top the poll with 4,673 votes.

"But it is bittersweet because I have a running mate ... I would rather we had come in fifth and sixth," he added.

Mr Smith joked he had been ready to go home at lunchtime, but was glad he had stayed.

"It was great to see Mike topping the poll, but to retain our second seat was the cherry on the top," he said.

Ms McIlveen was also elected on the first count, with 4,663 votes, and said she was pleased but admitted to being exhausted after the campaign.

Her party colleagues Simon Hamilton and Jonathan Bell were both elected on the seventh stage of the count.

Mr Bell said the party had been aiming for four seats in the constituency. However, he thanked the constituents who elected him for the "privilege and opportunity" to represent them once again.

"I want to dedicate this victory to my mum who passed away," he said.

"She sacrificed a huge amount to put her boys through school. So mum, this one's for you."

Alliance MLA Kellie Armstrong was elected along with Mr Smith on the tenth and final stage of the count.

She paid tribute to her predecessor Kieran McCarthy in her acceptance speech, and also spoke of her pride at being the third woman elected for the Alliance Party yesterday, after Naomi Long in East Belfast and Paula Bradshaw in South Belfast.

The final result in Strangford saw the same party breakdown with three DUP seats, two UUP and one Alliance. Mr Smith and Ms Armstrong are new faces.
War hero Doug Beattie has paid a moving tribute to his grandson who died at the age of just 15 months.

Cameron Tindale was found dead in his bed on Wednesday morning.

He was the youngest son of Mr Beattie's daughter Leigh (28). Mr Beattie, a UUP councillor in Portadown, served in the Army for 34 years.

He has been awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery for his actions in Iraq, the Military Cross for his bravery in Afghanistan, and the Nato Meritorious Service Medal for his peacekeeping contributions in Bosnia.

He is now a reservist, but was recently told he must quit the military if he was to challenge for a seat in the Assembly. In a statement released yesterday, the grieving grandfather said: "I have waited until after the polling stations closed to take this opportunity to thank all those who have sent their condolences.

"Our lovely grandson Cameron was a beautiful young lad and although only 15 months old he had a huge personality.

"His smile lit the room and our lives and the news of his passing has devastated the whole family." Mr Beattie added: "I have received messages of support from all quarters - friends, family, colleagues, political opponents. I can but thank you all for taking the time to think of us at this terrible time.

"I have passed on all your messages to my daughter Leigh and her husband Mark who continue to struggle with their loss.

"Although the funeral will be a private family service with some close friends - if you feel you would like to send a floral tribute then please send directly to Ian Milne Funeral Services at Seagoe Cemetery.

"Anyone wanting to make a donation please make it out to The Children's Heartbeat Trust, in name of Cameron Tindale, directly to the charity of Ian Milne.

"I hope you can all understand my decision to remain with my family throughout the process."
Ireland's new minority government will test democracy and the character of politicians, re-elected Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said.

The Fine Gael leader scraped into power at the fourth time of asking, 70 days on from one of the most divisive elections in the Republic's history.

The back-to-back success - a first for Mr Kenny's party - was achieved after weeks of negotiations secured a deal with decades-old adversaries Fianna Fail and a diverse group of independents.

The Taoiseach has opposition support, albeit fragile and for only three years, on a select number of issues such as suspending and reviewing water bills and easing unprecedented housing issues and homelessness.

"If economic survival was the urgent priority of the last government then using a strong economy to improve the lives, the quality of the lives of our people, must and will be the priority of the new government and that fundamental principle will be the bedrock of our policy programme," Mr Kenny said.

Among the new reforms will be the appointment of a Minister for Housing with increased powers. Health will also form key planks of policy while spending will run twice as fast as tax cuts.

In his victory speech in the Dail parliament Mr Kenny accepted very many people have not felt a revival in the economy in the six years since Ireland went bankrupt.

He said his minority government had been formed in "almost unprecedented circumstances" which created room for a new and inclusive democracy.

"Everyone will have the opportunity to play a constructive role as we work in partnership together to build a better Ireland," he said.

"It will be a great test of our democracy, of our character and indeed of this house, a test that I am convinced that we will pass."

The February 26 general election split the vote like never before and left the country locked in a political stalemate for 10 weeks.

Fine Gael and Fianna Fail, the traditionally dominant parties who swapped power for generations and whose bitter enmity stems back to the Irish civil war, balked at pressure to form a "grand coalition".

Mr Kenny said the hung parliament thrown up by the election meant no party has a mandate to "instruct, force, direct or coerce" anyone else.

"We therefore must all work together in the best interests of all our people," he said.

Mr Kenny was re-elected Taoiseach by 59 votes to 49, largely thanks to the abstention of Fianna Fail.
Gardai are appealing for anyone who saw Geraldine to contact the PSNI.

Police in the Republic of Ireland have joined with the PSNI in the search for an Enniskillen woman who has gone missing while she was out camping along the border.

Geraldine Colgan (52) was reported missing almost a week ago on Monday, May 2.

She is thought to be camping along rural areas on the border with 40-year-old Christopher Southam and it's thought the pair may have crossed into the Republic.

She is described as 5ft tall, slim build with short black and grey spiky hair.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the PSNI on 101.
Labour mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan arrives at City Hall in London with his wife Saadiya and campaign team as counting continues on votes for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly elections

Labour can only win elections if it reaches beyond its own activists, Sadiq Khan said today in a clear message to party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The new mayor of London, who was signed in at a ceremony from which Mr Corbyn was notably absent, warned that appealing to "natural Labour voters" alone would not be enough to secure success.

Mr Khan secured an overwhelming victory over Tory Zac Goldsmith following a bitter campaign which saw his rival attempt to link him to Islamic extremists.

The Labour mayor said the Conservative campaign was "straight out of the Donald Trump playbook".

Mr Khan, who was congratulated by Mr Trump's likely opponent in the White House race Hillary Clinton, said it was vital for Labour to be a "big tent" and avoid focusing on internal party issues.

Mr Corbyn's absence from the high-profile ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in which Mr Khan was signed in as mayor raised eyebrows and led to the party leader being forced to deny there was a rift.

The Labour leader's predecessor Ed Miliband was at the event, but Mr Corbyn's absence was unexplained.

Instead of appearing alongside Mr Khan, Mr Corbyn travelled to Bristol to congratulate that city's new mayor Marvin Rees.

"I am meeting Sadiq over the weekend, I have been in touch with him. We are getting on fine. I have sent him a message of congratulations," he told reporters.

Mr Khan and Mr Corbyn are expected to have a meeting on Monday.

Writing in The Observer, the London mayor set out the lessons he had learned from his successful campaign.

"First, Labour only wins when we face outwards and focus on the issues that the people actually care about," he said.

"And secondly, we will never be trusted to govern unless we reach out and engage with all voters - regardless of their background, where they live or where they work.

"Squabbles over internal party structures might be important for some in the party, but it is clear they mean little or nothing to the huge majority of voters.

"As tempting as it might be, we must always resist focusing in on ourselves and ignoring what people really want."

He added: "Labour has to be a big tent that appeals to everyone - not just its own activists.

"Campaigns that deliberately turn their back on particular groups are doomed to fail.

"Just like in London, so-called natural Labour voters alone will never be enough to win a general election.

"We must be able to persuade people who previously voted Conservative that Labour can be trusted with the economy and security as well as improving public services and creating a fairer society."

Mr Khan said David Cameron and Mr Goldsmith had sought to "divide London's communities in an attempt to win votes".

"They used fear and innuendo to try and turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other - something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. Londoners deserved better and I hope it's something the Conservative Party will never try to repeat."

Cabinet minister Michael Fallon said Mr Goldsmith's campaign in London, which has been criticised by senior Tories, was part of the "rough and tumble" of an election.

Mr Fallon described Mr Khan as a "Labour lackey who speaks alongside extremists" during the mayoral race, and was repeatedly challenged on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme to say whether he was worried about the capital's security with Mr Khan in City Hall.

"London is safe with a Conservative Government working with the new mayor of London," he said.

Tory former justice secretary Ken Clarke told the BBC the way the campaign had been run was a "mistake" and "probably had a counter-productive effect".

But Mr Fallon said: "Both candidates were asked questions about their backgrounds, their personalities, their judgment, the people they associate with. That's the nature of our democracy and the rough and tumble of politics."

The "Super Thursday" election process was drawing to a close, with results in Northern Ireland and a handful of councils across England on Saturday, as well as Mr Rees's result in Bristol.

:: With results in from 123 out of 124 councils - Bristol will declare on Sunday - the Conservatives were down 47 seats, Labour down 18, the Liberal Democrats up 31 and Ukip up 25.

:: In Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein will retain their positions as the major parties in the power-sharing coalition administration at Stormont, with Arlene Foster continuing as First Minister.

:: The DUP has replicated its historic performance of 2011 by again winning 38 seats while Sinn Fein fell just short of the 29 it achieved five years ago, securing 28 seats.
Jane Devonshire, 50, who has been crowned MasterChef Champion 2016 after seven weeks of gruelling challenges.

MasterChef winner Jane Devonshire revealed her 10-year battle with cancer as she claimed victory on the cooking show.

She impressed judges John Torode and Gregg Wallace with a three-course meal inspired by childhood memories of winkles on toast, an Indian-inspired Sunday roast and a rhubarb and custard dessert, to beat fellow finalists Jack Layer, 27, and Billy Wright, 32, to the trophy.

The mother of four from Hampshire revealed in the final episode that she had spent the last 10 years fighting cancer and has been in remission for three years.

Speaking about her win, she said: "For me this means the end of a very, very difficult time and an amazing start to something new; I can't wait to see what it is going to bring me."

She continued: "I'm so happy I can't tell you! It's one of the best euphoric moments; it's just precious."

Devonshire, 50, called herself "one of the lucky ones" as she credited her children - Sam, 23, Rebecca, 21, Harry, 17, and Ben, 13 - for her not giving up hope when she was first diagnosed.

She said: "There was a time when I thought I wouldn't be here; it's been incredibly tough, a really horrible time, a very scary time.

"You've got to get through these things, and with my children there's no way I was going to give up."

Torode praised her for having "more determination, more drive, more heart than I've ever seen in a MasterChef contestant in my whole career", as she was handed the 2016 title.

He said: "She's not scared of any ingredients, she's not scared of any techniques, and she's definitely not scared of any challenges we've thrown at her.

"She fought through the competition and today made us three extraordinary courses - today there is one MasterChef champion ... and one very, very well-deserved MasterChef champion."

The winner was whittled down from 40 original contestants, and challenges throughout the gruelling seven-week process have seen her cook at Bristol's Old Vic under rising British star Michael O'Hare, travel to Mexico to make a meal for chef Enrique Olvera and VIP guests at the British Embassy, and present dessert at the Chef's Table, presided over by three Michelin-starred chef Daniel Humm.

Devonshire said: " It's been an amazing experience, one that just takes you out of your comfort zone and shakes you up; I wouldn't have swapped it for the world.

"On a personal front, I wanted to prove to myself how far I've come. I am determined not to be defined by things that have happened to me in the past and instead (be) proud of what I can achieve now and in the future."

Her son Ben, who pestered her to enter the competition, suffers from coeliac disease and Devonshire said she is planning a future in food education, particularly with children.

The win could prove lucrative as past winners include Wahaca-founder Thomasina Miers and restaurateurs Mat Follas, Dhruv Baker and Tim Anderson.
Two people have died in separate shootings at shopping centres

Members of the Montgomery County police collect evidence at the scene of a shooting in the parking lot of the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 6, 2016 in which one person was killed and two others wounded. AFP/Getty Images

A member of the Montgomery County police searches for evidence under a car at the scene of a shooting in the parking lot of the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 6, 2016 in which one person was killed and two others wounded. AFP/Getty Images

Captain Paul Starks of the Montgomery County police speaks to the press at the scene of a shooting in the parking lot of the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 6, 2016 in which one person was killed and two others wounded. AFP/Getty Images

Members of the Montgomery County police prepare to collect evidence at the scene of a shooting in the parking lot of the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland, on May 6, 2016 in which one person was killed and two others wounded. AFP/Getty Images

A man wanted by police in connection with three fatal shootings - including that of his estranged wife in the car park of a high school - has been arrested.

Police in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC said 62-year-old Eulalio Tordil had been taken into custody without incident.

They identified Tordil as an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. Tordil was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him.

Police said he followed 44-year-old Gladys Tordil to their children's Beltsville's High Point High School on Thursday and shot her. He also shot and wounded a man who tried to intervene.

At the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, about 10 miles northwest of Washington, one person was initially shot and two others may have been shot coming to that person's aid, said Montgomery County Police Assistant Chief Darryl McSwain.

A man died and another one is in critical condition, said Montgomery County police spokesman Captain Paul Starks said. A woman has injuries that are not life-threatening.

About a half an hour later, police were called to a shooting at a Giant Food store in Aspen Hill, about five miles away. Police later tweeted that a woman died after that shooting.
Canadian officials hoped to complete the mass evacuation of work camps north of Alberta's main oil sands city of Fort McMurray on Saturday, fearing a growing wildfire could double in size and reach a major oil sands mine and even the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan.

Alberta premier Rachel Notley said the massive wildfire in the province covered more than 156,000 hectares late Friday and was expected to grow because of high temperatures, dry conditions and high winds. That size includes burned areas and those areas still in flames.

The fire was 101,000 hectares on Friday and officials believed that number could increase two-fold.

"The fire may double in size in the forested areas today. As well they may actually reach the Saskatchewan border. In no way is this fire under control," Ms Notley said.

Thousands of displaced residents were getting a sobering drive-by view of some of the burned-out neighbourhoods as convoys continued Saturday. The images were largely ones of devastation - scorched trucks, charred homes and telephone poles, burned out from the bottom up, hanging in the wires like little wooden crosses. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Ms Notley said about 12,000 evacuees have been airlifted from oil sands mine air fields over the past two days and about 7,000 have been evacuated in police escorted highway convoys. She said the goal was to complete the evacuation of evacuees from northern work camps by late Saturday.

Ms Notley's comments came as officials said the fire could burn to the edges of the Suncor oil sands facility, about 15 miles north of Fort McMurray. Non-essential staff have been evacuating and efforts to protect the site were under way.

"This facility it should be emphasized is highly resilient to forest fires as we have seen in past when it's previously been threatened by very large fires," Ms Notley said.

Oil sands mines are resilient to fires because they are cleared and have no vegetation, said Chad Morrison of Alberta Wildfire. He the sites also have very good industrial fire departments.

The fire and mass evacuation has forced as much as a quarter of Canada's oil output offline and was expected to impact a Canadian economy already hurt by a dramatic fall in the price of oil. The Alberta oil sands have the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its workers largely live in Fort McMurray where some neighbourhoods have been destroyed.

Police said many parts of smoke-filled Fort McMurray are burnt and visibility is low. Officers wore masks as they checked homes to make sure everyone was out.

More than 80,000 people have left Fort McMurray in the heart of Canada' oil sands, where the fire has torched 1,600 homes and other buildings. Gas has been turned off, the power grid is damaged and water is not drinkable.

About 25,000 evacuees moved north in the hours after Tuesday's mandatory evacuation, where oil sands work camps that usually house employees were used to house evacuees. Officials are moving everyone south where it is safer.

Syncrude, a major oil sands mining company, became the latest to shut down operations. The company said in a statement that while there is no imminent threat from fire smoke has reached its Mildred Lake site. They intend to have all personnel out this weekend and started the evacuation early Saturday.

Syncrude said they will restore operations when there is no risk and said despite the extraordinary measures the jobs of more than 4,800 employees remain secure.

"This is a highly dangerous situation," Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said. He said the fire is feeding off the "extremely dry" boreal forest.

Chad Morrison with Alberta Wildfires said the fire is burning away from communities. He said cooler temperatures were expected later this weekend and they could get rainfall. Significant rainfall is needed.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Kevin Kunetzki said police were canvassing every residence in Fort McMurray and had completed about 30% of that work. They found a family of five with small children on Friday who did not have the means to get out. He said there are very few who are refusing to evacuate.

Lac La Biche, Alberta, normally a sleepy town of 2,500 about 109 miles south of Fort McMurray, was helping thousands of evacuees, providing a place to sleep, food, donated clothes and even shelter for their pets.

Jihad Moghrabi, a spokesman for Lac La Biche County said that 4,400 evacuees have come through The Bold Centre, a sports facility in town. At the centre, tables were piled with clothes, towels and other items. The centre was offering three free meals a day and other services, including mental health services. A kennel housed people's pets on site.

Philip Wylie, wife Suda and 13-month-old daughter Phaedra, were among those staying at the centre after evacuating their apartment in Fort McMurray on Tuesday.

"Trees were blowing up against our vehicles," Philip Wylie said of the caravan drive out of town. "We don't know what we're going to go back to, or when we can go back."

Suda Wylie said the day they had evacuated started out clear, and they thought they would be fine. Then, in a matter of hours, she said she opened the blinds and "the sky was orange".

They rushed to pack, grabbed documents, passports and their laptops before they left, but thinking that they would be able to return home soon, only packed enough clothes for two days.

The family spent the first night camping on the property of a sandpit after the owner said they could set up camp near a pond. Once they realised that the fire was growing and they could not get home, they went to an evacuation centre that was itself ultimately evacuated because of the fire. They arrived at The Bond Centre late on Wednesday night.

"Everything that I'm wearing right now, besides my shoes and my socks, is donation," Philip Wylie said.

Fanned by high winds, scorching heat and low humidity, the fire grew from 29 square miles Tuesday to 39 square miles on Wednesday, but by Thursday it was almost nine times that - 330 square miles. That is an area roughly the size of Calgary, Alberta's largest city.
The extension will also apply to the Latakia region in Syria

A fragile ceasefire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has been extended for 72 hours, Russia said, as the Islamic State group battled other militant factions near the city on Saturday.

The Russian Defence Ministry said the extension was made at Moscow's initiative and would also apply to the coastal province of Latakia.

The ceasefire will now last until 12.01am local time on Tuesday (9.01pm GMT Monday).

Russia and the US last week reached an agreement to extend Syria's ceasefire to Aleppo, which had seen days of heavy fighting that killed 286 civilians, including 57 children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor.

The Syrian military had earlier said the ceasefire in Aleppo would last only 48 hours.

The Russian military accused the Syrian al Qaida affiliate, known as the Nusra Front, of attempting to destroy the ceasefire by carrying out attacks on Aleppo and trying to impose a blockade on the city from the south.

On Friday, a coalition of insurgents, including the Nusra Front, seized the nearby village of Khan Touman from pro-government forces, activists said.

The Nusra Front and IS are not included in the cease-fire.

The observatory and the other groups said Aleppo was relatively quiet after the ceasefire was extended but reported heavy fighting between IS and other militant groups in the northern parts of Aleppo province, near the border with Turkey.

The observatory, which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, said IS captured two villages in the region in clashes that killed least 12 extremists. The Local Coordination Committees, an activist-run collective, said the fighting is now concentrated near the northern villages of Dalha, Harjaleh and Hiwar Kilis.

Meanwhile in Damascus, a senior Iranian official met with Syria's president Bashar Assad and vowed continued support for his government in the country's five-year-old civil war.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by Syria's state news agency SANA as saying that Tehran will always stand by Syria because it "knows that terrorism does not target Syria but the whole people of the region".
Arlene Foster can take some time this weekend to savour the personal triumph this election represents, even if all the votes aren't counted yet. Just six months after taking over from Peter Robinson she has secured the DUP's position as the prime force in unionism, and positioned the party pretty adroitly for two weeks of hard bargaining on her much-vaunted 'five point plan'.

Those priorities - most involving the necessity for more resources - are: health, education, infrastructure, 'more and better jobs' as well as keeping household taxes low. "We will now be working on the Programme for Government (PfG) to make sure that we can reflect those," she told the Belfast Telegraph last night. The whole impetus of the next PfG (designed to stretch until 2021) is supposed to be on 'outputs' and the DUP is well-placed now to import many of its ideas into the detail.

Some critics, including many in the media, dubbed the DUP election strategy 'Project Fear' - though it certainly paid off.

There was never any real doubt that Mrs Foster would remain as First Minister, but the surge in DUP support appears to exceed even the party's own expectations.

Insiders had argued the party had peaked at 38 seats last time round, and believed some shrinkage was inevitable. But instead, their percentage vote appears to have held up overall and even improved in some areas.

While he may not have been much mentioned during their campaign, as UUP leader Mike Nesbitt pointed out, Peter Robinson's fingerprints are all over the party's micro-management of voter preferences across several constituencies. He taught his people well.

The party was first to hit the ground running within days of the Assembly dissolving with warnings that even a small percentage swing - two votes in a hundred - could result in Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister.

It was less about the prospect of a Sinn Fein First Minister, realistically always too high a hurdle for Sinn Fein to jump in one election, and much more to do with dissuading people from supporting main rivals Nesbitt and Jim Allister.

Yesterday's results make it much more likely the apparent 'resurgence' of the UUP in the General Election last year - with two MPs, Tom Elliott and Danny Kinahan, returned, the latter at the expense of Rev William McCrea - owed more to the DUP pact than any genuine comeback for Nesbitt and co.

But there was real disappointment, too, for Mr Allister who had appeared confident he would not be returning to the next Assembly as a one-man-band again.

If it was a good day for the DUP, however, their power-sharing partners Sinn Fein also had many reasons to be cheerful, despite the dents from People Before Profit in West Belfast and Foyle - and although their target of 30 seats, which would allow them automatic ignition of 'petitions of concern' to block measures they oppose, remained elusive.

The results are likely to provoke much soul-searching for the SDLP - leader Colum Eastwood failed to make the impact outside the party he needed - and the UUP.

Along with Alliance, the two smaller parties will be entitled to take part in the fortnight of policy negotiations but may decide the best path towards a genuine resurgence in the future lies in going into opposition.

For the SDLP in particular, which could fall short of the seats threshold necessary to claim a Ministry in the Executive - partly because the number of departments and ministries is also falling from 13 to nine - opposition may offer the most viable direction.
Sinn Fein will have done the sums and anticipated that it was going to get its eye wiped in West Belfast and Foyle. There is nobody better than itself at that.

But still it must sting.

Presenting itself as the radical Left party standing up to the Tories in the UK and to the big two in the Republic, it can't but read like a message it didn't want to hear when it is outflanked on the Left.

Yes, it is far bigger than People Before Profit, and there is no danger at all of it being supplanted in the Executive - but that's not the point.

The point is that in the heartlands where it should best have made its case that it does, itself, put people before profit, the poor and the struggling before capital, thousands have told it that that is not how they see the party at all.

These are the constituencies in which the republicans had their roots. These are the areas which suffered most during the Troubles, and yet where people were most amenable to the idea that the IRA had a legitimate campaign.

These are the areas in which Sinn Fein converted violent republican struggle into political party action. They are the springboards from which it made the great leap from radical opposition to taking power, first in the councils and then in the Assembly.

And it was the champion of the struggle in West Belfast, Gerry Adams, who moved south to inject huge energy into the party's efforts in the Republic.

True, he appears to be flagging now, but the party is still growing, and while Fianna Fail is facilitating a Fine Gael-led government there, Sinn Fein will make the case that it is the real Opposition now.

And as the party evolved in Belfast and Derry, experience will have taught it that the key hindrance to its growth and to the validation of the IRA was the fact that, historically, both areas were more inclined towards constitutional nationalism than to republicanism.

That is how Sinn Fein traditionally framed its own challenge to represent West Belfast and Derry.

It rounded on the SDLP as the Stoop Down Low Party, the "lickspittles" who would have betrayed the hunger strike, the "west Brits" who took a seat in the House of Lords. The republicans grew and sharpened their political skills fighting a rival to the Right of them, not to the Left.

The votes for Gerry Carroll and Eamonn McCann are a coherent statement that Sinn Fein is now viewed as Establishment.

People Before Profit is no great challenge to its supremacy in the nationalist community, but it presents an argument republicans will not like to hear - that they have gone soft, that they have failed the poor, that they have squandered the credit they were given as the party that would fight, that would rather keep its soul than grow.

And, of course, there is a simple answer to this, that this is the real world, in which politics is the art of the possible. It's just that that is not an argument the Shinners paid much heed to when it was made against them.
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First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





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Kathmandu is the Vatican of Hinduism and Buddhism! It is not a trekking destination. But the Kathmandu valley has so much to offer on its own. Though crowded and perhaps not the cleanest of cities, there is an overall aura of tranquility about the place. There are so many places to see and so much history to explore! The "Durbar Square" of Kathmandu - and its respective namesakes in Bhaktapur and Patan - summarize the history of Nepal's culture, tradition and strong influence of the Royal families that ruled the country over the centuries. Needless to say, each one is a great spot for souvenir shopping. It is a real pity some architectural treasures were destroyed in the recent earthquake. A little beyond Bhaktapur is a very popular tourist spot called Nagarkot. It is well worth waking up in the wee hours of morning to make the 45-minute drive up the hill. For tea drinkers, Nepal offers a unique treat with its blends of organic green tea, (black) masala tea and so many other fragrant varieties. For coffee drinkers, the Himalayan Java is a must-try! The rich aroma will dominate wherever it is stored. Beer lovers, too, will not be disappointed with "Gurkha", the local brew. Food-wise, a plate of momos is one street food to definitely sample. Local food is generally spicy, and for the average Asian palate, delicious! Non-Asians would do well to specify making their orders non-spicy or mildly spicy.

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two Brandon firefighters will be among the emergency responders heading to Fort McMurray this weekend to help out with wildfire fighting efforts.

In response to a request for assistance from the Alberta government, the province announced Saturday that 20 members of Manitobas Urban Search and Rescue team, Canada Task Force 4 (CAN TF-4) will arrive in Fort McMurray on Monday.

"Were sending 100 plus members to help out, 20 members being deployed this weekend," justice minister Heather Stefanson said during a stop in the city on Saturday. "Some of those members are from here in Brandon as well, which I think is a tribute to Brandon and how people within this community care about our neighbours."

Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via AP Wild fires burn south of Fort McMurray, Alberta, seen from highway 63 Friday, May 6, 2016. Displaced residents at oil field camps north of Fort McMurray, Alberta, got a sobering drive-by view of their burned out city Friday in a convoy that moved evacuees south amid a massive wildfire that officials fear could double in size by the end of Saturday. As police and military oversaw the procession of hundreds of vehicles, a mass airlift of evacuees also resumed.

The emergency response team is co-ordinated via the Office of the Fire Commissioner and made up of specially trained emergency response professionals from volunteer, municipal, provincial and federal services. Other Brandonites will be arriving with the crew in Alberta on Monday, including corrections officers and representatives from the OFC.

The team of 20 will be stationed in a school in Fort McMurray for one week before the wildfire situation is reassessed and replacement crews are sent in.

The primary focus of the team has been urban search and rescue but CAN TF-4 is able to respond to a variety of emergencies and provide incident management support on behalf of the province. This is the first time CAN TF-4 has responded to an emergency outside of the province.

Over the weekend eight members of CAN TF-4 were also deployed to the eastern side of the province to help with fight the wildfire situation along the Manitoba-Ontario border.

The Alberta Emergency Management Agency requested that Manitoba assist with the Albert Disaster Response Team, which has already been deployed. The Manitoba team will assist with co-ordinating the multi-agency response and offer relief to other responders.
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This article was published 06/04/2016 (2392 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON  A woman who says her fiancee was beaten by two men at a nightclub and claims bouncers did nothing to stop it is questioning the safety of the establishment.

Desiree Fisher said Nicole Fayant had her jaw broken in two places and needs surgery.

It was not fair  in seconds, she just got attacked by two guys  its just not fair, Fisher said Wednesday as Fayant recovered at her parents rural home.

Submitted In this photo, Nicole Fayant displays the injuries she suffered after being beaten by two men inside Houstons Country Roadhouse last weekend.

Fisher said Fayant was attacked inside Houstons Country Roadhouse early Sunday.

The nightclub is run by the Royal Oak Inn and Suites and the hotels general manager said he will look into the matter.

Safety for the patrons of our bar is No. 1 and we want to get it taken care of, Aaron Tycoles said.

Fisher said Saturday evening began pleasantly, as 24-year-old Fisher was leaving a job and 22-year-old Fayant threw her partner a surprise goodbye party.

Fisher, Fayant and a female friend headed to Houstons between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m.

Fisher said once inside, they headed for the dance floor where a group of men made unwanted advances toward Fisher and the friend.

They were trying to grab on me and my friend and it was really inappropriate, Fisher said. Like saying, Come with me, and just kind of being rude and very blunt.

As a result, Fayant told the men not to touch the women and as they left the dance floor, one of the men punched Fayant in the head. But the friends didnt think much of it and the men went away.

About five minutes later they returned, pushed Fisher and her friend out of the way, and charged at Fayant, who wound up on the floor.

There were two guys on top of her, kicking her in the face, stomping her, punching her and then they broke her jaw in two places, Fisher said.

Paramedics and police officers soon arrived, Fisher said, but the attackers had already fled the club.

Nobody stopped them, there was no bouncers around and the club was really full There was not enough bouncers, probably, to handle a situation like that, Fisher said.

Nor did patrons step in to stop the attack, she added.

Prior to the assault, there had been a couple of bouncers checking ID at the door, Fisher said, but she saw none during the assault. They only arrived after it was over, she said.

Fisher said she, Fayant and their friend didnt know any of the men involved.

Fisher estimates Fayant is about 5-foot-6 or 5-foot-7, and weighs about 160 pounds.

The men were bigger, Fisher said. Both were Caucasian  one was about 6-foot-2 with glasses and short brown hair; the other about 5-foot-9, bulky, and with short spiky hair and wore a blue plaid shirt.

Fisher said her fiancee was dressed in clothing that could traditionally be considered male  a T-shirt, hoodie and jeans  and she could have been mistaken for a man, but Fisher finds that tough to believe as Fayants feminine figure could still be seen through her clothes.

Fisher said she and her friend provided police with statements at the hospital.

The Brandon Police Service said they went to Houstons to a report of an assault against a woman around 1 a.m.

The suspects had fled and the area was searched, but they couldnt be found.

An update on the investigation wasnt available on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Fisher said, Fayant has a jaw broken in two places and bruises around her eyes, behind her ear and on her arm.

Her jaw has been wired temporarily as she awaits surgery in Winnipeg later this week.

Fisher said Fayants recovery is expected to take four to six weeks, if not longer. In the meantime, shes taking medication for the pain.

As far as the investigation, Tycoles said that as of Wednesday, he was awaiting a call from city police for more details.

In such cases, he said, assault complainants speak to police, who then contact Houstons with a location and time of the assault.

That makes it easier for Tycoles to sift through video footage recorded by numerous cameras. He then reviews the footage with police.

There are cameras pointed at the dance floor, Tycoles said, the only problem being the possibility that the crowd blocked the view.

Saturday night was especially tough on security at Houstons, Tycoles said, and that may have had an impact on their response.

Three of our guys actually got assaulted on Saturday night, Tycoles said.

There would have been seven bouncers  officially known as doormen at Houstons  on duty at the time.

Usually, two watch the dance floor. Two other bouncers at the door can also see the floor, provided the crowd doesnt block their view.

One of the staff who was assaulted in another incident that night was one of those stationed by the dance floor so that may or may not have been a factor, Tycoles said.

Most of the security staff at Houstons are experienced, he said.

New staff job shadow more experienced staff, but Tycoles acknowledged training is limited.

We do have some specific training that they go through company wide  but for the most part theyre hired, theyre put in a location, theyre given a radio and theyre saying this is your job, he said.

All staff are required to take the Serving it Safe alcohol service and safety program run by the Manitoba Tourism Education Council.

Other than that, Tycoles said, no specific training is required. Houstons head of security provides instruction on whats happening and what to watch for on any particular night.

Provided its witnessed, bouncers document each incident in the bar.

Tycoles said he will try to contact Fisher and Fayant, in particular to find out if she has contacted police.

He added the bar manager was out of town as of Wednesday, but will also address the issue when he returns.

Tycoles said any identified suspects can be banned from the nightclub.

Liz Stephenson, Liquor and Gaming Authority of Manitoba chief administrative officer, said all bar staff  including bouncers  are required to take the Serving it Safe program.

That program includes lessons in dealing with criminal activity, aggressive people, use of force under the Criminal Code and difficult patrons.

 Brandon Sun
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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Paul Martin, the 21st prime minister of Canada, will be presented with an honorary doctorate from Brandon University during the schools upcoming spring convocation.

Martin, who served as prime minister from 2003-06, will be given an honorary doctor of laws degree at BUs morning convocation ceremony on May 27.

Its an incredible honour for Brandon University to be able to recognize him for all his contributions to Canada and globally as well, said BU president and vice-chancellor Gervan Fearon.

Paul Martin

This is the first time BU is presenting a former prime minister with an honorary degree since it became a university in 1967.

During his time in office, Martins government partnered with provinces, territories and First Nations leaders to sign the Kelowna Accord, which was aimed at improve education, employment and housing equality for indigenous Canadians.

Since leaving politics, Martin continues to advocate for better primary and secondary education through his organization, the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative.

Fearon says Martins work falls in line with the goals of BU, where 15 per cent of the student population self-identifies as aboriginal.

It is a significant commitment of the university in supporting and contributing to the academic success of all our students, as well as our indigenous students, Fearon said, adding that the school also recognizes Martins significant economic achievements during his time as Canadas finance minister from 1993 to 2002.

While receiving the honorary degree later this month, Martin will address graduating students.

To be able to have a former prime minister address (students) is just outstanding and I believe inspirational for everyone, Fearon said. Its a very crucial time period in the career of our students  and years later, often students will remember what was said at convocation.

BU usually presents two honorary degrees each year. Recipients are chosen for their professional accomplishments, public service or academic contributions. Before an honorary degree is granted, recipient nominations go through BUs senate and board of governors.

It is a degree being bestowed by the university, so as a result, it has the full academic requirements in terms of governance, Fearon said.

The university is expected to announce the degree recipient and speaker for the May 27 afternoon convocation sometime next week.

 ewasney@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @evawasney
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rural Westman constituencies were a blowout in favour of the Progressive Conservatives, with polling data showing big wins at the majority of polls.

Arthur-Virden MLA-elect Doyle Piwniuk won with nearly 81 per cent of the vote, while Swan River was the closest constituency in the area Elections Manitoba deems the Southwest Region. PC MLA-elect Rick Wowchuk defeated former NDP agriculture minister Ron Kostyshyn in Swan River, picking up 56.2 per cent of the vote compared to Kostyshyns 33.1 per cent.

One area of intrigue, however, is on First Nations, according to Brandon University political scientist Kelly Saunders.

File A voter walks out of the polling station after voting in the Manitoba election in Winnipeg in 2011.

On Waywayseecappo First Nation in Riding Mountain, Liberal candidate Jordan Fleury picked up 88 votes, compared to 21 for the NDP, six for the eventual winner PC MLA-elect Greg Nesbitt, and nine for the Greens.

It was a big swing compared to 2011, when the Liberals only received five votes and the NDP garnered 68.

Saunders said the federal Liberals mobilized the First Nations vote and some of that momentum carried forward to the provincial election.

The aboriginal vote solidified for the Liberal in some areas, Saunders said. That was something we saw in the federal election. Record numbers of indigenous people voted for the first time and most of that vote went Liberal.

On Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in Arthur-Virden, there was no Liberal candidate. Manitoba Party candidate Frank Godon secured the most votes with 21, while the NDP got 16 and the PCs five.

Canupawakpa also voted in favour of Godon, casting 19 ballots for the Boissevain candidate compared to three each for the NDP and PCs.

Birdtail Sioux First Nation was the only reserve Godon lost as the NDPs Lorne Topolinski took the poll with 13 votes compared to Godons seven.

Godon, who like Fleury is Metis, was buoyed by his ancestry, according to Saunders.

If someone doesnt have a clear party identification, Saunders explained, their tendency is to take a second look at someone who is representative of their own group, whether that is gender or race  simply because they have that connection to lived experience.

While First Nations voters have sided with the NDP in the past, Saunders said polling data from the recent election represents a shift to Liberals.

Agassiz Progressive Conservative MLA Eileen Clarke, the new minister for indigenous and municipal relations, won Sandy Bay, capturing 68 votes compared to 46 for the NDP.

Voter turnout on First Nations remained substantially lower than the provincial average.

 The Brandon Sun
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Poll-by-poll data from the recent provincial election suggests it may be difficult, but not impossible, for the NDP to regain its foothold in Brandon East in four years time, according to Brandon University political scientist Kelly Saunders.

Incumbents are always favoured, Saunders said. Youre able to build a profile and you have a ground game as long as your people are engaged. You have that machine to build from, and if you deliver on some key promises, it helps in subsequent elections.

Progressive Conservative MLA-elect Len Isleifson won the seat with 52.2 per cent of the vote, capturing 3,669 of the 7,033 votes with 35 rejected ballots and 82 declined. It was a historic win as the NDP had held the seat since its inception in 1969 with only two MLAs  Len Evans and Drew Caldwell representing the consistency in its 47-year existence.

Tyler Stephens/The Brandon Sun

Changing demographics in Brandon East is one of the main reasons behind Isleifsons victory.

The constituencys south end has experienced a boom with several new builds. Much of the residential explosion has come in the form of houses for upper middle-class wage earners.

The south end numbers really show, what those of us who live in Brandon already know first-hand, that there has been a lot of movement in the riding, Saunders said. New subdivisions are being created. Certainly when the boundaries were changed, we knew there would be some impacts on voting and those south end numbers speak to that.

Isleifson didnt lose a single poll to Caldwell in any voting area that has land south of Richmond Avenue. While the results of some polling stations were very close, including one tie, others were a landslide in favour of the former city councillor.

In southern areas where voters cast ballots at the Riverview Curling Club, Isleifson captured a whopping 68 per cent of the vote with three rejected ballots and six declined. A total of 415 voters checked the PC box, while Caldwell garnered 146 votes, or 24 per cent, and Liberal Vanessa Hamilton received 47 votes, or eight per cent.

While Hamiltons support in the south was only three per cent less than her constituency-wide support, Caldwells gap was 12 per cent.

The numbers are more stark when compared to 2011, when Caldwell won 52 per cent of the vote in the same area. In that election, Caldwell received 365 votes compared to 311 for Progressive Conservative Mike Waddell and 23 for Liberal Shaun Cameron. There was a fourth candidate in 2011, the Green Party of Manitobas Vanda Fleury, but her impact at the polls was negligible.

Another reason for the blue wave was some New Democratic faithful decided to stay home on election day, according to Saunders.

Two polling stations at Winnipeg House in Brandon illustrate that trend. Caldwell narrowly defeated Isleifson at Winnipeg House, a Manitoba Housing complex located west of downtown. Caldwell garnered 77 votes compared to Isleifsons 75 and Hamiltons 39 in the two voting areas at Winnipeg House. In 2011, however, Caldwell picked up 127 votes, compared to 68 for the Tories and 20 for the Grits.

Its clear that some people chose to stay home as a protest, Saunders said.

Another poll, Lions Manor, depicts another trend indicating that some previous New Democrat voters supported the Liberals.

In 2016, 195 voters cast ballots at Lions Manor, compared to 196 in 2011. The Tories got virtually the same number of votes in 2016 (101) compared to 2011 (100). Support for the Liberals, however, jumped from four votes in 2011 to 29 in 2016 at the expense of the New Democrats, who saw their vote tally fall from 92 to 64. There was also one declined vote in 2016.

These voters felt compelled to go to the polls, but decided to park their vote with another party, Saunders said. When they do that they tend to pick a party that is more ideologically similar with the party they supported in the past.

File Brandon East Progressive Conservative candidate Len Isleifson gives a celebratory speech to his supporters at Seniors for Seniors after winning his riding during last month's provincial election. Poll-by-poll data in Brandon East shows that in one polling place in the constituency's south end  where many new houses and condos have been built  Isleifson captured 68 per cent of the vote.

Declined votes soared across the province with more than 4,000 voters choosing not to support any candidate. In Brandon, 82 voters declined their ballots in the East compared to 134 in the West, where PC MLA-elect Reg Helwer cruised to victory.

Helwer narrowly won the seat in 2011, but made big gains at virtually every polling station in the constituency to defeat NDP candidate Linda Ross. Helwer finished with 69.2 per cent of the vote, while Ross captured 23.2 per cent and Liberal Billy Moore secured 7.6 per cent.

Saunders said she wasnt surprised that more voters declined their ballots in Brandon West as it was believed to be a safe seat for the Tories in this election.

In Brandon East, every voter knew that their vote was going to count, Saunders said.

Despite all the data, Saunders said elections are becoming more and more unpredictable acrosss Western Canada.

In the past, voters took a lot of political cues from their family, workplace and income bracket, according to Saunders. Those cues, however, are dissipating.

Those political cues dont matter as much as they did 30 or 40 years ago, Saunders said. Voters are willing to shift their votes around from election to election depending on what the issues are, who the leaders are and who their local candidate is.

Every election is a chance for any party to make headway.

 ctweed@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @CharlesTweed
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than 160 physicians from across the province converged on Brandon for Doctors Manitobas 108th annual general meeting and awards dinner Friday night.

During the event, which was held at the Victoria Inn, Brandons own Dr. Barb Kelleher was sworn in as the boards new president for a one-year term.

Im quite looking forward to it  its such a privilege to be entering into this exciting year, said Kelleher, who runs Dr. Kellehers Laser, Skin and Vein Clinic on 18th Street and has held various positions on the Doctors Manitoba board for four years.

Colin Corneau Incoming Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Barb Kelleher and outgoing president Dr. David Cram pose for a photo during the organization's 108th annual general meeting and awards dinner at the Victoria Inn on Friday.

Doctors Manitoba is an independent professional organization that promotes the interests of the roughly 2,300 physicians working in the province.

The 22-member board is currently working with The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba to address on-call issues, with Manitoba Health regarding nursing regulations and with the Canadian Medical Association on the issue of physician-assisted dying, among other initiatives.

Weve got out hands in all sorts of pockets at the moment, Kelleher said, adding that a primary goal in the coming weeks is meeting with Kelvin Goertzen, the provinces new minister of health, seniors and active living.

During Fridays event, a number of doctors were recognized as honorary CMA members and five Manitoba doctors were awarded for their medical contributions.

Dr. Fred Zeiler was named Physician of the Year for his 30-year career which includes the establishment of an endoscopy program at the Beausejour Hospital. Other recipients include Dr. Davinder Jassal (Scholastic Award), Dr. Murray Enns (Health Administration Award), Dr. Mark Prober (Health or Safety Promotion Award) and Dr. David Rush (Distinguished Service Award).

It truly humbles me, I dont know what Im doing with all my free time, outgoing Doctors Manitoba president Dr. Dave Cram said jokingly. These are wonderful people who have busy, busy practices, yet they go above and beyond that for the benefit of other people.

 ewasney@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @evawasney
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sioux Valley Dakota Nation  More than a year after two bodies were found inside a home on this First Nation, RCMP have confirmed that the deaths were a murder-suicide.

But what exactly happened inside that home remains a mystery, at least publicly.

Manitoba Mounties say the investigation is concluded, but didnt specify who killed who and how.

George Shakespeare

The investigation was found to be a murder/suicide after being able to eliminate anyone else being responsible for the deaths, Manitoba RCMP spokesman Sgt. Bert Paquet stated in an email sent to The Brandon Sun on Friday in response to a request for an update.

While RCMP clarified that drugs didnt play a role in the deaths of either George Shakespeare or Rayannin Branth, they didnt specify what killed them.

As to the specifics of the investigation including any medical evidence this will not be discussed, Paquet wrote.

The bodies of Shakespeare, 27, and Branth, 32, were found in a house at the First Nation on March 27, 2015.

Relatives said that Shakespeare lived at the bungalow with his mother.

It was Shakespeares mom, who had been in hospital for more than a week, who returned home to find the bodies, Shakespeares great uncle, Elvis Antoine, said shortly after the discovery.

Antoine said he saw the bodies of Branth and Shakespeare (described as friends) lying on a bed together.

While there were no wounds that he could see on either of them, there seemed to be blood on the side of Branths head.

In the living room, Antoine said, there was a medical needle and a bloody knife on the floor.

The discovery came when the Dakota Ojibway Police Service still policed the First Nation (it later became RCMP jurisdiction).

However, the Brandon RCMP Major Crimes Unit and forensic identification officers assisted DOPS in the investigation. DOPS would later refer queries about the case to RCMP.

While rumour quickly spread through justice circles that the case was a murder-suicide, RCMP deemed it suspicious and police awaited the results of toxicology tests before releasing their findings.

On Friday, Paquet said the investigation was lengthened by the wait for the toxicology report that ultimately allowed RCMP to conclude the case was murder-suicide. However, the results of those tests werent shared.

Also, Paquet stated, time was needed to advise the deceaseds families and chief and council.

However, Sioux Valley Chief Vincent Tacan, and those relatives of Shakespeare and Branth that The Brandon Sun could reach Friday afternoon, said they still dont know what happened.

They may have briefed somebody, but it wasnt me, Tacan said of RCMP, although he noted he has been busy with meetings and hasnt been able to answer his phone.

From a prevention point of view, it would be helpful to know what went on and that would tell us what we would have to focus on, in terms of if there was anything we could do, Tacan said, referring to the fact RCMP took over policing at Sioux Valley in January.

Rayanin Branth

 Im confident that they will give us information in due course, because theyve been pretty good so far.

For example, Tacan said, if the deaths had been due to suicide or drugs, the chief and council could introduce measures to prevent similar tragedies.

Two of Shakespeares cousins also said they still havent heard exactly what happened.

One cousin said that RCMP had told family members it was a murder-suicide at some point, but theyre still not sure who killed who. However, that cousin said he hasnt pressed the issue with Shakespeares mother and suggested speaking to her.

Attempts by The Brandon Sun to reach Shakespeares mother at her home shortly after the bodies were found, and again on Friday, failed.

She also couldnt be reached at a phone number provided by a relative.

Antoine, when spoken to again on Friday, said he didnt know what happened, either. Nor did Branths father, Raymond White.

White said he was told by police that it wasnt foul play, and this was the first he had heard of a murder-suicide.

He said he received a phone call that informed him the deaths were due to overdose, although it wasnt clear from the interview whether the call came from police, the Chief Medical Examiners Office or some other body.

I really dont know what happened for sure, White said. Id like to know how they both died, and what caused it.

Even though Branth and Shakespeare are deceased, the Chief Medical Examiners Office said on Friday that cause of death is personal health information and protected by legislation, and it refused to release autopsy results.

Its not information released to the general public, a representative said.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 06/05/2016 (2362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stickiness is the main reason consumers havent seen a drop in beef prices despite a market decline in the cattle industry, according to Manitoba Beef Producers general manager Brian Lemon.

Cattle prices have fallen approximately 15 to 20 per cent since last summer and 20 to 25 per cent since their peak in the fall of 2014. Despite the market shift, beef prices have stayed strong at the grocery store according to data from Statistics Canada.

Lemon, while referring to the market as sticky, said that similar to the petroleum industry there is a lag before consumers benefit from a decline.

Bruce Bumstead/The Brandon Sun Cattle graze in a field near Douglas. While cattle prices are well off their 2014 peak, consumers have yet to reap the benefits, which Manitoba Beef Producers general manager Brian Lemon attributes to supermarkets trying to hold onto high prices and demand at this time of year.

Price stickiness is the resistance of a price to change for a certain good despite changes in input cost or demand patterns.

Grocery stores, according to Lemon, are trying to hold onto higher prices for as long as possible to ensure they dont incur any losses from when they purchased the product at a higher rate.

Another reason why prices have remained strong is that demand is typically higher at this time of year.

A lot of people talk about the barbecue season and that there is a higher demand coming into the spring and summer on the retail side which helps support higher prices, Lemon said.

Prices for quality cuts of beef are expected to come down, something that typically takes four to six months after downward market pressure.

Its not the only challenge for the beef industry, however, as eating habits, including a shift toward poultry, eggs, beans and fish, are affecting the market.

Lemon said its important for the beef industry to continue to analyze market trends and keep a close eye on some of its main competitors at the grocery store.

With such a small percentage of the global herd, Canada cant dictate prices.

With 11.9 million head of cattle, Canada has the 11th-largest herd, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. That represents only 1.23 per cent of the total herd of cattle with India (301.6 million), Brazil (219.1 million), China (100.2 million), the U.S. (92 million) and the European Union (88.6 million) making up the top five spots.

The top five producers account for more than 82 per cent of the total market.

Were not the masters of our pricing scheme as were part of the global market, Lemon said. Canada tends to be a price taker in many respects.

A changing consumer is also presenting challenges for the industry as educated buyers now demand more transparency about how the animals were cared for prior to making their decision.

Tyler Stephens/The Brandon Sun Most meat prices have been rising steadily over the past five years, although beef prices are expected to drop later this year.

In April, the Canadian restaurant chain Earls announced it would source its beef from the U.S. from a farm stamped with the Humane Farm Animal Care seal of approval.

The move created backlash acrosss Alberta with several campaigns created to boycott the restaurant chain and Wednesday Earls announced it would reverse its decision.

We made a mistake, Earls president Mo Jessa said via Twitter. We should have worked with local ranchers that met our criteria. And I assure you were going to do everything in our power to find local ranchers, work with them and get Canadian beef back into Earls. And do it quickly.

Lemon said Canadian producers are already renowned for treating animals humanely.

We dont have a fancy logo and havent paid to be part of that marketing program, but everything short of filling out that companys paperwork we are already doing, Lemon said.

Merv Nykoliation, who farms 275 head near Lenore, said Earls initial decision infuriated beef farmers, who said the campaign is nothing more than a clever marketing ploy designed to make the rest of the industry look bad.

It was a slap in the face as a producer, Nykoliation said. Canadian farmers looked after our animals even when they were worth nothing and we looked after them when they were worth a fortune. Its a life, a living organism and we do what we can to make sure its healthy.

 ctweed@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @CharlesTweed
Opinion

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I think were ready now  This is the only chance we have, we can never do this again.

 Birdtail Sioux First Nation Chief Ken Chalmers

Later this year, members of Birdtail Sioux First Nation will have a second opportunity to vote on a railway development in the community that has the potential to open up huge economic opportunities for the band.

That is, provided the band decides to act on it.

After spending several months in negotiations with the Canadian National Railway and the federal government, Birdtails chief and council asked the community to vote in a 2013 referendum on a plan to create a hub of economic development on the reserve.

The plan called for a two-kilometre stretch of track running along parcelled sections of reserve land  about 1,884 acres in total  that would be leased out to various corporate partners. At the time of the vote, several corporations had already lined up to get in on the potential economic benefits. Plans were underway to develop an oil terminal at the site to take advantage of what was, at the time, a growing Canadian energy sector.

Under the federal Indian Act, First Nations are unable to develop this kind of business park unless the land has been designated for the purpose of leasing. Due to the cumbersome nature of the act, achieving that kind of designation would often take several months or even years.

Prior to legislation introduced by the previous Conservative federal government, in order to designate any reserve land for commercial lease, a band had to obtain a majority vote from a majority of voting members  essentially a majority of a majority  for the federal government to approve the designation. If a majority of voters didnt show up to vote, the band would have to hold another expensive referendum.

Thanks to the Tory changes, a First Nation can now green-light the lease of designated reserve lands upon the favourable vote of a simple majority of referendum participants, regardless of the number of people eligible to vote. It was this legislation that Chalmers was trying to capitalize on.

But that ambitious idea hit a wall of protest initiated by Idle No More co-founder Nina Wilson, who went to the reserve to drum up support for a no vote. And her efforts were successful. Out of more than 500 eligible voters, Chalmers says 121 residents voted against the plan, and only 62 voted in favour.

Idle No More organizers tied themselves to Canadas environmental movement and opposed federal Conservative legislation that relaxed environmental regulations in favour of corporate interests. That movement essentially turned community opinion against aligning Birdtail with oil interests.

Only days later, Chalmers was defeated by former chief Kelly Bunn in a band election. As a result, the federal government was unable  or perhaps unwilling  to revisit the railway idea in the two years that followed until Chalmers was voted back in as chief last year.

Though the plan is now back on the table, there have been some changes. First, instead of bringing on potential businesses  such as those in the oil industry  before the community has its say, Chalmers says he merely wants the community to vote on whether to designate the land for leasing. Then the community will decide who they want to bring on board.

We first designate it and with the community well pick the companies that come and lease off us, he told the Sun.

Secondly, Chalmers intends to make sure that band members  both on and off reserve  are

fully aware of the plan and the upcoming vote in July, using every means at his disposal, including social media.

But this is the last chance for Birdtail members to get behind it, as there is a limited window of time for the residents to ratify the plan. We hope residents will see the value in voting in favour of the rail spur and the land leasing plan. If it goes forward, it will immediately open the reserve for business.

And thats not only good for Birdtail, with new investment and future employment opportunities. Thats good for all the neighbouring municipalities, too.
Opinion

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You kind of have to feel for Brandon West MLA Reg Helwer. One of the loyalists of Brian Pallisters members over the last four years, Helwer found himself in the audience last Tuesday as opposed to being on stage when the new Progressive Conservative cabinet was sworn in at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

To be fair to the new premier, he did state there was little to no guarantees for the city, or our MLAs going into this election. With that said, there was a substantial swath of armchair politicos who believed the member from Brandon West was a clear-cut choice for a number of potential portfolios in government. Helwer has proven likable, energetic and hardworking as a member of the legislature, and without a doubt the fact he was not chosen has to sting a bit, and rightfully so.

Pallisters plan all along was to shrink the size of cabinet by one-third if elected, and Tuesdays reveal reiterated the fact that he was poised to do just that by working on a leaner, efficiency-based style of government.

Manitobans would be hard-pressed to argue with the new premier looking to trim portfolios in the province, and aside from the standard political opposition to the move, his choice to reduce the cabinet does make sense.

If Pallister was truly going to find efficiencies in the province, the fact he looked at his own house first hopefully indicates that his ideals are built on those aforementioned efficiencies, and not the slash-happy politics the NDP warned Manitobans against.

Where the challenge lies now for our city is whether we will have enough engagement for Brandon-specific interests at the cabinet table without an MLA present.

This city has far too many necessary projects in the works currently and in the near future to be positioned without a voice at the table.

And as much as the PC party faithful in the area attempted to downplay the absence, without Helwer or Brandon East MLA Len Isleifson in ministerial positions, it will set our city back.

Moving forward, both of our MLAs face a stiff challenge to engage the cabinet to work for Brandon, as former Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell liked to say.

Helwer has his job cut out for him as Brandons new elder statesman and member of the government as opposed to opposition.

Meanwhile, Isleifson will be tasked to set the tone for his constituency and also attempting to connect with new cabinet colleagues on projects specific to our city.

To be fair, the region wasnt completely shut out, as multi-term MLA Cliff Cullen (Spruce Woods) will serve as the de facto Westman representative in cabinet. With Cullens appointment, he joins a number of rural reps filling key positions for the premier. Seven rural members have been tasked with portfolios in government, and the fact Pallister chose to look beyond the borders of Winnipeg speaks to his base, but frankly our city deserved more as the second-biggest centre in this province.

The other small sliver of hope comes from the idea the premier himself identifies as an adopted Brandonite due to the time he spent here while attending Brandon University. As much as we will embrace our adopted son, to be entirely honest this city has changed a great deal since Pallister graced the hallowed halls of his alma mater.

Our challenges are legitimate and somewhat unique in this province. We are Manitobas finest example of community stuck between the needs of a big city while dealing with the supports of a small town, and a place at the cabinet table would have hopefully continued the mindset of building Brandon, to again coin a term of Isliefsons predecessor.

It may sound a bit like sour grapes, but to have no representation for our city only reiterates the belief of that second-city mentality Brandonites so often rail against. This was a golden opportunity to show that the sky was blue in Brandon and Pallister missed that opportunity by not allowing a voice.

It is a government in its infancy, so some leeway can be given, but Helwer and Isleifson deserved better than was handed out this past week. It would have been nice to have that representation again and our city would have improved as a result of that representation.

Now we are left to bet on the future and hope when a shuffle happens that the premier decides to recognize this city and our needs by offering us a seat at his cabinet table.
Opinion

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon once again found itself without a cabinet minister as new Premier Brian Pallister announced his cabinet on Tuesday. There was a paucity of Westman names, short of Spruce Woods MLA Cliff Cullen.

Given that the Spruce Woods constituency basically encompasses countless rural communities surrounding Brandon, we can take some comfort in knowing the Westman region, our broader trading area, will be represented in cabinet.

New Agassiz MLA Eileen Clarke was also named to cabinet.

She told reporters of her familiarity with our city apparently she actually lived in Brandon for a very short period of my life 

(If that is what qualifies someone to represent a region or community, youre reading a column from the minister for Toronto, Winnipeg and Israel. Also, Ive visited Disneyland and Whistler. Does that count?)

With respect, when former Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell was dropped from cabinet, it actually made little difference to me. I dont believe in the power of an individual cabinet minister being the make or break factor when it comes to a government investing in our community.

We all seemingly buy in to the grand idea that having a cabinet minister at the table equals a preponderance of pork-barrel projects coming our way. In other words, we voted for you and now its your turn to pay us back.

From my perspective, this idea of greasing palms in order to get elected represents old-style, New York Tammany Hall politics at its very worst. Manitobans have moved beyond this  if you believe the results of the April 19 election. 4/19 was a turning point in the political history of our province  at least it has the potential to be.

Simply put, Manitobans overwhelmingly voted for a new government that literally promised them nothing more than continued infrastructure spending; reducing the growth in overall provincial government spending; reducing the PST by one per cent by the end of the first term, and reducing the size of cabinet to 12 ministers from the NDPs 19.

Manitobans voted for prudence, not profligacy.

Premier Pallister did not campaign on countless spending initiatives, unlike the NDP or Liberals. As such, he has a clear mandate to reduce spending  even in his own cabinet.

Pallisters cabinet has fewer members, all with copious amounts of responsibility as this new government has combined tasks previously given to multiple ministers. That is, these ministers have accepted much larger workloads than were previously undertaken by their NDP predecessors.

During a debate between former premier Greg Selinger and Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari, Selinger defended his governments spending by asserting there are times to spend and times to cut back.

Those of us who have studied Keynesian economics will concur  the government can limit the impact of economic peaks and valleys through expenditures and cutbacks. When the economy slows, governments can prime the pump. As the economy grows, governments can then pull back on expenditures in an effort to prudently build resources for the next downturn. This is the essence of a rainy-day fund.

As I suspect we will learn in the coming weeks, the NDP left Pallister, and by implication all Manitobans, with record levels of debt and deficit. Like it or not, there is a time when these investments must be paid for, regardless of whether we wish to do so.

This leads back to a simple question  does it matter whether Brandon has a cabinet minister?

Brandon elected two bright, capable representatives who, one would hope, will find themselves in cabinet at some point. Note, however, that the Tory plurality means that Pallister has some 40 caucus members to choose among.

In a time of fiscal restraint combined with a reduction in government spending, tough decisions will be made. Rather than 19 ministers, we will be forced to get by with 12. I accept this logic with one proviso  that Pallisters commitment to fiscal prudence is real and lasting, not illusory or cynical.

My personal sense is that there will be many cabinet shuffles in Pallisters time in office. While spending is easy, restraint requires sacrifice and tough decisions. Further, the premier need only look to Saskatchewan for an example of a government that alternates its ministers with regularity in an effort to drive the results citizens demand. Yet another victory by the Wall government ought to tell us that restraint appeals to voters.
Opinion

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG  To say there is a renewed optimism in Manitoba business circles is an understatement. The sense that a change was needed in our priority and approach for economic growth was very strong heading into the recent election. Expectations on the new Progressive Conservative government will certainly be high. This provides a great opportunity for the new government to capitalize on by setting an early tone that places the economy in a position of highest priority.

Tone matters, indeed.

History tells us optimism brings confidence, confidence leads to investment, investment creates jobs and new jobs drive revenue, which will help address many of the challenges we face in this province. At its foundation, this new tone must be defined by an aggressive approach to the marketplace, a commitment to innovation and an economic strategy that aligns with our strengths and addresses our weaknesses.

Although the PCs took some heat from the media about a shortage of specifics in their policy recommendations, their approach to business growth and development was outlined in a 10-point economic plan that provides a framework for a more comprehensive approach to growth and the needs of business. This plan addresses some key enablers to growth that have been ignored for far too long.

The first 100 days of a new government are more than just a political tactic to create a narrative during an election campaign. This period will in many ways define this government and establish a political brand. That is why its first actions will be critical in order to propel the early business optimism into economic results.

The first order of business must be to instil fiscal confidence by committing to a long-term fiscal management plan that will bring the province into proper balance. Balance will be the operative word, as the most important element of a long-term fiscal plan is the establishment and achievement of realistic milestones that are achieved through better use of resources and positive economic growth.

It will be important for the new government not to fall into the usual trap of declaring the sky is falling, and the fiscal hole is unmanageable. We know the books are bad, but we also need to know the new government has a plan to right the ship and put us back on course. Otherwise, early business optimism and confidence will soon fall.

There are some self-inflicted wounds that need to be addressed in the short term. The commitment to establish a red tape-reduction task force will go a long way to addressing a myriad of regulations and government processes that make it difficult to do business and inhibit positive growth. The capital markets in Manitoba, especially venture capital, have not adequately kept up with increasing demand from growing companies that need more access to the financial tools available to entrepreneurs in other jurisdictions. The strategic economic infrastructure requirements that will enable business growth through access to markets must lead as a priority in our infrastructure investment strategy.

Joining the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan) will be a step forward, but that alone will not bring more economic activity to Manitoba companies looking to pursue new markets. The establishment of a robust trade development plan that leverages the NWP and other agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, will be essential for Manitoba.

The measure of success will be seen through an increase in the number of companies, particularly small and medium-sized organizations that facilitate their growth through the pursuit of new markets. The upcoming Centrallia conference in Winnipeg, where hundreds of business leaders are expected from more than 35 countries, will provide a tremendous launch point to an aggressive new trade plan that will help to clear the path for Manitoba companies that have a lot to offer.

Manitoba is ready to boom. Based on an entrepreneurial energy that has been building, new technologies that are ready to be commercialized, a growing aboriginal and newcomer workforce ready to be engaged and emerging sectors that are at the forefront of global change, there is a real cause for excitement.

What I saw in the new governments election platform is a recognition that it is time. A recognition that the very best entrepreneurs are right here in Manitoba, and they are ready to go. So, lets go.

 Dave Angus is president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. His column recently appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press.
Opinion

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The weather is always sending wakeup calls, but sometimes it takes a major disaster to stir society from its slumber.

Think back to the major floods experienced in Westman over the last several years. We were actually quite lucky that the province and city worked together to improve Brandons diking system along the Assiniboine River following the one-in-300-year flood in 2011  the 2014 flood was actually even higher.

Had we not been prepared, and had we not been jolted out of our complacency by a prior flood scare, the water levels during the flash flooding in 2014 could have been so much more damaging.

Floods, in fact, have been the most potent threats to cities in Western Canada. And they are getting worse, as climate variability plays havoc with preconceived notions of risk and probability.

Wildfires have also been getting more aggressive and deadly in the last 20 years.

Still, no one was prepared for a fire that would force 80,000 inhabitants of Fort McMurray, Alta., to flee for their lives while flames burned down their homes and businesses.

The fire started innocently on Saturday just outside the city. It was said to be under control. No need to panic.

Were not really worried, an emergency services official said at the time, adding the fire department anticipated a dry season and was ready for anything.

In fact, the community was woefully unprepared. It appears to have learned nothing from the devastating blaze at Slave Lake in 2011 or the firestorms in British Columbia in 2003. Once again, officials have underestimated the power of nature to overwhelm conventional defences.

Dry conditions, low humidity, heat and high winds have combined to create a fire hazard across most of Western Canada. Wildfires often burn out in the wilderness, but if they erupt near communities, the devastation can be enormous. In the B.C. firestorm of 2003, for example, fire destroyed more than 334 homes and many businesses, causing the evacuation of 45,000 people and more than $700 million in damage.

Scientists say similar weather conditions are the new normal. They noted the drought that hit Western Canada and the United States between 2000 and 2004 was the worst dry spell in the region in 800 years. It was nothing, they added, compared to the mega droughts to come.

Climate change or climate variability may not be directly related to every anomaly, but its clear governments at all levels still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the dramatic changes that are coming.

In the case of remote cities and communities near the boreal forest, it means a variety of innovative changes need to be considered. Many cities in the B.C. interior, for example, adopted comprehensive prevention plans following the 2003 firestorm. These included fire-resistant roofs, buffer zones with the hinterland, spark arresters for wood stoves and many other measures.

Some communities have been urged to consider designing wider streets so fire trucks can reach fire zones while homeowners are fleeing in their vehicles.

Remote communities also need more than one highway in and out. Thats the case with Fort McMurray, where fleeing motorists were forced to dodge burning debris during their escape along Highway 63. Under different circumstances, the community could have suffered a far worse tragedy.

In Manitoba, First Nations communities are most at risk, although some smaller towns have been evacuated because of fire threats, too. And we in Brandon and greater Westman are hardly immune from the problem. As noted in yesterdays Sun, the Fire Weather Index forecast put out by Natural Resources Canada reports that the southwestern corner of Manitoba is currently at the highest level of risk for wildfires in the province.

Unfortunately, measures to mitigate the threats are still inadequate, despite multiple fatalities and substantial damage. Reports have been written, filed and forgotten.

The new Liberal government has said it is ready to help Canadians prepare for natural calamities caused by extreme weather and climate change.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said funding for disaster readiness would come from federal infrastructure programs.

Weather events are going to get more severe, theyre going to get more frequent, theyre going to get more damaging, Goodale said earlier this year in urging communities to step up efforts to enhance their readiness.

Cities need to heed these warnings and update their emergency plans, while also rewriting building codes and urban bylaws to anticipate extreme weather and the danger it poses.

 Winnipeg Free Press and The Brandon Sun
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Well, another Manitoba election has come and gone. And we got the change we wanted. Or did we?

To me, it still seems like the goal of evidence-based policy-making, often promised by politicians of every stripe, remains as elusive as ever.

Take climate change, for example.

Except for the cranks, the pseudo-scientists pimping for big oil, those living on the moon or the stupid, the science is now accepted. Its settled. Our earthly home is warming dangerously because were burning too much fossil fuel. This is already creating conditions that have, for one thing, been making wildfires happen more, come earlier and last longer. (As I write this, Fort McMurray is burning. Burning permits are also being cancelled amid a high fire hazard and a series of fires in Manitoba, too.)

Yet newly minted Premier Brian Pallister has just announced a new cabinet, without a minister of the environment! This surely places him in one of the categories I mention above. Which one do you think it is?

Im trying, but its hard to view this oversight as anything but the act of an utterly contemptuous climate change denier.

One of his new ministers, my own MLA, made it clear while campaigning that she was not that familiar with climate science and seemed to know little about the Energy East pipeline. Thats a plan for a massive new project that would use an aging pipeline which already crosses Manitoba to deliver highly corrosive and polluting Alberta tar instead of the natural gas it now carries. But the other two candidates didnt even think the science (of climate change) was settled yet. While one did express the need to find greener energy, the other actually called a carbon tax, already used successfully in some jurisdictions to lower fuel consumption, the work of the devil.

If the biblical prophets had been as accurate in predicting what is now unfolding before our eyes as our modern climate scientists have been, they might have won a Nobel Prize, too!

The three local candidates (all card-carrying members of the Conservative Party of Manitoba, as it turns out), also thought pipelines were better than tanker trains, because theyre safer. Not only was that answer debatable, it was the wrong question.

First, the safety issue. In a 10-year period, Enbridge of Calgary experienced more than 600 spills of crude oil from its pipeline into the United States. The volume that escaped  132,000 barrels  was fully half the amount spilled in the infamous Exxon-Valdez tragedy in 1988. Then, in 2010, 2.4 million litres of bitumen (tar) spilled from an Enbridge facility into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. That cleanup has proven incredibly difficult, lengthy and costly and was the worst spill of its kind, ever.

Last July, five million litres of bitumen mixed with water and sand, leaked from a pipeline south of Fort McMurray. It proved to be one of the biggest oil spills in Albertas history. Oh, and just last month, there was a spill of more than 70,000 litres of crude from TransCanadas Keystone pipeline in South Dakota. I could go on, but, you get the point.

So why is it the wrong question to ask, Which is safer, rail or pipeline? Despite the Lac-Megantic tragedy (or perhaps because of it), we should be asking, instead, How can we wean ourselves off fossil fuels and find sustainable, alternative sources of energy, before its too late for our kids and our planet?

For the first time in a very long time, I did not vote in a provincial election. And therell need to be more real choices before I do again.

Larry Powell

Neepawa
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will be in Billings on Wednesday for a campaign stop.

Sanders, a Democratic presidential candidate, will host a "A Future to Believe in Billings Rally." Doors open at 5 p.m., at the Montana Pavilion at MetraPark.

According to a news release from the Sanders campaign, the candidate will discuss a wide range of issues, including getting big money out of politics, his plan to make public colleges and universities tuition-free, combating climate change and ensuring universal health care.

The event is free and open to the public. Admission is first come, first served. The crowd entrance can be found at the admission gate.

For security reasons, people who attend are asked not to bring bags with them. Instead, they are encouraged to limit what they carry in to small personal items, such as keys and cell phones.

Weapons, sharp objects, chairs and signs or banners on sticks will not be allowed through security. Public transportation is available via the Met bus arena stop.
Sinn Fein will table an emergency motion to Dublin City Council next week, calling for a homeless hostel to be kept open.

The Bru hostel was opened at the end of last year, as part of the council's Winter Strategy to prevent people sleeping rough in cold weather.
A Boeing 767 is still waiting for permission to land on the coast of County Sligo this morning.

The decommissioned passenger jet's nearly at the end of its epic sea journey from Shannon airport to its new home at a glamping site in Eniscrone.
A pregnant woman had a kettle of boiling water and sugar poured over her leg by her boyfriend, who also threatened that he would kill her and bury her in the woods if she cheated on him, she claimed yesterday writes Liam Heylin.

A jury of six men and six women deliberated for more than two hours until 5.30pm yesterday and were told by Judge Gerard OBrien to return to take up their deliberations again on Tuesday at Cork Circuit Criminal Court.

Michael Lynch, aged 24, denies threatening to kill Tara Byrd and assault causing harm to her on July 21, 2015, at 184 Old Youghal Rd, Cork, where they were living together at the time.

Ms Byrd, aged 25, said yesterday that she had known Mr Lynch since she was 19. She started a relationship with him on March 23, 2015 and soon became pregnant. She said she was four months pregnant when Mr Lynch allegedly assaulted and threatened to kill her.

Ms Byrd said that, on June 7, 2015, she wanted to meet friends in a pub to watch a Cork match but she said Mr Lynch told her: I dont want you to go to the pub.

On July 18, they went camping with friends in Crosshaven and Mr Lynch warned her not to be looking at another young man who was there, she told the court.

She said that on Tuesday, July 21, 2015, she was watching Eastenders at 8pm when Mr Lynch again raised the issue of this man.

Ms Byrd testified: He said he was going to boil a kettle of water with sugar in it and pour the sugar water on me. He put the sugar in the kettle and boiled it.

He said if I screamed he would hit me over the head with an iron bar. I was wearing pyjama pants. He threw the kettle over my left leg [from top of foot to below knee]. I was in agony. I did not scream. I was shaking with agony.

He told me to take off my clothes. He put cold water on it. I could not handle it. The pain was unreal. He put a white T-shirt over my leg and he started pouring constant cold water and ice over my leg.

I told Michael I needed to go to hospital. He said there is nothing they can do that Im not already doing. I was there all night in that constant in agony all night.

He told me if he found me cheating he would kill me and bury me in the woods. I believed him because of what he was after doing to me.

Ms Byrd said it was not until the following day that she got to hospital. She told medical personnel here that the boiling water fell on her accidentally.

Cross-examined on this story by Gareth Fleming, barrister for the defence, she said she told these lies because she was in fear of Mr Lynch and that he had also told her that he would damage the homes of her friends and family.

She said that, two days later, she got the courage to leave her home and go to emergency accommodation at Edel House in Cork.

Mr Lynch opted not to give any evidence in the case against him yesterday.

A memo of his interview with gardai was read to the court, in which he said he brought Ms Byrd to hospital 10 minutes after about half a cup of boiling water fell on her leg. He said the kettle was on a counter top and there was a bit of a slope in the room.

His barrister made submissions on his behalf, in which he accused Ms Byrd of lying about being assaulted. Ms Byrd said Mr Lynch was the one who was lying.

This article first appeared in the Irish Examiner. .
One person was killed and 10 others injured when a car slammed into an outdoor cafe in a town on the German/Swiss border, German police said.

Officers told the dpa news agency that the car's driver appeared to have braked too hard and gone into a skid, sliding into several tables at the cafe in Bad Saeckingen.
The US Mint will feature an Asian American on its currency for the first time when it issues a coin next week...
They came in leggings and shorts and jeans, some wearing tutus, scarves or hats.

But most of the 8,084 participants in the 35th annual Montana Womens Run wore light-turquoise long-sleeve shirts with colorful logos when they hit the course. The 5-mile run got underway at 8 a.m. and the 2-mile event began an hour later.

With temperatures in the 50s and much less smoke in the air than Friday, it was a perfect day for a walk or a jog on the streets of downtown Billings.

There were a lot of concerns about the smoke (from the wildfire in northern Canada) and the weather, and to get out here and see this blue sky, we are thrilled, said Julie Burton, board member of the Montana Womens Run. Last year it was wet and rainy and cold, and everybodys out here in just their T-shirts and their shorts.

Event organizers had hoped to reach 10,000 entrants this year. But at least three college graduations Saturday in Billings and Bozeman might have kept that from happening.

Still, more than 8,000 runners and walkers  mostly but not all  women and girls, filled the downtown streets. And it was apparent they were having fun.

The run is always held on Mothers Day weekend, and multiple generations showed up for the event.

Every year it is amazing to me to see women gathering together making this a priority and celebrating the Mothers Day weekend and celebrating women, whatever the relationship is, Burton said. And its all for a fantastic cause that is focused on being healthy and taking care of themselves.

While waiting for each run to begin, at the corner of Second Avenue North and North 25th Street, entrants relaxed, chatting, taking selfies and stretching or dancing to the taped music that blared from speakers. Volunteers helped direct the women to the starting point.

After a performance of the Star-Spangled Banner, Ziggy Ziegler counted down the last few seconds, then shot his starter pistol. As the runners and walkers set off, a sea of turquoise spread out almost as far as the eye could see.

Onlookers cheered from the sidelines at many points along the route. Some participants grabbed cups of water provided to them on their way.

They celebrated when they finished the course at Second Avenue North and North 30th Street. Participants were handed a carnation and a commemorative pin. Then they walked to Skypoint, where a band played live music and tables were filled with fruit, pastry and other snacks.

Mary Owen, 24, of Billings, was the overall winner of the 5-mile race, with a time of 24:03. Nicole Lair, 29, of Billings came in second and Chelsea Dana, 33, of Billings, third.

For the 2-mile run, Taylee Chirrick, 10, of Billings came in first, with a time of 13:10. She was followed by Hannah Obert, 13, of Columbus and Sierra Summers, 16, of Wolf Point.

Before the start of the 2-mile race, longtime friends Toni Chapel, of Billings, and Glenda Buxbaum, of Glendive, asked another woman to take a photo of the two of them together. The two women, both 65, first met when they were in junior high.

Chapel said shes taken part in the Montana Womens Run for probably a good 25 years.

All of those years, she walked with another good friend, Marlene Stai, who passed away last year.

So this runs kind of for her, Chapel said.

Chapel invited Buxbaum this year to enjoy what she has every year she's come.

I said that she had to experience just the energy and to see all the women dressed the same, Chapel said. Its just fun, its a happy feeling and its energizing.

Buxbaum said she was glad to make the trip.

Its unreal the number of people, because theres probably more here than there are in the town of Glendive, she said. Its very, very exciting, and Im really glad to be here.

One group came to the run without the race T-shirts. Instead, they wore identical gray-and-black T-shirts with an image of their family matriarch on them.

Mary Denton, who passed away in December at the age of 104, last took part in the Womens Run at age 100, using a walker and a wheelchair. It was part of her bucket list.

Denton was an amazing, determined women who demonstrated unconditional love for her family, granddaughter Mary Palmer said.

So when she passed away, the whole family just kind of decided wed do a memorial for her this Womens Run, Palmer said.

About 35 members of the family joined in the 2- and 5-mile races on Saturday. Son-in-law Tom Price said Denton would be proud of the family coming together.

Not for coming together for her, but just coming together as a family because that was always important to her, he said.

Tammy Lake of Sidney came down for the race with her daughter Kira Pewonka and 6-month-old grandson James. She and Pewonka have been running races together for several years, and this was their sixth time at the Womens Run.

Its a blast, we enjoy it, its a good bonding time, Lake said. Its amazing to see how many women come every year. It just makes your heart feel full, it really does.

Brenda Fisher and her daughter Megan Bynum, 13, arrived in tutus that matched their T-shirts, made by Megan the night before. The two, who moved to Billings a year ago, have participated in some kind of womens run ever since Megan was born, Fisher said.

Megan was glad to be back for her second year at the Billings event.

Its really fun to do it together, she said.

Fisher said having it fall on Mothers Day weekend is perfect.

Its a fantastic Mothers Day gift, she said. Any time I have with my daughter is a great gift.
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In November of 2012, I asked my community to appoint me to run the largest clerk of District Court Office in Montana. As the most qualified candidate, I am asking for your vote to continue in my efforts with Yellowstone Countys Clerk of District Court Office.

In 2013, I brought my years of past leadership experience to the clerk of court office. I put a strategy into place that created an atmosphere where the office is much friendlier, customer service is paramount and processes have been streamlined. Improvements such as: expanding payment options to include credit cards, adding online services, restructuring filing processes, training and cross-training staff, building and improving relationships inside and outside the office, and adding manpower to meet the ever-increasing workload, the Yellowstone County Clerk of Court has become more effective and efficient. Yet there is always more to do, more to learn and room for improvement.

As a newly elected official there is no beginners book to study. I quickly found out that having inner working knowledge, as a deputy clerk of the court in recent years, was not enough. In the last three years I have learned, sometimes the hard way, many of the essential processes of Yellowstone County government and what role the clerks office plays as a county partner. As a member of the Montana Association of District Court Clerks, I have also acquired knowledge from long-time serving clerks of District Court throughout the state. With many of the fundamental skills now acquired in the last three years, plus my time as a deputy clerk, I am more qualified and prepared than any other candidate, to keep the Yellowstone County Clerk of District Court Office moving forward for another term.

When re-elected, I will continue with the goals that I am currently working on which include: improving jury service, improving public access, working with the state to improve technology and seeking ways to be more productive and cost effective.

It is also important for voters to know that I will maintain an autonomous office, so that nothing will impede the flow of justice. I will continue to follow my oath and serve my community by defending the constitutional rights we all share and I will hold my staff accountable to do the same. All the citizens of Yellowstone County will be treated fairly.

To learn more about why I am the most qualified candidate visit my website at www.kristie4clerk.com.

Thank you for your vote!
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Last week I was joined by the CEO of Dick Anderson Construction in Billings to announce that my No. 1 priority moving into the 2017 Legislature will be to build Montana for this and for future generations.

Too often, elected officials think in two- and four-year cycles. But we cannot afford to think about Montanas infrastructure needs that way. We need to recognize our action, or inaction, will shape Montana for decades to come.

Montanas water and waste-water systems, roads, bridges, public schools, universities and development-impacted communities cannot be ignored for another two years.

I am proposing a $200 million investment in the immediate needs of Montanas communities financed through a responsible mix of cash and bonds  the same way you or I would buy a car, or a house, or make long-term investments in our local communities.

We can afford to make this significant investment and still remain the most fiscally responsible state in the nation and maintain our $300 million rainy day fund.

This isnt just about creating temporary construction jobs. This is about creating a future for Montana and ensuring that our communities, businesses, and residents have efficient and reliable infrastructure that sets the foundation for a thriving economy, creates countless jobs, and protects Montanas quality of life for this and all future generations.

Which is why Im not stopping at $200 million. We must take a step toward developing a sustainable way to fund Montanas infrastructure needs in the future.

Politics has no business meddling with this issue. This time last year, legislators in Helena clocked out and went home after the House failed to approve a statewide infrastructure bill to send to my desk for signature. We Democrats and Republicans worked hard on that bill. It was sponsored by Sen. John Brenden of Scobey and passed the Senate 47-3. It died in the House by one vote.

A small handful of legislators put politics ahead of Montana jobs. As a result, thousands of Montanans were denied work all across the state and much-needed projects were put on hold. These are jobs that would have grown our economy and helped keep Montana worthy of passing on to our kids and our grandkids.

Some of those same legislators have since had the gall to defend the defeat of that bill and others as right for Montana, and a way to leave Helena with a win.

They could not be more wrong. The defeat of the infrastructure bills was wrong for Montana  wrong for our communities, wrong for our schools, wrong for future generations, and wrong for thousands of Montanans who would have had jobs because of it.

In addition to a measure that will get shovels in dirt immediately, we must also work together to address our state's needs for decades to come. The first step in doing so is the Build Montana Trust.

Over twenty years ago, Montanans were wise enough to create a trust using revenues from Montanas coal industry, and several sub-trusts to help fund local and regional water projects across the state, creating jobs and ensuring the health and safety of Montanans for years to come. When the Legislature convenes next January, I will ask them to follow in the footsteps of those who came before them and create a long-term trust to help fund infrastructure in the future.

The Build Montana Trust will start accumulating resources now, to ensure that the future generations of Montanans are able to invest in infrastructure, create jobs, and continue to grow Montanas economy.

Investing in the future of Montana shouldn't be about partisan politics The businesses of today and the next generation of Montanans expect more, and cannot afford for us to wait any longer.
When the going gets rough, the 1 per cent start selling.

That's the finding of a new paper that says people with the highest income bailed from stocks disproportionately on the worst days of the financial crisis. The share of selling by the biggest earners rose "sharply" in days following spikes in volatility, according to data on millions of sales reported to the government in 2008 and 2009.

Bailing out: People with the highest income sold out of the market disproportionately fast as the financial crisis accelerated.

Mapping selling patterns in periods of tumult is of interest to researchers trying to get at the psychological underpinnings of events such as the financial crisis, when more than $US10 trillion ($13 trillion) was erased from US shares, the world's biggest sharemarket, alone. Their main conclusion, that different people react with varying urgency to signs of trouble, could help identify behavioural biases that feed market meltdowns.

"Very, very high income people are disproportionately likely to sell a bunch of stock during a financial crisis," said Daniel Reck, a doctoral candidate in the economics department at the University of Michigan and one of the paper's authors. "It's difficult to say exactly how much high-income people are responsible relative to everyone else, but they're certainly contributing more to volatility."
If he has cut off his hair, which, looking at its gristly dreadlock-like appearance, looked to need a little grooming, the reasons seem philanthropic.

Little Princess Trust is a British charity that provides real hair wigs for children who have lost their hair from being treated for cancer.

The organisation posted a message on their web site thanking Styles for supporting their #hairtospare campaign and donating his hair.

"We are grateful to anyone who decides to do good things for us," the message read. "Harry Styles' high profile however helps raise awareness about the charity too.

"He reached out to the Trust because he wanted to support us  what an endorsement from someone so popular!"
"There has been a huge amount of tension in the office," says Bickmore, who won the publicly voted award last year. "Waleed and I barely make eye contact. It's been extremely uncomfortable."

It's not every year that two hosts from one show find themselves locked in a battle for the Gold Logie. So how are The Project's Waleed Aly and Carrie Bickmore dealing with the situation ahead of Sunday night's gongfest?

She is joking, of course. According to Aly: "We've barely discussed it. All the conversation about the Logies has been me asking her about how things run  it's pretty mundane and logistical."

Waleed Aly on the set of The Project. Credit:Penny Stephens

If it's advice about the day itself he's after, Aly is asking the right person. Bickmore was nominated for the Gold Logie, awarded by public vote to the most popular personality on TV, three years on the trot before finally winning in 2015.

She used her acceptance speech last year to announce the launch of a campaign to raise funds for research into brain cancer, the disease that claimed the life of her first husband, Greg Lange, in 2010. In the year since, she says, "I have not stopped".

Her carriesbeanies4braincancer foundation has raised $458,000, and recently made its first donation, of a quarter of a million dollars, to the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
A range of hazard reduction fires, some in the Blue Mountains, has shrouded Sydney in smoke, set off fire alarms, irritated some people's coughs and sinuses and inflamed tempers.

A spokesman for the NSW Rural Fire Service said more than 40 controlled hazard reduction burns were taking place, involving hundreds of volunteers as well as National Parks employees.

"Conditions are good," he said, adding that the NSW RFS was taking advantage of the fine weather before rain scheduled on Sunday.

In Sydney's CBD, the smoke set off fire alarms prompting calls to local fire stations.
Tony Abbott's divisive former chief of staff has declared her support for Malcolm Turnbull but praised Bill Shorten and questioned government policy on superannuation in her first television interview.

Peta Credlin, who worked as Mr Abbott's top adviser in both opposition and government, began an interview on Sky News on Saturday by admitting "I'm out of my comfort zone."

Despite working in Parliament House for 16 years it was the first time she had set foot in the media wing known as the Press Gallery.

Ms Credlin, widely criticised during her time at the top for being too controlling, was largely unapologetic but said she was not perfect.
The rise of the all-powerful mother goddess began in Phrygia, what is now western Turkey, in the form of Cybele, known as the Mountain Mother, who was thought to take the form of a black meteorite  a lump of rock that had fallen from the sky. She was represented in statues as a matronly-looking woman sitting on a throne (the oldest of which goes back 8000 years) and celebrated in violent orgiastic rites.

Perhaps Oedipus as a little boy served his mother breakfast in bed, was encouraged by her rapture and it all went pear-shaped from there. For Oedipus, every day was mother's day  but he existed (mythically, anyway) at a time when mother goddesses held sway.

The Greeks adopted Cybele around 600 BC. But the wild celebrations were toned down and she was conflated with other female goddesses  including Demeter, who nearly caused the world to freeze and starve when her daughter Persephone was kidnapped and taken to the underworld by Hades. Demeter was worshipped in a women-only festival that included a ritual of carrying torches, signifying the mother's search for her lost daughter.

The Romans, following a prophecy, decided that possessing Cybele's earthly form  that black lump of rock  was key to them winning the second Punic war.

More gifts for women.

None of that sounds warm, soft and mothery. Did Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, wipe those pagan frauds from the face of the earth, assert gentler virtues more worthy of celebration and otherwise put the "mum" in chrysanthemum?

There's an argument without end that the powerful pagan goddesses  whose priests were squealing eunuchs  were transformed into the elevated but passive Virgin Mary. In 2008, Philippe Borgeaud, professor of the history of religion at the University of Geneva, published a book Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary that found plenty of commonality between Cybele (Mother of the gods) and Mary but gave the thumbs down to Mary having god-like status.
"I just want it to be over," Rachel Friend's mother told doctors. "Never let me have another seizure," Shayne Higson's mother implored her daughters. Before she spent her final days in a palliative care unit screaming in pain, Tracey Spicer's mother had begged, "Don't let me suffer".

In a Northern Beaches park, the three women are talking about their mothers, about missing their mothers, and sharing a complex mix of emotion: love, loss, guilt, horror and rage.

Shayne Higson, Senate candidate for the Voluntary Euthanasia Party, Tracey Spicer and Rachel Friend are united in grief and determination. Credit:Fiona Morris

"I still feel as though I betrayed her," says Ms Spicer, 49. The journalist and columnist's mother, Marcia, died in 1999 when she was 52, seven months after she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

In 2008, Ms Spicer revealed that she had hovered a pillow above her dying mother's face. She was prepared to smother her.
I am a Billings native with over 20 years of judicial experience, an accountant with an MBA, and have owned and operated different short-term and long-term business since I was eight, starting with making snow cones at the Midland Empire State Fair. I have trained people to achieve success in their tasks, used numerous skills to bring out the best in others, and sat on both sides of the table in budget meetings.

In business, managing a nonprofit organization, or government office, there are key components shared between all three which are vital to achieving success. Financial management and budgeting, understanding the needs of employees, customer service, and improving services at every opportunity are just some of these elements. Working in the business is different than working on the business, and the clerk of district court is no different. The history of the leadership since I began working with Yellowstone County District Court in 1990 has come from within the judicial system, which is why I believe the same issues make the news every now and then. While some of the issues can be clearly seen, I know that some of the issues stem from different circumstances. What I see is that each new clerk of court was trained on the importance of proper procedures, while at the same time, the challenges were also passed on, creating a thats the way we have always done it culture.

While the different clerks over the years have caught some of these traits and made improvements, one thing stands out: These elected officials possessed the credentials to work in the business, not on' the business. I do not claim to know every procedure, and to have completely memorized every crossing and dotting of the t and is. What I do claim is how to lead and manage a department. There are good deputy clerks that can handle the tasks, and what they need is a leader that can manage.

Before filing to run for this position, I had the opportunity to ask the other two candidates basic questions about management and leadership. These questions would be the same type that a person applying to manage a million-dollar business (the department budget), would be asked. Having performed interviews on both sides of the table, the answers I received did not satisfy the basic information needs to hire them in a management leadership position. Deputies yes, but not the head of a department.

The past leadership has been good, but good is not good enough, it needs to be great. Albert Einstein is quoted with the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. This election cycle is allowing voters the chance to end the repeated same results in the manner Yellowstone County government operates, and move what is a good county operation to a great county operation. Other candidates who offer this leadership and me ask for your support in this primary election.
A teacher at The Scots College has been reported to police following allegations of inappropriate behaviour at the school.

Police said in a statement: "On Monday 2 May, a report was made to police from Rose Bay local area command regarding alleged inappropriate behaviour of a teacher at a school on Victoria Road, Bellevue Hill."

The Scots College in Bellevue Hill. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Principal Dr Ian Lambert said The Scots College did not make a practice of commenting in the media on matters related to child protection and the school was bound by privacy obligations to students, families and staff.

"Any allegation of inappropriate conduct immediately triggers a documented process of reporting to the relevant authorities and an investigation," he said. "If an allegation concerns a member of staff, they are immediately stood down as a matter of due process."
Michael Bowtell father's remains will return to Australia in June, 50 years after he died in Vietnam. Credit:Steve Gosch Michael Bowtell, 55, of Orange, and battling to control his emotion, said his father died as part of Operation Crimp. "They were looking for the headquarters of the Viet Cong and it turned out they landed on the headquarters," he said. "It just went messy from there. During the course of the Vietnam War, 521 Australians lost their lives. Unfortunately, a group were never brought back and buried at Vietnam Veteran's Terandak Cemetery in Malaysia. Credit:Becca Jayne Photography "I heard it was going to cost 500. Mum had three kids, was carrying the fourth and the army had taken her accommodation away from her. Her priorities needed to be somewhere else."

When his mother first heard about the "Bring them Home" campaign her response was to leave him there at peace, he said. "I think she has changed her mind purely for my siblings' sake because they expressed an interest to bring him back." Asked about the emotions surrounding the repatriation, he added: "I can't help but think about the return as a coping mechanism. I think we all have kept a lot bottled up. Bob's return will be a great release." Corporal Bob Bowtell.

Back in the country he fought for Jan Sullivan, of Eagleby, south of Brisbane, will travel to RAAF Base Richmond to see her brother Neville Horne return with a burial at Rookwood the next day. At their family home in Campsie during the Vietnam War, her parents, Tom and Edna Horne, had six other children to feed so money was also tight. Ms Sullivan said the military sent photos of Neville's actual burial, and of the coffin being carried. "The day after Neville was buried was the day the government informed the Australian public that all the deceased soldiers would be brought back. That didn't go down very well," she said. "It killed mum not having Neville. She used to write eight pages twice a day to him. Before he passed away he sent a parcel which took quite a while to get back to Australia. She didn't receive that parcel until after Neville had passed away and that was extremely hard on her."

She said her brother died immediately having been hit by a sniper and that she had been assured by his mates that he didn't suffer in any way. "He will be buried only about five minutes away from where mum is buried," she said. "I'm just so grateful that this is happening. I am grateful to the Australian public and to everyone that signed that petition and to Bob Shewring from the Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia who organised it. All the families will be indebted to him forever. "Mum would be absolutely elated that he'll be back in the country that he fought for." In May 2015, then prime minister Tony Abbott announced an offer of repatriation to the families of 35 Australian service personnel and dependants.

A spokesman for Minister for Veterans' Affairs Dan Tehan said the government made an offer of repatriation to the families of 24 Australian service personnel from the Vietnam War, three other soldiers and eight dependants of soldiers who died while they were based at Terendak, and to the family of a Vietnam War soldier buried in Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. More than 30 families had accepted the offer he said. The campaign was started by Bob Shewring, a fellow Vietnam veteran, and after years of research into the reasons why the only Vietnam veteran killed in action from the Northern Territory and the others were buried in Terendak Christian Cemetery located in Malaysia's largest military base. It was his response to being told by the government that a request to have that veteran, Reg Hillier, repatriated to Australia had been turned down yet again. Mr Shewring said to his mates "Stuff them, let's bring them all home", thus commencing Operation "Bring Them Home". Widow never saw his grave

Ken Smith and his brother Eddie Smith will be at RAAF Base Richmond to collect their younger brother, Corporal Frank Smith, who will be buried in Ouyen Cemetery in Victoria on June 9. He said his mother was in hysterics when she got the news. There were three girls and five boys in their family. Corporal Smith, aged 25 when he was hit by a sniper, was the youngest. The family couldn't understand why the army wouldn't bring him home. "When they took the national servicemen over there they changed their policy. We couldn't have national servicemen being killed over there and buried there," he said. "My mother never got to the grave. She died in 1968. The brothers said they went to Ouyen Cemetery six months ago to get the grave sorted out.

"I couldn't get Frank all that close to our parents but the grave is facing east, facing the rising sun," he said. "That was his army emblem, the rising sun. "I don't feel any anger. Frank was a professional soldier. He used to call himself a hired gun for the government. He loved the army." Widow now 82 welcomes husband's homecoming Marie Hanley, 82, will be one of only a few widows still alive to see their husband finally brought home. Warrant Officer Max Hanley was in a firefight in his platoon when they became overrun by North Vietnam forces. In the end he was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Mrs Hanley, who had regretted not bringing him home ever since, said she was very grateful to the government for repatriating her husband.
Michael Bowtell father's remains will return to Australia in June, 50 years after he died in Vietnam. Credit:Steve Gosch It has taken a change.org campaign signed by more than 40,000 to force what will be one of Australia's largest repatriations. Still their families don't understand why, when the other 521 casualties of the Vietnam War were returned, their loved ones remained behind. During the course of the Vietnam War, 521 Australians lost their lives. Unfortunately, a group were never brought back and buried at Vietnam Veteran's Terandak Cemetery in Malaysia. Credit:Becca Jayne Photography Mr Hanley, from Kureelpa, said there were a lot of emotions throughout three generations of the family that hadn't been dealt with. The repatriation would stir them up, he said. "It has certainly rattled the skeletons in the cupboard.

"It has created a whole heap of stuff that I guess has been suppressed. With this coming up, all those raw emotions are coming to the surface and my feeling is that this will be the beginning of healing. It isn't going to be closure, there's been too much angst over the years." Warrant Officer Max Hanley will finally be coming home. His mother, at her own expense, didn't get to Malaysia until about 1998 to visit the grave in Terendak, now occupied by the Malaysian Special Forces. Mr Hanley visited in 2001 and was escorted by armed guards. Initially they were not allowed to take pictures and were only allowed 10 minutes at the graveside.

"As soon as I was old enough to understand he was buried overseas I couldn't understand why he wasn't brought home," he said. "They have taken Diggers back to England for significant anniversaries but they have never done that with Terendak. It was the cemetery that was out of sight and out of mind and, because it was the Vietnam War, even more so." Mrs Hanley, one of the few widows attending the repatriation, said she was very grateful for the government's decision. Corporal Bob Bowtell. "I am pleased that now his family will be able to visit his grave," she said. "That includes 10 grandchildren and five great grandchildren." Jan Sullivan, from Eagleby south of Brisbane, will also travel to RAAF Base Richmond to see her brother, Neville Horne, return with burial at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney the next day. At the family home in Campsie, her parents, Tom and Edna Horne, had six other children to feed so money was also tight.

Ms Sullivan said the military sent photos of Neville's actual burial, of the coffin being carried. "The day after Neville was buried was the day the government informed the Australian public that all the deceased soldiers would be brought back. That didn't go down very well," she said. "It killed mum not having Neville. She used to write eight pages twice a day to him. Before he passed away he sent a parcel which took quite a while to get back to Australia. She didn't receive that parcel until after Neville had passed away and that was extremely hard on her." She said her brother died immediately having been hit by a sniper and that she had been assured by his mates that he didn't suffer. "He will be buried only about five minutes away from where mum is buried," she said. "I'm just so grateful that this is happening. I am grateful to the Australian public and to everyone that signed that petition and to Bob Shewring from the Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia who organised it. All the families will be indebted to him forever. "Mum would be absolutely elated that he'll be back in the country, that Ken Smith and his brother Eddie Smith will watch at RAAF Base Richmond to collect their younger brother Corporal Frank Smith who will be buried in Ouyen Cemetery in Victoria on June 9 where his parents Stan and Polly are also buried." Ken said his mother was in hysterics when she got the news. There were three girls and five boys. Corporal Smith, aged 25 when he was hit by a sniper, was the youngest. The family couldn't understand why the army wouldn't bring him home. "When they took the national servicemen over there they changed their policy," he said. "We couldn't have national servicemen being killed over there and buried there.

"My mother never got to the grave. She died in 1968. "I went to Ouyen cemetery six months ago to get the grave sorted out. I couldn't get Frank all that close to our parents but the grave is facing east, facing the rising sun. That was his army emblem, the rising sun. "I am just so happy that Tony Abbott made the decision to bring them all back at government expense. I don't feel any anger. Frank was a professional soldier. He used to call himself a hired gun for the government. He loved the army." Michael Bowtell was 4 when there was a night-time knock on the door at the family's army accommodation in Holsworthy. All three children were in bed. His mum, Josephine, pregnant with a fourth, was given the news.

Her husband, Corporal Bob Bowtell, had died from carbon monoxide poisoning after exploring a Viet Cong tunnel at Ben Cat on January 11, 1966. She didn't have the 500 the army said it would cost to bring his body back to Australia so he was buried at a "halfway home", the Commonwealth cemetery called Terendak in Malaysia. But in just over three weeks' time, and just over half a century later, his remains will finally return home for reinterment. A spokesman for Minister for Veteran's Affairs, Dan Tehan, said the government made an offer of repatriation to the families of 24 Australian service personnel from the Vietnam War, three other soldiers and eight dependants of soldiers who died while they were based at Terendak, and to the family of a Vietnam War soldier buried in Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. More than 30 families had accepted the offer, he said.
At just 23, Solange Cunin is making space history. She is the driving force behind Australia's first payload to the International Space Station. And the aerospace engineering student is making her mark with the help of hundreds of NSW high school students.

"We had to get special approval from 16 other nations who take part in the ISS because Australia has never been involved with it before," said Ms Cunin, a student at the University of NSW.

Science and Industry Minister Christopher Pyne this month signed the first "Overseas Launch Certificate" ever issued by the Australian government.

Ms Cunin has enlisted the bright ideas of students from 40 NSW high schools to prepare a piece of hardware that will run 60 experiments in space. All of the experiments are written in Python computer code and loaded up into a piece of kit that will be tested by NASA scientists before rocketing up into Earth orbit.
A man has been diagnosed with a rare disease caused by daily cannabis use after a wound on his big toe would not heal.

The man, 26, went to Frankston Hospital after an ulcer on his big toe failed to heal.

A man who used cannabis daily has been diagnosed with a rare condition after his big toe failed to heal. Credit:New York Times

The man is believed to have used up to one gram of cannabis a day.

Surgeon Dr David Soon said the man's daily habit caused a build-up of plaque around an artery in his big toe.
Beijing: A three-year-old boy has died at a Chinese centre for autistic children which uses punishing exercise regimes to treat a disease of the "rich and lazy".

Police have opened an investigation into the rehabilitation centre in the southern city of Guangzhou, which makes children walk up to 19 kilometres a day and forces them to lie in incubators to "cure" them through sweating.

It is run by self-taught medical practitioner Xia Dejun, who believes the condition is a result of wealthy families spoiling their children.

His centre focuses on building up physical endurance as a means of helping children "recover".

The death last week of Lai Jiari, known as Jia, prompted anger in China, where it is being seen as the latest tragic case relating to alternative therapies. It also highlights the lack of specialist care available in the public health system.
First, it sold its elephants to China. Now, the Zimbabwe government has placed an ad in its state-run newspaper asking members of the public  at least those who have the money and space  to buy some more of the country's wild animals.

The reason is a devastating, relentless El Nino-induced drought that has left as many as 4 million Zimbabweans in need of food aid and ravished the country's natural resources, decimating crops and drying up water sources. At least 16,500 cattle have died.

Elephants drinking from a pool at a safari site in Zimbabwe. Credit:Imvelo Safari Lodges

Zimbabwe is home to 10 national parks, one of which claimed Cecil the lion, a beloved black mane lion that was killed by a US dentist last year. The parks, filled with giraffes, buffalos, zebras, lions, cheetahs and elephants, draw both tourists and poachers.

Last year, the Zimbabwean government drew scrutiny and the ire of conservationists when it began selling elephants to China. The sale, government officials admitted, would reduce the booming elephant population but also raise money so the country could buy things like anti-poaching and surveillance technology.
When the economy was booming, you couldnt find housing in Converse County towns. Energy workers would come in to work a 10-day shift and then go back to their families in other areas, said Converse County School District Superintendent Dan Espeland.

Now, he sees for-sale signs going up throughout Douglas, Wyo., evidence that next year there will be fewer kids in his schools.

Layoffs announced March 31 at two coal mines meant hundreds of workers lost their jobs in Converse and Campbell counties. Those two school districts are anticipating that by next year, they will suffer severe drops in enrollment as families leave.

But enrollment cuts are only half the story, school officials say. Lawmakers also voted to cut about $36 million from K-12 over the next two years.

Campbell County is part of an 11-district coalition asking lawmakers to reconsider those cuts.

Education budgets are going to be hit hard, officials say. The amount of money guaranteed to districts from the state depends on the number of students in the classroom.

Campbell could lose 200 to 250 students by the fall, said Don Dihle, business manager for the district. Even if that drop was 150 students, it would still result in $600,000 cut to the district's 2017-18 budget.

For a district the size of Campbell, with an enrollment of 9,000, to lose 150 students in a year such as this is highly likely, Dihle said in an email. In fact, we would be extremely pleased if our numbers only decline by 150 in the upcoming year.

Campbell is down 205 students since a count in October  about a 2 percent decrease, according to Superintendent Boyd Brown. However, numbers from the beginning of the year to the end drop consistently, he said.

Last year, there was a decrease of 161 students between October and April. In 2012-2013 the district lost 233 in that period, according to Browns records.

We dont believe we have lost any more or less then the last four years, he said. Its not an anomaly for us yet.

Converse, a smaller district, hasnt experienced a steep decline this year. They have about 35 fewer students now than the same time last year. But the drop is likely to continue, Espeland said.

Schools have no way of determining exactly how many families will leave due to the energy downturn, or when they will leave, he said. But many families in Converse are dependent on the oil and coal industries.

In visiting with our principals, they estimate that about a third of our families are somehow impacted by the energy industry, either oil or coal, Espeland said. The potential for us to lose a lot of students is very high.

The superintendent believes many families will wait to move as they look for other employment and consider their options, he said.

We really dont know for sure what will happen, he said. A lot of it will depend on how long this bust situation lasts. The longer it lasts, the more likely we are going to lose students.

The district cut its supplies budget by 5 percent and left five empty elementary teacher positions vacant, Espeland said.

Both Converse and Campbell counties are awaiting the start of the school year with unease.

A climate of uncertainty has gripped Gillette, Wyo., with rumors circulating of further layoffs and families packing up and leaving, Brown said.

There is all kind of information out there, and you cant chase it, he said. Well deal with it the best we can, and know we try to serve all of our students.
Making broker news this week, a new franchise operation has officially launched; ANZ has announced the departure of their mortgage channel head; and a shock move by the RBA saw cash rates slashed.MoneyQuest is leveraging it tech-focussed culture and support brokers with a new franchise operation which officially launched this week.Todays savvy consumer expects a lot more from their mortgage brokers  and those mortgage brokers have the right to expect a lot more from the business behind them, said MoneyQuest managing director Michael Russell.The launch follows the opening of a purpose-built film studio in its Melbourne headquarters back in February, designed to digitally empower brokers, giving the broker network the ability to create professional video content.Head of third party relationship channels at ANZ, Keiran Evans, will make a swift departure from the big bank as part of a major restructure.Ive had a fantastic time at ANZ. The highlight has definitely been the last three years working with the broker industry, Evans said.Im proud of what the team has achieved and know our BDMs will continue to deliver the exceptional service weve become known for.Evans has headed up ANZs mortgage channel since March of 2013. The Reserve Bank slashed cash rates to an all-time low this week , the first cash rate reduction the central bank has made in a year. The move was a surprise to many, with economists and financial commentators predicting that the bank would leave rates still, waiting until the Federal Budget was delivered before making any changes.Any move by RBA to move rates with the budget around the corner which will outline the Government's Fiscal Policy going forward will reflect a lack of prudence, Bank of Sydney deputy chief executive officer Steven Pambris said before the meeting.
Moorestown honors Percheron that helped build the town

Percheron Park opened in downtown Moorestown with a tribute to the horse of yesteryear and its owner, who first brought the breed to the U.S.
With the government taking several measures to clean up the system, the wealth of crony capitalists in the country has dipped, according to a study by The Economist.

The study claims that from its peak of 18 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008, the crony capitalists wealth is now down to three per cent. Its index on crony capitalism across the world is based on work by Ruchir Sharma, the head of the emerging markets teams at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Aditi Gandhi and Michael Walton of Delhis Centre for Policy Research, among others.

It uses data on billionaires fortunes from rankings by Forbes. Each billionaire is labelled as a crony or not, based on the industry in which they are most active. It also compared countries total crony wealth to their GDP.

The Economist said the crony index is the idea that some industries are prone to rent seeking  when the owners of an input of production, land, labour, machines, or capital, extract more profit than they would get in a competitive market. Cartels, monopolies and lobbying are common ways to extract rents. Industries that are vulnerable often involve a lot of interaction with the state, or are licensed by it: for example, telecoms, natural resources, real estate, and defence.

India Inc has successfully managed to stop foreign direct investment in several sectors, including insurance and defence, and later made huge capital gains by selling their stake to foreign companies once the sector was opened up.

The good news is that the crony capitalism across the world is shrinking, but developing countries still account for 65 per cent of global crony capitalism.

Russia tops the list, followed by Malaysia and the Philippines.

In its latest edition, The Economist says a slump in commodity prices has wiped off the balance sheets of several mining tycoons across the world. At the same time, the Indian government has taken a tough stance on graft. The central bank, too, has prodded state-owned lenders to stop ever-greening loans given to Indian promoters such as Kingfisher Airlines promoter Vijay Mallya, who left India after banks moved the Supreme Court to recover their debt worth Rs 9,100 crore.

The vast majority of Indian billionaires wealth is now from open industries such as pharmaceuticals, cars and consumer goods. The pin-ups of Indian capitalism are no longer the pampered scions of its business dynasties, but the hungry founders of Flipkart, an e-commerce firm, it said. India is ranked ninth in the listing of billionaires wealth to GDP index.

The National Democratic Alliance government came to power in 2014 on promises that it would take steps to curb crony capitalism in India. But soon the Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi termed Modis government as suit-boot ki sarkar, or the government of those who wear suits and boots, that is, rich industrialists.
The floor test in Uttarakhand is virtually heading for a nail-biting finish.

The Uttarakhand High Court will pronounce its verdict on the disqualification of the nine Congress rebel MLAs on Monday, just a day before the floor test in the Uttarakhand Assembly which will decide the fate of ousted chief minister Harish Rawat.

The high court on Saturday reserved its order on a petition of the rebel Congress MLAs challenging their disqualification by the state Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal.

After hearing concluding arguments from both sides for more than two hours, Justice U C Dhayani said the verdict will be pronounced at 10:15 am on May 9.

The court's judgment on the status of these MLAs will assume significance as far as the floor test, ordered by the Supreme Court on May 10, is concerned. If the rebels remain disqualified they will not be allowed to cast their vote during the floor test in the 71-member House, whose effective strength will remain 62.

However, if their disqualification is revoked the floor test will be held in a house of 71 (along with the nominated member and the Speaker) in which Rawat, who will be seeking the trust vote will have to muster the support of at least 36. The Speaker can vote in the House only in case of a tie.

Senior Supreme Court lawyers Kapil Sibal and Amit Sibal argued on behalf of the Speaker while C A Sundaram and Dinesh Dwiwedi represented the disqualified rebel MLAs.
Indian Pediatric Network, a start up which offers pediatrician services convenient to parents, is planning to expand its services pan India and to raise around Rs 25 crore to fund it's expansion. The company at present has six pediatricians offering services over phone round the clock.

The company is offering its services in Mumbai, connecting around 4,000 children with its network, focusing on working mothers who are unable to attend to their children's health issues and require assistance or professional guidance in diagnosing and treating ailments.

It offers services to make electronic medical records of the children available for the parents and access to pediatricians and medical information at odd hours, when the clinics are shut and the regular pediatrician are not available, said SKM Faridh, director, The Pediatric Network.

"We are currently present in Mumbai and will be going pan India in a month or two.

We are in talks with investors to raise around Rs 25 crore for the same," he said. It currently has an investment of Rs 2.5 crore.

The company is looking at an annual revenue of Rs 80-100 crore in the next three years, he added.
Drawing up ambitious plans for expansion, Hyderabad-based pharmacy retail chain MedPlus is expecting the franchise format alone will contribute 50 per cent of its total revenue next year.

The second largest pharmacy retail chain in the country has a network of 1,350 pharmacies in several states.

Taking the brand to rural areas, MedPlus announced plans to open 1,100 franchise stores in 1,100 mandals of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by the end of this year. It is also working on a proposal to open 500 franchise stores each in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

"We expect to receive 30 per cent of our revenue in the current year from franchise stores. This will go up to 50 per cent next year and will keep increasing thereafter," said Madhukar Gangadi, founder and CEO, MedPlus Health Solutions.

A couple of years ago, the company announced a target of setting up of 10,000 outlets by 2018-19. Gangadi insists MedPlus will keep adding its own stores as well.

According Gangadi, there is demand for franchise stores among local entrepreneurs and the company wants to tap this potential. He believes the franchise model makes sense because the company cannot run stores in remote rural areas.

"They earn from day one as we tell them what to stock. The company extends them existing discount and loyalty programmes," he said. The franchise stores can also access MedPlus' online platform to order products.

Organised retail pharmacies are a minuscule portion of an estimated Rs 80,000-crore pharmaceutical market in India. The Apollo Group's pharmacy chain is the largest organised player with a network of 2,350 own stores. Revenues of Apollo pharmacy stores, excluding in-house hospital demand, stood at Rs 2,500 crore in 2015-16, according to a company executive.

"By March 2017 we will become the largest retail pharmacy chain in the country," said Gangadi, a doctor with an MBA from Wharton. MedPlus earned Rs 1,720 crore income in 2015-16.

The company has tied up with the State Bank of India for providing loans to the franchisees with 50 per cent collateral.

An industry insider said MedPlus' experiment with franchise stores had not met success in Gujarat in the past.

Private equity firms hold close to a 70 per cent stake in MedPlus and the remaining stake is held by Madhukar and a few others.
Quess Corp, the nine-year old firm backed by Indian-born Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa is preparing itself for a public issue. Last week, it got the SEBI nod for an IPO. Ajit Isaac, chairman and managing director and CEO of Quess Corp, among the pioneers of temp staffing in India, says the best is yet to come for the company as it looks at growing its share in the SG&A expenses of Indian corporates.

"In the gold rush in the United States, most money was not made by the gold miners, but the transporters. Those were the services guys and (here) we are the services guys," says Isaac in an interview. Edited Excerpts:

How different are you from TeamLease?

Only one fourth of our business resembles TeamLease, three fourths is different. We are different company than a payroll company. If you want people that you want to employ, with TeamLease you transfer them on their payroll. We do lot of hiring, we charge a fee and our business is therefore much higher in profitability with different set of services in spite of the fact that we both are human resources company . Out of 121,000 people we have got, 85,000 people are in temp staffing, TeamLease has around 100,000 or so. We make little more money than what they do. This year, in first six months, revenue was Rs 1530 crore and an Ebidta was Rs 74 crore and at the margin level, we are at around 5-6 percent. It is a whole different game. In recruiting, we have 300 recruiters and we will be among the top three recruiting business separately.

What is the other three fourths business?

We maintain steel plants, power plants and large industrial equipment and have over 4,000 engineers. We are India's largest industrial asset management company. We have a facilities management business - with over 150 million square feet of real estate assets such as malls, public utilities and hospitals. We maintain part of Delhi airport. We have 20,000 people in this and it is an essential services business. And global tech solutions, which is the core solution for property and casualty business in insurance.

Aren't you in diverse businesses?

We want to do more and get more of the sales, general and administrative (SG&A) expenditure of a company. As much line expenditure of a company, we want to be in all of them. Globally, there are such as Serco, Interserve and Sodexho who have built large businesses.

What happens when they become aggressive in India?

We have a head start. We have a well crafted strategy of offering hard and soft services. We offer only 30 million square feet of pest control of the 150 million sq ft of assets we maintain. For outsourcing you can't put boundaries. It is as much as you can do.

When we started with Samsung, they had single digit market share and 300 people. Now, there are 8000 people from us who are working for them. We are such an integral part of Samsung mobile phone success story in India. Samsung builds great phones, more applications, smart chips. Customer services we handle and look at what they have achieved.

You also have presence in e-commerce?

We have 8000 people working for Amazon. It is more likely one of our employees would deliver if you ordered goods on Amazon. will build merchandise, branding and technology, we are good at last mile delivery. We have a (service level agreement) SLA culture in the company. New guys have to build everything from scratch. We do 25,000 parcels a day and if we will double that by the end of the year, we should be in great shape. We do it for 4-5 e-commerce including Urban Ladder. Dependo logistics, is running that part of the business. We can set up distribution network and have a very as asset light model. In e-commerce, we have 12-14,000 people.

But can you continue to be frugal considering that Private equity/VC backed can compete and buy market share throwing cash?

Our biggest assets is not the company is $ 230 million with an Rs 74 crore of Ebidta. That is not what makes our company, the biggest thing that makes our company is the culture. It takes years and years to build the culture, it takes minutes to give it away. If you start competing with the guys with big fat cheques from private equity guys by throwing money, you have lost the plot. The best way to compete with them by running your operations more efficient, treating your people well and build sustainable model of business.

That is what I think set sets up apart. We have managed to do this in each of business we are . We have higher margins which is growing. In an economy, which has been growing 6% , we have grown 65 per cent CAGR. with a margin expansion of 2 to 5 per cent. Our DSO has dropped to 60 from 90.

How much of the wallet size of customers you have been able to tap?

It is very difficult to aggregate the SG&A expenses of all your companies. So, in my sense, we are not dealing with not more than 2-4% of the SG&A expenses of corporations. That shows the headroom for growth. In the people business, the organised players don't have 15% market share of the entire industry. The Indian economy saw three phases of growth, 1991-95, the telecom growth and banking licenses; 2000 - internet, telecom and technology and then came retail and insurance, today lot of e-commerce industry. In each wave, there were a set of services that grew with the core industries. In the gold rush that happened in the United States, most money was not made by the gold miners, but the transporters Those were the services guys and (here) we are the services guys.
The next generation of regional traditional family-run sweets and snack store chain is looking at taking the brand to new areas, including restaurants and cafeteria business, apart from food products stores offering ethnic items. It is also planning to launch snack products which were so far available in its stores, in multibrand outlets.

The conventional sweet store chain, after 20 years of launching in Chennai, is now looking at possibilities of hitting multi-brand retail stores with its packaged snacks boxes with unconventional designs, setting up new restaurants under the brand Sri Krishna Bhavan and cafeteria under the brand Bolizza and stand alone food products stores in the city. Plans are also there to tie up with e-commerce majors to sell its products online.

Shruthi Murali and Sneha Murali, daughters of M Murali, managing director and second generation entrepreneur in the family, are active in the business of now. While the elder daughter Shruthi joined business three to four years back and takes care of the Food Products Division, Sneha, who joined business almost a year ago, is focusing on restaurants and cafeteria business.

"In the 20th year of our launch in Chennai, we are starting afresh," said Murali. He said that the retail chain, which has been focusing on sweet products with its flagship product Mysurpa, has now started to focus on the "Karas" the snack items like mixture and Murukku, with different flavours and shapes such as two inch sticks of Muruku.

The company has designed a new plastic box containers from small to large sizes and extra packs of spices or salt for the buyer to customise the flavour of the product. It has started launching the product in its 38 outlets in Chennai and other parts, where he does the business.

"We are analysing the demand and processes now. We may look at selling in the retail market after six months or so," he added. He is heading the business in Chennai and cities such as Kanchipuram, Tiruvallur, Puducherry and Thiruvannamalai, while his elder brother M Krishnan is heading the business in rest of the places.

Chennai itself has more opportunities to open more branches and he is planning to open 10-15 more outlets in next two to three years in the city, he said.

Out of the 38 stores at present, 17 has the restaurant Sri Krishna Bhavan as shop in shop.

"We are focusing on creating a different ambience and look for the restaurants and offer some of the ethnic food items, which is not in the market now," said Sneha. The focus on restaurants started almost two weeks back and it will be on track in a month or two, she added. It has stopped its previous restaurant brand Rassa, which had two centres in Chennai. It has seven major restaurants running at present, in shop-in-shop model, and once these outlets pick up volume, the company will think about taking up the restaurants to new places, including as standalone shops, she added.

She said that the Bolizza, a coffee shop format of shop specialising on new varieties of the traditional food item boli and offers different mixes of sandwiches in Indian and foreign style. The model is expected to grow faster and there would be around 20-25 stores under the brand within a year, she said.

"We are doing the trial of these concepts at present. I think we will complete the R&D works in next four to five months. After that we will take up the expansion and the financial details will be worked out then," said Murali. He did not reveal the revenue of the company, but said that with the new plans, the company is expected to double its revenue in next two years.
A Pinedale, Wyo., magistrate who said she would not perform same-sex marriages is fighting a state judicial ethics commission's recommendation to remove her from office.

The Wyoming Supreme Court will decide whether Pinedale municipal judge and circuit court magistrate Ruth Neely should be removed from her position.

The Wyoming Commission on Judicial Conduct and Ethics began investigating Neely in January 2015. The investigation was prompted by statements made by Neely to a Pinedale Roundup reporter, which were published in a newspaper article. After a federal judge in Casper, Wyo., struck down Wyomings gay marriage ban, Neely told the reporter that she would not be able to perform same-sex marriages.

"When law and religion conflict, choices have to be made," she was quoted as saying.

On March 4, 2015, the commission served Neely with a notice of commencement of formal proceedings, which is a disciplinary proceeding. The notice alleged she violated six separate canons, or rules of judicial conduct. The commission alleges Neely acted with prejudice based on sexual orientation, refused to uphold the law and acted improperly.

During the proceedings, the commission told Neely it wouldn't prosecute if she would agree to resign both of her positions and never again seek judicial office in Wyoming, as well as admit wrongdoing, according to a brief by Neelys attorneys filed with the Wyoming Supreme Court. Neely declined to do so.

This February, the commission asked Neely if she would publicly apologize and agree to perform same-sex marriages. Neely responded by saying that she could not perform such marriages because doing so would violate her religious convictions.

Soon thereafter, the commission filed a recommendation with the Wyoming Supreme Court asking the court to remove Neely from her positions as municipal court judge and circuit court magistrate.

Last week, Neelys attorneys asked the court to reject the commissions recommendation. Neely is being represented by several attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal group.

The attorneys argue Neely has discretion when exercising her authority to perform marriages and that she could turn away a couple for any number of reasons. They noted that Neely has not been asked to perform a same-sex marriage. Neely has also been suspended from her role as a magistrate by Circuit Court Judge Curt Haws and is not currently performing marriages.

Neelys attorneys further argue her authority to perform marriages does not apply to her role as a municipal court judge and that she has not violated any judicial rules within that position. They also argue the commissions actions violate Neelys constitutional rights to free speech and free exercise of religion.

Neely's attorneys also express concern that under the commission's insistence, any judge in Wyoming who shares Neely's beliefs about marriage may be removed from his or her position.

"This case threatens any judge who holds and communicates views about numerous potentially controversial topics," the attorneys write.

Ana Cuprill, the Wyoming Democratic Party chairwoman who originally informed the commission of Neelys statements in the newspaper article, said she agrees with the commissions recommendation.

My concern in passing on that information was that I felt that any judgment that Judge Neely would have in the future might be challenged if there was some sort of an issue with someone who is LGBT and felt prejudiced and that would be a liability in our town, Cuprill said.

She said she forwarded the newspaper article out of her concern for the community of Pinedale.

I was concerned when she said she was not going to follow the law, Cuprill said.

Neely has been a municipal judge in Pinedale for more than 21 years and has performed marriages as a magistrate for over a decade.

According to state statute, the Supreme Court may suspend a judicial officer from practicing law in Wyoming and may remove a judicial officer from office or impose other discipline for a violation of the code of judicial conduct.

A phone message left for Neely at the Pinedale Town Hall was unreturned Friday. A message left for her attorneys at the Alliance Defending Freedom was also not returned.
Diesel price has come down by 54 paise per litre in Delhi beginning Saturday after the Aam Admi Party (AAP) government slashed the value added tax (VAT) on the automobile fuel from 18.5 per cent to 15.75 per cent late Friday night.



After the change in the VAT rate, diesel now costs Rs 50.41 per litre in the national capital as against Rs 50.94 per liter earlier. Prices would be Rs 50.68 per litre in Faridabad and Rs 50.44 per litre in Gurgaon.



A Delhi government spokesperson confirmed the cut in VAT rates but said the government is yet to formally announce the decision. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nations largest fuel retailer, announced the cut in diesel prices on its website. Delhis VAT rate at 18.5% before Fridays cut was higher, when compared to 17.2% in Haryana, official data shows.

The decision to reduce VAT rates comes days after the second round of the 15-day Odd-Even drive to cut down pollution  which had hit the governments VAT revenue. The scheme ended on April 30. The decision also comes amid the latest drive against diesel vehicles, triggered by Supreme Courts decision to ban diesel-run cabs in the capital.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government in Delhi had increased VAT on petrol from 25% to 27% and VAT levied on diesel from 16.6% to 18% four days after the first round of the Odd-Even road rationing drive ended on 15 January. That VAT increase had led to higher sales for dealers in neighbouring states.

The move, which led to 53 paise per liter rise in diesel prices, was justified by the government, citing a decision taken at a meeting of the finance ministers of North Indian states to bring uniformity in tax rates. The Odd-Even drive had resulted in the government earning Rs 230 crore from VAT on diesel in January, around Rs 40 crore less than the average monthly collection.

While the taxes on oil sold to consumers forms a small part of total revenue, the state government still mops up an average VAT collection of Rs 2,500 crore annually. The government is targeting Rs 24,000 crore of total annual VAT collection. In the 2016-17 Budget, the AAP government had rationalised VAT rates by reducing the number of items attracting a higher levy and doing away with differential taxes for similar items.
With such a lukewarm response to the Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, a group of India- and the Netherlands-based research scholars finds itself in a sweat. The group is here to understand crowd dynamics, behaviour and psychology.

"We haven't been able to collect any data so far. Hopefully, May 9 - the day of the "shaahi snaan" - will give us an opportunity to do just that, said Ashish Verma, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Verma's group is developing urbane methods and algorithms to help policymakers and event managers in handling extremely large crowds, by analysing crowd data obtained from the Kumbh Mela.

It also hopes to provide better crowd management solutions, right from designing to building personnel devices for tracking the movement of people.

"Based on 20 different experiments to collect data, we will try to understand crowd behaviour through simulation, which will help us predict the movement of large crowds at the Kumbh," said Meghna Verma, a member the group. "The authorities would be informed well within time, say 30 minutes, and they can then take necessary action."



Jointly led by Verma and University of Amsterdam professor M A Sloot, the group also comprises some 45 researchers from Russia and Singapore. The group is using technologies like Go-pro cameras and drones. The three-year long, ^2 million project is funded by the Indo-Dutch Joint Research Programme, and backed by organisations such as Honeywell, Tata Memorial Centre, Tech Mahindra and Salland Electronics.

The fund has been made available by the Netherlands-based NWO Physical Sciences, and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) of the Union Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

The research group - camping in Ujjain since November last year - first collected data on April 27. "We are trying to understand crowd dynamics through its behaviour and psychology," Louis Dijkstra, a research scholar at ITMO University (Russia), told Business Standard.

The group will come out with its final findings in 2018, thus helping the Centre and state governments in framing crowd management guidelines accordingly.

"Our objective is to put forth some concrete helps authorities in precarious situations such as stampedes," said Verma . "Such a research work is being conducted for the first time anywhere in the world."



If successful, Indian as well as other governments would be able to frame certain guidelines that would pave way for institutes such as the National Disaster Management Authority and the Madhya Disaster Management Authority. The Netherlands will also reap scientific benefits from such research.

The group will be able to raise an alarm if the police or other disaster management authorities find it difficult to control the crowd in case of a stampede or any such event. A number of students from local colleges and universities have also been roped in.

"We have two main objectives: more safety and more accuracy," Verma further said. The National Disaster Management Authority and the Madhya Pradesh State Disaster Relief Management Authority are already in talks with the group. "Based on our findings, we can help governments draw up measures to control crowds. They can also build capacity and impart training in the area of disaster management," he added.

Verma is also initiating research on traffic management, post-earthquake management and urban flooding.
With the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) dropping the idea of a "Dharma Sansad" (religious parliament) at the Kumbh in Ujjain, the state government is gearing up for three-day "Vaicharik Kumbh" (May 12-14), which will focus on non-religious topics and give the Ram Temple issue a miss.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to participate in the concluding ceremony of this Vaicharik Kumbh on May 14.

Read more from our special coverage on "RAM TEMPLE" VHP reiterates demand for legislation on Ram temple

Instead of focusing on the Ram Temple, more than 6,000 delegates from around the world will share their views on "value- based life". When asked about the Ram Temple, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan evaded a direct reply and said the programme has "value-based life" and the "Krishi Kumbh" on its agenda.

A large number of those associated with the VHP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have visited the venue of the Kumbh, at Ninaura village, which falls on Ujjain-Dewas road.

"This time we are not organising "Dharma Sansad", but we will invite sants, sadhus and visionaries from across the globe to spread the message of "Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam" (The world is a family). Ayodhya and Ram Temple would not be a part of the agenda," said a VHP source.

Another source in the VHP said: "Religious leaders are expected to meet and discuss issues of various other matters, including the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. But since there would be no "Dharma Sansad", it is difficult to guess what will actually be discussed."



BJP President Amit Shah is also expected to visit Ujjain for the "shahi snan" as well as review preparations at Ninnora.
When refugees end up in poor neighbourhoods in a new land, they may also end up with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, a Swedish study suggests.

Researchers analysed data for more than 61,000 refugees who arrived in Sweden from 1987 to 1991 to see how many of them developed diabetes roughly two decades after settling into their new communities.

"Our study takes advantage of a natural experiment the Swedish government unwittingly created when it dispersed refugees across the country, more or less at random, to ease labour market conditions and help new arrivals integrate more easily into Swedish society," said lead study author Justin White, a health economics researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.

"After two decades, refugees who had been assigned to the most deprived neighbourhoods were 15 per cent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than those in the least deprived neighbourhoods," White added.

Globally, about one in nine adults have diabetes, and the disease will be the seventh leading cause of death by 2030, according to the World Health Organization.

Most of these people have what's known as Type 2 diabetes, which happens when the body can't properly use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert blood sugar into energy. Advanced age, obesity and stress are among the factors that can lead to this type of diabetes.

To see how different settlement communities influenced the odds of diabetes among refugees, White and colleagues used data on poverty, unemployment, schooling and welfare enrollment to sort neighbourhoods into three groups based on overall deprivation levels.

Then, they looked at how many refugees were diagnosed with new cases of diabetes from 2002 to 2010 and mapped these cases to the level of deprivation in the communities where people lived.

Refugees included in the study were from 25 to 50 years old and most were married with children. Half of them came from Iran or Arabic-speaking parts of the Middle East and northern Africa, while 10 per cent came from other parts of Africa, 19 per cent from Eastern Europe and 14 percent arrived from Latin America.

Most refugees settled in larger cities, with 47 per cent in high-deprivation areas and another 45 per cent in moderate-deprivation communities.

Overall, about 4,500 of them developed diabetes, or 7.4 per cent of the study population. But when researchers sorted diabetes cases based on the neighbourhood characteristics, they found 7.9 per cent developed diabetes in the highest deprivation areas, compared with just 5.8 percent in the least deprived communities.

One limitation of the study is that even though researchers focused on a period in Swedish history when most refugees were randomly assigned to housing, they can't be certain all refugees in the study were in fact subject to this policy. It's possible some refugees selected their own housing, and the factors influencing this might also impact their odds of developing diabetes.

The study can't prove that bad neighbourhoods cause diabetes or show which specific types of deprivation - like poverty or bad schools - might be most responsible for the added disease risk.

"It could be related to a variety of effects - such as poorer access to healthy food, less opportunity for physical activity, perhaps greater psychological stress which of itself might increase diabetes risk," said Nigel Unwin, a professor at the Chronic Disease Research Center at the University of the West Indies and author of an accompanying editorial.

Still, the findings highlight a need to consider the health impacts of neighbourhoods when assigning refugees to housing as Europe grapples with high unemployment and historically high numbers of incoming refugees, the authors conclude.

"It's well known that people living in poorer neighbourhoods in high income countries, such as in North America or Western Europe, tend to have higher rates of chronic health problems including obesity, type 2 diabetes, and greater risk of stroke and heart attack," Unwin added by email.

"It could simply be that the people who are unable to afford to live in more affluent neighbourhoods are at greater risk of these conditions, perhaps related to poorer education and a greater prevalence of unhealthy behaviors," Unwin added.
Space stations are old hacks for Nasa; now, the agency is looking at exploring asteroids and exploiting their metal deposits.

Rupak Biswas, a Kolkata native and current director of exploration technology at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Ames Research Centre, made this revelation during his keynote address at TiEcon 2016. Asteroids are small rocky bodies, some no larger than a stone and others almost as big as a small plant, are found between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

According to experts, exploring them makes good business sense as they are depositories of metals, such as iron and copper, whose extraction on Earth will drastically deplete the supply within the next 100 years.

Executives from billion-dollar companies, along with investors, are looking at space as a new frontier for business.

Google co-founder and current chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet, Larry Page, started Planetary Resources in 2010. It was then called Arkyd Astronautics. Other founders included Ram Shriram, one of the earliest investors in Google, former Google CEO and current Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt, and Richard Branson, the founder of the Virgin Group, among others. The most famous is Space X, started by PayPal and Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk.

A legal framework has also been created for space explorations. According to the Space Act, 2015, US citizens are allowed to engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of "space resources", including water and minerals. But biological forms, that is alien beings, if found cannot be exploited.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said making it easier for Dalits to start businesses would be more effective in bringing about social equality than any affirmative action.

Indeed, making it easy for Dalits to start businesses may do more for their social status because money empowers than many other forms of affirmative action. Rather than prohibiting the use of money and wealth, let us think about increasing societys tolerance for its use, he said, addressing the convocation ceremony of Shiv Nadar University in Greater Noida.

Cautioning against growing inequalities in the country, Rajan also cautioned against growing inequalities within countries, even as it is diminishing between the nations. He emphasised on the role of education and health care to restore faith in markets in these circumstances. He talked of different kind of tolerance in society, about the virtues of money and took on the criticism of money by US political scientist Michael Sandel in his book What Money Can't Buy: the Moral Limits of the Market. Rajan pointed out that money is a great equaliser. Helping Dalits start businesses would do more benefits to them than any other affirmative action.

Today, even well-run market economies seem to be favouring those who already have plenty... The income inequality is on the rise, with some having colossal incomes and others worrying about the next meal, he said.

In his address, Money and Education, the RBI governor attributed the growing inequalities partly to skills and capabilities that have become much more important in well-paid jobs. As such those born in good circumstances have a much better chance at acquiring these.

The winner-take-all nature of many occupations, where a few of the most capable entrepreneurs and the best workers take most of the income (think apps, architecture or acting, for example) accentuates the value of early childhood preparation. Hence, the benefit of being born to the right parents in the right community, the RBI governor said. As a solution, he said, we have to work to provide effective access to schooling and health care for all, a non-discriminating job market with many jobs, equal opportunities for further advancement regardless of gender, race or background. All this will increase the perceived legitimacy of wealth and societys willingness to broaden the areas where it is spent.

Thoughtful philanthropy can further help enhance societys acceptance of great wealth, he said. The RBI governors observations are important also in the light of the International Monetary Funds (IMF) recently warning to India and China, the two fastest growing large economies, about rising inequalities. Rajan countered many observations of Sandel about money. He said while Sandels real concern is perhaps with the unfair distribution of money, he seemed to have ignored the virtues of anonymity in money.

In a free market, all it takes to buy what you want is money. You do not need a pedigree, a great family history, the right table manners, or the right fashionable clothing or looks, he said. He also said India needs to have a more contingent student loan system which needs to differentiate between those who can repay their loans and those who cannot. Such a system would prevent an US-like education loan crisis in India, he added.

Given the need to broaden access to all the deserving, we have to make degrees affordable. One part of the solution is student loans, but we have to be careful that student loans are repaid in full by those who have the means, while they are forgiven in part for those who fall on bad times, or those who take low-paying public service jobs, Rajan said.

We should also make sure that unscrupulous schools do not prey on uninformed students, leaving them with high debt and useless degrees, he said. Popular among young people, Rajan was mobbed for selfies and autographs by students after the ceremony.

According to reports, unpaid student debt could be as high as $1.2 trillion as of January 2016.
All's not well with the proposed Sagar Islands port. New draft tenders inviting private players to develop and operate facilities for the Rs 12,000 crore project conceived by the Union shipping ministry in 2013-14 have been struck down by the Public-Private Partnership Approval Committee (PPPAC).

The issue is around the feasibility of the model. While the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) had proposed a revenue sharing model, besides a viability gap funding proposal (VGF), the PPPAC has questioned the need for VGF when revenue sharing model has been proposed.

The port trust is hopeful of sending a fresh proposal, striking down the VGF part while revising the revenue sharing model. In the proposal, KoPT had opted for a 20% revenue share in the special purpose vehicle which is likely to be brought down.

While KoPT officials are keeping mum over the issue after PPPAC sent back the draft tenders raising this key concern, repeated calls and messages to the port's chairman MT Krishna Babu went unanswered.

KoPT has resorted to taking consultancy services from EY over the project feasibility while financial advisory has been sought from Aecom.

Besides the objection from PPPAC over the draft tender, the issue of environmental clearances is also in place.

Sagar, the largest island in the Hooghly delta archipelago, is prone to frequent soil erosion which is monitored by the West Bengal State Coastal Zone Management Authority. Also, as per the Coastal Zone Management Authority Act, 1972, permits and clearances are a prerequisite for such activities on the proposed port.

As per a KoPT study, the southwest bank of Sagar Island has been identified for development of port facilities. The requirement of land for dock, jetties, back-up facilities, railway sidings and others has been roughly estimated to be around 2000 acres, for which the West Bengal government has been approached.

Both riverine jetties and impounded dock system are possible at the location. The commodities which can be handled are dry bulk commodities like coking coal, thermal coal, coke, iron ore and also containers, an official at KoPT said.

The project is supposed to boost KoPT's cargo handling capacity by 60 million tonne (mt). Presently, the draft available at Sagar Island is around 10 metres without dredging, which is more than that of Kolkata and Haldia.

Meanwhile, a detailed project report is being prepared for constructing a Rs 2,800 crore bridge connecting the Sagar Islands with the mainland. This project will be executed by the National Highways Authority of India.

Union shipping minister Nitin Gadkari had previously stated that the technical and feasibility study for the proposed port has been completed and the project will kick-start in March this year, but with the proposed tenders in a limbo, the situation is back to square one.
Reserve Bank of India Governor on Saturday cautioned against growing inequalities within countries, even as it is diminishing between the nations. He emphasised on the role of education and healthcare to restore faith in markets in these circumstances.

He talked of different kind of tolerance in society  about the virtues of money  and took on criticism of money by US political scientist Michael Sandel in his book  What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of the Market. Rajan pointed out that money is a great equalizer and helping Dalits start businesses would do more benefits to them than any kind of other affirmative actions.

"Today, even well-run market economies seem to be favouring those who already have plenty... The income inequality is on the rise, with some having colossal incomes and others worrying about the next meal," he said in his address at a convocation in Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh.

In his address, titled Money and Education, the RBI governor attributed the growing inequalities partly to skills and capabilities have become much more important in well-paid jobs. As such those born in good circumstances have a much better chance at acquiring these.

"The winner-take-all nature of many occupations, where a few of the most capable entrepreneurs and the best workers take most of the income (think apps, architecture or acting, for example) accentuates the value of early childhood preparation; and hence the benefit of being born to the right parents in the right community," the governor said.

In these circumstances what can be done to restore faith in markets, he asked and provided solution. He said we have to work to provide effective access to schooling and healthcare for all, a non-discriminating job market with many jobs, equal opportunities for further advancement regardless of gender, race or background.

All this will increase the perceived legitimacy of wealth and societys willingness to broaden the areas where it is spent.

Thoughtful philanthropy can further help enhance societys acceptance of great wealth, he said.

The governor's oberservation becomes importat since the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently warned India and China, the two fastest growing large economies, about rising inequalities.

Rajan countered many observations of Sandel about money. He said while Sandel's real concern is perhaps with the unfair distribution of money, he seemed to have ignored the virtues of anonymity in money.

In a free market, all it takes to buy what you want is money. "You do not need a pedigree, a great family history, the right table manners, or the right fashionable clothing or looks," he said.

It is because money has no odour, because it is the great equalizer, that so many people across history have been able to acquire resources and invested them to make the world we live in, Rajan said.

"Indeed, making it easy for Dalits to start businesses may do more for their social status because money empowers than many other forms of affirmative action. Rather than prohibiting the use of money and wealth, let us think about increasing societys tolerance for its use," he added.
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Badruddin Ajmal is the founder and chief of one of Assams youngest political parties  All India United Democratic Fund (AIUDF). 66-year-old Ajmal shot to fame as his party bagged 10 seats during their debut 2006 assembly polls, six months after the birth of the party. During the 2011 assembly polls, AIUDF bagged 18 seat, becoming the principal opposition party in the state.
Tarun Gogoi, 79, is the incumbent Chief Minister of Assam, who has been holding the post since May 2001. Leading the to victory in three consecutive legislative assembly elections, Gogoi has been the longest serving Chief Minister of Assam.

Gogoi is also considered to be one of Assams tallest leaders, popular among the people of his state and even more among the people of his constituency.

Gogoi, who will be contesting from Titabor assembly segment, is in fray with BJP MLA Sarbananda Sonowal for the post of Chief Minister during the 2016 state assembly polls.

While the constituency has definitely seen progress under the leadership of Gogoi, part of the population is beginning to complain about the pace in which progress and development has taken place.

Gogoi recently laid the foundation of a Metro line project in Guwahati, with the formation of special purpose vehicle namely Guwahati metro rail corporation limited for implementing the project.

During the 2014 Parliamentary Elections, the won only 3 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, after which Gogoi hinted that he might not be the best option for the party in the 2016 assembly elections.

Gogoi has been pitted against BJP state vice president Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, who is a formidable candidate, mainly due to his performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and his tea tribe identity.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi has criticised the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government in Tamil Nadu, alleging that industries do not want to come to the state to set up facilities owing to corruption. He assured a government free from corruption, if the DMK-Congress alliance came to power.

Speaking at a public meeting organised in Madurai today, seeking vote to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-Congress alliance in Tamil Nadu, he alleged that unemployment and corruption in the State are high.

While industry has been coming to the state to set up facilities, in the recent past, industrialists do not want to establish their business in the State due to the high level of corruption, he alleged. Tamil Nadu has been left behind in various industries including steel and petrochemical among other industries, he added. Read more from our special coverage on "TAMIL NADU ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS" Both AIADMK and DMK are corrupt, says Amit Shah

Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi file nominations for assembly election

Karuna slams Jaya for running queens rule

BJP releases logo with Modis picture for TN election

DMK-Congress seat sharing deal signed

He also alleged that the state chief minister could not walk out of her house and said that she stayed behind within four walls and did not come out to see the situation of the city when Chennai was hit by heavy rain and floods, last year.

He said that if the DMK-Congress alliance comes to power, it will give a corruption free government in the state.

He said that Tamil Nadu should become the number one state in the Country in terms of performance.

He added that the total debt of Tamil Nadu is around Rs 4 lakh crore, and each person in Tamil Nadu has a debt of Rs 2 lakh. He alleged that while the government gave freebies worth Rs 5,000 on the one hand, it took away Rs 60,000 from each family by selling liquor.

According to earlier reports, Tamil Nadu's outstanding debt in 2014-15 was Rs 1,81,036 crore and this is expected to increase to Rs 2,11,483 crore. When the AIADMK took charge State debt was Rs 1,01,349 crore.
Landmark meeting of SAARC Countries on protection of Children to be held in Delhi from 9th-11th May, 2016 .

The eight nations composing the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) are assembling in New Delhi from 9th-11th May, 2016 for their 4th Ministerial Meeting, to set strategies and agree on commitments to ensure the protection and security of the children of the region. The landmark meeting is being hosted by the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India. .

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The Ministerial meeting on 11th May will be preceded by a two day technical consultation focusing on critical issues of child protection and violence in the region. Delegates from the governments and civil society organizations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will assess progress and developments of the past decade of regional effort and identify priorities for SAIEVAC for the next five years. .

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Indias Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh, will deliver the keynote statement to the Ministerial Meeting on 11th May, 2016 . The Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, will chair the meeting. Ministers of the member countries are expected to participate make statements to provide the high-level regional leadership to set the course for SAIEVACs next period of regional action. .

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SAIEVAC is the Apex Body of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) created to bring governments of the region into active engagement for child protection against violence.

SAARC made history in 1986 by installing children as a summit-level concern and commitment. The forthcoming 4th Ministerial Meeting marks 30 years since that SAARC summit commitment. It is notable that the present Secretary General of SAARC, Mr. Arjun Bahadur Thapa is addressing the Ministerial Meeting. .

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The 4th Ministerial Meeting carries forward the collective inter governmental ownership of SAIEVAC, which is reflected in its Governing Body composed of official members, representing each of the eight governments. .

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The technical consultation on 9th and 10th May will bring forward recommendations on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and on regional child protection opportunities emerging from country experiences. This will include Indias positive insights from its innovative measures for tracking and rescuing lost and missing children. The technical will also examine the potential of using information and communication technology for improving these measures. .

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India will showcase some of its major initiatives like Trackchild and Khoya Paya, Childline-1098, POCSO Act among others . .

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In a new initiative, the government has decided that as a mark of respect and to extend honour to the parents of the posthumous gallantry awardee, the mother/father of the awardee can accompany the Next of Kin (NoK) when she/he receives the award from the President of India during the Investiture Ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan. .

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The governments new initiative was introduced during the Defence Investiture Ceremony (Phase-II) which was held at Durbar Hall in Rashtrapati Bhawan, here today. Out of 14 Gallantry awards presented at the ceremony, two Kirti Chakra and four Shaurya Chakra were conferred posthumously. .

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Accordingly, at the ceremony, Smt. Monalisha Borah Koch, wife of Constable Gautam Koch, Assam Armed Branch, was accompanied by his mother Smt. Putuli Koch and Smt. Nisha Devi, wife of Naib Subedar Rajesh Kumar of Mahar Regiment/30th Battalion, the Rashtriya Rifles was accompanied by his father Shri Rup Chand to receive the Kirti Chakra award from the President Shri Pranab Mukherjee. Similarly, in one case of Shaurya Chakra, Smt. Timu Devi, wife of Sepoy Dharma Ram of Mahar Regiment/1st Battalion, the Rashtriya Rifles was accompanied by his mother Smt. Amru Devi. .

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As per the dispensation till the last Investiture Ceremony, the NoK of the posthumous awardee alone received the award from the President. The new dispensation to honour the parents of the posthumous awardees was appreciated by one and all. .

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A total of 42 distinguished Service Awards namely, 13 Param Vishisht Seva Medals, two Uttam Yuddh Seva Medals, two Bar to Ati Vishisht Seva Medals and 25 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, which were announced on Republic Day 2016 were also given to officers of the three Services during the function. .

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NW/NAo/MKT
Shri Piyush Goyal Union Minister of State (IC) for Power , Coal, New & Renewable Energy, today urged the Tata Institute of Social Sciences , TISS to conduct social sciences training programme for ministers. TISS should consider training programme in behavioural sciences, ethics and leadership for ministers and other public servants" he said while addressing the 76th Convocation of the Institute in Mumbai. .

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Shri Goyal said behavioural science impacts society deeply. He said across the country, public servants should be sensitized on how to deal with the poor and the downtrodden who approach them seeking some help. Stating that a continuous learning programme for the ministers and bureaucrats was a good idea, Mr. Goyal said a beginning could be made with Mumbai and Maharashtra, which could be extended to other parts later. .

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The Minister recalled the vision of the House of Tatas in setting up the social sciences institute way back in 1936. He asserted that over the next 20-25 years, India would emerge as a super power, but stressed that the country has a long way to go, in terms of providing health, education and power for all its citizens and ensuring an inclusive growth. The task ahead is onerous, but certainly doable", the Minister said. .

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Shri Goyal said Human Resource Development is the important function in any organization that wants to succeed in the long run. He said TISS has empowered its students to take up leadership roles in the society. The Minister urged some of the students to consider politics as a career option as well. The days of the famous saying politics is the last resort of the scoundrel" are no more applicable in India. How much ever you may criticize the politician, the reality is we will need honest and good people to ensure good governance." Shri. Goyal said. .

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The Minister complimented the efforts of Mumbai Municipal Corporation sweeper Sunil Yadav, who secured the TISS M.Phil degree. Sunil Yadav securing M.Phil is an inspirational story. It encourages us to contribute to the society". Shri Goyal urged the graduating students to be part of the movement of development. .

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The Minister honoured the meritorious students with medals and shields in different fields of social sciences. Shri S. Ramadorai, Chairman, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, in his welcome address spoke about how the institute collaborated with government in the field of climate change as a run up to the Paris Conference. .

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RM/ Mumbai
PM reviews drought and water scarcity situation at high level meeting with Uttar Pradesh CM.

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The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today chaired a high level meeting on the drought and water scarcity situation in parts of Uttar Pradesh. The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Shri Akhilesh Yadav, was present in the meeting. Senior officials from the Government of India, and the State of Uttar Pradesh, were also present. Initiating the discussion, the Prime Minister stated that the Centre and States have to work together to mitigate the problems faced by the people due to the drought. He also called for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing. .

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The Prime Minister stressed on the use of technologies like remote sensing and satellite imaging for planning of water conservation and recharge structures. The need to change cropping patterns based on scientific advice, use of drip and sprinkler irrigation, and fertigation for increasing water use efficiency, community participation, especially women, for better water management, was stressed. The Prime Minister also called for treated urban waste water to be used for farming in the adjoining areas.

He mentioned the need to monitor delivery of water through tankers in the affected areas, using technology such as GPS. .

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The meeting also discussed how best the period before the upcoming monsoon can be utilized for water conservation and recharge efforts. This includes efforts at desilting, recharging of rivers, check dams and other water storage mechanisms. .

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The Chief Minister apprised the Prime Minister of efforts undertaken for mitigation of problems faced by people because of drought conditions. These include provision of drinking water, food to the needy in Bundelkhand, employment, water and fodder for cattle, and efforts for long and medium term solutions. He further said that the State has undertaken preparatory steps to implement the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in right earnest. .

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The State shared the action plan for revival and restoration of 78,000 water-bodies including tanks, ponds, and farm ponds; one lakh new water-bodies and recharge structures. This will be achieved by utilizing funds available in schemes such as MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana. .

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An amount of Rs. 934.32 crore has been released to the State under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), after adjustments of the State balances. This is in addition to Rs 506.25 crore released as central share of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for 2015-16 to the State. A further amount of Rs. 265.87 crore has been released as first instalment of SDRF for 2016-17. .

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The State has submitted a fresh memorandum on 5th May, 2016 for assistance for the Rabi 2015-16 season. The Prime Minister directed that the process be completed, and assistance be provided without delay. .

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The NITI Aayog also outlined the steps taken already for the release of funds under the Bundelkhand package. .

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The Chief Minister thanked the Prime Minister for this meeting, which he said was a welcome development, given the acute problems being faced by people on account of water shortage, especially in the Bundelkhand region. .

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The meeting ended with a resolve on the part of the Centre and State to work together. .

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PM reviews drought and water scarcity situation at high level meeting with Maharashtra CM.

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The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today chaired a high level meeting on the drought and water scarcity situation in parts of Maharashtra. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis, was present in the meeting. Senior officials from the Government of India, and the State of Maharahtra, were also present. .

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Initiating the discussion, the Prime Minister stated that the Centre, States, Local Bodies, NGOs and citizens have to work together to resolve the problems posed by drought. He also called for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing. .

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The Prime Minister stressed the importance of increasing water use efficiency through drip and sprinkler, stating that drip irrigation in sugarcane increases the quality of sugar. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra said that the State Government is working on a plan to ensure that 100 per cent of the sugarcane growing area in Maharashtra comes under drip irrigation in three years. .

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The Prime Minister also stressed the need to adopt a judicious mix of traditional and modern water conservation and storage mechanisms.

He said that a lot can be learnt from the water management practices and measures adopted by Chhatrapati Shivaji. The Chief Minister stated that the State is working to rejuvenate the water-bodies of that era. .

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The Chief Minister informed that good progress has been made in preparatory works for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. .

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The Prime Minister also called for modern solid and liquid waste management practices in urban areas, which could yield enhanced water and organic fertilizer availability in adjoining rural areas. .

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The Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister that the State is focusing on Climate Resilient Agriculture; and has proposed a Climate Resistant Agriculture Modernization Project for a World Bank loan, to ensure water security at the farm level. He thanked the Government of India for expeditiously recommending this project to the World Bank. .

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The Chief Minister apprised the Prime Minister about the progress of the Jal Yukt Shivar Abhiyan for water conservation and storage. He said the State has set a target of 51,500 farm ponds for Financial Year 2016-17, which may be scaled up further, in view of the enthusiastic response of farmers. .

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The Chief Minister also explained the States efforts to complete critical irrigation projects in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions in a time-bound manner. He also spoke of the work done to bring more farmers under the umbrella of institutional credit. .

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The Chief Minister also informed about the efforts towards doubling farm incomes and drought-free Maharashtra." .

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Appreciating the efforts of the State Government, the Prime Minister emphasized crop diversification, value-addition, and broadbasing the sources of income for farmers, by connecting dairying, fishery, poultry, bee-keeping etc. He also underlined the natural hedging from vagaries of nature because of broadbasing of income. .

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13 Bills passed in the first two weeks of current session; 6 by Lok Sabha and 7 by Rajya Sabha.

Uttarakhand Budget to be taken up in Parliament next week .

Presentation of and discussion on Uttarakhand Budget for 2016-17 and passing of the Uttarakhand Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill,2016 to replace an Ordinance is on the agenda for the final week of ongoing Budget session of Parliament beginning Monday i.e May 9,2016. This has been listed in the Business for Lok Sabha on Monday. .

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After laying the Uttarakhand Budget for 2016-17 on the table of Lok Sabha on Monday, Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitely will move a Motion for suspension of Rule 205 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House to enable discussion on the same day. .

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Uttarakhand Budget will also be laid on the table of Rajya Sabha on Monday and the Upper House will take this up for consideration and returning to Lok Sabha later. .

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Lok Sabha will resume the inconclusive discussion on drought situation in the country next week besides taking up the Anti-Hijacking Bill,2016 as passed by Rajya Sabha. .

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During next week, Rajya Sabha will take up the Appropriation (Railways) No.2 Bill, 2016, the Finance Bill,2016 and the Uttarakhand Appropriation Bill,2016 for returning the same to Lok Sabha. The Indian Trusts (Amendment) Bill,2015, earlier passed by the Lok Sabha has been listed for Monday. Discussion on working of the Ministry of Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises is scheduled to be taken up in the Upper House. .

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The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill,2012 and the Rajendra Central University Bill,2015 are on the legislative agenda of the Government, which are first to be taken up in Rajya Sabha and then in Lok Sabha. .

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During the first two weeks of the current Budget session, Lok Sabha has passed 6 Bills including the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015, the Railways Appropriation and Finance Bill. The Lower House also discussed the Demands for Grants of 6 Ministries viz., Development of North-Eastern Region, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Social Justice and Empowerment, Civil Aviation and Tourism. Tourism was added to the list of 5 ministries initially identified for such discussion. .

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Rajya Sabha has so far passed 7 Bills including the Industries (Development and Regulation) Amendment Bill,2015 and discussed the working of the Ministries of Health & Family Welfare and HRD. Drought situation was also discussed. .

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Both the Houses have held Short Duration Discussion on the alleged irregularities in Augusta Westland Helicopters procurement further to the judgment of Court of Appeals of Milan, Italy. .

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AAR/
An election in Malaysia's biggest state Saturday is the first chance to assess the level of public support for Prime Minister Najib Razak after nearly a year of political turmoil over funding scandals. On Borneo island, Sarawak's 1.14 million voters will elect 82 lawmakers to the state assembly for the next five years. Najib's Barisan Nasional coalition, which controls 55 of the current 71 seats, is expected by analysts to return to power with a comfortable margin. Electoral officials added 11 seats in a boundary redraw last year that critics said would favour the ...
China's price regulator plans to launch a "large-scale and systematic" anti-trust investigation soon into foreign and local drug firms, state newspaper China Daily said, citing a source close to the regulator.

The planned probe comes after China's state planning agency, recently summoned US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, as well as a number of distribution companies and medical device manufacturers, to collect data and information, the newspaper said on Saturday.

It said that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which wants to improve order in the drug market, is collecting evidence to see whether these companies may have violated competition regulations, though there was no proof so far that any currently do.

The NDRC did not respond to calls and a fax from Reuters outside office hours seeking comment.

A spokeswoman for Pfizer said the company did not comment on media speculation or market rumours.

China is pursuing an ambitious programme of healthcare reforms to improve the public health system and to reduce its reliance on generic and more innovative drugs from overseas.

The country's fast-growing healthcare market is a magnet for global drug makers, medical device firms and hospital operators, all looking to take a slice of a healthcare bill that is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2020, according to McKinsey & Co.
Sumner Redstone, his speech unsteady and weakened by age, was blunt. His affection for Manuela Herzer, the woman he once called the love of his life, had curdled into hatred. The trial to determine whether the media mogul is mentally competent started Friday, his private soap opera playing out in a courtroom as a judge watched videotaped testimony from the billionaire, who spoke haltingly and had trouble enunciating - but came off loud, clear and profane in declaring he wants nothing to do with the ex-girlfriend challenging his abilities. Redstone, 92, has such difficulty communicating that ...
Sales of new private aircraft fell 16 per cent in the first quarter from a year ago as demand weakened for the largest planes. Jet airplane billings were about $3.53 billion in the first quarter, down from $4.2 billion a year earlier, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. That was the biggest decline in almost five years. Demand for large-cabin business jets has deteriorated amid a dearth of spending from the oil industry, a strengthening dollar and low commodity prices that are sapping purchases in some emerging-market countries. Manufacturers including General ...
The anonymous whistleblower who leaked millions of Panamanian legal documents related to secret shell companies offered to help authorities investigate and prosecute criminal cases that might arise from them in exchange for immunity. The whistleblower, who is identified only as "John Doe," made the offer in a sweeping manifesto entitled "The Revolution Will Be Digitised," which was published in Suddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper that received the 12 million or so documents last year. In the 1,800-word essay, the writer denied published reports that tied the leak ...
Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk gave a public shout-out to the sharpest minds in manufacturing this week, calling on them to come help Tesla Motors build a million all-electric cars a year by 2020.

Musk says he is "hell-bent" on making the Silicon Valley automotive upstart a manufacturing powerhouse, but his vision relies on finding veteran auto engineers to ramp up volume ten-fold in four years - a challenge even for established carmakers.

Read more from our special coverage on "TESLA MOTORS" F = ma

Tesla on Wednesday said it would build 500,000 cars in 2018, two years ahead of schedule, and close to 1 million by 2020. The same day Tesla said its vice presidents in charge of production and manufacturing were leaving.

"You're looking at a company with significant levels of management turnover at the highest ends, people without experience in the planning, design or build of vehicles, and you expect to crank it up at those kinds of volumes?" asked Michigan-based auto manufacturing consultant Michael Tracy. Putting aside the issue of capital requirements, auto experts point to a shortage of manufacturing engineers, whose ranks were thinning out even before the US auto crisis hit in 2008.

"It's a constant issue we have in this country," said Garth Motschenbacher, director of employer relations at Michigan State University's College of Engineering. "For the longest time manufacturing was seen as the dirty end of engineering," he said.

At the same time, Alphabet's Google and Apple are working on car programmes and courting the same potential employees. So are established auto names like Ford Motor, General Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. A 2015 Deloitte report found it takes three months to hire skilled engineers, and the shortage is crimping manufacturers.

Robust early reservations for the upcoming Model 3 mass-market car may have assured Musk of demand, but now comes the execution, said automotive recruiter Stephen Parkford. "It's like reservations for a restaurant that's not open yet. You got the menu, but you don't have a chef!" he said.

But while young engineers will jump at the chance to work for Tesla, the "by-the-numbers, disciplined manufacturing guys" with 15-20 years experience will be harder to nab, said Cuneyt Oge, president of the Society of Automotive Engineers. One key obstacle is the high price of living in Silicon Valley.

Musk needs a visionary auto industry veteran, Oge said. "But anyone with that kind of experience is going to say, 'Hey, Elon, you can't do this in two years'."
exports climbed by almost 9% during April and February 2015-16 on the back of lower domestic prices. According to industry sources, lower prices of seed in the domestic market, coupled with weak exports in the previous year led to a rise in exports this year.

As per Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) data, during April-February 2015-16, India had exported 4,34,645 tonnes of as against 4,00,084 tonnes in corresponding period of 2014-15.

India is the biggest source of castor oil to the world market. As the prices remained lower during the period, demand increased and as a result exports from the country increased.

According to industry sources, demand was not so good in 2014-15 whereas crop size was quite good which pressurized prices in the domestic market. This year too industry has pegged castor production on the higher side by 10%.

SEA has estimated castor seed production to rise by 10%, at 1.39 million tonnes for the year 2015-16. As against this, in 2014-15, castor seed production stood at 1.27 million tonnes.

Export of castor oil decreased in 2014 because of higher domestic rates. However, good crop and dry pipeline has increased demand in 2015, said Abhay Udeshi, managing director of Jayant Agro Organic.

Industry believes that in the current financial year, exports may increase to over 5,00,000 tonnes as stock including new crop and carry over is huge. According to trade estimate, for the year 2016-17, available stock of castor seed will be more than 2 million tonnes.

Castor Oil Export (in tonnes)

Year Quantity

2012-13 430,752

2013-14 472,255

2014-15 459,378

2015-16* 434,645

Source: Solvent Extractors Association of India

*April-February data
The decision of a public school in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, to remove a student with aspirations for having a better life for himself and his family all because his father is a tea seller, has attracted a lot of public derision on social media and other platforms.

This decision of the school authorities is being seen as bizarre in a country whose Prime Minister has expressed pride over the fact that he also once sold tea on a railway platform in Gujarat and rose to greater heights by sheer willpower and determination.

Questions are now being asked that if such practices are being encouraged, then how can anyone progress and how can India progress.

As now of now the concerned student, Arihant Jain, is at home, and the matter has reached the office of the District Magistrate of Baghpat, and he has ordered the DIOOS, Baghpat, to conduct an immediate inquiry into the incident related to the Mahavira Academy School in Baghpat District's Baraut Tehsil and give him a report for further action.

Arihant's father, Mangatrai Jain told ANI that he is not a well-educated person, and that he has been supporting his family by selling tea. He said that it was his desire to see his son become a doctor, and described the latter, a student of class five, as a bright and smart child and one who has performed with distinction so far.

Mangatrai Jain asked, "The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, also sold tea. Does it mean that a child whose father sells tea today does not have the right to study or cannot study? Will a school such as this one be allowed to continue with its authoritarian ways?"

Jain further claimed that his son has spent the past two years at home and is mentally depressed. The irony of it all is that the school authorities are refusing to come on camera.

The question uppermost in everyone's mind is will action be taken against the school and those who run it? And, will Arihant's future be saved and will this policy of children of tea sellers not being allowed to study or attend school end?

Baghpat's District Magistrate Hriday Shankar Tiwari said, "When the Modi government is trying to raise the literacy rate by facilitating the education of downtrodden, this sort of situation cannot be allowed to prevail or be tolerated."

"We will look into this issue again and make sure the student is admitted again in the school. An enquiry has been ordered into the issue to look into why this happened," Tiwari told ANI.

Mangatrai Jain said, I have told the District Magistrate that after this investigation is conducted, if nothing positive comes out of it, I will approach Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. I have asked for her time.
The priest of the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jharkhand's Khunti district was killed by some unknown assailants in Rourkela city of Odisha yesterday.

In a gruesome manner, father Abraham Soreng was killed with his throat slashed and his body was later on thrown near the Rourkela railway over-bridge.

He had come to Rourkela yesterday night with another person. On search, his mobile was found from his pocket, from which his identity was ascertained.

He was supposed to meet the Bishop of Ranchi today.

The Railway Police are currently investigating the matter to nab the culprits.
The Tis Hazari Court on Saturday granted bail to former Station House Officer (SHO) Dinesh Kumar, who is accused of abetting a young woman for suicide.

The Delhi Police had sacked Kumar, who was posted as the SHO at Vijay Vihar Police Station in outer Delhi within few hours of his arrest in a case of abetment of suicide.

Kumar was arrested under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC.

As per reports, the woman who allegedly hanged herself at her residence in Sabzi Mandi area had left behind a suicide note alleging Kumar made her take the extreme step. A probe into the matter was initiated and later a case was registered.

It is reported that ex-inspector Kumar had called the victim 239 times and had also videographed her when she visited the police station.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday sought Rs 10,000 crores from the Centre for the three years to complete pending irrigation projects in his drought-hit state.

Briefing to media after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, Fadnavis said: "I apprised the Prime Minister of the drought situation in the state. We have asked for a package of Rs 7,500 crore for completion of irrigation projects in Marathwada and Vidarbha in coming three years, while a special package of Rs 2,500 crore for completing pending irrigation projects in drought prone region of Western . On both these issues, we have received a very positive response from the Centre."

Senior officials from the Centre, and Maharashtra, were also present during the meeting.

Fadnavis said the Centre has accepted his government's request to submit a supplementary memorandum as an additional 11,000 villages in the state are now facing drought.

Fadnavis said they also discussed the short and long term measures to tackle drought situation.

"The Centre has been helping us and has also assured of more assistance if needed to deal with drought situation. We also rolled out a plan to save water as monsoon is approaching," he added.

He also explained his state's efforts to complete critical irrigation projects in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions in a time-bound manner. He also spoke of the work done to bring more farmers under the umbrella of institutional credit.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi took to Twitter to divulge the details of the meeting.

"CM @Dev_Fadnavis & I held wide-ranging discussions on the drought in parts of & how to mitigate it. Stressed on vitality of increasing water use efficiency through sprinkler & drip irrigation including in sugarcane cultivation," he said.

"Usage of modern solid & liquid waste management practices in urban areas will also benefit the adjoining rural areas.CM @Dev_Fadnavis apprised me about the Jal Yukt Shivar Abhiyan & State Govt's efforts to complete irrigation projects across the state," he added.

Fadnavis informed the Prime Minister that the state is focusing on climate resilient agriculture; and has proposed a climate resistant agriculture modernization project for a World Bank loan, to ensure water security at the farm level. He thanked the Centre for expeditiously recommending this project to the World Bank.

Prime Minister Modi also insisted that the Centre fully supports the project for a World Bank loan, which is worth $600 million.

Initiating the discussion, the Prime Minister stated that the Centre, states, local bodies, NGOs and citizens have to work together to resolve the problems posed by the drought. He also called for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing.
In a demonstration of India's commitment to maritime relations with countries in the Gulf, Indian Naval Ships Delhi, Tarkash and Deepak under the Command of the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, Rear Admiral Ravneet Singh, NM have arrived at Dubai on a four day visit.

INS Delhi is commanded by Captain Sandeep Singh Sandhu, INS Tarkash is commanded by Captain Pradeep Singh, NM and INS Deepak is commanded by Captain Sujit Kumar Chhetri.

During the visit, the crew of IN ships will undertake professional interactions with the UAE Navy towards enhancing co-operation between the two forces.

In addition, calls on senior government and military authorities, sporting and cultural interactions and sharing of best practices, aimed at strengthening mutual understanding between the two navies, are also planned.

The visiting IN ships are also likely to conduct exercises with the UAE Navy.

Bilateral relations between India and UAE are characterised by strong bonds of friendship based on cultural and economic ties dating back to nearly 3000 BC.

These have been further strengthened in recent times by a vibrant economic relationship and growing convergence on security issues.

UAE is India's second largest trading partner and Indians are the largest expatriate community in the UAE.

The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to UAE in August 2015 heralded the beginning of a comprehensive strategic partnership, wherein both nations agreed to cooperate in maritime security and strengthen defence relations.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is scheduled to visit UAE from May 18-19.

Maritime cooperation between the two countries has increased steadily since the inaugural Navy-to-Navy Staff Talks in January 2007.

Reciprocal port visits, high-level delegations and training exchanges have further bolstered naval cooperation between the two countries.

IN ships last visited UAE in September 2015 wherein Delhi, Deepak, Trishul and Tabar berthed at Dubai.

India and UAE are also members of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a voluntary and co-operative initiative between 30 countries of the Indian Ocean Region, which has served as an ideal forum for sharing of information and cooperation on maritime issues. UAE hosted the 2010 edition of IONS at Abu Dhabi.

The current visit seeks to bolster the strong bonds of friendship between India and UAE and contribute to security and stability in this vital part of the Indian Ocean Region.
JustOrbit, a unique travel planning website, has come up with a new and unique feature to give a new edge to online travel planning.

They have introduced a feature that helps its users to know the tentative cost of their trip instantly while creating the itinerary on JustOrbit.com that proves helpful for those who want to know the estimated cost of their trip.

The global tourism industry is growing year-on-year. More & more people are planning trips on-their-own and JustOrbit is playing a major role in helping the travellers plan their vacation by providing answers to all the basic questions arising in their mind.

This new feature has put JustOrbit ahead of all other competition. Visitors no longer have to contact their local travel agent or tour operator to know the cost of their trip, hence finalize of the vacation becomes easier.

"The new feature of telling the cost of an itinerary is a major step taken to address the biggest concern of the travellers. Many times people drop their destination choice because of the budget constraints. Now they can decide the destination according to their pocket as this new feature tells the cost instantly, including flight and accommodation, where ever possible," says the founder & brain behind JustOrbit, Mr. Raj Narang.

JustOrbit is a well-known self-travel planning website based in New Delhi, India. Travellers can plan, share, discuss, finalize and book under one roof. Through its unique travel planning features, people can plan their next vacation on their own.

All the information that a person needs while going on a vacation is provided in detail at JustOrbit.com and one can easily make use of these information right from selecting their destination to sharing & finalization of their trips.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) general secretary in charge of Haryana, Anil Jain, has said that he does not foresee a change taking place in the party's leadership in the state of Haryana, and has described Manohar Khattar as a good and able chief minister of the state.

In interview given to Mr. Jagdeesh Chandra, Head of ETV News on The J C Show, Jain said, "Manohar Lal (Khattar) will remain chief minister of the state, and there won't be any change of leadership in the state. He has proved to be a good and able chief minister and under his leadership, the state is moving towards development. As regards a reshuffle of the state cabinet, Manohar Lal is free to make his own decisions on this issue."

Jain also dwelled on the issue of the recent Jat agitation in the state, the situation arising out of the political crisis in Uttarakhand, the visionary role being essayed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other subjects.

On the Jat agitation that resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of crores worth of property, Jain told Mr. Chandra that it was planned protest to destablise the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government.

"The Jat protest was a conspiracy to defame the Haryana government. But, the protestors were exposed before the public. The center of the protest was under the stronghold of former chief minister Bhupendra Singh Hooda," he said.

He, however, said that the reservation policy as it exists today should be rethought and reworked.

Jain told Chandra, "There should be re-look on the reservation policy. The needy and deprived should get reservation. But the people in power and financially well sound should not opt for such reservation. And such people should introspect among themselves on this issue."

Commenting on developments in Uttarakhand, Jain said, "Harish Rawat (former chief minister) will fail to win the confidence motion and the BJP will ultimately form a government in the state."

Jain also raised the question of the Finance Bill, saying that Rawat deliberately violated rules, and predicted that Uttarakhand will go in for an early election.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP general secretary in charge of Haryana said, "He is a visionary and the works done by the present government under his leadership are commendable. People across the world have regained self respect due to Modi, and India will soon emerge as a super power."

He also said that Chief Minister Raman Singh is the face of Chattishgarh.

"Under his leadership, Chattishgarh is counted as one of the most progressive states in the nation. In terms of investment, Chattishgarh remains one of the first preferences," he said.

On Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Jain told Chandra that the former is a sensitive leader of the state and has had a long innings in politics, and by virtue of which, he has acquired a minute understanding of people and their issues.

He was critical of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying that he is always playing "blame game politics" sans proof and would eventually not be able to meet the public's expectations.
Three Hizbul Mujhahideen militants were neutralised in an encounter with the security forces today in Avantipora in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir.

After receiving a tip-off regarding suspect terrorist movement in Panzgam village in Pulwama, the joint team of the Army and the Police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation to smoke out the militants.

The terrorists opened fire on the security forces upon which heavy fire was returned in kind.

All three terrorists were neutralised in the encounter that ensued and weapons were also recovered from them.

Security forces continued combing operations to secure the area.
Tension prevailed at Jadavpur University in Kolkata today following last night's clashes between SFI and ABVP supporters on the campus.

Both sides have filed FIRs at the Jadavpur Police station against each other .

The University Registrar also filed a complaint with the police of attack on the students by the outsiders.

Leading educationists and intellectuals have criticized the alleged efforts of outsiders to engineer JNU like disturbances in JU. JU students, faculty and staff members have announced to organize a protest procession from the University campus to Garia in the evening today.

State Governor and Chancellor of JU,K.N. Tripathi today said that the authorities concerned should take stern action to check chaos at the university.

The clash at JU last evening had broken out between SFI and ABVP over screening of a film, Buddha in a Traffic Jam.
Indian superstar Vijender Singh who is just one fight away from his summer Indian homecoming WBO Asia title fight, will face an experienced Polish Andrzej Soldra in his sixth professional fight at Macron Stadium, Premier Suite, Bolton (Lancashire) next week.

The red-hot super middleweight ace, who won Bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games has made an explosive start to his professional career in the paid ranks by blowing away his first five opponents, is undefeated in five fights with five knockouts in only 14 rounds of action.

The 30-year-old, from Bhiwani, is an icon in his homeland and his summer hero's return will be a national homecoming event and he says that there is no way that rival Andrzej Soldra will upset that from happening.

Andrzej Soldra from Poland, comes into the fight against Vijender Singh with a record of 12 wins with five knockouts from 16 fights. The 30 year old has the edge in experience over Vijender Singh with 81 rounds under his belt and has no fear fighting his first fight abroad. Soldra also has a brilliant record in amateur career with 82 wins from 98 fights.

Soldra has only been stopped thrice in a professional career spanning over five years and will be looking to spoil the party when he makes his first appearance in UK soil. Vijender Singh knows it is crucial that he wins at the Macron Stadium before setting his eyes on a huge Indian homecoming.

Undefeated Vijender Singh claimed his fifth professional win at the Copper Box Arena last month with a blistering fifth round stoppage of Frenchman Matiouze Royer. The Indian knockout merchant ended the contest in the fifth round with a punishing stoppage win over Royer and will be looking to claim another KO win at the Macron Stadium.

Commenting on his sixth fight Vijender Singh said, "I have seen videos of Soldra he is a good opponent but I am preparing very hard to give him a tough time in the ring. He's very experienced though and with 16 fights and 81 rounds he's got the advantage over me in that department but I will stop him".

"I know this fight is very crucial for me and I need to continue my unbeaten record and it's important that I put on a commanding performance against Soldra to keep on course for my title shot and my homecoming. I am really excited to finish off my sixth fight on a winning note and then compete for Asia title in front of my home crowd".
The United States has called on Pakistan to take form action against Taliban leaders who allegedly used Islamabad territory for cross-border attacks, besides continuing to encourage them to resume peace talks with Kabul.

According to Dawn, adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz told reporters in Islamabad earlier this week that Pakistan could not accept the Afghan demand to abandon peace efforts and take military action against the Taliban leaders.

Instead, Aziz offered to press on for resuming reconciliation talks as soon as possible.

As a reminder, a US State Department official told Islamabad that in December last year Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a joint statement, agreeing, "not to allow use of their respective soil against each other".

He added that Afghanistan and Pakistan had also agreed to "sternly handle any elements crossing over and getting involved in violence on either side, through active intelligence sharing and intelligence-based operations".

Last month, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged Pakistan to expel Taliban insurgents or arrest and hand them over to Kabul for trial for killing innocent Afghans.

Ghani also said that he would no longer seek Pakistan's help in arranging reconciliation talks with the Taliban.

But Aziz said on Tuesday that the Afghan outrage at Pakistan was "an expression of frustration" at the delay in reconciliation talks.

However, the State Department official reminded Aziz that Pakistan had made a commitment to Afghanistan and other partners to ensure that militants won't use its territory.

"This is the commitment that Pakistan has made to its partners, and we expect it to take steps necessary to promote dialogue, reduce violence in Afghanistan, and encourage the Taliban to engage in meaningful negotiations," the official said.

When asked what was the US policy regarding Pakistan's support for the Haqqani Network and other Afghan Taliban groups allegedly operating from the Pakistani soil, the official said: "We have consistently expressed our concerns at the highest levels of the government of Pakistan about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups, such as the Haqqani Network operating from Pakistani soil. We did so again following the devastating suicide attack on April 19 in Kabul.
The US State Department has urged Pakistan to take military action against Taliban leaders who allegedly used its territory for cross-border attacks, besides continuing to encourage them to resume peace talks with Kabul.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has said that the Afghan demanded to abandon its peace efforts and take immediate military action against the Taliban leaders., reports Dawn.

Aziz offered to push for resuming the reconciliation talks as soon as possible.

When asked for comments on the Pakistani position, a State Department official reminded Islamabad that in December last year Afghanistan and Pakistan signed a joint statement, agreeing, 'not to allow use of their respective soil against each other'.

The official noted that Afghanistan and Pakistan had also agreed to 'sternly handle any elements crossing over and getting involved in violence on either side, through active intelligence sharing and intelligence-based operations'.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani urged Pakistan to evict Taliban insurgents through military action or arrest and hand them over to Kabul for trial and punishment for killing innocent Afghans.

President Ghani also said that he would no longer seek Pakistan's help in arranging reconciliation talks with the Taliban.

Aziz said that the Afghan outrage at Pakistan was 'an expression of frustration' at the delay in reconciliation talks.

Aziz added that Taliban had gone ahead with their Spring Offensive, pushing aside Islamabad's efforts for re-starting the talks.

The United States has underlined the need for an effective engagement with Pakistan as critical for promoting peace and stability in the region.
Seventeen Chinese nationals were injured on Saturday when a Hong Kong Airlines plane hit severe turbulence over Borneo island after taking off from Indonesia's Bali island, officials said.

The incident occurred above Banjarmacin city, the capital of South Kalimantan province, about one hour after the Hong Kong-bound flight HX6704 took off from the Bali international airport, forcing it to return to the airport, said Herni Pramuharjo, spokesman of the transport ministry.

"Twelve people were rushed to a hospital, one of whom got very serious injury. Five others were only treated at the health clinic of the airport. All of them are Chinese nationals," he told Xinhua news agency.

One of the injured is a crew of the airline which carried 204 passengers and 12 crew, Pramuharjo said.

The turbulence incident is the second time involving Airbus 300-200 in Indonesia this week.

On Wednesday, Etihad Airways flight EY74 from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta encountered severe turbulence, 45 minutes prior to landing at the main airport in Jakarta, leaving 31 people wounded with nine hospitalised, and damaging cabin storage area, according to the spokesman.

--IANS

lok/ksk/vm
Film: "1920 London"; Director: Tinu Suresh Desai; Cast: Sharman Joshi, Meera Chopra, Vishal Karwal, Sushmita Mukherjee; Rating: *

"1920 London", is the third film from Vikram Bhatt's stable of the 1920 horror franchise which began in 2008. And with every edition in the series, the film seems to be slipping on the scare quotient.

With a complex and convoluted plot, it is a romance-revenge story, treated in the horror format.

The narration set in 1920, shuttles between London and Sikar in Rajasthan. It is the story of Princess Shivangi (Meera Chopra), who is happily married and settled in London with her husband Veer Singh (Vishal Karwal).

She receives an intricately designed necklace as gift, purported from their in-laws and soon all hell breaks loose. She finds strange things happening in her house and her husband's body getting mangled as well.

Not understanding what to do in an alien country and on advice of her hand-maiden Kesar-ma (Sushmita Mukherjee), the Princess comes to her parents' home in Rajasthan. Here she is advised that the only way her husband can be saved is, by black magic. After a ritual by her family priest fails, she is guided to "Mewad-wale Baba" aka Jai (Sharman Joshi), who assures her that he would do his best and that he would have to travel along with her to London.

In London, while investigating Veer's case, Jai prods Shivangi to recall how it all started and she tells him about the gift from her in-laws. Jai then tells her that her husband is possessed by a spirit, which was lodged in the locket.

How Princess Shivangi and Jai extricate the spirit, forms the crux of the tale.

While the actors are committed, they play their parts in a very mechanical manner. Sharman Joshi as Jai is the best of the lot. He is aptly supported by Meera Chopra as Princess Shivangi and Vishal Karwal as Veer Singh. Sushmita Mukherjee as Kesar-ma is equally effective.

Unfortunately, for the actors, it is the script which is their Waterloo. Written by Vikram Bhatt, the plot and the characters are a quick-fix. What's more, the dialogues too seem regressive and obsolete in nature today, making the entire narration seem like an unintentional comedy.

The action sequences are well-choreographed, but they are not exciting enough to give a teeth clenching edge-of-the seat experience. For, the horror tropes engaged are generic and not at all spooky. Nor are there any jump-scares.

The graphics and computer-generated images are intricately conceived and they seamlessly mesh with Cinematographer Prakash Kutty's frames, which are moody and atmospheric. His interior, as well as exterior shots are well-captured, but they are not consistent with regard to their tones.

The songs break the seriousness of the narrative and they do not help in the story progression either.

Overall, don't bother travelling back in time and give "1920 London" a skip.

--IANS

troy/nv/vm
At a time when both ruling and opposition parties criticise each other over allegations of corruption against the backdrop of the leaked Panama Papers, a report said 64 percent of Pakistanis believe corruption prevails in government departments.

The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), a non-governmental organisation, asked 6,030 people in Pakistan whether or not they had interacted with any of the 25 government departments over the past six months.

The departments included education, health, Wapda, Sui Gas, police, courts, revenue, Election Commission of Pakistan, irrigation, Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), Nadra, municipality, railways, PIA and Income Tax.

As many 3,971 people responded in affirmative. When asked about their perception of corruption levels in those departments, nearly two-thirds of the respondents said corruption levels in government departments were either very high or somewhat high.

As many as 72 percent of men said corruption prevails in government departments. At least 54 percent women shared similar views.

Fafen will release detailed socio-political profiles in July. However, corruption was selected as the theme for the first public release in view of the ongoing public debate on the issue against the backdrop of the leaked Panama Papers.

--IANS

py/vm
Brazil's President vowed to fight "until the last day" after a special commission in the Senate recommended that an impeachment trial be opened against her.

The special commission voted 15-5 to approve a report on Friday that concluded there was enough evidence to proceed with a trial against Rousseff over the alleged fiscal manipulations in 2014 and 2015, XInhua news agency reported.

In a speech on Friday, Rousseff denied the allegations, insisting that she has not committed any crime.

"I am the living proof that a coup is being orchestrated against all advances made in the last 13 years," she said.

She vowed to resist, despite the fact that a vote in the Senate on May 11 is seen as highly likely to formally open an impeachment trial, forcing her to step down for up to 180 days.

Rousseff also addressed the decision to suspend Eduardo Cunha, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, who began the impeachment process against her in December.

Cunha is facing graft charges from a corruption probe at Brazil's state oil company.

"It took a person void of any moral and ethical principles, accused of money laundering and hidden accounts, to perpetrate this coup," she said.
The public is concerned about the alleged sexual enslavement of a minor girl by a Goa legislator, given that "every system" in the country has become "bankrupt," state BJP spokesman Wilfred Mesquita has said.

The arrest on Thursday of the MLA Atanasio Monserrate on the charge of purchasing and sexually exploiting a minor girl has brought shame to Goa, Mesquita, a former minister, told reporters here.

He, however, placed the alleged crime in the larger context of systemic corruption.

"People in Goa are bothered about the outcome of this case, considering that every system in this country and Goa whether it is electoral, whether political, whether administrative or even judicial is bankrupt," Mesquita said.

Monserrate has been accused by a minor girl of purchasing her with the help of her mother and a pimp and raping her on several occasions in March.

Monserrate was arrested on Thursday, after he surrendered to the police, less than 24 hours after the FIR was filed against him by the Goa Police Crime Branch. He has since been remanded in three days' police custody.

Mesquita said that while the charges are yet to be proven, they have brought shame to Goa.

"I can tell one thing that if this suspicion becomes truth, really (if) it becomes a fact, that (will be) the biggest shame to the people of Goa who put such elements on the pedestal of power," Mesquita said.

Over the last decade Monserrate emerged as a significant player in Goan politics and served as a minister in cabinets of Congress as well as BJP-led coalition governments.

--IANS

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Actors Clive Owen and Jessica Biel have joined Danis Tanovic's upcoming drama "Invisible", which will begin shooting in London in October.

Good Films is financing and Miriam Segal is producing. Good Universe is handling worldwide sales of the project and will introduce it to buyers next week at the 69th Cannes Film Festival, reports variety.com.

Tena Stivicic ("The World's Greatest Monster") is writing the script, adapting her original play of the same name.

Owen and Biel will play a couple who, despite their perfect lives, find themselves wanting more. The story will also examine several people on the other side of London, who have each travelled from faraway lands and put their lives on the line to seek out better opportunities than their homeland can offer.

The vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of class, identity and belonging in "Invisible", which examines the true cost that the pursuit of happiness can take.

--IANS

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An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced to death six people, including two Al Jazeera journalists, who were accused of leaking state secrets to Qatar.

The case of jailed former president Mohamed Morsi, who is also charged for espionage for Qatar, was however, adjourned.

The judgement will either be approved or reduced in June after consultations with Egypt's Mufti, the highest Sunni religious leader in the country. The court may or may not consider the Mufti's feedback, Al Jazeera reported.

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is not binding but is usually respected by courts.

The defendants have the right to appeal the verdict. Morsi has already been sentenced to life and 20 years in prison in three separate trials.

According to the prosecution, Morsi and the other 10 co-defendants had leaked "classified documents" to Qatar.

The documents allegedly contained secrets on "national security", and were allegedly traded with the Qatari intelligence for a million dollars.

Al Jazeera rejects Egypt's allegations that the network was collaborating with Morsi's elected government.

"I believe that this is a weak point in the Egyptian system, which might bring catastrophes to the whole country , especially when it comes to freedoms and human rights," Al Jazeera's Middle East Analyst Yahia Ghanem said on the judgement.

--IANS

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South Korean authorities on Saturday confirmed the fourth Zika virus case in the country in a woman who recently returned from a trip to Vietnam, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Saturday.

The 25-year-old woman worked in Ho Chi Minh City from April 10 to April 30 and entered South Korea on May 1, said the KCDC.

She visited a hospital in the western port city of Incheon on May 4 to treat a chronic thyroid gland problem after having rash and joint pain and was diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus, Xinhua news agency reported.

The KCDC suspected that she might have been bitten by a mosquito while in the Southeast Asian nation, noting that the patient is currently in stable condition.

Health authorities are also examining a person who met with the woman in Vietnam between April 13 to April 17 for potential transmission of the virus.

The latest case raises the number of confirmed infections in South Korea to four.

The first South Korean Zika case was found from a 43-year-old man on March 22.

The other two Zika cases were confirmed on April 27 and April 29 respectively, from two brothers who had travelled to the Philippines together.

--IANS

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India's first homegrown messaging app will launch a "microapp" for users on the eve of Mother's Day.

Mother's Day falls on May 8 this year.

"This Mother's Day, hike wishes all the mothers and enables hikers to show their love for their moms," hike said in a statement on Saturday.

The company will share the "microapp" with its 100 million users. With this, hikers can add an image, edit quotes or simply add a message as a token of love to their mothers.

In addition, they can also post customised e-cards and stickers on their timeline or share amongst friends, not only on hike but also on other platforms.

The special feature will be live for two days, the company said.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli smashed a masterful century to snatch a much needed seven-wicket victory against Rising Pune Supergiants (RPS) in the 35th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Saturday.

Requiring 192 runs in 20 overs, RCB spared three balls to score 195/3 as unbeaten Kohli scored a 58-ball-108, packed with seven sixes and eight fours. He was ably supported by Shane Watson (36) and opening partner Lokesh Rahul (38).

Man-of-the-match Kohli is the first batsman to hit two centuries in a single IPL edition until now. He reached his century in style with a six at the end of the 19th over in paceman R.P. Singh's bowling. His century came in 52 balls with seven fours and seven sixes at the Chinnaswami Stadium.

What looked like an unexciting chase in the beginning without boundaries until after three overs transformed into a entertaining innings, thanks to the consistent Kohli.

Initially, Pune bowlers Ashok Dinda and R.P. Singh frustrated openers Kohli and Rahul -- no boundaries were leaked in the first three overs.

RCB managed to hit only 10 runs in the first three overs. Later, Rahul (38) unshackled with two sixes in the fourth over to open the boundaries account for RCB.

Kohli and Rahul constructed a 94 run partnership. Later, Rahul fell to Adam Zampa while going for a huge shot, caught by George Bailey near the boundary.

Though Ab de Villiers (1) faltered, Watson rose to the occasion with a quick fire 13-ball 36-run knock.

The veteran Australian all-rounder blasted five fours and two sixes to emerge valuable with the bat as well after a fine bowling performance.

His show got over after he was declared leg before the wicket off Singh in the 16th over while attempting a big heave.

Meanwhile, Kohli saw to it that the asking rate fell down steadily and swiftly. From an asking rate of 142 runs in 78 balls after the beginning of the match, it fell down to 122 runs needed in 66 balls and 98 in 54 balls and later 77 in 38.

By the end of the 19th over, RCB needed 16 runs off eight ball and four runs off six balls in the final over, Travis Head (6) took a single giving the strike to Kohli.

Excited and entertained fans in the stadium stood up flashing their glowing cell phones to witness the victory coming from Kohli's bat. With one run needed in four balls, Kohli cracked a four to claim the victory.

Adam Zampa 2/35 performed the best with the ball for PSG while R. P. Singh 1/37 was the only other bowler to manage a wicket.

Earlier, excellent batting by Ajinkya Rahane and Saurabh Tiwary helped Pune post a challenging total of 191/6.

Rahane (74) and Tiwary (52) stabilised the visitors' innings after opener Usman Khawaja (16) departed early. Tiwary survived two catches and a stumping in the sixth over when Stuart Binny and Sachin Baby dropped him.

He went on to build a partnership of 105 runs with top scorer Rahane.

Attempting a big shot off Yuzvendra Chahal, Tiwary was short of the crease and was stumped by wicket-keeper Rahul in the 15th over.

Rahane hit a 48-ball-74 peppered with two sixes and eight fours.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (9), Thisara Perera (14) and George Bailey (0) fizzled out with the bat. Dhoni managed to hit a six off Watson in the 16th, only to throw his wicket away while attempting a big shot. He was caught by Parveez Rasool at third man.

Ravichandran Ashwin managed to steal 10 runs in five balls in the last over.

Watson (3/24) emerged the most successful bowler for RCB with an economy rate of six in his quota of four overs.

After taking a catch from Perera, Watson went on to castle Rahane with the first ball of the 19th over. Three balls later, he sent Bailey back to the dugout in a caught behind wicket scalp.

Continuing his good form, Chahal took one wicket, giving away 38 runs while Chris Jordan was the only other bowler to claim a wicket.

With the victory, RCB stand at the second last position in the points table with six points while Pune also have the same points but ahead at better net run rate.

Brief Scores:

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 195/3 (Virat Kohli 108, Shane Watson 36; Adam Zampa 2/35, R. P. Singh 1/37) beat Rising Pune Supergiants: 191/6 (Ajinkya Rahane 74, Saurabh Tiwary 52; Shane Watson 3/24, Yuzvendra Chahal 1/38)

--IANS

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Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush has said he will not vote for Republican nominee Donald Trump in November's presidential election.

Bush joins several high-profile Republicans who have refused to support the New York businessman's campaign.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he "was not ready" to support Trump, but will meet him next week.

Breaking with tradition, Bush's father and brother - both former presidents - also withheld support.

Some Republicans have said they would back Democrat Hillary Clinton but Bush ruled that out.

"Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character," Bush said. "And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy."

Bush previously pledged to support the eventually Republican nominee while he was still a candidate for president.

Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina also announced on Friday that he would not vote for Trump.

"I think Donald Trump is going to places where very few people have gone and I'm not going with him," Graham told CNN.

The Bush campaign swiftly responded to Senator Graham who also was a Republican candidate for president.

"While I will unify the party, Lindsey Graham has shown himself to be beyond rehabilitation. And like the voters who rejected him, so will I," Trump said.

Many Republican candidates for lower offices are concerned about running on the same ballot as Donald Trump, who has alienated minority voters through his rhetoric about building a wall with Mexico and banning US entry to Muslim travellers.

Many Americans choose to vote for either the Democrat or Republican Party, rather than weighing the individual candidates.

Republican representatives fear that voters who oppose Trump may eschew the Republican Party all together.

Some Republicans, including a former top adviser and speechwriter to Senator McCain, have begun to openly call for the party to oppose the presumptive nominee and to work to independently elect a conservative candidate, such as Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who has indicated that he will not be supporting Trump.

--IANS

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Indo-American actor Kal Penn has wrapped shooting for Guneet Monga's upcoming project "The Ashram".

Monga took to Twitter on Saturday, where she shared a photograph of herself along with the actor and said that it was a pleasure working with Penn.

"And it's a wrap for Kal Penn for 'The Ashram' ! Such a pleasure working with you... Thank you! Super excited," she tweeted.

Monga has roped in other actors like Melissa Leo, Sam Keeley, Hera Hilmar and Radhika Apte.

With Ben Rekhi as the director, the film is an English-language spiritual fantasy thriller set in the mystical world of Himalayan yogis.

"The Ashram" revolves around an American skeptic Jamie, who upon receiving a cryptic message, travels to the Indian Himalayas to pick up on the trail of his disappeared girlfriend. What he uncovers during his journey, forms the rest of the plot.

Monga is best known for co-producing films like "Gangs of Wasseypur" and "The Lunchbox", both of which garnered critical acclaim. And she is now looking forward to make more films for the world.

--IANS

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The Kashmir issue cannot be whisked away from the dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said on Saturday.

Commenting on the stalled dialogue between India and Pakistan, Chaudhary said: "Whenever there will be talks between Pakistan and India, Kashmir will remain on top of the agenda."

The arrest of alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav from Balochistan has verified India's involvement in Pakistan's internal affairs, Dawn online quoted Chaudhary as saying.

He said there was a trust deficit between Pakistan and India which needs to be removed for better ties between the two nations.

--IANS

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Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says that they're "committed" to a standalone Black Widow movie.

While talking to deadline.com about "Captain America: Civil War", Feige was asked about the potential of "Avengers" characters such as Falcon, War Machine, Black Widow and Hawkeye getting their own spotlight.

"Of the characters that you've just mentioned I would say certainly the one creatively and emotionally that we are most committing to doing is Black Widow," Feige replied.

"We think she's an amazing character. We think Scarlett Johansson's portrayal of her is amazing," he added.

Feige said that it would be "fun" to turn the "Avengers" character into a "standalone franchise".

"She's a lead Avenger and has amazing stories in her own right to tell that we think would be fun to turn into a standalone franchise," he added.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, both states facing drought in some parts, as well as the chief minister of Karnataka and said that the Centre, states, local bodies, NGOs and citizens must work together to deal with problems posed by drought in parts of the country.

Modi asked the state leaders to generate awareness among people in their respective states to use water resources judiciously.

"Had a productive meeting with UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on the drought situation in various parts of UP. The various drought mitigation measures undertaken in the state were discussed extensively in the meeting," Modi tweeted after meeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Yadav apprised the prime minister of the work done by the state government for farmers and drought-affected areas. Nearly 50 districts are facing drought in Uttar Pradesh which is reeling under acute water scarcity.

In yet another tweet, Modi said: "Akhilesh Yadav and I discussed the need to effectively utilize the period before monsoon for water recharge and conservation efforts. Usage of latest technology and community participation, particularly of our Nari Shakti can play a key role in effective drought management."

The prime minister told Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that the government must focus on medium and long-term solutions to tackle drought in various parts of the state.

He also stressed on the importance of using water efficiently through drip irrigation and sprinklers in agriculture, stating that drip irrigation in sugarcane increases the quality of sugar.

The prime minister said there was a need to adopt a judicious mix of traditional and modern water conservation and storage mechanisms. He said that a lot can be learnt from the water management practices and measures adopted by Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Chief Minister Fadnavis said that his government was working on a plan to ensure that the entire sugarcane belt in Maharashtra comes under drip irrigation in three years.

Modi also discussed all water related problems in Karnataka with Chief Minister S. Siddaramaiah.

Drought-like conditions prevail in several states across the country with Maharashtra and Odisha being the worst affected.

People in the parched areas continued to suffer from the scarcity of water even as crops over hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have been severely affected.

Besides Maharashtra and Odisha, some parts of states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are experiencing severe water scarcity and drought-like conditions.

--IANS

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Launching a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the Centre was "scared" of taking action against Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the AgustaWestland chopper scam.

Addressing an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) protest at Jantar Mantar over the AgustaWestland scam, Kejriwal said: "Why is the central government not arresting Sonia Gandhi when she is involved in the AgustaWestland scam - because Modi does not have the courage to arrest her."

Hundreds of AAP supporters along with leaders, including Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas, protested at Jantar Mantar over the VVIP chopper bribery scam.

Kejriwal said though the scam came to light two years ago the Modi government did not conduct any investigation.

"What has the central government done in the last two years? Modiji promised to fight against corruption but he has betrayed the nation by not taking any action against the AgustaWestland scam accused," Kejriwal, the AAP National convenor, said.

He also slammed the central government for not taking any action against Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra whose land deals are under investigation.

"During his election campaign in 2014, Modi would often talk about Vadra at his rallies. But what action has he taken against Vadra in the last two years? He can send CBI to raid my office but not to Vadra's office," Kejriwal said, addressing supporters.

The protesters later marched to the prime minister's residence at 7, Race Course Road and Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10, Janpath.

During the protest march, hundreds of AAP supporters were detained after they engaged in a scuffle with the police personnel. The protesters were later released.

Meanwhile, the Congress and BJP took potshots at Kejriwal after he alleged that there was a "deal" between the two parties with regard to the AgustaWestland scam.

BJP spokesperson Sidharth Nath Singh said that Kejriwal's encouraged him not to follow the law.

"Kejriwal himself became the chief minister of Delhi for the first time with Congress's support. Moreover, Kejriwal has a brand of that encourages him not to follow the law. The government will follow the process of law and the guilty will be punished but under the law of the country, not Kejriwal's", Singh said.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said that instead of pointing fingers at the Congress, Kejriwal should look within.

"His own ministers and MLAs are being charged with various offences. So before making these allegations, Kejriwal has to answer for the omissions and commissions of his own MLAs", Tewari said.

The bribery charge in the chopper deal has rocked Parliament, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre and the opposition Congress trading charges.

--IANS

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The Congress party on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of large-scale corruption in the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) during his tenure as chief minister and of using the PSU as a "cash cow" to fund his way to 7, Race Course Road. The party has demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the case.

An All India Congress Committee (AICC) delegation led by Gurudas Kamat, party general secretary in-charge of Gujarat, met President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday on the issue and submitted a memorandum.

"GSPC was a profit-making Public Sector Unit till Modi took over as chief minister. He used the entity for siphoning Rs.20,000 crore and to fund his prime ministerial dreams with that," senior Congress leader from Gujarat Shakti Sinh Gohil, who was part of the delegation, told IANS.

"In 2005, being chief minister of Gujarat Modi had announced that GSPC has discovered 20 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves worth Rs.2.2 lakh crore at KG (Krishna Godavari) Basin, but the DG Hydrocarbons has categorically stated that recoverable value of the gas in that region is zero," Gohil said, accusing Modi of lying to the country.

Ashwini Sekhri, party secretary in-charge of Gujarat, told IANS: "GSPC has taken loans from a consortium of banks to invest Rs.19,576 crore in exploration of gas, and not a penny has been returned, and nobody found any petroleum gas there."

Sekhri insisted that the major amount of the money was used "to fund Modi's political exercises".

"We made an appeal to the President that a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry must be initiated into the entire episode. The truth must come out," Sekhri added.

Gohil also accused the GSPC of awarding "dubious contracts" to a private firm, Geo Global Resources (India) Inc, in an arbitrary manner.

"It remains unexplained as to how Geo Global, which was incorporated just six days before the agreement with GSPC, had its total capital increased to Rs.10,000 crore from a mere Rs.3,200 in six days," Gohil said.

"The company was given a 10 percent share free of cost without following any transparent procedure and contrary to established principles."

A Comptroller and Auditor General of India report that was tabled in the Gujarat legislative assembly earlier this year said that Geo Global Resources (India) Inc was founded in Calgary city of Canada by Jean Paul Roy. The report authenticates that GSPC invested Rs.1,734.60 crore from the public exchequer on behalf of Geo Global Resources (India) Inc without recovering a single penny.

Other than Kamat, Gohil and Sekhri, Ahmad Patel, and senior MLAs from Gujarat assembly were also part of the delegation that met President Mukherjee and submitted a memorandum to him.

(Vinayak Dutt can be contacted at vinayak.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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Researchers have developed a new paper-based test that can diagnose the infection within a few hours, potentially improving current diagnosis methods that can take days or weeks to accurately detect the virus.

The test, which distinguishes Zika from the very similar dengue virus, can be stored at room temperature and read with a simple electronic reader, making it potentially practical for widespread use.

"We have a system that could be widely distributed and used in the field with low cost and very few resources," said lead researcher James Collins, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.

An outbreak of the that began in Brazil in April 2015 has been linked to a birth defect known as microcephaly.

Many infected people experience no symptoms, and when symptoms do appear they are very similar to those of related viruses such as dengue and chikungunya.

Currently, patients are diagnosed by testing whether they have antibodies against Zika in their bloodstream, or by looking for pieces of the viral genome in a patient's blood sample, using a test known as polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

However, these tests can take days or weeks to yield results, and the antibody test cannot discriminate accurately between Zika and dengue.

The new device is based on technology that the researchers previously developed to detect the Ebola virus.

In October 2014, the researchers demonstrated that they could create synthetic gene networks and embed them on small discs of paper.

These gene networks can be programmed to detect a particular genetic sequence, which causes the paper to change colour.

Upon learning about the Zika outbreak, the researchers decided to try adapting their device to diagnose Zika, which has spread to other parts of South and North America since the outbreak began in Brazil.

"In a small number of weeks, we developed and validated a relatively rapid, inexpensive Zika diagnostic platform," Collins said.

The findings appeared online in the journal Cell.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday vowed to shore up bilateral ties in all directions after their relations have been at a low point since the Ukraine crisis.

The two sides agreed to maintain close high-level contact this year on such occasions as the Group of 20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and to build up bilateral dialogue in all directions -- economy, trade, investment and the humanitarian sphere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency after the two leaders met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Lavrov said the issue of lifting Tokyo's sanctions against Moscow was not discussed during the meeting, but he added the two sides are expected to hold consultations over a peace treaty at the level of deputy foreign ministers in June.

Russia and Japan have not signed any peace treaty mainly due to their long-held disputes over four Pacific islands.

Meanwhile, Lavrov said Putin and Abe discussed the details of the former's visit to Japan.

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed his invitation to President Vladimir Putin (to visit Japan). They discussed the details of this invitation, including concrete dates."

The two leaders also shared views on removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, while the Russian side noted that Pyongyang's nuclear actions should not be used as a pretext for the United States to bolstering military presence in the Asia Pacific region, Lavrov said.

The relationship between Tokyo and Moscow became increasingly strained after Japan slapped new sanctions against Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine, alongside steps taken by the U.S. and the European Union. Abe's visit has been widely seen as an effort to mend frayed ties and seek rapprochement with Moscow.

--IANS

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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has given a green signal for the second edition of the 'UP NRI Day' to be held in Lucknow from January 4 to 6 next year, an official said on Saturday.

The official said a committee headed by Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan was constituted to select from eminent industrial organisations like FICCI, CII, Phd Chamber of Commerce and Assocham India as the alliance partner for the event.

A team comprising of principal secretaries of finance, planning, tourism, information and secretary of culture among others was also constituted to take up the task of holding the event.

The maiden edition of this event was held in Agra in January this year. NRIs showed keen interest in forging business and personal ties with the state.

--IANS

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South Korea and the US Saturday agreed to mount pressure on North Korea, as Pyongyang held its party congress for the first time in 36 years.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se spoke to US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day and reached the agreement, Xinhua news agency reported citing a ministry statement.

"(They) agreed to keep sending strong warning messages together with the international community to deter additional nuclear tests and provocations by North Korea," the statement said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday celebrated the "great success" of the country's nuclear programme at the seventh congress of the ruling Workers' Party.

The two officials also shared their assessment of North Korea's ongoing ruling party congress and the possibility of further "provocations" by Pyongyang.

--IANS

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Three militants have been killed in an overnight gunfight between security forces and holed up militants in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district, police sources said.

While one of the militants was killed on Thursday, two others were brought down after the encounter resumed at dawn. Their bodies along with a large cache of weapons were recovered on Friday from the encounter site in Panjran village of Lassipora area.

Exact identities and group affiliations of the slain militants were being ascertained, the sources said adding that searches were still underway.

The operation was launched on Thursday on specific information about the presence of a group of militants hiding in Panjran village.

As the cordon around the hiding militants was tightened, they had fired starting the encounter.

As a precautionary measure mobile Internet services in Pulwama district was suspended.

--IANS

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(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.)
Over a dozen prisoners were injured in violence at the Muzaffarnagar jail late Friday night, police said.

Three prison inmates were critically injured and are undergoing treatment. While the situation was brought under control by morning, police said tension prevails and the security was enhanced within the jail.

It all began, officials said, with a verbal spat beteen Gayyur and Shahrukh gang supporters, soon it was free for all and the groups attacked each other with shaving razors, sticks and rods.

The groups assaulted prison guards who fled to escape the wrath of the rioting prisoners. Jail superintendent Rakesh Singh said, adding that the situation was under control.

There were incidents of violence and rioting in at least four jails in last two months. During a jail riot in Varanasi prison officials were injured and held hostage.

Following this, at five prisons, provincial armed constabulary was handed over the security of the jails.

--IANS

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WILLISTON  Gas emissions from the Bakken are having a global impact on the atmosphere, a recent study found, but health regulators say new technology theyre using to inspect oilfield sites should lead to a dramatic improvement.

The North Dakota Department of Health recently began using a $100,000 camera that uses infrared technology to detect methane, ethane and other emissions that leak from well sites.

The huge advantage is that you now see any emissions that are coming out, which were previously invisible to your eye, said Jim Semerad, with the health departments Air Quality Division.

Natural gas produced in the Bakken as a byproduct of oil production is known as a wet gas, meaning it is rich in natural gas liquids such as propane, butane and ethane.

They can be beneficial if theyre captured and separated out, but they can also go directly into the atmosphere if the controls arent there or if the controls arent working properly, said David Glatt, chief of the Environmental Health Section.

On an individual basis, a Bakken oil and gas well is not a significant contributor to emissions, Semerad said.

But multiply that by 13,000 wells in North Dakota, and the impact can be substantial.

The sheer numbers have grown such that we have to take a harder look at them, Semerad said.

A group of scientists also recently took notice of the Bakken while researching why a mountaintop sensor in Europe detected an uptick in the globes ethane levels in 2010.

The research team took air samples for 12 days in May 2014 while flying directly overhead and downwind of Bakken oil production areas.

The team found that the Bakken emits about 250,000 tons of ethane per year, or about 2 percent of the globes ethane.

Its pretty remarkable that one location can be emitting a couple percent of the globes ethane, said Eric Kort, assistant professor of atmospheric science at the University of Michigan and lead author of the study. This is illustrative of how activities in one region can actually have a global impact.

The study found that ethane emissions from other U.S. oil production, especially the Eagle Ford, likely contributed to the global uptick as well. A separate study on methane emissions from the Bakken is expected to be released next week.

State health regulators have been working to address emissions from the oil industry for the past several years, but are taking those efforts to the next level.

I do think we can do a better job in the oil patch to control emissions, Glatt said.

The health department purchased the FLIR camera, which stands for forward-looking infrared radiometer, with help from a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Several staff members are certified to use the camera and use it as a tool to detect emissions they previously werent aware of.

Some problem areas theyve identified include emissions that are caused by valves or pipe fittings not sealed tightly enough or equipment that needs to be repaired.

Natural gas flares, if operating properly, should burn off 95 to 97 percent of the gas, Glatt said. But if a flare malfunctions, the gas will vent directly to the atmosphere.

Sometimes it can be as simple as wind knocking out the flame in a flare, Semerad said.

If inspectors find a major leak, they require companies to immediately make necessary repairs or improvements, Glatt said. The health department issues fines to companies that dont comply.

Our goal is if you find a problem, you fix it right away, Glatt said. The longer you take to fix it, then potentially the bigger the fine would be.

Next, the health department plans to implement a program that includes requiring oil companies to conduct their own inspections. Health inspectors would continue doing site visits to verify what the industry submits, Semerad said.

The EPA is working with the state health department to develop this program, which is similar to what power plants already comply with, Semerad said.

Hopefully by 2017, emissions will be dramatically lower, Semerad said.

North Dakotas oil industry has a task force that has been working on this issue with all the major Bakken operating companies participating, said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. It is one topic that will be addressed at the upcoming Williston Basin Petroleum Conference.

Joel Noyes, chairman of the task force and senior manager for government and external affairs for Hess Corp., said several companies have purchased their own FLIR cameras.

I think there are a number of companies that are being proactive and taking steps to implement this new technology and do other things to inspect and track whats going on out in the field before there are any regulations, Noyes said.
Just one fight away from a shot at the WBO Asia title, star Indian boxer Vijender Singh will face an experienced Andrzej Soldra of Poland in his sixth professional bout at the Macron Stadium here on May 13.

The in-form super middleweight boxer, who took bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games, has made an explosive start to his professional career by blowing away his first five opponents. The 30-year-old from Haryana has won all his five fights by knockout in only 14 rounds of action.

A former World No.1 in the middweight (75kg) category during his amateur days, Vijender is confdent of beating Soldra and making his summer homecoming to India for the WBO Asia fight with his undefeated status intact.

Soldra comes into the contest against Vijender with a record of 12 wins with five knockouts from 16 fights. The 30-year-old has the edge in experience over Vijender with 81 rounds under his belt and has no fear fighting his first fight abroad. Soldra also had a brilliant record in his amateur career with 82 wins from 98 fights.

Soldra has only been stopped thrice during his professional career spanning over five years and will be looking to spoil Vijender's party when he makes his first appearance on UK soil. Vijender knows that it is crucial to win at the Macron Stadium before setting his eyes on a huge Indian homecoming.

The undefeated Indian claimed his fifth professional win at the Copper Box Arena in London last month with a blistering fifth round stoppage of Frenchman Matiouze Royer. The Indian ended the contest in the fifth round with a punishing stoppage win over Royer and will be looking to claim another knockout win at the Macron Stadium.

"I have seen videos of Soldra he is a good opponent but I am preparing very hard to give him a tough time in the ring. He's very experienced though and with 16 fights and 81 rounds he's got the advantage over me in that department but I will stop him," Vijender said.

"I know this fight is very crucial for me and I need to continue my unbeaten record and it's important that I put on a commanding performance against Soldra to keep on course for my title shot and my homecoming. I am really excited to finish off my sixth fight on a winning note and then compete for Asia title in front of my home crowd," he added.

However, Soldra has threatened to stop the Indian in his tracks and inflict the first loss on his record.

"Vijender has never met anyone like me and he will realise what it is like fighting with a real professional boxer on the May 13. I will take great delight in handing Vijender Singh his first loss and sending him back home to India beaten and broken," the Polish pugilist said.

"In fact I will tell you what I will do to him, I will smash him to the body to loosen him up and then a right hand to knock him out, just watch me," he added.

--IANS

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Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy on Friday made a veiled reference to Comptroller and Auditor General Shashi Kant Sharma, who had earlier worked in the defence ministry, vis-a-vis Westland chopper scam.

"I want to ask whether you have questioned the DG, procurement," Roy asked Defence Minister Manohor Parrikar during the discussion in the Lok Sabha on the high-profile controversy, but did not take any name.

The MP from West Bengal's Dum Dum MP specifically asked Parrikar to list what action he has "taken in the one-and-a-half years against corruption?" and alleged that while the NDA government has been "shouting from the housetops against corruption", it did not have anything "specific" to divulge.

"You say that Rs124 crore bribe has been paid," Roy pointedly told Parrikar, and asked him: "What has the CBI under your government done in two years? If bribe has been paid, you should have recovered it".

Sharma held the post of director general (acquisition)  which the Trinamool MP mistakenly referred to as "procurement"  in the defence ministry in 2007-10.

Allegedly Sharma's name or designation as "DG (Acq.)"  short form of acquisition  figures in the list of people named by middleman Christian Michel as documented in the Italian court order.

Bharatiya Janata Party member Nishikant Dubey also made a veiled reference to the CAG and few other people who continue to hold constitutional positions.

With one reference, he said the then Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj had opposed appointment of a former police official in the Human Rights Commission.

Of the 1976 batch of Indian Administrative Service, Sharma joined the defence ministry in 2003 as a joint secretary. BJP sources had alleged in 2013-14 that Sharma became DG acquisition in 2007 and has been "literally controlling" the basic process of controversial chopper purchase.

He continued in the key position till 2010 and became defence secretary later in 2011.

In May 2013, the BJP had opposed appointment of Sharma as CAG, and even last year, a section of BJP leaders made an issue over the powers of CAG.

In fact, on the sidelines of a conference of Public Accounts Committee chairpersons in parliament premises, BJP MP Dubey, also a member of the powerful panel, had sought CAG to be made accountable to the parliament.

"We have the incumbent CAG Shashi Kant Sharma, a former defence secretary, who is now auditing his own actions as the defence secretary when a few deals materialised," Dubey had said.

It is understood now that the government is now making a case for the Central Bureau of Investigation to "question Sharma".

"We are not being vindictive. In the interest and also in interest of justice the concerned investigating agency needs to or has the duty to question the incumbent CAG," a BJP MP told IANS.

The argument for the same has only gained currency once the Italian court judgment has included the "bribe list" as given by fugitive Michel as annexures.

However, Roy argued in the Lok Sabha on Friday that the words and testimonies of a fugitive should be "taken with a pinch of salt".
A 32-year-old woman was allegedly raped in a bus in Jharkhand's Koderma district, police said Saturday.

According to the police, the woman was travelling to Jharkhand's Koderma district from Bihar's Nawada district in a Sri Travels bus on Friday.

The driver took the bus to an Isolated place after all other passengers got down at Tilaiya of Koderma district and his assistant raped the woman, the victim told the police.

The woman's medical test will be conducted, police said, adding that an operation has been launched to arrest the accused.

One woman/girl is raped, on average, every eight to nine hours in Jharkhand.

--IANS

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Last week, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha member from Begusarai, Bhola Singh, known for his unconventional views on a number of issues, asked a minister in the BJP-led government at the Centre why policies relating to the hydrocarbon sector, especially as they related to a particular company, were not stable. "We want to know the government's compulsions," he said. Singh's questions drew an immediate response from Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who denied the government was succumbing to pressure. "We have no compulsions, I want to make it clear," he said. "Please remember the country's prime minister is Narendra Modi." Singh replied: "I know the country's prime minister is Narendra Modi. But I have faith in you also. Aap toh Dharmendra hain, pradhan bhi hain [you are Dharmendra (the namesake of a yesteryear Bollywood actor) - and your name also means chief]."
In January 1978, a venture capital (or VC) firm bought shares in a newly formed company at nine cents per share. It sold its shares shortly within eighteen months, in August 1979, to another investor for nearly $1 per share, 11 times the price it had paid. Within another eighteen months, the company's shares were trading at $22 per share, 22 times the previous price. The company is Apple Computers, and the VC firm Sequoia Capital. More than 35 years later, the world of venture capital and their investment valuations still follow these dizzying patterns. Such stratospheric valuations in short bursts in the early days of a VC-backed company are par for the course and in themselves do not signal any market manipulation. This does not immediately imply collusion among investors. More importantly, this in itself cannot be an excuse to unleash the might of the state on a private investor.
The last two decades have seen a remarkable shift in India's security dialogue. From almost nowhere, issues in the maritime sector have begun to acquire increasing focus. Terms such as Sagar Mala (development of ports), Mausam (promoting interconnectivity with littorals in the waters around us) and Blue Economy have entered the discourse even as efforts to build a stronger Navy and Coast Guard to safeguard the nation's interests at sea and to act as a Net Security Provider have come to the forefront. At every strategic discussion maritime security gets mentioned at the very start of the debate. This relatively recent development merits discussion.
The identity of the creator of bitcoins, the popular digital currency, remains a mystery. An Australian computer scientist, Craig White, recently claimed that he was the creator. But this claim has met with scepticism. The creator signed himself (or herself) "Satoshi Nakamoto" in a paper released in May 2008, where the concept of the crypto-currency was first outlined. Satoshi Nakamoto wanted a currency, which could not be controlled or tracked by governments or central banks. This had to be secured against fraud and forgery, while allowing users to be anonymous. In January 2009, the creator released a software programme, and then worked with software developers for about two years before withdrawing.
Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) President on Saturday urged the people of Kerala to ensure that Oommen Chandy is given a second term as chief minister.

"To take forward the development agenda of Kerala, Chandy should get another term," Nitish Kumar, who is in the state to take part in his party's campaign for assembly elections, told reporters here.

The JD(U) is a minor constituent of United Democratic Front (UDF) that Chandy's Congress leads.

In the outgoing Kerala assembly, the JD(U) has two legislators including M V Shreyams Kumar, the son of state party chief M P Veerendra Kumar.

criticised the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for not joining the 'grand alliance' in Bihar in last year's assembly polls and also attacked the wrong policies of the BJP, which he said are detrimental to secular Kerala.

Chandy had taken part in Nitish Kumar's swearing in as chief minister of Bihar last year.

Kerala votes on May 16 to elect its 14th legislative assembly.
A collision between a fishing boat and a cargo ship in the East China Sea has left 17 missing and two dead, Chinese state media said today.

The Lu Rong Yu collided with a Maltese freighter at 3:40 AM Beijing time, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

Passing ships rescued two additional passengers who later died, the report said, adding that search and rescue operations are ongoing.

The cargo ship, which was under a Maltese flag, left the scene, according to China Radio International.

The incident occurs as China's aggressive pursuit of its territorial claims in the East and South China Sea has raised regional tensions.

Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, among others, have complained about reckless behaviour by Chinese fishermen that has occasionally led to accidents at sea.

Tokyo and Beijing both lay claim to small islands in the East China Sea.

In 2010, the Japanese coastguard arrested a Chinese trawler captain for allegedly ramming two of its patrol boats near the disputed territory.
Two men, including a former state-level boxer, who allegedly shot dead a man two days ago in south Delhi's Sangam Vihar colony, have been arrested, police said today.

The accused identified as Pradeep (30), the former state-level boxer, and Parveen (25), who is an employee at a cinema hall in south Delhi, were arrested last night after a brief chase by a police team, DCP (South) Ishwar Singh said.

The two were identified after they approached a police picket in Shekh Sarai area. They tried to dodge police and started to run in different directions leaving their motorbike at the spot.

During interrogation, Pradeep disclosed that he earlier used to own a gym in Sangam Vihar, but 40-year-old Jiwan Lal, the victim, had filed complaints against him, leading to shutting down of the gym. Lal also used to verbally abuse him and all that led to Pradeep hatching a plan to eliminate him at once.

On Thursday, Pradeep along with his friend Parveen, shot several rounds at Lal from a close range and fled the spot. Lal sustained four bullets and died by the time he was rushed to a hospital, police said.
A third teenager, who was arrested in connection with the bombing of a gurudwara by Islamist militants in the German city of Essen, has admitted to the authorities that he was part of a group which carried out the terror attack, according to a media report.

Tolga I, who is known in his circle as 'Amir', appears to be a sort of "commander-in-chief" who has given the order to Mohammed B and Yussuf T to explode a bomb at the Nanaksar Satsangh Sabha Gurudwara on the evening of April 16, 'Report Muenchen' programme of the ARD TV network said.

During interrogation, 17-year-old Tolga did not reveal the background or motive for targeting the Sikh temple, which hosted a wedding ceremony attended by over 200 guests.

He admitted that he was part of a group which carried out the bomb attack on the gurudwara.

Investigators are trying to establish whether Tolga I as well as sixteen-year-old secondary school students Mohammed and Yussuf arrested four days after the attack are part of a terror network or their group included more young people, the report said.

A 60-year-old Sikh priest was seriously injured and two others suffered minor injuries in the explosion, which ripped through the entrance hall of the gurudwara.

Investigators have traced a link of the three men to a radical Muslim clergy and to a travel agency in the city of Duisburg, near Essen, the report said.

The three have also frequently visited the Assalam Mosque in Essen, which is known to the authorities as a meeting place of radical Islamists.

Meanwhile, Germany's federal prosecutor's office is examining the possibility to take over the investigations into the bomb attack from the state prosecutor in Essen on suspicion that the three teenagers arrested are part of a terror network, the report said.

Tolga, who was taken into custody on an arrest warrant issued by the district court in Essen, came to police attention after his mother informed them about his links to radical Islamists and handed them over some notices made by her son, the report said.

She was worried that Tolga was preparing to leave for Syria to fight for the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

He is also known to have contacts with the "Lohberger Brigade", in Dinslaken, a group of jihadists who have joined IS militants as fighters some years ago, according to the report.

Local authorities in the town of Schermbeck, near the



area where the family lives, banned Tolga from travelling abroad and impounded his passport after his mother approached the police.

This cooperation may have prevented him from travelling to Syria, but could not take him away from his radical Islamist course, the report said.

Investigators found on Tolga's Facebook profile a message from April 17 that he got married on that day.

They believe that Yussuf and Mohammed also did the same during the last six weeks and all of them found their partners through Islamic matrimonial agencies.

Their wedding ceremonies were conducted under strict Islamic traditions, according to the report.

Investigators are still groping in the dark about whom the terror suspects married and what was their motive, the report said.
Six Muslim Brotherhood members were today sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to Qatar by an Egyptian court, which postponed its verdict on ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The documents of the six defendants were referred to the Grand Mufti, who according to the Egyptian law must review all death sentences. His decision is, however, not binding.

The court said that the final verdict will be announced on June 18 after the mufti's response.

Once the final verdict is issued, the sentences can be appealed.

Morsi as well as other defendants are charged with leaking classified documents to Qatar and selling them to al-Jazeera channel.

The classified documents allegedly included information on general and military intelligence, the armed forces, its armaments and the state's policy secrets.

Other charges include leading and joining outlawed group Muslim Brotherhood, that aims at changing the country's regime by force, and attacking army and police posts and public property.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters since the ouster of Morsi, which left thousands in jail and hundreds facing trials on a variety of charges.

Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and 100 other leaders were sentenced in June to death for escaping from prison in 2011.

Badie and Morsi were also sentenced to life in prison in the espionage case.

Their sentences are currently in appeal.
Over 600 Aam Aadmi Party supporters, including 24 MLAs and several senior party leaders, were today detained as they took out a protest march towards the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging a BJP-Congress alliance in corruption.

As many as 462 persons, including 24 MLAs were detained at Parliament Street Police Station here and 140 at the police station in Tilak Marg. All detained persons were released by 2.10 PM, a senior police official said.

Following a rally at Jantar Mantar, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal and its top brass attacked Modi and his government for not taking action against Sonia Gandhi in AgustaWestland chopper scam, groups led by Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas went to gherao residences of the Prime Minister and the Congress President.

Kejriwal left the venue before the protest march began. Several AAP MLAs, including Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Bandana Kumar, participated in it.

Police, which had made extensive preparations by putting up three layers of barricades, also detained senior AAP leaders which include Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Dilip Pandey.

While the group of 462 was detained from the first layer of barricade in Parliament Street as they started their march from Jantar Mantar, the other group comprising 140 AAP supporters were detained earlier in the day as they reached directly close to the barricading near the PM's residence in 7 Race Course Road here, the senior official said.

"The protesters were detained under Section 144 of CrPC," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.
A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency.

The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist organization, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. The firepower it brings to the Taliban was shown by a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in years, which experts say was too sophisticated for the insurgents to have carried out without the Haqqanis.

The network's role could also further poison already tainted relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan is pressing Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqanis, accusing it of tolerating the group, a charge the Pakistanis deny.

An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership, obtained by The Associated Press, offers a glimpse into the influence the Haqqani network now holds within the movement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network's leader and newly elevated deputy head of the Taliban, tells the gathering that they must end differences and focus on fighting. "It is time to work. The mujahedeen (Islamic holy warriors) are happily going to the battlefield," he is heard saying. The voice is recognizable as Haqqani's.

Haqqani's rise to the deputy post is the highest, most direct role that the network is known to have taken in the Taliban leadership. The network pledged allegiance to the Taliban years ago but has traditionally operated independently.

The network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time ally of the United States who achieved fame fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and who developed close ties to the slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. After his death, his son Sirajuddin Haqqani took over.

The elder Haqqani aligned his group with the Taliban after the insurgents were driven from power in the U.S.-led invasion that followed the Sept 11, 2001 attacks. He was a formidable militant financier, traveling to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to raise money. The network maintained close ties to al-Qaida and is believed to have large numbers of Arab and other foreign fighters.
Australian state of Victoria on Saturday announced two agreements with India in the area of to address major challenges in India.

During the government-led Neuroscience Victoria trade mission to India this week, Swinburne University signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) to partner with major Indian healthcare providers.

Neuroscience leaders from Swinburne signed one agreement with Medanta, one of India's largest private hospitals, on a project to improve the diagnosis of epilepsy across India.

The project will develop products and technologies that can be used to help diagnose epilepsy in villages and remote communities across the sprawling nation, using technology to help local workers make early diagnosis and refer patients quickly for treatment in urban centres.

Swinburne University also signed a MoU with the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to develop a cutting edge 'smart helmet' to reduce the incidence of head injuries for motorcyclists.

Two thirds of road vehicles in India are two-wheelers and tens of thousands of people die on India's roads every year with many more suffering injury and trauma.

The 'smart helmet' is designed to be light-weight and incorporate technology to address the issues that currently discourage people from wearing helmets.

These breakthrough agreements demonstrate the world-leading expertise being generated from Victoria's renowned medical research institutes with technological advances that are adding real public value across the world.

"The Labor Government is providing ongoing support to the and pharmaceuticals sector as one of six key growth industries to drive jobs in Victoria - the sector currently generates revenues of more than $12 billion a year including $1.98 billion in exports," according to minister for small business, innovation and trade Philip Dalidakis.
Supermodel Bar Refaeli's new swimwear advertisements have been banned from primetime TV in her native Israel.

The model, 30, teamed up with Hoodies designers to create the beachwear line, which she announced on Instagram with a shot while five months pregnant, reported the New York Post.

Censors in Israel feel the TV spots go too far and will offend viewers.

In the ads, filmed when Rafaeli was three months pregnant, she frolics in a skimpy bikini, swaps bikini bottoms in a car and showers in a thong.

The officials at the Second Broadcasting Authority for Television and Radio ordered the advertiser to delete revealing scenes if they wanted the promo videos to air after 10pm.

Refaeli also fell foul of Israeli censors back in 2014 when they declared her Hoodies lingerie commercial was too risque.
An exhibition showcasing the heritage art and crafts of West Bengal has been organised here.

The exhibition titled Gods & Demons was made possible by the West Bengal government initiative Biswa Bangla and the Rural Craft and Culture Hubs, in collaboration with the Indian Council for CulturalRelations (ICCR) and London's Nehru Centre - where it was held earlier this week.

"As a designer, I am passionate about the future of 'making' in a globalised world. We have only begun to scratch the surface of thepotential of collaborating traditional skills with modern perception, and cross cultural engagement.

"My role at Biswa Bangla is thisfascinating journey of discovery and reinterpretation of traditional craft skills by engaging with both designers and enthusiasts," said Neishaa Gharat, ambassador for Biswa Bangla in the UK.

The exhibition attracted members of the British-Indian community as well as a mix of international craft patrons and a diverse audience from the art world.

Participating artistShankar Das transformed a single block of wood into a beautifully formed depiction of the Goddess Durga, while Suman Chitrakar performed traditional songs.

The artisans were also photographed against the backdrop of the Southbank Centre on the banks of the Thames in London as they carved and painted their works.

"Biswa Bangla believes that there is a keen appreciation for Bengal arts and crafts in the modern global community and the collaboration between London and West Bengal can really help make a difference for the lives of artisans," Gharat said.

After its tour of London, Biswa Bangla will take the exhibition to Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland. The Edinburgh Museum will host live demonstrations and workshops for the team before they move on to the Southside Fringe Festival in Glasgow, hosted by ArtVillage.
BJP today attacked former Union Minister A K Antony over the AgustaWestland deal, saying since he held the Defence portfolio when the contract was awarded to the foreign firm in 2010, he has to explain who was driving the controversial deal for supplying VVIP choppers to IAF.

"Surely," Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad said when asked whether Antony is also responsible for the agreement with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW101 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force.

"S P Tyagi retired as air chief in 2007. The contract was given in 2010. Antony should explain who was driving this contract," the senior BJP leader told a meet-the-press programme organised by the Ernakulam Press Club here.

He alleged that Antony was forced to order the CBI probe after AgustaWestland chief Giuseppe Orsi was arrested in Italy over the deal.

"Antony had no option," Prasad said.

The Union Minister, who is in the middle of a campaign for the NDA candidates contesting May 16 Kerala Assembly polls, said though Antony ordered a CBI probe into the deal, no proper investigation was carried out.

"The testimony of two people were important to be examined by CBI - M K Narayanan, the former NSA chief and B V Wanchoo, the former SPG chief," he said.

"Both had become governors (Narayanan and Wanchoo were West Bengal and Goa governors respectively) at the time of CBI's request for examining them. There is no constitutional bar in asking questions to the governor," Prasad said.

"I have a political question to Antony. He needs to explain, who were holding your hands? And if you say that the bribe has been given, and the bribe givers have been convicted in Italy, there were some bribe takers too. Why no action has been taken against the bribe takers," he asked.

Noting that in 2005, when UPA was in power 1.85 meters cabin height was made mandatory, Prasad said, "This height only AgustaWestland helicopter have...Which means no competition, single vendor."



On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with AgustaWestland for supplying VVIP choppers to IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal.
German police say a car has slammed into an outdoor cafe in a town on the Swiss border, killing one and leaving several others injured.

Police told the dpa agency today that the car's driver appears to have braked too hard and gone into a skid, sliding into several tables of the cafe in Bad Saeckingen.

Police say that in addition to the fatality, at least 10 people were injured including four seriously.

They say driver error appears to be the cause of the crash.
Mariah Carey and ex-husband Nick Cannon reunited for a family dinner.

The 46-year-old sonsgtress and the "America's Got Talent" host, along with their 5-year-old twins Monroe and Moroccan, stepped out to enjoy dinner ahead of Mother's Day, reported Ace Showbiz.

The 35-year-old host then took to Instagram to share a sweet picture from their outing.

In the photo, the amicable exes and their children looked excited as they're all smiles while sitting at a round table.

Cannon was seen leaning in towards Carey as he embraced the twins. "A little dinner after Karate Class!!" Cannon captioned the snap.

In December 2014, Cannon filed for divorce from Carey following six years of marriage.
FARGO -- The leader of a metrowide anti-gang task force says the recent rash of opioid overdoses has not altered the unit's priorities.

At least 10 people have died from apparent fatal overdoses in Fargo-Moorhead in 2016, deaths police believe are linked to heroin or fentanyl, a synthetic opiate. Despite that, the multi-jurisdictional law enforcement unit formed last spring remains primarily focused on combating gang activity.

"The belief is a lot of the heroin, those narcotics, are coming to our community filtered through gangs," Metro Area Street Crimes Unit leader Shannon Ruziska said. "But that's not all it is. I mean, the gangs will sell it to a local dealer, who will then sell it. For us to trace it back to the ultimate gangs is very difficult."

Ruziska, a Fargo police lieutenant, leads the anti-gang unit of seven officers. The officers represent all five local law enforcement agencies. Two officers come from Fargo police and two from the Cass County Sheriff's Office; West Fargo police, Moorhead (Minn.) police and the Clay County Sheriff's Office each contribute one officer to the team.

Since the unit's formation, its officers have made more than 100 arrests of gang members and their associates.

In addition to making arrests, the unit has seized a medley of illegal drugs. Since it started keeping statistics in July 2015, Ruziska said, the unit has seized 31.1 grams of heroin, 1,848 pills, 14 doses of LSD and more than 2 pounds of pot, among other substances.

Ruziska runs the unit under the supervision of the five area law enforcement chiefs. He also works for Fargo police overseeing the department's narcotics and intelligence teams.

He said the unit's work over the past year has demonstrated its usefulness.

"The Street Crimes Unit was initially focused to address the gang issue in our community," he said. "They are here, they are committing crimes, they are being a problem, so we validated that belief. And it's something that we still need to be addressing and focusing on. They're not going away."

The Moorhead Police Department was the last agency to commit a full-time officer to the unit, doing so on the first of the year. Moorhead Chief David Ebinger said it was a difficult decision considering his department's "thin" staffing.

But after talking with Fargo Police Chief David Todd and Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney, Ebinger said he decided to "give it a shot."

"It's been a great investment of personnel," he said. "We get a lot of bang for the buck. The intelligence these guys generate is fantastic."

The unit tracks about 50 gangs, very few of them "homegrown," Ruziska said. It seems like a big number to keep a handle on, but Ruziska said, "it's not like there's 30 people in some gangs." Sometimes a gang has only one member here.
Pakistan's anti-graft body has arrested Balochistan's Finance Secretary and recovered gold and currency worth Rs 730 million from his house in Quetta, the provincial capital.

The huge amount of money and gold were seized yesterday during a raid by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) at the residence of Finance Secretary Mushtaq Ahmed Raisani, who was arrested earlier in the day on charges of embezzling billions of rupees from government development funds.

During the raid, officials found bags filled with local and foreign currency and gold from the house.

The finance department was sealed during the raid.

The officials searched all rooms to sift through records, sources said, adding that records of the finance department were also seized for further investigation.

Raisani, an influential bureaucrat in Balochistan, has served as finance secretary for the last few years. He served in same position during the PPP government's term.

Balochistan government announced suspension of Raisani in a late night notification.

A provincial government spokesperson told media that they will fully co-operate with NAB during investigation.

Chief Minister's Advisor on Finance Mir Khalid Langau resigned from his post following Raisani's arrest.

Langau said he quit because a man from his department is facing such grave allegations of corruption and foul play, which does not morally allow him to stay in his post.

After a string of arrests in Sindh province, this is the first high-profile arrest made by the accountability body in Balochistan, as the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz seeks to unearth corruption worth billions of rupees in the provincial finance department's development funds.
CBI today questioned cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief S P Tyagi--Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep--besides advocate Gautam Khaitan for nearly eight hours asking exhaustively about finances, firms established by them and their relations with European middlemen in Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal.

The sources said questioning revolved around accounts of IDS Tunisia and remittances received by it.

They said some documents which Khaitan was not carrying yesterday were brought by him.

CBI claimed that Khaitan was being evasive during questioning and "concealing" information.

Agency sources said the Managing Director of IDS Infotech Partap K Aggarwal and CEO of Aeromatrix Info Solutions Pvt. Ltd Praveen Bakshi have been called in connection with its probe in the case.

It is believed that their firms were used to route alleged bribe money in India.

Former Air Force Chief S P Tyagi has also been called on Monday again for a fresh round of questioning.

The sources said Aggarwal, Bakshi and Tyagi have been called after some new facts have emerged during the questioning of the four accused today.

Sanjeev Tyagi has not denied his relations with European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa saying that they know him five to six years before the order was placed.

He has said that the payments received by him were for power sector jobs which were all received through proper banking channels with income tax paid on them. He has said that payments received from middlemen were not for helicopter deal but for some power sector job.
Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Kalraj Mishra today said the Centre is ready to provide all sorts of assistance to Jammu and Kashmir.

"The Centre is ready to provide all sorts of assistance to the state of Jammu and Kashmir in order to remove regional imbalances. I urge the State to come forward and seek maximum help from New Delhi.

"The Centre is especially interested in the progress of the State in view of the disturbed state of affairs," Mishra said here.

The Union Minister was addressing a function after inaugurating 'Harmukh Khadi Gram Udyog Sansthan', a spinning and weaving centre and marketing plaza for Khadi goods at Buchpora in the outskirts of Srinagar.

The Minister also distributed 25 new model 'charkhas' among local artisans at the function, which was organised by Khadi and Village Industries Board, Srinagar.

Mishra said the charkha is a symbol of resistance and can help maximum number of unemployed youth and women in far flung areas to attain economic independence.

Jammu and Kashmir Minister for Industries and Commerce Chander Parkash Ganga was also present on the occasion.

He requested the Central ministry to increase the targets for the state so that it benefits the local artisans.
The Centre has decided to unconditionally release Rs 1,100 crore on May 13 as second instalment to meet water requirements in states, many of which are battling severe heat conditions, Union Minister of State for Drinking Water Ramkripal Yadav said today.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed us to issue the money without waiting for utility certificate of the previous allocation," Yadav told reporters here.

He said the states should dig well, borewell, install handpump as per requirements with this fund to help the people meet their water need.

As first instalment, the Centre had released Rs 819.67 crore to 35 states and Union Territories, he said.

As on May 5, 2016, the states had Rs 2,634.36 crore total available funds with them, the minister said, adding Rs 1,814.69 crore of which remained with them unspent till May 5.

Giving details of Rs 819.67 crore released as first instalment, he said Rajasthan received Rs 85.69 crore, Uttar Pradesh Rs 84.04 crore, Maharashtra Rs 80.26 crore, Jammu and Kashmir Rs 53.26 crore and Bihar Rs 45.93 crore.

Uttar Pradesh, which is locked in fight with the Centre over it sending water train for Bundlekhand region, was allocated a fund of Rs 416.76 crore, of which Rs 332.72 crore remained unspent balance as on May 5, he said.

Bihar has available balance of Rs 116.46 crore and Rs 115.27 crore as unspent balance as on May 5, he said.

The Union minister said out of the 13 states facing drought-like situation, Bihar and Haryana have not declared themselves facing drought condition across the state.

"The report sent by these two states (Bihar and Haryana) stating condition of water shortage does not match the ground reality," Yadav, BJP MP from Patliputra constituency in Patna district, said.

"Due to incomplete information provided by Bihar and Haryana, no central team could visit them to take stock of the situation. Besides, they could not avail special assistance from national disaster management fund," he said.

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The Union minister said Bihar had declared 19 of its



districts and 160 villages as hit by drinking water shortage "which seems far from true."



Bihar has total 38 districts and 40,110 villages and water condition in many of them were not satisfactory, he said.

He said implementation of 'seven resolves' of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar which includes piped drinking water to every household would take time.

The suggestion given by RJD president Lalu Prasad about digging wells to meet water needs could be beneficial in future.

"But for meeting immediate needs of drinking water, the Bihar government should go back to handpump, among others," he said.

Besides Bihar and Haryana, other states declared as drought-hit are Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnatake, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

He said the prime minister has set a target of providing water supply connection to 90 per cent of the households across the country by 2022.

"The target is to provide 90 litres of water daily to every citizen by 2022," he added.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is sending a special envoy to visit the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, where China is establishing a naval logistics center that is widely seen as the first overseas base for its increasingly powerful military.

Deputy head of the national legislature Yan Junqi will this week attend the inauguration of Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh followed by that of President Yoweri Museveni in nearby Uganda, The official Xinhua Agency reported Saturday.

The report didn't say whether Yan would visit the base construction site. However, her presence at the inauguration underscores the region's political, military and economic importance to China.

China says the logistics center is intended to service a variety of missions, primarily anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden off the Somali coast that China has been participating in since 2008.

It will also facilitate humanitarian outreach and support for Chinese troops on UN peacekeeping missions in African nations, allowing easier refueling and replenishing for ships, along with medical and planning support and rest and recreation for sailors and soldiers, the Defense Ministry says.

The base is seen as a milestone in the global advance of China's military and expands on its traditional mission of safeguarding Chinese territory and conquering self-governing Taiwan.

Despite that, the Defense Ministry has provided few details and refrained even from referring to it as a military base, in line with China's long-time policy of not establishing military alliances or a permanent overseas military presence.

China's choice of strategically located Djibouti has raised eyebrows among military envoys and foreign governments since the small, strategically located nation is already home to US and French military installations.

It has especially raised concerns in India, which has cast a wary eye on the Chinese navy's growing presence in the Indian Ocean and China's close ties with Pakistan and other countries in the region.
A Chinese province with large population of Muslims has ordered kindergartens toenforce a ban on religious activity on campus after a video of a little girl reciting the Quran at a nursery school went viral, according to a media report.

The education authority in Gansu province criticised the kindergarten in Linxia where the girl read the Islamic religious text.

The local government said it "strongly condemned the damaging act to the physical and mental health of the younger generation", Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported today.

The video was titled "Cute girl reciting scriptures in Gansu." In the video, the unidentified girl is seen wearing a black Muslim head covering and sitting in a classroom with dozens of other students apparently all in Muslim attire.

Many people commenting online were angered by the video, the report said.

Gansu is home to about 1.6 million Muslims.It has the third highest population of people holding the faith among China's provinces and regions, behind Xinjiang and Ningxia.

China's communist government is atheist, but people are allowed to follow authorised religions under official controls.

The Gansu education authority cited the country's constitution and education laws, which state that "religious activities shall not get in the way of education."



Apart from religious institutions with government approval, schools cannot conduct religious activities or preach religion, the statement said.

"(They) shall not force or induce pupils to convert to a certain religion or establish any religious organisations in schools," the statement said.
A mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party has faced rare criticism from netizens who accused it of being insensitive for advising patients suffering from untreatable diseases to give up their "unrealistic fantasy" of getting cured after a cancer- stricken student's death.

It was the third time in a week that People's Daily has waded into the debate around the death of 21-year-old student Wei Zexi who had an unsuccessful experimental cancer treatment at the No 2 Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps.

Before he died last month, Wei said in an online post that he sought out the therapy after it topped the results of internet search engine Baidu for a rare cancer. Wei and his family spent more than 200,000 yuan on the promise that the "state-of-the-art" therapy would "give him 20 years".

The commentary said it was a familiar "classic" case of someone seeking medical help "Chinese-style" with Wei's parents selling everything they could and going everywhere possible for treatment only to lose money and a life.

It said people should consider whether to exhaust all their resources chasing a cure for an untreatable disease or to let the condition follow its natural course.

"The most reasonable choice is to respect the order of nature and give up an unrealistic fantasy to face death and life calmly," the commentary said.

It also said terminally ill patients without a background in science always hoped for a miracle and were vulnerable to frauds offering the false prospect of a cure. It called on the government to improve the medical system to ensure each patient had access to high-quality family doctors like those in the West so that patients would have access to information.

More than 250,000 people commented on the piece posted on Sina.Com, with many accusing the party mouthpiece of insensitivity and not focusing on official failures.

"So nobody has been punished and this article basically says Wei deserves it?," Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted one commentator.

"The piece says nothing about the supervisory responsibility of government agencies but says patients should better educate themselves and be scientific," a blogger said.

"The tragedy of Wei highlighted the lack of supervision in the medical sector. There are many other such irresponsible hospitals," a third blogger commented.

Commentaries in People's Daily rarely evokes such response as it amounts to criticism of the Communist Party of China.

In two previous editorials, People's Daily accused Baidu of being irresponsible and called for better regulation of private medical institutions but neither ignited such a backlash as yesterday's commentary, the Post report said.
Congress today brushed aside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack on Sonia Gandhi on the AgustaWestland deal and instead asked him to first clarify on his educational qualifications, an issue that has kicked up a controversy.

"First of all, if the Prime Minister would be kind enough to clarify on his educational qualifications, the rest of the diatribe would then be answered," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters.

Claiming that the Prime Minister seems to have "very selective yardsticks", he said, when it comes to the Congress, there is the "obvious vendetta and witchhunt".

"But all these yardsticks do not seem to apply to Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Vyapam. They do not seem to apply to the Rajasthan chief minister and the linkage with Lalit Modi. It does not seem to apply to the chief minister of Chhattisgarh and the involvement of that government in the PDS scam", he alleged.

The entire intent of the BJP is to try and create a climate of suspicion using "innuendoes, half-truths and downright lies," he further alleged.

In his first public comments since the AgustaWestland issue broke out, Modi in poll-bound Tamil Nadu yesterday had dubbed the controversial deal a "chori" (theft) and said that the guilty, howsoever big, would "not be spared".

Without naming Congress, Modi had also attacked the party which has launched a counter-attack on his government for dragging the name Sonia Gandhi, asking "if the court in Italy has said that people from the last government in India have taken money, why then are you troubling us here?"



At the AICC briefing, Tewari was asked how he compared the RTI seeking information about the PM's degrees with an RTI query sometime back as regards the religion of the Congress President. Then it was said that it was a personal information and at that time the Congress party had justified the decision of the RTI.

"There is no comparison at all because you are really trying to compare apples and pears. Here, on an election affidavit, there are certain averments/statements which have been made by the Prime Minister," he said.

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Congress MP Pramod Tiwari accused the Centre of meting out step-motherly treatment to states governed by non-BJP parties when it comes to offering assistance to them during calamities.

"Hence, I have asked the Centre to offer package to Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh (pockets of which have witnessed earthquake and drought respectively)," he said.

A moderate intensity quake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, hit Uttarakhand yesterday.
Colombia will extradite a leader of a prominent Panamanian business family to the US, where he is charged with laundering money for ruthless drug gangs, authorities have said.

Police branded the suspect, Nidal Ahmed Waked Hatum, the most-wanted money launderer in the world.

They arrested the 44-year-old at Bogota's airport upon arrival from Panama on Wednesday, Colombian officials said, after US authorities blacklisted him and seven associates.

"Procedures have been launched via the state prosecution service to carry out the protocol to extradite him to the United States," the vice head of the Colombian police's drug squad, Ricardo Alarcon, told a conference.

A court in Florida has charged Waked on money laundering and bank fraud charges.

His family runs at least 68 companies with activities including luxury goods and duty-free shops, real estate and newspapers.

The US Treasury Department said it had put the family's Grupo Wisa on a sanctions list, classing it as a major drug money laundering organisation.

Wisa includes companies such as the La Riviera luxury goods chain, the Balboa Bank and Trust and two top newspapers. It reportedly employs thousands of people.

The Treasury said the co-leaders of the laundering operations were Waked Hatum and a man identified by Panamanian media as his uncle, Abdul Mohamed Waked Fares, 66.

It said they used "false commercial invoicing, bulk cash smuggling and other money laundering methods to launder drug proceeds on behalf of multiple international drug traffickers."



Waked Fares said the accusations against him and his company were "false and unfounded."



"We have instructed our lawyers to cooperate fully with the state prosecutors so that this regrettable confusion can be cleared up as soon as possible," a statement read.

In separate comments quoted by one of the Panamanian newspapers his company owns, La Estrella, Waked Fares distanced himself from his nephew, saying Waked Hatum was not involved in the business.

According to the US Treasury, Waked Fares is a national of Panama, Colombia and Lebanon. His nephew is a national of Spain, Colombia and Panama.

Panama has been in the spotlight over suspect finance operations since the Panama Papers tax evasion scandal that broke last month.

Leaked documents revealed how a Panamanian law firm helped the wealthy stash their assets in offshore firms.

Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela moved to calm concerns about the impact of the Waked affair on the country's finance sector, after authorities seized control of Balboa Bank.

He said the country's state prosecutors were investigating.

"Our banking and stock regulators have taken immediate measures to protect the integrity of our stock market and of account holders," Varela said in a statement.
Congress today latched on to former Union minister Arun Shourie's sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to embarass the BJP.

"Shourie has accused the Prime Minister of narcissism and of running a one-man Presidential government the direction of which was dangerous for India," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters here.

"What does BJP have to say about this allegation made by their own ideologue, fellow traveller and a former Minister in the NDA Government?"



Tewari also sought to know the reaction of the ruling party to Shourie's charge that there has been "complete mismanagement" of India's relations with Pakistan and that the Modi dispensation has mishandled the economy.

In an interview, Shourie, a Cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government who has drifted away from BJP in recent years, had attacked the Modi government.
Actors Tim Matheson and Cynthia Nixon are set to portray US President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy in the forthcoming TV adaptation of "Killing Reagan".

The film is the latest in the National Geographic Channel's Killing series, based on the books by political pundit-turned-author Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. The stories all explore the assassinations and/or deaths of historic figures, reported Deadline.

"Killing Reagan" will be slightly different from the previous Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and Killing Jesus movie installments as a 1981 attempt on the actor-turned-US leader's life was unsuccessful.

O'Reilly will also take on a small role in the TV film, which will begin production in Atlanta, Georgia in the coming weeks.

It is scheduled to premiere in the US in October.
A Dalit man, who was arrested by police in theft case allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself at Safido police station bathroom.

Rajkumar was arrested by police after one Arun lodged a police complaint against him alleging that he had stolen his gold earrings. Last night Rajkumar went to the bathroom in the police station and allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself.

The family members of Rajkumar today demanded a CBI probe and action against all the police officials present during the entire episode, accusing them of killing him.

In protest against the incident, family members and relatives of the deceased sat outside the hospital following which a clash broke out between them and the police after a woman threw bottle at DSP Kulwant Singh Bishnoi.

The family has refused to accept his body after they were informed that police has only registered a complaint of negligence, when they demanded a case of murder against them.

Post-mortem of the victim was conducted.
A first year student of dental surgery allegedly committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan inside her hostel room in Teerthanker Mahaveer University here, police said.

The body of Diksha Agarwal, who hailed from Dalkhola in West Bengal, was today found hanging from a bedsheet in her room at 9:30 AM when the police broke into her room after being informed by college authorities, they said.

Inspector Tejinder Singh Yadav said a suicide note has also been recovered. However, it is illegible.

A forensic team has been deputed to examine the note and the body has been sent for postmortem. The cause will be ascertained after both the reports come, SSP Nitin Tiwari said.

Police said the family of the girl has also been informed.

In a similar incident, Neeraj Bhadana, a first year MBBS student from Faridabad, was also found dead under mysterious circumstances on the university campus on 6 July, 2013. A CBI inquiry was ordered in the case and it is still continuing with its inquiry.
Claiming "complete break down" of Constitutional machinery in the state, Opposition Congress today appealed to Odisha Governor S C Jamir to recommend dissolution of the Assembly and demanded resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over the issue of "chit fund scam".

"We will appeal to you for invoking Article 356 of the Constitution of India and recommend to His Excellency, the President of India, for dissolution of the Assembly," a memorandum submitted by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) said.

A delegation led by Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra met Jamir at Raj Bhavan and submitted the memorandum and a copy of the CLP resolution in this regard.

The opposition leader also demanded resignation of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and removal of chit fund commission head Justice M M Das whose remark on chit fund investors sparked off a controversy a few days back.

"We have made three demands as the Congress can no more tolerate the dictatorship of the ruling party. We in the Opposition tried our best to help the Speaker run the House. But they (ruling members) are in no mood to cooperate with us. So we placed our demand before the Governor that President's rule should be invoked in the State," Mishra stated.

Stating that never in Parliamentary practice is a Leader of Opposition prevented from having his say on the floor of the Assembly, the memorandum said the state government through its spokesperson and minister have openly replied that the Leader of Opposition will never be allowed to participate in any discussion unless he begs unconditional apology.

"This is something unheard of. Members of the ruling party paralysed the proceedings of the House for two full days and that to when demand discussion were to take place," they said adding that demand of different departments could not be passed.

They said this amounts to denial of Constitutional rights of the members of the Legislative Assembly.
Six Muslim Brotherhood members including three journalists were today sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to Qatar by an Egyptian court, which postponed its verdict on ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The documents of the six defendants were referred to the Grand Mufti, who according to the Egyptian law must review all death sentences. His decision is, however, not binding.

Judge Mohammed Shirin Fahmy said that the final verdict will be announced on June 18 after the mufti's response.

Once the final verdict is issued, the sentences can be appealed.

Morsi as well as other defendants are charged with leaking classified documents to Qatar and selling them to Doha-based Al-Jazeera channel.

The defendants include Ahmed Abdo Ali Afifi, a documentary films producer who is in jail; Asmaa el-Khateeb, a reporter in Rassd network (RNN) (sentenced in absentia), Alaa Omar Mohammed, a Jordanian producer in Al-Jazeera channel (sentenced in absentia), and the editor Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal in Al-Jazeera channel (sentenced in absentia).

Morsi's co-defendants include his office director and private secretary.

The classified documents allegedly included information on general and military intelligence, the armed forces, its armaments and the state's policy secrets.

Other charges include leading and joining outlawed group Muslim Brotherhood, that aims at changing the country's regime by force, and attacking army and police posts and public property.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters since the ouster of Morsi, which left thousands in jail and hundreds facing trials on a variety of charges.

Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and 100 other leaders were sentenced in June to death for escaping from prison in 2011.

Badie and Morsi were also sentenced to life in prison in the espionage case.

Their sentences are currently in appeal.
A prominent Egyptian rights lawyer who had raised a legal suit against the president's decision to hand two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia was arrested and ordered held in custody for 15 days, pending investigation into a list of allegations, including attempts to overthrow the government.

Malek Adly's detention came amid a wave of arrests in Egypt as security forces put down protests against President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi decision on the islands.

Adly, a member of the April 6 youth movement that was part of the uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, has appeared on TV talk shows, speaking out against the islands' handover. He was also among a group of lawyers who filed a lawsuit over the case of the islands.

Two others from the group were also arrested yesterday. They were detained in a police raid of the Journalists' Syndicate on Sunday, which sparked protests by hundreds of journalists who called for Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar's dismissal and a presidential apology.

Both el-Sissi and Abdel-Ghaffar have ignored the demands. The interior minister on Thursday attended the inauguration of a mega project for land reclamation hailed by el-Sissi as one of his "unprecedented" achievements. In his half-an-hour speech at the event, el-Sissi repeated several times, "I am not afraid" a statement observers believe was meant for his critics.

Later yesterday, another well-known Egyptian rights advocate and lawyer, Ragia Omran, was detained at the Cairo International Airport upon her arrival from Jordan, where she attended a UN conference.

Omran told The Associated Press in series of text messages that her passport has been confiscated and her bags searched by security agents. She said that a UN report she had with her about justice systems in the Arab world was also taken from her.

Omran is a member of the National Council for Human Rights, and has been one of the main defenders of imprisoned political activists.

The Interior Ministry spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking comment. Airport security officials said that Omran was stopped at the airport over allegations linking her to "incitement" against the state, undermining state security and safety and that she is currently being interrogated. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations, added that her name has been on an airport stop-list.

El-Sissi, Egypt's army chief-turned-president, has orchestrated one of largest ever crackdowns on dissidents in the country, following the military's ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July 2013.

A draconian anti-protest law issued months later led to mass arrests of thousands of protesters, mostly Morsi's supporters or pro-democracy advocates. The law and heavy-handed security measures have stifled street demonstrations.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused European nations of hypocrisy in pressing his country on terror laws while "sidelining democracy" at home in their own fight against terrorism.

"Those who criticise us are reduced to sidelining democracy and freedoms when bombs started to explode on their soil," Erdogan said in a speech in the southeastern city of Malatya.

Last week, the European Commission said Turkey had to meet five objectives, including changes to its anti-terror law, to gain visa-free travel to its passport-free area under a deal to curb the influx of migrants to the European Union.

"I am going to talk plainly: on the question of visas, let those who call on Turkey to modify its anti-terrorism law start by removing tents set up by the terrorists at the doors of the European Parliament," Erdogan said.

It was an apparent reference to a tent set up by Kurdish activists near the European Council in Brussels where a Turkey-EU summit was to be held in March.

Today's swipe followed on the heels of another combative speech in which Erdogan warned Turkey would not change its panoply of anti-terror laws.

"The EU says: you will change the anti-terror law for visas," Erdogan said in a televised speech in Istanbul yesterday. "Pardon me, but we are going our way and you can go yours."



Erdogan's prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who announced Thursday he was quitting, had championed the March 18 deal with the EU.

The EU has a list of 72 criteria for pushing through visa-free travel for Turkish nationals under the landmark, but controversial, agreement.

Five of these "benchmarks" remain outstanding, according to the EU executive's assessment. The 28 EU member states and the European Parliament must also approve the visa scheme, which is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Erdogan has previously warned Brussels that Ankara would stop fulfilling its side of the migrant deal -- which has seen the numbers making dangerous crossings across the Aegean Sea fall sharply -- if the EU's promises are not kept.
A court in Ethiopia has charged a social media activist for inciting violence and other terror-related offences citing Facebook posts as evidence.

Yonathan Tesfaye, a former spokesman for the opposition Blue Party, was charged Wednesday by Ethiopia's Federal High Court. If convicted, he could face a death sentence.

Yonathan was detained by Ethiopian security forces in December at the height of violent protests in the Oromo community over an alleged plan by the government to grab their land.

Rights groups say the Ethiopian government is using sweeping anti-terror laws to crack down on those critical of the regime.

Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty's regional chief, said Yonathan spoke against a possible land grab in Oromia, which is not a crime and is certainly not terrorism.
The FBI would question over the use of a private email server during her tenure as the US Secretary of State, media reports have said.

The FBI and Justice Department are investigating if there was any violation of rules or if any sensitive information was compromised because of this email scandal.

Ahead of Clinton's interview, the top investigating agency questioned one of her close confidant Huma Abedin, Fox News reported.

CBS News said Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, will be interviewed by the FBI within the coming weeks in connection with the investigation into her private email server.

The Clinton campaign has said it's confident that the FBI's review "will conclude that nothing inappropriate took place," CBS News reported.

However, there has been no official word on the investigation.

Clinton, 68, has already admitted that the use of a personal email server was a mistake. But she insists that no classified information was compromised because of this.

Clinton's use of a private server for both official and private correspondence first came to light in 2015 during Republican-led congressional investigations into her handling of a militant attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The assault in 2012 left the US ambassador and three other Americans dead.

The FBI has since launched a criminal investigation amid Republican charges that use of the unsecured system endangered national security.
A former CIA station chief in Pakistan, who presided over the May 2011 raid that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden at his hideout in Abbottabad, is believed to have been poisoned by the powerful ISI, a media report said today.

Mark Kelton was removed from Islamabad two months after the raid on bin Laden's compound in the garrison city of Abbottabad, citing health concerns.

"Mark Kelton retired from the CIA, and his health has recovered after he had abdominal surgery. But agency officials continue to think that it is plausible - if not provable - that Kelton's sudden illness was somehow orchestrated by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, known as the ISI," The Washington Post said in an exclusive investigative report.

A spokesman of the Pakistani Embassy here, however, described the report as fictional.

According to The Post, Kelton, declined multiple requests for an interview, but in a brief exchange by phone he said that the cause of his illness "was never clarified".

He said that he was not the first to suspect that he had been poisoned.

"The genesis for the thoughts about that didn't originate with me," he was quoted as saying.

The Post said such a disclosure is a disturbing postscript to the sequence of events surrounding the bin Laden operation five years ago and adds new intrigue to a counterterrorism partnership that has often been consumed by conspiracy theories.

"Even if the poisoning suspicion is groundless, the idea that the CIA and its station chief considered the ISI capable of such an act suggests that the breakdown in trust was even worse than widely assumed," The Post said.

According to the daily, current and former US intelligence officials said that the ISI has been linked to numerous plots against journalists, diplomats and other perceived adversaries and that the spy agency's animosity toward Kelton was intense.

Meanwhile, A CIA spokesman said there is no evidence that Pakistani authorities poisoned a US official serving in the country.
The cancellation of Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari's visit to India and the government's decision to call back its ambassador in New Delhi for non- cooperation and anti-government activities today made headlines in major newspapers here.

"Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyaya has been accused not only of non-cooperation by the coalition government but also of breaching his jurisdiction time and again without informing the government," reported the Kantipur newspaper, a major Nepali language daily.

Upadhyaya had "confronted" Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli regarding the cancellation of President Bhandari's scheduled visit to India, government sources had said.

He has also been accused of visiting western districts of the country accompanying Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae without informing the government.

Hours after the government cancelled Bhandari's proposed visit to India yesterday, "Ambassador Upadhyaya telephoned the prime minister to tell him that unilateral cancellation of the visit may send negative message, which made the prime minister angry and the decision was taken to call him back," the Kantipur daily claimed.

The government was not satisfied with the performance of Upadhyaya and he was accused of not playing any role to protect national interest during the crisis period or the border blockade, the Nagarik daily said.

Oli discussed the matter with Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa yesterday before taking the decision to call back the ambassador, it said.

The government cancelled Bhandari's India visit in protest against "India's intervention in the internal affairs of Nepal," reported the daily.

On Wednesday, Bhandari had said the aim of her visit to India was to "to create goodwill and clear misunderstanding".

Upadhyaya has been also been accused of involvement in trying to topple the Oli government.

On Thursday, Oli survived a threat to his government after a U-turn by Prachanda-led UCPN-Maoist which decided not to withdraw support to him "for the time being".

Oli suddenly took the decision to cancel the president's visit alleging that India played a role in attempting to change the government in Nepal, the Nagarik report said.

The Himalayan Times said when Upadhyaya expressed his displeasure over the cancellation of the president's visit in a phone conversation with Oli, the premier asked him to quit if he had any policy-related differences with the government.

A cabinet meeting held yesterday did not endorse the head of state's planned trip to India which was to begin on May 9, the daily said.

The visit to India would have been Bhandari's first foreign trip after assuming office in October. She was also scheduled to participate in a 'Shahi Snan' in Ujjain's Simhastha Kumbh on May 14.
Much-acclaimed Sanskrit period drama "Priyamanasam" today opened the 11th edition of Habitat Film Festival, which will also pay a homage to veteran actress Helen.

Hansal Mehta's sensitive real-life inspired drama "Aligarh", Malayalam hit "Ennu Ninte Moideen", much-awaited Bengali film "Cinemawalla" and National Award-winning Tamil movie "Visaranai" are some of the cinematic gems that will be screened at the festival.

The themes of the films selected for the festival as diverse as displacement, migration, intolerance, caste, corrupt systems and destruction of indigenous culture and through all this, stories of love, courage, aspiration and resilience of the human spirit.

A special North East package, bringing movies in Assamese, Bodo, Khasi, Manipuri and Mizo, will also be offered to the audience.

The retrospective of this year's festival pays tribute to 77-year-old Helen, whose talent and individualistic portrayals created a signature style.

On May 11, there will be an interaction with Bollywood's original dancing star followed by screening of a documentary film on her.

The festival will close with Pan Nalin's female buddy film "Angry Indian Goddesses".

"This year's films bring you a selection that will entertain, enchant, engage delight and disturb in varying measure in a nine day cinematic voyage that travels across the vast terrain of the land and gives you a window into the soul of the country," said Vidyun Singh, Director Programmes, in a statement.
Haryana has so far procured 66.43 lakh tonnes wheat, 5 per cent more than what the state had procured during the corresponding period last year.

As much as 63.18 lakh tonnes of wheat had arrived in the mandis of the state during the corresponding period last year, a spokesman of the Food and Supplies Department said.

Out of the total arrival, 66.41 lakh tonnes have been procured by the government procurement agencies at minimum support price while private traders procured 1,624 tonnes of crop.

Giving details of the wheat procured by government agencies, he said 17.52 lakh tonnes of wheat was procured by Food and Supplies Department, whereas HAFED has procured 24.62 lakh tonnes of wheat.

He said Food Corporation of India procured 7.17 lakh tonnes of wheat while Haryana Agro Industries Corporation has procured 5.99 lakh tonnes, and 11.10 lakh tonnes of wheat have been procured by Haryana Warehousing Corporation.
Terming the expansion of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) 'a dampener', drug firm Pfizer said the government's move has impacted it as some of its big products coming under the revised list.

The company also termed the recent move by the government to ban around 344 fixed drug combinations (FDCs) as challenging.

"...NLEM has been a dampener..The NLEM list came out some time back and effective April the new prices have started hitting the market. Pfizer is impacted given couple of big products are in the mix there," Pfizer Ltd Managing Director S Sridhar told analysts in a conference call.

The NLEM list impacts company's 11-12 products including major drugs like Zosyn or Claribid, he added.

"It impacts few products like Zosyn or Claribid, those two are the major products what we have. We have price drop ranging from about 40-odd-per cent over 60-odd-per cent across various products there. That is a price drop we have across few products," S Sridhar said.

Some 11 products have a price drop ranging from 30 per cent to 60 per cent, he added.

In December 2015, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare notified NLEM, resulting in over 100 new molecules being added and 70 molecules being excluded from the earlier list of 2011.

The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has the authority to fix ceiling prices of medicines falling under the NLEM list.

Sridhar said the company also faced problems due to the government banning about 350 formulations overnight.

"Corex was one of them, we were fairly quick in moving the court and currently we do have a stay order from the Delhi High Court, consequent to which we continue to sell our products all over the country, the litigation is underway and the hearing is ongoing," he said.

"Yes, we are disturbed by the sudden turn of events, but we do believe the current system does recognise factual situations and therefore we are presenting our case to the court, the best of what we can," he added.
A wild panda who was found injured in China has died, a Chinese conservation and research centre said today.

About four years old and 44 kg in weight, the male panda was found by a villager in Baoxing County in Sichuan Province on Thursday. It was suffering injuries to its ear, back, leg and tail, the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Pandas said.

The panda died yesterday after treatment proved unsuccessful, including removal of dead or damaged tissue and use of a breathing machine, according to the base staff.

The panda had likely been attacked by other animals, said Huang Yan, deputy chief engineer at the center, adding that a normal four-year-old panda should weigh over 70 kg.

Wild pandas have long faced survival challenges such as attacks by other animals and man-made destruction of habitat.

They are especially likely to face attacks by predators during the mating season in April and May, Huang said.
Taking on AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today alleged that she preferred to "stay within four walls" without bothering to visit the people or listen to their grievances during last year's devastating floods.

Attacking the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister over a host of issues, including unemployment, he alleged that her rule was marked by corruption and that industries had migrated to other states.

Addressing his maiden election rally here for the May 16 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu along with DMK Treasurer M K Stalin, he targeted Jayalalithaa over the unprecedented floods that hit parts of the state, including Chennai, during last monsoon.

"Tamil Nadu does not need a government which is run by a person who stays within four walls and does not even have the decency to come out and see what has happened when the floods came to Chennai.

"I could come from Delhi to see what has happened in Tamil Nadu and to help, to give a hand to the poor people but the Chief Minister could not walk out of her house," Gandhi said.

He claimed that under the AIADMK regime, umemployment had risen. Lakhs of youth were unemployed and corruption had gone up "at every level," he charged.

Previously, factories and industries "used to come to Tamil Nadu, but now nobody is interested," he said, adding they "understand" that if they wanted to open up industries "they will have to pay money" to people in the government.

Referring to a generation of leaders from 'Periyar' E V Ramasamy, Kamaraj, AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, he said such leaders went to the people, listened and learnt from them.

"I am confident Stalin also has these qualities. On the other side, we have the Chief Minister who is absolutely convinced that she does not need to meet anybody in Tamil Nadu," the Congress leader said.

"She is absolutely convinced that nobody in Tamil Nadu has anything to say to her from which she can learn something. She is convinced that there is only one wise person in Tamil Nadu and that is Jayalalithaaji.

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At another rally, at Hapur, the Chief Minister said that demonetisation "resulted in people leaving their jobs" and standing in queues before banks and ATMs and that it badly affected their financial conditions.

He said the SP and Congress entered into alliance to stop "communal forces" from coming to power in the state.

He claimed that number of crimes in the state has decreased during his tenure and employment opportunities have been provided to people.
A Jet Airways aircraft with 66 passengers and four crew onboard skidded off the runway after landing at the Indore airport here this evening.

All passengers and crew have deplaned safely, Jet Airways said.

"Jet Airways flight 9W-2793 from Delhi to Indore, has departed the paved surface after landing," Jet Airways said in a statement.

All 66 guests and four crew aboard have been safely deplaned and taken to the terminal building, it said.
JNU student Umar Khalid, facing sedition charge for allegedly raising anti-India slogans at the university campus here in February, was today granted permission by a Delhi court to travel to Kolkata to attend a panel discussion.

Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh allowed Khalid to travel to the city from May 20 to 23 to attend panel discussion organised by Bastar Solidarity Network (Kolkata Chapter).

As per the application, the discussion will be held on May 21 in Muktangan Hall, Kolkata.

Khalid, along with another varsity student Anirban Bhattacharya, was granted interim bail for six months by the court on March 18 on the ground of parity with co-accused and JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar in the case.

In its bail order, the court had directed Umar and Anirban not to leave Delhi without its permission during the period of interim bail and to make themselves available before the investigating officer as and when required for the purpose of the probe.

Umar and Anirban had surrendered to the police on the intervening night of February 23-24 after which they were arrested.

Earlier, Kanhaiya was granted six-month interim bail by the high court on March 2.

Police had arrested Umar and Anirban over a controversial event at JNU on February 9. The duo had returned to the JNU campus on February 21 after going missing since February 12.

Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on February 20 against Umar, Anirban and three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash.
Amidst fresh nuclear rhetoric from North Korea, US Secretary of State John Kerry today spoke to his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se reaffirming their shared commitment to peaceful denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and regional stability.

"Kerry and Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se spoke today via telephone about regional and global priorities," a statement said.

"Kerry reaffirmed our shared commitment to peaceful secularisation of the Korean peninsula and regional stability, and he highlighted our increasingly comprehensive global partnership with the Republic of Korea on a wide range of issues, from the refugee crisis to climate change," it said.

The phone call talks between Kerry and Yin happened as the North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, in his address to his party's Congress - the first in 36 years - said that his nuclear weapons and missile programmes brought his country dignity and national power.

The White House said the Obama Administration is aware of developments in and it is watching them closely.

"We obviously are aware of the risk that is posed by North Korea's effort to develop nuclear weapons and systems capable of delivering those nuclear weapons," the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said at his daily news conference.

"The United States has worked effectively with the community to counter those efforts, and as a result, has faced increasing isolation, which is saying something because they were pretty isolated at the end of last year and that trajectory has only gotten worse for them. And we know that it's had a negative impact on what is already a rather weak economy," he said.
Army today arrested a 55-year-old man for crossing the Line of Control (LoC) and entering into Indian territory in Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir.

Mohmmad Sharief was arrested by Army troops near a forward area along LoC (in Mankote belt) of Poonch district today, a Defence spokesman said.

He had crossed to Pakistan side some time back and was returning back when he was nabbed by troops, the official said, adding further details are awaited.
A 9-year-old girl of Devpura village, who went missing six years ago, was recovered from a neighouring village here, police said today.

The girl was recovered yesterday following a raid in the neighbouring Vairpur Khera village after a tip-off by the girl's mother, who was informed by other villagers, police station in-charge Kunj Bihari Misra said.

The minor said she was lured by a person of her village six years ago and was taken to Delhi, where she was exploited for three years, Misra said.

The victim said she was later sold to Bhura (45) for Rs 15,000, who married her forcibly and was living with her in the neighbouring village, the in-charge said, adding Bhura has been arrested and the girl has been sent for medical examination.

Misra said an FIR has been lodged in this connection and hunt is on to apprehend the other accused.
The last rites of Chhabi Roy, mother of Sahara India group chief, Subrata Roy Sahara, were performed at the Baikunth Dham here this evening.

Ninety-five-year-old Chhabi Roy died yesterday after prolonged illness and her mortal remains were consigned to flames in the presence of prominent personalities from film and political field.

Chhabi Roy, who was born in Araria district of Bihar, had been been critically ailing for last two years and was at a makeshift hospital at Sahara Shaher, Lucknow.

Sahara chief Subrata Roy last night walked out of Tihar jail, where he was lodged for over two years, after the Supreme Court granted him a four-week parole to attend the funeral of his mother.

A large number of people including members of Sahara India Pariwar and well-wishers from all walks of life took part in the funeral procession.

Prominent among those who paid their condolences were Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, PWD minister minister Shivpal Singh Yadav, film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Raj Babbar among others.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Ashok Chavan, who is on a two-day visit to the district, today hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis over the drought problem in the state.

Lamenting the government's stand over "worsening" drought situation in the state, Chavan said, "Maharashtra Chief Minister did not get a proper response from Prime Minister Narendra Modi". Fadnavis is scheduled to meet the Prime Minister today in connection with the issue.

The Prime Minister should visit the state and see the drought problem by himself and address the farmers' woes, he said.

The former state Chief Minister said that in wake of the water crisis prevalent in Osmanabad and other districts, people were migrating to metro cities, and problems like unemployment have become big.

He demanded complete loan waiver for farmers and distribution of free seeds and fertilizers for the coming crop season from the government.

MPCC Secretary Ramkishan Ojha, Ausa MLA Basavraj Patil, ex-minister Madhukar Chavhan and several Congress leaders accompanied Chavhan on his visit.

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Chavan further said Fadanvis should have taken an



all-party delegation along while meeting the Prime Minister.

He accused the Chief Minister of not being "serious" in dealing with the drought in the state, which is a "national disaster".

He said the people of Maharashtra were dissatisfied as the government was not giving quick relief to farmers, and lamented that the drought relief package accepted by the Chief Minister was a "late" action.

The Congress leader, who attended four 'Dushkal Parishads' (drought relief councils) today, also called the state's ruling allies BJP and Shiv Sena "pocketmar" (pickpockets) while criticising the latter for blaming the state government.
Jamat-e-Islami Hindi today claimed that Muslim youths were being "indiscriminatly" arrested under terror charges and voiced concern over the recent detention of members of the community by Delhi Police.

"The indiscriminate arrests of Muslim youths under so called charges of terrorism in the country is a cause of concern," vice president of the organisation Nusrat Ali said when asked about detention of 13 persons by Delhi Police on Tuesday.

Four of those detained for their alleged ideological leaning towards banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were today released due to lack of adequate evidence. Three have been arrested while six others are undergoing questioning.

"The reports show forced recoveries of materials from such accused which is why a large number of them are later acquitted by the courts," Ali said in a statement.

Jamat is helping such youth by extending legal help to them and financial help to their families, he said.

The outfit's leaders have also expressed concern over drought situation in many parts of the country and demanded that the government impose a ban on industries which are causing "scarcity and pollution" of water.

"Jamat has been trying to assist drought affected people with the help of its volunteers and by supplying water through tankers in Latur and Udaygir in Maharashtra," Ali said.

The organisation condemned violence in Syria and expresseddeep concern over killing of innnocent people in the middle east country.

"Jamat opposes intervention of US and Russia in Syria and demands that the United Nations take a serious view of the deteriorating situation there and play an effective role," he added.
A 65-year-old Muslim spiritual leader was hacked to death in central Bangladesh, in an attack that bears the hallmark of previous murders of intellectuals, bloggers and minorities by Islamists in the country.

Shahidullah was found dead with gashes on the right shoulder and a slit throat in a mango orchard in Rajshahi city's Tanor upazila, police said.

His body was recovered after locals called the police around 10:00pm last night, said Abdur Razzak, officer-in- charge of Tanor Police Station.

"It seems he was hacked first and then slaughtered," he was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent weeks especially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners.

In the recent attacks, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death last month by machete-wielding ISIS militants who slit his throat near his home in Rajshahi city.

Two days later, Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists.

Last week, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death by machete-wielding ISIS militants in his shop in central Bangladesh.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu today hit out at opposition parties for criticising him over the special category status for Andhra Pradesh, even as he called on them to exert pressure on the Centre on the issue.

"Their criticism is meaningless. I am doing everything to secure special status for the state. I am constantly pursuing the issue with the Centre," Naidu said addressing a water conservation programme at Kurnool this evening.

Naidu asked the opposition parties also to apply pressure on the Centre over the special category status issue, which he said he was "pursuing relentlessly".

"I visited New Delhi 30 times (in the last two years). I have been repeatedly pleading with the Centre to aid the state by all means as we have suffered heavily due to the bifurcation," Naidu said.

He reaffirmed that the onus was on the Centre to extend due financial assistance to AP, including bridging the Rs 16,000 crore revenue deficit caused due to the bifurcation.

Naidu said the TDP aligned with the BJP only to safeguard the interests of the state.

"Just imagine what would happen if we did not align with the BJP," he said, and took a dig at the opposition that had been demanding that the ruling party severe ties with the NDA.

"If we listen to the opposition, we will only end up as the biggest losers," he remarked.

With some Union Ministers making it clear in Parliament that according special category status to AP was not possible, the opposition parties in the state have been demanding that the TDP pull out of the NDA.

While leader of opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy alleged that the chief minister mortgaged the state's interests with the Centre, the Congress and the Left parties, which lost their moorings in the state, too, threatened an agitation over the special status issue.

In the last few days, Naidu had been raising the issue almost daily at every forum and reminding the Centre, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of the promise to grant special status to AP for "10 years" in the wake of the bifurcation.

The opposition parties have also directed their ire at the BJP in general and Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in particular for "ditching" the state on the special status.

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Meanwhile, Naidu said his government is committed to



make Kadapa as a "Horticulture Hub" in the state as he launched Rs 385 crore loan waiver programme for horticultural farmers at the district today.

"In Kadapa district alone 32,051 farmers will get a benefit of 67.36 crore through loan waiver for horticulture," he said.

He added that he will keep visiting the district till it became a "Horticulture Hub".

Naidu criticised earlier governments for neglecting the peasant community and accused them of "harassing the farmers with power cut, seed and fertiliser shortages".

"The TDP government is giving uninterrupted power supply and (there will be) no dearth of seeds and fertilisers," he added.
Nepal government has levelled three charges against the country's ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya to justify its decision to recall him, with officials today saying he was working 'against national interest'.

"Envoys should follow government's directives and maintain diplomatic decorum," Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters here.

In a late night development, Nepal yesterday recalled Upadhyaya over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari's planned visit to India.

The diplomat has been also charged with siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's government, according to reports.

He has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying India's ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Rawal said.

Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandari's trip to India has no connection with the government's decision to recall Upadhyaya.

The president was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in the Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed the Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandari's India visit.

"The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now," he said.

"We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically," he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.

According to the report, Thapa said Upadhyaya's "recall was made in a bid to strengthen the existing relations between the two nations" but did not explain what the envoy failed to do to strengthen the ties.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) today submitted charge sheet before a special court against 10 accused in the double murder case of BJP leaders in Bharuch,claiming the killings were part of a larger conspiracy involving co-accused located in Pakistan and South Africa.

As per the charge sheet submitted before the special NIA court of principal judge P B Desai, "The case relates to murder of two persons ...As part of a larger conspiracy in which co-accused located in foreign countries too, were conspiring to kill and strike terror in the minds of people belonging to a particular section of society."



"During investigation, role of co-accused located in Pakistan and South Africa has also emerged and investigation of the case is being continued to collect more evidence against the accused," it said.

The central agency said charge sheet against two more arrested accused - Abdul Samad and Nasir Khan Pathan - will be filed later.

The charge sheet was filed against accused Saiyed Imran, Zuheb Ansari, Inayat Patel, Mohmad Yunus, Haider Ali, Nissarbhai Sheikh, Mohsin Khan Pathan, Mohmed Altaf Shaikh, Abid Patel and Abdul Salim Ghanchi.

Former BJP president of Bharuch and senior RSS member Shirish Bangali and general secretary of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha Pragnesh Mistry were shot dead in the district by two unidentified gunmen on November 2 last year.

Public prosecutor Geeta Gorambe also submitted three applications before the court, seeking permission to keep identity of some witnesses secret, details of certain documents hidden, and NIA protection to the witnesses.

Gorambe told the court that NIA will itself provide protection to certain witnesses but wanted court permission for the same. The court granted permission for all three requests.

A total of 12 accused were arrested in connection with the case and were booked under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, IPC, Arms Act the Gujarat Police Act.

The special court had in December last year granted NIA more time for filing the charge sheet.

Initially, Bharuch police along with Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) conducted the probe and had termed the murders as an 'act of terror'.

Investigators said the contract for killing the two BJP



leaders was allegedly given by absconding Javed Chikna, apparently to avenge riots in Bombay (Mumbai) during 1993 and in Gujarat during 2002.

One of the chargesheeted accused Abid Patel is brother of Javed, an accused in the 1993 Bombay (Mumbai) bomb blasts case.

During investigation it was also found out that Javed and others associated with Dawood Ibrahim gang instructed local module to kill BJP leaders to avenge 1993 Bombay (Mumbai) riots and 2002 riots, they said.

Based on the request of Gujarat Government, Home Ministry has handed over the probe to NIA in December last year.
The US is not using the Congressional objections as an excuse to deny Pakistan eight F-16 fighter jets at a subsidised rate, the Obama administration has said.

"No, that's not true," State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily conference when asked if it is just using Congress as an excuse not to give F-16 to Pakistan.

"We have made the case for FMF (foreign military finance) funds to be used (towards sale of F-16s to Pakistan)," Toner said.

The Administration, he said, has made the case to the Congress that it continue to support proposed sale of these eight F-16s to Pakistan to assist in Pakistan's counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations.

"We believe that these F-16s have supported these kinds of operations to date. We think that they reduce the ability of certain militant groups to use Pakistani territory as a safe haven for terrorism and a base of support for the insurgency in Afghanistan," he said.

"But key members of Congress have made it clear that they object to using foreign military financing funds to support this sale. Given these objections, we've told the Pakistanis that they should put forward national funds for the purchase," he said.

Observing that in the US, in checks and balances, Congress does control the purse strings, Toner said the Administration has argued to Congress why it believes that the purchase of these F-16s is in America's interest.

"We'll continue to make that case. In the meantime, we've offered Pakistan an opportunity to purchase these out of their own funds," Toner said.
US President has signed an executive order establishing a team to aid smooth transition process for the new administration as he demits his office next year after eight years in power.

The White House Transition Council, comprising of about a dozen members, is headed by his Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough. The other officials include Director of National Intelligence and those from the national security, homeland security and counter-terrorism team.

"The peaceful transition of power has long been a hallmark of American democracy. It is the policy of the United States to undertake all reasonable efforts to ensure that Presidential transitions are well-coordinated and effective, without regard to party affiliation," Obama said in his executive order.

"To facilitate the Presidential transition, including assisting and supporting the transition efforts of the transition teams of eligible candidates, there is established a White House Transition Coordinating Council," Obama said.

Obama's second four-year term ends on January 20, 2017; the day on which his successor would be sworn in.

The US has a term limit on its president. An individual can't be elected for more than two four-year term.

The election of the new president would be held on November 8, 2016.

While the Republican party would be represented by Donald Trump, the Democratic party is expected to represented for the first time in American history by a woman -- Hillary Clinton.

Even though the new president would be elected on November 8, 2016, he would not be sworn in till January 20, 2017. In between the president elect would have a transition team that would make the necessary preparation for the takeover.

The White House Transition Coordinating Council would provide guidance to executive departments and agencies and the Federal Transition Coordinator regarding preparations for the Presidential transition, including succession planning and preparation of briefing materials.

"It would also facilitate communication and information sharing between transition representatives of eligible candidates and senior employees in agencies and the Executive Office of the President, including the provision of information relevant to facilitating the personnel aspects of a Presidential transition and such other information that, in the Council's judgement, is useful and appropriate, as long as providing such information is not otherwise prohibited by law," the executive order said.
Odisha Assembly was today adjourned till Tuesday as impasse over the chitfund scam issue continued and the all party meeting held to resolve the matter remained inconclusive.

Speaker Niranjan Pujari announced this after several adjournments during the day. The Speaker also informed that the all party meeting was also postponed till 9.30 AM on Tuesday.

As tomorrow is Sunday and Monday happens to be Akshya Tritiya, a festival associated with Lord Jagannath, there will be no business in the House, assembly sources said.

The House witnessed similar protests by the opposition Congress and BJP members who rushed to Well of the House as soon as it assembled for the day for the Question Hour.

Pujari's repeated appeal to the opposition members did not have any impact on them as the opposition continued to demand Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's resignation. The BJP members were seen attending the House sporting black gowns.

Though the ruling BJD members earlier demanded unconditional apology from the Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra on charge of misleading the House, the treasury bench MLAs today preferred to remain silent.

It was mostly the opposition members who created uproar in the House by attempting to climb on the Speaker's podium and shouting anti-government and anti-Patnaik slogans.

The opposition was totally annoyed over the manner in which the House is being run. They blamed the speaker for not being able to protest the opposition members who are minority in the 147-member Assembly.

"The speaker has not been able to protect us," Leader of Opposition Narsingha Mishra said.

The ruling BJD has 117 MLAs, Congress 16 and BJP 10.
A man was killed while four others were injured when a car carrying two of the victims collided with an escort vehicle in the convoy of Maharashtra Minister Ram Shinde today, police said.

The incident occurred this evening near Takalabhana village in Shrirampur tehsil, when the state Minister for Home Affairs was on his way from Kopargaon city to Nevasa, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saurabh Tripathi said.

Two of the victims were travelling in a car, which rammed into the minister's escort vehicle carrying police personnel, killing one of the car occupants while injuring the other, the SP said.

Three policemen were also injured in the mishap, he said, adding the injured were admitted to a hospital in Shrirampur by the minister.

The victims are yet to be identified, police said, adding investigation is on.
More than 4,000 people have been left stranded at airports after nearly 50 flights were cancelled today in China's southwest Sichuan Province due to a severe rainstorm, authorities said.

A total of 21 flights landed at alternative airports in Chongqing, Kunming, Xi'an, Guiyang and Mianyang today, while another 48 were cancelled. One flight had to return after taking off.

Yesterday, 357 flights were delayed, leaving more than 9,000 passengers stranded. About 4,000 people stayed overnight at hotels near airports, according to airport officials.

In a separate incident, a landslide triggered by continuous heavy rain damaged parts of a major rail line, linking south-west China's Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, rail authorities said today.

The damage took place in Tongzi county, Zunyi city of Guizhou, cutting off the line between Sanyuanba and Mengdu stations. No casualties have been reported so far.

About 1,000 emergency workers are repairing the damaged stretch of 40 meters. An area of more than 500 square meters on and around the tracks was covered in mud and stone. Nearly 20 trains have made detours, returned or been canceled in response to the emergency, authorities said.

There is a forecast on the website of National Meteorological Center of heavy rain continuing in the provinces of Sichuan, Hubei, Guizhou, Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Fujian from today to tomorrow, with precipitation expected to reach up to 90 millimeters.

Also,a hydropower station in Changyang County of Hubei Province was temporarily submerged in floods caused by rain.

No casualties have been reported so far but traffic and telecom services have been interrupted, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Heavy rain battered the county last afternoon, causing flooding of the Danshui River. Maximum rainfall reached 228 millimeters in Weijiazhou village. Bridges and roads along the river were damaged. Electricity in Changyang was also cut. Emergency workers rushed to the area.

China renewed a blue alert for rainstorms today as the torrential rain that had lashed much of the south showed little signs of weakening.

China has a four-tier color-coded warning system for severe weather conditions, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
Punjab government has impressed upon farmers to cultivate only the recommended A grade verities of paddy.

Growers have also been dissuaded to cultivate the hybrid varieties of paddy as it is against the parameters set by FCI and not being procured by the procurement agencies, an official spokesman said.

"Farmers have been advised that this is the proper time for the transplantation of the saplings as the atmospheric conditions are conducive and they should start their field operations for the transplantation of saplings," he said.

They have been counseled to sow seeds only of the recommended A grade varieties of paddy because Food Corporation of India procure paddy of such recommended verities.

Farmers should procure the seeds of the verities like P.R 124, P.R 123, P.R 122, P.R 1241, P.R 114, P.R 115 and P.R 113, which have been recommended by universities, he said.

Farmers have been persuaded not to cultivate the hybrid varieties of paddy as these varieties are flouting the set parameters of FCI and the procurement agencies do not procure paddy of such spurious varieties.

They have been advised to desist from the cultivation of PUSA Basmati 1509 variety as the state might face big hurdles for its marketing because of its non procurement by the Union Government, he said.

It has been advised that paddy must not be cultivated on the dry sandy fields and on other place also before the cultivation the fields must adequately be leveled, he said.

Regarding the use of fertilizers farmers have been advised to first get the soil examination test done and then on the recommendation of the scientist adequate quantity of fertilizer be used.
Facing criticism over gangsters being active on social media and boasting about their crime on Facebook from inside the jail, Punjab Police today said it will adopt a four-pronged strategy to deal with them.

Director General of Police Suresh Arora said the strategy involves swift police action, strengthening jails, seeking tough laws to ensure conviction, and recording evidence against gangsters through video conferencing.

"Tough law is required to deal with the problem of gangsters. I am looking at a four-pronged strategy," Arora told reporters here today.

"One is police action then strengthening of jails so that they (gangsters) don't operate freely. Recording evidence against gangsters through video conferencing, and strengthening existing laws which will help in getting conviction and protecting witnesses so it as act deterrent," Arora said.

The announcement comes in the wake of killing of gangster-turned-politician Jaswinder Singh Bhullar 'Rocky' of Fazilka in Punjab at Parwanoo in Himachal Pradesh on April 30. Police suspect Rocky's murder was fallout of a gangwar.

After of Rocky's death, gangster Jai Pal Singh had reportedly claimed on his Facebook account that he had killed him. Punjab police faced criticism for gangsters being active on social media and boasting about their crime on Facebook.

Giving out "shocking" data pertaining to gangsters between 1996 and March 2016, Arora said out of 105 concluded cases pertaining to gangsters, there were only 10 convictions while the rest resulted in acquittal.

"Since 2010, 55 trials (of gangsters) concluded and all ended in acquittal. There was not a single conviction," the DGP said pointing out that most cases fell flat because witnesses turned hostile.

From January 2015 till March 2016, as many as 37 gangsters have escaped from custody while eight have jumped bails, he further said.

"We have studied existing laws of other states and I'll make recommendations to the government in this regard," he said.

The DGP suggested that confession to SP and above rank officers should be admissible in the court of law which is one way of taking care of problem of witnesses turning hostile.

"The identity of witnesses should be protected. Their identity should not be made public and should also not be covered by media. Their names should not come in public domain even after the judgement has been announced," he said.

"If one is on bail and if you commit crime of similar nature then thereafter you should not be entitled for bail," he said.

Arora further said video conferencing system have been



installed in 25 jails in Punjab and 89,843 inmates have been produced through video conferencing in the past one year for extension of judicial remand.

"We are trying that in case of identified gangsters. We will request judicial court to give permission for recording statements through video conferencing only," he said.

It'll curb chances of escape of hardcore criminals from custody and also witnesses won't be overawed by them, he said.

At the moment, this facility is confined to only extension of judicial remand and not for evidence and trial, he said.

On strengthening of jails, the DGP said mobile jammers are also being installed in jails to prevent gangsters and other criminals from having access to internet, he said.

A sum of Rs 15 crore has been provided in the budget for installing CCTV in jails to cover the black spots where jammers do not work, he said.

"82 mobiles/SIM cards have been recovered from the inmates in different jails during last four months," he said. Eight sniffer dogs have been deployed which are used for detecting drugs in jails, DGP said.

Arora also said a committee headed by DG (Intelligence) has been set up to review the security cover provided to serving as well as retired police officials.

He further said a possibility of imposing legal penalty on the misuse of security is being looked at. "Discussion with legal people (on this issue) is going on," he said.

Punjab Police, which has total strength of 75,000, has been facing shortage of about 8,000 cops.

On the issue of weapon license issued to people connected with politicians, he said the existing policy needs to be reviewed.
A bruising presidential campaign was drawing to a close in the Philippines today, with a last-minute attempt by the president to unify candidates against a front-running mayor perceived as a threat to democracy virtually collapsing.

After crisscrossing the archipelago nation for three months, five presidential candidates led by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will converge in the vote-rich capital Manila for their final rallies ahead of Monday's vote.

On the eve of the final day of campaigning, President Benigno Aquino III made a desperate call on candidates to agree to an alliance to defeat the brash Duterte, who has been likened to US Republican front-runner Donald Trump for his controversial remarks but has topped pre-poll surveys.

Duterte's 30-point lead in surveys can be overcome if his trailing rivals mainly former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Sen. Grace Poe join hands, Aquino said, implying that some of them should back out and support a single aspirant.

Under the Philippine electoral system, a candidate who gets the most votes is proclaimed the winner, even if no one gets a majority.

Poe, however, refused an invitation by Roxas, who has been backed by Aquino, to meet and discuss an arrangement where she would be forced to back out. Vice President Jejomar Binay also stated he would not step aside.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who has trailed far behind in surveys, has also vowed never to surrender.

Duterte's camp said calls for an alliance against him "reeks of stench of defeat."



"It's an admission that a victory by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has virtually become inevitable," said the mayor's national campaign manager Leoncio Evasco Jr.

A longtime mayor of southern Davao city, the 71-year-old Duterte courted controversy with his profanity-laden speeches, vulgar jokes and devil-may-care irreverence but has successfully tapped into public insecurities with a bold promise to wipe out crime and corruption in three to six months if he is elected.

Aquino, business executives and church leaders felt that he crossed the line when he joked about wanting to have raped first an Australian missionary, who was gang raped and brutally killed by inmates in a 1989 jail riot.

When the Australian and U.S. Ambassadors sniped at his joke, Duterte asked them to shut up and expressed openness at the possibility of severing ties with major Western allies if he wins the presidency. He also has threatened to close Congress if lawmakers try to impeach him if he wins next week and has said he would allow Marxist guerrillas to play a political role in his government.
Delhi Police today filed in a court here the status report on a criminal complaint seeking lodging of FIR against AIMIM President for alleged offences of sedition and causing enmity between different groups.

In the report filed before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Munish Markan, an official of Karawal Nagar police station said the complainant has not provided it the copy of recording of Owaisi's alleged objectionable statement.

The report filed by Sub Inspector Manoj Kumar also said complainant Brijesh Chand Shukla, Swaraj Janata Party's president, has also not brought any person who had heard the alleged remarks given by the leader.

The court fixed August 4 for further proceedings in the matter.

The complainant said he would take his witnesses and the CD of the alleged remarks to the police station.

The court had earlier directed the police to file the report detailing the action taken on the plea.

The complaint alleged that on March 13, Owaisi had voluntarily said that "even if somebody puts a knife at me, I will not say 'Bharat Mata ki jai'" and his expression showed "disaffection and includes disloyalty and all feeling of enmity".

Earlier, the complainant's counsel had said the matter comes under the definition of section 124A (sedition) of IPC as the statement made by Owaisi showed his disloyalty and disaffection towards the nation.

The complaint sought a direction to the police to lodge an FIR against Owaisi for the alleged offences under sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc) of IPC.

The plea alleged that the act of Hyderabad MP showed he was not loyal to India and was trying to harm the country's reputation and his statement comes under the definition of sedition charge.

"...It is correct that our Constitution does not permit to say 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' but the Constitution also does not allow to say 'koi meri gardan par churi rakh de tab bhi mai Bharat Mata ki jai nahi bolunga' (even if somebody puts a knife at my neck, I will not say Bharat Mata ki jai)," it alleged.

The complainant said he had filed the complaint in this regard with the Delhi Police but no action was taken and thereafter, he approached the court.
Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das today said it us for the police to act against the culprits who allegedly molested girl students during a clash over a film screening at the varsity campus even as he blamed the organisers for screening the movie without permission.

"We have lodged an FIR against outsiders who were caught by our students and then handed over by us to the police. It is the police which has to act now. It is their job to take action. We did everything on our part," Das said.

He also put the blame on the organisers for screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' in open-air in the campus late last evening without prior permission of the authorities.

"As per the rules any organisation has to take permission from us to do any programme inside the campus. But they did not take our permission to hold the event," Das said.

In the meantime, Governor K N Tripathi has also sought a report on this from the VC who said he is sending it.

"Jadavpur University which was once known as centre for excellence is fast turning into centre for disturbances. The authorities should take stern action against it," Tripathi, who is also the chancellor of the state-run varsity, told PTI.

Trouble began at Jadavpur after Bollywood filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri decided to screen his upcoming film in open-air after the alumni association cancelled their booking in an auditorium run by them.

"The auditorium is not run by us. We have no control over it," the VC said.

The fracas began after the film's screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.

Some girl students alleged that they were molested during the melee that ensued after the incident.
As a mark of respect to posthumous defence gallantry awardees, their mother or father can accompany the next of kin of the deceased while receiving the honour from the President.

The government's new initiative was introduced during the Defence Investiture Ceremony here today which was held at Durbar Hall pof the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Out of 14 gallantry awards presented at the ceremony, two Kirti Chakra and four Shaurya Chakra were conferred posthumously.

Accordingly, at the ceremony, Monalisha Borah Koch, wife of constable Gautam Koch, Assam Armed Branch, was accompanied by his mother Putuli Koch and Nisha Devi, wife of Naib Subedar Rajesh Kumar of the Rashtriya Rifles, was accompanied by his father Rup Chand to receive the Kirti Chakra award from President Pranab Mukherjee.

Similarly, for the Shaurya Chakra, Timu Devi, wife of Sepoy Dharma Ram of Rashtriya Rifles, was accompanied by his mother Amru Devi.

As per the dispensation, till the last Investiture Ceremony, the next of kin of the posthumous awardee alone received the award from the President.

A total of 42 distinguished service awards namely 13 Param Vishisht Seva Medals, two Uttam Yuddh Seva Medals, two Bar to Ati Vishisht Seva Medals and 25 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, which were announced on Republic Day were also given to officers of the three services during the function.
Amid growing demand for a CBI probe into the brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Ernakulam district, police today claimed that the Special Investigation Team's probe into the incident was going on the right track.

"The investigation is going on the right track. It is positive. I can't say anything specific at this stage as it will affect investigation," Additional Director General of Police K Padmakumar, who is supervising the probe by the SIT, comprising experts from the state police, said.

Kerala Women's Commission chairperson K C Rosakutty, who met the victim's mother at Perumbavoor Taluk hospital today, said they had got "some valuable information" on the culprit from the victim's sister and it would be provided to the SIT.

"We have got some information which will help investigation officers to nab the culprit," Rosakutty told reporters in Perumbavoor.

Her statement came amid local media reports that the probe is centred around a migrant worker, who is also a friend of the victim's sister.

Police have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who led a party women leaders' delegation to take stock of the situation, today criticised state police for its initial lapses in the probe.

She urged the state government to hand over the probe to the CBI.

"Why are they not handing over the inquiry to CBI. The victim's mother said she wanted a CBI probe into the incident," she said after meeting the woman's mother at the hospital.

Her demand for a CBI probe into incident came a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Centre was ready to conduct the CBI probe.

Senior BJP leaders and Union Ministers, Ananth Kumar and Ravishankar Prasad have also slammed the state police for its alleged lapses in the initial stage of investigation and urged the state government to hand over the case to the CBI.

The Dalit woman, who hailed from a poor family, was raped and brutally assaulted using sharp-edged weapons before being murdered at her house at nearby Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district on April 28.

The shocking incident had its echo in Parliament with members demanding "exemplary punishment" for the culprits, besides triggering widespread protests across Kerala.
Hundreds of Myanmar villagers rallied today against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine, activists told media, reigniting a contentious issue that could pose an early challenge to Aung San Suu Kyi's new government.

The Letpadaung mine in the central town of Monywa has for years been dogged by complaints of land-grabbing, environmental damage and brutal police crackdowns on protesters.

Growing numbers of villagers have gathered over the past four days in the first major anti-mine demonstration since Suu Kyi's civilian administration took power this year, ending decades of military domination.

"Today we demanded our rights by showing up with over 200 local protesters," Khin Lae, a protest leader, told AFP.

"No one was hurt today. Yesterday there were some clashes between protesters and the police," she added.

Winbao -- the Chinese firm that jointly runs the mine with a major Myanmar military conglomerate -- said this year it aimed to start production in May after years of construction.

Winbao was not immediately available for comment.

Another protest organiser, Amar Cho, told AFP the demonstrations have swelled since Wednesday, as have the number of police dispatched to control the crowds.

Police sparked public outrage in 2012 when they moved to clear a protest camp near the mine using phosphorous cannisters, leaving dozens with severe burn wounds, including several monks.

Suu Kyi led a parliamentary probe into that incident, which attracted the ire of activists after it recommended construction be allowed to proceed.

Protests have continued over the years and crackdowns have also spurred bouts of anti-China demonstrations in Yangon and other major cities.

Renewed controversy could strain relations with China, Myanmar's largest trading partner and a key player in its foreign policy.

Suu Kyi, who now holds several top government positions, met with her Chinese counterpart in her first diplomatic foray as foreign minister last month.

China is by far Myanmar's largest foreign investor, with a cumulative total of $15.4 billion of approved investments, and the two countries also share a long and restive border.
The 42-hour 'public curfew' called by Joint Committee of Inner Line Permit System (JCILP) for implementation of ILP in Manipur affected normal life for the second day today.

The 'curfew', which ended today evening, will be followed by formation of a human chain and staging of a torch rally.

Business establishments, educational centres and attendance in government offices remained thin, while passenger services, including inter-state travels, were halted abruptly during the shut down.

Volunteers and women protesters came out in some localities and prevented the flow of traffic at various places.

Meanwhile, Lok Janashakti Party (Manipur), during a press meet at its Babupara office, declared its support for the implementation of the Inner Line Permit System in the state.

The regional Manipur Peoples' Party had also expressed similar views a few days back.

BJP is in favour of implementing ILP in the state to protect the indigenous populace from immigrants from neighbouring Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal.
The Republican leadership today appeared to be bitterly divided on Donald Trump, who is emerging as the party's presumptive presidential nominee.

While a top section of the party's established leadership openly said that they would not support 69-year-old Trump, the real estate mogul from New York gained more endorsement including the former presidential nominee Bob Dole.

At least two of the former presidential candidates - Jeb Bush (the former Governor of Florida) and Senator Lindsey Graham - have openly said that they would not support Trump in his race to the White House.

But Trump received major boost to his campaign as Rick Perry the former Texas Governor endorsed him, so did Bob Dole, the party's presidential nominee for 1996.

"The voters of our country have turned out in record numbers to support Trump. It is important that their votes be honored and it is time that we support the party's presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump," Dole said in a statement.

Dole said he plans to attend the Cleveland Convention in July where Trump would be formally designated as the party's presidential nominee.

"We must unite as a party to defeat Hillary Clinton. Trump is our party's presumptive nominee and our best chance at taking back the White House this November," Dole said.

But two former Republican presidents - George H W Bush and George W Bush - along with the 2008 presidential nominee Senator John McCain have announced that they would not attend the Cleveland convention.

Jeb, who is the son and younger brother of two former presidents, today said that he would not vote for Trump.

"In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life," Bush wrote on his Facebook Page.

"The American Presidency is an office that goes beyond just politics. It requires of its occupant great fortitude and humility and the temperament and strong character to deal with the unexpected challenges that will inevitably impact our nation in the next four years," he said.

"Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character. He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy," said Jeb, who raised a record USD 140 million for his presidential campaign but was humiliatingly defeated by Trump in the primary elections.

Jeb was joined by South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham,



who said that he would not vote for Trump.

"I cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative nor has he displayed the judgement and temperament to serve as commander in chief," said Graham, who also was badly defeated by Trump during the primaries.

Trump fired back and described Graham as incompetent.

"While I will unify the party, Lindsey Graham has shown himself to be beyond rehabilitation. And like the voters who rejected him, so will I!" Trump said.

The statement from Jeb and Graham came a day after Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan said that he is not ready yet to support Trump.

Ryan has invited Trump for a meeting next week.

"Having both said we need to unify the party, Speaker Ryan has invited Trump to meet with members of the House Republican leadership in Washington on Thursday morning to begin a discussion about the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November," Ryan's political office said in a statement today.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee lashed at Ryan for not respecting the verdict of the party's members.

"Lead, follow or get the heck out of the way. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but he's the Speaker, that means he's the leader. Then lead," he told Fox Business .

Meanwhile, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney continued with his anti-Trump drive.

This week, he is reported to have met William Kristol, who is pushing for a third-party alternative to Trump and Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner.
A roadside bomb has killed at least four small children from the same family in the southern Zabul province, an official said today.

Wazir Mohammad Jawadi, a district administrator, said another child from the same family was wounded in the blast, which took place late yesterday.

Afghanistan is inundated with mines and other explosives left over from decades of war.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, an official said Afghan security forces repelled an insurgent attack in the eastern Kunar province, killing 26 militants.

Gen. Abdul Habib Sayedkhaili, the provincial police chief, said that a police officer was killed in the fighting, which erupted when hundreds of insurgents tried to overrun Ghazi Abad district headquarters near the border with Pakistan. He said forces had prior intelligence about the attack and were prepared to repel it.

"Insurgents were defeated after five hours of intense gun battles by the Afghan security forces," he said, adding that more than 40 militants were wounded in the battle.

"If we had not had the support of the local people it would have been very difficult to repel the enemy's attack," he said.
In a daylight robbery, two motorcycle-borne unidentified men allegedly looted Rs 11.50 lakh cash from an accountant of a leading rice trader at Hansi Chowk, police said today.

The incident occurred when accountant Parveen was riding a two-wheeler to his office after withdrawing cash from a bank at Kunjpura road here at around 12 noon, police said.

When Parveen reached near Hansi Chowk at around 12:30 pm, two unidentified men who were on a motorbike snatched the bag containing the cash and sped away, Karnal DSP Raj Kumar said.

However, Parveen could not see the men as he fell from his two-wheeler.

The DSP said police teams have been formed to trace the men, who were not armed.
Russia's defence ministry has said that a temporary truce in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo has been extended into a third day "in order to prevent the situation from worsening".

At Moscow's initiative "the regime of silence in the province of Latakia and in the city of Aleppo has been extended from 00:01 (local time) on May 7 to a total of 72 hours," the defence ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The truce had been due to end early Saturday after giving residents some respite from two weeks of fighting that killed more than 280 civilians, even as clashes raged south of the city.

The halt in fighting in Aleppo is part of international efforts to revive a landmark February ceasefire and galvanise peace talks to end a five-year war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria since September to back up the forces of its ally President Bashar Al-Assad.

Together with the United States, Moscow has been spearheading the latest diplomatic push to resolve the protracted conflict in the country.
Around 100 SFI activists today courted arrest bydefying the prohibitory orders at Scandal Point on Mall Road here to express their anger against "insensitive" attitude ofHimachal Pradesh University (HPU).

SFI activists are on a chain hunger strike on the campus for about a month demanding reversal of rustication of seven students and a roll-back of fee hike, among others.

The move to court arrest was aimed at sensitising the "insensitive HPU authorities", a spokesman of SFI said.

The students leaders addressing the group highlighted their grievances and lashed out at the varsity administration for "ignoring" them.

SFI university campus president Noval Thakur said students are on hunger strikes for over 30 days and condition of one of them deteriorated yesterday, who is still in hospital.

"There is no water in the girls and boys hostels and in the library for past five days and despite students' demand, the university authorities did not ask for water tankers. Water was arranged through tanker in office of the vice-chancellor," Thakur alleged.

Other demands include filling up 212 vacant posts of teachers and 320 post of non-teaching employees, making the report of high-power committee on fee hike public, restoration of Students Central Association (SCA) elections, he added.
Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said within a short span of three weeks the states could sell bonds worth Rs one lakh crore.

As per the schedule we will have another round of sale of state government bonds and discom bonds backed by state government guarantees this fiscal. We have already sold Rs one lakh crore worth of such bonds. The plan is all made out and from time to time these will be approved by the Reserve Bank as per a set procedure, Goyal said one the sidelines of the convocation of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences here.

On coal availability, he said there was sufficient quantity of stock to the extent that in the past four months the government had to regulate production.

He further said to ensure energy security, the government will cut down coal imports further this year and hope to save about Rs 40,000 crore from this.

So far, 10 states, including those with heavily indebted discoms like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, have signed up for the Uday scheme, launched last year to bail out the broke (SEBs). But highly broke SEBs like that of Tamil Nadu which has huge debt of Rs 80,000 crore, has refrained from embracing the scheme.

The scheme envisages the respective states taking over 75 per cent of the SEB dents of Rs 4.3 trillion into their books but will not be calculated as their fiscal deficit. This involves taking over 50 per cent of the short-term liabilities of their respective discoms in FY16 and remaining 25 per cent in FY17.

Uday was launched on November 20 last year to help loss-making power distribution companies in the states to come out of a debt trap of Rs 4.3 lakh crore by March 2016.

In response to the scheme, only 10 states have signed MoUs with the Centre while eight have taken over nearly Rs 99,000 crore, or 50 per cent of their discoms debt by issuing non-SLR bonds on a private placement basis.

Meanwhile, Goyal called upon the institute TISS to conduct training for ministers and bureaucrats in social sciences.

"The TISS should consider training programme in behavioural sciences, ethics and leadership for ministers and other public servants," he said while addressing the 76th convocation of the premier institute.

TISS was set up by the Tatas in 1936 as the first School of Social Work in the country and became a deemed university in 1964 and is now an autonomous body under the Central government.

Besides the main campus at the northeastern suburb of Deonar, it also has campuses in Hyderabad, Guwahati and Tuljapur. Its Masters programme in HR and Labour Relations is one of the most sought-after programmes in HR in the country.
A raid by Syrian security forces on a riot-hit prison in the central city of Hama has failed to end a mutiny involving around 800 inmates, a monitor said today.

Ten guards were taken hostage after the violence broke out on Monday, following an attempt to transfer detainees to another prison near Damascus where numerous executions of inmates have been reported.

Activists say, most of the prisoners at the Hama jail are political detainees linked to the opposition.

Inmates "continued their mutiny today after the assault failed," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor.

"Tensions remained high," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, "and security forces remained inside the prison but outside the cells".

Security forces had stormed the prison yesterday firing bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas, according to the Observatory. They also arrested relatives of prisoners gathered outside the building concerned about their fate, it said.

The raid led to injuries among several inmates and "cases of fainting and choking" from the tear gas, the monitor reported.

Video footage posted on social networks showed a corridor filled with flames and smoke as a voice is heard giving the date as May 6 and the location as the central prison in Hama.

The sound of bursting tear gas grenades can be heard as inmates chant "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) while others are heard coughing. It was not possible to verify the authenticity of the footage.

Syrian activist group the Local Coordination Committees has said, inmates are protesting against death sentences handed to dozens of prisoners and also against conditions inside the jail.

Water and power supplies remained cut off inside the jail today, according to the Observatory, which said the authorities had released 46 prisoners since the protest began.

Syria's main opposition group involved in peace talks yesterday called on international organisations "to intervene to prevent an imminent massacre" of prisoners.

The High Negotiations Committee urged the international community to "shoulder its responsibilities" and stop the regime from carrying out "reprisals against the detainees".

France warned of the risk of "deadly reprisals by the regime" and urged Damascus's allies to exert pressure "to avoid another massacre in Syria".

More than 200,000 people have spent time in regime prisons since 2011, according to the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria for its information.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 10 million elephants in Africa. Perhaps only 350,000 survive today. Photo by Alamy

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This week, Hawaii  the nations third largest market for ivory  joined the war against global ivory trafficking when its senate unanimously passed legislation to ban all sales of elephant ivory, rhino horns, and other endangered species products.

With laws against ivory trafficking enacted in New Jersey and New York in 2014, and in California and Washington in 2015, were excited to add an important state to the win column, assuming that Governor David Ige signs the bill into law.

The HSUS, Humane Society International, and a coalition of national and local partner groups have since 2013 focused on putting a stop to the ivory trade in Hawaii because of the states robust market for illegal ivory and a booming wildlife products trade. Earlier this year, The HSUS released an undercover investigation that showed dealers openly selling ivory jewelry, tusks, and trinkets there. A 2008 study by Care for the Wild International and Save the Elephants estimated that an astonishing 89 percent of ivory sold in Hawaii was illegal or of unknown origin.

Hawaiis big win should have a positive ripple effect on the west coast, and particularly in the state of Oregon where The HSUS is building up grassroots support for a ballot initiative to curb wildlife trafficking. Washington voters last November approved a ban on the sales of elephant ivory and other endangered species products by a 70 to 30 percent margin, with the measure passing in every county in the state.

Unfortunately, a few lawmakers aligned with the NRA, and giving too much credence to self-interested ivory collectors and antique dealers, are working to stall similar bills in Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, and Massachusetts.

Numerous polls in various states demonstrate that over 80 percent of the general public support a ban on ivory sales, but a handful of elected officials continue to defy their constituents in order to protect the financial interests of individuals and organizations that seem to care nothing about the slaughter of elephants and the destruction of Africas greatest natural resource  its diverse, distinct, and magnificent wildlife.

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were 10 million elephants in Africa. That number dropped to 1.3 million in 1970. Only 600,000 elephants remained when an international trade ban on ivory was put into place in 1990. And perhaps only 350,000 survive today.

Last week, Kenya fired a salvo against ivory traffickers when it set ablaze 105 tons of ivory stockpiles and called on the rest of the world to close their domestic ivory markets. No one has business in trade in ivory, for this trade means the death of our elephants and the death of our natural heritage, President Uhuru Kenyatta said.

President Obama, standing next to President Kenyatta last year on his visit to Kenya, announced a landmark proposed rule to halt commercial trade in ivory in the United States. The Obama Administration has since pressed ahead with its proposal to restrict interstate commerce of ivory and a federally proposed rule is awaiting final action from its own Office of Management and Budget.

Only through the application and robust enforcement of the laws  in African nations and in major consuming countries  can we save the elephants. And by doing so, we save a cherished traveler on planet Earth and allow African economies to flourish and grow from commerce in wildlife watching.
In fresh sparring among telecom players, major differences have emerged in the industry over the government's proposal to impose uniform annual spectrum charges at reduced rate of 4.5 per cent on all players over revenue earned by them from telephony services.

While industry body COAI has cited a study showing reducing SUC by 1 per cent can increase GDP by about Rs 1.76 lakh crore, another telcos lobby AUSPI has cited loss of about Rs 1.65 lakh crore to national exchequer if government meets the former's demand.

COAI, which represents operators like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, has written to Telecom Secretary J S Deepak demanding uniform spectrum usage charge on all companies, but at 3 per cent level.

It has said that one of its members, Reliance Jio Infocomm, has differed on its view.

"It is submitted that except for one of the Telecom Service Providers, the entire industry strongly believes that a uniform fee would not only result in a level playing field but will also remove the ambiguities, arbitrages and their misuse," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said in the letter dated May 4.

Reliance Jio did not comment on the latest move of COAI but earlier it had opposed uniform SUC on telecom operators as demanded by the industry body.

Opposing the COAI's demand, AUSPI, which represents Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, said, "The proposal of ex post-facto reduction in SUC rate (at 3 per cent) is not only against the principle of transparency and level playing field, but benefiting only few operators acquired large quantum of spectrum in previous auctions."



"Proposal of government to have flat rate of SUC for all type of spectrum will lead to a loss of more than Rs 1.65 lakh crore to the government over a period of 20 years and gain to a handful of incumbent operators who have been holding a large amount of spectrum acquired administratively," AUSPI General Secretary Ashok Sud said in a letter to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Deepak.

COAI has cited a study by Deloitte which says beside increasing GDP, reducing SUC by 1 per cent can reduce number of people below poverty line by 4.7 per cent.

The present level of SUC collection by government is around 4.69 per cent of revenues earned by companies from mobile phone services.

Telecom regulator Trai has recommended SUC at uniform rate of 3 per cent across the industry and gradually bring it to 1 per cent.

SUC was earlier linked to quantum of spectrum held by an operator and varied between 3-8 per cent of adjusted gross revenue.

Telecom operators in January 2014 were asked to pay the



weighted average of their existing SUC (on old rate of 3-8 per cent), and 5 per cent if they acquire new spectrum.

Telecom operators provide mobile services using various spectrum bands -- 800 Mhz (2G,4G), 900 Mhz (2G,3G,4G), 1800 Mhz (2G,4G), 2100 Mhz (3G), 2300 Mhz (4G) and 2500 Mhz (4G).

According to a source, technical committee at Department of Telecom has suggested levying 4.5 per cent uniform SUC on all operators as it is not possible to ensure their earning from any particular spectrum band for service like 4G.

Trai recommended SUC at uniform rate of 3 per cent across the industry and gradually bring it to 1 per cent.

"As per the GSMA report, even at 1 per cent AGR, tax neutrality will be achieved by 2017," COAI said.

AUSPI alleged that recommendations of Trai on SUC in September 2013 were given suo-moto just to benefit few incumbent operators.

Inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission (TC) has decided to take legal opinion on the issue and discuss it along with the technical committee report in the next meeting.

Reduction in SUC by 1 per cent can lead to increase in economy wide investments of about Rs 58,000 crore, tax revenues by Rs 28,000 crore, 3G penetration by 2.3 crore connections and mobile revenues next of tax by Rs 14,600 crore, COAI said citing the Deloitte report.

Reliance Jio has contested this view as it pays only 1 per cent SUC on its spectrum in 2,300 Mhz band and proposal to levy 3 per cent fee would put extra burden on the company.

However, Bharti Airtel, also holding spectrum in 2,300 Mhz band, favours uniform levy, according to COAI submission.
Security forces gunned down three suspected militants of Hizbul Mujahideen in an encounter today in Pulwama district of Kashmir, after which some locals resorted to violent protests leading to suspension of train service between Srinagar and Banihal for the day.

The encounter in Panzgam village erupted after a joint team of police and army cordoned off the area to look for militants after receiving specific intelligence, an army official said.

As the forces were conducting a search operation, the hiding militants fired upon them, the official said.

In the ensuing gunfight, three militants -- all locals who belonged to Hizbul Mujhahdeen militant group -- were killed, he said.

They were identified as Ashfaq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Dogipura, Ishfaq Ahmad Baba, a resident of Tahab and Haseeb Ahmad, a resident of Brao Bandyun, the official said.

Three weapons have also been recovered from the encounter site, he added.

After the gunfight, a grenade lying there exploded, injuring a civilian who was among those who had assembled at the encounter site, a police official said.

The civilian, Wakeel Ahmed Shergujri, was taken to SKIMS Hospital in Srinagar where his condition is said to be stable.

When the of the death of the three militants spread, some locals staged protests and pelted stones on security forces who fired teargas in retaliation, the official said.

Because of these clashes, train services between Srinagar and Banihal were suspended by railway authorities for the day.

"The train service has been suspended for today due to the prevailing law and order situation in Pulwama where from the trains pass towards Banihal," a Railway official said.

He said the decision was taken in view of apprehensions of protests in the area which may have lead to damage to railway property.
Sri Lanka continues to use torture mechanisms even after the end of the civil war due to weaknesses in law, a top UN official said here today and described the condition of detention camps and prisons in the country as "deplorable".

"Torture continues in the system due to weaknesses in law," said Juan E Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

Mendez was on an 8-day visit to Sri Lanka with the UN Rapporteur on Independence of Judiciary Monica Pinto.

Their findings are to be given to the Sri Lankan government and the government's response would be reported at the UN Human Rights Council's next sessions in March 2017, Mendez said.

He said the cases of torture had reduced since the end of the conflict in 2009.

He said the UN was encouraged by the positive steps taken by the government to uphold human rights values.

Having visited the detention camps and prisons, Mendez described the conditions as "deplorable".

"Sri Lanka is at a crucial moment in its history and we hope that our recommendations will continue to setting out a path for the future that will be fully aligned with the international human rights obligations of the country," he said.

The visit of the rapporteurs are in accordance with the UN Human Rights Council resolution of March 2014 when the council prescribed an international investigation on alleged war crimes blamed on both the government troops and the LTTE.

The current government adopts a conciliatory attitude towards the UN mechanism since the obdurate position followed by the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.

Hundreds of ethnic Tamils have been lodged in jails without trial since 2009, when Sri Lanka's military crushed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in a three decade-long conflict for control of the island's northern Jaffna peninsula.

According to a UN report, up to 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the fighting.
Pakistan today said the "trust deficit" needs to be removed for better relations with India even as it voiced support for any effort to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue between the two nations.

Talking about the resumption of talks with India, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said Pakistan would support any effort to restart the dialogue process.

Chaudhry said that there was a "trust deficit" between Pakistan and India which needs to be removed for better ties between the two nations.

"Whenever there will be talks between Pakistan and India, Kashmir will remain on top of the agenda," he added.

He also talked about the arrest of alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav, and termed it as proof of "Indian involvement" in Pakistan's internal affairs.

India has acknowledged Yadav is a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.

REOPENS FGN 12



Chaudhry also urged the US not to attach any conditions



for the sale of F-16s, after the Congress stalled the sale by refusing to authorise funding for it.

"We are making diplomatic efforts to convince the US to make the purchase of F-16 possible as Pakistan needs them in its ongoing war against terrorism," he said.

Earlier, Pakistan had said that it would look towards other countries to get the latest fighter jets if the US did not deliver the F-16s.

The foreign secretary also rejected the impression that Islamic State militants were active in Pakistan.

"Pakistani agencies are on alert in order to deal with any possible threat, which is why action has been taken against such elements," he said.

He also reiterated support for the peace process in Afghanistan but rejected the use of force against the Afghan Taliban as demanded by the Afghan president after last month's bombing in Kabul which killed over 60 people.

Chaudhry said all groups in Afghanistan should stop violence and join talks for lasting peace in the country.
Two persons, who were involved in looting of banks at Hajipur and Muzzafarpur have been arrested, the police said.

Superintendent of Police Rakesh Kumar said that the arrested persons have been idenfitied as Baiju Kahaar and Uday Kumar who allegedly looted Rs 8.26 lakh from Daulatpur branch of Axis Bank at Hajipur in Vaishali district on February 24 last.

Rupees 45,000 and a car which was used in the bank loot were seized from Uday Kumar and Baiju Kahaar, the key person in the loot, was arrested on the basis of information gathered from Uday Kumar during interrogation.

Kahaar was later arrested and Rs 1 lakh and five pistols and a country made pistol besides 28 live cartridges were seized from his.

The SP said that they were also involved in the Axis Bank loot case of Muzaffarpur on April 21 last.

Baiju Kahaar, who has been absconding for the past one decade, is wanted in several criminal cases including murder and bank dacoity cases.
Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms shot dead two Romanian soldiers in the country's south today, officials said, in the first insider attack on foreign troops since the Taliban launched their spring offensive last month.

The insurgents have so far not claimed responsibility for the attack in Kandahar province, which highlights long-simmering tensions between Afghan and foreign forces.

"Two Resolute Support (NATO) service members died this morning when two individuals wearing Afghan (security) uniforms opened fire... In southern Afghanistan," the military coalition said.

"Resolute Support members returned fire and killed the shooters."



The two soldiers were identified as Romanian, the defence ministry in Bucharest said, adding that the incident occurred during a training mission for Afghan police.

A third Romanian soldier was left wounded in the incident and transferred to a hospital in Germany, the ministry said in its statement.

The attack comes after the insurgents last month announced the start of their annual spring offensive, vowing "large-scale attacks" across Afghanistan.

So-called "green-on-blue" attacks -- when Afghan soldiers or police turn their guns on international troops -- have been a major problem during NATO's long years fighting alongside Afghan forces.

In a similar attack in August last year, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform shot dead two American soldiers in the southern opium-rich province of Helmand.

And in April last year an American soldier was killed in a firefight between US and Afghan troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Western officials say that most such attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots.

The killings have bred fierce mistrust between local and foreign forces even as the rate of such incidents has dropped in recent years.

NATO troops have adopted special security measures in recent years to try to counter the threat.
A senior United Nations official today brushed aside an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a lecture on Jewish history, amid a row over a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Netanyahu said yesterday he would host the lecture in response to a recent resolution of the UN's cultural body condemning Israeli "aggressions" against Muslims at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while failing to mention the site's Jewish name Temple Mount.

The UNESCO executive board resolution, submitted by several Arab countries, was described by Netanyahu as "denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, our holiest site".

He said the lecture, to be delivered by a scholar in the coming weeks, would educate UN staff and diplomats about the site's history.

The UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, bristled at the suggestion that UN staff in Jerusalem were insufficiently educated.

"If someone wants to issue invitations they should be for Paris and addressed to the ambassadors of the member-states of UNESCO there," he said in a statement.

"UN staff in Jerusalem know the history of the region, its people and religions all too well."



Netanyahu last month slammed the "absurd" resolution for ignoring Judaism's connection 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".

After Israel's reaction, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova issued a statement stressing that "Jerusalem is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people".

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 focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It has seen frequent clashes over fears that Israel is planning to change the rules that allow Muslims to pray there but Jews only to visit.

Netanyahu denies seeking to change the status quo.

According to Biblical tradition, the first and second Jewish temples were located at the site before being destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans.
In the wake of the public firestorm sparked by the Panama Papers scandal, the Obama administration has announced several new rules to combat financial crimes and close current loopholes in the US system that allow foreigners to hide assets in American accounts.

The announcement follows a month of intense scrutiny after the release to media organisations of more than 11 million leaked documents detailing the global offshore industry.

The Department of Treasury issued proposed rules to close a current loophole in the US system that allows foreign persons to hide assets in American account, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a letter to the Congress.

A copy of the letter was released to the press by the White House as the Obama Administration issues a slew of measures and urged the Congress to take necessary legislative actions to strengthen financial transparency and combat money laundering, corruption and tax evasion.

The move comes in the wake of mounting criticism of the US in the aftermath of the leaks of the so-called Panama Papers.

"Today's actions build upon the substantial progress the United States and its global partners have made to date in strengthening the global financial system and providing greater transparency, so that criminals and tax cheats cannot hide their activities using anonymous shell companies and other legal entities," the White House said.

"These efforts are critical to preventing criminals from using the global financial system to launder proceeds from corruption or other illegal activities, finance criminal activity or even terrorism, evade international sanctions regimes, or evade taxes," it said.

In recent weeks, the disclosure of the so-called 'Panama Papers' - millions of leaked documents reportedly revealing the use of anonymous offshore shell companies - has brought the issues of illicit financial activity and tax evasion into the spotlight, the White House said.

The Panama Papers underscore the importance of the efforts the US has taken domestically, and the efforts we have undertaken with our international partners, to address these shared challenges, it added.

"There is a narrow class of foreign-owned US entities - typically, single-member limited liability companies - that have no obligation to obtain a tax identification number or to report information to the IRS. This loophole can be used to shield the foreign owners of non-US assets or non-US bank accounts," Lew said in his letter.

Under these new regulations, these new entities must report ownership an transaction information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), helping to further the fight against tax evasion, he said.
Government will present Uttarakhand Budget for 2016-17 and table Uttarakhand Appropriation (Vote on Account) Bill, 2016 to replace an Ordinance on Monday when the last week of the current session begins amid raging political rows over imposition of President's Rule in the hill state and AgustaWestland deal.

A high-decibel discussion on the Uttarakhand Budget is expected in the Lok Sabha on Moday as it has been listed in the business for the day.

After laying the Uttarakhand Budget for 2016-17 on the table in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitely will move a Motion for suspension of Rule 205 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House to enable discussion on the same day.

Otherwise Rule 205 states that there shall be no discussion of the Budget on the day on which it is presented to the House and a subsequent day has to be fixed by the Speaker to take up the discussion.

Uttarakhand Budget will also be laid on the table of Rajya Sabha on Monday and the Upper House will take this up for consideration and returning to Lok Sabha later, an official statement said.

Government had promulgated the Uttarakhand Appropriation (Vote on Account) Ordinance, 2016 last month which authorised expenditure in the hill state as it had come under President's rule because of the political crisis there.

Congress leader Harish Rawat, whose government was ousted following imposition of President's rule, will seek a vote of confidence on May 10 following a direction of the Supreme Court. The apex court was hearing the Centre's petition challenging the revoking of President's rule by the Uttarakhand High Court on Rawat's plea.

There is not much legislative agenda for the last week of the session.

Lok Sabha will resume the inconclusive discussion on drought situation in the country besides taking up the Anti-Hijacking Bill, 2016 as passed by Rajya Sabha.

Rajya Sabha will take up the Appropriation (Railways) No.2 Bill, 2016, the Finance Bill,2016 and the Uttarakhand Appropriation Bill,2016 for returning the same to Lok Sabha.

The Indian Trusts (Amendment) Bill,2015, earlier passed by the Lok Sabha has been listed for Monday in the Upper House.

Besides, a discussion on working of the Ministry of



Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises is scheduled to take place there.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill,2012 and the Rajendra Central University Bill,2015 are on the legislative agenda of the Government, which are first to be taken up in Rajya Sabha and then in Lok Sabha.

Last week, both the Houses have held short duration discussion on the alleged irregularities in AgustaWestland Helicopters procurement further to the judgment of Court of Appeals of Milan, Italy.

During the first two weeks of the current Budget session, Lok Sabha has passed six Bills including the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2015, the Railways Appropriation and Finance Bill.

The Lower House also discussed the Demands for Grants of six ministries---the development of North-Eastern Region, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Social Justice and Empowerment, Civil Aviation and Tourism.

Tourism was added to the list of five ministries initially identified for such discussion.

Rajya Sabha has so far passed seven bills including the Industries (Development and Regulation)Amendment Bill,2015 and discussed the working of the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and HRD. The drought situation was also discussed.
Five unidentified robbers today looted valuables worth about Rs 6 lakh from the home of a transporter after injuring his wife at Palahigate locality, police said.

Gurminder Singh, son of transporter Kuldip Singh Basra said his mother Paramjit Kaur was alone in the home as his father was off to Himachal Pradesh on his work and he himself was also away.

The robbers with their masks on entered the home after scaling the boundary wall, attacked his mother who fell unconscious and then ransacked the house and decamped with jewellery and cash worth about Rs 6 lakh, he claimed.

Gurminder said his maidservant noticed the loot when she she came to house around 2 pm and raised an alarm.

Police said a case has been registered in this regard and investigations are underway.
As a supporter of Bernie Sanders for President, we as Oregonians need to be aware that six of our super delegates have already committed their important vote for Hillary Clinton without listening to us. Super delegates were put in place in 1984 to ensure that established Democratic Party loyalists would be able to control the outcome of the election should a populist candidate arise.

Bernie Sanders is running a campaign for all of us with a focus on our corrupt campaign finance system, income equality, racial injustice, the need for universal healthcare and paid family leave and a $15.00/hour minimum wage in all fifty states. Bernie Sanders will continue on to the 2016 Democratic National Convention where realistically, neither he nor Hillary Clinton will have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination without the support of the super delegates. As Oregonians, we cannot let our elected representatives give Hillary Clinton that victory without hearing what the voters want.

We can send a message to Ron Wyden (US Senator), Kate Brown (Oregon Governor), Ellen Rosenblum (Oregon Attorney General), Suzanne Bonamici (US Representative, District 1), Earl Blumenauer (US Representative, District 3) and Kurt Schrader (US Representative, District 5) by NOT voting for them in the May 17th primary. Their commitment to vote for Hillary Clinton is premature and unacceptable. We as Oregonians need to understand that we have the power to vote these officials out of office because they are disrespecting our presidential preference of Bernie Sanders.
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "silence" on the brutal rape and murder of a Kerala Dalit law student and said he has "no time" to visit her family just because it happened in a state ruled by his party.

Attacking the Congress leader, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said Rahul "politicised" the suicide of Rohith Vemula by twice visiting Hyderabad and questioned if he had done so as the state was ruled by a non-Congress government.

"The student was raped and murdered in Kerala. Rahul has no time to visit because his party is ruling the state. He visits Hyderabad twice to politicise students suicide.

"Kerala people are asking why when a student and a Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered Rahul is not visiting Kerala. They are reminded that he visited Hyderabad twice. Is it only because it's a state ruled by non-Congress government?," he said at an election rally in Chelakara in Thrissur district.

Naidu also attacked former Defence Minister A K Antony for his "BJP-free Kerala" remark, saying Antony wants "corruption to continue" in the poll-bound state whereas BJP wants a "corruption-free Kerala".

"We want corruption free Kerala and Shri A K Antony wants BJP free Kerala. May be he wants corruption to continue...

"Congress and Communists are worried about BJP gaining ground in Kerala. Beware they may come together and exchange votes," he also tweeted.

Attacking the previous UPA government, Naidu said "most dirty scams had happened during the time of Mr. Clean 1 Sri Manmohan Singh and Mr Clean 2 Sri AK Antony..."



He also took a dig at the "understanding" between the Left and Congress in West Bengal assembly elections, saying "Congress and Left!!! Bengal mein dosti, Kerala mein kusti.
The 24th edition of TiEcon, the annual conference of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) in Silicon Valley, is currently underway at the Santa Clara Convention Center, in California. The two-day conference is expected to attract several thousand entrepreneurs, venture capitalists (VC), and software professionals.

The speaker list included Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Diane Greene, co-founder and former CEO of VMware and currently senior vice-president of Google, and Bonny Simmi, three-time Olympian, commercial pilot, and head of JetBlue Technology Ventures, and Nobel Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi.

This year, TiEcon introduced VC Connect, a programme which introduces start-ups to VCs. A Mentor Connect programme connected start-up founders with mentors. Introduced in 2009, TiE 50 selects top 50 start-ups. This year 1,732 start-ups from 13 countries applied.

TiEcon also features an exhibition. Odisha and Andhra Pradesh are participating as exhibitors this year. The youngest entrepreneur at TiEcon is nine-year old Yash Semlani, working on his own lemonade franchise.

Human intuition cannot be replaced: Adobe CEO



"Robots can never be great at marketing," said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen (pictured). "Human intuition cannot be replaced."



"It is an absolutely phenomenal time in the Valley to be an entrepreneur," he said, delivering his keynote speech. Enterprises are seeing an experience wave, where customers are demanding consistent, compelling, personalised service, at every level of contact with companies. He calls it the third wave, saying the first wave of enterprise disruption was the back-office wave, with companies focusing on enterprise resource planning , and the next-wave was the front-office wave, with firms focusing on Salesforce and customer relationship management.

San Jose pins hope on Indo-American



The home of tech behemoths like Cisco, Adobe, eBay, and PayPal, San Jose is the heart of innovation in Silicon Valley. And, it relies on a young Indian American for innovation. Shireen Santosham, a Harvard graduate, took up the position of chief innovation officer and senior policy advisor for the City of San Jose, quitting her previous job as director, research & insights, connected society, GSMA. She is pushing ahead a smart city initiative, moving processes online, partnering with Facebook and crowd-sourcing applications.

Trump & Modi: politics of tech



Even as billionaire Donald Trump secures the Republican presidential nomination, the mood in liberal California seems to be against him. His Democrat opponent Hillary Clinton, who is also likely to get the nomination, also inspires scepticism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, is a winner. Venktesh Shukla, general partner, Monta Vista Capital, is chairman of TiE Global, and president of TiE Silicon Valley. He had hosted Modi during a visit to Silicon Valley last year.

Multi-factor authentication



"We've been in the cross-hairs of some of the best hackers in the world," said Diane Greene (pictured), founder and former CEO of VMware, and senior vice president for Google's cloud business. The search giant employs 600 security engineers to make sure its cloud services are safe. "Use multi-factor authentication, no matter what," she said, smiling as she summed up her keynote at TiEcon.
The Cupertino technology giant, Apple, has elevated Sanjay Kaul as the country manager for Apple India. Although there has been no official communication from the company, Kaul's LinkedIn has been updated with the same.

A Canadian citizen, Kaul has been associated with Apple since Novmeber 2011 and has been taking care of the Apple's iPhone business. From heading iPhone business to Director, Telecom, he has now taken over the role of Country head from Manish Dhir, who had quit the company in January this year.



Before joining Apple, Kaul was associated with BlackBerry (earlier Research In Motion) in the capacity of Director - Channel sales for India for over two years where he revived Airtel BlackBerry business to achieve three digit percentage growth in net subscriber additions in 12 months. After completing his Msc (Tech) Engineering Technology, Industrial Engineering from BITS Pilani, Kaul completed his MBA in International Business from Gustavson School of Business, Canada in 1998 and moved back to India in 2008.

According to a recent report released by Canalys, Apple is challenging Samsung's dominance in premium segment, for devices priced over Rs 20,000.

Samsung's market share fell from 66 per cent in Q1 2015 to 41 per cent in Q1 2016, while Apple grew its market share from 11 per cent to 29 per cent. Currently at eighth position, Apple continued to increase its market share and increased shipments by 56 per cent.

Recently, in an interview with CNBC, CEO Tim Cook stated that India is an important market for all its products. Of late, Apple has shifted focus to India and is working towards opening its own branded stores in India.
The largest student party in Europe

Published on May 7, 2016

Story by Isabelle Bonenkamp

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Aarhus University holds a boat race in its University Park each year since 1991. Over the years, it has become the biggest student party in Europe which I knew nothing about until I moved here  A review.

The Aarhus University website describes the race as the following: The race is a beer-drinking relay race involving representatives from different courses at the University. This year, it was the Economy department, Psychology, Law, Dentists, Medicine, Journalists, Sport scientist, Nurses & Teachers, Computer scientists & Physicists and Political Scientists competing against each other. They all have to row across the lake, drink a bottle of beer, run around the bottle ten times and row back again. On the other bank, the next team member waits to take over the boat. The fastest team wins. There are two rounds, the first one with three races and the finale.

Who cannot picture it, here is an impression (watch from minute 1:30):

However, this race is just a part of the event called Kapsejladsen in Danish.

For some, it actually starts the day before. Friends of mine said: We start drinking the morning the day before, so that we can go to bed early. This means, if the race is on a Friday, they play beer bowling the entire Thursday to get into the right mood. Of course, when being drunk, not everyone manages to go to bed as early as planned but fortunately someone will make sure every alarm is set on half past five to get up in time for the event.

After three hours of sleep the welcome in the kitchen at six in the morning is a shot. The motto of the day: never sober up. Many people already are in the park at four am to get the bests spots with the best view and start drinking even earlier.

Arriving at seven am in the University park however means that you are already too late for a spot that would at least show the transmission on one of the screens. Music is already playing loudly from speakers everywhere.

Everywhere, there are people on their blankets, camping chairs  those living nearby brought couches  have breakfast and beer. At 12 am will the naked run (people running a race entirely naked and jump into the lake in the end) and only at 2:30 pm will be the first race.

That means, more than 30.000 Danes have been drinking for seven hours when the party really starts. The national radio covers every single step from a raft in the middle of the lake, reporters with their cameras are everywhere. Red Bull has its tents all over the place.

The departments that really care about their team dress up in the same colours  yellow hats, orange t-shirts etc. Every team has a show with dancers and costumes to introduce themselves. I see a Pokemon Show, a Pirates of the Caribbean Show... and if it not a team introduction, then a play about Leonardo di Caprios TV roles by the Aarhus University Party department or performances of famous Danish artists to entertain the crowds.

After the first race the park gets wasted. As the people start to run around and dance, every blanket, bag, chair, piece of clothing gets stepped on and left in the dirt. Beer cans and empty bottles are everywhere. People get so crazy that it is hard to understand why rumours about this party have never really made it across the borders. I guess the weather usually kept the spirits lower but this year, the day of the race turns out to be the hottest and sunniest day of the year so far. The atmosphere is great.

In the end, the yellow hats win: it is the team of the psychology department. Lucky me, I get to be among the winners because my roommate is a psychologist. What a day. What a party. What an experience.

Here are the highlights of 2015:

And 2014:

Story by Isabelle Bonenkamp
Spring Gate Vineyard

The Cinco de Mayo party drew around 400 people to Spring Gate Vineyard on Thursday, some coming for the margarita cider that's being held in this photo.

(Facebook)

Two quick notes from Spring Gate Vineyard, which has left behind its second birthday (March 31) in the rear-view mirror.

While new, it has quickly gained a following, drawing many to its Lower Paxton Twp. location that's less than a mile off Jonestown Road and a couple minutes off I-83 and I-81. Owner Marty Schoffstall keeps upgrading the grounds and rehabbing the buildings that dot the 60-acre farm estate, providing more space for visitors.

It now boasts of one of the busier schedules of all the regional wineries. Typical of the activity that keeps Schoffstall and his staff hopping is this week's list of events: a Cinco de Mayo party on Thursday, a Derby Day festival and chocolate and wine feast Saturday, and Mother's Day Fest along with the start of the Hershey Harrisburg Wine Country's Sweet Surrender tasting event on Sunday.

By Monday, Schoffstall said, they're ready for a breather, which is one explanation why the winery currently is open only Wednesday through Sundays.

"The kind of a tasting room model of a winery, I'm not sure for our location is workable," Schoffstall said by phone on Friday. "One is that, we really get beaten down on a Saturday and Sunday. Two to three thousand people on a weekend, I mean it takes really kind of two and a half days to kind of recuperate the property so we can open up that Wednesday at 6 o'clock.

"And ourselves as well. Monday morning we all get together and we kind of talk about what happened and what are we going to prepare for this coming weekend. I try to take off Tuesday. It's kind of hard to see what [it would take] to keep a high-maintenance facility like this open seven days a week."

It has gotten so busy on Saturdays, he said, that they have started doing tastings at a 25-foot bar outside because the size of their tasting room can't accommodate those kinds of crowds. "Take this Saturday," he said. "We might do a thousand tastings, or more, and that's independent of anyone's desire to glass to to bottle.

"Now the people who are local and have a lot of experience here, they look at where we're tasting on Saturday and say, 'well, I've tasted all that, so I'm going to walk inside and order a bottle or a glass.' That's what we've been doing for the last six weeks. Now, on our big courtyard, we're opening a cottage which just sells bottles. And we don't even open them."

Schoffstall noted that other wineries have gone through these growth spurts and adjusted. One, he said, was Seven Mountains Wine Cellars up near State College, which has installed several long bars in its large tasting and production building. "They have four bars and they do different things at those bars based on the events and the traffic and whatever they have," he said. "We definitely get complaints about some things that we do. But a lot of it has to do just with the growth that we've had. [For instance], we had no idea last [Thursday] night how big Cinco de Mayo would be. There were 400 people here. It's hard to judge how many people will come to different things, especially when we're doing them for the very first time."

One thing Schoffstall said he's trying to do is spread out the crowds by adding more themed events on Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. He already has created Thirsty Thursdays, with a music-driven weekly event called Whimsical Wednesdays also in the planning stages. In addition to more pairing events and festivals on Sundays, the spillover from the Sweet Arrow and Hershey Harrisburg trail events already has a positive impact on Sunday attendance.

Spring Gate remains one of a handful of producers making wine (including products from its highly regarded sister winery in Virginia), cider and beer, and that is also evolving into distilled products. Schoffstall said he found a partner that will distill brandy for them, already leading to an apply brandy. Next up will be something he's calling Cider Royale, which should be released to members of the wine club on May 18 and available to the public thereafter.
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Parks and wildlife, A&M-CC test drones

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department partnered with Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to determine if using unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, is as effective as using planes, officials said.

Michael Starek, assistant professor of engineering, has been analyzing the images and data collected from flights in December of a small aircraft about 450 feet above Redfish Bay's seagrasses. The department conducted aerial surveys since 2007 using piloted aircraft flying at an altitude of about 2,000 feet, said Faye Grubbs, Upper Laguna Madre Ecosystem Leader with the department. This project will compare the output from each method, and analyze costs of processing and ease of mobilization, officials said.

The first step is to show drone-captured data is comparable to that collected from manned planes. University researchers have been doing just that for several years, flying along the coast and comparing drone-captured images to data from on-the-ground and in-the-water surveying by traditional means.

Starek stated one of the biggest challenges with aerial imaging of the sea floor is weather and water clarity.

Although the results show the capabilities, Starek said unmanned aircraft technology still has to evolve both in platform endurance and in regulations to allow these systems to fly autonomously over much larger areas, such as an entire bay system. This latter component will evolve as the technology and confidence in its use matures.

Seagrasses serve as a refuge and nursery ground for fish, shrimp and crabs. They provide oxygen to the water column and serve as an area for growth of drift algae, a food source for shrimp, fish and crabs.

A law prohibiting the uprooting of seagrasses coastwide was passed by the Texas Legislature during the 83rd legislative session and has been in effect since September 2013. Motorboats cause propeller scarring when they drift into shallow waters and tear a trough in the bay bottom.

The department continues to collect aerial imagery in four areas along the Texas coast to evaluate the effects of the regulation. Based on the outcome of this project, Grubbs said the department may use drones for not only monitoring changes in propeller scarring, but possibly for mapping other habitats as well.

McMurry accepts Odem resident

Katherine Pesek of Odem was accepted by McMurry University for entrance in fall 2016. Additionally, Pesek received a scholarship at the scholarship day competition April 9. The Scholarship Day awards provide an annual stipend of at least $8,000 and are renewable for up to eight semesters of full-time study.

McMurry University was founded in 1923 as a United Methodist institution. The university enrolls more than 1,200 students and has an average class size of 16. No graduate assistants teach courses and over 77 of our professors have achieved the highest degree in their academic field, officials said.

Fellowship keeps up legacy of Tunnell

A fellowship was established to continue the teaching legacy of longtime educator, author and marine scientist Wes Tunnell, Harte Research Institute (HRI) for Gulf of Mexico Studies Endowed Chair for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, officials said.

Inspired by Tunnell's commitment to his students and to Mexico, the Harte Charitable Foundation has committed to funding the Dr. Wes Tunnell Gulf of Mexico Fellowship Program. The fellowship will support a Mexican or American graduate student with a commitment to research in Mexico while he or she pursues graduate education at the HRI and at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Tunnell is a marine ecologist and biologist focusing primarily on coastal and coral reef ecosystems, and has been studying the banks off South Texas since his graduate research work in the late 1960s. He is founder and former Director of the Center for Coastal Studies, and he assisted in the development of the Harte Research Institute, served as its first Associate Director and helped design its building, officials said.

Tunnell also assisted in the development of two Bachelor of Science programs along with four master's degree and two doctoral programs at A&M-Corpus Christi. Tunnell was also instrumental in establishing seven graduate student scholarships in the Center for Coastal Studies and has advised or co-advised 70 master's students, seven doctoral students and four postdoctoral research associates.

The Harte Charitable Foundation will establish the fellowship program in perpetuity with the goal of continuing his work enriching the lives of students and scholars in pursuit of the conservation and study of the Gulf of Mexico.

Pack named to Brenau dean's list

Joan Paula Pack of Corpus Christi achieved Brenau University dean's list Honors for the fall 2015 semester.

Pack is a 2016 student majoring in music. Dean's list students must maintain at least a 3.6 grade-point average while carrying at least 15 semester hours of course work, officials said.

A&M-K staff attend annual state confab

Members of the Distance Learning and Instructional Technology staff at Texas A&M University-Kingsville recently attended the 19th annual Texas Distance Learning Association Conference in San Antonio, officials said. Several staff members are officers of the organization while others presented at conference sessions. The university also was a Gold Sponsor.

Rolando Garza, instructional designer II, was the conference chairman and is president-elect. He takes over as president July 1. Dr. Michelle Duran, director of distance learning and instructional technology, is chairwoman of the board for the Texas Distance Learning Association. She also is one of the managing editors of the Journal of Distance Learning.

Marie-Anne Mundy, assistant professor in the educational leadership and counseling department in the College of Education and Human Performance, is one of the editors of the Journal of Distance Learning.

More than 443 distance learning professionals from Texas and other states attended the conference. Several of the sessions were presented by Texas A&M-Kingsville faculty and staff.

Presentations included: Duran, Garza and Christina Cross, Lone Star College, Applying Project Management Methodologies in Distance Education Departments; Ryan Rhoades, associate professor, and Dr. Steven Chumbley, assistant professor, Dick and Mary Lewis Kleberg College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Human Sciences, Assessment of Self-Regulated Learning Level in Hybrid Agriculture Courses; Victoria Packard, MLIS, professor, Coordinator of Instructional Services and Distance Learning, 21st Century Librarian: Teaching in the Academic Classroom; Patti Huskin, assistant professor, Department of Teacher and Bilingual Education, College of Education and Human Performance, Creating an Effective Learning Environment by Engaging Online Learners; Harmeet Singh, lecturer, College of Business Administration, and Duran, Instructor Attitudes Towards Incorporating Distance Learning in Existing Curricula; Barbara Oates, professor, marketing and management, College of Business Administration, Singh and Cynthia Farias, multimedia instructional specialist, Pushing Online Student Engagement to New Horizons; Duran and Dr. Randy McDonald, TxDLA president, The TxDLA Strategic Plan: A Progress Update; Lori Kupczynski, associate professor, educational leadership and counseling, Mundy and Dr. Shanta Varma, University of Houston, Women in Distance Learning Leadership Roles: Challenges and Strategies; and Huskin, Unimaginable Limits! Reaching All Students Through Differentiation and Accommodations.

Compiled by Natalia Contreras
SHARE KIRSTEN CROW/CALLER-TIMES Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott looks over crowds on N. Chaparral Street after a ceremony celebrating Corpus Christi's recent induction into the Texas Main Street program. The program promotes downtown revitalization. Contributed rendering This contributed rendering gives a glimpse into the possibilities of revitalizing the historic Ritz Theatre in downtown Corpus Christi. KIRSTEN CROW/CALLER-TIMES A candid photo of Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott (left) and Corpus Christi Mayor Nelda Martinez after a ceremony celebrating Corpus Christi's recent induction into the Texas Main Street program. The program promotes downtown revitalization. KIRSTEN CROW/CALLER-TIMES The ceremony celebrating Corpus Christi's recent induction into the Texas Main Street program was held on N. Chaparral Street, where the city has invested in revitalization.

By Kirsten Crow of the Caller-Times

There were two stars at a celebration for the city's recently acquired Main Street status: Texas first lady Cecilia Abbott and a re-imagining of Corpus Christi's downtown.

Although the city officially became a part of the Texas Main Street Program in January, Friday was its ceremonial "welcome," held in an appropriate place  the heart of N. Chaparral Street.

The state program promotes downtown revitalization through additional resources, including professional technical support and economic development expertise  all while keeping an eye on preserving the historic elements of the area. It also assists with federal and state tax credits.

The success of the Texas Main Street Program relies heavily on the efforts of community partners and volunteers, Abbott said.

"I cannot think of a better way to commemorate the (storied) past of your community than by working with your neighbors to honor these cherished places and the promise their futures hold," she said.

The idea is to "identify new investments that will stimulate growth while sustaining this city's unique qualities and its history," said John Nau, chairman of the Texas Historical Commission, in his remarks.

"Preservation is not all about the past," he said. "It's about developing economic opportunity for the future of communities across our great state. This Texas Main Street program preserves the authentic character of the Texas downtowns, while bringing new businesses and most importantly, more tourist dollars into the local economy."

A rendering unveiled during the ceremony, attributed to Abbott, showed the Ritz Theatre repainted, with a new marquee. Next door, shops are shown as brightly painted, with windows open.

The image is intended to "get people to think what could be," said Terry Sweeney, executive director of the Downtown Management District.

In all, the program includes 87 cities. There were three new cities that were selected to enter the program this year: Corpus Christi, Sherman and Brownsville.

Revitalizing Corpus Christi's downtown area has taken on additional significance in the past few years.

Advocates have worked to make downtown more of a destination, and the community has embraced a block party atmosphere in celebrations of Dia de los Muertos, St. Patrick's Day and Fiesta de la Flor  which was underway Friday  in honor of hometown star Selena Quintanilla Perez.

The city invested in sprucing up N. Chaparral Street, and the downtown Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone board  which oversees the reinvestment of property tax value increments into the downtown area  has recently awarded incentives to three proposed residential developments. Two would redevelop vacant buildings in Uptown, and the third would revamp a business building into apartments.

Other cities in the Main Street program have had "impressive visual, cultural and economic results to show for it," Sweeney said.

"For Corpus Christi, this dedication marks a dawning of a renewed and dedicated downtown revitalization effort," he said.
What has Gov. Abbott done about the six mass shootings on his watch?
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO This woman is accused of stealing a bag from a Southside restaurant.

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By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

Police are looking for woman who stole a purse last week in a Southside restaurant.

The owner called police on April 29 and told them that a woman took a hobo bag that was unattended and left the restaurant in the 5200 block of Kostoryz Road during the lunch rush. The bag is said to be filled with valuables, including cash, according to a news release from Corpus Christi police.

Surveillance video shows a woman in her late 20s wearing an orange and white sundress with a tattoo on her upper right arm. The woman grabs the bag and then picks up a baby before leaving.

Police say anyone who can help identify the woman should call Crime Stoppers at 888-TIPS. Clues leading to an arrest could earn the caller cash.

Twitter: @Caller_Fares
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By Beatriz Alvarado of the Caller-Times

A 46-year-old man struck while waiting at a red light has died, according to a Department of Public Safety news release.

DPS officials were called about 2:30 a.m. Thursday for a three-vehicle crash about nine miles east of Beeville on U.S. Highway 59, the release states.

A man driving a white 2014 Dodge Ram "for unknown reasons failed to control his speed" and struck a black 2012 Honda Civic and a black 2005 GMC Envoy stopped at a red light, the release states.

Eustolio Jose Longoria, of Victoria, was in the Honda. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Ram's driver was taken to Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi by HALO-Flight with injuries that were not life threatening, the release states. The Envoy's driver was treated and released at the scene.

Twitter: @CallerBetty
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You can whip up this satisfying meal in minutes, but it tastes like it took hours of simmering. The three-ingredient lemony orzo soaks up the thick tomato-based sauce and gives the dish a citrusy zing. On another night, try the stew over rice or mashed potatoes.

Prep time 30 minutes

Total time 30 minutes

Portion size 4 servings
Friday, May 6, 2016 at 11:05AM

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

I've long been a skeptic when it comes to Virtual Reality or VR. I've covered the technologies and evolution of virtual reality since the mid-90's when the idea was that the internet and VR could easily create a connected, immersive and interactive reality alongside reality itself.

But like many widely heralded buzz-worthy technologies, VR always felt like a hollow promise mired by compromise at every turn. It required expensive and enormous headsets, a ton of wires connected to a supercomputer, and the content was, for the most part, as low-rez and blocky as what one could get out of a PlayStation One console. It is now 2016 and companies are flying high the VR flag again, what's different this time is that there are actual consumer products as well as content generated specifically for VR.

HTC invited me to try their HTC Vive VR headset in a Toronto hotel a few days ago and I brought a healthy dose of skepticism with me. Here's what I learned.

HTC collaborates





I've always respected HTC as a smartphone manufacturer. They create some of the most compelling and well-built Android handsets in the market today, including the HTC 10, which in my opinion is the cream of the current Android flagship crop by a wide margin.

HTC has also created tablets to some degree of success (Nexus 9) and they've not been afraid of experimenting in accsssories. The convenient HTC RE camera is a personal favourite that didn't seem to fly and HTC has also gotten deep into the fitness tracking game by collaborating with sportswear brand Under Armour and the result is the UNder Armour HealthBox which incorporates a wearable health tracker, a heart-rate monitor and a scale all built by HTC.

The Vive is a 50/50 effort between HTC and Valve which is a gaming focused technology innovator. HTC has proven it can collaborate with companies to a great degree of success and having spent time with the Vive, the results do speak for themselves.

What is HTC Vive?





Composed of a connected VR Headset with two 1080p HD displays (one for each eye), a surround headset, two controllers that incorporate motion sensors, accelerometers, buttons and a trackpad plus two VR receivers the size of small speakers, HTV Vive is connected to a high-spec PC to place the user in the centre of a virtual reality scenarios.

My biggest beef with any headset or even 3D glasses is that they're not designed for people who wear glasses. I'm nearsighted and very astigmatic so I need my specs on all the time, a headset that can't accomodate them is a non-starter for me as I assume it is for many other users.

Thankfully, the HTC Vive headset allows a little wiggle room for eyeglasses. Like slipping into an Alien facehugger, the HTC Vive goes over your head and has straps that keep things snug. How snug? My glasses were soon misting up and were pressed right against my eyeballs. Despit this, I could still see out a sliver and could make out the floor below me if I really wanted to.

Once the headset is added on, you're completely deprived of all sensory input except what is being mainlined into your eyes and ears. The HTC person didn't seem to realize this as they were giving me instructions which I could barely hear.

Inside the Matrix





Once you've suited up the headset and fired up HTC Vive, you're completely immersed in a 360' degree visual and aural construct.

Looking up from the launch application, I could see a giant moon, the stars and various celestial bodies. The first demo had me in an underwater scene walking on a wrecked ship. Above me was stray light filtering from the surface as digitized fish swam by. A large whale comes close enough to stare me in the eye before it decides to whip its tail and swim off.

The visuals were smooth without any glitching or weird artifacts which made the illusion feel complete and real. Even moving one's head up, down, side to side changed the view and perspective of what was around me. I could also interact with elements within the experience, including a robotic dog that could be petted and sticks that could be picked up or thrown. The Vive controllers are quite intuitive and easy to use,

The graphics are cartoony enough to inform you that what you're seeing isn't real but the scale, fluid motion and continuity as you spin around and even take steps back and forth is uncanny. The technology has to choose whether to render accurate items in the foreground of smoothen animation and it seems like in the demo, I saw a lot of both.

Another demo had me scaling a tall mountain and the illusion was so accurate that my eyes and mind perceived the height even if I was firmly planted. Virtually going up a mountain and being able to move a few paces back and forth and even walk around is seriously cool. The only thing missing was the cold mountain air and the feeling of wind gusting on my face.

Other cool demos included firing robotic talking cannonballs from a large crossbow into a warehouse filled with explosives as well as being able to draw and paint in 3-D space.

Using Google's Tilt Brush application, I was able to to draw and paint lines and shapes and walk around these as they were suspended in space. The range of materials and colours that you can choose to paint in space is vast and each has an incredibly accurate texture and amount of detail.

The other VR demos were exciting and showed of various capabilities of the technology but they are basically demoware. I doubt many users will spend hours scaling a virtual mountain or walking a shipwreck, but Google's Tilt Brush is another thing altogether.

This is a VR drawing application that's beyond 3D in its immersive nature and proof that there are some applications to VR that go beyond fun and games. This is not to say that Tilt Brush isn't fun, I could have easily spent another hour exploring what this transformative application could do. If you had to test one application on the HTC Vive, try Tilt Brush.

Impressions





So, am I a VR convert? Not completely. The headset is still heavy and quite claustrophobic. The array of wires that come out the back and lead back to the connected PC are a hindrance. Expect to have a sweaty face and if you wear eyeglasses, they're going to be gross afterwards, so give them a good wash.

You can also get so immersed in the content that you can forget the very real and hard world around you. It is possible to get carried away and hit things or other people or a pet (anything you can't see while wearing the headset). If you do approach a wall, you get a grid within the Vive to remind your that you're hitting a boundary. Still, remember all the injuries that followed when the first Wii-motes came out? Well, in the case of VR you can't even see what is around you so maximum care must be taken.

I think everyone who has tried to use the Vive has likely felt like they were going to trip over them (not an issue if you're sitting down but the Vive's advantage is that you can stand and even walk around). You're still very much anchored to a PC (and the specs require some heavy hitting video cards, higher end processors and enough RAM).

The HTC Vive iself will cost $1,214.00 and if you're getting a PC from scratch, expect to pay at least another $1500.00. Not cheap by any means but still quite attainable specially if you're a content creator or developer willing to sink some money into what could very well be the future of media.

I salute HTC and Valve for coming to market with a compelling and cohesive platform for VR. I expect the best is yet to come and I personally haven't been this excited to see where a new technology is going since the first iPhone came out.

I am just wondering if VR will be able to come down in price for more people to seriously consider it. The hardware still needs a few iterations before we can really feel free and untethered (smaller headsets, wireless connections)? The content side of things is another big question mark. Right now there aren't standards, games and thrill rides are cool but I'd like to see more applications really make use of the technology the way Google has with Tilt Brush.

I still think that the HTC Vive represents myriad possibilities and is one of the clearest paths towards VR's march into the mainstream.
The maternal mortality ratio for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women nationally was double that of non-Indigenous mums and their children were twice as likely to die before the age of five. And average household income and educational attainment were both half that of non-Indigenous mothers.
"There's a value in being consistent and being human in coming back to the party. One of the ways you can do that is not focusing on your own content too much. It's actually coming back into social media in a meaningful way that warrants the renewed investment in time."
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Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact.

Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here.

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(This is the last post in a three-part series. You can see Part One here and Part Two here .)

This weeks question is:

Now that you have taught your first year, five years, or are about to retire, what do you wish you had been told or prepared for in the beginning of your career?



In Part One , Roxanna Elden, Dave Stuart Jr., Julia Thompson and Jennifer Gonzalez share their thoughts. You can listen to a ten-minute conversation I had with Roxanna, Dave and Julia on my BAM! Radio Show . You can also find a list of, and links to, previous shows here .

In Part Two , Linda Hoyt, Jenny Edwards, Mary Tedrow, and Vance L. Austin contributed their answers to the question.

Todays post in the last in a three-part series. Allison Marchetti, Rebekah ODell, Kathy Levy, Matthew R. Morris, Stuart O. Yager, Rita Platt and Larnette Snow finish it off with formal responses, and I also include tons of comments from readers.

Response From Allison Marchetti & Rebekah ODell

Allison Marchetti and Rebekah ODell teach 8th, 9th, and 12th grade English in Richmond, Virginia. Their first book, Writing with Mentors , was recently published by Heinemann. They are the co-founders of movingwriters.org :

We thought we knew everything when we left our teacher ed programs. We could plan a perfectly balanced lesson. We could cite all of the latest brain research. We were ready for the classroom of our dreams -- four walls, a bulletin board, hopefully a window or two, and, most importantly, a door we could close so that we could rule our kingdom without interruption or interference. The autonomy of the job was alluring.

But we quickly became burnt out on our little islands. When we experienced victories, they were hollow because no one else understood the dynamics of our classrooms. When we struggled, we did it silently, hoping to avoid the notice of our colleagues.

Heres what we didnt know: to thrive in this career, you have to find your tribe.

A tribe is more than just the sympathetic teacher down the hall. Tribes are made up of individuals who come from a similar point of origin. They share customs and beliefs. They are fundamentally linked.

Your tribe is that group of kindred teachers with whom you are linked by philosophical origin, classroom culture, and educational beliefs. They encourage you, support you, nudge you, inspire you, challenge you. They push you to be a better teacher tomorrow than you are today. Sometimes you find a large tribe. Sometimes its just one other person. Sometimes your tribe starts small, gains momentum, and grows.

Years into our careers, we finally found our tribe -- at first, just one another -- when we each left our previous schools for positions at a new school. In our first conversation, we recognized the marks of our tribe in one another. We read the same books, idolized the same teachers. We had similar goals both for ourselves as educators and for our students. And in the last three years, we have seen our classroom practice grow by tremendously.

Meeting during lunch or sneaking a chat between classes, we share what has just worked for us and what has fallen flat. We challenge each other to document these successes and failures in a blog. We sit in on each others classes for inspiration and a different perspective. We dare each other to try something new in our classroom every day.

We got really lucky -- we found our tribe in the classroom next door. Hopefully, you, too, will find colleagues in your own building who will listen to you vent while gently prodding you to re-examine, re-think, and try again. But, if your tribe doesnt reside in your school, dont lose heart. These days, the internet makes it easier than ever to find kindred spirits. Become involved and meet others through your professional organizations, both locally and nationally. (For us English teachers, the annual NCTE Convention is mothership calling our little tribe home.) Or log on after a long day of work and chat with other connected educators on Twitter.

So, what do we wish we had known earlier in our career? That engaged and passionate teachers need other teachers -- not just to listen and support, but to encourage us to try new things, expand our horizons, ask hard questions, and forge new territory in our classroom.





Response From Kathy Levy

Kathy Levy is a special educator (grades 3-5) in Long Island and a blossoming writer for early chapter books. She loves collaborating and working with teachers. Shes still a baby chick with Twitter @educ8ter1 but if you feed her tweets she will grow:

What do I wish I were told when I first started this profession? Like the genie in a lantern, there is not just one wish...heres the first three!

I wish I were told to:

1. Be patient. Not just for the kids sake, but also for the profession. Practice and curriculum changes develop to accommodate current research and education mandates. As teachers, we know we have to build strong foundations to develop strong learners. Lately, fostering student proficiency feels like we are entering the top floor of an apartment building through the fire escape trying to reach children who are first arriving in the lobby. Really? How will they meet those standards? Patience. The elevator will stop at every floor to let children in and out. Be patient. There are some perks-- every compulsory shift ends up putting some new learning and tools in our pockets adding to our knowledge.

2. Be Creative. Take your students as far as their imagination can go. Be a model for creative thinking and challenge students to think out of the box. Due to current evaluation procedures, teachers are afraid to color outside the rubric squares. These rubrics have become the teachers high stake testing, and we have begun to perform to the test- especially new untenured teachers. Cultivating creativity in our students and within ourselves is key to loving what you do and becoming great. Just ask Sir Ken Robinson (my favorite creative thinker). The out of the box thinkers are the ones that make marks in the world.

3. Be YOU. Never forget exactly why you teach--the children. We are their mentors, advocates, role models, heroes, etc. It is our job to educate with curiosity, patience, creativity, technology (see how I squeezed that in?), and passion. Love what you do!







Response From Matthew R. Morris



Matthew R. Morris is an Elementary educator, blogger, speaker, and Anti-Racism activist. He currently teaches fifth grade in the TDSB. He is also completing his M.A at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education:

As a new teacher, you will get all sorts of advice from other teachers as to how to do your job. Mentorship and advice from people who have been teaching for a long time is important when your beginning your career. But it all depends on how this advice is delivered. When you are starting out, dont be afraid to operate your classroom the way you want. Once you get those keys to the room, your class is your own, period. Do with it as you may. It is important to understand this because your students will ultimately respond best when they know and understand the true and authentic you. Dont yell at your students if that is not your personality. There may be times when you may have to act a certain way to convey a particular point to your students. But do it your own way. Take advice on strategies and technique as needed. You are free to try out a few, even. But understand, that everyone is different, every class is different, and in the long run you are going to come up with your own style, techniques, and methods of dealing with your students and managing your classroom. So, the best way to learn this job is to go out and do it - on your own.

A lasting thought on advice from experienced teachers. Yes, they have been teaching for a while and may have a lot of knowledge and lessons to give a young teacher. But remember what the young teacher has as well. A teacher of 15 years was talking to me and giving me a laundry list of dos and donts and insights into the adolescent mind. After rambling on for a while, I reminded her, that while her advice is built on years of experience and is valid, so is mine. She has been teaching adolescents for the last 15 years, but 15 years ago I was the exact age of those adolescents I now teach. So what I lack in experience I gain in relevance and relateability. Never count yourself short just because you are new and others have been at this for a while.

The experience factor usually balances out. More years can often means more out of touch with the idiosyncrasies and little things that drive an individual student. More experience can translate to a textbook approach. By this I mean that the sincerity of the unique daily experience is forgotten or dulled. For the beginning teacher, everything is new and fresh. Every students problem is cared for. These feelings and moments will inevitably fade, but in this time, new teachers still have the advantage of authenticity and complete and utter sincerity. Everything matters because it seems to matter. And although I am not condoning or condemning one factor over the other, sometimes as a new teacher, what you lose in experience, you gain in authenticity and raw emotions to situations. To the fresh teacher, everything is sincere still. Inevitably, it all balances out.





Response From Stuart O. Yager

Stuart O. Yager is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Western Illinois University:

I wish I wouldve been told that content is not as important as climate and community. In my early years as a teacher I spent far too much time being stressed about covering the content and I didnt think about the climate or the sense of community in my classroom. Now, after years of teaching, I know that in order for content to stick in long-term memory there must be a sense of trust, calmness, and safety in my classroom.

I focus my classroom climate on low stress and high challenge - low stress being first and foremost. Low threat is the tone I expect in my classroom. In my classroom, I want students to know what is expected of them, feel emotionally/physically safe, and know that they can do whats expected of them. They trust me - the teacher! Next, I want my students to feel a sense of community amongst themselves and with me. We look out for each other and help each other before we focus on the curriculum content. In a big sense, we are a family. We look out for each other, protect each other, and we are a team. Often, I model that Im learning alongside my students.

Were all life-long learners and Im not the keeper of the content. Climate and community in the classroom must come before content! I call these the three Cs and the order they come in is critical. Climate comes first, then community and lastly comes content. In my view, I see my classroom and the world I want to be in as a people help people world as opposed to a dog eat dog world. Therefore, I model: climate, community, and then content. I wish I had been told this at the beginning of my career. But, at least I can teach this to my students today!





Response From Rita Platt

Rita Platt (@ritaplatt ) is a Nationally Board Certified teacher who enjoys nothing more than thinking, talking, and writing about issues of teaching and learning. Find Ritas articles on education here :

Reach out to other teachers. Build a professional learning network, tag a mentor or two, and never be afraid to admit that you have questions or need help. These are lessons I learned in my first years teaching and 19 years later they still serves me well. Years ago, I taught in a remote Inuit village on the Bering Sea of the Alaskan coast. I was a good teacher and I felt confident, but, I was smart enough to know that Mrs. Trevithick was better. She, like most great teachers, was willing to answer all of my questions, to model for me, and to endlessly help me problem-solve.

There are few professions as challenging as teaching and there is a tendency for new teachers (and plenty of veterans) to think they have to do it by themselves. Thinking as a professional means using the body of knowledge that is out there and reaching out to colleagues and scholars for help. We must allow ourselves to be open to the possibility that someone else might have answers that work. We must maintain our status as life-long learners. Yes, each of us has something to add to the body of knowledge but we dont have to and shouldnt treat all of education as a do-it-yourself endeavor. There is no room for ego in teaching.

Almost two decades after I met Mrs. Trevithick, I still reach out. I use Twitter, Pinterest, lesson plan wikis, Google Docs (the list is endless) to share ideas and ask questions. I keep learning in low stress ways. I take online classes designed just for teachers, enroll in a MOOCs , and read professional books . Most importantly, I still reach out to my colleagues for questions and help.

Effective teachers are reflective learners. Reflection leads to questions. Do not be afraid to ask them!





Response From Larnette Snow

Larnette Snow has been a Pk-7 school librarian in Carroll and Patrick County Virginia for nineteen years. She wishes she could make all of her students life-long learners and readers. She attends many educational conferences and teacher institutes during the school year and in the summer:

Looking back at my nineteen years as a school librarian, I wish that my peers had encouraged me to go to regional and/or state conferences. Given the chance my first do over would be to go to my regions annual, spring library conference and to join the Virginia Association of School Librarians (VaASL) by my third year as a librarian, giving myself time to acclimate to the position.

I had been a librarian for nearly ten years before I went to my first regional conference and then it was a couple more after that before I joined VaASL and began attending the regional and state conferences every year. Boy, did I miss out on a lot of fun, learning, and fellowshipping!

During these past six years of attending the regional and state conferences, my professional growth has expanded through meeting and hearing outstanding librarians and authors as the featured speakers and during their concurrent sessions. I learn so much at each one and try to take at least one thing and use it in my own library.

One of our teachers is getting her Masters in secondary education with certification in library science. She attended the American Librarians Association Conference in Chicago this year as a student! My advice is not to wait for colleagues in your district to go to regional or state teacher institutes and/or conferences that are for your certification area. Dont worry about going solo or not knowing anyone. You will come away with many new friends and ideas. And if you think that you want to change to a new position, going to conferences in that area will not only look good on your curriculum vitae, but also help you determine if you truly want to change positions.

For your own professional growth begin attending these opportunities as soon as possible. You will not regret it.





Responses From Readers

David Deubelbeiss:

Hi Larry, Always a great question, necessary question for teachers. I wrote a post of the same title here . One thing there that Id state as number 1 for me is Find Your Place. Too often, young teachers suffer, suffer so hard because they are mismatched for their teaching environment. They then begin to have a fail mindset and dont feel teaching is their cup of tea. Its a big problem in teaching - we dont match new teachers very well with schools/teaching environments. Too often its about immediately filling a vacancy, practical things like the teacher needs to pay the bills etc .... But there are no bad teachers - just teachers who havent found the right place for their talents as people. Find your place, try your best to do that right from the start.

judy W:

I wish I had known about the growth mindset before I started teaching. I think the information we now have about how the brain grows smarter is invaluable. We need to get this info out to parents too! Lets start by reading childrens picture books early to young children. One book is GROWING SMARTER that has a growth mindset along with perseverance, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. These are all of the 21st century thinking skills in one GREAT book for kids and parents!



Michelle Thompson:

After 5 years of teaching middle years band/choir/art I wish someone had told me (and I listened) that its all about the journey, not the destination!! Process > Product. You will go absolutely insane trying to perfect every little detail because you feel the performance (product) reflects on you and your abilities as an educator. Its not about you! Your job is to install a lifelong passion for music (art, science, writing, etc.) Have fun with it! They will too. :)

mayath:

I think what Ive learned over my fifteen years in the classroom is that the most important part of being an effective teacher is developing a close relationship with your students. Its way more important than pedagogical choices, and it is the best way to ensure effective classroom management. If the kids know that you care deeply for them and that youre completely invested in their learning and well-being, they will work for you and behave for you. And teaching will become infinitely more satisfying. Here are my three rules for great teaching: 1. Know your kids well and care deeply about them 2. Love your subject - be passionate about what you teach 3. Work hard! Great teaching is hard work.

AJ Sisneros:

I wish I knew how much of my job was going to be classroom management. I remember being told that classroom management was a big part of the job, but after student teaching, I thought I had it mostly down. What I didnt quite realize was that, as a student teacher, there were already classroom expectations in place that made it easier for me to bypass some of the building blocks of management. The first year and a half felt like I was concerned more with classroom management than anything else.

Betty Hagymasi:

A friend of mine just reminded me the other day of Theodore Roosevelts quote Comparison is the thief of joy. I learned a great deal my first year of teaching but comparing my classroom and my teaching to others crushed me many days. I worked hard to keep myself from getting discouraged. I tried new things often. I asked to observe classes. I found mentors in more than one teacher. I sought to figure out my own equation that would work for me. Frankly, I am still working on this! But every year I feel better because I have students who help me and remind me of the difference I am making.

If I could go back and share something with my former self, I would tell myself to keep working hard and dont give up. I would make sure that when comparing myself to others that I dont get discouraged but, rather, encouraged to work harder.

Thanks to Allison, Rebekah, Kathy, Matthew, Stuart, Rita, and Larnette, and to readers, for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org .When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if its selected or if youd prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

Anyone whose question is selected for this weekly column can choose one free book from a number of education publishers.

Education Week has published a collection of posts from this blog -- along with new material -- in an ebook form. Its titled Classroom Management Q&As: Expert Strategies for Teaching .

Just a reminder -- you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email or RSS Reader. .. And,if you missed any of the highlights from the first four years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. They dont include ones from this current year, but you can find them by clicking on the answers category found in the sidebar.



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This Years Most Popular Q & A Posts!

Look for the next question-of-the-week in a few days.....
After winning the English Premier League title, all Leicester City players are set to receive a Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive model from Thai businessman and club chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.



Thats 30 cars for the 30-man squad that outpaced the likes of Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham this season, winning their first top-flight title in history.

As reported by the Daily Mail, each player will receive his own B-Class Electric Drive, which has an on-road price of 32,670. This means that Srivaddhanaprabha will spend nearly 1 million in total, though we reckon that Merc will give him a discount for the order.

The billionaire has already promised his team an all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas, on top of which the players will also enjoy having a 6.5 million pot split between them  under the terms of the clubs bonus agreement with the league.

Considering the type of cars Premier league players (professional athletes in major sports) generally tend to drive, these electric B-Class models will probably end up in the hands of family members or friends. Still, with a driving range of 115 miles (200 km), the players could easily use the cars in order to drive themselves to the training facility and back.

PHOTO GALLERY
A group of students from Mount Boucharie Secondary School will spend the next 24 hours pounding on the drum.

Together they represent a community that no longer wants to stay silent on a nationwide issue. There are currently more than 582 cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal Women in Canada. This year during the annual drumathon, students have decided this will be their focus.

Kyla Winacott, aboriginal leadership teacher at Mount Boucharie school, says for the last seven years students gather on the Westbank First Nation to show passion for their culture and share it with the public.

Each year we highlight different causes. The first few years we raised awareness about clean water on reserves in Canada, last year it was culture for all generations, and this year it is missing and murdered aboriginal women, she explained.

However, for this event the students decided to step out of their comfort zone and talk about a concerning issue.

We want all kids to know about this. We want all kids when they think about aboriginal content in the classroom that it isnt just in a textbook, it's real, it's a community, said Winacott.

Mercedes Laboucan Dene is a student who is deeply impacted by this issue. Her sister went missing from Edmonton in 2013 and hasnt been heard from since, now Mercedes takes it upon herself to speak out on the issues regarding aboriginal women.

People think aboriginal women live more high-risk lives, and they think we just want to just run away because of our past, she said. We are not high-risk people. We all have potential and strength and we all want to do good.

She wants people to know her sister struggled after her fathers death  something any child would do  but that Shelly Tannis Dene was funny, caring and always had a smile.

The students each lead a workshop for elementary schools in West Kelowna where children can come learn about their culture for the day.

We have a smudging station, a regalia for the girls to try on and dance, we have bannock and games to build a connection with the kids, said Winacott.

The drumathon will take place at Sensisyusten House of Learning and is open to the public until 10 p.m. Friday.
Photo: Google Street View

Three men with ties to the Central Okanagan are cooling their heels behind bars, after they allegedly tried to evade police Wednesday afternoon.

In the early afternoon of May 4, police say an officer patrolling northbound on Highway 5 south of Little Fort noticed two vehicles speeding toward him. The officer pulled over, activated his emergency lights and tried to get the vehicles to slow down.

Instead, the vehicles, a Dodge Neon and VW Jetta, sped up and passed him.

After a short chase, the officer abandoned the pursuit for public safety.

Patrols of the Little Fort area failed to turn up anything.

"An officer did note fresh skid marks on Highway 24 turning off the highway onto a logging road, and came across a motorist who gave the typical nod and they went that a way, when asked if he had seen the suspect cars," said Clearwater RCMP Sgt Kevin Podbisky.

"The suspect vehicles were eventually located four kilometres up Blowdown Road with the three men sitting on the ground behind the vehicles. Upon seeing police, the suspects jumped back in their vehicles and tried to drive away. Unfortunately for them, the vehicles (were) stuck. The three subjects then ran into the bush. The officer noted that the vehicles were left in gear with wheels spinning. The antics of the trio were all caught on police dash cam video."

A search of the vehicle resulted in the recovery of ammunition, as well as two shotguns and an air gun pistol. One shotgun was found loaded with four shells.

The suspects were eventually located after a three-hour dog search.

The suspects remain in custody, facing a long list of charges.

Mark Pauls, 31, faces 11 charges. Pauls has a long criminal history, dating back to 2003. Andrew Shreenam, 34, and William Hill, 26, each face seven charges.

There were also numerous warrants out for their arrest.
Photo: The Canadian Press

As several major wildfires rage in northeastern British Columbia, Prince George RCMP are still searching for the person, or people, suspected of sparking a forest fire one year ago.

The Bobtail Lake blaze was first spotted on May 8, 2015.

It charred 240 square kilometres of woodland 50 kilometres southwest of Prince George and forced evacuation of properties at Norman Lake and Naltesby Lake, also known as Bobtail Lake.

The fire took weeks to control, and RCMP and Wildfire Management Branch officials confirm it was human-caused.

They believe someone has details that could identify a suspect and lead to charges.

In addition to significant fines or jail terms, B.C.'s Wildfire Act can require anyone convicted of starting a wildfire to repay all the costs of battling the blaze.
Photo: Port of Vancouver

The cruise ships are coming, the cruise ships are coming.

And, with them, tens of thousands of visitors to downtown Vancouver over the next two weekends.

About 13,000 people are in the city after three cruise ships hit port at Canada Place Friday morning, CTV News reported.

Those ships are expected to depart later this afternoon.

Two more ships will be docked Saturday and one more Sunday.

This is just a dry run for next weekend when, according to the Port of Vancouver schedule, seven cruise ships will arrive in Vancouver over a three-day period.

About 24,000 people are expected to be released on the downtown area, which could cause heavier than normal traffic volumes, as well as a stretch on public transit and taxis.

More than 800,000 cruise ship passengers are expected to pass through Vancouver this year.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: The Canadian Press

In what the president of the Canadian Red Cross called an unprecedented "Canadian moment," donations to help the victims of the huge wildfire around Fort McMurray, Alta., hit $30 million by early Friday.

"Canadians are collectively coming together to show their care and compassion," Conrad Sauve said.

"We have over 100,000 Canadians that have come to us with texts to donate. Were getting offers from every part of the country, including corporate Canada."

You can donate to the Red Cross campaign via Castanet at www.redcross.ca/castanetcares.

About 14,000 families in need from the Fort McMurray area have registered with the Red Cross and that number is expected to grow.

The federal government has promised to match all donations to the Red Cross for Fort McMurray relief.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday there won't be a cap on Ottawa's contribution, but there will be a time limit.

"Our commitment will apply to individual charitable donations made within Canada, it will be backdated to May 3, 2016 and it will continue until May 31, 2016," he said in a statement.

The money is used to mobilize and provide support Red Cross volunteers who are helping evacuees. The cash is also used to provide basic goods to people fleeing the fire.

We are distributing cots, blankets and other basic necessity items like hygiene kits for people who have been evacuated, sometimes only with what they were able to carry in their hands to their car, said Jean-Pierre Taschereau, Red Cross director of emergency operations.

Its not yet clear how much money will be needed because the relief effort is long-term.

The Red Cross was involved for four years after the 2011 fire that swept through Slave Lake, Alta., and destroyed 400 buildings. The agency provides help on top of what insurance companies and government programs offer.

"Well be able to assist people beyond the emergency phase, into the rebuilding and going back into their communities," Taschereau said.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale called the Fort McMurray blaze "an absolute beast of a fire" that is one of the worst ever seen.

"The situation is still evolving. Its still very dangerous."
Photo: Jason Petty John

Whipped up by wind and fuelled by tinder dry conditions, the wildfire in Fort McMurray grew to about 1,000 square kilometres on Friday.

An expert said it's a dangerous fire because of its location, not necessarily because of its size.

"Let's put this into perspective. That is a high-priority area," said Marc Mousseau of the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre in Winnipeg.

"If you get a fire on the Saskatchewan-Manitoba-Nunavut border, that thing could be 300,000 hectares (3,000 square kilometres) and nobody would even know because there's nobody up there and it's zero priority."

Mousseau said that's why the size of a fire isn't always the most important factor in setting firefighting priorities.

"Is it a large fire that caused a lot of concern or is it a large fire in the middle of nowhere that's roaming around for three months and they're tracking it with satellites? In other words, they're not even looking at it."

Mousseau uses the so-called Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 as an example. It's estimated that the fire destroyed about 12,000 square kilometres in northern New Brunswick. At least 160 people were killed.

On its website, the B.C. Wildfire Service lists large wildfires, including the fire in the Kelowna area in 2003.

The Okanagan Mountain Park fire was more than 250 square kilometres. It forced 33,050 people out of their homes, mostly in Kelowna, and nearly 240 homes were lost or damaged.

The service describes it as "the most significant interface wildfire event in B.C. history," interface being the area where people and the forest meet.

In 2011, a fire destroyed about 7,000 square kilometres in northern Alberta. The Richardson backcountry fire was about 60 kilometres north of Fort McMurray and has been described as the largest fire in Alberta's modern history.

But Mousseau suggests it may have slipped under the radar for the public because it happened at the same time as a devastating fire in Slave Lake, Alta.

The Slave Lake fire only covered about 47 square kilometres, but forced more than 10,000 to flee the community. One-third of Slave Lake, more than 500 homes and buildings, including the town hall, were damaged or destroyed.

A report prepared by consulting firm KPMG on the Slave Lake fire said: "Everyone was caught off guard by how fast the fires advanced with this wind behind them."
Photo: Twitter - BC Wildfire Service

Weather continues to be the main challenge for crews fighting a series of wildfires in northeastern B.C., including a large blaze that has crossed the provincial boundary into Alberta.

The Siphon Creek fire entered Alberta late Thursday and is now burning one or two kilometres into the province, said BC Wildfire Service spokesman Kevin Skrepnek.

He said the fire is estimated to be about 170-square kilometres and remains uncontained after being sparked April 18, about 60 kilometres northeast of Fort St. John.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson said 77 B.C. firefighters, nine helicopters and heavy equipment are fighting flames on both sides of the boundary in an effort to help their Alberta counterparts who are busy dealing with a devastating fire in Fort McMurray.

"The situation in Fort McMurray and in the B.C. Peace continues to worsen," Thomson said.

Christopher Duffy with Emergency Management B.C. said residents at 11 B.C. addresses have been ordered to evacuate and 50 more are under evacuation alert. Residents in Clear Hill County, Alta., are also under evacuation alert.

People living near the Beatton Airport Road fire, burning 50 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John, have also been chased from their homes by the flames.

The fire merged with another blaze Thursday and now covers an estimated 120-square kilometres.

Durffy said about 500 people have either been forced to evacuate because of the fire or have been notified that they may need to leave at a moment's notice.

The fire is continuing to grow aggressively, and hot, dry weather is not helping, Skrepnek said.

Rain is expected Sunday, he said, but it will likely bring gusting winds that may fan flames.

"When a lot of these fires first started in the Peace a few weeks ago, we were seeing record-breaking temperatures, unusually and unseasonably dry conditions and then it turned into a perfect storm when we had a pretty significant wind event come through," Skrepnek said.

The conditions have created fast-moving, stubborn fires that are tough to contain, he added.

"I think, looking across the border to Alberta, they're seeing a similar weather pattern there, and certainly the activity in Fort McMurray on Tuesday seems to be largely wind-driven as well."

Skrepnek said there are currently 81 fires burning across the province, and 213 have been sparked since April 1, burning more than 300-square kilometres.

Thomson said many of the fires were human caused.

"This is a collective responsibility that everyone has to act responsibly. And we're going to continue to communicate that. It remains a frustration."
Florida Driver's BAC of .604 Too High for Jail, but He Denies Drinking

Some people are in denial about their drinking problems and others take denial to the next level. Stephen Allbritton is in the latter camp, and he is likely going to have to face facts.

Allbritton, a 46-year-old Florida man, was arrested with a blood alcohol content of .604 percent, or eight times the legal limit of .08. His alcohol level was so high, he couldn't be taken to jail -- the police had to take him to the hospital.

Since his kids were in the car with him during the incident, he's being charged with DUI and child neglect, reports the local ABC News. But despite his alcohol level, he denied drinking at all, according to a Lee County Sheriff's Office police report.

What Is BAC?

In Florida and most other states, a .08 percent blood alcohol content is presumptive evidence of drunkenness, and sufficient to charge a DUI. Allbritton's BAC was eight times that number. In fact, it was so high that he couldn't even legally be admitted to the county jail until his blood alcohol content fell substantially.

Blood alcohol content, or BAC, is measured with a breathalyzer. Sometimes this measurement is taken at the scene of an arrest and sometimes at the jail following an arrest. The number this test yields is often challenged in DUI trials because people can -- for many different reasons -- all tolerate different amounts of alcohol in their blood.

But a .604 is an astronomical reading and it seems unlikely Allbritton will be able to concoct much of a defense in light of the circumstantial evidence. The police report indicates that he was arrested in the afternoon, and he was asleep at the wheel. The deputy who found Allbritton stated that it took several attempts to wake him.

Taken to the Hospital

Due to the incredibly high BAC, Allbritton was initially taken to the hospital. When his BAC dropped down to .407, he was transferred to the Lee county jail, where he will have a moment to reflect.

Meanwhile, Allbritton's children were turned over to the Department of Children and Families when he was arrested and later picked up by their mother.

Accused?

If you have been charged with a DUI or any other crime, do not delay. Speak to a lawyer today. Many criminal defense attorneys consult for free or a minimal fee and will be happy to assess your case.

Related Resources:
Photo: CTV

Conservative MPs have thwarted a bid to ensure that dying Liberal MP Mauril Belanger gets to realize his dream of a gender-neutral national anthem.

Fellow Liberals, with the help of New Democrats, tried two procedural manoeuvres Friday to expedite passage of Belanger's private member's bill, which would change the second line of O Canada from, "true patriot love, in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command."

But Tory MPs blocked both.

They put up enough speakers to fill the first hour of allotted debate on the bill, rather than let the debate run out and thereby force a second reading vote next week.

Liberal MP Greg Fergus sought unanimous consent to continue the debate for another hour  which would have had the same effect of forcing a vote next week  but Conservative MPs refused to give it.

As a result, the bill is unlikely to be debated again or put to a vote before the fall, although there are still some procedural manoeuvres that could be tried to speed things up.

"I'm angry beyond belief," Fergus said later of the Tory tactics.

With overwhelming support from Liberals and New Democrats, Fergus said the Conservatives are simply delaying the inevitable. Belanger's bill, or another just like it, will eventually pass and the only thing the Tories blocked Friday was an attempt to ensure that it happens "while Mauril is able to enjoy it."

Belanger has deteriorated quickly since he was first diagnosed last November with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis  an incurable, fatal neurodegenerative disease, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He showed up in the Commons on Friday in a wheelchair to launch second reading debate of his bill. He looked noticeably thinner. His collar was loosened to accommodate a tube that's been inserted in his trachea to help him breath and keep his lungs clear of fluid. He spoke briefly, using a tablet computer that converts text into computerized speech.

Belanger argued that his proposed change to two words in the English lyrics of O Canada would actually return the anthem closer to the original "thou dost in us command"  wording that was changed to "all thy sons" in 1913, presumably to honour men in the armed forces at the approach to World War I.

Since then, he said, women have won the right to vote, to run for office and to die in combat as members of the military.

"Our anthem should not ignore the increasingly important contribution of 52 per cent of our population," he said.

Belanger, who received a standing ovation, was the only Liberal to speak during the debate. The NDP similarly put up only one speaker, Sheila Malcomson, who said every New Democrat she knows is proud to support Belanger's bill.

However, the Conservatives filled the remaining debate time with speaker after speaker opposed to the bill, although each prefaced their remarks with praise for Belanger's courage and determination.

"Rewriting the lyrics of our national anthem in the name of political correctness goes too far," said Manitoba Tory Larry Maguire.

He suggested passing Belanger's bill would set a precedent that could to lead to dropping the anthem's reference to God "so that Canadians who are agnostic and atheist feel included." Or it could spark changes to other national symbols, such as replacing the beaver with a "less destructive" national animal.

Other Conservatives argued that their constituents don't want to change O Canada, noting that their own government proposed a gender neutral anthem in 2010 but had to back down in the face of a public backlash.
Photo: Contributed

West Kelowna voters could go back to the polls later this summer.

At issue is borrowing up to $10.5 million to construct a new city hall on Elliott Road. If the project is to go forward, a city-wide referendum is necessary after more than 10 per cent of the electorate turned down the request through the Alternative Approval Process.

Council will decide its next step Tuesday.

A report prepared by staff lays out the three options open to council, and the pros and cons of each.

Option one would be to hold a referendum July 9. In accordance with the Community Charter, a referendum would have to be held no more than 80 days after the deadline for the AAP.

That would make July 22 the final date. Staff is recommending Saturday, July 9.

Pros and cons include:

Election will be held during school summer holidays, which may result in criticism of the day chosen.

lf the referendum fails, council may not submit a new borrowing bylaw for the same purpose to the electors for at least six months.

The delay in construction will result in an increase in the city hall construction cost of $18,000 per month.

lnterior Health Authority (lHA) has committed to the project with this timeline.

The developer has committed to the project with this time line.

Option two would be to scrap the project altogether.

The third option would be to request an extension from the Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development to allow for a 160-day window to hold a referendum. This would allow the voting window to be extended to Oct. 11.

The extension would allow for a vote after summer holidays, but with the delay there would be no guarantee Interior Health or the developer would continue to commit to the project.

The overall project would include office space, already committed by Interior Health, and two residential towers.
Photo: The Canadian Press

When Jacui Stordock heard that some people fleeing the wildfire in Fort McMurray were forced to leave their pets behind, she took action.

Stordock and some of her friends from Edmonton loaded up two pickups with animal carriers and drove north to help.

They soon had 10 dogs, two cats and five kittens in the trucks and were headed home Friday to take them to the Edmonton Humane Society.

"I know that if I had to leave my guy behind I would have wanted someone to go back and try and get them," she said during a stop in Wandering River as her colleagues gave water to a howling Malamute and some thirsty St. Bernards.

"We went to as many houses as we could."

Stordlock said most of the the pets had already been rescued so her group was helping by transporting those back to Edmonton. Others, they found.

Some evacuees have placed notices on social media about their pets in the hope that someone would care for them.

Misha Blades said in one home, the dogs hadn't had food or water since Tuesday, when tens of thousands of people were forced from the city.

"They were getting pretty heated up in a little duplex all by themselves," he said. "They were pretty stressed out."

Blades said they know the owners of most of the pets and at some point their owners will claim them.

Some pet owners are so worried that they have been calling emergency lines asking for help.

RCMP were urging evacuees who are concerned about their pets to not call 911, but said Mounties patrolling Fort McMurray would do what they can for any animals they find.

Police said people should instead contact groups such as Supporters of Alberta Animal Rescues. There is also a Facebook page called Fort Mac-Fire Pet Rescue.

The Edmonton pet Samaritans fussed over their furry cargo, feeding the dogs treats and calming a nervous cat laying in a plastic laundry basket as she fed her brood of kittens. Keaton Souster was eager to get going so they could let the dogs out of their carriers.

Ariel Blondeau said it was great to help, but she knows that many pets are still in Fort McMurray with no one to look after them.

"I could just never imagine leaving my pet behind, ever," she said.

"Even though we helped these guys we wish we had more room. We only got into a small area."
Photo: mhs.mb.ca

For the second time, a Manitoba judge has granted a patient the right to die with the help of a doctor.

This time, the patient is living with ALS, a terminal neurodegenerative disease.

The woman, who cannot be named due to a publication ban, has lived with ALS since 2012.

Allison Fenske, one of the womans lawyers, told the judge the womans health has rapidly deteriorated recently.

Fenske said her client lives in constant fear of choking to death.

The woman wasnt in court Friday, but her lawyers read a statement from her.

No one gives you a medal for dying, she wrote. I will miss my family and friends, but I am completely at peace with the decision I have made to seek out a physician-assisted death. It is the best option for me.

She said because of ALS, she has no control over her life.

"I would like the peace and some satisfaction of some control over my death. I feel like I am in a perpetual state of saying goodbye to the people I love and I have had enough.

In March, a Manitoba Court of Queens Bench judge Glenn Joyal ruled a patient has the right to die with the help of a doctor.

The Supreme Court struck down a law last year that prohibited medical aid in dying. The federal government is now working toward a June 6 deadline to craft new legislation and anyone who wants an assisted death sooner can apply to a judge.
Photo: Contributed

There is one winning ticket for the $50-million jackpot in Friday night's Lotto Max draw  and it was purchased somewhere in Quebec.

There were also two MaxMillions prizes of $1 million each up for grabs, but neither was claimed.

The jackpot for next Friday's Lotto Max draw on May 13 will be an estimated $12 million.
Photo: CTV

For a second day, people who have been taking shelter at oilsands work camps north of Fort McMurray, Alta., lined up in their vehicles early this morning for a convoy that will guide them through their badly burned city and out to the south.

The exodus of the last evacuees remaining in the area comes as fire officials predict the sprawling fire could double in size again this weekend.

On Friday, shifting winds appeared to help move the growth of the inferno into a forested area away from the city.

But officials stressed the wildfire that forced 80,000 people from their homes remained out of control and was likely to burn for weeks.

"The city of Fort McMurray is not safe to return to, and this will be true for a significant period of time," said Premier Rachel Notley.

On Friday, 2,500 cars and 7,500 people were relocated south, most by air. Notley said another 4,000 are scheduled to leave today, conditions permitting.

In all, more than 20,000 displaced residents had been living in oilsands work camps since Tuesday after the blaze cut the main road through Fort McMurray and sent residents fleeing either north or south.

Those who managed to escape south settled in hotels, campgrounds, with friends or at temporary reception centres. About 1,800 were being housed at the Northlands Expo Centre in Edmonton. Others went to Calgary.

They learned the government of Alberta would be giving them $1,250 for each adult $500 for dependents  to cover their immediate needs while the Red Cross reported donations for victim relief have crossed the $30 million threshold. The federal government has promised to match those funds.

Evacuees also learned that RCMP caught the first  and so far only  looter in Fort McMurray. Mounties said a local man was arrested after they responded to a break and enter call. A police dog was used to track him down.

Then there were the stragglers. Officers admitted Friday they have been finding people in Fort McMurray who did not comply with the mandatory evacuation order.

One was an elderly man who was found in his home, with his dog. Patrols also came across a family of five, including three young children, who didn't leave because they didn't think they were in danger.

Mounties escorted them all out of town.

"People need to understand that evacuation orders are issued for a reason, and that not leaving puts them and emergency responders at unnecessary risk," said RCMP Insp. Gibson Glavin.

Alberta is now under a provincewide fire ban. Notley urged people to stay out of the forests altogether, and the province ordered a ban on recreational use of off-highway vehicles.
Photo: Twitter - Canadian Forces

Partisan politics took a back seat to partnership this week as Parliament Hill came together in support of the people of wildfire-ravaged Fort McMurray.

The terrifying images of residents fleeing down towering corridors of encroaching flames obscured some subtle yet fundamental shifts in Canada's political landscape, as well as astute observations about the federal government's first six months in power.

Both illustrated themes that are sure to impact how Canadians interact with their elected officials in the coming years.

Here's how politics touched the lives of Canadians this week:

FLAME WARS: political parties are expected to set their rivalries aside in the face of tragedy. As wildfire pushed the population of Fort McMurray into a state of homelessness, the non-partisan reaction went a step further as politicians asked the public to set their own critiques aside as well.

"There have always been fires. There have always been floods," said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"Pointing at any one incident and saying, 'Well, this is because of that,' is neither helpful nor entirely accurate. We need to separate a pattern over time from any one event."

Climate-change politics were clearly not welcome. Similarly, there was no chatter about the auditor general's report, which chided the government for not preserving the ranks of its military reservists  a vital resource in times of crisis. No one really questioned the sufficiency of the federal response  neither the level or type of support, nor the speed at which it was provided.

Old habits, however, die hard: by week's end, the Liberals had sent supporters an electronic pamphlet that highlighted the spirit of unity and soliciting donations to the Red Cross. When does making a political virtue out of non-partisanship become partisan?

SPLINTERS: Alberta conservatives gathered in Red Deer to hash out ways to unite the province's fractured right, with a push to create a third conservative party that would pull together supporters from Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives. In Quebec, the brief political career of Pierre-Karl Peladeau came to a screeching halt as he resigned less than a year into his leadership of the separatist Parti Quebecois  leaving the door open for a new leader who could, perhaps, bring back the social democrats who have broken away.

As those two forces struggle to find unity and relevance in opposition, a group of federal Conservatives has been sizing up interim leader Rona Ambrose as their answer to coherence. The 'Draft Rona' campaign was short-lived, though: she made it clear she doesn't want to be the party's permanent leader.

Now, as candidates for the race to replace Stephen Harper come forward, their challenge is to win  but without tearing the party apart along regional or ideological lines.

All of it is taking place before the backdrop of an electoral system the federal Liberals have promised to completely reform  a promise they repeated again this week.

So much of choosing a leader is about strategy for the next election. But without knowing what system will guide voters the next time they cast their ballots, it's very difficult for opposition parties to prepare.

'CONSULTATION CONSTIPATION' AND THE MAIL: Three political veterans got together this week to talk foreign policy  but they couldn't resist offering Trudeau some free advice. Former Liberal leader Bob Rae, former Quebec premier Jean Charest, and former foreign minister John Manley zeroed in on the penchant the governing Liberals have for talking. And talking and talking.

All three warned that task forces, advisory groups and the like have their place, but shouldn't be an excuse for doing nothing. Manley was blunt, calling on the government to be mindful of "consultation constipation."

Also this week, the government announced a four-member task force to look into the future of Canada Post, including whether it should resume door-to-door delivery in some form, or even get back into banking.

During the campaign, the Liberals promised to restore home mail delivery. The $2-million panel is to produce final recommendations by the end of the year, but opposition critics have made it clear they smell another broken promise.

And there ends the spirit of co-operation.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Many of the tens of thousands who fled Fort McMurray this week have lost everything, but even as they struggle to land on their feet, some are finding that major life changes simply can't be put on hold.

For Elise Boissoneault, that meant finding a new wedding gown in time for her wedding, set to take place in Toronto on Saturday.

Boissonneault, 29, had to abandon the dress in the rush to evacuate. But by the time the bride-to-be arrived in the Ontario capital, dozens of strangers had offered her their wedding gowns, spurred by a friend's social media plea.

In the end, a local bridal shop donated two dresses  one for the ceremony and one for the reception  after seeing her struggle to choose between them.

"People have been so amazing, just trying to donate a dress to me, doing everything they can to help," Boissonneault said.

"It's honestly so touching I really can't describe the feeling I have, it just gives me butterflies to think that people would do such a wonderful thing."

The massive evacuation has completely disrupted the rhythm of daily life, but for residents such as Boissonneault, important markers of life still go on  although not exactly as planned.

Addi McLaren said her sister Kyle, 27, had just put the finishing touches on a nursery when the evacuation order was issued Tuesday.

Suddenly, the nine-months-pregnant woman was travelling to Calgary, far from her doctor and all the baby gear she and her boyfriend had bought for their firstborn child, her sister said.

"She's been going through an emotional wreck. She lost her house, her car that was in the garage, she lost everything," McLaren said.

"I think she just assumed that they were evacuating her and that she would eventually go back to the house but within five hours she got notification that her house had burned down to the ground."

With the baby due Saturday, McLaren has been frantically trying to collect money for the couple as well as basic necessities for her sister.

A fundraising website had raised more than $11,000 by Friday afternoon, while others have pledged to donate cribs and other items, she said.

In the meantime, her sister has managed to find a new doctor at a hospital in Calgary and both she and the unborn baby received a clean bill of health despite inhaling a lot of smoke, McLaren said.

Hospitals across the province are offering prenatal care to any pregnant women who were displaced as a result of the fires and the Alberta Association of Midwives is also providing free services to those who contact them.

A spokeswoman for the association said they've already connected several women with midwives and continue to receive calls. Those women will also receive care after their child is born, Heather Martin said.

"It's really going to help them in this stressful situation, where they're not at home, they don't have their normal support system, some of these women are separated from their family," she said.

While help is on hand for those giving birth, death is more difficult to accommodate.

A wake and funeral scheduled this week for a Fort McMurray man have been postponed indefinitely due to the crisis.

The executive director of the Nistawoyou Association Friendship Centre, where the wake was set to take place, said she had no information on the matter.

As displaced residents celebrate new milestones, many are also trying to preserve memories and mementos of those gone by.

Julie Whitlock, a wedding photographer in Fredericton, said one recent client reached out to see if she could get copies of the wedding photos she was forced to leave behind.

The photographer, who is replacing the images free of charge, said it can be devastating to lose such precious keepsakes.

"Photos are irreplaceable. You can go and buy a new couch and a new washing machine but photos are the embodiments of our memories and milestones," she said in an email.

"For a couple who has lost all their material possessions, it was my hope that assuring they had these memories saved and safe would give them a little bit of happiness in an otherwise sad situation."
Photo: CTV

Overcrowding is forcing the rationing of playground time at elementary schools in Surrey.

Some students are only allowed to play a couple of days a week.

At Katzie Elementary, the playground schedule is strictly enforced.

For Grade 3 and up, we only get to go on the playground two days a week, Grade 4 student Olivia told CTV.

Its kind of sad. I like the playground, she said.

School board chair Shawn Wilson says thats the case at about a dozen schools in Surrey.

Its an unfortunate consequence, and it defines what overcapacity looks like, Wilson told CTV.

Katzie, one of several schools in the Newton and Clayton Heights areas that are over capacity, has 722 students in a space designed for 600.

Development in the area has seen a wave of new students. So much so, the school board has asked the city to stop allowing new construction.

Rather than build new schools, the province has encouraged school districts to close under-capacity schools and operate at 95 per cent efficiency.

In Vancouver, Elsie Roy, Henry Hudson, False Creek, and Simon Fraser elementary schools are also over capacity. Relief is on the horizon with the construction of International Village Elementary, but school board chair Mike Lombardi said by the time it opens, it will be over capacity, too.

They want to see the whites of pupils eyes, he said. Its always about two years behind. As soon as its opened its already oversubscribed.

 with files from CTV Vancouver
Photo: Contributed

Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the fire situation in the Fort McMurray, Alta., area remains "unpredictable and dangerous."

And Goodale says firefighters from other provinces are being brought in to spell off those who have been battling what he calls "this beast of a fire" for a week.

Speaking at a news conference in Regina on Saturday morning, Goodale also said the convoy moving people who have been taking shelter at oilsands work camps north of Fort McMurray would continue.

He said about 7,500 people were moved through Fort McMurray to the south on Friday and it was hoped the same number could be transported out of harms way on Saturday.

The exodus of the last evacuees remaining in the area comes as fire officials predict the area destroyed and being burned by the sprawling fire could double this weekend.

On Friday, shifting winds appeared to help move the growth of the inferno into a forested area away from the city, and Goodale says the forecast continues to call for dry and windy conditions.

Officials have stressed the wildfire that forced 80,000 people from their homes remained out of control and was likely to burn for weeks.

"The city of Fort McMurray is not safe to return to, and this will be true for a significant period of time," said Premier Rachel Notley.

In all, more than 20,000 displaced residents had been living in oilsands work camps since Tuesday after the blaze cut the main road through Fort McMurray and sent residents fleeing either north or south.

Those who managed to escape south settled in hotels, campgrounds, with friends or at temporary reception centres. About 1,800 were being housed at the Northlands Expo Centre in Edmonton. Others went to Calgary.

They learned the government of Alberta would be giving them $1,250 for each adult $500 for dependents  to cover their immediate needs while the Red Cross reported donations for victim relief have crossed the $30 million threshold. The federal government has promised to match those funds.

Evacuees also learned that RCMP caught the first  and so far only  looter in Fort McMurray. Mounties said a local man was arrested after they responded to a break and enter call. A police dog was used to track him down.

Then there were the stragglers. Officers admitted Friday they have been finding people in Fort McMurray who did not comply with the mandatory evacuation order.

One was an elderly man who was found in his home, with his dog. Patrols also came across a family of five, including three young children, who didn't leave because they didn't think they were in danger.

Mounties escorted them all out of town.

"People need to understand that evacuation orders are issued for a reason, and that not leaving puts them and emergency responders at unnecessary risk," said RCMP Insp. Gibson Glavin.

Alberta is now under a provincewide fire ban. Notley urged people to stay out of the forests altogether, and the province ordered a ban on recreational use of off-highway vehicles.
Photo: CTV

Five people have died in a house fire in Calgary.

Fire chief Steve Dongworth told reporters from the scene early Saturday that all five of the victims were believed to be adults but he didn't have information on their identities.

Dongworth says the cause of the fire isn't known.

He says flames and smoke were coming from the home when crews arrived and the flames had spread to the house next door.

Four victims were found right away and the fifth was located a short time after.

Dongworth says the residents next door were able to flee their home on their own and weren't injured.

"When crews arrived, there's actually a swing set in the front yard, and the first thing our crews were thinking was that there might have been children in there as well," Dongworth said.

"In this case, we don't believe there's any children. In fact, it's fairly certain these were all adults but that added some stress."

Dongworth said he can't recall the last time the city had so many fatalities in a fire.

Calgary fire crews also responded to a separate fire that happened about an hour earlier where two homes were burned, but no one was injured.

A number of Calgary firefighters are in northern Alberta battling the huge fire in Fort McMurray, but Dongworth said those firefighters are off-duty, and firefighting capability in Calgary hasn't been compromised.
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

Firefighters joined non-profits and Penticton residents at a special celebration of workers in Gyro Park, Saturday.

The event was a South Okanagan Boundary Labour Council presentation, held on International Workers' Day.

"It's just one day a year, where we celebrate with all of our brothers and sisters, to recognize those who have toiled and worked to build our country," said council president Brent Voss.

International Workers' Day is a celebration of labourers and working classes that is promoted by the International labour movement.

Saturday's event at the park included greetings from MLA Dan Ashton, Mayor Andrew Jakubeit and Voss and a keynote address given by Aaron Ekman with the BC Federation of Labour.

Ekman talked about diversifying the economy in the province and praised the hard working firefighters currently battling the fire in Fort McMurray.

Others in attendance were area non-profits and Penticton firefighters doing a barbecue to raise funds for the Red Cross, to help out in Fort McMurray.

A big part of the day was a talent portion, featuring local youth.

"It's also a venue to showcase our youth in Penticton, and it has been demonstrated thlat we have some real talent here," said Lynn Kelsey, treasurer for the council.

Attendee Jennifer Flynn was happy to take part.

"Workers make the world go round. We don't have anything without them," she said.
Photo: Deborah Pfeiffer

The RCMP are currently on scene at an incident behind the SS Sicamous in Penticton.

There is yellow crime tape up at the location, with activity at the end of the jetty.

According to a witness, firefighters, B.C. Ambulance and coroners were also at the location.

There were also reports of a body being pulled from the water, and family members coming to the scene.

There is no official confirmation on the incident at this time. RCMP at the scene declined to comment.

Castanet will provide more details as they become available.
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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
Judy Wing and Mike Pamonicutt, descendants of famed Native American chief Alexander Robinson, hold a piece of gravestone from the Robinson family on Thursday in Schiller Park. The gravestones were rediscovered last year after being in a Cook County Forest Preserve District facility for years. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune)

For more than a decade, Norridge resident Verlyn Spreeman has sought information to learn more about his ancestors, most notably Alexander Robinson, a famed Native American chief who is said to have helped U.S. military families after the Fort Dearborn Massacre of 1812.

Until recently, Spreeman has relied on historical documents, newspaper articles and photographs to learn about pieces of his history, including the family cemetery where Robinson  also known as Che-Che-Pin-Qua, or Chief Blinking Eye  is buried. But now, Spreeman and other decedents have more.

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Headstones that marked Robinson's grave, along with those of several family members, have been turned over to the family, decades after they were taken down and stored by the Cook County Forest Preserve District, which eventually acquired the cemetery land.

"The hair on the back of your neck goes up," Spreeman, 61, said of learning the headstones existed. "This is the end of an over 10-year journey ... to be able to actually touch something that's tangible. It's a very emotional day."

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Spreeman and others gathered Thursday at the Schiller Park Public Library to view remnants of most of the headstones that once marked the graves of Chief Robinson, who died in 1872; his second wife, Catherine Chevalier; and other family members.

Archaeologist Dan Melone, who works with Spreeman tracing the Robinson family history, said there are nine to 11 people buried in the cemetery, inside what's now known as Robinson Woods, near Lawrence Avenue and East River Road in Chicago. The graves, which historians say date from the late 1800s to 1927, now are marked only with a boulder that bears the family name.

It's unclear what happened to all the headstones, but the ones recently located and returned to the family had been in a forest preserve warehouse for several decades, Melone said. They were taken down by forest preserve employees around the 1950s, or possibly earlier, in response to a rash of vandalism that had damaged the markers, Melone said.

They are now in 10 pieces of varying sizes and include two large chunks of Robinson's headstone, which features a floral wreath design carved into the limestone. The marker also states Robinson was 110 years old when he died, but Melone said he likely was in his 80s, or possibly early 90s.

Mike Pamonicutt, 64, of Wisconsin, a descendant of Robinson, attended Thursday's event with his family to see the headstones. After the presentation, Pamonicutt placed a small pile of tobacco, wrapped in an orange cloth, on Chief Robinson's headstone. He explained it's part of a Native American ritual that offers prayers to the dead.

Judy Wing, 76, also related to Robinson, traveled from Denver, to see the presentation and meet other family members. Her work tracing her father's genealogy led her to the Schiller Park Historical Society, which is how she heard about the headstones.

"I like to see the headstones, but to see the relatives is emotional to me," she said.

Lambrini Lukidis, a forest preserve spokeswoman, said the headstones were uncovered last fall as part of a project documenting artifacts in the district's possession.

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"At the time, they were collected and put away for safekeeping," she said. "But then, out of sight, out of mind. It was all very well intentioned, but as a result of those good intentions ... they were put away and then forgotten."

After coming across the headstones, forest preserve employees contacted the Illinois State Archaeological Survey, which facilitated transferring the stones to the Illinois State Museum in Springfield while descendants of the Robinson family were located and could file paperwork to prove their relation, Lukidis said.

"We're glad that we were able to return this property," Lukidis said. "The family has reconnected with their piece of history, but in a way it's a piece of history for all of us."

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Historians say Chief Robinson was a well-known businessman, and counted settlers John Baptiste Beaubien and John Kinzie as friends. Robinson, son of an Ottawa woman and a Scottish father, first married a Menominee woman, and later a member of the Potawatomi tribe.

Besides helping soldiers and their families escape after a U.S. Army post called Fort Dearborn, near Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River, was attacked in August 1812 by some Native Americans during the War of 1812, Robinson fed corn from his land to soldiers during the war to help them survive the winter, Spreeman said.

Though technically owned by the Robinson family descendants, the headstones will be stored at the Schiller Park library because of its location in the heart of the land once owned by Chief Robinson. After saving families at Fort Dearborn, Robinson was gifted 1,280 acres by the government. That land is now part of Schiller Park, Norridge, Norwood Park, Rosemont and Franklin Park, said June Oulund, board member of the Schiller Park Historical Society.

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It was once thought there weren't family members left, Oulund said, but over the years the historical society learned more, eventually teaming up with Melone and Spreeman. Still, Oulund said, many in the area haven't heard of Chief Robinson, who historians say was a prominent figure in the Chicago area in the 1800s.

Melone said he and Spreeman plan to produce programs at the library using the headstones as a way to educate the public about the Robinson family. However, the headstones will not be on display at other times, he said.

kthayer@tribpub.com

Twitter @knthayer
Police are investigating the death of a 7-month-old boy found unresponsive Thursday morning in the boy's Chicago Heights home, authorities said.

Results are pending from an autopsy performed Friday on Julius Roberts of the 1600 block of Hanover Street, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

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Chicago Heights police were called just after 9 a.m. Thursday to the home for a report of a child who was not breathing, police said in a press release. Officers who arrived found the baby unresponsive, according to the release.

The Chicago Heights Fire Department was called to help the baby, police said. The infant was taken to St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights and pronounced dead about 9:50 a.m., Thursday, police said.

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The Illinois State Police Crime Scene Services were called to process the scene.

Anyone with information about the death is asked to call the Chicago Heights Police Detective Division at 708-756-6422.

Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
Kane County records show that Robert Sauceda and his wife purchased a home on the 5400 block of Alexandria Lane in Carpentersville. (Janelle Walker, The Courier-News)

As South Elgin village officials investigate whether Trustee Robert Sauceda still qualifies to hold office, public records indicate the embattled elected official claims a homestead exemption on a house he purchased with his wife in Carpentersville.

Kane County Recorder office records show Sauceda and his wife purchased a home on the 5400 block of Alexandria Lane in Carpentersville on June 23, 2015. Kane County Treasurer's office records show they claim the homestead exemption, which requires the owner to live at the property, county officials said.

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Their former South Elgin home, in the 0-100 block of Marie Court, was sold on May 1, 2015, according to public records.

The village board on Monday asked village Attorney Derke Price to look into whether or not Sauceda lived in South Elgin, at the suggestion of Trustee Mike Kolodziej.

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That request was based on a "gut feeling," Kolodziej said  not any actual knowledge.

Sauceda could not be reached for comment.

Sauceda previously told village officials he was renting from a friend in the village following the sale, pending the construction of a home in South Elgin, said Price.

"We took him at his word," Price said.

Illinois law states that village trustees, as elected officials, must live in the municipality they represent, Price said.

If Sauceda lives outside of the village, the board can declare that he has abandoned his seat, rather than wait for a resignation, Price said.

Sauceda still maintains the Marie Court address on a number of registrations.

According to the Illinois Secretary of State's office, Sauceda's driver's license lists the Marie Court address. Two cars are also registered at that South Elgin address, accord to the state.

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Sauceda was charged April 18 with felony counts of forgery in DuPage County. Sauceda is accused of falsifying documents to the DuPage County Department of Probation. A DuPage County State's Attorney spokesman said Sauceda gave the Carpentersville address for court documentation.

The DuPage County State's Attorney's office said Sauceda filed a letter Aug. 13 with the probation department attesting that Michael Garcia, 24, of Hanover Park, had served 41 hours of community service in South Elgin. The letter stated Garcia had worked on the village's 2015 Spring Holiday Egg Hunt, 2015 Tuna Kahuna children's fishing event, and road clean up following the village's Fourth of July parade, according to a press release. None of those community service hours were performed, prosecutors said.

Sauceda turned himself in on a warrant on April 19 and was released on $3,000 bail. His next court appearance is set for May 19 and no attorney of record has been filed with the courts, officials said.

He has not appeared at the past two village board meetings.

South Elgin board members are paid $150 for any meetings with a roll call. The amount is usually $300 a month. South Elgin offers no other benefits to trustees.

Kolodziej said had seen Sauceda at a South Elgin Lions Club event, where he watched Sauceda interact with the man he was reportedly renting from and living with.

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The two acted "like they hadn't seen each other in awhile and he claimed to live there," Kolodziej said.

There are cases where intent is obvious  like after a fire or a flood in a home, Price said, and the resident plans to return.

"It is hard to overcome all of the mounting evidence that he is not a resident," Price said.

Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter.
China plans to launch a crackdown on false advertising of Internet financial services this month to curb rising risks of fraud committed in cyberspace.

The campaign will run through November, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce said in a notice on its website yesterday, without specifying the dates.

The crackdown aims to ensure strict controls on advertisements of Internet finance companies such as online peer-to-peer lenders.

The advertisement probe will definitely hit online lenders in terms of website volumes and the number of customers, said Ma Jun, chief research officer at Shanghai Ying Can Investment Management Consulting Co.

False or exaggerated advertising has been blamed for the rise in frauds and for misleading investors to invest in online lenders. The most notorious case cited was Ezubao which was a Ponzi scheme that raised over 58.1 billion yuan (US$8.9 billion) from 901,294 investors before being shut down by the police in December.

The planned probe followed crackdowns on the booming online lending sector, which included local branches of the industry and commerce regulator banning registration from applicants with finance-related names or business since the middle of April.

The Peoples Bank of China last month called for legislations to combat illegal fundraising activities through the Internet.

More than a third of about 4,000 existing online P2P lenders had faced difficulties for funds to be withdrawn by April, said Online Lending House, which tracks the sector. Seventy-five platforms halted services last month.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang urged for more efforts to support employment to guard against large-scale unemployment on Friday.

China should shift to growth propelled more by skilled workers and innovation and continue with proactive policies to create jobs, Li said at a symposium held during his visit to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

To boost employment, measures should be taken to stabilize growth, restructure the economy and deepen reforms, he told officials.

"The economy still faces great downward pressure and our pro-growth measures should target increasing employment and incomes," the premier said.

Due to weak property sector and foreign trade, China's economy expanded 6.7 percent year on year in the first quarter, the weakest growth since 2009.

As authorities reduce capacity in some industries, they should help workers find new jobs through entrepreneurship, fiscal support, training and social security, Li said.

"We should help regions facing economic difficulties solve their problems and prevent large-scale unemployment," he told the symposium.

For those having trouble finding jobs, at least one member of each family should be employed as long as he or she is capable of working, the premier said.

Despite a downshifting economy, China has created more than 13 million new jobs in cities in each of the past three years. However, the country is in a critical transition from old growth drivers to new ones, while there remain structural problems in the job market, he noted.

More than 7.6 million college graduates, a record high, will enter the job market this year, and more jobs for young, educated people should be created, Li urged.

That can be done by developing a new economy that features new technologies and business models, promoting mass entrepreneurship, and boosting the service sector, he said.

Li also called for stronger support for migrant workers and told officials to collect accurate job data to assist policy making.
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The Chinese Navy is assisting in the search for those missing aboard a Chinese boat which was rammed and sunk by a foreign vessel in the East China Sea early this Saturday morning.

So far only 2 of the 19 people onboard the boat have been rescued alive.

The Chinese Navy is deploying more vessels to the region.

Naval officials say the rescue efforts are being hindered by poor visibility in the waters where the accident occurred.

Details as to what sparked the incident have not been revealed at this point.
On May 1, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida left Beijing after a three-day visit to China. This is the first official visit to China by a Japanese foreign minister since former Foreign Minister Koichiro Genbas visit in November 2011. During Kishidas trip, he held dialogues with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, and met with Premier Li Keqiang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi. It can be said that Kishida received a very high-level reception which reflects Chinas sincerity to improve bilateral relations.

According to the Japanese foreign minister, Japan will relax its multiple-entry visa requirements for Chinese citizens. The new rules will extend the validity of multiple-entry visas for Chinese citizens visiting Japan for business and academic purposes from 5 years to 10 years, and students from 75 Chinese higher learning institutions will find it easier to get a visa for studying in Japan. The visa relaxation can be viewed as a well-meaning signal from the Japanese government, but this act of goodwill does not exist in isolation. We need to analyze against the background of Japans diplomacy, so as to understand its true meaning.

On April 25, two days before Kishida announced his official visit, he delivered a speech addressing Japan-China relations at the Yomiuri International Economic Society in Tokyo. Kishida said he hoped that China and Japan could form a new relationship through frank and direct dialogues. He stressed Japans efforts on improving its relations with China and stated his hope that China would cooperate actively, since a unilateral effort wont lead to bilateral development.

Kishida also proposed three major expectations for the development of Japan-China relations. He calls on both countries to expand cooperation, address mutual concerns and enhance mutual understanding and trust between their countries.

Kishida is considered an ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Since Abe took office for the second time, Kishida has been serving as foreign minister. Therefore, Kishida should take some responsibility for the continually cold relations between China and Japan. However, this doesnt mean that Fumio Kishida and Shinzo Abe are fully responsible for the floundering of bilateral relations; rather, impaired China-Japan relations are an inevitable result of Japans right-wing political ideas.

On April 21, Abe made ritual offerings to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Class-A convicted war criminals of World War II. This was completely out of step with the goal of improving Sino-Japanese relations that was intended by Kishidas visit. Its well-known that Abe maintains a right-wing view of history. Abe and Kishida clearly understand the benefits of a healthy bilateral relation with China. However, due to Abes right-wing position, a structural contradiction surely exists between Japans actual policy and the improvement of Sino-Japanese relations.

In March, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi accused the Japanese government and leaders of "double dealing," saying that on one hand, the Japanese government and leaders say nice things about wanting to improve the relations, while on the other hand, they repeatedly cause trouble for China.

Fumio Kishida's official visit was undoubtedly a show of sincerity, but as long as Abe continues to hold a right-wing governing philosophy, double dealing wont disappear from the Japanese political arena. After China, the Japanese foreign minister will pay official visits to Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, some of which are significantly involved in the South China Sea issue. Both the Chinese people and the international community are waiting to see how Japan will act with regards to this disputed issue.

The author is an assistant research fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The article was written in Chinese and translated by Lin Liyao.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors only, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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Russia on Friday urged strict observance of cease-fire in the war-ravaged Syrian city of Aleppo and an uncompromising struggle against terrorist groups that violate truce in Syria.

Russia, in coordination with the United States, is exerting all efforts so that the truce which has proven itself positively over the last few days in Northern Latakia and Eastern Ghouta, is reliably spread throughout Aleppo, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said at a weekly briefing.

A 48-hour truce called by Russia and the United States started in Aleppo at 1:00 a.m. Thursday (2300 GMT Wednesday) to bring a lull to the troubled city that has witnessed raging violence in the past few weeks.

Fierce violence in and around Aleppo has claimed the lives of more than 280 civilians since April 22.

Zakharova blamed Syria's Al-Qaida affiliate Al-Nusra Front for the latest escalation of hostilities in Aleppo, which has put truce and intra-Syrian talks on the verge of collapse.

She called on all international and regional powers that have influence on armed groups in Syria to persuade their "fosterlings" to separate decisively from the Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front.

Moscow insists on the necessity of an uncompromising struggle against terrorists and those along with them that violate truce, she said.

Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011, with government forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fighting opposition factions and extremist groups.

A ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States was largely held across Syria on Feb. 27.
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Ireland's Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Enda Kenny on Friday evening announced his new cabinet, including four independent TDs taking up ministerial or junior ministerial positions.

Earlier, Kenny, who has been Fine Gael (United Ireland Party) leader since 2002, was approved as Taoiseach by the Dail Eireann, lower house of Irish parliament.

In the parliament election, Kenny secured 59 votes in favor and 49 votes against. He won 50 votes from his party and 9 from independent TDs, which can guarantee him forming a minority government.

Among the new Fine Gael ministers are Simon Harris (Health), Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation) and Michael Creed (Agriculture, Food and the Marine).

Kenny also holds the post of the minister for defense. Frances Fitzgerald was appointed as Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister), while still retaining the position of minister for justice and equality.

Both Michael Noonan (Finance) and Charlie Flanagan (Foreign Affairs and Trade) stay in their previous roles.

The four independent TDs are Katherine Zappone (Children and Youth Affairs), Shane Ross (Transport, Tourism and Sport), Denis Naughten (Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources) and Finian McGrath (minister of state with responsibility for disability).

In this cabinet reshuffle, Kenny set up a new Department of Regional Development and Rural Affairs, and Heather Humphreys, former minister for arts, heritage and the Gaeltacht, was appointed as the new department's head.
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China and the United Nations signed an agreement on Friday covering a multi-year contribution of 200 million U.S. dollars from China to the UN to finance activities relating to peace, security and development.

Liu Jieyi(L), China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, shakes hands with with Edmond Mulet, UN secretary-general's chef de cabinet at the UN headquarters in New York, May 6, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the UN and Edmond Mulet, UN secretary-general's chef de cabinet signed the agreement.

According to the agreement, China will contribute 200 million dollars to the United Nations in next 10 years to the newly established UN Peace and Development Trust Fund. The fund will be used to support activities in the area of peace and security, as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In practice, the UN will set up a committee made up of personnel from both China and the UN to guide the operation of the Fund, according to the agreement.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is "extremely appreciative of this generous contribution to the UN," said UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Friday.

"The contribution is a further demonstration of the strong commitment of the Government and people of China to the goals and activities of the UN," said Dujarric.

Last year during the UN's 70th anniversary summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will establish a 1-billion-dollar China-UN peace and development fund to support the UN's work, advance multilateral cooperation and contribute more to world peace and development.

Based on the initiative, China and the United Nations have agreed that the 200 million dollars of the total amount will be hosted by the United Nations and will finance relative activities in the form of UN Peace and Development Trust Fund, according to China's permanent mission to the UN.
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Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff vowed to fight "until the last day" on Friday after a special commission in the Senate recommended that an impeachment trial be opened against her.

The special commission voted 15-5 to approve a report that concluded there was enough evidence to proceed with a trial against Rousseff over the alleged fiscal manipulations in 2014 and 2015.

In a speech given at the Planalto presidential palace, Rousseff denied the allegations, insisting that she has not committed any crime.

"I am the living proof that a coup is being orchestrated against all advances made in the last 13 years," said the president.

She vowed to resist, despite the fact that a vote in the Senate on May 11 is seen as highly likely to formally open an impeachment trial, forcing her to step down for up to 180 days.

Rousseff also addressed the decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday to suspend Eduardo Cunha, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, who began the impeachment process against her in December.

Cunha is facing graft charges from a corruption probe at Brazil's state oil company.

"It took a person void of any moral and ethical principles, accused of money laundering and hidden accounts, to perpetrate this coup," she said.
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A senior Hamas leader said on Friday that his movement does not want to renew confrontation with Israel, yet demanding an end to its activities in Gaza.

"We do not want war, but we will not allow the occupation to build a buffer zone at the Gaza Strip borderline and to impose its equation on the ground," Ismail Haneya, deputy chief of the Islamic Hamas movement, told worshipers in a sermon following the Friday prayers in central Gaza.

Haneya blamed the tensions in the Strip over the past two days on Israel's "incursion" under the pretext of "searching of tunnels."

He noted that Hamas has sent multiple messages through mediators, including Egypt, Qatar, UN Middle East Special Coordinator Nicholas Mladenov and Turkey, adding that the movement will not allow Israel to impose a new equation in the coastal enclave under the terms of the truce, which was sponsored by Egypt in the summer of 2014.

Palestinian sources and witnesses told Xinhua that Israeli war jets and tanks shelled Friday morning agricultural lands east of Khan Younis south of Gaza Strip.

The sources said that the Israeli war jets fired one rocket at farm land, followed by tank shelling, without reporting any injuries.

The Israeli public radio said that the war jets resumed raids on Hamas targets in response to continued rocket firing towards the Israeli forces that are carrying out works near the security barrier surrounding the Gaza Strip in search of tunnels.

A Palestinian woman was killed and four others wounded, including three children, after the Israeli shelling and airstrikes started against the coastal enclave three days ago, along with Palestinian rocket firing towards Israeli forces stationed at the borderline.
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Authority of the Nigerian Army on Friday handed over 65 women and children rescued from suspected terrorists hideouts following the Operation Crackdown on Boko Haram terrorists in Sambisa forest in restive northeast state of Borno.

Brig.-Gen. Victor Ezugwu, the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 7 Division of the Nigerian Army handed over the rescued victims to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno at a ceremony in Maiduguri.

Ezugwu said that the rescued victims, 38 women and 27 children, were rescued from communities raided by the military during the operation.

He added two of the women were Cameroonians, while the rest were Nigerians.

The military chief told the governor that the army decided to hand them over to the state government for counseling before re-integrating them to their communities.

On his part, Shettima commended the army for its bravery and commitment toward ending the Boko Haram menace in the north east.

"It is gladdening to note that our troops are recording tremendous successes in the operation," he added.

The governor, who expressed shock at the condition of the victims, said that the Cameroonians would be handed over to the authorities in their country, while the rest would be rehabilitated by the state government.

"We are lucky to have a number of UN organizations on ground who will counsel them," he added.

Shettima also promised to provide anti-natal care to 12 pregnant woman among the victims to ensure they were in good health.
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Seventeen Chinese nationals were injured on Saturday when a Hong Kong Airlines flight hit severe turbulence over Borneo Island after taking off from Bali Island of Indonesia, officials said.

The incident occurred above Banjarmacin city, the capital of South Kalimantan province, about one hour after the Hong Kong-bound flight HX6704 take off from the Bali international airport, forcing it to return to the airport, said Herni Pramuharjo, spokesman of the transport ministry.

"Twelve people were rushed to a hospital, one of whom got very serious injury. Five others were only treated at the health clinic of the airport. All of them (17 people) are Chinese nationals," he told Xinhua via telephone.

One of the injured is a crew of the airline which carried 204 passengers and 12 crews, Pramuharjo said.

The turbulence incident is the second time involving Airbus 300-200 in Indonesia this week.

On Wednesday, Etihad Airways flight EY74 from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta encountered severe turbulence, 45 minutes prior to landing at the main airport in Jakarta, leaving 31 people wounded with 9 of them taken into hospital, and damaging cabin storage area, according to the spokesman.
NANCHANG - Hongxing Village in east China's Jiangxi province is far from the coldest place in China, but it has become an e-commerce mammoth thanks to warm winter gear.

Every morning, Zha Daixiong sits in front of his computer to take orders for down jackets produced in the village.

"The annual net income of my company has topped one million yuan ($154,400) since I began selling online in 2012," said Zha.

In Zha's village, home to only 821 families, more than 420 down jacket manufacturing companies have appeared in recent years, with more than 1,000 people employed in online jacket sales.

The story of Hongxing Village's booming jacket industry was first reported by web portal Sohu.com last week.

According to statistics released this week, the village took in 2.5 billion yuan in revenue from jackets in 2015, with more than 1 billion yuan from online sales.

On e-commerce platform Taobao, Hongxing's jacket revenue stood at 500 million yuan last year, qualifying it as a "Taobao Village" as defined by Alibaba, the e-commerce giant that runs the site.

Alibaba defines a village where more than 10 percent of households run online stores and with annual online revenue of 10 million yuan as a "Taobao Village." By the end of 2015, China had 780 "Taobao Villages," according to Alibaba Vice President Gao Hongbing.

From scratch to boom

Hongxing's enormous online success started from scratch.

The village's down jacket industry started to take shape in the 1980s. For years, the local jacket industry was dominated by big companies due to the heavy costs of running brick-and-mortar stores. Smaller workshops in the village found it hard to market their products without the logistics and sales support of larger companies.

"When my grandfather was running the jacket business, he took the clothes across the country in a big van, which was time-consuming and tiring," said Xu Ziyang, who now runs an online store. "When my father took over the business, he struggled to find sales agents to help sell the clothes."

"Now it's all online," said 27-year-old Xu.

After graduating from Guangzhou University in 2010, Xu returned to Hongxing to market children's down jackets manufactured by his family's company, Chengzhi Clothing Factory. He designed the product page on Taobao and promoted the products.

Hard work paid off. Online sales topped 6 million yuan in 2014, accounting for more than 60 percent of total revenue that year.

"One of the best things about e-commerce is the slashed costs," a manager of a jacket company with the surname Liu told Xinhua.

Liu opened three brick-and-mortar stores in 2011, which generated about one million yuan in revenue that year, but profits were a tepid 150,000 yuan.

In 2012, he started selling the clothes online, and by 2013, the annual revenue soared to 2 million yuan. His profits also went up by 20 percent year on year, prompting Liu to give up the three stores and concentrate on online sales.

The jacket sales boom also spawned several related industries, including logistics and button production, according to Guo Weishan, Hongxing's village head.

In villager Zha Xiaomao's house, samples of buttons, down collars and other accessories hang on the wall.

"I make more than 100 types of buttons," he said. "Anything you need for down jackets, you can find it here."

The lucrative industry has also attracted some out-of-towners seeking fortune.

Yu Xianyun, a resident of neighboring Gongqingcheng City, came to Hongxing in February last year. He rented a house to design down jackets in the village, where competition is heating up.

"There are four clothing design companies in Hongxing," he said.

Yu said he designs more than 1,000 clothing styles each year for the local garment industry.

A fabric company headquartered in southeast China's Fujian Province also set up a branch in the village to cash in on the industry.

"We provide more than 100 types of fabrics," said branch head Zeng Huaxian. "Profits from a single piece of fabric are not very high, but we have very high sales volume here."

Currently, a total of 85 companies specializing in e-commerce, clothing design and button-making are operating in Hongxing. More than 20 companies were set up by people from neighboring Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, and even some from the northern province of Hebei. The companies have hired some 30,000 locals.

Logistics companies have also been popping up. Before 2010, only one company delivered goods to customers. Now there are 12.

Outside a Xiongdi Logistics warehouse, Xinhua reporters found a group of employees packing more than 40 parcels.

"All of these are down jackets," said the company head. "We deliver about 600 of these parcels each day."

Another logistics company, Tiantian Express, delivers more than 1,000 parcels to customers nationwide every day.

Obstables ahead obstables

Despite the flourishing business, industry insiders see obstacles for Hongxing's future development.

"Our biggest concern is a lack of talent," said village head Guo Weishan.

Located in rural Jiangxi, Hongxing's living conditions are less desirable than those in big cities, making it difficult to hire qualified people, Guo said.

"We are in desperate need of people with expertise in photography and online operations, but it's hard to hire people to work in this remote village," Guo said. "Even though the companies here are willing to hire, it's hard to keep them working here for long."

In addition, many of the manufacturers in Hongxing are small, home-based studios, with parents making and processing garments, and children in charge of online sales. Many of these people, Guo said, have no expertise in online finance and marketing, which will harm their future development.

Lack of marketing talent has made brand building another issue. In Hongxing, there are more than 100 down jacket brands, but few have much brand recognition in the market, Guo said.

In order to address the human resources problem, the village sends young people to big cities such as Beijing and Hangzhou to gain experience. After learning about management and fashion, they return to Hongxing.

Local authorities are also helping by setting up industrial parks in cities near the village. Many of the company heads in Hongxing are considering moving to the parks, which have more support facilities.

"This way, we will have more talent to help businesses," one company head said.
A BYD K9 on display at the 12th China (Guangzhou) International Automobile Exhibition, Nov 20, 2014 [Photo/VCG]

MONTEVIDEO - Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez on Thursday presided over the unveiling of the country's first electric bus imported from China.

The Chinese-made vehicle, built by BYD, is set to join the city's fleet of public transit buses on Monday.

"Uruguay, as a pioneer in many areas, also has to make progress in this direction, because the future is electric," Vazquez told those attending the ceremony, including Industry Minister Carolina Cosse.

The bus will enter a two-year trial run, which if successful will lead to the incorporation of more electric vehicles in the city's transportation system, Uruguayan daily El Pais reported.

The fully electric bus "is very important for the protection of the environment and offers users better amenities," said Vazquez, adding the vehicle "cuts down on noise pollution, and saves energy and operating costs."

BYD's K9 model can accommodate up to 50 passengers, run for 125 km on a half-hour battery charge, and up to 250 km on a full charge, which takes about six hours.

In addition to offering residents a cleaner and quieter way to get around their city, electric vehicles may eventually help them save money, according to CUTCSA, the city's largest transportation firm.

"We think it's also an important step towards being able to reduce the price of a ticket," said CUTCSA President Juan Salgado.

During the ceremony, Vazquez, accompanied by other officials, boarded the bus for a brief tour.

Cosse noted the BYD bus consumes "a third of the energy" consumed by a bus that runs on gasoline.

On Wednesday, Chile's capital Santiago unveiled its first electric bus, also a BYD K9.

BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, is the world's largest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, according to the company's website.
Crew members at a regional division of CRC in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, take part in a rescue exercise. [Wang Zhengwei/China Daily]

The company should be divided into several firms, expert says

Mounting debts at State-owned China Railway Corp Group have sparked calls to split up the country's main railway service provider. A railway expert said on Friday the central government should divide the CRC into several regional companies with a shareholding structure to maintain a healthy growth.

Total liabilities of the CRC stood at 4.14 trillion yuan ($636.73 billion) by the first quarter of this year. The company had a deficit of 8.73 billion yuan between January and March of 2016, up 35 percent on a year-on-year basis, according to the CRC's audit report for the first quarter of 2016.

The company said in an announcement that the losses during this period were mainly caused by fast-growing road transportation and an overall decline in rail goods transportation.

Luo Renjian, with the Institute of Transport Research at the National Development and Reform Commission, said even though the CRC's debt burden was not high compared with firms in sectors such as highways, civil aviation and ports, it would be better to divide the company.

"It would effectively save cost and even make profit to divide the current CRC system into several regional companies with proper shareholding structure to optimize the country's railway service resources and networks," said Luo.

CRC declined to comment on the issue on Friday.

Eager to restore its earning ability, the CRC announced last month the creation of a number of rail logistics centers in Anhui and Shandong provinces to support transportation of household appliances and diversify its businesses, an effort to compete with airlines and private delivery companies.

As China's main railway network developer, the CRC is also responsible for investments in big-ticket projects like railway construction and the purchase of equipment including bullet and freight trains.

The government has an investment target of more than 800 billion yuan for railway construction to expand China's high-speed railway network this year, build more intercity and city-suburb links, and work to complete a freight railway network.

Zhao Jian, a professor of rail logistics at Beijing Jiaotong University, said because of its administrative role, the CRC has no choice but continue to invest in these new projects. Therefore, gaining loans from both policy and commercial banks, and issuing bonds to raise capital for railway construction are only solutions for it to gain the cash.

"Introducing a public-private partnership model or forming joint ventures certainly can help the CRC reduce spending on public transport services, optimize work efficiency, and bring more conveniences to passengers and company clients," said Zhao.

The PPP model is where a government service or private business venture is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more companies from private sector.

According to a recent announcement by the NDRC, China's top economic planning agency, the CRC is being empowered to decide how much high-speed train tickets cost in light of "market competition and passenger distribution".

Previously, the price was set by the commission itself.

"This move should be welcomed. As a company in a market economy, the CRC should be free from the shackles of administrative intervention. Only by doing so can it make the best use of resources, raise efficiency, improve profits and better serve passengers," said Zhou Zhicheng, deputy director for research at the Beijing-based China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

China has more than 121,000 kilometers of rail lines in operation. More than 19,000 km of them are high-speed railways, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total in the world.
An exhibitor shows a carving to a girl at the Shanghai International Jewelry Expo 2016. The show has attracted nearly 1,000 exhibitors from 12 countries and regions. [Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Sales of expensive precious metal and natural gem jewelry have dropped, but those embedded into wearables or smart devices are becoming increasingly popular, according to traders and experts attending the Shanghai International Jewelry Expo 2016 this week.

They said the shifting trend illustrates just how different generations of buyers now view investing in such expensive items.

"Elderly consumers prefer gold and natural gem jewelry because they believe they retain value," said Liu Yuhua, general manager with Yuecai Jewelry Co, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

"While young consumers prefer well-designed, fashionable types of jewelry, which also feature the latest technology.

"However, as demand shrinks for precious metals and gems, as economic growth slows, many consumers are turning to more affordable, fashionable items and more of this type of products have been launched this year to meet growing demand."

The latest industry data show the changing economic climate has been affecting the jewelry market for the past two years.

Statistics from the Gemological Association of China show retail sales revenue of gold and gem jewelry in China in 2015 was about 500 billion yuan ($76.9 billion), growing by 2 percent over 2014.

Gold jewelry consumption and manufacturing demand slumped 14 percent to 193.6 tons in the first quarter of 2016, according to the China Gold Association.

Yang Sisan, the association's deputy secretary-general, said like many sectors, the jewelry industry is also in dire need of reducing inventories, and cutting overcapacity.

"Many aspects of the sector need to be improved, such as design, craft and branding and innovation," said Yang.

Companies launching new products, which embed wearable devices, have seen the most positive results, according to participants at the Shanghai event, which runs until Monday.

Mira Lee, regional manager with Shenzhen-based Kingee Intelligent, said it's been developing smart rings, with a displayer hidden among gold and silver bands, which can display health indicators such as heart rate.

"We launched the series only in April and sales have been beyond expectation.

"The average price is around 1,000 yuan for silver models and 5,000 yuan for gold, very affordable pricing points for consumers," said Lee.

Guo Ying, head of the Gemological Institute at China University of Geosciences, said product diversity will become increasing important in the future, but cautioned it may take a while yet for China's jewelry market to fully adjust to all types of modern consumer demand.
Puhui Finance, a Shanghai-based financial service platform, launched a new brand of consumer credit products called "money station" on Friday, amid a rapid growth in China's consumer finance industry.

The company has been testing the brand for a year, and has received more than 1 million applications for consumer loans worth 16.4 billion yuan ($2.5 billion).

Dong Qi, co-founder and chief executive officer of Puhui Finance, said, "About 70 percent of the Chinese population does not have a credit card, and for those who have one, the credit limit on most of their credit cards is less than 10,000 yuan. In spite of a growing thirst for financial services like consumer loans, the penetration rate for credit cards is still very low in China, and the procedure of bank loan application is quite complicated. We're seeing great opportunities in this segment of the market."

"Based on the type of information submitted by the clients to apply for loans, Puhui Finance sets the credit limit for each client at a range of three to five times China's average credit card limit, which is below 10,000 yuan."

The company will expand such service to more customers in wider regions, targeting 359 cities in 29 provinces. They plan to do so via smart phones and personal computers and through more channels including WeChat, the most popular instant messaging application in China.

According to a report released by the Beijing-based iResearch Consulting Group in March, consumer lending rose 23 percent year-on-year to 19 trillion yuan in 2015 and is expected to hit 41 trillion yuan by 2019.

Gong Wen, director of the enterprise network security promotion committee at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on Friday, "Small and medium-sized enterprises raised funds of 800 billion yuan in 2015 through Internet financing. In Beijing, their financing costs were lowered from 30 percent to 15 percent, thanks to the help of peer-to-peer lending."

"As China is turning towards a consumer based economy, Internet-based consumption will account for half of the amount of the consumer economy. Consumer finance will make a tremendous progress."

He highlighted the importance of network security, which is the foundation of Internet finance.

Chen Xi, vice president of Puhui Finance, said the company has invested a huge amount of resources to build a dynamic risk control system based on big data analytics.

"We want to keep improving the system so that it can assess and predict the financial risks related to the clients more automatically and more intelligently."

"The data analyzed by our risk control system include the clients' credit report, records of consumption, and everyday behavior on the Internet. The system will analyze these data and keep digging the clients' social network to increase the accuracy of risk assessment," Chen said.
An advertisement for online shopping site Taobao.com of Alibaba Group is seen at a metro station in Shanghai, Nov 12, 2014. [Photo/IC]

For expats living in China, finding their way around the giant online shopping platforms run by Alibaba, which offer more than 800 million products, can be a daunting task.

This led long-term US expats Charlie Erickson, Jay Thornhill and Tyler McNew to develop Baopals, an English-language website that helps foreigners in China to navigate and buy goods on Alibaba platforms Taobao and Tmall.

With an investment of about 500,000 yuan ($77,000), which included their own personal savings together with financial help from friends, the trio set up Baopals in Shanghai in February.

"The idea was born out of necessity from all of us," said co-founder Erickson. "I was always asking my Chinese colleagues to help me buy things on Taobao. So, we just wanted to figure out a way to do this independently."

Baopals constantly updates the flow of goods from Alibaba's platforms and automatically translates the product information, including customer reviews, into English.

The website also reorganizes products into different categories to facilitate the item search for non-Chinese speakers, and it has a bilingual customer support team to help with questions.

To make the shopping experience even more convenient, Baopals accepts Alipay, WeChat Wallet and China UnionPay as payment methods and is working on integrating Visa, Mastercard and Paypal into the system.

In the past two months, the website has sold 7,000 products and shipped them to 40 cities in China.

Erickson said Baopals sees steady growth ahead. "We expect to keep doubling our transactions every month for the next three to four months, at least", he said.

For every transaction on the platform, Baopals charges a service fee of 5 percent of the item price, plus 8 yuan per item type. The service fee is automatically included in the pricing of all the products on the site.

Because the website is still in early stages of development, the company expects to secure more funding in the coming months to improve technology.

"We are currently in talks with some Chinese investors interested in participating in the next round of investment that will take place in the next three to six months," said Erickson.

Similar to the general shopping trends on Taobao, the biggest categories on Baopals are women's clothing, electronics and household goods.

Abby McBride, a US expat living in Shanghai and a regular user of the website, said her purchases have ranged from home decor to charcoal for her grill. One of the major advantages of the website is being able to use WeChat Wallet, since Alibaba accepts only Alipay, she added.

"It can be challenging for non-Chinese speakers to use Chinese shopping platforms," said McBride.
An attendee walks past a poster of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise at Guiyang International Big Data Exhibition, May 28, 2015. [Photo/CFP]

New H3C Group, a newly formed joint venture between State-owned Unisplendour Corp and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, will be targeting emerging technologies and government procurement deals to boost sales, company executives said on Friday.

The information infrastructure provider headquartered in Beijing and Hangzhou is preparing to fight off challenges from overseas giants such as Cisco Systems Inc and Dell Inc, taking advantages from closer ties with the government and technologies from HPE.

Tony Yu, president and CEO of New H3C, said his priorities include keeping the firm's top ranking in the Chinese enterprise market while transforming the company from a hardware maker to a software developer and provider of related services.

"We will add investments to develop new technologies in 5G, robotics and virtual-reality sectors when the time is right," said Yu.

HPE, an enterprise technologies provider spun off from personal computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co in 2015, sold 51 percent of the stake in H3C Technologies Co Ltd to Unisplendour Corp Ltd for at least $2.5 billion last year. The JV also includes HPE's server, storage and service units on the Chinese mainland.

Beijing-based Unisplendour is an IT arm controlled by Tsinghua Unigroup Co Ltd, which was set up by Tsinghua University, the country's elite educational institute where a long list of tech tycoons and government officials were graduated.

Victor Zhao, chairman of Tsinghua Unigroup, said supports from the Chinese government were a key reason for Unigroup to complete the purchase.

"The founding of New H3C is a milestone for the Chinese IT industry and will benefit national security," said Zhao.

"Chinese companies are taking bigger control of the JVs they set up with overseas multinationals and local development and management teams are deeply involved in daily operations now than 20 years ago."

Top technology providers are set to become core players in China as competition heats up, said a report from the industry consultancy International Data Corp.

"Because an SOE (State-owned enterprise) is controlling the majority stakes of New H3C, the company will significantly increase the chance of winning government procurement deals," it said.

Kitty Fok, director of IDC China, said the founding of New H3C marks the beginning of a new round of competition because the biggest overseas giants have all tied up with their local partners.

"An SOE identity and cutting-edge technologies are both necessities to win in the Chinese market," said Fok.

China is on high alert over information safety since whistleblower Edward Snowden unveiled the massive surveillance program from the United States. Cisco and other overseas tech companies reported slumps of new orders in China because increasingly strict security requirement made them difficult to sell products to government organizations and SOEs, both key buyers of servers, storages and cloud-computing equipment.

Cisco later moved to partner with Shandong-based Inspur Technologies Co Ltd to stay relevant in the world's second-largest economy. California-based Juniper Networks Inc also joined hands with Chinese PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd in a bid to tap into the data center business.
In March, five ministry-level departments said they would launch a nationwide crackdown on the use of cloud storage services to disseminate pornography and illegal publications. [Photo/IC]

Leading Chinese tech companies are shutting down parts of their cloud storage services for individual users, as the government intensifies crackdown on pirated movies and pornographic films being distributed through the new channel.

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's cloud service DBank said on Tuesday it would coordinate with the government's anti-piracy push by halting cloud storage services to individual users, making it the sixth major tech company to do so within two months.

Huawei DBank is the second-largest personal cloud service provider in China, with more than 14 million monthly active users, according to Chengdu-based Big Data Research Center.

The company said all user files stored in its DBank cloud will be deleted after June 30th, adding the change will not affect users of its smartphones, who are using a separate cloud service.

Storing files in the cloud is very popular among Chinese netizens as it allows users to view material from any smartphone, computer and tablet that's connected to the internet, and the cloud can also provide backup for files.

Last month, Tencent Holdings Ltd said it would end a file-transferring service on its Weiyun cloud, which has about 4 million monthly active users.

Sina Corp and other internet companies such as Kingsoft Corp Ltd and 115.com also said they would stop offering free personal cloud storage services, adding they are cooperating with governments to create a "clean" cyberspace.

In March, five ministry-level departments said they would launch a nationwide crackdown on the use of cloud storage services to disseminate pornography and illegal publications.

Internet companies involved in such practices will be held accountable, according to the anti-porn authorities.

Wang Liming, a 27-year-old student in Beijing, is a regular user of Sina's cloud service. "Cloud is so convenient. I don't think I can find a better alternative to help me store big files," she said.

It remains unclear whether Baidu Inc will take any measures with its Baidu Cloud service, which is China's largest personal cloud storage provider with more than 38 million monthly active users.

Vincent Fu, an analyst at Gartner Inc, said some internet companies are giving up personal cloud storage services because they can't decide on a good business model.
A picture posted on the Weibo account of Zeng Xuezhong, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices, showing a possible display of the company's VR/AR device. [Photo/Sina Weibo]

Chinese smartphone maker ZTE Mobile Devices will soon tap into the nascent virtual reality sector and release its first VR product, according to a tweet posted on social media by one of its executives on Thursday.

Zeng Xuezhong, CEO of ZTE Mobile Devices, posted on Sina Weibo that users can expect the imminent announcement of the firm's second generation flagship AXON's display which will be equipped with the capability of a good immersive VR experience as it requires a Quad High Definition display.

"To all appearances, a 2K resolution screen of a smartphone seems unrelated to VR. But ZTE's smartphone development strengths in the area of display matter immensely, with its knowledge and know-how for the importance of dynamic color range, contrast ratio, and response time in order to offer a good VR experience," said Zeng.

According to ZTE, the company has been paying close attention to the research and development of VR and augmented reality (AR) technology for the past few years.

Earlier this year, Yu Yifang, vice president and general manager of China for ZTE Mobile Devices, also revealed to media that ZTE is closely monitoring and researching VR for mobile devices.

As an official member of the Open Mobile Alliance cooperation, the company said it has also actively promoted developing AR industry standards and power technologies.

By following in the footsteps of Samsung's newly-launched Gear VR at the Mobile World Congress held in February in Barcelona, Huawei unveiled its VR headset that works with its new flagship smartphone, the P9, earlier last month.

Lei Jun, founder of another major smartphone vendor Xiaomi Corp, has also claimed in January that a new research and development lab has been established by the company, aiming to expand its business wings into VR and the robotics sector.
Taiwan's Democratic progessive party (DPP) leader Tsai Ing-wen attends to the talent competition of children with mental disabilities in Taiwan, file photo. [Photo/IC]

'Mainland won't tolerate any vagueness' on whether Tsai endorses one-China principle

A denial of the 1992 Consensus principle that Taiwan and the mainland are both parts of one China would change cross-Straits relations and cause the collapse of the political mutual trust and process of dialogue between the two sides, experts say.

"The island's new leader has to answer whether she endorses the 1992 Consensus  it's not an optional question," Li Yihu, head of Peking University's Taiwan Institute, said on Friday. "The new leader has to voice a clear position on this issue."

Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party, will assume the island's leadership on May 20 and deliver her inaugural speech.

"Cross-Straits relations have come to a turning point," said Li. "The mainland won't tolerate any vagueness regarding the Consensus."

In a front-page commentary on Thursday, People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China, stressed that not adhering to the 1992 Consensus constitutes sabotage of the common political foundation for cross-Straits ties.

According to the commentary, the development of cross-Straits relations in the past two decades has proved that the relations have a bright future with the endorsement of the Consensus. And without it, the peaceful development of the relations would be off course and could founder, it said.

"It is very rare for People's Daily to have a commentary like this on its front page," said Li. "The article shows the central leadership's firm position on this point. It's an official message and a powerful statement."

Li said the mainland has reiterated the importance of the Consensus and the serious consequences of not adhering to the principle.

"Economic loss is obvious, and the political impact would be inevitable," he said. "All the consequences would have to be borne by the Taiwan leadership."

But the island's new leader has been trying to skirt around the issue, said Ni Yongjie, deputy director of Shanghai's Taiwan Research Institute.

"Tsai did say she would prefer preserving the status quo. But without the Consensus, the status quo would not exist," he said, adding that Tsai could use the opportunity on May 20 to explicitly endorse the Consensus.

Zhu Songling, director of the Institute of Cross-Straits Relations at Beijing Union University, said the mainland has been unequivocal and has warned that further development of cross-Straits relations would be set back by its denial.

"Tsai's dodging of inquiries about her position on the Consensus is actually destroying cross-Straits ties," he said.
The special administrative region's political heavyweights have condemned advocacy of "Hong Kong independence", saying it is unpopular with the public and has no future.

Speaking on a radio program, National People's Congress Standing Committee member Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai said on Thursday that the more people talk about "Hong Kong independence", the more the central government will be concerned about national security.

Fan said that before Hong Kong returned to the nation in 1997, people on the mainland spoke very highly of Hong Kong and its people. However, the agitation for "Hong Kong independence" has disgusted many mainland compatriots, said Fan.

She added that this is also why candidates for the chief executive must be loyal both to Hong Kong and the nation.

Fan made the remarks before high-ranking central government official Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, begins a three-day visit to Hong Kong on May 17.

Zhang is slated to deliver a keynote speech at a Belt and Road Initiative summit to be held in Wan Chai.

Fan said she expected Zhang to discuss a range of issues-including politics, the economy, the financial situation and people's livelihoods - in his speech.

Like Fan, ex-security secretary Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong has also warned that talk of "Hong Kong independence" threatens mutual trust between Hong Kong and the central government. He cautioned that the issue could create even deeper divisions in society.

Lee said the public should condemn people advocating it because it can only lead to a dead end. He added that the SAR will not survive economically without support from the mainland.

Lee, who is a Hong Kong deputy to the NPC, said there is no political or legal warrant for "Hong Kong independence".

Recently, some opposition parties tried to include words of self-determination into their manifestos. Fan, however, called the contention of self-determination for Hong Kong just another way of advocating for "Hong Kong independence".

Under the Basic Law and the "One Country, Two Systems" principle, Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy. But it is impossible that the autonomy also covers national defense and foreign affairs, Fan said, adding that the fact Hong Kong is a part of China will remain unchanged after 2047.
Patients and their family members crowd the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corps for hospital officials to answer questions about their treatment on Friday. A woman in a wheelchair complains the care she received didn't help.[Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

A hospital in Beijing that came under scrutiny after the death of a college student it treated with immunotherapy failed on Friday to respond to dozens of other patients who received similar treatment in the hospital.

According to media reports, the Second Hospital of Beijing Armed Police Corpswhich is under investigation following the death on April 12 of cancer patient Wei Zexi, 21had promised to give patients an explanation on Friday on issues such as whether the therapy was legal and if the department providing it was a subcontracted private company.

"But when we arrived at the hospital in the morning, the gate was closed and nobody came out to explain anything," said a 30-year-old woman who would give only her surname as Liu.

"There are so many patients who have received the therapy waiting for a repose, and many of them are from outside Beijing," she said. "The hospital should at least make some remarks."

However, the hospital opened a center on Friday in a grocery store near its gate for immunotherapy patients or their families to register and later receive a response from the hospital.

The hospital came under public scrutiny after Wei, a student at Xidian University in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, died after receiving immunotherapy at the hospital. Such treatments employ biological techniques to help the patient's immune system fight the illness.

Wei was diagnosed in 2014 with synovial sarcoma, a rare cancer of the soft tissue. His parents said they spent more than 200,000 yuan (about $31,000) for what the hospital called DC-CIK immunotherapy.

China's top health authority, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, reiterated on Thursday that such treatment has not been approved in China and thus is permissible only in research, not for commercial clinical use.
More Chinese people choose to donate organs, but lack of supply still serious

China has established fast channels for human organ transportation to minimize delivery times and help more patients survive, China's top health authority announced on Friday.

The fast channel will be supported by health, transportation, public security as well as aviation and railway authorities and make organ transportation more efficient, said the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Aircraft carrying organs will be given priority during take off and landing. If the flight is fully booked and staff members of the Organ Procurement Organization responsible for organ transport cannot board the plane, the organ is allowed to be carried to the destination by crew members. OPO staff members can also board trains without tickets during emergency circumstances.

Meanwhile, public security departments are required to make sure the route for vehicles transporting organs is clear and make sure they can arrive at the hospital as soon as possible.

The public is also encouraged to provide private vehicles and aircraft to transport organs.

"The initiative, covering all major forms of transportation, including civil aviation, highway and high-speed railway, will better facilitate particularly long distance transport of donated organs and substantially improve the overall efficiency of organ donation and transplants in the country," said Chen Jingyu, deputy director of Wuxi People's Hospital and a leading lung transplant specialist.

Many organs, such as lungs, have to be transplanted within 12 hours after removal from the deceased donor to avoid damage. Lung transplant surgery takes an average of five hours, and so the window to transport the organ is five to six hours, he said.

In February, the Civil Aviation Administration issued a circular requiring airlines and airports to prioritize medics' transporting organ donations by offering faster security checks.

Chen said that's a good beginning.

"The latest directive helps deal with the highway and high-speed rail as well, and they are clearly informed of how to help," he said.

In 2015 alone, 2,766 people donated 7,785 organs, more than in 2013 and 2014 combined.

Although the number of organs donated in China last year topped Asia and ranked third in the world, China has a serious lack of donated organs. Some patients must wait for years for transplant surgery, and many don't survive long enough to receive a transplant. Previously, executed prisoners were one of the major sources of organs. On Jan 1, 2015, China banned the harvesting of organs from prisoners.

According to Chen, each donor gave an average 2.6 organs in China last year, compared with an average of four internationally. In theory, six organs - a liver, a heart, two kidneys and two lungs - could be harvested from an individual donor in the best scenario.

Contact the writers at cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn
A doctor who was attacked by a patient he had treated more than 20 years ago was still in critical condition after eight hours of treatment on Friday afternoon.

According to the Guangdong General Hospital in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, the hospital is organizing senior experts and doctors to help save Chen Zhongwei, who is in the intensive care unit for further medical observation and treatment after surgery.

"Doctors are doing what they can to help rescue Chen," said a statement from the hospital.

Meanwhile, the hospital said it will actively cooperate with police to investigate the case, in which Chen was stabbed more than 30 times from head to foot on Thursday evening.

The doctor was attacked by a man who followed him home at 5:20 pm. Chen's family immediately sought police help and helped send Chen to hospital after he was stabbed and suffered from massive bleeding.

Chen, 60, former director of the executive department of stomatology of the Guangdong General Hospital, had retired earlier this year.

The suspect committed suicide by jumping off the 18th-floor balcony in Chen's home.

According to a police, the unnamed man was a patient Chen treated 25 years ago. The suspect was reported to have previously sought compensation and made trouble before he attacked Chen, leading Chen to seek police help.

Liao Xinbo, an inspector with the Guangdong Provincial Commission of Health and Family Planning, said he was shocked when he learned Chen was attacked.

"Chen is an honest, low-key and capable doctor," Liao said.

Wu Shaolin, executive vice-president of the Guangdong Provincial Medical Doctor Association, said doctors should be respected by patients and society as more than 60 percent of doctors have to work overtime, or more than 40 hours a week, to serve their patients.

"Those who attack doctors should be seriously punished," Wu told China Daily on Friday.

Wang Hui, deputy director of the Guangdong Mediation Commission of Harmony Doctor and Patient Relations, called for improved medical facilities to make it easier for people to see doctors and ease the high tensions between doctors and patients.

Chen Han contributed to this story.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn
The first Sino-Russian university, located in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, plans to enroll its first group of students this year, marking a milestone in educational cooperation between the two countries.

Postgraduate students in nanoscience and ecology will be enrolled in the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University in September after it gets official approval from the Ministry of Education, said Zhao Ping, principal of the university.

The university is going to enroll undergraduates from next year.

MSU-BIT, run by Lomonosov Moscow State University, Beijing Institute of Technology and the Shenzhen government, marks the first cooperation between Chinese and Russian universities.

"The launch of MSU-BIT is a historical moment of friendship and cooperative development between China and Russia," Vice-Premier Liu Yandong said at the university's foundation-laying ceremony on Friday.

"The two countries can take advantage of their own edges and gather better educational resources to push bilateral cultural exchanges and cooperation to a higher level."

According to Zhao, the university plans to enroll 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students domestically and internationally in the long term. Thirty to 50 percent of them are expected to come from Belt and Road countries.

Diplomas of both MSU and MSU-BIT will be granted to students when the new university gets authorization.

Victor Antonovich Sadovnichy, principal of MSU, said the new university will offer courses where MSU and BIT have advantages, and make innovations in curriculum.

Students will also be equipped with multilingual capabilities, he added, as the classes will be taught in Chinese, English and Russian.

The number of students studying in each other's countries has been growing, with over 16,100 students from Russia studying in China last year, while more than 25,000 Chinese students were studying in Russia.

sally@chinadailyhk.com
China's efforts to rebalance its economic structure are desirable and will benefit the regional economy in the long run, representatives of the International Monetary Fund said on Friday.

"China's transition from manufacturing and investment to services and consumption, though it may point to a slower pace of growth in the short run, is really what we want to see," said Alfred Schipke, IMF's senior resident representative in China, adding that over time the region is likely to benefit as the rebalancing makes China's growth model more sustainable.

China's growth is forecast to moderate to 6.5 percent this year and 6.2 percent in 2017, according to the IMF's latest regional economic outlook for Asia and Pacific released on Tuesday.

As the largest economy in Asia, China's pace of rebalancing imposes different spillovers on neighboring countries in Asia that contribute two-thirds of global economic growth, according to Schipke.

"Those more dependent on investment and manufacturing could lose, and those that rely on China's consumers, such as labor-intensive products and technology industries, can be winners," said Schipke, referring to the fact that consumer expenditure has become a more important growth engine for the world's second-largest economy.

Raphael Lam, deputy resident representative of the IMF in China, said that efforts to cut overcapacity and to develop appropriate fiscal policies have gradually paid off in the rebalancing process.

Meanwhile, there are some key challenges that China needs to tackle to sustain growth.

"China should place more emphasis on tackling credit issues, as China's debt-to-GDP ratio remains high," said Lam.

"Credit has grown at a quickened pace while fundamentals of the businesses are in decline, which has deteriorated since 2015," said Lam.

Official data show that new lending hit a record in the first three months after it topped 4.6 trillion yuan ($707 billion), driving the country's GDP to expand by 6.7 percent year-on-year.

In response to concerns over the sustainability of China's recovery, Lam said that the government should not rely too much on government-led infrastructure projects and instead should make good use of policy instruments to encourage private investment.

Total fixed-asset investment rose 10.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, up by 0.5 percentage points compared with the first two months, but that of private investors grew by only 5.7 percent, down 7.9 percentage points from the same period last year.

Chinese policymakers have taken heed of the predicament facing private entrepreneurs and vowed to take targeted measures to facilitate their business operations.

wangyanfei@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 05/07/2016 page4)
BEIJING -- The revised draft of a regulation would prohibit medical institutions in China from installing and using large medical equipment unless approved by authorities.

The revision to the regulation on monitoring medical devices, which has yet to be adopted, is intended to prevent medical institutions from abusing medical equipment to increase their earnings, according to the draft publicized by the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office.

Medical institutions should obtain approval from health authorities at the provincial level and above before installing large medical equipment, and their use of the devices will be evaluated and regulated by authorities, according to the draft.

Institutions that install large medical equipment should have matching technical conditions, the ability to use the devices, ancillary facilities and qualified technicians, the draft said.

Health authorities at the county level and above will issue a warning to institutions that install large equipment without approval, order them to stop using the equipment, confiscate their illegal gains, and impose fines.

In serious cases, offenders could be banned for five years from applying for approval, the draft said, adding improper use of the equipment could also result in fines, suspension of operations, or revocation of credentials.

The use of equipment in diagnosis and treatment is likely to account for a bigger share of medical institutions' earnings as policies to reduce patient expenses, such as one requiring medication to be sold at zero markup, have been introduced, according to a note explaining the need for the revision.

Medical institutions also intend to add more beds and large equipment to raise their returns, which needs to be controlled, the note said.

Opinions on the revised draft will be solicited until June 4.
Experts selected the best pictures at China Daily's "One Billion People" photo contest in 1981.
The ongoing joint patrol by Italian and Chinese police officers in the streets of Italy shows Italy's "tailored attention to Chinese citizens", according to a news release by the Italian Embassy in China.

Starting from Monday, four Chinese police officers are on patrols in Rome and Milan with their Italian counterparts for two weeks. This makes Italy the first European country to have Chinese police officers patrolling the streets. The joint patrols cover a time when Italy sees "the maximum flow" of Chinese tourists, said the embassy in a written interview with China Daily.

The Chinese police officers are there "to facilitate contacts with local authorities by Chinese citizens", and they serve in their own uniforms so that Chinese people will easily recognize them, according to the embassy.

"This police cooperation is an integral part of the cooperation between countries, and the agreement confirms the solid partnership between Italy and China," said the embassy.

According to a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries in September, China would send police officers to join patrols in Italy during peak seasons of tourism to protect Chinese citizens there.

A popular tourist destination for Chinese people, Italy attracted more than 1.4 million Chinese tourists last year, according to the Italian Embassy in China. It said Italy is "particularly eager to open its doors to the Chinese." The country opened up 11 visa centers in China this year, another move to attract more Chinese after it shortened the time for processing individual tourism and business visas for Chinese to within 36 hours.

"The best facilitation a country can offer to the tourists is efficiency," said Ettore Sequi, Italian ambassador to China.
Wang Nana was dumbfounded when a bank clerk told her that she had not been honest in her application for a bank loan. According to a credit check, the 33-year-old graduated from Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College in 2006 and runs a photocopy outlet in Central China's Henan province.

But Wang never went to a college.

An investigation revealed a carefully planned crime committed 13 years ago. Wang had taken the national college entrance exam in 2003, but she didn't receive an admission letter from any university. Giving up her college dream, Wang then shifted to another city to work.

The truth, however, is that her college enrollment letter was intercepted by another girl, who attended college under her name. Zhang Yingying, the impostor, graduated with a certificate that carries her photo but Wang's name and ID number. Zhang later landed a job as a teacher at a vocational school.

More details emerged as the probe continued. Zhang Yingying's father confessed that he had bribed the teacher in charge of mailing the enrollment letters to get Wang's admission letter. He then got a fake ID card and hukou (or household registration) for his daughter by bribing local police officers.

For girls (and boys) from poor rural families like Wang, a college degree can change their lives. This makes the act of denying her the life-changing opportunity a crime.

But Wang's is not an isolated case.

In another case that came to light recently, Liu Hongli, a teacher also from Henan, found that her hukou had been "transferred" to Beijing and her Henan household registration nullified, which essentially meant she didn't exist. That was 11 years ago.

Further inquiry revealed the details. In 2004, a colleague of Liu borrowed her university certificate as she sought her help to apply for a job for Cheng Yuanyuanthe latter being the colleague's friend. Instead, Cheng used Liu's certificate to land a job in Beijing and then got Liu's hukou "transferred" to the capital. After the case was cracked, Cheng's Beijing residence permit was revoked and Liu's reinstated.

Both cases point to poor management and loopholes in the household registration system. In China, hukou, a small piece of paper, is a lot more than just proof of residence.

There is a huge difference between a rural and an urban residence permit. Even if a person spends his/her entire life working in a big city, but doesn't have a permit to live permanently in the city, he/she can only get pension after retirement in the place where his/her household is registered.

Having one's household registered in a city like Beijing brings with it lots of social benefits in terms of education, welfare and insurance, which drive people to fabricate or even steal others' identities.

Separating hukou from the social benefits is a difficult part of the reform. For a vast country with a huge floating population like China, it is difficult to prevent duplicated ID numbers or inconsistency between ID and residence permit.

Incidents of a person being wrongfully detained by police for having an ID number that matches that of a criminal suspect or a man seeking to register his first marriage being told that he is already married have been reported from time to time.

But in Wang's case, the horrible fact is that Zhang Yingying's father bribed officials to give his daughter a fake identity. Had Wang's school, the college she was supposed to attend or the police followed the rules, the tragedy would have been prevented.

Zhoukou authorities announced recently that 13 people involved in the case had been punished and three of them face criminal charges. But irrespective of the outcome of the court case, Wang cannot get her lost 13 years back.

So the culprits should get the harshest punishment, in order to deter potential cheats in the future.

The writer is an editor with China Daily. lifangchao@chinadaily.com.cn
A formation of the Nanhai Fleet of China's Navy on Saturday finished a three-day patrol of the Nansha islands in the South China Sea. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Philippine presidential election on May 9, arguably the most contentious in decades, will see a new leader assume power because incumbent President Benigno Aquino III is barred from seeking re-election. Since Aquino is responsible for the souring of Beijing-Manila relations by endorsing Washington's "rebalancing to Asia-Pacific" policy over the past six years, the world is waiting to see what the new Philippine government's China policy will be.

Backed by the United States, the Aquino government has constantly sought to challenge China over the South China Sea issue, which, however, has proved to be a fool's errand.

To begin with, Manila's attempt to confront Beijing over its Huangyan Island has failed.

To maintain relations with the Philippines, however, China has exercised exemplary restraint in the island dispute. And the Philippines was expected to reciprocate the gesture for the sake of bilateral ties, which Aquino has long refused.

Encouraged by Washington, Manila sent military vessels to harass Chinese fishing boats and fishermen operating in waters off Huangyan Island in 2012, triggering a two-month confrontation with China's surveillance ships. This prompted Beijing to strengthen its presence on the island, leaving no scope for Manila to encroach upon the Chinese territory.

Thanks to the Aquino administration's accommodative policy, US troops, which the Philippine people fought strenuously to get rid of, are back in the country and will be stationed at five military bases.

Seeking Washington's protection might not be a good move for Manilait could even be counter-productivebecause Philippine soldiers, despite being equipped and trained according to US standards, have not been able to defeat the poorly-equipped anti-government forces.

By selling its Hamilton-class cutters and other advanced weapons to the Philippines, Washington is strengthening its military alliance with Manila.

But the Philippines should realize that it is just a piece on the US chessboard. The US may make use of the Philippines to meddle in the waters of the South China Sea, but it will never get involved if it leads to open confrontation between China and the Philippines. Should a serious conflict break out between Beijing and Manila over the South China Sea issue, which is about China's maritime sovereignty, Washington might prefer to watch from the sidelines because it does not concern the US' core interests.

Manila's provocations such as those around the Huangyan Island and the filing of an arbitration case in its dispute with China in the South China Sea, have a lot to do with the deteriorating bilateral relations, which have dealt a heavy blow to their trade and commercial cooperation.

As such, the incoming Philippine government should recalibrate its China policy.

But the prospects for that do not look encouraging, because the US is likely to take steps to ensure the new Philippine administration keeps serving its "rebalancing to Asia-Pacific" policy.

On the one hand, Washington is expected to ramp up its military aid to Manila in the next five years. On the other, in an attempt to hype up China's legal construction on its South China Sea islands, the US flew six of its military planes through the international airspace near Huangyan Island last month, injecting more uncertainties into China-Philippines ties.

The Aquino government has been trying to justify its hawkish stance on the South China Sea issue and urging the incoming leadership to follow the same policy. Worse, its anti-China propaganda has seriously affected domestic opinion, as more Philippine citizens now seem to distrust China.

Given these facts, the new Philippine administration should take appropriate measures to improve Beijing-Manila ties and seek peaceful solution to bilateral disputes without becoming an expendable part of Washington's Asia-Pacific maneuver.

The author is a researcher in Southeast Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
The extraordinary exploits of adventurer William Mesny are recounted in a new biography that fizzes with lively characters and provides a valuable insight into life during the last decades of the Qing Dynasty. Paul Tomic speaks with the author.

One morning in 1998, David Leffman awoke to find himself with a desert-dry throat, a thumping hangover and a notebook littered with jottings about an uprising in the 1860s that resulted in the deaths of 3 million people.

Although the hangover eventually subsided, the scribbled notes Leffman had taken during a three-day "Sisters Meal", courtesy of the Miao ethnic group in the southwestern province of Guizhou, were so intriguing he couldn't get them out of his mind. Despite being well-grounded in Chinese history, the British author was astonished that he had never heard of the uprising, so he decided to learn more about it.

That weekend signaled the start of a 15-year obsession with William Mesny, a British adventurer who arrived in China as a penniless sailor in 1860 and rose to the rank of general in the Imperial Army of the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), before dying as he had arrived, almost broke, in Shanghai in 1919.

The upshot of that decade and a half of travel and research is Leffman's recently published biography of Mesny, The Mercenary Mandarin: How a British Adventurer Became a General in Qing-Dynasty China, a story packed with stirring tales of derring-do and larger-than-life characters, deftly interwoven with the events that drove the times. Although technically a biography, the author's grasp of history and the pivotal events of the time provide an excellent guide to late 19th century China and the conditions under which people lived.
The flagship "USS Blue Ridge" of the Seventh Fleet of the US Navy approaches Wusong military port in Shanghai, May 6, 2016. The Blue Ridge arrived in Shanghai Friday for a five-day visit. [Photo/Xinhua]
The Workers' Party of Korea, the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, opened its 7th Congress on Friday.

It is the first WPK congress in 36 years and the first under the leadership of Kim Jong-un.

Analysts say the congress may focus on further consolidating the policy of simultaneously developing nuclear weapons and the national economy, and might emphasize the DPRK's status as a nuclear state.

An estimated 3,000 party representatives will attend the meeting, which presumably will last three days.

More than 100 foreign journalists were denied access to the assembly hall. They were asked instead to stay outside the meeting venue and interview Pyongyang residents.

Yoon Hae-ryoong, a senior majoring in mechanics at Kim Il Sung University, told Xinhua that he sees the congress as a historical watershed in the revolutionary cause of the DPRK. He said that as a young college student, he was lucky to take part in the parade and torch march before the meeting.

He said the concurrent development of nuclear weapons and the national economy is a long-term strategic approach to dealing with "US imperialists".

The DPRK official media has not reported on the congress.

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that China hopes the DPRK can "achieve national development" and "heed the calls of the international community and work with us to maintain peace and stability in Northeast Asia".

Pyongyang had announced in late October that the 7th WPK congress would be convened in early May. The 6th Congress was held in 1980.
Rwanda's First Lady, Jeannette Kagame (L), Chinese ambassador to Rwanda Pan Hejun (R) shake hands at the signing of memorandum of understanding. [Photo/Xinhua]

KIGALI - The Chinese embassy in Rwanda on Tuesday announced it will support education of about 108 needy Rwandan secondary students.

The funding will be channeled through Imbuto Foundation, a charity organization of Rwanda's First Lady, Jeannette Kagame.

Pan Hejun, Chinese ambassador to Rwanda, signed a memorandum of understanding with the director general of Imbuto Foundation, Urujeni Bakuramutsa, at the Chinese embassy.

The deal will run until the end of 2017 with a possibility of renewal.

Imbuto Foundation will be responsible for the management of the funds, including the payment of tuition fees, school supplies and health insurance for the students, and will report to the Chinese embassy.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Ambassador Pan said the embassy's partnership with Imbuto Foundation is part of education cooperation between the two countries, which would further boost friendship.

Photo shows refugee children. [Photo/Xinhua]

"We (China and Rwanda) are doing various kinds of corporation projects in manufacturing, agriculture, information and communications technology, infrastructure, and energy, while people-to-people exchange in education and health is also very important corporation," he said.

The ambassador described Imbuto as a reliable organization capable of accounting for the funds.

"We believe they will provide us with all the details of the funding. We worked with them through the years and have already built up trust between each other," he said.

Bakuramutsa said the partnership with the Chinese embassy is very important as education is key to her country's development.

"In Rwanda we believe that education is key for sustainable development. So by enabling these children to finish high school we are providing them a better and sustainable future where they will be able to have progress," she said.
SEOUL -- South Korea and the United States agreed on Saturday to mount pressure on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as the DPRK was holding its party congress for the first time in 36 years.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se phoned with US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day and reached the agreement, the ministry said in a press release.

"(They) agreed to keep sending strong warning messages together with the international community to deter additional nuclear tests and provocations by the DPRK," the ministry said.

The DPRK leader Kim Jong Un on Friday celebrated the "great success" of the country's nuclear program at the seventh congress of the ruling Workers' Party.

The two officials also shared their assessment of the DPRK's ongoing ruling party congress and the possibility of further "provocations" by Pyongyang, according to the press release.
Chinas Relations With the West: Straight Line Decline

There are those who believe China's ongoing Party Congress will bode well for companies that do business in or with China. I am firmly convinced that the opposite is true and that it will used as yet another opportunity by China to show that it will not be cowered by the declining relations and sanctions/counter-sanctions between the United States / EU / Australia / Japan on the one hand, and China on the other. I see China using this Congress to let the world (domestic and external) know that it fully intends to fight back and fight back hard. In other words, this Party Congress will lead to China's decoupling from much of the world accelerating, not slowing down.
(Photo : Getty Images) Elon Musk

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Elon Musk, founder of Tesla Motors, is calling for a global "revolt" against the unrelenting propaganda that allows the fossil fuel industry to demonize firms championing renewable energy such as his own Tesla.



These attacks on renewable energy companies are being sustained by U.S. government subsidies worth some $6 trillion a year sponsored by politicians friendly to Big Oil and Big Gas, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).



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"We need to appeal to the people and educate them to sort of revolt against this and to fight the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry which is unrelenting and enormous," Musk told the audience at the World Energy Innovation Forum at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California.



Musk said the fundamental issue with fossil fuels is "every use of fossil fuels comes with a subsidy" that results in cheap oil and gasoline prices. This prevents drivers from switching their gas-guzzling fossil fuel cars to electric cars. It also hinders the worldwide fight against climate change.



Musk also said the fossil fuel industry isn't paying for their role in environmental destruction. Musk said the solution to this state of affairs is to impose a carbon tax on greenhouse gas emissions or the carbon content of fuels.



These U.S. government subsidies include $1.6 billion for a proposed Shell petrochemical refinery in Pennsylvania and $119 million from the state of Louisiana for upgrades to ExxonMobil's upgrades to its Baton Rouge refinery, said a story in The Guardian.



In April 2015, Dr. Jim Yong Kim, president of the World Bank, called for the fuel subsidies to be scrapped immediately since poorer nations were feeling "the boot of climate change on their neck."



Musk, however, admitted imposing a carbon tax would be "hugely politically difficult" in the polarized political environment prevailing in the federal government.


(Photo : Reuters) Tim Cook is set to visit China as Apple continues to grapple with several issues in the country.



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Apple's CEO Tim Cook is reported to be planning a visit to China later this month to meet high-level officials. Apple has been struggling with quite a few roadblocks in China including the ban on its iBooks and iTunes Movies service. Cook's visit to the country underscores the importance of the Chinese market to Apple.



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According to Reuters, the Apple CEO is likely to meet Communist Party leaders and senior government officials during his visit. He is also expected to meet officials in charge of propaganda. China has made its policies for online content stringent. During a recent clampdown, Chinese authorities ordered Apple to shut down its iTunes Movies and iBooks services.



Apple has been facing issues on the copyright front as well. In past couple of days, the company faced another blow when it lost its trademark infringement battle over the use of word 'IPHONE' to a Chinese leather goods manufacturing company. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has allegedly sold his entire stake in Apple, owing to China's woes.



China is a beacon of hope for Apple, thanks to its burgeoning middle class, which is a potential market for the tech giant. Apple is currently battling with plateauing sales of its flagship products including iPhone. In a bid to ramp up the sales, the company is courting emerging markets such as China and India. China is currently the second-biggest market for Apple, after the United States.



Despite its strained relationship with China, the company is positive about its growth in the country. In an interview with CNBC, Cook stated, "I could not be more optimistic about China. I think the long-term thesis is intact."



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Tagsapple, Tim Cook, iPhone
(Photo : Getty Images) China will join the largest US-led multinational military exercises amid growing tensions between Beijing and Washington over the former's aggressive claims in the South China Sea

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China is set to join the largest US-led multinational military exercises dubbed the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) in June and July amid growing tensions between the two sides over Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea.



The naval drills, to be hosted by the US, will be held in the waters off Hawaii and some parts of the South China Sea, a top US Navy official said on Friday.



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"The People's Liberation Army Navy(PLAN) will participate in an exercise, the largest exercise that we do, in a couple of months," Vice Admiral Joseph Aucoin, commander of the US Seventh Fleet, told reporters on Friday.



Uncertain



Earlier, the US was hesitant about inviting China to the exercises in the wake of its aggressive maritime claims in the South China Sea. Washington said last March that it was "reassessing China's participation in the exercises."



Although the Chinese navy has participated in previous exercises held every two years, the upcoming military war games come at a time when Beijing is aggressively asserting its maritime claims in Asia.



Despite US lawmakers' opposition to China's participation in the US-led military drills, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Beijing was still invited to join the event.



Disaster relief



"It's a way to better understand one another, to work together closer, so it was really good that we were able to have the PLAN participate in the last Rim of the Pacific, and they're participating. Also, we can help one another, especially with things like humanitarian assistance and disaster relief," Aucoin said.



Beijing has announced that it is preparing to hold its maritime drills this month in the disputed waters of the South China Sea.



It has deployed its guided missile destroyer, warships, submarines, and other vessels near disputed islands in the international waterway as part of the exercises.



Beijing said the military drills are 'routine exercises' aimed at upgrading the naval readiness and capabilities of the PLAN.



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TagsRim of the Pacific Exercises, china, Washington, military drills, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, humanitarian assistance
(Photo : Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) China's National Zoological Museum, which is home to beautiful specimens such as the lion cub pictured above, has been treated like a garbage dump by some students who visited it on a field trip.

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School children on a field trip to a national museum in China have caused an outrage among the staff due to the amount of trash they left.



The students from an unnamed school in Chaoyang District, Beijing went to the National Zoological Museum of China Thursday, according to Chinese state media. Instead of leaving with memories of the museum, the children also decided to leave traces of themselves: a trail of trash.



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The trash they left behind includes empty plastic bottles and wrappers, as seen in photos taken by one of the museum's senior engineers, Zhang Jingshuo. The photos have been uploaded to Chinese social media website Weibo.



Zhang noted that the students disrespected the museum and treated it like a "garbage dump," noting that they "need to be taught to be respectful."



Comments that followed after Zhang posted the photos highlighted the public's disappointment and strong concern over the bad manners of the students. The school, for its part, issued a public apology through its official Weibo account Friday.



The National Zoological Museum is asking for all schools to teach students to observe proper etiquette in public.



Uncivilized Behavior



But such behaviors is not only found among students. Even tourists strolling along the yet-to-be-opened Shanghai Disneyland are exhibiting behavior that will make Mickey Mouse frown regardless of his happy demeanor.



According to Shanghaiist, tourists checking out the new Disneyland have done some damage to the theme park, including stepping on the grass areas and nearby signages, as well as scratching lamp posts to write messages. Some have even turned the grassy areas into toilets for their children.



It is a good thing that Disney still has time to fix damages and clean up the mess before the new theme park opens next month.



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TagsNational Zoological Museum of China, Beijing, Chaoyang District, Zhang Jingshuo, china
(Photo : NASA) Dr. Margaret Rhea Seddon

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Pop quiz: Who was the first woman to have her menstruation in space?



Not your typical trivia question but an important one for the future of long distance space voyages such as those scheduled to land on Mars one or two decades from now.



The answer to the trivia question is probably Dr. Margaret Rhea Seddon, an American astronaut who flew on three space shuttle missions from 1985 to 1993. She lived on the International Space Station (ISS) for 30 days.



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She probably had that historic menstruation from April 12 to 19, 1985 during her first mission to the ISS. It was her first space flight and she spent 168 hours on the ISS before returning to Earth.



And was menstruation in space different from that on Earth? Dr. Seddon said the answer is, No.



Dr. Seddon noted that before she was first sent into space, the menstruation question was a problem that vexed NASA doctors. Menstruation, she said, was one of the unknowns in space exploration.



"A lot of people predicted retrograde flow of menstrual blood, and it would get out in your abdomen, get peritonitis and horrible things would happen," Dr. Seddon said to Medical Daily.



"All the women were going, 'I don't think so.' But you couldn't prove it or disprove it."



Then comes the question of menstrual suppression. This means adjusting the menstrual cycle via hormonal contraception. This enables women to have less frequent periods and avoid bleeding at inconvenient times, which seems convenient for female astronauts in space.



For short duration missions, NASA has found that menstrual cycles can to be timed to mission dates. Menstrual suppression might be preferable for long space missions but some scientists believe this won't be that much of a problem since modern feminine hygiene products are more than up to the task.



A study by researchers at King's College London and Baylor College of Medicine, however, argued that menstrual suppression might be the preferred choice for female astronauts on longer space voyages (such as the nine month trip to Mars) or who spend a longer time aboard the ISS.



During long stays on the ISS, some female astronauts have taken combined oral contraceptive (COC) pills to deter menstrual flow. Another option is the so-called long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs).



This class includes IUDs and beneath-the-skin implants and appears to be a safe and reliable method of menstrual suppression, said a menstruation in space study Dr. Virginia Wotring, senior author and assistant professor at Baylor's Center for Space Medicine and her co-author Dr. Varsha Jain.



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Christians in Pakistan are protesting against Punjab state government's decision to raze four churches which stand in the way of a planned Metro train project.

Earlier this week, Christians assembled in front of Lahore High Court, and flashed signs which said "We want equal rights," and "We strongly condemn Punjab government's decision to grab church property," according to local media reports.

The Punjab government wants to acquire lands that house St. Andrew's Church, Naulakha Church, Cathedral Church, and Bohar Wala Church in Lahore.

"We are aware that just to save some government buildings the Government has changed its original plans. This is a controversial project and it faces a lot of opposition," said Nasir Saeed, Director of CLAAS-UK (Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement), a Pakistani Christian rights group.

The Cathedral in Lahore has also faced resistance from authorities before.

The Lahore Development Authority (LDA) wanted to build a sewage pumping station on the grounds of covenant school owned by the church, which is just adjacent to the Cathedral Church of Resurrection.

The Cathedral congregation filed a lawsuit at the Lahore High Court, which ordered the LDA to stop efforts to acquire the land.

Christians were targeted in the city about a month ago when a suicide bombing attack killed over 70 people and injured more than 340 injured at a recreational park where they had gathered to celebrate Easter.

"The Christians who are still in mourning after the Easter Sunday attack and are still trying to deal with that trauma, are now faced with the issue of the demolition of their four historic churches in Lahore, the capital of Punjab, the province where Christians suffer most," Saeed said.

"A few years ago the present government tried to grab the Gosha E Aman church property in Lahore - again at a prime location - near the governor house but failed, and now it wants four churches. This will never be acceptable by the Christians," he continued.
2 U.S. Catholic colleges embrace new gender ideology described by Pope Francis as 'demonic'

At least two U.S. Catholic colleges are adopting gender-inclusive housing policies as part of their acceptance of a new gender ideology described as "demonic" by no less than Pope Francis himself.

The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts and the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco (USF) will have the new housing policies for the 2016-2017 academic year that will allow students of different sexes to share a room based on gender identity, The Crusader reports.

Gender ideology has been called "demonic" and a threat to the family by Pope Francis, according to The Cardinal Newman Society.

The Pope reportedly made the statement condemning "gender ideology" in a private conversation with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun in 2014.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, also reportedly spoke against gender ideology, calling it "a negative trend for humankind," and a "profound falsehood," which "it is the duty of pastors of the Church" to put the faithful "on guard against."

The USF recently updated its gender-inclusive housing description to indicate that students should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that "human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth."

Holy Cross explained that its new housing policy is "required by applicable law," citing Title IX in the policy section.

Its student housing agreement states that "the College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law."

According to The Crusader, the new policy at Holy Cross was led by a student who was concerned about the housing rule "as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female."

The USF launched last year a new rule offering "gender-exclusive housing" to students who ""identify as transgender" or "do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity."

It updated its description to say that the gender-inclusive housing is for students who are transgenders, gender queers, students who are transitioning from one gender to another, students who do not conform to society's expectations of their assigned gender at birth, students who don't wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity, and those who are in the process of discovering their gender identity.

The policy also encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom, described as communal.

Its community standards recognise that human beings are not created male and female, contrary to Church teachings that "God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) compiled statements of Pope Francis about the harms of gender ideology.

"The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonisations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas," the Pope said. "Then, there is the mistake of the human mind  gender theory  creating so much confusion."

A statement by the Pope in April 2015 said the embrace of gender ideology "creates a problem, not a solution."

In response to President Barack Obama's executive order on "gender identity discrimination" in July 2014, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, New York called gender identity a "false idea that 'gender' is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one's biological sex."
Aquino asks rival Philippine presidential candidates to unite to defeat 'dictator' Duterte ahead of Monday's election

In a last-ditch effort to save democracy and stop a looming "dictator" and "monster" from taking over the Philippines, President Benigno Aquino III on Friday called on two rival candidates to unite to defeat Rodrigo Duterte, who continues to hold a double-digit lead in the polls ahead of Monday's presidential election.

Aquino said he saw encouraging signs that a last-minute coalition between presidential candidates Mar Roxas and Grace Poe would materialise to defeat Duterte, a town mayor who continues to enjoy the support of the masses despite accusations of corruption and hidden wealth, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.

The final survey taken before Monday's election showed Duterte getting the support of 33 percent of Filipino voters. Poe is at second with 22 percent while Roxas is at third with 20 percent.

Despite the dim forecast, Aquino said he remains hopeful that the anti-Duterte forces would prevail in the end. "There are both known and unknown efforts [toward a coalition] these days when our democracy is threatened," he told Inquirer editors and reporters in an interview in Malacanang.

The only son of Philippine democracy icons Ninoy and Cory Aquino said contrary to the poll surveys, he believes majority of the Filipinos are against a Duterte presidency.

Aquino said if Roxas and Poe would decide to unite, that would be more than 40 percent voter support to defeat Duterte's 33 percent.

Aquino admitted that Duterte's rising popularity has been a cause for concern because of the likelihood that the Philippines would end up wasting its hard-fought freedom from two decades of martial rule under dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The President said he could not understand why many Filipinos believe in the rosy promises of good government by a politician who has admitted participation in thousands of extrajudicial killings and being a womaniser among other outrageous charges.

"The closest analysis [of his promises] is 'I will give the moon and the stars and all of that.' We know that cannot be done but it seems acceptable [to many people]," Aquino said.

The President said he is particularly worried by Duterte's threat to put up a revolutionary government, kill crime suspects outside the judicial system, and sever ties with Philippine allies the United States and Australia.

"If he starts doing all of these, then really there is a threat to [Philippine democracy]," he said.

Former Philippines Justice Secretary Leila de Lima recently called Duterte "a monster, who has to be stopped by all means."

Earlier, the archbishop of Mindanao, where Duterte is based, issued an extraordinary pastoral letter linking Duterte to more than 1,400 extrajudicial killings in Davao City where he is the mayor.

Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio Ledesma also condemned Duterte for his adulterous affairs, calling them "sinful and immoral," Rappler reports.

Catholic bishops do not explicitly campaign for or against any specific candidate, making Ledesma's direct attack on Duterte remarkable.

Ledesma said Duterte should be held accountable for the extrajudicial killings in Davao City. The archbishop cited a "deeply disturbing report" from the Commission on Human Rights and Human Rights Watch that from 1998 to 2015, "1,424 extrajudicial killings" were recorded in Davao City. Among those slain were 132 children, he added.

Duterte himself once told an editor of Rappler: "When I said I'll stop criminality, I'll stop criminality. And if I have to kill you, I'll kill you. Personally."

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) earlier blasted Duterte for cursing Pope Francis, calling the head of the Roman Catholic Church "the son of a whore."

Duterte also drew rebuke when he commented during recent election campaign rally on the 1989 gang rape and murder of Australian nun Jacqueline Hamill during a prison siege in Davao. Duterte reportedly said: "She was so beautiful. I thought the mayor should have been first."

The comment triggered a wave of criticism both locally and internationally, particularly in Australia.
Families sue U.S. government for pressuring Illinois school to allow transgender in girls' bathroom

A group of parents and students composed of 51 families has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education for pressuring a school district in Illinois to allow a transgender "female" to use the girls' bathroom, saying the resulting compliance by the school district violated student privacy and safety.

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and the Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families on Wednesday before the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois.

The lawsuit cited the education department for threatening Township High School District 211 with a loss of $6 million federal funding if it did not allow a transgender female to enter and use the girls' locker rooms, which the district consented to under an agreement with the department.

The new policy was based on the interpretation of the education department of Title IX, which provides that "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."

According to the lawsuit, nothing in Title IX's text, structure, legislative history, or accompanying regulations addresses "gender identity," a phrase which also does not appear in the text of Title IX and its regulations.

It added that Title IX and its regulations use the term "sex" and not "gender identity" in describing the type of discrimination prohibited, adding that "sex" means male and female "under the traditional binary conception of sex consistent with one's birth or biological sex."

The transgender student in question attends the William Fremd High School, who requested the school to let him use the girls' locker rooms but was denied.

He filed a case with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and the district offered him to use private facilities which he refused.

The OCR sided with the student in July 2015 and told the district that he was entitled to use the girls' locker rooms.

It issued a Letter of Impending Enforcement Action to the district to remove millions of dollars in federal funding if it did not agree to allow the student to use the girls' facilities. The district relented.

"Protecting students from inappropriate exposure to the opposite sex is not only perfectly legal, it's a school district's duty," said ADF Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco in a statement. "Allowing boys into girls' locker rooms, a setting where girls are often partially or fully unclothed, is a blatant violation of student privacy.

He said the school district should rescind the policy and the court should order the education department to stop bullying school districts.

ADF legal counsel Matt Sharp said the education department exceeded what it is allowed to do, adding that at least five other federal and state courts have rejected the DOE's interpretation of Title IX.

The lawsuit is asking the court $1 million in nominal damages and to issue a preliminary and permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Locker Room Agreement and Restroom Policy.
Group asks U.S. military university to cancel National Day of Prayer

A civil rights watchdog group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is demanding that the Marine Corps University in Virginia cancel the National Day of Prayer event, saying it's a violation of the Establishment Clause.

"This absurdly named organisation has nothing to do with religious freedom in the military and is actually on a campaign to remove religious freedom from the military," Matthew Clark of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) told CBN News.

The ACLJ sent a letter to Brig. Gen. Helen Pratt, university president, requesting her to reject the group's demands.

It said that the MRFF is also threatening to file complaints against Pratt for allowing a military chaplain to invite soldiers in training to an optional prayer service.

The move, the ACLJ said, is "dishonoring and legally wrong."

In its letter to Pratt, ACLJ said MRFF's Mikey "Weinstein's rhetorical attacks, though predominantly aimed at Christians, are not limited solely to Christians. For example, he has readily attacked Jews with whom he disagrees as well."

ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said when MRFF tried to court martial another general for participating in last year's National Day of Prayer, ACLJ fought back and won.

MRFF forced three Veterans Affairs hospitals and a military base to remove the Bible from "Missing Man" displays, which recognise MIA and POW soldiers.

Clark said MRFF's goal to remove every semblance of religion in the military cannot be allowed to happen, saying that "we sent off letters to the VA and to several of these military installations that have caved to the anti-Christian attacks."

The ACLJ is hoping that it can get some of the decisions reversed. It said there's no constitutional violation in honouring the faith of men and women in the military.

It told Pratt in the letter that "as a commander, you are the person responsible for the spiritual welfare of your command, not the chaplain."

It said holding periodic, voluntary prayer breakfasts is a way of meeting the spiritual needs of military personnel.
London's Muslim Mayor: Sadiq Khan and the left's religious awakening

London has its first Muslim mayor. Or to put it more starkly, one of the senior positions in British politics is now occupied by a devout Muslim.

Few will admit it but many Christians will privately find this news uncomfortable. According to some Christians, under Khan "we can only expect an increase of Islamic segregation in London leading to increased radicalization".

Zac Goldsmith, Khan's main rival in the race for mayor, traded off that fear and branded Khan an extremist in a desperate bid to smear his campaign. It is telling that Goldsmith's campaign has been a disastrous failure.

Over this mayoral election we have witnessed, for the first time in many years, a left wing politician with a devout faith rise to power. It is hard to overestimate this achievement.

Some aspects of the left have a longstanding difficulty with people who are devoutly religious. It is an issue that extends as far back as Marx's "opiate of the masses" phrase in the 19th century.

In recent years it has been particularly difficult to be religiously devout in the Labour party, typically encapsulated in Alastair Campbell's infamous "we don't do God" interjection.

Andy Burnham, who ran to be Labour leader in 2015, started his career with an emphasis on his Catholic upbringing. That quietened has he rose up the ranks until he revealed last year he lost his faith because of the Church's "obsession with sexuality". Liz Kendall, another of last year's leadership candidates, started out as openly Christian. In 2010 she signed the Westminster declaration of faith and used to have an intern from the evangelical charity, CARE. Similarly though, as she gained prominence in the party, the public emphasis on her faith diminished.

Sadiq Khan on the other hand has been consistently open about his faith. In an interview with Christian Today he described the influence his Muslim faith has for him and how he tries to pray when he can during the day.

During the campaign Khan made it a regular habit to visit churches and often spoke of the importance faith groups play in London.

Far from being a point of concern, Khan's election is a moment of great optimism for all people of faith on the left. It signals a greater acceptance of religion. It points to a growing realisation that faith cannot and should not be excluded from politics.

For a long time individual MPs such as Stephen Timms have demonstrated the idiocy of Alastair Campbell's insistence that Labour does not do God. But that has now hit the mainstream with the election of Khan. His brazen refusal to dumb down his religion has finally put that myth to bed.

Khan's election will create an opportunity for Labour MPs who have a faith to be more open. More importantly it will also encourage those running to be Labour candidates to be honest about their religion.

With Khan's election 'faith' is no longer a dirty word on the left. And that is something that should be celebrated by people of all political stripes, and all religions.
Muslim Sadiq Khan elected as London Mayor, despite 'extremist' label from Zac Goldsmith

Labour's Sadiq Khan has been elected as Mayor of London defeating his Conservative rival, Zac Goldsmith.

Khan is London's first Muslim mayor and triumphs after a racially divisive campaign where Goldsmith repeatedly labelled him an extremist. Goldsmith's allegations were repeated by the Prime Minister but were branded a "repulsive campaign of hate" by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Khan won with 1,310,143 votes, or 57 per cent, after second preferences were taken into account. A number of commentators pointed out this gave Khan the biggest indidividual mandate for a politician in history. Goldsmith was left with 994,614, or 43 per cent of the vote.

In his victory speech Khan said: "I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear".

He continued: "I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer, it only makes us weaker, and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."

Khan referred to his origins on a council estate in south London and said he never imagined "someone like me could be elected as mayor of London".

Goldsmith joined outgoing mayor Boris Johnson in congratulating Khan and wishing him well.

Elsewhere in the UK, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won a third successive election in Scotland but failed to gain enough seats for a majority.

But the shock result in Scotland was that the Conservatives beat Labour to become the country's official opposition. Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, oversaw a successful campaign after years of defeat for Conservatives north of the border.

Davidson promised to "hold the SNP to account" and say "no to a second independence referendum".

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP and Scottish First Minister, said the party's 63 seats out of 129 gave the party "a clear and unequivocal mandate" to govern as a minority administration.

On the issue of Scottish independence, a key aspect of the SNP's identity, Sturgeon said her aim was to "persuade, not to divide". She said her party would "our case with passion, with patience but will always respect the opinion of the people".

In Wales Labour fell just short of a majority with Plaid Cymru beating the Tories to take second place. UKIP had a good night winning seven seats at the Welsh Assembly.

Compared to the last regional elections in 2011, Labour's share of the vote was down 9.2 percent in Scotland and 7.6 percent in Wales, allowing a strong showing for UKIP.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted his party had "hung on" and "grew support in lots of places".

The Tory vote share fell across southern England, allowing Labour to retain control of several key seats such as Crawley, Southampton, Norwich and Hastings.

On Friday David Cameron said: "Local election day for sitting prime ministers is supposed to be a day of dread, waiting for the knock on the door like a condemned man waiting for a hangman.

"But that's wasn't what it was like last night."

Thursday's polls were the largest test of public opinion before the 2020 election with 43 million people entitled to vote across 2,747 seats in English councils alone.
Petition with over 400,000 signatures urges U.N. Security Council to declare Christian genocide in Iraq, Syria

A petition with more than 400,000 signatures from citizens all over the world was recently submitted at the U.N. headquarters in New York calling on the Security Council to formally declare the persecution of Christians and other minorities in Syria and Iraq as genocide.

Religious leaders like Nigerian Bishop Joseph Danlami Bagobiri and Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo, Syria joined representatives of the advocacy group CitizenGO outside the U.N. in New York last week to press the Security Council to "take a step forward to protect Christians and other religious minorities that live there" in order for religious freedom to prevail in that part of the world.

"So we are here to support our brothers and sisters, Christians and other believers that are suffering persecution, that are suffering killings, that are suffering discrimination in this part of the world, the Middle East," said Ignacio Arsuaga, president of CitizenGO, the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports.

According to him, the petition that was submitted to the office of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon specifically asked the U.N. chief to pressure the council to declare genocide for Christians and other religious victims of the Islamic State (ISIS) and "to enforce mechanisms to protect genocide victims and prosecute the persecutors."

It likewise called on member nations to act "to stop the war in Syria" as well as help internally-displaced persons in Iraq and Syria return to their homes.

The petition also proposed that "safe havens" for internally displaced persons should be created, as well as an "action plan to rescue kidnapped and enslaved Christian and Yazidi women and girls."

Christians make up 80 percent of minority victims of religious persecution. They have left Iraq and Syria in droves since the civil war erupted in the Middle East, the Call to Action group says.

The petition stated: "Christians, Yazidis, and other minorities are victims of the deliberate infliction of life conditions that are calculated to bring about their physical destruction by the so-called 'ISIS': They are being murdered, beheaded, crucified, beaten, extorted, abducted, and tortured."

"Women and children have also been enslaved, women have been raped and trafficked, children have been forcibly recruited, and churches and communities have been destroyed," the report says.

In Nigeria, Christians have been targeted by the terror group Boko Haram. Over 4,000 have been killed and almost 200 churches have been damaged or destroyed since 2015, according to the group Open Doors.

Archbishop Jeanbart told CNA that it is so important for the U.N. to take action on the issue because the church of the first Christian is already collapsing.

"We are undergoing a real genocide," he said of his diocese in Aleppo, "and we are afraid that they want to take us out of our life, but also of our country, of the place where we were born, where the Church was born."

"There are two kinds of genocide, human genocide and Church genocide. Not only are people dying, but the Church itself is "disappearing" from Syria, he said.

According to the archbishop, the first Syrian Christians were Jews from the Diaspora who had made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem at the time of the Pentecost and were among the 3,000 baptised by Peter and the Apostles.

The U.S. State Department, the British House of Commons, and the European Union Parliament have already declared that genocide is taking place in Iraq and Syria. Multiple U.N. advisory bodies have likewise stated that genocide is taking place in Syria and Iraq, CNA reports.
Pope Francis: I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime

Pope Francis on Friday lamented a Europe he said had grown "weary" and "entrenched", and urged the continent not to see migrants and refugees as criminals.

Francis made his pointed comments in the presence of top EU leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and the presidents of the European Parliament, Commission and Council.

"What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom? What has happened to you, Europe, the home of poets, philosophers, artists, musicians, and men and women of letters?" he asked.

"What has happened to you, Europe, the mother of peoples and nations, the mother of great men and women who upheld, and even sacrificed their lives for, the dignity of their brothers and sisters?"

The pope was speaking at a ceremony in the Vatican's frescoed Sala Regia to award him the Charlemagne Prize, conferred annually by the German city of Aachen to those who have contributed most to the ideals of post-war Europe.

His comments pointed to a malaise at the heart of the European Union, which has wrestled with a long, divisive debt crisis and is struggling to absorb a vast influx of migrants and refugees, many fleeing conflicts such as Syria's civil war.

Francis called Europe "weary, yet still rich in energies and possibilities" and said it was "increasingly entrenched, rather than open to initiating new social processes capable of engaging all individuals and groups in the search for new and productive solutions to current problems."

The Argentine, the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, said desire for European unity "seems to be fading" and that "those who consider putting up fences" were betraying the dream of the founders of a modern Europe.

"I dream of a Europe that cares for children, that offers fraternal help to the poor and those newcomers seeking acceptance because they have lost everything and need shelter ... I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime," he said.

Addressing the pope, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said the migrant crisis represented "a defining challenge for Europe."

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker noted that the pope, who has made numerous appeals for better treatment of refugees, returned from the Greek island of Lesbos last month with 12 Syrians.

"When you take in 12 refugees  in proportion to the population of the Vatican, that is more than any EU member state  you fill our hearts with new courage," Juncker said.
Texas warns Target: 'Allowing men in women's restrooms could lead to criminal and otherwise unwanted activity'

Target appears unfazed by the boycott being threatened by over a million of its customers after it implemented its "inclusive" bathroom policy.

The policy would "welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender."

Target's move enraged customers who do not want paedophiles and sexual predators anywhere near their daughters, mothers and wives.

In response to Target's policy, the American Family Association (AFA) started an online petition calling on people to boycott Target until the retail giant reverses its decision.

"Nearly everyone has a mother, wife, daughter or friend who is put in jeopardy by this policy," AFA President Tim Wildmon said. "Predators and voyeurs would take advantage of the policy to prey on those who are vulnerable."

Now, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has put more pressure on the company by writing a letter directly addressed to Target's Chief Executive Officer Brian Cornell. "It is possible that allowing men in women's restrooms could lead to criminal and otherwise unwanted activity," Paxton wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News.

"As chief lawyer and law enforcement officer for the State of Texas, I ask that you provide the full text of Target's safety policies regarding the protection of women and children from those who would use the cover of Target's restroom policy for nefarious purposes," he said.

Paxton said Target is free to make its own bathroom policies, but added that he does not think all Texans will welcome those policies. "The voters in Houston recently repealed by a wide margin an ordinance that advanced many of the same goals as Target's current policy," he said.

Paxton said Target should consider the safety and security of its customers. If it allows sexual predators inside women's bathrooms, how will they be protected? "If we save one child from illegal or inappropriate activity, it's worth it," he said.

Target has kept silent throughout the whole controversy, and has not backed down on its decision. AFA spokesperson Walker Wildmon, however, expressed optimism that Target would respond to Paxton's letter.

"What he's asking in this letter is exactly what we've been asking Target to answer," Wildmon said. "What about women and children? What about men who pretend to be women and go into these bathrooms just so they can prey on women?"

"It's fabulous that someone in leadership in our country is stepping up to the plate and asking the tough questions that need to be asked," he added.
One person has been hospitalized after a house fire in southeast Houston.

The fire broke out shortly before 7 p.m. Friday at a home in the 7700 block of Glenlea.

Houston firefighters were told while en route to the scene that someone was trapped inside.

A person pulled from the home was taken by ambulance to the Texas Medical Center with smoke inhalation, officials said.

The home had heavy fire, smoke and water damage. The blaze was brought under control about 7:30 p.m., officials said.

HFD arson officers are investigating the cause of the fire.
Dear Abby:

My boyfriend of 51/2 years died unexpectedly. Like so many other Americans, he didn't have life insurance or any money to cover his funeral. For the past 21/2 years, I provided the primary financial support when he came and lived with me.

His mother made the decisions about the casket and service. She asked that money, instead of flowers, be given to help pay for the cost of the funeral. Around $4,000 is still owed. She now says the remaining cost should be divided between her, her ex-husband and me.

I don't think I should be obligated to assume a third of the funeral costs. If I had been married to him, the situation would be different. If I tell his mother it isn't my responsibility to pay, she and other family members may never speak to me again.

Who Is Responsible?

Dear Who:

This may seem negative, but of this I am positive: Even if you do pay a third of the funeral expenses, those people may turn away from you anyway. So do as your conscience dictates and nobody else.

Dear Abby:

It has been more than 30 years since I knew the whereabouts of my brother, my only sibling. Over the years, I have searched for him off and on, especially when there were major life events. Both of our parents have died, with my mother cursing him at the end. My family believed he was probably dead, since no one had heard from him, even to ask for money.

I Googled his name, and to my surprise his mug shot popped up. It appears he has been incarcerated for most of the 30 years and has a rap sheet a mile long. Nothing violent, just stealing. I am saddened to have seen his photo this way and wonder why he never reached out to me. He has been alone, a criminal, for most of his life.

My husband says don't contact him, and I probably shouldn't. I'd just like him to know that I have missed him and I am sad his life turned out this way. Am I a fool to want to know this hardened criminal? I am justifiably afraid that he could be big trouble. Please advise.

Sad Sister in Texas

Dear Sad Sister:

Your brother may have refrained from contacting the family because he was ashamed of the mess he had made of his life. So let's follow your question to its logical conclusion.

You contact your incarcerated, career-criminal brother and tell him how sad you are that his life turned out this way. Then what? What will you do if he wants to correspond with you? If he wants money? If he needs a place to stay if he's ever released?

Unless you are prepared to assume responsibility for someone you have had no contact with in decades, listen to your husband.

DearAbby.comDear AbbyP.O. Box 69440Los Angeles, CA 90069Universal Press Syndicate
While it's been well documented that the cruise industry has been a boon to Galveston's economy, its level of success has surprised even those dedicated to tracking tourism on the Island.

According to the "Galveston County Daily News," a new report from the Galveston Park Board of Trustees shows that tourists spent $765.9 million in 2015, much more than what locals spend in average living expenses. Tourism accounts for more than 10,000 jobs on the Island, and a lot of that money is spent on dining, shopping and hotel stays.
A combined $20,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the capture of the person who gunned down a man defending his mother from armed robbers.

"Our entire community should be angry and outraged at this," community activist Quanell X said Friday near the scene in southwest Houston where James Weldon Ecford, 25, was shot and killed on April 11.
Officers arrested 20 men tied to prostitution in Houston on Wednesday and Thursday, according to a press release from the office of Mark Herman, constable with Harris County's Precinct 4.

Female undercover investigators posing as street prostitutes arrested men who were soliciting them for sex or sex-related acts, the release states.
Voters across the Houston region head to the polls on Saturday to cast ballots in municipal, school district and other races.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

In Harris County, voters in State Representative District 139 will choose a candidate to fill the remainder of the term of Sylvester Turner, now Houston mayor.

In Montgomery County, voters will decide contested races for mayor in Conroe, Oak Ridge North, Shenandoah and Panorama Village (the Magnolia mayor is running unopposed). Also on the ballot is a $30 million bond measure for the Splendora Independent School District.

In Fort Bend County, there are contested mayoral contests in Sugar Land, Missouri City and Arcola.

City of Richmond voters will pick a candidate to fill an open commissioner's seat and also consider measures to increase the number of commissioners from two to four, and to have commissioners elected to represent districts. Sugar Land voters will decide whether to modify the term limits of council members to no more than three consecutive three-year terms in a 10-year period.

Fulshear voters will determine whether to adopt a home rule charter in addition to selecting a mayor and three aldermen.

Elections will be held for board seats in the Katy, Fort Bend and Needville school districts.

Local ballots also include races for city council and utility district board; charter amendments; emergency service district tax rates and bond measures.
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.
No matter which horse wins the 142nd Kentucky Derby on Saturday, there is one sponsor that's already outpacing the competition. Stella Artois' Cidre cider will be making its first appearance at Churchill Downs as part of brewer's official sponsorship of the event. At a time when the cider category is seeing a significant slowdown, Stella is looking to put itself in the winner's circle in 2016. Cidre is the fastest-growing hard cider brand in 2016, according to Chicago-based market research firm IRI, which measure sales at multioutlet and convenience stores. The brand has seen 80 percent volume growth through March of this year and dollar sales growth of 25 percent. In addition, Cidre is the biggest share-gainer in 2016, up 2.3 points vs last year.

That stands in contrast to the overall cider category, which was once a darling of the beer business but now appears to be fading as consumers turn to newer options. Cider dollar sales fell 8.2 percent through April 17 as compared to the same time a year ago, according to IRI. The decline is a big change from 2014 and 2015 when cider dollar sales posted gains of 72.4 percent percent and 14.7 percent, respectively.

"Increased competition in the form of hard sodas and other flavored beers appears to be having an impact on cider sales and contributing to the slower sales," said Dan Wandel, principal, Beverage Alcohol Client Insights for IRI. "Cider will continue to face increased competition moving forward, as we are now starting to see and hear about spiked or hard seltzer items being launched in the marketplace," he added.

'Playing near wine and champagne'

So if cider is slumping, why is Cidre picking up steam? Executives at Stella parent Anheuser-Busch InBev attribute Cidre's success to a few key factors. The first, they say, is the product's flavor profile. From its inception, Cidre has positioned itself as a drier alternative to sweeter ciders that dominate the market. "We want to play near wine and champagne products," said Harry Lewis, Stella Artois vice president. "For example, we're making great gains at the brunch occasions. Where champagne and white wines are really big, we're doing really well." In addition to offering itself as an alternative to wine and champagne, Cidre appears to be capitalizing on Stella Artois' longtime positioning as a "premium" and "more sophisticated" product, Lewis said. Unlike some of the other ciders, "we're playing out of the heritage and knowledge of 600 years of brewing from Stella Artois," Lewis said. Cidre is also benefiting from the flagship brand's success. Sales of Stella Artois beer are up more than 20 percent in 2015, in both dollar and sales volumes.

Lewis has delivered an unofficial mandate to the Stella sales team: Wherever a consumer sees the flagship Stella Artois brand, Cidre should be there, too. "We kind of have a rule that if there is a display, 80 percent should be Artois and 20 percent should be Cidre," he said. "With the rate of sales of Stella Artois right now, it's a really hot item and it's the biggest space we can put Cidre in and highlight it as an alternative from the same family."
Of the fourteen local players invited only Yeferson Soteldo could not attend this training module as he is suffering from bronchopneumonia. The rest of the players are there including Wilker Angel, Carlos Cermeno and Jose Contreras, who were out last week due to their participation in the Copa Libertadores with Tachira. Midfielder Jholvis Acevedo is replacing Soteldo.



The team will start training on Friday in the morning. This training module will extend until Sunday. On May 16 the team will travel to Spain where they will play a friendly against Galicia on the 20th. The team will close out their preparation with friendlies against Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala in Miami.

Source: FVF webpage
The fast-growing economies of Africa face headwinds from the pull-back of international banks from the continent, Barclays ' erstwhile-chief executive told CNBC, as the bank moves to sell down its business in Africa.



Countries like Nigeria, the continent's biggest economy, received a flurry of international trade finance in the build-up to the global financial crisis of 2007-08.

Since then, inflows have slowed, increasing the economic challenge for the continent where many people still struggle to access energy supplies or basic education.

"There are headwinds from commodities and international banks pulling out," Bob Diamond told CNBC Africa on Saturday at the London Business School's Africa Business Summit.
The end of Ali al-Naimi's more than two-decade tenure as Saudi Arabia's oil minister signals a new era for crude markets, analysts said on Saturday, and appeared to be a reaffirmation of Saudi policy to let oil set its own pricing.

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree that replaced al-Naimi with Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, as part of a broad reshuffling of the cabinet. The move came as the world's largest oil producer continues to grapple with the fallout from the global bear market in crude oil.



Al-Naimi was the most watched figure in the oil world, and was often described as a "maestro" of the market. His utterances on production levels could swing prices and drive the direction of oil for months.



Last month, a high-stakes summit in Doha between OPEC and non-OPEC producers failed to produce an agreement to freeze output, in what was seen as the product of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The failure of Doha reinforced what many analysts have said for months: That the oil cartel was quickly losing its ability to set the agenda of world oil markets, and influence prices.



Al-Naimi battled to manage the price of oil throughout his time as minister. In his absence, the Saudis may allow market forces to play a greater role in setting the cost of crude, according to observers.



"What that means is you'll have much more market volatility. You'll have higher highs and lower lows if you don't manage" crude prices, Pira Energy Group founder and executive chairman Gary Ross told CNBC on Saturday.



Al-Naimi was a "stabilizing force," and markets could react negatively to his absence, said Ross, who has known al-Naimi for more than 20 years. Although savvy observers say the aging al-Naimi was ready to vacate his post, the implications of the shake up are still far reaching.

"The Saudi put is gone," Ross added.
Carnival Corporation's CEO and President Arnold Donald and Fathom President Tara Russell toast the passengers, the crew and the historic voyage as Carnival's Adonia pulled away from Miami, Florida on its way to Cuba.

The 704-passenger Adonia cruise ship made history this week by sailing from Miami to Havana. In doing so, the vessel became the first U.S. leisure ship to travel from the U.S. to Cuba in more than 50 years.

The Adonia was part of Carnival's Fathom brand, based around so-called "impact travel" where passengers not only take part in the usual cruise activities like eating, drinking and sun-bathing, but have the opportunity to learn from and work with locals in each port of call.



Carnival CEO Arnold Donald told CNBC in an on-board interview that the company was "delighted" to be the first U.S. company to dock in a Cuban port in decades. To mark the occasion, CNBC compiled the following pictures that show both the ship and the atmosphere in Havana when the vessel docked.

 By CNBC's Justin Solomon

Posted 7 May 2016
Christina Stembel, CEO and founder Farmgirl Flowers, is not really a farm girl, and she admits she learned how to arrange flowers "from the university of YouTube." But her floral e-commerce company is seeing revenue grow by 300 percent year over year. As an outsider, Stembel spotted problems with the $4 billion dollar floral e-commerce industry and decided she could do better. Her company's pitch focuses on its socially conscious business model, which strives for U.S.-sourced product and less waste. When Stembel, who is now 38 years old, was director of Alumni Relations for Stanford University's law school, she planned events and was stunned at the cost of floral centerpieces. Since she'd always wanted to start a business, Stembel began researching the floral industry, discovering that four companies dominated the e-commerce gift category. She also realized that since the 1990s, the industry has been outsourcing much of its flower supply to South America. As a result, three out of every four cut flowers sold in the U.S. are now grown outside of the U.S., according to Stembel.

Christina Stembel, founder of Farmgirl Flowers Source: Christina Stembel

Other sources estimate the number could be as high as 90 percent, with most coming from Colombia and Ecuador, where wages are a small fraction of what U.S. workers receive. This has made it difficult for U.S. growers to remain competitive. Stembel observed a massive amount of waste in the floral industry. After polling a number of florists, she estimated about 40 percent of flowers were never sold, not to mention that the standard floral wrap, cellophane, isn't biodegradable or recyclable. Add this to the fuel consumed importing flowers, and the industry's environmental impact only grows.

Plus, Stembel said she was disappointed with what was on offer from online providers, which didn't always look good when it arrived. "My mom lives in Indiana, with no florists nearby, so I would spend my entire lunch hour to find the least ugly option possible," Stembel said. "I chose all white, and what was sent to her was kelly green-dyed daisies. Everybody says, 'It's the thought that counts.' I disagree. If you're going to spend an average of $82 on flowers you should have 82 dollars' worth to show for it, and not be embarrassed by what shows up. We can do better than this."

All signs pointed to a need for change, and the timing seems right. Millennials are not quite on board with the outdated model maintained by the giants of floral delivery. A Retail Feedback Group survey last fall indicated that while baby boomers are the most likely generation to purchase flowers once a week or every two weeks, nearly half of millennial floral shoppers spend less than $50 annually, with their high cost being one factor driving fewer purchases. Stembel started Farmgirl Flowers from a San Francisco dining room in late 2010 with her life savings of $49,000, and without having a college or business school education. "I grew up on a farm in Indiana, and you just didn't go to college  you got married and had kids. That was not the path I wanted to take," she said, adding that she never worked on the farm. Instead, she always wanted to start a business. Launching Farmgirl Flowers was her crash course. "Taking that $49,000  I couldn't have gone to business school for that  [but] it's been the best business school I ever could have done," she said. Farmgirl works exclusively with U.S. growers, about 95 percent which are located in California, with the rest coming from Oregon. The burlap wrapping each arrangement and bouquet, Farmgirl Flowers' trademarked signature, is upcycled from biodegradable coffee bean bags donated by local roasters. As another waste-reduction measure, just one style arrangement is offered per day.

Everybody wants to be a unicorn. I'd rather be a workhorse than a unicorn. Christina Stembel Founder, Farmgirl Flowers

Beginning as a San Francisco service delivering by bicycle and scooter, Farmgirl Flowers now delivers to other points nationwide via overnight mail. Environmentally, the national shipping solution is not perfect, admitted Stembel, but even shipping to the East Coast from California, at most 2,500 miles, is fewer than the distance foreign-grown flowers travel. "We're trying to provide a socially conscious alternative that's doing things as best as we possibly can. The boxes we use make 30 percent less waste, so every detail we try, knowing there's no way to be 100 percent," she said. This forward-looking approach is working. Farmgirl Flowers earned $56,000 in the first year, and Stembel says the company is projected to hit $12 million this year. The team is comprised of 63 members with full benefits, and everybody who wants to be full time has that option.

Farmgirl Flowers Mother's Day bouquet Source: Christina Stembel

As for those American flower suppliers, "the great part is they are growing with us. They're able to hire more, and we're the biggest customer of at least 90 percent of our farms now."

As awareness and demand rises about U.S. flower sourcing, many smaller florists are approaching Stembel for help, so she's working on a business-to-business wholesale line that will likely debut this summer.

It hasn't all been smooth sailing for Farmgirl Flowers. But she advises business owners to get their ego out of it.
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The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
Family aims to raise awareness about invisible illness

Michelle and Jason Kemp's two children were born with cystic fibrosis. The Columbia family shares their story to raise awareness about the genetic disorder.
Mark Weber/The Commercial Appeal April 20, 2016 - American Paper Optics machine operator Kevin Bachman looks over sheets of eclipse glasses the company is making in advance of a total solar eclipse that will cross the entire U. S. in August 2017. The company expects that nearly 300 million people will view the eclipse, where cities like St. Louis and Nashville will be in the path of totality.

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By Thomas Bailey Jr. of The Commercial Appeal

The Bartlett-based American Paper Optics wants to sell at least 100 million solar eclipse sunglasses by Aug. 21, 2017.

That may seem like an astronomical number, but the date marks the biggest astronomical event of the past century in the United States.

"Once we get close (to Aug. 21, 2017), people are going to get really excited. We need to have all the glasses.''

Those words don't come from the local company that has been making 3D, special-effects and eclipse glasses for 25 years, but from University of Missouri astrophysics professor Angela Speck.

She's placed an initial order for 5,000 cardboard glasses decorated in the Mizzou logo and stripes of school's tiger mascot.

The university will sell eclipse glasses in the campus bookstore and at its observatory in preparation for a most unusual first day of the fall 2017 semester. The total eclipse will darken the Columbia campus of 35,000 students during lunch.

Not since 1918 has a total eclipse cut a 70-mile-wide swath across the entire continent.

The moon's shadow will diagonally cross the U.S., slanting from Oregon to South Carolina and coming as close to Memphis as Nashville.

The phenomenon is different from a partial eclipse. Not only does day turn to night and the temperature drop, but the moon and sun choreograph themselves for a bejeweled performance lasting two minutes or so. The sky ring is called a ''diamond'' or ''corona'' or "plasma.''

"People think they have seen an eclipse, but they haven't,'' Speck said.

Both Speck and John Jerit, president of American Paper Optics, believe the build-up to the eclipse eventually will hit a fever pitch. But Jerit's 35-employee company, housed at 2995 Appling Road, must get ahead of the excitement to reach its sales goals.

His company can produce 50,000 glasses an hour.

The biggest order so far is 110,000 glasses for Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which like Columbia, Missouri, will be within path of total eclipse and plans a number of related festivities to entertain citizens and tourists alike. The National Solar Observatory in Hawaii ordered 25,000. And so far universities in Wyoming, Indiana and Ontario are buying glasses from the Bartlett firm.

Protecting the eyes is a must, whether by creating a projected image of the sun with a "pinhole camera'' or by wearing the kind of special glasses American Paper Optics makes. Glasses that are 10,000 times darker than sunglasses, Jerit says.

"People should not look at the solar eclipse with bare eyes except for a second or two,'' said Dr. James C. "Chris'' Fleming, chair of the department of ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. "It causes burns to the retina, done by ultraviolet light. The sun is so bright, if you gaze for a period of time you cause permanent damage.''

Fleming has treated patients who looked at the sun too long. "Somebody on some type of drug and they looked at the sun thinking it's 'unusual' (while) in another altered mental state.''

Even during the minute or two that the moon fully blocks the sun, the bright ring around the moon is still bright enough to cause harm, he said. "The pupils dilate to let in more light. The bright ring is just as bright as the sun, but people tend to look at it longer.''

The fovea is burned. That's the center part of the retina where the acuity is highest and where, said Fleming, "the best 20/20 vision comes from.''

American Paper Optics' eclipse glasses are ISO certified for the protection they provide. The company has never had a claim that its glasses failed to protect someone's eyes, Jerit said.

To claim a healthy market share, it's now up to Jerit's sales force of six people.

The glasses are relatively inexpensive. An order for 1 million glasses with a corporate customer's brand printed on them might sell for 16 cents per pair of glasses, Jerit said. The glasses might be 25 cents each with an order for 100,000 of them.

The key to selling at least 100 million glasses is connecting to the big advertising agencies and the big companies that would give away the glasses emblazoned with the company colors and logos, Jerit said. .

Timing could be a challenge for American Paper Optics. The sooner the public becomes aware of the eclipse the better for the company. "The media will pick up on it very much close to the end,'' Jerit said. "You'll get a little pop Aug. 21, 2016, one year out and then it will start to build. People got to know to make plans.''

Now, smaller groups like University of Missouri and Hopkinsville are ordering their custom-branded glasses to build excitement, he said.

"We're now getting out there to try to knock on doors of big sponsors and big agencies that control those sponsors, to get somebody like FedEx to sponsor and give away 10 million glasses.''

He doesn't know when yet, but a national fervor over the total eclipse will come, Jerit said.

Said Mizzou's Speck, "We need enough (glasses) for the entire population.''
The enthusiasm from many Tennessee Republican officeholders and party leaders, who now say they are lining up to support Donald Trump's presidential campaign, reminds me of the time my seventh-grade substitute teacher lined up all the boys in class for a paddling.

No one was excited about that either. But we had no choice. Someone in the class said his carton of milk had been stolen, so we all had to pay.

Although the teacher was not who we were used to  or even liked  she was in control. And we had to follow her orders.

That is exactly what's happening now, particularly in red state Tennessee, as entrenched Republican Party leaders come to grips with the reality that someone who is not conservative or Republican by any stretch will be the party's nominee for president.

As the wicked witch said before melting, "What a world, what a world."

With both Ted Cruz and John Kasich now out of the race, Trump's mutinous takeover of the Republican Party is virtually complete. His populist message  although devoid of substance  has attracted millions of grassroots voters even as it repulsed the GOP establishment. And party regulars understand it is futile to resist.

But just listen to their tone as they try to warm up to Trump's candidacy.

"I'm just not convinced he's an intellectual conservative," said state Rep. Glen Casada, House Republican Caucus chairman and a Cruz supporter. Still, he said, "I will vote for him (Trump) in the fall."

There was also this less-than-ringing endorsement from House Speaker Beth Harwell. "Donald Trump was not my first choice, but if he is our nominee, I will support him."

Moderate Republican David Kustoff, a reliable party insider who is running for the Eighth District Congressional seat, sounded as if he was waiting with me in the paddling line. "It appears that Donald Trump will likely be the Republican nominee for president. I'm going to support the Republican nominee against Hillary Clinton in November."

I could practically hear the sighs as I read Kustoff's comment.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, who also is seeking the Republican nomination for the Eighth District Congressional seat, is even more hesitant about Trump. "He's just not my favorite candidate," Luttrell told me.

Both Kustoff and Luttrell initially supported former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, whose campaign went nowhere. Now, Luttrell says, "I will reluctantly support the party. I will support the ticket."

To be fair, Clinton's negative ratings with general election voters, at 52 percent, are almost as high as Trump's 57 percent, according to the latest CBS/New York Times poll.

But here's the difference between the two. Clinton did not become a Democrat yesterday. Voters know who she is, what she's done and what she stands for, whether they trust her or not. And it's obvious that young, liberal-leaning voters want something different.

Trump's supporters, however, really have no clue what they are getting. And at this point they don't care. They just know they don't want the GOP establishment, and their votes have allowed the enigmatic Trump to hijack the party and take it to parts unknown.

"I don't think any of us know what he stands for," Luttrell said. "Hopefully there will be some clarity over the next few months."

Which tells me Luttrell and other reluctant Republicans will be holding their breath as they're also holding their nose.

For most Trumpeteers, though, the candidate's tough-talking disdain for political correctness resonates with them. So does, as Shelby County Commissioner and unabashed Trump supporter Terry Roland describes it, his stance on trade and "the immigration thing."

And that's more than enough.

So Republican Party regulars in Tennessee and across the nation have no other choice but to line up for Trump. Whether it leads to a paddling at the ballot box in November remains to be seen.
May 3, 2016 - Michael Rimmer's re-trial continues Tuesday morning with previous testimony being read into evidence. He won a new trial after being sentenced to death in the 1997 killing of his former girlfriend Ricci Lynn Ellsworth. Ellsworth's body was never found. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Katie Fretland of The Commercial Appeal

A jury again sentenced Michael Rimmer to death Saturday in the killing of his former girlfriend who disappeared 19 years ago from her job as a night clerk at a Memphis motel.

Rimmer, 50, was sentenced to death in 1998 and at a resentencing in 2004 in the killing of 45-year-old Ricci Ellsworth. A new trial was ordered in 2012 after a judge found Rimmer's defense counsel failed to effectively investigate the capital case.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge James Beasley Jr. found the Shelby County prosecutor who handled the case, Thomas Henderson, "purposefully misled" Rimmer's defense counsel about evidence.

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich announced in 2014 she would ask for the appointment of a special prosecutor to handle the trial. Rachel Sobrero of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference, and Pam Anderson, of Davidson County, prosecuted the retrial.

Jurors on Friday convicted Rimmer of killing Ellsworth with premeditation and in perpetration of a robbery. He was also convicted of aggravated robbery.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Chris Craft told Rimmer he will be confined until all appeals have been exhausted and an execution date is set. He will be put to death by electrocution, or at his option, lethal injection, Craft said.

"May God have mercy on your soul," Craft said.

Ellsworth, a mother of two, disappeared Feb. 8, 1997, from the Memphis Inn near Interstate 40 and Sycamore View leaving behind her blood and her ring. Her body has never been found.

"I wish I could tell you how much I loved her, still love her," her now deceased mother, Margie Floyd, testified previously. "And the horror that  she was such a sweet, generous person  that anyone would hate her that much. It had to be hate."

Rimmer asked his attorneys, Robert Parris and Paul Bruno, not to present any mitigating evidence on his behalf during the sentencing proceedings Saturday.

Sobrero told the jury about aggravating factors in the case, including that Rimmer was previously convicted of one or more violent felonies, not including the present charge.

Rimmer was convicted of raping Ellsworth in 1989. She forgave him and visited him in prison.

Before sentencing, testimony of the victim's mother was read to the jury.

"Well, I was not only her mother," Floyd said in the transcript. "I was her friend. And there's no way that I can tell you all how I miss her. Not knowing how she died, how afraid she was, it's been horrible. I'll never get over it. We will never get over it."

Rimmer had pleaded not guilty to killing Ellsworth, and Parris urged the jury to consider elements of the case that were missing. There was no body, murder weapon or identification of Rimmer at the scene by anyone, Parris said. Prosecutors presented evidence that DNA profiles from blood at the crime scene matched blood found in a car Rimmer was arrested in for speeding nearly a month after Ellsworth's disappearance.

Witnesses Roger Lescure and William Conaley testified Rimmer had threatened to kill Ellsworth.

Rimmer's attorneys emphasized the eyewitness identification of a man who saw two people at the motel around the time of Ellsworth's disappearance with what appeared to be blood on their hands.

James Darnell picked out Billy Wayne Voyles Jr. from a photo spread, according to a police document. The document was not disclosed for Rimmer's 1998 death penalty trial or his resentencing in 2004.

Rimmer's 1998 counsel asked for exculpatory evidence from the prosecutor handling the case at the time, who responded the state was not aware of any.

Voyles was also picked out of a sketch released to the media.

Rimmer will get an automatic appeal to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals. If that court affirms the conviction and sentence, the Tennessee Supreme Court automatically reviews it.

Tennessee has executed six people since 1976, and the last execution was in 2009.

Five were executed by lethal injection, and in 2007 the state electrocuted convicted killer Daryl Holton. Holton chose the method.
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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

Two men were arrested this week and charged with stealing an expensive package off the front porch of the East Memphis home of former Memphis police director Toney Armstrong.

A police affidavit says Armstrong reported the theft on Wednesday, but that it had actually occurred earlier, on April 11. Missing was a package containing a black Tumi brand garment bag valued at $900, according to the report.

Based on surveillance video, detectives identified Terilico Poindexter, 22, as the suspect. They arrested him and another man, Francis Ewing, 51. The affidavit says police found the stolen bag at Ewing's residence.

Both are charged with theft of property ranging in value from $500 to $1,000.
March 28, 2016 - (Left) - Eleanor Mason Ramsey, Ph.D., president, Mason Tillman Associates, LTD., presents results of the final report of Shelby County's disparity study during the Shelby County commission's general government committee meeting at 160 N. Main St. on Monday. (Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal

Moving forward to address the recommendations from a recently received disparity report, the Shelby County Commission will vote on Monday on a resolution to hire consultants to help create a program that aids women- and minority-owned businesses contract with the county.

The resolution approves a $90,000 contract to hire Mason Tillman & Associates, which conducted the $310,000 study, to assist the county in creating a minority/women-owned business enterprise (MWBE) purchasing program.

The commission's general government committee discussed the contract last week, but with a number of questions on the study results from the administration, it sent the resolution to the full commission without a recommendation.

The resolution calls for the commission to receive and approve the findings of the disparity study, which found that 88 percent of the county's contracts went to businesses owned by white men and 55 percent of contract dollars went to out-of-county vendors.

The study analyzed purchasing data from Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2014 and found that the county failed to meet its local-owned small business objectives, with only 8.64 percent of contracts going to local small businesses.

County officials refute that, saying their documentation proves the 20 percent LOSB objects were met.

Mason Tillman has not yet provided the data that supports the LOSB assessment and other figures released in the report, said Harvey Kennedy, county CAO.

''I'm not saying that they're wrong. They may be exactly right on," Kennedy said. "But from our standpoint, the information is not very complimentary to us. We'd like to validate the data."

Commission chairman Terry Roland has seated an ad hoc committee that will work to rewrite the county's procurement procedures and create an MWBE procurement program.

"I think we've got a good opportunity to get people together and come up with a program," Kennedy said. "We met the LOSB goals, we'll meet the MWBE goals."

Roland said the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce has offered to help the county with its MWBE program, assistance he believes government doesn't need.

"The chamber can mind their own business," Roland said during a commission committee meeting on Wednesday.

The offer, he said involved a joint venture with Memphis in which the chamber would use a third party vendor to certify businesses, which are charged a fee for the service.

"We can do that in-house and it's free. And the city can do same thing and we can sign an MOU (memorandum of agreement) and we can recognize the vendors from the city and the city can recognize the vendors form the county," Roland said. "We don't need a third party. It's just another level of bureaucracy."

The county has similar partnerships and is able to certify businesses for free, Carolyn Watkins, administrator of the county's Equal Opportunity Compliance Office told the committee on Wednesday.

Chamber officials, however say, a collaborative that includes the chamber, women, minority and small business organizations is recommending a one-stop approach that would be free to business owners.

"The goal is to develop a plan focused on Business to Business (B-B), Business to Government (B-G) and Business to Church (B-C) relationships," said Christina Meek, chamber director of communications in a written statement. "The Guiding Principles of this effort are transparency, simplicity, inclusive, low to no cost, and metrics-supported accountability."

The full commission meets at 3 p.m. Monday at the Vasco A. Smith Jr. Administration Building, 160 N. Main.
Rep. Walter E. Fauntroy (left), the secretary of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaks at a dinner honoring Federal Communications Commissioner Ben L. Hooks (Right) at the Hilton Inn in Memphis March 15, 1975. More than 800 people attended the event (By Robb Mitchell / The Commercial Appeal)

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By Ian Shapira, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON - Walter E. Fauntroy was worried about spies. The renowned civil rights figure, who had left the District of Columbia in 2012 amid mounting financial and legal troubles, was living in the United Arab Emirates and believed his emails were being "wiped out" by American intelligence officers assigned to block his outgoing messages, according to dozens of emails obtained by The Washington Post and acknowledged as authentic by his lawyer.

So he began using an alias email address, while still signing his messages with his real name or "The Congressman" - a reference to his nearly two decades as D.C.'s delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives

In December 2014, under the email address "Shahid Sarkar," Fauntroy wrote to 20 friends and relatives from the Persian Gulf and asked for help: find wealthy people to lend him $105,000. He needed the money, he said, to stave off foreclosure on his Northwest Washington home and to finance his nascent humanitarian project - the establishment of emissions-free power plants in poor parts of the world.

"You should know that, for me personally, the SAD FACT IS that if we do not launch our Initiative . . . the last financial asset that I own - My Family Home for the past Forty-two Years will be Lost to Foreclosure and my wife, my two children and my infant Grandson will be 'Homeless' on the streets of the District of Columbia," Fauntroy wrote. "I am asking you to help find me a 'Ram in the Thicket' of a 'Spiritually Mature' individual or group NOT to GIVE us $105,000 but to simply Provide us a 'Bridge Loan' in that amount."

Fauntroy, now 83 , never did find anyone to loan the money. But the effort reveals the downward spiral of a respected activist and leader in the nation's capital.

Fauntroy, a pastor at New Bethel Baptist Church for 50 years before retiring in 2009, helped the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. plan the 1963 March on Washington. He was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus and served as its chair in 1980. But his political career came to an end in 1990 when he ran for D.C. mayor after Marion Barry was arrested on drug charges. Fauntroy lost in the Democratic primary to Sharon Pratt Kelly.

Yet in the four years since he departed on a trip overseas and hasn't returned, Fauntroy has struggled to pay off debts, ignored an arrest warrant after being accused of writing a bad check, sought a dubious and unsuccessful business deal with a man who once pled guilty to wire fraud, and left his wife of 58 years, Dorothy Fauntroy, in a precarious financial state.

His friends and former colleagues have expressed concern about his mental health.

"I'm a lawyer, not a mental-health professional," said his attorney, Johnny Barnes, in an interview. "But he doesn't seem to be himself."

Barnes and others were dismayed by a 2015 photo of a gaunt, frail Fauntroy taken by someone in the UAE. "He clearly has a need for dental work," Barnes said. "And he was never one to go without a tie. He's lost weight."

Fauntroy could not be reached for this story.

Last year, Fauntroy's friends mounted an effort to raise money to help Dorothy, now 81, pay the mortgage on their Crestwood home, buy a washing machine and pay for car repairs. And there have been efforts to persuade Fauntroy to come home.

In 2014, Barnes said a mutual friend who was traveling to Dubai planned to meet Fauntroy at the airport, give him some money and urge him to fly home.

"He agreed to meet that person," Barnes said, "but when she landed, he didn't appear."

Barnes and Fauntroy also emailed about the prospect of former defense secretary William Cohen visiting him at the Dubai airport. The rendezvous didn't happen and Cohen, through a spokeswoman, said he does not recall being approached about meeting with Fauntroy.

Barnes is no longer sure if Fauntroy is in Dubai or somewhere else. He said Fauntroy stopped by the U.S. consulate there three times in 2014, and that officials told him that Fauntroy did not want to return to the United States. When Dorothy's attorney checked on his status again more recently, consulate officials reported back in January that they had "no information" on whether Fauntroy was in the UAE.

The State Department declined to comment for this story, citing Fauntroy's privacy.

The men last spoke earlier this year when Barnes told Fauntroy that a D.C. judge needed to appoint a conservator who would divvy out cash from his bank account to his wife and sign other legal documents. Fauntroy told his lawyer, "Do what you have to do," Barnes recalled.

Dorothy has said in interviews with The Post that she knows little about her husband's activities overseas, but bears no anger toward him for their financial difficulties. The couple's grown children, Marvin and Melissa Alice Fauntroy, did not return calls seeking comment.

Fauntroy moved to the UAE because he believed his friendship with a local prince could yield the money to finance his humanitarian projects, according to Sanyo Ward, a former employee of Fauntroy's nonprofit who kept in frequent touch with him. But he wound up sleeping in a hostel, on a park bench, and, at one point, the home of a family whose children he agreed to babysit in exchange for cash, Ward said.

During his years abroad, Fauntroy has repeatedly emailed a dozen-plus friends, colleagues and relatives, seeking money and peddling various conspiracy theories. He sounded alarms about Jews; about what he called "the Four Aristocratic Banking Families" and their "ungodly management of the financial affairs of the world;" about alleged payments of $100 billion to U.S. presidents after they complete each term in office.

"He said it was Jews who run the world and who run the banking system," Ward said. "He'd get so hostile if you challenged his mental abilities. I'd say, 'Walter, are you sure you're okay?' He'd say, 'My dear, that's insulting.' "

---

Walter Fauntroy's suitcase was packed, and he was hurrying to catch a flight overseas.

It was January 2012, and a bench warrant had just been issued for his arrest in Maryland. He had failed to appear and answer charges that he'd a written a bad check for $55,000 to a caterer for an ill-fated inauguration ball he'd planned in 2009 for President Obama. He told his wife he was leaving on a mission to build a school in Africa, court records show.

Ward, who saw him at his home just before he left the country, described him as frantic.

"He said 'they' wanted to put him in jail for 12 years," Ward said. "He said, 'They want me to die in prison' and that people were trying to kill him. He pretty much dashed out of town."

Ward, now 39, had been working for Fauntroy's embattled nonprofit, Fallen Soldiers, the sponsor of the inaugural ball. But their relationship had grown strained.

Two months before he left the United States, Ward filed assault charges against Fauntroy in Montgomery County, Md., claiming he tried to run her over with his car at a parking lot across from the DoubleTree hotel in Bethesda. Fauntroy was arrested for failing to show up at a hearing, court records show, but prosecutors dropped the case after Ward decided she didn't want to pursue it.

Once he was abroad, Fauntroy wanted to build emissions-free power plants for poor people that would convert waste into electricity in remote parts of Africa and the Middle East, according to interviews with his business partners and emails from Fauntroy provided to The Post.

He started a nonprofit that would manage the projects called AA GIFTS: African American Global Initiative Fostering True Sustainability.

But he alarmed his email recipients by often sending manifestos railing against the "1(percent) Cabal," which he defined as "The Rulers of the Darkness of this World," responsible for the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X and his friend, Martin Luther King Jr.

He forwarded lengthy articles headlined "Six Jewish Companies Control 96(percent) of the World's Media," decrying the number of American Jewish media owners, and another titled, "How BAD the Jewish Stranglehold is now in America."

Barnes, his attorney, was startled to read those messages: "All of those statements are inconsistent with his faith and with his interactions with all religions and ethnic groups for as long as I've known him."

Leslie Dean Price, the founder of a technology company called Equitech International that holds the patents for the power plant Fauntroy wanted to finance, said the former congressman's emails concerned him.

"Mentally, he was doing things that didn't make sense," said Price, 91, the former university architect at Georgetown. "He was trying to get money, but he was running ahead and doing his own thing and not touching base back here. He had his own agenda. We were beginning to worry about his mind, whether he flipped."

Back home, his family's finances were collapsing.

By May 2014, the Bank of New York filed to foreclose on the Fauntroy's longtime home, citing more than $146,000 in mortgage debt. Later that fall, over numerous emails, Fauntroy pleaded with his friends and other contacts to fund AA GIFTS or pay off his debts.

In early December 2014, Fauntroy wrote Ward, asking her to call his daughter Melissa every day on his behalf until "this crisis is over."

"It troubles her deeply when she can't [hear] my voice every day. I have invested so much fatherly love in her over the years that she gets depressed when she doesn't hear a word for weeks from me," Fauntroy wrote.

To avert foreclosure, Fauntroy tried to finesse a deal with a Wyoming-based limited liability company called Sceptre Trust Fund. The fund offered to arrange a $12.5 million "private grant" to Fauntroy's AA GIFTS if his nonprofit wired $55,000 to a Sceptre-controlled U.S. bank account, according to Fauntroy's broker, Zach James, who lives in North Carolina.

Sceptre's trustee, Alan "Irish" D'Arcy issued a memo on Dec. 23, 2014. to James spelling out the deal's details and important instructions: "Parties hereto will destroy any and all documents connected with this transaction."

Fauntroy was so excited about his anticipated windfall that the next day he wrote Melissa a long letter that he emailed only to what he called his team, but not to her.

"Dear Melissa, As you know by now, I will have to miss another Christmas and New Year's Day Holiday with you, Marvin and Mommy . . . I can say to you for certain that I will be coming home to see you, Mommy and Marvin in mid-January but also hold and kiss my new 'Prince of a Grandson'. . . "

He told his daughter that he'd been awarded a "$50 million Humanitarian Grant" to launch his AA GIFTS initiative, and that she would enjoy part of the riches. He promised her a salary of $36,000 that she'd earn from managing "the delivery of automobiles to the nonprofit's staff." Also, AA GIFTS would rent her a three-bedroom townhouse in wealthy Potomac and then purchase an estate.

"Let me say this about Potomac, Md. You want to rear [my grandson] and enroll him in the 'Best Schools' that America has to offer," Fauntroy wrote. "We are on our way to the 'Best Years of Our Lives,' Darling. Love you, Darling.'Keep the Faith'!!! Daddy."

Barnes said he did not pass along Fauntroy's letter to Melissa, and it's unclear whether she has read it.

Ultimately, Fauntroy couldn't come up with the money for the grant. Whether he knew it or not, he avoided a deal with a man who'd been convicted of a felony. In 2010, D'Arcy, Sceptre's director, had pled guilty in South Carolina federal court to two counts of wire fraud after he promised a group of undercover FBI agents posing as investors that they'd receive $250 million over 10 months if they initially invested $50 million with his company, court records show. D'Arcy was sentenced to three years of probation.

In an interview, D'Arcy, 78, denounced his conviction as the result of entrapment.

He said he didn't know or remember Fauntroy because he'd dealt with his broker, Zach James. He emphasized the proposed agreement never came to fruition and said Fauntroy's nonprofit wouldn't have received the $12.5 million all at once, but instead over a period of time. Such deals, D'Arcy said, are "regulated very heavily."

But some of Fauntroy's friends aware of his attempted financial deals were alarmed.

"I hope that Walter will find other sources of funding that will not create more troubles for an already almost hopeless situation that surrounds him now," one friend, Antonio Betancourt, wrote in a January 2015 email to a few of Fauntroy's colleagues.

Not only was Fauntroy failing to woo donors, but later that month, he was struggling to access his bank funds. In an email to James in mid-January 2015, Fauntroy said he wandered the streets of Ajman, just north of Dubai, looking for Citibank offices after an ATM ate his debit card.

"For two days, I walked for hours to places people remembered seeing a Citibank location only to return exhausted, having seen no such office at the locations to which I was [directed]," Fauntroy wrote. "Between my mounting bills at the Internet cafes that I have to use to get access to a computer, paying rent for sleeping place on the floor of this [hostel] and eating on credit at the one restaurant that would feed me on that basis, I had no money to ask a taxi cab to find the place."

Fauntroy said he wound up being told he needed to order a new ATM card.

The next month, two friends in Texas, Jimmy and JoAnne Moriarty, came up with a plan to help Fauntroy. The oil technology executives - who'd met Fauntroy in Libya years earlier - would gift him around 40,000 Iraqi dinars. The couple was convinced the currency would be re-valued at a high exchange rate, ultimately netting Fauntroy as much as $80,000.

"He's a good guy, and he was beaten up by the system. He really is a good man," said Jimmy Moriarty, whose business was facing its own financial difficulties. "If we could have sent him real money, believe me we would have done that."

They said they sent the dinars to Ward, so she could one day exchange the currency for U.S. dollars and send the windfall to Fauntroy. But in early March, Jimmy Moriarty emailed Fauntroy saying the Obama administration was delaying the re-valuation.

"The problem is not Iraq, it is the U.S.," Jimmy wrote.

That same day, Walter and Dorothy filed for bankruptcy protection. The couple's petition was later dismissed because Walter failed to undergo credit counseling.

Earlier this year, a D.C. judge - acting on Dorothy's petition - declared her husband as legally "disappeared." The judge granted her a protective order authorizing a conservator to provide her access to half the funds in their bank account - a mix of his pension and Social Security benefits - and sign documents on his behalf so can she save their home from foreclosure.

Meanwhile, Walter's precise whereabouts remain a mystery.

Barnes said he was walking into his office last month and heard the phone ringing. Barnes picked it up, but the person on the other end had hung up.

He looked at the caller ID. A Dubai number that Fauntroy had used before to contact him.

"I didn't call back because he always would call me right back on my cell," Barnes said. "He was usually persistent to get me. But this time, he wasn't."

Since that missed phone call, Barnes said he hasn't heard from Fauntroy again.
Giraldo Carratala, an inspector with the Miami Dade County mosquito control unit, peers over a fence into the back yard of a home, Tuesday, April 12, 2016, in Miami, Fla. The department was responding to complaints about mosquitoes by a resident in the neighborhood. Health officials are concerned about the spread of the Zika virus in the U.S., and they still need more money to fight the mosquitoes that spread it. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

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By Liz Szabo, USA Today

The Gulf Coast may know hurricanes, but this year the region of 60 million people could find itself unprepared and at ground zero for a different type of storm: a mosquito-borne Zika epidemic.

A look at the regions urban hubs, small towns and rural outposts shows a patchwork of preparedness. Cities such as Houston have robust plans in place, while smaller towns, such as Corpus Christi, Texas, struggle with fewer resources.

The Gulf Coasts steamy climate, abundant mosquitoes and international airports create an environment ripe for the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has spread to 37 countries and territories in the Americas. The disease causes devastating birth defects and is linked to paralysis and other complications.

The Zika virus could arrive in the continental U.S. in the next few weeks, carried here by travelers and spread by local mosquitoes, said Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Doctors have diagnosed 472 cases of Zika in travelers who carried the virus to the U.S. after visiting affected countries. Twenty percent of these travel-related cases were in Florida.

Recent heavy rains, which caused dangerous flooding in Houston, could multiply the number of mosquitoes, including the species that carries the virus, the Aedes aegypti.

It only takes one infected person to arrive in a location with Aedes aegypti and then the transmission cycle is off and running, Weaver said. We want to do everything we can to reduce that risk.

Cities with large international airports and a constant stream of tourists, such as Miami and New Orleans, could be at greater risk, but also tend to have more resources to tamp down on an outbreak.

New Orleans, which has a long history of robust mosquito-control programs, was one of the first cities in the country to create a Zika action plan. The 50-page document lays out prevention strategies and steps to take at each stage of an outbreak.

If Zika spreads among local mosquitoes, for example, the city will dispatch Zika Outreach Teams to neighborhoods where the virus is detected. The teams will hang signs on doors and talk to residents about how to prevent mosquito bites and eliminate the standing water in backyard containers that can allow mosquitoes to breed. If needed, teams will remove standing water and report any sites where the insects are breeding to the mosquito-control department.

Houston formed a Zika response team in January. Mosquito-control teams test mosquitoes for Zika to gauge whether the virus has infiltrated the U.S., said Mustapha Debboun, director of mosquito control in Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston. Although theres no sign of the virus, Debbouns team takes every opportunity to educate people about ways to reduce their risk of Zika.

While no federal agency is monitoring the nations progress against Zika, its clear that many states are taking the threat seriously, said James Blumenstock of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Remarkable progress has been made in the last several months, said Blumenstock. In many states, it really has been an all hands on deck response.

Even with plans in place, Blumenstock said hes especially worried about the possibility of multiple simultaneous events, such as a hurricane or tornado in the middle of a Zika outbreak.

I dont think any community is prepared to the degree that we need to be prepared, said Umair Shah, executive director of health and environmental services in Harris County.

Fighting alone

Smaller, more rural and some poor communities in the region have virtually nothing available in terms of mosquito control, Weaver said.

At times, Arturo Rodriguez said, he feels like his town is going to battle alone. Rodriguez, the public health director of the border town of Brownsville, Texas, with a population of 183,000, said he has had more contact with his counterparts in Mexico than with federal officials in the U.S.

We literally have to fight this issue on our own, Rodriguez said. We have to bootstrap ourselves.

Corpus Christi, a coastal city of 320,000 in South Texas, has two mosquito-control employees, 40 mosquito traps placed strategically around the city and Capt. Christopher White, who leads the animal care services and vector control at the citys police department.

Confronted by the possibility of an outbreak, White made a quick study of the Zika mosquito and ginned up a paper, Mosquito 101, along with a plan that lays out the citys policies for varying levels of mosquito risk.

Each week from April through November, city employees collected samples of mosquitoes caught in the 40 traps and sent them off to a state laboratory for testing for mosquito-borne viruses.

If anyone is diagnosed with Zika, workers will mount an intensive mosquito-killing campaign in the area around the patients home, spraying pesticides and depositing chemicals into standing water to kill any larvae.

Like many communities, Corpus Christi tries to educate residents about the need to regularly empty rain water from any containers in their yards.

People breed their own mosquitoes, said vector control officer Tony Pantoja. Dump all your containers, tires, buckets, bird baths, flowerpots. If theres a low area in your yard, fill it with dirt.

A stressed system

For communities that are struggling, there is little help on the horizon. A recent report found that there are major gaps in the countrys ability to prevent and respond to infectious diseases.

Gulf Coast states fared especially poorly, according to a December report from the Trust for Americas Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Alabama, Florida and Louisiana scored 4 out of 10; Mississippi and Texas scored 5.

Federal funding to help states and localities prepare for disasters  from infectious disease outbreaks to hurricanes  fell 30 percent in the past 14 years, declining from $940 million in fiscal year 2002 to $651 million in 2016, according to an April report from The Trust for Americas Health. A federal program to help hospitals prepare for emergencies has been cut by more than half since the peak of its funding in fiscal year 2004, when it received $515 million. And the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decreased from a high of $7.07 billion in fiscal year 2005 to $6.34 billion in 2016.

Public health staff are already stretched to the limit, said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. Zika will only add to the strain, he said.

During a Zika outbreak, public health labs could be overwhelmed with requests for tests from pregnant women worried about every mosquito bite, Weaver said. That could lead to delays and increase the anxiety of women waiting for their results, he said.

Although President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.9 billion in emergency funds in February, Congress has not yet approved the request. Obama transferred $510 million of money earmarked for Ebola to the Zika fight, but said it wont be enough. Some public health experts fear that any financial help will come too late to prevent the birth of babies with irreversible brain damage.

Shah, the public health director in Houston, worries that federal funding will arrive only after theres a crisis. By then, he said, it might be too late to help communities in need.

Whatever happens at the federal level, we need to happen now and not later, he said.
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By Jennifer Pignolet of The Commercial Appeal

Rhodes College announced Friday it has hired an associate dean of diversity and inclusion, a new position in academic affairs.

Noelle Chaddock will also be a faculty member in the Africana studies program and will teach the course The Making of Race in the Americas, according to the college's website.

"In her new position, Chaddock will work closely with the president's office, dean of faculty, student affairs, and other areas on institutional strategies to ensure the college is a diverse and welcoming community," the college said in a statement on its website.

Chaddock previously served as chief diversity officer at the State University of New York at Cortland.

The hiring comes in the wake of mounting racial tensions on the small Memphis campus. Last month, two students apologized during a town hall meeting for hanging a sock monkey out of a window with a rope, an image many on campus saw as a reference to lynching, though the college said the incident was a prank. The same weekend words written in chalk across campus in support of presidential candidate Donald Trump and his platform to build a wall across the United States' border with Mexico.
July 28, 2011 - Matt Baker (left) and Nathan Morlok enjoy making their selections during a "shopping spree" sponsored by the Strike King Lure Co. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Daniel Connolly of The Commercial Appeal

A Collierville board voted recently to put fishing lure manufacturer Strike King on notice that it had defaulted on its tax break deal with the town because it had fallen short of the required amount of investment in equipment.

The company was given some time to fix the problem, however.

Collierville's Industrial Development Board gave Strike King a tax break deal in 2012. The company's leadership said at the time that other jurisdictions, such as North Mississippi, were trying to entice the company to move.

Under the terms of the 2012 tax break, known as a PILOT, which stands for payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, the company was required to create 46 jobs at an average salary of $67,000 and invest $1.7 million in equipment.

The tax break deal requires the company to report its job count and other key figures to the board each year. In its most recent report, the company said that in 2015, it had employed 43 people, which is within the acceptable range, and that the employees earned an average of about $83,000 per year, more than required.

But the company's investment in business equipment, also known as personal property, was about $1.5 million, less than required.

Members of the Collierville Industrial Development Board discussed the matter at length during an April 21 meeting.

Board chairman Mark Moody said the exact amount of the company's investment in equipment depends on what you count.

The fishing lure maker had ordered a new $184,000 trade show booth and put down a $138,000 deposit on it. "But it is not actually completed as of year end. So technically, it's not their personal property," Moody said. "They're requesting that that be included in the personal property in order to not be out of compliance."

People in the meeting also raised questions about how the company had counted its purchases of software.

In the end, the board members cast a unanimous voice vote to notify Strike King that it was in default of its tax break agreement with the town.

The company has 120 days to fix the problem or it could face penalties, such as a reduction in the length of the tax break period, or other sanctions the board chooses to impose, Moody said.

Company representative Allan Ranson said he'd been out of town and would have to research the issue before commenting.
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By Bill Press

Wednesday, less than 24 hours after Donald Trump won the Indiana GOP primary and became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, "NBC Nightly News" did not just report the news, they let Trump take over their newscast.

NBC originated its broadcast from Trump Tower in Manhattan. And for a full eight minutes at the top of the show, anchor Lester Holt interviewed Trump live from his office  with no opportunity to respond provided to Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders or any political commentator.

That same morning Trump had appeared live and unfiltered  by phone  on NBC, ABC, Fox News and MSNBC. Not even the president would enjoy that kind of coverage. But, in a way, it was the fitting end to Trump's primary campaign: the national media, in effect, placing the presidential crown on the head of the candidate they created in the first place. Having succeeded in making him the GOP nominee, the media are now determined to make him the next president of the United States.

How did Donald Trump, a man with no elective experience, manage to beat a field of 16 other candidates that included nine current or former governors and five current or former United States senators? Thank his enablers. Thank the media.

Or, better yet, belittle the media, which is what President Obama did at last weekend's White House Correspondents' Dinner. After poking fun at Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the president told reporters he didn't want "to spend too much time on The Donald." Nervous laughter crept across the ballroom as Obama dropped the hammer: "Following your lead, I wanted to show some restraint. Because I think we can all agree that from the start, he's gotten the appropriate amount of coverage, befitting the seriousness of his candidacy."

Spot on. From the beginning, coverage of "The Donald" has been so inappropriate, so fawning, so nonstop and so over the top that it's hard to tell who's the bigger media whore, the candidate or network executives. Even when Trump said something truly outrageous  like banning all Muslims from entering the country, simply because they were Muslim  the coverage was always of the "can you believe he said that?" variety, but never "this man is such a racist he should never be taken seriously."

Of course, there's a good, albeit cynical, reason the networks give Trump so much airtime. "Trumpmania" is good for their bottom line. Why else would they carry an entire hour-long Trump rally live, when other candidates would be lucky to get an honorable mention? Because ratings soar whenever he appears on their air, and the more outrageous things he says, the more controversy he stirs up, the better.

But what's good for the networks is even better for Trump. Back in March, according to the media tracking firm mediaQuant, the New York mogul had already received $1.9 billion in free media exposure since he announced for president on June 16, 2015  and that windfall has only multiplied many times since. Trump far outpaced every one of his Republican rivals and more than doubled the $746 million in media attention paid to Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders clocked in at $321 million in coverage; Ted Cruz, at $313 million; Marco Rubio, $202 million; and John Kasich, $38 million.

Again according to mediaQuant, Trump even outpaced celebrities Taylor Swift ($497 million), Kim Kardashian ($250 million) and Kanye West ($234 million) in free publicity. But for his rival political candidates especially, it wasn't what you'd call a level playing field. As Rand Paul acidly observed when asked on Fox News what was behind Donald Trump's surge in the polls, "It could be the free billion dollars of publicity he has gotten by being on every channel all the time."

Of course, the big payoff for Donald Trump was: the more free media he received, the less he had to spend on his own campaign. According to the Federal Elections Commission, Trump spent less than any other presidential primary front-runner in the last 16 years. Through the end of February, he had spent only $33 million to win 19 state primaries. Never has one presidential candidate spent so little to win so much.

And, for all their adoring coverage, what did the media deliver? The least experienced, least knowledgeable and least qualified presidential nominee of our lifetime. As President Obama chided reporters at last Saturday's correspondents' dinner, "I hope you are all proud of yourselves."

Bill Press is the host of a nationally syndicated radio show and is a CNN political analyst. Contact him at bill@billpress.com. He wrote this for Tribune News Service.
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By Noah Feldman

Spend a million of your super PAC dollars to elect a governor, and you can expect him to take your calls and set up meetings with state officials. Courtesy of the Supreme Court and its 2010 Citizens United decision, it's all protected by the First Amendment.

But give the same governor a Rolex before asking for the meetings, and both of you might be convicted of bribery.

Is there a meaningful difference? That's the question in McDonnell v. U.S., which the court is currently considering. The bribery conviction of former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell follows the second pattern, complete with the Rolex.

That's important because the case pits constitutional principle (the right to support politicians) against common sense (a bribe is a bribe, right?). That conflict casts doubt on the Citizens United principle, which expanded the rights of people and companies to make unlimited (and anonymous) political donations without fear of being prosecuted for corruption. But it also raises the thorny problem of what the court should do about bribery so long as Citizens United is still the law.

Let's start with the constitutional logic that gives rich people a First Amendment right to contribute to politicians and enjoy the subsequent calls and meetings.

Under Citizens United and some earlier cases, Congress may regulate or criminalize campaign contributions that count as quid-pro-quo corruption, or give rise to the appearance of such corruption. What was so significant about Citizens United, apart from the famous holding that corporations are people, too, when it comes to free speech, is what the court said about the appearance of corruption.

The court held that donations to a political action committee that engages in "independent advocacy" don't give rise to the appearance of corruption  possibly even, by implication, if there are facts that suggest otherwise in some particular case. That's what defies common sense: In reality, huge donations by rich people or corporations can of course look as though they're meant to win favors. The donor phone call to the governor that leads to meetings with state officials is pretty much what people would consider corruption in most of the world.

But once the court held otherwise, it had to justify the existing system of favors. That has led it to say that such interactions with donors are a normal part of politics in the U.S.

In the 2014 case McCutcheon v. FEC, the court's plurality said that "ingratiation and access" not only aren't corruption, but actually "embody a central feature of democracy." The idea is supposed to be that "general gratitude" is different from a concrete quid pro quo.

McDonnell's lawyers seized on that legalistic version of reality when they appeared before the justices in April. Their best argument was that punishing McDonnell for taking the Rolex would create the risk that ordinary donors who ask favors from office holders might be guilty of bribery. That, McDonnell's lawyers suggested, would impugn the structure of campaign finance as we know it.

The government's best response was to emphasize that the prosecutor convinced a jury that McDonnell had indeed taken a bribe and set up meetings as a quid pro quo.

Why didn't the deputy solicitor general who argued the government's case instead claim that there was a difference between a campaign contribution and a direct cash payment to the governor made through his wife?

The answer actually lies in the Citizens United decision. There, the court alluded to the factual circumstances that motivated Congress to pass the Federal Elections Campaign Act amendments of 1974, which form the basis of modern campaign-finance law.

Congress heard testimony that milk producers had made $2 million in campaign donations to get a White House meeting. The court in Citizens United said that such practices "would be covered by the bribery laws" provided that a quid pro quo could be proved. The deputy solicitor general referred to the passage in his oral argument, citing the exact page where it appeared.

Thus, in the eyes of the bribery laws, there's no real difference between a campaign contribution in exchange for a favor and the gift of a Rolex.

This explains why the justices are worried about impinging on ordinary political favors. If they find that McDonnell could be convicted of taking a bribe for setting up meetings, how can they say with a straight face that it isn't a crime when a politician does a favor for a super -PAC donor?

There's a logical answer  which is that both are corrupt, and that Citizens United shouldn't be interpreted to stop the government from prosecuting campaign contributors. Perhaps the court could try to say that there's a difference between a direct campaign contributor  like the milk industry donors  and a contribution to an advocacy group like a PAC.

But unless the court takes that route, it must ask the pragmatic question of whether it's willing to let bribery laws contradict the spirit, if not the letter, of Citizens United.

I dislike the Citizens United decision as much as the next First Amendment law professor. But it is, for now, the law. I understand why the justices, including some who dissented in Citizens United, might be trying to think of a way around that embarrassment.

Bloomberg View columnist Noah Feldman is a professor of constitutional and international law at Harvard University.
With Stitch Fix, users don't go shopping for their clothes. Professional stylists do the job for them and the personal shopping service ships the new clothes to their door.

The stylists aren't working on their own, though; they're using artificial intelligence (A.I.) and a team of about 60 data scientists.

That combo is behind the success at Stitch Fix, a San Francisco-based online subscription and shopping service founded in 2011.

"I think it's the single most salient aspect of our company," said Eric Colson, chief algorithms officer at Stitch Fix. "Our business is getting relevant things into the hands of our customers. This is the one thing we're going to be best in the world at. We couldn't do this with machines alone. We couldn't do this with humans alone. We're just trying to get them to combine their powers."

Stitch Fix, a company with about 4,400 employees -- 2,800 of them working as stylists -- has amassed a following among busy women -- and as of February, among men. That's when the company launched a beta service for guys, with a full public launch scheduled for this fall.

Stitch Fix is aimed at people who either don't enjoy shopping or simply don't have the time to go to a brick-and-mortar store or cull through endless online pages of shirts, pants, sweaters and jackets.

Users start by filling out an online style profile. Do you like blousy or close-fitting tops? Favorite colors? Are you more urban hipster, Sex in the City chick or Bohemian? Do you prefer jeans over dresses?

Stitch Fix stylists, both human and machine, handpick a selection of five clothing items and accessories that fit each client's taste, budget and lifestyle. Clients keep what they want and return the rest.

Colson, who was a vice president of data science and engineering at Netflix before joining Stitch Fix in 2012, noted that the company was using an algorithm for basic criteria filtering. If a client was a medium, it would filter out shirts that were a large or small. If she didn't like the color yellow, those items would be excluded.

With his experience at Netflix, which bases much of its business on recommending movies and shows to users, Colson knew Stitch Fix could do more by using machine learning.

"A product manager at Netflix used to say if we were really bold, we wouldn't present five or so recommendations. We'd present one and if we were going to do that, we should just play a recommendation when the user came online," he said. " Here is Stitch Fix being so bold as to say, 'Don't worry about picking out stuff. We'll do that for you.' That was exciting and bold. Could that be done? Is that possible?"

It is.

Later in 2012, the company got its first machine learning algorithm, which was designed to get smarter the more data it handled.

"We've been able to augment human judgment with machine algorithms," said Colson. "We have to combine machines and expert humans. It turns out it works better than even I could have thought."

Today, the company has hundreds of algorithms, like a styling algorithm that matches products to clients; an algorithm that matches stylists with clients; an algorithm that calculates how happy a customer is with the service; and one that figures out how much and what kind of inventory the company should buy.

Stitch Fix also has an algorithm that learns from images so it can check a client's Pinterest pins and learn what styles she's favoring even if the user has a hard time articulating it in an online form or in comments.

The company, according to Jeff Kagan, an independent industry analyst, is likely ahead of a trend where machine learning moves into the enterprise.

"I think this is just the beginning," he said. "Many new business models will form with A.I. as the center of their universe.... We have to remember this is advanced and cool, but it is still very early in the process. This is the Model T for the A.I. revolution. It will get bigger and better, year after year."

For today, Stitch Fix's human stylists, most of whom work remotely, use an interface where they can see all the information the company has about a client - measurements, preferences, desire to take risks. The stylists use the interface to see comments about previous outfits they've tried, and notes on whether they have a big date or a wedding to attend and need something new to wear.

The stylists also use the interface to see all the images of products the algorithms have recommended for the client.

Stitch Fix Layla Katz is the lead stylist at Stitch Fix.

That, said Layla Katz, a lead stylist with Stitch Fix, is incredibly helpful.

"I quickly realized the tool was my new BFF," said Katz. "It gives me confidence when my creative eye is saying this is a match and the science is saying the same thing.... How they come together is the magic."

Katz, who has been a stylist with Stitch Fix for two and a half years, said she likes working with the artificial intelligence. It makes her job easier and gives her more time to be creative.

"When a client fills out a profile and is ready to be styled, we are able to see what the algorithm is suggesting based on the data collected from her profile -- everything from sizing to location, geography, body type, fabric preferences, colors and pattern preferences," she explained. "It helps to not have to worry about the broad strokes of what a client does not want. Then we can make creative decisions about what will fit her body and her lifestyle."

Without the A.I., it could take stylists weeks of working with a client to know what works.

But don't get Katz wrong. The human stylists make the creative decisions.

"Once we build a relationship with a client, we get smarter every time [we style her] and the algorithm gets smarter every time," said Katz. "When a client decides which items to keep or send back, she can go through her profile and let us know item by item if she liked the fit, the price, the quality. That goes into the algorithm and helps it suggest more for the next time."

The algorithms, for instance, take in customer comments and feedback and can easily and quickly calculate how customers feel about certain products and styles. That flood of information would be overwhelming for a human.

"Humans are better at interpreting the tone and meaning of textual feedback, but they can't do many," said Colson. "After a few thousand, they might get really bored or have a hard time distilling it down. Machines can hold in their memories far more than we can.... The challenging part would be not using algorithms. It would be scary out there. It would be a leap of faith to put your finger in the air and make the best guess about what people will buy. That would give me anxiety. We have the benefit of data."

That ability to digest and analyze so much data could be what makes Katz such a fan of working with an AI system. Elsewhere, many people are afraid of smart machines and robots stealing their jobs, said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group.

"It's a little surprising that the stylists don't see A.I. as a threat, since most people seem to think that A.I. will eventually take over their jobs," he said. "But I believe we'll see A.I. assisting people in almost every job, particularly those in which there's a lot of data that has to be processed. When you think about the clothing industry, a good A.I. can help winnow down the universe of clothing and accessories to help the stylist do their job better and quicker."

Katz said partnering with a smart system simply makes the job better.

"I am a huge lover of all things algorithm," she said. "I'm a real fan girl. It's an insane genius what the algorithms bring."

This story, "At Stitch Fix, data scientists and A.I. become personal stylists" was originally published by Computerworld .
Ruth Davidson holds no elected office in the largest part of our country  England, which contains over 85 per cent of the population. She is not a member of Parliament. She is therefore ineligible to succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister. But the newly-elected MSP for Edinburgh Central has a good claim today to be the most influential Conservative in the whole country, in the aftermath of the sensational success of the Party she leads in the Scottish Parliamentary elections. This morning, everyone wants a piece of her  every Tory, anyway.

Coverage of Scottish politics in England is perhaps not as pervasive as in pre-devolution days, and new media means that there is more journalism competing for readers in any event. A consequence is that even many members of her own party know very little about our fortnightly columnist. They may therefore be tempted to believe that once of the best-known facts about her  her sexuality  somehow defines her views, attitudes and politics, and that once one knows about this aspect of her life one knows everything else about her, too.

Scotlands Conservative leader is certainly a moderniser, who pitches her appeal to Scotlands mainstream mass of moderate voters. If you want to turn to the dry world of policy for evidence, consider the quiet way in which she has dropped education vouchers. Support for same sex marriage is considered to be a touchstone for modernisation and she is for it, too. In an understated and unexcitable way, she is also a Remain supporter. And some of those who want to return to her own life story will light on the venue of her work as a journalist  the BBC.

So much, so Cameroon  at least, for those who believe that once one knows someones views on the EU referendum one knows exactly where to place them on the Party spectrum. But there are at least three important qualifications to mull. The first is how she came to lead Scotlands Conservatives in the first place. David Cameron won his own leadership election fair and square as the modernising candidate. Davidson won hers opposing a modernisation proposal which was at the heart of the contest.

Murdo Fraser, her main opponent, argued that the Conservatives should change their name  evidence of how far their political fortunes and self-confidence had fallen as recently as five years ago. Davidson contested the plan and won the election. It was a sign of her direction of travel. She wanted the Tories in Scotland to worry less about themselves and more about the countrys voters, who increasingly yearned for a proper opposition to the SNP  already on its way to the position of dominance which it sealed in last Mays near wipe-out of Labour.

This takes us to a second difference. The Prime Minister has many political strengths  he is now the Partys most electorally successful post-war leader other than Margaret Thatcher  but strategic consistency is not among them. In opposition, he began by presenting himself as the heir to Blair. In Coalition, he ended up campaigning as the voice of Lynton. Davidson, by contrast, methodically exploited the failure of Scotlands other main Unionist party  Labour  and established Scotlands Conservatives as the main voice of Unionism north of the border instead.

She worked doggedly away at the task before the independence referendum, which opened up an opportunity to project her Unionism more vividly and take it to another level. This she did with verve and passion, taking the fight to Nicola Sturgeon  yes, thats the same Nicola Sturgeon who performed so powerfully in the general election TV debates last year. Davidson didnt fight a Westminster seat last May, but her performance the autumn before will have been a factor in the Party holding its ground in Parliamentary terms.

What the Scottish Conservatives have now done is what some hoped they would do last year  thats to say, break out from that miserable ground (a solitary Westminster seat held by a whisker) to reclaim some of the territory which the SNP and Labour swiped from it during the last 30 years or so  in the borders, in parts of Aberdeenshire, in Eastwood near Glasgow. The Tory vote was also well up elsewhere, which boosted its top-up MSPs  two are from Glasgow, for example. Three-quarters of the Partys MSPs are brand-new.

Davidsons campaigning strengths take us to a third difference which, in a cautious way, she has alluded to herself on this very site. In a joint article with her friend Stephen Crabb, she wrote about her upbringing in houses where nothing came for free and lauded what the Conservatives did for John Major  the boy from Brixton. The positioning was careful but clear  and uncomfortable for a Party leadership headed by an Old Etonian whose comfortable upbringing is exploited by its political opponents.

The authors lauded a muscular One Nation conservatism. This combination of heart and head  and body strength too, evidently  is very Davidson. Indeed, the more one thinks about it, the more one grasps that she is weaving the different strands of modern conservatism together successfully. The former BBC journalist also served in the territorial army. The openly gay politician is also a practising Christian politician. There is no contradiction whatsoever in that combination in the eyes of very many of her co-believers, not to mention a big majority of non-believers as well.

It is a statement of the geographical obvious that London is not Scotland  and the culturally obvious, too. None the less, there is a lesson to be drawn from Davidsons success and Zacs failure on Thursday. He was absolutely right to ask Sadiq Khan some searching questions about his record on extremism. This site will never say otherwise. The mistake wasnt that his campaign did so. It was rather that, by the end of the contest, it seemed to be doing little else. What was coming through to voters was a negative message about Khan, not a positive one about Goldsmith itself.

Davidson is emphatically positive rather than negative  for strong defence, for lower taxes and, above all, for the Union. She is for things rather than against things. So is Zac  but the more the campaign went on, the less this was communicated. One of his party allies is savage about Lynton Crosbys role in what happened on Thursday precisely because it was a non-role  arguing that, since Crosby Textor Fullbrook took the campaign on, Crosby should not, in this sources words, have ducked out from the start because he thought Zac would lose.

Some will claim that the Conservatives are still a minority cause in Scotland, that Davidson has simply been handed an electoral windfall by Labours collapse, and that her cause is over-hyped. And that London, post-Boris, was Labours to lose. It is true that politicians can be pushed up only to be pulled down. One need to look no further than Sajid Javid for an example  though it is also true that those pulled down are sometimes pushed up again. But there is reason to believe that Davidsons kind of One Nation conservatism is the best hope for the Partys future.

The old truths apply. At the last election, the Conservatives won 37 per cent of the vote. For 2020, we should aim to gain over 40 per cent. This site has always argued that without a social justice appeal  pitched at delivering more homes, jobs and savings to younger voters especially  this simply wont happen: thats why we produced the ConservativeHome Manifesto. There is more to British politics than the EU referendum, vital though it is. After it ends and the smoke clears, the Party will need Davidsons sense, guts  and, yes, positivity.
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There are various means to address depression but so far much have come with side effects. But if researchers are able to succeed in somehow modifying a drug that is more commonly used as a tranquilizer for horses, this class B drug previously banned in the UK could come in handy for people dealing with the condition.

Ketamine is the drug in mention. The drug was banned in the UK back in 2006 and was categorized as a class B drug in 2014. It is best known as a horse tranquilizer by vets though it is also known as something that folks use in clubs to avoid date-rape scenarios.

Initial trials showed that the drug can indeed aid depression faster compared to other drugs but the problem is that it created some addictive properties that technically makes it an illegal drug. To best explain this occurrence, researchers dug deep to see what was the cause of such. It turns out the problem lies not solely on Ketamine but on a chemical that it gives off once the body takes it in and relieve themselves of depression. The findings were arrived at following an experiment involving mice.

This discovery fundamentally changes our understanding of how this rapid antidepressant mechanism works and holds promise for development of more robust and safer treatments, explains Dr. Carlos Zarate. He adds: Researchers were able to reverse-engineer ketamine''s workings from the clinic to the lab to pinpoint what makes it so unique.

With the reason (metabolite) identified, doctors are now trying to figure a way to isolate the good effects from the harmful ones and see if such could be effective in humans and lead to improve therapeutics.

If they are successful, this breakthrough should be key to the ones looking to overcome depression with side effects on the side. Dr. James Stone, a clinical senior lecture at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, however cautioned that clinical trials on patients suffering from depression will still be a need.

Apparently one facet that doctors want to address is abuse of the drug which may see people taking in repeated dosages.

These findings are in mice, so it still remains to be seen if they translate to humans. We also do not know the exact way in which this metabolite works, rather we know how it doesn't work. So much work needs to be done before we get to the stage of testing such a drug in humans, said professor Celia Morgan of the Exeter University's psychology department.

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Printer Friendly Version As The Health Of Hunger Striking Students In JNU Deteriorates,

The Administration Cuts Them Off From Civil Society By Countercurrents.org 07 May, 2016

Countercurrents.org In an attempt to break the morale of hunger striking students of JNU the administration has blocked the entry of outsiders into the campus. A memo issued by Dr. Pramod Kumar, registrar of the university, threatens to evict outsiders from the campus. This memo comes at a time when JNU Teachers Association and the alumni are holding a relay hunger strike in the campus in solidarity with students who are on the 10th day of their indefinite hunger strike. A citizens' human chain also is planned at at 5 PM today. The students allege that there is no restriction in the entry of ABVP members, the student wing of the ruling BJP government, who are freely roaming the campus threatening the hunger striking students. It is presumed that it is to break the solidarity link between the students and the wider civil society that the JNU administration has issued this undemocratic memo. Meanwhile, the health of many of the hunger striking students have deterioated and JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar is admitted to AIIMS, New Delhi.



Umar Khalid one of the hunger striking students wrote on his Facebook page: Issuing threats in the name of appeals has been the only response of the JNU administration to the Indefinite Hunger Strike that is going to enter its 10th day now. After calling the hunger strike "unlawful" and "unconstitutional", the latest threat is against involving "outsiders". Threatened by the solidarity that our struggle is receiving from democratic sections across the city, in fact the country, who are thronging to the Freedom Square to be a part of the struggle, JNU administration now wants to break that. Is it a coincidence that this so called appeal has been issued just a day before JNU alumni, along with civil society activists, poets, lawyers, artists, journalists and activists from different people's movements are joining the students in forming a human chain around the Ad Block? Well, Mr. VC anyone who stands for democracy, justice and against fascism is no outsider to JNU, they are as much a part of JNU as the students of JNU who have always stood up for these ideals. These are the exact same strategies that the University of Hyderabad administration also adopted and stopped Rohith Vemula's mother and brother from entering the university. All this while when the sanghi goons were getting hoodlums from outside the university who were abusing and threatening of violence, when Anupam Kher came with his band of jokers, the JNU administration had absolutely no problems. It is only when our movement is now intensifying that the administration wants to suppress it through these means. It might well happen that tomorrow around 4 pm, the JNU administration might beef up security at the gate and not allow people to come from outside. We need to remain vigilant, and if required some of us should go to the main gate to ensure that people are allowed to enter the campus. Another hunger striking student Chintu writes: "Mr. VC. and Mr. Registrar, If there is anyone who is an outsider here, it is the two of you, appointed by Nagpur to destroy all that JNU has ever stood for. Don't you dare tell those who have lived in and breathed JNU for years, or those who despite having never studied here have stood with us shoulder to shoulder to save the secular, democratic and socially just ethos of this campus from your unending assaults, that they are not welcome here any more.You do not own JNU!!Also, If there is anyone who is vitiating the atmosphere of JNU, it is the two of you, who at the behest of your masters in Nagpur are determined to inject the poison of casteism, communalism and patriarchy in the air of JNU!! More than you it is us who are aware of the continuing exams and impending deadlines as it is us who are having to fight the twin battles of study while also struggling to save our right to study from the likes of you!! So keep your cowardly threats to yourself. We are all JNU!! Andar, bahaar, har taraf."







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Alberta Wildfire Continues To Spread, Forcing Further Evacuations

By Roger Jordan

07 May, 2016

WSWS.org

The huge wildfire that has forced the evacuation of Fort McMurraythe northern Alberta city that is the hub of Canadas tar-sands oil industrycontinued to rage uncontrollably.

Already late Wednesday, authorities were forced to widen the evacuation zone to include three communities south of Fort McMurray: Anzac, Fort McMurray First Nation, and Gregoire Lake Estates. Among those uprooted by the latest evacuation order were approximately one thousand Fort McMurray evacuees who were being temporarily housed at a camp in Anzac.

Close to 90,000 people have now been evacuated from the Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo region since Tuesday.

Fueled by strong winds, the fire expanded more than eight-fold Wednesday night to engulf 85,000 hectares. Officials now say that only rain can stop it.

At a press conference yesterday, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said there was no fresh information about the extent of the damage in the city because firefighters did not have enough time to assess it and could not access some areas.

Earlier reports had said that 1,600 buildings had been partially or completely destroyed, with a conservative estimate of at least 5,000 rendered homeless.

Later, Notley warned the fire could absolutely grow larger in the coming days, adding that it would be more than a matter of days before residents can return home.

A total of 41 fires were reported burning across the province yesterday: Ten of these were out of control, and twelve fires were newly broken out. The weather forecast for the coming days remains dry, with fire activity predicted to be high or extreme.

Visible from space, the Fort McMurray wildfire fire has begun, due to its size, to create its own weather. This includes winds and lightning from smoke clouds, which could provoke new blazes.

Fort McMurray was effectively cut off from the rest of Alberta late Wednesday. The fire burned on both sides of Highway 63, the only road leading south. Significant damage occurred around the airport Wednesday evening, but authorities claim that it is not currently under threat.

An estimated 25,000 evacuees are stranded to the north of the city and are being housed in work camps owned by the oil companies.

Reports continued to emerge describing the harrowing conditions during Tuesdays evacuation of Fort McMurray, which was ordered with little forewarning and with, for many, a deadline of just one hour. One woman told CBC the conditions were like a war as flames rained down on cars and propane tanks exploded.

Fort McMurray bears all the hallmarks of a capitalist resource-extraction boom-town, with huge fortunes being made by the oil barons amidst mounting social problems and distress.

With Fort McMurrays population mushrooming from 6,000 in 1970 to 35,000 in 1990 and more than doubling over the past 25 years, the demand for infrastructure, from housing to decent schools and health care facilities, has continuously outpaced supply.

The lack of proper infrastructure has been starkly revealed by the evacuation itself, with only one highway leading out of a city of close to 100,000 people.

While it is not possible at this point to determine whether poor quality materials and shoddy building practices were factors in the extensive damage in Fort McMurray, these have been persistent complaints in recent years.

Yet Fort McMurray and the surrounding region have produced tens of billions in profits for Canadian capitalisms major oil corporations. In the 12-month period ending March 2015, even as oil prices had begun their steep decline, major oil corporations raked in huge profits, including $1.3 billion for Suncor, $600 million for Enbridge, $3.6 billion for Canadian Natural Resources, $1.1 billion for Husky Energy and $1.7 billion for TransCanada Corp.

These profits were achieved through ruthless exploitation of a workforce drawn from across the country and even around the world, and with disregard to the environment and to the health of local populations, including First Nations communities.

Many workers who laboured hard during the oil boom, some travelling halfway across the continent to work 12-hour shifts for three weeks before a seven-day break, have been tossed aside over the past year-and-a-half.

Big Oil and numerous smaller oil service companies have slashed thousands of jobs in Fort McMurray and the surrounding tar sands region, while forcing many of those who remain in their employ to take pay cuts.

Since 2014, Fort McMurrays population has shrunk from over 100,000 to somewhere in the range of 85,000 to 90,000. In early April, local media reported the lengthening of food bank hours in Fort McMurray to cope with increased demand. Unemployment in the Wood Buffalo region, which includes the city, was pushing 10 percent last month.

A Conference Board of Canada report released last October predicts that in spite of the low oil prices, the companies will return to profitability in 2016 because of their cost-cutting measures.

In comparison with the vast wealth extracted from the local area by Big Oil, the resources made available by the authorities to tackle the catastrophe provoked by the wildfires are miniscule. Fleeing residents have been largely left to rely on the generosity of residents in nearby communities, who have rushed to their aid with large donations of food, clothing, gas and accommodation. The other main source of relief has been charities like the Red Cross.

In the House of Commons yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged Ottawa would match donations to the Red Cross to support relief efforts. The federal government has also sent some military resources to the region, including planes and helicopters.

At a press conference Wednesday, Trudeau sought to downplay the link between the fire and climate change. He attacked Green Party leader Elizabeth May for daring to suggest such a connection, declaring, There have always been fires. There have always been floods. Pointing at any one incident and saying This is because of that, is neither helpful nor entirely accurate.

Trudeaus refusal to admit the link to climate change is politically calculated. His government is anxious to strengthen its partnership with Big Oil by pushing through the building of oil pipelines to the countrys east and west coasts. This is seen as critical not just to boosting the profits of big business, but also in strengthening Canadian imperialisms position on the world stage by establishing the country, in the words of former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, as an energy superpower.

The reality is that a fire on the scale of that which has struck Fort McMurray has long been predicted by scientists. In the wake of the 2011 fire that destroyed a third of the northern Alberta town of Slave Lake, a report produced by a panel of experts commissioned by the Alberta government pointed to the growing likelihood of wildfires and explicitly identified climate change as a major cause.

Noting the growing number of people living and working in forested areas of the province, and the rising age of the forest due to a reduction in areas being burnt as part of the natural cycle, the report stated, Experts say that climate change is increasing the wildfire threat, some aspects of which are already measurable with longer fire seasons and more extreme weather. As a result, the risk of wildfires, and the threat they pose to lives, homes, communities, and industry is increasing.

In 2014, the UNs International Panel on Climate Change noted in a report with high confidence that North America would confront heightened wildfire-induced loss of ecosystem integrity, property loss, human morbidity, and mortality as a result of increased drying trend and temperature trend.

2015 was a record year for wildfires in western Canada, with over 10,000 evacuated from communities in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. Experts agree that the current wave of fires are the combined product of climate change and the impact of a strong El Nino effect.

In this context, the lack of preparedness at all levels of government for such entirely foreseeable disasters as the Fort McMurray fire is scandalous. The 2012 report proposed expanding fire weather advisories to include fire behaviour, creating quick response units with specialists, and expanding Albertas Firesmart program, which clears debris from residential areas.

In 2015, Albertas Progressive Conservative government made cuts to the Firesmart program. The recently-adopted budget of the current New Democratic Party provincial government contained a further $15 million in cuts to the wildfire budget.










Fiasco In Lebanon: 60 Minutes, Privilege And Exploitation

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

07 May, 2016

Countercurrents.org

The actions of a desperate mother are one thing; the extraordinary lapse in judgment and ethics of a crew of seasoned journalists getting involved in an international kidnapping scheme is another entirely.

Ruby Hamad, The Age, Apr 17, 2016

Spittle-flecked journalism is something of a curse, an enterprise that muddies the fine lines between chasing a story and creating it. And the Nine Network of Australia, with its own variant of 60 Minutes, is certainly of such inspiration, drawing its strength from the margins of investigative journalism and assuming a role in influencing events.

Ambulance chasing newscasters are the true parasites of the media scene, incapable of describing events they would rather invent, if not influence. They feed on the flesh of vulnerable causes and bolster the confidence of those they effectively groom. The instance of an Australian mother, Sally Faulkner, desperate to recover her children who were taken to Lebanon by their father, Ali Elamine, provided a spectacular instance of this principle at play. It involved another travesty of the international relationship scene. Boy meets girl; children issue; children are taken by one parent after a ruse and made inaccessible.

In this case, a virtual counter-abduction was being suggested, with the spear carrier being former Australian soldier Adam Whittington from Child Abduction Recovery International. A desperate mother had sought other avenues to attain her goal, having made a public plea in November to the Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop to assist in recovering her children. A media outlet volunteered the financial ammunition and some logistical backing. The result was a bag of deception, stupidity and farce.

Faulkner, in her effort to broader the appeal of the operation, suggested that it was far more than a child abduction case. Her plight was an international one, a global problem of injustice. Its not just about me and my children, there are hundreds and hundreds of families this has happened to. Faulkner was certainly right about one thing: states not signatory to the Hague Convention stipulating that children be returned to their country of habitual residence make that nigh impossible.

The hawks, in their desperation to grab the scoop, botched the operation. Footage of the event shows a vain effort by what was subsequently reported by Lebanese media as three gunmen who snatched the two children off a Beirut street in the area of al-Hadath south of the city. The children seem to be in the company of their paternal grandmother. As she subsequently noted, The man came down and hit me on the head with something and I was a little dizzy.

Police immediately pounced. The mother and the entire news crew, including Tara Brown, producer Stephen Rice and a cameraman, ended up being detained. They spent some richly deserved time in custody, with some suggestion that they might spend an even longer time for their errors of judgment. Unfortunately for the world of genuine and credible journalism, Brown and her crew were permitted to return to Australia.

Browns initial justification was that the crew had been engaged in a humanitarian mission. Even on her return, an unrepentant Brown could insist with a deluded determination that, Were journalists, were doing our jobs. Both observations must be seriously contested.

Critics saw another ploy at work, one of selfishness, self-assumption and privilege. Ruby Hamad, writing in The Age (Apr 17), summed it up best: While it seems incredible that a major news organisation could be so irresponsible as to film a serious crime taking place, that they allegedly agreed to participate in a kidnapping to be later spun as a heroic deed simultaneously shows the heights  and limits  of white, Western privilege.

The consequences of this failure have been incalculable, though Elamine, the Lebanese father, is certainly making a good fist of it, asking for a further $US500,000 in addition to what already offered. Elamine felt emboldened, making his estranged wife sign away custodial rights. He has also taken to the propaganda front himself, posting images of his daughter, Lahela, 5, and son Noah, 3, on Facebook in response to Faulkners own pictorial efforts to win sympathy.

As for Whittington, abandonment has ensued. Having portrayed himself as a dedicated saint for the cause of family, he has also found himself the refuse of a journalistic stunt gone wrong. Im shocked (Nine) treated me in a selfish way, they didnt care about me, they know I have a family to take care of.

It would seem the producers of the program cannot help themselves, taking sides in a family dispute that has been opportunistically moralised. On April 27, it surfaced that another child recovery story produced but not yet aired was in the assembly line, dealing with a mother who successfully took her child out of Turkey. Its a completely different situation, claimed a spokeswoman from the network. Theres nothing similar. As such a program shows, journalism can itself become the hideous story, inadvertently justifying the supposed monstrosities it is attempting to avert.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com














Bombay High Court Expresses Helplessness; Cant Protect The Homeless

By National Alliance of Peoples Movements

07 May, 2016

Countercurrents.org

Mumbai | 7th May, 2016: The Bombay High Court in the matter of 13 days old girl child, resident of a slum at Yari Road, in its order has expressed helplessness to provide any relief to the homeless. The Court has also cited its limitation in its jurisdiction to provide any relief to the homeless people.

A slum named Kavthekhadi at Yari road, Mumbai was demolished on 22nd March, 2016. The youngest member among those evicted was a 5 days old girl child. Evicted residents of this slum approached the Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan (GBGBA) for help. The GBGBA with the help of Advocate Mathew J Nedumpara, took this matter to the Court. Therefore, a Writ Petition was filed in the name of the 5 days old girl child through her mother. The child had become 13 days old at the time of filing of the petition.

This informal settlement was around mangrove areas and the land is owned by the revenue department of Maharashtra government. The Court has taken cognizance of this fact and passed an order saying that human habitation in such areas would be dangerous to the persons living there as well as to the environment. But at the same time the Court has acknowledged the plight of the now homeless petitioner and other homeless persons like her. The Court, while expressing its helplessness to provide any relief to the petitioner said that to extend to such persons any benefit or any assistance, there has to be a legislation or law in the field. Court added that It is one thing to be sympathetic and consider such pleas, as are raised by Mr. Nedumpara, on a humanitarian basis. It is quite another to grant any relief based on them and on the touchstone of law. Eventually, we render justice in accordance with law and there are, therefore, restraints and limits on our jurisdiction also.

In conclusion, the Court has asked the State to take into consideration the plight of the homeless and provide them night shelter and other welfare schemes.

At present there are only 7 night shelters in the whole of the city of Mumbai which came into existence long back and not with enough capacity. As per the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) run by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, there must be one night shelter per one lakh population. As per this, at least 125 night shelters are required in Mumbai in accordance with 2011 census. The existing DP reserves only 48 night shelters in the city which too are not built.

As far as the central housing scheme the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is concerned; it comes under Housing For All by 2022, but no progress is found in implement of this scheme till date.

So, the poorest section of the city's population is again facing the vulnerability in terms of security of shelter, leaving aside the provision of the basic amenities to the poor in the city living in informal settlements/slums.

These settlements have no water facility giving way to mafias to regulate water supply. The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) is not complying with the order of the Bombay High Court which directed the Corporation to provide water to all the colonies whether authorized or unauthorized. Similarly, there is either no provision or least provision of toilets in these settlements. The MCGM is not respecting the guidelines set under the Swachha Bharat Abhiyan and is behaving exclusionary in providing the services under the Abhiyan. Recently, citizens were deemed to be punished if found to be defecating in open through the ward offices of MCGM, in order to discourage them to stop this practice. There is however neither concern nor any practical planning to construct maximum number of toilet blocks to discourage defecation in the open.

As far as education is concerned, MCGM laggs behind in providing school services in accordance with the Right To Education Act, 2010. This is forcing poor families to send their children to private schools, whose fees consumes considerable amount of their income.

The Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan, handed over a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra during the massive rally by the urban poor of the city on 5th April, 2016. In the memorandum it warned the state government of an intense struggle if the state government does not stop evicting the poor which deprive them of their Right to Shelter which a part and parcel of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution. GBGBA will soon take the agitation to its next phase if the plight of the poor continues to be ignored.

Medha Patkar

Neha Jaimati

Uday Mohite

Anwari Shaikh

Contacts:

Shyam Sonar

Bilal Khan

9423965153/9958660556








When Experts Bat For Indias Productive Engagement In Myanmar

By Nava Thakuria

07 May, 2016

Countercurrents.org

As Myanmar (formerly Burma) is opening up to the world, various Indian

experts come forward advocating for New Delhis pro-active initiatives

in this fast changing neighborhood. Recently concluded a discourse at

Guwahati also witnessed the participants in large numbers supported

New Delhis involvement in the process of sustainable

development in the southeast Asian nation. Organized by Guwahati

Press Club on 21 April, the session was energized by a Yangon

(formerly Rangoon) based Assamese journalist and political analyst

Bidhayak Das.

Hails from the alienated region, journalist Das emphasized the

immediate role New Delhi needs to play to shape up Indo-Burma

policies with regards to present day needs. Advocating for better ties

with Myanmar, Das asserted that the country had changed its

face rapidly after the 2015 November general election, where Nobel

laureate Aung San Suu Kyi led National League for Democracy (NLD) won

a landslide victory.

The soft spoken analyst observed that Myanmar had been adopting a

quasi-democracy that would directly or indirectly bring enormous

benefits to the people of northeast India. The situation in Myanmar,

which was ruled by the military generals for decades, has been

improved rapidly in recent past.

Commenting over Suu Kyi, Das claimed that the daughter of Burmese

independence struggle hero General Aung San is still respected by all

communities of Myanmar. He argued that she could really do wonders in

reforming her country for a full-fledged democracy after decades of

dictators rule.

The NLD earlier won a massive victory in 1990 general elections, which

were largely free & fair, but the brutal & isolationist military

regime did not recognize the voters mandate and refused to hand over

power to the elected representatives. The head of the regime Senior

General Than Shwe, who grew enmity towards Suu Kyi, even ordered

brutal crack downs over the NLD activists. Subsequently Suu Kyi was

put under house arrest as a political prisoner.

After 15 years of house arrest, the lady was released, but her party

was not allowed to participate in the last polls for lower house of

Myanmar Parliament that took place in 2010. The military backed Union

Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) swept the polls. The

immediate past President Thein Sein came to the scene in place of Than

Shwe and the reform process started gaining momentum. The media was

also moderately freed from the clutches of censorship.

Journalist Das was however apprehensive about Nobel laureate Suu Kyis

roles in the Htin Kyaw led Myanmar government at NayPieTaw, as she

might face an uphill task to deal with the Burmese armed forces

(popularly known as Tatmadaw). Moreover, the 2008 Burma Constitution,

which prevented her to become the President of the country, cannot be

changed without the support of more than 75 percent lawmakers.

At the same time, it is noticeable that the Burmese armed forces have

25 percent Parliamentarians reserved in both the houses of Myanmar

Parliament. Myanmars lower house of Parliament (locally known as

House of Representatives or Pyithu Hluttaw) has 440 seats, where 110

Army candidates got appointed by the commander-in-chief of Tatmadaw.

Similarly, the upper house of Parliament (known as House of

Nationalities or Amyotha Hluttaw) has 224 seats, where 56 military

personnel were nominated by the Tatmadaw chief.

With more to it, the ministries of defence, home affairs and border

affairs are kept under the control of the military. Hence, the Yangon

based analyst argued that the Myanmars new foreign minister Suu Kyi,

for the time being, might embrace the Tatmadaw as a partner in the

process of democratization of her country.

Speaking about the opportunity of northeast Indias virtual capital

Guwahati as a health, education and tourism hub, the journalist turned

expert on political affairs commented that the political will and

supports from the locals would be essential to materialize the dream.

He also insisted that the Myanmar government should open a diplomatic

office in Guwahati and a direct flight from the city to either

Mandalay or Yangon be operated for the benefit of the commuters.

He however did not to forget to mention about various challenges in

chasing the dream as a number of militant outfits from northeast India

were still taking shelter in the jungles of northern Myanmar. The

rebel outfits are also reportedly enjoying Chinas inherent

supports. As Beijing remains influential to the Myanmar government

till now, the northeastern militants may continue enjoying the

privileges there for some more years.

However, Das believes that it would be too difficult for the militant

outfits including Paresh Barua run United Liberation Front of Assam (Independent) to

achieve much from their hideouts in Myanmar, even though the militants

from the region recently formed an umbrella of insurgent outfits named

United National Liberation Front of Western South East Asia.

Nava Thakuria is a senior journalist from Assam








JASON CLARK/COURIER & PRESS photos Natalie Jost sits with her daughter Emma as Olivia (left) and Audrey enjoy their hot chocolate from Lucid coffee bar while visiting the Farm to Truck Market in Newburgh on Wednesday.

SHARE Jost, of Evansville, orders some hot chocolate for her daughters from Ben Madson, part owner of Lucid coffee bar. Jost has some fun with her daughter Audrey, 13. JASON CLARK / COURIER & PRESS Natalie Jost holds onto Emma's hand while Olivia waits to pay as they pick up hot chocolate.

By Kelly Gifford, kelly.gifford@courierpress.com / @kelgiffo

The phone rang several times before anyone answered. Natalie Jost's fluttering heart nearly stopped when the woman on the other line spoke.

"Hello?" the unfamiliar voice said.

"Hi," Jost replied. "Is this Gloria?"

"Yes," the woman responded.

Jost apologized, told the woman she'd called the wrong number and promptly hung up the phone. Jost, at the time an undergrad at Sonoma State in California, had just spoken to her birth mother for the first time since she was four. Despite having the courage to dial her number, she still wasn't quite ready to know the woman who'd given her up.

When Jost was four, she stood in a courtroom and told a judge she wanted to be adopted by her parents. She remembers feeling like there was nothing more in the world she could want and never felt much pull to try to find her birthparents.

"I know the moment she picked up (the phone) that it just wasn't the right time," Jost said. "I told myself there would be a sign that it was time for me to find her."

That sign would eventually come for sparking a series of coincidences that lead her to not only learn more about her birth family but also appreciate her adopted one as well. Jost's quest to find her "other mother" broadened her understanding of motherhood into what it is today.

The Sign

Some time after the failed phone call, Jost dreamed of a woman she could have sworn was her mother.

She awoke befuddled, wondering how she could so clearly know the woman in her dream was her mother without having any memory of her.

Jost  21 at the time  was back living with her parents in San Diego. They had a family trip to Lake Tahoe in a few days. She couldn't shake the thought of the woman and decided this was the sign for her to look for her birth mother once more. She decided that after the trip she would head out to find Gloria and meet her in person.

Jost had enough information from snooping as a child and her last attempt at contacting her to find her. She'd found her parents papers on her birth mom learning that her name was Gloria. The woman had held several last names including Tetreau, Cameron and Forrest and still lived in Willows, California, where Jost was born.

Not long after arriving at Lake Tahoe, Jost and her mother got into an argument. To work off the frustration, Jost hopped into the car and drove off, wanting to be anywhere but near her mother. About an hour into her drive, she saw she was approaching Sacramento, which she'd remembered was not far from where her birth mother resided in Willows.

She prayed for a sign to tell her if she should follow her path to find Gloria  a clear, obvious, smack-across-the-face kind of sign.

"I swear, just seconds later, I looked up and saw a billboard that read, 'Cameron Estates' and it was half covered with a picture of a willow tree ... with a forest in the background," she said. "CAMERON. WILLOWS. FORREST. What? No way. Whatever, I'm 21, a little crazy, let's keep going."

Jost reached Willows and began knocking on doors, asking for a Gloria and telling those who answered about her journey. Without much luck, Jost pulled into a park to regroup and see if this attempt was worth continuing. She turned to God again, who very clearly told her to stay where she was. So she did.

She looked up from where she sat and couldn't believe what she saw. Across the street was a tiny house with a sign above the front porch that read "Forrest"  just like the spelling of one of her birth mother's last names.

"You've got to be kidding me," she told herself. And she walked toward the house unaware of how the following minutes would change her world.

A Victim of Fate

Not many details registered for Jost in the minutes after the older woman answered her front door.

Jost knocked and, unknown to her at the time, her grandmother answered. Jost asked the woman if she had known a Gloria. The woman asked who Jost was, and she said her name,"Natalie."

The woman gave her a knowing look and told Jost Gloria was her daughter and that the woman had died just two weeks earlier. Her grandmother invited Jost in, fed her and pulled out several photo albums and began telling her stories about her mother and the rest of her family.

Jost met two brothers, a sister, an aunt and the foster mother she had before she was adopted. She learned that her mother had a brain tumor for a long time which eventually killed her. Gloria asked for her before she died and left her a hope chest full of crocheted blankets and other trinkets her mother wanted to give her if she found her way back to Willows. She stayed the night at her grandmother's house before departing the next morning.

Jost's mind was swimming with all the new information about her other family on her drive back to Lake Tahoe. She grieved the mother she'd never known and wondered why she couldn't have had the courage to find her earlier so they could have had a relationship.

That grief turned into guilt as Jost realized she'd been gone for 36 hours and hadn't once contacted her mother or family since leaving the lake full of anger. She'd already lost one mother that weekend, Jost didn't want to lose her real mother over a stupid and selfish decision to leave.

When she arrived at the campsite, her mother greeted her with love. Jost told her what had happened and told her mother all about Gloria and the family she'd met. Jost showed her the album's her grandmother let her take.

In that moment Jost's adopted mom, her real mom, was the only one she'd ever need.

Motherhood

Jost lives in Evansville, now with her husband and three daughters. She and her husband moved here after falling in love with the community after a visit.

Jost home-schools her girls  a 13-year-old and twin eight-year-olds. Although they are very different, Jost said she sees a lot of similarities between herself and them  an experience she has found strange and welcoming having been adopted. She sees her wild rebellion, creativity and tendency to think and talk a lot even when they probably shouldn't.

Being adopted, her experience meeting her birth family and now having children of her own has only solidified Jost's perspective of motherhood.

"There is a lot more to motherhood than blood," she said. "The love and relationship that comes with motherhood is so important. I'd love my children even if they didn't come out of my womb because of the relationship we've created."

She's been constantly reminded of that fact since becoming a mother. After giving birth to her oldest, Jost's mother came to take care of the house while she recuperated.

While she was visiting, Jost has received a package from the California Department of Social Services full of cards and letters from Gloria. She'd written Jost every birthday and checked in with her several times over the years.

While Jost reclined in her chair reading through the papers while her newborn napped, her mother vacuumed and cleaned the house.

"I smiled, knowing the gift God gave me was not this woman I would never know but the one I'll never lose, no matter how terrible I've been," she said. "While my newborn baby slept in the other room, I put the packet away and hugged my mom."

Jost told a version of this story during Evansville's Listen To Your Mother on May 7. For more information about the show visit listentoyourmothershow.com/evansville.
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The headline for an opinion piece in the April 29 edition of The Wall Street Journal caught my attention: "Praying by doing "

In his subsequent essay, author David Kirby, who teaches English at Florida State University, invokes Ralph Waldo Emerson in his opening paragraphs:

"What is prayer?" Kirby asks and answers. "In its simplest form, prayer is an address to a deity. But in 'Self Reliance,' Emerson says, 'all prayer is in action.'"

Kirby's essay moves off in a new direction after that, something along the lines of discerning and pursuing one's true life's work (a blessing for those who achieve it.) But that headline and his Emerson-invoking preamble have stuck with me.

All prayer is in action.

I have spent the days since reading that essay pondering the nuances of doing prayer rather than saying prayer.

Not that there is anything wrong with the latter  it is an action, after all, and one I indulge in daily, albeit in forms of my own design. But to my mind, doing prayer, walking one's path through life with mindfulness and intention of acting to make the world a better, a more hospitable place, this is a Holy thing. It honors creation.

This call to action can be found in the essence of the Torah, Holy Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita and, honestly, among the secular humanists I know.

I have come to refer to it as a "boots-on-the-ground" faith imperative.

Doing prayer is helping build houses for Habitat. It is in food and clothing donated to food pantries and clothing banks. Digging wells in foreign lands so indigenous people can have clean drinking water. And helping those communities become healthy and self-sufficient.

It is in every soup kitchen meal ladled out to a hungry supplicant. In every blanket on every cot apportioned to a homeless person.

I see it in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.

And in the ongoing interfaith efforts of community organizations such as Congregations Acting for Justice and Equality and University of Evansville's ongoing Interfaith Initiatives.

But it is also manifested in the motorist who stops traffic to help a flock of baby geese safely cross a road. Or the homemaker who scoops up a spider discovered in the pantry and releases it, unharmed, outside.

It is in people who stop to pick up and properly dispose of litter. Even when no one is watching.

Reduce, reuse and recycle. This too, is doing prayer. And those faithful to that mantra, even though they claim no religion at all, are foot soldiers, every one.

It is that which is unseen  the quiet, private actions and intentions of those vested in "repairing the world" on a day-to-day basis  which Jews in particular are called to do  that make this a better place by our simply having passed through it.

Harking back to the headline and essay from the WSJ, author David Kirby offers this:

"All prayer is action  (and) all prayers are answered  every life is transformed, even if (we) don't know when or how.

"All you have to do is keep on praying."

Sara Anne Corrigan is a freelance writer for the Courier & Press.
Salesforce employees waved to the crowd during the Cadillac Barbie IN Pride Parade in Downtown Indianapolis in June 2015.

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CEO Scott McCorkle emphasized 'human rights' while standing next to Gov. Mike Pence.

By James Briggs, IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK

Few announcements this exciting have been filled with so much tension.

Salesforce.com Inc. on Friday revealed plans to invest $40 million in Indianapolis, move into the city's tallest building and add 800 new high-paying technology jobs. The cloud computing company is renaming the 48-story Chase Tower for itself.

The massive expansion comes barely a year after Salesforce threatened to disinvest in Indiana because of a law that company executives said would subject customers and employees to discrimination. Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO Scott McCorkle kept the pressure on state officials during prepared remarks that made it clear his company's expansion is not an endorsement of Indiana's policies on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

Flanked by Gov. Mike Pence on his right, McCorkle said Salesforce wouldn't be expanding in Indiana if the 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act hadn't been softened. The General Assembly and Pence last year amended the law to prevent it from overriding local ordinances, such as the one in Indianapolis, that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

"This investment is also possible because of the RFRA fix a year ago and because of the longstanding human rights ordinance in Indianapolis," McCorkle said as Pence looked on. "As a company, we are committed to protecting our employees and customers from discrimination, because equality is a core value at Salesforce."

Afterward, McCorkle called for Indiana to go further than the so-called RFRA fix.

"We are committed to completely eliminating even the perception of discrimination," McCorkle told reporters. "The best way to do that is a statewide nondiscrimination provision in our civil rights code, and we are committed to seeing that through."

When asked whether he wanted to make a point to Pence during the news conference, McCorkle said, "We lead at Salesforce. And we intend to keep leading and making sure all officials understand where we stand."

Salesforce's stance couldn't be much clearer. It has been among the most vocal corporate proponents for LGBT rights in Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina and elsewhere. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who has led the public charge on social issues, tweeted Friday that Chase Tower in Indianapolis should actually be known as Equality Tower.

"A tribute to equality for all," he called Chase Tower, where Salesforce will lease about 250,000 square feet.

Pence, though, said his position won't change. The governor referred to his January State of the State address in which he prioritized religious freedom and said he would not support any bill that "interferes with the constitutional rights of our citizens to live out their beliefs in worship, service or work."

"The position that I described in my State of the State address is my position," Pence said Friday. "And if that matter were ever to come before the Indiana General Assembly, were I governor, I would evaluate it in precisely the way I described in the State of the State."

The focus, Pence said, should be on Salesforce's success.

"Today isnt about the past. Its really about the future," Pence said. "Its about the fact that Indiana today, and our capital city today, has attracted the investment of a global company thats going to create 800 high-wage jobs in the Hoosier state."

But Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett followed McCorkle's lead during his prepared remarks, calling for statewide LGBT protections similar to Indianapolis' ordinance. Afterward, Hogsett said he was "not necessarily" directing his comments toward Pence.

"I think the Indiana General Assembly, frankly, sooner or later  I hope sooner  would see clear to extending protections like the human rights ordinance in Indianapolis throughout the state for all the citizens of our state," Hogsett said. "I think that would be an important step forward to send an even greater message that Indy  not only Indy, but Indiana  welcomes all."

Salesforce's expansion raises questions about why it is investing in Indiana even though the state lacks the protections executives say are paramount to its principles. The simplest answer might be the most practical one.

"We have to run our business," McCorkle said.

Salesforce in June 2013 reached a deal to acquire ExactTarget for $2.5 billion, giving it a large presence in Indianapolis. Although Salesforce didn't have to expand in Indianapolis, few cities could have accommodated such growth with so little investment.

Mike Semler, a senior executive director for real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, estimated Salesforce is paying in the mid-$20 range per square foot for its Chase Tower lease. A similar deal on the East or West coasts would cost between $70 and $100 per square foot, he said.

"It's a huge savings for Salesforce to expand here versus San Francisco or anywhere else," Semler said.

In addition to business reasons, though, McCorkle said he thinks Salesforce can eventually influence Indiana's LGBT policies.

"The RFRA fix was a fix, and our presence here as active investing members of this community gives us a great platform to continue this fight to ensure there's no discrimination of our employees or anyone of the entire state," McCorkle said.

Steve Sanders, a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in Bloomington who specializes in legal issues relating to sexuality, said pressing for a new law while expanding in Indianapolis might have been Salesforce's best chance to create change.

"It probably would not have been realistic for Salesforce to hold out and say, 'We're not going to expand unless there is such a law,'" Sanders said. "It probably doesn't make a company look good to say, 'We will expand if the legislature does X.' It starts to make the company look like a bully or it's trying to throw around its weight in a way that is unreasonable."

If there's a downside for Salesforce, Sanders said, it's that the company's growth provides evidence that Indiana's LGBT policies aren't hurting the economy.

"It probably insulates the governor, insulates Republicans to a certain extent," he said.

Salesforce, though, showed Friday it doesn't intend to let anyone feel comfortable with the status quo  including Pence, whom McCorkle praised as a "leader who truly understands the potential for the business community here in Indiana."

"I think we're seeing society, government officials (and) corporations really begin to understand that this fight for equality is important," McCorkle said. "I am excited about what I see ... as changing perceptions here. So we will keep our view front and center and keep the fight going."
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That's an artificial mount, essentially the four-legged equivalent of a blow-up doll. And no, that man isn't posing for the requisite "wacky" picture on his dating profile -- someone has to be inside to help "facilitate" the sperm bank deposit by ensuring it lands in the appropriate receptacle.

But, in my experience, bulls get injured with metal or wooden mounts more than with real-life cow ladies, both physically (metal is blunter than a still-living flank steak) and emotionally (cold metal can't comfort bulls through those long, sleepless nights in the barn). So we use a real, live animal. Not a cow, though -- hot bull-on-cow action spreads bovine VD and produces unwanted pregnancies, and bulls are generally pretty bad at getting condom wrappers opened before the mood dies. So we use steers -- bulls that have been neutered. If they don't see anything dangling, most bulls don't notice the difference and are happy to mount the steer. Yup, your hamburger is probably the result of some hot all-male bovine action.

Melisa Rouge

This pre-sex position is called the "tease," for reasons that should be obvious.

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Before we act out our all-ungulate re-creations of Sodom, one of us will jump in as the bull mounts the steer and sheath his penis in an artificial cow vagina. It's essentially a soft, lubed-up plastic tube. Here's another picture; you've earned it:
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NORWALK  Imagine the pending replacement of the movable train bridge straddling the river between South and East Norwalk as a massive version of the classic Operation board game.

State transportation department officials insist the 120-year-old Norwalk River Bridge, or Walk Bridge, which routinely gets stuck in the open position and is prone to storm damage, must be removed for the health of the rail system.

This carries 200 trains and 125,000 passengers a day in the Northeast Corridor, said James Fallon, the state DOTs manager of facilities and transit.

Many of those passengers are commuters from Bridgeport and southwestern Connecticut who are eager for the cranky and outdated bridge to be updated.

It benefits anybody traveling from New York to Boston. Does it benefit Norwalk? said Edward Musante Jr., head of the Greater Norwalk Chamber of Commerce. It could have a ton of negative implications. Cranes. Construction. Potential street closings.

Suddenly, clear thinking becomes paramount.

More Information Walk Bridge project in Norwalk For more information from the state Department of Transportation on the planned replacement of the Walk Bridge, go to walkbridgect.com See More Collapse

The Operation board game requires a steady hand to pluck the plastic bones and organs out of the patient with a pair of toy tweezers.

One wrong move, and the buzzer goes off.

Think of the Walk Bridge in an equally sensitive area.

On the South Norwalk side, it runs adjacent to the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk and its IMAX Theater, along with historic buildings filled with restaurants, stores, offices and apartments.

The East Bank side is a working marina with commercial and some residential properties.

Below the bridge, of course, is the environmentally sensitive and navigable river used by commercial and recreational boaters. In fact, according to the DOT, the Walk Bridge is raised an average of 90 times per month for boat traffic.

Even the sky above the bridge poses a challenge. The DOT and its contractors have to maneuver below Eversource Energys power lines.

Were basically boxed in on every corner, Fallon said.

On top of it all, the trains will have to keep running during construction.

The tentative start date of the project is mid-2018, with construction expected to last four to five years.

Its fair to say this is one of the most complex, unique, challenging projects that weve encountered, Fallon said. Theres a lot of different pieces we need to take into account and thats what were doing  how to balance all of those stakeholders, the constraints, the objectives.

Designs are just 30 percent complete. So for now, the city awaits more details with resignation.

Bridge noise

Norwalk is in the middle of a construction boom, with several housing and mixed-use developments stalled by the Great Recession finally breaking ground.

Just blocks from the maritime aquarium, a high-end shopping mall is planned for vacant land off of Interstate 95.

And in the middle of the mix comes the rebuilding of the bridge, said City Council President Bruce Kimmel. Its nice the citys alive and so much is happening. But we want to make sure things dont spiral out of control over the next few years and you cant get from A to B.

And then there is the noise. The din of the bridge work is an obvious worry given all of the new apartments built in South Norwalk over the past few years.

We just have to make the best of a project that will ultimately happen, said Clayton Fowler, founder of Spinnaker Real Estate Partners.

Spinnaker has played a key role in rebuilding and rebranding historic South Norwalk into SoNo, a trendy neighborhood to live, work and play, particularly with the aquarium, the IMAX Theater, restaurants, bars and boutiques.

Were excited to see it done, Fowler said of the Walk Bridge work. But not excited about having it done.

Precious Stone is the manager of Saraswatis Yoga Joint along Water Street in one of Spinnakers buildings, just yards from the Walk Bridge.

We cant do meditation classes with construction going on, Stone said, noting she has asked workers at a building next door to be more mindful of her business.

And there are non-human tenants to worry about.

Chris Loynd, the aquariums marketing director, said the attraction has been consulting with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in Maryland about decibel levels for animals, what they tolerate.

The reptiles are a little more sensitive, the fish a little less, Loynd said. Were getting all that data together so when the DOT comes to us we can say, Heres what we know. You tell us what youre doing out there. 

But Loynd was hesitant to speculate further about what the bridge replacement means for the aquarium and the 500,000 visitors who travel their annually.

Before anybody gets too excited, Id like to be at more than 30 percent of anything, Loynd said. The DOTs been very good about keeping in touch with us (but) the answers are not really there, yet.

Fowler was equally cautious.

Rumors are highly damaging, he said.

One such rumor has been that the bridge project might actually lead to demolishing the IMAX Theater.

Right now, thats not on the table, Fallon said.

Eminent domain

Fallon said some of the aquarium property may be needed for project personnel and equipment. But, he added, most of that staging is being planned for the East bank, where the DOT has its sights set on using about 17 private properties through full or partial acquisitions and construction easements.

The controversial use of eminent domain is a possibility, but the DOT hopes negotiations will prevail.

Thats the last resort, Fallon said of eminent domain. Were nowhere near that.

In 2012, A.J. Penna & Son Excavating and Contractors of Westport expanded some of its operations to East Norwalk by the river.

We purchased it. It was a junkyard, let go for years, Vincent Penna said. We cleaned it up and had a ribbon-cutting with the mayor, councilmen. Everybody in the area was happy we moved in.

We thought we were there for life, Penna added.

Then he learned of the Walk Bridge plans and the DOTs need for his land to make that happen. Penna said the past year has been consumed with worrying about the future and looking for somewhere to move.

Its been a year of hell, Penna said. Its exhausted us.  Ive assured my men were going to operate somehow, somewhere.

Penna voiced a common opinion among critics of the project: I dont think its necessary.

Tony DAndreas Select Plastics, LLC, is also needed for the bridge project.

We are happy to be part of a solution that will protect commuters and make it a safer way to move people around, DAndrea said. All were asking for is a fair shake on a place to go and our soverign businesss remain whole and intact after the move.

Were a marine-dependent business, DAndrea said. We fix boat parts. Our proximity to the water is very important to the success and future growth of our business.

Public is invited

State Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, has worked closely with  and often been critical of  the DOT during his time in the state Legislature.

Ive been in regular communication with the commissioner (James Redeker). I know that he is working really hard to find various scenarios to keep the disruption to a minimum, Duff said.

A public meeting with the DOT and Norwalk officials on the Walk Bridge project is scheduled for May 11.

There will be two sessions: one from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and another from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Community Room at City Hall on 125 East Ave.

There have been calls by some for the DOT to simplify things and seal the Walk Bridge shut.

The commissioner has ruled that out. That is a moot point, Duff said. We have to continue to move on.
Flexible work hours arent a productivity-killing perk that startup employers have to stomach to attract the best talent. On the contrary, research has shown that employees in flexible-office environments are healthier, happier and more productive than their more constricted counterparts.

Related: How to Create a Formalized Flexible Work Program for Your Company

This is why businesses worldwide -- from the smallest startups to corporations as large as Samsung -- are beginning to reap the benefits of flexible work hours. A reflection of this is Fortune's list of the 50 Best Workplaces for Flexibility:

Fortune recently named my company, Acceleration Partners, to the list. That event offered a good reason to write about what makes a flexible workplace great for employee and employer alike, and how leaders can maintain accountability in these environments.

The challenges of flexibility

Entrepreneurs and their employees typically face two major hurdles in achieving flexible environments: offering real flexibility even as they maintain simultaneous accountability.

"Real" flexibility does not mean an occasional perk thrown in the direction of a traditional 9-to-5-office job. Instead, employees are increasingly seeking holistic, flexible environments. And employers should take note: While 67 percent of employers surveyed in one study said they believed their staffs enjoyed proper work-life balance, only 55 percent of their employees concurred.

In short, that discrepancy indicates that some employers are not offering the truly flexible environment their employees seek.

The other hurdle -- accountability -- makes many employers hesitant to adopt flexible practices. They worry that letting employees choose their own hours, take unlimited time off or work remotely may create a rogue or disengaged workforce. But, in reality, as long as leaders create accountability, flexible environments actually benefit companies even more than employees.

Stretching for accountability

Since our companys inception, we have worked hard to change the work-life paradigm for our team members by aligning flexibility and accountability within a single model.

Our performance-oriented work culture lets employees spend their time with loved ones and on personal pursuits while still engaging in meaningful work. Whether that means they work from home, share a workspace or deviate from the traditional 9-to-5 schedule, we measure their value by performance, not desk hours. To accomplish this, everyone needs to be clear about the goals and whats expected of them -- at the same time that they're accountable to those outcomes and values.

To make Fortunes 50 Best Places for Workplace Flexibility list, companies have to offer benefits such as remote work, flexible schedules, shorter work weeks and job-sharing, all while successfully growing and expanding. Weve succeeded on both the individual and company-wide levels by following the followinge rules to maintain accountability without losing flexibility:

Related: You Dont Have to be Present to Win Could Apply to Your Company, Too

1. 'Strength-train' your company culture. A strong company culture keeps teams moving in the same direction despite the absence of rigid structure. But this has to be carefully thought out: A company without a defined culture and identity opens itself up to the risk of seeing culture cliques develop. And that inevitably leaves people out of important discussions and creates resentment and frustration among team members.

To establish and maintain our own culture, we originally defined our values and mission thoroughly, seeking input from our best performers. We then communicated these values, and now reward them, on a regular basis. To do that, we created a culture deck giving everyone in the company (remote or otherwise) access to a constant reminder of who we are and how our processes and practices align with our core values.

2. Be fanatical about feedback. While you might be convinced that your cultural initiatives are working, how will you know if you never ask your employees? Our own response includes sending weekly surveys to gauge our team members feedback on their work lives. We also conduct quarterly check-ins that measure employees on our core values, their top five responsibilities and their quarterly objectives. Our goal is to eliminate any surprises or ambiguity.

One company we know of, Ratio, recently asked its employees whether they understood their goals and the trajectory of their career paths. To its surprise, only 20 percent of respondents said yes. So the company went to work to rectify the problem: After using the information it gathered to revamp its approach to feedback, Ratio saw its "understand goals" number skyrocket to 80 percent within only six months.

3. Focus on guidelines to avoid chaos and foster productivity. Rather than act as a form of "red tape," policies and guidelines can help ensure that everyone is afforded the same benefits and is held to the same standards. We've created easily replicable processes so performance doesnt suffer or differ, from one remote worker to the next; this ensures that employees know the "AP way."

4. Make the most of video. Perhaps the biggest challenge for a remote workforce is maintaining clear communication. We have a weekly video call to keep everyone updated on both professional and personal matters. Further, we encourage regular video communication to ensure that connections between colleagues stay strong.

Being able to see the visual cues lacking in a phone conversation helps us avoid misunderstandings in both our tone and messaging. Some teams even set up virtual water cooler chats, where people set aside time on the calendar to chat about their weekends, recent books read, upcoming vacations and other personal matters.

So, overall, when it comes to flexible work arrangements, dont believe the detractors. Done right, flexible work environments greatly benefit both the employee and the employer.

Related: Workers Without Borders: Managing the Remote Revolution

Follow these rules to assure that increased flexibility for your own employees sets a foundation of increased productivity for your company.

Related:

4 Rules to Provide Flexibility Without Losing Accountability

Always In Harmony With Entrepreneurship And Fitness

British Company Offers Paid Leave During Menstrual Cycles to 'Increase Productivity'



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
Heres your General Assembly in its waning hours, when details of legislation get conveniently obfuscated and where opponents can kill bills with a couple of whispered words in the right ears.

Its when lawmakers nerves are frayed and their minds ground down to a fine paste by a lack of sleep. Its when the cagey veterans can change bills on the fly from their lists of potential amendments.

Its organized chaos, those last couple days before the midnight witching hour sends the hands of the clock vertical and transforms the Audis in the parking lot back into pumpkins.

Republicans, with 87-64 and 21-15 minorities in the House and Senate, respectively, are never more powerful than the final 48 hours of a legislative session, when they can eat up hours debating, say, whether splash pads should be exempt from the rules that require swimming pools to have fences around them.

One of the vanity projects that debuted on the last day of the session was a lighthearted five-minute video homage to lawmakers who are not seeking re-election. The video includes, among others, clips of Rep. Dan Carter, R-Bethel (who is seeking the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate), Rep. John Shaban (R-Redding, who wants to challenge U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-4) and Rep. Janice Giegler, R-Danbury, looking at the camera and saying goodbye.

Maybe the most-telling and certainly the wittiest see-yah, was offered by veteran Rep. Bill Aman, R-South Windsor. Its been a very quick 12 years, he said. I picked up the very useless skill of being able to talk forever on absolutely nothing.

Thats a self-effacing  and only sometimes true  assessment, which thoroughly downplayed the importance of the minority in the Legislature, whose prolonged question-and-answer sessions often save the state from bad laws. Other times, like during the splash-pad debate, the Republicans are simply eating up the clock until Democrats relent and call a bill that the GOP wants.

The end game of the annual General Assembly session is a good time to reaffirm that the House and Senate are run by suburban and rural interests. Take the so-called affordable housing land use appeals procedure that passed the House 110-35, with all Republicans voting for it and nearly every urban lawmaker voting against it.

It could have essentially given suburbs like Milford a four-year moratorium on affordable housing requirements. This got tangled up with Gov. Dannel P. Malloys follow-up to last years Second Chance Society legislation; a major education bill; and the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, by Sen. Gayle Slossberg, D-Milford, co-chairman of the Education Committee, who got caught overplaying some hands.

I dont know how Im going to vote, Slossberg said Tuesday night when asked if she was one of the Senate Democrats balking on Malloys Second Chance proposal to raise the age when juveniles are considered adults in the courts; and allow more non-violent defendants to get breaks on bail bonds.

Slossberg was darting into a meeting room for a Senate dinner with staff, while next door, in Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looneys office, Malloy was in the middle of final two-hour negotiation of budget adjustments with Democratic leaders.

All three of these bills, two Slossberg wanted and one she apparently didnt, went down in flames after the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus mentioned to leaders that they might literally stop the flow of business and leave hundreds of bills dead on the House and Senate calendars.

My background is in housing and I think families should be able to move to suburban areas, said fourth-term Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, a deputy speaker of the House who has a commanding presence when she fills in for Speaker Brendan Sharkey on the podium. To just take poor people or middle class people and let them concentrate in urban areas is not fair and its not right, she said as the late-session drama was unfolding elsewhere in the Capitol. In Stamford were having an issue because there is no housing that families can afford and so they were going to Norwalk, then Bridgeport and now theyre going to Waterbury, so whats next?

Fifth-term Rep. Bruce Morris, who leads the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said the group of primarily urban lawmakers was left out of the process in drafting Senate Bill 380, the purpose of which was to exclude student performance data on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, from teacher performance evaluations.

Democratic leaders of the House and Senate finally admitted Wednesday night that they couldnt vote on a new budget in time to make the midnight deadline, taking loads of pressure off the legislative process.

As the final minutes wound down, Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, was reading off bills like an old-fashioned tobacco auctioneer, getting two dozen at a time  mostly House bills headed for concurrence  onto consent calendars, without discussion.

Ken Dixons Capitol View appears Sundays in the Hearst Connecticut Newspapers. You may reach him in the Capitol at 860-549-4670 or at kdixon@ctpost.com. Find him at twitter.com/KenDixonCT. His Facebook address is kendixonct.hearst. Dixons Connecticut Blog-o-rama is at blog.ctnews.com/dixon/
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Gov. Ron DeSantis and Democrat Charlie Crist are expected to tussle over the economy, abortion and culture war issues.
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Shes the only female in the new line-up, but then German speed queen Sabine Schmitz is used to taking on the boys  after all, shes the first woman to win a 24-hour endurance race AND drives so fast she made Chris Evans sick

Sabine Schmitz is the woman who makes Chris Evans sick, by driving so fast in the trailer for the new series of Top Gear.

Slow down Sabine, please! he pleads, as the German racing driver speeds them around the Laguna Seca circuit in California in an Audi R8.

Then she orders him out of the car  to throw up on the tarmac. So what really happened? Schmitz grins.

We did a lap in the car. I wasnt really quick because I have never been on that race track before, so I had to take a look first. I was driving and I asked him something, he didnt answer.

'After a while I asked him again and said, Shouldnt we talk? He said, Cant! I thought it was a joke, I didnt take it seriously.

'Then he said, No its the other end! She makes a noise like breaking wind. OK we stop! Thank you, heres the door, leave! Why does she think he got sick? She grins again. Maybe he wasnt used to the proper driving style.

Thats something Schmitz knows all about, having been raised at a hotel next to the Nurburgring in Germany. Her mother still runs it with Sabine, her brother and sisters.

Now 46, Schmitz reckons she has been around the track more than 30,000 times  and shes won many races there.

Schmitz was the first woman in history to win a 24-hour endurance race  and she did it twice in succession at the Nurburgring in 1996 and 1997. In Germany shes known as the Queen of the Ring.

She owns a farm with her boyfriend and sometime co-driver Klaus Abbele and runs a company that takes paying customers around her favourite circuit at speed in her BMW Ring Taxi.

Jeremy Clarkson became her pupil for Top Gear in 2004, recording a time of just under 10 minutes for the 13-mile circuit in a Jaguar S-Type. Schmitz dismissed his efforts, saying, I could do that time in a van.

And she very nearly did, getting round just nine seconds slower in a diesel Ford Transit.

She says her role on returning to Top Gear will be varied.

Sometimes we work with four presenters, when we are testing a car or doing a funny story. Sometimes we are two.

'The only guy who has a specific role is the Stig. Dont talk, just go. I like his job!

How does she feel about being Top Gears only woman?

Im used to being the only woman in motor racing. I enjoy it, that gives me an advantage.

So, who is faster, Sabine or the Stig? We dont know yet, well have to see...

Sometimes we work with four presenters, when we are testing a car or doing a funny story. Sometimes we are two. The only guy who has a specific role is the Stig. Dont talk, just go. I like his job! said Sabine

Q&A

By Cole Moreton

Describe the new Top Gear in five words

We love cars and entertainment.

Who is the best and worst driver on TG?

We have the Stig, who is the fastest man in the world  I guess. If he is a man. He looks like a man.

The worst?

We still have to find out because we havent raced against each other.

Whats the coolest stunt in the new show?

I had a Michelin-starred chef preparing food on the back seat of my car. Panfrying. Not only on the back seat but everywhere. The people driving in the next car looked over to say, What is going on?

Whats the best place you visited filming?

Nevada in America, the home of Top Gun. It was very impressive. Cold, blue sky and fast jets everywhere. Im a pilot, so it was very interesting.

Hairiest moment so far?

Driving in the jet stream of an F/A-18 fighter jet. There were two jet streams and I was right in the middle. The whole car was shaking. I said, Please! No more power!

Who would be your dream TG guest?

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. Hes such a funny guy, and hes on fire when hes in his little house next to the field [the dugout], jumping around like crazy. I want to know how good he is at driving.

Tell us a secret about the new show

I cant say much but the main secret is that we rebuilt the hangar and the track.

If you could pick the theme tune, what would it be?

We have so many presenters, we should sing it [she does]: Love and marriage

Do you have a nickname on the show?

I dont know. I have a name for Eddie Jordan: Grandpa. He loves it so much he didnt talk to me for two days. Chris is The Red Snapper. They call me The Queen of the Ring in Germany, but that sounds like I am 100 years old.

What was your first car?

A VW Polo. Fifty-five horsepower. Front-wheel drive. She would have cost 1,000 euros, maybe. I put a lot of money in it with a roll cage, proper rims, good brakes, suspension. I put stickers on it, so it looked like a race car.

Whats your all-time favourite car?

I have a farm at home and sometimes I need to take my horses on a trailer, so my Ford Ranger Wildtrak pick-up truck. Very practical.

Whats the most youve ever paid for a car?

I paid 152,000 euros for my Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Its my housewifes Porsche, because against a racing car it is really a Beetle. A fast Beetle.

Best road trip in the world?

I lived in South Africa and I loved driving from Cape Town to Johannesburg. You have 30 degree heat then snow.

What country produces the best and the worst drivers?

The worst are from Africa. The big towns.

The best?

Germany, no question.

What is the craziest city in the world for driving?

Cairo. They put so much stuff on top of a pick-up truck: people, bicycles, chickens, goats, everything. Then they dont stop honking their horns. Nobodys upset because everybody does it. I loved it really.

Whats the worst crash youve been involved in?

I had a crash in South Africa where I broke my leg. Somebody ran me off the track because I was fast in the heat and the car was destroyed. But sh** happens.

Have you ever experienced road rage?

Sometimes I do this! [She makes a gesture with her finger.] My last problem was on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris where they were all beeping me.

Whats the best driving music ever?

I love the eight-cylinder engine sound. Or Highway to Hell, AC/DC. Headbanging. Then you dont fall asleep.

Do you give your car pet names?

We only ever named one car, my boyfriends Porsche 962, a group C racing car. You sit on the right and on your left you have five petrol pumps. When you switch the ignition on it makes a big noise. I said, This is not a car, this is a Flying Crematorium. So thats the nickname.

Are men or women better drivers?

I think they are more or less equal but women dont talk about it. There is no need. They just know they are good.
Robert Vadra, businessman and son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, will not be summoned before a commission set up last year by the Haryana government for a much-hyped probe into land deals, which allegedly delivered windfall gains to him and others.

Instead, the authority will get written replies to all its queries from over 100 private companies, including Sky Light Hospitality, promoted by Vadra.

While the BJP used the issue to drive a voter revolt against the Congress on its way to a landslide win in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, rivals like Arvind Kejriwals AAP are now accusing the party, in power at the Centre and Haryana, of going slow on proving the allegations and initiating an action.

Robert Vadra (above with wife Priyanka Gandhi) will not have to appear before the probe panel set by Haryana government.

The state government constituted a commission headed by retired Delhi High Court judge SN Dhingra in May last year. His tenure ends on June 7, 2016.

In an exclusive interaction with Mail Today, justice (retired) Dhingra said the companies have been sent notices seeking responses.

The commission will get replies from the private companies," he said.

The authority was set up to look into the grant of licenses for commercial and residential projects in four villages in Sector 83 of Gurugram in Haryana from 2005 to 2014, when the Congress was in power.

Later, its ambit was expanded to four villages - Sihi, Shikohpur, Sikanderpur Badha and Kherki Daula.

The party says Vadra is a private citizen engaged in business and hasnt done anything wrong.

The rivals, however, point towards the enormous surge of his wealth during the Congress years allegedly on the back of sweetheart loans handed out to him by real estate DLF Ltd.

Vadra and DLF have consistently denied the allegations.

Sources close to the development said the step to get written replies from companies has been initiated to avoid delays in the probe, as some of the accused were using stalling strategies.

Former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda failed to appear before the Dhingra commission twice in March.

Hooda was given two dates, March 21 and 25, to record his statement.

He could not appear personally and had sent his representatives as his team of lawyers initiated the proceedings.

The commission had also sent a notice to TC Gupta, a senior official in the Town and Country Planning Department in the Hooda government while the team had recorded his statement.

In 2008, the department had granted a commercial licence for 2.70 acres of land in Gurugrams Sector 83, to Vadras company.

Whistle blower and top bureaucrat Ashok Khemka had alleged that rules were apparently circumvented to allow the land to be used for commercial purpose.

In a report tabled in the Haryana assembly last year, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) came down heavily on the Town and Country Planning Department as well as the Hooda government for helping builders.

The Dhingra commission was to probe subsequent transfer or disposal of the lands, allegations of private enrichment, ineligibility of beneficiaries under the rules and other related issues, bringing Vadras land deal under the scanner.

Although the authority has the power to act against someone refusing to appear before it, a source pointed to possible repercussions.

With power come responsibilities too, he said.

If someone has crucial information, he should be given an opportunity to share that with the commission, said the source.

When the BJP won the Haryana election in 2014, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar vowed to probe all controversial real estate deals involving Vadra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had alleged in his Lok Sabha campaign that the Gandhis used their considerable influence to benefit Vadras business.

Other deals of Vadra in the NCR, Haryana and Rajasthan are also under a scrutiny.
A powerful invisible hand pulled the strings of the Rs 3,600- crore AgustaWestland chopper deal from the beginning to the end for nearly five years, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday amid a political storm over the scandal-tainted pact.

His statement came a day after he told Parliament that the alleged scam could have been stopped in 2012, when executives of the Anglo-Italian firm were arrested in Italy, but the Congress-led government waited a full two years - till 2014 - to cancel the contract for a dozen helicopters meant for VVIPs.

Speaking exclusively to Mail Today at his South Block office, the minister, spearheading the hunt for the corrupt, said: There appears to have been a very powerful hand that played a role in ensuring the acquisition of VVIP helicopters became a single-vendor deal. This invisible hand influenced decisions from 2005 when the proposal was finalised to 2010 when the deal was finally signed.

'There appears to have been a very powerful hand that played a role...This invisible hand influenced decisions from 2005 to 2010,' said Manohar Parrikar, Defence Minister

Parrikar insisted this could not have been the role of any single bureaucrat, middleman or officer.

Officers may have been party to irregularities and the probe agencies are investigating that. But the entire chain was influenced from top to bottom in favour of a single vendor and all laid-out rules and procedures were flouted. The aim is to find out who that powerful hand is, he said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at the Loktantra Bachao March in New Delhi

The chopper pact came under the spotlight again after an Italian court last month reportedly cited alleged middleman Christian Michel James claiming top politicians, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, helped swing the deal while crores of rupees were paid in bribes.

The Defence ministry is not only monitoring the probe, but also assisting in clearing any doubts that investigators may have over procedures and rules.

Parrikar denied that probe agencies had not been working in the past two years, since the Modi government came to power and were galvanised only after the Italian appellate court verdict in Milan.

The probe is happening. It just hasnt reached the top (of the corruption food chain). Major progress was made in the Indian leg of the investigation. Properties worth Rs 11 crore were attached and several suspects interrogated, he said.

But after the Milan court verdict proved money had been paid, probe agencies in India have stepped up their effort to find the bribe takers.

The minister also maintained that his predecessor, AK Antony, may have ordered a CBI probe, but nothing happened until the Modi government took over.

The CBI and ED have gone through 120,000 pages of Italian court orders and annexure, the translated versions are used to take the Indian leg of the inquest forward.

This is an international probe. Dont expect results in weeks. So far, the money trail has been established. Money went to Tunisia and Mauritius. Rs 25-30 crore came back to India to pay the officials. But, Rs 200-300 crore was paid overseas. There evidence is being collected, he said.

Parrikar also insisted that the Centre is not indulging in a witch hunt, as claimed by the Congress.

If I start investigating every deal then modernisation of the armed forces will suffer. The Rafale deal is still not concluded so how have they put a $10-billion figure? There was a probe into the Pilatus (trainer aircraft) deal. If there is reasonable doubt of corruption in any deal, it will be investigated, he added.

He also refused to be drawn into a verbal duel with former Union Minister Arun Shourie on the issue of his speech in Parliament having revealed nothing new.

As students, we really looked up to Arun Shourie. We were like devotees of his investigative journalism. So, I will not comment on whatever he may have felt, he said.

Parrikar also criticised violation of norms in the selection of AgustaWestland choppers with trials not being held in India.

The request for proposal clearly said trials for the helicopter should be held in India. The CAG in its report has pointed out that this was acceptable to the vendors. Yet trials were held overseas. When the helicopter was to fly the President in India, the IAF said under certain conditions it had not been tested to fly VVIPs. And they had some reservations, he pointed out.

Had the helicopter been tested in India and rules not flouted, the same doubts could have been cleared during the field evaluation test, Parrikar added.

He also said it was curious that several files were mysteriously burnt in a fire just eight days after the Modi government took over.

Fortunately, the AgustaWestland file was in an officers desk drawer and it survived, or these facts would not have emerged, he said.

Curious life of key middleman

By Atir Khan

Christian Michel, the alleged Italian middlemen, has emerged as one of the most mysterious characters in the AgustaWestland case narrative.

After his last visit to India in 2012, he has left behind a baffling trail which the investigators are only trying to crack.

There is no doubt that Michel holds the key to political links which helped clinched the deal, but he continues to remain evasive.

The investigating teams says that there is no doubt that 'Michel holds the key to political links'

Investigators say his arrest could lead them to crack the case.

The investigation records show Michel is a man of varied interests.

He was often spotted in Claridges, Imperial and Samrat Hotel hobnobbing with cremede- la-creme of Delhis social circuit.

During his stay in India, he met one Javed Yunus, a resident of Sainik Farms and former Major General SCN Jatar, both of whom were quizzed by the agencies during the investigations.

Investigators say Michel was an expert manipulator though he had multi-faceted interests.

One of the investigators says Michel used to trust his Nepali driver Narayan Bahadur with his fleet of cars whenever he was not in India.

Michels flat in posh Safdarjung Enclave and a farm house in Ansal Farm Village Satbari in Delhi were also in the drivers custody.

The property was in the name of a company, but the driver was the caretaker.

Maintenance of his property was Narayans job. He used to get money from Michel as his salary and for those working as mali and cook, said Narayans wife Shakuntala.

Michel met a person named Ramesh Kumar Nanda, who ran a travel agency called Supreme Airways, on KG Marg.

Nanda then became his confidant. Nanda, on Michels directions, started a company called M/S Media Exim.

Funds worth crores were pumped into this company through Michels Dubai-based company called M/S Global Services, FZE.

However, the name of the company they started was very deceptive.

The company had nothing to do with media. It was started with the purpose of exporting Punjabi music CDs but records show not a single CD was exported by the company.

Michel recently said he is more than willing to cooperate in the investigations provided he is not arrested by Indian agencies.

The CBI and ED, however, are not willing to take his bait and they believe he is just doing lip service and not really serious in helping in investigations in anyway.

They say he is a cunning person who is trying to make out a case with Interpol that he has become a victim of political conspiracy.

This will help him challenge his red corner notice just like it happened in Lalit Modis case.

Kejriwal fires salvo at Sonia, Modi

By Mail Today Bureau

With the BJP and the Congress locked in a raging row over the AgustaWestland chopper scam, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi accusing them of being hand-in-glove.

Kejriwal went all guns blazing against Modi, saying the PM lacked courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, who allegedly benefitted in the scam.

The two parties (BJP and Congress) have an alliance in corruption. The PM does not have courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, Kerjriwal said at a rally in Jantar Mantar.

Aam Aadmi Party national convener and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at a protest rally against the AgustaWestland scam at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi

Questioning the Congress on the issue of PMs alleged fake degree, Kejriwal also said the two parties had a setting that the BJP government will not arrest Gandhi in the chopper scam and the Congress will not raise the matter of Modis educational qualification.

The Italian Court order also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to ask Gandhi even two questions or to interrogate her, the Delhi CM said.

Targeting the PM, he said: Modi ji you have been made PM to take action not to leave the task for Italy court...Our chest would also be of 56 inch if you would have sent her to jail...when my PM says that Italys court is taking Gandhis name and not him....I want to ask Modiji why are you scared of her? Kejriwals tirade, however, prompted a bitter reaction from the BJP and the Congress.

Reacting to this Congress leader Manish Tiwari said it would only be prudent if Kejriwal first put the affairs of his own house in order as several AAP MLAs are facing very serious criminal cases.

Kejriwal needs to tell the people of Delhi that how many of their ministers were sacked in the past one year, what are the charges against them, why they had to leave their posts and how many of their MLAs are facing criminal charges, Tewari said.
Gods own country was hot and humid when I landed. But far more scorching was the fact that I was over 25 years old - and still unmarried.

Weddings are an elegant affair in Kerala, especially the part where I hail from.

Gold is measured and given in kilos. A variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian delicacies lines the tables set to accommodate over a thousand guests.

Kerala may be the most literate state in India, but, girls still find a raw deal. (Image for representation only)

Aunties in colourful silk saris compare their jewellery and measure the bride.

And I was depriving my extended family of all these simple pleasures.

So, the moment I reached home in Kerala, I discovered to my horror that my grandfather had arranged for a marriage broker.

She is not even 55, the broker asked my grandfather looking at me, who to my surprise appeared apologetic. No, I am not, I said, trying my best to stay calm.

Not even 53? he asked hopefully.

I am barely 5 ft, I retorted and asked him to take a seat.. What happened next was even more disappointing for the broker.

So, you are 25. Its too late to marry and every guy gets married by 25 in Kerala!

By the end of it all, I was fuming at the broker. But on afterthought, why blame him alone when the problem is societal?

The state has internalised this malaise, with 21-year-olds often made to stand the humiliation and feel inadequate by those quoting the length of their torso and the colour of their skin.

Ironically, this is happening in Kerala, one of the most literate states and, worse, progressive families still fall at the mercy of such brokers, who would deliberately show you down for a fat commission.

Instances of dowry abuse are still plenty in spite of fathers gifting the groom gold equivalent to the weight of his daughter.

And no one talks about this.

Teenage marriages, even after years, are on a spurt in the state.

According to data from the last Census in 2011, there were 23,183 married girls below the age of 15 years in the state.

And this resulted in as many as 10,175 child births.

Around five years ago, Kerala State Womens Commission had considered placing a proposal before the National Womens Commission that advocated raising the minimum age for marriage for women from 18 to 25 and that of men from 21 to 28 or more.

But the commission did not favour the proposal owing to socio-economic factors.

Majority of the state still follow leaders who make speeches about how women cannot be surgeons or warriors.

Such a speech created no hue and cry. When students protested against gender segregation in Farook College, Calicut, many of these leaders, including ministers, supported the administrations decision for separate chairs for girls and boys.

Keralites would proudly boast of how a Nirbhaya will never happen in the state, but the heinous Jisha murder did happen.

Figures reveal that crimes against women in Kerala are higher than the national average.

Not to speak of the sheer injustices meted out to them.

How many times have we heard of pregnant girls making it to the Board exams in Kerala and brides rushing to exam halls just after the ceremony?

In a closely knit, nosey society like Kerala, surprisingly, no neighbour raises a voice - and friends advise you to keep mum and not get into unnecessary hassle.

My aunt said there were a few people who waited till their kids turned 18 only to avoid legal issues.

As I smirked and told my sister that I was a dying commodity in the marriage market, I wished I could shout out to every girl in the neighbourhood and warn them of the trap that is on its way.

I wanted to tell them to live life like they wanted and never let anyone dictate their marriageable age.
The efforts of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJPs ideological mentor, seem to be bearing fruit as the UP assembly polls approach.

Coupled with a steady rise in the number of its local organising units, known as shakhas, in the poll-bound state, the RSS is now out to start its selection programme to pick young activists, both male and female, through an innovative programme.

Through a programme (Prakalp) called Gunatmak Sanchalan or value-addition, the RSS has sieved its activists to arrive at the best through a process of step-by-step elimination in a number of subjects like martial arts, organisational abilities, and more academic disciplines such as poetry, debating and science.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will hold a parade of its best UP activists on May 8 in Ghaziabad

While the RSS has been running the programme for some years in the state, the UP unit of the organisation will organise a march of its brightest lot on May 8, in Ghaziabad near Delhi.

The Sangh intends to identify the youth who are attracted to RSS ideology, so that they can be groomed properly. This is being done to realise the potential of our young activists. We will judge them on a number of parameters by putting them in competitive activities such as martial arts, poetry or even in such fields as singing the Sangh prayer, Kshetra prant prachar pramukh Kripashankar told Mail Today.

The RSS functionary also revealed that the number of shakhas have been on a consistent rise in the past three years in the state.

Benefiting BJP

The RSS has always maintained that it does not contest elections - it calls itself a cultural rather than political organisation.

It provides its political arm, the BJP with the necessary manpower and grassroots mobilisation.

Put in this context the swelling ranks of the right-wing body might serve as a shot in the arm for the BJP.

The Kshetra prant prachar pramukh told Mail Today that since 2013-14, the number of shakhas in UP had gone up from 44,996 to 56,859 in the current year so far.

Between 2013-14 and 2014-15, the number of shakhas in the state went up from 44,996 to 51,332, a rise of almost 15 per cent.

Comparing the numbers in 2016 against those from the last year, the rise has already been around 10 per cent. Another feature is that the lions share is accounted by the youth.

While the Sangh makes a distinction between two kinds of shakhas - Vidyarthi (youth or students) and Vyavasayi (professionals) - the increase has been comparatively more in the shakhas attended by students.

While the Vidyarthi shakhas numbered 29,295 in 2013-14, the corresponding figure for Vyavasayi shakhas was 15,701.

In 2014-15, the figure for students shakhas grew to 33,790 or by over 15 per cent compared to the previous year.

The shakhas attended by professionals numbered 17,542 and their rise against previous year was nearly 12 per cent.

Big rise

In the current year, the vidyarthi shakhas have already recorded a rise of over 10 per cent, to grow to 37,308.

The vyavasayi shakhas have registered a rise of close to 12 per cent to stand at 19,551.
The 150 cash incentive to switch banks is back on the market thanks to The Co-operative Bank enhancing its current account sign up offer.

The 'golden hello' is paid on top of the banks existing Everyday Rewards scheme which will boost your bank balance by up to 5.50 each month if you fulfill certain everyday banking tasks - such as checking your online banking once a month (see more below).

Savvy switchers could potentially pocket a 216 from the account over the course of the first year by taking advantage of both deals.

Cash Carrot: Co-op is offering switchers moving to its Current Account up to 216 in their first year

Since faster switching rules came into force in 2013, banks have increasingly been using cash incentives to tempt in switchers.

Co-operative Bank now has the best sign-up deal, offering the most generous cash bonus - beating the likes of M&S Bank, Halifax and First Direct which all currently pay 100 to new customers (the M&S reward comes in the form of a giftcard).

But is the account any good?

Remember while a cash payout for switching might is tempting you will need to make sure to read the small print and check the account works for you long term.

One of the stand-out features of the Co-op Current Account is the Everyday Rewards on offer.

The bank will pay you 4 a month if you pay in at least 800 a month and you stay in credit or within your agreed overdraft limit each month.

You will also need to log in to your mobile or online banking, pay out at least four direct debits each month and stay opted in to paperless statements.

Banking customers will then earn an extra 5p every time they use their debit card to pay - up to a maximum of 1.50 each month.

Watch out

Although the promise of 216 free cash from the golden hello and the rewards scheme is appealing, any earnings could be quickly eaten away if you regularly use the account to borrow money.

While the bank only charges interest (18.9 EAR per cent) on any pre-arranged borrowing, the costs of straying beyond your limit are eye-wateringly high.

Unarranged borrowing beyond a 20 interest-free buffer will cost you 10 a month, plus you will be charged an extra 10 every day your borrowing exceeds that amount (capped at 60 over a three- month period).

The bank does offer a six-day annual waiver, which can be used once a year. During this period you will only pay interest on your unplanned borrowing, sidestepping any extra fees.

How can you get your hands on the cash?

In order to qualify for the free cash you will need to switch your main bank account using the Current Account Switch Service, this involves Co-op closing your old account.

Plus you will also have to set up at least four direct debits from the account.

Existing Co-op customers can also benefit but the bank specifies that only those who have never received a switching incentive from them before and who deposit less than 800 a month into the account can apply.

But again, you will need to complete a switch to make the Co-op account your main bank account
Ms J.D. writes: Omar Mohammed, of Bespoke Capital Consultants Limited (BCC) and Thames Riverside Investments Limited (TRI), offered a pooled funds investment scheme. My partner and I met him at his Canary Wharf office and invested more than 11,000 for two months.

After a long time, he repaid 4,200, but nothing more. We went to TRIs Liverpool Street address in London, where we were told it did not exist, and at Mr Mohammeds Canary Wharf address we were told his company had been kicked out.

Pie in the sky: BCC was kicked out of Canary Wharf

You do not need me to tell you that you have been ripped off to the tune of more than 7,000. What is extraordinary is that Omar Mohammed was not working alone, and this bunch seems to have been able to walk away from the wreckage of its investment business and emerge unscathed.

Bespoke Capital Consultants was set up in April 2014 by Isabella Salih-Wisdom, from Croydon, Surrey, when she was just 19 years old.

Claiming to be a stockbroker, she described herself as the youngest ever chief executive of a Canary Wharf company, and said BCC would train young people to be financial traders. Her colleague Omar Mohammed, who is now all of 21 years old and also trades under the name Omar Khalifah, quit as a director just before you met him, but was clearly still involved in the business.

Claim: Isabella Salih-Wisdom was 19 when she set up BCC

He told you: Pooled funds will be managed for a period of two months. The risk management will include 1 per cent risk per day. And the profit gain target will be 3 per cent profit per day.

Mohammed told you he had invested your savings in currency deals that showed a profit of more than 10,000. When you asked for your money, he said there were a few issues with the trading accounts and the bank, and he introduced you to another figure from BCC, Pedram Jazayeri, who told you the money was with his broker.

Sadly, Jazayeri may not be completely trustworthy. In 2013 he was arrested in Ipswich for dealing in cocaine and heroin. At his trial, the judge said: Im entirely confident that everything you said in the witness box is untrue.

Jazayeri was jailed for two years, so he must have been released early since you met him in late 2014. Both he and Mohammed promised payment of the balance of your money, but you received nothing.

The trading statements you were given show that your savings were traded by Thames Riverside Investments, a company run by Mohammed. But neither BCC nor TRI ever held a licence from the Financial Conduct Authority to advise on investments, to market investments, or to operate a pooled fund, and nor did any of the individuals involved.

Convicted: Drug dealer Pedram Jazayeri

These are criminal offences. I invited all the companies and individuals to comment, but no one replied. I gave details of your experience to the regulator. It helpfully pointed me towards its website warning about dealing with unauthorised firms, as if this was some sort of solution to the problem.

But the regulator refused to say whether it or anyone else was investigating. Since nobody from the authority has asked me for any more information, or for your names and contact details, I think it is fair to assume that it is doing nothing.

It finds time to investigate complex insider dealing and market manipulation cases that could well be handled by the Serious Fraud Office, but finds it easy to ignore everyday criminal conduct that leaves ordinary families thousands of pounds poorer.

I am afraid you will get no money out of BCC now. It was dissolved last December. So much for Canary Wharf whizzkid Salih-Wisdom.

Thames Riverside Investments is in the same boat. It was dissolved in March. I could tell you to report all this to Action Fraud, the misnamed police agency, but unless other victims do the same, I doubt whether any action would follow. Your experience just highlights the degree to which ordinary fraud victims are on their own. Shameful.

How can I turn up heat on energy firm over lost deposit?

G.T. writes: I am a victim of what I consider malpractice on the part of Complete Energy Europe Limited. I have been trying to get a 4,000 deposit refunded after I cancelled a contract for Xefro Limiteds graphene energy radiators.

I have discussed this with Trading Standards but staff would not say how many others had complained.

Last July you were visited by a Complete Energy Europe salesman, and you paid 4,000 as a deposit for the installation of radiators which are said to operate efficiently by using the new miracle substance graphene. Eleven days later, the companys own surveyor found problems in placing the radiators in your home, so you exercised your right to cancel the contract.

After Complete Energy failed to refund your deposit, you contacted Manchester solicitor Aticus Law. The firms address is the registered office of Complete Energy, and solicitor Simon Fagan was a director of Xefro, the firm that produced the radiators. But still Complete Energy failed to repay you.

Fagan told me he passed on your complaints, adding: Neither I, nor this practice, are responsible for or accountable for the conduct, behaviour or misdemeanours of Complete Energy.

Xefro boss Michael Drogan said: Complete Energy is a reseller of the Xefro product.

Meanwhile, Complete Energy will say nothing. Its director is Robin Harrison, 47, from Sowerby Bridge in West Yorkshire. It is unclear who owns the company because it failed to file shareholder details due last November. This is an offence. Harrison was also a director of Lifestyle (North) Limited and Matthew Thomas Installations Limited, both of which were wound up by the High Court over unpaid debts  two reasons why suing Complete Energy might be throwing good money after bad.

I asked Harrison whether there was any reason why I should not suggest to the Insolvency Service that he be banned from acting as a director of any more companies. He offered no comment, so this is exactly what I am doing.

Why should you lose thousands to a company run by a man who has left a trail of debts and seems likely to do it again unless halted?

'Nightmare': Our reader's son has been the victim of a fraud involving an O2 account set up via Carphone Warehouse

My son has also fallen foul of O2 phone fraud

P.M. writes: Like the two readers whose letters you published recently, my son Alexander has been the victim of a fraud involving an O2 account set up via Carphone Warehouse, by someone using his name. The whole matter has become a nightmare.

Whoever opened the O2 account used your sons previous address, which meant any checks would show Alexanders name was linked to that address, but at the same time any bills sent there would not in fact reach him.

By the time Carphone Warehouse and the credit agency Experian tracked him down, because someone was trying to access his credit history, events were out of hand. Unpaid bills for the phone had mounted to 934, and a debt recovery firm, Lowells, was involved.

Alexander reported the fraud to the police, and gave the crime number to all three firms. O2 told him the account would be closed and his credit file cleared, but he has checked with Experian and found that the debt to Lowells is recorded against his name.

There are search entries from other companies such as Capital One and MoneySupermarket, indicating that the fraudster was also using Alexanders name to try to get credit.

O2 has accepted responsibility. It agreed the account was fraudulent and was supposed to be closed, but the company told me: Unfortunately, the adviser did not close it down completely, resulting in it being passed to the collection agency.
Town councils in desirable spots across the country are looking into ways to restrict second-home ownership after residents of St Ives in Cornwall yesterday voted to ban non-residents from buying new builds unless they intend to live in them.

Buyers of new homes in the popular former fishing village will have to provide evidence such as joining the electoral roll to show that they live there more than half the year, after the locals voted four-to-one in favour of action in a referendum. Cornwall Council has to decide whether to adopt the policy formally for the ban to go ahead.

The initiative is not the first: Wirksworth town council in Derbyshire and Bembridge in the Isle of Wight have tried similar schemes, and an agreed restriction in Lynton and Lynmouth in Devon has yet to be implemented.

More than 80 per cent of voters backed proposals that will mean new housing developments will only get planning permission if homes there are reserved for full-time residents.

And given the huge popularity of the idea among St Ives households, several other councils for areas that have suffered spiralling house prices thanks to an influx of wealthy second-homebuyers - usually from London - are thinking of following suit.

Localities in East Anglia, the Lake District and north Devon are all looking at similar schemes, according to The Times.

Michael Kiff, the mayor of Alderburgh in Suffolk - where 30 per cent of houses are owned by non-residents, and even higher proportion than in St Ives - told the Times today he was watching the scheme with interest and would wait for Cornwall county council to judge on its validity.

Norman Lamb, Lib-Dem MP for another hotspot for holiday home ownership North Norfolk, told the paper that he thought the ban 'entirely justified', while housing and countryside groups have lined up to back local action.

Des res: In Alderburgh, Suffolk, 30 per cent of houses are owned by non-residents, and even higher proportion than in St Ives.

However, ministers are thought to be wary of such bans, with concerns over how they are to be implemented and possible anomalies.

A judicial review bid has already been lodged against St Ives council by a Penzance based architects' firm for allowing the referendum. Developers have also threatened to stop building new homes in the area, warning that the plan could lead to a greater shortage.

St Ives, along with neighbouring north Cornwall coast towns Padstow and Rock, has been dubbed 'Kensington-on-Sea' thanks to the influx of wealthy Londoners each summer.

The former has also been dubbed 'Padstein' thanks to the preponderance of eateries that have been opened by TV chef Rick Stein - a trend not entirely unconnected to the demographic changes.

Figures from the 2011 Census showed that 25 per cent of housing within the parish had no full-time resident, with that figure rising to 48 per cent in some prime sites.

North Cornwall neighbour to St Ives, Padstow has also been called Kensington-on-Sea because of the deluge of wealthy Londoners in the summer.

These figures put St Ives and Carbis Bay among the top five settlements for second homes and holiday lets in Cornwall.

House prices in St Ives can top 1million, with data recorded by the authors of the plan suggesting that average prices are 17.1 times the average annual salaries earned by locals, more than 6,000 lower than the national average of roughly 26,000. It was argued that this has led to a growing gulf between those who could afford multiple properties, and people unable to buy one.

The referendum asked residents to agree to a ban on building any housing other than principal residences, although would-be second home owners will still be able to buy older properties.

The local plan's key part is ensuring all new builds will be lived in as a main home rather than used as a holiday let or second home, using electoral roll and GP medical centre records to establish that owners are living locally.

Towns like Keswick in the Lake District suffer house prices that are bid up by outsiders seeking second homes - despite Cumbria's lack of proximity to the capital.

Mayor Taylor said: 'More than 80 per cent have voted for this. It is an overwhelming verdict and everyone should accept that decision.

'I am overwhelmed by the remarkable support for the mandate and the tremendous turnout. St Ives should be incredibly proud.'

She described the vote as 'one of the biggest changes for St Ives in recent times'.

According to property website Right Move, last year the average house price in St Ives was 324,501. Figures from the Office for National statistics showed nationally the average house price is 288,000.

Last year, there were 165,095 people in the UK who say they have a second home for holidays - and in Cornwall there are 29,065 second homes.
Bill Browder made his fortune in Russia but has become a fearless critic of Vladimir Putin whom he blames for turning the country into a kleptocracy  and he has a powerful message to David Cameron ahead of his anti-corruption summit this week.

Britain, he says, is a brothel for dirty Russian money and the Prime Ministers anti-corruption drive is just so much hot air.

Browder, who became a British citizen after renouncing his American citizenship, founded the hugely successful Hermitage Capital investment fund in Russia in 1996.

Campaigner: Bill Browder now lobbies against corruption in Russia

But Hermitage was hounded out of the country by corrupt officials and now, he says, his adopted homeland  almost alone among major Western countries  is failing to investigate crimes associated with his case including the death of his lawyer Sergei Magnitsky.

He says the UK needs a clearout at the top of all its enforcement agencies. He separately warns UK firms not to do business in Russia: My story is not unusual, even if the depths of it are. Look at BP. Bob Dudley [its chief executive] had to go into hiding. They tried to poison him in the company cafeteria.

Dudley was then running BPs Russian joint venture and had to leave the country after facing what he called sustained harassment by the Russian authorities, though BP wont comment on the poison allegations.

Browder, the grandson of former US communist leader Earl Browder, has become one of the worlds leading critics of Putins Russia, with the story of his battle with the President and the death of his lawyer the subject of his best-selling book, Red Notice, published last year.

If you are a bad guy, your money is safe here  with property rights and legal rights

David Cameron is planning to announce the launch of a global anti-corruption unit this week, but Browder says his own efforts to get British authorities to investigate have come to nothing.

He wants them to probe $30million (21million) of spending by corrupt Russian officials in the UK that he says ultimately came from a $230million fraud involving Hermitage Capital.

The Swiss froze the assets. The US Department of Justice has frozen the assets. We are now able to trace the money to the UK. But every single law enforcement agency has done nothing, he says.

The money was spent in the UK on yachts, in fashion boutiques and on private education.

Killed: Lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was beaten to death in jail

He filed a criminal complaint with the National Crime Agency in March, but he is not confident anything will be done. Details of the complaints had already been put to the Met Police, the now defunct Serious Organised Crime Agency, the Serious Fraud Office, Revenue & Customs and the NCA last year  and none of them has done anything, Browder says. He has the support of MPs including Ben Bradshaw, Richard Benyon and Tom Brake, who have written to Home Secretary Theresa May urging action.

Theres evidence that has led to $45million of assets being frozen around the world, he says.

Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne are ultimately responsible for the failure to act, he says. They should replace the Home Secretary and the head of the National Crime Agency. If they cant prosecute, bring in someone who can. Theyve created a brothel where everybody is taking money from bad people.

On Camerons anti-corruption summit, which launches on Thursday, he says: They need to bring in some tough investigators. Here I am, a highly dedicated activist, with the ability to afford lawyers and I cant get a criminal case going, he says.

His frustration with British law enforcement agencies and his allegations about their failure to prosecute white-collar crime is in some respects depressingly familiar. But it goes further than the usual criticism, because it is also about Britains open-door policy on questionable Russian money.

This country is a magnet for dirty money. If you are a bad guy your money is safe here, with property rights and legal rights. The Belgravia and Knightsbridge economies are levitating on it, Browder says.

This is my country now. I pay taxes and I expect the authorities to respond

One thing he is backing Cameron on is opposing Brexit. Brexit is Putins fantasy come true. He loves dealing with individual countries where you can threaten, bully, bribe. He hates dealing with the EU or Nato.

Browders story could have been very different. His early investments in Russia were extraordinarily successful. One of the first fund managers on the scene in Russia following the fall of the Iron Curtain, he invested in major Russian companies that were trading at huge discounts to the value of their assets. In his first 18 months the fund rose 850 per cent in value. It collapsed again following Russias 1998 default on its debts, after which he began investigating major companies run by oligarchs.

Gazprom was trading at a 99.7 per cent discount to its book value. Everybody thought everything had been stolen out of the company, so we did a stealing analysis. The Gazprom management had stolen oil and gas equal to the size of Kuwaits oil fields. But that was only 10 per cent of its resources, 90 per cent was still there.

'Brexit is Vladimir Putins fantasy come true', says Browder

Hermitage bought as much stock as possible and shared the analysis with journalists. Putin stepped in and fired the CEO. The share price rose by 138 per cent that day, he says. That became his way of operating.

For a while it was encouraged, he says, but when Putin reached a deal with oligarchs, Browder became a threat to the regime. He was expelled from the country in 2005, and his companies were used to generate a fraudulent $230million tax refund. His lawyer, Magnitsky, was beaten to death in jail after exposing the frauds. Browder and Magnitsky both faced charges of tax evasion over Gazprom. Browder denies all charges.
Are you ready to blow it out of the water with a 1billion business idea? Then stand by to face Sir Richard Branson and a winning team of entrepreneurs.

A successful pitch could see you share in 1million in prizes, win a trip to Necker, Bransons private Caribbean island, and have an exclusive mentoring session with one of the Prime Ministers business ambassadors in Downing Street.

Bransons broadband company, Virgin Media Business, has launched VOOM, its annual hunt for the best start-ups. Winners will be chosen on June 28, but entries close on Tuesday.

Float his boat: Your 1billion business idea could win you a trip to Bransons Necker island

The Virgin Group founder said: Weve got a powerful line-up of business talent who will bring exciting energy and diverse experience to the judging panel. Each knows first-hand the grit, dedication and determination it takes to start and build their own business.

This years judges include Tyra Banks, the model behind reality TV series Americas Next Top Model and cosmetics brand TYRA Beauty; US entrepreneur Sara Blakeley, who founded shaping underwear firm SPANX in 2000 with $5,000 of savings; and English YouTube star Marcus Butler.

With friend and fellow YouTuber Naomi Smart, he launched SourcedBox, which delivers healthy snacks through the post.

Butler has more than four million subscribers to his channel, where he posts videos every Friday and a self-help guide, Hello Life!

Peter Kelly, boss of Virgin Media Business, is also on the judging panel. We really are trying to find the companies that can blow it out of the water, scale globally and build more than just a 5 million business or a 50million business, he said.

Wheres the next 1billion business coming from among these small and medium-sized enterprises? Thats what we believe VOOM is about  finding growth companies and start-up companies that think big.
The U.S. Navy SEAL who died in an attack by ISIS in Iraq on Tuesday secretly married his fiancee before he deployed, it was revealed Friday.

Charles Keating IV married sweetheart Brooke Clark before he left home, People first reported.

The two planned a wedding for November, but eloped prior to Keating's departure for Iraq, friends of the slain SEAL told People.

'He wanted to protect her in case anything happened to him,' a fellow SEAL told the magazine.

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Charles Keating IV married Brooke Clark before deploying for Iraq. The pair, pictured, planned an official wedding ceremony for November, friends said

A Navy spokesperson, who confirmed the secret marriage, said that such arrangements are commonplace among service members

Clark, left, and Keating, right, lived in the San Diego area. Keating was slain in an ISIS attack in Iraq on Tuesday

'Charlie may have had a feeling about this mission. Maybe he was just being prudent. This is a terrible loss to Brooke and to all of us,' the SEAL said.

One friend called the marriage a 'well-guarded secret'.

A Navy spokesperson, who also confirmed the secret marriage, said that such arrangements are commonplace among service members.

'There are certain benefits to being married, and a lot of couples put that in place as a protective measure,' Lt. Beth Teach told People.

According to a LinkdIn page, Brooke works as an event organizer for a California wine company.

News of the secret marriage came as the Pentagon commented on Tuesday's attack in northern Iraq, saying it was a 'surprise'.

'Obviously, had we had the forces there, been able to see this attack coming, they would have responded differently to it,' Peter Cook, the Pentagon press secretary, said.

Keating is the third U.S. service member to be killed in combat in Iraq since U.S. forces returned there in 2014

This map shows the location in northern Iraq where Charles Keating IV was killed on Tuesday

'Perhaps this could have been avoided. That's certainly something that we're looking at carefully. This particular attack was not anticipated and we were forced to respond.'

Keating is the third U.S. service member to be killed in combat in Iraq since U.S. forces returned there in 2014.

Keating was a member of what the military calls a quick-reaction force that was called to the scene of the gun battle in which a small U.S. military advisory team had already become involved.

The Islamic State force managed to penetrate the Kurds' lines but ultimately was pushed out of the area.

The U.S. military's main spokesman in Baghdad, Col. Steve Warren, said Wednesday that it was unclear how IS managed to assemble an attacking force of an estimated 125 fighters, plus vehicles, without being detected prior to the assault.

'You can't observe every inch of earth every moment in the day,' Warren said. 'There's not enough eyeballs out there to watch it all, anyways.' He said the militants were initially successful by surprising the Kurdish force but ultimately were beaten back.

'So it was a failed attack, but certainly, they were able to martial and deploy a force that surprised the Peshmerga forces,' Warren said. The Peshmerga are a Kurdish militia.

Cook was asked whether Defense Secretary Ash Carter is looking for ways to make the U.S. advisory mission less dangerous.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump will face a class-action lawsuit over his now-defunct Trump University.

The lawsuit, scheduled for November 28 by US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Friday, is one of three that accuse Trump University of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate.

Curiel expressed concern for jurors who may have gotten caught in a 'media frenzy' if the trial were held during the campaign, even though it was filed in 2010 and originally planned for this summer.

Trump, on the other hand, has railed against Curiel, calling him hostile and pointing out his ethnicity at an Arkansas rally in February, saying: 'I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He's Hispanic  which is fine.'

A lawsuit against Donald Trump (pictured) and the defunct Trump University has been scheduled for November 28 by US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Friday

The lawsuit is one of three that accuse Trump University of fleecing students with unfulfilled promises to teach secrets of success in real estate

Trump's attorney Daniel Petrocelli said the Republican candidate will testify at most, if not all of the trial, telling reporters: 'He has very, very strong feelings about this case.'

Petrocelli asked for a trial after Inauguration Day on January 20, but the judge raised concerns about distractions if Trump wins the election.

The attorney said the period between the election and swearing-in is extremely hectic for a president-elect but it was preferable to holding a trial during the campaign.

The San Diego suit says Trump University, which was not accredited as a school, held seminars across the country that failed to deliver on the school's promises.

Trump, who appears on a list of defense witnesses for the trial, has repeatedly pointed to a 98 percent satisfaction rate on internal surveys.

But the lawsuit says students were asked to rate the product when they believed they still had more instruction to come and were reluctant to openly criticize their teachers on surveys that were not anonymous.

Curiel, a judicial appointee of President Barack Obama, has been eager to get to trial and had planned the trial for this summer before Trump's surge in the primaries.

The case was filed in 2010, making it the second-oldest on his docket.

Trump has railed against Judge Curiel, calling him hostile and pointing out his ethnicity at an Arkansas rally in February, saying: 'I believe he happens to be Spanish, which is fine. He's Hispanic  which is fine.'

Still, he expressed concern about a trial during the campaign, partly out of concern for jurors' safety.

'Will they be able to stay clear of the media frenzy?' he asked. 'Ultimately that's my number one concern.'

Since the early 1980s, Trump has personally been sued at least 150 times in federal court, records show.

Only a handful of those cases are pending, with the ones involving Trump University  two in California and one in New York  being the most significant.

Petrocelli said he would not ask for the judge to be removed from the case, despite Trump's views.
A seven-year-old schoolboy has been 'clotheslined' by a wire trap strung across a walking track so hard he was knocked off his feet when it struck him about his throat.

He was flung into the air at 'full pelt' and landed heavily on his back and hit his head during the incident in Mandurah, south of Perth, which left him with sore, extensive bruising and welts.

An excited Joel Purdy had been heading home after a West Coast Eagles match last Sunday to tell his mother of their victory when he fell victim to the wire trap, the Mandurah Coastal Times reported.

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Joel Purdy, seven, (pictured) was 'clotheslined' by a wire trap strung across a walking track so hard he was knocked off his feet when it struck him about his throat

Joel was flung into the air at 'full pelt' and landed heavily on his back and hit his head which left him with sore, extensive bruising and welts.

The wire trap which Joel ran into appeared to have been removed by the time police arrived to investigate the scene

Joel's mother, Tanya Purdy, (right) was disgusted and said the trap could have killed somebody. She wants to get word out of the incident to other parents so the same thing doesn't happen again

It had been set up in a vacant lot near the Mandurah train station in an area popular with motorcyclists.

His mother, Tanya Purdy, was disgusted, saying the trap could have killed somebody.

'There are people on motorbikes who ride through there [where the trap was set up] regularly which is annoying. But if that is the reason behind doing this, then whoever did so needs to understand the danger.'

Ms Purdy wants to get word out of the incident to other parents so the same thing doesn't happen again.

After the incident, she contacted police who attended the scene,the Mandurah Coastal Times reported.

But the wire, set up at throat height, appeared to already have been removed.

Police would not be investigating the incident, the Coastal Times reported.

Ms Purdy contacted police who attended the scene, but police say they would not be investigating the incident

The wire trap was strung up at throat height on vacant land near Mandurah train station, south of Perth, when seven-year-old schoolboy Joel Purdy was caught in it (stock image)
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Residents at oil field camps north of Fort McMurray, Alberta got a sobering drive-by view of their burned out city as a massive wildfire forced them out on Friday.

A convoy moved evacuees towards the south following the fire that could double in size by the end of Saturday and is expected to last for weeks.

More than 80,000 people have left Fort McMurray, in the heart of Canada' oil sands, where the fire has torched 1,600 homes and buildings.

All intersections along the convoy route have been blocked off and evacuees are not being allowed back to check on their homes.

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More than 80,000 people have been forced out of their homes by a massive wildfire expected to last for weeks in Fort McMurray, Alberta. Pictured, police officers direct traffic under a cloud of smoke on Friday

The fire covers 249,571 acres and could double in size by Saturday, Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention Chad Morrison said. Pictured on Friday, animal rescue workers wait to get entry to Fort McMurray

No amount of resources will put out the blaze and only rain could end it, officials said. The blaze, partially pictured Friday along a highway south of Fort McMurray, has torched 1,600 homes and buildings

Authorities hoped to get 5,500 people to safety by the end of Friday, a day after 8,000 flew out. Another 4,000 were expected to follow on Saturday. Pictured on Friday, Eddie MacDonald fills his truck with gas in Wandering River, Alberta, after evacuating Fort McMurray

About 1,200 vehicles had passed through Fort McMurray by late Friday afternoon despite a one-hour interruption due to heavy smoke. Pictured, residents gather at an A&W restaurant in Wandering River after evacuating

Michael Sadowsky, an evacuee from the Fort McMurray wildfires, is pictured kissing his cat Dexter after they were escorted through Fort McMurray on Friday and arrived in Wandering River

Police and military oversaw the procession of hundreds of vehicles on Friday while the mass evacuation by plane resumed.

Authorities hoped to get 5,500 people to safety by the end of Friday, a day after 8,000 flew out. Another 4,000 were expected to follow on Saturday.

The fire and the ensuing departures have forced a quarter of Canada's oil output offline according to estimates and is expected to leave an impact on the country, which has already been hurt by a dramatic fall in the price of oil.

About 1,200 vehicles had passed through Fort McMurray by late Friday afternoon despite a one-hour interruption due to heavy smoke, authorities said.

Jim Dunstan, who was in the convoy with his wife, Tracy, and two young sons, said it was 'shocking' to see torched cars on the side of the road.

'It made you feel lucky to get out of there,' he added.

Between 4,500 and 5,000 evacuees arrived at Edmonton International Airport on at least 45 flights Friday, spokesman Chris Chodan said.

More than 300 flights have arrived with evacuees since Tuesday, he added.

Volunteers handed out bottled water and directed people as one group arrived late Friday.

Among them was 32-year-old Chad Robertson, a fuel truck driver who was evacuated from Husky Energy's Sunrise project, northeast of Fort McMurray.

'Everyone started panicking' when the fire started even though the flames were relatively far away, he said.

He had plans to go to a friend's house in Edmonton before heading home to Nova Scotia.

Morrison said the cause of the fire hasn't been determined, but that it started in a remote forested area and could have been ignited by lightning. Pictured on Friday, a plane drops fire retardant

More than 300 flights carrying evacuees have arrived at Edmonton International Airport since Tuesday. Pictured, a volunteer directs a group of displaced residents after they get off the plane

Morrison said he expected the fire to expand into a more remote forested area northeast and away from Fort McMurray. Pictured on Friday, a plane drops water on the blaze

No deaths or injuries have been reported and the Alberta provincial government has declared a state of emergency. Pictured on Friday, evacuees rest at a shelter in Lac La Biche

High winds, scorching heat and low humidity have caused the fire to spread rapidly in Fort McMurray. Pictured on Friday, smoke rises in a burned-out neighborhood

Scott Burrell, 42, from Kelowna, British Columbia, was waiting with others in an airport terminal that had been repurposed for evacuees who were resting and waiting for flights.

He was working for a scaffolding company at a plant called Fort Hills when the fire broke out Tuesday.

'We were working overtime and I just saw what looked like a massive cloud in the sky, but I knew it was fire,' he said. 'The very next day was my day to go home. Ends up we weren't going home that day.'

Burrell and others were evacuated by plane Friday, after spending three days with families who arrived at the work camp because they were evacuated from their towns.

He said he and other workers rationed their food to help the families who were coming in, and some offered up their living spaces for them.

Burrell planned to catch a flight back to British Columbia.

The Alberta provincial government, which declared a state of emergency, said Friday the size of the blaze had grown to more than 249,571 acres. No deaths or injuries were reported.

The government said 1,100 firefighters, 110 helicopters, 295 pieces of heavy equipment and more than 27 air tankers were fighting the blaze.

But Chad Morrison, Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention, said the fire covers 249,571 acres and 'there is a high potential that the fire could double in size by the end of tomorrow'.

Morrison said no amount of resources would put this fire out and only rain could put an end to it.

'We have not seen rain in this area for the last two months of significance,' Morrison said. 'This fire will continue to burn for a very long time until we see some significant rain.'

Environment Canada forecast a 40 per cent chance of showers in the area on Sunday.

Morrison said he expected the fire to expand into a more remote forested area northeast and away from Fort McMurray but said extremely dry conditions and a hot temperature of 81 degrees were expected Saturday along with strong winds.

He said cooler conditions were expected Sunday and Monday.

Police officers have helped evacuate residents as the fire tore through Fort McMurray. Pictured, one of them surveys the damage in a deserted street on Thursday

Officials said shifting winds were giving Fort McMurray a break, but that the fire remained out of control. Pictured, Canadian Armed forces members prepare to take off from their base near Conklin

The government said 1,100 firefighters, 110 helicopters, 295 pieces of heavy equipment and more than 27 air tankers were fighting the blaze. Pictured on Friday, police officers direct traffic under a cloud of smoke

Extremely dry conditions and a hot temperature of 81 degrees were expected Saturday along with strong winds. Pictured on Friday, smoke rises about 18 miles south of Fort McMurray

The fire grew from 29 square miles Tuesday to 39 square miles on Wednesday and by Thursday it was almost nine times that  at 330 square miles. Pictured on Friday, a police helicopter flies above the blaze

About 25,000 evacuees moved north in the hours after Tuesday's mandatory evacuation, where oil sands work camps that usually house employees were used to house evacuees. Pictured, a charred swing set remains in a neighborhood destroyed by the wildfire

The bulk of the more than 80,000 evacuees fled south to Edmonton and elsewhere. Pictured, what is left of a motorcycle after the blaze ravaged a residential neighborhood in Fort McMurray

Fort McMurray is surrounded by wilderness, and there are essentially only two ways for residents to get out via road. Pictured, a classic Triumph GT6 destroyed by the fire in Fort McMurray

Dave Wendel (center), his son Colt (right), and his daughter Clieo (left) are among thousands of evacuees who had to leave Fort McMurray. They were left stranded on Friday before authorities escorted them out. They are pictured packing up their trailer in Wandering River

The government has pledged to give money to help evacuees, who are also relying on donations. Pictured, displaced residents look through donated supplies in Lac La Biche

Evacuees need food, clothes, shoes and housing supplies after leaving their homes in Fort McMurray. Pictured, residents sort through boxes of canned food and snacks at a donation center in Wandering River

About 25,000 evacuees moved north in the hours after Tuesday's mandatory evacuation, where oil sands work camps that usually house employees were used to house evacuees.

But the bulk of the more than 80,000 evacuees fled south to Edmonton and elsewhere, and officials are moving everyone south where it is safer and they can get better support services. The convoy was stopped for an hour.

The Alberta government is providing cash to 80,000 evacuees from the Fort McMurray fire to help them with their immediate needs.

Premier Rachel Notley said her cabinet has approved a payment of $967 per adult and $387 per dependent at a cost to the province of $77 million.

She told a briefing in Edmonton that she wants people who were forced from their homes to know that the government 'has their back'.

Police were escorting 50 vehicles at a time, south through the city itself on Highway 63 at a distance of about 12.4 miles south and then releasing the convoy. At that point another convoy of 50 cars begins.

Fort McMurray is surrounded by wilderness, and there are essentially only two ways out via road.

Fanned by high winds, scorching heat and low humidity, the fire grew from 29 square miles Tuesday to 39 square miles on Wednesday, but by Thursday it was almost nine times that  at 330 square miles. That's an area roughly the size of Calgary, Alberta's largest city.

The fire was so large that smoke from the fair is blanketing parts of the neighboring province of Saskatchewan where Environment Canada has issued special air quality statements for several areas.

Morrison, the wildfire prevention manager, said the cause of the fire hasn't been determined, but that it started in a remote forested area and could have been ignited by lightning.

The region has the third-largest reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

Greg Pardy, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said that as much as 1 million barrels a day of oil may be offline, based on oil company announcements. That's just over a third of Canada's total oil sands output, Pardy noted.

Environment Canada forecast a 40 per cent chance of showers in the area on Sunday. Pictured, the wildfire glows underneath the Aurora Borealis near Fort McMurray on Saturday

The fire has become so large that smoke is blanketing parts of the neighboring province of Saskatchewan. Pictured on Friday, smoke rises south of Fort McMurray

The Alberta government is providing cash to 80,000 evacuees from the Fort McMurray fire to help them with their immediate needs. Pictured on Friday, volunteers direct evacuees at Edmonton International Airport

Premier Rachel Notley said her cabinet has approved a payment of $967 per adult and $387 per dependent at a cost to the province of $77 million. Pictured Friday, evacuees loo through donated supplies in Lac La Biche

Notley told a briefing in Edmonton that she wants people who were forced from their homes to know that the government 'has their back'. Pictured Friday, a resident looks for a pair of shoe at a shelter in Lac La Biche

Evacuees are not being allowed back to check on their homes in Fort McMurray. Pictured Friday, one of them checks his smartphone at a shelter in Lac La Biche
When he was 18 years old, Joe Simpson walked into the kitchen of his family home in Germany and saw his father Ian transcribing his wartime diaries at the kitchen table.

The Royal Artillery Lt Col was pouring over the wafer-thin pages, which were written in pencil in code, making notes and drawing a map, before he sent the documents to the Imperial War Museum.

It was at that moment, in 1978, that Joe, who went onto become one of Britains most-well known mountaineers - narrowly escaping death in the Andes, and writing the blockbuster Touching the Void - discovered that his father was one of the Forgotten Heroes of World War II.

Forgotten hero: Ian Simpson - a dental student before the war began - was one of the Chindits 16 Brigade Morris regiment, a special force of 1,350 men sent into the Burmese jungle to fight the Japanese in 1944

Horror: They trekked through the jungle, battling the soldiers they found, for 17 weeks, covering 500km. But the combination of fighting and disease proved deadly, and Ian was one of just 25 to survive

Silence: Son Joe - who survived a near death experience in the Andes, which became a best-selling book and film - only discovered his father's part in the war in 1978, but never dared ask him too much

The trainee dentist, who was in the Gurkha Regiment, had been seconded to the Chindits 16 Brigade Morris regiment, a special force of 1,350 men, who fought a guerrilla war behind Japanese lines in Burma, and was one of only 25 to survive.

It was like discovering that he was in the SAS, says Joe, 55, who retired from climbing in 2009. Up until that point, I was aware at that he was in the Gurkha regiment but I didnt know anything about the Chindits.

Joes discovery sparked a dream to follow in his fathers footsteps. But, at that stage Burma was in the grip of military rule and pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi was under House Arrest.

So he put the ambition on hold. Instead the Edinburgh University student, who had been introduced to rock climbing by his chemistry teacher at Ampleforth College, began to pursue a career as a mountaineer.

His career almost ended before it began. In 1985, when he was 25 years old, he and climbing partner Simon Yates, were the first men to scale the West Face of Siula Grande, a 6,344 metre peak in the Peruvian Andes.

But, on the descent, he broke his leg and, caught in a storm, Yates cut his rope, causing him to plummet.

He lowered me off an ice cliff that he couldnt see, recalls Joe. He was hoping I was a few feet off the ground when he cut the rope but unfortunately I fell down a crevasse.

After surviving the fall, he spent the next three days crawling back to basecamp. When he got back to England, the psychological trauma hit him.

One night I must have been screaming my head off, he says, because the next minute I found my father in my bedroom, which was unheard of, coming to comfort me - normally it would be your mother.

He just tapped me on the shoulder and says: Its alright. Ive seen this. Dont worry about it. Now I know he was referring to what perhaps we would call post-traumatic stress.

Clues: When Ian died in 2010, Joe went through his diaries, written in pencil 70 years before, and discovered he had recorded the exact locations of each camp. He decided he would try to follow in his footsteps

Following in his footsteps: Joe and Ed Stafford, a former British Army officer, documented their attempts to make the same journey for a new BBC documentary

Joe went onto have countless operations on his leg, and two years rehabilitation, before he returned to climbing, making six unsuccessful attempts on the North Face of the Eiger, before he retired.

But, in the back of his mind, he had always retained his dream of following in his fathers footsteps. Last year, he and Ed Stafford, a former British Army officer, who was the first man to walk the length of the Amazon, finally fulfilled that goal.

Their journey, during the first-openly contested elections in the country, now known as Myanmar, was filmed for the BBC documentary, Burmas Secret Jungle War, screened tomorrow (Sunday, May 8).

Ian Simpson was a 17-year-old trainee dentist at the start of the Second World War but, he joined the Black Watch Regiment the moment he turned 18. He then transferred to the 4th Prince of Wales Own Gurkha Rifles.

Against the odds: Remarkably, Ian had terrible eyesight, but cheated the test in order to be allowed into the army the moment he turned 18

He had terrible eyesight and had to cheat the tests, says Joe, who lives in Sheffield with his wife Corinne. People dont understand today but the whole nation was determined to fight the Nazis.

In Spring 1944, when he was 24 years old, his father was seconded to the Chindits, an Allied Special Force of 16,000 men, which was deployed on three missions, one of which was to to slow down the Japanese advance through Burma towards India, the jewel in the crown.

The Chindits spent four-months trekking through the jungle behind enemy lines, facing brutal hand-to-hand fights with Japanese patrols bearing bayonets or swords, exhaustion and starvation, as well as diseases such as typhoid, diphtheria, hepatitis, malaria and dysentery.

For 17 weeks they slept on the forest floor under a blanket, with just a flysheet or rough shelter to keep off the pounding rain. They rarely had fresh fresh food and their American Field Rations ran out after two weeks, leaving them malnourished  on average they lost three stone in weight.

It was an experience of which Lt Col Ian Simpson rarely spoke. After the war he joined the Royal Artillery, and was posted in Malaysia, Gibraltar, Northern Ireland and Germany. His wife Geraldine died in 1998.

He died in 2010, after becoming bedridden following a hip operation, leaving his diaries and maps, now in the Imperial War Museum, as his sons only connection with his wartime past.

I kicked myself that I didnt ask him about the Chindits, says Joe, wistfully. I thought it would be unfair to intrude. But I wish I could go back and tell him where Id been and show him photographs, tell him where we went and where we got lost. Hed call me a blithering idiot, but anyway, that's not going to happen.

Luckily his father had written the exact longitude and latitude of the 82 places they camped on his maps, enabling Joe and Ed to follow his exact route.

My fathers writing was appalling, says Joe. The diary was written in pencil 70 years ago in the Burmese jungle. But he had made a lot of notes and a map of the 82 places he had visited. It was a godsend.

Its often said that the rest of their lives are a shadow of what they were, you know? It was significant to him - if it hadnt been, he wouldnt have written his diaries and his notes. He wouldnt have so carefully, annotated those maps. It was almost as if he wanted someone to follow them.

The two men spent five weeks, rather than 17, following the Chindits 500km route, through parts of Myanmar that are closed to tourists and flashpoints for rebels.

Fatal: Not long into the operation, Ian's diary becomes a list of the 'wounded and dead'. What's more, the 'pouring rain' of monsoon season would have made it 'hell' for the soldiers trying to stay alive, says Joe

Understanding: The journey made Joe feel closer to his father. I can imagine this place teaming with soldiers, my father up there in the shade, on the radio, encrypting messages, sending them off, he said

They began in Innwyar, a small village on the banks of Myanmars mighty Irrawaddy River, before heading east into the foothills of the Himalayas, turning north and ending up near the city of Mytikyina.

First stop was the Chowringee airstrip, scene of one of the largest airborne operations of WWII. During an extremely dangerous glider landing, more than 20,000 highly trained troops, 3,000 mules and tonnes of supplies were dropped in the middle of jungle during the dead of night.

Lt Col Simpson wrote in his diary: Thursday 9th of March 1944. Left about 20.25 to arrive Chowringee at 21.45. Quite a pleasant spot & had good feed on Yank rations followed by sleep till 7:30. Everyone was hunky dory and no upsets occurred.

I always thought it was an incredible thing to do, his son says. I always wondered about the bravery of it, just getting into a glider in pitch black, being released in darkness, landing in darkness. Staggering. And it must have been a really tense night.

The two men then trekked 15-kilometres past Lt Col Simpsons wartime camps, before crossing the Shweli River, which was more than half a kilometre wide, leaving the Chindits vulnerable to attack. With 400 men in Ian Simpsons column - many who couldnt swim - it took nearly a whole day to cross.

By the time they reached his tenth camp, they were 20 km deeper into the jungle.

I can imagine this place teaming with soldiers, my father up there in the shade, on the radio, encrypting messages, sending them off, says Joe. He would have been a busy young officer.

The two men then made their way from Bhamo to the Taipang River Valley, which Joes father crossed more than 70 years ago, as the Chindits fought their way North.

When Ian Simpsons column tried to cross the Taiping on April 25, 1944, they found it impossible to swim across and had to use a small bridge further downstream.

Violence: Joe recalled the entry where his father tells how his commanding officer was beheaded by a Japanese soldier. 'Its quite emotional thinking about it,' Joe admitted as he trekked through the jungle

Disease: Ian did not escape unscathed. He got Scrub Typhus - with a temperature of 101 degrees he was flown out of India - but unlike so many others, he survived

They then made their way up a steep, 1,000ft two-km hill. I can imagine him doing it with hundreds of men, in single column in the monsoon, says Joe.

The pouring rain would have made this absolute hell. I cannot imagine marching, heavily laden round these jungles in a monsoon, let alone trying to fight an enemy, much greater than your size.

After climbing the hill, they made their way down to the plain of the Irrawaddy river, and the town of Maingna North. Tuesday, 30th of May, his father wrote. Mustangs pasted hell out of Maingna North all day. Very tough nut to crack.

Its quite noticeable in his diaries that until now, somebody occasionally gets ambushed or wounded. But, from now on, its just a continual list of wounded and killed.

He describes watching a Dakota C-47 being shot down in flames by six Japanese Zeros, which were fighter planes, says Joe. They werent having it all their own way.

Its quite noticeable in his diaries that until now, somebody occasionally gets ambushed or wounded. But, from now on, its just a continual list of wounded and killed.

On the same day, they attacked the village of Waimaw. Waimaw is the first village they attacked, explains Joe.

They just basically went down into the plain and pretty much walked single file, straight into the town. They met quite a bit of resistance, of course. Military it was just bloody stupid. A lot of men died.

At number 68 on his fathers journey, was the scene of another bloody battle. It is now a sleepy cattle wallow. This is where my fathers Commanding Officer, Major Monteith was killed, says Joe.

He ran into a Japanese ambush, a machine gun post, and was wounded. A Japanese officer ran out and decapitated him with a sword. Its quite emotional thinking about it. This was the bloody end and they took a lot of losses.

Within a week, his father got Scrub Typhus - with a temperature of 101 degrees he was flown out of India  but, unlike most of his fellow officers, who are buried at Yangons War Memorial, he recovered.

Normal life: On his return to Britain, Ian married and had five children - including Joe. Pictured in 1965

Adventure: Joe grew up with a love of adventure, and in 1985 he and his friend Simon Yates had become the first people to scale the west face of Siula Grande in Peru, when disaster struck

Determination: Joe broke his leg, and Simon cut him loose - thinking he didn't have far to fall. Instead he plummeted into a deep crevice, left for dead. Instead, he crawled for three days to find a different way out. Pictured: Joe with then girlfriend Jackie Burley

Success: The story became an award-winning documentary and best-selling book. Pictured: Joe Simpson

Its quite strange seeing these graves here, says Joe, to recognise the names and the dates that correlate exactly with Das diaries. It suddenly becomes much more real.

I've now got an understanding I could never have got, no matter how many books I've read about Morris Force or the Chindits Wars. Books tell you something. Experience gives you an indelible memory.

But I wouldnt dream of comparing a wartime experience with fooling around on a mountain. Nobody died in Peru. No one was shooting at us. Any risk, we chose.

Da didnt choose that. He was in a World War. And he and all these other men were doing their duty. Im immensely proud of him but I found it difficult to tell him. Thats something I will always regret.
A Russian company is trying tocash in on chilly relations between Moscow and Washington by releasing an ice cream called 'Little Obama,' irritating U.S.officials.

The product, called 'Obamka' in Russian, is glazed with chocolate and its wrapping features an image of a smiling youngAfrican boy, wearing an earring and holding an ice cream.

A Russian company debuted its new chocolate-glazed ice cream, named after the U.S. President

President Obama, above, may like his ice cream but chances are he wouldn't appreciate being called 'Little Obamka'

With relations at a post-Cold War low since Russia's 2014annexation of Crimea and its military intervention in Syria,Russian state media and pro-Kremlin activists have often beratedand mocked President Barack Obama in terms that U.S. officialshave described as racist and insulting.

The company that makes the ice cream, Slavitsa, said in astatement that it was part of a range aimed at childrenfeaturing 'cheerful' characters.

'With different flavours and glazes, the ice creamsymbolises the main races of people on our planet,' it said,adding that the picture of the boy had been inspired by a Sovietfilm.

'Ice cream names need to be memorable. For those with a richimagination, various associations might arise, but this productis for children and is a long way from politics.'

A U.S. official, who declined to be named because of thesubject's sensitivity, told Reuters he saw the ice cream as partof a disturbing pattern.

A cafe in Russia reportedly has presidential toilet paper stocked in its bathrooms - above, toilet paper with Obama's face on it is sold on a website Obama Toilet Paper

'While I haven't seen this particular product for sale, weare disappointed by the media-driven anti-Americanism that hasbecome so prevalent in Russia over the past few years,particularly when it takes on a discriminatory or racist bent,' the official said.

Slavitsa is based in Krasnoyarsk, a Siberian city that hitthe headlines last month after a cafe dedicated to VladimirPutin opened there, luring visitors with dozens of pictures ofthe Russian president.
Scientists are hoping that a handful of women who have given birth to twins in which only one child is affected by Zika hold the key to unlocking the mystery of the epidemic.

Jaqueline Jessica Silva de Oliveira, 25, gave birth to twins Laura and Lucas five months ago. Laura has the microcephaly birth defect associated with Zika but Lucas was born healthy.

She now takes baby Laura to a hospital in Sao Paulo regularly where doctors working with the city's university are trying to understand why she was afflicted and her brother not.

Laura and Lucas lie in their bed at their house in Brazil. They are one of just five sets of twins being studied in Sao Paulo who have been born with one affected by Zika and the other not

Among the mysteries facing doctors in Brazil battling an epidemic of the little-known Zika virus are cases of women giving birth to twins with only one suffering from microcephaly, a birth defect associated with the disease

'You always hope that they will be born well, thinking that it could be a mistake by the doctor or in the ultrasound' said the twins' 25-year-old mother Jaqueline Jessica Silva de Oliveira

Mrs Oliviera hoped doctors were wrong when a routine ultrasound showed that one of her unborn twins would be born with the condition, marked by stunted head size and developmental issues.

'When I found out one of them had microcephaly, the ground fell out from beneath me,' she said.

'You always hope that they will be born well, thinking that it could be a mistake by the doctor or in the ultrasound.'

Last month, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention officially confirmed that infection with Zika in pregnant women is a cause of microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies.

Her son Lucas was born healthy in November. His twin sister Laura, whose head is visibly much smaller, requires regular treatment by a team of neurologists and physiotherapists in nearby Sao Paulo.

With two young children already, Mrs Oliveira - who suffered the symptoms of Zika early in pregnancy - knew that life would be difficult with a child with developmental problems.

Her husband, the family's only breadwinner, brings home just over 2,000 reais (392) a month.

'I thank God for giving her to me... I would never abandon her,' Mrs Oliveira said, adding she had never questioned why only one child was born with microcephaly.

'The doctors want to study them so they can see what protected Lucas in case it can help other children.'

'I thank God for giving her to me... I would never abandon her,' Mrs Oliveira said, adding she had never questioned why only one child was born with microcephaly

Baby Laura regularly undergoes a medical tests and requires regular treatment by a team of neurologists and physiotherapists

Laura gets her head measured by the neurologist, Maria Leal Santos, at the Casa da Esperanca Hospital (Hope House Hospital) in Santos, Sao Paulo state

Cases of only one twin developing a disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes, have been widely documented. Medical research has focused on the interaction between the environment and genetic issues.

Lucas and Laura are one of five cases of Zika twins scientists are studying in Sao Paulo.

Similar cases of newborn twins - one with and one without microcephaly - caught the attention of doctors last year in northeastern Brazil, where the mosquito-borne Zika was detected for the first time in the Americas.

The divergence in twins was one reason why researchers began to suspect the presence of a new disease.

Brazil has since registered nearly 5,000 confirmed and suspected cases of microcephaly associated with Zika, according to the Health Ministry.

The outbreak, and its impact on pregnant women, has cast a shadow over the upcoming summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on August.

The Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with Brazil the hardest hit so far.

It is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

Mrs Oliveira - who suffered the symptoms of Zika early in pregnancy - knew that life would be difficult with a child with developmental problems

Mrs Oliveira bathes her five-month-old daughter Laura at their home in Santos, Sao Paulo state. Her husband brings home just 392 a month

Mrs Oliviera already has two children. Pictured, she holds Lucas while her mother Manyara, 46, holds Laura

A team from Sao Paulo University studying the five cases believes they may hold clues to the nature of the disease itself and hope to have results from their investigation in a year's time.

'The importance of these twins...is that they could give us some very important answers,' said Mayana Zatz, director of the Human Genome Research Center at the university.

'How can we explain that one of the twins was not affected: did they have a gene that protected them? Do they have a different genome that disposes them to the infection or not?'

Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. Dr Zatz said the placenta of one twin may be permeable to Zika, while the other may not, barring the virus from attacking the foetus.

Another possibility is that the virus penetrates both placentas but that the neurons of one baby are resistant, while the other's are not.
The ex-producer described seeing his manhood as being 'unpleasant'

She alleges he used to wear girls' clothes and had a 'cross-dressing habit'

The allegation comes as former co-workers, including the husband of one of Top Gear's executives who quit after five months, who also worked closely with him, said Evans (pictured) bullied staff and claimed he exposed himself

A former colleague of new Top Gear presenter Chris Evans has claimed he used to wear girls' clothes and had a 'cross-dressing habit'.

Fi Cotter Craig, an ex-producer who worked with Evans, 50, in the 1990s spoke after it was alleged he repeatedly flashed his penis on The Big Breakfast.

She described the experience of seeing his manhood as being 'very unpleasant'.

Ms Cotter Craig, Evans' ex-colleague, told The Sun: 'It's time to move on from his penis and have a conversation about the underwear cross-dressing habit.'

The allegation comes as former co-workers, including the husband of one of Top Gear's executives who quit after five months, said Evans bullied staff and claimed he exposed himself.

Evans' former business partner John Revell also accused the BBC of 'stunning hypocrisy' for not suspending the star over the bullying claims.

Mr Revell, who is better known as his Radio 1 and Virgin sidekick 'Johnny Boy', said his friend of 30 years is 'out of control' but his bosses are too 'scared to stand up to him'.

Former colleagues and friends have claimed Evans is a 'bully' and a BBC insider claims he recently reduced an employee to tears after screaming at her.

Mr Revell said: 'It doesn't surprise me. If this was anyone else, they'd have been suspended'.

Mr Revell told heatstreet.com: 'Hes out of control. I had hoped hed got to an age where he would have stopped bullying and shouting and screaming. The BBC is unable to control him'.

'He can be absolutely vile. Hes like a spoilt child. If you say no to him he tends to lose his rag. I think BBC management are scared of him'.

Fi Cotter Craig, an ex-producer who worked with Evans, 50, in the 1990s spoke after it was revealed he was said to have repeatedly flashed his penis on The Big Breakfast. She appeared on The Island with Bear Grylls (pictured)

A BBC insider said last week that in April, Evans shouted so violently that he reduced an employee to tears and continued to scream until an engineer intervened.

Mr Revell said hearing about this incident convinced him to speak out publicly about the star. Mr Evans has not commented on the hurtful allegations made by one of his oldest friends.

He is not the only former friend and colleague of the Radio 2 presenter to speak out about his 'volatile' behaviour.

Dan McGrath, who has worked with Evans on his BBC radio show alongside Mr Revell, slammed the broadcaster for being allowed to be 's**tty to people to 'get the results he wants'.

Mr Evans and Mr Revell at a BBC roadshow at the height of his fame in the 1990s - 'Johnny Boy' has called on the corporation to investigate alleged bullying

His wife Lisa Clark left her role as a Top Gear producer last December amid claims Evans' 'control freak' behaviour forced her to quit

On a public Facebook page, Mr McGrath wrote: 'It's just so sad that nothing has changed over the last 15 years...(Leopards & spots)

'Does he still believe, even at the age of 50 it's worth being properly s**y to people to get the results he wants? Given our recent experience...I guess so.'

Under fire Chris Evans, pictured in London, should be investigated for bullying, his former sidekick John Revell has claimed

The comments were prompted by another former colleague of Evans, Steven D Wright, who accused the presenter of exposing himself on the set of The Big Breakfast, something the 50-year-old has previously admitted to in an interview with the Sunday Times.

Mr Wright said: 'He'd had a bath so dropped his towel and stood stark b****** naked for ten minutes while I prepped his next iv (sic) with Zig & Zag. I looked down at it then continued talking. I could tell he was annoyed I never 'reacted'.
Two women who allege that Uber drivers sexually assaulted them, one in Boston and the other in South Carolina, can sue the ride-hailing company, a federal judge said.

The women showed the possibility that the drivers were Uber employees who acted within the scope of their employment, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled Wednesday.

Uber had argued that the drivers were independent contractors and at least one of them may not have used the company cellphone app, where customers book rides, before the alleged assault.

'It may be that facts will ultimately be revealed that disprove plaintiffs' allegations or that tilt the scales toward a finding that Uber drivers are independent contractors,' Illston said.

A federal judge said that two women who allege that Uber drivers sexually assaulted them, one in Boston and the other in South Carolina, can sue the ride-hailing company (file photo)

The women showed the possibility that the drivers were Uber employees who acted within the scope of their employment/ Uber had argued that the drivers were independent contractors and not actual employees (file photo)

'However, taking the allegations in the amended complaint as true, plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts that an employment relationship may plausibly exist.'

The judge rejected Uber's move to dismiss the women's lawsuit, although she threw out a negligence claim related to one of the drivers.

Illston also said the women could pursue punitive damages and a fraud claim against Uber.

The San Francisco-based company declined to comment on the ruling.

Abderrahim Dakiri, a Boston Uber driver, was convicted earlier this year of assault and battery

The Boston driver, Abderrahim Dakiri, was convicted earlier this year of assault and battery.

He was sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to stay away from the victim, the campuses of her school and her workplace.

The South Carolina driver was arrested last year on suspicion of kidnapping and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

According to CBS Boston, another former Uber driver, Alejandro Done, 47, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and raping a woman in October.

Done was sentenced to serve 10 to 12 years in prison, CBS Boston reported.

In addition, the popular ride sharing company settled two major class-action lawsuits about two weeks ago in California and Massachusetts to keep Uber drivers as independent contractors instead of employees.

Uber also agreed to pay at least $10million to settle allegations earlier in April by California prosecutors that passengers were misled about the quality of background checks that were performed on drivers.

In 2014, Los Angeles and San Francisco prosecutors sued Uber claiming that background checks were inferior to what taxi drivers undergo as they do not included fingerprint checks for their past convictions.
Postmen in a Nottinghamshire are being terrorised by a mail-hating budgie that circles the letterbox like 'a bird of prey'.

Jimmy the budgerigar becomes so agitated when anyone comes to owner David Lockwood's house that he swoops at deliveries an circles the door mat.

The hyperactive bird scratches and pecks the post when it comes through the letterbox and Mr Lockwood, 78, believes he is 'trying to have a pop at the postman'.

Retired accountant David raised Jimmy from a chick with wife Jean at their house in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Jimmy the budgerigar (right) scratches at letters as they come through letterbox and owner David Lockwood (left) believes he is trying to 'have a pop at the postman'

Jimmy (pictured) becomes agitated when anyone comes to David's house and even circles the doormat

But as soon as the bird began to fly, he quickly realised that Jimmy hated being caged up. His feathered friend has been free to fly around the house ever since.

Mr Lockwood said: 'We often wonder if we should have got a more passive budgie - he's so full of interest. Fortunately he's never actually got to the postman because of course he can't get through the door.

Mr Lockwood raised Jimmy (pictured) from a chick with wife Jean at their house in Worksop

'Whoever comes to the front door, it doesn't matter - as soon as the bell rings Jimmy's off like greased lightning.

'He's a free spirit - right from day one he didn't want to be caged up. He likes trying to have a pop at the postman.'

When he is not busy scaring away postmen, three-year-old Jimmy enjoys a good gossip - and has quite a way with words.

Mr Lockwood said: 'He can say everything we say to him, he just rattles on, talking all the time.

'He says all the usual stuff like "Jimmy's a good boy" - he can't say anything useful like his address or phone number.

'His voice is so like mine, my wife can't tell if it's Jimmy speaking or me.'

It would be handy if Jimmy could learn his address however, as he has gone missing in the past.

Mr Lockwood said: 'When I want to go out he can sense it so he gets on my shoulder and I have to make sure he's not still there when I go through the door.

'About a year ago he fooled me and hid himself on my back and as soon as I opened the door he was off.'

Mr Lockwood and Jean, 87, thought they had lost Jimmy for good, but nonetheless they registered him on Pets Relocated.

Some days later they got an email from a man who said he'd been in Worksop for business at the weekend and a little budgie had flown over, sat on his shoulder and refused to leave.

'He can say everything we say to him, he just rattles on, talking all the time,' David (left) said of Jimmy (right)

It would be handy if Jimmy (left) could learn his address because he has gone missing from Mr Lockwood's (right) in the past

When he is not busy scaring away postmen, three-year-old Jimmy enjoys a good gossip - and has quite a way with words

Mr Lockwood thinks Jimmy believes he is in charge of the house.

He said: 'He's definitely an alpha male, when we went to buy him we were shown about half a dozen birds and Jimmy was already directing operations at that age.

Now the pair are enjoying their retirement with Jimmy - even if he is quite a handful.

Mr Lockwood said: 'It really does bring the place to life.
, 60, was stood down from job in 2014

A teacher has warned young men not to get into the industry after he was sidelined for almost two years pending an investigation into an alleged incident with a student.

The South Australian man, with 35 years experience in the profession said he was isolated while he endured an investigation by the Education Department that left him mentally scarred, The Advertiser reported.

It was alleged he touched a student inappropriately while he was acting principal of his primary school in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

A teacher has warned young men not to get into the industry after he was sidelined for almost two years pending an investigation into an alleged incident with a student (stock image)

The teacher was stood down form his job in 2014, and was not made aware of basic details of the accusation for six months until he was interviewed by police.

He was not charged and was sent a letter early this year ordering him back to work.

The Department has revealed it completed 80 disciplinary matters involving staff in 2015.

'It goes from zero to psycho in an instant,' the 60-year-old physical education teacher told The Advertiser.

He estimated his investigation alone would have cost taxpayers over $250,000 and that the department must spend millions of dollars each year chasing 'frivolous' or 'vexatious' complaints that could be handled on a local level.

'I would discourage any young guy from going into teaching,' he said.

The Education Department says delays in investigations are out of its control and they must wait for court cases and police proceedings to be completed.

Any police investigation is independent from departmental procedures and we are obliged to wait for it and any subsequent court action to conclude before moving to finalise departmental action, the Department told Daily Mail Australia in a statement.

The South Australian man, with 35 years experience in the profession said he was isolated while he endured an investigation by the Education Department that left him mentally scarred

A spokesperson acknowledged that the process involves a detailed examination of facts and can be stressful but that the Departments priority is the safety of children in our care.'

Investigations cover a range of allegations including sexual harassment, abuse, assault and financial wrongdoing.

Last year 27 allegations were 'sustained with findings' and 17 were handled through 'managerial processes.' 33 were 'unsubstantiated' and in 3 cases staff resigned prior to an outcome.

The South Australian teacher told The Advertiser that since the investigation he has suffered anxiety attacks and has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
A courageous hairdresser who helped trap a double murderer will miss out on a 20,000 reward because she contacted the police rather than Crimestoppers.

Michelle Sadler, 41, was walking her dog in Colchester, Essex, when she saw teen ripper James Fairweather staring at her from the bushes.

She recognised the 17-year-old from police posters and press coverage of the random murders of father-of-five James Attfield and Saudi student Nahid Almanea.

Mrs Sadler called 999 after spotting him lurking on the Salary Brook Trail - and even directed officers to where he was hiding - but she will not be rewarded for her bravery.

Michelle Sadler (left), 41, was walking her dog in Colchester, Essex, when she saw teen ripper James Fairweather (right) staring at her from the bushes

Crimestoppers launched a reward of up to 20,000 for information relating to the conviction of 'the person or persons' responsible for the brutal deaths.

Mother-of-one Ms Sadler, 41, said: 'Everyone who knows me knows I never did it for the money. I just know myself he wasn't going to get caught if I hadn't done anything so I'm so glad how it's turned out.

'For me, it's more the fact that a phone call from the likes of Steve Worron [who headed up the murder investigations] wouldn't have gone amiss.

'I gave up a lot of my time to help them - and I didn't mind doing it - but someone just saying 'thank you' would be nice.'

Michelle was walking her dog last My near the scene of Fairweather's second killing when she saw him hiding in the bushes wearing surgical gloves and a distinctive coat which had featured in appeals.

Police responded immediately to her call and arrested Fairweather who was still lurking in the bushes. He was armed with a knife and was wearing surgical gloves. Officers believe he was actively prowling for his third victim.

The then 15-year-old murdered James Attfield, 33 in a park in March 2014, stabbing his victim some 102 times. He later killed Saudi student Nahid Almanea in June 2014 with a bayonet.

Crimestoppers launched a reward of up to 20,000 for information relating to the conviction of two brutal murders which Fairweather (pictured) was responsible for

Officers believe Fairweather, who was armed with this knife, pictured, was hunting for his third victim

Officers questioned and released Fairweather following the second murder, although he was never ruled out as a suspect by investigators.

Assistant Chief Constable Steve Worron of Essex Police, described the crimes which left the community in fear as 'beyond the comprehension' of most people'.

Speaking after Fairweather, now 17, was found guilty of two counts of murder, Mr Worron said: 'He was never eliminated, and could not be eliminated, but there was no evidence to link him to either offence.'

This lady deserves a medal and a reward. She has single-handily saved Colchester and its people from further murders through her own bravery Local paper reader

Fairweather, aged just 15 at the time of his first killing, told the police he would have gone on to kill 15 more if he was not caught.

A Crimestoppers spokeswoman said: 'Michelle Sadler is not eligible for a Crimestoppers reward in this case because she contacted the police directly.

'Crimestoppers is a charity that allows the public to give information about crimes completely anonymously - we are there for people who, for whatever reason, feel they cannot contact the authorities.

One reader posted on the Colchester Gazette website: 'Seriously brave action and the town is immensely indebted to her. The vigilance and calm displayed proved utterly fruitful.'

Another said: 'This lady deserves a medal and a reward. She has single-handily saved Colchester and its people from further murders through her own bravery.'

Another reader wrote: 'If it wasn't for her calm actions this town would still be under threat from this deranged person. She definitely deserves a reward for this.'

Crimestoppers' spokeswoman added: 'We sometimes offer rewards in high profile cases as an incentive for those people and it does, on occasion, bring in vital information that the police would not have received directly.

Fairweather (pictured in a police interview), aged just 15 at the time of his first killing, told the police he would have gone on to kill 15 more if he was not caught

Fairweather was once questioned early in the investigation in the presence of his mother Anita (pictured) but police said they were forced to release him because of lack of evidence

'Our rewards do come with the condition that we will only pay in relation to information given directly through our anonymous service.

'This is something that we always make clear in our press releases.
Tony Little, the former head of Eton College, said charges are excluding parents

The former head of Eton College has warned boarding schools risk self-destruction because fees have spiralled out of reach for many families.

Tony Little said charges are excluding parents on modest incomes and risk destroying the very service that we value and cherish the most.

He also claimed boarding schools need to improve their approach to child protection by trying to change lives rather than simply checking the small print of insurance policies.

Mr Little told the Boarding Schools Associations (BSAS) annual conference in Manchester last week: Fees as we know have risen enormously over the past 30 years and will have been a barrier for many families who would like to consider boarding as an option for their children.

While we can celebrate our good value as a sector, independent schools cannot be blind to the plain and simple truth that for so many our fees are simply beyond reach.

And it does not take too much imagination to work out that unless there is some sort of positive action to address this - to widen the boarding opportunity not just for vulnerable children but to all - then we will be in danger of destroying the very service that we value and cherish the most.

Mr Little, who is honorary president of the BSA, said a cultural shift was also needed in schools, away from the legal details of safeguarding.

Good safeguarding and child protection cannot be measured by the interval between the last inspection report and the next court case.

If we are really to build bridges and change lives we have to shift from a world of listening to lawyers and checking the small print of our insurance policies and actually change the culture of what we do, he added.

Mr Littles speech came in the wake of a string of high-profile historic sex abuse cases in recent years, which has tarnished the image of the boarding sector.

After his speech, Mr Little, who was head of Eton from 2002 to 2015, told the Times Educational Supplement: I visit schools where its evident that the management of the school is so exercised by getting the legal details right.

The impression I get is that the school is being run for the ease of adults, not for the benefit of children. Its fundamentally wrong.

I can understand why it happens, but we have to change it.

He added The pendulum inevitably swings. Lots of schools are becoming obsessed by the small print and concerned with safeguarding from a legalistic point of view.

The former head of Eton (pictured) also claimed boarding schools need to improve their approach to child protection by trying to change lives rather than simply checking the small print of insurance policies

Any school has to be aware of a dark culture where things are unspoken and go underground. We need the opposite of that: finding a way where theres openness and trust.

You cant do that only by looking at the small print of legislation.

Mr Little suggested that some children are missing out on school outings and other experiences because teachers are overly worried about the legal fall-out.

He said: We need a shift in culture, really.

It falls on the heads and senior leaders. They should positively encourage all the things that are good for children, without a hint of Oh, itll be easier if we dont take children to this event.

Its the tone of the culture in the school.

Eton Colleges fees are 37,062 a year while the average annual fee for boarders across Independent School Council (ISC) member institutions is 30,951.

In February, Ralph Lucas, editor-in-chief of the Good Schools Guide warned hundreds of private schools could face closure because state schools have improved to the point that parents do not see the point of paying for independent education.

He claimed that state schools success in their war against pot smoking and violence was making it difficult for private schools to justify their huge fees.
Being unhappy with one's job is now an official right in the United States.

A recent ruling by the National Labor Relations Board says that employers can't force employees to 'maintain a positive work environment' - as the communications company T-Mobile tried to do through its employee handbook.

The handbook was brought in front of the NLRB three years ago by the union Communications Workers of America.

Among the T-Mobile policies scrutinized by the NLRB was this one, as expressed in the handbook: '[T-Mobile] expects all employees to behave in a professional manner that promotes efficiency, productivity, and cooperation. Employees are expected to maintain a positive work environment by communicating in a manner that is conducive to effective working relationships with internal and external customers, clients, co-workers, and management.'

Making less-than-positive statements at work is now officially OK - although it remains unclear whether shouting at co-workers through a bullhorn is allowed

On April 29, the NLRB ruled that the phrases 'positive work environment' and 'communicating in a manner that is conducive to effective working relationships' were too 'ambiguous and vague.'

The language used in the handbook would 'reasonably chill employees in the exercise of Section 7 rights,' the NLRB wrote.

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act guarantees the right for employees to bargain collectively and to form or join labor unions.

The NLRB argued that criticism of employers, arguments, and 'less-than-"positive" statements' are commonplace in labor disputes and union organizing efforts, and therefore must be allowed so as to not deter employees from exercising their rights to organize.

At least one business reporter seemed to have a less-than-positive reaction to the ruling.

In a report, the Business Journals said the ruling showed the NLRB is waging a 'war on employee handbooks.'
Underage drinkers jumped neighbours' fences in an attempt to escape helicopters, the riot squad and dog unit which were deployed to disperse a wild house party of 150 teenagers on Friday night.

One police officer was hospitalised and a 17-year-old charged, following the incident at View Street, Gymea in Sydney's south, where pictures show the house completely trashed.

Sutherland police arrived at the incident after a complaint was made shortly before 8pm and were met by abuse by partygoers sitting in the backyard of the vacant house.

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150 Partygoers trashed a vacant house (pictured) in Gymea in Sydney's south at an out-of-control party that was stopped by New South Wales riot police, dog squad and helicopters

Underage drinkers jumped neighbours' fences in an attempt to escape the house (pictured) Friday night. One police officer was hospitalised and a 17-year-old charged

Glass bottles and other projectiles were thrown at police when they tried to find out who had organised the event.

Local residents were alarmed by the sound of helicopters and took to social media to share information.

Sean Romer tweeted: 'Police helicopter circling gymea, near premier st. Anyone knows what's going on? #gymea #sutherlandshire #police.'

Chris Moir tweeted: 'Major police operation underway in #gymea with repors of riot squad, dog squad, police, helicopters and large crowds #sutherlandshire.'

Sutherland police arrived at the home, where furniture had been thrown on the roof (pictured) after a complaint was made shortly before 8pm

Local residents were alarmed by the sound of helicopters and took to social media to share information on twitter. Chris Moir told others reports of riot squad, dog squad and police helicopters were in the area

Nearby resident, Scott Campbell, asked about the helicopters commenting the 'spotty' was 'killing' the mood while he tried to skinny dip.

Mr Campbell said that about six of his neighbours' yards were being checked by the chopper which had been flying past.

A friend of Mr Campbell's commented: 'Wow thought we had some good party's  never had choppers called, must be nuts.

Police met abuse by partygoers sitting in the backyard (pictured) of the vacant house when they tried to find out who organised the event

Mr Campbell responded: 'I could have sworn we had some big ones that warranted a chopper but I suppose a chopper these days is a paddy wagon back then.'

Local police with the assistance from Police Transport Command also conducted patrols to ensure groups of teenagers left behind made it home safely.

While others had allegedly made their escape through neighbours' backyards according to a tweet posted by Natalie Clancy.

It is believed a 17-year-old male  who had been at the party  assaulted a 19-year-old at a nearby railway station in Gymea.

Bottles and broken windows were the only remaining elements of the rowdy party after local police with the assistance from Police Transport Command assisted groups of teenagers left behind made it home safely

It is believed a 17-year-old male  who had been at the party  assaulted a 19-year-old at a nearby railway station in Gymea (pictured) and a police officer sent to hospital while making the arrest

The younger of the two was arrested and taken to Sutherland Police station, where he was charged with assault and resist arrest  he will appear in front of children's court on Saturday.

During his arrest an officer was knocked to the ground and sent to St George Hospital with cuts and swelling to his head.

The 19-year-old was not injured during the incident.

Police urge anyone with information about the party to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidon arrives to the Edinburgh count with partner Jen Wilson

David Cameron last night hailed a Tory resurgence in Scotland that pushed Labour into its worst result there since 1910  and killed off a second independence referendum.

Downing Street claimed Labour was finished as a party of majority government in the UK after it was forced into third place by Ruth Davidson's Scottish Tories.

Labour's meltdown was a savage blow to Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and prompted Mr Cameron to declare a 'realignment' in British politics. The Prime Minister admitted that if anybody had told him a couple of years ago that the Tories would do so well, he would have assumed they were on drugs.

The Conservatives won 16 seats in their best ever performance in the Scottish Parliament elections, increasing their share of the vote by 8 percentage points. By contrast, Labour's vote share slumped by 9 points  with the loss of 13 seats.

An extraordinary performance by the Tories helped to deprive Nicola Sturgeon's SNP of a second overall majority, leaving her two seats short. It also delivered a hammer blow to the nationalists' dreams of a second independence referendum.

The Scottish First Minister will have to strike a deal with the Greens or another minor party to get key legislation through  though she insisted there would be no formal pact.

Downing Street lavished praise on Miss Davidson, saying she had been the only candidate fighting passionately for the Union, which she had helped to save.

George Osborne said the battering she had given Labour left the party's hopes of ruling the UK as a majority government in tatters.

'Clear that whoever leads Labour, they cannot govern the UK in the future without being propped up by the SNP,' the Chancellor wrote on Twitter.

Scottish Conservative Leader Ruth Davidson celebrates being elected Conservative MSP for Edinburgh Central at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston

Mr Cameron added: 'Frankly, it is something of a realignment in Scottish politics.

'If someone had said to me six years ago when I became Prime Minister, or even a couple of years ago if someone had come into my office and said, 'Prime Minister, pretty soon the Conservatives are going to be the second biggest party in Scotland', I would have told them to go away, lie down, to stop taking whatever they were taking, and come back and tell me what they really think, but that is what has happened.

'It's a great day for our party to see us recovering like this in Scotland, and I think it could be a realignment taking place north of the border  all to the good of those of us who want to see a strong and successful United Kingdom.'

Miss Davidson, who was accompanied to the vote by partner Jen Wilson, a charity worker from Wexford, Ireland, said: 'I hope the message that was resonating was of being a strong opposition, of holding the SNP to account, to saying no to a second independence referendum.' The PM did not feature on Miss Davidson's election literature, with a campaign dubbed 'Ruth, the whole Ruth and nothing but the Ruth'.

No 10 sources said she would be utilised south of the border as a powerful electoral asset. 'You will see more of her,' one insider said. But, as some Tory MPs tipped her as a future Conservative Party leader, Downing Street and Miss Davidson stressed her future was in Scotland for now.

In the early hours of yesterday, Miss Sturgeon declared victory and claimed a 'historic' achievement as the SNP secured a third term in power. But it later emerged that  after almost a clean sweep in Scotland at last year's General Election  the party had gone backwards.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is congratulated after she won the Edinburgh Central seat

The SNP is the largest party with 63 seats  ahead of the Conservatives on 31 and Labour on 24  two seats short of the overall majority the party first secured in 2011. Observers said that, if the SNP wanted to press the case for a second independence vote, it needed to win decisively on Thursday. But the SNP lost six seats overall.

Labour's Scottish leader Kezia Dugdale, appointed only last year, insisted she would not resign  despite seats previously considered Labour heartlands falling to the SNP, including Motherwell and Wishaw, and Greenock and Inverclyde.

Humiliatingly, Miss Dugdale failed in her bid to win the Edinburgh Eastern constituency from the SNP. She had to get a seat using 'top-up lists'  which allocate votes proportionally to elect seven MSPs for each of Scotland's eight regions.

Miss Sturgeon described the apparent collapse in Labour support as 'quite staggering'. Mr Corbyn has admitted the party has 'a lot of building to do' in Scotland.
Justice Secretary: Michael Gove said he wanted the PM to remain in Number Ten to make the country safer, and insisted he has no desire to have his job

Michael Gove last night set out urgent security and border improvements that could be made if Britain votes to quit the EU.

The Justice Secretary said that in the event of Brexit, the Prime Minister would have to enact new laws instantly to stop the influence of rogue European courts and allow the immediate deportation of terrorists.

But Mr Gove, who is the current favourite of the Tory grassroots to take over from David Cameron, said he wanted the Prime Minister to remain in Number Ten to make the country safer, and insisted he has no desire to have his job.

He told the Daily Telegraph: I dont want to do it and there are people who are far better equipped than me to do it.

The immediate powers Mr Gove wants No10 to take include freeing intelligence agencies from European law, allowing foreign criminals and terrorists to be deported without hindrance and freeing the British Armed Forces from Brussels diktats.

No10 has insisted it will take years to negotiate a new deal with Brussels and extricate ourselves from the EU. But Mr Gove said that it should begin immediately with a series of interim emergency laws.

The leading Leave campaigner also warns that the NHS and schools will not be able to cope with the further influx of immigrants that will come to the UK if the country stays in the EU.

He said: Weve stressed throughout that the day after we vote to leave, nothing fundamental changes and we still have the same trading arrangements and we start a process of informal talks and negotiations with our European partners.

But there are some things that we can change relatively quickly. And one of the things we can do is that we can deal with the European Court of Justice, which has become a rogue court.

The referendum campaign is due to increase in temperature tomorrow when Mr Gove and Chancellor George Osborne give rival TV interviews

Mr Gove claims that the ECJ is considering a judgment on Britains surveillance regime in an attempt to assert legal control over what our intelligence agencies can and cannot do. He said that under the new laws life in this country would change because Britain would be safer.

The referendum campaign is due to increase in temperature tomorrow when Mr Gove and Chancellor George Osborne give rival TV interviews.

Meanwhile a senior Bank of England official has claimed the safeguards Mr Cameron secured to protect Britain and the City of London from the eurozone are not as strong as claimed.

I dont want to do it and there are people who are far better equipped than me to do it Michael Gove, on the PM's job

As part of his deal with Brussels to keep Britain in the EU, the PM insisted he won guarantees that the UK would not be required to fund euro bailouts or sign up to draconian banking regulations.

He claimed a mechanism was now in place so that Britain could unilaterally complain directly to national leaders on the European Council to ensure the country is not discriminated against.

But a letter from Bank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe to MPs suggests that the Government has overstated its case.
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A Massachusetts woman who has been living in a tiny house she built as a college student is leaving town after voters rejected a proposal that would have made her dwelling legal.

Voters at a town meeting in Hadley on Thursday decided not to legalize backyard cottages,The Republican of Springfield reported.

They voted 215-102 against legalization, according to the newspaper.

Sarah Hastings has been living in her 190-square-foot home on wheels, dubbed Rhizhome, on a parcel owned by another couple for the last year.

A Massachusetts woman who has been living in a tiny house she built as a college student is leaving town after voters rejected a proposal that would have made her dwelling legal

Sarah Hastings has been living in her 190-square-foot home on wheels, dubbed Rhizhome, on a parcel owned by another couple for the last year

Voters at a town meeting in Hadley on Thursday decided not to legalize backyard cottages. They voted 215-102 against legalization

A website for the house says $15,000 was spent on the project, with construction taking 64 weekends and planning taking 2.5 years

Sarah Hastings (pictured) was given a day to move out. She says she'll try to find another location for her house

This photograph from the Facebook page for Rhizhome shows the front porch decorated with pumpkins

A website for the house says $15,000 was spent on the project, with construction taking 64 weekends and planning taking 2.5 years.

The home measures 27ft in length and 8.5ft in width - and weighs 13,000lbs total, it says.

As part of her building process, Hastings got a trailer off Craigslist and met with other tiny home builders, the page says.

Photos of Rhizhome reveal the miniature residence contains a microwave, a sink, a shower - and even a television.

Inside, a mini-fridge, hot plate, and a toaster oven can also be found, Amherst Bulletin reported in March.

Hastings has a composting toilet in her lavatory, which 'is accessible only from outside the house,' the newspaper wrote.

Amherst Bulletin's report said the living area of Rhizhome 'contains funky 1920s furniture [Hastings] found on Craigslist and at flea markets.'

The home measures 27ft in length and 8.5ft in width - and weighs 13,000lbs total. It also has a composting bathroom

As part of her building process, Hastings got a trailer off Craigslist and met with other tiny home builders

Hastings is able to bathe with a shower installed inside her tiny home

This image shows another view of the shower inside Rhizhome

Bags hang on the walls from elephant-shaped hooks inside the home, with a sink nearby

Hastings has said: 'Local professionals, friends, and my father contributed their skills and knowledge to my project, which ensured a safe and informed home'

Inside Sarah Hasting's 190-square-foot tiny house 'Rhizhome' Total weight: 13,000lbs Length: 27ft Width: 8.5ft Length of time spent on planning: 2.5 years Length of time spent on Craigslist: 60 hours Length of time spent on construction: 64 weekends Number of construction volunteers: 15 Amount of money spent: $15,000 Percent of materials from within a 200-mile radius: 90 Percent of materials that were outsourced: 5 Source: Rhizhome Advertisement

On the page for her Change.org petition 'Help Sarah Stay in Hadley: Support for Rhizhome Tiny House,' she wrote: 'Growing up, I always wanted to build my own creative home.

'Through my interdisciplinary education at Mount Holyoke College, I brainstormed a way to do this; by graduation I had competed the design and construction of my own mobile tiny home and received high honors in Architectural Studies for my work.

'I sourced all of my material from salvage yards, craigslist, and local businesses within a 200 mile radius of my building site.

'Local professionals, friends, and my father contributed their skills and knowledge to my project, which ensured a safe and informed home.'

Hastings had told Western Mass News: 'So I used the zoning violation, which is just one violation, for two dwellings per lot, and I used that so that I could finally reach the people I needed to on that level so I could propose a bylaw.'

Some residents had objected to the tiny house because Hastings failed to go through the required permitting process.

William Dwyer is Clerk of the Planning Board and told Western Mass News: 'There are a lot of people who are really upset about how it came to be on the agenda and how the petitioner moved into town and then asked for the bylaw to be changed.'

Hastings was given a day to move out. She says she'll try to find another location for her house.

Hastings told The Republican of Springfield: '1/3 of the attendees voted yes and there were so many passionate comments (from) people who did support it.'

Her neighbor Sarah Carey spoke to WWLP, saying: 'It was her choice to live in such a small house, to try to minimize her footprint on the planet, and I dont think she was causing any harm.'

Some residents had objected to the tiny house because Hastings failed to go through the required permitting process

Hastings, pictured with her boyfriend Joe Nawrocki, sit together inside the home with a furry friend nearby

Hastings has said: 'This doesn't feel like a total roadblock to me: By living lightly, I have also learned to have a light heart'

William Dwyer is Clerk of the Planning Board and told Western Mass News: 'There are a lot of people who are really upset about how it came to be on the agenda and how the petitioner moved into town and then asked for the bylaw to be changed'

Hastings told The Republican of Springfield: 'Hadley is a tough town when it comes to change and I can only wish the town the best of luck in providing for future needs.

'This doesn't feel like a total roadblock to me: By living lightly, I have also learned to have a light heart.'

She wrote Friday on a Facebook page for her small dwelling: 'I have a two pronged plan for my future: I will either work towards a PhD in Geography, centered on the areas of community and environment; and/or I will work towards my plans of developing an Elderflower orchard for a line of aged cider products that I will call "Respect Thy Elders."

'Keep an eye out for what's coming! My interest in caring for aging communities by brainstorming lifestyle solutions will come to fruition either or whichever way.'

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Real estate agent says the property has attracted international interest

Blackfiars and priests have previously lived at the property

northern suburbs went up for sale on Saturday

A historic Australian mansion which was once home to eight priests is on the market and expected to fetch $4 million.

The 1885-built Audley House at 32 Prospect Rd, Prospect, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, went up for sale on Saturday.

The property is rich in history, situated in an area renowned for its grand 19th century mansions.

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The 1885-built Audley House at 32 Prospect Rd, Prospect, in Adelaide's northern suburbs, went on the market on Saturday and is expected to fetch $4million

Its current owners say the property is rich with history, in an area which is renowned for its grand 19th century mansions

The property was once owned by the Blackfriars Priory School, a private Roman Catholic school in Prospect, who used it as a boarding house

Real estate agent Stephanie Williams of Harcourts Brock Williams, who is selling the property, said the it has attracted interest from all over the world.

'Our phones have been ringing all week about this amazing property,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'There's been local interest and I've had calls from Philadelphia and from London. The property has beautiful architecture and it certainly has a story with the history of it having blackfriars.

'That's what we love about releasing these sorts of properties - you just never know who you're going to be talking to about the opportunity - so it's quite exciting.'

Bob and Christina Lightfoot are selling after 22 years living in the grand abode. When they purchased the property it was home to eight priests

Mr Lightfoot told Daily Mail Australia: 'We really love this old house. As a kid I used to walk past and stare in, and often you could see blackfriars sitting on a bench and mediating'

Real estate agent Stephanie Williams of Harcourts Brock Williams, who is selling Audley House, said the property has attracted interest from all over the world

The Blackfriars Priory School, a private Roman Catholic school in Prospect, bought the property in 1960 and used it as a boarding house for its students.

When Bob and Christina Lightfoot bought the property in 1994, it was home to eight priests.

Now the couple are selling after 22 years living in the grand abode.

'We really love this old house,' Mr Lightfoot told Daily Mail Australia.

'As a kid I used to walk past and stare in, and often you could see blackfriars sitting on a bench and mediating.

'I just dreamed one day of owning a house like that. It always fascinated me because of the size and the space that it had around it.'

Ms Williams told Daily Mail Australia: 'Our phones have been ringing all week about this amazing property'

'There's been local interest and I've had calls from Philadelphia and from London. The property has beautiful architecture and it certainly has a story with the history of it having blackfriars,' Ms Williams said

The 14-room two-level mansion boasts five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a veranda egress, a dressing room and a spa room

Mr and Mrs Lightfoot have beautifully renovated the 1885 home.

The 14-room, two-level mansion now boasts five bedrooms, four bathrooms, a veranda egress, a dressing room and a spa room.

A club room holds an historic bar from the Earl of Aberdeen hotel on Pulteney Street in Adelaide, while a two-room guest apartment includes an ensuite and walk in robe.

Harcourts Brock Williams expect the property to fetch up to $4million.

A club room boasts an historic bar from the Earl of Aberdeen hotel on Pulteney Street in Adelaide
The former lead detective on the case of model Lucille Butterworth who was murdered almost five decades ago has promised to find her remains.

Ms Butterworth, 20, went missing on August 25, 1969 after she was dropped off at a bus stop at Claremont, north of Hobart, by a colleague she worked with at a radio station.

A coronial inquest on Monday found Ms Butterworth was strangled by Geoffrey Hunt, a convicted murderer who was jailed for the killing of another woman in 1976.

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The aspiring model was strangled by a convicted murderer, a coronial inquest ruled in Hobart on Monday

Tasmania Police Detective Inspector David Plumpton retired in December after 40 years but says his number one priority is to bring closure to Ms Butterworth's family by returning her body, reported The Examiner.

Mr Plumton spoke about the disappearance at the inquest this week and said he was satisfied with the result.

'I'm just very happy we've got the file to this situation and the family can feel somewhat appeased. That hasn't happened before,' he said.

Mr Plumpton also expects the Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC to strongly assess the findings of the inquest before deciding if charges will be laid against Hunt.

'At the end of the day Daryl Coates will make the determination based on the law, not anything else. That's how it should be.

'He's an excellent DPP. I am more than content that our DPP will rule on the law.'

Tasmania Police Detective Inspector David Plumpton retired in December and was the lead investigator into the case. He said his first priority is to find and return Ms Butterworth's body back to her family

Her family have since begged Hunt to reveal where her remains are after spending more than five decades searching for her.

Hunt has not faced criminal charges for the aspiring model's murder but allegedly confessed to being involved in her death in 1976. The confession was never followed up by police.

'Just tell us where Lucille's remains are. Please, we need to know. That's just the most important thing ... just to know where she is.

'We need to know so desperately,' John Fitzgerald, who was dating the 20-year-old when she disappeared, told The Hobart Mercury.

Jim Butterworth, the victim's brother, pleaded for Hunt to be jailed.

'We were betrayed in the beginning and we hope to hell that we don't get betrayed in the end and they bring this maggot of a fellow and put him where he should be,' he said.

Geoffrey Hunt (above at the Magistrates Court of Tasmania in November 2015) killed the woman by strangling her, the inquest found

Jim Butterworth (left) urged the Department of Public Prosecutions to charge and try Hunt. John Fitzgerald (right) begged him to tell them where her body was

On Monday it was revealed how witnesses told the inquest Miss Butterworth was picked up by an 'old bomb' turquoise green Holden FB after she missed the bus to New Norfolk in August 1969.

Coroner Simon Cooper found the car was driven by Geoffrey Hunt who confessed to raping and murdering another Hobart woman, Susan Knight, in 1976.

He is said to have confessed to being involved in Miss Butterworth's death while being questioned for the other crime in the 1970s. Police have apologised for not following up on the confession, ABC reported.

'On the journey to New Norfolk Mr Hunt stopped the FB Holden, strangled Miss Butterworth in the vehicle and thereafter disposed of her body,' Mr Cooper said on Monday as he delivered his findings.

He was unable to rule what the cause of her death was because her body has never been found.

'In the absence of any medical evidence I am unable to find the precise cause of Miss Butterworth's death,' he said.

Tasmania's Director of Public Prosecutions would not comment on the case when contacted by Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday.

In an interview with Channel Seven's Sunday Night last year, Hunt's brother, who did not wish to give his first name, said he believed his brother had a part in the killing.

'He was like a time bomb waiting to explode. So putting it all together, I'd have to say a very good possibility,' he said.

Hunt was sentenced to life in prison for the killing of Ms Knight in 1976 and released on parole in 2000.

Witnesses told the inquest the 20-year-old typist was picked up by an 'old bomb' turquoise green Holden FB after she missed the bus to New Norfolk in Tasmania

Mr Butterworth pleaded for criminal charges to be brought against the convicted killer on Monday

Hunt confessed to involvement in Miss Butterworth's death while being questioned over another murder in 1976

Tasmania's Police Commissioner Darren is expected to make a personal apology to the family of Lucille Butterworth

Tasmania's Police Commissioner is also expected to make a personal apology to the family after the coronial inquest found initial investigation by police failed as a result of poor standards.

Police Commissioner Darren Hine released a statement acknowledging the failings following the inquest.

'The Butterworth family, and those who loved her, deserve an apology for the deficiencies of the initial investigation and I intend to meet with them to personally express my sincere apologies,' Commissioner Hine said.

'The Butterworth family, and those who loved her, deserve an apology for the deficiencies of the initial investigation and I intend to meet with them to personally express my sincere apologies,' said Commissioner Hine said.

'Based on the information revealed by recent investigations, Miss Butterworth's family may have had the answers they deserve if her disappearance been treated differently by police at the time.

'While I cannot explain the actions or attitudes of investigators at the time, I can assure both Ms Butterworth's family and the Tasmanian community that policing has changed significantly since 1969.

'Investigative techniques, oversight and review of investigations that are now standard operating procedures would not allow a repeat of the failings of that investigation.'
The latest poll shows Labor and the coalition are neck-and-neck as the prime minister is ready to visit the Governor General to request a July 2 election.

As Malcolm Turnbull prepares to ask Sir Peter Cosgrove to approve a double dissolution election on Sunday, a Seven-ReachTel poll put the two-party result at 50-50.

While the Liberals' primary vote of 41.4 per cent is just above its 2013 election result, Labor is expected to strongly benefit from Greens and Nick Xenophon Team preferences.

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A Seven-ReachTel poll puts the two-party result at 50-50 as the prime minister prepares to visit Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove on Sunday to request a July 2 election

Labor needs a national swing of 4.3 per cent to unseat the coalition government after only one term.

The coalition can afford to lose 14 seats on a swing of three per cent.

Campaign preparations are well underway, with the coalition's headquarters based in Canberra and Labor's in Melbourne.

Turnbull and Shorten traded blows on Saturday in articles for the Herald Sun, kicking off a war of words Australians can expect to intensify in the coming eight weeks.

Campaign preparations are well underway, with the coalition's headquarters based in Canberra and Labor's in Melbourne. Above, Bill Shorten delivers his budget reply speech on May 5

The prime minister has consistently outrated Labor leader Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister since ousting Tony Abbott from the Liberal leadership last September

Mr Shorten accused the PM of telling a 'blatant political lie' in the Budget over the cost of a 10-year plan to cut company tax, the Herald Sun reported.

'This is a Budget for big business over the battlers,' Mr Shorten wrote.

Mr Turnbull hit back, accusing the Labor party of increasing the tax burden.

'After three years, all Labor has been able to come up with is an agenda to increase taxes by $12 billion over the next four years and $100 billion over the next 10. This is not a plan for the future,' Mr Turnbull wrote for the the Herald Sun.

The prime minister has consistently outrated Labor leader Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister since ousting Tony Abbott from the Liberal leadership last September.

The Turnbull government is hoping for a boost in support from Tuesday's budget, which included tax cuts for middle-income earners and more tax breaks for business. Turnbull (left) and Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison speak as they listen to Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten deliver his Budget Reply speech

Mr Shorten speaks during the delivery of the 2016-17 Federal Budget Reply speech in the House of Representatives at Parliament House in Canberra

However, in recent months his stocks and that of his party have fallen as voters grew concerned about a lack of direction.

The Turnbull government is hoping for a boost in support from Tuesday's budget, which included tax cuts for middle-income earners and more tax breaks for business.

But the Seven-ReachTel poll - the first to rate the budget - found 33 per cent of voters believed they would be worse off, while 59 per cent said 'about the same' and only seven per cent thought they'd be better off.
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A sea of pink descended on the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, today as a record-setting crowd of 124,589 people pulled out all the fashion stops ahead of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Cathryn Sophia won the 142nd Kentucky Oaks race for three-year-old female thoroughbred horses known as fillies, bagging the $600,000 prize in 1:50.33 over horses Land Over Sea and Lewis Bay, which came in second and third respectively.

With jockey Javier Castellano at the helm, Cathryn Sophia, the least expensive horse in the race at $30,000, took the lead down the stretch, overtaking Weep No More and Rachel's Vaneltina, both of which beat today's winner at the Ashland Stakes last month.

Cathryn Sophia started off strong alongside favorite Rachel's Valentina and found her opening at the top of the stretch before pulling away in the final furlong to win by 2 3/4 lengths over Land Over Sea.

She paid $11.40 to win, Land Over Sea paid $6.60 to place and Lewis Bay $4.60 to show.

The winning filly, owned by the Cash Is King Stables, may have caught a lucky break today with the top contender Songbird pulling out of the race due to a fever.

But it wasn't all mint juleps, big hats and heart-racing adrenaline - the Survivor's Parade held just before the race honored women who lived through ovarian and breast cancer with proceeds going to fund several non-profits championing prevention and early detection.

Cathryn Sophia (far right) and jockey Javier Castellano won the 142nd Kentucky Oaks race, traditionally held just one day before the Kentucky Derby in Louisville's Churchill Downs racetrack

Cathryn Sophia (left) was the least expensive horse in the race with a purchase price of $30,000. But she won big Friday evening, taking $600,000 of the $1million purse before Land Over Sea and Lewis Bay, which came in second and third respectively

Women dressed in their best spring frocks walked down the pink carpet and competed in the Longines Kentucky Oaks Fashion Contest

The Kentucky Derby website advises spectators to bring a pair of flat shoes as the racetrack can be 'tricky to maneuver'. Women participating in the Survivor's parade beamed as they marched in wellies (pictured)

Flowers were in full bloom, with stargazer lillies on the left, and a fabric rose with gold-tipped feathers (right). Because the winning horse receives a garland of lillies, the Oaks race is affectionately called 'Lillies for the Fillies'. The Kentucky Derby, on the other hand, is called 'The Run for the Roses'

A sea of pink descended on the Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky, today as a record-setting crowd of 124,589 people pulled out all the fashion stops

As women have looked across the pond to Kate Middleton, fascinators and decorative headbands have become increasingly popular at the derby (left), while others subscribe to the 'go big or go home' philosophy (right)

Sports Illustrated model Kate Upton (left) kept it fresh in all white, while model, film producer and blogger Courtney Sixx donned a pale pink lace dress (right)

When the race first launched in 1875, women often wore long silk dresses and often held up parasols while wearing gloves. Today, just about anything goes, although eye-catching hats remain the focus

Former ice skater Tara Lipinski, who won the Olympic gold in Nagano, Japan in 1998 strikes a pose with the legendary Johnny Weir (right) three-time US national champion. The two paired up as commentators in Sochi, Russia

One man made his own bedazzled mitre, complete with a bouquet of flowers, with a matching outfit and accessories to complete the look. His friend, right, showed his support for the Survivor's Parade, honoring women with ovarian and breast cancer

Height vs width? A closeup shows the custom mitre in all its glory, while one woman went for a wide brim instead, pinning an oversized bow to make a winning fashion statement

The winning filly, owned by the Cash Is King Stables, may have caught a lucky break today with the top contender Songbird pulling out of the race due to a fever

This year's Kentucky Oaks saw a record-setting crowd of 124,589 people attending. The event is the second-most attended horse racing event in the US

The winner of the Kentucky Oaks fashion contest was awarded a Longines stainless-steel watch with 46 diamonds

Many people wore pink to the Kentucky Oaks, paying tribute to the charitable cause led by the non-profit Bright Pink, which champions the prevention and early detection of both ovarian and breast cancer

Wearing a hat to the races is believed to bear good luck. In recent years, fascinators like the one on the left have become increasingly popular, and men have also joined in on the fashion spectacle (right)

Along with the Kentucky Derby, the Kentucky Oaks was established in 1875, making it the oldest, continuously held major sporting event in the United States, held every year at Churchill Downs in Louisville

Founder Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. modeled the race after events across the pond and the hats stuck as an expression of both Southern and British culture
One of the masterminds behind a 1million scam to help fund Islamic State used EU free movement laws to successfully fight deportation from the UK.

Immigration judges allowed knife-wielding robber Daha Essa, 27, to stay in Britain for his rehabilitation.

The Dutch national was not returned to his homeland following his prison sentence, because he claimed to be a reformed character desperate for a new life.

One of the masterminds behind a 1million scam to help fund Islamic State used EU free movement laws to successfully fight deportation from the UK

But instead he embarked on the elaborate con, dubbed the Bank of Terror, which targeted vulnerable pensioners, some of whom lost their life savings.

Earlier this week his gang were jailed for a total of 35 years amid fears they sent millions to the bloodthirsty fanatics.

But Essa, who was seen transferring bundles of stolen cash, was not brought to justice because he had already fled to Syria to join the fighting.

Police believe the swindlers duped thousands as part of an industrial-scale fraud channelling cash to jihadis.

News of Essas role comes just days after David Cameron admitted he should have done better in deporting criminals from European Union countries.

The Prime Minister branded the process for removing foreign prisoners fantastically difficult but said it was not a reason to leave the EU.

Career criminal Essa fought a costly legal battle  entirely at the expense of taxpayers  to fight deportation. His lawyers took his case all the way to the Court of Appeal as Home Secretary Theresa May battled to throw him out of the country.

In 2010, she concluded that he represented a present threat to public order and should be deported to the Netherlands.

But three years later the Court of Appeal overturned the decision ruling its effect on his rehabilitation had not been considered.

Although Essa did not use human rights laws to fight his case, he was allowed to remain under European Union laws governing free movement. This meant the court was required to consider the risk of compromising Essas social rehabilitation where he had become genuinely integrated.

The Court of Appeal overturned a decision that robber Daha Essa should be deported to the Netherlands, ruling its effect on his rehabilitation had not been considered

The judges said deportation would undermine important aspects of his support network and remove an incentive to durable rehabilitation. They said: The support factors to encourage him to develop stability in his life are stronger in the United Kingdom than the Netherlands.

Essa was born in Somalia and brought to the Netherlands in 1989 by his mother when he was a few months old. Two of his siblings moved to the UK and his mother followed in 2000.

He went on to pass eight GCSEs, and in September 2006, started studying for a BTEC in travel and tourism at Tower Hamlets College.

But in June 2006, aged 17, he had been convicted of handling a stolen mobile phone, was given a fine and made the subject of a referral order for community service.

The following March he was back in court after failing to comply with the order and in April 2007 he was arrested by the police for robbery.

A court heard he threatened a train passenger with a 6in knife and after his conviction showed no remorse or awareness of the terrifying nature of his conduct.

Essa continued to deny his guilt even after he was jailed, and was reported for uncooperative and abusive behaviour at Highpoint Jail, a Category C prison in Suffolk.

After his release and on being allowed to stay in the country Essa moved to Whitechapel where he registered a company called Sweetz n Treatz. The East London neighbourhood was identified as the centre for the gang behind the Islamic State fraud, most of whom were never identified.

Essas fingerprints were found on a money band and bank slips after cash was paid into the account of another man, Ahmed Ali, who travelled to Syria in April 2014. Counter-terrorist investigators believe Essa followed a few months later.
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The choking cloud of thick smoke which has shrouded Sydney for much of Saturday could return on Sunday as firefighters continue controlled burns across NSW.

Sydney was covered in smoke on Saturday as almost 50 controlled fires were lit in hazard reduction efforts aimed at reducing the likelihood of major bush fires breaking out in the state.

Rural Fire Service spokesman Brendan Doyle said there was a chance the smoke would still be noticeable on Sunday, reported the ABC.

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Thick smoke caused by burnoffs in the Blue Moutains is seen from the air blanketing thousands of square kilometres across Sydney

An aerial photo shot east of Sydney shows the vast coverage of Saturday's smoke which drifted to the city from back-burning near Katoomba and Richmond, in the Blue Mountains

Shot from above, Sydney Harbour appeared mystical on Saturday morning as the city awoke to a dense haze

Mr Doyle said: We may still see, in the morning, the smoke laying in those low-lying areas.

What we ask people to do, if you are affected by smoke, is stay indoors and only call triple zerio if you see a fire without a fire truck in attendance.

RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said that although the smoke was inconvenient, it was better than risking the outbreak of an uncontrolled bush fire.

He said: I acknowledge theres been an inconvenience and concerns over smoke haze thats been around for a few hours [On Saturday], but thats a lot better than a few hours of uncontrollable fires burning across the landscape and consuming hundreds and hundreds of homes.

The city's famous landmarks can be barely seen from above after dense smoke was pushed over the Sydney basin by humidity and low cloud cover

Despite the heavy smoke cover, Sydneysiders still took cover from the sun at Manly Beach on an otherwise clear day with a top of 24 degrees

Some of the city's famous landmarks can hardly been seen through the smoke that came from the Blue Mountains after two days of back burning

Health warnings were issued on Saturday as Sydneysiders woke up to a city covered in smoke.

The smoke came from the Blue Mountains, west of the city, after two days of hazard reduction burning, where areas of bush are burned out to provide a 'stop' area to prevent major bush fires.

A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said:'It's just the humidity and the low cloud cover which has pushed the smoke straight back down into the Sydney basin.

By Saturday evening air quality in the city had reached dangerous levels and authorities were warning people to reduce their exposure to the smoke, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sydney's northern shore had the poorest air quality, at one point reaching 894 on Environment NSW's Air Quality Index.

A score exceeding 200 on the index is considered 'hazardous', with authorities recommending that children, the elderly and anyone with a respiratory condition should avoid going outdoors.

The next most dangerous area was St Mary's in the north west of Sydney, where a reading of 218 was registered on the index.

A Fire and Rescue NSW spokesman said the smoke should not be of concern, but those with asthma and lung conditions are advised to take their reliever medicine and reduce outdoor activities

Thick cloud hangs heavy over Sydney Harbour bridge. The smoke is coming from hazard reduction burning, where areas of bush are burned out to provide a 'stop' area to prevent major bushfires

Social media users posted images online of the haze surrounding the city.

Reddit user Matthew Campbell told Daily Mail Australia how he woke up this morning to the distinctive smell of burning Australian bush.

He said:'I live in the city overlooking Hyde Park and the CBD. You can just make out Centrepoint Tower, ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park and St. Mary's Cathedral spires just showing through the smoke.

'Usually it's crystal clear looking out all the way to the suburbs on the north banks of the Harbour!'

Tourists couldn't get a clear view of the Harbour Bridge, which can only just be seen through the smoke

Surfers at Manly Beach are seen shrouded in smoke haze on Saturday morning. The smoke dropped down due to low clouds and humidity

The low temperatures had caused the smoke to settle overnight, but it should clear later on Saturday morning

The back burning fires around Sydney are located in the Blue Mountains regions, near Katoomba and Richmond

Reddit user Matthew Campbell posted this image of his view from where he lives on Liverpool Street

Centrepoint Tower, ANZAC Memorial in Hyde Park and St. Mary's Cathedral spires are barely showing through the smoke

Mr Campbell said that the view is usually crystal clear all the way to the suburbs on the north banks of the Harbour

Sydney's Luna Park can be barely seen through the smoke that local residents woke up to on Saturday morning

People attempt to relax at Manly beach while surrounded by the smoke cloud. The NSW Rural Fire Service is taking advantage of dry conditions to back burn the Blue Mountains area

Thick cloud is seen over North Sydney and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Most of the city was hidden as result of the cloudy haze

Children attempt to play football at LM Graham Reserve on Saturday morning. People with lung conditions or asthma was advised to reduce outdoor activities

The sun attempts to break through the smog that shrouds Sydney's famous landmarks. The landmarks were virtually hidden from tourists and photographers had their views ruined
Jeremy Corbyn was warned by his own MPs last night that his weak leadership and poor judgment could keep Labour out of power until 2030

Jeremy Corbyn was warned by his own MPs last night that his weak leadership and poor judgment could keep Labour out of power until 2030.

Open warfare erupted in Labour ranks as the party slumped to its worst election performance in Scotland since 1910. It also became the first Opposition party in 30 years to lose council seats in England.

More than a dozen MPs queued up to tear into the embattled leader  lambasting him as not credible. One said the clock was ticking on his leadership  with rebels giving him 12 months to get his act together or risk being ousted.

Mr Corbyn said the party had hung on, with the estimated loss of more than 20 seats in England a less dismal showing than some analysts had predicted.

But, in a brutal intervention, Labours shadow Scotland secretary Ian Murray said: I dont think that the public see the Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn at the moment as being credible.

David Cameron poured salt into the wound by ridiculing Labours performance. This was despite the Tories losing seats in southern England and seeing Zac Goldsmith heavily beaten in the acrimonious contest to be London Mayor.

Mr Cameron said: Local election day for sitting Prime Ministers is supposed to be a day of dread. Its meant to be when you sit there waiting for someone to knock like the condemned man waiting for the hangman. That wasnt what it was like last night.

On an extraordinary day:

The Tories enjoyed a huge surge in support north of the border  forcing Labour into a humiliating third place behind the SNP;

George Osborne claimed Labour was finished as a party of majority government in the UK;

Analysts said the Tories now had a better than nine in ten chance of winning the 2020 general election;

Sadiq Khan became Londons first Muslim mayor;

Labour candidates said the anti-semitism row in the party had cost them victory in some areas.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Murray added: I was promised a Corbyn bounce when he became Labour leader and Im not sure weve seen it. In fact we probably have seen a bounce but its the wrong way.

Others from the partys ranks joined in the criticism. In an joint article, Labour MPs Neil Coyle and Jo Cox said they regretted putting Mr Corbyn on the leadership ballot. They wrote in the Guardian: Weak leadership and poor judgment have created distractions and stopped us getting our message across.

Without a focused leadership we will continue to go backwards, offering the Tories the prospect of power through 2020, 2025 and beyond. What we cannot, must not do is sit back and hope for the best.

Prime Minister David Cameron poured salt into the wound by ridiculing Labours performance

However Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, a key ally of Mr Corbyn, responded by telling begrudgers in the party to put up or shut up.

Following Thursdays elections across the UK, Mr Corbyn and his allies took to the airwaves to claim he had enjoyed a good night.

The party avoided losing some vulnerable English councils, and remained the biggest single party in Wales. But Labour MPs pointed out that the partys vote share in key councils  including the bellwether area of Nuneaton  had fallen sharply. They added that, since 1985, Opposition parties had always won council seats in England.

NOW KEN SAYS CREATION OF ISRAEL 'WAS A CATASTROPHE' Labour's anti-semitism crisis threatened to reignite yesterday as it emerged that Ken Livingstone called the creation of Israel in 1948 a great catastrophe. The former London mayor was blamed for Labours losses in councils with large Jewish populations after he claimed last week that Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s. He blamed the row on Blairites trying to discredit him. But in an interview with Arabic broadcaster Al Ghad Al Arabi, that was filmed last month but came to light yesterday, he said: The creation of the state of Israel was a great catastrophe. We should have absorbed the post-World War Two Jewish refugees in Britain and America. They could all have been resettled, whereas 70 years later, the situation is still very tense, and there is potential for many more wars, potential for nuclear war. He has been suspended from Labour over his original remarks.

After 118 out of 124 council results it has lost 24 councillors compared with 2012. Labour also lost one council. Moderates had been demanding 400 seats gained. The Tories lost 35 seats.

Mr Corbyn said: All across England last night we were getting predictions that Labour was going to lose councils. We didnt, we hung on. In Scotland, where Mr Corbyns allies had claimed his anti-austerity stance would play well, the party was humiliated by both the SNP and Conservatives.

Former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie said Mr Corbyn seemed to have his fingers in his ears. He added: If they think this is doing well, I would hate to see what doing badly looks like.

Batley and Spen MP Mrs Cox, who nominated Mr Corbyn for leader, added: The clock is ticking. This is not a route back to power for Labour so I think its actually been an incredibly disappointing night.

Labours deputy leader Tom Watson insisted there were crumbs of comfort and the leader should be given time. This was seen as a signal that there should be no coup  for now. Mr McDonnell admitted the anti-semitism row had set us back, but insisted that the party would come out of this stronger.

Mr Cameron said the Conservatives had held councils right across the country and won seats in England. He added: Labour have lost touch with the hard-working people they are supposed to represent.
Jeremy Corbyns own rather desperate analysis of the election results was that Labour hung on'

Jeremy Corbyns own rather desperate analysis of the election results was that Labour hung on.

This is just about true  but what will be the cost to the partys long-term prospects as he staggers on for another year, knives protruding from both his front and back?

The partys share of the local vote was down around 6 percentage points on average compared to 2012, the last time these seats in England were contested, under the ultimately doomed leadership of Ed Miliband.

Over the four decades since 1974, the average council election gain for an Opposition party in a year without a general election has been 434 seats. Yet Labour lost seats  more than 20 of them  in this weeks polls.

You have to go back to 1985  when Labour was tearing itself apart over hard-Left group Militant  to find an Opposition losing seats in English council elections.

But the figures are, in fact, worse for Labour than this. Because when an Opposition party has a new leader  as they have with Mr Corbyn  the average gains are 515 seats.

The Conservatives even managed to gain 256 council seats in 1998, when Tony Blair was at the height of his popularity. They won a further 1,344 in 1999, with Labour losing 1,161.

Even Michael Foots first local elections as party leader in 1981 saw Labour gain 988  and he was the least successful Labour leader of modern times.

In contrast, Mr Corbyn has gone backwards and suffered losses.

True, Labour managed to remain the largest party in Wales  but fell short of an overall majority as Ukip ate into its core vote, gaining seven seats. Meanwhile, in Scotland, there was utter devastation for the party slumped to its worst result since 1910. Labours vote share was down by 9 percentage points  with the loss of 13 seats.

Humiliatingly, the Tories pushed them into third place.

Chancellor George Osbornes analysis yesterday was that Labour is finished in Scotland and, therefore, no longer capable of forming a majority Government in the UK.

Only by forming an alliance with the SNP does it have any chance of running Britain  and the public flatly rejected that idea at the 2015 general election.

The only reason that Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was able to claim, with a straight face, that Labour had enjoyed a good night was because expectations had been so dramatically downplayed in recent weeks. It did not lose the 150-175 English council seats predicted by some analysts.

But if restricting the partys losses to double-digits  when historic precedent suggests it should have made huge gains  is a good nights work, the party is in a very, very dark place indeed.

Labour managed to remain the largest party in Wales  but fell short of an overall majority as Ukip ate into its core vote, gaining seven seats

Narrowly, it was ahead of the Tories in the national vote share. According to BBC projections for England, Labour are on 31 per cent with the Conservatives on 30 per cent. In 2012 Labour was at 38 per cent, and the Tories at 31 per cent.

And the Labour leadership let it be known that the results were sufficient see off any threat of an immediate coup. Tory moderates said themselves that Mr Corbyn has another 12 months in the job.

But in truth there never really was the prospect of the rebels striking now, as they have two major problems to overcome.

The first is that, while Mr Corbyn has the backing of hundreds of thousands of party members, any coup attempt would be futile.

Team Corbyn are adamant that, legally, he would make it on to the ballot in any leadership contest and win again.

Second, where is the candidate around whom the moderates are uniting?

The two names in the frame are Angela Eagle and Dan Jarvis but there is no strategy for getting them elected  just a seething contempt for the man who currently holds the job, which many of them so publicly laid bare yesterday on the TV and radio.

While Mr Corbyn has the backing of hundreds of thousands of party members, any coup attempt would be futile.

What state the party and its brand  so painstakingly repaired by Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Tony Blair  will be in this time next year is anyones guess.

Still to come, remember, is the madness of the party tearing itself apart over a vote on replacing Trident  not to mention who knows how many more anti-semitism scandals.

Certainly, the night was not without some pain for David Cameron, whose share of the vote fell in the south east. Councils he might have expected to turn blue did not materialise.

But, given that he is six years into his premiership, in the grip of a bruising internal battle over Europe, and coming off the back of a botched Budget, the Prime Minister should have been drubbed.

Instead, he could trumpet not only the incredible story north of the border, but also the news of seats gained in places such as Peterborough, Nuneaton and Bury  all of them key election battlegrounds.
There are still two dolphinariums in Australia

The campaign is part of a wider push to end the practice across Australia

A baby dolphin died from a heart attack after it swallowed foreign material

The campaign targeted Dolphin Marine Magic park in Coffs Harbour, NSW

Former NSW premier Bob Carr has thrown his support behind a campaign aimed at ending dolphin captivity across Australia.

The Australia For Dolphins 'Show's Over' campaign initially targeted the Dolphin Marine Magic park in Coffs Harbour on the north coast of NSW after a baby dolphin died from a heart-attack following efforts to extract foreign material from its stomach last October.

Labor MPs, the Animal Justice Party and the Greens backed a proposed legislation on Thursday to end the practice of keeping and breeding dolphins in NSW.

The legislation will act as a stepping stone abolish the practice across the country.

Former NSW premier Bob Carr is backing legislation that will ban dolphin captivity across the state

In 1986 Mr Carr worked towards banning wild dolphins being kept in dolphinariums, reported The Australian.

But a loophole in the legislation allowed parks to legally keep and breed dolphins that were either born in captivity or rescued after being beached.

'To think of these creatures being confined in a pool one-third the size of an Olympic swimming pool is to know what this is all about, it's plain cruel,' Mr Carr said.

'We imagine it's amusing to humans and harmless to them ... but captivity is in fact driving them mad. It's cruel, its painful.'

Unlike the initial bid to ban dolphin captivity in 1986, the new legislation has a broad public support.

Hec Goodall, the majority shareholder of Dolphin Marine Magic, has also backed the new legislation.

'I firmly believe there's a better way of exhibiting them and caring for them and it's building large sea pens,' Mr Goodall said.

Sea World on the Gold Coast and Dolphin Marine Magic are the only locations in Australia to still have captive dolphins.

There are still two dolphinarium in Australia - Dolphin Marine Magic park in Coffs Harbour on the north coast of NSW and Sea World a Gold Coast theme park (pictured)




The family of a two-year-old boy who was left fighting for his life after he suffered burns to 90 per cent of his body when a fire ripped through his home have chosen to switch off his life support.

Austin Cotterill has been battling to recover since April 28 after a blaze broke out about 8.30pm at his family home in Eidsvold, more than 400km northwest of Brisbane.

A spokesperson for the family told Brisbane Times the toddler's life support is expected to be turned off on Saturday morning.

Austin Cotterill, 2, is fighting for his life after he suffered burns to 90 per cent of his burns when a house fire ripped through his home in rural Queensland

The boy was initially taken to Gayndah Hospital before being airlifted to Brisbane in critical condition.

Austin's father, Steven, maintained a constant presence by his son's bedside after his son underwent four hours of surgery, reported The Courier Mail.

'He's holding in there at the moment,' he said.

'It was touch and go there for a while. The surgeons we spoke to said theyve never seen burns like that on a child before.'

Firefighters are investigating if candles burning in one of the children's bedrooms had caused the blaze, 9News reported.

The toddler had surgery at the Lady Cilento Children's Hospital to remove dead tissue, father Steven said

The blaze is believed to have started from candles burning in one of the children's bedrooms

The boy's mother, Mandy, only had enough time to drag his two siblings away from the fire but was too late to save Austin from his extensive burns.

Witness Doug Hooker told 9News the family had sought assistance from neighbours.

'I heard the wife call out to me and said there were people screaming for help,' he said.

'I'm a bit immobile so by the time I got out here, all I saw was the flames leaping out of the front corner of the house.'

A friend has since started up a gofundme page for Austin's family.

Organiser Louie Christine Naumovski said Steven, Mandy and their two other children were staying at Ronald McDonald House accommodation while Austin remained in hospital.

'They may be there for a very long time. We want to show our support to their family, to make their stay easier and without worry except for their little boy,' Ms Naumovski said.

The boy's mother, Mandy, only had enough time to drag his two siblings away from the fire but was too late to save Austin from his extensive burns
Six branches in Melbourne's east owned by same couple have been closed

Millions of dollars of clients money is missing from an LJ Hooker trust

Two real estate agents at the centre of an investigation into millions of dollars of missing clients money are living in a house with a pool and three luxury vehicles parked outside.

Six LJ Hooker branches in Melbourne's wealthy eastern suburbs run by Judy Thanh Truc and ex-husband Joseph Ngo have been forced to close while Victoria's consumer affairs regulator investigates 'substantial' losses affecting more than 100 customers.

Consumer Affairs Victoria is looking into allegations that millions of dollars from homeowners and landlords held in a trust has gone missing.

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Six LJ Hooker branches in Melbournes wealthy eastern suburbs run by Judy Thanh Truc and ex-husband Joseph Ngo (pictured) have been forced to close

LJ Hooker Glen Waverley (pictured), Keysborough, Mount Waverley, Burwood, Doncaster and Box Hill have been closed since April 21

Ms Truc has denied any wrongdoing and has said she is prepared to help repay clients.

This week she and Mr Ngo, who split in March, were seen living together in a four-bedroom house with a pool in Melbourne's southeast, the Herald Sun reported.

Two Mercedes Benz sedans worth about $235,000 and $270,000 brand new, and a van valued at $50,000, were parked outside.

In an interview with Fairfax late last month, Ms Truc said she wasn't hiding or running from the issue.

'I never stolen anyone monies [sic]. I cannot accepted this, is someone set me up,' Fairfax quoted her as saying.

'I feel really bad when I saw my clients in hard situation. Very sorry. But everything out of my control.'

Ms Truc said she was ready to sell her own home to make up for the missing money.

She also said her husband was in hospital suffering the effects of work-related stress.

Consumer Affairs Victoria said on Friday it had taken possession of the offices as it investigated allegations its directors Judy Nguyen (left), also known as Judy Thanh Truc, and husband Joseph Ngo (right) spent customer funds that were meant to be held in trust

The Victorian State Government says homeowners and landlords will be compensated after funds from the LJ Hooker franchisee trust account went missing.

Consumer Affairs Minister Jane Garrett has said the Victorian Property Fund would return money to those affected.

Ms Truc said she'd told LJ Hooker of issues with the trust earlier, but the company said it only learned of the issue on April 20.

LJ Hooker chief executive Grant Harrod told the Herald Sun that there had been no reason to believe Ms Truc's franchises were in trouble.

He said he thought the money had only began vanishing 'relatively recent(ly)'.

LJ Hooker Glen Waverley, Keysborough, Mount Waverley, Burwood, Doncaster and Box Hill have been closed since April 21. Consumer Affairs Victoria has taken possession of the offices

'Initial indications are there are more than 100 landlords and sales customers of the franchise impacted, involving substantial amounts of money,' Consumer Affairs Victoria said in a statement.

Victorias consumer affairs regulator investigates substantial financial losses affecting over 100 customers

Victims Jan and Katarina Melih told ABC News they had yet to receive a $61,000 deposit from the sale of their home in Dandenong.

We trusted the LJ Hooker brand- we didnt know we were dealing with a franchise, Mr Melih, 73, said.

Im not the only one thats lost money.

A statutory manager has been appointed to deal with outstanding consumer, landlord or tenant transactions, and wind the business down.

LJ Hooker's head office is helping the regulator investigate and identify any losses, Consumer Affairs Victoria said.

The company was attempting to find work for the employees at the six closed offices, Fairfax reported.
A pregnant teenager diagnosed with the Zika virus on Monday has decided to keep her baby.

Sara Mujica, 17, went to visit her fiance Victor Cruz, 19, in Honduras earlier this year and returned home to Danbury, Connecticut on March 30, pregnant with a fever and rashes all over her body.

Mujica, who was told she would never conceive after she contracted meningitis at the age of 15, considered an abortion but maintained a positive outlook, calling the pregnancy a 'big miracle'.

Sara Mujica, 17, (left) went to visit her fiance Victor Cruz, 19, (right) in Honduras earlier this year and returned home to Danbury, Connecticut on March 30 with a fever and rashes all over her body

She learned she was pregnant just four days after she started exhibiting symptoms of Zika. Mujica wasn't officially diagnosed with the virus until a month later on Monday

The 17-year-old, who tested for Zika after she returned from the Honduras, received news of her diagnosis on Monday.

She considered an abortion given the virus' link to fetal brain damage and microcephaly, which causes significantly smaller heads in newborns due to abnormal brain development.

She told WFSB on Wednesday: 'No one wants to go through [Zika] when they are pregnant and have a baby that might possibly come out deformed.

'I am very nervous. I dont know what to do exactly. I dont want to say I dont know if I should have an abortion or just take what God gave me.'

She has decided to carry out the pregnancy to full term, telling People Magazine she is Catholic.

She said: 'I'm not happy that my baby is going to be born with Zika but God has given me a miracle.'

She considered an abortion given the virus' link to fetal brain damage and microcephaly, but has since decided to carry the pregnancy to full term (pictured, Mujica left with Cruz right)

Mujica found out she was pregnant on March 14, despite doctors telling her she was infertile after coming down with meningitis, the inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

The teenager started showing symptoms of the virus just four days before, with rashes appearing all over her legs, arms and face, while she came down with a fever.

Mujica feared for the worst, given headline news surrounding the Zika virus, but thought it could have been chicken pox.

The 17-year-old, who has since flown back to the Honduras to be with her fiance, is advised to return home to seek treatment, but she says she doesn't have enough money to change her return flight, which is scheduled for July.

The couple plan to marry in the upcoming weeks so Cruz can accompany his partner back to the states. They are also trying to raise money through a GoFundMe page.

Microcephaly is a birth defect marked by babies born with brain abnormalities and undersized heads (file photo)

It is unclear whether Cruz is also infected with Zika.

The mosquito-borne Zika virus has been linked to hundreds of cases of microcephaly in countries such as Brazil, which has declared a public health emergency over the disease.

The birth defect is marked by babies born with brain abnormalities and undersized heads.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Helsinki have also linked Zika to the increased risk of an unborn baby suffering brain damage.

In March, the CDC issued guidelines for couples, saying those who are trying to conceive should use condoms every time or abstain from sex for six months if the man had confirmed illness or Zika symptoms.

And if a male partner has visited a region affected by Zika but did not fall ill  or if a woman has confirmed Zika or exhibited symptoms  a couple should wait at least eight weeks before trying to conceive.

US health officials said at the time that the new guidelines were based on the current understanding of how long Zika persists in blood or semen  and then tripling the time.
A 26-year-old man has been diagnosed with a rare disease caused by long-term daily cannabis use.

The man, who is believed to have smoked up to one gram of weed a day, was identified with the condition after visiting Frankston Hospital in Melbourne,The Age reported.

He had an ulcer on his toe that failed to heal - a common symptom among patients.

An Australian man has been diagnosed with a rare disease caused by long-term daily cannabis use

Dr David Soon, from the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS), said the man was the first person in Australia to be treated for the illness.

'Although this is a rare condition, this illness should be known and made aware to physicians around the Australia,' Dr Soon said in a statement.

Cannabis Arteritis is a condition caused by long-term daily cannabis use and results in lesions growing on arteries.

The disease is rare, but can lead to lower limb amputation.

Dr Soon said the man's daily use caused a plaque buildup around his toe.

'Cannabis usage can cause the periphery blood vessel to tighten up and therefore increasing the resistance, and therefore increasing the amount of plaque depositing around the arteries, and therefore eventually narrowing the artery,' he told Melbourne radio station 3AW

Cannabis Arteritis is caused by long-term daily cannabis use and results in lesions growing on arteries

The patient was successfully treated with balloon angioplasty, which widens blocked arteries, but will have to take aspirin for the rest of his life.

The illness is most commonly found in men and the majority had necrotic wounds on their toes.

Dr Soon said things looked brighter for patients after they stopped using cannabis.

'Due to the increase in cannabis usage and the legalisation of medicinal cannabis, awareness of this condition is important and may become a growing problem in the future,' he said.

Dr Soon prevented his findings to surgeons at the Annual Scientific Congress (ASC) meeting in Brisbane earlier this week.
A woman was arrested after a man was killed when a car crashed into him when he was changing a tyre by the side of a busy freeway.

It is believed the man was trying to fix his car on the Western Ring Road at Sunshine West in Melbourne, when a dark purple Holden Commodore sedan crashed into him.

Emergency crews attended but the man died at the scene.

A 27-year-old woman was arrested after a man was killed when a car crashed into him when he was changing a tyre by the side of the Western Ring Road in Melbourne on Saturday

Police have confirmed a 27-year-old woman from Altona Meadows in Melbourne's south-west has been arrested following the crash.

She has been taken to hospital and is under police guard.

Another man, who was also outside the stationary car, received minor injuries and was taken to hospital.

Anyone who witnessed the incident or with any information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

There were 90 road fatalities in Victoria last year. This year's tally has already reached 105.
Kyle Coleman was shot by his best friend, his body and belongings were burnt by the side of a farm and lies were told to police by his killer, before he himself committed suicide instead of confessing.

James Coleman (no relation) took his own life four days after his friend Kyle, 17, disappeared from a hunting trip to Undilla station in Camooweal, west of Mount Isa, Queensland in 2014.

Findings handed down on Friday by Coroner Jane Bentley revealed that Kyle's death was the result of a 'discharge from a firearm' by his friend of ten years, according to a court report.

Kyle Coleman (pictured) was shot by his best friend, his body and belongings were burnt by the side of a farm and lies were told to police by his killer, before he himself committed suicide instead of confessing

James, who had been 'very good friends' with Kyle (pictured) for over a decade, was found to have accidentally shot his friend, while the pair were likely intoxicated

Ms Bentley concluded that Kyle likely never left the station and his burnt remains were likely eaten by animals.

She said: 'I find that Kyle died at or near the fire site and his body was left on Undilla Station and his remains have since been moved and/or disposed of by animals.

'After Kyle died James burnt Kyle's belongings including his swag and his backpack which contained his watch and his time sheet book.

James, who had been 'very good friends' with Kyle for over a decade, was found to have accidentally shot his friend, while the pair were likely intoxicated.

James Coleman (no relation) took his own life four days after his friend Kyle (pictured), 17, disappeared from a hunting trip to Undilla station in Camooweal, west of Mount Isa, Queensland in 2014

'I find that he was killed by James Coleman and his death was as a result of the discharge of a firearm by James Coleman,' said Ms Bentley.

'James shot Kyle with a Mossberg bolt-action shotgun. I find that both Kyle and James were intoxicated at the time of the shooting.

'Kyle and James were very good friends when they left Mount Isa to go camping on 21 February 2014. There is no evidence of any falling out or animosity between the two,' she added.

A look into the investigation conducted by Detective Senior Constable Megan Johnston showed that it had been 'thorough' but had been 'hampered' by James, who provided 'false information'.

The murder of Kyle (pictured) was an accident according to the inquest. Police were deliberately provided untruthful evidence by James when Kyle did not return from Mount Isa

Ms Bentley said: 'Police officers investigating the disappearance of Kyle Coleman acted appropriately and in the course of a proper investigation.

'James Coleman was deliberately untruthful when he said that he and Kyle had returned to Mount Isa together.

'None of their actions could be said to have contributed to the death of James Coleman.'

The Coroner concluded that James committed suicide rather than admitting to what had happened.

Findings handed down on Friday by Coroner Jane Bentley revealed that Kyle's (pictured) death was the result of a 'discharge from a firearm' by his friend of ten years

The inquest started early April found that James had told police his friend had returned to Mount Isa with him a day earlier than planned.

Detective Senior Constable Megan Johnston told the inquest his version of events were 'impossible'.

She said: 'I would say it was impossible, if you compare the time frame that it took for me to conduct the drive around up to Undilla and return with James  (it's) completely impossible.'

The detective agreed with barrister Dennis Lynch when he said James' story was 'riddled with lies' and says the timeline suggests Kyle never returned to town from the station.

The inquest heard from Kyle's father, Robert Coleman, (pictured, left) who believes his son Kyle was killed by his best friend James and then disposed of in a burn pit

The inquest heard from Kyle's father, Robert Coleman, who believes his son Kyle was killed by his best friend James and then disposed of in a burn pit.

But James' girlfriend at the time, Toni-Lee Sabin has told the inquest she believes her then-boyfriend's version of events because he stuck to the 'same story' until his death.

'I don't believe James would walk up to someone and shoot someone,' she said.

Both Mr Lynch and counsel assisting the coroner Stephanie Williams agreed Kyle never came home from the hunting trip.

A Facebook page with over 20,000 followers was set up in the search for Kyle and his parents made bumper stickers to help with the search (pictured)

After the 17-year-old vanished, a massive search spanning thousands of kilometres around the cattle station and Mount Isa took place.

The burn pit where some of Kyle's belongings were found contained remains of a watch, parts of a swag, a timesheet book and bullet casings which Kyle's father believes belonged to him.

'It was a watch we bought him the previous year  as a family, as a dad, I know it's his stuff,' Mr Coleman said.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467
Billy Brownless says he has moved on and is doing well after dealing with the anguish of an affair between his best friend Garry Lyon and ex-wife Nicky.

The 49-year-old AFL Footy Show co-host was hit hard when news of the relationship emerged in February.

Lyon has since stepped down from his role as co-host alongside Brownless on the Footy Show and has been receiving treatment for depression.

But Brownless has kept working through one of the toughest periods of his life and says that has helped him cope with the situation.

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Billy Brownless (left) has been dealing with the anguish after finding out his ex-wife Nicky (middle) had a relationship with his long-time friend Garry Lyon (right)

Brownless (left) and Lyon (right) have been friends for more than 15 years and were also colleagues on the Channel Nine AFL Footy Show up until the start of this year

Brownless opened his heart about the affair during an emotional interview on the Footy Show in March

'I'm OK and getting on with life,' the former Geelong player told the Herald Sun.

'I'm enjoying living here in Melbourne and going back to Geelong on weekends - it's the best of both worlds.

'It was obviously a tough few months for me and the kids but we're going well now and Im very busy with footy and work.

'I just want to thank everyone for their support, I'm very grateful for that, we all move on, we get back on the bike and we get peddling.'

Brownless is currently getting ready to host a charity poker event on Wednesday night, featuring sporting legends such as Shane Warne, which will raise money for the Breast Cancer Foundation.

But his main job continues to be on the Footy Show, where he opened his heart about the fall-out with long-time friend Lyon in an emotional interview back in March.

Brownless claims he will speak to Lyon about the whole situation one day, but has not heard from his friend since the scandal broke.

And he says he has no idea if Lyon, who has been replaced as co-host on Channel Nine's AFL program by Rebecca Maddern, will return to the show once he's fully back to health.

Lyon stood down from his role on the Footy Show when news of the affair broke in February and has been getting treatment for depression in the past few months

Brownless (right) was clearly upset as he spoke about the affair between his ex-wife and his best friend during an interview with Sam Newman (left) on the Footy Show in March

'We'll sit down at some stage, we'll still have a chat one day,' Brownless said of his former friend.

Brownless has previously said the affair, which made headlines across Australia, devastated and shocked him, explaining 'a good mate wouldn't do that'.

'I couldn't believe it. I found out three or four months ago. I asked Garry and Nicky earlier on what is going on and they said they were just good friends. That's what hurts the most,' Brownless said on the Footy Show in March.

Brownless and his wife Nicky share four children together. Their marriage broke down over 18 months ago

'By law it's legal. Morally its wrong. We all know our rights and wrong. You don't touch a man's wallet, you don't touch his wife.'
Prince's ex-wife Mayte Garcia spoke Friday about losing her son, her marriage, and finally, the superstar himself, after he died in April at age 57.

'When I got married the idea of starting my own family was at the top of my list. Unfortunately, I got pregnant, lost the baby months later, and then lost my marriage. It just wasn't my time yet,' Garcia said, according to Access Hollywood.

Speaking to an audience at the Single Mom's Planet's 'Single Mom's Awards' in Los Angeles, the 42-year-old dancer and choreographer described how devastated she was after losing her son, named Boy Gregory, only a week after his October, 1996 birth.

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Mayte Garcia spoke out about losing the son she had with Prince - and how years later she became the adoptive mother of a baby girl. The couple is pictured onstage in London in 1995

Prince and Garcia were married from 1996 to 2000. Their son, Boy Gregory, died only a week old. The couple is pictured left in 1999 and right, ca. 1996

Garcia has previously said the death of her Prince's baby, along with a subsequent miscarriage, tore the couple's marriage apart. Couple pictured in 1995

RARE GENETIC DISORDER KILLED PRINCE'S AND GARCIA'S SON Pfeiffer syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by premature fusion of certain skull bones (craniosynostosis), and abnormally broad and medially deviated thumbs and great toes. Most affected individuals also have differences to their midface (protruding eyes) and conductive hearing loss. The incidence of all types of Pfeiffer syndrome is approximately 1/100,000. Source: National Organization for Rare Disorders Advertisement

The cause of death was listed as complications caused by Pfieffer syndrome, according to a 1997 report by the Minnesota Star-Tribune.

'After that I was broken and I kind of lost hope. I basically gave up my dream of becoming a mom,' Garcia said.

She had few words to say about Prince's passing.

'As you all know Prince is no longer with us. It is extremely difficult for me, and that is why I have chosen not to discuss it. Thank you for your support and understanding,' she said.

Garcia has previously said the baby's death, along with a subsequent miscarriage, tore the couple's marriage apart.

On Friday, Garcia said her life turned around after agreeing to appear in a reality show, where she said she opened up for the first time about the loss of her son.

A sympathetic viewer got in contact with Garcia and offered to arrange for her to adopt a baby girl, she said.

In 2013, Garcia adopted Gia, pictured with her mother on Friday at the 'Single Mom's Awards' in Los Angeles. Gia came into Garcia's life after her biological mother got in touch on Twitter, Garcia said

'A woman watching my show was moved enough to reach out to me - through Twitter - about adopting her baby,' Garcia said.

'It's definitely a sign of the times we're living in, for sure.'

Garcia adopted her daughter Gia in 2013.

Reflecting on that remarkable turn of events, Garcia said: 'I opened up about losing my son and in return I gained a daughter.'
A crackdown on rogue chiropractors has started after dangerous and unsubstantiated claims emerged that the health practitioners can cure colic, autism and other behavioural issues.

Victorias Health Minister Jill Hennessy wrote to the Chiropractic Board of Australia raising concerns in relation to recent reports of unsafe procedures being performed on young children.

Ms Hennesseys concerns were prompted by a video which emerged on YouTube of Melbourne chiropractor Ian Rossborough, manipulating a premature babys spine to treat colic and reflux.

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Victorias Health Minister Jill Hennessy (pictured) wrote to the Chiropractic Board of Australia raising concerns after a video emerged of Melbourne chiropractor Ian Rossborough, manipulating a babys

The video emerged on YouTube and is one among many posted by Dr Rossborough - treating young children with 'unsubstantiated practices'

The Victorian MP wrote: It is very clear that chiropractors cannot treat autism, [they] cannot treat colic and I'm deeply concerned to see very young babies and children being treated in this way.

I want to know that the chiropractic board is investigating these, and I want to know that they are policing their code of conduct because there are things that might, on the face of it, sound like innocent claims, but they are potentially very, very dangerous.

It is so important that members of the public understand that a chiropractor is not a qualified medical practitioner, and medical advice should be sought from a qualified general practitioner.

In a response to Ms Hennessey the Chiropractic Board of Australia said that they recognise and understand the Ministers concerns.

In a response to Ms Hennessey the Chiropractic Board of Australia said that they recognise and understand the Ministers concerns raised when a four-day-old was seen having her back cracked (pictured)

They said: The public are entitled to receive safe, ethical and competent care from chiropractors.

The Chiropractic Board of Australia regulates individual chiropractors and sets the standards they must meet.

The requirement for chiropractors to provide care to the public that is evidence-based is a key component of the professional standards, codes and guidelines to which the Board expects practitioners to adhere.

Practitioners have also been warned to practise within the limits of their competency.

One video shows him sitting with his daughter Isla on his lap. He is heard saying, 'I'm just going to go ahead and adjust this,' in the footage, while his hands are placed on either side of her tiny head (pictured)

The young infant in the original video which raised concerns is seen crying after the procedure. The Chiropractic board of Australia has said an investigation is underway

The board wrote: AHPRA and the Board have a number of investigations underway, particularly in relation to advertising claims being made by chiropractors.

While we cannot discuss individual matters to protect the integrity of the processes, we will provide updates within the requirements of the National Law.

On Rossborough's website he describes himself as a doctor who has been a 'health care professional for over 30 years'

Dr Andrew Lawrence, deputy president of the Chiropractors' Association of Australia told 774 ABC Melbourne chiropractics could be part of a treatment for autism.

He said: They're complex conditions and they have lots of parts to them, so chiropractic can be involved in part of the delivery of treatment to children and adults on the autism spectrum.

Mr Lawrence agreed that the video showing a babies back being manipulated did not look good as this type of adjustment on a four-day-old would not be recommended, he added.

President of the College of GPs, Dr Frank Jones told the Daily Mail Australia that this is an unnecessary and seemingly almost cruel process when referred to the video by Dr Rossborough.

Dr Rossborough posts many videos of him treating patients to his YouTube channel, however the video, which now has over a million views, showing him cracking the back of a four-day old baby girl caused particular concern.

In this footage he is seen holding the baby girl, wiggling her around as he talks the parents through the adjustment.

President of the College of GPs, Dr Frank Jones told the Daily Mail Australia that this is an unnecessary and seemingly almost cruel process when referred to the video made by Dr Rossborough

He stretches out her tiny body and there is a loud crack, followed by crying from the little patient.

On his website, Dr Rossborough describes himself as a doctor who 'has been a health care professional for over 30 years.'

Another video shows him sitting with his daughter Isla on his lap in the video.

He says, 'I'm just going to go ahead and adjust this,' in the footage, while his hands are placed on either side of her tiny head.

He then sticks one of his fingers into one side of her neck, jolting her little head to one side.

The chiropractor then turned his daughter around to show the difference in her posture commenting dont cry and make daddy look bad.

In this footage he is seen holding the baby girl, wiggling her around as he talks the parents through the adjustment
CCTV footage has captured the moment a man smashes up an ATM after his bank card is swallowed.

The footage, captured at 6am on Wednesday in Shanghai, China, shows the man repeatedly slamming the door to the ATM, before attacking the machine itself with debris from the door.

The man, believed to be drunk at the time, had his card swallowed by the machine after he entered his pin incorrectly too many times.

CCTV footage has captured the moment a man smashes up an ATM after his bank card is swallowed on Wednesday

According to local news sources, the door was completely broken and had blood on it. It was not confirmed whether the blood came from the man who attacked the door

The footage shows the man repeatedly slamming the door to the ATM, before attacking the machine itself with debris from the door

The man can be seen slamming the glass door to the ATM cubicle. A piece of the door falls off and a broken hinge can be seen

The man can be seen in the footage slamming the glass door to the ATM cubicle. A piece of the door falls off and a broken hinge can be seen.

According to local news sources, the door was completely broken and had blood on it. It was not confirmed whether the blood came from the man who attacked the door.

The man then uses the fallen piece of the door to hit the machine twice. It isn't clear how much damage was inflicted.

He has since been arrested by local authorities.

The man had his card swallowed by the machine after he entered his pin incorrectly too many times

The man (pictured) was believed to be drunk at the time of the attack
A gala lunch in China in which Malcolm Turnbull gave the keynote speech cost taxpayers more than $500,000.

The meal, which was attended by some of China's rich and powerful, was held in Shanghai to showcase Australian trade and investment opportunities.

But Government tender documents show the Australia Week in China lunch cost at least $518,603, The Age reports.

The Australia Week in China lunch, held to showcase Australia, cost taxpayers at least $518,603

Taxpayers shelled out at least $284,962 for catering and venue hire; and $233,641 for a Chinese company to organise and run the event.

A day later taxpayers picked up the bill for a second lunch, which included lobster salad with truffle shavings, Angus striploin steak and expensive Australian wines.

It was hosted by Trade Minister Steve Ciobo.

China is Australia's largest trading partner and a spokesperson for Austrade told Fairfax last month that the gala lunch would help showcase Australia.

'AWIC 2016 will help position Australian companies to take maximum advantage of the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement,' the spokesperson said.

Mr Turnbull visited Shanghai before heading to Beijing where he met China's Premier Li Keqiang and President Xi Jinping.

He discussed Australia's key positions on trade, investment and regional security.

Mr Turnbull visited the financial hub of Shanghai before heading to Beijing in April
Forty-nine species of flora and fauna have been added to the federal government's threatened-species list - and conservationists are welcoming it.

The animals and plants were added to the list under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act on Thursday.

They included the swift parrot, the three-toed snake-tooth skink, the broad-toothed rat, the ghost bat and several species of orchids and albatross.

Forty-nine species of flora and fauna have been added to the federal government's threatened-species list. Above is one recent addition to the list, the Gibson's Albatross

Conservationists have welcomed the move because when a species is added to the list, such as the yellow footed rock wallaby (above), it is given extra protection under Australian law

The ghost bat, also known as the false vampire bat, is an endangered species found in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and some parts of Queensland

Conservationists have welcomed the announcement, saying that the species will now be given extra protection under Australian law.

Professor Corey Bradshaw, Sir Hubert Wilkins chair of climate change at the University of Adelaide, said the growing list is a win for conservation.

'In a lot of ways it's encouraging to see the list growing. The [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act lists probably only a tiny fraction of the species that are truly in conservation peril simply because of a lack of information,' he told ABCNews

The swift parrot is a highly endangered species - there are thought to be fewer than 2000 breeding individuals remaining in the wild

The additions to the list, such as the three-toed snake-tooth skink (above), have been welcomed by some conservationists as an 'encouraging start'

However other campaigners say that, despite the list, the government is still not doing enough to save endangered species like the great knot (above)

But Australian Foundation campaigner Jess Abrahams said that government policy is causing the destruction of their habitat.

'There's this incredible hypocrisy,' he told the Guardian, adding that the 49 species were added without notice from environmental minister Greg Hunt.

'The government wants to make a difference on endangered species, but it's not prepared to spend any money, it's not prepared to use the law or make new laws to protect them  it won't even acknowledge that more species are being added to the list each day.

'The fundamental reason that species are threatened is because their habitat is destroyed, and that's the thing that we can most easily, most directly do something about.'

FORTY-NINE SPECIES ADDED TO THE THREATENED SPECIES LIST Carpentarian Grasswren Swamp Antechinus (mainland) Atriplex yeelirrie Brush-tailed Bettong, Woylie Hinged Dragon Orchid Red Knot, Knot Great Knot Copper Beard Orchid Greater Sand Plover, Large Sand Plover Lesser Sand Plover, Mongolian Plover Short-spiked Midge-orchid Firth's Midge-orchid Antelope Orchid Dark-stemmed Antler Orchid, Mangrove Orchid Dendrobium nindii (an orchid) Didymoglossum exiguum Amsterdam Albatross Antipodean Albatross Gibson's Albatross Tristan Albatross Southern Royal Albatross Northern Royal Albatross Camden Woollybutt, Paddys River Box Beaked Minnow, Flat-headed Galaxias, Flat-headed Jollytail, Flat-headed Minnow Mountain Angelica, Broad-leafed Carrot Port Lincoln Speedwell Source: Australian Government Species Profile and Threats Database Kelleria Swift Parrot Bar-tailed Godwit, Western Alaskan Bar-tailed Godwit Bar-tailed Godwit (menzbieri), Northern Siberian Bar-tailed Godwit Ghost Bat Broad-toothed Rat, Tooarrana Eltham Copper Butterfly Greater Glider Mount Claro Rock Wallaby, Sharman's Rock Wallaby) Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby (central-western Queensland) Norfolk Island Robin Native Moth Orchid Middle Filmy Fern Prostanthera spathulata Enigmatic Greenhood Two-bristle Greenhood Three-toed Snake-tooth Skink Stylidium ensatum (a triggerplant) Thalassarche impavida (Campbell Albatross, Campbell Black-browed Albatross) Salvin's Albatross Blue Star Sun-orchid Myrtle Elbow Orchid Condamine Earless Dragon




The BBC will be publishing the salaries of its 120 employees who earn more than 150,000 a year.

New plans to be announced next week by Culture Secretary John Whittingdale aim to bring more transparency to the BBC, which is reported to pay talent such as Graham Norton 2.5million, and Chris Evans 1.6million.

The proposal should bring the corporation in line with how the civil service is required to disclose how much it is paying staff, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.

The BBC will have to disclose how much it pays employees earning more than 150,000 a year. Graham Norton is thought to be the corporation's top earner - on 2.5million a year

Chris Evans is thought to be paid 1.6million a year while Gary Lineker likely takes home 1.5million for presenting Match of the Day

According to the newspaper, of the BBC's highest paid 120 employees, nine of them are on salaries of over 500,000.

The broadcaster, which generates 3.7billion from license fees, reportedly listed 208,000million as being spent on 'talent' last year.

The move comes as the BBC's ten-year royal charter ends at the end of this year.

Mr Whittingdale is currently discussing how to reshape the institution and a white paper detailing some of these changes is, according to the Telegraph, being passed around Whitehall.

Behind the broadcaster's best-paid name is Graham Norton, comes Chris Evans, then Gary Lineker on a reported 1.5million. News reader Fiona Bruce is thought to be paid 800,000.

The paper is due to be published on Thursday and are designed to increase transparency in the organisation.

But the BBC has been in a tense battle with BBC director general Lord Hall of Birkenhead over the corporation's future, which will see the BBC Trust abolished.

The changes have been detailed in a White Paper which culture secretary John Whittingdale will present on Thursday

The Prime Minister, who is desperately trying to keep a rein on the BBC's spending, wants a 'break clause' in the Royal Charter which would give ministers the power to renegotiate terms at any time.

A source told The Times: 'It makes sense in a world like broadcasting where challenges can get thrown up very quickly.'

The BBC, however, wants to extend the period which would safeguard its budget from 10 to 11 years, amid claims the clause could be used by Downing Street to hold the Corporation over a barrel.

The disagreement is just one of several sticking points between Downing Street and the BBC as negotiations for the charter rumble on.

Mr Cameron reportedly wants to plough ahead with a new unitary board to replace the BBC Trust, which would see at least half the members - including its chairman, deputy and four non-executive directors - chosen by the government.

The body will make day-to-day decisions on areas - including news coverage - something which the BBC Trust does not currently do.

Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that Mr Whittingdale, while speaking at Cambridge University's Conservative Association, said the corporation's approach to impartiality drives him 'insane' during a talk .
Daniel Pearson, from Grimbsy, was stopped by the police on the M180 near Goole

A garage worker left magistrates stunned after he was clocked by police speeding at 132mph in a Vauxhall Astra van.

Daniel Pearson, 29, had his foot to the floor on the M180 near Goole in a black Vauxhall 1.9TDi van as he rushed to get a friend to an interview.

Stunned police officers pulled him to the side of the road and charged him exceeding the 70mph motorway limit by 62mph.

Magistrate Shane Bobby told Pearson: 'Well who would have thought an Astra van could do 132mph? Not me. That's a fact. Sadly you have proved that now.'

Police solicitor John Thurkettle told Hull Magistrates' Court that Pearson was stopped at 12.20pm on February 10 on the M180 speeding at 132mph.

The court heard he had already got two lots of three points on his licence in July 2014 and October 2015 and was facing an automatic ban.

Pearson, a garage worker and father of three, told police he was speeding to get a friend to an interview in Doncaster and had been told to hurry up.

Defence solicitor Roy Foreman said: 'As a result of this conviction his Astra van is for sale. He may only get 3,000 to 4,000.

'It may be wrong of me to make light of this but the advert may well indicate that this vehicle is capable of come considerable speed - 132mph.

'He has the documents to prove it. It may be a considerable selling point for some one.'

He said Pearson would lose his job taking vehicles for test drives and MOTs.

He said added that Pearson had recently split from his partner of eight years and the costs of losing his job would have a knock on effect on the family.

He said he would be reduced to living on benefits and his sideline of buying and selling cars would hit him hard because of the loss of his licence.

'This act of foolishness will live with him for many years.' said Mr Foreman. 'Once he does get his license back his insurance premiums will rocket.'

Chairman of the bench Shane Bobby told Pearson: 'We taken on board your mitigation, but you were spotted driving at 132mph on the M180.

'At that speed the police could have charged you with much more serious offences - but they haven't. We must ban you from driving for 56 days.'

Pearson of Fairview Avenue, Grimsby, pleaded guilty to one offence of exceeding the speed limit. He was fined 300 and ordered to pay 85 costs and pay a 30 victim surcharge.

Speaking outside court Pearson played down how his van could travel so fast. He said: 'My van was not modified.

'It is a 1.9TDi. I regret doing what I did. I am going to have to take the punishment like a man.'
as much in UK than rest of Europe

In the US and France women can purchase the pill without

British women pay an average of 28 for the morning-after pill, while those in France pay just 5.40

The average cost of emergency contraception for women in the UK is up to five times more than in France.

British women pay an average of 28 for the morning-after pill, while in France it is just 5.40.

And there are concerns that women have to do a 'walk of shame' to buy the drug.

In the US, Scandinavia and France women can buy the pill without needing a public consultation about their sex life at a pharmacy.

Ireland is the only country in Europe where women pay more for the pill.

And the research found the drug costs more than twice as much on average in Britain than in the rest of Europe.

The high cost in Britain is leading women to buy unlicensed drugs online. In the US, online sellers offer the contraceptive for just 7.

Ann Furedi, of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, told The Times: 'Emergency contraception is a safe and effective way to prevent an unplanned pregnancy but the current framework in Britain is insulting, expensive and does not meet women's needs,

'Condoms are on the shelf. Sex toys are on the shelf. All manner of medications are on the shelf.

'So why not emergency contraception? As a society we embrace sex for pleasure, but expect women to march a walk of shame, and pay through the nose... when things go awry, as they occasionally do.'

Pressure is now on the government to act and change the rules so women don't have to seek medical opinion before purchasing the drug.

The NHS failed to say how much it pays for the 600,000 morning-after pills which are taken by women each year.

Half of the pills are paid for, while the rest are given on prescription or free by family planning clinics.

Women can purchase two different type of morning-after pill. Levonorgestrel is the most popular and well-known but must be taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex.

A newer drug Pharma is now available which can be taken within five days.

The pricing research was carried out by European Consortium on Emergency Contraception.

Pressure is now on the government to act and change the rules so women don't have to seek medical opinion before purchasing the drug

Boots sells the levonorgestrel-based drug, Levonelle, for 28.25; its own-brand version is 26.75.

The company which distributes the drug as wholesaler in the UK, Bayer, said it had no control over pharmacies' prices.
The British Medical Association has agreed to re-enter talks with the Government over the controversial contract for junior doctors.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Thursday he wanted a 'written agreement' from the BMA's junior doctors committee that discussions over the contentious issue of unsocial hours and Saturday pay would be held in 'good faith'.

The BMA has now agreed to temporarily suspend planned industrial action in an attempt to thrash out a compromise with ministers.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had given the BMA until the end of Saturday to confirm they were willing to negotiate "constructively"

But they want any contract offer to be put to a referendum of junior doctors.

The chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee, Johann Malawana, said he hoped 'real progress can now be made to ending this dispute'.

Dr Malawana said: 'The BMA has agreed to re-enter talks with the government on outstanding issues in this dispute, which include, but are not limited to, unsocial hours.

'Junior doctors' concerns extend far beyond pay, and our principle in talks will be to deliver a fair contract that does not discriminate against women or any other group, one which addresses the recruitment and retention crisis in the NHS and which provides the basis for delivering a world-class health service.'

He said: 'The BMA will also call for any contract offer - agreed or not - to be put to a referendum of junior doctors, as is usual following a contract negotiation.

'We hope that with both parties back around the negotiating table, real progress can now be made to ending this dispute through talks.'

Junior doctors in England recently went on an all-out strike for two working days. For the first time in the history of the NHS, they stopped providing emergency care during the walkouts

The BMA's decision follows a wave of industrial action launched by junior doctors in recent months, which saw thousands of operations cancelled after negotiations reached an impasse, with Mr Hunt threatening to impose the controversial contract.

The dispute began when the government took steps to introduce its manifesto commitment of a seven-day NHS.

Mr Hunt wants to change what constitutes 'unsocial' hours for which junior doctors can claim extra pay, turning 7am to 5pm on Saturday into a normal working day.

Currently, 7pm to 7am Monday to Friday and the whole of Saturday and Sunday attract a premium rate of pay for junior doctors.

Despite the Government offsetting this change with a hike in basic pay of 13.5%, it has proved to be a sticking point with the BMA.

The imposed contract, due to come into force in August, will still allow premium rates for Saturday evenings and all of Sunday.

The new offer of talks follows a proposal put forward by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges calling for a five-day pause in the imposition of the new contract in England.

Mr Hunt has insisted discussions should not concern 90% of the issues already agreed but should focus instead on outstanding contractual issues.

Junior doctors stopped providing emergency care for the first time in NHS history during their most recent walkout, which went on for two days last week.
A hi-tech wristband could be used by employers to monitor their staff's health and happiness.

Scientists in Cambridge have set up a device to watch over a user's mental health and could even detect the first signs of memory loss - a possible precursor to dementia.

In the tests the technology was tuned to perform simple psychological tests, like a Fitbit for the soul.

The device could in theory be used by employers to try and prevent lengthy time off through depression and illness.

Scientists in Cambridge have set up a device to watch over a user's mental health and could even detect the first signs of memory loss - a possible precursor to dementia

For example, perky emails could be sent to workers to try and lift their spirits if the device detected a bad mood, even if the person hadn't told anyone.

Managers could also recommend a dementia check-up if the system detects difficulties with a worker's memory.

The scientists' work will help pharmaceutical companies keep up to date with new psychiatric drugs and how they affect patients.

But the devices will also be marketed at members of the public and their employers.

Researchers have been analysing the work of two distinguished neuroscientists at the University of Cambridge, Barbara Sahakian and Trevor Robbins.

The scientists' work includes designing technology which can perform cognitive tests by playing sequences of flowers and shapes during a working memory test.

Cambridge Cognition, a company connected to the university, is confident the work will enable the early stages of dementia to be detected.

People with bipolar disorder and depression could also be helped, the company said.

Nick Taptiklis, the company's wearable and health technology expert, told The Times that healthy minds were generally inconsistent: 'Healthy people are more complex.

The device could in theory be used by employers to prevent lengthy time off through depression and illness

'Unhealthy people tend towards flatlining. A healthy brain is a massively complex thing, and metrics such as averages are not turning out to be all that useful. Variation in reaction times is much more interesting scientifically than your average reaction time.'

Drug companies will be the first to take up the psychiatric treatments. The technology will then be launched for the public - aiming to reduce the 130billion cost that mental ill health has on the economy.

Wrist devices with built-in sensors like Microsoft Band and Apple Watch have become popular in recent years.

They can use GPS, accelerometer and other sensors to monitor heart-rate and general health.
The leader of Britain First turned his back on Sadiq Khan as he gave his victory speech after being elected London's first Muslim mayor last night - but claimed he was not being racist.

Far-right activist Paul Golding, who was stood alongside the other candidates inside City Hall, was filmed gazing out the window as Mr Khan urged Londoners to come together.

He kept his back to the new mayor as he called for Londoners to choose 'hope over fear' and 'unity over division' and set out his plans for the capital.

Far-right activist Paul Golding was filmed gazing out the window as Mr Khan urged Londoners to come together

The Britain First candidate kept his back facing the new mayor as he called for Londoners to choose 'hope over fear' and 'unity over division'

Mr Khan delivered a barbed judgment on the Goldsmith campaign in his acceptance speech at City Hall, when he promised to be 'a mayor for all Londoners'

The one-man act of defiance sparked an instant online backlash, with many Twitter users dubbing the Britain First candidate (pictured right) a 'sore-loser' and 'pathetic'

The one-man act of defiance sparked an instant online backlash, with Twitter users dubbing the candidate a 'sore-loser' and 'pathetic'.

Labour politician Jonathan Reynolds tweeted: 'If only these Britain First folks would adapt to British values. #Democracy.'

While former Labour candidate Gareth Siddorn said: 'I stood against Paul Golding in Sevenoaks in 2010. He was a small-minded, pathetic scumbag then and he remains one now.'

But Mr Golding, who won less than three per cent of Mr Khan's total, defended his actions and claimed he was not being racist.

Speaking to BuzzFeed News, the Britain First candidate said: 'Racist? I didn't turn my back around because he's Asian, I turned my back on his because he's a vile man.

'The extreme left lunatic fringe of Labour have taken over with Corbyn.'

Britain First caused further controversy today with a statement on their website claiming there are 'far too many Muslims' in London.

The statement read: 'There is no point gauging our performance by looking at our vote in multicultural, heavily Muslim areas because there are hardly any Britons left in those areas.

'We must examine our performance in areas where the majority of the population is overwhelmingly British to see how well we polled - and to give an indication of how well we would poll in other British areas.

'Lastly, as became blatantly obvious with the election of Labour's Islamist mayor, there is an increasingly shrinking number of Britons left in the capital overall and far too many Muslims.

'Britons make up less than 45 per cent of the capital and at least half of those who remain will be the 'trendy' left wing chattering class types, the gormless liberals and bigoted white socialists in areas such as Camden, Islington etc.

'With such a small and rapidly declining pool of voters to appeal to we rightly said this election was London's 'Last Stand' and the prospects of major gains, even with major resources, were slim.'

Mr Khan took 1,310,143 votes after second preferences were taken into account, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614.

His tally gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.

Mr Golding, who won less than three per cent of Mr Khan's total, defended his actions and claimed he was not being racist

Former Labour candidate Gareth Siddorn took to Twitter to criticise the actions of the Britain First candidate

One Twitter user dubbed the Britain First candidate a 'sore-loser' after he turned his back on the new London mayor

Labour politician Jonathan Reynolds was among a large number of people who blasted the candidate on Twitter

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn led congratulations on Twitter using the hashtag YesWeKhan, telling the new mayor: 'Can't wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all'.

In a Facebook post, Zac Goldsmith also congratulated Mr Khan and thanked 'the hundreds of thousands of people who trusted me with their votes'.

But there were recriminations from Mr Goldsmith's side over his decision to target Mr Khan as a 'radical' and highlight his supposed links with Islamist extremists.

Conservative former Cabinet minister Baroness Warsi said the 'appalling dog whistle campaign' had 'lost us the election, our reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion'.

While Mr Goldsmith's sister Jemima said the way the contest was fought 'did not reflect who I know him to be'.

Mr Khan delivered his judgment on the Goldsmith campaign in his acceptance speech at City Hall, when he promised to be 'a mayor for all Londoners'.

Without naming his Tory rival, he said Labour had fought a 'positive' campaign, adding: 'Fear doesn't make us safer, it only makes us weaker, and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.'

Outgoing mayor Boris Johnson said: 'Many congratulations to Sadiq on securing a huge mandate to do the best job in British politics.

'I wish him every possible success and will be calling him in the morning.'

Mr Khan's 57 per cent support after second preferences were counted amounted to a landslide victory on the largest turnout in the history of directly-elected mayors in London.

Mr Khan took 1,310,143 votes beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614

Mr Khan's 57 per cent support after second preferences were counted amounted to a landslide victory

Today Mr Khan carried out his first official piece of business as the new mayor after attending a swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral

Khan was introduced by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, the mother of British teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993

Today Mr Khan carried out his first official piece of business as the new mayor after attending a swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral.

The newly-elected mayor of London received a standing ovation from a crowd, which included actor Sir Ian McKellen and former Labour Party leader Ed Milliband.

Current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was conspicuously absent from the formal signing-in ceremony, however.

The first Muslim to hold the position, Khan was introduced by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, the mother of British teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993.

The pair embraced as Mr Khan took to the stage, before addressing the crowd: 'My name is Sadiq Khan and I'm the mayor of London.'

He added: 'I can't quite believe the last 24 hours. We are here in Southwark because I want to start how I intend to go on.

'I wanted to do the signing here in the very heart of our city, surrounded by Londoners of all backgrounds, and I'm so proud that my good friend Doreen Lawrence introduced me here today.

Mr Khan joked: 'Some of you may not know this but I grew up in a council estate just a few miles from here.

'Back then I never dreamt I could be standing here. I'm only here today because of the help that our city gave to me and my family and my burning ambition for our city, that will guide my mayoralty, is to ensure that all Londoners get the opportunities that our city gave to me

'I'm truly humbled and my promise to you is this; I will always do everything in my power to make our city better. I will be a mayor for all Londoners.'

The newly-elected mayor of London, who gestured to his children on the way in, received a standing ovation from a crowd which included actor Sir Ian McKellen and former Labour Party leader Ed Milliband

Mr Khan took to the stage before addressing the crowd: 'My name is Sadiq Khan and I'm the mayor of London'
The 16-year-old organiser of Friday night's wild house party in the south of Sydney has apologised for his actions.

Kyle Hood, a student at Gymea Technology High School, had invited a number of close friends to his house while his parents were away, before it got completely out of control.

'I didn't mean for it to happen,' he told Nine News.

'I dunno, I thought it'd be fun and it just got out of control, really.'

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Kyle Hood, 16, intended to just invite a few friends to his empty house. By 8pm, 150 teenagers had arrived and begun trashing his house

He told the program he had advertised the event on Facebook, and by 8pm on Friday, 150 teenagers were wreaking havoc in the house and on the street.

Underage drinkers jumped neighbours' fences in an attempt to escape police helicopters, and both the riot squad and dog unit were deployed.

He was incredibly remorseful for his actions, which resulted in his family home on View Street in Gymea being completely trashed.

The teen had some advice for anyone intending to throw a party in this fashion: 'just don't'

'I'm extremely apologetic to [my parents],' he said.

'I'm sorry that it happened - it shouldn't have happened at all.'

One police officer was hospitalised and a 17-year-old male was charged with assault after an incident at Gymea train station.

Sutherland police arrived at the incident after a complaint was made shortly before 8pm and were met with abuse by party-goers sitting in the backyard of the vacant house.

150 Partygoers trashed a vacant house (pictured) in Gymea in Sydney's south at an out-of-control party that was stopped by New South Wales riot police, dog squad and helicopters

Underage drinkers jumped neighbours' fences in an attempt to escape the house (pictured) Friday night. One police officer was hospitalised and a 17-year-old charged

Glass bottles and other projectiles were thrown at police when they tried to find out who had organised the event.

Local residents were alarmed by the sound of helicopters and took to social media to share information.

Sean Romer tweeted: 'Police helicopter circling gymea, near premier st. Anyone knows what's going on? #gymea #sutherlandshire #police.'

Chris Moir tweeted: 'Major police operation underway in #gymea with repors of riot squad, dog squad, police, helicopters and large crowds #sutherlandshire.'

Sutherland police arrived at the home, where furniture had been thrown on the roof (pictured) after a complaint was made shortly before 8pm

Local residents were alarmed by the sound of helicopters and took to social media to share information on twitter. Chris Moir told others reports of riot squad, dog squad and police helicopters were in the area

Nearby resident, Scott Campbell, asked about the helicopters commenting the 'spotty' was 'killing' the mood while he tried to skinny dip.

Mr Campbell said that about six of his neighbours' yards were being checked by the chopper which had been flying past.

A friend of Mr Campbell's commented: 'Wow thought we had some good party's  never had choppers called, must be nuts.

Police met abuse by partygoers sitting in the backyard (pictured) of the vacant house when they tried to find out who organised the event

Mr Campbell responded: 'I could have sworn we had some big ones that warranted a chopper but I suppose a chopper these days is a paddy wagon back then.'

Local police with the assistance from Police Transport Command also conducted patrols to ensure groups of teenagers left behind made it home safely.

While others had allegedly made their escape through neighbours' backyards according to a tweet posted by Natalie Clancy.

It is believed a 17-year-old male  who had been at the party  assaulted a 19-year-old at a nearby railway station in Gymea.

Bottles and broken windows were the only remaining elements of the rowdy party after local police with the assistance from Police Transport Command assisted groups of teenagers left behind made it home safely

It is believed a 17-year-old male  who had been at the party  assaulted a 19-year-old at a nearby railway station in Gymea (pictured) and a police officer sent to hospital while making the arrest

The younger of the two was arrested and taken to Sutherland Police station, where he was charged with assault and resist arrest  he will appear in front of children's court on Saturday.

During his arrest an officer was knocked to the ground and sent to St George Hospital with cuts and swelling to his head.

The 19-year-old was not injured during the incident.

Police urge anyone with information about the party to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or use the Crime Stoppers online reporting page.
Pilot was forced to make an emergency landing after severe

Almost 20 people were injured when a Hong Kong Airlines flight ran into severe turbulence causing the pilot to turn back as it flew from Bali to Hong Kong.

The Airbus A330-200 with 204 passengers and 12 crew on board returned to Bali, the Indonesian island, about two and a half hours into the flight. It landed safely at 4.34am local time on Saturday, 8.34pm GMT on Friday.

The plane encountered the turbulence above Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, the general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport said. A total of 17 people were injured.

The Airbus A330-200 with 204 passengers and 12 crew on board returned to Bali, the Indonesian island, about two and a half hours into the flight and landed safely at 4.34am local time on Saturday, 8.34pm GMT on Friday

The plane encountered the turbulence above Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, the general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport said. A total of 17 people were injured

Ambulances were sent to help evacuate the plane. Most of the casualties suffered head bruises and there were no serious injuries.

Three crew members and eight passengers were taken to hospital while six others were treated at the airport clinic.

There was no damage to the plane, but an inspection was under way.

Ninety-five passengers were flown to Hong Kong on board a Garuda Indonesia plane on Saturday morning while the rest were waiting at the airport and hotels.

The Hong Kong Airlines plane parked at its gate after the emergency landing at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali

It was the second such incident involving Airbus planes over Indonesian territory in the past four days.
Crocodile was transferred onto a truck and driven to a local wildlife park

It was caught in a trap while wildlife officers

A huge crocodile that was terrorising fishermen and lurking on a beach has been captured by wildlife officers.

It took a team of five men to wrangle the 3.75-metre reptile into a truck on Friday after it was trapped in Crab Creek - about 10km from the Western Australian town of Broome.

A trap was used the catch the predator before several wildlife officers secured its jaws and tied its legs.

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The 3.75-metre crocodile captured by wildlife officers in Crab Creek, near Western Australia's Broome

The large crocodile had been approaching fishing boats and lurking on a beach in Broome

District wildlife officer Peter Carstairs said the crocodile was the largest he had ever seen in Broome.

'Certainly around Broome, it's the largest one that we've trucked out of here,' Mr Carstairs said.

Fears that the crocodile was threatening fishermen prompted wildlife officers to deploy a trap using various different baits.

'It's always a bit nerve wracking, especially when you're working with a lot of other people,' Mr Carstairs said.

Once the crocodile was caught in the trap, they towed it to a boat ramp and pulled it onto the back of a truck to be transferred to a wildlife park.

District wildlife officer Peter Carstairs said while crocodiles can grow up to six metres, the male was the largest he had ever seen in Broome
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These are the amazing scenes as the elite US Air Force Thunderbird team practice their highly complicated acrobatic manoeuvres above Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

The seven F-16 fighter aircraft fly in tight formation performing a range of death-defying stunts including the heart stopping Calypso Pass - where two of the supersonic fighters fly with one upside down with the two pilots only feet apart.

Jet number 5 always performs the inverted part of the Calypso Pass, and spends so much time during the display upside down that the number of the aircraft is also upside down so it appears normal in photographs.

The Thunderbirds were in Fort Lauderdale to practice for this weekend's display, which is described as the Super Bowl of air shows.

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Two F-16s from the US Air Force's Thunderbirds display team practice the amazing Calypso Pass in Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The seven aircraft, pictured, are all front-line fighter aircraft slightly modified to perform in an air display team

Technicians remove the The General Electric M61A1 Vulcan is a 6-barrel 20mm cannon and replace it with a smoke system

The jets are also given a distinctive paint job, including Number 5, which unusually is flying the correct way around

Here, two of the jets perform a high speed pass with a closing speed in excess of 800 mile s per hour with the jets only a few feet apart

These two aircraft pass within a few feet of each other during the practice session in Fort Lauderdale in Florida

Thousands of flight fans are expected to attend the event which will feature a host of other high-tech war birds and vintage aircraft

The jets can be raced back into frontline service in a mater of hours in the case of a fast-moving international emergency

Here the jets are flying in a tight formation which is one of the first skills any military pilot should learn once airborne

The pilots, who are among the most skilled in the US Air Force, show some of the skills needed to be an effective combat aviator

The US Air Force Thunderbirds now fly the fearsome F-16C fighter aircraft which replaced the T-38 Talons in 1983

Among the manoeuvres performed by the Thunderbirds is the 'bomb burst' which shows off the F-16's capabilities
French women will be offered over 200 to quit smoking as part of a new study into whether financial incentives help expectant mothers give up

Pregnant French women are being offered up to 200 by doctors to quit smoking, after emerged that one in five do not stop lighting up while expecting.

Women will be compensated with a 20 voucher for each visit to their doctor if they can prove they have not been smoking.

The scheme has been devised as part of a study to find out whether financial incentives help when giving up cigarettes.

There are 17 hospitals across the country which are taking part in the study.

Women attending neonatal appointments at centres in Montpellier, Lyon, Nimes, and Saint-Etienne will be asked if they want to take part.

Those participating must be over 18, be at least four and half months pregnant and smoke at least five ready-made, or three hand-rolled, cigarettes.

They will see a smoking cessation specialist each time they go for a regular appointment, Le Figaro reported on Saturday.

If they attend all of them and have successfully given up - they could earn over 200 in vouchers.

Testing saliva or urine can determine levels of nicotine in a woman's body.

The shopping vouchers will be redeemable in major high street shops - largely those which sell baby clothes and maternity products.

The wide-reaching initiative comes after figures from France's ministry of health and social affairs released in 2015 which revealed that a large proportion of women in the country keep smoking despite expecting a child.

While France might have a reputation of being a nation of keen smokers, a study in the UK found out that even fewer UK women give up the habit while pregnant.

One in four pregnant women smokes, despite warnings about the effects on the baby, and widely available NHS quit services.

Around 5,000 babies die in the womb or shortly after birth from mothers smoking during pregnancy each year in the UK.

In a 2014 scheme run by Professor David Tappin at Glasgow University and Professor Linda Bauld at Stirling University, 612 pregnant smokers were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

Half were assigned to a group offered up to 400 of financial incentives if they engaged with usual care smoking cessation services and/or quit smoking during pregnancy.

While one in five French women do not kick the habit while pregnant, British women are more likely to keep lighting up - as one in four does not give up while expecting

They were offered Love2shop vouchers at different stages of pregnancy, ranging from 50 for setting a quit date to a final 200 voucher for proof of having quit shortly before birth, using breath analysis.

The other half were offered usual care smoking cessation services that included a face to face appointment with a smoking cessation adviser, four follow-up support calls and free nicotine replacement therapy for 10 weeks.

Women who were offered shopping vouchers were significantly more likely to quit smoking than those in the control group. Overall, 69 women quit from the test group, and 26 from the control group  23 per cent and nine per cent respectively.

After 12 months, 15 per cent of women who were offered financial incentives remained off cigarettes compared to only four per cent in the control group.
She will join Sky News as a political commentator ahead of the election

She admitted to being too tough on colleagues during her tenure

The former chief-of-staff said personal criticism took its toll on her

Peta Credlin has admitted to being too tough on colleagues during her tenure as the former prime minister Tony Abbott's chief of staff and has spoken warmly of Opposition Leader Bill Shorten ahead of the upcoming election.

In her first television interview since leaving politics, Ms Credlin admitted she may have 'banged a few heads too hard' but said her tough reputation was to ensure election promises were met within electorates, in a segment on Sky News on Saturday.

'If I have to cop some criticism, maybe I banged a few heads too hard, or demanded, in the Prime Minister's name, everything that ministers or backbenchers have promised their electorates,' she said.

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'Maybe I banged a few heads too hard' - Ms Credlin's (pictured during Sky News interview) tough reputation was to ensure electorates were given what they were promised

Peta Credlin has admitted to being too tough on colleagues during her tenure as the former prime minister's chief of staff

But she said much of the criticism received was often targeted at her because she was a 'six foot one female, with long hair'.

'There's a lot said about my time as chief-of-staff, but very few commentators have ever said she wasn't smart enough, she wasn't up to the job, she didn't get things done, in fact it's the reverse,' she said.

'I was often criticised if there was a photograph of me sitting behind Tony Abbott or me sitting in chair in a meeting overseas.

Ms Credlin (pictured) praised Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for having a level of 'likeability' and 'earthiness' and commended him for bringing unity and discipline to the Labor party

She said Malcolm Turnbull never had any intention to be 'anyone's minister' when he returned to parliament under Tony Abbott and that he had a 'big campaign to fight' in the upcoming election

'I was sitting in the chair that had always been the chief of staff's chair, but if you're six-foot-one, female, long hair and like to smile a bit, you get a photo.

'I have no trouble being measured on competency and on record, but when it got really personally and pointed, yeah it got tough.'

The former political staffer, who is set to join Sky News as a commentator during the upcoming election, said Malcolm Turnbull never had any intention of being 'anyone's minister' when he returned to parliament under Tony Abbott and that he had a 'big campaign to fight' in the upcoming election.

She went on to praise Opposition Leader Bill Shorten for having a level of 'likeability' and 'earthiness' and commended him for bringing unity and discipline to the Labor party.

'This campaign, more than any other in recent history will matter more because so much of it, so much of it, will turn on the performances during the campaign,' she said.

'(It will show) How the machines for both sides will run the ground for marginal seats and the lead characters, minsters, shadow ministers, will perform.'
Sadiq Khan has carried out his first official piece of business as London's new mayor after attending a swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral.

The newly-elected mayor of London received a standing ovation from a crowd which included actor Sir Ian McKellen and former Labour Party leader Ed Milliband, but not current leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The first Muslim to hold the position, Khan was introduced by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, the mother of British teenager Stephen Lawrence, who was murdered in a racist attack in South East London in 1993.

The pair embraced as Mr Khan took to the stage, before addressing the crowd: 'My name is Sadiq Khan and I'm the mayor of London.'

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Sadiq Khan motions to his children as he enters the cathedral with The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn

Sadiq Khan has carried out his first official piece of business as London's new mayor after attending a swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral

Sir Ian McKellen greets the newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan ahead of his signing ceremony

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who was not present at the ceremony in Southwark, leaves his north London home today

Sadiq Khan holds hands with his wife Saadiya in Southwark Cathedral ahead of the signing ceremony for the newly elected mayor of London

Sadiq Khan speaks with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe (right) and London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson (left) following the ceremony

He added: 'I can't quite believe the last 24 hours. We are here in Southwark because I want to start how I intend to go on.

'I wanted to do the signing here in the very heart of our city, surrounded by Londoners of all backgrounds, and I'm so proud that my good friend Doreen Lawrence introduced me here today.

Mr Khan joked: 'Some of you may not know this but I grew up in a council estate just a few miles from here.

'Back then I never dreamt I could be standing here. I'm only here today because of the help that our city gave to me and my family and my burning ambition for our city, that will guide my mayoralty, is to ensure that all Londoners get the opportunities that our city gave to me

Sadiq Khan is embraced by a friend at Southwark Cathedral in London following today's ceremony

Mr Kahn shakes hand with one passer-by and waves to another, while somebody else takes a picture of him

'I'm truly humbled and my promise to you is this; I will always do everything in my power to make our city better. I will be a mayor for all Londoners.'

Without naming his Tory rival, he said Labour had fought a 'positive' campaign, adding: 'Fear doesn't make us safer, it only makes us weaker, and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.'

Introducing the new mayor, Baroness Lawrence said: 'This is a glorious day.

'I never imagine I could have a mayor of London from an ethnic background. It's an amazing sign of how far our city has come.

'A city that has chosen unity over division and hope over fear. A city that has chosen a mayoral for all Londoners.'

The first Muslim to hold the position, Khan was introduced by Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon, the mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband (left) shakes hands with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe

Mr Khan was officially declared the first Muslim Mayor of London last night after comfortably defeating Tory rival Zac Goldsmith

Karen Buck MP, former Labour leader Ed Miliband, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and London Fire Brigade Commissioner Ron Dobson enjoy front row seats at the ceremony

Saadiya Khan (right), wife of Sadiq Khan, with Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon after the signing ceremony

Mr Khan checks his watch as he completes his swearing-in as the newly-elected mayor of London

The newly-elected mayor of London received a standing ovation from a crowd which included actor Sir Ian McKellen and former Labour Party leader Ed Milliband

Mr Khan was officially declared the first Muslim Mayor of London last night after comfortably defeating Tory rival Zac Goldsmith.

The result from City Hall was a glimmer of light for Jeremy Corbyn from an otherwise dire set of election results.

In a clear dig at Mr Goldsmith's campaign, which had been portrayed as 'divisive', Mr Khan said: 'This election was not without controversy and I'm so proud that Londoners have today chosen hope over fear and unity over division.'

Mr Khan said: 'I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear doesn't make us safer, it only makes us weaker, and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.'

He said he was 'deeply humbled' and was 'so proud' of London and he said his late father, a bus driver, would have been very proud too.

The bitterly contested battle had seen Mr Goldsmith and David Cameron repeatedly raise Mr Khan's ties to extremists.

But the interventions did not sway voters in the capital  and the Prime Minister is now facing a massive Conservative backlash over the tactics.

Ed Miliband chats with Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, left, while Sir Ian McKellen poses with Lord Michael Cashman

The crowd at Southwark Cathedral give the capital's new mayor a standing ovation ahead of an official singing-on ceremony

Mr Khan outside Southwark Cathedral, where he was helped down and greeted by Bernard Hogan-Howe, right

Newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan leaves his home in south London this morning

Steve Hilton, David Cameron's former director of strategy, said tonight: 'Zac Goldsmith has brought back the nasty party label to the Conservative Party.'

Mr Khan's 57 per cent support after second preferences were counted amounted to a landslide victory on the largest turnout in the history of directly-elected mayors in London.

Labour fell one seat short of an overall majority on the London Assembly which scrutinises the mayor, taking 12 seats to the Tories' eight. Greens took two seats, Liberal Democrats one and Ukip won two seats - the party's first since 2004.

Labour MP David Lammy predicted that Mr Khan's victory could pave the way for a candidate from an ethnic minority to enter Number 10.

'If we ever get a prime minister of colour, it will be because of what Sadiq Khan has achieved,' he said.

Tottenham MP Mr Lammy, who stood against Mr Khan for the Labour mayoral nomination, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme Mr Khan 'is a grafter, he is someone who gets on with people, he is someone who is pragmatic when he needs to be and he certainly has a vision for this city'.

KHAN'S ELECTION VICTORY DOMINATES THE FRONT PAGES IN PAKISTAN The election of a Pakistani bus driver's son as the mayor of London was greeted with celebration on Saturday in Pakistan, from where Sadiq Khan's parents emigrated to Britain in the 1960s. News of Khan's win in the British capital featured on the front pages of all major Pakistani newspapers on Saturday, while also causing a stir on social media. 'Congratulations @SadiqKhan 4 being elected mayor of London,' tweeted Bilawal Bhutto, leader of the opposition Pakistan People's Party and son of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto. 'British Pakistanis need a role model,' he added. Rival opposition leader and former cricketer Imran Khan - whose ex-wife Jemima is the sister of Sadiq Khan's principal opponent Zac Goldsmith - also tweeted his congratulations to the new mayor. Supporters of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz are shown celebrating the victory of Sadiq Khan Elsewhere on social media most Pakistanis appeared to greet Khan's win with pride, with messages marking the recent successes of other high-profile British Muslims - including former One Direction member Zayn Malik, who also has Pakistani heritage - going viral on Saturday. Some could not resist pointing out the irony of the jubilant reaction in the deeply conservative country. 'Pakistani: Sadiq Khan won! Reporter: So you'd vote for a minority immigrant son of a bus driver as Mayor of Karachi? Pakistani: Are you mad?' tweeted newspaper columnist Bina Shah. Khan has told media that he has relatives in the port megacity of Karachi, where his grandparents reportedly migrated after the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, as well as Faisalabad in Punjab and the capital, Islamabad. Advertisement

Mr Khan was announced as the capital's new mayor last night, beating Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith (left)

...but Corbyn gives Khan's swearing-in a miss and heads to Bristol instead to hail 'incredible' victory of another newly-minted Labour mayor

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) chose to celebrate a Labour mayoral victory in Bristol rather than attend Sadiq Khan's swearing in ceremony

While Londoners, celebrities and politicians celebrated the swearing in of London's first Muslim Mayor one man was conspicuous by his absence.

Unlike former Labour leader Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn was not in Southwark to cheer on Sadiq Khan - in fact he was over 100 miles away in Bristol applauding another mayoral victory for his party.

Mr Cobyn was hailing the election of Marvin Rees, who became mayor of Bristol just hours after Mr Khan in London, and described the win as 'incredible'.

Senior Labour figures like deputy leader Tom Watson welcomed Mr Rees's victory, as did race campaigners who said he was a role model for black youngsters,

Mr Rees, 43, a married father of three, won 68,750 votes after second preferences had been counted, defeating the incumbent, Bristol First's George Ferguson, who finished on 39,557.

Operation Black Vote said Mr Rees was the first person of Afro-Caribbean descent to be directly elected mayor of a major city in the whole of Europe and said his election in Bristol, which made its wealth from slavery, was symbolic.

It is thought that a high turnout, combined with all-up council elections in Bristol may well have helped him beat architect Mr Ferguson, 69.

The Labour leader said he was 'proud' that both Mr Rees and Mr Khan had won their respective elections and criticised the Conservatives for their 'nasty gutter politics'.

'Marvin Rees, a black man elected mayor of Bristol. I have been in Bristol quite a few times over the months supporting Marvin because he has this fantastic reach, a fantastic personality - this ability to unite the whole city, to unite people to face the problems we all have,' he said.

'Marvin is someone who is absolutely rooted in Bristol and its community. This incredible result that has been achieved here today is a huge thank you to everyone in the Labour Party in Bristol and all over the region.'

Mr Corbyn said people were joining the Labour Party because they believed, like him, that Britain 'could be so different' and were angry at the Conservative's election campaign in London.

'It doesn't have to be unequal with a tiny minority at the top getting so much and the big majority at the bottom getting so little,' he said.

'They wanted the Labour mayor and they wanted things done very differently. They were saying they were so disgusted at the tactics used by the Tories in London in attacking Sadiq Khan and the way in which they tried to play the nastiest gutter politics that I have seen for a very long time.

'It didn't work and people came out in unity for something different.

'I have been in lots of places last week where allegedly there was a problem. I was in Carlisle, we won; I was in Rossendale, we won; I was in Burnley, we won; I was in Hull, we won; I'm here, we won; I was in London, we won.

Mr Corbyn (pictured with Labour's Marvin Rees) called Mr Rees victory in the Bristol elections 'incredible'

'We've had a huge result in Bristol, a huge result in London and we've had an increase in our vote since 2015 and I think we have shown we have an enormous reach across all sections of our community.'

Earlier, Mr Rees spoke movingly of growing up in a council flat on a tough estate and being aware at a young age that he was different.

'Forty years ago today we would probably be sat in a council flat in Lawrence Weston having just left a refuge in Exmouth,' he said.

'I was aware I was a brown kid, a mixed race kid, on a housing estate where there weren't many brown kids.

'I was aware of people calling me names. I had a sense of vulnerability about the circumstances my mum was facing; that we had very little money. We could go to the refrigerator and there wouldn't be much there.

'I think it is incredible that when I reflect back, coming from that background that while it presented me with many, many challenges and while Bristol has not always been a great place for me to live in, no city is perfect.

'While it has presented me with those challenges it has also presented me with opportunities to stand here today as mayor-elect.'

Simon Woolley, director of Operation Black Vote, said: 'The symbolism of Marvin winning cannot be overstated. Bristol made its vast wealth in slavery. Slave owners such as Edward Colston have statues and institutions throughout the city.

'Bristol has for some time struggled with acknowledging its dark past, much less effectively dealing with it. But with Marvin - a descendent of those enslaved - perhaps Bristol takes a truly redemptive step to modernisation.
A Sufi Muslim leader has been found hacked to death in Bangladesh, two weeks after the Islamic State group claimed the murder of a liberal professor in the same northwestern district.

Mohammad Shahidullah, 65, had been missing since leaving home on Friday morning before villagers last night found his body in a pool of blood in a mango grove in Rajshahi.

It comes amid a troubling rise in violence against religious minorities, liberal activists and foreigners in Bangladesh, with six murders since the start of last month alone.

'He was not a famous Sufi. But there could be a possibility that he was killed by Islamist militants,' Rajshahi district police chief Nisharul Arif said.

People gather around the body of Bangladeshi professor Rezaul Karim Siddique after he was hacked to death on April 23

A man holds a portrait of Bangladeshi professor Rezaul Karim Siddique. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the murder

The police officer said the killing of the self-proclaimed Sufi master was 'similar' to other recent hacking deaths of religious minorities carried out by attackers with machetes or cleavers.

'He was slaughtered from his neck and there are also some deep gashes in his throat,' Abdur Razzak, a local police official said, adding that 'he had scores of followers in a nearby district'.

Sufi Islam is a mystical form of Islam popular in rural Bangladesh but considered deviant by many of the country's majority Sunni Muslims.

They include the Saudi Arabia-inspired Salafis and Wahabis, who are gaining strength in the country.

Suspected Islamists have been blamed for or claimed dozens of murders of atheist bloggers, liberal voices and religious minorities in recent years including Sufi, Shiite and Ahmadi Muslims, Hindus, Christians and foreigners.

In the past five weeks, two gay activists, a liberal professor, an atheist activist and a Hindu tailor who allegedly made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammed were hacked to death.

The Islamic State group and a Bangladeshi branch of Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for several of the killings.

However the secular government in Dhaka denies that IS and Al-Qaeda are behind the attacks, saying they have no known presence in Bangladesh, and blames the killings on homegrown militants.

Bangladeshi demonstrators and former Rajshahi University students protest against the killing of university professor Rezaul Karim Siddique

Sufis have been targeted in several of the 37 suspected Islamist attacks recorded by police in the past three years.

In September the custodian of a Sufi shrine and his assistant were murdered in the port city of Chittagong.

A long-running political crisis in officially secular Bangladesh has radicalised opponents of the government and analysts say Islamist extremists pose a growing danger.

The country has been on high alert in recent days after the country's top court upheld the death sentence of a leader of Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami.
The 2,800 sq ft plaza will feature symbolism meant to hold significance for members and veterans of the Special Forces

The Chris Kyle Memorial Plaza is expected to open sometime in July

Each tree weighs more than 8,000lb each and will grow up to 35 feet high

The Texas memorial honoring slain 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle will include four $3,000 oak trees from former President George W Bush's ranch.

Crews worked on Thursday to plant the trees, which weigh more than 8,000 pounds each, at the developing memorial in Odessa, where Kyle was born.

They are expected to grow up to 35 feet high with canopies 40 feet wide. Designers have envisioned that they will grow into each other, providing a place where visitors can find shade and introspection.

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Crews worked on Thursday to plant four $3,000 oak trees from George W Bush's ranch at the developing Odessa, Texas memorial honoring slain 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle

The trees, which were paid for by the Odessa Community Foundation, are meant to symbolize patriotism, Kelly Cook, the memorial's architect, said. The memorial is expected to open in July

The Chris Kyle Memorial Plaza will also feature a 15-feet-tall bronze statue of the American Sniper

The trees, which were paid for by the Odessa Community Foundation, are meant to symbolize patriotism, Kelly Cook, the memorial's architect, told the Odessa American.

'There's a lot of hidden symbolism behind the other elements that are going to be in the plaza', Cook said.

'A lot of that we are going to reveal at the dedication.'

The Chris Kyle Memorial Plaza is expected to open sometime in July. It will also feature a 15-feet-tall bronze statue of Kyle on a 48,000-pound limestone base.

There are plans to include messages from Kyle's children in the statue, which was designed by Wyoming-based sculptor Vic Payne.

Taya Kyle, who has fought to keep her husband's memory alive in the years after his murder, and her children were involved in the statue's design.

She viewed the sculpture in April during an 'emotional and moving' visit and said it shows that Payne 'cares so deeply about getting every detail and nuance right'.

The trees were planted just a day after Kyle's headstone (pictured), which features the hand prints of Taya and their two children, was placed at the Texas State Cemetery on Friday

Taya Kyle, who has fought to keep her husband's memory alive in the years after his murder, and her children were involved in the statue's design and their hand prints are featured on his headstone

The limestone is engraved with names of the 50 states woven into a Navy Seal trident.

Cook said much of the symbolism in the 2,800 sq ft plaza will only be caught by members of the Special Forces.

'We wanted the two percent to come out here and it have great, great, great meaning to those people,' Cook said.

Kyle and his friend Chat Littlefield were gunned down by fellow war veteran Eddie Ray Routh at a shooting range in Rough Creek, Texas, on February 2, 2013.

The site of the memorial is near a Veterans Affairs Clinic.

The trees were planted just a day after Kyle's headstone, which features the hand prints of Taya and their two children, was placed at the Texas State Cemetery on Friday, according to Fox 7.

Kyle and his friend Chat Littlefield were gunned down by fellow war veteran Eddie Ray Routh at a shooting range in Rough Creek, Texas, on February 2, 2013

Taya recently memorialized her husband on his birthday in April, writing that he had showed her 'it was possible to live a life that mattered and to be stupid and goofy and childlike at the same time'

It has already drawn fans from around the country, who know of Kyle's story from his bestselling memoir and the 2014 Clint Eastwood film by the same name.

Only certain veterans are awarded the honor of being buried at the Texas State Cemetery.

Texas State Cemetery Superintendent Harry Bradley said the headstone serves as a monument not only to Chris Kyle, but to all veterans.

Bradley said Kyle's burial site was already one of the most visited plots at the cemetery, and he expects it will attract even more visitors now that the headstone has finally been placed.

Taya recently memorialized her husband on his birthday in April.

'I remember one of the things that made me need you so much, was the laughter you brought into my life,' she wrote on a Facebook post shared more than 112,000 times.

'The reminder of how much I loved to laugh and be stupid with another person.'
John Ali Hoffman (pictured), 49, was arrested on suspicion of three murders after police found a woman's body in the trunk of a car and two dead children in a Hawaii home

A Hawaii man was arrested in connection with three murders after police responded to a home as he was driving away from the scene with blood dripping from the trunk of his car.

Police spotted John Ali Hoffman, 49, leaving the home and driving away in a car with its headlights off.

Hoffman was pulled over and arrested around 1.30am Friday.

Dripping blood from the trunk of the car led officers to a woman's body stuffed in the trunk and police found a gun in the front seat of the car.

Two dead children were discovered inside the house in a subdivision in the rural Puna district, police said.

Police Capt Robert Wagner said it 'looks like they were all living in the same house', but his relationship to the victims is still unclear.

A relative said Hoffman had a wife and two young children  a boy and a girl.

Police are trying to identify the victims.

Hoffman's sister-in-law, Marie Hoffman, was shocked to hear the allegations.

'That don't sound right,' she said several times in a phone interview from Minneapolis.

She said she did not know much about John Hoffman's wife but that he is originally from St Louis and moved to Hawaii about 20 years ago.

Marie Hoffman, who is married to his brother, described John Hoffman as the kind of man who takes care of people, especially children.

A relative said Hoffman had a wife and two young children  a boy and a girl. But police are still trying to identify the victims. Pictured is a police car at the scene

'He's stern, but he's cool,' she said.

A man who lives next door to Hoffman told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald that he occasionally heard arguments coming from the home.

'I do know they were not a happy couple over there,' Tim Mullins told the newspaper.

'They would argue and fight, and I would hear it from time to time. But before it got too bad, it would quiet out.'

And on the night of the murders Mullins told the Tribune-Herald that he did hear a disturbance but didn't hear gunshots.

'It was pretty rainy and the coqui were loud but in between the shower bursts it did sound like a woman's voice was piercing through the night, and then it would go away.

He added that he was 'trying to sleep so I tried to tune that out and I didn't think anything of it at that time'.

Other residents said they did not know anyone with Hoffman's name in the subdivision, which has about 800 to 900 homes on 1-acre or larger lots.

Police didn't disclose the exact address, but Hoffman's name is not listed as a property owner, said Richard Robbins, a Leilani Community Association board member.

Robbins, who is in charge of enforcing association rules, said he has not heard of Hoffman.

Like much of the Puna district, the homes use rainwater catchment tanks and cesspools or septic tanks.

A man who lives next door to Hoffman said he occasionally heard arguments coming from the home. And on the night of the murders, neighbor, Tim Mullins, said he did hear a disturbance but didn't hear gunshots

A lot of residents rely on solar power and depending on the carrier, cellphone reception can be spotty, Robbins said.

It is the only Big Island subdivision with fully paved roads, spanning 21 miles, he said.

A triple homicide is rare, not only for the area, but for the entire island, police said.

'I can't remember having one before,' Wagner, the police captain said. 'It's definitely unique.'

Some residents of the subdivision agreed.

'We have crime on the Big Island just like anyplace else,' said resident John Rivera, who also did not know Hoffman. 'But this is surprising, really surprising.'




A Georgia woman was forced to apologize on Friday after calling for 'Death to all white cops nationwide' in a Facebook post.

Ebony Dickens, of East Point, was charged with terroristic threats and inciting a riot after writing 'I thought about shooting every white cop I see in the head until I'm either caught by the police or killed by them' in the Facebook post under the name Tiffany Milan in April 2015.

The charges against Dickens, a 34-year-old mother of a teenager, were dropped in exchange for an apology at a news conference surrounded by law enforcement officials.

Ebony Dickens, of East Point, Georgia, apologized on Friday for the Facebook post she wrote under the name Tiffany Milan in April 2015

Dickens is a small business owner who lives just outside Atlanta and has a master's degree in legal services.

She said on Friday that her Facebook post was taken out of context and that it was not meant to be taken seriously.

Dickens had called for 'Death to all white cops nationwide' in the Facebook post, which was posted following the death of Freddie Gray

'It was not meant that way. I would never advocate for anyone to be harmed by anyone. That is not the person that I am,' she said. 'My apology is genuine and sincere because I know for a fact that I do not want anyone's lives taken, anyone being harmed by something that I put on Facebook.'

She added that she wanted to start a conversation from the post, which was put on Facebook following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.

'I'm apologetic because I would've been devastated if something had happened to an officer at the time that this happened,' Dickens said. 'That would've killed me because I didn't think about that.'

Dickens' apology took place at Jackson Memorial Baptist Church in Atlanta, which has served as the site for several police officer funerals, according to WSB-TV.

The church's pastor is an Atlanta Police Department chaplain, and law enforcement representatives were present to accept Dickens' apology.

Atlanta Police Union president Ken Allen told WSB-TV that he has forgiven Dickens for writing the post.

'When you put something that devastating and life threatening out, it could end in tragedy at any given time. What she posted could have. It didn't happen here, luckily,' he said.

Dickens said on Friday that her Facebook post was taken out of context and that it was not meant to be taken seriously. She said that she wanted the post to start a conversation

Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard is planning on asking for the case against Dickens to be dismissed.

'Hopefully, Mrs. Dickens has learned a valuable lesson and we will not see her again,' Howard said.

Dickens' full Facebook post published last year read: 'All Black ppl should rise up and shoot at every white cop in the nation starting NOW.'

'I condone black on white killings. Hell they condone crimes against us.'

'I've thought about shooting every white cop I see in the head until I'm either caught by the police or killed by them. Ha!!!! I think I can pull it off. Might kill at least fifteen tomorrow.

'I'm plotting now. They reading this sh** too right now. Freedom of speech tho. So when you can absolutely show me the 1st amendment where it explicitly says you can't say 'kill all cops,' then I'll delete my status. Other than that...NOPE!'
A father-of-two has gone missing after disappearing on a night out during a holiday in Turkey with his girlfriend.

Troy Ross, 28, from Leeds, West Yorkshire, was last seen on CCTV trying to kick down a door in his hotel after locking himself out.

His partner Deanna Willumsen, 28, who had left the room earlier to visit a friend who was also staying at the hotel, returned to find the room abandoned.

Troy Ross, right, went missing while on holiday with his partner Deanna Willumsen, left in Turkey

Mr Ross, pictured, vanished from the Jiva Beach Resort Hotel in Turkey on Saturday, April 30

Mr Ross, pictured, got locked out of his hotel room and was seen kicking the door before leaving the building

The missing scaffolder did not even meet Ms Willumsen at the airport two days later as she choose to fly home solo to look after the couple's three-month-old son Roman.

Distraught Ms Willumsen, also of Leeds, said: 'I'm just hoping and praying he is safe somewhere and will come home soon.'

The couple flew out to Turkey on Thursday, April 28, for a five-night stay at the Jiva Beach Resort hotel.

Ms Willumsen last saw her partner when she left their room at about 8.30pm on the Saturday evening to call on a friend who was also a guest at the hotel.

He was later caught on CCTV trying to break down the door of the empty room after locking himself out.

He was then seen leaving the hotel alone at about 9.30pm - and there has not been a sighting of him since.

Ms Willumsen, 28, from Leeds said: 'I'm just praying he is safe somewhere and that he'll be home soon'

Friends have contacted Turkish Police and hospitals in the area but there still has been no sign of Mr Ross

Troy Ross was last seen leaving the Jiva Beach Resort in Turkey, pictured, on Saturday, April 30

Mr Ross is known to have had a small amount of cash on him as well as Ms Willumsen's bank card - which has not been used over the last week.

He did not have his passport with him when he went missing and had left his mobile phone back in the UK.

British officials have checked with the local police and hospitals in the area, but there has been no sign of the missing scaffolder since he vanished.

Ms Willumsen returned to Leeds last Tuesday to look after the couple's three-month-old son Roman, who was being looked after by her mother during the holiday.

Ms Willumsen said: 'When I turned up at the airport, I was fully expecting Troy to be there waiting for me.

'I thought he might just have been lying low and was worried about getting arrested because of the damage to the hotel door.

'When he wasn't there, that's when it him me that something bad might have happened. I was in hysterics. I still can't really focus on what I'm doing.'

She added: 'If Troy reads this, then I want him to know that he's not in any trouble, but please let us know he is alright.'
A woman who says polygamous leader Warren Jeffs forced her to marry her cousin when she was 14 has agreed to settle her lawsuit against the sect's communal property trust.

Elissa Wall sued the trust now controlled by the state to hold leaders accountable for abuses such as underage marriage, her lawyer said. She settled the lawsuit on Friday for $2.75million after first seeking $40million.

She was forced to marry her 19-year-old cousin when she was just 14 years old in 2001. She left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and divorced her husband, Allen Steed as the pair had no children together.

The new governing board of the trust said in a statement they appreciated that she spoke out publicly against Jeffs. Her testimony helped convict him of being an accomplice to her rape in 2007.

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Settled: Elissa Wall says polygamous leader Warren Jeffs forced her to marry her cousin when she was 14. She has agreed to settle her lawsuit against the sect's communal property trust for $2.75million

Wall married her 19-year-old cousin, Allen Steed (pictured), when she was just 14 years old in 2001. She left the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and divorced him

The settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, came after a March decision by the Utah Supreme Court that cleared the way for Wall to sue over the 2001 marriage.

Under the agreement, Wall will get $1.5million in cash over the next 18 months, said property trust lawyer Jeffrey Shields.

She will also receive a house in Hilldale, Utah, and a 40-acre piece of property just over the border in Colorado City, Arizona, with a total value of $1.25 million.

'She's done enough for this community, I think she's entitled to a residence,' Shields said.

The trust holds nearly all the land, homes and businesses in the home base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints along the Utah-Arizona border.

Estimated to be worth about $110 million, it was built to fulfill a belief in holding property communally.

The new governing board of the trust said in a statement they appreciated that Wall (left) spoke out publicly against Jeffs (right). Her testimony helped convict him of being an accomplice to her rape in 2007. He is now serving life in prison

The Utah attorney general seized the trust in 2005 amid allegations of mismanagement.

Wall wants to be involved in the community where she grew up and as the trust is re-made outside the control of sect leaders loyal to Jeffs, her lawyer Alan Mortensen said.

'The Board of Trustees and Ms Wall want a community that is focused on families, friendships and growth - rather than divisive feelings, tall fences and secrecy,' the two sides said in a joint news release.

The federal government is pursuing the group on multiple fronts, including court cases alleging food stamp fraud and child labor in Utah.

Prosecutors are also calling for the police department to be disbanded after a jury in Phoenix found that the twin polygamous towns denied basic rights to nonbelievers.

Jeffs does not have lawyer, and the sect does not have a spokesman or a phone listing where leaders can be contacted.

The 2007 verdict against Jeffs was overturned on a technicality, but he is now serving a life prison sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered wives.

Jeffs (pictured at his trial in 2007) was convicted in 2011 of sexually assaulting underage girls he considered brides
Pick a president: New York multimillionaire or New York multi-billionaire.

In Ohio River coal country, retiree Nelson Travis says he begrudgingly will choose the billionaire: Donald Trump.

Nonetheless, Travis argues, neither the presumptive Republican nominee nor Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton actually gets people like him.

'They're both out of touch with people's everyday reality,' the 64-year-old Republican says, dismissing Clinton's talk of 'breaking down barriers' and Trump's 'make America great again' motto.

The likely November rivals' personal portfolios don't exactly square with the populist wave defining 2016.

The likely November rivals' personal portfolios don't exactly square with the populist wave defining 2016. Trump attends most of his rallies in his private Trump jet, pictured

'Nobody could say [Obama] didn't understand the problems of working people,' Republican consultant Katie Packer said. 'Clinton is somebody who hasn't driven her own car in three decades.'

Trump, lifelong New Yorker and multimillionaire's son, is worth about $4.5 billion according to Forbes, though he claims more. Forbes estimates Clinton to be worth about $45 million, a fortune built entirely since she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House in 2001.

But the candidate who connects with the widest swath of 'average Americans' (median household income of about $54,000) will find the clearest path to the Oval Office.

That connection will prove particularly important in Rust Belt, Great Lakes and Midwestern states stretching from Pennsylvania to Iowa, where Democrats have prevailed in recent presidential elections but by narrow enough margins to give Trump hope.

'We are in a new age of economic populism,' says Dave 'Mudcat' Saunders, a Democratic strategist who helped craft Democrat John Edwards' 'Two Americas' presidential campaign in 2004. 'People are hurting. They're mad, and they want somebody who'll do something about it.'

Trump and Clinton are addressing their personal wealth differently.

Unlike previous wealthy nominees, such as Republican Mitt Romney in 2012 and Democrat John Kerry in 2004, Trump plays up  and boasts about  his riches.

Clinton is more likely to talk about her middle-class childhood than her current accounts.

She took heat for saying she and her husband were 'flat broke' when his second term ended, and she has struggled against her Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, who has made income inequality his core issue.

Going into a general election match-up, Trump appears to have the initial upper hand with the most vocally frustrated voters, who powered him past a gaggle of career politicians in the GOP primary.

Throngs roar at his calls to build a wall at the Mexican border, close all U.S. borders to non-citizen Muslims, and 'bring back the jobs' from China and Mexico. Atypical of Republicans, he promises to 'take care of people' and not cut Social Security or Medicare.

Glamorous life: Clinton, pictured with good friend Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue, is in the wealthy echelons of New York society life

Hillary Clinton's struggled to use the New York subway system during campaigning, causing many to question when she last used public transport

Despite claiming her and husband Bill were 'flat broke' when his second term ended , the Clintons (pictured in front of their New York house) own well-appointed houses in the suburbs of New York and in the nation's capital.

It's enough to convince Terri Reschley, 62, of Indianola in Iowa, a competitive general-election state. 'Even though he's rich, and he's always been rich, he's just like Bob in the country,' she says.

Clinton offers a more muted approach, not traditional populism, but aimed at the same voters.

She talks about raising minimum wages, improving education, creating jobs, and lifting up working people. She peppers her remarks with anecdotes of people she meets campaigning.

Though she's yet to contrast her biography with Trump, Clinton recalls her father, who ran a small business, and her mother, who had a rough childhood.

She's spoken of her grandfather laboring in a Scranton, Pennsylvania, lace mill and her father preaching 'that if he scrimped and saved' he 'could provide us with a middle-class life.'

Clinton also frames issues such as gun violence, police brutality and criminal justice as matters of fundamental economic opportunity for urban and minority communities, perhaps redefining populism in 2016 to include more than traditional pitches to white voters.

THE MILLIONAIRE: FROM 'FINANCIAL RUIN' TO GLOBAL CONSULTING RACKET Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House in 2000, a year that she later described as so financially perilous they were 'dead broke.' The Clintons cited legal bills and other liabilities between $2 million and nearly $11 million. But within just one year, according to tax and disclosure records, they had wiped out all that debt, earning nearly $12 million. It was the start of an infusion of wealth that enriched the couple by more than $200 million over 15 years  and nearly $140 million since 2007. Bill Clinton blended private appearances and consulting with his work promoting the family's global charity, the Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton ran for the presidency in 2008, lost to Barack Obama, became his secretary of state for four years then joined her husband at the foundation and on the lecture circuit, earning $22 million by herself in three years. Their largesse has provided the trappings of a glamorous life. The Clintons own well-appointed houses in the suburbs of New York and in the nation's capital. They hold a sole mutual fund worth between $5 million and $25 million. They are regulars at Caribbean resorts and New York's exclusive Hamptons beachfront. Hillary Clinton's three-year speaking tours often came with premium travel  flights on private jets, luxury 'presidential' hotel suites and transportation and accommodations for the retinue of loyal aides who traveled with her, according to her contract demands.

Although nearly a sure bet to clinch the Democratic nomination, she's still being dogged by Sanders, who rails against the 'millionaire and billionaire class' embodied in Wall Street banks and a 'campaign finance system that is corrupt.'

Setting the stage for Trump, Sanders harangues Clinton as a prime offender.

Sanders consistently has topped Clinton in small towns and rural areas, while Trump romps among Republicans from the same locales.

Primary results aren't necessarily predictive of November outcomes, but the divide was on display recently in Appalachia, where Clinton was met by miners protesting her statement in March that 'we're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.'

Clinton said she chose the wrong words to explain wider market forces, such as increasing consumer preference for solar energy, that reduce coal demand.

But in Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio, many residents heard a rejection of their way of life.

'I raised my family, and now my family is raising their families' on coal jobs, said 59-year-old Ed Boston of Beallsville, Ohio. 'I pack a bucket every day,' he said. 'She doesn't even know what a bucket is. ... Anybody understands us better than Hillary.'

Trump (pictured with wife Melania at Time 100 Gala) lifelong New Yorker and multimillionaire's son, is worth about $4.5 billion according to Forbes, though he claims more

'I'm really rich,' Trump said last June in announcing his presidency. Pictured, Donald Trump and Mark Bellissimo attend Trump Invitational Grand Prix at Mar-a-Lago

Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump speaks to the media at his Mar-A-Lago Club on Super Tuesday

Clinton tried to turn the mistake to some advantage by pointing out that visited the increasingly Republican region to listen to the people she had offended. 'Whether you vote for me or not,' she said, 'I will be your partner, and I will not for one minute give up on Appalachia.'

She also called out Trump for relying on mass rallies instead of one-on-one conversation with people.

A recent barb in Delaware: 'If you want to be president of the United States ... don't just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of, and then go back, get on that big jet, and go back to your country club house in Florida or your penthouse in New York.'

She's also telling people that the biggest beneficiaries of Trump's tax proposals are the wealthiest.

The approach is working with voters such as Chira Corwin, 42, from Des Moines, Iowa, who said Clinton has 'been in the field, so to speak, working with people, as opposed to Trump, who has been a millionaire his whole life.'

Winning over voters in a populist mood is an inexact science, but political observers recognize it as a necessity.

THE BILLIONAIRE: TRUMP'S $1M LOAN THAT TURNED INTO BILLIONS Though Trump's $10 billion estimate of his own fortune is viewed skeptically by outside appraisers, he's a safe bet to be the wealthiest American ever to be the presumptive nominee from a major political party, richer even than Republican Mitt Romney. Just as surely: He won't let anyone forget it. 'I'm really rich,' Trump said last June in announcing his presidency. Trump has also made the entirely plausible claim last year that, 'I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney.' Trump has described himself as a largely self-made man who parlayed a $1 million loan from his father into an empire worth billions. Trump's eventual inheritance was far larger than that, however, and Trump relied on his father's loan guarantees for his formative real estate and casino deals. He came close to losing it all in the early 1990s, when personal guarantees of a floundering casino and real estate empire put his fate in the hands of bankers who had loaned him money. Even then, however, Trump maintained a remarkable standard of living: The bankers gave him a $450,000-a-month allowance. There's no such limit on Trump's spending these days. Living out of a three-story penthouse atop the Trump Tower, he also owns residences in California, Florida, Virginia and the Caribbean. Caviar, yachts, gold-plated faucets, private jets and mansions with 126 rooms: If there's a public signifier of wealth, it's a safe bet that Trump has associated himself with it.

Four years ago, President Barack Obama and Democrats painted Romney as out of step after he said his wife drove a 'couple of Cadillacs' and because he tried to make a $10,000 bet on a primary debate stage.

In Democratic ads, Romney was criticized by workers who were laid off at businesses taken over by the private equity firm he co-founded.

He was particularly hurt by a remark, captured on video at a private fundraiser, that 47 percent of voters don't pay income taxes and support Democrats because they're dependent on public programs.

Republican consultant Katie Packer, a former Romney aide now running an anti-Trump political committee, said it was tough for Romney to overcome that.

Exit polls in 2012 indicated that about one-fifth of the electorate gave priority to choosing a president who 'cares about people like me,' and Obama won that group 81 percent to 18 percent for Romney. That was enough to help tip the popular vote to Obama.

Trump's wealth, and how he built it, could be a Democratic line of attack again, Packer said.

But she cautioned that Clinton is not the same messenger as Obama, who was still paying off student loans when he stepped onto the national stage with a prominent speech at the 2004 convention.
Hillary Clinton has come up with a new nickname for Donald Trump, a month after he started referring to her as 'crooked Hillary'.

She called him the GOP's 'presumptuous nominee' during a rally in Oakland, California on Friday, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Clinton also blasted the billionaire's immigration plans, saying police would 'haul people out of their beds and their workplace' to conduct millions of deportations, and called him out for offering 'slogans and one-liners' instead of a true agenda.

Trump has been known to come up with nicknames for his rivals and previously called Cruz 'Lyin' Ted' and Rubio 'Little Marco'.

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Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump the GOP's 'presumptuous nominee' during a rally in Oakland, California on Friday (pictured), drawing laughter from the crowd

He became the GOP's presumptive nominee on Tuesday night, when his victory in the Indiana primary led Cruz and Kasich to drop out of the race.

'Their presumptive nominee, otherwise called their presumptuous nominee,' Clinton said Friday according to ABC News, 'has made it really clear he basically said wages are too high in America.

'And that's why he doesn't think we need to raise the minimum wage. And I gotta tell you I ask myself all the time, who he is talking to?'

She added that Trump doesn't care about equal pay for women 'because he doesn't think much of women, it turns out'.

Clinton also warned against Trump's plan to deport millions of immigrants living in the country unlawfully Friday.

'Can you imagine the police and military action inside our borders?' she asked, adding that authorities would knock on doors, 'hauling people out of their beds and their workplaces'.

The former secretary of state says she has offered a specific agenda but voters are 'getting slogans and one-liners on the other side'.

She will face Bernie Sanders in California's primary on June 7.

Meanwhile some Republicans have declined to support Trump despite the call for unity launched by chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus.

He invited members of the GOP to rally behind Trump Tuesday night.

But House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was 'not ready' to support the billionaire, followed by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who said Trump hadn't displayed the necessary judgement and temperament to be president, and Jeb Bush, who said he wouldn't give his vote to Trump nor Clinton.
Police officers who secretly joined a bikie gang are facing an urgent inquiry after it was revealed they were members of an outlaw motorcycle group.

As many as 12 Western Australian police officers joined Gunfighters MC when it recently established a chapter in Perth, the West Australian reported.

Gunfighters MC is a police-only bikie gang with hundreds of members and chapters in North America, Europe, Africa and now Australia.

As many as twelve Western Australian police officers joined Gunfighters MC when it established a chapter in Perth

Gunfighters MC was established in the United States in 2005 and describes itself as a 'fraternal organization for law enforcement officers who share a passion for riding motorcycles'.

The new Perth chapter is not suspected of any criminal activity and a post on the club's website says all members abide by the law and do not seek conflict with other bikie gangs.

The officers who joined the gang have since left after their membership was brought to the attention of WA Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan.

Gunfighters MC was established in North America in 2005 and describes itself as a 'fraternal organization for law enforcement officers who share a passion for riding motorcycles'

The WA Police Commissioner has launched an inquiry into the officers' membership with the club

The officers had kept their membership a secret from police bosses and even the state's organised crime unit was not aware they had joined the club.

Mr O'Callaghan said: 'While I have been advised all serving police officers have since resigned their membership of the Gunfighters Motorcycle Club, these officers are being served a letter formally advising that membership of such a club has the potential to be in breach of our code of conduct.

'I have also ordered an inquiry to examine the conduct of the officers during their association with this club and should that investigation identify any misconduct or breaches of Police Force regulations, then action will be taken.'

A post on the club's website describes the formation of the club in 2005 as well as the activities its members engage in.

It says: 'The Gunfighters Motorcycle Club was founded in 2005 by a group of active and retired law enforcement officers.'

The post continues: 'These brilliant and insightful men joined together to celebrate our Brotherhood.

The Gunfighters patch features a skull which represents 'undying respect for officers' and two pistols which represent an officer's 'tools of the trade'

'We accept all cruisers, party with supporting clubs, and enjoy the brotherhood. That is the unbreakable bond that keeps us together.'

The club's black and white patch features a skull wearing a sheriff's hat and holding two revolver pistols.

The club's website says that the skull represents an 'undying respect for all law enforcement officers' while the guns represent an officer's 'tools of the trade'.
Ricky Plummer, an Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief, has been arrested on an arson charge over a grass and marsh blaze fought by more than 100 firefighters

A fire chief accused of intentionally setting a grass and marsh blaze that was fought by more than 100 firefighters and led to evacuations was arrested Saturday.

Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief Ricky Plummer was taken into custody at around 2 am at his mother-in-law's house in Scarborough, state police said.

He was charged with arson in connection to an April 15 fire that burned 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh in Old Orchard Beach, a coastal town of about 8,600 located in southern Maine.

Residents of a condominium were forced to evacuate from their homes.

About a dozen investigators from the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Maine Forest Service seized computers at the fire station and in Plummer's official vehicle on Friday, state police said. They also took Plummer's cellphone.

Plummer, 59, was taken to the Cumberland County Jail.

His bail was set at $10,000, and his first court appearance will be scheduled next week.

He didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

He has been the Old Orchard Beach fire chief since 2014 and has also worked at departments in North Yarmouth, Biddeford, Standish and Gray in Maine and Cocoa, Florida, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Plummer told reporters during the fire that the blaze was so fierce it nearly forced firefighters to pull out of the area, the newspaper reported.

'Flames were 20 to 30 feet high, just a wall of fire and heat,' Plummer said. 'It could have been a lot worse. It could have burned this condominium down.'

Plummer was charged with arson in connection to an April 15 fire that burned 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh in Old Orchard Beach. Pictured left, firefighters put out blaze. Right, the blaze forced residents to evacuate homes

Plummer told reporters during the fire that the blaze was so fierce it nearly forced firefighters to pull out of the area, the newspaper reported

Town manager Larry Mead said Plummer has been relieved of his duties and placed on administrative leave.

He said the command staff at the fire department would direct day-to-day operations there in Plummer's absence.

Mead declined to comment on the charges, citing the ongoing criminal investigation.

Capt. John Gilboy with the Old Orchard Beach Fire Department called the arrest a 'personnel' issue and said the department had no comment.

The National Volunteer Fire Council estimates there are about 100 firefighters a year arrested on arson charges.

In neighboring New Hampshire, a volunteer firefighter was arrested April 22 on charges he set two fires that burned hundreds of acres, forced the evacuation of 17 homes and caused $500,000 worth of damage to utility equipment.

Stoddard firefighter David Plante was charged with two counts of arson. His attorney said he suffered from mental health issues, and the Fire Chief Stephen McGerty called him a 'troubled firefighter.'
The underwater creatures are also fitted with a satellite tracking device

In just minutes, scientists have full measurements and blood samples

A floating laboratory on the remote north west coast of Western Australia is providing a vital insight into the lives of deadly tiger sharks.

The Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) have teamed up with an American OCEARCH conservation crew to research the creatures which are widely regarded as the most dangerous sharks to humans.

Speaking to Nine News, Dr Mark Meekan - a principal research scientist with AIMS - said there was little known about the sharks.

'We know virtually nothing about these predators. We need to work at big scales if we're going to protect them', he said.

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A sunken platform and angled lures are used to trap the shark humanely so scientists can take measurements to learn more about the creature

When a shark swims on to the platform it is raised above the water and the research crew return it within a matter of minutes

A 40 metre vessel on the Ningaloo Reef is the base for the research centre, and a sunken platform and angled lures pull the sharks up to the surface of the water so they can be quickly examined.

While above the water, a device is attached to the shark to pump water through its gills, allowing it to breathe.

Scientists then take a blood sample, measure the length and girth of the creatures and fit a satellite tracking device to the animal before it is released again. The whole process takes just minutes.

On the team's last research expedition they tagged a 3.5 metre shark they refer to as 'Catalina'.

Dr Mark Meekan says we must work at 'big scales' to protect the sharks, which we know virtually nothing about

Water is pumped through the gills of the shark while it is above water so it is able to breathe

After Catalina was tagged in Ningaloo, her tracker showed that she swam up to Darwin before coming down the west coast and crossing the Australian Bight.

The female shark now resides in the waters of South Australia, and her journey has amazed scientists.

The tiger shark was understood to be a warm water shark, though that belief was shattered with Catalina's journey, as the waters near Darwin are tropics.

The research has also shown that tiger sharks are staying closer to the surface in cooler southern areas, but dive deeper in more tropical latitudes.

'It's a great feeling to come in to work every morning, look at my computer, and watch this dot travel to places we never thought it'd go,' said Dr Meekan.
A Saudi prince has urged Americans not to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming general election.

Turki al-Faisal, who served as Saudia Arabia's ambassador to the US from 2005 to 2007, spoke against the presumptive Republican nominee during a foreign policy dinner in Washington, DC on Thursday.

He blasted Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the US, which the billionaire first formulated in December last year before renewing his vow on Wednesday.

'For the life of me, I cannot believe that a country like the United States can afford to have someone as president who simply says, "These people are not going to be allowed to come to the United States,''' Turki said according to the Huffington Post.

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Turki al-Faisal (pictured in September last year), a former ambassador to the US, spoke against the presumptive Republican nominee during a foreign policy dinner in Washington, DC on Thursday

'It's up to you, it's not up to me,' Turki added. 'I just hope you, as American citizens, will make the right choice in November.'

Turki, who went to Georgetown University in Washington, DC, isn't currently part of Saudia Arabia's government but serves as the chairman of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, a cultural organization that conducts research in politics, sociology and heritage.

He spoke Thursday at a dinner hosted by the Washington Institute For Near East Policy at the Mandarin Oriental hotel.

Turki said he had enjoyed the 'spectacle' of American elections during his time as a student in the US in the 1960s, the Huffington Post write, and found it 'sometimes uplifting, other times the opposite.'

Trump (pictured at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, on Thursday) first proposed to ban Muslims from coming into the US in December last year to prevent terrorist attacks and stuck by his plan on Wednesday

Trump first proposed to ban Muslims from coming into the US in December last year to prevent terrorist attacks.

He stuck by his plan on Wednesday, saying on MSNBC's Morning Joe he didn't care if it hurt him in the general election.

'I'm doing the right thing when I do this. And whether it's Muslim or whether it's something else, I mean, I have to do the right thing, and that's the way I've been guided,' he said.

'And I've been guided by common sense, by what's right. And you see what's happening. We have to be careful. I mean, we're allowing thousands of people to come into our country, thousands and thousands of people being placed all over the country that frankly nobody knows who they are.
Ava Roosevelt, 68, who claims she was nearly a victim of the Manson family murders, has asked for a former member of the cult to be kept in jail

Ava Roosevelt, who claims she narrowly escaped being a victim of the Manson family murders, has begged California's governor to keep a former member of the cult locked up.

Roosevelt, 68, told governor Jerry Brown that she will 'fear for her life' if Leslie Van Houten, who helped Manson's followers murder Leno La Bianca and his wife Rosemary in 1969, is released from jail.

Van Houten, a former beauty queen who admits holding a pillow over Rosemary's head as she was stabbed to death and then mutilating her corpse, was recommended for parole last month after 46 years in jail.

In a letter, seen by the New York Post, Roosevelt writes: 'If Leslie van Houten, a convicted killer, is set free, I fear for my life and those who I love.

'In my view there is no place for this murderer in American society. As a survivor of the death spree, I beseech your office to deny any recommendation for parole.'

Roosevelt claims she was due to be at Sharon Tate's house on the night Manson's 'family' stabbed the actress to death along with four of her friends.

Tate, who was eight months pregnant with husband Roman Polanski's baby at the time, had invited Roosevelt over to her house after dinner on the night of August 9, 1969, she claims.

However, a faulty gas valve on her 1955 Rolls Royce meant the car would not start and so she stayed at home.

That night Linda Kasabian, Tex Watson, Susan Atkins and Patricia 'Katie' Krenwinkel broke into Tate's Beverly Hills mansion, tied her and her friends up, and stabbed them to death - scrawling the work 'Pig' in blood on the wall before leaving.

The following day Leno and Rosemary were also stabbed to death in similarly gruesome fashion, with the word 'War' carved into Leno's stomach.

Roosevelt is just the latest in a long line of people who have called for Van Houten to be kept behind bars after a parole board recommended her for release.

Leslie Van Houten, who was jailed aged 19 for helping to murder Leno and Rosemary La Bianaca in 1969, was recommended for parole last month after serving 46 years of her life sentence

Van Houten (far right, with fellow killers Susan Atkins, left, and Patricia Krenwinkel, center) admitted holding a pillow over Rosemary La Bianca's head as she was killed, and then stabbing her after she had died

Cory La Bianca, Leno's daughter, gave a rare interview with the LA Times in which she said: 'I very much disagree with the ruling.

'We all need to be held responsible for our behavior. The least we can do, for someone who commits a crime against another human being, is to keep them in jail.'

She said her 41-year-old son burst into tears while listening to the parole hearing at the California Institution for Women in Chino.

Sharon Tate's sister, Debra, has also started a petition calling for Van Houten to be kept behind bars, saying she failed to show remorse for years after the crimes and can't be trusted.

Van Houten was just 18 when the Manson killings took place over two days in August 1969. She was not present for the murders of Tate and her friends, but went along the following night when the La Bianca's were killed.

Van Houten, who launched her first parole attempt in 1979 and has applied for parole 20 times, recounted her part in the killing of La Bianca and his wife during her 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.

Cory La Bianca, the daughter of Rosemary (left) and Leno (right), has also asked for van Houten not to be released, saying she failed to show remorse and should be left in jail

Van Houten (right, with Atkins left and Krenwinkle center) was recommended for parole last month despite admitting that she would have stabbed babies if Manson had demanded it

Van Houten told the panel she had been traumatized by her parents' divorce when she was 14, her pregnancy soon after and her mother's insistence she have an abortion.

During her five-hour testimony, Van Houten described Manson as a 'Christ-like man that had all the answers'.

Van Houten also admitted that she would have been willing to stab babies and toddlers if Manson had demanded it.

She was initially sentenced to death for her part in the slayings, but that was later commuted to life in prison.

Her defense lawyers say she denounced Manson and his teachings soon after being jailed, and has taken 'self-help programs, classes and counselling' while in jail.

The decision of the parole board will now be scrutinized by a legal panel before being sent to Brown for approval, a process which can take up to four months.

While Brown has worked to reform the parole process in California, making it easier for inmates to be released, he has denied applications from members of the Manson cult in the past.

Manson (left in 1969 and right in 2009) inspired his cult of hippie followers to stab at least nine people to death as part of an impeding race war that he warned was approaching

Bruce Davis, convicted for the killings of Gary Hinman, an aspiring musician, and stuntman Donald 'Shorty' Shea, had a recommendation turned down by Brown who said he had still failed to accept full responsibility for his part in the murders.

Manson, now 81, remains behind bars, along with Patricia Krenwinkel and Charles 'Tex' Watson who have each been denied parole multiple times.
About 1,000 right-wing extremists have rallied outside Berlin's main train station, protesting against Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance to refugees.

Demonstrators held signs with slogans like 'No Islam on German Soil' and 'Merkel Must Go,' while waving German flags at the rally on Saturday afternoon in the capital.

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About 1,000 right-wing extremists have rallied outside Berlin's main train station, protesting Chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance to refugees

Right-wing protesters take part in a rally against German Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration policies in Berlin earlier today

About 1.1 million migrants crossed into Germany last year raising concerns nationwide about how the country would cope with the influx

The right-wing populist Eric Graziani speaks during a demonstration with right-wing groups in front of the central train station in Berlin

Even as demonstrators chanted their 'we are the people' mantra common to all recent far-right rallies, onlookers outside the police cordon shouted back 'no you're not

There have been no reported clashes yet between the two sides protesting at the rally

About 1.1 million migrants crossed into Germany last year from the Middle East and North Africa raising concerns nationwide about how the country would cope with the influx.

Still, the rally drew only about a fifth of the numbers organisers had expected and several counter-protests were being held around Berlin in support of Merkel.

Even as demonstrators chanted their 'we are the people' mantra common to all recent far-right rallies, onlookers outside the police cordon shouted back 'no you're not.'

There weren't any immediate reports of clashes between the two sides.

This week Merkel said it was important that people understood her immigration policies which have caused her personal ratings to plummet.

She said: 'We have to ensure that Europe is a project that people understand,' adding that a key message that has to hit home is that 'it's better with Europe than without Europe'.

German politicians from across the spectrum criticised the anti-immigration party on Monday after it declared Islam incompatible with the constitution.

THE RISE OF THE FAR-RIGHT PARTY AfD AS POLL SHOWS ITS POPULARITY Public backing for a German far-right party is at its most popular in its history - just days after it said Islam was incompatible with the country's constitution. Opinion polls have given Alternative for Germany (AfD) support of 15 per cent - gaining significant ground on Chancellor Angela Merkel's main coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats. Formed only three years ago on a eurosceptic platform, AfD is now Germany's third strongest party, according to a recent survey. Public backing for Germany's far-right party AfD is at its most popular in its history - just days after it said Islam was incompatible with the country's constitution. The statistics were revealed as Merkel urged European leaders to protect the EU's external borders or risk a 'return to nationalism'. She said today that border defence represents a 'challenge for the future of Europe' from 'the Mediterranean to the North Pole'. Merkel said earlier this week that the rise of the far-right in Germany was a phenomenon that 'we have to deal with'. 'We see that there are political forces with very negative rhetoric on Europe,' she said, referring to AfD. The AfD backed a manifesto pledge at a congress on Sunday to ban on minarets and the burqa, the full face and body-covering gown worn by some Muslim women. It has no lawmakers in the federal parliament in Berlin but has members in half of Germany's 16 regional state assemblies. Merkel has said freedom of religion for all is guaranteed by Germany's constitution and that Islam is a part of Germany. Germany is home to nearly 4million Muslims, about 5 per cent of the total population. Community leaders have called on politicians to ensure that no religious community be disadvantaged and that Islam not be defined as a 'foe'.

Millions of people have been displaced because of the Syrian War which has been going for five years

Participants in a march of right-wing groups demonstrate in front of the central train station with a sign written with 'No Islam on German soil'

Protesters wear t-shirts written with the messages 'When wrong becomes right, resistance becomes obligatory' and 'Merkel must go'
The man killed when a car ploughed into him after he stopped to be sick on the side of the road has been identified as Melbourne father-of-three Alan Dunlop.

Mr Dunlop died at the scene after he was hit by a purple Holden Commodore while he was parked in an emergency lane on Melbourne's Western Ring Road on Saturday afternoon.

The 31-year-old from the Melbourne suburb of Werribee was described as a 'great dad' to his three children, reported the Herald Sun.

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The father-of-three killed in the crash has been named as 31-year-old Alan Dunlop from Melbourne

The purple Holden Commodore veered into the emergency lane of Melbourne's Western Ring Road

A 27-year-old woman from south west Melbourne has been arrested following the crash and is currently in hospital under police supervision

Mr Dunlop was described as a 'great dad' to his three children. He was hanging out of the car to be sick when he was hit and killed

It was originally believed that Mr Dunlop was changing a tyre on the side of the road when he was hit.

Detective Sergeant Darren Williams said Mr Dunlop had died in 'tragic circumstances'.

He said: 'It's a tragic set of circumstances. When you're stationary in an emergency lane you don't expect to be hit from behind by another vehicle.

'They were doing everything right  they had pulled over and were well away from traffic but they ended up being involved in the crash. It's unfortunate someone has lost their life.'

Police have confirmed a 27-year-old woman from Altona Meadows in Melbourne's south-west has been arrested following the crash.

She has been taken to hospital and is under police guard.

Mr Dunlop's cousin has been revealed as the driver of the parked car and received minor injuries himself in the crash.
A Boston high school has been hit with a nude photo scandal after photos featuring up to 50 female students in 'varying degrees of undress' were posted on Dropbox.

Police said many of the photos of the Duxbury High School students appear to be selfies and said the girls' names also appeared on the Dropbox page, which has since been shut down.

A student who feared she was on the list informed school officials of the page's existence the file sharing and storage website on Wednesday.

Investigators immediately had the San Francisco-based company take the page down, and have since served a search warrant on the site to determine through forensic testing who created the page in the first place.

Duxbury High School (pictured) in Boston found itself in the midst of a nude photo scandal this week after photos featuring up to 50 female students in 'varying degrees of undress' were posted on a Dropbox webpage

Video Courtesy WBZ

Duxbury Police Chief Matthew Clancy said it appears the selfies were sent to boyfriends and there is no indication any of the photos were taken of the girls without their consent.

Authorities added that some of the photos appear to be fake, according to CBS Boston.

The girls' parents were contacted by investigators and the students have been asked to verify whether they are featured in any of the photos.

Counseling was being provided on Friday to the affected girls, according to WCVB.

'At the end of the day, these are children and they've made a mistake,' Clancy said at a news conference on Wednesday.

'We're clearly identifying these girls as victims, because that's what they are.'

Clancy said police are 'aggressively' going after who created the page.

'We're coming after them,' he said. 'We're going to pull out all the stops and hold them accountable. That's our focus right now.'

It could take weeks for Dropbox to give authorities data that might help them find the page's creator, according to the Boston Herald.

Police said many of the photos of the Duxbury High School students appear to be selfies and said the girls' names also appeared on the Dropbox page, which has since been shut down (file photo)

Clancy said the page's creator could face possession and distribution of child pornography charges, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison under Massachusetts law.

Police are also joining forces with the school to educate students about the consequences that come with sharing nude photos of themselves or others.

'Kids don't really understand that that once these images are out there, there's no way to make them go away,' Clancy said.

'Once they're out there, they're out there, and there's no turning back. Anything they do on the internet is forever.'

Doxbury Schools Superintendent Dr Ben Tantillo said the incident has been a lesson for the students.

'We would hope that our young girls understand that there are other ways to be popular,' he said.

'And we want our boys to know that this is not an appropriate way to treat women.'
A 52-year-old man was killed after a tractor-trailer crashed into the victim's hotel room in El Paso.

The unidentified driver was driving on Interstate 10 around 10.15am Friday morning when he lost control of the 18-wheeler, which was hauling steel railroad tracks, before crashing into the hotel, according to the El Paso Times.

El Paso Police Department spokesman Sgt Robert Gomez told the Times that the driver exited freeway onto the 6100 block of South Desert Boulevard.

A 52-year-old man was killed after an out-of-control tractor-trailer (pictured) crashed into the victim's hotel room in El Paso, Texas

The victim was struck when the driver crashed into his hotel room at Studio 6 on the first floor. The 52-year-old man died at the scene. The driver suffered minor injuries

He continued through the parking lot of a funeral home and a brick wall separating the funeral home and the hotel, Gomez said.

The victim was struck when the driver crashed into his hotel room at Studio 6 on the first floor.

The 52-year-old man died at the scene. His name has not been released.

Gomez said the semi-truck driver was taken to Las Palmas Medical Center with minor injuries.

The victim worked for a company called TowerComm out of Raleigh, North Carolina, according to KVIA.

TowerComm, which installs and services wireless towers like those for cell phones, confirmed that a crew was staying at the Studio 6 at the time of the accident.

Studio 6 was closed for 8 hours on Friday for city inspectors to determine whether it was structurally sound, according to KVIA.

Police are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Guests at the hotel staying near the room where the crashed occurred were moved to other rooms.

The victim worked for a company called TowerComm out of Raleigh, North Carolina. TowerComm, which installs and services wireless towers like those for cell phones, confirmed that a crew was staying at the Studio 6 at the time of the accident. Pictured is the back view of the truck after it crashed
The sister of the teenager who shot and killed NSW Police employee Curtis Cheng was an Islamic State recruiter, it has been revealed.

Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammad, who was operating under the name Umm Isa al Amirikiah, died in an airstrike in Syria in April, along with her Sudanese husband who was referred to as 'the beast of Islam'.

The 21-year-old, who fled to Syria the day before her brother Farhad Jabar murdered Mr Cheng outside the Parramatta NSW Police headquarters in October last year, was using Telegram - a social media app - to encourage people to join the terrorist organisation, News Corp reported.

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The sister of police Curits Cheng's (right) murderer Farhad Jabar (left) who was killed in an air strike in Syria has been revealed as an ISIS recruiter

Australian police were eager to speak with her about her knowledge of the shooting

The publication revealed the young Australian had risen high within the ranks of the organisation's propaganda arm, and evidence showed she was prepared to martyr herself for the cause.

In a post to her Telegram account on January 19, Jabar wrote about receiving a suicide belt alongside a photo of what she claimed to be the bomb.

'Alhamdulillah finally got my Hizam (suicide belt) today.

'May Allah subhana wa ta'ala grant me the opportunity to use it soon, to grant me the honour to sacrifice my self for Him, for His deen (to kill the kuffars). May Allah subhana wa ta'ala grant us all shahadah Ameen,' the post read.

Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammad fled Australia the day before her brother infamously gunned down the police employee in Parramatta

Jabar was killed in the same month as an Australian man who was one of Islamic State's highest-ranking recruiters.

The US advised the Australian Government last week that the nation's most wanted terrorist, 24-year-old Melbourne-born Neil Prakash, was obliterated in the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul in Iraq.

Prakash, known as Abu Khaled al-Cambodi, has been linked to a number of domestic terror threats including an alleged Anzac Day terror plot in Melbourne.

Australia's most wanted terrorist, 24-year-old Melbourne-born Neil Prakash, was killed by US air strikes last month

The 24-year-old Melbourne born man was one of Islamic State's highest-ranking recruiters

He climbed the ranks of the group by using social media to persuade members to carry out terror plots as well as travell to the Middle East to take up arms.

The former rapper featured in an alarming IS propaganda video last year which called for atrocities to be carried out in Australia.
The trio were among 15 men arrested following Barr's funeral on Thursday

Michael Barr, 35, was gunned down inside a Dublin pub as part of a feud

The trio were remanded in custody to Maghaberry Prison near Belfast

Three men have been charged with wearing paramilitary-style clothing after they were arrested attending the funeral of slain IRA gangster Michael Barr.

The three men were among 15 arrested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland following the 35-year-old terrorist's funeral in Strabane, Co Tyrone on Thursday.

The men, Conor David Metcalfe, 25, John Desmond Christie, 52 and Patrick Lavin, 51, were all charged with wearing clothing or having articles as members or supporters of a proscribed organisation.

Conor David Metcalfe, 25, left, appeared in Omagh Magistrates' Court today charged with wearing a paramilitary-style uniform at the funeral of slain IRA gangster Michael Barr, right, who was buried this week

John Desmond Christie, 52, and Patrick Lavin, 51, both refused to identify themselves during the hearing at Omagh Magistrates' Court in Co Tyrone so cannot be correctly identified in this picture caption

The trio appeared this afternoon at Omagh Magistrates' Court in Co Tyrone where they were all remanded in custody to Maghaberry Prison.

As the men were led out of the court house, a small group of supporters waved, clapped and cheered as they were ushered into the prison van.

The men were taken to the high-security jail in a heavily armed convoy.

Dissident republican Barr was a member of the latest group to call themselves the IRA.

Barr was shot up to three times after two men burst into the Sunset House bar in Dublin's Summerhill a fortnight ago.

PSNI officers swooped following Thursday's paramilitary-style funeral.

Men in berets, sunglasses and camouflage carried his coffin, which was covered in an Irish flag and had a beret and gloves resting on top.

A guard of honour flanks Barr's coffin of Michael Barr at his funeral in his home town in Northern Ireland

The Police Service of Northern Ireland arrested 15 people after Thursday's funeral in Strabane, Co Tyrone

Officers were seen swooping on a house in Strabane shortly after the funeral of Michael Barr in the town

More than 500 mourners turned up for Mr Barr's funeral on Thursday which was accompanied by a heavy security presence.

Both Gardai from Ireland and the PSNI on both sides of the border at Lifford and Strabane stopped motorists and asked for identification while a PSNI helicopter circled overhead.

The funeral cortege was accompanied by full republican military trappings as his funeral cortege was brought to the church.

Another guard of honour was formed by another republican group wearing white shorts and black ties.

Among the leading mourners were Mr Barr's mother and father, Martina and Colly as well as his partner Jade and the couple's five children Tiarnan, Killian, Caitlin and his grandmother Theresa.



Barr, known as Mickey Barr, was due to be sentenced in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin on Thursday for handling stolen electrical equipment in a hotel in July 2014 where a bomb had been found in a car two months earlier.

His murder is believed to have been linked to a bloody underworld power-struggle between the Kinahan and Hutch families and their associates.

There are conflicting reports as to whether Barr was the intended target or if a member of the Hutch family was in the pub at the time.

At his funeral mass at St Mary's Church in the Melmount area of Strabane his parish priest sent a message of support to communities in Dublin living in fear of gangland crime.

Fr Michael Doherty said the community of Strabane in Co Tyrone was behind those facing the continuing violence on the streets of the Irish capital.

Floral tributes for Michael Barr at his funeral, left by his son Tiarnan, left, and children Cillian and Caitlin, right

There was a large police presence in Strabane and it appears that the PSNI had planned an operation

Tensions: PSNI watch the funeral cortege pass as a guard of honour flanked the coffin in Strabane Co Tyrone this morning. Barr was shot dead at the end of April in a pub in Dublin

Gangland warfare: There have been six murders in a tit-for-tat battle between bosses Christy 'Dapper Don' Kinahan, left, and Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch, right

Barr's murder was the sixth in bitter feud between warring Irish gangland bosses Christy 'Dapper Don' Kinahan and Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch.

Sources say one line of inquiry is that he was shot dead at The Sunset House pub for leaking information to gardai about the AK-47s used in the Regency Hotel shooting in February.

In the hotel attack, David Byrne was shot dead in revenge for the murder of Garry Hutch, 34, in Spain last year. Mr Hutch was a nephew of Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch.

However, it was believed at the time of the Byrne killing that gang boss Christy Kinahan Sr's son Daniel was the intended target of the hotel shooting in February.

The Monk's brother Eddie Sr, 59, was gunned down days later in his home in a reprisal for Byrne's death.

Then came the murder of Noel 'Mr Kingsize' Duggan, 55 - a friend of The Monk's - at his home in leafy Ratoath, Co. Meath.

Preceding the assassination of Barr, bystander Martin O'Rourke was shot dead on Sheriff Street in a case of mistaken identity.

Sources in Ireland have said that Barr may have even supplied the weapons. Barr is also believed to have provided accommodation to a gunman involved in the Regency Hotel attack.

Sources say the most likely culprits for his murder are members of the gang run by Spanish-based 'Dapper Don' Christy Kinahan.
Becoming a new mother has not slowed down Ivanka Trump as the businesswoman brought her newest bundle of joy baby Theodore James to the office on Friday.

The 34-year-old blonde beauty gave birth to the adorable baby boy just last month, but she's been pictured in recent weeks at the Met Gala, unveiling the renovated Spa and Suites at Trump National Doral Miami resort, and not to mention helping her billionaire father with his presidential campaign.

On Friday, the mother-of-three shared a photo to Instagram cradling baby Theo as she brought him to her office in New York City.

Sporting a printed dress and a wide smile, the new mother was beaming while holding her son near a set of large gold balloons that spelled out his name.

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Surprise!: Ivanka Trump shared a photo (above) to Instagram cradling her new baby boy, Theo, as she brought him to her office in New York City. She's surrounded by her staff who surprised them with balloons and cake

Back to business: Ivanka (above) posed for a photo on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art bright and early Thursday morning after she attended the Fashion Accessories Benefit Ball on Wednesday night

Bundle of joy: The 34-year-old blonde beauty gave birth to the adorable baby boy just last month, but becoming a new mother has not slowed down Ivanka. Above she is pictured after giving birth to Theo in the hospital

Baby Theo is clearly content in his mother's arms and slept through his surprise party

She was surrounded in the photo by several of her employees, who were also smiling as they appeared happy to be introduced to the newest member of her family with husband Jared Kushner.

In the caption, she wrote: 'Look who made a guest appearance at #IvankaTrumpHQ!? #TeamIvanka surprised us with balloons and cake, and Baby Theodore played it cool and slept the entire time.'

The group of women appeared to be celebrating Theo's birth, as cake and beverages were present on the table that had a fresh looking display of a white floral arrangement.

On Thursday, Ivanka was up bright and early posing for a photo on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and shared it to her Instagram.

'Breakfast at the Met. #ManusXMachina,' she captioned the image, referencing the them of this year's Met Gala.

Running a lifestyle website and brand in addition to her work at the Trump Organization keeps Ivanka incredibly busy, and less than three weeks after her son Theodore was born, she started making appearances at her office again.

Honored: On Wednesday, during the Fashion Accessories Benefit Ball in New York City, Ivanka was presented with a FABB Achievement Award for her Ivanka Trump accessories line

Making memories: One of the members of her team, posted videos and pictures of Ivanka on her Snapchat account throughout the night on Wednesday

However, Ivanka is as committed to her family as she is her career, and the happy mom often shares photos of herself bonding with her newborn, as well as her older children Arabella, four, and Joseph, two alongside her husband.

On Wednesday, during the Fashion Accessories Benefit Ball in New York City, Ivanka was presented with a FABB Achievement Award for her Ivanka Trump accessories line.

Ivanka looked especially radiant in a black and white lace dress from her line, which she paired with classic black pumps.

She donned a red lip and tied her golden blonde hair back in a low ponytail with a black satin ribbon.

Ivanka was undoubtedly excited by the honor, and one of her team members took to her Snapchat account to share pictures and videos from the night.

One of the clips sees Ivanka posing on the red carpet, and someone in the background notes that 'she knows how to pose'.

Tuesday night Ivanka stood by her father's side after he became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee

Monday night Ivanka wowed in red at Vogue's Met Gala - one of the biggest parties of the year

Happy family: Ivanka and Jared are pictured with their four-year-old daughter Arabella, two-year-old son Joseph, and their newborn son Theodore James in their first family portrait as a family of five

Adorable: Arabella can be seen holding her new baby brother (left) shared on Instagram by Ivanka last month. The proud mother also shared an adorable photo of her four-year-old posing with her legs crossed (right)

In another picture from the night, the entrepreneur is proudly standing with her brand's design director, Willa Blank.

Ivanka, who also has lifestyle website dedicated to women who work, gushed about her team when she stepped on stage to receive her award.

The executive vice president at the Trump Organization told the audience that it is wonderful that she and her employees are 'able to work together and to support each other and ultimately to be able to celebrate together as we receive amazing awards like the one we are getting tonight'.

When she sat back down next to her brother Eric, who cheered her on throughout the night, Ivanka lifted the award up in the air and told her employees: 'We are taking this out tonight like the Stanley Cup.'

Before the event, Ivanka took to Instagram to share a picture of herself all dressed up and puckering her lips in front of a window with a view of Manhattan.
Police are questioning a 'person of interest' after an upstate New York hospital was put on lockdown following an armed robbery and a bomb threat early Saturday morning.

An armed man entered the emergency room at Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport around 4.45am Saturday and claimed to have a bomb, according to WGRZ.

The man, who was carrying two rifles, reportedly demanded medications and the hospital staff gave him a limited amount of drugs.

Police are questioning a 'person of interest' after upstate New York hospital Eastern Niagara was put on lockdown following an armed robbery and a bomb threat early Saturday morning. A man with two rifles entered the emergency room at the hospital in Lockport around 4.45am Saturday and claimed to have a bomb

Lockport police (pictured) have continued their search for the man as police chief Mike Niethe said 'we're not confident we have the right person'

Lockport police have continued their search for the man as police chief Mike Niethe said 'we're not confident we have the right person', according to TWC News.

Niethe said in a press conference: 'We're interviewing him, we're confident the scene is safe out there.

'We've expanded quite a ways and we've done a really exhaustive search of all the backyards.'

The suspect was fleeing the scene when police arrived. He dropped both rifles and a backpack as officers opened fire twice but missed, according to TWC.

An 'inert device' was found inside the backpack. It was hooked up to a cell phone with wires sticking out, according to WGRZ.

The bomb squad was called and confirmed the device was safe.

Police put the hospital and the surrounding neighborhoods on lockdown as they searched for the man for several hours in backyards and streets in the area.

Officers from the Lockport Police Department, Niagara County Sheriff's Office, New York State Police and Border Patrol assisted in the search.

After the man demanded drugs from hospital staff he fled the scene. An officer fired at him twice but missed as he dropped his backpack and the two weapons. A bomb squad was called but deemed the device found in his backpack to be safe. Pictured is the Niagara County Sheriff's SWAT vehicle

Police said the suspect was described as a white male with blonde hair, about 6-foot-tall in his early 20's. He was last seen wearing a tan shirt and pants. No one was injured during the robbery

Border Patrol used their helicopter to aid in the search for the suspect.

After the shelter in place was lifted, police assured residents that the area was safe and people should be able to resume normal activities.

Police said the suspect was described as a white male with blonde hair, about 6-foot-tall in his early 20's. He was last seen wearing a tan shirt and pants, according to WGRZ.

No one was injured during the robbery.
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Hundreds of left-wing protesters clashed with Italian police at the country's Austrian border on Saturday, leaving four officers injured as they fought against the proposed closure of the border between the two countries.

Italian riot police standing just 100 to 200 metres from the border responded with tear gas after a group of 50 to 80 anarchists, all covering their faces with motorcycle helmets and gas masks, threw bricks, firecrackers and other objects at a police blockade at the Brenner Pass.

On the other side of the border, hundreds of Austrian police were waiting to act, but were never deployed, as their Italian colleagues tried to contain the protest, which first spilled over on to the railway and then onto the busy Brenner highway.

As police pushed the protesters deeper back into Italian territory, many shed their helmets and gas masks, scampering up onto a steep hillside overlooking the highway and shouting at police to free their detained comrades.

The violent clashes came on the same day that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker called Vienna's plan to shut the Brenner pass 'a political catastrophe.'

Dozens of hooded anarchists have clashed with riot police blocking their approach to the Austrian border during a protest plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants crossing into the country from Italy

Italian police were injured in the clashes, as the 350 protesters hurled firecrackers and flares at the angry crowd

Austria has already started to make preparations for the check points, sparking Saturday's left-wing protest

An officer is seen in riot gear on the floor after being injured in the clash. His colleagues wash his face with bottled water an an attempt to ease his pain

Part of Europe's borderless Schengen zone, Brenner is one of the routes that migrants use as they head towards wealthy northern Europe

More than 600 people gathered to protest the plans, but it was a smaller group of 50 to 80 who began throwing bottles and flares

According to La Republicca, eight Italians, two Austrians and a German were arrested during the demonstration, which saw more than 600 people gathered to protest against Austria's plans to erect a fence at the Brenner crossing it shares with Italy to 'channel' people.

Part of Europe's borderless Schengen zone, Brenner is one of the routes that migrants use as they head towards wealthy northern Europe.

Italian newspaper Corriera della Sera reported earlier this week that the protest had been organised by an anarchist group from Trentino, northern Italy, and was expected to attract demonstrators from abroad.

But their plans upset the town's mayor, who told La Republicca: 'This isn't a suitable place to protest, it is a peaceful area.

'The refugees here have always been treated well. You can not destroy an area like that and you can not protest at the border.'

Austria planned to send 300 police officers to the protests but were 'ready to increase the number,' Tyrol police said, adding the Italian police were prepared to send the same number.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in Rome last month that as many as a million migrants were poised to cross the Mediterranean from Libya this year. Italy says the figure is much lower, though calm summer seas may well bring a surge.

Italy and Germany are utterly opposed to Austria's plan to build a fence at its border with Italy, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Thursday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Italian newspaper Corriera della Sera reported earlier this week that the protest had been organised by an anarchist group from Trentino

Italy and Germany - which has taken in more than a million refugees - are utterly opposed to Austria's plan to build a fence at its border

Italian riot police were prepared for the demonstration, and came prepared for violence to erupt on Saturday

Italian police sent around 300 officers to Saturday's demonstration, which they knew about several days in advance

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said as many as a million migrants were poised to cross the Mediterranean from Libya this year

Austria has said it plans to erect a fence at here to 'channel' people. Pictured: A helmet burns during clashes between 'No border' activists

The Alpine route is a major European transport corridor and a key link between the north and south of the continent, said Mr Juncker during an interview with Germany's Funke Mediengruppe.

'This is why everything that blocks the Brenner Pass will have not just serious economic consequences, but most importantly heavy political consequences,' he said.

With over 28,500 migrants arriving since January 1, Italy has once again become the principal entry point for migrants arriving in Europe, following a controversial EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkan route up from Greece.

In previous years, many migrants landing in Italy have headed on to other countries including Austria but Rome now fears it could be stuck hosting thousands of new arrivals.

Austrian police were waiting on the other side in case the violence spiraled out of control and crossed the border

With over 28,500 migrants arriving since January 1, Italy has once again become the principal entry point for migrants arriving in Europe

The Alpine route is a major European transport corridor and a key link between the north and south of the continent, said Mr Juncker

around 90,000 asylum applications from people fleeing war, persecution and poverty who have opted to settle in the country

On average 2,500 lorries and 15,000 cars travel daily through the Brenner Pass - a crucial lifeline for Italy's exports to northern Europe that is already prone to delays even without border checks.

Austria sits at the crossroads of the two major migrant routes, from the Balkans and from Italy, and saw hundreds of thousands of migrants cross its territory in 2015.

Authorities have received around 90,000 asylum applications from people fleeing war, persecution and poverty who have opted to settle in the country.

Mr Juncker also raised the alarm over Austria's response to the migrant crisis which he said had tempted other countries to close their borders while making far-right politics 'presentable' elsewhere in Europe.

'What we see in Austria we have unfortunately seen in other European countries, where (political) parties play with people's fears,' he said.

'This is why everything that blocks the Brenner Pass will have not just serious economic consequences, but most importantly heavy political consequences,' European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said

Austria sits at the crossroads of the two major migrant routes, from the Balkans and from Italy, and saw hundreds of thousands of migrants cross its territory in 2015

Police officers pass one of their damaged vehicles as they try to contain the violence at the Brenner Pass

Meanwhile on Saturday, the 1,759 migrants arrived in the Sicilian port of Augusta, after being rescued in 10 operations involving the Italian navy, coastguard and finance police, the European Union's external borders agency Frontex and the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

The latest arrivals picked up in the Strait of Sicily will bring the total of migrants reaching Italy by boat so far this year to more than 30,000, slightly higher than in the same period of 2015.

Officials fear the numbers trying to make the crossing to southern Italy will increase as sailing conditions improve in warmer weather.

More than 1.2 million Arab, African and Asian migrants fleeing war and poverty have streamed into the European Union since the start of last year.

Most of those trying to reach Italy leave the coast of lawless Libya on rickety fishing boats or rubber dinghies, heading for the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is close to Tunisia, or towards Sicily.

On Wednesday, however, Italy's coastguard said it had rescued 42 migrants from a sailboat off the coast of Puglia, in the southeastern heel of mainland Italy.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the 1,759 migrants arrived in the Sicilian port of Augusta, after being rescued in 10 operations involving the Italian navy, coastguard and finance police

The latest arrivals picked up in the Strait of Sicily will bring the total of migrants reaching Italy by boat so far this year to more than 30,000, slightly higher than in the same period of 2015

Officials fear the numbers trying to make the crossing to southern Italy will increase as sailing conditions improve in warmer weather




Clive Palmer's dream of building a $600 million replica version of doomed ocean liner, RMS Titanic, may be sinking.

Despite a proposed 2018 maiden voyage date, a Finnish company contracted in 2012 to design the Titanic II stopped work on plans late last year, according to the The Courier-Mail.

Construction on the modern-day Titanic has reportedly not even started, despite a proposed 2018 maiden voyage date

The company tasked with designing the ship in 2012, Finnish consortium Deltamarin, reportedly ceased commissions with Blue Star Line, the Palmer company behind Titanic II, in 2014

Mr Palmer reportedly said at a press conference this week he would have to seek approval from his wife if he could pursue the project in retirement

Still, the eccentric billionaire has made several hints that he could work on the ship during his retirement, telling reporters this week that he would have to seek approval from his wife.

Plans to build the six-star rated ship were revealed in February 2013 in New York to much fanfare.

The Titanic II was supposed to stick to the incredible detail of the original ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean more than 100 years ago.

It would have stayed true to its namesake with a small swimming pool, Turkish baths and an Edwardian gym.

There was even talk of supplying period costumes for Titanic II passengers who want to get into the spirit, although it's not known if that is still being considered.

Titanic II would meet modern safety and design requirements, meaning it will have a welded hull instead of a riveted one, a diesel-electric propulsion system instead of steam engines, stabilisers, and high-tech navigational equipment.

And it will have enough lifeboats for everyone on board  there was a shortage on the doomed Titanic  and modern-day evacuation systems.

Plans for the six-star rated ship revealed in February 2013 were unveiled in New York to much fanfare

Last week, Mr Palmer announced he will not be seeking re-election in the House of Representatives at the upcoming federal election.

The leader of the Palmer United Party made the announcement during a press conference in Canberra on Wednesday.
Star, from Rotherham, is moving to South Africa to

It is alleged that Eggheads star CJ de Mooi (pictured) was 'sacked' by the BBC on the same day he was cleared of sexually assaulting a man

Eggheads star CJ de Mooi was 'sacked' by the BBC on the same day he was cleared of sexually assaulting a man in a nightclub it has been claimed.

The 46-year-old contestant was the subject of an investigation after an incident in a Glasgow club, when he was out with two friends in January.

He allegedly spent up to five hours in a police cell before being questioned and released. He said he was suspended from Eggheads the following day.

It has since been revealed that CJ was axed by the BBC on the same day his lawyer rang him and told him police were not taking any action, reports the Mirror.

Producers sent out a press release explaining they were looking for new stars for the show through a recruitment programme called 'Make Me An Egg Head.'

The BBC has claimed that the star, who had appeared on the tea-time quiz since its inception in 2003, was not banned and that producers simply wanted to freshen up the panel.

A friend told the Mirror that the treatment has really upset the star.

He said: 'CJ feels like he's been persecuted, gone through hell, his life and finances have completely collapsed. He feels he's got nothing left and will never appear on British TV again. It's an awful situation.'

The pal added that the BBC recruiting on the same day it let CJ go was 'mean'.

Jeremy Vine is believed to be the host of Make Me An Egghead, which will search for a man and a woman to join the panel.

A BBC spokesman said: 'Occasionally we refresh our line up and Make Me An Egghead is an exciting new series which will help us find two new Eggheads.

'CJ is not banned from the BBC and we are grateful for the time he has dedicated to the programme over the years.'

CJ (pictured with other experts) was on the popular tea-time show Eggheads from its inception in 2003

The star has since announced that he will be leaving Britain to pursue his 'acting' career in South Africa.

CJ has had previous links to violent incidents, he recently admitted he left a homeless man for dead after punching him and throwing him in a canal more than two decades ago.

The quiz show star revealed he carried out the attack after being threatened by a knife-wielding mugger while living on the streets in Amsterdam in 1998.
While one traveller thought he looked like a terrorist, another person in an airport mistook him for Sean Lennon and asked for an autograph

Menzio was questioned about his 'cryptic' notes before he was allowed to get back on the plane, delayed by two hours

But after she was escorted off the plane, she revealed her suspicious

Italian economist and Ivy League professor Guido Menzio was kicked off an American Airlines flight after his seatmate suspected him of being a terrorist

An Italian Ivy League economist sitting on an American Airlines flight from Philadelphia was flagged by a passenger to the crew as being a possible Middle Eastern terrorist scrawling threatening notes.

But Guido Menzio, a 40-year-old professor at the University of Pennsylvania, wasn't writing secret messages.

He was solving a differential equation.

And yet Menzio's flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse on Thursday night was delayed by more than two hours after the woman sitting next to him told the crew she was worried about her seatmate.

The woman, whose identity was not revealed and is believed to be in 30-something, initially told a flight attendant that she was feeling too ill to travel, an American Airlines spokesman told the Washington Post.

But when they escorted her off the plane, the woman told the crew she had actually been feeling suspicious of Menzio and wanted to be booked on another flight.

Then it was Menzio who was being escorted off the plane, where he was informed by an official that his seatmate had suspected he was a terrorist - specifically bring up his 'cryptic' notes in the unrecognizable script.

Menzio laughed and showed officials what he had been working on, an equation related to a talk he was on his way to giving at Queen's University in Ontario regarding menu costs and price dispersion.

The professor was soon allowed to return to his seat, and said the pilot seemed embarrassed by the whole thing.

American Airlines said the crew followed protocol for taking care of a sick passenger, and said Menzio was determined not to be a 'credible threat' following his interview.

She became worried after she was Menzio, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, scribbling something in a notepad in a script that was 'unfamiliar' to her. But Menzio was actually just solving a differential equation

A sample of his work: It's unclear what this week's fear-invoking scribbles looked like, but Menzio previously shared a photo on Facebook of this whiteboard of equations that may give some idea

Menzio is a tenured associate professor at UPenn (pictured). He has also taught at Stanford and Princeton

The airline does not know if the woman was ever notified about who Menzio was or whether he had been cleared, spokesman Casey Norton told the paper.

She was rebooked on another flight.

Norton would not disclose how often passengers' suspicious about fellow travelers turn out to be unfounded, only saying it happens from 'time to time'.

Menzio, who has won prestigious awards for his work and has taught at Princeton and Stanford, said he was treated respectfully throughout the incident but calls the system 'broken' and inefficient.

The professor called the security protocol 'too rigid', stopping everything 'without checks' whenever someone is suspicious and relying on the 'input of people who may be completely clueless'.

And Menzio believes that things could only get worse for people who may look a little different as Donald Trump's presidential campaign rages on.

'What might prevent an epidemic of paranoia? It is hard not to recognize in this incident, the ethos of Trump's voting base.'

The professor also has shared another observation from his time in airports on Facebook.

One couple approached him just weeks ago and asked for his autograph thinking he was Sean Lennon - John's son.

American Airlines said the woman initially told crew she felt too ill to travel, and then revealed her concerns about Menzio when she was escorted off the plane. The flight was delayed more than two hours (file photo)

Sorry ladies! Judging by his Facebook it appears the professor is dating a fellow academic named Tal
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is spending millions on Champagne, horses and make-up while his people are struggling to make ends meet.

The UN says two million people are struggling to survive on meagre hand-outs from the state.

It says the daily allowance is 650 grams of maize, rice and meat.

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Kim Jong-un makes a speech to the sycophantic crowd at the 7th Workers' Party Congress in Pyongyang this week. His chubby features are thought to be due to his love for cheese, chocolate and fine wine

But the despot is spending fortunes on Champagne, fines wines, chocolate and Swiss cheese.

Kim has also blown 33million on vain statues of himself, his father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim il-Sung.

The Mirror reports that Kim has signed off imports worth 5.5m from German firms last year, including 235,000 on spirits, 113,000 on wines and Champagne and 56,500 on German beer.

Kim Jong-un is reportedly obsessed with Emmenthal (pictured), which is specially imported from Switzerland

There were also orders for 123,442 worth of perfumes, deodorants, make-up and hair care products from Germany.

Another 57,229 went on watches from Switzerland, 66,882 on imported cheeses, 251,726 on fishing rods from China and 132,452 on horses from Russia.

The bizarre list of imports included 1.65m worth of umbrellas from China, 8.03m on pepper and 2.34m on gym equipment.

The figures are from an International Trade Centre Map.

Kim is reported to have developed a craving for Emmental cheese and fine wines while studying in Switzerland.

In 2014 it was reported that he was suffering gout, a form of arthritis which is linked to debauchery and an over-indulgent lifestyle.

North Korea's ruling party is holding its first congress since 1980, amid speculation Kim will conduct a fifth nuclear test.

Kim took over the leadership in Pyongyang in 2011 and is expected to be 'crowned' with a formal title like his father and grandfather.

Kim il-Sung, founder of the Democratic Republic of Korea, created his own personality cult and was known as the Great Leader.

His son Kim Jong-il was known as the Dear Leader during his 1994-2011 reign.

It remains to be seen what title Kim Jong-un will give himself but there seems no end in sight to the personality cult or dynastic communism.
The pair married four years ago. She is survived by her daughters from a previous marriage

, was beaten so badly, they had to have a closed casket funeral

He said his wife, who was a

A man is tragically mourning the gruesome murder of his wife who was beat to death allegedly by his son, whom he wants to face the death penalty.

Police say 19-year-old Dylan Eason and 24-year-old Isaiah Churchwell savagely beat Dr Cynthia Campbell Eason, 50, to death on April 29 when they broke into her Burlington, Colorado home and stole valuables, KDVR reported.

Dylan's father, Jon Eason, was married to the victim and he believes that his son and Churchwell stole the valuables to pay for their drug habit.

'As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a son anymore,' Jon Eason told KSNT.'I think the two should face the death penalty.'

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Tragic: Jon Eason (left) is tragically mourning the gruesome murder of his wife, Cynthia (right), who was beat to death allegedly by his son, whom he wants to face the death penalty

Police say 19-year-old Dylan Eason (left) and 24-year-old Isaiah Churchwell (right) savagely beat Cynthia (pictured above with her husband Jon Eason) to death on April 29 when they broke into her Burlington, Colorado home

Dylan's father believes that his son and Churchwell stole valuables to pay for their drug habit. Above Jon Eason is pictured with his wife Cynthia

Cynthia was a well-liked veterinarian and had worked in the Kansas City area at several different animal hospitals, before moving to Burlington, which is located just 30 miles from the Kansas state line near Interstate 70.

There she co-owned a mixed practice veterinary clinic with her husband, as she specialized in equine medicine.

'She was such a good doctor and she was so smart, and I mean, you know, a veterinarian's gotta heal an animal that can't tell them what's wrong,' Jon Eason told 9 News.

'And people in this town loved her, and people in Kansas City loved her.

'What did I love? Well, those blue eyes and her laugh. That deep laugh she had.'

The couple would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on Sunday, May 8, but instead, the grief stricken man planned his wife's funeral that was held Saturday at 1pm.

Cynthia, who had been married once before, is survived by her two adult daughters, her four siblings and her mother.

According to her obituary, she attended Washburn University and Kansas State Veterinary School, where she graduated in 1990.

Jon Eason said: 'As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a son anymore. I think the two should face the death penalty.' The couple would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary on Sunday

Cynthia was a well-liked veterinarian and had worked in the Kansas City area at several different animal hospitals, before moving to Burlington, which is located just 30 miles from the Kansas state line near I 70

After graduation, she interned at Oklahoma State University and did her residency at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

While in high school and college, she was active in sports and while a team member on the Lady Royals summer softball team they won the state championship in 1982.

Her obituary says that she had a wide variety of hobbies and interests, including photography, as well as being devoted to her faith and attending the Evangelical Free Church in Burlington.

In addition, she was a member of the Eastern Plains Animal Welfare Alliance and the American Veterinary Medical Association. Plus she volunteered a the Topeka Zoo, as 'she had a life-long passion for helping animals,' her obituary reads.

She and her husband were both members of Colorado Agricultural Aviation Association and the National Agricultural Aviation Association.

'Above all, Cindy was a devoted wife and mother. She was always there to support her daughters and to be there for their achievements. She was dearly loved and will be sorely missed,' her obtuary reads.

Since the horrific murder, Jon Eason, has poured out his grief on his Facebook pages with several posts about the love of his life, and how angry he is with his son.

'I wanted to let our friends know that my wife Cindy was found dead this afternoon buy the police,' he first wrote on his page about her death.

Since the horrific murder, Jon Eason, has poured out his grief on his Facebook page with several posts about the love of his life, and how angry he is with his son. He shared the above photo collage to his page of Cynthia

'She was my best friend and a wonderful person and the world is a lesser place without out my dear wife in it.'

He then shared a collage of photos from a post he dedicated to the love he had for her on Valentine's Day and thanked her 'for everything.'

As the days moved on after the shocking crime, the heartbroken husband wrote on his page thanking those who have offered their 'kind words' about Cynthia's passing.

'This is my most difficult time ever. I cry, I scream but mostly I sit so confused. I used feel so lucky, the Cindy Campbell chose me to spend her life with, very humbled by her choice to be my wife,' he wrote on May 1.

'I am not happy with who I have become the last 72 hours, since I learned of my wife's tragic death. I have been intolerant of the justice system and very angry with our police dept. I have exploded more then once with anger, that I have been ashamed of.

'I am wondering as a parent, why I'm so insistent on my son and his friend receive the death penalty for killing my wife over simple greed.

Of Cynthia Jon Eason wrote on Facebook: 'She was my best friend and a wonderful person and the world is a lesser place without out my dear wife in it'. Dylan is being held without bail in jail until he appears in court

'I have never felt hate before, but I'm so engulfed in hate, that I I want my kid and his friend to pay with their lives.

'I'm ashamed of feeling this way, I know Cindy would not like my anger and madness that I'm living with.I ask you keep the Campbell family, Beggs Family in your thoughts.

'I feel that I do not deserve any prayers and I am to live in this private hell, because I could not protect my wife when she needed me the most.'

He ended the post with declaring his love for her and said that he would never forget her and would always honor her memory.

On May 4th he shed more information about his son and wrote on Facebook: 'I'm not asking for sympathy for I blame myself because I was not there to protect her, thus blame myself for my wife's death.

'Dylan was lost two years ago, but I never gave up on him. The whole town knows what we dealt with, but he was my son and I kept trying. but he was not willing to help himself.

Jon Eason wrote about his son on Facebook and said: 'Dylan was lost two years ago, but I never gave up on him. The whole town knows what we dealt with, but he was my son and I kept trying'

Of Dylan (above), the father added: 'but he was not willing to help himself. Now he has beat my wife, best friend to death in the most brutal way imaginable, so I am done with him'

'Now he has beat my wife, best friend to death in the most brutal way imaginable, so I am done with him.

'What I seen of her, there is no excuse to justify what he done to her daughters, mother, sister, brothers, Steph, our community and me. Our town hurts, and wants justice for there dr and my wife.

'I am wanting the death penalty invoked, he deserves it. Had he not been arrested when I was coming home from Texas and had I found him before the police, I would have saved the courts a lot of time and money.'

Jon Eason took to Facebook again on May 5 and wrote: 'I have decided to be a pallbearer and carry my wife to her resting place. I owe her so much, I would trade her places anytime.'

He explained to KSNT that he and Cynthia had a long-distance marriage, as he was a pilot who works out of Texas and she worked out of Colorado.

She was known for how special she treated horses as a veterinarian.

On Friday he wrote on Facebook that he was feeling a 'flood of emotions' when he went to his wife's mother's house.

Jon Eason's daughter, Stephanie, shared that she also supports her father's feelings about her brother paying with his life for being accused of murdering Cynthia (above)

'I'm at Cindy's mom's house. There are a flood of emotions, this is were she cooked me the first dinner, it's where we had our first kiss and pretty much is where I began to love in a way that I could not understand,' the emotional man wrote.

'It was scary and exciting, but yet so natural. She thought me unconditional love and how to love animals.

'I'm scared as hell as to my future, the most noble part of me is forever gone. I could not be any happier with life then I was the past 5 years and now it seems like a dream and I have been the victim of a bad joke.

'My wife who I honored and cherished was beaten so bad, we cannot have a open casket, I so wanted to kiss my wife good by, I can't.

'I am going to be a pallbearer and carry her to her final resting place, I can do that for her. I worry about her kids, mine and our pets. I am so scared not knowing where to go and what to do.I love her so much!!!!'

Jon Eason's daughter, Stephanie, shared that she also supports her father's feelings about her brother paying with his life for what he's accused of doing.

'Nobody wants to see their little brother die,' she told KSNT. 'I love him so much, but he did something so terrible.'

Dylan Eason and Churchwell are charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary, aggravated robbery and theft.

They are being held without bail awaiting their next court appearance.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made to Shooting Star Equine Rescue, Inc., 10527 SW Indian Hills, Wakarusa, KS 66546.

Condolences may be sent online to www.kevinbrennanfamily.com. Dr. Cynthia L. Eason, DVM.
Drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early Saturday.

The Sinaloa cartel boss, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks and is fighting to avoid extradition to the United States, was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a security official said.

Mexico's National Security Commission said in a statement that the transfer was in line with security protocols, and it has rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a security strategy implemented last September.

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Drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks and is fighting to avoid extradition to the United States, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early Saturday. El Chapo pictured January 2016

The move comes one month after a Mexican lawyer leading his legal defense team said his client wanted to be extradited to the United States 'as soon as possible' because conditions at Altiplano were unbearable and making him seriously ill. A federal officer stands guard near a prison in Ciudad Juarez

But the exact reason for the move is unclear.

It comes one month after a Mexican lawyer leading his legal defense team said his client wanted to be extradited to the United States 'as soon as possible' because conditions at Altiplano were unbearable and making him seriously ill, according to CNN.

Jose Refugio Rodriguez, an attorney for Guzman, confirmed that he was sent to the Cefereso No. 9 prison.

He said Guzman's defense team was not notified beforehand, and one of his lawyers was traveling to Juarez to try to meet with their client.

'I don't know what the strategy is,' Refugio said. 'I can't say what the government is thinking.'

He confirmed that Guzman's lawyers are still trying to block extradition.

Guzman is the focus of 10 legal cases in Mexico, mainly for drug trafficking, murder and charges related to his role as a cartel leader.

Guzman is the focus of 10 legal cases in Mexico, mainly for drug trafficking, murder and charges related to his role as a cartel leader. A federal police officer stands guard near a prison in Ciudad Juarez where Guzman has been moved from his jail in central Mexico

Guzman faces charges from seven separate US attorneys' offices, including in Chicago, New York, Miami and San Diego. He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape the Altiplano lockup the following year through a mile-long tunnel dug to the floor of the shower stall in his cell. El Chapo pictured in January 2016

He also faces charges in Arizona, California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida and New Hampshire, according to CNN.

'El Chapo' first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001.

He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape the Altiplano lockup the following year through a mile-long tunnel dug to the floor of the shower stall in his cell.

Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.

He was returned to Altiplano, where officials beefed up his security regimen.
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A sea of stunning lanterns lit up the night sky above Seoul as thousands of South Koreans began celebrating the The Lotus Lantern Festival in honour of the Buddha's birth.

Buddhists wearing traditional dress paraded through the capital city with magnificent lantern displays including dragons and replicas of the Buddha himself.

The sage whose teachings Buddhism was founded upon was born approximately 2,560 years ago, although the exact date is unknown.

Buddhists and Hindus across Asia honour the Buddha's official birthday at different times - most East Asian countries celebrate on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar.

In South Korea, however, the day coincides with the first full moon in May - May 14 this year - but festivities commence at least a week in advance.

Locals often hang lotus-shaped lanterns across Seoul for several weeks until the festival officially kicks off with lighting of the Jangeumdang, a large lantern that symbolizes Buddhism and Buddha's Birthday, at the Seoul Plaza.

Tonight lanterns were lit up creating magnificent waves of light as they symbolically transmitted the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha.

Happy Birthday: A sea of stunning lanterns lights up the night sky above Seoul as thousands of South Koreans began celebrating the The Lotus Lantern Festival in honour of the Buddha's birth

Celebrations: South Korean Buddhists walk through the streets of Seoul holding their triangular lanterns and wearing pink and blue dress

Magnificent: A large Buddha lantern lights up central Seoul and an inflatable monkey is held up as thousands of Buddhists parade through the city

Stunning: Buddhists gather under hundreds of colorful lanterns as they celebrate the forthcoming birthday of Buddha at Jogye Temple

Radiant: South Korean women hold up their colourful lanterns which have a picture of the Buddha drawn on them in black ink

Festivities: In South Korea the day coincides with the first full moon in May - May 14 this year - but festivities commence at least a week in advance

Enormous: Buddhist men in traditional dress lead humongous lanterns through the streets of Seoul as they enjoy the Lotus Lantern Festival

Party: The sage whose teachings Buddhism was founded upon was born approximately 2,560 years ago, although the exact date is unknown

Reverence : Buddhists and Hindus across Asia honour the Buddha's official birthday at different times - most East Asian countries celebrate on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar

Fierce: A large dragon lantern is paraded through the streets of Seoul led by South Korean Buddhists wearing traditional dress

Joyous: Locals often hang lotus-shaped lanterns across Seoul for several weeks until the festival officially kicks off with lighting of the Jangeumdang, a large lantern that symbolizes Buddhism and Buddha's Birthday, at the Seoul Plaza

Noisy: A band of drummers parades through Seoul and walks under the lights at the Jogye Temple as part of their route through the city

Brilliant: Tonight lanterns were lit up creating magnificent waves of light as they symbolically transmitted the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha
A high school assistant principal in South Carolina could face charges after he was caught on camera using a chokehold on a 15-year-old female student while trying to break up a fight.

Kingstree Police Chief Eric Williams said there is an ongoing investigation into the incident and the department is sorting out how to charge 69-year-old Mack Burgess, but no one has been arrested yet.

The incident occurred on Monday after a fight between two 15-year-old female students broke out at Kingstree Senior High School.

A police report said that in cellphone footage, Burgess can be seeing trying to separate the girls, and as the fight continued, Burgess grabbed one girl's neck from behind.

The video shows that after several seconds in the chokehold, the girl, a sophomore, went limp.

Kingstree Senior High School assistant principal Mack Burgess put a 15-year-old girl in a chokehold on Tuesday in Kingstree, South Carolina. The incident occurred on Monday after a fight between two 15-year-old female students broke out at the school

'She out! She out!' a person can be heard shouting was the girl was lowered to the ground.

The girl was taken to a hospital for treatment and later released.

The Williamsburg County School District has not confirmed Burgess' position. Burgess couldn't be reached for comment.

The girl's mother, Yolanda Nesmith showed police a video of the incident, and the officer and a judge agreed that an assault had taken place.

'It can confirm or deny or give clarity to the situation that goes beyond hearsay because a video can't talk, but it can show you the events and how it transpired,' Williams told WMBF.

'Our kids may do wrong at time, but in a situation like this, I'm asking for all parents if your kids get in a situation, stand up for them,' she added. 'I want to seek justice. I want to see him arrested for this because this is my daughter and something could have happened worse than this.'

Nesmith said that watching the video was disturbing for her.

'It hurt to see my daughter go limp in the video,' Nesmith said, adding: 'Her brain wasn't getting any blood, so her body did what it had to do  and she passed out.'

The video shows that after several seconds in the chokehold, the girl, a sophomore, went limp. She was taken to the hospital for treatment following the incident

Nesmith told the Washington Post that Burgess went too far when he restrained her daughter.

'This is no longer about the fight,' she said. 'It's about how he handled my daughter.'

She added that her daughter was suspended for five days following the fight, but Burgess has yet to be punished.

'She's crying every day. She's hurt,' she said about her daughter. 'It hurts me because I'm a mother fighting for my child.'

Williamsburg County School District Director of Public Relations Bonnie King released a statement following the incident.

The statement said: 'We have several programs in place to assist our students in resolving conflicts without physical contact.

'Our rehabilitative behavioral health specialists, intervention specialists, mental health counselors (on-site), and guidance counselors work closely with students to address numerous issues throughout the year to include conflict resolution.

'Annually, counselors and administrators participate in Crisis Non-Violence Technique Training that provides them with the knowledge needed during physical altercations.'
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They have become the very symbol of corruptly acquired wealth: the luxurious mansions in London and the Home Counties of developing world potentates, their deeds registered to secretive offshore companies, providing assets and boltholes if times for their real owners get tough.

They also have a direct effect on ordinary people trying to buy a home  driving up prices and destroying any sense of community.

At a global anti-corruption summit at Lancaster House in London this week, the Prime Minister will claim Britain is at the forefront of efforts to clamp down on embezzlement and money-laundering.

A Grade II listed Charles Street property was bought by a shell company in the British Virgin Islands, but is owned by Gabons President Ali Bongo Ondimba (right with David Cameron)

Penthouse in the heart of the capital: The fourth and fifth floor penthouse of a property in Park Lane, Mayfair (left) is home to socialite Leyla Aliyeva (right), daughter of Azerbaijans leader Ilham Aliyev. He made billions from the countrys oil reserves and was likened in leaked US cables to a mafia boss. The building and its flats are registered via a web of offshore and UK firms, one of which has Leyla as a director. She is said to enjoy socialising with Prince Andrew and Lord Mandelson

But critics say David Cameron is not doing enough  starting with his failure to order Britains own tax-haven colonies to open up their books, and so confirm who really owns some of the palaces pictured here. The sums involved are vast.

A report last year by the global anti-corruption group Transparency International, based on data supplied by Scotland Yard, revealed that real estate worth more than 180 million has been subject to criminal investigation since 2004.

Yet this represents just one per cent of the proceeds of corruption invested in the UK property market, making the true total 18 billion.

It added that more than three-quarters of the owners of such property use offshore secrecy to hide their identities.

The preferred option for concealment were British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Gibraltar and the Caymans.

Almost one in ten properties in Kensington, seven per cent in Westminster and five per cent in the City are owned by companies registered in such secrecy jurisdictions.

The sumptuous Surrey mansion: This mansion in Kingswood is owned by Maxim Bakiyev (below left), the youngest son of former Kyrgyzstan president Kurmanbek Bakiyev via a shell company. In 2013, a Kyrgyz court sentenced Maxim, left, in absentia to 25 years for corruption

Maxim Bakiyev (left), the youngest son of former Kyrgyzstan president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, and ex-president of Pakistan Asif Zardari (right) who was famous for his commissions on deals

Mr Ten Per Cent's Estate: Rockwood Park in Surrey was once owned via offshore firms by the ex-president of Pakistan, Asif Zardari (above right) who was famous for his commissions on deals

But The Mail on Sunday has learned that representatives of dependencies such as the BVI will not attend the summit, while Mr Cameron has no plans to force them to make companies registered there obey the same transparency rules as firms registered in Britain.

Last night, Mark Hayward, of the National Association of Estate Agents, urged him to reconsider: We can see the impact of corrupt money only too clearly.

Properties bought with dirty money often sit empty for long periods. Those living nearby have no idea who their neighbours are, undermining any sense of community. Most importantly, those properties are taken off the market, further squeezing housing supply.

The Hampstead high life: This lavish Winnington Close home was bought via a shell firm by Colonel Gaddafis now-jailed son Saadi (below left)

Colonel Gaddafis now-jailed son Saadi (left). Timur Nazarbayev with socialite Goga Ashkenazi (right)

Prince's former palace: Sunninghill Park was sold by Prince Andrew to Timur Nazarbayev, (above right with socialite Goga Ashkenazi) for 3m over the asking price. Timur is son of the Kazak president

He said the Government has to go further in demanding transparency from British dependencies. That would mean when a company based in a tax haven wants to buy a Mayfair property, we, as estate agents, could find out who we are dealing with.

Corrupt money should have no place in our market, and these measures would help us stamp it out.

One of the countries worst affected by corruption is Nigeria, whose recently elected government, under President Muhammadu Buhari, has taken unprecedented steps to root it out.

It has appointed an anti-corruption panel, whose executive secretary, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, has long campaigned on the issue.

The West Wing: Corrupt Nigerian governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha (right) owned this West Hampstead mansion (left)

Britain, he said yesterday, had been a bolthole for numerous corrupt Nigerians, including former provincial governor James Ibori, jailed for 12 years in 2012 at Southwark Crown Court for money-laundering.

He added: Its great Mr Cameron is taking this seriously. But Britain isnt doing as much as it should, in terms of ending the secrecy and making its banks more accountable.

Eleanor Nichol, anti-corruption campaign leader of international investigation group Global Witness, said an area three times the size of Greater London is already owned by foreign companies: The Government has the power to force the dependencies like the BVI to set up public registries, but seems unwilling to do so.

We shouldnt have to rely on leaks to know who is hiding behind shell companies to dodge tax, sell weapons or sponsor terrorism. We need swift, robust legislation to get dirty money out of the property market, and action to ensure were not granting visas or citizenship to the corrupt.

Tougher action might well command public support.

Tomorrow, Global Witness and Oxfam will release an opinion poll showing 80 per cent think Mr Cameron has a moral duty to make UK colonies transparent, and 85 per cent say all UK and offshore companies should have to reveal their ultimate owners.

Some of the properties shown here  which have been valued with help from expert Kate Faulkner, managing director of Designs on Property  are lavish. The main photo shows Spring House in Kingswood, Surrey, now worth 6 million.

Fit for a Bishop: Nigerian Jimoh Ibrahim (below left), the owner of this Bishops Avenue home, was ordered to pay 7m over an aircraft deal that went wrong

Nigerian Jimoh Ibrahim (left) was ordered to pay 7m over an aircraft deal that went wrong. Nigerian Abubakar Audu (right) who died while on the run last year

Presidential ambition: This property in The Bishops Avenue was owned by Nigerian Abubakar Audu (above right) who died while on the run last year

It is owned  via a Belize-registered shell company  by Maxim Bakiyev, son of the former Kyrgyz Republic president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

A local court sentenced Bakiyev Jr to 25 years for stealing millions from the state, and ordering the murder of a British businessman. He fled the country and has claimed asylum in Britain.

Even more valuable is a Grade II listed building in Charles Street in Mayfair, bought by a BVI company in 2010 for 25 million.

The real owner is believed to be Ali Bongo Ondimba, the president of Gabon, a role filled by his father Omar until his death in 2009.

Thanks to his corruption, Omar was one of the worlds richest rulers. Italian designer Francesco Smalto admitted in court in 1995 that in return for a deal worth 400,000 a year to supply Omars suits, he also sent him French prostitutes.

There is corruption behind several houses on one street  The Bishops Avenue in Hampstead  known as billionaires row.

They include a housebought by Nigerias late Abubakar Audu, a former provincial governor who went on the run after he was charged by the countrys Economic Crimes Commission.
Rishi Sunak delivered the stark message after being confirmed as the next PM when his sole remaining rival Penny Mordaunt failed to make the threshold of 100 nominations needed to trigger a run-off. Speaking to a camera at Conservative HQ, Mr Sunak said the UK is a 'great country' and vowed to work 'day in and day out', but pointed to serious economic problems. Earlier, the new premier received a rapturous reception when he made a 10-minute private speech to MPs at Parliament, telling his troops that Mr Johnson, Ms Mordaunt and Ms Truss were 'all good Conservative colleagues and friends', adding: 'We're united behind the policy and now cannot afford the indulgence of division over personality. According to one MP present he said: 'We have one chance. It is unite or die.' It marks a spectacular political revival for Mr Sunak, just seven weeks after he was soundly defeated by Liz Truss in the struggle to succeed Mr Johnson. But after her extraordinary 44-day implosion, he now faces one of the toughest in-trays for any PM with the public finances in chaos and the worst of the cost-of-living to come. Mr Sunak is expected to be formally installed as premier by King Charles tomorrow.
He allegedly hit Franklin in the head seven times and sent her to hospital

The children were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries

Spitler also shot their two children, aged 3 and 4, before killing himself

Just two days before a woman was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend outside of her children's day care center, she was begging a judge to revoke his bail.

Christina Franklin, 27, was murdered outside of the Kids Campus Learning Center on Thursday morning while dropping off her three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son.

Travis Spitler, 40, killed Franklin, a surgical nurse, and then shot both of his children in the center's parking lot before ending his own life with a shot to the head.

Spitler had a preliminary hearing on Tuesday regarding a prior domestic violence incident in which he allegedly sent Franklin to the hospital after repeatedly hitting her in the head.

Christina Franklin, 27, was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Travis Spitler, 40, (pictured together) outside of her children's Las Vegas day care center on Thursday morning

He was facing charges of domestic battery, forgery and dissuading a person from testifying for the December 26 incident and was scheduled to appear for an arraignment next week.

Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson denied prosecutors' request to revoke his bail, but issued a protective order instructing Spitler to cease contact with Franklin and their children.

'Thanks to the system, he got out on bail,' Shari Franklin, Christina's mother, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

'And because of that, my daughter is dead.'

Spitler shot Franklin just moments after she pulled into the day care center around 6.10am on Thursday.

The children were taken to a nearby hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

Employees were at the center, which was just opening, but no other children were present and no additional injuries were reported.

Kids Campus closed for the rest of the day, calling the shooting a 'tragic' isolated incident.

Spitler shot Franklin to death just two days after she had asked a judge to revoke his bail from an earlier domestic violence incident involving the couple

Spitler, 40, killed Franklin, a surgical nurse, and then shot both of his children in the Kids Campus Learning Center parking lot before ending his own life with a shot to the head

'Random acts such as this can happen anywhere,' the statement read. 'Our thoughts and prayers go out to the two children involved in the incident and their extended family.'

The center reopened on Friday.

Shari Franklin said Spitler tried to kill her daughter the day after Christmas.

The couple had been arguing for four hours in their Las Vegas apartment - while their daughter was inside - when Franklin barricaded herself in the bathroom, according to the arrest report.

Spitler forced himself inside, knocked her down and kicked Franklin in the head at least seven times before she lost consciousness.

A neighbor heard Franklin screaming for help and called 911, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Franklin suffered swelling on both of her hands, which police attributed to her attempts to protect her head from being kicked, as well as lacerations to her ear and parts of her head.

She was bleeding from her head.

Police said she was taken to a nearby hospital due to the severity of her injuries and the possibility of a fractured skull.

'He tried to kill her,' Shari Franklin said. 'I don't know what part of that they don't understand.'

Franklin told police Spitler had been arrested earlier that year for another domestic violence call between the couple, who had been dating on and off for eight years.

In the month leading up to the murder, Spitler tweeted multiple pictures of Sharon Stone in Casino, often writing Christina's full name with them, and posted other cryptic messages (pictured above)

Investigators were unable to determine when and where that incident took place.

Franklin also told officers there had been many other times in the past where Spitler had 'beat her up' but that she had chosen not to call police.

John Turco, Spitler's attorney, said he had no contact with Franklin after the December incident and said there was no indication of what he had planned.

'It's a tragedy,' he said. 'Really, it was completely unpredictable, and no amount of oversight could have predicted this or stopped it.'

In the month leading up to the murder, Spitler tweeted multiple pictures of Sharon Stone in Casino, often writing Christina's full name with them.

He also posted two pictures, one with the message: 'If you loved me, why did you leave me?'

Another read: 'Of all the people that could have torn me to shreds, why did it have to be you?'
Kimiko Hardy (pictured), 38, was found guilty of all six charges after her dog fatally mauled her seven-month-old step-grandson, Johnathan Quarles Jr

A step-grandmother of an infant, who was killed in a 2014 dog attack, has been found guilty in the baby's death.

Kimiko Hardy, 38, was found guilty of all six charges after her dog fatally mauled her seven-month-old step-grandson, Johnathan Quarles Jr.

Johnathan was visiting Hardy from Indiana when he died on July 20, 2014, from multiple blunt force trauma.

He was killed at Hardy's Dayton, Ohio, home after he was attacked by her pit bull mix, Busa.

Prosecutors said during opening statements that Busa crushed the baby's skull and removed part of his scalp in Hardy's residence, according to WHIO.

Hardy, who had worked as a nursing assistant and in home health care, was also bitten by her dog during the incident.

The coroner initially ruled the death an accident.

However, investigators later determined Hardy knew the dog was dangerous.

Authorities said the dog charged at a postal carrier, causing the postal service to refuse delivery to her address.

And before the killing, it bit and attacked a Beagle that was on a walk with its owner, in front of Hardy's home.

Following the second incident, Hardy attended a 150-minute training class at the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center on responsible dog ownership, according to the prosecutors office, according to WHIO.

Prosecutors said during opening statements that Busa crushed the baby's skull and removed part of his scalp in Hardy's residence. Hardy (pictured), who had worked as a nursing assistant and in home health care, was also bitten by her dog during the incident

Johnathan Quarles Jr (pictured) was visiting Hardy from Indiana when he died on July 20, 2014, from multiple blunt force trauma

'Sadly, this defendant had warning that this dog was aggressive, which is why we are here today,' Montgomery County assistant prosecutor Karen Groseth told jurors.

Groseth went on to say that the dog's actions 'were foreseeable'.

Hardy will be sentenced on June 9. She was convicted on involuntary manslaughter, endangering children and failure to restrain a vicious dog.

Defense attorney Angelina Jackson told jurors that Busa had never bit a person in nearly five years of being a family pet who slept in bed with children, according to the news station.

'This case involves a tragedy, but the occurrence of a tragedy does not mean that a crime has been committed,' Jackson said. 'An unforeseeable tragedy is the reason we are all here today.'

Jackson described how things were fine the night before the attack.

'She picked Johnathan up out of his car seat when, all of a sudden, Busa began to jump and bite at the two off them,' said Jackson, according to WHIO.

She said Hardy tried to punch the dog and grab him by the collar before the dog bit the infant's head and ripped Hardy's robe.

Jackson went on to say that Hardy 'tried everything in her power to stop Busa, but sadly she was unable to do so'.

Johnathan Jr was the infant son of Kashyra Hardy and Johnathan Quarles Sr.

After the boy's death, Hardy's dog was seized by ARC and euthanized in September 2014.

Hardy faces a maximum of 11 years in prison.
Attorney said donors only specified $280,000 be sent to the victims

Church has previously been accused of lack of transparency over money

$1.8million has been kept for 'building maintenance' and scholarships

Officials have now handed $1.5million to victims' families and survivors

Relatives of those killed in the Charleston church massacre have hit out at religious officials after it was revealed they will keep more than half of the money donated in the wake of the shootings.

Of the nearly $3.3million received after the massacre in June 2015, the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church gave $1.5million to survivors and the victims' families - but will keep $1.8million.

Rev. Sharon Risher, whose 70-year-old mother Ethel Lance died in the shooting, told The Post and Courier that church officials are 'continuing to disrespect the families' of victims.

The families of those killed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June last year have hit out after it was revealed officials plan to keep more than $1.8million in donations

Relatives had already launched a lawsuit against Emanuel AME attempting to force officials to reveal how they were handling the donations after accusations of a lack of transparency.

Families had also complained that mail addressed to them which had passed through the church was given to them after being opened without their permission.

Arthur Hurd, whose librarian wife Cynthia was shot dead in the attack, accused church staff of opening envelopes addressed to victims and removing cash and checks.

His lawsuit was eventually dismissed, though it only looked at money church officials put into its Moving Forward Fund.

Wilbur Johnson, the attorney for Emanuel AME, said donors only specified that $280,000 should be sent to the victims, leaving it up to church officials to distribute the rest.

He added that the church decided to add more than $1million to that total before distributing it to survivors and victims this week.

Families of the nine victims and the five survivors have been handed $1.5million after lawyers say most of the donors did not specify who the money should be given to

Dylann Roof is facing the death penalty when he is tried

Johnson said the remaining money, which was donated from around the world following the massacre, will be used for building maintenance, an endowment and scholarships.

Andy Savage, an attorney who represents several victims families and survivors Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, said that notes received with the checks were cold and impersonal.

He added that nowhere in the brief note did it explain how much money the church had collected, how it had divided the cash up, and did not reveal that the church was keeping some for itself.

Dylann Roof is due to stand trial in January over the killings, which police say were racially motivated.

The 22-year-old was going to be tried this year but his lawyers asked for an extension in order to fully prepare their defense.

Roof is accused of shooting nine dead, including church's pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, in downtown Charleston on June 17 last year.
Authorities say a reward for information leading to the safe recovery of a missing nine-year-old Tennessee girl has increased to $12,500.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said law enforcement officials continued to search Saturday for Carlie Marie Trent of Rogersville in the eastern part of the state.

The bureau says it is working through more than 100 tips it has received since issuing an Amber Alert on Thursday.

A new video released Saturday shows Trent and Simpson shopping at a Rogersville Save-A-Lot grocery store shortly after she was taken from her school.

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Police believe Gary Simpson, 57 (left), may have taken niece Carlie Marie Simpson, nine, to an isolated area such as a campground or state park as they continue to search for the pair

Caught on camera: New video released on Saturday from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation shows Carlie Trent and her uncle Gary Simpson shopping at a Rogersville grocery store shortly after she went missing

Authorities say Carlie was signed out of school under false pretenses Wednesday by her non-custodial uncle, 57-year-old Gary Simpson.

Simpson falsely claimed that her father had been in a car accident.

Police are continuing to hunt for Simpson and Trent after an Amber Alert was issued earlier in the week, with Gary's wife Linda warning that the girl is in 'a lot of danger'.

Gary's wife Linda has also told the New York Daily News that she believes her husband is 'up to something bad'.

She said: 'I'm very worried. I'm very concerned. I think she's in a lot of danger. I don't see why you would kidnap a kid if you weren't up to something bad.'

Trent has not been seen since Wednesday when she was checked out of school by Simpson as his wife Linda warns he is 'up to something bad'

The family realized Carlie had gone missing after the youngster failed to get off the school bus at the end of the day. 'She gets off the bus at my house and she didn't get off,' Linda said.

Panicked, the 54-year-old said that called her husband multiple times but he never answered.

She then called the school who told her that Gary had picked up Carlie earlier that day. He had also told teachers that she might not make it to school the following day.

The pair were last seen driving away in Simpson's 2002 white Dodge Conversion Van. It was described as having Tennessee plates, with chipping paint and a stripe down the middle.

Carlie is 4 foot 8 inches tall and weighs 75 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes. Simpson is balding, 5 foot 10 inches tall and weighs 157 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. Both are white.

The bureau says they may be in an 'isolated area' such as a campground or state park.

This video was captured at the Save-A-Lot in Rogersville on Wednesday, May 4th, shortly after Gary Simpson picked up Carlie Trent at school. An AMBER Alert remains in effect. Call 1-800-TBI-FIND with information

Carlie's pediatrician is offering a $10,000 reward. The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a $2,500 reward.

Linda says she has no idea exactly where her husband, who does not have custody of Carlie would have taken their niece but believes he would have gone somewhere remote where they won't be found.

'I'm sure he's smart enough to not be out where someone might find him,' she said.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for Gary Simpson and are urging the public to come forward if they spot either him or Carlie.

The 9-year-old is described as being blond, blue-eyed and around 4'8 inches tall. She was last seen wearing a black and grey tank top with blue jeans.

Simpson is balding, wears glasses, 5'10 inches tall, 157 pounds and was last wearing a brown cap, a dark colored shirt and jeans.
Ali Alosaimi has fled to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group

A navy officer who trained at one of Britains most prestigious maritime colleges has fled to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group.

Defence experts warned last night that 28-year-old Ali Alosaimis high-level skills and exhaustive knowledge of the nations shipping fleet represented a terrifying security threat.

Having already targeted passenger jets, there has long been concern that militants will try to bring terror to the seas by attacking ships and ferries.

This suddenly raises the spectre of IS damaging shipping, said former Royal Navy chief Admiral Lord West. Someone with his knowledge opens up a whole new area where terrorism can take place.

Kuwaiti-born Alosaimis personal details were found among a cache of IS documents leaked to The Mail on Sunday. They reveal that before leaving for Syria, Alosaimi lived in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, where he enrolled on a three-year Merchant Navy officer course in 2011. He had previously worked for a state-owned oil tanker company in Kuwait.

If he had pursued his naval career after gaining a Higher National Diploma in nautical science, he could have had access to vessels under charter to the Ministry of Defence. These are used to transport military supplies and other cargoes vital to national security.

Alosaimi studied at South Tyneside Colleges Marine School, sharing a flat nearby with a Kuwati friend.

The college declined to comment last night, but part of his course, specifically for deck officers, involved serving on a ship, and he acquired an extensive insight into the UKs maritime capability that would be invaluable to his future IS commanders.

Deck officers are responsible for the safety of the vessel, planning the ships passage, loading and discharging cargo, and all communications.

Gavin Simmonds, director of security at the UK Chamber of Shipping, said: An individual with three years experience in this area with the Merchant Navy would be of use to a terror organisation intent upon targeting shipping. The idea of an insider with such knowledge joining the crew of, say, an oil tanker is unnerving.

There is a significant environmental risk should there be such a spectacular attempt by terrorists, and this is profoundly worrying. However, we must balance concerns against the ability of an individual to cause such an incident.

Defence experts warned last night that 28-year-old Ali Alosaimis high-level skills and exhaustive knowledge of the nations shipping fleet represented a terrifying security threat

Documents reveal that before leaving for Syria, Alosaimi lived in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, where he enrolled on a three-year Merchant Navy officer course in 2011

Lord West added: I think the most danger is posed by IS acquiring a Liquid Natural Gas container. These are highly flammable and could cause a very large explosion. Britain and the US have been worried about this for some time.

The Merchant Navy, which now comprises about 1,500 vessels and 30,000 seamen, performed a key role during the Second World War and Falklands conflict.

While in the UK, Alosaimi posted nearly 100 pictures of himself on Facebook, where he called himself Captain Take Care. In one selfie, he wears dark aviator sunglasses, aping Tom Cruise from the 1986 film Top Gun. In another, posted in 2010, he wears a navy-style cap and writes: I took my place among my crew to sail the seas as a capitano.

THE ISLAMIC STATE FILE WHICH REVEALED INFORMATION OF ALI ALOSAIMI Translation of key information about Ali Mohammed Omer Alosaimi in the official jihadi document (above) seen by the MoS: The Arabic wording at the top of the page begins with a prayer, then identifies the document as being issued by the Department of Borders from the IS HQ for fighters Alosaimis real name is recorded here in full His nom de guerre: Abu Turab Al Kuwaiti, father of dust from Kuwait Education level is noted as navy officer in Britain Confirms previous job as Employee in navy States his date of entry into Syria as April 16 2014 This asks whether he is classified as a fighter, a suicide bomber or a person who will go behind enemy lines. He is ranked Fighter

Last night, Alosaimis former housemate in South Shields said that he was radicalised by watching videos of killings in Syria committed by President Bashar Assads troops. The friend, who does not want to be identified, said: He went to Syria because he was angry about Assad. All Muslims are angry, but Ali acted on it. In this day and age, you dont need people to radicalise you. The internet is enough.

He added that Alosaimi finished his HND course, but was two exams away from obtaining his marine licence, which would have allowed him to captain any ship.

Alosaimis family in Kuwait said he became radicalised in the final year of his course. He grew a beard and began preaching to teenage relatives, urging them to join IS. Until then, they insisted, he was a typical student who danced, smoked and had girlfriends.

According to his uncle, it was the death of Alosaimis younger brother, Abdullah, killed while fighting with fanatics in Syria aged 19, that was the turning point. The uncle, also called Ali, said: He seemed a changed man after his brothers death.

He grew a beard and did not talk to anyone like he used to. He used to call his family every fortnight but he visited at the end of 2013 and that was the last we heard from him.

He said Ali had been preparing for his final exams and was primed for a career with the Kuwait National Petroleum Company after he graduated. When he disappeared, the family contacted the company, which confirmed he passed his exams but never took up his post.

Instead, the family received an encrypted Whatsapp message in Arabic seven months later.

Mr Alosaimi said: The message said he was in Syria with IS and he was going to go to heaven. We do not know if he is dead or alive.

His father does not have a clue what has happened to him and we are not telling him much because he cannot handle the shock.

He knows about the message but he still hopes he will come back. We have no way of finding him or knowing if he is dead or alive. We told the Government as soon as we got the message but what can they do?

Alosaimi studied at South Tyneside Colleges Marine School (pictured) sharing a flat nearby with a Kuwati friend

Alosaimi received thousands of pounds funding for his course from the Kuwaiti government. His details were found among 40 application forms from would-be IS fighters given to The Mail on Sunday by a source in Turkey, who has close contacts with the terror group. All are either British nationals or young men who have lived in Britain.

The documents are produced by the groups so-called General Department of Borders and show Alosaimi joined IS in April 2014.
One of the most prescribed painkillers in the US has failed to fulfill its promises and created a pathway to addiction, a new investigation has claimed.

Purdue Pharma, a Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company, launched OxyContin 20 years ago, claiming it would provide '12 hours of smooth and sustained pain control'.

But the opioid actually wears off earlier than that in many cases, creating a cycle of withdrawal symptoms and cravings for the drug, the Los Angeles Times reported this week.

Instead of telling physicians to prescribe OxyContin at shorter intervals, Purdue Pharma, which has denied the report, told them to increase their patients' doses, the newspaper wrote.

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OxyContin (file picture) came out 20 years ago and was meant to provide '12 hours of smooth and sustained pain control', but the drug actually wears off earlier for many users, the Los Angeles Times found

Patients for whom OxyContin wears off before 12 hours can experience withdrawal symptoms such as body aches, anxiety and nausea, experts said.

Their original pain, the reason why they took the drug in the first place, can also return.

Taking the next dose can relieve both the withdrawal symptoms and the underlying pain, leaving patients feeling euphoric and trapping them into a cycle of suffering followed by intense relief.

In that scenario, OxyContin is 'the perfect recipe for addiction', neuropharmacologist Theodore J. Cicero told the Los Angeles Times.

Going through withdrawal episodes can lead some patients to abuse the drug, neuroscientist and painkiller addiction specialist Peter Przekop added.

'You are messing with those areas of the brain that are involved in addiction, and you are going to get the person dependent on it,' he told the newspaper.

Elizabeth Kipp, 42, a stay-at-home mother in Kansas City, began taking OxyContin the year of its launch every 12 hours.

She said it relieved her pain for two to three hours before it came back. Kipp also had nausea and spent hours waiting for the next pill.

'I was watching the clock. "What time is it? Oh, God, I have to medicate,"' she told the Los Angeles Times. 'My whole nervous system is on red alert.'

She experienced this cycle for a year and a half and checked herself into rehab after having suicidal thoughts.

Many doctors began prescribing more frequent doses of OxyContin to remedy the problem, sometimes writing to insurance companies who would not cover more than two pills a day.

But Pursue Pharma ordered hundreds of sales rep to visit physicians and get them back on the 12-hour dosing in a bid to make more money, the Los Angeles Times wrote.

Instead of taking OxyContin more frequently, they advocated higher doses of the drug, saying there was no upper limit to how much OxyContin could be prescribed at once.

Pursue Pharma sold bottles of 10-milligram pills, the smallest dosage, for $97, while the highest dosage, 80 milligrams, came at more than $630 per bottle, according to 2001 sales data reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.

According to the newspaper, a West Virginia supervisor told a sale rep in a 1999 letter that she could earn a trip to Hawaii if she persuaded more doctors to prescribe larger doses.

Pursue Pharma (pictured), the Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company that launched OxyContin, has denied the report and says the 12-hour dosing has been approved by the FDA

An August 1996 memo published by the Los Angeles Times bears the headline '$$$$$$$ It's Bonus Time in the Neighborhood!'

In it, a manager reminded Tennessee reps that advocating higher dosage was essential, writing: 'Talk titration, titration, titration... He who sells 40mg will win the battle...'

The Los Angeles Times, whose investigation is based on 'thousands of pages of confidential Purdue documents and other records', says the company knew OxyContin wasn't effective for 12 hours before it even came out.

Pursue Pharma denied this in a one-page statement issued in response to the investigation, saying the FDA has approved the 12-hour dosing and that 'scientific evidence amassed over more than 20 years, including more than a dozen controlled clinical studies, supports the FDAs approval'.

But doctors are supposed to adapt the doses' frequency to their patients' individual needs, an FDA spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times.

'It should be well understood by physicians that there will be some individual variability in the length of time that patients respond to this drug,' Sarah Peddicord said.

'While the labeled dosing regimen is a reasonable starting point, physicians should carefully individualize their approach to patients based on how quickly they metabolize the drug.'

Pursue Pharma has opposed the Los Angeles Times's report, saying in its statement: 'This story not only fails to provide the public with the facts about a complex topic, it risks creating more confusion around our national opioid epidemic.

'For more than a decade, Purdue Pharma has sought to play a constructive role in the fight against opioid abuse, including by reformulating OxyContin with abuse-deterrent properties and leading our industry in this area of innovation. That may be an inconvenient fact for the Los Angeles Times, but its a fact nonetheless.'

Pharmacies in the US dispensed 53 million prescriptions for oxycodone, the opioid contained in OxyContin, in 2013 according to the National Institute On Drug Abuse.
Allies of Jeremy Corbyn last night accused newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan of treating him like a pariah by avoiding appearing in public with him.

The Labour leader was conspicuous by his absence from Khans official swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in South-East London yesterday.

To add insult to injury, Corbyns predecessor as Labour leader, Ed Miliband, was there to see Mr Khan become Boris Johnsons successor.

And the pair even missed each other at Khans official victory party on Friday, with Corbyn arriving  and leaving  several hours before the London Mayor showed up.

10.50am: Jezza looks for the new Mayor at the victory party

1.15am... No chance! Khan waits 'til coast is clear

Labour sources claimed Mr Corbyns office had made repeated attempts to arrange a joint photo call last week  but could not get through.

Corbyns team couldnt get Khans office to pick up the phone, said one insider. He clearly doesnt want anything to do with Jeremy.

The row broke as anti-Corbyn Labour MPs privately said that the coup against him was postponed not cancelled after a raft of election results across the UK was deemed bad for Labour  but not dire enough to force him out now.

One MP admitted: Were keeping our powder dry, but Corbyn cant lead us into a General Election.

After seeing his party beaten into a humiliating third place in Scotland behind the Tories and losing council seats in England on Thursday, Mr Corbyn was desperate to be seen with triumphant a Mr Khan.

Mr Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a European capital, now has a huge personal mandate after his thumping victory over Tory candidate Zac Goldsmith.

In a sign of his new international standing, he was yesterday congratulated by US Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who praised him as a champion of workers rights and human rights.

Allies of Jeremy Corbyn last night accused newly elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan of treating him like a pariah

Sources said the new mayor appeared determined not to have his moment of glory tarnished by association with Mr Corbyn.

During his campaign, Mr Khan disowned Mr Corbyns Left-wing style, such as his refusal to sing the National Anthem.

A spokesman for the London mayor denied snubbing Mr Corbyn, saying: There was an open invitation to all London MPs to the cathedral.

Mr Khan himself said he could not explain why the Labour leader had failed to attend yesterdays ceremony, saying: Im not sure what Jeremys doing today.

Mr Corbyns attempts to appear alongside Mr Khan included an appearance on Friday night at a celebration party at 10.50pm in a bar not far from City Hall.

However, this was thwarted after the final result declaration was delayed and Mr Khan himself only showed up at his own victory bash at 1.15am.

Despite the denial, Labour MPs privately said the mayor would be entirely right to carry on keeping his distance from Mr Corbyn.

Sadiq knows he won the mayoral election in spite of Corbyn, not thanks to him, said one. All the anti-Semitic nonsense around the Corbyn camp caused huge damage to our campaign. Sadiq will run London his way, not Corbyns.

In a further sign of the gulf between them, Mr Khan last night said his victory showed how Labour could win back power nationally  and invoked Tony Blairs big tent mantra as the way to win elections.

In comments that will be seen as a dig at Mr Corbyn for turning the party in on itself, he said in a newspaper article: Labour has to be a big tent that appeals to everyone  not just its own activists. Campaigns that turn their back on particular groups are doomed to fail.

The Labour leader and the new mayor even missed each other at Khans official victory party on Friday, with Corbyn arriving  and leaving  several hours before the London Mayor showed up

Mr Khan also took aim at a Tory campaign which included accusations he had shared a platform with Islamist extremists.

He claimed the fear and innuendo tactics were straight out of the Donald Trump playbook  a reference to the controversial US Republican presidential hopeful who has called for a ban on Muslims entering America.

I hope its something the Conservative Party will never try to repeat, Mr Khan said.
Fairfax County Police are issuing appeal to identify those who were at party

A college student, 21, was beaten by a mob and stabbed at a party before friends drove him home and placed him in bed, where he was discovered dead the next morning, according to a search warrant.

Hosung 'Steven' Lee, a student at George Mason University, died from a stab wound to the chest, with the state medical examiner ruling it a homicide last week, according to the Washington Post.

Lee attended a party in Herndon, Virginia, the night before, where a witness said a mob of 10 to 15 people beat him while he lay on the kitchen floor, according to search warrants filed by Fairfax County police.

Hosung Lee, also known as Steven, (pictured) was beaten and stabbed at a party in Herndon, Virginia on April 23, with a witness telling detectives a group of 10 to 15 people 'stomped, kicked and punched' him as he lay motionless on the kitchen floor

Fairfax County Police released this photo as they are trying to determine who was at the party. Anyone with information of the man pictured (left and right, a close-up) should call 703-246-4057

A witness told detectives Lee was stomped, kicked and punched by a large group at the party, which extended into the next morning according to court documents cited by the Post.

Police had appeared at the home on the 12600 block of Oxon Road earlier that night due to a noise complaint, WTOP reported.

It is unclear what prompted the attack on Lee and why his friends did not seek medical help.

Instead, they drove him about five miles to Centreville, where Lee lived with his sister and parents.

According to the search warrants, his friends placed him in bed, and Lee was found dead by a family member around 4.24pm on April 24, according to WTOP.

Lee, 21, was found dead in his home on the 5600 block of Gresham Lane (pictured), about five miles away from the party on Oxon Road

The witness identified one person who allegedly participated in beating Lee, but he refused to cooperate with authorities when they tried to interview him. He has not been charged.

Police obtained a search warrant for his home as well as the house where the party took place.

More than 700 pieces of evidence were collected, including cigarette butts, shot glasses and beer cans, according to WTOP and the Post.

Police are looking into the possibility of gang activity, although one officer said that is a particularly difficult task given their evolving nature.

But the assistant pastor at New Covenant Fellowship Church where Lee's family attended while he was in high school told WJLA: 'I couldn't believe it, it was surreal.

'He was a typical kid who loved his friends and loved coming to church.'

A GoFundMe page, which has raised more than $6,000 for his funeral expenses, described Lee 'someone that had the kindest heart and was a blessing to those around him'.

An investigation is ongoing, with Fairfax police issuing an appeal to identify people who attended the party. So far no one has been arrested in connection to Lee's death.
A man has been charged with aggravated indecent assault after allegedly abusing a six-year-old girl while on a bus.

The 48-year-old man sat next to the girl after boarding the bus at Frederick Street, Charlestown, north of Sydney on Wednesday afternoon.

NSW Police say he spoke to her before the assault and left the bus shortly after at Gateshead.

A man has been charged after allegedly abusing a six-year-old girl while on a bus. According to NSW Police he spoke to the girl and sat next to her after boarding the bus on Wednesday afternoon (stock image)

The six-year-old girl continued on her bus journey after and told her mother of the incident who reported it to police (stock image)

NSW Police have charged the 48-year-old man with aggravated indecent assault. He is due to front Belmont Local Court in June (stock image)

The girl continued on her bus journey and reported the incident to her mother, who contacted police.

After an investigation the man was arrested on Saturday and taken to Belmont Police Station, charged with aggravated indecent assault.
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Nyquist stormed to victory in the 142nd Kentucky Derby after the 2/1 favorite came from behind to win the first jewel in the Triple Crown.

Trained by Doug O'Neill and ridden by 2012 Derby-winning jockey Mario Gutierrez, the thoroughbred was odds on to triumph and came through to take the $1.425million in prize money with a resounding win.

Nyquist was third for most of the one-and-a-quarter mile race, but romped past early leader Danzing Candy and Gun Runner to take first place.

Exaggerator, who was a 5/1 outsider before the race, was just a length behind the victor, while Gun Runner - who was leading at the final turn - finished third.

There were huge cheers from the tens of thousands of glamorous gamblers, racing fans and celebrities as Nyquist crossed the line.

Nyquist stormed to victory in the 142nd Kentucky Derby after the 2/1 favorite came from behind to win the first jewel in the Triple Crown

Trained by Doug O'Neill and ridden by 2012 Derby-winning jockey Mario Gutierrez, the thoroughbred (second from right) was odds on to win and came through to take the $1.425million in prize money

Green queen: Kate Upton beamed as she walked around the race course in a green dress, wide-brimmed sun hat paired with gray heels

Model Kate Upton was among the tens of thousands of people watching the grand finale at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon

Megyn Kelly and her husband Douglas Brunt were also at the Derby and were seen mingling with others in the VIP section

American World Cup alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn looked like she had something to cheer about as the horses crossed the line

Derby selfie: Megyn Kelly posted this picture of her and Lindsey Vonn on Twitter after leaving the Derby in Louisville on Saturday

Hungry: A woman strokes a horse after the Derby, but did not appear to have any food for the playful thoroughbred

Fun day out: Glamorous racegoers who avoided the worst of the rain cheered as they waited for the big race to begin

Hats off to them! Ashley Holden and Chelsea Bowles of Louisville looked stunning in their vibrant outfits and elegant hats

Two women stop and pose for a selfie as they waited for the Kentucky Derby to get underway at Churchill Downs on Saturday

Lisa Cash, Chuck Hanes and Whitney Gage watch race seven while cheering for horse three at the 2016 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs

At the races: As usual, it was a day for elegant and extravagant hats at the Kentucky Derby on what was a sunny day apart from a short, sharp downpour earlier in the afternoon

Eyes on the prize: Ashley Holden of Louisville sported a violet hat with a blue ribbon as she watched the sixth race intently

Thousands of celebrities, horse-lovers and glamorous gamblers flooded the Churchill Downs course from early this morning as they awaited the Derby

Triumph: Jockey Mario Guitierrez lifts the trophy with trainer Doug O'Neill after riding Nyquist to victory during the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs

THE RUNNERS AND THE ODDS 1. Trojan Nation 38/1 2. Suddenbreakingnews 24/1 3. Creator 16/1 4. Mo Tom 24/1 5. Gun Runner 9/1 6. My Man Sam 18/1 7. Oscar Nominated 39/1 8. Lani 28/1 9. Destin 21/1 10. Whitmore 30/1 11. Exaggerator 5/1 12. Tom's Ready 44/1 13. Nyquist 2/1 14. Mohaymen 12/1 15. Outwork 26/1 16. Shagaf 55/1 17. Mor Spirit 12/1 18. Majesto 56/1 19. Brody's Cause 24/1 20. Danzing Candy 26/1

The Kentucky Derby is the first jewel in the coveted Triple Crown, with the other two races at the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

O'Neill backed Nyquist to emulate the feat of American Pharoah, who last year became the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 37 years.

Twenty horses started the race as they competed for $2million in prize money, which includes $1.425million for the winner.

Thousands of celebrities, horse-lovers and glamorous gamblers flooded the Churchill Downs course from early this morning as they awaited the Derby.

Among the crowds were model Kate Upton, Anna Nicole Smith's nine-year-old daughter Dannielynn Birkhead, Megyn Kelly and failed Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

Cruz was seen on Millionaires Row and told the Courier-Journal: 'I'm just here to have a good time'.

Eleven undercard races were held before the finale, although a sudden downpour of rain left some well-dressed ladies running for cover instead of watching some of the earlier action unfold on Saturday afternoon.

A scary two-horse spill took place during the running of the $500,000 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, the race before the Kentucky Derby.

The jockeys of both horses were thrown to the turf, but they stood up and walked away, apparently unhurt.

An initial medical report said Jose Lezcano aboard Triple Threat and Paco Lopez aboard Kasaqui were fine.

An official report on the horses said neither was injured, but both were taken by horse ambulance to their respective barns for further examination.

The spill took place around the far turn, when it appeared Kasaqui clipped heels with the horse in front of him, and fell to the ground, rolling over but getting back on his feet.

Triple Threat was running behind Kasaqui and stumbled over him.

Jockey Mario Gutierrez sprayed Chanpagne after winning the Derby, soaking fans who cheered below at the end of the day's racing

Flower power: Derby attendees pose at the 142nd Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs as they enjoyed a day of fun at the races

Drinks all round: The beers were flowing as guests enjoyed the day of racing at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky

Feathers and flowers: The ladies of the Derby wore an array of different styled hats, including these two extraordinary specimens

Lady in red: This Kentucky Derby racegoer matched her bright red hat with her shades and her lipstick for a powerful look

Summer has arrived: Aside from a small shower, the sun was out at the Derby and guests' outfits matched the balmy temperatures

A sudden downpour of rain left some well-dressed ladies running for cover instead of watching some of the earlier action unfold

Spitting image: Anna Nicole Smith's daughter Dannielynn is looking more and more like her mother (seen right in 1992) every day, and smiled as she arrived at the Kentucky Derby

Eleven undercard races were held before the finale, with punters turning up early on Saturday morning to catch the day's racing

Friends in high places: Failed Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was seen on Millionaires Row with British Lord Michael Ashcroft

The big race will start at 6.34pm EST and 20 horses are expected to start as they compete for $2million in prize money, which includes $1.425million for the winner. Pictured, the fifth race of the day

Katie Branscum, Jan Griffis, Tina Selvaggi and Mary Molyneaux (left to right) watch horses before the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby

Horses make their way to the finish line in the 10th race before the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs

Francisco Torres rides Salengo to a finish in the fifth race at Churchill Downs, with dust flying up as the thoroughbred stormed to the finish line

Horsing around: A man held up an inflatable pony as he wandered through the crowds at the Kentucky Derby on Saturday

Different kind of front runner: A man dressed as DOnald Trump - complete with 'Make America Great Again cap - was at the racetrack

Both riders went to the turf, were helped up and taken away by ambulance as a precaution.

Divisideo, ridden by Edgar Prado, won the race by a neck over World Approval.

The winner paid $15.40 on a $2 bet.

On Friday, a sea of pink descended on the Churchill Downs racetrack as a record-setting crowd of 124,589 people pulled out all the fashion stops for 142nd Kentucky Oaks race, which is traditionally held a day before the Derby.

Cathryn Sophia won, bagging the $600,000 prize in 1:50.33 over horses Land Over Sea and Lewis Bay, which came in second and third respectively.

With jockey Javier Castellano at the helm, Cathryn Sophia, the least expensive horse in the race at $30,000, took the lead down the stretch, overtaking Weep No More and Rachel's Vaneltina, both of which beat today's winner at the Ashland Stakes last month.

Cathryn Sophia started off strong alongside favorite Rachel's Valentina and found her opening at the top of the stretch before pulling away in the final furlong to win by 2 3/4 lengths over Land Over Sea.

She paid $11.40 to win, Land Over Sea paid $6.60 to place and Lewis Bay $4.60 to show.
Authorities in California are looking for a schizophrenic man whose grandmother was discovered dead this week.

Armida Custodio, 78, who lived on Terra Vista Way in Lake View Terrace, was bludgeoned to death, KABC reported.

Authorities are trying to find her 36-year-old grandson, suspect Joseph 'Joey' Kushner, the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news release on Friday.

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Authorities are trying to find 36-year-old grandson, suspect Joseph 'Joey' Kushner (pictured)

His 78-year-old grandmother Armida Custodio, who lived on Terra Vista Way in Lake View Terrace, was bludgeoned to death. Police said they performed a welfare check at her house and found her body

Police said: 'On May 4, 2016, Armida Custodio's body was discovered in her residence after officers conducted a welfare check at the request of family members.

'Armida's adult grandson, Joseph "Joey" Kushner, has not been seen by the family since May 2, 2016.

'Joseph was living with his grandmother at the time of the murder.'

Det. Timo Illig said the murder happened between Monday and Wednesday, according to KTLA.

Los Angeles police said in the news release 'Joseph travels extensively via public transportation particularly city buses'.

Kushner's father Steven said: 'My son, he suffers. He's totally disabled, he's schizophrenic'

Kushner's father Steven was filmed by KABC telling media: 'My son, I can tell you he suffers.

'He's totally disabled, he's schizophrenic.'

Kusher, however, said his son 'can function well and take care of himself.'

He said: I'm very worried. Joey, I love you. Please come home. I'd like to talk to you, please.'

Steven Kushner was filmed by KTLA saying of his son: 'He hears voices, he can get verbally kind of dangerous.

'So, he would have to be neutralized with his meds.'

Police say that if you have information, you can contact Valley Bureau Homicide by dialing (818) 374-1934.

Authorities say that for weekends and non-business hours, you can call 877-527-3247.




A massive wildfire, which has already destroyed more than 1,600 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray in Western Canada, is set to double in size, officials said yesterday.

Around 88,000 people have been evacuated from the city, in the heart of Canadas oil sands, where entire neighbourhoods are said to have been wiped out by the flames.

The Alberta provincial government, which has declared a state of emergency, said the blazes size has grown to 390 square miles in the dry and windy conditions.

The wildfire has already destroyed more than 1,600 homes and buildings in Fort McMurray in Western Canada

Albertas Premier Rachel Notley warned: Fort McMurray is not safe to return to and this will be true for a significant period of time.
A descendant of the founder of world-famous department store Liberty is battling to save the country house the family has owned for generations from the ravages of Britains new high-speed rail line.

HS2 is scheduled to pass just 800 yards from 500-year-old Field End Grange, a Tudor-era cottage in the village of The Lee in Buckinghamshire, owned by businessman Richard Stewart-Liberty.

The house, worth 1.5 million, was bought in 1890 by his great-great-uncle, Sir Arthur Liberty, who made his fortune after founding the London store that became famous for its fabric prints.

HS2 (pictured, an artist's impression) will pass 800 yards from Field End Grange, a cottage in the village of The Lee in Buckinghamshire, owned by Richard Stewart-Liberty

But it is threatened by the route of the controversial new London-Birmingham rail route through the Chiltern Hills.

Mr Stewart-Liberty, 70, said: Its my back yard. The line comes right by my property and through some of my familys other properties in a very beautiful part of the world. Ive lived in this house on and off since I was born.

'My stepmother lives just up the road and my brother and sister have houses around here. People come here in their thousands just to walk and have a lovely time. That recreational aspect will be damaged.

There are plans for parts of the route through the Chiltern Hills to go through a tunnel and Mr Stewart-Liberty said he would like to see the whole section built underground.

He is one of the 827 opponents of HS2 whose petitions objecting to the new railway were published last week. They include bosses at the Roald Dahl museum, two miles from The Lee in Great Missenden, where the famous childrens author lived for 36 years until he died in 1990.

The village faces years of disruption after being earmarked as the place where the high-speed rail line will emerge after travelling through the tunnel.

The house is threatened by the HS2's (artist's impression) controversial new London-Birmingham rail route through the Chiltern Hills

Stephen Gardam, museum director, said: More traffic would increase the risk to our visitors, many of whom are children.

Aston Villa FC is also objecting, saying noise from building work on the line near its training ground in the village of Bodymoor Heath, North Warwickshire, will make its use untenable.
Executors of Labour peer Lord Janners will have set aside 1 million to cover potential compensation claims by victims of his alleged child sex abuse

Executors of Labour peer Lord Janners will have set aside 1 million to cover potential compensation claims by victims of his alleged child sex abuse.

Probate records show that Janner left more than 2.1 million, around half of which has been frozen pending the outcome of legal claims by at least six of his alleged victims.

Lawyers acting for the family of the former Leicester MP, who died aged 87 last December, plan to contest the action in court.

If the abuse claims are found to be unproven, the frozen assets will be distributed according to his will, in which he left the bulk of his fortune to his three children. His wife Myra died in 1996.

Janner died two weeks after he was ruled unfit to stand trial on 22 counts of sex offences against nine boys between 1963 and 1988. A judge decided he was incapable of entering a plea due to his dementia.

A trial of the facts  in which as jury is asked to examine evidence and decide whether the accused committed crimes  had been due to start in April. Although this process cannot now take place, the abuse allegations will still be aired in the civil courts.

A source close to Janners family said yesterday: As his estate is being sued, a sum has been put aside and cannot be dissipated until the matter is settled.

If it is resolved in the estates favour, then inheritance tax on the amount will have to be paid.

The source added: The claims of abuse will be strongly contested. The family are looking forward to the claimants being cross-examined in court.

Money from the estate will be used to fight the case and inheritance tax will not be payable on the legal fees, the source said.

The bulk of Janners fortune came from his luxury flat in Golders Green, North London. Land Registry records reveal the apartment was sold for 2,035,000 just before his death.

Janner was Labour MP for Leicester North West and then Leicester West from 1970 until retiring in 1997, when he was made a life peer. He campaigned for Israeli and Jewish causes, as well as on womens equality.

Lord Janner attends a reception to mark the 21st anniversary of the Commonwealth Jewish Council at St James's Palace with the Queen in 2003

Lawyer Liz Dux, who represents several of Janners alleged victims, said: The estate is fully aware of its obligations not to distribute any part of the estate while the legal action remains outstanding.

Janners will, signed in 2009, left 15,000 to each of his grandchildren, and 25,000 to his sister Lady Morris of Kenwood. There were also charitable donations of 5,000 each to the World Jewish Affairs Fund, the Commonwealth Jewish Council and Holocaust Educational Trust.

The bulk was left in trust for his three children  Daniel, Marion and Laura.
These adorable lion cubs provide an irresistible photo-opportunity for tourists visiting a petting farm in South Africa.

But the thousands of visitors getting up close to the cubs will be shocked to learn that they could, unknowingly, be supporting the horrific trade in adult lions being sold on and then shot during canned hunts by trophy hunters.

Sir David Attenborough was caught up in the furore this week after animal rights campaigners said a photo of him with a cub on the cover of Radio Times  in an issue celebrating his 90th birthday today  would encourage more tourists to pay to enter the petting farms.

Furore: Sir David Attenborough posed with a cub for a souvenir issue celebrating his 90th birthday - but it has caused anger amongst campaigners, who say it reduces cubs to 'cute photo props'

Adorable: In South Africa, petting zoos like this one offer tourists the chance for the photo of a lifetime - unaware of the dark future which the cubs might be facing

Born Free Foundation president Will Travers, son of Born Free star Virginia McKenna, said: We are concerned that someone who is such an inspiration for so many has been photographed with a captive lion cub. Presenting lions as cute photo props does nothing to enhance their chances of survival as a species.

The cubs on the farms are often wrenched from their mothers when they are just a day old, enabling the lionesses to mate again more quickly to provide the petting areas with a constant supply of young cubs.

For the first few weeks the cubs are bottle fed. Then, between the ages of three and six months, they are used for the photo-opportunities, providing lucrative revenue for the farms. But once they are too big to be trusted with tourists, they are sold on to hunting companies who organise outings where hunters shoot them for fun.

Yesterday The Mail on Sunday visited Lion Park, just outside Johannesburg, which has been accused by animal campaigners of supplying lions for canned hunts.

For 10 visitors get to spend two minutes with three cubs. They are allowed to stroke their backs but not their heads or tails.

Handlers explained that they need to be able to grab the tails if the young lions get too boisterous.

For a further 30 Lion Park takes visitors on a tour which allows them to walk with lions.

Picture perfect: When the lions reach around 16 months old, Lion Park transfers them to a juvenile camp. It is from there some lions are believed to be sold on to middlemen who supply canned hunts

Two lions around 13 months old were brought in a cramped cage to a pen around 4,300 sq ft.

Three women visitors mingled with the lions for what was supposed to be an hour, but it was cut short when one of the lions started stalking one of the tourists. The behaviour may have been the result of the lions prolonged confinement.

When the lions reach around 16 months old, Lion Park transfers them to a juvenile camp. It is from there some lions are believed to be sold on to middlemen who supply canned hunts. Linda Park, a director of the Campaign Against Canned Hunting, said: The Lion Park maintain they keep all their lions, they look after them until they are a ripe old age  but they have cubs [of the right age for the petting area] available 365 days of the year, so where are they all? They cant possibly keep them all. We have seen permits, we know they are supplying to people who do canned hunting.

Rigged: Canned hunts see international hunters pay for a guaranteed 'trophy' - in this case, a lion

The founder of the Campaign Against Canned Hunting, Chris Mercer, said: Lions are sold in advance of hunts, so a foreign hunter will go along to the international conference and there will be tables with all the operators offering lion hunts in South Africa. They call them ranch lions, they dont like the term canned lions. It has nothing whatever to do with hunting or conservation. The hunters are just collectors, they are collectors of trophies.

Scott Simpson, assistant operations manager at Lion Park, denied any involvement with canned hunts, but admitted they had made mistakes in the past.
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Hens are the only females allowed into the monastery of Debre Damo. We gaze at the loaf-shaped lump of rock that rises out of a biblical landscape in the region of Tigray.

Isolated and self-sufficient, 150 monks live on this inaccessible platform. Visitors (male only) are pulled up the sheer sides by rope to the sixth-century dwelling.

Mildly disappointed at being thwarted by gender, we visit Daniel Korkor instead, another remote and ancient church.

Higher calling: A church in northern Ethiopia stands out against the rocky landscape with its walls of bright colours

Nerves of steel are required as I edge along a ledge with a paralysing precipice and a 1,000 ft drop.

Carved deep into the rock, its worth the two-hour slog up the mountainside. We find exquisite frescos painted turquoise, ochre and burnt sienna, colours of the sky and landscape.

The resident priest, aged 84, looks remarkably young, a testament to a lifetime of fasting, he claims.

No wonder 20,000 Britons visited Ethiopia last year. In this astonishingly beautiful country, we are welcomed everywhere.

After 3,000 years of feudalism, followed by 17 years of communism and civil war, leaders describe their 19-year-old democracy as a work in progress.

For many, Ethiopia conjures up images of Bob Geldof, famine and Haile Selassie  Ethiopias 225th and last Emperor, deposed in 1974 by the brutal Derg regime.

Ethiopia has many layers, a spectacular landscape, a rich culture and archaeological sites as spellbinding as Egypts.

We discover some excellent Italian restaurants, too, a legacy from a brief (and unsuccessful) invasion by Mussolini.

We opt for a 17-day tailor-made tour with Ethiopian Quadrants visiting World Heritage sites. It starts in Addis Ababa in the Sheraton hotel.

Evocative: Colour artwork on display inside the 17th century jewel that is The Old St Mary of Zion Cathedral, in the Tigray region

With its white roses and purple jacaranda, its a stark contrast to the corrugated shacks just a street away.

The locals are keen to practise their English. Where are you from? Do you like our country? Can we have your email?

We take four internal flights. Landlocked Ethiopia, twice the size of Spain with a population of 95 million, is surrounded by some of the most toxic countries in the world  Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan  so security is tight.

In between, we travel by minibus with our delightful guide Getaw. The dusty roads are wondrous. We bump and rattle through stupendous scenery: sawn-off mountains and vast plains fall away with pinnacles of contorted rock formations.

Everyone walks great distances to school or the market. The occasional dead donkey or abandoned, skeletal horse by the side of the road makes me wince. Getaw apologises: Animals are valuable, but vets are few.

Incredible: Lalibela is an Ethiopian wonder. Legend says angels helped to build its warren of 12th century churches

A hive of people: Lalibela Market sells salt carried by camels from the Danakil Desert, and mounds of mismatched shoes

North of Addis is fabled Lalibela: legend says angels helped build the warren of 12th-century churches.

We marvel at the precision of these vast, subterranean, monolithic buildings, carved out of solid rock. For centuries, pilgrims have come to die at the holy site.

Corpses once filled the deep trenches that link the churches. Skeletons still inhabit the numerous caves  an odd foot pokes out here and there.

Lalibela market is bewitching: salt carried by camels from the Danakil Desert, dark honeycombs and mounds of mismatched shoes for sale.

The locals dress like pearly kings and queens, with buttons sewn onto clothes.

Among the multitude of animals standing in the hot sun, a boy whispers reassuringly to his goats, waiting for a buyer.

Another highlight is a three-day trek along an escarpment in western Meket. The ground falls away abruptly and we look down on a patchwork of farmland, cultivated by hand and oxen.

Dust and drama: Visit Bishangari on the pinky-mauve Lake Langano in the Rift Valley, and wake to a chorus from 400 species of birds

Donkeys carry our bare essentials. We stop at a school, where children recite their alphabet in English and Amharic, the local language. In return, we sing nursery rhymes.

We stay in mud huts, run by the community and eat tasty injera, the staple dish of fermented pancake, made from teff, an indigenous grain, eaten with spicy vegetables.

We wash using a bucket and go to bed by candlelight. Despite wandering hyenas, we sleep soundly with our door wide open to a starry sky.

Bishangari is our last stop, on the pinky-mauve Lake Langano in the Rift Valley. The morning chorus from 400 species of birds wakes us.

Fishermen empty nets encircled by hungry dogs while children chew raw fish heads. They ask us to take photos and laugh at their images.

Three brothers washing in the lake are entranced by our binoculars. The youngest finally manages to focus not on the rare mohican-haired bird Ruspolis turaco, but on some girls bathing in the distance.
Rating:

Almost the first thing you see on the Pembroke Arms website is Funerals.

Click on it and theres information about After Funeral Receptions, with a cheery reminder that the inn is only ten to 15 minutes away from the local crematorium.

Thank goodness there are more upbeat reasons why you might want to stay here.

The Pembroke Arms is a handsome old boozer in the middle of the Wilton Estate on the outskirts of Salisbury

Price is one of them. Im paying 75 for B&B on a Sunday evening.

Roasting All Day, says the sign outside this handsome old boozer in the middle of the Wilton Estate on the outskirts of Salisbury.

There are nine rooms. I am meant to be in a small double, but it only has a shower and so I ask the polite young man behind the bar if I can switch.

He says that because I have pre-paid it might be tricky.

How many other rooms are taken this evening? I ask.

None, actually, he says.

Then slip me in a bigger one with a bath. You wont get in any trouble.

So he does  in the Queens Bedchamber, where the bathroom is decorated in pages from the June 1953 Coronation edition of Queen magazine.

Inviting: The B&B's bar and restaurant areas are spacious and informal, with polished (some bashed) tables

Cleaning your teeth has never been more diverting.

The pictures and text are duly deferential, but I like the ads. Aspreys and the pricey Gleneagles Hotel are there, so, too, are the Hillman Minx and Kia Ora fruit squash.

Downstairs, the bar and restaurant areas are spacious and informal, with proper polished (and some bashed) tables.

I start with marinated artichoke and sun-dried tomato (terrific), followed by roast lamb (unexciting).

Stately: Combine staying at the Pembroke Arms with a visit to Wilton House and its 14,000 surrounding acres

I should have had the rib-eye steak, with chips, grilled tomato, mushrooms and salad  all for 14.95.

Combine staying here with a visit to Wilton House, where the energetic Earl of Pembroke and his family have injected new life into their stately home, with 14,000 surrounding acres.

I like one of the breakfast offerings: black pudding on fried bread with an egg on top.

The food police would be aghast, replete with warnings about an early visit to that crematorium.
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Dubai may be better known for its bright lights and bling rather than as a family destination, but having been there before having children, we wanted to see if we could also make it work as a holiday choice with our one-year-old daughter, Ella Rose.

During our last visit, we enjoyed fine-dining restaurants, visited the malls, and drove a buggy over the sand dunes. On this occasion, we wanted hotels where we could stay under one roof but still find plenty to keep us occupied.

The first time we took Ella Rose abroad, we went on a short-haul flight to a tried-and-tested family resort closer to home. Choosing Dubai meant contending with a much longer flight, but it was a gamble we were willing to take.

The swim-up rooms at the Anantara on The Palm mean you can have easy access to the water with numerous lifeguard stationed oversee kids' safety

Sunshine, of course, is guaranteed in Dubai, and temperatures often soar to more than 100F, but we timed our break so that it was warm but not blisteringly hot.

They dont do anything by halves in Dubai, and that is certainly true when it comes to hotels. Pick the right one and youll get great service, incredible food and drink, and the perfect atmosphere.

We stayed on The Palm for the first half of our break. Man-made at an estimated cost of $12 billion, it has 30 beachfront hotels. It means you can get away from the bustle of the centre of Dubai but still be close to all the action.

We chose the Anantara, which has striking sea views and superb over-water villas. Its not just the main beach you can enjoy either  there are several other smaller man-made ones dotted around the resort which were ideal for Ella Rose.

We had a swim-up room, which meant easy access to the water and so was perfect for keeping our daughter entertained. There were lifeguards at every turn so we felt reassured about her safety.

Having the water at our door was useful for us too, as a cocktail boat floats by every afternoon.

This resort ticked all the boxes  it was spotlessly clean, and there were plenty of loungers and towels to make sure guests had every opportunity to relax.

However, we soon discovered that being on holiday with a one-year-old means that you do not get the chance to sit down too often  no matter how many luxurious loungers there may be scattered around.

For those parents who want a bit of me time, theres a kids club for youngsters aged over four.

Debut: Charlotte holds daughter Ella Rose at the polo as she sits on a horse for the first time - she didn't last long in the saddle before deciding it was too adventurous

We liked the hotels childrens menu as it wasnt just everything with chips, but had dishes such as spaghetti bolognaise (which turned out to be a bit messy for small fingers but the waiting staff took it all in their stride), and healthier options including poached chicken with vegetables and mashed potato, which certainly went down well with Ella Rose.

The Beach House is a great place to sit at lunchtime and watch the world go by, and a definite dinner highlight was the Mekong restaurant, which offers a combination of Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese dishes.

For the second part of our holiday, we moved to the Per Aquum Desert Palm.

We werent sure what to expect, venturing inland, but I love horse-riding, so the idea of going to a hotel where they play polo matches was very appealing.

There is a wonderful sense of calm as you are surrounded by the green fields of the 160-acre estate. It is a truly beautiful setting, with cascading flowers in abundance, and olive trees hundreds of years old imported from Italy.

Getting into the swing: Charlotte and one-year-old Ella Rose relax in a bright red swinging chair during their Dubai break

We stayed in a spacious suite overlooking the polo fields. You might feel like youre in the middle of nowhere but you still get a great view of the Dubai skyline in the distance.

The country club vibe is helped by a varied events programme. We went to a Tipples and Cheese evening, and the Vintage Friday Brunch at the Desert Palm must be among the best in Dubai.

Starting with champagne and oysters at 12.30pm, the brunch goes on until 4pm, giving everyone the chance to make the most of all the sumptuous food and wine on offer.

Eating at the fine-dining Rare restaurant was a memorable experience as the food was exquisite. The restaurant specialises in steaks, but youll find it difficult to choose between other dishes such as slow-roasted duck breast with confit duck leg, or miso black cod.

The waiters and waitresses were exceptional  on our first evening, Ella Rose started to get fidgety, so waiter Azhar offered to take her for a walk to meet the chefs and the other staff.

The neighbouring Epicure restaurant dispenses with the usual buffet offering for breakfast and just does a la carte. You have to be strict with yourself not to be tempted by the amazing selection of fresh cakes and pastries.

Per Aquum Desert Palm delivers everything you need for a relaxing break in the sun, and shows you can still have a family holiday while preserving that grown-up feeling. Pictured is a view of its entrance at night

At Per Aquum Desert Palm you need not worry about missing any of the action if theres a polo match on - some of the suites (left) overlook the field

To help you wear off some of the excesses, there is a gym, the option of going horse-riding, or swimming a few lengths in the infinity pool. Meanwhile, the Lime Spa has an extensive menu of treatments.

I had a blissfully relaxing Lime intuitive massage tailor-made to suit my needs.

And you dont need to worry about missing any of the action if theres a polo match on  the thermal beds overlook the field, so giving you the perfect view while relaxing.

On one occasion, we took a tour of the estate for a closer look at the horses, and it meant Ella Rose could try sitting on one for the very first time.

She may not have lasted too long in the saddle before deciding it was too adventurous, but I have high hopes that experiencing her first polo match will mean shes more interested in the future.

At Per Aquum Desert Palm there is sense of calm as you are surrounded by the green fields of the 160-acre estate. The resort features cascading flowers in abundance, and olive trees hundreds of years old imported from Italy

It was quite something watching all the action from our balcony, hearing the thunder of hooves and the thwack of the polo mallet as it hit the ball, while we sat and enjoyed the sunshine. We fell in love with this real gem of a hotel.

For all those who knock Dubai for being brash, it has so much more to offer.

It delivers everything you need for a relaxing break in the sun, and shows you can still have a family holiday while preserving that grown-up feeling.

We came back refreshed and relaxed after some special family time together. And for me, it was the perfect tonic before I had to set my alarm again for 2.40am, ready for my appearances on the Good Morning Britain sofa.

TRAVEL FACTS ITC Luxury Travel (itcluxurytravel.co.uk, 01244 355527) offers four nights half-board at Anantara The Palm (staying in a Premier Lagoon View Room) and two nights at the Per Aquum Desert Palm on a B&B basis (in a Palm Suite) from 3,739 per family, based on two adults and one child sharing. The price includes return Emirates flights from Heathrow and transfers.




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Things have changed a bit since I last camped in Europe.

These days Im reluctant to give up my creature comforts, yet I still remember the joy of waking up and breathing in the fresh air while enjoying a bowl of Cornflakes outside our tent.

Most wise people now know that, rather than sleep under canvas, a mobile home is a better option  proper beds and facilities, yet outside enough to feel faintly rugged.

Diving in: The pool at La Pointe St Gilles is just one of the features at the holiday park, which is located near the Breton seaside town of Benodet. Also on offer are a pizza restaurant, shop, bike hire, and Zumba classes

Eurocamps La Pointe St Gilles holiday park near the Breton seaside town of Benodet ticked all the boxes  easy to get to with an overnight ferry, and plenty of support for softie campers.

You can hire tents at La Pointe St Gilles but we opted for a basic Esprit holiday home. For those seeking extra comfort, the Avant range comes with a Bluetooth radio and speaker, and a dishwasher.

The great benefit of park such as this is theres everything you need on-site  pizza restaurant, shop, bike hire, and even Zumba classes.

The main attraction is the glass-domed water park, with slides, a lazy river and sunloungers. I didnt see much of the loungers, but thanks to my daughter Claudie, I know every twist of those slides.

It was difficult to get her out of the water to go to one of the four kids clubs, which are included in the price, along with daily swimming and bike-riding lessons.

While the children are at one of the clubs, parents can head to the on-site spa for a beauty treatment or two.

I fancied the minceur marine massage, where the body draws from the seaweed a slimming action, apparently.

Annas daughter Claudie (pictured) was a fan of the glass-domed water park, which includes numerous slides, a lazy river and loungers

But in the end, my therapy involved breathing in deep the briny air from the beach across the road from the park, and walking along the sands.

The nearest town is a ten-minute walk away, or you can hop on the little tourist train which we did on several occasions.

On the way, you will see the towns most curious feature  a white minaret built in the 1920s as a thank you from the Pasha of Marrakech to a local surgeon who had helped him.

French poet Apollinaire, actress Sarah Bernhardt and our own Winston Churchill were all fans of spending a seaside holiday here.

The town is sleepy now, but the beaches are still sandy  and the vibe restorative.

Guests of La Pointe St Gilles are able to take a quiet stroll along the coastal road to Benodets cobbled harbour where you can catch a boat up the River Odet to the medieval town of Quimper (pictured)

That prescription includes long lunches with Breton favourites such as moules mariniere and galette pancakes. A family next to us had their pancakes flambeed at the table  just another casual lunch in this part of France.

Afterwards, take a quiet stroll along the coastal road to Benodets cobbled harbour.

From here you can also catch a boat up the River Odet to the medieval town of Quimper.

Alternatively, if you want to explore further along the coast, Concarneau and Fousenant make great day-trips by car.

However, if, like me, youre comfortable being in the less is more holiday camp, then youll probably let that idea bob on the horizon like one of Benodets sailboats  and just breathe out.
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It's 11am on a July morning in Ortigia, the tiny island just off Syracuse in Sicily.

Stallholders are sluicing down trays of tuna and swordfish, a boy wearing gloves is crouched on the pavement scraping spines off sea urchins, and we have paused to wash down half a dozen rock oysters with a paper cup of prosecco.

Now thats what I call elevenses.

The biggest draw on Ortigia, the tiny island just off Syracuse in Sicily, is its thriving market. Here traders sell everything from Sicilys legendary tomatoes to mounds of ricotta, baskets of fresh figs, and bottles of marsala from the far western tip of the island

Food is one of the main attractions of Sicily  simple dishes that allow the best quality ingredients to speak for themselves. And Ortigia, being an island, has menus packed with fish

The city of Syracuse is world-famous for its Greek ruins. So far we have peered into Archimedes tomb, climbed up the steep steps of the must-see Greek theatre, and listened to the spectacular acoustics in a cave known as Dionysius Ear.

We have even gazed in awe at Caravaggios painting Burial of St Lucy, above the altar at the Santa Lucia alla Badia church.

But still. The biggest draw is Ortigias thriving market, where traders sell everything from Sicilys legendary tomatoes to mounds of ricotta, baskets of fresh figs, and bottles of marsala from the far western tip of the island.

Olive-oil sellers insist on preparing a taster of oil-dipped bread and cheese before allowing you to commit to buying. And while those oysters are not free (although they are dirt cheap at 12, or 9.50, for a dozen) the prosecco offered to ease them down is.

The first time we stumbled across this Syracusian version of fast food, we ordered six oysters and tried to pay but were waved away by the grinning, tattooed stallholder.

Relax, sit down and watch the world go by, was the general gist  you might find you want another plate in a minute or two, and naturally he was right.

It was the beginning of a daily habit: oysters and fizz, then a stroll down to the waterfront for sea urchin and spaghetti, or some wild boar salami at Fratelli Burgio.

At the top table: Chef Giorgio Locatelli (left), who recommended the Da Vittorio restaurant in Porto Palo di Menfi, Sicily. Pictured right is the Da Vittorio owner with some of his fresh produce

Food is one of the main attractions of Sicily  simple dishes that allow the best quality ingredients to speak for themselves. And this being an island, the menus are packed with fish.

Ah fish. Now, Im a committed carnivore who will always turn down a sea bream for beef, or lobster for lamb. But I can report that for the two weeks I was in Sicily, it was surf over turf all the way. And that was due to the humble restaurant that brought us to Sicily in the first place.

You need to put a pin in the map of Sicily if you are planning a holiday here. Even the experts are baffled as to where you should go in preference to somewhere else.

We tried seeking counsel from the Thinking Traveller, which specialises in exclusive villas all over Sicily, but it was like asking a mother to choose between her children.

Palermo is a cultural must, every art historians favourite city.

Head for Agrigento and you will find the best preserved Doric temples outside Greece. At the Roman Villa del Casale, youll find the finest and largest display of mosaics in the world.

And then theres the hilltop town of Taormina, fabled haunt of 19th and 20th Century writers and playground of movie stars. Can you see the problem?

That is why it helps to have an inside tip.

Hot stuff: When in Sicily you cant afford to miss witnessing the highest active volcano in Europe, the spectacular Mount Etna

Ours came in the form of the rumour that chef Giorgio Locatelli, owner of Londons renowned Locanda Locatelli, travels to Sicily every year to eat at the beachside Da Vittorio in Porto Palo di Menfi.

There is a Signor Da Vittorio and he has been cooking  stripped to the waist, with a white cloth slung over one shoulder  for the past 40 years. Its the kind of place you cant believe still exists, especially not with renowned chefs shouting about it from the rooftops.

Waitresses, sometimes with a young child propped on their hip, will bring a menu if necessary but prefer to recommend what they think youll enjoy. And the most deliciously shocking part is the food is cheaper than most places on the island.

Here we discovered the Sicilian speciality gamberi rossi  red prawns that survive half a mile under the surface.

Perhaps there is something about that hostile environment produces a fatter, sweeter, denser shrimp the like of which you have never tasted before.

Also on the menu is swordfish on a bed of blood oranges, and fried baby squid. The wines were exceptional too, especially the whites Albamarina and Regaleali.

It turns out that picking a villa and a locale on the basis of its proximity to a respected beach restaurant is a very smart thing to do.

Hollywood actor Stanley Tucci (who is also a keen cook) was staying in another Thinking Traveller villa just a mile along the coast.

He had also booked a cooking course, one of the options the company provides  a chef turns up to help you prepare dinner in your kitchen and talk you through various regional specialities.

From our villa, Casa Agave, the beach was just a short walk away, and it was practically deserted at the time of our visit. Just a few miles away is Selinunte, one of Sicilys great Greek archaeological sites, but you will need a guide.

Baroque beauty: The picturesque hilltop town of Noto, where Davies climbed to the top the Church of San Carlo to take in the view

I dont mean to appear greedy but just below the ruins at Selinunte is another well-known beach restaurant  La Pineta  where we had lunch once or twice. Afterwards we crammed our shorts and flip-flops into plastic bags, slung them around our necks, and swam the short distance back to our villa.

For our final few days on the island, we stayed at the Palazzo del Sale in Syracuse.

From our new base we ventured along the coast to the sublimely beautiful baroque town of Noto, climbing to the top of the Church of San Carlo to take in the view.

We then hurried off to Caffe Sicilia, which, judging by the ingredients used, is run by Sicilys answer to our own Heston Blumenthal (black olive ice cream, anyone?)

We also had to go to Modica, another glorious city, and, of course, to Etna.

When in Sicily you cant afford to miss the highest active volcano in Europe. Not everywhere in Sicily is a jewel. The part of the coast around Catania was rundown and grotty for the most part. Its not helped by the dark volcanic rock that makes up its coastline and gives it a grim, coal-town look.

Somehow the sun didnt shine so brightly here and the people seemed perplexed that wed bothered to seek them out.

But even here, food is king, and the Sicilian respect for fresh fish plainly cooked seems to hold true wherever you go, so we continued to eat well, though instinct told us that further down the east coast we would find Ortigia and a very different world.

Ortigia has a modern sensibility  its like the Rome of Sicily, steeped in history but also full of hipsters on Vespas, women wearing Dolce & Gabbana, and chic bars serving mojitos and caipirinhas.

On our final night we found the perfect modern Sicilian restaurant, DiVino Mare  its so popular they have to seat people on both sides of the street.

The menu is on a blackboard, no one speaks English, and the fish is probably bought from our tattooed friend in the market.

At 50, its the best food youll ever taste unless youre ever going west, that is, to Signor Da Vittorios little place of heaven.
She is one of Hollywood's most timeless beauties, having first arrived on the scene in the late '90s.

And Molly Sims, 42, simply stunned once again in a flowing red frock as she was honored at a Mother's Day luncheon and fashion show in Beverly Hills on Friday.

The blonde beauty was the toast of the special event hosted by The Helping Hand of Los Angeles to benefit women's health programs at the city's Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

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Lady in red: Molly Sims, 42, stunned in a day dress at a Mother's Day luncheon and fashion show benefiting women's health programs at LA's Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

The mother-of-two wore a day dress that featured both a see-through and slightly pleated bottom.

The model and actress added simple silver and diamond-like accessories to adorn her look.

Her style was complete with a pair of nude strappy heels.

Special guest: The beauty was honored by the The Helping Hand of Los Angeles, a support group that focuses on women's health

Flawless: Molly, a mother-of-two, paired the flowing day dress that featured cut-out panels with nude strappy heels and hooped earrings

The model received the Mother of the Year Award for her humanitarian efforts through her website, MollySims.com and her book, The Everyday Supermodel: My Beauty, Fashion, and Wellness Secrets Made Simple.

She, along with Stacy Valner, were both honouees at the event.

Stacy is the founder of the Phase One Foundation, created following her husband's cancer battle.

In the spotlight: Molly, along with Stacy Valner, were both honored for their humanitarian and philanthropic work

Happy for her: Molly's husband Scott Stuber, 42, proudly supported his beautiful wife

Molly's husband Scott Stuber, 42, was also in attendance. In a sweet Instagram post, her hubby of almost five years was seen sweetly kissing the side of her head.

'Love him. So honored this morning to accept the "Mother Of The Year" award from @cedarssinai & #HelpingHandOfLosAngeles ,' Molly wrote.

The couple are parents to two children: son Brooks Alan, three, and daughter Scarlett May, one.
Amber Heard touched down in Los Angeles on Friday showing just how to pull off a double denim look.

The actress, 30, who's married to Johnny Depp, arrived at LAX in rolled up faded jeans and matching blue jean jacket.

She topped off the outfit with a black t-shirt and a natty black hat along with black leather slides.

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Back in La-La Land: Johnny Depp's actress wife Amber Heard jetted into Los Angeles from New York looking chic in a double denim outfit and a black hat on Friday

She carried a black leather handbag over one shoulder and a brown leather satchel over the other as she made her way through the arrival terminal with her eyes hidden behind a large pair of Krewe du Optic sunglasses.

Amber had traveled to New York for Monday evening's Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum Of Arts, where she stunned in a gold Ralph Lauren gown with a thigh-high split.

Johnny, 52, didn't accompany her to the elite event as he has done in previous years.

And on Thursday the blonde beauty was seen arriving solo for dinner at Ralph Lauren's celebrity eatery The Polo Bar in Midtown Manhattan.

So chic: The 30-year-old teamed her high-waist, rolled-up faded jeans, that accentuiated her long legs, with a matching blue jean jacket and black slides

Amber and Johnny have been together since 2012 after meeting on the set of The Rum Diary in 2011, when she played his character's love interest.

Life quickly imitated art and they tied the knot On February 3, 2015, in a private civil ceremony at their home in Los Angeles.

The pair have busy careers with Johnny next on screen in Alice Through The Looking Glass, released on May 27.

Carry on: The beautiful blonde toted a black leather handbag and a worn, brown leather satchel

Shimmering star: Amber wore a stunning gold Ralph Lauren gown with a thigh-high split at the Met Gala on Monday evening, where she was accompanied by an assistant rather than 52-year-old Johnny

He is also working on Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, due on May 26 2017, and The Invisible Man, set for April 13, 2018.

Meanwhile, Amber is starring as clairvoyant femme fatale Nicola Six in London Fields, due out this year. In 2017 she has marriage comedy What's The Point? lined up, written, directed and starring Lake Bell.

And she's due to play Mera in The Justice League Part One in 2017 and reprise the role in Aquaman in 2018.
She's been making her fans green with envy on her trip to Miami.

And with a new day came a new batch of selfies for bikini blogger Natasha Oakley, who flaunted her washboard abs in a stunning series of snaps on Friday.

Looking sensational in a slinky blue two-piece swimsuit, the 25-year-old Instagram model showed off her flawless figure whilst posing with her A Bikini A Day business partner and best friend Devin Brugman.

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Best of friends! Fashion bloggers Natasha Oakley (left) and Devin Brugman (right) flaunted their washboard abs as they walked hand-in-hand along Miami beach on Friday

Seemingly make-up free for the casual occasion, Natasha partially covered her face with a pair of rounded sunglasses and pulled her blonde locks into a neat bun.

Meanwhile, Devin showed off her tanned curves in a triangle tie-up bikini which featured orange and white panelling.

The busty brunette left her luscious locks out and in natural curls that cascaded down over her shoulders and shunned makeup for a more natural appearance.

Showing off: The A Bikini A Day fashion bloggers flaunted their toned derrieres in their skimpy swimwear

She simply captioned the post: South Beach umbrella loving.

Again, Natasha took to her Instagram to upload another picture from her beachside outing with Devin.

This time the sun-kissed duo flaunted their perfectly toned derrieres in their Brazilian swimming bottoms  most likely from their joint Monday Swimwear collection.

The pair launched their swimwear line shortly after starting their A Bikini A Day fashion blog which sees the gym-honed twosome wearing bikinis 365 days a year.

Showing off: The 25-year-old Instagram model showed off her enviable figure as she posed in the shallows of a pool at her hotel in Miami

'Life's too short not to wear Brazilian bikinis.' the blonde beauty wrote alongside the picture of the two beach babes posing in between two rows of umbrellas.

In the final picture uploaded to the photo sharing site, the Sydney native - who boasts an incredible social media following of 1.7 million people - posed seductively in the shallows of a hotel pool.

Stretching her tanned limbs out, Natasha arched he back and pointed her toe to emphasis her enviable figure.

'Everything about this hotel is ideal. Wearing new @mondayswimwear,' she captioned the ode to holiday snap.

Natasha's return to the U.S. comes just days after she was announced as the front cover star for Cosmopolitan magazine.
He played the tough as nails counterterrorism agent Jack Bauer in the Fox hit 24 for nine seasons.

And now Kiefer Sutherland is back on television, albeit in quite a different role, as it was reported by Deadline on Friday that ABC decided to pick up political thriller Designated Survivor.

In the new show, the 49-year-old is unexpectedly appointed President of the United States after a devastating attack during the State of the Union address kills everyone above him in the cabinet.

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Big news: Kiefer Sutherland is back on television, albeit in quite a different role, as it was reported by Deadline on Friday that ABC decided to pick up political thriller Designated Survivor

ABC released a very brief first look trailer to accompany the big announcement.

In the clip, voice over of Sutherland being sworn into office plays as images of the White House flash on screen.

It then cuts to the actual ceremony, which apparently takes place in the oval office.

New digs: In the clip, voice over of Sutherland being sworn into office plays as images of the White House flash on screen

Casual Friday? It then cuts to the actual ceremony, which apparently takes place in the oval office

While he has his right hand up and is surrounded by staff, it's clear the transition is very spur of the moment, as Sutherland is dressed in a grey Cornell zip-up sweatshirt for the occasion.

Several more scenes detail the new president coming to terms with his new position, addressing people in the situation room, and managing his family.

While there's no hint as to the who perpetrates the attack, there is a quick shot of the President-to-be pulling back a curtain to reveal a small mushroom cloud above the Capitol Building.

Settling in: Several more scenes detail the new president coming to terms with his new position, addressing people in the situation room, and managing his family

Ominous: While there's no hint as to the who perpetrates the attack, there is a quick shot of the President-to-be pulling back a curtain to reveal a small mushroom cloud above the Capitol Building

Besides Sutherland, the show features a stellar cast including Maggie Q, Natascha McElhone, and Kal Penn among many others.

Deadline's source also reported that while it wasn't originally certain the pilot would lead to a series, the final product was so strong that ABC chose to green light an entire first season.

This will be Sutherland's first time back on a series since 2014's 24: Live Another Day miniseries.
He is a busy husband and father.

But Jay Rutland got to enjoy some inadvertent free time on the Miami sands, this week - when he missed his flight home on Friday.

The handsome 35 year-old was spotted on South Beach where he enjoyed some alone time in the searing sunshine.

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Alone time: Jay Rutland got to enjoy some inadvertent free time on the Miami sands, this week - when he missed his flight home on Friday

Wearing a pair of burgundy-coloured shorts, the former financier was clearly feeling relaxed as he strutted his stuff.

Displaying a buff body, he boasted a fit physique and a golden tan which illustrated how much he looks after himself.

He capped the look with a simple pair of designer sunglasses, which shielded his eyes as he updated social media on his smartphone.

Looking good: Wearing a pair of burgundy-coloured shorts, the former financier was clearly feeling relaxed as he strutted his stuff

Displaying a buff body, he boasted a fit physique and a golden tan which illustrated how he looks after himself

Taking to Instagram, where she shared an image of his sexy legs, he wrote: 'When you miss your flight home but end up on South Beach life ain't so bad'.

The post was liked numerous times and certainly seemed to connect with his followers.

The latest sighting of Jay is a million miles away from his appearance at Thames Magistrates Court, last month.

Taking to Instagram, where she shared an image of his sexy legs, he wrote: 'When you miss your flight home but end up on South Beach life ain't so bad'

Relaxing: Jay maintained contact with his family and friends with plenty of calls and text messages

The handsome 35 year-old was spotted on South Beach where he enjoyed alone time in the searing sunshine

The millionaire husband of Formula One heiress Tamara Ecclestone was cleared of helping a drugs baron evade justice after the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.

Jay, 35, son-in-law to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, was said to have assisted 66-year old crime king James Tarrant avoid capture ahead of a 2010 gun and drugs trial.

Tarrant fled overseas before ultimately being convicted in his absence and was sentenced 14 years imprisonment.

At the time, Tarrant was one of the UK's most wanted criminals before giving himself up to Dutch police last September and being returned to Britain after five years on the run.

The latest sighting is a million miles away from his appearance at Thames Magistrates Court, last month

Good times: The father-of-one picked up some local seafood as he dined out on the beach

Taking it easy: The father-of-one was lapping up the good life - despite having missed his flight home
She's gone form humble beginnings on the Gold Coast to taking Hollywood by storm.

But Margot Robbie's latest role as Harley Quinn - the first time the character has been played on the big screen - could lead to the biggest exposure she has had in her career so far.

The 25-year-old actress explained to Spectrum on Saturday: 'It's big shoes to fill for sure; it's always intimidating to take on a role that you know could make people so unhappy or on the other hand could make them extremely happy.'

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Big shoes to fill: Margot Robbie's latest role as Harley Quinn, the first time the character has been played on the big screen and she spoked to Spectrum about the pressure she is feeling about the big screen debut

The blonde bombshell went on to explain: 'Like most things in the industry, I'm trying to take it was a grain of salt to some extent, otherwise you get too overwhelmed to do the job at hand.'

Suicide Squad has the weight of Warner Bros resting on it's shoulders after their action blockbuster Batman vs Superman wasn't as popular as predicted.

The film is an extension of the studios thriving DC Comics franchise and focuses around famed villains played by Jarden Leto, Cara Delevinge, Jai Courtney and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

Character debut: The 25-year-old explained that she is feeling both intimidated and excited about her characters big screen debut and knows that she could face a mixed reception

From starting out on the iconic Australian soap Neighbours, Margot then went on to get her first big break in Martin Scorsese's Wolf of Wall Street alongside Leonardo Dicaprio.

The blonde beauty's latest acting gig is playing journalist Tanya Vanderpoel in Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot.

In the film, she is part of a group of reporters covering the Afghan battlefield at a time when the world's focus is shifting, but the war is far from over.

She stars alongside Tina Fay, who also plays a journalist and Margot's character takes her under her wing and shows her the ropes which leads to the pair forming a close bond.

Launching pad: The Gold Coast native went from humble beginnings on the iconic Australia soap Neighbours to taking Hollywood by storm

New role: Margot's latest acting gig is playing journalist Tanya Vanderpoel in Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot

The Australian starlet gushed to the publication about working alongside the funnywoman and referred to it as a 'dream come true'.

'I just want to learn anything I can from her,' the starlet confessed and revealed that it's her improv skills that she is the most keen to pick up on.

It's been a big year already for the actress, who has been juggling filming for Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot and press tours for Suicide Squad where she plays the fictional super villain.

Suicide Squad follows a group of supervillains imprisoned in an asylum who are offered clemency by a secret government agency in return for carrying out covert black ops.

The two Logie nominated actress is also set to appear in film Legend Of Tarzan alongside Alexander Skarsgard.

Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot is set to open on May 12
Ladies of London star Marissa Hermer just welcomed her first baby girl with her husband of six years, Ignite Group owner Matt Hermer.

'Baby love!' the reality star captioned a picture of her newborn princess on Thursday.

According to People, the Hermers' third child was born April 21 - Queen Elizabeth's birthday - at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London.

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'Baby love!' Ladies of London star Marissa Hermer just welcomed her first baby girl with her husband of six years, Ignite Group owner Matt Hermer

Marissa and Matt - who are also parents to sons Max, 3, and Jake, 2 - have not released their daughter's name.

On Friday, the Laguna Beach-born blonde celebrated her new addition with seafood delicacies at Scott's restaurant in Mayfair.

'Girl missed her shellfish,' Hermer - who boasts 155K followers - captioned the mouth-watering snap.

The Top Dog co-founder spent the last month of her pregnancy on bedrest following her diagnosis with both placenta previa and placenta accreta.

'Nightcaps': According to People, the Hermers' third child was born April 21 - Queen Elizabeth's birthday - at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London

Undecided? Marissa and Matt - who are also parents to sons Max, 3, and Jake, 2 - have not released their daughter's name

'Girl missed her shellfish!' On Friday, the Laguna Beach-born blonde celebrated her new addition with seafood delicacies at Scott's restaurant in Mayfair

'With friends like these, bedrest ain't so bad!' The Top Dog co-founder - who suffers from placenta previa and placenta accreta - was visited by co-stars Julie Montagu and Sophie Stanbury on April 2

On April 2, Marissa shared a cheery hospital snap with her supportive co-stars Sophie Stanbury and Julie Montagu.

'Without going into too much detail, we've been unlucky a few times and in the early stages of this pregnancy,' the lifestyle blogger admitted to E! News in March.

'It looks like it was going in the same direction, but now all clear and looks good.'

And that's not all the Middlebury College grad is celebrating. Last month, Bravo announced that the third season of Ladies of London will premiere fall/winter of this year.

The lifestyle blogger admitted to E! News in March: 'Without going into too much detail, we've been unlucky a few times and in the early stages of this pregnancy...but now all clear and looks good'
She passed away at home back on April 17th at the age of 90.

And now TMZ has obtained a document that reveals what killed the beloved Hollywood legend.

According to the official death certificate filed with Los Angeles county, a 'large hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident' was responsible.

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She was a legend: Doris Roberts died from a 'large hemorrhagic cerebrovascular accident,' known colloquially as a massive stroke, according to a new report from TMZ

The document also revealed that the star had suffered chronic hypertension and pulmonary hypertension for a number of years prior to her passing.

Doris Roberts was to star in the road trip flick Old Soldiers and had top billing before her death on Sunday at the age of 90.

The passing of the former Everybody Loves Raymond veteran has thrown the movie currently in pre-production 'in turmoil,' according to TMZ.

Doris is the third elderly star to die before the film even gets off the ground, following Mickey Rooney who died in 2014 at age 93 and James Best who died last year at age 88.

Not a complete surprise: The document also revealed that the star - pictured with former co-star Ray Romano in 2012 - had suffered chronic hypertension and pulmonary hypertension for years prior to her passing

Now the film's producer says he is hesitant to re-cast Doris' part because he doesn't want to 'jinx anyone else,' as TMZ reports.

Dave Rotan admits his 'window of opportunity is quickly closing' on replacing those roles left vacant.

However, he tells TMZ he isn't giving up on the movie and still has Rance Howard, 87, Hugh O'Brian, 91, and Clifton James, 94, on board.

Old Soldiers: The veteran actress became the third elderly star cast in Old Soldiers to die before the film gets off the ground with Rance Howard, Clifton James and others still on board, TMZ previously reported

Gone but not forgotten: Mickey Rooney - pictured in 2014 - was initially cast in the road trip comedy Old Soldiers until his death two years ago at age 93

The Duke: James Best - pictured far right with his co-stars from the original Dukes Of Hazzard Ben Jone, Sonny Shroyer and Catherine Bach- left another part vacant in Old Soldiers when he died last year at age 88

Old Soldiers tells the story of three aging veterans who decide to take a road trip to see the National World War II Memorial in Washington D.C., which has their worried families up in arms.

Meanwhile, Roberts, who played the cantankerous mother in Everybody Loves Raymond, died in her sleep of natural causes at home in Los Angeles on Sunday.

During her 64-year career, she swept up five Emmys - four for Raymond, one for the TV hit St Elsewhere in 1982.

She is survived by her son Michael Cannata Jr and three grandchildren.

Ray Romano, who played Raymond in the nine-season sitcom, led tributes to his former co-star on Monday, gushing about her admirable spirit and energy.

Famous role: Roberts won five Emmys during her celebrated career and four were for perhaps her most iconic role as the mother of the eponymous character in Everybody Loves Raymond

Star: Roberts received her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame in February 2003

Force to contend with: The actress played the cantankerous mother in Everybody Loves Raymond and when she spoke 'everybody' listened

'Doris Roberts had an energy and a spirit that amazed me,' Romano said in a statement.

'She never stopped. Whether working professionally or with her many charities, or just nurturing and mentoring a young, green comic trying to make it as an actor, she did it all with such a grand love for life and people and I will miss her dearly.'

Roberts had recently completed four projects - one TV movie, two movies, and a short film - which will be released posthumously.
You'll never catch Kate Beckinsale traveling in sweatpants or Uggs for a flight out of LAX.

On Friday, stylist Taylor Jacobson put the jet-setting 42-year-old in a pink maxi-cardigan, white silk trousers, and nude leather-fringed pumps.

The SAG Award nominee finished off her chic ensemble with a billowy white scarf, mirrored shades, and a large leather carry-on bag.

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Glamorous: You'll never catch Kate Beckinsale traveling in sweatpants or Uggs for a flight out of LAX

Kate - born Kathrin - sported her signature flawless complexion and thick tumble of coiffed brunette locks.

On Tuesday, Beckinsale reunited with the babydaddy of her 17-year-old daughter Lily - Michael Sheen - and his girlfriend Sarah Silverman at a West Hollywood screening of Love & Friendship.

'Michael and I have obviously not been together for a very long time, what 16 years or 15 years, something like that? And we've always got on really well.

'So I'm always surprised when people find that surprising because it's quite well-established. It's just that I'm quite deeply in love with his girlfriend. So that's new,' the British beauty told the Associated Press on Thursday.

NBD: On Friday, stylist Taylor Jacobson put the jet-setting 42-year-old in a pink maxi-cardigan, white silk trousers, and nude leather-fringed pumps

Flying out of Los Angeles: The SAG Award nominee finished off her chic ensemble with a billowy white scarf, mirrored shades, and a large leather carry-on bag

Natural beauty: Kate - born Kathrin - sported her signature flawless complexion and thick tumble of coiffed brunette locks

'We just like each other. I always get really excited when I see Sarah. I forgot there was that many cameras there. But yeah, we had just been to see my daughter's school play about three days before so there's really no excuse for everyone getting over-excited like that.'

The feeling is mutual for the 45-year-old Emmy winner, who gushed to E! News: 'I love her. I love her. I love her. I am so glad Michael found her so I don't have to spend the rest of my life looking for her!'

On Wednesday, the London-born lady's estranged husband Len Wiseman was spotted hopping into an Uber with a mystery blonde outside West Hollywood hotspot The Nice Guy.

Amicable: On Tuesday, Beckinsale reunited with the babydaddy of her 17-year-old daughter Lily - Michael Sheen - and his girlfriend Sarah Silverman at a West Hollywood screening of Love & Friendship

The British beauty told the Associated Press on Thursday: 'I'm quite deeply in love with his girlfriend...We just like each other. I always get really excited when I see Sarah'

The feeling is mutual for the 45-year-old Emmy winner, who gushed to E! News: 'I love her. I love her. I love her. I am so glad Michael found her so I don't have to spend the rest of my life looking for her!'

Had Kate and Len not announced their split in November, Monday would have marked their 12th wedding anniversary.

The 43-year-old filmmaker - who directed Beckinsale in Underworld, Underworld: Evolution, and Total Recall - penned her upcoming Underworld 5 screenplay.

In Love & Friendship, the Absolutely Anything actress and Chloe Sevigny reunited with their Last Days of Disco director Whit Stillman.

Moved on? On Wednesday, the London-born lady's estranged husband Len Wiseman was spotted hopping into an Uber with a mystery blonde outside West Hollywood hotspot The Nice Guy

He penned her upcoming Underworld 5 screenplay: Had Kate and Len not announced their split in November, Monday would have marked their 12th wedding anniversary (pictured in 2015)

Kate replaced Sienna Miller as the widowed Lady Susan Vernon in the film based on the 1790 Jane Austen novella.

The romantic comedy - also featuring Stephen Fry and Jemma Redgrave - hits US theaters May 13 and UK theaters May 27.

Period flick: In Love & Friendship, the Absolutely Anything actress and Chloe Sevigny reunited with their Last Days of Disco director Whit Stillman
She just made her debut on Home And Away in the role of a doctor named Tori.

And Penny McNamee, 32, is using her new found fame to support charitable causes.

Taking to Instagram on Friday, the mother-of-one posed in a bright yellow T-shirt with the words Darkness into Light emblazoned across the front to raise much needed awareness of Pieta House.

Charitable cause: Penny McNamee (middle) posed with James Stewart (far right), Tessa De Josselin (front right), Jake Speer(far left) and George Mason (front) to raise awareness of suicide prevention

The centre provides services to those suffering from a mental illness.

She was surrounded by her fellow castmates which included James Stewart, Tessa De Josselin, Jake Speer and George Mason.

The stars all made sure to point at Penny's eye-catching shirt to emphasise the initiative.

'Dudes and Dudettes!!' I'm so happy to be supporting the annual Darkness Into Light 5km walk, tomorrow at 5:30am in Bondi! I'm rockin this sweeeet yellow T to raise awareness for suicide prevention, along with my groovy #homeandaway castmates!' she captioned the picture.

See Home and Away news as Penny McNamee shares fun Instagram snap with the cast

Good cause: Penny is known for supporting charitable causes. She is pictured at the 2012 Kick4Life USA Gala in New York

A few days earlier, the brunette beauty revealed she was worried about how audiences would take her character.

In an interview with The Courier Mail, she said she was worried about how audiences would take to her character, especially given the fact that Tori will prove critical to the survival of some of the show's most-loved characters.

'I did think about the backlash if any characters died on my watch. It was a lot of pressure', said

These are well loved characters and I didn't want Tori to be the hated doctor. I was worried,' she went on. Her character entered the show amid the chaotic aftermath of a caravan park explosion.

Green with envy: The 32-year-old attended former Australian Idol contestant Courtney Murphy's first public performance at The Vanguard

New show: The 32-year-old made her debut on Home And Away in the role of a doctor named Tori

Great resume: The thespian previously performed on stage in Wicked and even appeared in Steven Spielberg's HBO miniseries The Pacific

'I play an emergency room doctor so I have to get straight in there and start saving lives and administering first aid to all of these people who don't know who I am', she explained.

'It's a really good introduction to my character, because I'm thrown into this hectic situation'.

Although this will be the first time that many viewers will be introduced to Penny, the actress already has a rather impressive resume.

The thespian previously performed on stage in Wicked alongside Australian Idol Anthony Callea.

She's also had guest spots on US shows like Blue Bloods and Elementary, and even appeared in Steven Spielberg's HBO miniseries The Pacific.
She is a Gold Logie winning journalist who has established a successful TV career.

But The Projects Carrie Bickmore has admitted a job on the small screen was never an aspiration for hers.

Speaking to Pop Sugar about her high-profile TV career, the 35-year-old said: I had no idea my career would ever go down this path.

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Starring role: The Project's Carrie Bickmore said she didn't set out 'with a dream to be on TV' and 'simply wanted to work in the media'

I never set out with a dream to be on TV, I simply wanted to work in the media in some capacity.

These opportunities have exceeded all my expectations.

But a career in the spotlight has paid off for the blonde star who has been nominated for Best Personality on Australian Television in the 58th TV Week Logie Awards on Sunday.

See Logies 2016 updates as nominee Carrie Bickmore aims for another Gold Logie award

Winner: A career in the spotlight has paid off for the blonde star who has been nominated for Best Personality on Australian Television in the 58th TV Week Logie Awards on Sunday

This is the second time the blonde beauty has been nominated after winning the lucrative award last year.

She will now vie against her co-star Waleed Aly, Essie Davis, Grant Denyer, Lee Lin Chin and Scott Cam at tomorrow night's ceremony in Melbourne.

While she says she excited about the nomination, the mother-of-two has admitted to feeling some pressure ahead of the awards night.

Heating up: She will now vie against her co-star Waleed Aly(right) as well as Essie Davis, Grant Denyer, Lee Lin Chin and Scott Cam at tomorrow night's ceremony in Melbourne

Friends in high places: The 35-year-old is pictured taking a selfie with actor Daniel MacPherson

'For me leading up to it I feel a little bit anxious,' she told the Daily Telegraph's Andrew Fenton.

Referring to the whole process of getting glammed up, walking the red carpet and facing a room full of people, the broadcaster admitted: 'I find incredibly intimidating.'

Last year, when the TV personality won the Gold Logie, she dedicated her moment of glory to her late husband Greg Lange, using her two-minute speech to highlight brain cancer, the disease from which he died.

Hosting roles: The beauty is a permanent host on Network Ten's The Project

'In 2010 my husband Greg was one of the unlucky ones. After a long, long, long battle, he died of brain cancer,' she said on stage to the a star-studded audience.

'Over ten years I watched him suffer multiple seizures a day, lose feeling down one side of his body, saw his three-year-old push him in his wheelchair because he couldn't walk anymore.

'He was an incredibly great man, a great dad, great husband, brother and great friend. He shouldn't have had to go through that.'

After her emotive speech, the mother-of-two set up the charity Beanie 4 Brain Cancer - so far she has raised $460,000.
He has just returned from touring overseas with his death-defying show.

And speaking about the highs and lows of his latest venture, Paul Cosentino has opened up about the gory injuries he has suffered whilst entertaining large crowds.

Knife slashings, a ruptured ear drum and broken ribs are part of the rigours of the job for the magician, who has spent the last 12 months on tour.

'I've been slashed by knives': Paul Cosentino has opened up about the gory injuries he has suffered during his recent tour

I've been slashed by knives, I've got 12 stitches in my chin, I've got seven in my head, he told AAP. I sounds like I don't know what I'm doing, but it's really dangerous stuff.

Cosentino, who attended the Melbourne premiere of Little Shop of Horrors this week, recently toured New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia with his show, Twisted Reality Reloaded.

While magic transcends language barriers, the illusionist who performs death-defying escapes during his stints says some tricks resonate more in certain countries than others.

Painful: Knife slashings, a ruptured ear drum and broken ribs are part of the rigours of the job for the magician, who has spent the last 12 months on tour

It is different reactions, explained. In Bangkok, they really enjoyed all the sleight of hand card illusions, and then if you take New Zealand, they wanted the big death-defying escapes.

The Australian sensation made a name for himself across the nation in 2012 after he appeared on Channel Seven's Australia's Got Talent.

Last year, Paul revealed to Daily Mail Australia that he had a 'scary' brush with death when filming his TV series The Magic, The Mystery, The Madness the year after his big break.

While recalling the underwater incident, the 33-year-old described it as 'the most difficult and scary situation'.

Star appeal: Cosentino, who attended the Melbourne premiere of Little Shop of Horrors this week, recently toured New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia with his show, Twisted Reality Reloaded

'I ruptured my ear drum and I was 10 metres under the water,' he explained while adding he was in 'excruciating pain.'

The popular star also revealed that he was forced to 'pull out of that stunt' because his ears were 'full of blood for two weeks.'

'I had to go back and redo it because it was the only one [stunt] that had really defeated me and I didn't want that hanging over me,' Cosentino said.

Cosentino, who won Dancing With The Stars in 2013 and was runner up on Australia's Got Talent in 2011, performs at Crown Casino on June 24 and 25.
Goldie was joined by her long-term love, Kurt Russell on Friday night as stars turned out in force to support her annual Goldie's Love In For Kids benefit bash.

Rewarding her for all of her hard work, the 65-year-old planted a smacker on her cheek as they hit the red carpet in Beverly Hills on Friday.

Bright and beautiful hostess was tickled pink in a fuchsia trouser suit that afforded her every inch of the spotlight.

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Too cute: Goldie Hawn was joined by her long-term partner, Kurt Russell on Friday night as she poured her all into another fundraiser for Mind Up, the Love In For Kids benefit bash

The First Wives Club star wore a hot pink jacket paired with matching bell bottoms and a silky purple top.

She was fussed over by her long-time love, who embraced her in front of the cameras before giving her a sweet - and well-deserved - kiss.

The couple have son Wyatt, 29, and have been together ever since working on the film Swing Shift, which was released in 1984.

An embrace: The 65-year-old couldn't keep his hands off the hostess, who was clad in gorgeous fuchsia

Long term love: Hawn looked proud to call her other half her date for the evening

Russell has 36-year-old son Boston from his previous marriage to Season Hubley, while Goldie has Kate and Oliver, 39, with her ex-husband Bill Hudson.

Goldie's Mind Up program trains teachers and schools to help children develop the emotional and social skills needed to aid their learning through the Buddhist technique of Mindfulness Training, to schools around the world.

It aims to help children increase their concentration, improve their behaviour and deal with stress.

Motherly love: Kate Hudson got ahead start to the festivities by showing some love to her mother Goldie

Contrasts: The First Wives Club star wore a hot pink jacket paired with matching bell bottoms and a silky purple top, while her daughter was edgy and elegant in a black lace frock

Aww: Russell also pulled Kate in for a tight squeeze as they joined up on the red carpet

Pals: Eric Buterbaugh, Demi Moore and Kate Hudson pose inside the event

Daughter Kate Hudson also made sure to show her mom Goldie some love as they made their glam arrival to the event.

Goldie had a smile on her face as her daughter nestled against her, resting her chin beside her neck.

She wore her golden hair down in loose ringlets and accessorized with a dangling silver necklace, several gold cuffs, and a flawless application of makeup.

Aww: Hudson flashed her bright smile for the cameras

Golden girl: Paula Abdul dazzled in in a sharp gold dress that had some 1980's flair thanks to its dramatic gold sleeves

White hot: Matthew McConaughey's wife Camila Alves was heaven sent in a simple yet chic white dress which put her cleavage front and center

Her daughter Kate was elegant and edgy in a lacy black dress that flashed her legs and fell off-the-shoulder.

The How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days actress wore her bright blonde hair in a chic style which featured a dramatic side part.

Elsewhere at the bash was Paula Abdul, who dazzled in a sharp gold dress that had some 1980's flare thanks to its dramatic gold sleeves.

Hello petal: Nicole Richie, meanwhile, was fresh as a daisy in a summery floral print frock with flowing sleeves

Summer ready: The trend-setter looked on fine form as she enjoyed the event

Back in black: Sara Foster showed some skin in a lacy top while Melanie Griffith was the cat's meow in a literal pair of kitten heels

Date night! Rachel Zoe looked incredible in a very glam white coat and pearl necklace as she was joined by her husband, Rodger Berman

Beauties: Jennifer Meyer, Rachel Zoe and Demi Moore strike a pose

Bundled up! Demi Moore and Rosanna Arquette prepped for a potentially cool evening ahead with their coats

Looking good: Kate rested her hand upon the dashing Taylor Lautner

Family man: Sara was joined by her father, David Foster

Stud: The Twilight actor looked typically dapper

Working the carpet: Taylor looked sensational in his all-black outfit

Matthew McConaughey's wife Camila Alves was heaven sent in a simple yet chic white dress which put her cleavage front and center.

The stunning model braided her jet black hair back and added a glam slick of dark lipstick.

Nicole Richie, meanwhile, was fresh as a daisy in a summery floral print frock with flowing sleeves.

Demi Moore sported a long black coat with fringe along the sleeves with her floral print top added a pop of colour through.

Rachel Zoe looked incredible in a very glam white coat and pearl necklace as she was joined by her husband, Rodger Berman.

Power couples: Goldie and Kurt rubbed elbows with Sylvester Stallone and his wife, Jennifer Flavin

Dressed for success: Jewelry designer Jennifer Meyer looked sharp in an artistic dress while Riley Keough sported a silky pink frock

Looking sharp: Oliver Hudson and director McG were bound to turn heads with their dashing attire

Rubbing elbows! Hawn squeezed in for a picture with Russell Simmons and Chelsea Handler

Listen to me: Taylor Lautner and Peter Fonda share a conversation

Having a blast: Boy George puts on a fun display as he DJs inside the venue

Multi-talented: Kate takes to the mic inside the event

Light on her feet! Hudson shared a Snapchat video of her mother Goldie stealing the show on the dance floor

'What a great night': Hudson also shared an Instagram snap of her mother striking a pose as a dancer held her
Camila Alves showcased her God-given ample assets at Goldie Hawn Foundation gala in Beverly Hills on Friday.

The 34-year-old wife of Matthew McConaughey dressed her 5ft9in curvaceous figure in a plunging white gown and black pumps.

The Brazilian beauty styled her raven locks into a French braid and finished her elegant look with rings, diamond earrings, and red lipstick.

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Former model: Camila Alves showcased her God-given ample assets at Goldie Hawn Foundation gala in Beverly Hills on Friday

The 'Love in for Kids' event - hosted by the 70-year-old Oscar winner - was held at Ron Burkle's Green Acres Estate.

At one point, the Mind Up founder was joined onstage by her partner since 1983, The Hateful Eight's Kurt Russell.

Earlier on Friday, Camila was spotted snacking on the go while chatting no her phone in a carpark.

Va-va voom! The 34-year-old wife of Matthew McConaughey dressed her 5ft9in curvaceous figure in a plunging white gown and black pumps

Considerable cleavage: The Brazilian beauty styled her raven locks into a French braid and finished her elegant look with rings, diamond earrings, and red lipstick

'Go Mama Goldie! What a great night!' The 'Love in for Kids' event - hosted by the 70-year-old Oscar winner - was held at Ron Burkle's Green Acres Estate

'Introducing this year's Heart of Gold honoree': At one point, the Mind Up founder was joined onstage by her partner since 1983, The Hateful Eight's Kurt Russell

Alves was dressed down in a white patterned blouse, matching skinny jeans, and grey trainers.

The former housekeeper - who learned English at 15 - was last seen doing a cooking segment on the Today Show.

The Women Of Today blogger - who boasts 143K followers - also just wrapped the first season of Camila's Code, a cooking/lifestyle show streamed on her Facebook page.

Out and about: Earlier on Friday, Camila was spotted snacking on the go while chatting no her phone in a carpark

Casually clad: Alves was dressed down in a white patterned blouse, matching skinny jeans, and grey trainers

Keeping plugged in: The brunette looked glamorous as she chatted to friends with her earphones in

'My favorite slow cooker Brazilian recipe!' The former housekeeper - who learned English at 15 - was last seen doing a cooking segment on the Today Show (pictured April 27)

Crafty: The Women Of Today blogger - who boasts 143K followers - also just wrapped the first season of Camila's Code, a cooking/lifestyle show streamed on her Facebook page

Camila and her husband Matthew - who met at Hollywood hotspot Hyde back in 2006 - will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary on June 9.

Alves and the 46-year-old Oscar winner have three children - son Levi, 7, daughter Vida, 6, and son Livingston, 3.

The Interstellar star was last spotted Wednesday pre-taping an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Hollywood.

Still going strong! Camila and her husband Matthew - who met at Hollywood hotspot Hyde back in 2006 - will celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary on June 9 (pictured April 14)

Family-of-five: Alves and the 46-year-old Oscar winner have three children - son Levi, 7, daughter Vida, 6, and son Livingston, 3

McConaughey was promoting his Civil War drama Free State of Jones, in which he plays real-life defiant Mississippi farmer Newton Knight.

The biopic - also starring Keri Russell and Brendan Gleeson - hits US theaters June 24 and UK theaters September 9.

Outside El Capitan Theatre: The Interstellar star was last spotted Wednesday pre-taping an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in Hollywood
She arrived in Melbourne on Saturday with boyfriend Nathan Gooley ahead of Sunday's Logie Awards.

And Bonnie Sveen looked more than prepared for the A-list event as she carried a garment bag through the airport - which presumably contained her glamorous Logies gown.

On Thursday, the 27-year-old gave Daily Mail Australia a hint about what she'll be wearing to the ceremony, revealing: 'I've never felt more beautiful than I do in this dress.'

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Ready for the show: Bonnie Sveen and boyfriend Nathan Gooley arrived in Melbourne on Saturday ahead of Sunday's Logie Awards

The blonde added that the garment is from a new designer and has a 'different vibe from anything I've ever worn before and is a lot more me.'

The Best Actress nominee was predictably dressed down for her trek through the airport in a black tank top and pleated maroon skirt.

She topped off the look with black boots and tied her blonde locks into a ponytail.

See Home and Away updates as Bonnie Sveen lands in Melbourne ahead of the Logies

She's come prepared! The 27-year-old was holding a garment bag, which presumably housed her Logies gown

'I've never felt more beautiful than I do in this dress.' told Daily Mail Australia when asked about the garment

Excess baggage: The blonde actress carried a black backpack with her

It was announced in early April that Bonnie would be departing the long-running Australian soap Home And Away after three years.

Although the fate of her character Ricky Sharpe has yet to be revealed, she's finished filming on the long-running Australian soap.

Speaking with Daily Mail Australia at the premiere of We Will Rock You in Sydney on Thursday, the star said she was sad to be leaving, but was looking forward to her new project.

'It's a different vibe from anything I've ever worn before,' revealed Bonnie when asked about the dress

'It's more me,' the Home and Away actress continued as she gushed over the gown

Goodbye Summer Bay: The actress recently left Home and Away after three years

'It was a mixed decision,' she told Daily Mail Australia when asked about her decision to leave

'It was a mixed decision,' she said, 'but I'm really excited to be on Secret Daughter,' a drama series on Seven in which she stars with Jessica Mauboy.

'I definitely enjoyed every day there, there was a lot of love on that set and I'm still very fond of all the people I worked with.'

She added that she thoroughly enjoyed working with the former Australian Idol contestant on the upcoming drama series, which is set for release later this year.

'I'm really excited to be on Secret Daughter:' Bonnie's next role is Channel Seven's Secret Daughter alongside Jessica Mauboy

'I definitely enjoyed every day there, there was a lot of love on that set and I'm still very fond of all the people I worked with,' she said
She just stepped off a flight ahead of the 58th TV Week Logie Awards.

But the journey can't have been too comfortable for Cheyenne Tozzi and boyfriend Jon Adgemis, as the flight was shared with Tozzi's ex Tyson Mullane and his current girlfriend, actress Pia Miller.

Despite the awkward situation, the 27-year-old still looked impeccably stylish and put together as she made her way through Melbourne Airport with Jon on Saturday.

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Arriving in style: Cheyenne Tozzi and boyfriend Jon Adgemis arrived in Melbourne ahead of the 58th TV Week Logie Awards on Saturday

The Australia's Next Top Model star stunned in black jeans and a faux fur coat.

She carried a Louis Vuitton bag and sported fur-trimmed loafers on her feet.

Meanwhile her new beau Jon wore a simple button-up shirt and jeans.

See updates on the Logies as Cheyenne Tozzi arrives in Melbourne for the awards night

Awkward: The stylish 27-year-old was on the same flight as her ex-boyfriend Tyson Mullane and his new girlfriend Pia Miller

Cheyenne appears to have fully recovered after nursing a broken heart following her break up with Tyson in December.

The cover girl opened up about her heartache in an emotional post on Instagram after the split, in which she admitted: 'I had my heart broken by a great love.'

The pair first got together in high school, before dating off-and-on until they officially rekindled the romance in 2012.

New love: Tyson and Pia have been happily dating since getting together late last year

Happier times: Cheyenne and Tyson were high school sweethearts with an on-off relationship over the years

Pia was first spotted with Tyson in December, two months after she announced her separation from husband of eight years, Brad Miller.

The Home and Away beauty was with her AFL star hubby Brad since 2005, with the pair tying the knot in 2007.

They have one son, Lennox, together, while Pia also has another son from a previous relationship when she was 19.
Home And Away star Pia Miller knows how to look effortlessly chic when she travels.

The 32-year-old actress was spotted making her way through Melbourne Airport on Saturday with her two boys - Lennox, nine, and Isaiah, 13 - ahead of the 58th TV Week Logie Awards on Sunday.

Looking every inch the stylish jet-setter, the beauty was snapped wearing a black shirt with spaghetti straps teamed with a thigh skimming navy skirt.

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Travel chic: Pia Miller nailed an off-duty chic look in a black shirt and a navy blue skirt as she landed in Melbourne ahead of the 58th TV Week Logie Awards, on Saturday

She teamed her low-key ensemble with a pair of black ankle boots and a brown fedora hat.

The beauty, who is nominated for Best New Talent, pushed her red suitcase through the busy terminal along with carrying a brown studded backpack.

The mother-of-two styled her long brunette locks in loose waves, and opted for a natural palette of makeup for her short trip interstate.

Pia looked to be in good spirits despite catching the same flight as her beau Tyson Mullane's ex-girlfriend, Cheyenne Tozzi.

See Home and Away updates as Pia Miller nails off-duty chic at Melbourne Airport

Style star! Looking every inch the stylish jet-setter, the beauty was snapped wearing a with black shirt with spaghetti straps teamed with a thigh skimming navy skirt

Meanwhile, her two children were laid-back in casual wear.

Two days earlier, Pia paid renowned designer Steven Khalils Sydney bridal store a visit.

In a picture posted to Instagram on Friday, the model turned soap star let her hair down as she posed in a stunning white gown ahead of the weekend's festivities.

The haute couture dress featured intricate red and gold beading and a plunging neckline which revealed her cleavage to her 422,000 social media followers.

Hand-stitched floral embroidery featured along the bottom of the fancy frock, which billowed outward.

Nice dress: Pia tred on a wedding dress ahead during a visit to Steven Khalils Sydney bridal store on Thursday

The Australian beauty - who will flaunt her gym-honed figure down the red carpet at Australia's night of night's - looked nothing short of glamorous in the stunning dress as she snapped a selfie in the mirror.

She later captioned the photo: 'When Logies fittings turn into a princess party @steven_khalil you are magic.'

As soon as the picture went up on her social media feed, Pia's fans were quick to make comment.

Car selfie: The Australian actress showed off her natural beauty as she posed in a car before an outing

In fact more than 5,431 of her dedicated social media followers either liked or left a remark about the bridal-inspired gown.

One follower wrote: 'she's so gorgeous I'm crying [sic].'

Another added: 'So pretty.'

Although the dress is more suited to a wedding or an all-white party, it is not yet known what she will wear on the awards night.
They've made style their business.

And on Friday, Rachel Zoe and her husband Rodger Berman demonstrated exactly why they are style success stories as they attended Goldie's Love In For Kids in Beverly Hills.

Rachel, 44, mixed bohemian fashion with Hollywood glamour as she captured the spotlight beside her husband in a furry white coat, gold choker, pearl necklace, and hippie chic white dress.

Dressed for success! Rachel Zoe and her husband Rodger Berman demonstrated exactly why they are style success stories as they attended Goldie's Love In For Kids in Beverly Hills on Friday

She swept her glossy blonde locks across her head, upping the glam factor to her eye-catching look.

The reality star added some sun kissed dept with bronzed cheeks, with dramatic black eyeliner and glossy pink lipstick finishing off the look.

Rachel, who has two sons with Rodger, then shunned the fur coat to unveil the dress in all its glory as she posed solo in front of photographers.

The floor-length dress featured lace stripes and hung loose on her slender frame.

Pucker up: Rachel shared a racy photo of her husband kissing her neck the following morning

The mane attraction: She swept her glossy blonde locks across her head, upping the glam factor to her eye-catching look

Rachel's husband, meanwhile, looking dashing in a dark grey suit, maroon tie, and crisp white shirt.

The blue eyed businessman slicked his hair back with a bit of gel, and sported a handsome five o'clock shadow.

Rachel even got in a chance to hang out with some of the girls, captioning a snap of herself huddled up with the likes of Nicole Richie, Kate Hudson, and Riley Keough, 'Ladies night tonight out for (heart emoticon).'

Showing it off: Rachel then shunned the fur coat to unveil the dress in all its glory as she posed solo in front of photographers

Summery: The floor-length dress featured lace stripes and hung loose on her slender frame

The annual star-studded event was honouring 12 years of Goldie's program, MindUp.

Goldie's program trains teachers and schools to help children develop the emotional and social skills needed to aid their learning through the Buddhist technique of Mindfulness Training, to schools around the world.

It aims to help children increase their concentration, improve their behaviour and deal with stress.
It's the campaign that has stars stripping down and covering their modesty with an array of sea-life.

And Christopher Biggins is the latest celebrity to pose for the J Sheekey FishLove series, which sees him laying naked on his front with one octopus on his shoulder and another on his derriere.

The 67-year-old screen and stage actor looks confident as he strikes a pose in next to nothing to highlight the dangers of over-fishing in British seas.

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Feeling fishy: Christopher Biggins, 67, is the latest celebrity to pose for the J Sheekey Fish Love series which sees him laying naked on his front with one octopus on his shoulder and another on his derriere

Earlier this year, a plethora of other theatre stars lent their naked bodies to the campaign after an image of Helena Bonham-Carter posing naked with a 27kg tuna went viral in 2015.

The Fishlove campaign is designed to take pressure away from eating popular fish, such as cod, by encouraging the consumption of lesser-known species like sprats, herring, mackerel and gurnard.

Other stars who took part in the campaign included Mark Rylance, Dougray Scott and Miriam Margolyes.

That's eel love: Emma Thompson, 56, stripped off with her husband Greg Wise for the unique shoot, which saw them posing with two deep sea Black Scabbard fish from Portugal

Fish love: Emma's Harry potter co-star Miriam Margolyes posed alongside a John Dory

Leading London seafood restaurant, J Sheekey Oyster Bar, endorsed Fishlove by commissioning the series of photographs taken by Jillian Edelstein.

With frequently provocative images of naked celebrities holding endangered fish species, Fishlove has become one of the most successful and significant campaigns raising awareness of how destructive fishing practices are bringing the marine environment to the brink of collapse.

Emma Thompson, 56, followed lead and stripped off with her husband Greg Wise for the unique shoot which saw them posing with two deep sea Black Scabbard fish from Portugal.

To the point: The Fishlove campaign is to take pressure away from eating popular fish, such as cod, by encouraging the consumption of lesser-known species like sprats, herring and gurnard - pictured Jodhi May

Quite a handful: Leading London seafood restaurant, J Sheekey Oyster Bar, endorsed Fishlove by commissioning the series of photographs taken by Jillian Edelstein - pictured Joseph Millson

The Love Actually star could be seen giggling as she knelt behind her smiling husband.

Emma had the head of the fish in her hands while Greg, 49, had the tails crossed in his hands while he sat crossed legged on the floor.

Speaking about why they chose to help with the campaign, the pair said: You do feel a little guilty holding a huge dead fish while you are very much alive.

Fishy business: A host of theatre star have posed for the campaign including Mark Rylance (L) and Alex Jennings (R)

Eye see you: With frequently provocative images of naked celebrities holding endangered fish species, Fishlove has become one of the most successful campaigns raising awareness - pictured Tom Bateman

Aquatic creatures: Gary Avis posed with a Mahi Mahi, while Felicity Dean held onto a a large cod

But by doing this Fishlove portrait with a deep-sea Black Scabbard fish we want to make clear the message: if we dont end the overfishing and pollution of the ocean, all these beautiful creatures are threatened.

They added: In particular, deep-sea fishing is unsustainable, unnecessary and should stop.

The J Sheekey Oyster Bar/Fishlove Theatre Series will be available to view in the J Sheekey Oyster Bar from March 24, alongside a selection of photographs taken in previous years.

Claw for thought: Ade Edmundson posed with a Carabineros Prawn

Caring for the world: Dougray Scott posed with a Pomfret, while Chipo Chung held onto a Grey Mullet

Fishloves image of Helena Bonham-Carter with a yellowfin tuna is widely credited for having persuaded the UK Government to commit to creating the largest network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the world.

Actress Gillian Anderson who posed naked with a conger eel draped round her neck to highlight the damage caused to fish stocks and ecosystems by deepsea trawling.

Dame Judi Dench, Julie Christie and Zoe Wanamaker are also among the stars to have appeared in the 2015 campaign, alongside Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville.

Memorable: In 2015, a naked Helena Bonham-Carter was pictured with a yellowfin tuna and the image is widely credited for having persuaded the UK Government to commit to creating the largest network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the world

Been there, done that: Actress Gillian Anderson also posed naked with a conger eel draped round her neck to highlight the damage caused to fish stocks and ecosystems by deepsea trawling

Cheeky: Dame Judi Dench used a Lobster in this Fishlove portrait by John Swannell in 2015

Tasteful: Meanwhile, also in 2015, screen actress Julie Christie was covered in fish caught off Newhaven

Yikes: Actress Zoe Wanamaker got too close for comfort with a Blonde Ray fish
She's the former My Kitchen Rules contestant known to flaunt her slender curves with gymnastic displays on Instagram.

But while Lynzey Murphy prefers skimpy bikinis and tight-fitting workout clothes, she opted for a casual yet chic ensemble during a trip to the NSW Central Coast on Saturday.

The Texan-born 25-year-old flaunted her impressively well-toned legs in a stylish off-the-shoulder burgundy playsuit with bell sleeves while posing for an Instagram snap at Terrigal Beach.

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Leggy display: Ex-MKR star Lynzey Murphy flaunted her impressively toned legs in a stylish off-the-shoulder burgundy playsuit with bell sleeves during a trip to Terrigal Beach on the NSW Central Coast on Saturday

Displaying plenty of thigh in the summery ensemble, Lynzey also showed off her sun-kissed shoulders while enjoying her breezy weekend getaway.

As she flashed her pearly white smile, the Sydney University graduate flicked her long brunette locks over her right shoulder, displaying her aqua earrings.

She captioned the image: 'Satur-daze' along with the hash-tag 'Squint game strong'.

While there is no-one else tagged in the image, it's thought the photo might be taken by her new man, personal trainer Daniel Conn.

The Texas-born reality TV star, 25, is known to flaunt her slender curves with gymnastic displays on Instagram

The fitness enthusiast is a regular fixture on Bondi Beach's outdoor workout scene, and is often seen working up a sweat with ex-NRL star boyfriend, 30.

Last month, the pair confirmed their blossoming romance to The Morning Show's Larry Emdur and Kylie Gillies - ending weeks of speculation about their private lives.

In their first TV appearance as a couple, the ex-Sydney Roosters player - who previously denied they were dating - revealed that they actually met through a mutual friend.

In shape: The brunette beauty (above with boyfriend Dan Conn) regularly shares snaps from her workouts

Strong: The beauty and her boyfriend are keen gym-goers, sharing snaps with fans from their sessions

Lynzey also said that her culinary skills helped to spark their romance, adding: 'I cooked Dan dinner, and one thing lead to another and we ended up here.'

In March, she also spoke about their blossoming relationship to The Daily Telegraph.

Lyzney recently shared an Instagram snap of herself performing a difficult back-bending yoga position while balancing a drink can on her washboard stomach.

Balancing act! Lyzney recently shared an Instagram snap of herself performing a difficult back-bending yoga position while balancing a drink can on her washboard stomach

Flexible: Lynzey, who is a qualified trainer herself, often poses for snaps in seemingly difficult poses

'Dan has been a real gentleman and weve spent a lot of time together for the past seven days,' said Lynzey. 'Hes been dragging me around Bondi.'

'Weve been enjoying the last few days of some warm weather and he even took me to my first F45 class,' she concluded.

Meanwhile, Lynzey has amassed almost 20,000 followers on Instagram by sharing videos and pictures of her impressive feats of strength and flexibility - often wearing very skimpy bikinis.

Hard work: Lynzey is a well-known fitness enthusiast, showing off her figure in social media posts
It's another day in the sun for these two lovebirds.

And blogger Natasha Oakley and her boyfriend Gilles Souteyrand looked as enamoured as ever during an outing in Miami on Friday.

The genetically blessed couple were also joined by Natasha's best friend and business partner Devin Brugman for the beach session.

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Beach bods: Natasha Oakley and her boyfriend Gilles Souteyrand looked very happy to be in each other's company on the beach in Miami on Friday

Natasha was looking her usual stunning self in an envy-inducing orange two-piece that tied prettily in bows at the back and at her sides.

The 25-year-old's assets were showcased to their full advantage in a balconette-style bikini top and a skimpy pair of matching bottoms.

And she kept her look simple for Friday's outing, with her famous blonde locks tied back in a tight bun.

Public displays of affection: The couple didn't hold back on laying on the affection while taking a dip

Loved-up: Natasha and Gilles cuddled and kissed as they frolicked together in the shallows

Playtime: It was all fun and games for the couple, who have been dating for over a year, as they enjoyed being together in Miami

Muscle man: The Frenchman showed off his bulging biceps as he hoist his lady love in the water

She was also sporting a pair of groovy sunglasses with clear frames.

The confident bombshell seemed to be well within her comfort zone as she sauntered around the beach with Devin and playfully embraced her beau in the shallows.

Gilles and Natasha even stopped for the hunk to perform a handstand before heading back to their spot on the sand.

The French-born model, who is based in London, has previously graced the cover of Men's Fitness UK and has been dating Natasha for more than a year.

Snap! As always, blogger and model Natasha had her phone handy for any Instagram-worthy moments

Supportive beau: Gilles, who is French and lives in London, is often there to take photos of his bombshell girlfriend

Bonjour: The French hunk, who is also a model and a personal trainer, is no stranger to the camera and the spotlight himself

Perfect pair: The genetically-blessed couple both enjoyed the sun while flaunting their gym-honed physiques and bronzed bodies

Hunk alert: The London-based model has worked with high fashion brands such as Burberry, and graced international magazine covers such as Men's Fitness

The pair are often spotted on the beach or out and about in LA.

On Friday, Giles flaunted his incredibly toned figure for the whole time, keeping his shirt off for the outing and sporting a pair of baby blue and white striped board shorts.

His post-swim hair was kept slicked back away from his bronzed face and his washboard abs, which looked toned to perfection.

Their beach buddy for the day, Devin, was rocking a sleek and sexy look for Friday's session in a black bikini with cut-out detail.

Mixing business with pleasure: The romantics goofed around and were clearly having fun together as Gilles performed a hand-stand in the shallows

Bronzed beautie: Thanks to her job as a swimwear blogger, model and swimwear designer, Natasha is able to constantly work on her tan

Hand-in-hand: The lovebirds looked incredibly comfortable in each other's presence and smiled widely after their refreshing dip

Picture of health! Working on their bodies constantly and flaunting their figures everyday means Natasha and her model beau both adhere to a strict exercise regimen

The brunette beauty, also 25, who hails from Hawaii, accessorized with a pair of dark round sunglasses and she wore her long locks out and slicked back after her dip in the ocean.

She didn't seem bothered at all about spending the outing with the very affectionate couple.

The trio are currently staying at the Delano hotel, taking advantage of all the luxuries the accommodation has to offer.

Natasha and Devin launched their blog A Bikini A Day in 2012, and have since become some of fashion and digital media's most powerful influencers.

Carefree! Natasha looked to be in her comfort zone, as she sauntered back and forth from the water to the sand between swims

Beach buddy: Natasha and her best friend and business partner Devin Brugman decided to leave Gilles behind for a girls' dip

Brazilian bikini! The blonde bombshell flaunted her pert posterior, no doubt showing her boyfriend what she has to offer

Bikini obsession: Devin flaunted her ample assets in a sleek black bikini with cut-out detail

Shady ladies: Both Devin and Natasha sported pairs of trendy sunglasses for Friday's beach session

They have also launched a successful swimwear line, Monday Swimwear, and are branching out into activewear.

Last month, Natasha and Devin unveiled their six-week fitness programme called Body Love, which includes a total of ten workouts with strength and cardio training.

The mantra for the workout program is 'loving your body, and then giving your body love', with a message of embracing one's imperfections.

'Uniqueness is greater than anything, and we guide ourselves with the belief that we are, and everyone else is, beautiful,' they wrote in the description.

Multi-talented women: Natasha and Devin launched their blog A Bikini A Day in 2012, and have since become some of fashion and digital media's most powerful influencers

Ambitious! The two beauties have also launched a successful swimwear line titled Monday Swimwear and are branching out into activewear

Fitness comes first! Last month, Natasha and Devin unveiled their six-week fitness programme called Body Love, which includes a total of ten workouts with strength and cardio training
She recently flaunted her toned figure on a sunny Mexican getaway with her hubby Christopher French.

And Ashley Tisdale has been going full speed ahead with her workouts on return to preserve her enviable image.

The 30-year-old actress emerged from a Pilates class in Studio City, California on Friday in her gym gear and her newly-dyed rose-tinted locks.

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Fitness bunny: Ashley Tisalde, 30, emerged from a Pilates class in Studio City, California on Friday in her gym gear and her newly dyed 'rose-filtered' locks

It seemed as if the grueling nature of the exercise class did nothing to toy with her perfectly parted dark blonde locks- which featured pink hues down the front strands.

The new colouring was also prominent on the end of the perfectly styled flicks which billowed in the gentle breeze.

Excited about her new do', the pretty blonde took to Instagram earlier in the day to display the results.

In the image where she poses side-on to showcase her lush tresses, she captioned: 'New color alert: rose filter IRL!! Thanks to my amazing colorist @kristin_ess! And my girl @priscillavalles for extensions and cut #dreamteam #becomingLogan'

Doubling up on the glamour after her workout session, a pair of the large tinted sunnies shielded her from the sunny rays as she headed to the car.

Rose filter! Excited about her new do', the pretty blonde took to Instagram to display the results

Didn't break a sweat: It seemed as if the grueling nature of the exercise class did nothing to toy with her perfectly parted dark blonde locks- which featured pink hues down the front strands

Having a little fun with what could be a boring workout ensemble, the High School Musical star wore a loose-fitting white tee with the slogan: Rose Soiree.

She encased her legs in skin-tight cropped grey leggings which showed off a peak of her toned legs as she sauntered forth in her Birkenstock sandals.

Pulling the look together was an over-sized grey cardigan which fell just below her posterior.

Ashley looked as cool as a cucumber as she juggled many items including two water bottles, a fluffy key-ring and her handbag.

Pilates ready: She encased her legs in skin-tight cropped grey leggings which showed off a peak of her toned legs as she sauntered forth in her Birkenstock sandals

The former Suite Life Of Zach And Cody star has never been happier since marrying French.

The actress and the self-styled musician started dating in 2012 with Christopher proposing just eight months later. They wed in the upscale resort town of Santa Barbara two year later.

It was the tattooed hunk's 34 birthday that prompted the Cabo San Lucas holiday, where Ashley put on quite the revealing display.

Holiday figure: She flaunted her ample assets in an extremely plunging red bikini from her recent holiday to Mexico

In pictures she shared on Instagram, she flaunted her ample assets in an extremely plunging red bikini.

In another, she teased her followers with a shot of her pert posterior as she gazed out of the view in the infinity pool.

She is also keeping herself busy with the flick Amateur Night set for release this year alongside Jason Biggs.

Love story: The actress and the self-styled musician started dating in 2012 with Christopher proposing just eight months later. They wed in the upscale resort town of Santa Barbara two year later. Pictured jetting back to Los Angeles from Mexico at the end of April




He may be known as burly superhero Thor to most people.

But it seems at home, Chris Hemsworth might be better known as chef to his three children - India-Rose, Sasha and Tristan.

And it seems the 32-year-old's skills in the kitchen shouldn't be underestimated, with the actor whipping up an impressive T-Rex cake by himself, it would seem, according to a post to Instagram on Saturday.

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Hidden talent! Chris Hemsworth, 32, has proved acting isn't his only talent after baking an impressive dinosaur cake for his soon-to-be four-year-old daughter's birthday

Looks delicious! The green T-Rex cake was complete with coloured icing, glitter and smarties to adorn the dinosaur's body

The picture shows the cake, which is clearly intended to be a terrifying T-Rex, decorated with no amount of detail spared for his soon-to-be four-year-old daughter India Rose's birthday.

The Aussie actor captioned the snap: 'What happens when the bakery says they don't have time to make your daughter a birthday cake?

'You get involved and smash one out yourself ! I call it "La TRex al la chocolate",' he wrote.

And although the cake, which is complete with green icing, glitter and smarties for extra detail, has a decidedly home-made look about it, it's a very decent effort for the actor and in-fact any parent.

While India Rose's actual birthday isn't till Thursday, it appears the doting dad plans to celebrate the occasion with family and friends on Sunday.

It seems the actor enjoys cooking for his children in his spare time.

See Chris Hemsworth updates as he whips up dinosaur birthday cake for his daughter

Midnight snack! Chris's wife, Spanish actress Elsa, shared this snap of the actor making a late snack for their daughter following the premier of his most recent film, The Huntsman: Winter's War

Recently Chris's Spanish actress wife Elsa Pataky shared a cute snap of the hunky star doting on his daughter in the kitchen after the premier of his latest movie, The Huntsman: Winter's War, in LA.

Wearing a white shirt, a grey tie and trousers from his evening promoting his movie, Chris was seen whisking eggs in a bowl, while his little girl watched on, perched on the bench top.

The Fast and The Furious actres captioned the snap: 'Papa making some late snack after premiere,' adding the hash-tags including 'jetlag', 'yummy', 'papa chef' and 'best moments'.

The former Home And Away actor started dating Elsa in early 2010, and they tied the knot in a low-key ceremony in December that year.

Lovebirds: The former Home And Away actor started dating actress Elsa in early 2010, and they tied the knot in low-key ceremony in December that year

They are proud parents to their three children and Chris regularly talks of his infinite love for them, calling them his greatest achievements.

Earlier this week, Chris, who relocated his young family from LA to Byron Bay on the New South Wales north coast in 2015, spoke to TV Week about the love he has for his wife of six years.

'Each week I find something different, more I love about her,' he told the publication.

'It continues to grow, which is a great thing.

'It just made sense to both of us. There was an ease to it neither of us had had before,' he concluded.

Proud parents: Elsa and Chris are proud parents to their three children and Chris regularly talks of his infinite love for them
She's set to make quite the appearance at this year's Logie Awards on Sunday night.

But Miss Universe Australia Monika Radulovic kept things very casual on Saturday night as she shared a snap of herself in a sexy sleeping outfit, ahead of the glittering awards ceremony.

The photo shows the 25-year-old model sporting a thigh-skimming white nightshirt, with a navy trim, while lounging in her hotel room at the Sofitel Melbourne on Collins.

Sultry Saturday night: Miss Universe Australia Monika Radulovic shared a sexy snap to her Instagram page on Saturday, posing in a thigh-skimming nightshirt ahead of Sunday's Logie Awards

Her honey-coloured locks are seen flowing in loose waves and even though she appears to be heading to bed, her make up is flawless.

The 25-year-old model, who is being styled by Donny Gallela, is set to take to the red carpet on Sunday in a Vera Wang gown, along with a Victoria Beckham clutch.

And she'll be decked out in yellow and white diamonds from Gregory's Jewellers, with the Daily Telegraph estimating the beauty queen's show-stopping jewels at $300,000.

Logies debut! This year will mark the 25-year-old's first appearance at the awards show and the brunette is hoping to dazzle on the red carpet (Pictured on Thursday in Sydney)

No expense spared: The beauty queen is set to take to the red carpet in $300,000 worth of diamonds

While speaking to the publication, the pageant queen gushed with pride as she prepared for her first Logies red carpet appearance.

'I am so excited, this is my first time at the Logies and to be wearing such an iconic fabulous brand is incredible,' she said.

Hinting that she hopes to make the move into TV after finishing her Miss Universe Australia commitments later this year, Monika spoke about future plans.

'There is only a few months left for me as the reigning Miss Universe Australia, it is winding down but I am trying to do as much as I can with the title as we try to find the new Miss Universe Australia,' she said coyly.

'I am trying to do as much as I can with the title': Monika recently hinted at a TV career after her reign as Miss Universe Australia ends later this year (Pictured at YSL beauty event in Sydney last month)

And Monika wasn't the only person posting teasers on Saturday ahead of the awards.

Sunrise weather presenter Sam 'Mac' McMillan posted a photo of himself to his Instagram account on Saturday wearing nothing but a white bathrobe and white socks.

He has snapped the selfie in his hotel room and has captioned the funny photo: 'Logies outfit for tomorrow = sorted' along with the hash-tag 'less is more' while he looks sternly into the mirror.

Funny man: Sunrise weather presenter Sam 'Mac' McMillan posted this humorous shot of himself, supposedly in his outfit for the Logies

In January this year, Sam took the reigns from Edwina Bartholomew, who had been in the role for three years before deciding to take on a postition off the road and in the Sunrise studio.

Sydney-based Sam began his career in Adelaide as a radio DJ for station Fresh FM before nabbing a gig hosting on TripleM Adelaide.

Sam has since worked as a presenter on Ten's panel show The Project and breakfast show Wake Up, as well as being the narrator on Seven's new reality show, First Dates.

Looking sharp! Sam took the reigns as Sunrise weather presenter in January from Edwina Bartholomew (Pictured with former Wake Up co-host James Mathison at the 2014 Logie Awards)




She dazzled at the Met Gala on Monday evening in a shimmering metallic gown.

So it was a surprise to see 17-year-old Sofia Richie sporting a very casual outfit whilst dining at the famous Madeo's restaurant in West Hollywood on Friday night.

The blonde socialite was dressed down for the occasion wearing an all black outfit.

Not dressed to impress: Sofia Richie was sporting a very casual outfit whilst dining at the famous Madeo's restaurant in West Hollywood on Friday night, four days after wowing at the Met Gala

She wore a pair of black skinny leather trousers, an over-sized black fleece hoodie, which she teamed with a pair of black and white trainers and a Chanel purse.

The young blonde left her down to fall naturally as she wore minimal make-up the dinner out.

Meanwhile her older sister Nicole Richie had a very different Friday evening as she hit the red carpet for Goldie Hawn's Love in For Kids event.

The 34-year-old former reality star turned heads in a dual layer blue dress featuring red and green flowers.

Feeling chilled: She wore a pair of black skinny leather trousers, an over-sized black fleece hoodie, which she teamed with a pair of black and white trainers and a Chanel purse

Red carpet ready: The 17-year-old was a shimmering sight at Monday's Met Gala in a metallic gown

Sofia and Nicole - who was adopted by Lionel Richie as a child - have an extremely close bond.

And the former Simple Life star, who battled a heroin addiction, has warned her younger sibling not to be tempted into experimenting with drugs.

Sofia told ES Magazine in a recent interview: ''People look at me thinking, "Oh, you are probably going to go through the same thing."

Looking cute: Nicole Richie turned heads in a dual layer blue dress featuring red and green flowers for Goldie Hawn's Love in For Kids event

Sisterly love: Sofia revealed in a recent interview that her older sister (who she is pictured with in 2014) has warned her never to experiment with drugs

'(Nicole) says, "Don't let people pressure you to do what they think is cool, like taking drugs. Be true to yourself."'

Sofia also revealed that when she was growing up, Nicole would always take her out and let her younger sister do things their dad wouldn't let her.

She added: 'Nicole was crazy and fun. She would take me to places I wasn't supposed to go to, like fairs, and she would let me have foods that I wasn't allowed to eat, like cotton candy.'
She doesn't slack when putting in the work on her gym-honed physique.

And that certainly showed when Michelle Heaton attended The Angry Birds Movie premiere at Picturehouse Central in London on Saturday, where she showed off her toned pins in a pair of thigh-skimming shorts.

Joined by her cherubic daughter Faith, four, the 36-year-old was a sight for sore eyes at the screening, which saw her share the red carpet with the likes of Imogen Thomas and TOWIE's Lewis Bloor.

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Ready for summer: Michelle Heaton showed off her toned pins in a pair of thigh-skimming shorts when she attended The Angry Birds Movie premiere at Picturehouse Central in London on Saturday

The former Liberty X star looked to be making the most of the hot weather as she posed for pictures in tailored navy shorts, which exhibited her lean legs to perfection.

She paired the tiny numbers with a simple white camisole blouse, the light colour beautifully offsetting her enviably bronzed skin.

She kept accessories to a minimum with tanned wedges that looked ideal for the summer season with their straw heel, while the beauty chose to tote her essentials in a coordinating leather handbag.

Movie time! Michelle also brought her little girl Faith, 4, who looked adorable in a white flowy dress

Gorgeous! The former Liberty X star looked to be making the most of the hot weather as she posed for pictures in tailored navy shorts, which exhibited her lean legs to perfection

Her multi-tonal brunette locks cascaded around her face in a sleek, yet voluminous, style, though the TV personality was almost overshadowed by her adorable little one who was clad in an embellished white dress that was fit for a little princess.

Imogen Thomas' three-year-old daughter Ariana looked equally cute in a light blue denim dress and came prepared with an Angry Bird stuffed toy.

She wore a pair of shiny red bow-tie shoes and a matching bow in her curly blonde hair as she joined her gorgeous mother on the red carpet.

Imogen, 33, looking summer ready in a cream playsuit, which showed off her tanned pins.

Imogen Thomas, 33, accompanied her three-year-old daughter Ariana to the UK gala screening

The one-piece featured maroon patterning which was prominent on the hem of the garment and on the sleeves.

The former Miss.Wales balanced a brown slouchy chained handbag on her right arm and a pair of black sunnies on her blow-dried dip-dyed brunette locks.

Looking quite the yummy mummy, the ends of her tresses lay against the slight plunge of the playsuit.

Opting for convenience, Imogen attended the screening in a pair of strappy sandals so she'd be able to look after the apple of her eye.

Looking fab! Imogen looked summer ready in a cream playsuit, which showed off her tanned pins

What a cutie! Ariana wore a pair of shiny red bow-tie shoes and a matching bow in her curly blonde hair

Giving birth in November to her second child Siera with boyfriend Adam Horsley, the Imogen's post baby body looked in fine form.

The movie outing came as it was claimed her former lover Ryan is in the midst of getting a divorce from wife Stacey.

The former winger, 42, is accused of flirting with some of the waitresses at a Manchester restaurant he owns, which sources say has been the final straw for his wife.

Stylish: The former Miss.Wales balanced a brown slouchy chained handbag on her and balanced a pair of black sunnies on her blow-dried dip-dyed brunette locks

In 2011, it emerged that Giggs had a six-month affair with Imogen, as well as an eight-year-long affair with Natasha Lever, who was married to his younger brother Rhodri.

TOWIE's Lewis Bloor accompanied his nephew to the event, who he carried on his bulky arms.

The reality television hunk was casual in a light grey ensemble and was also joined by his TV counterpart - Debbie Douglas.

The mother to Lydia Bright looked holiday ready in a bright blue kaftan style dress which complemented her big blonde hair.

Bold beauty: Model Danielle Lloyd looked a vision in a bright purple mini dress which she teamed with a brown suede coat and matching tasseled handbag

Break from Essex: Lewis Bloor accompanied his nephew to the event, who he carried on his bulky arms

Looking good: The reality television hunk was casual in a light grey ensemble consisting of a top, roll-up jeans and white trainers

Standing out from the crowd: Debbie Douglas looked holiday ready in a bright blue kaftan style dress which complemented her big blonde hair

Model Danielle Lloyd looked a vision in a bright purple mini dress which she teamed with a brown suede coat and matching tasseled handbag.

TV personality Sinitta also put on a fun display as she posed with an angry bird stuff animal in a funky grey patterned number.

Her signature black locks cascaded down her front and complemented her deep red lips.
She is fast becoming a champion of high street glam, dazzling viewers day in and day out with her style credentials on This Morning.

So Ferne McCann did not let the side down while she was off-duty either, by stepping out looking ravishing in a wrap over dress.

Ferne, 25, looked smoldering in a silk wrap over number as she headed out with a pal to Soho house in London's Dean Street on Friday.

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Slick: Ferne McCann, 25, smoldered in silk wrap over dress as as she put on a leggy display on a girls' night out in London

Ferne looked catwalk ready as she stepped out in this beige ensemble for dinner.

The former reality star who quit TOWIE to focus on her TV presenting career, showed off her incredibly svelte frame in her stylish mini dress from Pretty Little Thing.

She worked her toned and tanned legs to perfection in her chic dinner number, and styled it with a delicate gold chain that was draped over her navel.

Looking like she'd just stepped out of a salon: Ferne ran her hands through her luscious locks

Ferne looked every inch the diva in her stunning pair of Sophia Webster heels, that added a splash of colour to her ensemble with their aztec feel.

Her orange pedicure off-set the colours perfectly, and she ramped up the glam further as she clutched a Miu Miu bag by her side.

Ferne's make-up looked flawless as she opted for a nude palette with a dusting of gold and bronze on her cheeks and eyelids, and finished the look with bold lashes.

Girls time: Her orange pedicure off-set the colours perfectly, and she ramped up the glam further as she clutched a Miu Miu bag by her side

Ferne is fast becoming a champion for high street bargains after she left ITV This Morning viewers impressed this week when she wore a Primark number on set.

The former TOWIE star looked gorgeous in blue patterned jumpsuit and brown strappy heels.

Meanwhile Ferne has been enjoying some quality time catching up with her former TOWIE besties Sam and Billie Faiers.

She posted some endearing shots of the ladies enjoying an alfresco lunch in the summer heat on her Instagram page on Saturday.
She recently split up with on/off boyfriend Jeremy McConnell for the fifth time in their tumultuous relationship.

And Stephanie Davis has revealed that she is now focusing on her work, social and family life after putting everything on hold to be with the Celebrity Big Brother star.

Speaking for the first time since announcing their separation, the 23-year-old actress tearily confessed on Irish radio station Spin FM: 'I gave up everything for love really, just to be heartbroken.'

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Me-time: Stephanie Davis has revealed that she is now focusing on her work, social and family life after putting everything on hold to be with her now ex-boyfriend Jeremy McConnell

Revealing she had been house-hunting with her beau just a week before her split, she explained her plans to move to Ireland to be with the star had caused rifts within her family as she surmised: 'I didn't have anyone.'

She added that she has been living out of a suitcase for the past few months to 'follow' Jeremy around on various club nights but insisted she harboured no bad feelings towards him.

'It's destroying... it's nothing to blame Jeremy for,' she reasoned as she explained his lack of celebrity status had not prepared him for life in the limelight.

Stephanie did not answer when asked whether she believed Jeremy had cheated on her with the many women who claimed to have enjoyed dalliances with the star, but admitted: 'I had the wool pulled over my eyes.'

A representative for Jeremy declined to comment when approached by MailOnline.

Happier times: Revealing she had been house-hunting with her beau just a week before her split, she explained her plans to move to Ireland to be with the star had caused rifts within her family

Still in love: She added that she has been living out of a suitcase for the past few months to 'follow' Jeremy to various club nights but insisted she harboured no bad feelings towards him

Stephanie also alleged it was a mere 30 minutes after their break-up on Wednesday that Jeremy tweeted, then swiftly deleted, Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison asking: 'when u taking me out'?

But she insisted that 'as the only person who understands him' he made the comments for 'love'.

She explained: 'It's out of love, I know he's doing it to try and hurt me.He's done that to try and get a reaction out of me when it's too late.'

Vicky also spoke out about the pair's latest relationship woes as she toldThe Mirror: 'It is a horrible situation but nothing to do with me. Ridiculous.'

Unsure what to believe: Stephanie did not answer when asked whether she believed Jeremy had cheated on her with the many women who claimed to have enjoyed dalliances with the star

New lady: Stephanie alleged it was a mere 30 minutes after their break-up on Wednesday that Jeremy tweeted, then swiftly deleted, Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison asking: 'when u taking me out'?

Meanwhile, Stephanie also confessed she felt like she 'had no-one', as she reasoned he was pushing her away as he was scared of losing her.

Breaking down in tears, she said: 'I love him to bits but he knows he's got his own issues to sort out, obviously losing his mum, his sister and his brother he thinks everyone's going to leave him.'

Stephanie revealed she was taking her new time as a single woman to focus on herself and her career, as she admitted she's already been offered a film and the chance to work with Jessie J's manager on her music.

'I'm trying to get me back, just who I was cause I think I invested so much time and energy into someone else,' she explained.
It's hard to imagine a world where Mary Berry won't be inspiring bakers across the country with hit programme, Great British Bake-Off.

But co-presenter, Paul Hollywood, claims fans have nothing to worry about just yet - as he believes Mary will be working until she is at least 124.

And the 81-year-old did nothing to dispel such quips as she took to the stage for a lively performance at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival on Saturday.

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Blooming lovely: 81-year-old Mary Berry did took to the stage for a lively performance at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival on Saturday

Mary looked particularly apt for the flower festival as she donned a stylish blue blazer, which was adorned with delicate images of cherry blossom.

Sticking to the pastel theme of blue and pink, Mary rounded off her ensemble with a chic pair of cut-off jeans and a t-shirt, which she wore in a bubblegum hue.

And she looked youthful but practical in the footwear department, as she tossed on a pair of black leather and suede slippers, which were embellished with golden tassels.

Coming up roses: Mary looked particularly apt for the flower festival as she donned a stylish blue blazer, which was adorned with delicate images of cherry blossom

Pretty in pink! Sticking to the pastel theme of blue and pink, Mary rounded off her ensemble with a chic pair of cut-off jeans and a t-shirt, which she wore in a bubblegum hue

The baker kept her accessories simple as she opted for a delicate pearl necklace and a single gold bangle and she flashed a hint of her black Hermes belt.

Mary looked fresh-faced for the event as she sported minimal makeup, apart from a bright pink lip.

And she let her blonde bob frame her face in a sleek, straight style.

Having a giggle: The baker kept her accessories simple as she opted for a delicate pearl necklace and a single gold bangle and she flashed a hint of her black Hermes belt

Natural beauty: Mary looked fresh-faced for the event as she sported minimal makeup, apart from a bright pink lip

The TV presenter's appearance proved a big hit with fans and one boy could barely contain his grin as he jumped onto the stage to sit on Mary's lap.

But, full of the joys of spring, Mary seemed unphased as she wrapped her arm around the grinning little boy and chatted away happily with him.

With such charm and stage presence, it's perhaps no surprise that in a recent interview, Paul Hollywood admitted that he believed the Great British Bake Off would still be running in 40 years time.

Budding fans: The TV presenter's appearance proved a big hit with fans and one boy could barely contain his grin as he jumped onto the stage to sit on Mary's lap

High hopes: Paul Hollywood has admitted that he believed the Great British Bake Off would still be running in 40 years time, with Mary at its helm

Many years in her yet: Paul Hollywood said that young fans need not worry about Mary Berry as she will be working until she is 124 years old

Long life: Mary's mother appeared on the first series of GBBO when she was 104 years old

Speaking to the Mirror, last week, he said: 'Look at how long Masterchef's been running  20-odd years?'

'Mary's mother came on to the set on the first series. She was 104.

'So you live 20 years after your parents, so Mary'll be 124. We've a few years yet.'
He's famously never been one to endorse novelty acts on Britain's Got Talent.

So Simon Cowell shocked both the audience and his fellow judges alike as he pressed his golden buzzer for a fleet of dancing stormtroopers on Saturday's show.

Initially confused by Boogie Storm who came on the stage in silence and refused to answer any of their questions, the judges were soon bowled over as the team sprung to life and performed a series of dance moves.

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Unpredictable: Simon Cowell shocked both the audience and his fellow judges alike as he pressed his golden buzzer for a fleet of dancing stormtroopers on Saturday's show

Twerking their way through the likes of Gangnam style, Single Ladies and Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) the six-strong team had the audience in stitches with their unique and surprising act.

Keeping their identities concealed and not uttering a word throughout their act, it was the audience who pleaded with Simon to send them through to the semi-finals, chanting for him to press his golden buzzer.

Keeping a straight face, the 50-year-old music mogul teased the act as he deliberated his decision before leaning over the desk and hitting the golden gong.

See more BGT updates as Simon Cowell hits his golden buzzer for dancing stormtroopers

Galactic gangnam style: Initially confused by Boogie Storm who came on the stage in silence and refused to answer any of their questions, the judges were soon bowled over as the team sprung to life and performed

As streams of confetti covered the stage, Dec cheekily turned to Ant and quipped: 'The stormtroopers get the golden buzzer from the dark lord himself.'

And Simon confessed he had been waiting for a moment like this to happen all series as he joked: 'I seriously said if we can find stormtroopers who can dance this show will go into a different league.

'My dream has come true.'

Victorious: Keeping their identities concealed and not uttering a word throughout their act, it was the audience who pleaded with Simon to send them through to the semi-finals

Buzz off: Keeping a straight face, the 50-year-old music mogul teased the act as he deliberated his decision before leaning over the desk and hitting the golden gong

Dancing up a storm(trooper): Twerking their way through the likes of Gangnam style, Single Ladies and Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) the six-strong team had the audience in stitches with their unique and surprising act

Not one to miss an opportunity to have a cheeky dig at his fellow judge, David Walliams exclaimed: 'No surprise that the real life Darth Vader voted for his troops.'

And he continued with his sassy comments on Twitter as he provided a running commentary throughout the show.

'So @SimonCowell pressed his golden buzzer for some dancing stormtroopers. He has finally lost his mind,' he gagged, adding: 'No surprise who the stormtroopers will appeal to the most. Darth Cowell.'

But the BGT producer took the jibes all in his stride as he quipped: 'The dark side has taken over.'

Singing stars: Also earning themselves high praise from the judges were the The Garnett Family - choir teacher mother Helen, 46, and student daughters Rachel, 20, and 17-year-old twins Anna and Abigail

Dynamic duo: The Mimic Men Alfie Joey, 48, from Gateshead, and Cal Halbert, 22, also received a standing ovation with their performance as they ran through a random collection of impressions

Also earning themselves high praise from the judges were the The Garnett Family - choir teacher mother Helen, 46, and student daughters Rachel, 20, and 17-year-old twins Anna and Abigail - who showcased tight harmonies.

Their pitch perfect rendition of Jess Glynne's Take Me Home saw them into the next round with four yeses.

Meanwhile, The Mimic Men Alfie Joey, 48, from Gateshead, and Cal Halbert, 22, also received a standing ovation with their performance.

Speaking before their audition, Joey revealed that he had trained to become a priest with Dec's brother, Dermott Donnelly.

The duo ran through a random collection of impressions including EastEnders' Natalie Cassidy, US President Barack Obama, cartoon characters Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, and Star Wars' Yoda, and took home four yeses.

Cat's out of the bag: Not all the acts were able to win over the foursome, with Rick Schmull being buzzed out by all judges with the exception of Amanda Holden after he played the piano in honour of his cat Meow Meow

But not all the acts were able to win over the foursome, with Rick Schmull being buzzed out by all judges with the exception of Amanda Holden.

Explaining that he was playing the piano, the 72-year-old retired stockbroker went on to dedicate the performance to his cat Meow Meow, before playing a shaky tune alongside projected images of his pet.

One performer who did manage to impress with an equally as quirky act, however, was The Deep Space Deviants, also known as Paul Dolman.

He performed Love Shack by The B-52s dressed as Doctor Who's arch enemy Davros.
She's an Instagrammer who made headlines for swapping pics of her seemingly perfect lifestyle for less flattering imagery - initially losing thousands of followers in the process.

But Stina Sanders, 24, looked jaw-droppingly good on Saturday when she took to the beach in Miami in a tiny blue and green bikini with a thick black trim.

The model showed off her toned beach body as she frolicked in the surf under the glare of the hot sun.

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Going for a dip: Stina Sanders, 24, looked jaw-droppingly good on Saturday when she took to the beach in Miami in a tiny blue and green bikini with a thick black trim

She protected her eyes from the glistening water by wearing a pair of stylish shades, and the fresh-faced beauty looked to go make-up free for the beach trip.

Her long brunette locks fell messily down her back, and after she wet them she reached back and wrung out the excess water.

Stina looked like she was admiring the beach as she gazed inland while knee deep in the cool ocean.

Hot stuff: The model showed off her toned beach body as she frolicked in the surf under the glare of the hot sun

Peachy: Stina but on a cheeky display with her pert derriere in perfect shape

Chilled: Stina looked like she was admiring the beach as she gazed inland while knee deep in the cool ocean

She appeared a little sunburnt underneath her bust while her flat tum and thighs looked to be developing an even tan.

The London girl posted a cheeky snap of her perched on a sun-lounger while sipping from a coconut, which she captioned: 'If only my coconuts were this size.'

And the beauty met up with swimwear blogger Tash Oakley the previous day with the pair putting on a close display for the camera while standing on the soft sand.

Bikini babes: And the beauty met up with swimwear blogger Tash Oakley the previous day with the pair putting on a close display for the camera while standing on the soft sand

When reflecting on what makes a successful Instagrammer, Stina previously told FEMAIL: 'As shallow as it is to admit this, I think if you want to be insta-famous or create a mass following overnight, then you do need to share glamorous images. Sex sells!

'Social media is an escapism for most people - as much as we claim to not care what someone has had for breakfast or their latest holiday snap, we would rather see that than a horrific selfie.'

She also opened up about how her followers deserted her when she began posting less glamorous pictures, although her numbers have since rocketed.

'I actually lost 5,000 followers when the experiment started,' she said. 'I went from 15,000 to 10,000. I'm now on 123,000 because I think people like my honesty and would rather see real life than airbrushed images.'

She added: 'One of my modelling agencies were annoyed that I had shared "ugly images" so I quit working with that particular agency.'
Rose Byrne has opened up about life as a new mother and how she can relate to her character in Neighbors 2 because of how long it takes to leave the house with a baby.

The Australian actress, who welcomed her son Rocco with her partner Bobby Cannavale three months ago, also spoke about how she would bring them both with her to Sydney later this year.

Despite looking top of her game at the Met Gala earlier this week, she told the Daily Telegraph that she has been surviving on much less sleep.

New mother: Rose Byrne has opened up about life as a mother, pictured at the Met Gala earlier this week

When asked about her role as disgruntled mother Kelly in the newly-released Bad Neighbours sequel, she said: 'I can relate to how long it takes to leave the house. That's a huge joke in this one.

'All that stuff 'bring this, bring that, I forgot this, I forgot that, don't wake her, she's awake'.

'That whole sequence couldn't be more true. I laugh at how long it takes and how true that was.'

She recently joked to OK that she hasn't left her apartment in three months and was 'still in the fog' of motherhood.

Newborn: The Australian actress welcomed her son Rocco (pictured) with her partner Bobby Cannavale three months ago

Doting mother: She joked that she was surviving on much less sleep thanks to her new son

Rose revealed that she would be 'lonely' if her family did not come with her when she returns to her hometown Sydney in November to star in the David Mamet play, Speed the Plow.

'I hope they will come with me,' she told the Daily Telegraph.

'It will be pretty lonely if they don't. Are you kidding me? Coming back to the beautiful Sydney, I can't wait to be home for a great stretch.'

The 36-year-old stars alongside Seth Rogen in Neighbors 2 which follows the couple's response when a debaucherous sorority moves in next door.

She admitted that she was 'challenging' in her teenage years.

Rose even joked that her parents probably wanted to 'bury' her for a couple of years.

Cute couple: The actress has been with American actor Bobby Cannavale ever since meeting on the set of Annie in 2012

She has been with American actor Bobby Cannavale ever since meeting on the set of Annie in 2012.

They managed to keep their romance under wraps until Bobby thanked Rose during an acceptance speech at the 2013 Emmys, describing the Australian starlet as the love of his life.

They later bought a $2.2million house in Brooklyn where it is understood they will raise their first child.

Rose recently said she feels incredibly 'lucky' to share her life with her partner telling Hello! magazine: 'He's this very kind-hearted, wonderful guy. I'm very lucky to have met him.'

Rose previously dated Australian actor Brendan Cowell for six years before splitting in 2010.
Syrian regime holds patriotic concert in retaken Palmyra

The Syrian regime on Friday put on a patriotic celebration at the ancient city of Palmyra, with flag-waving and military music in a place where just last year jihadists carried out mass executions.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime was able to display its control over the world heritage site six weeks after the army, with Russian help, recaptured it from Islamic State fighters.

The event marked the centenary of Martyrs' Day, when Syrian nationalists were executed in Damascus by the Ottoman occupiers in 1916.

People attend a music concert in the ancient theatre of Syria's ravaged Palmyra on May 6, 2016 following its recapture by regime forces from the Islamic State group fighter Louai Beshara (AFP)

"We are here to celebrate those who died to save our homeland. We salute the martyrs of Syria and among them the heroes who died in this very theatre," the event's presenter said before the police and army orchestra took the stage in the ancient arena.

Last July Islamic State released a video showing the mass execution of 25 Syrian soldiers in the theatre. Bullet holes remain visible on one wall.

In a symbol of Moscow's role in the recapture of Palmyra, 20 Russian soldiers marched onto the stage waving Russian and Syrian flags.

- Propaganda coup -

The previous day, leading Russian musicians staged a classical concert in the ancient theatre in a show by the Kremlin to herald its successes in the war-torn country.

Famed conductor Valery Gergiev led Saint Petersburg's celebrated Mariinsky orchestra through pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin in front of a crowd of Russian soldiers, government ministers and journalists.

Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes and special forces on the ground recaptured the UNESCO world heritage site from IS fighters in March, delivering a major propaganda coup for both Damascus and Moscow.

The UN cultural agency said last month that the ancient city had suffered significant damage at the hands of Islamic State fighters, but that the archaeological site retains much of its authenticity.

According to the experts, parts of the grand colonnade -- an ancient avenue -- and agora courtyard remain intact.

But they observed "the destruction of the triumphal arch and Temple of Baal Shamin, which was smashed to smithereens".

Russian army sappers said last month they had demined the site -- known as the "Pearl of the Desert".

For Friday's event Syrian authorities bussed in delegations from throughout the country.

Between each piece of music the crowd chanted "Syria" and "the sons of the martyrs protect the leader of the nation," in reference to Assad.

However the civil war is not far away. Just 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the site Islamic State fighters are still at large.

Palmyra, northeast of Damascus, contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was once a crucial hub for trade and culture.

Until the Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011, the site was a key tourist destination.

People wave Syrian national flags as they attend a music concert in the ancient theatre of Syria's ravaged Palmyra on May 6, 2016 following its recapture by regime forces from the Islamic State group fighter Louai Beshara (AFP)
N. Korea's Kim defends nuclear arsenal as test fears grow

North Korea's first ruling party congress since 1980 moved into a second day Saturday, after leader Kim Jong-Un opened with a defiant defence of his nuclear weapons programme and amid fresh signs Pyongyang is readying a fifth nuclear test.

The once-in-a-generation gathering of the country's top decision-making body is being scrutinised for signs of any substantive policy change or major reshuffle in the isolated state's ruling elite.

In his opening address on Friday, the 33-year-old Kim, dressed in a western-style suit and tie, hailed the "magnificent ... and thrilling" nuclear test carried out on January 6, which Pyongyang claimed was of a powerful hydrogen bomb.

The portraits of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-Sung (L) and Kim Jong-Il hang on the 'April 25 Palace', the venue of the 7th Workers Party Congress in Pyongyang on May 6, 2016 Ed Jones (AFP)

The test and long-range rocket launch that followed a month later had "smashed the hostile forces' vicious manoeuvres geared to sanctions and strangulation, and displayed to the world the indomitable spirit, daring grit and inexhaustible strength of heroic Korea," Kim said.

North Korea has conducted a total of four nuclear tests, two of them since Kim came to power in late 2011 following the death of his father and former leader Kim Jong-Il.

Speculation that the North might be readying a fifth test, in defiance of toughened UN sanctions, was fuelled Saturday by recent satellite imagery of the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast of the country.

- New nuclear test? -

Analysts at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University said the presence of vehicles at the complex's test command centre signalled the possibility of a test "in the near future".

"While the historical record is incomplete, it appears that vehicles are not often seen there except during preparations for a test," they said.

Most experts have doubted the North's H-bomb claim, saying the detected yield from the January test was far too low for a full-fledged thermonuclear device.

However, they acknowledge the strides the North has made under Kim Jong-Un towards its ultimate goal of developing an inter-continental ballistic missile capable of striking targets across the US mainland.

Reacting to Kim's speech, Washington urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons ambitions altogether and rejoin the international community.

"We obviously are aware of the risk that is posed by North Korea's effort to develop nuclear weapons and systems capable of delivering those nuclear weapons," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"There is a path .... North Korea can take to come out of the wilderness. But it will require them renouncing nuclear weapons," he added.

- Kim 'coronation' -

The ongoing party congress is widely seen as Kim Jong-Un's formal "coronation" and recognition of his status as the legitimate inheritor of the Kim family's dynastic rule which spans almost seven decades.

Giant portraits of his father and his grandfather -- founding leader Kim Il-Sung -- dominated the backdrop to the podium where he made his opening speech.

The congress agenda, published for the first time on Friday, included an item on electing Kim to the "top post" of the Workers' Party.

Kim is currently first party secretary, but may take on the post of party general secretary, a position held by his late father.

The conclave may also enshrine as formal party doctrine Kim's "byungjin" policy of pursuing nuclear weapons in tandem with economic development.

Some analysts have suggested Kim might signal a shift in emphasis towards the economy and, in his speech, he mentioned the beginning of a new "leap forward" but offered no specific details.

"You have to remember there are two levels to this," said John Delury, a historian at Yonsei University in Seoul.

"There's the staging and the performance which makes headlines and then the nitty-gritty policy stuff, which will take time to go through and properly understand," Delury said.

Other items on the agenda included revising party rules and elections to central party organs.

Since taking power, Kim has shown a ruthless streak, purging the party, government and powerful military of those seen as disloyal, and ordering the execution of his powerful uncle, and one-time political mentor, Jang Song-Thaek.

The congress will elect its central committee which will in turn select a politburo, with Kim expected to bring in a younger generation of leaders hand-picked for their loyalty.

Kim Jong-Un's nuclear ambitions Adrian LEUNG, John SAEKI (AFP)

A guide waits for visitors during a tour of the birthplace of the late founder of North Korea Kim Il-Sung, known as 'Mangyongdae', near Pyongyang on May 7, 2016 Ed Jones (AFP)

North Koreans attend the 7th Workers Party Congress at the 'April 25 Palace' in Pyongyang
Philippine president parallels rise of Duterte and Hitler

Philippine President Benigno Aquino warned Saturday the frontrunner in the race to replace him carried similar dangers to Hitler and would bring terror to the nation.

Anti-establishment candidate Rodrigo Duterte is the favourite to win Monday's election, with millions of Filipinos embracing his populist tirades, but Aquino and other critics have warned he is a dictator in the making.

Using a final election campaign rally to issue his harshest criticism yet, Aquino sought to draw parallels between the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Germany and what could happen under a Duterte presidency.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino (right) shakes hands with the crowd in Ligao City, Albay, on May 6, 2016

"I hope we learn the lessons of history. We should remember how Hitler came to power," Aquino said at the rally in Manila for his preferred successor, fellow Liberal Party stalwart Mar Roxas.

"If you allow them to oppress your fellow man and you do not speak up, you will be the next one to be oppressed."

Aquino repeated the famous quotes of Martin Niemoller, a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken critic of Hitler and spent the last years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

"First they came for the communists, but I did not speak out because I was not a communist... finally they came for me and there was no one left to speak up for me."

While the president said surveys showed Duterte had 30 percent support among voters, "70 percent are against him".

"Unity is the key to avoid the darkness and lead the country to a bright future," Aquino said.

"I need your help to stop the return of terror in our land. I cannot do it alone."

Duterte, 71, has gained support across all sectors of society by fashioning himself as an outsider politician who can achieve quick fixes to deep-rooted problems, particularly crime.

The mayor of the southern city of Davao has vowed to end crime within six months of his presidency by ordering security forces to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals, then pardon himself if he was found guilty of mass murder.

Duterte has been accused of running vigilante squads in Davao that have killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals. At times he has boasted about his involvement -- but on other occasions denied any links to the vigilantes.

Duterte has also warned as president he will shut down Congress and establish a revolutionary government if lawmakers do not endorse his policies.

Roxas is in equal second place trailing Duterte by 11 percentage points, according to the last survey released before the elections.

Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte (left) gestures to the crowd during a campaign rally in Manila Noel Celis (AFP)
The picturesque azure waters of the Pacific Ocean are threatening the homes of islanders off the coast of Australia, and offer a window into the potential fates of other low-lying island nations.

A study carried out by researchers in Australia has shown five islands have already disappeared in the Pacific's Solomon Islands due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion.

Researchers found a further six reef islands have been severely eroded in the remote area of the Solomons, with one experiencing 10 houses being swept into the sea between 2011 and 2014.

At least 11 islands across the northern Solomon Islands (pictured) have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion, an Australian study shows

According to scientists, the study could provide insights for future research and offers a 'valuable window into the future impacts of global sea-level rise'.

'At least 11 islands across the northern Solomon Islands have either totally disappeared over recent decades or are currently experiencing severe erosion,' wrote the authors of the study, which was published this month in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

'Shoreline recession at two sites has destroyed villages that have existed since at least 1935, leading to community relocations.'

The scientists said the five that had vanished were all vegetated reef islands up to five hectares (12 acres) that were occasionally used by fishermen, but not populated.

Five islands have disappeared due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Researchers believe the submergence of a number of smaller islands is due to a combination of rising seas and coastal erosion, caused by the action of waves. Ranongga in the Solomon Islands is under threat

RISING WATER LEVELS The latest Australian study reveals low-lying Pacific island nations are already feeling the effects of rising sea levels. The Solomon Islands are of key scientific interest as they lie in a 'hotspot', with sea levels rising higher than the global average. While the global average is said to be approximately 3mm per year, the Solomon Islands have experienced between 7 to 10mm per year. Scientists believe the combination of rising seas and coastal erosion, caused by the action of waves, has caused a number of small islands to become submerged. Researchers are highlighting the need to work with islanders to assess environmental impacts and to incorporate local knowledge in order to plan effectively.

'They were not just little sand islands,' leader author Dr Simon Albert told news agency AFP.

It is feared the rise in sea levels will cause widespread erosion and inundation of low-lying atolls in the Pacific.

Dr Albert, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, said the Solomons was considered a sea-level hotspot because rises there are almost three times higher than the global average.

The researchers looked at 33 islands using aerial and satellite imagery from 1947 to 2014, combined with historical insight from local knowledge.

They found that rates of shoreline recession were substantially higher in areas exposed to high wave energy, indicating a 'synergistic interaction' between sea-level rise and waves, which Albert said could prove useful for future study.

Those islands which were exposed to higher wave energy - in addition to sea-level rise - were found to have a greatly accelerated loss compared with the more sheltered islands.

'This provides a bit of an insight into the future,' he said.

'There's these global trends that are happening but the local responses can be very, very localised.'

The Solomon Islands is an island nations composed of hundreds of small islands in the Pacific (pictured), off the coast of Australia and Papua New Guinea (pictured on map). The region is of key scientific interest as it lies in a 'hotspot', with sea levels rising higher than the global average

For now, some communities in the Solomons are already adapting to the changed conditions.

'In addition to these village relocations, Taro, the capital of Choiseul Province is set to become the first provincial capital globally to relocate residents and services due to the threat of sea-level rise,' the study continued..

Writing in an article published by The Conversation, Dr Albert explains how communities of up to 200 people have fractured into smaller groups and moved inland, as rising waters reclaim the land.

The article detail's how the 94-year-old chief of the Paurata tribe, Sirilo Sutaroti, recently abandoned his village, explaining: 'The sea has started to come inland, it forced us to move up to the hilltop and rebuild our village there away from the sea.'

Dr Albert also highlights the importance of integrating local assessments with traditional knowledge in order to effectively plan for sea-level rise and climate change.

Scientists fear the rise in sea levels will cause widespread erosion and inundation of low-lying atolls in the Pacific. They add that while some communities are adapting to the change, the islands offer a 'valuable window into the future impacts of global sea-level rise'

The Solomon Islands recently joined with a number of other Pacific Island nations adding their signatures in support of the Paris climate agreements.

Sea level rise remains a thorny issue, with uncertainty around the impact, funding and best course of action.

Recent studies warned that previous estimates may have underestimated, with levels potentially rising twice as high as previously thought.

As part of climate negotiations over the past decades, wealthy nations around the world have pledged billions of dollars to help island nations, but the funds are yet to materialise.

The UK government has pledged more than 7bn ($10.3bn) to help poorer nations combat climate change, while the US has pledged $5.7bn (4bn).
Morocco jails brother of presumed Paris attacks ringleader

A Moroccan court has sentenced the younger brother of suspected Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud to two years in prison on charges including justifying terrorism, state media reported.

According to his lawyer, Yassine Abaaoud was unaware of the activities of his brother, who was killed in a French police raid just days after the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin who had appeared in grisly Islamic State group videos and was linked to a series of plots in Europe.

Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin Lionel Bonaventure (AFP/File)

Five other defendants were sentenced to between two and five years in prison on separate terrorism related cases by the same court in Rabat's twin city Sale on Thursday, the MAP state news agency reported.
Founder of online underworld bank jailed for laundering billions

The founder of an online underworld bank that allegedly laundered billions of dollars for criminals was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Arthur Budovsky, 42, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering on January 29, three days before the scheduled start of his trial in New York.

He was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine by US District Judge Denise L. Cote, who noted that Budovsky did not express any "genuine remorse".

Authorities said Liberty Reserve, founded by Arthur Budovsky, was a "financial hub" for Ponzi scheme operators, credit card traffickers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals Greg Wood (AFP/File)

"The significant sentence handed down today shows that money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime," Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell for the Justice Departments Criminal Division said in a statement.

"Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky ran a digital currency empire built expressly to facilitate money laundering on a massive scale for criminals around the globe," US Attorney Preet Bharara for the Southern District of New York was quoted as saying.

Prosecutors said Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve operated an alternative digital currency that helped cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder the proceeds of illegal activity.

The company was a "financial hub" for Ponzi scheme operators, credit card traffickers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals, authorities said.

The system became operational in 2005. By the time it was shut down in 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than 5.5 million user accounts, including more than 600,000 in the United States, the US Department of Justice said.

Overall, it had processed more than 78 million financial transactions with a combined value of more than $8 billion.

The digital exchange mechanism, which allowed depositors to mask their identities, was similar to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Budovsky, who was arrested in Spain in May 2013, had renounced his US citizenship and acquired Costa Rica nationality in an apparent bid to avoid prosecution.

As part of his plea agreement, Budovsky admitted to laundering between $250 million and $550 million in criminal proceeds linked to US-based Liberty Reserve accounts.

Six other people with ties to Liberty Reserve face charges in the case that involved police and investigators from 17 countries.

Co-defendants Maxim Chukharev and Mark Marmilev, who also pleaded guilty, were sentenced to three and five years respectively.
Egypt court recommends death for six co-defendants but not Morsi

An Egyptian court recommended death sentences on Saturday for six codefendants of Mohamed Morsi but not for the ousted Islamist president in their trial on espionage charges.

The presiding judge in the trial asked the mufti -- the country's official interpreter of Islamic law -- to consider death sentences for the six codefendants, saying the court would convene again on June 18 after the mufti's response.

It will then pronounce its verdict and sentence for the remaining five defendants, including Morsi, on charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents.

Egypt's ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi stands behind bars during his trial at the police academy in Cairo, on May 7, 2016 Khaled Desouki (AFP)

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is not binding but is usually respected by courts.

Three of the defendants sentenced to death were tried in absentia and identified by the prosecution as journalists who helped relay the documents to Qatar.

Qatar was a main backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement while he was in power between 2012 and July 2013, when the military overthrew and detained him.

He has already received sentences in three separate trials.

He has been sentenced to death for his alleged role in prison breaks and attacks on police stations during the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi was one of the leaders of the Brotherhood who had been jailed during the 18-day uprising, escaping with thousands of inmates who broke out of prison.

He was also sentenced to life in prison for espionage on behalf of Iran and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, and received a 20 year term for deadly clashes outside the presidential palace in 2012 between his supporters and opponents.

The Qatar espionage case stems from allegations that aides passed on classified state secrets to Doha using intermediaries.

The six facing a death sentence include Ibrahim Mohamed Hilal, whom the prosecution had identified as a senior editor with the Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera.

He is not in Egypt and was tried in absentia.

An Al-Jazeera official said he is "an adviser" to the channel's chairman.

Another, also tried in absentia, is Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan, identified by the prosecution as an Al-Jazeera producer.

Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, identified as a reporter with the pro-Brotherhood Rassd news outlet, was also sentenced to death in absentia.

They were alleged to have assisted in relaying the classified material to Doha.

Egypt had cracked down on Al-Jazeera and imprisoned three of its journalists in Cairo, including Australian Peter Greste and Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, before releasing them by presidential decree.

The defendants will be able to appeal the rulings before the court of cassation, and those tried in absentia can win a retrial if they hand themselves in.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of Morsi supporters to death since his overthrow, but many have appealed and won new trials.
Yemeni colonel gunned down in Aden

A Yemeni army colonel was gunned down in Aden on Saturday in the latest in a spate of assassinations of senior officers that underlines the persistent insecurity in the city.

A gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle killed Colonel Badr al-Yafei in the city's Khormaksar district, which houses diplomatic missions and the airport, a security official told AFP.

Yemen's second city is the headquarters of the government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition as they battle Iran-backed rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

Aden is the headquarters of the Yemeni government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition Karim Sahib (AFP/File)

But 10 months after pro-government forces drove the rebels out of the city, they are still struggling to assert their authority over a growing presence of extremists of both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

On Friday, the governor of Aden's Mansura prison was killed in a similar ride-by shooting.
UN official spurns Netanyahu history lesson offer

A senior United Nations official Saturday brushed aside an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a lecture on Jewish history, amid a row over a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Netanyahu said Friday he would host the lecture in response to a recent resolution of the UN's cultural body condemning Israeli "aggressions" against Muslims at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while failing to mention the site's Jewish name Temple Mount.

The UNESCO executive board resolution, submitted by several Arab countries, was described by Netanyahu as "denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, our holiest site".

The Dome of the Rock is seen on the Al-Aqsa mosque compound surrounded by houses in Jerusalem's Old City Thomas Coex (AFP/File)

He said the lecture, to be delivered by a scholar in the coming weeks, would educate UN staff and diplomats about the site's history.

The UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, bristled at the suggestion that UN staff in Jerusalem were insufficiently educated.

"If someone wants to issue invitations they should be for Paris and addressed to the ambassadors of the member-states of UNESCO there," he said in a statement.

"UN staff in Jerusalem know the history of the region, its people and religions all too well."

Netanyahu last month slammed the "absurd" resolution for ignoring Judaism's connection 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".

After Israel's reaction, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova issued a statement stressing that "Jerusalem is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people".

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 focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It has seen frequent clashes over fears that Israel is planning to change the rules that allow Muslims to pray there but Jews only to visit.

Netanyahu denies seeking to change the status quo.
N. Korea shows off hospital care inspired by Great Leaders

North Korea Saturday organised an unusual media tour of a gleaming modern hospital, apparently seeking to highlight its leaders' love for the people during a major rulin party gathering.

The Pyongyang Maternity Hospital owes everything to the party and to the Kim dynasty which has ruled the country since its creation, according to officials who escorted foreign reporters around the showpiece institution.

Founding president Kim Il-Sung and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il visited the hospital many times -- a fact attested to by numerous red plaques and countless portraits -- and gave instructions on ways to improve treatment, they said.

New-born infants lie in cots at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital on May 7, 2016 Ed Jones (AFP)

"Field guidance" trips by the two former leaders, covering many aspects of work and leisure, were a feature of North Korean life for decades. Kim Jong-Un, the third-generation ruler, has continued the tradition.

The first two Kims instructed staff to study ways of relieving the pain of childbirth through analgesics, officials said.

They also urged doctors and nurses to check carefully to ensure the wrong medicines were not prescribed.

The hospital, opened in 1980 and with 1,900 beds, offers all kinds of health services including cancer treatment for women in addition to maternity care.

Staffers allowed visiting journalists, wearing white coats and shoe covers, to interview new mother Tong Youn-Mi via a phone and video link to prevent infection.

Tong lovingly cradled her two-day-old son, wrapped in a pink blanket. She wants him to grow up to be a soldier, according to hospital staff who interpreted.

Her fears of a painful birth proved unfounded "due to the medicine provided out of the love of Generalissimo Kim Jong-Un", an interpreter said.

Staff showed off the intensive care unit for premature babies and others in need of special attention, including a unit dedicated to triplets and quadruplets.

Because the current ruler sees multiple births as a symbol of the country's prosperous future, their parents get commemorative gifts from the party.

The hospital is staffed by 1,700 doctors, researchers, nurses and midwives. Treatment is said to be open to all women and to be free of charge.

A new wing opened in 2012 and was spotless and gleaming on Saturday -- like much of central Pyongyang at present as the Workers' Party Congress continues.

- Unlikely a typical example -

The hospital is unlikely to be a typical example of health care in North Korea.

Residence in the capital is restricted to the social class seen as most trustworthy. In turn, they enjoy privileges and favourable treatment unseen elsewhere in the country.

A 2010 report by Amnesty international said the country's overall healthcare system was unable to provide sterilised needles, clean water, food and medicine, and patients were forced to undergo agonising surgery without anaesthesia.

It said that what it called the collapse of the healthcare system compounded the misery of a population that was chronically malnourished.

The World Health Organization later said the Amnesty findings were outdated and failed to reflect improvements.

Malnutrition however remains a significant health problem, according to a United Nations report published last month.

The Pyongyang Maternity Hospital staff took pride, however, in their own institution.

"Korean people do not like to boast but I hope you can show the hospital is doing a good job," its external affairs chief Mun Chang-Hun told AFP.

"I hope you can show the good job done by the party and the Great Leaders."

The Pyongyang Maternity Hospital is staffed by 1,700 doctors, researchers, nurses and midwives Ed Jones (AFP)
13 Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed in Syria: media

Thirteen military advisers with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been killed in Syria in recent days and 21 others wounded, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

It was Iran's biggest loss of forces within such a short time, based on official figures. The names of those killed and when their remains will be repatriated will be announced later, the Guards said.

All were from Iran's northern province of Mazandaran, Hossein Ali Rezayi, a Guards spokesman in the region, told the ISNA and Fars news agencies.

Iranian soldiers from the Revolutionary Guards march march at a military parade in Tehran Atta Kenare (AFP/File)

The deaths and injuries occurred in Khan Tuman village some 10 kilometres (six miles) southwest of the battleground city of Aleppo, the official IRNA news agency reported a Guards statement as saying.

Pro-regime troops had driven jihadists out of Khan Tuman in December, but on Friday a monitor reported more than 70 killed in fighting between regime forces and Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists and their allies south of Aleppo.

Al-Nusra Front and allied Islamists seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages after less than 24 hours of clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Around 30 pro-regime troops were killed in the battle, said the Britain-based Observatory which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Russia said late Friday that a temporary truce in Aleppo had been extended for 72 hours "in order to prevent the situation from worsening".

More than 300 civilians were killed in two weeks of fighting in the divided city before the truce took hold on Thursday, in regime air strikes on its opposition-held east and rebel shelling of the regime-controlled west.

Iran is Syria's main regional ally, sending financial and military aid, including military advisers and volunteer forces from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, to prop up President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Dozens of Iranian "advisers" have been killed in Syria since late 2015, including Revolutionary Guards commanders.

Saturday's news came as Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met Assad in Damascus and assured him of Tehran's support.

"The Islamic republic of Iran has employed all of its capacity for the fight against terrorists committing crimes against oppressed nations in the region," state television news agency IRIB quoted him as saying.

Assad told Velayati Syria was "very hopeful of victory in this unbalanced war, thanks to Iran's selfless support", IRIB reported.

Tehran late Saturday condemned the capture of Khan Tuman as a breach of the ceasefire.

"The joint action by terrorists and irresponsible armed groups called moderates, in abusing the ceasefire atmosphere in Syria, proves that these movements want military measures to continue," said deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.

"They have no belief in a political solution," he said in the statement carried by IRNA.
New Saudi energy minister was longtime Aramco chief

Khaled al-Falih, named by King Salman on Saturday to head a super ministry of energy, industry and mineral resources, was the longtime chief of state oil giant Saudi Aramco.

From 2009, he was Aramco's president and chief executive officer, in charge of about 60,000 employees at the firm which produces roughly one in every eight barrels of the world's oil supply.

In May last year, Salman tapped Falih to become health minister as part of an earlier government shuffle, but he also stayed on with Aramco as chairman during a dramatic global decline in oil prices which left Saudi Arabia with a record budget deficit last year.

Khalid al-Falih,newly appointed oil minister is pictured on January 25, 2016, in the capital Riyadh Fayez Nureldine (AFP/File)

The plunging oil revenues have accentuated a drive for economic alternatives in the world's biggest oil exporter, which on April 25 released a wide-ranging "Vision 2030" plan aimed at transforming the economy away from its dependence on crude.

The government reorganisation announced on Saturday by Salman reflects these new priorities which include greater efficiency in state administration.

Falih will head the broader Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources as the kingdom tries to boost industry -- from petrochemicals to defence -- and alternative energy sources while mining is expected to take on a greater role in the economy.

Falih replaces Ali al-Naimi who headed the now defunct Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources and who will become an adviser to the Royal Court.

There was no immediate word on a replacement for Falih as chairman of Aramco, which is to be partly listed on the stock market as a foundation of the Vision 2030 plan.

According to an official biography, Falih, whose date of birth was not given, earned in 1982 a mechanical engineering degree from Texas A&M University in the United States.

In 1991 he graduated with an MBA from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in his homeland.
Sri Lanka still torturing suspects after end of war: UN

A UN official slammed Sri Lanka's criminal justice system on Saturday, accusing police of sexually abusing suspects and still using torture seven years after the end of its ethnic war.

United Nations Human Rights Expert Juan E. Mendez told reporters in Colombo he had found credible evidence of detainees being tortured and disappearances since the end of the war in May 2009.

Mendez, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, said he heard between 16,000 and 22,000 people had gone missing during the conflict and its immediate aftermath.

UN Special Rapporteur for Torture Juan E. Mendez speaks in Colombo on May 7, 2016 Ishara S. Kodikara (AFP)

He described the disappearances as the "torture of the most horrifying kind".

"The current legal framework and the lack of reform within the structures of the armed forces, police, attorney-general's office and judiciary perpetuate the real risk that the practice of torture will continue," he warned.

Suspects have been beaten with sticks or wires on the soles of the feet, suspended for hours while handcuffed, asphyxiated using plastic bags drenched in kerosene and hung upside down, he said.

In some cases, victims had chili powder thrown on their face and eyes and there were "sexual violations, including mutilation of the genital area and rubbing of chili paste or onions on the genital area".

Some people were tortured for days or even weeks, he said after visiting Sri Lankan prisons and meeting with some survivors during a nine-day visit to the island.

Still, he expressed hope the government of President Maithripala Sirisena will deliver on promises of accountability for war crimes and an end to rights abuses.

Sirisena's administration, which took power in January last year, has promised to investigate rights abuses following allegations that up to 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed by government forces in 2009 as they crushed rebel forces.

UN Human Rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, who visited Sri Lanka in February, asked the government to "confront and defeat the demons of its past".

Zeid urged Colombo to address war crimes allegedly committed during the 37-year ethnic conflict that ended in May 2009, when the Tamil rebel leadership were wiped out.

In all, some 100,000 people were killed between 1972 and 2009.
Two Romanian soldiers killed in Afghan 'insider attack'

Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms shot dead two Romanian soldiers in the country's south Saturday, officials said, in the first insider attack on foreign troops since the Taliban launched their spring offensive last month.

The insurgents have so far not claimed responsibility for the attack in Kandahar province, which highlights long-simmering tensions between Afghan and foreign forces.

"Two Resolute Support (NATO) service members died this morning when two individuals wearing Afghan (security) uniforms opened fire... in southern Afghanistan," the military coalition said.

Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers walk through Dand-e-Ghori district in Baghlan province on March 15, 2016 Shah Marai (AFP/File)

"Resolute Support members returned fire and killed the shooters."

The two soldiers were identified as Romanian, the defence ministry in Bucharest said, adding that the incident occurred during a training mission for Afghan police.

A third Romanian soldier was left wounded in the incident and transferred to a hospital in Germany, the ministry said in its statement.

The attack comes after the insurgents last month announced the start of their annual spring offensive, vowing "large-scale attacks" across Afghanistan.

So-called "green-on-blue" attacks -- when Afghan soldiers or police turn their guns on international troops -- have been a major problem during NATO's long years fighting alongside Afghan forces.

In a similar attack in August last year, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform shot dead two American soldiers in the southern opium-rich province of Helmand.

And in April last year an American soldier was killed in a firefight between US and Afghan troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Western officials say that most such attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots.

The killings have bred fierce mistrust between local and foreign forces even as the rate of such incidents has dropped in recent years.

NATO troops have adopted special security measures in recent years to try to counter the threat.

NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014, pulling out a bulk of its troops although a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

The Afghan military, which has been built from scratch since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, has also struggled with insider attacks, high casualty rates and mass desertions.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently threatened diplomatic reprisals against Pakistan if it refuses to take action against insurgent havens on its soil.

His unusually strong remarks were in response to a Taliban assault on a security services office in the heart of Kabul, which left 64 people dead in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on the Afghan capital since 2001.

The carnage on April 19 cast a pall over international efforts in recent months to jumpstart Pakistan-brokered peace talks, which stalled last summer after the Taliban belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
Yemen direct peace talks suspended again: government

Yemen's government delegation pulled out of direct negotiations with representatives of the Huthi rebels on Saturday after there was no sign of progress, a member of the government delegation said.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will now have to go back to indirect negotiations in the talks that began in Kuwait on April 21.

On Thursday, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the foes had begun discussing major political and security issues in face-to-face negotiations aimed at bringing an end to 13 months of devastating war.

Yemen's United Nations envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed holds a press conference at the ministery of information in Kuwait City on April 30, 2016 Yasser al-Zayyat (AFP/File)

But after two unproductive meetings on Saturday, "direct talks are suspended" and the UN mediator must resume separate consultations with the two sides, the government official said, blaming the Huthis for the impasse.

The rebels "went back on their word" to discuss substantive issues in three joint working groups formed under UN auspices, he said.

These were formed on Wednesday when direct talks resumed following a three-day interruption after the government delegation walked out in protest against the rebel seizure of an army camp on Sunday.

The working groups exchanged views on resolving political and security issues and the release of prisoners and detainees, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

This orders the rebels to withdraw from territory they have taken since 2014 and to surrender heavy weaponry they had seized.

However, the delegation from the rebels and their allies was demanding "prior agreement on the establishment of a transitional executive body", the government official said.

In a statement on the sabanews website, a rebel delegate said the three joint teams will resume work "after an agreement on the form of the state and the transitional authority".

Without such an agreement, the talks were "a waste of time" said the rebel delegate, adding that President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government was "an adversary and it is unacceptable that he embodies the state".

Each side accuses the other of not respecting the truce which has been constantly broken since it came into force on April 11.

There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
Bangkok parties as Leicester lift English Premier League trophy

Cheers, spilt beers and confetti met the award of the English Premier League trophy to Leicester City on Saturday at a lively title party laid on by the Foxes' Thai owners in Bangkok.

Leicester are swiftly becoming the kingdom's new favourite team, with Thais delighting in the unlikeliest of league victories under the ownership of compatriot, duty-free billionaire Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

On a sweaty late Saturday night in Bangkok, hundreds of beer sodden fans danced and sung at the King Power headquarters where the Foxes' 3-1 win against Everton was broadcast on a big screen.

A Leicester City fan celebrates a goal during a live screening of the Leicester vs Everton match at King Power headquarters in Bangkok on May 7, 2016 Lillian Suwanrumpha (AFP)

As captain Wes Morgan hoisted the trophy aloft on the big screen behind them, jubilant fans jumped into a fountain, with confetti raining down.

Many conceded they knew little about Leicester before Vichai bought the club in 2010.

But Thais are readily changing - or at least doubling-up - their allegiances from old favourites Manchester United and Liverpool to the once unfashionable Midlands club.

Holding a newly-purchased t-shirt of striker Jamie Vardy from a merchandise stall in one hand, and a plastic cup of beer in the other, Rangsee Tuengpant praised the Thai role in the Foxes' famous title win.

"I'm here for the history of the moment, " he told AFP.

"We are Thais and we will always follow other Thais who are successful internationally. This is unbelievable," he said before conceding to "first" being a Manchester City fan.

The King Power big screenings started out with just scores of curious, polite fans - most company employees.

But they have mushroomed over the last few weeks into raucous fan events, complete with flags, claxons and even a metal copy of the Premier League trophy.

Screams erupted as new favourite Vardy struck the penalty to make it 3-0 against an insipid Everton.

"He's the main player, he scores so many goals," said Jo, a 25-year-old King Power employee.

"There will be a lot of people when they come to visit."

The Thai owners have done a U-turn and agreed to an end of season Thai tour.

It comes a year after a close season tour was marred by a racist sex tape scandal that led to three young players being sacked swiftly followed by then manager Nigel Pearson, whose son was among the players featured in the graphic video.

Little known outside of Thailand, King Power has a monopoly on duty free inside the country. Its brand visibility is set to soar with the Foxes' famous win.

The biggest cheer of the night was reserved for the media-shy Vichai and his son Top, who led the team onto the pitch before the trophy presentation.

Leicester City players and Leicester City's Thai chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha (C) pose with the Premier league trophy on May 7, 2016 Adrian Dennis (AFP)
Three journalists return to Spain after Syria kidnapping

Three Spanish journalists who had been held hostage in Syria by an Al Qaeda-linked group returned on Sunday to Madrid where they were welcomed by overjoyed family members after nearly a year in captivity.

Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre were flown on a Spanish defence ministry jet from Turkey to Torrejon air base near Madrid where they were greeted by Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

The three men could be seen smiling as they descended from the plane as officials held up umbrellas to shield them from driving rain, in a video released by the government.

Spanish freelance journalists Angel Sastre (right), Jose Manuel Lopez (centre) and Antonio Pampliega (2nd left) arrive at Torrejon military airport in Madrid, on May 8, 2016

Pampliega kissed his sister Alejandra on the forehead and gave her a hug after she ran to greet him.

"Crying from joy falls short," she said on Twitter on Saturday when the news broke that the three experienced conflict zone reporters had been released and were in good health.

The release was "possible thanks to the collaboration of allies and friends especially in the final phase from Turkey and Qatar", the Spanish government said Saturday, without giving further details.

Pampliega's mother Maria del Mar Rodriguez Vega said she planned to cook her son's favourite dish to celebrate his return -- spinach with bechamel sauce.

"He had the same voice as always, from when he was a child, he repeatedly asked me for forgiveness for what he made me go through," she said in a statement released by the Spanish branch of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF.

- 'Collaboration of allies and friends' -

The three journalists were kidnapped by armed men on July 13 while they travelling together in a small van in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo where they had been reporting on fighting for various Spanish media.

They were held by Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front, government sources told AFP.

The trio appear to have been treated better than three other Spanish journalists who were released in March 2014 after being held for six months in Syria by the Islamic State group, Al-Nusra's rival which has executed many of its hostages, the sources added.

When news of the kidnapping broke, a week after the journalists went missing, the families of the hostages asked the media to keep quiet.

The case was handled by Spain's National Intelligence Agency which tried to follow the kidnapped jounalists' movements in Syria and get signs that they were alive and well, according to government sources.

The kidnappers sent media outlets videos showing the Spanish journalists, including one in late April intended as "a way to increase the pressure on Madrid at a particularly sensitive time" in the talks for their release, diplomatic sources said.

The Spanish journalists shared part of their time in captivity with Japanese freelance journalist Jumpei Yasada, who went missing in Syria in the middle of last year, according to Spain's Europa Press news agency, which did not cite any sources.

Last month a video emerged of Yasuda, apparently asking for Tokyo's help in securing his release.

- Experienced journalists -

Lopez, born in 1971, is a prize-winning photographer who contributed images to AFP from several war zones, including from the Syrian conflict up until 2013 and Iraq in 2014.

Pampliega, a freelance war correspondent born in 1982, contributed to AFP's text coverage of the civil war in Syria for a period up to 2013.

A passionate reporter who tended to focus on human interest stories, he also contributed to AFP's coverage in Iraq.

Sastre, 35, has worked in trouble spots around the world, including Syria, for Spanish television, radio and press.

RSF in 2015 ranked Syria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists along with Iraq.

It says 139 journalists died in Syria, where various armed factions have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's regime and each other since 2011.

In August 2014, Islamic State murdered US journalist James Foley, who was taken hostage in northern Syria in 2012.

The following month, the group killed fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff.

In 2015, militants from the group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto.

(L to R) Spanish freelance journalists Angel Sastre, Antonio Pampliega and Jose Manuel Lopez were kidnapped in Syria about 10 months ago

The three reporters were last seen in a rebel-held area of Aleppo on July 13, 2015, monitors say Karam Al-Masri (AFP/File)
Black cadets cause West Point stir with raised fists

The prestigious West Point military academy has opened an inquiry after 16 black female cadets posed for a photo with fists raised in militant style.

The pose struck by the cadets, dressed in their gray uniforms while standing on the steps of barracks in late April, is seen by some critics as an implicit show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and thus a potential violation of a Defense Department rule against "partisan political activity."

West Point seeks to portray itself as a melting pot that brings together talented students from across the country, without regard for racial or ethnic differences, for elite training as future military leaders.

West Point military academy seeks to portray itself as a melting pot that brings together talented students from across the country, without regard for racial or ethnic differences, for elite training as future military leaders Elsa (Getty/AFP/File)

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Kasker, a spokesman for the academy in New York state, confirmed that the cadets were members of the current graduating class.

"Academy officials are conducting an inquiry into the matter," he said on Saturday.

The young women were following a longtime tradition at West Point, where soon-to-be graduates each year strike stern and straightlaced poses in historic style much as their predecessors have done for more than a century.

But instead of raising their sabers to the sky, as they did in another photo without controversy, the black student-officers sparked a mini-tempest by raising their fists at a school with a predominantly white and male student population.

Some active-duty officers and army veterans have complained that the pose seemed to violate Pentagon rules on avoiding political activity by paying tribute to the black nationalism of the civil rights-era Black Panthers group or to the militant tone of the present-day Black Lives Matter protests against police abuses.

But others raised their voice in defense of the women, saying that they were more "Beyonce" than "Black Panther."
There may be much Republican hand-wringing over Donald Trump's presumptive nomination to face against his Democratic challenger to the White House, but the boastful billionaire says he doesn't care, and it doesn't matter.

A growing chorus of senior Republican leaders have joined the 'anyone but Trump movement,' including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and the last two Republican presidents, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush.

'Does it have to be unified?' Trump asked George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week about the Republican Party. 'I'm very different than everybody else, perhaps, that's ever run for office. I actually don't think so.'

Scroll down for video

Trump told ABC's This Week that he doesn't think the Republican party needs to be unified, saying he will get 'millions of people from the Democrats'

The presumptive GOP presidential nom spoke at a rally on Saturday in Lynden, Washington

Asked how he could win in that case, he said: 'I think it would be better if it were unified, I think it would be - there would be something good about it. But I don't think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense.'

Trump said he expected even some Democratic voters to throw their support behind him to win the general election.

'I'm going to go out and I'm going to get millions of people from the Democrats,' Trump said.

'I'm going to get Bernie (Sanders) people to vote, because they like me on trade,' he added, referring to the Democratic candidate in an uphill fight to clinch his party's nomination instead of Hillary Clinton.

'I'm a conservative, but don't forget this is called the Republican party, not the conservative party.'

A supporter at a campaign stop for US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Lynden, Washington, on Saturday

Notable Republicans breaking from the pack to throw their support behind The Donald include New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, however, said they planned not to vote in November, according to CNN.

Despite Trump feeling it doesn't need it, Ryan announced he would meet with Trump next week in an effort to unify the party.
Airbus sets sights on the stratosphere with glider flight

Airbus completed a test flight of a glider set to eventually travel to the edge of space, in a pioneering step into the stratosphere.

The Perlan 2's flight, from an airstrip in the western US state of Nevada, took place two hours after the planned 1:45 (2045 GMT) start time due to heavy rain.

It lasted just a few minutes -- instead of 30 minutes to two hours as scheduled -- because the aircraft is considered more efficient in dry weather, according to chief pilot Jim Payne.

The Airbus Perlan 2 returns to the landing strip following a test flight by Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders and chief pilot Jim Payne on May 7, 2016 at Minden-Tahoe Airport in Minden, Nevada Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

"It was short," said chief executive Tom Enders, who served as co-pilot, said after exiting the plane. "Because of the clouds, we couldn't see any more otherwise we would still be up there."

The flight, part of a series in recent months from the mountainous area just east of the Lake Tahoe resort, aims to test how well an aircraft and its crew can fare in conditions similar to those on Mars, with extremely thin atmosphere and bitterly cold temperatures.

Airbus, supporting the Mission Perlan 2 group that launched the ambitious project, aims to test every aspect of the unpowered aircraft, flying it at various speeds and altitudes and subjecting it to different scenarios of stress and vibration.

Its designers hope to show that the lightweight aircraft, with its extremely long, thin wings, is strong enough to resist intense stresses that could destroy a less solid plane.

In the end, only stability, speed and efficiency were tested, as the plane flew at just 7,000 feet (2,130 meters) for its brief journey.

"The airplane is very stable. We got what we called dead beat response, so the way we like it," said Payne.

Designers, drawing on computerized simulations, plan to induce high-frequency vibrations to the wings to see if the glider itself can contain those vibrations at safe levels.

Ed Warnock, chief executive of the Perlan group, said his team wants to test whether it is possible for the crew to breathe only the air inside the craft without condensation damaging instruments or causing windows to fog up. "We have to control it," he said.

The Perlan 2 project has pulled together top aerospace experts and aviation engineers to develop its space glider. Airbus, which hopes to build planes capable of flying at altitudes above those now used -- potentially saving time and fuel -- is earmarking up to $4 million for the project, making it one of the largest investors.

The glider, with a wing span of 90 feet and a weight of only 1,800 pounds (815 kilograms), is designed to ride updrafts to an altitude of up to 90,000 feet, even though air density at that height is only two percent what it is at sea level.

The craft's cabin is supposed to maintain pressure equal to that at 15,000 feet, saving the crew from having to wear bulky flight suits, Airbus said.

Perlan 2 also aims to collect atmospheric data useful in fighting climate change as it travels to the edge of space.

- High hopes for success -

The Perlan team hopes the test flight this weekend will keep it on track to break the previous altitude record of 85,000 feet set in 1976 by the SR-71 Blackbird, a US Air Force reconnaissance plane built by Lockheed, Warnock said.

The attempt will come after the Perlan 2 team moves to Argentina later this year.

Air currents there have been powerfully bolstered by the polar vortex all the way to the stratosphere, and currents rising from the Andes are particularly strong.

The air drafts that carry a craft like Perlan 2 skyward are strongest in mountainous regions.

However, said Warnock, "We can't take the plane to Argentina until we know it's perfectly safe."

Europe's Airbus group, by supporting a project that harks back to the golden age of space exploration, has hoped to link its name to the sort of innovative aerospace work being carried out by the American billionaires Elon Musk (SpaceX and Tesla) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin, Amazon) as they duel to develop new launch vehicles.

To get a craft and pilots weighing a total of roughly a ton "to the edge of space without using any rocket fuel," said Warnock, "that's innovative."

Airbus Group CEO Tom Enders (R) shakes hands with chief pilot Jim Payne after the two landed a test flight of the Airbus Perlan 2 on May 7, 2016 at Minden-Tahoe Airport in Nevada Timothy A. Clary (AFP)

The Airbus Perlan 2 (R) glider is pulled by a plane before a test flight on May 7, 2016 in Minden, Nevada Timothy A. Clary (AFP)
The Latest: 2nd arrest in fatal fraternity house shooting

NEWARK, N.J. (AP)  The Latest on a fatal shooting at a New Jersey fraternity house (all times local):

7:35 p.m.

Authorities have arrested a second suspect in the killing of a college junior during a burglary attempt at his fraternity house in Newark, New Jersey.

Tau Kappa Epsilon members of New Jersey Institute of Technology and other students pay tribute to student Joseph Micalizzi, who was killed Monday morning, during a vigil in Newark, N.J., Tuesday, May 3, 2016. Gov. Chris Christie said he was shocked by the shooting death of the student killed during a burglary at the fraternity house near the school. (Marko Georgiev/The Record of Bergen County via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

Detectives say they arrested Taquan Harris on Friday without incident in Irvington.

Harris has been charged with murder, felony murder, robbery, burglary and weapons offenses. He's been jailed and can't be reached for comment by telephone.

Prosecutors say New Jersey Institute of Technology student Joseph Micalizzi was killed early Monday at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house during a burglary attempt that turned violent. The 23-year-old Freehold resident was a mechanical engineering major.

The other person arrested is Nafee Cotman, who was captured Thursday in Irvington. Cotman faces similar charges. It's unclear if Cotman has an attorney to comment on his behalf.

___

1:05 p.m.

New Jersey authorities have announced an arrest and named a second suspect in the fatal shooting of a college student during a burglary at his fraternity house.

Essex County officials on Friday announced murder, burglary and weapons charges against 18-year-old Irvington resident Nafee Cotman, who's in custody. Police say they are still searching for 22-year-old Taquan Harris, who faces the same charges.

New Jersey Institute of Technology student Joseph Micalizzi was killed early Monday at the Tau Kappa Epsilon house. The 23-year-old Freehold resident was a mechanical engineering major.

The fraternity is across the street from the Rutgers-Newark campus, near where a Rutgers student was killed in a double shooting last month.
Former Sen. Conrad Burns remembered as influential lawmaker

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP)  Three-term Montana U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns was remembered Friday as an influential lawmaker skilled at connecting with people but unable to shake a penchant for stirring public controversy with politically incorrect comments.

Burns died April 28 of natural causes at 81.

Hundreds of mourners paid tribute to the blunt-talking Republican during a funeral service at the Metra Park Arena in Burns' hometown of Billings.

A photo of former Montana U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns and his wife, Phyllis, is displayed during a Friday, May 6, 2016, funeral service for the three-term lawmaker at the Metra Park Arena in Billings, Mont. Burns died last week at the age of 81. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

They included Gov. Steve Bullock, former Gov. Marc Racicot, current and former members of the Montana and Wyoming congressional delegations, state and federal judges, and elected officials from across Montana.

The service led by Pastor Darren Paulson of Atonement Lutheran Church focused on Burn's family, his outgoing personality and a political savvy that at times failed Burns when his loose-talking style went too far.

First and foremost, said daughter Keely Godwin, Burns was interested in people. He would know within minutes of meeting someone where that person grew up and who their parents were, she said.

"He believed in them and made them believe in themselves," Godwin said. "He said we all spend 15 minutes a day doing dumb things. The trick to success is, don't go over your quota."

In 1988, at the age of 53 and after serving just two years as a Yellowstone County commissioner, Burns turned his people skills to statewide politics, defeating two-term U.S. Sen. John Melcher in a close election.

His former chief of staff in Montana, Dwight Mackay, said Burns put much of his focus while in the Senate on issues that would benefit a rural constituency. That included legislation to expand internet availability in eastern Montana, where, Burns liked to say, "there's a lot of dirt between light bulbs," according to Mackay.

Burns delivered many millions of federal dollars for the state's agriculture industry, higher education institutions and military installations, Mackay said. He also worked to reshape federal land management policies to allow increased energy development.

Distracting from those accomplishments was Burns' reputation for crass remarks  about Indians, women, immigrants and others.

He joked about the immigration status of a "nice little Guatemalan man" who was painting his house, called Arabs "ragheads" in a speech about oil prices and criticized firefighters battling a wildfire in Montana as lazy.

"He always said I could self-destruct in one sentence, and he almost did a lot of times," Mackay said. "He said what he said and thought what he thought."

By his third term, Burns faced growing criticism for getting too close to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, drawing an investigation that ended two years after he left office. No charges were ever filed and Burns himself dismissed the matter as "political hooey."

Former U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg, who served as campaign manager for Burns' successful 1988 U.S. Senate run, said Burns considered himself foremost a Montanan.

"Everybody tried to portray him as being part of the establishment and that he had 'gone Washington.' That couldn't be further from the truth," Rehberg said.

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Follow Matthew Brown on Twitter at https://twitter.com/matthewbrownap .

An unidentified mourner pays tribute to former U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns during a Friday, May 6, 2016 funeral service for the three-term lawmaker at the Metra Park Arena in Billings, Mont. Burns died last week at the age of 81. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

From left, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Montana U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines and former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson, watch a slide show depicting the life of former Montana U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns during Burns' funeral service on Friday, May 6, 2016, at the Metra Park Arena in Billings, Mont. Tester narrowly defeated Burns in 2006. Burns died last week at the age of 81. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
Volvo Ocean Race officials say former winner Carlin has died

ALICANTE, Spain (AP)  Volvo Ocean Race officials say Ramon Carlin, the "weekend sailor" who overcame long odds to win the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973-74, has died in Mexico City. He was 92.

Carlin was unknown in the sport when he entered the race, which later became the Volvo Ocean Race, after making a fortune manufacturing washing machines and other goods.

He assembled a crew of unheralded sailors before upsetting some of the era's leading names in offshore sailing, such as Britain's Chay Blyth, by winning with his Swan 65, Sayula II.

After the race, in which three rival sailors died in the 19-boat fleet, Carlin returned home to a presidential reception in Acapulco and became Mexico's most famous yachtsman.
Alabama chief justice faces ouster after gay marriage fight

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)  Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore  ousted from office more than a decade ago over a Ten Commandments display  now faces possible removal from the bench over his effort to block gay marriage from coming to that state after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission on Friday filed ethics charges against Moore, saying that the state chief justice abused the power of his office and displayed disrespect for the judiciary. Moore, 69, has been automatically suspended from the bench until there is a resolution.

The charges stem from a Jan. 6 administrative order Moore sent to probate judges telling them an Alabama court order and law banning same-sex marriages remained in full force and effect even though the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges effectively legalized gay marriage six months prior.

"By issuing his unilateral order of January 6, 2016, Chief Justice Moore flagrantly disregarded a fundamental constitutional right guaranteed in all states as declared by the United States Court in Obergefell," the Judicial Inquiry Commission wrote in the charges.

The chief justice's order to probate judges also came even though a federal judge had enjoined probate judges from enforcing Alabama's same-sex marriage ban, the commission wrote.

The Court of the Judiciary will decide whether Moore is guilty of violating judicial ethics. If found guilty, he could face removal from office.

Moore issued a statement Friday night saying he doesn't believe the commission has authority over administrative orders and state court injunction. Moore, as he did in a press conference last week about the complaints, referenced a recent protest outside his office by gay and transgender people.

"The JIC has chosen to listen to people like Ambrosia Starling, a professed transvestite, and other gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, as well as organizations which support their agenda. We intend to fight this agenda vigorously and expect to prevail," Moore said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civils rights legal advocacy group, filed the complaint against Moore that led to Friday's charges.

"Moore has disgraced his office for far too long," SPLC President Richard Cohen said. "He's such a religious zealot, such an egomaniac that he thinks he doesn't have to follow federal court rulings he disagrees with. For the good of the state, he should be kicked out of office."

Moore previously served as Alabama's chief justice. The Court of Judiciary removed him from office after 2003 after he refused to comply with a federal court order to remove a boulder-sized Ten Commandments monument that he installed in the rotunda of the state judicial building.

Moore was re-elected in 2012.The fiery Republican chief justice has been an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage both on and off the bench. During a 2012 campaign stop he said gay marriage would be the "ultimate destruction of our country because it destroys the very foundation upon which this nation is based." He sent a Jan. 27, 2015, letter to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley asking him to stand up to "judicial tyranny" after a federal judge ruled Alabama's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

The chief justice held a press conference last week in Montgomery with attorney Mat Staver, who represented Kentucky clerk Kim Davis after she refused to issue marriage licenses. Moore and Staver criticized the Southern Poverty Law Center complaint as politically motivated.

Moore said he did not tell probate judges to defy a court order but was telling them that the Alabama Supreme Court order to refuse same-sex marriages had not been lifted.

"There is nothing in writing that you will find that I told anybody to disobey a federal court order. That's not what I said," Moore said last week. Asked last week if judges should be issuing licenses to gay couples, Moore said it remained for "probate judge to decide."
Soviet-made plane crashes near Southern California homes

HIGHLAND, Calif. (AP)  A small Soviet-made plane has crashed in Southern California, but the two people aboard escaped with minor injuries.

Mike Mohler of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection says the pilot and a passenger got out of the plane on their own after crashing in Highland, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. Photos show the mustard-colored plane lying in a grassy area near several homes.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the single-engine Antonov AN-2 experienced engine failure as it was approaching San Bernardino International Airport on Friday.

An Antonov AN-2 biplane lies upended after crashing in an empty field Friday, May 6, 2016, in Highland, Calif. Two people sustained minor injuries after a vintage plane crashed in San Bernardino County, authorities said. (Micah Escamilla/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

FAA records show the plane is registered to the American Airpower Heritage Flying Museum in Dallas. A spokeswoman for the museum had no further information about the crash.

A firefighter surveys the damage as an Antonov AN-2 biplane lies upended after crashing in an empty field Friday, May 6, 2016, in Highland, Calif. Two people sustained minor injuries after a vintage plane crashed in San Bernardino County, authorities said. (Micah Escamilla/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

A worker is lifted in a bucket to address broken power lines shortly as an Antonov AN-2 biplane lies upended after crashing in an empty field Friday, May 6, 2016, in Highland, Calif. Two people sustained minor injuries after a vintage plane crashed in San Bernardino County, authorities said. (Micah Escamilla/The Sun via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT
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North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un has said he will not be the first to push the red button, and will only use nuclear weapons of an attacking enemy does first.

Speaking to thousands of delegates at the North Korea Workers' Party congress this weekend, Kim said his country is a responsible' nuclear weapons state, that 'will not use nuclear weapons first unless aggressive hostile forces use nuclear weapons'.

Kim also said he is ready to improve ties with 'hostile' nations in a diplomatic overture in the face of international pressure over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

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Kim Jong Un told the Workers' Party conference in Pyongyang that North Korea 'will not use nuclear weapons first unless aggressive hostile forces use nuclear weapons'

Adoring public: North Koreans clap as they listen to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speak at the party congress during a television broadcast on a public screen near the Pyongyang train station

Military officers applaud as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gives speech at the party congress in Pyongyang, where Kim also said he is ready to improve ties with the US and South Korea

He called for more talks with rival South Korea to reduce misunderstanding and distrust between them and urged the United States to stay away from inter-Korean issues, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

'Our republic is a responsible nuclear state that, as we made clear before, will not use nuclear weapons first unless aggressive hostile forces use nuclear weapons to invade on our sovereignty,' Kim said in a speech carried by state broadcaster KCNA.

He said that North Korea 'will sincerely fulfill its duties for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and work to realize the denuclearization of the world.'

The North is ready to improve and normalize ties with countries hostile to it if they respect its sovereignty and approach it in a friendly manner, Kim said.

Despite the talks about more diplomatic activity, Kim also made it clear that the North has no plans to discard its 'byongjin' policy of simultaneously developing its nuclear weapons and its domestic economy.

In a speech published by the North's Rodong Sinmun, Kim described the twin policy as a strategy the party must permanently hold on to for the 'maximized interest of our revolution.'

Changing jhis tune: Kim's call for talks with his 'enemies' is a diplomatic overture in the face of international pressure over North Korea's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch

North Korean guides read newspapers showing coverage of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un delivering a speech at the 7th Workers Party Congress, in the lobby of the Yanggakdo hotel in Pyongyang

North Korea Workers Party delegates attend the party congress in Pyongyang - the first in more than 30 years

Kim Jong Un and delegates held the party conference under the watchful eyes of images of his father and grandfather

Many outside analysts consider the policy unlikely to succeed because of the heavy price North Korea pays for its nuclear program in terms of international sanctions that keep its economy from growing.

At the congress, Kim also announced a five-year plan starting this year to develop the North's dismal economy and identified improving the country's power supply and increasing its agricultural and light-manufacturing production as the critical parts of the program. He also said the country must secure more electricity through nuclear power plants, according to the state media.

Analysts have anticipated Kim would use the first Workers' Party congress in decades to propose talks with rivals to exploit what he considers to be increased leverage as a nuclear power.

North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January and followed with a satellite launch in February that was seen by outside governments as a banned test for long-range missile technology, earning worldwide condemnation and tougher U.N. sanctions.

The North responded to the punitive measures, and also the annual U.S.-South Korean military drills in March and April, by firing a series of missiles and artillery into the sea. It also claimed advancements in developing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and combined them with threats of pre-emptive nuclear strikes on Washington and Seoul.

People listen to Kim Jong Un speak at the party congress during a broadcast on a public screen near the Pyongyang train station

North Korean women tie flags as they decorate the streets in downtown Pyongyang, North Korea

North Korean men wait with their bicycles to cross a street decorated with flags of their ruling Workers' Party

A pin of the late North Korea leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il is displayed on a North Korean man's suit

North Koreans, adults and youths, ride on an electric trolley bus Saturday, May 7, 2016 in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The ruling Workers' Party symbols are erected by the portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il while workers decorate the vicinity with flowers at the Kim Il Sung Square

Analysts said that the North's belligerent stance might have been intended at rallying North Korean people around Kim ahead of the congress and also promote military accomplishments to the domestic audience to make up for the lack of tangible economic achievements to present at the party meeting.

South Korea has taken a hard-line approach to North Korea following its nuclear test and long-range rocket launch, shutting down a jointly-run factory park in a North Korean border town that had been the last remaining symbol of cooperation between the rivals and slapping Pyongyang with its own economic sanctions.

Seoul has also been in talks with Washington on deploying a sophisticated U.S. missile defense system in South Korea.

North Korea had spent the past months resisting talks with the South and threatening attacks against it, but Kim spoke with a different tone at the conference. He said 'fundamentally improving' inter-Korean relations was an urgent matter for his government and also called for the South to 'hold hands' with the North as a 'companion' for unification, the KCNA said.

He urged the need for more talks with the South, and in particular called for a meeting between military officials of both sides to reduce border tension.

However, Kim stressed that the South must first employ practical measures to improve ties and throw out laws and institutional systems that have hampered them. He also said that the United States should no longer be involved with matters in the Korean Peninsula, and that if enemy forces 'ignite the fire of war,' the North was ready to mercilessly punish the aggressors and accomplish the 'historical feat' of unification.

Kim called for Seoul and Washington to stop their military drills and also said the United States must withdraw the 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a buffer against possible aggression from the North.

South Korea's Foreign Ministry said ahead of the North's ruling party congress in Pyongyang that the priority of any future talks with the North would be its denuclearization.

A woman is dwarfed as she walks past giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung, left, and Kim Jong Il

A North Korean man reads the local newspapers displayed in a subway station as seen during a press tour

North Korean commuters enter a new subway carriage in Pyongyang, as the city is shown to journalists

A nurse checks on a pre-mature baby undergoing phototherapy at he Pyongyang Maternity Hospital as seen during a press tour Saturday
Afghanistan faces tough battle as Haqqanis unify the Taliban

ISLAMABAD (AP)  A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency.

The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. The firepower it brings to the Taliban was shown by a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in years, which experts say was too sophisticated for the insurgents to have carried out without the Haqqanis.

The network's role could also further poison already tainted relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan is pressing Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqanis, accusing it of tolerating the group, a charge the Pakistanis deny.

FILE- In this Aug. 22, 1998 file photo, Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the militant group the Haqqani network, speaks during an interview in Miram Shah, Pakistan. A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban, moving to unify the insurgency and further poison already frayed relations between Afghanistan and its neighbor, according to analysts. An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership shows the Haqqani network _ a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that was linked to a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people _ is on the ascendancy, raising fears that Afghanistan faces another summer of fierce fighting. (AP Photo/Mohammed Riaz, File)

An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership, obtained by The Associated Press, offers a glimpse into the influence the Haqqani network now holds within the movement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network's leader and newly elevated deputy head of the Taliban, tells the gathering that they must end differences and focus on fighting. "It is time to work. The mujahedeen (Islamic holy warriors) are happily going to the battlefield," he is heard saying. The voice is recognizable as Haqqani's.

Haqqani's rise to the deputy post is the highest, most direct role that the network is known to have taken in the Taliban leadership. The network pledged allegiance to the Taliban years ago but has traditionally operated independently.

The network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time ally of the United States who achieved fame fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and who developed close ties to the slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. After his death, his son Sirajuddin Haqqani took over.

The elder Haqqani aligned his group with the Taliban after the insurgents were driven from power in the U.S.-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was a formidable militant financier, traveling to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to raise money.

The network is believed to command thousands of fighters. Over the years, the Haqqanis emerged as the Taliban's strongest asset because of their battle-hardened fighters and traditional links to Pakistan's security agencies. Both U.S and Afghan intelligence agencies say Pakistan's intelligence network, known as ISI, has allowed the Haqqanis to live freely for decades in Pakistan's tribal regions, a claim Islamabad denies.

"There's no one sole source of the Haqqani network's strength, though three places you can point to are its personnel, its links to Pakistan, and its ties to the Gulf region," said Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

The Taliban leadership meeting, held early last month at an undisclosed location, focused on strategies and battles ahead, the audio recording shows. During the meeting, Sirajuddin Haqqani called on the Taliban to close ranks, reminding them their enemy is the "foreign infidel" and not each other.

Since last summer, Sirajuddin Haqqani has been instrumental in reconciling differences among Taliban commanders, who balked at recognizing Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as the supreme Taliban chief following the announcement that the insurgency's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was dead.

As soon as Mansoor became leader, he announced that he had named Haqqani as his deputy.

Haqqani quickly set about uniting the fractured Taliban, first by bringing Mullah Omar's son, Mullah Yaqoob, and his brother, Mullah Abdul Manan Omari, into the fold, according to a Taliban official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to the press.

Haqqani then coaxed Zakir Qayyum, a Taliban strongman in the battleground southern Afghan province of Helmand and the former head of the Taliban military committee under Mullah Omar, to swear allegiance to Mansour, healing some of the biggest divisions within the Taliban, the Taliban official said. Fahd Humayun, program and research manager at the Jinnah Institute, a think-tank in the Pakistani capital, who closely follows Taliban developments, also said Haqqani was key to healing the divisions.

The rise of the Haqqanis comes at a critical juncture in relations between Kabul and Islamabad.

In the off-and-on effort for negotiations over the years, Pakistan has hosted past meetings between the Kabul government and the Taliban, whose leaders are widely believed to be based in the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan.

A four-nation group that included Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States launched efforts earlier this year to try to bring Afghanistan's protracted war to a negotiated end but the push fell apart amid recent Taliban battlefield gains.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani now says he is no longer interested in having Pakistan bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Instead, he demands Islamabad stop harboring the Taliban and take up the fight against the Haqqanis.

The U.S. State Department has also repeated its demand that Pakistan take action.

Islamabad claims it decimated the Haqqani network's infrastructure in a military operation launched two years ago in North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis are headquartered. It points to its own grievances with the Haqqanis, who also maintain links with the Pakistan Taliban, a separate group that has killed hundreds of Pakistani soldiers in recent years.

While Pakistan pledged to dismantle militant networks on its territory, Pakistan's special adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, earlier this week told reporters in Islamabad that the only solution to the Afghan war was through peace talks.

Should the Haqqanis be pushed out of Pakistan and back into Afghanistan, Ghani's government and Afghan forces would likely be overwhelmed, say analysts.

"I can't imagine the Afghans would be able to take on the Haqqanis themselves," Kugelman said. "I'm not sure they'd be able to take them on even with assistance from foreign combat forces."

FILE - In this Tuesday, April 19, 2016 file photo, Afghan security forces inspect the site of a Taliban-claimed deadly suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban, moving to unify the insurgency and further poison already frayed relations between Afghanistan and its neighbor, according to analysts. An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership shows the Haqqani network _ a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that was linked to a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people _ is on the ascendancy, raising fears that Afghanistan faces another summer of fierce fighting. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini)
Angsty conservatives licking wounds in Age of Trump

WASHINGTON (AP)  For a lot of angsty conservatives, there's more to worry about than just Donald Trump. There's the future of the conservative movement to consider.

The soul-searching over what to do with the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee includes a broader debate over who gets to define conservatism.

An Iowa talk show host on the right talks of conservatism going into "temporary exile." A senator and self-described "movement conservative" still is casting about for an alternative to Trump and expected Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The head of a grassroots conservative group in Texas wishes he could wake up from a dream and discover the Trump-as-nominee notion is nothing more than the product of indigestion from a bad burrito.

In this May 5, 2016, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a rally in Charleston, W. Va. For a lot of angsty conservatives, there's more to worry about than just Trump. Theres the future of the conservative movement to consider. The soul-searching over what to do with the Republican Partys presumptive presidential nominee includes a broader debate over who gets to define conservatism. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

"The conservative movement, a movement I have been proud to be a part of, has been hijacked and twisted, and all the work we've done has been totally reversed," lamentss RedState columnist Joe Cunningham.

The bitter irritation over Trump isn't just about ideology; there's ego in play, too.

"There are certain conservatives who view themselves as the brains and leadership of the movement who are somewhat offended that their call to action to stop Trump failed," says Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, the oldest and largest conservative grassroots organization. "When they told people to go in a certain direction, the people didn't follow. And so there's a certain amount of ego and pride wrapped into the current state of affairs."

For Schlapp, the answer to the what-now question is easy, although his organization hasn't made an endorsement. He's ready to "strongly, enthusiastically, full-throatedly" support Trump  given the Democratic alternative.

"Look," he says, "Donald Trump is not on trial to determine whether or not he is an award-winning conservative. It is a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton."

Further, says Schlapp, Republican voters didn't reject conservatism to vote for Trump. They simply put a higher priority on Trump's shake-up-the-system message than they did on evaluating how his positions jibe with their policy manuals.

Some glass-half-full types say conservatives need to stop the gloom-and-doom over Trump, and use this as a teachable moment.

Michael Quinn Sullivan, head of the grassroots group Empower Texans, says conservatives should be reflecting on how they underestimated the frustration of the electorate and consider how they can do a better job of communicating with the millions of first-time voters Trump is bringing into the system.

"A lot of folks on the elected side of the movement have been trying very hard to keep the lid on top of the frustration and the angst and the anger, and when it finally blows it gets a little messy," says Sullivan. "We need to be encouraging some of our elected officials and some of our politicians and party officials to be willing to let the steam off, and be willing to engage folks at the level where they really are."

Sullivan adds that based on his conversations with Texas voters, Trump's early supporters included plenty of frustrated conservative activists who decided, "I know he may not be necessarily exactly one of us, but he's going to go burn the place down. He's going to shake up the establishment."

For now, though, Sullivan is with House Speaker Paul Ryan  just not ready to support Trump.

The speaker said Thursday: "Conservatives want to know, does he share our values and our principles on limited government, the proper role of the executive, adherence to the Constitution? There are a lot of questions that conservatives, I think, are going to want answers to, myself included. "

Gregory Angelo, president of the Log Cabin Republicans, which advocates for LGBT rights, says he hears from plenty of "died-in-the-wool conservatives who are splintered right now in terms of where they're going."

"The wounds are still fresh, as it were, and I don't think people are going to digest where we're headed until several months have gone by," says Angelo, adding that his organization is "just as splintered and soul searching" as other GOP groups.

Exit polling in the primaries found Trump doing less well with people who are the most conservative.

Across all states so far where exit polling data is available, Trump voters included 36 percent of those who are very conservative, 43 percent of those who are somewhat conservative and 41 percent of moderates.

Count Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska among those who are most outspoken about the conservative dilemma.

He used a Facebook post after Trump's last GOP rivals dropped out to hold out hope for another option, saying he was willing to set aside "an ideological purity test, because even a genuine consensus candidate would almost certainly be more conservative than either of the two dishonest liberals now leading the two national parties."

Syndicated talk show host Steve Deace in Iowa, in a column written for USA Today, was even more cutting about how the GOP has failed conservatives.

"Conservatism's role in the 2016 election is now over while the idiocracy takes it from here," he wrote.

___

AP News Survey Specialist Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

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Police: Carjackings likely at end of Maryland shooting spree

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP)  Malcom Winffel's family was not surprised to learn that he died in an effort to help others.

"He was always helping people," said his sister, Pilar Winffel, of Columbia. "If a friend of a friend was moving, he would go and help."

On Friday, the 45-year-old man was helping a woman in the parking lot of Montgomery Mall when police say he was shot and killed by Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi.

Police take Eulalio Tordil, 62, a suspect in three fatal shootings in the Washington, D.C., area into custody in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Tordil is an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Tordil went on a nearly 24-hour shooting spree Thursday and Friday, authorities say, killing three people and wounding three others. Police say the spree began with a domestic motivation, with Tordil fatally shooting his estranged wife, Gladys Tordil, who had recently obtained a protective order against him. A bystander who tried to intervene was wounded.

They say it concluded with two more shooting scenes that were likely the result of botched carjackings.

On Saturday, police identified the two victims who died in the apparent botched carjackings. Police say Winffel was shot and killed  and his friend was wounded  as they sought to help a woman Tordil was attempting to carjack at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Tordil later drove to a strip mall in Aspen Hill, where police say he fatally shot Claudina Molina, 65, of Silver Spring.

At a news conference Saturday night, Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Russ Hamill said Winffel and his friend, who wasn't identified, were coming to the carjacking victim's aid when they were shot.

"Those two men acted selflessly and heroically, most likely saving her life," Hamill said.

Hamill said Winffel's friend, who was described Friday as being in grave condition, is "making progress. We remain hopeful he'll survive."

Hundreds of people attended a vigil remembering Winffel Saturday evening at Clarksburg High School, where his two children are enrolled. A gofundme page set up to help the family with funeral expenses and the kids' college expenses had received nearly $30,000 in donations as of Saturday evening.

In an interview Saturday evening, Pilar Winffel said her brother had gone to the mall for lunch with a friend. Witnesses told her that her brother was shot as the woman under attack by Tordil spotted Winffel in the parking lot and ran toward him for help. Winffel was shot with his arms extended, reaching out to help the woman, Pilar said. She was told Tordil was smiling as he fired the shots.

At Saturday's news conference, Hamill said Tordil spoke to investigators a little about the shootings. "I would not describe him as being remorseful," Hamill said.

Hamill said a search of Tordil's car uncovered a .40-caliber Glock handgun that was used in Friday's shootings. Hamill said police believe it also was used in Thursday's shooting of Gladys Tordil but that more testing is needed to confirm.

Tordil, a federal security officer employed by the Federal Protective Service, was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him when his wife said he had threatened to harm her if she left him, The Washington Post reported (http://wapo.st/1WOrwyg). Tordil subjected their children to "intense-military-like discipline," like push-ups and detention in a dark closet, according to the order.

The protective service said Tordil's weapon, badge and credentials were taken when he was placed on leave.

Tordil also got into trouble in 2008  a report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general says that Tordil entered into a civil settlement and paid HUD nearly $16,000 after he obtained a $27,000 discount on a property through a federal program but failed to live up to the program rules, which required him to live in the property where he received the discount.

Hamill said Saturday that Tordil appeared to have purchased the Glock after being subject to the protective order.

Tordil is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Monday. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013.

All three shooting scenes occurred in public parking lots and in daylight hours, and comparisons to the 2002 D.C. sniper shootings leapt immediately to the minds of area residents. Tordil's arrest took place just steps away from a Michaels craft store that was the first target of snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, who left 10 people dead during a three-week killing spree that paralyzed the region with fear.

Hamill said Saturday that he also thought immediately of the sniper shootings when he learned the location of the Aspen Hill shooting, but he believes it's just a coincidence.

___

Associated Press contributors include Ben Nuckols, Jessica Gresko, Sarah Brumfield and Alex Brandon.

Police take Eulalio Tordil, 62, a suspect in three fatal shootings in the Washington, D.C., area into custody in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Tordil is an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Police take Eulalio Tordil, 62, a suspect in three fatal shootings in the Washington, D.C., area into custody in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Tordil is an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Montgomery County, Md. Police Capt. Paul Starks speaks to the media in the parking lot outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. A woman was killed and three people were wounded in two shootings within an hour Friday at a mall and a shopping center in the Washington suburbs, police said. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

This photo provided by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration shows Eulalio Tordil. A manhunt was under way May 6, 2016, after authorities said they were looking into whether three fatal shootings in the Washington area were connected. The first shooting occurred May 5 at a high school. The second occurred in a mall parking lot and the third happened minutes later at a nearby shopping center. Police have identified the school shooting suspect as Tordil, an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. (Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration via AP)

Assistant Montgomery County, Md. Police Chief Darryl McSwain leaves after speaking to reporters under a tent during a heavy rain outside Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md., after a shooting Friday, May 6, 2016. Police say three people were hurt in the shooting. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

A Montgomery County, Md. Police officer marks evidence after a shooting outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Police in Maryland say three people were hurt after the shooting. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Montgomery County, Md. Police officers investigate the scene after a shooting outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Md., Friday, May 6, 2016. Police say three people were hurt in the shooting. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Philippine election could cause heartburn for its US ally

WASHINGTON (AP)  The upcoming Philippine presidential election could cause some heartburn in Washington. The winner of Monday's vote will be hand-maiden to the most crucial U.S. relationship in Southeast Asia, and the front-runner has not inspired confidence with his casual threats to shoot criminals and by joking about the gang rape and killing of a foreign missionary.

The historically tumultuous relationship between the U.S. and its former colony has thrived in recent years as the Philippines has turned to Washington for support against an assertive China. But there's uncertainty about how the eventual election winner will navigate external relations during a period of high tensions with Beijing.

Front-running candidate Rodrigo Duterte is known for his profanity-laden speeches and has been likened to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He made international headlines last month when he said that an Australian missionary who was gang raped and killed during a 1989 prison siege was so beautiful that he "should have been the first" to assault her. The Australian and U.S. ambassadors criticized that comment, and Duterte told them to shut up.

FILE - In this April 29, 2016, file photo, Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte answers questions from the media in Manila, Philippines. The upcoming Philippine presidential election could cause some heartburn in Washington. The winner of the vote on May 9 will be hand-maiden to the most crucial U.S. relationship in Southeast Asia, and front-runner Duterte has not inspired confidence with his casual threats to shoot criminals and by joking about the gang rape and killing of a foreign missionary. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

On Friday, incumbent President Benigno Aquino III, who cannot run for re-election, made a desperate call for the trailing candidates to ally against Duerte, whom he described as a threat to democracy. The veteran city mayor has earned the nickname "Duterte Harry," after a Clint Eastwood character with little regard for rules. He faces allegations that death squads committed extra-judicial killings to clean up the southern city of Davao that he's run for 22 years.

As with any foreign election, U.S. officials are reluctant to comment in case they are accused of trying to influence the result. "We look forward to working with the next Philippine administration to build upon our strong and enduring relationship, whatever the outcome of elections may be," said Katina Adams, a State Department spokeswoman for East Asia.

Still, they'll be hoping for a successor who will follow the strategic path forged by Aquino, who has doubled down on ties with Washington in the face of China's aggressive pursuit of territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea.

On Aquino's watch, the Philippines has agreed to opening up several of its military facilities in American forces  a quarter-century after nationalist sentiments forced the closure of U.S. bases in the island nation. That's an important boost to President Barack Obama's push to expand America's presence in the Asia-Pacific to counter China.

"The Philippines has adopted an adversarial posture with regard to China that is unique in the region," said Marvin Ott, a former U.S. intelligence analyst and now a lecturer on Southeast Asian studies.

Aquino has been more circumspect with China than his predecessor, who was accused of cutting a corrupt deal with Beijing over joint exploitation of resources in the South China Sea. Aquino did reach out to Beijing after taking office in 2010, but relations tumbled after Chinese vessels occupied a shoal off the Philippine coast in 2012. Manila subsequently lodged a case with an international tribunal challenging the legal basis of Beijing's claims to virtually all the South China Sea. A ruling is expected within weeks.

That's an approach that's been supported by the Obama administration, but which could sharpen tensions with China if the tribunal rules in Manila's favor, as many expect.

The contender most likely to follow Aquino's policies on the South China Sea is the one the president has endorsed: Mar Roxas, a U.S.-educated investment banker who served in Aquino's Cabinet. But all of the candidates, including Roxas, have signaled a willingness to improve relations with China, the region's dominant economy.

Vikram Singh, a former senior U.S. defense official, said it was possible that as president, any of the candidates could slow the recent agreements on increased U.S. military access to Philippine bases, but he expected "they'll want to keep close ties with Washington when they see just how significant the pressure can be from Beijing."

Duerte's position on the South China Sea has been characteristically unconventional. He has said he would initiate talks with the Chinese, and if those fail he'd go to one of the disputed Chinese-made islands by jet ski and plant a Philippine flag. He told a televised debate it would be up to the Chinese if they want to shoot him and make him a national hero.

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Obama: US in 'better place' than when he graduated college

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Barack Obama said Saturday that the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed."

But gaps persist, he told Howard University's Class of 2016, citing racism and inequality as examples.

In a commencement speech at one of the nation's leading historically black schools, Obama said there were no black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and few black judges when Columbia University awarded him a bachelor's degree in 1983.

President Barack Obama, left, talks with Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick, right, during the commencement ceremony for the 2016 graduating class of Howard University in Washington, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Obama said Saturday that the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed." But gaps persist, he told Howard University's Class of 2016, citing racism and inequality. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

"A lot of folks didn't even think blacks had the tools to be a quarterback," Obama said. "When I was graduating, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T. Rap and hip-hop were counterculture, underground. Now Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night and Beyonce runs the world." Rhimes is the executive producer of television hits "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy," which air on Thursdays.

Today, he said, "We're no longer entertainers. We're producers, studio executives. No longer small-business owners, we're CEOs. We're mayors, representatives"  and someone in the crowd shouted out, "President."

"I'm not saying gaps do not persist. Obviously, they do," Obama said. "Racism persists, inequality persists."

He called on the university's 2,300 graduates to step up and take on the work of closing those gaps.

"America needs you to gladly, happily take up that work ... so enjoy the party, because you're going to be busy," Obama said.

He cited income inequality, an issue in the presidential campaign to choose his successor in November, as well as disparities in unemployment, pay and criminal justice. He also listed disease and conflict worldwide, along with terrorism and climate change as other issues needing attention.

"So make no mistake, Class of 2016. You've got plenty of work to do," said Obama, who was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree. "But as complicated and sometimes intractable as these challenges may seem, the truth is that your generation is better positioned than any before you to meet those challenges."

"America is a better place today than it was when I graduated from college," Obama said, adding "by almost every measure." He said the country "also happens to be better off than when I took office, but that's a longer story."

The line drew cheers and applause. "That's a different discussion for another speech," Obama said.

Obama told the graduates to be confident and embrace being African-American and all that it entails, including "our particular awareness of injustice and unfairness and struggle. That means we cannot sleepwalk through life. We cannot be ignorant of history. We cannot meet the world with a sense of entitlement."

He urged them to vote and not to fear opposing voices. Many in the audience of about 15,000 chanted "four more years" as Obama received the degree. He cited low voter turnout in general and among younger voters in particular for control of Congress switching from Democratic to Republican during his presidency.

"You don't think that made a difference in terms of the Congress I've got to deal with," Obama said. "And then people are wondering, well, how come Obama hasn't gotten this done? Just vote. It's math."

Obama, 54, opened by telling the graduates that most of them were just starting high school when he was first elected in 2008.

"I used to joke about being old. Now I realize I'm old. It's not a joke anymore," he said.

The address was the first of three commencement speeches Obama has scheduled this spring, his final ones as president.

Obama is set to speak May 15 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and June 2 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

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Ciearra Jefferson celebrates her graduation with her class after President Barack Obama delivered the Howard University's commencement speech during the 2016 Howard University graduation ceremony in Washington, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Obama says the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed." ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick, left, adjusts the sash of President Barack Obama, center, as he is awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Howard University in Washington, Saturday, May 7, 2016, by Vernon Jordan, right. Obama says the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama gives his commencement address to the 2016 graduating class of Howard University in Washington, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Obama says the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Graduates photograph President Barack Obama as he gives his commencement address to the 2016 graduating class of Howard University in Washington, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Obama says the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed." (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Turbulence injures 17 on Indonesia-Hong Kong flight

BALI, Indonesia (AP)  Seventeen passengers and crew were injured when a Hong Kong Airlines' flight ran into severe turbulence early Saturday on the way from Indonesia's resort Bali island to Hong Kong.

The Airbus A330-200 with 204 passengers and 12 crew returned to Bali about 2  hours into the flight and landed safely at 4:34 a.m. (2034 GMT Friday), said Trikora Harjo, general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport.

The plane encountered the turbulence above Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, he said.

Most of the injuries were head bruises and there were no serious cases, Harjo said. Three crewmembers and eight passengers were brought to a hospital while six others were treated at the airport clinic, he said.

He said there was no damage to the plane, but an inspection was underway.

Ninety-five passengers were flown to Hong Kong on board a Garuda Indonesia plane Saturday morning while the rest were waiting at the airport and hotels.

It was the second such incident involving Airbus planes over Indonesian territory in the past four days.
US getting tougher with Israel over settlements

WASHINGTON (AP)  The United States will endorse a tougher tone with Israel in an upcoming international report that takes the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state, diplomats told The Associated Press.

The U.S. and its fellow Mideast mediators also will chastise Palestinian leaders for failing to rein in anti-Israeli violence. But the diplomats involved in drafting the document said its primary focus will be a surge of construction in Jewish housing in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The U.S. approval of the harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called "Quartet" of mediators with careful diplomatic language, but the diplomats said the U.S. in this case will align itself closer to the positions of the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, who emphasize Israel's role in the Mideast impasse.

FILE - In this March 31, 2016 file photo, a Palestinian woman inspects a home that was demolished by the Israeli army in the West Bank city of Hebron. Diplomats say the U.S. will endorse a tough new tone with Israel in an upcoming international report. The report would take the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state. (AP Photo/ Nasser Shiyoukhi, File)

The report's release is sure to infuriate Israel, where officials are already bracing for expected criticism. And on the other side, although the mediators will endorse some long-standing Palestinian complaints, the Palestinians are likely to complain the report does not go far enough.

Diplomats acknowledge the report, which could come out in late May or June, will be largely symbolic, requiring no action. It could be unveiled at the U.N. and possibly sent to the Security Council for an endorsement, according to the diplomats, who included three U.S. officials. They all demanded anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the unfinished work publicly.

The diplomats said the report is intended to highlight obstacles to a two-state peace agreement  the stated goal of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders  and offer recommendations for restarting negotiations in a process that is stalled.

The Palestinians don't want talks as long as settlement construction continues; the Israelis say they're open to negotiations, but have shown little interest in making any meaningful concessions.

One diplomat said the report would be "balanced" because it would criticize the Palestinians for incitement and violence against Israeli citizens. Near-daily attacks in recent months by Palestinians, mostly stabbings, have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. Some 193 Palestinians have been killed. Israel says most of these were attackers and the rest died in clashes with Israeli forces.

But the diplomat added that those involved in writing the report understand the focus on Israel will be its most contentious aspect.

Another diplomat said Israel will be put "on notice" that its appropriation of land isn't going unnoticed.

The document won't look only at east Jerusalem activity and West Bank settlement construction, but also at a "problematic trend" of legalizing smaller so-called outposts, the officials said. In addition, it will criticize Israel for a growing backlog of housing block approvals.

In 1972, there were just over 10,000 Israeli settlers, with 1,500 living in the West Bank and the rest in east Jerusalem. Two decades later, by the time of the Oslo peace accords, there were 231,200 Israelis living in the territories. That number rose to 365,000 by 2000, when the second Palestinian uprising began, and 474,000 by the time Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister again in 2008.

The settlements are now home to more than 570,000 Israelis, according to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now  370,000 in the West Bank and 200,000 in east Jerusalem. Settlements range from small wildcat outposts on West Bank hilltops to developed towns with shopping malls, schools and suburban homes.

Some 2.2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, with another 300,000 in east Jerusalem. Israel captured both territories after the 1967 war.

The Quartet, which is supposed to guide the two parties to peace, has been largely irrelevant for the past several years. It was created in 2002 at a low point in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and in the years since has held sporadic meetings. Most have ended with bland statements condemning violence, criticizing settlements and calling for both sides to improve security and the atmosphere for peace talks.

The new report will repeat those calls, but the diplomats said they hoped the new criticism of Israel, in particular, would jolt the parties into action.

The Palestinians recently put off their push for a new U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, in part because of the coming report, the diplomats said. And with anti-Israel sentiment growing in Europe, France may delay a planned May 30 meeting of foreign ministers on the situation.

The French also are talking about hosting a Mideast peace conference this summer. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to discuss the French initiative with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault while on a trip to Paris next week.

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
PICTURED: A selection of pictures from the past week

Highlights from the weekly AP photo report, a gallery featuring a mix of front-page photography, the odd image you might have missed and lasting moments our editors think you should see.

This week's gallery features a raging wildfire in Canada, a display of Russian military might in Moscow, and a visit by American reality TV star Kim Kardashian to Cuba.

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Police officers direct traffic under a cloud of smoke from a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada on Friday, May 6, 2016. Tens of thousands have been forced from their homes, and the fires are expected to burn for weeks. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP) MANDATORY CREDIT

This gallery contains photos published April 30-May 6, 2016.

See the latest AP photo galleries: http://apne.ws/TXeCBN

The Archive: Top photo highlights from previous weeks: http://apne.ws/13QUFKJ

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Follow AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

Visit AP Images online: http://www.apimages.com http://www.apimages.com/

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This gallery was produced by Patrick Sison in New York.

A woman cries beside the coffin of Teresa Perez who died in the October 2015 Cambray neighborhood mudslide, at the Santa Catarina Pinula cemetery on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Thursday, May 5, 2016. Forensic authorities handed over the remains of at least 12 victims, seven months after more than 280 were killed. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Russian military helicopters fly past the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in the Kremlin complex in Moscow, Russia, on Thursday, May 5, 2016 during a rehearsal for the May 9 Victory Day military parade at Red Square to celebrate 71st anniversary of the victory in WWII. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

American reality show star Kim Kardashian West, left, sits in a classic convertible car with her husband, Kanye West, and her sister Kourtney Mary Kardashian, right, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, May 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)

A man holding his belongings stops in front of a map of Europe at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees in Idomeni, Greece, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. Thousands of migrants remain at the Greek border with Macedonia, hoping that the border crossing will reopen, allowing them to move north into central Europe. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

A homeless man rests under a pedestrian bridge in Tokyo, Tuesday, May 3, 2016. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Protesters, mostly workers, clash with riot police as they try to force their way closer to the gates of the U.S. embassy in Manila, Philippines to mark International Labor Day on Sunday, May 1, 2016. Among the demands are, better wages and salaries, an end to contractual labor, better working conditions and retirement benefits, less taxes, public and not privatized social services, and the assertion of national sovereignty against foreign domination and control. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez)

In this photo made with a long exposure, Orthodox worshippers walk with candles during Easter midnight Mass at a church in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, May 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

A ranger from the Kenya Wildlife Service stands guard as pyres of ivory are set on fire in Nairobi National Park, Kenya, Saturday, April 30, 2016. Kenya's president set fire to 105 tons of elephant ivory and more than 1 ton of rhino horn, believed to be the largest stockpile ever destroyed, in a dramatic statement against the trade in ivory and products from endangered species. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
Bosnia's Muslims reopen mosque Serbs blew up during the war

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP)  Over 10,000 people turned out Saturday for the re-opening of a mosque in Bosnia that was blown up by Christian Orthodox Serbs during the 1992-1995 war and that became a symbol of the effort to destroy Bosnia's centuries-long multireligious fabric.

The Ferhat Pasha mosque  also called Ferhadija  was a masterpiece of 16th-century Ottoman architecture and one of the 16 mosques in Banja Luka  or one of the 534 throughout the country  that were destroyed or damaged by Bosnian Serbs in order to erase any traces of those they were expelling or killing.

Their aim was to make that part of Bosnia a apart of neighboring Serbia.

Bosnian people prayer during the opening ceremony of the Ferhat Pasha mosque in Banja Luka, Bosnia, on Saturday, May 7, 2016. Over 10,000 people turned out Saturday for the re-opening of a mosque in Bosnia that was blown up by Christian Orthodox Serbs during the 1992-1995 war and that became a symbol of the effort to destroy Bosnia's centuries-long multireligious fabric. (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic)

The so-called "ethnic cleansing" project, also targeting Roman Catholic Croats and other non-Serbs, included expelling people from their homes, looting their property, killing some and putting others in concentration camps.

The destruction of their heritage was an essential part of the plan, aimed also at discouraging survivors from returning.

In 1995, after over 100,000 people were killed, a peace agreement divided the country in two halves  one for the Serbs, where Banja Luka ended up, and the other shared by Croats and Muslim Bosniaks. The agreement guaranteed refugees the right to return to their prewar homes and reconstruction of the Ferhadija mosque was to encourage the plan.

But an attempt in 2001 to lay a foundation stone was disrupted by a Serb nationalist mob. One Muslim visitor was killed and dozens were injured.

NATO forces had to evacuate foreign ambassadors from the ceremony by helicopters.

Activists located fragments of the mosque that were not thrown into the river or the garbage dump, separated them and used computers to place the over 3,500 fragments where they belong. Reconstruction took 15 years.

On Saturday  the 23rd anniversary of the Ferhadija destruction  Bosnian Serb authorities deployed over 1,000 policemen to secure the event, attended by outgoing Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Bosnian leaders, foreign ambassadors and representatives of the Roman Catholic, Serb Orthodox Churches and the Jewish Community.

The event symbolized a further push to restore Bosnia's multifaith and multi-ethnic fabric. Turkey and other international donors as well as Serbs donated funds for the reconstruction.

During the war, Serbs often referred to Muslims as "Turks," explaining their actions as revenge for hundreds of years of Ottoman occupation.

At the ceremony in Banja Luka, Davutoglu said: "We were here once, we are here now and we will always stay here."

Jakob Finci, leader of Bosnia's Jewish Community, said in his speech that rarely a Jew speaks at the opening of a mosque but in Bosnia it was possible. He as well as Catholic bishop Franjo Komarica and Serb Orthodox priest Jefrem welcomed the opening of the mosque and the people who will pray in it.

"Our differences are not a historical mistake," said Husein Kavazovic, the leader of Bosnia's Islamic Community. "They are God's gift, and any violence against those differences is an act against God's will."

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu walks in front of the Ferhat Pasha mosque after its official opening ceremony, in Banja Luka, Bosnia, on Saturday May 7, 2016. Over 10,000 people turned out Saturday for the re-opening of a mosque in Bosnia that was blown up by Christian Orthodox Serbs during the 1992-1995 war and that became a symbol of the effort to destroy Bosnia's centuries-long multireligious fabric. (AP Photo/Radivoje Pavicic)
Turkey: 2 more detained over attack on opposition editor

ANKARA, Turkey (AP)  Turkey's state-run news agency says authorities have detained two people linked to a gunman who attacked a leading journalist outside a courthouse hours before he was sentenced to more than five years in prison for his reports.

The gunman fired two shots Friday at Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, before he was subdued and arrested. Dundar escaped unharmed.

Anadolu Agency said the gunman's two friends were detained for questioning on Saturday.

Dilek Dundar, journalist Can Dundar's wife, and his lawyer, 2nd left, overpower a gunman just after the attack on Can Dundar outside city's main courthouse in Istanbul, Friday, May 6, 2016. A man shouted traitor and fired two shots prominent Turkish journalist Can Dundar outside a courthouse where he is on trial accused of revealing state secrets for his reports on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, escaped the attack unhurt, but Yavuz Senkal, a journalist working for private NTV television was slightly injured in the leg. (Can Erok, Cumhuriyet via AP) TURKEY OUT

Dundar was convicted of revealing state secrets for reports published in Cumhuriyet on alleged government arms smuggling to Syrian rebels. His colleague, the paper's Ankara representative Erdem Gul, was sentenced to five years.

The case has raised concern over press freedom in Turkey.

The journalists remain free until the end of the appeals process.

A plainclothes police officer orders the overpowered gunman to lay down just after an attack on Turkish journalist Can Dundar outside city's main courthouse in Istanbul, Friday, May 6, 2016. The man shouted traitor and fired two shots at the prominent Turkish journalist outside a courthouse where he is on trial accused of revealing state secrets for his reports on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, escaped the attack unhurt, but Yavuz Senkal, a journalist working for private NTV television was slightly injured in the leg.(Can Erok, Cumhuriyet via AP) TURKEY OUT

A plainclothed police officer overpowers a gunman just after an attack on Turkish journalist Can Dundar outside city's main courthouse in Istanbul, Friday, May 6, 2016. The man shouted traitor and fired two shots at the prominent Turkish journalist outside a courthouse where he is on trial accused of revealing state secrets for his reports on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, escaped the attack unhurt, but Yavuz Senkal, a journalist working for private NTV television was slightly injured in the leg.(Can Erok, Cumhuriyet via AP) TURKEY OUT

Journalists Can Dundar, center-right, and Erdem Gul, centre-left, Ankara Bureau Chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, speak before the start of their trial, hours before the attack on Can Dundar outside city's main courthouse in Istanbul, Friday, May 6, 2016. A man shouted traitor and fired two shots prominent Turkish journalist Can Dundar outside a courthouse where he is on trial accused of revealing state secrets for his reports on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, escaped the attack unhurt, but Yavuz Senkal, a journalist working for private NTV television was slightly injured in the leg. (Can Erok, Cumhuriyet via AP) TURKEY OUT

Cumhuriyet newspaper's editor-in-chief Can Dundar, center, and Erdem Gul, center left, the paper's Ankara representative, speak after their trial in Istanbul, late Friday, May 6, 2016. A Turkish court on Friday sentenced a prominent journalist to more than five years in prison hours after he escaped an attack by a gunman in a trial sharply criticized by international observers. The Istanbul court found Can Dundar guilty of revealing state secrets and sentenced him to five years and 10 months in prison. His colleague Gul was sentenced to five years behind bars for the same charge. (Can Erok/Cumhuriyet via AP) TURKEY OUT
Lebanese hope for change in first vote after trash crisis

BEIRUT (AP)  Lebanon's capital on Sunday will hold its first elections since a months-long trash crisis left mountains of garbage festering in the streets, with an outsider group of candidates challenging a political establishment widely seen as corrupt and incompetent.

Beirut Madinati, Arabic for "Beirut, My City," has vowed to clean up the city's streets -- and its politics.

"We will go to the polls and throw out the corrupt politicians," declared list leader Ibrahim Mneihmneh, a 40-year-old architect, at a recent rally attended by hundreds of people. "We will no longer whine about the trash, traffic, or corruption."

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 5, 2016, supporters of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, leader of Lebanon's parliamentary majority, chant slogans for the list that Hariri's group support, which is called Beirutis' list, during an rally for the Municipality elections, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Polling stations for the municipal election will be open on Sunday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (0400 GMT to 1600 GMT). Results are expected as early as Monday.

Madinati hopes to channel the energy of the "You Stink" protest movement, which emerged in response to the trash crisis and went on to challenge the political class that has governed Lebanon since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war.

The leaders behind the "You Stink" movement, which brought thousands of protesters into the streets at the height of the trash crisis, have not formally endorsed Madinati but have attended its rallies.

Since the end of the war, Lebanon has been governed by a power-sharing arrangement among political blocs -- many led by former warlords -- that represent its various religious sects. That has led to widespread patronage and corruption, and more recently to the breakdown of public services.

The trash crisis began last summer when the government closed the city's main landfill without agreeing on a replacement. For eight months trash piled up across the city. An agreement was reached in March to open a new disposal facility, but critics cast it as simply another backroom deal that failed to address the root of the problem.

And the stench grew even worse in April, as excavators dismantled the piles of garbage to carry it out of the city.

"When you talk about Beirut, you say she's a beautiful woman," said the well-known Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, who is a candidate on the Madinati list. "Unfortunately, this is not what I'm seeing now."

The Madinati list is made up of independent technocrats who have reached out to voters through town hall-style meetings, rallies and fundraisers. But many wonder if they can succeed in a system dominated by lifelong politicians.

"It's like in the village," said Mohammad Hamza, a Beirut barber. "The outsiders win the elections, and for the next six years nothing gets done, because the political bosses block everything."

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 5, 2016, former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, leader of Lebanon's parliamentary majority, asks his supporters to be at the ballot stations at 7 o'clock in the morning and vote for the list that his group support which is called Beirutis' list, as he addresses an election rally for the Municipality elections, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this picture taken on Monday, May 2, 2016, campaign posters for Beirut municipal candidates, are seen on a building damaged during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

In this Saturday, April 30, 2016 photo, Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, a member of Beirut Madinati, an electoral list for the upcoming Beirut municipality polls, speaks at an election rally in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this picture taken on Thursday, May 5, 2016, Lebanese candidates of Beirutis' list for the Municipality Elections raise their hands during an election rally, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this picture taken on Thursday May 5, 2016, a Lebanese supporter of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, leader of Lebanon's parliamentary majority, listens to Hariri's speech during a Municipality Elections rally for the list that Hariri's group support, which is called Beirutis' list, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Saturday, April 30, 2016 photo, members of Beirut Madinati, an electoral list for the upcoming Beirut municipality polls, raise their hands during an election rally in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Saturday, April 30, 2016 photo, the head of a local fishermen's cooperative Najib al-Deek, a member of Beirut Madinati, an electoral list for the upcoming Beirut municipality polls, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at an election rally in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Saturday, April 30, 2016, members of Beirut Madinati, an electoral list for the upcoming Beirut municipality polls, clapping during an election rally in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this picture taken on Thursday May 5, 2016, supporters of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, leader of Lebanon's parliamentary majority, wave Lebanese flags and chant pro-slogans for the list that Hariri's group support, which is called Beirutis' list, during a rally for the Municipality elections, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

In this Saturday, April 30, 2016, Lebanese architect Ibrahim Mneimneh, a head of Beirut Madinati, an electoral list for the upcoming Beirut municipality polls, speaks at an election rally in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Protests held in Indian Kashmir after 3 rebels are killed

SRINAGAR, India (AP)  Violent clashes between police and protesters erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday following the killing of three rebels in a gunbattle.

The gunbattle between militants and government forces began after troops acting on a tip cordoned Panzgam village early Saturday, said Indian army spokesman Col. Nitin N. Joshi.

The rebels belonged to Hizbul Mujahideen, Kashmir's largest rebel group, Joshi said.

Masked Kashmiri Muslim protesters throw stones at Indian policemen during a protest in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, May 6, 2016. Police fired pellet guns to disperse Kashmiris who gathered after Friday afternoon prayers to protest against India. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Later, residents in neighboring Pulwama town threw rocks at police and paramilitary soldiers and chanted slogans against Indian rule.

Government troops fired tear gas and pellet guns to disperse the protesters.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

Rebels have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir's independence from India or merger with Pakistan, which controls another portion of the territory in the west. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the militant uprising and Indian crackdown.

Kashmiri Muslim villagers pray as they participate in the funeral of Haseeb Ahmad, a suspected rebel, in Bandnu, 52 kilometers (33miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Ahmad was among three suspected rebels who were killed in an encounter with Indian government forces in southern Panzgam village on Saturday. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Kashmiri villagers stand near the debris of a house destroyed in a gun battle between suspected rebels and government forces in Panzgam, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, May 7, 2016.Three suspected rebels were killed in the gun battle on Saturday. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)
London's new Muslim mayor vows to be leader for everyone

DUBLIN (AP)  Sadiq Khan has a simple, striking message for Londoners: He won't be merely a Muslim mayor, but a leader for all.

Khan celebrated his landslide election victory Saturday in a multi-denominational ceremony at an Anglican cathedral accompanied by London's police chief, Christian and Jewish leaders, and stars of stage and screen.

They gave Khan a standing ovation as he pledged to be an approachable Everyman for his city of 8.2 million  including more than a million residents who, like him, happen to be Muslim.

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan makes a speech during the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

"I'm determined to lead the most transparent, engaged and accessible administration London has ever seen, and to represent every single community and every single part of our city as a mayor for Londoners," said Khan, the son of Pakistani-born immigrants who became a civil rights lawyer and, in 2005, London's first Muslim member of Parliament.

"So I wanted to do the signing-in ceremony here, in the very heart of our city, surrounded by Londoners of all backgrounds," he said in Southwark Cathedral, a few miles (kilometers) north of the state housing project where he grew up in the London district of Tooting.

Khan's Labour Party candidacy to lead London triumphed in the face of a Conservative campaign seeking to tar him as sympathetic to Islamic extremists. Supporters said Khan's own message  that a victory for him would show the world how tolerant and open Britain was  carried far more power.

"To have a Muslim mayor seems preferable to me to any alternative regardless of the politics," said actor Sir Ian McKellen, who greeted Khan at the cathedral gates. "I hope it's an image that will go round the world as representing a new sort of England that's at peace with itself regardless of race and so on. That's the beauty of it."

Leading Muslim activists in the Conservative Party expressed shame and anger over their own candidate Zac Goldsmith's attacks on Khan, saying they had recklessly stoked racism and intolerance. The final round of ballot confirming confirmed early Saturday that Khan received 57 percent of votes, Goldsmith 43 percent.

Many criticized Goldsmith's final published appeal in a right-wing Sunday newspaper warning that London stood "on the brink of a catastrophe" if it elected Khan. The article claimed that Khan and Labour considered terrorists their friends and would handicap police efforts to prevent another attack on London, 11 years after 52 Londoners died in suicide blasts on three subway trains and a bus committed by British-born Muslims. Goldsmith's appeal was accompanied by a picture of the bomb-ravaged bus.

Mohammed Amin, chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum, said he had been disgusted by the Goldsmith campaign tactics.

"We were meant to understand that Khan kept bad company with extremist Muslims and could not be trusted with the safety of London. On top of that, leaflets were targeted specifically at London Hindus and Sikhs ... seeking to divide Londoners along religious and ethnic lines," Amin wrote on a Conservative blog. He said the Conservative campaign sought to frighten non-Muslim voters "about Khan, the alleged Muslim extremist."

Amin said he voted for Goldsmith because he opposes Labour policies, but could not stomach campaigning actively for him  and instead took pride in seeing Londoners vote so strongly for a fellow Muslim of Pakistani background.

Leading Conservatives defended their campaign tactics, even as they expressed surprise at losing a post locked down for the past eight years by the eccentrically popular Conservative, Boris Johnson.

Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, who previously accused Khan of sharing a platform with a London imam sympathetic to the Islamic State extremist group, repeated those since-discredited claims Saturday and insisted such charges represented "the rough and tumble of politics."

He also declined, when pressed several times on the matter, to withdraw his campaign claim that London's security would be jeopardized by Khan.

"Stuff gets said during elections," Fallon said.

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan looks at his watch during the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan gestures during the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan attends the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan attends the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan attends the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan attends the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

London's new mayor Sadiq Khan and his wife Saadiya attend the official signing ceremony in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

Labour Party MP Karen Buck and former Labour Party leader Ed Miliband attend the official signing ceremony for London's new mayor Sadiq Khan in Southwark Cathedral, London, Saturday May 7, 2016. On Friday the 45-year-old Labour Party politician became the first person of Islamic faith to lead Europe's largest city. (Yui Mok/Pool via AP)

Sadiq Khan, Labour Party candidate, speaks in front of Zac Goldsmith, Conservative Party candidate, after winning the London mayoral elections, at City Hall in London, Saturday, May 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Sadiq Khan, Labour Party candidate, speaks on the podium after winning the London mayoral elections, at City Hall in London, Saturday, May 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Sadiq Khan, Labour Party candidate, speaks on the podium after winning the London mayoral elections, at City Hall in London, Saturday, May 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
How Clinton, Trump made their fortunes and spend them

WASHINGTON (AP)  A look at the personal wealth portfolios of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump, how they earned their money over the years and the lifestyles they spend it on.

CLINTON:

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, left the White House in 2000, a year that she later described as so financially perilous they were "dead broke." The Clintons cited legal bills and other liabilities between $2 million and nearly $11 million. But within just one year, according to tax and disclosure records, they had wiped out all that debt, earning nearly $12 million. It was the start of an infusion of wealth that enriched the couple by more than $200 million over 15 years  and nearly $140 million since 2007.

FILE - In this Jan. 6, 2000 file photo, Bill and Hillary Clinton stand in the driveway of their new home in Chappaqua, N.Y. Hillary. Pick a president: New York multimillionaire or New York multibillionaire. The likely November rivals, Clinton and Donald Trump, personal portfolios dont exactly square with the populist wave defining 2016. (AP Photo, File)

The Clintons leveraged public service, celebrity status, book-writing, consulting and a whirlwind of lucrative speeches that took them across the country and around the world on behalf of corporations, foundations, trade groups and even some foreign governments.

Bill Clinton blended private appearances and consulting with his work promoting the family's global charity, the Clinton Foundation. Hillary Clinton ran for the presidency in 2008, lost to Barack Obama, became his secretary of state for four years then joined her husband at the foundation and on the lecture circuit, earning $22 million by herself in three years.

Their largesse has provided the trappings of a glamorous life.

The Clintons own well-appointed houses in the suburbs of New York and in the nation's capital. They hold a sole mutual fund worth between $5 million and $25 million. They are regulars at Caribbean resorts and New York's exclusive Hamptons beachfront.

Hillary Clinton's three-year speaking tours often came with premium travel  flights on private jets, luxury "presidential" hotel suites and transportation and accommodations for the retinue of loyal aides who traveled with her, according to her contract demands.

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TRUMP:

Though Trump's $10 billion estimate of his own fortune is viewed skeptically by outside appraisers, he's a safe bet to be the wealthiest American ever to be the presumptive nominee from a major political party, richer even than Republican Mitt Romney. Just as surely: He won't let anyone forget it.

"I'm really rich," Trump said last June in announcing his presidency. Trump has also made the entirely plausible claim last year that, "I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney."

Trump has described himself as a largely self-made man who parlayed a $1 million loan from his father into an empire worth billions. Trump's eventual inheritance was far larger than that, however, and Trump relied on his father's loan guarantees for his formative real estate and casino deals.

He came close to losing it all in the early 1990s, when personal guarantees of a floundering casino and real estate empire put his fate in the hands of bankers who had loaned him money. Even then, however, Trump maintained a remarkable standard of living: The bankers gave him a $450,000-a-month allowance.

There's no such limit on Trump's spending these days. Living out of a three-story penthouse atop the Trump Tower, he also owns residences in California, Florida, Virginia and the Caribbean. Caviar, yachts, gold-plated faucets, private jets and mansions with 126 rooms: If there's a public signifier of wealth, it's a safe bet that Trump has associated himself with it.
Shiitakepalooza helps Vermont mushroom growers and aspirants

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (AP)  Spring in Vermont means muddy roads, the return of green to the landscape, farmers planting crops ... and Shiitakepalooza.

At least 100 people are expected to gather at the Eddy Farm in Middlebury on Saturday to help two mushroom growers prepare logs for next year's crop and to learn how to grow their own shiitakes.

At the sixth annual event, volunteers will be inoculating logs with shiitake spawn that will sprout mushrooms in about a year. Participants will get to take home a log for their own crop of mushrooms, considered by fans to be superfood.

In this Friday, May 6, 2016 photo, mushroom grower Andy Bojanowski drills holes in a log that will be filled with shiitake spawn at Eddy Farm in Middlebury, Vt. The farm will host the sixth annual Shiitakepalooza on Saturday at which volunteers help mushroom growers inoculate logs that will eventually sprout shiitake mushrooms that can bring in $16 to $20 a pound. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the volume and value of sales of mushrooms and the number of growers have increased each year from 2012 to 2015.

Most mushrooms are grown indoors in sawdust, but log-grown shiitakes sell for $16 to $20 a pound in the Northeast, making them a viable additional source of income or hobby for farmers and woodlot owners.

And more people are catching on to the art and science of growing them. The number of shiitake growers with at least 200 logs in production or an indoor commercial growing area rose to 216 in 2014-15 from 179 in 2012-13, according to the USDA.

Growing them on logs can make for a lot of work at certain times in the cycle, so any extra hands are appreciated. That was partly the origin of Shiitakepalooza.

"The inoculation aspect of it is definitely very labor-intensive, which is why setting up a few assembly lines and getting as many people involved really makes it fun," said Nick Laskovski of Dana Forest Farm in Waitsfield, who sells about 500 pounds of mushrooms a year, primarily to local restaurants.

Katy Marshall and Ryan Baxter, of Swanton, showed up Friday to learn more about the shiitake process, joining other friends and family of growers Andy Bojanowski, of Eddy Farm, and Laskovski, helping to fill logs with shiitake spawn. They recently bought some land and may grow mushrooms.

Once the logs are inoculated, they sit for a year before they're dunked in cold water or shocked. Weeks later, they yield mushrooms. The logs can be shocked again eight to 10 weeks later for another crop, Laskovski said. They then are rested for another year before the process is repeated again, he said.

But the logs only last about five years before they start to deteriorate, so growers continually add logs to their operation. Laskovski has about 1,000 and is shooting for more. But he says there's a fine line between how much he can manage on his own with a full-time job.

"Shiitakepalooza will help my ... log backup," he said.

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This story has been corrected to show that particular growth in number of growers happened from 2012-13 not 2013-14.

In this Friday, May 6, 2016 photo, mushroom grower Andy Bojanowski holds shiitake spawn in sawdust that will be inserted into logs to grow mushrooms at Eddy Farm in Middlebury, Vt. The farm will host the sixth annual Shiitakepalooza on Saturday at which volunteers help mushroom growers inoculate logs that will eventually sprout shiitake mushrooms that can bring in $16 to $20 a pound. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)

In this Friday, May 6, 2016 photo, Katy Marshall inoculates a log with shiitake mushroom spawn at Eddy Farm in Middlebury, Vt. The farm will host the sixth annual Shiitakepalooza on Saturday at which volunteers help mushroom growers inoculate logs that will eventually sprout shiitake mushrooms that can bring in $16 to $20 a pound. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke)
Detroit students' education takes back seat in funding talks

DETROIT (AP)  Anthony Sawyers is a sophomore at Detroit's pre-eminent public high school, Cass Tech, where textbooks aren't allowed out of his classrooms  even to take home to study.

That, his mother Tomi Sawyers says, is a sign of how dire financial troubles are in the district, which other parents and educators say has had chronic shortages of books, paper and other supplies. Detroit Public Schools spokeswoman Michelle Zdrodowski says it is moving toward using more technology, and that students also have access to Microsoft Office 365 for mobile and desktop computers at home.

But not everyone has home computers, and the question for Sawyers remains: "If the schools don't have enough money now to buy textbooks, how will books get bought if the district runs out of money?"

In a photo from Thursday, May 5, 2016, Tomi Sawyers, left, drops her son Anthony Sawyers off at the Cass Technical High School in Detroit. Anthony Sawyers is a sophomore at Detroit's pre-eminent public high school, Cass Tech, where textbooks aren't allowed out of his classrooms _ even to take home to study. That, his mother Tomi says, is a sign of how dire financial troubles are in the district, which other parents and educators say has had chronic shortages of books, paper and other supplies. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Lost in the cacophony of Detroit teachers' frequent protests over pay  including the possibility there might not be enough for payroll this summer  poor building conditions and being under state oversight is how the lack of money affects 46,000 students' ability to learn. In the last week alone, teachers called off sick for two days, meaning kids in 94 schools missed precious instruction time.

Detroit is among the poorest districts in the country, and it shows in test results; the district ranks among the worst in the nation in standardized test scores. About 90 percent of Detroit's fourth- and seventh-graders are "not proficient" in science compared with fewer than 60 percent of their peers around Michigan in one recent state test.

Plus, students' performance is 2.3 years below the U.S. average, according to data compiled by the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University.

The lack of money also is apparent in the condition of its 97 buildings, some of which needed immediate repairs this year after the city found scores of code violations. Operating funds are being used to pay down long-term debt and the district has needed a short-term bailout just to pay teachers' salaries.

The district has been under continuous state control since 2009, and legislators appear torn over how to best help. A $717 million plan OK'd by the Senate would keep the old district to retire the schools' debt and create a new district to educate students, while House Republicans have come up with a $500 million proposal.

In the meantime, the district, which lost more than 100,000 students over the past decade or so due to a declining city population and competition from charter schools and suburban districts, is likely to see more student defections.

More than 65,000 school-age children live in Detroit but are not enrolled in the district, according to state figures. Southfield Public Schools said it received a handful of inquiries from Detroit parents after the sick-outs.

"Most of my friends are saying 'You are going to see me in Grosse Pointe, you're going to see me in Southfield," said Keianna McCormick, 16, an 11th-grader at Cass Tech.

What's going on in Detroit is "extraordinary," said David Arsen, an education professor at Michigan State University.

"I can't think of another situation quite like this, or a district that's this large where the stakes are so high in terms of the finances and in terms of the distance that must be traveled before Detroit children get the type of education services they deserve," Arsen said.

As lawmakers, administrators, teachers and others argue over what to do, Detroit's students and parents "are getting the short end of the stick," according to Sharlonda Buckman, chief executive of the nonprofit Detroit Parent Network.

"We have parents with high school seniors missing days while they are preparing to take SATs. Parents at the last minute having to leave their children at home unsupervised," Buckman said.

"Parents have supported teachers time and time again, but our fight is for our kids."

While not perfect, the Michigan Senate bills were a positive step and a compromise, Arsen said. The Senate plan would create a commission to make decisions about opening and closing schools, including an uncapped number of publicly funded charters that enroll about 36,000 students. The House plan would wipe out the debt and make sure teachers are paid, but does not include the commission.

All the dysfunction leaves Detroit students with fewer classroom resources to compete in college, said Monique Baker McCormick, Keianna's mother and a DPS alum. A parent in 2001 said her daughter's global issues class had only seven textbooks which had to be shared among 35 students. Others have said books were outdated and falling apart.

"I graduated 30 years ago and they have been saying how terrible the school system is or was," Baker McCormick said. "But I came out OK and thousands of other students that came out before me and after me came out OK. But now, we have a total dismantling of the system and now we really can't say that anyone is going to come out OK."

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Follow Corey Williams on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/coreyapreporter. His work can be found at: http://bigstory.ap.org/content/corey-williams

In a photo from Thursday, May 5, 2016, Monique Baker McCormick, left, sits with her daughter Keianna in their home in Detroit. All the dysfunction in the Detroit Public Schools leaves Detroit students with fewer classroom resources to compete in college, said Monique Baker McCormick, Keianna's mother and a DPS alum. A parent in 2001 said her daughter's global issues class had only seven textbooks which had to be shared among 35 students. Others have said books were outdated and falling apart. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Cairo court expels diplomats from hearing on Regeni adviser

CAIRO (AP)  An Egyptian appeals court on Saturday extended the investigative detention by 15 days of a rights campaigner who had been advising the family of an Italian student found tortured to death in Cairo.

The decision followed a chaotic courtroom hearing that included physical scuffles and the eventual expulsion from the room of foreign diplomats, journalists and family members.

Ahmed Abdullah, the head of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, was arrested at his suburban home early on April 25 and stands accused of inciting revolt and terrorism. His detention came just hours before thousands of riot police stifled planned demonstrations in Cairo that were to be held in defiance of a protest ban to denounce President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's recent decision to surrender control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Lawyers from Abdullah's NGO had offered assistance to the lawyers of the family of the Italian doctoral student, Giulio Regeni, who was abducted in Cairo on Jan. 25. His body, bearing signs of severe torture, was found nine days later on the side of a suburban Cairo road. The city was on a police lockdown on Jan. 25 to prevent protests marking the anniversary of Egypt's 2011 uprising that overthrew longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Abdullah entered the courtroom carrying a note on a small piece of origami that read in Arabic "truth for Regeni."

From the cage in the courtroom, Abdullah said, "I will continue to fight for justice for Giulio."

Inside the courthouse tower, a crumbling complex with garbage strewn in corridors and crowds cramming into courtrooms, police and employees were surprised and on guard by the presence of foreigners  both journalists and embassy representatives.

A fight broke out between bailiffs and lawyers in the chamber when activists tried to photograph Abdullah, with police confiscating phones temporarily to delete the photos. In a courtroom filled with cigarette smoke, bailiffs repeatedly attempted to call for order by banging their fists on desks, with one collapsing a wooden bench by trying to stand on it and shout to the room.

Guards joked with each other as well as with sometimes upbeat defendants in the packed courtroom cage, who at one point broke out into songs about freedom from state repression popularized during the 2011 revolt. As waiters selling tea and sweets shouted out their wares, and a garbage collector begged for tips, defendants were roughly led one by one in manacles into a rear chamber for judgment.

Regeni's parents have said they were distraught over Abdullah's arrest.

Their son's killing has poisoned Egypt's close relations with Italy, and prompted accusations that Egypt's security services were involved. Egypt has repeatedly denied this, and the Interior Ministry has suggested five members of a criminal gang police killed were responsible, releasing photos of Regeni's IDs it said was found at the house of a gang member's relative.

The men's relatives say they were house painters merely heading to a job when they were killed, and witnesses have said the men were unarmed and tried to flee as police fired on them, confiscating footage from security cameras near the scene afterward.

Italian investigators meanwhile arrived in Cairo Saturday to follow up on the Regeni case, with the Italian daily La Repubblica reporting that they were seeking additional documents and other evidence including some phone records not turned over during previous meetings.

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Anarchists clash with police near Austrian border

MILAN (AP)  Dozens of hooded anarchists clashed Saturday with riot police who blocked their approach to the Austrian border during a protest against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants.

Riot police just 100 to 200 meters (yards) from Italy's border with Austria responded with tear gas after a group of 50 to 80 anarchists who covered their faces with motorcycle helmets and gas masks threw objects including bricks and firecrackers at a police blockade. The news agency ANSA said about 20 protesters were detained and four officers were injured.

Hundreds of Austrian police were deployed, but never activated, on the other side of the border, while helicopters hovered overhead.

A police officer helps a colleague after clashes with demonstrators at the Brenner train station, a few hundreds of meters from the border crossing between Italy and Austria, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Dozens of hooded anarchists have clashed with riot police blocking their approach to the Austrian border during a protest plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants. (Roberto Tomasi/ANSA via AP Photo) ITALY OUT

The protest spilled over on to the railway, temporarily blocking service, and then onto the heavily traveled Brenner highway, which also suffered delays. As police pushed the protesters deeper back into Italian territory, many shed their helmets and gas masks, scampering up onto a steep hillside overlooking the highway and shouting at police to free their detained comrades.

Italian RAI state television cameras showed police detaining one demonstrator at the railway station, which demonstrators also vandalized, and then another dozen detained in a road nearby. Italian Carabinieri police in Bolzano and Brenner were unable to confirm the number of arrests or injuries.

The demonstration, which included peaceful protesters behind a rainbow flag, comes after Austria announced moves to tighten border controls out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route.

Earlier Saturday, Austria's interior minister, Wolfgang Sobotka, said in nearby Merano that the controls would not be stringent as long as Italy registers all incoming migrants and prevents a large migrant numbers from reaching the border. Austria has appeared to back down on plans to build a wall at the Brenner Pass, saying it would only be put up only in the face of a migrant influx.

The Brenner Pass is an important conduit for tourists and goods transiting Europe, with some 2 million vehicles passing each year.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano welcomed Sobotka's assurances. Alfano was visiting Ventimiglia, near the border with France, where he said a center for migrants should be closed to discourage new arrivals.

"Migrants need to resign themselves to the fact that they cannot enter France from Ventimiglia, because we do not want to feed false expectations and because transiting across the Italian border, toward bordering European countries, can be a pretext for building walls," Alfano told a news conference.

Demonstrators shelter behind garbage cans during clashes with police at the Brenner train station, a few hundreds of meters from the border crossing between Italy and Austria, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Dozens of hooded anarchists have clashed with riot police blocking their approach to the Austrian border during a protest plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Demonstrators clash with police at the Brenner train station, a few hundreds of meters from the border crossing between Italy and Austria, Saturday, May 7, 2016. Dozens of hooded anarchists have clashed with riot police blocking their approach to the Austrian border during a protest plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants. (Roberto Tomasi/ANSA via AP Photo) ITALY OUT

Demonstrators stand on railway lines as they clash with riot police during a protest by anarchists against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants, in Brennero, Italy, Saturday, May 7, 2016. The demonstrations come after Austria announced moves to tighten surveillance of the border out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A police car has damaged windows after clashes between riot police and anarchists during a protest by anarchists against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants, in Brennero, Italy, Saturday, May 7, 2016. The demonstrations come after Austria announced moves to tighten surveillance of the border out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Masked demonstrators clash with riot police during a protest by anarchists against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants, in Brennero, Italy, Saturday, May 7, 2016. The demonstrations come after Austria announced moves to tighten surveillance of the border out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

A riot police officer launches tear gas during a protest by anarchists against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants, in Brennero, Italy, Saturday, May 7, 2016. The demonstrations come after Austria announced moves to tighten surveillance of the border out of concern that the flow of migrants to northern Europe will shift to Italy after the closure of the Balkans route. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
Australian prime minister makes July 2 election official

CANBERRA, Australia (AP)  Australian prime minister says the governor-general has agreed to a July 2 election.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the announcement after meeting with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on Sunday.

The meeting makes official the July 2 election date that Turnbull had indicated last week.

FILE - In this April 15, 2016, file photo, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull smiles near Australian and Chinese flags during a signing ceremony at the Ancient Observatory in Beijing. A two-month Australian election campaign is expected to officially start on Sunday, May 8, 2016 for the July 2 poll between Turnbull and Bill Shorten, leader of the opposition center-left Labor Party. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Turnbull told reporters that an election win by the opposition would prevent the Australian economy from transitioning from a mining boom that that has passed to a more diversified economy.

It is the first early election in which all 76 Senate seats are up for grabs as well as the 150 House of Representatives seats since 1987.
Kittel wins 2nd Giro stage as Dumoulin retains overall lead

NIJMEGEN, Netherlands (AP)  Tom Dumoulin retained the overall lead of the Giro d'Italia as Marcel Kittel sprinted to victory in the second stage on Saturday.

Kittel waited to start his sprint but once the German hit the front no one could challenge him, and the Etixx-QuickStep rider had time to raise his arms in celebration as he crossed the line several bike lengths ahead of Arnaud Demare.

Sacha Modolo was third on the 190-kilometer (118-mile) route from Arnhem to Nijmegen.

Germany's Marcel Kittel celebrates after winning the second stage of the Giro d'Italia Tour of Italy cycling race, in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Saturday, May 7 May 2016. (Luca Zennaro/ANSA via AP) ITALY OUT

It was Kittel's third stage win in the Giro. By coincidence, none of those victories have come in Italy, with his two previous successes in Belfast and Dublin in 2014.

"I'm very happy with this win," Kittel said. "I was very focused on this Giro, on the start here. From now on we can be relieved and look forward to the next stage.

"I'm not a GC rider so (the pink jersey) is not my main priority. I gave everything on the time trial and I hoped for a win today to have a chance tomorrow. It's good to be in this situation but we'll focus on tomorrow and if we win then anything is possible."

Kittel moved to third in the overall standings, one second behind Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic, who the Dutchman beat by one hundredth of a second in Friday's opening time trial.

"It was an easy day to control I think. Although maybe the two guys at the front don't agree," Dumoulin said. "But we were never really in trouble and we had a really nice day in front of the home crowd ... The crowd was huge. It was incredible and I'm really glad to enjoy this in the pink jersey."

There was an early breakaway of Omar Fraile, Giacomo Berlato, and Maarten Tjallingii, and the trio stayed clear for more than 160 kilometers.

They had an advantage of 10 minutes at one point before the sprinters' teams started working to bring them back.

Fraile and Tjallingii were the first to be caught, while Berlato went alone for a further 13 kilometers, before he was swallowed up at the end of the first of two 8.6-kilometer circuits to the finish line.

The 99th Giro continues in the Netherlands on Sunday with another sprint stage before an early rest day and a return to Italy.

The race ends in Turin on May 29.

Germany's Marcel Kittel celebrates after winning the second stage of the Giro d'Italia Tour of Italy cycling race, in Nijmegen, Netherlands, Saturday, May 7 May 2016. (Luca Zennaro/ANSA via AP) ITALY OUT
Democratic Unionists, Sinn Fein keep grip on N.Ireland power

DUBLIN (AP)  Results from the Northern Ireland Assembly election have rewarded the rivals who jointly lead the British territory's power-sharing government: the Protestants of the Democratic Unionists and the Catholics of Sinn Fein.

Saturday's conclusion to a two-day ballot count left the Democratic Unionists on top with 38 seats, an identical result to the 2011 election. The Irish nationalist Sinn Fein had hoped to overtake their pro-British adversaries but instead lost one seat to retain 28.

The result leaves the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein sharing control of the 108-member assembly.

The counting of votes continues at the in Londonderry in the Foyle and East Londonderry constituencies in the Northern Ireland Assembly Elections, Friday May 6, 2016. Ballots are being counted to determine the balance of power in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the foundation for a Protestant-Catholic administration that has governed the British territory in relative harmony for the past nine years. (Niall Carson/PA via AP) UNITED KINGDOM OUT

The largest parties on each side of the societal divide receive the lion's share of posts in Northern Ireland's cross-community administration. That five-party coalition has governed Northern Ireland in relative stability for the past nine years.
Guyana court orders talks with sugar worker unions

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP)  Guyana's high court has filed a temporary order halting the Guyana Sugar Corp.'s plans to fire or transfer 1,000 workers from its money-losing Wales Estate.

The court said late Friday that the company cannot move ahead until it negotiates with the labor unions representing the workers.

The unions have alleged the company excluded them from talks in an attempt to exploit and manipulate the workers.

Wales Estate is to be closed at year's end after a second sugar crop is harvested.

The company has said the sugar estate will lose $12 million in 2016.
Chile funeral for ex-East German first lady Margot Honecker

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP)  A small funeral has been held for former East German first lady Margot Honecker in her adopted home of Chile.

Honecker's daughter and grandson were among several dozen people who gathered Saturday for the funeral. Members of Chile's Communist Party also attended but no well-known Chilean politicians were seen there.

Her remains were to be cremated.

FILE - In this Dec. 6, 1991 file photo, former East German leader Erich Honecker and his wife Margot walk in a park near the residence where they stay in Moscow, Russia. Margot Honecker, the longtime first lady of East Germany and the communist state's hardline education minister, died in exile in Chile on Friday, May 6, 2016, according to a friend of the family who is a member of Chile's Communist party. (AP Photo, File)

Erich Honecker's widow died in Santiago at age 89 on Friday. The ousted East German leader died in Chile in 1994

Margot Honecker defended her now-vanished Communist country to the end. She also had been the nation's education minister, dictating what was taught in the rigidly orthodox nation for 26 years.

She lived in Chile since 1992, three years after the Berlin Wall fell and signaled the impending collapse of the socialist government.
Greek communists protest pension, tax reforms

ATHENS, Greece (AP)  More than 20,000 slogan-chanting, pro-communist protesters have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against the left-led government's pension and tax reform bill, which is being debated in Parliament.

The march, organized by a union affiliated with the Greek Communist Party, ended peacefully in front of the Greek Parliament. It was joined by several farmers who have been protesting the planned reforms for months.

More communist rallies are expected Sunday, the day the reform bill goes to a vote. Protests will take place both in the morning and the evening.

Supporters of the communist-affiliated union PAME chant slogans during an anti-austerity rally in Athens, Saturday, May 7, 2016. More than 20,000 slogan-chanting, pro-communist protesters have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against the left-led government's pension and tax reform bill, which is being debated in Parliament. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

There is no love lost between the governing Radical Left Coalition, known by its acronym Syriza, and the Communist Party, especially since many Syriza leaders, including Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, bolted from the Communist Party in the early 1990s.

Supporters of the communist-affiliated union PAME chant slogans during an anti-austerity rally in Athens, on Saturday, May 7, 2016. More than 20,000 slogan-chanting, pro-communist protesters have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against the left-led government's pension and tax reform bill, which is being debated in Parliament. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Supporters of the communist-affiliated union PAME chant slogans during an anti-austerity rally in Athens, on Saturday, May 7, 2016. More than 20,000 slogan-chanting, pro-communist protesters have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against the left-led government's pension and tax reform bill, which is being debated in Parliament. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

Supporters of the communist-affiliated union PAME listen to a unionist delivering a speech during an anti-austerity rally in Athens, on Saturday, May 7, 2016. More than 20,000 slogan-chanting, pro-communist protesters have taken to the streets of Athens to protest against the left-led government's pension and tax reform bill, which is being debated in Parliament. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)
Sanders' problem: To win, he needs Clinton's superdelegates

WASHINGTON (AP)  Bernie Sanders has a problem.

Remember those superdelegates, the Democratic Party leaders and elected officials who can vote for the candidate of their choice? The ones Sanders' supporters have been complaining about for months? It turns out, to have a shot at beating out Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, he needs them.

A lot of them.

In this May 4, 2016 photo, Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally in Louisville, Ky. BSanders has a math problem. Remember those dreaded superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials that Sanders supporters have been complaining about for months? It turns out, he needs them. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

He needs the ones who remain uncommitted, as well as more than 200 of those who have already publicly endorsed Clinton. Mathematically, Sanders cannot win the nomination without that support.

On Saturday, Sanders netted more than two dozen delegates over Clinton in Washington state after the party released vote data broken down by congressional district.

But his math remains dire.

Clinton won the Guam caucus on Saturday and now needs just 17 percent of the delegates at stake in upcoming contests to clinch the nomination. That means she could lose every single contest by a landslide and still be the nominee if all of her superdelegates continue to support her.

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THE AP DELEGATE COUNT

Clinton: 2,228 delegates.

Sanders: 1,454 delegates.

Needed to win: 2,383 delegates.

The totals include delegates won in primaries and caucuses, as well as public endorsements from superdelegates.

As it stands, Clinton is 155 delegates away from clinching the nomination.

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PLEDGED DELEGATES

These are the delegates won in primaries and caucuses. They are required to vote for the candidate who won them.

Early in the campaign, Sanders said his plan was to win a majority of pledged delegates, which would persuade the superdelegates to support him as well.

That's no longer feasible.

Clinton has 1,705 pledged delegates. Sanders has 1,415. Clinton's 290-delegate lead in pledged delegates is far bigger than any lead Barack Obama had over Clinton during the 2008 primaries.

Sanders would need to win 66 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to close the gap. So far, he's won just 45 percent of them.

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SUPERDELEGATES

There are 714 superdelegates, mainly members of Congress and members of the Democratic National Committee. At the party's national convention, they can vote for the candidate of their choice.

So far, 523 have publicly endorsed Clinton and 39 have endorsed Sanders. That leaves 152 still uncommitted.

That means he would need all of the uncommitted superdelegates. Plus, he would need to persuade more than 200 of Clinton's superdelegates to switch their allegiance to him.

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THE PATH TO 2,383

Just 155 delegates short, Clinton is on a glide path to the number needed to win on June 7 when polls close in New Jersey at 8 p.m. EDT, even if she narrowly loses all the contests between now and then.

If she can instead pull out solid victories this month in West Virginia, Kentucky and Oregon  and get some additional endorsements from superdelegates  Clinton could end up celebrating as a presumptive nominee in a place in need of some financial attention: Puerto Rico on June 5.

At least one of its superdelegates, Luisette Colon, earlier this year changed her support from Clinton to uncommitted, citing her desire to learn more about the candidates' positions on aiding the U.S. territory.

Clinton has recently sent advisers to Puerto Rico to learn more about the Zika virus and called on Congress to assist with the island's financial crisis. Sanders has also urged help for the island.

Sanders' steep path to 2,383 can only really end at the party's convention in Philadelphia, where he intends to give superdelegates all his attention and make the case he is the better general election candidate.

To win, Sanders will need to dominate the final few primaries and then sway more than 300 superdelegates to his side.

So far, he's only convinced 39.

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Gun violence gets more nuanced, probing coverage

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Media attention to gun violence tends to be doled out in predictable, limited ways: when a mass shooting happens, when the anniversary of such a tragedy is marked or when the use of deadly force by law enforcement or citizens is questioned.

But the headline-driven nature of the coverage is starting to shift, with documentary filmmakers, TV networks and others attempting to reach beyond the heat and anger of the moment in search of more nuanced  and sometimes more pointed  scrutiny of a crucial American issue.

With "Armed in America," PBS is giving over much of its prime-time schedule Monday and Tuesday to a pair of documentaries and town-hall discussions. Epix's "Under the Gun," debuting May 15 from executive producer Katie Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig, examines why those on opposite sides of stricter gun laws can't find common ground.

This image released by PBS shows Dub Lawrence and Erna Stewart reconstruct the path of bullets in a scene from "Independent Lens: Peace Officer," airing Monday, May 9, 2016 on PBS. (Jared Jakins/PBS via AP)

These follow a number of other in-depth projects, including a CNN town hall debate in January in which President Barack Obama discussed his gun control measures and proposals, and HBO's 2015 "Requiem for the Dead: American Spring 2014," which told the stories of some shooting victims from that period.

Even "CBS Sunday Morning," not typically hard-edged, devoted a 90-minute episode in March to "Guns and America," which included reports on the increasing number of female gun owners, a Chicago program that enlists veterans to help teenagers avoid gun violence, and the lingering impact of a childhood shooting.

Documentaries on the University of Texas at Austin campus shooting in 1966 and the aftermath of the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, school attack are planned by PBS, with airdates yet to be announced.

We've arrived at "a tipping point, where this conversation isn't just immediately defined by the aftermath of mass shooting but there's a steady stream of conversation that's actually ratcheting up in terms of intensity," said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

"Under the Gun" was one of several films on the subject screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival, including director AJ Schnack's "Speaking is Difficult." It's an ongoing film compendium of mass-shooting locations overlaid with related 911 calls.

"I think it's great that filmmakers are addressing this topic and are going to come at it from a bunch of different perspectives," Schnack said. "It gives people permission to ignite those conversations in their communities and with their families and elected officials."

The National Rifle Association did not respond to a request for comment on the wave of programming.

Driving the attention is both the shock of massacres and the nation's overall firearms toll: The U.S. gun homicide rate is 25 times higher than that of 22 other developed countries with similar income levels, according to a study published online in February in the American Journal of Medicine.

While the topic and its anger can be daunting, PBS has displayed a willingness to address it. The public TV service aired a weeklong exploration of Newtown and held town hall meetings after the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting of Michael Brown and the 2015 church killings in Charleston, South Carolina.

"As a broadcaster, our intention is to provide programs that we think focus on the most critical issues facing our country," said Marie Nelson, PBS' vice president of news and public affairs. The two films airing next week as part of the "Independent Lens" series were carefully chosen, she said.

"Oftentimes, the discussion about gun violence is very weighted by the politics and noise that surround the issue," she said, while "The Armor of Light" and "Peace Officer" detail personal experiences and beliefs.

"Peace Officer," airing 9-10:30 p.m. EDT Monday and directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber, profiles a former sheriff, William "Dub" Lawrence, who established Utah's first SWAT team. After the unit killed his son-in-law three decades later, he painstakingly examines the growing "militarization" of police in America.

"We want audiences to empathize with both sides and spend some time in their shoes, so they understand what it's like to be on a SWAT raid or be a citizen on the receiving end of those raids," Christopherson said.

"The Armor of Light," airing 8-9:30 p.m. EDT (check local listings for both films), focuses on two evangelical Christians with differing political views who both are confronting gun violence. One is the Rev. Rob Schenck, who questions whether being pro-life means opposing guns as well as abortion; the other is Lucy McBath, mother of a teenager shot to death in Florida.

"Where does conscience fit into the (gun control) conversation? Where does spirituality fit into the conversation?" said Abigail Disney, the film's director. "I can't think of a conversation that needs these things more."

The pre-taped town halls that follow each film were moderated by Michel Martin of National Public Radio, which will simulcast the discussions. The two-night event also will stream on pbs.org/armedinamerica, PBS said.

"It's so important for all of us as Americans who care about the safety of each other, and nobody is pro-gun violence," Couric said. "This is such a critical time to have a rational conversation."

Disney  the granddaughter of Roy O. Disney, brother of Walt Disney  echoed that call.

Start a conversation with those you may disagree with "and start it from the right place. Don't start it with statistics or legislation," she said. "Start it from your heart and your deepest beliefs."

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AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr contributed to this report from Park City, Utah.

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Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. Her work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/lynn-elber and she can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2016 file photo, filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig, left, and journalist Katie Couric pose for a portrait to promote the film, "Under the Gun", during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The film will debut on May 15 on Epix. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
American Pharoah has special place in Derby fans' hearts

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP)  American Pharoah's journey to racing history a year ago spurred Richie Columbus to make his first trip to Churchill Downs to be part of a near-record crowd for the Kentucky Derby on Saturday.

Until Pharoah, horse racing typically drew his attention just once a year, when Columbus watched the Derby on TV. But when Pharaoh galloped across the finish line at the Belmont Stakes to become the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, Columbus was hooked.

"It pretty much brought us here today," he said while heading to the Churchill Downs infield. "We were disappointed we didn't come last year."

A fan wears a hat before the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 7, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Columbus, who made the short drive from Cincinnati, didn't act like a newcomer to America's most famous horse race. His group arrived when the gates opened and staked out a prime position for its blankets and folding chairs near the fence. Unlike most of the throngs partying in the infield, Columbus' group got a brief view of the horses racing around the track.

For most of the day, fans basked in warm, breezy conditions at the famed track, until a late-afternoon thunderstorm rumbled through Louisville about an hour and a half before the Derby. It produced a brief, heavy rain that soaked fans in the infield, while spectators rushed for cover elsewhere.

Justin Theilman, of Cincinnati, whose shirt was soaked after getting caught in the downpour, said the rain didn't put a damper on the day.

"It felt refreshing," he said. "It's kind of cooled everything down really."

By race time, the storm had passed and sunshine had returned. The 142nd rendition of the Derby drew a crowd of 167,227, the second-largest in Derby history, to watch Nyquist win the Run for the Roses.

The massive crowd included someone who was just bumped from a different type of horse race  the contest for the presidency.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who ended his Republican presidential campaign earlier in the week, had a panoramic view from an exclusive section high above the track. Cruz said he was just at the Derby to have a good time and declined to be interviewed.

Throughout the track, fans sifted through the field of Derby horses listed on racing forms, hoping to land on Pharoah's successor as a Derby winner.

"American Pharoah did something for horse racing," said Jack Bell, who's been coming to the Derby for nearly 40 years. "Young people don't like horse racing, it's too slow. But they like American Pharoah. He gave it all he had in every race."

Miss Kentucky, Clark Davis, missed American Pharoah last year. She's keeping her fingers crossed that another horse will make history this year.

Some Derby-goers cared little about history in the making.

Mario Forestier and Joe Musleve chose the Derby for their first reunion in five years. The friends, who met while stationed in the Army at nearby Fort Knox, were sipping their second mint juleps by midmorning as they walked to the infield.

"It's something that I've always wanted to do," said Forestier, of Huntsville, Alabama. "I've heard stories and I think this is going to be like the greatest place ever. It's like our Disney World right here."

Steve Murow was among Derby fans accessing a mobile app launched by Churchill Downs that's meant to spare them from the long lines as much a Derby staple as colorful hats and sundresses. The app gave fans mobile access to ordering food and drinks and making online bets.

"We can find our spot, relax, save the walk, save the hassle, the bumping into people," said Murow, of Orange County, California. He and his wife, Jeanne, were sipping beer and people watching under a shade tree near the paddock.

"It's the Super Bowl, a tailgate, a dress-up special event, Las Vegas, all rolled into one," she said.

When American Pharoah won the Derby last year, Peggy Miller came to the track dressed as a mint julep.

This year she arrived dressed as a piece of toast, carrying a sign that said "a toast to thoro-breads."

She hasn't missed a Derby in 20 years, and her boyfriend, Tom Barrow, hasn't missed one in more than 40 years.

He hopes the winner of Saturday's race goes on to take the Triple Crown and recreate last year's excitement.

"There's always a shot, there's always hope," Barrow said.

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Associated Press writer Claire Galofaro contributed to this report.

Fans watch race five before the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 7, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Fans look over racing forms before the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs Saturday, May 7, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
33 protesters arrested in clash with San Francisco deputies

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Authorities say 33 people were arrested at San Francisco's City Hall during a protest calling for the firing of the city's police chief.

Dozens of protesters converged on the building Friday night and clashed with deputies in riot gear.

San Francisco Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Eileen Hirst says protesters were arrested after defying an order to disperse.

James Burch gets slammed by a San Francisco deputy sheriff, after protestors stormed through the east side entrance of City Hall on Friday, May 6, 2016. Protesters entered the building after doors were locked blocking off the public from entering the building during a protest against SFPD and in support of the Frisco 5 hunger strikers in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez)

Hirst tells the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1WQQdKj) the protesters, including one minor, were detained on suspicion of trespassing and failure to disperse, and were in the process of being cited and released Saturday.

The standoff came after five people who are on their 16th day of a hunger strike to demand the firing of Police Chief Greg Suhr were taken to the hospital and their protest camp outside the Mission District police station was packed up.

The strikers were being treated at UCSF Medical Center, though the hospital wouldn't release further information about their condition.
Maggert, Parnevik lead; Daly 6 shots back in senior debut

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP)  Local favorite Jeff Maggert and Jesper Parnevik shared the Insperity Invitational lead at 7 under Saturday, leaving John Daly six strokes back in his PGA Tour Champions debut.

Maggert birdied the par-4 18th for a 3-under 69, and playing partner Parnevik had a bogey on the par-4 17th in a 68 at The Woodlands Country Club.

Daly followed his opening 70 with a 73 to drop into a tie for 21st at 1 under.

"I just have to get some confidence with the putter. That's the thing," Daly said. "My chipping wasn't very good today, but I'm under par and I think seven is leading, you never know what can happen tomorrow. Maybe try to get maybe a little more aggressive with the driver, hit it a little bit more, get some more wedges in the holes and give myself a chance."

The two-time major champion made four straight bogeys in the middle of the round and rebounded with birdies on 15 and 18. He turned 50 on April 28.

"Just bad execution, bad chips, bad putts," Daly said about the bogey run on Nos. 8-11. "I actually thought I had a good shot on 9. I hit a 9-iron and it went over the back and you're dead. But all in all, I hung in there. ... I didn't hit it real close today. The wind was a little tricky on the back nine."

Maggert had four birdies and a bogey.

"Up and down today," Maggert said. "I think the golf course played a couple shots harder today. I hit the ball great. I didn't even struggle with the ball-striking. ... I was trying to press a little bit on the back nine, trying to make up a little ground. But it was good. Gusty wind, and also the direction was shifting quite a bit, so that made shot selection harder."

The Woodlands resident and former Texas A&M player led the tour with four victories last year, including major wins at the U.S. Senior Open and Regions Tradition. He won three times on the PGA Tour.

"I had a great career, and it's different now," Maggert said. "I think the difference is, when you're younger, we're all out here trying to prove things to ourselves and now, it's more like there's not a lot left to prove. I'd like to play well here tomorrow, but just going to enjoy the day and really looking forward to this week to jump-start my summer."

Parnevik eagled the par-5 13th and had four birdies and two bogeys.

"The game didn't feel good today, but putting felt a little bit better, even though I seemed to miss every short one," Parnevik said. "Then, I holed two monsters, to sort of kind of even it out."

The 51-year-old Swede is winless on the 50-and-over tour. He won five times on the PGA Tour.

"It's great to feel the butterflies come alive," Parnevik said. "All of a sudden you go, "Oh, I have to focus on these shots.' It's different and it's going to be fun tomorrow, just to be able to have a chance to win."
California firefighter delivers daughter on way to hospital

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP)  As a firefighter, Jeremy Roberts is used to getting quickly from Point A to Point B.

Still, he wasn't quite quick enough Saturday for his daughter, Adeline.

She was born in the front seat of Roberts' truck as the firefighter and his wife were heading to Loma Linda University Medical Center in Murrieta, California.

When it became clear Adeline wasn't going to wait, Roberts pulled over and used his paramedic training to deliver her.

It was about 4:15 a.m. when the firefighter's wife first said it was time to head to the hospital.

Parents and baby did eventually get there, but as a trio.
Labour must be 'big tent that appeals to everyone', says London mayor Sadiq Khan

Labour can only win elections if it reaches beyond its own activists, Sadiq Khan said today in a clear message to party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

The new mayor of London, who was signed in at a ceremony from which Mr Corbyn was notably absent, warned that appealing to "natural Labour voters" alone would not be enough to secure success.

Mr Khan secured an overwhelming victory over Tory Zac Goldsmith following a bitter campaign which saw his rival attempt to link him to Islamic extremists.

Sadiq Khan receives applause during the signing ceremony

The Labour mayor said the Conservative campaign was "straight out of the Donald Trump playbook".

Mr Khan, who was congratulated by Mr Trump's likely opponent in the White House race Hillary Clinton, said it was vital for Labour to be a "big tent" and avoid focusing on internal party issues.

Mr Corbyn's absence from the high-profile ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in which Mr Khan was signed in as mayor raised eyebrows and led to the party leader being forced to deny there was a rift.

The Labour leader's predecessor Ed Miliband was at the event, but Mr Corbyn's absence was unexplained.

Instead of appearing alongside Mr Khan, Mr Corbyn travelled to Bristol to congratulate that city's new mayor Marvin Rees.

"I am meeting Sadiq over the weekend, I have been in touch with him. We are getting on fine. I have sent him a message of congratulations," he told reporters.

Mr Khan and Mr Corbyn are expected to have a meeting on Monday.

Writing in The Observer, the London mayor set out the lessons he had learned from his successful campaign.

"First, Labour only wins when we face outwards and focus on the issues that the people actually care about," he said.

"And secondly, we will never be trusted to govern unless we reach out and engage with all voters - regardless of their background, where they live or where they work.

"Squabbles over internal party structures might be important for some in the party, but it is clear they mean little or nothing to the huge majority of voters.

"As tempting as it might be, we must always resist focusing in on ourselves and ignoring what people really want."

He added: "Labour has to be a big tent that appeals to everyone - not just its own activists.

"Campaigns that deliberately turn their back on particular groups are doomed to fail.

"Just like in London, so-called natural Labour voters alone will never be enough to win a general election.

"We must be able to persuade people who previously voted Conservative that Labour can be trusted with the economy and security as well as improving public services and creating a fairer society."

Mr Khan said David Cameron and Mr Goldsmith had sought to "divide London's communities in an attempt to win votes".

"They used fear and innuendo to try and turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other - something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. Londoners deserved better and I hope it's something the Conservative Party will never try to repeat."

Cabinet minister Michael Fallon said Mr Goldsmith's campaign in London, which has been criticised by senior Tories, was part of the "rough and tumble" of an election.

Mr Fallon described Mr Khan as a "Labour lackey who speaks alongside extremists" during the mayoral race, and was repeatedly challenged on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme to say whether he was worried about the capital's security with Mr Khan in City Hall.

"London is safe with a Conservative Government working with the new mayor of London," he said.

Tory former justice secretary Ken Clarke told the BBC the way the campaign had been run was a "mistake" and "probably had a counter-productive effect".

But Mr Fallon said: "Both candidates were asked questions about their backgrounds, their personalities, their judgment, the people they associate with. That's the nature of our democracy and the rough and tumble of politics."

The "Super Thursday" election process was drawing to a close, with results in Northern Ireland and a handful of councils across England on Saturday, as well as Mr Rees's result in Bristol.

:: With results in from 123 out of 124 councils - Bristol will declare on Sunday - the Conservatives were down 47 seats, Labour down 18, the Liberal Democrats up 31 and Ukip up 25.

:: In Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein will retain their positions as the major parties in the power-sharing coalition administration at Stormont, with Arlene Foster continuing as First Minister.

:: The DUP has replicated its historic performance of 2011 by again winning 38 seats while Sinn Fein fell just short of the 29 it achieved five years ago, securing 28 seats.
Arlene Foster hails 'tremendous' DUP as powersharing with Sinn Fein continues

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster has hailed her party's "tremendous" performance in the Northern Ireland Assembly election after an unexpected repeat of its best ever Stormont haul.

The 38 seats won by the party is the same number it secured in 2011 in an election many, including party strategists, viewed as a one-off historic high water mark.

While much of the campaign focused on whether Sinn Fein could eclipse the DUP as the region's largest party - a possibility Mrs Foster herself repeatedly warned of - in the event the gap between the two main Stormont parties actually grew, albeit slightly.

DUP leader Arlene Foster at the Titanic Exhibition Centre

Sinn Fein's 28 seats was one short of its tally in 2011. It was also shy of the significant 30 seat threshold that would have handed the republican party extra power to veto Assembly legislation.

In an election that saw most of the main parties consolidate their seat strength, there were also some notable victories for the smaller parties, with the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) and Green Party both winning two seats each.

The DUP's showing is undoubtedly a strong validation of Mrs Foster's leadership, coming six months after she replaced the retiring Peter Robinson.

"It has been a tremendous election and I feel very energised by the fact the people have put their trust in us," said Mrs Foster, who topped the poll in her own Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency.

"It's a strong endorsement of the direction of travel. We set out a five-point plan for a safer, stronger Northern Ireland, that is what have discussed right across the country as I criss-crossed across the country.

"We got a very warm reception for it and that has shown in the ballot boxes.

"The people have spoken, we have now received mandates and we must now put those mandates into action."

Mrs Foster will now return as Stormont First Minister. The former Ulster Unionist, who defected to the DUP in 2004, said she "wanted to get things done" in the term.

"I am very determined, and I am incredibly proud to be the leader of this great wee country that we call Northern Ireland and I am looking forward to leading it over the next mandate," she said.

Over the coming days, the emphasis will shift to negotiations between the main parties on the shape of the new coalition administration, its agreed programme for government and which parties will take on which ministerial portfolios.

Two things are different in the wake of this election - firstly, the talks on the programme for government are taking place before the executive is formed and, secondly, parties can now avail of the recently-established option of forming an official opposition rather than entering the executive.

Of the 108 candidates elected to Stormont, the DUP has 38, Sinn Fein 28, the Ulster Unionists 16, the SDLP 12, Alliance eight, PBPA two, Greens two, with the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) and independent Claire Sugden winning one each.

The SDLP and Ulster Unionists both had disappointing elections.

The SDLP, the once dominate power within nationalism, has dropped two seats on its 2011 tally. Though the UUP repeated the 16 seat haul of 2011, it did not make the in-roads leader Mike Nesbitt had confidently predicted. Reflecting on the outcome, Mr Nesbitt said: "Not great but not bad".

For the Alliance Party, which also won eight seats in 2011, it was a case of "as you were".

Long time Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he was pleased with his party's performance, insisting it had to viewed in the context of the "challenges" the executive had faced in the last mandate, highlighting the economic downturn and UK Government "austerity policies".

"That is pretty remarkable performance given the challenges we have faced over the course of the last Assembly term," he said.

The Sinn Fein veteran said he was now looking forward to the "new Assembly and new executive" and focusing on what could be delivered.

Whatever the exact make-up of the next power sharing administration, it is sure to face vocal criticism from the opposition benches.

The two seat pick-up by the socialist People Before Profit Alliance was a remarkable feat for a party with no previous representation in the chamber.

PBPA's Gerry Carroll topped the poll in Sinn Fein's west Belfast heartland while veteran civil rights campaigner Eamonn McCann won a seat for the party in Foyle.

The Green Party also secured two seats in the new mandate, with party leader Steven Agnew and Clare Bailey winning through.

Jim Allister, leader of the TUV and arch-critic of the last administration, retained his seat, though failed to bring any colleagues in with him.

Ms Sugden, who was co-opted during the last term into the seat held by the late independent David McClarty, won a berth at Parliament Buildings in her own right.

Among the high-profile political casualties were independent unionist John McCallister, who lost his South Down seat after nine years, and outgoing DUP MLAs David McIlveen and Ian McCrea. Former SDLP deputy leader Dolores Kelly also lost out in Upper Bann after being edged out for the sixth seat by outgoing Sinn Fein education minister John O'Dowd.

The Alliance Party's Naomi Long and Sinn Fein's Michelle Gildernew will be making a return to the Stormont benches after previously serving as MPs.

Jenny Palmer, who quit the DUP amid allegations she had been bullied, took a seat from her former party when she was elected for the Ulster Unionists in Lagan Valley.

Former DUP health minister Jim Wells, who was embroiled in a series of controversies in the last term, was also re-elected in South Down.

The SDLP faced a tight battle to retain its single seat in West Belfast with Alex Attwood narrowly pipping the DUP's Frank McCoubrey by 89 votes.

In South Belfast, Claire Hanna, who was co-opted into the Assembly when former SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell stood down, proved successful in her first test at the Assembly polls and was elected just after midnight.

Her running mate, former television reporter Fearghal McKinney was eliminated at stage 10.

Colum Eastwood, who was embarking on his first election as SDLP leader, retained his seat in Foyle.

Sinn Fein's Culture Arts and Leisure Minister Caral Ni Chuilin was also returned for another term in North Belfast, as was Gerry Kelly.

Former DUP political adviser Emma Pengelly, who was co-opted into the last Assembly, won a seat in her own right in South Belfast, as did former DUP Belfast deputy mayor Christopher Stalford.

The turnout of 54.91% was down, but only slightly, on the 55.64% in the 2011 Stormont election.
Nicola Sturgeon to find 'common ground' as she pledges to implement SNP policies

Nicola Sturgeon insists she does not have to build consensus in the Scottish Parliament to implement her manifesto and stressed that a majority of MSPs still back Scottish independence.

The SNP was reduced to a minority government in the general election on Thursday, meaning members will have to strike deals with opposition MSPs to get their legislation through.

But leader Nicola Sturgeon said her opponents are divided on many issues, and said she will work to find common ground "not so much because I have to do it but because I want to do it".

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined by the SNP's newly elected members of the Scottish Parliamen

She warned her opponents, who said they won't give the SNP an easy ride in the next parliament, to respect the SNP's victory in the election which gave her "a clear and unequivocal mandate to implement the policies that we set out in our manifesto".

Speaking at The Kelpies, the twin horse head sculpture near Falkirk where she unveiled her 62 fellow new and re-elected MSPs, Ms Sturgeon also warned unionists against using the election result to sound the death knell for Scottish independence.

The Scottish Greens, who called for a petition on another referendum in their manifesto, gained six seats bringing the total tally of nationalists to 69 out of 129 MSPs.

Ms Sturgeon said: "I was the deputy first minister in a minority government from 2007 to 2011. In that parliament we were genuinely a minority government. We had 47 MSPs.

"This SNP government will be in a very different position. We are just two seats short of having an overall majority.

"That's a very strong position to be in.

"We face an opposition that will not be united, I don't think, on too many issues.

"So, yes I will reach out and I was very clear yesterday that I want to lead an inclusive government, I want to find and build on common ground where I can, but I will do that not so much because I have to do it but because I want to do it.

"I have also been very clear, and I think the opposition parties in Scotland should also be clear, that the SNP won this election.

"We polled more votes than Labour and the Conservatives combined in this election, so we have a very clear and unequivocal mandate to implement the policies that we set out in our manifesto and I intend to do that, albeit I will do that in as inclusive a way as I can."

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the minority will allow unionist MSPs "to ensure that a fresh SNP drive on independence can be halted in its tracks".

Ms Sturgeon said: "The Scottish Parliament, of course, has a majority of MSPs who support independence.

"The SNP, obviously, but also the Green Party who support independence. Their number of seats went up so there is an independence supporting majority in the Scottish Parliament.

"It is also the case that the SNP won the election and the Tories, although they had a good night in the election, didn't win the election so I think Ruth Davidson should perhaps be careful about over-reaching herself.

"I have been very clear that Scotland will only become independent when a majority of people in Scotland want to be independent.

"We should respect the will of the people at all times, and that applies not just to the SNP but to other parties as well."

The Greens propped up the last nationalist minority administration in 2007 and co-convener Patrick Harvie said the party now intends to push the SNP "beyond its comfort zone".

The Lib Dems, veteran coalition builders with a reputation for compromise, talked tough with leader Willie Rennie insisting the "arrogant" SNP now needs "a change of attitude".

The Scottish Conservatives won a record 31 seats, up from 15 in 2011, and are now Holyrood's second biggest party.

The T ories won a number of concessions from Alex Salmond's minority administration and leader Ruth Davidson has pledged to "work constructively where required" but "provide challenge where they do not listen".

Both the Tories and the Lib Dems insisted the one thing they will not compromise over is another independence referendum, with Ms Davidson saying the SNP had "no mandate, no majority, no cause" and Mr Rennie insisting it must be "off the table".

Kezia Dugdale has pledged to continue as Scottish Labour leader following the party's worst ever result of 24 seats, down 13 from 2011.

She said the result was "heartbreaking" but vowed to "keep fighting for Labour values".
Two thirds of big businesses 'have suffered cyber attack in last year'

Two thirds of large British businesses have experienced a cyber attack or breach in the last 12 months, research has revealed.

Findings from the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, undertaken by Ipsos Mori for the Government, show a quarter of large firms experiencing a cyber breach did so at least once a month.

Results from the survey have been released alongside the Government's Cyber Governance Health Check - which was launched following the TalkTalk cyber attack in October last year.

Firms are being urged to better protect themselves against cyber attacks

In light of the findings, businesses are now being urged to better protect themselves.

Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: "The UK is a world-leading digital economy and this Government has made cyber security a top priority.

"Too many firms are losing money, data and consumer confidence with the vast number of cyber attacks. It's absolutely crucial businesses are secure and can protect data.

"As a minimum, companies should take action by adopting the Cyber Essentials scheme which will help them protect themselves."

Findings show that in some cases the cost of cyber breaches and attacks on businesses reached millions, and that almost half of the top FTSE 350 businesses regarded this as the biggest threat.

It was also revealed that seven out of 10 attacks on all firms involved viruses, spyware or malware, could have been prevented, a nd how only a fifth of businesses have a clear view of the dangers of sharing information with third parties.

Over the next five years the Government has pledged to invest 1.9 billion to tackle and prevent the crime, as well as a new National Cyber Security Centre which will offer security support.

A new national cyber security strategy will also be published later this year, setting out proposals to improve virtual safety across the Government, businesses and consumers.
Tajik court says Islamic State plot targeted president

DUSHANBE, May 6 (Reuters) - Two Tajiks recruited by the militant group Islamic State planned to assassinate President Imomali Rakhmon last year, a court in the capital Dushanbe said on Friday.

The Dushanbe district court said it had sentenced the two, a man and a woman, last December to 10 and eight-and-a-half years in prison respectively. It said they were both residents of the capital.

The case and the sentence were not made public at the time.

Rakhmon faced an attempted coup last September led by a deputy defence minister who then died fighting government troops.

Rakhmon, who has run the landlocked central Asian republic since 1992 and used Russian support to crush Islamist guerrillas in a 1992-1997 civil war, blamed that coup attempt on the opposition Islamic Renaissance Party, which was then banned.
Shanghai Chaos spreads wings, opens office in Hong Kong

By Pratima Desai

LONDON, May 6 (Reuters) - Shanghai Chaos, one of China's largest commodities fund managers, has opened an office in Hong Kong to diversify activities and try to keep its commodities trading under the radar of the market, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Metal industry sources said the fund house plans to use a much larger number of banks and brokerages, of which there are many more in Hong Kong than in Shanghai, so that its positions are not easily identifiable.

The advantage of Hong Kong is the ability to use exchanges outside of China, which mostly only detail commodity positions by categories such as financial and non-financial, not by individual firms.

The Shanghai Futures Exchange, which offers a wide range of products including copper, aluminium, zinc and nickel, lists positions by broker on its website.

"If you know which broker or brokers Chaos uses, it's not difficult to work out their positions," a broker source said.

The Hong Kong arm, named Chaos International Financial, opened its offices at the beginning of this year and has a very small staff, sources said. A one-page website: http://chaosinternational.com says "We're Hiring".

It is already registered with the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong for dealing futures contracts.

A senior company official declined to comment and calls by Reuters to Chaos's administrative office in Shanghai were not answered.

Chinese funds have become increasingly influential in global financial and commodity markets in recent years and their activity has contributed to wild price swings, including a 12 percent collapse in copper prices in January 2015 and a 9 percent drop in July last year.

Chaos also plans to offer prime brokerage services to hedge funds, which want to borrow stocks or bonds to sell short -- bets on lower prices. Prime brokers also lend cash, offer clearing and risk management services to hedge funds.

Shanghai Chaos Investment was set up about 10 years ago and traders said it has 10 billion yuan ($1.5 bln) under management.
Ireland's Kenny re-elected PM as head of minority government

DUBLIN, May 6 (Reuters) - Enda Kenny was re-elected Ireland's Prime Minister on Friday to end 10 weeks of political deadlock, when his biggest rival abstained to allow the formation of a minority government supported by independent lawmakers.

After suffering heavy losses at the Feb. 26 election, Kenny's centre-right Fine Gael party returned to power with the backing of nine independent lawmakers.
China to expand bilingual schooling in Xinjiang -Xinhua

BEIJING, May 6 (Reuters) - China's western Xinjiang region will expand bilingual preschool education, state media said on Friday, a measure that comes amid a broader campaign the government says will promote unity in the region, which has struggled with ethnic violence.

Hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang in the past few years. The government blames the violence on Islamist militants who it says want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan for minority Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language.

Xinjiang officials have said bilingual education needs improvement, referring to a policy that has proved controversial in the region as many Uighurs fear their mother tongue is being pushed aside in favour of Mandarin.

The government says it will improve Uighurs' job prospects.

Xinjiang will use central government funds to offer three years of bilingual preschool education instead of the current two years in the region's rural areas between 2016 and 2020, the official Xinhua news agency said.

"Xinjiang is aiming to ensure 85 percent of pre-school children across the region have access to such education in 2020," Xinhua said. The news agency said the figure was 75 percent last year.

The central government has invested more than 1 billion yuan ($154 million) this year to build 552 bilingual kindergartens in Xinjiang, mainly in the region's rural south, Xinhua said.

Rights groups and exiles say one of the major problems in Xinjiang is government controls on Uighur culture and Islam, and point out that few Han Chinese who live and work in Xinjiang make any effort to learn Uighur or make Uighur friends.

China denies having any repressive policies.
Colony Capital in talks to buy NorthStar Asset Management

May 6 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Colony Capital Inc is in talks to buy commercial real estate manager NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc, the companies said.

Colony Capital is working with NorthStar Realty Finance Corp for a "tri-party all-stock" proposal, the companies said in joint statement on Friday.

Bloomberg reported the deal talks earlier in the day.
Cameroon midfielder Ekeng dies after collapsing on pitch

May 6 (Reuters) - Dinamo Bucharest and Cameroon midfielder Patrick Ekeng died on Friday after collapsing on the pitch during a match for his club, the Cameroon FA said on Twitter.

Media reports said Ekeng fell to the ground in the 70th minute of Dinamo's league match against Viitorul Constanta and was pronounced dead of a suspected heat attack two hours later.
Berkshire discloses unit's ties to Iran, opens probe

By Jonathan Stempel

May 6 (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said on Friday it recently learned that one of its foreign units made sales through a third-party distributor to customers in Iran, despite U.S. sanctions against that country.

In its quarterly report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said it alerted federal authorities including the Department of the Treasury on Friday about the transactions in question.

It said the customers "include or may include parties that meet the definition of the 'Government of Iran.'"

The transactions took place from June 2013 to November 2015, and generated about $2,500 of profit on $45,000 of revenue, Berkshire said.

Berkshire did not identify the unit involved or when it learned there might be a problem, but said the unit has stopped shipments to the Iran parties and does not intend to resume them.

It also said it has hired outside lawyers to help it conduct an internal probe, and will cooperate with government agencies.

Berkshire has close to 90 operating units, mostly in the United States. It did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.

In August 2012, President Barack Obama signed into law the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act, which makes U.S. companies liable for various activities related to Iran, including support for terrorism and human rights abuses, according to the U.S. Department of State.

The law also requires Berkshire and other companies that make periodic SEC filings to disclose various dealings with Iran.
Uber Mexico City driver accused of rape detained by prosecutors

MEXICO CITY, May 6 (Reuters) - A driver for ride-hailing app Uber was detained in Mexico City after a female passenger accused him of raping her, a spokeswoman from the city's prosecutor's office said on Friday.

The passenger said she was raped earlier in May after being picked up by the Uber driver in the upmarket Condesa neighborhood, said the spokeswoman, who declined to be identified. The driver was detained on Wednesday and is now being held in a prison in Mexico City, the spokeswoman said.

"We take accusations like this very seriously and thus have deactivated the platform of the driver," Uber spokesman Luis de Uriarte, who is based in Mexico, said in a statement.

He confirmed that authorities had asked the company for information about a driver and a journey made by that driver.

The company's Mexico City operation, its largest in Latin America, has often been cited by Uber officials as an example of progress for the city's decision to regulate the service. The company has more than 39,000 drivers in Mexico and more than 1.2 million active users.

In 2014, Uber was temporarily banned in New Delhi after an Indian driver was accused of rape. Uber introduced safety measures and tightened driver checks after the incident.
Opponents try to head off maverick mayor in final rallies for Philippine presidency

By Martin Petty

MANILA, May 7 (Reuters) - Philippine election hopefuls campaigned for a final day on Saturday amid the drama of a late intervention by the country's outgoing leader to try to block maverick mayor Rodrigo Duterte from winning the presidency.

President Benigno Aquino caused a stir on Friday with a call for candidates to collaborate against Duterte in a last-ditch move to stop the "Trump of the East" from converting his runaway popularity into victory in Monday's vote.

Philippine politics is no stranger to controversial characters and the firebrand Duterte is one of its most divisive, alarming opponents with his advocacy of extrajudicial killings as a deterrent against rampant crime and illegal drugs.

There were no signs on Saturday of Aquino's idea taking hold. Some experts said it could backfire on his chosen successor, Manuel Roxas.

Roxas invited rival Grace Poe for talks aimed at derailing Duterte, who has a double-digit lead in the latest opinion polls, but met a resounding "no". Vice-President Jejomar Binay's team described Aquino's call as "hollow".

Political analyst Prospero de Vera said the government had seen the writing on the wall for its candidate and it needed to change tack.

"This is all part of the administration's messaging to project that Manuel Roxas has the momentum," he said.

"They need these dramatics to prevent allies in the provinces from jumping ship," de Vera said.

The five candidates have major rallies planned later on Saturday, the final day allowed for campaigning. Duterte was a clear leader in final opinion polling with a lead of 11 points over Poe, with Roxas close behind in third.

Duterte, 71, is the alternative candidate who has lit up the race with his incendiary rhetoric and image as a loose cannon.

Experts say his recent surge, and Poe's popularity, represents public disenchantment with Aquino's administration.

That sentiment has perplexed investors and some Western governments given the robust performance of the Philippine economy under Aquino. However, criticism by opponents that it has not translated into jobs or better livelihoods for millions of poor appears to be resonating.

Poe's pro-investment, anti-poverty platform is striking a chord, however, as is Duterte's promises of a war on crime and his profanity-packed speeches during a campaign that bears the emblem of a clenched fist.

Duterte's campaign manager, Leoncio Evasco Jr, described Aquino's call for a united front against the Davao city mayor as desperate.

"It also further unmasks the true character of the Aquino regime - one that in the face of debacle will abandon ship and run like a headless chicken," Evasco said in a statement.
Hundreds of demonstrators to protest against plan to fence off Italian-Austrian border crossing

ZURICH, May 7 (Reuters) - Around 400 protesters are expected to gather at the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria on Saturday afternoon to protest a plan to restrict access through the Alpine crossing to control the movement of migrants, police said.

Austria has said it plans to erect a fence at the Brenner crossing it shares with Italy to "channel" people. Part of Europe's borderless Schengen zone, Brenner is one of the routes that migrants use as they head towards wealthy northern Europe.

Local police in Tyrol, Austria said they expected the demonstration to start around 2:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT), meeting at the Brenner station in Italy.

Italian newspaper Corriera della Sera reported earlier this week that the protest had been organised by an anarchist group from Trentino, northern Italy, and was expected to attract demonstrators from abroad.

Austria planned to send 300 police officers to the protests but were "ready to increase the number," Tyrol police said, adding the Italian police were prepared to send the same number.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in Rome last month that as many as a million migrants were poised to cross the Mediterranean from Libya this year. Italy says the figure is much lower, though calm summer seas may well bring a surge.
Croatian PM says not thinking about early polls -paper

ZAGREB, May 7 (Reuters) - Croatia's prime minister dismissed the possibility of an early election and said in an interview published on Saturday that his fractious coalition would deliver promised reforms to spur growth and cut debt.

Recent squabbles over appointments including that of an intelligence chief and reforms to the pension system and public administration have prompted questions about the stability of the government and the possibility of early polls.

Technocrat Prime Minister Tihomir Oreskovic told daily Vecernji List he had good relationships with other leaders of the coalition that took office in January and which comprises the conservative HDZ and reformist Most ("Bridge") parties plus several small allies.

"Sometimes our opinions differ and we can have unpleasant discussions, but it doesn't mean they are not healthy," Oreskovic said. "I don't even think about an early election as we have a lot of jobs ahead of us and all the ministers are aware of it and keen to focus on work."

HDZ parliamentary deputy Zeljko Dilber had said on Friday his party could reassess relations with Most -- at whose insistence Oreskovic was appointed as premier -- after an internal election in late May.

On Saturday, Most leader Bozo Petrov said his party would not accept "ultimatums" from HDZ for remaining in coalition.

Local media reported that the conservatives told Most this week they demanded a stronger say in the interior ministry, controlled by a Most minister, and change of policy in a dispute with Hungarian energy firm MOL over management and investments in Croatia's oil concern INA.

"If they aim to make ultimatums, they shouldn't have entered a coalition with us. We will not accept it, nor will we yield to such demands," Petrov told the state radio. HDZ officials were not available for a comment.

INA is jointly owned by Zagreb and MOL, but the two sides are at odds and involved in an international arbitration. Most insists Croatia must not withdraw from the arbitration.

A snap election would slow momentum for reforms needed to boost one of the European Union's weakest economies.

"We jointly as a government prepared reforms and we can implement them only if we stick together. I'm convinced we will deliver results," Oreskovic, formerly an executive at Israeli drug firm Teva, said in the interview.

The government adopted a package of measures last week aimed at fostering growth, cutting high public debt and avoiding corrective measures for macroeconomic imbalances from Brussels.

Oreskovic said the government would soon outline plans to privatise some non-strategic assets, including real estate and minority stakes in some firms.

"My first move now will be to reduce debt by up to 200 million euros ($230 million). In the next two weeks we will know in what companies we want to sell our share and in what way," he said.
Spain's Rajoy asks Brussels to forgo deficit fine - El Pais

MADRID, May 7 (Reuters) - Spain's acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy has asked Brussels to waive a fine that could be imposed on the country for missing its deficit target in 2015, El Pais newspaper reported on Saturday.

Citing a letter sent to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, El Pais said Rajoy had stressed Spain's efforts in the past four years to halve the public deficit, and offered up additional measures to control spending next year.

A source with the Spanish government confirmed the existence of the letter, though said it contained information that had already been sent to Brussels on Spain's latest plans to bring the deficit down.

The European Commission declined to comment.

The Commission is in charge of policing the budgets of the EU's 28 members to make sure they improve each year in line with recommendations set by finance ministers.

The rules were sharpened in 2011 to make financial sanctions for rule-breakers more automatic and harder to circumvent through political alliance-building as had happened in the past.

Spain missed its 2015 target of cutting the deficit to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), after overspending by regions and a social security revenue shortfall pushed it up to 5 percent.

The Commission is considering penalising Spain as well as Portugal for missing their goals. Officials have told Reuters the fines - which would be unprecedented - could be symbolic and be set at zero percent of GDP, though even that would ramp up political pressure.

Spain's deficit tussle comes at an sensitive time for Rajoy's acting centre-right government, which faces a second election in six months after an inconclusive ballot last December which stripped the People's Party (PP) of its majority.

The PP has tried to sell itself as a safe pair of hands on the economy, after the country emerged from a deep recession under its administration.

The new election is now set for June 26. The Commission is due to issue its recommendations on whether or not to fine Spain and Portugal later this month, though the size of any fine may not be announced until after the vote, El Pais said.

The maximum penalty is up to 0.2 percent of GDP, or 2.16 billion euros ($180 million) in the case of Spain.

Brussels is also expected to give Spain more leeway to whittle its public deficit below its recommended 3 percent threshold, through an extension of one or even two years, sources have said.

By exercising better controls on regional spending and helped by an economic rebound, Spain aims to bring the deficit down to 3.6 percent this year - instead of the 2.8 percent originally envisaged - and sees it standing at 2.9 percent in 2017.
Historic Bosnian mosque reopens in move towards reconciliation

By Gordana Katana and Maja Zuvela

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia May 7 (Reuters) - Thousands of Muslims flocked to the capital of Bosnia's Serb region on Saturday for the reopening of a historic mosque destroyed during wartime, a ceremony seen as encouraging religious tolerance among deeply divided communities.

Twenty years after the devastating war between its Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, Bosnia remains split along ethnic lines, with rival groups blocking reconciliation and reform needed to join the European Union.

The return of Muslim believers to the rebuilt Ferhadija mosque in the largely Serb city of Banja Luka, capital of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, offered hope for change to many, although some were more cautious.

Amid tight security, about 1,000 police officers patrolled the streets as buses arrived with Muslims from across the country. Traffic was barred from the city centre and alcohol banned.

Turkey's outgoing Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose country contributed to the cost of rebuilding, reopened the mosque in front of a congregation of up to 10,000, saying the new building sent a message of peace.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox and Jews, is one body, one heart. If there is any attempt to split it up, it means that this one heart would be split," he said, apparently referring to secessionist threats by Bosnian Serbs.

The 16th-century mosque, under UNESCO protection as an outstanding example of Ottoman architecture, was blown up 23 years ago. A parking lot was built where it had stood.

Many believe its destruction was ordered by Bosnian Serbs aiming to erase any traces of Muslim heritage in the once multi-ethnic city.

ETHNIC CLEANSING

During a ceremony to lay a foundation stone for the mosque in 2001, Serb nationalists attacked visitors and dignitaries, wounding dozens and killing one Muslim.

It took another 15 years for Bosnia's Muslims to obtain construction permits and funds to rebuild the mosque. Thousands of pieces of rubble from the original building were used after being recovered from the Vrbas River and a garbage site where they were dumped.

The day it was levelled, May 7, is now the Day of the Mosques in Bosnia, where 614 mosques were destroyed during the 1992-95 war.

Today, only 10 percent of Banja Luka's pre-war Muslim and Croat population remains in the city following a wartime Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik said representatives of Islamic, Orthodox, Catholic and Jewish communities "have gathered here and sent messages of peace".

Efendi Husein Kavazovic, head of Bosnia's Islamic community, spoke of a "triumph of light over darkness", although he had earlier expressed doubts that reconciliation was close at hand.

Bakir Izetbegovic, the Muslim chairman of Bosnia's three-man inter-ethnic presidency, said the rebuilt mosque was sign that Bosnia's Muslims could return to the region.

Some residents were less sanguine, with many of Banja Luka's Serbs apparently staying away from the ceremony.

"I only want this opening to pass peacefully and without any incident as tensions still run high," said Tatjana Kecman, a Serb from Banja Luka.
Egyptian court recommends death penalty for journalists, Mursi verdict postponed

CAIRO, May 7 (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets to Qatar, in a ruling condemned by the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel as shocking.

Jordanian national Alaa Omar Sablan and Ibrahim Mohammed Helal, who both work for Al Jazeera, and Asmaa Al Khateeb, a reporter for Rassd, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news network, were sentenced in absentia. They can appeal.

The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped former president Mohammed Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Al Jazeera said the ruling provoked "shock and anger" and called for international action to safeguard journalists' rights to report news freely.

"The death sentence against journalists is unprecedented in the history of world media and amounts to a real stab against freedom of expression around the world," the satellite channel said in a statement posted on its website.

Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.

Following Saturday's ruling, a final decision is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy, who announced the verdict, also said that a ruling against Mursi and several others charged in the same case, would be postponed to the same date.

Prosecutors in Saturday's case argued that Mursi's aides were involved in leaking sensitive documents to Qatari intelligence that exposed the location of weapons held by the Egyptian armed forces.

Defence lawyers said that documents were moved out of the presidential palace to protect them during growing protests against Mursi's rule, but this process was not the responsibility of the president and the documents presented in the case show no signs of spying.

"The case's documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in it," a defence lawyer told Reuters.

Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.

Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.

Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt's then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi.
Iran says several of its soldiers killed near Aleppo

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

DUBAI, May 7 (Reuters) - Several Iranian soldiers were killed near Aleppo, the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, in what appeared to be one of Iran's biggest losses in Syria since it deployed forces to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Islamist insurgents on Friday seized the strategic village of Khan Touman, some 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo. Dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the battle.

Fars news agency on Saturday quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded in the fighting.

The attack on Khan Touman was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which has rejected diplomatic efforts to halt the five-year civil war.

Earlier this week, the United States and Russia brokered a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo itself. But fighting in the countryside to the south of the city, one of the major fronts where Iranian-backed forces have been deployed, has escalated in recent days.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group that monitors the conflict, said that Syrian and Russian jet planes have intensified their bombing of insurgent posts.

Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates have published on social media videos and photos of what appear to be the bodies of Iranians or other Shi'ite militias who were killed in Khan Touman.

Some videos include footage of their wallets, personal documentation and Iranian currency.

There are indications that some of the casualties might be Afghans who are trained in Iran and are deployed alongside Iranian soldiers in Syria.

The Revolutionary Guards in a statement on Saturday urged people not to be affected by the Islamist rebels' "psychological war on the social media".

A top advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Syria's president in a meeting with Bashar al-Assad in Damascus.

"Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
Spain's Rajoy asks EC to forgo deficit fine - El Pais

MADRID, May 7 (Reuters) - Acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy has asked the European Commission to waive a fine that could be imposed on Spain for missing its deficit target in 2015, El Pais newspaper reported on Saturday.

Citing a letter sent to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, El Pais said Rajoy had stressed Spain's efforts in the past four years to halve the public deficit, and offered up additional measures to control spending next year.

A Commission spokeswoman confirmed it had received a letter from Spain and would study it. A source with the Spanish government said the letter contained information that had already been sent to Brussels on Spain's latest plans to bring the deficit down.

The Commission is in charge of policing the budgets of the EU's 28 members to make sure they improve each year in line with recommendations set by finance ministers.

The rules were sharpened in 2011 to make financial sanctions for rule-breakers more automatic and harder to circumvent through political alliance-building as had happened in the past.

Spain missed its 2015 target of cutting the deficit to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), after overspending by regions and a social security revenue shortfall pushed it up to 5 percent.

The Commission is considering penalising Spain as well as Portugal for missing their goals. Officials have told Reuters the fines - which would be unprecedented - could be symbolic and be set at zero percent of GDP, though even that would ramp up political pressure.

Spain's deficit tussle comes at an sensitive time for Rajoy's acting centre-right government, which faces a second election in six months after an inconclusive ballot last December which stripped the People's Party (PP) of its majority.

The PP has tried to sell itself as a safe pair of hands on the economy, after the country emerged from a deep recession under its administration.

The new election is now set for June 26. The Commission is due to issue its recommendations on whether or not to fine Spain and Portugal later this month, though the size of any fine may not be announced until after the vote, El Pais said.

The maximum penalty is up to 0.2 percent of GDP, or 2.16 billion euros ($180 million) in the case of Spain.

Brussels is also expected to give Spain more leeway to whittle its public deficit below its recommended 3 percent threshold, through an extension of one or even two years, sources have said.

By exercising better controls on regional spending and helped by an economic rebound, Spain aims to bring the deficit down to 3.6 percent this year - instead of the 2.8 percent originally envisaged - and sees it standing at 2.9 percent in 2017.
Iran suffers losses in Syria, Aleppo truce extended

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

DUBAI, May 7 (Reuters) - Thirteen Iranian soldiers were killed in a battle with Islamist militants over a village near the Syrian city of Aleppo, Tehran said on Saturday, in one of Iran's biggest single-day losses since it sent forces to support President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia meanwhile said that a truce in Aleppo itself had been extended until Monday.

Islamist forces seized Khan Touman village, about 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo, on Friday and dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the fighting.

The attack was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Iran's Fars news agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded.

Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates posted videos and photos on social media of what appeared to be the bodies of Iranians or Shi'ite militiamen who were killed in Khan Touman. They included footage of wallets, personal documentats and Iranian currency.

Iran, along with Russia, has been a principle ally of Assad in the five-year-old civil war, while Gulf Arab states and the West have supported various rebel factions. The Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah movement has also been operating in Syria against the rebels.

A senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Assad in a meeting with the president in Damascus.

"Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by Fars.

Iranian proxies, including Afghans and Iraqis as well as Lebanese, have been involved in Syria from as early as 2012.

While Tehran previously said its support was limited to advisors, it has been more open about the extent of its role since Russia intervened on Assad's side last year.

Iran has been particulalry involved in campaigns around Aleppo in northwest Syria, which was the country's commercial and industrial centre before the war and is now divided between government and rebel forces.

Fighting in the countryside to the south of Aleppo has escalated in recent days despite a ceasefire in city itself since Wednesday.

The Russian defence ministry said a "regime of calm" truce in Aleppo and parts of Latakia province had been extended for 72 hours beginning at 1 a.m. on Saturday (2200 GMT on Friday), Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring organisation, said Syrian and Russian warplanes had intensified their bombing of insurgent positions near Khan Touman.

In northern Syria, U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed 48 Islamic State fighters on Saturday, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said, quoting the Turkish military.

The strikes were in response to increasingly frequent Islamic State attacks against opposition forces in the area, Turkisk security sources told Andadolu.

The Turkish border town of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from Islamic State-controlled territory of Syria, has been hit by regular rocket fire in recent weeks.

The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though, with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000.
Malaysia's ruling party sweeps state polls despite scandals around PM Najib

KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 (Reuters) - Malaysia's ruling coalition secured a landslide victory in the Borneo state of Sarawak on Saturday after a campaign led by the prime minister, who is facing a financial scandal involving a state-owned fund.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) alliance expanded its majority to 72 out of the 82-seat state legislative assembly, a result that Prime Minister Najib Razak is likely to use as an endorsement of his tumultuous leadership.

But the coalition's win is largely credited to the popularity of Sarawak's Chief Minister Adenan Satem, who took over the reins in 2014.

Sarawakians have rallied behind Adenan, who is seen as a Najib's ally, after the state leader brokered greater autonomy for the resource-rich state and dealt with long standing issues such as recognition of native land rights.

"As BN chairman, I thank the voters for their trust," Najib said in a statement after the poll results.

His party would not squander the mandate of the people, he said.

Najib's critics have said that the Sarawak polls are not a measure of the support for Najib or the ruling party as they are fought on local issues.

Najib has for months faced calls for him to step down after news broke that $681 million were deposited into his bank account before the 2013 national election, and over his handling of a multi-billion dollar scandal linked to state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing and consolidated power by sacking dissenters within his party, the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), and using a controversial sedition law to clamp down on other critics.

The strong showing by the BN coalition was also helped by a breakdown in the opposition alliance, the Pakatan Harapan.

The ethnic Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) - which had a sizeable haul of 12 seats in the last state polls in 2011 - was left with just seven seats this time around, while the People's Justice Party (PKR), the party of jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, retained three seats.

Saturday's win, however, comes with its fair share of controversy as federal opposition leaders cried foul over the state government's decision to bar entry to most of them over the two-week campaign period ahead of the polls. Immigration remains a sovereign right of the state.
Mexico drug boss Guzman moved to jail on U.S. border, extradition not imminent

MEXICO CITY, May 7 (Reuters) - Mexican drug boss Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman has been moved from his jail in central Mexico to a prison in the northern U.S border city of Ciudad Juarez, but it was not a preamble to extradition, authorities said on Saturday.

Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was one of the world's most important drug bosses until he was captured in January this year, six months after he broke out of a high-security jail in central Mexico.
Italian police, demonstrators clash in protest against Austrian fence

BRENNER, Austria, May 7 (Reuters) - A demonstration against a plan to restrict access through the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria turned violent on Saturday, with Italian police firing teargas at hundreds of protesters throwing stones and firecrackers.

Austria has said it plans to erect a fence at the Alpine crossing it shares with Italy to "channel" people. Part of Europe's borderless Schengen zone, Brenner is one of the routes that migrants use as they head towards wealthy northern Europe.

Two police officers were injured in the clashes, the head of a local Italian police union, Fulvio Coslovi, told Reuters. He said around 10 demonstrators were being held by police.

Local police in Tyrol, Austria said over 600 protesters showed up to the third violent demonstration at the Brenner Pass in just over a month, meeting at the Brenner station in Italy.

TV footage showed clouds of smoke filling the Brenner railway station as groups of protesters, their faces masked against the fumes, hurled stones and smoke bombs as they faced off against lines of police in riot gear. Estimates on the number of demonstrators varied between 250 and 600.

Around 300 Austrian police officers were deployed but had not yet had to intervene, a spokesman said, since the protest had taken place exclusively on the Italian side of the border so far.

Italian newspaper Corriera della Sera reported earlier this week that the protest had been organised by an anarchist group from Trentino, northern Italy, and was expected to attract demonstrators from abroad.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in Rome last month that as many as a million migrants were poised to cross the Mediterranean from Libya this year. Italy says the figure is much lower, though calm summer seas may well bring a surge.
Iran suffers losses in Syria, Aleppo truce extended

By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin

DUBAI, May 7 (Reuters) - Thirteen Iranian soldiers were killed in a battle with Islamist militants over a village near the Syrian city of Aleppo, Tehran said on Saturday, in one of Iran's biggest single-day losses since it sent forces to support President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia meanwhile said that a truce in Aleppo itself had been extended until Monday.

Islamist forces seized Khan Touman village, about 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo, on Friday and dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the fighting.

The attack was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Iran's Fars news agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had confirmed from its sources on the ground the death of 20 Iranians, including 13 advisors.

The monitor said that among the Iranian-backed militia fighters involved in the battles, six from Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite movement and 15 Afghan Shi'ite fighters were also killed.

Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates posted videos and photos on social media of what appeared to be the bodies of Iranians or Shi'ite militiamen who were killed in Khan Touman. They included footage of wallets, personal documents and Iranian currency.

Iran, along with Russia, has been a principle ally of Assad in the five-year-old civil war, while Gulf Arab states and the West have supported various rebel factions.

A senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Assad in a meeting with the president in Damascus.

"Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by Fars.

Iranian proxies, including Afghans and Iraqis as well as Lebanese, have been involved in Syria from as early as 2012.

While Tehran previously said its support was limited to advisors, it has been more open about the extent of its role since Russia intervened on Assad's side last year.

Iran has been particularly involved in campaigns around Aleppo in northwest Syria, which was the country's commercial and industrial centre before the war and is now divided between government and rebel forces.

Fighting in the countryside to the south of Aleppo has escalated in recent days despite a ceasefire in city itself since Wednesday.

The Russian defence ministry said a "regime of calm" truce in Aleppo and parts of Latakia province had been extended for 72 hours beginning at 1 a.m. on Saturday (2200 GMT on Friday), Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring organisation, said Syrian and Russian warplanes had intensified their bombing of insurgent positions near Khan Touman.

In northern Syria, U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed 48 Islamic State fighters on Saturday, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said, quoting the Turkish military.

The strikes were in response to increasingly frequent Islamic State attacks against opposition forces in the area, Turkisk security sources told Andadolu.

The Turkish border town of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from Islamic State-controlled territory of Syria, has been hit by regular rocket fire in recent weeks.

The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though, with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000.
Two Romanian soldiers killed in Afghan insider attack

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, May 7 (Reuters) - Two members of the Romanian special forces in Afghanistan were killed and a third was wounded on Saturday when two members of a local police unit they were training opened fire on them before themselves being killed, officials said.

A statement from the Romanian defence ministry said the incident took place while the men were training Afghan police in the southern city of Kandahar.

So-called "green-on-blue" insider attacks by Afghan troops on international service members have occurred periodically over the years but have become much less frequent as a result of improved security measures.

The attack came as NATO commander General John Nicholson reviews plans to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by next year almost in half, a move that officials say would see the training mission severely reduced.

However, a statement from the NATO-led international coalition in Afghanistan said the shooting would not threaten its training and advisory mission with Afghan forces.

"We continue to train, advise and assist the ANDSF, and do not view this incident as representative of the positive relationship between our forces," it said.

Romania contributes almost 600 soldiers to the nearly 12,500-strong Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.

Samim Khpalwak, a spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor, confirmed the shooting and said one Afghan policeman had been arrested and was being questioned.
Bhutan was recently in the news when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited the "land of happiness" and trekked up to the picturesque Tigers Lair, also known as Paro Taktsang in Dzongka.

The monastery complex, hanging on a cliffside of the upper Paro valley, was built during the 17th century on the spot where the Swat-born Guru Padmasambhava meditated for three years, three months and three days.

Prince William and Kate Middleton in Bhutan.

Paro Taktsang is one the 13 "taktsang" caves which were blessed by the Master of Supreme Happiness.

Variables

William and Kate had to walk for nearly two hours to reach the gompa. Looking at the photographs taken by the journalists who followed them half-way, it reflects that the royal couple must have experienced some bliss during the unusual trek.

Their visit and encounter with the charming royal couple of Bhutan (sometimes patronisingly called, "Himalayan William and Kate") were moments of rare happiness.

A few weeks earlier, data collected by the United Nations from people in 156 countries had surprisingly ranked Bhutan 84th in the list of happy nations. Different variables were used: real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption.

The fact that Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Finland are the five toppers shows that these variables are based on Western values. Can you believe that China is listed 83, while India is 118?

Each country is also compared against Dystopia, a hypothetical nation characterised by human misery, oppression, disease, overcrowding and pervasive fear, a place where everything is wrong.

Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia, synonymous for an ideal society with no crime or poverty.

Despite the Western prejudice in the data collection and analysis, it is interesting to see that the UN has begun studying the concept of "happiness" which has been central to the Indian and Himalayan culture (including in Tibet before the Communists "liberated" the Roof of the World in 1950).

Whether on the Roof of the World, in Sikkim or in Bhutan, Padmasambhava has played a crucial role in this search for a deeper meaning in life and ultimately "sustainable happiness".

It is significant that Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay recently gave a most inspirational TED talk at Vancouver, Canada. Tobgay spoke with great eloquence of the special culture of the Land of the Dragon, its concept of Gross National Happiness, climate change, environment and free education for all.

Tobgay said: "Of the 200-odd countries in the world today, it looks like we are the only one thats carbon neutral. Actually, thats not quite accurate. Bhutan is not carbon neutral. Bhutan is carbon negative."

Environment

The "Happy" prime minister asserted: "But it is our protected areas that are at the core of our carbon neutral strategy. Our protected areas are our carbon sink. They are our lungs. Today, more than half of our country is protected, as national parks, nature reserves and wildlife sanctuaries."

The latter are connected through a network of biological corridors: "Our animals are free to roam throughout our country," Tobgay added. Even animals should be happy.

Just before 175 countries signed the COP21 agreement, Tobgay mentioned his countrys participation in safeguarding the planet; projects such as "Bhutan for Life" intend to improve the countrys environment for the benefit of the earth.

With its 70 per cent forest cover (it is the highest proportion in Asia), Bhutan has almost five million acres of protected land, rich in forests, pristine rivers and thriving wildlife.

The question is: can it last? If one believes news reports, dam companies will soon rule the land of the dragon. With "development" becoming the universal god, can the society remain "happy" and contented?

Two years ago, the Royal Institute for Governance and Strategic Studies (RIGSS) invited former foreign secretary Shyam Saran for a lecture  "Why Bhutan should worry more about climate change".

The talk touched some serious issues such as hydropower, national revenue, biodiversity, livelihood and, indirectly, "happiness".

Glaciers

Shyam Saran spoke of the climate change taking place in Bhutan, which accelerates the melting of glaciers: "This risk, at any time, can lead to landslide, avalanches and glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs)," he added.

He mentioned other vulnerabilities, particularly the hydropower plants on which Bhutan is heavily dependent to balance its budget.

Some of these dams, if not properly conceived, could speed up the destruction of natural resources. But, what is this true happiness that everybody is speaking about?

A friend, who often visits Bhutan, told me that on his first visit, he was surprised to see everywhere "general stores-cum-bar", "hardware store-cum-bar", even "medical shop-cum-bar".

It is true that the 14th century saint, Drukpa Kunley, the Mad Yogi who introduced Buddhism in Bhutan, was an adept of the good things in life and he is still revered by all in Bhutan.

On April 23, the queen mother, along with a royal princess and several ministers, trekked for four hours along a 21km trail where Drukpa Kunley meditated, drank, hunted and subdued demons; it is still a place of pilgrimage with a number of sacred spots linked to Kunley.

I sometime wonder how Padmasambhava would have fared under the UN criteria. Strange, isnt it? Ban-Ki-moon should visit the place.
 Central Library offers the Writing Childrens Picture Books workshop led by Anne Marie Pace, author of the Vampirina Ballerina series, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. (434) 979-7151.

 Central Virginia SCORE offers Its a Jungle Out There: Advertising and the Small Business from 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday at the Seminole Trail Fire Department at 3055 Berkmar Drive. centralvirginia.score.org. (434) 295-6712.

 Design House 2016, held at the Keswick Estate from Saturday through May 22, offers several seminars by local designers, gardeners, artists and others. Details and a complete schedule of events are available at cvilledesignhouse.com. Proceeds benefit the Shelter for Help in Emergency. (434) 963-4676.

 Jefferson Area Board for Aging holds resource fairs offering information on JABAs services and available resources for the areas older population from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Fork Union Active Older Adult Center at 5725 James Madison Highway in Fork Union. Additional fairs will be held at various locations through May. jabacares.org. (434) 817-5267.

 Nelson County Community Fund offers a financial workshop for nonprofits. What You Dont Know About IRS Regs Could Hurt You will be from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday at the Nelson Center, 8445 Thomas Nelson Highway in Lovingston. Advance registration is required by Monday at nelsonfund.org. (434) 260-1843.

 Nature Foundation at Wintergreen holds the 2016 Spring Wildflower Symposium from Friday through May 15. Details and registration are available at twnf.org. (434) 325-8169.

 Northern District Natural Resources Extension Program offers a workshop, Creating & Tending Backyard Woods, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 20. $30 per person or $45 per couple; includes materials and lunch. Details and required advance registration are available at forestupdate.frec.vt.edu/resources/woodlots/index.html. (540) 948-6881.

 Northside Library offers Digging for Your Roots: Crossing the Pond  How to Begin Searching for Ancestors From Other Countries, led by Susan Emert of the Central Virginia Genealogical Association, at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. 705 W. Rio Road. (434) 973-7893.

 Piedmont Master Gardeners, in partnership with Bread & Roses, offers a series of free basic gardening classes geared towards those new to gardening. The second class of the series, Flowers & Shrubs, is held from 2 to 5 p.m. May 14 at Trinity Episcopal Church. Register for the class by Saturday by calling (434) 872-4583.

 Piedmont Virginia Community College offers Veterans Education and Transition Services sessions for veterans and active service members interested in registering for summer and fall semester classes from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday and May 20. Details are available at pvcc.edu/veterans and (434) 961-5282. Getting Started information sessions for prospective students provides an introduction to PVCCs degree and certificate programs, information about placements tests and other resources from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Old Farm Day in Pleasant Grove Park in Palmyra, from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at Carver Recreation Center at 233 Fourth St. NW, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Louisa County Library at 881 Davis Highway in Mineral, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Fluvanna County Library at 214 Commons Boulevard in Palmyra and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 14 at the Questzal Kite Festival at Pleasant Grove Park in Palmyra. Details are available at pvcc.edu/outreach. (434) 961-5275.

 Senior Center hosts Suzanne Hilton Smith, chaplain at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital, speaking about do-not-resuscitate orders from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at 1180 Pepsi Place. (434) 974-7756.

 Virginia Cooperative Extension offers workshops on pond health, including weed identification, water quality, fish population and alternate use of ponds, from 9 a.m. to noon May 24 at the Dover-Foxcroft Farm on the Greene/Albemarle County line and on May 26 at Bracketts Farm in the Green Springs area of Louisa County. $5 each. Advance registration is required by calling (434) 985-5236.
ATHENS - Greece - The IMF's Christine Lagarde, is threatening to pull out of a third Greek bailout, which will create another default situation for the ailing debt ridden country.

Greece is set to fail completion of a first progress report, or evaluation, of the economy that has been drawn out for the past nine months and has stalled over lender disagreement.

The Institutions (formerly Troika) are concerned that the Greeks refuse to overhaul their lucrative pension schemes, and generous pay packets.

Trying to reform a profligate country that spent 350 billion euros in EU loans in less than two years is going to be hard work.

In a leaked document, the IMF is threatening to pull out of another much needed loan to Greece, and compounded with additional eurozone pressures this could mean a final default for Greece. Technically, Greece has already defaulted, but it has been worded in other terms.

The recent Wikileaks publication involves the top two IMF officials in charge of managing the Greek debt crisis  Poul Thomsen, the head of the IMFs European Department, and Delia Velkouleskou, the IMF Mission Chief for Greece.

The IMF anticipates a Greek default coinciding with the United Kingdoms referendum on whether it should leave the European Union (Brexit).

What the BSE (Britain Stronger in EU) group are not telling EU referendum voters in the UK is that the Greeks will default one month after the referendum. If Britain is still locked into the failing EU, it will be liable by the ESM (European Stability Mechanism) to pay billions more to the fund to shore up the Greek black hole.

It is exactly a Greek black hole, because trillions of taxpayer funds from other EU members are thrown into it where the money disappears without any trace.

To remove ourselves from this inevitable disaster, Britain must leave the EU on June 23 or we will be liable for the debt of others without any recourse or compensation.

Vote Leave on June 23 or condemn Britain to decades of payments without representation. Every week the UK sends 350 million to Brussels, and we get nothing back. We must change this or our nation will go down the sewer of EU history, flushed violently by the hand of misfortune.
Some years ago, I was invited to speak at a conference on education at the Bengaluru ashram of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. He was, even by then, a fairly well-known name, boosted by his influential followers and substantial media coverage. His unique selling proposition at the time was not sermons, but Sudarshan Kriya, a set of breathing exercises that were quite popular.

The sprawling ashram was packed because of the conference, with a fair sprinkling of foreigners; I was a bit mystified why I had been invited, but it seemed a good opportunity to visit the place, so I went along. The living quarters were simple, everyone ate in a large canteen and then were expected to wash their own thalis. The mood was ascetic.

The conference hall, however, was well appointed with excellent acoustics. The speakers were drawn from different fields, but it was clear that the speeches were just the opening act; everyone was waiting for Sri Sri himself. When he came, there was a roar; two devotees of his (one of them an extremely famous model and socialite of an earlier time) walked ahead of him, spreading roses along his path. Sri Sri gave a short speech, after which he led the congregation in swaying and dancing.

Two things were quite apparent: first, that Sri Sris followers were extremely devoted to him. I had seen  and met  several gurujis, swamis and their ilk before and seen the respect and awe in the eyes of the believers. With Sri Sri, it was a case of fond attachment rather than mere belief; his simple homilies and his casual style touched them all, whether it was a school teacher from a Mumbai suburb or a high-flying executive who had quit his job at a Bengaluru-based multinational to dedicate his life to his guru. He performed no miracles and did not present his followers with any trinkets, but that did not matter.

Sri Sri was also different as far as media management was concerned. The gurus of yore kept the media away from their establishments; Sri Sri welcomed them. A vast army of savvy young bhakts  mostly women  often visited newspaper offices, offering not just interviews and visits but also free Sudarshan Kriya seminars to journalists. They were persuasive and a bit pushy too, but always polite. And they often were mystified when someone turned down their offer  what could be offensive about a few classes to teach the correct way to breathe and achieve nirvana? (Achieve waves of happiness like never before, says their website.)

The result was that Sri Sri had arguably the best image among gurus in the country. He filled the vacuum left behind by those great high-profile gurus of yore  Osho, Sathya Sai Baba and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who had dominated the landscape in the 1970s and 1980s. Sri Sri also attracted a completely new kind of follower  the educated (and well-qualified) young professional. Techies, for example, love him. He packages his message in easy to understand language and does not make too many demands; plus there is the Sudarshan Kriya which, its practitioners claim, is very helpful. While there was a creepy, cultish vibe about many other swamis, (to say nothing of some nasty scandals about sexual exploitation), Sri Sri was positively wholesome.

Today, the same guru is attracting severe criticism and is the butt of much mocking on the social media. Whether it is his implicit support for the Bharatiya Janata Party, or the controversial festival on the banks of the Yamuna or his latest claim that he turned down the Nobel Prize, Sri Sri is being ridiculed and criticised for his un-guru like behaviour. His organisation has still not paid the fine of Rs 5 crore that the National Green Tribunal imposed on it to allow the Yamuna festival to go ahead  is he now too big to be held accountable by any institution? And for him to sneer at Malala Yousafzais Nobel Peace Prize is in very poor taste.

Its quite a fall from being a generally liked purveyor of yogic techniques and messages of peace and brotherly love to someone now seen as a contentious figure. Sri Sri has increasingly become a presence, even a player in public life. In the run up to the 2014 general elections, Sri Sris tweets and other comments made it clear where he stood. Politicians have long hobnobbed with religious figures to woo the votes of the devotees; for the most part, the sundry swamis and mullahs have done it discreetly. Sri Sri was leading the way, leaving no doubt in anyones mind what he wanted his followers to do.

The rewards of this support have been plentiful: A higher profile, a Padma Vibhushan, which is one step away from the Bharat Ratna, and the Prime Ministers presence at a cultural festival that regulatory bodies had serious problems with. He is now the pre-eminent guru in the country and that is saying something in an environment where swamis and sants of various types are mushrooming all over the place. Undoubtedly, his following and influence will only increase.

But to be a public figure is to attract greater attention; every utterance of his will now invite scrutiny. The mainstream media might be less probing, but the social media beast will be unstoppable in its mockery and criticism. Its one thing to be a smiling guru spreading the word about the best way to breathe and reach a higher consciousness, quite another to flout regulations and then refuse to pay up. Heaping scorn at a young girl who was shot for wanting to study is shockingly bad form and reeks of envy. No amount of good public relations can now reverse the impression that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is no longer a guruji but has become a somewhat of a politician.
Tired of reading about failing and troubled business houses every day? Here is refreshing change in the form of Binod Chaudhary, Nepals first billionaire. His company Chaudhary Group owns Wai Wai noodles, and also a big chunk of Alila Hotels, stakes in a smattering of Taj properties around the world (Taj Exotica Maldives, Taj Samudra Sri Lanka...), real estate and much, much more.

His recent autobiography, Making It Big, should be this summers must-read for everyone. It charts the immensely successful and interesting life story of a self-made man who never forgot to enjoy or live his life while navigating his way up a volatile, unstable and unfriendly environment.

After surviving the 2010 Chile earthquake while on holiday, Chaudhary realised that some of his most treasured possessions were his experiences and memories. It is for this reason he wanted to share these stories with the world. But there was one problem: More than 90 per cent of the people I have dealt with in different positions are still alive and unless I can be absolutely honest and candid, there is no point in putting down everything in a book. I also had to think about what the ramifications would be once the book came out. Lastly, I had to think about how I could afford to take out the time that writing a book needs, says Chaudhary.

Once he sorted out the issues, Chaudhary got down to penning his story about a rebellious boy who never believed in his fathers advice: You have to sacrifice something to gain something. The book is about a boy from a conservative Marwari family based in Nepal, who excelled in academics, sang for Radio Nepal, dabbled in movies, went on a hunger strike to get his parents to buy him a car, fought to marry the love of his life (and got his ex fiancees relatives to help organise his wedding!), ran some successful nightclubs dressed in bell bottoms, while sporting long hair, and successfully made his mark in the corporate world in his early 20s after his fathers illness, while taking on powerful enemies like the Nepal Royal family, politicians and business associates who wanted him out.

Life changed when I was 18, pretty much like in the movies, where you go to the hospital and find your father staring at you in the ICU. Though my father could not speak, I could read his eyes, they were saying to me, You are still so young... not ready to take over... I have so much unfinished business, younger kids to settle, a daughter who needs to be married, business in the hands of so many other family members... That is when I said to myself  this is my time, I have to step in. When I got into it, I was thrown in from a completely different life, into something that is very, very serious. I was thrown into a circle where everyone was my fathers age, so there was a huge issue even in the minds of those people. Whether it was people at work or the government officials I was dealing with, never took me seriously because I was this guy associated with nightlife, singing for Radio Nepal...

But this negative mindset that people had towards him was positive for Chaudhary. It helped me as it made me fight back. That behaviour and reaction made me stronger and my resolve to prove myself. Also made me much stronger because people thought this guy is a gone case, his father is unwell, we can now run the show.

Making it big by Binod Chaudhary Rs 399, pp 384 Portfolio

If fighting off partners and employees was tough, Chaudhary also had to deal with political matters as he was being attacked for his ties with the then Nepal Prime Minister. In my early twenties, I was in a situation where I was being made a scapegoat as nothing could be done to the politicians. This again made me fight back, out of pure necessity. Such events sometime work in your favour. People probably thought they were running me down, but in my case they just pushed me into defence mode. I did things differently, was always bold and courageous in my approach.

At one point, to get his enemies off his back, Chaudhary had to take his friend Prince Dhirendras help. In Nepal, when the royal family was in power, if any member of the family was associated with you or your business partner, everyone backed off.

But a partnership with the royal family was not without its hurdles. One put in all the capital, hard work and made a business a success, and then the royals decided how much stake they wanted in the company, and often it was 51 per cent. But in Chaudharys case, the prince decided to become a 49 per cent partner in their jointly held Apollo Steel Industries, out of friendship.

Just when things were going smoothly, the Prince left his wife Princess Prekshya Rajya Laxmi Devi for a British woman, and in the process got disowned by the royal family. The book details how this fallout affected Chaudhary. Suddenly the Princess was the boss as she was given all her husbands investments, and she wanted Chaudhary out.

The big launch: T. Subbarami Reddy, Binod Chaudhary and Shatrughan Sinha (Photos: Bunny Smith)

Another example of Chaudharys courage is displayed in the book, when he told the Princess to hop off and told her he was not parting with anything though going against the monarchy, which was the last word in Nepal, normally spelled disaster.

When asked where he got the courage to take her on, he says, I told myself, Come on, this is my hard earned money, my business, they have not invested a penny and expect me to give my business to her cronies. I said, Nothing doing! In hindsight, you can call it a completely irrational decision. But it worked. As luck would have it, there was already a movement growing against an absolute monarchy so the Princess backed off, but after this, Chaudhary was no longer favoured by the royals.

The book details many more such experiences of conflict as it charts his business success and how his company became a $1.4 billion enterprise.

Another very important lesson you can learn from the book is that the people who succeed are the ones who dream through the day. But the difference is you have to see the same dream. Dont waver on your commitment or determination, no matter what the hurdle is. You have to have the guts to jump over hurdles.

This determination can be seen in Chaudharys personal life too, where he woos the late Welham School principal S.K. Kandhari so that his sons can get admission into the premier boarding school. Chaudhary even followed Kandhari and his pet dog around the school premises trying to get an appointment. But in the end he did get his sons in.

The importance of spirituality and how holding grudges is the worst thing you can do in life are also listed. Talking about the importance of keeping your dislikes to yourself, Chaudhary says, When you have a bigger mission in life, you realise and step back and say, Hold on, you have bigger things to do than holding grudges in life. Then you re-think and see how you can manage a problem. This doesnt mean that I change my opinion about people, but just that I keep those thoughts on the back-burner. This has paid off. We may have difference of opinions, you dont have to shout and fight and make it so difficult for yourself that you can never work with the person in the future, even if you need to.

Chaudhary also teaches us another important lesson: dont be drawn towards only one thing in life. Work hard, but take time out for your family and importantly for yourself too. Life has to be successful and interesting. This is when life is fulfilling. And Mr Chaudhary certainly leads a fulfilling life!
The block of WhatsApp ignited such an outcry in Brazil that a congressional commission on Wednesday recommended a bill that would bar authorities from blocking popular messaging applications.

Lagarto, Brazil: Judge Marcel Montalvao joined some of Brazil's top politicians as one of the country's most-hated public figures when he ordered a 72-hour shutdown of WhatsApp this week, abruptly cutting off the messaging service for some 100 million users.

But none of the young women staring at their cell phones and tapping away on the now-restored WhatsApp in a patch of shade outside Montalvao's courthouse in the small city of Lagarto were among the haters.

Even as the judge prepared to rule on cases involving their loved ones in a courthouse compound that is heavily guarded and sits behind a high, electrified fence, the women expressed understanding for a man known locally as fiercely dedicated to fighting crime.

"It was a pain at first. We use zap-zap all the time," said Marcielle Santana, 26, using the universal slang term in Brazil for Facebook-owned WhatsApp."But you have to respect him. He's going after drug gangs, pedophiles. That's more important than a little time without zap-zap."

Montalvao ordered Brazil's main telecom operators to block WhatsApp on Monday for 72 hours after it failed to produce for the court messages supposedly traded between members of Brazil's most powerful drug gang.

In March, he ordered the imprisonment of a Brazil-based Facebook executive for failing to comply with a previously attempted block on WhatsApp. The executive was jailed and freed after a day.

This week, Montalvao's order was lifted by a higher court about 24 hours after it went into effect. A similar temporary block of the messaging service occurred last December after a judge in Sao Paulo state ordered it shut for failing to share information in a criminal case.

WhatsApp officials have repeatedly argued they cannot turn over to judges material that they do not possess. Their encrypted messaging service does not store user-generated content on any servers, they say.

The block of WhatsApp ignited such an outcry in Brazil that a congressional commission on Wednesday recommended a bill that would bar authorities from blocking popular messaging applications.

Facebook Inc's Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg also weighed in, calling on Brazilians to demand that WhatsApp never be blocked again.

Nancy Andrighi, a minister at Brazil's National Council of Justice, a federal watchdog over judges, on Tuesday gave Montalvao two weeks to explain his decision to block WhatsApp. If the council finds the judge abused his power, it could take disciplinary action against him.

Despite all that, Montalvao's reputation in Lagarto and the surrounding area remains positive even after his nearly year-long battle with WhatsApp and Facebook - principally because of his hard-line stance against surging crime, often linked to drug gangs, in the city.

From classroom to police protection

Montalvao, the son of shoe shiner, spent 20 years as a schoolteacher in the Sergipe state capital Aracaju, Montalvao. He told a Lagarto radio station last year that he became a judge in 2004 after deciding that teaching was not doing enough to help young people.

Montalvao declined on Thursday to give an interview to Reuters about the WhatsApp case, citing judicial secrecy and the delicate security situation surrounding the arrival that day of eight gang suspects to his court.

The area, part of Brazil's impoverished Northeast, grew rapidly during the two terms of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, thanks to a commodities boom and surging government spending during his eight years in office that began in 2003.

But crime grew along with the population, as the rural poor flocked to jobs at expanding food processing plants and with the opening of a large medical faculty of the Federal University of Sergipe. Lagarto is now home to 103,000 people, a jump of 25 percent over the 2000 Census.Not all has changed, though.

Despite the glittering medical campus and neat downtown shops, churches and government buildings, horses graze on roads near the courthouse, which sits beside manioc and coconut fields and overgrown empty lots. Vultures circle overhead in the strong tropical sun.

"We're still in the country, but we aren't the little, dusty northeastern town that everybody has in their mind," said Rilley Guimaraes, Lagarto's municipal secretary of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. "The attacks on Lagarto have been offensive."

Montalvao's willingness to take on criminals, including the PCC, the notorious Sao Paulo-based drugs, guns and extortion cartel, has earned him death threats.

He lives under 24-hour police protection and spends much of his time wearing a bullet-resistant vest, said Eduardo Maia, president of the Lagarto chapter of Brazil's bar association, the OAB.

Maia was partly supportive of Montalvao, saying that the judge was facing the same challenge raised by Apple Corp's refusal to help the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation access encrypted messages on an iPhone used by one of the shooters in an attack in San Bernardino, California.

"Under Brazilian law, Montalvao's order was perfectly legal," Maia said. "WhatsApp and Facebook weren't providing or storing information that our Internet laws require them to keep, and for them to criticize the judge for that is rather arrogant."

The problem, Maia said, is whether that law can be "met by any company, and was the order proportional to the problem the judge was trying to solve?" "I don't think so," he said. "But that debate is going on everywhere."

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Morsi has been sentenced to death, life in prison and 20 years in three separate trials since 2013 (Photo: AP).

Cairo: An Egyptian court recommended death sentences on Saturday for six codefendants of Mohamed Morsi but not for the ousted Islamist president in their trial on espionage charges.

The presiding judge in the trial asked the mufti -- the country's official interpreter of Islamic law -- to consider death sentences for the six codefendants, saying the court would convene again on June 18 after the mufti's response.

It will then pronounce its verdict and sentence for the remaining five defendants, including Morsi, on charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents.

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is not binding but is usually respected by courts.

Qatar was a main backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement while he was in power between 2012 and July 2013, when the military overthrew and detained him.

He has since been sentenced to death, life in prison and 20 years in three separate trials.
Joman Hajo, from Qamshlo, Syria, talks to his family as he stands in front of a gas station which was turned into a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece. (Photo: AP)

United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday he was "outraged" by the deadly attack on a camp for displaced Syrians and said those responsible must face justice.

Ban demanded once again that the UN Security Council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court so that the tribunal based in The Hague can open up investigations of possible war crimes. "Those responsible for yesterday's seemingly calculated attack against civilians in the camp in Idlib, which could constitute a war crime, must be held accountable," said Ban's spokesman.

Women and children were reported to be among 28 civilians killed in the raids near the Turkish border, which also wounded 50. The strikes in Idlib province, which is controlled by Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front and rebel allies, came as a 48-hour ceasefire took hold in the battleground city of Aleppo to the east.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was "difficult to believe" that the air strikes were "a mistake", adding that there needs to be further investigation to determine who is responsible. The United Nations is working with its partners on the ground to collect information about the attack, said the spokesman, adding that countries that "have military assets should also take a look" at what happened. Both Syria and Russia denied that the camp had been hit by an air strike and suggested that rebels could have shelled the site.

A bid by the Security Council in 2014 to refer Syria to the ICC was blocked by China and Syrian ally Russia, and it appeared unlikely that a new push for such action would garner support from the veto-wielding members. Ban has said that the starvation sieges and hospital attacks during Syria's five-year conflict are war crimes and that the ICC should put those responsible on trial.

Syria's conflict erupted in 2011 after anti-government protests were put down. Fighting quickly escalated into a multi-faceted war that has killed more than 270,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist organisation, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. (Photo: AFP)

Islamabad: A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency.

The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist organisation, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. The firepower it brings to the Taliban was shown by a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in years, which experts say was too sophisticated for the insurgents to have carried out without the Haqqanis.

The network's role could also further poison already tainted relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan is pressing Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqanis, accusing it of tolerating the group, a charge the Pakistanis deny.

An audio recording of a recent meeting of the top Taliban leadership, obtained by The Associated Press, offers a glimpse into the influence the Haqqani network now holds within the movement. Sirajuddin Haqqani, the network's leader and newly elevated deputy head of the Taliban, tells the gathering that they must end differences and focus on fighting. "It is time to work. The mujahedeen (Islamic holy warriors) are happily going to the battlefield," he is heard saying. The voice is recognizable as Haqqani's.

Haqqani's rise to the deputy post is the highest, most direct role that the network is known to have taken in the Taliban leadership. The network pledged allegiance to the Taliban years ago but has traditionally operated independently.

The network was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, a one-time ally of the United States who achieved fame fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s and who developed close ties to the slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden. After his death, his son Sirajuddin Haqqani took over.

The elder Haqqani aligned his group with the Taliban after the insurgents were driven from power in the U.S.-led invasion that followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was a formidable militant financier, traveling to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to raise money. The network maintained close ties to al-Qaida and is believed to have large numbers of Arab and other foreign fighters.

The network is believed to command thousands of fighters on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border. Over the years, the Haqqanis emerged as the Taliban's strongest asset because of their battle-hardened fighters and traditional links to Pakistan's security agencies. Both U.S and Afghan intelligence agencies say Pakistan's intelligence network, known as ISI, has allowed the Haqqanis to live freely for decades in Pakistan's tribal regions, a claim Islamabad denies.

"There's no one sole source of the Haqqani network's strength, though three places you can point to are its personnel, its links to Pakistan, and its ties to the Gulf region," said Michael Kugelman, senior associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

The Taliban leadership meeting, held early last month at an undisclosed location, focused on strategies and battles ahead, the audio recording shows. During the meeting, Sirajuddin Haqqani called on the Taliban to close ranks, reminding them their enemy is the "foreign infidel" and not each other.

"Our objectives should be service to religion and we should end our differences and complaints," he says in Pashtu, the language of Afghan and Pakistani Pashtuns, the ethnic group that makes up the backbone of the Taliban movement.

Since last summer, Sirajuddin Haqqani has been instrumental in reconciling differences among Taliban commanders, who balked at recognizing Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as the supreme Taliban chief following the announcement that the insurgency's reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was dead.

As soon as Mansoor became leader, he announced that he had named Haqqani as his deputy.

Haqqani quickly set about uniting the fractured Taliban, first by bringing Mullah Omar's son, Mullah Yaqoob, and his brother, Mullah Abdul Manan Omari, into the fold, according to a Taliban official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk to the press.

Haqqani then coaxed Zakir Qayyum, a Taliban strongman in the battleground southern Afghan province of Helmand and the former head of the Taliban military committee under Mullah Omar, to swear allegiance to Mansour, healing some of the biggest divisions within the Taliban, the Taliban official said. Fahd Humayun, program and research manager at the Jinnah Institute, a think-tank in the Pakistani capital, who closely follows Taliban developments, also said Haqqani was key to healing the divisions.

The rise of the Haqqanis comes at a critical juncture in relations between Kabul and Islamabad.

In the off-and-on effort for negotiations over the years, Pakistan has hosted past meetings between the Kabul government and the Taliban, whose leaders are widely believed to be based in the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan.

A four-nation group that included Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States launched efforts earlier this year to try to bring Afghanistan's protracted war to a negotiated end but the push fell apart amid recent Taliban battlefield gains.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani now says he is no longer interested in having Pakistan bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. Instead, he demands Islamabad stop harboring the Taliban and take up the fight against the Haqqanis.

The U.S. State Department has also repeated its demand that Pakistan take action.

"We have consistently expressed our concerns at the highest level of the government of Pakistan about their continued tolerance for Afghan Taliban groups, such as the Haqqani network, operating from Pakistani soil," U.S. State Department spokesman Elizabeth Trudeau said at a press briefing following the Kabul attack.

Islamabad claims it decimated the Haqqani network's infrastructure in a military operation launched two years ago in North Waziristan, where the Haqqanis are headquartered. It points to its own grievances with the Haqqanis, who also maintain links with the Pakistan Taliban, a separate group that has killed hundreds of Pakistani soldiers in recent years.

Islamabad has also aided the United States in its drone strikes against the Taliban and other militants by providing ground intelligence for the Americans, said Humayun of the Jinnah Institute, though officially Pakistan condemns the strikes because of civilian deaths.

While Pakistan pledged to dismantle militant networks on its territory, Pakistan's special adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, earlier this week told reporters in Islamabad that the only solution to the Afghan war was through peace talks.

Should the Haqqanis be pushed out of Pakistan and back into Afghanistan, Ghani's government and Afghan forces would likely be overwhelmed, say analysts.

"I can't imagine the Afghans would be able to take on the Haqqanis themselves," Kugelman said. "I'm not sure they'd be able to take them on even with assistance from foreign combat forces."
Nepal today recalled its Ambassador to India over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.



Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyaya had "confronted" with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli regarding the cancellation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari's scheduled visit to India, Nepalese Foreign Ministry sources said.



The conversation between Oli and Upadhyaya reportedly took place after the cancellation of the President's trip.



The Nepalese Cabinet had decided to recall Upadhyaya after his brief conversation with the Prime Minister, they said.



Bhandari was scheduled to visit India from May 9 as the state guest at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee. She was also scheduled to participate in a 'Shahi Snan' in Ujjain's Simhastha Kumbh on May 14.



Earlier in the day, government sources in New Delhi said, "We have learnt that Nepali President Bidyadevi Bhandari's official visit to India has been postponed by the Nepali side. We understand that this is on account of the political developments in Nepal."



Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, has been charged with indulging in anti-government activities.



He has also been accused of visiting Madhes districts of southern Nepal along with Indian envoy Ranjit Rae without informing the Foreign ministry, The Kathmandu Post reported.



The Nepalese diplomat has been also charged with involvement in toppling the Oli government, it added.



Prime Minister Oli yesterday survived a threat to his government after a U-turn by Prachanda-led Maoists who decided not to withdraw support to him "for the time being".



Nepal President cancels maiden foreign trip to India



Nepal's first woman President Bidhya Devi Bhandari has cancelled her visit to India, which would have been her first foreign trip after assuming office, in the wake of the political instability in her country.



Bhandari was scheduled to visit from May 9 as the state guest at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee. She was also scheduled to participate in a 'Shahi Snan' in Ujjain's Simhastha Kumbh on May 14.



Government sources in New Delhi said, "We have learnt that Nepali President Bidyadevi Bhandari's official visit to India has been postponed by the Nepali side. We understand that this is on account of the political developments in Nepal."

Earlier this week, UCPN-Maoist led by Prachanda triggered political instability by declaring the end of the coalition with the ruling CPN-UML.






Rival groups of students today clashed at the Jadavpur University campus here over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' triggering chaos during which some girls were allegedly molested and BJP actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter its premises.



The fracas began after the film's screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.



Agnihotri faced black flags at the campus gates, sloganeering and placards bearing message that asked him to leave. The filmmaker claimed he was "manhandled and gheraoed" by some students and even the glass pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion.



The agitating students said they have nothing against the screening of the film, but were protesting against the "divisive content" in it, which also stars Anupam Kher.



"We all know Kher's views in the whole debate on whatever happened in JNU. He is acting in this film which has divisive content. We are protesting against that," Sounak Mukherjee, a first year MA student of English Department, said.



Some girl students were allegedly molested during the melee that ensued after the incident, police said.



"The students had isolated four of them inside the campus following the incident. I have handed them to the police. There were some outsiders also. The students said they molested some girls," University Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das told PTI late tonight.



A senior varsity official said "the four youths were outsider and FIR is being lodged against them". BJP leader Roopa Ganguly also rushed to the campus but was stopped at the gate by the police.



The state-run varsity's alumni association, which runs the Triguna Sen auditorium, had decided to cancel the booking for a pre-release screening of the film in their hall.



The producers, however, went ahead with the screening at an open-air space in the campus claiming they have support from another group of students.



"The students arranged a bed sheet and turned it into a screen to see my film. Many watched it and realised it's not what they were thinking. It is a realistic film," Agnihotri, the director of "Hate Story" and "Goal" told PTI.



Even as the screening was going on in the evening, after classes were over, the agitators carried on with demonstration near the spot.
Seventeen years after he was shot in the neck, Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai underwent successful surgery on Friday to remove the bullet.





Rai, who walks with a limp, is likely to see an improvement in his stride after rehabilitation at Hyderabad and Chennai.



The politician was shot at during a student agitation in Lucknow for decriminalisation of student politics.



For months after that, he had remained paralysed, according to Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals in Sarita Vihar where the surgery was performed.



Wishing the minister early recovery, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the hospital separately to meet him.



According to the medical bulletin issued by the hospital, Rai had suffered a gunshot wound in his neck in 1999 during a student agitation at Lucknow University after which he had complete quadriplegia for one and a half years.



Three years after the incident, he was able to walk, it added.



The gunshot wound caused spinal cord injury by indirect effect (kinetic energy from a projectile travel, shockwave propagation and temporary cavitation along the track of the bullet) which is miraculous as direct gunshot wound to the neck leads to complete irreversible quadriplegia in most cases, it said.



He has had a bullet in his neck from 1999, which lodged at the back of his neck and over time had migrated to burrow under the skin at the back of the upper thoracic spine.



However, as the projectile was so easy to access and remove with anaesthesia, the decision was taken to remove the lead bullet from his body, added the hospital.



The transport minister was admitted to the hospital on Thursday for the surgery.

Spine specialist Dr R G Krishnan operated successfully on Rai and removed the

bullet.



Rai also has residual neurological impairment in his extremities, mainly in the right upper limb and some imbalance in the lower extremities. He will attend the Apollo Hospital at Hyderabad for upper limb rehabilitation and later move to Apollo Hospital Chennai for gait training, the bulletin added.


The Republican leadership today appeared to be bitterly divided on Donald Trump, who is emerging as the party's presumptive presidential nominee.



While a top section of the party's established leadership openly said that they would not support 69-year-old Trump, the real estate mogul from New York gained more endorsement including the former presidential nominee Bob Dole.



At least two of the former presidential candidates  Jeb Bush (the former Governor of Florida) and Senator Lindsey Graham  have openly said that they would not support Trump in his race to the White House.



But Trump received major boost to his campaign as Rick Perry the former Texas Governor endorsed him, so did Bob Dole, the party's presidential nominee for 1996.



"The voters of our country have turned out in record numbers to support Trump. It is important that their votes be honored and it is time that we support the party's presumptive nominee, Donald J. Trump," Dole said in a statement.



Dole said he plans to attend the Cleveland Convention in July where Trump would be formally designated as the party's presidential nominee.



"We must unite as a party to defeat Hillary Clinton. Trump is our party's presumptive nominee and our best chance at taking back the White House this November," Dole said.



But two former Republican presidents  George H W Bush and George W Bush  along with the 2008 presidential nominee Senator John McCain have announced that they would not attend the Cleveland convention.



Jeb, who is the son and younger brother of two former presidents, today said that he would not vote for Trump.



"In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life," Bush wrote on his Facebook Page.



"The American Presidency is an office that goes beyond just politics. It requires of its occupant great fortitude and humility and the temperament and strong character to deal with the unexpected challenges that will inevitably impact our nation in the next four years," he said.



"Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character. He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy," said Jeb, who raised a record USD 140 million for his presidential campaign but was humiliatingly defeated by Trump in the primary elections.



Jeb was joined by South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, who said that he would not vote for Trump. "I cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative nor has he displayed the judgement and temperament to serve as commander in chief," said Graham, who also was badly defeated by Trump during the primaries.



Trump fired back and described Graham as incompetent. "While I will unify the party, Lindsey Graham has shown himself to be beyond rehabilitation. And like the voters who rejected him, so will I!" Trump said.



The statement from Jeb and Graham came a day after Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan said that he is not ready yet to support Trump. Ryan has invited Trump for a meeting next week.



"Having both said we need to unify the party, Speaker Ryan has invited Trump to meet with members of the House Republican leadership in Washington on Thursday morning to begin a discussion about the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November," Ryan's political office said in a statement today.



Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee lashed at Ryan for not respecting the verdict of the partys members. "Lead, follow or get the heck out of the way. Im sorry to be so blunt, but hes the Speaker, that means hes the leader. Then lead," he told Fox Business News.



Meanwhile, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney continued with his anti-Trump drive. This week, he is reported to have met William Kristol, who is pushing for a third-party alternative to Trump and Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner.
It is not every day that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh step into a police station.



The occasion was not lost on the staff at Parliament Street police station where the leaders courted arrest as part of their `Save Democracy protest on Friday.



The staff at the police station and the adjoining office of the areas Assistant Commissioners of Police (ACP) gave them what some would call `VIP treatment.



Photos circulated on a Congress leaders WhatsApp account showed the police officer extending all courtesies to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi and other leaders after their spell of slogan-shouting.



The leaders, who arrived at the station around 10.30 am, were seated at the ACPs office for about half an hour. Cold drinks and a McDonald beverage were served, while the arrest-related paper work continued in the background.



In the pictures, Ghulam Nabi Azad is seen holding a cold drink, and juice carton is on the table.



At least one police officer wanted to capture the moment. The inspector is seen posing with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.



Asked later about the it, an officer denied to this reporter that anyone took pictures with the VIPs  even when he was shown the WhatsApp photos.



We offered them water and when they assured us that they would not violate the law and order provisions, we let them go, he said.



The officer said he would offer tea and a glass of water to any visitor to the office.
BJP in West Bengal today termed Jadavpur University as a "hub of anti-national elements" and accused the Opposition CPI(M) and the varsity's Vice- Chancellor of supporting them, a day after rival groups of students clashed on the campus over screening of a political film.



"Student unrest has become a common phenomenon in JU. The screening of a film, cleared by the Censor Board, was stopped illegally. The trend of CPI(M) and Left-backed student unions of JU has been to stop anything that is against their ideology, which is totally against the country's democratic set up. We condemn it," state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told PTI.



"Jadavpur University is a hub of anti-nationals. Left- backed students unions are breeding ground for anti-nationals and that is why we have seen anti-India slogans being raised by a section of JU students," he alleged.



Accusing the varsity's VC of supporting anti-nationals elements on the campus, Ghosh demanded that his role be probed. "We will inform the Center of the activities going on inside the JU campus," he said.



Rival groups of students had yesterday clashed on the varsity campus over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' triggering chaos during which some girls were allegedly molested and BJP actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter its premises.



The fracas began after the film's screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.
Nepal government has levelled three charges against the country's ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya to justify its decision to recall him, with officials today saying he was working 'against national interest'.





"Envoys should follow government's directives and maintain diplomatic decorum," Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters here.



In a late night development, Nepal yesterday recalled Upadhyaya over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.



Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari's planned visit to India.



The diplomat has been also charged with siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's government, according to reports.



He has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying India's ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Rawal said.



Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandari's trip to India has no connection with the government's decision to recall Upadhyaya.



The president was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in the Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.



Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed the Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandari's India visit.



"The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now," he said.



"We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically," he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.



According to the report, Thapa said Upadhyaya's "recall was made in a bid to strengthen the existing relations between the two nations" but did not explain what the envoy failed to do to strengthen the ties.




Pakistan today said the "trust deficit" needs to be removed for better relations with India even as it voiced support for any effort to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue between the two nations.





Talking about the resumption of talks with India, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said Pakistan would support any effort to restart the dialogue process.



Chaudhry said that there was a "trust deficit" between Pakistan and India which needs to be removed for better ties between the two nations.



"Whenever there will be talks between Pakistan and India, Kashmir will remain on top of the agenda," he added.



He also talked about the arrest of alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav, and termed it as proof of "Indian involvement" in Pakistan's internal affairs.



India has acknowledged Yadav is a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.





Chaudhry also urged the US not to attach any conditions for the sale of F-16s, after the Congress stalled the sale by refusing to authorise funding for it.





"We are making diplomatic efforts to convince the US to make the purchase of F-16 possible as Pakistan needs them in its ongoing war against terrorism," he said.





Earlier, Pakistan had said that it would look towards other countries to get the latest fighter jets if the US did not deliver the F-16s.





The foreign secretary also rejected the impression that Islamic State militants were active in Pakistan.





"Pakistani agencies are on alert in order to deal with any possible threat, which is why action has been taken against such elements," he said.





He also reiterated support for the peace process in Afghanistan but rejected the use of force against the Afghan Taliban as demanded by the Afghan president after last month's bombing in Kabul which killed over 60 people.





Chaudhry said all groups in Afghanistan should stop violence and join talks for lasting peace in the country.




Recently, a man whod just recovered his misplaced cell phone told me, Madam, it doesnt matter if you lose your wife or kids. But if you lose your cell phone, youre finished. I knew just how he felt.





However, a phone wouldnt have been that important to someone, 30 years ago, would it? For that matter, the thought of a camera or a music player in a telephone would have made us scoff (remember our clunky rotary dial phones?). Not possible, wed have said.



Well, inventions have made these possible. And there are more inventions, both useful and useless, coming out each day, as people feel compelled to act on strange and funny ideas that they have for making life easier and more fun. In fact, some inventions happen in crazy ways.



In the 1870s, Constantin Fahlberg, a Russian chemist, was working on the reactivity of coal-tar derivatives at Johns Hopkins University in the USA. One night, he returned home and was eating dinner rolls, when he realised that they tasted very sweet. Rolls normally taste bland, and the recipe hadnt been changed; it was something on his hands that had made everything sweet. He ran back to the lab and tasted all the vials, beakers and dishes that he had used for his experiments, and found the source, an overboiled beaker. The substance was the artificial sweetener, saccharin.



While saccharin may not be the most important invention in the world, think of this mad scientist who did everything wrong, like leaving the lab without washing his hands properly, and then (horrors) actually tasting various strange compounds! This is when we see that inventing is a strange beast, and inventors are not really normal people. When most of us ask Why?, they ask Why not? And while the majority accepts the status quo, they ask How? and What if...? They are not afraid to step into the dark, vast and mysterious world of possibilities.



Let us first examine the idea of inventions themselves. There are very few inventions in this world which have been the sole work of one person. For example, who invented the television? John Logie Baird holds the patent for the apparatus for transmitting views or images to a distance (1929) and the first colour television (1933), but it is really Philo T Farnsworth who patented the video camera tube, the heart of todays television.



However, the story of the invention actually began with the introduction of the facsimile machine in 1846. After that came a number of discoveries and inventions that helped Baird and Farnsworth come up with their own inventions. So, while we can name the actual inventor in some cases, we can only point out the patent holder on others. (By the way, producer Darryl Zanuck of 20th Century Fox predicted in 1946 that Television wont last because people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.)



Now, lets turn our minds to some inventions that are extremely significant to us. Mind you, were not going to talk of the most important inventions, period, but those that are most important to the common man today. And yes, this is where controversies erupt. Yes, the cell phone and the Internet are wonderful inventions, but we can live without them; however, without an LPG cylinder for cooking, we cant cook food, therefore we cant eat. Does this mean that we should rate the LPG cylinder above the Internet?



Getting down to basics



Well, one way to reduce the confusion is to categorise inventions according to their fields. For example, in the category of communication, the greatest inventions have to be the Internet and the World Wide Web, right? The initial idea of the Internet is credited to Leonard Kleinrock, while Tim Berners-Lee is honoured as the inventor of the World Wide Web. But the cell phone is much more indispensible to us, isnt it? Well, the first handheld mobile phone was invented by Martin Cooper who made the first call on April 3, 1973, using a device which weighed 1.1 kg and measured 23 cm long, 13 cm deep and 4.45 cm wide. Today, the device has come a long way, with some cell phones being less than 5 mm thick.



Heres a thought  the Internet would have been of no use if writing itself had not been invented. Language developed around 35,000 BCE, but written language was invented in Sumer, Mesopotamia between 3500 and 3000 BCE. The alphabet was created in Egypt and Crete and disseminated by Phoenicians (the people who lived in modern-day Lebanon, Israel and Syria). The first written document recovered is The Epic of Gilgamesh (1300-1000 BCE). Mahabharata is estimated to have been written around 400 BCE.



Writing leads us to paper which was first invented by the Chinese. Before this, people used clay, papyrus, wood, slate and prepared animal skin or parchment. Tsai Lun invented the paper-making process in around 105 AD. A German named Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press in Mainz, Germany, in 1440. This led to rapid diffusion of knowledge through books, pamphlets and other similar methods. Following this, the first printed weekly newspaper called Relation was published in Antwerp by Johann Carolus in 1605. And in case you were wondering, in 1938, Jewish-Hungarian journalist Laszlo Biro invented the ballpoint pen for writing.



Some inventions have changed the very fibre of our lives while some have become obsolete. Electricity generation, invented by Nikola Tesla, along with Edisons light bulb, has changed almost every facet of everyday life, including the very basic daily waking/sleeping patterns of human beings and even some animals, for all time. However, the rotary dial telephone, indispensible though it was, during its time, patented by Almon Brown Strowger in 1891, has gone obsolete.



Meanwhile, some inventions have been particularly beneficial, while others have been extremely bad for us. The object a lot of us rely on, the spectacles, invented by an unknown person in about 1286, has done so much good, while gunpowder, also an ancient invention from China in the 9th century, has done its best to turn man back into a savage.



Some inventions are so ubiquitous that they hide in plain sight, like cement and asphalt. Forms of cement that include lime have been known from ancient Greece, but the most commonly used kind, portland cement, was patented by Issac Charles Johnson at the turn of the 20th century. As for asphalt or tar, the method of using it to pave our roads is from ancient Middle East, but the first road to be paved with it was in front of the Newark, NJ City Hall in 1870.



Weve come a long way



Speaking of the roads and travel, the first motorised 2-wheeler was the Daimler Reitwagen, invented and built by Germans  Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach  in 1885. The first modern car was the Benz Patent-Motorwagen built in 1886 by Karl Benz. And, on a parallel track, speaking of two, the first 2-piece swimsuit or the bikini was revealed on July 5, 1946 by French designer Louis Reard. It was named after the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean where the US had recently conducted an atomic test.



It is interesting to note that inventions like the bikini preceded more useful ones like wheels on suitcases  US patent no. 3,653,474  invented by Bernard Sandow in 1972. And appropriately, the first remote for controlling television with an attached wire was called Lazy Bones, and developed by the Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950. The first wireless remote control was developed in 1955 by Eugene Polley in the US.



In the field of health, inventions like penicillin and vaccination stand out. However, not to be ignored are the inventions of anaesthesia and the pill. On October 16, 1846, William T G Morgan, a young Boston dentist, used his invention, general anesthesia, as Dr John Collins Warren removed a tumour from the neck of a 17-year-old boy at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and forever relieved mankind of its greatest fear, the pain of surgery.



Abraham Lincoln freed black slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation; the young Mexican scientist, Dr Carl Djerassi, freed women from repeat unwanted and unplanned pregnancies by making the first progesterone pill that prevented ovulation. And then, endocrinologist Dr Gregory Pincus, along with activist Margaret Sanger and financier Katherine McCormick, developed the birth control pill, which was first approved for contraceptive use by the FDA in 1960.



As for the Indian woman, she used to be tied down in the kitchen with stones  the stone and mud chulha, the crushing stone and the grinding stone. Now, three wonderful inventions have removed her crushing burden  the LPG cylinder-gas stove, the mixie and the grinder, in that order.



We have LPG gas in cylinders to help in cooking, thanks to Dr Walter O Snelling who invented ways to liquefy LPG during the refining of natural gasoline in 1910. As for the electric kitchen blender or Mixie, as we affectionately call it, it was invented by Stephen Poplawski of Racine, Wisconsin, in 1922. It was invented to help make bar drinks, but has been used in so many other ways, too. It was even used by Dr Jonas Salk in the making of his famous polio vaccine.



Finally, the idli-dosa batter maker that saves time and drudgery, and guarantees a healthy breakfast  the wet grinder. It is said that this is the invention of P Sabhapathy of Coimbatore in 1955.



Newer inventions are coming up everyday. Driverless cars and Artificial Intelligence  these ideas are so radical that they have the potential to completely transform our lives. These will not be the end, either. Man is innately a curious animal: he constantly tries to understand and improve upon whatever exists at the present time. This is simultaneously one of his best and his worst qualities since, as Joel Mokyr, professor of economics and history, Northwestern University pointed out, Every time we solve one problem, a new one comes up. Each invention relies on subsequent inventions to clean up the mess it has made.

And so it goes on...





Keeping it simple



You dont always need big technology to do big things. The Egyptians built their pyramids before the invention of cement and steel, even the wheel and the nail; they relied heavily on levers. So did the Incas: the mountain retreat of Machu Picchu was built by the dry stone technique. The stone bricks that were simply placed side-by-side are so well set together in some places that you cannot slide a knife in between them.



A first...



The first known newspaper was the Acta Diurna, published in Rome, in the year 59 BC. It was published to inform the citizens of the daily happenings in the Senate.



All things photography



It started with the discovery of camera obscura or pinhole camera many centuries before Christ.

Louis Daguerre invented the first commercially successful photographic process in 1839. The daguerreotype made portrait-taking more popular with the middle class.



Post-mortem photography was quite common in the 19th century, called mourning portraiture. People took pictures with the recently dead loved ones for visual remembrance.




Veteran artist Jogen Chowdhury, whose retrospective exhibition Compelling Presence is currently on at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru, is widely known for his individual style, prodigious output and unique portrayal of life around him. The pulse and rhythm of Jogen Chowdhurys art comes from a filial affinity to nature and milieu, observes art historian R Siva Kumar. His art is rich in suggestions.





From his early days, Chowdhury was interested in sketching, doodling and drawing. Born in a village in Faridpur district of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) in 1939, he was hardly 8 when his family moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) following the Partition. Initially put up at a relatives house, the family eventually settled in a congested refugee colony and endured dire conditions. The city was politically charged and communally divided, making it difficult for the refugees to rebuild their lives. The communal riots between Hindus and Muslims cast a dark spell on our minds and thoughts, recalls Chowdhury. Living in Calcutta those days affected not only our immediate physical condition but also our thought processes and the works we made later. Even today, some of those memories haunt me and get reflected in my work.



It was during the brief stay at his uncles house in Calcutta that Chowdhury made his first drawing; the image of a peacock was sketched on the wall using red and blue pencil. Later, at the Government College of Art and Craft he was formally exposed to the rigours of academic figure drawing, anatomical studies, and rendering of objects. Several works in the retrospective exhibition show his mastery over line, form and colour even as a young student.



After graduation, Chowdhury taught art in Howrah Zilla School before joining the Handloom Board, Calcutta as a designer. In 1965, a French government scholarship took him to Paris, fulfilling his long-cherished dream to go abroad and see the original works of Western masters. During the 2 years he spent there, he enrolled himself at the famous William Hayters Atelier 17 and Ecole nationale superieure des Beaux-Art. He also visited numerous museums, churches and galleries in France, Germany, Holland, England and Italy, which became an integral part of his learning.



When he returned to India in early 1968, Chowdhury was appointed as a textile designer at the Weavers Service Centre, Handloom Board in Chennai. In 1972 he moved to Delhi to become the art keeper at Rashtrapati Bhavan; a position he held for 15 years before heading to Santiniketan in 1987 to join the painting department of Kala Bhavana. Although he formally retired as the principal in 1999, the 77-year-old artist continues to guide young practitioners in his role as professor emeritus.



In August 2014 he was invited by the Rashtrapati Bhavan as its artist-in-residence. Presently, he is a sitting Member of Parliament.



The mysterious line



In his long career Chowdhury has worked in several mediums, but his reputation as a master of the mysterious line precedes his other achievements. Jogen is a superb draughtsman from the start, writes noted historian and critic Gita Kapur. The line, while it alludes in its every twist and turn to art-historical trajectories, Indian and Western, depends also on a consistent quirk that Jogen calls his originality and that we may call the morphology of Jogens imagery. His distinction lies in that he uses and destroys the virtuosity  making the line serve for tortuous goings on inside as it does for social caricature and ornamental exuberance.



Chowdhurys exceptional talent primarily lies in the deployment of a graceful and sinuous line to define the character of the entire image. A simple line has the power to breathe life into an image, he says. Lines can be poetic, poignant and lyrical. One can study the intricacies of human figures, postures, gestures and emotions through fluent lines.



Another aspect of work that has been widely admired is his crosshatch painting. I started developing the ideas for crosshatch paintings in the late 1960s, not just as a technique, but as an intense journey through space, form and dimension. Today, my crosshatch paintings are popular, but when I put up my first exhibition in 1970 in Chennai, only 1 work got sold out of the entire collection of 30 paintings; the price I got was a princely 400 rupees!



Canvas of intrigue



Chowdhurys images are inundated with an array of men and women placed in enigmatic situations and inscrutable conditions. Many of his drawings and paintings portray scenes of heightened eroticism or biting satire. His captivating compositions show intriguing forms and gestures of the protagonists.



As Kapur points out, the female figure is almost always sympathetically portrayed by the artist. But the male is a foppish dandy, violent husband, bogus priest/preacher or, as of today, a corrupt intellectual, leader, bureaucrat, moneybag is severely dealt with, observes Kapur. There is a streak of voyeurism in Jogens work regarding his own social class and its sexuality. Relationships are observed and critiqued sympathetically.



Chowdhury attributes his artistic success to the simple act of watching life around him. I observe people and through my work try to grasp the wide range of human feelings, emotions, behavioural patterns and conditions. I can still recall the drawings I made in my youth of the countless refugees who came to Sealdah railway station and lived in pathetic conditions. I am deeply impacted by societal issues  be it poverty, human rights violations (as in Abu Ghraib), or social unrest (like the Gujarat riots). My work has always had that social connection. I have also believed that even through a simple image one can convey many things. I find the need to not only try to create and narrate visual stories but also to comment on power structures, politics, sexuality and humanity at large.



The retrospective exhibition at NGMA, which presents a wide range of Chowdhurys work done in different stages of his creative journey, concludes on May 22.




Jamat-e-Islami Hindi today claimed that Muslim youths were being "indiscriminatly" arrested under terror charges and voiced concern over the recent detention of members of the community by Delhi Police.





"The indiscriminate arrests of Muslim youths under so called charges of terrorism in the country is a cause of concern," vice president of the organisation Nusrat Ali said when asked about detention of 13 persons by Delhi Police on Tuesday.



Four of those detained for their alleged ideological leaning towards banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were today released due to lack of adequate evidence. Three have been arrested while six others are undergoing questioning.



"The reports show forced recoveries of materials from such accused which is why a large number of them are later acquitted by the courts," Ali said in a statement.Jamat is helping such youth by extending legal help to them and financial help to their families, he said.



The outfit's leaders have also expressed concern over drought situation in many parts of the country and demanded that the government impose a ban on industries which are causing "scarcity and pollution" of water.



"Jamat has been trying to assist drought affected people with the help of its volunteers and by supplying water through tankers in Latur and Udaygir in Maharashtra," Ali said.



The organisation condemned violence in Syria and expresseddeep concern over killing of innnocent people in the middle east country.



"Jamat opposes intervention of US and Russia in Syria and demands that the United Nations take a serious view of the deteriorating situation there and play an effective role," he added.
Heat and Light

Jennifer Haigh

Ecco Press

2016, pp 430, Rs 1,847





Rural Pennsylvania doesnt fascinate the world, not generally, Jennifer Haigh writes in Heat and Light. But cyclically, periodically, its innards are of interest. They become of immense interest when Haigh writes about them, as she has in several novels set in the fictitious coal town of Bakerton, in the western part of the state.



Haigh is an expertly nuanced storyteller long overdue for major attention. Her work is gripping, real and totally immersive, akin to that of writers as different as Richard Price, Richard Ford and Richard Russo. They are part of the stellar literary line-up of her admirers. With this book, she moves one big step closer to being in their league.



Haigh put Bakerton on the map with Baker Towers. The title refers to two huge heaps of sulphurous waste from Bakertons coal mines, which bleakly signaled prosperity. The mines kept Bakertons men employed until disaster struck, turning one site into a graveyard. Haigh has also told the story of Bakertons founding  the town is named for the mines, not the other way around  and written about what happens to natives when they try to transplant themselves to other places.



People with Bakerton roots, she writes, have the foregone conclusion that every worthwhile thing has already happened. The town is all aftermath. Not quite. Heat and Light, her latest and most sweepingly panoramic book, opens up a whole new chapter in this towns fraught history. And the trouble begins cheerfully, with hucksters paying house calls on the local landowners, beginning each conversation with: Beautiful property youve got here.



What a good deal they seem to be offering. Just sell the underground drilling rights, and your beautiful property will stay that way; its just that there may be a little extraction of natural gas going on a mile underground. This premise is all Haigh needs to populate her book with a large, broad, completely believable cast of characters who lock antlers over Bakertons latest development and whose viewpoints are all over the map.



Heat and Light  not a helpful title  is really a deftly interwoven set of stories. Theres suspense in the way they eventually connect, but its hard to summarise. To the extent that Heat and Light has a main character, he is Rich Devlin. For one thing, he has more work to handle than anyone else in this story. By day, Rich is a prison guard, which allows Haigh to evoke a keen sense of what goes wrong in Bakerton  its a big town for methamphetamine  and set the stage for something that hits the Devlin family later.



By night, Rich helps his father in the towns main bar, which might as well be the Town Hall. He gets to keep track of both the town vamp and the new influx of Texas roughnecks, hired to do the fracking.



Bakertons unemployed locals stay that way because they dont know how to do this work. They watch the newcomers helplessly, gossiping that perhaps these are illegal Mexicans or Army deserters or terrorists from Gitmo. The irony is, Bakerton used to be an immigrant town, Haigh has one of her characters say, as she pivots handily from the townspeoples perspective to the workers. About a rig manager who plays a key role in the story, she writes: Hes worked in Pennsylvania 10 months, long enough for him to have a small affection for the place, not long enough for it to have taken the slightest notice of him.



Once Haigh has introduced her slew of seemingly unrelated characters, she begins drawing them together. No wild coincidences here: One of her great skills is making the interactions in her books feel utterly true, as well as inevitable, since she has set these people on collision courses. Rich has been quick to sell his land rights to a fracking company, and his bizarrely childlike wife, Shelby, will be the first Bakertonian to complain that the water smells funny. The nurse who lives nearby, Rena, will chuckle with the other emergency room nurses, who nickname Shelby Chicken Little. But we eventually find out how Shelby became so peculiar. And she has a jolting secret that emerges late in the book. Meanwhile, Renas entirely separate story is one of the best things Heat and Light has to offer.



Heat and Light also involves 2 pastors, but thats as close as it comes to being preachy. If it has a mission, to use another Lorne Trexley word, it is to humanise all aspects of another of Bakertons terrible conundrums and to draw readers once more into the heart of this living, breathing town. Haigh, who comes from a Pennsylvania coal town herself, has also done her best job yet of adding breadth to a Bakerton story. Heat and Light reaches all the way to the afterlife and even extends to include EST, or Erhard Seminars Training, a fashionably abusive form of enlightenment that could be had at the time the novels Texas energy company was born.



Werner Erhard, ESTs creator, turns up to lead a session in which he harangues attendees with the news that everything bad thats ever happened to them is their own fault. But what about the people exposed to radiation after Three Mile Island, Kip, aka the Whip, the novels future fracking tycoon and Bakerton-despoiler, asks prophetically. Did they do that to themselves? Are they to blame? Really?




Amid growing demand for a CBI probe into the brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman in Ernakulam district, police today claimed that the Special Investigation Team's probe into the incident was going on the right track.



"The investigation is going on the right track. It is positive. I can't say anything specific at this stage as it will affect investigation," Additional Director General of Police K Padmakumar, who is supervising the probe by the SIT, comprising experts from the state police, said.



Kerala Women's Commission chairperson K C Rosakutty, who met the victim's mother at Perumbavoor Taluk hospital today, said they had got "some valuable information" on the culprit from the victim's sister and it would be provided to the SIT.



"We have got some information which will help investigation officers to nab the culprit," Rosakutty told reporters in Perumbavoor.



Her statement came amid local media reports that the probe is centred around a migrant worker, who is also a friend of the victim's sister. Police have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.

Meanwhile, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi, who led a party women leaders' delegation to take stock of the situation, today criticised state police for its initial lapses in the probe.



She urged the state government to hand over the probe to the CBI. "Why are they not handing over the inquiry to CBI. The victim's mother said she wanted a CBI probe into the incident," she said after meeting the woman's mother at the hospital.

Her demand for a CBI probe into incident came a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the Centre was ready to conduct the CBI probe.



Senior BJP leaders and Union Ministers, Ananth Kumar and Ravishankar Prasad have also slammed the state police for its alleged lapses in the initial stage of investigation and urged the state government to hand over the case to the CBI.



The Dalit woman, who hailed from a poor family, was raped and brutally assaulted using sharp-edged weapons before being murdered at her house at nearby Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district on April 28.



The shocking incident had its echo in Parliament with members demanding "exemplary punishment" for the culprits, besides triggering widespread protests across Kerala.
Masks sell quite well at fairs in various places



The blackness of the recently-tarred road that passes through Charida village is accentuated by the bursts of colour on either side. The road is a gift from the Mamata Banerjee government, which came to power in 2011, paving the path for Charidas colours to spread around the country and the world.



The town is best-known for its many mask makers, who create them with clay and papier mache for Chhau dancers, the pinnacle of which was reached under Gambhir Singh Mura, probably the most prominent exponent of the dance form that has become one with the name of the district.



The arid town, tucked in a corner of the western district of Purulia in West Bengal, is pressed closer to Jharkhand on the map. Like much of the district, Charida hardly has any agricultural activities and the search for water often leads locals to dig deeper than anywhere in Bengal. Amidst such extremities, Purulia gave form to Chhau, a martial dance form with its roots dating back to the indigenous population of the region.



Chhau has been popular among certain tribes in Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand, with Purulia, Seraikella and Mayurbhanj being the respective centres associated with the fold dance form. Although the dance forms exact history has faded into oblivion, some modern scholars believe the word Chhau is derived from the Sanskrit word Chhaya, meaning shadow but could also stand for the mask.



Chhau is exclusively performed by men and usually during religious festivals, particularly Dasara, with stories depicted through the dance borrowed from the two epics, Ramayana and Mahabharata. This lends credence to the belief that Chhau was meant to be rehearsal for war, where physical exercise and spiritualism blend in with the invoking of mythical heroes like Rama and Arjuna. Most dancers are keepers of legacy, with their forefathers belonging to traditional Chhau dancer families as they sweat it out under the night sky, dancing to haunting, old notes, coming from folk instruments like flutes, reed-pipes, large kettle drums and dhol, a two-sided cylindrical drum.



Purulia Chhau stands apart in its technique because unlike the Seraikella and Mayurbhanj schools, which enjoyed royal patronage, the dance form in Purulia was a more populist form, with common people helping it to survive changing times. Unlike dancers of Mayurbhanj, who do not wears masks, Chhau dancers of Seraikella and Purulia don elaborate and colourful masks.



Masks worn by dancers from these two regions, however, are different with Seraikella masks having a more elaborate headgear, decorated with beads and zari work. Masks used by dancer in Purulia are less elaborate and more functional. If the traditional masks depicted Rama, Hanuman, Ravana and other mythological characters, designs have evolved over the years.



A walk into the one-horse town is an introduction to a riot of colours, the effect of which can be more dazzling than the sun looking down on a scorching and parched summer afternoon. The mask-makers workshops, which double up as stores, are on both sides of the thoroughfare and on a dizzyingly hot afternoon, every store can look like Impressionist paintings from a distance. Most mask makers are men, who sit on their haunches, busy over a bowl of papier mache and clay concentrate, working out the right consistency, painting the masks or assembling decorations for headgears.



Most of the men, from the Sutradhar community, intent in their objective of creating a beautiful work of art  these works adorn walls at urban living spheres in Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru or Mumbai and even abroad -- are hardly aware their names have travelled much farther and wider than they ever will. Uttam Sutradhar at Charida deconstructed the manufacturing process: first, the mud mould is dusted with fine ash powder, several layers of soft paper and immersed in glue diluted with water, before these layers are pasted over the mould. The masks facial features are made with clay, with a layer of mud and cloth applied on it before the mask is sundried.



After its dry, the mould is polished and again set down under the sun for another round of drying before we separate the laden layers from the mould. The mask is then coloured according to design and decorated, after holes for nose and eyes have been drilled, Uttam said. Once completed, these masks are not just functional for their original purpose, providing faces to dancers who have remained faceless for centuries, these also work as vibrant decorative items, sold from stores, both physical and online. Dharmendra Sutradhar, another leading mask maker, agrees that once confined to Purulia and adjoining districts, the popularity of their masks has increased.



He feels this happened particularly after the state government took up their cause, promoting the masks, among other handicrafts, under the Biswa Bangla brand.



Dharmendra is quick to agree that Mamatas move has made the lives of mask makers like him easier. Every month a large percentage of our work is taken up by the government. In fact, sometimes its difficult to keep up our production, he says. Since creating individual mask is hard work and takes time, Biswa Bangla officials have all the mask makers of Charida on contract but take masks from each of them in turns.



He and the others point out that even in 2008 most of them were finding it hard to convince their children to follow in their footsteps since mask making was hardly lucrative. Although its still not a high-income job, at least now weve two square meals a day and our traditional art form will be saved and probably reach more people than it ever has, says mask maker Dharanidhar Dutta. His words are echoed by many others, including by Manoranjan Sutradhar, one of the oldest mask makers at Charida.



The government asks for more designs but we sometimes find it difficult, its a stretch on our creativity. Were used to making traditional masks like Durga, Ganesha, Shiva, Rama and Ravana. Every day we have to think of newer designs and varieties, Dutta said. The walls of his workshop, just like many others like his, have an array of masks, giving a glimpse into the designs they follow.



The face of the Buddhist deity of death, etched out in the Tibetan style common at places like Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan was developed a few months back as an offering to urban patrons. These constraints aside, Charida mask-makers are not complaining.



These days our masks sell quite well even at fairs in Kolkata and other cities. Earlier, we hardly managed to sell 50 even at a fortnight-long fair but now we have to carry at least 5-6 crates of masks just to keep up with sales, said Jagadish Mukhopadhyay, one of the few Brahmins involved in the trade.




In the process of discovering itself, once a transactional platform for coupon services Koovs has transformed itself into a trend-led, affordable destination for fashion.





The UK-listed Gurgaon-based company clocked in 10 million in gross order value in FY2016, and aims to more than triple the value to 34 million in the current financial year.

Our aim for FY16 was 8.5 million and we have outdone ourselves. As we follow through with the growth plans we have set out for Koovs, we plan to achieve profitability in 2019, said Mary Turner, CEO of Koovs Group.



With its target audience in the 20-something youth of India, Koovs launches 10 collections every year consisting of a sound mix of its private label and some curated brands.



Authenticity of western wear is Koovs key differentiator. About 50% of the products on the platform are from our private label, and within the brands we curate, some half of the collection is exclusive to Koovs, she said.



Our design team of 20 sits in London and creates exclusive styles for the brand. We launch about 150-250 styles every month, the CEO added.



Website traffic



Over the past year, the company has cumulatively raised 26.9 million, improved its brand awareness from 1% to 8% and doubled its website traffic to achieve 1.5 million visits per week. The company plans to scale its private label business from 50% to 60% by the end of this fiscal.



While retaining focus on the India market for the short-term at least, we will be embarking on a marketing strategy involving campaigns on platform including television, outdoor, digital media and print media. The earmarked budget is slightly north of 1.5 million, out of which 50% will be spent on television, 25% on print, 10% on outdoor and the remaining on digital media, said Turner.



With prices on the platform ranging from Rs 500-Rs 1,600, the company wants to cater to the segment of the youth that is just out of college that has limited disposable income, yet is fashionable.



Reiterating that the market in India proposes immense growth potential what with growing smartphones and connectivity, Turner said, Moreover, the Indian youth, men and women are getting increasingly fashion conscious and fashion influenced. It presents us with a huge growth opportunity.






Neglecting traditional water harvesting techniques has adversely affected the sustainability of water sources, said MIT Professor Dr Narayana Shenoy.





Speaking at a workshop on rainwater harvesting and ground water recharge organised by the zilla panchayat for the PDOs, zilla panchayat members and district-level officers here on Saturday, he said India was known for 71 types of watershed management techniques in the past. In the name of urbanisation, the watershed management techniques have been neglected, he said.



Calling for according priority to rainwater harvesting, watershed management and water conservation measures, he said people should change their mindset regarding conservation of water.



The rapid urbanisation has converted the open wells and huge water tanks into a dump yard. As a result, river water in India is not potable. Over 40,000 deadbodies are found in River Ganga every year. In spite of spending Rs 32,225 crore for cleaning Ganga, the river continues to be one of the polluted water body, Dr Shenoy said.



The excess use of ground water has resulted in drying of borewells. We have to agree with the fact that ground water is an asset for the future generation. Through rainwater harvesting and judicious use of water, the problem of acute water shortage can be overcome, he added.



Noting that Rs 1,12,000 crore cubic metre water is available in India, Dr Shenoy said that the demand is only for 71,000 crore cubic metre. In spite of the available water, the country has been facing acute water crisis where people do not have frequent supply of drinking water and farmers do not have water for irrigation. As we have failed to implement rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharge, more than one lakh villages in the country are facing acute water crisis, he said.



Dr Shenoy said that the elected representatives, officials and public should raise awareness on rain water harvesting techniques. India receives second highest rainfall in the world.



India is known for highest water sources including 2,100 rivers, 15,000 glaciers in Himalayas and 13 lakh man-made water tanks. If the people of Mangaluru fail to wake up to water crisis, then we may have to import pure drinking water in ship or train in the future, he warned.



Fight over rivers originating from Himalayas have created rift between India, Pakistan and China in the past. If the groundwater table continues to deplete, then India may not have water by 2050, he added.



In her introductory remarks, ZP CEO P I Sreevidya said that scientific water management will help in addressing water crisis in the district. Local government institutions have a responsibility to create awareness on conservation and recharge of water. Funds available under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Emplyment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) could be used to recharge the borewells, digging farm ponds and lake rejuvenation.



Zilla panchayat president Meenakshi Santhogodu, Vice President Kasturi Panja and expert H Ramesh were present.
The JD(S) had to face tense moments as two of its members - Nayeema Sulthana and B C Parimala Shyam - threw their hat into the ring for the presidents post, by filing their nomination papers.





The party finally managed to build a consensus for Nayeema with just a few minutes left for the election scheduled at 1 pm, at a meeting that lasted for hours at the mini hall in the first floor of the ZP office.



Parimala agreed to withdraw with a rider that Nayeema will hold the reins for the first 20 months, while she will succeed her for the remaining 40 months.



Following the recent amendment to the Panchayat Raj Act, president and vice-president of ZPs will remain in office for five years. Nayeema agreed to the formula and led fellow party members to the ZP hall for the election.



Chamundeshwari MLA G T Devegowda told reporters that following directions of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, it was decided to give a chance to Nayeema, belonging to the minority community and later to Parimala.



He denied that factions within the party prolonged a decision on a consensus candidate, as H D Kote MLA S Chikkamadu is at loggerheads with him.



However, it was not easy for Parimala to forego the trappings of power, as she had emerged a strong contender. Her eyes were wet with emotion, when she handed over the form withdrawing her candidature to Regional Commissioner A M Kunjappa.



She tried to remain stoic, but could not, when media persons sought her reaction about missing the chance by a whisker. Yes, I am a bit unhappy, but had to abide by the instructions of the party higher-ups, said Parimala. There were no heartburns in the BJP camp, as Nataraj was the consensus candidate. However, it is not known if Natarajs term will also end after 20 months. When asked, Nataraj replied in the negative.



Asked about rumours that she had knocked on the doors of the opposition Congress camp, Nayeema dismissed them as lies.
A letter by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval 30 years ago on Pakistan found a mention during a Parliamentary panel proceeding last month but the government has failed to locate it.





The letter in question was written by Doval in 1986 about Pakistan selling properties of people who left for India after 1965 and 1971 wars against the spirit of Tashkent Declaration of 1966.



It was Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi who spoke about the letter while deposing before the Rajya Sabha Select Committee on The Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill on April 4.



Quoting from the deposition of Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary in 2010 before a Standing Committee on the same subject, Mehrishi said the state official mentioned that there is a letter from the Consul from Islamabad and it was about Pakistan disposing off the enemy properties.



It is actually Mr Doval...Now we are trying to locate this letter, Mehrishi told the panel headed by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav.



When CPI MP D Raja asked whether he was saying that the letter was not available, Mehrishi said he has asked the Intelligence Bureau where Doval was working to locate it. Actually, the matter is so old and there is so much of record that even for us its a bit of research, he said.



The issue referred in Dovals letter is about the violation of the agreement reached by India and Pakistan on dealing with return of properties and assets taken over by either side in connection with the conflict.



The Ministry of Home Affairs, while issuing the ordinance in January to prevent legal heirs to acquire possession of enemy property, had said that Pakistan had sold or otherwise deposed off all the enemy property and assets of Indian nationals and companies in their country in 1971 itself.



However, In India, enemy properties continue to be with the Custodian of Enemy Property of India.
Trouble at Jadavpur University on Friday over the screening of a film spilt over to Saturday with heated exchanges between left-wing student groups and the ABVP.





While both groups took out protest rallies , the anti-national debate returned to the forefront of campus politics.



Tension prevailed on Saturday with streets outside Jadavpur University in south Kolkata witnessing sporadic clashes between the two groups. Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, ex-officio chancellor of state universities, told a news agency on the sidelines of an event in Kolkata that the varsity is fast turning into a centre for disturbance. Authorities should take stern action against trouble-makers, he said.



Trouble started on Friday evening after varsity authorities cancelled the screening of a reportedly pro-Hindu right-wing film, Buddha In A Traffic Jam, scheduled to be held at the varsitys Triguna Sen Auditorium.



Following the cancellation, show organiser Think India from Pune, reportedly backed by RSS and other Hindu right-wing groups, decided to have an open air show.
With 11 states reeling under severe drought, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday made a strong pitch for conservation of water during the upcoming monsoon season.





In separate meetings with chief ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Modi asked the state governments to give maximum attention to de-silting of farm tanks and check dams, and harvesting rain water.



Modi had a message for the sugarcane growing regions in the 3 states  adopt drip and sprinkler irrigation techniques for the crop. Drip irrigation in sugarcane increases the quality of sugar, Modi said.



The meetings with the 3 chief ministers was part of the prime ministers initiative to meet chief ministers of 11 drought-hit states before announcing long term measures for drought proofing.



Bundelkhand region in Uttar Pradesh, Marathwada and Vidarbha regions of Maharashtra and large parts of north Karnataka are reeling under severe drought and facing acute shortage of water.



Modi appreciated the efforts taken by the Karnataka government in waste water management in cities and wanted it to be replicated in a big way in towns as well.



Chief Minister Siddaramaiah submitted a memorandum for central assistance to the tune of Rs 12,272 crore for construction of check dams, rejuvenation of tanks, completion of water supply schemes and micro irrigation projects.



I am happy that the prime minister called such a meeting for the first time, Siddaramaiah told reporters here.



Maharashtra Chief Minister Fadnavis said the prime ministers thrust was on short-term plans for the next 6 weeks to carry out pre-monsoon works and benefit from the good monsoon that has been forecast by the weather office.



He said Maharashtra would also submit a supplementary memorandum to the Centre seeking aid for 11,000 more villages that have become drought-hit after the state had received assistance to tackle the situation.



The prime minister also wanted the states to draw out long-term plans to ensure moisture security for farmers and reduce their dependence on monsoon.



Uttar Pradesh has sought Rs 11,000 crore while Maharashtra has demanded Rs 9,500 crore as immediate central assistance to tackle the drought situation in the their respective states.
Travelling on roads in India remains a deadly proposition as deaths due to road accidents have increased by 4.6% in 2015 compared to 2014.





As per the provisional data compiled by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) for the year 2015, the country witnessed 1,46,133 road accident fatalities in 2015 against 1,39,647 in 2014.



Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Rajasthan are the 5 states which recorded the highest number of deaths in 2015. These states contributed to 46.45% of the total fatalities recorded nationwide for the same year.



The total number of injuries due to road accidents rose from 4.93 lakh in 2014 to 5 lakh in 2015. Even Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest increase in road accidents.



Tamil Nadu reported highest road accidents in 2015 with 69,059 followed by Maharashtra (63,805). Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala also featured in the top 5 states that witnessed highest number of road accidents. These 5 states contribute 29.66% to the total number of accidents recorded nationwide, the Ministry informed Rajya Sabha in response to a question by Husain Dalwai.



In Karnataka, the number of accidents was 44,011 in 2015 and it was 43,713 in 2014 while deaths was 10,856 in 2015 against 10,452 in 2014. However, national capital Delhi witnessed reduction in both accidents and fatalities. The number of road accidents in Delhi was 8,085 in 2015 against 8,623 while deaths was 1,622 in 2015 against 1,671 in 2014.



In the past decade, over 1.3 million people have been killed in road accidents in India. The Centre, which is working on a strong road safety bill, has now constituted a committee headed by Rajasthan Road Transport Minister Yunus Khan to suggest steps to be taken on the issue.



With India witnessing highest number of road accident fatalities globally, there is an urgent need for a strong legislation that protects all classes of road users. The Parliamentary Standing Committee also noted that a legislation which addresses road safety issues should be introduced at the earliest and since the issue has received bipartisan political support, there should not be any further delay." Saji Cherian, director, operations, SaveLIFE Foundation, said.



Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari earlier announced that his ministry has set a target of reducing road accidents fatalities by 50% by 2020.
Nepalese Defence Minister Bhim Rawal on Saturday accused Nepals just-recalled envoy to India of trying to topple Prime Minister K P Sharma Olis government in Kathmandu.





With the move, Nepals internal politics has once again cast a shadow on its relations with India.



Kathmandu not only called off Nepalese President Vidya Devi Bhandaris proposed visit to India, but also recalled its envoy to New Delhi, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, accusing him of working against the interests of Nepal. India, however, maintained that it had no role in the recent internal political developments in Nepal, but would keep watch on the evolving situation in the neighbouring country.



The twin moves by Kathmandu came shortly after Olis government in Nepal appeared to be threatened by a crack in the ruling coalition.



Though Oli survived the crisis for now, a section of political establishment in Kathmandu once again started blaming India for triggering instability in the neighbourhood.

Upadhyay was also accused of working with New Delhi for destabilising the Oli government.



Envoys should follow governments directives and maintain diplomatic decorum, Rawal was quoted by PTI in a report from Kathmandu.



Reports in Nepalese media on Friday and Saturday indicated that Kathmandus envoy to New Delhi had opposed Oli governments decision to call off the presidential visit to India. Bhandari was expected to commence her maiden visit to India as Nepalese president on Monday.

Apart from meeting her counterpart Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi, she was scheduled to visit Simhasth Kumbh at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh.



Upadhyay has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying Indias ambassador to Nepal, Ranjit Rae, the PTI quoted Rawal, who is also a deputy prime minister.



Kamal Thapa, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Nepal, however, said that recall of Kathmandus envoy to New Delhi and cancellation of President Bhandaris visit to India were not related.



Thapa, according to Himalayan Times published from Kathmandu, cited 4 main reasons for cancellation of the visit  recent political developments in Nepal, presidents scheduled engagement in the nation to present the government policy and programme at House, lack of preparations and a natural disaster in Ujjain.
Infosys is set to keep its promise to north Karnataka as it gears up to open its much-awaited Hubballi campus by the end of fiscal 2017.





In an interaction with DH, Infosys executive vice-president  facilities, administration, security and sustainability  Ramadas Kamath U, said it will be the first phase of the entire project.



We will have one building commissioned by March 31, 2017. It will have a seating capacity of 3,000 in addition to a cafeteria and other amenities, he said.



The State High Level Clearance Committee headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had in September 2013 allotted 43 acres of land on Gokul Road in Hubballi for Infosys Technologies to set up its unit.



When the Karnataka Cabinet gave clearance to the project, it was estimated that the Hubballi campus would get an investment of Rs 472 crore. But the government did not release details of the nature of the projects cleared.



The land allotted to Infosys was rugged terrain and levelling it took time. We started laying concrete 2 months back, said Kamath.



Three locations



In Karnataka, Infosys is present at 3 locations. While Bengaluru and Mangaluru have development centres, Infosys has a 345-acre training centre in Mysuru. In all, the company has 42,000 employees in the state.



Infosys co-founder and former chairman N R Narayana Murthy said that there is a need to decongest Bengaluru by going out to other cities of Karnataka.
A 35-year-old man was run over by a container lorry near Cauvery Emporium on MG Road in the early hours of Saturday.





Appu Rao, a resident of Hesaraghatta and an employee of a company on MG Road, was going towards Kamaraj Road searching for a cab when the accident took place around 2.30 am, said the police. The police arrested the lorry driver Mahesh and seized the vehicle.
In the wake of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruling on buffer zones around lakes, construction was stopped at Kundalahalli lake on Saturday. Also encroached land around Kundalahalli Lake and Bellandur lake was reclaimed by the BBMP.





About one acre of land, worth Rs 15 crore, at Kundalahalli lake and 12 acres of land at Bellandur lake near Yemalur were recovered during the demolition drive. Harish Nayak, tahsildar of East taluk, headed the encroachment drive along with BBMP officials.



About 35 guntas of land around Kundalahalli lake was illegally occupied and on this basis, we undertook demolition of the structures. We demolished three to four compounds and cleared a sewage treatment plant illegally constructed by Divyashree Builders, SVK Tech Park, Kalyani Tech Park and Ascends company.



They had illegally built compounds on the lake bed. The lake has been handed over to BBMP for beautification, that will include fencing also, he said.



At Bellandur lake, most of the encroachments were made by farmers and agricultural lands worth more than Rs 5 crore have been recovered, Nayak said. According to Palike officials, the lake belongs to Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and has been handed over to them already.



A notice has been issued to the builder at an under-construction site at Kundalahalli lake by the BBMP officials.



A lot of sewage enters the lake and we are happy about the move undertaken to reclaim Kundalahalli lake. But it is important to protect the lake. The authorities should make sure it is developed and no vehicular movement is allowed in or around the lake, said Arvind Keerthi, an urban environmentalist.
Four men detained for suspected links with banned Pakistani terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed were released on Saturday after the investigators failed to find enough evidence against them.





They were questioned at the headquarters of Delhi Polices Special Cell. The 4 were among 12 suspects held from Delhi, NCR and UPs Saharanpur district on May 3. It was charged that they were assembling improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at their hideout in east Delhis New Mustafabad.



Only 3 of them, Mohammad Sajid, Sameer Ahmad and Shakir Ansari had been officially arrested and produced in court. They were remanded to police custody.



We have finished questioning and found that the 4 men are ready for counselling. Most others may be allowed to go soon, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah.



Three of the men released are from north east Delhis Chand Bagh, while the 4th is from Loni in Uttar Pradeshs Ghaziabad district. They were allowed to leave Special Cell police station at 4 pm. They were accompanied by family members and lawyer M S Khan.



On Saturday, Islamic organisation Jamiat Ulema-e-Hinds Abdul Raziq also spent some time counselling them in the presence of a police team. The organisation is also arranging financial and legal assistance for the detained men.



In a statement, Raziq said that the men had nothing to do with JeM. Police have also requested Raziq to counsel the other detained men, as he is a psychiatrist who also counselled 2002 Gujarat riot victims in the past. Sources said that those released would also be kept under the observation of certain NGOs.



Meanwhile, some police teams are currently in western UP in search of more IEDs and explosives. In this regard, an FIR under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is registered with the Special Cell police.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call a meeting of chief ministers of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa to resolve the dispute over sharing of Mahadayi water.





At a meeting called by the prime minister here to discuss the drought in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah drew Modis attention to the Mahadayi dispute and sought his intervention. I have urged the PM to intervene in the matter. He did not give any response, Siddaramaiah told reporters after the meeting. But he said he hoped the prime minister would take the initiative to resolve the issue at the earliest.



Rejecting reports that Congress MPs were unhappy at his style of functioning, the chief minister said he had called a meeting of the MPs on May 11 in Delhi to urge them to raise matters important to Karnataka in Parliament. Claiming that he is in touch with all Congress MPs from Karnataka, he said he would meet them separately.



Siddaramaiah will be in Delhi on May 11 and 12 to apprise the Congress high command of the efforts undertaken by his government to address the drought in Karnataka.
Owing to acute drought conditions, production of pulses has taken a hit, said Agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda on Saturday.





Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Gowda said that Karnataka had witnessed a shortfall of 4.5 lakh tonnes of pulses, including tur, red gram, green gram, black gram and horse gram.



The production target in 2015-16 was 16 lakh tonne, but Karnataka could only produce 12.5 lakh tonne, which had led to the steep rise in prices. However, there is sufficient stock of other foodgrains, he added.



To check the price rise, Gowda said that Karnataka had sought the Centres intervention. The state has sought a share in the pulses imported by the Centre, he said.



Seed shortage



With sowing season fast approaching, Karnataka is finding it difficult to procure seeds to be distributed to farmers.



Karnatakas seed requirement this year was 6.45 lakh quintals, while last year it was only 4.29 lakh quintal. However seed companies, including state-owned seed corporations, were trying to cash in on the departments predicament.



This year, the seed requirement is high. Sensing this, seed companies, including the Karnataka Seeds Corporation, National Seeds Corporation and Oilseeds Growers Federation, are all quoting higher rates. The department is into hard bargaining, he said.

He said disbursement of input subsidy to farmers who have incurred crop loss was delayed as the department was in the process of introducing Real Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS), which facilitates immediate transfer of money from one bank to another.



Production target



Foodgrain production target for 2016-17: 135 lakh tonnes

Production in 2014-15: 126 lakh tonnes

Production in 2015-16: 110 lakh tonnes

Projection for current year: Improved production as good rains are expected


Fewer storms have coated Colorado mountains with red dust swirled from parched northern Arizona and southern Utah, which bodes well for water managers trying to predict how quickly the states snowpack will melt.

The lack of dust  at least on Colorados central and northern mountains  removes one capricious ingredient from the always tricky formula of forecasting runoff.

Many factors impact the timing and flow of spring runoff, including soil moisture, snowpack, weather, dust on snow and solar radiation. Given all the variables that play a role, wed hesitate to say that the lack of dust makes it easier to predict runoff, Denver Water spokeswoman Stacy Chesney said. The lack of dust on snow benefits water managers because, all other variables held constant, it means a slower and more predictable melting of the snowpack.

It takes careful coordination to fill all 19 of Denver Waters reservoirs, a balancing act that weighs a range of inflows, water rights, customer demands and projects, all influenced by dust, weather, snowpack, soil moisture and sunshine. Sometimes, water managers release water to make room for a surge of snowmelt.

Strong snowpacks in the South Platte Basin in recent years, combined with increased conservation by Front Range users in 2014, meant Denver Water diverted the least amount of Western Slope water through the Roberts Tunnel beneath Dillon Reservoir since it opened in 1963. Last year, also one of very low dust, Denver Water diverted the second-least amount since the tunnel opened.

Snow researchers in southern Colorado for 13 years have studied the red dust swirled onto the snowpack from the Colorado Plateau.

The Colorado Dust on Snow Program was launched up Red Mountain Pass outside Silverton in 2003, where researchers with the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies had started noting stronger dust storms laminating the San Juans in a pink patina of sun-sucking dust. When the spring sun began melting the snowpack, those dust layers would collapse on top of one another, creating a dark blanket that absorbed sunshine and hastened snowmelt from a slow trickle into a sudden surge.

By 2008, the dust-on-snow researchers were studying snowpacks atop a dozen Colorado mountain passes, compiling data that now are essential tools for water managers tasked with corralling as much of Colorados own water before it rushes downstream to other users.

They measured three dust storms the first year. There have been big years, with as many as 12 dust events: 2008-09 and 2011-12. And there were years with only three: 2003-04 and 2014-15.

This winter was about average, with six dust events and most of them relatively small. Most interesting this year was the lack of dust accumulation on Berthoud, Loveland and Rabbit Ears passes.

A slight bit of dust fell on Hoosier Pass, but the central mountains largely escaped without much airborne dirt this year. And each of the dirt-flinging storms that blanketed southern Colorado were followed by snow that quickly covered the sandy bits of Utah and Arizona, preventing an early melt. Those layers are starting to get exposed on southern aspects with this weeks warm weather.

We are seeing an uptick on the stream discharge gauges, said Jeff Derry, the new boss of the Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies. Central Colorado is doing great so far. Seems like the southern half of the state is bearing the brunt of this years dust. We were really surprised to see nothing on Rabbit Ears and Berthoud this year.

Still, water watchers such as the Colorado River Water Conservation District are hardly kicking back. The recent storms bolstered Colorados snowpack, which in April improved 7 percent, marking the first month-over-month increase in 2016. The Natural Resources Conservation Service on Friday announced that April snowfall pushed the states overall snowpack to 110 percent of normal, with year-to-date precipitation hitting 100 percent of normal.

But even with the lack of dust and healthy snowpacks across the state hovering a little above the long-term average, managers are bracing for the typical dryness that follows an extra-wet El Nino weather pattern.

Colorado is in a time of plenty, district manager Eric Kuhn said.

But that barely translates to good news for Lake Powell, which is dangerously low and nearing a drop below the level of the power generators on Glen Canyon Dam. Lake Mead, feeding the extraordinarily thirsty Las Vegas area, is equally low, threatening to drop below the level of intake straws that sate southern Nevada.

Even with healthy conditions up high on the Colorado River, demand continues to outpace supply in the lower river basin, Kuhn said. So hes among many managers planning widespread conservation measures.

Its time to think about phasing out of our time of plenty, Kuhn said.

Storms forecast for the coming days are good news. New snow expected across the high country should cover the dust layers in the southern mountains, slowing the inevitable runoff.

Yet the dust season is not over. Utah and Arizona typically share the largest portion of their desert in April and May.

A lot of people are praying for what happened last year, Derry said, noting how that exceptionally wet spring bolstered emaciated snowpacks to above average across the state. The forecast looks good. Well see if we get that miracle May two years in a row.

Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or @jasonblevins
Colorados oil and gas rig count has started to drop again after showing signs of stabilizing in March and April, hitting its lowest mark in more than 15 years.

The states producers let go of a rig this week and one last week, bringing Colorados count down to 15, according to a report Friday from Baker Hughes.

Oil prices have rebounded in the past three months. For an eight-week stretch in March and April, the number of rigs active in the state held steady at 17.

Colorados count is now the lowest since 14 rigs were operating the week of Aug. 25, 2000.

The count is down from 22 at the start of this year, 39 a year ago and the all-time high of 125 active rigs eight years ago. That means 88 percent fewer rigs are active now than at the peak.

Producers argue that todays directional drilling rigs are much more efficient, meaning fewer are needed than in the past.

But producers continue to shed rigs even though U.S. oil prices have recovered from the mid- $20s a barrel in early February, increasing to the mid $40s.And each rig idled means more workers without jobs.

Nationally, the rig count dropped by five to 415 this week and is down from 894 a year earlier, according to Baker Hughes.

Of the working rigs left in Colorado, 13 are active in the Denver-Julesburg Basin northeast of Denver and two on the Western Slope.
Does the fact that three candidates stumbled in petitioning onto the Republican primary ballot for U.S. Senate suggest the process is flawed?

Probably, and lawmakers should take a look at whether some petition requirements are petty and excessive. A few sure sound like they are. But lets clear up something about the secretary of states role in this affair: Its his job to enforce the law, not give breaks to candidates who are ever-so-close to dotting every i  but dont.

We mention this because of how one of the candidates, Robert Blaha, denounced Secretary of State Wayne Williams as a member of the permanent political class and urged the Republican to resign as a result of his experience.

It seems Williams had the audacity late last month to inform the Blaha campaign that its petitions to get a spot on the primary ballot fell short. They failed to conform to rules regarding signature gatherers and thus Blaha did not secure the 1,500 signatures required from each of seven congressional districts.

Blaha did not take the news well. Rather than scold his staff or confine his response to a court appeal, he ripped off an over-the-top denunciation of Williams this week that may say more about the candidate than the secretary of state.

You could certainly argue, as Blaha did, that his petitions, flaws and all, met the standard of substantial compliance with the law. Blaha took that argument to a judge and she agreed, ordering Williams on Thursday to put Blaha on the ballot.

We think the judge made the correct call, as she had earlier when she salvaged the campaign of GOP candidate Jon Keyser, who also fell short of the required signatures for technical reasons.

But Williams was equally correct in his initial rulings that the petitions of Keyser and Blaha (as well as Ryan Frazier, whose case is unresolved) were deficient. In fact, District Court Judge Elizabeth Starrs herself said as much.

In providing Mr. Blaha with a Statement of Insufficiency,  the judge wrote, the [secretary of state] appropriately reviewed the petitions submitted by Mr. Blaha [and] followed the applicable guidelines . . . However, it is the court which makes the determination of substantial compliance, not the SOS (our emphasis).

Blaha seems to think the secretary of state should have pre-empted the judges role. How else to explain his diatribe? This is what the permanent political class does, he declared. They get in power and feed at the public trough. They are often incompetent, and there is never a political price to be paid.

And Blaha doubled down the next day on talk radio.

Although Donald Trump has used invective to great effect in his campaign for the White House, we hope Blaha isnt about to test whether the strategy can be equally effective in a statewide race in Colorado.

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The furor of a frustrating Colorado caucus for both parties this year has built a fire under the lingering issue of reinstating the states presidential primary.

Arguments for and against changing the way Colorado picks major-party nominees for president gives lawmakers and voters a lot to think about.

The legislature is rushing to get a bill to the governors desk  before the May 11 adjournment  to establish a presidential primary. The goal is to retain other parts of the state caucus system. At the same time, a coalition called Let Colorado Vote hopes to get a measure around the issue on the November ballot to let voters decide about whether to have a primary and whether to restrict unaffiliated voters.

Here are the major points on both sides:

POINT: Allowing unaffiliated voters in a mail-ballot presidential primary would expand democracy.

Proponents note that only about 13 percent of Democrats and about 7 percent of Republicans participated in this years March 1 Colorado caucus. In other states, more than 50 percent of the electorate tends to vote in presidential primaries. That number could be higher in Colorado because of its mail-ballot system. Meanwhile, more than 1 million unaffiliated voters  about 35 percent of the electorate  had no opportunity to participate in the caucus. A mail-ballot primary also would include military and other Coloradans overseas, instead of only those physically present at the caucus.

COUNTERPOINT: Only party members should be allowed to pick the partys candidates.

Opponents see opportunities for mischief when one partys candidate is unopposed and members of the other party seek a general-election advantage by voting for the weaker candidate in the other partys primary. They also see open primaries of any kind as a violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of association.

POINT: Taxpayers would be on the hook for up to $7 million every four years.

Legislators arent sure yet where theyll find the money to pay the estimated $5.1 million for the states share of the cost of each primary. Counties would have to pony up the rest. Proponents point out that price tag is less than $2 each for the states 3.6 million registered voters and that elections are the most basic service of government.

COUNTERPOINT:Parties cover the costs of their caucus.

Opponents said that taxpayers as a whole  including those who do not support either of the major parties  should not foot the bill for a political organizations nominating process. They say the added primary cost could be a budget-buster for some of Colorados poorer counties.

POINT: Colorado could become an early primary state.

State Republican Party chairman Steve House told a legislative panel this week that if Colorado became a primary state it could move up sooner than its current slot, March 1. That would give it a louder voice in narrowing the field of candidates, bringing candidates and media attention to the state.

COUNTERPOINT: In most states, the national parties decide when their state primaries will be, but thats not whats in House Bill 1454, which leaves the primary date up to the governor, who could pick any Tuesday between Sept. 1 of the year before the election to the third Tuesday in March.

POINT: A presidential primary would save the caucus system.

The current legislation would apply a primary only to the presidential race but retain the caucus for all local races. Parties also would still be in charge of selecting their respective delegates.

COUNTERPOINT: A presidential primary would make the caucus system irrelevant.

A group called Save the Caucus! contends there will be little interest or support for a caucus if party members are not attracted to the marquee race of the political season. They say democracy works best when interested voters convene and discuss issues, rather than do so individually in a primary.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or @joeybunch
The chance that Colorados unaffiliated voters might be able to participate in an open presidential primary in 2020 has dropped  at least for now  after state legislators Friday proposed a new compromise bill.

Backed by a bipartisan group of sponsors, the Senate bill was racing to get through the General Assembly in the final days of the session, which ends Wednesday. It would reinstate the primary on the third Tuesday of March for presidential selections  but keep it closed to unaffiliated voters, as the major political parties prefer.

The bill, which faces some resistance, raises the stakes before a potential November ballot measure that would force a statewide vote on the issue.

The Senate bill also is narrower than a House bill that would allow for participation by unaffiliated voters. That one has been held back in the Democratic House from a final floor vote because of uncertain prospects in the Republican Senate.

An organization called Let Colorado Vote is preparing a ballot measure that would let unaffiliated voters  Colorados largest group  participate easily in a mail-in primary. A win at the ballot box this fall would override any new primary law approved by the General Assembly.

Sen. Kevin Lundberg, a Republican from Berthoud, proposed Senate Bill 216 on Friday afternoon, drawing as co-sponsors Sen. Lucia Guzman, a Denver Democrat, and the House bills original sponsors.

The bill quickly won 5-0 approval from the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee. It had a harder time getting through the Appropriations Committee, which advanced the bill later Friday on a 4-3 party-line vote; it was eligible for Senate floor consideration as soon as that night.

I really believe this will serve the people of Colorado best, Lundberg told the first committee, because its simple and straightforward.

He said he had some real problems with a system that allows somebody who is not going to align themselves with a party (to then be) voting in that partys election.

The earlier bill, House Bill 1454, proposed to let unaffiliated voters request one partys primary ballot by activating a temporary party affiliation that would expire 30 days after the vote.

Guzman told the committee: We as well in our party understand how important it is to have a presidential primary replace the presidential caucus situation that we all just experienced.

The latest impetus of a return to the primary was crowding at caucuses in March, particularly on the Democratic side, which had a presidential poll. Yet those crowds represented much lower turnout than is typical in primaries, prompting criticism that the outcome doesnt represent the majority.

The Senate bill only emboldens Let Colorado Vote, the ballot initiative effort spearheaded by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

This bill doesnt go far enough, said Curtis Hubbard, Let Colorado Votes spokesman. Its going to ask all Colorado voters to pay for an election, and its going to leave nearly four in 10 voters  the unaffiliated group  out of that election.  We suspect voters in November would support our measure, which would open not just the presidential primary but all primaries to the voters who pay for them.

Lundberg, anticipating such criticism, said Colorado law already lets unaffiliated voters participate in the states regular June primary. But if they must declare an affiliation, and if they wait until too close to the election, they must do so by filling out an affiliation form in front of an election judge.

Colorado had a caucus for most of the 20th century but switched to primaries before the presidential elections in 1992, 1996 and 2000. It reverted to caucuses after that, in large part because of cost concerns.

The parties pay the tab for caucuses, which they likely still would hold to select delegates if the primary returns. But the state would resume paying for a statewide primary election, estimated to cost up to $5.1 million in 2020.

Lundbergs bill would allow one of the parties to opt out of participating in the primary by a vote of its state central committee.

In her comments to the committee, Guzman acknowledged some legislators may have questions about the approach.

Sen. Pat Steadman, a fellow Denver Democrat, said he would have preferred to retain involvement by unaffiliated voters. He said he and other swing voters in both chambers will have to be persuaded to accept a primary with narrower participation.

I do think we need to get the presidential politics out of our precinct caucuses, Steadman said. It overruns the caucus process every eight years, or every four years. And Id like to see our caucus process preserved and have a focus on the local races.  And the presidential race  with all the extra attention and fair-weather voters it attracts  should have a different process.

There are still other legislators who oppose having a presidential primary.

In the state affairs committee, Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, a Republican from Sterling, voted to advance the bill while noting he likely would vote against it. He noted that time was running short.

Id like to let the sponsors know that Im not thrilled about running legislation with a gun to my head, he said.

Replied Lundberg: Im not holding that weapon. Im actually trying to dodge around anything of that sort myself.

Jon Murray: 303-954-1405, jmurray@denverpost.com or @JonMurray
the Colorado Supreme Court last week ruled for fracking and against the rights of the people in Longmont and Fort Collins. In so doing, the court ruled against the rights of all Colorado citizens to have a say about oil and gas development in their neighborhoods.

Barbara Mill-Bria, president of a citizens advocate group called Be the Change, said: This is the opposite of democracy. The people are not happy waking up to find an oil rig in their back yard and being told they have no real say in the matter.

Due to health and safety concerns, both cities had decided by popular vote to ban oil and gas drilling within their city limits. Under the Colorado Constitution, the right of citizens to legislate has been termed a first right, superior to that of the legislatures.

The court ignored those rights of the citizens in Longmont and Fort Collins.

The court ruled that the citizens inalienable rights in the Bill of Rights had been preempted by the Oil and Gas Conservation Act passed by our legislature. By this legislation, those rights belong to a small state agency, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which works primarily to encourage oil and gas development.

Weston Wilson, science adviser to Be the Change and former Environmental Protection Agency scientist (and whistleblower on known contamination of groundwater by fracking), said: You know at some point people will start to understand weve been sold a bill of goods. Hell, apparently every acre in the state is up for grabs. And the Supreme Court is in on the job.

Cut away the lofty language used to disguise greed and plunder, and what the court said is that we have no inalienable rights when it comes to oil and gas development. The legislature took those rights and gave them to their true friends on 16th Street.

But the power structure can only steal from us if we let them. Attorney Dan Leftwich said in the end, its still up to the people: Today marks a new chapter, not the end of these disputes.

Article V of the Colorado Constitution was amended in 1910 because the people were concerned about the corrupting influence of special interests in state government, Leftwich said.

That is the situation Colorado citizens are encountering today. Special interests use the states power to preempt local communities from protecting their health, safety and the environment.

However, he concluded: In Article V, the people reserved the power to pass legislation of every character, independent of the General Assembly, precisely to put such decisions beyond the reach of the state. These fundamental rights cannot be preempted. These rights were not presented to the Supreme Court because the voters were not represented there, only the municipal governments that were opposed.

The courts opinions issued are not controlling precedent where the peoples right of initiative is raised as a defense.

Colorado resident Phil Doe was the Environmental Compliance Officer for the U.S. Department of Interiors Bureau of Reclamation. He also headed its policy office responsible for regulating water subsidies to irrigators and wrote federal regulations governing irrigation water subsidies in 11 Western states. He is currently a volunteer with Be the Change.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
By Brian Bienkowski

6 May 2015 (Scientific America)  Fracking wells in Pennsylvanias Marcellus Shale region are disproportionately located in poor rural communities, which bear the brunt of associated pollution, according to a new study. The study bolsters concerns that poor people are more likely to deal with hydraulic fracturing in their community and raises concerns that such vulnerable populations will suffer the potential health impacts of air and water pollution associated with pulling gas from the ground. This trend is not one were surprised by, we see this in a lot of industries, said Mike Ewall, founder and director of Energy Justice Network, a nonprofit organization that works with U.S. communities dealing with pollution from energy. However industry groups say hydraulic fracturing is in rural farming regions of Pennsylvania out of necessity and is providing some much needed economic stimulus. Researchers from Clark University mapped areas in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to identify areas with a lot of Marcellus Shale hydraulic fracturing wells and then examined some local demographics: age, poverty and education levels, and race. [] One thing was clear from the Clark University study: poverty levels are strongly associated with active fracking wells in Pennsylvania. Our analysis shows that environmental injustice was observed only in Pennsylvania, particularly with respect to poverty: in seven out of nine analyses, potentially exposed [census] tracts had significantly higher percent of people below poverty level than non-exposed tracts, the authors wrote. [] This week the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences released a study that found traces of a common fracking chemical in water from three homes in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, where the median household income is 10 percent lower than the rest of the states. In addition, last month researchers reported that radonthe worlds second leading cause of lung canceris much more prevalent in Pennsylvania buildings near natural gas development than in other parts of the state. And a week after the radon study, the state released data that showed sulfur dioxide emissions soared 57 percent from 2012 to 2013 at Pennsylvania natural gas sites. Sulfur dioxide harms the respiratory system and can cause or worsen illnesses such as asthma. [more]
4 May 2016 (ABC News)  Piles of dead whales, salmon, sardines, and clams blamed on the El Nino freak weather phenomenon have been clogging Chiles pacific beaches in recent months. Last year, scientists were shocked when more than 300 whales turned up dead on remote bays of the southern coast  it was the first in a series of grim finds. A surge in algae in the water earlier this year choked to death an estimated 40,000 tonnes of salmon in the Los Lagos region  equal to about 12 per cent of Chiles annual production of the fish. This month, about 8,000 tonnes of sardines were washed up at the mouth of the Queule river and thousands of dead clams piled up on the coast of Chiloe Island. Chilean authorities blamed a red tide of algae and banned fishing in the affected region  putting thousands of fishermen out of work. We have red tides every year in southern Chile, but this time it reached further north, said Jorge Navarro, a researcher at the marine institute IDEAL. It affected bivalve populations (such as clams) that had never before been exposed like this [to the algae], he said. On the shores of Santa Maria Island off the centre off Chiles long coast, cuttlefish have been washed up dead in the thousands. Various beaches in the centre of the country were closed as the specimens of the dreaded Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish, normally foreign to the area, floated nearby. [] Scientists also suspect other causes for the mass destruction of the sea creatures. Laura Farias, an oceanographer at Chiles Concepcion University, said last years huge toll of whales could have been caused by natural ecological process. There is no ecological, oceanographic, or climatic explanation linking the whales to the other incidents, she said. Ms Farias suspects the growth of fish farming in Chiles southern Patagonia region is to blame for killing the salmon and clams. There are studies indicating that in Patagonia the greater occurrence of toxic blooms could be a consequence of aquaculture, she said. [more]
Five things you should know about Diwali, the festival of lights
Drought-hit Zimbabwe has invited local farmers and private game rangers to buy wild animals as it destocks national game reserves to save fauna from starvation. Parks and wildlife authority spokeswoman Caroline Washaya said on Wednesday that it has asked individuals and private game keepers to step in and buy wild animals ''in the light of the drought''. She did not have details of the species or numbers of the animals up for sale or their cost, but the southern African country's 10 national parks are famed for their huge populations of elephants, lions, rhinos, leopards and buffalos. The cash-strapped country has been battling to reduce its animals - especially elephants - whose population is more than twice what the parks can accommodate. The drought has also exacerbated an economic crisis that has largely been deserted by foreign donors since 1999. A drought across the region has left more than 4 million Zimbabweans needing aid and hit the crops they rely on for food and export earnings, from maize to tobacco. A notice in a state newspaper invited ''members of the public with the capacity to acquire and manage wildlife'' to make offers to buy. Selling the animals would give some of them a new home and ease financial pressure on the parks authority, which says it receives little government funding and struggles to get by on what it earns through hunting and tourism. "In light of the drought ... Parks and Wildlife Management Authority intends to destock its parks estates through selling some of the wildlife," the authority said in a statement. It asked interested Zimbabweans to get in touch and did not mention foreign buyers. Parks authority spokeswoman Caroline Washaya-Moyo would not say whether the animals could be exported or how many it wanted to sell. "We do not have a target. The number of animals depends on the bids we receive," she said. Zimbabwe has in recent years resorted to exporting elephants to countries such as China in a bid to raise funds and cut the ballooning population. There was no immediate comment from the wildlife groups that protested loudly last year when Zimbabwe exported 60 elephants, half of them to China, where the animals are prized for their tusks. The drought has left at least a quarter of the population in need of food aid and President Robert Mugabe in February declared many parts of the rural areas in a 'state of disaster'. The drought has further strained national parks that are already burdened by the growing numbers of species such as elephants. The parks authority relies on donations from well-wishers to supply water for the wildlife, and volunteers to carry out patrols to ward off poachers. The export of elephants to China angered international animal rights groups, but some local conservationists back government plans to sell off wildlife. Jerry Gotora, a conservationist and former chairman of the parks department, said: ' ''Zimbabwe is facing one of its worst droughts ever, even worse than 1992 when thousands of wildlife were decimated. ''All our national parks are in the driest regions and the biggest question as we experience this drought is 'who is going to feed the wildlife and who is going to give them water?'' About 54,000 of Zimbabwe's 80,000 elephants live in the western Hwange National Park, more than four times the number it is supposed to hold, the agency says. The drought is expected to worsen an already critical water shortage in Hwange, which has no rivers and relies on donors to buy fuel to pump out underground wells. The privately-owned Zimbabwe Independent newspaper reported in February that Bubye Conservancy, a private game park in southern Zimbabwe, could be forced to kill 200 lions to reduce over-population. Many hunters have stayed away, the paper quoted Bubye general manager Blondie Leathem as saying, since the furor over the killing of Cecil, a rare black-maned lion, by a U.S. dentist last year.










China's HNA Group mulls buying Singapore-based logistics company CWT

HNA Group Co, which last month agreed to buy US hotel chain Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, is preparing to spend more than $945 million to buy Singapore-based logistics company CWT Ltd, Bloomberg today reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

The Loi family that controls CWT could enter exclusive talks with HNA as soon as next week, the report said.

In August last year, CWT said that its controlling shareholder, C&P Holdings Pte Ltd, which holds a 32-per cent stake, was conducting a strategic review of its business and assets, which could lead to selling its stake in CWT.

C&P Holdings hired Credit Suisse Group AG and Singapore's DBS Group Holdings Ltd to conduct a strategic review.

C&P Holdings Pte Ltd is run by chairman Loi Kai Meng who in 2004 acquired a controlling stake in CWT. Loi and his family own close to 65 per cent of Singapore Stock Exchange-listed CWT.

CWT currently has a market value of $945 million, but analysts opine that a sale may fetch more than $1.2 billion.

An acquisition of 30 per cent or more stakes would automatically trigger a mandatory offer for the entire company, according to Singapore takeover rules.

Founded in 1970, CWT is Singapore's largest homegrown logistics provider, employing around 6,000 people and generating sales of S$9.9 billion in 2015.

It provides commodity logistics, freight logistics, warehousing services, and defence procurement. It also has a division that specialises in the trading of non-ferrous ores and precious metals.

A Fortune 500 company, HNA has grown from a local aviation transportation operator into a multinational conglomerate encompassing aviation, airport management, financial services, real estate, retail, tourism, and logistics.

The group has assets worth over $90 billion, and has 11 listed companies. In 2015, HNA had revenues of $29 billion and employed nearly 180,000 worldwide.

It has a fleet of over 820 aircrafts, serves nearly 700 domestic and international routes, flies to over 200 cities, and has serves 77.4 million passengers annually.

HNA operates and manages Hainan Airlines, Tianjin Airlines, Deer Jet, Lucky Air, Capital Airlines, West Air, Fuzhou Airlines, Urumqi Air, Beibu Gulf Airlines, Yangtze River Airlines, Guilin Airlines, My CARGO, Africa World Airlines, and Aigle Azur.

It has recently been on an acquisition spree; in April it offered to buy Swiss catering and hospitality company Gategroup for $1.5 billion. Earlier in February it struck a deal in February to buy US electronics distributor Ingram Micro Inc for about $6 billion (See: China's HNA Group to buy US electronics distributor Ingram Micro for $6 bn), and paid $2.73 billion to buy airport luggage handler Swissport International Ltd.

It also is the biggest shareholder in Spanish hotel company NH Hotel Group SA.


India looks to natural gas to reduce its carbon footprint

India is increasingly looking for sources of natural gas to meet its fuel requirements as part of its commitment to reduce carbon emissions by a third by 2030, as a switch to cleaner burning fuels has an important part of this transition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Iran later this month would be a turning point in the country's transition from a mainly oil consuming country to a major consumer of natural gas, petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Iran is likely to award the development rights of its Farzad B gas field and the downstream development of LNG plants for Indian firms, a move that could result in India consuming or marketing its production share.

India, the world's third-biggest oil importer, is both boosting domestic production of natural gas and buying cheap liquefied natural gas (LNG) as it seeks to curb its greenhouse emissions, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

New Delhi has promised to reduce its carbon emissions by a third by 2030, and a switch to cleaner burning fuels is an important part of this.

India recently reworked the terms for a long-term LNG deal with Qatar and the country's main importer of natural gas Petronet LNG is in talks with Exxon for a reduction in the price of gas from Australia's Gorgon project.

"Gradually we are shifting towards a sustainable gas economy," Reuters quoted Pradhan as stating in an interview.

At present, gas forms about 8 per cent of India's energy mix, while oil accounts for more than a quarter.

However, the share of gas is increasing and the country's gas supply deficit is expected to widen from 78 million cubic metres a day (mscmd) this fiscal to 117 mscmd by 2021-22, according to government estimates.

India is now looking for long-term contracts as, under the changing scenario, India could be bigger market for natural gas than the combined European Union.

Pradhan last month visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to deepen ties with its main oil suppliers, in an effort to better integrate the fuel economy.

Pradhan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Iran later this month would "certainly" deliver concrete results.

LNG prices have slumped by three quarters to $4.65 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) and Pradhan expects hefty LNG investments worldwide to ensure affordable long-term prices, a trend that "will suit India as a consuming country."

India is also building import terminals on its eastern and western coasts and pipelines to boost industrial use of gas. In fiscal 2015-16, India's gas production declined by about 4.2 per cent, while imports rose around 15 per cent.


More than 2,000 job seekers and career changers poured into the Abbey Hotel in Donegal town recently to attend the South Donegal Jobs and Career Fair 2016, featuring 40 mainly local employers and 20 education and training programmes.

The fair, co-sponsored by Donegal Local Development Company (DLDC) and the Department of Social Protection (DSP), offered the chance to apply for full- and part-time employment and explore new career directions.

Local employers present had jobs on offer, including health, medical, retail, IT, tourism, hospitality, food, Defence Forces, An Garda Siochana, home help, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical positions.

We made a point of sourcing local employers who actually had jobs available so the fair would be as helpful as it possibly could to participants, Louise Brogan, DLDC employment and enterprise co-ordinator, said. We mixed the employers stands in with those of education and training providers that could assist people entering a new career or upskilling themselves in a current one. There was something there for everybody. One of the many successes of the day was letting people see that its worthwhile to put themselves out there again.

The function room where the fair was held overflowed with people visiting exhibition stands and scrutinising a job wall that listed hundreds of additional employment opportunities across Ireland, the EU, and beyond. There was also assistance with career guidance and CV writing.

Evaluation forms collected during the fair indicated that participants found it very helpful. Much more interesting and more work opportunities than expected; very friendly and helpful staff, one wrote. I have gone home feeling refreshed in my task to find employment, another wrote. Hope this event comes back again soon, it helped me so much, wrote another.

DSPs co-sponsorship reflected the departments expansion in recent years. In addition to providing weekly payments to jobseekers, the department, through its local Intreo centres, offers a range of education, training, and personal development programmes to help jobseekers get back to work, said Anne Curran, DSP case officer for Donegal town.

Intreo Employment Services provide career guidance and resources with access to job vacancies, online CV profiling for employers from Ireland and throughout Europe, and a CV-to-job matching facility at Jobs Ireland. DLDC programmes include services for people who are unemployed, small business/enterprise start-up support, rural transport, community development, training and education, and youth development.

The fair was endorsed by former GAA Manager Jim McGuinness, who said, One of the secrets of achieving your goals is to recognize that it is going to be challenging. The truth is that if you believe you can, you probably can  you just need a plan and to be prepared for some hard work along the way. The Jobs and Career Fair 2016 is a great opportunity to start your plan.
Connecting churches to people in need is Love INCs mission.

The ministry mobilizes local churches, church volunteers and community organizations to transform lives and communities In the Name of Christ. The Wiregrass chapter shared its vision and plans at a kickoff gathering Friday night.

Nancy VanDyken, director of new affiliate development with the national organization, said Love INC helps churches work together to reach out and connect to neighbors who have needs.

We want your local ministry to thrive, she said. The national organization exists solely to equip and resource you so you can thrive in your ministry here.

Barbi Nolan, chairman of Love INC of the Wiregrass  d evelopment b oard , said part of her job as missions coordinator at Covenant United Methodist Church is to help people in need.

I discovered what an overwhelming task that is so I began to look for ways to do it better, and I was able to find the Love INC model, she said.

The development board is transitioning to a governing board and invites churches in Dale, Geneva, Henry and Houston counties to partner with the ministry.

Nolan said the chapter will function as a bridge to connect Christians who want to serve with people who need assistance.

Partner churches refer people in need to the organization, which acts as a clearinghouse where trained staff and volunteers screen requests for help. Needs range from physical and emotional to mental and spiritual.

The organization keeps a database to track assistance that has been given, a real advantage for churches that want to be good stewards of their resources.

Nolan said the goal is to give people a hand up, not a handout.

VanDyken said lives have changed through contacts with Christians.

I have seen a person come to Christ because a Presbyterian delivered a package of toilet paper to her door, VanDyken said.

The womans boyfriend had left in December, but not before ripping out the furnace and throwing it on the front lawn.

She felt rejected by the world, but the churches came around her and cared about her and expressed love, not just a thing you need, VanDyken said.
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.
The Irish ME/CFS Association has arranged for four free screenings of the documentary on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Forgotten Plague at An Tain Theatre on May 17 at 2pm.

Ryan Priors life imploded October 22, 2006 when he was struck down by a disease that dozens of doctors were powerless to diagnose, let alone treat. Against great odds, he becomes a reporter and ventures to tell the story of his suffering and improbable recovery. He is shocked that millions globally remain sidelined by the same disease, many bedridden for decades. Forgotten Plague is a journey into the hidden world of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome).

It is a chilling tale of our medical systems failures in addressing many chronic, complex diseases. Yet it is also a riveting story of sciences remarkable ability to transform medicine and improve human life itself.

Around 12,000 people in Ireland are thought to suffer from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), now often diagnosed under the name Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Symptoms include overwhelming flu-like exhaustion made worse by exertion (physical or mental exertion), muscle and joint pains, sore throats, swollen glands, disturbed sleep, impaired concentration and memory, dizziness and headaches.

This is one of the first public screenings of the documentary in Ireland. All are welcome.
Don't miss the chance to secure one of the last two apartments at Lieutenant House

Quick-off-the-mark home-hunters in Essex can snap up one of the last two apartments remaining for sale at Taylor Wimpeys nearly sold-out Lieutenant House development in Colchester.

These magnificent two-bedroom properties (plots 471 and 472) within this carefully restored historic building are both priced at just 210,000 and represent the final chance to secure a home from this exclusive collection.

Each of the superb apartments at Lieutenant House boasts a fully integrated kitchen, stylish bathroom, under-floor heating and allocated parking, together with a wealth of period features.

The two final apartments for sale both offer an open-plan kitchen/living/dining room, two double bedrooms and a main bathroom.



Michael OLeary, Sales and Marketing Director for Taylor Wimpey East London, says: This is an incredible chance for two lucky purchasers to secure a wonderful refurbished apartment at Lieutenant House, where all the other plots have been snapped up by eager buyers!

Its easy to see why this unique development has been so popular, as each of these amazing homes combines the very best of the existing features of this historic building with the energy efficiency and high specification of a brand new modern property.

Anyone hoping to join the happy customers whove already made Lieutenant House their home should get their skates on, before someone else beats them to their dream home!

Lieutenant House is a unique selection of refurbished apartments situated in a sought-after location in the heart of Colchester, a vibrant historic town which lays claim to being the oldest in Britain.

Nowadays, Colchester boasts a wide variety of amenities for everyday living, including a range of supermarkets and convenience stores, a medical centre, a selection of pubs and restaurants, plus an array of high street shops and cafes in the nearby Lion Walk Shopping Centre.

For leisure opportunities, Colchester boasts several museums including Colchester Castle, which is home to the biggest keep built in the UK and provides opportunities for picturesque walks around the grounds, while Colchester Zoo is just over four miles away from the development.

The town also features a wide selection of schools for children of all ages, including St Johns Green Primary School, which is a short distance from the development and is rated good by Ofsted.

For commuters, the town boasts good road links to Chelmsford, Brentwood and London as well as to Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge and the Midlands, while nearby Colchester Town railway station is located just a short walk from the development and offers regular services to London Liverpool Street.

To stand a chance of snapping up one of the final two apartments at Lieutenant House, property-seekers should visit the Sales and Marketing Suite, located off Mersea Road, Colchester, CO2 7TB, and open Thursday to Monday from 10am to 5.30pm. Alternatively, visit taylorwimpey.co.uk.
Cold Water Ahead!!

The Holly Water-Works a Complete Success!

The remarkable power of water as an agent was well and thoroughly tested last night between 6 and 7 Oclock. Our village has been very fortunate in this enterprise. Fortunate in having a great abundance of water so near at handfortunate in contracting with such a machinist as Mr. Birdsill Holly, and fortunate in employing Wm. G. McMaster as agent in the prosecution of the work. The work has gone on rapidly, and every part of it thus far, has met the most sanguine expectations of its friends. The water thrown last evening perfectly eclipsed anything we ever saw in lofty tumbling of the kind. The first stream thrown, which burst the new hose, was one inch and three-fourths in diameter, and went up full 160 feet high. Hose was attached to three hydrants and a grand competition ensued. The machinery and all the pipe and hydrants of this magnificent work, were manufactured at the Holly Manufacturing Works, under the direction of Mr. Birdsill Holly, patentee of the pump and wheel employed.

The wheel is  Hollys Patent Turbine of 120 horse power. The pump is Hollys Patent Elliptical Rotary Pump. Every four revolutions of the pump throws a barrel of water, and 200 revolutions per minute can be obtained. The water is thrown from the pump through a 10 inch pipe up to Main-st, about 500 feet. The pipe through Main-st, from Cottage-st, to Locust-st, is 8-inch, and each way from those points 6-inch. The lateral pipe in Cottage and Pine south of Main, and Locust-st, are 6-inch.

Test

This was from the double hydrant at the corner of Main and Pine-sts. This hydrant is distant over 500 feet, horizontally, and at an elevation of 53 feet from the pump. The hose attached to the hydrant was 100 feet in length, and water was thrown from that at least 150 feet perpendicular. Two streams were thrown from the same hydrant at least 150 feet perpendicular.

Pressure

The pressure, as shown by the indicator and pressure gauge at the wheel-house, was 372 feet-- -(equal to a reservoir 372 feet high). While the water was being thrown through a 3 inch nozzleat which time the new hose burstone-third of the issues of the wheel (being just one-third of the power) were closed entirely, and then the water-gate was raised so as to produce just about one-half of the power of the wheel and pump. Six streams could then have been thrown with all the force that could be then used to advantage at a fire If the pipes were carried to High-st, then Cottage, Pine and Locust-sts, but little difference would be seen in the pressure at Main and High-sts.

This is not intended as a trial of the capacity of the works.

The regulating apparatus connected with the wheel and pump is reserved for description, say after the finish left on the completion of the work, when Mr. Birdsill Holly will furnish all needful Mr. Hollys contract with the village only required water to be thrown 100 feet high.

The hose which burst was made by Wm. Taylor of Buffalo, one of the best manufacturers in the country. At the time it burst, the pressure of the water in the hose, was full 150 lbs. to the square inch. It will be difficult to get hose to stand the immense force which the power is capable of producingbut it can always be controlled according to the location of the fire.

The apparatus for indicating and regulating the pressure of the water is most ingenious. The wheel, pump and all the machinery, as well as the entire plan, are the inventions of Mr. Holly, and its complete success must be particularly satisfactory to himself and his friends.

We expect this truly great work will be more and more appreciated, as it is further tried and applied in different directions. Lockport moves.



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We learned about the successes and generosity of Washington Hunt last time, but what I truly believe to be his biggest impact on Lockport was the confidence he had in a young machinist from Seneca Falls, NY.Former Governor Hunt, along with his partner, the honorable T.T. Flagler, found a way to lure Birdsill Holly to Lockport, and offered a deal he couldnt refuse. They put Holly in charge of their Sewing Machine Shop on Market Street, and from there, everything else is history. Hollys inventions, and the attention that they drew, led to the development of dozens of other factories and mills here in Lockport, and ultimately lead the Industrial Age of America.As the Erie Canal Enlargement was completed, mile-by- mile, the volume of water arriving into Lockport from Lake Erie was even greater than before. Hollys mind was always tinkering on something new, and in 1860, he immediately began to experiment with the Mill Race waters as they flowed around, and past, the newly completed Benjamin Moore Mill (currently Old City Hall).Holly proposed, and built, what local resident called the Round House, and placed one of his own patented water turbines within it. The force of the waters generated enough mechanical power on his turbine to motorize pumps; pumps he had also been working diligently on. Holly realized that the Mill Race had enough power to actually pressurize water so that he could distribute it virtually anywhere in the village. He would lay pipes to take the water from the Mill Race and send it into homes across town, and modern indoor plumbing was the result.But he wasnt done there, not by a long shot. He had another 150 some patents in his head and ready to go.He then conceived of the idea of placing a hub, or access point to the water, so that in the event of fire, the Fire Department could get the water where they needed it and quickly. In 1864, Birdsill Holly patented his water, or hydro plant, and the very first use of his hydrant would be tested on August 26 th , 1863.At roughly 6 pm, the water turbine within the round house began powering the pumps that drew the water up and out of the Mill Race, through pipes stretching through Old City Hall, and into the first fire hydrant installed at the corner of Main and Pine Streets.Residents knew that something very exciting was about to happen, so they lined the street corners, keeping an eye out for a quick getaway if the experiment went bad.As water reached the hydrant for the first time, the custom made hose held for as long as it could, but then burst under the incredible pressure that the pumps produced.Holly was expecting this possibility, so he had the craftsman make 2 prototypes of the hose. It took only a short time to exchange the hoses, while Holly returned to Old City Hall to make manual adjustments to the pumps. On his return, the water turbine and pumps were fired up again, and that is when and where, every modern Fire Hose Company in the United States, and the world, got their start.The Lockport Daily Journal commented the next day, August 27, 1863:The Holly Manufacturing Company could easily see that they had a winner, and began building an amazing factory at the corners of Lock and Green Streets, just across to the north of the Pine Street Bridge. Hollys men blasted a new tunnel through the solid Lockport Dolomite to supply their turbines with water.Hollys system for water pressurization and fire protection for Cities and Villages drew global attention, and became the benchmark for all populated areas across the developing United States. Buildings named after Holly were sprouting up in cities from Denver to Davenport, and Kansas City to Kalamazoo. Hollys genius was creating a revolution in the existing system of water works, thereby providing protection for not only large scale business, but also for sprawling residential areas, as urban areas grew across the United States.Before this point, all fire departments were limited by the ability to get men, animals, machinery and water to the fire. Pulling a steam boiler to the location of the fire was no longer the most modern option, and a hose could simply be put into action just about anywhere in the city. The Worlds First Hose Company No. 1 was incorporated in 1865, the same year as the City of Lockport.Holly continued to work on bigger and better pumps to circulate water throughout cities, never once stopping to enjoy the successes he had already made. In 1878, the Scientific American Vol. XXXIX  No. 7, highlighted Hollys genius for him, drawing even more attention to the streets of Lockport.Holly also decided that a new system for heating homes in our harsh and uncomfortable winter environment was needed. He developed a steam heating system by first experimenting at his own house on Chestnut, now part of the parking area used by both the Lockport Public Library and the YMCA. He laid pipes underground that eventually spread to many businesses on Market Streets and Main. This highly efficient system gained the attention of another inventor, Thomas Edison, who would actually befriend, and then purchase rights to Hollys genius, and go on to develop a well known consolidated energy company  ConEdison, or ConEd.There are many more people from Lockport that have made huge contributions to the overall well being of the United States  more than you probably know. Back then, factories needed to be close, if not directly adjacent to flowing waters, and Lockport had plenty of it. All of the attention that Holly created also led to even more free-flowing ideas, producing even more revolutionary products, and Lockport essentially became a proving grounds for Industrial America. Once Edisons light bulb and Teslas Alternating Current went mainstream, the waters of Lockport were no longer critical, and industry could virtually set up shop anywhere. Interest in Lockport dwindled.Lockport Heritage Tours wants to bring that interest back. Old City Hall has witnessed Lockports changes and the brilliance of Holly, and much of that story is still being told there. Portions of the machinery that once provided all of Lockport with their water supply, still remains within the solid rock walls of this 1800s mill. In 1893, the City of Lockport took over the mill and was then able to control the cities waters from their own building. The next year, Mr. Holly passed, and the future of Holly Manufacturing Company was in doubt, having lost their spark.Lockport Heritage Tours will be scheduling tours throughout the coming months. If you would like to find out what some of those tours involve, go to www.LockportHeritageTours.comCall (716) 863-6980 to set up your reservations. We look forward to seeing you!
(11:35 AM) Eastern Niagara Hospital (ENH) states that its Emergency Department is no longer on diversion and operations are back to normal at the facility following the apprehension of the potential suspect from this mornings incident.



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East Niagara Hospital-Lockport has resumed normal operations, according to a statement released by the hospital.The statement says:Lockport Police confirmed earlier that one person is being questioned in relation to the incident. Police did not state that the man was a suspect.Early this morning, an armed man robbed the ENH-Lockport emergency room at gunpoint, making off with a "limited number" of prescription drugs. He then reportedly fired two shots from a long gun, although hospital officials say the shots were not fired at the hospital.Lockport police, with the help of the Niagara County Sheriff's Office, New York State Police, and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, locked down the city's east end while they searched for the gunman.
If you are not filled with projections of how things should or could be, thoughts of the past or the...
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Considered to be the Ten Best UFO Photos Ever Taken I am sure that we could add more pictures to this list but these are considered ten o...
Monks visiting Island for Thai New Year Celebrations



Traditional Songkran festival of water celebrations

Thai monks are visiting the Island to take part in celebrations to mark Thai New Year.

Hundreds of people are expected to turn out in Jurby, and at Ashley Hill School, for the two day event.

There'll be authentic food and dancing as well as a water and powder fight in keeping with true Thai tradition - the monks, from Birmingham, will be helping to raise money for their temple.

Tawan lives on the Island and will be celebrating with her friends and family she says everyone is welcome to join in:

Media
Tracks of Change: Railways and Everyday Life in Colonial India by Ritika Prasad; New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2015; pp ix+315, Rs 795, hardback.

The publication of Ritika Prasads (2015b) Tracks of Change: Railways and Everyday Life in Colonial India marks the maturation of a trend present in the historiography of South Asian railways since the turn of the current millennium. This trend has seen some historians give much more attention to the multidimensional ways in which the railways were central to the making of modern India. Some of the new studies mentioned below are in the form of recently completed PhD theses which, I expectbecause they all represent impressive examples of interesting scholarshipto emerge as good books during the next couple of years or so. As an impressive corpus of new research and writing, the books, articles and theses that populate this trend deserve to be labelled a new history of Indias railways.

New in New History?
Razdan, a Kashmiri Pundit forced to flee in 1990, was visiting Rajasthan recently. Surprised that everyone suddenly seems to know their story through news channels, he writes of the questions people ask him and the advice they offer, and how nothing lets him find respite from Kashmir.

I got married in February. Half the marriage functions were held in Jammu where my family is now based post forced eviction from Kashmir in 1990. The other half of the marriage was held in Delhi where my wifes family is based due to the same events of 1990. A Muslim friend from Srinagar who attended my marriage could not help but notice on a sad note this scattering of a Kashmiri community. Chakravun is the exact word used for scatter by all Kashmiris.

Aap logo kay saath accha nahi hua (You people had it rough), the mehendiwalla hired in Jammu chirped while putting henna on hands of an aunt. As often is the case, the mehendiwalla turned out to be a migrant worker from Rajasthan. He then proceeded to prove how well he understood the Kashmiri Pandit story.

Nehru.Jagmohan. 

Most people present were surprised and delighted that people now know the story. Pandits always feel people are oblivious to their story. People asked him how come he knows all this. He gave his source, I saw it on that Zee TV special about pandits of Kashmir. And that video by Anupam Kher. Everyone thanked Anupam Kher for telling their story, as it is.

It was the Hindi television news channels that did the work. I was already having a tough time convincing people that what Anupam Kher is doing with the Kashmiri Pandit story is wrong. It has been conveniently moulded into a handy weapon for communal political ends that in no way redress the genuine issues faced by Kashmiri Pandits. So, where is this weapon getting used, how and why?

A month later, I was in Rajasthan with my wife. In Udaipur, a local shopkeeper guessed from my looks that I was a Kashmiri. He said I looked like the guy who runs the shop next to him. The next shop was of Kashmiri handicrafts and shawls. The two were good friends.

On entering Jodhpur, I could see that a lot of walls had an appeal painted on them, Gow Mata kay hatiyaro ko phansee do (Hang the people who kill the cow).

While leaving the city, I asked the driver to stop for tea. Just outside the city on the way to Jaisalmer, we stopped at a local roadside tea stall. As I ordered tea, a middle-aged man sitting on a plank under a tarpaulin shed called out to me. I turned around to see it was in fact a gathering, a bunch of men with nothing else to do, just sitting and talking. I was going to be the topic. I greeted the man with a smile and walked to them. I sat down and we talked.

Where are you from?

Over the last many years, I have answered this question in a lot of different places all over India. Earlier on hearing Kashmir, conversation would be about Halaat kaisey hai and terrorism. However, since the last few years, conversations are becoming more invasive.

 Dharam. Jaat. Gotra.

Everything was asked.

I am a Kashmiri Pandit.

On hearing the words, what followed was a discourse in which the doctor had finally found the patient about which he had read and studied a lot. The man proceeded to diagnose Kashmir and kept testing my pulse to look for a communal beat. To him,

It was the usual report: Nehru was a dumb idiot, UN was not needed, Brahmins were always weak, Jagmohan saved the Pandits, Muslims cannot be trusted. What they did to you was wrong!

Aap log sadak par aa gaye (You have been reduced to penury)

I could not help pointing out, I was traveling in a car, whereas he was sitting by the roadside.

It was obvious he was performing to an audience that had gathered. He was the local genius who sits under the banyan tree dispensing wisdom. It was the Sangh narrative.

I was not biting. I tried to reason. But, it was as if the man was on some drug.

He offered the medicine.

Modi will get you back. Just see. We are all with you.

I told him Modi was no good for me.

He suggested, Go back. Answer them in same language. Kill your neighbours. Take back your homes.

The narratives in which all Kashmiri Muslims are seen as perpetrators of ethnic cleansing is at work here.

I laughed and asked, You mean everyone?

You cant trust them.

I must have laughed nervously for my driver now intervened as the casual banter was taking a heated turn.

Kya Bakwaas kar rahe ho? (What is this rubbish that you are talking about?)

My driver was a Muslim from Mount Abu. For the entire length of the journey, he only played Muslim religious songs in the car. He had been listening to the sermon silently till now. The man offering the sermon was suddenly aware of the presence of a certain other.

Tum kaha say ho bhai? (Where are you from?)

Ajju Bhai, the driver was not going to play along.

Calcutta say! Tu kya kar lega? Calcutta! What is it to you? Chalo Sir, we have a long distance to cover.

I could not leave without doing a bit of a performance of my own. All that people understand these days is acting.

The secular performance, Log kharab nahi hotey. Halaat hotey hai. People are not bad, time is.

Back in the car, Ajju Bhai explained, These guys are jokers.

These guys?

They are all low caste. Men with too much time and no work. We dont even talk to them. And this is not a good time to discuss such matter.

Ajju Bhai it seems was an expert on Manusmriti. His opinion on caste was another debatable topic, however, I could see the talk at the tea shop has impacted him in a different way. The way it is supposed tocause a little burn. It was no play. He told me that the previous night there had been minor rioting in Jodhpur city. He had been up half the night keeping a vigil in the streets where Muslims live. It all started when head of a cow was reportedly found outside a temple. Soon, a crowd was stoning the Muslim shops. Few men were arrested.

Far away Kashmir was just a fuel in such local stories.

We reached Jaisalmer. I was not looking for a guide. At a tea stall, a man with Sandalwood tilak on his forehead offered to show me the fabled Yellow City. From the talks he seemed like another performer. I hired him. The man selling the tea exclaimed, Kaha say pakad liya! (Where did you find him!)

Ten minutes into the tour, it became obvious that the mans brain is littered with saffron bombs. Explaining the Gadisar lake, he reached Israel and claimed Jews are actually Hindus too.

Where are you from? Dharam. Jaat. Gotra.

When I gave him the answers, he pulled out a rudraksha necklace from around his neck and claimed to be a first class Brahmin.

The usual narrative started, Nehru idiot

Purohit, the guide, claimed to be a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) worker having worked for them for more than 15 years. The delight of being part of a secret group reflected like a glint in his eyes.

Caste has weakened Hinduism. I dont believe in it. We believe in Sanatan Dharam.

I asked him if he was okay with a Brahmin marrying outside the caste. He evaded the question, continued to prove Yahoods were actually Yadavs, so part of Sanatan Dharam.

Theres a small ill-maintained crafts museum just next to the lake. The guide thundered how Indians neglect history. He claimed Muslim fakirs had predicted the fall of Hindu empire in Rajasthan; how foreigners will walk like bulls in its streets. I looked around and saw a foreign tourist was keenly trying to make sense of the sermon. The guide claimed the local VHP unit works closely with the intelligence unit of the state, reporting on smugglers and other threats. He believed he had some power. He believed he could put a spell on politicians and make them lose. I will give them all cancer.

We reached a square in the fort city, he exclaimed out aloud, Make way! This here is an intelligence agent from Kashmir.

I could not help but chuckle at his antics. In Kashmir, in certain circles, a Kashmiri Pandit was and is always an intelligence agent.

Aap logo kay saath acha nahi hua (Whatever happened to you guys, wasnt right)

Again, I could see who the audience of Kashmiri Pandit story was. Where the daggers were getting sharpened.

We reached the top of the fort. Purohit climbed on top of a view point next to a rusty cannon and pointed out at a Haveli the owner of which in old days had molested an entire Brahmin village. He turned around and claimed theres only one real hero in IndiaNathuram Godse. He screamed it at the top of his lung.

He showed me the Jain temple inside the fort city. Proudly he pointed out the Ganesh inside the Jain temple. With a sly nudge he pointed out the stones in Kamasutra pose. Then insisted I visit the old Hindu temple too.

On the way down he claimed to be a Kabirpanthi. I told him I did not know that Kabirpanthis were also members of VHP. I left the thread, did not want to offend Kabir.

Outside the shop, Ajju Bhai caught up with us. Purohits language changed. He and Ajju Bhai got along well. I told them to drop me and my wife at the famous Bhang Shop. Ajju Bhai was a little annoyed. He only believed in Zarda. Purohit proceeded to sing a hindi paean about the benefit of Bhang. I could not understand it. They laughed.

We left Jaisalmer and headed back for Udaipur via Barmer. It was late at night when we stopped again for tea. I was hungry and asked if anything could be had. He had only tea to offer. I noticed a 786 in the shop name. Ajju Bhai probably noticed it too. His language changed. He now talked with a heavy tinge of Urdu with the shop owner. As if to tell the owner that he is a Muslim too. The owner of teashop was from Gujarat. He used to work in the diamond industry but due to heavy loss in business had to leave everything. He was starting over again. I could see, behind the shop he had setup a little house. His infant child was in a makeshift cradle. His wife, head and face all covered, walked out to us with a big plate of papaya.

How much for the papaya?

No charge for that. You asked for food. We had nothing. Just this papaya. We offered you half.

In house of a dispossessed man, I finally found some respite from Kashmir.
In California, it is a time of choosing for individuals, families, and the medical sector. Will doctors prescribe poison to their terminally ill patients, if asked? Will hospitals allow patients to commit suicides on premises?

If asked, will people attend the suicides of their ill loved ones, thus validating their worst fears and becoming morally complicit by their own participation?

I have urged an across-the-board policy of total non-cooperation. Assisted suicide may be legal, but no one can (yet) be made to participate in it.

Now, a courageous hospital appears on the verge of declaring itself an assisted suicide free zone. From the L.A. Times story:

Medical leaders at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena voted behind closed doors this week for the facilitys hundreds of doctors and affiliated personnel to opt out of Californias assisted suicide law, which goes into effect June 9. If the proposed amendment to the hospitals medical rules is approved by the board of directors this month, Huntington will become one of the largest non-religious medical institutions statewide to turn its back on a law that Governor Jerry Brown called a comfort to anyone dying in prolonged and excruciating pain.

Did you catch the reporters bias? Data from Oregon, Washington, Netherlands, Belgium, etc., all show that people do not commit assisted suicide due to prolonged and excruciating pain, but out of existential fears about being a burden, losing dignity, etc.

These are crucial issues that demand a compassionate response from caregivers, focused on suicide prevention. Such a response is cruelly denied to most patients who ask for assisted suicide.

More to the point of total non-cooperation: Assisted suicide isnt just about the patient who wants to die.

It is about our individual and collective response to their despair.

It is about the adverse impact on culture and our view of the importance of human life, reflected in the fall off the vertical moral cliff seen in Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland.

It is about the impact on other seriously ill patients, likewise struggling with existential terrors, who could be dragged down by the suicide taking place down the hall or across the street.

It is about whether we will surrender to the culture of death or peacefully resist with every ounce of our being.

The culture of death brooks no dissent. This L.A. Times article is intended to ratchet up the pressure on the hospital  because it is secular  to yield to the suicide agenda.

I just hope its board of directors will stay true to medicines Hippocratic calling and keep their nerve.

Cross-posted at The Corner.

Image:  2016 GraphicStock.com.
Would an objective individual, familiar with the history of evolutionary theory, perceive the idea as religiously neutral? As I discussed here in the context of a newly published law review article, this is a question that courts have not asked  even though they evaluate the religious associations of alternative scientific theories.

In the article, Darwins Poisoned Tree: Atheistic Advocacy and the Constitutionality of Teaching Evolution in Public Schools, Casey Luskin examines the way courts have struck down the teaching of alternatives to evolution in public schools because of their historical associations with religion. At the same time, courts typically ignore the anti-religious historical associations of Darwinism. As Luskin documents, the result is a double standard. He argues that religious associations of scientific views on origins science should be considered not constitutionally fatal, but rather as an incidental effect.

In a section that spans an impressive 76 pages with 380+ footnotes, Luskin documents numerous historical associations between anti-religious thought and activism, on one hand, and evolution on the other. Darwin and his contemporaries pointed out those connections, as have prominent scientists down to today, echoed by the popular media and atheists, including the modern New Atheist movement. Here is a small sampling of the evidence Luskin provides.

From the beginning of the ideas history, evolution has been linked to atheism:

Historian and legal scholar Edward J. Larson writes that prior to Darwin the doctrine of special creation had dominated Western biological thought. But even early evolutionary ideas had anti-religious associations. As historian Peter Bowler explains, pre-Darwinian formulations of evolution, such as Lamarckism, were firmly linked to materialism, atheism, and radical politics. After the publication of Darwins Origin of Species in 1859, the link between anti-religious activities and evolution became stronger. Larson observes that [b]y replacing a divine Creator with a survival-of-the-fittest process as the immediate designer of species, Darwins theory undermined natural theology. Physicist Taner Edis explains that [e]volutionary theory immediately caused religious turmoil. Richard Dawkins applauds this intellectual shift, noting that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.

A spokesperson for the National Center for Science Education once glibly asserted that if Dawkins didnt exist, [ID proponents] would invent him anyway. Yet, Luskin writes, innumerable other examples could be given of scientists and academics who similarly use evolution to oppose religion. For example:

In 2006, 49 scientists (mostly biologists) from the University of Virginia wrote en masse that [n]ot only does evolution clash with religious dogma, but it undermines the significance that some would like to give to the place of humans in the universe. The following month, the eminent evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne from the University of Chicago discussed evolution education on NBCs Today show, declaring that [t]he scientific way of looking at the world, which depends on evidence, and the religious way of looking at the world, which depends on faith, are fundamentally incompatible. Later that year, Time magazine reported in an article discussing evolution that the antireligion position is being promoted with increasing insistence by scientists

Luskin quotes University of North Carolina at Charlotte anthropologist Jonathan Marks who observes that cultural conflicts between science and religion are as much the result of scientists making anti-religious statements in the name of evolution as they are anything else. Marks wrote:

Evolution provides the most empirically valid explanation that we have for the present existence of life. Period. But why should it really matter whether we are descended from arboreal hairy primates or not?The reason it matters to so many people is that scientists have made it matter, and theyve done so in the worst possible way. Theyve taken a proposition  We are descended from apes  and stretched it into a series of additional propositions, often both authoritative and odious. Thirty years ago, in a widely read scientific-philosophical work called Chance and Necessity, the French molecular biologist Jacques Monod argued that evolution shows life to be meaningless.

After citing many scholars who note that Darwins ideas have been historically used to oppose religion, Luskin writes:

Peter Bowler contends that Huxleys enthusiasm for evolution was motivated by a desire to pose a challenge to religion . . . based upon the desire to present science as a source of authority to supplant the church. Many beyond Huxley shared this motive, as Bowler observes that in the decades following Darwin, [o]pponents of religion openly rejoiced at the prospect of replacing ancient superstition with a philosophy based on a scientific understanding of human nature. By the 1909 celebration of the publication of Origin of Species, Marsha L. Richmond explains that for many of the attendees, Darwinism connote[d] a certain naturalistic and materialistic worldview During this period, evolution was widely perceived as a component of the rationalist campaign against organized religion. The perception that evolution opposed religion was becoming crystallized within society, as the warfare model became [d]eeply embedded in the culture of the west, [and] has proven extremely hard to dislodge. Taner Edis suggests that the decades following Darwins work into the early twentieth century were a golden age of nonbelief. After the Scopes trial of 1925, the controversy over evolution died down as both sides entered a thirty-year truce. The controversy was revived in 1959 when prominent evolutionists gathered at the University of Chicago to celebrate the centennial of the publication of Origin of Species in what has been called the pinnacle of Americas acceptance of Darwinian thought. Julian Huxley, the grandson of T. H. Huxley, proclaimed  at the centennial of Origin of Species that evolution spelled the death of religion: In the evolutionary pattern of thought there is no longer either need or room for the supernatural. The earth was not created: it evolved. So did all the animals and plants that inhabit it, including our human selves, mind and soul as well as brain and body. So did religion  Evolutionary man can no longer take refuge from his loneliness in the arms of a divinized father figure whom he himself created, nor escape from the responsibility of making decisions by sheltering under the umbrella of Divine Authority, nor absolve himself from the hard task of meeting his present problems by relying on the will of an omniscient but unfortunately inscrutable Providence. Peter Bowler explains that soon thereafter, the modern creationist movement began as a response to anti-religious evolution advocacy: The more materialistic implications of Darwins thinking became widely accepted only in the twentieth century, when biologists at last became convinced that natural selection was the driving force of evolution. As scientists began to insist that we must learn to live with the idea that we are the products of a purposeless, and hence, morally neutral natural world, so the modern creationist backlash began.

Courts love to blame any tensions between evolution and religion on religious persons. But Luskin notes that even Francis Collins  a leading biologist, who is deeply religious and an evolutionist  has observed these tensions result not necessarily from the religious community but from atheists in the scientific community who have aggressively used science to attack religion. Collins says:

I dont think its fair to blame believers for getting defensive about attacks on the Bible when they see their whole belief system is under attack from some members of the scientific community who are using the platform of science to say, We dont need God anymore, that was all superstition, and you guys should get over it. Believers then feel some requirement to respond, and this has led to an unfortunate escalation of charges and countercharges.

Other prominent theistic evolutionists admit that many leading scientists promote a cultural perception that evolution is hostile to religion. Luskin writes:

Also in 2002, pro-evolution physicist Karl Giberson and historian Donald Yerxa discussed the anti-religious agenda of a small but influential cadre of leading scientific writers who expound on Darwin to the public. [T]here is not a single leading popularizer of science who openly holds traditional religious views, and there are very few who hold any views that could be described as religious, write Giberson and Yerxa. Many of these writers are positively hostile to traditional religion and committed to demonstrating that science not only fails to corroborate any religious perspectives, but can actually dismantle and refute any religious perspective on the world.

Many prominent modern scientists affiliated with evolutionary viewpoints continue to reject theism:

Surveys and reports on the affiliations and viewpoints of leading scientists suggest that many of them view evolution as antithetical to religion. At the time of a 1996 survey, as at the turn of the century, about 40% of scientists believed in God, but a related study of NAS (National Academy of Sciences) scientists found near universal rejection of the transcendent by NAS natural scientists. This was particularly acute [with] NAS biologists, where only 5.6% believed in God. The authors contrasted the statements of NAS booklets on science and creationism and the realities of NAS membership: The [NAS Science and Creationism] booklet assures readers, Whether God exists or not is a question about which science is neutral. NAS President Bruce Alberts said: There are many outstanding members of this academy who are religious people who believe in evolution, many of them biologists. Our survey suggests otherwise. Richard Dawkins reports that the Fellows of the Royal Society of London were polled on their religious beliefs. Of those that responded to the poll, only 3.3% agreed strongly with the statement that a personal god exists while 78.8% strongly disagreed. Dawkins commented that, [w]hat is remarkable is the polar opposition between the religiosity of the American public at large and the atheism of the intellectual elite. The results of the poll cited by Dawkins were confirmed by a poll conducted by William Provine and Gregory Graffin, published in The Scientist. Provine and Graffin surveyed 149 leading evolutionary biologists and found that 78% were pure naturalists, and strikingly, [o]nly two out of 149 described themselves as full theists.

Similarly, biology textbooks describe evolution in ways that further public perceptions associating evolution with anti-religious views. They have often described evolution as unguided and random, and several go so far as to explicitly demean the spiritual realm. Douglas Futuyma notes in his college textbook Evolutionary Biology, By coupling undirected, purposeless variation to the blind, uncaring process of natural selection, Darwin made theological or spiritual explanations of life superfluous. Luskin notes that one of Kenneth Millers textbooks leaves readers with a starkly anti-theistic passage on the implications of evolution:

Darwin knew that accepting his theory required believing in philosophical materialism, the conviction that matter is the stuff of all existence and that all mental and spiritual phenomena are its by-products. Darwinian evolution was not only purposeless but also heartless  a process in which the rigors of nature ruthlessly eliminate the unfit. Suddenly, humanity was reduced to just one more species in a world that cared nothing for us. The great human mind was no more than a mass of evolving neurons. Worst of all, there was no divine plan to guide us.

Furthermore, atheistic organizations openly advocate for evolution. As one example, Luskin writes:

Taner Edis says, [I]n the United States, there is a recent movement to celebrate February 12, Darwins birthday, as Darwin Day. This event is supported largely by humanist, free-thought, and atheist-oriented groups, using slogans of science and humanity. Naturally, the scientific community responds positively, treating it as a public outreach.

Popular media repeats these anti-religious associations with evolution  from the well-known Inherit the Wind to the TV series Cosmos, whose first edition featured Carl Sagan, and second Neil deGrasse Tyson. Millions of people watched these series, which promoted the public perception that an evolutionary viewpoint opposes religion. Luskin observes:

One of the main spokespersons for science in the late 20th century, Carl Sagan, was a prolific expositor of science to the public. One of his most famous statements is from his book Cosmos and the eponymous 1980 television series watched by millions where Sagan promotes evolution and proclaims, the Cosmos is all that there is or ever was or ever will be. The exact same statement  the Cosmos is all that there is or ever was or ever will be  was repeated in the opening scene of the 2014 reboot of Cosmos which aired on Fox. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, the seriess host, strongly promotes evolution, explaining that life is the result of unguided and mindless evolution. Knowing Tysons personal views, this is unsurprising. Bill Moyers described Tyson as the unabashed defender of knowledge over superstition and clearly the rightful heir to Carl Sagans curiosity and charisma. When asked by Moyers whether faith and reason are compatible, Tyson answered, I dont think theyre reconcilable, and later stated, God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance. Other creators of the 2014 edition of Cosmos expressed their desire to use the series to attack what they view as religion. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times titled Seth MacFarlane Hopes Cosmos Counteracts Junk Science, Creationism, executive producer MacFarlane acknowledged the series intent to oppose a resurgence of creationism and intelligent design quote-unquote theory. Elsewhere MacFarlane has stated, There have to be people who are vocal about the advancement of knowledge over faith.

Luskin notes that another executive producer of Cosmos, Star Trek writer Brannon Braga, is vocal about atheism, and its role, not only in Star Trek, but in Cosmos, stating that he anticipated Cosmos would oppose the dark forces of irrational thinking, as religion doesnt own awe and mystery. Science does it better.

Luskin goes into much more depth in his article, documenting links between evolution and atheistic advocacy. Since the inception of the theory, many have coupled evolution with anti-religious rhetoric. Yet courts ignore these connections  while at the same time declaring alternative theories are unconstitutional to teach because of their religious associations.

In the next post, I will address how Luskin recommends courts respond to connections between atheism and evolution advocacy: not by declaring evolution unconstitutional to teach in public schools, but by reevaluating tests that examine the religious or anti-religious associations of origins science theories.

Photo: Atheist pin badges, by {{{1}}} (Flickr: Pin Badges) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
Yan took over the responsibility from Zhang Hai Ming as he retired on 1 May 2016

Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company Limited (AsiaSat) has announced the appointment of Zhang Yan as its new Vice President, China, took over the responsibility of Zhang Hai Ming as he retired on 1 May 2016.

Yan started working with AsiaSat in 2008 as the Chief Representative of AsiaSat Beijing Office and General Manager of CITICSat, AsiaSats partner in China. She will assume all responsibilities previously held by Ming, and lead the team to continue to serve existing customers and develop new business in the China market. She will also maintain our close working relationship with CITICSat, who holds the exclusive right to market AsiaSats transponder capacity in China. Ming will take on a consultancy role to continue to serve AsiaSat.

William Wade, President and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaSat said, We welcome Zhang Yan to an expanding role to grow our business and enhance our customer services in China. Over the past years, Zhang Yan has made considerable contributions to our satellite business in China, notably our recent successful re-entry into the video market there. I trust Zhang Yans strong leadership, along with her wealth of expertise, marketing and customer service experience will lead our strong China team to new heights.

He added, On behalf of AsiaSat, I would like to thank Hai Ming for his years of dedicated service and the significant contribution he has made to our Company. I am pleased that Hai Ming is assuming a new consultancy role and will be working closely with Zhang Yan to ensure a seamless handover.

Yan has over 22 years of experience in the satellite industry with various management positions, covering areas in engineering, sales and marketing. Prior to joining AsiaSat, she worked for a satellite operator for more than 15 years. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, majoring in Image Transmission and Processing, and an Executive Masters Degree in Business Administration, both from Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications.

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Revenue at racy mens magazine Maxim slid 55 percent in the first quarter, the first year-over-year drop in sales since San Antonio businessman Sardar Biglari bought the publication in the first quarter of 2014.

The startling drop in revenue from $5.4 million a year ago to $2.4 million in the first quarter shows that Biglaris bold remake of the New York-based Maxim is rocky at best.

He offset falling revenue by slashing administrative and other costs from $11.3 million in the first three months of last year to $5.9 million during the first quarter, narrowing the magazines loss to $2.2 million from $3.9 million in the prior year.

Maxims loss pulled down the combined performance of Biglari Holdings Inc.s operating businesses, which include the Steak n Shake restaurant chain and other businesses. The San Antonio companys net income from its operating businesses was $4.2 million, compared with $164,000 last year.

Chairman and CEO Biglari reiterated in a February letter to shareholders that Maxim would become profitable by late this year.

We have taken the risk on the belief that the probability for gain in value more than justifies the risk of loss, the company said in a regulatory filing Friday.

Although Biglari Holdings repeatedly has said that its businesses are best analyzed before the impact of investment gains, its overall results were propelled by $79 million in unrealized investment partnership gains, up from $23 million a year ago.

The company holds a $857.3 million investment in the Lion Fund partnerships, private funds managed by Biglari. Through the Lion Fund, Biglari Holdings has a nearly 20 percent stake in Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.

The holding company earned $51.2 million, or $41.16 a share, on $208.2 million in revenue in the three months ended March 31.

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By comparison, it earned almost $10 million, or $5.36 a share, on $205.8 million in revenue in the same period last year.

Biglari doesnt discuss the companys quarterly results with analysts.

The restaurant chains Steak n Shake and Western Sizzlin produced $5.5 million in profit on $200.3 million in revenue in the first quarter compared. They earned $3.6 million on $196.7 million in revenue a year ago.

pdanner@express-news.net

Twitter: @AlamoPD
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Sumner Redstone testified that he kicked his ex-girlfriend out of his mansion and ended her role as his health care agent because she stole his money and lied to him. The judge hearing Redstones mental competency case appeared to side with the aging media mogul.

Redstone, 92, the controlling shareholder of CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc., used profanities to describe Manuela Herzer in recorded testimony for a trial that began Friday. He said he wanted her out of my life, according to a transcript, and indicated he wanted his daughter, Shari Redstone, to make his end-of-life health care decisions instead.

After watching the videotaped testimony, given by Redstone with the help of an interpreter, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Cowan gave the lawyers a sense of how hes likely to rule.

He told me now, as best as he can, what he wants, Cowan said to Herzers attorney Pierce ODonnell. Thats strong evidence. I want to know why this testimony should not be respected. Your burden is a hard one.

Redstones testimony was played for the judge at the opening of a trial to determine whether he was mentally competent in October, when he threw Herzer out of his home and ended her oversight of his medical care. Besides exposing his frailty, including difficulty speaking and eating, the case spotlights Redstones fraught relations with his family and the millions hes lavished on women around him.

The verdict could set in motion a chain of events in which Redstone loses control of Viacom and CBS, media giants worth $42 billion. While Redstone stepped down as chairman of both in February, he still holds majority voting rights through a family holding company, National Amusements Inc. If hes found incompetent, NAIs board, including Shari and Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman, might step in.

The parade of witnesses set to testify about Redstones mental health and the alleged plotting and scheming by those around him include ex-girlfriends, geriatric psychiatrists and Redstones own nurses. Others will include Shari, with whom he has had a rocky relationship, a granddaughter who claims Redstone needs court protection from his own daughter, and Dauman.

The deposition of Redstone, taken Thursday, lasted 18 minutes. Redstones trouble speaking was evident. He was asked to speak louder and spell words that he struggled with. The interpreter asked for his dentures to be adjusted, according to the transcript. The videotape was played for the judge with the courtroom closed to the public.

Redstone said he once called Herzer the love of his life, but no longer holds those feelings. He said he has been seeing his family lately, felt good about it and is satisfied with the nursing care he is receiving. He didnt respond when asked the last time he saw his granddaughter Keryn.

In his opening argument, ODonnell, Herzers attorney, said Redstone was unable to answer the simplest questions and didnt know when hed last seen his granddaughter. ODonnell said Redstones daughter Shari had orchestrated a palace coup to get rid of Herzer, surrounding him in a circle of deceit with nurses and staff who spied on the daughters behalf.

It was anguishing to watch and painful to hear, ODonnell said of Redstones testimony. Herzer didnt steal from Redstone, he said.

Robert Klieger, an attorney for Redstone, said his client doesnt tolerate lies and needs to trust the people around him. According to Klieger, nobody questioned Redstones mental capacity when he threw out Sydney Holland, another former girlfriend, and then removed her from his health care directive about five weeks earlier.

He obsesses about women, Klieger said.

According to Klieger, Herzer lied to Redstone about two other women he wanted to see, Holland and Terry Holbrook. She tricked him into leaving voicemails on her number when he thought he was calling Holbrook and created fake letters from Holland. When Redstone found out about the lies, he threw her out, the lawyer said.

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In all, according to the lawyers, Redstone gave about $150 million to Herzer and Holland. They were the primary beneficiaries of his trust and exercised virtually unfettered control over his money. Redstone is worth about $4.5 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Redstone plans to seek to recover the $150 million from the two, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified.

Redstone displays symptoms of dementia, according to Stephen Read, a physician hired by Herzer to examine him. During his exam, Redstone wasnt able to point out a red star on a board with colored symbols, pointing instead to a green square, Read said.

Anger emerges quickly and readily, short-circuiting everything else, Read testified Friday.

Read said Redstone didnt have the mental capacity to understand the consequences of his actions when he removed Herzer as his health care agent. Hes also extremely vulnerable to undue influence, according to Read.

According to Read, Redstone told him during his examination that Herzer stole $40 million but he wasnt able to elaborate. Redstone acknowledged his money was managed by responsible people in Boston, according to Read.
The Southside Independent School District has become the third in Bexar County to be investigated by the Texas Education Agency this school year.

The TEA confirmed Friday that it has opened a special accreditation investigation into Southside, prompted by multiple complaints, agency spokeswoman Lauren Callahan said. She declined to give more specifics. The TEA has also conducted recent investigations in the Edgewood and South San ISDs. Its a relatively rare step; Callahan said there have been only six investigations started statewide since Jan. 1, including Edgewood and Southside.

Community members who call on the TEA for help should be praised, said District 4 City Councilman Rey Saldana, who has been involved in efforts to improve South San.

It is about the school governance, and somehow San Antonio being an area in which school governance has been at the bottom of the barrel for too long, Saldana said. Im certain that Dallas and Houston and Austin have the same challenges, but if were getting the attention and its going to make us better, then I welcome it.

Shauna Offield, the districts former human resources director, said one of the complaints against Southside was filed in October by a former employee whom Offield declined to name. Offield said she contributed information for the former employees complaint, which contained allegations similar to those Offield made in a federal lawsuit, namely that the new board majority elected a year ago demoted or terminated employees who did not support them politically.

In response to a request from the San Antonio Express-News for records of terminations, demotions or reassignments, Southside provided records of 21 employee reassignments as of April 20, dating back to the new boards takeover last year. In some cases, the reassignments meant reductions in pay, but some letters said the pay cuts would not take effect for a year as a transition. The district did not provide copies of two other reassignment letters and two termination letters, citing litigation.

TEA investigators will conduct interviews May 17 and 18, said Kenneth Bouldin, vice president of Southsides board of trustees. Bouldin and Offield both said the TEA planned to interview them.

Bouldin characterized personnel issues as the biggest problem the members of the board majority have faced since they were elected  trying to ensure that we have the proper people in the proper places and that the work is being done, he said. We were just trying to make sure that there was accountability.

Julian Gonzales, board president, said he was not made aware of any complaints filed with the TEA concerning Southside until the districts attorney called earlier this week to inform him of the investigation. He said Southside is still trying to straighten out internal issues, but he declined to elaborate.

Im still puzzled, but theyre welcome, because I believe they will be a lot of help, he said.

Through spokeswoman Sylvia Rincon, Southside administrators declined to comment Friday. Joint interim Superintendents Melonie Iglehart-Hammons and Mary Bandy are leading the district until Mark Eads, formerly of San Marcos Consolidated ISD, takes over Monday as superintendent. Eads also declined to comment Friday.

Eads will be the sixth person to lead the district, either as superintendent or interim superintendent, in three years.

A board majority elected in 2013 fired then-Superintendent Juan Jasso, choosing as his successor Ricardo Vela, a former business manager who did not have superintendent certification and had never been a teacher. Two years later, the current board majority swept into power, pushing Vela out and replacing him with Joe Gonzales, who had been chief of staff and deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction. While Gonzales, who is not related to the board president, was the lone finalist for the job of superintendent, the board suspended him. Trustees cited an audit that showed improper hiring practices, including contracts with Joe Gonzales wife and son. The board voted Thursday to pursue a settlement with Joe Gonzales.

In federal lawsuits, Offield and other current and former employees claim that Southside trustees have a history of targeting district workers who failed to support whichever faction came to power with each new election. The lawsuits allege that other employees are demoted to make room for each new factions friends and relatives.

TEAs investigations into South San and Edgewood have been completed; the agency issued a corrective action plan for South San in November after investigating for more than two years and then appointed a conservator in February, claiming the district wasnt following the plan. In Edgewoods case, the TEA decided to lower its accreditation status and appoint a board of managers and a superintendent.

State Sen. Carlos Uresti, a Democrat representing District 19, including part of Southside, said he trusted the TEA to ensure that runaway school boards are not detracting from student learning.

There are many great and well-intentioned school board members in Bexar County, and they all share the philosophy that the duty of an elected board member does not extend to micro-managing the day-to-day operations of their respective district, Uresti wrote in a statement. Unfortunately, there are some board members who overstep the authority weve trusted in them, or fail to act in the best interest of our kids.

amalik@express-news.net
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AUSTIN  The crew restoring the Capitols windows found an unexpected piece of journalism history nestled between one of the buildings second floor window frames and granite wall: fragments of the July 15, 1934, Sunday morning edition of the San Antonio Express.

The paper fragments were turned over to the State Preservation Board where they are being examined. Chris Currens, director of special projects for the board, said the newspaper was likely used as a backing of sort to hold mortar in place while it dried.

That how it stayed there for 80 years, Currens said.

Upon finding the bunched up paper earlier this month, Leslie Faber, project manager for Phoenix 1 Restoration and Construction, the company heading the restoration efforts, said her crew came and found her, telling her to take a look. The group, after taking a couple of photos, bagged it up and turned it over to the preservation board, but not before Faber had a chance to check out the almost 80-year-old fragments herself.

When they brought it down to me, I did, I kind of tried to piece the headline together, Faber said. Thats how I realized it was the San Antonio Express and the date.

Faber and her crew are working to restore and preserve the historic buildings windows. The process started in this past December and is expected to end Oct. 1. This is the first artifact theyve found on this project.

From what she could tell, most of the stories were normal news, but Faber said one story in particular about Hitler gaining strength in Germany caught her eye.

There wasnt a whole lot that I could read but that was kind of the gist, Faber said.

Other headlines include Geologist Die[s] Of Hurts Inflicted By Mountain Lion: Succumbs Before Relating What Happens, Fisherman Has Chance To Survive Snakebite, and 11 Convicts Freed. The largest headline is just a partial reading General Strike, with most of the other words lost to time.

Kevin Koch, architect and project manager for the State Preservation Board, said finds like this nowadays are pretty uncommon at the Capitol, especially since the building went through a major restoration project in the early 90s, where much of the interior was restored. The current project focuses on the exterior of the building.

Koch said its a tradition for masons to hide small items while building for others to find in the future, though he said this particular newspaper was placed for constructional purposes. In the past, newspaper articles, post cards, a pair of womens gloves and a diary were found hidden in the Capitols infrastructure.

To find something old in there now is pretty rare, just because of the level of restoration that has been done, Koch said.

The board sent the paper fragments to Cheryl Carrabba, a senior conservator at Carrabba Conservation, based in Austin. Carrabba said with newspapers like this one, she typically gives the paper a water bath  with chemicals added to help with preservation  that cleans the paper and then repairs breaks and tears, establishing a complete sheet held together by fine pieces of repair tissue and starch paste.

Newspapers are sort of the least stable paper, because its wood-based, Carrabba said. They have to be treated as theyre almost at the end of their life. Even the day newsprint comes out, its really meant for 24 hours, so when it lasts a long time, its a miracle.

Cost will determine whether or not the board goes through with the conservation process, Currens said.

The biggest thing for us is, everybody was pretty excited about finding it, Faber said. And everybody wanted to see it, and everybody wanted to see, can you read it, what are the articles about? Its a very interesting find. Its not something that I would say is completely out of the normal, but it doesnt matter. Whenever you find something like that, its exciting.

Ali James, State Preservation Board curator, said the paper will likely be presented online and may be shown at the Capitol Visitors Center.

eleanordearman@express-news.net
AUSTIN  Two former presidents named Bush have said never. So have high-profile Republicans such as John McCain and Mitt Romney. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan is not yet on board.

So when former Texas Gov. Rick Perry quickly went all in for Donald Trump this week, just months after calling the New York real estate tycoon a cancer on conservative politics, his words were met with immediate disbelief, especially because he had endorsed and campaigned for Trumps nemesis, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. More than just an endorsement, Perry even offered himself up as Trumps running mate and said he would campaign for him.

On Friday, Perry insisted that no one should be surprised. Its just politics, he said.

If you recall back in 2011, 2012, I probably said some harsh things about Mitt Romney, Perry said of his first of two unsuccessful runs for the GOP presidential nomination. He said some harsh things about me. We are competitors, so the rhetoric is the heat of battle. Its in the chaos of the presidential bid. ... If one doesnt understand that, then they dont understand how our process of elections works. We compete and then we let bygones be bygones.

So, he really didnt believe what he trash-talked about Trump before?

As late as this last week ... I said hes one of the most talented people Ive ever seen. He knows how to market. He knows how to brand. Hes vanquished 16 pretty capable men and women, Perry said. So, from the standpoint of his being capable to lead, to have the vision to take this country forward, I think its important to have a president who understands economically how to move this country forward and how to build our military back up  an individual who knows how to govern.

I think thats the most important trait that (Trump) will have to exhibit, he added. That has yet to be seen, but I feel comfortable that he will continue to do that.

As Texas Republicans pondered whether they could support the billionaire developer or sit out the November election, some clearly were not in agreement with Perry and other party luminaries such as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick who have signed on to support Trump.

No way, no how, said Paul Anders, a GOP tea party activist in Houston who had supported Cruz. For me, this campaign has always been about principle. How can I give up those principles and vote for someone, Trump, who doesnt share them? Ill sit it out.

Like others, Anders said he plans to work to cinch up conservative planks in the state and national Republican platforms that Cruz had advocated, just as other Cruz delegates have announced since Tuesday, when the senator and tea party hero dropped his presidential campaign after a crushing defeat by Trump in Indiana.

Trump supporters were making much the same pitch, insisting that Perrys flip-flop on Trump shows what this election is all about and why Trump has been winning.

Politicians stand for one thing one day and another thing the next day, and thats what a lot of Americans are so sick of, said Butch Coburn, a transportation services broker in Cedar Park, an Austin suburb. The longer this campaign goes on, the political class thats ruining this country is showing their true colors now. Thats why Donald Trump will win in November.

Patrick, who became the first statewide elected Republican to endorse Trump after his Indiana win, said that while he had supported Cruz as his Texas campaign chairman and had campaigned for him in other states, it was time for all Republicans to get behind Trump when it became clear he would be the GOP nominee.

I think Donald Trump can beat Hillary (Clinton), he said. The key now is for Republicans to come together and get behind Donald Trump.

Gov. Greg Abbott, also a staunch Cruz supporter, said much the same thing in a Facebook post, without mentioning Trump by name. He referred only to the presumptive GOP nominee.

Other Republican officeholders across Texas have done the same, if they have mentioned Trump at all. The reason, Austin political insiders say, is that many of them in down-ballot races fear that having Trump at the top of the GOP ticket in November could endanger their re-election chances.

Trump and his negatives are very clearly going to be a drag on down-ballot Republicans across the country, said Mark Jones, a Rice University political science professor. Incumbents in those races are between a rock and a hard place: If they dont support Trump, that could hurt them. And if they do, they may feel they run the risk of tanking the image of the Republican Party. For many of them, Trump is an anathema for everything they stand for.

Much the same dilemma faced Democrats on a national level in 1972, when ultraliberal George McGovern won the partys nomination, and Republicans in 1964, when archconservative Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination. Both were trounced in the general election.

As much as I hate to say this, but I think Texas Republicans need to get on the Trump train and try to make the best of a bad situation, said Derek Porter, 64, a longtime Republican and Perry supporter who backed Cruz. That said, I think Rick went too far in his endorsement. It looked like he was desperate for attention. But at this point, hes part of the past, not the present.

Like other rank-and-file Republicans who next week will head to Dallas for the state GOP convention, the Austin entrepreneur said he is most concerned that the Trump factor could allow Democrats to win a half-dozen state House seats that were close in previous elections, all of them in the San Antonio, Houston and Dallas areas.

So touchy is the topic of Trump that several officials avoided speaking about him publicly. When Perry made his surprise endorsement Tuesday, the insiders network in Austin quickly filled with speculation about whether he was pushing to be considered as Trumps vice president or, perhaps, for a Cabinet appointment if Trump is elected. Neither, Perry said Friday, though he may be interested in the vice president post if asked.

Its too far out to tell what effect Trump will have, said Jordan Berry, an Austin GOP political consultant. Theres a lot of emotion out there, and people still have issues.

Allen Blakemore, a Houston political consultant and strategist, said he expects the pushback against Trump among some Texas Republicans to fade in coming months.

A lot of people are upset, either because their candidate just lost or because the guy they didnt like just won, he said. Its like when your team loses the big game in the playoffs. ... And so theyre not going to renew their season tickets next season. But they do, and theyre back next season.

As for the endorsements from Perry, Patrick and Abbott while other big-name Republicans publicly withhold their support, Blakemore said he heard some of the same grumbling when Patrick won the GOP nomination to become lieutenant governor in 2014.

Its about keeping your eye on the goal here, not letting a Democrat win, he said. People will get behind the nominee. For crying out loud, people get over these things. And while there will be some Republicans who stay home, and some who will skip voting for president and vote for down-ballot candidates, Donald Trump has brought out a lot of nontraditional voters this year. ... And I think he has the opportunity to more than make up (for) the people who dont get over this.

mike.ward@chron.com

twitter.com/ChronicleMike
SAN ANTONIO  Police believe a man who was found dead in a field on the Southwest Side Friday afternoon died during a rollover crash two days ago.

According to police at the scene, San Antonio Police Department officers responding to a call for a rollover crash in the 11100 block of Applewhite Road on Wednesday evening found a vehicle that had flipped into a field at high speeds, but could not locate the driver.
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After facing criticism this week that hes ignoring a conflict of interest, Bexar County District Attorney Nico LaHood reasserted that a clause in a county contract held by his chief investigator is illegal.

The contract states in part that no officer or employee of COUNTY shall have financial interest, direct or indirect, in any Agreement with COUNTY 

Blue Armor Security Services, owned by Willie Ng, entered into the agreement with the county in March 2013. LaHood hired Ng as his chief investigator in January 2015, yet Blue Armor kept the contract, worth more than $720,000, and has bid to renew it this year.

LaHood said the countys contract violates state law, and that the provision in Ngs contract is illegal and appears in no other county contract but Ngs.

You cannot enforce an illegal clause in a contract, LaHood said.

Assistant District Attorney Edward Schweninger said told county commissioners in March 2015 that Ngs contract should be amended because the provision prohibiting him from holding the contract violated state law.

Schweninger pointed to a 1983 Texas Attorney General opinion that states, There is no general statutory prohibition of a county official or employee contracting with the county in a private capacity.

He said any attempt by the county to prohibit Ng from bidding on a contract is illegal because the basic tenet of county law is that we cant do what the state Legislature doesnt give us authority to do.  We cant create ordinances.

Frankly, Im not even sure the commissioners themselves realized that our chief investigator was the owner of Blue Armor, Schweninger added. I had to bring it to their attention. But I told them that this provision in his contract creates a conflict for him and the county, and we cant renew the option without removing it.

Commissioners, however, chose to ignore the problem, he said.

The result was, Well, it sounds like its going to be controversial, so we want to put it off, Schweninger said. Then it became a primary (election) problem because weve got people with opponents. So it just kept getting delayed.

Its been in limbo since last March, he added. Weve been operating month-to-month without a clear contract  So what the commissioners decided to do instead was just put it out for bid again. So thats the process that Blue Armor is going through now.

The countys purchasing department is considering eight bids, including Ngs, Schweninger said. It will make a recommendation this month, and commissioners will later vote.

Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff has said that renewing Ngs contract would violate a county policy that prohibits county employees from holding county contracts.

Wolff argued that Texas House Bill 914, which requires officers of local government entities and those who contract with local government entities  to make certain financial and business disclosures, gives Bexar County the authority and duty to enforce its rule.

LaHood said that no such rule exists.

Our job is to say, Guys, youre trying to enforce an illegal provision in a contract, LaHood said. Thats the bottom line  Thats my only issue. I really do not have an interest in the outcome. Its only in the process.

Wolff also has raised concerns about the perception  of a conflict of interest. A county administrative policy states that its employees  will avoid the appearance of unethical or compromising practices.

LaHood said that Ngs contract with the county does not conflict with his duties as the countys chief investigator. Blue Armor provides uniformed security officers to perform security guard services at 15 locations across the county.

If I worry about perception, I wont do anything in this office, LaHood said. I have to worry about the law and whats fair.

Wolff is not a lawyer, LaHood added. Hes wrong. Its like telling a doctor how to do surgery. A doctors a doctor. And as much as Kevin thinks he is who he is, hes not a lawyer. And its not just my opinion. Its established law.

bchasnoff@express-news.net
AUSTIN  For the past 20 years, state lawmakers could rely on a Texas statute to thwart political opponents from using video and audio recorded on the House and Senate floor in attack ads.

That could soon change.

A tea party House candidate challenging one of Speaker Joe Straus lieutenants in a runoff is suing the Texas Ethics Commission to strike down a law barring the use of footage produced by the Legislature in political ads. That includes archived audio and video from the floor of the House and Senate, along with committee hearings.

Ethics experts and lawyers say the statute appears to violate the First Amendment and is likely to be shot down in the courts since taxpayers pick up the tab to record and store the footage from the Legislature.

The former and current chairmen of the ethics commission have also cast doubt on the laws validity.

Adding to the idea the statute is in trouble: the attorney generals office, which defends state agencies in court, wants nothing to do with the case. Attorney General Ken Paxtons office has declined to represent the ethics commission in the lawsuit, leaving the state agency on the hook to hire an outside lawyer.

Commission Chairman Chase Untermeyer said the Legislature has put the agency in a tough spot by refusing to repeal or narrow the law, despite the commission raising red flags. Untermeyer said the attorney generals office has cast doubt on the legality of the measure, and he is of the same opinion.

We agree with the attorney general that this law is unconstitutional, Untermeyer said in an interview. The commission tended to believe the videos were of a public proceeding and that this is public information paid for by taxpayers that should be available to the public. But the law as it currently reads says otherwise, and so we have no choice but to uphold what the law is.

A hearing has been set for May 13 in Harris County District Court. However, lawyers for the House candidate say they want the state to invalidate the law before the court hearing.

Trey Trainor, the lead attorney suing the state, said hes made an offer to the commission to sign paperwork permanently blocking the statute.

They know its unconstitutional and are still saying they have a duty to defend it, Trainor said. They dont have a duty to defend things that are unconstitutional.

$5,000 fine

The lawsuit was filed by Briscoe Cain, a Harris County attorney girding for a May 24 runoff with state Rep. Wayne Smith, a Republican from Baytown who chairs the House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee.

Cain received 47 percent of the vote in the March Republican primary to Smiths 43 percent.

Ahead of the runoff, Cain wants to use in his campaign ads archived footage from the House floor of Smith during the 2013 and 2015 legislative sessions, according to the lawsuit. But Cain, who claims his free speech has been violated, is worried about running afoul of the law and getting fined by the ethics commission, which enforces the statute.

The law prohibits "a person from using in political advertising any audio or visual materials produced by or under the direction of the legislature or of a house, committee, or agency of the legislature. It carries a fine of up to $5,000.

Cain alleges the state has engaged in censorship.

The real purpose  is to protect incumbents from political rivals and censor political expression that may be unfavorable of the government, the lawsuit charges.

Buck Wood, an Austin lawyer and ethics expert, said the Legislature has overstepped its authority. Footage produced by legislative staff, he said, is clearly public record.

The court will throw this law out in a minute, Wood said. If I was a legislator, and I made some whining speech I now regret and they had footage and wanted to run an ad, I wouldnt like it but thats tough on me.

Ross Fischer, a campaign finance lawyer and former chairman of the ethics commission, said the agency saw the prohibition as problematic a long time ago and warned the Legislature.

This statute has been ripe for a challenge for some time, he said.

Incumbent protection

The law was passed in 1995 and authored by former state Sen. Peggy Rosson, D-El Paso, according to legislative records, but the addition of language barring the use of legislatively-produced audio and video in political ads appears to have been tagged onto the bill late in the process. The measure was originally touted as giving the Texas Legislative Council the ability to provide legislative information on Internet.

It was amended in 2013 by state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, to impose additional limits on the use of audio or visual materials produced by or under the direction of the legislature, according to a bill analysis. Geren, who chairs the House Administration Committee, did not return a request for comment.

Just weeks before the start of the last legislative session, the ethics commission recommended to lawmakers that they repeal the law or narrow it. Paul Hobby, part of the eight-member commission and a former chairman, said the law has very little policy legs to stand on if it were challenged in court.

It is incumbent protection first and last, which is not a legitimate public purpose to restrict the use of public information, Hobby, who was chairman at the time, said at a commission meeting in December 2014.

Outside counsel

The commission received permission from the attorney generals office on Friday to hire as its outside lawyer Eric Nichols, a former deputy attorney general for criminal justice under ex-Attorney General Greg Abbott. Nichols currently represents the commission in a long-running legal battle with conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan.

Eugene Volokh, who teaches free speech and religious freedom law at UCLA, says the Texas Attorney Generals Office is correct for not getting involved in the case because the law is clearly unconstitutionally overbroad, and thus violates the First Amendment.

A narrower statute might be defensible, he said.

If, for instance, a state legislature had made footage available on its site but required users to sign a contract promising not to use it in political ads, that might be permissible, Volokh wrote about the case in a recent blog post for the Washington Post. I think it would still be unconstitutional, but an AG could plausibly choose to defend it.

The attorney general's office did not return repeated requests for comment.

Untermeyer, the chairman of the ethics commission, however, was still miffed by the attorney generals decision to sit out of the lawsuit.

In this case, the attorney generals office doubts the constitutionality of a statute so they just chose not to represent a constitutional state agency to defend that statute. I was as surprised by that position as you may be, said Untermeyer. Ive been around government for years and years, was in the Legislature 40 years ago. The job of the attorney generals office is to defend laws that the Legislature passes. But in this case they said no.

He added: We are a constitutional agency. Youd think the constitutional attorney general would represent a constitutional agency as the states top attorney.

Mike Ward contributed to this report.

drauf@express-news.net
Shropshire

A Full-Time position is available for an assistant herdsperson on a family dairy farm in mid Shropshire. We have a 250 dairy herd rearing own replacements together with a b...
Agricultural co-operative Copa & Cogeca has urged the EU Commission this week to exercise caution in the free trade talks between the EU and US (TTIP) after a new study reveals that a potential trade deal could have a severe impact on the EU beef sector.

The issue was debated in Copa & Cogeca beef working party. Speaking after the meeting, Jean Pierre Fleury warned: "Prices are continuing to drop in the EU beef sector, and the Russian ban on EU agriculture exports is still in place.

"The dairy sector has been particularly badly affected which is having knock-on effects on the beef sector.

"Beef production was up 3.6% in 2015 due to the continued pressure on the dairy sector, as producers are switching from dairy to beef production, which is resulting in extra supplies on the market.

Beef as a sensitive product

"Prospects are not positive either, with beef producers fearing further downward pressure on prices in the short-term.

"In view of the difficulties, it is crucial to find new markets for our produce.

"We also need additional tools to give exporters some security and help protect them against risk when exporting to new markets.

"The only possible tool here is export credit guarantees and we urge the EU to step up action to use these tools.

"We also urge the EU Commission to be extremely prudent in the free trade talks between the EU and US (TTIP).

"A new study carried out by the French livestock Institute on the competitiveness of the EU suckler cow sector in the framework of the TTIP talks confirms that the classification of beef as a sensitive product in these negotiations is justified," Fleury stressed.

In the market access offers exchanged in October 97% of tariff lines were included in the other and 3% in other treatment category which includes beef, poultry and pork.

'US beef sector is more competitive'

He continued: "On high value cuts such as loin cuts, the US beef sector remains more competitive due to economies of scale (feed lots), different environmental practices & manure management, animal welfare and health standards, lack of a mandatory traceability system.

"The EU has very high standards in this respect which imports to the EU do not have to meet.

"Loin cuts nevertheless represent the main source of income for our beef producers.

"Without a cautious approach in TTIP, this type of production could be badly hit, with a negative impact on the economies of rural regions.

"In my native country France, for example, which has the highest number of suckler cows in the EU, the same study confirms a potential drop in incomes of specialized French beef producers of up to 40-50% which would be very damaging especially as they farm in areas where no alternative form of employment exists."

Wrapping up, he called on the Commission to take a prudent approach in these negotiations.

The talks are currently in their 13th round, which took place in New York last week.

What is TTIP?

The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is a proposed trade agreement between the European Union and the United States, with the aim of promoting trade and multilateral economic growth.

The agreement is under ongoing negotiations and its main three broad areas are: market access; specific regulation; and broader rules and principles and modes of co-operation.

The European Commission says that the TTIP would boost the EU's economy by 120 billion, the US economy by 90 billion and the rest of the world by 100 billion.

The controversial agreement has been criticized and opposed by unions, charities, NGOs and environmentalists, particularly in Europe.
Bragg soldiers say barracks they're being relocated to also have mold

Some Smoke Bomb Hill soldiers say barracks they're being relocated to are just as bad as the ones that were deemed substandard.
News / Education

by Patrick Chitumba

THE University of Zimbabwe (UZ) will starting this August introduce a degree in Tonga as the institution of high learning moves to promote the 16 indigenous languages that are recognised in the Constitution.Speaking at the Mkoba Teachers' College graduation ceremony for Intake 14 in Gweru on Thursday, UZ Vice Chancellor, Professor Levy Nyagura, said the Constitution recognised all indigenous languages equally.He applauded the MTC choir for singing the country's national anthem in Tonga saying, "Come August 2016 intake, we will be teaching a Tonga degree."Prof Nyagura said it was of utmost importance that Zimbabweans empower themselves in the use of local languages and local resources for the country to compete with the rest of the world.The new Constitution recognises English, Ndebele, Shona, Chewa, Chibarwe, Kalanga, Khoi-san, Nambya, Ndau, Shangani, Sign Language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa as the country's official languages.The new Constitution repealed the Lancaster House constitution that used to recognise only English, Shona and Ndebele.The move by the UZ is also expected to play a major role in the uplifting the education of the Tonga people since many graduates in that language are expected to assist the children in schools.Meanwhile, Prof Nyagura said it was also the teacher's responsibility to follow principles and guidelines from the government on the new teaching curriculum for the growth of the education sector.He said science subjects should also be introduced at the Early Childhood Development (ECD) level right through the primary and secondary levels for the country to have a generation that can contribute in research and sciences for the benefit of the country."We want inventors, so the basic foundation of the science subjects should be at ECD. The primary school teacher is very important in this puzzle, in fact more important than the professors at universities since they hold an important role in moulding the child. Children should embrace STEM from an early age," said Prof Nyagura.College principal Florence Dube said 449 students had graduated with 119 assuming the role of ECD teachers.
It took me a long time to get going as a writer. I've wanted to write since I was young and this desire led to me choosing English as my degree subject and journalism as a career. When I hit my mid-thirties and had only managed to write about eleven pages of a novel I had to have a stern word with myself. I quit my job in London, moved up to Glasgow and used my savings to do a creative writing course. I wouldn't recommend pursuing this all-or-nothing strategy, but what I will say is this: I was highly motivated to do as well as I could.

Jackie Copleton

I had to give myself permission to fail. I was self-conscious about telling people I was writing a novel. The thought of other people reading my stuff appalled me. I still remember the horror of my first writing workshop. I told myself: Even if you never publish a book your only goal is to reach The End. I think to write well you need to embrace the mistakes. How else can you experiment with character, plot or style - or life?

I'm learning finally to embrace the word 'writer'. During my writing course, the wonderful novelist AL Kennedy told me: 'You write, you're a writer.' What generous words and ones I would repeat to anyone. Recently I talked to some current students on the same course about my route to publication. To be able to offer advice to a new batch of writers was a lovely, lovely thing (as John Torode would say on MasterChef!).

I wrote the first drafts of the book in a cupboard. My husband and l live in a one-bedroom flat. I don't have the luxury of what Virginia Woolf called: A Room of One's Own. So I improvised and moved a desk and chair into our hall cupboard. Looking back, it must have been odd for my husband to see me head off every night to spend a couple of hours surrounded by shoes, coats and camping gear. But I tell you what, that cupboard led to some of my most productive periods. There is nothing to distract you, apart from the heady aroma of old trainers.

The success of the novel has been brilliant. I'm not sure what I expected but certainly none of this! I found out the book was going to be published while I was hanging my washing out; I heard the book had being chosen for the Radio 2 Book Club while I waited to catch a bus; I learned I'd been long-listed for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction while I was working in my kitchen and I took the call about the Richard and Judy Book Club surreptitiously in the disabled toilet at work because it had to be kept secret. Writing is such a precarious pursuit. There are no guarantees about income or longevity. So each moment of success has been met with utter, stunned delight.

I'm inspired by the conversations I have with people I meet in saunas. Maybe it's the fact that we're all in our swimming costumes, and so are physically exposed, or maybe it's the rather womb-like conditions, but I've had some fascinating, life-changing chats while sitting in a hot pine box. My main character Amaterasu is partly inspired by an Iranian refugee I met in Newcastle whose daughter was killed in the aftermath of the Khomeini revolution. I tried to imagine what it must be like to have to live with that loss for so many years - and the central challenge and agony of Amaterasu's life became clear to me: how do we carry on when we lose those dearest to us?

My favourite place to write is a small caravan park on the Cowal Peninsula in Argyll. I'm here at the moment, staring out at Loch Long, watching ravens dive-bomb seagulls. Today there has been rain, hail and blazing sunshine. I've gone beachcombing, spotted a seal, sat on a rock and stared into space, built a fire for tonight and, of course, I've written. The cupboard was marvellous but it's also a privilege to be able to stare at nature while you conjure up imaginary worlds, hoping you can make them as beautiful as the real one.

I wouldn't have written the book if I hadn't taught English in Nagasaki in the 1990s. I had the honour to meet peace campaigners and attend the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city. The Peace Park was filled with 30,000 people that day, but in particular, I remember watching a young boy eat an ice cream in the humid heat. He was sitting next to the fountain built to commemorate the victims who had died crying out for water. The book is my thank you to the city. Its people have borne the toll of August 9, 1945 with dignity.

I do read some online reviews. I'm sure I can't be the only writer who does so?! It's always humbling to see how people have been moved by the book, and I want to say to anyone who has taken the time to write about A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding, whatever they thought of it, thank you.

I'm glad my parents are around to see the book being published. My mother gave me the best piece of advice: 'If you want to write, just write.' And my father kept me going by regularly asking: 'So when is the book of yours going to be done then?' They've fuelled my curiosity about the world and hopefully taught me to be compassionate and open. I wanted A Dictionary to be a kind book, to find happy endings where there might not be obvious ones. My parents have proved my most avid readers. Mum is already on her third reading of the book, but I know they would have been proud of me whether or not the novel was published.

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding is out now.
Khloe Kardashian is "inspired" by Kris Jenner and her grandmother's style.

Khloe Kardashian

The 31-year-old reality TV star has admitted her 60-year-old momager and her grandmother Mary Jo have influenced her wardrobe choices, and Khloe decided to demonstrate her appreciation for the women in her life, prior to celebrating the American Mother's Day on Sunday (08.05.15), with a string of pictures showcasing the matching ensembles her and her mother have worn.

Speaking on her website khloewithak.com in an entry called 'Koko's Kloset: I Got It From My Mama' about her fashion muse, the 'Kocktails with Khloe' host said: "It's almost Mother's Day, so I want to shout out to two women who've inspired me--my mother and my grandmother, Kris and Mary Jo!

"The older I get, the more I realize I've taken after them in so many ways--especially in the style department, LOL!"

Alongside a picture of the mother and daughter co-ordinating in a slim fitted white blazer, the Armenian beauty said: "Here are the style lessons I've learned from Kris and MJ!!!

"BLACK PANTS + WHITE BLAZER = PERFECTION.

Whilst another image of the pair dressed head-to-toe in white read: "KEEP IT TIGHT IN ALL-WHITE.

"I learned my #1 style secret from Kris! Head-to-toe white is always elegant and super flattering."

The 'Strong Looks Better Naked' author and TV personality has jetted off with her sisters Kim Kardashian West, 35, and Kourtney Kardashian, 37, to begin filming season 13 of their hit E! series 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians' in Cuba this week after first spending time in Miami.

Meanwhile, her younger brother Rob Kardashian, 29, has shared the news he is expecting his first child with his fiancee Blac Chyna, 27, which was announced via Instagram on Friday (06.05.16).
News / Health

by Pamela Shumba

THE government will soon increase the midwifery training duration from 12 to 18 months and invest more in the profession to produce more rounded experts who can contribute to the reduction in maternal deaths.Speaking during the International Day of the Midwife at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo yesterday, Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko said it was important for every health centre to have adequate midwives because no woman should die while giving birth."I'm also made to understand that the midwifery curriculum has been reviewed to promote competency based midwifery education."This duration of the training period will give room for student midwives to have time to acquire theory and be able to apply it into clinical practice without being rushed," said VP Mphoko.He said it was critical for every woman and her newborn baby to have access to the best possible care before, during and after pregnancy because it's a national duty to give birth."The urgent need to sustain the downward trend on maternal and neonatal deaths has been of great emphasis and midwives have a key role to play in ensuring universal access to healthcare services. The women and newborns of Zimbabwe are in great need of midwives now and in future."Quality care is the way forward as we go through the sustainable developmental goals. There's urgent need to improve the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality of midwifery services. The midwives provide about 87 percent of the maternity services required by women and their babies," said VP Mphoko.The government, he added, is committed to improving working conditions for midwives to avoid loss of midwives to other countries."To ensure that there are enough qualified midwives to care for all women and newborns, the government will increase investments in the education of midwives and growing the midwifery workforce."Adequate preparation and retention of midwives is critical as up to 90 percent of maternal deaths could be prevented by universal access to a well-educated and regulated midwifery workforce in a health system with adequate equipment and supplies. Midwives should therefore be always available and ensure that every child-bearing woman has access to maternity care," said VP Mphoko.He acknowledged that there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed to enhance midwifery education and practice in the country.Zimbabwe Confederation of Midwives (Zicom) president Dr Lilian Dodzo said it was disheartening that about 300,000 women die from causes related to pregnancy, while about 3 million babies die within their first week of life worldwide.She appealed to the government to invest in the education of midwives and grow the midwifery workforce to fight maternal and neonatal mortality."Investing in midwifery education can yield a 16-fold return on investment in terms of lives of women and babies saved and costs of caesarean sections avoided."The country must stop training midwives for other countries because our maternal mortality is still high," said Dr Dodzo.She said the midwifery curriculum had been reviewed to incorporate international standards.The commemorations, organised by the Zicom were held under the theme: "Women and Newborns: The heart of Midwifery."International Midwifery Day is commemorated every year on May 5 to bring awareness of the importance of the midwives' work.The day was first commemorated in 1991 and has always been observed in over 50 nations around the world.Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa, Sweden Ambassador to Zimbabwe Lars Ronnas, War Veterans Minister Rtd Col Tshinga Dube, Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Deputy Minister Abigail Damasane and senior officials of UNFPA, Zicom and Mpilo Hospital attended yesterday's event.
Stephanie Davis is "moving on" after split with Jeremy McConnell.

Jeremy McConnell and Stephanie Davis

The 23-year-old former 'Hollyoaks' actress - who began a tumultuous relationship with the Irish model during this year's 'Celebrity Big Brother' - has admitted she "sacrificed" everything for her romance with Jeremy, 26, and has publicly announced she is now taking the time to focus on herself.

Speaking on the Irish radio show SPIN 1038 on Saturday (07.05.16), the blonde beauty - who is set to return to her former brunette hair colour later this week during a trip to Ireland - said: "I'm moving on now. I have always put him first.

"I sacrificed everything for love. This only happened last night so it is really raw ... You have to give up and walk away at some point.

"I'm getting back to myself again, putting myself first again and having a good time."

The couple broke up this week after Stephanie revealed her former beau had exchanged private messages with model Mia Portman.

Following the pair's split the tattoo covered heartthrob swiftly contacted the former 'Geordie Shore' star Vicky Pattison over social media, although Stephanie understands why he did it.

Speaking about Jeremy's heartless action, she said: "Half an hour after we split up he was tweeting Vicky Pattison. I've stood by him through everything and there's been a lot of accusations ... In a weird way it is out of love. He loved me that much he is trying to hurt me, trying to get a reaction out of me. It's heart breaking."

And Stephanie has since been informed of more alleged cheating rumours.

Talking about further claims Jeremy has been unfaithful, she said: "I have been sent more [messages]. He swore that they weren't true so I've obviously believed him. But I have had the wool pulled over my eyes."

Despite the numerous rows, which has seen the couple endure a number of break ups and make-ups, Stephanie has admitted she is still infatuated with the lothario.

She said: "It's hurtful, if anyone that knows me knows I love Jeremy and I wouldn't hurt him.

"I tried and tried and tried. I am the biggest believer in love. He pushes everyone away.

"I am still in love with him and I'll never stop. It's messed with my head."

Meanwhile Stephanie feels completely isolated, after she fell out with her family following the whirlwind romance, and she has not returned home in six months.

She said: "I just feel like I've got no one, it's really sad. The only person was Jez."
Boosted by a 39 per cent year-on-year for the first quarter of 2016, Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group Executive Vice Chairman listed three core reasons why Alibaba is bucking the trend in these challenging times for the global economy.In a blog post, Tsai wrote that the first of those three reasons is consumption which propels strong growth. According to Tsai, Chinese households today have aggregate net cash reserves of over $4.6 trillion. This accumulated wealth and liquidity is the result of real double-digit wage growth over the past decade. In contrast, household debt in the US was 98 percent of GDP in 2008 and the average American family was in heavy debt. The levered balance sheet of the American consumer and their credit deterioration contributed to the global financial crisis.Chinese consumers, with their healthy balance sheets and ability to spend, will propel China's shift from an export-and investment-led economy to a consumption-driven economy. Alibaba rides on top of this secular tide as we enable more products and services, be it domestic or import, to reach the consumer, he wrote in the blog.Tsai said the second reason is a strategic perspective on Alibaba's ecosystemWe have a balanced portfolio of businesses in our ecosystem that are in various stages of growth, profit trajectory and cash generation. Depending on years in gestation, we group these businesses into what I call 'Core Cash Flow,' 'Emerging Traction' and 'Long-term Strategic Bets.'Under Core Cash Flow, Tsai said Alibaba's core e-commerce business is strong and extremely cash generative. We achieved 41 per cent year-on-year revenue growth in China retail marketplaces for the quarter, with high and sustainable operating margins. On the strength of our core business, we delivered $8 billion in free cash flow in fiscal 2016. This enables us to invest for the future.

Under the Emerging Traction head, several of Alibaba's businesses have emerged with high growth traction and expanding operating leverage.



AliCloud is today one of the largest cloud computing businesses in the world. In the latest quarter this business saw 175 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, which is an acceleration of the 126 per cent growth rate from the prior quarter.



Another Emerging Traction star is mobile internet services, including mobile search and mobile media. In this quarter we have provided a glimpse into the potential of the mobile lifestyle in China in addition to mobile commerce, as revenues from mobile internet services and mobile operating systems grew nearly 50 per cent year-on-year, Tsai said.


American Apparel, a leading fashion apparel brand, is using crowdsourcing to find made in USA accessories to sell in their retail and online stores.

The made in crowdsourcing campaign is an open call for all kind of vendors who manufacture in America to send proposals to American Apparel.

The accessories line includes products like leather goods, footwear, small home furnishings, jewelry, and fragrances.

American Apparel, a leading fashion apparel brand, is using crowdsourcing to find made in USA accessories to sell in their retail and online stores.The made in crowdsourcing campaign is an open call for all kind of vendors who manufacture in America to send proposals to American Apparel.The accessories line includes products like leather goods, footwear#

We want to continue to support manufacturing in the US by giving small businesses the opportunity to thrive and succeed. We are very excited to launch our Made In crowdsourcing campaign by soliciting ideas for third-party accessories and small home goods made in America and giving these vendors the opportunity for distribution in our stores and online globally,  said Cynthia Erland, senior vice president, marketing, American Apparel. (HO)

American Apparel
One of India's major fabric and fashion retailers, Raymond, is reducing its capital expenditure from Rs 300 crore in FY 2016 to Rs 250 crore this fiscal.Most of the company's capital expenditure last year was towards capacity expansion, renovation of stores and capital machinery.

Raymond is seeking better margins and returns on capital next year after annual profits dived 18 per cent, from Rs 113 crore to Rs 92 crore., according to a newspaper report



Raymond had invested heavily in segments such as Made to Measure, store expansion and renovation, and it now wants to build scale across its retail formats.



That plan includes setting up 125 stores under the Raymond Shop brand, next year, according to Sanjay Behl, CEO-Lifestyle, Raymond.



The company is now seeking margin expansion and profitability for its branded apparel segment, where it has Park Avenue and ColorPlus as its leading brands.



Behl said the company is aiming to achieve scale in its ready-to-wear segment, and expects a margin of 10-12-per cent.



Raymond's largest apparel brand, Park Avenue, with revenues at Rs 500 crore, is also expected to expand its footprint from the current 65 exclusive stores. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The expanding scope and cost of government regulation are placing new burdens on America's small businesses, hindering their ability to create jobs and drive economic growth, according to a new survey released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) this week.Overregulation is undermining the resolve of small retailers, NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. To fulfill their role in driving the American economy, small businesses need the freedom to make the decisions that make sense for them instead of being burdened by one-size-fits all mandates.NRF worked with market research firm GfK to survey retail small business owners to gauge their views on the business environment, the health of their businesses and whether public policies that affect their operations support or hinder prospects for growth.It's time for lawmakers, policymakers and candidates to take a hard look at how burdensome regulations are stifling America's entrepreneurial spirit, Shay said.The survey revealed that while small retailers are generally optimistic about the future, they are increasingly concerned about the growing volume and cost of government regulations.The survey found that the vast majority (81 per cent) say regulations weaken the appeal of owning a business.Nearly seven-in-ten (69 per cent) say they are overwhelmed by regulations, rules, and mandates, including labour regulations, health care mandates, tax codes and safety guidelines.And less than half (44 per cent) believe government regulations achieve their objectives.Concerns were consistent regardless of political ideology and age, with majorities of conservatives and liberals, Millennials and older generations saying they were worried about regulations.

The survey also looked at attitudes toward specific policies. Seventy-nine per cent of small retailers support efforts to lower federal tax rates by eliminating tax loopholes, and 73 per cent of small retailers are concerned by the complexity of the federal tax code.



Nearly 60 per cent believe proposed regulations to fine companies that allow flexible employee schedules due to changing worker demands or business needs would hurt their businesses.



Overtime expansion proposed by the Labour Department would likely result in negative consequences for nearly half (44 per cent) of small business owners, according to the survey. And more than one-third (37 per cent) of small retailers say raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour would either cause their business to fail or threaten its existence. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The German Government has praised Fiji for its response to Tropical Cyclone Winston, citing the innovative and transparent nature of programs such as the Help for Homes and Adopt a School Initiatives.



The commendation came during talks in Frankfurt between the Attorney General and Minister for Finance, Hon Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Ms Brunhilde Vest, Head of the Division for Regional Development Policy in Asia and South East Asia of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.



Meeting during the 49th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank, Ms Vest said various innovative policies such as Help for Homes and Adopt a School had been put in place by the Fijian Government within a short space of time to assist Fijians recover from Cyclone Winston and these had been very transparent.



For his part, the AG briefed Ms Vest on the scope of the relief and rehabilitation measures and emphasised the critical need for Fiji to ensure that future investments in infrastructure are climate resilient. He said not only was this vital to ensure the sustainability of the public sector asset base but that strengthening infrastructure to withstand extreme weather events would also be more cost effective in the long term.



The AG also highlighted the Governments economic reforms and discussed the various opportunities for European companies in Fiji. As well as his talks with the Germans, the AG also met with government representatives from Spain and Italy before heading back to Fiji at the end of the ADB meeting.


OTTAWA, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 05/06/16 -- Canada Revenue Agency

National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier announced today that tax relief will be offered to Canadians affected by the devastating wildfires currently affecting Fort McMurray and areas of north-east Alberta. When natural disasters occur, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) immediately evaluates the measures that can be taken to help Canadians.

The Government understands that at this time, the safety and well-being of loved ones is the primary concern for those affected by the devastation of these wildfires. These individuals, businesses, and first responders may find themselves unable to file or pay taxes on time. If so, the Minister encourages them to make a request to the CRA for taxpayer relief.

The Minister's offer of tax relief is part of the Government of Canada's efforts to help families and communities struggling with the impacts of the largest fire evacuation in Alberta's history, where wildfires have forced almost 90,000 people from their homes. In addition to taking requests for taxpayer relief over the phone, by mail, or online, the CRA has taken the following steps to help ease the burden for those affected, including:

- Effective immediately, ceasing all collections, audit related activities and administrative correspondence.

- Cancelling all penalties/ interests for impacted individuals who are unable to file their tax return or pay amounts owing.

- Designated telephone agents will be available to provide assistance to callers affected by the wildfires. Agents are able to request taxpayer relief on their behalf, and can provide advice relating to lost, destroyed, or damaged records. Individuals can contact the CRA at 1-800-959-8281 and business callers can call 1-800-959-5525.

- Working with Canada Post to ensure that taxpayers expecting a tax refund or benefit payment have secure access to their mail following the suspension of delivery to Fort McMurray. Taxpayers can visit Canada Post service alert webpage for more information.

The Prime Minister has also announced that the Government will match individual charitable donations made to the Canadian Red Cross, a registered charity, in support of disaster relief efforts in Fort McMurray, Alberta.

Canadians wishing to assist those affected by the disaster can also donate to other registered charities. Consult the CRA Charities Listings to find eligible organizations.

Quotes

"My thoughts go out to the individuals and families whose lives have been disrupted as a result of the wildfires in Alberta. The Government of Canada has taxpayer relief measures in place to help lessen the burdens of those affected as so many prepare to deal with the tragic loss of their homes and communities."

The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, P.C., M.P., Minister of National Revenue

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Stay connected

To receive updates when new information is added to our website, you can:

- Follow the CRA on Twitter - @CanRevAgency.

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Contacts:

Chloe Luciani-Girouard

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Jelica Zdero

Media Relations

Canada Revenue Agency

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CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 05/07/16 -- Shaw Communications Inc.(TSX: SJR.B)(NYSE: SJR) today announced that it will be providing a one-month service credit to all customers in Fort McMurray and surrounding Northern Alberta communities affected by the recent wildfires that swept through the city, resulting in mandatory evacuation on Tuesday, May 3.

The application of this credit - retroactive to May 3 - will ensure all affected customers continue to have access to Shaw Go WiFi, FreeRange TV and their @shaw.ca email account while they are out of their homes without needing to worry about their account's status.

In addition, all residents and visitors in Northern Alberta and Edmonton have been given open access to the Shaw Go WiFi network where available. This connection allows residents to have access to timely news and information, and help them stay in touch with friends and loved ones, regardless of whether they are Shaw customers or not.

Citizens can access Shaw Go WiFi by searching for available WiFi connections on their smartphones, laptops, tablets or mobile devices, and selecting the ShawGo network. A full list of locations is available at www.shaw.ca/wifi or by downloading the Shaw Go WiFi Finder App.

About Shaw Communications Inc.

Shaw is a leading pure-play connectivity provider. Shaw serves consumers with broadband Internet, WiFi, video, digital phone and, through WIND Mobile, wireless services. Shaw Business Network Services provides business customers with Internet, data, WiFi, telephony, video and fleet tracking services. Shaw Business Infrastructure Services provides enterprises colocation, cloud and managed services through ViaWest. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (TSX: SJR.B)(NYSE: SJR). For more information, please visit www.shaw.ca

Contacts:

Shaw Communications Inc.

Chethan Lakshman, VP, Communications and Public Relations

(403) 930-8448

chethan.lakshman@sjrb.ca

www.shaw.ca




Vikram Kumar is a director who specialises in making meaningful commercial films.

His latest with Suriya, 24, is an enjoyable fantasy entertainer, based on the concept of time travel. The directors fusion of sci-fi, action, romance and comedy  served with technical finesse and an outstanding performance by Suriya in a triple role  is a treat to watch.

The story of 24 is about a good scientist and inventor Dr Sethuraman (Suriya), who accidentally invents a time travel watch. He lives in a huge picturesque forest bungalow fitted with a huge lab, has a lovely wife (Nithya Menon) and a new born son.

Suddenly his evil twin brother Athreya (Suriya) , comes in search of the watch. And in a bloody fight that ensues, Sethuraman and his wife die, but somehow manages to save their infant who is handed over to a stranger Sathyabama (Saranya).

Fast forward to 26 years later, the baby has grown up to become a happy go lucky watch mechanic, Mani (Suriya). By a quirk of fate, Mani gets the key to the time travel watch. He uses it more to woo and impress his lady love Sathya (Samantha). Meanwhile, the villainous Athreya, who has been in coma all these years, wakes up and finds that he is a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair. He starts a hunt for the missing watch to travel back in to time and get back his youth.

24 works largely due to Vikram Kumars smart writing and the twists and turns in the innovative plot. He is able to surprise the viewer and the interval block is one of the major highlights of the film. Suriya is fantastic, and does the difficult triple role of playing a scientist, lover boy and above all, the deadly villain with elan and style.

However the backbone of the film is its technical finesse. Special mention of the camera of Tirru, which mixes Poland and Pune locations to create the right colour tone to the story. Amit Ray and Subrata Chakrabortys production design is stellar, especially the laboratory scenes. Visual effects by Julien Troussellier look great and enhance the story telling. AR Rahmans background music is in sync with the theme of the film, though songs are barely hummable.

24 does has one drawback, mainly its length (2 hours and 44 minutes). The romantic scenes stick out like a sore thumb and songs are just speed stoppers. A lot of trimming is required especially in the first half, which is around 90 minutes. No explanation is given to why the villain hates his twin brother so much, to want to kill him.

Overall 24 is a classy commercial entertainer, which has its moments. See it for Suriya, who is simply mesmerising.
News / International

by Lloyd Gumbo

Sixteen more Zimbabwean women who were lured to Kuwait to work as housemaids, but ended up being abused as sex slaves, have escaped from captivity and are now under the care of the country's Ambassador to Kuwait Mark Marongwe.Several other women have since returned home after a Parliamentary delegation that went to Kuwait a fortnight ago after a bilateral engagement secured the release of 32 other women who came back home at the weekend.MPs now want President Mugabe to ban visas for domestic workers in Kuwait.Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs, Kindness Paradza, who was part of the delegation to Kuwait headed by National Assembly Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda, said he was going to present a report in Parliament on human trafficking to Kuwait."As I speak, I have just been informed by our Ambassador to Kuwait Mark Marongwe that 16 more girls have escaped from their abusive employers and are now camped at the embassy seeking assistance to be brought home," said Paradza."I was also told that the figure of those run-away girls is swelling and is expected to rise by the weekend."Our wish as Parliament is to have a complete ban on all visa applications to Kuwait under Section 20, which commits into slavery anyone who enters that country under that section."President Mugabe as the father of the nation must use his Presidential powers and direct the Minister of Foreign Affairs to effect the ban."Other African countries like Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana have since banned their citizens from traveling to Kuwait under that section."Paradza said there was a possibility that the total number of Zimbabwean women who were lured to Kuwait under the same circumstances could be around 500 amid indications that some of them left via Kenya, South Africa and Botswana.He appealed to Government, women organisations and human rights activists to embark on awareness campaigns to conscientise Zimbabwean women about the problems in Kuwait."As Parliament, we also want our security agencies to hunt down all those locals who are working in cahoots with Kuwaiti syndicates on this issue and bring them to book."Last week, the Philippines also managed to evacuate 143 of their girls from Kuwait who had fallen victims to similar acts of modern day slavery."Our worry as a committee is that Government has not availed funds to have our girls flown back home, which could end up being difficult to account for all the girls as some of them have been transported to other countries like Saudi Arabia or Qatar on arrival in Kuwait," said Paradza.Businessman, Mr Wicknell Chivayo had to intervene last week by paying air tickets for the 32 women.There were indications that Treasury was constrained to pay for their return.But Paradza implored Government to set up a special fund for repatriation of all Zimbabwean women stuck in Kuwait.
The execution of Yakub Memon, one of the accused in 1993 Bombay bombings, last year ignited the debate on capital punishment with pro- and anti-death punishment brigades making ferocious arguments to prove their points. While arguments against Yakubs hanging addressed specific procedural facts of the case, it also brought forth the debate on the desirability of the death sentence as we call it in India.

The massive unrest that was witnessed on the JNU campus over the last three months was an offshoot of long resentment of a group of students over the execution of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. At the heart of it, however, was the objection to the death sentence in principle.

In this backdrop, Death Penalty India Report released on Friday by the Center of Death Penalty at National Law University, Delhi assumes great significance as it raises serious questions on the criminal justice system in the country

Anup Surendranath, Director, Centre on the Death Penalty National Law University, while presenting the report said that the report tends to reflect upon this unique and harshest punishment in the criminal justice system in India as it is administered today and in doing so tends to make serious efforts to find the answer to these questions: What is the state of the criminal justice system that we use to sentence people to death? How do prisons treat the death row prisoners? What kind of legal assistance do they get? What kind of evidence is used in these cases? And what are the sentencing practices in these cases?

And in that sense the idea of the report is to introduce the aspects the administration of the death penalty that are just absent from the conversation, said Surendranath. And I think by the virtue of being the most unique and harshest of punishment available the compliance and fidelity to constitutional protections and the rule of law must be at its highest. And that is what we were testing. What we see is the complete breakdown of the criminal justice system, he added.

In terms of who gets the death penalty, the report states that around 70 percent of death row prisoners are from the economically vulnerable background. Sixty-four percent of them are primary or sole earner in their families at the time of the arrest; 76 percent of them either belong to Scheduled Caste (SC) or Scheduled Tribe (ST) or Other Backward Castes (OBC) or are religious minorities that include Muslims and Christians. Twenty-three percent of death row prisoners never went to school for a single day and 62 percent of death row prisoners did not complete their secondary education. Around 30 percent are those who belong to religious minorities/OBC/SC/ST class, did not complete the secondary education and are economically vulnerable.

Experience in police custody

Rampant narrative of custodial tortures is what we heard while interviewing these prisoners. Most basic constitutional procedures are not followed by the police. Eighty percent of prisoners told us that they suffered in police custody, said Surendranath.

This is what the report states: The forms of torture described by the prisoners often left permanent effects on their health and bodily integrity. Permanent loss of eyesight and hearing, irreparable damage to limbs and other bodily parts, spinal injuries are some of the lasting effects of custodial violence that prisoners complained of. Amongst prisoners subject to intense electric shocks over significant periods in police custody, we often heard about severe recurring headaches. One prisoner claimed that he had developed epilepsy after being subject to prolonged electric shocks in police custody. The inability to eat any food due to intense pain and swelling, urinating blood, fractures in different parts of the body, bleeding from the mouth, ears or anus were other debilitating consequences that prisoners suffered after being subjected to custodial violence.

Denied basic constitutional safeguards

According to the report, 64.5 percent prisoners said they were not produced before the magistrate within 24 hours. Out of the 258 prisoners who spoke about production before a Magistrate, 166 said that they were not produced before a Magistrate within 24 hours. Narratives of police custody for periods up to seven days, which sometimes even extended to several weeks or months, were documented. Ninety-seven percent of the interviewed prisoners did not have lawyers when the police interrogated them. Even while being produced before the magistrate 90 percent of them were not represented by a lawyer.

Commenting on this aspect, Surendranath said, These are questions that do not enter death penalty adjudication. Courts do not seem to grapple with the reality how these cases come to them, how these cases are carried out and what are the procedural violations. If you have to impose this punishment, I truly believe that it must have absolute gold standard of compliance. But you are so far away from basic procedural compliance with constitutional and legislative safeguards.

Issues of Juveniles

Nine persons sentenced to death by trial courts in the past 15 years were found to be juveniles by the high courts. Determining the age of the convict becomes very difficult as most have had no documented proof owing to their socio-economic background and bone density test is not considered very authentic.

Referring to one such case, the report states, Chiranjiv, a prisoner sentenced to death in 2013 for the rape and murder of a minor, claimed that he was a juvenile at the time of the incident. It must be noted that this aspect was not considered by the trial court in its judgment and neither is it known if this was raised by Chiranjivs lawyer. Chiranjiv had studied till the tenth standard and thereafter, was working in a brick kiln. After the incident, his family severed all contact with Chiranjiv, and only after he was sentenced to death, did they begin to visit him and provide support. During his interview, he said that he was hopeful that his sentence would be commuted by the High Court, and otherwise he was ready to go to every forum available to him, including the Supreme Court, and thereafter the Governor and President. More than anything, he longed to be with his family. Chiranjiv committed suicide in prison a few months after we met him. He was only 20 years old.

Talking about a case where two brothers were convicted and claimed to be juvenile, Surendranath said that while the elder one had gone to school for few months and had documents to prove his age the younger brother had none. In another case the prisoner who had spent 19 years in jail, 16 years on death row, was found to be juvenile after Centre on the Death Penalty took initiative and after much efforts could find the documents to prove his age. But he termed it as pure luck which is not possible in most of the cases.

Improper legal aid system

The report states that lack of competent legal representation and the minimalistic (bordering on non-existent) sentencing practices are of particular concern. Very often the concern about the quality of legal representation has been couched in terms of inadequacies of the legal aid system. More than 60 percent of the prisoners sentenced to death had private lawyers in the trial court and high courts. It must be a cause for extreme concern that prisoners and their families wanted to avoid the legal aid system at all costs and therefore went to great lengths to ensure that they had private legal representation, reads the report.

It adds, While this deepened their economic vulnerability, it did not ensure access to competent legal representation. It is evident that the problem of legal representation in capital cases cannot be meaningfully characterised as one of legal aid against private representation. The concern with competent legal representation in capital cases is much broader and cannot be restricted to just legal aid lawyers. This was perhaps most amplified at the stage of sentencing where the sentencing hearings seem to be conducted merely to meet the technical requirements of the law and very little else. Given the paucity of relevant sentencing information being brought before the courts, it is not surprising that the sentencing parts in judgments tend to focus almost exclusively on the nature of the crime.

Victimisation of the families of the convicts

The report also tries to bring out the fact that there are very serious and real social costs to the experience that prisoners and their families go through. The social and economic consequences along with debilitating forms of ostracisation that families face heighten their vulnerability, driving them deeper into destitution.

The faith of the families in the criminal justice system is further eroded as the case moves into the realm of the appellate courts and the mercy jurisdiction. The irony of the legal system is such that the closer a prisoner gets to execution, the administration of justice gets more opaque from the perspective of families. It is difficult for the families of prisoners to get any substantial information about the proceedings in the High Court and that problem only worsens when the case moves to the Supreme Court. There is no real protection against such multiple axes of vulnerability and the tendency to see the suffering of prisoner families as morally acceptable collateral costs must be resisted, reads the report.

Raising serious questions on the legal aid assistance provided to the accused persons the report states, Defense lawyers hardly have any information about the individual they are representing that can be meaningfully used in sentencing hearings. As mentioned earlier, the very idea of a sentencing hearing is to consider all circumstances of the individual beyond the crime in question. A comprehensive understanding of the prisoners background requires an extensive interaction by the lawyer. Unfortunately, that is severely lacking in the manner in which the prisoners in this study were represented. It is a combination of the inability of the accused to afford quality representation along with structural issues regarding the nature of criminal defense in India.

Inadequate trial

Out of the 225 prisoners who spoke about their presence during the trial proceedings, only 57 (25.3 percent) said that they were present during all hearings. The responses of the remaining prisoners varied from attending the majority of proceedings to being present for the examination of a few witnesses. Another practice was taking the prisoners to the court premises and then confining them in the court lock-up, without actually producing them in the courtroom.

No talks of reformation and rehabilitation

The Supreme Court in Bachan Singh v. State of Punjab, while upholding the constitutionality of the death penalty, placed significant emphasis on reformation. However, according to the report this is not addressed in any substantive manner.

Accused not even provided with proper documents

According to the report, while section 207 of the CrPC provides that the Magistrate shall, without delay, furnish the accused with a copy of the chargesheet and other documents such as the first information report, statements made by persons which the police may seek to examine as witnesses and judicial confessions before the Magistrate, it is blatantly violated. Out of the 255 prisoners who spoke about receiving the chargesheet, 60 said that they never received a copy of the chargesheet. Among the 195 prisoners who did receive a copy, there was a widespread concern that they received it after the commencement of the trial, or after the pronouncement of the trial court judgment. Further, it was a challenge to understand the language in which the chargesheet was written while others could not read it at all as they were illiterate, it says.

Not even informed about the ground of arrest

According to the report, of the 219 prisoners who spoke about being informed about the ground of arrest, 136 said that they were not informed about the same. Common practices included asking individuals to accompany the police officials for false and often vague reasons such as answering a few questions or signing some documents.

There were 385 prisoners under the sentence of death during the course of this project. 373 of those prisoners across 20 states and one Union Territory (Andaman & Nicobar Islands) are a part of this study (Graphic 1).1 The remaining 12 prisoners who do not form part of this study were sentenced to death in Tamil Nadu. Despite our numerous attempts, the Government of Tamil Nadu did not grant us permission to conduct prison interviews, citing lack of security clearance from agencies in Delhi. We were never informed who these agencies were.

Amongst the 373 prisoners, 361 were men and 12 were women. While Uttar Pradesh had the highest number of prisoners sentenced to death (79) in absolute numbers, Delhi had the largest proportion in terms of the prisoners sentenced to death in comparison with the population (1.79 persons per 10 lakh population), with 30 prisoners sentenced to death. The prisoners interviewed in the project were incarcerated in 67 prisons, of which 42 were central prisons and 25 were district prisons. Of these 67 prisons, 30 had gallows.
Ahmedabad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday submitted chargesheet before a special court against 10 accused in the double murder case of BJP leaders in Bharuch, claiming the killings were part of a larger conspiracy involving co-accused located in Pakistan and South Africa.

As per the chargesheet submitted before the special NIA court of principal judge PB Desai, "The case relates to murder of two persons ...as part of a larger conspiracy in which co-accused located in foreign countries too, were conspiring to kill and strike terror in the minds of people belonging to a particular section of society."

"During investigation, role of co-accused located in Pakistan and South Africa has also emerged and investigation of the case is being continued to collect more evidence against the accused," it said.

The central agency said chargesheet against two more arrested accused  Abdul Samad and Nasir Khan Pathan  will be filed later.

The chargesheet was filed against accused Saiyed Imran, Zuheb Ansari, Inayat Patel, Mohmad Yunus, Haider Ali, Nissarbhai Sheikh, Mohsin Khan Pathan, Mohmed Altaf Shaikh, Abid Patel and Abdul Salim Ghanchi.

Former BJP president of Bharuch and senior RSS member Shirish Bangali and general secretary of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha Pragnesh Mistry were shot dead in the district by two unidentified gunmen on 2 November, 2015.

Public prosecutor Geeta Gorambe also submitted three applications before the court, seeking permission to keep identity of some witnesses secret, details of certain documents hidden, and NIA protection to the witnesses.

Gorambe told the court that NIA will itself provide protection to certain witnesses but wanted court permission for the same. The court granted permission for all three requests.

A total of 12 accused were arrested in connection with the case and were booked under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, IPC, Arms Act the Gujarat Police Act.

The special court had in December last year granted NIA more time for filing the chargesheet.

Initially, Bharuch police along with Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) conducted the probe and had termed the murders as an 'act of terror'.

Investigators said the contract for killing the two BJP leaders was allegedly given by absconding Javed Chikna, apparently to avenge riots in Bombay (Mumbai) during 1993 and in Gujarat during 2002.

One of the chargesheeted accused Abid Patel is brother of Javed, an accused in the 1993 Bombay (Mumbai) bomb blasts case.

During investigation it was also found out that Javed and others associated with Dawood Ibrahim gang instructed local module to kill BJP leaders to avenge 1993 Bombay (Mumbai) riots and 2002 riots, they said.

Based on the request of Gujarat Government, Home Ministry has handed over the probe to NIA in December last year.
A four-year-old girl was sexually assaulted allegedly by her summer camp dance teacher in Bengaluru, according to The New Indian Express. Cops have arrested the 22-year-old dance teacher who, according to the complaint, repeatedly assaulted the minor girl in several areas of a private school.

The incident came to light when her father noticed her bruises and the girl stated that her dance teacher had inflicted them, reported Bangalore Mirror. Her parents took her to a private hospital because she revealed that she was in pain. They later took her to the Baptist Hospital in Hebbal. Realising the seriousness of the incident, doctors alerted the police. Samples have been sent to a forensic laboratory, the victims father told Bangalore Mirror.

The Bengaluru incident is the latest in a series of incidents this week being reported from across the country where dance instructors are assaulting minor girls.

A nine-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by her dance teacher in a school in Kanpurs Naubasta area, police said on Wednesday.

According to the complaint filed by the victim's father, one Kishan Singh Rathore sexually assaulted the minor on Tuesday after calling her to his room on the pretext of teaching dance, they said.

An FIR was registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 following the complaint and the erring teacher has been arrested, police said, adding, the victim is undergoing medical examination.

The father had also complained to the director of the school after he got to know about the incident.

Police is interrogating the director of the school along with other staff members and investigation is on in the case.

In Puducherry, police arrested a 20-year-old youth for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl over seven months, according to The New Indian Express. The accused, identified as Kumaresan alias Mohan, was conducting dance classes in Irumbai. The victim and her 14-year-old brother used to attend the classes. Mohan allegedly first assaulted the victim when he visited her Govindasalai home when she was alone. She told her mother and brother about it but they refused to believe her and her brother forcibly took her to the accuseds house for continuing their classes. There Mohan allegedly assaulted her again.

The Times of India reported that the incidents came to light when a neighbour noticed cigarette burns on the victims hand. The victim revealed all to the neighbor who contacted the Child Welfare Committee. The CWC then approached the Grand Bazaar police who arrested him under the POCSO Act and also questioned her brother.

With inputs from PTI
Patna: The Centre has decided to unconditionally release Rs 1,100 crore on 13 May as second instalment to meet water requirements in states, many of which are battling severe heat conditions, Union Minister of State for Drinking Water Ramkripal Yadav said on Saturday.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has directed us to issue the money without waiting for utility certificate of the previous allocation," Yadav told reporters in Patna.

He said the states should dig well, borewell, install handpump as per requirements with this fund to help the people meet their water need.

As first instalment, the Centre had released Rs 819.67 crore to 35 states and Union Territories, he said.

As on 5 May, 2016, the states had Rs 2,634.36 crore total available funds with them, the minister said, adding Rs 1,814.69 crore of which remained with them unspent till 5 May.

Giving details of Rs 819.67 crore released as first instalment, he said Rajasthan received Rs 85.69 crore, Uttar Pradesh Rs 84.04 crore, Maharashtra Rs 80.26 crore, Jammu and Kashmir Rs 53.26 crore and Bihar Rs 45.93 crore.

Uttar Pradesh, which is locked in fight with the Centre over it sending water train for Bundlekhand region, was allocated a fund of Rs 416.76 crore, of which Rs 332.72 crore remained unspent balance as on 5 May, he said.

Bihar has available balance of Rs 116.46 crore and Rs 5.27 crore as unspent balance as on 5 May, he said.

The union minister said out of the 13 states facing drought-like situation, Bihar and Haryana have not declared themselves facing drought condition across the state.

"The report sent by these two states (Bihar and Haryana) stating condition of water shortage does not match the ground reality," Yadav, BJP MP from Patliputra constituency in Patna district, said.

"Due to incomplete information provided by Bihar and Haryana, no central team could visit them to take stock of the situation. Besides, they could not avail special assistance from national disaster management fund," he said.

The union minister said Bihar had declared 19 of its districts and 160 villages as hit by drinking water shortage "which seems far from true."

Bihar has total 38 districts and 40,110 villages and water condition in many of them were not satisfactory, he said.

He said implementation of 'seven resolves' of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar which includes piped drinking water to every household would take time.

The suggestion given by RJD president Lalu Prasad about digging wells to meet water needs could be beneficial in future.

"But for meeting immediate needs of drinking water, the Bihar government should go back to handpump, among others," he said.

Besides Bihar and Haryana, other states declared as drought-hit are Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnatake, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

He said the prime minister has set a target of providing water supply connection to 90 per cent of the households across the country by 2022.

"The target is to provide 90 litres of water daily to every citizen by 2022," he added.
News / Local

by Melody Baya

A MAN from Mpopoma suburb in Bulawayo has been fined a $100 for undermining the authority of a police officer on duty.Donavan Phiri, 22, is alleged to have grabbed the 24 year old Simbarashe Makota's police cap and ran away with it."What will you do to me?" he allegedly asked the cop.The court heard that Makota was on patrol when he was called to attend to a case of disorderly conduct at a funeral, where he bumped into Phiri.Phiri appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Tancy Dube facing a charge of undermining police authority.He pleaded guilty."For your conduct you are going to pay a fine of $100," said Dube.Prosecuting, Kenneth Shava told the court the incident occurred on January 29 this year."Whilst they were carrying out investigations at the funeral the accused grabbed the complainant's police cap and ran away with it after uttering the words, 'uzangenzani?' (what will you do to me?)," said Shava.The prosecutor said Makota ran after Phiri, caught and arrested him.
Thriuvananthapuram: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "silence" on the brutal rape and murder of a Kerala Dalit law student and said he has "no time" to visit her family just because it happened in a state ruled by his party.

Attacking the Congress leader, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said Rahul "politicised" the suicide of Rohith Vemula by twice visiting Hyderabad and questioned if he had done so as the state was ruled by a non-Congress government.

"The student was raped and murdered in Kerala. Rahul has no time to visit because his party is ruling the state. He visits Hyderabad twice to politicise students suicide.

"Kerala people are asking why when a student and a Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered Rahul is not visiting Kerala. They are reminded that he visited Hyderabad twice. Is it only because it's a state ruled by non-Congress government?," he said at an election rally in Chelakara in

Thrissur district.

Naidu also attacked former Defence Minister AK Antony for his "BJP-free Kerala" remark, saying Antony wants "corruption to continue" in the poll-bound state whereas BJP wants a "corruption-free Kerala".

"We want corruption free Kerala and Shri AK Antony wants BJP free Kerala. May be he wants corruption to continue...

"Congress and Communists are worried about BJP gaining ground in Kerala. Beware they may come together and exchange votes," he also tweeted.

Attacking the previous UPA government, Naidu said "most dirty scams had happened during the time of Mr. Clean 1 Sri Manmohan Singh and Mr Clean 2 Sri AK Antony..."

He also took a dig at the "understanding" between the Left and Congress in West Bengal assembly elections, saying "Congress and Left!!! Bengal mein dosti, Kerala mein kusti. Yeah kya hai? (Congress and Left. Friendship in Bengal, fighting in Kerala. What is this?)."
Kerala goes to the polls next week, and this week a number of senior leaders of the BJP are campaigning in the state: Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, et al. It shows how seriously the party is taking the state, one of the last bastions of anti-BJP sentiment. Amit Shah visited last week to rally the troops. And, on the ground, there is vigorous campaigning: the BJP is as visible as the traditional Tweedledum and Tweedledee - the Congress (United Democratic Front) and the Communists (Left Democratic Front).

What will the net results be? Kerala has never sent a single BJP candidate to the Assembly or to Parliament. It was immune to the Modi wave of 2014, and the best the BJP could do was come close to winning the Trivandrum parliamentary constituency: O Rajagopal was on the verge of defeating sitting MP Shashi Tharoor of the Congress, but a late surge foiled him.

This allergy to the BJP can be explained fairly easily: demographics is destiny. There are many Christians and Muslims in Kerala, and a large number of those with Hindu names are Hindus in name only (HINO). Evidence suggests that these may total as much as 80-90 percent of the voters, and thus a party viewed as a Hindu party has been unable to win in Kerala.

This demographic imbalance has led to the marginalisation of Hindus. A telling example was five years ago when the current UDF government took charge. The negotiations were among Congress, Kerala Congress and the Muslim League, and the negotiators were Oommen Chandy, KM Mani and Kunjali Kutty  Christian, Christian and Muslim, respectively. No Hindu, not even a HINO, was present. And the parties reflect it too: Congress is overwhelmingly a Christian party, Kerala Congress (a breakaway group) is almost 100 percent Christian.

Furthermore, as a result of the toxification of education in the state, youngsters have been taught, and have internalised, certain axioms: that there is a fascist Brahminical Hindu mindset that is just dying to impose its tyranny on secular Hindus, and especially on poor, oppressed minorities, who therefore need to be protected.

All of these assertions are simply untrue in Kerala (Christians and Muslims together are about 45 percent of the population, but run 90 percent of the educational institutions, own 80 percent of the bank balances, and have own more lands than Hindus). The fact that 92 percent of the suicides in Kerala are by Hindus is also not widely known (all data summarised from articles by Prof C J Issac, a professor of history, Kottayam).

Thus, Kerala has been untouchable as far as the BJP is concerned, and every five years the ruling rascals are thrown out and the other bunch comes in: Congress, then Communists, then Congress. There is virtually no difference between them in terms of self-aggrandisement or of looting the public treasury. The rhetoric may be different, and the Communists are more violent, but the net result on the ground is the same.

Besides, there are regional imbalances: when the Congress is in power, they divert all investment to the Cochin belt, where the Christians are; when the Communists are in power, they divert all investment to the Malabar area, where they and the Muslims are. The old Travancore kingdom is mostly left in the lurch.

In addition, there has been a state of internecine warfare among the two most numerous Hindu groups, the OBC Ezhavas and the FC Nairs, who have been fighting (stupidly) over reservations in government jobs and in seats in government colleges. Stupidly, because the jobs and college seats are in the private sector. But this has hurt Hindu unity of purpose, leading to their irrelevance.

The comfortable UDF-LDF duopoly is now being jeopardised by the national rise of the BJP and the awareness being built among Hindu youth, especially through social media. They can see that they are subjected to severe discrimination in the private sector (for example, Christian-run schools, even those funded by the State, prefer Christian pupils) and the public sector (for instance, there is a Kerala government fund set up to forgive loans to Hindus who convert to Christianity).

The next result of this has been the increasing vote tally gained by the BJP, for instance in local body elections a year ago. Shashi Tharoor was worried enough to tweet then: Poor performance of UDF across the state esp in Tvm calls for serious introspection within the Party esp on groupism in candidate selection. But old habits die hard.

Still, this is the election in which the BJP finally has a chance to debut. One of the big changes for the BJP has been the alliance with the BJDS (Bharat Dharma Jana Sena), the party floated by Vellappally Natesan, the leader of the Ezhava community. Since the majority of the Communists voters are Ezhavas, this could cut into the LDFs base. Since most contests are close, the swing of a few hundred votes can tip the balance.

In visiting several parts of Kerala, talking to the proverbial Ola/Uber drivers, and to regular voters on the ground, I have come to the following predictions about what will happen in the elections. Disclaimer: caveat emptor:

1. The BJP alliance vote share will increase in proportion to Hindu consolidation.

2. The BJP alliance seat count will no longer be zero, but can vary from a low of 2-3 to a high of 25-30, depending on how many voters the cadres can enthuse and get out.

3. There are only 1-2 safe seats for the BJP alliance, but they can affect the results in quite a few seats.

4. The Congress and the Communists are engaged in tactical alignments to defeat the BJP alliance wherever possible.

5. The Christian and Muslim communities, while largely voting along communal lines, will also be encouraged to vote tactically against the BJP alliance.

6. Poor candidate selection, and in particular, poor constituency selection, has hurt the BJPs chances.

7. The BJP alliance positioning itself as representing the entire Hindu spectrum from SC (Pulaya Mahasabha) to ST (tribal leader CK Janu has joined them) to OBC (BJDS) to FC (Nairs, even though their official organisation, NSS, is close to the Congress) has paid dividends

8. The innumerable scams and scandals of the Oommen Chandy government, and those of the Sonia Gandhi clan at the center, have had an impact on voter sentiment.

9. The assaults on Hindu causes (Sabarimala, Thrissur Pooram, temple elephants) and the insensitivity of the government to Hindu grievances (Paravur fireworks, Jisha rape/murder) have hurt both the UDF and the LDF.

10. The BJP alliance has established itself as a viable third choice.

Therefore, it is virtually certain that the BJP alliance will have a presence in the next Kerala Assembly. Whether they will have enough clout to be kingmakers any time soon is a moot question.
CAIRO An Egyptian court on Saturday sought the death penalty for three journalists, including a Jordanian, and three others for endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar.

The final ruling is expected on June 18, after the decision has been referred to Egypt's top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

The verdict against former president Mohamed Mursi, who is charged in the same case, was postponed to the same day.

The three journalists were sentenced in absentia. Two of them work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. The defendants can appeal.

(Editing by Janet Lawrence)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Islamabad: Pakistan said on Saturday the "trust deficit" needs to be removed for better relations with India even as it voiced support for any effort to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue between the two nations.

Talking about the resumption of talks with India, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said Pakistan would support any effort to restart the dialogue process.

Chaudhry said that there was a "trust deficit" between Pakistan and India which needs to be removed for better ties between the two nations.

"Whenever there will be talks between Pakistan and India, Kashmir will remain on top of the agenda," he added.

He also talked about the arrest of alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav, and termed it as proof of "Indian involvement" in Pakistan's internal affairs.

India has acknowledged Yadav is a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.

Chaudhry also urged the US not to attach any conditions for the sale of F-16s, after the Congress stalled the sale by refusing to authorise funding for it.

"We are making diplomatic efforts to convince the US to make the purchase of F-16 possible as Pakistan needs them in its ongoing war against terrorism," he said.

Earlier, Pakistan had said that it would look towards other countries to get the latest fighter jets if the US did not deliver the F-16s.

The foreign secretary also rejected the impression that Islamic State militants were active in Pakistan.

"Pakistani agencies are on alert in order to deal with any possible threat, which is why action has been taken against such elements," he said.

He also reiterated support for the peace process in Afghanistan but rejected the use of force against the Afghan Taliban as demanded by the Afghan president after last month's bombing in Kabul which killed over 60 people.

Chaudhry said all groups in Afghanistan should stop violence and join talks for lasting peace in the country.
Islamabad: Pakistan needs modern F-16 fighter jets for the war against terrorism but rejects the conditions the US has attached with the sale, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said on Saturday.

Chaudhry said no conditions should be attached to the sale of F-16s because Pakistan plans to use the jets only for the purpose of fighting terrorists, Dawn online reported.

The US State Department earlier this week said Pakistan will have to pay from its own funds if it wants to buy F-16 fighter jets, after the US Congress last month withdrew funds for the deal to force Islamabad to act against the Haqqani network.

Chaudhry said diplomatic efforts were underway to convince the Congress to subsidise the sale of the fighter jets.

Pakistan had earlier reached an understanding with the US for buying eight F-16 planes.

Under the deal, Pakistan was required to pay about $270 million from its national funds. The US was supposed to provide the rest from its Foreign Military Financing (FMF) fund.

Pakistan has conveyed to the US that it does not have the money to buy F-16 jets from its resources and has cautioned if the stalemate over funding was not resolved it might consider buying some other fighter aircraft to meet its needs.

Among the key reasons behind the Congressional hold were concerns that Pakistan has not taken enough action against the Haqqani network; jail sentence for Shakeel Afridi -- the physician who had cooperated with the US in tracking Osama bin Laden; and fears about Pakistani nuclear programme.
WASHINGTON Donald Trump will testify after the Nov. 8 presidential election in a class-action lawsuit that accuses him and his now-defunct Trump University of defrauding people who paid up to $35,000 for real estate seminars, the Associated Press quoted his attorney as saying on Friday.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee plans to attend the trial in a San Diego federal court set to start on Nov. 28 and would take the witness stand, AP quoted Trump lawyer Daniel Petrocelli as saying.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
ISTANBUL Turkish soldiers have killed five people in the southeastern Turkish province of Gaziantep as they were trying to cross into Syria to join Islamic State and have detained five others, the provincial governor's office said on Friday.

Gaziantep borders the Turkish province of Kilis, which has seen repeated rocket attacks from an area of Syria controlled by Islamic State.





(Reporting by Seyhmus Cakan; Writing by Seda Sezer; Editing by Louise Ireland)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
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ABC News RadioDave Matthews Band will be featured in the next installment of State Farm Neighborhood Sessions, a series of televised music specials that brings artists to their hometowns to "celebrate the power of good neighbors."

DMB's episode of Neighborhood Sessions will be filmed this Saturday, May 7 during their hometown show in Charlottesville, Virginia, which is also the first night of the group's 25th anniversary tour. The concert will air on the Turner Network later this year.

Previous Neighborhood Sessions installments have featured country star Toby Keith and Jennifer Lopez.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
News / Local

by Tendai Gukutikwa

A MUTARE man allegedly stole a motor vehicle and offered it for attachment by the Deputy Sherriff's office to clear his debt.Manica Post reported that Taurai Jozi (35) was not asked to plead to the charge of theft of a motor vehicle as defined in Section 113 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23 when he appeared in court on Tuesday.He appeared before senior Mutare magistrate, Sekai Chiundura and was remanded in custody to May 17.Chiundura advised Jozi to seek legal representation and apply for bail at the High Court if he wished to be remanded out of custody.Prosecuting, Fletcher Karombe, said during the month of August 2015, Jozi entered into a rent-to-buy agreement with the complainant that he would use Toyota Raum, Registration Number ADG5345 as a taxi, while paying him $100 per week."Jozi, however, disappeared with the motor vehicle and later resurfaced after he had offered the motor vehicle to the Deputy Sheriff for attachment to clear his debts with Jonathan Tsvangirai," said Mr Karombe.The motor vehicle was later auctioned by the Messenger of Court and it was bought by Evelyn Gudzunga.The motor vehicle was not recovered and it was valued at $3 500.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Unilever Zimbabwe and the Harare City council are reported to have engaged into partnership to refurbish public sanitation facilities in a move aimed at improving hygiene and curbing the spread of water borne diseases.Harare Residents Trust reported the developments."Unilever Zimbabwe has entered into a partnership with the City of Harare for the massive refurbishment of public sanitation facilities in a move aimed at improving hygiene and curbing the spread of water borne diseases," said the trust. "The company will today officially hand over the first of 10 public toilets renovated in 2016 to the City of Harare at Charge Office bus terminus under a project of Unilever Sustainable Living Plan."The trust said Unilever is doing a good project with a target to help people gain improved access to a toilet.
News / Local

by Stephen Jakes

Bulawayo ward 24 councillor Gideon Mangena has expressed concerns of the escalating gold panning activities at the Ncema dam in the outskirts of Bulawayo saying this would cause serious degradation and siltation.According to latest council minutes, referring to environmental Issues Councillor Mangena brought Council's attention to the degradation taking place at Ncema Dam as a result of illegal gold panning."Whilst reports confirmed that routine patrols were being conducted in the area, indications were that these panning activities occurred mainly at night to avoid detection," reads the minutes."The concern was that these activities constituted a danger to the City's water supplies, not only by way of siltation, but though possible use ofdangerous chemicals by the panners."The minutes states that there was therefore need for the Joint Operations Committee (JOC) to ensure the stepping up of patrols in this and other dams particularly at night.
This could be a transformative year in more ways than one. Not only are voters heading to the polls in six months to decide who should become the next President of the United States of America, but voters in quite a few states could be heading to their respective state polls to decide whether or not to expand the use of medical or recreational marijuana within their state.

Since California approved Prop 215 in 1996 to allow for the compassionate use of medical marijuana in select patients, the currently illicit substance at the federal level has expanded like a weed. Today, following the recent legislative approval of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, there are two dozen states that allow physicians to prescribe marijuana for medical use. Although the ailments can vary from state to state, many terminal cancers, glaucoma, and epilepsy are good examples of ailments with near universal acceptance across legal medical marijuana states.

Additionally, four states that have approved the use of recreational marijuana since 2012. The most shining example of the four has to be Colorado, which has generated more than $1 billion in legal marijuana sales (medical and recreational combined) between March. 1, 2015 and Feb. 29, 2016, and produced $135 million in tax and licensing revenue in 2015 that can be used by schools, law enforcement, and drug abuse programs.

But it's the potentially widespread expansion of marijuana in November 2016 that has supporters and investors excited. This could represent the single biggest year in terms of state approvals ever  and the more state approvals the marijuana industry logs, the more seriously lawmakers on Capitol Hill will have to consider a possible rescheduling of the marijuana plant.

Residents in these three states will absolutely be voting on legal marijuana this November

Whereas quite a few states are still mulling whether or not to add a marijuana proposal to their ballots this November, three states have already confirmed that a marijuana initiative will be on the ballot this fall.

Nevada

The only state that wasn't a surprise heading into 2016 was Nevada, which announced in November 2015 that a legal recreational marijuana initiative would be on its 2016 ballot.

Like the recreation-legal states before it, Nevada's legalization initiative, known as Question 2, would allow adults ages 21 and up to purchase up to one ounce of marijuana, and use the tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana to boost the K-12 education budget within the state. An excise tax of 15% would be enacted at the wholesale level, with existing sales taxes applying to the product at the retail level, too. Also, the state would require businesses to obtain recreational marijuana licenses, and would likely restrict the number of licenses issued.

Considering the success of Nevada's medical marijuana industry, and the fact that it's home to "Sin City," you'd think an approval would be a no-brainer. But keep in mind that even "Greenest state," Oregon, failed to win recreational marijuana approval on its first go-around in 2012.

Florida

"If it at first you don't succeed, keep on trying." This should be the motto of the medical marijuana campaign in Florida following the ever-so-close failure of a medical marijuana amendment in Nov. 2014. Because a medical marijuana program in Florida would require a change to its constitution, the amendment needed a 60% "yes" vote to pass instead of a simple majority. In 2014, 57.6% of the votes cast were in favor of its approval.

This year, as of late January, nearly 693,000 signatures had been collected by medical marijuana support groups to get an amendment on Florida's ballot this fall. The result is the Florida Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative, which is also known as Amendment 2. If approved, the Florida Department of Health would issue ID cards to eligible patients and regulate marijuana production and growing centers. Further, medical marijuana use would be limited to "debilitating" medical conditions as defined by a physician.

Florida's older, retired population tends to have a more negative view of marijuana as a whole, but the growing acceptance of medical marijuana nationwide could provide the push to legalization in November. For what it's worth, a poll released in early March from Public Policy Polling found that 65% of respondents are in favor of approving Amendment 2.

Maine

The most recent addition to the list is Maine, which announced last week that it had gathered enough signatures to get a recreational marijuana initiative, known as the Marijuana Legalization Act, on the ballot this fall.

Like other recreational marijuana states, Maine aims to legalize the sale of marijuana to adults ages 21 and up, would impose an excise tax of 10% on recreational marijuana sales, and could limit the number of licenses it issues to dispensaries within the state. What's a bit different is it would allow users to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana per the initiative. Adults may also possess up to six flowering plants in their household.

Not to sound like a broken record, but an Oct. 2015 poll from Critical Insights founds that 65% of Maine voters support the recreational approval of marijuana, the same percentage of Floridians that favor the approval of medical marijuana. As a whole, Gallup's Oct. 2015 poll found that 58% of respondents nationwide favor the legalization of marijuana.

A word of caution

Though we could be looking at a major step forward for the marijuana industry in 2016, it remains to be seen if the federal government will change its stance anytime soon, if ever.

Without the help of the federal government in rescheduling marijuana, businesses involved in the industry will continue to face a number of inherent disadvantages, including minimal access to basic banking services, such as a checking account, and will likely owe high corporate income taxes due to not being able to take normal business deductions. Legal marijuana businesses may also struggle to compete with the black market on price due to license and tax fees passed along to the consumer in the process.

In other words, success at the macro level doesn't mean investors will be coming along for the ride. Unless Capitol Hill alters its stance on marijuana, I'd suggest monitoring the industry from the sidelines.
Disney (DIS) is now a month away from cracking open Shanghai Disney to day guests, and demand for tickets and on-site lodging has been strong. Speculation will inevitably turn to where Disney's next "gate" will be, and while there will always be chatter about Disney World building a fifth theme park in Florida, or a third attraction in California, there could be a dark horse in South America.

A penny stock with interests in Colombia pushed out a press release discussing a Disney theme park in the country as if it were practically a done deal. The headline itself is pretty tantalizing:

"New Colombia Resources Announces US$10 Million Project to Build a 920,000 m3 Water Reservoir Near Walt Disney's New Theme Park in Colombia"

Wait. What? Disney has a theme park in Colombia? New Colombia Resources even tickered Disney in Wednesday's press release, assuring that Disney shareholders would be left scratching their heads as they scrolled through their ticker news feeds.

Disney doesn't naturally have a theme park in Colombia, but you would have walked away thinking that it was a near certainty after reading the press release. New Colombia Resources details how it plans to build a water reservoir, 25 miles from where a 1,200-acre theme park is supposedly being built in Girardot, Colombia.

The press release then details how the Girardot mayor announced last year that Disney executives were scouting the city for 1,200 acres to build a theme park, only to revise that later by saying that the project is being considered by Mexican investors hoping to build a Disney-like theme park.

"I don't want to make announcements for Disney, but I need to move this project forward for the benefit of the whole community," New Colombia Resources president John Campo is quoted as saying in the press release. "Our sources tell us they've sold land to Disney, which is the best kept secret in Colombia."

Could this be such a well-kept secret that even Disney doesn't know about it? To be fair, a theme park in Latin America is inevitable. Disney World is brimming with South American visitors, and Disney's cable properties are popular throughout the region. There's a wide chasm between the rich and poor through most Latin American countries, but the wealthy have a lot of money -- and the middle class is starting to grow.

However, it's odd to lean on a comment that a mayor redacted as a fait accompli. Even if Disney executives were scouting locations through Girardot -- and that's certainly possible -- they probably scout a lot of locations. When a deal with Disney is signed -- typically heavily financed by the host as we've seen in Japan, France, and China -- the media giant shouts it from the rooftops.

There will be a Disney theme park in Latin America one day. It could be in Colombia. It may very well be in Girardot. For now, it seems more like wishful thinking from a penny stock commanding a mere $3 million market cap with interests in coal, mining, medical marijuana, and other resources, weaving Disney into its press release to draw attention.
Ford Motor Company (F 2.42%) earned $3.1 billion before taxes in its North America unit in the first quarter of 2016, with a 12.9% operating profit margin.

Those are outstanding numbers. That profit was nearly double the $1.6 billion it earned in the first quarter of 2015. Ford also nearly doubled its profit in North America despite a big bump in rental-fleet sales, which led many analysts to think that its profits and margins in the region might slip year over year.

How did Ford manage that?

Ford has a lot more new F-150s to sell now than it did a year ago

Ford's chief financial officer, Bob Shanks, provided a detailed answer to that question during the Blue Oval's earnings call. His answer centered on this chart from Ford's earnings presentation, which "walks" from last year's result to the current one:

So what drove that $1.5 billion year-over-year improvement?

"As you can see here, it was higher volume, it was favorable mix, and it was lower cost performance," Shanks said. In other words, Ford's North America team was able to make improvements across the board.

Shanks went on to highlight a few of the most important details, starting with the biggest one. "If you look at the stock performance of $691 million in the callout box there for volume and mix, that is more than explained by the F-Series. This time last year, we were launching [the all-new 2015] F-150 in Kansas City. Obviously, that's behind us now, and we're operating both Dearborn and Kansas City at three crews. So that's simply reversing what was an anomaly last year and making it more normal."

The launch of the all-new-for 2015 F-150 was an extraordinarily complicated effort for Ford, in large part because the new truck's aluminum body panels required extensive reworking of the two factories that build it. The popular pickup truck is manufactured in two busy factories located in Dearborn, Michigan, and near Kansas City, Missouri. Each factory had to be shut down for roughly 12 weeks to be retooled to make the new truck. That led to months of shortages of the popular pickups, which during the first quarter of 2015 were still putting pressure on Ford's sales and profits in North America.

Now, as Shanks said, both factories are up and running at full speed nearly around the clock. Inventories are full, and sales have been strong. In other words, things are back to normal, and that's a very good thing for Ford's bottom line.

More to the story than pickup sales

But there was more to Ford's good story in the first quarter, and it involved two other products that were being launched at this time last year, the all-new versions of the Ford Edge and its Lincoln MKX sibling. "If you go into mix, mix and other, about $0.5 billion, that was actually favorable product mix," Shanks continued. "Again, that was around returning to normal with F-150, but also remember that a year ago we were launching the Oakville products, the Edge as well as the MKX. We are benefiting from the fact that that plant is now up and running. We've got normal supply of those successful products."

Here's another way to look at it: Sales of the Ford Edge were up 53% in the first quarter, and Lincoln MKX sales jumped 81%. Like other Ford and Lincoln crossover SUVs, these are very profitable products.

Shanks also wanted to explain a negative item: That $1.193 billion in "incentives/other" shown above the "net pricing" bar. Did Ford jack up its incentives to boost sales. Not quite, as Shanks explained. "If you go into the net pricing, this one is interesting. You can see the incentives and other of negative $1.2 billion. Half of that is a one-time stock accrual that is taking place and most of that, about 80% of it. Again it's driven by the anomaly of last year. Last year, because we were launching the F-150 at Kansas City, we had extremely low levels of inventory. We also had very low levels of incentives."

He added:

[I]n the first quarter this year, of course we had normal supply. The incentives, while they are still lower than our domestic competitors, they're at what we would consider to be normal levels, and so that effect is reflected in the stock adjustment. So if you think about it, that's an accounting adjustment. It didn't have any effect in the quarter in terms of what incentives were given to customers. And so, if you take that out, we actually had somewhat positive, small, but positive net pricing. And then with the favorable mix that I talked about, we ended up having higher U.S. retail transaction prices. They were up about $1,500, if you exclude lease.

Long story short: More sales of Ford's most profitable products

Here's the summary: Ford had more F-150s, Edges, and MKXs to sell in the first quarter than it did last year. Those are all very profitable, in-demand products. Having more meant that Ford was able to improve its "mix" of products sold and get year-over-year improvements in pricing. It also meant that it had to take a larger allowance for the usual incentives on those sales, particularly on the pickups -- but that was more than offset by the good gains on sales volumes and mix.
What: Shares of glass container company Owens-Illinois Inc. (OI 0.72%) jumped an impressive 15.7% in April on an upgrade from an analyst and an update on a contract dispute. The stock is up slightly in May as well on a strong earnings report.

So what: Analysts at Citigroup got the rally started last month when they upgraded it from a neutral rating to buy. Pops driven by analyst upgrades often fade over time, but there's more to this story.

The company also said it will pursue an arbitration award of $485 million it received against Venezuela, although that may be a last gasp. Management said they may not be able to receive the award and therefore won't include it on financial statements, but it's worth pursuing.

Maybe most importantly, first-quarter 2016 results were released early this month and revenue of $1.59 billion beat estimates of $1.53 billion and earnings adjusted for one-time items were $0.48, $0.08 ahead of estimates. That's helped keep the stock rising in recent days.

Now what: After six years, it may be time to put the Venezuela dispute behind Owens-Illinois, and that's at least a small piece of the rise in shares. The pursuit of funds from Venezuela has been a distraction and generated little in the way of results.

The recent earnings result and potential value in the stock are what's intriguing. Revenue was up 12% on the Vitro food and beverage acquisition, but even without it, revenue would have been flat. For a stock trading at 7.6 times forward earnings estimates, there's certainly something there for investors looking for value stocks.
Domino's Pizza failed to deliver the kind of growth the markets were expecting, but the pizzeria was able to mask the severity of the decline with an accelerated share repurchase program. Image source: haru_q

There were a lot of reasons the market didn't like Domino's Pizza's earnings report last week, not least of which was the sales growth slowdown that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Although fast casual pizza chains like Blaze Pizza and Pie Five have tickled the fancy of analysts who thought they might do for the ultimate fast food business what they did for Mexican fare and other casual dining themes, Domino's has largely plugged away and ignored the hype, turning in quarter after quarter of strong growth.

Yet its first quarter earnings reportsaid revenue grew 7.4% on domestic comparable store sales that were up 6.4%. Though better than Wall Street forecasts, that was still narrower than the10.4% sales jump it enjoyed in the year-ago quarter when domestic comps surged 14.5%.That slowdown was a surprise to investors, which knocked Domino's stock back sharply on the news.

Don't discount the impact of hamburgersForget competing pizzerias as the source of the growth slowdown. As TheStreet.com analyst Brian Sozzi surmises, it was probably another notch on the belt of the bundled meal discounts thehamburger chains rolled out in earnest earlier this year.

Wendy'skickstarted the promotional environment in October with its 4 for $4 deal, and both McDonald'sand Burger King soon followed with their own versions. Quick-serve outlets like Bojangles, Dunkin Donuts, and Jack in the Boxall laid blame for their own shortfalls at the feet of the bundled meal deals. It's not unreasonable to think consumers who were buying pizza pies also switched to the value offerings at the burger joints.

Domino's said that its per share profits still rose 10% in the quarter to $0.89, but its net income fell almost 2%. It was able to make up the difference from its accelerated share repurchase program that took 450,000 shares off the market, and over the course of its life has reduced the number of outstanding shares by 10%. That's the only reason Domino's was able to record its profit increase and indicates the quarter was much worse than what the pizza shop headline numbers might suggest.

Operating margins at company-owned stores plunged almost 25% in the period, and Domino's pointed out higher labor costs as the source of the weakness, citing in particular New York's decision to raise pay rates. Domino's company-owned stores are located in urban areas to a greater degree than itsfranchised ones.

Hurry up and waitStill, the accelerated repurchase program served to soften the blow of the disappointing results, and it might not be a concept as well understood by investors as regular stock buybacks.

Under an accelerated repurchase program, a company immediately acquires its shares from an investment bank, which borrows the stock it sells to the company either from clients or on the open market. The bank then buys shares in the open market over time to close its borrowings. The company with the ASR is able to retire those shares immediately, reducing its share count at a faster rate than if employing a traditional repurchase program, which may, in fact, get cancelled if business conditions change for the worse.

Late last October, Domino's announced the completion of a recapitalization plan that saw it borrow $1.3 billion (along with a $125 million variable facility) and use the proceeds to retire $551 million worth of debt. It also authorized a new $800 million stock buyback program to replace an existing $200 million authorization already in effect. However, the company also entered into the ASR worth $600 million -- it almost immediately retired over 4.8 million shares.

Theaccelerated repurchase plan helped Domino's reduce its outstanding share count by a total of 5.3 million shares at an average price of $112.87 per share. While the company was able to purchase the shares at a bargain (its stock currently trades at around $120 per share, even after the post-earnings dip), it also means that if you compare Domino's earnings on an apples-to-apples basis using last year's share count, the pizzeria would have only generated about $0.80 per share in earnings, not the $0.89 it reported. That would have been down from the year-ago period when the company reported $0.81 per share.

While many companies enter into accelerated share programs, investors also need to look at how it affects the bottom line numbers. The market was not happy with the pizzeria's quarterly earnings report, and the headline numbers certainly didn't paint a complete picture of the results.

The article Domino's Pizza Inc. Q1 Earnings Were Even Worse Than What You Thought originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rich Duprey has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Electric-car maker Tesla Motors shocked investors on Wednesday when, alongside its latest financial results, it announced it is doubling its already-ambitious plans for production growth. Initially, investors seemed to respond optimistically to the news, with shares rising in after-hours trading. But by the time the market opened the next day, the CEO's confidence in such a wild-growth roadmap was mostly criticized as naive and unrealistic; the stock ended the trading day down about 5%.

Should investors take Tesla's accelerated plan for production seriously? Or is it a pipe dream?

Model X production. Image source: Tesla Motors.

Forward-looking projections are always risky -- especially those involving leaps and bounds of growth. But for investors insisting on assessing Tesla's accelerated forecast's validity, a look at the company's historical production versus previous expectations would certainly be useful. So, how has Tesla lived up to its previous production goals to date?

Tesla's production execution is better than you thinkFor two years in a row, Tesla has missed its initial guidance for annual production. This has led to Tesla taking a lot of slack for being unable to live up to its growth goals. But a more holistic look at Tesla's production execution puts some meat behind management's monstrous ambitions.

First, it's important to put Tesla's recent deliveries into context. Here's how Tesla's annual deliveries since it launched Model S compared to initial guidance for each respective year:

Year Initial Guidance For Deliveries Actual Deliveries Difference (%) Growth (YOY) 2013 20,000 22,442 12.2% 671% 2014 35,000 31,655 (9.5%) 41% 2015 55,000 50,635 (7.9%) 60% 2016 80,000-90,000 ? ? 58%-78%

As this table shows, Tesla does have a track record of missing some of its production and delivery targets. But when you consider the sort of growth it is serving up investors, it would be unfair to say that ramping up production is a company weakness.

Growing deliveries by 41% and 60% in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and now planning to boost deliveries by about 68% in 2016, Tesla may have missed some targets, but its growth during these periods is downright astounding -- and beyond what any auto-industry veteran would have forecast when the company first started delivering Model S in 2012.

Second, zooming out and looking at the company's growth in vehicle deliveries, the automaker is surprisingly growing faster as its gets bigger. It would be a concern if growth was decelerating as the automaker's annual sales increase, but growth rates are accelerating.

*Asterisk indicates estimate based on management guidance."Chart source: Author.

Third, when viewed at a 10,000-foot view, the automaker was arguably on schedule with its previous plan to achieve a build rate of 500,000 vehicles by 2020. If Tesla hit the mid range of its guidance this year, it would require about 55% annualized growth in vehicle sales between the end of 2016 and its previous 2020 time frame for achieving a 500,000 unit build rate. This would actually leave room for a deceleration in the company's year-over-year growth in years beyond 2016.

Sure, Tesla has missed its production goals for two years in a row. But its overall execution in moving toward its previous 2020 target paints production growth as a company strength -- not a weakness.

But what about those Model X delays?However, investors do have reason to question Tesla. The Model X was delayed by nearly two years. Production of the all-electric SUV was supposed to begin by the end of 2014, with deliveries starting by early 2014. Instead, the first deliveries occurred in late 2015. Further, initial production of the vehicle has been more difficult than the company anticipated.

Model X. Image source: Tesla Motors.

With this sort of track record on product development and initial production of Tesla's most-recent vehicle, it does raise some concerns about Tesla's ability to actually bring the Model 3 to market in a timely manner.

For Model X, Tesla has cited too much technology, insufficient supplier capability validation, and "not having broad enough internal capability to manufacture the parts in-house," as key problems holding back initial production of Model X.

But Tesla is confident it won't make these same mistakes again. "Tesla is addressing all three root causes to ensure that these mistakes are not repeated with the Model 3 launch," the company said in an April 4 press release announcing its worse-than-expected first-quarter Model X deliveries.

Giving Tesla some credit, it's fair to say that Model X is a difficult vehicle to manufacture. With the largest piece of glass in any production vehicle, second-row seats unlike seats in any other car, self-presenting front doors, and double-hinged falcon wing doors for rear passengers, it's an impressive feat thatany automaker would build this vehicle -- let alone the newest automaker on the block.

Model 3. Image source: Tesla Motors.

If Tesla really can follow through with its promise to keep Model 3 simple enough for manufacturing to move smoothly, it's possible Tesla could surprise investors with its ability to ramp up its production. And with the Model X's wild complexity in mind, it should be fairly easy for Tesla's more-affordable car to be much simpler than its troublesome predecessor.

Tesla's huge production plans are both grandiose and speculative -- there's no way around it. But Tesla's execution in ramping up production so far makes it easier to believe Tesla can at least come close.

Yes, achieving a build rate of 500,000 vehicles per year by 2018 is going to take a lot of capital -- and probably an amount the company doesn't have. But fortunately, thanks to Tesla's lofty stock price, this cash is just an equity sale away. And if some dilution can help Tesla boost its production around fivefold over the next two to three years, I'm all for it.

The article Tesla Motors, Inc.'s 500,000 Unit Build Plan: Realistic or Not? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Daniel Sparks owns shares of Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: ExxonMobil.

Perhaps one of the hardest things about investing in general, and especially in cyclical industries such as energy, is keeping your cool while Wall Street constantly works itself into a frenzy about every little detail. Some investors are naturally good at it, but it's not in everyone's DNA. For those who aren't, you can still invest in volatile markets such as energy -- it's just better that you look for solid, steady businesses that aren't going to be wildly affected by the day-to-day tumult of the market.

We asked three of our contributors to highlight one stock they see as a company that's built for the long haul and doesn't need to be fretted over every day. Here's what they had to say.

ExxonMobil is conservatively managed, diversified, and one of the best-run oil majors. It's never cheap, but in this case it's worth paying up for quality.

For example, while many in the oil industry are worried about bankruptcy, ExxonMobil started 2016 with long-term debt at about 10% of its capital structure. It definitely didn't overextend itself in the oil boom. Even though the company recently lost its AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's, its AA+ rating is still the best in the business and could revert back to that AAA if we were to see oil and gas prices recover.

One of the reasons ExxonMobil is so well situated, however, is its basic business model. It isn't just an oil driller; it's also a refiner and chemical company. Oil's pain works to the benefit of its other businesses, because it lowers their input costs. So one side balances the other, leading to a generally smoother ride.

None of this, however, would be as enticing if it weren't also one of the best-run oil companies around. For example, it has historically led the pack in return on invested capital. Essentially, when it comes to putting your money to work, ExxonMobil earns more for you than its peers do.

So if you're looking for a well-diversified, financially stable, and well-run oil company, ExxonMobil fits the bill. Some people focus on the company's more than 30 years of annual dividend increases, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. This oil giant is definitely a sleep-well-at-night investment.

Considering the putrid performance and dividend cuts of companies in the pipeline and midstream business, you might assume you need to scour through every news release to make sure an investment in this industry doesn't blow up in your face. However, there are a select few midstream companies that don't need that sort of hand-holding, and one that really rises above the rest is Enterprise Products Partners .

Enterprise's portfolio doesn't really stand out as being anything special compared with its peers'. Rather, it's the way in which management has run this business over the past several years that makes its stand out. Instead of pursuing rapid growth, pushing payouts to shareholders at a breakneck pace, and inhaling capital like Cookie Monster, Enterprise has instead elected to focus on growing its payout at a modest 5% clip annually while retaining large chunks of operational cash flow to pay for growth. This "slow and steady" approach has allowed Enterprise to maintain a better balance sheet as well as not constantly issuing new shares to grow.

EPD Average Diluted Shares Outstanding (Quarterly) data by YCharts.

This approach has led to 47 consecutive quarters of distribution increases, and its recent earnings report suggests it will be able to keep this streak going for a while longer. Knowing that Enterprise's management have been such great stewards for investors for many years, you don't need to spend sleepless nights watching over this stock.

The oil and gas industry isn't a place where you'll find a lot of companies that are easy to invest in and not worry about. Phillips 66 is one of the few, and here are some key reasons:

Phillips 66 doesn't drill for oil or gas but buys them from producers to use in its operations.

Steady demand for its products and services means predictable cash flows.

The combination of those two points means the company is able to operate profitably in all parts of the oil and gas boom-bust cycle.

Phillips 66 has one of the best management teams in the industry, and they have proved to have steady hands in allocating capital to generate solid returns, while also managing operations through the downturn.

The company's just-announced first quarter was probably the most difficult it's faced during the downturn, with the crack spread -- which measures the price of oil and the price a company can get for the products it makes from oil -- being its narrowest in years. Yet even through this environment, the company was able to produce a $385 million profit and $722 million in cash from operations.

While profits are well down from one year ago, there's little reason to expect them to dry up. To the contrary, investments in midstream and chemicals growth will probably push them higher, even if refining profits don't rebound quickly. Add in very cheap debt and over $1.7 billion in cash on hand, and Phillips 66 is an ideal oil and gas stock to own and not have to fuss over.

The article 3 Oil and Gas Stocks You Don't Have to Babysit originally appeared on Fool.com.

Jason Hall owns shares of Phillips 66. Reuben Brewer owns shares of ExxonMobil. Tyler Crowe owns shares of Enterprise Products Partners and ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool owns shares of ExxonMobil. The Motley Fool recommends Enterprise Products Partners. 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.
News / National

by Elita Chikwati

GOVERNMENT supports the production of quail birds (zvihuta), as this improves nutrition and livelihoods of people, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said.He said Government had never banned the production of the quails, but was against poaching of wild birds and eggs.Responding to questions in Parliament on the alleged ban on production of quail birds on Wednesday, VP Mnangagwa said people had misunderstood Environment, Water and Cimate Minister, Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri."When Government has put in place legislation on something which is or is not permissible, there is a procedure that is followed. When Government bans something it is gazetted. There is no policy that is publicised only through the media, Government policy is in written form."What some people do not understand is that there are two types of quail birds."There are those that are allowed in this country and those who domesticate them and sell the eggs are doing it legally. There were others who were moving around the wild taking away quail bird eggs, we are not happy about that."There is a way of rearing quail birds commercially, carrying out your quail birds project and selling to hotels, but we do not allow people to poach quail birds in the national parks," he said.VP Mnangagwa said there was no policy that had been put in place to ban projects on quail birds."The birds are very delicious, we enjoy the quail birds," he said.Officiating at a livestock field day at Mountain Home Farm in Mazowe on Wednesday, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Deputy Minister responsible for livestock, Paddy Zhanda said domestication of quail birds was under the Livestock Production Department.He said Government supported production of the birds and this was in line with the national economic blueprint, Zim-Asset."We encourage production of the quail birds as this boosts nutrition and also improves the livelihoods."Zimbabwe has been lagging behind other countries that are producing the birds."The birds are good in terms of nutrition," he said.There had been an outcry in the country when rumours spread that Government had banned the breeding of the quail birds.The birds became popular with some people claiming that they had medicinal properties.The supposed ban made the birds popular especially on social media where the bulk of the jokes that have been circulating this week concerned the quail birds.
Image source: Pixabay.

This could be a transformative year in more ways than one. Not only are voters heading to the polls in six months to decide who should become the next President of the United States of America, but voters in quite a few states could be heading to their respective state polls to decide whether or not to expand the use of medical or recreational marijuana within their state.

Since California approved Prop 215 in 1996 to allow for the compassionate use of medical marijuana in select patients, the currently illicit substance at the federal level has expanded like a weed. Today, following the recent legislative approval of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania, there are two dozen states that allow physicians to prescribe marijuana for medical use. Although the ailments can vary from state to state, many terminal cancers, glaucoma, and epilepsy are good examples of ailments with near universal acceptance across legal medical marijuana states.

Image source: Flickr user Mark.

Additionally, four states that have approved the use of recreational marijuana since 2012. The most shining example of the four has to be Colorado, which has generated more than $1 billion in legal marijuana sales (medical and recreational combined) between March. 1, 2015 and Feb. 29, 2016, and produced $135 million in tax and licensing revenue in 2015 that can be used by schools, law enforcement, and drug abuse programs.

But it's the potentially widespread expansion of marijuana in November 2016 that has supporters and investors excited. This could represent the single biggest year in terms of state approvals ever and the more state approvals the marijuana industry logs, the more seriously lawmakers on Capitol Hill will have to consider a possible rescheduling of the marijuana plant.

Residents in these three states will absolutely be voting on legal marijuana this November Whereas quite a few states are still mulling whether or not to add a marijuana proposal to their ballots this November, three states have already confirmed that a marijuana initiative will be on the ballot this fall.

Aerial view of Las Vegas, NV. Image source: Pixabay.

NevadaThe only state that wasn't a surprise heading into 2016 was Nevada, which announced in November 2015 that a legal recreational marijuana initiative would be on its 2016 ballot.

Like the recreation-legal states before it, Nevada's legalization initiative, known as Question 2, would allow adults ages 21 and up to purchase up to one ounce of marijuana, and use the tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana to boost the K-12 education budget within the state. An excise tax of 15% would be enacted at the wholesale level, with existing sales taxes applying to the product at the retail level, too. Also, the state would require businesses to obtain recreational marijuana licenses, and would likely restrict the number of licenses issued.

Considering the success of Nevada's medical marijuana industry, and the fact that it's home to "Sin City," you'd think an approval would be a no-brainer. But keep in mind that even "Greenest state," Oregon, failed to win recreational marijuana approval on its first go-around in 2012.

Miami, FL. Image source: Pixabay.

Florida"If it at first you don't succeed, keep on trying." This should be the motto of the medical marijuana campaign in Florida following the ever-so-close failure of a medical marijuana amendment in Nov. 2014. Because a medical marijuana program in Florida would require a change to its constitution, the amendment needed a 60% "yes" vote to pass instead of a simple majority. In 2014, 57.6% of the votes cast were in favor of its approval.

This year, as of late January, nearly 693,000 signatures had been collected by medical marijuana support groups to get an amendment on Florida's ballot this fall. The result is the Florida Right to Medical Marijuana Initiative, which is also known as Amendment 2. If approved, the Florida Department of Health would issue ID cards to eligible patients and regulate marijuana production and growing centers. Further, medical marijuana use would be limited to "debilitating" medical conditions as defined by a physician.

Florida's older, retired population tends to have a more negative view of marijuana as a whole, but the growing acceptance of medical marijuana nationwide could provide the push to legalization in November. For what it's worth, a poll released in early March from Public Policy Polling found that 65% of respondents are in favor of approving Amendment 2.

Bar Harbor, ME. Image source: Pixabay.

Maine The most recent addition to the list is Maine, which announced last week that it had gathered enough signatures to get a recreational marijuana initiative, known as the Marijuana Legalization Act, on the ballot this fall.

Like other recreational marijuana states, Maine aims to legalize the sale of marijuana to adults ages 21 and up, would impose an excise tax of 10% on recreational marijuana sales, and could limit the number of licenses it issues to dispensaries within the state. What's a bit different is it would allow users to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana per the initiative. Adults may also possess up to six flowering plants in their household.

Not to sound like a broken record, but an Oct. 2015 poll from Critical Insights founds that 65% of Maine voters support the recreational approval of marijuana, the same percentage of Floridians that favor the approval of medical marijuana. As a whole, Gallup's Oct. 2015 poll found that 58% of respondents nationwide favor the legalization of marijuana.

Image source: Pixabay.

A word of cautionThough we could be looking at a major step forward for the marijuana industry in 2016, it remains to be seen if the federal government will change its stance anytime soon, if ever.

Without the help of the federal government in rescheduling marijuana, businesses involved in the industry will continue to face a number of inherent disadvantages, including minimal access to basic banking services, such as a checking account, and will likely owe high corporate income taxes due to not being able to take normal business deductions. Legal marijuana businesses may also struggle to compete with the black market on price due to license and tax fees passed along to the consumer in the process.

In other words, success at the macro level doesn't mean investors will be coming along for the ride. Unless Capitol Hill alters its stance on marijuana, I'd suggest monitoring the industry from the sidelines.

The article 3 States Where a Legal Marijuana Vote Is Guaranteed This November originally appeared on Fool.com.

Sean Williamshas no material interest in any companies mentioned in this article. You can follow him on CAPS under the screen nameTMFUltraLong, track every pick he makes under the screen name TrackUltraLong, and check him out on Twitter, where he goes by the handle@TMFUltraLong.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter servicesfree for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe thatconsidering a diverse range of insightsmakes us better investors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Source: Google.

After an up-and-down start to the year, Chinese search giant Baidu issued earnings last week that outperformed on a host of key indicators.

As we've come to expect from Baidu, revenue growth remained brisk, increasing at a healthy 31% year-over-year pace to total $2.5 billion. In keeping with its recent quarters, increased spending crimped Baidu's operating profits, which grew only 2.6% compared with the first quarter of 2015.

Either way, Baidu's earnings exceeded expectations on the top and bottom line. What's more, Baidu's guidance for second-quarter sales proved better than analysts anticipated, sending the company's shares up in after-hours trading the day of the announcement.

Let's look at what fueled Baidu's impressive performance and some of the longer-term projects the company believes represent its next game-changing growth opportunities.

Baidu's beat-and-raise quarterFor the quarter, Baidu's core platform of Internet services continued its strong performance. Total searches increased 9% year over year. Online active marketing customers totaled 587,000, a 12% increase from Q1 last year.

This historically muted pace could speak to the continued softening of the Chinese economy. However, looking to the long term, the 4.3 million plus small and medium-sized enterprises in China -- its primary market customers -- afford plenty of opportunity for continued expansion of Baidu's primary revenue driver.

In addition, non-core services such as mobile maps, and Baidu's mobile payments product, each grew users by 19% and 152%, respectively, compared with the same quarter last year.

Source: Baidu

Transaction Services -- the new name for Baidu's former O2O e-commerce businesses -- also saw the gross merchant volume grow 268% from Q1 2015, though losses in this division meaningfully eroded Baidu's bottom line.

Looking to its bottom line, GAAP and non-GAAP net income dropped 18.9% and 13.9%, respectively, compared with last year, though this decline proved softer than analysts had expected. The culprit? Baidu's numerous bets on the future of the Chinese Internet have caused the company to ramp up operational expenses in recent quarters. Case in point: Operational costs as a percentage of revenue rose 47% during the quarter. And given the commentary from Baidu's management about investing in emerging growth opportunities, investors should expect this trend to continue in coming quarters and years.

More spending to comeOn its conference call, Baidu CFO Xinzhe Li signaled that the company plans to continue to heavily invest in its two core growth opportunities in the coming years, a strategy with which I fully agree despite its likely near-term margin impacts.

Baidu's two primary future growth initiatives fall under two distinct categories. The first are Transaction Services, which include new businesses such as takeout food delivery, group buying websites, and the like.

The market for Internet-based services is exploding in China, with the space in land-grab mode among a handful of large Chinese technology companies, including Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba. However, potential payout in Transaction Services appears to justify the expense. The company believes the market will one day produce revenues between an estimated $400 billion and $1.6 trillion.

Baidu's second major investment area is something the company often refers to as AI, owing to the company's investments in artificial-intelligence research. The primary market opportunity Baidu sees with AI lies in self-driving cars, which it hopes to have on the market in China by 2018.

Unlike Transaction Services, though, Baidu seems to have less clear of a grasp on the kind of payoff it can expect from its continued spending to bring driverless cars to market in China. When asked on the conference call for his thoughts on the potential autonomous-vehicle business model, Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li said:

To be fair though, Baidu isn't the only tech company whose self-driving business model is still evolving. Search giant Alphabet doesn't have a finite business plan for its highly publicized AV efforts either.However, like Baidu's Transaction Services segment, the investment seems to make sense.

The Boston Consulting Group estimates that the self-driving car market will generate $42 billion by 2025. This seems like a fairly precise estimate for a business where it appears the majority of participants are still creating their business models. Taking a more general view, then, the global automotive market is a multitrillion-dollar market, which should provide for plenty of money for the companies that are able to successfully garner meaningful market share, even if the specifics are a bit hazy today.

In short, while Baidu's spending might seem to its detriment in the near term, the potential long-term benefits are probably worth the trade-off for its investors.

The article Baidu Beats Earnings, but the Best Is Yet to Come originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Andrew Tonner owns shares of Baidu. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Baidu. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Disney.

Disneyis now a month away from cracking open Shanghai Disney to day guests, and demand for tickets and on-site lodging has been strong. Speculation will inevitably turn to where Disney's next "gate" will be, and while there will always be chatter about Disney World building a fifth theme park in Florida, or a third attraction in California, there could be a dark horse in South America.

A penny stock with interests in Colombia pushed out a press release discussing a Disney theme park in the country as if it were practically a done deal. The headline itself is pretty tantalizing:

"New Colombia Resources Announces US$10 Million Project to Build a 920,000 m3 Water Reservoir Near Walt Disney's New Theme Park in Colombia"

Wait. What? Disney has a theme park in Colombia?New Colombia Resourceseven tickered Disney in Wednesday's press release, assuring that Disney shareholders would be left scratching their heads as they scrolled through their ticker news feeds.

Disney doesn't naturally have a theme park in Colombia, but you would have walked away thinking that it was a near certainty after reading the press release. New Colombia Resources details how it plans to build a water reservoir, 25 miles from where a 1,200-acre theme park is supposedly being built in Girardot, Colombia.

The press release then details how the Girardot mayor announced last year that Disney executives were scouting the city for 1,200 acres to build a theme park, only to revise that later by saying that the project is being considered by Mexican investors hoping to build a Disney-like theme park.

"I don't want to make announcements for Disney, but I need to move this project forward for the benefit of the whole community," New Colombia Resources president John Campo is quoted as saying in the press release. "Our sources tell us they've sold land to Disney, which is the best kept secret in Colombia."

Could this be such a well-kept secret that even Disney doesn't know about it? To be fair, a theme park in Latin America is inevitable. Disney World is brimming with South American visitors, and Disney's cable properties are popular throughout the region. There's a wide chasm between the rich and poor through most Latin American countries, but the wealthy have a lot of money -- and the middle class is starting to grow.

However, it's odd to lean on a comment that a mayor redacted as a fait accompli. Even if Disney executives were scouting locations through Girardot -- and that's certainly possible -- they probably scout a lot of locations. When a deal with Disney is signed -- typically heavily financed by the host as we've seen in Japan, France, and China -- the media giant shouts it from the rooftops.

There will be a Disney theme park in Latin America one day. It could be in Colombia. It may very well be in Girardot. For now, it seems more like wishful thinking from a penny stock commanding a mere $3 million market cap with interests in coal, mining, medical marijuana, and other resources, weaving Disney into its press release to draw attention.

The article Disney's Next Theme Park: Colombia? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rick Munarriz owns shares of Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Walt Disney. 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.
Residential solar systems in the future will need to use data to maximize energy savings. Image source: SunPower.

Why would Oracle want to spend $532 million for an energy technology company that's lost $87 million in the last two years?

The answer lies in the future of energy as we know it. Electric energy has been a one-way street since Thomas Edison invented the light bulb and the grid was first built. The vast majority of people and businesses bought energy from the centralized grid, which pushed more and more energy out to customers as demand grew.

Today, it's possible to generate your own energy on your roof, respond dynamically to energy price signals (demand response), and even buy energy directly from a community solar farm. The result is that information about where energy is being created and where it's needed is more important than ever. And that's why Oracle was willing to spend $532 million to buy Opower .

Information will rule energy in the future Oracle is really the business that makes business software work behind the scenes. You may not see Oracle as a consumer, but you probably interact with companies it services on a daily basis.

In the utility space, Oracle provides a key back end operational system for utilities that's crucial to keeping business running. Opower, on the other hand, offers front end customer engagement tools and energy efficiency products that utilities incorporate into their businesses. So the combination deepens Oracle's offerings to the industry. And the metrics Opower can offer are pretty impressive.

Opower stores and analyzes over 600 billion meter reads from 60 million utility end-customers.

10 TWh of energy, or enough to power the entire U.S. for more than a day, has been saved by Opower's efficiency products.

Opower says it reduced Exelon's peak energy usage, which is typically the most expensive for utilities, by 18%.

Together, Opower and Oracle can tell utilities a lot more about where and how energy is consumed, leading to a vast understanding of utilities.

Why is this so important? Because as distributed resources like rooftop solar, energy storage, and demand response gain more market share, the regulatory structure utilities operate under will change. Based on regulatory debates happening in California and New York, it's likely that energy will start being valued based on when and where it's needed, not just the monthly price you probably see on your bill today. Utilities will have to tell customers prices dynamically, and owned or third party energy storage systems when to store and when to deploy energy to keep the grid operating efficiently. And Oracle will be able to provide data that will make the system work.

Image source: Tesla Motors.

How disruptive companies are using data You can look at the Oracle move as a way for utilities to pull more data into their view. But companies like SolarCity , Tesla Motors , and SunPower are looking at data from a different angle.

These disruptive companies are trying to use data to find ways to add value to the grid and get paid for it. If Tesla Motors can learn where it can save a customer money on demand charges (fees based on a commercial customer's peak energy consumption each month) or demand response, it will help sell more battery systems. The company will also be using vast amounts of data on utility scale energy storage systems to decide when to store and when to deploy energy.

SolarCity and SunPower are constantly adding capability to their solar monitoring systems, including energy storage. With data, they can learn when to save energy produced in a solar system and when to use it. And that decision could change depending on the state, the utility, or even the neighborhood. How a solar+storage system works in California may differ from how one works in New York. Without vast amounts of data, these companies can't build the algorithms that will make their systems profitable for customers.

This may be a different view of data in energy than utilities have, but it's an example of how energy is entering the information age in a big way. Utilities and disruptive forces don't know exactly where data will be needed or how they're going to use it, but it's an arms race to gather as much data as possible to prepare for the next phase of the industry.

Information is the new currency in energy The future of energy is no longer about one way systems creating electricity as it's demanded and generating regulated returns -- that's the old way of thinking about electric energy.

The future will be much more about many competing forces -- both old and new -- fighting to extract as much value as they can in the energy industry. And knowing when and where to invest in energy will require a new level of information that's never been used in the industry before.

This is the electricity industry's introduction to the information age, and it's just beginning to unfold.

The article Energy is (Finally) Entering the Information Age originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium owns shares of SunPower. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends SolarCity and Tesla Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Oracle. 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.
As is so often the case with Ford, the F-150 pickup played a big part in its jump in profits in the first quarter. But the F-150 wasn't the only player in the story. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

Ford Motor Company earned $3.1 billion before taxes in its North America unit in the first quarter of 2016, with a 12.9% operating profit margin.

Those are outstanding numbers. That profit was nearly double the $1.6 billion it earned in the first quarter of 2015. Ford also nearly doubled its profit in North America despite a big bump in rental-fleet sales, which led many analysts to think that its profits and margins in the region might slip year over year.

How did Ford manage that?

Ford has a lot more new F-150s to sell now than it did a year agoFord's chief financial officer, Bob Shanks, provided a detailed answer to that question during the Blue Oval's earnings call. His answer centered on this chart from Ford's earnings presentation, which "walks" from last year's result to the current one:

Image source: Ford Motor Company.

So what drove that $1.5 billion year-over-year improvement?

"As you can see here, it was higher volume, it was favorable mix, and it was lower cost performance," Shanks said. In other words, Ford's North America team was able to make improvements across the board.

Shanks went on to highlight a few of the most important details, starting with the biggest one. "If you look at the stock performance of $691 million in the callout box there for volume and mix, that is more than explained by the F-Series. This time last year, we were launching [the all-new 2015] F-150 in Kansas City. Obviously, that's behind us now, and we're operating both Dearborn and Kansas City at three crews. So that's simply reversing what was an anomaly last year and making it more normal."

The launch of the all-new-for 2015 F-150 was an extraordinarily complicated effort for Ford, in large part because the new truck's aluminum body panels required extensive reworking of the two factories that build it. The popular pickup truck is manufactured in two busy factories located in Dearborn, Michigan, and near Kansas City, Missouri. Each factory had to be shut down for roughly 12 weeks to be retooled to make the new truck. That led to months of shortages of the popular pickups, which during the first quarter of 2015 were still putting pressure on Ford's sales and profits in North America.

Ford has more F-150s available now than it did in the first quarter of last year, when it was still ramping up its factory in Kansas City. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

Now, as Shanks said, both factories are up and running at full speed nearly around the clock. Inventories are full, and sales have been strong. In other words, things are back to normal, and that's a very good thing for Ford's bottom line.

More to the story than pickup salesBut there was more to Ford's good story in the first quarter, and it involved two other products that were being launched at this time last year, the all-new versions of the Ford Edge and its Lincoln MKX sibling. "If you go into mix, mix and other, about $0.5 billion, that was actually favorable product mix," Shanks continued. "Again, that was around returning to normal with F-150, but also remember that a year ago we were launching the Oakville products, the Edge as well as the MKX. We are benefiting from the fact that that plant is now up and running. We've got normal supply of those successful products."

Supplies -- and sales -- of the popular and profitable Ford Edge were up big in the first quarter. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

Here's another way to look at it: Sales of the Ford Edge were up 53% in the first quarter, and Lincoln MKX sales jumped 81%. Like other Ford and Lincoln crossover SUVs, these are very profitable products.

Shanks also wanted to explain a negative item: That $1.193 billion in "incentives/other" shown above the "net pricing" bar. Did Ford jack up its incentives to boost sales. Not quite, as Shanks explained. "If you go into the net pricing, this one is interesting. You can see the incentives and other of negative $1.2 billion. Half of that is a one-time stock accrual that is taking place and most of that, about 80% of it. Again it's driven by the anomaly of last year. Last year, because we were launching the F-150 at Kansas City, we had extremely low levels of inventory. We also had very low levels of incentives."

He added:

Long story short: More sales of Ford's most profitable productsHere's the summary: Ford had more F-150s, Edges, and MKXs to sell in the first quarter than it did last year. Those are all very profitable, in-demand products. Having more meant that Ford was able to improve its "mix" of products sold and get year-over-year improvements in pricing. It also meant that it had to take a larger allowance for the usual incentives on those sales, particularly on the pickups -- but that was more than offset by the good gains on sales volumes and mix.

The article How Ford Doubled Its Profits in North America originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Rosevear owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image: Middleby.

Millions of people across the globe have gotten increasingly interested in getting the most out of the food they eat, and Middleby has cashed in on that trend with its commercial and household kitchen equipment. Even though some investors have been concerned about the sustainability of the company's growth, Middleby has been able to keep making progress, and coming into its first-quarter financial report, Middleby investors hope that the company will stay on track to take advantage of the opportunities it has. Let's take an early look at how Middleby has fared and whether it can keep up positive momentum in its earnings report.

Stats on Middleby

Expected EPS Growth 5% Expected Revenue Growth 27% Forward Earnings Multiple 20.5 Expected 5-Year Annualized Growth Rate 22%

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Middleby earnings stay on the rise? In recent months, investors have grown less confident about Middleby earnings, reducing their first-quarter views by more than a nickel per share and making cuts of between 2% and 7% to their full-year 2016 and 2017 projections. The stock has bounced back from its recent lows, however, climbing 24% since early February.

Middleby's fourth-quarter results got the kitchen-equipment maker moving back in the right direction. Sales climbed 23%, and although GAAP earnings fell from year-ago levels, the company's adjusted earnings topped the consensus forecast by 15%. Much of the pick-up in sales came from the strong growth of the company's Residential Kitchen Equipment group, and that was led by acquisition-related gains without which Middleby's residential divisions would have lost ground on the top line. By adding brands like AGA Rangemaster and Viking into the mix, Middleby was able to put into place some positive moves that will cut costs and enhance profitability in the long run.

For a while during the first quarter, it appeared as though Middleby would be involved in yet another substantial acquisition. Investment company KKR had announced in March that it planned to arrange for the sale of coffee-machine maker WMF in a deal with an estimated value of about $1.7 billion. Several manufacturers of household appliances and private equity investors had expressed interest in WMF, and Middleby was named as one of the companies that were expected to bid. Speculation included the potential for multiple bidders to join up and basically split up the parts of WMF. As of late April, however, Middleby was not on a list of remaining participants in making takeover bids, including companies from China and Europe that included Swedish company Electrolux. No final deal has been announced, but it appears that Middleby might end up on the outside looking in at WMF. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, given the difficulties that some makers of coffee machines have had recently in navigating the U.S. market.

Still, Middleby has work to do on the businesses it already has under its corporate umbrella. In its conference call after last quarter's earnings, CEO Selim Bassoul noted that the company was "still reeling from the impact of the [Viking] product recall on a product that we did not inherit." Even though that happened a year ago, Middleby has struggled to get dealers comfortable with the Viking name again. That has been a challenge, but it is also a big opportunity if Middleby is successful in building up confidence from the dealers in its distribution channels once more.

In the Middleby report, watch closely to see what Bassoul and his team say about Viking and other major initiatives that are going on. Favorable trends are still present throughout the industry, so it will be important for Middleby to prove that it still has its finger on the pulse of the sector and can take full advantage of opportunities for growth.

The article Middleby Aims to Keep Moving Forward originally appeared on Fool.com.

Dan Caplinger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Middleby. 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.
SOURCE: FLICKR USER STOCKMONKEYS.COM.

Pfizer updated investorson its first-quarter performance earlier this week, and the results were good enough to have me thinking that value, income, and growth investors all ought to consider owning it in portfolios. Here's why.

A compelling valuePfizer's first-quarter earnings report included an increase in its profit guidance for 2016 that keeps a lid on its valuation. Thanks to rising demand for its cancer drug Ibrance, a lower tax rate, and better-than-hoped cost savings associated with last year's acquisition of Hospira, management thinks that Pfizer will deliver adjusted EPS of at least $2.38 in 2016. That's nicely higher than the $2.20 per share the company expected previously, and it marks an 8% improvement over the company's profit per share in 2015.

Based on this new guidance, the company's current P/E ratio stands at an arguably attractive 14.2, and that's far south of the S&P 500's P/E ratio of 23.7. Also, now that industry watchers have bumped up their 2017 EPS forecast to $2.57 per share from $2.52 seven days ago, Pfizer's forward P/E ratio is lower than peers Bristol-Myers Squibb (22.36 times), Merck & Co. (14.2 times), and Johnson & Johnson (16 times).

PFE P/E Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts.

A path to dividend growthIncome investors also got insight into Pfizer's plans now that its proposed $160 billion tie up with Allergan has dissolved. The company already returned $1.9 billion to investors via its dividend last quarter, but there could be plenty of financial firepower kicking around in the future to increase that amount meaningfully.

CEO Ian Reed reiterated the potential to spin-out its established products business. Given the company's ongoing cash generation, Pfizer's coffers should continue to overflow beyond their current $100 billion-plus levels.

Additionally, while the company's bottom line won't get the benefit of an Irish address for tax purposes, the company expects to generate $1 billion in synergies from its Hospira acquisition, up from prior estimates for $800 million in savings.

Given Pfizer's rock-solid balance sheet and a return to rewarding income investors with rising dividend payments over the past five years, there's little reason for dividend-hungry investors to forgo Pfizer for another option. Currently, Pfizer's dividend yield is 3.56%, and in my view, the company's future opportunities make that yield one of the most compelling in all of big pharma.

PFE Dividends Paid (TTM) data by YCharts.

Back to growthFollowing the loss of patent exclusivity on its mega-billion-dollar blockbuster Lipitor in 2011, growth investors took Pfizer off their watch list years ago. However, the company has delivered six-consecutive quarters of stand-alone growth, so it may be time for growth investors to begin warming up to the company again.

During the company's conference call, management increased its outlook for revenue this year by $2 billion -- to between $51 billion to $53 billion. That's up from the $49 billion to $51 billion previously expected, and a big reason for higher guidance is growing demand for Pfizer's products.

Specifically, growing demand for drugs, including Ibrance and the anticoagulant Eliquis, represents $1 billion of the $2 billion increase in forecast sales. In Q1, Ibrance sales surged to $429 million from just $38 million a year ago, which resulted in Pfizer's total oncology revenue growing 95% ex-currency versus last year.

Similarly, doctors are increasingly transitioning patients away from warfarin to factor Xa anticoagulants such as Eliquis. As a result, alliance revenue in the company's innovative products business segment soared 80% ex-currency, to $354 million, in the quarter.

Pfizer's opportunity in biosimilars is another reason why growth investors ought to be paying attention. Roughly $100 billion in sales of existing biologics could be put in play over the next few years as patents expire on some of the world's top-selling medicine, and Pfizer's purchase of Hospira positions it to be a biosimilars leader.

Hospira gave Pfizer a slate of biosimilar drugs, including Inflectra, a biosimilar to the multibillion dollar blockbuster autoimmune disease drug Remicade. Last year, Inflectra launched in Europe, and that led to Pfizer reporting $66 million in biosimilars sales during Q1. In April, the FDA cleared Inflectra's use in the U.S., and given Pfizer targets a launch in this important market later this year, sales should continue marching higher.

Looking aheadPfizer is one of the globe's biggest drugmakers, and after years of struggling to overcome headwinds resulting from the loss of exclusivity on Lipitor, it appears the company has finally turned the corner corner. Given management's sales and earnings projections, and its commitment to returning money to investors, I believe buying Pfizer's stock can be considered by any style of investor.

The article Pfizer, Inc.'s First-Quarter Results: A Little Something for Everyone originally appeared on Fool.com.

Todd Campbell has no position in any stocks mentioned.Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. Like this article? Follow him onTwitter where he goes by the handle@ebcapitalto see more articles like this.The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Johnson & Johnson. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
IMAGE SOURCE: PTC THERAPEUTICS.

What:After the U.K.'s healthcare watchdog gave the company's Translarna its blessing last month, shares of PTC Therapeutics gained 9.7%, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

So what: The commercial-stage company markets Translarna for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in Europe, and in mid-April, management reported that it had cleared an important hurdle with regulators in England. Specifically, theNational Institutes for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)recommended Translarna for ambulatory patients age five years and older with nonsense mutation DMD.

DMD is a tough-to-treat muscle-wasting disease that is caused by a lack of production of dystrophin, a key protein for muscle building. In patients with nonsense mutations, Translarna allows for the production of functional dystrophin. That's important because there are no other approved drugs to treat DMD in Europe, Absent treatment, DMD patients suffer muscle wasting that significantly shortens their average lifespan. Typically, most patients succumb to their disease by their 30s.

Now what: Although Translarna won approval in Europe in late 2014, negotiations must be done with individual member countries before it can be launched there. Therefore, this recommendation by NICE indicates that PTC Therapeutics is making headway in getting Translarna on the market in England.

Nonsense mutations are thought to occur in roughly 13% of DMD patients, and there are only about 50,000 DMD patients in developed countries. In the U.K., about 250 boys are diagnosed with DMD annually and roughly 2,500 people are diagnosed with DMD. Thus, a launch in this market could boost Translarna's addressable patient population by 325 patients. According to NICE, the list price for Translarna is roughly $318,000 per year. PTC Therapeutics will agree to a substantial price cut to open up access to this market, but how much of a discount they offer is anyone's guess. Regardless, this market could still add tens of millions of dollars in annual sales to the company's top line.

Despite this opportunity in England, investors might want to approach this stock cautiously. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration opted against reviewing Translarna for approval in the United States.

Nevertheless, sales of Translarna are growing quickly. The company reported $33.7 million in sales last year, and this week it reported sales of $18.9 million in Q1 2016. That represents a 49% increase versus Q4 and puts the drug on track to deliver on management's guidance for sales of at least $65 million in 2016.

Given that the company's market cap is only a bit north of $200 million and sales are heading significantly higher, there could be reason for risk-tolerant investors to consider owning this stock. However, anyone who does take the leap will need to remember that operating expenses are still expected to total more than $185 million. That means that there's still a lot of work to be done before this company is profitable.

The article This Caused a 9.7% Pop in PTC Therapeutics' Shares in April originally appeared on Fool.com.

Todd Campbell has no position in any stocks mentioned.Todd owns E.B. Capital Markets, LLC. E.B. Capital's clients may have positions in the companies mentioned. Like this article? Follow him onTwitter where he goes by the handle@ebcapitalto see more articles like this.The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Starbucks has placed a big bet on the Chinese market.

While other companies manufacture in China or sell their products there, the coffee chain has a large and fast-growing physical presence in the country. In fact, CEO Howard Schultz said in a January 2016 interview withThe Wall Street Journal that the chain, which already has 2,000 stores in the market, would add another 500 each year for the next five years.

That would make China, which is already the company's second largest market -- bigger than all of Europe for the coffee chain, by store count and revenue. It would still be only about a third the size of the chain's United States operations, but it's clear Schultz sees the country as pivotal for driving growth.

Currently, Starbucks has made a big bet on China's growth, but more than doubling that over the next five years exposes the company to any potential slowdowns in the market. And, because the coffee chain sells a premium product, it may be more exposed than other American companies like Yum! Brands, which has more locations (7,176 as of its Q4 earnings report).

Starbucks plans to have over 4,500 stores in China. Image source: Starbucks.

Starbucks is all inSchultz has been bullish about the Chinese market, and his remarks during the company's 2016 annual shareholders's meeting show the depth of his commitment.

"We've been in China now for 17 years. Many people think it's an overnight success. The truth of the matter is that we actually lost money in China for a number of consecutive years," he said according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the event. "During that time, there were a lot of cynics, a lot of doubters that perhaps we were not going to make it in China and today I am so proud to tell you that we are sitting in China with 2,000 Starbucks stores in 100 cities, and China has become one of the most important and successful businesses around the world for Starbucks Coffee Company."

How good are the numbers?Schultz has good reason to be excited about the company's prospects in China, and it's fair to say that any economic downturn has not hurt its performance. In Q2 2016, Starbucks reported net revenue of $667.9 million for its China/Asia Pacific segment. That's 14% growth over the same period last year. That was driven largely by the chain opening 884 new stores during the previous 12 months.

Comparable-store sales were good as well, growing 3% over the previous year. The company also saw its operating margin expand by 20 basis points to 19.1% "primarily due to sales leverage and higher income from our joint venture operations," according to the earnings release. That expansion was "partially offset by the impact of foreign currency and increased store operating expenses related to higher compensation and benefits," the company added.

In comparison, Yum! reported 2% same-store sales growth for its China division in Q4 and a 4% decline for the full year.

Schultz is not worriedWhile a full-scale economic collapse in China would obviously hurt Starbucks, Yum!, or any other company operating within the country's borders, an ongoing slowdown may not. That's because in tough economic times, people deny themselves big-ticket items. They give up vacations and stop buying jewelry, expensive clothes, and other non-necessities. Starbucks, however, sells affordable luxuries. Its coffee may be expensive compared to making it yourself, but it's a reasonable treat for someone struggling to make ends meet, putting off larger indulgences.

Schultz does not seem worried at all, and during a January trip to China, he said he expects it to become Starbucks' largest market,The Wall Street Journalreported. He also downplayed any fears of the slowing economy.

"We have confidence in the future of the Chinese economy, despite all the rhetoric, noise and issues," said Schultz, who is visiting China this week. "People are looking for reasons not to believe. I'm on the ground and I see firsthand. I am bullish."

Barring a full-on economic disaster in the company, it seems likely Schultz is right. His company has significant exposure, but its product line is well-suited to weather slowing economic growth by selling Chinese consumers lattes to make them feel optimistic during downturns and celebratory espresso drinks when things improve.

The article What China's Slowing Economic Growth Means for Starbucks originally appeared on Fool.com.

Daniel Kline has no position in any stocks mentioned. He hopes to someday tour Starbucks locations around the world. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Starbucks. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The big question is how many new customers SolarCity made happy this quarter.

Residential and commercial solar giantSolarCity Corp. is set to release earnings on May 9, and the market is jittery. The stock price falling more than 10% in successive trading days following news that competitorVivint SolarCEO was stepping down abruptly and unexpectedly on May 4, and a renewed public attack on SolarCity by noted short-seller Jim Chanos on May 5.

SolarCity is also in the midst of shifting away from high-cost growth to a more balanced attempt to grow with lower costs and better cash flows, and is coming off an unexpectedly poor sales quarter. It's somewhat understandable the market is skittish, even if a 20%-plus beat-down on essentially nothing material is a bit overdone.

With first-quarter earnings coming up on May 9, here's a closer look at the key things investors should watch for.

What will the growth look like?The guidance SolarCity issued for Q1 and full fiscal year 2016 is a tale of two very different numbers. Management said it expects to grow MW installed -- a key metric in addition to revenue, since recurring revenue from each MW installed will drive sales for up to 20 years -- more than 40% for the full year, but to only expect 18% growth in the first quarter.

This was disappointing on two levels. To start, shareholders had become accustomed to a SolarCity that was growing at more like80%per year, so even the 40% growth rate for the full year was a big disappointment to the market when it was announced. But only 18% for Q1 felt a pretty weak start to the year.

Here's some context.

It may feel like a million years ago, but don't forget that a major event happened just before Q4 earnings: The residential solar industry in Nevada was essentially killed by regulation changes, causing SolarCity to cease operations in the state, which was considered to be one of the best growth markets for residential solar in the country. Short version: The weak guidance for Q1 was in a large way based on the evaporation of a significant portion of the company's pipeline of business almost overnight. But management remains convinced that it can still grow by 44% in 2016, installing 1.25 GW of solar.

Frankly, it's incredibly hard to say what to expect for Q1 growth. On one hand, management has been particularly bad at forecasting quarterly results in the past. On the other hand, 18% seems like a lay-up even with the loss of Nevada. Whatever the result, expect CEO Lyndon Rive to offer a pretty in-depth analysis of the business on the earnings call and in his shareholder letter.

Continued focus on cost improvementOne metric the company regularly touts is its cost-per-watt, which shows how much the company's operating structure impacts its ability to make a profit:

Image source: SolarCity.

And while (as the slide above shows) its total cost per watt has generally been falling for the past two-plus years, its sales expense has actually increased since 2014. Much of that expense has been necessary, as the company has invested in new markets, and had to take on significant expense to train and deploy new sales and marketing teams in those markets,

But at the same time, management has made it a clear goal to achieve positive free cash flows by the end of 2016, and that means that the company's rate of cost increases -- particularly in sales expense -- must slow, along with installation and general and administrative expenses.

Don't mistakeslowedexpense growth withnoexpense growth. SolarCity will most definitely spend more money on sales and marketing in 2016 than 2015. But therateof that increase is expected to decrease, and ideally should increase at a lower rate than revenue growth, in order for sales cost-per-watt to decrease.

Will we see this number decline in Q1? Frankly, the uncertainty around the first quarter's guidance makes this uncertain, particularly if you follow the trend in the slide above: Historically, Q1 costs-per-watt have been sequentiallyhigher than Q4, though they've trended lower versus the year-before quarter. It's likely that we see a similar result this year, particularly with the expected weak sales growth the company guided to.

Looking ahead: Keep the big picture in view, tooWhile it's a terrible idea to dismiss poor results -- if that's what SolarCity delivers -- out of hand as an aberration, make sure to consider whatever results the company turns in within the greater context of a quickly evolving residential and commercial solar landscape.

Will SolarCity deliver better growth than the 18% guidance? Will it succeed in bringing its costs down? While both numbers matter, the context around the actual results -- two things we won't have before next week -- matters as much as what those results are. Whether the company delivers on those two things this quarter or not, they remain hugely important drivers for SolarCity's future prospects.

Image source: SolarCity.

The article Which SolarCity Corp. Will Show Up for Earnings? Here's What to Watch originally appeared on Fool.com.

Jason Hall owns shares of SolarCity. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends SolarCity. 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.
News / National

by Staff Reporter

A 21-YEAR-OLD Malawian man yesterday appeared in court after he was caught with a snake in Harare's CBD intending to take it to a traditional healer in South Africa.Jafali M'Mbwana of Mangitshi Township, Malombe District, was charged for contravening the Immigration Act and the Parks and Wildlife Act when he appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Elijah Makomo.He pleaded guilty to the charges saying he intended to take the snake to South Africa.Mr Makomo found M'Mbwana guilty of the first count and sentenced him to 20 days imprisonment before suspending the sentence on condition that he be immediately deported.He also slapped him with a one month jail term on the second count before suspending it for three years on condition that he does not commit a similar offence in the next three years.Allegations were that on May 1, at around 4pm, a police officer from Harare Central was on patrol at Road Port near Fourth Street Bus Terminus when he saw people gathering around M'Mbwana.The court heard that the police officer went to investigate why people were gathering around M'Mbwana and found that he had a cobra in his bag.The police officer arrested M'Mbwana and took him to Harare Central Police Station. Upon arrival, the controller asked M'Mbwana to open the bag and he showed him the snake.It is the State's case that the police officers also discovered that M'Mbwana had no valid passport.The court heard that the snake was handed over to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife who valued it at $100.
Image source: Alphabet.

Last year, the tech buzzword du jour might have beenthe "Internet of Things." If the first few months of 2016 are any indicator, self-driving cars seem to be in pole position for this year's new, new thing.

Recently, tech colossus Alphabet Inc.'s Google announced a partnership with automaker Fiat Chrysler to produce an inevitable byproduct of the coming shift to autonomous vehicles -- self-driving minivans.

Soccer moms worldwide, rejoice!

Chrysler plus GoogleIn a press release last week, Fiat Chrysler announced it had reached an agreement with Google to expand Google's self-driving test program to include the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. The deal is significant for investors as it marks the first time Google has agreed to directly collaborate in its self-driving vehicle efforts with a major automobile manufacturer. Specifically, Google and Fiat Chrysler will jointly design and outfit roughly 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans with Google's proprietary self-driving technology, which should effectively double the company's current self-driving vehicle fleet.

According to John Krafcik, the CEO of Google's Self-Driving Car Project: "The opportunity to work closely with FCA [Fiat Chrysler Automobiles] engineers will accelerate our efforts to develop a fully self-driving car that will make our roads safer and bring everyday destinations within reach for those who cannot drive."

Potential safety benefits have been heavily emphasized when automakers and tech companies argue the case for autonomous vehicles (AVs), and this announcement is no different. The press release notes that roughly 33,000 car-accident deaths occur in the U.S. each year, an estimated 94% of which happen because of human error, andself-driving vehicles could prevent some of these deaths.

Image source: Fiat Chrysler.

To help the collaborative effort, both Google and Fiat Chrysler will relocate their respective engineering teams to a presently undisclosed location in southeastern Michigan, which, for those without a map handy,is roughly the location of Detroit.

Still figuring it outInvestors cheered late last month when several well-regarded tech websites published articles claiming Alphabet was "close" to spinning out its self-driving cars from X (its secret project development arm), into a stand-alone piece of the company's "Other Bets" reporting segment.

The same reports suggest that divisions classified as stand-alone Other Bets are expected to be on track to generate revenue, the implication being that Google's Self-Driving Car Projectmight also meet this criterion. I don't necessarily buy this line of reasoning. Alphabet has publicly stated that, as of the end of 2015, only three of its (at least) seven Other Bets generate meaningful revenue, though the number of total Other Bets could be considerably higher.

From an analyst's perspective, things are less clear when discussing the financial implications for the companies involved. Case in point: both Alphabet, and Chinese search power Baidu, which also has big plansin AVs, have publicly statedthey have no idea how their eventual AV business models will function.

At this point, investors are left to presume, as the companies themselves appear to be doing, that there's money to be made in self-driving cars, even if no one can pinpoint the exact method of monetization yet.

Though it doesn't necessarily inspire a lot of confidence, this assumption seems fair. Leading global consultancy Boston Consulting Group estimates the self-driving automobile market will create a $42 billion economic opportunity by 2025. More broadly, the auto industry generates trillions of dollars in revenue every year.

So while the Google-Fiat Chrysler partnership should help accelerate both companies' AV development efforts, we could still be a way off from seeing the potential financial impact from tech's next big thing.

The article Why Google's Fiat Chrysler Partnership Should Matter to Investors originally appeared on Fool.com.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fools board of directors. Andrew Tonner owns shares of Baidu. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), and Baidu. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Las Vegas Sands.

What: Shares of gaming giant Las Vegas Sands Corp. fell 12.6% in April, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, after Macau reported weak gaming numbers and the company reported earnings that failed to impress investors.

So what: The first disappointment was the failure of Macau to grow its gaming revenue. There was a theory early in the year that Macau may be hitting a bottom and may recover by the end of 2016, but March showed a 16.3% drop in gaming revenue from a year earlier to $2.25 billion, and April's revenue fell further still.

More consequential was the first-quarter earnings report, which showed a 9.8% decline in revenue to $2.72 billion and a 37.5% drop in earnings to $320.2 million. Both figures fell short of expectations, and the stock dropped double digits the day after earnings came out. In my earnings recap, I argue that Las Vegas Sands actually outperformed the Macau market as a whole, and the "disappointing" results were really just Wall Street's inaccurate guess at earnings for the quarter.

Now what: Gaming stocks in general slid in April, and depending on what Macau reports from its gaming market, that up-and-down nature will likely continue throughout the year. But investors should keep in mind that Las Vegas Sands is a market leader in Macau, Singapore, and Las Vegas, something no other company can say. And even the weak results in Macau leave the company gushing with cash flow.

I think Las Vegas Sands is still well-positioned to benefit from the long-term growth in Asia's economy and Asians' desire to gamble. The path to growth may be choppy, but at the end of the day this is one of the best gaming companies on the market, and I think the current decline in the stock price will be temporary.

The article Why Las Vegas Sands Corp. Shares Dropped 12.6% in April originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Image source: Owens-Illinois.

What: Shares of glass container company Owens-Illinois Inc. jumped an impressive 15.7% in April on an upgrade from an analyst and an update on a contract dispute. The stock is up slightly in May as well on a strong earnings report.

So what: Analysts at Citigroup got the rally started last month when they upgraded it from a neutral rating to buy. Pops driven by analyst upgrades often fade over time, but there's more to this story.

The company also said it will pursue an arbitration award of $485 million it received against Venezuela, although that may be a last gasp. Management said they may not be able to receive the award and therefore won't include it on financial statements, but it's worth pursuing.

Maybe most importantly, first-quarter 2016 results were released early this month and revenue of $1.59 billion beat estimates of $1.53 billion and earnings adjusted for one-time items were $0.48, $0.08 ahead of estimates. That's helped keep the stock rising in recent days.

Now what: After six years, it may be time to put the Venezuela dispute behind Owens-Illinois, and that's at least a small piece of the rise in shares. The pursuit of funds from Venezuela has been a distraction and generated little in the way of results.

The recent earnings result and potential value in the stock are what's intriguing. Revenue was up 12% on the Vitro food and beverage acquisition, but even without it, revenue would have been flat. For a stock trading at 7.6 times forward earnings estimates, there's certainly something there for investors looking for value stocks.

The article Why Shares of Owens-Illinois Inc. Popped 16% in April originally appeared on Fool.com.

Travis Hoium has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
VW, still reeling from a massive emissions-cheating scandal, now faces pressure from an activist investor demanding major changes in the way its executives are paid. Image source: Volkswagen

A prominent activistinvestor is taking aim at Volkswagen : London-based hedge fund TCI Fund Management, described by Financial Timesas "Europe's most aggressive activist investor",has accused the German automaker of "corporate excess on an epic scale" and demanded changes in the way its executives are compensated.

"A major corporate governance problem" at VWIn a letter addressed to VW's executive and supervisory boards, TCI -- which claimed "economic exposure to more than 2% of the company," and said that it has been a VW shareholder for more than four years -- said that VW's stock performance and management "have been constant disappointments"

"We believe there is potential for massive profit and cashflow expansion at VW," the letter said. "However, over the past five years the company has been held back by underperforming and overpaid management. With a new management team in place we want to express formally what we expect from the company and how management should be paid going forward."

TCI noted that the mid-point of VW's full-year operating profit guidance for 2016 is 11.3 billion euros, equivalent to its 2011 operating profit -- hence no growth, despite the fact that VW acquired sports-car maker Porsche and its 3 billion-plus euros of annual operating profit during that period. But, it said, "in that six-year period, the nine members of the Board of Management will have been paid around 400 million euros. That is corporate excess on an epic scale. Management has been rewarded for failure".

TCI's letter cited several reasons why it feels that VW executives have been overpaid:

VW has far more employees (and thus less revenue and profit per employee) than do rivals such as Toyota . Excluding China, VW's sales volumes have risen 6% since 2011, but its headcount has risen 33%, and its wage bill has increased 50% from 24 billion euros to 36 billion euros.

. Excluding China, VW's sales volumes have risen 6% since 2011, but its headcount has risen 33%, and its wage bill has increased 50% from 24 billion euros to 36 billion euros. VW reported a loss in 2015, but the 12 members of the board of management were paid 63 million euros -- while shareholders were paid just 68 million euros in dividends. "That is a disgrace. Clearly the company has a major corporate governance problem," the letter said.

The executive bonus plan is linked in part to the performance of the company. But "[t]he floor in operating profit below which no bonus is paid is set at only 5 billion euros. This is farcical for a company that generates over 200 billion euros in revenues and owns the hugely profitable Porsche, Audi and Scania brands, which generate 10 billion euros of EBIT between them. Bonuses are therefore effectively guaranteed irrespective of VW Brand performance."

Needless to say, TCI wants that to change. TCI's letter demands a more transparent compensation system with clear targets that are made known to investors and that will be a "stretch" to hit. And, it said, bonuses should be paid in stock and deferred over three years, to give executives more direct exposure to VW's stock performance (and thus incentive to improve it.)

What TCI is demanding is all good corporate-governance stuff. But it faces a big roadblock to pressing its demands: Nearly all of VW's voting shares are held by investors who may well be just fine with the status quo.

Why sparking a shareholder revolt at VW is an unlikely strategyVW has two classes of stock, which it refers to as "ordinary" and "preferred". Somewhat confusingly, the "preferred" shares are the ones that are widely traded, and that are a constituent of Germany's benchmark DAX Index -- but they have no voting rights.

Only the "ordinary" shares have voting rights, and almost 90% of those are controlled by three big shareholders: The founding Porsche-Piech family (52.2%), the German state of Lower Saxony (20%) and Qatar's sovereign-wealth fund (17%). Only 10.8% are held by "others."

(Lower Saxony's interest, incidentally, seems mostly to be in making sure that VW employs as many people in the state as possible. Combine that influence with the fact that labor representatives have a powerful voice on VW's supervisory board, and it's easy to see why VW has so many more employees than its global peers.)

In other words: Good luck trying to force big changes at VW without buy-in from the Porsche-Piech family.

How TCI may be planning to put VW under pressure VW will hold an open meeting of shareholders this summer. TCI may be laying the groundwork for a loud protest at that meeting, hoping to shame Porsche-Piech family representatives into pressuring CEO Matthias Mueller to make significant changes.

What angle will it take? That was signaled in its letter: "We believe that excessive top management compensation, unlinked to transparent metrics and paid in cash with no vesting or deferral, has encouraged aggressive management behavior, contributing to the diesel emission scandal."

TCI has a reputation as a tenacious (and successful) activist investor. There will be more to come with this story. If you've been considering an investment in beaten-up VW shares, watch this one closely.

The article Why Volkswagen Shareholders Are Fuming Over Executive Pay originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Rosevear has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright 1995 - 2016 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, the top Republicans in the United States, plan to meet next week to try to unite their party, with both men focused on the Nov. 8 presidential election, but the Wisconsin congressman also perhaps looking further ahead.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Ryan has invited Trump, this year's likely Republican presidential nominee, to meet on Thursday with Ryan and other congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, Ryan's office said in a statement on Friday.

A key part of the conversation is sure to be Trump's combative, in-your-face campaign persona and Republican leaders' requests for him to tone it down, but political analysts said Ryan will have other considerations in mind, as well.

One issue is likely to be his own future, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginias Center for Politics.

Ryan, 46, lost his 2012 campaign for vice president as Mitt Romney's running mate. Ryan probably has serious doubts that Trump, like Romney, can win this year, Sabato said.

If so, Ryan will want to find a balance between accepting Trump, 69, as the nominee and keeping some distance from him, just in case the real estate mogul's campaign ends in disaster.

"Suppose Trump loses overwhelmingly. Would you want to have been siding with the captain of the Titanic, or maybe seen as someone who was begging the captain to watch out for icebergs?" Sabato said, adding that a Trump defeat could push the party in a different direction in 2020, maybe toward Ryan as the nominee.

WALKING A TIGHTROPE

As chairman of the Republican Party convention in Cleveland in July, Ryan's political tightrope will be especially perilous.

One of his objectives will be to provide political cover for his 246 House Republicans so they can choose to embrace or run away from Trump, depending on their home districts' politics, with the goal of preserving control of the House, analysts said.

Ryan dropped a bombshell on Thursday when he said he was not ready to endorse Trump until he shows he can unify the party, still reeling from a bitter primary campaign that left many establishment Republicans stunned at Trump's victory.

One moderate Pennsylvania congressman, Representative Charlie Dent, said he thought most of his fellow House Republicans would be comfortable with what Ryan said, because they were "conflicted" themselves over whether to support Trump.

Some Republican lawmakers worry that Trump is not conservative enough; others are more bothered by Trump's "divisive, incendiary remarks and lack of substance," said Dent, who put himself in the latter category.

However, a conservative Republican congressman, Raul Labrador of Idaho, told CNN that Ryan "needs to reconsider what he's doing" concerning Trump.

"A lot of people that are voting for Donald Trump are totally disaffected with what we're doing in Washington D.C., and he (Ryan) almost kind of slapped them in the face when he said what he did," said Labrador, who endorsed Ted Cruz but says he will vote for Trump now that Cruz is out of the race.

As speaker, Ryan has struggled with his deeply divided colleagues over budget issues, funding the battle against the Zika virus, rescuing Puerto Rico from a debt crisis, and helping Flint, Michigan, deal with their contaminated water system.

Ryan is "trying to jawbone Trump into adjusting his positions" to line up better with the party establishment, said Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar and political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

The "unprecedented" move by a congressional leader to distance himself from his party's expected nominee, Ornstein said, showed Ryan trying to mold a "less confrontational and divisive approach to minorities and a less isolationist and combative approach to our allies."

In a swipe at Trump on Friday, President Barack Obama warned that occupying the Oval Office "is not a reality show."
In 1964, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, Jr. established, The Order of Lincoln to honor individuals who made significant contributions to the betterment of humanity in Illinois and those whose achievements have brought honor to the state because of their identity with it.

The governor wanted the award to represent what Lincoln called the better angles of our nature. And, in 1989 as part of the twenty-fifth anniversary of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois proclaimed the Order of Lincoln to be the states highest award.

On Lincolns birthday this year, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner announced that six honorees would receive the 2016 Order of Lincoln in a ceremony in Peoria on May 7.

To my great surprise I was notified that I was one of those selected to receive this prestigious award from my home state. And, to be in the company of fellow Illinoisans who were selected as well -- like my dear friend, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, CME Group Chairman Emeritus Leo Melamed, NPR Weekend Edition Sunday host Scott Simon, Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein and retired Caterpillar president Robert Gilmore made it that much more special.

I only wish my mother, father and sister were alive to be with me. They lived all their lives in Illinois and our family dates back to the late 1800s.

I was born in the land of Lincoln just 90 miles from Springfield  Lincolns birthplace.

My connection to Lincoln does not stop there. That is where it began.

Lincoln was a person of principal and governed his life by them not in spite of them. He tackled big challenges at great risk because he knew the mission and achievement was worth the effort. He was a man of great compassion and courage.

As a girl growing up in Illinois, Lincoln was a role model for me. I remember going to the Worlds Fair and standing in awe looking at President Lincoln sitting in his chair with that determined look in his eyes.

As a student, Lincolns lessons of leading by example and taking on entrenched policies at great personal and professional peril guided me then and guides me now.

More than 30 years ago my sister Susan G. Komen was diagnosed with breast cancer. While she lay dying I made her a promise  I would undertake to find a cure for it.

When I think of courage, I think of my sister who battled a disease no one dared speak of and still she had the courage to fight it and to task me with curing it.

After she passed away, I began my efforts to honor my promise in my living room with $200 and a shoebox containing the names of people to approach.

Thirty plus years later, Susan G Komen is the worlds largest breast cancer organization.

I helped to create the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure series and the pink ribbons association with it.

I have fought for long-term sustainable solutions through collaborative efforts for breast cancer research, awareness and service with a 150,000(+) volunteer network of 110 U.S. and international affiliates.

The partnerships that Komen has advanced internationally have led the organization to be recognized as a leader and mentor in conducting in-country cancer advocacy including the U.S-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. It has funded more than $847 million in research, more than $1.8 billion in screening, education, treatment and psychosocial support, and served millions in over 60 countries worldwide.

The lessons, inspiration, leadership, principle and compassion that are Lincoln were the guiding force and light that led me to take on enormous challenges at great odds to achieve great successes not for myself but in honor of a promise and for the benefit of millions in need.

Lincolns legacy can be summed up as a life lived for others. And thus, he is my hero.


In late 1981 upon learning that convicted assassin Sirhan Sirhan, killer of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, had received an actual parole date from the California Board of Prison Terms, I formed a non-profit organization that led a petition drive to demand Sirhans continued incarceration.

Our petition drive led to the parole boards eventual rescission of Sirhans release date. And due to the publicity that this case achieved, the daughter of the slain police officer in the infamous Onion Field murder case came to us asking for help in securing the continued incarceration of her fathers killer.

Valerie Campbell assisted our group, Citizens for Truth in Justice, in collecting more than 31,500 petition signatures in three and a half weeks demanding that Gregory Ulas Powells parole date be rescinded.

That case went all the way to the California Supreme Court where we prevailed.

Following these two important cases the mother of slain actress, Sharon Tate, came to our organization for help in her efforts to prevent the release of the Manson family wholesale killers.

Doris Tate became one of our chapter chairs and in 1982 we together collected some 50,000 petition signatures and 80,000 letters from American citizens opposing the paroles of numerous Manson family murderers.

Over the next decade, with the help of Doris Tate and her daughters, Patty and Debra, we collected more than 2 million petition signatures and countless thousands of letters supporting our joint efforts to prevent the Manson family killers from being released.

At the time these cases began to stir public curiosity and anger alike, the parole board in California was finding an average of 37 percent of all life inmates in the states prison suitable for release.

However, during the next few short years and through the efforts of our organization and others that joined us in those efforts , that percentage dropped dramatically to 3 percent. And what this proved was that the public could have an impact in this area of its government.

After all, who could argue with the notion that governments most important function was that of protecting its citizens?

Return to the present and what we are once again witnessing is the same kind of violent crime being perpetrated on an unsuspecting public that had become used to a safer society following stronger criminal justice legislation such as the Victims Bill of Rights and the determinate sentencing laws of the mid-1980s.

However, with Governor Jerry Browns prison realignment, which sent thousands of state prison inmates to county jails and to our streets, and the passage of Prop. 47, which reduced many felonies to misdemeanors in response to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals order to reduce overcrowding in the states prisons, California is witnessing the return of violent and dangerous criminals returned to our streets and neighborhoods.

Not so long ago the parole board recommended the release of Manson follower, Bruce Davis, convicted of participating in the murder of Manson ranch hand, Shorty Shea.

Fortunately, California Governor Jerry Brown reversed the Boards decision and Davis remains in prison today.

However, in the face of the Boards slap-down, these social engineers on the Board now find it safe to release another Manson follower, one Leslie Van Houten, whose brutal participation in the murders of Leno and Rosemary La Bianca were so gruesome that it seems unimaginable that any parole board could reach the conclusion that such an individual could ever be safe to release back into society.

After all, one would think that the parole board would consist of intelligent, professional, and compassionate folks that could recognize that such releases would be tantamount to conducting experiments at the expense of the public.

Yet, here we are some three decades after our efforts assisted in reducing violent crime, witnessing a return to the failed policies of the past.

In the year I was born, 1952, the state of California experienced 260 murders in the entire state.

Yet, in the year we began our efforts  1980  California saw some 3,411 murders, amounting to more than a 1,300 percent increase in homicides.

Now, we know that the states population hadnt increased 1,300 percent in that 28 years. So, who was perpetrating these murders?

One word answer  recidivists. That is, repeaters.

Consider this fact, in the early 1980s 52 percent of all homicides in California went unsolved. So it is my suggestion that the dramatic increase was the result of repeat murderers.

As I preached in the 1980s and 1990s, Doris Tate, Patty Tate, and Debra Tate should never have had to assist in preventing the release of Leslie Van Houten, nor any of the other Manson killers. It is outrageous that family members of murder victims across this nation should have to remind the parole boards of the details of these brutal murders to assure that the killers remain in prison and the public safeguarded from them.

And it is my contention that in these kinds of cases prison is not primarily to rehabilitate, nor for the purpose of punishment. Rather, I believe that prison in such cases is primarily for the purpose of separating known-dangerous felons from the rest of us.

One fact I would like to remind readers generally, and California citizens in particular  because that is where Leslie Van Houten is incarcerated  that she and the other Manson followers were originally sentenced to death.

However, in 1972 the California Supreme Court overturned capital punishment, resulting in 111 death row inmates having their sentences reduced to life in prison, which at the time meant that one could actually be released after seven years. Clearly an ambiguous sentence, something the constitution forbids, by the way.

Whether or not Governor Brown reverses the recommendation of release for Leslie Van Houten, it is critical that the public at large once again demand that government protect them.

If we are to restore common sense to these matters it will once again likely come by way of citizen involvementfrom the public demanding, as we did in the 1980s and 1990s, that we be protected from the likes of Leslie Van Houten.

As I learned from our past work, government is afraid of only two things:

1. Large numbers of angry people who have simply had enough of the permissiveness in criminal justice, with many singing petitions, writing letters, showing up at parole hearings with the news media in step with them.

2. Those folks receiving media coverage on radio, in newspapers, and yes, the most effective tool  television.

There is no doubt that our organization embarrassed the Board in to rescinding the paroles of Sirhan Sirhan, Gregory Powell, and the Manson monsters. And here, some three decades later and it is time to embarrass them once again.

John Mancino is the founder of Citizens for Truth.
Fox News has confirmed that the FBI has interviewed Huma Abedin, top aide to Hillary Clinton, as part of its investigation into Clintons use of a private email and whether classified information was willfully transmitted on her unsecured network. The FBI may also have interviewed other current and former Clinton staffers. This suggests the case may be approaching a conclusion. Clinton, herself, could be interviewed very soon.



Abedin Is a Key Witness

Abedin is a valued source of information because she apparently used an email on Clintons private system. She may have voiced concerns about whether the server was violating the law or, equally important, discussed how the law could be circumvented.



She and other staffers were surely questioned about the 2,200 classified communications contained on the server, including the 22 documents that were top secret. How did they end up on the unauthorized system? Did the aides have clearance to read them? Didnt they know they were classified? Were classified markings erased? Who decided to delete thousands of emails which were government property? Who ordered the server to be wiped clean? Depending on the answers to these crucial questions, the aides could find themselves in legal jeopardy. So could Hillary Clinton.



Clintons Intent Is Irrelevant

Unnamed sources close to the investigation are reported to have said that the FBI has found no evidence to prove Clinton intended to violate the law. That sounds important, but it is not. The operative legal issue is not whether she intended to break the law, but whether she knowingly and intentionally stored classified information on her unauthorized server. Here is the specific law:



Whoever knowingly removes (classified) documents or materials without authority and with the intent to retain such documents or materials at an unauthorized location shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than one year, or both. (18 U.S.C., section 1924)



The statute says nothing about an intent to violate the law. It is an important distinction. Clearly, Clinton intended to create a private server for use as her exclusive means of conducting official business as Secretary of State. She also knew it was not authorized because she never sought authorization from the relevant agencies. At the same time, she knew her unauthorized server would collect, retain and transmit classified documents during her four year term and intended it to do so.

This would appear to violate the language of the statute. She can hardly claim she did not recognize classified material because that would be arguing her own incompetence.



Ignorance of the Law

Is it possible for Clinton to argue that she did not know she was breaking the law? She can try, but in a court of law it is no defense. Ignorance of the law is never an excuse. Otherwise, everyone accused of a crime would play dumb. Gee, I didnt know my actions were a crime!



Moreover, Clinton knew the law because she was specifically instructed on the law when she took office. She received a national security indoctrination a tutorial on the law of classified materials. Thereafter, she signed a sworn non-disclosure agreement promising never to convey classified material to an unauthorized person or place.



In that same agreement, Clinton was also warned that classified material can be either marked or unmarked. The content dictates its classification, not the markings. So, her previous claims that nothing was marked classified is not a defense. This is especially true since Clinton reportedly authored 104 of the classified emails herself. Surely, she knew what she was writing.



Gross Negligence

President Obama recently called Clintons handling of the classified emails careless, but not intentional, as if that makes it okay. However, carelessness is sufficient to be convicted of a crime. The following statute specifically addresses this issue:



Whoever through gross negligence permits (classified information) to be removed from its proper place of custody shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. (18 U.S.C., section 793-f)



In plain language, gross negligence is the standard, not intent. Carelessness or recklessness are synonymous with gross negligence. Thus, by implying that Clinton did nothing illegal because she was merely careless, President Obama is either legally mistaken or deliberately communicating a falsehood.

If the president, a trained lawyer, thought he was exculpating Clinton he was, in truth, implicating her in a violation of the law.
September 29, 2013, is a day Lindsey and Brent Sharpton will remember forever. Its hard to forget the day you held a miracle in your hands. But to understand the end of this story, we need to start at the beginning 

Like most young couples, Lindsey and Brent, who live in Asheville, North Carolina, had dreamed of the day theyd add a child to their family, of precious moments when theyd kiss sweet baby cheeks and run their fingers across downy soft hair. But things didnt go as planned. They tried for a year before doctors told them they didnt think they could have children, so they visited a specialist and looked into various procedures they could do.

The couple was overjoyed when Lindsey got pregnant, but their dreams were crushed again when she had a miscarriage. The emotional and financial toll caught up with them, and they decided not to do additional procedures. They started thinking about adoption, but it didnt take them long to discover how expensive that would be. So they put the word out on Facebook that they were looking to adopt.

Three people came to them after seeing their posts, but none of them worked out. Lindsey and Brent were on a cruise when the last of the three gave birth unexpectedly. They left the ship in Honduras, flew to Miami, drove all night to get home to see the infant  and then the mother decided to keep the baby. They were devastated.

They never gave up hope, but it was so discouraging, so perplexing. Lindsey wasnt in a good place emotionally. Mothers Day was especially difficult for her, and baby showers and visiting friends at the hospital to meet their newborns was tough on both of them. They were happy for their friends, but each instance was a cruel reminder that their own arms were empty.

The three years of constant heartache caught up with them, and they decided they were through. They told God, If anything is going to happen, youre going to have to do it.

Knowing how depressed they were, some friends invited the couple to take a trip with them to New York City to see the ball drop on New Years Eve. On December 30, 2012, the four of them toured the city, and as they passed Macys, Brent and Lindsey noticed a sign on the side of the building that said, Believe. They stopped and took a photo in front of it. It was kind of like a sign from God to keep hanging on a little longer, Lindsey said.

Months went by and nothing happened  until Sept. 29, 2013, when something unusual occurred, something miraculous. Pam Ledford is womens ministry director at the church where Brent grew up. At the end of the Sunday morning service, a church member, Tonya, walked up to Pam and said, I know this is going to sound crazy, but I felt like God told me to bring this baby to you. It needs a home.

The baby belonged to Tonyas neighbor. She realized she couldnt care for the infant and her family wasnt in a position to accept full responsibility. So Tonya had stepped in to help with the little one and was trying to find her a home.

Pam asked Tonya some questions about health issues and so on, and she learned that the baby had been premature, weighing only four pounds.

Tonya agreed to care for the baby that afternoon so that Pam would have time to think and pray about it. Let me make some phone calls and Ill be back in touch with you, Pam told her.

Later that afternoon, Lindsey and Brent popped into Pams mind. Knowing their background and the emotional roller coaster theyd already been on, she was apprehensive about contacting them. She didnt want to cause them additional pain. Pam also didnt know the birth mother, and she knew it might not work out.

But she called and said, I cant make any promises. I dont want to get your hopes up, but this is the situation. And she told them what had happened that morning.

After all the heartache theyd been through, the young couple was afraid to believe it might happen. But they wanted to meet the baby. Pam called Tonya and told her to bring the little one back to church that night, and they all met before service.

Brents eyes fill with tears as he recalls holding the baby for the first time. I held her and I was like, yep, this is it, he says. It was unbelievable. I dont have words to describe it.

It was a miracle, just a God thing, Pam says. I was excited for them and for the baby, and it was so tearful it took your breath away. You could just watch them in awe of her.

She tried to capture those moments in pictures. Little things that people may take for granted were so real to them. You could see the bond happening, and it was breathtaking.

God lined all the puzzle pieces up and they fit perfectly. I mean, what couple goes to church and has a baby just handed to them?

Pam remembers one extra-special moment. When Brent held that sweet baby girl for the first time, she wrapped her hand around his finger almost as if she could sense this would be her new daddy. It went right to his heart.

They made an appointment to meet the next day, and Lindsey and Brent went home to get things ready for a baby. All they had was a crib in their storage building.

Their meeting with the grandmother and birth mother went well. She was so thankful, Lindsey says. They spent about an hour together, and everything went smoothly. Lindsey and Brent got guardianship. It was like a rush at first, Lindsey says. Most people get nine months to get ready, but 24 hours later we were parents. It was truly a miracle.

Brent and Lindsey took Brynleigh home that evening, arriving to a house filled with excited family, pizza, balloons and a living room overflowing with gifts and supplies. The moment was even more special because they thought theyd never have it.

Their lives would never be the same again. The days zoomed by as the couple bonded with their baby girl. I remember just sitting on the couch, looking at her and holding her and wanting someone to pinch me so Id know it wasnt a dream, Lindsey says.

Brynleigh quickly became a daddys girl. Tears fill Brents eyes as he says, She smiled at me and it broke my heart.

Over the next few months, their attorney assisted them with the necessary paperwork. DSS interviewed them and did a home study. The adoption was final in nine months  a time span that had extra meaning to Brent and Lindsey. You see, when Brent was looking through old photos one day, he realized theyd taken the picture in front of the Believe sign in New York nine months to the day they took Brynleigh to their house to stay.

The months ahead were filled with so many amazing moments. Lindsey cries as she tells about the joy of her first official Mothers Day. Brents favorite was the day Brynleigh told him I love you for the first time. Precious moments theyll never take for granted.

They dont regret the struggles, because they made them who they are today. But, oh my, Brynleigh has filled their lives with so much joy and laughter and more love than they ever could have imagined. We couldnt love her any more if shed been born to us, Lindsey says. I dont think of her as ever not being ours.

This story thats better than any fairy tale certainly has had a happy ending. A sweet baby girl who needed a home found one where she is loved and doted on by parents, grandparents and countless others. And a young couple whose arms once were oh-so-empty now has them filled with the joy of sweet Brynleigh.

Brent sums it up best as he chokes back tears: Two people got her who couldnt have loved her more.

And it all came about because a baby was literally handed to them at church one Sunday.
The night of Donald Trumps big Indiana Republican primary win, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was ready. She tore loose with a series of late-night anti-Trump tweets in which she accused him of racism, sexism, xenophobia, narcissism and a host of other faults.

Two weeks earlier, after being asked about another Warren tweet storm in which she accused him of being "a loser," Trump fired a warning shot across Warren's bow. "Who's that, the Indian? You mean the Indian," he responded, referring to a well-known political controversy over Warren claiming Indian heritage.

The exchanges signal the start of what could be a nasty surrogate side-battle as the general election campaign begins to take shape. Warren is poised to be an aggressive Trump critic, for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton, should she lock up the nomination. And for Trump, who thrives off detecting weakness and pouncing, Warren is a target-rich environment.

From 1986 to 1995, she listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory. Harvard Law School cited her alleged Indian heritage in dealing with criticism that it lacked a diverse faculty. Her recipe in the "Pow Wow Chow" cookbook became the subject of derision, after charges it was plagiarized from a New York Times cookbook.

"I think she's a fraud," said longtime nemesis and Boston conservative talk radio host, Howie Carr. "I think her entire success in academia and in politics is based on a lie that she's a Native American. She refuses to take a DNA test. She doesn't even call herself Native American, anymore," he said.

Asked what the purpose of that alleged fraud would have been, Carr said, "She was basically going nowhere in her academic career. She was an instructor at the University of Texas Law School in Austin. Suddenly she began checking the box and she was a tenured professor first at the University of Pennsylvania, and then she got a job at Harvard University law school. "

Warren's office did not respond to requests for an interview. Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a grassroots organization that raised over a million dollars in small donations for Warren's Senate campaign against Scott Brown, believes that Warren relishes baiting Trump and welcomes renewed scrutiny, should it come.

"The more that Donald Trump takes the bait and attacks Elizabeth Warren, and thrusts Elizabeth Warren to the center of the national dialogue, the better for Hillary Clinton because the issues that Elizabeth Warren is fighting for are overwhelmingly popular with general election voters -- from expanding Social Security to alleviating student debt to taking on the big Wall Street banks," he said.

Her critics, among them former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, whom she beat in the 2012 Senate race, suggest Warren's Twitter tear is not accidental. "She's been getting on Twitter more and more and criticizing Trump like she is the pit bull for the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, and, I would suspect, Hillary Clinton," he said.

Carr added, "I think Hillary Clinton is giving her instructions. She's going to put on her war bonnet and go out and attack Donald Trump."

One of the ironies of this fight is that the two are vying, at least in part, for the same voters  blue-collar workers and swing-state independents who may well decide the election.

Trump is trying to pull them right with promises of more coal and less regulation, while Warren, with her strong progressive bona fides, is pulling left with a call for more government safety nets and regulation.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Zanu PF MP for a Harare Constituency Terence Mukupe has said the government is addressing symptoms and not the root cause of our problems."We have a flight of the used out of our economy causing the cash shortages. The primary suspects in terms of the used flight are entities that are bringing goods on consignment out of south Africa dumping them into Zimbabwe and siphoning the precious little used out," said Mukupe. "The Governor admitted that up to 60% of our total payments to south Africa."Currency utilisation at the moment is currently skewed in favour of the US$ in spite of South Africa making up 60% of the imports in South Africa. Lets analyse these payments, are they raw materials for industry or groceries! You will find out that they are groceries!!! We don't need the pick n pays, choppies etc, they are ruining our country!!! I think we need to introduce policy of Prof Jonathan Moyo of 100% local content in the shelf space in shops we say 80% local," he said."These grocery chains are exporting manufacturing jobs to south Africa and also externalizing the little hard earned used we are generating through the exports of our minerals!!! This makes my blood boil citizens!"
Former 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush announced late Friday he will not support Donald Trump for president, joining South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and other GOP figures giving the presumptive nominee the cold shoulder.

Trump, meanwhile, said hes getting endorsements left and right and brushed off the comments of party figures and ex-candidates speaking out against his bid.

Of Graham, he said in a statement: "I fully understand why Lindsey Graham cannot support me. If I got beaten as badly as I beat him, and all the other candidates he endorsed, I would not be able to give my support either.

Bush announced his formal opposition to Trump on Facebook. The former Florida governor congratulated the billionaire businessman for wrapping up the nomination but went on to say: Donald Trump has not demonstrated that temperament or strength of character required to lead the nation.

He has not displayed a respect for the Constitution. And, he is not a consistent conservative. These are all reasons why I cannot support his candidacy, Bush said.

He also said Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is an untrustworthy liberal politician and so, In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels.

Bush, early in the Republican primary race last year, had been considered the candidate to beat only to get hammered by Trump in the debates and, later, in the primaries themselves. He, along with former candidate Graham, eventually dropped out.

Graham voiced similar sentiments in his statement, saying he will not support Clinton or Trump.

I absolutely will not support Hillary Clinton for President.  I also cannot in good conscience support Donald Trump because I do not believe he is a reliable Republican conservative nor has he displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as Commander in Chief, Graham said.

He added he does not plan to attend the Republican convention in July.

Other former primary rivals have gotten behind Trump, including retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, now involved in the running mate selection process, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a former critic of Trump, also now says he'd be willing to work in a Trump administration, even as vice president.

Trump has made no such public overtures to the longtime Texas governor, who acknowledged he hasn't spoken to Trump in months.

"If Donald Trump says, `Perry, let's talk about you helping in this role,' I'm open to it," Perry said Friday.

Trump tweeted "Thank you Rick!" after Perry's endorsement.

Trump also has been sparring from afar with House Speaker Paul Ryan, who on Thursday said hes not ready at this point to support Trump. However, the two plan to meet next week.

Also supporting Trump is former Vice President Dick Cheney, who told CNN that he has always supported the GOP nominee, as well as former Kansas senator and 1996 Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Democratic Party in Guam said Saturday that Hillary Clinton won its primary, taking 60 percent of the vote to earn four of the seven delegates at stake.



Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders picked up the other three delegates.

The Pacific island is one of five U.S. territories that casts votes in primaries and caucuses to decide the nominee, though those residents aren't eligible to vote in November.

Guam is often overlooked in the presidential election cycle. But this year, the territory drew attention from both the presidential candidates, who ran radio advertisements in a bid to scoop up any possible delegate in the final stretch of primaries and caucuses.

Combined with some delegate gains this weekend in Washington state, which held its primary in March, Clinton now has 94 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination as she seeks to look ahead to a November matchup against Republican Donald Trump.

Trump became his partys presumptive presidential nominee with a decisive win Tuesday in the Indiana primary that knocked out rivals Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Sanders has said he will take his delegate fight to the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.

Clinton now has 26 wins this primary season, compared to 19 for Sanders.

Based on primaries and caucuses to date, Clinton now has 1,706 delegates while Sanders has 1,414 -- or a lead of 292 delegates, according to the AP count.

If Sanders hopes to overtake her based on just those primary and caucus delegates, he still must win 66 percent of the remaining delegates -- a figure unchanged from before.

Clinton's lead is bigger when including superdelegates -- party officials who can support any candidate.

She now has a total of 2,229 delegates, or 94 percent of the 2,383 delegates needed to win. Sanders has 1,453.

Just 154 delegates short, Clinton remains on track to clinch the nomination early next month.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Washington Democrats wasted no time this week trying to tie congressional Republicans facing re-election to Donald Trump, now that hes the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Their major focus appears to be the Senate, considering they have to win a net total of four seats to retake control of the chamber, though the more outside chance of also flipping the House now seems more attainable.

Democrats will have plenty of soundbites and video clips of Trump talking about Muslims, women and other politically-sensitive issues in ways that party members will find offensive.

However, linking him and his remarks to vulnerable GOP incumbents right away will be more difficult, considering few have endorsed Trump -- the lone Republican presidential candidate after his commanding win Tuesday in Indiana forced out primary rivals Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Theres no going back for vulnerable incumbents and candidates whove pledged to support Trump, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Wednesday. Now they have the herculean task of explaining their own out-of-touch records while running alongside their partys new standard bearer: a divisive and dangerous personality.

The group, whose primary role is to help elect and re-elect Democrats to the upper chamber, has since the start of the election cycle targeted five Senate Republicans seeking re-election -- New Hampshires Kelly Ayotte, Wisconsins Ron Johnson, Illinois Mark Kirk, Ohios Rob Portman and Pennsylvanias Pat Toomey.

All five have essentially said they would support the Republican nominee, without naming names or pledging an endorsement.

But the DSCC first turned its attention on Ayotte -- considering New Hampshire tilts Democratic in presidential years and polling shows Trump is deeply unpopular among New Hampshire voters, including the independents Ayotte desperately needs to support her.

Ayotte would let the man who wants to ban Muslims from entering the country, called Mexican immigrants rapists, and said women should be punished for having an abortion nominate someone to a lifetime appointment on the Supreme Court, the group said Wednesday.

The first-term senator's race against challenger New Hampshire Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan is a tossup, according to most political handicappers.

While Democrat Senate candidates are all too eager to campaign on what they are against, Republicans will continue to lay out their visions to help our country recover from eight years of the Obama economy and get people back to work, National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Alleigh Marre told FoxNews.com. There is a reason Democrats arent lining up to campaign with Hillary Clinton. She is a toxic candidate whose failed leadership has put the security of our country at risk.

Republicans need to win New Hampshire to keep their Senate majority but face long odds, considering they must defend 24 seats compared to 10 for Democrats.

And seven of the seats that the GOP must defend are in states President Obama won twice -- Florida and Iowa as well as the targeted Illinois, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

While Washington Democrats have largely focused on those races, Trump this week becoming the lone GOP presidential candidate appears to have expanded their playing field to include North Carolina, where GOP Sen. Richard Burr is in a close re-election race for a third term.

That Richard Burr is eagerly looking forward to working with Donald Trump proves hes even more out of touch with North Carolinians than previously thought, DSCC spokesperson Sam Lau said Friday. If he continues to align himself with the partys standard bearer, North Carolinians will look forward to working to retire Richard Burr this November.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said only that hes committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters and that Trump appears on the verge of clinching the nomination.

However, House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he cannot support Trump until he gets some assurance from the presumptive nominee and billionaire businessman that hell push for a conservative agenda.

Democrats would need to win roughly 30 seats in November to retake control of the lower chamber.

Many House incumbents, especially in marginal districts, are worried about their chances with Trump at the top of the ticket, Joe Desilet, a Republican strategist at the strategy firm 21st and Main, said Friday. We are already seeing a number of them, like Barbara Comstock in Virginia's 10th District, distancing themselves from Trump. But I'm not sold that Trump at the top of the ticket will sink our congressional majority.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Donald Trump this weekend put his well-honed attack-counter attack game into full general-election mode -- mocking progressive stalwart and Senate Democrat Elizabeth Warren, in a likely preview of the next six months.



On Saturday, Trump turned to his go-to Twitter account to attack Warren, of Massachusetts, whom some Democrats wanted to run for president and now as Hillary Clintons running mate, if the front-running Clinton wins the partys presidential nomination.

Goofy Elizabeth Warren is weak and ineffective, Trump, now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, tweeted Saturday.

Warren nearly lost her Senate bid in 2012, amid criticism that she claimed to have Native American roots to further her academic career and become an Ivy League professor.

The fury mostly died as she emerged in the Senate as strong voice against Wall Street and economic inequality.

However, Trump appears determined to revisit the controversy -- in an apparent effort to quickly dispose of Warren as either a worthy Democratic presidential surrogate or potential vice presidential candidate, as he did with his primary rivals.

Does nothing. All talk, no action -- maybe her Native American name? Trump also tweeted. Goofy Elizabeth Warren and her phony Native American heritage are on a Twitter rant. She is too easy! I'm driving her nuts.

In rallies on Friday in Nebraska and Oregon, Trump called Warren a "goofus" and a "basket case," who as a senator has had little impact on Washington, much less the country.

Warren had insulted Trump earlier on Twitter, calling him "a bully who has a single play in his playbook."

She started her attack after Trumps primary win Tuesday in Indiana that knocked out remaining GOP rivals Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

In a series of late-night tweets, Warren accused Trump of racism, sexism, xenophobia, narcissism and a host of other faults.

The battle lines appeared to have been drawn a couple of weeks earlier.

When Trump was asked about another Warren tweet storm in which she called him a loser, the billionaire businessman said in response "Who's that, the Indian? You mean the Indian?

The response appeared quintessential Trump, considering he thrives off detecting weakness and pouncing and Warren being a target-rich environment.

From 1986 to 1995, she listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory. Harvard Law School cited her alleged Indian heritage in dealing with criticism that it lacked a diverse faculty. Her recipe in the "Pow Wow Chow" cookbook became the subject of derision, after charges it was plagiarized from a New York Times cookbook.

"I think she's a fraud," said longtime nemesis and Boston conservative talk radio host Howie Carr. "I think her entire success in academia and in politics is based on a lie that she's a Native American."

Carr suspects Warren was stuck professionally as an instructor at the University of Texas Law School before checking the box as Native American, then becoming a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, then at Harvard Universitys law school.

Warren's office did not respond earlier this week to requests for an interview.

One of the ironies of this fight is that the two are vying, at least in part, for the same voters -- blue-collar workers and swing-state independents who may well decide the election.

Trump is trying to pull them right with promises of more coal and less regulation, while Warren, with her strong progressive bona fides, is pulling left with a call for more government safety nets and regulation.

Fox News Channels Doug McKelway and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Congress wasnt doing a lot before Donald Trump all but secured the Republican presidential nomination. And its likely that Trumps fait accompli Tuesday could diminish congressional productivity even further.

As lawmakers return to Washington after a week-long respite, Trump is already in a churning battle with House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and rank-and-file Republicans are divided over what to do about the top of the ticket.

Moreover, lawmakers will convene in Washington for the first time with Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee. This is likely to spark four phenomena:

Some Republican lawmakers who were reluctant to embrace Trump will rush to join the bandwagon.

Secondly, some will dash the other direction to dodge Trump and build distance between their campaign and the New York businessman.

Third, Democrats will stoke the political embers, painting Trump and Republicans together in the same camp.

Fourth, political talk will dominate the Capitol. Reporters will pepper congressional GOPers about why they are or arent backing Trump. Will there be a third party candidate? A savior emerging on a white horse?

And you can bet someone will at least sprint to the post in some effort to court Ryan again despite his Sherman-esque statement a few weeks ago about not running for president. This is to say nothing of some Republicans who will blast Ryan for not publicly supporting Trump.

Trump creates headaches for Ryan and other congressional leaders.

The speaker always says he wants a competition of ideas. Well, how about the idea of building a wall along the Mexican border and forcing Mexico to pay for it? How about the idea that Trump wants to kick Muslims out of the country? How about Trumps position to cut off foreign workers? What about the idea Trump has to strip some native-born Americans of their citizenship?

What about Trumps idea to deploy the military as a kind of domestic police force and come for families of those associated with terrorists? And what about Trumps idea to not touch Social Security (one of the key drivers of the national debt) yet hack all federal outlays in half in order to balance the budget in less than a decade?

These are the reasons why Ryan cant get behind Trump just yet.

On several occasions, Ryan has taken special care to disavow Trumps remarks related to everything from Muslims to white supremacy.

But if Ryan wants the debate to be about ideas and Trump secured the nomination, well, its pretty clear which ideas won out. Which idea is easier for the average voter to understand? Trump talking about rounding up Muslims or building walls  , or Ryans preference of wonky, Oxford-style debate on tax inversions?

For Republicans, that ship has sailed and perhaps already sinking, some suggest.

What is unclear is what Congress may try to tackle in the coming months. Perhaps an even better question is what appetite Congress has to address much of anything in the near-term with Trump apparently on the ballot.

The first issue is time.

Congress is back for just a few weeks and then heads out for Memorial Day. Back a few more weeks then gone for July 4th. Then, two weeks in session before both the House and Senate depart on a staggering, nearly-eight week furlough for the Republican and Democratic conventions.

Thats coupled with the August recess that bleeds into September. Then theres another respite in October so lawmakers can campaign at home. And dont forget, theres a campaign afoot among some congressional conservatives to ban a lame-duck session.

They argue that Congress accomplishes little that isnt politically-charged in a lame-duck session (hence the reason some tough issues are delayed until after the election).

Therefore, Congress should wrap business before the election and only let the new Congress and the new president grapple with thorny topics next year.

For starters, there are the annual spending bills to fund the government. The Senate was trying last week to move through its first appropriations bill of the cycle, dealing with $37.5 million for energy and water programs.

But senators got locked up on an issue about the Obama administration dealing in heavy water with Tehran as part of the Iran agreement.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ariz., engineered an amendment to prohibit the United States from buying heavy water, used in nuclear reactors, from Iran in the future. Democrats stalled Cottons amendment and the entire bill.

And so the Senates first appropriations bill of the year lies in limbo.

Come mid-month, the House will begin floor work on the 12 appropriations bills.

Various sources tell Fox News the House should be able to knock out spending packages covering military construction, the legislative branch, energy and water programs, transportation issues, defense, financial services and perhaps one or two others. But floor time is at a maximum. And thats to say nothing of stray issues that could arise in even the easy appropriations bills.

Take the legislative branch measure that funds Congress.

Conservatives are livid that the Library of Congress altered its search engines to strike pejorative terms such as illegal immigrant and illegal alien. Instead, Republicans want to return the old verbiage to the search engines. And its unknown if the issue could become so nettlesome that it trips up possible Senate confirmation of Carla Hayden to become the Librarian of Congress. If confirmed, Hayden would become the first African American and first woman run the library.

Yes, time is a problem for Congress. But time is only an issue because of politics. Congressional leaders control the calendar. There was a conscious decision by leaders to craft such a truncated schedule this year to accommodate both political conventions in July.

One might argue that Congress could always just return to session in August if necessary to address major issues. But there isnt a lot of political will now to do much of anything. On the right, Republicans are just waiting out the Obama presidency -- and hoping for the best come November.

Some Republicans are not-so-secretly hoping for an indictment of Hillary Clinton regarding her use of private emails for official business while secretary of state.

But some of even the most-partisan Republicans are not terribly excited about the prospects of Trump. Thats why many are already waiting for 2020.

You think Congress isnt doing a lot now? Wait for that four-year, congressional cryogenic freeze.

Yes, Republicans may be waiting out the Obama presidency. But many GOPers are afraid to move legislatively because Trump devoured the Republican establishment apparatus alive.

With Trump, theres no normal on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers now must make their legislative and political decisions based on an entirely new calculus. Nobody completely understands the broad dimension of the Trump Effect in the halls of Congress.

Of course, some Republicans could opt for a completely different approach. Work like dogs all summer to distract from Trump. Show that Congress is effective -- even in a bipartisan way. Find a worthy negotiating partner in a lame-duck president. This builds natural distance from Trump -- if thats what Republicans want.

The question is appetite. And in this political environment, no one knows what dish is most appealing to the palette.
Im not sure if this will finally be Leonardo DiCaprios year, for The Revenant, or if newcomer Brie Larson, in Room, will trump perennial favorite Cate Blanchett for the latter's role in Carol. What I can tell you is that people are inspired by movies and jazzed by Hollywoods award season. But what does that have to do with business?

Related: New Movie 'Joy' Celebrates Something We Already Appreciate: Entrepreneurs

The answer: inspiration. Where do your business ideas come from? From a variety of sources, I bet. Whether its a personal experience, a business experience, a billboard you saw when you were driving down the road or something your significant other said at the grocery store: Inspiration comes from a wide variety of sources.

So, whether you feel like "the king of the world," or believe that you "couldve been a contender" or consider that you should "always be closing": Entrepreneurs can draw a lot from movies. And as we approach Hollywoods biggest night, the Academy Awards, here are a few movie lines that have inspired me throughout my own career:

1. 'The Godfather' (Best Picture, 1972)

Great men are not born great, they grow great.

Isnt that the truth! No one is born with massive amounts of knowledge. If youre smart enough, you acquire some of that knowledge along the way. If youre one of those people who think they know it all, I've got news for you: You dont! That is the first obstacle you must overcome, your own arrogance.

Throughout my career, Ive been called pig-headed, even irrational, but I haven't been bothered by it. In fact, I've welcomed it. Why? Because Ive been smart enough to learn a few things along the way and use that knowledge to grow.

As a young entrepreneur being shown the ranks, I sat in meetings where my boss would say things like, Because its always been done that way. If you expect to be in business a long time, this is one surefire way to cut that shelf life short. And it's not a good mentality to have if you want to grow and be great. Nothing beats experience.

2. 'All the Kings Men' (Best Picture, 1949)

To find something, anything, a great truth or a lost pair of glasses, you must first believe there will be some advantage in finding it.

"Advantage" is the basis of any entrepreneur. The road to entrepreneurship is paved with roadblocks and potholes galore. We all know that, but one thing we entrepreneurs have in common is the belief that we will find success.

We have this dream of the company that we want to build and shape. We have a vision, and well work ourselves to exhaustion trying to make our dream a success, regardless of what the naysayers say (because they will say something about why you won't succeed).

You will find that your business success will not come from any trophies or titles. It will come as a reflection of your truth. Your vision becoming a reality will be the measure of your success, and throughout this process you must stay true to who you are.

What made you become an entrepreneur in the first place? Let that serve as your true north. Being authentic is the key to success -- it has been for me. That and my belief that I can make a living doing something I love doing.

Related: 5 Movies With Great Lessons for Entrepreneurs

3. 'Rocky' (Best Picture, 1977)

Nobody is going to hit as hard as life, but it aint how hard you can hit. Its how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. Its how much you can take, and keep moving forward. Thats how winning is done.

You just read that quote in Sly Stallones voice, didnt you? Thats okay. I did too. Rocky is speaking some truths here. Life is hard enough as it is, but there will come a time where life will knock you flat on your rear end. You must get back up! You must!

Life as an entrepreneur can be lonely. Not everyone will understand your drive, your vision or your passion. There will even be times where there wont be anyone in sight to help you up after life has knocked you down. In my own life, one of my biggest business "knock-downs" involved pheasants.

Those stupid birds taste delicious but have got to be some of the stupidest birds on the planet. I love pheasant, love hunting them, so at first I thought, What could go wrong? After all, I am passionate about this venture, and Im pretty good at business. Little did I know that a prairie storm would wipe away my newest venture.

In fact, the pheasants huddled together and drowned in the storm. And I lost everything. Needless to say, the true takeaway here is that, when life knocks you down, you should get up and hit it back harder. Just dont expect soaring music when you run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

4. 'Million Dollar Baby' (Best Picture, 2004)

Its the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you.

Once again, the life of an entrepreneur can be lonely. You have your dream and vision, but there are people who are incapable of visualizing your dream or are so jealous of your success that they will plant seeds of doubt in your head. Dont let them. Haters are gonna hate, so let them! People will tell you how you should do things.

Tell em to shut up! Write your own story. If others want to write a story, let them write their own.

Your business will need to reflect your vision, not anyone elses. So, stop listening to other voices if you want to be the best "you" possible. Its your dream, your vision.

5. 'Lawrence of Arabia' (Best Picture, 1962)

Big things have small beginnings, sir.

Dont ever think youre too big for your britches. When you give yourself the title of CEO, that doesnt mean youre not going to end up cleaning your own bathroom or taking out the trash. If youre not willing to do something, how can you ask your team to do that same thing?

As CEO of a company, big or small, it can be really easy to lose perspective and let our titles define us. A CEO cleaning his/her own bathroom? Unheard of in some cases. However, I see it as a positive. Why? It keeps entrepreneurs grounded.

For me, humble work reminds me that I come from humble beginnings and that I need to be able to do everything I can for my company to succeed. It also allows me to stay connected, in some visceral way, to all aspects of my business. Disconnection can be a lonely island of entitlement, and you must find that balance between pushing forward and staying grounded. While I encourage everyone to "think big," I also warn, "Dont become too big." That can be a major turn-off for many.

What movie inspires you to forge ahead? Which one dared you to put into motion your dream of becoming an entrepreneur? One thing is for sure: Nothing will happen if you dont at least attempt to get things started. As Master Yoda said, Do or do not. There is no try.

What are your Academy Awards picks?

Related: 4 Movies Every Entrepreneur Should Watch
An Ivy League professor says his flight was delayed when a fellow passenger mistook his scribbling on a math problem as a sign he might be a terrorist.

American Airlines confirms that a woman expressed suspicions about University of Pennsylvania economics professor Guido Menzio.

He was flying from Philadelphia to Syracuse on Thursday to give a talk at Queens University in Ontario, Canada. He was working on a differential equation, but said he was told the woman thought he might be a terrorist because of what he was writing.

Casey Norton, a spokesman for the air carrier, said the womens allegations about Menzio were deemed not credible.

Norton told The Washington Post the woman had initially told the flight crew she was too ill to take the flight but when she deplaned to take another flight she disclosed that the reason she was feeling ill was her concern about Menzio.

Menzio told the paper the woman was his seatmate on the flight.

The Post reported Saturday that the professor is a 40-year-old award-winning economist from Italy.

Menzio told the paper he was troubled by the womens ignorance as well as a security protocol that is too rigidin the sense the once the whistle is blown everything stops without checksand relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless.

The 41-minute flight took off more than two hours after its scheduled departure, the Post reported, citing flight-tracking data.
Authorities in San Francisco said Friday that a man was detained in the stabbing death of a former public defender at her home.

Police said Marla Zamora, 65, was found stabbed to death in her home in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of the city. According to the SF Gate, a man covered in blood inside the home was detained for questioning.

San Francisco police spokeswoman Grace Gatpandan said officers were called to Zamoras house at around 11 a.m. and detained a man for questioning in the killing. Its unclear how the person in question knew Zamora. The mans identity was not released.

Gatpandan said a motive behind the killing wasnt immediately clear.

We have a person that is being investigated at this time. This occurred at a residence and this was not a random crime on the street. Capt. Raj Vaswani of the Bayview Police Station said on the social media site Nextdoor.

Zamora had been the principal trial attorney for the San Francisco public defenders office and hyad been a public defender for 30 years before leaving office.

She defended Edwin Ramos, a gang member who was accused of killing a man and his two sons in 2008 because he thought they were gang members from Mission Hill. Ramos was convicted of the murders in 2012.

Jeff Adachi, a fellow public defender, told KTVU-TV that she would be missed.

"For this to happen to her is just unbelievable," he said. "And we're in shock. Marla never shied away from a tough case and over her career she handled a lot of really hard cases."

Neighbors said it appeared that Zamora lived alone and she was often seen walking her dogs.

"She was very outgoing and very excitable," Richard Shapiro, a neighbor, told the station. "I know she loved her career."

Flowers were left outside her home as law enforcement officers combed the property for clues. Neighbors said she is survived by a daughter who currently lives in Los Angeles.

Click for more from SF Gate.

Click for more from KTVU-TV.
A Maine Harrier jet pilot was rescued Friday evening off the coast of North Carolina after ejecting from the aircraft during a training exercise.

The unidentified Marine was transported to a Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, and is listed in stable condition, a military statement said. The incident is being investigated.

The pilot, who departed from Wilmington International Airport, ejected at about 5:05 p.m. local time and was rescued by an H-60 Seahawk at 5:28 p.m.

The pilot was able to get into his life raft after ejecting off the coast of Wilmington, N.C. The Marine was rescued by a Navy helicopter that arrived on the scene.

"The pilot inflated the personal flotation device and was also able to inflate and board his life raft until pick up," 1st Lt. Maida Zheng, a Marine spokeswoman, said in an email.
A Massachusetts town voted Thursday to reject a proposal that wouldve allowed a woman who had been living in a tiny house she built as a college student to live there legally.

The Republican of Springfield reported that voters at a town meeting in Hadley decided not to legalize backyard cottages.

Sarah Hastings has been living in her 190-square-foot home on a parcel owned by another couple for the last year. She built the dwelling while she was an architecture studies student at Mount Holyoke College.

Some Hadley residents objected to the tiny home because Hastings failed to go through the required permitting process. Residents struck down the proposal in a 206 to 139 vote.

"Hadley is a tough town when it comes to change and I can only wish the town the best of luck in providing for future needs," Hastings wrote in an email to the paper. "This doesn't feel like a total roadblock to me: By living lightly, I have also learned to have a light heart."

She was given a day to move out. Hastings says she'll try to find another location for her house.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from the Republican of Springfield.
Opinion / Columnist

Believe, S. Chikomo (is a political writer who developed much interest in history and matters of governance.)

The German world redeemer His Excellency reich President Mr Hindenburg in his old age in 1933 made a historic decision for his people and his own legacy, as the president whose political career was ending inevitably. He said, " gentleman, what l dont want is that my presidency end in anarchy, call me Adolf Hitler!!," Out of his political oppornents he saw a strong hand that was able to put a stop to political corrosion, political chaos and empty words. Such decision was very critical in the history of europe and germany politics in a higher sense.I have admired the germany politics, its patriotism and its pride as well. For the first time a nation in history was built out of nothing more than the will of the people. Chancellor Bismack as the phalanx of a gigantic yet historical peoples' unification.Back home: Zimbabwe is in its most pitiful state yet so terrifying, and someone introduces the national pledge. When the national pledge was introduced in schools l knew that the goddess of distress has never finished with us yet. It suddened my inner understanding on its truest objectives, timing and even the wording in its form. I knew that the same proven author of our misfortunes is dreaming of retaining power even at the face of political and social disasters he had put in place. Now let us examine the falsification of its objectives, a. national pledge will help children to fear God the almighty, b. to cherish work and c. to be patriotic so these wretched liars claim, this if not abetted earlier its a systematic replacement of education with indoctrination with an illthought objective of winning them to zanupf politically. Whoever disputes this assertion ignorantly or consciously will never learnt a hand in helping the truth to triumph. Is it not true that this gvt was supposed to make substantial economic policies, flush out political thrash that is expressing itself in individuals in power?, is it not true that there is need to nationalise learners to the service of the nation in a much more rational being in democratic lines. I believe and mantain that it is impossible to impart patriotism in a child who went to school late because the parent could not access all money from the bank. If such roudy and out dated measures like the national pledge are employed so as our children will revere certain individuals and associate them with divinity so as to love and vote them, the opposite will be achieved. Is it not true that economic resuscitation, social and moral regeneration can make our children more patriotic than ever?? Learners are going to school without prospects of a better tomorrow, they dont have role models who have made it as a result of education, their brothers and sisters are do nothings. They arent employed and are penniless. Even those with high sounding degrees are home sitted. Umemployment challenges which arent being solved are giving our children sleepless nights. Corruption of the highest proportion is being witnessed by our children. From the press to their own encounters. In the roads and everywhere. Every child is now familiar with (kudhiza). Our moral life has bein ridiculed and prostituted in all spheres of life without any vanguard created against the corrossion of their spiritual life. Our children are growing older than they should be. This is one more catastrophe we will never go by and go unpunished. Sexual pervasiveness and prostitution of our love life will put these kids at much risk of dying at a very early age. Surely the whole national stock of individuals cannot be allowed wipped out while political maneuvers and glory seekers keep children psychology in their dirty service. No and again No.Create jobs for the population, revamp the whole education system for it is not meeting the objectives of our time. It does nothing on the personal being in the moral aspect, citizenry, duty, rights, responsibility and physical labour, not naming manufactuting and innovation. Indeed radical measures must be put in place. These are more rational methods of securing the child to the service of the country and not to repeat certain partisan words everyday.Zimbabwe needs a hand that will stop all political and economic experiments. Glory seekers must be wiped out, political profiteers must be dealt with even by more human means. Its high time someone wishes his presidency never to end in anarchy and call upon another young energetic folk to lead his people to victory, work and bread. That will help the children at school more than shouting a monotonous nuisance everyday in the name of instiling patriotism and the fear of God. When in actual fact its an illadviced way to make them zanupf a party which they have proved to be the author and architecture of their parents misfortunes hence their own problems.
Police are trying to find out who posted online photos of girls from a suburban Boston high school in varying stages of undress.

Some of the lewd photos on the file sharing site Dropbox were real, some of the photos were not and some had a different picture attached to the name of a girl from Duxbury High School, according to Fox 25 Boston.

Duxbury Superintendent Ben Tantillo told the station administrators found out about the Dropbox file from a student.

High school staff contacted police who worked quickly with Dropbox to shut down the page, the station reported Friday.

There are some young people here who are very embarrassed and very upset, Duxbury Police Chief Matthew Clancy said. They made a mistake and someone took advantage of that."

Click here for more from Fox 25 Boston.


Israel's military says it has struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire toward Israel.

The military says sirens wailed in southern Israel early Saturday warning of an incoming rocket. One landed in an open field, causing no injuries. The military says it retaliated against the territory's Hamas rulers.

Gaza militants have fired mortar rounds at Israel over the past three days, prompting Israeli retaliation. Palestinian attacks intensified after Israel uncovered an attack tunnel Thursday beneath the border.

Hamas used tunnels to attack Israel during the 50-day Gaza war in 2014 and fired thousands of rockets. The recent exchanges of fire are among the most serious since the war ended.
When Richard Gehring began hiking the Appalachian Trail in April 2010, he did so with memories of hikes decades earlier, when the AT was relatively unknown. Back in summer 1976, he had set out on a southbound thru-hike, starting in Baxter State Park in Maine, hoping to make it to Springer Mountain in Georgia.

In the first 100 miles, between Baxter and Monson, Maine, Gehring recalled, he encountered just seven other hikers.

While Gehring didnt finish his thru-hike as intended in 1976, he came back for several years, completing different sections of the AT until he had hiked the equivalent of the entire length of the trail in May 1981.

In 2010, Gehring decided to give a thru-hike another go. He was struck by how much use of the trail had increased since his first trek 30 years earlier.

Down south, the shelters were almost always full, the privies overflowing, and many of the hostels were full, he said. If you ask a hiker today, the only reality they may know is the trail they are experiencing today. So, to them, the trail may not seem overcrowded.

For decades, the Appalachian Trail has offered escape, capturing the imagination of generations of Americans looking to spend more time in the outdoors, building a relationship with nature or challenging their endurance. But as more and more people have looked to the promise of the AT for freedom, some have developed concerns about the trails sustainability.

HIKERS IMPACT

Those concerns have captured the attention of hikers and trail authorities alike. In 2014, a recreational ecologist from Virginia Tech launched a comprehensive study of the trail. Jeff Marions multiyear project aims to analyze sections of the trail for signs of erosion using Geographic Information Systems technology.

A hiker himself, Marion believes his study will serve to help manage the trail and preserve an unfettered wilderness experience into the future. But based on his findings, Marion fears that the need for increased regulation is inevitable.

The AT community is very, very concerned about not overregulating the Appalachian Trail. ... We are bound and determined to preserve that in any way we can, Marion said. But professional recreational ecology suggests that if the use keeps continuing to grow, at some point we are going to have to cross that bridgeto limit use and employ regulations in some cases.

Equipped with GPS systems, Marion led a team through the northern third of the trail last year. He sampled sections of the AT from Connecticut to Maine. The team plans to research the southern third this year and the middle third next year. Marion and his team intend to publish their results in 2018.

Marion shared some of his results from the northern third.

The trail alignment in the Northeast is not terribly sustainable, he said. Theres a lot of problems where the grade of the trail is often very steep and the alignment angle of the trail is close to the fall line.

This steep design, he said, exacerbates erosion from both water runoff and soil displacement as hikers walk.

MOUNTING PROBLEMS

This problem, and others caused by hikers, have become prominent recently in Baxter State Park, the ATs northern terminus. The parks director, Jensen Bissell, said the presence of too many hikers has, at times, negatively impacted the trail.

In Baxter, we have a pretty good record of enforcement of those who violate park rules. And the reason we try to mitigate or enforce punitive actions against that is that, in general, all those things have a negative effect on visitor experience, and, to some degree, the resources of the park itself, Bissell said.

He said one of the worst problems he and his staff face is hikers congregating in large groups to summit the trails final mountain, Mount Katahdin.

When large groups of AT hikers bottle up waiting to complete their hike ... we find we might have 25 or 30 AT hikers hiking together, walking outside the trail corridor in a very sensitive habitat, like the top of Katahdin, he said.

Leave No Trace, a nonprofit organization that educates people about their recreational impact on nature, wrote on its website that hiking off trail can trample vegetation or communities of organisms beyond recovery.

As a result, Baxter State Park enforces a long list of rules. Bissell explained why in a 2014 letter to the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, whose volunteers and clubs protect and maintain the trail.

Bissell cited various problems in the park: Besides traveling in large groups, hikers were camping in undesignated areas, hiking with pets, drinking and using recreational drugs and littering.

Kevin Seagraves, information coordinator for Leave No Trace, said these behaviors are harmful to the environment.

LIMITING HIKERS

Bissell said the AT cannot accommodate an unlimited number of hikers.

We very clearly see the trends in growth here, and going from 300 hikers a year to 1,700over 2,000 if we count all the hikersis a big change, he said. And we dont see any evidence in the line of that curve for that growth to stop. And we dont see anything in the Appalachian Trail Conservancys policy to suggest it should. So thats the conundrum were trying to work out.

In his letter, Bissell said the conservancys model is based on unlimited growth in use.

By comparison, he said, Baxter State Park has a discrete cap model. This means the park puts a limit on the number of campsites and parking spaces available each day in order to restrict the number of visitors. Bissell said the limited growth model has a positive impact on the environment in the park and on visitors experiences.

Formally, the Appalachian Trail has no such limit on the number of users.

ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS

Jay Dement is the information and education director for the Georgia Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which helps maintain another highly used section of trail. He said the three crucial elements to preventing environmental degradation are education, education and education.

Dement knows about sustainability education: He serves as Georgias Leave No Trace state advocate and helped organize a recent Leave No Trace Hotspot cleanup event in southern Georgia.

Dement said compiling and predicting the number of hikers is hard because hikers can get on or off the trail in so many places and they dont need a permit.

However, as of April 5, he said, 1,300 thru-hikers and 800 section hikers had registered this year in trail logs at Amicalola Falls State Park in Georgia, the closest park to the trails southern terminus.

Dement predicted that at least 3,000 hikers total would begin thru-hikes in Georgia this year.

In such great numbers, its hard to not have a major impact, Dement said. We see them all over the trail, being ill-prepared both with what theyre carrying and their habits: not knowing privies arent for trash, not realizing that camping over there in that bed of flowers is not a good idea. ... Somebody has got to tell them what to do.

He believes limiting hikers access to trails is not the answer. Instead, he recommends alternative thru-hikes like flip-flops and section hikes, as Gehring did from 197681.

Dement also wants the Appalachian Trail Conservancy to recognize alternative trails that parallel the AT as part of a thru-hike. This would spread out the hikers.

You cant eliminate a problem by eliminating the access, Dement said. If people understood what the problems were, and shown that there were other places where they could go to recreate, then we could all live a whole lot better.

Marion agrees with Dement that education is essential for reducing harmful impact on the trail.

He also advocates for voluntary programs that have been instituted for particularly high-use areas such as Springer Mountain in Georgia and the Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

By participating in a voluntary registration system, introduced by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy this year, prospective thru-hikers can share their start dates with other thru-hikers and plan their itinerary to avoid overcrowding on the Appalachian Trail.

'TRY EVERYTHING ELSE FIRST'

Hawk Metheny, the conservancys regional director for New England, agreed that following Leave No Trace ethics and avoiding popular hiking areas during peak times does much to limit impact. But he fears that ultimately, limits on hiker numbers may be needed.

He said the Appalachian Trail Conservancys recent efforts to formalize data collection on hikers may yield a better understanding of the trails limit.

Weve hired a visitor use program manager to apply more study and science to the popular sections to better determine the limits of acceptable change and the carrying capacity of the trail comprehensively, Metheny said. We want to get better science to work with land management groups to inform on whether we need to introduce quotas, permits or changes otherwise in regulation.

It will be up to land management groupsnot the Appalachian Trail Conservancyto decide whether to implement such regulations, Metheny emphasized.

Despite planning for the worst, Metheny seemed optimistic about efforts to deal with overuse problems by other means: Before we implement limits like these, were going to try everything else first. But we havent crossed that threshold yet.

Marion agreed. While he believes growing use of the AT might prompt more regulation, Marion is optimistic that his study will help the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, its trail clubs and the National Park Service improve conditions along the trail.

Its just that at some point with the sheer number of people, even if they are practicing Leave No Trace, were still going to end up with problems, Marion said. The voluntary efforts and Leave No Trace is helping, but ultimately it wont be enough.
No control and no answer

For Dr. Elizabeth Prescott, director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Fred Hutch, cancer was bookended by infertility. She and her husband started trying to get pregnant when she was 30 and working as a neurobiologist at Yale University. After unsuccessfully trying to get pregnant, the couple went through a battery of fertility testing and procedures, including four rounds of in vitro fertilization, or IVF, with no luck  or answers that explained the infertility.

It was incredibly exasperating as a scientist to have doctors basically say, gosh, we just dont know, its so weird, said Prescott, whos now 41. And it took a long time  it was four years of trial and error.

Prescotts doctors advised her that if she wanted to continue fertility treatments, her next step would be to try IVF with donor eggs. So once she and her husband had moved to Seattle and settled into their new jobs, they did  and it worked. Her son, Sam, was born in 2009.

When Sam was about a year old, Prescott started having stomach aches that didnt go away. When she was 36, and Sam was 16 months old, she was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer.

She later found out that she had a strong family history of cancer. Shed previously known her grandmother had colon cancer in her 60s, but it turned out that the same grandmother had also had uterine cancer earlier in life and that several of her other relatives had also had colon cancer.

Six months after finishing her cancer treatment, Prescott underwent genetic testing and found that she carries a mutation in a gene associated with Lynch syndrome, a hereditary disorder that increases the risk of many types of cancer. That mutation may explain why she got the disease so young  the average age of colon cancer diagnosis in the U.S. is 72, according to the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

When she contrasts her infertility experience with cancer, Prescott says the answers shes received about her cancer satisfy the scientist side of her. And she thinks infertility may have prepared her to deal with her disease.

In a lot of ways, infertility for me was harder than cancer, she said. It was the first time I had encountered something where I had absolutely no control and no answer.

In fact, after shed gotten pregnant and even during her cancer treatment, Prescott kept looking for answers.

The question I asked my surgeon before I went into surgery to have my tumor removed was, While youre in there, can you look for endometriosis [a condition where uterine tissue builds up and can cause infertility]? Because thats the one thing that nobody had looked for, she said. It was one of the first things I asked about when I woke up.

She didnt get an answer that day, though. But because Lynch syndrome is often associated with uterine and ovarian cancer, Prescott later made the decision to have a prophylactic hysterectomy and oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries). Sam  whos now 6 and knows that he was conceived using a donor egg  asks her sometimes about siblings, and whether they can borrow another womans egg again.

Now not only are there no eggs that can make babies, but theres no uterus to house a baby, Prescott said. She does feel the loss of a potential second child, she said, but Im happy to have one healthy child and to be here for him.

After Prescott spoke about her experiences on a panel at the cancer and pregnancy retreat last month, a lot of people have been coming up to talk to her about fertility, she said. She thinks theres an unmet appetite for these conversations, especially when fertility is tied to cancer  many young cancer survivors may have lost their fertility from chemo or may need medical assistance to conceive.

We talk about cancer really openly. Infertility is still really stigmatized. I dont think its because people are embarrassed, I think its because people dont feel supported, Prescott said. We need to do a better job at creating opportunities for people to come together to share their experiences.
Splash Celebrated 35th Anniversary With The Opening of Bedford Hills Site

Splash Car Wash celebrated its 35th anniversary with the opening of its 19th location in Bedford Hills, New York.

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Splash Car Wash celebrated its 35th anniversary with the opening of its 19th location in Bedford Hills, New York today. The site was welcomed back by several customers who had patronized the location Splash ran in the area for 18 years before closing in 2013. Stage, screen, and television actor, Chazz Palminteri, was the first customer.

The carwash has two wash tunnels and a separate detailing building to serve the diverse customer base in the area. One tunnel is a full service, hand car wash, which washes cars on a conveyor, but has employees using lammswool mitts to wash the car. The service includes vacuuming and window cleaning, and is performed in less than 15 minutes.

For those looking for an exterior-only service, Splash built a second wash tunnel with automated equipment to wash customers' cars. Splash added automatic pay gates where customers can select their service and pay at an electronic teller before proceeding through the wash. The process features state-of-the-art equipment manufactured by Motor City Wash Works and includes a Dry n Shine machine to finish the car.

Chris Fisher, one of the co-founders of Splash, expressed his excitement about the re-opening of Splash Bedford site stating that the whole team was excited to be back in Bedford Hills.

While the location is similar to Splash's sites in Greenwich and Shelton, Connecticut, in that it boasts two wash tunnels, it is the largest facility Splash operates to date.

Mark Curtis, another co-founder, stated that Splash Bedford as being their flagship location, they tried to think of every detail to enhance the customer experience whether they use the hand wash or the express exterior wash. The retail store and waiting area for the hand wash is their largest retail operation and offers a new range of gift items in addition to the items Splash is known for, like its greeting cards.

The new 2000 square foot detail building will offer both express and full service detailing. The location Splash started in 1981 in Greenwich, Connecticut now operates 19 locations in Connecticut and New York, which include 7 oil change centers.

Contact Info:

Name: Mark Curtis

Email: mark@splash1.org

Phone: 203-324-5400

Organization: Splash Car Wash

Source: http://www.prreach.com/pr/23695

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Thoracic Surgery Market to Grow at 10.16% CAGR Driven by Growing Popularity of Robot-Assisted Cardiac Surgery to 2020

ReportsnReports.com adds Global Thoracic Surgery Market 2016-2020 latest research report, the analysts forecast global thoracic surgery market to grow at a CAGR of 10.16% during the period 2016-2020.

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The global thoracic surgery market analyst said robotic technology provides allows maneuverability of surgical instruments in closed and complicated spaces inside a human body. Robotic surgical procedures can reduce hospital stays and facilitate cost management. It also ensures improved outcomes, shorter recovery periods, and reduced pain and discomfort. An awareness of the benefits of robotic surgeries among patients and surgeons has compelled hospitals and clinics to employ robots to perform robot-assisted cardiac surgeries. The benefits of this type of surgery are expected to fuel the growth of the global thoracic surgery market during the forecast period.

Complete report on thoracic surgery market spread across 64 pages, analyzing 5 major companies and providing 38 data exhibits is now available at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/539124-global-thoracic-surgery-market-2016-2020.html

According to the thoracic surgery market report, there has been an increase in the incidence and prevalence of cardiac diseases globally, with sudden cardiac arrest being the leading cause of death among individuals aged 40 and above. According to the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation, the number of fatalities caused by cardiac disorders worldwide matches those caused collectively by Alzheimer's disease, breast, cervical, prostate, and colorectal cancer. The high incidence of cardiac disorders is likely to increase the demand for cardiac surgeries, thereby contributing to market growth.

Global Thoracic Surgery Market 2016-2020, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. This report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market. This report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global thoracic surgery market for 2016-2020. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated from the sales of medical devices required for thoracic surgeries. Order a copy of Global Thoracic Surgery Market 2016-2020 report @ http://www.reportsnreports.com/purchase.aspx?name=539124

The market is divided into the Following Segments Based on Geography - Americas, APAC and EMEA

Key players in the global thoracic surgery market: Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Sorin, St. Jude Medical, and Terumo.

Other prominent vendors in the market are: Abbott Vascular, Abiomed, AtriCure, Biosensors International, Biotronik, BioVentrix, C. R. Bard, Cardiac Assist, CircuLite, Cordis, Corindus Vascular Robotics, CryoLife, CVRX, Edwards Lifesciences, HeartWare, Intuitive Surgical, Jarvik Heart, MAQUET Cardiovascular, Merit Medical Systems, MicroMed Cardiovascular, On-X Life Technologies, OrbusNeich, Qvanteq, Spectranetics, Sunshine Heart, SynCardia Systems, Thoratec, and Volcano.

Further, the report states that the risk of these potential complications is expected to limit the growth of the thoracic surgery market.

Inquire for Discount @ http://www.reportsnreports.com/contacts/Discount.aspx?name=539124

List of Exhibits

Exhibit 01: Product offerings

Exhibit 02: Global thoracic surgery market

Exhibit 03: Global thoracic surgery market 2015-2020 ($ billions)

Exhibit 04: Five forces analysis

Exhibit 05: Segmentation of global thoracic surgery market by technology 2015

Exhibit 06: Segmentation of global thoracic surgery market by technology 2020

Exhibit 07: Segmentation of global thoracic surgery market by technology 2015-2020

Exhibit 08: Global CABG market 2015-2020 ($ billions)

Exhibit 09: Segmentation of global CABG market by geography 2015

Exhibit 10: Global heart valve repair market 2015-2020 ($ billions)

Exhibit 11: Segmentation of global heart valve repair market by geography 2015

Exhibit 12: Segmentation of TAVR by product type

Exhibit 13: Comparison of transfemoral and transapical implantation

Exhibit 14: Global TAVR market 2015-2020 ($ billions)

Exhibit 15: Segmentation of global TAVR market by geography 2015 and more

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Global Parkinson's Disease Market 2016 Edition: Market Trends, Growth Drivers, Competitive Landscape & 2017 Forecasts Discussed in New Research Report

MarketReportsOnline.com adds Global Global Parkinson's Disease Market Report: 2016 Edition research report of 51 pages on the Parkinson's Disease industry to the pharmaceuticals intelligence collection of its research store.

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Parkinson's Disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive neurodegenerative or movement disorder which involves the malfunction and death of vital nerve cells in the brain, called neurons. Parkinson's primarily affects neurons in an area of the brain called the "substantia nigra". The early signs and symptoms may be mild and may go unnoticed initially. The cause of this disease is mainly unknown with no cure till date but there exist several treatment options such as medications and surgery.

The Global Parkinson's Disease Market Report: 2016 Edition research of 51 pages with 32 Charts and 10 Tables, 4 company profiles to the pharmaceuticals industry segment of its online data and intelligence library, now available at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/476871.html.

The current treatment market for Parkinson's disease has several unmet needs as no treatment has yet been successful in fully restoring the function that produces dopamine. However, the treatment currently only aims at controlling and relieving symptoms. The Parkinson's disease treatment market remains flooded by both branded and generic drugs. The market is expected to experience fluctuations in branded sales due to patent expiries and subsequent entry of generics in the market. Several biologics are under development for the treatment of Parkinson's along with possibility of developing "Stem Cell" as a treatment therapy.

Company Coverage of Parkinson's Disease Market:

o Biotie Therapies Corp.

o Adamas Pharmaceuticals Inc.

o Lundbeck

o Novartis

The Parkinson's disease market is expected to acquire modest growth driven by launch of new therapies and increasing rate of drug treatment due to increasing healthcare expenditure and ageing population. The major growth drivers of the Parkinson's disease market includes rising level of toxin exposure, increasing life expectancy, rising male population worldwide, ageing population, healthcare expenditure and pesticide consumption. However, the growth of the market will also remain challenged by generic erosion, current treatment limitations and increasing risk of developing Melanoma.

Purchase a copy of this Parkinson's Disease Market research report at USD 800 (Single User License) http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=476871.

The report, "Global Parkinson's disease Market" analyzes the currently prevailing condition of the market along with its future scope of development. The specific markets of the U.S., the European Union and Japan are being discussed in the report. The major trends, growth drivers as well as issues being faced by the industry are being presented in this report. The major players in the industry are being profiled, along with their key financials and strategies for growth.

Major Points from Table of Contents (http://www.marketreportsonline.com/476871-toc.html) Provided in Parkinson's Disease Market:

Table of Contents

1. Market Overview

1.1 Introduction

1.2 Fundamental Features

1.3 Types of Parkinson's Disease

1.4 Risk Factors

1.5 Treatment Options

2. Global Market

2.1 Global Parkinson's Disease Drug Market by Value

2.1.1 Global Parkinson's Disease Drug Market by Region

2.1.2 Global Parkinson's Disease Market by Drug Class

2.1.3 Global Parkinson's Disease Patient Population by Severity

2.1.4 Global Parkinson's Disease Patient Population by Region

3. Regional Markets

3.1 The U.S.

3.1.1 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Market by Value & Volume

3.1.2 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Market Value by Category

3.1.3 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Market Volume by Category

3.1.4 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Market by Drug Class

3.1.5 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Branded Drugs Market

3.1.6 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Generic Drugs Market

3.2 The European Union

3.2.1 The E.U. Parkinson's Patient Prevalence & Diagnosis

3.2.2 The European Parkinson's Disease Drug Market by Value

3.3 Japan

3.3.1 Japan's Parkinson's Disease Drug Market by Value

4. Market Dynamics

4.1 Growth Drivers

4.1.1 Rising Level of Toxin Exposure

4.1.2 Rising Life Expectancy

4.1.3 Rising Male Population

4.1.4 Increasing Ageing Population

4.1.5 Global Healthcare Expenditure

4.1.6 Pesticides Consumption

4.2 Trends

4.2.1 Late-Stage Drug Development for Parkinson's Disease

4.2.2 Stem-Cell Therapy as Potential Treatment

4.2.3 Biologics under Development for Parkinson's Disease

4.3 Challenges

4.3.1 Generic Erosion

4.3.2 Parkinson's Treatment associated with Higher Risk of Melanoma

4.3.3 Current Treatment Limitation

5. Competitive Landscape

5.1 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Branded Drug Market by Company

5.2 The U.S. Parkinson's Disease Generic Drug Market by Company

Explore more related reports on pharmaceuticals market at http://www.marketreportsonline.com/cat/pharmaceuticals-market-research.html.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.marketreportsonline.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=476871

Contact Info:

Name: Ritesh Tiwari

Organization: Market Reports Online

Phone: + 1 888 391 5441

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/global-parkinsons-disease-market-2016-edition-market-trends-growth-drivers-competitive-landscape-2017-forecasts-discussed-in-new-research-report/113586

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The Vaporizer Blog Celebrates Five Years of Honest, Unbiased Reviews and More

Five years since founding, site's "Vapebuster" reviewers are even more committed to providing information and analysis that helps readers make better, more informed purchases, Vaporizer Blog reports

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Vaporizer Blog is celebrating five years since the site's founding, a span that is practically an eternity in Internet terms. At the time that Vaporizer Blog was founded, the vaporizer-review industry was mostly an amateurish one, with scattered reports of dubious reliability being the norm. Over the course of five years, Vaporizer Blog has worked with great success to professionalize its chosen niche. As a result, those interested in vaporizers and cannabis-related news today can count on a greatly increased level of information, thanks to the pioneering work of Vaporizer Blog's founders, editors, "Vapebuster" reviewers, and other writers. More information about the Vaporizer Blog mission and focus can be found on the site's Press page and About us page.

"We're happy to report that Vaporizer Blog has reached its five-year anniversary," site co-founder and contributor Janet Fox said, "We set out five years ago to bring accuracy and professionalism to a field that lacked them at the time. We've worked hard to elevate the quality of vaporizer reviews, and we're proud to see that so many others have followed suit since. We'd like to thank the many loyal readers who have helped make this project a success and to promise to stay true to the principles that have guided us from the start."

Although marijuana usage is still regularly portrayed in the mass media as almost always involving a pipe, water-pipe, or rolling papers, there are other options of distinctly different kinds. One increasingly popular tool among both marijuana users and those interested in partaking of non-narcotic substances is the vaporizer, a device that uses calibrated electric heat to extract the sought-after compounds without resorting to outright combustion.

Five years ago, the fledgling industry of companies turning out such products was covered online mostly by amateurs of varying talents, dedication, and seriousness. As a result, those interested in buying vaporizers of their own often had little of reliable value to go on, resulting in plenty of unsatisfying, badly informed purchases.

Vaporizer Blog was founded in Amsterdam, a city widely regarded as the spiritual capital of marijuana usage, to help improve the situation. Brought together by a shared desire to offer something better, the founding group of freelance media professionals, designers, artists, and others began turning out vaporizer reviews of a quality, comprehensiveness, and overall value that had been hard to find in the past.

Since then, Vaporizer Blog has become an important source for many thousands of readers, whether for the vaporizer reviews and rankings that have always been so important or for other features. Medical related articles featured on the site, for example, regularly draw praise for their usefulness and practicality, as do updates of many other kinds. With five years now behind it, the editors of and contributors to the pioneering Vaporizer Blog remain committed to delivering the quality that readers around the world have come to rely on.

About Vaporizer Blog:

With a dedicated team of Vapebusters turning out honest, objective, truly informative reviews of vaporizers, the Vaporizer Blog helps educate readers so they can make better purchasing decisions.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.vaporizerblog.com

Contact Info:

Name: Janet Fox

Organization: Vaporizer Blog

Address: Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, 1420 AA The Netherlands

Phone: 0202356373

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/the-vaporizer-blog-celebrates-five-years-of-honest-unbiased-reviews-and-more/113898

Release ID: 113898

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Custom Wytelyne Sets Off on New Powder Coating Public Awareness Campaign

New initiative will help more people throughout South East England understand the value and functionality modern powder coating can deliver, Custom Wytelyne reports

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Custom Wytelyne Powder Coating Ltd launched a new public awareness campaign. As one of the United Kingdom's top powder coating specialists for over thirty years, Custom Wytelyne regularly works with individual customers to develop the solutions most appropriate to their needs. Through the company's new initiative, Custom Wytelyne will help spread awareness to the public at large as to the many possibilities and uses of powder coating.

"Whether for small orders that we coat by hand or large runs that pass through our high-capacity Gema reciprocators, we take pride in delivering exactly what each and every one of our customers needs," Custom Wytelyne Managing Director Martin Gould said, "It's a real pleasure to help our clients understand their options when they come to us for assistance, and we think many others could benefit from that kind of attention. With our new public awareness campaign, we're going to try to spread the word further about the advantages of powder coating and the many associated options."

The various kinds of paint that most people are familiar with work according to the same basic principle, whereby a liquid known as a "binder" forms a film as it dries, keeping the color-imparting pigments and wear-resistant fillers it contains held in place on a surface. Powder coating is an entirely different approach, with, as the name suggests, a dry, specially formulated powder being bound directly to carefully prepared surfaces with the aid of electrical energy.

Powder coated finishes can be particularly tough and durable, since the properties of the fillers and pigments they comprise are not diluted by a binder. As is detailed at the Custom Wytelyne website at http://www.custom-powder.co.uk/powder-coating.html, both manual and mostly automatic means of applying such coatings are available. Thanks to these appealing traits, annual global demand for powder coating services has been estimated at over 4 billion, with research firm Acmite Market Intelligence predicting 6% average yearly growth for the near future.

For more than three decades, Custom Wytelyne has been one of the United Kingdom's leading providers of this important kind of work. With a full range of services that are described at http://www.custom-powder.co.uk/services.html, Custom Wytelyne offers everything from seven-stage zinc phosphate or chromate pre-treatment options to carefully monitored curing of coated pieces with radiant heat, camel-back, or box oven. Optional packaging and delivery further simplify things for clients, with the entire complement of service offerings being available to tune to each job's particular needs.

The company's new campaign will help spread awareness as to what powder coating can offer, what the most common options are, and how the process works. Those interested in learning more can do so at the Custom Wytelyne website and are invited to send their questions to company representatives.

About Custom Wytelyne Powder Coating Ltd:

Since 1984, Custom Wytelyne has provided the best in powder coating and related services to clients throughout South East England.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.custom-powder.co.uk/

Contact Info:

Name: Martin Gould

Organization: Custom Wytelyne

Address: Chatham, Kent, ME5 7NL United Kingdom

Phone: 01634 819 520

Source: http://marketersmedia.com/custom-wytelyne-sets-off-on-new-powder-coating-public-awareness-campaign/113890

Release ID: 113890

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Chesapeake Home Health Care to Celebrate National Nurses Week With Special Happy Hour

The Clinical and Scheduling Department will be giving away fun awards and certificates like, the "Champagne Award" for the most sparkling personality as well as other awards that pertain to nursing.

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LANHAM, Maryland - The administrators at Chesapeake Home Health Care (CHHC-MD) are offering a "Luau Happy Hour" for their nurses and nurses in the community to show their appreciation. The celebration is timed to coincide with National Nurses Week, which begins on May 6th. National Nurses Week is celebrated annually to raise awareness of the vital role that nurses play in society. The theme of this year's National Nurses Week is "Culture of Safety", and so the Clinical Department at CHHC-MD is planning on doing a mini workshop on safety at the beginning of the event.

"We took extra care in planning the event this year. We really wanted to show the staff how much we appreciate their hard work and dedication. I think they're going to be really excited when they see what's in store for them." - Director of Nursing, Dawn Cole, RN, CLNC

The Clinical and Scheduling Department will be giving away fun awards and certificates like, the "Champagne Award" for the most sparkling personality as well as other awards that pertain to nursing.

There will be a prize wheel that includes a raffle of gift cards to local restaurants, movies, etc. Each CHHC nurse will be given an iPad folio and a Nurses Week Certificate. There will also be a hula hoop contest held.

On the menu at the Luau will be an assortment of happy hour small plate dishes, shrimp, and tropical beverages. The office will be decked out in a Hawaiian theme, and each attendee will receive a lei.

The event will be held on Thursday, May 12th (founder of professional nursing Florence Nightingale's birthday) from 4 pm to 8 pm at the Chesapeake Health Home Care office, 4500 Forbes Blvd, Suite 110 in Lanham, Maryland.

About Chesapeake Home Health Care (CHHC - MD)

Care. It's the philosophy at CHESAPEAKE HOME HEALTH CARE INC. (CHHC-MD). Whether it's providing hands-on care for loved ones; getting connected to additional wraparound services; or helping to further attain professional education to becoming a better caregiver - caring is not just a job at CHESAPEAKE, "it's our passion and our purpose". As a premiere, licensed Maryland home health care organization, CHESAPEAKE HOME HEALTH CARE INC. (CHHC-MD) specializes in coupling innovation with community-based services to meet the specific needs of medically fragile or special needs children and nursing-dependent adults. And by focusing exclusively on this often misunderstood and overlooked population, CHESAPEAKE has established itself as a proven leader in the community and healthcare industry. So let CHESAPEAKE HOME HEALTH CARE INC. take care of you. Let's get started! For more Information, visit http://www.chhc-md.com/.

END

###

Publicist: BLUE ARTISTS, LLC

info@blue-artists.com

877-977-2023

www.chesapeakeforkids.com

For more information about us, please visit http://www.chesapeakeforkids.com

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Email: info@blue-artists.com

Organization: BLUE ARTISTS, LLC



Source: http://marketersmedia.com/chesapeake-home-health-care-to-celebrate-national-nurses-week-with-special-happy-hour/113561

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LA Limousine Company Announces Worldwide Custom Design Service

Los Angeles based limousine design company, American Limousine Sales, has announced an expansion of its service to cater to worldwide customers. People can buy limousines from anywhere, or design limousines from scratch.

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American Limousine Sales, a custom limousine company based in Los Angeles, California, has announced an expansion to its service, catering for customers all around the world. The company deals with famous brands like Dodge, Lincoln, Chrysler, Mercedes Benz, Lexus and Ford, and has served a wide range of clients from hotels to casinos and private users. It has new and used limousines ready to go, and can also build them completely from scratch.

More information can be found on the American Limousine Sales website at: https://buylimos.co.

A full range of services included in the worldwide expansion is available on the site, which encompasses buying new limousines, used limousines, and detailed guides on how people can create their own custom limousines from scratch. There is also a page dedicated to financing, which covers how people can get help when buying their own limousine.

No matter where the customer is in the world, they can use the American Limousine Sales search engine to find the best limousine suited to them from a wide range of options. Car state, condition, age and price can be used to help fine tune the results, with some even available for under $10,000.

The site also explains how a limousine can be a status symbol, and designing a custom one from the ground up can help to highlight this. Realizing the challenges that their clients could potentially face when trying to customize cars to their specific wants and needs, American Limousine Sales took it upon themselves to formulate a solution. Offering an alternative to customization of stock vehicles, they give the client the chance to be a part of the construction of their own limousine throughout the creation process, designing how it looks and feels.

The company prides itself on being easily accessible, and there are a variety of ways for customers to get in touch, whether they want to ask a question about the process or check up on their order. People can use the contact form on site to send an email, or call on (310) 762-1710. Customers can even use WhatsApp to communicate on 323-209-8510.

For more information about us, please visit https://buylimos.co/

Contact Info:

Name: Robert

Email: sales@americanlimousinesales.com

Organization: American Limousine Sales

Address: 5250 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045

Phone: +1 310 762 1710

Release ID: 113822

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Online Backup Service And Cloud Data Storage The Swiss Way Announced

Customers looking for the latest Online Backup Service that includes local backup servers and managed service at a fixed price will soon be able to experience data storage solutions made in Switzerland, beginning May 9th, 2016. More information can be found at http://www.up-great.ch.

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Customers looking for the latest Online Backup Service will soon be able to experience cloud data storage made in Switzerland, with local backup servers and managed service at a fixed price. Today Oliver Borgo, Senior Solution Adviser at UP-Great AG at Fehraltorf, Switzerland, releases details of their new Service.

The Online Backup Service (BaaS) is designed to appeal specifically to medium and large businesses and includes:

Online backup for a fixed price - To make sure the client can easily calculate their ongoing costs, the fixed price was included as part of the solution because the customers shall have peace of mind when it comes to expenses for cloud solutions. This is great news for the consumer as it will massively improve their ability to reduce costs for data security and backups, which will help to invest more ressources in other areas of their business. .

Managed backup service - The cloud backup solution will be fully managed.This will erase the need for manual exchange and storage of tapes, unburden the internal IT department and help reducing costs. Customers will enjoy this feature because it will include a complete Off-Site backup solution. This will minimize the costs and complexity of maintenance of their infastructure.

Restore with local backup server - In order to make it as easy as possible for the customers to access and restore any data at any time, UP-Great will offer their customers full control vial local backup servers and easy integration with their workflow. Customers will be provided with a fast and secure way to save and restore whole systems as well as single files. This local solution helps to restore files and virtual machines within minutes.

When asked about their new Online Backup Service, Mr. Borgo said: "At UP-Great, we strive to provide our customers with secure and affordable IT-solutions. With our new managed backup service our custormers can now save time and money - and secure peace of mind. Because there will be no more tape-handling, but quick and complete control over their end-to-end encrypted data. And the fixed monthly price makes it easy to keep track of all expenses."

This is the latest offering from UP-Great AG and Oliver Borgo is particularly excited about this launch because "Customers have been asking about an easy and unexpensive online backup solution for quite some time - and we listened. I am excited about our new service because it broadens our possibilities to satisfy the needs of our customers."

Those interested in learning more about UP-Great AG and their Online Backup Service can do so on the website at http://www.up-great.ch

For more information about us, please visit http://www.up-great.ch

Contact Info:

Name: Oliver Borgo

Organization: UP-Great AG

Address: Allmendstrasse 19, CH-8320 Fehraltorf

Phone: +41 44 956 51 12

Release ID: 113985

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Corby Northamptonshire Antiques & Collectables Fair In June 2016 Announced

Corby Fairs announced its new antiques fair with a wide range of antique jewelry, glassware, brooches, figurines, art, medals, coins, china, collectable items, and more, on sale, taking place on the Sunday, 12th of June, at the Grampian Club, Patrick Road, Corby, Northamptonshire.

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The popular Corby Fairs group announced it will be hosting its next antiques and collectables event on Sunday, 12th of June, at the Grampian Club on Patrick Road in Corby, Northamptonshire.

More information is available at http://corbyfairs.co.uk/.

Corby Fairs is a group of experienced Corby-based traders organising and operating premier antique and collectables fairs in the Corby, Northamptonshire area. Their first event at the Ennerdale Community Centre proved popular with traders in the areas and was fully booked within 2 weeks of the date and venue becoming available.

The Corby Fairs traders have now announced they will be holding a larger antiques and collectables fair at the Grampian Club, in Patrick Road, Corby, Northamptonshire, NN18 9NT, on June 12, with a wider range of antique jewelry, glassware, brooches, figurines, art, medals, coins, china, collectable items, and more, on sale.

To ensure the same type of experience that led to the success of the Ennerdale Community Centre event, the organisers are focused on providing not only a diverse range of items but also refreshments and quality meals at reasonable prices and comfort/space for both visitors and traders, including enough room to walk down the aisles and stop to look at items or chat to traders.

More information on the Corby Fairs' antiques event taking place on the 12th of June along with a downloadable booking form for stall holders or details on Corby Fairs' past or future events, and more, are available on the website link provided above. Traders can book pitches for stalls in different sizes including a single pitch or a double stand which means traders can bring a varied range and are not limited by space.

The organizers explain that "Corby Fairs was set up by traders who have held fairs at venues outside Corby over the last 5 years. We decided that as we are Corby based, we should bring the antiques and collectables to our town as there are many traders based here and people of Corby would undoubtedly support the venture".

The organizers add that "our first event at the Ennerdale Community Centre demonstrated that traders want to come to Corby. Our next 3 events, including 12th of June, will be held at the Grampian Club, a much bigger venue which will be able to accommodate twice as many traders enabling us to offer much more choice and variety to all our visitors".

For more information about us, please visit http://www.corbyfairs.co.uk/

Contact Info:

Name: Wendy Perry

Email: contact@corbyfairs.co.uk

Organization: Corby Fairs

Phone: 07860 107660

Release ID: 113983

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National Eligibility Test (NET) - June 2021 https://career.webindia123.com/career/dates_and_events/entrance/ugc/national-eligibility-test-ugc-net-june.htm Details of National Eligibility Test (NET) - June 2021 2021-2-20 2021-9-5 https://career.webindia123.com/career/images/exams.png India India National Eligibility Test (NET) - June 2021 UGC

UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) - On 20th November, 2021

National Eligibility Test (NET) - June 2021 Category : UGC Recruitment 2022 Published : On February 20, 2021 By Webindia123 Editor

Important Dates

Submission of online application form 10.08.2021 Last date for Applying Online 5.09.2021 Last date of submission of Fee through online generated Bank challan , at any branch of (Syndicate/Canara ICICI Bank) or through credit/debit card 16.9..2021 Correction in Particulars of application form on the website 7/09/2021 to 12/09/2021 Date of Examination 20,21,22,24,25,26,29,30 November 01,03,04,05 December 2021

On behalf of UGC, the Central Board of Secondary Education announces holding of the National Eligibility Test (NET) on october 6th -11th for determining the eligibility of Indian nationals for the Eligibility for Assistant Professor only or Junior Research Fellowship & Eligibility for Assistant Professor Both in Indian Universities and Colleges. CBSE will conduct NET in 84 subjects at 91 selected NET Examination Cities spread across the country.

The award of JRF and Eligibility for Assistant Professor both OR Eligibility for Assistant Professor only will depend on the performance of the candidate in both the papers of NET in aggregate. However, the candidates qualifying exclusively for Assistant Professor will not be considered for award of JRF. Candidate appearing in NET should clearly specify in the prescribed Application Form whether they are applying for both JRF& Eligibility for Assistant Professor both OR only for eligibility for Assistant Professor. Candidates who qualify the Test for eligibility for Assistant Professor will be governed by the rules and regulations for recruitment of Assistant Professor of the concerned universities/colleges/state governments, as the case may be.

The result of the UGC-NET will be made available on the websites: cbsenet.nic.in as and when it is declared. The candidate will not be individually intimated about their result. The candidates who qualify for the award of Junior Research Fellowship are eligible to pursue research in the subject of their post-graduation or in a related subject and are also eligible for Assistant Professor. The universities, institutions, IITs and other national organizations may select the JRF awardees for whole time research work in accordance with the procedure prescribed by them.

Scheduled Caste(SC)/Scheduled Tribe(ST)/Persons with Disability(PwD)/Other Backward Classes(OBC)(Non creamy layer), as per the central list of Other Backward Classes available on National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC), Government of India website: www.ncbc.nic.in, candidate will be given such special concessions as may be decided by the UGC.

JUNIOR RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP :

Candidates qualifying for the award of Junior Research fellowship will be eligible to receive fellowship of UGC under various schemes, subject to their finding placement in universities/IITs/institutions. The validity period of the offer is three years w.e.f. the date of issue of JRF Award Letter. However, in case the candidates who have already joined M. Phil./ Ph.D., the date of commencement of fellowship shall be from the date of declaration of NET result or date of their joining, whichever is later.

CONDITIONS OF ELIGIBILITY

i) Candidates who have secured at least 55% marks (without rounding off) in Master s Degree OR equivalent examination from universities/institutions recognised by UGC in Humanities (including languages) and Social Science, Computer Science &Applications, Electronic Science etc. (list of subjects of post graduation attached at page No. 20) are eligible for this Test. The Other Backward Classes(OBC) belonging to non-creamy layer/Scheduled Caste(SC)/Scheduled Tribe(ST)/ persons with disability(PwD) category candidates who have secured at least 50% marks (without rounding off) in Master s degree or equivalent examination are eligible for this Test.

ii) Candidates who are pursuing their Master's degree or equivalent course or candidates who have appeared for their qualifying Master s degree (final year) examination and whose result is still awaited or candidates whose qualifying examinations have been delayed may also apply for this test. However, such candidates will be admitted provisionally and shall be considered eligible for award of Junior Research Fellowship/eligibility for Assistant Professor only after they have passed their Master's Degree OR equivalent examination with at least 55% marks (50% marks in case of OBC falling in Non Creamy layer/SC/ST/PwD (persons with disability)) category candidates. Such candidates must complete their Masters degree or equivalent examination within two years from the date of NET result with required percentage of marks, failing which they shall be treated as disqualified.

iii) Candidates belonging to third gender in other words transgender would be eligible to draw the same relaxation in fee, age and qualifying criteria for NET (i.e. Junior Research Fellowship and Assistant Professor) as are available to SC/ST/PwD categories. The subject wise cut-offs for this category should be the lowest among those for SC/ST/PwD/OBC NCL categories in the corresponding subject.

iv) The Ph.D. degree holders whose Master s level examination had been completed by 19th September 1991(irrespective of date of declaration of result) shall be eligible for a relaxation of 5% in aggregate marks (i.e. from 55% to 50%) for appearing in NET.

v) Candidates are advised to appear in the subject of their post graduation only. The candidates, whose post graduation subject is not covered in the list of subjects in item No.14 (on page 12-13), may appear in a related subject.

vi) Candidates are neither required to send any certificates/documents in support of their eligibility nor printout of their Application Form (Confirmation Page) to CBSE. However the candidates, in their own interest, must satisfy themselves about their eligibility for the Test. In the event of any ineligibility being detected by the UGC/CBSE at any stage, their candidature will be cancelled and they shall be liable for legal action.

vii) Candidates having post-graduate diploma/certificate awarded by Indian University/ Institute or foreign degree/diploma/certificate awarded by the foreign University/institute should in their own interest, ascertain the equivalence of their diploma/degree/certificate with Master s degree of recognized Indian universities from Association of Indian Universities (AIU), New Delhi. (www.aiu.ac.in)

AGE LIMIT & RELAXATION :



i) Junior Research Fellowship: Not more than 30 years as on 01.06.2021. A relaxation up to 5 years is provided to the candidates belonging to OBC (Non- creamy layer, as per the Central list of OBC available on website: www.ncbc.nic.in ) SC/ST/PwD/Transgender categories and to women applicants. Relaxation will also be provided to the candidates having research experience, limited to the period spent on research in the relevant/related subject of post-graduation degree, subject to a maximum of 5 years, on production of a certificate from appropriate authority. Three years relaxation in age will be permissible to the candidates possessing L.L.M. Degree. A relaxation of up to 5 years is provided to the candidates who have served in the armed forces subject to the length of service in the armed forces up to the first day of the month in which the concerned UGC-NET is to be held. Total age relaxation on the above ground(s) shall not exceed five years under any circumstances.

ii) Assistant Professor: There is no upper age limit for applying for eligibility for Assistant Professor.

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The Test will consist of two papers. Both the papers will consist of only objective type questions in two separate sessions as under:

Paper-I shall consist of 50 objective type compulsory questions each carrying 2 marks. The questions which will be of general nature, intended to assess the teaching/research aptitude of the candidate. It will primarily be designed to test reasoning ability, comprehension, divergent thinking and general awareness of the candidate.

Paper-II shall consist of 100 objective type compulsory questions each carrying 2 marks which will be based on the subject selected by the candidate.

All the questions of Paper II will be compulsory, covering entire syllabi of earlier Paper II & Paper III (including all electives, without options).

The candidate will have to mark the responses for questions of Paper I & Paper II on the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) Sheet provided along with the test booklet

HOW TO APPLY

i) Candidate seeking admission to the Test (UGC-NET, June, 2021) must apply online only on the CBSE website: cbsenet.nic.in

ii) Before applying Online, the candidates must possess the scanned images as below:-

- Passport size photograph in JPG format of minimum 4kb to 40 kb. The dimension of the photograph should be 3.5 cm (width) x 4.5 cm (height).

- Signature in JPG format of minimum 4kb to 30 kb. The dimension of the signature should be 3.5 cm (width) x 1.5 cm (height).

iii) After filling all the details for applying online for NET the candidates have to select the option of payment of examination fee either by credit/debit card or through e-challan generated during the online filling of the application form indicating your details therein and follow the process as mentioned under 6 (ii & iii) on page 6.

iv) The candidates are required to bring a photo identity card along with their printout of online admission card on the day of examination.

v) Before applying Online, candidates are advised to go through detailed notification available on CBSE website www.cbsenet.nic.in Please note that Fee submitted through any other mode like Money Order, Demand Draft, IPO etc. will be summarily rejected.

vi) In other to avoid last minute rush, the candidates are advised to apply early enough. CBSE will not be responsible for network problems or any other problem of this nature in submission of online application during last days.

More details can be available from the UGC website.

Contact Details Address : Central Board of Secondary Education

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The possible introduction of a badger cull in Wales to tackle bovine TB has been dealt a fresh blow after Labour retained power in the Assembly elections.

For the last five years, the ruling Labour Party has rejected calls from farm leaders to introduce a badger culling policy in Wales, opting instead to vaccinate badgers.

A spokesman for Welsh Labour told Farmers Weekly: We have voiced our opposition to badger culling in the past and that remains our stated position. We certainly dont have any update on this.

See also: Welsh Assembly elections: 10 key issues that affect farming

Labour fell short of an overall majority in the Welsh Assembly elections after UKIP gained ground, winning seven seats. However, Labour remains the largest party after winning 29 of 60 seats.

Labour could form a minority government, but it could form a coalition government with the most likely partner being the Lib Dems or Plaid.

Four of the five main political parties in Wales  the Welsh Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and UKIP  have all stated they would be willing to roll out culling in Wales, provided the policy could be proven by science to be effective.

Of the main parties, only Welsh Labour remains opposed to culling badgers as part of its TB eradication policy.

Bovine TB cases up 29% in Wales

According to Welsh government figures, bovine TB led to the slaughter of 8,246 cattle in 2015  a 29% increase on the previous year. Farm leaders say politicians must act now to reverse this disturbing increase.

Farmers Union of Wales (FUW) president Glyn Roberts said: TB is just one of a host of major short- and long-term issues facing agriculture in Wales.

While there are concerns that the status quo might continue in terms of failure to address the disease in badgers, a new government by definition has the opportunity to review the evidence and implement a new policy.

The scientific evidence coupled with the failure of the Pembrokeshire vaccination trial to reduce incidents points clearly to badger culling, which we will continue to push for.

FUW has also called for the appointment of a dedicated minister with responsibilities for farming and rural affairs.

Agriculture and rural affairs are key to our economy, and central to addressing and dealing with the major challenges of our generation, said Mr Roberts.

With issues such as climate change and water management dominating agendas such as those listed in the Well-being of Future Generations Act, we need a dedicated minister to fight for the interests of our rural communities  communities for which agriculture is a cornerstone.

NFU Cymru seeks badger cull

In the run-up to the elections, NFU Cymru outlined 11 key asks for food and farming, which it has urged the new government to implement. One of the asks included a call for the eradication of TB in badgers.

NFU Cymru president Stephen James said: The Labour government has acknowledged that there is a problem in wildlife because they have been vaccinating badgers in Pembrokeshire.

Now that that vaccine is no longer available, having acknowledged the problem, they have got to do something about wildlife.

Personally, I think a reactive cull, similar to the one in Ireland, would be the answer in Wales, especially in the long term.

He agreed that the next government should appoint a minister at cabinet level with responsibility for agriculture.

In recent years the Welsh governments portfolio holder for agriculture has not always had a seat around the cabinet table, said Mr James.

NFU Cymru believes that agriculture does need a voice around the cabinet table, and with so much going on, particularly in relation to the CAP, this need has now become more acute than ever.
Scottish farmers are anticipating a shake-up at senior government level, with rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead only just holding on to his constituency seat in this weeks government elections.

Mr Lochhead saw his majority in Moray fall from 11,000 in 2011 to less than 2,900, thanks to an 18% swing to the Scottish Conservatives.

The Moray constituency, in the north of Scotland, between Inverness and Aberdeen, has a vibrant agriculture sector. The local farming community has been particularly hard hit by the ongoing BPS fiasco, which has left many farmers still waiting for their 2015 payments.

See also: Map problems prompt Scots to demand SAF deadline extension

Pundits suggest the poor election performance was the direct result of a voter backlash against these payment delays and the poor state of the farming economy, and expect that Mr Lochhead will be moved on from the farming brief.

If so, the new Scottish government faces another problem as Aileen MacLeod, previously environment and land reform secretary, failed to get re-elected.

Nationally, the Scottish parliament elections saw the Tories performing much better than expected and beating Labour into second position to form the parliamentary opposition  easily their best showing since the formation of the parliament in 1999. Many of their successes were in rural areas.

NFU Scotland said it would be very keen to meet with the new minister as soon as possible once they are in position.

The union has already demanded that the application window for this years basic farm payment be extended another month from 16 May.

We had hoped that the deeply flawed 180m IT system installed to deliver new CAP schemes would have improved to the extent that an extension to the application window would not have been necessary, said NFUS president Alan Bowie.

While the majority report that the application process is improved, many members have yet to receive the up-to-date maps for their farms from the Scottish government needed to make their 2016 claim and time must be allowed for that to happen.
Two of the three seats on the Benton County Board of Commissioners are up for election this year, but theres only one contested commissioners race in the May 17 primary.

Four-term Position 2 Commissioner Jay Dixon is running for re-election, but hes facing a challenge in the Democratic primary from Xan Augerot, the former executive director of the Marys River Watershed Council. The winner of that contest will face Republican Jerry Jackson in November.

Both candidates in the Democratic primary sat down this week with the Gazette-Times editorial board to talk about the most pressing issues facing Benton County, how they would go about addressing them and what qualities make them the best person for the job.

Here is a synopsis of what each candidate had to say.

Facilities

Both candidates agree the county has some major facilities needs that have to be addressed in the near future, most notably a new jail and more space for the Health Department, as well as making a decision about what to do with the courthouse, which was found in a recent engineering study to be extremely unsafe in a major earthquake.

But they differ in how they prioritize those needs and how they would go about addressing them.

Augerot is on record as saying she would tackle the badly overcrowded Health Department first.

Its not as big a lift as the jail, she said, in part because there is money available in the county budget to cover at least some of the planning costs associated with the project. I think some of that could be done without going out for a bond.

The question of what to do about the jail and the courthouse is more complicated, she said.

Its all very interrelated, Augerot said. Maybe we want a new law enforcement complex that encompasses both a courthouse and a jail.

She thinks the county has some personnel on staff who could help with the planning for the project, which should also include an evaluation of services that should be offered through the justice system.

Whatever we do, we need to do a comprehensive needs assessment first and take an approach thats based on services.

Augerot said she wasnt ready to offer an opinion on whether the courthouse should be replaced or seismically retrofitted because she hasnt yet read the engineering report, but my gut feeling is we need a new facility.

Dixon said hes not ready to assign priorities to any facilities projects just yet.

The city of Corvallis has indicated theyd like to plan with us for a jail downtown, he said. And theres other needs besides a jail, including the courthouse.

He said the 911 dispatch center, housed in the Law Enforcement Center downtown, needs to be expanded, and the countys emergency planning center, in the basement of the same building, may need to move because the current location could be vulnerable to flooding.

As for a new Health Department building, he added, part of the discussion needs to be whether to find separate space for the federally qualified health center, which currently occupies a big chunk of the departments space.

So theres a larger planning effort that needs to be done, Dixon said. Until we do that, Im not willing to prioritize.

As for the future of the courthouse, he said, thats a question were going to ask the community.

While the building is a beloved local landmark, the engineering report estimated it would cost close to $11 million to shore it up enough that the occupants could survive a major Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake  but the building would not be safe to occupy afterward.

What we dont have is an estimate of how much it would cost to make it safe enough to use afterward, Dixon said. We think its two to three times that.

Finally, Dixon added another facility to his list of those in need of attention: the Public Works Department complex on Southwest Avery Drive, which he said needs to be expanded and renovated. However, he added, the county budget has enough money in ending fund balances to cover the cost of the work  estimated at less than $2 million  without going to the voters for a bond measure.

Homelessness

Benton County adopted a 10-year plan to address homelessness in 2009, but the effort bogged down over a local nonprofits proposal to build a 100-bed homeless shelter in downtown Corvallis, which was bitterly opposed by downtown business owners, and a plan to put a tent camp in south Corvallis that drew fire from neighbors.

In an attempt to reboot the 10-year plan, the committee that oversees the plan has been reorganized under a new name (the Housing Opportunities Action Council) and a proposal has been made to hire a professional project manager for the group.

Augerot sees the problem as part of a larger issue.

Its not just homelessness, its housing  affordable housing in general, she said.

Shed like to see the county explore ways to promote affordable housing construction outside the Corvallis city limits while working with city officials and the private sector.

That is a much larger conversation ... but I think its something thats going to have to happen.

She also thinks the county can play a leadership role with respect to the Housing Opportunities Action Council in determining where common ground exists among the council members and encouraging action on those fronts. And she believes that bringing in a professional project manager can facilitate the creation of a backbone entity that will give the council a more coherent direction.

Dixon, who co-chaired the 10-year plan oversight committee for its first five years, said hes been pleasantly surprised with the success of Partners Place, a renovated apartment building on Northwest Harrison Boulevard that provides permanent supportive housing for up to 18 people who previously were chronically homeless.

Emulating that would be a good start, he said. Then the question is where do you do that? A lot of people dont want it in their backyard.

He said its important to find a way to get past the turf wars that are currently hampering the work of the Housing Opportunities Action Council. He thinks hiring a professional project manager  something he voted for as a member of the Board of Commissioners  can help with that, but hes waiting to see if the Corvallis City Council is on board with the idea.

Weve said well support it, but I dont know if the city has made a commitment yet, he said.

Both candidates agree that the Benton County Health Department has a role to play in providing medical, mental health and addiction treatment services to the homeless population.

Qualifications

Naturally enough, both candidates claim to be the best person to serve on the Board of Commissioners.

Augerot presents herself as someone who would bring a burst of energy and a fresh approach to the job.

She said her diverse educational background  she has degrees in geography, marine policy and economics  gives her a holistic approach to policy-making.

I tend to be a big-picture, systems thinker, she said. I dont look at problems in isolation.

If elected, Augerot said she would push the county to take a more proactive role on issues such as climate change, population growth and dwindling water supplies.

And she said shes made a concerted effort to make connections with local residents, particularly in rural areas of the county, something she pledged to keep doing should she win the election.

I think at this point Im more engaged in the community, Augerot said. I dont think my opponent has done much of that in the last few years.

Dixon, by contrast, portrays himself as the voice of experience.

Ive spent half my professional career in government  small government, medium-size government and large government, he said.

In addition to more than 15 years on the Benton County Board of Commissioners, he cited his stint on the Corvallis School Board, a part-time job in his youth as a police dispatcher in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, and a career with the Seattle Police Department, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant.

Ive been in the private sector, which I think is of value in government, he added.

Dixons business background includes several years as owner of a Corvallis hardware store, senior management positions with several banks and a stint as chief operating officer of a security firm with 1,000 employees in three states.

He also touted his working relationships with other government leaders at the local, state and national levels.

You dont just walk in the door and have relationships with the people you need to have relationships with, he said. It takes time to build those relationships.
Linn-Benton Community Center is a step closer to moving forward with its plan to expand the colleges Benton Center.

LBCC officials announced Friday that they have completed the purchase of 2.5 acres of land on Northwest Reiman Street. The land is just north of the Benton Center and is intended to provide the land for classroom space and parking. The land cost $3 million.

The parcel currently is being leased to the First Student bus company. The purchase agreement requires the college to find an alternative site for the bus operation. LBCC officials said that a small portion of the property is available now and that some Benton Center parking might be added there in the coming months.

Now we can begin to plan earnestly, said Jeff Davis, director of the Benton Center. We have community members serving on the project steering committee, and well be looking for other ways to allow for community engagement in the process.

The project will add 20,000 feet of additional classroom space and more than double the centers parking to 250 spaces. The expansion, which is budgeted at $10 million, is being paid for by property tax revenue approved by voters in 2014. The bond measure will raise approximately $34 million over 15 years and also will pay for facilities improvements at college sites in Albany and Lebanon.

Earlier, the college sought to buy part of adjacent Washington Park from the city to serve as the expansion site, but officials withdrew those plans amid strong community opposition.
Here is a look at public meetings that are scheduled for the coming week:

Monday

 The Economic Development Advisory Board meets at 3 p.m. at the Madison Avenue Meeting Room, 500 S.W. Madison Ave. The board will hear from Sam Angelos on activity at the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute on the HP Inc. campus and from city planner Sarah Johnson on the Imagine Corvallis 2040 vision work.

 A neighborhood meeting on unimproved streets will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Western View Center, 1555 S.W. 35th St. The targeted neighborhood for the meeting is the southwest hills of Ward 1 but comments are welcome from all residents.

 The Corvallis Community Relations Advisory Group meets at 7 p.m. at the Madison Avenue room. The panel, which is working on livability issues in the neighborhoods near Oregon State University, will hear a report from OSU student conduct officer Raphelle Rhoads and a presentation from the three Corvallis Police Department community livability officers.

 The Philomath City Council meets at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 980 Applegate St. The council is scheduled to act on Planning Commission appointments, a liquor license application by the Vinwood Taphouse, Oregon Liquor Control Commission license renewals and its urban forestry plan.

Tuesday

 A public meet and greet with new Community Development Director Paul Bilotta is scheduled for 4-6 p.m. at the Madison Avenue room.

 A neighborhood meeting on unimproved streets will be held at 5:30 p.m. at the Tunison Community Room, 365 S.W. Tunison Ave. The targeted neighborhood for the meeting is southeast Corvallis (Ward 3) but comments are welcome from all residents.

Wednesday

 Visit Corvallis and Travel Oregon are hosting a town hall from 3-4:30 p.m. at the Vue, 517 S.W. Second Street to discuss how to enhance the economic impact of travel and tourism and increase the quality of life in communities such as Corvallis.

 The Corvallis Downtown Advisory Board meets at 5:30 p.m. at the Madison Avenue room.

 The Corvallis Civic Beautification and Urban Forestry Department Advisory Committee meets at 9 a.m. at the Parks and Recreation Department, 1310 S.W. Avery Park Drive.
This log includes incidents in which there might have been a public disturbance or a risk to the public. Information comes from the Corvallis Police Department, the Benton County Sheriffs Office and Oregon State Police. It does not include all calls for service. The status of incidents might change after further investigation. Locations are approximate. People arrested or suspected in crimes are considered innocent until proven otherwise.

Corvallis Police Department

FRIDAY, MAY 6

METH: 3:50 a.m., 1500 S.W. Avery Park Lane. Officers contacted Dylan Lee Mendell, 18, of Philomath at the bathrooms of Avery Park. Officers reported that Mendell surrendered a glass meth pipe and bag containing methamphetamine during the interaction. Mendell was issued a citation for possession of methamphetamine.

THURSDAY, MAY 5

NURSE SLAPPED: 10:21 a.m., 3600 N.W. Samaritan Drive. Rochelle Christine Wyonna Smith, 19, of Adair Village, was cited after she allegedly slapped a nurse in the face at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

METH: 9:16 a.m., 5470 N.E. Highway 20. Officers arrested Jacqueline Marie Orr, 48, of Corvallis for possession of methamphetamine following a traffic stop. Officers reported making the stop after a citizen reported seeing Orr trying to dye her hair while driving and failing to maintain her lane. Officers reported they discovered meth during a consent search of the vehicle during the stop. Orr was booked into the Benton County Jail.
Boost for UN host city Bonn : 1.4 million for House of Nature

Bonn The long-awaited international nature center comes a step closer. A funding agreement will be signed on Monday.

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On Monday,Environmental Minister Barbara Hendricks and Bonn Mayor AshokSridharan will sign an agreement to put 17 million euro of federalfunding into strengthening the role of Bonn as a United Nations(UN) host city. Profiting from this funding is the Haus der Natur(House of Nature) which will receive 1.4 million euro.

According toStephanie Zienitz from the press department of the City of Bonn,the new nature information center will be used as an excursiondestination when there are international conferences, especiallythose hosted by the UN. It will also be a place where internationalexperts in the environmental sciences can visit as well as thegeneral public.
17-year-old brutally beaten : Bonn youth in critical condition

Bad Godesberg Teenage youth suffered a terrible attack as they made their way to the Bad Godesberg train station late Friday night (into Saturday morning).

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A homicide commission has been formed toinvestigate a savage attack on a teenage boy Saturday night in BadGodesberg. The 17-year-old was walking with friends to the BadGodesberg train station at around 12:20 a.m. early Saturday morningwhen they came upon a group of young men near the Rheinallee busstop. The men said something to the youth and then attacked the17-year-old and his 18-year-old friend.

A witness reports that the17-year-old was so brutally beaten that he fell to the ground. Bothfriends accompanying him, an 18-year-old male and female tried tohelp him but they were also beaten up by the men. People near byrushed to help the youths and the unknown men took off in thedirection of Rheinallee. Paramedics had to revive the 17-year-oldand he was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. According todoctors, he remains in acute critical condition. The teenagefriends suffered less serious injuries.

They and their friends andfamilies were being cared for by a trauma counselor. Because of thecircumstances surrounding the attack, a homicide commission wasformed already last night. It will be led by Chief CriminalInvestigator Franz Wirges who is working closely with City AttorneyFlorian Geler. Police secured the area after the attack to searchfor evidence and interviewed witnesses.

The attackers are describedas follows: Person 1: -17-20 years-old -1.8 - 1.85 meters tall-brown skin -stocky build -black hair, shorter on the sides andlonger on top -black jacket -jeans -spoke German without an accent

Person 2: -17-20 years-old -dark black hair -1.8 - 1.85 meters tall-brown skin -thin -white jogging pants -white pullover (Adidas orNike) -spoke German without an accent
Bonn goes global : International Rotary Club founded

Bonn For people looking to get involved and work on some meaningful projects during their time in Bonn, theres a great new option.

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As home topeople from all over the world, it perhaps shouldnt come as a bigsurprise that Bonn is soon to become a member of RotaryInternational. The Bonn International Rotary Club was formed inFebruary of 2016 and already consists of 26 Charter members from 20different countries. For Bonn, with a major United Nations presenceand numerous NGOs and international organizations, this is aterrific start.

On June 18, Bonns International Rotary Club willbecome an official member of Rotary International with a festivecelebration at the University Club. People who become members ofthe International Rotary Club are committed to tackling even thetoughest of challenges in their host communities. Their efforts aresupported by Rotary International, the member association, and TheRotary Foundation, which turns generous donations into grants thatfund the work of members and partners. Because the Bonn chapter isa young one, they are in the process of planning social activitiesand local projects to help communities in Bonn.

Later, they plan totake on international projects. At first, their priority will befundraising. Who can join? For members of Bonns internationalcommunity who want to make a difference, and are willing to givethe time and effort to support the goals of the Bonn InternationalRotary Club, they are very welcome to come along to a meeting.Discussions are all in English, and meetings are every Monday at7:30 p.m.
Facebook, Twitter to support Republican convention despite anti-Trump calls News oi -GizBot Bureau

Despite activist groups mounting anti-Donald Trump pressure, social networking giant Facebook and micro-blogging website Twitter will support the Republican National Convention in July where Trump is expected to be announced the party's presidential nominee.

According to media reports, while Cupertino-based Facebook will provide financial and other support - including a lounge - Twitter is yet to come up with a detailed plan.

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"Facebook will support both the Republican and Democratic conventions in a similar manner and without endorsing any one candidate, issue or political party," The Hill reported, quoting Erin Egan, Facebook's vice president of Public Policy.

"Twitter works with both major political parties and we will support both national conventions, in order to promote civic engagement and democratic participation," Twitter spokesperson Nu Wexler said in a statement.

Top 10 Apple iPhones to Buy in May 2016 in India

The news comes at a time when activist groups have increased pressure on companies to refrain from supporting the Republican National Convention in Cleveland from July 18-21.

According to Facebook, its support is similar to what it has provided earlier in the election cycle. "This support allows Facebook to facilitate an open dialogue among voters, candidates and elected officials during the conventions just as it has during other critical moments in the US elections and in elections around the world," Egan was quoted as saying.

In the recently-conclude F8 developers' conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had indirectly criticised immigration policies of Republican front-runner Trump.

Throwing a jab at Trump, he said: "I hear fearful voices calling for building walls. It takes courage to choose hope over fear. "Instead of building walls, we can build bridges." Zuckerberg was referring to Trump's call for a giant wall to be built along the southern US border with Mexico.

"Our lives are connected. Whether we're welcoming a refugee fleeing war or an immigrant seeking new opportuity. Whether we're coming together to fight global diseases like Ebola or to fight climate change, we have the courage to see that the path forward is to bring people together, not push people apart," Zuckerberg had told the gathering.

11 Most Breathtaking Photos in the World Which Could Be Your Smartphone's Wallpaper!

Google and Microsoft will also have a visible presence at both conventions in July. According to a recode.net report, activists held a #DumpTrump protest outside Google last week. They have also launched a Facebook ad campaign not to livestream the GOP convention.

Source IANS

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Counter-ISIL Strikes Target Terrorists in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, May 6, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in 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

Ground-attack and attack aircraft conducted two strikes in Syria:

-- Near Shadaddi, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Manbij, a strike stuck an ISIL tactical vehicle.

Strikes in Iraq

Ground-attack, fighter, bomber, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 22 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Baghdadi, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL command and control node, five ISIL rocket rails, and an ISIL bunker.

-- Near Albu Hayat, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL vehicle bombs.

-- Near Bashir, a strike produced inconclusive results.

-- Near Beiji, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Fallujah, a strike struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL supply cache, an ISIL tunnel entrance, two ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL-used bridge, and two ISIL rocket rails.

-- Near Hit, two strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, two ISIL vehicles, three ISIL tactical vehicles, and an ISIL weapons cache.

-- Near Makhmur, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed three ISIL rocket rails and an ISIL assembly area.

-- Near Mosul, four strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed two ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL vehicle bombs, and an ISIL vehicle.

-- Near Qayyarah, three strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL weapons-making facility and destroyed two ISIL vehicles, and an ISIL rocket rail.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

-- Near Tal Afar, two strikes destroyed an ISIL excavator and suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

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, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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President proposes international arbitration on Okinotori dispute

ROC Central News Agency

2016/05/06 19:29:51

Taipei, May 6 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou () reiterated Friday during a meeting with a visiting Japanese politician Taiwan's hope of seeking international arbitration on the Okinotori atoll dispute.

During his meeting with Nobuo Kishi, a member of Japan's House of Councillors, the president said that if Taiwan and Japan cannot solve their dispute over the issue, the two sides should submit the dispute to international mediation and arbitration.

Relations between the Republic of China and Japan have been the best they have ever been over the past eight years since the two countries severed formal diplomatic ties in 1972, Ma said.

However, Japan's recent detention of the Taiwanese fishing boat the Tung Sheng Chi No. 16, "could create some negative effects on this relationship," Ma said.

He noted that after the Taiwanese boat was detained by the Japanese coast guard near Okinotori atoll April 25, Japan demanded a security deposit to release the boat and its crew, and handcuffed and strip-searched the boat captain.

"The Taiwanese people are shocked and angered by these actions," Ma said.

Okinotori is only 9 square meters in area and its two reefs are merely 16 centimeters above sea level, which means that it has no fresh water to sustain human habitation or economic life of its own, Ma pointed out.

He cited Article 121 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as saying that reefs that cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own are not entitled to an exclusive economic zone.

Despite this, Japan claims a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone around the outcrops.

Taiwan has sent patrol vessels into international waters near Okinotori after the incident to protect its fishermen's rights.

With official vessels from both Taiwan and Japan near Okinotori, Ma said he hopes that the two sides will restrain themselves and avoid conflict that could affect the friendly relations between the two countries.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Christie Chen)

ENDITEM/J

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Romania, U.S. host multi-national exercise to strengthen allied partnerships

US Marine Corps News

By 2nd Lt. Kathleen OBrien | May 6, 2016

Forces from Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Moldova, the United Kingdom and the United States will conduct a multi-lateral exercise to improve readiness and strengthen NATO alliances.

U.S. Marines and sailors of the Black Sea Rotational Force are scheduled to participate in Platinum Eagle at Smardan Training Area, Romania, beginning May 9, 2016.

Platinum Eagle is an annual exercise where multi-national troops will conduct integrated attacks in order to increase cooperation and combat power between the United States and their NATO allies and partners.

The Black Sea Rotational Force is a semi-annual rotation of Marines and Sailors based in Romania to respond to a broad range of military operations in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.

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Deputy Secretary General: NATO membership will ensure Montenegro's long term security

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

06 May. 2016

Becoming the 29th member of NATO will ensure Montenegro's long-term stability, sovereignty and security, NATO Deputy Secretary General Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said during a visit to Montenegro on Friday (6 May).

Delivering a keynote speech at the To Be Secure Conference, Ambassador Vershbow stressed that NATO membership has enabled countries to overcome historic rivalries and work together to reach common goals, "Membership in NATO has enabled countries to pool their resources, to greatly enhance the defence bang that they receive for their tax-payers' buck. It allows members to join up their forces, intelligence and expertise, making everyone safer", Ambassador Vershbow said. He added that NATO membership gives Montenegro a seat at the table and the ability to shape NATO policy.

Addressing global security challenges, Vershbow stressed that NATO is responding to challenges on its southern and eastern flank by helping to tackle the root causes of instability in the Middle East and North Africa and by implementing the biggest reinforcement of NATO's collective defence in two decades. The Ambassador said that NATO's most significant role in the south is to build up the capacity of partner countries. "I hope that, at the upcoming NATO Summit in Warsaw, the Alliance will commit to an even more ambitious Defence Capacity Building program for our southern neighborhood," the Ambassador said. "By projecting stability in this way, we can prevent conflict and avoid the need to deploy military forces", he added. Turning to the east, the Deputy Secretary General stressed that Russia had violated international law by illegally annexing Crimea and through its subsequent military actions in eastern Ukraine. In response, NATO has increased the defence of its members in the East while remaining committed to dialogue with Russia.

Later this month, NATO Foreign Ministers are due to sign Montenegro's Accession Protocol. Montenegro will then become an 'invitee' and will be able to attend almost all NATO meetings, including the Warsaw Summit, as an observer. Every NATO Ally must then ratify the Protocol in their national parliaments in order for it to become a full member.

During his visit, Ambassador Vershbow will also meet with the Minister of Defence of Montenegro, Prof. Milica Pejanovic urisic.

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Spearhead Completes APS Mission in West Africa

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160506-05

Release Date: 5/6/2016 10:10:00 AM

From U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet Public Afairs

NORFOLK (NNS) -- The Navy's first expeditionary fast transport vessel USNS Spearhead (T-EPF 1), returned to her homeport, Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia, May 5.

Spearhead departed Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story Dec.29, 2015 to participate in Africa Partnership Station 2016. This was the third deployment for Spearhead in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations.

Quotes:

"It was a privilege having the opportunity to work alongside our African partner nations in the Gulf of Guinea and as the APS mission commander I had the privilege to work with the Military Sealift Command civil service mariners, U.S. Coast Guard law enforcement detachment (LEDET), U.S., Spanish and Royal Marines, and sailors with a wide variety of skill sets and backgrounds. The relationships established and trust forged during this deployment is a testament to the dedication that we and our partners have in ensuring that those involved in illegal activity will be held accountable." - Cmdr. Tim Ferracci, Africa Partnership Station 2016 mission commander

"This deployment was a rewarding experience serving in the Gulf of Guinea and significantly impacting the improvement of regional stability and interoperability between partner nations across the maritime theater. The training and support we provided to our partner nations in Maritime Law Enforcement and Security Operations was well received and will ensure continued progression of our African partners to protect the rich and bountiful marine environment that is the Gulf of Guinea." - Todd R. Kutkiewicz, USNS Spearhead chief mate

"Working with the different Western African nations highlighted the impact our forces have had during previous missions. Providing these countries the tools and training to control their Exclusive Economic Zones will undoubtedly have a positive impact on their local economies. The mission instilled a strong sense of pride in the entire crew, knowing we accomplished our mission of helping the people of Western Africa." - Lt. Cmdr. Michael Webb, African Partnership Station 2016, deputy mission commander

Quick Facts:

Spearhead and its crew of nearly 100 U.S. Navy detachment and civil service mariners conducted maritime operations in the Gulf of Guinea and made port call visits to Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Senegal and Spain.

A U.S. Coast Guard LEDET embarked Spearhead in support of Africa Maritime Law Enforcement Partnership 2016. AMLEP is companion to and nested within APS and seeks to build maritime security capacity in order to increase maritime safety and security.

The LEDET's training curriculum with Cameroon, Ghana and Senegal during AMLEP included basic first aid, pressure point and escort training, defense tactics, rescue and survival gear, and weapon safety.

The U.S. Coast Guard and participating partner nations conducted six fishing vessel boardings, one of which resulted in a return-to-port order for suspected fishing violations.

Spearhead was essential in counterpiracy operations that liberated motor tanker Maximus. While conducting AMLEP, Spearhead received real world information regarding a tanker in the area that was attacked by a suspected pirate vessel. Through the forward looking infrared system and visual imagery, Spearhead confirmed the ship matched the description of the hijacked vessel. The ship's crew tracked the vessel before handing it off to the Ghanaian Navy vessel Naa Gbewaa, who were able to positively identify Maximus.

Improved maritime agreements, coordination and communication between Benin, Ghana, Nigerian, Togo and U.S. navies allowed Maximus to be tracked and handed off as it crossed borders while transiting to Nigeria, resulting in the Nigerian Navy executing the first non-compliant boarding in West Africa.

During Obangame/Saharan Express 2016, the Gabon Navy conducted 5 simulated scenario boarding exercises aboard USNS Spearhead to test the boarding teams' abilities to conduct maritime interdiction operations to detect illicit activity and a cross-deck event with RFA Gold Rover.

Previously separate exercises that took place in different areas of Africa, Obangame and Saharan Express were combined this year to synchronize efforts to implement the Yaounde Code of Conduct and Multilateral Maritime Zone Agreements across the Economic Community of West African States and Economic Community of Central African States nations. Both Obangame/Saharan Express were in their sixth iteration.

AMLEP is a multiphased effort with the lower-tiered phases consisting of maritime governance framework to conduct combined law enforcement operations. AMLEP's end goal is for an African partner to be able to conduct law enforcement operations independently of U.S. efforts.

This year the Spearhead team's participation in AMLEP operations with Ghana led to two law enforcement boardings, resulting in several maritime law enforcement violations to include operating in a restricted area. These vessels received return-to-port orders and were transferred to the Ghana Navy.

This was the first year of AMLEP with Cameroon. The Spearhead team alongside members of the partner nation completed four law enforcement boardings resulting in six violations of Cameroon's laws.

Obangame/Saharan Express (OE/SE) exercise is part of a comprehensive strategy by CNE-CNA/C6F and AFRICOM to provide collaborative opportunities among African forces and international partners that addresses maritime security concerns.

OE/SE16 was conducted in multiple areas at sea and ashore. At-sea operations were conducted throughout the Gulf of Guinea and West Africa. The exercise lasted 12 days.

There were 32 participating nations in Obangame/Saharan Express 2016 to include Angola, Benin, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Morrocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Republic of Congo, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Togo, Turkey, United States, and the United Kingdom, as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

While in Libreville, Gabon, the embarked U.S. Marine Corps detachment conducted tactical training alongside the British Royal Marines and Spanish Marines with Gabonese maritime forces aboard Spearhead consisting of weapons handling, close quarters battle, and patrolling tactics.

Spearhead's crew participated in a community relations (COMREL) project, working side-by-side with Navy Mobile Construction Battalion 133 in Libreville, Gabon. The COMREL project was conducted at a local orphanage and consisted of painting dormitories, constructing shelving systems and repairing window screens.

The Spearhead crew and embarked military detachment hosted over 150 host nation embassy personnel and 20 Gabonese military personnel for ship tours and provided media training to nine military officials.

U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, joint, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

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Navy, Air Force Solve Critical F/A-18 Parts Issue, Celebrate Success

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS160506-03

Release Date: 5/6/2016 9:23:00 AM

By Jenny Gordon, Robins Air Force Base Public Affairs

WARNER ROBBINS, Ga. (NNS) -- Ensuring safe, reliable components are available to support the Navy's F/A-18 legacy Hornet was the focus of a partnership celebration at Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex's 402nd Commodities Maintenance Group (CMXG) at Robins Air Force Base in Georgia, May 5.

Officials from Naval Supply Systems Command Weapon Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS) and Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), as well as industry officials from NORDAM -- a global aerospace manufacturing and repair company -- toured several repair lines in Bldg. 140.

They learned how the ALC manufactures the Navy's much-needed F/A-18 outer wing spars through a partnership agreement with NORDAM, who supports the aircraft's wing repair lines.

The successful production of the first order of 10 forward spars for the aircraft's outer wing panels, completed in March, means the Navy's fleet of legacy Hornets can continue to fly sorties downrange after what has been a particularly mission-heavy season.

In high demand of these key internal structural components are the forward and aft spars, according to NORDAM, an approved commercial repair source for legacy Hornet outer wing panels.

Because the all-weather attack aircraft, flown by the Navy and Marine Corps is currently being flown beyond its originally forecast life due to mission requirements, it was experiencing significant corrosion and fatigue issues in its outer and inner wing panels.

NORDAM approached the ALC to assist with manufacture requirements of the wing spars, and a public-private partnership agreement was signed in 2014. The implementation agreement was signed June 2015, and the first order of outer wing spars arrived at Robins Air Force Base August 2015. Additional orders are being worked.

"The ability to team and work through engineering approvals across the services, and then to bring industry to help further reduce turnaround times and reduce cost, is very impressive," said Navy Capt. Matt Ott, NAVSUP WSS Aviation Operations director. "I think it shows the engineering expertise and the ability to work together to solve a critical Navy fleet problem."

"We've got to keep our F/A-18s flying, which are in high demand overseas," Ott added. "This specific part allows us to save and salvage a wing panel which would have previously been scrapped. So instead of a long lead time to fabricate something new and very costly, this returns an aircraft to service so we can execute missions at home and abroad. It's great to be partnering with Warner Robins (Air Logistics Complex), along with our Fleet Readiness Centers. We've got the best in class with industry and the best in class in the workforce here with the Georgia team."

This ongoing partnership between the Air Force and Navy is also a particular source of excitement for NORDAM, one of the world's largest independently owned aerospace companies.

"CMXG has been able to produce these for us, which allows us in turn to take wing components, their inner and outer wings on an F/A-18 that otherwise would sit idle, and make them serviceable," said Basil Barimo, NORDAM's Repair Divisions executive vice president.

"It's been a huge step forward for us and the Navy in being able to salvage a lot of parts that would otherwise be sitting around," Barimo said. "We've got many more critical safety parts that are in the pipeline for Robins to produce. It's exciting."

"Warner Robins (ALC) will be making these for as long as we support the aircraft, as this is a very complex part. They've done a wonderful job here," said Ed Koenig, NORDAM's Warfighter Support director.

Having excess capacity in the 402nd CMXG allowed much-needed manufacturing workloads such as this to take place, said Mark Johnson, 402nd CMXG deputy director.

"This is really what we are driving toward, where we have all the different services working together," Johnson said. "Today we have the Air Force, the Navy and all of our industry partners coming together to attack a common problem. That's the power for the future of our Department of Defense as we collaborate more with our sister services and industry partners."

A field activity of the Naval Supply Systems Command, NAVSUP WSS is the Navy's supply chain manager providing worldwide support to the aviation, surface ship, and submarine communities. NAVSUP WSS provides Navy, Marine Corps, joint and allied forces with products and services that deliver combat capability through logistics. There are more than 2,000 civilian and military personnel employed at its two Pennsylvania sites. The NAVSUP WSS Philadelphia site supports aircraft, while its Mechanicsburg site supports ships and submarines.

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US forces in Yemen to help Saudi coalition: Pentagon

Iran Press TV

Fri May 6, 2016 8:13PM

A US military force is in Yemen to help Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in their alleged fight against al-Qaeda militants in the country's south, the Pentagon says.

"AQAP (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) remains a significant security threat to the United States and to our regional partners and we welcome this effort to specifically remove AQAP from Mukalla and to degrade, disrupt and destroy AQAP in Yemen," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said Friday.

The UAE itself along with Saudi Arabia provided financial and military support to al-Qaeda militants last year to confront Houthis and the Yemeni army units that had taken over the security of the country after president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi resigned.

Last month, forces loyal to Hadi and Emirati troops reportedly overran Mukalla after al-Qaeda militants left the seaport in southeast Yemen.

The deployment of US troops comes a year after the withdrawal of its forces from Yemen. On March 21, 2015, the US evacuated its remaining forces out of al-Anad airbase in southern Yemen "due to the deteriorating security situation" a day after al-Qaeda captured the nearby city of al-Houta.

Davis noted Friday that "we view this as short term," saying the US support includes a "very small number" of military personnel as well as intelligence, surveillance, planning, maritime security and medical help.

"This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organization in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that," he added.

He also distinguished between the ongoing US mission on the ground in Yemen and US-led counterterrorism operations against al-Qaeda in the country.

US drones and warplanes have conducted 4 strikes against al-Qaeda in Yemen during the last two weeks and 10 militants have been confirmed to be dead.

"We have conducted four counterterrorism strikes against AQAP since April 23, killing 10 al-Qaeda operatives and injuring another," Davis said.

Al-Qaeda has become stronger in Yemen taking advantage of the chaos created by the Saudi military campaign against Houthis more than a year ago.

Lately, Riyadh and its allies have announced an offensive against al-Qaeda in a decision seen by analysts as an attempt to ward off international criticism of the Saudi intervention in Yemen.

Yemen has been under military attacks by Saudi Arabia since late March last year.

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Taliban captives freed by Afghan special forces

Iran Press TV

Fri May 6, 2016 1:54PM

More than 60 prisoners held by the Taliban militants have been freed by Afghan forces in the southern province of Helmand.

Officials said on Friday in a nighttime helicopter raid, counter-terrorism operators and special forces based in the neighboring province of Kandahar attacked a house in the Naw Zad district used to hold the prisoners and freed them.

At least two militants were killed and several were wounded or detained in the operation.

Taliban militants are presently in control of large parts of Helmand.

The governor of Helmand, Hayatullah Hayat, announced that those freed from Taliban during the raid had been taken to Kandahar for identification.

"We are still investigating as to who these people are," he said.

On April 12, the Taliban said it has begun its annual spring offensive. The militants dubbed the offensive "Operation Omari" in honor of the 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."

Despite the Taliban's spring offensive against Afghan security forces and US-led foreign forces across the conflict-ridden country, fighting has eased up, mainly due to the annual opium harvest taking many fighters to work in the fields of Helmand, where the largest share of Afghanistan's poppies are grown.

On April 19, a massive attack by the Taliban killed 64 people and left over 340 others wounded in the capital, Kabul.

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Pentagon Hopes to Combat Retaliation for Reported Sex Assault

by Aline Barros May 06, 2016

Pentagon officials said this week they don't have enough information to determine the extent of retaliation experienced by sex assault victims after reporting their cases to superiors.

Major General Camille Nichols, Director of the Pentagon's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, said officials do not know how much recent retaliation there is. But she said they do know, from surveys taken last year, that service members are sensing a "backlash" happening to them.

"So we know that people are experiencing things. It's human nature to feel differently about yourself and also to be seen differently by others," Nichols said. "So we don't have the best approach to categorize the issue. We want to see it. We want to understand it."

A retired Air Force master sergeant told CNN that, after reporting his abuse, the retaliation was "devastating."

Thomas Shockley told the news channel he was sexually assaulted at the U.S. Air Force Base in Ramstein, Germany, in 2010.

"I was removed from my unit and the sergeant who was there to keep an eye on me would constantly mock me," he told CNN. "... My attacker was able to peer at me in the office where I sat."

Felt abandoned

Shockley said he felt abandoned and was asked to do demeaning tasks such as pick up trash and cigarette butts from the air base parking lot.

"The mind set is still that if you report, you will be shunned, pushed aside and no longer part of your unit," he told CNN.

In an annual report on sexual assault among active service members released Thursday, officials said they recognized there is a problem and have developed ways to address retaliation against victims.

Despite the substantial increase in reporting over the past 10 years, the report estimated a significant number of sexual assaults go unreported.

Backlash

Dr. Elizabeth Van Winkle, principal investigator for the research efforts, told VOA that from available data, military officials estimate about two thirds of service members who reported their sexual assault had negative experiences.

"This is critical to ensure we provide supportive services to victims throughout the process and educate the force on how to respond appropriately to members who report an assault," Van Winkle said.

The Pentagon is intensifying efforts that directly address retaliation. Nichols said officials want to provide tools for those who would step forward to say something is wrong and eventually reduce their concerns about retaliation. They want to get people empowered to come forward and report sexual assault.

40 / 20

Military officials said about 40 percent of female victims report a crime against them and nearly 20 percent of the reports were from military men. They said reporting the crime is essential to the ability of the military branches to provide services for victims and hold offenders accountable.

Allegations of inappropriate behavior must be treated with the "utmost seriousness," Nichols said.

The report called for creation of a sexual assault prevention plan of action, the increase of reporting through leadership engagement, and creation of a plan to address male victimization.

"We stay committed to eliminate these crimes from our ranks," Nichols said.

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Russia-Japan Leaders Meet as Tensions Loom

by Daniel Schearf May 06, 2016

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Russia Friday hoping to ease strained relations between Tokyo and Moscow before President Vladmir Putin heads to China for a bilateral summit next month.

At the top of the agenda was a long-running dispute over the group of islands Russia calls the southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories. But Moscow and Tokyo were both quick to dismiss any suggestions that Friday's meeting would lead to a quick fix to their long-standing territorial dispute.

The governments in Tokyo and Moscow have yet to sign a peace treaty for World War II after Soviet troops seized four islands. While Japan has demanded the return of the islands, Russia has offered to give back only two of them.

Russia announced plans in March to station coastal missile systems on the disputed islands, sparking a rebuke from Japan.

Easing strained relations

In 2013, Abe was the first Japanese leader to make an official visit to Russia in a decade. But, relations grew strained shortly after he visited the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, when Japan joined the United States and the European Union in penalizing Russia for annexing Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and supporting separatists in its former Soviet neighbor's east.

Japanese news agencies in February reported that U.S. President Barack Obama asked Abe to cancel his scheduled trip to Russia but the Japanese prime minister refused.

The fact that Japan is seeking to maintain relations with Russia, despite U.S. pressure, will allow the two sides to tackle "all the different problems," Putin said last month.

The Kremlin said Thursday that the Russian president would propose new cooperation in trade, finance and the economy at the meeting. The dispute over the islands will be raised, though it's a "difficult" issue that requires a much closer partnership, presidential foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters Thursday. Abe's visit will give a "new impetus" to ties, he said.

Abe was on a tour of Europe this week, visiting Italy, France, Germany and the United Kingdom; he's scheduled to chair the Group of Seven industrialized countries' meeting in Japan's Ise-Shima region in late May.

Russia was pushed out of the group of the world's largest economies, then called the G-8, after a rift with Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain and the United States over Moscow's alleged role in the Ukraine conflict.

This week, Abe and French President Francois Hollande have agreed to continue dialogue with Russia ahead of the upcoming G-7 meeting, according to Japanese news reports.

Political analysts say Abe is positioned to facilitate dialogue between the G-7 and Russia.

"The meeting will allow him to more effectively play the role of a 'bridge' or mediator between Russia and the G-7, which will let him gain more political points," said Valery Kistanov, who heads the Center for Japanese Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, in comments emailed to VOA.

Russia's China pivot

Perhaps the biggest worry the Japanese prime minister has now is Russia's pivot to China.

Behind Abe's eagerness to meet Putin is to ease what he sees as a geopolitical threat to Japan from China as an isolated Russia draws closer to Beijing.

"Japan is very concerned about the rapprochement of Russia and China, believing that this may occur on the grounds of anti-Japanese base," said Kistanov. "In particular, Tokyo is disturbed by the possibility of creating a single territorial front of Moscow and Beijing against Tokyo, since Japan has a much more acute territorial conflict with China over the Senkaku Islands [Diaoyu in Chinese] in the East China Sea than that with Russia."

Russia-China military drills have also raised eyebrows in Tokyo.

"As the so-called theory of 'China threat' is much spread in Japan," said Kistanov, "the Japanese are very concerned about the increasing military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing."

Trade declining

At the end of 2015, bilateral trade between Japan and Russia was down 30 percent from the previous year, while Russian exporters dropped 27 percent and Japanese imports fell 38 percent, according to Russia's Presidential Press Service.

The press service blamed the fall in commodity prices and weakened exchange rates, as well as on Tokyo joining western sanctions against Russia. It said the Russian and Japanese leaders would discuss ways to strengthen trade and economic relations.

"As for economic cooperation, the most important obstacle to Russia's turning into an important trade partner of Japan is not a territorial problem and not the lack of a peace treaty, but the structural weaknesses of the Russian economy," Kistanov said.

Tokyo-based journalist Maxim Krylov told VOA that Japanese media coverage of the Putin-Abe meeting in Sochi had been fairly modest so far.

"Apart from internal Japanese issues, eyes are now on Abe's trip to Europe, which lays the ground for the upcoming G-7 summit in Ise-Shima," Krylov said in emailed comments.

"By comparison, Abe's meeting with Putin is an event of a much lower profile: unofficial visit, one-on-one talks, no press conference after the meeting ends, not much in terms of details on the agenda," he concluded.

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Opponents Turn Up Pressure on South Africa's Zuma

by Thuso Khumalo May 06, 2016

It has been a tumultuous week for politics in South Africa as challenges to President Jacob Zuma and the ruling African National Congress party continue.

Political chaos, violence and destruction - this is how many have described this past week in South Africa.

In parliament, opposition parties kept their promise to defy President Jacob Zuma wherever they meet him. MPs from the Economic Freedom Fighters party disrupted the president's budget speech Wednesday, demanding he leave office.

However, they were violently removed by security officers.

And the following day, all opposition parties except one boycotted a question and answer session with Zuma on the budget.

Zuma blamed the speaker of parliament, Baleka Mbete.

"I go around Africa and people ask me very embarrassing questions about this parliament. I think it will be very important that you seriously bring this house into some orde," said Zuma.

But tensions were also brewing outside parliament.

Residents of Vuwani in the northern part of the country burned 19 schools to the ground using homemade petrol bombs.

They were protesting the government's decision to place their area under a new municipality, believed by some to be a ploy to increase the ruling ANC party's votes in the coming local elections.

The government sent specialized law enforcement units to the area.

"You have to bring them so that you can be able to surround this area, bring this area under stability as quickly as possible, so that those who are responsible, we should be able to bring them to book as a matter of urgency ," said David Mahlobo, the minister of state security.

The ANC has monopolized South African politics since the end of apartheid in 1994. But Zuma has been losing support within his own party amid a barrage of corruption scandals this year.

Opposition MP's tried to impeach President Zuma in April after judges ruled he had violated the constitution. This week, the High Court ordered prosecutors to revisit nearly 800 corruption-related charges against him that were dropped several years ago.

The extent to which those court rulings have hurt the ANC will be revealed at the polls August 3.

Gideon Chitanga is a researcher at the Centre for Study of Democracy at the University of Johannesburg.

"It does not at all mark the end of the ANC, at least in the short term," said Chitanga. "So I think it's a critical indication that going forward the ANC has to reform if it has to retain its social base."

Analysts warn of more instability to come but say it is unlikely that Zuma will step down.

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AF Reserve, ANG Airmen prepare for 2016 wildland fire season

By Staff Sgt. Nicolas Carzis, 146th Airlift Wing Public Affairs / Published May 06, 2016

CHANNEL ISLANDS AIR NATIONAL GUARD STATION, Calif. (AFNS) -- More than 400 Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Airmen from across the country gathered May 2-6 to be certified on the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System in preparation for the 2016 wildland fire season.

Airmen from four ANG wings, along with the Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing, took part in classroom-based briefings and training, as well as C-130 flying operations. Military flight instructors trained alongside U.S. Forest Service aircrew flying in mountainous terrain over simulated fire lines, while ground crewmembers honed their skills servicing the aircraft and reloading the MAFFS units at the tanker base located at Channel Islands Air National Guard Station. Military and civilian agencies synchronized and coordinated during the training in order to ensure fluid processes during firefighting operations.

Col. Scott Sanders, the MAFFS Air Expeditionary Group commander, said the training went well for aircrews this year.

"MAFFS is an interagency partnership. We train as we fight -- together. It is far and away one of our most satisfying missions," said Sanders, who is assigned to the Wyoming ANG's 153rd AW. "One of the reasons we enjoy flying it is to see the immediate results of our efforts."

Throughout certification week, 80 C-130 Hercules aircrews flew approximately 200 training sorties, performing targeted water drops in the mountains of Southern California's Angeles National Forest. An estimated 1.5 million gallons of water was estimated to have been dropped.

Kim Christensen, the National Interagency Fire Center deputy assistant director of operations for fire and aviation management, said the wildland fire potential for 2016 was similar to that of other years.

"The 2016 fire season prediction for the country has been pegged at a normal, significant fire potential," Christensen said. "There are two areas that are pointing to above average fire potential out West, including the Great Basin in Nevada and areas throughout Southern California."

In previous years, requests for MAFFS support has increased. The average fire season, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, has increased by 64 to 72 days.

During an activation to support wildland fire suppression, MAFFS units can drop up to 3,000 gallons of retardant per run on wildfires. Retardant is dropped ahead of a fire in an effort to slow its spread, giving ground crews a critical edge in gaining the upper hand on the blaze. The retardant's bright red color also helps aircrews determine the accuracy of their drops.

MAFFS is a partnership between federal land management agencies and the Air Force to provide supplemental air tankers to assist in fire suppression efforts nationwide during times of high fire activity. The system itself is a portable fire retardant delivery system that can be easily inserted into a C-130, converting the vessel into an air tanker when civilian fleets have been fully committed.

The Air Force's MAFFS aerial firefighting fleet is supported by the Reserve's 302nd AW, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado; the ANG's 153rd AW, located in Cheyenne, Wyoming; the 146th AW, based at Channel Islands ANGS; and the 145th AW in Charlotte, North Carolina. Recently, the National Guard Bureau selected the 152nd AW with the Nevada ANG in Reno to replace the 145th AW as the North Carolina-based unit begins its transition to the C-17 Globemaster III.

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Syrian army denies striking displaced camp near Turkey

Iran Press TV

Fri May 6, 2016 12:38PM

The Syrian military has strongly dismissed media reports that its military aircraft carried out a series of deadly airstrikes against a camp for the internally displaced people near the border with Turkey.

"There is no truth to reports ... about the Syrian air force targeting a camp for the displaced in the Idlib countryside," the military said in a statement released on Friday.

It also accused foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists of targeting civilians.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 28 civilians, among them women and children, lost their lives and 50 others sustained injuries, when airstrikes hit the Kamuna camp housing people uprooted by the conflict in Syria near the town of Sarmada, which lies about 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of the city of Aleppo.

Sarmada, which is located in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, is controlled by members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nursa Front terrorist group.

"There were two aerial strikes that hit this makeshift camp for refugees, who have taken refuge from fighting in southern Aleppo and Palmyra," said Abu Ibrahim al-Sarmadi, a member of the foreign-sponsored opposition from the nearby town of Atmeh.

Video footage published on social media networks showed rescue workers trying to extinguish burning fire among charred tent frames, which had been set up in a muddy field.

Nidal Abdul Qader, an opposition member living near the camp, said about 50 tents and a school had burned down.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein claimed in a statement that initial reports suggested a Syrian government plane was responsible."Initial reports suggest the attacks were carried out by Syrian Government aircraft, but this remains to be verified," he said.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen Rothwell O'Brien said he was horrified by the news and called for an investigation.

"If this obscene attack is found to be a deliberate targeting of a civilian structure, it could amount to a war crime," the UN official said.

"I call for an immediate, impartial and independent investigation into this deadly incident."

According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people since March 2011.

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Syria army fighting terrorists in Aleppo village

Iran Press TV

Fri May 6, 2016 9:54AM

Syrian government forces are fighting back a major offensive by al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, al-Nusra Front, in southern Aleppo amid reports that scores of the militants have lost their lives in fierce clashes.

The Syrian army troops delivered a major blow to al-Nusra Front terrorists after the latter launched an attack on the government forces in the village of Khan Tuman, located about 10 kilometers (six miles) southwest of Aleppo, on Thursday.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday, dozens of the Takfiri terrorists as well as government forces lost their lives during the heavy fighting.

It further claimed that the Takfiri militants had managed to retake Khan Tuman and its surrounding villages from the army troops.

The Syrian military is yet to confirm reports about Khan Tuman's fall into the hands of the terrorists. The Syrian Armed Forces had driven the terrorist out of Khan Tuman in December.

The Takfiri militants operating in the Arab country seem to be taking advantage of a two-day truce between the Syrian government and non-extremist militants in Aleppo.

"The Syrian military says it will respect a 48-hour Aleppo truce after Russia and the US agreed to extend a cessation of hostilities in Syria to the province," said a statement issued by the Syrian army command on Wednesday.

Aleppo has been divided between government forces in the west and militants in the east since 2012.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus accuses Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar of funding and arming anti-Syria terrorist groups, including Daesh.

According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country's pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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Syria: UN condemns camp bombing, underlines political solution 'more urgent than ever'

6 May 2016  Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other senior United Nations officials today "unreservedly" condemned yesterday's bombing of two camps for displaced people in Sarmada, located in north-western Syria, which according to early reports by first responders, killed around 30 civilians including children.

In a statement, Mr. Ban reiterated his call on the Security Council to send a strong message to all warring parties that there will be "serious consequences" for grave violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

"Those responsible for yesterday's seemingly calculated attack against civilians in the camp in Idlib, which could constitute a war crime, must be held accountable," he said, urging the Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court.

Also calling the attacks "a flagrant violation of international humanitarian and human rights law," the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said the strikes demonstrate once again the "extreme difficulty" confronting civilians fleeing violence in Syria as they try to find safety.

According to UNHCR, the informal settlement of Ghita Al-Rahmeh, near the village of Al-Kamoneh, was hosting around 2,500 peopleapproximately 450 familieswho had already fled their homes in western and northern rural Aleppo since late last year. Reports indicate that many people have since fled to surrounding hills, fearing further attacks.

The victims of the strikes are among some 6.5 million internally displaced people in Syria, many of whom have been uprooted several times as the frontlines of conflict have shifted over the last five years.

"It is an unacceptable tragedy that civilians who had already fled for their lives have been targeted in this way; the strikes demonstrate shameful scorn for the sanctity of the civilian nature of camps for internally displaced people," the agency's statement stressed. "A political solution to the Syrian conflict is more urgent than ever."

Meanwhile, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, stated that given these tent settlements have been in these locations for several weeks and can be clearly viewed from the air, "it is extremely unlikely that these murderous attacks were an accident."

"It is far more likely they were deliberate and amount to a war crime," Mr. Zeid underscored. "My staff, along with other organizations, will leave no stone unturned in their efforts to research and record evidence of what appears to be a particularly despicable and calculated crime against an extremely vulnerable group of people."

The UN human rights chief also indicated that initial reports suggest the attacks were carried out by Syrian Government aircraft, "but this remains to be verified."

"It is hard to find any more words to describe the horror facing civilians in Syria: bombed and slaughtered in their homes, shot in the streets and tortured in prisons; bombed in their hospital beds; bombed in the camps they flee to; facing immense difficulties crossing borders to escape the horror that has engulfed their country for five long years; and finally  if they somehow manage to get there  facing rejection and xenophobia in Europe," he stated.

In addition, the High Commissioner said he is alarmed about developments in Hama Central Prison where a riot took place on 1 May after the authorities reportedly tried to extract five detainees and take them to the notorious Sidnaya prison where they were allegedly going to be executed.

"Detainees took control of a section of the prison and are holding some guards hostage, and the authorities have cut off water and electricity supplies," Mr. Zeid reported. "Heavily armed security forces are surrounding the prison and we fear that a possibly lethal assault is imminent. Hundreds of lives are at stake, and I call on the authorities to resort to mediation, or other alternatives to force."

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Russia Says It Brokered Truce Extension in Aleppo

by Pamela Dockins May 06, 2016

Russia says it has brokered a 72-hour extension for a local cease-fire in the ravaged Syrian city Aleppo, where recent fighting between the Syrian regime and rebels has left nearly 300 people dead.

Russia's Interfax news agency said an initial two-day cessation, which expired early Saturday local time in Syria, had been extended "at Russia's initiative."

The news agency said Russia's Defense Ministry also announced that a cessation for a northern region of Latakia had been extended for 72 hours.

The United States and Russia announced localized truces for Latakia and the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta last week in a bid to help keep a nationwide cessation of hostilities announced in February from unraveling.

Mounting violence in Aleppo and other regions threatened to derail political talks between the Syrian regime and opposition as well as the multinational effort to fight the Islamic State.

Broader goal

State Department spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. welcomed the extension of the cessation in Aleppo, which has reduced the violence. But he said the U.S. was continuing to seek broader results.

"Our goal is to get to a point where we no longer have to count the hours and that the cessation of hostilities is fully respected across Syria," Kirby said in a Friday statement.

Earlier Friday, Kirby said the United States had not ruled out the prospect of working with Russia to broker more localized truces in Syria if needed.

The United States and Russia are co-chairs of a cease-fire task force. Russia has been using its leverage with the Assad regime and the United States has been using its influence with the opposition to try to curb the country's unrest.

Airstrike at camp

Shortly after the United States and Russia confirmed the initial reaffirmation of the cease-fire in Aleppo on Wednesday, at least 28 people were killed in an airstrike on a Syrian refugee camp in Idlib province, near the country's border with Turkey.

It is unclear who carried out the strike on the Kamounda camp, where internally displaced Syrians have gathered. U.S. officials said they were seeking more information.

Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said the attack could have been carried out by the al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group that is not included in Syria's cease-fire.

He said based on the nature of destruction at the camp, it "could have been either intentionally or by mistake struck from multiple rocket launchers, which are often used by al-Nusra Front terrorists in the area."

Stephen O'Brien, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said suspicion for the attack would fall on the Syrian government, and that the United Nations would hold accountable whoever was responsible for this "abominable act."

Possible war crime

Separately, a spokesman for Ban Ki-moon said Friday that the U.N. secretary-general was "outraged" by the "seemingly calculated attack against civilians," which could constitute a war crime.

The Syrian opposition High Negotiations Committee also pointed a finger of blame at the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

"It is absolutely disgusting that the regime is targeting families who were forced to flee their homes," spokesman Salem al-Meslet said in a Friday statement.

VOA's Jamie Dettmer contributed to this report.

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Turkey's Erdogan rejects EU calls to amend terror laws

Iran Press TV

Fri May 6, 2016 3:35PM

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has rejected the European Union's demand to change the country's terror laws in return for lifting Schengen visa requirements on Turkish nationals.

"They say 'I am going to abolish visas and this is the condition.' I'm sorry, we're going our way, you go yours. Agree with whoever you can agree," Erdogan said Friday.

Ankara says the laws are necessary given ongoing fight with Kurdish militants in the country and the threat of Daesh terrorist group in neighboring Syria and Iraq.

"When Turkey is under attack from terrorist organizations and the powers that support them directly, or indirectly, the EU is telling us to change the law on terrorism," the president said at the opening of a local government office in the district of Eyup in Istanbul city.

On Wednesday, the EU asked member states to exempt Turkish nationals from visa in return for Turkey curbing refugees' flow to Europe, but said Turkey still had to change some laws first, including its terrorism laws, to meet EU standards.

Under an EU-Turkey controversial deal sealed in March, Ankara agreed to take back all the asylum seekers and refugees, who had used its territory to illegally reach the EU shores in return for a number of commitments from the EU, including a financial aid, visa liberalization and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

Turkey has been asking the 28-nation bloc to allow its 79 million citizens to enter the bloc's passport-free Schengen zone without a visa, a call that has faced 72 conditions, which are listed in an EU framework titled the Roadmap Towards a Visa Free Regime with Turkey.

Rights groups accuse Turkey of using the broad anti-terrorism laws to silence opposition and arrest critics, including reporters and academics.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Erdogan said the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu won't directly affect the economy and will leave no gap in the country's governance.

His remarks come as Davutoglu announced on Thursday that he would not seek a new term as prime minister and head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) amid months-long rumors of tensions between him and Erdogan.



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Erdogan Rules Out Reforming Turkey's Anti-terror Laws

by Dorian Jones May 06, 2016

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a tough message Friday to the European Union, telling supporters in a conservative Istanbul stronghold that though his country is facing terrorist attacks, reforming its anti-terror laws is out of the question.

Brussels is demanding the reform as one of five remaining conditions for Turkey to be eligible for visa-free travel to much of Europe, but Erdogan said he is not interested in such a deal.

"They say they are going to abolish visas and this is the condition," Erdogan said. "I'm sorry, we're going our way, you go yours."

Brussels claims that Turkey's anti-terror laws are far too broad. Erdogan, however, insists that with the country facing the twin threats of Kurdish rebels and Islamic State terrorism, the laws need to be expanded rather than curtailed.

Critics claim the anti-terror laws are being used increasingly against the president's critics and opponents of his government rather than terrorist groups. Hundreds of Turkish academics are being investigated under the country's anti-terrorism laws for signing a petition calling for an end to the military crackdown on Kurdish rebels and a resumption of peace talks. Four academics are already on trial.

On Friday, a Turkish court sentenced two prominent journalists, Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, for an article accusing the government of arms smuggling to Syrian rebels. Their sentencing is likely to add to EU concerns over human rights in Turkey.

Davutoglu's exit

Erdogan's tough stance on the anti-terror laws follows Thursday's resignation of Ahmet Davutoglu as prime minister. It has been widely reported that Erdogan forced Davutoglu to step down.

Davutoglu was the architect and main driving force behind Turkey's agreement with Brussels to take back migrants who entered Greece, in exchange for the EU permitting visa-free travel for Turkish citizens.

Despite Davutoglu's political demise, Turkish political scientist Cengiz Aktar says the EU will most likely try to accommodate Erdogan.

"Europe  and especially [German] Chancellor [Angela] Merkel  was more than happy to work with Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of the republic of Turkey. So they will continue like before to work with him directly," Aktar predicted.

Analysts say that the EU's collaboration with Turkey is proving extremely valuable to Brussels. Since its agreement with Ankara, the number of migrants entering Greece from Turkey has plummeted from thousands a day to around 100.

But Ankara has warned the EU that if it fails to deliver on visa-free travel, the agreement will be canceled. Observers say Friday's warning by Erdogan indicates he is well aware of the power he holds over the EU, and that he will not hesitate to use it.

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Dr. Laura Singletary, assistant professor of mathematics at Lee University, has been named the winner of the 2016 Janet Rahamut Award.

The Janet Rahamut Award is given in recognition to the faculty member that exhibits the most heart for students evidenced by frequent interaction and positive involvement with them outside of the classroom.

The award is named in memory of Dr. Janet Rahamut, a veteran English professor whose tragic death in 2000 shocked the campus and left a tremendous void in the collective heart of the Lee family. The award was created to honor Dr. Rahamuts dedication to her students, in and out of the classroom.

I will treasure this award because it was given to me by students, said Dr. Singletary.



Dr. Singletary joined Lees faculty in fall 2012. She earned her doctorate in mathematics education from the University of Georgia and was awarded the Presidential Graduate Fellowship while there. She received her masters and bachelors degrees from Lee University.

Dr. Singletary has published research in such publications as Mathematical Thinking and Learning, Educational Studies in Mathematics, Mathematics Teacher Educator, Mathematics Teachers, and School Science and Mathematics.

The recipient of the Janet Rahamut Award is chosen by a student committee chaired by the Student Leadership Council chairperson and sponsored by the Vice President for Student Development.

Dr. Singletary has mentored several students who have presented research at regional undergraduate mathematics conferences as well as at the Mathematical Association of Americas MathFest conference. Her students have won awards for their research done in Dr. Singletarys History of Mathematics class.
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 6, 2016) - NewCastle Gold Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:NCA) (the "Company" or "NewCastle") is pleased to announce that, further to the Company's news release dated April 14, 2016, the Company has issued 357,143 common shares (the "GMP Shares") to GMP Securities L.P. ("GMP") in settlement of the fees payable to GMP in connection with the fairness opinion provided to the NewCastle board of directors in connection with the previously announced plan of arrangement with Catalyst Copper Corp. The GMP Shares are subject to a hold period that expires September 7, 2016.

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.

About NewCastle

NewCastle has 100% of the right, title and beneficial interest in and to the Castle Mountain Venture, a California general partnership, which owns the Castle Mountain property (the "Project") in San Bernardino County, California. The Castle Mountain heap leach gold mine produced over one million ounces of gold from 1992 to 2001, when mining was suspended due to low gold prices. The Mine and Reclamation Plan, under which the mine operated, was authorized by the County of San Bernardino as the Lead Agency and remains in effect. Water for the drill programs was accessed from existing patented wells on the Project.

An updated NI 43-101 resource for the project was announced December 2, 2015 which includes Measured Mineral Resource of 17.4 million tonnes grading 0.86 g/t containing 0.48 million ounces, Indicated Mineral Resources of 202.5 million tonnes grading 0.57 g/t gold and containing 3.71 million gold ounces along with Inferred Mineral Resources of 40.8 million tonnes grading 0.58 g/t gold and containing 0.76 million gold ounces. The Project hosts a disseminated low sulphidation epithermal system. Gold is primarily hosted by late-stage rhyolite volcanic units within zones of silicification and brecciation associated with northeast-southwest trending/southeast dipping fault structures which are interpreted to have developed within a collapsed caldera environment. Eleven gold domains are represented by both steep and shallow-dipping orientations.

Ian R. Cunningham-Dunlop, P. Eng., the Company's Vice President Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person for this news release within the meaning of NI 43-101. He has reviewed and verified that the technical information contained in this release is accurate and has approved of the written disclosure of the same.

Cautionary Note Concerning Estimates of Inferred and Indicated Resources

This news release uses the terms "Inferred Resources" and "Indicated Resources," which have a great amount of uncertainty as to their existence, and great uncertainty as to their economic and legal feasibility. It cannot be assumed that all or any part of an Inferred and/or Indicated Mineral Resource will ever be upgraded to a higher category. Under Canadian rules, estimates of Inferred Resources may not form the basis of feasibility or other economic studies. NewCastle advises U.S. investors that while this term is recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize it. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that part or all of an Inferred and Indicated resource exists, or is economically or legally minable.
Voter Guide: A look at the Tom Green county elections

Here's a look at the Tom Green county elections as early voting starts on Monday
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The Standard-Times publishes news of special events and programs. We do not accept items detailing regular weekly sermons or schedules. Items will be run only once.

Church news can be submitted by email at maria.hagland@gosanangelo.com or by fax to 325-659-8133. Forms also are available in the Standard-Times lobby from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Deadline for submission next week is Wednesday before the date of publication. Dates, times, address and a publication number are required.

Belmore Baptist

Belmore Baptist Church, 1214 S. Bell St., will have a special Mother's Day recognition Sunday with a breakfast for mothers and their families at 8:30 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall followed by a worship service where mothers will be recognized with flowers.

There will be a viewing of the DVD "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus" at 5 p.m. Sunday. W.I.C.K. S Mission Study for ladies will be at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and the Belmore Stitchers sewing group will meet at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Call 325-651-4661 for more information.

First Presbyterian

First Presbyterian Church, 32 N. Irving St., will host guest preacher Rev. Dana Allin, Evangelical Covenant Order synod executive, at 11 a.m. May 15.

After the blended service, there will be a churchwide lunch in the fellowship hall. A boxed-lunch will be provided to all attending. Allin will be available to answer any questions regarding the ECO denomination.

Call 325-655-5694 by noon Wednesday, to make a reservation.

First United Methodist

First United Methodist Church, 37 E. Beauregard Ave., will host a collaborated performance by classical guitarist Matt Evans from Florida and mezzo-soprano Alyssa Rice at 6 p.m. Thursday. Together they will perform works from Schubert, Bach and Ponce in addition to the premier of a never before heard arrangement of Egberto Gismonti's "Agua y Vino."

Call 325-655-8981 for more information.

Sierra Vista Methodist

Sierra Vista United Methodist Church, 4522 College Hills Blvd., will see 27 students confirmed at the 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. worship services on Confirmation Sunday. Children of the church will offer roses honoring mothers before and after each service.

There will be a meeting to establish a Special Needs Sunday school class at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, in Room S-1, and at 7 p.m. Friday Linda Sylva's piano students will perform in their Spring Recital in Chapel Hall.

Call 325-944-4041 for more information.

St. Luke Methodist

St. Luke United Methodist Church, 2781 W. Ave. N, will hold a worship service to celebrate its 2016 high school graduates at 9 a.m. Sunday, followed by a come and go reception in Skeete Hall. This year's graduates are Karlin Havlak, Luke Johnson, Garret Kessler and Addison McLaughlin.

St. Luke children will host a Mother's Day Flower Shop from 10-11 a.m. Sunday under the portico. All proceeds will help fund their camp trip this summer.
John Begnaud/Special to the Standard-Times Retamas are great for the dry West Texas climate, but their delicate foliage might hide a few thorns.

In our travels around most west Texas towns, it is hard not to notice Retama trees. These lime green barked, small trees with yellowish flowers are blooming profusely now. Retama trees can make good landscape trees for many reasons, but most of all for their ability to thrive on rainfall alone.

Retama, Parkinsonia aculeate, is sometimes referred to as Jerusalem thorntree, Mexican paloverde, and horsebean. This Texas native can be found growing wild from Central Texas south through Mexico and west to Arizona. Retama naturalizes well and occasionally escapes cultivation, but in our area it seldom becomes a nuisance such as mesquite.

Considered a relatively fast grower with strong wood and a leaf canopy that is airy and see-through, the Retama can grow to a height and width of 15-25 feet. The foliage provides filtered shade from spring through fall and then sheds leaves at frost. The green bark remains showy year round, especially on young trees.

The bloom season begins in spring with a showy flush of flowers and continues with sporadic flowering all the way through fall. A show of flowers is often produced after a rain that follows an extended dry spell.

The individual blooms are unique in that the five petals of each flower have four yellow and one orange petal. This odd petal has a honey gland located at the base of the petal that becomes reddish orange and remains on the flower stalk longer than the four yellow petals. The flowers are a good source of nectar for bees and butterflies.

An excellent use of Retama trees is in dryscapes or xeric landscapes where rock mulches are used. The filtered shade helps to cool the rock landscape while not becoming a nuisance with a profusion of falling leaves in the rock.

Another use is as an accent tree that draws the eye but does not stop the eye or block the view behind the tree. It is helpful sometimes to have a tree that does not hide everything.

So you're asking why everyone doesn't have one. Retama trees have a few characteristics that some find challenging. The native trees have needlelike thorns on the old trunks and at the nodes or buds on twigs. They can be vicious, especially when pruning. Thornless cultivars do exist such as "Desert Museum."

Plants selected from our local populations also seem to handle the winters better than trees grown from South Texas seed sources which can be damaged in very cold winters.

For the usefulness, beauty and drought hardiness, Retama is hard to beat and should be considered as a small landscape tree.
On Christmas Eve in 1814, British and American delegates met in Ghent, Belgium, to sign a treaty. The Treaty of Ghent formally ceased hostilities between England and the United States of America, putting an end to the War of 1812. But no one told our soon-to-be seventh President Andrew Jackson nor the British forces sent to capture New Orleans until several weeks later.

On Jan. 8, 1815, the Battle of New Orleans broke out with British soldiers outnumbering Americans by more than 2 to 1. The American victory, however, was decisive. The number of British killed, wounded or captured was 2,034  about a fifth of the total force. By contrast, only 62 Americans were killed, wounded or missing when the engagement ended on Jan. 18.

We can be thankful for history's sake that Jackson and his American forces prevailed, but please don't lose sight of the fact that for 10 days, the destruction, death and pain wrought in the battle was for a war that was already over. An army whose sovereign had already surrendered was defeated. A few soldiers gave their lives for a cause which was already won.

The struggle set before us is similar.

We know why we fight: for the love of people who can be set free by the truth. We know who our enemy is: Satan and forces of darkness, not the people for whom Jesus died. We know what our weapon is: the word of God. We still lack an ingredient for victory.

Setting is a question of when and where. Four to five hundred years before Jesus, Sun Tzu literally wrote the book on war, The Art of War. Sun Tzu focused much more on pre-engagement strategy than anything else. He said, "He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight," and "Attack (the enemy) where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected."

Victory depends on when and where we fight. It depends on setting. In many ways, the Battle of New Orleans had two settings: Dec. 24, 1814, in Ghent, Belgium, and Jan. 8-18, 1815, in New Orleans. The same way, our struggle has two settings.

Our first setting is less important. It may be work on Monday. It may be in the line at the grocery store this afternoon. It might have been on the phone with a loved one yesterday. It's the mission trips you take, the moments when you are drawn into someone's life while it's falling apart, the smallest opportunity to draw someone toward the truth of God's love.

The trick is to recognize the when and where our commander has already selected for us. He sets us at the front lines when we're weak so that his strength will be obvious. He puts us in places we would never have expected to have gone. Though we are less numerous  as were the Americans in New Orleans  we can put up an amazing fight because our commander is a wise and strategic thinker.

But like the Battle of New Orleans, our battles have a prior and crucial setting. I had originally intended to give a more detailed discussion on selecting the when and where of our fight. I have only recently discovered the wisdom of letting some fights go, choosing battles carefully and being patient for the sake of the war even if a battle is forfeit. But then I remembered New Orleans. The war is already won.

Just like the enemy surrendered and the war was won before the Battle of New Orleans began, so our war was already won before we enter into any conversation, debate or discussion about the truth of God. The treaty has already been signed in Jesus' blood.

The when is two thousand years ago. The where is a hill outside Jerusalem.

I suppose we cannot tell for sure what would have happened if Jackson and his forces had not defeated the British at New Orleans, but it is hard to imagine that it would have affected the outcome of the war. Other events in Europe (namely Napoleon's escape from exile on Elba) were putting pressure on the British to end the conflict in the New World. The Treaty of Ghent was already signed. The enemy had already surrendered. Victory was already secured.

So, too, our victory is secured. In the end, "every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:10-11).

Sun Tzu also said, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of 100 battles." If we know the enemy is already defeated and we know that we fight for the victorious and coming king, we can represent his truth and his gospel boldly.

Kyle Hooks is the associate pastor at Angelo Bible Church. Contact him at 325-716-4258 or kyle@lookingupfrombelow.com. You can like Looking Up at facebook.com/lookingupfrombelow.
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By Federico Martinez, Federico.Martinez@gosanangelo.com @Federico_sast

Fundamentalist Christians and "far-right" conservatives are the biggest threats to religious liberties in the U.S., two nationally renowned experts said during a community forum at Stephens Central Library.

More than 100 San Angelo-area residents attended the Thursday event, which was sponsored by the Tom Green County Democratic Party. The forum, called "The Truth About Religious Liberty," is part of a six-part series that will focus on a different issue every month through October. The forums are free and open to the public.

"There are some people in this country who would like the world to believe their religious liberties are under attack," said Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance in Washington, D.C. "What they're really expressing is their frustration at not being able to push their own political agendas. We refer to those issues as bathrooms, bakers and burqas.

"It's resentment by a segment of privileged Americans who believe others don't have, or shouldn't enjoy the same rights they enjoy."

David Currie, chairman of the Tom Green County Democratic Party, said the forums are intended to be nonpartisan and encourage people to share differing points of view. Based on comments and questions from the audience and their expressions of support for the speakers, the overwhelming majority of attendees appeared to espouse more liberal views.

Moline and Brent Walker, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., were the two panelists who led the forum discussion.

Walker's presentation focused on dispelling commonly held myths such as "America is a Christian nation." That is not what the U.S. Constitution states or in any way implies, Walker said.

"The Constitution is a secular document," he said. "The word "Christianity" is never mentioned in the Constitution. Religion is mentioned only once."

That reference is in Article 6 of the Constitution and was worded to prohibit states from requiring people to pass a "religious" test before they could seek public office, Walker said. When the Constitution was written several states were requiring the tests.

Other current and strongly held beliefs include: that Islam is at odds with Christian values, the Quran orders Muslims to "wipe out America," and the Constitution prohibits Muslim-Americans from becoming president, Walker said.

"It's not true; none of it," said Walker, who blamed fear-mongering politicians for spreading the lies. "Twenty percent of Americans still believe the president is a secret Muslim set upon us to destroy America.

"Seventy-three percent of white evangelicals believe Muslims are at odds with Christianity."

The truth, Walker said, is that most Muslim Americans are very patriotic, they serve in the U.S. military, and the Quran holds up many of the same values as the Bible.

"An entire group of people shouldn't be judged by some terrorists," Walker said. "Muslims should be allowed to stay in the country, be treated well and enjoy all liberties.

"The hate and intolerance plays into the hands of the terrorists."
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Richardson, Thomas continue to lead, Grindstaff and Carter tied

By Staff Report

UPDATE 8:22 p.m.  Election Day results from another 1,000 ballots cast show Farnk Carter edging ahead of incumbent Tim Vasquez in the race for SAn Angelo Police Chief. Carter leads with 2,128 votes, or 33.93 percent, to Vasquez's 2,059, or 32.83 percent.

Bill Richardson continues to lead Trinidad Aguirre in Single Member District 1, 53.92 percent to 46.08 percent.

Harry Thomas still leads Daniel Cardenas in SMD 3, 57.66 percent to 42.34 percent, and Elizabeth Grindstaff and Lane Carter are in a dead heat for the lead in SMD 5, both with 46 percent.

UPDATE: 7:14 p.m.  Police chief candidates Frank Carter and incumbent Tim Vasquez were nearly tied as early voting results were released shortly after 7 p.m. today in the city election.

Vasquez held a slight lead with 1,817 votes, or 34.16 percent; Carter had 1,762 votes, or 33.13 percent. Mike Hernandez had 1,211 votes, and Jeff Davis trailed with 529.

Bill Richardson was ahead of Trinidad Aguirre in the Single Member District 1 by 698 to 604 votes, or 53.61 percent to 46.39 percent.

Harry Thomas led in Single Member District 3, with 307 votes, followed by Daniel Cardenas with 221 votes, or 58.14 percent to 41.86 percent.

In the four-way race for Single Member District 5, incumbent Elizabeth Grindstaff led with 48.42 percent, followed closely by Lane Carter with 44.07 percent. R.A. Cantrell polled 66 votes, and Martin Guinn received 17 votes.

Early voting totaled 6,170 ballots cast.

UPDATE, 3:45 p.m. Saturday: The voting center at Southgate Church of Christ is back up and running after a brief power outage. No votes were lost, according to a city spokesman.

San Angelo voters will have the opportunity to elect a police chief and three new City Council members from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday.

The available voting locations are as follows:

Angelo Bible Church  3506 Sherwood Way

Belmore Baptist Church  1214 S. Bell St.

Calvary Baptist Church  2401 Armstrong St.

Christoval Community Center  20022 Main St., Christoval

Community Medical Center  3501 Knickerbocker Road

Concho Valley Transit District (bus depot)  510 N. Chadbourne St.

SAF (First Assembly of God Church)  1442 Edmund Blvd.

Grape Creek ISD Administration Building  8207 U.S. 87 N.

Keating Paint & Body Shop  5050 N. Chadbourne St.

MHMR  1501 W. Beauregard Ave.

PaulAnn Baptist Church  2531 Smith Blvd.

Plaza del Sol Apartments  4375 Oak Grove Blvd.

San Angelo (Public) Housing Authority  420 E. 28th St.

Segunda Iglesia Bautista  530 W. Avenue T

Southgate Church of Christ  528 Country Club Road

St. Ambrose Catholic Church  8602 Texas Loop 570, Wall

Texas Department of Transportation  4502 Knickerbocker Road, Building E

Veribest Baptist Church  50 FM 2334, Veribest

Wesley Trinity United Methodist Church  301 W. 18th St.

West Texas Rehabilitation Center  1925 University Ave.

A map of the locations can also be found at cosatx.us/elections.

Twelve candidates are on the ballot for four positions in San Angelo. They are:

Police chief: Frank Carter, Jeff Davis, Mike Hernandez and Tim Vasquez

City Council, Single Member District 1: Trinidad Aguirre Jr. and Bill Richardson

City Council, Single Member District 3: Daniel Cardenas and Harry Thomas

City Council, Single Member District 5: R.A. Cantrell, Matthew Lane Carter, Elizabeth Grindstaff and Martin William Guinn.

The Wall ISD is conducting elections for board trustees and a bond election and other towns across the Concho Valley are also holding elections.

A current photo identification, or one that has expired no more than 60 days before Saturday, is required to vote.

Voters who lack a photo ID can cast a provisional ballot and will have until May 13 to appear at the Tom Green County Elections Office on the second floor of the Edd B. Keyes Building, 113 W. Beauregard Ave., to show an acceptable ID.

Early voting logged 5,269 ballots April 25 through May 2.

For more information, visit voteTomGreenCounty.org or cosatx.us/elections.
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Rarely in modern history has a party appeared as divided over its nominee as Republicans are over Donald Trump. But will his GOP critics really keep their backs turned through November, or will they come around?

Some leaders of the conservative movement claim they will never vote for him  not only think-tank intellectuals, but also members of Congress, such as Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska. Columnist George F. Will, once a backstairs adviser to Ronald Reagan, says good Republicans shouldn't merely withhold their votes, but work to make sure Trump loses all 50 states  to make sure Trumpism is discredited forever.

And yet, as Trump's nomination becomes more certain, more Republicans are finding nice things to say about the businessman.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Trump had done an impressive job attracting new voters to GOP primaries. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said Trump's centrist positions might have bipartisan appeal. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump was showing promise as a foreign policy thinker.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, one of Trump's earliest backers in Congress, offered a more practical assessment: "People like to be with the winner."

And that is what's really going on here. Republicans aren't falling in love with Trump; they just figure that, since the real estate promoter is about to become the leader of their party, it's better to grit their teeth and hope for the best than to fight a losing battle. Even Jeb Bush, whose presidential hopes were demolished by Trump, now says he will support the nominee. He just won't say his name.

But the never-say-#NeverTrump Republicans have a problem: In private, many of them  perhaps most of them  don't think Trump can win the general election.

"The structural problem of the Trump candidacy is his 'unfavorable' numbers," GOP pollster David Winston told me. "Among women, who  did I mention?  are the majority of the electorate, his unfavorables are in the 70s. Those aren't easy numbers to turn around, particularly when a candidate has had as much exposure as Trump."

That's why even if, in the end, few Republican politicians will actively oppose Trump, many won't actively support him either.

One bellwether to watch: how many Senate candidates in tough races decide to skip the Republican National Convention, which is likely to be a weeklong celebration of everything Trump.

"You're going to see a lot of Senate candidates staying home and doing their own knitting that week," GOP strategist Scott Reed told me.

Instead of focusing on the presidential campaign, many in the GOP  not just candidates, but also activists and donors  will focus on congressional races.

Republicans are terrified that a Trump defeat would lose the GOP its majority in the Senate, which they gained only two years ago. Some even worry that a Democratic landslide could endanger the GOP's majority in the House of Representatives.

In some states, candidates "are going to depend on people who are voting for (Democrat Hillary) Clinton to switch sides and vote for the other party" when it comes to Congress, Winston noted. "That's hard to do."

One answer: the program House Speaker Paul Ryan plans to unveil next month, aimed at giving GOP congressional candidates a list of conservative policies they can campaign on, whether they correspond to Trump's positions or not.

In effect, the GOP could enter the fall campaign with two different platforms: one espoused by its mercurial presidential candidate, the other by the more orthodox conservatives around Ryan.

"House candidates are going to need a sense of direction, and they don't necessarily want to rely on Trump to provide it," Winston said. If Trump appears headed for defeat, the Ryan program could give them a lifeline.

Political parties can of course recover from bad elections  even from campaigns that divide them internally.

Four years after the 1964 election, which Republican candidate Barry Goldwater lost in a landslide, the GOP won the White House. And four years after Democrat George McGovern lost in the landslide of 1972, the Democrats came back too.

"Everybody writes off a party after it has a bad election," Winston said. "After 2008, when Obama won, people said it was the end of the Republican Party. But two years later we had 2010 and won a majority in the House."

To many Republicans, the prospect of a loss to Clinton's Democrats looks painful, but it also presents a familiar, even comfortable problem: At that point, their mission will be to make Clinton a one-term president.

The greater dilemma  the fear they won't acknowledge, at least in public  is that Trump might actually win. If that happens, conservatives who don't love their candidate will face four years of having to defend his policies and trying to tame his excesses. That's when their real troubles would begin.

Doyle McManus is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Contact him at doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
MOBILE, AL - The Mobile BayBears came up just one run short, falling to the Chattanooga Lookouts 4-3 at Hank Aaron Stadium on Friday night.

Chattanooga (12-16) scored first with a run in the top half of the second inning. Lookouts DH Joe Maloney drove in 3B Travis Harrison for the 1-0 Chattanooga lead.

In his second start, Omar Bencomo (1-1) gave up just one run over six innings. He allowed three walks, walked one and struck out five.

Jake Reed came on and gave up two runs on four hits in 1.1 innings. He walked one and struck one out. JT Chargois got the final five outs. He gave up one hit and a walk but no runs, to record his sixth save.

The Lookouts struck again in the top of the fourth inning with another run. Leo Reginatto reached second base on a line drive to center that ricocheted off the glove of BayBears CF Chad Oberacker. Riginatto would come in to score two batters later with a RBI single from Lookouts CF Shannon Wilkerson.

Mobile (10-16) got on the board with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning when Oberacker lead off the frame with a walk and came in to score on a two-out RBI double from RF Gabriel Guerrero, cutting Chattanooga's lead to 2-1.

In the top of the fifth inning the Lookouts took a 3-1 advantage with one run and again the BayBears trimmed the lead to one with a sacrifice RBI from Catcher Michael Perez.

The one run deficit was again stretched to two runs when Chattanooga posted a run in the top of the eighth inning before the BayBears finally drew the score back to 4-3 with a RBI base hit from Oberacker in the bottom of the eighth.

The loss was charged to BayBears LHP Anthony Banda (1-2).

Bencomo signed late last year with the Twins and pitched for Ft. Myers. He pitched really well in Venezuela this past winter and returned to the organization. At the end of spring training, he went to Extended Spring Training and waited for an opportunity. With so much activity in the system, the Twins pushed him to Chattanooga.

Box

Recap
CHI Memorial Foundation announced the Elizabeth R. Smith Melanoma Program through the CHI Memorial Reese Skillern Cancer Institute. The Smith family made a generous gift to establish this program.

Elizabeth Smith was at Niagara Falls on vacation with her family in June 1989 when a spot on her shoulder began to bother her. After being diagnosed with stage 2 melanoma, she had surgery and thought the cancer was gone. Almost 20 years later, the cancer was back and Elizabeth passed away May 10, 2009  Mothers Day.

Elizabeths family began holding events seven years ago to raise money for the fund they started in her memory, the Elizabeth R. Smith Melanoma Fund. They began the walk four years ago. The Smith family joined forces with CHI Memorial Foundation to help organize this years event as part of a new partnership around CHI Memorials melanoma program. This year, Elizabeths Out Run Melanoma 5K and Walk took place Mothers Day weekend as a special tribute to her.

We are pleased to partner with the Smith family in the development of the Elizabeth R. Smith Melanoma Program, says Larry Schumacher, CEO, CHI Memorial. Melanoma can be curable when found early. This program will provide education about prevention and detection as well as treatment those who receive a melanoma diagnosis.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer and affects men and women of all ages. Melanoma is more likely to grow and spread to other parts of the body that can be harder to treat. Melanoma causes the most skin cancer deaths according to the American Cancer Society. It estimates 76,000 new melanomas will be diagnosed this year and 10,000 will die.
For millions of Americans, the exponential growth of new technologies has forever changed the way we interact with one another, do business, travel and even how we approach health care.While a vast cross-section of citizens enjoys the benefits of these new tools and the seemingly constant connection to the Internet, the sea change has left other communities with gaps in access that need to be filled.Rural, developing and low-income communities are often on the wanting end of the connectivity conversation and suffer with what equates to informational inequality.The larger problem has been the focus of state and national officials for years, and most recently prompted a federal pilot project to boost broadband connectivity in communities across the country.As part of a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), five cities have been named as the testing grounds for the Cool and Connected program, a community-based plan aimed at boosting connectivity and pulling in money for their local economies.The initiative gives city officials in Georgetown, Del.; Leon, Iowa; Montrose, Colo.; Toledo, Wash.; and Tullahoma, Tenn., access to a team of broadband and community development experts to chart a path to better services.In Tullahoma, a rural community of around 18,600 residents, the program is helping to develop a strategic plan to bolster a retail renaissance in the newly renovated downtown district and support the areas existing high-tech industries, like aerospace and medicine.We are excited to have the opportunity to develop a strategic plan that will complement the Tullahoma Utilities Boards (TUB) plan. Through this Cool and Connected process, we will not only explore assistance to market downtown as a Wi-Fi zone and work-share space, but we will also look to develop a plan for our other target sectors that include aerospace, medical, retail and technology, Mayor Lane Curlee said. We will be inviting the partners that represent these sectors to join in this process that is scheduled for late September.The citys Director of Community Development Winston Brooks, who filed the citys Cool and Connected application, said despite being a leader in the implementation of broadband service roughly a decade ago, Tullahoma was in need of a strategic plan for the future.There is still a lot of room to grow in terms of that infrastructure, he said.The economic downturn hit the downtown district hard and led to vacant buildings and closed businesses, but Brooks said the area is once again filling up with retailers and businesses. He hopes the draw of technology-capable infrastructure will be well-received by residents, businesses and visitors.Brooks went on to say that the existing aerospace engineering, medicine and retail industries would benefit from any program that aimed to expand technological infrastructure in the area.Representatives from the USDA and EPA said the overarching goal of the initiative is to give rural communities the edge that more urban environments take for granted. Those hit by economic troubles are especially in need of outside help.Though these agencies dont typically spring to mind when one considers broadband services, spokespeople Dan Abrams from the EPA and the USDA's Anne Mayberry said the federal agencies have been on the ground pushing for infrastructure improvements for many years through grants and technical assistance programs.Many rural communities are facing special challenges the loss of historic economic drivers, declining rural populations, growth at the metropolitan edge, and the loss of farms and working lands. Broadband investments support economic diversification, entrepreneurship and small business formation," they said in a joint statement to. "The investments can help rural communities grow and develop in ways that reuse existing infrastructure creates vibrant, thriving communities, and protects the environment, and human health."According to the agencies, more than 250 program applications were received from municipalities across the country, but only five were selected.The pair said the goals and circumstances of each applicant were carefully considered, and communities facing economic challenges were weighted more favorably.Bringing broadband services to rural areas does present some challenges," they said. "Because rural systems must contend with lower household density than urban systems, the cost to deploy broadband systems in urban communities is considerably lower on a per-household basis, making urban systems more economical to construct. Depending upon the technology deployed it can be more expensive to provide service to rural customers than to customers located in urban areas.
(TNS) -- In an open letter to presidential candidates, 13 tech trade groups representing thousands of companies, including Silicon Valley giants Apple, Facebook and Google, outlined for the first time a technology policy agenda theyd like to see parties adopt, including backing the trans-Pacific trade deal.Among other things, the letter calls on candidates to advance ambitious initiatives to reduce barriers to trade in digital and other goods and services, including obtaining the congressional authorization of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.The remaining presidential candidates  Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton  oppose the pact, saying it would take away American jobs.The tech firms recommendations also touch on issues from simplifying tax codes and protecting intellectual property to expanding trade and ensuring a skilled workforce. As technology becomes increasingly central to peoples lives and has introduced an array of intractable issues for Congress to consider, the tech groups representing a large swath of the industry offered policy ideas they say would help keep the United States a leader in innovation.This election season is a reminder that the pace of change has accelerated, the groups wrote in the letter intended to get campaigns to focus on the booming industry that the groups say accounts for approximately 7 percent of Americas gross domestic product and employs more than 6.7 million people in the country. Many Americans feel unprepared for the present, let alone the future. Thus, a central challenge of our time must be leveraging our strengths to expand opportunities and better prepare more citizens for the opportunities ahead.Their recommendations address issues that have been central in some ways to the presidential campaigns  including immigration and tax policy  as well as issues that have gone entirely under the radar, such as online censorship and spectrum policy for supporting wireless broadband access.Even if some of the topics seem a bit wonky for the presidential arena, the tech groups argue the issues are too important to be ignored or treated like bumper sticker slogans, Telecommunications Industry Association CEO Scott Belcher said in a statement that accompanied the release of the letter.Our nation faces the prospect of falling behind our global competitors on innovation, risking the jobs and economic growth that come with that leadership. The steps weve outlined will make sure technology companies have the tools to compete with any company, anywhere in the world, Belcher said.Several of the groups said its the first time so many of them have come together on a united front.Our unprecedented show of unity is aimed at motivating action on the issues that matter most to our present and our future, and a sign of the tech sectors commitment to being a part of the solution, Information Technology Industry Council President and CEO Dean Garfield said in a statement. Garfields statement was also released with the letter.The groups that signed the letter include Allied For Startups, BSA  The Software Alliance, CompTIA, the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Technology Association, ITI  The Information Technology Industry Council, the Internet Association, the Semiconductor Industry Association, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, the Software & Information Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association, TechNet, and the Technology CEO Council.
McLaren has played down reports team supremo Ron Dennis is furious about a new engine rule in formula one.

We reported this week that Dennis vowed to sue the FIA if it enforces the new regulation where manufacturers may be compelled to supply customer engines.

"You will never get an engine from Honda," Dennis, indicating his intention to enforce a contractual veto in McLaren's Honda deal, is quoted as having told Red Bull boss Christian Horner at a recent strategy group meeting.

"Rather, I would sue the FIA over the new rule," Dennis reportedly said, according to Auto Motor und Sport.

It has also been rumoured that while Honda may be prepared to begin supplying customers next year, Dennis wants McLaren's deal to remain exclusive.

A McLaren spokesman told us: "We have been and remain part of a healthy debate around the issues of power unit convergence and sport stability.

"As we are still in dialogue it would be unhelpful to that ongoing debate to focus on areas in which agreement has not yet been achieved, and to express those differences of approach in the media.

"Specifically, however, we confirm that we are absolutely supportive of Honda, and supported by Honda, in all such discussions," he added.

(GMM)
An argument and fight broke out between coaching staff and multiple parents after the homecoming football game at Ooltewah High School on Friday night, the Sheriff's Office said. Officials stated, "At around 9:30 p.m. the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office School Resource Deputy (SRD) at Ooltewah High School witnessed a verbal disturbance on the restricted area of the football ... (click for more)

A man vacationing at a Gatlinburg cabin was injured by a black bear that entered the home in the middle of the night on Saturday. TWRA Wildlife Officers say the incident occurred at a rental cabin in the downtown vicinity after 11 p.m. when a man walked into the kitchen to find the bear that had entered through a set of locked, but not dead-bolted, French doors. The bear ... (click for more)
A Night of Worship will be held Saturday evening, June 4, hosted by local worship leaders Josh Gilbert Band, as well as BPC Worship Band and Guests.

The concert event will be held at Brainerd Presbyterian Church, 1624 Jenkins Road.

The Night of Worship is free and open to the public - to those of all walks of life.

There will be a love offering collected at the event to benefit Nicaragua Missions, going towards the building of a school. For more information visit www.lacdnow.org.

There will also be coffee and light refreshments, as well as childcare available.

For more information visit www.facebook.com/joshgilbertmusic or http://www.bpcepc.org.




Reading Connections will host a 25th Birthday Literacy Leadership Breakfast from 8 to 9 a.m. May 17 at The Terrace at the Greensboro Coliseum Complex, 1921 W. Gate City Blvd. in Greensboro. Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan is the event chair.

Speakers will include Vaughan, community activist Shirley Frye, as well as Reading Connections students who will share stories of the many ways low literacy skills have impacted their lives and how they have overcome these challenges with the support of Reading Connections.

Executive Director Jennifer Gore will reflect on the impact Reading Connections has had on the community and what the future holds for this organization.

The breakfast is free but guests are encouraged to make a donation to support Reading Connections.

The registration deadline is Thursday; call (336) 230-2223 to register.

Youth Council to hold orientation for teens

The Greensboro Youth Council is hosting an orientation for teens from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday at the GYC Office, 501 Yanceyville St. in Greensboro.

This is an opportunity for teens to learn more about the organization, its service learning and volunteer opportunities while meeting current members.

During the orientation, GYC advisers also will provide an information session for parents.

This orientation is open to all rising eighth graders, rising high school freshmen and high school students in Guilford County.

For information, call (336) 373-2738.

Retirement community plans $30M expansion

Steve Fleming, president/CEO of WellSpring Services, recently announced a $30 million expansion to WellSpring Retirement Community. The new Resident Activity Center includes the construction of a 325-seat auditorium and a 16,000-square-foot informal dining area.

The new auditorium will allow larger music ensembles and theater groups to perform at WellSpring Retirement Community. This expansion also will include studio space for the visual arts, a woodworking area and practice rooms for musicians.

An expansion of the dining area will include a new informal grill and bistro to complement the formal Weaver Dining Room.

The new construction will also create a new larger lounge and gathering space that will include an expanded bar with seating for up to 60 patrons.

The project, which is set to begin in November, is expected to be completed in about 18 months. CJMW Architecture in Winston-Salem is providing design services and Rentenbach Constructors has been selected as the general contractor.

I Rock My Curve plans food drive, free hugs

I Rock My Curves the Best will give free hugs from 12:30 to 3 p.m. May 29 near Center City Park in Greensboro.

The goal is to collect canned goods, non-perishable goods, personal care items and give free hugs. Items will be given to the homeless and veterans in need in the Triad.

For information, to volunteer, sponsor or donate, visit www.irockmycurvesthebest.com or send an email to info@irockmycurvesthebest.com.
The studio feature Dog Years starring Burt Reynolds and written-directed by Adam Rifkin is currently seeking cast and crew.

Two casting sessions will be held in Knoxville on Monday and Tuesday.

Links for crew submissions and sides for auditions may be found at the Chattanooga SE TN Film Commission website.








The night before I planned on flying to Hawaii with my family for spring break, we got the greatest invitation of our lives: would we like to fly there by private jet? DUH!

One minor problem: the kind offer was only one-way. My wife, two daughters, and I would still have to fly home on the domestic airline on which I had already spent $2768 on tickets. I wont tell you its name, but by domestic, I mean American.

At $692 apiece, those ducats sure sound expensive, but those were the cheapest we could find; to secure that low price, we had to book a redeye return flight. Ive learned from experience that struggling to walk sleep-deprived through a cramped airplane aisle on cramping legs schlepping a carry-on, a dozing eight-year-old, and her carry-on is the best way to get the message, Your vacations over!

On the phone, the airline representative told me that I couldnt just blow off the commercial flight to Hawaii and expect to get on the return flight. If I wanted to skip the first part of our trip with them, the airline would charge a $200 change fee.

Per ticket.

$800 to change our tickets from there and back to back. How long would it take them to rip up half our tickets? Two minutes, tops? That $800 they would take out of the money I had already given them worked out to $24,000 an hour. Nice work if you can get it. Then, of course, they would resell our four outbound seats at last-minute prices and make more money!

What was in it for us? Between the change fee and the new one-way tickets, which cost $475 apiece, we would split the $2768 equally: they would keep the first two digits of $2700, and we would get the last two digits of $68. By not flying us for half of our trip, they would keep more than 97% of the money!

Would that whopping $68 be a refund to my credit card? HA! Just an airline credit. Would that be a $17 credit for the four of us individually? The rep wasnt sure, but I couldnt waste time; I had a private plane to catch.

Without making any changes, I hung up, huddled with my wife, and decided to press ahead with this I-hope-not-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As she called our generous hosts, I called back the airline to seal the deal.

As time passed on hold, my perception changed. My thinking went from, Were giving up 4 of our 8 flights, and theyre going to give me a measly $68 credit back? to What if the prices have gone up and its going to cost me more money for asking them NOT to fly us to Hawaii? I had learned the hard way that some airline offers may be off the table minutes later. What if I had blown it by not accepting right away? (Because making family decisions without discussing them with your wife can be harmful to your health.)

Finally, a new airline rep confirmed we could still get the deal. Heres where things get a little murky; I wanted to lock that in, while exploring other options. Greedy? Perhaps. Since we were exchanging round-trip for one-way tickets, could we use them on an earlier flight so I could avoid ending my vacation with the aforementioned, jet-lagged, break-of-dawn, child-and carry-on-juggling Walk O Pain?

Sure, said the rep. We could have four $475 seats on an earlier flight.

For a $200 change fee.

Per ticket.

Additional.

Nooooooooo! I argued that I was still in the process of changing our plans, but the rep said I had already rung up $800 in change fees, and that it would cost me another $800 to change plans again.

Can I speak to your supervisor, please?

BOOM! Immediately, my family and I were dropped into vacation limbo. If the phone had been disconnected, I wouldnt know what tickets we had in which direction; all I had to hang on to was my anger, the feeling that I might have blown our private jet trip, and minute after painful minute of non-threatening jazz hold music.

After what seemed like an interminable wait, the same rep returned, and beneficently granted my wish: in return for keeping our money, they would fly us back, and issue us the pocket change credit. I couldnt even use the credit to pay for our baggage fees on that flight!

Airline traveler complaints jumped 34 percent last year, to the highest level since 2000. Yet The Forbid Airlines from Imposing Ridiculous (FAIR) Fees Act, whichwould prohibit air carriers from imposing fees that are not reasonable and proportional to the costs incurred by the air carriers, recently died in Congress.

Airlines are overcharging consumers with fees that are grossly disproportionate to the value of the service received and result in a windfall for airlines. Exhibit A is change fees, where airlines charge $200 when the true cost of a change is 6 to 7 times lower, if not zero, Business Travel Coalition founder Kevin Mitchell told Skift. This kind of unconscionable consumer price gouging is a textbook example of unfair methods of competition that underpin competition laws.

Meanwhile, my tan is gone, and Im still waiting for my $17 credit. Aloha.
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GREENWICH  Educators and parents have grown accustomed to frequent turnover in the schools superintendents post. This year, his isnt the only office about to become vacant at the districts 290 Greenwich Ave. headquarters.

Superintendent of Schools William McKersie and Deputy Superintendent Ellen Flanagan both plan to leave at the end of this school year. McKersie was appointed Thursday to the same job in Weston; Flanagan announced in February that she would resign to pursue other, unspecified professional opportunities. Their concurrent exits mark the first time in memory, possibly ever, that the districts top two administrators have left at the same time.

Board of Education members and administrators said the departures will be felt, but they do not think their exits will disrupt the districts operations or long-term goals.

I think change is always a challenge, said North Mianus School Principal Angela Schmidt, who is also co-president of the districts administrators union. We are in the midst of a new strategic plan and the Digital Learning Environment and will certainly miss the leadership they provided for us. We know their shoes will be hard to fill but we will honor their time with us by maintaining our focus on our buildings and ensuring that staff and students feel valued and supported.

Board of Education member Peter Bernstein said the school system could manage the turnover.

While we will adjust to changes, there is strong leadership in the district especially with the principals at each of our schools, Bernstein said. Collectively, we are already engaged in the execution of current initiatives to advance our strategic plan.

In addition to McKersie and Flanagan, several other high-level administrators are leaving at the end of the school year. Preschool coordinator Dolores Kenny is retiring and special education coordinator Kathryn Coon and Parkway School principal Patty Allen are respectively leaving to become the principals of schools in Wilton and Northampton, Massachusetts.

I don't see any underlying trend with the departures of executive and administrative personnel, said school board Chairman Laura Erickson. People leave positions for new opportunities all the time for various reasons. In a school district, the goings happen to be clumped together and coincide with the end of the school year.

School board members plan to hire an interim superintendent to take over from McKersie, who is scheduled to leave for Weston sometime in the summer.

They would then spend several months searching for and vetting candidates for a long-term superintendent to take over in the 2017-18 school year. The board aims to hire before the start of the next school year a firm to lead the search for the long-term superintendent, according to Erickson.

The district will be seeking an interim superintendent to ensure the board has the time needed to conduct a thorough and intensive search for a new superintendent, Schmidt said. There is a good pool of candidates for the deputy superintendent position. I am confident the committee will find a highly qualified candidate.

During his remaining time in the district, McKersie will appoint the deputy superintendent or other administrators if the hiring process is completed for those positions, said Kim Eves, the districts communications director. Interviews for the districts No. 2 position are scheduled to begin next week.

While the school board does not hire deputy superintendents, administrators are giving the board frequent updates about the search for Flanagans successor, Erickson said.

Given the unique situation we have with the two top-level vacancies, the board will continue to be kept informed, Erickson said. Our next touch point will be when finalists are selected from the pool of candidates.

McKersie has served as superintendent since July 2012. Flanagan has worked in the district since 1999, a run that has also included stints as Glenville School principal and the districts human resources director. She started in her current position in May 2009, two months before the arrival of a new superintendent, Sidney Freund.

pschott@scni.com; 203-625-4439; twitter: @paulschott
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For more on the South China Sea issue, CCTV reporter has spoken to Ouyang Yujing, Director General of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs, of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ouyang Yujing said China has reaffirmed its opposition to the South China Sea arbitration process initiated by the Philippines, and that China will not participate in the case.

"What do you think is the essence and the real attempt of the arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines?"

"In January 2013, the Philippines unilaterally initiated the arbitration. Since then, the Chinese government has not accepted and participated in this. The Philippines' unilateral initiation of the South China Sea arbitration is a political farce under the cloak of law,"

"The Philippines attempts to deny China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, and cover up its illegal occupation of some islands and reefs of China's Nansha Islands. It has seriously threatened peace and stability in the region," said Ouyang Yujing.

"What's China's stance towards that arbitration?"

"First of all, China's stance is very clear that no matter what the outcome of this arbitration case will be, China will not accept or recognize it. It is not the case that China does not want to resolve the issue. We want to resolve the territorial disputes through negotiations, as we have stated clearly in our agreements with the Philippines and the Declaration of Conduct with ASEAN,"

"The Philippines' case is ultimately about sovereignty and maritime delineation. China is within its rights not to participate and has excluded the application of compulsory disputes settlement procedures, which is in accordance to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Therefore the arbitration court has no jurisdiction on the dispute between China and the Philippines and this arbitration case has been illegal in the first place," said Ouyang Yujing.
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Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for reform in a bid to build a globally competitive human resource system.

Xi made the remarks in an instruction for a seminar convened Friday on implementing a guideline on reform of the human resource system.

Human resources are key to China's development, and overall national strength lies in the competitiveness of its talent, Xi said in the instruction, adding that reform efforts should be strengthened and the guideline should be fully implemented to attract global talent.

He called for breaking systemic obstacles to attracting talent and unleashing their creativity and innovative capacity.

Xi asked officials to provide better services for talent and care for them to encourage them to contribute to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and achieving the "Chinese dream."

Zhao Leji, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, delivered Xi's instruction at the seminar.

Liu Yunshan, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said at the seminar that the reform should focus on implementing new development concepts, major projects and programs, and integrate human resources development with social and economic development.

Liu also called for more efficient management of human resources and for efforts to inspire talent's creativity and capability of innovation.

Liu asked officials to improve communication with experts and befriend talented people in all fields.

The guideline for deepening human resource development system reform was published by the CPC Central Committee on March 21. The document serves as an important guiding paper for the country's current and future human resource development.
It's a well known fact that Asus loves announcing new devices during Computex, the expo held each summer in Taipei, Taiwan. And this year will be no different. In fact, we should expect a barrage of Zen-branded products from the Taiwanese company to be showcased at this year's show, which takes place from May 31 to June 4.

But before that, on May 30, Asus will hold a big event during which it's going to make its newest devices official. This has been made clear by a big countdown timer that's already very visible on Asus' official website.

Asus is expected to make the ZenFone 3 series official at this event, and if the story of the ZenFone 2 repeats itself then we should see a whole lot of different models under that same moniker. Also plausible are launches of ZenPad-branded tablets, ZenBook laptops, and perhaps a new ZenWatch wearable to top things off. And as VR is the new hot thing in the tech world, maybe Asus will show some kind of ZenVR contraption too.

The Intel branding on the countdown page suggests we're going to see plenty of Intel-powered things on that occasion. That said, it remains to be seen if only the laptops will get Intel inside, or some phone and tablet models too.

According to past leaks, at least one ZenFone 3 handset will have a fingerprint scanner. Android 6.0 Marshmallow should be powering all iterations, of course. In terms of materials used, we'll see both the glass sandwich with a metal frame in between, but also a full metal SKU.

Source | Via




Haiti - FLASH : Historic Judgment !





Friday at a press conference, the Support Group for Returnees and Refugees (GARR) and the National Committee for the Fight against Human Trafficking (CNLTP) welcomed the first judgment rendered in Haiti, on April 21 against Human Trafficking.



"We congratulate all those who have worked to achieve this historic judgment. This is an example to popularize through Haiti's courts for victims of human trafficking obtain justice and compensation," declared Elie Thelot Fils, President of CNLTP, which encouraged victims to come to file complaints in order to eradicate this scourge.



Recall that following the hearing of 21 April 2016, a man named Riviere Fefette, 35, was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment under the provisions of the Law of 2 June 2014 on Human Trafficking and to pay 57,000 Gourdes in fine. He was pleaded guilty of infringement of attempt to commit trafficking against a girl under 16 who lived in Thomassique (border commune of the Central Department).



"The existence of a legal text that allows the Prosecution of trafficking offenders is already a big step," stressed Mr. Saint Pierre Beaubrun, GARR Coordinator while emphasizing on the necessity of promote this legislation adding "It is essential that the Haitian authorities provide resources to the Committee members so they can do their job."



Download the legislation on human trafficking in Haiti : https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Loi-sur-la-traite-des-personnes.pdf



Learn more about the CNLTP :

The National Committee for the Fight against Human Trafficking was established by a presidential decree dated 12 August 2015 following the publication of the Law of 30 April 2014 on the Fight against Human Trafficking. It is composed of 12 members, including 7 representatives of ministries, 3 representatives of the autonomous state institutions and 2 representatives of human rights organizations that have been invested in their office on 1 December 2015. Members List : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15940-haiti-politic-inauguration-of-members-of-the-committee-against-human-trafficking.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Education : The process for a scholarship for ENA continues





Following the appeal launched last January, as every year by the Embassy of France to all Haitian Ministries in order to collect the candidacies of officials likely to make a qualifying training course in Public Administration alternating lessons and courses with a duration of 10 months at the ENA (Ecole Nationale d'Administration - France), a written test organized at the Embassy of France in February, allowed pedagogical managers of the ENA of pre-selecting 5 candidates for the international development cycle (CIP). These 5 candidates were invited this week to the hearings conducted by Pierre Thenard, the Director of International Relations of ENA in visit in Haiti.



A final validation jury will be held at ENA in June to determine the candidate selected for September 2016. As in previous years, a scholarship funded by the Embassy of France will be awarded to the laureate.



In addition to funding this cholarship that benefits one candidate each year, exchanges were engaged with ENA to consider creating short-term targeted training in Haiti to multiply the number of beneficiaries. Mr. Thenard also took advantage of his trip to meet the leaders of the National School of Financial Administration (ENAF) and of the National School of Administration and Public Policies (ENAPP).



Furthermore, a working meeting with the Coordinator of the Office of Management and Human Resources (OMRH) in charge of coordinating the training of officials allowed to consider for the coming years a more close collaboration with the ENA in the context of reforms in the Haitian government.



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Diaspora : Launch of the 2nd edition of the Economic Forum EntreprenElle





It is under the theme "Towards a successful alliance... to the feminine !" that takes place the second edition of the Economic exploratory mission Entrepren'Elle (M3E) arrived in Haiti Wednesday, 4 and who will complete its mission May 11, 2016 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17332-haiti-quebec-2nd-economic-exploratory-mission-entrepren-elle.html



Friday Jessy C. Petit-Frere, the Minister a.i. Haitians Living Abroad (MHAVE) proceeded to the opening of the 2nd edition of exploratory Economic Forum of the Women's Entrepreneurship "Entrepren'Elle".



In his remarks for the occasion, Petit-Frere has called for the creation of alliances and partnerships between the Ministry and the Haitian diaspora associations, to encourage them to come and invest in the country. Secondly, the Minister intends to create a synergy between the Haitian diaspora organizations and those in the country in order to share the necessary information on business management, but also in all areas of knowledge "[...] This second mission of M3E group has a special importance for the country and especially for MHAVE especially as we have constated a fairly well balanced partnership between the Chamber of Commerce of Women Entrepreneurs of Haiti and Entrepren'Elle. Our vision here is to create alliances and partnerships between the ministry and for-profit associations and non-profit organizations in the Diaspora in order to encourage them to come and invest in the country and secondly help create synergy between diaspora organizations and those of the home country in order to share the necessary information specifically on business management but also in all areas of the knowledge. It is important to mention that in terms of investment, the field is blank and waiting for you to clear it and make it prosperous."



Finally, the Acting Minister of MHAVE praised "the courage of the women of Entrepren'Elle and those of the Chamber of Commerce of Women Entrepreneurs of Haiti who have joined efforts, expertise and experiences in order to promote investment, so entrepreneurship in our country which needs it so much."



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17332-haiti-quebec-2nd-economic-exploratory-mission-entrepren-elle.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-14646-haiti-quebec-exploratory-economic-mission-of-businesswomen.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16685-icihaiti-diaspora-towards-a-prosperous-women-alliance.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - FLASH: Methodology of the Verification Commission





Friday at the Hotel Kinam, 9 days after its installation https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17302-haiti-flash-installation-of-the-verification-commission.html , the members of the Independent Commission for Electoral Evaluation and Verification (CIEVE) met with leaders of some political parties and civil society around the Commission's work methodology.



Like the previous Evaluation Commission (set up by the Government Martelly-Paul) the CIEVE intend to proceed an audit of a sample of 15% of the minutes. Francois Benoit, President of the Commission explained, "Basically, we can not recount the vote of all voters across the country, it would take too much time. Instead we will use a scientific method of random sampling," recognizing "a margin of error of 20%" the the future results.



A margin of error much larger than that of the previous Commission, which spoke of 3 to 5% margin of error https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16245-haiti-elections-what-found-the-commission-at-ctv.html



Yolene Mary Gilles of RNDDH, former candidate Mathias Pierre representing the platform "Pitit Dessalin", Maryse Narcisse (Fanmi Lavalas), C. Henry Baker (Respe) expressed reservations on the sampling procedure. Note that no representative of the two candidates qualified for the second round of the presidency (PHTK and LAPEH) were present at the meeting.



For his part, the representative of "Pitit Dessalin" rejected this method and required the verification of all 13,000 minutes, which caused the reaction fronm one of the Commissioner of CIEVE, Erick Gaillard, who recalled that the choice to apply sampling had been discussed even before the adoption of the Commission's terms of reference, with among other the political parties, including "Pitit Dessalin", which at the time had no objection to this approach.



Gedeon Jean, General Secretary and Spokesperson of the CIEVE said that after the work, the Commission will apply quality criteria for sample analysis and we will declare what will have been found and what we find as ranking of candidates. "We can not rewrite the results officially, we do not have this authority, but we will tell the CEP and the Executive what the numbers show,," added the President of the Commission, who said that the recommendations the Commission will be based only on what will have been observed.



Starting this Saturday, 80 operators will be mobilized at the Vote Tabulation Centre (CTV) to prepare the operations to be executed within the 22 days remaining to the Commission.



Terms of reference and members of the CIEVE :

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-17302-haiti-flash-installation-de-la-commission-de-verification.html



TB/ HaitiLibre


















 Flash

Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday vowed to shore up bilateral ties in all directions after their relations have been at a low point since the Ukraine crisis.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sochi, Russia, on May 6, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

The two sides agreed to maintain close high-level contact this year on such occasions as the Group of 20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and to build up bilateral dialogue in all directions -- economy, trade, investment and the humanitarian sphere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency after the two leaders met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Lavrov said the issue of lifting Tokyo's sanctions against Moscow was not discussed during the meeting, but he added the two sides are expected to hold consultations over a peace treaty at the level of deputy foreign ministers in June.

Russia and Japan have not signed any peace treaty mainly due to their long-held disputes over four Pacific islands.

Meanwhile, Lavrov said Putin and Abe discussed the details of the former's visit to Japan.

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed his invitation to President Vladimir Putin (to visit Japan). They discussed the details of this invitation, including concrete dates."

The two leaders also shared views on removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, while the Russian side noted that Pyongyang's nuclear actions should not be used as a pretext for the United States to bolstering military presence in the Asia Pacific region, Lavrov said.

The relationship between Tokyo and Moscow became increasingly strained after Japan slapped new sanctions against Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine, alongside steps taken by the U.S. and the European Union. Abe's visit has been widely seen as an effort to mend frayed ties and seek rapprochement with Moscow.
Published on 2016/05/07 | Source

While it is 2016 currently and Korean films are starting to pick up, it's good to look back at last year's films.

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For many people, the end of last year was the era of Star Wars, since episode 7 came out. However, while Star Wars was watched by many Koreans here in Seoul, 2015 Korean films held their own. In fact, another movie, the Himalayas, outsold the famed science fiction film on opening week.

Last year had some true gems in Korean cinema worth watching. From action to romance, 2015 was sure to have a film for everyone.

With that being said, here's five movies to watch in 2015 in no particular order.

"Inside Men"

Dealing with the dark, corrupt media manipulation, Inside Men reveals a story of various politicians fighting for power and ego.

When Ahn Sang-goo (Lee Byung-hun) uses his media connections to help a conservative newspaper editor and congressman in a presidential campaign, he secretly makes a deal. By helping the two, he would pocket the money of the newspaper's largest sponsor.

Yet, someone is onto Ahn. Woo Jang-hoon, an ambitious prosecutor, sees something fishy with Ahn. Knowing that exposing this scandal could make him rise to the top fast, he investigates Sang-goo's relationship with the editor and congressman.

However, Ahn won't go down so easily. He is already plotting revenge against the budding prosecutor. The battle lines between the various parties for power, revenge, and success are soon drawn.

"Gangnam Blues"

During the 1970s, two orphans, Jong-dae (Lee Min-ho) and Yong-gi (Kim Rae-won) sell trash found on the street to get by. They soon find themselves freezing, as they cannot afford heating.

When a gang offers the two kids a job, they immediately jump on it. Yet, during one of their jobs, they become separated when trying to break up a political demonstration.

One of the lead stars, Lee Min-ho, is mega-popular within Asia. While it is easy to dismiss him as "just another pretty boy", he does a convincing job as a gangster on the rise. Veteran Kim Rae-won also does a great job selling the rivalry and becoming a gangster to be reckoned with.

"Coin Locker Girl"

The film opens with a mother holding a bloody knife to her daughter's throat, Il-yeong. The viewer immediately wonders "what the hell is going on"?

Going back in time to 1996, a beggar finds a newborn girl in a subway coin locker in Incheon. The beggar names the girl Il-yeong, after the locker number "10" that she was found in.

She lives with the homeless community until she is eight, yet is soon picked up by a corrupt cop named Tak. The cop passes Il-yeong to her adoptive mother, whom everyone calls " mom ".

Her new adoptive mom is not just any mom with a kind heart and room for one more. She's actually a female mob boss. Sensing potential in her new daughter, " mom " teaches the innocent Il-yeong the tools of being a crime lord. She learns how to beg convincingly, loan shark, forging ID cards, and making debtors pay up, which includes murder if need be.

Yet, when Il-yeong meets a son of a debtor, Seok-hyeon, she soon has a change of heart to kill his father to collect his debt.

"Chronicles of Evil"

Detective Choi Chang-sik's (Son Hyun-joo) career is on the rise. About to be promoted to captain, he just attended an award ceremony that makes his promotion a foregone conclusion.

Life looks good for detective Choi until one fateful night.

During his celebration party, he has some drinks with his team. Seeing how it's getting late, he hails a taxi to go home to his family.

Yet, he soon realizes that the taxi driver is not taking him home. After telling the taxi driver to stop, the driver instead takes him to a secluded mountain.

Once the car stops, the cab driver takes out a knife and attempts to kill Detective Choi. After a life-and-death struggle, Choi kills the taxi driver in self-defense.

However, Choi knows that being involved in a murder, even in self-defense, would seriously damage his career. As he flees the scene without reporting his fight to the police, someone was watching the entire scene unfold.

To add to Choi's troubles, the taxi driver's body is found attached to a crane in Seoul the next day. With this new murder case being the talk of the nation, Choi knows he's in trouble.

Just from one night, Choi's life is turned upside down.

He is now confronted with a life-changing decision. Does he tell the truth to his own team? Or does he cover up the very crime scene he was involved in?

"The Office"

As many of you can attest, the workplace can be filled with petty politics, backstabbing, and stress. The gore-thriller, "The Office", shows this dark side of working for the "man/woman".

When salaryman Kim Byeong-gook (Bae Sung-woo) comes back home, his family does not notice anything unusual at first. As he pulls out a hammer, they notice it's a bit odd, but not really a big deal.

Until he slaughters his entire family, including his disabled son.

In turn, the police immediately start looking for him.

Detective Choi Jong-hoon (Park Sung-woong) and his team check into Cheil, a food company, to question Byeong-gook's co-workers at Sales Team 2. Choi rose through the ranks and became one of the managers in his section.

At first, his co-workers agree to tell the police as little as possible. His co-workers all vouch that Choi was a dependable and hard-worker. Yet, Detective Choi soon catches on that he was not well-liked within his division.

As the film delves deeper into what happened, the viewer witness the nastiness of office politics, gossip, overwork, and bullying behind the scenes, the very things that drove Choi into madness.

If you've seen these films, what's your take on them? And which Korean films in 2015 would you recommend?

If you enjoyed the list above and want to see our full take on Korean films, check out our Korean movies of 2015 list.

And for Japanese film fans, take a look at our Japanese films of 2015.

------

Jason Yu is a media journalist living in Seoul, Korea, covering the K-pop and movies industry. He runs Asian Filmist, a site all about Asian movies. For news and updates on film movies straight from Seoul, also check out their Facebook page.
Published on 2016/05/07 | Source

Kim Go-eun and Kim Dong-wook were wrapped in a random romance rumor. And their agencies worked fast to extinguish the rumor approximately in 20 minutes, because it's not true.

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The romance rumor about Kim Go-eun and Kim Dong-wook was sparked on May 6th. The media reported the romance rumor said Kim Go-eun and Kim Dong-wook were dating in Cebu.

Kim Dong-wook and Kim Go-eun had a same agency until the beginning of this year. The media explained that their sunbae and hoobae relationship as fellow actors being with the same agency turned into romance relationship.

However, as soon as the article came out, the agencies for both quickly denied the rumor. When a romance rumor is reported, it is a norm that agencies take time to make an official announcement. However, it was a different case for both actors.

Kim Go-eun's agency told TV Report right after the romance rumor came out, "The romance rumor is groundless and false. The two went to Cebu to attend a skin & Scuba club meeting".

Kim Dong-wook's agency also denied the rumor in twenty minutes after the agency first had to have a phone conversation with their actor to confirm. The agency said it was true that the actor and the actress were in Cebu, but they went there to attend a skin & scuba club meeting. There are other club members attending the meeting together. They are just sunbae and hoobae".

People are getting concerned that their sunbae and hoobae friendship they have been building attending the same school, same agency and then same club activities abroad might have become uncomfortable because of the random romance rumor.
Four local men sent to prison for meth ring

ASHEVILLE  A federal judge sentenced four local men to prison terms ranging from five to six years in prison for their involvement in a methamphetamine trafficking ring operating in the Henderson County, U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose announced.

U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. sentenced the leader and three co-conspirators to prison terms ranging from 57 months to 70 months for their involvement in a meth ring that law officers busted after police in Oklahoma seized nearly 10 pounds of meth in a traffic stop.

Joining in the announcement was Daniel R. Salter, special agent in charge of the Atlanta division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Henderson County Sheriff Charlie McDonald.

Judge Cogburn sentenced the defendants as follows:

Maria Del Ruiz-Zazueta, 45, of Hendersonville, to 57 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Stephanie Alvarenga, 24, of Hendersonville, to 63 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.

Daniel Alfaro, 24, of Laurel Park, to 70 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

Antonio Barbosa, 34, of Hendersonville, to 63 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.



Cogburn had previously sentenced four other conspirators. Nahuan Solano, 27, of Hendersonville, was sentenced to 63 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release; Eric Lee Garber, 41, of Saluda, was sentenced to 60 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release; Benjamin Nelson, 31, of Hendersonville, was sentenced to 57 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release; and Allan Collado-Raudez, 23, of Asheville, was sentenced to 39 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release.

According to court documents and testimony at a sentencing hearing on Friday, from about May 2014 to May 2015, the conspirators ran a drug trafficking ring that distributed large quantities of meth in Henderson County and surrounding areas. According to court records, Maria Del Ruiz-Zazueta was the leader of the drug ring and was assisted by her daughter, Stephanie Alvarenga, in supplying the methamphetamine to their co-conspirators.

Solano and Alfaro were methamphetamine traffickers who acted as runners for Ruiz-Zazueta and Alvarenga, authorities said. According to court records, the rings customers included area methamphetamine traffickers Garber and Nelson. Ruiz-Zazueta and other members of the ring used Antonio Barbosa as an alternate source of supply, who was assisted by Collado-Raudez, the U.S. attorney said.

In May 2015 law enforcement in Oklahoma made a traffic stop of the vehicle in which Alvarenga was a passenger. Alvarenga and the driver of the vehicle were headed from California to North Carolina. During the traffic stop, law enforcement seized nearly 10 pounds of methamphetamine from a backpack located in the trunk of the car, authorities said.

The four sentenced to prison on Friday are in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole.

The investigation was handled by the DEA and the Henderson County Sheriffs Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Kent of the U.S. Attorneys office in Asheville is in charge of the prosecution.




A judge warned Audrey Mahon about her behaviour during her husband's murder trial, threatening to ban her from the courtroom if she could not control herself.

Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan gave the stark warning to Mrs Mahon on the second day of the trial, following her outburst in the middle of the evidence of taxi driver Karl O'Toole.

Mrs Mahon became visibly upset when Mr O'Toole told the Central Criminal Court that he did not know her 23-year-old son Dean, apart from what he had seen in the newspapers.

Mr O'Toole gave evidence that he had known David Mahon (45) since the pair were 18 years old, and that around 10pm on May 25, 2013, he got a call from Mahon saying he was having a bit of trouble and he and Audrey had split up for good.

Mr O'Toole said Mahon asked him to come down to his apartment at Burnell Square, off the Malahide Road.

Mr O'Toole said when he arrived at Mahon's apartment, the defendant was drunk and agitated, and was trying to contact Dean Fitzpatrick.

Asked by prosecution counsel Remy Farrell SC if he knew Mr Fitzpatrick, Mr O'Toole replied that he "never met Dean Fitzpatrick".

Lying

Upon hearing this, Audrey shook her head, tutted loudly and - quite obviously and audibly - got up from her seat and stormed out of court.

Every head in the room turned to look at her as she made her way out of the courtroom.

Ms Justice Heneghan sent the jury for an early lunch, and ordered gardai to immediately bring Audrey back to court.

When she was brought back to court, Audrey told the judge that Mr O'Toole was lying about not knowing Dean, saying he had been on holidays with them.

In the absence of the jury, Ms Justice Heneghan warned Mrs Mahon, telling her to "behave yourself" and threatening that she would exclude her from the courtroom if she could not control herself.

Ms Justice Heneghan told Mrs Mahon that the trial must be conducted in a fair manner, and she would not tolerate any inappropriate behaviour or inappropriate outbursts.

The judge told Mrs Mahon that she did not want to ban her from the courtroom but she would if she was forced to do so.

For the remainder of the nine-day trial, Audrey sat quietly in the body of the courtroom. There wasn't another word out of her.

Mrs Mahon also declined to comment on the outcome of the trial when questioned by the media.

There was little reaction too from Dean's father, Christopher Fitzpatrick, and his family.

A quietly exclaimed "yes" was the simple yet powerful word let out by Mr Fitzpatrick after David Mahon was convicted of killing his son Dean.

The family and loved ones of Dean Fitzpatrick, including his father, aunt and girlfriend, politely declined to comment until the sentencing date on May 30.
Leicester City's Premier League title win has made thousands of punters and supporters across the world jump for joy - but none will be as happy as a group of children in Co Meath.

A group of Irish fans are making their way to Leicester today to see their side lift the top-flight trophy for the first time. Among them will be Katie Mason, a fifth and sixth class teacher at St Peter's National School in Dunboyne.

"The boys asked at the start of the year if they could get a night of no homework if Leicester got a Europa League spot (by finishing in the top five)," she said. "And I said 'yes, of course'. Then they asked 'what about the Champions League (top four)?' - and I said three nights.

"When they asked how much if Leicester won the league, I said 'a week, no problem'. Now I have to give them a week off homework.

Mocked

"I'm sure I will have a few happy children in the class next Monday morning."

Katie is travelling to Leicester today with her dad, Kevin, and uncle Brian, and has supported the club all her life.

"I remember being in third class and going into school with my Leicester jersey, and being mocked for years about it," she said.

"Now I have people messaging me on Facebook who I would have known in school and that have slagged me for years saying 'congratulations'.
Amy Fitzpatrick, who has been missing for the last eight years

More than eight years after her disappearance, Amy Fitzpatrick is still being treated as a high-priority case by the Garda missing persons bureau.

The 15-year-old vanished without trace as she walked the short distance from a friend's house to her home at the Costa del Sol in Spain on the night of January 1, 2008.

Since then, she has been the subject of a long-running investigation by Spanish police and the gardai while Mahon and his wife, Audrey Fitzpatrick, spent thousands of euro to keep the case in the public spotlight.

Alive

Although few believe that Amy is still alive, she continues to be officially regarded as a missing person.

Mahon, who was yesterday convicted of the manslaughter of Amy's older brother, Dean, is not suspected of having any involvement in the teenager's disappearance.

A senior garda officer said last night: "At this stage, there is no evidence either here or in Spain to suggest that Amy is dead and we continue to co-operate with the Spanish police whenever a new line of inquiry emerges."

After Audrey and Dave returned to live in Dublin, two senior garda officers flew to Spain for face-to-face talks with local police after an earlier meeting with the couple in Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park.

As a result of that meeting, arrangements were made for separate briefings on developments in the case from the Spanish investigators with the couple and also with the family of Amy's father, Christopher.

Extensive inquiries in both countries were also carried out after Dave Mahon said they had been informed by criminal sources that notorious killer and alleged gangland "gun for hire" Eric 'Lucky' Wilson had boasted in a pub that he had killed Amy.

Mahon claimed that the information they had received was credible and that they were close to solving Amy's mystery disappearance.

He said he had information from six different criminal sources that Wilson murdered Amy and at the time of her disappearance he had lived in apartments in the Riviera del Sol area, close to the Hotel Oasis, which was frequented by Amy to use their internet connection.

However, investigations established that Wilson, from Cremona Road in Ballyfermot, was not in the Costa del Sol at the time Amy went missing and was ruled out by gardai and the Spanish police as a suspect.

A senior garda admitted last night: "We are back to square one but we continue to liaise with the Spanish authorities and any help they require from us will continue to be provided."
It was a day that began with turf holding up the formation of a government and ended with another poor sod, Leo Varadkar, getting shovelled aside.

Finally, 10 weeks after the February 26 General Election, we have a government. But events yesterday reflected much of the previous 69 days; chaotic, tense, confusing and at the end everyone is still left asking the same question, what next?

Fine Gael and independent TDs wore furrowed brows yesterday morning. Talks had broken down overnight over turf-cutters' rights.

Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath, and champion of the rural dweller, was one of the first to pull out of any deal.

Deadlock

He revealed that he had a "stand-up row" with outgoing minister Paschal Donohoe during the deadlock.

As other rural deputies withdrew support one-by-one, a minority government seemed to be slipping out of Enda Kenny's hands.

So dire were affairs, other TDs were driven to superstition. Fine Gael's Regina Doherty said she put a statue of the Child of Prague out the night before in the hope of a seat at Cabinet. The old piseog usually grants good weather for a wedding.

Perhaps, the infant of Prague was paying heed to our terse climate. The weather was good and shortly after 2pm - two hours late, but who cares after 10 weeks - the magic number of 59 TDs in favour of Enda Kenny fell over the line.

The mood relaxed in the chamber as soon-to-be Minister for Health Simon Harris was able to poke fun at newbie Noel Rock, who proposed Enda Kenny for a record fourth occasion.

"I joked to him when I proposed Enda Kenny as Taoiseach in 2011 it only took one attempt," Harris quipped.

Dublin TDs Shane Ross and Finian McGrath were among the parliamentarians who backed Mr Kenny.

Ross, who was beside himself with joy, later announced he was Transport Minister before the Taoiseach could do so in the Dail as is customary. McGrath got a super junior award as Minister for Disabilities.

After a quick trip to the Aras to tell the President he had been re-elected, Mr Kenny returned to Leinster House for the official announcement of the jobs for the boys (and the girls).

Appointment

And here lay the kicker: Leo Varadkar was moved from Health to Social Protection. A source close to Minister Varadkar said that he was "over the moon" with the appointment.

So far over the moon that Leo would have probably flown over the turf in the West that just hours earlier had threatened the future of the 32nd Dail.

Plenty of spadework ahead.
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The Chippewa Falls Area Chamber of Commerce hosted and sponsored the 31st Annual Excellence in Education banquet on Wednesday, May 4.

The banquet honored the 19 Chippewa Falls Senior High School and McDonell Central Catholic High School seniors graduating in the top 5 percent of their class.

It also recognizes each students most influential educator.

The Chippewa Herald is publishing excerpts from the evenings presentation to recognize all 19 students and their educators. This is the first installment.

Molly Arbuckle

Arbuckle, daughter of Dave and Denise Arbuckle, is a senior at Chippewa Falls Senior High School. She chose Carol Sullivan, Chippewa Falls Middle School health teacher, as her most influential educator.

Arbuckle said about Sullivan: During gym class with Mrs. Sullivan I was one of the few girls in my class, but she made me have an amazing last year in middle school.

Every day before class I would stop in her office to just talk about dramatic middle school drama and would always end up leaving with a hug, a smile, and a Dove Chocolate.

Most importantly she made me feel confident in myself and I know I will always have her to confide with.

Sullivan said about Arbuckle: Molly has always displayed kindness, a sense of humor, intelligence, a bit of fire, and a sweet tooth for Dove Chocolates.

Those qualities have helped her become the accomplished young women she is today. I hope her future resembles a Dove Chocolate, wonderful with pleasant surprises

Arbuckle plans to major in an area of business and minor in psychology at the University of Minnesota-Duluth.

Emma Kay Burlingame

Burlingame, daughter of Chad and Tess Burlingame, is a senior at Chippewa Falls Senior High School. She chose Warren Bowe, English teacher at Chi-Hi.

Burlingame said of Bowe: Bowe was the first teacher I had that I felt really cared about my ability to improve as a student and learn, as opposed to simply meeting expectations.

He gave me great feedback on all of my work and his sense of humor made his class one of my absolute favorites.

Bow said about Burlingame: So, the bad news about Emma Burlingame is that I used up 15 pens commenting on her writing assignments last year. The good news is that the comments always praised the insightful, analytical observations and arguments that she translated with such sophistication and clarity to the written word.

Congratulations, Emma!

Emma will attend the University of Alabama next fall, but she has not decided on a major or career path yet.
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Around a week ago, a 29-year-old female Dalit law student was raped and murdered in Kerala.

In the days that followed the incident, national outrage over the case has grown, especially over allegations that police ignored previous complaints by the family. Political parties have rushed in to cash in on the Dalit vote bank in poll season. People have organised themselves into campaigns with street protests and marches in several cities, including Delhi.

But a disproportionate amount of attention has been fixed on the gory details of the case: The student was brutally gang-raped, she had 30 injuries on her body, her intestines were ripped out. Newspapers and social media are calling her #Nirbhaya2, a reference to the 2012 gang rape of a medical student in Delhi that triggered massive protests in the Capital and inspired changes in Indias rape law.

In contrast, commentators have paid little attention to her caste, a crucial factor that might have determined not only how she lived but how she was killed and how much impunity her killer enjoy.

Read: Three men arrested for raping 19-year-old nursing student in Kerala

Caste is endemic in both rural and urban India, even in relatively progressive societies such as Kerala that have strong communist parties ruling the state.

The influence of caste extends right from the kind of water we drink to the kind of behavior we receive from teachers on the first day in school. It influences the kind of friends we have, the movies we watch, the education we get and determines if we get any respect for our achievements or whether we get mourned after our deaths. Caste also decides whether our deaths and crimes against us get reported and acted on, or whether such acts are seen as regular.

Dalit women are often at the bottom of this caste power pyramid because of their gender and caste identities. Any attempt at assertion is brutally suppressed and their bodies become the site of caste wars and violence is meted out with impunity to silence them.

They are not allowed to study, compelled to do menial domestic work and unpaid labour, denied health access and financial freedom and wantonly subject to violence, even by men from their own castes.

Their knowledge and stories dont get recorded, even in progressive feminist circles where their narratives are either invisibilised or studied by a upper-caste scholar for research.

The Kerala law students story is another in this sordid saga, one that counts numerous similar assaults on Dalit women that go unnoticed. The same week she was assaulted, Kerala reported the gang rape of a Dalit nursing student. In Telangana, a Dalit student was raped for two weeks by her batchmates. In Rajasthan, the death and suspected rape of a bright Dalit school student triggered outrage.

Last month, a Dalit woman on her way to a wedding was abducted and raped allegedly by upper caste men in Haryana. On Holi, a Dalit woman in Agra was allegedly raped by a policeman. And these are just the reports that made it to the newspapers.

Though a sexual crime, rape is often an expression of power. This is why Dalit womens bodies become the target of violence as perpetrators are expressing their gender and caste privileges while taking advantage of the impunity that comes with assaulting lower caste bodies.

We must care about the rape and death of the Kerala Dalit law student because of the crime itself, not because it is gory and shocks us. We must stop comparing it to the Delhi gang rape because the similarities exist in their horrific death and not in the lives lead. We must acknowledge that our motivation at the comparison is to drag the Kerala womans life into a setting that we are comfortable in  urban, upper caste  and not confront the realities of caste violence across India.

The Kerala rape follows a long list of prominent cases of violence against Dalit women in India. From the 2006 Khairlanji massacre  where Dalit women were paraded naked before being raped and murdered and the 1992 Bhanwari Devi rape case in Rajasthan to the 2014 Bhagana rape case in Haryana, Dalit women have been subject to unmentionable violence. In each of these highly publicized cases, the victims are awaiting justice, underlying the fact that sensationalism does little to ensure dignity and respect.

Instead of the comparisons, the victims will be better served if we started acknowledging the vicious effects of caste and start working against it; if we see that recent violence against Dalit people has come on the bodies of people trying to assert themselves and breaking free of caste shackles: a law student, a nursing student, a bright school student, a PhD student; if we admit caste is present everywhere in our lives.

India is in the midst of a churning about nationalism and patriotism. Zealous political leaders tell us everyday we must be proud of the country, must speak no ill of it and chant slogans of its glory.

But a country cannot be great when she is ravaged by a disease such as caste, one that inflicts humiliation and pain on people at the bottom of the power pyramid. Forget Bharat Mata ki Jai or #Nirbhaya2, we have to start talking and working against caste and caste-based violence if we truly care about India.

Views expressed are personal. The author tweets as @dhrubo127.

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Today is Rabindranath Tagores 155th birth anniversary, the 25th day of Baisakh (the first month of the Bengali calendar). Though Tagore was born on May 7, 1861, for some reason this day has never fallen on May 7 as far as I remember. Probably the anniversary is observed in accordance with the Bengali calendar because Tagore wrote a poem on his birthday (25th Baisakh), a strange thing for him to do because he had said elsewhere he never understood how that day was different from all other days of the year.

Still Tagore gave himself that birthday present in the form of a poem. And this gives somewhat of a glimpse into the mans beliefs. For him nothing was to be rejected, not even the subject of his birthday, if some meaning could be derived from it for people to live and breathe. For that if one were to live with some contradictions in the approach to life, he was comfortable with them. Contradictions, after all, are different ways of looking at the same thing. So what if such contradictions came from the same person over time? Doesnt one man in his time play many parts?

Read | Tagores novels, plays translated into 16 million Chinese characters

Tagore was a believer in god, and the belief expressed itself in many forms, including his abiding faith in humanity. He lived 80 years. And the output of the last 30 years (more particularly the last 20) was such that it seems almost like yesterdays in terms of thought. His Bengali prose still remained a bit florid, though shorn of its earlier artificiality. In the first decade of the 20th century, his ideas on society and nationalism were fashioned more by the demands of the day. Those were the heady days of the swadeshi movement in Bengal and the wellspring of nationalism was Hinduism and its symbolism. This gripped Tagore to an extent that he uncritically extolled all that was there in Indias past and the practices of Hinduism. To show how smooth life moved in ancient India, Tagore wrote that the widow got on to the funeral pyre of the husband effortlessly. To show how the caste system imparted orderliness to society, he praised the lower castes for accepting their subjugation unquestioningly. This was Tagore in 1905-06. The practice of Sati had been outlawed 75 years earlier and in different parts of India there were movements against the rigidities of the caste system. But within four years the change came and was evident in the novel Gora, in which two streams of thought are discernible. The first is Sanatan Hinduism, represented by Gora himself, and the other that sees the ways in which the religion did not work towards taking humanity towards higher levels. In fact it had insulted humanity. Towards the end Gora undergoes a transformation and discovers a different India that is not trapped in his Sanatan Hinduism. This was Tagores first step towards universal humanism.

Read | Gulzar to teach for Tagore Chair, announces Panjab University

In Goras passage from one worldview to another do we not see something contemporary that is being played out in terms much more crass? While praising Japan, Tagore castigated the erection of war memorials to glorify the countrys military success against Korea. For him war was evil and should not be fought. In this, was he not one of the early pacifists who spoke in favour of world peace much before Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein did? Behind his tremendous appreciation of Russias socialist experiment lay the dark side of India  its poverty, disease, homelessness When Swami Shraddhananda was killed by a Muslim fanatic, Tagore saw it as an outcome of the enormous gap that separated the Muslims from the Hindus and for this, he said, the Hindus were largely to blame. Along with Gandhi, he, too, believed this gap had to be closed if India was to evolve into a nation. And who could have performed this terror act, he asked. Only a person who can be unmoved by the cries of a mother or a widow. Is this thinking not as valid today as it was in 1927, when the piece was written?

Read | Jana Gana Mana reminiscent of British rule: Poet Gopal Das Neeraj

His appreciation of Russia did not make Tagore a communist. It was just the thought that a system gave equal opportunities to all was what had enthralled him. And this was because the man was every inch a liberal, always eager to experiment with new things. He said it in the last line of his birthday poem: Chiro nutoner dilo dak, pochishe Baisakh (it is the call of the eternal new, pochishe Baisakh).

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While lawyers and activists locked horns over the relevance of Section 377 approximately two years back, a group of actors in the national capital chose the medium they knew best to lend their support to the cause  theatre. The Importance of 377  The Trials of Oscar Wilde, condensed two of the three trials that playwright Oscar Wilde faced on charges of being a homosexual. The choice of the subject showed how Section 377 was a dated law, with little relevance and resonance in todays world. And the use of the courtroom drama format helped raise and answer some of the real questions being asked in the debate.

A scene from 12 Angry Men (Photo courtesy: Akshara Theatre)

Many of our plays have used courtroom scenes and they have always gone down well with the audience, says technical director, Akshara Theatre, Anasuya Vaidya. Perhaps it was this that gave us the idea of organising a courtroom drama festival. I am not sure when we first thought of it, but we are all unanimous in agreeing that it was something that needed to be done.

A scene from Manohar Kahaniya - The Suzette Jordan Story (Photo Courtesy: Akshara Theatre)

Titled Order! Order! Order! A festival of courtroom drama, the two-week event starting this Sunday will see the Akshara Theatre Repertory and other groups perform a selection of five courtroom dramas over the weekends and also include dramatised book readings, play readings, discussions and talks. Some of the plays are based on original court cases. Many social and political issues come up in courts. It is a good way to condense the court proceedings and present it in a dramatised format, says Vaidya.

Over the years Akshara has staged some courtroom dramas, such as the Hindi adaptation of Reginald Roses 12 Angry Men, or had courtroom scenes in plays such as Karma. But though this is a strong genre in global theatre, and immensely popular with the audience, in India, we havent had too many of them, says Vaidya.

Khamosh Adalat Jari Hai, based on Vijay Tendulkars Marathi original, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe and Court Martial, a play by Swadesh Deepak, are two old favourites.

A scene from An English Prison - The Trial of Suresh Vaidya (Photo Courtesy: Akshara Theatre)

Vaidya adds, In general we have very little original stage content. About 60 per cent of our productions are translations. There is huge scope for original content in all genres of theatre, including this one. With a set of fresh and original productions, Order!Order!Order makes a start in filling that gap.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for more.

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If politicians in Tamil Nadu have their way, there will be a freebie bonanza in the state  from foreign educational tour for farmers to free autos and taxis for women and guaranteed part-time jobs for all girl students.

These are just some of the promises made by the four chief ministerial candidates  chief minister and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa, DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, PWF-DMDKTMC alliance leader Vijayakanth and Pattali Makkal Katchis Anbumani Ramadoss.

The Election Commission guideline to make only rational promises and to indicate means to meet them financially has done little to deter candidates, who continue to make promises that could have potentially catastrophic ramifications of the states economy.

[But] this is the last thing on [ anyones] mind... This country-be-damned kind of an attitude will surely destroy the state , said Prof ARV en katachalapathy of MID A.

Nonetheless, Jayalalithaa has promised expansion of the Amma brand into areas and territories you cannot even imagine and much more  mobile phones for all ration card holders, two-wheelers at half price for working women, eight grams of gold during marriage of girls from BPL families, free set-top box for Arasu Cable TV subscribers, a job for one member of each household and a host of welfare schemes and heavy subsidies.

Her bete noire, M Karunanidhi, has been a tad more practical but the DMK has talked of waving loans of farmers and students.

Vijayakanth took the cake when he promised that his government will help release nearly 200 Tamil films that are ready but unable to release for various reasons. Under his rule, people will not have to queue up at ration shops as the subsidised food articles would be delivered to their doorsteps, fuel will be cheaper  petrol at

45 per litre and diesel at 35 per litre. Also, one lakh autos and taxies would be given to women for free, government pension for people above age 60 and a part-time job to every girl student with 2,000 stipend per month.

But the most hard-to-digest promise was the one about sending 25,000 farmers on educational tours abroad, and the PWFs promise to give two acres land to landless farmers and the poor.

Anbumani Ramadoss has scoffed at this freebie culture but his party could not resist announcing free education, free medical treatment and free bus travel, and not to mention free iPads with Wi-Fi for students to lighten their school bags.

Farmers havent been ignored either  theyve been promised free seeds, free fertilisers and a free tractor for each village.

Economists, on the other hand, are aghast.

They believe such populist schemes will destroy the state, which is already reeling under crippling public debt of over 2.5 lakh crore. Financial burden, they say, will touch unimaginable levels.

Debt burden on each and every individual of the state will be unbearable and in the long run the economy will be ruined, said Prof S Janakarajan, development economist at Madras Institute of Development Studies. Competitive populism will bring down the overall development and welfare levels in the state.

While candidates try to one up each other with financially catastrophic promises, talk of infrastructure development, industry and agriculture growth, and other indicators of modern-day social and economic growth have taken a backseat.

Freebies are nothing but plain and simple bribe to the voters in exchange of a shot at power, said Prof Janakarajan.

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With all political parties gearing up for the final leg of their campaigns in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, one issue has been talked about by all contenders: Last year's devastating floods in Chennai.

"When the floods were happening in Chennai and the people were dying, the Centre was the first to stand by you," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a rally in the state capital on Friday.

The topic of the floods was also high on chief minister J Jayalalithaa's agenda when she began her final campaign in her constituency of RK Nagar in north Chennai on Friday. "I personally came and saw the damage that the floods had done," the AIADMK leader said. "I personally met you all and promised to stand by and help you."

The ruling AIADMK had faced allegations of inaction over the floods and was slammed by political parties for not being the first to organise relief efforts for the affected regions.

"It was the incompetence of the ruling AIADMK that caused the floods," said former Union finance minister P Chidambaram in Chennai. The veteran Congress leader was campaigning on behalf of the party's candidate, Karate R Thiagarajan, in the affluent area of Mylapore.

Jayalalithaa also had come under fire over allegations that her party workers had stopped trucks carrying relief material from outside of Chennai to post stickers of the chief minister on them.
Former deputy chief minister and DMK leader MK Stalin and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi shared platform in the temple town of Madurai on Saturday and asked the people of Tamil Nadu to throw out the AIADMK-led government.

It was Rahuls first outing for Tamil Nadu assembly elections  at a rally in Madurai, 480km south of Chennai -- two days after Congress president and his mother, Sonia Gandhi, shared the stage with Stalins father and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi at a rally in Chennai.

Rahul launched an attack questioning everything that was wrong with Jayalalithaa government and said the people need a change for a corruption-free government that will help the state progress.

The investors are not coming here because they know they have to give lots of money to do anything here, Rahul said, adding: As a result, unemployment has grown by leaps and bounds in Tamil Nadu.

This is not a government and a state that was envisaged by the great leaders like Kamaraj, MGR and Karunanidhi, Rahul said.

Elect a government that will restore Tamil Nadu to its pristine glory, a government that will be focused on development and accelerate development of the state on all fronts, Rahul said in his speech made in English, that was translated into Tamil by a senior Congress leader.

DMK treasurer Stalin, senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram, TNCC chief EVKS Elangovan and other DMK leaders were present on the dias in a show of unity of the alliance.

On top of Rahuls talking point was the ruination brought in by liquor. In the state, liquor shops increased from 1800 to 6800 during the five years of Jayalalithaas rule, he said.

We will bring total prohibition, Rahul declared even as Stalin watched his every word keenly. He was also seen exchanging pleasantries with the AICC vice president on the stage.

Stalin, who spoke earlier, said: Nokia came to Tamil Nadu during the previous regime and exited now.

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Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri is undaunted in spite of facing protesters at Jadavpur University before the screening of his political drama, Buddha in a Traffic Jam, which revolves around corruption and Maoism in a business school.

Known for films such as Hate Story and Goal, Agnihotri was greeted with black flags, slogans and placards telling him to leave when he reached the university on Friday. He claimed he was manhandled and gheraoed by some students; a window pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion. But the director has refused to back down.

In a series of tweets from Friday night through Saturday morning, Agnihotri challenged his attackers, saying they could come at him and break his car but they wouldnt be able to break his spirit.

Attack me. Break my car. How will you break my spirit? #BuddhaAtJU  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

He further added that the students didnt like his film as it exposed them.

They didn't like that film exposed them so they got violent with the organising students. Some in hospital. #JU pic.twitter.com/xePNM4kZFs  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

Agnihotri also tweeted about the attacks on him, seeking help.

Massive protest against me and the film. They are breaking the car apart. Help needed. pic.twitter.com/Q6lwWRvZG9  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

The registrar came and stopped the peaceful screening of #BuddhaInATrafficJam massive chaos and sloganeering.  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

Mayhem at Jadavpur Univ due to a small film. Broke my shoulder. But screened the film. Victory of FoE.  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

Only they don't have a right to break my car and shoulder. Also registrar doesn't have a right to stop midway. https://t.co/KM96EQ0Pst  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

By Saturday morning, he said reports in media will be biased half-truth.

Good morning from Kolkata. I am alive. It's been a long time since I saw such violence. What you'll hear in media is all half truth.  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 7, 2016

The commotion at the university occurred when producers put up the film screening in an open-air space on campus after the alumni association cancelled their booking of the Triguna Sen auditorium, the original venue.

Read: Jadavpur University files complaint against ABVP protesters

The producers claimed they had support from a group of students. The students arranged a bed-sheet and turned it into a screen to see my film. Many watched it and realised its not what they were thinking. It is a realistic film, Agnihotri told PTI.

Protests continued through the screening, with protesters saying their issue was with the films divisive content.

Buddha in a Traffic Jam is inspired from Agnihotris life, and stars Anupam Kher, Mahie Gill, Aanchal Dwivedi, Pallavi Joshi, Arunoday Singh and Vivek Vaswani.

We all know (Anupam) Khers views in the whole debate on whatever happened in JNU. He is acting in this film which has divisive content. We are protesting against that, said Sounak Mukherjee, a first year MA student of English department.

Watch Buddha In A Traffic Jam

Meanwhile, the university administration filed a police complaint against four people  three Akhil Bhartiya Vishwa Parishad activists  for allegedly molesting female students during the protests.

(With PTI inputs)

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The Bloomer School District is looking to transfer a second lawsuit filed against it by a former teachers aide from Chippewa County Court to the Western District of Wisconsin Federal Court in Madison.

Madison attorney Lori M. Lubinsky is representing the school district, Superintendent Dr. Mary Randall and Elementary Principal Josh Hartman in the lawsuit brought by Kaleena M. Vetterkind of Elk Mound.

In the change of venue motion filed Monday, Lubinsky argues that since Vetterkinds lawsuit asserts claims based on the First and 14th Amendment, those are questions that should be resolved in a federal jurisdiction.

A similar lawsuit filed by former teachers aide Jondrea M. Metcalf has already been shifted to federal court in Madison. Lubinsky successfully argued in that case that since Metcalf was asserting a claim under the First Amendment, the case should be moved.

Vetterkinds lawsuit said her work contract was not renewed by the Bloomer School District after she reported abuse of students.

Vetterkind is asking to be reinstated, to receive back pay and to be paid interest along with compensatory damages.

Randall responded in a press release that Vetterkinds employment was not extended after because of job performance issues.

These job performance issues were entirely unrelated to any actual or alleged report of threatening conduct, abuse or neglect in regard to any district student or staff member, Randall wrote.

Metcalf and Vetterkind are represented by Menomonie attorney David C. Schoenberger. Schoenberger is part of the Bakke Norman, S.C. law firm.
Actor Sonu Sood was in India for a short while, when he got a break from his ongoing shoot in China. And while here, he opened up his treasure box that he guards with his life. No, it doesnt have diamonds or money. But something much more precious, says Sonu whose mother died in 2007.

The box contains some of the letters that my mother wrote to me. Some are as old as 16 years. She would write to me to keep me motivated and focused, says the 42-year-old actor.

These letters became extremely meaningful when I moved to Mumbai, because I was all by myself - no friends or family. So, she would regularly write to me, and despite the fact that she was in Punjab, she became my strength through these letters. They kept me going through some not-so-nice and tiring times, he adds.

Read: Sonu Sood: Moga to Mumbai non-stop

I remember, at times, I would tell her to not write saying we could talk over the phone, but she would say she loved writing and that it was her gift to me. And now I know what she meant. After she passed away, these became valuable treasures. I still derive strength from these. She even wrote for my kids. When my eldest of two sons was one year old, she wrote him a letter. Now, when he turned 11, he read it again and was visibly moved, says the Dabangg actor. She had a lot of faith in me. When she saw me for the first time on screen, she wrote to me, saying, You have miles to go before you sleep. She not only kept me motivated, but also grounded.

A collage of Sonu Sood and his mothers pictures.

A letter from Sonu Soods mother to him.

A letter from Sonu Soods mother to him.

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Om Swami is a mystic who had set up a billion-dollar business by the time he turned 26. And even before he turned 30, he had renounced it all along with other worldly things, to meet God. And meet he did, he says. Then on, he settled in an ashram and decided to help anyone interested in living a life of content or looking for guidance.

But he didnt want to preach to a crowd. So he started writing instead. I write and thats how I want to promote the truth. First, it was through my portal omswami.com, now my books. People who read my books are my audience. I am not here to preach or have crowds around me, those who read my books are the ones who want to really know. I dont want to be famous, he said on his recent visit to Delhi to launch his latest book Kundalini  An Untold Story (by Jaico publishing house).

Read: Book review | Bond fans will enjoy The Man With the Golden Typewriter

His readers had come looking for answers on Panama Papers to his beauty secret to grief and suffering. Laced with signature wit and humour, in impeccable Hindi peppered with accented English, he answered them all. Talking about scepticism surrounding many self-proclaimed godmen, he said, People who want to judge me arent ready for me. Those who feel, aisa hona chahiye guru You will be attracted to a guru who can match you... Skepticism has been there for ages, Vishwamitra and Vashisth aisa chalta aya hai... Sadiyon se chaltey aya hai a fake, scented flower might attract a fly but not a butterfly.

Read: Book review | A riveting read on palace intrigue and social change

Om Swamis latest Book Kundalini - An Untold Story by Jaico publishing house (Rs 250) attempts to demystify chakras and kundalini.

For a question on Panama Paper leaks, Om Swami laughs, Now even that is a role of a spiritual guru, What should I do about my taxation, thats what we will be asked now. Spiritual gurus are themselves are setting up offshore accounts, and adds, Dont confuse spiritual gurus with governance. National interest is sometimes compromised for local benefits, because there is too much democracy at all levels. You cant run a country by being too kind. Sometimes, like a parent, you need to be strict.

Read: Book review of A Monks Memoir | Truth be told, this is the monk who sold his Porsche

Why a book on Kundalini and chakras? In todays time, when it has become a fashion to talk about vibes, and chakras, his book attempts to trace the origin and help people live better. The 36-year-old smiles, Awakening of kundalini has been an important aspect of my intense meditation. The more I heard people talk about it, the more I realised how much misconception there was about kundalini and chakras. Setting aside opinions of seekers and preachers, I wanted to share my message on chakras based on the very first scripture where kundalini was originally mentioned. Everything written on kundalini thereafter is merely commentary. Even though what Ive written is also a quasi-commentary. It is but with one primary difference: I have based it entirely on the original scripture of Kundalini and my own direct experience. I felt it would benefit readers and seekers.

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Sakina Shaikh, 38, is a graduate in humanities and a married woman. Growing up she loved karate and Akshay Kumars Khiladi series of films, so it was not surprise when she pounced on the opportunity to become a bouncer.

I just applied for fun and since joining I have not looked back. I could live my dream and at the same time get a good salary, Shaikh said, who works with London-headquartered business security firm Topsgroup.

In 2011, we employed 300 women bouncers. Now they number 25,000 out of a total workforce of 93,000 employees. This shows that more women are opting for this profession, said a spokesperson of Topsgrup, which operates in India.

Female bouncers can earn between `30,000 and `50,000 a month, a good `5,000 over what male bouncers get.

But it is not just in front of the bar but behind it also. The industry has become more open to women working behind the bar and has started to hire female bartenders, said a spokesperson at Grant, a blended scotch whisky brand from William Grant & Sons.

On an average, the salary of female bar tender is around `30,000 at medium-sized club, plus tips of about `5,000.

But handling inebriated misbehaviour and serving drinks is not the only male-dominated vocation that women are venturing into. Chandrika Gadkari, 26, was unemployed since leaving high school. One day, Gadkari enrolled into a scooter riding course organised by Heydidi and Mahindra Finance. The deal was: Learn riding, deliver products, earn money.

In 45 days Gadkari became countrys first delivery girl. She is now employed by Everyday Gourmet Kitchen, a Mumbai-based food processing company, and earns about `8,000 per month. Soon, many others like Gandkari would start delivering for e-commerce portals, food retail and fashion portals.

Companies such as HeyDidi, which provides last-mile delivery services, also lend a helping hand. It aims to employ 10,000 girls across 20 cities in three years.

Women are also opting for roles such as technicians in manufacturing companies and real estate brokers.

At agriculture and construction equipment major JCB India share of women employees has grown from 1.2% in December 2012 to 4% in March 2015.

At Maruti Suzuki, the representation of women candidates in the companys manufacturing team went up from 274 employees in 2012 to 366 employees in 2014.

US-based aircraft maker United Technologies has even started an all-women assembly line at its air-conditioner manufacturing facility in Gurgaon.

But the going is not easy. Sangeeta Sharma Dutta, who works as a consultant at real-estate consultancy firm Knight Frank India, says the battle starts after office hours. I am running hard against time making sure nothing upsets my childs schedule, she said.
Has the Italian Court of Appeals judgement in the AgustaWestland matter created a serious problem for the Congress party or is that, largely, political exaggeration and media hype? Im sure thats a question you must have asked yourself. Let me see if I can offer a credible and convincing answer.

If you accept the Italian Appeal Court has proved bribes were paid and the recipients were Indians  and most people do including the Congress party  then, logically, it has to follow they would have gone to people who matter. In this case that has to be people who could have influenced the deal.

Now what sort of people are we talking about? Certainly not chaprasis and peons. Not even deputy secretaries or joint secretaries. Possibly chiefs of the Air Force. But is that it? Can you exclude ministers and senior members of the Congress party?

Read | VVIP chopper deal: Tyagi brothers reach CBI HQ for day-2 of questioning

I would say definitely not. After all, its at their level that the final decision would have been taken. Therefore, if bribes were paid you have to believe they were amongst those who got them. Anything else defies logic!

Now, Im phrasing myself carefully but my meaning must be clear. Logically, the finger points at people at or near the top. We can only speculate but, surely, someone senior must be involved? This, therefore, is the biggest problem the Italian judgement has created for the Congress and its one the party has problems accepting.

There are, however, two other areas where the Congress faces worrying questions. First, the judgement talks of a substantial disregard to arrive at a full explanation of the facts, effectively demonstrated by the procedural behaviour of the Indian Ministry of Defence. That disregard clearly suggests the Indian government wasnt helpful but it could also imply there was an attempt to cover up.

Read | Tables turn on BJP in AgustaWestland scam: What went wrong in RS

In fact, The Economic Times (25/4) claims a footnote in the judgement states that in April 2013, when Italy asked for full documentation to enable prosecution, the Indian government only delivered three documents and that, too, after a delay of 11 months. If true, that seems to prove the disregard the Italian judgement speaks of.

Second, Ravi Shankar Prasad has told The Indian Express (29/4) that when the CBI registered a preliminary enquiry on February 12, 2013, Christian Michel was in India but, literally, 24 hours later left the country. As Mr Prasad concluded: This is not a coincidence. I presume hes alleging that someone in the UPA government tipped off Michel.

However, beyond this the references to Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Ahmad Patel and Oscar Fernandes dont amount to very much. They are either innocuous and innocent or can be easily explained. They dont suggest any form of criminality.

Read | Cong back on offence, Sonia makes gains with Save Democracy march

Finally, is there an argument the Congress could make in its defence? There certainly is. It could point out we dont have an authentic and reliable translation of the Italian judgement. What we have is not just poor and confusing but it comes from a possibly questionable website. So, if thats all we have, we dont have a document we can trust.

Unfortunately, the problem for the Congress is exacerbated by the fact the party has willingly accepted bribes were paid. Thats why it cancelled the contract in 2014. And, now, the question who took them suggests, almost inexorably, people within the party and, possibly, at or near its top.

I find all of this reasonably convincing but Im open to an argument that proves its not.

(The views expressed are personal.)

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A once great but now mostly forgotten Bangalorean was Mirza Ismail. A distinguished dewan of both Mysore and Jaipur, in those princely states he reformed and modernised the administration, beautified their capital cities, and emphasised modern education. In both Jaipur and Mysore, there are roads named after him, as well as charming markets that he had built.

Mirza Ismail was a close friend and admirer of Mahatma Gandhis. After Gandhis remarkable fast for peace in Calcutta in September 1947, Ismail wrote to him that you are rendering the greatest possible service to India in her most trying time. Your moral influence on all communities  Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, alike, and on all races, whether in or outside India, is at its highest today.

I recently came across Mirza Ismails address to the 1945 convocation of the Benares Hindu University. The vice-chancellor of BHU at the time was the philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who had once taught at Maharajas College, Mysore, and knew Mirza Ismail well.

Read: Students are the identity of a teacher, says PM Modi

After thanking Radhakrishnan for inviting him, Ismail drew the audiences attention to the troubling atmosphere in which he spoke. During the war, when Gandhi and Congress leaders had been in jail, Jinnah and the Muslim League had made rapid strides. Communal polarisation was growing. In this context, Mirza Ismail argued that the more deeply one understands and feels the vital truths of ones own religion, the more responsive one is to the religion of others. Yet, sadly, in the India of 1945-46, having absolutely forgotten religion, and being moved only by narrow and mistaken ideas of communal self-interest, our communities are everywhere engaged in hostilities which degrade our religious names.

As one modest step to recover a better and more ennobling, idea of religion, Mirza Ismail asked: Might not [the universities of] Benares and Aligarh, in concert, exert that uplifting and reconciling power which can most naturally be found in great universities? I am sure that both deeply desire this, and I believe that the closest contact and alliance between them might make an immense difference to our future.

Mirza Ismail thought a closer alliance between BHU and AMU could be a prelude to a deeper rapprochement between currently warring groups. He believed that in all universities, every graduate, every true alumnus, should seek to exercise the right and privilege of an emissary of reconciliation among all the peoples of India.

Read: AMU minority status: Jan Sangh, Swamy once batted for it

Three years earlier, Gandhi had delivered the Convocation Address at the BHU. There, he had likewise urged his hosts to encourage regular interactions with the university which carried Muslim rather than Hindu in its name. And so Gandhi asked his audience: Have you been able to attract to your University youths from Aligarh? Have you been able to identify with them? That, I think, should be your special work, the special contribution of your University. Money has come in, and more will come in if God keeps [the BHU founder Madan Mohan] Malaviya ji in our midst for a few more years. But no amount of money will achieve the miracle I want  I mean a heart-unity between Hindus and Muslims.

Read: Social activist asks BHU why he was sacked in RTI plea

I dont know whether Mirza Ismail had read Gandhis address before he travelled to Benares. In any case, Ismail was deeply committed to inter-faith harmony  he bitterly opposed the Pakistan movement  and he might on his own have urged the BHU to forge a closer collaboration with AMU in the larger interests of the country.

In his Convocation Address, Mirza Ismail moved from matters of faith to matters of science. Modern science and technology had produced many marvels, but, cautioned this wise Bangalorean, these could just as easily be used for ill as for good. The atom bomb had just been tested on the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; as Ismail presciently warned, that demoniac power will be available ere long to many nations. Turning to a slightly older invention, that of the radio, Ismail noted that in the years since it had been in operation its main use has been for propaganda, largely untruthful, in the service of conflicting national policies.

Mirza Ismail next turned to industrial and economic development. When India became free, he said, there must be one single aim, and that is not the wealth of India, still less the wealth of industrial leaders, but simply and solely a really adequate and comfortable livelihood for the whole people, their deliverance from the acute physical want in which literally the majority of them are living now.

Towards the end of this speech, this good Bangalorean and better Indian spoke of how university education, at its best, enriched and furthered the life of reason in thought, speech and act. University administrators must be open-minded; for, as Ismail put it: The rigid mind is even worse than the volatile one. Then he added: And what of the sealed and empty mind? There are many such.

The emphases in the words quoted above are all Mirza Ismails. His speech was pertinent for the times, but it is no less relevant for ours. Our universities are in turmoil, in part because administrators prefer rigidity to creativity, in part because rival political ideologies have superseded the search for truth, knowledge and understanding for many students and teachers.

Mirza Ismails speech should be read and digested by vice-chancellors and education bureaucrats, the chairman of the University Grants Commission, and education ministers in all states (and in the Centre as well). I think the Honourable Member of Parliament from Varanasi might profitably read it too. It was published in Volume 1 of the Indian Annual Register for 1945, a copy of which I possess, but which should be available in any decent library in India.

Ramachandra Guhas most recent book is Gandhi Before India. He tweets by @Ram_Guha.

(The views expressed are personal.)

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The Gujarat model is spreading like a cancer throughout India. Kerala and Bihar have fallen victim to it and Tamil Nadu is on the verge of succumbing. Unless we take immediate measures, the disease is certain to metastasise to other parts of the country.

I refer, of course, to the sudden epidemic of booze bans in several states, which will have disastrous consequences for the nation. What is it that keeps your average worker at his soul-destroying, dead end, no-hope job 10-12 hours a day? The thought of a tipple at the end of a hard day, of course. Every evening millions of workers, the backbone of the economy, patriotically cough up huge amounts of taxes as they knock down their booze. Do the politicians care? No sir, they have hatched a diabolical plan to snatch the drink out of the mouths of hard-working people. The upshot: The economy will go down the drain as workers, denied life-giving sustenance, pine away. Our only hope lies in the entrepreneurial bootlegger. After all, the sole reason Gujarats economy has been able to stand the strain is the sterling contribution of the local bootlegger.

Read | Bihar liquor prohibition spells happy hours in Jharkhand

Consider the beneficial effect of alcohol on health. Booze has an amazing ability to pickle everything, especially dodgy food. As a famous medical treatise points out, All animals are strictly dry/They sinless live and swiftly die/But sinful, ginful, rum-soaked men/Survive for three score years and ten/And some of them, a very few/Stay pickled till theyre 92.

But it is the social degeneration that is most worrisome, due entirely to people drinking too much coffee and tea. These unwholesome drinks scar the intestines, making folks grouchy. Even worse is our bacteria-infested water, which leads to a dyspeptic and amoebiasis-tinted outlook on life. Its no wonder our non-alcoholic dyspeptic leaders have brought our nation to the mess it is in.

Read | Bihar crime rate falls by 27% after prohibition: Govt data

Consider the impact of alcohol on the worlds great nations  whisky and gin made the British empire, beer made Germany, wine France, bourbon the US, vodka Russia, while sake is the reason for the rise of Japan. Even we were great when we drank somras in ancient times, enabling us to discover the zero and surgery and astronomy and what not. But its been downhill ever since we abandoned somras, with Aurangzeb delivering the coup de grace when he banned alcohol. No wonder the British had such an easy time conquering us. As Descartes nearly said, I drink, therefore I am.

Do our politicians care? Nope, they are willing to hypocritically risk all to appear holier-than-thou. They can get drunk on power and pelf, but the masses have nothing but drink.

Read | High-spirited women protest Odishas liberalised liquor policy

We must accordingly start a new political party, the Cocktail Party of India, which will meet every night at the nearest bar to fight for the Right to Booze. We will have booze satyagrahas or boozagrahas and we will march, or rather stagger and stumble and lurch to Delhi in a boozeyatra to the prime ministers office where well raise the slogans, Har har Modi, ghar ghar toddy and Ab ki baar, beer bar.

Thats all for now, the bottle is empty.

Manas Chakravarty is Consulting Editor, Mint. The views expressed are personal.

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The Uttarakhand administration is busy giving the final touches to preparations for the annual Char Dham Yatra that begins on May 9.

While police have strengthened security measures, the health department is working to provide healthcare facilities on the Yatra route.

The portals of Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri will be thrown open to pilgrims on Monday, while the fourth shrine, Badrinath, will be opened two days later on May 11.

The tourism department is keeping its fingers crossed over the pilgrim turnout in the wake of the negative publicity brought about by the recent forest fires.

Police deployed

The Uttarakhand police have stepped up efforts to ensure a peaceful, smooth Yatra. Top police officials told HT that besides the routine police force, five companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), comprising around 350 personnel, have been deployed for the Char Dham duty.

Two companies of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), which provides rescue and relief operations in case of a calamity or emergency, have been posted in the disaster-prone areas.

Sanjay Gunjyal, IGP (Garhwal range), said around 100 highly-trained SDRF personnel will be deployed on the Kedarnath trek route to assist pilgrims and the rest 100 will operate en route the other three shrines.

It will instill a sense of security among the yatris. Besides these, 30 temporary police outposts will also get activated in the Char Dham areas on May 8 to ensure effective law and order compliance, Gunjyal said.

In addition to these measures, a total of 36 sub-inspectors and 139 constables from the plain districts of Dehradun and Haridwar have been transferred to the five hill districts  Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi, Tehri and Pauri  through which the Char Dham Yatra passes.

Health preparations

The state health department has decided to deploy a total of 118 doctors, including 64 specialists, on the pilgrimage route. Also, around 12 temporary health centers have been set up on the Kedarnath trek route to take care of the pilgrims healthcare needs.

Officials have given instructions to chief medical officers of respective districts to ensure ample availability of life-saving drugs and oxygen cylinders in all hospitals that fall on the Yatra route.

We have made it mandatory for all pilgrims above 50 years of age to undergo health screenings before setting off for treks to Kedarnath and Yamunotri shrines, said health secretary Bhupinder Kaur Aulakh.

Pilgrim turnout

The Char Dham Yatra had suffered a major jolt after the deadly flashfloods in the state in 2013. However, encouraged by the high footfall of pilgrims last year, the tourism department is hoping that the numbers will cross the 15 lakh-mark this time.

Last year, we had more than 8 lakh pilgrims against less than 3 lakh pilgrims in 2014. This year, weve have already got a lot of queries (from prospective pilgrims) and hope that the figure will cross 15 lakh mark this time, additional director (tourism) A K Dwivedi told HT.

He said the raging forest fires set alarm bells ringing for the state tourism but it has now been brought under control.

Sandeep Sahni, president of the Uttarakhand Hotel Association, said the tourism industry is looking forward to a healthy Char Dham pilgrimage season.

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A city court on Saturday summoned Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as an accused in a defamation case filed against him for allegedly making derogatory remarks against local policemen.

Metropolitan magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey sought the appearance of Kejriwal on July 14 after hearing pre-summoning arguments on the complaint filed by a constable posted at Lajpat Nagar police station.

Prima facie, the court is satisfied that the offence punishable under sections 499/500(defamation) of the IPC is committed by Arvind Kejriwal so he be summoned for the same... for July 14, 2016, the magistrate said.

The complainant, constable Ajay Kumar Taneja, had alleged that he -- a member of the Delhi Police -- had been defamed by Kejriwal, who used the word thulla to describe the citys police.

In the complaint, filed through advocate LN Rao on July 23 last year, the constable claimed that Kejriwal had used the derogatory term thulla for policemen on a news channel. He was talking about AAP governments constraints in ensuring effective functioning of the anti-corruption branch.

If a word like thulla is used by an eminent personality like chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to refer to the personnel of Delhi Police, then the general public too would have no respect for police personnel, who dedicate their lives to maintain the law and order, the complaint said.

The constable had earlier claimed to have called the office and residence of Kejriwal and also on the helpline, but there was no positive response.
The Delhi Rail Corporation (DMRC) has warned the Delhi government that the cost of phase 4 extension will shoot up by crores if it did not approve the project plan in time.

The DMRC has been seeking the approval for over a year, with the phase-3 construction in its last leg of completion.

But the government wants DMRC to focus on rural areas in phase 4, sources said. The first detailed project report (DPR) was submitted almost 18 months ago. A few months later, the government asked us to prepare the DPR for a route from Dwarka to Kanjhawla, said a DMRC official, requesting anonymity.

DMRC told them the route should be included in phase 5 as there was no scope for development on it, he said.

Since the government insisted, we prepared a DPR for it. The route will have 18 stations. Still, the government hasnt replied. This will ultimately lead to a rise in the cost, the official said.

The corporation said contractors, currently engaged in phase-3 work, will move out of the city soon. If the tenders are released after that, they will quote a higher amount to return to the city.

We must award the contract before work for phase 3 ends to keep the contractor in the city. Once they move out, they will ask us to pay for the transportation of heavy machine they will be carrying, the official added.

DMRC estimated `55,000 crore as cost for phase-4 construction and an additional `4,000 crore for the new line proposed by the Delhi government. Officials were unable to say by how much the cost will shoot up if the project got delayed, but estimated it would be several crores.

Metro gave several representations to the government. In a meeting last week, it warned them again of cost escalation if the project is not approved.

Sources said DMRC planned to cover rural areas in phase 5, which will start in 2022. But the AAP government asked them to try to complete it by Metro work in rural areas by 2020  when the next assembly election will be held.

Sources said DMRC was already covering rural areas after group of ministers asked them to take Metro to outer Delhi areas such as Bawana and Narela. The Rithala-Bawana-Narela corridor proposed in phase 5 will also be a loss-making route as it will not attract much traffic, said an official. But it has been pushed by politicians.

We expect returns through property development in the areas where we construct the Metro. But in these two sections (Rithala-Narela and Dwarka-Kanjhawla), the growth of traffic is very less. Due to lack of development, we are not expecting much commercial development either, the official added.

The transport department confirmed that DMRC presented the DPR. We suggested that they give a representation to the CM and other ministers as they will have to approve the project. It was the governments demand to introduce Metro in rural areas and they will take the final call, said a transport department official.

expansion DMRC says Delhi govt delaying approval, warns tardiness likely to shoot up project cost by crores
Haryana Police inspector Amit Vaishisht, who was arrested in connection with the mysterious death of web portal journalist Pooja Tiwari, was suspended on Saturday. Amit was present at the fifth-floor flat from where Pooja allegedly committed suicide.

The police on Saturday recorded the statement of Poojas friend Amreen Khan, who too was present inside the flat at the time of the incident.

Inspector Amit was placed under suspension on Saturday, said DCP (NIT) PC Panwar, adding, We have recovered the laptop and two cell phones of the journalist and the cell phone of the suspended inspector.

The laptop and the three cell phones are being sent for forensic examination, officers investigating the case said. Amit is in police custody till May 10.

Amreen Khan, a resident of Indore, had come to Faridabad a few days ago and was staying with Pooja in flat number 509 of Sadbhawna Apartments in Sector 46.

Read: Policeman held for journalists suicide in Faridabad

Amreen, Amit and Pooja were in the flat at the time of the incident. Amreen left for Indore after the incident before registering her statement with the police.

Faridabad police called her again for questioning. She reached here on Saturday morning to register her statement again, a police officer said, adding, She reiterated her statement that Amit and Pooja entered into heated argument as both were drunk when the incident took place.

Amit is being questioned, Panwar said and did not divulge details. Once interrogation is complete, we will be in a position to comment, he said. ACP Gajinder Singh is investigating the case and Panwar monitoring it.

The police are investigating the authenticity of an audio that surfaced on the day of her death. The purported conversation between the inspector and Pooja suggests some kind of tension between the duo.

.

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Dr. Mahmoud Shawky Taman of 15246 93rd Ave., Chippewa Falls passed away May 6, 2016.

He was a physician, a psychiatrist who practiced in the Chippewa Valley, and other parts of rural Wisconsin for 43 years.

He is survived by his wife, Dawlat (Magdy) Taman; his daughters, Sahar and Mona Taman; his son, Tarik and daughter-in-law, Heidi Eustice; granddaughters, Nailah Taman and Deena Ramadan; grandsons, Shadi Ramadan and Mazin Taman; and four step-daughters, Sahar, Samah, Eman and Heba Khamis and their children and families. He is also survived by his brothers, Said, Helmi and Diaa Taman; and sisters, Nagah and Widad Taman; and 21 nieces and nephews in Egypt or around the world.

He is preceded in death by his wife of 50 years, Rafia (ElNashar) Taman; his infant daughter, Suzie;, his brother, Mohamed Ezzat Taman; two nieces, Amal Radwan and Nermeen Taman; his father, AbdelRahman Taman; and mother, Fathiya Yahia; and three infant siblings.

Dr. Taman was known as Shawky to his family, Mahmoud to many friends, as well as Chuck. He was also Geddo, i.e. grandfather in Arabic, or Uncle to hundreds. He was born Jan. 6, 1933, in the village of Shubra Bas, Mounifiya Province in Egypt. He often spoke of the privilege he had to be able to continue school as his father spent half of his teacher salary to send him and a younger brother to the nearby town for middle school, living on their own since he was 12 years old. Shawky graduated high school and was accepted into medical school at the University of Alexandria, Egypt in 1950. His medical training included learning from midwives in rural Egypt. After graduation he served as a medical officer in the Egyptian army with the rank of Captain. While serving in Yemen and observing shell shock, what is now known as post-traumatic stress disorder, he became interested in psychiatry, which was in its infancy stages in Egypt. He traveled to England to attend the Royal College of Psychiatry for his specialization.

In 1971, he and his family immigrated to the United States to Clarinda, Iowa, and then moved to Chippewa Falls, Wis., in 1973. His family was the first Egyptian family to move to Chippewa Valley, the first Arab and the first Muslim. Dr. Taman set about learning and embracing his new community and worked to improve it wherever he could. He initially served as a psychiatrist in private practice and made great contributions to rural psychiatry, working to overcome the stigma and fear associated with mental illness. Over 43 years he worked in many medical facilities in the area, including St. Josephs Hospital in Chippewa Falls, Sacred Heart and Luther Hospitals, Marshfield Clinic, the Chippewa County Mental Health Clinic, the L.E. Philips Treatment Center, the Eau Claire Academy, Cumberland Hospital, Arcadia Hospital and several others. He was medical director of Sacred Heart and St. Josephs hospitals and the Chippewa County Mental Health Clinic in the early years. He was a volunteer at the Chippewa Valley Free Clinic in Eau Claire, for many years working with other behavioral health specialists to set up a mental health services there. He last volunteered there April 19, 2016.

Dr. Taman was an activist for developing better mental health resources for Wisconsin, and created the Dr. Mahmoud Taman Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation of Chippewa County to provide grants supporting organizations and agencies addressing mental health urgent medical and social needs. He loved his profession and spoke of his patients with dignity. He had great respect for his all colleagues and served as mentor to many.

As the Muslim community grew over the years, he encouraged them to pool donations to buy the church building in 1991, on Second Street in Altoona, and it became the areas first and only mosque. The Islamic Society of Northern Wisconsin, Center and Mosque (ISNW), is celebrating its 25th year in the Chippewa Valley. Dr. Taman served in many roles there, but his most cherished his role was as mentor, building leadership among the Muslim community. His hope was that this community would continue to thrive and to serve the local community as well as play a role in contributing to the United States. As an optimist and a realist he was proud and satisfied to see that happening.

Since the early days, Dr. Taman sought to build an interfaith community and was an integral part of the Trialogue, a group of local clerics and interfaith advocates which he participated in for 23 years. He led outreach of the ISNW and thus built good relationships with many churches, Temple Shalom, the synagogue in Eau Claire, educational institutions, charitable organizations, local law enforcement, local government and political groups. He was a regular contributor to the Eau Claire Leader Telegram with opinion articles on many topics including Islam and the Middle East. He was a fierce and always gentle advocate for community cooperation, support, integration, justice, and healing. Dr. Taman created a trust fund within the ISNW to provide small funds to organizations and community groups. When Sojourner House, the first homeless shelter in Eau Claire, opened a few years ago, ISNW provided funds along with many other charitable groups. He led the ISNW in its role as mentor to new Muslim communities in Wisconsin, providing funding for the mosque in Barron, Wis., as well as working with the Department of Justice to assist with local issues there. The Mahmoud S. Taman Foundation, Inc. was recently created to provide small funds for various interfaith and civic issues and will inaugurate a program to provide small scholarships to the local high schools to encourage discussion on coexistence among Americans of diverse religions.

In addition to his professional and community work, he was most happy with his family and thousands of friends close by and worldwide. He enjoyed the company of all kinds of people and was fascinated by the resiliency of the human spirit and its capacity for love. He was very proud of his humble roots and was grateful for any prosperity in his life. He gave of his time to anyone who needed it, including young children, the indigent, family, friends, colleagues, or strangers and gave all great respect. He was a great friend to many and a man of faith and integrity. We hope he is granted Gods mercy. As is the Muslim saying, From Allah do we come, and to Him do we return.

Funeral services will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 7, 2016, at Stokes Mundt Funeral Home at 535 S. Hillcrest, Altoona, Wis. The burial will follow immediately after the service in Prairie View Cemetery, 4061 North Prairie View Rd. Lake Hallie, Wis. All are invited to a reception in the afternoon around 3:30 p.m. to honor him at the Islamic Society of Northern Wisconsin.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to either the Islamic Society of Northern Wisconsin, Center and Mosque, 527 2nd St. W., Altoona, Wis., 54720, or the Chippewa Valley Free Clinic, 836 Richard Dr., Eau Claire, Wis., 54701, in Dr. Tamans name.

Friends and family may wish to share their stories of Dr. Taman at cremationsociety-wi.com.

A special thank you to the doctors, nurses, and staff at Sacred Heart Hospital, many who knew him well and worked with him, for their care during his hospital stay.

Stokes, Prock & Mundt Funeral Chapel, Altoona, is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be shared at www.stokesprockandmundt.com.
Four out of 10 youths detained by Delhi Police on Tuesday night on suspicion of being JeM operatives, were released on Saturday after the police couldnt find any evidence against them. The youths were reportedly counselled, de-redicalised and let off.

Mohsin (35), Zishan (19), Imran (23), residents of Chand Bagh and Muzahir (26), resident of Loni, returned home after they were grilled for three days. Thirteen youths had been picked up of which three were arrested.

Police sources said the youths were released after no evidence of their direct involvement in either making the IEDs or being a part of a larger operation was found. During the investigation, the chats on their WhatsApp accounts and Facebook messenger were analysed. But nothing incriminating was found.

The youths told the police that they felt angry about the state of Muslims but they never thought of joining the JeM. It is a very sensitive case and we carried out the investigation thoroughly. We made sure we didnt arrest the wrong people. This is why we only arrested three out of 13 persons we picked up on Tuesday night. Since no direct involvement of these youths was found, we let them go, a police source said.

Read: Can paint, bolts and batteries be used to make bombs, ask JeM suspects sister

They youths were happy to have been let off. However, they feared they wont be accepted by the society.

We have no complaints. They (investigators) treated us well. Kept us in air-conditioned rooms, gave us food and allowed us to offer namaz. They neither hit us nor pressured us. They just asked us to cooperate in the investigation. On the first day, I was terrified. I thought I was being framed in a terror case and would languish in jail for the rest of my life or that I would get a death sentence. But they soothed my nerves and promised to let us off if we cooperate, said Zishan, who sells garments in Chand Bagh.

He fears about his future and if the police would detain him again. I can never forget that night when I was taken away. I hope I am able to prove my innocence to the society, he said. He clarified that he had nothing to do with Sajid, the main suspect from whose residence the IEDs were recovered. He said he was detained on mere suspicion.

I used to see him in the masjid when he came to offer namaz. I would greet him, but we barely spoke. I know nothing about the meetings at his house or anything about his plan or the IEDs. I am just glad to be home, Zishan said. Mohsin also had a similar story to tell.

Meanwhile, the other six persons, who are still under the scanner, are being questioned.

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Two students from Hindu College have launched an indefinite hunger strike against high fees and alleged discriminatory rules for the newly constructed girls hostel at the college.

The college had earlier said that there will be no admissions to the girls hostel this year, a move that had generated widespread resentment among students.

Kanica and Anil Rajgarh, students of Political Science, sat on a hunger strike on Thursday. The hostel rules should be same for both genders and there should be parity in fees, said Kanica, a student of first year.

Hindu College Old Students Association said in a statement that they express solidarity with the demands of students and requested authorities to appoint a regular principal to solve the issues.

A three-member team from National Commission for Women (NCW) met students and administration of the college on Thursday. The NCW had recently issued a notice to the college seeking an explanation on the issue.

We have extended the deadline to May 15. Any further action will be taken after that, NCW officials said.

Students said that the fee, around Rs 82,000 for girls was much higher than the fee for boys, which is around Rs 47,000.

The college has formed a committee to look into the issue.
For a woman, asthma can be much more dangerous that what it is for men. For not only does asthma take a toll of our lungs, it can also make it harder for women to get pregnant.

A new study has revealed that asthmatic women may take more time to conceive and have a lower pregnancy rate than those without lung diseases.

Dr Archana Dhawan Bajaj, gynaecologist and obstetrician, Nurture IVF Centre, explained that asthmas effect on fertility increases with time and age and so, the female patients should conceive at an early age and step up their asthma treatment before getting pregnant.

Read: Yoga can help asthma patients breathe better, says new study

Asthma is a chronic respiratory disorder due to inflammation of the airways in our lungs. Some of the common symptoms of asthma include breathlessness, chest tightness, and night cough among many. Often the affected person finds it extremely difficult to breathe.

In early age, boys are twice more likely to suffer from asthma than girls. However, this ratio gets reversed as they grow up. Pre-pubertal girls suffer from severe asthma attacks as the hormones change. The peak is observed at menopause when women are twice likely to suffer from asthma as compared to men of the same age.

Read: Having salmon when pregnant may reduce asthma risk in offspring

What make asthma so severe in women are their reproductive hormones. When it comes to women and asthma, the ability to breathe can be affected by menstrual cycle, pregnancy and eventually menopause.

Creating awareness among patients is as fundamentally significance as adherence to treatment might. It is important that women take utmost care when conceiving, informed Dr Bajaj.

Read: Salt therapy for asthma | Living without inhalers and steroids

It's harder for women with asthma to get pregnant. (Shutterstock)

Dr Randeep Guleria, Head of Department, Pulmonology and Sleep Disorder at AIIMS says, Women needs to be very careful of asthma triggers like use of biomass fuels (for cooking), passive smoking, smoking, alcohol consumption and other environmental factors along with their fluctuating hormones, during different time of month.

He added, To further compound the problem, asthma in women is a much stigmatized condition. Women with asthma are looked upon as people with lifelong compromised health. But asthmatic women can get pregnant and have a normal delivery.

Read: Pet dogs reduce risk of asthma in kids, friendship proved again?

According to Dr Guleria, inhalation therapy for asthma is recognized as the most preferred form of treatment worldwide, with developed countries like USA and UK adopting inhalers as an integral part of asthma therapy.

This therapy is so safe and easy to use for expecting mothers and women who are breastfeeding. It is important to note that asthma is not a transmitted disease. As opposed to oral therapy, inhalers are highly effective, safe and cost effective not only for women but any asthmatic patient. In India, however, due to many myths and beliefs about inhalation therapy being common, the use of oral corticosteroids is rampant, he said.

The study is published in the European Respiratory Journal.
Actor Tom Hiddleston has played down rumours over playing the next James Bond, saying no one has talked to me about it.

Hiddleston, who got acclaim for his role as an undercover agent Jonathan Pine in The Night Manager, downplayed his chances of playing the ultimate spy role of 007 during a pre-recorded appearance on Friday nights The Graham Norton Show, reports dailymail.co.uk.

Read:Tom Hiddleston is strongly hinting that hell take over as James Bond

Speaking to show host Graham Norton, Hiddleston, 35, said: The thing is the position isnt vacant as far as I am aware. No one has talked to me about it.

Tom Hiddleston in a still from The Night Manager. (BBC)

The star said that the Bond speculation had surfaced after his acclaimed portrayal of John Le Carres character in the hit BBC adaption earlier this year.

He said: I think the rumours have all come about because in The Night Manager I play a spy and people have made the link.

Follow @htshowbiz for more
A man was killed while four others were injured when a car carrying two of the victims collided with an escort vehicle in the convoy of Maharashtra minister Ram Shinde on Saturday, police said.

The incident occurred this evening near Takalabhana village in Shrirampur tehsil, when the state minister for home affairs was on his way from Kopargaon city to Nevasa, superintendent of police (SP) Saurabh Tripathi said.

Two of the victims were travelling in a car, which rammed into the ministers escort vehicle carrying police personnel, killing one of the car occupants while injuring the other, the SP said.

Three policemen were also injured in the mishap, he said, adding that the injured were admitted to a hospital in Shrirampur by the minister.

The victims are yet to be identified, police said, adding investigation is on.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have enough courage to arrest Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the AgustaWestland case, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday amid a three-way political tug-of-war over a controversial VVIP chopper deal.

The Congress cited alleged wrongdoings by some leaders of Kejriwals Aam Aadmi Party, sending the political mercury soaring on an action-packed Saturday.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had earlier said Kejriwal was trying to deflect attention at a time a debate over alleged kickbacks in the supply of 12 choppers to the Indian Air Force in the UPA regime has cornered the Congress party.

Here are the highlights of the day.

Read: Someone very powerful involved in Agusta corruption: Parrikar

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal speaks at a rally in Jantar Mantar on Saturday. (PTI)

What Kejriwal said

The Congress and the BJP have an alliance in corruption, Kejriwal said at a protest rally in Jantar Mantar.

Questioning the progress of the investigation into the chopper deal, the AAP leader alleged that there had not been an inch of movement.

Modi had said that the corrupt will be sent to jail. It has been two years and not a single person has been sent to jail, he said.

AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica, allegedly paid more than Rs 375 crore as bribe in a deal to supply the helicopters to the IAF.

The issue rocked Parliament after a Milan court convicted two Italian officials for bribing Indian officials and politicians to secure the Rs 3,727-crore contract in 2010. The deal was scrapped in 2014.

The Italian court order also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her...I want to ask Modiji why are you scared of her? Kejriwal said.

Although the Italian court did not indict any Indian politician, the BJP has sought to corner the Congress over references in the court documents to middlemen talking about Signora Gandhi - believed to be Congress president Sonia Gandhi - being the driving force behind the deal.

Defence minister Manohar Parrikar has said the wrongdoers in the case will be punished but former Union minister AK Antony, under whose watch the deal was scrapped, pointed out that it was the then UPA government that blacklisted the firm, a claim disputed by the NDA.

Raising the controversy over Modis education details, Kejriwal said the country will continue to respect the PM if he accepted that his degree was fake, but people will not tolerate fraud and forged degrees.

The Central Information Commission had on April 29 directed the universities of Delhi and Gujarat to respond to a letter from Kejriwal, which it treated as a Right to Information application on Modis educational qualifications.

While the Gujarat university has shared details of Modis MA degree saying he scored 62.3% as an external student, Delhi University has yet to respond.

Meanwhile, more than 600 AAP supporters and some party leaders were detained later in the day as they took out a protest march towards the residence of Modi.

Read: Cong back on offence, Sonia makes gains with Save Democracy march

How Congress reacted to the Agusta charges

Hitting back, the Congress asked Kejriwal to list out the names of party leaders who had been sacked in the past year over various cases of wrongdoings.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said that it will be prudent if Kejriwal first put the affairs of his own house in order.

They need to tell the people of Delhi that how many of their ministers were sacked in the past one year, what are the charges against them, why they had to leave their posts and how many of their MLA s are facing heinous criminal charges in terms of the provision of the IPC criminal procedure code, Tewari was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The BJPs plans to reach out to Dalits have made their way to the banks of River Shipra in Ujjain, where the Simhastha Kumbh is being held.

Come Wednesday, party chief Amit Shah will take a dip of harmony with Dalits and tribals in the river at the ongoing festival.

Shah will also break bread with the marginalised sections at the community feast immediately after the Samrasta Snan on May 11.

The event is in line with the BJPs larger plans to connect with Dalits with twin objectives. First, to address the sense of alienation among the community that constitutes about 17% of the countrys total population. Second, break the popular impression of the BJP being a party that provides little space to Dalits.

The RSS is working towards unification of the Hindu society. The sense of alienation among Dalits is a major obstacle in achieving this goal. The BJP and its government at the Centre are trying to remove this hurdle, a BJP leader said.

Dalits are crucial in the BJPs scheme of things as the party plans to expand its footprint across India. It crafted a successful outreach programme for OBCs (Other Backward Classes) during the Lok Sabha election, which helped it win 282 of 543 Lok Sabha seats, and the party wants to consolidate its position by keeping Scheduled Castes (SC) within the saffron fold.

SCs account for over 20% of the total population of Uttar Pradesh that will vote next year to elect a new government. The BJP is desperate to wean the SCs away from the Bahujan Samaj Party. Punjab (32%) and Himachal Pradesh (25%) are two other states with significant SC population. Punjab votes early next year while Himachal Pradesh will vote in 2017.

From attempts to appropriate the legacy of Dr BR Ambedkar to lifting the social and economic status of Dalits, the Narendra Modi regime has its eyes set on SCs. The government also notified the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Rules, 2016, on April 14 that made stronger provisions for the protection of SCs and STs from atrocities.

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Twenty people were injured in a clash between Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) workers over a piece of land near Siliguri on Saturday, police said.

The incident had started out as a fight began between brothers over the possession of land at Sitaguri village in Ambari area. The situation was contained for sometime after the intervention of police, they said.

However, by evening the situation snowballed into a clash between the two political parties in which sticks were used and 20 people were injured from both sides, they added.

Police then rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control. No complaints were lodged in connection with the incident.

The injured were rushed to a nearby health centre. Ten of them were referred to North Bengal Medical College Hospital,where four were stated to be in a critical condition.

Police said six of the injured were released after treatment at the health centre and four of them are still being treated there.
In early April, at a press meet by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu, restlessness was palpable. When will you begin crackdown on the actual illegal cash sir? asked one journalist. So far the Election Commission Flying Squads have only been catching small businessmen and vendors with legitimate cash transactions, he stated. At the time the cash seizures by the ECI amounted to Rs 25 crores. 95% of this was returned when its owners submitted legitimate documents. Rajesh Lakhoni, CEO Tamil Nadu smiled. The Central teams are coming very soon, he said, without further elaboration.

The Central teams arrived  senior officers of the Income Tax Department from all over the country, most from the Investigations wing. 32 teams of 10 officers were deployed, one team to a district.

The crackdown began in earnest. On April 22, the first big catch was netted, an amount of almost Rs 6 crores, most of it in a house belonging to one Anbunathan, alleged to have close links with a state minister. A vehicle, allegedly a government ambulance, was also caught transporting cash and confiscated by the ECI.

A truck load of chappals being seized for distribution to voters in Tirupparankundram.

On the same day, anonymous tip-offs to the ECI helped them pick up two passengers in a bus carrying over Rs 1 crore in unaccounted cash. On April 24, a house in Egmore, Chennai, was raided  close to Rs 5 crore was the haul in that dramatic search and seizure operation, featuring a desperate gambit by the resident --- throwing courier envelopes filled with cash out of the window. On April 25, following an anonymous tip-off, 245 gold coins worth Rs 3 crore were seized inside a school in Krishnagiri,.

Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly, Pollachi Jayakumars relatives house and houses that belonged to friends of ministers were raided by IT officials. Drivers of ministers were raided without warning, derailing politicians. State buses, cars, trucks, all vehicles in fact, are stopped and checked thoroughly for cash as ECI teams set up checkposts at 10 kilometre distances along highways. Ambulances were not spared either, following complaints from Opposition parties that these were being used to transport money to voters.

The haul has been rich so far  a huge Rs 65 crore seized since the imposition of the model code of conduct, with close to Rs 30 crores seized in just two weeks since the IT teams arrived. Of this total amount, Rs 25 crore has been returned to those who have produced authentic documents.

Compare this with the seizures in 2011 and 2014  Rs 35 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively, almost all of which was eventually returned to the rightful owner on production of legitimate documents.

This time round Tamil Nadu politician appears to have been caught off guard by the ECIs aggression. We have at least managed to put fear into the minds of politicians, said a senior official in the Commission who did not wish to be identified. At this rate, we cant even campaign, it appears, complained one DMK councilor in Trichy. The Election Commissions measures are too stringent. They say you cant please everyone. In Tamil Nadu, the EC cant please anyone. A team of leaders from the DMK, the same party as the disgruntled Trichy councilor, met Prime Minister Modi last week and submitted a petition to him asking for intervention into what they alleged was the ECIs failure to curb money distribution to voters. The Third Fronts Vaiko too lambasted the Commission in a statement. The money has already gone to constituencies and state machinery is helping to distribute this money, he stated.

The ECIs new bag of tricks in 2016

In early 2016, top officials of the ECI had visited Chennai to meet with representatives of all political parties in the run-up to poll preparations. There was one resounding concern from all parties  stop cash distribution to voters somehow.

Of course we too told the ECI that our biggest concern is cash distribution, said Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) spokesperson TKS Elangovan. State government machinery is being misused to transport money to all districts. Police are afraid to intervene. It is for the EC to ensure that this does not happen. It is their duty, he stated. The DMK, in Opposition for the past five years, was worried that the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) would use money and state machinery to bribe voters. DMK insiders say the party could not match the money muscle of its key rival. Smaller parties had no money to pay to voters and they clamoured for a level playing field.

ECI officials went into a huddle. There had to be a way to curb illegal cash to a larger extent at least, than was done in previous elections.

We discussed the problem at length, said the senior ECI official. The loophole was that the Flying Squads (so far in elections in the state) and the various other teams and observers consisted of state and Central police. They did not have the powers to enter into any premises and conduct searches for cash without a warrant. They could also only enter any premises if the owner or a relative was present. This was a major handicap, he explained.

The solution was a simple one  deploy Income Tax officers, IRS officials belonging to the Investigation department, who have been bestowed the power to raid any premises for hidden cash without prior notice to the owner. 32 teams of 10 such officers would scour through each district, entering homes of people who were said to be hoarding illegal cash for distribution.

The allegation of soft-pedaling on the ruling party by state government bureaucrats and state police too was sidestepped using tech.

Flying Squads headING to the venue where illegal cash was allegedly being stored.

Rajesh Lakhoni, Chief Electoral Officer for Tamil Nadu explained how the system works. A dedicated mobile number to receive complaints solely via WhatsApp, a website to lodge complaints and other complaint numbers were set up. Complaints received would go as SMSes to the relevant Flying Squad and the Income Tax teams, bypassing even the CEO or the District Collector. Flying Squads, comprising of a mix of state and Central police forces and government officials, had vehicles fitted with GPS. These squads could no longer ignore any complaints without checking.

Flying Squads would head to the venue where illegal cash was allegedly being stored. Since these Squads are not authorised to enter without a warrant, they would simply monitor the entry and exit of the building until the Income Tax team arrived. The IT team would then raid the premises.

Earlier it used to take three hours for complaints to be acted upon, since the call would go from the CEOs office to the District Collector, who would then inform the Flying Squad, said Lakhoni. From three hours, we have now brought this process down to three minutes, he smiled.

Large cash seizures in the state so far have been based on anonymous tip-offs, most likely from disgruntled party insiders, say ECI officials. There was one anonymous tip off about a lady who was carrying cash in a bus, said the senior ECI official. We had accurate details about everything, from the colour and print of the saree she wore to her seat number and licence plate of her bus, he chuckled. Close to a crore of rupees was seized on the basis of this tip-off.

The IT Department too is grinning from ear to ear. These raids have also unearthed a wealth of information on land records and other wealth owned by individuals which is likely to keep both the Department and the politicians concerned busy for months, possibly even years. One Panchayat President whose house was raided was caught with land deeds worth Rs 2.5 crores, said the senior ECI official. He had not paid any Income Tax either. Though no cash was found in his house, this man is in soup with the IT Department, he laughed.

The Beginning: 2009

It was January but Madurai was boiling. It was the heat of poll action in Thirumangalam, in southern Tamil Nadu. Voters of Thirumangalam were suddenly seeing stars. There was cash everywhere, suddenly. Many woke to newspapers which bore along with the news, cash (as much as Rs 5000) along with a small chit with the Rising Sun symbol of the DMK party, then the ruling party in the state. Outside temples, smiling DMK men would hand out crisp notes, asking for votes.

The DMK won the Thirumangalam by-election by a huge 39,000 votes, beating the rival AIADMKs freshly minted alliance. The architect of this victory was its leader M Karunanidhis elder son  MK Azhagiri. What would later come to be known as the infamous Thirumangalam Formula was this Madurai strongmans brainchild.

I dont know what you are talking about, had been Azhagiris constant refrain at the time, even as the DMK staunchly denied allegations of cash distribution.

In 2011, though, The Hindu, accessed cables in the Wikileaks stash, where an American consulate official details conversations with a close aide of Azhagiri, a man called Patturajan, who admitted to the skullduggery. It is no secret at all, Azhagiri (sic) paid Rs 5,000 rupees per voter in Thirumangalam, Patturajan is quoted to have said in the leaked cable.

First Move: 2011

EC officials must have felt dizzy when they confronted the bare-faced effrontery of the Thirumangalam Formula. SY Quraishi was at the helm then and the focus was clear  shut Azhagiris money machine down, and ensure no repeat of Thirumangalam in the 2011 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections. The crackdown began in earnest in March 2011, when the EC sent a showcause notice to Azhagiri, then Union Minister of Chemicals, on an official visit to the state. Madurai Collector U Sagayam and Superintendent of Police Asra Garg clamped down on Azhagiris men, booking cases against them for attempting to bribe voters with cash.

Central security forces like the CRPF (Central Reserved Police Force) were deployed in key districts where DMK strongmen and ministers came from. Villupuram, Trichy, Dindigul and Salem and Madurai, saw the first batch of Central security forces. Central forces replaced state police in the security detail of ministers, in order to prevent any influence from the ruling DMK.

There will be no more Thirumangalam model of elections in Tamil Nadu, crowed Quraishi on TV then. Little did he know that in future elections, all of Tamil Nadu would turn into another Thirumangalam.

Second Attempt: 2014

At streetside political meetings and in tea shops in Tamil Nadu, one hears a common observation, invariably followed by a chuckle. Thi Mu Ka kodu potta, Anna Thi Mu Ka roadu poduvaanga. In Tamil, this means that if the DMK cuts a pathway, the AIADMK will lay a highway  what the DMK does, the AIADMK does bigger.

Jayalalithaa and her AIADMK swept to power on a massive mandate in 2011. 150 out of 165 seats contested by the party (5 of these contested on the AIADMKs two-leaves symbol by an ally), along with 53 seats won by allies, ensured that not only did the alliance take the seat of power but also the role of main Opposition in the state, decimating the DMK to a mere 23 seats out of 234. The highway, began to be paved.

Following howls of protests from the DMK in various bypolls held after 2011, the ECI decided to try one more new strategy as it readied for the 2014 general elections.

Section 144 will be imposed across the state in an effort to prevent money distribution, announced then Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar, a senior Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, to a room full of stunned journalists in Chennai. Section 144 meant a prohibitory order that limited groups of more than five persons from forming. This would be enforced in the hours after campaigning came to an end. This, he explained, was a move by the ECI to ensure that no cash distribution takes place in the last few days before polling in 2014.

This backfired and how. What happened though, was door-to-door distribution of cash for votes, largely by the ruling AIADMK but also in a smaller measure by the DMK. Voters from different parts of the state were visited at home by booth in charges of either party, allegedly in a bid to canvass for votes. Every booth in charge is responsible for 100 votes in any given area, with this task split amongst them according to voting booths. Section 144, in hindsight, allowed for more organised distribution of cash, since these booth in charges traveled either alone or in twos. In effect, the entire state, street by street, had been mapped out by politicians of these two parties  into houses that were AIADMK voters, DMK voters and the fence-sitters.

The Election Commission can only be successful once, said former Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami. The first time you do something, it is a surprise and you are likely to be successful. But after that people find a way out The anonymous ECI official, agreed, In 2011, we managed to curb cash flow because politicians did not anticipate our moves. In 2014 they knew our strategy and circumvented it.

This Summer

This May the stakes are sky-high. 92-year-old Karunanidhi, leader of the DMK, is desperate to become the Chief Minister one last time. Jayalalithaa of the AIADMK is equally determined to keep her throne. A semblance of a Third Front has formed for the first time in Tamil Nadus political history and is expected to split votes, and thin margins for the big parties.

The ECI is determined to give politicians a much harder time in cash distribution for votes. But problems do remain.

512 complaints later, there have only been 50 seizures. And after the initial burst of high value cash seizures, the numbers have dwindled. Politicians, lament ECI officials, have gotten wise. Politicians have also started using uneducated and illiterate couriers for transporting cash, said the senior ECI official. We do not get any information from them about who the money belongs to, he said.

Experts feel that this is a game that simply cannot be won by the Commission, no matter how hard they try. When people and politicians are complicit in this game, how can the Commission stop it? asked Gopalaswami. The only thing that may work is if the EC decides to shock and awe. Take courage in both hands, cancel a few elections. But it is a million dollar question whether anyone will do it, he added.

In the last leg of campaigns, the ECIs 21,300 pairs of eyes will kick in for the first time, in every village of the state. Handpicked youngsters, whose identity remains known only to select ECI officials, living in villages, will inform the Commission of any attempt to bribe or manipulate voters.

We have formed village vigilance committees, with 21,300 people on our rolls, said CEO Rajesh Lakhoni. Each village has 10 people who inform the Returning Officer about any distribution of cash or gifts either by a phone call or WhatsApp, he said. These youngsters have met with ECI officials and been given a talk on what comprises ethical voting practices. Their calls and messages go to exclusive ECI numbers, so that their identity is not compromised. This is the final attempt by the ECI to ensure that they are in the loop when the actual distribution takes place on the ground. A candidate dropping a Rs 10 note into an aarthi plate will not go unnoticed by these informers in villages across the state.

Tamil Nadu will vote on May 16 with counting scheduled for May 19. In a few weeks from now, the state will breathe a collective sigh of relief when it is over.

This story has been published with per mission from GRIST Media.
The second part of the budget session in Parliament is witnessing a game of political squabbling and one-upmanship between the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress. However at the last tally, it appears that the Congress has managed to level the playing field.

Before the start of the session, the party planned to corner the BJP-led NDA government on issues such as Presidents rule in Uttarakhand, drought and farmers suicides. But an Italian courts verdict on the AgustaWestland bribery case  which named party president Sonia Gandhi among others in documents annexed to it  dealt a severe blow to the party.

The VVIP chopper deal turned the tables on the Congress, which immediately changed from offensive to defensive. Party members were left fending for the party and its leadership. Allegations and counter allegations flew thick and fast over the past fortnight.

Read | Parrikar fires Bofors to counter Cong offensive on chopper deal

The Congress, however, realised the chopper scam was overshadowing the Uttarakhand issue. The party changed strategy and organised the Save Democracy march in the national capital on Friday. The march protested the NDA governments assault on democratically-elected opposition-ruled states, universities, students and parliamentary institutions.

If the charged atmosphere at the rally-cum-march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament House was any indication, the Congress seems to have wrest the advantage from the BJP to a certain extent. The party targeted the NDA over its failures on drought and the agrarian crisis that has led to a spate of farmer suicides and affected 40 crore people in 10 states.

Read | BJP attacks save democracy march, says Cong shielding Gandhis

Congress president Sonia Gandhi led the charge with her stinging attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. Her tone and tenor appeared to galvanise party cadres who were demoralised by the 2014 Lok Sabha elections debacle.

The BJP did attempt to hog some of the attention during the march with their own dharna inside the Parliament House. But the Congress got the better of the day as Sonia, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the former prime minister Manmohan Singh were disallowed from proceeding to the Parliament House and courted arrest at the Parliament Street police station.

Read | In pics: Sonia, Manmohan, Rahul court arrest to save democracy

Read | Day of protests: Congress-BJP take AgustaWestland fight to Delhi streets

Sonia has been leading from the front as she earlier did over the land acquisition bill; last year on March 17, she led a march of opposition leaders to Rashtrapati Bhawan to protest the proposed bill, dubbed as anti-farmer and pro-corporate. This was followed by a rally at Ram Lila grounds on April 19.

The aggressive stand forced the government to withdraw the controversial ordinance and shelve the idea of bringing a new land acquisition bill.

Perhaps the party will gain new momentum now and turn things around once again.

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Defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday the Congress was morally and criminally responsible for the AgustaWestland scam, a day after telling Parliament wrongdoers in the chopper deal will be punished.

The Agusta scam too big for ex-Air chief (SP Tyagi) alone, Parrikar told NDTV.

I didnt take anybodys name but its clear someone very powerful was involved in corruption, the defence minister told news agency ANI. All angles should be investigated, all documents need proper reading.

AgustaWestland is alleged to have paid Rs 375 crore as bribe to secure a Rs 3,700-crore contract to supply 12 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force. The contract for purchase of helicopters for the use of VVIPs was signed in 2010. The previous UPA government scrapped the deal over charges of kickbacks.

I feel no one is above the law. So whether it is the last family or the first, I dont see any reason why anyone should be given a differential treatment, provided you have proper legal evidence, Parrikar told PTI.

He was replying to a query on whether the government could take on the Gandhi family, which is often referred to as the first family of Indian politics.

Read: Parrikar fires Bofors to counter Cong offensive on chopper deal

The multi-crore-rupee scam resurfaced last month after the names of some Congress leaders, including party chief Sonia Gandhi, were said to have figured in a judgment by an Italian court.

Parikkar said on Friday it was clear which direction the tainted cash was flowing in. Be it (SP) Tyagi or (lawyer Gautam) Khaitan, they are small people. Inhone to sirf bahti Ganga me hath dhone ka kaam kiya hai. Bahti Ganga kaha jaa rahi hai, ye dhoondhne ko maine Enforcement Directorate (ED) se kaha hai. (They just joined the bandwagon and I have asked the ED to find out where the real flow of money was heading), Parikkar said.

Outside Parliament, Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi took to the streets on Friday, warning the Narendra Modi regime not to take the Congress as a weak party.

Read: Cong back on offence, Sonia makes gains with Save Democracy march

After the government rejected a Congress demand for a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the chopper deal, Congress members walked out of the Lok Sabha.

Address thousands of supporters near Jantar Mantar in the heart of the capital, Sonia Gandhi accused the government of working under RSS diktat.

With agency inputs
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted searches in at least seven locations in Bikaner in Rajasthan in connection with the money laundering case arising from a land grab case involving a company allegedly linked to Robert Vadra.

ED teams examined documents allegedly related to Vadras company, which purchased lands, and also quizzed people, ED spokesperson AK Rawal said on Friday.

The probe is related to the alleged purchase of 275 bigha land by the company of Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in Kolayat area of Bikaner. The officials said the action was taken in order to gather documents and hard data from various officials and individuals involved in the case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). It is understood that the agency will soon issue summons to some firms and people involved in the case.

The central agency registered a criminal case of money laundering last year on the basis of FIRs filed by state police.

Tehseen Poonawalla, a Congress supporter considered close to Vadra, however, said:  Mr Robert Vadra does not own an inch of land in Rajasthan. In fact, the Rajasthan police under the present BJP government headed by Smt Vasundra Raje came to the conclusion that Mr Vadra himself was a victim . The investigations being carried on at present pertain to the previous tenure of Smt Raje and let me state authoritatively the raids conducted today have nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Vadra .

Read: Posters featuring Robert Vadra appear at Congs Save democracy march


Private schools in various parts of Haryana have gone on a strike against the imposition of Rule 134-A of the Haryana Education Rules, which makes it mandatory for them to reserve 10% seats for students of economically weaker section (EWS) in Classes 2 to 12.

They are demanding that the state government follow Right to Education (RTE) Act, under which they will have to reserve 25% seats only for Class 1.

Private schools in Rohtak and Jind have declared a strike for three days while those in Rewari and Sonepat have declared an indefinite strike.

Though schools in Rohtak have decided to remain shut till May 8, a member of the Private School Welfare Association said they might extend their strike. On Sunday, we will hold a meeting again to decide if we need to extend our strike, Anshul Pathania, director of Pathania Public School said.

The association argued that schools that have been running on limited seats would not be able to accommodate new students in intermediate classes. For that, they said they would prefer the RTE Act instead of rule 134-A.

The schools also demand compensation at par with the Delhi government which gives Rs 1,600 per student to the school.

However, the association maintained that they would like the government to give this money to the parents of the children in form of education coupons though which the schools will remain out of the purview of the Right to Information (RTI) Act and will not have to deal with the burden of maintaining the accounts of the funds.

Schools in Hisar to remain closed

All private schools in Hisar will remain closed on Saturday to press their demands with regard to the admission to students belonging to economic weaker section (EWS) category.

This was stated by Satyawan Kundu, state president, Private Schools Federation, while addressing a press conference here on Friday.

The Haryana government is enforcing section 134-A on the private schools. The schools are ready to give admission to the poor children but the government must also ensure Rs 2,300 voucher to each student belonging to weaker section of society so that they can get the right choice too, said Kundu.

He said if the government failed to accept their demands, they would go on an indefinite strike.He added: The BJP government is following the wrong policies of the previous Congress government. The Right to Education (RTE) Act should be implemented in Haryana properly, but Section 134-A should be abolished.
Panic gripped Punes Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) on Saturday after a parcel, allegedly containing explosives, was found on the campus. A letter with the parcel warned JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar to stop his activities.

Kumar shot to fame after his arrest on sedition charges for being part of a February 9 event in Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) marking the death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

A critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre, Kumar has held meetings in several states, including Bihar and Maharashtra, since his release on bail in March. He had planned to address FTII students in Pune last month. However, police denied him permission on security grounds.

The parcel, found by an FTII staff member late in the evening, contained some kind of a detonator and powder. A bomb disposal squad was called in immediately and police conducted an inspection of the entire premises.

Students of the Pune-based film school, who were supported by their JNU counterparts in a protest against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the premier film institutes chairman, have expressed solidarity with Kumar and accused the government of harassing and threatening those who dare to oppose its ideology.

In this file photo, JNUs Kanhaiya Kumar (centre), along with others, takes part in a march. (PTI)

FTII, situated in a busy residential area, has been in the limelight for months after students went on a protest demanding the removal of Chauhan. Agitating students have accused Chauhan, a leader of the ruling BJP, of lacking stature and vision to head the institute. According to them, Chauhan was picked because of his political leanings.

FTII Students Association expressed surprise over the parcel incident. It said students had received threats in the past but sending explosives was an indication of criminal, intolerant and insensitive attitude of people, who want to stop dissenting voice.

The parcel and the letter addressed to Kumar were reportedly sent by courier. Police have registered a case against unidentified persons in this connection.

Recently, Kumar was offloaded from a Pune-bound Jet Airlines flight at Mumbai airport after a fight with a co-passenger, whom he accused of trying to strangle him.

Read: Forget iPhone, my bank balance is Rs 200: JNUs Kanhaiya Kumar

Read: Kanhaiya, four others call off hunger strike after 9 days
Citing safety concerns, the parents of at least 38 girls have stopped sending them to a school in a village in Haryana where a student was allegedly raped last month.

Deputy commissioner of Rewari, Yash Garg, said the girls families stopped sending them to the government school in neighbouring Lala village, where a student was allegedly raped on April 18.

Parents withdrew their children, studying in classes 9 and 10, from the school. The panchayat of Suma Khera village has also demanded that the primary school should be upgraded to the senior secondary level, Garg said.

The panchayat said they were forced to send their children to the neighbouring Lala village as Suma Khera had only one primary school. It has announced an indefinite protest till the school is upgraded.

The panchayat on Friday decided to launch an indefinite dharna if the state government failed to upgrade the primary school in Suma Khera even as district authorities assured them that their children will be safe in Lala village, Garg said.

We have also arranged teachers in Suma Khera so that the girls could continue with their studies, he said.

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar told reporters he was hopeful that people of both villages will reach a settlement and offered to upgrade the primary school in Suma Khera to Class 8.

The villagers, however, have turned down the offer and stand firm on their demands, the DC said. Now state education minister Ram Bilas Sharma, along with two of his cabinet colleagues, will hold a meeting with villagers to discuss the issue, he said.

Families from Kotapuri village have also stopped sending their children to the government school in Lala village, Garg said.

Opposition INLD attacked the Manohar Lal Khattar government on Saturday over the issue, saying it boasts of Beti-Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign for the girl child but the sad reality is that girls are not feeling safe and parents are forced to withdraw them from schools.

The BJP government is not bothered about actual problems. While it speaks of Beti Bachao and teaching Gita in schools, the truth is that girls are not feeling safe and there are not enough teachers, INLD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala said.
Physically challenged people driving vehicles specially designed for them may soon be able to drive on national highways without paying toll.

The central government has decided to give toll exemption to motor vehicle specially designed and constructed, and not merely adapted, for the use of a person suffering from some physical defect or disability, and used solely by or for such a person on all national highways. Section 2(18) of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, defines such vehicles as invalid carriage.

The Union road transport and highways ministry, which is piloting the proposal, will notify the changes soon. The law ministry cleared the proposal last week.

We thought that asking for a disability certificate would further hassle the person. Instead we decided to give exemption to persons with disability driving specially designed vehicles as defined under the MV Act, said a senior road ministry official.

Certain automobile manufacturers, including Maruti, make cars with special features like hand-operated or automatic clutch and gear for the physically challenged.

Disability rights activists, however, are not impressed and term the move as cosmetic.

How many of the 26 million disabled people in India drive automated vehicles, maybe just 1%. Its mere tokenism. Giving toll exemption has nothing to do with accessibility. Has the road ministry ever engaged with us to address transportation issues of persons with disability? How many public transport buses are accessible for the disabled, how many toilets on highways are disabled friendly? said Javed Abidi, director, National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People.

Internationally, many cities give toll exemption to persons with disability.

In Florida, a handicapped person with a valid drivers licence and operating a vehicle equipped for such persons gets a toll waiver.

In UK, disabled persons are given a blue badge and get a toll exemption on showing the card.
An IndiGo flight from Hyderabad to Dubai had to be diverted to Mumbai after the pilots realized that the ground staff hadnt refueled the plane fully.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which is probing the incident, said that as against a requirement of 13 tonnes of fuel for the sector, the aircraft was carrying only 12 tonnes.

The pilots were under the impression that the aircraft had 13 tonnes of fuel. It was only after take-off they realized it was carrying 12 tonnes of fuel. They then decided to divert to Mumbai, said a DGCA official.

Fuel on board IndiGo flight 6E 026 on April 26 from Hyderabad to Dubai met the necessary DGCA requirement but was less than the company requirement. This was detected by the pilot after starting the cruise. As the aircraft was crossing Mumbai, pilot decided to divert to Mumbai for precautionary reasons. Matter is being investigated by the DGCA office along with the flight safety department of IndiGo. Passenger safety is of utmost importance to IndiGo and there is absolutely no compromise towards safety, an IndiGo spokesperson said.
A day after the screening of Vivek Agnihotris controversial film Buddha in a Traffic Jam triggered clashes at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, a section of students have called for a protest march on Saturday against planned fascist attacks in educational institutions.

Read more: Jadavpur University hub of anti-nationals, VC supporting them: BJP

Advocating Indomitable Jadavpur, the agitators have appealed to the student community from West Bengal to participate in the protest march at the varsity playground in the evening.

The students of this country are facing the fascist rage directly, and since they are trying to confront their ideas and challenging their role in education, the students everywhere in this country are being threatened, beaten up and even murdered.

Today, Jadavpur University is also facing similar planned fascist attacks on its autonomous space. So we appeal the student community of this state to join us in a rally to protest against such kind of fascist makeover of the educational institutions, said a statement from the students.

Read more: Plot thickens at Jadavpur University, clashes over movie screening

Calcutta University students have also expressed solidarity with the agitators.

The Jadavpur University authorities on Friday filed a police complaint against four outsiders - three of them ABVP activists - for allegedly molesting female students of the varsity during a commotion over an open-air screening of Agnihotris film Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

Read more: 4 ABVP, BJP workers booked for molesting Jadavpur University students

With the campus on the boil over the screening of the movie, that faced loud protests from a large section of Left-leaning students loyal to the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students Union (FETSU) and sparked clashes, vice-chancellor Suranjan Das blamed the JU Alumni Association for granting permission to the organisers to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium and then cancelling it.

The agitators claim the movie is a debatable one for its misrepresentation of the tribal resistance against neoliberal attacks and the attacks on Dalits on behalf of the state.
The Jadavpur University administration filed a police complaint on Friday against four outsiders - three of them ABVP activists - for allegedly molesting female students during a commotion over an open-air screening of Vivek Agnihotris film Buddha In A Traffic Jam.

With the campus on the boil over the screening of the movie, that faced loud protests from a large section of left-leaning students loyal to FETSU and sparked clashes, vice-chancellor Suranjan Das blamed the JU alumni association for giving permission to the organisers to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium and then cancelling it.

We have never given permission, nor cancelled it. The Triguna Sen Auditorium is owned and managed by the JU Alumni Association and we have no say in its running. We have no control over to whom and when they will rent the hall, or the money they will charge, said Das.

Read | Buddha In A Traffic Jam screening cancelled at Jadavpur University

The main culprit is the alumni association. Why did they give the hall to the Pune-based organisation in the first place, and then again cancelled it? We will talk to the alumni association, said Das.

Jadavpur University Students chasing the car of film director Vivek Agnihotri to show him black flag as they protest against screening of his new film Buddha in a Traffic Jam at University campus in Kolkata on Friday. (PTI)

The organisers, Das said, should have taken permission from the university authorities before holding the open-air screening.

If any outside organisation wants to hold a meeting on the ground, they need to take permission from the authorities. The organisation which held the screening is not even remotely connected to the university. But they never bothered to take permission, said Das.

Asked why the authorities did not stop the screening after it was started, Das said it was felt there could be trouble in such an eventuality.

Read | Vivek Agnihotri invites Kejriwal to watch Buddha In A Traffic Jam

There were two simultaneous screenings by this Pune-based organisation and the university students. When the screenings started, everything was peaceful. But later, there were some unfortunate incidents.

Das said the university authorities have received complaints from the students that some outsiders had molested the female learners. Four of them were identified and kept in our estate office. But no one was confined. They have been handed over to the police. We have filed an FIR on behalf of the university against them.

Das said he firmly believed that a university should be a place for liberal thinking and everybody should be able to express their view points.

In this case the organisers should have taken permission before holding the open-air screening, he added.
The BJP dubbed Kolkatas Jadavpur University as a hub of anti-national elements on Saturday and state governor Keshari Nath Tripathi expressed his displeasure about violent clashes between rival groups over screening of a film on campus.

The reactions came after the south Kolkata campus turned into a battleground on Friday night following clashes between JU students and supporters of ABVP over the screening of the film Buddha in a Traffic Jam.

Jadavpur University is a hub of anti-nationals. Left- backed students unions are breeding ground for anti-nationals and that is why we have seen anti-India slogans being raised by a section of JU students, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh told PTI.

Film director Vivek Agnihotri interacts with the media after his car was stopped by the students at the entrance of Jadavpur University campus for screening of his film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' in Kolkata on May 6. (PTI)

Tripathi  also the chancellor of the university  called for a report on the incident. The university that was once a centre of excellence is turning into a centre of indiscipline, he said.

This is the latest in a series of campus unrests across the country involving right-wing groups. Opposition parties have accused the BJP of trying to muzzle free speech and dissent with violence.

The left-leaning Jadavpur University hit the headlines earlier this year after rallies were taken out in support of the students at Delhis Jawaharlal Nehru University who were accused of sedition for allegedly shouting anti-national slogans.

Sources said ABVP supporters came to the campus to free four of their supporters who were kept locked in the campus by the students.

The JU students alleged these four ABVP supporters molested some women in the campus. The four ABVP supporters were also beaten up and had to be hospitalised.

Also Read | Buddha In A Traffic Jam screening cancelled at Jadavpur University

ABVP activists clash with Jadavpur University Students who stopped the car of film director Vivek Agnihotri during their agitation against screening of his film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' on May 6. (PTI)

The situation got so bad that vice-chancellor Suranjan Das rushed to the university to handle the situation and witnessed the clashes. At one point, the universitys gate had to be closed with ABVP supporters trying to break in.

 The screening of a film, cleared by the censor board, was stopped illegally. The trend of CPI(M) and Left-backed student unions of JU has been to stop anything against their ideology, which is totally against the countrys democratic set up. We condemn it, Ghosh said.

Das also applied pressure on police, saying he hoped proper action will be taken as per provisions in law. We would also like to know what happened after to the FIR that we filed after Fridays incident, Das said.

Police should remember that the complaint was lodged by the university authorities. The police are answerable. We will try to know the fate of the FIRs from the police. We expect an answer from the police. In future we would take steps to avoid such incidents, said Das.

On Friday night JU authorities lodged a complaint against four outsiders entering the university premises. A second FIR was lodged by 10 students of the university against the four outsiders on charges of molestation.

Also Read | 4 ABVP, BJP workers booked for molesting Jadavpur University students
A Jet Airways Delhi-Indore flight with 66 passengers and four crew members on board skidded off the runway while landing at the Indore airport on Saturday evening.

Jet Airways flight 9W-2793 from Delhi to Indore, has departed the paved surface after landing, Jet Airways said in a statement. All 66 guests and four crew aboard have been deplaned and taken to the terminal building, a statement issued by Jet Airways stated.

According to reports, the 72-seater ATR aircraft of Jet Airways that which landed at Indore airport at around 7.50pm, swayed in both directions, skidded off the runway and got embedded in loose soil adjacent to the runway. The right wing of the aircraft was damaged in the incident, airport sources said. The runway was wet after rains lashed the city in the evening.

The landing was delayed and plane was facing turbulence in the air as the weather was bad and it was drizzling. It landed with a thud, swayed in both directions before skidding off the runway and coming to an abrupt halt in loose soil adjacent to the runway, a passenger Pankaj Agrawal said. Sadhvi Ritambhara and some other seers were also on board, he said.

The runway was closed after the mishap and some flights were delayed while the return 9W 2794 Indore-Delhi flight of Jet was likely to be cancelled, airport sources said.

When contacted, airport director Manoj Chansoria said he was busy in getting the aircraft removed and will be able to give a statement later.

The flight 9W-2973, which had a scheduled departure time of 6pm for Delhi, returns from Indore to Delhi as flight 9W-2974.

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Jawaharlal Nehru University student Umar Khalid, facing sedition charge for allegedly raising anti-India slogans at the university campus in February, was granted permission by a Delhi court on Saturday to travel to Kolkata to attend a panel discussion.

Additional sessions judge Reetesh Singh allowed Khalid to travel to the city from May 20 to 23 to attend panel discussion organised by Bastar Solidarity Network (Kolkata Chapter).

As per the application, the discussion will be held on May 21 in Muktangan Hall, Kolkata.

Khalid, along with another varsity student Anirban Bhattacharya, was granted interim bail for six months by the court on March 18 on the ground of parity with co-accused and JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar in the case.

In its bail order, the court had directed Umar and Anirban not to leave Delhi without its permission during the period of interim bail and to make themselves available before the investigating officer as and when required for the purpose of the probe.

Umar and Anirban had surrendered to the police on the intervening night of February 23-24 after which they were arrested.

Earlier, Kanhaiya was granted six-month interim bail by the high court on March 2.

Police had arrested Umar and Anirban over a controversial event at JNU on February 9. The duo had returned to the JNU campus on February 21 after going missing since February 12.

Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on February 20 against Umar, Anirban and three other students -- Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash.
JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Friday ended his nine-day hunger strike after he was discharged from AIIMS even as the university administration asked students not to invite outsiders saying it might vitiate the academic atmosphere and peace on campus.

While five students withdrew their fast against the punishment by the university in connection with the February 9 event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, 15 others continued with the hunger strike.

Kanhaiya, who is out on bail after his arrest in a sedition case, was on Friday admitted to AIIMS in a semi- conscious state.

He was discharged after treatment for mild dehydration and ketosis.

Kanhaiya has been discharged from AIIMS. He has been advised bed rest for few days. He has to undergo some medical tests too, so keeping his health condition in mind he has withdrawn from the fast but will continue with the agitation, a JNUSU statement said.

The ketone level of the fasting students is high and the BP is low, according to the test reports from the health centre.

On the other hand, JNU issued fresh advisory for the students and teachers to avoid inviting outsiders to the campus.

The administration also asked the students to refrain from using direct or indirect coercive measures and come forward for dialogue and discussion.

The administration requests all the teachers and students to avoid inviting people from outside the campus for any gathering or activity to press their demands, which could undermine peace and security in the campus, JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar said in an appeal.

Thousands of students on the campus are busy preparing for or writing their end semester examinations and also writing their dissertations. Continuing hunger strikes and escalation of it through involvement of outsiders may further enhance the stress level in the campus and affect the career of those students, he added.

While members from civil society joined the protests today, alumni of the university will gather tomorrow to express solidarity by fasting for a day.

In a separate notice, the Registrar asked the students not to use the public address system without permission and around the administration block, which has been the venue of protest ever since the sedition row broke out.

Twenty-five students had gone on hunger strike last week. While five members of ABVP called off their fast on Wednesday claiming they have an assurance from the JNU administration that their demands will be considered, five members of the Left-affiliated groups withdrew from the stir yesterday citing deteriorating health.

JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar had earlier this week appealed to students to put forward their demands using constitutional means and asked them to come for a dialogue to resolve the matter.
Three militants were killed by the Indian Army after a gun battle in Pulwamas Awantipora in Kashmir on Saturday morning.

The army identified the men as locals part of the militant Hizbullah Mujahideen group  Ashfaq ah Dar from Dogirpura, Ishfaq Ah Baba of Tahab and Haseeb Ah Pahla from Brao Bandyun.

Three militants have been killed and three weapons recovered, said a Srinagar-based army spokesperson.

The operation ended around 6 am, Brigadier K Venugopal told ANI. He further said no civilians and soldiers were injured in the encounter.

Visuals from the Pulwama encounter in J&K, where search ops are on. pic.twitter.com/TSjRThnlZq  ANI (@ANI_news) May 7, 2016

The operation ended around 6 AM. 3 weapons, and ammunition were recovered: Brigadier KVenugopal on Pulwama encounter pic.twitter.com/0JMFjvXBsJ  ANI (@ANI_news) May 7, 2016

The militants belonged to south Kashmir where there has been a sudden spurt in locals taking to militancy in the past two years.

Burhan Wani a wanted man and top commander of the Hizbullah Mujahideen, became the face of new age militancy in the valley. Wani carries a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

Read | Burhan Wani: The new face of Kashmiri militancy in virtual world

(With inputs from agencies)

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The Jammu and Kashmir police on Friday caught the owner of a private travel company who gave the law a slip after conning crores of rupees out of hundreds of people in the Kashmir Valley.

Fabiyan Wahid Gilkar was arrested in Delhi and brought to Srinagar for his company, Al-Hajeej Tour and Travel Company, cheating people planning their Haj in 2011.

Police received information that the accused, Fabiyan Wahid Gilkar, was trying to flee to Dubai. Acting on this information, a party from the Khanyar police station was deputed to Delhi to arrest the accused, a police spokesman said.

Al-Hajeej had collected money from customers for organising Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, but did not provide any travel documents. The company managed to collect a staggering Rs 10 crore.

This was the first time such a scam was pulled off in the Valley and it created a huge uproar given the significance of the pilgrimage. People had not only been cheated but were unable to fulfill the religious obligation which sometimes takes years to plan.

Gilkar was initially arrested in Rajasthan in December 2011 but was granted interim bail, provided he deposited Rs 2 crore in the Sessions Courts account and made the promised arrangements for Haj in 2012. Gilkar, however, disappeared without fulfilling the terms.

Two FIRs were registered in the Khanyar police station in Gilkars name, his company and some others for cheating.

Nine more cases were registered in different police stations of Srinagar against this company on the same allegations. The challan of these cases were produced before the court of law, the spokesman said.

Warrants were issued in the names of the accused after they didnt answer court summons. A look out notice was also issued.

In April 2013, Jammu and Kashmir consumer protection commission ordered the auction of Al-Hajeejs immovable property.

Around 300 people were reimbursed for about 50-75% of their money. One of them, Nisar Ahmad Dar said, I, along with some others, received 74 percent of my money through court after owners property was auctioned. There are around 200 aspirants who have not received a single penny yet.

The commission asked the Srinagar revenue department to also confiscate Gilkars property to repay those cheated. The property included a commercial building in a plush green area near Dal Lake, and some land.

Gilkar was produced before the principal sessions judge on Saturday who will decide the further course of action.
Eight people, including two policemen, were injured and nine houses were burnt down in mob violence on Saturday in Imphal West district where curfew was clamped subsequently.

Manipur DGP control room sources said violence broke out at Mayang Imphal Bengoon in Wagoi sub-division during a bandh called in the area against the killing of two youths for allegedly trying to steal a motorcycle during a Holi programme on April 7 last.

Bandh supporters forced two people out of their vehicles and tried to set it on fire during the day. The locals stopped it and clash between the bandh supporters and those opposed to it followed.

Police rushed in but was attacked by the bandh supporters,who opened fire, injuring two policemen.

To control the situation, police resorted to bursting tear gas shells and smoke bombs and six others were injured as the mob ran.

The sources said the situation was under control and the injured were rushed to hospital where their condition was stated to be critical.

Nine houses - seven belong to the bandh supporters and two to those who opposed it - were burnt down in the clash.

Curfew has been clamped in the sub-division after the clash and will remain in force until further orders, a statement by Imphal West district magistrate N Jeofery said.
National Conference on Friday said only the Jammu and Kashmir governor being invited to attend the high-level meeting chaired by Union home minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi to discuss various issues pertaining to the state, amounted to bypassing of the elected chief minister.

Instead of the elected chief minister, New Delhi invited the states governor for the high-level meeting to discuss various key issues pertaining to it.

This is yet another sign of how Mehbooba Mufti has bartered the constitutional mandate and sanctity of the chief ministers office to remain in her chair. This brazen disempowerment of the chief minister is an alarming development, NC chief spokesperson Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi alleged.

The fact that the central government has sidelined the elected chief minister in dealing with vital issues of the state and the subsequent conspicuous silence of the chief minister does not auger well for the state, he said here.

The Union home minister chaired the meeting to discuss various key issues pertaining to the state including the issues of rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandit migrants, return of civilian land by the army, the security situation in the state post the Handwara and Kupwara tragedy and the situation along the Line of Control.

While the meeting was attended among others by defence minister Manohar Parikar and national security advisor Ajit Doval, the state was represented by governor N N Vohra and not the chief minister, he said.

The NC chief spokesperson alleged Mehbooba had now been officially relegated to the status of an ad hoc chief minister who had been placed in the chief ministers office by the BJP for specific and limited purposes of furthering BJPs agenda in the State.

If the chief minister has no say in these issues that pertain to the state, one wonders why she has been placed in the chief ministers chair in the first place.

It is evident that the state is being run from New Delhi and the state government has been divested of all its rights and roles, he alleged.

Even law and order, which is a state subject in exclusivity, is now being supervised directly by New Delhi as was proven in the NIT issue and more recently the Handwara incident, he said.

Mehdi said the chief ministers omission from these meetings indicates a continued erosion of the states democratic institutions under the PDP-BJP Alliance and these developments have created widespread disillusionment and resentment in the state.
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly gangraped by two youngsters at Bhanera Jat village in Shamli district, police said on Saturday.

The incident occurred on Friday when the girl went to collect water from a hand-pump outside her house. The accused abducted her, took her to nearby fields and raped her, the police said.

One of the accused has been identified as Pervaiz, they said.

The victim was later found unconscious in the fields by her family members, they added.

A case has been registered against Pervaiz and his unidentified accomplice, police said, adding both were absconding.
The Haryana state vigilance bureau (SVB) has registered an FIR against former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for his alleged involvement in the National Herald case, furthering cornering his party, the Congress.

Hooda, who as CM was the ex-officio chairman of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), has been accused of allegedly illegally transferring land to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL)  which published the National Herald newspaper  at Panchkula in 2005. He has been charged with cheating and breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and also criminal misconduct under Prevention of Corruption Act.

The FIR registered at the SVB police station, Panchkula, on Thursday had no names, but SVB director general Parminder Rai told HT it mentioned the then HUDA chairman, the chief administrator, the administrator (headquarters), the then Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning, besides AJL office bearers and others. Names of the accused will be known as we proceed with the investigation, Rai added.

Hooda could not be contacted for comment. Haryana Congress president Ashok Tanwar called the case politically motivated. We believe the then government followed all the norms and procedures and there was no irregularity in allotment of the plot. We hope truth comes clear out of this artificial controversy being created by the BJP government, he said.

The National Herald case has already seen Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and deputy, Rahul Gandhi, facing prosecution after BJP leader Subramanian Swamy moved court in 2012.

Swamy alleged the Gandhis and other Congress leaders were among the directors of Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YIL), which acquired AJL after the newspaper ceased operations and also its assets worth crores of rupees. Swamy had accused the Gandhis of cheating and breach of trust. It was also learn that the Congress party had given a loan to AJL, which also had Congressmen as directors, to revive it.

In Haryana, however, when Hooda was CM, the AJL was reallotted a plot (no C-17), measuring 3,360 square meters, in the prime Sector 6 of Panchkula on June 29, 2005. The SVB has named key HUDA officials in the FIR despite their opposing the allotment and Hoodas overruling their advice.

The SVB registered the case on a reference from the state government. It came just days after leader of opposition and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Chautala wrote to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on May 2, seeking a criminal case against Hooda and others in re-allotment of the plot in violation of rules.

The HUDA-AJL plot case is the second instance in a fortnight when the Khattar government has acted on a letter written by the INLD leader. Earlier, Abhay had sent a letter on April 21, last, demanding withdrawal of Cabinet minister rank and all the facilities being provided consequently to former chief ministers at state headquarter. The state Cabinet had withdrawn the same merely a week after the INLD leaders letter.

This is the second case registered by the SVB against Hooda and HUDA officials. The first pertained to 14 industrial plots case in Panchkula, in which it was alleged that these plots were given to a chosen few at throw-away prices. The government had made a reference to CBI to probe the industrial allotments.
Farm minister Radha Mohan Singh is an old hat in politics, but PM Narendra Modis communication-oriented strategy has thrust him into the uncharted waters of social-media governance. Singhs Facebook and Twitter accounts  which he monitors daily  are noisy platforms for griping rural folks.

The minister has realised what angsty rural Indians  no strangers to 140 characters  want: instant answers.

Last month, farmer Surya Pratap from UPs Sonebhadra (@suryapratap_13) shot a query: Unable to get my cattle insured. Kindly help. The farm minister replied: Pls contact veterinary officer Dr AK Shrivastav (8415820740). While replying, most ministers, including Singh, tag the bureaucrats concerned, who then cant ignore the complaints.

On April 10, Ankit Agarwal sent out a tweet to railway minister Suresh Prabhu, seeking emergency help: 8 year old girl need urgent medical attention at bilaspur ry station pnr 8646787200 train no 12809. Prabhu tagged the relevant functionaries in his reply, which got officials scurrying to locate the sick girl.

A now-common rural device  the internet-enabled cheap smartphone  has helped social media replace old complaint boxes in offices, which were virtually one-way traffic: they would seldom elicit responses.

Rural India will have an estimated 147 million active internet users by June 2016 on the back of a fast-expanding rural mobile-phone market, according to government data. Lets show you how we are working on social media, Singh says, showing complaints from far and wide.

Modis ministers are constantly talking to people.

From Indians stranded abroad to medical emergencies on board trains, the minister in charge is just a screen-tap away, helping bridge a notorious gap between government and citizens. People can now sidestep a culture of local patronage-driven coteries and intermediaries.

The tweets and posts from ministers are instantly amplified by the BJPs online volunteers, believed to be in the thousands, who have often faced flak for their intolerance towards detractors. Well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai this month quit Twitter due to trolls.

The governments social-media outreach is imbued with a sense of the BJPs trademark nationalism and nation-building zeal.

I retweet all ministers tweets. Be honest, have you ever seen such active ministers before? @Anoopramji, a volunteer, wrote to this correspondent during a Twitter interview.

The previous Manmohan Singh-led government had formalised an official social-media policy with the IT ministrys Framework & Guidelines for Use of Social Media for Government Organisations in 2006. Modi has made it central to his governance.

Foreign minister Sushma Swarajs ministry runs the handle @MEAquery for distressed Indians abroad. On May 4, K Karuna (@karunamech14) posted an SOS: i have been struck (sic) in saudi arabia last 3years 5 months i want to come back to india pls help me. Swarajs ministry swung into online action, tagging Indias consul general in Jeddah.

Read: Students tweet to railways for food on delayed train, get delivery

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home World Christian woman in Uganda says she was raped and beaten for testifying against an imam

A Christian woman is in serious condition after being raped and badly beaten by Muslims in Eastern Uganda as an act of retribution following their imam's imprisonment for her testimony that the mosque leader killed her father.

The 22-year-old woman, whose name remains hidden, was found unconsciously lying in a pool of blood and with cuts on her body. She said three Muslims raped and beat her up on the evening of April 19 at her home in Kanginima village, Pallisa District. This was after she boldly identified and testified in court that Sheikh Musana Ibrahim, the imam of a mosque in Kanyumu village, Pallisa District, was the one who killed her father, Samson Makuma, on Jan. 28.

Two other Muslims were accomplices to the killing of her father but since she was not able to identify them in court, they were released and now only the imam is held in prison. "I was able to identify the sheikh because we are neighbors, and my father had been questioning him about the Islamic faith not leading one to salvation with God," she told Morning Star News. "The sheikh had said to him, 'You have no respect of our religion, and we have come for your life today.' They started strangling my father as well as hitting him on the head with a big stick. When my father fell down, I managed to escape through the window."

Autopsy reports indicate that Makuma's death was due to homicide. The imam is currently held in Kamuge cell until the court decision is released. Pallisa Police Officer Otwai Francis is in charge of the case.

The woman recalled the words said to her by one of the men who assaulted her, "We shall kill you today because you are the one who made our sheikh to be imprisoned." She is still being treated for what happened to her and requires medication for the next three months. Having no one to care for her a she is an only child and her mother has passed away five years ago a the young woman has since been taken in and cared for by an elder in an undisclosed church.
The Nepal governments sudden decision to cancel President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris visit to India and recall its ambassador from New Delhi on Friday is likely to impact bilateral ties.

The move came just a day after Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis government was nearly toppled by coalition partner Maoists with support from the Nepali Congress, the main opposition.

Naturally, cancellation of Bhandaris visit at the 11th hour amid insinuations in Kathmandu that New Delhi could have been responsible for the move to oust Oli, will result in ties getting affected, Lok Raj Baral, a former Nepali ambassador to India, said.

Bhandaris five-day visit was on an invitation by President Pranab Mukherjee. She was scheduled to hold high-level discussions, sign three agreements and also visit the Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, beginning on Monday.

Read | Nepal Press India visit cancelled amid political twists and turns

Nepals foreign ministry told Indian ambassador to Nepal, Ranjit Rae, the visit was cancelled due to a lack of preparations on their side, and also because the countrys budget session is underway.

Since the move to remove him came after recent visits to New Delhi by Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and Maoist leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara, Oli may have concluded India is responsible, Baral said.

Nepals ambassador to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, was appointed by Olis predecessor Sushil Koirala. The Nepali Congress leader was ordered back when he called the prime minister to express displeasure over Bhandaris visit being cancelled.

Read | Nepal cancels presidents visit to India, recalls ambassador

Foreign ministry officials, on the condition of anonymity, told journalists that the ambassador was recalled for non-cooperation and alleged involvement in Olis ouster.

Senior journalist Kunda Dixit, publisher and editor of Nepali Times, feels the governments moves shows Olis brinkmanship in handling relations with their southern neighbour.

After what we went through during the five-month long border blockade, it was logical to de-escalate tensions between both nations, but the governments decisions have made it worse, Dixit said.

Apart from trying to snub India, rivalry and distrust between Nepali Congress and Olis Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) also played a role in the developments, some experts said.

Nepal-India ties had soared to new heights in 2014 following two visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But they nosedived last year during the five-month long border blockade imposed by Madhesis in protest against the new constitution. The blockade resulted in severe scarcity of goods especially fuel from September last year to February, leading to deep resentment in the government.

Though Oli and several ministers accused India of imposing the blockade to support the Madhesis, New Delhi denied playing any role in the matter.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to discuss and review the drought and water scarcity in the state.

Had a productive meeting with UP CM on the drought situation in various parts of the state, Modi tweeted after the meeting.

The various drought mitigation measures undertaken in the state were discussed extensively in the meeting.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

CM @yadavakhilesh & I discussed the need to effectively utilise the period before monsoon for water recharge and conservation efforts.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

Usage of latest technology & community participation, particularly of our Nari Shakti can play a key role in effective drought management.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

Yadav asked the centre to send tankers in large numbers to the parched Bundelkhand region for supply of water from dams and canals there.

Water is available in Bundelkhand, dam is hardly 5kms away. We just have to make arrangements for distribution of water, Yadav was quoted as saying by ANI post the meeting.

We apprised PM of situation, put forth our concerns regarding drought and also crop damage due to hailstorm: UP CM pic.twitter.com/sD85k3oytE  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 7, 2016

Yadav said the train sent to Jhansi in Bundelkhand region had no water in the wagons.

The Bundelkhand region has many dams and canals where there is enough water. The requirement is to supply water from them, he said, adding the state government is working in that direction.

Recently, Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha had directed all the Ministries dealing with the drought situation to release additional funds to the states as soon as the Finance Bill gets approved. He said it was necessary as the onset of monsoon is approaching soon.

He called for coordinated and integrated action plan by the Centre as well as the state governments.

The Centre asked states to take measures for optimally utilising and storing rainwater and also taking measures for water conservation.

Several states have raised issues like construction of farm ponds, community ponds, check dams and demanded early release of funds to take up the water harvesting measures on a priority basis.
Congress president Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra made an entry on posters flaunted in the partys Save Democracy March in New Delhi on Friday. The posters were reportedly put up by Jagdeesh Sharma, a Gandhi family loyalist, in the vicinity of Jantar Mantar, the venue of the march.

This was the first time the 47-year-old businessman appeared on the partys posters which also featured pictures of Congresss top leadership -- Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.

Ironically, Vadra, who had described India as a banana republic at the peak of Anna Hazares agitation in 2012, appeared on these posters with the slogan of Save Democracy.

Vadra had courted controversies in the past for his allegedly dubious land deals in Haryana which are now being probed by the Justice SN Dhingra Commission.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party described the Congresss march as Save Dynasty March.

Its an irony that the Congress Party is calling this as a democracy march. The posters reflect Gandhi familys dominance over the party. They are a complement for them. If anyone looks around the march then one would find hoardings and posters of a single family, Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The Delhi Police on Saturday filed the status report in a court on a criminal complaint seeking lodging of a FIR against AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi for alleged offences of sedition and causing enmity between different groups.

In the report filed before chief metropolitan magistrate, Munish Markan, an official of Karawal Nagar police station said the complainant has not provided a recorded copy of Owaisis alleged objectionable statement.

The report filed by sub inspector Manoj Kumar said the complainant Brijesh Chand Shukla, Swaraj Janata Partys national president, has not brought any person who had heard the alleged remarks made by Owaisi.

The court fixed August 4 for further proceedings in the matter.

The complainant said he would take his witnesses and a CD of the recording to the police station.

The court had earlier directed police to file the report detailing the action taken on the plea.

The complaint alleged that on March 13, Owaisi had voluntarily said that even if anyone points a knife at me, I will not say Bharat Mata ki jai and his expression showed disaffection and includes disloyalty and all feeling of enmity.

The complainants counsel had said the matter comes under the definition of section 124A (sedition) of IPC as the statement made by Owaisi showed his disloyalty and disaffection towards the nation.

The complaint sought a direction to lodge an FIR against Owaisi for the alleged offences under sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc) of IPC.

The plea alleged that the act of Hyderabad MP showed he was not loyal to India and was trying to harm the countrys reputation.

...It is correct that our Constitution does not permit to say Bharat Mata Ki Jai but the Constitution also does not allow to say koi meri gardan par churi rakh de tab bhi mai Bharat Mata ki jai nahi bolunga (even if anyone puts a knife to my neck, I will not say Bharat Mata ki jai), it alleged.

The complainant said he had filed the complaint in this regard with the Delhi Police but no action was taken and thereafter, he approached the court.
Last year, when the President gave his assent to the long-pending bill banning the slaughter of bulls and bullocks and consumption of their meat in Maharashtra, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had tweeted triumphantly, Our dream of ban on cow slaughter becomes reality now.

That triumph on Friday turned into embarrassment for the BJP as the Bombay high court struck down two key provisions of the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976 and thus decriminalised the storage and consumption of beef from outside the state.

The order has left the BJP embarrassed as it had sought to make the beef ban a political issue, with its government in Haryana also adopting a similar law. A BJP leader in Maharashtra said, With this provision being struck down, the perception battle has been lost.

Read more: Bombay HC upholds slaughter ban, but says eating beef no crime

While opposition parties were quick to criticise the government, it was the Shiv Senas reaction that was most intriguing. We have always been in favour of a ban on cow slaughter but the slaughter of bulls and bullocks is a deeply economic issue which should have been studied better. This (the ruling) will mean traders from outside the state will benefit since they can export meat to Maharashtra, but traders in Maharashtra will be hurt, said Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande.

He added, Now, beef cant be produced here but it can be consumed, which is contradictory. In times of drought, when farmers were reeling anyway, a ban on slaughter (of bulls and bullocks) hurts them immensely and burdens him with the cattles upkeep.

The Congress, though cautious in its reaction, called the order a setback for the BJPs divisive agenda. State spokesperson Sachin Sawant said, The way the act was executed made it clear that it was intended to only give the BJP political benefits and advance their divisive agenda. Anti-social mischief-makers wont be able to do a repeat of Dadri-like incidents.

The NCPs Nawab Malik said, Right-wing activists who were harassing people in the name of the ban wont be able to do that now.

The BJP, however, put up a brave front. Madhav Bhandari, the partys chief spokesperson for Maharashtra, said, The biggest victory for us is that the court upheld the legislation and termed it constitutional. That is the real victory for the government. We will go to the Supreme court to appeal against the striking down of two provisions, he said.
At least 25 people were injured in a blast in the air-conditions compressor pipe at the emergency ward of Sir Sunder Lal (SSL) Hospital at Banaras Hindu University (BHU) on Saturday.

Such was the impact of the blast that the false ceiling came down and window panes broke, causing injury to the patients and hospital staff present in the ward. A nursing staff member, a doctor and two ward boys were among those injured.

Some of the patients, who were admitted to the ward, sustained serious injuries in the blast. Twelve patients were shifted to new emergency ward created in a building on the SSL premises, soon after the incident and 15 others were taken to the trauma centre. Of them, two have been kept in the intensive care unit and one at the same unit at the SSL hospital.

According to eyewitnesses, ACs compressor went off near nursing counter of the ward at 12.45 pm, causing massive damage. The blast followed a suffocating gas that caused trouble to the patients.

Eyewitness Rajesh Singh, a patient who was admitted to the ward, said, All of sudden, I heard a deafening sound and then saw a false ceilings slab falling. Subsequently, I heard crackling sound of widow glasses and pieces of tiny glasses in air. A few hit my ankle. Later, smoke was all around in the ward, causing trouble in breathing.

Ashwini Singh, another eyewitness, suffered injury near his chest after a piece of slab hit him. After the incident, SSL hospital superintendent Dr OP Upadhyay was first to reach the spot. He immediately informed senior officials about the incident and the patients were evacuated.

Among those who suffered serious injuries include security guard Ramashray Prasad, staff nurse Seema Singh, ward boy Sandeep, and sister Sushma Reeta Lal of the hospital.

Fifteen patients, who were admitted to the emergency ward, were also injured. They were rushed to the trauma centre. Of them, one Parameshwari Devi has been kept in ICU at the trauma centre.

Although there was no fire, fire tenders were called. The national disaster response force (NDRF) team also reached there. Forensic experts rushed to the site and collected samples. Anti-terrorist squad (ATS) cops also carried out inspection at the place. A police team from Lanka police station also rushed to the place after getting information and started a probe into the incident.

Medical superintendent OP Upadhyay told Hindustan Times that operations at the emergency ward would resume after repair work was completed there.

The emergency services have been temporarily shifted to another facility at the hospital, he said. Upadhyay further said the incident was being investigated from all angles. Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma also visited the hospital to inquire about the condition of patients.

With inputs from agencies

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The CBI questioned three cousin brothers of former IAF chief SP Tyagi for the second consecutive day on Saturday along with a city-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan in connection with the alleged payoffs in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal.

The three Tyagi brothers -- Sanjeev, Rajiv and Sandeep -- were questioned for over eight hours at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters in Delhi. Khaitan was questioned for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday.

The CBI sources said the agency has asked SP Tyagi, who was questioned from last Monday to Wednesday, to come to the agencys headquarters again on Monday for further questioning. He was also questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday.

The CBI has also called Pratap Kumar Aggarwal, the chairman of IDS Infotech Ltd (India), and Praveen Bakshi, chief executive officer of Aeromatrix Info Solution Pvt Ltd, on Monday to quiz them in the Agusta case.

Firms Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, IDS Infotech Ltd (India) and Aeromatrix India are the accused companies booked by the CBI in the First Information Report (FIR) lodged in March 2013 in connection with the AgustaWestland case.

SP Tyagi and 13 others, including his cousins and European middlemen, have also been named in the FIR.

The former IAF chief has been accused in Italy and India of helping AgustaWestland win the chopper contract by reducing the flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres (15,000 feet). The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned SP Tyagi on Thursday in the case.

Tyagi has denied the allegations against him and said the decision was reportedly taken in consultation with officials of the Special Protection Group (SPG) and the Prime Ministers Office. Twelve helicopters were to be bought by India.

Khaitan, who is alleged to have formed shell companies to route the bribe money to India, told CBI that he had taken payments from Augusta middlemen Guido Ralph Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. He has also been a former board member of Aeromatrix.

He was also instrumental in setting up IDS Infotech (Tunisia) -- a subsidiary company of IDS Infotech (India), one of the accused companies.

The source said they have information that lots of money was transferred to the account of IDS Infotech Tunisia from some bank accounts in Italy. This was later sent to other countries.

Sources said Khaitan did not give clear input about the purpose for which he had received the payments.

The chopper deal resurfaced after an Italian court last month purportedly referred to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh among others in connection with the chopper deal but gave no details of any wrongdoing by the two leaders.

The CBI has told the court that the Tyagi brothers were associated with Haschke and Gerosa for a long time after they entered into a consultancy with a Tunisia-based company of the two middlemen in 2004.

In January 2013, India cancelled the chopper deal and the CBI was told to investigate the bribery allegations.
Twenty villagers from Adilabad district in Telengana were booked on Friday after they tried to hush up the alleged gangrape of a 16-year-old girl in the village.

The minor girl alleged she was impregnated after five people repeatedly raped her over the past 16 months. The 20 villagers reportedly sought to settle the issue by holding a panchayat where the accused offered Rs 2.5 lakh to hush up the case.

The victim lodged a complaint with Madamarri police station on Thursday, alleging that five persons, who are her neighbours, threatened her and raped her separately since January 2015, police inspector P Sadaiah said.

The girl said she approached the villagers of Pallemguda of Kasipet mandal of Adilabad, who held a panchayat over the issue, even as one of the accused came forward to marry her. Also, she was offered Rs 2.5 lakh (Rs 50,000 each) by the five accused to settle the matter, though she and her family members lodged a police complaint, deputy superintendent of Police (Bellampalli Sub-Division) Ramana Reddy said.

The villagers, who held the Panchayat should have actually informed the police about the matter (of rape). However, it did not happen. Hence, a case under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of IPC has been registered against the 20 villagers, who organised the panchayat, the DSP said.

The minor girl has been sent for medical examination, and the report would confirm whether she is pregnant or not, the inspector said. The five persons were booked on charge of rape and criminal intimidation under relevant sections of IPC besides under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the Inspector said. He, however, refused to divulge if the five accused were detained or are being questioned saying the matter is under investigation.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday accused the BJP and Congress of an alliance in corruption and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not have enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi in the AgustaWestland scam.

Addressing a protest rally at Jantar Mantar on Saturday, Kejriwal also questioned the Congresss silence over the issue of Modis alleged fake degrees.

This is the second time in as many days that the Delhi CM targeted the Modi government and the Congress over the chopper deal scam and the alleged fake degrees of Modi.

The two parties had a setting that the BJP government will not arrest Gandhi in the chopper scam and the Congress will not raise the matter of Modis educational qualification, Kejriwal said.

Read more: Parrikar fires Bofors to counter Cong offensive on chopper deal

AAP workers protesting at Jantar Mantar.

.@DrKumarVishwas speaking from the stage at Jantar Mantar. How long can Modi ji protect Sonia ji?#SoniaKeMaunModi pic.twitter.com/sxJkDTtLt2  Aam Aadmi Party- AAP (@AamAadmiParty) May 7, 2016

The Italian court order also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her...I want to ask Modiji why are you scared of her? Kejriwal said.

Kejriwal said the Modi government has failed to act against Congress Presidents son-in-law, Robert Vadra, for alleged irregularities in the land deal despite being in power for two years, and ruling the states of Haryana and Rajasthan. Kejriwal said while the CBI raided his office, it could not even interrogate Vadra.

Read | Cong walks out of LS after govt says UPA did everything to help Agusta

Kejriwal claimed that the details of Modis degrees were given to the AAP by Congress leaders from Gujarat, who were not permitted to raise the issue earlier by the Gandhi family.

Kejriwal said the country will continue to respect him if the Prime Minister accepted that his degree was fake, but people will not tolerate fraud and forged degrees.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal with Aam Admi Party leaders Ashutosh (L), Sanjay Singh (third from left) and Kumar Vishwas (R) during a protest rally against Modi government at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on May 7. (Ravi Choudhary/ Hindustan Times)

The Delhi CM said his party MLAs were arrested over trivial issues and demanded that Modi should also be treated like former Delhi law minister Jitendra Singh Tomar, who was arrested in an alleged fake degree row.

He said in his affidavit that he did BA from DU and MA from Gujarat. I am not saying you need to be educated to be PM, people without degrees can also be talented....If he is 12th pass, we have no issues...if he says that the country would still respect him...but if he does cheating and fraud, forged degrees, country will not tolerate, he said.
Senior Congress leader AK Antony, whose all three terms as Kerala chief minister in the past were cut short, said on Saturday he will not commit the historical blunder of becoming the CM of the state again.

I will not commit the historical blunder again...That era is over. Even in my dreams, I am not harbouring plans to return to Kerala politics, he told reporters.

The former defence minister was replying to a question whether he was keen to return to state politics and take over as chief minister if the United Democratic Front (UDF) returns to power in the coming assembly elections.

Twelve years ago, I was chief minister. Each person has a time. It is best to stop singing when your voice is good, he said referring to a Malayalam proverb.

A three-time chief minister, Antonys terms were cut short on all occasions.

He became the youngest chief minister at the age of 37 from April 1977 to October 1978. In his second term, he held the office from 1995 to 1996.

Antony, who had taken over reins of the state when the Congress-led UDF was voted to power in 2001, had to quit three years later after the front suffered a total rout in the then Lok Sabha elections and was succeeded by Oommen Chandy.

On Prime Minister Narendra Modis claim that he saw the BJP emerging as a third force in the state, Antony said it was only his wishful thinking.

He also attacked the BJP-led NDA government and said nothing had been done for the state in the last two years.

Only Congress can defeat anti-people policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre, he added.
Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Delhi Daredevils (DD) present a contrasting picture. Last season, both the teams were placed at the bottom of the table but in 2016, DD under the captaincy of Zaheer Khan, have given a much better on-field performance and are placed third. On the other hand, for Punjab it is looking like yet another season of discontent.

DD will be itching to get back to winning ways but against Punjab they have a problem of unpredictability. KXIP gave a thoroughly professional performance against Pune and Gujarat, their only two wins this season. However, each of the wins was followed by a string of losses.

Against Kolkata the other night, Punjab had a glimmer of hope. Having managed to restrict KKR to a modest 164, Punjab lost quick wickets early on and despite Glenn Maxwells fighting half-century, the team lost by seven runs.

Punjabs first win against Pune was preceded by two losses to Gujarat Lions and Delhi, which was followed by three successive defeats at the hands of KKR, SRH and Mumbai Indians. Punjab then managed to defeat Gujarat in Rajkot, having replaced skipper David Miller with Murali Vijay, but the momentum was lost in the seven-run loss to Kolkata.

If Axar Patels hat-trick paved the way for Punjabs win against Gujarat, against Pune their openers, Murali Vijay and Manan Vohra, led the team to victory with a half-century each. Otherwise, in each of the losses, there has been one standout performer for Punjab. Maxwell fought a lone battle against KKR the other night, while openers Vijay and Vohra have done well in a couple of matches. The bowlers with the likes of Mohit Sharma and Sandeep Sharma have managed wickets and restricted oppositions only for the batting to falter in chases.

Delhi, on the other hand, have been bucking the trend. Their batting line-up has been led by Quinton de Kock with the likes of Chris Morris, Karun Nair, Sam Billings, Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant chipping in with runs, while the bowlers led by Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra along with Morris have been instrumental in the five wins the team has managed.

In the previous match, the absence of Zaheer, who was injured, meant stand-in skipper JP Duminy was guilty of not rotating the bowlers as Ajinkya Rahane helped Pune canter to a seven-wicket win.

On Saturday, the onus will be on DD to come out and win against a struggling Punjab. The hosts, on the other hand, will hope the inclusion of Hashim Amla, a replacement for the injured Shaun Marsh, will give the necessary boost to the teams batting line-up which is yet to play as a coherent unit.

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This Mothers Day, meet the women from Afghanistan who had to leave their homeland to start a new life in the city. These women are single mothers who have come together to form Ilham, a catering service that serves traditional Afghani dishes to Delhiites. Overcoming all odds, these women are working towards an empowered future for their children and the community. Ilham, an initiative by UNHCR and Access has brought together seven refugee women from Afghanistan in a culinary affair of sorts.

Read: Farm-to-table is the new gourmet in Delhi

All these women are single mothers whose husbands either died or were left behind in Afghanistan because of the conflict in the country. Qadria, a member and translator of the group says, Ilham means to learn something from others. When we started this catering service in Delhi, we realised that we were learning more and more about the citys flavours and cultures. Qadria reminisces over life in Afghanistan and the grandeur of daawats (parties) there. She says, Most parties that we had back home had a gathering of 40-50 people. We used to cook lavish meals and that is why we decided to take up catering in Delhi as well.

Their food is a hit among the people and they get regular orders facilitated by UNHCR. One dish that always gets praises is the Afghan ashak. It is a dish similar to dumplings. We get a lot of requests for it and people also get it packed. Another dish which is a hit with the guests is the Meetha Khajur which is a donut-like sweet dish. When asked what their favourite dish was, the unanimous answer was chicken biryani. I love chhole bhature and gajar ka halwa, adds Khatera.

A traditional biryani preparation that the women make.

The city has now been home a lot of them for close to about a decade and managing as single mothers has not been easy. Some of their children have grown up and are working in call centres. Some are still completing their education from Open School. Every place has its good side and bad side. People here have accepted us, so thats a good thing. But there are instances of discrimination. We are asked to pay a higher rent. If we had that kind of money, would we be living like this? says Khatera.

Qadria has four children-three sons and a daughter. Her daughter dropped out of school due to security reasons. My eldest son is 18 years old and couldnt complete his education. He now works in a call centre to help support us, she says. Qadria was a trained college-level teacher in Afghanistan and the fact that her own children have to struggle to complete school brings a wry smile to her face. Their refugee status and the legal troubles that come with it cause a hindrance in conducting even day-to-day activities.

Afghan Ashak served piping hot.

Standing strong in the face of adversities, these women are setting examples for others in their community. But one thing they have in common is their love for the city. We love the festivals here, especially Diwali and Holi as we have never seen such celebrations in Afghanistan, says Qadria. Ziyagul, the most vocal of the lot, loves dancing. There are festivals taking place all year round. People here have showed us love and also invite us to be part of the celebrations, says Ziyagul.

Their initiative has got a great response in the past and they wish to serve more Afghani delicacies to the people. Their willpower and determination are proof that a mother will always find a way to keep her children safe.

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Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has petitioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for increased central-government funding to tide over the states drought crisis.

In his meeting with Modi, Fadnavis gave a presentation of the various steps being undertaken by his government to help 28,000 drought-prone villages, apart from other long-term initiatives.

According to Fadnavis, Modi has been very receptive to the demands made by the state government. The central government has already sanctioned Rs3,500 crore to the state, which is the highest till date. However, the drought has now increased to 11,000 more villages and hence we requested the Centre allow us to file a supplementary memorandum for more funds. This has also been agreed to, said Fadnavis.

He said the government has planned steps for the next six weeks leading up to the monsoons and will also work on completing pending irrigation projects. In the next six weeks, we will coordinate with the central government to prepare a joint action scheme, which will focus on maximum utilisation of rain water for agriculture. Our main aim is to reduce the dependence on rain for our crops, he said.

Fadnavis also spoke of the funds he needed to implement various schemes like Rs20,000 crore for the 26 projects under the Prime Minister Agriculture Irrigation scheme, Rs7,500 crore for some projects in drought-prone Vidarbha and Marathwada and Rs2,500 crore for some projects that could be completed in the next 2-3 years.

In addition, he announced various steps like restructuring loans of debt-hit farmers, getting 20 lakh farmers to opt for institutional finance, increasing the base for the crop insurance policy and also roping in the World Bank to fund an integrated plan for 4,000 villages.

Modi, meanwhile, assured Fadnavis of help to tide over the crisis, which has been made worse by an increase in the number of farmer suicides. Modi tweeted CM @Dev_Fadnavis apprised me about the Jal Yukt Shivar Abhiyan & State Govts efforts to complete irrigation projects across the state.

Maharashtra is facing with one of the worst droughts in its history with 29,610 (73%) of the 40,559 villages reeling under it. Apart from Marathwada and Vidarbha, even villages in Solapur and Ahmednagar, which fall in Western Maharashtra, have been added to the list. Latur city is being supplied drinking water through railway wagons.

Opposition parties have been very critical of the governments handling of this issue. There is no planning at all. After the failure of the monsoon last year, adequate precautions should have been taken, but the government has failed miserably, said Ajit Pawar, former deputy chief minister and NCP leader. State Congress president Ashok Chavan also echoed the same sentiments. People are migrating to the cities and unemployment has increased. Modi should actually come and see the situation, said Chavan. Both Pawar and Chavan are on separate tours of drought-affected areas.

What is more worrying for all is the falling water stock in dams across the state. With the monsoon more than a month away, Marathwada is left with only 2% water. The number of water tankers has also gone up to 4,883.
The BJP on Saturday accused the Shiv Sena of supporting the water tanker mafia in Mumbai. In the latest installment of a series of bitter exchanges between the two purported allies, city BJP president Ashish Shelar advised the Shiv Sena not to admit people who face anti-corruption bureau (ACB) inquiries.

Shelar was referring to former NCP corporator Sharad Pawar, who recently joined the Shiv Sena, and whose brother Santosh allegedly has links with the water tanker mafia. Shelar said, Former NCP corporator Sharad Pawars brother Santosh Pawar works with the tanker mafia and had beaten up our party worker for complaining about him. Recently, Sharad Pawar and his wife Savita Pawar, a corporator from Chandivali, joined the Shiv Sena. They (the Sena) should at least think about the people it admits.

This is the second time in a fortnight that the BJP has accused its ally of supporting the water tanker mafia. On April, BJP MP Kirit Somaiya had accused the mayor, standing committee chairman and Shiv Sena leaders of not tackling the tanker mafia and demanded an inquiry by municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta. Last week, it demanded that members of the tanker mafia be charged under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

There are water shortages in several parts of the city, and tanker owners are being accused of charging extortionate rates and of selling water from the BMCs water filling stations. Water from these stations is meant to be given free or at nominal rates to those in need.

As the crucial civic polls in Mumbai draw closer, relations between the Shiv Sena and BJP have been turning increasingly bitter. Though both parties have run the BMC together for two decades, their alliance has been fraying of late. Following their victory in the assembly elections, both parties are confident that they can do better without the other in the civic polls, and plan to contest separately to get a larger share of power.
The Ghaziabad police will provide additional security to the outer cordon of the Hindon airbase and also enhance the patrolling by bikes and PCR vans. The move comes after Fridays trespass incident and also because a major portion of the outer boundary wall is currently being constructed.

The Ghaziabad police said nearly 10km of the 27km outer periphery of the airbase is motorable road.

The work is complete in the non-motorable area. Our PCR vans and patrol bikes will keep enhanced vigil in the outer area to prevent any further trespassing incident, said Ashish Srivastava, circle officer (border).

Around 1.30am on May 6, Sonu Jatav, who hails from Indrapuri in nearby Loni, had allegedly ventured inside the airbase, suspectedly from Nistoli village area behind the airbase. He allegedly reached till the technical area where he was spotted by security personnel Raj Kumar.

Sonu, in a surprise attack, allegedly injured the personnel and escaped. The 21-year-old man was nabbed around 7.15am and the airbase went into heightened security alert mode and set into motion the standard operational procedures, including the closure of two schools inside the base.

The security was already in place and the man was spotted in the first instance. The boundary wall construction is in full swing and it is expected to be complete before the monsoon, said Group Captain Sandeep Mehta, public relations officer, Hindon airbase.

Under the heightened security on Friday morning, the units from the army and the civil police were roped in besides the internal security at the airbase. Some of the aircraft were also flown out as part of the dispersal plan.

Official sources said post the January attack at the Pathankot airbase in Punjab, various airbases across the country have been told to conduct surprise checks. The Hindon airbase too has carried out inspections and security audits to check the alertness and preparedness of the security apparatus.

After the Pathankot incident, the air force also issued shoot-at-sight orders against intruders in 20 of its front-line bases, including Hindon, in the western sector. The sensitive airbase at Hindon houses C-130 Super Hercules special operations plane, C-17 heavy lifters and Mi-17 transport choppers. Hindon base is vital as it provides cover to the national capital.

Sonu is stated to be mentally unstable and he allegedly fled his house on Wednesday. After he was handed over to civil police on Friday evening, he was booked under provisions of the The Official Secrets Act, 1923, and also under sections 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 332 (Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the IPC at Sahibabad police station.

He is booked under some non-bailable sections. However, he may be able to procure bail on medical grounds. His family told us that he underwent nearly two years of psychiatric treatment. It is suspected that he sneaked in from the rear of the airbase, a police officer said.

Also read | Shoot at sight: Indias key airbases where the order has been issued

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A Punjab and Haryana high court bench on Friday proposed to hear Bholath legislator and former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaurs appeal in a case related to her daughters killing during the summer vacation.

The bench of justice SS Saron and justice Gurmit Ram asked the CBI, a respondent in the matter, to file its response on Monday.

Why have hearing on an application. Im ready to decide the appeal. Let us fix a date during the summer vacation, justice Saron said, asking the CBI counsel and Kaurs lawyer whether they were ready with their arguments. Justice Saron is the senior-most judge after the acting chief justice, SJ Vazifdar at the high court.

In March 2012, Kaur was convicted of forcible abortion of her daughters child, wrongful confinement, abduction, criminal conspiracy and was sentenced to five-year imprisonment by a CBI court in Patiala.

The HC had granted her bail in November 2012. Kaur had sought suspension of the sentence to do campaigning for the upcoming 2017 Punjab elections and contest as appeal would take some time to decide.

She had reasoned that the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) required her to campaign across the state and she was also likely to contest. As she was not competent to contest due to conviction, she appealed that her sentence be suspended during the pendency of the main appeal.

During the hearing, when both counsels  from the CBI as well as from the petitioners side  appeared reluctant and one of them stated that all counsels in the case might not be available (during vacation period), justice Saron questioned the CBI as to why it was opposing the suspension of Kaurs sentence when it had problems in arguing the matter.

You cant have your cake and eat it too. Either you argue or withdraw the application, the bench categorically told the CBI counsel asking him to take instructions by May 9.

The pendency of cases in courts and measures thereof are being hotly debated nationwide. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently advocated for reducing vacation time in courts. Chief justice of India TS Thakur ---though not averse to the idea --- had defended judges taking a break in summers stating that holidays were necessary to keep sanity. The total pendency of cases in the high court is 2.97 lakh.
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has directed the public works department (PWD) to look at the feasibility of demand for an elevated road corridor over Urban Estate locality in the city and then pursue the matter with the central government.

The directions came after a delegation of area residents led by local MLA Brahm Mohindra met the CM in his office in Chandigarh on Thursday evening.

Following the directions, additional chief secretary (B&R) NS Kalsi has deputed chief engineer AK Singla, who is heading the national highways division, to inspect the area on Saturday and submit the assessment report at the earliest.

Singla told HT that during his visit to Patiala he would conduct a spot assessment along with area residents and try to find out the best possible solution to provide them alternate inter-sector connectivity.

Urban Estate residents, it is learnt, are upset over the fact that their existing direct accessibility between various sectors is being snapped due to the ongoing widening the Patiala-Zirakpur highway.

About the possibility of the elevated road as demanded by area residents, Singla said, Since the cost of per kilometre is not allowed to go beyond `11 crore many such proposals of vehicular under passes and elevated roads were cancelled by the transport ministry at initial stage due to financial constraints.

But we are still open for deliberations on a number of alternatives, including vehicle underpass and pursue the matter with the central authorities, he said. MLA Mohindra said the problem could not be sorted out without constructing an elevated corridor over the highway that divides various sectors on both sides. He said the CM was apprised of the issue and the latter agreed to the fact that residents of Urban Estate will suffer once their existing connectivity will be snapped due to the widening project.

The alternate connectivity, he said, is very important since residents will have to travel at least 2-3 km to reach either side after risking their lives through the main highway.

Urban Estate Residential Welfare Association president RS Bhinder said with CMs intervention, residents were hopeful of concrete solution since they cant be left in the lurch due to the widening project.

Vice-president of association DC Gupta said there is possibility of a corridor here if the authorities revise some of the areas where unnecessary expenditure is being incurred. He said the project has provision of six-foot bridges from Zirakpur to Patiala at an estimated cost of `20 crore which must be avoided since it is a failed concept.

Several such bridges are lying underutilised across the country, he said.

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Someone has uprooted the Chamatkari Nalka (a handpump of magic water) on a link road to Saunti and Anniya villages of this district but small pots full of superstition now come up straight from the source.

Headstrong devotees have started throwing miniature buckets attached with ropes into the 50-foot bore to fetch water. Whoever removed the handpump was wrong, said Kirandeep Singh, who was drawing magic water from a pipe. Believers are still coming, he said, No one can uproot our faith. A few days ago, he was one of the volunteers handling a crowd of 25,000-odd curious visitors. Manju Jain, who had come all the way from Malerkotla, said it was the work of the government. Sinners have done it, she claimed, We continue to believe it is holy water.

Read I Superstition flows free from this handpump of magic water in Punjab

The administration remains clueless on who pitched the now-removed tents around the spot and who installed the guiding signs to the place that remain. We dont know any specific person or organisation to be behind this mass hysteria, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Arvind Gupta replied to a query over telephone.

Visitor Gurmukh Singh from Ludhiana, who claims to be a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Kisan Morcha (farmer wing) in that city, said his group would ask the administration to help them reinstall the handpump. Farmer Surjit Singh from nearby village of Salani said the water had cured his mother of a liver disease. The sanitation department and Tarksheel Society of rationalists had found nothing medicinal in the sample.

In little over a month, to drink this simple, potable water, visitors have come from as far as Delhi. The queues went up to a kilometre and bottle-sellers, ice-cream vendors, and volunteers had found a good business of facilitating these thousands of devotees.

Tales out of nowhere

People have woven tales around the handpump. One of these is about a man who was losing his eyesight five years ago. He met a fakir (saint), who told him to install a handpump at this spot. Its water helped him regain his sight. said volunteer Kirandeep, adding: The handpump stopped working after some days until a saint passed by and sought its water.

Gurmukh asked Kirandeep to narrate the story of how the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Hargobind, had visited the place and blessed it. Another woman had the story of handpumps being blessed by Khwaja Peer.
City students won laurels in the Class 10 and 12 ICSE examinations, with the toppers achieving 97.8% and 96.5% marks respectively.

In Class 10 examinations, Tarush Goyal, a student of Sat Paul Mittal School, topped the district with 97.8% marks. Goyal belongs to the science stream. The second position was bagged by Parneet Kaur, a student of Sacred Heart, Jamalpur, with a score of 97.2%.

The third position in Class 10 was bagged by Meharjot of Commerce stream, also a student of Sat Paul Mittal School, who scored 97% marks.

Paras Goyal, also a student of Sacred Heart, bagged the fourth position with 96.4% marks.

In Class 12 results, Tushali Mittal of non-medical stream, a student of Sacred Heart School, Jamalpur, emerged the overall topper by scoring 96.5%.

The second position in non-medical stream was bagged by Smridhi Jain from the same school, scoring 95.2%.

The third position in the non-medical stream went to Parthavi Madaan, a student of Sat Paul Mittal School with a score of 94.5%.

In the medical stream, Amolika Saini of Sat Paul Mittal School emerged topper with a score of 95.25%. The second position in the medical stream was bagged by Amrin Kohli of the same school with a score of 94.8%. Amandeep Kaur and Vaibhav Gupta of Sacred Heart School stood third with a score of 94% each.

Tushar Gupta of Sat Paul Mittal School topped the commerce stream with 95.25% marks. The second position in the commerce stream was bagged by Ojasvi Jain with 94.8% marks, while Swapnil Kalra, with 94% marks stood third.

Sahil Kumar of Sat Paul Mittal School topped the humanities stream with 93.3% marks. Kavya Jain bagged the second position with 90.5% marks and Guneev Kaur and Anmol Goyal bagged the third position with 88% marks.

Sisters top respective classes in school

Making their parents proud, sisters Amandeep Kaur and Parneet Kaur, students of Class 12 and Class 10 in Sacred Heard Convent School, Jamalpur, have achieved first positions in their school.

Parneet Kaur (left) with elder sister Amandeep Kaur celebrating their success in Ludhiana on Friday. (JS Grewal/HT Photo)

Their father is a businessman. Amandeep scored 94.94% while her younger sister Parneet achieved 97.2% in Class 10. Their parents were gleaming with pride as their daughters achieved success at the same time. I always wanted daughters and never felt the need of a son and today they have made us so proud. My daughters aim to take civil service examinations, said Harpreet Singh, their father. Amandeep said she wants to do research in biotech field and study in PAU. Parneet said she was inspired by her elder sister and wanted to become an engineer.
In a shocking incident, a resident of Chuharwal village, Meharban area, hacked son of a panchayat member of the same village with a sharp-edged weapon in front of homeguard jawans in the broad daylight over property issue on Friday.

At the time of the incident, victim Gurdev Singh, 37, was going somewhere on his bike and had stopped at the villages periphery to chat with homeguard jawans Rachhpal Singh and Gurnam Singh, deputed at the Meharban police station.

The accused, Mohinder Singh, came there all of a sudden with a sickle and attacked Gurdev. The cops nabbed the accused and snatched the weapon from his hand. The victim was rushed to civil hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

According to sources, a property dispute was going on between Gurdev and Mohinder.

ASI Satnam Singh, who is investigating the case, said Harbhajan Singh, father of the deceased, is a panchayat member of the village. The deceased is survived by wife, two daughters and a son. A murder case has been registered against the accused.
While the 1960s were the time of Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and the Beatles on the international scene, nearer home in Punjab and Chandigarh it was the time of the superstar of poetry: the young Shiv Kumar Batalvi (July 23, 1936-May 6, 1973). It was a time when poets were much in demand and the ideal of the youth would be one or the other versifier and love would be expressed in couplets. Batalvi with his passion, pathos and high romance rose like a meteor to become the ideal of every young man and the dream of every young woman.

Come May and it is time again to remember this phenomenon, the youngest to win the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1967 and enjoy immense popularity during his lifetime. He was good-looking and had a melodious voice. His fame multiplied after his death and he died young living up to the great decadent romantic lure of wine, women and song. His poetry was rooted in the soil and inspired by folk songs and tragic quissas it went straight to the hearts of the listeners.

Remembering the poet on his 43rd death anniversary, Bishambar Shambi, a fan-turned-friend says: He was a true hero of our times and had a cult following. I met him for the first time when I was in the first year at Government College, Sangrur, in 1961. His popularity was growing those days and we were thrilled that we would see him and hear him live. We would read his poems in magazines and I sang one of his poems at the symposium. He came and hugged me saying I had got the nuances just right. This is how a note of friendship was struck.

Shambi, who worked as an Indian Airlines executive, is well known for singing Shivs poetry soulfully in the style patented by the poet. I loved his voice and style and tried to emulate it. We would be together at many symposia and festivals. At one meet in Bathinda, he was indisposed and asked me to sing his verses. This was to happen many times later, recalls Shambi. A regret he voices is that Shivs enormous popularity earned him foes among senior poets. It was Amrita Pritam who encouraged his talent and I have accompanied him to her home for many memorable poetic evenings. Poets come and go but Shivs fame was unparalleled. He had a job with the State Bank of India on the basis of his talent and all he was expected to do was to sit in a cabin and write or muse.

Shambi sums up the memories saying, The time spent with him was very rich and I only wish he had lived longer and written more.
Hollywood star Charlize Theron will return to the Cannes Film Festivals 69th edition next week with her Palm dOr contender, The Last Face, directed by Sean Penn.

Last May, Theron proved to be a darling of the Cannes crowds and one of the lovelies for lensmen as she walked the raging Red Carpet in her dazzling evening gown to attend her, Mad Max: Fury Road, a movie that got a rousing reception. Yes, indeed in a festival that some disdainfully call high brow art and a platform for a kind of cinema that cares two hoots for the lowest common denominator!

Watch Mad Max: Fury Road trailer here:

The Last Face is very, very different from Mad Max, and obviously so, for it comes from a heavyweight like Sean Penn -- who is not just an intensely brilliant actor, but also an auteur par excellence. Celebrated for films like The Thin Red Line, Mystic River, Dead Man Walking, The Pledge, 21 Grams and Into the Wild, Penns latest drama, The Last Face is set in a war-torn country and was shot extensively in some of the most splendid spots in South Africa.

Read: Cannes 2016 | No Indian film makes it to the film festival

Read: If these rumours are true, the 2016 Cannes Film Festival could be great

Read: Asghar Farhadis The Salesman added to Cannes Competition

Read: Oscar Pistorius film to be introduced to distributors at Cannes

The plot follows the director of an international aid agency (Theron) as she embarks on a conflicting-controversial love affair with a relief-aid doctor, essayed by Javier Bardem (Seen in movies like No Country for Old Men, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Biutiful and in Skyfall -- as the villain, and what a magnificent performance that was!).

Theron has been talked about for her varied roles in Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Astronauts Wife, Sleepwalking and so on. And as the festival begins its roll on May 11, Theron will once again get the Cannes crowds into a state of adulatory frenzy -- and provide all the seduction for shutterbugs.

(Gautaman Bhaskaran will cover the Cannes Film Festival from May 11 to 22.)

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If, as art critic John Berger once said, in the sky of cinema, people learn what they might have been, and discover what belongs to them apart from their single lives, the coming week has a lot to offer for those seeking that experience.

A Punjabi film that captures the fear and paranoia during the Khalistan movement in the 1980s, an Odiya film that chronicles the changing life of tribals, a Bengali film exhibitors quest to save his single -screen theatre, and a Sanskrit film that has been in the middle of a controversy allegedly for promoting Hindutva ideology -- these are just a few picks from the upcoming Habitat Film Festival, one of the few of its kind that the city hosts.

Over the course of the week, 37 films (including documentaries and short films) will be screened. The annual event that has been running for a decade now, focuses on Indian cinema, beyond the mainstream Bollywood fare. However, Vidyun Singh, director, Habitat Programmes, clarifies that the festival has chosen to open with Bollywood, albeit a non-formulaic film such as Bajirao Mastani. Theres good work happening in Bollywood too; the lines between what classifies as mainstream and what does not, are blurring, Singh insists.

Regional cinema, though, remains the core. This year, films address issues of displacement, migration, caste and corruption. The festival is also expanding the scope of regional cinema to include six films from the north-east. We are hoping that the festival will have a trickle-down effect in popularizing regional cinema. So even if audiences are not able to watch all the films, the names will stick around in their minds, says Singh.

10 films to watch out for at the festival

1.Pahada La Ruha, 2015



A still from Pahada Ra Luha, that captures the life of the adivasis in Orissa.

Directed by Sabyasachi Mohapatra, this National Award winner is based on the life of the Paraja tribes of Koraput district in Orissa, and the effects of industrialization and the displacement on them. The film has been in the making for about 25 years, and won the National Award for the best feature film in Oriya last year.

2.Cinemawala, 2015



A still from Cinemawala, that is about the life of a retired film exhibitor.

Directed by Kaushik Ganguly, the Bengali film revolves around the life of a retired film exhibitor from a small town, who is forced to let go off his movie theatre as digital technology takes over. The film won the won the UNESCO Fellini Medal at IFFI in 2015.

3. Chauthi Koot, 2015

A still from Chauthi Koot, a film that captures the fear and paranoia in Punjab in the 1980s.

The film is based on the political crisis in Punjab during the 1980s when Sikh separatists were engaged in an armed conflict with the Indian state. The film depicts the fear and paranoia in Punjab, and how the Punjabi Hindus and Sikhs survived the bloody conflict by supporting each other. Directed by Gurvinder Singh, the film was screened at Cannes last year, and also won the Golden Gateway of Indian Trophy at the MAMI Film Festival in Bombay.

Read: National Awards are complete farce this year, says director of Chauthi Koot

4. Aligarh, 2016

(Manoj Bajpayee in a still from the film Aligarh)

Hansal Mehtas film Aligarh, based on the life of Professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended from his job because of his sexual orientation, was critically acclaimed for the sensitive portrayal of the Siras story.

Read: Aligarh review

5.Priyamanasam (2015)

A still from the Sanskrit film Priyamanasam

Directed by Vinod Mankara, the Sanskrit film Priyamanasam, is about the 17th century poet-scholar, Unnayi Warrier, and is the third Sanskrit film in the world.The period drama revolves around the mental conflicts and agonies experienced by the poet while he was writing his magnum opus. The film was mired in controversy after it got rejected by the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) for allegedly promoting Hindutva ideology. It was later the film that opened the panorama section of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in 2015.

6.Ennu Ninte Moideen (2015)

A still from the film Ennu Ninte Moideen

Set in the 1960s and 70s in Mukkam, Kerala, this Malayalam film tells the tragic love story of Moideen who belongs to a renowned Muslim family and Kanchana Mala who is the daughter of a Hindu aristocratic landlord. Since inter-religious marriages were a taboo then, the couple had to part ways as their families objected to their love affair.

Read: When content triumphed over star power in south cinema

7. Arunoday (2016)

A still from the film Arunoday.

This Marathi film is about Inspector Joshi, a grieving father searching for his daughter Aruna, kidnapped years ago at the age of six. In his despair, life converges with a recurring dream in which Joshi pursues a shadowy figure who leads him to Paradise, a night-club where teenage girls dance to a leering crowd. He is convinced he will find Aruna there and vows to bring her back to Leela, his broken wife.

8.Naanu Avanalla...Avalu (2015)

A still from the film Nanu Avanalla..Avalu.

Directed by B. S. Lingadevaru, this Kannada film is based on the life of Living Smile Vidya, a transgender, who, grows up as a boy and cherishes her feminine characteristics. She begins living as a female, Vidya, and depicts the appalling life of the transgender community in the Indian society.

9. Kothanodi (2015)

A still from the film Kothanodi, which is a dark and macabre version of four Assamese folk tales

Bhaskar Hazarikas debut feature revisits Assamese folk tales. The Assamese film is dark, and Hazarika has done away with the happy endings. Kothanodi just won the National Award, and has been screened at various international film festivals.

10. Visanarai ( 2015)

A still from the Tamil film Visanarai, that won the National Award this year.

Directed By Vetrimaraan, this Tamil film is about a group of immigrants who are detained by the local state police and forced to admit a crime that they have no clue of. A local policeman comes to their rescue, but asks for a favour in return. The film won the National Award this year.

Read: Vetrimaaran shows realism at its harshest best

A Slice Of The North East

A still from the film Dau Huduni Methai, which tells the story of Bodoland through the eyes of a young rape victim

How often will you get a chance to watch a Khasi film, where the female protagonist sets out to find herself in a remote village in the Khasi hills? Or, a dark and macabre movie that is set in Assam, and is an adaptation of four different folk tales from the state? Incidentally, the Assamese film, Kothanodi, that stars Adil Hussain and Seema Biswas, among others, was conceived in Delhi, and director Bhaskar Hazarika feels that the screening at Habitat is a homecoming of sorts.

Both the films  Kothanodi and the Khasi film Onaatah, have won National Awards this year, and are part of a special package of six films from the north east.Another must-watch is Manju Borahs Dau Huduni Methai, a Bodo language film that tells the powerful story of the effects of insurgency and counter-insurgency in Assams Bodoland area, through the eyes of a young rape victim.

The festival will be held from May 7-May 15 at the India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi. Entry is free. For details of the schedule and passes, log on to www.habitatfilmclub.com.

Follow @htshowbiz for more.

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Thirteen military advisers with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been killed in Syria in recent days and 21 others wounded, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

All were from Irans northern province of Mazandaran, Hossein Ali Rezayi, a Guards spokesman in the region, told the ISNA and Fars news agencies.

The casualties happened in Khan Tuman village some 10 kilometres southwest of the battleground city of Aleppo, according to a Guards statement, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Pro-regime troops had driven jihadists out of Khan Tuman in December, but fighting between regime forces and Al-Qaeda- affiliated jihadists and their allies killed more than 70 people south of Aleppo, a monitor said.

Al-Nusra Front and allied Islamists seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages after less than 24 hours of clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Around 30 pro-regime troops were killed in the battle, said the Britain-based Observatory which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Russia said that a temporary truce in Aleppo had been extended for 72 hours in order to prevent the situation from worsening.

More than 300 civilians were killed in two weeks of fighting in the divided city before the truce took hold on Thursday, in regime air strikes on its opposition-held east and rebel shelling of the regime-controlled west.

Iran is Syrias main regional ally, sending financial and military aid, including military advisers and volunteer forces from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, to prop up President Bashar al-Assads regime.

Dozens of Iranian advisers have been killed in Syria since late 2015, including Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Around a quarter of a million Poles flooded central Warsaw Saturday, marching to defend their countrys place in the European Union and protest against moves by the right-wing government, which they say undermine democracy.

Warsaw city hall said the protest drew some 240,000 people, making it one of the largest demonstrations since the 1989 collapse of communism in Poland.

The mammoth protest came as an annual pro-EU parade merged with a demonstration called by a coalition of pro-democracy groups and opposition parties.

The huge mass of marchers shouted pro-EU and pro-democracy slogans as they inched through the sun-drenched city centre, brandishing a mix of red-and-white Polish flags along with blue and gold EU flags.

Were here because we want to fight for Polands freedom, for democracy, former president Bronislaw Komorowski, a liberal, told marchers as the demonstration got under way.

The protest comes amid a mounting political crisis in the central European heavyweight, triggered by changes the populist-oriented Law and Justice (PiS) government has made to the constitutional court.

In December it pushed through legislation to stack the court and modify its decision-making rules.

The court itself struck down the changes as unconstitutional in March, pitting it against the PiS majority government, which wasted no time to dismiss the ruling.

The resulting deadlock means the court is paralysed, leaving Poland without a fundamental check on government powers.

The PiS moves have drawn sharp criticism from the EU and the European Parliament, which Warsaw has dismissed as unneccessary interference in its internal affairs.

Markets have also reacted strongly to the controversy, hitting Polands zloty currency and the Warsaw stock exchange.

Ultra-nationalist parties and sympathisers organised a counter-demonstration in the capital Saturday, drawing around 2,500 people insisting that Polands EU membership meant it was subject to the diktat of Brussels.
A third teenager, who was arrested in connection with the bombing of a gurdwara by Islamist militants in the German city of Essen, has admitted to the authorities that he was part of a group which carried out the terror attack, a media report said.

Tolga I, who is known in his circle as Amir, appears to be a sort of commander-in-chief who has given the order to Mohammed B and Yussuf T to explode a bomb at the Nanaksar Satsangh Sabha Gurdwara on the evening of April 16, Report Muenchen programme of the ARD TV network said.

During interrogation, 17-year-old Tolga did not reveal the background or motive for targeting the Sikh temple, which hosted a wedding ceremony attended by over 200 guests.

Investigators are trying to establish whether Tolga I as well as sixteen-year-old secondary school students Mohammed and Yussuf arrested four days after the attack are part of a terror network or their group included more young people, the report said.

A 60-year-old Sikh priest was seriously injured and two others suffered minor injuries in the explosion, which ripped through the entrance hall of the gurdwara.

Investigators have traced a link of the three men to a radical Muslim clergy and to a travel agency in the city of Duisburg, near Essen, the report said.

The three have also frequently visited the Assalam mosque in Essen, which is known to the authorities as a meeting place of radical Islamists.

Meanwhile, Germanys federal prosecutors office is examining the possibility to take over the investigations into the bomb attack from the state prosecutor in Essen on suspicion that the three teenagers arrested are part of a terror network, the report said.

Tolga, who was taken into custody on an arrest warrant issued by the district court in Essen, came to police attention after his mother informed them about his links to radical Islamists and handed them over some notices made by her son, the report said.

She was worried that Tolga was preparing to leave for Syria to fight for the Islamic State (IS).

He is also known to have contacts with the Lohberger Brigade, in Dinslaken, a group of jihadists who have joined IS militants as fighters some years ago, according to the report.

Authorities in the town of Schermbeck, near the area where the family lives, banned Tolga from travelling abroad and impounded his passport after his mother approached the police.

This cooperation may have prevented him from travelling to Syria, but could not take him away from his radical Islamist course, the report said.

Investigators found on Tolgas Facebook profile a message from April 17 that he got married on that day. They believe that Yussuf and Mohammed also did the same during the last six weeks and all of them found their partners through Islamic matrimonial agencies.

Their wedding ceremonies were conducted under strict Islamic traditions, according to the report. Investigators are still groping in the dark about whom the terror suspects married and what was their motive, the report said.
Nepals ambassador to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, was recalled on Friday because of his alleged attempt to have Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli ousted, according to officials in Nepals foreign ministry.

Though no formal announcement was made, officials, on the condition of anonymity, told journalists that Upadhyay was accused of playing a role in the power struggle that nearly deposed Olis government.

His non-cooperation with the ministry and a recent visit to the restive Madhes region bordering India with Indian ambassador Ranjit Rae were also cited as reasons for the decision.

Read: Nepal cancels presidents visit to India, recalls ambassador

Upadhyays summons came just a day after Olis Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) managed to keep its alliance with the Maoists intact. An important partner in the coalition, the Maoists was backed by Nepali Congress, the main opposition, and sought to install a national unity government headed by their chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda.

The move fizzled out since Prachanda failed to find adequate support and Oli agreed to address the Maoists grievances by signing a nine-point agreement that included withdrawal of civil war-related cases.

Certain sections in Olis party however believe the threat to the government was orchestrated in New Delhi.

In an apparent snub, the government on Friday morning decided to cancel President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris official visit to India, which was to begin from Monday. Bhandaris visit had been finalised on Kathmandus request.

Read: Nepals sudden change in plans suggests bad blood with India

Nepals foreign secretary, Sankar Das Bairagi, informed Rae that the visit was cancelled due to lack of preparation by the Nepali side, and also because the countrys budget session was underway.

The move surprised New Delhi as well as Upadhyay who immediately spoke to Oli over the phone to express his displeasure. Instead, the decision to recall the ambassador was taken soon after.

Foreign ministry sources say Upadhyay is also blamed for failing in his duties during Olis India visit this February.

Upadhyay, a senior Nepali Congress leader and former minister, was appointed ambassador to India in April last year by the Sushil Koirala-led government where the Communist party was a major partner.

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Two people were killed and more than 10 hospitalized after an elderly man lost control of his car on Saturday and plowed into a crowded cafe patio in southern Germany.

Police told the dpa news agency that the 84-year-old man apparently stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake, slamming into the cafe in the town of Bad Saeckingen on the border with Switzerland.

One 63-year-old woman died at the scene and a man died later in hospital.

The driver is also being treated, police said.
An Egyptian court on Saturday sought the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and documents to Qatar.

The final ruling is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

The verdict against former president Mohamed Morsi, who is charged in the same case, was postponed to the same day.

The three journalists, one Jordanian, were sentenced in absentia. Two of them work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. They can appeal.

The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Morsi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.

Morsi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.

Qatar had supported Morsi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.

Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypts then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Morsi.

Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypts most organised political group.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused European nations on Saturday of hypocrisy in pressing his country on terror laws while sidelining democracy at home in their own fight against terrorism.

Those who criticise us are reduced to sidelining democracy and freedoms when bombs started to explode on their soil, Erdogan said in a speech in the southeastern city of Malatya.

Last week, the European Commission said Turkey had to meet five objectives, including changes to its anti-terror law, to gain visa-free travel to its passport-free area under a deal to curb the influx of migrants to the European Union.

I am going to talk plainly: on the question of visas, let those who call on Turkey to modify its anti-terrorism law start by removing tents set up by the terrorists at the doors of the European Parliament, Erdogan said.

It was an apparent reference to a tent set up by Kurdish activists near the European Council in Brussels where a Turkey-EU summit was to be held in March.

Saturdays swipe followed on the heels of another combative speech in which Erdogan warned Turkey would not change its panoply of anti-terror laws.

The EU says: you will change the anti-terror law for visas, Erdogan said in a televised speech in Istanbul on Friday. Pardon me, but we are going our way and you can go yours.

Erdogans prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who announced Thursday he was quitting, had championed the March 18 deal with the EU.

The EU has a list of 72 criteria for pushing through visa-free travel for Turkish nationals under the landmark, but controversial, agreement.

Five of these benchmarks remain outstanding, according to the EU executives assessment. The 28 EU member states and the European Parliament must also approve the visa scheme, which is by no means a foregone conclusion.

Erdogan has previously warned Brussels that Ankara would stop fulfilling its side of the migrant deal -- which has seen the numbers making dangerous crossings across the Aegean Sea fall sharply -- if the EUs promises are not kept.
The founder of an online underworld bank that allegedly laundered billions of dollars for criminals has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Arthur Budovsky, 42, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering on January 29, three days before the scheduled start of his trial in New York.

He was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine by US District Judge Denise L Cote, who noted that Budovsky did not express any genuine remorse.

The significant sentence handed down today shows that money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime, Assistant Attorney General Leslie R Caldwell for the Justice Departments Criminal Division said in a statement.

Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky ran a digital currency empire built expressly to facilitate money laundering on a massive scale for criminals around the globe, US Attorney Preet Bharara for the Southern District of New York was quoted as saying.

Prosecutors said Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve operated an alternative digital currency that helped cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder the proceeds of illegal activity.

The company was a financial hub for Ponzi scheme operators, credit card traffickers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals, authorities said.

The system became operational in 2005. By the time it was shut down in 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than 5.5 million user accounts, including more than 600,000 in the US, the US Department of Justice said.

Overall, it had processed more than 78 million financial transactions with a combined value of more than USD 8 billion. The digital exchange mechanism, which allowed depositors to mask their identities, was similar to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Budovsky, who was arrested in Spain in May 2013, had renounced his US citizenship and acquired Costa Rica nationality in an apparent bid to avoid prosecution.

As part of his plea agreement, Budovsky admitted to laundering between USD 250 million and USD 550 million in criminal proceeds linked to US-based Liberty Reserve accounts.

Six other people with ties to Liberty Reserve face charges in the case that involved police and investigators from 17 countries. Co-defendants Maxim Chukharev and Mark Marmilev, who also pleaded guilty, were sentenced to three and five years respectively. Two others are set to be sentenced on May 13, while another two remain at large.
Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London - boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotlands elections.

Khan was the citys first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1, 310,143 votes to 994, 614.

The result bolsters leader Jeremy Corbyn after Labour were beaten into third in Scotland by the Tories and lost some English councillors.

In Scotland, the SNP said it would form a minority government after winning its third election in a row.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is celebrating what she said was an emphatic victory, her first as party leader, after the SNP emerged as the largest party at Holyrood with 63 seats, ahead of the Conservatives on 31 and Labour on 24.

But she played down talk of another independence referendum after falling short by two seats of an overall majority.

In Wales, Labour remains as the largest party, with 29 out of 60 seats, but was denied a majority as Plaid Cymru and UKIP both made notable gains. Counting is continuing in Northern Ireland.

Khans victory ends eight years of Conservative control of City Hall. The former Labour MP and minister, 45, becomes Londons third mayor after Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson.

In his victory speech, Khan referred to his humble origins on a council estate and said he had never imagined that someone like me could be elected as mayor of London, promising to be a mayor for all Londoners.

He said the campaign had not been without controversy, but added: I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear.

He added that the politics of fear is not welcome in our city.

Khan took 1,310,143 votes after second preferences were taken into account, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614, a margin of victory of 13.6%. His tally gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in Britain history.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn led congratulations on Twitter using the hashtag YesWeKhan and telling the new mayor: Cant wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush on Friday joined a growing band of Republican leaders who have announced they will not back their partys presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Bush, who also ran for the nomination, said in a Facebook post: In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life.

Speaker Paul Ryan, the senior-most elected Republican in the country, said the day before that he is unable to support Trump at this time, in a stunning disavowal of the frontrunner.

Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, a leading conservative who is trying to draft a prominent political or military figure to run against Trump, tried Mitt Romney at a meeting on Friday.

Trumps lock on the Republican nomination after the Indiana primary win has also brought into open opposition from his party leader thats been called unparalleled in modern politics.

He has been dismissive of some of them such as Jeb Bushs, calling him low-energy once again, saying he was not surprised as he has been an outspoken critic of the Bushes.

Both former presidents George HW Bush and George W Bush, who have enthusiastically supported previous party nominees, have already said they will not be supporting Trump.

But with some others like Ryan, Trump is trying find some common ground for agreement. The two are meeting next week to sort out their differences.

Im not there right now, Ryan told CNN in an interview when asked if he was ready to back Trump. And I hope to, though, and I want to. But I think what is required is that we unify the party, and I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee.

Trumps first response was to escalate the fight. He was not ready to support Speaker Ryans agenda, he said in a statement. But he now appears eager to settle the dispute.

Ryans statement was meant, experts and analysts say, to signal conservatives that they dont have to rally around Trump, the partys presumptive nominee, if they dont want to. The New York Times said the breach between Ryan and Trump and was irreparable.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who ran briefly for the Republican nomination, followed up saying he will not support Trump, who, he added, had conned the party.
The anonymous source behind the Panama Papers on Friday offered a passionate explanation for the mega-leak, arguing that the corruption of the super-rich has broken capitalism and could spark revolution.

Calling himself John Doe -- a common legal placeholder name for a person unknown -- the source offered to help authorities to bring tax cheats and other criminals to justice but voiced fears of meeting the fate of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden.

Writing in the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung -- to which the original documents were leaked -- John Doe also stressed that for the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have.

The Panama Papers are a trove of about 11.5 million leaked documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that reveal the large-scale use by firms and wealthy individuals of offshore shell companies that enable hiding assets from tax authorities.

The sources manifesto starts with the words income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time and blames it in large part on the massive, pervasive corruption of a wealthy global elite, aided by lawyers, politicians and the media.

I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which have come to light thus far, wrote John Doe in an English-language text published by the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

It will take years, possibly decades, for the full extent of the firms sordid acts to become known.

Economic slavery

In the manifesto, John Doe argued that the collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery.

In this system -- our system -- the slaves are unaware both of their status and of their masters, who exist in a world apart where the intangible shackles are carefully hidden amongst reams of unreachable legalese.

The source says that history shows how issues involving taxation and power imbalances have led to revolutions in ages past and predicts that the next revolution will be digitised. Or perhaps it has already begun.

John Doe charged that thousands of prosecutions could stem from the Panama Papers, if only law enforcement could access and evaluate the actual documents.

Unlike the media organisations involved, I ... would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able, wrote the source.

That being said, I have watched as one after another, whistleblowers and activists in the United States and Europe have had their lives destroyed by the circumstances they find themselves in after shining a light on obvious wrongdoing.

John Doe pointed to Snowden -- the former US intelligence contractor behind the US National Security Agency leaks, now stranded in Moscow -- arguing that for his revelations about the NSA, he deserves a heros welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment.

Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop.

Until governments codify legal protections for whistleblowers into law, enforcement agencies will simply have to depend on their own resources or on-going global media coverage for documents.
Three Spanish journalists kidnapped in Syria some 10 months ago have been freed, the Spanish Press Federation (FAPE) and government said on Saturday.

All three have been released, Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre, and are on their way (to Spain), said FAPE president Elsa Gonzalez.

A government spokesperson confirmed the release, adding: All three are well.

The trio, who had been working for various Spanish media around the time of their disappearance, were last seen in July 2015 in the northwestern city of Aleppo where they had been reporting on fighting.

Pampliega, a freelance war reporter born in 1982, contributed to AFPs text coverage of the civil war in Syria for a period up to 2013.

A passionate reporter who tended to focus on human interest stories, he also contributed to AFPs coverage in Iraq.

Lopez, born in 1971, is a prize-winning photographer who contributed images to AFP from several war zones, including from the Syrian conflict up until 2013 and Iraq in 2014.

Sastre, 35, had also worked in trouble spots around the world for Spanish television, radio and press.

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders ranks Syria as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists.

It says dozens of journalists have been killed since the conflict broke out in 2011 in Syria, where various armed factions are battling President Bashar Al-Assads regime and each other.

In August 2014, the Islamic State group decapitated US journalist James Foley, who was seized in northern Syria in 2012.

In 2013, three other Spanish journalists were seized by Islamic State -- El Mundo correspondent Javier Espinosa, freelance photographer Ricardo Garcia Vilanova and Marc Marginedas of El Periodico newspaper. They were all released.
A collision between a fishing boat and a cargo ship in the East China Sea has left 17 missing and two dead, Chinese state media said on Saturday.

The Lu Rong Yu collided with a Maltese freighter at 3:40am Beijing time, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

Passing ships rescued two additional passengers who later died, the report said, adding that search and rescue operations are ongoing.

The cargo ship, which was under a Maltese flag, left the scene, according to China Radio International.

The incident occurs as Chinas aggressive pursuit of its territorial claims in the East and South China Sea has raised regional tensions.

Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, among others, have complained about the reckless behaviour by Chinese fishermen that has occasionally led to accidents at sea.

Tokyo and Beijing both lay claim to small islands in the East China Sea, known as the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.

In 2010, the Japanese coastguard arrested a Chinese trawler captain for allegedly ramming two of its patrol boats near the disputed territory.
Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms shot dead two Romanian soldiers in the countrys south on Saturday, officials said, in the first insider attack on foreign troops since the Taliban launched their spring offensive last month.

The insurgents have so far not claimed responsibility for the attack in Kandahar province, which highlights long-simmering tensions between Afghan and foreign forces.

Two Resolute Support (NATO) service members died this morning when two individuals wearing Afghan (security) uniforms opened fire... in southern Afghanistan, the military coalition said.

Resolute Support members returned fire and killed the shooters.

The two soldiers were identified as Romanian, the defence ministry in Bucharest said, adding that the incident occurred during a training mission for Afghan police.

A third Romanian soldier was left wounded in the incident and transferred to a hospital in Germany, the ministry said in its statement.

The attack comes after the insurgents last month announced the start of their annual spring offensive, vowing large-scale attacks across Afghanistan.

So-called green-on-blue attacks -- when Afghan soldiers or police turn their guns on international troops -- have been a major problem during NATOs long years fighting alongside Afghan forces.

In a similar attack in August last year, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform shot dead two American soldiers in the southern opium-rich province of Helmand.

And in April last year an American soldier was killed in a firefight between US and Afghan troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Western officials say that most such attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots.

The killings have bred fierce mistrust between local and foreign forces even as the rate of such incidents has dropped in recent years.

NATO troops have adopted special security measures in recent years to try to counter the threat.

NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014, pulling out a bulk of its troops although a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

The Afghan military, which has been built from scratch since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, has also struggled with insider attacks, high casualty rates and mass desertions.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently threatened diplomatic reprisals against Pakistan if it refuses to take action against insurgent havens on its soil.

His unusually strong remarks were in response to a Taliban assault on a security services office in the heart of Kabul, which left 64 people dead in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on the Afghan capital since 2001.

The carnage on April 19 cast a pall over international efforts in recent months to jumpstart Pakistan-brokered peace talks, which stalled last summer after the Taliban belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
He's People Before Profit's second Northern Irish MLA

Hearty Hot Press congratulations to our columnist Eamonn McCann whos grabbed a second seat for People Before Profit in the Foyle constituency.

With Gerry Carroll sensationally topping the poll for PBP yesterday in Sinn Feins West Belfast stronghold, the cross-border anti-austerity party has as many Stormont MLAs as the Greens.

Eamonn has been contesting elections since 1969 but has never before been elected.

He received 4,176 first preferences, and then relied on transfers to hit the quota of 5,672.

Among those whove vociferously supported him is his Derry neighbor Bernadette McAliskey.

With another former Hot Press columnist, Michael D. Higgins, taking care of business in the Phoenix Park, we've never been so well politically-connected!
There's some quality fare on the Breathe fundraising album

A veritable smorgasbord of Irish talent features on Breathe, a new album that raises much-needed funds for the Pieta House suicide awareness charity.

For a minimum 5 donation, you get a track apiece from Maria Kelly, Owildyouth, Elephant, Laura Ryder, Ailbhe Reddy, All The Luck In The World, Kelly Swan, Pine The Pilcrow, Orchid Collective and In Their Thousands (picture). Breathe, for Pieta House by Breathe, for Pieta House
There are four independents in all in the new expanded cabinet, with Denis Naughten, Katherine Zappone and Finian McGrath joining Shane Ross (pictured) at the cabinet table.

The new cabinet has been announced by the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny. There will be some relief that the Minister for the Arts, Heather Humphries, has retained that role. However, the Arts and Culture element has arguably been downgraded by the addition of Regional Development and Rural Affairs to the brief of what is now a somewhat sprawling ministerial portfolio.

Others to retain their Ministries include the Minister for Justice, Frances Fitzgerald; Minister for Finance Michael Noonan; and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan.

Among the new faces at the cabinet table are four independents. Katherine Zappone has been given responsibility for Children; former Fine Gael-er Denis Naughton replaces Alex White as Minister for Communications; Shane Ross has been appointed Minister for Transport; and Dublin independent TD, Finian McGrath, has been appointed as Super Junior Minister. He will attend Cabinet meetings and have special responsibility for disability.

Other interesting appointments include that of the Dun Laoghaire TD, Mary Mitchell OConnor, who is the new Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation  a crucial role, given the importance of maintaining job creation. She replaces Richard Bruton, who  in what might be seen as a demotion of sorts  has been appointed Minister for Education and Skills.

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Leo Varadker is also on the move, shifting from the poisoned chalice of Health to Social Protection. Meanwhile, Pascal Donoghue is the new Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, replacing Brendan Howling of the Labour Party; and Simon Harris takes on the burden of Health. The full cabinet is as follows:

Justice - Frances Fitzgerald

Finance - Michael Noonan

Public Expenditure and Reform - Paschal Donohoe

Social Protection - Leo Varadkar

Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation- Mary Mitchell O'Connor

Agriculture - Michael Creed

Health - Simon Harris

Foreign Affairs - Charlie Flanagan

Education & Skills - Richard Bruton

Children - Katherine Zappone

Housing - Simon Coveney

Communications - Denis Naughten

Transport - Shane Ross

Regional Development, Rural Affairs and Arts and Culture - Heather Humphreys

Defence - The Taoiseach, with Paul Kehoe as Minister of State with Special Responsibility for Defence

Finian McGrath has been appointed as Super Junior Minister. He will attend Cabinet meetings and have special responsibility for disability.
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NEW YORK - The thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations has many small and medium-sized companies thinking about doing business with the nation that has largely been off-limits for more than half a century. Most companies, however, will have to wait.

The Obama administration has taken steps that allow companies in the travel and telecommunications industries to work with Cuba, but most exports and other business contacts remain prohibited under an embargo Congress passed in 1960 in response to Communist rule in Cuba. Because of the embargo, the U.S. exported only $180 million in goods to Cuba last year, most of it agricultural products and medicine. By comparison, exports to nearby El Salvador totaled nearly $3.3 billion. Only Congress can lift the embargo, and it's not known when that might happen - some lawmakers are against ending it because of charges of human rights violations by the Castro government.

Greg Geronemus' travel company, smarTours, expects to run 45 tours to Cuba this year, most of them leaving from Miami. He began planning to increase his Cuba business two years ago, when he ran 15; Geronemus anticipated that the administration was moving toward a normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.

"There is an unbelievable appetite for travel," says Geronemus, whose company is based in New York.

Because of the embargo, Geronemus works with a Cuba-based company, HavanaTur, and an intermediary company in Europe to handle reservations, itineraries and payments. Trips to Cuba must be highly structured under U.S. government regulations, with itineraries that show substantial interactions with Cubans. For example: a visit with an artist or a tour of a community revitalization project.

"It is still so cumbersome and it will be for a while," Geronemus says.

Not a free market

Another unknown is what requirements the Cuban government, which controls most of the businesses in the country, might impose on U.S. companies that want to sell goods and services. Maria Contreras-Sweet, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration, found during a recent visit to Cuba that officials and business leaders are interested in building a relationship with U.S. companies, but they also want Americans to understand that Cuba, which doesn't have a free market, has a different way of doing business.

"There's this great desire but also some apprehension. And to some extent, they're overwhelmed by the U.S.," Contreras-Sweet says.

Small and medium-sized businesses will be competing with big U.S. companies that want to trade with Cuba, but Contreras-Sweet expects smaller players will find opportunities with Cuban counterparts. In recent years, Cuba has started allowing people like small restaurant owners, real estate agents, house painters and home builders to work independently of the government.

As relations between the U.S. and the Castro government expand, the Cuban people are expected to demand a better standard of living, and that can create opportunities for American businesses, says Ronald Recardo, managing partner with Catalyst Consulting Group in Shelton, Conn. His company hopes to do business with Cuban companies.

"There's a lot of people clamoring for something beyond a subsistence level for their families," Recardo says.

Companies that the U.S. government already allows to sell to Cuba include technology and telecom businesses whose products can improve communications to, from and inside the country. Revel Systems, the maker of software for retailers and restaurants, has started selling its products to small Cuban customers.

"They're dying for technology," says Chris Ciabarra, a co-founder of the San Francisco-based company.

Revel makes software that allows tablet computers to be used as cash registers. The company has sold its products to a dozen Cuban customers who found Revel by searching the Internet. Revel delivered the software to them using an app.

Ciabarra expects Revel's Cuban business to grow because the company tends to get new customers through referrals from existing clients.

Cuba already has a tech-savvy workforce that wants to work with U.S. companies, says Faquiry Diaz Cala, CEO of Tres Mares Group, a private equity firm in Miami. These workers are well-educated in areas like web development and programming, Diaz says.

'All things American'

Lori Hirons believes that when the U.S. embargo is lifted she'll find strong demand for her resort clothing among Cuban women. Ninety percent of sales for her company, Island Contessa, come from other Caribbean markets, including St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin islands, where she is located.

"As I read about Cuba, the people have interest in all things American," Hirons says.

While she waits to see what Congress does, she's learning everything she can about Cuba. One unknown that concerns her is regulations Cuba might impose that could make trade difficult, and perhaps impossible for her.

"It's going to depend on how many hurdles there are," she says.

One company already dealing with Cuban government restrictions is Global Rescue, a medical evacuation company that helps people who become ill during overseas trips. The medevac planes the company uses must get clearance from Cuba officials to fly over the country for rescues in a nearby country, says Dan Richards, CEO of the Boston-based company.

"We often have to avoid Cuban airspace entirely," Richards says. "We're certainly hoping that the Cuban government changes its stand."
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LODENICE, Czech Republic - As vinyl records make a global comeback, a little-known Czech company is riding the market surge to establish itself as the world's biggest record manufacturer, with plans to expand in North America and Asia.

GZ Media, based in a small town south west of the Czech capital, has made deals with all the major music labels and is running its plant day and night, every day of the year - even on Christmas - to satisfy booming demand.

This summer, in an effort to get closer to the growing American market, it is due to open a new plant in Canada and is finalizing a deal to acquire a majority stake in a factory in the United States.

"Nobody expected the vinyl records production to come back in such a strong fashion," Michal Sterba, GZ Media director general, told the Associated Press in an interview.

As a company, it knows something about ups and downs. Previously called Gramofonove zavody Lodenice, it has been making vinyl records since 1951.

But just as the Cold War ended, CDs started taking over the market. The company's output hit a record low of about 300,000 records a year in the mid-1990s. The days of vinyl seemed to be numbered.

Then in 2010 the market began to bounce back. The company's output ramped up dramatically to 18 million last year and an estimated 25 million this year.

That's a big chunk of the world market, which is estimated to have produced between 90 million and 100 million records last year, though official figures are not available.

GZ Media's closest competitors are Optimal Media in Germany, which made about 16 million records in the full year to September.

And United Record Pressing, based in Nashville, which is estimated to have produced 11 million last year.

"At the moment, we export an absolute majority of what we produce, and about a third of it ends up in Northern America," Sterba said. "It is a logical step for us to open a new factory in North America because we have quite a strong customer base there."

Following a $10 million investment, a new joint venture with a partner in Canada, Precision Record Pressing, will start operating in Burlington, near Toronto, in August. Its production capacity should reach 3 million next year and 5-6 million in three years.

Somewhere in the U.S.

GZ Media also is due to acquire a majority in an existing vinyl plant in the United States with a capacity of 3 million records. Sterba would not reveal details.

"Our main goal is to become No. 1 or 2 on the U.S. market in a couple of years," he said.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, total sales revenue of vinyl albums soared 32.2 percent last year compared with 2014, for a value of $416.2 million.

Vinyl albums still have only a tiny share of the overall market for music, some 3 percent globally, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said. The figure is slightly higher, at 6 percent, in the United States.

Following the trend

But the trend is obvious. Sales in the U.S. reached almost 17 million units last year, putting revenue at the highest since 1988. It's also more than the revenue made by ad-supported, on-demand services like YouTube, free Spotify and others, the RIAA said.

Coping with the demand is a challenge for producers. GZ Media, however, has a competitive edge over newcomers. While new equipment for record printers hasn't been developed in about 30 years, GZ Media has invested in making its own pressing machines.

All the major music labels have deals with GZ media to print their records and album covers - from rock to classical music - as it has become an industry standard to have almost every new album available also in vinyl. On top of that, the classics and collectors' items remain popular.

The company is particularly proud of a deal to make 40,000 pieces of a box set with the Rolling Stones' albums as well as the soundtrack music for "Star Wars" that includes a 3-D hologram of a space ship.

Sterba said GZ Media's turnover is expected to grow some 10 to 15 percent this year to reach some $101 million.

How long the revival?

"People are fed up with the virtual music. They want the same experience as their parents, to take the record from the cover and put it on a turntable," said Robert Maly, a DJ who owns a vinyl record store in Prague. "The sound is different."

Just as it was hard to predict vinyl's revival, it is hard to say how long it can last.

"I would expect the growth to continue for another two or three years," Sterba said.
Brian Salerno, the federal government's top cop for offshore drilling, did not go unnoticed as he navigated his way past the diamond-coated drill bits and towering cranes at the Offshore Technology Conference last week.

Just weeks after his agency, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, announced a suite of new rules to reduce the risk of another oil spill like BP's Deepwater Horizon, dealers eagerly explained the latest technology to Salerno.

"I'm sure you're getting all kinds of feedback, but we're listening and want to be at the forefront of the discussion," said Chuck Chauviere, president of drilling systems at GE Oil and Gas.

Between the fallout from Deepwater Horizon and rising concerns about climate change, oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico face a flood of new federal rules in the years ahead. Even as equipment and service providers rush to develop advanced equipment to meet new rules and get it into the field, the prospect of greater government scrutiny is causing anxiety in the struggling industry.

Martijn Dekker, a vice president with the global energy company Royal Dutch Shell, said new U.S. regulation was unlikely to shut down deep-water projects, but it presented another financial challenge to an industry grappling with the high costs of drilling in deeper waters when oil and natural gas prices are low.

"When you have a big headwind, the last thing you need is an anchor around your neck," he said.

In the years ahead, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement will roll out new rules on everything from data collection to drilling pressure margins to how blowout preventers cut pipes.

At the same time, another agency, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, is working on limiting methane released from offshore operations, part of a larger campaign by the Obama administration to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2025.

For the equipment manufacturers and service companies that were at NRG Park last week, tighter restrictions could mean the development of new technologies and greater demand for their products.

At a booth run by Cameron, the equipment company recently purchased by international services giant Schlumberger, sales reps played a video of a new blowout preventer blade that can cut pipe even when it is off-center - one of the problems that contributed to massive spill from the Deepwater Horizon accident.

They also promoted a real-time monitoring service that would tell drilling operators when equipment was in need of maintenance or replacement.

"Real-time monitoring has been voluntary up until now, but it's moving towards regulation," said Matthew Givens, marine systems product manager at Cameron.

Since announcing draft safety rules last year, Salerno, a former rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, has watched his agency endure a steady stream of criticisms from industry lobbyists and politicians along the Gulf. As he toured the floor of OTC last week, looking over the latest in drilling casings and robots designed to work in the oceans' depths, he noted that much of the new regulations could be met by existing technology.

Salerno said he understands the pressure oil and gas companies are under and the restraints they face.

"I would argue those major incidents are harmful to the industry overall, and we work to ensure the rules are achievable and realistic," he said.

The first offshore oil platform in the Gulf was built a mile off Louisiana in 1938, according to the American Oil and Gas Historical Society. It was made of wood and stood in 14 feet of water. Today, oil and gas companies employ floating platforms that cost billions of dollars and can pull oil and natural gas from more than 10,000 feet below the surface of the ocean.

But with these advances have come multiplying regulations, said Joe Savoy, director of asset management at Wild Well Control, which responds to drilling accidents and advises companies on safety.

"In the dim dark past when I first started 40 years ago, the oil companies would know the rules," he said. "But there were a lot less rules. So it's almost impossible for one person to keep up everything that's going on."

Oil and gas lobbyists have pressed the government to simplify its rules and cut down on the number of agencies with which companies must consult on a project.

But that appears unlikely for now. Speaking on an OTC panel Thursday, Salerno said there was more to be done - and more regulation needed - to get the offshore drilling industry to the level of safety it needs.

"A lot of good work has been done, but, and I know it's a cliche, it's a journey, not a destination," he said.
Longstanding Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi, the architect of the 2014 switch in OPEC policy that's since roiled crude markets, was replaced by Khalid Al-Falih, chairman of the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., the world's largest petroleum company.

Al-Falih, who was excused from his post as health minister, will head the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Wealth, the kingdom's official Saudi Press Agency reported, citing a royal decree. Al-Naimi was appointed an adviser at the royal court, with the rank of minister, according to the decree.
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SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. - Aviva Brickman, 11, had been on Sanibel Island, Fla., with her family for less than 24 hours and was already on her third shell hunt. This session was a little more official: a guided beach walk with a marine naturalist from the Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum.

"Here's a fighting conch I found," said Aviva, holding up the swirled mollusk casing expertly identified by museum biologist Stefanie Wolf. "It's fun to learn more about shells, but mostly I just like the different shapes and colors. Everything here is so different from the beaches at home. There are so many more shells - and palm trees."

Home for Aviva is Potomac, Md., and she's most familiar with Rehoboth Beach in Delaware. For this trip, in December, 12 people in her immediate and extended family were gathered on the island on Florida's west coast partly because of its reputation as a world-famous shelling destination.

"There are spectacularly large amounts of shells here," said her father, Aaron Brickman. "I hadn't paid that much attention to the individual types, but after the talk, I have more of a trained eye. Like this spiny jewel box." He held up a small, spike-covered white shell that we had just learned was a bivalve - two halves hinged with a strong, flexible ligament. "Now I see them everywhere."

More Information If you go Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum: 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road, Sanibel, 888-679-6450; shellmuseum.org. Admission is $11, $5 for ages 5-17, younger free. Guided beach walks leave daily from the Island Inn, located on the beach. Reservations required. Walk is $10, $7 for ages 5-17, younger free; includes half-off admission to the museum. See More Collapse

Meanwhile, 10-year-old Baoying Scott, from Eugene, Ore., was filling her bucket with a random assortment of shells, reluctant to choose favorites.

"I like looking at all of them, especially the ones with color," she said.

Her mother, Ellen Scott, quickly added: "We're going to collect and then sort. We can't take them all home. In Oregon, we see mostly mussels and clams, so learning about the different shells here was quite amazing."

Where those visitors saw beauty, I now envisioned a battlefield, or at least the aftermath of one, thanks to our pre-walk talk by leader Wolf. Like many people who stoop for occasional shells, I had never connected them with living animals, much less warriors of the sea.

But Wolf, who poured a big bag of shells on a table before the walk, explained and showed evidence of how, for instance, lightning whelks devour bivalves, crabs sloppily rip through shells to eat the mollusks living within, and other mollusks suck each other up. For instance, the holes you find in shells that seem to be nature's gentle suggestion to turn a shell into jewelry? Actually, those holes are drilled by other mollusks after squirting them with a shell-softener enzyme to allow the predator access to the animal's innards.

"The majority of shells eat each other," Wolf said matter-of-factly. "That's how they die."

Although death is not what one typically ponders while strolling the shoreline, the topic woke me up to the existence of mollusks - soft-bodied animals with no backbones, usually encased in a shell - the second-most diverse group of animals on Earth. More than half of mollusks are gastropods, comprising 70,000 living species of marine, terrestrial and freshwater snails and slugs, according to the museum. About 20,000 are bivalves, such as clams, scallops and my favorite little colorful darlings, coquinas.

"Virtually no one has any idea where shells come from, including the people who live here" on Sanibel, museum executive director Dorrie Hipschman told me later, after I'd professed my ignorance. Since taking the helm at the museum in 2013, Hipschman has instituted the walks, offered daily, as well as regular "live tank talks" at the museum, which this year have increased to one nearly every hour the museum is open. She hopes to add tanks in the future.

"Everyone comes to Sanibel loving shells," she said. "We try to translate that love and passion into an understanding of the creatures that create the shells."

After Wolf demonstrated the many ways mollusks kill each other, she admonished us not to kill them ourselves by collecting "live shells" - illegal in Lee County, which includes Sanibel. In 2013, the county adopted the most stringent shell-collecting rules in the state. Wolf showed us how to look for signs of life inside the shell, including tips for spotting live echinoderms - sand dollars, sea urchins and sea stars, which also are covered by the shelling law.

The museum, however, gets an occasional pass in the name of science.

"A couple times a month at low tide, we collect live shells for food for other shells," Wolf said.

I had a clearer understanding of that a few hours later, when I caught up with Wolf again at the museum during a live tank talk.

"Every morning I come in, I can tell who has eaten who," she said to the crowd while digging her hand into the sand to hold up a shiny lettered olive, a small mollusk that self-polishes to reduce friction while traveling through sand.

"It's the fastest shell in the tank," she said, placing it back in the water. "Look, it's already digging."

Wolf then pointed out a horse conch, a large predator. She reminded us to occasionally watch its progression as it moved across the floor of the tank by thrusting its foot against the bottom while lurching through the sand. By the end of her talk, it had reached the other side.
A pall hung over the Offshore Technology Conference this week, with the world awash in oil and prices hanging below $45 a barrel - less than half their level two years ago. But as workers this weekend rolled up carpets, broke down exhibits, and hauled away the big machines, the source of the oil and gas industry's gloom was also a mark of its triumph.

The global oil glut is, in many ways, the product of the technological advances showcased at OTC that have allowed drillers to tap reserves that once seemed unreachable and geological formations that once appeared impenetrable. In doing so, they have upended the prevailing view of the past 40 years that United States and the world were on the verge of depleting the fossil fuels that drive the modern economy.

Less than a decade ago, analysts predicted that crude would hit $200 a barrel and the world would reach peak oil - the point at which global crude production would start a permanent decline - sometime this century.

Today, with drillers operating in waters more than 10,000 feet deep and the U.S. shale revolution reshaping the geopolitics of oil, those predictions seem as unlikely today as a global oil glut did when oil raced above $140 a barrel in 2008.

More for you Industry looks to technology to solve offshore drilling woes

"Technological progress doesn't just fall from the sky," said Praveen Kumar, executive director of the University of Houston's Gutierrez Energy Management Institute. "The doomsday scenarios gave the industry an incentive to come up with ideas and make big investments in deep-water technology."

Since the OPEC embargo in 1973, which led to gasoline price spikes and shortages across the country, the United States has braced for the next oil shock, forging a foreign policy intent on protecting the flow of oil from the Middle East and other foreign producers. But history shows the world's energy woes have only spurred the industry to overcome huge technological barriers to find and exploit both old and new reserves.

The thirst for oil

In 1949, as a booming post-war economy increased the thirst for oil, the world's first mobile offshore drilling rig was erected in 20 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. The industry developed cement well-casing in the 1950s that could withstand higher underwater temperatures and eventually began to extract data from the rock found in deeper waters to identify potential oil fields.

After the Arab oil embargo, with domestic onshore fields seemingly depleted and prices surging, offshore technology exploded. Companies began to venture deeper. Seismic imaging technology emerged to allow oil companies to spot oil under the sea floors, and a new breed of pumps allowed them to extract much more crude.

By 2001, oil companies had ventured into waters more than a mile deep, which required their underwater equipment had to withstand 15,000 pounds per square inch of pressure and pushed them to create much heavier steel. BP, Shell and their contractors are now developing even stronger gear that can withstand 20,000 pounds of pressure per square inch.

Exxon Mobil, Brazil's national oil company Petrobras and others have found billions of barrels of crude beneath the Caspian Sea between Russia and Iran, off the coast of Brazil, and in the Gulf of Mexico. Others have ventured further out into the ultra-deep regions - more than 10,000 feet of water - that could hold billions of barrels more.

Improvements in seismic imaging have allowed drillers to see beneath salt domes that had foiled offshore exploration for years by confusing imaging technology. The industry's geographic models suggest more than 200 billion barrels of oil are still waiting to be found in the ocean depths.

"The reality is there's no shortage," said Wael Sawan, executive vice president of deep water for Royal Dutch Shell. "It's a question of how we're able to deploy technology to extract that energy and, importantly, how much it would cost."

Goodbye to peak oil

The industry's success in discovering and producing new supplies has led many energy specialists to discard peak oil theory. Specialists say, however, that the industry will need to keep coming up with new technologies in future years - heavier steel for deeper expeditions, for example - as companies try to keep up with rising energy demand from emerging nations.

"Just a few years ago we were talking about peak oil," said Hans-Christian Freitag, vice president of integrated technology at Baker Hughes. "We now know that there are almost unlimited unconventional natural gas and abundant oil resources that will last for many decades to come."

At the moment, the offshore industry is trying to reinvent itself to become more efficient and profitable amid low oil prices. Oil experts worry that the downturn could not only stall big offshore projects, but also set back innovation over the next few years as companies cut research and development spending on the next generation of oil field tools.

One sign that the industry is in for a slowdown in technology came last week, at the offshore expo at NRG Park. The conference had the lowest turnout since 2009, when the last recession was near its worst.

At the conference, energy executives bemoaned high costs, budget overruns and inefficiencies that have put deep-water projects on the back burner for at least two years. But many believe the world will still need to pump lots of crude from the ocean to meet growing demand in the future.

"Offshore is where we're going to get our reserves," said Pete Miller, chairman of Swiss offshore rig contractor Transocean, during the conference. "The shales do a lot of good, but they are not going to be what's going to increase those reserves."

Deep-water ventures have boosted the world's oil reserves greatly, but no oil technology has had a bigger impact on the world's production than hydraulic fracturing, the process of blasting millions of gallons of water, chemicals and sand to crack open shale formations and free oil and gas molecules trapped underground. That practice, combined with horizontal drilling, has opened up vast energy resources in the United States in once-inaccessible rock, pushing U.S. production to its highest point in 40 years.

But scrappy shale drillers owe much to their offshore brethren. Deep-water drillers nurtured and developed both fracking and horizontal drilling through the 1980s and 1990s, in the North Sea near the United Kingdom and in the Gulf of Mexico. Without the cross-pollination of onshore and offshore technology, the industry wouldn't have had the tools to rejuvenate U.S. energy production.

"We knew the hydrocarbons were there (in the shale rock), but we thought we were never going to get to it," said Ron Dusterhoft of Halliburton, the world's biggest fracking company. "The big thing we learned offshore was how to fracture horizontal wells. Getting it to the point where you could do it at relatively low cost on land was key."

U.S. shale oil production is now in a freefall as oil companies sideline drilling rigs, but crude output in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to reach a new record this year as operators turn on projects they undertook years ago. They sanctioned $18 billion in deep-water developments in 2013 alone. Over the next few years, as much as 7.5 million barrels are supposed to be added to the world's daily production, according to consultancy Rystad Energy.

In a few years, as technology evolves and oil prices stabilize, more deep-sea projects will likely become feasible again, and the industry will have a new set of technological challenges.

Changing climate

While the idea of peak oil is no longer mainstream, the question now is whether the oil industry can extract the vast quantities of oil and gas - or whether it will have to leave much of the energy underground.

Experts say chances are high that policymakers around the world will someday agree to impose limits on fossil fuels in an global effort to curb the worst effects of climate change. That could cause a seismic shift in how Big Oil plans for the future.

Already, large companies like Shell and BP have invested more heavily in natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel. France's oil company Total has made investments in solar power. And for the first time, Exxon Mobil acknowledged in its annual outlook this year that fuel efficiencies in light-duty vehicles could mean global energy demand for those cars could peak in 2020, and then decline 10 percent over the next two decades.

"For the first time in 40 years, the oil industry is going to have to do real strategic planning," said Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at the University of California-Davis. "It's almost like an existential crisis because their whole strategy can't just be to keep booking reserves."
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The Ripley House community center in Houston's East End was a familiar hangout for Armando Walle when he was a kid, even though he lived about 10 miles north in East Aldine. Walle's godparents lived across the street from Ripley House, and during visits he saw the array of services it provided for residents of the mostly Latino, low-income surrounding community: early childhood education, for example, and activities for seniors.

"When I would go home, we didn't have that in my neighborhood," recalls Walle. "We needed something like that in Aldine. Our seniors would have liked a place to play bingo or loteria."
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James Weldon Ecford died last month while protecting his mother from an armed robber outside the family's southwest Houston home.

But Ecford, 25, would have done the same for anyone in need, family members said Friday.

"If he saw someone in distress, he would be there for them. He didn't distinguish between anybody," said his father, Weldon Ecford, who also goes by James.

Supporters of his son gathered at the scene of the April 11 slaying to pass out copies of a composite sketch of the armed robber to motorists driving along the 8500 block of Sands Point.

The younger Ecford was autistic but drove himself to his transportation job at Hobby Airport every day. He was also a skilled artist whose drawings have been on display at Memorial City Mall.

"He had autism, but I treated him just like anyone else," his father said. "He felt free and he felt independent. That's the way my wife and I raised him."

A reward totaling $20,000 is being offered for information leading to the capture of the still-unidentified suspect.

"This young man was protecting his mother. What kind of man would shoot an innocent, unarmed man trying to stop you from robbing his mother?" said community activist Quanell X.

Ecford heard his mother screaming for help in the parking lot outside their town home. The man grabbed her purse as she was getting out of her car, then headed toward a waiting vehicle.

"He walked away like it was no big deal," Ecford said.

His son raced outside and grabbed the man.

"He lifted him up. He (the robber) couldn't move but his hands were free," Ecford said.

The man apparently grabbed for a pistol. The elder Ecford, who was still inside the home, heard a pair of gunshots. After shooting the younger Ecford, the robber fired at the victim's mother but missed, Houston police said.

The shooting victim was taken to Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

"My son didn't deserve this," Ecford said. "He was a great young man."

Quanell X suggested someone in the townhouse complex knows the identity of the gunman along with the driver and two others who were also in the car.

"These were men looking for an opportunity to prey on someone," he said. "They murdered this brother in front of his mother for one reason: They were too damn lazy to get a job and go make some money."

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS or Houston police at 713-308-3600.
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An Abilene couple were indicted Thursday for allegedly killing their baby daughter in January.

Amber Craker, 18, and Damian Cate, 22, were charged with first-degree felony murder charges and second-degree felony of "fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse," according to the Abilene Reporter-News.

A preliminary autopsy report found the baby was stabbed at least three times in the neck, chest and the back.

A court document shows Cate held the baby while Craker stabbed her.

Cate is also accused of cleaning up the blood and "assisted in putting baby in the trash can."

Craker was found incompetent to stand trial last month and is committed to North Texas State Hospital. She was ordered to the mental hospital April 7 and will stay there no longer than 120 days.

Cate is lodged in the Taylor County Jail on a $300,000 bond.
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SILVER SPRING, Md. - A federal security officer suspected in three fatal shootings outside a high school, a mall and a supermarket in the Washington, D.C., area was arrested Friday, police said. Three people were also wounded in the shootings.

Eulalio Tordil, 62, an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties, was taken into custody near the supermarket, the scene of the last shooting, authorities said. The brief manhunt and seemingly indiscriminate shootings rekindled fears of the D.C. sniper in 2002, which paralyzed the nation's capital and its suburbs.

Plainclothes officers trailed Tordil for an hour, watching him walk from store to store at a shopping center as they waited for the right time to arrest him. He had earlier threatened to "commit suicide by cop" and authorities wanted to make sure the public was safe when he was arrested.

"Knowing his behavior today, knowing of statements he made in the past, we did not want to endanger anyone and have a shootout when we took him into custody and that's why he was taken into custody the way he was," Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said.

Tordil was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him when his wife said he had threatened to harm her if she left him, The Washington Post reported. Tordil subjected their children to "intense-military-like discipline," like pushups and detention in a dark closet, according to the order.

Authorities said Tordil followed his 44-year-old wife, Gladys, to their children's high school Thursday. As she waited in an SUV in the parking lot of High Point High, Tordil confronted her and shot her. He also shot and wounded a man who tried to intervene.

The shooting occurred more than an hour after school and no students were harmed.

On Friday morning, about 15 miles from the school, police responded to a shooting at the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. One person was initially shot and two others may have been shot coming to that person's aid, said Montgomery County Police Assistant Chief Darryl McSwain. A man died and another one was in critical condition. A woman had injuries that were not life-threatening.

About a half an hour later, while police were still at the mall, they got call of a shooting at a Giant Food store in Aspen Hill, about 5 miles away. A woman who was sitting in her car was shot and killed, authorities said.

Tordil was spotted by officers and when he returned to his car, officers surrounded him.

"They had a bunch of guns pointed at him and he was coming out of the car with his hands up," said Dominique Lee, who was walking out of the flower shop where she works when Tordil was arrested.

A weapon was found in Tordil's car, but authorities have not described it. The protective service said when he was put on administrative duty, his weapon, badge and credentials were taken.

Prince George's County Police on Friday charged Tordil with first-degree murder in the shooting death of his estranged wife.
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BOGOTA, Colombia - Colombian authorities have arrested a prominent Panama businessman they're calling the world's most-wanted money launderer and froze assets belonging to dozens of companies linked to him that were allegedly used to hide millions in illegal drug profits.

The coordinated operation was announced Thursday as the U.S. Treasury Department froze assets belonging to 68 companies in Panama and Colombia under a drug kingpin designation.

On Friday, Colombian police showed videos taken during the arrest of Nidal Waked, whom the U.S. has identified as the co-leader with his uncle, Abdul Waked, of a money laundering network that stretched across an empire of real estate, financial and retail businesses in 14 Latin American nations.

Nidal Waked, 44, was arrested Wednesday night on a U.S. drug warrant upon arrival to Bogota's international airport from Panama City. Police said he seemed surprised but was cooperative and explained he had traveled to the Colombian capital on business and with a family member he was accompanying for a medical appointment. Born in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, he's being held in Bogota pending a U.S. extradition request.

A statement from U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami described Nidal Waked as one of "the most significant money launderers and drug traffickers in the world." If convicted, he faces up to 70 years in prison.

The U.S. law enforcement operation has come as a major shock to Panama, which is still reeling from a huge leak of documents known as the Panama Papers detailing how the world's rich and famous used the Central American nation to hide their wealth. On Friday, the Obama administration announced tougher rules and proposed legislation to prevent wealthy individuals, including politicians, from using offshore shell companies to embezzle money or avoid paying taxes.

Panama's tradition for financial secrecy and crossroads location along the path of South American cocaine heading to the U.S. has long made it an attractive money-laundering center.

President Juan Carlos Varela, who was in Washington when the sting took place, said he had instructed his finance minister to work with U.S. authorities to protect the jobs of Panamanians affected by the asset freeze. He said Panamanian prosecutors are also investigating and banking regulators taking action so that depositors and capital markets aren't hurt.

"I want to assure Panamanians that our independent system of justice and regulators are doing their jobs," Varela said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Abdul Waked has taken distance from his nephew's alleged actions, saying that he hadn't conducted any business with his older brother's family since the 1980s.

"He's not my partner and he's never been," Waked told Colombian radio station La W, adding that he was unaware of any money-laundering investigations against his companies until Thursday. "I want to defend myself. My books are open. And I'll do everything to defend my honor, that of my family and my children."

Abdul Waked, who was born in Lebanon and immigrated to Colombia's Caribbean coast, is behind some of Panama's highest-profile investments including a luxury mall, a bank and the country's oldest newspaper, La Estrella de Panama. Grupo Wisa, the family's holding company, employs more than 6,000 people who work at duty-free zones at airports across the Americas, including Mexico City's international terminals.

The base of operation was Panama City's international airport, a major travel hub that has come under U.S. scrutiny before. In 2007, Grupo Wisa along with the owners of Panama's Copa Airlines paid $173 million to run the airport's duty free zone.

A leaked 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks described the airport as "tainted by a seamy underside of alien smuggling, money laundering, narcotics trafficking and corruption." Passengers in transit could launder money through the many jewelry, perfume and electronics shops found at every turn and which face little regulatory scrutiny, the cable said.

"The duty-free zone at Tocumen is a good example of the kind of live-and-let live attitude permeating the airport," the cable said.

Grupo Wisa issued a terse statement saying the accusations "are false and unfounded." The company said it had instructed its lawyers to cooperate fully in the investigation announced by Panamanian officials.

It's still unclear who they believe the Waked family was allegedly laundering drug proceeds for.

A law enforcement official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly, said the family worked with a wide range of drug cartels from Colombia and Mexico as well as independent drug-trafficking organizations.

The indictment unsealed against Nidal Waked and a co-defendant alleges the two conspired to defraud Ocean Bank by misrepresenting transfers into their account at the Miami bank as loans from another financial institution in Panama.

---

Associated Press writer Juan Zamorano contributed to this story from Panama City.
A paper-based rapid test for the Zika virus has been introduced by a consortium of research groups.

The core of the test kit unveiled Friday is a piece of paper covered with yellow dots that turn purple in the presence of Zika virus RNA.

Although the test is relatively fast and simple, it requires preliminary heating to amplify a sample's RNA, possible in most labs.

The test, which gives results in two to three hours, "is much faster and cheaper than the PCR tests used now," said James Collins, a bioengineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is one of the test designers.

It should cost less than $1 per test, said Keith Pardee, a University of Toronto biochemist and another test designer.

Collins took a cell's normal reproductive "machinery" - including proteins, nucleic acids and ribosomes - and freeze-dried it on paper.

The work was described in the journal Cell. The color change can be read by the eye or by an extra-sensitive scanner that may eventually be able to measure viral loads in the blood sample.

The test has worked on Zika-infected monkey blood.

Now, Collins said, "we're talking with groups in Colombia and Brazil about testing it in the field."

The collaboration also included scientists from Harvard's Wyss Institute, the Broad Institute, Cornell, Arizona State and Boston University.
The Pentagon has placed a small number of U.S. advisers on the ground in Yemen to support Arab forces battling al-Qaida, military officials said on Friday, signaling a new American role in that country's multi-sided civil war.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. personnel had been in the country for about two weeks, supporting Yemeni and Emirati forces that are fighting a pitched battle against militants near the southeastern port city of Mukalla.

"We view this as short-term," Davis told reporters.

'Limited' mission

Officials said the U.S. military is also providing Emirati forces with medical, intelligence and maritime support, and is flying surveillance and aerial refueling missions.

In addition, it has staged ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit off Yemen's coast. The flotilla includes the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.

Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the United States is helping the Arab forces plan operations as part of its "limited" mission in and around Mukalla.

"We welcome operations undertaken by Yemeni Forces, with the support of Arab Coalition Forces, to liberate the Yemeni port city of Mukalla from control by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)," Ryder said in an email.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said that the U.S. presence, approved at the request of the United Arab Emirates, was "way small."

Even a tiny military footprint marks a milestone for U.S. involvement in the Yemeni conflict, which 11/2 years ago brought an end to a long-running U.S. mission there against AQAP.

U.S. troops had left

After the internationally recognized Yemeni government, unable to contain Shiite Houthi rebels, collapsed at the end of 2014, the United States was forced to pull out Special Operations troops who had been training and advising their Yemeni peers.

The departure was a blow to U.S. efforts to battle AQAP, which has long been considered the most menacing al-Qaida branch and which has seized on the chaos of the ongoing conflict to strengthen its military position.

Since then, the United States has confined its military activities mostly to supporting a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels, which the kingdom sees as an Iranian proxy force. The Pentagon has provided some intelligence and aerial support to the Saudi-led air war.

The new U.S. advisory team will support Emirati troops and Yemeni forces loyal to the old government as they seek to capitalize on recent headway against AQAP in Mukalla, which was seized by militants last year.
AUSTIN - Two former presidents named Bush have said "never." So have high-profile Republicans like John McCain and Mitt Romney. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan is not yet on board.

So, when former Texas Gov. Rick Perry quickly went all in for Donald Trump this week, just months after calling the New York real estate tycoon "a cancer on conservative politics," his words were met with immediate disbelief, especially since he had endorsed and campaigned for Trump's nemesis, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. More than just an endorsement, Perry even offered himself up as Trump's running mate and said he would campaign for him.

On Friday, Perry, whose official portrait was hung at the state Capitol in the morning, insisted that no one should be surprised. It's just politics, he explained matter-of-factly.

"If you recall back in 2011, 2012, I probably said some harsh things about Mitt Romney," Perry said of the first of his two unsuccessful runs for the GOP presidential nomination. "He said some harsh things about me. We are competitors, so the rhetoric is the heat of battle. It's in the chaos of the presidential bid. ... If one doesn't understand that, then they don't understand how our process of elections works. We compete, and then we let bygones be bygones."

So, he really didn't believe what he trash-talked about Trump before?

"As late as this last week ... I said he's one of the most talented people I've ever seen. He knows how to market. He knows how to brand. He's vanquished 16 pretty capable men and women," Perry said. "So, from the standpoint of his being capable to lead, to have the vision to take this country forward, I think it's important to have a president who understands economically how to move this country forward and how to build our military back up - an individual who knows how to govern.

"I think that's the most important trait that (Trump) will have to exhibit," he added. "That has yet to be seen, but I feel comfortable that he will continue to do that."

'Come together'

As Texas Republicans pondered whether they could support the billionaire developer or sit out the November election, some clearly were not in agreement with Perry and other party luminaries like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who have signed on to support Trump.

"No way, no how," said Paul Anders, a tea party activist in Houston who had supported Cruz. "For me, this campaign has always been about principle. How can I give up those principles and vote for someone, Trump, who doesn't share them? I'll sit it out."

Like others, Anders said he plans to work to cinch up conservative planks in the state and national Republican platforms that Cruz had advocated, just as other Cruz delegates have announced since Tuesday, when the Texas senator and tea party hero dropped his presidential campaign following a crushing defeat by Trump in Indiana.

For their part, Trump supporters were making much the same pitch, insisting that Perry's flip-flop on Trump shows what this election is all about, and why Trump has been winning.

"Politicians stand for one thing one day and another thing the next day, and that's what a lot of Americans are so sick of," said Butch Coburn, a transportation services broker in Cedar Park, an Austin suburb. "The longer this campaign goes on, the political class that's ruining this country is showing their true colors now. That's why Donald Trump will win in November."

Patrick, who became the first statewide elected Republican to endorse Trump after his Indiana win, said that while he had supported Cruz as his Texas campaign chair and had campaigned for him in other states, it was time for all Republicans to get behind Trump when it became clear he would be the GOP nominee.

"I think Donald Trump can beat Hillary," he said. "The key now is for Republicans to come together and get behind Donald Trump."

Gov. Greg Abbott, also a staunch Cruz supporter, said much the same thing in a Facebook post, without mentioning Trump by name. He referred only to the presumptive GOP nominee.

Other Republican officeholders across Texas have done the same, if they have mentioned Trump at all. The reason, Austin political insiders say, is that many of them in down-ballot races fear that having Trump at the top of the GOP ticket in November could endanger their re-election chances.

"Trump and his negatives are very clearly going to be a drag on down-ballot Republicans across the country," said Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist. "Incumbents in those races are between a rock and a hard place: If they don't support Trump, that could hurt them. And if they do, they may feel they run the risk of tanking the image of the Republican Party. For many of them, Trump is an anathema for everything they stand for."

Risking state races?

Much the same dilemma faced Democrats on a national level in 1972, when ultra-liberal George McGovern won the party's nomination, and Republicans in 1964, when arch-conservative Barry Goldwater won the Republican nomination. Both were trounced in the general election.

"As much as I hate to say this, but I think Texas Republicans need to get on the Trump train and try to make the best of a bad situation," said Derek Porter, 64, a longtime Republican and Perry supporter who backed Cruz. "That said, I think Rick went too far in his endorsement. It looked like he was desperate for attention. But at this point, he's part of the past, not the present."

Like other rank-and-file Republicans who will head to Dallas next week for the state GOP convention, the Austin entrepreneur said he is most concerned that the "Trump factor" could allow Democrats to win a half-dozen state House seats that were close in previous elections, all of them in the Houston, Dallas and San Antonio areas.

In fact, so touchy is the topic of Trump that several officials avoided speaking about him publicly. When Perry made his surprise endorsement on Tuesday, the insiders network in Austin quickly filled with speculation about whether he was pushing to be considered as Trump's vice president or, perhaps, a cabinet appointment if Trump is elected. Neither, Perry said on Friday, though he may be interested in the veep post if asked.

"It's too far out to tell what effect Trump will have," said Jordan Berry, an Austin-based GOP political consultant. "There's a lot of emotion out there, and people still have issues."

'Get over this'

Allen Blakemore, a Houston political strategist, said he expects the pushback against Trump among some Texas Republicans to fade.

"A lot of people are upset, either because their candidate just lost or because the guy they didn't like just won," he said. "It's like when your team loses the big game in the playoffs ... and so they're not going to renew their season tickets next season. But they do, and they're back next season."

As for the endorsements from Perry, Patrick and Abbott while other big-name Republicans publicly withhold their support, Blakemore said he heard some of the same grumbling when Patrick won the GOP nomination to become lieutenant governor in 2014.

"It's about keeping your eye on the goal here: not letting a Democrat win," he said. "People will get behind the nominee. For crying out loud, people get over these things. And while there will be some Republicans who stay home, and some who will skip voting for president and vote for down-ballot candidates, Donald Trump has brought out a lot of non-traditional voters this year. ... And I think he has the opportunity to more than make up (for) the people who don't get over this."
Last week, a mother found this question in her daughter's math homework.

"Doug works 3 hours. He is paid 10 cents for each hour. Holly works 4 hours. She is paid 5 cents for each hour. How much do Doug and Holly earn together?"

The mother, Leslie Contreras Schwartz, called Houston Independent School District to complain about the underlying assumption about her daughter's future: Holly seems to live in a world where Doug is the breadwinner, and Holly, although she works as hard as Doug, is paid less.

Holly lives in our world.

Paying women less than men for the same work has been illegal since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Although the wage gap has narrowed since then, women still earn only 79 cents for every dollar a man earns doing comparable work. The gap widens by race, with black women earning 60 cents and Hispanic earning 55 cents.

Research tells us that women are on par with men in work experience, are equally likely to pursue high-paying careers, and are better-educated than their male counterparts, earning the majority of undergraduate and graduate degrees.

So why the gap? One explanation is gender bias, such as Contreras Schwartz found in her daughter's homework assignment. It's perhaps unconscious, but there nonetheless, according to a study from Cornell University. HISD has passed on the mother's complaint to the textbook publisher, who should change the textbook. But this is just one aspect of the problem.

Another factor is the failure of our infrastructure to support women who work outside the home. School's open only nine months each year, a relic of the family farm age, and the school day ends by 3:30, leaving moms to scramble to fill summer months and to arrange for after-school care.

To achieve their potential in the workplace, more women need safe year-round after-school learning environments where students can finish their homework or take the enrichment classes that have been eliminated from the school-day curriculum. Women need options during school closure days.

It's a self-fulfilling cycle. Given the lack of alternatives for after-school care, employers will have the tendency to predict that women will be unreliable workers so they underinvest in them with lower pay and fewer promotions. As University of Houston researchers Elizabeth Gregory and Chinhui Juhn explore in their project "Who Needs Kids?," it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If one parent has to step out to fill the care gap, it will be the lower-paid one, the woman.

State, federal and local governments need to collaborate to provide reliable child care options for year-round care. Women's opportunities shouldn't shrink just because they're mothers. It's not just "their problem": We do want a next generation.

The Greater Houston Partnership has made a start through Early Matters to improve local access to quality pre-K care. Many women - unable to find affordable quality care - get on the so-called "Mommy Track," and either stop working or cut back. Early education receives limited public funding, and state standards for quality programs are far too low.

The GHP has mobilized the civic community to make a strong case to the Legislature, local government and the philanthropic community for increased investment in early education.

Far more important than the flowers and candy many lucky women will receive Sunday on Mother's Day, this effort can play a key role in creating a world where Holly and Doug will get paid the same amount for the same hard work. The whole family benefits.
A few days ago, Vermont became the fourth state in the country to automatically register voters who apply for a driver's license or state ID. Need we mention that Texas is not among the four?

"While states across the country are making it harder for voters to get to the polls, Vermont is making it easier by moving forward with common-sense polices that remove unnecessary barriers and increase participation in our democracy," Gov. Peter Shumlin said in a statement. State officials estimate the new law could add 30,000 to 50,000 voters to the state's rolls.

The governor didn't mention Texas explicitly, but he could have. While Texas Republicans look for every opportunity to either restrict voting or make the process more onerous, Vermont, Oregon, California and West Virginia have made it easier to vote by simply registering their eligible residents, rather than requiring them to do it themselves. Other states, including Ohio, Illinois and Washington, are moving toward similar automatic voter registration laws.

"I believe that voting is a sacred right that we must encourage and protect, and our democracy works best when people can actually participate in it," Vermont Secretary of State James Condos told the publication ThinkProgress. Condos also noted that automatic registration saves time and money, increases accuracy and curbs the potential for voter fraud. (Citizens are given the option not to participate.)

Fraud, of course, is the excuse opponents use for not implementing automatic registration. Although no evidence of such fraud exists, we have the technology to make sure it can't happen. "There is no dispute that the system needs to be well-designed to make sure that people who are not eligible don't get on the rolls," Myrna Perez, deputy director of the democracy program at NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, told The Atlantic. "But this is a database-management and record collection problem, which we have tools in the 21st century to be able to address."

Perez said she hoped the trajectory of automatic voter registration would mirror the effort to allow citizens to register to vote online. As recently as 2010, she noted, only six states had online registration; now more than 30 do.

"I think we will see these other states come, and this will become something that is commonplace and normal, but somebody needs to be trailblazers," she said. "We're totally in the trailblazing phase."

That state way back up the trail? The big, lumbering state so far behind the trailblazers it's barely visible? That's Texas, of course. Still, we can hope that the day will come when we catch up to the normal.
A silver lining?

Regarding "Anti-establishment fury doesn't explain Trump," (Page A21, Friday), I find it immensely ironic that columnist Charles Krauthammer expresses dismay at the Trump phenomenon while a letter writer ("Inconvenient truths," Page A20) provided a spot-on explanation: bigotry.

Trump is the consummate racist and sexist. Unfortunately bigotry is alive and well in the country. But, I would argue, there is another reason for the popularity of Trump that is encouraging. Trump has said repeatedly he is a deal maker; he is capable of compromise. I believe that the majority of Republicans are sick of the rigid tea party obstructionism espoused by the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz and Krauthammer. Hopefully this signals the demise of the stranglehold on Congress by a minority of radicals in Congress.

Kenneth Meyers, Houston

Political puzzle

Krauthammer says the anti-establishment backlash doesn't explain Trump, and I agree. Why did voters pick Trump over Cruz? Cruz is hated by the rest of Congress, by establishment Republicans and by people who have written in to the Chronicle admonishing Cruz for being an absentee senator.

So what made Trump the victor? Could it be that many Democrats, as well as independents, were also fed up with the left and the bungling of Obama? These voters are not too much in favor of a truly conservative president, but just a non-politician president. Trump filled that bill.

Some have expressed fear of a Cruz presidency; this is the most exasperating piece of the puzzle. What is scary about a constitutionalist, or a devout Christian? It is obvious to me that no one fears an anti-constitutionalist or a less-than-devout Christian, because the halls of Congress are full of them!

James Connealy, Baytown

Hateful rhetoric

I hope Charles Krauthammer reads the letter to the editor which answers his question of how Donald Trump has been so successful thus far. As most of us know, the answer is racism and bigotry. Trump has tapped into a bottomless well of hatred for those who aren't white Christians. It's the cornerstone of the Republican Party and has been for a very long time.

Unfortunately, the next generation is being indoctrinated with the same hateful rhetoric. Result: Donald Trump is the Republican Party's presumptive nominee.

Marilyn Mounger, Conroe
In March Hillary Clinton told a CNN interviewer, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business." That was a true but dumb thing to say in advance of the West Virginia primary. So this week Clinton went on an apology and listening tour through Appalachia.

She heard tales of loss and renewal. Then she gave a speech proposing an agenda for the region. It was a perfectly serviceable speech. Yet you can see in it some of the reasons the Clinton campaign has not exactly caught fire.

The core problem is that she sounds like a normal Democratic candidate in the noble tradition of Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey, but she doesn't sound like an imaginative candidate who is responding with fresh eyes to situations today.

This year it seems especially important to show voters that you see them and know them, and can name the exact frustrations in their lives. Clinton's speech was filled with the flattery that candidates always offer their audiences - "Appalachia is home to some of the most resilient, hardworking people anywhere." But the political rhetoric was conventional and she didn't really capture the texture of life.

She didn't really capture the way economic loss has triggered a series of complex spirals, and that social decay is now center stage. A few decades ago there were 175,000 coal jobs in the U.S. Now there are 57,000. That economic dislocation has hit local economies in the form of shuttered storefronts and abandoned bank buildings.

Everywhere there are local activists trying to rebuild, but it's hard to hold off the dislocation, distrust and pessimism. Birthrates drop. Family structures erode. Life expectancy falls. People slip between the cracks and inevitably drug use rises. According to The Charleston Gazette-Mail, between 1999 and 2009, per-capita consumption of oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl tripled. By 2009 West Virginians were annually filling 19 painkiller prescriptions a person.

Heavy opioid use often slides over into heroin use. Heroin overdose deaths tripled between 2009 and 2014. In those years the state had the highest drug overdose death rate in the nation.

It's not surprising that there's so much drug use in towns where there's so little to do. But the root of this kind of addiction crisis is social isolation. Addiction is a disease that afflicts the lonely. It is a disease that afflicts those who have suffered trauma in childhood and beyond. And once the social fabric frays it's hard for economic recovery to begin. I ran into employers in Pittsburgh who had industrial jobs to fill but they couldn't find people who could pass the pre-employment drug test.

Clinton did gesture toward some of these truths, saying, "They're dying from suicide, but I thought Bill really put his finger on it. He said, 'You know what they're really dying of? They're dying of a broken heart.'" But her policy ideas don't exactly respond to current realities.

She vowed to "take a hard look at retraining programs." She'd expand tax credits to encourage investment. She'd get tough on trading partners who are trying to dump cheap steel. These are the normal, sensible ideas candidates propose, but they are familiar and haven't exactly done much good.

A daring approach might have been to use the speech to propose a comprehensive drug addiction and mental health agenda. That would have grabbed the attention of all those Americans whose families are touched by addiction and mental health issues - which is basically everybody.

A more imaginative approach might have been to unfurl a vision to reweave social fabric, the way David Cameron has in Britain. In areas of concentrated poverty, everything is connected to everything else - job loss, family structure, alcoholism, domestic violence, neighborliness. It would be nice if America, too, had creative politicians who could put together a comprehensive agenda that nurtures social connection, rather than just relying on economic levers like job-training programs that have consistently disappointed.

A more timely approach would have noted this fact: That for all of American history, people have moved in search of opportunity, but these days we're just not moving. The number of Americans who move in search of jobs has been declining steadily since 1985.

Place-based federal anti-poverty programs discourage mobility; if you move in search of opportunity you risk losing your benefits. The government could offer mobility grants to help people get their families from one place to another. It could set up migration zones - helping people find housing and connection in places where jobs are available.

Clinton's speech was not bad by any means. But she could have offered something inspiring and audacious - to tackle mental health problems, to reweave community, to make America the daring mobile place it used to be. She could have grabbed the nation's attention.

This is a country seriously off course. A little creativity is in order.

Brooks is a New York Times columnist.
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Many Canadians would like to think of our country as a place where Donald Trump's brand of politics wouldn't fly.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was widely applauded back in December when he criticized Trump's "politics of fear" and "hateful rhetoric."

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But an anti-establishment candidate could gain momentum in next year's Conservative party leadership race, according to one political commentator.

Lawyer Stanley Hartt, who served as former prime minister Brian Mulroney's chief of staff, told Bloomberg Canada on Tuesday he thinks Canadians could gravitate to a Trump-like figure because so many are disengaged.

"With an economy that's flat, despite the fact that governments keep telling us they're wonderful, you look at youth graduating from university, and they're told, 'you stay in college, get your education, you're going to be able to get a great job...' they can't get jobs."

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Minority communities and older people have trouble finding work too, he said.

Anger could build, Hartt said, making a populist candidate more attractive to disaffected voters.

"All of those people look at the government, and the opposition, frankly, because they change from time to time, and say, 'You guys haven't managed this for my benefit.'"

We can learn from our southern neighbours, he said, partially by having fewer candidates and fewer debates that force them to perform.

He also agreed that there are parallels between Trump and "Shark Tank" host Kevin O'Leary, who has expressed interest in running for the Conservative party's top job.

Both have business and reality TV backgrounds, Hartt said, but zero political experience.

"So basically they're coming along as total outsiders and they're earning their media by being interesting in the worst sense of that word."

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But he stressed that O'Leary hasn't mused about banning groups of people from the country, or building a wall.

The "Shark Tank" host himself has rejected comparisons to Trump.

One analysis concluded that Canada was unlikely to see the success of someone like Trump.

The Canadian Press' Alexander Panetta noted back in January that many of the billionaire's party supporters have lower education levels, and Canada is better-educated than the U.S.

He also writes that Canada is less unequal than the States, and immigration, which is a big part of Trump's platform, hasn't widened the wage gap in Canada as it has down south.

"I think it is possible for an outsider, for a brash outsider, a trash-talking outsider, to come along and basically suck the air out of the room."

Hartt maintains that Canadians could become just as disgruntled as our friends we love to hate.

"I think it is possible for an outsider, for a brash outsider, a trash-talking outsider, to come along and basically suck the air out of the room."

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Voter turnout dive and jump

It's hard to know how if Canadians are really as disengaged as Hartt said, but voter turnout has wavered over the years.

Since 1867, average voter turnout has been almost 71 per cent, not counting the most recent election. Between 2000 to 2011, it dropped to an average of 61 per cent.

But October's federal election, which saw the Liberals handily win a majority, it jumped to to 68.5 per cent -- the highest turnout in more than 20 years.

And young people, long seen as apathetic, came out in huge numbers to vote for Trudeau's new government, according to a recent study.

Abacus Data estimates turnout for voters ages 18 to 25 years old jumped by about 12 points in 2015.

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There is a lot of evidence that young people aren't involved or interested in politics, wrote report author David Coletto.

"But the 2015 Canadian election may have been the start of a political awakening of a new electoral powerhouse in Canada."

'Sunny ways' in Canada

But while Trudeau's "sunny ways" message may have swept up voters, and Canada is a different place than America, people find plenty of issues to raise a ruckus about.

Housing prices are sky-high in many big cities. A number of Aboriginal communities live in poverty. Daycare spots are few and pricey  Canada tied for last in a 2008 UNICEF report of 25 developed countries' childcare.

Also on HuffPost

11 Donald Trump Protest Signs See Gallery
As the dust settles on what has been a fractious Mayoral campaign, Londoners will hope that the focus now turns to policy commitments and a real debate about the future of our city, rather than personalities and its past.

And in terms of policy, nothing is more vital to the ongoing prosperity of the city, and particularly to supporting people experiencing poverty, than a concerted effort to tackle economic inequality. Mayor Khan's guiding principle should be how he can ensure the huge

successes of London work for everyone.

Of course all Londoners, and especially those on low incomes, want the Mayor to focus on affordable housing and transport. But underpinning this should be a long-term strategy to reduce the inequality which is dividing the city, trapping people in poverty and carving out an economic future where only a minority can flourish.

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It's very encouraging that Sadiq Khan has committed to establishing an 'economic fairness' team in City Hall, which will promote the living wage and access to good quality apprenticeships, while also encouraging positive business behaviour.

But economic fairness also means ensuring that the huge wealth of London is used in an equitable way to reduce poverty and support long-term, sustainable opportunities for everyone living and working here. That includes the 2.3 million people who are living in poverty, more than half of whom are in work.

Oxfam has been calling for an Inequality Commissioner throughout this election, and we hope that the 'economic fairness' team can cover this remit, with scrutiny from members of the London Assembly. To do so would mean considering the economy of the city explicitly through the lens of inequality, and thinking about the levers that would close the gap between the rich and the poor. We need big, bold ideas, from looking at wealth and property taxes to the role of tax havens and a focus on employment in London.

The Mayor needs to go beyond only supporting the London Living Wage and start thinking about employment as a whole - to develop a decent work standard that supports sustainable employment with good conditions and progression routes for those who are on lower incomes.

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It also means recognising that extreme inequality limits the opportunities of those at the bottom, like the 100,000 people relying on emergency food bank parcels in the last year. High levels of inequality make the city as a whole more expensive, pushing more people into poverty and holding back the productivity that makes the city successful.

It is astonishing that, in 2016, in the richest city in the UK, there remains a 25-year difference in life expectancy between the richest and poorest wards.
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 30: Australian senator and greens leader Richard Di Natale delivers a speech during a protest demanding that asylum seekers held in off shore detention to be brought to Australia at a rally in Melbourne, Australia on April 30, 2016. Protests have started after The Papua New Guinean Supreme Court ruled that the Australian-run detention centres on Manus Island were illegal and unconstitutional. (Photo by Asanka Brendon Ratnayake/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

The Greens will relish the upcoming election campaign and are confident in picking up a number of lower house seats, the party's leader Richard Di Natale says.

Speaking on Saturday, Di Natale said he was feeling very good about the campaign, describing the Greens as a "genuine opposition" for a more compassionate and decent society.

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"The Greens are ready to go," Di Natale told reporters.

"We've never been in better shape and this campaign here in Victoria will present our best result ever. We have a wonderful prospect in a number of lower house seats, we have some of our terrific candidates behind us."

His comments come amid speculation that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will announce a July 2 federal election on Mothers' Day.

News Corp Australia reports that the PM is tipped to visit Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on Sunday afternoon where he will formally call the election.

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Earlier this week, Turnbull said that he would confirm the election before the 11th of May and itll be on the 2nd of July.

Di Natale said the Greens would be the only party with a serious plan to tackle global warming.

"During this election campaign, we will be the only party standing up for strong action on dangerous global warming because, if we don't, we risk losing the Great Barrier Reef, those incredible Tasmanian forests, we risk losing some of Australia's most precious natural heritage," he said.

"But not just for those reasons, because tackling dangerous global warming and transitioning to the clean energy economies are a huge opportunity to create new jobs, bring in international investment and get the Australian economy humming again.
People protest against the right-wing government in Warsaw, Poland, on May 07, 2016Around a quarter of a million Poles flooded central Warsaw Saturday, marching to defend their country's place in the European Union and protest against moves by the right-wing government, which they say undermine democracy. Warsaw city hall said the protest drew some 240,000 people, making it one of the largest demonstrations since the 1989 collapse of communism in Poland. / AFP / WOJTEK RADWANSKI (Photo credit should read WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

LVIV, Ukraine -- In the past few months, alarm bells have been raised in Poland as critics of the country's new ruling party, Law and Justice, or PiS, speak out against what they believe are dangerous infringements on democracy and a wave of conspiratorial panic in the country. The accusations of cronyism, authoritarianism and an overall surge to the right don't just come from far-left activists however.

Just last week, three former Polish presidents published an open letter featured in one of Poland's largest newspapers denouncing the new government for what they believe is a "usurpation of power" over existing laws and institutions. Amongst them were Lech Walesa, a Nobel Peace laureate who became modern Poland's first freely elected president.

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"The new government is pursuing policies which both disrespect law and justice, which is ironic given that the party is named Law and Justice," said Piotr Maciej Kaczynski, a former research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies, a Brussels-based think tank.

'The new government is pursuing policies which both disrespect law and justice.'

The de facto leader of PiS is Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the brother of former Polish President Lech Kaczynski who tragically died in a plane crash in 2010. Jaroslaw's reign has thus far been characterized by rapid, dramatic changes and the perpetuation of conspiratorial thinking.

Kaczynski, the PiS leader, still insists that the Russian government orchestrated the death of his brother Lech. He delivers inflammatory speeches claiming Muslim migrants and refugees carry dangerous parasites, which panders to his devout Catholic and Muslim weary audience. He has also helped to paint liberalism as a monumental threat. Throughout it all, Kaczynski has found time to spark a constitutional crisis in the country.

PiS has tried to paralyze the constitutional courts of the country from making any decision that could halt his vision. The maneuvers sparked backlash from the European Union and the court's tribunal responded by declaring that attempts to paralyze the court are contrary to the constitution of Poland. Kaczynski then declared that the court tribunal is inciting "anarchy" in the country and suggested revamping the constitution entirely.

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A protester holds a Polish flag with a sign echoing the slogan for the May 7 anti-government rally, 'We are and will remain in Europe!' (Agnieszka Stawiarska)

His actions indicate that the party wants full control of the constitutional court said Krzysztof Izdebski, a Warsaw-based lawyer and policy director at Fundament, an NGO which promotes the rights of citizens. "They want to introduce laws which are inconsistent with the constitution," he said. "They're taking the country in an authoritarian direction endangered by corruption and nepotism in which human rights are treated as post-modernistic fairy tales."

One example of this erosion of rights occurred in early April, when a citizens' initiative to abolish the abortion rights in Poland received the public backing of both Poland's Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and Kaczynski. Currently, Polish law only allows abortions to take place if a woman has either been raped or subject to incest, might die during the birth, or is carrying a severely damaged fetus. Outraged Poles took to streets across the nation to express their utter shock.

"We were the party that organized tens of thousands of people across Poland the moment that there was this proposal to ban abortion completely. It's barbaric what they are trying to do," said Joanna Bronowicka, who ran for Polish parliament with the left-wing Partia Razem party. "They took three months to do what it took Orban in Hungary years to do," referring to the oft described "strongman" leader of Hungary. Orban is notorious for being combative against the EU while pushing through reforms which have widely been seen as undermining democracy.

'They're taking the country in an authoritarian direction endangered by corruption and nepotism in which human rights are treated as post-modernistic fairy tales.'

Her major concern with PiS' actions is that she sees Poland's position in Europe moving rapidly away from being seen as an emerging leader and champion of European values.

"Poland was on the right course to be a main influencer and decision maker in Europe," she said. "The economy was doing well, and politically we were growing, and now we're going to be isolated. We could have been the country to re-energize Europe, but PiS destroyed the image of Poland in just a few months."

Her concerns are being echoed today during a large left-wing protest in Warsaw Saturday aptly named "We Are and Will Remain In Europe," which is being staged by an organization called The Committee for The Defence of Democracy, or the KOD. The protest has reportedly brought over 200,000 people out onto the streets of Warsaw. Polish public broadcaster TVP is calling it "the largest demo in Poland since the end of communism in 1989."

A protester waves a Polish flag as Poles march against the country's ruling party in Warsaw. (Agnieszka Stawiarska)

It remains to be seen what impact the protests will have, but the wave of enthusiasm for the protests has brought together nearly all major parties of the left into a coalition called "Liberty, Equality and Democracy." According to KOD leader Mateusz Kijowski, the stated goal is "defend the rule of law in Poland and its place in the European Union."

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A spokesman for KOD, Martin Mycielski, said this is just the latest in a string of major rallies by concerned Poles.

"The first issue that rallied the masses was the two new 'media bills,' which put direct government control over public broadcasters and let PiS appoint political puppets," he said.

'We could have been the country to re-energize Europe, but PiS destroyed the image of Poland in just a few months.'

Reporters without Borders cited these bills as the reason for Poland's precipitous drop in its recently published 2016 World Press Freedom Index. It now lists Poland in 47th place, a drop of 29 spots.

Poles will likely begin feeling the effects of changes in their wallets soon as well, as the Polish currency begins to tumble and shares of state-owned companies fall as a result of investor worries over the direction PiS is taking the country.

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Barbara Nowacka, the co-chair of the left-wing party Your Movement, said that she's also worried about what she believes is an attempt at changing the education system in order to develop what she calls "a new patriotic Pole." They would share values with the far right, "values which are not shared around Polish society," she said. This shift could entail a deeper acceptance of the interwinding of the Catholic Church and state, as well as giving the green light for open xenophobia.

A protester holds a display mocking de-facto ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydo, left, and Polish President Andrzej Duda, right. (Agnieszka Stawiarska)

Reports of racism are springing up often in Polish media and PiS seems to have given its critics plenty of ammo to work with this week by quietly abolishing an anti-racism council. However, there are those who believe PiS' critics are not only over exaggerating, but also quite hypocritical themselves.

Roch Baranowski is the young CEO of a Warsaw-based company and readily admits that as recently as three years ago, he wouldn't have imagined himself as a PiS supporter, but said that he now admires Jaroslaw Kaczynski's vision for Poland.

He is part of an unexpected wave of voters who helped bring PiS to power. Mycielski from KOD acknowledges the changes and said that "until the last elections the PiS support base was symbolized by the older, more Catholic people from lower classes," but now says that, "an analysis of the last election results revealed large backing coming from younger -- often first-time -- voters." He attributed this in part to a conservative and nationalistic shift caused by the migrant and refugee crisis, but also to a skillfully run election campaign from PiS.

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'The new direction established by the Law and Justice is the road to Polish authoritarianism.'

"They managed to shift the blame for any and all of people's troubles to the previous Civic Platform government, which wasn't itself free of sin, and offering younger generations a 'good change,' with nothing short of free money in the 'Family 500+' program," Mycielski said.

Baranowski's thoughts largely echo Mycielski's analysis. He feels that the so-called "liberal elite" of the former ruling party, Civic Platform, were more concerned with appealing to their foreign partners and the EU than building a prosperous country for regular Poles.

"Western companies accessed Poland to exploit low cost labor and sent the profits back to their own countries," he said. "Polish people didn't see the benefits of the past 25 years of GDP growth. That's why PiS was elected. The promise to build strong Polish companies that foster innovation and help regular Polish people, not just call center jobs."

Polish nationalists, right-wing supporters and ultra-catholic activists demonstrate in support of government before beginning of anti-gov't protest. (WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

A young Civic Platform MP named Kinga Gajewska feels her party did an exceptional job during its years in power, but acknowledges that it hasn't been appreciated by some.

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"Civic Platform made a big leap of civilization," she said. "It built thousands of kilometers of roads and highways, unemployment fell below 10 percent and the Polish economy grew. Poland made it through the global crisis without serious complications. Polish society grew rich and the meaning of Poland in the international arena was growing."

Unfortunately she says that those who couldn't see the larger picture were easily swayed by PiS. Although Gajewska points to her party managing to bring the unemployment rate below 10 percent, the rate of unemployment for people under the age of 25 was "well above the OECD average of 15 percent."

'At best, this government will isolate Poland, but at worst they can be quite harmful for Europe.'

"Part of Polish society did not feel like the beneficiaries of this leap, and they were incited by populist and nationalist slogans," she said. "The new direction established by the Law and Justice is the road to Polish authoritarianism."

It's too early to tell what the impacts of PiS changes thus far will be because they are all so fresh, albeit happening at a rapid pace. The party's moves, however, do seem to be bringing the country firmly to the right.

One thing is clear: as long as Jaroslaw Kaczynski remains behind the reins in Poland, the country will continue to surprise its allies and partners, which Piotr Kaczynski says is dangerous because countries need to be able to anticipate what their partners will do.

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"We can't foresee what will be the next steps internationally," he said. "At best, this government will isolate Poland, but at worst they can be quite harmful for Europe."

Also on WorldPost:
What do you do after you brought your party's control of government to a dramatic end? You become an international scold and blowhard, blaming the world's problems on everyone else--who have no ability to solve any of them.

In fact, has-beens and once-weres often are brought in as decorations for international gatherings, meant to add gravitas to the proceedings. A few years back I shared an elevator with former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who was speaking at Qatar's Doha Forum. He said nothing of note either in private or public, but exuded the air of a man who still mattered.

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It turns out he's the UN Special Envoy for Global Education, which must be as superfluous a position as exists. People recognized the importance of schooling long before there was a UN. And there's not much the global organization can do for a service that can only be delivered locally. Indeed, in poor countries schools tend to get worse the more the national government is involved. Inexpensive private schools often are the only hope for the most disadvantaged and marginalized people in the most impoverished and oppressed nations.

However, Brown unburdened himself in the Huffington Post, and the subject wasn't education. Rather, he said we all are responsible for the depredations of Nigeria's murderous Boko Haram. Really. "The World Should Be Ashamed of the Failure to #BringBackOurGirls," he titled his article.

It's been more than two years since the group--which has attributes of both insurgency and terrorism--kidnapped 276 girls from the town of Chibok. Boko Haram is an Islamist-jihadist group; its name roughly means "Western education is forbidden." The militants kill moderate Muslims but typically target Christians, as in Chibok. They usually slaughter male students, but often capture girls for sex slaves, child wives, and suicide bombers. Despite promises from the Nigerian government, proffers of Western assistance, and a twitter campaign led by First Lady Michelle Obama, none of the girls have been rescued.

Two years on Brown offered his opinion: "we have all done far too little to secure their release." Indeed, those enslaved "are now a symbol of our apparent weakness to protect young lives."

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Wow. I didn't realize that I should have spent the last two years attempting to "secure" the girls' release. Moreover, I shudder to admit, I didn't view my inability "to protect" their lives--kind of hard given geography and nationality--as a result of my "weakness."

It's an awful tragedy committed by moral monsters, but "we" should not gloss over the ugly realities of Boko Haram's activities. The mass kidnapping was not some unexpected act of nature, but a conscious attack by armed insurgents/terrorists. It succeeded because the security forces that should have been guarding the school and students--police and military--failed to fulfill their responsibility. Indeed, official corruption and violence have inflamed support for Boko Haram.

Moreover, this atrocity is like those occurring across the Middle East and North Africa. Small but dedicated bands of radicals are committing murder and mayhem against Christians and other religious minorities in the name of Islam. Targeting Christian children is not happenstance, but part of Boko Haram's agenda. And the blame is widely shared, but not by "us." For instance, malevolent actors such as Saudi Arabia have promoted radical Islamic fundamentalism around the world. Indeed, the Saudi royals and others like them have made it hard for Nigerians to protect their "young lives." Exactly what Britons, Americans, and others in the culturally Christian West could have done escapes me.

Brown offered an answer of sorts--but one would expect from a "UN special envoy" with little connection to the real world. Obviously, he insisted, "emergency aid funding" for education should be increased, not that that likely would have done much to help the Chibok girls. Indeed, there isn't much evidence that tossing money at schools does a lot for educational attainment even in peaceful settings. A new global funding program would, however, presumably reflect well on the special envoy's efforts.

Moreover, he observed that "the United Nations Security Council could intervene and encourage the Nigerians--with the support of the Americans, the French, the Chinese and the British--to undertake enhanced air surveillance and potential action on the ground to secure the release of the girls." Actually, the U.S. government, among others, encouraged Abuja to do more to confront Boko Haram. Certainly the Nigerian people desire more effective action--which is one of the reasons they ousted incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in favor of former dictator Muhammadu Buhari in last year's election. Unfortunately, the Nigerian government and especially security services are part of the problem. UNSC "encouragement," whatever that means, merely creates the appearance of doing something.

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Brown then asserted: "we could and should do far more to protect children from attacks and abductions when in school." Who is "we"? Should I pick up an AK-47 at the local flea market here in northern Virginia, hop on a plane (or two or three) for Chibok and head to a local school to take up picket duty? Moreover, how do "we" prevent "attacks and abductions" at, presumably, not just Nigerian schools, but schools in every nation around the world? After all, children are shot and killed in schools in poor neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., America's capital.

Brown also suggested: "To show the kidnappers will be punished, the Security Council should adopt a resolution that holds the perpetrators of future child abductions accountable so that the full weight of international pressure is brought to bear." And who will enforce this resolution? Will UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon show up in Boko Haram territory, wave his copy of the document, and accept the surrender of Abubakar Shekau and his chief lieutenants? "The full weight of international pressure," whatever that means, isn't necessary to defeat Boko Haram. What is needed is a competent and honest national government able to govern fairly and apply military force where necessary. Yet another UNSC resolution isn't going to help.

Finally, Brown added, "All governments should now support a 'Safe Schools Declaration,' stating that attacks on schools, colleges and universities are crimes against humanity. And the international community should ensure the funds for guards, for cameras and simple gates to protect schools in conflict zones." Does Brown really believe that Boko Haram would have stopped if confronted by cameras, gates, and guards, let alone an international declaration? The group has prospered by defeating Nigeria's security forces. Northeast Nigeria is involved in armed conflict. If "the international community" wants to do something, it needs to arm itself and volunteer for duty in Nigeria. Perhaps Brown could lead the way.

What's going on in Nigeria and in so many other war-ravaged states is tragic. It goes without saying that, as Brown argued, "We cannot ever deliver universal education if we cannot ensure millions of girls and boys in conflict zones have the chance to go to school." But does he really believe "emergency aid funding" for education would solve the problems of Nigeria as well as Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Congo, Ukraine, Somalia and elsewhere?

Instead of blaming the rest of us for problems well beyond anyone's control, Brown and others like him should bring their ambitions back to earth. Millions of kids around the world currently denied the chance to prepare for a better future need practical help in their local communities, not UN resolutions, international declarations, and pompous proclamations from special envoys.
My mother, Betty, was a beautiful, talented, smart woman who never believed any of that.

There were various reasons for her disbelief. Some of them, I understood. Some, I didn't. And never will.

At age 35, she searched for help after her first panic attack. She didn't call it a panic attack. Probably the doctor didn't either. It was 1960. All of a sudden, her heart was pounding. She was perspiring, hands clammy, all while she was trying to quietly attend her ladies church circle meeting. (Something she didn't particularly enjoy but was a duty for any proper Southern wife in the 1960s.)

After hearing her symptoms, the doctor gave her a sedative. This was common practice at the time, especially for women. She was told to take it every day. "Nerves," he called it. And he dismissed her.

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Thus began my mother's prescription drug addiction. That drug was called Equanil. There were others. She used them daily for over 30 years.

No doctor ever stopped to try to help her understand the root of her anxiety. They handed her more pills. It's true that she did not seek therapy. Rather, she ended up developing behaviors of an addict. Getting prescriptions from different pharmacies. Different doctors. All she could do to feed the craving, as she secretly danced with her own demons.

Until the laws changed, and she couldn't do it anymore.

I figured out later, when I entered graduate school (and diagnosed everybody and their dog ... including myself by the way ...) that my mother had obsessive compulsive tendencies, was a horrible worrier (termed Generalized Anxiety Disorder), and was not a hoarder per se but certainly was what she would call a "saver."

She would buy multiple products all at once -- hair spray, deodorant -- and line them up in drawers.

She would panic if she did not have two bottles of the same medicine (back when the pharmacies allowed you to do that). One for home. One for her "travel bag." She didn't travel much.

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She was highly perfectionistic. Weeks prior to a party, the dining room table would be elegantly set. Silver gleaming. She would check and recheck every detail. She would never eat, making sure every guest had all they needed. If someone was sitting alone, she would chat them up to make sure they felt welcome.

She would get up hours before everyone, to "put her face on," as she called it. I don't think my dad ever saw my mom without makeup.

Funny how that comment is a bit ironic now.

To her credit, she realized she had a problem. She was in her late 60s. She could no longer metabolize the medication. She was irritable. Acting irrationally. Driving erratically.

I remember a conversation we had. It was when she decided she would go for help. It was the last one we would ever have where she seemed emotionally present.

She got off the meds. It took several months.

But she disappeared.

Without the mix of sedatives, painkillers, and benzodiazepines, Betty was no longer Betty.

She was a shell of herself. She had aged 20 years. There was evidence of neurological damage -- whether or not that occurred independently of the multiple medications she used, we will never know.

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For most of the day, she remained almost mute. She would speak when spoken to. Smile only when something inside of her remembered that that was the socially appropriate thing to do. She walked hesitatingly, and as the years went by, almost like she had Parkinson's.

Dependence on a drug is more than physiological. You can forget how to live life without it.

I might catch a glimpse of her old self if I called at just the right time. Around 7:30 at night. Her rituals for the day would be over. She would ask a question or two. There would be a slight lilt in her voice. Maybe she would laugh.

It was welcome but painful to hear. Because I knew it would be gone.

She lived that way the last 15 years of her life.

Maybe you and a parent share time, and do things together that continue to build a sense of trust and intimacy.

Relish that time you have together.

Others of you may have parents that you're also watching disappear. With alcohol. With drugs. Maybe they are in denial. "I need it to sleep." "It's prescription." "I get up and work everyday -- it's not like I'm an alcoholic."

But you see the changes in them.

I had a patient one time who told me, "I had fantastic parents until 5:00." When the booze made its appearance.

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Or maybe you are the person escaping. Disappearing. Not knowing how to handle anxiety, insecurity, loss, fear -- any other way than by downing a medication. A drink. Taking a hit.

We live in a culture glorifying escape. We don't know how many people are actually using benzodiazapines, for example (Xanax, Valium, Librium, Halcyon, Ativan, Klonopin). But it's a lot. People share them with their friends. Kids steal them from their parents.

Escape is easy to justify.

My mother's world was not glorious.

Please realize that you may not simply be sabotaging your present if you are trying to escape it. You may be ruining your potential future.

And that of the people you love. Who love you.

My mother told me once, in that halting, breathy voice that became all I would hear in her last years, "I wish I had known what I was doing to myself."

You have heard her story.

She would want you to know that there is another way.

And to my Mother. Whether you knew it or not, you were beautiful. And talented. And smart.

I missed you then. I miss you now.

You can read more of Dr. Margaret on her website. Click here.

Image of woman dancing courtesy of Marta Brejio via Flickr's Attribution/Share license.

Earlier on Huff/Post50:
Procrastination strikes everyone, and once it gets ahold of you, it can be very difficult to shake it off. When you imagine a highly productive person, you likely think of someone who focuses effortlessly on the job and never succumbs to procrastination. You know, the type who can sit on the ground in a subway station with their laptop and still manage to get more done in an hour than you would in a day at the library.

The truth is, ridiculously productive people face the same procrastination challenges as the rest of us. The difference is, they beat procrastination by using a calculated approach. First, they understand why they procrastinate, and then they apply strategies that beat procrastination before it takes hold. Anyone can follow this two-step, research-driven process to overcome procrastination.

The Procrastination Doom Loop

You can't hope to stop procrastinating until you first have a firm understanding of why you procrastinate. Research from Joseph Ferrari at DePaul University shows that procrastination is more complicated than most people think. People tend to think of procrastination as coming from poor time management or laziness, but Ferrari's research shows that procrastination stems from negative emotions that hijack your mood. Once you're under the influence of these emotions, you can't bring yourself to work.

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Instead of being lazy or disorganized, people usually put things off because they aren't in the right mood to complete the task. Doing so places you firmly inside the procrastination doom loop. Since you've decided that you aren't in the right mood to work, you distract yourself with other tasks--checking email, checking the news, cleaning your desk, talking to a coworker, etc.--and by the time you come up for air, you feel guilty for having wasted so much time. This only worsens your mood, and as the deadline draws closer, you feel worse than you did when you first put off the task.

Overcoming Procrastination

Beating procrastination is a simple matter of exiting the doom loop by taking control of your mood with emotional intelligence. With the right strategies in place, you can take the reins and get yourself in the mood to get things done. The strategies that follow will help you to make this happen.

Figure out why. When you aren't in the mood to work, procrastination is telling you something important. It could be something simple, such as you need to take a break or get something to eat. It could also be something complex, such as you're carrying the team on your back or you're dissatisfied with your job. Whatever it is, instead of punishing yourself for procrastinating, take a moment to reflect and figure out why you're procrastinating. This could end up being the most productive step you take in conquering your task.



Remove your obstacles. Prior to getting started on a task, take a moment to carefully consider the obstacles that might get in your way. Then, develop a plan to ensure that they don't. For example, you might have instructions for a task in your e-mail inbox, and if you don't do anything about it, you'll repeatedly go back to your inbox to look at them, only to get distracted by other incoming e-mails. In this case, your management plan should be to get the instructions out of your inbox prior to starting your work. By planning ahead, you can maintain your focus and avoid procrastination. After all, it's much harder to regain focus than it is to maintain it.

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Jump right in, no matter what. Sometimes it's really hard to get started on something, even when it's something that you love to do. I might be staring at a blank Word document or standing on the beach on a cold winter morning. That first step is difficult, but once you get going--typing that first paragraph or taking off on that first wave--your mood improves dramatically. When you focus your attention on how difficult and cruddy it is to get started, you discourage yourself from doing so. When you dive right in no matter what, your mood quickly improves, which helps you to stay on task.

Cut holes in your project. We often procrastinate because we feel intimidated by the size of a project. To minimize intimidation, try cutting holes in it. Find smaller pieces of the task that you can quickly and easily accomplish. For example, writing a proposal might require 10 hours of intense concentration, but you can spit out an intro in 15 minutes and develop a list of deliverables in 10. Before you know it, these smaller tasks have cut serious holes in the project and it's no longer intimidating.

Work in the right environment. Even if you do everything else right, working in the wrong environment can make you succumb to procrastination. This means keeping yourself away from television, electronics, friends, and loud places. This isn't what works for everyone, but you need to exercise discipline by working in the environment that's right for you.

Enjoy small victories. There's nothing quite like checking something off of your to-do list. To keep yourself from procrastinating, you need to experience this sense of accomplishment by tracking your progress carefully. Small victories build new androgen receptors in the areas of the brain responsible for reward and motivation. The increase in androgen receptors increases the influence of testosterone, which further increases confidence and eagerness to tackle challenges. This keeps you fired up and moving forward. Sometimes crossing a few easy things off of a list is all it takes to build up the mental strength to tackle something big. Remember, it's not about doing small tasks to avoid big tasks; it's about including small tasks in your daily checklist to build your confidence and momentum.

Get real. Setting unrealistic goals for your day is a great way to become discouraged and to succumb to the negative moods that fuel procrastination. Setting realistic goals keeps things positive, which keeps you in the right mood to work.

Take control of your self-talk. Saying to yourself, "I'm not going to procrastinate. I will not procrastinate," virtually ensures that you will procrastinate. There's a classic study where participants were told to not think about a white bear. It turns out it's nearly impossible to avoid thinking about something that you tell yourself not to, as your mind gravitates towards the thing you're trying to avoid. The trick is to shift your attention to something completely different (and positive). Instead of telling yourself not to procrastinate, think about what you will do and how great it's going to feel to have it done. This way, your mind fixates on the action you want to take instead of the behavior you're trying to avoid.

Don't be a perfectionist. Most writers spend countless hours brainstorming characters and plot, and they even write page after page that they know they'll never include in the book. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when it's time to get started because we know that our ideas aren't perfect and what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you don't get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarizes the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly: "You can edit a bad page, but you can't edit a blank page."

Focus on results. Chances are, you don't enjoy going to the dentist. Not many people do. So why do you go? It gets results. Your dentist is quite good at making your teeth and gums healthier and more appealing. You also go because the pain of having someone pick at your teeth for an hour is nowhere near the pain of getting a cavity filled, a tooth pulled, or a root canal. You go to the dentist because you know the process is worth it. The same mentality applies to a challenging task. While it may make you anxious to get started, don't focus on that. Just think of how great it's going to feel to get things done and how much worse you'll feel if you wait until the last minute and don't give it your best effort.

Forgive yourself. There's no point in beating yourself up when you slip up and procrastinate. You might think that punishing yourself will help you to avoid procrastination in the future, but it actually has the opposite effect--beating yourself up sends you right back into the procrastination doom loop.

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Bringing It All Together

The key to beating procrastination is to understand that procrastination is rooted in emotions. If you think you might need some extra help here, consider taking an emotional intelligence test. The strategies above will help you to turn the procrastination doom loop on its head and to achieve greater productivity than ever before.
By Elizabeth L. Krause, Katie Waldron and Aline Gubrium



Blinded by their own judgment, some journalists use the guise of science to perpetuate shaming narratives about young moms.

A recent study, reported in major media outlets, explores the risk of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID). The study involved 43 mothers under 20 years old living in Colorado. Participation was not based on having lost a child. The findings indicate that despite education on risks of co-sleeping and use of loose blankets in cribs, young mothers disregard pediatric recommendations and instead rely on their own instincts and family practices.

In a follow-up report on the study for NPR, health blogger Laurel Dalrymple considers these findings in light of her own parenting practices as a 30-year-old mom. She admits that she herself did "cheat" and did not always follow pediatric advice. Yet she justifies her behaviors due to her assumed sophistication and maturity.

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We take issue with this double standard. The author positions teen moms along an evolutionary mothering hierarchy in which young moms lack the capacity for complex reasoning such that any decisions are reduced to base instinct. The 30-year-old mother, by contrast, claims that she has the individual "drive" to resist the temptation to co-sleep and thus portrays herself higher up on the decision-making chain than the young mothers.

Her report depicts an image of young moms as irresponsible and having a cavalier attitude, willfully exposing their children to known risk factors of SUID. Reviews like Dalrymple's are part of an ongoing campaign against young parents. They are nothing short of public bullying.

Such tactics add up to a thinly veiled attack on marginalized families. Reports like these ignore the reality of growing wealth and socioeconomic inequality and the ways this plays out in the lives of many young parents, while reinforcing the common sense notion that young moms cannot parent effectively. They become the archetype of irresponsible caretakers.

We expose how such health reports equate to public bullying of the demographic of young moms.

First, the reporter uses the finding that young moms listened more to friends, family members, or their own "instinct" than to experts, painting young moms as overconfident in this instinct. The reviewed study does not offer a comparison of maternal age groups. We argue that confidence in maternal instinct is not exclusive to young mothers. There is an overwhelming body of parenting advice as well as social influence, from which it is commonplace to do what works and feels comfortable for individual families.

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Reproductive health feminists and medical anthropologists, among others, have levied critiques against the fetishizing of expert advice and demonstrated how it undermines women's agency and prevents revaluing different forms of knowledge, particularly from marginalized groups.

Second, the reviewed study and the reporter take issue with young moms' bed sharing and co-sleeping while failing to mention that sleep researcher James McKenna and a number of other well-known evolutionary biological anthropologists advocate safe co-sleeping. The closeness of mother and infant enhances breast milk supply and increases the amount and quality of sleep that mothers get. Indeed, the acceptability of co-sleeping is incredibly stratified so that middle- to upper-class, well-educated white women actually have bragging rights for co-sleeping.

Our research and work through the Hear Our Stories project (www.umass.edu/hearourstories) with young Latina mothers in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where the teen birth rate is the highest in the state, reveals stark social and reproductive health inequities. Young parenting is connected to so many other issues, such as education, housing, disinvestment of communities, growing economic inequality, racism, and possibilities for "doing your life," i.e., living a dignified life.

Blinded by the dominant narrative of ideal parenting, the reporter and those conducting the study do not seem to realize that a different set of standards has been employed to evaluate young versus older moms. They also do not take other contributing factors into consideration when evaluating the parenting practices of these different age groups.

For example, neither the study nor the report about it acknowledges that population research correlating maternal age and sudden infant death also strongly associates other factors, namely tobacco use and having two, three or more prior births, while one of the most protective factors against sudden infant death is Hispanic race/ethnicity. Such large-scale population studies, however, fail to account for socioeconomic differences.

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We wish to highlight the fact that all new mothers are judged regardless of their age. However, society's judgment of young mothers is far more intense. We argue that the intensity of the judgment and the forms it takes constitute nothing short of social bullying, and young moms are sorely aware of the judgments. In our interviews with young mothers, they attest to harsh treatment by medical staff, social workers, and family members. Barbara Hanna has documented the extraordinary extent to which young mothers' lives are publicly examined in ways that older mothers, particularly those from the middle-classes and above, cannot begin to imagine.

This judgment has a cost, and we call it the cost of shame.

The point we wish to drive home is that once young women have a baby, they are mothers, like it or not. Having a baby is a life-changing event no matter the age at which it occurs, and mothers younger and older report that having a child forced them to "grow up." It is unfair to treat young mothers separately and harshly, robbing them of the support offered to pregnant and parenting women who may only be a few years older. Young mothers deserve and need support, not shaming and bullying.

Surveillance of mothering practices and the "ideal" age of first-time mothering has intensified, thanks in no small part to the cacophony of biased studies, news reports, and state welfare apparatuses. Meanwhile, women face tremendous pressure to avoid having a child until their lives are perfectly set: college degree(s), career on track, financial stability, and a supportive and employed partner. When these criteria are not met, being pregnant becomes a physical indicator of shame and what are viewed as poor choices. This is reflected in reports that cast young mothers in a demeaning and stigmatizing light.

Rather than harsh judgments, we need supportive narratives, unbiased studies, and concrete resources to enhance mothering experiences for young mothers.

* * * * * *

Elizabeth L. Krause is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. ekrause@anthro.umass.edu

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Katie Waldron will receive a BA in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst this May and will continue as a graduate student in education at Mount Holyoke College. knadeau.waldron@gmail.com
In some of my writings, I have observed the way the US has, for centuries, absorbed countless waves of immigrants from many continents transforming them, in short order, into Americans--comparing this to the European situation which does not, as a rule, provide the same opportunities for advancement and inclusion. I have also noted that not only do new US citizens take on a new identity, but in the process of absorbing the many diverse groups who have come to our shores, the American identity, itself, has also changed. Again, this describes a process that is not generally applicable in Europe.

This absorptive and transformative capacity of new immigrants is one of America's defining traits. It is the process that has provided the opportunity for diverse incoming groups to beat back the hateful scorn and hurtful exclusion with which they have often been greeted and, within a generation, find their place in the economic, political, and social mainstream.

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It is precisely this unique characteristic that has made the experience of Arab and Muslim immigrants to America different than that which has been encountered by their compatriots who have emigrated to Europe. During the last century well over one million Arabs, Christian and Muslim, and another three-quarters of a million non-Arab Muslims have settled as immigrants in the US. Unlike their counterparts in Europe, they are not locked in ghettos, becoming an underclass. Lebanese peddlers or autoworkers, Syrian steelworkers, Yemeni farmworkers and longshoreman, Palestinian and Egyptian small merchants, and Moroccan waiters--have within a generation experienced the extraordinary social and economic upward mobility that is possible in America. They do not remain in the lower economic strata, because they find that opportunities abound in their newly adopted country.

This much is true. But there is an important caveat that must also be noted--that establishes an American parallel with Europe.

There is a dark underside to the American story. New immigrants do not find themselves locked into a "ghettoized underclass" precisely because one already exists in America--comprised of African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. As a result, when new immigrants arrive they are able to jump in line ahead of these historically oppressed groups and move up the economic and social ladder. This is not the fault of the immigrants. It is the way the table has been set for them. It is America's national shame and a reality we must not ignore.

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America was born in original sin--actually three different sins: the cruel genocide and ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples, the institution of slavery imposed on Africans, and the occupation and subjugation of Spanish-speaking lands.

I have grown weary of seeing articles comparing the experiences of recent immigrant Muslims in the US with those in the UK or France. They are not the same, at all. The third generation angry, alienated, unemployed Arabs in the ghettos surrounding Paris do not find their counterparts in the Arab American communities in the US. A closer parallel can be found in the struggling African American or Latino ghettos in many US cities. Like the North African or South Asian victims of colonial oppression who came to France or the UK seeking opportunity and became embittered as they found, instead, unemployment and systemic discrimination, African Americans who left the American South or Latinos who fled poverty in Central America, have also found their dreams denied. Like the immigrant underclass in Europe, African Americans and Latinos are over-represented among our poor, our unemployed, and our prison populations. And they present American society with a nagging reminder of the sordid chapters of our past we prefer to ignore or forget.

Just as the British and French have failed to recognize and atone for the consequences of their shameful behaviors in South Asia and the Arab World, Americans have never come to grips with the devastating impact and lasting trauma visited upon this country's indigenous peoples, slaves, and the victims of our imperial conquest of lands to our south.

But, in both instances, these victims of our histories live among us still waiting to be full and recognized participants in our societies. While we sometimes seek to absolve ourselves by pointing to the successes of those who made breakthroughs knocking down barriers to advancement--until we acknowledge our past injustices, include its lessons and the experiences of our victims in our self-definition, and radically transform our societies to create more fully inclusive societies, we will continue to be plagued by the consequences of our original sins.

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As UNESCO held its World Press Freedom Day (#WPFD2016) conference this week, an Egyptian speaker lamented the declining state of liberty in her country amid fears she, too, faced prosecution for publishing content the government considered subversive.

"In a context where the political environment is not sensitive at all to the basics of human rights standards, it becomes really pointless to talk about legal instruments, and in the specific case of Egypt, two pieces of legislation about to pass are going to turn my life into a nightmare as well as those of many others," said Lina Atallah, co-founder and chief editor of Cairo-based Mada Masr.



Mada Masr chief editor Lina Atallah (Abu-Fadil)

She was referring to authorities' surveillance overreach and online censorship exercised in the name of national security, among other pretexts, during the conference's first plenary session in Helsinki.

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"It is important for those of us who continue to be out of prison to push for the kind of independent journalistic practice that we want to defend and not to let the paranoia of state surveillance stop us from working," Atallah said. "I know the cost is high, but there's still a space to function and there's a space to reverse, to some extent, many of the state's attempts to limit our freedoms through legislation and arbitrary practices."

Ironically, the Egyptian prosecutor general slapped a gag order that same week on publication or broadcasting across media platforms of any news about the apprehension of Egyptian journalists inside their syndicate headquarters and hauling them to jail on alleged charges of terrorism and violations of the penal code.



Screen shot of Egyptian prosecutor general's gag order

"We need governments to be accountable and transparent," said CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour who wears the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression hat.



UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, CNN's Christiane Amanpour (Abu-Fadil)



But her wish list is a tall order for many countries where press freedom is in short supply and violence against journalists is par for the course.

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According to UNESCO, one journalist is killed every five days in the line of duty and the impunity of such acts is unabated.

"Press freedom depends on safety," noted Guy Berger, UNESCO's director of the Division for Freedom of Expression and Media Development at the opening of a parallel research conference on the safety of journalists, adding that 95% of attacks on media staffers are never resolved.



Safety of journalists (courtesy UNESCO)

Another inescapable irony is that this year's WPFD coincides with the 250th anniversary of the world's first Freedom of Information Law in Sweden and Finland. Finland was part of Sweden at the time.

The "Freedom of the Press Act 1776" passed by Sweden's parliament abolished preventive censorship and made political debate - including criticism of the country's rulers - permissible. But religious texts remained subject to prior censorship.

The Act stipulated that administrative and judiciary documents, as a rule, were public and that citizens had the right to access them.

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Screen shot of 250th anniversary of the world's first FOI law

The legislation was the brainchild of Anders Chydenius, a 37-year-old Member of Parliament and chaplain of a small, remote parish in the Swedish kingdom's eastern part - present-day Finland.

Over 100 countries now have similar legislation.

"This same spirit led UNESCO's 195 member states to establish the 28th of September as the International Day for Universal Access to Information," said the organization's director general Irina Bokova.

Another milestone celebrated in Helsinki, Bokova added, was the 25th anniversary of the Windhoek (Namibia) Declaration adopted by a group of journalists in Africa in 1991 that called on the world to defend freedom of expression, as embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The three-day conference, including off-site activities, was packed with sessions also focusing on media coverage of the refugee crisis, artistic freedom, whistleblowers and source protection, hate speech and ethics, gender issues, and freedom of information.



Press freedom posters at WPFD (Abu-Fadil)

An animated session on new frontiers in disinformation and the use of propaganda pitted Russian Union of Journalists Executive Secretary Nadezhda Azhgikhina against the Latvian Culture Ministry's head of the Media Policy Division Roberts Putnis in a debate over who engaged in media manipulation.

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Animated "disinformation" session (Abu-Fadil)

UNESCO awarded its Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in absentia to Khadija Ismayilova, a freelance journalist from Azerbaijan and a contributor to Radio Free Europe who has been in jail since 2015 for her bold investigative work.



Jailed World Press Freedom Prize Laureate Khadija Ismayilova (Abu-Fadil)

The prize is named after Cano, a Colombian editor who was killed in front of his newspaper in 1986 because of his campaign against drug violence.
There is an expression in Yiddish: A heavy heart talks a lot.

I was reminded of that when I sat down with the great pianist, Lang Lang, and his mom, for an episode of Wavemaker Conversations: A Podcast for the Insanely Curious.

The following brief video excerpt is mostly in Mandarin. And while Lang Lang translates for his mother -- no translation is necessary to appreciate the depth of feeling.

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In order to fully appreciate the moment, some background is useful.

When Lang Lang was only nine-years-old, he was encouraged by his beloved piano teacher in his home town of Shenyang to move to Beijing. In China's capital, he would aim to earn a ticket to the top - a coveted spot in the Central Conservatory.

Only one of his parents could afford to move with him. It was decided his father would go and his mother would stay back home and work to support them.

Lang Lang's mother knew that, for a long time to come, she would hardly ever see her son.

And so, I asked her, in the video excerpt above, how she felt when she said goodbye to her only child when he was only nine.

If the story ended there it would be a terribly sad one - about a permanently heavy heart.

What Lang Lang endured -- to ensure it would not end there -- is revealed in our Wavemaker Conversation.

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Lang Lang and his father rented what they could afford -- an unheated apartment -- in a slum that reeked of animal urine.

7 minutes, 55 seconds into the our podcast, Lang Lang describes how, only six months after arriving in Beijing, before the auditions for the Conservatory, he was fired by his influential new teacher - a woman he called Professor Angry. He describes his father's extreme reaction, and how he, Lang Lang, bounced back from that devastating setback.

In the final few minutes I ask Lang Lang's mother, Zhou Xiulan, how often she sees her son now - now that he is recognized as, perhaps, "the hottest classical artist on the planet" -- now that they cannot be separated by poverty.

Her answer is a mere three words. She finds the words in English.

And she demonstrates that, sometimes, for a mother - for any parent -- a light heart can be virtually silent.

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Thousands of anti-Vietnam war protesters march along the Avenue of the America's on 6th Avenue in New York City on April 5, 1969. Many of the protesters wore black arm bands bearing the number "33,000," referring to the American deaths in Vietnam. (AP Photo)

May is historically a month for protests, and first, I'd like to protest the fact that Rev. Daniel Berrigan died last weekend, just a few days shy of what would have been his 95th birthday on May 9.

May, too, was the month in which this outspoken Jesuit poet and peace activist, with his fellow priest and brother Philip, and seven others, staged one of the most significant and symbolic protests against the horrors of Vietnam. On May 17, 1968, they walked into the office of a draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, removed the files of young men eligible for military duty, took them to a parking lot next door, doused them with homemade napalm and set the files ablaze.

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"Our apologies, good friends," Dan Berrigan said, "for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children, the angering of the orderlies in the front parlor of the charnel house. We could not, so help us God, do otherwise."

The Catonsville Nine were tried and convicted for destroying government property. Rather than go to prison, three of them, including Dan and Phil Berrigan, went on the lam, but the brothers soon were caught (while underground, Dan had a habit -- greatly vexing to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI -- of popping up in public to deliver sermons, then disappearing again). In August 1970, Dan began his three-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut.

So he wasn't around to offer guidance the following year, in 1971, as many of the more militant in the anti-Vietnam war movement decided that in light of events like Catonsville the time had come to up the ante and move from largely peaceful mass demonstrations to more direct and sometimes even violent acts of civil disobedience.

This, too, was in May, 45 years ago this week, in fact, when thousands came from around the country and gathered in Washington under the slogan, "If the government is not going to stop the war, we will stop the government."

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The week before, perhaps as many as half a million had shown up for a Vietnam protest so mellow that many took advantage of a closed-off Pennsylvania Avenue to skateboard and sunbathe along the boulevard on a warm spring Saturday. But now, thousands gathered with the express purpose of physically blocking bridges, main arteries and traffic circles leading into the capital. According to The New York Times, the Nixon White House responded with 12,000 federal troops, 5,100 local police and 1,500 National Guardsmen.

Police broke up an encampment at West Potomac Park, near the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, and protesters scattered, many of them to the Georgetown University campus, where I was a student. I still remember the helicopters buzzing overhead.

On Monday, May 3, the protesters regrouped and put into action their plan to shut the city down during the morning rush hour, using hit-and-run tactics and any large or small object that came to hand. The police and military pushed back hard.

I was a student reporter and my photographer John and I headed toward Key Bridge near the Georgetown campus. Forever in my memory is the sight of Rhode Island US Senator Claiborne Pell, standing on the steps of his townhouse in robe and pajamas, retrieving his daily copy of The Washington Post and looking completely befuddled by the flying debris and overturned cars around him.

Soon John and I were fleeing through streets and alleys with the demonstrators. We rounded the intersection of Prospect and 36th Streets and ran smack into a wall of tear gas, the worst I had ever experienced. We fell to the pavement, blinded, but soon were taken in hand by volunteer medics and led to a makeshift infirmary in the basement of a university building. Once our eyes had been thoroughly flushed with water and we had a chance to rest a bit and catch our breath, we headed back to the streets and raced to the main campus where police on motor scooters, in total violation of an agreement with the university, fired grenade after grenade of tear gas at protesters and students alike.

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Over the course of three days, some 12,000 protesters were taken into custody, the largest mass arrest in American history. There were so many the city's jails couldn't hold them all and most were taken to RFK Stadium. People from the neighborhood threw food and blankets over the security fence.

I wanted to report on what was happening at the stadium but figured the only way to do it was to get arrested myself. I went to a sit-in on the Capitol steps where police were dragging protesters into buses. Get close enough, I thought, and I was certain to be sucked into the vortex. Sure enough, an officer soon had his hand on my arm but just as he tightened his grip, a photographer I knew from the Post pulled my other arm in the opposite direction. "He's with me," the photographer shouted and the cop actually let go. Thanks, I said to my friend, but inside I was screaming, "Stop helping me!"

I never did get into the stadium; ultimately, fewer than a hundred of the arrested were charged, everyone else was quickly released. The debate would continue over whether the violent confrontations were justified -- on the face of it, the attempted shutdown was a failure -- but in retrospect the government's overreaction to the Mayday protests was a misstep, one more proof of a failed policy that was simply delaying the inevitable in Vietnam at the cost of thousands and thousands more lives. Like the Berrigan brothers and their comrades at Catonsville, the attempt to obstruct the streets and bridges of Washington was an act of disobedience designed to throw a wrench in the works of the war machine.

The next year, Dan Berrigan was freed from Danbury after serving half his sentence. I interviewed a number of Jesuits for an article on Dan and Phil in Georgetown University's alumni magazine, modeled on an extraordinary all-Berrigan issue of the Holy Cross Quarterly, then joined the staff of Democrat George McGovern's quixotic, anti-war presidential campaign.

A few weeks after we had gone down to exhausted but noble defeat, I went to a lecture Dan Berrigan was giving at a downtown Washington church. I was nursing what I thought was just a very bad, long-lasting cold. We met afterwards and his greeting, characteristically to the point, was, "You look terrible. Go see a doctor." Sound advice. When I took off my shirt for the ER physician, revealing my fading McGovern tee shirt underneath, he said, "You're the seventh McGovern guy I've had in here since the election." Diagnosis: pneumonia.

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Several years later, I had moved to New York. One Friday night, some friends showed up at my tiny apartment for a late dinner and with them was Dan Berrigan. He was in good form. Sufficient alcohol was consumed during the evening that unfortunately I recall little of what actually was said but I do remember Dan's post-midnight recitation of another great Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins:

I say more: the just man justices;

Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;

Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is --

Christ. For Christ plays in ten thousand places,

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his

To the Father through the features of men's faces.

In the following years, I lost touch with him and apparently that was not uncommon. He took the advice of the great Catholic philosopher and author Thomas Merton and, in the words of Georgetown senior fellow Paul Elie, became "a figure of radical purity and apartness." The man once so visible, once so potent and public a symbol of dissidence, quietly continued to write and protest (and get arrested), as he kept his vows, studied and taught scripture and humbly ministered to those who needed his faith. The just man justiced and kept grace.

May is historically a month for protests. It's the month of Chicago's Haymarket bombing in 1886; of Paris in 1968, when students and workers almost brought down the government of Charles de Gaulle; of May 1970 and deaths at Kent State and Jackson State, the resulting student strike that closed colleges and universities across the country.

And now in yet another May of turmoil we protest the death of Dan Berrigan, mourn his passing but celebrate all that he did and said and wrote, while celebrating, too, all those like him who speak out and strive to make this country a land of peace and justice that's honest and wise and decent and compassionate. You know, the things that truly make America great.
There are certain experiences in life that are transformative.

My time with Rebecca Samuel, one of the mothers of the 276 Chibok Girls of Nigeria who were abducted by Boko Haram terrorists on April 14, 2014, was one such experience. Although 57 of the abducted girls courageously escaped on their own, 219 remain in the hands of the world's deadliest terror group which brazenly detonates girls as human bombs.

I vividly remember the first day I met Rebecca. It was in the middle of rush hour traffic on the bustling streets of Abuja (Nigeria) in early April. I watched her hastily cross a two-way street in Abuja's business district while perfectly balancing her ten-month old baby on her right hip. She was one of three mothers of the Chibok Girls who had agreed to speak her heartbreaking truth via our photo essay entitled, "Letters to Our Daughters: #HopeEndures."

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Initially, there was an awkward moment of silence when our eyes met. I assumed it was because I do not speak much Hausa (her Nigerian dialect). So instead, I endeavored to connect with a smile, but her eyes did not betray the depth of her pain. Instead, she smiled back warmly and graciously agreed to reschedule since it was already late in the day and the sun would soon be setting, making it almost impossible for us to capture the full extent of what I realized was her daily reality.

At the crack of dawn the next morning, I drove to a small village on the outskirts of Abuja where I met Rebecca and her family. Although I knew she was one of the mothers of the still missing Chibok Girls, I did not really know much more than that. In her own context, I immediately felt the weight of a life that had been forced upon her by the Boko Haram insurgency. Herself, her husband and five other children had fled the war in March 2014 and have since been forced to adjust to life on the margins; life on Boko Haram's terms. They were not receiving any financial support from the government of Nigeria and no psycho-social support had been provided to help them cope with the reality that their daughter was in the hands of terrorists who swore allegiance to ISIS in 2015. She was living in the most humble of conditions. The most humble.

As she shared her story, I reflected on the three categories of mothers who are most impacted by Boko Haram's "holy war" against Nigeria: mothers whose children were stolen and/or murdered by Boko Haram; those whose children are actively involved in fighting the war for Boko Haram or for Nigeria; and the women and girls who become mothers as a result of their abduction by Boko Haram. I realized that Rebecca's paralyzing fear, as we approached the second year anniversary of her daughter's abduction, was that in addition to being a mother whose child had been stolen, she potentially fell into at least one other category, while her daughter possibly fell into the third.

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Sarah Samuel is Rebecca's oldest daughter. She was abducted when she was 18 and would now be 20 years old. She is a vibrant young woman who loves reading and helping her mother around their home. After her family's forced displacement from the North-East to Central Nigeria in March 2014, Rebecca had made the courageous decision to leave Sarah in boarding school in Chibok because she understood that education was one of the fastest accelerators out of poverty. Sarah planned on attending University after completing her college entrance exams in April 2014. It was to be her way of alleviating some of her mother's tears, I was told.

Her mother explained the unbearable agony of not knowing whether a child is alive or dead. Rebecca told me that some parents have developed high blood pressure. 19 others have died from stress related illnesses.

"If not because of God's grace, we all would have died," Rebecca expressed in her letter to the daughter she has not heard from or seen in two years. She is tormented by the vacillating emotions of both fear and hope.

Had her daughter been declared dead, she would at least have been able to grieve and begin to move forward. But for now, "I've lost everything," she cried.

She cries every day. And then she prays. And then cries again. This is her daily affliction.

It is Mother's Day on Sunday; a day where many mothers are celebrated and mothers celebrate the joy of being blessed with children. Yet, there are at least 219 mothers of war in Nigeria (and thousands more around the world) for whom this day will represent unbearable sadness. Rebecca Samuel will be one of those mothers, because although her five other children force her to stay alive and present, there is a gaping hole in her heart for the one daughter she longs for, 755 days post abduction. It is a hole that sometimes feels all encompassing; a hole that often causes her world to reflect all of its images in black only. Yet, her unwavering #HopeEndures because she believes that one day, God will rescue her daughter.

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It was difficult to look Rebecca in the eyes. Now I know why. It was not only because I was welcomed into the abyss of her deepest, potentially life threatening pain but because I knew that I was a part of a world that had failed her. I was part of a world that prioritized sending rockets into space over saving human lives; a world which held up #BringBackOurGirls placards in May 2014 and employed selective outrage in order to conveniently do nothing more. This is a world that values western lives over the lives of nameless African girls who we have infamously branded "hashtag ChibokGirls," as if they are devoid of individual identities. As if they are faceless human beings who could adequately be described by the number "276."

As a Nigerian mother and an activist who has advocated for the rescue and rehabilitation of these girls, that meeting with Rebecca left me questioning. It left me questioning my commitment to speaking truth to power. It left me questioning whether I was as dedicated to demanding peace as the terrorists are to declaring jihad. It left me looking at myself in the mirror and seeing the pained faces of Rebecca and the two other Chibok mothers of war I interviewed, Esther and Martha. It left me hearing their cries in my head even after their faces were no longer visible before me.

I have to do more.

And that is because there is so much more to be done. It is simply unconscionable that two years later, we have no answers for 219 devastated mothers of war. How is it that in 2015, NASA's scientists, by using a wide-field infrared survey explorer, discovered the brightest galaxy on the universe, but yet we cannot collectively locate 219 girls trapped in the clutches of hell? How is it that the rallying cry to #BringBackOurGirls appears to have fallen on deaf ears?
There has always been conflict in the world, but maybe there is more now.

Consider the reaction of the New York Times, the august publication that is our only remaining paper of record.

Despite its legions of Page One editors, copy editors, proofreaders and support staff, the Gray Lady proceeded to fetishize conflict by using the words "rift" or "riven" in the headline or lead paragraph, actually the lead clause, in four of the stories on today's front page.

In fact, all three stories above the fold in the print edition--one about Chicago's problems of public trust, in the far right column; one about the election of the first Muslim mayor of London, closer to the center of the paper; and one about the divisions within the Republican party, in the far left column--opened with either "rift" or "riven."

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I write this not because I am trying to channel the late William Safire, whose "On Language" column sometimes delved into such meta criticism.

I write this because it strikes me that in an age where we are constantly being told that the nation is polarized, perhaps language can still offer hope, despite what some might view as the existential threats of texting, tweeting and other seeming advances.

Let's begin with the top story above the fold, "Chicago Survey Finds Many See City Gone Awry."

Here is the lead on this article, with my emphasis in all-caps: "The people of Chicago are deeply RIVEN by race, class and neighborhood..."

This is an important story, worthy of its placement in the far right column above the fold. As the article points out, African-Americans in particular "appear to have lost faith" in some of Chicago's leading figures, including its mayor, Rahm Emanuel, as well as many of its public institutions.

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The egregious tactics of the Chicago police, part of a pattern against minority communities that we have seen in other police departments across the country, have come much more to light since the release last year of a video showing white cops shooting Laquan McDonald, an African-American youth. The Times' article pointed out that the "divide between black and white Chicago is striking."

The Times' use of the word, "divide," was a refreshing change given that the next article above the fold, "London Elects Muslim Mayor In Tense Race," began, as the Chicago story did, with the use of "riven."

Here is the lead clause: "In a Europe struggling with a rise in Islamophobia, RIVEN by debates about the flood of Syrian migrants and on edge over religious, ethnic and cultural disputes..."

At this point, as I read the front page, I was not yet "on edge" concerning the Times' redundancy. The Gray Lady could be excused, I told myself, for the similar language, indeed the similar construction of a clause. After all, these were two articles that dealt with racial, ethnic or religious fracturing around the country or the world, one of the defining issues of our time and all time.

Perhaps, Rupert Sheldrake, the biologist, would state that this pattern called into question whether originality exists. If, as the saying goes, great minds think alike, then maybe this was a case where Sheldrake's theory of "morphic resonance," in which members of the same species communicate telepathically over the airwaves, might apply.

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Of course, this was still just one word and one repetition.

What to make of the third article above the fold in the print edition, "RIFT Grows Wide As Republicans Abandon Trump," which used the word, "rift," not "riven," the adjectival form of that noun, in the headline?

Was Times' executive editor Dean Baquet or the rest of his team aware of this over-usage? Could the paper be indulged since "rift" is, after all, a different word from "riven"? Was the New York Times' editorial staff suffering from its own water crisis, in which the beverage at the paper's headquarters was "riven" not with lead, but with some mind-numbing steroid or other solution?

I figured that was it, that the plague of "rifts" would end. Passover and its plagues had long since passed.

And the Times did indeed change the headline for its online version, "Donald Trump Seeks Republican Unity But Finds Rejection."

I was somewhat relieved. The Times must be on to its affliction, its "rift" and "riven" disorder.

And then I spotted, below the fold in the print edition, an article about a controversy, once again involving race, as well as sex, at the United State Military Academy. The article focused on a group portrait of 16 black women, all set to graduate from West Point, who in their photo clenched their fists in what has been deemed by some as a violation of Army code.

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The headline, "One Photo, 16 Clenched Fists and a Glimpse of a RIVEN West Point," looked innocuous by itself, but, given its predecessors above the fold, it convinced me that the Times had indeed over-dosed on this word.

Still, it seemed that the Times did recognize its problem with redundancy, one that was becoming almost "pathological," a word that Ted Cruz, who had suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination, recently used to describe Donald Trump and his lying ways.

In the online version, the Times, as was the case with its article on the Republican Party, used a different headline, "Raised-Fist Photo by Black Women at West Point Spurs Inquiry."

So, perhaps the Times had diagnosed its illness, a prospect made all the more likely by the absence of the offending words in its fifth and final story on the front page of the print edition.

That story, "Reckoning With a Nuclear Peril," about Kim Jong-un's reckless nuclear program in North Korea, did not include a "rift" or "riven" in its headline or opening paragraph.

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Of course, I was not entirely comforted. It was obvious that no paper, including the Times, would need to use either word in this story when practically the entire planet is united in opposing the North Korean regime.

Just when I was about to forget this matter and chalk it up to the use of steroids, I saw on CNN that Donald Trump, who once proclaimed that he has "the best words," had reportedly dubbed Elizabeth Warren a "goofus," his latest addition to the lexicon.
How do you ever truly thank your mother for the woman you've become? She is the root and you are her branches. She has stood by your side and guided you as you have overcome obstacles, felt your heartbreaks as if they were her own, lifted you when you've fallen, celebrated your accomplishments and glowed with pride as you achieved what she had only hoped and dreamed. This Mother's Day, I'm excited to spread her love by sharing HER stories as part of Huffington Post's #TalkToMe video series.

My mother has accomplished so much in her lifetime, including taking care of four daughters, a husband and a community. When we grew up there was a lot of moving from Baltimore to Texas to San Francisco to Germany, and the only constant was each other. I asked her how she kept us from fighting and being competitive with one another. She said being on the constant move with my father's medical career helped fuel our dependence on one other. "You will never have a better friend than your sister...you will make lots of friends, but your best friends will always be your sisters."

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My mother felt very lucky growing up in an Orthodox Jewish family, the middle child between two brothers. Her father studied with her the same amount of time as her brothers and she grew knowing she was expected to excel, expected to be a wife, a mother and an accomplished woman, and at the same time to give back to her community. The only thing she ever felt was missing - was having a sister.

"When I was blessed with four daughters, I thought God answered my prayers," she said, also giving a little credit to my father. They never played favorites. It was whoever was sitting next to them at the time.

"Mothers always want their children to be more than they are," she shared. "With a friend, there's always a tinge of envy, but never with your children. Every mother wants their children to excel her and her grandchildren to excel them and so on through the generations."

My mother encouraged me at every roadblock by reminding me of my strong lineage. Her father's sister who was caught behind the Nazi curtain managed to escape and get out of Russia with a son and a daughter, even though her husband had died from deprivation. Her mother's sister hadn't managed to get herself on a list and couldn't get out of the Soviet Union, and so my father's sister (who had already escaped and was recovering from breast cancer) went back to look for her and bring her out. This history of remarkable women in my family only motivates me to be of more service every day.

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I've always said it was an accident that I started The Girls' Lounge, but now I see it wasn't an accident at all. The organization I lead is all about embracing female empowerment and connecting women... it's in my blood. My mother created the first women's conference in the state of California, WAPAC, the US-Israel Action Committee, exclusively for women in the 70s. Neither liberal nor conservative, it was just about getting women involved in the process of government.

When my mother asked a female attendee for a donation of $100, she said they responded they had to go home and ask their husband to write a check. She responded, "Tell me, when you go to Neiman Marcus and buy a pair of shoes, do you ask your husband? You have to make this decision. It shouldn't be about your husband, this should be about you as a woman. Women have to stand up and be counted individually." Boy, does that sound like something I'd say.

Women are the driving force of the family. As she passionately shared, "In the Torah, God said, if you educate a man you educate an individual. If you educate a woman, you educate a family." She felt that way about the PACS, when women got involved, their husbands got involved. When women bought a bond, their husbands bought a bond.

My mother recruited businesswomen - doctors, judges, lawyers, teachers, Silicon Valley executives. She valued her relationships in the community, and from an early age, I saw how important it was to have friends, and to continually make them throughout life and circumstance.

She also launched a huge Governor's conference which 4000 women attended in its first year in Long Beach. "By the 8th year, it was sold out every year, and we had over 10,000 women. You couldn't get a seat. We had Marcia Clark the year she was the prosecutor, Betty Ford... We put women's issues on the forefront... It was like Woodstock for Women." Oh mom, how I wish I could have been there.

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So many of my friends want my mom to be THEIR mom. And I feel their admiration in my heart. If I could be one tenth of the woman my mom is I will be a very lucky mother myself.

I asked her, "What advice would you give to me as a working mom, a working woman, someone who has empowered women in the workplace and wants to continue to do so?"

Without a moment's hesitation, she wisely shared, "Always be true to yourself. Never give up your basic worth of who you are."

This lesson applies to every facet - personal, professional, intimate relationships, and in situations where ethics are questioned... everything.
We landed in Istanbul in the morning and then took a domestic flight to Goreme, a town located in the famed Cappadocia region of Turkey. The town is spectacularly located among the "Fairy Chimney", rock formations. These are thin spires of rock that protrude from the ground and range from a height of about 1.5 to 4.5 meters.

We checked in to one of the Cave suites, which were actually built into one of these rock formations, the interior of the hotel was, to say the least, nothing less than lavish, though it all came at a price. We had a quick, quiet dinner and decided to retire for the night as we needed to get up early the next morning for the surprise that I had planned for her.

I looked at her as she lay on the bed, she looked so beautiful and the same time so vulnerable. Looking at her I wondered how she could be so strong. I had not told her what the surprise was and she had not pressed me, going along with me and humoring me. I was happy to see that she was happy. I could see that from the twinkle in her eyes, I had not seen that twinkle for a long time.

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Her gentle snoring rose to a crescendo and jolted me out of my thoughts. I looked at my watch, it was 2.00 in the morning. We were to be picked up at 5.00 in the morning, so I hardly had a couple of hours to catch some sleep. I tried hard to sleep, and the harder I tried, the more difficult it became.

Finally I gave up, and sat in the huge armchair, looking at the silhouetted of the beautiful woman on the bed. Tomorrow was the day, I thought. I had got everything planned to a ditto and was sure I could pull it off. I had waited for this day for too long, it was now or never.

We were ready when the car came to pick us up at 5 am in the morning. After a short drive we arrived at our destination. We were ushered into a comfortable looking room and asked to be seated at a table laid for two. We were served breakfast, which we enjoyed quietly, none of us speaking but communicating silently with each other.

"We are ready for takeoff sir!" said the man who came and stood respectfully by our table.

Shall we go? Said I, as I gave her my hand and helped her out of the chair, not responding to the question in her eyes.

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"This way, sir!" the man lead us to the middle of a large field where a huge balloon stood.

"Wow"! So this is the surprise? She blurted out, looking at me.

I just smiled and nodded as we got into the basket of the Balloon.

"Is it only the two of us?" she enquired incredulously.

Yes, I said nonchalantly, as I thought, it has to be the two of us, after all I have paid 1500 Euros for this private Balloon tour.

Soon we rose high up in the air, we rose to about 10,000 feet and we floated over the beautiful Cappadocia region. We could see the beautiful landscape of rocks stretching out below us, getting illuminated by the first rays of the sun. We turned eastwards and the sight that we beheld was breathtaking. The sun was peeping out from the horizon in all his flamboyant colours, his rays etched brilliant and colorful patterns in the sky and the rocky landscape beneath our feet was bathed in myriad colours. The whole setting seemed surreal and had a magic of its own.

To add to the magic, the soothing notes of a violin emanated from a hidden speaker in the balloon.

Now! I thought to myself.

She was gazing at the rising sun, lost to the world, perhaps lost in her own memories.

I gently took her hand in mine and huskily whispered, "I love you mom"!

"Happy Mother's Day!"

She hugged me to her bosom, a tear escaping from her eyes, but she immediately wiped it off.

She turned to me and said sternly, "So this was the surprise that you planned", "you must have spent a fortune for this trip".

I smiled at her and said, "No, not a fortune, what I spent was peanuts, I could spend a fortune just to see that twinkle in your eyes.

I poured out the Champagne which came along with the Balloon tour and placed the glass in her delicate hands.

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My mom smiled at me, a smile that brought to prominence the dimples in her cheeks and transformed her into one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen. I felt a surge of happiness; I had never seen her smile like that after my father passed away 10 years ago.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Moms in this World!

This article was originally published on Voyager site - How I Proclaimed My Love in Cappadocia

If you loved this article and would like to follow my travel site, do check out my personal site: Voyager
SUJIT JAISWAL via Getty Images Indian Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar attends NDTV & Piramal Foundations launch of the campaign of 'Cultivating Hope' in Mumbai on December 15, 2015. AFP PHOTO/Sujit Jaiswal / AFP / SUJIT JAISWAL (Photo credit should read SUJIT JAISWAL/AFP/Getty Images)

MUMBAI -- Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on Friday said he "hopes" the on-going feud between actors Hrithik Roshan and Kangana Ranaut comes to a close soon.

The two actors have been at loggerheads since the Queen (2013) star called Hrithik her "silly ex". The feud between Hrithik and his Krrish 3 (2013) co-star turned nasty after they slapped legal notices on each other.

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Asked about his views on the "war in Bollywood", Akshay, who lives in the same apartment as that of the 42-year-old Bang Bang (2014) star, quipped, "Bollywood may kahan meri building may chal raha hai (war is going on in my building)."

The Boss (2013) actor, however, said he hopes that the raging row between the two is resolved soon.

"All I want is it to end and everything get resolved peacefully. That is what the whole thing is ... it shouldn't happen. Time will come now, it has to stop now. Everything will be solved, let's hope for that," Akshay told reporters.

The actor was speaking at the song launch of his upcoming film Housefull 3.

Abhishek Bachchan, who was also present at the event, said he "agrees" with what Akshay said on the matter.

Hrithik, who was the first to send the legal notice, has demanded Kangana apologise in a press conference and clear the air about their alleged affair, which he firmly refutes.

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A defiant Kangana had said she was not a "dim-witted" teenager and refused to apologise. The 29-year-old multiple National Award winning actress instead shot off a counter- notice to Hrithik, warning him to take back his notice or face a criminal case.

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Exposing cracks in the Indian legal system, a first of its kind study published by the National Law University highlights that one out of every three people given death sentence by trial courts in the country is eventually acquitted.

The study, titled Death Penalty India Report, also states that 75% of the prisoners on death row in the country are from the economically vulnerable sections of society, according to news reports.

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The report brought to the fore the apathy of the death row convicts with 80% of those interviewed saying that they were tortured by waterboarding, cigarette burns, forced nudity, pulling out fingernails to being subject to electric shocks while in police custody.

Detailed interviews of 373 of the 385 death row inmates in India, their families and jail authorities between June 2013 and January 2015 are included in the report by the National Law University.

"The report shows our criminal justice system not just needs procedural but systemic reform. The legal aid system is a joke. No one really has any faith in it," Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan B Lokur was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Over 80% of prisoners facing death penalty were school drop outs and almost half of them had started working before turning 18.

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Around 25% of the convicts were juveniles or under 21 years of age or above 60 years of age at the time of committing the crime, news reports show.

The report demonstrates that we rely on a completely broken criminal justice system to administer the death penalty in this country the real question in this context is whether we should be relying on such a criminal justice to administer a punishment like the death penalty, Anup Surendranath, lead author of the study told The Indian Express.

It is evident from our study that burdens imposed by our criminal justice system while handing out death sentences are incapable of being met by the economically and socially vulnerable sections. As a result, you see the death penalty disproportionately affecting those who have the least capabilities to negotiate the criminal justice system, he added.

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Hindustan Times via Getty Images NEW DELHI, INDIA - AUGUST 20: Priyanka Vadra along with her daughter Miraya Vadra and husband Robert Vadra pay tribute to former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his birth anniversary at his memorial on August 20, 2013 in New Delhi, India. Rajiv Gandhi, who heralded the information and communication technology revolution in the country, was born on August 20, 1944 and served as the sixth Prime Minister of India from 1984-1989. He was assassinated by the LTTE on May 21, 1991 at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu while addressing an election campaign. (Photo by Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

JAIPUR -- ED has conducted searches at multiple locations in Rajasthan in connection with its money laundering probe arising out of a case of land grab in Bikaner involving a company allegedly linked to Robert Vadra.

Officials said the searches were conducted on at least eight locations in the border town of Bikaner and adjoining areas on Thursday and the action has now ended.

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The agency said the premises of 10 people, including some retired government officials, were brought under the action.

"The Enforcement Directorate conducted searches yesterday at eight premises in Bikaner and nearby areas, belonging to accused Jay Prakash Bagadwa, Ranjeet Singh, Kishore Singh, Gugan Gir and certain government officials including retired ones like Faqir Mohd, Uma Charan, Deeparam and Mahavir Swamy in the case of Kolayat land scam," an ED statement said.

ED teams examined documents allegedly related to Vadra's company, which purchased lands and also quizzed some people, ED spokesperson A K Rawal said today.

The probe is related to the purchase of 275 bigha land allegedly by the company of Vadra, son-in-law of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, in Kolayat area of Bikaner.

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Officials said action was taken in order to gather "documents and hard data" from various officials and individuals involved in the case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED said property documents, bank accounts and Income Tax Returns (ITRs) were seized after the searches got over.

It is understood that the agency will soon issue summons to some firms and people involved in the case.

ED said "Bagadwa with the help of other accused persons allegedly forged the documents of colonisation department and got the government land allotted in the name of fictitious persons.

"The mutation in respect of said land was carried out in government revenue records in connivance with certain government officials.

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"The plots of aforesaid land were further sold to various companies and individuals with help of forged letters of power of attorney in name of other accused persons. Acting on the inputs, the Directorate of Enforcement initiated its probe," the statement said.

It added "certain documents seized at premises of Bagadwa reveal the association of accused with the land scam".

The central agency registered a criminal case of money laundering in this case last year on the basis of 18 FIRs filed by the state police after the local tehsildar lodged a complaint.

ED has not mentioned the name of Vadra or any company linked to him in the FIR but it named some state government officials and some of the "land mafia".

While filing the case, it had also taken cognisance of reports that had referred to a firm allegedly linked to Vadra which had purchased some of these Bikaner located lands.

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Vadra has denied any wrongdoing even as Congress party called the action "sheer political vendetta".

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KOLKATA -- Jadavpur University found itself in the midst of violent clashes and protests after right-wing leaning filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri screened his film open-air on the university's campus. The film, a political drama, called Buddha in a Traffic Jam, had run into trouble earlier in the day when its screening at the university's Triguna Sen auditorium was allegedly cancelled. That is when the organisers of the screening decided to screen it open-air.

Agnihotri had put up the following post on Facebook on Friday morning.

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Since the elections have just concluded in West Bengal, some students contended that it goes against the Election Commission's directives to screen a political film, which risks falling under the category of political propaganda or promotion - something that is strictly prohibited till the results are out.

According to reports, however, some JU students didn't leave it at that. As soon as the director reached the campus, he was shown black flags and placards by the students of university urging him to go back.

When the open-air screening was organised, the director alleged, he faced 'massive' protests from students.

Massive protest against me and the film. They are breaking the car apart. Help needed. pic.twitter.com/Q6lwWRvZG9  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

Mayhem at Jadavpur Univ due to a small film. Broke my shoulder. But screened the film. Victory of FoE.  Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 6, 2016

"Massive protest against me and the film. They are breaking the car apart. Help needed. The registrar came and stopped the peaceful screening of #BuddhaInATrafficJam massive chaos and sloganeering," Agnihotri said on Twitter.

Agnihotri even alleged that he has hurt his shoulder in a scuffle.

The Times of India reports: "Several students were injured as members of Think India, a wing of BJP students' body ABVP , and those of Faculty of Arts Students (FAS) and Democratic Students Federation (DSF) came to blows.The students claimed the campus had been invaded by outsiders and they had retaliated only after some girls were molested by Think India members."

Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das rushed back to the campus at 10pm and had to pacify the students. Four ABVP activists, who had been held by the students for molesting girls during the protests, were escorted out of the campus. Prior to that, a mob, led by Roopa Ganguly, tried to force its way into the campus. "ABVP members and BJP workers led by Roopa Ganguly reached the university and at tempted to force their way into the campus to `free' four students who had been held captive by FAS and DSF," TOI reports.

But later, acting on a complaint made by the university authorities, a case of molestation was registered against the alleged molesters.

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A student of the Film Studies department told The Indian Express, "ABVP students organised the screening like a political rally. They were raising pro-Modi and pro-BJP slogans."

"Unfortunate that film screening wasn't allowed. It should have been allowed," Agnihotri told ANI after his movie was not allowed to screen.

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DA plans new diversion program for first-time felony drug possession

Change in law that allows Community Correction officers to oversee cases of those placed on diversion makes program possible.
Cape Town, South Africa, May 4, 2016 - The Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership today resolved that Azerbaijan will be regretfully designated as inactive in OGP, due to unresolved constraints on the operating environment for Non-Governmental Organizations. Azerbaijan has been participating in OGP since 2011. The decision is the first time that OGP has taken action under its Policy on Upholding the Values and Principles of OGP , known as the Response Policy, adopted in 2014.

The OGPs 22-member Steering Committee - composed in equal parts of government and civil society representatives - made the decision at its Ministerial-level meeting in Cape Town, South Africa. A vote was taken with 16 members in favour, 3 against and 3 abstaining. The government of Azerbaijan will have a maximum of one year to address the concerns raised by civil society organizations. Azerbaijan will be labelled as inactive, will be ineligible to vote in OGP elections and will only be able to attend OGP events as an observer for learning purposes. It will continue to receive Steering Committee and Support Unit assistance, including from OGP Working Groups, multilateral partners and peer exchange visits.

The response policy was triggered in March 2015 when concerns were raised by three civil society organizations (link is external) - Publish What You Pay, (link is external) Civicus (link is external) and Article 19 (link is external) - about threats faced by civil society in Azerbaijan. After carrying out an exhaustive review process, the OGP Criteria and Standards subcommittee found that the concerns were valid.

If at any point during the year the Criteria and Standards subcommittee determines that the government of Azerbaijan has sufficiently addressed the original concerns, it may recommend to the full Steering Committee that Azerbaijan be returned to active status.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Background on the OGP Response Policy:

The Policy on Upholding the Values and Principles of the Open Government Partnership, known as the Response Policy, was adopted September 25, 2014. It is triggered when the Steering Committee, the chair of the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee or the OGP Support Unit receives a letter of concern regarding a situation of relevance to OGP. The OGPs Criteria and Standards Subcommittee is then asked to initiate an evaluation of the merits of the concern. If a concern is found to have merit, a short notice is circulated to the OGP Steering Committee members informing them of the decision. At that point a variety of steps can be undertaken to help address the issues raised in the concern. Should none of the suggested interventions have the desired impact, the Criteria and Standards subcommittee then recommends to the full OGP Steering Committee that the country be made inactive for a period of one year, in order to address the original concerns. For more information about todays resolution see the Steering Committees Resolution on Azerbaijans Participation in OGP , May 4, 2016 OGP Response Policy q&a (bottom of the page) There are currently two OGP Participating Countries under review under the Response Policy: Azerbaijan and Hungary. For more information on how the Response Policy works see: Response Policy For more information about why the Response Policy was created read OGP Agrees New Response Policy by Joe Powell, October 27, 2014



Background on Azerbaijan and the OGP Response Policy:

Background on Azerbaijan in OGP:

Azerbaijan Country Page, OGP website

Source: http://www.opengovpartnership.org/blog/anonymous/2016/05/04/media-briefing-azerbaijan-made-inactive-open-government-partnership
The Kremlin has been searching for a solution to the Internet problem since 2011. Worried by Twitter and Facebooks potential for mobilization after the Arab Spring and the protests against Vladimir Putin in Moscow in 2011, the authorities wanted to find a way to get social networks under their control.

The strategy the Kremlin soon came up with was based on intimidation rather than technology. Accustomed to dealing with a defined hierarchy and organizations that can be coerced by targeting bosses, the Kremlin chose to put pressure on companies rather than users. While the Internet filtering system introduced in 2012 remained porous and the number of government censors limited, every pretext was used to lure Internet giants into a private dialogue with the authorities. Frightened by the constantly updated repressive legislation, top-level officials of companies like Yandex and Google rushed to the Kremlin to talk and come to terms.

The Kremlins strategy was based on intimidation rather than technology.

This strategy was initially pretty effective. As Irina Borogan and I wrote in our book, It didnt take long for the Internet companies to abandon the uncensored Internet and cross the line into accepting a censored Internet in Russia. Facing a fait accompli, they focused on specifics.

This approach started losing its edge by the fall of 2015. There were two reasons for that.

First, the Kremlins biggest bet was made on the data localization law that went into effect on Sept. 1, 2015 under the pretext of protecting Russians data against spying by the U.S. National Security Agency. According to the law, Internet companies that collect personal information from Russian users must store their data on servers within the country. The main targets of the initiative were Google, Facebook and Twitter. The goal was not only to make servers of the companies accessible to the Russian national system of online surveillance, SORM, but also to get the three Internet giants effectively landed in Russia.

A Russian flag and the Facebook logo through a cutout of the Twitter logo in Bosnia and Herzegovina on May 22, 2015. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)

In short, the Kremlin wanted to force the global Internet giants into a situation where they would be treated just like domestic ones  ready to get a call from the Kremlin, open for cooperation in removing and blocking content, with the servers directly connected to the security services and with no way to know what is intercepted by SORM.



Somehow, this offensive stalled from the very beginning. In late September 2015, the Russian authorities said that they would not check the three giants for compliance until January; the rumor was that they werent certain that any of the companies would obey.

Autumn passed with contradictory comments made by officials. January came and went, then February. The top Russian Internet censor, Alexander Zharov, was forced to admit that talks were still ongoing with the three companies over relocation.

The Kremlin wanted the global Internet giants servers to be directly connected to the security services.

Second, Russian censors insisted that the porousness of the national filtering system was not an issue because very few Russian users used circumvention tools like Tor. Privately, they believed they could crack Tor the moment they need to.

In the fall of 2015 this concept got two major blows. The research institute hired to crack Tor admitted it could not. And then in November, Zharovs agency blocked Rutracker.org, the largest Russian-language torrents website, and immediately Russia skyrocketed to second position in the number of users of the Tor network.

A year earlier, Facebook had announced support for TOR users  people trying to access its website using TOR will no longer be impeded by the companys security policies. This made the option of blackmailing Facebook with a possible ban and loss of all its Russian users even more distant.

A protestor wearing a Putin mask during a rally for freedom of the press in Moscow on April 13, 2014. (Nikita Shvetsov/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

By spring 2015, the Kremlin found itself desperate for a solution. The authorities made some erratic moves  some bloggers were sent to jail for writing posts critical of the Kremlin, and the idea was voiced to fine those who promote circumvention tools. Being short of options, the authorities turned east.

On April 18, Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, the equivalent of the FBI, published an op-ed urging Russia to learn from Chinas Internet censorship. Ten days later, Moscow hosted the first Russia-China cyber security forum with top Internet officials from both countries in attendance. Zharov and Putins assistant in charge of the Internet, Igor Shchyogolev, opened the meeting. They were visibly pleased to have Lu Wei, the head of Chinas State Internet Information Office, and Fang Binxing, the father of the countrys Great Firewall, in the conference hall of the giant concrete building of Russia Today, Russias major government propaganda agency.

Being short of options, the Russian authorities turned east.

The message conveyed by Russian and Chinese officials was strikingly identical: the buzzword of the conference was digital sovereignty. What they meant was made abundantly clear by Fang Binxing: the Internet is governed by American companies and the U.S. government can control these companies; thus, the Internet is under U.S. government control and other countries should guard their online space. Shchegolev was equally outspoken: the dominance of multinational Internet companies leads to monopolization of the markets, with the state borders yet to be defined.

But the Russian strategy to deal with this dominance failed. It was made clear by Zharovs account of his censorship agencys achievements  he praised Chinese companies who had moved their servers to Russia but didnt mention any Western ones who had done the same, which was the whole point.

So what could come next?

A new battlefront just opened by both countries seems to be domain names. On March 25, Chinas Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published a draft for new regulations that require companies to register Internet domain names domestically. According to experts, the new rules go further than just blocking sites  the authorities could even take the domain name. With the requirement to register a domestic domain name, the management of websites becomes more like how authorities in China regulate the media.

An Internet bar in Beijing on Dec. 16, 2015, the day Chinese President Xi Jinping opened a government-organized Internet conference. (GREG BAKER/AFP/Getty Images)

It also means a realization of the white list of websites approved by the authorities, the concept the Russians were toying with for years. Hardly accidentally, a working group was formed in Russia in February to draft plans for a nationwide white list. Most of the members of the group turned out to be the speakers of the Russia-China cybersecurity forum.

The organizers of the forum reported that the participants came up with a joint Russia-China roadmap. Remarkably, it provides for a joint action to ensure the safety and sustainability of the national domain zones of Russia and China.

Can the nationalization of domain names help the Kremlin and Beijing solve the problem of control over the Internet? I very much doubt it. This is an age of social networks and messengers. Todays hottest thing on the Russian Internet, for example, are bots on Telegram, the encrypted messenger based out of the country with a good record of refusing to cooperate with the Russian authorities.

The Internet, Russian and Chinese authorities assert, is governed by American companies and the U.S. government can control these companies.

But the idea would surely have some nostalgic appeal for Putin. In 1999, Putin, who was then prime minister, had his very first meeting with the Russian Internet  a motley group of entrepreneurs, activists, bloggers and scientists  to talk about a draft law that proposed to hand over the distribution of domain names to the government. Back then, Putin wanted to impress the public with his liberalism and the draft was effectively killed off.

It was a rather different country then. In 1999, Putin didnt fear the power of the Web. Now he does. But it seems he is still short of a solution.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrei-soldatov/putin-china-internet-firewall-russia_b_9821190.html
Jennifer Crowell, director of MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, talks about DownStreet Art. Emily Watts, executive director of the Williamstown Chamber of Commerce, said the North County summer season 'always seems to get better.' The Clark's director of communications Vicki Saltzman gestures to one of the 'naughty' paintings going on display at the museum this summer. PreviousNext

North County Cultural Institutions Offer Peek at Summer Seasons

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  Summer 2016 in Northern Berkshire will be filled with world-class art, music and theater.

Oh  and nudity.

The Clark Art Institute gave a sneak peek  pun intended  of its summer show titled "Splendor, Myth and Vision: Nudes from the Prado" on Wednesday evening during an event hosted by the North Adams Chamber of Commerce that invited several North County cultural institutions to share their upcoming seasons.

Halfway through the event, hosted by Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Clark's director of communications Vicki Saltzman raised some eyebrows and elicited some giggles from the crowd of about 100 people when she appeared in front of her first slide promoting the show.

"I bet you never thought you would hear 'all nudes, all the time' in relation to the Clark," Saltzman said in explaining that the artwork to be included in the exhibit will feature 24 works from the Museo del Prado, the main Spanish national art museum in Madrid, that never before have been shown in the United States.

Saltzman said these special works, many of which she described as "massive," are from the private collections of Spanish kings Philip II and Philip IV.

"These kings of Spain were fantastic art collectors," she said. "There are from what used to be called the 'royal collection.'"

Even the kings, however, recognized that these paintings  which include mostly women in various stages of undress and complete nakedness  were not suitable for the general public, so they were displayed in "private rooms," she said.

"That's where they kept the naughty pictures," said Saltzman, who admitted that she has had trouble figuring out to market the event on billboards: The naughty paintings have "not been popular" with the billboard companies.

In all seriousness, though, Salzman stressed the unique opportunity being presented to Clark visitors to view these paintings.

"For them to give those paintings up and send them to America is beyond belief. It's completely mind-blowing," she said. "You will probably never get this chance again."

Of course, all of the cultural institutions are offering up unique experiences this summer. In addition to the Clark previewing the Prado exhibit and another titled "Sensing Place: Reflecting on Stone Hill," fellow Williamstown venues the Williams College Museum of Art and the Williamstown Theatre Festival highlighted their seasons, as did North Adams' Mass MoCA and the downtown gallery walk event DownStreet Art.

WCMA's Communications Manager Kim Hugo stressed that WCMA is always free when explaining its season, which in addition to art exhibits includes for the first time a weekly series called "Summer School," curated by artist Lexa Walsh.

"She has put together faculty that are going to offer mini-courses at 4 p.m. on Thursdays," Hugo said.

The 50-minute "class" will be followed by "extracurricular activities" that will always include free food but each week will include some other fun activity like salsa dancing or beer drinking.

"Each one is unique and different with a different professor and a different extra-curricular activity," she said.

The Williamstown Theatre Festival's season includes many "extracurriculars" in addition to the seven full shows to be performed in 10 weeks on two stages (shows that focus on new works by emerging playwrights featuring Festival favorite actors like Justin Long and Marisa Tomei), including a makeover of the WTF's free theater.

It still will be free, said Emily Curro, WTF's marketing and development associate, but instead of the outdoor productions that were staged the last few years this year will feature something called "Orpheus in the Berkshires."

This project will be the culmination of an ongoing series of conversations and interviews with local residents, which will be pulled together in June in a script and feature a cast of both professional and community actors to tell a story that is "made by and for the Berkshires," she said.

"[WTF] is always striving to connect more with the community," she said.

Nothing perhaps has been more community-focused than the monthly North Adams series DownStreet Art, but even that is getting a tighter focus this year. Jennifer Crowell, director of MCLA's Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, said DownStreet Art is going to have a bigger presence in the community, including at events like Eagle Street Beach, Motorama and the Fall Foliage Parade, and the monthly events themselves will continue to grow with a more festival-like atmosphere with new additions like a pop-up farmers market.

"It's always great to liven up the streets of North Adams," she said.

Crowell also gave a quick overview of the Colegrove Park Music series that will be held August through September thanks to a grant the city received.

"The programming will be extremely diverse," she said. "The mayor is really excited to have the series here."

Also full of excitement this year is the Wednesday event's host, Mass MoCA, whose summer programming kicks off Memorial Day weekend with a performance by indie rock quartet Luna and continues with scores of events, including gallery events in both the main galleries and Kidspace, more live music, including the annual favorites Bang on a Can, Roomful of Teeth and the FreshGrass Festival, and film, including silent films set to live musical accompaniment and the increasingly popular "Movie at the Airport" at the Harriman & West Airport on July 1, which this year features the movie "Around the World in 80 Days."

"It's truly an event that everyone in the family can appreciate," said Jodi Joseph, Mass MoCA's director of communications.

Offering something for everyone is indeed the hallmark of a North Berkshire cultural season, said Ricco Fruscio, the North Adams Chamber of Commerce's program coordinator, who said the venues are offering "programs that will dazzle you."

Fruscio said he has come to realize what the term "gateway city" or "gateway region" has come to mean about North County.

"We are the gateway to the Berkshire experience," he said. "It makes us special and it makes someone want to give us a name like 'gateway.' These institutions are what makes us special."
Mayor Linda Tyer, state Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier and Reid Middle School students 'plant' a ceremonial tree on Friday. Four other trees were planted on the lawn in front of the school. Students from the21st Century program and a crew hired by DCR wait for the event to begin. Urban Forester Mathew Cahill, right, gets everyone in position. The students helped plant another tree after tossing in the ceremonial dirt. Mollie Freilicher, left, Cahill, Farley-Bouvier, Tyer and Bob O'Connor pose with the students. PreviousNext

A Tree Grows in Pittsfield: 2,399 More to Go

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Reid Middle School students pitched in with state and local officials on Friday to set the first of some 2,400 trees that will be planted in targeted neighborhoods in the city as part of the state's "Greening the Gateway Cities" program.



The ornamental lilac tree will grow to be about 20 feet high, along with four other trees planted on the lawn in front of the school through the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs.



"We can all appreciate how the beauty of trees enhances our neighborhoods and makes our environment a special place to experience," said Mayor Linda Tyer. "But trees are so much more than that. In fact, Greening of the Gateway Cities is all about using trees to provide energy efficiency, such as saving on heating and cooling costs across an entire neighborhood, because trees lower wind speeds and shade buildings."



Thousands of 6- to 8-foot tall trees will be planted on private and public grounds over the next three years.



The program identified two neighborhoods as "environmental justice areas" in need of trees: Morningside and West Side. The targeted area also encompasses a part of the downtown. (The city's website will have a map available delineating the area.)



Residents in those neighborhoods who would like a tree can leave a message at 617-626-1515 and the local forester will contact them to set up an appointment to discuss plantings. Urban Forester Mathew Cahill said the state is procuring some 40 different species to ensure the best fit for each location.



The project grew out of efforts to bring shade trees back to Chelsea and in Worcester, where the Asian long-horned beetle had forced the destruction of thousands of urban trees.



Bob O'Connor, the state's director of land and forest conservation, said the urban greening project had been successful in planting 1,200 trees in Chelsea despite its "very small yards and a lot of pavement."



The loss of trees in Worcester has had a significant effect on energy use, he said. Studies of electricity use for one neighborhood of about 750 homes prior to the trees being taken down showed the summer electricity rate jumped 37 percent after they were gone. Another study in Minnesota showed similar results during the winter with the loss of trees as wind breaks.
Williamstown Seeking Third Half-Day Section to Preschool

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Williamstown Elementary School officials plan to add a third half-day section to its Side-By-Side preschool program, a move they hope will ease some of the concerns that have riled the community in recent weeks.

Superintendent Douglas Dias said on Friday that the decision to add the third section was driven by a desire to accommodate all families who had applied for the program.

"It came out of us doing a lottery at the beginning of the week, and we saw a handful of kids didn't make it in the lottery," Dias said. "We said, 'What can we do to make this happen?' "

In announcing the expansion of the program for the 2016-17 school year, Dias, Principal Joelle Brookner, Director of Pupil Personnel Services Kim Grady and School Committee Chairman Dan Caplinger co-signed a three-page news release that gives the most detailed explanation to date of why the district decided to eliminate a full-day preschool option.

That decision set off a firestorm on social media, where school officials have been accused of being incompetent and "crazy" to consider changing the preschool.

Friday's news release explains that the program is and always has been designed to serve children with special needs. The target ratio for classrooms is one special needs student for each "typically developing" peer.

But as the number of special needs dropped, that ratio ballooned to as high as 1-to-4.5.

The school officials also pointed out that the existing Side-By-Side model has led to inequity of educational opportunity because enrollment for general education students has been used to fund the program (special needs children are enrolled free of charge).

"In an effort to mitigate this reliance on reserve funds, the school admission of typically-developing peers in the full-day program assumed, from a budgeting perspective, that most could afford to pay full tuition," the news release reads. "Such a practice is counter to the intent of an inclusive program."

In a telephone interview on Friday, Dias emphasized again the need for equal opportunity in the preschool program. He also said the state had raised concerns about the disproportionality of the Side-By-Side classroom.

To address the financial equity issue, Dias hopes to have an admission policy in place in which children whose families qualify for half-priced school lunches get half-priced tuition and children whose families qualify for free school lunches have their tuition waived.

"That lines up with the mission of the school and equity," he said.

And it costs money. Dias said the district on Friday afternoon was still trying to figure out just how much.

On Monday, district officials will meet with the Williamstown Finance Committee in a 7:30 meeting at Town Hall. Although the School Committee will not have a chance to consider and vote on a revised budget request until its May 11 meeting, Dias said he consulted with the Fin Comm chair and decided it was important to tell the town body that a new request was coming.

"The town has been very supportive of the school in the past, and I don't want to give the impression that we are not appreciative of what they've already given," Dias said. "We're giving them a heads up at their meeting and then going to the School Committee."

Dias said Friday that the move to add a third half-day section could be perceived as a concession to critics. And while he did not agree with that perception, he did say he hopes the move will "de-escalate the anger so we can focus on the [school's] other 430 kids."

"There will be people who say we still want a full-day program," Dias said. "I can respect that, but the needs of the students with special needs comes first.  If we go to three sections, with a ratio of 1-to-2.5 in all of the sections, I know that is better than we currently have ratio-wise, and we'd be able to include everyone who applied.

"I think it's a recognition that we have an opportunity to include all of the kids, and if we can remove the impediments for those kids who applied and cannot afford it, I support that."

The full letter released to the school community:

May 6, 2016



To the Williamstown Community:



Much has been said about the Side-by-Side program in the past few months. Let us state unequivocally: Side-by-Side is not closing. There has never been any discussion to that effect.



The purpose of this document is to clarify the current status of the program, to respond to concerns that have been raised, and to introduce a plan that is in line with the core mission of the school: "To inspire in all students a love of learning and challenge them to grow in heart and mind." This statement embodies a core value of equity and access for all students.



The community is fortunate that outside of the Williamstown Elementary School's Side-by-Side program, we have three high-quality preschool options in place, including the Children's Center at Williams, Pine Cobble, and the Williamstown Community Preschool. In fact, Williamstown voted in 2011 to allocate $250,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to support the role played by the Community Preschool. We fully endorse the town's commitment to early education.



Unlike the other preschools in town, Side-by-Side is a program designed for students with special needs. In consultation with the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Early Education division, we've continued to review the structure of our Side-by-Side program. In doing so, our program will be registered with the State Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS), which will enable access to future grant opportunities.



Given the number of students currently requiring special education services and placement, and their level of need, it made sense to maintain the Side-by-Side structure with two sections, one in the morning, and one in the afternoon. This model continues to give students, when required through their Individual Educational Program (IEP), the ability to access a cohesive full-day program, including rest period and lunch, with typically developing peers. By doing so, the program would truly be "side-by- side" in compliance with the State's guidelines. Close to half of the students in each class would require special education services, and the other "side" would consist of students without special needs. This differs from the current and past years, in which the percentage of students with special needs was significantly lower than for those without.



What is public pre-K in Massachusetts?



School districts in Massachusetts are required to provide services and/or programs in accordance with federal and state mandates for special education. Pre-K in Massachusetts is designed to meet the needs of special education students ages 3-4. The decisions regarding programming and/or related services are determined through the IEP process, where parents, educators, and specialists determine how to meet the specific learning needs of the child.



What is Side-by-Side?



Side-by-Side is Williamstown Elementary School's Pre-K program. Side-by-Side was established as an inclusive program in 1989 to serve children with disabilities alongside typically developing peers, or "side by side." Ideally a target ratio of students with special needs to typically developing peers would be 1:1. The program expanded to include a full-day model as the needs of the community deepened with the enrollment of a cohort of children that were medically fragile and had intensive special needs.



What are the current demographics of Side-by-Side?



Since the launch of the Side-by-Side program, the population of students with intensive special needs has declined dramatically. As a result, the number of typically-developing peers in the program has grown, resulting in a disproportionate number of typically developing students populating the program. Specifically, the current enrollment in both the full and half-day sections consists of three or fewer students with disabilities, alongside eight to nine typically developing peers. This mix of students has expanded the ratios away from a target of 1:1 to 1:4.5 and 1:3 respectively for each section. (The variation from 4.5 to 3 is due to students attending the full-day classroom for less than a full day.)



How is the current pre-K Special Education need determined?



Side-by-Side has not been financially sustainable for some time. The practice has been to subsidize the program with school choice reserves, which is not viable in the long-term as this reserve fund has been spent down on other needs as well. In an effort to mitigate this reliance on reserve funds, the school admission of typically-developing peers in the full-day program assumed, from a budgeting perspective, that most could afford to pay full tuition. Such a practice is counter to the intent of an inclusive program.

There has never been any doubt that the special education needs of the community have been fully met by our side-by-side classes. However, the lack of equitable access for those in the community who do not need special education services and cannot afford the tuition charged by our public school has been a major area of concern.



How do we achieve both equity and access?



Based on further review and hearing members of the community's desire to benefit from WES's Side-by-Side program, we are proposing a third half-day section be added to the two sections already in place. This third section would allow us to accommodate all students who have submitted applications for next year, while retaining the desired Side-by-Side ratio of between 1:1 to 1:2, depending on final enrollments.



A third section also allows for ready access should any students with disabilities move to the community during the school year as there will be more open slots. This will only be feasible in providing equity and access if the town can provide us the necessary funding for this additional section while ensuring we can accept students regardless of their ability to pay. At the same time, we will need funds to ensure the program is accessible to all who are enrolled through the availability of the mid-day bus.



We will work with the town to make sure that the financial challenges of applicants to Side-by-Side can be consistently accommodated. In doing so, we will be creating a needs-based structure to allow fair and equitable access for parents wishing to enroll their children in the program.



How will we address the need going forward?



The number of sections offered each year will be determined by the number of students with special needs being placed in the program. Again, we will be moving to a target ratio in the range of 1:2 to 1:1. We will continue to refine the enrollment process for typically-developing peers to ensure that financial ability to pay tuition is not a consideration for any applicant.



Summary



By requesting that a third section, in the morning, be added to the current budget proposal, in addition to restoration of the midday bus and a sliding scale for those that have applied for our program, we will be able to accept all students who have submitted applications for 2016-2017 to our Side-by-Side program. This is in keeping with our mission statement and the educational needs of the community, and is a solid footprint as we look towards the future.



Sincerely,



Dr. Douglas Dias, Superintendent

Dan Caplinger, School Committee Chair

Kimberley Grady, Director of Pupil Personnel Services

Joelle Brookner, Principal

This story was updated to emphasize that the school officials' decision to add a third half-day section is subject to School Committee consideration at its May 11 meeting. The School Committee will have to vote on this version of the budget.
California Leopold Conservation Award seeks nominees

Sacramento, California - The Sand County Foundation, the California Farm Bureau Federation and Sustainable Conservation are accepting applications through July 8 for the $10,000 California Leopold Conservation Award. The award honors California farmers, ranchers and other private landowners who demonstrate outstanding stewardship and management of natural resources.

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the Leopold Conservation Award inspires other landowners by example and provides a visible forum where farmers, ranchers and other private landowners are recognized as conservation leaders. In his influential 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold called for an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage, which he called an evolutionary possibility and an ecological necessity.

Because approximately half of California is privately owned, farmers, ranchers and other landowners are on the front lines in keeping the states environment  our land, air, water, wildlife and climate  vibrant, said Sustainable Conservation Executive Director Ashley Boren. The Leopold Conservation Award is proud to celebrate those deserving, but often overlooked, landowner heroes who do their part every day to steward our environment in ways that benefit people, our economy and the planet.

Farmers and ranchers must continually adapt to changing conditions from weather, markets for their products and regulatory compliance, said Paul Wenger, President of the California Farm Bureau Federation. There is no blueprint for growing the unique and diverse cornucopia of crops California is known for, in equally unique and diverse geographical regions throughout our state. The Leopold Conservation Award recognizes those farmers and ranchers who strive to maximize their economic opportunities while also protecting and enhancing the natural resources that are the basic foundation of their farm or ranch.

There are a number of agriculturalists in California that are caring for the environment through ecologically sound practices and conservation on their farms and ranches, said 2015 award recipients Jim and Mary Rickert of Prather Ranch. Its an incredible honor to receive the Leopold Conservation Award, and we would like to encourage others to apply for this very prestigious award and share their story with others.

The 2016 California Leopold Conservation Award will be presented in December at the California Farm Bureau Federations Annual Meeting in Monterey. The award recipient will receive $10,000 and a crystal depicting Aldo Leopold.

Nominations must be postmarked by July 8, 2016, and mailed to Leopold Conservation Award c/o Sustainable Conservation, 98 Battery Street, Suite 302, San Francisco, CA 94111. Nominations may be submitted on behalf of a landowner, or landowners may nominate themselves. For application information, please visit www.leopoldconservationaward.org.

The California Leopold Conservation Award is possible thanks to generous contributions from The Harvey L. & Maud S. Sorenson Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, American AgCredit, DuPont Pioneer and The Mosaic Company.

ABOUT THE LEOPOLD CONSERVATION AWARD

The Leopold Conservation Award is a competitive award that recognizes landowner achievement in voluntary conservation. The award consists of a crystal award depicting Aldo Leopold and $10,000. Sand County Foundation presents Leopold Conservation Awards in California, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

ABOUT SAND COUNTY FOUNDATION

Sand County Foundation is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to working with private landowners to advance the use of ethical and scientifically sound land management practices that benefit the environment. www.sandcounty.net

ABOUT CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION

The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of more than 53,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of more than 6.2 million Farm Bureau members. www.cfbf.com

ABOUT SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION

Sustainable Conservation helps California thrive by uniting people to solve the toughest challenges facing our land, air and water. Since 1993, it has brought together business, landowners and government to steward the resources that we all depend on in ways that make economic sense. Sustainable Conservation believes common ground is Californias most important resource. www.suscon.org
Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today announced the following appointments:

Zolaikha Taghvaei Bayar, 59, of Davis, has been appointed assistant deputy director of the Site Mitigation and Brownfields Reuse Program at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. Bayar has been project delivery procurement manager at the California High-Speed Rail Authority since 2014. She served in several positions at the California Department of Transportation from 1988 to 2014, including assistant division chief of procurement and contracts, project manager and transportation design engineer. Bayar was assistant design engineer at the California Department of Water Resources from 1987 to 1988. She earned a Master of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $153,192. Bayar is a Democrat.

Russell Burns, 55, of Napa, has been appointed to the California Fish and Game Commission. Burns has been business manager at Operating Engineers Local Union 3 since 2006, where he has held several positions since 1994, including treasurer, financial secretary, district representative, special representative to the business manager and business agent. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Burns is a Democrat.

Peter Silva, 63, of Chula Vista, has been appointed to the California Fish and Game Commission. Silva has been president and chief executive officer at Silva-Silva International since 2011. He served as assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2009 to 2011, senior policy advisor at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California from 2005 to 2009 and vice chair at the State Water Resources Control Board from 2000 to 2005. Silva was deputy general manager at the Border Environment Cooperation Commission from 1997 to 2000 and served in several positions at the City of San Diego Public Utilities Department from 1987 to 1997, including deputy director for water utilities, assistant deputy director for the clean water program and civil engineer. He was a resident engineer at the International Boundary and Water Commission from 1983 to 1987. Silva was an engineer at the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board from 1982 to 1983, at the Otay Water District from 1980 to 1982 and at the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board from 1977 to 1980. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $100 per diem. Silva is a Democrat.
Sheriffs Sergeant injured in rural traffic stop suspect captured in El Centro

Imperial Valley, California - Yesterday, a Sheriffs Sergeant while performing an agricultural area patrol check contacted a suspicious parked vehicle in the area of Edgar Road and Forrester Road. The vehicle was occupied by 33 year old Eric Gragson and 28 year old Adrian Rivas. An investigation revealed the vehicle had a stolen plate.

Gragson, the driver, sped off in the vehicle with Rivas. The Sergeant sustained minor injuries while avoiding being struck by the speeding vehicle and was treated and released at a local hospital. The suspects fled the scene and an all-points bulletin was broadcast to Imperial Valley Law Enforcement.



The suspects were located later that morning in an apartment, located in the 400 block Commercial Avenue in the City of El Centro. Both suspects were taken into custody by Imperial County Sheriffs Deputies with the assistance from the California Highway Patrol and El Centro Police Department.



Gragson was booked into the Imperial County Jail and was charged with Attempted Murder, Assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm against a peace officer, possession of a stolen vehicle, displaying false plates and resisting arrest. Gragsons bail was set at $500,000.00 . Charges will be filed on Rivas for conspiracy with the Imperial County District Attorney Office.
Imperial County Department of Public Works Open House

El Centro, California - Tuesday, May 17, in celebration of National Public Works Week, the Imperial County Department of Public Works (ICDPW) will host an open house in El Centro. The event will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at their administrative office.

The open house is an opportunity for the public to get a firsthand look at the scope of work that Public Works does for a community. A portion of the street in front of ICDPWs administrative office will be closed for static displays of equipment used for their field operations, including but not limited to road maintenance and repair, street sweeping and emergency road closures, as well as demonstrations and tours of the facility.

National Public Works Week is used to energize and educate the public on the importance of the contribution of public works to their daily lives: planning, building, managing and operating the heart of our local communities, and building the quality of life. For 2016, National Public Works Week will be held May 15-21.

Residents of Imperial Valley interested in receiving more information about the services provided by ICDPW are encouraged to attend. Local, neighboring schools were also invited to participate. For more information, contact Ed Delgado, Deputy Director of Public Works  Administration at (442) 265-1818.

155 South 11th Street, El Centro
Secretary of State John Kerry's Call With Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Yun

Washington, DC - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se spoke today via telephone about regional and global priorities.

Secretary Kerry reaffirmed our shared commitment to peaceful denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and regional stability, and he highlighted our increasingly comprehensive global partnership with the Republic of Korea on a wide range of issues, from the refugee crisis to climate change.
The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce

Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Education released a report yesterday titled The State of Racial Diversity in the Educator Workforce, in conjunction with the National Summit on Teacher Diversity held at the Department. The report reviews trends in the diversity of elementary and secondary school educators, and examines the teacher pipeline from enrollment in postsecondary education to entrance into the teaching workforce and beyond.

A diverse teacher workforce isnt just a nicetyits a real contributor to better outcomes in our schools, workplaces, and communities, Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. said. Its important for students of color to have role models who look like them and share common experiences. Its just as important for all students to see teachers of color in leadership roles in their classrooms and communities. We must work together to support states and districts as they work to prepare, hire, support, and retain a more diverse teacher workforce.

The AFT [American Federation of Teachers] is fully committed to continuing our work to promote the diversity of the teaching workforce, said AFT President Randi Weingarten. Teachers of color are crucial role models for all students, and while the data released today shows that we still have much work ahead, we are committed to finding ways to better prepare/support teachers of color or teachers from diverse backgrounds.

The report highlights a lack of racial diversity among teachers at public elementary and secondary schools across the nation. Less than one in five U.S. public school teachers18 percentare individuals of color, while approximately half49 percentof public elementary and secondary school students are individuals of color. Since teachers of color can be positive role models for all students in breaking down negative stereotypes and in preparing students to live and work in a multiracial society, this diversity gap suggests that the U.S. public school system is not reaping the known benefits we could experience if we had greater diversity in the teacher workforce.

It is essential to continue our work to help increase the diversity of the educator workforce, said Teach For America CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard. We know great teachers come from all backgrounds, but we also believe that teachers who share the background of their students have the potential to make a profound additional impact. We are deeply committed to finding ways to better prepare and support educators and leaders from diverse backgrounds; the data released today only confirms the importance of these efforts.

The report reveals decreasing diversity at multiple points across the teacher pipeline through which teachers progress through postsecondary education, teacher preparation programs, hiring, and retention. The report finds that:

While bachelors degrees are almost always a prerequisite to entering the teaching force, bachelors degree students are less diverse than high school graduates. Thirty-eight percent of bachelors degree students were students of color, compared to 43 percent of public high school graduates.

Students of color are underrepresented in teacher preparation programs. Students of color made up 38 percent of the postsecondary student population, but only 25 percent of those enrolled in teacher preparation programs.

Bachelors degree completion rates for students who major in education are lower for black and Hispanic students than white students. The completion rate gap between black and white bachelors degree students majoring in education is approximately 30 percentage points (73 percent versus 42 percent) and the completion rate gap between Hispanic and white education majors is more than 20 percentage points (73 percent versus 49 percent).

The teaching workforce is overwhelmingly homogenous (82 percent white, 2 percent black males)

"We're committed to continuing our work to increase the diversity of the teaching workforce. We know that teachers of color are crucial role models for all students," said National Education Association Vice President Becky Pringle. "The data released today shows that we still have much work ahead, so must continue to invest resources into finding ways to recruit and support teachers of color."

The report also examines programs that produce a relatively higher proportion of teacher candidates who are individuals of color. For example, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) enroll a small proportion of individuals who are preparing to be teachers (2 percent), yet a significant percent of all African American teacher candidates attend HBCUs (16 percent). In addition, alternative routes to teacher certification tend to enroll more racially diverse populations of candidates than traditional teacher preparation programs.

Lastly, the report serves as a call to action for stakeholders including postsecondary institutions, K-12 schools and districts, and others to do more to support teachers of color at all points across the teacher pipeline so that students in U.S. public schools can yield the benefits of a diverse teaching force.

Todays summit was an important step in the efforts to examine the need for a more diverse teaching force, learn from each others best practices, and develop commitments to recruiting, supporting and retaining teachers of color. The summit is hosted by the Department, the American Federation of Teachers, the Albert Shanker Institute, the National Education Association, and Teach For America.

Secretary King has prioritized supporting and lifting up the teaching profession and is committed to supporting efforts to increase diversity in the teaching profession so that our teaching force more closely reflects the increasingly diverse student population it serves.
Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski's Travel to Vietnam

Washington, DC - Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Tom Malinowski will visit Vietnam from May 9-10, when he will engage with government officials and local civil society representatives.

Assistant Secretary Malinowski will reiterate the importance of Vietnams making additional progress on human rights to furthering U.S.-Vietnam bilateral ties. Among other things, he will urge Vietnam to release political prisoners without condition and encourage further reforms that will help to make Vietnams laws consistent with its international human rights obligations.
United States Concerned by Guilty Verdicts in Trial of Can Dundar and Erdem Gul

Washington, DC - The United States is concerned by the guilty verdicts issued today in the trial of Cumhuriyet Editor Can Dundar and Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gul, who were convicted of leaking state secrets stemming from their journalistic work.

We reiterate that the United States supports freedom of expression, and we call on the Turkish authorities to support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society.

As Turkeys friend and NATO Ally, we again urge Turkey to abide by its constitutional and OSCE commitments to fundamental principles of democracy, including due process, judicial independence, and freedom of expression. These principles are key elements of every healthy democracy and are enshrined in the Turkish constitution.
Notice Asking Women Advocates Not to 'Arrange' Hair in Open Court in Pune Sparks Outrage
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Campaign groups have hit back at David Camerons claim that the NHS is completely protected under the terms of a sweeping trade deal currently in negotiation between the US and EU.

Mr Cameron said claims the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) could lead to the irreversible sell-off of the NHS were the reddest of red herrings during Prime Ministers Questions this week.

There are plenty of reasons that people dont want to see trade expanded, I think they should be honest about it and say they dont like trade deals rather than using the red herring of the NHS to distract from a trade deal that could add tens of billions to our economy and generate jobs, he said.

Unite rebutted the red herring claims. Gail Cartmail, the unions assistant general secretary, said recent documents leaked by Greenpeace have shown that the UK Government is not acting to protect the NHS, despite warnings from lawyers that it may be at risk.

It appears we are even being duped over protections for public services, Cartmail told The Independent.

We know that TTIP poses a real and serious threat to the NHS. The only way to neutralise that threat is for David Cameron to give a cast iron guarantee that he will exclude the NHS from the trade agreement, she added.

 What is TTIP?

War on Want, a group that campaigns against international poverty, said that the Prime Minister was playing the public for fools".

"The only slippery fish here is the Prime Minister, whose rhetoric flies in the face of two sets of legal opinion stating the NHS is in danger. As well as this, the EUs published TTIP offer clearly shows the NHS is up for grabs," said Mark Dearn, War on Want's senior trade campaigner.

Austria, Germany, Greece and Italy already have explicit reservations in the TTIP text to protect existing rules relating to healthcare. But the UK hasnt entered any reservations in this part of the TTIP text because the Government believes that the NHS is already sufficiently protected under the terms of the deal.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills told The Independent that the NHS will not be compromised for gains in any other part of the TTIP deal.

We believe, as does the European Commission, that provisions in the current TTIP texts and previous trade deals achieve this protection, the spokeswoman said.

Lawyers working for Unite have said that TTIP will give investors more powers to sue the UK Government for loss of profit if it changes the way the NHS is organised. This might mean that if services were sold off, they could not be renationalised without the threat of litigation from private firms.

Unite has written two unanswered letters to the EU minister for trade contending that the right to regulate, which is supposed to give governments the power to renationalise public services, is inadequate.

Tamara Hervey, a professor of EU law at the University of Sheffield, said that she believed the TTIP documents would allow for future governments to renationalise the NHS, depending on its interpretation. But she said the one way to safeguard this right would be to exclude the NHS from TTIP entirely.

The UK government could include a reservation in the agreement to say that it does not include the NHS. As far as I understand, that isn't on the table, Professor Hervey said.

The very question of renationalising the NHS would depend on a future government wanting to do so at a time when successive governments have continued with a marketisation agenda, opening up health operations in the UK to bidding from private companies.

The NHS Support Federation found that 70 per cent of NHS contracts awarded between April 2013 and April 2014 went to private companies, covering everything from diagnosis to treatment.

These private sector companies include Hospital Corporation of America International, which has the third biggest private hospital operating in the UK and runs private patient units in NHS hospitals. The HCA is in part owned by an American private equity consortium including US private equity firms Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.

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.

Bio Products Limited, the NHS blood plasma resource that was privatised in 2013, is also 80 per cent owned by Bain Capital.

TTIP does not make it easier for the Government to privatise the NHS, according to Gabriel Siles-Brugge, a politics lecturer at the University of Manchester who has written a book on TTIP. But it upholds levels of liberalisation that have already been embraced.

Its about enshrining the level of marketisation embraced by the Government, Siles-Brugge said. Those are choices the UK Government has already decided to make.
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Robert Peston has described coming to terms with losing his wife of 14 years, the novelist Sian Busby, after her death from lung cancer aged 51.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Peston, who has just launched Peston on Sunday on ITV, reflected on processing his grief and attempting to move on.

Busby and Peston married in 1998 and had a son together. She finished her final book, A Commonplace Killing, shortly before her death in 2012.

I think initially her death was so painful that I had to keep ferociously busy as a way of distracting myself, which is one of the reasons I collapsed," he said. "But you just gradually learn to live with it. And sort of find your feet again.

"Sian had made the choice that she wanted to have as normal a life as she could, and we had five good years, punctuated by hideous crises and the recurrence of cancer in the brain and the lung, but nonetheless five very good years.

People news in pictures Show all 18 1 /18 People news in pictures People news in pictures 7 October 2015 Russian President Vladimir Putin takes part in an ice hockey match between former NHL stars and officials at the Shayba Arena in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Vladimir Putin spent his 63rd birthday on the ice, playing hockey with NHL stars against Russian officials and tycoons EPA People news in pictures 6 October 2015 German designer Karl Lagerfeld (R) and model Cara Delevingne (C) appear at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women's ready-to-wear collection for fashion house Chanel at the Grand Palais which is transformed into a Chanel airport during the Fashion Week in Paris, France Reuters People news in pictures 5 October 2015 Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne addresses the Conservative party conference in Manchester. The Chancellor argued that reducing the payments to people in low paid jobs would give them economic security by reducing the Governments spending deficit Getty Images People news in pictures 4 October 2015 Cowboys captain Johnathan Thurston takes a moment in the centre of the field with his daughter Frankie Thurston, holding dark-skinned doll, after winning the 2015 NRL Grand Final match between the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The image quickly became the talking point of Australias National Rugby League Final and provoked a strong reaction on social media, with many praising Thurston for giving his child a toy that promotes inclusiveness and diversity Getty Images People news in pictures 3 October 2015 Pope Francis gives a thumbs-up as he greets people at the end of an audience to the participants of a meeting organized by the "Food Bank" at the Paul VI audience hall in Vatican Getty Images People news in pictures 2 October 2015 Britain's Finance Minister George Osborne (L) throws an American football as he meets with former American football players Dan Marino (2nd R) and Curtis Martin (not pictured) at 11 Downing Street in London, ahead of the New York Jets playing against the Miami Dolphins at London's Wembley Stadium on 4 October Getty Images People news in pictures 1 October 2015 An honor guard opens the door as Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to attend a meeting with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia People news in pictures 30 September 2015 Former Mrs America Lisa Christie, who alleges misconduct by Bill Cosby, holds up photos of her younger self during a news conference at the law office of attorney Gloria Allred in Los Angeles People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Matt Damon has defended himself against claims that he instructed gay actors to remain in the closet. He had said I think youre a better actor the less people know about you and sexuality is a huge part of that. Whether youre straight or gay, people shouldnt know anything about your sexuality but an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres show said, I was just trying to say actors are more effective when theyre a mystery. Right? Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Marion Cotillard has said that there is no place for feminism in Hollywood. Speaking to Porter magazine, she saidFilm-making is not about gender/ You cannot ask a president in a festival like Cannes to have, like, five movies directed by women and five by men. For me it doesnt create equality, it creates separation. I mean, I dont qualify myself as a feminist." Getty People news in pictures 29 September 2015 Actor Paul Walkers daughter, Meadow, is suing Porsche over her fathers death in a lawsuit that claims he was trapped in the burning car because of design flaws and the seat belt. The Fast and Furious star was killed when the Porsche Carrera GT he was a passenger in hit a pole in California in 2013. The driver, his friend Roger Rodas, also died when the vehicle burst into flames. AP People news in pictures 28 September 2015 Robert Mugabe waits to address the United Nations General Assembly. The leader of Zimbabwe reportedly exclaimed 'We are not gay!' as he criticised Western nation's "double standards and attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs. In 2013 he described homosexuals as worse than pigs, goats and birds. Reuters People news in pictures 28 September 2015 South African comedian Trevor Noah hosts the first 'Daily Show' since taking over from Jon Stewart as host. Stewart had presented the US satirical news show since 1999 and was described by Noah during the show as a 'Political father' 2015 Getty Images People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Sir Elton John may have received a phone call from the real Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin's spokesman announced he had made contact weeks after the singer was duped by pranksters pretending to be the Russian President. Getty People news in pictures 25 September 2015 Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was mistakenly declared as the artist who produced the Mona Lisa by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith. It was in fact Leonardo da Vinci. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 A new biography claims Donald Trump expected to be dead by 40 and never marry. The Guardian says the a new book also claims that in 1980, Mr Trump manufactured a fake vice-president of his real estate conglomerate, whom he called John Baron. People news in pictures 24 September 2015 The Dalai Lama has said that Britain's policy towards China is just about 'Money, money, money.' And asked 'Where is morality?' People news in pictures 24 September 2015 Puff Daddy secured the number-one spot on the Forbes Hip Hop Cash Kings list, with the publication calculating he made an estimated $60million (39m) between June 2014 and June 2015.

In July, The ITV journalist and former BBC Economics Editor revealed that his male friends had made insensitive remarks shortly after Busbys death, while his female friends provided really useful, practical advice.

A lot of the things that men said to me after Sian died were just stupid, he said in an interview with Red magazine.

Things like, Give it a few months, the pain will ease and you can move on and get a new girlfriend kind of thing. Youll get over it sort of stuff.

Most women said, Can I help? What do you need? Lots of really useful, practical stuff.
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Two women have fallen ill after taking a type of ecstasy known as Lego, sparking new warnings from police.

The party drug was sold in the shape of a red toy brick at a nightclub in Manchester city centre on Friday night.

Two 21-year-old women from Stockport fell unconscious after taking the pills and were taken to hospital by ambulance in the early hours of Saturday morning.

A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Police said they told paramedics they had taken the class A drug after regaining consciousness.

An ecstasy pill in the shape of a red Lego brick (Greater Manchester Police)

One of the women has been discharged but the other was still undergoing treatment.

Police are advising anyone who was taken Lego to seek urgent medical attention.

These women are very lucky. Im happy to be saying that they should make a full recovery, but the reality is, I could easily have been giving my condolences to their families instead, Detective Inspector Brian Morley said.

It comes after a 17-year-old girl collapsed and died after taking another type of ecstasy known as Mastercard at a club in Trafford on Monday.

A man and a woman, aged 19 and 20, have been arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply a Class A drug.

Det Insp Morley said he hoped the tragedy would serve as a warning that people could not know what they are taking and how it will affect them.

World's 10 deadliest street drugs Show all 10 1 /10 World's 10 deadliest street drugs World's 10 deadliest street drugs Whoonga Whoonga is a combination of antiretroviral drugs, used to treat HIV, and various cutting agents such as detergents and poisons. The drug is widely available in South Africa due to South Africas high rate of HIV sufferers, and is believed to be popular due to how cheap it is when compared to prescribed antiretrovirals. The drug is highly addictive and can cause major health issues such as internal bleeding, stomach ulcers and ultimately death Getty World's 10 deadliest street drugs Scopolamine Scopolamine is a derivative from the nightshade plant found in the Northern Indian region of South America (Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela). It is generally found in a refined powder form, but can also be found as a tea. The drug is more often used by criminals due its high toxicity level (one gram is believed to be able to kill up to 20 people) making it a strong poison. However, it is also believed that the drug is blown into the faces of unexpecting victims, later causing them to lose all sense of self-control and becoming incapable of forming memories during the time they are under the influence of the drug. This tactic has reportedly been used by gangs in Colombia where there have been reports of people using scopolamine as way to convince victims to rob their own homes World's 10 deadliest street drugs Heroin Founded in 1874 by C. R. Alder Wright, heroin is one of the worlds oldest drugs. Originally it was prescribed as a strong painkiller used to treat chronic pain and physical trauma. However in 1971 it was made illegal under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Since then it has become one of the most destructive substances in the world, tearing apart communities and destroying families. The side effects of heroin include inflammation of the gums, cold sweats, a weak immune system, muscular weakness and insomnia. It can also damage blood vessels which can later cause gangrene if left untreated World's 10 deadliest street drugs Crack cocaine Crack cocaine first came about in the 1980s when cocaine became a widespread commodity within the drug trafficking world. Originally cocaine would have attracted a high price tag due to its rarity and difficulty to produce, but once it became more widespread the price dropped significantly. This resulted in drug dealers forming their cocaine into rock like shapes by using baking soda as a way of distilling the powder down into rock form. People were doing this because it allowed for them to sell cocaine at a lower quantity and to a higher number of people. The side effects of crack cocaine include liver, kidney and lung damage, as well as permanent damage to blood vessels, which can often lead to heart attacks, strokes, and ultimately death World's 10 deadliest street drugs Crystal meth Not just famous because of a certain Walter H White, but also because it is one of the most destructive drugs in the world. First developed in 1887, it became widely used during the Second World War when both sides would give it to their troops to keep them awake. It is also believed that the Japanese gave it to their Kamikaze pilots before their suicide missions. After the war crystal meth was prescribed as a diet aid and remained legal until the 1970s. Since then it has fallen into the hands of Mexican gangs and has become a worldwide phenomenon, spreading throughout Europe and Asia. The effects of crystal meth are devastating. In the short-term users will become sleep depraved and anxious, and in the long-term it will cause their flesh to sink, as well as brain damage and damage of the blood vessels World's 10 deadliest street drugs AH-7921 AH-7921 is a synthetic opioid that was previously available to legally purchase online from vendors until it became a Class A in January 2015. The drug is believed to have 80% of the potency of morphine, and became known as the legal heroin. While there has only been one death related to AH-7921 in the UK, it is believed to be highly dangerous and capable of causing respiratory arrest and gangrene World's 10 deadliest street drugs Flakka Flakka is a stimulant with a similar chemical make-up to the amphetamine-like drug found in bath salts. While the drug was originally marketed as a legal high alternative to ecstasy, the effects are significantly different. The user will feel an elevated heart rate, enhanced emotions, and, if enough is digested, strong hallucinations. The drug can cause permanent psychological damage due to it affecting the mood regulating neurons that keep the minds serotonin and dopamine in check, as well as possibly causing heart failure World's 10 deadliest street drugs Bath salts Bath salts are a synthetic crystalline drug that is prevalent in the US. While they may sound harmless, they certainly arent the sort of salts you drop into a warm bath when having a relaxing night in, they are most similar to mephedrone, and have recently been featured throughout social media due to the zombification of its. The name comes from the fact that the drug was originally sold online, and widely disguised as bath salts. The side effects include unusual psychiatric behaviour, psychosis, panic attacks and violent behaviour, as well as the possibility of a heart attack and an elevated body temperature World's 10 deadliest street drugs Purple Drank One of the more unusual drugs around at the moment, purple drank was popularised in 90s hip hop culture, with the likes of Jay Z and Big Moe all mentioning it in their songs. It is a concoction of soda water, sweets and cold medicine, and is drunk due to cold medicines high codeine content, which gives the user a woozy feeling. However it can also cause respiratory issues and heart failure World's 10 deadliest street drugs Krokodil Krokodil is Russias secret addiction. It is believed that over one million Russians are addicted to the drug. Users of krokodil are attracted to the drug due to its low price; it is sold at 20 a gram while heroin is sold for 60. However, krokodil is considered more dangerous than heroin because it is often homemade, with ingredients including painkillers, iodine, lighter fluid and industrial cleaning agents. This chemical make-up makes the drug highly dangerous and likely to cause gangrene, and eventually rotting of the flesh

"We dont believe that Greater Manchester has an increasing problem with these so called party drugs but obviously our young people are not taking the advice theyre offered, he added.

"Let this be a warning to anyone supplying Class A drugs to young party goers. You might tell yourself you are helping people to have a good time, you are not.

"You are changing lives, and in the worst possible way. The full force of the law will be brought down on you.

"To those thinking about taking these drugs  They are illegal for a reason. I dont want to have to repeat this statement next weekend, or ever for that matter. Think of the bigger picture, are the potential consequences really worth it?

Ecstasy, also known by its chemical name MDMA, is rarely pure and can sometimes be cut with potentially fatal additional drugs like PMA.

Between 1996 and 2014, almost 700 ecstasy-related deaths were recorded in England and Wales and the drug can also cause dehydration, overheating, liver, kidney and heart problems according to the government's advisory service.
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A partially sighted woman whose guide dog was taken away after an EasyJet flight from Spain landed at Gatwick has said it was "the worst experience of my life".

Laura Reyes Martin, who has severe tunnel vision, was left effectively blind when her Labrador, Jamie, was removed following a failure of communication over tapeworm tablets.

EasyJet said it was the passenger's duty to ensure the dog had the correct documents and medication, but the Animal Reception Centre at Gatwick said they should have been told by the airline.

Ms Reyes Martin, a 21-year-old Spanish Erasmus student, was told to find a hotel overnight while Jamie was quarantined  despite her not being able to move around independently without him.

She said she was appalled to find she had to pay 500 to get her three-year-old dog back, adding that she had flown to the UK without problem on numerous occasions.

The incident at the end of the flight from the Spanish island of Gran Canaria saw the pilot, the Animal Reception Centre, and air hostesses, who were reportedly crying, all remaining onboard for several hours.

"I was in shock, I didn't know what to do," Ms Reyes Martin told The Independent.

"I was so desperate, my family were asleep so I couldn't call them so I called my friend just to say please help me. It went on for hours."

Ms Reyes Martin has tunnel vision and said she cannot move independently properly without her stick or Jamie

EasyJet staff and Gatwick animal reception team told Ms Reyes Martin to find a hotel and return the next day to get her dog, despite her needing either a white stick or Jamie to do so.

They also said she would have a 504.37 veterinary bill to get Jamie out of quarantine, which Ms Reyes Martin said she could not afford and needed help from a flatmate to pay.

"I didn't have my stick and I was totally blind there. It was the worst experience of my life," she said.

The Gatwick Animal Air veterinary bill of 504.37 which Ms Martin had to pay to get her dog out of quarantine

Airlines are required to tell animal reception teams about people travelling with guide dogs before they are due to fly so documentation can be checked beforehand.

A spokesperson at the Animal Reception Centre told The Independent: "If we had known about it before, we would have looked through the copy.

"We are supposed to be told by the airline at least 24 hours before they fly."

Ms Reyes Martin said a member of the animal rescue team told her that it was "not the first time" there had been a failure of communication involving EasyJet.

However EasyJet said in a statement: "The carriage of assistance dogs on aircraft is strictly controlled and so we provide full information on our website and through our special assistance team to ensure that passengers travelling with assistance dogs can be fully informed.

"It is it is the responsibility of passengers to ensure that assistance dogs possess the correct documents and have received the correct medication.

"We understand that this was a difficult situation for Ms Reyes Martin and so we did everything possible to assist her, which included our cabin crew remaining with the passenger for an hour and a half whilst arrangements were made with the authorities and offering Ms Reyes Martin the option of staying in a hotel or a taxi home.

"She chose to travel home and a member of our ground crew escorted her in the taxi to ensure she got home safely."
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Senior Conservatives have questioned the extent to which Zac Goldsmith was in control of the direction and character of his heavily criticised London mayoral campaign, amid a growing backlash within the party in the wake of Sadiq Khans resounding victory.

Former Chancellor Ken Clarke suggested that either the media or some misguided advisor bore responsibility.

The campaign was criticised for focusing on attempts to link Mr Khan to alleged Islamist extremists, and for targeting voters with selected messaging according to ethnic group, such as Hindus and Sikhs.

Critics within the party said the campaign's deployment of "dog whistle" politics had proved divisive, and would damage the Tory's record on race relations.

I dont know how far Zac ran it, Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4s Any Questions.

But the likelihood was every Muslim in London would be turned out to vote for the other side and a lot of metropolitan people in London who have perfectly civilised, one-nation Tory views thought this was rather startling.

Mr Goldsmiths sister, Jemima, also took to Twitter as the result became clear on Friday night, to criticise her brothers campaign and claim it did not reflect who I know him to be.

The campaign was advised by CTF Partners, the strategy firm run by Sir Lynton Crosby. Sir Lynton himself, who helped mastermind Boris Johnsons successful City Hall campaigns and the Conservatives 2015 general election win, and was knighted yesterday, is said to have taken no direct role in the Goldsmith campaign.

Steve Hilton, David Camerons former advisor, told BBC Newsnight that the campaign had brought back the nasty party label to the Conservative party and expressed his surprise that Mr Goldsmith should be the figure at the centre of the strategy.

The overall impression I got from Zacs campaign was a rather old-fashioned and frankly kind of uninspiring campaign, he said.

 2016 Election results round-up

Zac, who I know pretty well, is actually a really interesting, thoughtful, somewhat anti-establishment character in politics and hes got a very interesting set of views of different kinds on different issues and it seemed to me that none of that was conveyed in his campaign, which to be honest I found rather weird.
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Labours Marvin Rees has been elected as the new Mayor of Bristol, defeating rival George Ferguson of Bristol First at the second count.

Mr Rees, who was defeated by independent candidate Mr Ferguson in 2012, took 68,750 votes ahead of Mr Ferguson's 39,577 at the second count.

The Labour candidate also led the first preference votes with 40.4 per cent (56,729) ahead of Mr Fergusons 23.1 per cent (32,375). His victory is coupled with the turnout in Bristol almost doubling to 45 per cent from 2012.

Jeremy Corbyn, who travelled to Bristol on Saturday, has offered his congratulations, describing Mr Rees as "another Labour mayor who will stand up for their city".

Conservative candidate, Charles Lucas, beat the Green Party's Tony Dyer to third place, while Lib Dem candidate, Kay Barnard, came in fourth, followed by Ukip's Paul Turner.

Speaking after his victory, Mr Rees said: "One of the things I can do in the coming months is to show how we can be involved in electoral politics as a family.

"If you don't make politics family-friendly, you end up with a certain type of politician.

"We need family people elected and we need to make space for them. I am going to make space for my family."

Mr Ferguson, who has held the position of Mayor of Bristol since 2012, thanked his victor for "giving me my life back".

"It has been an amazing three-and-a-half years. I knew we were up against it first time but I knew we were even more up against it second time, especially as I am a great advocate for us having all-out elections."

Bristol was an important target for Labour, with Mr Rees leading a lively campaign in the area.

Mr Rees previously told the Guardian, that a win for him in Bristol, and for Sadiq Khan in London, would indicate real political change: I think the Bristol election is important to national Labour.

In myself and Sadiq you see evidence of the fact that Labour offers real political change. Look at our backgrounds. Sadiq is the son of a bus driver, Im the mixed race son of a single white woman who spent time in a refuge.

Mr Corbyn has backed Mr Rees throughout his mayoral campaign, making several visits to the city.

Speaking to the Bristol Post last month, Mr Corbyn said: "[The election] is an opportunity for the people of Bristol to elect a mayor who is going to deliver for this city and the council for this city.

In pictures: Local elections 2016 Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Local elections 2016 In pictures: Local elections 2016 Mayor of London Boris Johnson and wife Marina leave after casting their votes at a polling station in Islington, north London PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 Northern Ireland First Minister, Arlene Foster (C), Rhonna McMahon (R) and Paul Robinson leave after casting their vote for the Assembly Election, at Brookeborough Primary School in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland Reuters In pictures: Local elections 2016 Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his vote at a polling station in Islington, north London PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 David Cameron and Samantha Cameron cast their votes in the London Mayoral Election in London Getty Images In pictures: Local elections 2016 Labour Party Mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan and his wife Saadiya pose outside The Richardson Hall St Alban's Church Centre in Streatham after casting their votes in London's Mayoral and Assembly elections Getty Images In pictures: Local elections 2016 Britain's Conservative party candidate for Mayor of London Zac Goldsmith and his wife Alice leave after voting at a polling station in the Barnes suburb of south west London AP In pictures: Local elections 2016 George Osborne casts his vote in the London Mayoral Election in London Getty Images In pictures: Local elections 2016 SNP supporter Trish Traynor outside a polling station at St Ninian & Triduana RC Church in Glasgow as the polls open in the Scottish Parliament election PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale (right) with partner Louise Riddell outside a polling station in Edinburgh after casting her vote in the Scottish Parliament election PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter Murrell after casting her vote at Broomhouse Community Hall polling station in Glasgow as Scotland goes to the polls in the Scottish Parliament election PA

"It's a test for the party to get its message across - the message of opposition to austerity, the message of dealing with the housing crisis which is gripping this country - and we are doing our best to do that."

Mayoral wins in London, Bristol, Salford and Liverpool have been a major boost for Labour, which had suffered the humiliation of slipping to third place in Scotland, once a stronghold for the party.

In Wales, Labour lost control of the Welsh Assembly after the totemic seat of Rhondda fell to the Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood.

But in English council elections, the party faired less badly than many pundits had expected  losing only 25 seats of the 1,200 it was defending.

The party also retained control of key councils such as Crawley, Southampton, Norwich and Hastings, where its vote had looked vulnerable.

Mr Rees will take office on Monday when he will be officially sworn in at a ceremony at Bristol Museum, M-shed.
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George Galloway has made suggestions he could stand in the forthcoming Tooting by-election, after Sadiq Khan said he would be standing down as the constituencys MP following his London mayoral victory.

The newly elected mayor said he was stepping down from the south London seat in order to concentrate on his City Hall duties.

He told Sky News: I will be stepping down as MP for Tooting as soon as possible.

It is not clear when the by-election will occur. The marginal seat has been held by Mr Khan since 2005 and last May, he narrowly increased his majority over the Conservatives, holding the seat with a majority of 5.3 per cent.

Following Mr Khan's imminent departure it appears Mr Galloway may now have designs over the constituency.

Writing on Twitter on Saturday, the divisive politician said: Hmmm. A parliamentary by-election in Tooting. Interesting

He also tweeted a picture of himself in Tooting with the caption: Greetings to all from SWLondon. Remember if you want to help us mail me

In March however, the former Labour politician did far more than hint at his intentions in the event of a Tooting by-election.

Speaking to the New Statesman, Mr Galloway said that despite not favouring the new London mayor, describing Mr Khan as a very poor speaker" with "very little presence", he was interested in his victory.

If he [Mr Khan] wins, he told the magazine, Ill be a candidate on the Tooting parliamentary by-election swiftly thereafter, adding by-elections are easier to win than general elections! Note, Tooting!

Mr Galloway was one of 12 candidates in the London mayoral elections won by Mr Khan.

Representing the Respect party he received just over 37,000 first preference votes finishing in seventh place in front of the BNP, Britain First and the Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol party.
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Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has been forced to retreat from his claim that Sadiq Khan is unfit to be Londons mayor, as the Conservative party faced a growing backlash over divisive negative campaigning in the mayoral election.

Mr Fallon admitted that London would be safe with Mr Khan as mayor, working with the Tory Government.

He had previously suggested Mr Khan and Labour cannot be trusted with Londons security, and suggested Mr Khans supposed links with Islamist extremists compromised his ability to keep the capital safe from Paris-style terror attacks.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4s Today programme the morning after Mr Khans resounding victory, Mr Fallon said the Government was looking forward to working with the new mayor.

Im hoping we can work with Sadiq Khan, he said. Stuff gets said during elections, questions get posed.

Pressed over his previous comments, he said Mr Khan had answered the questions put to him during the campaign and admitted: London is safe with a Conservative government working with the new mayor of London.

He said the nature of the campaign had been part of the rough and tumble of politics.

But he repeated the claim, also made by the Prime Minister, that the Tooting imam Suliman Ghani, who has appeared on platforms alongside Tooting MP Mr Khan, supports Isis.

 2016 Election results round-up

The allegation has been vehemently denied by Mr Ghani, who has demanded an apology and retraction.

Mr Ghani has also said that in the past he has campaigned for Conservative council candidates.

Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Show all 5 1 /5 Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Tackle the housing crisis Khans key policy is an ambitious target to make 50 per cent of all new homes being genuinely affordable, and improving conditions for people renting Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Freeze transport fares Khan says he will freeze London transport fares for four years and introduce a one-hour bus Hopper ticket, paid for by making TfL more efficient and exploring new revenue-raising opportunities. He claims Londoners wont pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make London safer Resore neighbourhood policing, tackle gangs and knife crime, and a new plan to tackle the spread of extremism, and a review of the resourcing of our fire service Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Restore London's air quality Pedestrianise Oxford Street and prioritise measures to improve Londons air quality Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make cycling and walking safer More segregated cycle routes with a promise to spend money improving dangerous junctions Getty Images

Mr Khan beat Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith by a total of 315,529 votes when the second preference votes were counted and reallocated. He received 1,310,143 votes, higher than for any previous London Mayor. This amounted to 57 per cent of the total final votes to Mr Goldsmith's 43 per cent (994,614 votes). Turnout was 45.6 per cent, up from 38 per cent in 2012.
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Democratic Unionist leader, Arlene Foster, has praised her partys tremendous performance in the Northern Ireland Assembly election, after they remained the largest party in country, winning 38 seats out of 108.

Saturday's results after a two-day ballot count left the Democratic Unionists Party (DUP) on top with an identical number of seats to the 2011 election, while the Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, who had hoped to overtake their rivals, lost one seat, retaining 28.

Many of the main parties held their seat strength, however there were noteworthy victories for some of the smaller parties, with the People Before Profit Alliance (PBPA) and the Green Party both winning two seats each.

The count begins in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections at Omagh Leisure (Getty)

Jim Allister, leader of the TUV, retained his seat, though remains the only MLA in his party.

The Ulster Unionists also retained the same number of seats they gained at the last election, finishing with 16. The SDLP lost two seats to take 12 and the Alliance Party won eight.

The result leaves the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Fein sharing control of the 108-member assembly. Ms Foster, who was victorious in her own Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency and will continue as First Minister, said: "It has been a tremendous election and I feel very energised by the fact the people have put their trust in us.

TUV Party leader Jim Allister MLA (Getty)

It's a strong endorsement of the direction of travel. We set out a five-point plan for a safer, stronger Northern Ireland, that is what have discussed right across the country as I criss-crossed across the country.

Gaining more than 30 seats is significant for the DUP as it gives the party extra power in Assembly legislation.

Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he was pleased with his party's performance, saying it had to be seen in the context of "challenges" faced, referring to the economic downturn and UK Government "austerity policies".

Sinn Feins Michelle O'Neill, Linda Dillon and Ian Milne are elected after reaching their 1st Preference Quota votes (Getty)

"That is pretty remarkable performance given the challenges we have faced over the course of the last Assembly term," he said.

Thursdays election saw 276 candidates stand for 108 seats in Northern Irelands 18 constituencies. Overall, 703,744 people voted.

The turnout had dipped slightly from the last assembly election at 54.91 per cent compared to 55.64 per cent in 2011.

Additional reporting by Press Association
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Sadiq Khan has said he never dreamt he would become Mayor of London as he was formally sworn in as Boris Johnsons successor.

Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager of Stephen Lawrence, said she had not expected to see an ethnic minority politician during her lifetime at his official inauguration.

Sir Ian McKellen and Ed Miliband were among hundreds of guests present for the ceremony at Southwark Cathedral on Saturday morning, after which Mr Khan announced he would be standing down as an MP.

BSadiq Khan during his swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in central London on May 7, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)

The triumphant Labour politician received a standing ovation as he entered the packed building, which is the seat of the Anglican Church in south London.

My name is Sadiq Khan and Im the Mayor of London, he announced to huge cheers and applause.

Were here in Southwark Cathedral because I want to start my mayoralty as I intend to go on.

Sadiq Khan is greeted by Ian McKellen as he arrives for his swearing-in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in London on May 7, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)

I am determined to lead the most transparent, engaged and accessible administration London has ever seen and to represent every single community and every single part of our city as a mayor for all Londoners.

So I wanted to do this signing in ceremony here, in the very heart of our city, surrounded by Londoners of all backgrounds.

The democratic presidential hopeful, Hillary Clinton, has offered her congratulations to Mr Khan, writing on Twitter; Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers & human rights, and now Mayor of London. Congrats.

Mr Khan, who was elected on Friday with more than 1.3 million votes, emphasised his message of hope over fear amid controversy over his Conservative rivals campaign.

Zac Goldsmith was accused of attempting to smear his opponent by linking him with alleged Islamist extremists with whom he had attended platforms or represented during his work as a lawyer.

Karen Buck, Ed Miliband, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, and London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson, at Sadiq Khan's swearing in ceremony at Southwark Cathedral in London on May 7, 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)

Mr Khans success was seen as an embarrassment for the Tory camp, prompting some Conservatives and Mr Goldsmiths own sister, Jemima Khan, to criticise their election tactics.

I cant quite believe the last 24 hours, the new Mayor of London said after signing the document officially declaring him mayor, watched by leaders of different faiths.

I never dreamt I could be standing hereI promise you that I will always do everything in my power to make our city better.

He had been introduced by Baroness Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

This really is a glorious day, she said. I never imagined in my lifetime I could have a mayor of London from an ethnic minority.

 Sadiq Khan elected as Mayor of London

Mr Miliband, the former Labour leader, was sitting in the front row alongside Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

The Dean of Southwark, Andrew Nunn, told the congregation Mr Khan's victory brought a carnival atmosphere to the sacred building.

Jeremy Corbyn was conspicuously absent from the ceremony but led congratulations on Twitter, telling the new mayor: Can't wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all.

Thursdays election results gave Mr Khan the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history, generating excitement over his future potential among supporters.

Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Show all 5 1 /5 Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Tackle the housing crisis Khans key policy is an ambitious target to make 50 per cent of all new homes being genuinely affordable, and improving conditions for people renting Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Freeze transport fares Khan says he will freeze London transport fares for four years and introduce a one-hour bus Hopper ticket, paid for by making TfL more efficient and exploring new revenue-raising opportunities. He claims Londoners wont pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make London safer Resore neighbourhood policing, tackle gangs and knife crime, and a new plan to tackle the spread of extremism, and a review of the resourcing of our fire service Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Restore London's air quality Pedestrianise Oxford Street and prioritise measures to improve Londons air quality Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make cycling and walking safer More segregated cycle routes with a promise to spend money improving dangerous junctions Getty Images

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, said that becoming the first Muslim mayor of any EU capital could pave the way for an ethnic minority Prime Minister.

If we ever get a prime minister of colour, it will be because of what Sadiq Khan has achieved, he said.

In a Facebook post, the defeated Mr Goldsmith also congratulated Mr Khan and thanked the hundreds of thousands of people who trusted me with their votes.

Around 57 per cent of voters supported for Mr Khan, after second preferences were counted, amounting to a landslide victory on the largest turnout in the history of directly-elected mayors in London.

Additional reporting by PA
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It is a year since the Conservatives won a surprise majority the 2015 general election. While many Tories may have looked forward to a bright future freed of the shackles of coalition, it has been anything but plain sailing for the partys leadership.

Since the 2011 the Tories have been forced into climbdowns on a raft of key policies, with their slim majority meaning even minor backbench opposition makes controversial hard to push through.

Tax credit cuts

In his first Tory-only budget, George Osborne promised sharp cuts to tax credits as a significant chunk of his planned 12 billion welfare cuts. A huge backlash ensued and he cancelled the cuts at the Autumn Statement, though similar reductions will still be quietly enacted in Universal Credit in 2020.

 George Osborne's u-turn on tax credits

Disability benefit cuts

The DWP planned to cut payments for specially adapted appliances for disabled people. After Iain Duncan Smith, the then Work and Pensions Secretary resigned, saying he could not support them, the cuts were cancelled.

Forcing schools to become academies

While journalists were busy covering the local and regional elections the Government quietly announced that it was cancelling its plan to force all schools to become academies. A Tory rebellion looked likely and Labour refused to back the plan.

Junior doctors' contracts

On polling day for the May 2016 local elections the Government also said it was pausing the implementation of the junior doctors contract. The dispute isnt over but the policy represents a climbdown.

In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK 20,000 Junior Doctors marched through central London in protest at the new contract changes the government is trying to impose which they say will be unfair and unsafe In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors protest in London In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK 4 year old Cassius takes part in a demonstration in Westminster, in support of junior doctors over changes to NHS contracts, London In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Protest over proposed changes to junior doctors' contracts, Leeds In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors and NHS staff protesting against the health service cuts and the proposed contract changes offered by the government outside Parliament In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors and NHS staff protesting against the health service cuts and the proposed contract changes offered by the government outside Parliament In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Over 5000 junior doctors rallied in Waterloo place, before marching through Whitehall and onto Parliament Square, in opposition to Jeremy Hunt's new working conditions for doctors In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Demonstrators listen to speeches in Waterloo Place during the 'Let's Save the NHS' rally and protest march by junior doctors In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK Junior doctors marched in London to highlight their plight In pictures: Junior doctors protests in UK A protester at a demonstration in support of junior doctors in London

Sunday trading laws

Plans to scrap or significantly roll back Sunday trading laws were defeated in the House of Commons after a Conservative rebellion in March this year. Even a plan to pilot the changes didnt get through.

Fox hunting

The Tory manifesto pledged to hold a free vote in the House of Commons, with David Cameron backing repeal of the Hunting Act  but this was kicked into very long grass after anti-hunting Tories made it known that they would vote down any push.

Stopping in-work benefits for EU migrants

David Cameron planned to ban all EU migrants from claiming in-work benefits for four years. However, the policy proved impractical to agree at EU level and migrants will now get their benefits tapered in gradually over four years.

Saudi Arabian prisons

The Ministry of Justices trading arm had planned to raise money by running parts of the Saudi Arabian prison system, where the autocratic petrostate routinely uses beheading and crucifixion as punishment for serious crimes. Justice Secretary Michael Gove managed to secure a U-turn in the policy and the MoJ has withdrawn from the contract.

Michael Gove cancelled the contract (Getty)

Withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights

In 2014, then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said the UK would withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights if it did not win the ability to veto Strasbourg court rulings. His successor, Michael Gove, has now said this will not happen.

Police cuts

The Government faced opposition from the police to planned cuts in the run-up to the 2015 Autumn Statement. Labour had planned to hammer the government on the issue but in what appeared to be a last-minute decision, George Osborne decided to protect police budgets and ruled out further reductions.

Trade union restrictions

Conservative former shadow home secretary branded some restrictions in the Governments trade union bill as resembling those imposed by Spains General Franco. Those restrictions were withdrawn; other parts of the Trade Union Bill, including plans to restrict political funding, were also watered down in a partial climbdown.
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The Womens Equality Party won more than 350,000 votes in Scotland, Wales and London  and beat George Galloway in the London Mayoral race.

The party was set up in 2015 by TV presenter Sandi Toksvig and author Catherine Mayer to highlight issues such as equal pay, access to childcare and ending violence against women. It has also won celebrity backers including actress Emma Thompson and comedian Jo Brand.

In London, a quarter of a million people named the party leader and Mayoral candidate Sophie Walker as either their first or second choice in the Mayoral election.

Ms Walker, who secured 2 per cent of the vote in London, ahead of George Galloway, told The Independent that the party would now capitalise on every electoral opportunity it could.

This party has advanced at breakneck speed  right now were just taking stock, she said. Were about getting the job done. Everything we do is about creating a country where women are equal to men.

None of the other political parties talk about womens needs, lives and experiences in any way other than as a detailthe current political system doesnt answer womens questions.

She said that the partys campaigning on the gender pay gap had pressured Sadiq Khan into prioritising the issue in his own campaigning. Mr Khan said in March he would be a proud feminist in City Hall and has pledged to close the gender pay gap and increase police presence on public transport at key times to lower the number of sexual assaults.

Its campaigners encountered significant support on the doorstep from women and men, she said.

Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Show all 5 1 /5 Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Tackle the housing crisis Khans key policy is an ambitious target to make 50 per cent of all new homes being genuinely affordable, and improving conditions for people renting Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Freeze transport fares Khan says he will freeze London transport fares for four years and introduce a one-hour bus Hopper ticket, paid for by making TfL more efficient and exploring new revenue-raising opportunities. He claims Londoners wont pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make London safer Resore neighbourhood policing, tackle gangs and knife crime, and a new plan to tackle the spread of extremism, and a review of the resourcing of our fire service Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Restore London's air quality Pedestrianise Oxford Street and prioritise measures to improve Londons air quality Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make cycling and walking safer More segregated cycle routes with a promise to spend money improving dangerous junctions Getty Images

We talked to a lot of young millennial men who dont want to work in the way they have been told they have to work, she said. They are not interesting in working from seven in the morning to half past ten at night and being pushed out of family in the same way they see their wives and their girlfriends and their sisters being pushed out of working life.



Ms Walker compared the party's first election result to that of the Green Party. In the Green Partys first General Election result, they won 0.01 per cent, in 1974," she told The Independent.

So for us to get 5.2 per cent overall in the London Mayoral election, just behind UKIP on 6.6, and beating George Galloway, we are really pleased.

Mr Galloway has angered womens rights campaigners in the past with claims that sexual assault allegations against Julian Assange were no more than bad "sexual etiquette".

It was particularly pleasing to beat George Galloway, said Ms Walker.

She said the controversy over Mr Galloways comments in 2012 was one reason why the election result was a victory for women.

The new party picked up 1.2 per cent of the vote in both the Lothian region of Scotland and the South Wales Central region.

Votes from Scotland and Wales combined with 91,772 London Assembly votes, 53,055 first preference and 198,720 second preference Mayoral votes, amount to a total of 343,547.

The party was criticised as fearmongers by Brendan ONeill in a Spectator column after their billboard adverts highlighted the number of rapes that take place each day.

But Ms Walker said she was proud of the partys positive campaign, largely conducted through door-to-door canvassing, and was looking forward to continuing the partys work in the run-up to the next General Election in 2020.

In last year's General Election, of 650 elected MPs, 191 were women.
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An Ivy League economist was escorted off an American Airlines plane after a fellow passenger incorrectly identified the mathematical equations he was scrawling for Arabic script, and suspected him of terrorism.

Italian economist Guido Menzio, 40, was en route to Syracuse to catch a connecting flight to Ontario, where he was scheduled to present a paper at Queens University. His neighbor had witnessed him scribbling the equations and subsequently handed a flight attendant a note. The unidentified passenger had tried to make small talk with Mr Menzio, who was too focused on working out the maths he was about to present at the university, according to the Washington Post.

Recommended Read more Student kicked off Southwest Airlines flight after speaking Arabic

The plane remained on the tarmac for an extended period of time, as the passenger wary of Mr Menzio had feigned sickness, and the pilots steered the craft back to the gate. Airline personnel escorted the passenger off, but shortly after requested Mr Menzio to also step out of the plane.

American Airlines spokesman Casey Norton told the Post that the passenger, whom he was not at liberty to identify over privacy concerns, revealed that she had felt ill because of the perceived behaviour of her neighbour, Mr Menzio, an associate professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Mr Menzio was questioned by some sort of agent who told him he was suspected of terrorism, but he was ultimately deemed not a credible threat after showing what he had been writing.

Although Mr Menzio said he was treated respectfully throughout, he criticised airline protocols that fail to collect sufficient intelligence in situations like these. Airlines have a security protocol that is too rigid - in the sense that once the whistle is blown everything stops without checks - and relies on the input of people who may be completely clueless, he said.

 Video shows Muslims kicked off flight

In April, Southwest Airlines came under scrutiny after ejecting a University of California, Berkeley student, Khairuldeen Makhzoomi, who passengers overheard speaking Arabic before takeoff.

Mr Makhzoomi did not sue the airline, however; he only wanted an apology.

Human dignity is the most valuable thing in the world, not money, he said. If they apologised, maybe it would teach them to treat people equally.
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President Barack Obama delivered an optimistic keynote address to the graduating class of Howard University - one of the highest ranking Historically Black universities in the US - channeling his 2008 campaigns vision of hope and change.

Mr Obama told the graduates that the America is in a better place today than when he graduated from college in 1983 when it comes to race. The country also happens to be better off than when I took office, but thats a longer story, he joked, digressing from his original point about racial progress.

Recommended Read more The names of the 58 US inmates whose sentences were commuted by Obama

When I was a graduate, the main black hero on TV was Mr T, he said to laughter from the 2,300 student-large graduating class. Rap and hip-hop were counter-culture. Now Shonda Rhimes [producer of Scandal and Greys Anatomy] owns Thursday night and Beyonce runs the world.

But he urged the graduates that much more work needed to be done because, Racism persists, inequality persists.

I tell you this not to lull you into complacency, but to stir you into action because there's still so much work to do  so many more miles to travel, and America needs you to gladly take up that work.

He applauded the new generation of civil rights activists, such as those who protest on behalf of the Black Lives Matter movement, but said he wanted to see more participation in the democratic process.

You have to go through life with more than passion for change, he said. You need a strategy.

Mr Obama cited voting as the best way to change politics, not just on a national level, but locally, too.

When we dont vote, we give away our power. We disenfranchise ourselves, he said. Thats how we change our politics: By electing people at every level who are representative of and accountable to us.

And when it came to racial identity, Mr Obama told graduates to embrace their heritage.

Remember the tie that does bind us as African Americans: That is is our particular awareness of injustice, unfairness, and struggle, he told the graduates.

Be confident in your heritage. Be confident in your Blackness.

Howards commencement is the first of three keynotes Mr Obama will make at US colleges this year. He will speak to students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, later in May; and he will speak at the US Air Force Academy in June.
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A woman who was been blind for more than 20 years has regained her sight  after falling over and hitting her head at her home in Florida.

Mary Ann Franco, 70, gradually became blind after injuring her spine in a car accident in 1993.

Then, more than two decades later, another accident and a subsequent operation appears to have led to the recovery of her sight, although doctors are still trying to work out how exactly this could have happened.

I was fully blind  all I could see was blackness, she told The Independent.

I was in my living room, going over to the door. My foot caught on a tile, and it flipped me. I hit my head in the back, and hit it on something else, maybe the fireplace, she said.

After the fall, which took place in August 2015, Ms Franco was incapacitated and had to wear a neck brace until an operation a few weeks ago.

She was in hospital recovering from four hours of surgery on her neck when she came round from the anesthetic and realised her sight had returned.

However, in her confused state, she didnt realise what had happened straight away.

I looked towards the foot of my bed and said, Hey, lady in purple, get me something for pain'. I was in so much pain, I wasnt nice  and Im always nice, she said.

My niece said: what did you say? and I realised I could see. They gave me more medication, and the next morning I could see all the trees, and white houses below from my small window on my side in hospital.

I was the happiest woman in the whole world. It was wonderful. Everyone came in and said: Youre the miracle lady.

Neurosurgeon Dr John Afshar, who performed the operation, told ABC News that he had not expected Ms Franco's vision to be affected.

The restoration of Mary Ann Franco's vision is a true miracle, he said. I really don't have a scientific explanation for it.

He said that one theory for the exceptional story was that the accident could have affected an artery and restricted blood flow to the part of the brain which controls vision.

In pictures: US Elections 2016 Show all 15 1 /15 In pictures: US Elections 2016 In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks to supporters after rival candidate Hillary Clinton was projected as the winner in the Nevada Democratic caucuses Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes photos with workers at her campaign office in Des Moines, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, second from left, prays before lunch with supporters at Drake Diner in Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and former Maryland Governor. Martin O'Malley, speaks during a campaign stop in Waterloo, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks, as his wife Jane OMeara Sanders looks on, at a campaign event at Iowa State University Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio speaks at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson speaks at a campaign event at Fireside Pub and Steak House in Manchester, Iowa. Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum visiting supporters at a house party in West Des Moines, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Ted Cruz campaigns at Greene County Community Centre in Jefferson, Iowa AP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Senator Rand Paul speaks during a Caucus rally at his Des Moines headquarters in Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Republican candidate Jeb Bush speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa AFP In pictures: US Elections 2016 Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin introducing the arrival of Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Reuters In pictures: US Elections 2016 A portrait of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders at his campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa Getty In pictures: US Elections 2016 Campaign badges on sale ahead of a Trump rally at the Ramada Waterloo Hotel and Convention Centre in Waterloo, Iowa Getty

It could have been a result of the artery being kinked, and then when we performed the surgery itself, we unknowingly probably unkinked that vessel re-establishing blood flow and, therefore, she could have regained her vision, he said.

Ms Franco is a firm believer in God and attributes the extraordinary return of her sight to her faith.

She spoke of how happy she was to be able to see her family once again, and added that regaining her sight had changed how she thought of the world.

Everything seems so much smaller to me, since I can see. I felt like the room was bigger than it was ... but they werent as big as I thought, she said.

My sight is great now, although I went to the eye doctor and he said I had to have cataracts [operations] on both eyes. But I said no  Ive got my eyesight back, Im not having surgery now."
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A huge wildfire which has engulfed parts of Alberta province in central Canada may double in size, officials have warned.

The blaze, described by some residents as hell on earth, had grown to around 386 square miles by Friday, according to the Alberta provincial government. Smoke from the fire has been detected as far away as the southern US state of Florida.

So far, there have been no deaths reported, but around 80,000 people have been forced to leave their homes. The communities of Fort McMurray, Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation are all subject to evacuation orders.

In Fort McMurray, some 1,600 buildings have been burned to the ground. Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta, wrote on Twitter: "Fort McMurray is not safe to return to and this will be true for a significant period of time."

Alberta's manager of wildfire prevention, Chad Morrison, said there was a "high potential that the fire could double in size" by the end of Saturday. He expected the fire to expand into a more remote forested area northeast and away from Fort McMurray.

Residents escape the flames engulfing Fort McMurray (EPA)

According to Mr Morrison, no amount of resources would put the fire out, and what was needed was rain.

"We have not seen rain in this area for the last two months of significance," he said. "This fire will continue to burn for a very long time until we see some significant rain."

Fanned by high winds, scorching heat and low humidity, the fire grew fast. On Tuesday, it was around 29 square miles and reached 39 square miles by Wednesday. However, on Thursday it was almost nine times that -- 330 square miles -- roughly the size of Calgary, the largest city in Alberta province.

The fire is now so large that it has been creating its own weather conditions, causing pyrocumulus clouds intense enough to cause lightning", according to meteorologist Eric Holthaus.

Recommended Read more Video shows family driving through raging California wildfires

More extremely dry conditions and temperatures of 27 Celsius were expected for Saturday along with strong winds, wildfire chief Mr Morrison said  perfect conditions to exacerbate the blaze.

"It's going to be a very extreme fire hazard kind of day," Matthew Anderson, an Alberta wildfire information officer, told CBC News, adding "today will certainly be a very, very challenging day and the (fire's) growth potential is quite large."

However, cooler conditions are expected on Sunday and Monday.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Residents forced to flee Fort McMurray, in the heart of Canada's oil sands, were staying in accommodation intended for oil workers, while others headed south to Edmonton.

The military has been overseeing the mandatory evacuation of residents from the area threatened by the fire, with at least 8,000 people airlifted out and around 4,000 more expected to be evacuated on Saturday.

Others escaped in convoys, escorted by the police. About 1,200 vehicles had passed through Fort McMurray by late Friday afternoon, despite a one-hour interruption due to heavy smoke, authorities said.

"It was shocking to see the damaged cars all burned on the side of the road. It made you feel lucky to get out of there," said Jim Dunstan, who was in the convoy with his family.

The government has promised to give out money to displaced persons, in the form of debit cards pre-loaded with funds. Adults will receive $1,250 and $500 per dependent, which likely to be given out in several days.

The mass evacuation also forced as much as a quarter of Canada's oil output offline and was expected to impact the country's economy, which has already been hit by a dramatic fall in the price of oil.

Associated Press contributed to this report
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Mexican drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been moved from a jail in central Mexico to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a northern city on the US border, in a move that appears to bring him closer to extradition to the United States.

Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins until his capture in January, six months after he broke out of a high-security penitentiary in central Mexico through a mile-long tunnel.

Chapo, or "Shorty," faces charges ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in cities that include Chicago, Miami and both Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York.

His lawyer, Juan Pablo Badillo, said Guzman was moved early on Saturday, but he was not sure why.

"It's an absurd action, illogical," said Badillo. "The authorities shouldn't do this. It was totally unexpected."

Guzman's lawyers will meet to plot a course of action, Badillo added.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

"At this moment, he can't be extradited," said Badillo, noting that the legal process is not yet finished.

Eduardo Sanchez, a spokesman for Mexico's presidency, said Guzman's transfer to the state of Chihuahua was due to upgrades at his previous location, the Altiplano jail in central Mexico, and not part of an effort to deport him to the United States.

However, a senior Mexican security official said Guzman should be extradited before July and would probably be housed initially in the US prison in Marion, Illinois, pending trial.

"I think they'll do it in the first half of this year," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A Chihuahua state official, who also asked to remain anonymous, said the presence of a US consulate in Ciudad Juarez meant Guzman's handover could be processed faster than through the US embassy. He said he believed Guzman would be moved to the United States in a matter of weeks.

Just across the border from Ciudad Juarez is the US Fort Bliss military base, where Guzman could be taken.

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that prosecutors in El Paso, the city on the other side of the border from Ciudad Juarez, had staked a claim to try Guzman if he is extradited. Other U.S. attorneys' offices with cases against Guzman will also bid to try him first after extradition. (Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by G Crosse and Lisa Von Ahn)
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US authorities announced the arrest a prominent businessman for running a large scale money-laundering operation connected to international drug traffickers.

In coordination with the US Department of the Treasury, Colombian police arrested Nidal Waked, who they accuse of leading the Waked Money Laundering Organisation (Waked MLO) with his uncle Abdul - who are now designated Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers.

The Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) says the Waked MLO laundered drug profits through 68 different companies - including the Waked's bank, Balboa Bank & Trust. The OFAC froze all of the organisations assets that were within US jurisdiction or controlled by US persons.

This action exposes the Waked Money Laundering Organization and disrupts its ability to launder drug trafficking proceeds using trade-based methods, duty-free retail, real estate development, and financial services throughout the region, said acting OFAC Director John E. Smith in a statement.

Grupo Wisa, the familys holding company, called the charges are false and unfounded, and instructed their lawyers to fully cooperate with prosecutors.

The Drug Enforcement Agency called Mr Waked one of the worlds most significant drug money launderers and criminal facilitators in their announcement of his arrest this week.

Wakes arrest, together with the US Treasury sanctions of his many business interests and associates, represents a crippling blow to his criminal regime and highlights the significance of facilitators who enable transnational criminal networks, said Jack Riley, the DEA deputy administrator.

According to the Treasury, the Waked MLO used trade-based money laundering schemes, which includes false commercial invoicing and bulk cash smuggling to launder drug proceeds on behalf of multiple international drug traffickers and their organisations.

The Waked family owns Panamas oldest newspaper Estrella de Panama. The Associated Press says Grupo Wisa paid $173m to control a duty-free zone - exempt from taxes and other fees - at the Panama airport in 2007.
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Facebooks Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, shared a heartfelt message honouring US single mothers ahead of Mothers Day - and called for better workplace policies that support single parents nationwide.

Ms Sandberg, who penned the bestselling book Lean In, shared her experience of single motherhood since the death of her husband, SurveyMonkey CEO David Goldberg, in May 2015. Mr Goldberg died in a sudden accident while vacationing in Mexico.

Daves absence is part of our daily lives and, for me, has redefined what it is to be a mother, she wrote in the Facebook post. Before Dave died, I had a partner who shared both the joys and responsibilities of parenting. Then, without any warning, I was on my own.

One point in her book, which was about women reaching their own professional ambitions, Ms Sandberg focuses on the importance of having a supportive partner to reach those goals - specifically how her late husband helped in caring for their two children.

The book, as well as the Lean In initiative Ms Sandberg runs, had been criticised for not taking the lives of low-income women, or those without supportive partners.

Before, I did not quite get it, she said. I did not really get how hard it is to succeed at work when you are overwhelmed at home.  Some people felt that I did not spend enough time writing about the difficulties women face when they have an unsupportive partner or no partner at all.

They were right. I will never experience and understand all of the challenges most single moms face, but I understand a lot more than I did a year ago.

Ms Sandberg explained the plight that single mothers in the US face - that 84 per cent of single-parent households are led by a woman, and 40 percent of single mothers live in poverty. Forty-six per cent of single-parent families led by a woman of color are low-income.

The odds are stacked against single mothers in this country, she said, and called for the US government to provide better paid maternity leave for single mothers. Ms Sandberg added that public and corporate workforce policies need to be rethought.

[I]takes a community to raise children and that so many of our single mothers need and deserve a much more supportive community than we give them, she wrote. And lets vow to do more to support them, every day."
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Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump has shifted his attention to the US general election, away from his fallen GOP rivals and on to Hillary Clinton  who is favoured to win the Democratic nomination.

But despite this shift in scope from states to the nation, not much else has changed in Mr Trumps demeanor. The real estate mogul has continued to use his tactic of insults and snide nicknames that helped take down his GOP opponents  and not only towards Ms Clinton, but at another prominent woman in the Democratic party, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.

In a campaign appearance in Oregon, Mr Trump targeted Ms Clinton after she criticised him for his stance on womens issues. In response, the former reality TV star asserted that she was, in fact, the bad choice for American women due to how he says she treated women involved in her husband Bill Clintons past infidelity.

Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Eugene, Oregon

She's been the total enabler. She would go after these women and destroy their lives, Mr Trump told the audience. She was an unbelievably nasty, mean enabler, and what she did to a lot of those women is disgraceful.

Mr Trump did not give specific examples, adding: Have you ever read what Hillary Clinton did to the women that Bill Clinton had affairs with? And they're going after me with women?

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The New York tycoon then turned to speak out against Ms Warren, following her blunt criticism of the candidate following his Tuesday night victory in Indiana.

[Donald Trump] has built his campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia, she said.

In Mr Trumps response some three days following, he called Ms Warren goofy and a goofus saying that she has done nothing for the US since she was elected to the Senate in 2012.

I think that Hillary should run with goofy Elizabeth Warren, he said. Ms Warren has been the subject of some speculation as to whom Ms Clinton will choose as a running mate if nominated. I would love to beat them.

He continued with a barrage of attacks on her Native American heritage - an issue she faced in her 2012 campaign against then-Senator Scott Brown.

Lets properly check goofy Elizabeth Warrens records to see if she is Native American. I say shes a fraud! he wrote.

Ms Warren shot back: [Donald Trump] spews insults and lies because he cant have an honest conversation about his dangerous vision for America.

But Mr Trump continued to stoke the fire.

Goofy Elizabeth Warren is weak and ineffective, he wrote. Does nothing. All talk, no action  maybe her Native American name?

Donald Trump has yet to adopt the demeanor of a statesman this election season - despite his fulsome comments toward Texas Sen Ted Cruz after he suspended his campaign that may have suggested a tonal shift.

Mr Trump has made it as far as becoming the presumptive Republican nominee with his brand of unfiltered, unfettered rhetoric. Perhaps it could win him the Presidency.

However, Ms Warren is confident he can be beaten.

Whatever [Donald Trump] says, we won't shut up. We won't back down. This election is too important, [and] he wont step foot in White House.

Ms Warren has not endorsed either Ms Clinton or Sen Bernie Sanders; nor has she expressed or declined interest in becoming the vice presidential pick.
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The US Military Academy, commonly known as West Point, launched an inquiry into a group of 16 black, female cadets set to graduate after they posed in a traditional group photo raising their fists - a gesture historically associated with black resistance.

The image prompted an investigation on 28 April to determine whether or not the women broke any rules, West Point spokesperson Lt Col Christopher Kasker said in a statement. Department of Defence guidelines prohibit soldiers and cadets from making political statements while in uniform or on military grounds.

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Criticism of the gesture flooded social media streams accusing the women of aligning themselves with the Black Lives Matter movement, which rose to public consciousness after the high profile killings of unarmed black men by police officers.

Army Times, a weekly newspaper that serves active and retired US Armed Forces personnel, said that numerous readers sent in letters that the gesture was, in fact, in violation of the DOD guidelines.

One critic cited by the weekly paper - white Iraq War veteran, former drill sergeant, and fitness blogger John Burk - said the women identified with a group known for inflicting violent protest  calling for the deaths of police officers, and  white Americans" in a blog post on his fitness website.

Mr Burk told the New York Times that because the fist-up gesture could cause offence, it breaks Army policy. Its not the fact that they are wrong for having their beliefs, he said, its the fact they did it while in uniform.

However, Mary Tobin, a 2003 West Point graduate and Iraq veteran, told the Times that the women were simply expressing solidarity with each other.

For them its not a sign of allegiance to a movement, its a sign that means unity and pride and sisterhood, said Ms Tobin, who also serves as a mentor at West Point, and has spoken with some of the women in the picture. That fist to them meant you and your sisters did what only a few people, male or female, have ever done in this country.

Indeed, the Times reported that the picture included 16 of the 17 black women enrolled in the class of 1,000  or 1.7 per cent. West Point remains 70 per cent white and 80 per cent male.

As a tradition, outgoing graduates of West Point pose in what is called an Old Corps photos, a mimicry of the historical group portraiture featuring cadets in traditional grey uniforms and holding sabres.
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Rising sea levels and erosion have caused five islands in the South Pacific to completely disappear, researchers have said.

A further six islands have been partially destroyed by erosion and the phenomenon is already causing human displacement, pushing people out of their coastal communities and further inland.

Researchers, writing in The Conversation, said that while rumours and speculation have abounded about problem for some time, their study had now produced the first scientific evidence for land being lost to the seas.

The lost islands ranged in size from one to five hectares and supported dense tropical vegetation that was at least 300 years old.

"They were not just little sand islands," lead study author Simon Albert told AFP news agency.

In addition, Nuatambu Island, home to 25 families, has lost more than half of its habitable area, with 11 houses washed into the sea since 2011, according to the study, which was published in Environmental Research Letters.

The researchers believe similar problems are expected across much of the Pacific after 2050 as a result of human-induced sea-level rises. In all but the most optimistic scenarios for greenhouse gas emissions, many Pacific islands will experience long-term rates of sea-level rise similar to those already experienced in the Solomon Islands.

Numerous communities have been displaced and fragmented by the threat from rising seas, and generations-old settlements have been abandoned in favour of moving further inland.

Sirilo Sutaroti, the 94-year-old chief of the Paurata tribe, recently abandoned his village in the Solomons.

The sea has started to come inland, it forced us to move up to the hilltop and rebuild our village there away from the sea, he told the researchers.

In addition, the 1,000-strong town of Taro, the capital of Choiseul Province, is set to become the first become the first provincial capital in the world to relocate the entirety of its population and services in response to the impact of sea-level rise.

The study comprised of analysis of the coastlines of 33 reef islands, using aerial and satellite imagery dating from 1947 to 2015. This was used in conjunction with radiocarbon dating of trees, sea-level records, wave models, and local knowledge.

Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted Show all 5 1 /5 Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted 146204.bin AFP/Getty Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted 146209.bin Alamy Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted 146208.bin Alamy Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted 146206.bin Sea levels rising twice as fast as predicted 146207.bin Alamy

Waves were found to play a significant role in the coastal erosion which contributed the disappearance and threatens other islands in the Pacific. Islands which were more exposed and subject to wave energy deteriorated faster than more sheltered islands, information which may be useful in the future, according to the researchers. The lost islands were among those studied which were subject to more powerful wave energy.

Chair of the Solomon Islands' National Disaster Council, Melchior Mataki, said: This ultimately calls for support from development partners and international financial mechanisms such as the Green Climate Fund.

 Climate change threatens Svalbard's 3,000 polar bears

"This support should include nationally driven scientific studies to inform adaptation planning to address the impacts of climate change in Solomon Islands.
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A doctor has revealed the devastating impact the bombing of Aleppo is having on traumatised refugees, with relatives of those killed falling ill and trying to harm themselves in a concerning pattern forming at a camp in Greece.

An Irish medic working in Idomeni, Dr Connor Kenny, described the moment one distraught man was brought to a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) clinic after trying to suffocate himself.

Before I could even see him, I could hear his screams through the fabric of the field clinic tent, getting closer every second, he said.

Carried into the tent in a dark thermal blanket by four young men, he was in tears, screaming and writhing in agony.

A Syrian refugee in the Idomeni camp in Greece (EPA)

We placed him immediately on our assessment bench. It was clear that this was an emergency. Each of his friends took hold of one limb to control the forcible kicking and lashing out, and to prevent him from hitting objects in the clinical area and causing significant harm to himself.

Dr Kenny said the refugee, a 22-year-old man called Hamza, only became more agitated as medics tried to treat him.

Seeing his extreme distress, my initial thought was that it was a surgical problem  possibly a kidney stone or a perforation in the gut, he added.

But during my assessment of his airway, it became obvious he was forcibly trying to swallow his tongue, actively holding his breath at the same time. As a result his oxygen levels were falling.

With the help of translator, friends explained that Hamza had just been told his sister had been killed in an air strike in Aleppo.

In pictures: Aleppo bombing Show all 14 1 /14 In pictures: Aleppo bombing In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Smoke rises after airstrikes on the rebel-held al-Sakhour neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria April 29, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian family runs for cover amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al-Qatarji in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on April 29, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A man reacts as he stands on blood stains at a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel held area of Aleppo's al-Fardous district, Syria, April 29, 2016. Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo The damage of the airstrikes in the rebel-held area of Aleppo on April 28 Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo The damaged the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)-backed al-Quds hospital after it was hit by airstrikes, in a rebel-held area of Syria's Aleppo Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrians evacuate an injured man amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following an air strike on a rebel-held of Aleppo on April 29, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo People inspect the damage at a site hit by airstrikes, in the rebel-held area of Aleppo's Bustan al-Qasr AP In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A man leads a woman in tears and child out of the scene after airstrikes hit Aleppo AP In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Civil defence members search for survivors after an airstrike at a field hospital in the rebel held area of al-Sukari district of Aleppo Reuters In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian boy is comforted as he cries next to the body of a relative who died in a reported air strike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Soukour in the northern city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo A Syrian family walks amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike in the Bustan al-Qasr rebel-held district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrian civil defence volunteers and rescuers remove a baby from under the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrians help a wounded youth following an air strike on the Fardous rebel held neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo Getty Images In pictures: Aleppo bombing Bombing in Aleppo Syrian civil defence volunteers evacuate people from a damaged building following a reported airstrike in the rebel-held neighbourhood of Tareeq al-Bab in the northern city of Aleppo

He was so stricken with grief that he was now trying to seriously harm himself, Dr Kenny said.

When I first arrived in Idomeni, this might have shocked me, or at least made me feel slightly surprised. But now it doesnt.

The doctor said he had seen several refugees become seriously ill after hearing news of their loved ones deaths, including a 68-year-old woman also from Aleppo who has been carried to the MSF clinic several times after fainting, following the loss of a relative in bombardment of the city.

No medical reason for the responses has been found, but a concerning pattern is forming, affecting refugees of all ages who have managed to reach the camp after making the treacherous boat crossing from Turkey to Greece.

In another case, a seven-year-old boy lost control over his bladder four months after watching his father be shot dead by a sniper.

Dr Kenny said the child was found to be medically well but that staff had referred him to MSFs psychological team for help.

Dr Connor Kenny, who works at MSF's field clinic at the Idomeni refugee camp in Greece. (MSF)

Clearly, there is a significant underlying issue here, he added.

As doctors working in Idomeni field clinic, my colleagues and I increasingly find ourselves faced with the psychological impact of the shelling in Syria.

People do not leave these experiences behind when they flee for their lives. These things are inescapable. They follow them, like a shadow.

An estimated 10,000 migrants are living at the camp, which has formed around an international railway station on the border between Greece and Macedonia.

Many arrived before the imposition of the EU-Turkey deal seeing migrants whose asylum application fail deported back over the Aegean Sea, but they have been trapped by restrictions allowing only those of selected nationalities, including Iraq and Syria, to cross the border and continue their journey into Europe.

Refugees staged a protest calling for the reopening of the borders at their makeshift camp in the village of Idomeni, Greece (AFP)

Dr Kenny said palpable distress and frustration in the camp is worsening refugees physical and psychological problems.

Hamza was prescribed relaxants as a last resort and kept in a clinic for observation, before being referred to psychologists.

I hope he will recover, he said. But to be honest, I dont know what will happen to him as time goes on. Nobody knows what will happen to him, or indeed to anyone stuck in Idomeni.

It seems they are trapped in no mans land. As one patient told me: We are dying here, just like we were in Syria, but slower.

A new wave of refugees has been fleeing Syria after bombardment re-started in Aleppo last month despite the cessation of hostilities earlier this year.

Monitors estimate that at least 285 people have been killed in strikes on both regime and rebel-controlled sides of the divided city, including some that hit hospitals and mosques.

 Aleppo onslaught: New ceasefire announced

The Syrian government and its Russian allies have denied responsibility for civilian casualties after condemnation by the United Nations and international calls for a war crimes investigation.

Amid mounting pressure, Aleppo was added to a regime of calm truce that was extended for 72 hours starting at 1am on Saturday morning local time (10pm Friday GMT).

While the ceasefire has been largely holding in the city, the Islamist Jaysh al-Fatah rebel alliance - led by al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusra group - has launched an assault on government-held areas to the south, sparking days of battles with Bashar al-Assads forces.

Refugees continue desperate efforts to escape the violence but there have been allegations of Turkish border guards beating and shooting those trying to flee, while the journey to Europe has been made more difficult by the controversial EU refugee deal and border restrictions across the continent.

Many asylum seekers are attempting to avoid Greece by taking the land route from Turkey thorough Bulgaria and Serbia, with thousands being detained.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Zoo Quest, 1954

Attenboroughs first major TV success was the seven-series Zoo Quest, which aired from 1954-1963. The first saw him travel to Sierra Leone with London Zoo curator Jack Lester in search of white-necked rockfowl.

How to do it: While West African nation is recovering from the debilitating effects of civil war and Ebola, it has been clear of the virus for several months. It is also home to hundreds of bird species and Bird Quest (birdquest-tours.com) is offering a trip to see them in their natural environment. Departing 7-21 February 2018, the small group tour will travel through a variety of habitats, from coastal mangroves to mountains and evergreen forests. It costs 3,320pp excluding international flights.

David Attenborough on a Zoo Quest in Komodo, 1956 (BBC)

The Blue Planet, 2001

This landmark series on the worlds oceans featured Attenborough as narrator, with each episode exploring a different aspect of marine life.

How to do it: Get a taste of how such a programme is put together on Natural World Safaris (naturalworldsafaris.com) eight-day California Blue Whales Film Crew Experience. Guests will swim with the worlds largest mammal and join Patrick Dykstra and his team in filming a nature documentary. Departing 3 August, it costs from 3,925pp excluding flights. There are only two places, so if you miss out, Natural World offers several other opportunities to swim with whales, whether its orcas in Norway or humpbacks in La Reunion.

Life in the Undergrowth, 2005

The five-episode series studied invertebrates using macro and close-up film technology. Attenborough travelled the world in search of its tiniest inhabitants, from New Zealand in search of glow worms, to Malaysia where he was visibly startled by the emergence of a trapdoor spider.

How to do it: Visit Waitomo Glowworm Caves on North Island to see thousands of glowworms on the grottos surfaces (waitomo.com). Nature Quest New Zealand (naturequest.co.nz) offers a range of nature tours including private guided trips and researched, customised tours accompanied by experienced naturalists.

Planet Earth, 2006

The most expensive documentary series ever commissioned by the BBC, Planet Earths 11 episodes each focused on a different biome or natural habitat, from mountains and caves to jungles and great plains.

How to do it: Expedia (expedia.co.uk) has a week-long break on Mexicos Yucatan peninsula, where the Planet Earth team dived in the crystal clear waters of cenotes (sink holes), in stalactite- and stalagmite-fringed caves. A weeks B&B in a suite at Hotel Live Tulum, with flights but not transfers, costs from 695pp in June. Snorkelling excursions to the cenotes cost about US$50-70 through local outfits such as Akumal Dive Shop (akumaldiveshop.com) and Diving Cenotes Tulum (divingcenotestulum.com). Dives start at roughly US$100.

Madagascar, 2011

The stars of this show were lemurs, primates that are endemic to and synonymous with Madagascar. The film crew spent a month tracking one particular group of indiri lemurs, and filmed crowned lemurs moving amid the karsts of northern Madagascar. This series spawned a sequel: Attenborough and the Giant Egg, in which the presenter returns in search of the remains of eggs laid by long-extinct elephant birds.

How to do it: Kuoni (kuoni.co.uk) offers an 11-night Madagascar Explorer small group tour that takes in Isalo, Ranomafana and Mantadia national parks, all home to numerous species of lemur, as well as the scenic highlands and the islands capital, Antananarivo. From 3,368pp including accommodation, most meals, transfers and guiding. International flights extra.

Sir David Attenborough pictured with lemurs during a lecture at London zoo in the 60s (Getty Images)

Frozen Planet, 2011

Filmed across both polar regions, this spectacular series centred around the changing seasons and the challenges faced by polar bears, Arctic wolves, Adelie penguins and wandering albatrosses.

How to do it: Explore the tundra of the Canadian Arctic  where part of the series was filmed  on Steppes Travels (steppestravel.co.uk) Classic Polar Bears group tour. From the small town of Churchill youll head out in specially adapted vehicles in search of the worlds largest bears, which flock here in their hundreds each autumn during their annual migration. You may also spot the Northern Lights. From 4,235pp including flights; departs October and November.

Polar bears in the Canadian Arctic (Shutterstock)

Galapagos 3D, 2013

The Sky series explored the Ecuadorian archipelago almost 200 years after Charles Darwins Beagle pulled ashore at the islands. It wast Attenboroughs fourth visit, during which time he encountered the Galapagos pink land iguana and the late Lonesome George, the last of the now extinct Pinta Island tortoises.

How to do it: Wildlife Worldwide (wildlifeworldwide.com) offers a number of specialist trips to the region, including the Five Day First Class Northern Galapagos cruiser, which visits some of the smaller islands including Santa Cruz and its flamingo-filled lagoons and sealions on Rabida. The group tour costs from 2,130pp excluding international flights.

Africa, 2013

The continent was explored in all its diversity, from the Atlas mountains to the Kalahari desert. The series took four years and 79 expeditions to film in 27 countries. Mozambiques Gorongosa National Park featured in the last episode as a case for considering the threats to Africas wildlife. The parks ecosystems and wildlife have been successfully restored after being devastated by years of civil war and destructive farming policies.

How to do it: Cedarberg Travel (cedarberg-travel.com) offers a 10-day tour of Mozambique including three nights in Gorongosa from 2,900pp, including flights.

The Hunt, 2015

Taking in locations from the Arctic to Africa, this series examined the relationship between predator and prey, capturing the brutal reality of a kill.

How to do it: Part of the series was shot in Nsefu, in Zambias South Luangwa National Park, which can be visited with Expert Africa (expertafrica.com) on a seven-night safari. From 3,486pp including flights, transfers, full board accomodation, wildlife spotting and park fees.

Lions in Zambia

Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough, 2016

Attenborough has described his first time diving the Great Barrier Reef, in 1957, as the most magical experience of my life, and nearly 60 years later he returned, equipped with a submersible and a helicopter, to capture a unique perspective on the rainforest of the sea.

How to do it: Austravel (austravel.com) has a week-long Tropics and Tablelands itinerary that takes you round trip from Cairns, the gateway to the Reef, to diving hub Townsville. From 569pp including accommodation and car hire. Flights and excursions such as boat trips to the Reef are extra.
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The Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA) working in partnership with the Conservation Alliance of Kenya (CAK) held a meeting of conservationists and key influencers in Nairobi last month to forge a social contract, calling on communities living with wildlife to reconnect with and work towards the conservation of Kenyas natural heritage.

The meeting, hosted at the Serena Hotel in Nairobi, focused on the urgent need for both private landowners and the community more widely to maintain open space for wildlife, reduce human wildlife conflict and end the illegal wildlife trade. The Cabinet Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources, Professor Judi Wakhungu was in attendance, as well as Pat Awori and other conservationists, traditional leaders and community members.

Steve Itela, Director of Operations and Partnerships at the Africa Network for Animal Welfare said: We couldnt do conservation without the people. Wildlife exists because of people. We want to reconnect with the wildlife. The whole focus here is to review our past strategies which seem not to have worked, and to see how we can create new innovative ideas that will actually bring wildlife and people together.

At the meeting it was discussed how local communities, particularly those living nearest to wildlife, could attain coexistence with their natural environment, and reduce costs associated with living with wildlife. The community and conservation leaders pledged to take action in order to conserve wildlife and the iconic species which Kenya's image and economy is dependent upon.

The meeting was one of a series of events leading up to the Giants Club Summit and the Ivory Burn held on April 29th and 30th. It united traditional leaders, community members, private conservancy owners and conservationists from different regions and conservation areas, in a bid to sustain and promote reconnection with wildlife.

Amongst those speaking at the event were Tom Lalampaa, Chief Programmes Officer of the Northern Rangelands Trust; Dickson Kaelo, Founding Chief Executive Officer of the KWCA and Samson Parashina, Maasai Warrior and President and Chairman of the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust.

This event is very important for all communities around the entire country, from the Kenyan coast through Nairobi into the Mara, then across into Laikipia  every single part of the country is represented here with one voice. We want to conserve and protect the wildlife and the habitat of these animals, said Jackson Looseyia, Mara safari guide and businessman, and a panellist at the event.
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Its not easy, but lets try and take the longer view of the American presidential race. The next week or two will be tough for Hillary Clinton. After winning in Indiana last Tuesday her rival Bernie Sanders is probably off on another mini-streak of primary victories, in West Virginia, Oregon and elsewhere.

Theyre smallish states which wont change the big picture, that Sanders has virtually no hope of catching up to Clinton in pledged delegates, let alone of winning over the unpledged super-delegates who also vote at the Democratic convention, and overwhelmingly back the former Secretary of State. But theyre bad news all the same for the near-certain Democratic nominee.

They mean time spent fending off attacks by Sanders, time that could have been better used going after Donald Trump  and more embarrassing evidence of the trouble she has connecting with her partys liberal wing and with younger voters. Right now, 25 per cent of Sanders supporters tell pollsters they will never, ever vote, for Clinton in November.

Then there are those emails. According to reports, she is likely to be questioned by the FBI on whether she broke the law by dealing in official classified information on her private email server. Chances are, neutral experts in these matters say, no charges will be pressed. But merely having your name and the FBI in the same headline is bad enough.

And finally to Trump himself, as he basks in his unexpectedly sudden and comprehensive triumph. With Clinton otherwise engaged, he now has the opportunity of appearing more presidential, softening his image and trying to patch up the raw wounds of the Republican Party of which he is now de facto leader. And who will he choose as vice-president? Thats a far more compelling storyline than the twilight meanderings of an overlong primary season.

 10 of the scariest things Donald Trump has ever said

But now take a deep breath and consider the longer view. First, those 25 per cent of Sanders voters who vow never to support Clinton. Just eight years ago she was on the losing end of an epic primary battle with Barack Obama (which also continued until June, although the outcome had been clear for weeks beforehand).

At the same Indiana primary in 2008 (which she won by a whisker) no less than 50 per cent of Clinton voters said they would never support Obama. That November Obama won the election by a country mile, backed one can be sure, by the vast majority of Clinton voters. The same, you can be sure, will happen this time. Are Sanders voters, young, liberal and idealistic, really going to shun the polls or, worse still, switch to Trump?

However deeply divided they may be, parties tend to paper over the cracks for the duration of an election season. None in recent times have been as divided as todays Republicans, and Paul Ryan, currently the countrys most senior elected Republican, is the first House Speaker in a century not to instantly endorse his partys presumptive nominee.

But the strong odds are that he and Trump will at minimum find a modus vivendi by the time the Cleveland convention rolls around. A first round of peace talks indeed are scheduled for Thursday in Washington. And just as Republicans will find a union of sorts to avert the nightmare of a Clinton restoration, so will Democrats come together to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office. Doubtless there will be some Sanders dead-enders  but nowhere as many as the Republicans who refuse to vote for Trump.

Politics can change overnight  but rarely as a result of an instant reappraisal of a candidate. Almost always it is an event, as Harold Macmillan used to say, that reshuffles the cards. America 2016 is no different. A shock revelation about Trump, an FBI indictment of Clinton, a major terrorist attack in the US  any one of them could turn calculations on their head, as could a sudden tumble in the popularity of President Obama.

Obama? Hes a lame duck, I hear you say, the guy whos leaving the stage: what impact could he have on the outcome of the election? A good deal, it so happens. Remember 2008, when the outgoing George W Bush was so unpopular he was kept away from that years Republican convention? For any Republican in a close race that year who appeared with him, Bush would have been the kiss of death. Hillary however has wrapped herself in the mantle of Obama, and the gamble is paying off.

 Crooked Hillary 'As Crooked As You Can Be' - Trump

Obscured by the Sturm und Drang surrounding Trump (but perhaps thanks to it) Obamas approval rating has climbed to over 50 per cent, more than even the sainted Ronald Reagan at a similar moment in 1988. As such hes someone a Democratic candidate wants to be seen with, and Obama has made it as clear as he decently can that Clinton is his preferred successor.

The 2016 conventions will present a glaring contrast. Trump is being shunned by both living Republican presidents, Bush 41 and Bush 43, who refuse to endorse him. In Philadelphia, on the other hand, Clinton will have the enthusiastic backing of not one but two popular Democratic ones: Obama and of course husband Bill, whose favourability rating stands at around 55 per cent.

Yes, 2016 was when angry Americans turned against the establishment, embracing populists like Trump and Sanders  and by definition no one embodies the Washington establishment like a former president. But if that president is popular, his bully pulpit survives.

Hillary Clinton is not the greatest of candidates, for well-known reasons. Shes cautious, glib, and uninspiring on the campaign trail. She bows a little too obviously to the prevailing winds. Right now shes facing a rough patch. Nonetheless she still leads Trump by streets in the polls, despite the medias interest in making the contest closer than it really is (you cant keep ratings up by selling a foregone conclusion for six months straight). Take the long view in other words, and the Clinton sky is pretty bright.
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As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:7, there is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak. During the campaign for London Mayor, the media approached me many times regarding Zac Goldsmiths comments about Sadiq Khan. I emulated a Trappist monk, but now that the election is over, I can remain silent no longer.

How I voted

As a British Muslim of Pakistani ethnic origin, I was quite pleased to see Sadiq Khan win the Labour nomination for mayoral candidate. I have also met him on many occasions, and we are both patrons of the charitable research project Curriculum for Cohesion. However, as a Conservative Party member for about 33 years, I had absolutely no doubt about wanting to get a Conservative elected as Mayor of London. In the Conservative Mayoral primary, I voted for Syed Kamall, but was happy to support any candidate chosen by the partys members in London.

When 2016 started, I went canvassing for Zac in January on a cold, wet morning near Gants Hill Underground, and expected to do much more of it. (I decided in 2015 that I prefer walking the pavement to telephone canvassing as it is much better exercise.) Then something changed.

With growing intensity, Zac began to paint Khan as a closet extremist. The words were always carefully chosen (sensible when dealing with a lawyer) and emphasised Khans alleged lack of judgement regarding who he had shared platforms with in the past. However, the underlying message was clear to me and to everyone else who heard it. We were meant to understand that Khan kept bad company with extremist Muslims and could not be trusted with the safety of London. On top of that, leaflets were targeted specifically at London Hindus and Sikhs, superficially about Khans tax policies, but clearly seeking to divide Londoners along religious and ethnic lines.

It was not just me reading Zacs messages this way. Every Muslim member of the Conservative Party who has discussed the campaign with me has understood the messages in this way, as have many, probably most, non-Muslim commentators. I concluded that Zac had abandoned any attempt to appeal to Muslim voters, and was instead seeking to maximise his vote amongst non-Muslim voters by attempting to frighten them about Khan, the alleged Muslim extremist.

Despite all this, I voted for Zac a week or so before polling day, as I have a postal vote. I did so because I consider Khans policies, especially on transport, to be rubbish. I publicised how I voted, and why, on social media. However, beyond that I could not develop the motivation to do a single days campaigning for Zac after January, because I was disgusted (I considered milder words, but decided to be frank) with the tone of his campaign and his repeated, and risible, attempts to smear Sadiq Khan.

My wife, who has been a Conservative Party member for about 10 years, and attends each party conference with me, was if anything even more outraged. She could not bring herself to vote for Zac at all, and exercised her democratic right to vote for Khan. She did however vote Conservative for the Greater London Assembly.

 Nastiest moments in the London mayoral election

Winning isnt everything

I am well aware of Charlie Browns retort, Losing isnt anything. However, the classicists in our party will know what Pyrrhic victories are.

Since David Cameron became our partys leader in 2005, helped by my vote in the leadership election, he has worked very hard to detoxify our brand, from hugging a hoodie, to living for two days with a Muslim family, to bringing in equal civil marriage. It has worked. From being regarded by many Muslims as nothing more than the party of Enoch Powell, we won the votes of 15 per cent of British Muslims in 2010, rising to 25 per cent in 2015, with the trajectory being clearly upwards.

Much of this has been imperilled by the Zac campaign and we have many elections to fight in the future more important than the London Mayoral election of 2016. If we want to avoid the likely fate of the US Republican Party, we have to appeal to Britons of all ethnicities and of all religions and none.

Fortunately, for most of the campaign the Prime Minister stayed above the attempts to smear Khan, apart from two interventions in PMQs, both of which were in my view unwise.

Careless talk costs lives

Ironically, in my opinion Zacs attempts to smear Khan have probably increased our risks of suffering terrorism. Isis is perpetually seeking to radicalise and recruit young British Muslims to their cause. At the margin, I believe there is a risk that young impressionable British Muslims who witnessed Khan being smeared in this manner will thereby be made more vulnerable to radicalisation than they were before. I cannot quantify the scale of Zacs impact, but have no doubts about its direction. (Just ask yourself if you think Zacs tactics decreased the risk of radicalisation.)

A good election to have lost?

I am an inveterate optimist and see silver linings to every cloud.

If Zac had won, for the next four years of his mayoralty it would have rankled with most British Muslims that he won by smearing an upstanding loyal British parliamentarian who happens to be Muslim. Since Zac lost, his campaign will soon recede into oblivion, a footnote in history, rather like the Conservative campaign in Smethwick in 1964 which I am old enough to remember even though Zac and Khan were not even born then. Accordingly, the Conservative Partys appeal to British Muslims should recover rapidly after this debacle, provided we learn from it.

The same is true of the radicalisation effect. Whatever recruitment traction Isis could get from the Zac campaign will vanish in the warm afterglow of London, the worlds most important city, electing as Mayor a citizen who is a Muslim of Pakistani ethnicity. That would not be the case if the smear campaign had succeeded.

Finally, Khans victory should help to keep Jeremy Corbyn in power. Long may he continue to lead the Labour Party!

Mohammed Amin is the Chairman of the Conservative Muslim Forum

This article originally appeared on the ConservativeHome website
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The victory of Sadiq Khan, the new Mayor of London, did not only bring some relief for Jeremy Corbyn in a tricky set of elections. It also brought some hope for Corbyns Labour critics, who hope that Khan can his use his powerbase at City Hall to showcase pragmatic, effective policies and prove a good advert for a party desperately needing one after two bruising general election defeats.

Some Labour figures even talk of Khan becoming an alternative centre of power to Corbyn inside the party. After being elected as Labours candidate  a path eased by his decision to nominate Corbyn as Labour leader  Khan was quick to distance himself from Corbyn, declaring that he was his own man and not anyones patsy. He has every right to claim his victory as his own, not Corbyns.

Yet Corbyns critics may be disappointed; the new Mayor will have more than enough in his in-tray and little time to play internal Labour politics.

His immediate priority will be to live up to his campaign rhetoric by being a mayor for all Londoners and allying fears about him by being strongly pro-business. Khan also talked about a 32 boroughs strategy rather than one targeting Labours core vote. That will now be his mantra for his four-year term.

 Who is Sadiq Khan?

Khan, the most powerful Muslim politician in Europe, has taken charge of a 17bn budget, with responsibility for transport, housing, planning and the police and fire services. More powers could be forthcoming if the Government lives up to its rhetoric on devolution.

But it is doubtful whether London will get the same powers over health that George Osborne has handed to his pet project in Manchester. Khan wont necessarily get any favours from Tory ministers, who might have been more willing to go an extra mile for a Tory mayor. Osborne will not want to share the credit for big spending projects with a Labour one.

A big challenge for Khan, the son of a bus driver who rose to attend the Cabinet as Transport Minister, will be delivering his pledge to freeze bus and tube fares for four years, largely through "efficiency savings at Transport for London. Such savings are easy to promise in an election and harder to find in office.

Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Show all 5 1 /5 Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Tackle the housing crisis Khans key policy is an ambitious target to make 50 per cent of all new homes being genuinely affordable, and improving conditions for people renting Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Freeze transport fares Khan says he will freeze London transport fares for four years and introduce a one-hour bus Hopper ticket, paid for by making TfL more efficient and exploring new revenue-raising opportunities. He claims Londoners wont pay a penny more for their travel in 2020 than they do today Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make London safer Resore neighbourhood policing, tackle gangs and knife crime, and a new plan to tackle the spread of extremism, and a review of the resourcing of our fire service Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Restore London's air quality Pedestrianise Oxford Street and prioritise measures to improve Londons air quality Getty Images Sadiq Khan's 5 most significant policies Make cycling and walking safer More segregated cycle routes with a promise to spend money improving dangerous junctions Getty Images

Another target in the spotlight  and easy to measure  is Khans pledge to ensure that 50,000 homes are built in the capital each year, half of them affordable.

He will need to work with developers rather than against them. One test of his muscle will be to get public authorities who own land to release it for housing.

Khan takes power at City Hall after a bruising election campaign in which the Conservatives, trailing in the opinion polls, threw every bit of mud at him they could muster in the hope that some would stick.

They, and Tory-supporting newspapers, deployed their stockpile of Khans alleged links with extremists, many of them tenuous.

Zac Goldsmith, the Tory candidate, described Khan as radical and divisive". The Tories bombarded voters with an Indian background with messages that Khan would not keep their city safe.

They played up his links with Corbyn, warning that the Labour leader would use London as a testing ground for his radical ideas.

Despite some jitters in his campaign team, Khan took it calmly in public, telling Goldsmith: Theres no need to keep pointing at me and shouting hes a Muslim. I put it on my own leaflets.

Some revelations were embarrassing, including a last-minute shot out of the Tory locker showing that in 2009 he described moderate Muslims as Uncle Toms  a slur thrown at blacks who are subservient to whites. He apologised swiftly.

In the end, the Tory attacks did not work. They may have had more impact elsewhere but seemed to backfire in a capital that proved more tolerant than the Tory leadership calculated.

Several leading Tories felt uncomfortable about a campaign that felt more nasty party than David Camerons One Nation, compassionate Conservatism".

There is no doubt than Khan now has his dream job. In a hyperactive campaign, he showed more hunger for it than Goldsmith.

The third man to be elected London mayor has two hard acts to follow in Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson. He starts the job with a lower profile than his predecessors. But the whole country will now be seeing a lot more of Khan.
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After a year of Tory rule Britain has been left in worse shape than ever. There have been serious policy failures, a multitude of U-turns and even cabinet resignations. Despite the focus on Labours internal fighting, it is the Cameron premiership that has been dogged by crises over the past year.

Housing

Under the Tories the housing crisis has only deepened. Over the past year experts have called on the government to drop its housing bill, which has been described as signalling the end of affordable housing. The Labour Party has estimated that 40,000 council homes will be lost per year under the new proposals. Local councils are also being forced to sell-off land and property against their wishes. As people are forced to put the rent on the overdraft the idea of saving for a deposit is an unreachable dream for many.

Education

Luckily we heard yesterday that the Tories have decided to abandon their plan of forced academisation. In what is simply another case of Westminster politicians thinking they know better than local teachers. The government has been forced to U-turn owing to sustained pressure from Labour and a coalition of angry teachers, parents and governors. At the same time maintenance grants have been scrapped for the poorest students as a generation of working students are priced out of University.

Health

No failure has been more obvious than the failure to negotiate with Junior Doctors. For the first time in the BMAs history, junior doctors have engaged in full walkouts across the UK. Jeremy Hunt has refused to listen to doctors concerns and has attempted to impose a contract on hard-working professionals attempting to stick up for our NHS. The Tories continue to insult the intelligence of some of our brightest minds. Alongside this breakdown in trust we have seen the rise of waiting times and a cut in mental health services. The elderly face unprecedented cuts to their care. It is clear more than ever that the Conservatives cannot be trusted with our National Health Service.

 Jeremy Hunt says junior doctors' contract is likely to be his 'last big job in politics'

Economy

Now we know the economy has never been the governments strongpoint despite its rhetoric (does the phrase long term economic plan ring a bell?) but recent reports have only further dampened their record. With growth once again predicted to go down, the Chancellor is also expected to miss his targets on the deficit and borrowing yet again. Despite being in power for six years we are still told that this is the Labour Partys fault. Party divisions over Europe have only further shaken the economic outlook with the pound now in dire straits against international currency.

Tax

The Panama Papers scandal has served as the clearest example yet of the serious divides between the government and the Labour Party. After the Prime Minister was embroiled in the scandal over his personal and family tax affairs many were led to question how the Tories could be inflicting huge cuts on normal people while the richest dodged their tax. The Google tax avoidance deal was the precursor to the inept handling of the Panama scandal.

Benefits

Behind the Tory rhetoric on work rests cuts to the support that working families receive. Thankfully the Tory attack on child tax credits was halted after a monumental campaign that exposed the plan for what it was: an attack on working people simply trying to get by. The disabled and vulnerable have also been hit by these cuts. Iain Duncan Smith, a former Tory leader, resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary over the disgraceful attempt to cut support for disabled people across the country. The number of families relying on food banks and emergency food parcels in Britain is not falling - the number continues to rise.

Equality

Evidence continues to show that it is women who have been hit hardest by Tory austerity. Little effort has been made to close the pay-gap and the promise of free childcare for working families has not yet materialised as promised. While we have seen the back of the Tampon Tax, the money the government had signposted for supporting womens shelters has disappeared with no alternative funding offered. Shelters for victims of rape and domestic violence continue to disappear.

 What does George Osborne's budget mean for you?

There are many other areas that we could explore but I think that I would need an endless word count for that. The Tories have failed to control private rents and deliver affordable housing, the National Health Service is in a precarious position and the government has launched the greatest attack on our junior doctors in the history of the health service. Our teachers and students are under extreme stress to meet arbitrary standards, the economic outlook remains bleak after six years of Tory rule, and the richest get away with not paying their tax while the vulnerable suffer cuts to their benefits threatening their independence and livelihoods and - to top it all off - women are being hit the hardest.

I guess you could say its just a case of the same old Tories.
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Talk about getting the barnacles off the boat. On Wednesday David Cameron announced a U-turn on child refugees. On Thursday Lord Prior, a Health minister, declared a pause in imposing new contracts on junior doctors. And on Friday Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, said she would drop legislation to force schools to convert to academies.

The barnacles mantra was one of Lynton Crosbys during the 2015 election campaign. The Australian strategist is keeping his distance from the EU referendum battle, but the Prime Minister has learned the lesson. Hence the attempt to remove all distractions before the voters start to pay attention to the choice facing the nation on 23 June.

His skill at the unembarrassed and reasonably prompt U-turn is one of Camerons greatest strengths, and has been from the start. Most of us have forgotten the details now, but when he first became Prime Minister there were skid-marks all over the road. Selling off the nations forests is the only one that sticks in the mind, which shows how successful the politics of the tactical retreat can be.

 Junior doctors accuse Jeremy Hunt of handling contract crisis 'absolutely abysmally'

Not believing in things too much is an asset for a politician. Most notably last week it served Sadiq Khan well. One persons slipperiness is anothers pragmatism and 1.3m other peoples electability. But Camerons admissions of error last week do raise the question of why he made the mistakes in the first place, after six years experience in government.

On child refugees, Cameron thought he had a strong argument. Hard-hearted though it seemed, he thought that to accept the 3,000 unaccompanied Syrian children would simply encourage more parents to send their (mostly older teenage) children ahead of them.

But Parliament wouldnt wear it, and so he had to climb down, trying to preserve his principle by saying that Britain would not take unaccompanied children who arrived at Calais after March.

The doctors dispute has deeper causes, but the big problem was Camerons unfunded promise during the election campaign of a seven-day NHS. That was what broke the wet paper sack of the squeeze on NHS funding. Who knows if last weeks change of tone will be enough to solve a dispute that has gained a momentum of its own, but at least the Government now looks as if it is trying.

The most mysterious mistake was George Osbornes decision to use the Budget to announce that all schools would be forced to become academies by 2022. Having asserted his authority over Morgans Education department, the least he could have done would have been to announce the U-turn himself, but he ungallantly pushed his subordinate out to do the climbdown.

But why did he think such a self-evidently flawed idea was good in the first place? The only explanation can be a severe case of Gordon-Brownitis, as a chancellor cast around for a shiny gimmick to announce in a Budget otherwise stymied by bleak economic forecasts.

Part of the wider problem is that Cameron and Osborne have failed to adapt to a one-party government. They had become used to negotiating policy with the Liberal Democrats and thinking that, once it was agreed inside government, the coalitions big majority in the Commons would deliver the legislation. Now, with a one-party majority of 16, it takes just eight Tory rebels to strip the Government of the power to pass a law.

The Prime Minister doesnt like the comparison, but he is like Harold Wilson, a flexible fixer holding together a divided party. Cameron insists that, apart from Europe, his party is united behind his modernisation. Which is a bit like saying that, apart from the anti-capitalism and the anti-Americanism, Jeremy Corbyn is a Blairite.

Wilsonian flexibility is a strength in a leader, but its price is loss of direction. Cameron knows that Wilson didnt leave much of a legacy apart from the Open University and an economy going down the drain.

 2016 Election results round-up

Even if, like Wilson, he wins his referendum on Europe, his monument is so far a small, jerry-built construction surrounded by temporary hoardings. The welcome plans to reform prisons and to take mental health care more seriously have hardly got beyond the warm words stage. His great life-chances theme seems too diffuse and too contradictory to amount to much. An all-out assault on poverty makes no sense for a Government that still  despite last years retreat on tax credits  plans to balance the budget on the back of the working poor, through cuts in universal credit.

Cameron has got the barnacles off the boat, but new ones keep on attaching themselves, and all the while the boat seems to be drifting.
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Jeremy Corbyns critics set up Thursdays election as a crucial test of his ability to appeal to the electorate. Apart from probably wresting the post of Mayor of London from the Conservatives grasp, they anticipated that it was a test the Labour leader was bound to fail. Unfortunately for those critics, however, Mr Corbyn managed to get a pass from the examiners  although they very clearly withheld giving him a distinction.

The main component of the critics test comprised elections in 124 local authorities across provincial England. This seemed a relatively tough examination. Most of the seats in these elections were previously contested in 2012, which happened to be the one year that Ed Miliband achieved a reasonably good set of local results.

As a result, given that Labour is still trailing the Conservatives in the opinion polls, it seemed that the party could well lose 150 of the 1300 seats it was trying to defend. And as Mr Corbyns critics pointed out, the only Labour Opposition leaders that had previously presided over seats losses of local council seats were Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock - not that it would seem the happiest of precedents.

Recommended Read more Sadiq Khan wins London mayoral race in victory for Labour

Yet in the event, the result for Labour was rather better than anticipated by the polls. Although at 31 per cent, the BBCs estimate of what Labours performance would be worth in a general election was still six points below the equivalent figure for 2012, it was still enough to put the party ahead of the Conservatives by one point. As a result, Labour lost far fewer seats than had been expected  only around two dozen, fewer than the Conservatives. Just as importantly, Labour only lost control of one council, thereby denying the headline writers anything on which to hang a story of Labour failure.

Mr Corbyn thus emerged having exceeded prior expectations, low that those were. Even so, a one-point lead over the Conservatives is far less than Labour achieved in local elections in the years immediately prior to gaining power in 1997 or the Conservatives secured before 2010. It is not the kind of performance that suggests the party is currently en route to regaining power.

In pictures: Local elections 2016 Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Local elections 2016 In pictures: Local elections 2016 Mayor of London Boris Johnson and wife Marina leave after casting their votes at a polling station in Islington, north London PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 Northern Ireland First Minister, Arlene Foster (C), Rhonna McMahon (R) and Paul Robinson leave after casting their vote for the Assembly Election, at Brookeborough Primary School in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland Reuters In pictures: Local elections 2016 Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives to cast his vote at a polling station in Islington, north London PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 David Cameron and Samantha Cameron cast their votes in the London Mayoral Election in London Getty Images In pictures: Local elections 2016 Labour Party Mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan and his wife Saadiya pose outside The Richardson Hall St Alban's Church Centre in Streatham after casting their votes in London's Mayoral and Assembly elections Getty Images In pictures: Local elections 2016 Britain's Conservative party candidate for Mayor of London Zac Goldsmith and his wife Alice leave after voting at a polling station in the Barnes suburb of south west London AP In pictures: Local elections 2016 George Osborne casts his vote in the London Mayoral Election in London Getty Images In pictures: Local elections 2016 SNP supporter Trish Traynor outside a polling station at St Ninian & Triduana RC Church in Glasgow as the polls open in the Scottish Parliament election PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale (right) with partner Louise Riddell outside a polling station in Edinburgh after casting her vote in the Scottish Parliament election PA In pictures: Local elections 2016 SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon with her husband Peter Murrell after casting her vote at Broomhouse Community Hall polling station in Glasgow as Scotland goes to the polls in the Scottish Parliament election PA

Not that Labour did not suffer any serious reverses. The result in Scotland, where the party suffered a meltdown in last years general election, was again little short of catastrophic. Here voters had two votesone for a local constituency contest, the other for additional list members that are allocated to make the result more proportional.

At 23 per cent, Labours vote in the constituency ballot was down one point on last year and by nine points when compared with the last Scottish Parliament election in 2011. Far worse, however, was the fact that the party won just 19 per cent of the list vote. That meant that, on that ballot, it trailed the Conservatives by four points, the first time that Labour has trailed the Conservatives in a Scotland-wide ballot since 1959. Above all, it ensured that Labour ended up with seven fewer seats than the Conservatives.

 Sadiq Khan elected as Mayor of London

Still, Labours difficulties in Scotland predated Mr Corbyns accession to the leadership. In addition, he had little involvement in a campaign that was directed by the partys Scottish leader. Thus responsibility for the calamity cannot easily be laid at Mr Corbyns door. However, it will be very difficult for Mr Corbyn to win the next general election unless the party does eventually recovery north of the border.

The outcome in Wales, where the election was also held under proportional representation, was, in truth, not much better for Labour than in Scotland. The partys vote fell by eight points on the constituency ballot and by five points on the list. However, because support for the opposition to Labour in Wales is evenly divided between the Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, Labour was still able to retain all but one of its existing 28 constituency seats  and thus its dominant position in the Assembly. The partys poor performance was masked from view.

For now at least, Thursday was good enough for Mr Corbyn. But the Labour leader should remember that his impatient parliamentary party will not be satisfied with that for long.

John Curtice is Professor of Politics, Strathclyde University
Aer Lingus is likely to launch one new transatlantic route from Dublin in time for summer 2017

The expansion of Aer Lingus' transatlantic services will be slowed if Dublin Airport doesn't deliver infrastructure improvements to alleviate aircraft congestion there, IAG boss Willie Walsh has warned.

"The business is there. It would be a shame to lose out on the opportunity to expand the business simply because the infrastructure isn't in place," said Mr Walsh.

He said Aer Lingus is likely to launch at least one new transatlantic route from Dublin in time for summer 2017, as well as possible capacity increases on existing routes, but said expansion plans are tempered by what he said are infrastructure issues.

"You can't keep putting aircraft in there," he said, conceding that Aer Lingus would probably have planned more expansion at Dublin for 2017 if there were no aircraft congestion issues. It's launching three transatlantic routes this year, to LA, Newark and Hartford.

"We do have concerns about whether Dublin can operate in its current form beyond 2017," said Mr Walsh. "We can't keep accelerating our plans as there is a limit as to how much capacity we can put in there in the short to medium term.

"We're ambitious about Dublin, but we've got to be realistic. If the infrastructure doesn't support our plans, well then we can't accelerate them. And it's not a runway issue." He said the problem is with a lack of taxiways and aircraft parking. The DAA has previously insisted it is addressing issues that may have caused congestion at peak times.

Dublin Airport handled just over 25 million passengers last year and the figure could easily reach over 27 million this year.

Mr Walsh claimed "there is a risk" that the airport becomes a victim of its success. "The risk is they'd be complacent and that they focus on the glory projects rather than focusing on the things that need to get done to ensure Dublin can be efficient."

He said IAG's strategy of using Dublin as a feeder hub could also be threatened. "Dublin has been successful as an accidental hub. As soon as it stops working well, people will look elsewhere."

Mr Walsh said Aer Lingus would not want to use any remote parking solutions at Terminal 2 that would involve passengers being bussed between aircraft and the building. "We don't want buses. They should be the last choice."

But a Dublin Airport spokesman said that the airport "is continually investing to improve and maintain its airfield and passenger facilities as its passenger traffic continues to expand.

"It consults regularly with its airline customers to understand their needs as their business requirements evolve," he added.

The DAA has applied for planning permission for a bus facility at T2 to shuttle passengers to and from aircraft at remote stands. But the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA) has objected, claiming that it's "universally accepted" that Terminal 2's pier four lacks sufficient aircraft stands.

"We deem this planning application to be yet another 'band aid' development by the original architects of T2," IALPA told Fingal County Council last month.
Operating profits at the packaging giant rose by 8pc to 179m

Smurfit Kappa boss Tony Smurfit sees the US as a potential hunting ground for acquisitions.

He said the company could spend between 200m and 400m on acquisitions each year without overly stretching its balance sheet.

"We took a small position [in the US], we bought a number of assets over the last 18 months there, but it's still a relatively small position for us. So we would see ourselves growing there if the values are correct."

Mr Smurfit said a potential Brexit isn't affecting the business "yet" and that demand across most areas of the business is "good or strong".

He said he was comfortable, based on the year so far and subject to any major macro-economic issues, with analysts' projections that earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation would rise to between 1.25bn and 1.3bn, up from 1.18bn last year.

Operating profits at the paper-based packaging firm increased by 8pc to 179m in the first three months of the year.

In a trading update issued to shareholders yesterday the company posted improved year on year revenue of 2bn as well as increased earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of 281m.

Basic earnings per share at the firm rose by 26pc to 38.8c while return on capital employed remained flat at 15.3pc.

Net debt at the end of March increased by 3pc to 3.03bn.

Mr Smurfit said solid year-on-year growth was driven by improved operating performance and the positive impact of acquisitions made in 2015.

"Our well invested, geographically diversified and vertically integrated operations will continue to provide us with a resilient platform to drive earnings and free cash flows," he said.

"During the quarter, currencies had a distorting effect which on a like-for-like basis had a negative translation effect of almost 10m on EBITDA," Mr Smurfit added.

Shares at the company's primary listing were up 2.63pc to 18.72 (23.67).

Smurfit Kappa changed its primary listing to London last month. The move cleared its path to enter the FTSE indices.

Goodbody analyst David O'Brien said the company's first-quarter results represented a "solid start" to 2016.

"The reiteration of guidance will ease any potential concerns around full-year forecasts and highlights the benefit of Smurfit Kappa's integrated business model," Mr O'Brien said.

Davy analyst Barry Dixon said demand remains strong for the group and that the company remains strongly cash generative. "It remains the cheapest stock in the sector which does not make sense given the quality of its earnings and the potential equity value enhancement from its cash flow," Mr Dixon said.

The Smurfit boss went on to say, following a 380m splurge on acquisitions last year, its intention for 2016 is to integrate the new businesses.

Mr Smurfit took over the role of chief executive at the firm from Gary McCann last year.

Over the course of the year executives at Smurfit Kappa were paid over 10m. The Smurfit chief executive was paid a total of 1.5m in 2015, with an additional total benefit of 1.8m under the group's long-term incentive plan (LTIP).

The firm spent 186m on two South American businesses in January as part of its first foray into Brazil.
When asked whether or not Irish accounts had been compromised, Google said it is "still investigating" and had no further comment to make.

At least 42,000 Irish emails with ".ie" domains are included in a massive data breach that has seen both logins and passwords traded among criminals in Russia.

The accounts are part of an enormous hack that includes the credentials of 272.3 million email accounts across the world.

The breach was uncovered by US information security firm Hold Security, which said it has returned the credentials to its rightful owners.

Hold Security chief information security officer Alex Holden said there may be more than just the 42,000 emails addresses from Ireland.

"There are over 42,000 credentials from the .ie domain in the recovered data," Mr Holden told the Irish Independent.

"However, please keep in mind that some of the users of popular email services (ie, Gmail, Yahoo) may not be easy to identify by country," Mr Holden added.

When asked whether or not Irish accounts had been compromised, Google said it is "still investigating" and had no further comment to make.

Hold Security said that it recovered the credentials from a "kid from a small town in Russia".

The information Hold received was delivered in a 10 gigabyte file and included 917 million records that were consistent with western and corporate domains.
The court heard that the decision to drop the manslaughter charge was taken following a review of the case Stock photo: www.jupiterimages.com

A doctor and two nurses have been dramatically cleared of killing a woman who bled to death after travelling from Ireland to the UK for an abortion.

Dr Adedayo Adedeji (63), Gemma Pullen (32) and Margaret Miller (55) were formally acquitted of the gross negligence manslaughter of Aisha Chithira (32) after the prosecution had offered no evidence.

Ms Chithira was 22 weeks pregnant when she underwent the operation at the Marie Stopes clinic in Ealing, west London, on June 21, 2012.

She collapsed several hours later while travelling in a taxi in Slough, Berkshire and died of "extensive internal bleeding".

Prosecutor Sally O'Neill QC told the Old Bailey in London yesterday that the decision to drop the manslaughter charge was taken following a review of the case. No detailed reasons for the decision were given.

Dr Adedeji was also cleared of a remaining health and safety charge and will take no further part in the case but both Ms Pullen and Ms Miller still face the charge under the Health and Safety Act and are due to stand trial at the Old Bailey on June 8.

Their barristers urged the prosecution to reconsider their decision to pursue the allegation.

Dr Adedeji, of Hornchurch, Essex, Ms Pullen, of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and Ms Miller, of Camberley, Surrey, were not in court yesterday when the decision was announced.

Both Ms Pullen and Ms Miller remain on bail.
'Both gardai admitted they had not been able to bring to court all the pieces of paper used for communicating with Mr Doherty' Stock photo: Depositphotos

A deaf man has had his conviction for drink-driving overturned on appeal after a judge heard gardai were unable to provide a sign language interpreter.

Gerard Doherty (42), from Glentain Manor, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was almost three times over the legal drink-drive limit when he was detained by gardai in the town on January 12, 2012.

Mr Doherty was found guilty of drink-driving at Letterkenny District Court in March 2014, was banned from driving for two years and fined 350.

He had a reading of 143 milligrammes (mg) of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 50.

In the first case of its kind before the courts, Mr Doherty appealed the conviction on the grounds he hadn't been dealt with in his "first language", which his barrister Peter Nolan told Letterkenny Circuit Court is sign language.

Gda Alan McKenna told Judge John O'Hagan he had arrested Mr Doherty as he tried to run away from his Ford car and soon realised the motorist was deaf.

The garda said he wrote down on a piece of paper that he was going to arrest Mr Doherty for suspected drink-driving and showed it to him.

He admitted under cross-examination from Mr Nolan that he did not write down the caution normally given in such situations.

Gda McKenna said that when he arrived at Letterkenny garda station with Mr Doherty he had requested that a sign-language interpreter should be located.

However, they were told by Harcourt Square Garda Station in Dublin that no one was available in Donegal.

Gda McKenna and colleague Garda Tom Regan both told the judge they believed Mr Doherty understood what was going on.

They both communicated with him by writing notes and that Mr Doherty had responded by writing responses, most of them signed "OK".

But Mr Nolan asked Gda McKenna: "Did you ask him if he could read and write? He can read his name and address and that's it. He is basically illiterate in English. Sign language is his first language and not English."

Mr Nolan said his client had not understood an offer to get him a solicitor.

Gda Regan admitted that in response to one question Mr Doherty had written: "I not understand what you think."

Both gardai admitted they had not been able to bring to court all the pieces of paper used for communicating with Mr Doherty.

Judge John O'Hagan said that an Irish speaker arriving at Letterkenny Garda Station is clearly told they can be dealt with in Irish.

However, someone with the disability of being deaf was not given the same right to be dealt with in sign language.

The judge praised gardai for their "valiant" efforts but allowed the appeal, adding: "I am not satisfied he (Mr Doherty) appreciated what was fully going on. I have a suspicion but a suspicion is not enough. It would be dangerous to uphold the conviction."
UFC champion Conor McGregor is not the shy and retiring type but the bombastic sportsman was happy to step out of the limelight and in to the wings to support his girlfriend Dee Devlin at the 15th Peter Mark VIP Style Awards.

"I'm happy to take a back seat, this is my lady's night, not mine," he said as he stepped out of a gleaming Cadillac Escalade flanked by burly security guards.

And it certainly was Dee's night as she was named Most Stylish Newcomer.

Overall winner on the night was Vogue Williams, while Most Stylist Man was the absent Nicky Byrne, who is currently in Sweden preparing for the Eurovision which takes place next week.

Manhattan may have the Met Gala, but Ireland's most fashion forward celebrities gathered in the foyer of the Marker Hotel for the red carpet event.

"It's always a riot," former doyenne of the RTE newsroom Anne Doyle said. "I wouldn't miss it for the world. And I managed to find a dress and get the zip up so I'm happy out."

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Storm Keating, Aoibinn McGinnity, Adele King, Kathryn Thomas, Rozanna Purcell, and Louise McSharry all posed for cameras.

Former Miss World Rosanna Davison (32) arrived in a scarlet, caped gown. "I'm superwoman for the evening - it's really comfortable and my dog loves to sleep in it," she said.

It was a family affair for Morah, Lottie, Babette and Bonnie Ryan. "It's a pretty cool family tradition," Lottie said. "We all get ready together. It's always a great girls night out."

Of course there were a few no shows - despite receiving a nomination in the Most Stylish Man category Leo Varadkar decided to give the ceremony a miss. I wonder why?

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Host on the night was Darren Kennedy who was bustling about, complimenting everyone's rig-out. "I don't like being a mean host - there's no need," he said.

Celia Holman Lee opted for a black Marion Murphy Cooney gown while weather forecaster Jean Byrne went for a Roland Mouret green number.

"I decided to keep things simple this year and let the dress speak for itself," Jean said.

Former Rose of Tralee Maria Walsh showcased her blonde pixie cut and chatted to model Sarah Morrissey and TV star Marty Morrissey at the champagne reception.

Kian Egan's wife Jodie Albert enjoyed ditching her tracksuit pants for a floor length gown.

"Being a mum of two I'm nearly always in some sort of glamorous tracksuit, so this is a great excuse to get dolled up."
Amy Fitzpatrick, who has been missing for over eight years Photo: Frank Mc Grath

More than eight years after her disappearance, Amy Fitzpatrick is still being treated as a high-priority case by the Garda Missing Persons Bureau.

The 15-year-old stepdaughter of Dave Mahon vanished as she walked the short distance from a friend's house to her home on the Costa del Sol in Spain on the night of January 1, 2008.

Since then, she has been the subject of a long-running investigation by Spanish police and the gardai while Mahon and his wife, Audrey Fitzpatrick, spent thousands of euro to keep the case in the public spotlight. Although few believe that Amy is still alive, she continues to be officially regarded as a missing person.

Mahon, who was yesterday convicted of the manslaughter of Amy's older brother, Dean, is not suspected of having any involvement in the teenager's disappearance.

A senior garda officer told the Irish Independent last night: "At this stage, there is no evidence, either here or in Spain, to suggest that Amy is dead and we continue to co-operate with the Spanish police whenever a new line of inquiry emerges."

Two senior garda officers flew to Spain for face-to-face talks with the local police after an earlier meeting with Dave Mahon and Audrey Fitzpatrick at Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park.

As a result of that meeting, arrangements were made for Spanish investigators to give separate briefings on developments in the case to the couple and the family of Amy's father, Christopher.

Extensive inquiries in both countries were also carried out after Mahon said they had been informed by criminal sources that notorious killer and alleged gangland 'gun for hire' Eric 'Lucky' Wilson had boasted in a pub that he had killed Amy. Wilson is currently serving a 23-year prison term in Spain for murder.

Mahon claimed that the information they had received was credible and that they were close to solving the mystery of Amy's disappearance.

However, investigations in Ireland and Spain established that Wilson, from Cremona Road in Ballyfermot, Dublin, was not in the Costa del Sol at the time Amy went missing.

Mahon said he had information from six different criminal sources that Wilson murdered Amy and that at the time of her disappearance he was living in apartments in the Riviera del Sol area, close to the Hotel Oasis, which was frequented by Amy to use their internet connection.

But inquiries established that Wilson was not known to anybody at the apartments and he was ruled out as a suspect.

A senior garda admitted last night: "We are back to square one with our inquiries but we continue to liaise with the Spanish and any help they require will continue to be provided."
TWO terrified people were tied up and threatened at gunpoint in a shocking aggravated burglary that occurred on the same street as Justice Minister Frances Fitzgeralds home.

Two men, one armed with a firearm, entered the west-Dublin address shortly after 11am yesterday while two people were in the house.

The victims  a male aged in his 60s and a female aged in her 50s  were threatened by the two thugs as they demanded to know the location of any valuables.

Both the man and woman were tied up by the raiders, who continued to threaten them with what was believed to be a handgun.

The incident occurred in Castleknock and the address targeted is on the same road as that of the Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald

It is understood that the two thugs made off with the contents of a safe, which included a number of valuable watches.

The victims eventually managed to free themselves and alerted gardai. They are said to be deeply shaken, but were not physically injured during the incident.

Detectives from Blanchardstown Garda Station are investigating, but no arrests have yet been made. They have appealed to anyone with information to contact them.

A spokesperson for Minister of Justice Frances Fitzgerald did not reply to requests for comment when contacted by the Herald last night.

One garda is placed outside the ministers address on a rotating basis, but it is not known if a uniformed officer was posted at her house at the time.

A total of 543 burglary related offences were recorded by officers at Blanchardstown Garda Station in 2015.

These offences include burglary, aggravated burglary and possession of an article with intent to commit a burglary.

The number is down significantly from the previous year, when a total of 692 burglary-related crimes occurred in the Blanchardstown Garda Station area.
The Democratic Unionist Party is on course to retain its leading role in Stormont as backing for Sinn Fein has fallen for the first time in decades in elections to the Northern Ireland assembly.

Sinn Fein had hoped to overtake the Democratic Unionists and gain the top post of First Minister in Stormont. Instead, it faces a challenge to retain all of its 29 seats in the 108-member assembly.

All of the winners of Thursday's election won't be known until later today. However, Sinn Fein suffered a shock in its west Belfast power base, where Gerry Carroll from the People Before Profit party topped the poll.

With all first-preference votes declared, the Democratic Unionist Party won 29.2pc support, down 0.8 points from the last Northern Ireland Assembly election in 2011.

Sinn Fein retained its dominant position in nationalist areas but saw its vote fall by 2.9 points to 24pc, an unexpected slide after two decades of relentless gains.

However, Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster was last night confident she would remain on as First Minister, with her party likely to increase its seats from the current 38.

Mrs Foster, who became Northern Ireland's first female leader in January after succeeding Peter Robinson as DUP leader, topped the vote in her native Fermanagh.

In contrast, Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, faced a longer road to victory in his home city of Derry. The Sinn Fein MLA finished the first round of voting barely ahead of a moderate nationalist challenger.

During the campaign, Mrs Foster put particular onus on beating Mr McGuinness in the race to see which one of them takes the First Minister's job.

It would require a significant electoral turnaround for Sinn Fein to topple the DUP as the largest party and most pundits believe it highly unlikely.

By late yesterday evening, the DUP was on 19 seats, followed by Sinn Fein on 12, the Alliance Party on three, the SDLP and the Ulster Unionists both on two and People Before Profit on one.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood predicted an "Independents' day" across Northern Ireland. The 33-year-old, presiding over his first election in charge of the party, said early results appeared to show a voter trend in the Republic spreading across the border.

"We have seen it in the South, we've seen it in west Belfast, we've seen it right across the North, where people who are frustrated with the lack of delivery from this executive are voting Independent in large numbers."

Speaking after her election, Mrs Foster said: "I feel great, it is a great endorsement of our campaign."
Labour party leader Joan Burton warned the Dail that Fianna Fail will hold the new government to ransom.

The Dublin-West TD criticised what she called the party's "tawdry" deal with Fine Gael which helped return Enda Kenny as Taoiseach.

Fianna Fail politicians abstained in the vote, clearing the way for Mr Kenny to be elected with support from Independent politicians.

However, Ms Burton's party voted against the Fine Gael leader for Taoiseach as she claimed the deal struck was a "charade".

"This coalition of convenience is very, very different," she said.

"We do this (vote against Mr Kenny) principally because this new government arrangement is a charade," she told the Dail yesterday afternoon.

"Fianna Fail will effectively have their boot on the throat of the Taoiseach meaning they can push through whatever they like and collapse the arrangement whenever they choose."

The former Tanaiste added that she had been "privileged" to serve in coalition governments with the two biggest parties.

"That's what coalition was about - there was a unity of purpose and trust essential to any successful government.

"This coalition of convenience is very, very different."

She also criticised the deal that sees the suspension of water charges.

"Having learned nothing from their reckless abolition of rates in the late 1970s, Fianna Fail set water charges as their top priority - simply to ensure their political hide is no longer exposed to Sinn Fein," she said.

"In so doing, and in Fine Gael's disappointing cave-in to Fianna Fail's reckless demands, the coalition of convenience has all but ensured that Ireland will have to wait for the top-quality water and sewerage infrastructure it needs."

Ms Burton is to face a vote on her leadership now that the Labour party has not returned to government.

Also speaking in the chamber Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin hit out at the Labour for continuing to argue that water charges should remain.

Mr Martin referenced a Sunday Independent article in which outgoing environment minister Alan Kelly said that "power is a drug."

"Alan Kelly is suffering from the withdrawal of the drug of his choice," Mr Martin told the Dail. He re-iterated his party's right to criticise the government despite the deal Fianna Fail made to facilitate the new government.

"Those in the house who try and lecture us about facilitating a Fine Gael-led minority government need to remember that they refused point-blank to vote for the only way of preventing this," he added.

"The election represented an overwhelming rejection of the Fine Gael/Labour government, its policies and its hyper-political behaviour. That is why we sought to completely replace that government."

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams called Mr Martin's deal with the Fine Gael a "masterclass in waffle and bluster".

He also repeatedly criticised the Independent TDs who voted for Enda Kenny, calling them "Endapendents"

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan explained his reasons for not voting for Mr Kenny saying that his party did not share the ambition set out in the partnership government draft programme.

He highlighted the issue of housing as a priority for the Dail saying that 25,000 houses a year need to be built. He said there needs to be thought about where they will be built and the quality of the houses and cost.

Richard Boyd Barrett said "there's no real sign of the new politics".
Joan Burton has said she plans to meet with her Labour colleagues next week to discuss "the best leadership option" for the party.

There has been speculation that Ms Burton will step down as leader shortly, but she refused to publicly discuss her plans.

Im meeting the parliamentary Labour party on Tuesday and Ill be talking to my colleagues then, she told RTE Radio Ones Marian Finucane show.

Ive said to them already, Im very happy to do whatever I can to help the Labour party in its future.

She added: Ill be active in the Labour party no matter what.

Describing the support she had received from her husband Pat Carroll and their daughter Aoife, she said: They are saying to me: we want you to do what you want to do.

Expand Close Labour Party leader and outgoing Tanaiste Joan Burton,TD at Leinster House for theelection of Enda Kenny as Taoiseach Pic: Tom Burke / Facebook

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Ive lots of other interests, I might do some writing down the road, and in particular I want to contribute to this new Dail."

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The party leader also said she is "absolutely confident" the Labour party will recover from its disastrous General Election performance.

We were very disappointed with the seat count, but we have a base from which to rebuild the party, she said, accepting that she felt personally responsible for the disappointing result.

I lost a lot of very good colleagues, very good people in politics, people who had served as ministers, as TDs and were good friends as well.

Politics and Leinster House as it is nowadays is a bit of a dry, sterile place, and I hate what happened to those people.

However, she was optimistic for her partys future.

The sun rises again, and Im absolutely confident the Labour party will have a recovery, she said.

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Discussing the new government and the events of yesterday's Dail meeting, she said: I think its a situation where the government is extremely dependent on what Fianna Fail does or doesnt do.

Basically they have their foot on the governments throat.

The Dublin West TD said the new government may last a long time depending on how both parties behave.

She also expressed her disappointment about the continued gender disparity in the new cabinet.

Were a bit slow learners, but on the other hand, the Dail has an increase of women this year.

If you look at the cabinet picture in the papers, you still have to do a little head count to see the women who are there now.

The Taoiseach did promise a 50-50 cabinet (split), and to be honest were not near that yet, she said.
It could be argued that Leo Varadkar no longer has to face the thankless task of being Minister for Health

Labour Party leader Joan Burton leaned over her seat in the Dail chamber to get the attention of her constituency colleague Leo Varadkar.

What they spoke about could not be heard from the press gallery.

But after Mr Varadkar answered her question, Ms Burton clasped her hand over her mouth and leaned back into her seat in hysterics.

Moments later it emerged Mr Varadkar had been appointed to Ms Burton's former office - the Department of Social Protection. Many point to Ms Burton's appointment to the same position as the beginning of her campaign to oust former Labour leader Eamon Gilmore.

However, Mr Varadkar's camp was last night insisting the move from Health to Social Protection was not a snub by the newly elected Taoiseach Enda Kenny. Rather it was an area the minister, who is tipped to replace Mr Kenny, has "always expressed an interest in". It could even be argued that he no longer has to face the thankless Department of Health.

And his supporters say, unlike Ms Burton during her tenure, he will not be forced to implement cuts across the welfare system, and will be able to roll out Fine Gael's flagship election policy, the 'working family payment'.

However, within Fine Gael the appointment was seen as a slight on Mr Varadkar.

Meanwhile, the other Fine Gael leadership frontrunners - Simon Coveney and Frances Fitzgerald - appeared to be given promotions by Mr Kenny, though Mr Coveney will have to deal with a banana skin in the form of Irish Water.

Ms Fitzgerald will remain in the Department of Justice, but will also be Tanaiste. She has faced down a number of crises within justice since she took office and clearly impressed Mr Kenny.

Mr Coveney will oversee the new Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government. The appointment puts huge responsibility on the minister as the Government seeks to find a solution to the housing and homelessness crisis.

More ominously for Mr Coveney, however, his new role also encompasses responsibility for Irish Water.

The other big surprises in the Taoiseach's new Cabinet are the appointments of Simon Harris to the Department of Health and Paschal Donohoe to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Mr Harris is facing a daunting task, with waiting lists, patients on trolleys and possible industrial unrest.

Yet, despite his young years, he has instilled confidence in Mr Kenny through his loyalty and polished media performance.

Similarly, Mr Donohoe has proven his credentials through his work with the unions in the Department of Transport. His calm head and steady hand will be essential for future pay talks as unrest grows.

He will work alongside Finance Minister Michael Noonan who will remain in place despite speculation he might step aside.

Charlie Flanagan will also stay in place - at the Department of Foreign Affairs - and will continue his work on Britain's referendum on leaving the European Union.

Cork North West TD Michael Creed's inclusion as Agriculture Minister will be seen as a nod to the dissident element in Fine Gael. Mr Creed was a close ally of Mr Kenny but turned on the Fine Gael leader during the 2010 leadership heave.

Mr Kenny did not stick to his pre-election pledge to introduce a 50/50 gender split in his Cabinet. But there are now more women in Cabinet than at any other time in the country's history.

The appointments were expected for the most part - both Regina Doherty and Mary Mitchell O'Connor were long tipped for promotion.

Ms Doherty, the new Government Chief Whip, is well-respected in Fine Gael and is regularly sent out to bat for the party in the media when difficult decisions have been made.

Ms Mitchell O'Connor has been eager for more responsibility and has worked hard to prove herself to Mr Kenny. She will now replace Richard Bruton in the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation.

Mr Bruton, meanwhile, will take up a new role in the Department of Education - an area he has previously said he would like to oversee.

Heather Humphreys was rewarded for her work on the 1916 Rising celebrations and is now the minister of the newly formed Department of Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts and the Gaeltacht.

Then there's the Independents - all nine of them. Bringing them on board was always going to involve a certain degree of generosity on Kenny's part. But it was not expected that eight of them would require job titles.

The big jobs went to Shane Ross, Minister for Transport, Sport and Tourism; Denis Naughten, Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources; and Katherine Zappone, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs.

Ross will have the unenviable task of locking horns with the transport unions in the coming months.

It will be interesting to see if the Dublin Rathdown TD applies the slash and burn attitude to public expenditure he expressed during his time in the Public Accounts Committee.

The grim reality of holding the purse strings rather than criticising those that do will be a significant challenge for Mr Ross. Mr Naughten will now sit around the Cabinet table with his former Fine Gael colleagues.

He is believed to have turned down the Regional Development and Rural Affairs portfolio when it was first presented to him.

Mr Naughten is understood to have thought it would be too challenging to take on a brand new department which may not be up and running by the time the next election is called.

Ms Zappone's background is in working in education and with children. She was appointed to the Seanad by Mr Kenny in 2011.

She was also central to the Government's marriage equality referendum.

Dublin Bay North TD Finian McGrath will be super junior minister with special responsibility for disability issues.
Newly-appointed Health Minister Simon Harris has warned those involved in the row over the new national maternity hospital to "put their egos to one side".

In his first intervention since being appointed to Cabinet, the Wicklow/East Carlow TD said he will not allow differences over governance stand in the way of the new facility.

Management at St Vincent's and Holles Street are at odds over the 150m planned relocation of the maternity hospital to a new site in the city.

In hard hitting remarks today, Mr Harris demanded that all sites "sort out" their differences.

"My message very clearly to anyone involved in this row that I am reading about in the papers, put your egos to one side, get in a room and sort this out," Mr Harris told his local radio station East Coast FM.

This cannot be tied up in bureaucracy.

What I will not do is allow the possibility of delivering a new maternity hospital to be jeopardised by rows over governance and fiefdom," he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Harris said he is well aware of the serious challenges facing him as minister.

He said he was surprised to have been appointed to the position by Taoiseach Enda Kenny - but said he now expects to be held to account.

I expect to be held to account by the Dail, I expect to be questioned, I expect to be put under pressure," the 29-year-old told the 'Wicklow This Week' programme.

I expect to be an accountable Minister for Health.

We need a political consensus around health, we need all of our politicians to come together. Lets accept that getting the health service right is one of the greatest societal challenges this country faces and lets get all our politicians to get together and try and come up with a plan.

Mr Harris also rejected suggestions Leo Varadkar, his predecessor, was demoted.
Shane Ross gesticulated wildly and beseechingly at Michael Fitzmaurice. But Fitzmaurice remained stubbornly in his seat. No. Ross patted him on the shoulder in resignation and sprang up to cast his own vote. Fitzmaurice exhaled sharply, clearly under some stress as he wrestled with his conscience.

Simon Coveney tried the same tack with Noel Grealish, but to no avail. These Independents were not for turning. Or at least, not yet.

Even as they cast their votes in the chamber, the negotiations went right down to the wire.

Nobody knew what was happening - least of all on the Fine Gael benches.

Simon Harris was told on the way into the chamber that he would be delivering a speech. Noel Rock was told to keep his nomination short - and then informed at the last minute that he could go on at length. And he hadn't even a quotation from an American president to fall back on - having wisely opted to reference Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith instead.

The gapingly empty seats of the Independent Alliance were mocking them at the centre of the room.

What were they planning?

The tension was agonising. Ridiculous, almost.

And it was not confined to those down in the chamber.

Enda's wife, Fionnuala, daughter Aoibhinn (23) and sons Ferdia (21) and Naoise (19) sat rigidly in the gallery.

Their faces seemed to betray actual rage - and a very real terror of the possibility that Enda could yet be humiliated.

"It was cringe territory," said Labour's Alan Kelly later of the vote.

He had a point.

And yet there was a sense that having come so far, there was no way back for those who had given their word.

"If we had fallen today...and trust me at times it was close," trailed off Kevin 'Boxer' Moran afterwards, who has confirmed that he is to share a rotating junior ministry with Sean Canney.

"I thought the way things were looking today, it wasn't good," said Moran. And he was actually in the room where the talks were happening. What about the rest of them, who had to turn to social media in a bid to find out what was going on?

Apparently 70 days was not long enough to work out enough of a deal to make things run like clockwork.

Let's hope it's not a sign of things to come.

When an official Dail brown envelope was laid before Enda by one of the ushers, everybody in the press gallery held their breath. Surely no good could come from a brown envelope.

Enda adjusted his tie before casually reaching for the envelope and tearing it open. He took from it a mobile phone. A few minutes later, a note was delivered to his desk. This missive caused him to knit his eyebrows and crumple the paper in his hand.

The speeches continued relentlessly but nobody listened to a word as they watched the door, still half expecting the Independent Alliance to make a vaudeville entrance down the steps.

Gerry Adams noted the absence of the "Endapendents".

Joan Burton gave an embittered speech as she hit out at everybody - but her face wore a look of such hurt that her barbs failed to wound. It was "a tawdry deal", she declared.

And yet she could not find it in her heart to criticise Enda, an "honourable man" who "worked hard".

In the gallery, Aoibhinn Kenny nodded her agreement.

Brendan Howlin grimly observed that there were "worse things than a General Election". But he, too, could find no fault with Enda.

And then suddenly, Shane Ross, 'Boxer' Moran and Finian McGrath slipped into the chamber and even the faces of the Opposition cleared in relief. Fionnuala Kenny relaxed and smiled.

Joan had a brief word with Shane Ross and then turned, giving Enda the thumbs up.

Finally - exhaustingly - the deal had been done and the vote could get under way for real. It was a narrow victory for the new minority government - 59 votes to 49 against.

Predictably enough, Michael Fitzmaurice took to the airwaves on Shannonside Radio to explain himself to his constituents before he chose to abstain. But he'll be brought over, 'Boxer' Moran claimed afterwards, after a review on the bogs issue. "It's not too late," he added.

Afterwards, Katherine Zappone made the physical shift over to the government benches.

As Enda prepared to make his departure for the Aras, a carnival atmosphere suddenly erupted - a triumphant crowd having suddenly materialised in the grounds of Leinster House. They were mostly Fine Gael staff and the Mayo contingent.

Fianna Fail deputies sighed and shrugged amid the whoops and cheers. Now comes the hard part. But there was Christmas dinner on the menu down in the Dail canteen, so things weren't all bad.

And then the rumour mill went into overdrive. "Shane Ross for Health," a blackboard outside a local coffee shop suggested darkly.

But there was no need for rumours where the new Minister Ross was concerned. Leaking like a sieve, first he informed everyone that he had missed two calls from Enda. And then that he had been given the Transport Ministry.

Such openness and transparency from the outset hadn't gone down too well with Fine Gael, apparently. But it was strangely cheering for the rest of us.

John Halligan, tipped for a junior ministry, declared that he had tickets to see ELO and was going to be there by hook or by crook. With a deal done, life can finally go on.

'Boxer' confirmed his own junior ministry to be shared with Sean Canney.

"We did something you'd never see in Leinster House," he said, revealing that they went into a room, "man-to-man" and tossed a coin.

"We flipped and Sean came up and I said, 'Sean, you take it for the first year and I'll take it for the second'," he said. He admitted it was "beyond his wildest dreams" to go from pumping water from the flooded banks of the Shannon in January to being a junior minister come May.

Out on the plinth, Finian McGrath sat in the sun and groaned as someone told him he had been caught on camera in the chamber, playing air guitar.

He swore that he knew nothing - that it would probably be Tuesday before anything would happen.

Half an hour later, he was striding self-consciously into the chamber as part of the new Cabinet.

Later, the new Minister Ross - after 35 years in Opposition - delivered his first impassioned speech as part of the Government. "I don't know what my powers are. I don't know what I can do in Government," he admitted - but he would welcome all contributions from the Opposition.

Fianna Fail looked as if they were already having regrets.
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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.
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What will it take to unite Ireland? Opinions are divided

There are those for whom Northern Ireland is a geographical fragment of the UK holding true to empire on its western flanks, and those for whom partition is a century-old wrong that must be overturned. Somewhere in the middle are the persuadables  people willing to accept either unity or union, so long as the justification is logical. One way or another, the unity conversation is in the air.
A Fine Gael-led minority government was finally installed yesterday.

Managing the diverse groups and often perverse incentives of party and non-party TDs will severely test the skills of Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

Fine Gael is joined in office by nine Independent TDs. Crucially, several of the Independents will hold cabinet ministries.

The Government will be facilitated from the opposition benches through a Confidence and Supply Arrangement agreed between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail. It took 10 weeks to arrive at this configuration of government.

The outcome is certainly different but whether it will yield the much-mooted 'new politics' remains to be seen.

There is some irony in the fact that this era of 'new politics' should be heralded in by the longest-serving member of the Dail.

Having become the first Fine Gael Taoiseach to be re-elected, Enda Kenny has now expanded his entry in the history books. One of the great survivors of Irish politics, he has confounded his critics time and again.

He struggles in elections and media interviews clearly challenge him, but he led the Fine Gael-Labour coalition government for its full term, oversaw the end of the bailout programme, and has secured re-election by a hairsbreadth.

Having already made clear that he will not contest the next election as party leader, Mr Kenny will be expected to turn his considerable management skills to keeping the minority government afloat.

It will be a mammoth challenge, but electorally and politically, he may be the best-placed person to navigate the minefields of new politics. His time as party leader is limited but Fine Gael might be well advised to leave him as Taoiseach until new politics becomes established over the next few months.

In many respects, 'new politics' as an idea is so nebulous that it is almost meaningless. There are varying interpretations of what 'new politics' means and what it will look like in policy terms. For some, it means a fundamental reorientation of policy-making, with greater emphasis on the provision of services for citizens. For others, it has a more technical dimension, which focuses on how the business of politics is conducted, most especially procedures in the Dail.

The new Dail has more political parties and more Independent TDs and Fine Gael and Fianna Fail have seen their combined vote share drop below 50pc.

The ideological composition of the Dail has shifted in tandem with the overall numbers. The far left has grown in strength, with AAA-PBP having doubled their numbers. Sinn Fein has greater numbers and there are also a few left-leaning Independents.

Nevertheless, the centre (left and right) is still dominant and this is reflected in the government agreement documents which have been published. When people come to evaluate the new politics, their final evaluation will be coloured by their own ideological orientation.

For many on the left, there will be deep disappointment at the policy choices of the new Government, but there is no escaping the political arithmetic, which means that the far left is still a minority force in Irish politics.

There is a possibility that the political fragmentation will yield a new way of doing business in the Dail. Minority governments must engage in issue-by-issue negotiation with opposition parties if they are to get their programme enacted. The Government will have to share power in setting the Dail agenda. If it doesn't adapt to this quickly, it will suffer regular defeats.

It came close to seizing defeat from the jaws of victory yesterday by bringing negotiations to a conclusion before everyone and everything was agreed. Ending debates on legislation before a substantial majority of TDs are satisfied that the detail has been rigorously examined will have to be a thing of the past; the guillotine will go into retirement for this Dail.

A committee has been established to look at how the Dail will operate for its new term and we await its conclusions. Some important changes have already been implemented; the Ceann Comhairle was elected and Dail committee chair positions will be allocated on a proportional basis, rather than the previous winner-takes-all approach. This means there will be important roles for members of opposition parties on a great many policy committees. But equally, government backbenchers will have to engage more with committee work.

It is common practice in other parliaments that there is a lead government member on a committee when the chairmanship is held by the opposition. Redesigned committees should deliver a more considered and cross-party approach to policy, but this will only happen if TDs are willing to invest in this new way of doing business.

This is one of the biggest challenges to new politics. Some 41pc of respondents to the RTE exit poll indicated that choosing a candidate to look after the needs of the constituency was most important for them. Successive studies have also shown that large numbers of voters want their TDs to prioritise constituency work.

TDs have mixed incentives. In theory, they are elected to govern but in practice they face a multitude of competing expectations from voters.

Further complicating the Dail mix is the reality that the recent election returned a small but vocal group of TDs who oppose the very basis of the economic and social system.

Dr Theresa Reidy is a political scientist in the Department of Government at University College Cork
The new Government has promised a raft of changes in banking policy that will benefit consumers and bring the banks to heel. But the question is, will it be able to deliver, or will it come up against the same roadblocks the previous administration did trying to force variable rate cuts and sort out the arrears mess?

The latest attempt to put manners on our unbiddable banks include promises the new Government will "take all necessary action" to address high standard variable mortgage rates.

The Programme for Government document states that "it is not ethically acceptable for Irish banks to charge excessive rates".

Other targets involve producing a new code of conduct to make it easier to switch mortgage provider, with this to be administered by the Central Bank, and the development of a new standardised switching form.

The Government will introduce additional long-term solutions for mortgage arrears cases to keep people in their homes. A new debt-resolution scheme is planned, and a new court to deal with personal insolvency cases and mortgage arrears.

There are plans for a "help-to-buy" scheme for first-time buyers.

These policies signal a determined move to make the taxpayer-rescued banks more responsive to consumer needs - and less aggressive.

The problem is that it is pretty similar to what the last Government promised when it came to power.

It all looks fine on paper, but the new administration is about to come up against a Central Bank that too often seems impervious to the financial detriment imposed on households by the banks it supervises.

Ministers also face a Richie Boucher reality check - the Bank of Ireland boss has a track record of resisting Government attempts to tell him what to do. Analyst at Investec Ireland, John Cronin, summed this up in a note to investors: "We would see some of these measures as aspirational or idealistic rather than changes that will actually be implemented."

Just to complicate matters, Fianna Fail finance spokesman Michael McGrath has gone beyond the deal struck between his party and Fine Gael by declaring he will table legislation in a matter of weeks to give the Central Bank powers to force banks, vulture funds and other lenders to lower their mortgage rates.

The Central Bank would be given responsibility for monitoring the level of competition in the mortgage market and the fairness of rates charged.

This could act as a deterrent to banks from charging excessive rates, with the hope that Central Bank action would only be needed where the evidence points to a clear market failure, it is argued.

The French have had laws capping lending rates since the 1960s, so it should not cause a problem under EU law. And we already cap lending rates for credit unions here. However, the Central Bank is dead set against getting such powers, arguing that if it does we can forget about new entrants to the market.

Some say if there was little competitive threat banks would end up hiking, rather than cutting, rates.

But it is far more likely the opposite will happen. It is known that some banks are already preparing to cut rates in response to the renewed political pressure.

Mr Cronin said the Government plans will force banks to cut mortgage rates before being forced to do so. And banks will be pushed into being more forgiving on borrowers in arrears.

AIB and Permanent TSB, which are majority owned by the State, are likely to be first to pre-empt any threat of new legislation by announcing mortgage rate reductions.

Bank of Ireland and KBC would be forced to cut rates to some extent, probably for new borrowers and switchers. Ulster would also have to respond.

Just don't expect the bankers to roll over and deliver all the Government wants. They are too shady for that.
Louth contemporary music society presents Music Books in Dundalk on the weekend of 17-18 June next.

Over an evening and a day, musicians of the highest international calibre, many of them making return visits, come to Dundalk to perform five books of music, including contemporary classics and works specially created for this unique occasion.

The Book of Light and Shadow in Dundalk Gaol on Friday, 17 June at 8 p.m is two books.

It is a Book of Angels, a collection of 300 mystic tunes by the New York master of sound-magic John Zorn, and it is a book of photographs - heliographs, as they were originally called, pictures made by the light of the sun.

Zorn is choosy about the musicians he lets play his Book of Angels. For this concert he has given permission to the outstanding group Saltarello, on strings and percussion, who will make a recording for his Tzadik label.

The group is joined by glorious French soprano Helene Fauchere for Heliography, commissioned for this concert from the brilliant Lithuanian minimalist, Onute Narbutaite.

St. Nicholas Church of Ireland on Saturday, 18 June at 1pm is venue for the Book of Love.

Garth Knox plays the viola d'amore, viola of love, a gorgeous, resonant instrument associated throughout history with the warmth of love.

The cellist Agnes Vesterman joins with Knox through a program of musical love and folly. From the eerie magic of its sympathetic strings, the "viola of love" can turn many heads and introduces us to new, and unexpected sound worlds, from which we are loath to depart.

The program is punctuated by three of Garth Knox's enigmatic miniatures for violin, the Violin Spaces, played by the brilliant young Dutch violinist, Diamanda Dramm.

It's a return to Dundalk Gaol on Saturday at 3pm for the Book of Elements.

Acclaimed as the greatest piano music since Ligeti's Etudes, the Book of Elements is a central work by the constantly surprising Scottish composer James Dillon.

The English virtuoso Ian Pace has been associated with this gripping project from the beginning, and comes to Dundalk for a rare complete performance.

The Book of Quiet will be performed in the Basement Gallery on Saturday at 5.30 p.m.

German composer Jakob Ullmann writes music in which the infinitesimal becomes momentous.

For Louth he has created a new piece for live bassoon and recorded voice, to be performed by the extraordinary musician-improviser Dafne Vicente-Sandoval. The title, Muntzer's Stern (Muntzers Star), refers to Thomas Muntzer, the most radical spirit of the early Reformation.

Book of Songs, the culminating event in St Nicholas Church of Ireland, at 8pm on Saturday, introduces the Swiss composer Jurg Frey, whose music is noted for its gentle wide spaces, allowing

listeners to revel in the "corporeal splendour of undiluted sound." (The Guardian).

Three works of his are on the programme, including the mesmerizing 24 Worter, where 24 words provide the entire text for a journey through 24 songs

Completing the evening are more songs, by the Polish romantic Henryk Gorecki, and Galina Ustvolskaya's stupendous violin sonata. Musicians include Jurg Frey, Ian Pace, Diamanda Dramm, Helene Fauchere and Gavan Ring.
Services provided by the Irish Cancer Society are only made possible by donations on Daffodil Day

The Irish Cancer Society have appealed to all volunteer sellers from the recent 'Daffodil Day' to lodge their funds raised electronically in the coming days.

The event saw people from all over Louth get involved by selling daffodils and merchandise on the street, organising events and donating online.

Donal Buggy, Head of Services at the Irish Cancer Society said they wished to extend a huge 'thank you' to communities in Louth who supported the campaign.

'Over 40,000 people are now diagnosed with cancer in Ireland and over 100 people every day receive a cancer diagnosis. Daffodil Day volunteers in Louth collected to help provide free services for cancer patients to address this epidemic and to fund life-changing cancer research.'

'We are extremely grateful to our volunteers and supporters who have played a central role in supporting people in their own communities who are affected by cancer. More and more people are diagnosed with cancer every day and that in turn increases the demand for our services.'

Donal added: 'However, as a result of the support of our loyal and generous supporters, Daffodil Day will make a huge difference to the lives of cancer patients in Ireland.'

He said the services provided by the Irish Cancer Society are only made possible by donations on Daffodil Day.

'Services where patients are brought to their chemotherapy treatments; the Cancer Nurseline 1800 200 700 where people can get expert support and guidance; and where patients in the last days of their life are able to stay at home surrounded by the ones they love, cared for compassionately and with dignity by one of the Irish Cancer Society's Night Nurses.'

He pointed out that they are aware that some supporters have yet to lodge the funds they have raised.

'To ensure we can continue to deliver our free services and to fund innovative cancer research, we are asking for all funds to be lodged as soon as possible.'

He added that the success of Daffodil Day 2016 won't be known until all funds raised from around the country are lodged and counted.

Dell, the lead partner of Daffodil Day 2016, has provided a Dell Venue 8 Series tablet to raffle among supporters who have banked their funds by the end of May. Volunteers can log on to the Irish Cancer Society's Twitter and Facebook pages to learn more about how to win the prize.

Niamh Townsend, General Manager at Dell Ireland said: 'Daffodil Day sees people come together to make a real difference. Cancer has impacted all our lives and every volunteer has their own reasons for supporting the campaign. To all who supported Daffodil Day, we join with the Irish Cancer Society in thanking you for your immense generosity. Visit www.cancer.ie/daffodilday to lodge funds electronically.
A recent event at Airbound trampoline park, Dundalk in aid of Irish Autism Action attracted tremendous local support as part of Autism Awareness month. Hundreds of guests attended the open day to support the charity and also to learn more about the facilities on offer at Airbound.

The CEO of Irish Autism Action, Kevin Whelan attended the event along with Niall Murphy, information officer for the organisation. Niall said: 'It was a great success and fun was had by all. We were delighted with the turnout, and the support from the Dundalk community was outstanding'.

Local TD and member of the Oireachtas Health Committee, Peter Fitzpatrick also attended the event. He said: 'Autism is a serious issue worldwide, and I encourage everyone to give as much support as possible to Irish Autism Action. I applaud the great awareness created by the event'.

Autism Awareness month took place this April with events have being held throughout Ireland in aid of Irish Autism Action, including Blue Nose Day. These events have generated greater awareness and much needed funds in support of the cause.

The Airbound Trampoline Park staff want to continue to educate their community about all aspects of trampolining including the benefits it has for people with autism, as well as a brand new way of exercising and getting fit. Airbound is also the perfect venue for kids parties, and even hen and stag events. For more information, visit: facebook.com/AirboundTrampolineParkDundalk

For further information on Irish Autism Action, visit www.autismireland.ie.
A major, and very welcome boost for the north-east region, is how the announcement of 100 jobs for Drogheda has been described.

Lauding the decision of Kellton Tech Solutions Ltd to establish its EMEA headquarters in Co Louth, Mayor Paul Bell noted, 'There is a highly-trained workforce here, graduates from Dundalk IT.'

He also paid tribute to Louth county council for the role they had played in developing the Mill project, providing the land for it free of charge.

The India-based global IT company will create 100 jobs over five years, and will be based in the Mill initially.

The Irish headquarters will be the heart of Kellton Tech's operations in the EMEA region, bringing it closer to customers and fortifying its global presence. The office will also house an R&D facility.

Krishna Chintam, co-founder and MD of the firm, said they are excited to be opening in Drogheda.

The company was founded in Hyderabad in 1993, and began making rapid strides four years ago.

There are five offices in India and five in the USA.

Kellton employ 1,100 people worldwide and seek to up that number to 3,000 in the next three years. They count Coca-Cola and Walmart amongst their customers.

Minister for Business and Employment Ged Nash said he is delighted to welcome Kellton Tech to 'my home town'.

'It is great news for Drogheda and the wider county that the company has decided to base its EMEA headquarters here and will bring a welcome 100 jobs boost to the area.

'I have no doubt that our skilled workforce and location has helped in Kellton Tech's choice to base itself here, joining a growing number of digital and technology companies in Louth.'

Making the announcement today, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation Richard Bruton TD said: 'At the heart of our jobs plan is our determination to accelerate job-creation in cities, towns and villages across the country, and that is why we have put in place the regional jobs plans.'
Apartment blocks at Ath Leathan on Dundalks Racecourse Road have been identified as having fire safety issues following surveys carried out on Block A

Major faults identified in fire safety at apartments on the Ath Leathan estate are 'not the only ones' to be found in flat complexes in Dundalk, it has been claimed and there has been a call for the council to ensure that multi-unit developments are the focus of more checks.

The Irish Times revealed at the weekend that residents in the apartments could face eviction after Louth County Council's fire officer, Eamon Woulfe, wrote to the apartments' management company, warning that action would be taken under the Fire Services Act 'to prohibit the use of these buildings for residential purposes' unless fire safety works, estimated at 1.4 million, are undertaken.

Cllr. Mark Dearey was earlier today attempting to have the issue raised as an emergency motion at tonight's meeting of the Dundalk Municipal District Committee.

Alan Grehan of Oriel Property Management, which manages Racecourse Property Management, said it was his company that brought the fire safety deficiencies to the attention of the council and revealed that the fire safety problems came to light when apartments, owned by the developer, were put up for sale and a third party commissioned a survey of the properties.

Mr Grehan, a former independent county councillor, said the fire safety report commissioned for one block of apartments at Ath Leathan revealed fire safety issues and because Block A surveyed is 'identical' to the others, it is believed all of the 72 apartments in eight blocks are affected.

The report, from Pro Fire and Design, reveals cavity barriers were 'not provided as outlined in the granted fire safety certificate application' and there were 'numerous issues through fire rated walls and floors that were inadequately fire-stopped to maintain the integrity of the fire rated walls and floors'.

In addition, the report highlighted 'fire doors, fire alarms and emergency lighting systems didn't meet required standards'.

Ath Leathan was built around ten years ago by McGreevy Enterprises, controlled by Hilltown-based brothers, Gerald and Sean McGreevy.

It is understood the Ath Leathan apartments' issue came to light when the developers sought to sell a number of the flats they still own on the estate and the potential purchaser requested a survey be carried out.

When the potential problems were identified, the management company commissioned a more extensive fire safety report which detailed the issues with apartments in Block A.

It has been estimated that work to rectify the fire safety problems could cost between 10,000 to 20,000 per apartment, with disruption to households expected to take place while the work is carried out.

Residents from the Ath Leathan apartments are to attend an Emergency General Meeting of the management company that will be held at the Ballymascanlon Hotel next Tuesday, May 10 where they are expected to hear how and when the remedial works will be carried out, and who may have to pay for it.

The management company is to take legal advise about the matters highlighted in the report ahead of the EGM.

Louth County Council told the Argus: 'A letter dated 20 April 2016 was received from McGreevy Enterprises advising that they are following up so as to bring the matter to a satisfactory conclusion.

'The Fire Prevention Section will be following this matter up over the coming weeks'.

Mr Grehan revealed that while the fire safety problems at Ath Leathan are serious, the apartments are among three in Dundalk alone that he is aware there are concerns about.

He said: 'We are aware there are three in Dundalk alone, among five in County Louth, where there are fire safety concerns about multi-unit developments. And these can't be the only ones - it's happening all over the country'.

Mr Grehan said he would like to see the council writing to all management companies who look after apartment developments in Louth asking for fire safety reports to be carried out 'so we can know the scale of the problem'.

Cllr. Dearey said there was 'important work to be done to ensure that residents are looked after properly' and added: 'I expect the developers to cover the cost of the work'.

The Green Party representative said he also wanted to see multi-unit developments 'the focus of the work of the council's fire officers going forward from now'.
Michael Gaynor, President Dundalk Chamber and Cllr Mark Dearey with the Green Party Leader Eamon Ryan TD at the meeting held in the Town Hall

The impact of 'Brexit' on the border area was a key feature of a public debate held in the Town Hall last week.

Eamon Ryan TD, leader of the Green Party led the meeting which focused on the threats of Brexit and the possible disintegration of Europe.

Local Councillor, Mark Dearey opened the event by explaining that it was also an historic night for Dundalk as the meeting was the first held in the Town Hall by a political party in over 30 years.

'It was important to point out though that this was not a political event, it was a public meeting facilitated by the Green Party to discuss issues which are of huge significance for the Dundalk and border area.'

He explained that the migration crisis currently facing Europe was perhaps the single most important factor in the Brexit debate.

'The need for a 'pan European' approach to the crisis was raised at the meeting,' added Cllr Dearey. 'Retreating from the EU is not the answer to the crisis.'

Deputy Eamon Ryan highlighted the importance of the debate, saying: 'The implications of a British withdrawal from the EU will be profound for the country and particularly for the border counties, politically, culturally and economically.'

He explained that an analysis of the current trends either side of the debate in the UK show that the result of the referendum, set to be held in June, is 'too close to call at the moment and is a matter for the people of Britain and Northern Ireland.'

'However there has been very little local debate so far or on how we can have our voice heard across the border and across the water.'

Although the campaign has been dominating the media in Britain, it still remains 'under the radar' on both sides of the border in Ireland.

Deputy Ryan told the meeting; 'For the very first time, the prospect of having an external EU border running from Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle needs to be understood and, in our view, resisted

'We need to take serious account too of what a decision by Britain to leave will mean for the wider cohesion of the EU.'

He explained that the Green Party were launching its 'Canvass your Cousin' campaign, which will urge people to send a postcard or email to relatives and friends in the UK and Northern Ireland highlighting the importance to Ireland of the UK remaining within the EU.

'The message to get out to relatives living in the UK is not to stay at home that day, to at least get out and vote in the referendum,' added Deputy Ryan.

Also speaking at the event was Conor Patterson,CEO of Newry and Mourne Enterprise Agency, who highlighted the huge benefits which emerged from the border being removed.
Local companies got the opportunity to forge business links when Dundalk chamber hosted another successful embassy visit.

On this occasion, it was Estonia which was represented at the event last week.

H. E. Mrs. Kristi Karelsohn, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, with the Estonian Embassy, had a series of one-to-one meetings with various businesses from around the north-rast.

It was the latest in a number of such engagements the chamber has organised.

Mrs. Kristi Karelsohn was delighted with the number and variety of contacts, and is sure that the visit will enhance trade in both directions.

She also stated that a representative from her embassy would be delighted to visit Dundalk in the future to meet with more companies in the hope of forging business links between Ireland and Estonia.

Due to the success of these get-togethers, the chamber will host more embassies.

Next up, is a visit from Nigerian diplomats, which will take place on 25 May in Oriel Hub in the Finnabair business park.

If your company would like to attend one of these free meetings, please call Karolina or Malvina in Dundalk chamber on 042 9336343 or email projectadmin@dundalk.ie
Dundalk TD Peter Fitzpatrick has called for parity of funding for mental health services in Louth.

'At present the Louth Meath area receives 104 per head of population for mental health, whilst the national average is 152,' said Deputy Fitzpatrick.

'It is simply not right that the people of Louth and Meath do not have the same level of funding for mental health services as the rest of the country.'

'During the term of the next Government I will be seeking a commitment that funding will be increased to at least the national average of 152 per head of population by 2019 at the latest.

This is the very least that the people of Louth and Meath deserve.'

He added: 'Starting in schools we should educate our teenagers not only about mental health issues but also the signs of problems amongst their peers.

While progress has been made in the area of mental health in recent years, a stigma still exists and increased education is needed to address this.'

'If peers are aware of the dangers and signs of mental health issues then they are in a much better position to help their friends and family when needed.'

'With the help of Guidance Councillors in schools I feel that a programme could be put in place for students to understand mental health issues.'

The Louth TD said it is important to take a holistic view of mental illness, and involve the end user and their family at every level of the service provision.

'Mental health promotion should be available for all age groups to enhance protective factors and decrease risk factors for mental health problems. Education at an early stage is the key to a better understanding of mental health issues.'
An amusement arcade in Blackrock was robbed by two men, one of whom twice shoulder charged a female member of staff to get away.

Two men last week pleaded guilty to robbery at the Blackrock Leisure Centre on July 31, with one admitting a number of dangerous driving charges that arose from the chase with Gardai after the incident.

John Marshall (22), whose address was given as 37 Maple Close and Michael Ward (23) with an address at Glen Gat B&B, Stapleton Place, Dundalk, were before the court.

Judge William Hamill heard how the pair walked into the arcade at around noon and waited until a female member of staff walked away from the office area. Marshall went into the office and took more than 1000 in cash and the cash box, while Ward waited at the door. The woman saw what was happening and went to stop them, but Ward shoulder charged her twice to get her out of the way while he and Marshall ran to a car parked outside.

The victim suffered bruising but has recovered physically from the incident.

Sergeant Vincent O'Connell was leaving the nearby Garda station and had noticed the car the two men were in pull up outside the amusements. Moments later, he saw them speed off and went after them in a patrol car.

At Seafield Road, the car, driven by Ward, failed to stop and cars had to swerve to get out of his way. He drove like this at Haggardstown and went through a red light at Xerox while on the wrong side of the road. Sgt. O'Connell pulled back at that stage, but kept following them at a distance before the men's car crashed at a traffic island at the Inner Relief Road, hitting two cars, but causing no injuries.

Ward and Marshall got out of the car and went running, but were caught by Gardai moments later. The 1,000 was found on Marshall and the red cash box from the arcade was in the footwell of the car.

Ward had no insurance or driving licence either. He has a previous conviction from 2014, while Marshall has none.

The men's barrister, Irene Sands, said the money from the robbery was recovered and no weapons were used during the incident. She said Marshall is a 22-year-old married man whose wife is pregnant. He left school after his Junior Cert and did paving courses.

At the time of the robbery, he had 'no money' and this was 'seen as an easy solution to his problems'.

Ms Sands said both Ward and Marshall are former residents of Woodland Park, from where, the judge was told, mass evictions had taken place in January.

Ward had trained as a joiner and had difficulties with cannabis and tranquilliser tablets. But since he has met his wife 'he has been on a better road' and was in a position to offer the victim 500 in compensation, but he needs time to get it together. Both men are willing to do community service as an alternative to prison.

Judge Hamill adjourned both cases to June 15 for community service reports.
St. Vincent's TY Students, Megan Bourton, Saoirse Woods, Sarah Larney and Katie Rogers along with Amy O'Donoghue who developed a website called Recruiteen

St Vincent's secondary school has been recognised for its commitment to equipping students with 21st century skills by being named centre of excellence for the number of its students achieving Microsoft Office Specialist certification.

The Microsoft Office Specialist programme is the world's most recognised computing qualification for proving a person's skills and abilities in Microsoft's Office applications.

The centre of excellence Award was presented by country manager Billy Breen and Karl O'Leary, public sector director of Microsoft Ireland at the Microsoft pluggED in event held in Thomond Park, Limerick in February.

'This is a massive achievement for the school and demonstrates the commitment of the school to the programme,' said Mr Breen, who noted it was only introduced at the school in September.

Principal, Deirdre Matthews commended the dedication of the school's ICT teachers for adopting the Microsoft Office programme.

'We are fortunate to have staff who are committed to ensuring that our students are fully prepared for 3rd level and the world of work.

'We believe that being adequately prepared involves embracing the benefits of technology in education. All our First year and Transition year students are learning the language of the future, coding.'

All 1st, 2nd and Transition Year students are currently completing the MOS programme. Alongside MOS all 1st year and TY students have the opportunity to study coding. 1st Years learn how to use Scratch to make games and thus learn the basics of programming including loops, variables, logic statements and creating their own algorithms.

TY students also begin using Scratch and then learn the formal way to write code. They are taught how to build webpages using HTML and CSS and further reinforce their learning using online courses in Khan Academy.

As part of Tech Week, St Vincent's transition year students took the opportunity to invite the 6th class pupils from Realt na Mara over to the school to teach them coding.

All fifty-two 6th class students had the opportunity to play, make and fix a number of games using Scratch to win prizes.

Two of the school's success stories in this year's mini company competition have been based on coding in the classroom.

One group developed a web-based business and another group developed an Irish Language interactive app and website.

"Recruiteen" developed a website where teenagers sign up to be part of a database. Employers can then, for a fee, search the database for potential employees. They were awarded first place in Marketing at the competition in the PDST 'get up and go' competition.

"GoGaeilge" also progressed to the National Finals having been awarded a prize for the quality of their product. They developed an interactive Irish website and App which teaches students popular songs through Irish as well as having vocabulary and grammar games for students to enhance their language skills.

These students visited Google Headquarters in Dublin last week, and will display their project at the EXCITED Digital Festival in Dublin Castle on Saturday, 21 May.
Aughrim native Sinead O'Loughlin is artistically inclined. Of that there is no doubt, though it is hard to find the correct pigeon-hole for this multi-talented lady.

In a recent version of her CV, she described herself as a writer, theatre maker and drama facilitator. Now the title 'movie maker' may be added to the list.

She has spent the last few weeks busily putting the editing touches to a short film called 'Homecoming', which is sure to engage all who have the opportunity to see it.

Now that she lives in the Dublin village of Chapelizod, the production proved a genuine homecoming for her as it was largely shot in and around the south Wicklow countryside where she grew up.

Once the final cut is ready and two days' work on location are reduced to 10 or 11 intense minutes, then it will be premiered by the county council, which backed the project.

After that, it will be screened a festivals around the world, giving audiences far and wide a view of the hilly green fields around Aughrim. They are sure to be enchanted.

Sinead first had an inkling that she might be creatively inclined when she was a schoolgirl attending St Mary's Secondary School in Arklow. The daughter of Mary and Willie O'Loughlin got the stage bug in first year.

She played the part of a Munchkin in the school production of 'Wizard of Oz', which starred Denise Brennan, who went on to make her mark on the professional stage.

Sinead later hung around Gorey Little Theatre as a teenager and kept her creative options open in her choice of college.

She headed for Dun Laoghaire and a course of media and cultural studies. With a talent for writing, she had it half in mind to become a journalist but gradually steered her career into less frantic water.

The cultural studies department in Dun Laoghaire was not immediately aligned with the college's film school, tending to produce critics rather than creators.

'Our course was very good but we were talking about films rather than making them and I wished it was more practical,' Sinead recalls.

She tried to bridge the gap by joining the college drama society but there was no immediate move into the arts on graduation as she spent a year back on campus working as student welfare officer.

She then shook off the dust of Dublin by heading for Vancouver on the far side of Canada where some of the same urges rose to the surface during her time off from temporary employment waitressing or working in offices.

She appeared with a local theatre group in a murder mystery and took a screenwriting course, returning to Ireland keen to build on that experience.

But back in Ireland as a 23-year-old, she landed a job in the more humdrum surroundings of Hackett's bookmakers in Dublin before the call of the arts lured her westwards.

She enrolled on an enriching year long course of theatre studies at NUI Galway, where this time she steered away from the reviewing and instead rolled up her sleeves for real acting.

The regime in Galway also allowed her scope to write for the theatre, inventing a play which was accepted by the promoters of a one-act festival.

In order to see it safely on to the stage, she ended up directing 'Wake' herself for the Galway Youth Theatre. The memory is a happy one: 'It was the first time that I wrote something and it was really exciting.'

She remembers the reality of the performance at the Flat Lake Festival with her collaborator Mary Elizabeth Burke Kennedy. 'We were so broke that we shared a pint of Guinness in the pub afterwards.'

The subject matter of 'Wake' was the suicide of a young man and, though plans to bring it to Electric Picnic never quite became a reality, the work turned out to have a lasting impact on the new playwright.

Sinead confesses that she has been tinkering with it ever since - a full-length version lies in a drawer somewhere - and that the characters of what was essentially academic homework have come again to life in 'Homecoming'.

'I write but I stop and start - it's a confidence thing,' she muses, glad that the film has allowed her to bring the long running piece to a decent conclusion eight years on.

In the intervening years, she made herself busy on the arts scene in Dublin, without quite having the nerve to push herself into the spotlight, preferring to work as a producer/administrator with local projects in Limerick and Blanchardstown.

Collaborators included women in a domestic workers' action group and a bunch of recovering former drug addicts - 'amazing people' as she recalls them.

The writing bug continued to bite along the way, notably with a 1,500-word piece called 'Sunday' which brought her back to Dun Laoghaire for an anthology celebrating the opening of the public library there.

And the siren call of familiar hills stimulated a return to south Wicklow, where the Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely provided a place of encouragement and the sort of peace a writer really appreciates.

Centre director Maggie Doherty offered space in which to write and also helped to make the connection with the arts office at the county council as they looked for someone to make a movie.

Thus was 'Homecoming' conceived and finally executed, a perfectly formed miniature for the silver screen.

'I knew that I would love to make a short film, so I bounced the idea off Maggie,' says Sinead, looking back at the birth of her breakthrough into cinema, albeit small scale cinema.

'Wake', the play she wrote in Galway, provided the foundation for the plot, moving the characters, the male lead back on the farm after a spell in Australia.

He meets the sister of the friend who died eight years earlier, the action played out against familiar misty countryside.

'It is always Wicklow in my head. It is about contemporary rural identity,' explains the creator and script writer.

The process of transferring the ideas from her head an on to film began in earnest after the application she submitted to the arts office in July was approved in September.

The making of 'Homecoming' was achieved with the help of cinematographer Daniel Keane and producer Laura Brennan, with auditions held to cast actors David Green and Johanna O'Brien in the two-hander.

For full authenticity, the piece had to be set home territory, with a self-catering cottage in Woodenbridge providing both accommodation and location over the course of a very busy weekend of shooting.

Sinead appointed her father as consultant, not that he knows much about sound, costumes or make-up, but he proved very useful driving a jeep.

And the field full of sheep which feature prominently are Willie O'Loughlin's sheep, on Willie's land.

The family connection was extended as Sinead's sister provided her dog to make a cameo appearance.

The editing has been taking place at Dan Keane's home in Cabra, where he and Sinead have been huddled around the computer, putting everything in order and distilling the footage down to the required length.

'I am very happy with it,' says the woman who created and directed this little gem, 'and the scenery around Aughrim is fantastic.'

The short film is certainly charming in a non-cute way and the performances by the two actors are top drawer.

'Homecoming' comes home on May 17 when it will be shown at a private screening at Sinead's other Wicklow home in the Courthouse at Tinahely - a world premiere, no less, though the red carpet will not be rolled out.

The showing will be followed by a discussion of the film and of how to entice more movie makers to come to County Wicklow to live and work.
28 members of Bray Active Retirement walking group had a very enjoyable three-day holiday in Westport at the start of April. They were given a warm welcome at the Westport Coast Hotel and enjoyed soft April showers and walks on the Greenway.

The next BARA meeting will take place at the Little Flower Hall on Friday, May 6, at 10.45 a.m. new members are always welcome.

An Bothan will meet this Thursday as usual in Sparktech, St Kevins Square from 9.30 a.m. to 1 p.m. They will be working at wood turning, wood carving, ornamental glass cutting, furniture repair and upholstery.

They begin every week with vigorous chair exercises. They would welcome any ideas for new projects. For more information contact Jim on (086) 8030445.
O Brother craft beer brewers are in the process of raising 20,000 in funding through Ireland's leading 'P2P lending' company so they can expand their production facilities.

O Brother Brewing is a family affair established by three brothers from the Dargle Road in Bray - Barry, Padhraig and Brian O'Neill.

The siblings all have a passion for quality beer and set up the business in 2014.

Despite a short trading history, the brewers have already won multiple awards and garnered a strong following within the craft beer community.

They brew fresh, exciting beer with the best quality ingredients, packed with flavour.

Barry said the brothers have been greatly encouraged by the success they have managed to achieve in such a relatively short space of time.

'We make the kind of beers that we want to enjoy ourselves and we don't settle for anything less,' he said.

'Our willingness to be different and our refusal to compromise has earned us numerous awards. The business is thriving right now. If we had more beer, we could sell it in the morning. That is a simple fact.

'Between myself and my brothers we have a wide range of complimentary skills. It is our passion and we've put everything into it. We are absolutely determined to succeed and after all the hard work we are now finally seeing the fruits of our labour.'

O Brother currently have three signature beers, an American Pale Ale called 'the Chancer', an American Red Ale called 'the Fixer', and more recently an Indian Pale Ale called 'the Sinner'.

Along with this growing reputation, comes growing commercial interest, with enquires from the UK, Italy, France and Spain. O Brother Brewing is presented with a problem, they don't have enough capacity at the moment to meet the growing demand.

The funds for expansion being raised through Linked Finance's online lending platform, www.linkedfinance.com, and will be used to meet the growing demand for O Brothers range of craft beers.

To date, Linked Finance lenders have supported over 20 businesses throughout Wicklow, raising funding to the tune of over 450,000 for local companies.

Commenting on the funding being raised for O Brother Brewing, CEO of Linked Finance, Peter O'Mahoney, said: 'O Brother Brewing is just the type of great SME that our lenders love; young entrepreneurs taking a real passion for something and, through hard work and force of will, transforming it into a great local business.'

He added that the company's lenders currently have over 11 million in funds readily available to lend to great local companies like O Brother Brewing.

'It's great to see a family run business like O Brother Brewing doing so well. SMEs are crucial to the economy and it's a shame that great businesses like them find it difficult to grow due to a difficulty in accessing finance via traditional means.'

O Brother Brewing is currently live on the Linked Finance website. You can check them out at www.linkedfinance.com/loan/3409.
A drink driving case collapsed last week because a garda entered the wrong password into the intoxilyzer machine.

Edreich Tauro (25), 12 Hazelwood, Fassaroe, appeared in Bray District Court last Thursday.

Sergeant Jonathan O'Brien told the court that he was on patrol on July 17 at 12.25 a.m.

He saw a car exiting Sutton Road onto the Upper Dargle Road and stall in the junction before crossing a continuous white line and entering the wrong side of the road.

The car turned right into Fassaroe without indicating.

Sgt O'Brien activated the blue lights and siren yet the car continued on. It was travelling very slowly. The car turned left into Old Conna Grove and travelled another 500 metres or so before pulling in suddenly and without indication.

The car door opened and the driver attempted to get out, stumbled, and got back into the vehicle, Sgt O'Brien told the court.

'I got out of the car and approached the driver speaking to him through the window,' said Sgt O'Brien. His speech was slurred and his eyes glazed. I asked if he understood. He said he had lived in Ireland for 10 years and understood English perfectly. There was a half empty bottle of spirits on the passenger seat. I arrested him at 12.30 a.m. He said he understood and kept apologising and saying he was sorry.'

The defendant required time at the station to go to the facilities and ring his father. Then there was an issue with the machine. Garda Philip Sheridan told the court that he put in the incorrect password a number of times, locking the machine.

Gardai then changed their requirement and sought a doctor, who arrived at the station at 2.30 a.m.

'Would it be fair to say he was generally cooperative with you?' solicitor Michael O'Connor asked Sgt O'Brien.

'He was extremely drunk,' was the response.

Sgt O'Brien said that he used handcuffs during the arrest. 'I don't know the defendant or anything about him. He was very drunk and drunk people are unpredictable.'

Tauro was released at 3 a.m.

Mr O'Connor said that the password issue was not sufficient justification to detain his client for over an hour. 'It [forgetting a password] does happen to us all,' he said. 'The defendant is a citizen of this Republic and had to spend over an hour more in custody of the State than he would have normally. I don't believe it's good enough that such a situation can arise.'

'I agree with you,' said Judge Kennedy. 'It's easy enough to happen but there were serious results for this prisoner. I'm not blaming Garda Sheridan in any way, it could happen to anyone.'

He dismissed the drink driving case and reduced a charge of dangerous driving (for crossing the continuous white line) to careless driving.

Mr O'Connor said that his client is a qualified chef who works full time and a native of the Philippines. 'He's a good young man who unfortunately got himself into difficulty on this occasion. He has a lot to contribute to the community.'

Tauro was banned from driving for three months and received a fine of 500.
St Philomena's National School were one of 13 schools to meet Bressie and the Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon last week in Liberty Hall.

The children were there to be honoured for tackling racism and achieving diversity standards, getting Yellow Flag status at a multicultural ceremony of pupils representing 83 nationalities and cultures.

'In achieving the Yellow Flag we as staff have developed awareness of the diversity of our school community,' said teacher Fiona Murray.

'New relationships have been forged as parents and their children shared their culture not just with us as teachers but with each other. All children seem to have developed a sense of deep pride in their unique culture, customs, food and dress.'

Embarking on the 8 step Yellow Flag programme each school must meet specific targets to create an environment where identity and racism bullying is challenged and diversity and equality are embedded within whole school practice.

Of the 2016 flag recipient schools 3 out of 10 pupils surveyed reported to have experienced racism last year and 85 per cent said they would 'like their school to provide time to celebrate different cultures, languages, religions and identities.'

Pioneered and coordinated by the Irish Traveller Movement the multi-level programme for pupils, teachers, parents and the wider community was established seven years ago to help support schools create cross-cultural understanding, racial harmony and equal recognition of religious and ethnic traditions which would reflect Ireland's diversity with school populations comprising over 200 different cultures. Speaking at the awards, Ombudsman for Children Niall Muldoon said 'I am delighted to support this hugely important initiative whereby schools, young people and whole communities are encouraged to understand and fight discrimination. The Yellow Flag programme, which promotes integration and diversity, goes a long way to helping all children and young people to realise their human rights. It is crucial to engage these children and young people at the earliest possible opportunity so that they learn the value and benefits of diversity and tolerance in society.'
The Cafe Writers - (from left) Ruth Downey, Kathleen Greaney, Mitch Staunton Moore, Frances Browner and Catherine O'Donoghue - at the launch of their stories and poems at the Writers Corner at Greystones Railway Station last Wednesday

Cafe Writers and Iarnrod Eireann launched a new 'Writers' Corner' venture at Greystones Dart station last week.

Four pieces of prose and five poems depict the theme 'Journey' were unveiled at the station on Wednesday.

Frances Browner approached Iarnrod Eireann before Christmas about displaying their work. The company purchased frames and Cafe Writers is now exhibiting at the station.

In 'Mind the Gap' by Ruth Downey from Tinahely the narrator describes a cliff walk from Bray to Greystones. The character in 'Return Ticket' by Kathleen Greaney from Bray takes a memorable trip on the Dart from Pearse to Greystones. In 'Sub Way' by Frances Browner from Charlesland a young Irish girl arrives in New York and finds herself on the subway for the first time.In 'The Journey Not Taken' by Sineaid Doyle from Greystones a goldfinch attempts to flee his cage.

In the poems, 'Between Worlds' and 'Off the Train', Catherine O'Donoghue from Bray describes the contentment found on the cliff edge and the excitement of a small child hopping off the train, skipping towards an endless magic. 'Gethsemane' and 'Life Returns' by Mitch Staunton Moore from Bray are voyages of grief; and 'Flowing' by John Yoder from Greystones follows the flow of a river.

Talented six-year-old Mae Browner illustrated the Sub Way story.

Cafe Writers was established two years ago, when a group of people got together to chat, drink coffee and write in coffee shops in Greystones and Bray.
We might despair at the constant slew of bad news regarding climate change, but there is serious ground for optimism in the great achievements of our young as illustrated by one group of Blarney children this week.

Pupils and staff of Scoil Chroi Iosa in the famous tourist hotspot are enjoying richly-deserved celebrations after being selected as Ireland's 'Park 'n' Stride' School of the Year at An Taisce's Green Schools BIG Travel Challenge ceremony at the Golden Lane Radisson Hotel in Dublin.

Exactly as the name suggests, 'park 'n' stride' relates to the growing environmentally-friendly practice of driving just part of the distance to school before walking the rest of the way.

It's a method of getting to classes that was clearly very appropriate for Blarney as the whole school ultimately embraced this - much to the delight of the judges of the BIG Travel Challenge.

Park 'n' Stride is just one of the many Green Schools travel initiatives encouraging students and parents away from the traditional Irish over-reliance on fossil-fuel-consuming vehicles.

While many schools embraced this particular initiative, it was Scoil Chroi Iosa that really went above and beyond in answering the call.

The 289-pupil school initiated their Park 'n' Stride programme back in February, with 20 students initially undertaking the challenge.

However, in just a matter of a fortnight nearly 200 pupils at the school were coming to school in keeping with the spirit of the challenge - parents driving them part way before walking the rest.

"Two weeks is a short space of time in the school calendar but these schools really showed that a lot can change in a fortnight!" Green Schools Travel Manager Jane Hackett said on congratulating the Blarney primary.

Participation in the challenge was driven in part too by a special 'Golden Boot' competition for those students who walked further than most to the school gates over the two weeks. And Scoil Chroi Iosa managed to bring even more colour to Blarney Castle when they undertook a fantastic 'Minions March' on the fortress.

"They [the Scoil Chroi pupils] have shown that engagement - within the school community and outside the school gates - is one of the keys to real and lasting behaviour change. Well done," Ms Hackett added, as the pupils were toasted by peers across the country at the big national awards.
The Muintir na Tire 'Pride in Our Community' competition is already in its twelfth year and it is one which encourages regions to showcase the best of their region by developing sustainable amenities that benefit the entire community.

The Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr John Paul O'Shea launched the competition at County Hall.

Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr John Paul O'Shea launches Muintir na Tire Pride in Our Community Competition The competition which is organised by Cork County Federation Muintir na Tire in conjunction with Cork County Council continues to go from strength to strength each year.

Over the years the competition has developed from a small idea to the very successful and popular competition that it is today with a prize fund of over 7,000, and over 50 groups are expected to take part again this year.

Through this competition Muintir na Tire recognises and acknowledges the hard work of all the community organisations involved around the County and this in turn supports the work of development work of Cork County Council. The competition also seeks to make people aware of their environment, to continue the overall development of areas and to encourage litter free communities.

The County Mayor Councillor John Paul O'Shea praised the competition and promised continued support from Cork County Council to the voluntary sector in County Cork.

Cork County Council CEO Tim Lucey praised Muintir na Tire for its commitment to rural development and also for their help with the Mayors awards.

In a message to the launch Mr Brendan Scahill Community Worker HSE Cork North said they were delighted to be working closely with Muintir on many projects and he outlined the health benefits of some community projects.

Sean Holland Chairman of the organising committee was keen to point out that competition now has many new amenity categories including Small Village Award, Best Large Town in Each Division, Best Heritage Project, Most Eco Friendly Project, Social Inclusion Award, Best New Entry, Best Tourism Project, Best Maintained Existing Project, Healthy Town/Village Award and Innovation and Creativity.

This he said should encourage more villages and towns to enter. He said that a new category was being introduced this year to reward Communities who are developing 1916 Commemorative projects.

Annette Lane Chairperson of Cork County Federation Muintir na Tire said amenities highlight the important link between our surroundings and our quality of life. It is no co-incidence she said that people travel the length and breadth of the county, visiting beauty spots in County Cork and it is important that local communities are encouraged and supported to provide amenities and that villages and towns continue to look attractive for visitor and locals.

She thanked the County Mayor and County Manager John Paul O Shea and Sharon Corcoran and her staff at the Cork County Council Environment Directorate for providing support for the organising, judging and funding of the competition.

She said these projects brighten up communities and enhance the natural beauty of the surroundings in which we live as well as attracting tourists.

She said tha Muintir na Tire hopes to see all of our communities continue to support our work by partaking in the competition this year and we encourage all groups past and present to continue to develop their projects and ideas in the future. We really hope to see past groups coming back to work on projects in the future. Niamh O Dwyer County Council Co-ordinator said it was now easier than ever to enter the competition. She urged groups to enter online at muintircork.com or to contact 0214500688 and request a Brochure / entry form
The new Aer Lingus service between Cork and Dusseldorf is now underway with the official launch this week at Cork Airport.

The German Ambassador to Ireland, H.E Matthias Hopfner, officially launched the new service and was one of the first passengers to fly to Dusseldorf.

He was joined by a delegation of Cork representatives which included Lord Mayor of Cork, Chris O'Leary and County Mayor of Cork, John-Paul O'Shea.

Aer Lingus will operate the twice weekly service on Wednesday and Sunday, giving both business and leisure passengers alike access to the largest metropolitan area in Germany.

Germany is the third-largest market for tourism to Ireland and is estimated to be worth close to 400 million annually to our economy.

Last year was a record year for Irish tourism from Germany as we welcomed almost 630,000 German visitors, an increase of 13 percent on 2014.

Dusseldorf Airport is Germany's third largest, handling 21.8 million passengers last year.

It has excellent connectivity to the rest of Germany with more than 400 trains per day stopping at one of its two onsite train stations, offering convenient direct mainline trains to many other German cities or a suburban rail option into the city centre.
This year the European Parliament Information Office in Ireland is celebrating Europe Day in Cork city.

Sean Kelly MEP, Deidre Clune MEP and Liadh Ni Riada MEP will be there to share the celebrations and Shay Byrne - of RTE Rising Time fame - is master of ceremonies.

The day is an annual celebration of peace and unity in Europe and is marked across the EU. The event is from 12 noon to 2pm, so come along to Cork City Hall, have tea with your local MEPs and talk to them about their work in Europe. You can also sample food from different European countries.
The people of the region are being asked to have their say in the future of the Augustinian community in Drogheda.

With numbers declining at an alarming rate - currently there is just one student in formation - the Augustinians are looking to the congregation to assist them.

At the beginning of the year a "painful and unavoidable decision" was made to close down four Augustinian Communities simply due to the decreasing numbers. Augustinian Provincial, Fr John Hennebry says "This is a sad reality that will affect all of our communities and locations in some way; none of our communities can feel itself excluded.'

He and the community asked two questions in their Lay Forum on April 23rd, "When there are no longer any friars to minister in your particular place, would you want the Augustinian spirit to remain alive in your community?" and "If the answer is 'Yes', how do you think this can be achieved and what part are you prepared to play for this ?".

The Augustinians have hope that people can volunteer for positions such as minister of the word (readers).

Those with views on the issue can contact the Provincial directly at St Augustines Proiry, Taylor's Lane , Ballyboden, Dublin 16, or contact the Drogheda Augustinians.
Louth TD Gerry Adams has been widely condemned for using a racial slur in an off handed remark on his Twitter page.

The Sinn Fein leader has since apologised for using the 'n' word in a reference to the Quentin Tarantino 'D'jango Unchained film about black slavery in America.

He admitted his controversial tweet - later removed from his Twitter account - was 'inappropriate' but he moved to defend his comparison of the treatment of Irish nationalists to African Americans.

The tweet which read 'Watching Django Unchained - A Ballymurphy N*****! also saw him referring to the main character as 'an uppity Fenian.'

In what he described as 'an unqualified apology' Deputy Adams said:

'Unfortunately I used the 'n' word. I realised it was a mistake and I deleted it. I apologise for any offence caused.'

He added that he used the term - widely recognised as a racial slur - in a 'ironic' way.

'It was wrong and I am sorry I used it because it offended people. I accept it was not an appropriate word to use, as it was a word used against people of colour in a derogatory way.'

But the TD said he 'stood by my substantive point' which drew comparisons between the struggle of African American people and the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Gerry Adams was born in Ballymurphy, a republican heartland of west Belfast.

He was one of the founders of the civil rights movement.

Responding to the criticism of his remark, he added:

'Attempts to suggest that I am a racist are without credibility. I am opposed to racism and have been all my life.'

'I have been a very, very long time supporter of the anti apartheid movement,' said Deputy Adams.

He also described himself as 'a great admirer of people who stood up for themselves, people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.'

He added: 'There are parallels here with the struggle of the African American movement.'

Despite his explanations for tweeting the remark, he said 'I do regret using the word, I made a mistake and I am sorry.'

But his words have drawn criticism from within his own party, with Sinn Fein Louth councillor Tomas Sharkey issuing the following statement on the controversy.

'Gerry's tweet was wrong. He should not have made this comment. The 'n' word is offensive and abusive.

'There are many important matters for us politicians to be working on.

I hope that people will accept Gerry Adams apology for the remark and continue to work with Sinn Fein representatives on the issues that matter in Louth.'
An east Meath man who was killed during the 1916 Rising has been honoured in his native area of Lisdornan - 100 years to the day when he was shot dead near the GPO.

James McCormack was a member of the Irish Citizen Army when he died on April 26, 1916.

To mark his sacrifice for his country, a bridge over the M1 on the Duleek/Julianstown has been named after him.

The official ceremony on the day was led by a group of soldiers from Gormanston Camp marching in formation under the command of Sergeant Fletcher and by flag-bearing members of the Organisation of National Ex-Service Personnel, led by Jim Fay.

Behind them followed around 100 McCormacks, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, one grand-daughter carried the officer's whistle which was found on the body of James McCormack after he was killed in Moore Lane beside the GPO on the 26th April 1916.

This was the route he probably took when he left Lisdornan around 1905 to start work as a maintenance-man on Baldoyle Race-Course.

Then it was up on to the main Duleek/Julianstown road where a large crowd of neighbours, well-wishers and County Meath Council officials waited at the bridge over the M1.

Master of Ceremonies was Brigadier-General (Retd.) Christopher Moore of Stamullen who did an excellent job. The ceremony opened with a speech of welcome from Bernadette McGuinness, Chairperson of Bellewstown Heritage Group who were hosting this 1916 memorial event.

McCormacks had travelled from wide-flung parts of Ireland to be there at the bridge on the day. She welcomed Thomas Byrne, T.D.; Meath County Council Chairperson Brian Fitzgerald and Councillors Emer Ferguson, Noel French, Tom Kelly, Sharon Keoghan and Stephen McKee; County Meath Officials: C.E.O. Jackie Maguire and Head of Finance Fiona Lawless. Also present was the Mayor of Drogheda, Paul Bell and members of heritage groups from Ardcath, Drogheda, Duleek and Stamullen.

Well-known local historian Brendan Matthews gave an excellent talk on the McCormack family in the Lisdornan of one hundred years ago, putting the young James McCormack in a rural context for the family who mainly knew only about his life in Dublin. Sheila Scanlan of Bellewstown Heritage Group then recited verses from The Foggy Dew.

Duleek-man Gerry Tolan delighted the assembly with a terrific rendition of the 1916 ballad Grace followed by a stirring encore. Prayers of the Faithful were read by great-grandchildren of James McCormack, Sinead McCormack, Claire McCormack, Suzanne Connor and Susan Healy.

Then it was time for Jimmy McCormack, (grandson of James McCormack, oldest son of James's oldest son Michael) to say a few words on behalf of the McCormacks on this proud day for the family. He then unveiled the fine bronze plaque, naming the bridge over the M1 The James McCormack Memorial Bridge.

Three great-granddaughters of James McCormack, Aine Greene, Fiona Deering and Joanne Mallon did a great reading of The Proclamation. After that the Last Post rang out and members of the Drogheda and Slane branch of O.N.E formally presented flags and two soldiers raised the Irish flag which had previously been flying at half-mast. A minute's silence followed and then the Reveille was played.

The ceremony concluded with Amhran na bhFiann movingly played on recorder by a group of children from Bellewstown primary school.

Afterwards the hot soup and sandwiches and roaring fires back in the Bellewstown Inn were welcomed by all.

Well-done also to the McGrath family who live in the former McCormack home and who welcomed numerous McCormacks into their beautifully restored cottage which is currently for sale.
A host of celebrities have backed the Irish Heart Foundation's Happy Heart Appeal supported by Abbott, asking the public to buy a happy heart this May to raise vital funds for community prevention for children and adults all around Ireland.

Celebrities lending their support to the appeal to #KeepHeartsBeating included RTE broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan, model Hayley Ryan, former Ireland ladies rugby captain Fiona Coghlan, TV maitre'd and heart transplantee John Healy, RTE broadcaster and heart attack survivor Michael Lyster, Fair City actor Brian Murray and former Dublin GAA star Alan Brogan.

Dr Angie Brown, Medical Director with the Irish Heart Foundation said: "At the Irish Heart Foundation our mission is clear - we must stop people dying prematurely from heart disease and stroke. Every day hundreds of Irish people are diagnosed with heart disease and stroke and too often, many of these lives are cut tragically short. Many more are left disabled.

"But it doesn't have to be this way because 80% of premature death from this disease is preventable. By supporting the Happy Heart Appeal, you are helping the Irish Heart Foundation deliver services to children and adults to prevent the development of risk factors such as obesity and high blood pressure, so they can live long, healthy lives."

This year marks the national charity's 50th anniversary and since it was established in 1966, the IHF has used research, education and community service to help Irish people live longer, healthier lives.

Speaking about Abbott's support of the Happy Heart Appeal, John Kilcoyne, Director, Abbott said: "At Abbott, we're committed to helping people to live the best possible life through the power of health. We believe supporting the Irish Heart Foundation's Happy Heart Appeal is one way to help people live fuller, healthier lives around Ireland.

"In addition to funding support, teams of Abbott employee volunteers at each of our 12 sites are working in their local communities to raise awareness of cardiovascular health through engaging with local schools and delivering happy heart talks and offering CPR training and health checks to our employees , for the Happy Heart Appeal 2016.'

The public is invited to support the appeal by buying a happy heart pin from volunteers on 5-6 May or you can text HAPPY to 50300 to give 4. www.irishheart.ie
American Senator for New York Kirsten Gillibrand came to Ireland on Monday to meet with Cllr Paddy Meade and other representatives at the invite of Irish-American Business woman and Fine Gael Seanad candidate Linda O'Shea Farren.

Speaking after the event Cllr Meade said: "I was delighted to have the opportunity to chat to Senator Gillbrand today. The Senator and I spoke about many things, like the US presidential race, and about her home state of New York.

'It was important that I took the opportunity to promote Meath and the Boyne Valley as a great place for business and tourism. I was telling her about how key investments like the M1, M2, M3 and M4 have made Meath an ideal location for Irish and American companies and visitors, and that in recent weeks we've had new job announcements in Meath from companies such as Facebook and Shire.

I'm hopeful that she'll accept my invitation to spend some more time touring the Boyne Valley region once the U.S. Presidential election campaign is over, and experience the great hospitality the region has to offer.'

Senator Gillibrand replaced Hillary Clinton as Senator for New York in December 2008 and - with her close friend and ally Hillary Clinton on track to be the next President of the United States of America - is now highly tipped for even greater electoral heights.

Following the two hour meeting with representatives, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and staff returned to Dublin airport and headed to Paris, continuing a busy day for a woman who may become the next Vice President of the United States.
A landmark Enniscorthy pub will be considerably enlarged if Wexford County Council give the planning application the green light.

Mahon Fox Architects, on behalf of the owners of The Antique Tavern, have applied to Wexford County Council to break through the wall between the adjoining premises to the pub, No. 13 Slaney Street, and the pub itself to make The Antique Tavern larger.

No. 13 is currently a shop unit. The application said that, if granted, the ground floor space of the pub would encompass the ground floors of both the current shop unit and the pub itself.

The application is also looking to revise the layout of the male bathrooms on the ground floor and to move the ladies toilets upstairs to the current living accommodation quarters. Part of the application also sees a new link corridor and smoking area being built on the first floor.

The Antique Tavern has long been regarded as one of the leading pubs in the South East.

The small hostelry is renowned for its hospitality and its reputation is known throughout the world. It has featured in countless magazine and newspaper articles in many countries and is regularly featured in all the major tourist guides of Ireland.

It has been the setting for numerous TV advertisements and for documentaries on the pub life of Ireland.

Having traded as a public house for generations, the Enniscorthy landmark came into its own when the late Vincent Heffernan took over the premises in the 1970s. Vincent and his wife Eileen built up a steady, loyal trade over the next 25 years, when the pub was often numbered among Ireland's Top 100 Pubs, won the Leinster Black and White Whiskey 'Pub of the Year' competition, and twice won the Wexford title in the same competition.

Following Vincent's death in 2000, the pub changed hands a couple of times before the popular Ian Noone took over in 2003. Ian maintained the high standards set by Vincent and Eileen in the 70s and 80s, ensuring the pub was popular among locals and tourists. Sadly, Ian died following an accidental fall in December 2010. The pub is currently owned by the Donohoe family.

Among the many famous names to sample the atmosphere in the Antique Tavern over the years were former Taoisigh Albert Reynolds and Charles Haughey, U2 frontman Bono and film stars John Hurt and Christopher Plummer.

Submissions on the application can be made to Wexford County Council.
They know all about biodiversity and how important it is for our planet to thrive, down at St Molaga's School in Balbriggan and they have a fifth Green Flag flying at the school to prove it.

The school has recently been awarded its fifth Green Flag, this time for its work in the field of biodiversity, a subject which has its own day marked out on the school calendar.

The school recently celebrated Biodiversity Day and at the centre of events was a fantastic display of a huge range of projects, all looking at the theme of biodiversity in their own way.

From biomes, to bunnies and bees to birds, there was as much diversity in the projects as the very biodiversity they celebrated.

On the same day, this hard-working school population proved they are as much about the practical as the theoretical when they rolled up their collective sleeves and participated in the National Spring Clean.

The projects prepared for the school's Bioversity Day will go on to be entered in the the Irish Aid Our World awards.

The awards invite projects aimed at achieving something called 'The Global Goals'.

All the countries of the United Nations, including Ireland, are now working together to create a better world and a better future for us all by 2030, through the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and there are 17 goals in total.

The Molaga's pupils focused on goals number 14 and 15 which concern life below water and life on land and fit neatly into all the research the school has done into the area of biodiversity.

In the process, the schoolchildren learned not only about biodiversity but were also introduced to the goals of this global initiative to build a better and more sustainable world, and who better than children to pursue that goal. Congratulations goes to everyone involved.
A street party and the unveiling of a plaque that reclaimed the name 'The Cuckoo' for a particular corner of Balrothery, took centre stage as the north Fingal village turned out to commemorate the centenary of the 1916 Rising.

Balrothery Community Association together with their Tidy Village Committee laid a stone monument funded by Fingal County Council and unveiled by local resident Liam Andrews. The monument, while marking the centenary also reclaimed an original place name 'The Cuckoo' and Pat Hickey regaled the huge audience of Balrothery Villagers in attendance with historical stories and lore about the area.

The idea to re-establish the old name of 'The Cuckoo' came from Patrick Hickey. The Cuckoo was a small piece of ground surrounded by a triangular-shaped stone wall. It had about seven ash trees growing in it and the walls had steel rings on it to tie animals to.

Following the unveiling of the monument which was supplied and erected by Pat Hickey, Chairperson of Balrothery Community Association, Kevin Tolan, read aloud The Proclamation of the Republic and told the story of Thomas Hand, a local Irish Volunteer who was murdered by the Black-and- Tans on December 5, 1920. The local link was completed when the crowd were told that Thomas Hand's nephew was present them.

Niall Keady of Balrothery Tidy Village introduced residents and Staff from Hamilton Park Care Facility who adopted this area to maintain and keep tidy. One of their members, Josie Darmady was involved with Cumann na mBan after the 1916 rising. The ceremony continued with the planting of an Oak Tree by Bridie Holland and Tommy Mooney.
The clock is well and truly ticking down to the two Darkness into Light runs that are taking place in Fingal this weekend.

Both Skerries and Malahide are hosting the major fundraisers in aid of Pieta House on Saturday. The hugely-popular, early morning experience begins in darkness at 4.15am as thousands of people walk or run a 5km route as dawn is breaking.

The Darkness into Light events will take place in Red Island in Skerries and in Malahide Demense.

Online registration and further details are available on www.darknessintolight.ie

'Last year's Darkness Into Light in Dublin was an incredible success and we're delighted that you're hosting the event again this year,' said Joan Freeman, Founder of Pieta House.

Pieta House is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. More than 20,000 people have come through the nine centres across Ireland during the last decade. Pieta House is a suicide and self-harm crisis centre founded in Lucan, in 2006.
A Balbriggan sheep farmer said he is 'sickened' by the slaughter and theft of 14 lambs from his farm in an overnight raid at his farm that has wiped out 15% of his lambing income in minutes.

Balbriggan farmer, Pat Hagan went to check on his six-week old lambs last Friday morning and was devastated to find a 'trail of blood' across his fields.

After counting his herd, he found that 14 lambs were missing, after being killed in the field and stolen by what he described as an 'efficient and professional operation'.

'They only left a blood trail behind them where they must have dragged the lambs across the field with their throats cut, to a collection point where they must have had a van waiting,' the Balbriggan farmer told the Fingal Independent.

Pat believes there must have been several people involved in the raid to gather that many lambs together and get away so quickly.

Despite the field where the horrifying attack took place being just 50 metres from the family home, Pat heard nothing overnight and only knew of the raid when he came upon the trail of blooding leading from the field.

'I got 1.5 lambs per ewe this year and I was delighted with that. A lot of work went into them and I was up all night, chasing away foxes and everything and now I get this. I'm fairly sickened, to be honest with you.'

The Balbriggan farmer is convinced the gang who carried out the raid will be living locally and said: 'Somewhere in a house or an apartment in Fingal, those lambs are being butchered as we speak. I would ask anyone who sees anything suspicious, whether it be blood in a bin or people carrying out a lot of black bags, that they report it.'

The Balbriggan farmer has met with local gardai but is not hopeful they will catch who is responsible for the raid .
A mental health worker in Balbriggan has said that further cuts to the sector's resources are 'unthinkable' as she joined a demonstration in the town against a re-allocation of some 12 million in funds earmarked for mental health services, to other parts of the health service.

The Green Ribbon Demonstration for Mental health took to the streets of Balbriggan last Thursday and coincided with a national demonstration on the issue outside Dail Eireann, mounted by the Mental Health Reform and the Union of Students in Ireland.

Organising the Balbriggan demonstration were the 'Reach' and 'Delvin' services in the BEAT centre who facilitate people with mental health challenges to achieve and independent and productive life.

One of those facilitators is Mary Clare Walsh, who spoke to the Fingal Independent prior to the demonstration and expressed her concern over continuing cuts to mental health services, locally and nationally.

Ms Walsh said: 'Locally in Balbriggan, the services for individuals with mental health difficulties have been affected by cuts over the last number of years and it is just unthinkable that there could be further cuts.

'We were hoping, with the new primary care centre coming on stream, that would provide an impetus for an improvement in the local services and introduce therapies for people here that have never been available before to help people live independently.'

But the Reach facilitator who works at the BEAT centre with vulnerable people, along with her colleague Grainne Donohue, said there was 'no point' having a new primary care centre 'if it doesn't have the resources to provide the services that people need'.

Ms Walsh fears that the continuing cuts in the mental health service may hamper the new Balbriggan facility, which is due to open this year, from providing a badly needed improvement in mental health services in Balbriggan.

The Reach facilitator said the current state of mental health services in Balbriggan was 'pretty dire' and the only access point for service users was at the old health centre from 9am to 5pm.

'If you have a problem outside those hours, you have to call an ambulance and go in to Beaumont hospital and that shouldn't be the case,' Ms Walsh told the Fingal Independent.

Ms Walsh said the demand for mental health services in Balbriggan was 'huge' and has grown as the population of the town has grown but services have not kept pace with that demand. In fact, the Reach facilitator said the availability of mental health services has declined and many of the people she deals with are 'finding a reduced level of service'. The demonstration was seeking to send a message to those in power that mental health matters and deserves a higher priority.
With more than 1,500 Educate Together primary schools pupils in both Swords and the Malahide/Portmarnock areas, there is an ever growing demand for second level schools in both areas which are multi-denominational, co-educational, child-centred and democratically run.

This is according to Jason Robinson of the Second Level Educate Together (SLET) committee in the Swords area.

The committee is now calling on parents in these areas to make expressions of interest for the patronage of two new second level schools under the Educate Together umbrella.

The two new schools are due to open in Swords and Malahide/Portmarnock area in 2017 and 2018.

'There is a massive demand for second level Educate Together schools in these areas as there is no feeder secondary school for the pupils of these schools to continue their Educate Together education,' Mr Robinson said.

'We have three Educate Together schools in Swords and one in Malahide/Portmarnock so we really do need second level schools in these areas,' he said.

He said the SLET committee which comprises of parents from each of the three Educate Together schools in Swords are working together, on a united front, to campaign for the patronage of the new school.

He said with the opening of Millers Glen housing estate, there will be more of a demand for school places in the Swords area. 'Even with the primary schools there are about 300 names on the waiting list per year,' he said, adding that some parents put their child's name down at a number of Educate Together schools in the local area.

He said he was one of a number of parents who put their child's name down for Swords Educate Together school when his son was three weeks old several years ago such is the high demand for places at the schools.

The Department of Education will shortly inform patrons/prospective patron bodies of the outline of the mandatory requirements and criteria involved in the process.

New Schools Programme Manager for Educate Together Amy Mulvihill said: 'These second-level schools are a much-needed addition to the educational stock in Ireland and could be the answer to the quandary in which many parents find themselves when choosing a second level school for their child.

'Many families with children leaving primary schools every year wish them to continue their education with Educate Together's unique equality-based ethos.'

The Educate Together Second Level Swords committee has set up a website at www.et2ls.com where parents can register their interest for such a second level school in the area.
Myles Courtney of New Ross Lions Club who presented Transition Year students in Our Lady of Lourdes Convent with wrist bands reading unconscious to help with their project Carbon Monoxide Awareness and the results of, as part of their Young Social Innovators Project

A TY class in Our Lady of Lourdes secondary school has been highlighting the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Myles Courtney of New Ross Lions Club presented TY1 students in Our Lady of Lourdes Convent Rosbercon with wrist bands emblazoned with the word Unconscious on them to help with their project Carbon Monoxide Awareness.

The girls are doing the project as part of their Young Social Innovators project. They have been working vigorously since the start of the school year, raising awareness locally and nationally about the dangers of carbon monoxide.

The girls have highlighted their UnConscious project in radio interviews, in a letter in the Irish Times and in local media.

They have put leaflets in the dentist and doctor offices, as well as chemists around New Ross. They also have various accounts on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and have their own website. They have been sponsored by Bord Gais.

They had a paramedic from New Ross come to their school to talk with them about carbon monoxide and they have garnered support from the local TD's and Lester Ryan, as well as the entire Kilkenny hurling team.

The students have sent out letters to primary school parents and was sponsored by an oil company. They have also contacted several hotels about carbon monoxide and carried out surveys online and with many pupils in their school. They have also written an article for the Senior Times, which will be published in May.

They have also put posters in the majority of schools, dentists and doctors.

A TY1 class spokesperson said: 'Carbon monoxide is an odourless, colourless gas that can kill you. It is found in fumes produced any time you burn fuel in cars or trucks, stoves, grills, fire-places or furnaces. Everyone is at risk from C0 poisoning. However, infants, the elderly, people with chronic heart disease, or breathing problems are more likely to get CO poisoning.'

The symptoms of CO poisoning include: headache, dizziness, weakness , upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain and confusion. CO symptoms are often described as flu like. If you breathe in a lot of CO, you could pass out or it could kill you. To prevent Carbon Monoxide poisoning you can: install a carbon monoxide alarm in your home, have your heating system, water heater and any other gas, oil or coal burning appliances serviced by a qualified technician every year, get your chimney swept regularly.

'Make sure that all rooms are well ventilated. If you suspect carbon monoxide poisoning you can call the following number; Gas Networks Ireland: 24 hour emergency line: ROI: 1850 205050.'
The Ashford Country Fair has been getting bigger and better since it was established four years ago and this year proved no different.

Large crowds gathered under glorious sunshine in the grounds of the Bel Air Hotel to enjoy a host of different events on May bank holiday Monday. Younger visitors flew around on vintage carousels and pedal cars, as well as getting dizzy on a bouncy castle and bouncy obstacle course. There was plenty on offer for the adults also, with a vintage car and tractor display, sheep shearing, knitting demonstrations and plenty more to keep them occupied. The County Final of the Macra na Feirme Farm Skills also took place on the day.

A butter-making demonstration churned up a lot of interest among the visitors, who turned up in their droves to have a taste with some fresh brown bread. The horse dentist also proved particularly popular, as did the pet corner where several artists made the brave attempt to capture the animal antics in a creative fashion.

Many people also paid a visit to the stalls, where an assortment of bric-a-brac, clothes, books and plants were on offer.

With so much activity going on, visitors were bound to stir up an appetite. A barbeque and tea tent with plenty of homemade baked goods went down particularly well with many people on the day, while some others enjoyed their picnics on the lawn.
A South Wicklow writer is among a number of writers involved in a new initiative run in association with Iarnrod Eireann.

Cafe Writers and Iarnrod Eireann launched Writers' Corner at Greystones DART Station recently where the works, four pieces of prose and five poems are on display.

The works depict the theme 'Journey' and Tinahely writer Ruth Downey's 'Mind the Gap' is featured in which the narrator describes a cliff walk from Bray to Greystones.

Cafe Writers was established two years ago, when a group of people got together to chat, drink coffee and write in coffee shops in Greystones and Bray.

Speaking at the event Frances Browner said: 'Tuesday morning is our chance to put thoughts, no matter how banal, on paper; to share our writing with a trusted group and to receive support and encouragement.'

Last September, Cafe Writers hosted a creative writing workshop for Culture Night, sponsored by the Wicklow Arts Office and members have had works published in Silver Apples, Ropes, the Bray Arts Journal, Ogham Stone and Ireland's Own.

Joe Everard, Station Manager for Bray and Greystones said: 'the railway is at the heart of the community in Wicklow and we are delighted to give a platform to Cafe Writers to display their works. I have received lots of positive feedback from customers about how much they enjoying reading the pieces at the station.'
This weekend will be a big one in Arklow as the nationwide Cycle Against Suicide travels through the town.

The 300 cyclists and crew are scheduled to arrive into Arklow at approximately 4.15 p.m. from Gorey.

Arklow has been chosen as one of the host towns where the cyclists will stay overnight during their challenge.

They will travel on the old Dublin Road, up the R772 past Kish Riding Centre, Servier, Applegreen to the roundabout at the top of the town.

They will then make their way down Main Street to the church, turn right onto St Mary's Road and around to the school.

On The Saturday morning the group will be leaving at 10.30 a.m. down the Main Street, over the Bridge and out onto the old N11 towards Dublin.

The public is asked to note that certain traffic restrictions and road closures will be in place on Friday and Saturday.

Full details will be posted to the Arklow & Gorey Cycle Against Suicide Homestays Facebook page. Alternatively please contact Carmel at (086) 8284064.
Primary school pupils from Scoil Mhuire na Airde, Shillelagh along with pupils from 14 other schools, will take part in the Dublin regional final of the Our World Irish Aid Awards 2016 in The Clock Tower, Dublin on Tuesday, May 17.

The Our World Irish Aid Awards invited pupils across Ireland to create projects, in any medium, about the lives of children in developing countries. The projects highlighted the challenges facing these children and their families and the progress which is being achieved by Ireland and other countries through the global effort to fight poverty.

At the regional final, third and fourth class pupils from Scoil Mhuire na Airde with their teacher, Kate McCall will exhibit their project titled, 'One World, One Future'.

All 15 schools will be presented with a plaque recognising their outstanding efforts, and three schools will be selected to compete in the national finals in Dublin Castle on June 14.
Niall Horan shared a pic of himself with Matt Irwin to Instagram

Celebrity photographer Matt Irwin has died at the age of 36.

The British photographer snapped a host of celebrities including model/actress Cara Delevingne, X Factor host Rita Ora, Miley Cyrus and Nicki Minaj.

His images were regularly spotted in glossy magazines from Vogue Spain to Elle UK.

Matt was good friends with One Direction star Niall Horan, who shared a photo of them together with the caption, "Rest well Matt. Can't believe I'm writing this. Incredible person."

One Direction fans were among a wealth of fans and celebrities who paid their respects via social media on Friday, with Lady Gaga posting a photo he took of the star to Instagram.

She captioned the ethereal image, "Matt Irwin you were such a talent. I am devastated. The world will miss u. I will never forget this shoot together it was magical. #RIPMattIrwin".

rest well Matt . Can't believe im writing this . Incredible person . X A photo posted by Niall horan (@niallhoran) on May 6, 2016 at 2:18pm PDT

Rita Ora also posted a selfie she had taken with Matt, saying, "So talented. #RIPMattIrwin".

Nicki Minaj posted a photo to Instagram with the caption, I just dont want to believe hes gone

Matt Irwin you were such a talent. I am devastated. The world will miss u. I will never forget this shoot together it was magical. #RIPMattIrwin A photo posted by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on May 6, 2016 at 5:43pm PDT

Always made me so happy on set. Always so loving and sweet and optimistic. This so surreal. He was just so unbelievably talented."

Alexa Chung wrote, "Sorry to hear you left so soon. Will break out the summer shorts in your honour."

So talented. #RIPMattIrwin A photo posted by Rita Ora (@ritaora) on May 6, 2016 at 12:32pm PDT

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Details of Matt's death have not been released.
Navy ships operating in the East China Sea were diverted to join the search

China's navy is searching for 17 sailors missing after their fishing boat collided with another vessel.

The official China News Service said two other sailors were rescued by another fishing boat following the crash, which happened before dawn on Saturday.

Three navy ships operating in the East China Sea off the coast of Zhejiang province were diverted to join the search and another five vessels dispatched because of poor visibility in the area.

The other vessel involved in the crash was identified only as non-Chinese and it was not clear whether it had suffered any damage.

A member of staff at the Maritime Search and Rescue Centre under the Ministry of Transport said the search and rescue effort is continuing.
Labour's Sadiq Khan has pledged to be a "mayor for all Londoners" as he was elected, breaking the Conservatives' eight-year hold on City Hall and becoming the first Muslim leader of a major Western city.

Mr Khan took 1,310,143 votes after second preferences were taken into account, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614. His tally gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.

The MP for Tooting referenced the campaign against him in his victory speech but said that London had chosen "unity over division" and "hope over fear".

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn led congratulations on Twitter using the hashtag YesWeKhan, telling the new mayor: "Can't wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all".

In a Facebook post, defeated Zac Goldsmith also congratulated Mr Khan and thanked "the hundreds of thousands of people who trusted me with their votes".

But there were recriminations from Mr Goldsmith's side over his decision to target Mr Khan as a "radical" and highlight his supposed links with Islamist extremists.

Expand Close Newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan leaves his home in south London. John Stillwell /PA Wire / Facebook

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Conservative former Cabinet minister Baroness Warsi said the "appalling dog whistle campaign" had "lost us the election, our reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion", and Mr Goldsmith's sister Jemima said the way the contest was fought "did not reflect who I know him to be".

David Cameron's former adviser Steve Hilton said the Richmond Park MP had brought back the "nasty party label" which Tories have fought to shake off.

Expand Close Newly elected Mayor of London Sadiq Khan leaves his home in south London. John Stillwell /PA Wire / Facebook

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Mr Khan delivered a barbed judgment on the Goldsmith campaign in his acceptance speech at City Hall, when he promised to be "a mayor for all Londoners".

Without naming his Tory rival, he said Labour had fought a "positive" campaign, adding: "Fear doesn't make us safer, it only makes us weaker, and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."

Outgoing mayor Boris Johnson said: "Many congratulations to Sadiq on securing a huge mandate to do the best job in British politics. I wish him every possible success and will be calling him in the morning."

Mr Khan's 57% support after second preferences were counted amounted to a landslide victory on the largest turnout in the history of directly-elected mayors in London.

Labour fell one seat short of an overall majority on the London Assembly which scrutinises the mayor, taking 12 seats to the Tories' eight. Greens took two seats, Liberal Democrats one and Ukip won two seats - the party's first since 2004.

Human rights lawyer Mr Khan was the clear front-runner from the start of the counting process, which saw details of first preference votes released as they were collated using an electronic system. But "discrepancies" in the count delayed the final result until after midnight, forcing supporters to put celebrations on ice.

After the result was finally announced shortly before 12.30am, Mr Khan said: "I grew up on a council estate just a few miles from here. Back then, I never dreamt that someone like me could be elected as Mayor of London, and I want to say thank you to every single Londoner for making the impossible possible today.

"I have a burning ambition for London, an ambition that will guide me every day as mayor of our great city. I want every single Londoner to get the opportunities that our city gave to me and my family.

"The opportunities not just to survive, but to thrive, the opportunities to build a better future for you and your family with a decent and affordable home and a comfortable commute you can afford, more jobs with better pay, not just being safe but feeling safe, cleaner air and a healthier city. And the opportunities for all Londoners to fulfil their potential."

Mr Khan paid tribute to his late father, an immigrant from Pakistan and a London bus driver, who he described as "a wonderful man and a great dad".

"He would have been so proud today - proud that the city he chose to call his home has now chosen one of his children to be the mayor," he said.

To loud cheering from supporters in City Hall, Mr Khan said: "I promise to always be a mayor for all Londoners, to work hard to make life better for every Londoner, regardless of your background and to do everything in my power to ensure you get the opportunities that our incredible city gave to me."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to Sadiq Khan as the new mayor of our great capital.

"I look forward to working with him and all London's new and re-elected Assembly members, to continue transforming the Met to keep London one of the safest capitals in the world."

Labour MP David Lammy predicted that Mr Khan's victory could pave the way for a candidate from an ethnic minority to enter Number 10.

"If we ever get a prime minister of colour it will be because of what Sadiq Khan has achieved," he said.

Tottenham MP Mr Lammy, who stood against Mr Khan for the Labour mayoral nomination, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme Mr Khan "is a grafter, he is someone who gets on with people, he is someone who is pragmatic when he needs to be and he certainly has a vision for this city".

Cabinet minister Michael Fallon, who branded Mr Khan a "Labour lackey who speaks alongside extremists" during the mayoral race, defended the Tory tactics during the "rough and tumble" of the campaign.

The Defence Secretary was repeatedly challenged on Today to say whether he was worried about the capital's security with Mr Khan in City Hall.

"London is safe with a Conservative Government working with the new Mayor of London."

Tory former justice secretary Ken Clarke told the BBC the way the campaign had been run was a "mistake" and "probably had a counter-productive effect".

But Mr Fallon said: "Both candidates were asked questions about their backgrounds, their personalities, their judgment, the people they associate with. That's the nature of our democracy and the rough and tumble of politics."
Margot Honecker walking with husband Erich in a park in Moscow in 1991 (AP)

Former East German first lady Margot Honecker has died in Chile at the age of 89.

Ms Honecker had lived in Chile since 1992, three years after the toppling of the Berlin Wall signalled the impending collapse of the socialist government. Her husband Erich Honecker died in 1994 after joining her in Chile.

A family friend and member of Chile's Communist Party confirmed the death.

Ms Honecker, who remained unrepentant about her country's record of repression, had been education minister and dictated what children learned for 26 years in rigidly orthodox East Germany.

She said youngsters must defend socialism "if necessary with a weapon in the hand", and one of her pet projects was field trips by nursery children to military bases.

Born Margot Feist in the eastern city of Halle on April 17 1927, she grew up in a poor family, and trained as a saleswoman before taking a job as a telephone operator.

She became a member of the Communist Party in 1945 and rose through the ranks of communist organisation, the Free German Youth.

In 1950, at the age of 22, she became the youngest deputy in the fledgling East German parliament. She married Mr Honecker in 1953.

She started work at the Education Ministry in 1955 and rose to become minister in 1963 under then-leader Walter Ulbricht. Mr Honecker, who supervised the 1961 construction of the Berlin Wall, succeeded Mr Ulbricht in 1971.

Ms Honecker resigned shortly before the Wall fell in November 1989, with the communist system in crisis and her husband already ousted as East German leader.

Two months after Germany reunified in October 1990, Berlin authorities charged Mr Honecker with manslaughter for ordering shootings along the heavily fortified east-west border.

The couple took refuge in a Soviet military hospital outside Berlin, and on March 13 1991, they were spirited to Moscow - an embarrassment to the German government.

In a joint television interview two months later, she complained of a "witch hunt" against the couple and said their names had been "dragged through the mud".

The Soviet Union's collapse sent the couple fleeing again, to the Chilean embassy in Moscow. The couple had friends in the South American country who had found refuge in East Germany during Chile's right-wing dictatorship.

Mr Honecker left the embassy in July 1992 and returned to Berlin for trial. Ms Honecker travelled to Chile, where their daughter Sonja lived. In early 1993, a court halted the proceedings against Mr Honecker because of his spreading liver cancer.

Some Germans demanded that charges be filed against Ms Honecker for allegedly ordering forced adoptions of children from families considered enemies of the state in her time as education minister. But no charges were filed.

She defended her defunct communist state strongly in 2000 in a series of interviews with Chilean communist Luis Corvalan, published as The Other Germany.

"For the first time in history, a just and humane order of society was set up in Germany ... there was no unemployment, no homelessness, no property speculation, no rent extortion.

"Proper apartments, fair rents, health, culture, education for all, kindergarten for the young, pensions for the old: all that was reality. The elections were free, secret and equal."

She was similarly unrepentant in a 2012 interview with Germany's ARD television, in which she appeared to pin the blame for deaths at the Berlin Wall on the victims themselves.

She said that, when a young person died at the border, "it didn't have to be - he didn't have to climb over the Wall".

Her words drew criticism from across the political spectrum.

"The comments once again confirm the anger we felt toward Margot Honecker in East German times," said deputy parliament speaker Wolfgang Thierse, a former East German.

"All students in Germany should see the film, because it shows what dictatorship means and what a treasure democracy is," said Reiner Haseloff, governor of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
Natascha Kampusch was kidnapped when she was 10 and forced to live in a cellar

The mystery of a 10-year-old girl who was held captive in a basement for eight years has taken a disturbing twist as reports suggest she may have had a second captor who has gone uncaught.

Natascha Kampusch was abducted by Wolfgang Priklopil (44) she walked to school in Vienna, Austria in March 1998.

The computer technician and property developer kept her in a cellar beneath his garage for eight years, where he repeatedly raped and beat her, and instructed her to call him master.

One day in August 2006, while Priklopil was on the phone, Ms Kampusch managed to escape.

Expand Close Wolfgang Priklopil / Facebook

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Just hours later, her abductor was found beheaded on a railway track in what was believed to be a suicide.

On learning of his death, Ms Kampusch reportedly cried and begged police to take her to the mortuary to see him, in what was described at the time as Stockholm syndrome.

She threw herself over Priklopils corpse and sobbed, and is reported to have bought the house she was trapped in and to have carried a photo of him in her purse ever since.

Now, a decade later, there have been new claims that Priklopil did not die by suicide, but was murdered.

The prominent German news magazine Der Spiegel reported that two coroners investigating the case believe Priklopils death was not investigated to acceptable forensic standards by police and that he may have died before the train hit him.

The coroners, Johann Missilwetz and Martin Grassberger, went on to dismiss the medical and legal reports of a suicide as worthless.

This has triggered suggestions that an accomplice may have helped Priklopil, and murdered him to keep his role secret.

This is backed by the only witness to the kidnapping, who in 1998 said she saw two men carry out the abduction.

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After Ms Kampuschs escape, police investigated whether Priklopil had an accomplice, but determined that he had worked alone.

However the only witness to the 1998 kidnapping maintains that she saw two men take Ms Kampusch captive.

In an interview with the Mail, Ischtar Akcan, who was 12 at the time, said: I know there are two men. The second man remained in the driving seat the whole time. They saw me, too.

They knew I was a witness. In all those years she was gone I feared they would come back for me.

Although Ms Akcan gave a police statement, she claims police didnt believe her, and repeatedly asked if she had made a mistake.

Since Ms Kampusch was freed in 2006, she has written a book and advised on a film about her case starring Irish actress Antonia Campbell-Hughes.

Now 28, Ms Kampusch lives in Vienna and has not publicly discussed any of the recent allegations about her kidnapping.
Convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early on Saturday.

The Sinaloa cartel boss was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lock-up near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, a security official told The Associated Press, without giving a reason for the transfer.

Jose Refugio Rodriguez, a lawyer for Guzman, confirmed that he was sent to the Cefereso Number 9 prison. He said Guzman's defence team was not notified beforehand, and one of his lawyers was travelling to Juarez to try to meet with their client.

"I don't know what the strategy is," Mr Refugio said. "I can't say what the government is thinking."

Guzman's lawyers are appealing against a bid to have him extradited to the United States, where he faces charges in multiple jurisdictions.

"El Chapo" first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001. He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape the Altiplano prison the following year through a mile-long tunnel dug to the floor of the shower stall in his cell.

Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.

He was returned to Altiplano, where officials beefed up his security regimen.

Guzman was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 16-inch layer of concrete.
Iraqi Kurdish female fighter Haseba Nauzad (2nd R), 24, holds her weapon as she is surrounded by comrades at a site during a deployment near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants in Nawaran near Mosul

Yazidi female fighter Asema Dahir, 21, poses with a teddy bear in a bedroom at a site near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State

Iraqi Kurdish female fighter Haseba Nauzad (red beret), and Yazidi female fighter Asema Dahir (camouflage cap) aim their weapons during a deployment near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants in Nawaran near Mosul, Iraq. Photos: Reuters

IF TRUTH is the first casualty in war then women and children are usually a close second.

But when Isil stormed into the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar in 2014, a few young Yazidi women were not prepared to go down quitely.

In a show of heroic defiance, they took up arms against the militants attacking women and girls from their community.

"They took eight of my neighbours and I saw they were killing the children," claimed Asema Dahir at a checkpoint near a front line north of Mosul.

Dressed in military fatigues, the 21-year-old is now part of an all-female unit in the Kurdish peshmerga forces, which have played an important role in pushing back Islamic State in northern Iraq.

The killing and enslaving of thousands from Iraq's minority Yazidi community focused international attention on the group's violent campaign to impose its radical ideology and prompted Washington to launch an air offensive.

Expand Close Iraqi Kurdish female fighter Haseba Nauzad (2nd R), 24, holds her weapon as she is surrounded by comrades at a site during a deployment near the frontline of the fight against Islamic State militants in Nawaran near Mosul / Facebook

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It also prompted the formation of this unusual 30-woman unit made up of Yazidis as well as Kurds from Iraq and neighbouring Syria. For them, only one thing matters: revenge for the women raped, beaten and executed by the jihadist militants.

Ms Dahir said she was stunned by the brutality of the militants, some of whom were neighbours and others from outside the area.

"They killed my uncle and took my cousin's wife who had only just married eight days earlier," she said, her piercing eyes clouding over. The bride, like thousands of other Yazidi women, is still being held by the militants.

During the firefights that raged across Sinjar in 2014, Dahir said she killed two Islamic State fighters before being shot in the leg. The fighters' personal accounts could not be independently verify.

Well-worn photographs of children and families tucked into the edge of mirrors or pressed onto walls in the women's spartan barracks are reminders of what they have sacrificed to join the fight.

Haseba Nauzad, the unit's 24-year-old commander, lost her marriage. She was living with her husband in Turkey when Islamic State swept through northern Iraq and announced its so-called caliphate over areas that included traditional Kurdish lands.

"I saw them raping my Kurdish sisters and I couldn't accept this injustice," Nauzad said.

Her husband wanted to pay human smugglers to take them to Europe along with more than a million others fleeing conflict in the region, but she insisted on going home to fight the Islamists.

"I put my personal life aside, and I came to defend my Kurdish sisters and mothers and stand against this enemy," she said. She has lost contact with her husband since he arrived in Germany.

In a conservative society where women are often expected to stay at home, these women say gender does not keep them from entering battle.

"If a man can carry a weapon, a woman can do the same," said Nauzad. "The men are inspired to fight harder when they see women standing in the same battlefield as them."

The women in the unit are convinced Islamic State militants are scared of women fighters "because they think if they are killed by a woman, they will not go to heaven," said Nauzad.

"This story encourages more women to join the fight."

According to the UN, Isil is thought to be holding an estimated 3,500 people as slaves in Iraq alone, with many of the captives thought to be Yazidi women and their children.

The jihadi group has committed widespread abuses that may "in some instances, amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide," a UN report maintains

Isil is believed to be holding an estimated 3,500 people as slaves in Iraq, with many of the captives thought to be Yazidi women and children, says a United Nations report

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq and the UN human rights office revealed that as many as 18,800 civilians have been killed in Iraq between January 1, 2014 and October 31, 2015.

But it also has to be remembered that a further 3.2 million people in Iraq have been displaced having been forced to leave their homes out of fear for their lives.

"Those being held are predominantly women and children and come primarily from the Yazidi community, but a number are also from other ethnic and religious minority communities," said the joint report issued in Geneva.
PHOTOS BY KATIE MCLEAN/INDEPENDENT MAIL Ramona Tucker of Piedmont sews a small outfit Thursday at Trinity Baptist Tabernacle in Piedmont. The clothing will be donated to an area hospital, as part of Angels Unaware of South Carolina, to be used as burial clothes for children who are stillborn or die as infants.

SHARE Tucker of Piedmont sews a small outfit Thursday at Trinity Baptist Tabernacle in Piedmont. The clothing will be donated to an area hospital, as part of Angels Unaware of South Carolina, to be used as burial clothes for children who are stillborn or die as small infants. Tucker folds a small, handmade outfit into a box. Dee Hooks of Simpsonville cuts patterns for clothes small enough for newborns. Ramona Tucker of Piedmont sews a small outfit Thursday at Trinity Baptist Tabernacle in Piedmont. The clothing will be donated to an area hospital, as part of Angels Unaware of South Carolina, to be used as burial clothes for children who are stillborn or die as small infants.

By Charmaine Smith-Miles, milesca@independentmail.com

A group of women sat in a building behind Trinity Baptist Tabernacle in Piedmont Thursday afternoon and turned discarded prom and wedding dresses into outfits small enough for newborns.

In Margaret Paton's Anderson home, she has a room dedicated for storing material and putting together the same type of outfits.

The goals of Paton and the women at the church are the same. They want to help parents who have lost a child either in birth or soon after birth.

"A lot of groups make items for the living babies at the hospitals," Paton said. "But what about the ones that don't make it?"

In 2013, there were 23,440 infant deaths in the United States, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Paton started recruiting volunteers and sewing burial outfits, called burial layettes, for those babies who don't make it after she read about Diana's Angels Project in her church newsletter.

Paton started her work, forming a group of volunteers to do the work in 1999 when she still lived in California.

"It just touched my heart when I read that story," Paton said. "I had never thought about what happens to the babies who die."

The Diana's Angels Project started in Iowa when Patricia Farr heard about a woman named Diana who had miscarried triplets five months into her pregnancy. At the time, the mother was told that she would need to find burial clothes for the babies at a toy store.

Farr and the women in her Bible study at St. John's Lutheran Church in Waverly, Iowa, started the Diana'a Angels Project. They wanted to make burial clothes for babies so no family would go through what Diana faced. Now there are similar Diana's Angels Project groups all across the nation.

Paton said the women who volunteered for her group in California made hundreds of outfits each year. Since Paton moved to Anderson in August 2015, she's already delivered some of the handmade burial outfits to the AnMed Health Women's and Children's Hospital.

On May 15, Paton will present a workshop at her church, Abiding Savior Lutheran in Anderson, about the Diana's Angels Project group she wants to start in Anderson. She and others will box some finished layette sets at the workshop, and a light lunch will be provided for those who want to turn out and learn how they can help.

"I was going to take a break from this work when I moved to Anderson," Paton said. "But the Lord told me to go ahead and do this."

A Piedmont group, called Angels Unaware, was started in September 2014.

Its founder, Ramona Tucker, said she too had never thought about what happened to those babies who don't make it. Her eyes were opened when her grandson, Daxton, was born at 25 weeks and was rushed to the Medical University of South Carolina's hospital.

While he was there for nearly six months, Tucker learned that many of the babies there do not get to go back home.

"It can be overwhelming to see all those babies hooked up to everything," Tucker said. "These families are heartbroken. I felt like I had to do something to ease the pain."

Tucker said Angels Unaware now has 53 volunteers and last year, they made 3,500 burial gowns for babies and delivered them to 12 hospitals in five states.

The group members do a lot of the work from their own homes. But once a week, some of them gather in a building behind Trinity Baptist Tabernacle in Piedmont and they put the finishing touches on the outfits and package them.

Tucker said she's had so many volunteers ask to be part of the group that they now make more than just the burial gowns. They also make superhero capes, tutus, blankets, wraps, hats and diapers for children  some of whom are in hospital intensive care units and cancer units.

In September, the volunteers will have a big sew-in where they will work to make 250 of each of those items, Tucker said. She said more than 100 women turned out for the group's sew-in last year.

"We have volunteers from Greenville, Anderson, Spartanburg and Georgia," Tucker said. "All of our women have lost a baby, or someone they love has lost a baby. And that is devastating to a mother. A mother never gets over losing a baby. This is something we can do to help."

Follow Charmaine Smith-Miles @Twitter@Charmaine_AIM
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By Independent Mail Coverage Partner Wspa News Channel 7

A lawsuit claims that an Oconee County teen continued to be charged with a sex crime even after the Oconee County Sheriff's Office had DNA evidence that would clear him.

The teen was charged in October 2013 with criminal sexual conduct. He was a minor at that time.

His lawyer filed a motion of discovery in the case in November.

The Oconee County Sheriff's Office sent DNA evidence in the case to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The results of that DNA test were sent back to the sheriff's office in January 2014, the lawsuit claims.

The results show that the DNA wasn't connected to the teen who was charged, and medical records exist that contradict the petition to arrest the teen, said his lawyer, Keith Denny. Denny said his office did not have access to that DNA evidence until April 2015. His client was exonerated of the charges.

Tenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams and Oconee County Sheriff Mike Crenshaw need to be held responsible for their offices not releasing the data immediately, Denny said.

Adams' lawyer filed a motion claiming that Adams is immune because of her position as Solicitor. The Judge in the case dismissed that motion.

Both the solicitor and the sheriff said they cannot comment on pending litigation.
SHARE Duncan Independent Mail file photo Voters wait in line in the gymnasium at McCants Middle School during the Feb. 20 South Carolina Republican presidential primary. A lack of poll workers contributed to the lines. Before the June primary, the county is once again looking for poll workers.

As the June 14 primary approaches, the Anderson County is again facing a serious shortage of poll workers.

County elections director Katy Smith said Thursday that she is hoping to recruit at least 350 more poll workers, but could really use 450 more to work the primary.

Smith said the South Carolina State Election Commission will reimburse Anderson County to pay 837 workers. To date, she said, roughly 300 people have committed to work the polls during the June primary.

A shortage of poll workers contributed to long lines at Anderson County's busiest precincts during the Feb. 20 South Carolina Republican presidential primary. Some residents waited nearly two hours to vote.

For the approaching primary, at least 27 precincts across Anderson County are in "desperate" need of poll workers, Smith said.

She also said two recruiting programs have been developed and voters will see signs of them in coming elections. Laptops at the polls will have fliers with information about how people can become election workers. Also, a "will work" document will be sent to every precinct on Election Day, and people working the polls will be asked to commit to working future elections.

Poll workers in Anderson County can receive at least $120 per election and clerks can make $180.

Gov. Duncan?

U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan is playing coy about whether he will run for governor in 2018.

He weighed in this week on a Facebook conversation speculating about candidates who are potentially interested in replacing Gov. Nikki Haley when her second term ends.

In the thread of comments, Upstate political consultant David Carter stated: "Duncan isn't running."

Duncan replied: "Are you sure David?"

In a conference call with reporters last month, Duncan said he won't decide whether to seek the governor's post until after this fall's general election.

The 50-year-old Republican from Laurens is currently running for a fourth term representing South Carolina's 3rd Congressional District, which includes Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties.

He is being challenged by a little-known Democrat, Seneca businessman Hosea Cleveland.

See Republicans in virtual reality

The South Carolina Republican Party's state convention will be broadcast in virtual reality on Saturday.

Anyone with a virtual reality headset, smartphone or personal computer can tune in beginning at 9:45 a.m. Saturday, said Matt Moore, state GOP chairman. According to Moore, this is the first time that a Republican Party convention will be broadcast live in virtual reality.

The broadcast will be available online at https://scgop.com/stateconvention or at https://youtube.com/TheSCGOP.

Email them with tips at mayon@independentmail.com or kirk.brown@independentmail.com.
MIKE EADS/Independent Mail Clemson University Vice President of Student Affairs Almeda Jacks (left) reads aloud the list of accomplishments racked up by Easley native Austin Herbst (center), who was awarded the Norris Medal for being judged the university's best all-around graduating senior, while President Jim Clements looks on. Herbst is headed to Harvard Medical School, in Massachusetts.

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By Mike Eads of the Independent Mail

CLEMSON  Clemson University has a lot to be proud of and a lot to work on, according to President Jim Clements.

Clements spoke at the faculty's year-end general meeting Friday morning at the Brooks Center for the Performing Arts. He addressed the Sikes Sit-In, when in April student protesters camped out to demand more recruitment of minority faculty, staff and students and greater attention to minority concerns about exclusion and a lack of diversity on campus.

The president commended the students' effort, as well as the support shown by faculty and staff members throughout the nine-day demonstration.

"I was truly moved by the passion that we all saw for making Clemson a more inclusive place," Clements said. "The sit-in led to several open forums and many conversations about campus climate, diversity and inclusion. In response to the sit-in, I issued a list of specific actions with timelines as we continue to strive to create an environment of inclusive excellence.  If you think about a perfect place to have these discussions, it is a college campus."

Since 2013, black and Hispanic enrollment has increased by 13 and 31 percent, respectively, at the school, Clements said. He added that minorities make up 18.8 percent of the faculty now, up from 15 percent over the same time period.

"We know that we have a lot of work to do in this area, but I honestly believe we are moving in the right direction," Clements said.

He also touted improvements, including the addition and/or renovation of 2 million square feet of space across the campus, being named to the Carnegie list of top national research universities and the imminent conclusion of the $1 billion Will to Lead fundraising drive.

There was also praise for his top deputies  Provost Bob Jones, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs Ellen Granberg and Vice President for Facilities and Finance Brett Dalton  for overseeing Clemson Forward, the campus restructuring plan that begins in earnest this summer.

"This is a lot of work and a major, major undertaking," Clements said.

The meeting was also a chance to hand out awards. Austin Herbst, a senior from Easley, was given the Norris Medal, Clemson's highest honor for an undergraduate.

The D.W. Daniel High School alumnus carried a 4.0 grade-point average while double-majoring in genetics and biochemistry. He is headed to Harvard Medical School, in Massachusetts, after commencement exercises Saturday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in downtown Greenville.

Herbst said his public health work with the international group Engineers Without Borders in the cities and countrysides of Nicaragua and South Africa left an indelible impression on him.

"I want to do something with global health," he said. "I'm not really sure yet, but there's a need for everything."

Faculty and staff members were also honored Friday:

Chris Heavner, a faculty adviser to Clemson's Habitat for Humanity chapter and head pastor of Lutheran Campus Ministry, received the Frank A. Burtner Award for Excellence in Advising;

Bruce Martin, professor of turf grass pathology in the department of entomology, soils, and plant sciences, received the Godley-Snell Award for Agriculture Research for outstanding contributions to science and public service;

Psychology professor Thomas Britt received the Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, given to faculty members who have done research in residence for at least five years;

Michael Sehorn, an associate professor in the genetics and biochemistry department, received the Phil and Mary Bradley Award for Mentoring in Creative Inquiry, presented for outstanding work with undergraduate students.

Follow Michael Eads on Twitter @MikeEads_AIM
The University Grants Commission (UGC) is the statutory body that coordinates, formulates and maintains the standards of higher education in India. The word University cannot be used by any institution other than a university established by or under a Central or a State Act or Provincial Act.In order to be UGC recognized the University has to undergo an inspection by an expert panel designated by UGC. Only after the panel is satisfied with the vision of the management, infrastructure, faculty and staff, curriculum, policies and procedures etc., the University is recommended for recognition. If not, then either the application is rejected right away, or the institute is given time to meet the compliance requirements. The status of UGC recognition and detailed report by the inspection panel for any University in India can be seen on the website of UGC.The process of inspection by UGC panel is quite intense. Every minute detail of the functioning of the institute at various levels is scrutinized. Not all the universities that are established under Central or State act have been awarded recognition by UGC. Only a few universities out of the inspected many get the recognition. Students or parents cannot go to an institute and check the nitty-gritty of the institutes functioning. Only an expert in a particular field can check the proper procedures of the relevant program. The students should first look for UGC recognized institutes and then refine their search based on their eligibility criteria.The selection of the right institute is important for a students career, especially in todays environment when hundreds of institutions have mushroomed across the country. The UGC recognized institutes would mean the fulfillment of minimum education requirements. Also, the degree awarded by them will be recognized.From time to time, UGC publishes a list of fake universities to warn students against seeking admission in such institutions. Currently, there are 23 universities in nine states that are listed as fake on the UGC portal. These institutes are self-styled and unrecognized, functioning in contravention of the provisions of the UGC Act. In 2010, 40 plus deemed universities were derecognized by the UGC as it was not satisfied with their infrastructure, systems or processes. This exercise is carried out by the UGC every year. The students must take note of this before applying for admission.The writer is the Pro Vice Chancellor of the G.D. Goenka University, Gurgaon.
Asian Institute of Gastroenterology has awarded the Mechanical, Electrical, Public Health System & Building Management System contract for its latest 700 bed hospital at Gachibowli in Hyderabad to Sterling and Wilson Pvt. Ltd., part of Shapoorji Pallonji Group and one of Indias leading MEP companies. The Hospital being developed by Asian Institute of Gastroenterology Private Limited will have a built up area of 15 Lakh Sq.ft. The building will consist of 2 Blocks. Block 1 (9 Floors) will comprise of the Hospital facilities like operation theatres, patient rooms, and OPD. Block 2 (11 floors) will accommodate the Nurses quarters, doctors residence, research and development facilities. The building is designed to achieve Gold / Silver rated green building certification.



Sterling and Wilsons scope of work under this contract will include setting up of Air conditioning, Electrical, Plumbing and Fire Fighting, Building Management System works for the complete facility which includes Operation Theaters, ICUs, Tissue Therapy, Nuclear Lab, OPDs, Inpatients rooms, and Consultation rooms that are spread across the Hospital and Service blocks.



Speaking on the MEP contract to be executed for AIG Hospital, Avinash Pandit, President, Mechanical and International Projects, Sterling and Wilson Pvt. Ltd said We are delighted and privileged to be building a state of the art facility for AIG Hospital that will accommodate the most modern facilities in the field of medical science. We at Sterling and Wilson have accomplished some iconic projects and are confident to provide AIG with a technologically robust and safe Hospital facility. We are looking forward to facilitate fast and seamless execution with the 3D modeling technology and make this AIG project best of its kind.
VISIT FLORIDA unveiled the Florida Attractions Finder, an interactive vacation planning tool that allows travelers to virtually experience their Florida thrills from a front-row seat. Point-of-view videos send users careening and diving on the newest roller coasters, zip-lining over alligators (look down if you dare), and skimming the Everglades aboard an airboat. Whether visitors are looking for a first-time Florida experience or wishing to repeat their favorite Florida vacation moment, the Florida Attractions Finder puts the power of discovery in the users hands.



I am pleased to announce the launch of the Florida Attractions Finder, showcasing the states diverse attractions to visitors from around the world, said Paul Phipps, chief marketing officer at VISIT FLORIDA. The ability to try out different attractions and imagine yourself in the middle of the excitement is part of the fun we all have when anticipating a Florida vacation.



Built on the TripTuner platform used to construct VISIT FLORIDAs successful Beach Finder in 2014, the Florida Attractions Finder aggregates images of different attractions based on changes made to the dial settings. Four separate settings can be adjusted depending on the users vacation preferences: from thrill to chill, popular to hidden gem, high-tech to natural, and days to hours. The interface then matches the user with an attraction, which could be an internationally recognized theme park or an off-the-beaten path experience.



Where the Beach Finder payoff was the Street View images that have attracted 260 million views on Google and VISITFLORIDA.com, the users reward on the Attractions Finder is an exhilarating POV YouTube video rehearsal. Clicking MORE will take the viewer to the attractions official website.



TripTuner is honored to collaborate with VISIT FLORIDA and the Florida Attractions Association to provide travelers with an innovative way to discover attractions in tune with their interests, says Tedd Evers, TripTuner Founder and CEO. Whether its a popular theme park or lesser-known hidden gem, visitors to the Sunshine State can now find ideal options that will create lasting memories.



The Florida Attractions Association partnered with VISIT FLORIDA on this project by providing the initial vetting criteria for the beta version and acted as a consulting resource for the 130 attractions featured.



Florida has an enormous amount of diverse experiences to consider. We wanted to see the Florida Attractions Finder become a reality because it has the power to make planning and finding vacation experiences easier and fun, said Bill Lupfer, president and CEO of the Florida Attractions Association.



This summer, another 50 attractions will be added to the Finder and future plans will allow users to submit videos and compete for viewers choice awards.
Realizing the growing mis-selling of life insurance products in the insurance space, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has introduced guidelines to check the menace. Continued efforts in this regard have certainly reduced the cases of life insurance mis-selling.



Below are a few tips to spot mis-selling of life insurance policies:

Hear the opening pitch

Life insurance is a long-term product and selling a long-term product is more difficult. Some insurance agents often approach you with a short-term insurance policy. If your agent says he has a good short-term savings product of around four to five years, which also gives insurance coverage, then buying a policy from him might be a risky proposition; please note that life insurance is not meant to provide short-term benefits.

Check the standard illustration

Each insurance company has a standard calculation of the plan to avoid any misguidance. So, ask your insurance agent to give you the insurers standard illustration of your selected policy instead of a handwritten calculation.

Fill the application yourself

Most insurance agents ask you to sign at the relevant places and fill the form for you. But, it may lead to more ambiguities. Read all the details carefully and get complete awareness of documents you are going to sign.

Check the medical requirements

Some agents skip offering medical details because if there is a medical issue, the insurer will have follow-up questions that result in buying delays. Therefore, check whether there is any need for your medical details while buying a life insurance policy. Agents are not really bothered about the claim part, but knowing the medical history of a policyholder is one of the most important factors toward ensuring a successful claim settlement.

Check the policy name

Sometimes, you may contact an agent to buy a particular product and end up buying another one after hearing the agents pitch. To avoid getting into such a situation, check the need of your insurance coverage and policy name while filing the document.

Dont get lured by rewards; delve deeper into the details and take a call

Some agents try to lure you with a few unrealistic rewards to make the plan appear more attractive. Evaluate the policy on the website or ask for the brochure of the plan.

Wait for insurer to call

Most insurance companies make a call to a policyholder to ensure that the policy holder understood all the terms of the plan. If you do not get a call from an insurer, take initiative and call their customer service number. There have also been cases of impostors calling up on behalf of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). Please note that IRDAI does not call individual policyholder to offer any help.
Count of Reference Column Labels Row Labels Between 7.4 - 25.3 Less than 7.4 more than 25.3 Grand Total 2 18 2 22 (Pre Menopause) 10 to 20 20 t0 30 32 109 6 147 30 to 40 56 146 8 210 Total 90 273 16 379 45 18 34 97 (Post Menopause) 60 to 70 70 to 80 13 2 20 35 above 80 6 4 10 64 20 58 142 Grand Total 154 293 74 521

Ovarian cancer accounts for about 3% of cancers among women, but it causes more deaths than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. In an analysis of samples collected by Metropolis Healthcare in the previous year, reveals that 27.9% women in the pre-menopause and 40% women in the post-menopause where tested positive for high levels out of the 521 samples processed at Metropolis Healthcare in India.The Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) can be used as a supplement to the standard pre surgical evaluation to further assess the likelihood of malignancy before surgery when the presurgical evaluation does not indicate malignancy. It combines the results of Human Epididymis Protein 4 (HE4), CA 125, and menopausal status to generate a single numerical score that correlates with the likelihood of malignancy being seen at surgery.The CA 125 test in itself isn't accurate enough to use for ovarian cancer screening in all women because many noncancerous conditions can increase the CA 125 level and hence the ROMA Index test is recommended for further course of action. The ROMA test is intended for use in women who are over 18 years of age and should not be used in women who have a rheumatoid factor concentration >250 IU/mL. This is a highly specialized test therefore the sample size in the data below is small.In an analysis of data in the previous year, Metropolis Healthcare has analysed the risk of ovarian cancer in India.*Premenopausal> or = 7.4 : High risk < 7.4 : Low risk *Postmenopausal> or = 25.3 : High risk < 25.3 : Low riskFindings: Pre menopause : 2nd reading (Positively affected sample size = Columns considered - Between 7.4 - 25.3 + More than 25.3 Considered age group between 10-40 years, out of 379 sample tested 90 (2+32+56) + 16 (2+6+8)= 106 samples are observed to be positive i.e. In Per menopause womans 27.9% found positively affected. Post  menopauseAge group between 60- 80 and above years, out of 142 samples tested 58 (34+20+4) samples are observed to be positive. i.e. In post menopause womens 40% found positively affected.Ovarian cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages. Later stages are associated with symptoms, but they can be non-specific, such as loss of appetite and weight loss. The most common symptoms include: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, trouble eating or feeling full quickly, urinary symptoms such as urgency (always feeling like you have to go) or frequency (having to go often). Someone who has maternal history, evidence of ovarian cancer in family especially blood relations need to undergo test and also some time there are no symptoms visible as mentioned above.A small portion of ovarian cancers occur in women with inherited gene mutations linked to an increased risk of ovarian cancer. These include mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Most ovarian cancers have several acquired gene mutations. Research has suggested that tests to identify acquired changes of certain genes in ovarian cancers, like the TP53 tumor suppressor gene or the HER2 oncogene, can help predict a woman's prognosis.Commenting on the study, Dr. Sonali Kolte, General Manager, Medico Marketing, said, Awareness needs to be generated amongst women which will aid in detecting the disease in its early stages, so that the treatment can be started immediately. Family history of epithelial cancers is specially associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer. There are genetic markers, which can predict whether such an individual is at an increased risk of developing ovarian cancer. The most studied gene associated with ovarian cancer is the BRCA1 gene. If relatives of patients or even blood relations who develop ovarian cancer are found to have this gene, they should undergo frequent surveillance for development of ovarian cancer. The most lethal form of gynaecological cancer, is potentially curable if diagnosed early and treated by surgeons familiar with the management of ovarian cancer. However, the symptoms of ovarian cancer are related to the presence of adnexal masses and are often vague and unspecific.ROMA increases the diagnostic value of the dual marker combination HE4 and CA 125. Measured values of HE4 and CA 125 can be combined in an algorithm called ROMA. This algorithm includes additionally the menopausal status. Several published studies show that ROMA helps in the triage of pre- and postmenopausal women suspected for ovarian cancer. This high accuracy helps to stratify the women into low- and high-risk groups and thus may contribute to better diagnosis, treatment and outcome.(Source: Indian Journal of Cancer, American Cancer Society)




Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF)

Globally, VSF prices witnessed a recovery post the Chinese New Year on the back of better demand.



The business revenue increased by 23% at Rs.1,729 Cr. Sales volume grew by 10% at 130K TPA helped by additional volume from Vilayat plant and concerted efforts towards market expansion. Business EBITDA for the quarter was Rs. 267 Cr. Pulp JVs recorded better results with higher pulp realization in the international market and favorable exchange rate.



Chemical Business

The revenue more than doubled at Rs.957 Cr. as against Rs. 429 Cr. in Q4FY15. Caustic Soda volume at 204K Tons was up by 95%. Volumes in existing operations grew by 15%. Additionally, merger of ABCIL contributed 84K Tons. The uptick in ECU realisations coupled with lower energy cost resulted in higher EBITDA, rising from Rs.55 Cr. to Rs. 229 Cr. On a like for like basis, EBITDA was up by 156% at Rs.140 Cr.



The Board approved Rs. 513 Cr. for brownfield expansion of Caustic soda capacity at Vilayat plant from 219K TPA to 363K TPA along with a Captive Power plant of 44 MW. The expansion is expected to be completed in around 24 months time. On completion of the proposed expansion and debottlenecking of capacity at various plants, Caustic capacity will increase from 804K TPA currently to 1,048K TPA. Cement Subsidiary (UltraTech Cement)



The Cement sector displayed signs of recovery with demand growth for the industry estimated at ~11.5% for the current quarter. UltraTech outpaced the industry with domestic volume growth of 15%. Revenue for the quarter was ` 6,920 Cr. vis-a-vis Rs. 6,595 Cr. in Q4 last year. EBITDA was up by 3% at Rs. 1,478 Cr. helped by enhanced volumes and lower fuel prices. Net profit was Rs. 723 Cr. compared to Rs.657 Cr. in the corresponding quarter.



Outlook



In VSF, the capacity additions have slowed down globally. Further, Cotton production is projected to be lower than the consumption in Season 15-16 with the reduced acreage and unfavorable climate. As a result, the price volatility of VSF is expected to reduce. The Company will continue to focus on expanding VSF market in India by partnering with the textile value chain and better customer connect through Brand Liva. Enhancing product mix through larger share of specialty fibre will be yet another focus area.



The caustic demand in India is expected to grow with increase demand from the end user industry. To meet the growing demand, caustic capacity is being raised by 100K TPA through debottlenecking at different units.



In Cement, demand is expected to grow at 7% - 8% for the next year, driven by the Governments focus on infrastructure development, housing, smart cities etc. The Company is well positioned across the country to cater the growth in demand. Grasim is well poised to reap the benefits of the investment in capacity expansion and acquisitions with the expected upturn in the economy.



Stock view: Grasim Industries Ltd has announced impressive results led by robust volume growth in all its businesses viz. VSF, Chemical and Cement. For the current quarter, consolidated revenue rose by 13% at Rs.10,001 Cr. and EBITDA at Rs. 2,059 Cr. was higher by 24%. Net profit (before EI) grew by 40% to Rs.724 Cr. (Q4 last year: Rs.516 Cr.). For the full year, consolidated revenue was higher by 12% to Rs. 36,637 Cr. Consolidated EBITDA was up by 24% at Rs. 7,025 Cr. and Net profit increased to Rs.2,387 Cr. compared to Rs.1,753 Cr. last year.Globally, VSF prices witnessed a recovery post the Chinese New Year on the back of better demand.The business revenue increased by 23% at Rs.1,729 Cr. Sales volume grew by 10% at 130K TPA helped by additional volume from Vilayat plant and concerted efforts towards market expansion. Business EBITDA for the quarter was Rs. 267 Cr. Pulp JVs recorded better results with higher pulp realization in the international market and favorable exchange rate.The revenue more than doubled at Rs.957 Cr. as against Rs. 429 Cr. in Q4FY15. Caustic Soda volume at 204K Tons was up by 95%. Volumes in existing operations grew by 15%. Additionally, merger of ABCIL contributed 84K Tons. The uptick in ECU realisations coupled with lower energy cost resulted in higher EBITDA, rising from Rs.55 Cr. to Rs. 229 Cr. On a like for like basis, EBITDA was up by 156% at Rs.140 Cr.The Board approved Rs. 513 Cr. for brownfield expansion of Caustic soda capacity at Vilayat plant from 219K TPA to 363K TPA along with a Captive Power plant of 44 MW. The expansion is expected to be completed in around 24 months time. On completion of the proposed expansion and debottlenecking of capacity at various plants, Caustic capacity will increase from 804K TPA currently to 1,048K TPA. Cement Subsidiary (UltraTech Cement)The Cement sector displayed signs of recovery with demand growth for the industry estimated at ~11.5% for the current quarter. UltraTech outpaced the industry with domestic volume growth of 15%. Revenue for the quarter was ` 6,920 Cr. vis-a-vis Rs. 6,595 Cr. in Q4 last year. EBITDA was up by 3% at Rs. 1,478 Cr. helped by enhanced volumes and lower fuel prices. Net profit was Rs. 723 Cr. compared to Rs.657 Cr. in the corresponding quarter.In VSF, the capacity additions have slowed down globally. Further, Cotton production is projected to be lower than the consumption in Season 15-16 with the reduced acreage and unfavorable climate. As a result, the price volatility of VSF is expected to reduce. The Company will continue to focus on expanding VSF market in India by partnering with the textile value chain and better customer connect through Brand Liva. Enhancing product mix through larger share of specialty fibre will be yet another focus area.The caustic demand in India is expected to grow with increase demand from the end user industry. To meet the growing demand, caustic capacity is being raised by 100K TPA through debottlenecking at different units.In Cement, demand is expected to grow at 7% - 8% for the next year, driven by the Governments focus on infrastructure development, housing, smart cities etc. The Company is well positioned across the country to cater the growth in demand. Grasim is well poised to reap the benefits of the investment in capacity expansion and acquisitions with the expected upturn in the economy.

Grasim Industries Ltd ended at Rs. 4100.35, down by Rs. 10.2 or 0.25% from its previous closing of Rs. 4110.55 on the BSE.

The scrip opened at Rs. 4102 and touched a high and low of Rs. 4130.95 and Rs. 4081.75 respectively. A total of 35073(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 38275.17 crore.

The BSE group 'A' stock of face value Rs. 10 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 4176 on 03-May-2016 and a 52 week low of Rs. 3242.05 on 26-Feb-2016. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 4176 and Rs. 4044 respectively.

The promoters holding in the company stood at 31.13 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 39.99 % and 28.88 % respectively.

The stock traded above its 50 DMA.
KDDL Ltd has announced that the Company's subsidiary, Ethos Ltd, India's largest retailer of luxury watches, has raised funds by way of preferential allotment of 279,720 equity shares of Rs. 10/- each at a premium of Rs. 133/- per share as per valuation report obtained from the registered valuer, totalling to Rs.3,99,99,960/- (Rupees Three Crores ninety nine lakhs ninety nine thousand nine hundred and sixty only) to KDDL Limited, being the promoter.

Post allotment of these shares, the total number of shares on a fully diluted basis i.e. including equity shares and conversion of all Cumulative Compulsorily Convertible Preference shares issued by the Subsidiary company, i.e. Ethos Ltd. shall be 14,313,454 shares.

Post subscription and allotment, consolidated holding of KDDL Limited, directly and indirectly through its 100% subsidiary, Mahen Distribution Ltd, in Ethos Ltd will increase from 72.01% to 72.55% on fully diluted basis.
Amidst Indian economy facing global headwinds and increasing banking woes, the mutual funds (MFs) saw their total asset under management (AUM) surging 15% to Rs. 14.22 lakh crore in April 2016, according to data released by the industry body AMFI.Debt as well as equity plans offered by the MFs saw fresh inflows in April. While some investors pulled money out from gold ETFs, there were fresh inflows of Rs 1,70,000 crore into debt and equity categories. There were inflows of Rs 1,34,000 crore into liquid and money market funds, Rs 31,448 crore into income funds and Rs 4,500 crore into equity funds. There was marginal outflow of Rs 69 crore from gold ETFs.The post budget rally in March propelled the investors participation in equities via systematic investment plans (SIPs) and small lump sum investments.Both Sensex and Nifty reported over 10% gains in the March that acted as a catalyst in attracting investors. However, in April the Sensex rose just above a single percentage. According to market experts, many retail investors flocked to equity mutual funds using the SIP route, which led to higher inflows into equity mutual funds.As per the Sebi data, mutual funds net outflows in equities stood at Rs. 575.50 crore in April; while they were net buyers to the tune of Rs. 35,522.90 crore in debt segment.
The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today chaired a high level meeting on the drought and water scarcity situation in parts of Maharashtra. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, was present in the meeting. Senior officials from the Government of India, and the State of Maharahtra, were also present.

Initiating the discussion, the Prime Minister stated that the Centre, States, Local Bodies, NGOs and citizens have to work together to resolve the problems posed by drought. He also called for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing.

The Prime Minister stressed the importance of increasing water use efficiency through drip and sprinkler, stating that drip irrigation in sugarcane increases the quality of sugar. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra said that the State Government is working on a plan to ensure that 100 per cent of the sugarcane growing area in Maharashtra comes under drip irrigation in three years.

The Prime Minister also stressed the need to adopt a judicious mix of traditional and modern water conservation and storage mechanisms. He said that a lot can be learnt from the water management practices and measures adopted by Chhatrapati Shivaji. The Chief Minister stated that the State is working to rejuvenate the water-bodies of that era.

The Chief Minister informed that good progress has been made in preparatory works for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.

The Prime Minister also called for modern solid and liquid waste management practices in urban areas, which could yield enhanced water and organic fertilizer availability in adjoining rural areas.

The Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister that the State is focusing on Climate Resilient Agriculture; and has proposed a Climate Resistant Agriculture Modernization Project for a World Bank loan, to ensure water security at the farm level. He thanked the Government of India for expeditiously recommending this project to the World Bank.

The Chief Minister apprised the Prime Minister about the progress of the Jal Yukt Shivar Abhiyan for water conservation and storage. He said the State has set a target of 51,500 farm ponds for Financial Year 2016-17, which may be scaled up further, in view of the enthusiastic response of farmers.

The Chief Minister also explained the States efforts to complete critical irrigation projects in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions in a time-bound manner. He also spoke of the work done to bring more farmers under the umbrella of institutional credit.

The Chief Minister also informed about the efforts towards doubling farm incomes and drought-free Maharashtra.

Appreciating the efforts of the State Government, the Prime Minister emphasized crop diversification, value-addition, and broadbasing the sources of income for farmers, by connecting dairying, fishery, poultry, bee-keeping etc. He also underlined the natural hedging from vagaries of nature because of broadbasing of income.




RBI has advised banks to formulate either an exclusive Customer Rights Policy keeping the spirit of the Charter intact or dovetail the existing Customer Service Policies suitably to integrate the Charter and its tenets with the approval of the Board. The banks have since framed Customer Rights Policy with the approval of the Board. Banks have also been advised to review internally by the Board the progress made in implementation of the Charter. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released a Charter of Customer Rights, which enshrines broad, overarching principles for protection of bank customers and enunciates the five basic rights for bank customers, that I s, (i) Right to Fair Treatment, (ii) Right to Transparency, Fair and Honest Dealing, (iii) Right to Suitability, (iv) Right to Privacy, and (v) Right to Grievance Redress and Compensation.RBI has advised banks to formulate either an exclusive Customer Rights Policy keeping the spirit of the Charter intact or dovetail the existing Customer Service Policies suitably to integrate the Charter and its tenets with the approval of the Board. The banks have since framed Customer Rights Policy with the approval of the Board. Banks have also been advised to review internally by the Board the progress made in implementation of the Charter.

RBI vide its circular dated September 28, 2006, issued guidelines on Fair Practices Code (FPC) for all Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to be adopted by them while doing lending business. The guidelines inter-alia covered general principles on adequate disclosures on the terms and conditions of a loan and also adopting a non-coercive recovery method. The same was revised in view of the recent developments with sector including creation of New Category of NBFCs viz., NBFC-MFII and also the rapid growth in NBFCs lending against gold jewellery. Revised circular was issued on March 26, 2012.

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme has specified 27 grounds of complaints under which complaints can be lodged with the Banking Ombudsman on grievances related to deficiency in banking services provided by commercial banks, Regional Rural Banks and scheduled primary cooperative banks. In so far as NBFCs are concerned, no cases of depositor cheating by the entities regulated by RBI have come to the notice of RBI during the last three years.

RBI has also set up the Banking Codes and Standards Board of India (BCSBI) as an autonomous body, adopting the stance of a Self-Regulatory Organization in the larger interest of improving the quality of customer service by the Indian Banking System.

Further, RBI has issued guidelines on Fair Practices Code for Lenders. In terms of these guidelines the banks have been advised to frame the Fair Practices Code duly approved by their Board of Directors.

This was stated by Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.
State Bank of India (SBI), countrys largest commercial bank, today announced the launch of mVisa, a mobile-based payment solution. The service will enable customers to make payments from their smartphones, by simply scanning the unique merchant QR (Quick Response) code, at merchant outlets. SBI), countrys largest commercial bank, today announced the launch of mVisa, a mobile-based payment solution. The service will enable customers to make payments from their smartphones, by simply scanning the unique merchant QR (Quick Response) code, at merchant outlets.

mVisa is a card-less solution which facilitates payment by scanning the QR code displayed at the merchant outlet or from the merchants mobile. SBI customers (both Debit Card holders as well as Internet Banking customers, having transaction rights) can now make easy payments to the merchants by simply scanning QR code image, thereby eliminating the need to swipe the physical card at a point-of-sale (PoS) machine. Bank customer can simply download the latest version of SBI Anywhere application, from Google Play Store and need to register for mVisa payments by simply clicking the mVisa icon on the home screen.

Similarly, SBI mVisa merchant app is also available in Google Play Store and is used for receiving the payment notification, generation of static and dynamic QR codes, viewing transaction history etc. by the merchants. SBI mVisa merchants can accept payment from any mVisa customers. While in case of static QR code amount is filled by the mVisa customer himself, in case of dynamic QR code amount can be filled by merchants and can be authorized by the customer after scanning of QR code.

The mVisa service is a Bank agnostic and an interoperable low cost solution i.e. any Bank mVisa customer can transact on any mVisa merchants and likewise any mVisa merchant can accept payment from mVisa customers of any bank. It provides convenience of quick transaction, along with enhanced security, as customers need not share his/her Card or Mobile with the merchant anytime during the payment process.

In first phase, State Bank of Indias mVisa service has been introduced in Bangalore city and Bank has already on-boarded sizable number of merchants in prominent market places at Bangalore. This facility will be gradually expanded to other cities.

Speaking on the launch, Mrs. Manju Agarwal, DMD (CS &NB), SBI said, With availability of smart phones increasing by leaps and bounds, Mobile based payments in India haveto rise in a big way. Introduction of mVisa, a convenient scan and pay based option, to our existing customers (including merchant customers) is one more steptowards providing more convenience to our customers. This cost effective digital offering will not only provide our large base of consumers with an easy, convenient and secure payment product but will also facilitate small merchants with any-time payment, thereby changing the way businesses transact and customers pay.

Mr. T.R. Ramachandran, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, added, We congratulate SBI on the launch of mVisa, an innovative, next generation payment solution that enables secure, digital commerce through a connected device like mobile phone. mVisa is a new transformative way to pay and be paid and we are also working on building newer use cases for mVisa such as payments over the USSD channel, Cash-in, Cash-out etc. to be able to cater to a broader set of consumers and expanding the universe of digital payments across the country.
There is stunned disbelief at the recent horrific rape and murder of a law student in Kerala. Surely, not in a state that boasted a matrilineal society? What about those fantastic parameters, the top ranking in education, health? The north, stuck forever with its image as brutish badlands, cant believe that Kerala can join its ranks in sexual violence of the worst kind.

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Kerala is having an equally tough time believing that its reputation as a haven of progressive feminism is in tatters. In a Facebook post, actor Mammootty points out that every time some ghastly act of perversion was reported in national media, the response in Kerala was: That could never happen here. But it did actually, and not just once. The day after the superstar exhorted fellow Malayalis to be real heroes and protect their women yet another case came in from Varkala  the gang rape of a nursing student.

The fact is that everyday sexism of the most repressive kind has been rampant in Kerala for decades now, other kinds of progress notwithstanding. It is a dichotomy but it is real. A report based on National Crime Records Bureau data published in TOI the same day that Jishas murder made headlines revealed shocking figures for 2014  in Kerala crimes against women are higher than the national average, plus rape grew by an unbelievable 436%, assaults 246%, sexual harassment 980%, and cases of cruelty by husband by 82% over the last decade.

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Scholars and experts cant square this with admirable advances in the big parameters  education, health, sex ratio. They are trying hard to juggle figures and ferret out possible theories to explain it.

But all you have to do is to step out on to the streets and ask the ordinary woman who lives, works and commutes in the state, negotiating its society and streets every day and none of them will be surprised by the violence. If anecdotal evidence were enough, these figures would not have been necessary to prove the worst kept secret of all times  that Kerala has been misogynistic for a long time now. Not all the literacy in the world, or good health, can fix that.

PTI

The problem is the small, common, quotidian acts of repression and violence that rarely get talked about because they have been assimilated over a long time. Like Delhi did for a long time, you ignore these at your own peril. Nirbhaya had to happen some day after decades of the much indulged male pastime of chhed khaani in Delhi. Jisha too had to happen some day.

First things first. Those halcyon days of matrilineal Kerala, if they existed in the idealised state we fondly imagine (along with those fantastic practices of Nair women who sent husbands packing by putting out their slippers and umbrella), are long past, never to come back again. It is history and over the last 50 years and more it is hard to come across a family where it is practised.

PTI

If you ask grandmothers, they will scratch their heads and say: Well, we did hear about that and my grandmothers aunt did have three husbands  So everyone who thinks that Malayali women still enjoy unfettered freedoms inherited from that world perish the thought.

A sure sign of a truly liberal society is how safe its women are on the streets. Take a city like Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. Past sunset, waiting for a bus at the central depot is an act of peril, the menace in male eyes is unmistakable. What could you be doing here if you arent up to some disreputable tricks, it says. Lewd remarks, stalking, groping  working women in the city can tell you how difficult it is to reach home unmolested.

PTI

Families are full of stories of aunts harassed after movie shows, cousins running home from bus stops through dark alleys to avoid street-corner louts. There are umpteen reports of single women travellers in the state recalling the menace of the unrelenting stare.

From the street to cyber space was a short step. It is now common knowledge that vile, sexually abusive online trolling of women is a Kerala specialty. Most of this filth is directed at women in public life, especially those who dont care what society thinks of how they dress, work or live  television presenter Ranjini Haridas, journalist Sandhya Menon, actor Rima Kallingal or Shweta Menon  few have escaped this misogynistic rage.

Very early in their lives, girlhood in fact, Malayali women are introduced to an expression by the patriarchs of the family, and the matriarchs too: adakkavum othukkavum. It defines the parameters of acceptable behaviour for women; loosely translated it means control and docility. It is a sought after combo in brides, to be encouraged in daughters and generally expected of all womanhood. Even the seductive heroines on screen had to do the come hither routine with a lot of adakkam and othukkam. It encourages you to acquiesce, accept, not rebel or question  an argumentative, spirited woman is the worst thing possible in polite society.

Jisha, a destitute young Dalit woman who was fighting her circumstance and trying to build a better life for herself, certainly did not fit this ideal. Which explains why neither her neighbourhood nor the authorities could be bothered with her death.
Jet Airways crew member Nidhi Chaphekar, who became the face of the March 22 Brussels terror attack, had an emotional reunion with her children and family at a Mumbai hospital on Friday morning before she was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital.

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The 42-year-old Mumbai resident was flown into India after undergoing treatment in Belgium for over a month-and-a-half. She had suffered 15% burns in the airport explosions. Nidhi broke down on seeing her children Vriddhi and Vardaan, whom she had met for the first time since the blasts, her sister-in-law Madhuri Chaphekar said. Added her husband Rupesh, "Her homecoming is an extremely emotional moment for all of us, especially the children who could not travel to meet her owing to their studies. Nidhi will now continue her recovery in a hospital at Mumbai." The children had to take their final exams days after the blasts.

According to her sister Anita Toor, it was Nidhi's idea to return to Mumbai as her recovery will be prolonged. "Treatment was secondary for her; she was excited about returning to her family. She wanted to come back soon."

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Toor, who was with Nidhi at Grande Hospital de Charleroi in Belgium for a month, added, "She remembers every single detail about the blast. She remembers being rushed to hospital by paramedics immediately after the attack. Doctors asked us to keep talking to her about that day. We discussed it several times." Refusing to divulge any further details, Toor said, "It will be better to get the account from her."

Nidhi's mother Shushil Khurana flew down from Amritsar and a sister came from Delhi. Her father could not travel to Mumbai due to severe arthritis. "My husband said it is like Nidhi's re-birth. When they met her for the first time in March, she was covered in bandages from top to bottom. What we saw today was much more relieving.

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Her burn injuries have healed completely. She looked happy and cheerful. Only the foot injury needs to be attended to now," said Madhuri. The family chatted up for almost an hour after which Nidhi was taken to Breach Candy Hospital in an ambulance.

An official from the Indian embassy in Belgium said Nidhi got permission to travel back to India only on Tuesday. Of the Jet Airways crew operating out of the Brussels airport on the morning of the blasts, Nidhi and Amit Motwani had sustained injuries. Motwani will be undergoing an eye surgery next week after which he may also return to Mumbai, said an embassy official. Sources at Breach Candy Hospital said Nidhi was doing well and is unlikely to require any further surgery for burns. "She has a foot injury that may take some time to heal, but her burn injuries have healed well," a source said. "She has made good progress on the psychological front too," a source added.
JNU Students Union President Kanhaiya Kumar called off his nine day hunger strike on Friday after he was discharged from AIIMS. He was admitted in AIIMS on Thursday after his health deteriorated following the indefinite fast.

Twitter

Even though Kanhaiya has ended his fast, other JNU students are continuing with their protest, which entered its tenth day on Saturday.

Former students and faculty members have also joined in solidarity with the students who are demanding the withdrawal of punishments imposed over a dozen people including Kanhaiya and Umar Khalid.

PTI

Meanwhile HRD minister Smriti Irani has rejected the demand for waiving the punishments meted out to students.

Terming it a "Pandora's Box" Irani said that these institutions have been granted autonomy to handle administrative matters.

PTI

While Kanhaiya was fined Rs 10,000, Umar, Anirban and Kashmiri student Mujeeb Gatoo have been rusticated for varying durations.

Financial penalty has been imposed on 14 students. Hostel facilities of two students have been withdrawn and the university has declared the campus out of bounds for two former students.

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JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested in a sedition case in connection with the Afzal Guru event in the campus. They are out on bail now.
The city's Hindu devotees are finding it difficult to perform pooja at a few temples, courtesy the plastic ban.

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Some of the popular temples in the city have put up notice boards stating they are discontinuing some of the most popular poojas as they are unable to perform them at a 'low cost' due to the plastic ban. The temples are also asking devotees to opt for more expensive poojas.

For example, the Vinayaka temple in Yelahanka New Town has displayed a notice board stating it would not conduct its most popular Satyanarayana pooja costing Rs 10 as it is not financially viable. If devotees wish to continue with the pooja, they can opt for a Rs 25 pooja.

Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, one temple administrator said: "The specialty of any pooja is associated with the prasadam we serve to the devotees. The Rs 10 pooja was definitely a big hit among devotees from North Bengaluru. However, now, we are unable to dispense the prasadam, teertha or rasayana as plastic cups are unavailable.

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Hence, we are forced to depend on aluminium foil. We tried to experiment with foil, but it is turning out to be more expensive than what we charge for the pooja. Hence, we decided to discontinue it from May 6."

"Devotees believe their pooja is never complete without prasadam. With no plastic available, we requested devotees to bring their own boxes. However, many of them wouldn't do so and when we expressed our helplessness to provide prasadam they are enraged and start arguing with us. To avoid unnecessary problems, we have discontinued several pooja services," said Satyanarayana Sharma, who works as a temple priest.

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YB Sridhara Murthy, another popular priest at the Mutturayaswamy temple and other temples in Bengaluru North, said, "We are definitely facing a grave crisis. For solid prasadam it is okay to use areacanut leaf, but it is very difficult with liquids. Overall, any pooja comes with packaging. Though we support the plastic ban, the total ban has definitely created trouble for us. We are somehow managing to get plastic covers here and there, but in days to come, many of the lower denomination poojas are sure to be phased out." Kukke Subramanya ED CU Poovappa said the temple has been experimenting with cloth bags to offer prasadam in and has also gone for online tenders to procure such bags.
When the sun goes down every evening, it is a nightmare for the family of Shoaib, Rashid and Ilyas in Pakistan's Balochistan.

AP

This is not because the children are afraid of darkness, but because the kids, who are active throughout the day, suddenly becomes stiff, so much so that they can't move or even talk.

The children, aged one, nine and thirteen, wake up like any normal kids the next morning, at first sunlight as if nothing had happened.

This peculiar medical condition has left doctors in Pakistan clueless on what is causing the kids to paralyse on sunset.

Dawn

Pakistani doctors who took up the case of the kids, whom the villagers call 'solar kids', as a challenge, said this is the first such case reported in the world.

It is a peculiar disease which pushes children into a vegetative state after sunset. We have taken it up as a research project, Dr Javed Akram, chancellor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, told Dawn.

Their father Hashim, a security guard at IT University Quetta, says his sons were born like this. From the very first day, he says their bodies appeared to be dependent on sunlight.

Dawn

Scientists have ruled out the condition being directly related to sunlight, as when placed in a darkened room during the day, they are able to move around. Hashim, however, is unconvinced. "I think my sons get energy from sun," he said.

Also, not all his children have the illness. Other than the three sons, Hashim has three more children, two girls and a boy, who are 'perfectly normal'.

AP

While their peculiar condition remains a medical mystery, the siblings, the two elder ones are optimistic about their lives, wanting to continue their education, Shoaib wants to become a teacher and Rashid, an Imam one day.
Renowned Hollywood film studio Paramount Pictures has served a notice to Meerut's Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) after a large number of students illegally downloaded movies through the varsity's IP address. CCSU had started a free WiFi service for students last year. Since the university had not set up any firewall, students had been downloading movies and TV series without restriction.

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The National Informatics Centre (NIC), New Delhi, on Friday sent a copy of the notice to CCSU. The NIC had received the legal notice from one Adrian Leatherland from the Australia-based anti-piracy firm IP-Echelon.

The Los Angeles-based Paramount Pictures is a client of IP-Echelon, which monitors online piracy across 25 countries. One of the firm's biggest clients is HBO, which had hired it last year to track down "pirates" who were leaking episodes of its hit show 'Game of Thrones' online.

In the notice sent to NIC, IP-Echelon stated that they had found that CCSU's IP address has been used to illegally download and distribute video files which are exclusively owned by its client Paramount.

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"IP-Echelon has a good faith belief that the Paramount video content has not been authorized for sharing or distribution by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. I also assert that the information contained in this notice is accurate to the best of our knowledge. We are requesting your immediate assistance in removing and disabling access to the infringing material from your network. We also ask that you ensure the user and IP address owner refrains from future use and sharing of Paramount materials and property," the notice read.

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In July last year, CCSSU had started a free campus WiFi service for students. Since the university had not set up any firewalls, students had been using torrent software to download movies and TV series. The varsity had set up a dozen service set identifiers (SSID) for teachers and students. By using a common password, anyone can avail the free WiFi service on campus.

"Soon after we started the free internet service, the man who runs the tea stall outside the university gate got to know the password somehow and he sold it to outsiders for Rs 50 each. People from all over the city come to the campus to avail the WiFi service since we offer an internet speed of 1 GBPS. We have over 9,000 users even though we have only 4,000 students enrolled. This situation will continue till the firewall is set up,"Sandeep Agrawal, the university's network administrator said.

CCSU registrar Deep Chand said, "My office is yet to receive the notice but nonetheless, we have set up a committee to probe the matter. Since it involves technical issues that are related to the installation of firewalls, the committee will take another day or two to give us a report. We will then take further action."
Amid the growing concern over the increasing cost of higher education in India, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan warned students that they should not fall prey to 'unscrupulous schools' which leave them with high debt and "useless degrees".

Reuters

Observing that education at high quality research universities will remain expensive in the near future, he said efforts should be made to make degrees affordable to all deserving students.

One part of the solution is student loans, he said, adding "we have to be careful that student loans are repaid in full by those who have the means, while they are forgiven in part for those who fall on bad times, or those who take low paying public service jobs."

In his convocation address at the Shiv Nadar University, he said, "We also should make sure that unscrupulous schools do not prey on uninformed students, leaving them with high debt and useless degrees."

thehindu

The Governor said private education across the world is expensive and is getting more expensive all the time.

Beginning his address in a lighter vein, Rajan said he embarks on this talk comforted by the knowledge that the "bar for convocation speeches is low."

"If you even remember a word I say a few years from now, I will have surpassed the average convocation speaker - most people don't remember who spoke at their convocation, let alone what they said."

Reuters

Rajan, a globally known economist, emphasised that free market is not fair, saying even well-run market economies seem to be favouring those who already have plenty.

"In part, this is because skills and capabilities have become much more important in well-paid jobs, and those born in good circumstances have a much better chance at acquiring these," he said.
An all women battalion, comprising some 567 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) cadets, have completed their arms training and are ready for their first fight.

PTI

And they are taking on the Maoists, head-on that too, in their strongholds.

The women, who are all part of the 232 Mahila Battalion of the CRPF, underwent a 44 week rigorous training in Ajmer, and will be posted in Naxal affected areas, to combat the growing threat of the armed group.

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Other than the arms training, they were also given classes in karate, map reading, and knowledge of importance of living in the jungle which are vital in their mission.

"We tried to prepare the battalion to struggle in very hard situations and we will send them in central India to fight against Naxalites," said an official.

Hindustan Times

CRPF officials said the batch was the first experiment to deploy women in combating Maoists, and more such battalions would be raised in future, depending on how effective they are.

The cadets said by putting them in combat role CRPF has proved that women are not weak and are capable of handling heavy weapons.

PTI

"I really love the training because it gives us an opportunity to show our talent in dangerous fields like terrorism," said a member of the battalion.
The US made secret preparations to evacuate its diplomats stationed in Pakistan to India on the night of the raid in May 2011 on the Abbottabad compound where Osama Bin Laden was hiding, unnamed US officials have disclosed, while also suggesting that the then CIA station chief in Islamabad was poisoned by ISI in retaliation for the humiliating commando assault that killed the al-Qaida chief.

static.independent

The startling revelation, reported first in the Washington Post, centers on the months around the Abbottabad raid. Pakistanis twice breached protocol by outing the serving CIA station chief in Islamabad.

It was partly out of anger at the US for implicating the ISI and its chief in the Mumbai terrorist attack. The situation was so bad that the first of those station chiefs, Jonathan Bank, was actually spirited out the country by the US in complete violation of diplomatic norms, fearing Pakistani retaliation.

"As then-CIA deputy director Michael Morell finished a series of scheduled meetings in Islamabad, Bank escorted his boss to a waiting agency plane. Then, without any notice to Pakistani authorities and in violation of protocol, Bank stayed aboard as the flight crew closed the door," the Post said, citing unnamed officials.

Wikipedia

Bank was replaced by Mark Kelton, a Russia expert, who decided Pakistan could not be trusted and began preaching "Moscow Rules" upon arrival, meaning that the "ISI should be treated as a determined foe rather than a problematic partner.'' His seven-month stint, the paper said, was in many ways a ''parade of humiliation for his hosts," from the Raymond Davis episode to the Abbottabad raid.

He also signed off on many of the Drone attacks. The ISI disliked him so much that its chief Ahmad Shuja Pasha refused to meet him and referred to him as a cadaver.

"On the first night in May , as midnight approached in Pakistan, Kelton, Munter and a senior US military official gathered in a secure CIA room in the embassy to watch transmissions from a stealth drone circling over Abbottabad as the Bin Laden raid began," the Post reported. "The trio had made secret preparations for possible Pakistani reprisals, officials said, drafting evacuation plans that called for employees at scattered US diplomatic sites to flee across the border into India or be scooped up by the USS Carl Vinson from the Karachi shore."

a.abcnews

Soon after the raid, the Post said, Kelton began to experience severe stomach pains. It became so severe that he had to be evacuated after only seven months in his post even as the Pakistanis leaked his name in the media.

Although Kelton recovered after he had abdominal surgery on this return to the U.S and is now retired from the CIA, "agency officials continue to think that it is plausible -if not provable -that Kelton's sudden illness was somehow orchestrated by the ISI," the paper wrote.
In a historic first, a Muslim man has been elected as the mayor of London. Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan defeated his Conservative Party rival Zac Goldsmith in the election held on Thursday.

Reuters

Khan picked up 44 percent of first preference votes against Goldsmith's 35 percent.

The election was noted for the sharp contrasts between the two candidates. While Khan grew up in public housing in inner city London, his opponent Goldsmith is the son of a billionaire financier.

citymetric

The 45-year-old Human Rights lawyer is the son of Pakistani immigrant parents. His father was a bus driver in London for years.

A prominent figure in former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Browns Cabinet, he resigned from the shadow Cabinet last year to launch his campaign to replace Boris Johnson.

Mirror

The election campaign had turned ugly after Goldsmith tried to link Khan to Islamic extremist groups, something Khan strongly refuted.

Khan termed himself as "the British Muslim who will take the fight to the extremists".
Keeping the network free of unauthorized software has always been a challenge. Software inventory and management tools are often helpful in holding back the tide of software that saps the time and attention of the IT staff. However, the emerging world of apps that run in a web browser makes it even more difficult to be aware of, let alone manage, the software the company employees are running. The only practical way to get ahead of the curve on this trend is to understand and embrace it in a way that lets you overcome the risks and problems. How? Look for web-based apps that are optimized for enterprise management and provide them to your users. Here are the enterprise-friendly features to look for in a web-based app:

1.Enterprise Document Control

Perhaps the most important feature of all to look for in a web app your company uses and pays for is the ability to maintain control of the documents or content created using the app.

This is often not the case. Users sign up to use a typical web app with an email address and password. If this email address is not under a domain you control, or the user can change it at any time, you have no ability to retain documents created under this account. If the user leaves the company and keeps the account under a private email address, the documents go with them.

Enterprise-friendly web apps provide licenses that give control of user accounts to the company as the purchaser and owner. This allows company administrators to control who has access to documents created with any enterprise accounts. This may be done by permitting only the license owner to change the email address that accesses the account. An even better solution is for the app to support single-sign on, so the user signs on with his or her domain user name and password. This eliminates problems with employee confusion with multiple accounts and lost passwords.

2.Security

Transferring company data to a third party server sounds scary but neednt be if the app provider follows sound protocols to ensure the security and privacy of your data.

Make sure that the app provider is SOC 2 certified. They should have passed a Type II audit which means they maintain the standards over a period of time instead of just a onetime Type I audit. This ensures that they are taking the right steps to manage and protect your data. Verify that the provider uses HTTPS for all website interaction. Although SSL security is not required for non-logged in web browsing, a site which has already changed over to all HTTPS shows they are ahead of new requirements and able to handle increased security changes. Make sure that the provider encrypts all user data being stored so that a casual employee at the provider cannot access this information. This has the added benefit that in case of a security breach, your data could still be protected if the encryption is not compromised.

3.Availability

Ask the app provider how they host their app if you want to be confident that it will be available with 99.99% uptime. Just hosting it using Amazon Web Services (News - Alert) may not be good enough. AWS (and other third party cloud services) have all had recent significant downtime. Hosting should be designed with redundancy in mind, and able to handle outages and major system failures. One app provider recently was down for several days because someone accidentally deleted their database. This leads us to item number 4.

4.Organizational Maturity

Lets face it; many web apps are launched by a handful of smart guys who are underfunded and short on experience. Even those that appear to have a solid foundation can shut down with little warning.

Nirvanix in September 2013 surprised its customers by unexpectedly announcing it was shutting down its cloud storage service, and gave them just two weeks to migrate their data somewhere else. This after the six-year-old company raised more than $70 million in venture capital funding, including a $25 million Series C round earlier that year.

Look for an app that is supported by an organization that has been around for quite a while and is staffed by people who have a good understanding of the enterprise and what they need in a vendor. That does not mean these companies never experience service outages. But they will also be able to fix any problems and keep you up-to-date on their progress.

In January 2016, both Google and Twitter experienced severe disruptions. Googles worldwide outage blocked customers from accessing Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, among others. Twitter (News - Alert) needed more than 10 hours to fix an outage that prevented its 300 million business and consumer users from even logging onto the social network.

These are just two of the more recent high-profile examples. And while the outages created embarrassing headlines, both had the resources and procedures in place to fix the problems and regularly update customers via their blogs and online support forums.

5.Data Migration/Extraction

OK, you do all this and your app provider still goes down hard, gets bought, or shutters the business. What happens to your data? You need a Plan B. A way to capture your data in a manner that allows you to use if off-line without the app provider in the picture. There are several possibilities:

Export - There may be a way to export data from the web app into a standard useable file format. This data can then be imported into a database or reformatted for a completely different app. Conversion - The provider may have a legacy desktop app that reads the same file format. Integration - The app might be able to connect to another application which can pull in the data in a similar format. Extraction - Have a plan to export this data on a regular basis or you wont be able to get to it if the service goes down.

Always ask yourself this question and have a plan in case of a temporary or permanent failure.

If you do nothing about the bring your own app revolution, your company can be left high and dry with no recourse. Find out what your users are bringing into your enterprise, find the most reliable solution, and encourage them to use it by making it easy and integrated with the existing systems. It will save your company time and expense in the long run. Handling the oncoming wave of web apps with finesse will be the mark of a wise IT manager.

Edited by Stefania Viscusi
Somnolent Europe, Russia, and China Can the world wake up? By Paul Craig Roberts May 06, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - On September 19, 2000, going on 16 years ago, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the London Telegraph reported: Declassified American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. The documents confirm suspicions voiced at the time that America was working aggressively behind the scenes to push Britain into a European state. One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen. William J. Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA. The documents show that the European Union was a creature of the CIA. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/1356047/Euro-federalists-financed-by-US-spy-chiefs.html As I have previously written, Washington believes that it is easier to control one government,

the EU, than to control many separate European governments. As Washington has a long term investment in orchestrating the European Union, Washington is totally opposed to any country exiting the arrangement. That is why President Obama recently went to London to tell his lapdog, the British Prime Minister, that there could be no British exit. Like other European nations, the British people were never allowed to vote on whether they were in favor of their country ceasing to exist and them becoming Europeans. British history would become the history of a bygone people like the Romans and Babylonians. The oppressive nature of unaccountable EU laws and regulations and the EU requirement to accept massive numbers of third world immigrants have created a popular demand for a British vote on whether to remain a sovereign country or to dissolve and submit to Brussels and its dictatorial edicts. The vote is scheduled for June 23. Washingtons position is that the British people must not be permitted to decide against the EU, because such a decision is not in Washingtons interest. The prime ministers job is to scare the British people with alleged dire consequences of going it alone. The claim is that little England cannot stand alone. The British people are being told that isolation will spell their end, and their country will become a backwater bypassed by progress. Everything great will happen elsewhere, and they will be left out. If the fear campaign does not succeed and the British vote to exit the EU, the open question is

whether Washington will permit the British government to accept the democratic outcome. Alternatively, the British government will deceive the British people, as it routinely does, and declare that Britain has negotiated concessions from Brussels that dispose of the problems that concern the British people. Washingtons position shows that Washington is a firm believer that only Washingtons interests are important. If other peoples wish to retain national sovereignty, they are simply being selfish. Moreover, they are out of compliance with Washington, which means they can be declared a threat to American national security. The British people are not to be permitted to make decisions that do not comply with Washingtons interest. My prediction is that the British people will either be deceived or overridden. It is Washingtons self-centeredness, the self-absorption, the extraordinary hubris and arrogance, that explains the orchestrated Russian threat. Russia has not presented herself to the West as a military threat. Yet, Washington is confronting Russia with a US/NATO naval buildup in the Black Sea (http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/05/04/nato-form-allied-fleet-black-sea-plans-fraught-with-great-risks.html ), a naval, troop and tank buildup in the Baltics and Poland (http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/10/uk-to-contribute-five-extra-ships-to-baltic-as-nato-boosts-presence ), missile bases on Russias borders, and plans to incorporate the former Russian provinces of Georgia and Ukraine in US defense pacts against Russia. When Washington, its generals and European vassals declare Russia to be a threat, they mean that Russia has an independent foreign policy and acts in her own interest rather than in Washingtons interest. Russia is a threat, because Russia demonstrated the capability of blocking Washingtons intended invasion of Syria and bombing of Iran. Russia blunted one purpose of Washingtons coup in the Ukraine by peacefully and democratically reuniting with Crimera, the site of Russias Black Sea naval base and a Russian province for several centuries. Perhaps you have wondered how it was possible for small countries such as Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yeman, and Venezuela to be threats to the US superpower. On its face Washingtons claim is absurd. Do US presidents, Pentagon officials, national security advisors, and chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff really regard countries of so little capability as military threats to the United States and NATO countries? No, they do not. The countries were declared threats, because they have, or had prior to their destruction, independent foreign and economic policies. Their policy independence means that they do not or did not accept US hegemony. They were attacked in order to bring them under US hegemony. In Washingtons view, any country with an independent policy is outside Washingtons umbrella and, therefore, is a threat. Venezuela became, in the words of US President Obama, an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, necessitating a national emergency to contain the Venezuelan threat when the Venezuelan government put the interests of the Venezuelan people above those of American corporations. Russia became a threat when the Russian government demonstrated the ability to block Washingtons intended military attacks on Syria and Iran and when Washingtons coup in the Ukraine failed to deliver to Washington the Russian Black Sea naval base. Clearly Venezuela cannot possibly pose a military threat to the US, so Venezuela cannot possibly pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security of the US. Venezuela is a threat because the Venezuelan government does not comply with Washingtons orders. It is absolutely certain that Russia has made no threats whatsoever against the Baltics, Poland, Romania, Europe, or the United States. It is absolutely certain that Russia has not invaded the Ukraine. How do we know? If Russia had invaded Ukraine, the Ukraine would no longer be there. It would again be a Russian province where until about 20 years ago Ukraine resided for centuries, for longer than the US has existed. Indeed, the Ukraine belongs in Russia more than Hawaii and the deracinated and conquered southern states belong in the US. Yet, these fantastic lies from the highest ranks of the US government, from NATO, from Washingtons British lackeys, from the bought-and-paid-for Western media, and from the bought-and-paid-for EU are repeated endlessly as if they are Gods revealed truth. Syria still exists because it is under Russian protection. That is the only reason Syria still exists, and it is also another reason that Washington wants Russia out of the way. Do Russia and China realize their extreme danger? I dont think even Iran realizes its ongoing danger despite its close call. If Russia and China realize their danger, would the Russian government permit one-fifth of its media to be foreign owned? Does Russia understand that foreign owned means CIA owned? If not, why not? If so, why does the Russian government permit its own destabilization at the hands of Washingtons intelligence service acting through foreign owned media? China is even more careless. There are 7,000 US-funded NGOs (non-governmental organizations) operating in China ( http://www.globalresearch.ca/china-preserving-sovereignty-or-sliding-into-western-sponsored-color-revolutions/5523019 ). Only last month did the Chinese government finally move, very belatedly, to put some restrictions on these foreign agents who are working to destabilize China. The members of these treasonous organizations have not been arrested. They have merely been put under police watch, an almost useless restriction as Washington can provide endless money with which to bribe the Chinese police. Why do Russia and China think that their police are less susceptible to bribes than Mexicos or American police? Despite the multi-decade war on drugs, the drug flow from Mexico to the US is unimpeded. Indeed, the police forces of both countries have a huge interest in the war on drugs as the war brings them riches in the form of bribes. Indeed, as the crucified reporter for the San Jose Mercury newspaper proved many years ago, the CIA itself is in the drug-running business. In the United States truth-tellers are persecuted and imprisoned, or they are dismissed as conspiracy theorists, anti-semites, and domestic extremists. The entire Western World consists of a dystopia far worse than the one described by George Orwell in his famous book, 1984. That Russia and China permit Washington to operate in their media, in their universities, in their financial systems, and in do-good NGOs that infiltrate every aspect of their societies demonstrates that both governments have no interest in their survival as independent states. They are too scared of being called authoritarian by the Western presstitute media to protect their own independence. My prediction is that Russia and China will soon be confronted with an unwelcome decision:

accept American hegemony or go to war. Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts' latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West , How America Was Lost , and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order .
Obamas Last Gasp Imperialism By Margaret Kimberley The United States and NATO continue to provoke Russia in what could be a deadly game that spins out of their control. May 06, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " BAR " - With only eight more months in office, Barack Obama shows no signs of giving up his role as the most aggressively imperialist American president in modern history. Liberal Democrats rightly point fingers at Hillary Clintons bellicosity, yet they say nothing about Obama as he continues on a path of destruction around the world. Nations on every continent are victims either of outright American military violence or of war waged by other means. Venezuela sinks further into despair as a result of American manipulations of oil prices and sanctions that cripple its economy. Millions of people have had their homes destroyed by United States interventions in Somalia and Libya and Syria and are forced to make dangerous treks in hopes of finding safety. While the American instigated war goes on in Syria that countrys government and its Russian ally make gains against terrorists. Because they are winning the United States continues to make bizarre demands that Assad must go. Obama has to turn over the keys in January 2017 but Assad may sit in his presidential office watching as his enemy rides off into the sunset. The United States continues to make bizarre demands that Assad must go. The least reported and yet biggest danger is taking place in Europe. The United States and NATO continue to provoke Russia in what could be a deadly game that spins out of their control. In recent weeks the Russians have made clear that they wont take the provocation lying down. While the corporate media follow the president blindly, they wont tell viewers and listeners that Russia has territory on the Baltic sea coast. Kaliningrad is Russia, just as Hawaii and Alaska are America. Of course there are Russian planes and submarines in the Baltic. They belong there while American vessels do not. Russia has every right to buzz United States ships and escort spy planes out of its airspace. These very simple facts are rarely presented to Americans who have no idea that 200 of their troops will perform exercises in Moldova, a small country located between Ukraine and Romania. It is an example of how American presidents from Bush to Clinton to Bush to Obama made a mockery of a promise not to encircle Russia. Instead they do just that and keep adding to the NATO arsenal. Nations like Sweden, traditionally neutral, are being lured into that organizations grasp. In the absence of the old Soviet block there is no use for NATO except to act as the foot soldiers for American dirty work. Russia has every right to buzz United States ships and escort spy planes out of its airspace. It seems that the end of his presidency has made Obama more anxious and therefore more dangerous. There are now boots on the ground in Syria, so far just 300 Special Forces, but even that small number is too high and represents the extent to which the United States is committed to maintaining the imperialist project. Only the now inevitable Republican nominee, Donald Trump, questions this premise of American foreign policy. Hillary Clinton assisted Obama in his designs and the supposedly left wing Bernie Sanders warns of non-existent Russian aggression, supports presidential kill lists and thinks that having U.S. troops in Syria is a fine idea. While the United States threatens to start World War III, the corporate media go into overdrive in their determination to distract us from the dangers our government poses to the world. They turn trivialities into major controversy but rarely report anything we ought to know. For example, Larry Wilmore saluted the president as my nigga during the last Obama era White House Correspondents Dinner. There was much arguing back and forth about the propriety of the words but no one spoke of the impropriety of the event inself. The media want access so they play along and tell lies of commission and omission with every presidential administration. The media ought to have an adversarial relationship with presidents. At the very least they should be somewhat distant and skeptical. Instead they are very cozy and quite publicly too. They even celebrate their collusion at this love fest as a president makes jokes with television comedians who compete for the chance to be sidekick for an evening. There is no longer any pretense of impartiality. The media want access so they play along and tell lies of commission and omission with every presidential administration. They tell jokes at Russias expense but wont tell readers and viewers that it is the United States who is provoking Russia in its sphere of influence. Obama apparently wants to commit more destruction than he has already. Turning Libya into an utterly failed state was not enough. That act unleashed ISIS and Boko Haram and a wave of refugees. The coup in Ukraine ignited a civil war. The Syrian government hangs on but at a terrible price. Russia answered the call to help but America doesnt want that war to end and will continue to use its allies to prevent a cease fire or an end to the conflict altogether. A lot of damage can be done between now and January 20, 2009. There is no reason to mourn or rejoice Obamas departure because he will be followed by someone who likes his foreign policy as it is. That person will also like Americans as they are: mostly intelligent but uninformed even if they wish to know what is happening around the world. The expression to do something like theres no tomorrow is poignant. If Obama and company continue down this path, we shall all find out what those words mean. Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well as at http://freedomrider.blogspot.com. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.
Aleppo Doctor Attacks Western Media for Bias, Censorship and Lies



By Silvia Cattori

Dr Nabil Antaki could have abandoned Aleppo to ensure his own safety. Instead he decided to remain and to serve the besieged people of his City, working with various local charities. Above all, he wanted to bear witness to the destruction caused by Western support for the foreign armed groups who have been systematically destroying Syria and terrorising its people for the last 5 years. Yesterday Silvia Cattori recorded this report from Dr Antaki on the recent amplification of propaganda surrounding events in Aleppo. It has been translated from the French by Vanessa Beeley. With regards to recent events in Aleppo, I state very clearly that the mainstream media are lying by omission. Since the beginning of the war in Aleppo that began 4 years ago, they have consistently failed to report all the facts. All of us here in Aleppo are disgusted by their lack of impartiality and objectivity. They only ever talk about the loss of life in the east of Aleppo which is entirely controlled by Al Nusra, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda. These are their moderate rebels a title that affords them an unmerited degree of respectability. This same media remains silent on the daily losses and suffering endured in the Western areas of Aleppo living under the rain of mortar fire from these terrorist factions. This media never mentions the terrorist blockade upon our people or the electricity cuts and water shortages inflicted upon us by their moderate rebels Read more on Aleppos terrorist blockade, water shortages and starvation here: Syria, from the Sublime to the Shameful. This media never mention the continuous bombardment and the carnage we have witnessed in western Aleppo where every single sector has been targeted. On a daily basis we see dozens of people murdered. What makes these omissions even more despicable is that these areas represent 75% of Aleppo and there are 1.5 million people living in them. Compare this to the 300,000 living in the eastern zone which is occupied by terrorist groups. This twisted narrative engenders the belief that these terrorist groups that are attacking us are actually the victims. Even more abhorrent, these media have distorted our Save Aleppo appeal, to make it look as if we are calling for Assad and the Syrian Army to cease hostilities! This is FALSE. Added to which, they are not Assads forces, they are the national forces of the regular Syrian army that is defending the Syrian State. The western and gulf media could at least have had the decency to mention the terrorist massacres of our people. For example, on Friday 30th April, when one of their mortars targeted a mosque at prayer time. The attacks and losses we suffer are reported in a way that leaves the public in the dark about the true perpetrators of these crimes. For three days now, these media outlets have been accusing the Assad regime of bombing an MSF hospital [Medecins sans Frontieres] to the east of Aleppo and of killing the last paediatrician in the city. This demonstrates that, for these media, the only priority is this pocket of the city where terrorists are embedded. The three quarters of Aleppo under Syrian Government control where numerous paediatricians are practicing is of no consequence for this media. We witnessed the same bias when Al Kindi, the biggest hospital in Aleppo, was targeted by terrorist mortars and then intentionally burnt down about 2 or 3 years ago. The media ignored this criminal act. We are disheartened and disgusted by this continuous disinformation. Nabil Antaki |30th April 2016 Original: http://arretsurinfo.ch/alep-linformation-mensongere-continue-par-nabil-antaki/
If Russia Had Freed Canada



The U.S. government defined events in Ukraine as a pro-democracy revolution battling Russian aggression  at least as far as the worlds mainstream media was concerned. But what if the script were flipped, asks Joe Lauria.



By Joe Lauria May 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " Consortium News " - As the United States plans to move thousands of NATO troops to Russias borders and continues to bolster a fiercely anti-Russian regime in neighboring Ukraine, the official line in Washington and its subservient corporate media is that beneficent America is simply seeking to curtail Moscows aggression. But the U.S. government and media might look at things quite differently if the shoe were on the other foot. What, for instance, would the U.S. reaction be if Russia instead had supported the violent overthrow of, say, Canadas government and assisted the new Ottawa regimes anti-terrorist operations against a few rebellious pro-American provinces, including one that voted 96 percent in a referendum to reject the new Russian-backed authorities and attach itself to the U.S.? If the U.S. government tried to help these embattled pro-American Canadians  and protect the breakaway province against the Russian-installed regime  would Washington see itself as the aggressor or as simply helping people resist anti-democratic repression? Would it view Russian troop movements to the U.S. border as a way to stop an American invasion or rather an act of aggression and provocation by Russia against the United States? The Ukraine Reality Before playing out this hypothetical scenario, lets look at the actual scene in Ukraine today as opposed to the gross distortion of reality fed the American people by the U.S. mainstream media the past two years. The reality is not the State Departments fable of a pro-democracy revolution cleaning up corruption and putting Ukrainian people first. In the real world instead, extreme right-wing nationalists took control of a popular protest by mostly western Ukrainians to spearhead a violent coup that succeeded on Feb. 22, 2014, in overthrowing President Viktor Yanukovych, a man whom I interviewed in 2013 after he had been democratically chosen in an election certified by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Proof of the U.S. role in the coup came in a leaked telephone conversation several weeks earlier between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, and Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. In the conversation, Nuland and Pyatt discussed how the U.S. could midwife the unconstitutional change of government and they rated which Ukrainian politicians should be put in charge, with Nuland declaring Yats is the guy, a reference to Arseniy Yatsenyuk. As for the European Unions less aggressive approach to the Ukraine situation, Nuland declared: Fuck the E.U. Nevertheless, after the coup, Western governments denied there ever was a coup, peddling the line that Yanukovych simply ran away, as though he woke up one morning and decided he didnt want to be president anymore. In fact, on Feb. 21, to contain the mounting violence, Yanukovych signed a European-brokered deal to reduce his powers and to hold early elections. But the next day, as right-wing street-fighters overran government buildings, Yanukovych fled for his life  and the West moved quickly to consolidate a new government under anti-Russian politicians, including Nulands choiceYats as prime minister. (Yatsenyuk remained prime minister until last month when he resigned amid complaints that his stewardship had been disastrous for the Ukrainian people.) A Resistance Emerges Since the vast majority of Yanukovychs support came from the ethnically Russian eastern half of the country, some Yanukovych backers rose up to challenge the legitimacy of the coup regime and to defend Ukraines democratic process. Instead the West portrayed this resistance as a Russian-instigated rebellion against the newly minted and U.S.-certified legitimate government that then launched a violent repression of eastern Ukrainians who were deemed terrorists. When Russia supported the resisters with weapons, money and some volunteers, the West accused Russia of an invasion and aggression in the east. But there has never been satellite imagery or other proof of this alleged full-scale Russian invasion. In the midst of the Kiev anti-terrorist offensive in the east, on July 17, 2014, a Malaysian commercial airliner, Flight MH-17, was shot out of the sky, killing all 298 people on board. The United States, again offering no proof, immediately blamed Russia. Over the past year, the fighting has been largely contained after Russian, Ukrainian and European leaders negotiated the Minsk Accords, though they are far from being implemented and widespread violence could break out again at any time. Throughout the entire crisis the United States has insisted its motives are pure, including its new plans for deploying some 4,000 NATO troops, including about half American, on Russias Eastern European borders north of Ukraine. President Barack Obama told the U.N. General Assembly last year that the U.S. had no economic interests in Ukraine. But former State Department official Natalie Jaresko served as Ukraines finance minister until recently and Vice President Joe Bidens son sits on the board of a major Ukrainian company. U.S. investment also has increased since the coup. Yanukovychs overthrow occurred after he chose a Russian economic plan rather than sign an association agreement with the European Union, which Ukrainian economic analysts warned would cost the country $160 billion in lost trade with Russia. The E.U. plan would also have opened Ukraine to Western neoliberal economic strategies designed to exploit the country for the benefit of Western capital and local oligarchs (one of whom, Petro Poroshenko, emerged as the new president). Turning the Tables To help American readers better understand what has transpired in Ukraine, it may be useful to see what it would be like if the tables were turned. What would the story be like if Russia played the role of the U.S. and Canada the role of Ukraine? Most Americans would not be pleased. In this reverse scenario, the worlds mainstream media would follow Moscows line and present the story as a U.S. invasion of Canada. The media would explain the movement of Russian troops to the U.S. border as nothing more than a peaceful step to deter U.S. aggression. But Americans might see matters differently, siding with the breakaway Maritime provinces resisting the Moscow-engineered violent coup detat in Ottawa. In this scenario, Prince Edwards Islanders would have voted by over 90 percent to secede from the pro-Russian regime in Ottawa and join the United States, as Crimea did in the case of Ukraine. People in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick  stressing their close historic ties to America  also would make clear their desire not to be violently absorbed by the Ottawa coup regime. In this alternative scenario, Moscow would condemn Prince Edwards Islands referendum as a sham and vow never to accept its illegal secession. The popular resistance in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick would be denounced as terrorism justifying a brutal military crackdown by Russian-backed Canadian federal troops dispatched to crush the dissent. In this anti-terrorist operation against the breakaway region, residential areas would be shelled killing thousands of civilians and devastating towns and cities. In this endeavor, the Canadian army would be joined by Russian-supported neo-fascist battalions that had played a crucial role in the overthrow of the Canadian government. In the Maritime city of Halifax, these extremists would burn alive at least 40 pro-U.S. civilians who took refugee in a trade union building. The new government in Ottawa would make no effort to protect the victims, nor conduct a serious investigation to punish the perpetrators. Ignoring a Leak Meanwhile, proof that Russia was behind the overthrow of the elected Canadian prime minister would be revealed in a leaked conversation between Moscows foreign ministry chief of the North America department and the Russian ambassador to Canada. According to a transcript of the leaked conversation, the Moscow-based official would discuss who the new Canadian leaders should be several weeks before the coup took place. Russia would launch the coup when Canada decided to take a loan package from the U.S.-based International Monetary Fund that had fewer strings attached than a loan from Russia. Russias ally in Beijing would be reluctant to back the coup. But this would seem to be of little concern to Moscows man who is heard on the tape saying, Fuck China. Although this conversation would be posted on YouTube, its contents and import would be largely ignored by the global mainstream media, which would insist there was no coup in Ottawa. Yet, weeks before the coup, the Russian foreign ministry official would be filmed visiting protesters camped out in Parliament Square in Ottawa demanding the ouster of the prime minister. The Russian official would give out cakes to the demonstrators. The foreign ministers of Russian-allied Belarus and Cuba would also march with the protesters through the streets of Ottawa against the government. The worlds mainstream media would portray these demands for an unconstitutional change of government as an act of democracy and a desire to end corruption. In a speech, the Russian foreign ministry official would remind Canadian businessmen that Russia had spent $5 billion over the past decade to bring democracy to Canada, much of that money spent training civil society activists and funding anti-government journalists. The use of these non-governmental organizations to overthrow foreign governments that stand in the way of Russias economic and geo-strategic interests would have been well documented but largely ignored by the global mainstream media. But recognizing the danger from these color revolution strategies, the United States would move to ban Russian NGOs from operating in the U.S., a tactic that would be denounced by Russia as Americas rejection of democracy. The Coup Succeeds The Canadian coup would take place as protesters violently clashed with police, breaking through barricades and killing a number of police officers. Snipers would fire on the police and the crowd from a nearby Parliament Square building under the control of hardline pro-Russian extremists. But the Russian government and the mainstream media would blame the killings on the embattled Canadian prime minister. To stem the violence, the prime minister would offer to call early elections but instead would be driven from office violently by the pro-Russian street gangs. Russia and the global mainstream news media would praise the overthrow as a great step for democracy and would hail the pro-Russian street fighters who had died in the coup as the Heavenly Hundred. Following the coup, Russian lawmakers would compare President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler for allegedly sending U.S. troops into the breakaway provinces to protect the populations from violent repression, and for accepting the pleas of the people of Prince Edward Island to secede from this new Canada. Obama would be widely accused of ordering an American invasion and committing an act of American aggression in violation of international law. But the Maritimes would note that they had long ties to the U.S. dating back to the American Revolution and didnt want to live under a new regime imposed by a faraway foreign power. Russia would claim intelligence proving that U.S. tanks crossed the Maine border into New Brunswick, but would fail to make the evidence public. Russia would also refuse to reveal satellite imagery supporting the charge. But the claims would still be widely accepted by the worlds mainstream news media. For its part, Washington would deny it invaded but say some American volunteers had entered the Canadian province to join the fight, a claim met with widespread media derision. Russias puppet prime minister in Ottawa would offer as proof of an American invasion just six passports of U.S. soldiers found in New Brunswick. Taking Aim at Washington When  during one of the new regimes anti-terrorist offensives  a passenger jet would be shot down over Nova Scotia killing all onboard, Russia would accuse President Obama of being behind the outrage, charging that the U.S. had provided the powerful anti-aircraft missile needed to reach a plane flying at 33,000 feet. But Moscow would refuse to release any intelligence to support its claim, which would nevertheless be accepted by worlds mainstream media. The planes shoot-down would enable Russia to rally China and other international allies into imposing a harsh economic boycott of America to punish it for its aggression. To bring good government to Canada and to deal with its collapsing economy, a former Russian foreign ministry official would be installed as Canadas finance minister, receiving Canadian citizenship on her first day on the job. Of course, Russia would deny that it had economic interests in Canada, simply wanting to help the country free itself from oppressive American domination. But Russian agribusiness companies would take stakes in Albertan wheat fields and the son of Russias prime minister as well as other well-connected Russians would join the board of Canadas largest oil company just weeks after the coup. Russias ultimate aim, beginning with the imposition of the sanctions on the U.S. economy, would appear to be a color revolution in Washington, to overthrow the U.S. government and install a Russia-friendly American president. This goal would become clear from numerous statements by Russian officials and academics. A former Russian national security adviser would say that the United States should be broken up into three countries and write that Canada would be the stepping stone to this U.S. regime change. If the U.S. loses Canada, he would declare, it would fail to control North America. But the worlds mainstream media would continue to frame the Canadian crisis as a simple case of American aggression. This fictional scenario perhaps lays bare the absurdity of the U.S. version of events in Ukraine. Joe Lauria is a veteran foreign-affairs journalist based at the U.N. since 1990. He has written for the Boston Globe, the London Daily Telegraph, the Johannesburg Star, the Montreal Gazette, the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers. He can be reached at joelauria@gmail.com and followed on Twitter at @unjoe.
Now is Not The Time to Surrender to Israel's Bullying on 'Anti-Semitism' By Ilan Pappe May 07, 2016 " Information Clearing House " - " MEE " - There comes a time in a movements struggle when success is both a rewarding moment but also a very dangerous one. The apartheid regime in South Africa pursued its most vicious and lethal policies shortly before the fall of the regime. If you do not threaten a certain unjust regime or state, and their supporters, they will ignore you and will see no need to confront you; if you are hitting the nail on its head, the reaction will come. This is what has happened to the boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. The movement is the logical extension of the great work done before by all the solidarity groups and committees with Palestine. It displays an assertive, unwavering support for the Palestinian people through direct contact with authentic representatives of the Palestinian communities inside and outside Palestine. Until recently, Israel deemed this development as marginal and ineffective; even some of Palestines friends in the West objected to BDS on the same grounds: its ineffectiveness. Well, it seems the movement is more effective than even its conceivers have ever hoped for. It is not surprising: it represents a new zeitgeist in politics altogether  as is manifested in the young electorate who voted for Jeremy Corbyn in the UK and for Bernie Sanders in the USA. The desire for cleaner, more moral politics that dare to challenge the neoliberal set up of economy and politics in the West brought these young peoples support to, ironically, two old gentlemen representing a purer form of politics. Within the baggage of purer politics one can find a firm support for the Palestinian people. The only way today to show support outside Palestine for the Palestinians is through BDS. In the UK, this logic is understood by those who voted for Corbyn, and by those who are active elsewhere on behalf of causes such as social justice, ecological strategy and human and indigenous rights. Members of the political elites and establishment, in very senior positons, voice clear, unashamed support for Palestine. When did you hear such a support from the leader of the opposition in Britain and from a presidential candidate in the USA? Even if the latters support is quite feeble and reserved - in the context of American politics, a candidate who affords not to go to AIPAC, and the sky does not fall in, is a revolution. This is the background for the current vicious attack on the Labour Party and Corbyn. Whatever the Zionists in Britain point to, as an expression of anti-Semitism, which in the main are legitimate criticism of Israel, have been said before in the last 50 years. The pro-Zionist lobby in Britain, under direct guidance from Israel, picks them up because the clear anti-Zionist stance of BDS has reached the upper echelons. They are genuinely terrified by this development. Well done the BDS movement! The reaction, one has to admit, is powerful and vicious. However, succumbing to it by suspending party members, firing student leaders and unnecessarily apologising for crimes not committed is not the right way to confront it. We are in a struggle for a free and democratic Palestine and Israel: fear of Zionist intimidation is not the way forward. The coming days will be very tough and we would need to be both patient and go back to the podium, the website, the radio and television and re-explain what for many of us is obvious: Zionism is not Judaism, and anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism. Zionism was not the antidote for Europes worst chapter of anti-Semitism: the Holocaust. Zionism was the wrong answer to that atrocity. In fact, when European leaders lended without hesitation their support for Zionism their motives in many cases were anti-Semitic. How else can one explain a Europe that stood by when the Nazi regime genocided the Jews and asked for forgiveness by supporting a new plan to get rid of the Jews by despatching them to colonise Palestine? No wonder this absurd logic did not kill the anti-Semitic impulse but rather kept it alive. However, these are bygones. Jewish settlers and native Palestinians share a land and will do so also in the future. The best way to fight anti-Semitism today is to turn this land into a free democratic state that is based as much as possible on just and equitable economic, social and political principles. This will be a complex, painful transformation of the present reality on the ground, and may take decades to implement. But it is urgent to begin talking about it clearly, without fear and unnecessary apologetics or false references to realpolitik. Jeremy Corbyn may find it difficult to educate his party of the need to adopt the honest and moral language about Palestine  and he has done so much for the cause that we have to be patient, even if some of his and his partys reactions are disappointing (although in any case, it is clear that the latest row in the Labour Party about anti-Semitism is mainly an attempt by the partys Blairites, who were always in the pocket of the Zionists, to undermine Corbyn as much as they are a desperate attempt by Israel to stop the massive shift against it in British public opinion). However, this is not the issue. What lies ahead is far more important than the domestic political scene in Britain. What really matters is to recognise that here in Britain, as well as in the USA, a new stage has begun in the struggle for peace, justice and reconciliation in Palestine. This is not a struggle that replaces the one on the ground, but it is the one that enhances and empowers it. In fact, what we are facing is a cluster of inevitable struggles: against legislators who are either intimidated or bribed by Israel; against judges and policemen who are forced to abide by new unjust and ridiculous laws that will condemn the BDS as anti-Semitism (and many of them we already know find these directives ridiculous); against university managements that will cower in the face of the intimidation and pressure; and against newspapers and broadcasting companies who will violate their ethical code and betray their professional commitments in the face of the new counter-attack. The struggle on the ground in Palestine is far more difficult, far more dangerous and demands heavy sacrifices none of us is asked to bear in the West. The least we can do is not be intimidated ourselves by absurd accusations and feel secure that in this era, the struggle against islamophobia, the evils of neoliberalism, for the rights of indigenous people around the world and for Palestine is the same struggle. This is not only a campaign of Muslims in Britain, Palestinian exiles in Europe, old leftists in America and anti-Zionists in Israel. It is part of a much larger movement of change that brought new parties to power in Greece, Spain and Portugal, new values into the Labour Party and different voices into the Democratic Party in America. We should not be worried by the new proposed legislation, the new police guidelines or the media hysteria. Even the cowardly behaviour by the Labour Party in its purge of councillors should not detract us from the achievements in the struggle over the public mind and heart over Palestine. Perspective is of essential importance right now. If Israel believes it can choose as an ambassador to London Mark Regev, the public face of its criminal policy in Gaza and get away with it, and the Israeli ambassador in Washington decides to fight against BDS by sending products from the occupied West Bank to every delegate and senator on Capitol Hill in strict violation of American laws, these are not proofs that Israel is invincible but rather that it is an imbecilic political system that fails to understand where history is taking us. Like any phobia, Palestinophobia can intimidate and paralyse, but it can also be successfully defeated, especially in this unique period we live in. We in the comfort zone of the West should not cower and not give in to false accusations of anti-Semitism by Anglo-Zionists, timid politicians and cynical journalists. It is time to fight back in court, in the square, in parliament and in the media. - Ilan Pappe is Professor of History, Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies and co-director for the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies at the University of Exeter.
The National Chairman, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Alhaji Kiruwa Zuru, has declared support for Federal Governments efforts to find a permanent solution to the recurring clashes between farmers and herdsmen.

Zuru, made the declaration in an interactive session with Journalists in Birnin Kebbi on Saturday.

The association has resolved to support any move that would bring permanent solution to the violence between communities and herdsmen, Zuru said.

However, he called on the Federal Government to hasten the creation and demarcation of grazing reserves and cattle ranches to control the movement of the herdsmen seeking pasture for their livestock.

In 1965, there were 485 grazing reserves out of which only 115 were functional; the remaining ones served as reserve forests.

We urge government to hasten converting them into grazing reserves, he said.

Zuru said that the Federal Polytechnic Birnin Kebbi, the state owned Sir Ahmadu Bello International Airport located in Ambursa and the Federal Capital Territory FCT Abuja were all demarcated as grazing reserves initially.

Meanwhile, no replacement has been provided since the take-over of these reserves for development.

He also lamented the incessant rustling of the herdsmens cattle by criminals, stressing that law abiding cattle breeders had lost an estimated 35 million Cows to cattle rustlers.

He also lamented that the perpetrators of the violent crisis in Enugu and Agatu area of Benue were yet to be identified and cautioned on the pointing of accusations at Fulani herdsmen.

We take exception to this; we need to unequivocally establish that Fulani herdsmen are the perpetrators.

If it is established, then, they should be prosecuted accordingly, he said.

Zuru said that the association, during recent meetings with the Service Chiefs, called for proper investigation and intelligence gathering to identify culprits to avoid clamping down on innocent herdsmen.

He called on the Federal Government to enhance the quality of existing grazing reserves by providing water and posture in order to curtail the movement of the herdsmen.

He also called for the establishment of a committee consisting of all tribes that would campaign on the importance of unity and peaceful coexistence.
In accordance with his wishes, revered Buddhist monk Fu Hou was mummified upon his death in 2012. But his companions at Chongfu Temple, in southeastern China, felt the need to do something more in order to commemorate his devotion to Buddhism. So they made the decision to cover his body in gold, an honor reserved for the holiest of men.

Born in 1919, Fu Hou began practicing Buddhism at the age of 13 and devoted his whole life to it, until his death at age 94. His peers and disciples remember him as a quiet, compassionate person who meticulously practiced his beliefs until the very end. Shortly before his death, he had expressed the desire for his body to be preserved. And after his passing, two mummification experts were brought in to wash, treat, and place his body in a sitting position inside a large pottery jar. Preservatives like Crushed charcoal and sandalwood were stuffed into the jar before being sealed shut.

The jar was opened in January this year during a special ceremony, four years after the mummification process, and Fu Hous body was found to be intact without any sign of deterioration, except for his dried out skin. This was a sign of Fu Hous purity, as it is believed that only a truly virtuous monk will remain intact long after his mummification.

The monks mummified body was washed, covered in layers of gauze and lacquer, and finally covered in a layer of gold leaf. Finally, the human gold statue was placed in a glass chamber protected by an anti-theft system, in the ancestral hall of shrines of Dongdan temple. Monk Fu Hou is now placed on the mountain for people to worship, said Li Ren, the temples head abbot. As bizarre as covering a mummified body into a gold statue to be worshiped may seem, its nothing compared to the ancient Sokushinbutsu self-mummification tradition practiced by Japanese Buddhist monks.

Oddity Central.
Cocoa Rallies as Rain Delays Cocoa Shipments to Ivory Coast Ports Barchart - 5 minutes ago December ICE NY cocoa (CCZ22 ) on Monday closed up +31 (+1.34%), and December ICE London cocoa #7 (CAZ22 ) closed up +23 (+1.18%). Cocoa prices Monday posted moderate gains on delays in the transportation... CCZ22 : 2,337s (+1.34%) CAH23 : 1,928s (+1.10%)

Sugar Prices Decline on the Outlook for Higher Global Production Barchart - 8 minutes ago March NY world sugar #11 (SBH23 ) on Monday closed down -0.25 (-1.36%), and Dec London white sugar #5 (SWZ22 ) closed down -6.80 (-1.28%). Sugar prices Monday closed moderately lower, with NY sugar dropping... SBH23 : 18.13s (-1.36%) SWZ22 : 526.20s (-1.28%)

Coffee Closes Lower on Outlook for Improved Global Coffee Production Barchart - 24 minutes ago December arabica coffee (KCZ22 ) on Monday closed down -0.50 (-0.26%), and Nov ICE Robusta coffee (RMX22 ) closed down -44 (-2.20%). Coffee prices on Monday closed moderately lower, with robusta posting... KCZ22 : 190.40s (-0.26%) RMF23 : 1,953s (-2.15%)

INDU ( $YM_F ) Forecasting The Rally After 3 Waves Correction Elliott Wave Forecast - 1 hour ago Hello fellow traders. In this article were going to take a quick look at the Elliott Wave charts of $YM_F, published in members area of the website. As our members know INDU ended cycle from the 34288...

BIST (XU100) May Drop at Any Time To Test Wave ((4)) Again Elliott Wave Forecast - Mon Oct 24, 12:15PM CDT The Borsa Istanbul (BIST or XU100) is the sole exchange entity of Turkey combining the former Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE), the Istanbul Gold Exchange and the Derivatives Exchange of Turkey under one...

Does WTI Crude have enough to take out resistance? TradeGuidance - Mon Oct 24, 12:01PM CDT We analyze the current back-and-forth price action with WTI Crude Oil CLZ22 : 84.82 (-0.27%)

Coffee Prices Slide as Supply Concerns Ease Barchart - Mon Oct 24, 11:51AM CDT December arabica coffee (KCZ22 ) this morning is down -0.90 (-0.47%), and Nov ICE Robusta coffee (RMX22 ) is down -41 (-2.05%). Coffee prices this morning are moderately lower, with robusta falling to... KCZ22 : 190.40s (-0.26%) RMF23 : 1,953s (-2.15%)

Bank of America ($BAC) Perfect Reaction Lower from Blue Box Area. Elliott Wave Forecast - Mon Oct 24, 11:50AM CDT Good day Traders and Investors. In todays article, we will look at the past performance of 4 Hour Elliottwave chart of Bank of America ($BAC). The decline from 08.16.2022 high is unfolding as a 5 swings...
The week ahead is looking to be a mixed bag: the Philippines heads to the presidential polls; economists head to Rwanda to discuss development in Africa, hedgies head to Las Vegas for the annual SALT conference and film glitterati head to the French Riviera for the Cannes International Film Festival. But there stands to be nonevents as well, if analysts views on the euro zone GDP release on Friday are any indication.

Monday, May 9: The U.S. is not the only nation with outsider candidates surging in the polls. As election day nears in the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, the mayor of Davao City, located on the southern island of Mindanao, has risen to the top with promises to eradicate governmental corruption. More controversially, he has also pledged to execute some 100,000 criminals and dump their bodies in the bay outside capital city Manila. He has tried to appeal to much of the electorate living abroad: the Philippines will be running polling stations in the United Arab Emirates to accommodate the large population of migrant workers there.

Tuesday, May 10: The annual SALT Conference, hosted by alternative investment firm SkyBridge Capital and held in Las Vegas annually since 2009, has become a tradition among hedge fund managers looking to blow off steam. This year there will be plenty of stress to relieve after the $55 billion New York City Employees Retirement System announced last month that it would liquidate its alternative investment allocations over concerns about fees and returns.

Wednesday, May 11: More than 30,000 film producers, directors, actors and other film professionals will descend on the French Riviera for the 2016 Cannes International Film Festival. Alongside young filmmakers making their first visit to the festival will be legendary directors such as Woody Allen, Jim Jarmusch and Pedro Almodovar screening new projects. The budget for the event comes out to roughly 20 million ($22.8 million), half of which comes from public sources by way of the National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image, an agency of the French Ministry of Culture.

Thursday, May 12: The 26th World Economic Forum on Africa will be held in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, providing global economic thought leaders the opportunity to meet to discuss how to encourage growth on the continent through increased investment. The event marks a proud moment for Rwanda as a host, signifying the nations recovery from its 1994 genocidal civil war and emergence as a vibrant regional economy.

Friday, May 13: Eurostat releases preliminary euro zone GDP data. Last week ECB President Mario Draghi defended the banks current rate and easing policies in response to heavy criticism from German officials. This past Tuesday, May 3, the European Commission lowered its 2016 growth forecast for the common currency from 1.7 percent to 1.6 percent.

Saturday, May 14: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art celebrate its reopening following a $350 million renovation that has made it the largest contemporary gallery space in the U.S. Gap Clothing co-founders Doris and the late Donald Fisher donated 260 works to the collection, including pieces by U.S. pop artists Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Financier and SFMOMA board chair Charles Schwab donated some 27 pieces as well, including works by Jackson Pollock.
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With several of its existing funds solidly in the black this year, the quant giant has raised money for a new macro fund.
Abuse of assignment of benefits (AOB) from water loss claims has become a full-blown Florida insurance crisis that will mean higher insurance rates next year and for the foreseeable future for every Florida policyholder, according to Citizens Property Insurance Corp. CEO Barry Gilway and Chief Risk Officer John Rollins.

We are going to have a round of rate increases from private carriers, said Rollins. South Florida will definitely have a rate increase. The question is more open in the rest of the state, but the trends are very disturbing.

Private insurer executives have echoed the warning and say hikes of as much as $1 billion will be needed.

The issue now most commonly referred to as just AOB took center stage at the Florida Association for Insurance Reforms conference on April 28. Several industry experts said AOB is no longer just a problem for Citizens, the state-backed property insurer, and maintained the impact will go far beyond rates if the crisis isnt addressed. The overall Florida market will also suffer, especially if the state is hit by a serious catastrophe.

What you've seen is a situation where a flu in South Florida is turning into a pandemic for the rest of the state.

[AOB] is also trickling into the reinsurance pricing, Bruce Lucas, chairman & CEO of Heritage Insurance said at the FAIR event. The number one question asked of us by reinsurers is, What are you doing about AOB? because after a storm, it could be a big issue.

Citizens, which has seen AOB claims skyrocket, was the first to highlight the issue in its rate filing last summer. Now the insurer is re-tooling its efforts to combat the AOB abuse in light of Florida lawmakers failure to enact a legislative solution.

By law, Citizens can only raise rates by up to 10 percent per year. But in parts of the state where AOB abuse has been rampant  namely the tri-county area of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties  Citizens said actuarially sound rate increases should be as high as 189 percent. In other parts of the state Citizens had expected to decrease rates by about 10 percent, but that is no longer the case.

Gilway said private carriers that are also experiencing a significant rise in AOB claims have more options than Citizens has. Private insurers options include raising rates by as much as 15 percent without Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) approval, or withdrawing from or eliminating zip codes where the abuse is rampant  such as in the tri-county region.

If that happens, Gilway and Rollins said the result would be a market availability crisis, and the depopulation efforts that have brought down Citizens policy count in the last several years will be completely reversed.

The implications of that for us are huge. We are statutorily required to write business in tri-county, so if no one else is writing it, those policies come to us, Gilway said.

Carrier executives on a panel at FAIRs recent conference echoed the sentiments that this is no longer just a Citizens problem.

We will be raising rates by about 5 percent this year because of AOB, said Locke Burt, chairman and president of Security First Insurance.

This is a $1 billion issue  a billion dollars in rate increases this year to the consumer. We can write against it, we can shut down zip codes, we can take action. Citizens cant do that, said Lucas of Heritage Insurance.

Education efforts by Citizens, as well as industry and consumer groups, are helping to raise awareness of the issue but may be having a negative impact in the short term. Severity of claims and AOB lawsuits are still increasing, Gilway said. In fact, Citizens had 1,000 suits in March alone  the highest monthly number over the last two years.

It appears to be a run on the bank scenario with the attorneys saying, I need to get my suit in now, Gilway said. We were seeing about 620 suits a month in the last two years. During that same period our policy count dropped by two-thirds, so you would expect to see a decrease in the number of suits.

Gilway said private insurers are having similar results  with some reporting 12 to 14 new suits a day. As of right now the problem is getting worse and not better, he said.

Results of a data call performed by OIR earlier this year found that frequency of water loss claims has increased by 46 percent and severity has increased by 28 percent since 2010. OIRs report concluded that water loss claims, exacerbated by assignment of benefits, are driving higher rates in South Florida and increasingly across the state.

Outgoing Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty emphasized the effects the AOB issue is having on the Florida insurance market, and ultimately on consumers.

This is a true victimization of homeowners  now everyone else is going to have increased costs. Thats exactly where we dont want to be, McCarty said. We have to have a broad public policy conversation on what can be done.

Legislative Response

Rollins and Gilway agree a legislative solution is the only way to really stop the abuse. However, the effort put forth in the just-ended Florida session fell apart for the fourth year in a row.

Gilway said the reason for that was twofold: lobbying efforts by water remediation companies and contractors, as well as law firms currently benefitting from the AOB provision; and the insurance industrys inability to reach a consensus on what needs to be done to combat the problem.

We got out-lobbied, there is no question. But the other issue is the industry itself  we are not on the same page, Gilway said. There is a lot of work to be done to pull the industry together.

Specifically, Gilway said, State Farm walked away because the insurer said Floridas one-way attorney fee shifting statute blamed for the AOB abuse was not being corrected. Floridas statute allows policyholders, or in the case of an AOB by a policyholder, to recover their attorney fees upon the successful completion of coverage litigation.

Because its a one-way fee shift, if an insurer wins a claim suit it cannot collect its legal fees from policyholders. In other words, claimants have nothing to lose by filing suit. Gilway says State Farm didnt want the Legislature to pass a bill unless it was a comprehensive reform measure that addressed the statute.

As long as you have a statute in place that basically says any contractor on behalf of the insured can sue the insurance company, and when that happens if we pay $1 dollar more than the original estimate the insurance company is responsible for all of the attorney fees, its a no-lose proposition for the trial bar, Gilway said.

There may be hope for next year. State Senator Jeff Brandes said his colleagues are finally recognizing AOB abuse as a crisis. What started as water claims in one part of the state is now spreading to roofing claims in other areas, and what is meant to be a consumer protection is now having the opposite effect.

What youve seen is a situation where a flu in South Florida is turning into a pandemic for the rest of the state, Brandes said. Its risen to the level now where lawmakers are starting to hear that policies are going back into Citizens and that companies are simply not writing in the tri-county area. You are going to see a substantial shift now in policymakers thinking.

Brandes said ideas that have generated some support involve moving towards a managed repair model, that would be similar to the health insurance market where consumers can choose between an HMO or PPO. In this case, policyholders would have a contractor list to choose from for a water loss claim to get a lower rate on their policy.

It might be a solution that drives down costs and allows consumers to have a choice, Brandes said. At the end of the day, this is really a contract between insurance companies and the consumer, so to have a lower rate you would have a defined list of contractors to choose from, and thats a choice the consumer is making. As long as it is well-disclosed and people are upfront about it, its a fair way to do it.

The AOB issue really highlights the need for a discussion of what the future of Florida insurance looks like and I think the HMO/PPO model really creates an interesting discussion, he added.

Brandes said he doesnt know yet if he will sponsor legislation around the issue in the next session, but before anything can happen the industry needs to come together on a solution.

They need to sing it as a chorus, but [so far] theres been a lot of solo acts, Brandes said. At the end of the day, we are hearing the coalescing around a number of ideas that we can begin to support.

Whether that will translate into action next session, however, remains to be seen.

In the Meantime

Citizens launched a policyholder education campaign earlier this year called Call Citizens First to encourage policyholders to reach out to the insurer or their agent when water loss first occurs. Gilway said that today, the average claim comes in 33 days after the event, making it very difficult for the insurer to adequately assess the claim and leading to increased costs. He said by the time Citizens is made aware of a water loss claim in those cases, 90 percent of them already have representation.

Rollins said the severity of the cost of the claim at least doubles when it is litigated.

If you are on the other side of this process as a plumber, water remediator or attorney, you are potentially generating four times the marketplace for yourself by taking a natural claim that is maybe $8,000 and making it a $35,000 claim, Rollins said.

CITIZEN FORM CHANGES To ensure that Citizens has the opportunity to confirm coverage and inspect damage, additional permanent repairs can only begin after the earliest of: 72 hours after Citizens is notified, after Citizens inspects the damage, or after Citizens approves (either verbally or in writing) the repairs. Note that these policy contract changes DO NOT require that a loss be reported within 72 hours.

Permanent repairs performed earlier than 72-hours after Citizens is notified of the loss, earlier than the time of loss inspection by Citizens, or earlier than the time of other approval by Citizens will not be covered, except in the case for reasonable emergency measures.

Reasonable emergency measures are defined as measures policyholders must take to prevent further damage to their property.

Reasonable emergency measures may not exceed the greater of $3,000 or 1 percent of the Coverage A limit, unless the policyholder receives approval from Citizens first

Under Coverage C  personal property of water or steam is not covered

Replacement of water in a swimming pool is covered when there is a covered loss or damage to the swimming pool

Collapse coverage more explicitly states that coverage for collapse of a building does not include coverage for collapse of plumbing that results from age, deterioration or maintenance

Language clarifying what perils are insured against, including additional details to better describe collapse when addressing collapse coverage

Clarifies that coverage is provided for necessary access to repair only the portion or part of the plumbing system that caused a covered loss in the event of accidental discharge of water or steam

Citizens has no duty to provide coverage if failure to comply with duties after loss is prejudicial to Citizens. *The form changes have been updated from an earlier version of this story.

The insurer recently implemented other changes in an attempt to curb the problem. OIR has approved form filings by Citizens that includes new policy language as related to water loss reporting (see box).

In his last interview with Insurance Journal as the Florida Insurance Commissioner, McCarty said OIR worked with Citizens to refine the language in its policies so what has always been intended is spelled out in the contract. It is important to note that this is not a cutting of benefits, he said.

McCarty said OIR has been encouraging other insurers in the state to look at the Citizens filings and submit their own changes. As of the end of April, 13 other companies had done me too filings.

McCarty said OIR is not requiring insurers to make a rate filing to accomplish this form change. We dont see this as a rate change, he said at the recent FAIR conference. We are making sure the insurance company has the ability to do what its responsibility is to do under the contract, which is to inspect the claim.

Communication between the policyholder, insurer and agent is key, Gilway and Rollins said, and they say Citizens has to do a better job ensuring that happens.

Its focus now is making policyholders aware of the form changes and the importance of contacting the insurer when a claim occurs, but Gilway said the company needs help from the more than 8,000 agents it has in the state. He said right now most agents are not involved when a policyholder has a water loss and AOB, and are as surprised as Citizens when a suit is filed.

Agents, he said, have to play a much more significant role in getting the word out.

Rollins said the involvement of the agent community will be the difference between success and failure with Citizens current efforts.

They are the ones policyholders turn to, he said. We need a ground game to succeed and thats where the agents come in. We all have to get on the same page.

Related:

Topics Lawsuits Carriers Florida Legislation Agencies Claims Profit Loss Contractors Property Market
Facebook Inc. users who say the social networks facial scanning flouts their privacy rights won the first round of a court fight.

A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday rejected Facebooks request to throw out a lawsuit alleging the company secretly amassed the worlds largest privately held database of consumer biometric data.

The dispute is over technology introduced in 2010 that allows users to identify people they recognize in photos using a tool that automatically matches names to faces on pictures uploaded to the social media site.

Citing an Illinois law, subscribers alleged they never gave Facebook permission to use their faces as biometric identifiers, while the company countered that all users could opt out at any time. Facebook also argued that information derived from photographs wasnt covered by the law.

Facebook had no immediate comment on Thursdays ruling.

Lawyers for the users said the decision is an important step towards protecting the privacy rights of consumers.

We look forward to the continued prosecution of the action, and ultimately proving our case at trial, according to a joint statement by law firms Edelson PC, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP and Labaton Sucharow.

47 States

California is one of 47 states without laws regulating the use of biometrics and facial recognition technology. Only Illinois, Texas and Connecticut have passed such measures. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act of 2008 is the only law that allows companies to be sued for failing to get consent from consumers.

Google has also been sued for allegedly violating the same law.

The Facebook litigation started as three separate lawsuits in Chicago that were moved to San Francisco and consolidated into a single case.

Facebook argued the case had to be dismissed because the attempt to enforce Illinois law runs afoul of its user agreement that requires disputes to be resolved under the laws of California, where its based.

U.S. District Judge James Donato rejected that argument.

Complete Negation

Illinois will suffer a complete negation of its biometric privacy protections for its citizens if California law is applied, he wrote. In contrast, California law and policy will suffer little, if anything at all, if the Illinois law is applied.

Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum in San Diego, said the judges ruling is a significant win for consumers.

Thats a huge victory because what that will say is that state law will be applicable in cases where a national company attempts to try cases in their own state without applying all states laws, she said in an interview before Thursdays ruling.

The case is In re Facebook Biometric Information Privacy Litigation, 3:15-cv-03747, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco)

Related:

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics California Claims Illinois
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.
Panoramica privacy

Questo sito web utilizza i cookies per fornire all'utente la miglior esperienza di navigazione possibile. L'informazione dei cookie e memorizzata nel browser dell' utente, svolge funzioni di riconoscimento quando l' utente ritorna nel sito e permette di sapere quali sezioni del sito sono ritenute piu interessanti e utili.
What Is Universal Basic Income (UBI)?

Universal basic income (UBI) is a government program in which every adult citizen receives a set amount of money regularly. The goals of a basic income system are to alleviate poverty and replace other need-based social programs that potentially require greater bureaucratic involvement. The idea of universal basic income has gained momentum in the U.S. as automation increasingly replaces workers in manufacturing and other sectors of the economy.

Key Takeaways The idea of providing a regular, guaranteed payment to citizens, regardless of need, has been around for centuries.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang made universal basic income a key pillar of his 2020 campaign, which helped shine a national spotlight on the issue.

UBI proposals vary in size, although Yangs plan would give every American adult $1,000 per month from the federal government.

One of the core criticisms of basic income is the cost, with some plans representing more than half of the entire federal budget.

Understanding Universal Basic Income (UBI)

The idea of providing a basic income to all members of society goes back centuries. The 16th century English philosopher and statesman Thomas More mentions the idea in his best-known work, Utopia.

Thomas Paine, a pamphleteer whose ideas helped spur the American Revolution, proposed a tax plan in which revenues would provide a stream of government income to every person, rich or poor.

And Martin Luther King, Jr., proposed guaranteed income in his book Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? published in 1967.

While the federal government provides financial support for low-income Americans through the earned income tax credit (EIC), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and other programs, a system of universal income has never taken hold in the United States.

However, the concept has risen to the national consciousness in recent years. Much of this renewed interest has to do with fundamental changes to the economynamely, the growth of automationthat threatens to leave many Americans without jobs that pay a subsistence wage.

The American Rescue Plan, signed by President Biden on March 11, 2021, includes generous tax breaks to low- and moderate-income people. For 2021 only, the size of the earned-income tax credit will increase for childless households. The maximum credit amount for childless people increases to $1,502, from $543. The age range has also been expanded. People without children will be able to claim the credit beginning at age 19, instead of 25, except certain full-time students (students between 19 and 24 with at least half a full-time course load are ineligible). The upper age limit, 65, will be eliminated. For single filers, the phaseout percentage (for the credit) is increased to 15.3% and phaseout amounts are increased to $11,610 (the maximum earned income).

A 2019 report by the Brookings Institution, for example, found that one-quarter of all U.S. jobs are susceptible to automation. The researchers argue that roles involving more routine tasks, such as those in manufacturing, transportation, office administration, and food preparation, are most vulnerable.

Supporters of universal basic income believe a guaranteed payment from the government can help ensure that those who are left behind by this economic transformation avoid poverty. Even if government-sourced income isnt enough to live on, it could theoretically supplement the income from the lower-wage or part-time jobs they are still able to obtain.

Proponents also believe that a universal payment system would make it easier for people to receive assistance who are in need but have trouble qualifying for other government programs. Some Americans seeking disability insurance payments, for example, may lack access to the healthcare system, thereby hindering their ability to verify their impediment.

Political Support for UBI

Many of UBIs supporters come from the more liberal end of the political spectrum, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and past head of the influential Service Employees International Union, Andy Stern.

However, support for a government-supplied income stream has been endorsed by several prominent figures on the right as well.

Among them is the late conservative economist Milton Friedman, who suggested that private charitable contributions arent enough to alleviate the financial strain many Americans endure.

In 1962s Capitalism and Freedom, he argued that a negative income taxessentially a UBIwould help overcome a mindset where citizens arent inclined to make sacrifices if they dont believe others will follow suit. We might all of us be willing to contribute to the relief of poverty, provided everyone else did, he wrote.

Libertarian philosopher Charles Murray believes that guaranteed income would also cut government bureaucracy. He has proposed a $10,000-per-year UBI, as well as basic health insurance, which he says would allow the government to cut Social Security and other redistribution programs.

Momentum for UBI

Universal basic income received considerable attention during the first stage of the 2020 presidential campaign after entrepreneur and former Democratic candidate Andrew Yang made the idea a cornerstone of his campaign. Yangs Freedom Dividend, as he called it, would give every American over the age of 18 a $1,000 check every month. Those enrolled in federal assistance programs could continue to receive those payments or opt for the Freedom Dividend instead.

Yang contended that the labor force participation ratethat is, the percentage of Americans who were working or looking for workwas at its lowest in decades. The Freedom Dividend would provide money to cover the basics for Americans while enabling us to look for a better job, start our own business, go back to school, take care of our loved ones or work towards our next opportunity, his campaign website noted.

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yangs $1,000-a-month "Freedom Dividend" would cost roughly 50% of the federal governments projected budget for 2021.

President Biden's American Rescue Plan, signed on March 11, 2021, was a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. Its benefits included another round of stimulus payments for every qualified adult in the U.S. This time, the stimulus payments will be in the amount of $1,400 for most recipients. Eligible taxpayers will also receive an identical payment for each of their children. To be eligible, a single taxpayer must have an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or below. For married couples filing jointly, that number has to be $150,000 or below, and for heads of household, adjusted gross income must be $112,500 or below.

Pope Francis, a staunch advocate of the disenfranchised, has framed the issue in moral terms. In an Easter 2020 letter, the pontiff wrote the following of a universal basic wage: It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.

Criticism of UBI

Despite its promise to curtail poverty and cut red tape, universal basic income still faces an uphill battle. Perhaps the most glaring downside is cost. According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Andrew Yangs $1,000-a-month Freedom Dividend for every adult would cost $2.8 trillion each year (minus any offsets from the consolidation of other programs).

Yang proposed covering that substantial expense, in part, by shrinking the size of other social programs and imposing a 10% value-added tax (VAT) on businesses. He also proposes ending the cap on Social Security payroll taxes and putting in place a tax on carbon emissions that would contribute to his guaranteed income plan.

Whether that set of proposals is enough to fully offset the cost of the Freedom Dividend remains a contentious issue, however. An analysis by the Tax Foundation concluded that Yangs revenue-generating ideas would only cover about half its total impact on the Treasury.

Among the other criticisms of UBI is the argument that an income stream thats not reliant on employment would create a disincentive to work. That, too, has been a subject of debate. Yang has suggested that his plan to provide $12,000 a year wouldnt be enough to live on. Therefore, the vast majority of adults would need to supplement the payment with other income.

The Bottom Line

Recent studies suggest only a weak link between UBI and joblessness. A 2016 analysis by researchers from MIT and Harvard, for example, found that cash transfer programs in the developing world had little recognizable impact on employment behavior.

However, theres little evidence to suggest that replacing traditional welfare payments with a universal basic income would actually increase employment, as some of its proponents suggest. A recent two-year experiment in Finland where universal basic income effectively replaced unemployment benefits concluded that UBI recipients were no more likely to find new employment than the control group.
I continue to be amazed our Irish caretaker governments pursuit of policies that will ensure the continuing erosion of their public support.

Last week the government announced a disastrous plan to divert 12 million from crucial mental health services to other areas of the executive.

The Irish Minister for Health Leo Varadkar, who put forward the proposal, was briefly present for the poorly attended start of the announcement but he left during the session. The chamber was almost empty for the entire proceedings.

The message from the government could not be clearer: you can skip crucial ministerial debates about mental health in Ireland without consequence.

But this official indifference isnt just lamentable, its insufferable. More than one in 10 people in Ireland are affected by depression and 10 people commit suicide there each week. If you thought that these obvious crisis statistics would inspire a strong national response you would be wrong.

Although suicide rates among young men and women in Ireland are now alarmingly high the government is sending the message that its simply not a priority for them.

The pain of ordinary Irish people, daily afflicted by issues of unemployment, emigration, or the social isolation that often comes with poverty, are literally of no concern to them. So they dont show up in chamber and the mental health services of the country can literally take a number. There are more important places our elected representatives had to be that day apparently.

The optics of the empty chamber riveted social media sites like Twitter, of course. But callous disregard for mental health is really nothing new in Ireland.

In 1735 the master satirist Jonathan Swift bequeathed his life savings to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of Dublin for the foundation of a Hospital for Lunatics. His motive for doing so was contained in one of his own poems: To show by one satiric touch/ No nation needed it so much

In terms of how we treat the vulnerable though, things really havent much improved since Swifts time, a fact that was underlined for me on a recent visit to Dublin where, on a walk through the inner city I came upon Hawkins House. Constructed in 1962, the building is a mid century brutalist folly, widely considered to be one of the worst buildings in Dublins inner city.

I was dumbstruck by its state of near dereliction now. It looks like it could collapse at any moment, it looks like it should be condemned. Upon my return to the US this month I read that it actually will be condemned: demolished to make way for a new building on the same site, which will cost around 50 million euro RTE News reported.

I bring it up because the crumbling Hawkins House is home to the Irish Department of Health. Hows about that for an example of fine Irish irony?

During the Celtic Tiger years, when the city and the country embarked the greatest property development kick in its history, our government, in their wisdom, refrained from investing in national infrastructure or public health. Buildings like Hawkins House were left to deteriorate.

But there are other ironies to consider: whilst the departments replacement building is under construction its 400 staff will temporarily move into to the former Bank of Ireland headquarters on Baggot Street.

As they settle into their temporary digs I wonder if they will have time to reflect on how Bank of Ireland was one of the three central players in the 2008 banking crisis that helped upend the Irish economy and cost each taxpayer in the country an estimated 18,000 euro each?

The Irish banking crisis, youll remember, stemmed from the collapse of the Irish property sector and the consequent contraction in national output.

Inadequate risk management practices at the main Irish banks and the failure of the Irish financial regulator to supervise these practices effectively led to a shattering crisis. What followed was one of the most severe banking and economic collapses in a developed country since the great depression.

Soon after the Irish people had their fingers forcibly pressed down on the fiery braille of the IMF. Theyre still paying for the hard lesson, of course. Theyll be paying for years to come. And those lamentable developments have adversely affected millions of Irish lives, making mental health issues one area that our government really should have been more sensitive too.

We are where we are however. The governments cold indifference to the plight of the nation's most vulnerable is just another manifestation of an increasingly obvious leadership malaise, one that goes right to the heart of the Irish body politic: our insular and parochial 19 century political model is not fit for purpose in the communal and interconnected 21.

As our ministers balance thorny questions of their own power they give no countenance at all to the powerless. In fact they treat them as a symptom of the very condition they hope to escape. No wonder they run in the other direction.
By his brave gesture in refusing to endorse Donald Trump right away Paul Ryan has done the Republican Party a great service.

This is a Joe Mccarthy moment for the GOP, a have you no shame moment for the proud party of Abraham Lincoln, and Paul Ryan alone among its leadership has understood that.

Those siding with Trump are signing up with a racist bully, backed by the Ku Klux Klan, who will do anything and say anything to get elected. Ryan sees that clearly.

The Irish American speaker from Wisconsin has shown the way forward for his party to avoid armageddon with Trump at the controls .

Trump has little or no sense of how far off the balance beam he has fallen.On Thursday, Cinco De Mayo, he was pictured eating a tortilla and sent a tweet that read "Happy Cinco de Mayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill,"adding, "I love Hispanics!"

After months of slamming and slandering Hispanics this is his idea of ethnic outreach?

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016

The distress signals from Ryan to this point have been clear but have been missed by Trump and others including the party elders.

Here is what Ryan recently told The New York Times:

After Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, Ryan strongly disagreed. This is not conservatism, Ryan said. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly, its not what this country stands for.

He also criticized Trump for declining to distance himself from the former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games,

They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry, he told the Times. This party does not prey on peoples prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln.

This is fundamental, Ryan added at the time. And if someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this. I hope this is the last time I need to speak out on this race.

Banning Muslims (would that include Sadiq Khan, the human rights lawyer and MP who is the next Mayor of London?) and failing to indict the Ku Klux Klan, teeing off on immigrants, Trump has laid a dirty trail of destruction down for his party. Trump is now so far right he has practically donned a Klan hood.

On Thursday Ryan spoke out fearlessly and fiercely. "I'm just not ready to do that at this point. I'm not there right now," the Wisconsin Republican told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" in an interview when asked if he would endorse.

He (Trump) also inherits something very special, that's very special to a lot of us. This is the party of Lincoln and Reagan and Jack Kemp. And we don't always nominate a Lincoln or a Reagan every four years, but we hope that our nominee aspires to be Lincoln- or Reagan-esque -- that that person advances the principles of our party and appeals to a wide, vast majority of Americans."

Trump struck back saying in effect he was not going to accept Paul Ryans agenda either but this represents a severe blow to Trump.

So many great endorsements yesterday, except for Paul Ryan! We must put America first and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016

Neither of the Bush presidents will endorse him, now Paul Ryan the most popular GOP leader has also refused.

Trump is emerging into the light and away from the fever swamp that was the Republican primary race. Suddenly what seemed logical and real in an extreme right-wing primary race seems utterly out of step with the rest of America.

Already down 13 points in a CNN poll and shipping water, Trump even at this early stage is a desperate and dangerous politician.

We can only hope his venom and racism will not be allowed seep any further into US politics. Paul Ryan sees the contender has no clothes and is unafraid to shout it. Would it be too much to ask if other commentators and politicians would show the same gumption?
The new health minister has urged those involved in a row over the relocation of the national maternity hospital to put their egos aside and sort out their differences.

Holles Street and St Vincents hospital are at odds over governance issues that re overshadowing the planned 150m relocation.

The hospital is moving from its current building at Holles Street, as the premises is no longer fit for purpose.

Speaking to East Coast FM, Minister Harris said he won't allow the need for a new maternity hospital to be jeopardised by rows: My message very clearly to anyone involved in this row that I am reading about in the papers, put your egos to one side, get in a room and sort this out.

This cannot be tied up in bureaucracy.

What I will not do is allow the possibility of delivering a new maternity hospital to be jeopardised by rows over governance and fiefdom.

Simon Harris is describing his new Ministry for Health as the greatest challenge of his life.

He says health needs a long term plan, with political consensus.

Speaking to East Coast FM, Minister Harris said getting it right is one of the biggest challenges facing Ireland: I expect to be held to account by the Dail, I expect to be questioned, I expect to be put under pressure.

I expect to be an accountable Minister for Health.

We need a political consensus around health, we need all of our politicians to come together. Lets accept that getting the health service right is one of the greatest societal challenges this country faces and lets get all our politicians to get together and try and come up with a plan.

Holles Street and St Vincents hospital are at odds over governance issues that re overshadowing the planned 150 million euro relocation.

The hospital is moving from its current building at Holles Street, as the premises is no longer fit for purpose.

Speaking to East Coast FM, Minister Harris said he won't allow the need for a new maternity hospital to be jeopardised by rows: My message very clearly to anyone involved in this row that I am reading about in the papers, put your egos to one side, get in a room and sort this out.

This cannot be tied up in bureaucracy.

What I will not do is allow the possibility of delivering a new maternity hospital to be jeopardised by rows over governance and fiefdom.

Simon Harris is describing his new Ministry for Health as the greatest challenge of his life.

He says health needs a long term plan, with political consensus.

Speaking to East Coast FM, Minister Harris said getting it right is one of the biggest challenges facing Ireland: I expect to be held to account by the Dail, I expect to be questioned, I expect to be put under pressure.

I expect to be an accountable Minister for Health.

We need a political consensus around health, we need all of our politicians to come together. Lets accept that getting the health service right is one of the greatest societal challenges this country faces and lets get all our politicians to get together and try and come up with a plan.
Sadiq Khan's journey from bus driver's son to London's first Muslim mayor started in Tooting and made a stop at Westminster before arriving at his new City Hall headquarters.

The 45-year-old is the proud son of a Pakistani immigrant who drove the capital's big red beasts for 25 years, and he poked fun at himself during his campaign for mentioning the fact a lot.

His past is a story of social mobility; he grew up on a Tooting housing estate and was state-educated locally before becoming a human rights lawyer with his own firm.

Starting out in local politics in the 1990s, the married father of two became London's first Muslim MP when he was elected as the member for Tooting in 2005.

A stint in Gordon Brown's short-lived administration followed, first as communities minister and then as transport minister - becoming the first Muslim to attend Cabinet.

After the Coalition victory in 2010, he became a member of Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet, first as shadow transport secretary and then as shadow justice secretary - a post he held until last year's election defeat and Miliband's resignation.

Following that loss, Khan earned the admiration and the opprobrium of his Labour colleagues when he nominated Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership campaign and sparking a chain of events that led the latter to lead the party.

Khan won the party nomination in September, comfortably defeating opponents including the Blairite former Olympics minister Tessa Jowell and current shadow international development minister Diane Abbott by scooping up significant backing from the influx of party activists thought to have been attracted by Mr Corbyn's policies.

However, Khan's mayoral bid would later see him distance himself from the party leader he nominated just months earlier as internal rows over the party's direction developed.

His fight to win London's top job was not straight-forward, coming after back-to-back victories for Conservative Boris Johnson in what is traditionally a Labour city, and he built a campaign based on issues including affordable housing and travel.

The campaign run by his only real rival, Tory Zac Goldsmith, attracted controversy after it tried to link him to extremists as he stood in a city hit by a deadly Islamist suicide terror attack just 11 years previously.

Prime Minister David Cameron got involved, accusing Mr Khan in the House of Commons of repeatedly appearing on platforms alongside Islamist extremists.

Mr Goldsmith's campaign, run by Sir Lynton Crosby's communications firm CTF Comms, came under fire from Labour and even from within the Tory Party for its negative campaigning and focus on Mr Khan's Muslim heritage.

Last month, Mr Khan said he was determined to be "a mayor for all Londoners" and said he was "disappointed" that Mr Goldsmith had chosen to fight a campaign that he said was "negative (and) divisive and has become increasingly desperate".

He told the Press Association: "I'm the only candidate who, when he first stood for Parliament, had extremists protesting against him outside mosques I had worshipped in all my life, because I was going to stand for what they called 'man-made law'.

"I was called an apostate for wanting to be an MP. Extremists were telling people in Tooting, if you're a Muslim and vote for me, you're going to hell.

"I'm the only candidate who voted for same-sex marriage, equality, and had a fatwa against me, and had to discuss with my daughters police protection.

"Anybody who knows me and knows about me should be quite clear what my stance is in relation to these issues and I think to try to make political points out of what are serious issues is disappointing."

Mr Khan was also one of the first Labour MPs to call for Ken Livingstone's removal from the party last week over his controversial claim that Hitler supported Zionism, telling the Press Association that there should be "no place in the Labour Party for anyone with these views".
Shares in IHG fell as much as 2.5% in early trading, making the stock one of the initial top losers on Britains Ftse 100 index.

I think RevPAR was a bit below our expectations of about 2% and we expect shares to be a touch weaker, Berenberg analyst, Stuart Gordon, said.
LN Gaiety Holdings  the joint venture between international promoter Live Nation and Mr Desmonds Gaiety Investments vehicle  has a 26% holding in UK live venue owner Academy Music Group (AMG).

Latest accounts for AMG show that it paid out 13.64m (17.26m) in dividends last year.

Through his share in LN Gaiety Holdings, Mr Desmond  who also heads up MCD Productions here  is estimated to have received around 4.5m of that total.

Last year was a bumper one for AMG, with revenues increasing by 11% to 35.7m. Pre-tax profits increased marginally to nearly 6.1m.

AMG has been generous in the dividends paid to its owners over recent years, paying out 40.44m between 2011 and 2015. No dividend was paid out in 2014, while 17m was paid out in 2013.

Numbers employed by the group last year increased from 260 to 299, with staff costs increasing from 6.2m to 7m. The companys balance sheet remains very strong, with accumulated profits of 25.86m and cash of 9.7m.

The profits last year take account of operating lease rentals of 2.2m and non-cash depreciation costs of 2.26m.

Academy Music is the leading owner and operator of live music venues in the UK through its stewardship of such venues as the Shepherds Bush O2 Empire and Brixton Academy in London.

Mr Desmonds Irish MCD business is not required to file annual accounts as it has unlimited status.
Its a seeming contradiction that makes sense if you are in Scotland, where nationalists hopes for independence remain undimmed by the referendum they lost less than two years ago, when Scots voted 55% to 45% in favour of remaining part of the UK.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party has enjoyed a surge in support since that failed plebiscite and enjoyed further success in this weeks UK regional elections. That may pave the way for some tactical voting in June.

Scottish independence is still very much on the political agenda; polls taken this year asking how people would currently vote still show the separatists lagging, though their shortfall is now consistently about half what it was at the actual vote.

The SNPs membership has quadrupled since the independence vote, and it won all but three of the 59 Scottish seats in the UK parliament in last years national elections.

Understandably, the separatists have no intention of holding a second referendum on independence unless they think they can win it.

Their best chance would be for the UK to shun the EU, allowing Scotlands nationalists to argue that the only way for pro-EU Scotland to retain its EU membership is to split from the rest of the UK.

Capitalising on a Brexit is one thing; helping to bring one about is quite another for proud Scots, as I learned during a visit to Plockton, a fishing village in the Scottish Highlands 460 miles from London.

Plocktons electoral region voted 53% to 47% against independence. But in last years national election, a 33% swing to the SNP saw the former Liberal Democrat leader, the late Charles Kennedy, ousted from the seat hed held since 1983.

Ian Begg, a retired Edinburgh architect who now lives in a traditional Scottish tower house he built for himself overlooking Loch Carron, says that while the June vote offers an opportunity to hasten a second plebiscite on independence, such devious thinking doesnt sit well with him or his fellow SNP members.

That kind of tactical voting is not part of our culture, said Mr Begg, seated at a corner table in the bustling Plockton Inn pub.

A sticker on the 90-year olds car proclaims him to be a Pict, the name the Romans bestowed on Scotlands indigenous population as early as AD 297  the Gaelic equivalent of a confederate flag sticker on a Texan bumper, though signalling tribalism rather than anything racist.

Mr Begg, like many Scots, combines a fierce national pride that demands freedom from decision-making in London with a desire to remain part of the European project which, as he passionately argues, was kindled in the flames of war and remains the best bulwark against future military conflagrations.

Polls suggest that only about 20% of Scots are in favour of abandoning the EU, compared with about 40% for the U.K. as a whole.

Almost half of Scotlands exports go to the EU, worth about 13bn, with less than a fifth heading to North America, the second-biggest single destination. The UK as a whole ships a bit less than 45% of its exports to the European bloc.

Perversely, Scottish exports would almost definitely enjoy a one-time boost if the UK votes to leave.

Longer term, though, nationalists have a strong post-Brexit case that Scotland would be better off using the euro as its currency, given the increased volatility the pound is likely to suffer as the UK spends years untangling itself from the bloc and trying to negotiate new trading agreements.

The official SNP position is to support the campaign to remain in the EU. In October, though, party leader Nicola Sturgeon said a UKvote to quit would inspire demands for a second Scottish referendum that would be probably unstoppable.

And Gordon Wilson, a former SNP leader, said in January that he was considering voting strategically in June based on how Scotland can better achieve independence.
The number of male claimants on the Live Register decreased by 26,792, or 12.9%, to 181,512 in the year to April while female claimants fell by 10,974, or 8.1%, to 124,273.

While the number of long-term claimants  those on the register for more than a year  remains high at 138,222, it is still 20,266, or 12.8%, fewer than 12 months earlier.

The CSO also provided details of the number of welfare claimants availing of the Governments job activation programmes which are particularly aimed at the long-term unemployed. It said there are currently 79,906 people on such programmes, 9,798 fewer than a year ago.

People who used to work in the craft and related sectors are the biggest group on the Live Register, representing one in five claimants, though the CSO pointed out that the number in the group fell over the year by 9,469 or 13.9% to 58,899.

The second largest annual percentage decrease was in the plant and machine operatives group, which decreased by 12.1%, it said.

The two smallest occupational groups in April were the associate professional and technical and the managers and administrators groups which accounted for 2.9% and 4.5% of the Live Register respectively.

The CSO also analysed age groups on the Live Register and found the rate of decrease in claimants has been highest among young people.

It said the number of people under 25 claiming the dole has fallen by 8,916 or 19.4% compared to a fall of 28,850 or 9.7% for those over the age of 25. As of April, Irish nationals accounted for 82.8%, or 253,051, of the total people on the Live Register.

Of the 52,734 non-Irish nationals, the largest constituent group was nationals from the EU15 to EU28 states (30,066), followed by Britain (11,535).

There were 23,671 new registrants on the Live Register in April 2016, consisting of 10,242 Jobseekers Benefit claims; 12,270 Jobseekers Allowance claims; and 1,159 other registrants.

On average, 3,061 men and 2,857 women were new registrants on the Live Register each week of the month.
The woman and the son are suing a private adoption organisation over what they say were fraudulent documents stating the baby was the natural child of the couple who brought up the boy.

They are also suing the Adoption Authority of Ireland (AAI) and the State claiming they failed or refused to provide information once the mother discovered what had happened.

The private organisation, St Patricks Guild Adoption Society, theAAI, and the State deny the claims.

The case was before Mr Justice Paul Gilligan who was asked by the AAI to direct the plaintiffs to respond to requests for more details in relation to their action so that the case can be fully defended.

Mr Justice Gilligan directed the plaintiffs to provide further particulars within three weeks in relation to certain matters set out in a detailed submission from the Authority. Eanna Mulloy SC, for the mother and son, said that, at the age of 21, in 1961, the mother gave birth in Dublin by arrangement, having travelled from England.

She later spent years trying to find out who had adopted him. Since 2001, it is claimed, the AAI did nothing even though it was well aware of what in fact had happened  that her son had been registered as the natural child of a couple from a town in the country.

The boy also had a horrific upbringing by his putative father in that country town, counsel said.

Asked by Mr Justice Gilligan if it was the case that the natural mother had never consented to adoption, counsel said she did consent but it was not done in accordance with law and documentation relating to the baby was fraudulent in which he was passed off as the true natural first child of this couple.

It was only in 2006 the mother got wind from a nun in the adoption society of what actually happened.
The boy, who cannot be named because he is minor, was granted bail with strict conditions after he appeared at Dublin Childrens Court on Friday morning.

He is charged with assault causing harm to Andrew Cusack, 21, who was taken to St Jamess Hospital to be treated for lacerations to his face following the alleged incident in the early hours of Monday at Dame Lane.
Cornelius Heaphy was arrested by Garda Brian Barron and charged with possession of cannabis resin and having the drug for the purpose of sale or supply.

Inspector Bill Duane said the DPP directed that the case could be dealt with at Cork District Court.

Judge Leo Malone asked for an outline of the allegations so that he could decide on whether to accept jurisdiction or not.

Garda Barron said gardai obtained a warrant under the Misuse of Drugs Act to search a house at 40 Barrack St, on September 20, 2015.

It was alleged that cannabis resin with a street value of 800 was seized, along with 650 in cash.

Judge Malone said he would accept jurisdiction to deal with the case at Cork District Court rather than having the case go forward for trial by judge and jury.

Bail conditions required Mr Heaphy to reside at 16 Sunvalley Court, Cork; sign in daily at Gurranbraher Garda Station; abide by a curfew to be home from 10pm each night until 8am; and to remain away from Barrack St and surrounding streets.

On the application of Inspector Duane, Judge Malone adjourned the case for four weeks.

Diarmuid Kelleher, solicitor, was appointed to represent Mr Heaphy on free legal aid.
Negotiation sources admitted talks were close to breaking down, when Fine Gael were trying to get as many TDs on board from the Independent Alliance and rural alliance.

Instead, Mr Kenny won 59 votes for taoiseach after he was backed by five TDs from the alliance and two from the rural grouping.

The five Independent Alliance TDs who voted in favour of Mr Kenny were Finian McGrath, Shane Ross, Sean Canney, Kevin Boxer Moran, and John Halligan, while rural TDs Denis Naughten and Michael Harty also supported him.

Mr Kenny also received the backing of 50 Fine Gael TDs and unaligned Independents Michael Lowry and Katherine Zappone.

However, Fine Gael hope others may come on board in the coming weeks, including Roscommon-Galway TD Michael Fitzmaurice and Independent Dublin Central TD Maureen OSullivan.

Mr Kenny won the fourth taoiseach nomination vote 59-49 after eleventh-hour talks with Independents threatened to trigger another election. The 59-vote haul is just one more than the 58-seat target Fianna Fail set for their rival in the minority government deal.

It means that if just two TDs are lost by the Government at any stage a general election will be called.

While Mr Fitzmaurice that said his concerns about turf-cutting had not been addressed, it is also thought that Galway West TD Noel Grealish from the rural alliance had disagreements with negotiators about a ministerial position he was offered and in the end did not back Mr Kenny.

Following the vote, Mr Kenny travelled to Aras an Uachtarain to receive his seal of office, after making history and becoming the first-ever consecutively returned Fine Gael taoiseach.

President Michael D Higgins signed the warrant of appointment shortly after 3pm and Mr Kenny was officially reappointed.

Mr Kenny later returned to Leinster House and held face-to-face meetings with members of his new cabinet, where he informed them of their positions. He then returned to the Dail with the new cabinet.

Delivering his speech, he said he hoped to respond in a fitting fashion to the many changes in the country with the new minority government.

I guarantee that members of the government will do their utmost to work with everybody here, he told the opposition in the Dail.

He said there was one objective at the centre of the new governments work and that would be to making peoples lives better right across the country.

Earlier, he also conceded his party had learnt lessons from the general election and that politics in Ireland had changed forever.

He said the reality is the verdict of the people in the election means no party has any mandate to force or coerce people into accepting controversial policies.

He said Ireland now has the chance to write the next chapter of our history.

In what appeared to be a double reference to events 100 years ago and those of recent months, he said politicians should follow in the footsteps of the 1916 Rising leaders by seeking reforms and never forget the hard lessons they have learned.
In contrast to the confident figure when first elected in 2011, Enda Kenny looked somewhat cowed and it would have been hard to tell from his speech or his features that he had just made history by becoming the first leader of Fine Gael to be made taoiseach for the second consecutive time.

While his acceptance speech was thoughtful and engaging, it was delivered without passion or energy. At times, the Taoiseach looked a beaten man. As Ruth Coppinger of the Anti-Austerity Alliance put it, Ive never seen an incoming Taoiseach look so unhappy.

Perhaps that is because he has little to be happy about. Mr Kenny remains deeply unpopular nationwide and the fact remains that 70% of the Irish electorate did not want him as Taoiseach. Both as government leader and as head of Fine Gael, he is much diminished.

His stature is decidedly weakened even within the ranks of his own party and he will need all his political cunning and courage to remain head of government for the next few months, let alone the lifetime of the 32nd Dail.

But of even greater concern is how this new government is going to work. Katharine Zappone has been appointed minister at the department of children and youth affairs. Shane Ross is the new minister for transport, something that is likely to send shivers down the collective spine of striking Luas workers.

However, at least Mr Ross will now be inside the tent rather than outside it which, given the doctrine of shared cabinet responsibility, will limit his ability to make waves. Likewise, the other strident voices among independents who will now have a role in government.

Personalities aside, the last-minute deal cobbled together between Fine Gael and independent TDs does not augur well for our political future and points to government by desperation rather than dedication.

If the tortuous process of the negotiations with independent TDs is anything to go by, the business of the Dail is going to be slower, more expensive and far more time consuming. The days of the guillotine in which the Government could railroad through legislation with little or no debate is long gone and that is a good thing. But the problem is that it is likely to be replaced by a convoluted arrangement whereby any number of TDs will get to have their say and that is not necessarily a good thing.

In the Dail yesterday, speeches on the nomination of Enda Kenny for Taoiseach were made by the leaders of nine political parties and groupings while negotiations were still going on outside, almost failing on the issue of turfcutting rights.

As Star Treks Mr Spock might have said to Captain Kirk on board the Starship Enterprise, this is democracy, Jim, but not as we know it.
The company said that the number of hosts here has doubled every year since 2009, with those offering the service earning around 2,600 every year.

Over that time, more than 419,000 guests have used the service when visiting Ireland and 11,000 households have already signed up around the country.

Now, Airbnb has launched a range of initiatives to encourage more people to offer the service to tourists. This weekend will see the largest -ever gathering of existing Irish hosts for Airbnb Oscailte, designed to connect hosts to each other to share insights and tips.

The company is also launching a host perks programme, featuring discounts from companies on products and services. These include valet and laundry services such as Sproose and Whitewash; furniture and design pieces such as JamArt Factory and CA Design; food providers; and discounts with other sharing economy companies such as GoCar and HouseMyDog.

Airbnb is also to launch a new partnership with Taxback to help Airbnb hosts file their tax returns in Ireland and pay income tax on the money they earn from sharing their space.

The company has been in discussions with the Government about creating a new tax-free threshold which would allow hosts to keep more of the income they earn by offering accommodation.

Last year, Revenue amendments to the Rent-a-Room tax relief meant that people offering accommodation on Airbnb are liable for tax on that income.

Dublin is the most popular destination for Airbnb guests coming to Ireland, with the capital hosting more than 240,000 guests to the country within the past year.

Airbnb has pointed out to potential hosts that the summer period is one of the most opportune times to open doors to tourists seeking accommodation, as thousands of rooms lie empty as children head off to the Gaeltacht; students jet off on J1s in the US; and families take holidays.

Global head of customer experience at Airbnb, Aisling Hassell, said: Airbnb guests are looking for authentic experiences and love to see destinations through a local lens. Ireland is renowned worldwide for its hospitality and some of the most inspiring and successful Airbnb hosts in the world are based here.

With ongoing growth across the sharing economy, Airbnb is a simple way for Irish people to generate extra income, and showcase their hospitality to an audience of millions.

Ms Halligan said people wishing to host could have bookings within days as the process of setting up was straightforward.

The average Irish host earns 2,600 a year, which can go a long way to paying for a summer holiday and make a difference to family finances, she said.

Setting up as a host only takes a few minutes and new hosts could have their first booking within days.

Cuba sleeper hit

Airbnb was the first major US company to enter Cuba after US president Barack Obama and Cuban counterpart Raul Castro met last December.

It has become its fastest-growing market, with 4,000 homes since added.
After 70 days and on the fourth attempt, Mr Kenny was yesterday re-elected Taoiseach in the Dail, by a margin of 59 votes to 49, thus becoming the first Fine Gael leader to do so in history.

The formation of the new Government yesterday was marked by chaos as the deal with the Independent Alliance and the rural TDs was on the verge of collapse, minutes before the Dail vote was scheduled.

To govern is a great responsibility & a great honour. I am humbled by the opportunity. We will give all we have to creating a fairer Ireland  Enda Kenny (@EndaKennyTD) May 6, 2016

Mr Kenny has risked opening a rift with Mr Varadkar,one of the main contenders to succeed him as Fine Gael leader. But the demotion comes following Mr Varadkar being the source of repeated conflict in the recent talks with Independents and Fianna Fail.

It has emerged that he had been sidelined in government negotiation talks since last Thursday and has been seen to struggle in health.

One Independent TD told the Irish Examiner this was because he was arrogant and couldnt negotiate with them.

Last night, Mr Varadkar and his supporters denied he was shafted and attempted to put a positive spin on the move. A source close to the Dublin West TD said he is surprised and sorry to be leaving health, but it probably needed a fresh pair of eyes.

The source said it will be good for Mr Varadkar to be out of the firing line every single day.

However, one senior Fine Gael minister last night expressed doubts over the length of time the minority government could last.

If we find that this government is not working we will not be holding it up, said the minister. If this government is unworkable Fine Gael will be going back to the people.

It has been confirmed that members of the Independent Alliance defied Fine Gael demands to enter the Dail chamber at 12pm as scheduled, forcing the vote to be delayed by two hours.

A Fine Gael negotiator said it had been touch and go as to whether the Independent Alliance would support Mr Kennys nomination

Finance Minister Michael Noonan will now work with Michael Fitzmaurice to hammer out an agreement on turf-cutting and bogs.

Both sides are confident that Mr Fitzmaurice will be able to join his Independent Alliance members in minority government when a solution is agreed on this in the coming weeks.

The big winners in terms of Cabinet are Simon Harris, who takes over from Mr Varadkar in health at the age of just 29, Mary Mitchell OConnor, who is the new jobs minister, and Michael Creed, who is the new minister for agriculture. Cork South Central TD Simon Coveney declared his delight at becoming the new minister for housing.

Frances Fitzgerald has been named Tanaiste, while Paschal Donohoe has been promoted to succeed Brendan Howlin as minister for public expenditure and reform.

There was some controversy after Independent Alliance TD Shane Ross confirmed his appointment as transport minister before the Dail was informed, to the fury of Mr Kenny.

Mr Ross told the Dail Mr Kenny has agreed to abolish the controversial Economic Management Council, which was seen as subventing the power of Cabinet.

Other ministers appointed were Richard Bruton (education), Charlie Flanagan (foreign affairs), Heather Humphreys (regional development and rural affairs), Denis Naughten (communications and climate change), and Katherine Zappone (children and youth affairs). Meath East TD Regina Doherty was named as chief whip, while Paul Kehoe and Finian McGrath were named as super junior ministers.

The Cabinet held its first meeting after they received their seals of office from President Michael D Higgins at Aras an Uachtarain.

It was also confirmed that Kevin Boxer Moran lost out to Sean Canney for a junior ministerial position after they tossed a coin to decide. The position is to be rotated in a years time.
GP John OConnor said he found it hard to explain the ferocity and speed with which the flames spread to Fort McMurray.

The fire is indescribable  the size of it and what its done, he said.

There has been unbelievable loss. Neighbourhoods are gone; schools have been burnt to the ground; the new airport is shut and under threat, most of the old airport has been consumed; there are exploding petrol stations; a Cal Gas depot went up like a bomb; our hospital is empty, restaurants and hotels are all in ashes. Its like a moonscape.

John OConnor from Limerick on the scene of the Alberta fires in Canada

Speaking from the relative safety of Fort McKay, a town of 800 residents and now also several hundred evacuees, about 56km north of Fort McMurray, Dr OConnor said even there, they couldnt escape the fire.

Were looking at the smoke billowing into the sky 35 miles away. The wind changed direction and is blowing it away from us now but when it comes our way, its awful. It was like thick fog here yesterday.

A native of Corbally in Limerick, Dr OConnor, 58, and his wife, Charlene, a nurse, commute from their home in Edmonton in southern Alberta to Fort McMurray most Sundays, spending part of the week working at the hospital there and part in Fort McKay where they were when the emergency evacuation order for Fort McMurray was issued on Tuesday.

While the entire population of 80,000 began fleeing the city, Dr OConnor and Charlene began a perilous journey towards it, trying to find Charlenes mother.

Shes in her 70s, she doesnt have a cellphone and we didnt know where she was, he said. It was an unbelievable journey. It was only 45 minutes into Fort McMurray but as we were travelling, it was changing by the minute.

The fire was moving everywhere. It was apocalyptic. And this was when it was a fraction of the size it is now.

We couldnt find my mother-in-law. It turned out shed gotten a lift from a stranger. Shed left her house with her little dog and a small case shed thrown some odds and sods into and the clothes she was wearing. Thats all she has. Her home, her whole neighbourhood, Beacon Hill, is gone.

Dr OConnors daughter, Justine is a nurse at the hospital. she, her husband, and their two girls were also forced to leave their home.

My son-in-law set up the baby monitor on the window looking out on the green belt in the direction the fire was approaching before they left and it was still on and he was still receiving pictures on his iphone earlier today but who knows what will happen.

Dr OConnors sons Derek, an EMT at the hospital, and Donal, who works for the Suncor oil company just north of the city, had to leave with their partners as well.

Its neighbourhoods, communities, workplaces  everything gone. The water and sewage systems are down. Im sure we will be truly shellshocked when we finally get back to Fort McMurray, whats left of it.

Dr OConnor, who has worked in the region for 18 years, has been an outspoken campaigner on the impact of the massive oil industry operations on the environment and health in the region, but he said the companies landing strips were proving invaluable.

Weve been able to get medical supplies sent up by air. Weve also moved some people out and we have a list of elders, people with respiratory issues, pregnant women, children, patients with cancer, who will be flown out first if conditions get difficult.

Im still finding this all hard to believe. We havent really slept. Just a few hours. We flew to Fort McMurray on Sunday and we saw the fire from the air but it was only about 300 acres.

We couldnt imagine this happening.

There have been two deaths in a collision but no-one killed in the fires, which is remarkable. But lives have certainly been changed forever.
However, that was where he was taken yesterday after the Dubliner was found guilty of killing his stepson, Dean Fitzpatrick, the older brother of missing teenager Amy Fitzpatrick.

Prison officers led him from court to be remanded in custody for sentencing on May 30.

The 45-year-old had been cleared of murdering Mr Fitzpatrick, a father of one on May 26, 2013, with whom he did not get along. He had pleaded not guilty. The jury, eschewing a murder verdict, returned a majority verdict of manslaughter.

The 23-year-old victim received a stab wound to the abdomen outside the apartment his mother, Audrey Fitzpatrick, shared with Mahon at Burnell Square, Northern Cross, Dublin 17.

The State argued Mahon had been drunk, angry, and agitated when he thrust a knife into his stepson with deadly intent.

Mahon claimed his death was an accident or possible suicide and Mr Fitzpatrick had walked into the knife while they were arguing.

The trial heard Mahon had been in a relationship with Audrey Fitzpatrick for 12 years by the time her son died. The couple had moved to Spains Costa del Sol with her children, Dean and Amy, in 2004. Mr Mahon worked as an estate agent. He told gardai they were millionaires, with eight or nine houses and bars, but they had spent it all looking for Amy.

The teenager went missing without trace on New Years Day, 2008, as she walked home from a friends house along an unlit dirt track. Despite extensive searches, she has never been found.

Dean Fitzpatrick was 17 when his sister vanished. He moved home to Dublin soon after turning 18 and lived with his father, Christopher Fitzpatrick. He met his partner, Sarah ORourke, in 2010. They had a son together and lived in Lusk in the north of the county. Mahon and Audrey Fitzpatrick returned to Ireland more recently and the court heard they have married since Mr Fitzpatrick was killed.

The trial heard the deceased had psychological issues, had begun misusing drugs at the age of 11, and had self-harmed. Ms ORourke gave evidence he used to take relaxers.

She also testified she had asked him to move out just days before he died, because he was selling tablets. She saw him with a black eye the morning of the fatal row; he had said he owed someone money. A quarter of an hour before the fatal row, she sent him a text saying she was with someone else to hurt him.

His father gave evidence that Dean was troubled during the last week of his life.

There was stuff going on with his girlfriend, he said, adding, as far as he was aware, the deceased could not see his child. Also, his sister was missing, he said .

The accused told gardai he and Dead Fitzpatrick had an up-and-down relationship. However, they had joined a gym together and both attended separately the day before the row. The deceased saw his stepfathers bicycle parked outside and took the water bottle off it to annoy him. It worked.

Staff in the gym Told Mahon there was nothing they could do unless he reported it to gardai but he said he would not do that over a water bottle. He decided instead to contact his stepson.

He spent much of the next day drinking and phoning Dean Fitzpatrick. Records showed several unanswered calls. Ms ORourke said Mahon threatened to stab her in the neck if she did not get her partner to call him back.

Mahon eventually convinced Dean to come to his apartment.

It is not known if the deceased, while he was in the apartment, noticed the photographs of his sister and Mahons late mother strewn on the floor. Other family photographs and certs Amy had given the couple were found behind the building.

Mahon said Dean pulled a knife on him in the apartment and he had wrestled it from him and put it into his pocket. He said the deceased had left but he followed him out and took the knife out to show it to him. He said Mr Fitzpatrick then walked into it.

Two of Mahons friends were in the flat at the time: Karl OToole and John McCormack.

Mr OToole did not see any knife until Mahon returned after the stabbing. He said he did not really know what had happened but Mahon had asked him to get him out of there. Mr OToole drove him around the back roads of Dublin for a number of hours before eventually bringing him to Mahons fathers house.

Mr McCormack left the flat with the deceased but did not give evidence and the judge told the jury not to speculate about that.

The trial heard Dean had run downstairs, but collapsed outside and bled to death internally. The knife had damaged a number of organs, as well as the aorta.

The prosecution pointed to a number of threats Mahon had made to stab his stepson.

The defence said these were not serious and perhaps part of a particular vernacular. His barrister, Sean Guerin, referred to the pathologists view that it was possible Mr Fitzpatrick had walked onto the knife.

He also said suicide had to be considered, pointing to what had been going on in Mr Fitzpatricks life and the unknown effects that medications found in his system might have had.

Audrey Fitzpatrick in happier times with children Dean and Amy at Christmas 2007. Amy went missing a week later

Mr Guerin also suggested the possibility that Dean had seen the knife but had failed to appreciate the danger. He reminded the jury he had mentioned to medical personnel he felt like Superman when he drank.

Ms Justice Margaret Heneghan told the jury three possible verdicts would be open to them: Guilty, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty.

Following eight hours and 16 minutes of deliberation over three days, the jury returned yesterday afternoon with a majority verdict of 10 to two.

Mr Guerin applied for bail for his client, pointing out he had lived in Spain after the incident, but had returned home to be charged. The State objected and the judge remanded him in custody for sentencing.
The man, aged 44, pleaded not guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of sexual assault on two dates between January and November 2013 at addresses in Limerick and Clare.

On May 3 a jury found him guilty. Sentencing him yesterday, Judge Patricia Ryan suspended the last year of a three-year prison sentence on condition he keep the peace for three years after his release. He was also placed on the sex offenders register.
For the first time since the 1960s, the make-up of the Government also includes several ministers who are not from specific parties and are Independent.

A number of Fine Gael TDs were also promoted from the backbenches, while Mr Kenny also broke up the Department of Environment and created a new Department of Housing, and he also merged new areas into the Department of Communications and the Department of Arts.

As expected, Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald was reappointed in her role but also made Tanaiste after Labour and party leader Joan Burton left government.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan

Paschal Donohoe was promoted from Transport to Public Expenditure, a move which was flagged but will put the Dublin Central TD in a strong position where he will work alongside Finance Minister Michael Noonan, who also retains his position.

Paschal Donohoe

Charlie Flanagan also remains as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

However, Mr Kenny made several changes in his Cabinet. Most notably, Leo Varadkar was taken out of Health and put into Social Protection, a decision which sources close to the Dublin West TD said they were happy with, despite views that the move represents a demotion for him.

Mr Varadkar said: The Taoiseach and I had a conversation about the future and the different portfolios I might hold.

Asked if he was given a choice, he said:  I dont want to have a conversation with you about my conversation with the Taosieach. On a certain level Im sorry to be leaving health.

Leo Varadkar

Mr Varadkar was replaced by Simon Harris, previously the junior finance minister, bringing the 29-year-old into Cabinet for the first time.

Simon Harris

Elsewhere, Shane Ross, an outspoken critic of public sector transport, was made Minister for Transport.

There were questions about the appointment for the Independent Alliance leader to the position, given the fact that he has previously accused Luas drivers of holding the country to ransom and the fact that pay demands in general in the sector are expected.

Shane Ross

Mr Kennys decision to promote some female backbenchers to Cabinet was viewed as positive, as he increased the number of women in Cabinet by one. While Mr Kenny had previously pledged to have equal numbers of men and women in Cabinet, this was unlikely to go ahead given the fragmented make-up of the new Government.

Dun Laoghaire TD Mary Mitchell OConnor was made Minister for Jobs. There had been speculation the two-time TD may get promoted, especially after her running mate Maria Bailey was elected in the general election. On her promotion, Ms Mitchell OConnor said: Im delighted, but I have a big job ahead of me.

Meath East TD Regina Doherty, who was also expected to be brought into Cabinet, was promoted to the role of chief government whip, a difficult role given the co-operation that will be needed with Independent TDs and Fianna Fail for the minority government.

Meath East TD Regina Doherty

One surprise was the promotion of Cork North Wests Michael Creed to Cabinet as agriculture minister. While he had been flagged for a junior ministerial post, his appointment will bolster Fine Gaels position in Cork and comes after Mr Creed was previously reported as having voted against Mr Kenny in the attempted coup in 2010.

Michael Creed: Agriculture, Food and the Marine

His appointment allowed fellow Cork TD Simon Coveney, who led the negotiations on the formation for government, to be moved from Agriculture to take over the new Department of Housing and Local Government.

Simon Coveney: Housing, Planning, Local Government

One-time Fine Gael leadership contender Richard Bruton has been appointed Education and Skills Minister in what is being seen as a win for the long-time TD.

The former jobs minister was widely believed to have lobbied to replace the outgoing Labour TD Jan O Sullivan in Education and was in positive mood after coming from Government Buildings moments before the Cabinet was announced.

Mr Bruton was the TD who led the failed leadership heave against Kenny in 2010, a move many felt ended his hope of returning to a high-ranking position.

However, the decision to move him at his apparent request to Education is a further indication the Dublin TD is trusted again by those in Kennys camp.

Richard Bruton

Outgoing Arts, Heritage, and Gaeltacht minister Heather Humphreys is now Minister for Regional Development, Rural Affairs, Arts, and the Gaeltacht, adding another duty to her watch.

The Cavan-Monaghan TD will be relieved to have retained her position at the Cabinet table after a string of controversies recently.

Elsewhere, Dublin Bay North and Independent Alliance member Finian McGrath was, as expected, appointed as super junior minister at Cabinet in charge of disabilities. This gives him to right to sit at Cabinet but denies him any voting power. Paul Kehoe, the outgoing government whip, was also appointed as defence minister, but in a similar super junior role.

Rural Alliance TD Denis Naughten, formerly of Fine Gael, was brought into Cabinet and given responsibility for the combined department of communications and climate change. The appointment is also a sign of Mr Kennys move to heal any old wounds in the party.

Outgoing attorney general Maire Whelan, who was a Labour appointment in the last government, was returned in her position.
The outgoing minister of state for tourism and sport, Michael Ring, has met with representatives of the International Mixed Martial Arts Federation (IMMAF) and its affiliated body in Ireland, the Irish Amateur Pankration Association.

They reportedly examined appropriate measures to safeguard the health of participants in MMA events.

The meeting followed the death of Portuguese MMA fighter Joao Carvalho at an event in Dublin last month.

Currently, MMA in Ireland does not receive government funding, as it is not recognised by Sport Ireland.

The MMA representatives made it clear at the meeting they would welcome a formal process from which a reputable national governing body for the sport in Ireland would emerge.

The national governing body, like all other national governing body that are recognised by Sport Ireland, would be responsible for setting and overseeing appropriate standards, including standards relating to safety and governance.

Sport Ireland John Treacy also attended the meeting, where he outlined the rigorous recognition process required to be completed by national governing bodies and advised the MMA stakeholders that any application from them would require a significant focus on safety standards. A further meeting of the main MMA stakeholders in Ireland has been scheduled for May 17.

Mr Ring said appropriate safety standards in the sport cannot come soon enough and further stated lessons had to be learned from the death of Mr Carvalho.

I welcome the acknowledgment on the part of MMA event organisers that safety standards at their events in Ireland are in urgent need of very significant improvement, he said.

I also welcome their intention to engage in Sport Irelands rigorous process of [national governing body] recognition.

While the untimely death of Joao Carvalho was a terrible tragedy, I hope that his passing would lead to some good and that lessons would be learned that would ensure that safety standards within MMA are improved to an acceptable level.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that Irish MMA sensation Conor McGregor will switch codes to fight retired boxer Floyd Mayweather in a megafight in Las Vegas this summer.

McGregor was to headline UFC 200 in the same city in July but was pulled from the card by UFC boss Dana White after a public spat between the pair over the Dubliners media obligations.
Staff nurse Michelle Marie ORiordan admitted that, on the night of November 20, 2012, while working at Havenwood Nursing Home just outside Waterford City, she failed to provide adequate care to the 22 residents for whom she was responsible that night.

This included a failure to conduct hourly checks on the patients, and failure to properly prepare their medication.

In particular, Ms ORiordan recorded on the night that she had checked all 22 residents at 11.30pm and at 4.30am, when in fact she did not do so.

Ms ORiordan, who began working at Havenwood in May 2011, also admitted that her patient notes from the night in question contain some falsehoods, as she recorded that all required care was provided that night, when this was not in fact the case.

CCTV footage reviewed later by Ms ORiordans manager appeared to show Ms ORiordan resting near the nurses station at times when the residents required checks, or when Ms ORiordan recorded that she had provided care.

All of the residents at Havenwood Nursing Home required hourly checks during the night shift, with two residents having particular care needs that night.

Both these residents suffered from MS, with one, whose MS had rendered her paraplegic, needing to be repositioned regularly to prevent bed sores; while another had a chest infection and was receiving nutrition from a tube.

During her shift, Ms ORiordan, who qualified as a nurse in November 2010, recorded a note that, just before 9pm, she repositioned one of the residents when, in fact, she neglected to do this.

The nurse also noted that, shortly afterwards, she checked the temperature of another resident. However, CCTV footage showed no one entering the residents room at that time.

At a meeting with her director of nursing, Patricia Curran, a few days after the night in question, Ms ORiordan admitted that the notes from the night of November 20 contained some falsehoods, and that a check of all residents had not been completed at 4.30am as recorded.

At that meeting, Ms ORiordan  who was 23 at the time  apologised for her actions, and said she was shocked at her behaviour and that she had put residents at risk.

Ms Curran told the inquiry that, up until the night in question, she had been satisfied that Ms ORiordan was a competent junior nurse.

She said that, thankfully, there were no adverse effects on patients as a result of Ms ORiordans actions.

The inquiry will continue at a later date, when it will be determined whether Ms ORiordans actions amount to poor professional performance, professional misconduct or failure to comply with the professional code of conduct.
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, Labours deputy leader Alan Kelly, and others on the opposition benches repeatedly lashed out at the new cabinet make-up just moments after it was announced.

Responding to Taoiseach Enda Kennys appointments in the Dail Mr Martin said the new cabinet does not break enough from the past and represents a shambolic and unacceptable political environment.

Despite the fact his own party facilitated the new cabinets creation, the Fianna Fail leader said what happened in the last 48 hours leaves a lot to be desired.

He said his party will honour the agreement struck last week with Fine Gael to allow the Government to work, but pointedly noted that equally we retain the right and intention to use our mandate for our policy initiatives.

In a series of strongly worded remarks, Mr Kelly insisted the new Government comprising Fine Gael and Independent TDs is unfortunately doomed to failure as it is simply built on sand.

He said that while it was an honour to serve with Mr Kenny in the previous Dail and that history will be kind to the former Fine Gael-Labour partnerships work, he said all of this is now at stake.

Mr Kelly said we now have a Government, but it is built on sand and that everyone knows weve never had a Government in this state thats been appointed in such farce.

Labelling the situation as bizarre and embarrassing, Mr Kelly said that, being frank, the hours preceding the Cabinet announcement were cringe-worthy.

This programme for government cannot ever actually add up, he said.

Anti Austerity Alliance/People before Profit TD Mick Barry said the inclusion of Independents such as ex-Fine Gael-Labour Seanad appointee Katherine Zappone and ex-Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten meant that everyone in the next cabinet is various shades of [Fine Gael] blue.

Sinn Fein health spokesman Caoimhghin O Caolain added that all the new Government has done is take part in an effort to slow down the process of fundamental change under way.

It wont wash and it wont work, said Mr O Caolain. What Fine Gael and Fianna Fail [by facilitating the government] are doing is playing for time and kicking the inevitable down the road.

Mr O Caolain added that Mr Martins party is now the government in exile.
Prosecution counsel Patrick Marrinan SC gave his closing argument in the trial of 22-year-old Ross Allen. Mr Allen, with an address in Carrickmines, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Christy Daly, aged 47, at Bog Lane, Kilbride, Clara, Co Offaly, on December 29, 2013.

Mr Marrinan told the jury of five women and six men that the facts of the case are clear. This is not a whodunnit. It is a matter of degrees of guilt, he said.
Barrister Shaula Connaughton-Deeny told the circuit civil court that a solicitor on behalf of Ms King and her estranged husband, musician David Agnew, had contacted the bank with proposals to renew full repayments.

Ms Connaughton-Deeny, who appeared with Clodagh Buckley of solicitors Ivor Fitzpatrick and Co for the bank, said Ms King indicated she was agreeable to the name of Bank of Scotland, on possession proceedings against her and her husband, being changed to Start Mortgages which had taken over the mortgage debt.
Edward Albees 1962 masterpiece was denied a Pulitzer because some of the awards directors were reluctant to laud such a dirty play. Yet it is this very quality that keeps Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? fresh to the jaded, contemporary sensibility.

George (Denis Conway) and Martha (Fiona Shaw) may not shock as much as they used to, but the sharpness of their exchanges, their teetering hysteria, their pent-up range, their fraying uselessly against the restraints of middle-aged life: All that is easily recognisable; and its a credit to director David Grindley that this production is so alive to that, without decontextualising the world of the play.
Kinsale is a popular venue on many fronts, and tomorrow it is the turn of the antique trade.

A little bit of everything will be on offer with Hibernian Antique Fairs in attendance at Actons Hotel from 11am to 6pm.
Second-hand cars are a popular buy due to how quickly the value of a brand new vehicle depreciates as soon as it drives off the forecourt. Just because youre buying a used car though doesnt mean its cheap, so you still have to finance it.

Some options include a loan from a bank, a credit union, or finance from a car garage. There are pros and cons to all of the above options so shop around for credit before you shop around for your car.

AA Ireland advises consumers to buy in cash but if that isnt always possible, then look around for various credit options.

The best way to buy a car is with cash. Easy advice to give but of course most of us will need to finance the car in one way or another. If you need to borrow part of the amount, dont automatically take the dealers finance. Its always worth getting alternative quotes  preferably before you start viewing cars so you know what you can afford, says Conor Faughnan of AA.

Many banks and lending institutions offer special rates for car loans, which vary depending on the amount you wish to borrow.

Before you begin your search for your second-hand vehicle you can log on to the main banks websites and use their online calculators to get an estimate quote.

Furthermore, if you are a member of a credit union, you can also log on to some of their localised sites, depending on where you are a member of, and see what their rate is. The rates vary from union to union and some do not have online calculators so you may have to drop in or else call them up to find out what you could borrow.

As advised by AA Ireland, it is a good idea to shop around with banks for loan rates instead of taking the finance offered to you by a car dealer.

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission highlight that finance from some garages might not actually equate to a loan, and instead are only hire purchase agreements.

Many car finance loans offered by garages and some lenders are actually hire purchase agreements. Hire purchase is different from a personal loan because you dont own the car until you have made the last repayment. So check what you are being offered first and know what you are signing up to.

The main reason you might choose a hire purchase agreement is convenience, as the garage selling you a new car may also arrange your finance. So, it saves you having to visit your bank, building society, or credit union to arrange a personal loan, advises the commission.

Hire purchase agreements, even though they come when you buy direct from a garage, are something you need to watch out for if you buy your car privately.

Check the registration documents of a second-hand car to make sure that it is not already owned by a finance company, warns the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

If this is the case, the person trying to sell you the car does not actually own it and does not have the right to sell it to you  even though they may have the log book and registration documents.

If you buy a car under an existing car finance agreement, you run the risk of the car being repossessed by the owner (the finance company). There is a much higher risk of this happening if you buy from a private seller so be sure to check, advises the commissions.

If you are buying from a private seller and want to run a background check, Hire Purchase Information Ltd keep records of cars subject to an agreement. You can request a copy of a vehicles finance report through their website (www.hpifirst.ie) for between 9.99 and 14.99.

Whether youre buying privately, through a small garage, or a large dealer it is a good idea to have your credit set up in advance because you might find a great deal but miss out because you didnt have your money organised prior to your shop.

In terms of the steps you need to take, go through your budget first and see what you can afford to make in monthly repayments, once you have done this check out the various lending rates from banks, a garage and a credit union. This is a matter of the chicken-before-the-egg, in that youll need to apply for the loan and have it approved before you even find a car and make an offer. However, when you do find a car you can then make an offer knowing what your budget and cash availability are.

You can then leave a deposit and arrange to transfer the rest of the money, by bank draft, money transfer, or else in cash depending on the amount. Most banks need a minimum notice period if you are withdrawing amounts larger than 5,000.

When arranging car finance, hidden fees are another thing to consider.

There are no fees or charges with credit union loans. The interest you pay is the full cost of the loan. With loans from banks or building societies there may be other fees or charges, states the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

For example some lenders charge an administration fee for setting up a loan. This can go up to 75. Also if you have a fixed-rate loan, most lenders will charge a fee if you repay the amount ahead of schedule or want to change to a variable rate.

Another thing to consider when borrowing money, according to AA Ireland, is that a credit score may have to be run on you.

Be prepared for the car finance lenders you approach to do a complete credit rating on you, ask about employment status, and the amount of money you have for a down payment, says AA Ireland.

Younger drivers who dont yet have a credit score should talk to their bank or credit union about options for building up a credit score. Your parents may also be in a position to co-sign the loan which the car finance lenders can talk you through, adds the body.

All in all, your options for financing the purchase of your second-hand car include cash up-front, a loan from a bank or a credit union, or finance from a garage, but in that incidence be sure to clarify whether it is a hire purchase agreement or not. Whatever option you choose, be sure to shop around for rates depending on the amount you are borrowing; and if you need a loan, it is best to have it approved before you make an offer on the car.

RELATED VIDEO
When you hear someone like broadcaster Olivia OLeary speak about how, in her 20s, there were days when she felt like a slug, you know that something big is happening in Irish society.

Her powerful radio column and subsequent interview about her experience of depression was an act of profound generosity that will help so many.

The outpouring of gratitude in texts and tweets gave some indication of that and, hopefully, her moving description of how she felt unable to raise a hand to get to the phone will prompt others to do just that, if they need to.

Her words and those of Fianna Fail TD for Longford-Westmeath Robert Troy, who had the courage to stand up in the Dail and talk about his anxiety, will give so many silenced people a new voice.

When high-achieving, talented, accomplished people say that they have moments of extreme vulnerability, that there are times when they feel crippled by anxiety, that they have feet of clay, it sends a truly powerful message to the world at large.

It can, if facilitated, open the way for an open, honest, even radical discussion about how we think  and talk  about depression, an illness that affects millions of people.

However, the worst thing we can do right now is raise Olivia OLeary on to a plinth and, as one text suggested, hail her as an icon. Or indeed, turn her into a poster woman for depression.

Is it tempting to turn this supremely talented journalist into a champion and to talk about her battle with depression in heroic terms, but that would do her, and all those who know the reality of depression, an awful disservice.

For one thing, we might start to define her by the illness that she came through during that awful time in her 20s, rather than the multi-faceted person that she is.

The same is true for TD Robert Troy whose eloquent speech made one unsettling truth crystal clear  an episode of anxiety and depression can pass, though the associated stigma often lives on.

TD Robert Troy

In fact, looking at the way those two stories were reported throws a fascinating light on how the media actually perpetuates the stigma that, unfortunately, still hovers over depression.

Without exception, the reports spoke of an admission, revelation or disclosure and of the battle or struggle the public figures had with depression.

I once spoke to a hospice cancer patient who said he hated the term fighting or battling cancer. He said it made him feel as if he needed to get up every day, put on full battle dress and ride out with a sword in his hand to slay the cancer dragon. Even the thought of that exhausted him, he said.

That experience might resonate with people with depression.

I was particularly struck by Olivia OLearys account of missing her train stop because she couldnt motivate herself to stand up and get out. I ended up in some strange places, but mostly I ended up alone in my room, she said.

The idea that a person might have to do battle when they are in a place like that seems deeply unhelpful.

The negative effect those prevalent phrases can have was brilliantly explored by Susan Sontag in Illness as Metaphor in 1978. She made the point that the myths, metaphors, and words surrounding certain conditions added greatly to the distress of patients and often stopped them from seeking help.

She said the way we spoke about cancer, and earlier TB, made people feel in some way responsible for their illness, as if it was a punishment for their lifestyles or their chronic worrying or their repressed feelings.

Instead, she said, it was much healthier to cast off the trappings of metaphor, the sentimental concocted preconceptions and deal with the real condition in hand.

I think its safe to say that depression and anxiety come with an awful lot of woolly words and baggage too. Some have tried to be helpful and describe it as the common cold of mental illness. That expression at least shows how common it is, but it also suggests that you might somehow catch it, which, in turn, arouses dread and even more powerlessness. Another common belief is that depression makes you unfit for high office.

In an otherwise sensitive interview with Olivia OLeary last Wednesday, Sean ORourke made one gob-smacking comment. He said his first thought, after hearing Robert Troy speak about his anxiety in the Dail, was that it might stop him from being appointed a minister had Fianna Fail been in government.

Would Sean ORourke say the same if Mr Troy had said he had diabetes? Not that they are the same but both conditions have common elements: They can be chronic, managed daily, and improved by some lifestyle changes.

No wonder the media talks in terms of depression revelations and admissions when there is an automatic assumption that it will damage your job prospects.

The comment in itself is a good thing though, because it brings those ideas out into the open. Now, thanks to Robert Troy, Olivia OLeary, Bressie, and others, there are a growing number of people to challenge the deeply held, though often misguided, ideas that have taken hold about depression.

Bressie

Lets hope that we can start now to focus on building a proper constituency of support, as Olivia OLeary put it, for people with mental health difficulties.

The government  in so far as it exists  has finally given a commitment to implement A Vision for Change, 10 years after the policy framework for mental health services was written.

The incoming leaders might also think twice when trying to raid the mental health piggybank. The governments attempts to cream off 12m was the final spur for Robert Troys speech.

But perhaps best of all, the discussion of recent days allows all of us to be a little bit more real. And what a blessed relief that is.
As Anders Behring Breivik entered the gym turned courtroom in Skien prison, the jail in southern Norway that has held him since August 2013, a smile crossed his lips.

He waited eagerly for one of the four guards who stood next to him to unlock his handcuffs. He looked around to see who was in the gym: Two dozen journalists and some prison officials. And then he looked in the direction of the journalists and raised his right arm in a Nazi salute.

Breivik kept it there for nine long seconds. One of his two lawyers already had her back to the man who murdered 77 Norwegians on July 22, 2011. The second turned away as soon as he saw Breiviks arm go up.

Breiviks gaze was focused not on the people in the courtroom; he was looking at the cameras. Instantly, pictures and live footage of his Nazi salute were transmitted to news agencies around the world and shared online.

Like his media-savvy counterparts in the Islamic State militant group, the 37-year-old Norwegian extremist, who wants to establish a party called the Nordic State, has long known that he needs to shock to get the worlds attention.

I was wondering how many people I needed to kill to be read, he said after he had committed his acts of violence in 2011. He had calculated that he had to kill a dozen people to be noticed. He ended up killing many more; 33 of his victims were under 18.

Breivik later described his massacre as his book launch. In a way, he was right: No one had been interested in reading his polemics before he placed a bomb outside the prime ministers office in downtown Oslo and later that day shot teenagers at a Labor Party youth camp on the island of Utya, an hours drive from the capital. Only then did thousands of people read, discuss and comment on his 1,500-page manifesto.

Breivik has not forgotten the power that comes from sparking outrage. This appearance in court in mid-March was not an appeal against his conviction; Breivik was suing the Norwegian state, claiming it was violating his human rights by holding him in isolation and preventing him from freely communicating with the outside world.

The Norwegian authorities argued that he remains a threat and that solitary confinement is necessary to prevent him from inspiring or directing right-wing extremists eager to commit their own atrocities.

Even far from Norway, Breiviks supporters found comfort in seeing him perform the Nazi salute.

He is a hero of his people, and I cannot wait for his liberation from captivity at the hands of swine, says one supporter, Andrew Auernheimer, an American extremist who now lives in the breakaway republic of Abkhazia, in Georgia.

We all love and support him unconditionally. His lawsuit and Roman salute have only increased sympathy and appreciation for him.

Breiviks court appearance posed a fresh challenge to the Norwegian state. To uphold the countrys democratic values, the authorities had to allow him to appear in court, knowing full well that the proceedings would be televised and that he would likely use the occasion to reach out to potential followers.

Adele Matheson Mestad, a lawyer for the Norwegian state, told the court Breiviks ideology is especially dangerous right now because the large numbers of refugees entering Europe have given rise to a rise in right-wing activity on the continent. Were he able to communicate freely, Mestad said, Breivik could encourage sympathisers to commit acts of violence.

Norwegian States lawyer Adele Matheson Mested. Breivik accuses the Norwegian state of violating his human rights by detaining him in isolation

The court hearings were agonizing for survivors, for the families of the dead, for most Norwegians  and they raised an unsettling question: In an era of copycat extremist attacks and social media wannabes, would this court appearance make Breivik a greater threat?

Europe is becoming increasingly familiar with attacks by extremists, but Breiviks actions made him the deadliest lone wolf attacker in the continents history.

On the afternoon of July 22, 2011, he detonated a bomb outside the prime ministers office in Oslo, killing eight people. Two hours later, wearing a police uniform he had made, he took a ferry to Utya, site of the youth camp run by Norways then-ruling Labour Party. There, he shot dead 69 people before police arrived on the island and arrested him.

Deeply troubled as a child, Breivik joined Norways right-wing Progress Party at the age of 18 and then steadily moved further to the right. He began to read and engage with a range of white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and anti-jihadi websites. These different sources of hate influenced his manifesto, an often contradictory mixture of ideas he cut and pasted from the internet, interspersed with some of his own thoughts.

The general gist: Europe is being invaded by Muslims, and governments are doing nothing to stop it; our elites are traitors who deceive us; if we dont react now, Europe will end up as an Islamic caliphate.

Breivik tried to make contact with right-wing ideologues online, but he struggled to find a sympathetic audience, so he started buying weapons and ammunition and rented a farm so he could buy hundreds of kilograms of fertiliser and other ingredients for a bomb. From the farm, in the dense forests by Swedens border, he planned his attack on these so-called traitors, the political elites and their children.

He wanted to spark a broad war in Europe that would end with the Christians finally defeating the Muslims. At that point, he anticipated all Muslims would be able to choose between deportation, converting to Christianity and changing their names, or death. All mosques would be demolished or used for other purposes; all Muslim artworks destroyed; and the use of Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and Somali would be banned.

During his trial, the court deliberated over whether Breivik was mentally ill and in need of treatment or whether he was a cold-blooded, rational mass killer. Some of the psychiatrists who evaluated Breivik diagnosed him as having narcissistic and antisocial personality disorder. (An earlier group of doctors said he suffered from schizophrenia.)

In August 2012, the court sided with the second group and ruled that because he was not psychotic and had understood what he was doing, he was legally accountable for his actions.

The judge in the case gave Breivik the maximum penalty for committing an act of terrorism  21 years, with a possible extension until the end of his life. As long as he is considered a danger to society, he can be kept in prison.

Almost as soon as Breiviks name became known after his arrest, extremists began lionising him. His so-called manifesto, 2083  A European Declaration of Independence, was seen as valuable reading material.

Right-wing blogs and social media accounts frequently praised him. One of the best-known blogs in this small, dark corner of the internet, The Commander Breivik Report, dutifully recorded all news relating to the shooter and archived his letters, court transcripts, and psychiatric reports.

Breivik was particularly popular in Russia. Glory to Anders Breivik was chanted in the nationalist movements annual Russian March in central Moscow. Pictures of Breivik and his statements were shared extensively on the right-wing forums of VKontakte, Russias largest social-networking website. Breivik was a holy man whose acts lit up the darkness, his fans wrote.

Less than a year after Breiviks attack, copycats emerged. In August 2012, Czech police arrested Vojt?ech Mlynek, who was planning a Breivik-style attack. In online posts and emails, he had used Breiviks name as a pseudonym.

Three months later, Polish police arrested an admirer of Breivik who had planned to blow up Polish government buildings. In the UK, four people inspired by Breivik were arrested between January 2013 and June 2015 on suspicion of planning or carrying out extremist attacks.

A man helps a wounded woman evacuating a building after the explosion near the government buildings in Oslo

The admirers were not confined to Europe. On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza, 20, opened fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Lanza shot and killed 26 people, 20 of them young children, before he shot himself. Sources told CBS News that investigators had found evidence that Lanza was obsessed with Breivik and wanted to top the Norwegians toll.

But as the months and years passed, his acclaim faded. The last post on The Commander Breivik Report is from January 2015. Cut off from their hero, Breiviks fans began discussing other nationalist issues. Some shut down their blogs. Some sites were left without any updates.

The decline in adulation for Breivik online and in the material world was partly a result of the passage of time and partly a result of his increasingly limited ability to correspond with sympathisers.

When he was first detained, he received hundreds of letters every month. Most were from right-wing extremists. A large number were from women who said they were in love with him. Several were from boys and girls who saw Breivik as their new hero.

For the first 12 months, prison officials let all the letters through. Then they realised Breivik was building a cult around himself.

They asked the Norwegian Ministry of Justice to provide new guidelines on how to interpret laws, and starting in August 2012, prison officials began to censor Breiviks incoming and outgoing letters.

He wrote to three leaders of the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang in the US; the letters never left the censors desk. A letter from Nikolai Korolev, a Russian nationalist convicted in 2008 of killing 14 market traders, mainly Central Asians, in a 2006 bombing attack in Moscow, never reached Breivik.

Breivik decided to contest the terms of his imprisonment. For two years, he and his lawyer appealed unsuccessfully to prison authorities to end his isolation. They got nowhere.

In February 2015, his lawyer announced Breivik was preparing to file a lawsuit against the state for violating his human rights. He wanted visits and phone calls. He wanted internet access and a PlayStation 3. He wanted to influence the world.

To general surprise, he won his case. On April 20, Oslos district court ruled Breivik was denied his human rights being kept in solitary confinement it called a completely locked world.

The court-ruled prison authorities had done little to alleviate the effects of isolation on Breivik. It said he has been subjected to strip searches and woken up hourly by guards for long periods. However, the state is to appeal the ruling.

Sixty minutes elapsed

Freddy Lie still wakes up at night hearing that scream. His daughters scream. The one he heard on July 22, 2011.

He was driving in the rain when 16-year-old Elisabeth called from the youth camp on Utya. She just howled into the phone. It was kind of scream he had never heard before. What was happening? Was she being raped? There, at the summer camp? And then the line went dead.

When he called back it went straight to voicemail. Breivik had shot Elisabeth in the head, a bullet in her left temple. It went through her brain and out the right side of her head into the phone.

Only when it hit the pink back cover of the phone did the bullet stop. Elisabeth fell sideways, and Breivik shot her twice more. When she was found, her long, blond hair was coloured red by blood; her fingers had stiffened in the grip around the pink phone.

We just marked what should have been her 21st birthday, Lie said, standing outside the gym in Skien during a break in the court proceedings.

He said he had to see Breiviks legal challenge himself, rather than reading about it in the papers or seeing it on TV. (A handful of other parents of Breiviks victims followed the trial on direct video link from Oslo District Court, but most stayed away.) Weve been through hell, Lie said.

Lie and a small group of parents of the dead considered suing the state for failing to protect their kids at the summer camp, for taking too long to understand that an act of mass murder was unfolding.

That July afternoon, police forces were standing on the mainland, some 550m across the water from the island, able to hear the sound of gunshots ringing out from the island. Sixty minutes elapsed between the time the police were notified of the shooting and the time an officer stepped foot on the island.

The reaction time was too slow, some parents of Breiviks victims say; it allowed him to continue shooting people on the island and in the waters of the lake as they tried to swim to safety for more than an hour before special forces apprehended him.

Officers followed the sound of gunfire to a clearing in the woods; Breivik, despite still having ammunition left, then surrendered. The police found him standing between some bushes and ordered him to raise his hands. He quietly put down his rifle.

One of the officers noticed a wire that appeared to emerge from his bulging vest and run down his body. Thinking Breivik could be wearing explosives, the officers ordered him onto his knees and then told him to lie flat on his stomach. An officer then jumped on him and handcuffed him.

Its not you lot Im after, Breivik said, turning his head as an officer bound his legs with plastic cuffs. I see you as my brothers.

The wire turned out to be Breiviks iPod headphones. He had planned to listen to music during the attack but ended up doing without it, saying later that he needed to hear what was happening around him.

A man places a Norwegian flag between flowers in Utvika in front of the Utoya island, where gunman Anders Behring Breivik killed at least 76, mostly young people.

Lawyers whom Lie and the other parents approached declined to represent them, saying there was no chance they could win the case against the state. After a couple of years, they are about to give up. They dont have the strength to pursue a suit; mourning is hard work. They grieve. They are sleepless. Some feel they are going mad. So no one sued the state until he did  the killer.

Low intensive torture

I am the general secretary of the party the Nordic State, Breivik told Judge Helen Andenaes Sekulic on the opening day of the court proceedings in March.

While in prison, he had converted to national socialism, he told her. The only important right for me is the right to have national socialist friends and a national socialist spouse  everything else is meaningless. He asked for the right to advertise for a wife who shares his political views, and he said he also needed to build relations with people with the same values.

Breivik claimed his isolation violates the European Convention on Human Rights, specifically Article 3, which states no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

He also argued that the Norwegian state has breached Article 8, which protects a persons right to respect for his private and family life, his home, and his correspondence.

Breivik lives in three separate cells of 8 sq m each. He also has a shower and a storage room. One of the three rooms has a bed, a chair with a padded seat, a footrest, a TV, books, a DVD player, and a PlayStation. In the second room, he has a table and a typewriter. The third is his mini-gym; it contains a treadmill, a spinning bicycle, and an elliptical trainer.

Its a farce, Lie, the still-grieving father, said of Breiviks complaints. After this trial, I think the state can tighten the nuts a bit more.

Breiviks lawyer, ystein Storrvik, told the court his client has been impaired by the isolation. Breivik said in court that his brain had become so damaged that he had even started to enjoy a dating reality series called Paradise Hotel . He called the prison regime low intensive torture and complained about plastic cutlery, paper cups, and coffee that was sometimes cold.

For people from Oslo West, the affluent part of the city where Breivik lived, the food he was given was worse than waterboarding. Sometimes he even got the same dish two days in a row. And sometimes, when he called the guards to let him out of his training cell and into another room (the rooms are not contiguous), he had to wait for a full 20 minutes.

To many people, those complaints were absurd, even sickening. But there is a large body of scientific evidence to suggest that solitary confinement is an extreme form of punishment that can cause serious psychological and emotional damage.

The prison authorities acknowledged that and indicated they would like to allow Breivik more contact with other prisoners, but they said his attempts to spread his ideology make it dangerous for them to change the rules. They were also concerned that other prisoners might harm Breivik, or that he might try to harm them.

In the lawsuit, Breivik requested a change in the prisons policy on visits, letters and phone calls. Storrvik described that policy like this: Those who want to see Breivik are not allowed to, and those who are allowed to, Breivik does not want to see.

Breivik does not want to see his family, relatives or old friends, whom he called meaningless visitors. Just before his mother died, in 2013, he told prison authorities that he might not want to see her again because she wasnt as proud of him as she should be.

When his father, who had not seen him for 20 years, wanted to visit him, Breivik agreed but only on the condition that the elderly man would become a member of the Nordic State and declare allegiance to national socialism. His father declined.

For a while, he was in regular telephone contact with one of his female fans, but he eventually stopped talking to her because he did not find the conversations politically stimulating.

About 4,000 letters  to and from Breivik  have passed through the prisons censorship department during the past four years. The prison has censored 600 of them, mostly those written by Breivik, and has kept only a few dozen of the many letters sent to him.

The monitoring of the mail, expensive and laborious as it is, needed to continue, the states lawyers argued. The plaintiff has not shown any sign of remorse, Marius Emberland, the lawyer in charge of the states case, said in court. Breivik is a very dangerous man.

So what does this dangerous man believe? What viral, threatening ideas does he nurture in his pampered isolation? The answer is in that Nazi salute. Breivik has slightly altered his political message.

In 2011, he wanted to rid Europe of all Muslims; now his belief system appears to have shifted to a more extreme form of neo-Nazism, with a focus on maintaining what he sees as the purity of the Nordic, or Aryan, race.

Hes an opportunist, says Tore Bjrgo, director at the Centre for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo.

The leading ideologues on the anti-jihadist scene rejected him. They found his murders horrendous. Now he rejects them in return and clings to those who gave him support  the most extreme neo-Nazis in Eastern Europe and Russia.

I have spent a few years studying Breivik and his crimes for my book One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway. Thats how I came to be in contact with him.

The first letter he wrote to me began: Dear Asne, I have been following your career with great interest since 2003. I respect and admire you for your mentality, competence and intelligence.

The letter continued, flattering me, trying to manipulate me into serving his purposes. He made me an offer in the letter. He wanted us to write the book together.

I have enough insight to realise that The Breivik Diaries [a still-unpublished manuscript he is not permitted to send to anyone] will be boycotted by the established publishing houses, and therefore want to offer you the chance of selling the book as a package within your project, that is, you top and/or tail your book with a quick hack job by me.

He ended his letter: With narcissistic and revolutionary wishes, Anders Behring Breivik.

I declined the offer but continued to ask him questions in my attempt to understand what had made him a mass murderer and a convicted political terrorist at the age of 32.

In his manifesto, and during the 2012 trial, Breiviks main enemy was multiculturalism, a system he called cultural Marxism. He claimed in court that he had committed his attack to save Norways Christian culture.

Since then, his hatred of people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, and of mainstream political thought, seems to have lost none of its intensity. The last letter I received from him came on November 13, 2015.

He said that this was the fifth version of the letter and that the previous four had been stopped by the censors. He wrote: It was neither a Christian, nor a contra-jihadist who acted on 7/22 but rather one of the most fanatical National Socialists in Northern Europe. He said he had converted to Odinism, a racist pagan movement, and prayed to the same God as the Vikings did in the 10th century.

Breiviks main preoccupation in the letter was with how to preserve what he calls the Nordic genes. One of his ideas was that the state should establish a fertility clinic where Nordic embryos would be for sale.

The clinic would hire surrogate mothers to deliver 100% pure Nordic babies for adoption. He ended the letter by saying that saving the racially distinctive character of the Aryans was the most important issue on the agenda for the Nordic State.

But heres where Breivik may bump up against a painful reality: His so-called Nordic State exists only in his mind and in his writings.

This trial hasnt really made an impact, Alexander Verkhovsky tells me by phone from Moscow.

An estimated 100,000 people gathered in Oslo town centre for a vigil following the attacks on July 25, 2011.

Verkhovsky is the director of Sova Centre, a Moscow-based think tank that conducts research on nationalism and xenophobia in Russia. Since Breivik committed his crimes in 2011, other issues have competed for the attention of Russias far-right activists.

Ukraine has been a focal point, as has the influx of refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia.

He is an old story now and hasnt been able to keep the support up here in Russia. He almost disappeared from the scene, Verkhovsky says, referring to the social media and blogosphere of the extreme right wing.

Even the pictures of his Nazi salute hardly got a nod from many of his old fans. Its warm and cosy, where he is, not a Russian gulag, one person wrote on a nationalist page. Another made fun of Breiviks request for a PlayStation 3.

On the website Pravye Novosti (Right-Wing News), a commentator wrote that Breivik acted too early. He hurried, did not wait for the Arab immigrants. Today nobody would have convicted him. Jackass.

But some supporters remain loyal and were delighted to see their old idol on television again. Some still call him a hero of the white race and address him as Commander Breivik or Beauty.

Auernheimer, the American living in Georgia, says: I network with thousands of nationalists. My crew has 30 core people working daily. Breivik came up recently. Not a bad word was said. We all love and support him unconditionally.

Roman Dedushkin is one of Breiviks Russian fans. My stance towards Breivik in the last five years has only become more positive, he says.

This is because of his active stance while being in prison, as well as the fact that I have thoroughly studied his texts, translated into Russian. He is definitely an authoritative figure, and I think that the numbers of those who support and sympathise with him will only grow.

Wishful thinking, perhaps. But many involved in the Breivik case warn that if he, a lone attacker, can cause so much damage in three hours, so could a copycat killer.

Our greatest fear is not that he will be let out. He wont. It is that he will be able to spread his message. It is a message that kills, says Lisbeth Ryneland, the leader of a support group for the victims of July 22.

She lost her daughter, Synne, in the attack. Synne, 18, tried to swim away when Breivik started shooting but then turned back. She was found behind a stone, with three bullet holes in her forehead. The forensic experts at first thought she had been about to drown because of severe damage to her lungs. Then they realized that the damage was the result of extreme hyperventilation from her desperate, rapid panting as she died.

I can never forgive him, Ryneland says. I lie awake at night and think of her fear, her last seconds, alone behind that stone. But I trust the Norwegian rule of law.

I support his right to put his case forward. It is important for us that he is treated like any other prisoner. Not better. Not worse.
ONE vote. That is all that is keeping us from another general election.

The smallest possible margin for a majority in the Dail is what we have waited 70 days for.

The shakiest of coalitions is what Enda Kenny now leads, with the support of nine Independents and the tacit support of a reluctant Fianna Fail.

It is a recipe for disaster.

After its lengthy gestation period, the birth yesterday of this Government was a most difficult and murky affair.

The bells signalling for a Dail vote had begun to ring.

Three members of the Independent Alliance were scurrying around the Dail chamber on their phones, looking on edge.

Amid talk that Roscommon TD Michael Fitzmaurices difficulties over turfcutting was holding matters up, the man himself still found time to go on his local radio station, Shannonside, to air his views. Pure politics at its best.

The vote shortly after 2pm was to whether Kenny had done enough to become taoiseach at the fourth time of asking.

The vote had been due to take place at midday but was delayed because the Independent Alliance was not ready to deal. Nor were the rural group who felt like they were being messed around by an arrogant Kenny.

It was all reminiscent of the day of Brian Cowens botched reshuffle in early 2011, which led to several of his ministers, including Micheal Martin and the late Brian Lenihan, talking of a heave outside the chamber, in full view of the national media.

Yesterday, even moments before the votes were cast, John Halligan and Sean Canney were claiming not to know what was going on, when asked by hungry reporters.

According to sources, a firm request from a senior Fine Gael minister earlier on, at 11.50am, for them to go to the Dail to vote, was met with an equally firm Fuck off, we are not done here yet.

The alliances anger was raised further when Kennys wife, Fionnuala, entered the building and photographs were being taken before final agreement was reached.

We havent done a deal yet and they are taking photos, it was madness, said a source.

There was trouble, too, with the rural TDs.

By mid-morning, as expected, they began to topple one by one.

Mattie McGrath was gone, then went Cork South West TD Michael Collins.

Noel Grealish was agitating, as was Denis Naughten who had told Fine Gael he did not want the rural affairs ministry several times, only to be offered it again.

But at 2.22pm it was official: Kenny was re-elected by a margin of 59 votes to 49.

A minimum of 58 votes were needed for Fianna Fail to abstain, so this Government will be reliant on a majority of just one vote.

Once Kennys position was secure, there was no great sense of elation or celebration. Rather, the overriding feeling was one of relief.

Now, with his Cabinet in place, focus shifts to how this Jerry-built catastrophe will work.

How will Kenny and his ministers be able to work with the likes of Shane Ross, who likened Kenny to a political corpse a mere few weeks ago?

How can this work when the truculent Leo Varadkar holds views that the deal to suspend water charges is not in the national interest?

Given how tight the numbers are, trust will be key between Fine Gael and the Independents if this is going to work.

But things already are looking strained.

The bouncing of the Independents into yesterdays had caused fury the previous day, which was only aggravated as the vote drew closer.

Having built up positive relations with the likes of Simon Coveney, Simon Harris, and Paschal Donohoe, the Independents were given little love by Kenny in their meetings yesterday.

They asked for Seanad seats  they were told where to go.

They asked for a government press secretary  they were told where to go.

On a multitude of additional requests, Kenny budged not one inch, saying this is the deal, take it or leave it.

Kenny was a fucker. We went well with the other guys, but he was outrageous, said one alliance source.

But such animosity runs both ways. A lot of Fine Gaelers are not so keen on Ross and will find it hard to stomach his particular brand of self-promotional politics.

He confirmed that he will take charge of the Department of Transport. But he announced said news before it had been stated in the Dail. It caused fury among the Kenny camp.

Within minutes of it emerging, Google was inundated with search requests of every nasty thing Ross has written about Irish Rail, Luas drivers, the public sector, and trade union leaders with beards. There is no shortage of ammunition there.

But Kennys decision to promote the ones lucky enough to be in Cabinet will obviously have left many more disappointed.

There will be hope for some that a junior ministry may still be in the offing come next week.

For others, they will have to question whether many years of being Kennys bootboy or girl has been worth it.

As this is Kennys last chance of offering advancement to his eager party members, if they are neglected again this time around, they could begin gunning for him sooner rather than later.

With the margin in the Dail so tight, Kenny is vulnerable.

There was surprise with the appointment of Michael Creed and Mary Mitchell-OConnor to Cabinet. Creeds appointment may go a long way to healing many of the internal heartaches within Fine Gael.

Mitchell-OConnor had been seen sitting near the corridor over to Government Buildings and was heard saying: Its too late, its too late  a sign she felt she had missed out.

Kenny, despite being deeply unpopular, has again proven himself to be a great survivor. Through the past 10 weeks he has managed to navigate many difficulties and again stands as head of Government.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams gets a slagging from Fine Gael TDs as he walks through a line of honour for Enda Kenny as he leaves Leinster House

But it is a weak Government with a difficult road ahead.

Having shafted Varadkar, the big loser of this new team, Kenny has sent a signal that he is not going anywhere soon, contrary to earlier belief that he would be gone in months.

Varadkar looked sick in the chamber as the announcements were read out.

It was as big a two fingers as Kenny could have given to his heir apparent. Paschal Donohoe is now firmly in place as a genuine leadership contender given his elevation to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

By the end of the day, a sense of calm had descended over Leinster House but the chaos of earlier was a sign of the size of the task ahead of those now in high office.

There may be trouble ahead, as the old song goes.
I WAS what one might call an intense child, prone to crying fits over the long-term damage the greenhouse effect was inflicting upon the planet, and a six-month obsession with Satan and His Desire To Tempt Me Into Sin after getting a missile bible for my ninth birthday.

I also spent a great deal of time alone reading poetry (youre right! I didnt have many friends. However did you guess?) and I think I was about 11 when I first read Philip Larkins This Be The Verse.

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

And I knew. I knew that I didnt want to have children.

I felt, even at such a young age, the huge responsibility of raising another human being, the mistakes that could be made, the neuroses that you could pass on to them without realising it, the impact that an impatient sigh or hastily-formed sentence could have on their psyche.

There seemed to be something so futile about the entire exercise.

I didnt tell anyone.

Even at 11, I could tell that the reaction would not be positive.

I looked for answers in books, finding solace in characters such as Lady Macbeth, Anna Karenina, Emma Bovary, Edna Pontellier; women who had rejected societys supposition that they ought to be entirely fulfilled by marriage and children, trying to ignore the fact that, ultimately, they were all doomed to a rather unfortunate fate.

Its not that I dislike children.

One of my best friends, Aine, has a little girl so adorable that I plan on kidnapping her and raising her in my image to be a feminist vigilante.

I adore teenagers, particularly teenage girls, and am constantly inspired by their enthusiasm and hopefulness.

I think I would be a good mother.

I just dont want to be one.

Maybe Ill change my mind.

(You dont know. People change. You might change your mind.)

Maybe Ill meet the right person. (I did attempt to fit in. I found a lovely, kind boyfriend, we discussed marriage and babies and a future, this is what youre supposed to want, this is what every woman is supposed to want, and I felt like I was drowning.)

People  well, lets be real here, women  who decide that they dont want to have children are often derided as selfish.

Maybe I am selfish.

I dont deny that I like my life the way it is, that a sense of freedom is vital for my emotional survival and my work feeds me in a way that Ive never experienced before.

I have fears about how that would be impacted if I became a mother, if, as Cyril Connolly said, that I would find that there is no more sombre enemy of good art than the pram in the hall.

There still is a gendered expectation that it will be women who are the primary care-givers.

As Sinead Gleeson said in an essay for The Pool, Ive watched panel events at arts festivals where women who are asked about the juggle... Has anyone ever quizzed Martin Amis about his childcare arrangements?

In a piece for New York Magazine, the writer Miranda July spoke about the constant questions about who was looking after her son while she was on tour, commenting that we give fathers all kinds of permission to focus on their work, to be creatively consumed, but mothers with that same determination make everyone uneasy.

It can be difficult to admit that you dont want to have children for fear that others might find that you are unnatural for doing so.

This is heightened in a country such as Ireland where the role of the mother is enshrined into our very constitution (thanks for nothing, Dev) and where archaic laws ensure that the life of an unborn foetus is treated as equal to the womans, if not more important.

There is something about the assumption that you will want to procreate, which strikes me as astoundingly self-absorbed.

My writing brings me immense satisfaction but I would never presume that everyone else in the world should write a novel as well in order to feel that joy or that they would even want to.

Oh, but motherhood is the most amazing feeling in the world!

Youll never experience love like it!

My life was so empty before I had children.

Having children will be the best thing you ever do. I promise.

But what if it isnt?

I think it would be foolish to have a child in case I regret not having any at a later stage.

What happens if I have the child, and regret that decision?

Resent that boy or girl for the rest of their lives, until they limp out of their childhood, broken and misshapen by some unconscious knowing that I wasnt 100% committed to the idea of being a parent?

I was lucky enough to be born to wonderful parents.

I had a mother and a father who loved me and supported me and who did their very best to ensure that I was happy.

And I still struggled.

I fell, and they helped me up.

I fell again, and again, and again, and they were there to hold my hand.

They never gave up on me.

I feel guilty at the pain I must have caused them, the sleeplessness nights wondering if I would even survive.

Whenever I apologise for that, they shake their heads and say thats what you do when you have children. We would have done anything for you.

Thats being a parent, I suppose, sacrificing some integral part of yourself for your childs needs.

Feeling their pain as if it was your own. How can you stand it, I want to ask?

For I know what darkness a human being can hold, how much pain.

I know the bottom, she says, I know it with my great tap root.

It is what you fear.
EARLY one morning I was cornered by Ronan Mullen. It occurred in the local Spar shop.

Ronan spotted me and approached with a complaint about media coverage in RTE. For those who dont know him, Ronan Mullen is a senator and a passionate advocate for a Catholic ethos in what is known in some quarters as family values. He has plenty of other interests, but the family values thing is what he is best known for.

On the morning in question, he was, as is his custom, polite and precise about his subject matter. He knew I didnt work for RTE, but he wanted to get his point across. I was just waking up, gently feeling my way through the dawning hour, but Ronan was going at full pelt.

He tagged after me as I picked up the bread rolls, cheese and milk, all the way to the checkout.

After I paid, I found myself with my back to the window, next to the door. He didnt intend to corner me, but thats how I felt as he continued to make a point. Beside me, the automatic door kept wooshing open and closed because we were in its sensory zone. For a fleeting second I thought I hadnt woken up at all and was caught in one of those dreams that hover just on the right side of nightmare.

That morning encounter came back to me recently as I saw coverage of Mullens re-election to the Seanad. He was returned to the national university panel, and the result drew some shabby criticism on social media.

The main thrust of the negative comment was bemoaning how educated people could vote for somebody with Mullens arch-conservative views. The senator might well have responded by asking how could alleged educated people who consider themselves liberal have such contempt for other views, simply because that dont chime with their own. But he didnt because hes a polite chap.

What the abuse  and some of it did descend to that level  highlighted is that some who see themselves as liberal are nothing of the sort. Instead of being open to accommodating all views, they would prefer if voices contrary to their own are silenced.

Not too long ago this was exactly how the Church ran the country.

All contra voices were silenced or marginalised. Honourable men, such as the communist Michael ORiordan; and the once minister for health, Noel Browne; fell victim to that stuff at national level. In communities up and down the country men or women who stood up to call out what they saw as wrong in the prevailing order suffered a similar fate.

For the last decade or two we have been undergoing the cultural backlash that inevitably follows a long period of subjugation. Today, that manifests itself in some quarters as an intolerance towards those who appear to carry the flame for the values of a church that dominated for so long.

Those who profess allegiance to the values of the Church  particularly in areas of reproduction and sexual morality  now see themselves as under-represented in public life.

There is some evidence to support that view. Politicians who might be of a conservative bent are often reluctant to voice their views for fear of how it might be received in the media.

In such a milieu, a figure like Mullen is to be welcomed. He openly represents a view in the Upper House, albeit on a mandate that is confined to graduates of some of the States universities. It is important that voices such as his are listened to in order to discern the views of those he represents. While this is unpalatable to some, a liberal society is one in which all views are heard and tolerated.

This isnt always easy. Last Wednesday in the Dail, Danny Healy Rae set out his stall as a climate change denier.

God above is in charge of the weather and we cant do anything about it, he said. In appearance, if not delivery of his speech, Healy Rae could have cut something of an Old Testament figure, enunciating how God works in mysterious ways.

Much of the reaction has referenced the TD as an embarrassment. Yet he is as entitled to his view as is Michael OLeary, who vehemently disputes some of the science around climate change, yet he escaped any derision.

Perhaps it was Healy Rae invoking God that got up the noses of many. Notably, there was precious little outrage about the absence of anything on climate change in the agreement to govern reached by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

Just recently, I found my own tolerance for free speech tested to the limit when I read of an address by Fr Paul Connell, president of the Association of Management of Catholic Secondary Schools.

He told a gathering that dismantling the Catholic ethos of schools would leave children in a moral vacuum and in danger of despair. Catholic schools, he said, have been playing a vital role in helping young people grow in faith.

The alternative is a vacuum that can express itself in nihilism and the growing phenomenon of self-harm, he said.

The good priest appears to labour under the misapprehension that his own religion holds the exclusive keys to spiritual health and morality. This infers that children who are educated outside a religious ethos are condemned to a life less lived.

Or, as Paul Rowe, the CEO of Educate Together, responded in a blog: At its heart is the idea that only a religious perspective can engage with the hopes, feelings, and the spiritual and emotional life of a human being. It implies that a child or person without a religious perspective is somehow deficient or less complete as a human.

For those whose children are being educated under patrons like Educate Together and other multi or non-denominational bodies, Connells address can be interpreted as offensive. For anybody interested in values such as equality of treatment for all, it could be interpreted as entirely alien.

For most people, however, the view expressed is largely irrelevant in todays world. While the Church has demonstrated excellent political skills in retaining control of the vast majority of schools in the State, its role as the ultimate authority on moral behaviour has long since disappeared.

There was a time when Connells kindred spirits from the old Ireland would have disseminated an identical view to his  secure in the knowledge that it would go undisputed.

Those days are gone. Today, all views must be tolerated, even those that stretch tolerance to its limits.
The 26-year-old was the first person to go on trial for a sexual offence regarding the new year events, which heightened tensions over Germanys migrant influx.

However, the victim of the assault didnt recognise him and the Cologne regional court ruled there was no proof that the man was one of of the alleged assailants.
He talks about unity but what is this about unity? he said in a nationally broadcast interview.

Mr Ryans declaration that he was not yet ready to embrace Mr Trump sent shockwaves through the very Republican establishment that the New York billionaire is looking to for help as he transitions from the primary season to a general election campaign, most likely against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

I was really surprised by it, Mr Trump said in a phone interview with Fox News Channels Fox & Friends.

He added: Its not a good thing. Its something the party should get solved quickly.

Mr Trump said he will meet with Mr Ryan next week, possibly as early as Wednesday.

As for choosing a running mate, Mr Trump would say only that the person will not be a Democrat.

He had indicated earlier this week following his win in the Indiana primary that he would likely settle on a political person with Washington experience, who could help him get legislation through Congress.

Im going to pick a Republican and well have a tremendous victory, Mr Trump said, noting he was particularly pleased to have the backing of former 2016 presidential campaign rival Rick Perry of Texas.

When asked about backing Mr Trump, Mr Ryan told CNN: Im not there right now, although he hoped to be eventually. I think what is required is that we unify this party, Mr Ryan said.

Meanwhile, Mr Trumps advisers began conversations with the Republican National Committee on co-ordinating fundraising and tapping into the committees extensive voter data file and nationwide get-out-the-vote operation.

Mr Trump also received a cool reception from the 2012 Republican standard-bearer, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and former president George W Bush.

Neither Mr Bush nor his father, former president George HW Bush have embraced Mr Trump, and neither plans to attend the party convention in Cleveland in July.

The divisiveness in the top echelons of the party sends a signal to Republican fundraising networks, which include most of the partys best-connected donors.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Thursday by tweeting a photo of himself with a taco bowl and the caption: I love Hispanics, but the gesture was not to everyones taste.

Happy #CincoDeMayo! tweeted Trump (@real DonaldTrump). The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics!

Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican defeat of the French during the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

The posting angered, baffled, or amused social media users, including Democratic presidential front-runner Clinton.

I love Hispanics! Trump, 52 minutes ago, Clinton (@HillaryClinton) tweeted. Theyre gonna be deported. Trump, yesterday.

Trump has struggled to gain the support of Latino voters since launching his presidential campaign last year with comments accusing Mexico of sending rapists and drug-runners across the US border.

He has also vowed to deport all illegal immigrants living in the US and build a wall along the border with Mexico, which that country would have to pay for.

Others found the tweet offensive and argued it relied heavily on crude stereotyping.

Now officially waiting for a photo of Trump eating some Churchs Chicken (or Bojangles) with a thumbs up and a I love the blacks! [caption] tweeted Slate chief political correspondent Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie).
Spain has recorded 13 expectant mothers who have contracted the virus after travelling overseas, though no others are known to have developed defects.

The mosquito-borne zika virus has been linked to hundreds of cases of microcephaly in countries such as Brazil, which has declared a public health emergency over the disease.

The birth defect is marked by babies born with brain abnormalities and undersized heads.

Though dozens of people in Spain and Europe are known to have contracted zika, usually after spending time in affected countries, there have so far been few cases of babies developing microcephaly symptoms as a result in the region.

A [pregnant] woman was infected by zika and dengue and the foetus shows signs of having developed various malformations, health authorities in the northern Spanish region of Catalonia said in a statement.

The woman, who is 20 weeks into her pregnancy, has decided to keep the baby, Spanish media reported.

A similar case was diagnosed in Slovenia, in a woman who became pregnant living in Brazil and who aborted the foetus.

Spain had 105 known cases of zika infections at the latest count, all of which resulted from travelling overseas.

Other countries such as France have reported cases of zika being sexually-transmitted.

There is no cure or treatment for the virus, which is usually transmitted by mosquitoes and has spread to over 30 countries.

Meanwhile, a study in Brazil found nearly 90% of people with a rare paralysing condition said they had symptoms of zika earlier  contributing to mounting evidence zika may be a cause.

But there are caveats: Its a small study, and researchers dont yet have blood test results confirming the patients were infected with zika before they suffered muscle weakness and paralysis.

The partial findings were reported by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zika causes only a mild and brief illness, at worst, in most people.

But last year, when outbreaks were being reported in Brazil for the first time, doctors also saw a dramatic increase in severe brain-related birth defects in babies born to women infected during pregnancy.

After looking at different kinds of evidence, health officials this year concluded zika causes birth defects.
The Superior Court jury reached its verdict on all 10 counts of first-degree murder against Lonnie David Franklin Jr, 63, after deliberating for a day and a half, capping a trial that ran for 11 weeks.

Franklin, who could face the death penalty, was also convicted of attempted murder, for an attack on an 11th victim, Enierta Washington, who survived being shot in the chest, raped, pushed out of a car, and left for dead, in 1988.

Washington took the witness stand to identify Franklin. Judge Kathleen Kennedy instructed jurors to return to the courtroom on May 12, for the penalty phase.

Franklin was convicted of shooting seven women to death, between August, 1985, and September, 1988, then strangling a 15-year-old girl, and strangling or shooting two other women, in a second round of killings, between March, 2002 and January, 2007.

The 13-year interval between the two spates of murders earned the killer the Grim Sleeper moniker. Since his 2011 indictment, police said they had gathered evidence tying Franklin to at least six more unsolved slayings, some of which occurred during the previously presumed lapse.

Detectives said those came to light from reviewing old case files and seeking the publics help in identifying women and girls pictured among 180 photos found in Franklins possession.

Franklin, who did not testify and who sat impassively as the verdicts were read, has been in custody since his arrest in July 2010.

During the trial, his attorney raised questions about DNA evidence presented by prosecutors and suggested a mystery man was behind the killings.

Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, Beth Silverman, told jurors that DNA collected from victims bodies showed that all 10 had sexual contact with Franklin just before they died.

Prosecutors said the victims had been sexually assaulted.

Their nude or partially clothed bodies were found dumped in alleys and rubbish bins in South Los Angeles, an area gripped by rampant drug abuse, prostitution, and other crime, at the height of a crack-cocaine epidemic in the 1980s.

Silverman described Franklin, a former mechanic and bin collector, as a serial killer who was basically hiding in plain sight.

In court, after deliberations had begun, Silverman disclosed that Franklin also had been convicted in Germany for his role in a gang rape, while he was in the army, in the 1970s.
The OrCam artificial-vision device uses a camera attached to a pair of glasses to recognise objects.

The information is communicated to the wearer through an earpiece, according to a report in JAMA Opthalmology.

If patients have advanced (eye) disease, which is beyond medical and surgical therapy, and they have lost their ability to read, I think the OrCam is at least one instrument they may wish to use to be more independent, said senior researcher, Dr Mark Mannis, of the University of California Davis Eye Center, in Sacramento.

About 2% of people in the US have low vision, which is caused by eye diseases, like age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, according to the National Eye Institute (NEI). The condition may also be caused by injuries and birth defects.

The OrCam device is really a remarkable innovation, Mannis said. For example, he said, a person can look at a person entering a room, and the OrCam device will tell the wearer who it is. It can also read the text on a page, or tell people the value of paper money.

For the study, Mannis and his colleague, Dr Elad Moisseiev, recruited 12 legally blind people between July and September, 2015. The average age was 62.

Participants completed a 10-item functionality test, which included reading an email on an electronic screen, recognising money, reading a newspaper, recognising different brands, and reading distant signs.

They completed the functionality test once without vision aids, once with other vision aids, and then with the OrCam. Each participant received a 90- to 120-minute training session on the OrCam.

The average functionality score without vision aids was 2.5, out of a possible 10. That score jumped to 9.5, once the participants put on the OrCam devices.

After a week of using the OrCam devices, the participants returned to the lab to complete the functionality test again. Their score increased to an average of 9.8.

Pretty much across the board there was tremendous improvement in their ability to perform, said Mannis.

At the end of the study, the devices were returned to OrCams manufacturer, which did not fund the research. But Mannis said several of the participants have acquired the device and are using it daily. It costs between $2,500 and $3,500.

Mannis said there are other types of character converters, but they werent able to test those devices. The OrCam, however, is innocuous and inconspicuous, compared to bulky devices, he said.

It provides a patient with severe disability with an incredible amount of independence, he said.
I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime, but a summons to a greater commitment on behalf of the dignity of every human being, he told an audience, including German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Italian premier, Matteo Renzi, and Spains King Felipe VI.

I dream of a Europe that promotes and protects the rights of everyone, without neglecting its duties toward all. I dream of a Europe of which it will not be said that its commitment to human rights was its last utopia.

The pontiff, the son of European immigrants to Argentina, received the international prize for his message of hope and encouragement.

Echoing the famous I have a dream speech by US civil rights leader, Martin Luther King jnr, Francis offered his vision of a Europe that cares for children, the elderly, the poor, and the infirm, as well as those newcomers seeking acceptance, because they have lost everything and need shelter.

Notwithstanding the prizes underlying, positive message, the Pope tacitly acknowledged a Europe engulfed in a crisis of confidence, prompted by the threat of terrorism and a surge of migrants. These strengthen nationalistic sentiments that seek to undermine the continents unity.

He also said youth unemployment was sapping the continent of its dynamism, and he called for new economic models that are more inclusive and equitable.

There is an impression that Europe is declining, that it has lost its ability to be innovative and creative, that it is more concerned with preserving and dominating spaces than with generating processes of inclusions and change, Francis said.

He urged Europeans to undergo a memory transfusion, citing a phrase by Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel, to remember Europes fractured past and confront issues that threaten again to divide it.

A memory transfusion can free us from todays temptation to build hastily on the shifting stands of immediate results, which may produce quick and easy short-term political gains, but do not enhance human fulfilment, he said.

The Pope said the Roman Catholic Church can play a role in the rebirth of a Europe, weary, yet still rich in energies and possibilities.

The prize, consisting of a medal and a citation, is awarded annually by the German city of Aachen.
The girls father, Charlie Dahu told KTRK-TV that his daughter was wrong to write the note, but that its obvious it was written by a child.

The note says: I want Rosabella to go too dus 131 today.

With the note, Rosabella was able to take a bus home, rather than participating in an after-school programme. But the girl couldnt get into her house. She spent part of the afternoon outside until asking a neighbour to let her use the bathroom.

The neighbour kept Rosabella until her father was located.

The Sheldon Independent School District says the incident is under investigation.

Justice  make it snappy

USA: The Florida man who threw an alligator through a drive-thru window is now throwing himself on the mercy of the court.

The Palm Beach Post reports that 24-year-old Joshua James agreed in court to plead guilty to unspecified misdemeanour charges on May 31 and let Judge Barry Cohen decide his sentence.

James was arrested in February on charges that he threw the 1m gator into a Wendys last October. He was charged with several felonies, including assault with a deadly weapon.

James told WPTV that he is sorry for throwing the alligator and said it was stupid stunt. He had found the gator by the side of the road.

All the right noises

ENGLAND: Installing a sonic net around airfields could prevent collisions between birds and aircraft, a study suggests.

Researchers believe the device  which emits sounds equal to those of a conversation in a busy restaurant  could save passengers lives and billions of pounds in damages.

Professor John Swaddle of the University of Exeter, discovered that filling a controlled area with acoustic noise around an airfield, where the majority of collisions tend to take place, can reduce the number of birds in the area by 80%.

Deer sees the light

USA: A police officer has come to the aid of a wild deer whose head was stuck inside a light globe in a wooded area of suburban New York.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation said one of its officers spotted the deer in the woods in Centereach, 70km east of New York City.

Officer Jeff Hull approached the deer and tried to remove the globe but it slipped out of his hands and the deer ran off. He approached a second time and tossed his coat over the light globe. As the deer pulled back, the globe came free.

Name calling

USA: Call them Hattiesburgers, even if historians are choking on that mouthful. Rick Taylor, who heads tourism efforts in the Mississippi Pine Belt city of Hattiesburg said that name for city residents has won out over other suggestions including Hub Citian and Hattiesburgan.

But at least one local historian finds Hattiesburger unappetising. Hattiesburg Area Historical Society member Ursula Jones said city residents have been called Hattieburgans since as early as 1908.

Hippo on the loose

SPAIN: A hippopotamus that escaped from a circus caused traffic chaos when he strolled along a street in the south-western Spanish town of Palos de la Frontera.

A town spokesman said the animal escaped while being transferred from one pen to another, and then wandered out on to a town road.

Videos posted on Twitter show the hippopotamus in the middle of the street, blocking traffic as people tried to attract its attention.
Aged nine and 13, the boys are normal, active children during the day. But once the sun goes down, they both lapse into a vegetative state  unable to move or talk.

Javed Akram, a professor of medicine at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, had no idea what was causing the symptoms.

We took this case as a challenge, he said.

Our doctors are doing medical tests to determine why these kids remain active in the day but cannot open their eyes, why they cannot talk or eat when sun goes down.

Mr Akram said the government was providing free medical care to the siblings, who come from an impoverished family.

The brothers are undergoing extensive medical testing and samples of their blood have been sent to overseas specialists. Researchers are also collecting soil and air samples from the familys home village.

Mohammad Hashim, their father, comes from a village near Quetta, the capital of south-western Baluchistan province.

He and his wife are first cousins and two of their six children died at an early age.

Their other two children have not displayed any unusual symptoms.

He put forward a simple theory: I think my sons get energy from sun. But doctors have already dismissed the idea that sunlight plays a role, noting that the boys can move during the day even when kept in a dark room or during a rainstorm.

Yesterday afternoon, 13-year-old Shoaib Ahmed and his brother Abdul Rashid did indeed seem normally active, energetic, and cheerful as they emerged from their hospital room and walked to a nearby canteen to have tea.

I will become a teacher, Shoaib Ahmed told the AP, while his younger brother said he wants to be an Islamic scholar.
The co-ordinated operation was announced as the US Treasury Department froze US assets owned by 68 companies in this Central American nation and in Colombia under a drug kingpin designation.

As part of the effort, Colombian police arrested Nidal Waked at an airport in Colombias capital, Bogota.

The Colombian police showed reporters several videos of Waked taken after his arrest. In one, he is reading the charges against him and a list of rights for prisoners held in Colombia.

The US attorneys office in Miami said the 46-year-old was arrested on a federal criminal indictment filed on March 24, 2015, charging him with two counts of conspiracy to launder money and bank fraud.

A statement from the US attorneys office said Waked had been given a designation used for the most significant money launderers and drug traffickers in the world.

Waked and a relative named Abdul Waked are accused of being the co-leaders of an organisation that laundered drug profits through a web of companies including a luxury mall, a bank and the duty-free zone at Panama Citys international airport, which had attracted US law enforcements scrutiny before.

The family also owns Panamas oldest newspaper, the Estrella de Panama.

Grupo Wisa, the familys holding company, issued a terse statement saying the accusations are false and unfounded.

The company said it had instructed its lawyers to cooperate fully in the investigation announced by Panamas attorney general.

The action comes as Panama is struggling to overcome international rebuke of its offshore banking system in the wake of a damaging leak of 11.5m documents detailing how a prominent law firm helped the worlds rich and famous hide their wealth.

Panamas tradition for financial secrecy and crossroads location along the path of South American cocaine heading to the US has long made it an attractive money-laundering center.

The Drug Enforcement Administration described Waked as one of the worlds most significant drug money launderers and criminal facilitators.

It said he faces money laundering and bank fraud charges in Florida.

A law enforcement official said the Waked family is accused of laundering funds on behalf of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels as well as independent drug-trafficking organisations.
Business Amid Bribery Rumors, CNN Links Up With SkyNet

CNN will help local telecommunications company SkyNet launch a 24-hour news channel, after the Burmese firm was implicated in a bribery scandal.

RANGOON  US cable television giant CNN teamed up Friday with the crony-owned telecommunications company SkyNet, less than a month after the Burmese firm was implicated in a government bribery scandal.

SkyNet is part of Shwe Than Lwin Media Co. and is chaired by Kyaw Win, who is believed to have close ties with Burmas previous quasi-civilian government and the military regime that preceded it.

The exclusive partnership involves a news affiliate and consultation agreement between the local TV provider and CNN International of Turner Broadcasting System Asia Pacific. As part of the agreement, CNN will help SkyNet launch a 24-hour Burmese-language news network called Channel One, according to an official statement released by SkyNet at the signing ceremony.

CNN will provide consulting, capacity building for the employees and training for news production and technical operations, the statement said.

Myint Myint Win, president of Shwe Than Lwin Media, said the partnership marked a milestone for SkyNet.

By collaborating with CNN, a first-class product encompassing the best of local and international news will be delivered to the Myanmar people through Channel One, she said.

Chairman Kyaw Win of Shwe Than Lwin said, There is absolutely no better [news outlet] to learn from.

Greg Beitchman, vice president of CNN Internationals commercial content sales and partnerships, said CNN is confident in SkyNets ability to achieve the same journalism standards as CNN and will ensure the new TV channel offers the highest quality news content in Burma.

Developing a channel will help the country tremendously, he said. We think that sharing our standards of journalism and values here in Myanmar will contribute to a model of a political debate which will benefit the countrys politics and also the countrys economics.

Ko Ko, chief executive officer of Shwe Than Lwin Media, told The Irrawaddy that the new TV channel was not a business investment but would be powered by CNN in order to meet the US media conglomerates standards of journalism. He was unable to confirm the launch date of Channel One.

It will only be launched when CNN thinks its ready, he said. We have to start everything from scratch. We dont know when all the training will finish.

Although the statement mentioned that the agreement between CNN and SkyNet was a multi-year deal, Ko Ko said that it would be renewed annually.

SkyNet, a private TV operator, was implicated in a scandal involving a bribe of 5 million kyats (US$4,250) to the personal assistant of an unnamed official in the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government during Burmas New Years Water Festival.

Although a statement released by the Presidents Office last month didnt explicitly name the company involved, it reported that the alleged offender was a media company that took part in the annual New Year in Naypyidaw by staging a pavilion.

SkyNet was the sole media company to host a pavilion in Naypyidaw during the 2016 New Year celebrations.

While the amount of the bribe was relatively small, the case has been viewed as one of symbolic value, with the NLD government pledging to crack down on rampant corruption in Burma.

The money, after the bribe was revealed, was put toward public works projects.
Business The Irrawaddy Business Roundup (May 7, 2016)

China-backed regional lender eyes Burma; Singaporean bread arriving in 2017; agricultural sector viewed optimistically; and an airline bungles with unapproved route.

China-Led Investment Bank to Begin Looking for Projects in Burma

The head of the new Chinese government-led bank promising to kick start infrastructure investment in Asia plans to visit Burma in search of projects by the end of the year.

Jin Liqun, the inaugural president of the newly formed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was in Frankfurt this week to sign an agreement with the regions existing multilateral lending institution, the Asian Development Bank. The two banks are set to jointly finance a highway in Pakistan, confirming the AIIBs previous assertion that it is open to co-funding projects with other institutions, also including the World Bank.

Burma was one of the first countries to sign up to membership of the AIIB and is located in the line of sight for both Chinas Maritime Silk Road and its Silk Road Economic Belttwo major policy plans touted by President Xi Jinping that are known together as the Belt and Road Initiative. Those factors, plus the countrys infrastructure deficitsome US$60 billion worth of upgrades is needed by 2030, the ADB reckonsmake it an obvious target for the new banks funds.

Questioned in Frankfurt by the Myanmar Times newspaper about the AIIBs plans for Burma, Jin responded by saying the bank was focusing on looking for ready and bankable projects across its member states. He also said, however, that the bank had a duty to help finance infrastructure in Myanmar since it is a member country.

The newspaper said Jin was planning to visit Burma before the end of 2016, but was unspecific about what the bank might fund, beyond saying that transport and power projects were most likely.

Even in low-income countries [like Burma] I believe we can have profitable, productive infrastructure projects, Jin was quoted saying.

The AIIBin which China holds a 26 percent stake, giving it a vetohas reportedly been infused with $50 billion. But investment is set to ramp up slowly: Jin recently told the Financial Times that it would invest only between $1.5 and $2 billion this year, rising to around $10 billion a year by 2018. (The Asia-wide infrastructure funding deficit is said to be as high as $8 trillion.)

In the past there have been concerns over the environmental and social impacts of Chinese investment in Burma, as in other developing countries. But the AIIB hopes to shake off that image, burnishing its credentials by bringing on board nations like the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.

According to its website, Its modus operandi will be lean, clean and green: lean, with a small efficient management team and highly skilled staff; clean, an ethical organization with zero tolerance for corruption; and green, an institution built on respect for the environment.

Singapores BreadTalk Ties Up With Tycoon

Bakery chain BreadTalk has signed a franchise agreement with a company owned by Burmese tycoon Aik Htun.

Singapore-listed BreadTalk Group Limited told investors Tuesday that a company named Myanmar Bakery Co., Ltd. would hold the master franchise enabling it to open BreadTalk outlets in Burma. The brand is known across Asia and the Middle East for its buns topped with pork floss. It has almost 800 bakeries in countries including mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand.

The companys announcement quoted Tan Aik Peng, CEO of BreadTalks bakery division, pointing to Burmas growing middle class as the target market for the chain.

The choice of local partner means the bakeries could potentially be opened in the five existing Junction shopping malls owned by Shwe Taung Group, which is the parent company of Myanmar Bakery Co., according to the announcement. It said the first bakery should be open by early 2017 in one of the malls.

The Singapore team is working closely with the Shwe Taung Group to understand the Myanmar market and we promise an exciting line up with BreadTalks first boutique bakery in Yangon, Tan Aik Peng was quoted saying.

Shwe Taung Group, formerly known as Olympic Construction, was founded in 1990, when Burmas ruling junta opened up parts of the previously socialist economy. It was mired in scandal after its bank, Asia Wealth Bank, was sanctioned by the US Treasury for suspected money laundering and links to Burmas heroin trade.

The group now operates a network of gas stations under the brand ST Oil, has construction materials and cement divisions, and recently signed a licensing deal with US software giant Microsoft.

Most visibly, Shwe Taung is currently building the Junction City development in the heart of downtown Rangoon, located opposite the historical Holy Trinity Cathedral and close to the citys Bogyoke Aung San Market. BreadTalks announcement says the development will include, as well as a shopping center, a Grade-A office tower and a 5-star luxury hotel in Phase 1 that is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2017.

Analysts See Opportunities in Agriculture

Analysts at BMI Research believe that Burmas output of meat, milk and rice are all set to accelerate.

An industry trend analysis from the firm late last month looked at the prospects for agribusiness in the Mekong region, which also includes Chinas Yunnan province, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, concluding that the outlook was bright for the countries.

The region will record some of the most robust GDP growth rates globally in the coming years, it said. Increased cooperation and economic and financial integration within the region, as well as the ongoing opening of Myanmar, will also boost trade regionally and globally.

In Burma specifically, it said reforms to liberalize the economy coupled with a good resource endowment, strategic location and encouraging foreign investment regulationwill drive the acceleration of production, naming meat, milk and rice as products to watch.

Interestingly, Myanmar already has the largest milk output of the region, suggesting adequate investment in the upstream and downstream dairy sector in the coming years would help the country join Vietnam as one of Asias key dairy providers in the medium term, it said, adding that China would increasingly be the major market for agricultural exports in the region.

Burma was at one time the worlds largest exporter of rice, but agricultural productivity suffered under government policies during the countrys socialist era. Rice output has bounced back in recent years, but remains lower than regional competitors.

BMI Research tempered its forecast with a warning over the risks of climate change and a region-wide boom in the construction of hydropower dams that could change river flows, ecosystems and irrigation, impacting agriculture.

Climate change is posing a more insidious and longer-term risk to the future prospects of agriculture in the Mekong region, as it will alter several key variables for crops production, it said, highlighting the temperature rise that is likely to take place in Burmas southern coastal and northern regions.

Airlines Rangoon Route Hits a Snag

Thai-Indonesian joint venture Thai Lion Air, a low-cost carrier flying out of Bangkoks Don Mueang Airport, has reportedly been censured by Thai aviation authorities for selling tickets for its planned Rangoon flight without obtaining permission.

Thai Lion Airs plan to fly between Bangkok and Rangoon was reported in March, when an aviation consultancy flagged that the carrier would face fierce competition on an already crowded route.

According to the Bangkok Post, the airline on April 25 began selling tickets in a promotion for flights starting from May 20. However, the newspaper reported, the company jumped the gun, with Burmas Civil Aviation Authority not signing off on the new route.

The report said passengers were even sold the tickets, and later told that the flight had been canceled due to an IT system failure in Myanmar.

The airline is reportedly now offering refunds for promotion flights, and Thai Lion Airs website now has no mention of Rangoon as a destination.

Local Payment Union in Talks With MasterCard: Report

The Myanmar Payment Union (MPU) is discussing an agreement with MasterCard that would connect Burmas bank card holders to the US-based companys network, Deal Street Asia reports.

Quoting MPU Chairman Mya Than, the website said an agreement would primarily mean those holding MasterCards could use MPU-recognized ATMs and payment sites.

The payment network also reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding with South Koreas KEB Hana Card, the report said.

MasterCard has already made agreements with several individual Burmese banks, and issued the countrys first prepaid card with CB Bank in 2013.

State media recently reported that about 1.8 million people in Burma currently hold MPU payment cards, which are issued by the 23 local banks that are members of the union.
Dateline Irrawaddy: The Government Still Discriminates Against Private Media

With World Press Freedom Day commemorations this week, the panel discusses media freedom, information access and the challenges of strong state media for private outlets.

Thalun Zaung Htet: Welcome to Dateline Irrawaddy! This week, well discuss the landscape of press freedom in Myanmar for this year. Journalist Daw Mon Mon Myat and editor Ko Thiha of 7Day Journal and Daily newspaper will join me for the discussion. Im Irrawaddy Burmese editor Thalun Zaung Htet.

May 3 marks World Press Freedom Day, designated by Unesco. This year marks the 23rd World Press Freedom Day, first celebrated in 1993. Myanmar media outlets also celebrated the day this year. Ive invited you to discuss the media landscape of Myanmar in 2016. Our country is now in transition. The government elected by the people has come to power. Ko Thiha, what is your view of current press freedom?

Thiha: The government elected by the people assumed office on April 1. People have certain expectations of the government. Likewise, we journalists also have expectationshow freely will we be able to conduct reporting? I would like to define press freedom in two aspectsthe right to report freely and the right to gather news freely. As to freedom of reporting, social media, print media and broadcast media can write, publish and broadcast freely if they have credible information and can take responsibility. As to access to information, private media have not enjoyed as much as state-owned media over the past five years under the U Thein Sein government. And one month and three days into the new government, the situation suggests that private media still do not enjoy it on equal terms.

TZH: The slogan of this years World Press Freedom Day is access to information and fundamental freedoms: This is your right. Myanmar is among countries that still do not have freedom of information. Myanmar is ranked 143 in 180 countries in the Reporters Sans Frontieres [RSF] press freedom index. So, how much freedom are Myanmar journalists enjoying regarding access to information?

Mon Mon Myat: If we refer to that ranking, it can be said that Myanmar journalists enjoy somewhat more freedom than their peers in Singapore and Malaysia. Private media, however, is not yet treated equally with state-owned media regarding access to information. Although the new government acknowledges the important role played by the media, its will is in question. Will it provide facilities to ensure greater access to informationfor example, how will it support the establishment of a good media center at the Parliament? Many reporters visit the [national] Parliament but, despite the fact the Parliament is a magnificently sized building, reporters are given a very narrow space. And several restrictions on access to information still exist from the time of the previous government. We have to ask the new government whether these restrictions will continue. Although the government holds press conferences, state-owned media enjoy greater access, while it seems private media are only allowed to take group photos.

These are the big challenges the new government has to overcome. The government still practices discrimination against private media. There are instances in which the government has denied private media journalists access on very important occasions, for this and that excuse, including that they are not on the list. But then, when [former Lower House speaker and USDP chairman] U Shwe Mann was to hold a press conference, we were phoned and asked if we would attend. They use journalists only when they want to spread news and neglect them when they dont need them. This was the practice of the previous government and it still continues. These are genuine, big challenges for the new government.

TZH: Government media does not exist in democratic countries, where governments only have information bodies that release official information. There may be government-run media in some democracies, but they are used for different purposes. In Myanmar, government-run media includes state broadcaster [MRTV] and newspapers Myanma Alin and Kyemon.

The government-run media [enjoy advantages that] seem to limit the growth of private media. Ko Thiha, you will know better as you are an editor with 7Day Journal and 7Day Daily. Dr. Pe Myint is the journalist-turned-information minister. One month into his tenure, he has tried to correct the flaws regarding state-run newspapers, which are now much like private dailies in terms of content. But on the other hand, state-run newspapers are commercially competing with private dailies and I heard that this has had some impact on private media. How much have private media been affected?

TH: We have suffered little impact so far. But the controversy is that, as Ko Thalun and many other journalists have said, in democracies, private media are favored and there is no state-run media. A veteran journalist told me that it is because governments use various [other] channels if they want to release information, such as posting on their official websites, holding press conferences and issuing press releases. Governments have media officers and spokespersons through which they release information to all private media on equal terms. In this way, the private media obtain information and report. So, in mature democracies, there is no government media. But government media still exists in our country.

Former Information Minister U Ye Htut said that government media should continue to exist to inform the public of the governments policies, and issue draft laws, which private media are not interested in reporting on. U Pe Myint in his interview with Frontier magazine argued that government media should continue to exist so as to report the actions of the government to the public. I dont know whether this is a new view of his [U Pe Myint], since he became a government official, or whether it has been his opinion since he served on the Press Council. Only he knows. Although the transformation of government media has so far had little impact on private media, we are a little concerned that private media may face challenges, with the impact becoming noticeable later. A journalist once told me that there are no government-run newspapers in democracies because governments do not want to intervene in free and independent newspaper markets.

Government newspapers have substantial infrastructure and very good logistics, including Kyemon and Myanma Alin. They have branches almost everywhere. If they were to really transform themselves into public service media, it is very likely that we [the private media] would lag far behind. So, government newspapers are normally not published in democracies, and there is free competition between private media outlets.

TZH: Some journalists say that, if they are really to launch public service media, the government should not compete with private media. They said government newspapers should not accept advertisements, because the government runs newspapers with state funds and they never make a loss. For example, although Kyemon and Myanma Alin can sell their copies at a unit price of 50 kyats [US$0.05], private dailies have to sell at around 200 kyats. If the reporting in government-run newspapers is good, as it is now, people will choose the government-run newspapers. Some private media outlets have to sustain themselves with advertising revenues. So, some journalists argue that the government-run newspapers should not be commercial.

Again, talking of an independent media, most of the broadcast and print media in Myanmar are owned by cronies who are somehow associated with the previous governments. How independent do you think the media will be in our country?

MMM: The government has been in power for just over 30 days and it is too early to measure how independent the media is under it. The independence of the media in a country is directly related to the press freedom of that country. It is important for a media outlet to be free and independent. Private media that are meant for commercial interests cant be called independent media. For the media to develop and to become independent in a country, it is important that the media can stand on its own. But I dont mean they should not have commercial interests. They will be able to sustain themselves over the long-term only when they can strike a balance between public and commercial interests.

The new government has to take these things into consideration. It has to consider how it will monitor the private media and how it will grant them freedom. There must be clear laws in place regarding control of private media where strong commercial interests pertain. We have not yet seen any sign that the 100-day plan of the new government focuses on any such thing. We have to wait and see what will happen. As all the ministries are carrying out 100-day plans, we have to see within 100 days what the new government is capable of. How independent the media will be and how big a role it can play largely depends on the governments 100-day initiative. We have to wait and see.

TZH: Given the current situation and the fact that we do not yet know the policies of the new government, do you think press freedom in our country will improve in the next five years up to 2020?

TH: I hope it will improve, because the government is elected and supported by the people. And people call it a civilian and democratic government. Since it is a democratic, elected government, people want to know what it is doing, which direction it is going in. The government will need media to inform the people. So, hopefully they will pave the way for wider access to information and freedom in reporting. I am optimistic that there will be greater press freedom in the next five years.

MMM: There are organizations that are prepared to fight democracy with democracy. If we can endure the challenges to democracy and move forward, I believe we will be able to establish a better democracy by 2020.

TZH: Do you expect greater press freedom?

MMM: There are two aspects to it, press freedom and freedom of expression. The government has to handle lots of challenges to keep them in balance. The challenge is huge. I want to be optimistic, but we have yet to wait and see how the government will overcome these challenges.

TZH: Ko Thiha, Ma Mon Myat, thank you.
A group of senators  from both parties, which is a bit of an oddity these days  have sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) asking it to upgrade the broadband speed requirement in its Community Connect grant program to 10 Megabits per second (Mbps). Community Connect provides subsidies to rural areas.

The USDA, according to Multichannel News, this month upgraded the Broadband Access Loan Program to 10 Mbps, but left the Community Connect program at 4 Mbps. The slow nature of that connectivity level is illustrated by the speed at which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) aims for another vital service:

The FCC has said that to qualify as providing high-speed broadband, its Lifeline USF subsidy, which is being migrated to broadband, must be at least 10 mbps, though it has said 25 Mbps should be the new table stakes. Four Mbps was the FCCs previous benchmark for high-speed downloads.

The letter was signed by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

IoT Can Be a Bit Less Incredibly Expensive

Any way you cut it, implementing the Internet of Things (IoT) will be expensive. Indeed, Machina Research estimates that smart city efforts will cost $1.12 trillion by 2025 if existing technology is used.

However, that amount can be cut 30 percent  to a bargain basement $781 billion  if open standards are used. Candidate standards cited in the report and at Computerworld are Bluetooth Low Energy and OneM2M. The report also says that using the standards-based approach will increase the number of connected devices by 27 percent and lead to an increase in the adoption of apps.

Easier Distribution of Apps for Windows 10

The Windows Store for Business is broadening the way in which it can be used by businesses, according to Engadget. This week, Microsoft said that developers will be able to sell apps in volume to business and educational users running Windows 10. A big element of the announcement is that the store can be used to distribute the apps across enterprises. Windows 10 Enterprise users will be able to get volume discounts, the story said.

It seems that Microsoft is generally upgrading the store:

Companies can easily snap up multiple copies of an app using a credit card, so long as the developer has enabled Organizational licensing for their creation. Bulk selling is available for all developers in the 35 countries where Windows Store for Business is available. Its also only the first in the list of new features Microsoft plans to launch for the store.

Linux Badge Program Announces First Winners

The Linux Foundation Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII) last August announced a badging program that would recognize projects that followed best security efforts. This week, the first winners were announced. According to eWeek, the honorees include Curl, GitLab, OpenBlox, OpenSSL, Node.js, Zephyr and the Linux kernel.

The goal of the badging program seems to be a long-term and systematic upgrading of Linux security. Dan Kohn, the senior adviser to the CII and the Linux Foundation, suggested the program will get more sophisticated:

At this point there is only one type of badge in the CII program, but Kohn said that will evolve in the future. He expects in the future the program will have not just a pass/fail, but also have silver, gold and platinum badges.

Quantum Computing Arrives, According to IBM

Quantum computing has amazing possibilities, and IBM Research says that it is here. Computerworld reports that the service is available via its cloud to any desktop or mobile device.

The platform, the IBM Quantum Experience, relies on quantum bits (qubits). IBM is offering quantum processors with five qubit, one more than the minimum it takes to support quantum algorithms and simple applications.

The qualifier, according to the story, is that IBM is offering quantum processors, not a full quantum computer. However, it seems that the day when true quantum computers are available is nearing: D-Wave Systems and Google and NASA are testing quantum hardware.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
Researchers at Cambridge University have grown embryos in laboratory for 13 days, twice the length of time previously possible.

The study has been published on Wednesday, May 4, in journals Nature and Nature Cell Biology. According to Belfast Telegraph this breakthrough could "revolutionize" medicine. However, the lab experiment on human embryos also raises some ethical questions about when life begins.

Scientists were first able to fertilize an embryo in a test tube in 1969. Since then they have never managed to keep one for more than seven days, the point at which the fetus implants in the womb.

Now, researchers at Cambridge University have been able for the first time to grow embryos for 13 days. They only stopped the experiment to avoid breaking the 14 days current legal limit.

Currently up to 70 percent of IVF embryos do not successfully implant. The new research could help improve their failure rate and lead to better understanding of miscarriages.

Better understanding of early embryonic development might also make possible applications in the field of regenerative medicine using steam cells. Doctors believe that these special cells that can turn into any different kind of cell could one day be used to treat heart disease, Alzheimer's and many other medical conditions.

The new breakthrough led to calls for the government to extend the legal limit of 14 days. However, such a measure would be greatly controversial. The limit was chosen in 1980s and is linked to biological changes. After this point, twins do not develop and "individuality" is assigned.

One of the lead researchers, Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, explained the benefits of observing a human embryo up to 13 days. She told BBC that this it is a great scientific and medical breakthrough. For the first time, scientists can now study human development at the time of implantation, which is a very critical moment, the most mysterious and enigmatic stage of human development.
IT service management teams can now access a single point of view analytics dashboard of all activituies performed by an organization to plan, deliver, operate and control IT services offered to customers.

ManageEngine, the real-time IT management company, has announced its entry into the self-service IT analytics market with the launch of Analytics Plus. Designed for mid- to large-size organisations that want to draw insights from their IT data, Analytics Plus integrates easily with various data sources and tools, analyses vast data volumes and presents findings with rich visualisations.

Too many organisations use too many IT tools to run their businesses. Those tools may also support IT users, infrastructure and business applications. However, they do not support fast, accurate decisions  for IT or for business. The basic problem is that all the data (and all the data formats) created by the many tools is stored in silos that limit actionable insights and visibility into organisational performance.

Most companies want the IT analytics payoff, but few want to pay the steep IT analytics price, said Sridhar Iyengar, vice president, ManageEngine. Were uniquely positioned to drive the widespread adoption of this powerful technology. We know IT management and how to make it both powerful and simple. We know IT admins, managers, CIOs and CEOs and what they expect in analytics-driven insights. And we know business intelligence and analytics thanks to the 10 years our sister division, Zoho.com, has spent refining those technologies, which were leveraging in Analytics Plus.

Key Benefits of Using Analytics Plus

Analytics Plus meets the growing requirement to put IT analytics within every organisations reach and provide the insights and visibility needed to make better decisions, faster. Harnessing ManageEngines deep experience across the IT management spectrum, Analytics Plus brings together and correlates islands of data to instantly provide insights in the form of rich visualisation and interactive dashboards. Highlights include:

Fast to set up and easy to use: In minutes, Analytics Plus can be installed and configured, and visualisations can be created. Unlike other analytics tools, Analytics Plus is simple to use and offers an intuitive drag-and-drop visual studio to create dashboards easily.

Powerful data blending, analytics and statistics: Analytics Plus lets users do cross-data analytics and offers a look up model to merge different data sets using common fields. It provides pre-built analytical functions and an excel-like formula engine with an extensive library of mathematical and statistical functions.

Rich visual presentation and analysis: Users can create reports and dashboards that include charts, widgets, KPI metrics, pivot tables, and tabular view components. The dashboards let users visually slice and dice data, drill down into details, and change the appearance using different chart types and pre-defined templates.

One tool to unify insights from various data sources: The Analytics Plus architecture lets users analyse data from a variety of data sources such as spreadsheets, files and feeds, relational and non-relational databases, applications and Web API, providing a unified view of their entire IT.

Sharing and collaborative working: With Analytics Plus, users can securely share reports and dashboards with others to reach consensus and make group decisions quickly. Dashboards can be embedded in websites, intranets and other Web apps for wider access with fine-grained control.

Work seamlessly across Web and mobile devices: Analytics Plus is also available as a mobile app for Android and iOS tablets, so users can access and interact with the reports and dashboards already created, on the move.

Lower Total cost of Ownership (TCO): Analytics Plus saves organisations up to 50 percent in total costs compared to leading IT analytics tools offering similar functionality.

In the last few years, IT service management (ITSM) and the IT service desk have become the cornerstone of IT strategy, enabling organisations to deliver high-quality IT services efficiently. Now, organisations are seeking new ways to improve IT service delivery and efficiency via better ITSM processes. The only way to understand and identify process inefficiencies is to analyse data from service desk tools, and advanced analytics is the preferred way to perform that work.

We recently researched this space in our report, Advanced IT Analytics: A Look at Real Adoptions in the Real World, said Dennis Drogseth, vice president, Enterprise Management Associates. We found that ITSM and service desk were the second most-likely factors driving adoption of advanced IT analytics strategies. Thats only three percent down from the first driving factor, which was the IT executive suite. Additionally, 82 percent of the respondents indicated strong ITSM integrations.

Iyengar said, Our own ITSM customer surveys concur with EMAs findings. We believe Analytics Plus for ITSM marks a turning point in analytics  for ITSM and for IT as a whole.

Pricing and Availability

Currently in beta, Analytics Plus is licensed based on the number of users accessing it and is available in two editions. The Personal edition is free to use, whereas the Professional edition starts at an annual subscription cost of US$1,995 per year, which includes two users and comes with a 30-day, free trial. Additional users are priced under US$200 per user per year. Perpetual buyout license and OEM white-labelling options are also available.
CyberArk has produced a behind the scenes look at how privilege access escalation at its electricity utility companies in the Ukraine blacked out 225,000 customers. This was the first time in history that a cyber attack has been used to bring down a power system.

CyberArks Lavi Lazarovitz, Cyber Security Researcher and Lauren Horaist, Senior Product Marketing Manager have provided an overview of this historic attack.

On December 23, 2015, the western region of Ukraine experience a sweeping blackout. Two of its three electricity providers fell victim to a cyber attack that shut off electricity throughout the region to 225,000 residents and purposely made remediation extremely by completely overwriting IT and OT systems. Power companies were left to fix damage manually at impacted substations.

The first step was to achieve a perimeter compromise via a spear phishing campaign. The attackers used the guise of legitimate system vendors and members the government.

Victims opened the emails and opened the attached Microsoft Office documents, which contained a malicious macro. Microsoft software issued the warning, but employees opened them anyway as they believed the email was legitimate.

Malware immediately installed a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) that established a connection with its Command and Control server (C&C) and began sending information. A secondary piece of malware known as KillDisk was installed in a dormant state capable of overwriting the vast majority of files on all infected systems and rendering each system unbootable.

Next began the reconnaissance phase of the attack. Attackers used their stolen remote access credentials to log into systems and guess and steal credentials until they eventually captured admin credentials.

Using admin credentials they began laterally moving through the IT environment. Because they were masquerading as true, authorized users, they were able to stay under the radar of intrusion detection systems. As the attackers moved, they continued installing the KillDisk malware for use at a later time, and where necessary, setup up SSH backdoors to ensure persistent remote access.

As the attackers roamed the network, they discovered that the back office workstations used to control the electric breakers could be accessed over an internal VPN. Contrary to best practices, these systems were not air gapped, and VPN access only required single factor authentication.

Using compromised credentials, the attackers logged into the VPN to remotely connect to workstations in the control room. For several weeks, they simply watched and learned how the operators accessed and controlled the systems, and how updates were remotely applied to systems in the field.

The attackers continue spreading the KillDisk malware through the IT environment and also applied it to the grid systems via a firmware update and tested it to make sure that it would work.

When the attack was ready, they executed against their end goal: take down power across the Ukraine and disrupt remediation as much as possible.

They took control of workstations in the control room and remotely disabled the mice and keyboards so that system operators could not intervene. From the workstations, the attackers logged into the Human Machine Interface (HMI), which served as the UI to control the grid systems, and disconnected systems, opened breakers, and shut down electricity at 30 substations. They then disabled backup power supplies to two of the three energy distribution centers.

As the power went out throughout the Ukraine, the system operators were left helpless, with no ability to take back control of their machines and stop the attack.

As the final step, they prevented the swift remediation of the incident in two ways:

First, the attackers launched a DDoS attack against the companies call centers, overwhelming the phone lines so that customers were unable to reach the power companies to report the outages. This was done so that, in the event the companies did not see the machine takeover and detect the attack, customers would be unable to call in to report the outages. This significantly delayed the time to detection for one of the victim utility companies.

Second, the attackers activated the KillDisk malware that was previously installed on both the IT systems and the grid systems. In the IT environment, the malware overwrote approximately 40 file types on all infected systems and then wiped the hard drives. In the OT environment, KillDisk was installed and activated on sixteen substations, leaving them unresponsive to remote commands by operators.

Without functioning IT or OT systems, the utilities were delayed from remediating the incident and restoring service. To finally get electricity back up and running, utility workers had to drive to the power stations to manually reset the breakers. Even three months following the attack, workers must still manually control the breakers at the impacted substations.

CyberArk says its CyberArks proactive privileged account controls layered with behavioral analytics tools could have helped these energy companies block lateral movement early on, detect if the attackers were able to capture credentials, and ultimately prevent the end goal of a massive, unprecedented blackout.
In what may be seen by Aussies as a Kangaroo court  or is that pandering too much  a Chinese court has ruled that a Chinese company can use the name IPHONE.

There is a lot more to the law so lets get a few technicalities ironed out.

Apple first filed a trademark bid for the name for electronic goods in 2002, but it was not approved until 2013. In 2012, it had to pay US$60 million to Proview Technology for the legal rights to use its previously registered iPad trademark in China.

Xintong Tiandi sells handbags, mobile phone cases and other leather goods branded with the name "IPHONE", close to Apple's iPhone mark, and the registered trademark symbol.

Apple first brought the case against it to the Chinese trademark authority in 2012, then when that failed, filed a lawsuit in a lower Beijing court.

But both ruled against Apple, so it appealed to the higher court. It ruled that Apple  its phones started selling in China in 2009 - could not prove it was a well-known brand in China before Xintong Tiandi filed its trademark application in 2007.

The Beijing Municipal High People's Court ruled in favour of Xintong Tiandi Technology that trademarked "IPHONE" for its leather products in China in 2010. The company said that the "huge victory brings esteem to Xintong Tiandi's promise to protect the iPhone trademark."

Now to the opinion  the author does not hold any personal views here  as reported from many sources. It may be worth reading the BBC article first here.

The issue was first reported in the state-run Legal Daily that is widely understood to be the official mouthpiece of the Chinese Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

It is understood that Apple has had other issues with the Commission that resulted in Apple's iBooks, and iTunes services being shut down in China on 22 April. The Commission has strict rules on what can and cannot be published on the Internet. It also stated that all content shown to Chinese people must be stored on servers based on the Chinese mainland. Apple hopes access to the services would be restored soon.

It also comes at a time when the Chinese legal system is embracing both Western and Eastern cultures. One analyst close to the case said that in any case the use of the term iPhone had become so generic that it could not be copyrighted  yes the symbol/typeface could be trademarked, and this case does not infringe Apples rights.

It also comes at a time when the gloss has apparently come off Apple in that market. The global smartphone market was gobsmacked by a 16.3% drop in Apple sales and reports of 44% drop in Q1 volumes worldwide. According to Asian researchers Trendforce, Apple has cut back on iPhone production in Q2 by 30% and expects a further 30% cut in Q3.

Last week billionaire investor Carl Icahn sold all his shares in Apple over concerns about the technology firm's prospects in China. He blamed China's economic slowdown and worries over government interference. Apples share price slipped below the all-important US$100 psychological barrier to $92.68  a far cry from $132.54 one year ago.
Vivid Sydney from 27 May to 18 June 18 is not just about bright lights  it is about bright ideas too.

Vivid Ideas has announced a range of 'STEM + STEAM' events to their 2016 program, aiming to explore and develop science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in creative ways, putting the arts into STEM fields.

Vivid Ideas Curator, Jess Scully said: "Vivid Ideas supports and celebrates the business of creativity with more than 160 events spanning sectors including technology, start-up smarts, film, storytelling, design, architecture, visual arts, and communication. It's an annual forum for the creative industries to collaborate, foster business connections and showcase new ideas, putting creative thinking and skills into every field and the broader economy.

"While STEM events typically explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, our STEAM events incorporate the A for the arts  recognising that creativity and critical thinking developed through exposure to the arts are keys to success across all fields."

With estimations that 75% of the fastest growing occupations require STEM skills and knowledge, Vivid Ideas aims to highlight the intersection between arts, technology and commerce with a range of free and ticketed events across Sydney.

Key events to diary note

The Sunrise 2016: Australia's Most Successful Founders Tell Their Stories | 30 May at Carriageworks. The Sunrise is a start-up conference presented by founders, for founders. It brings together Australias most successful tech leaders, including Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canva's Melanie Perkins, to tell stories from their beginnings. They talk about the pivotal decisions, the big mistakes, the near misses and the a-ha moments. Learn firsthand what it takes to build a successful start-up here in Australia, and how to build the next generations most relevant technology companies.

Melanie Perkins, to tell stories from their beginnings. They talk about the pivotal decisions, the big mistakes, the near misses and the a-ha moments. Learn firsthand what it takes to build a successful start-up here in Australia, and how to build the next generations most relevant technology companies. Inspiring the Next Generation of Creative, Entrepreneurial and Digital Women | 11 June at Museum of Contemporary Art. Less than a quarter of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians are women - and yet jobs that require these skills are the fastest growing and amongst the most highly paid. Hear from a panel of experts, teachers, industry leaders and girls themselves, about what is stopping girls from embracing STE(A)M and how we can help to inspire the next generation of young women to become innovators and entrepreneurs.

Less than a quarter of scientists, technologists, and mathematicians are women - and yet jobs that require these skills are the fastest growing and amongst the most highly paid. Hear from a panel of experts, teachers, industry leaders and girls themselves, about what is stopping girls from embracing STE(A)M and how we can help to inspire the next generation of young women to become innovators and entrepreneurs. Code in the Park | 18 June at aMBUSH Gallery. Code in the Park is about inspiring everyone to learn the basics of coding, to acquire a new digital skill for the future of work, innovation and education - to transform thinkers into creators. Discover all the creative and entrepreneurial things you code can do at an afternoon full of inspirational panels, talks, interactive demos and a coding lesson for beginners from Australias leaders in tech, creativity, and innovation.

in the Park | 18 June at aMBUSH Gallery. in the Park is about inspiring everyone to learn the basics of coding, to acquire a new digital skill for the future of work, innovation and education - to transform thinkers into creators. Discover all the creative and entrepreneurial things you code can do an afternoon full of inspirational panels, talks, interactive demos and a coding lesson for beginners from Australias leaders in tech, and innovation. Research, Innovation and the Ideas Boom: Pathways to Collaboration | 31 May at UTS, Dr Chau Chak Wing Building. This event highlights some of the exciting outcomes that can be achieved when adopting an academia-based, creative and tech approach to problem-solving. Examples of cutting-edge research across the fields of robotics, data visualisation, and disruptive technologies will be showcased , as audience members are invited to think about how innovative research can help solve their own community and society needs.

Creative Idea or Created Technology: What Came First? | 17 June at Museum of Contemporary Art. Forward-thinking creatives are making the most of new and emerging technologies; creating captivating experiences and stories, and inventing new ways as they go. But how do these happen? Was it the creative idea that pushed technological boundaries, or did access to emerging technologies inspire the creative idea? Does what come first really matter? Is one way better than the other? And if so, discover how and why.

and emerging technologies; creating captivating experiences and stories, and inventing new ways as they go. But how do these happen? Was it the creative idea that pushed technological boundaries, or did access to emerging technologies inspire the creative idea? Does what come first really matter? Is one way better than the other? And if so, discover how and why. Storytelling in a Virtual World | 6 June at Museum of Contemporary Art. The leading names in social, games, search, and consumer technologies are all driving the renaissance of virtual reality (VR). The medium is unique, being innately interactive and immersive, challenging traditional linear storytelling conventions.

and consumer technologies are all driving the renaissance of virtual reality (VR). The medium is unique, being innately interactive and immersive, challenging traditional linear storytelling conventions. Building Better Futures for Health: A Product Design Challenge | 2 June at Museum of Contemporary Art. In response to the alarming rise in health care costs and a rapidly ageing population, join the push to find and invest in fresh, new ideas. Witness a stunning new breed of health innovations bubbling to the surface in Australias very own backyard. Experience a lively tournament atmosphere as Australias best and brightest battle it out for the chance to win $25,000 worth of product design and development support to build their idea into a commercially viable reality.

Creative Thinking and Inventing | 1 June at Museum of Contemporary Art. Creative Thinking and Inventing is a crash course in creative problem-solving based on the Stanford d.School methodology. Through a series of fast-paced design exercises, learn and put into practice how to gain empathy, define a real problem, think creatively about potential solutions, build a fun prototype and test it out to see if you have successfully solved the problem.

The Story of Light: Deciphering the Data Encoded in the Cosmic Light | 29 May at Powerhouse Museum. The information encoded in the light emitted by stars, gas, and galaxies provides the key to understanding the Universe. For decades, astrophysicists have developed novel approaches to exploring the light of the Cosmos, most recently through data-intensive techniques, analytics and visualization tools to extract the information collected by extremely sensitive telescopes and instruments. Astronomers have been pioneers in developing data science techniques to make sense of this huge data deluge, many of which are now used in other areas. In this event, four professional astrophysicists will discuss what astronomy provides in the context of exploiting big data

Events perfect for children:

Code Club Australia Presents: Crack the Code with Robotics 27 May and 3 June at Level 2, 400 George St. This event lets kids explore the exciting and innovative world of coding and robotics. The workshops will include an introduction to Scratch and an opportunity for the kids to program and play with robots. Kids will also have the chance to make solutions for space in a 30-minute session presented by Quberider . These exciting workshops will engage kids with no previous experience in computer programming as well as passionate little expert coders. This is a unique, unforgettable experience for the whole family and a great way to start exploring the world of bot-building.

. These exciting workshops will engage kids with no previous experience in computer programming as well as passionate little expert coders. a unique, unforgettable experience for the whole family and a great way to start exploring the world of bot-building. Robowars Sydney 2016 | 5 June at Cargo Hall, Overseas Passenger Terminal. Perfect for the young and young at heart, the hugely popular Robowars returns to Vivid Ideas for another epic showdown. Robots big and small, built by hand from metal, power tools and remote-controlled toy parts will fight against each other in the ultimate test of man and machine. Bots from all over Australia will come to Vivid Sydney to battle it out in this unmissable one-day event. Just who  or what  will be crowned champion?

Lumifold: Fold Your Own Paper Lamp | 11 June at Museum of Contemporary Art. Immerse yourself in the Vivid experience by making a beautiful lamp to take home using a technique called Origami Sekkei (mathematical paper folding). Lumifold workshop participants will receive direct instruction and pre-scored paper to make a lamp that will be illuminated with coloured LED lights. They will also be given ideas on how to customise their lamp.

For ticketing and further information on Vivids Ideas events visit Vivid's website.
Our friends at i-Wreckit, sorry iFixit, have torn down a very iPhone-like Huawei P9 flagship. Their take - Huawei has been dominant in the Chinese market for years, and with ever increasing design and quality improvements, they're sprouting interest all over the world. Is Huawei becoming the global future of cell phones?

It says that it does not want to compare apples to oranges but the Huawei is very iphonesque down to the useless five-pointed pentalobe screws on the base  Apples worst screw ever.

The P9 is modular meaning provided you can get parts then it scores a 7-out-of-10 for repairability.

iTWire has covered its release and has a first looks article here. We are yet to see it for a full review.

It is a flagship class, 5.2, IPS, device using new rear dual-camera - 12MP for colour and 12MP for mono to give added definition to all shots. Overseas reviews say its a proper high-end device with the premium feel and build quality to go with it. Most reviews point however to the P9 Plus that ups the ante to an AMOLED screen, more memory and an even better camera.

You can read iFixits detailed tear down here.
It's a never-ending battle for Verizon and the union workers until all of their separate demands are met. Also, it appears that the outcome of the strike resulted into massive loss, tech firm's legacy facing a downhill curve and the demise of many businesses and enterprises.

According to a post from ABQ Journal, "Verizon Communications' top five executives received a $48 million annual compensation package at the company's yearly shareholder meeting Thursday morning at the Hotel Albuquerque, while some 200 workers protested outside in support of 39,000 employees on strike on the East Coast."

At the meeting, held in Albuquerque for the first time, shareholders also rejected three union-backed proposals to name a board chair independent of Verizon's CEO and impose more control over compensation and severance payments for executives, reports the same post.

It appears that the demand by the union workers is not gaining a solid footing and is being denied by the top executives of Verizon. Although the workers carried their dismay to the streets and protest, it does not imply that the workers are closing their doors. To prove the latter, it is a fight against setting things right and bring the company to a higher and respectable means of doing deals and trade.

I'm here to fight corporate greed," said Mike Watson, a striker from Delaware and a Communications Workers of America (CWA) division representative. "The company is earning billions of dollars every month, but they want us to pay more for our health care and give up our job security. I have a family to take care of."

In a similar post given by Jobs & Hire, it has been reported that the Verizon strike resulted from workers in pursuit for the fiber Optic investigation and also, the rift between Verizon and the union escalates as Verizon demands justice for sabotage and impeding company's operations, a claim that the union workers strongly deny.

With the division that has ravaged Verizon and the strike that led to more demands and unrest continues, it remains unsettled how the two sectors would meet and settle their indifferences so that businesses and other enterprises are not bearing the burdens of the outcomes of the division and the tensions.
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Today, I am taking a personal privilege to write about a Christian who was committed in word and deed. The Rev. Daniel Berrigan died on April 30, nine days short of his 95th birthday. Some will remember that he and his brother, the Rev. Philip Berrigan, were activists against the Vietnam War and nuclear proliferation. I knew him as a man and Roman Catholic priest who was not judgmental, but daily brought comfort, support and love to a host of people in need.

I first met Berrigan in the early 1970s, after he was released from prison for burning draft files in Catonsville, Md. He spoke at High Point College. Initially, I was suspicious of him and his civil disobedience tactics. He always maintained that it was not tactics, but a way of life.

Upon getting to know him, I was literally converted by his message of nonviolence and fell in love with him as a dear friend. His message to the students was simple: We are not called to make war and to hate, but to love and seek peace.

He was challenged by a student who asked what he would do if he, the student, aimed a gun at him. He told the student, You will have to shoot me. Berrigan told the student that he believed as Jesus preached, Do no harm!

Since this talk, he visited in Winston-Salem several times and gave talks to local churches. He enjoyed trips to the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the Outer Banks.

I can honestly say he was the best informed and widest read person I ever met. His superior Jesuit education grounded him in the classics; his time in France introduced him to contemporary writers and philosophers. His education helped to shape his understanding of the human dilemma and, I believe, made him a better priest and person.

Writing was a part of his daily routine  he wrote over 50 books for publication  but he was just as likely to send a beautifully written and inspiring poem as a birthday or get-well card to a friend. His letters were warm and comforting for those who sought his advice.

Throughout the Vietnam War, the Berrigans protested war and violence. Following the war, they turned their efforts toward protesting the nuclear-arms race. Failing to be heard as preachers and prophets, they often practiced non-violent civil disobedience as they had earlier with Martin Luther King Jr. When asked how many times he had been arrested, Berrigan replied, Apparently, not enough.

Berrigan and others demonstrated at King of Prussia, Pa. against the plant producing first-strike nuclear missiles. They were arrested and convicted. At their sentencing, Judge James Buckingham conceded that he understood why they had protested, but, of course, could not approve their breaking the law. He asked Berrigan if he would stop such activities.

Berrigan replied that the judge was asking the wrong question. He proposed that the judge should ask the President if he would stop making the missiles. Berrigan suggested that if the President would agree, then Ill stop banging on them, and you and I can go fishing.

Berrigan was a serious scholar and well-versed in theology, but in his interactions with groups and individuals, he made religion seem as natural as breathing. He considered that any gathering of people of good will had the possibility of becoming a working church.

People who met him felt the soft power of his gentleness. His life was dedicated to being a peacemaker, and he was willing to be disowned, despised and imprisoned for his beliefs. He probably touched more lives in a positive way than anyone I have known.

I encourage you to read To Dwell in Peace or his books on the prophets. The Raft Is Not the Shore is an inspiring conversation between Berrigan and Thich Nhat Hanh, men of different religions (Christianity and Buddhism). He often spoke of Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton and the written words of the Prince of Peace as guides for his life.

Today, we need more priests and pastors with the courage of their commitment and the dedication to peaceful resolutions in all aspects of life. Berrigan was once asked why he did what he did.

His reply was I did what I could not not do.

For him, peace seeking was a categorical imperative. He devoted his life to nonviolence and lifting others as it should be for all of us. I join many others who are grateful for the time spent with Father Berrigan, and I will cherish the wonderful memories for the rest of my life.
For most of the 20th century, overpopulation was considered a greater danger to living standards than depopulation.

It might be time to refine that assumption.

New research by Ruchir Sharma, the head of emerging markets and macro strategy at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, found a strong connection between the growth rate of a nation's population that is of working age  defined as those between ages 15 and 65  and the pace of economic activity. And as workers retire and live longer, the only way to maintain that growth rate is to keep the labor pipeline filled with more and more youngsters.

That hasn't happened, which explains much of the economic malaise in the United States and worldwide. Writing in Foreign Affairs, Sharma contended that "the primary threat most countries now face...is not too many people but too few young workers."

Focusing on the growth rate of a nation's working age population is a broader take on the problems triggered by demographic change. To date, much of the analysis concerning the impact of demography on economic growth has focused on the graying of America and other nations.

There has been plenty of that going on as well.

As of the last census in 2010, 13% of the U.S. population was over the age of 65, up from 9% in 1960. Over that same 50-year span, the median age of Americans increased by eight years.

Besides stressing pensions and public finances, those numbers have important implications for the consumer spending that drives about two-thirds of economic growth.

By late middle-age, many consumers have concluded that in terms of accumulating more "stuff," they either already have it, don't want it or don't need it. What many people really want and need by that time in life is more leisure and getting rid of some of what they already have.

Baby bust

With more people powering down, there aren't enough young workers entering the labor force to sustain economic growth at a level that characterized much of the postwar period. Slow growth in the working age population translates into less growth in disposable income, an especially poisonous combination when added to an aging population less keen on spending.

Sharma found that since 2005, growth in the global labor force has fallen to 1.1% per year, down from an average of 1.8% from 1960 through 2004. And in the U.S., the drop is even more precipitous over that period, from 1.7% to just 0.5%.

Besides aging populations, there has been a sharp drop in fertility rates, or the number of births per woman. According to the World Bank, fertility rates in France, Sweden, China, Canada, Japan, Germany, Spain and the U.S. have fallen under the "replacement rate" of 2.1%, below which a nation's population declines, barring immigration. Almost half of the world's population now lives in nations where the fertility rate is below the replacement rate.

Last year, China abandoned the one-child policy it enacted in 1978. Japan, France, Australia, Germany and Chile each have introduced some form of subsidies to encourage bigger families. Even if successful, however, it will take at least 20 years before any economic benefits are felt.

In the meantime, brace for a strong demographic-induced headwind. Assuming that growth in the U.S. working-age population remains at around 0.5% per year, it would require historically unprecedented productivity gains to sustain the improved living standards for which Americans have so loudly clamored this election season.

Of course, no one would suggest that families have kids solely for economic reasons, although there was such a component to family planning in the agrarian-based economies of centuries past.

As the U.S. grew wealthier and more industrialized, it was natural for fertility rates to drop. But policy-makers should recognize the consequences of having those rates drop too far.

The ramifications of demographic change deserve a thorough vetting in this year's political campaigns. Candidates at every level should explain what they would do to make the workplace friendlier for women generally, and specifically for women who want larger families without sacrificing professional fulfillment.

We're listening.

Tom Saler is an author and freelance financial journalist in Madison. He can be reached at www.tomsaler.com.
Jeffrey Vohar, a shipping-receiving clerk at S&C Electric Co., removes a label from an incoming transformer to be used for testing. S&C Electric in Franklin assembles energy management and storage systems for projects around the country. Credit: Mike De Sisti

By of the

Combining solar panels with batteries to keep electricity flowing when the sun isn't shining has long been the target for companies dabbling in the emerging technologies of the power grid.

This year is seeing more development in that space than ever before, thanks to falling battery and solar prices, the marketing prowess of super-entrepreneur Elon Musk, and national and international clean-energy and climate-change policies.

And companies with ties to Milwaukee are at the forefront of some of the biggest projects.

In Minster, Ohio, a small town between Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio, the largest combination solar and energy storage project built by a municipal power utility in the United States has taken shape.

It features more than 13,500 solar panels as well as tens of thousands of lithium-ion battery cells working together for the local utility.

The $18 million project includes technology from at least three companies with Milwaukee ties:

Ingeteam, a maker of inverters that has its factory in the Menomonee Valley.

Half Moon Ventures, a Chicago project developer whose CEO, Michael Hastings, lives in Milwaukee and has a Third Ward office.

S&C Electric Co., which is based in Chicago but has centered its work in the energy storage market in Franklin.

Half Moon got its start in wind energy projects, then shifted to solar and now is aggressively deploying storage projects in Ohio, Hawaii and elsewhere.

"It's a really, really exciting space to be involved in right now," Hastings said in an interview. "We're really optimistic that this is an unstoppable thing because it's actually profitable now."

S&C has been working with utilities on power equipment for generations, but its power management office in Franklin has become the go-to place for its emerging role as an energy storage systems integrator.

"We've been doing it since 2006, which is a very long time in the energy storage space," said Troy Miller, who leads the energy storage business for S&C. "It doesn't seem like that long ago, but nobody was doing it then."

The energy storage market's rapid evolution over the past year is due in part to Musk, co-founder and CEO of electric carmaker Tesla Motors, and his bold move to build a "giga-factory" for batteries and his related announcement relating to home energy storage systems. It was last year that he announced that he was developing the Powerwall, a home energy storage product that would combine Tesla's experience in energy storage with the solar panel offerings of Musk's solar company Solar City.

"At that point, it went from sort of an esoteric type of conversation with PhD chemists and battery geeks to something that more people are understanding," Miller said. "He really helped raise awareness of how you could re-imagine the electrical grid with a number of batteries as well as distributed generation on it."

Since Tesla's announcement, Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc. has entered the distributed energy storage space, starting with a project at the Merchandise Mart building in Chicago. And Menomonee Falls-based EnSync Energy Systems has expanded its number of energy storage-with-solar projects, with several projects now on line in Hawaii and Tahiti, and more to come in Hawaii and another in the works in the Cayman Islands.

"Now this market's become real in the last year, and by real I mean actual utilities deploying projects that are making money for the customers," said Eric Apfelbach, former CEO of EnSync. "And we're doing the same thing in Hawaii. We go into buildings and do a whole integrated system, we save that customer $1 million a year in electricity costs in Hawaii by putting in storage and a microgrid with solar."

Sunny Ohio

The Minster, Ohio, project in particular is worth a closer look.

At 4.2 megawatts, the solar power-generating system is twice the size of Wisconsin's largest solar project, which was built by Epic Systems at the medical software firm's corporate campus in Verona. The Ohio project's 13,600 panels are enough to power about 680 typical homes.

The scale of the project's battery system isn't small, either. Imagine a battery pack that's the size of a laptop. Now imagine stuffing as many of those as you can fit into tall metal enclosures that would stand on the inside of an 18-wheeler trailer. Now add two more trailers. That's pretty charged up.

Alongside that are two more trailers filled with controls and power management equipment, also supplied by S&C in Franklin.

Sitting just 23 miles east of the Indiana border, Minster is perhaps best known for being home to Dannon and the largest yogurt plant in the nation. Tens of thousands visit the village each fall for its Oktoberfest celebration.

But the solar panels and batteries are putting the town of 2,850 on the map, said Don Harrod, village administrator.

Harrod is fielding calls from other communities contemplating energy storage for themselves. The project is helping the town add equipment at its electric substation that it would have needed to replace, and the savings could really start adding up on hot summer days when power prices spike, he said.

"It's a new technology and we never thought this was even something that was doable five years ago for us," he said.

The bottom line for the Minster municipal utility is a better bottom line, Harrod said. It gets to add a cleaner fuel source with no carbon emissions. And it saves on its energy costs in multiple ways, even apart from generating power when the sun stops shining.

The storage system helps the city of Minster avoid special surcharges that it faces from its power supplier on the 10 or 12 days a year when summer heat grips Ohio and electricity demand spikes, Miller said.

In addition, Hastings said, the batteries are helping maintain the stability on the ever-changing regional power grid through something known in the industry as frequency regulation. Similar to what Johnson Controls' system is providing at the Merchandise Mart building in Chicago, the batteries in Minster are called on, in essence, to maintain the grid at a stable, high-quality level. In part, that helps utilities avert power surges that can be disruptive to home electronics or business equipment.

S&C is working on systems that combine battery technologies and power management, both for utility-scale wind and solar projects as well as for energy storage systems.

'An energy revolution'

Standing in the company's Franklin factory last week, Miller pointed to a trailer bound for a Scotland wind farm, and another bound for an Ontario solar project. The company invested in a giant crane meant for yachts to help hoist the heavy trailers onto trucks to ship them out.

Across the room stand more trailers, not unlike the ones S&C deployed to Ohio in recent months. S&C saw the market opportunity coming and expanded its factory in 2012. It now employs 90 people here, and is hiring.

The market has really grown in the past 18 months, Miller said.

"The world's undergoing an energy revolution," said Alan Perlstein, chief executive of the Mid-West Energy Research Consortium, a Milwaukee-based industry and academic group focused on energy, power and controls. "There's a shift from fossil fuels and increased use of renewables and sustainable sources that drive the adoption of distributed energy and microgrid technologies.

"We as the state of Wisconsin are uniquely positioned" with companies that provide power controls and automation technologies as well as energy storage systems, he said.

An even bigger economic impact for Midwestern companies that export products in this field should come from the international climate accord negotiated in December in Paris, according to M-WERC. With nearly 200 countries agreeing to cut carbon emissions, that should drive demand for products that save energy and help cut emissions at the same time.

Global growth

That could open up more markets for more exports for companies like S&C, Johnson Controls and EnSync. An industry market outlook prepared for local companies last year projects that the global market for energy storage systems will grow by nearly $20 billion, from $5.9 billion in 2013 to more than $25 billion in 2025.

As a result, Perlstein and others at the local energy consortium are examining the need to take another stab at assessing the size of the potential global market for storage and related products.

Clean-energy policies are pushing development more quickly in some places than others.

In Hawaii, where electricity prices are three times what they are on the mainland, the state's Legislature has set a goal to convert its electricity system to become 100% renewable within decades.

That market opportunity has led EnSync to work aggressively on the Hawaiian Islands to secure contracts that combine solar and storage systems for universities, condo buildings and others.

And it's led Hastings and S&C to an even bigger project than Minster, on a small Hawaiian island that currently gets 20% of its energy from solar panels.

"We have a sister project to this in the final stage of development in Hawaii right now. We're developing a micogrid for the island of Molokai, with 6 megawatts of solar and a 10-megawatt-hour battery system," Hastings said. "Essentially we're going to enable that island to achieve 75% solar by the middle of next year  the entire island."
Ryan Gajevic, owner of The Tap Room on Milwaukee Ave., has invested in South Milwaukees downtown area. Credit: Michael Sears

SHARE South Milwaukee officials hope to revitalize the citys downtown area, which includes the intersection of Milwaukee and 10th avenues. Michael Sears Land & Space Development Database The Land & Space Development Database follows newly completed and ongoing commercial projects throughout the Milwaukee area. The list includes apartment buildings, shopping centers, office developments, industrial projects and, of course, breweries. Questions? Contact tdaykin@jrn.com.

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South Milwaukee  About a year ago, Ryan Gajevic bought out his partners in Johnny Mo's, a South Milwaukee corner bar, and then shut down the business for three months to do a major remodeling.

It reopened in November as The Tap Room, with a revamped menu, new decor and 20 craft beers on tap  another in a series of new investments in the city's downtown area.

Now, with a new plan and a fund to provide grants for building improvements, city officials hope to attract more businesses to turn around South Milwaukee's troubled downtown.

"We need new life in downtown," said Mayor Erik Brooks. "For years, it's been a struggle."

South Milwaukee's downtown district is defined by the city's new comprehensive plan as centered on Milwaukee Ave., between 7th and 14th avenues, and on 10th Ave., between roughly Rawson and Marquette avenues.

That area features several older two-story buildings with commercial space on the street level and apartments above. Many of the street-level storefronts are empty, the result of what Brooks called a long, slow decline.

In some ways, South Milwaukee's downtown mirrors that of many older communities that have seen downtown stores facing difficulties competing with retailers that locate in newer, larger buildings.

However, South Milwaukee has stronger demographics than some nearby communities, according to the city plan, which was created by the Graef consulting firm.

South Milwaukee's median household income is $52,112, compared with $47,370 in neighboring Cudahy and $44,232 in nearby St. Francis.

But South Milwaukee's bigger neighbor, Oak Creek, has a median household income of $64,596.

Oak Creek learned this past week it will get a huge new IKEA store along I-94. And it is home to Drexel Town Square, which is creating a downtown-esque area that includes City Hall, Oak Creek Public Library, upscale apartments and commercial development that features a Marriott TownePlace Suites hotel, a Meijer supermarket and discount store, and several new restaurants.

South Milwaukee's plan recommends making its downtown more attractive with such things as street and sidewalk improvements, including benches for pedestrians, new lighting and trees.

Other strategies highlight events, such as the popular South Milwaukee Farmers Market, to draw people to downtown, and the possible creation of a business improvement district.

A business improvement district would raise funds with an annual assessment on downtown commercial properties. The money could then be spent within the district on downtown improvements, marketing campaigns and other items.

The Common Council recently voted to approve the downtown plan.

The council also approved setting aside $75,000 in a fund that will provide grants to downtown businesses to make building improvements.

"It's a significant amount of money," Brooks said.

That fund's focus on downtown brought objections from Ald. Lisa Pieper.

At a council meeting Tuesday, Pieper said it was wrong that Chicago Ave. businesses would not be eligible for the grants because they aren't within the defined downtown district.

Brooks said the grant program is designed to get "more bang for your buck" by focusing on a targeted area. He also said the Chicago Ave. businesses are generally doing well, while downtown "has been struggling."

The grants also could help attract new investments to downtown, Tanya Fonseca of Graef told council members.

In a later interview, Brooks said downtown's importance includes its role in defining South Milwaukee.

Downtown makes an impression on people who are considering moving to South Milwaukee, or opening a business there, he said.

"They want to see a strong downtown," Brooks said.

The grant program makes sense to Donn Powers, who operates Donn Powers Jeweler.

His longtime downtown business has survived in part by offering services, such as custom-made wedding rings, that national chains do not provide.

Also, the increased number of events are helping attract more downtown patrons, Powers said.

But downtown needs more new businesses, like MKE City Sippers, a coffee shop that opened in 2014; The Revolution Hair Studio, which opened last year; and Jen's Sweet Treats, which opened a week ago.

Jen Clark launched the main location for Jen's Sweet Treats in Cudahy in November 2014. Her business sells cupcakes, muffins and other baked goods. She opened the South Milwaukee satellite store to better reach customers from Racine, Oak Creek and Franklin who discovered Jen's Sweet Treats at last summer's South Milwaukee Farmers Market.

Even though the two stores are just 10 minutes apart, customers from those communities to the south have a tendency to not drive north past College Ave., the border between South Milwaukee and Cudahy, Clark said.

"It's crazy busy," she said, "and I'm not losing any business at the Cudahy location."

Clark also plans to open a party room next to the South Milwaukee store, 907 Milwaukee Ave., by August. She's already getting inquiries about using the room for book club get-togethers, marketing meetings and other events.

However, downtown is facing another challenge: the recent news that South Milwaukee's best-known employer, Caterpillar Inc., is moving more jobs out of Wisconsin.

Brooks said it reinforces the importance of taking steps to improve downtown, where Caterpillar still has hundreds of employees.

"I'm still very bullish about downtown," Brooks said.

Gajevic's similar attitude about South Milwaukee led him to create The Tap Room, 1301 Milwaukee Ave. It emulates such craft beer taverns as Sugar Maple and Roman's Pub, both located in Milwaukee's nearby Bay View neighborhood.

The Tap Room, South Milwaukee's first craft beer bar, is thriving, he said.

"I like South Milwaukee a lot," Gajevic said. "They're hardworking people."

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I'd never been quite as close to Death as I was Friday night, when he took a seat near me at Windfall Theatre's opening performance of "Death Takes a Holiday."

A 2011 musical with a score by Maury Yeston ("Nine") and a book by Thomas Meehan ("The Producers") and Peter Stone ("1776"), it's receiving its local premiere with stage direction by Carol Zippel.

Played by Ben George, Death was in the house because he's decided to take a well-earned holiday, this being 1922 and the recently concluded World War I having kept him busy. Never one to do things by halves, he's decided to make himself at home in Villa Felicita, the posh ducal estate belonging to Vittorio Lamberti (Charles Hanel).

Death's always lousy timing couldn't be worse: He arrives on the very day that Grazia (Amanda J. Hull), the Duke's only daughter, is celebrating her engagement to Corrado (Kyle Connor). Having assumed mortal form for the first time in his long existence, Death  disguised as a Russian prince  falls hard for Grazia. It's soon clear that she's equally smitten with him.

Wacky? Or both realistic and right?

As George's initial presence in the audience makes clear, Death always moves among us  even in a villa whose very name proclaims its commitment to happiness.

Like us, some of the Duke's guests see the specter behind the disguise; others choose not to. And those aware that Death stalks the house react in different ways; some try to joke or wish him away, while others wonder whether his presence might actually enrich their lives.

There's plenty that's enriching  and utterly bewitching  about Yeston's ravishing score, competently played by music director Paula Foley Tillen (piano) and Kristian Ring (cello). It features lush harmonies, intricately overlapping vocal lines, a mix of styles ranging from Baroque to jazz and dramatic transitions from major to minor.

It's not easy to sing, and not everyone in this cast  which also features wildly uneven acting chops, exacerbated by a clunky book  is up to the job. "Death" is also at least 30 minutes and two subplots too long.

Highlights include some fine acting from Bob Balderson and Michelle Waide as aging lovebirds, campy comic relief from Joe Picchetti as the villa's major-domo and a haunting solo in which Leslie Fitzwater's Duchess remembers the son she lost in the war.

George and especially the beautifully voiced Hull provide frequent ear candy, but one wishes they had more chemistry. Part of the problem is that George is a bit long in the tooth for this role. He may be playing Death. But as Hull persuasively sings, we ultimately need to believe that love truly can conquer all.

IF YOU GO

"Death Takes a Holiday" continues through May 21 at Village Church Arts, 130 E. Juneau Ave. For tickets, visit windfalltheatre.com. Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee.com.

TAKEAWAYS

Death's long history: "Death" began life as an Italian play by Alberto Casella, which was then rewritten for the American stage by Walter Ferris, debuting  appropriately enough  two months after the 1929 stock market crash launched the Great Depression. It next morphed into a 1934 movie starring Fredric March and Evelyn Venable as the leads; more recently it was remade yet again as "Meet Joe Black," a 1998 movie starring Brad Pitt and Claire Forlani.

World War I's long history: A "world war," Death sorrowfully says in Casella's play, "gives me so much work." Its shadow haunts this musical as well, in both the above-mentioned lament sung by Fitzwater's Duchess for her lost boy and in the emotionally charged solo sung by one of that boy's war companions (Shayne Steliga), who watched him die. Even in the self-styled Villa Felicita, a throwback to a seemingly changeless pre-1914 world, history cannot be ignored and death inevitably comes calling.

Laughing at Death: As suggested above, some of the night's funniest moments come our way courtesy of Picchetti's major-domo, whose comically overdone fear of death allows the audience to laugh at it. His best moment comes early, in "Death Is in the House," a duet he sings with Hanel's Duke in which straight-up Baroque simultaneously conjures images of Peter Schickele's P.D.Q. Bach.

Living with Death: Conversely, the elderly couple presented by Michelle Waide and Bob Balderson have made their peace with death, which allows them to be free and easy with each other. It's Balderson's Dario who memorably insists that death and life are inextricably intertwined and that there's no joy without sorrow; it's Waide's Evangelina who is among the first to see through Death's disguise as a prince and who nevertheless accepts Death's presence with equanimity.

In a cast where too many actors are overamped far too much of the time, it's a treat to watch this pair of pros provide a relaxed and natural embodiment of how enriching such oldsters' love can be, precisely because they've learned to be grateful for every day they have together. As Gertrude Stein once said, in a spot-on quote included by Zippel with her director's notes, "every day is a renewal, every morning the daily miracle. The joy you feel is life."

Loving Death: Grazia may already be engaged elsewhere when she falls for Death, but her encounter with him plays as a sexual awakening, calling to mind that "to die" was once regularly used as a description of orgasm. True love, this musical suggests, involves a death of the self; one dies to all that one once was, while being overpowered by a sensation that takes one out of time and makes one feel immortal.

"Give me love that grows / And never dies / One that knows / No compromise / One that keeps forever burning / Eternally new," Hull sings, in the exquisitely rendered duet that concludes Act I. It's among the highlights, in a show that works best in those numbers where voices like Hull's are heard most, singing the world's oldest song and once again making it new.
SHARE Amber Wilde

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Green Bay police say Amber Wilde, a college student missing since September 1998, was murdered  and for the first time have identified a suspect and possible motive.

A recently unsealed court filing says Wilde, then 19, became pregnant during an encounter with a man she met at a party in May 1998.

Citing Wilde's entries in a diary, the documents indicate that she was being pressured to have an abortion by Matthew Schneider, but refused.

Law enforcement officials in May 2015 sought the cellphone records of Schneider, now 38, who police said was then working a road-construction job in the Shawano area. In a seven-page court filing seeking authorization to obtain the records, Green Bay Detective David Graf wrote that he believed the records "constitute evidence of 1st Degree Intentional Homicide."

It is also the first time that police have said they have a suspect.

"It's pretty safe to infer from what's in the warrant that he is a suspect," Detective Lee Kingston, who is working the case with Graf, said Friday. He said Schneider now lives in West Bend.

Investigators previously indicated that they believed Wilde likely was the victim of foul play. Authorities had said they had a person of interest, but did not publicly name him.

Here's what police believe happened, according to the court filing. It relies heavily on entries in Wilde's diary:

 Wilde and Schneider met at a party in May 1998, went back to her apartment on Green Bay's east side and had consensual sex.

 Schneider's parents learned of the pregnancy. Wilde wrote that Schneider then made several attempts to meet with her.

 Schneider's fiancee learned of the pregnancy, apparently from Wilde.

 Wilde disappeared in late September. Her car was found several days later outside a bar in Ashwaubenon, just west of Lambeau Field.

 Police found the diary, in which Wilde claimed that Schneider wanted her to end the pregnancy because he was engaged. Wilde wrote that she refused.

In an interview later with detectives, Schneider denied that he and Wilde had sex but "showed no concern for Amber being missing."

 A friend of Schneider's later told police that he said he "felt guilty" about having sex with Wilde.

No charges have been filed, and authorities would not say whether an arrest is imminent. The court filing also indicates other people may have knowledge of what happened to Wilde. But they are not considered suspects, investigators said.

Laurie Ehnert, Wilde's aunt and godmother, said Friday that she is delighted that police confirmed they have a suspect, but not surprised.

"I had my suspicions about this from day 1 after she went missing," Ehnert said.

In an application to subpoena Schneider's phone records, Graf did not say how he believed Wilde was killed. Her credit card and bank account have not been used since September 1998, police have said.

The court filing says police received Excel spreadsheets and PDF files containing records of telephone calls and text messages.

Police and Brown County District Attorney David Lasee wouldn't say if those records had bolstered their case, but they said the investigation continues to progress.

Wilde, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay student who attended high school in Campbellsport, in Fond du Lac County, was last in contact with her father by telephone on Sept. 23 1998, when she checked in to discuss a minor car accident she had been involved in.

Authorities have never found a trace of the missing teen, despite having conducted multiple searches for her remains. Areas that were searched included a 30-acre site in rural Portage County in November 2014, and multiple searches in the Shawano area.

Wilde's baby was due in February 1999. Family members have said she hoped to attend medical school and become a pediatrician.
Professor John McAdam speaks during a news conference Monday announcing a lawsuit against Marquette University over hs suspension. Credit: Mike De Sisti

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Documents released by Marquette University in response to a lawsuit by tenured associate professor John McAdams suggest a pattern of bullying leading up to the targeting of a graduate student that resulted in his suspension.

The documents, including a 123-page report from the Faculty Hearing Committee that investigated McAdams' conduct, reveal a history of turmoil surrounding McAdams within the political science department where he teaches.

The report cites nine prior incidents of conflicts with administrators, other faculty members and students at the private Jesuit university since 1995. The incidents, along with other information gathered in the investigation, suggest what the report described as a pattern of reckless behavior by McAdams, who believes liberals on campus are suppressing conservative views consistent with a Catholic identity. More than half of the conflicts were connected to his Marquette Warrior blog.

Notably, McAdams was never reprimanded or given a written warning. In addition, the report says, there are few indications in course evaluations that he attempted to intimidate students with opposing views in his classes.

However, colleagues and administrators did discuss conflicts with McAdams in meetings with him. Further, his junior colleagues in the political science department admitted they are afraid of him and his blog, according to the report, which alleges McAdams on at least three occasions used the prospect of being named in Marquette Warrior as a threat.

Among McAdams' previous conflicts listed in the report:

In March 2008, he posted a blog asking why the student newspaper had rejected an advertisement discouraging use of the "morning-after pill." McAdams originally identified the student advertising director by name, but later deleted the name after discovering the student had played no role in rejecting the ad.

In February 2011, he emailed a student listed on a Facebook page as the contact for a production of "The Vagina Monologues" at Marquette, then called her at her permanent residence, disturbing her parents. He wrote a blog post mentioning her by name, and continued to blog about her by name when she complained about his behavior, prompting a reader to send a message to the student "to simply demonstrate that actions have consequences." The student filed a harassment complaint against McAdams and requested an "MU Stay Away Order" from the Marquette Public Safety Department.

The provost responded by asking McAdams to meet with him, the acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and the chair of the political science department for a conversation about the blurring of McAdams' roles and his possible misuse of the student information system. McAdams promised to be more careful in mentioning student names because he recognized it could lead to unwanted "blowback" but also said he would continue blogging about student activities when they "have substantial news interest."

In November 2011, he blogged about a complaint that a student filed alleging that McAdams, in casting doubt on commonly cited rape statistics, had made comments belittling rape victims. McAdams referred in his blog to the complainant as a "prissy little feminist."

In September 2014, he was called to a meeting with his college dean over a confrontation with a student group called "Students for Justice in Palestine." McAdams warned the dean to be careful what he put in the letter that would follow because "you don't want to be in my blog." McAdams later admitted that his statement was intended to affect the dean's actions during their meeting.

Threats, harassment

The report outlines in detail the chain of events following graduate student instructor Cheryl Abbate's class on Oct. 28, 2014, during which she cut off a student's attempt to argue against gay marriage. After class  in a conversation that was recorded  the student argued he had the right "to challenge this." Abbate told him he did not have a right to make homophobic comments that could offend others in class. Abbate testified before the faculty hearing committee that she believed she was "upholding our university's harassment policy."

McAdams targeted the graduate student instructor by name in a November 2014 post that prompted dozens of harassing emails to Abbate. She ultimately transferred to another university to finish her doctoral work, because she said she feared for her safety and was unable to focus on preparing her dissertation topic defense at Marquette, according to the documents released this week. Transferring required her to repeat three semesters of coursework.

McAdams has repeatedly argued he was obliged to identify Abbate on his blog "because the norms of journalism require such identification," the faculty hearing committee report said.

"This would be a far stronger argument if Dr. Adams were employed by Marquette as a journalist," the report says. "But he is not; Dr. McAdams is a professor, and therefore his first loyalty must be to the obligations of the academic profession."

McAdams not only was aware his blog post could have negative consequences for those he mentioned, "he had relied on that in the past," the report says.

The report argues that McAdams could have avoided naming Abbate or linking to her contact information, could have confirmed what Abbate's views were on the conflict, and could have helped the student  his academic advisee  internally pursue his complaint against Abbate instead of publicly shaming her and exposing her to harassment.

In addition to receiving some 89 harassing emails that Abbate turned over to the university, her ranking on RateMyProfessors.com was sabotaged, the report says. One person emailed her four or five times over three weeks, even after the story faded from the news, causing Abbate to fear he might be a stalker. Several emails expressed violent thoughts about her.

McAdams argued he should not be punished for harm inflicted by others.

"According to the (faculty hearing committee), a faculty member can be disciplined if his speech results in harm  even if the harm is inflicted by others," said his attorney, Rick Esenberg of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which receives significant financial support from the conservative Bradley Foundation.

The faculty hearing committee disagreed with the university administration's decision to ban McAdams from campus and suspend him with pay in the immediate aftermath of the Abbate incident. But the committee recommended McAdams be suspended for two semesters without pay for reckless and irresponsible conduct. MU President Michael Lovell accepted that recommendation, and further required McAdams to take responsibility for his actions and provide written assurance that he would not continue to harm others within the Marquette community if he were to return to campus in spring 2017.

McAdams refused to apologize and instead sued the university in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Monday, prompting Marquette to release its documents.
Key players in the discussion of the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program in Milwaukee, clockwise from upper left: Demond Means, commissioner; Kim Schroeder, president of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association; MPS superintendent Darienne Driver; County Executive Chris Abele; state Rep. Dale Kooyenga; and state Sen. Alberta Darling. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

Pivotal points in Milwaukee education history:

1976: The start of court-ordered school desegregation of Milwaukee Public Schools.

1998: The Wisconsin Supreme Court becomes the first high court in the country to find constitutional a program of publicly funded vouchers for students who attend religious schools.

2016: Things come to a head on what will result from the launch of the Opportunity Schools and Partnership Program.

Do I know that the third item will match the first two when it comes to long-term impact? No. But I'm increasingly thinking this could be so.

It's confusing, it's murky, it's bureaucratic and it's loaded with the kind of politics that make people weary. But decisions to be made in the next few weeks could play a central part in answering questions such as whether there will be a Milwaukee Public Schools system, as we know it, several years from now.

To recap: A year ago, Republican legislators, with State Sen. Alberta Darling of River Hills and Rep. Dale Kooyenga of Brookfield leading, created a law that requires the Milwaukee County executive to name a commissioner of education with the authority to designate "low-performing" MPS schools to be operated by others, such as independent charter school operators.

County Executive Chris Abele named Demond Means, the Mequon-Thiensville school superintendent, as commissioner. Both Abele and Means have gone to lengths to say they are trying to come up with a plan that adheres to the law but doesn't harm MPS by taking schools away from the system.

The Means plan

A couple of weeks ago, Means outlined a plan in which an unknown number of schools (maybe three?) would be designated to be part of the new program  and the agency that would run them would be MPS itself, with oversight from an independent school operator.

The teachers would be MPS employees, the money to run the schools (at the charter school funding rate, which is about $2,000 less than what MPS itself gets) would go to MPS and the schools would go back to being regular MPS schools in five years if performance improved.

There are ideas for programs at the schools raised in Means' proposal, which generally are in-line with the "community schools" initiative that MPS itself is trying to grow. This involves extending more services to students and their families, while making changes to academic programs.

I spoke to many of the key players last week. Just about everyone is edgy and uncertain what's going to happen next.

Darling emphasizes this point: The number of students who are proficient in reading or math in each of the 55 schools that might be tabbed for the Opportunity program is very low  10 or fewer in many of the schools.

"I just thought, wow, this is really sad," she said. "These schools are not offering the opportunity that they (the students) need." Change is needed, she said.

That's one perspective. MPS leaders, Milwaukee teachers union leaders and others including Abele and Means, generally see a different perspective: MPS is in a fragile state overall and already is trying hard to change these schools.

Overall, MPS enrollment has declined substantially, which increases money problems. Even with some relief from the Act 10 state law of 2011, the system is still carrying large obligations to current and future retirees. Fewer students  and potentially fewer schools  will tighten the overall squeeze, perhaps to the breaking point.

Kim Schroeder, president of the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association, said that if schools were pulled out of MPS, "MPS is at stake because we know MPS will collapse."

That's why Abele and Means are pushing this unusual idea of making MPS sort of the independent contractor to operate some of its own schools.

Kooyenga and Darling clearly aren't thrilled with Means' proposal, but they're willing to give it a chance. Each of them told me last week the law uses "partnership" in its name because they'd like everyone to partner in changing outcomes.

The Milwaukee School Board reacted warily when it met with Means on April 21. The new board president, Mark Sain, and Superintendent Darienne Driver emphasized to me last week how much was unclear and how many questions they had.

Where's the funding?

There is certainly a lot that is unclear. One huge question: The law provides no new money to pay for changes, other than the charter school per-student payment. Fresh resources are clearly needed to succeed. Where are they going to come from?

Although the new plan wouldn't hit full speed until the 2017-'18 school year, key decisions will be made soon. Means' plan calls for designating the first wave of MPS schools by May 25. It calls for the school board to decide if it will partner with him by June 23. And it calls for selecting an independent operator of the Opportunity Schools by June 28.

If the board says yes  I wouldn't wager a prediction on what it will do  Means said he is confident MPS and the Opportunity system can work together to get better results.

If the board says no, the law calls for things to go forward, with schools being removed from MPS.

And there is a third possibility that can't be ignored: If the legislative Republicans don't see the intent of the law being fulfilled, they could go back at this, most likely when the next state budget is shaped in 2017. Some see the current law as a mild form of what some call a "recovery district." They could come up with the real thing.

There is some possibility that this could turn out well. Schroeder said the union would like to work with everyone on creating more "community schools." Kooyenga said, "I hope it does turn a new page on education in Milwaukee."

It also could become pretty ugly in a pretty important way.

Either way, the yellow lights on my earthquake warning system are flashing.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank listens to debate about a resolution presented by the UW Faculty Senate which expresses a no confidence vote in the universitys Board of Regents during a meeting in Bascom Hall. Credit: John Hart / Wisconsin- State Journal

Faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last week approved a no-confidence resolution against UW System officials, UW System President Ray Cross and the Board of Regents.

Similar no-confidence resolutions were approved recently at UW-River Falls and UW-La Crosse, and soon will be up for a vote at UW-Eau Claire and at an "unprecedented" meeting of the full faculty at UW-Milwaukee.

Why all the hullabaloo? The votes are part of a backlash against changes made by system officials to UW's tenure, shared governance and budgetary policies. The changes, passed without input from faculty, make it easier to lay off tenured faculty for poorly defined reasons that easily could lead to the swift erosion of academic freedom. The Teaching Assistants Association came out strongly in favor of the no-confidence vote, too, citing that weakening of academic freedom and shared governance, as well as budget cuts to the system.

The board had been instructed by the state Legislature to pass new rules around these issues after it passed Gov. Scott Walker's deeply problematic 2016-'17 budget. Walker and the current Republican majority have made it one of their primary objectives to hobble the UW System with massive cuts to funding, but also by stifling research into certain cutting edge technologies that they ideologically oppose, and pushing for limits on what should be taught at all. The prevailing wisdom (if it can be called that) of state Republicans seems to be that universities should operate like businesses, to serve business interests by producing only graduates in areas of study that serve the bottom line.

Which is so contrary to the Wisconsin Idea and the goal of fostering a diverse, innovative and sustainable community that I don't for a minute blame faculty or anyone else for their alarm.

To be fair, Cross and the Board of Regents were put between a rock and a hard place by the governor and the Legislature. There's a very real sense that any vocal opposition to the Walker agenda simply will lead to further antagonism and budget cuts by politicians keen to score points by further demonizing those dirty liberal professor elites. Spite is no way to govern.

Such is our brave new world, though, so it's all the more heartening to see people still willing to take a stand. There's some hope that the wave of similar no-confidence resolutions systemwide will help propel the debate to a point where enough people join the fight to force positive legislative action.

In the end, we as Wisconsin citizens must decide whether we truly value having a world class research and education institute in our state. Do we think it's worthwhile to defend academic freedom and fair pay for the people doing the work to expand our horizons through cutting edge research and ideas? Do we think it's worthwhile to have a university system that fosters critical and abstract thinking, provides opportunities for careers in everything from blue- to white- to no-collar lines of work?

Or would we rather have a one-size-fits all system of education that values only corporate bottom lines, churning out graduates with little to no ability to think creatively and to advocate for themselves, where teachers are gagged from ever delving into more controversial or out-there topics and can be fired simply for crossing the line of the ideological flavor of the day? Where there's zero job security even for those who've worked and studied for years and who would otherwise dedicate themselves and their work to enriching the community?

We've already begun to see the brain drain exodus of top notch professors and researchers that is the inevitable result of the Walker administration's continued attacks.

Indeed, it would be more than a shame if the UW System were to meekly submit to the anti-intellectual whims of the current political majority.

I hope Cross, the regents and officials systemwide take time to listen to the voices and concerns of their faculty, staff and students. I hope these votes create an opportunity for those groups to come together to work collectively to figure out better ways of reforming the tenure system and of protecting and fostering the Wisconsin Idea.

We should be standing up to support these efforts, contacting our representatives to let them know we want a healthy and sustainable university system in our state  one that receives the full monetary and social support of our politicians.

Emily Mills is a freelance writer who lives in Madison. Twitter: @millbot; Email: emily.mills@outlook.com
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Perfect gift for mom

I used to ask my mother what she would like for Mother's Day. Her answer was always the same, "I don't need any more stuff." But since we didn't live near her home, I usually sent more stuff. How could she not appreciate the items I spent hours selecting just for her? Isn't it amazing how time can change our perspective?

Now that the years have changed so much in life, I am a little wiser. Aren't we all? She's gone. I can't mail a beautiful card. Her new address is Heaven. Mother's Day is now a time to reflect on so many years past. The fun times bring smiles to my face. The difficult and sad ones bring tears. But I have definitely learned one thing  too late.

Here's the perfect Mother's Day gift  or one for any day. It won't cost money. You don't have to wrap it. And she doesn't have to find a place to put it or dust it.

Make a date for a special couple of hours with Mom. Tell her you now realize there are so many things that you don't know, that you two have never discussed. Come to this special meeting with Mom prepared with a list of questions that you would like answered. What were you the most afraid of in your life? What was your greatest hope for me? Tell me stories about the relationship you and dad had. What would you still like to do?

It's not as difficult as you may think to come up with the questions you would like answered. And I promise you she will be amazed and so happy that you are interested and that you two are having this conversation. I waited too long and never will have so many questions answered. Make today count!

Elaine Slater Reese

Spring Green



Are millennials spoiled?

I write in reference to the Catherine Rampell column, "Lost generation of millennials," which appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 1 (Crossroads).

My response is that this generation is either ignorant, naive or just plain spoiled and had it too easy.

We often hear how people are simply unaware of the basic history of this country. Don't millennials know that big government and expanded social welfare programs were tried in post World War II England and in the communist countries of the Soviet Union and China in the 20th century? All failed and have been forced to turn more toward capitalism to bring prosperity to their countries.

Are millennials so naive that they think food, shelter and health care don't have to be paid for because they're a "right?" Or do they believe that all these things can be paid for simply by taxing the "rich" for everything they find troublesome?

The viability of any society, government or government program depends on having enough people who work and pay taxes to the government to pay for these programs. The number of taxpayers needs to be much higher than the number of tax eaters.

No government itself can create wealth. That's not what governments do. The government can only tax what is produced by the free citizenry to pay for these programs. If all, or even a large minority of people, expect something for nothing because it's their "right," nothing is just what they'll get because no one will be around to pay for the food, shelter and health care they expect for nothing. After all, if it's your "right," you shouldn't have to pay, right?

Rampell's statement that the shift toward a desire for "big government and expanded social welfare programs" is due somewhat to the fact that more of these liberal-thinking people are nonwhite is hardly reassuring. I can't think of a better piece of propaganda to give those who still have a Ku Klux Klan mentality.

Winston Churchill once said that "democracy is the worst form of government  except for all the other ones that have been tried." The same might be said of capitalism. It's the worst economic system ever devised, except for all the other ones that have been tried.

Grow up, millennials! Your mind-set is a recipe for becoming a Third World country.

Ted R. Setum

Mukwonago



Ryan, Republicans and the rich

This is regarding the article, "Ryan reaches out to university students," on April 28.

House Speaker Paul Ryan has been running around the country the last few years saying we need to redo Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and other longtime programs that help people live with dignity in their old age. Also, he and a majority of other Republicans have used a scare tactic on the American people by saying that "entitlements" will create a "mountain of debt" if something isn't done to reduce Social Security income for the elder population.

Republicans want the poor and middle class taxed more, but, at the same time, Republicans refuse to make the rich pay their fair share of taxes into the Social Security fund; they refuse to even consider eliminating the cap on Social Security.

Ryan made a major speech at Georgetown University the other night and he was telling his audience how entitlement programs have to be reduced because they are creating a "mountain of debt." All Ryan would have to do is convince his Republican colleagues in Congress to pass, a bill mandating that "all" income be taxed, even if that income reaches $10 million per year or more. According to most economists, taxing all income, no matter how much one earns, would solve the Social Security fund's problem for about 75 years. (Would Ryan rather see a person making $10 million per year continue to not pay his fair share of Social Security taxes, or would he rather see an elderly person not able to pay for his or her meds?) It is apparent that Republicans would rather see the elderly person not able to pay for his or her meds.

Ryan must think that students are not very bright; that they can't figure out things for themselves. The students know there will always be the very rich and the very poor in the United States because we are a capitalist nation and that's just the way things are.

So until Ryan and other Republicans figure out that all people, regardless of income, should be treated alike, most students will continue to turn their backs on the Republican Party. And Ryan laments, why are students turning to the Democrats? Because Democrats look out for everyone regardless of income or status, is the answer.

Casper T. Green

Franklin



Arena design embarrassing

The proposed new Milwaukee Bucks arena exterior is an embarrassment to the city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin.

It will become a legendary eyesore for years to come. The design seems to be a mockery of our history. The partial barrel shape represents a broken beer barrel seeming to represent that Milwaukee no longer has any locally owned major breweries.

The metal side  when it oxidizes (rusts)  will remind us of our supposed "rust belt" status.

All we need to complete the picture is a large blue work shirt sculpture draped on one side and a large cheesehead for the roof and the image will be complete.

We deserve better than this!

Bill Drilias

Wauwatosa



Benefits of artificial intelligence

We often worry about Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenging our position in society. However, in my opinion, intelligent machines are beneficial.

AI can promote development in multiple areas such as business, agriculture, the Internet and health care, not only to help us in our daily lives but also to do some heavy or non-skilled work. A programmed robot can be stationed in one spot, lifting palettes that are all the same shape and size and placing them on a conveyor belt.

In fact, robots already are working in shipping centers such as UPS, where 7,000 packages are sorted every minute. In essence, AI will keep the work running on time or help with reducing the time of certain work. Therefore, we will have more free time to be thoughtful and strategic.

AI can do work and calculations much faster than humans, which is useful in our daily life and working scenarios. AI also can take over jobs that require working in dangerous situations to save many lives.

As society develops, we need AI to aid our work. If AIs can save us hours a day to do other work, why don't we use it?

Jialou Gao

Brookfield



Grief over Prince

I was mystified by and wondered why Christian Schneider felt compelled to write about peoples' expression of grief about the death of Prince ("Sad about Prince? No one cares," April 28).

I read it twice to try to figure it out, but still couldn't really understand his fundamental message. As his opinion piece  in fact all of his columns  demonstrates, people are entitled to their opinions, even public expression of them. Given what he does for a living, I imagine Schneider supports freedom of speech, which at its base is freedom to speak one's opinion.

I find it disappointing that Schneider, in essence, publicly chided people for their public expression of their feelings. Seems hypocritical to me.

If he has an explanation, or if there is another conclusion to be reached, please share it. Ideally, publicly.

Matt Groth

Milwaukee



Take care of potholes

I am writing to voice my opinion regarding potholes in the Bay View neighborhood of Milwaukee, specifically the potholes near the intersection of Morgan Ave. and Clement Ave.

As a new driver, it is my priority to stay safe and follow all laws and regulations in regards to driving, but it is harder to follow these when it has become necessary to swerve around potholes on each street I drive on. Most recently, while driving near the intersection of Holt Ave. and New York Ave., I got a flat tire while driving at night. I was only going 20 miles per hour over a pothole. Because I was driving at night I was unable to see the pothole and therefore could not avoid it.

The potholes in the Milwaukee area have become a safety concern for all, whether they attempt to avoid them or go over them and damage their cars. I wanted to bring this to the attention of the Department of Public Works to see if some of these issues could be handled, as it has become more of a rising concern for me and the people around me.

Mckenzie Halwas

Milwaukee



Work with regents

Rather than voting no confidence, it's time that academic insiders acknowledge current economic conditions and join with the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, rather than fighting the regents, in ensuring quality at an affordable cost ("UW no-confidence vote passes," May 3).

Change, and the ability to adapt to change, hardly will be the death knell of quality higher education. Calling for "pushback against austerity," as one professor articulated it, is simply running from economic reality. American higher education already spends nearly two times more per student than any industrialized country: It's time to use scarce resources more effectively.

To build confidence in the system, the regents must make clear they will protect tenure in regent policy and will demand a fair and dispassionate tenure process. This is the way it is done across the country.

The regents also must pledge to protect academic freedom, which is sometimes jeopardized in the tenure process, and pay attention to the academic freedom of non-tenure-track faculty. Finally, the regents must make clear that their priority is the public, not the institution first and the public second. To do otherwise is to dismiss the political process and the interests of taxpayers.

The regents' duties are academic freedom, academic excellence and accountability, not the preservation of a status quo that serves neither the public nor even, ultimately, the institution itself. Perhaps it's time that the Legislature consider another change to state statute: one that makes clear that the University of Wisconsin Board's first obligation is to the interests of the people of Wisconsin.

Michael Poliakoff, Ph.D.

Vice President, Policy

American Council of Trustees and Alumni

Washington, D.C.



WEDC has been an epic failure

I had to chuckle when reading Glen Spence's letter of May 3, "GOP is improving Wisconsin" (Letters).

I assume Spence reads the Journal Sentinel, which has repeatedly reported Wisconsin lagging the nation and the Midwest in jobs and economic growth. Gov. Scott Walker's Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. has been a failure of epic proportions. Wisconsin has lagged in every category: economic growth, new business start ups, job creation, wages.

Spence's living in a fact-free zone might be good for his well-being, but it is not reality.

Jeffrey Unger

Sullivan



Study first, then act

Journal Sentinel editors offer sensible advice to legislators regarding proposed changes to Wisconsin's Family Care Program: Take your time. Look before you leap ("Take time on Family Care," Editorials, May 4).

Whatever happened to blue ribbon commissions? When considering major changes, a time-honored Wisconsin tradition has been to appoint a nonpartisan group of knowledgeable citizens to gather evidence, hold public hearings, consider the opinions of experts and citizens alike and then study and discuss the issues involved before making recommendations for action. Former Gov. Tommy Thompson, in particular, was a strong proponent of blue ribbon commissions.

On May 2, the Journal Sentinel reported that there had been strong objections "within the administration" to what, at the time were proposed changes to Wisconsin's civil service program ("Civil service changes blasted.")

Would it not have been better if there had been a task force appointed to study the strengths and weaknesses of the civil service system before making wide-scale changes? This is especially important when one political party holds so much power. The danger is that important decisions that will affect many different citizens of the state will be made for political considerations or at the bidding of influential campaign contributors.

Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature should not put the cart before the horse.

Bill Sweeney

Shorewood
Members of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Faculty Senate listen to debate over a resolution expressing no confidence in the University of Wisconsin Systems Board of Regents and President Ray Cross during a meeting in Bascom Hall on the campus in Madison on Monday. Credit: Associated Press

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By

Rather than voting no confidence, it's time that academic insiders acknowledge current economic conditions and join with the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, rather than fighting the regents, in ensuring quality at an affordable cost ("UW no-confidence vote passes," May 3).

Change, and the ability to adapt to change, hardly will be the death knell of quality higher education. Calling for "pushback against austerity," as one professor articulated it, is simply running from economic reality. American higher education already spends nearly two times more per student than any industrialized country: It's time to use scarce resources more effectively.

To build confidence in the system, the regents must make clear they will protect tenure in regent policy and will demand a fair and dispassionate tenure process. This is the way it is done across the country.

The regents also must pledge to protect academic freedom, which is sometimes jeopardized in the tenure process, and pay attention to the academic freedom of non-tenure-track faculty. Finally, the regents must make clear that their priority is the public, not the institution first and the public second. To do otherwise is to dismiss the political process and the interests of taxpayers.

The regents' duties are academic freedom, academic excellence and accountability, not the preservation of a status quo that serves neither the public nor even, ultimately, the institution itself. Perhaps it's time that the Legislature consider another change to state statute: one that makes clear that the University of Wisconsin Board's first obligation is to the interests of the people of Wisconsin.

Michael Poliakoff, Ph.D., is vice president, policy, at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, in Washington, D.C.
Heavy timbers placed atop a wetland form a road to be used by heavy equipment to repair a fuel pipeline crossing the Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area. Credit: Don Behm

By of the

The same eastern Wisconsin fuel distribution pipeline that ruptured last July and spilled gasoline in the Town of Jackson needs repairs at multiple locations where it crosses wetlands in the Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area, say documents released by state environmental officials.

The repairs - welding metal sleeves onto the outside of the pipes or replacing sections of the line if necessary - must be completed to prevent a spill in the publicly owned recreation and hunting land, the documents say.

An internal inspection of the line found nine sections of pipe were degraded and must be reinforced with a metal sleeve or risk a spill, a consultant for West Shore Pipe Line Co. of Illinois told the Department of Natural Resources in an early March request to temporarily disturb wetlands for the work. The consultant, Arcadis U.S. Inc., asked for state approval "as soon as possible."

Degradation of the line is described as "metal loss" in the document, but it does not detail whether the aging pipe is thin or if welds of pipe seams have deteriorated. The regional line from northwest Milwaukee to Green Bay was built in 1961.

Wrapping the 52-year-old pipe with a full metal sleeve at the nine locations will double the thickness of the line, said Patrick Hodgins, director of health, safety, security and environment for Buckeye Partners L.P. of Houston. Buckeye operates the line for West Shore.

Hodgins described the work as "preventive maintenance."

Last year's spill was caused by the rupture of a welded seam along several feet of pipe in a farm field in the 1800 block of Western Ave.

The DNR approved the repair project at Jackson Marsh on March 7 and crews already have created a 20-foot-wide timber road stretching six-tenths of a mile through lowland forest from county Highway G west to the pipeline right of way. More of the heavy timbers are piled at a public parking lot along the highway where contractors also are storing heavy equipment needed to excavate and repair the line.

A similar timber road for heavy equipment will be completed atop wetlands along 3,900 feet of the right of way on the west side of the pipeline before excavation begins, according to Arcadis. All of the degraded pieces of pipe are located within that stretch of the line. An estimated 141,700 square feet of wetlands will be covered by this timber mat for three weeks or longer.

At each of the nine repair sites, a trench 75 feet long and 8 feet wide will be excavated to expose the pipe. Water will be pumped out of the trenches so the pipe can be fully exposed.

Excavation cannot begin until 40 days after publication of a notice of the project in a local Washington County newspaper, under state regulation. The 40-day waiting period will end in late April, according to DNR water management specialist Ben Callan.

Other sections repaired

Town residents said the company has repaired nearly a dozen other pieces of the pipeline in Washington County since Jan. 1.

Internal inspection of the 90-plus miles of line north of Milwaukee was performed in December, Hodgins said.

Hodgins confirmed at least 11 sections of pipe, between Germantown and West Bend, have been excavated and repaired this year.

Ross Bishop allowed crews access to his Mill Road farm so they could excavate one section of pipeline on adjacent property owned by neighbor Willard Wolff, Bishop said. He watched as workers welded sleeves onto the line in three places in late January.

Internal inspection of the pipeline from Milwaukee north to Green Bay was ordered by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration following the July spill. Federal regulators have not received a report from the company summarizing the number of degraded sections of pipeline - known as anomalies - revealed in the inspections, an agency spokesman said.

Hodgins said the inspection report was not finished.

The company remains under a federal order to operate the line with reduced pressure until inspections and repairs are completed. The Milwaukee to Green Bay line was operating under the maximum pressure allowed by federal regulators at the time of the July spill.

West Shore owns a 650-mile fuel distribution system within Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Pipelines extend from East Chicago, Ind., around Chicago to Milwaukee and Green Bay. A separate line runs from the Chicago area to Janesville and Madison. The system carries about 70,000 barrels of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel each day.

The Jackson Marsh Wildlife Area is about 2.5 miles north of the farm field along Western Ave. where an estimated 54,600 gallons of gasoline spilled July 17 and poured into fractured dolomite rock within a few feet of the surface.

Cracks in the rock carried the gasoline to groundwater. Tests have detected benzene and other contaminants in 29 residential drinking water wells and two nonresidential wells since the spill.

The 31 wells are within a drinking-water advisory area designated by the DNR. Twice each month, West Shore tests samples from 86 private wells in the advisory area. The company is providing bottled water to residents of the area.

The DNR also is requiring the company to clean up groundwater contaminated by the gasoline spill and to provide a new and permanent water supply for 36 or more families within the advisory area.

West Shore consultant Arcadis has recommended the families be connected to the Village of Jackson municipal water system by the end of the year.

The Town Board has scheduled a special meeting on April 4 to make a recommendation on a preferred option. In addition to a village connection, the board is considering establishing a town sanitary district to distribute water either pumped from a deep well to be built by the town or purchased from the village and distributed by the town.

DNR Southeast Regional Director Eric Nitschke said Friday he will announce the department's selection of a long-term water supply for the area after the April 4 town board meeting and order West Shore to implement the plan.
Wisconsin has widest score gap between Black and white students

The 2022 NAEP test scores are the first nationwide results since the pandemic.
SHARE Constance Connie McDermid Wisconsin Department of Justice

By of the

Authorities continued their search Friday for an 85-year-old, cognitively impaired Oconto County woman who has been missing since Wednesday.

A Silver Alert remained in effect for Constance "Connie" McDermid of Oconto Falls, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

The alert describes McDermid as white, five-feet, four inches tall and weighing 147 pounds with gray, shoulder-length hair, blue eyes and eye glasses.

She was wearing dark pants and a blue sweater, uses a cane and might be driving a blue, 2007 Buick Lucerne with Wisconsin license plates 262-PLU.

The car has a dent with a white paint scrape on the driver's side door and another dent on the front passenger side fender, according to the alert.

Anyone with information on McDermid's whereabouts are asked to call the Oconto County Sheriff's Office, (920) 834-6900.
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By: Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez | ( TeleSur |  

The entire premise of an industry, like the U.S. media, is based on exploitation and political corruption at the cost of Black and brown folks.

The media does not care about Black and brown folks because of capitalism and racism. Trump does not care about Black and brown folks because of capitalism and racism.

I think as a Latina, who has always struggled to find representation through what I watch on television and what is available on popular radio stations, and even who is writing in these big magazines, even those tailored for Latinxs, I am finally done looking and am going to start demanding. Because what has happened in this period of time when people have been saying that Latinxs in the U.S. media need to be portrayed differently: Trump and Trump supporters.

Latinxs in media, specifically Latinas, have been manipulated and exploited for political gain since television was invented. In the 1930s, the U.S. began to realize that our countries had a lot of natural resources, and they used the bodies of various Latinas in media to present the U.S. public with a conquerable/desirable idea of who we were to exploit our lands and our people. LATINAS IN MEDIA WERE ALWAYS A MEANS OR A TOOL FOR EXPLOITING OUR PEOPLE!

President Franklin Roosevelt enlisted . . . the South American girls, which included the likes of Dolores del Rio, Maria Montez, Lupe Velez, and Carmen Miranda to seduce America into our countries, into exporting our bananas, coffees, chocolate, etc. Latinas were never on television to make a statement, to liberate nations, to make a change  NO. Latinas were always intended for consumption. We were marketed from day one.

Before Trump, the wall came up and nobody cared that migrants were essentially funneled through treacherous deserts to be murdered by the heat.

The entire premise of an industry, like the U.S. media, is based on exploitation and political corruption at the cost of Black and brown folks. These money-making industries will want to do just that, keep making money and if that means exploited the bodies of Latinas to further exploit the bodies of many other citizens in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean than that is exactly what they will keep doing. We applaud when Saturday Night Live mocks Trump supporters, but then they are the ones who also had Trump host their show. Money-making industries, like the U.S. corporate Media, will not save us. We see that, we have been seeing that, and if our history as Latinxs does not already convince us of that than I do not know what will.

Why is Trumps border wall something that so many U.S. citizens seem to not give a fuck about? Before Trump, the wall came up and nobody cared that migrants were essentially funneled through treacherous deserts to be murdered by the heat. Nobody cares because the U.S. media has made us sexy and conquerable, but definitely not people with humanities and families and worthy of being defended against unjust laws and cruel politicians.

I demand that more Republicans de-register as Republicans, as many have been doing since the announcement came through, because your party is now officially backing racism and bigotry. I demand that the U.S. media actually give a fuck, because we can see right through your bullshit. I demand that you take responsibility for the state of this nation because you have allowed the exploitation of Black and brown bodies to result in todays political landscape. I demand we stop watching the bullshit we are being fed on television, maybe if we hit them where it hurts: their pockets, they might listen. I demand that Latinxs rise up.

Maybe all this makes me an idealist, but what is our other option right now?

Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez is a chonga Mujerista from Managua, Nicaragua currently living in Miami, FL. She recently graduated with her Masters from Vanderbilt University, and is looking to take some much needed time off from the academy to refresh. She is also the founder of Latina Rebels. Currently she is a writer at Philadelphia Printworks, freelance writer for Vivala, and a columnist/editor at Chica Magazine.

Via TeleSur

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Related video added by Juan Cole:

David Pakman from last winter: More Americans Support Bernie Than Trump, Trump Gets 23X Media Coverage
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By Alaa Murabit | ( Yes!) |  

This article was originally published by New America Weekly.

The Next Libyan Revolution Will Be Led by Women Wielding WordsNot Guns

Soft power gives communities words and tools to fight against violence, fear, and corruption and offers youth weapons of peace against an enemy that wants to drag them into war.

I am an arms dealer in Libya, but my weapons reduce violence and last longer than a bullet.

The tools I use to drive change and create peace are rooted in diplomacy, cooperation, culture, and history.

As the founder of the Voice of Libyan Women (VLW), a womens rights organization focused on peace and security, the tools I use to drive change and create peace are rooted in diplomacy, cooperation, culture, and history. In other words, what some people call soft power.

Hard power, on the other hand, refers to the use of surveillance, sanctions, and military intervention to ensure international security. But in Libya, Ive seen more progress on peace and security from the work of arms dealers like myselfwomen who wield weapons like dialogue, awareness, and educationthan from the carriers of hard weapons. Thats because hard power solutions tend to focus on the short-term, whereas soft power fixes focus on the long-term.

Heres what I mean: Rather than press buttons far away to wipe buildings off the mapan act proven to instigate violent reactions from local communities, leading to greater instability and insecuritywe walk into extremists homes, schools, and workplaces. We speak to those who feel they have no alternative, working with them to foster self-confidence and create greater opportunities, such as volunteering, part-time jobs, and even creative outlets. Most recently, a young rogue militia member from the southern Libyan city of Obari founded a peace coalition with educators, parents, and fellow militia members in his hometown after attending our seminars. He expressed that working with other community leaders in our seminar and workshops was the first time he felt he had equal opportunity to contribute to the community and public life in a respected role without the use of arms. Our work gave him peaceful, practical tools to strengthen his voice, an opportunity that he was previously only granted through his militia role as a street patroller.

It is women who lead the majority of awareness raising campaigns in Libya.

How do we make our case for peace to young militia members? The strongest tool in our educational arsenal involves challenging the misrepresentation and misuse of Islamic teachings to promote extremism, and then using the accurate interpretations of Islamic verse to promote action on traditionally taboo issues, like domestic violence. We did that recently with VLWs Noor Campaign, which invoked Islamic texts as a way to combat violence against women. International Purple Hijab Day was a similar campaign which called for greater action against domestic violence. It reached tens of thousands of men and women in its first year. For the first time, domestic violenceand its prohibition in Islamwas discussed in schools, universities, mosques, workplaces, and on national media throughout Libya. The Libyan prime minister himself supported the campaign, wearing a purple scarf on television and throughout his daily meetings. The next year, the campaign was internationally supported by Jordans Queen Noor, and has since been replicated by organizations throughout the region.

Why does this soft power work? It hands the community words and tools to fight against violence, poverty, fear, and corruptionweapons of strength and self-actualization. It offers youth weapons of peace against an enemy that wants to drag them into war.

And when women are the key arms dealers, soft power can be even more effective. Thats because women, in their roles as mothers and as the majority of teachers, have greater and more organic access to the local community and to young students. Ive seen that their ideas, surprisingly, are much more likely to be heard and respected. Why? Women often arent perceived as political or security threats to those in power (which is a problem in and of itself).

Consequently, it is women who lead the majority of awareness-raising campaigns in Libyafrom voter awareness to teaching students the mental and physical effects of war.

Next time those policymakers have a meeting about international security, they may even want to call the Libyan women arms dealers.

Our greatest weapon in the struggle for peace is, as Nelson Mandela so famously stated, education. Every additional year of formal education can increase a persons future income by an average of 10 percent, and it also significantly reduces maternal mortality rates and the spread of fatal diseases.

Formal education is key to economic and political stability. But so is informal education. Our belief is that by focusing on the informal education of young men and boys specifically we can build their understanding of how dialoguerather than bombs and military strikesis key to security and economic opportunity. This understanding is what will lead to a society in which all individuals pursue collective goals of prosperity, dignity, and rights.

But not everyone believes us yet. The greatest challenge to the work of women arms dealers like me is the continued focus of international security efforts on violent weapons and military intervention rather than community development and dialogue. Its like trying to unlock a door with our hands tied behind our backs.

Sustained international peace will come as a direct result of the greater emphasis on dialogue from the international community. If U.S. policymakers want to help us in this murky, post-conflict environment, theyll increase communication with womens groups on the ground, demand that they be involved in conflict and mediation processes, and give greater financial and technical support this kind of critical work.

Next time those policymakers have a meeting about international security, they may even want to call the Libyan women arms dealers. We know which weapons actually work.

Reposted from Yes! under a Creative Commons license.

This article was originally published by New America Weekly.

-

Related video added by Juan Cole:

Oslo Freedom Forum:  Alaa Murabit  Arming Women for Peace in Libya
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |

The press is declaring Sadiq Khan, victor in the electoral contest for mayor of London, the first Muslim mayor of a major European city.

They mean of course, something like the first Muslim mayor of a really big Western European city in the modern period (say the past two centuries). [Although Sadiq Khan was elected and many  not all of the figures I point to below were appointed, thats the way it was in history. The then London County Council was first elected in 1889, and the mayor has only been directly elected since 2000; all urban leaders were appointed until fairly recently.]

It is worthwhile pointing out that the idea of Europe as Christian or perhaps post-Christian is a construct that can only be carried out by applying very large scissors to the history books. Christian nativism in Europe makes no sense. Christianity has its origins in the Middle East, as does Islam.

Europe was largely uninhabited during the last maximal glaciation, roughly from 25,000 before present to 13,000 BP, what with three mile high piles of ice covering much of it. Since the ice receded, it has seen several waves of immigration, with people coming in from what is now Turkey and Syria (yes) and from Eurasia and from Africa.

Christianity only started spreading seriously in Europe from the fourth century CE [AD], and by the eighth century, only four hundred years later, it had serious competition in Spain and southern France from Islam. Christianity was adopted more slowly than most people realize, with large pockets of essentially pagan survivals and heresies lasting for hundreds of more years so medieval European religion should be seen as tripartite in these centuries  pagan survivals, spreading Christianity, and spreading Islam.

Islam is a major European religion and is a nearly 1300 year old tradition there.

Sitting elected Muslim mayors include Erion Veliaj of Tirana, Ahmed Aboutaleb of Rotterdam, and Shpend Ahmeti of Pristina. Muslim-majority Sarajevo elected

Ivo Komsic, a Christian, in 2013.

Going back into history, parts of Spain, and often quite a lot of it, were under Muslim rule 711 to 1492. So for example, Abd al-Rahman I was proclaimed Emir of Cordoba in 756. Were talking major Western European city here. In the 900s Cordoba was the most populous city in the world.

The Arab Muslim emirate of Sicily lasted from 831 to 1072. For example, Jafar al-Kalbi (983985) was emir of Sicily, and therefore mayor of Palermo, the capital.

The Ottoman Empire ruled most of what is now Greece 1458-1832. Here is a picture of the Ottoman governor of Athens in 1815 (a decade and a half before the Greeks won independence).

I think Athens counts as a major European city. It was under Ottoman control for nearly 400 years.

The Ottomans ruled much of Hungary 1541 to 1699, and Buda (half of the later twin city of Budapest) was the capital of this province of the empire. While there, the Ottomans supported the Protestant movement in Hungary. Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha the Albanian, e.g., became the military governor of Buda in 1682. Budapest has to count as a major European city.

Serbia was under Ottoman rule 14021878 (later in that period as a vassal); for instance, Hac Mustafa Aga was appointed the military governor of Belgrade in July 1793

Not to mention that Constantinople/ Istanbul is one of the larger European cities (14 million inside city limits!). The mayor is Dr Kadir Topbas. He is a Muslim.

So Muslim heads of major European cities have been a commonplace for nearly 1300 years, and even at the beginning of the 20th century a few Balkan cities still had Muslim governors. Sadiq Khans victory is a great one and we should be happy that an Islamophobic and scurrilous campaign against him by the Tories was thwarted by the good sense of Londoners. But let us not exacerbate the weird amnesia of Europe about how central Islam and Muslims have been to its history since the eighth century (when the post-Roman Byzantine Empire, founded by Heraclius in 610, was only a century old itself). Sadiq Khan has many illustrious predecessors among European Muslim urban leaders.

[PS The response of commenters that these urban leaders were conquerors and not elected is silly. Most urban leaders were conquerors or appointed by conquerors until very recently. The British were ruled by the Normans. The Germanic tribes in France, Italy and Spain were invading conquerors. Slavic tribes came in to Eastern Europe from the east. The Muslim polities were no different. They also got buy-in from non-Muslim subjects and allies.]
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - May 6, 2016) - Plateau Uranium Inc. ("Plateau Uranium" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:PLU)(FRANKFURT:QG1) announces that it has filed today on SEDAR a technical report to support the initial lithium and potassium resource estimate for its uranium projects located on the Macusani Plateau in the Puno District of southeastern Peru disclosed in the Company's press release of March 22, 2016. The technical report highlights the amount of lithium and potassium contained within only four of the Company's defined uranium deposits, as well as providing initial estimate interpretation that potential lithium and potassium production could add significant value to the existing low-cost uranium production potential.

Ted O'Connor, CEO of Plateau Uranium commented:

"Plateau Uranium remains a uranium-focused company, but we are nonetheless pleased with this initial lithium and potassium resource and the potential added by-product value these bring to our already strong uranium project story. Conservative pricing and process cost estimates have been used in trying to establish by-product value, with potentially excellent margins in excess of 100% (see Table 1 below).

It is important to note that we have constrained the lithium resources reported only within the uranium resources defined in the NI 43-101 Uranium Resource Estimate technical report dated June 2015 and that these resources are contained within only four of the uranium deposits considered in the PEA, representing only 66% of the Company's defined uranium resources. There is lithium present in the host rocks to all our uranium deposits, and in most of the Macusani rhyolites on the plateau, so this initial lithium resource will indeed grow.

We plan to complete additional engineering and process test work to better understand potential operating and capital costs for lithium and potassium by-product production using experts in this field like K-UTEC, and to re-sample those uranium deposits not included in this resource for lithium and multi element chemical analysis."

Ian Stalker, Chairman of Plateau Uranium commented:

"This is an exciting addition to our Company. The Macusani Plateau is without doubt a geologically well-endowed environment, as evidenced by our recent recognition of these by-product elements over and above the extensive uranium mineralization already defined. These by-products offer further positive economic potential to an already robust uranium project. We are working closely with K-UTEC, a recognised industry leader in lithium process extraction methods, and look forward to announcing our future efforts to further unlock this potential."

Details regarding the lithium resource estimate can be found in the Company's press release of March 22, 2016 and the technical report, both of which have been filed and are available for viewing and download on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Highlights of the lithium resource estimate, recovery work and potential value are provided below.

Highlights of Lithium Mineral Resource Estimates by Category

The consolidated mineral resource estimates, based on a 75ppm U cut-off grade, and wholly contained within the previously defined uranium resource estimates from four of the Company's uranium deposits, are as follows:

Indicated: 52.31 M tonnes grading 0.13% Li 2 O, 4.47 % K 2 O and 268 ppm U 3 O 8 , containing 67,000 t of Li 2 O, 2.34 Mt K 2 O and 31 M lbs U 3 O 8

M tonnes grading 0.13% Li O, 4.47 % K O and 268 ppm U O , containing Inferred: 87.68 M tonnes grading 0.12% Li 2 O, 4.49 % K 2 O and 283 ppm U 3 O 8 , containing 109,000 t of Li 2 O, 3.93 Mt K 2 O and 54.8 M lbs U 3 O 8

Lithium Recovery Highlights

Internal testwork to date has displayed Lithium recoveries of up to 86% while un-optimized external tests run at K-UTEC AG Salt Technologies (K-UTEC), a leading process engineering firm in Germany with lithium extraction expertise, displayed Lithium recoveries of up to 73% using sulphuric acid. Expected products from lithium extraction would be lithium carbonate and potassium sulphate.

Potential Impact of Lithium-Potassium Production Highlights

The Company plans to complete additional work necessary to determine potential operating costs and capital costs for lithium carbonate and potassium sulphate production to at least scoping study or PEA level. However, in assessing the "Reasonable Prospects for Economic Extraction" of lithium and potassium in the technical report, The Mineral Corporation has provided some estimate of potential operating costs and potential value of lithium and potassium production using existing producer/developer benchmarks, estimates and the K-UTEC work to date. The report concludes that the potential value of lithium carbonate and potassium sulphate produced far exceeds the estimated production costs.

The Mineral Corporation prepared a simplistic analysis of the additional cash costs which would be incurred in order to extract lithium and potassium, and precipitate lithium carbonate and potassium sulphate, compared with the additional revenue which these byproducts would generate. Table 1, below summarizes the assumptions and results of this initial analysis.

Table 1 - Estimated Financial Analysis Criteria and Results (from technical report - Tables 25 & 26)

Revenue Factors Value Unit reference Source/Note Li 2 CO 3 $9000 $/t FOB Market Analysis K 2 SO 4 $700 $/t FOB Market Analysis Li 2 CO 3 grade 0.31 % Mineral Resource model K 2 SO 4 grade 8.26 % Mineral Resource model Recovery (Li 2 CO 3 ) 71 % Plateau Uranium/K-UTEC Recovery (K 2 SO 4 ) 40 % Plateau Uranium Yield of Product (Li 2 CO 3 & K 2 SO 4 ) 3.52 % Product per ROM tonne Derived from grade and recovery Cost Factors Value Unit reference Source/Note Port and product transport 50 $/t Product Estimate Processing 19 $/t Treated Estimate Processing 539 $/t Product Derived from $/t Treat and Yield of Li 2 CO 3 & K 2 SO 4 Result Value Unit reference Source/Note Total additional cost to process Li 2 CO 3 & K 2 SO 4 $589 $/t Product Sum of processing and port/ transport costs Total addition revenue $1221 $/t Product Weighted average price of Li 2 CO 3 & K 2 SO 4 Indicative margin $632 $/t Product -

The indicative cash cost analysis indicates that the additional operating cost of processing lithium and potassium is offset by the additional revenue derived, given the assumptions provided. An alternative interpretation of this analysis is that a lithium grade of 300ppm and a potassium grade of 2.0% is required for the additional revenue to equal the additional cost, for the given assumptions.

The Mineral Corporation is therefore of the opinion that there are Reasonable Prospects for Economic Extraction of the lithium and potassium.

Qualified Persons

Mr. Ted O'Connor, P.Geo., CEO and Director of Plateau Uranium and a qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained in this release.

About The Mineral Corporation

The Mineral Corporation is based in Bryanston, Sandton (Johannesburg) South Africa and is a leading senior advisor to the international minerals business offering a broad range of services related to mineral exploration, mine development, and mine optimization across a diverse range of commodities and geographies. The Mineral Corporation has been working with the Company, and its predecessors for over six years.

About K-UTEC AG Salt Technologies

K-UTEC AG Salt Technologies is based in Sondershausen, Germany and is a leading process design and engineering group with more than 60 years of expertise in potassium and lithium salt production industry.

About Plateau Uranium

Plateau Uranium Inc. is a Canadian uranium exploration and development company focused on the exploration of its properties on the Macusani Plateau in southeastern Peru. The Company controls all reported uranium resources known in Peru and mineral concessions that cover over 910 km2 situated near significant infrastructure. Plateau Uranium is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol 'PLU' and quoted on the US OTC under the symbol 'PLUUF' and the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol 'QG1'. The Company has 40,639,863 shares outstanding. For more information please visit www.plateauuranium.com.

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.
JURIST Guest Columnist Joaquin G. Avila, a voting rights attorney, discusses the Supreme Court decision regarding voter populations

Evenwel v Abbott was correctly decided. The Court basically held that states are not required to use eligible voter population data to create election districts that are equally populated. Based upon constitutional history, settled practice and precedent, the Court affirmed the use of population data to comply with the one person one vote principle.

The key issue is yet to be decided: whether it is constitutional to have legislative districts that are equal in eligible voter populations yet have disparities in total population. For the moment, states are free to choose a population base to redistrict election districts.

The practical result of having a redistricting plan based upon an eligible voter population base will be the creation of districts that vary widely in population. A contrary ruling that allows for such legislative districts with substantial population differences will have disastrous consequences on minority communities, especially Latino communities, which contain significant non-citizen populations.

These substantial population differences will in effect deny Latino communities of their First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. In Garza v LA County, the ninth circuit held that, interference with individuals free access to elected representatives impermissibly burdens their right to petition the government. Since the whole concept of representation depends upon the ability of the people to make their wishes known to their representatives, this right to petition is an important corollary to the right to be represented. Furthermore, since non-citizens are entitled to various federal and local benefits, such as emergency medical care, the Garza decision affirmed their right to petition their government for services and to influence how their tax dollars were spent. As Justice Brennan explained in White v Regester, equal representation for equal numbers of people is a principle designed to prevent diminution of access to elected representatives. In election districts that have large populations, Latinos will have greater difficulty in securing physical access to the offices of their elected officials. Such a redistricting will require governmental entities to expand the number of offices, especially in those communities where there is ineffective public transportation. The implementation of an eligible voter population redistricting base will require the development of new metrics to assure compliance with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to our Constitution. This new metric will require the development of new judicial standards to measure the number of persons serviced by each legislative office. The development of this new access metric will require decades of new litigation. A denial of an explicitly written constitutional right is a serious matter even for originalists.

Moreover, a contrary ruling will undo several decades of voting rights jurisprudence that resulted during decennial redistricting cycles. This jurisprudence represents a delicate balance and calibration of state and federal interests. The redistricting metric based upon an equal population base was carefully incorporated and crafted by the Supreme Court over a period of decades.

Finally, a contrary result mandating eligible voter population or permitting eligible voter population equality at the expense of equally populated districts runs contrary to the practical realities of redistricting because the Bureau of the Census does not provide eligible voter population statistics at the block level. Rather, eligible voter population statistics are provided at the block group level. These larger Census administrative units make it nearly impossible to meet the exacting de minimis population deviation standards of congressional redistricting and court-ordered districting plans.

Experienced district drawers are keenly aware of the necessity for block level statistics in order to create districting plans that can accommodate both state and federal interests. Having drawn districts since the 1970s as part of my voting rights litigation, it was extremely difficult to draw equally populated districts at the local governmental level using enumeration district and block group totals. The 1980 Census was highly welcomed by redistricting mapmakers because of the expanded block program that facilitated the drawing of congressional districts and local government election districts down to the block level. Thus, even if such an eligible voter population redistricting was permissible, the Bureau of the Census would have to substantially expand the geographic scope of its publishing data down to the block level. Given that the eligible voter population is based upon a sample basis, ACS, it may be statistically impossible for the Census Bureau to publish and disseminate accurate and reliable city block level data for eligible voter population groups.

There are additional practical concerns relating to increased public expenditures. An expansion of the ACS program to the block level will require greater expenditures by Congress, an unlikely outcome given the existing political gridlock in DC. Increasing the number of legislative offices at the state level in highly populated areas will also require the expenditure of scarce public funds, again a highly unlikely outcome given the scarcity of available public funding.

A contrary result in Evenwel will, in effect, result in an unfunded federal government mandate. In summary, as a practical matter, basing a redistricting plan on an eligible voter population will 1) create Equal Protection concerns in Latino communities, 2) be highly impractical; and 3) validate the perception that there are limits to federal court intervention, thereby undermining the authority of the federal judiciary. It will be similar to Justice Holmes observation in Giles v Harris (1903) that a federal courts authority will be undermined when a federal court issues a specific order on paper that is impractical and, thus, unenforceable. (See Michael J. Klarman, From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: the Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality by (Oxford University Press) (2004)). Here, as in the Giles opinions where Supreme Court justices conceded they could provide no remedy even if Alabama was violating the 15th Amendment, a contrary result would undermine Congressional authority to enforce the federal Voting Rights Act and undermine the Supremacy Clause that binds the states and the federal court to the Constitution.

Joaquin G. Avila is a voting rights attorney with over 40 years of voting rights litigation experience, a Mac Arthur Foundation Fellow and recognized by the California State Assembly in 2015 as the States voting right gladiator. The author wants to both acknowledge and thank Molly Matter, Mr. Avilas research assistant and a recent graduate of Seattle University School of Law for all of the research, stylistic and substantive edits and valuable feedback.

Suggested citation: Joaquin G. Avila, Evenwel upholds Republican Form of Representative Government, JURIST  Forum, April 29, 2016, http://jurist.org/forum/2016/04/joaquin-avila-evenwel-republican.php.

This article was prepared for publication by Alix Ware, an assistant Editor for JURIST Commentary. Please direct any questions or comments to her at commentary@jurist.org
COLUMBUS  Jordy Gonzalez has a vision for his future.

He hopes to pursue a degree in political science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

I wanted to study political science because I knew I wanted to stay involved with people. I feel like people have different stories to tell. I hope to one day become a policy-maker or work in a government agency, he said.

The Schuyler Central High School graduate will transfer his credits to attend UNO on a full scholarship after taking courses at Central Community College-Columbus. He was among the 209 students graduating Friday from the local college.

A total of 110 students gathered in the Physical Education Center to take part in the 46th annual commencement exercise. Students heard from Rony Ortega, principal of Alice Buffett Magnet Middle School in Omaha, who served as the keynote speaker.

While at CCC-Columbus, Gonzalez has served as president of the Multicultural Club and a student ambassador. He has also gotten involved in Leadership Columbus, a Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce program that promotes leadership development.

As the first person in his family to go to college in America, Gonzalez wanted to be as involved as possible while enrolled at CCC. He also found his voice in the political arena by pushing for legislation to allow drivers licenses to be granted to certain undocumented immigrants brought to America as children, including himself.

He supported the passage of LB623 that made Nebraska the last state in the country to issue licenses to young immigrants approved for the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

Gonzalez was 1 year old when he came with his family from Guatemala to California. A year later, they moved to Nebraska. Despite not being a U.S. citizen, he thinks of this country as home.

I feel like an American. As much as I hate to say it, I cant associate myself with Guatemala. I feel much more American than anything else, Gonzalez said.

With a drivers license, Gonzalez was able to travel from Schuyler to attend CCC-Columbus. He also has a work permit, but that will expire soon. If it does, so does his license. Without a license, he said he wont have a way to get to UNO.

But he remains optimistic and continues to work toward his goals, which also include becoming an American citizen.

A lot of immigrants come here really hopeful. When they see stories like mine, they see the American dream is possible. We have different paths, but we can get hold of the American dream and do what we want do to. Everything is possible in this country. It is a matter of hard work, Gonzalez said.

Another student at CCC who has seen the benefits of hard work is Cynthia Adamson.

The 50-year-old earned her Associate of Applied Science degree in quality technology while working a full-time job in another state. Adamson lives in Moreland, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. About 15 years after graduating high school, she wanted to go to college.

Unfortunately, because she didnt graduate from an accredited high school, she didnt have a diploma. So she set out to earn her GED, a mission she accomplished in 1995.

Ive been trying to get a college degree ever since, Adamson said.

With the urging of her roommate, who used to live in Columbus, Adamson looked into Central Community College. After talking with an instructor there, she decided to enroll by taking courses online from her Georgia home. It was a hectic schedule for the single mother to make her class schedule work with her already busy life, but she succeeded.

Education is really important to me. Ive struggled my whole life to get it. My brother passed away 11 days after I started at CCC. His last words that he spoke to me was to graduate, Adamson said.

And she has. Over the last three years she worked an 8-5 job at Yokogawa Corporation of America, a manufacturing and engineering company. She fit her study time in during the evenings and on weekends.

Achieving her goal of earning a degree is so important to Adamson that she came from Georgia to attend commencement.

I wanted to be in the ceremony because this is the first time Ive got to walk (in a ceremony). It means so much to me, she said.

Also during commencement, the college recognized the Faculty Member of the Year and presented the Outstanding Alumni Award.

Nursing instructor Wendy Ramaekers was given the Faculty Member of the Year recognition. Ramaekers is an EMT in Genoa and serves on the board of directors for East Central District Health Department. She began her career as a student in the practical nursing degree program at the college and continued on to the associate degree nursing program.

Ortega was given the alumni award. He came to CCC-Columbus after graduating from Schuyler Central High School in 1997. He transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and received a bachelors degree in secondary education. He also earned a masters degree in school counseling and educational administration and supervision and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He did not receive his diploma from CCC when he left in 1999, but transferred his credits back and has been awarded an Associate of Arts degree.
According to state law, fines, penalties, and license money shall be appropriated exclusively to the use and support of the common schools ... . An exception is fines for overloaded vehicles. Seventy-five percent of those funds go to state highways; 25 percent go to the county general fund where the fine or penalty is paid. Fifty percent of money forfeited or seized in enforcing drug laws goes to counties for drug enforcement. Vehicles seized in drug law cases may be used by law enforcement agencies or sold with the proceeds going to schools.

County Court

Traffic Sentences

Michael Norman, 45, Council Bluffs, Iowa, speeding, 82 mph in a 60 mph zone, $200 fine and $48 court costs.

David Mackey, 50, Bellwood, no operator's license, $25 fine and $48 court costs.

Maynor Natareno-Mota, 31, Leigh, failure to yield right of way and no operator's license, $100 fines and $48 court costs.

Jeremy Ramos, 28, Lincoln, failure to display the proper number of license plates, $25 fine and $48 court costs.

Niurka Lopez-Herrera, 49, 3317 25th St., No. 49, speeding, 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs.

Jeffrey Dohmen, 50, Humphrey, speeding, 80 mph in a 65 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs.

Orlanda Provost, 19, 1153 24th Ave., No. 7, speeding, 55 mph in a 45 mph zone, $25 fine and $48 court costs.

Seth Steinmeyer, 20, Bancroft, speeding, 75 mph in a 65 mph zone, $25 fine and $48 court costs.

Savannah King, 18, 2215 20th St., speeding, 60 mph in a 50 mph zone, $25 fine and $48 court costs.

Jesus Mendoza, 56, 3317 25th St., No. 43, speeding, 47 mph in a 35 mph zone, and no operator's license, $150 fines and $48 court costs.

Richard Hilburt, 56, 31277 Sander Drive, speeding, 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs.

Daymian McGraw, 22, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, speeding, 78 mph in a 65 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs.

Kenneth Neaterous, 51, Broken Bow, truck route violation, $100 fine and $48 court costs.

Kevin Crow, 28, Mayfield, Kansas, speeding, 70 mph in a 55 mph zone, $75 fine and $48 court costs.

Criminal Sentences

Edward Dupree, 29, 2806 25th St., No. 2, no proof of insurance, $50 fine and $49 court costs.

Terry Goeser, 55, 2566 18th Ave., protection order violation, 30 days in jail, credit for three days already served, 18 months probation and $49 court costs; second-offense driving under the influence, 60 days in jail, credit for 14 days already served, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for 18 months and $49 court costs.

Jacob Harris-Griffin, 21, 3823 E. 21st Ave., No. 24, theft-shoplifting $0-$500, $150 fine and $49 court costs.

Wyatt Jensen, 24, Howells, possess/consume open alcohol container, $100 fine and $49 court costs.

Jisela Martinez, 21, 3823 E. 21st Ave., No. 24, theft-shoplifting $0-$500, $150 fine and $49 court costs.

Juan Renteria, 18, 4195 E. 29th St., minor in possession of alcohol/under 19, $250 fine and $49 court costs.

Mario Silva, 22, Carriage House Estates, No. 5, procure/sell alcohol to a minor, $500 fine and $49 court costs.

Nathan Dohmen, 35, Norfolk, criminal mischief $1,500-$5,000, $250 fine, $2,384.95 and $175 restitution and $49 court costs.

Kimberly Galvan-Vasquez, 19, 573 12th Ave., criminal mischief $0-$500, $150 fine, $173.07 restitution and $49 court costs.

Elizabeth Gutierrez, 28, 2762 St. Francis Drive, no proof of insurance and driving under suspension, $125 fines and $49 court costs.

Joseph Ryan, 49, 3036 Country Mobile Villa, no proof of insurance, $50 fine and $49 court costs.

Jorge Martinez, 39, Homestead, Florida, driving under the influence, 15 days in jail, credit for 22 days already served, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for six months and $49 court costs.

Gerardo Izaguirre, 18, 3519 26th St., possession of K2 or marijuana-one ounce or less and no operator's license, $375 fines and $49 court costs.

Jeffery Piitz, 34, Bruno, driving under the influence-.15+, two days in jail, six months probation, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for one year and $49 court costs.

Kenneth Robinson, 51, 26446 Merlyn Road, second-offense driving under the influence, 10 days in jail, credit for three days already served, 12 months probation, $500 fine operator's license revoked for 18 months and $49 court costs.

Derek Taylor, 28, 329 E. 22nd St., No. 97, driving under the influence-.15+, two days in jail, nine months probation, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for one year and $49 court costs.

Wayne Wemhoff,40, 3705 14th St., driving under the influence, 10 days in jail, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for six months and $49 court costs; second-offense DUI, 10 days in jail, operator's license revoked for 18 months and $49 court costs.

Wuilmer Calderon, 18, Schuyler, no operator's license, $225 fine and $49 court costs.

Noe Perez, 24, Schuyler, no operator's license, $225 fine and $49 court costs.

Ricardo Lopez, 18, 1664 27th Ave., second-degree criminal trespass, $200 fine and $49 court costs.

Tylor Cemper, 22, Bellwood, theft-shoplifting $0-$500, $150 fine, $19.92 restitution and $49 court costs.

Alain Oropeza, 24, 654 Fourth Ave., driving under the influence, six months probation, $500 fine, operator's license revoked for 60 days and $49 court costs.

Ebtihal Albaiaty, 31, 3471 Pershing Road, No. 14, attempted possession of a controlled substance, 10 days in jail and $49 court costs; intimidation by phone call and criminal mischief-less than $200, 10 days in jail and $49 court costs.

Ryan Sliva, 37, 3905 Lakeview Lane, attempted third-degree assault, 30 days in jail, $2,802 and $67.72 restitution and $49 court costs.

Todd Thelen, 41, Norfolk, issuing a bad check $0-$500, $75 fine and $49 court costs.

Andrea Rice, 20, Duncan, attempt of a Class 3A/4 felony, 30 days in jail, credit for six days already served, and $49 court costs.

Ronald Loseke, 58, 2708 21st St., failure to yield to a pedestrian, $25 fine and $49 court costs.
BROKEN BOW  A Broken Bow baby sitters license was revoked last week after authorities learned her husband had allegedly kept guns and methamphetamine in the home where she cared for children.

The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services issued an emergency revocation order to prevent Fae Beaumont of Broken Bow from caring for any children other than her own. She has had a Family Child Care Home I operating license since 2009 and was licensed to take care of as many as eight children from 8 weeks to 12 years old.

According to DHHS and Broken Bow Police Department records, her husband, Dennis, was arrested Aug. 30 on charges of possession of methamphetamine, possession of money used in the manufacture/distribution of a controlled substance, and terroristic threats.

An informant told police that Dennis Beaumont had allegedly gone to Grand Island to purchase 3.5 grams of meth and had been seen selling meth to two known drug abusers earlier in the day at the Beaumont residence.

Dennis Beaumont was served with a warrant and, in a search of the Beaumont home, police found a gram of white crystal substance that field tested positive for meth, baggies with corners cut off, syringes for injecting meth, a glass mirror with residue from cutting meth, and several guns.

DHHS became aware of Dennis Beaumonts arrest Sept. 10 and conducted an unannounced visit to the home Sept. 12. DHHS officials presented Fae Beaumont with a licensing agreement stating that her husband could not be on the premises during the day cares operation. She refused to sign the agreement because, she said, her husband had nowhere else to go after he was released from jail.

She also told officials that she had suspected that her husband was using illegal controlled substances while he was living at the residence.

Fae Beaumont may request a hearing to review the order within 15 days.

Dennis Beaumont is in the Custer County Jail on $500,000 bond and will arraigned in Custer County District Court Thursday. His charges have been amended to one count of possession of a firearm during a felony drug violation, which is a Class ID felony, and one count possession of money used in the manufacture/distribution of a controlled substance, a Class IV felony. The charges carry maximum penalties of 50 and five years in prison, respectively.

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Back in 1993, a Washington Post reporter asked me which Clinton was smarter, Bill or Hillary. As a magazine journalist long residing in Arkansas, Id never covered state government and would have described the president and first lady as friendly acquaintances, nothing more.

I said that we had a saying in the Central Arkansas Beagle Club that you cant train no dog thats smarter than you. Since both Clintons clearly topped me in the IQ department, I had no way to judge their relative brainpower.

Needless to say, this was the wrong answer, deeply violative of journalistic protocol. Making glib pronouncements about near strangers is what we do.

So when I read that Hillary told her friend Diane Blair that the press has big egos and no brains, Im neither shocked nor offended. Is there anybody in politics who doesnt think that?

Anybody in the world?

Nor was I astonished that Hillary admitted to her friend during the 1996 Whitewater media feeding frenzy that I know I should do more to suck up to the press ... I know it confuses people when I change my hairdos, I know I should pretend not to have any opinions, but Im just not going to. Im used to winning and I intend to win on my own terms.

And so she did.

If youve forgotten, 1996 was the year all the best minds in the Washington press, heeding Kenneth Starrs leak-o-matic prosecutors, were predicting her imminent criminal indictment. To publicize an excerpt from James B. Stewarts Whitewater book Blood Sport, Time published a cover photo of the first lady that looked like a vampire movie poster.

Maybe you remember Stewart, the eminent financial journalist who appeared on Nightline, NPR and anywhere else theyd have him, gravely accusing Hillary of bank fraud all based, as it turned out, upon his own failure to read the second page of a two-page loan document.

Last I heard the eminent Judge Starr, once ticketed for the U.S. Supreme Court, was president of some Texas bible college.

So yeah, Hillary won on her own terms.

Now something called the Washington Free Beacon, which unearthed these nuggets from the collected papers of the late Diane Blair, the accomplished University of Arkansas professor who was Hillarys dearest friend and confidante, pronounces her ruthless and a cutthroat political strategist.

This because shed confided to Blair that President Clintons inability to fire people, exert discipline, punish leakers, and his lack of a strategy to deal with Whitewater, Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Arkansas state troopers and other partisan mercenaries made her crazy.

Inability to organize, make tough choices, Blair wrote, drives her nuts.

Indeed, history records that it was Hillary, who once served on the staff of Watergate independent counsel Leon Jaworski, that warned her husband it would be a terrible mistake to agree to an open-ended inquisition to finesse a temporary political problem.

No independent counsel, no Monica Lewinsky, no Linda Tripp, no Lucianne Goldberg, no blue dress. None of it. So if thats ruthless, cutthroat political strategy, the Clinton White House could have used a lot more of it.

So do I buy Hillarys rationalization for Bills infamous sexual misbehavior? First, let me repeat something I wrote back then: Other peoples marriages are a foreign country where you dont know the language.

Second, this whole business of pundits hiding their own naughty secrets while moralizing about the sins of others is both hypocritical and sadistic.

That said, I dont put much stock in that psychologist who told her that Bills infidelity had its roots in his childhood, and that most men with fidelity problems (were) raised by two women and felt conflicted between them.

Id suggest it had its roots in his pants.

Arkansas Times columnist Gene Lyons is a National Magazine Award winner and co-author of The Hunting of the President.

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COLUMBUS  Whoever first said when it rains, it pours must have been a farmer.

Mother Nature gave Columbus-area corn and bean producers a narrow window for planting this spring, and theyve hit the ground running.

Colfax County Extension educator Aaron Nygren said most corn and bean producers didnt plant earlier because before April 17, the ground was too dry.

Some guys were waiting for a rain, said Nygren. The other things that slowed people down was when it was dryer, we also had some high winds.

But instead of the anticipated day or two of moisture, the Columbus area received nine days and more than 6 inches of rain in a two-week period. With that much moisture in the ground, farmers had to sit and wait for it to dry.

Theres some fields that now theyve got some ponded water, said Nygren. It would actually almost be fair to say we got too much on these fields, especially on bottom ground.

Producer and consultant Boyd Hellbusch said some producers started planting Thursday. How much difference can one day make?

Youd be surprised, said Hellbusch. With one of these (planters), you can plant 200 acres a day. Some guys need about five days.

According to the National Weather Service, Columbus has a high chance of getting more rain on Saturday and Sunday.

Everyones going hard, trying to get everything in before the big rain again, said Carla Berlin with Rosendahl Farms Seed and Feed.

While planting is behind compared to last year, Nygren said most producers are still in good shape.

Were still within the window of where we would say you havent lost any yield at all, he said, adding that the area doesn't need any more rain for now.
LINCOLN  Former Gov. Dave Heineman and Nebraska's two main travel associations say State Tourism Director Kathy McKillip should lose her job following a scathing state audit.

While not naming McKillip directly, a five-page letter from the travel groups called the Nebraska Tourism Commission mismanaged and urged the commission board to "effectuate a change in staff leadership."

Heineman's response was more direct.

"The current executive director ought to be fired," he said Friday during a rally in Omaha for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Later on Friday, Gov. Pete Ricketts joined the call for McKillip's ouster, saying the misappropriation of state funds was an embarrassment.

McKillip, who is paid more than $86,000 per year, has said financial and documentation issues revealed by the audit were honest mistakes, and that many could be blamed on growing pains of starting a new state agency.

Tourism was a division within the state Department of Economic Development until 2012, when lawmakers spun it off into an independent agency overseen by nine appointed commissioners.

Heineman dismissed McKillip's defense Friday.

"She's been a state employee; she knows the rules," he said. "What she did was wrong."

Auditors listed dozens of questionable expenditures and documentation issues, including $4.4 million in cost overruns on contracts with the commission's main advertising firm, Bailey Lauerman. The extra $4.4 million  which more than doubled the original value of the contracts  wasn't properly documented by commission staff, auditors said in their 79-page report released April 29.

In their Friday letter, the Nebraska Travel Association and Nebraska Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus said staff leadership at the commission had been "less than forthcoming" about the reasons behind its recent budget shortfall.

When a Travel Association representative asked if contract overruns were to blame, "commission staff replied curtly that they did not know what contracts we might be talking about," the letter says.

The letter also notes "the commission director's dogged refusal to accept that the budget difficulties experienced this fiscal year were her own doing and not, as she continues to maintain in response to the audit report, the work of the Legislature."

Both travel groups have representatives on the Tourism Commission's board.

At a meeting Tuesday, the board appointed a subcommittee of four members who will examine the audit results and make recommendations to address them. That group includes members from local visitors bureaus.

Heineman said he believes the tourism commission should be placed back under the Department of Economic Development.

The travel groups said the commission should remain independent, but a change in management is the only way to restore public trust.

"The audit report provides clearer insight into mismanagement that has been hampering the tourism industry for an extended period," they wrote. "The lack of proper management, as well as the lack of truthfulness, professionalism, civility, and cooperation with partners who merely want to help, have led to schisms in the commission and industry, skepticism by state policymakers and leaders, and further distrust."
As your cows finish grazing corn stalks, don't put away your electric fence for the summer. You can use it to stretch your pasture.

Electric fence is the easiest and cheapest way to increase production from summer pastures. Dividing pastures with electric cross fences gives you more control of when and where your cattle graze.

It helps you encourage cattle to graze pastures more uniformly and completely, including areas they normally avoid. And it can help you improve the health and vigor of your grass by giving it time to recover and regrow after each grazing.

As a result, your grass production and pasture carrying capacity will increase. This will be especially valuable this year considering the currently high cost of pasture.

I'm sure you've seen many ads promoting high-powered, high-tensile, imported electric fencing systems. I encourage using these systems in many situations  I use them myself sometimes.

But cross fences do not need to be permanent, nor do they need to be expensive. This is especially true if you already have electric fencing your animals respect. And using fencing equipment you already have given you an inexpensive opportunity to experiment with where you might eventually place a more permanent cross fence.

The electric fence that keeps your cows on stalks during winter can give you this inexpensive opportunity to try some cross fencing where you have been reluctant to try it before. You might need to use two strands, though, to help keep baby calves in place.

So, as spring growth of your pastures begins, use your winter electric fence to try some extra summer cross fencing of your pastures. More grass, better gains and better profits might be the result.

Dr. Bruce Anderson, UNL forage specialist, provided the information used in this weeks column.

At our office, we have a few 2016 UNL Weed, Insect and Disease Management Guides available for sale. They are $10 each, plus tax. Stop in for your copy of this great resource.

In the past year or so, the guide also includes sections for plant disease and insect control recommendations. It is a terrific resource to keep in your truck or spray equipment.
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My father was killed by an Islamic fundamentalist in Cairo, Egypt when he was just 47 years old. It was October 1993, exactly eight months following the first World Trade Center bombing. Terrorism was still a new word  and a new concept  to many Americans, and so my fathers death was featured prominently on the evening news and in the New York Times.

For over 22 years, this has been my story.

I was 19 years old at the time, living 1,500 miles away from my family. I had two roommates and a close group of friends, the majority of whom were as emotionally immature as myself. What does a fellow teenager say when their friends father is shot in the head by a madman screaming Allahu Akbar? Nobody knew. I didnt know. And so my grief was compounded by an acute sense of loneliness and shame; shame for having such a tragic story to share, shame for the overwhelming desire to share that story and shame for making others so uncomfortable in the process.

I am 42 now, finishing up my chief year as a general surgery resident, planning for a career in surgical palliative care. While the shame associated with my story has faded with time and the need to tell my story has lessened with years, the desire to share in the story-telling process is stronger than ever.

Tell me your dads story. What does he love?

As a second year resident in the surgical ICU, I sat at the bedside of a 55-year old man who had arrived at our trauma center with a devastating brain injury. He was surrounded by his elderly parents and his four adult daughters, one due to give birth in the next several days. His wife was admitted down the hall with several broken bones.

He loves us, his wife, his friends, his bike. He loves that bike!

His parents shared stories of his wild youth; his daughters recounted tales of the best grandpa ever. The next day, after a declaration of brain death and a decision to pursue organ donation, I helped to wheel him down to the operating room. Several hours later, I sat with his wife and shared with her how well her husband had done, what a gift he had given to the world. We spoke for almost an hour about how they had met, the trips theyd taken, how much shed miss him. When she was discharged a few days later, she invited me to her husbands memorial service. When the morning arrived, I was post call, dehydrated, cranky and exhausted. But I went and spent two hours laughing with his family while I held his new grandchild on my lap. And now this memory is one of my favorite stories from residency!

Tell me your story. How have you been?

As a third year resident on the general surgery service, I sat on the bed of a 49-year-old man, our hands clasped together. I had met him approximately one year earlier when he was diagnosed with perforated colon cancer. I had operated on him and then cared for him postoperatively in the hospital and in the clinic. Now he was back in the emergency department. His insurance had been canceled six months earlier, and so he had lost the opportunity to complete the majority of his adjuvant treatment. After three months of persistent weight loss, his son had driven him to the hospital where scans confirmed metastatic disease to the liver and lungs. Unemployed and uninsured, his options were limited.

Honestly, he shared, Im exhausted. And Im worried about my kids. Theyre just getting started in life, and I hate to leave them.

Drawing upon my own story, I was able to assure him: A fathers love truly never dies. Your children will always have you.

Such a simple request: Tell me your story. As a fourth year medical student, I rotated on the palliative care service, by far my most memorable month of medical school. Besides encouraging some of my innate skills, the team taught me how to walk into a room full of sadness and fear and to engage with a patient and her family simply by asking, Tell me about your loved one. While for me, over time, this has morphed into tell me your story, the sentiment remains the same; my ears are open, my heart is open, please share with me if you are so inclined.

And what of my story? Where do the boundaries lie between the personal and the professional, especially when discussing matters of the heart? I have self-disclosed a few times over the past decade and, honestly, it has never felt as good as I had hoped. Theres something to be said for leaving ones stuff at the patients door.

However, my story  and my fathers story  continue to inform how I practice medicine on a daily basis. I sit on the bed, place hands on my patient, lean in and hold space and time for the stories to unfold. Sharing these stories help patients, and their families, to establish legacies. Listening to these stories help providers to more accurately assist in establishing goals of care. And celebrating these stories help me to honor my fathers memory and to attempt to mitigate the isolation and shame that often accompanies a devastating loss.

Red Hoffman is a surgery resident.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
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By Kitsap Sun Staff

BREMERTON  Narcotics detectives arrested two suspected drug dealers and seized meth, firearms and cash during a raid at a Washington Avenue home Thursday.

Detectives from the department's Special Operations Group conducted several undercover purchases of drugs from a man that led them to get a search warrant.

Inside, detectives found 137 grams of meth, four guns  including a sawed-off shotgun  and body armor. They also seized a vehicle and almost $700 in cash.

The man, 38, a convicted felon, was charged Friday in Kitsap District Court with a count of delivery of meth, possession of meth and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm.

A 23-year-old woman at the residence when it was raided was found with about 12 grams of meth, which officers said exceeded the amount users typically have on them for personal use. She was charge with possession.

The bust comes after the narcotics group busted a suspected heroin and meth dealer in Seattle on Tuesday.
SHARE LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN A class-action lawsuit has been filed against the city of Bremerton, alleging that its blue parking signs violate state and federal law.

By Josh Farley of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON  A Kitsap County judge Friday cleared the way for a class-action lawsuit over the legality of downtown Bremerton's navy blue street signs.

Lawyers for George Karl and Rebecca Ann successfully argued to Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Kevin Hull that the case should include anyone who was issued a parking ticket in the city within the three-year statute of limitations, which stretches back to 2012.

That could translate to thousands of people. The city says 5,507 parking tickets were written in 2015.

The case began when Karl, of Poulsbo, was ticketed after parking his Harley-Davidson on Second Street near Washington Avenue to go to dinner one night in August 2014. He says he didn't know how long he could park there because he couldn't find a standard white sign with red lettering. He contested the ticket but ultimately paid $47.95 to the city.

He believes the city's blue signs violate state and federal law because of their color.

"We wouldn't have a stop sign be green," said Steve Festor, whose Seattle law firm, Bendich, Stobaugh and Strong, is representing the plaintiffs.

The city's attorneys point to a decision in a 1970 case from a Washington appellate court in which judges held that "nonstandard signs where the form of the sign substantially complies with that prescribed by law" were acceptable.

"That's been our position from Day 1," Bremerton City Attorney Roger Lubovich said.

Festor said the plaintiffs will ask Judge Hull to require the city to install signs that conform with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a national standard. They will also seek financial damages from the city to distribute to people who have been ticketed. Festor added that attempts to contact people who have been ticketed would begin if they're successful in court.

The plaintiffs also take issue with the city's use of Impark, or Imperial Parking Corp., as a vendor to write parking tickets. They maintain those should be written by city employees. The city also disagrees with that assessment.
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By Andrew Binion of the Kitsap Sun

BREMERTON

It's like a restart button for young people on the verge of real trouble. But it comes at a price.

The Washington Youth Academy, the state's free and voluntary academic and community service boot camp for at-risk teens ages 16 to 19, is looking for recruits for its inaugural class of 150.

Coursework starts in January. The program will have two residential classes a year with room for 150 cadets each.

But because it's free doesn't mean it's easy. The program, located at the Kitsap Readiness Center, is a year-and-a-half attitude adjustment with 22 weeks of living first hand the boot camp values of mental and physical fitness, perseverance and team work. The graduate isn't a soldier, but a solid citizen with an eye toward a career.

If a student commits to working for a brighter future, the staff at the quasi-military program say they can help with the rest.

"It's our job to get them through it," said William Pettit, director of the academy.

He stressed although the program uses military virtues, cadets are not abused and they are not taught to be soldiers.

It might be just what David Chamberlin of Bremerton needs to nudge him onto the straight and narrow. He and his mother attended an open house for the program Wednesday. And after the presentation he said he was open to joining, with one reservation.

It's not that he isn't intelligent  Chamberlin loves to read and he's interested in politics  but there is something that has held him back in school.

The 18-year-old Chamberlin dropped out of North Kitsap High School last year. His class graduated last June without him. He wants to join the Marines, but he can't report to their boot camp without a diploma, he said.

"High school was not for me, I don't know why," he said.

His mom puts it more bluntly.

"He's one of the smartest kids I've ever met," said Rachel Weaver. "He's too smart for his own good."

Weaver speaks from experience. She dropped out of school and joined the National Guard.

"He's just like me, he's stubborn and he wants to do it on his terms and his way," she said. "But my way is very, very hard."

The program offers cadets the chance to earn eight credits toward graduation. The three paths are either a diploma from Bremerton High School, which stations the teachers, a jump-start back at their home school or a GED with a push toward higher education.

"This is an environment where they will be held responsible for everything they do," said Don Evans, a Bremerton High School teacher who with a team of other Bremerton teachers will be providing he academic core of the residential program.

But the real challenge is the 52-week course that comes after the residential phase, in which cadets reenter their communities with the help of a mentor.

But the 22-week residential component is often an early wake-up call.

Discipline and physical fitness will be provided by a cadre of instructors, most with military experience.

Cadre supervisor David Layne, who retired from the Army as a first sergeant and spent 10 years at Louisiana's youth academy system, said the primary obstacle for a cadet's success is taking the plunge.

"The biggest shock is being homesick, that's the bottom line," Layne said.

And missing his girlfriend is Chamberlin's concern, he said. Girlfriends and boyfriends aren't allowed to visit during family days.

"It's still up in the air, but as of now I'll say I'll do it," Chamberlin said.

Requirements for admission are residency in Washington, having dropped out or been expelled, no felony convictions and no ongoing legal action and being drug-free at time of enrollment.

For more information on the program, and for an application, go to www.ngycp.org/site/state/wa.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Eugene, Ore., Friday, May 6, 2016. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

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By WALKER ORENSTEIN, Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP)  A day before presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump's scheduled campaign stops in Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee joined U.S. Rep. Adam Smith and community leaders to denounce the candidate's rhetoric as dangerous for women and minorities.

At a Friday news conference in Seattle, Inslee said Trump does not share the values of Washington state, such as "compassion, empathy, inclusion and diversity," and his visit to Washington prompted him to speak out against the businessman.

"We are going to reject a candidate whose fundamental message is fear and hatred," he said.

Trump has two rallies planned in the state on Saturday, but neither will be near liberal Seattle. His first stop is in Spokane at 12 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. event in Lynden, Whatcom County, just miles from Canadian border.

Inslee is a Democrat, but some Republicans in the state have also criticized Trump, including U.S. Senate candidate Chris Vance. Vance is running against incumbent U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and said on Thursday he would vote for John Kasich in Washington's presidential primary on May 24. Kasich dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday.

Estela Ortega, the executive director of El Centro de la Raza, a community center in the city's Beacon Hill neighborhood where the Friday news conference was held, said Trump's rhetoric is making Hispanic and Muslim children afraid to attend school for fear of backlash. The center advocates for Latinos and social justice.

"Donald Trump's shameful bigotry, stereotyping and scapegoating, his attack on the character of millions of people is not welcome in Washington State," she said, backed by supporters and signs that read "love trumps hate in Washington."

Trump has proposed a ban on all Muslims from entering the U.S. and says he hopes to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico if elected.

Republican state Sen. Doug Ericksen, who is backing Trump, said Inslee calling Trump's rhetoric harmful for women and minorities is "a ridiculous statement," adding Inslee's economic policies are hurting people in Washington, not Trump's language on the campaign trail.

Ericksen is managing Trump's rally in Lynden and is from nearby Ferndale. He said Trump "respects all people," and is working to support blue collar Washingtonians in the manufacturing business, enforce the country's borders and more.
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A showpiece of the Veterans First package that the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee unveiled last week is a multi-billion-dollar initiative to phase in for older generations of severely injured veterans robust caregiver benefits first enacted in 2010 only for the post-9/11 generation.

Though it's only part of a huge omnibus bill containing many veteran reform measures that senators previously introduced as separate bills, the plan to expand caregiver benefit coverage carries the biggest price tag. The early estimate is $3.1 billion over its first five years.

For in-home caregivers of thousands of vets with severe physical or mental injuries, it would mean cash stipends for their time and effort, health insurance if caregivers have none, guaranteed periods of paid respite to avoid caregiver burnout and training to enhance patient safety.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., prime architect of the caregiver expansion plan, negotiated with Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., the committee chairman, to secure a modified plan that could be funded with budget offsets and gain bipartisan support on the committee. That should improve its chances of becoming law despite still formidable obstacles ahead.

Perhaps the biggest is lingering disappointment over how the current caregiver program operates. Though it is delivering benefits to spouses and parents caring for 31,000 severely disabled veterans of the post-9/11 era, the program remains underfunded, understaffed and lacking modern software to screen applications, track care needs or verify levels of caregiver support and program managers' responsiveness.

The Government Accountability Office found many problems, including too few Caregiver Support Coordinators who run the program locally. The program remains so "badly mismanaged" as to leave the House Veterans Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., doubtful that the VA can handle a vast expansion of eligibility, a committee staff member said.

"While the intent of the Senate bill is admirable," the staffer said, "we have an obligation not to expand existing programs without first ensuring they function correctly."

But Isakson agreed with Murray that, rather than allow weaknesses in the current program to block expansion to older veterans, they should phase in eligibility for older generations on a schedule that gives VA time to fix problems while it incentivizes Congress to provide needed funding.

VA promises to have a modern IT system in place for the program by December this year. The Senate package would require the VA secretary within a year to certify that problems GAO identified have been fixed. Then within another year VA would begin to accept benefit applications from caregivers of veterans who served during the Vietnam War or earlier. Two years later, VA would start to accept applications from caregivers of severely injured veterans who served in the period between Vietnam and 9/11.

The pool of pre-9/11-era caregivers likely to be eligible for benefits if the program is expanded could be as high as 80,000, VA reported last year.

With up to 400 new caregivers of post-9/11 veterans qualifying for benefits every month, program costs are climbing steadily, from $453 million in 2015 to $650 million this year and $725 million is sought for next year.

There are problems with the program, but the VA alone isn't to blame, said Adrian Atizado, deputy legislative director for Disabled American Veteran whose national service officers field caregiver complaints. Congress underfunded it. Meanwhile, DAV and other advocates were slow to sound alarms over the underfunding, poor staffing and the sketchy information about the program that VA has given caregiver applicants and injured vets.

"I totally disagree with the House's interpretation that it should not be expanded because of how the program is running now," said Atizado. "I do share their concern about completely opening it up immediately." But the Isakson-Murray phased expansion, he said, is a "reasonable compromise."

In a statement, Miller said the omnibus deal reached by the Senate committee is a positive development. If it clears the Senate, "I look forward to immediately engaging in conference committee negotiations to move a VA reform package to the president's desk," Miller said.

Rather than compile one massive piece of legislation as the Senate committee opted to do, the House committee shepherded 21 separate bills on veterans' issues through the House, which now await Senate action

Beside differences in approaches, there are differences in priorities. The House committee said the most pressing VA need is tougher accountability rules so executives who put their own interests ahead of veterans can swiftly be reprimanded or fired. Miller and staff view their House-passed accountability bill, HR 1994, as much stronger than provisions embraced by Isakson and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), the committee's ranking Democrat, at their Veterans First news conference.

Though the House sought no expansion to the caregiver program, staff noted that all of its House-passed veteran bills are fully paid for with spending offsets verified by the Congressional Budget Office.

Isakson said he and colleagues also found offsets to pay for the Veterans First package, estimated to cost $4 billion over 10 years, without cutting prized veteran benefits. The offsets no longer embrace a controversial idea to cut by half the monthly housing stipend for family members who use transferred post-9/11 GI Bill benefits.

Instead Isakson would cap total VA employee bonuses paid annually, mandate higher VA home loan funding fees, and "harmonize" the GI Bill housing stipend lower to reflect a five-percent dampening of Basic Allowance for Housing rates being imposed on active duty force members.

Murray said she doesn't know if Miller and his House colleagues will support the caregiver expansion when they conference on veteran issues.

"I do know that this program is about putting veterans' needs first and supporting the men and women who put their own lives on hold to take care of veterans," Murray said. "Taking care of our veterans should never be a partisan issue."
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Tackling health and education issues facing vulnerable Kiwi kids is the best way to keep them out of the countrys prisons, Justice Minister Amy Adams says. A new approach to New Zealands justice system could also lead to judges making sentencing decisions based on data analysis of the most effective approach. Adams launched the investment approach to justice on Monday morning, saying it was quite a revolution in the way the sector worked.

The better information we can give Judges, the better the decisions they can make.

An early investment brief also showed strong evidence that cognitive behaviour therapy helped to reduce crime, as one out of every five to 15 people would not reoffend after receiving treatment.

There are some criminals who wont respond to anything. Theyre simply bad or mad. And they need to be locked up. But many can be rehabilitated.

An early piece of analysis showed that people fined for offences like assault, shoplifting and drink-driving, were less likely to reoffend and access benefits than similar people sentenced to community service. While judges were entirely independent and had ultimate discretion over sentences for criminals, Adams said they had similar motivations to reduce reoffending which the data analysis could help.

Its a very good initiative.

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The Golden Age comic book store co-owner Stephanie Laney, left, helps customer Teresa Robertson on Friday, May 6, 2016, in Maryville. With about 40,000 to 50,000 new and vintage comic books, plus games, gaming supplies and collectibles, the store opened Friday at 316 Court Street, across from the Blount County Courthouse. (PAUL EFIRD/NEWS SENTINEL)

SHARE The Golden Age comic book store co-owner David Laney is pictured Friday, May 6, 2016, in Maryville. With about 40,000 to 50,000 new and vintage comic books, plus games, gaming supplies and collectibles, the store opened Friday at 316 Court Street, across from the Blount County Courthouse. (PAUL EFIRD/NEWS SENTINEL) The Golden Age comic book store is pictured on Friday, May 6, 2016, in Maryville. With about 40,000 to 50,000 new and vintage comic books, plus games, gaming supplies and collectibles, the store opened Friday at 316 Court Street, across from the Blount County Courthouse. (PAUL EFIRD/NEWS SENTINEL) Pat Corn of WGAP performs during the opening of the Golden Age comic book store Friday, May 6, 2016, in Maryville. The store is located in the former studios of WGAP. With about 40,000 to 50,000 new and vintage comic books, plus games, gaming supplies and collectibles, the store opened Friday at 316 Court Street, across from the Blount County Courthouse. (PAUL EFIRD/NEWS SENTINEL) Collectibles and comics are displayed at the Golden Age comic book store Friday, May 6, 2016, in Maryville. With about 40,000 to 50,000 new and vintage comic books, plus games, gaming supplies and collectibles, the store opened Friday at 316 Court Street, across from the Blount County Courthouse. (PAUL EFIRD/NEWS SENTINEL)

By Ed Marcum of the Knoxville News Sentinel

East Tennessee comic book fans have a new store to explore with the opening of The Golden Age in downtown Maryville.

With about 40,000 to 50,000 new and vintage comic books, plus games, gaming supplies and collectibles, the store opened Friday at 316 Court St., across from the Blount County Courthouse.

The store is holding a grand opening celebration today with gift bags to the first 50 customers when the store opens at 10:30 a.m., free comic books to mark the first Saturday in May as the industry's "Free Comic Book Day," and a live remote broadcast by WGAP AM 1400 Classic Country radio.

"You probably don't associate country music with comics, but it's great that they are doing this," said shop co-owner David Laney.

That is because the building that David and Stephanie Laney bought to open their shop was for many years the headquarters of WGAP. David Laney was not sure of the square footage, but said the building is big enough for his store and a few other businesses and he hopes to have other tenants.

A ribbon-cutting at the store Friday drew a crowd of customers and some Blount County officials. Tammi Ford, vice president of the Blount Partnership, said the organization is excited to see the shop open in the former WGAP radio building, which has not seen much use since the station, which opened in 1942, moved out in 1994.

"This is a great addition to downtown," she said.

Pat Corn, with WGAP owner Blount Broadcasting Corp., said he was elated to see the building occupied again.

Maryville resident Ash Bramblett was one of about 20 or so people who showed up for the opening of the store. Bramblett, who had brought along his daughters India, 8, and Alice, 6, said he was looking for a few comics for himself, and the girls might get a couple of Pops! vinyl pop-culture figure toys.

"This is awesome," he said of the shop. "There is something unique about locally owned comic book stores and the community around them and people actually interested in the hobby, as opposed to just a newsstand or a corporate entity that happens to sell comic books."

Bramblett, 36, said he looks for copies of the comics he read back in the 1990s. Laney said this fits the pattern of most comic book store customers. Most are age 20-30 and are nostalgic for comics they grew up with in the 1990s, he said.

The shop carries comics from the 1940s, which was considered the Golden Age of comics, to current publications.

According to Comichron, which tracks industry data, comic books sales have grown from $715 million in digital and print sales in 2011 to $935 million in 2014.
SHARE Miaofang Chi Rob Ellis Wendy Thompson Jennifer Foster

Miaofang Chi, a researcher at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, received the Microscopy Society of America's Burton Medal, which is awarded annually to an early career scientist. Chi is a research staff member at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences.

Elliott Davis Decosimo was presented with the Associate Award by the Tennessee Association of Manufacturers, honoring the efforts of a team led by shareholder Jennifer Goodman for periodic consultations on accounting, tax preparation and associated services provided to TAM.

Rob Ellis was named interim center director for the University of Tennessee's Highland Rim AgResearch and Education Center in Springfield. Ellis is the center director for the AgResearch and Education Center at Greeneville and will provide leadership to both centers. Ellis began the interim position on May 1.

Home Federal Bank named Wendy Thompson, Jennifer Foster, and Carla Harris as 2016 Hometown Heroes. Thompson was the 2016 overall program honoree. The bank presented $10,000 in donations to local nonprofits.

Covenant Health named Luke Johnson executive vice president, effective June 1. Johnson will have executive leadership responsibilities for Thompson Cancer Survival Center, ambulatory retail and urgent care services, physician engagement and alignment strategies and Covenant Medical Group, along with all other employed physician enterprises. Johnson served as senior vice president and division head of United Surgical Partners International, Inc.

The Jones Exhaust Systems, Inc., board of directors elected Bailey Landreth of Knoxville to the position of president and COO. Bailey previously served as product development manager and executive vice president.

Podiatrists Danielle L. Malin, D.P.M., and William H. Thetford, D.P.M., have joined Tennova Foot and Ankle. Dr. Malin specializes in the treatment of sports-related injuries, deformity correction, and diabetic foot care with an emphasis on limb salvage. She will work in Turkey Creek. Dr. Thetford is trained in foot and ankle repair and reconstruction, including joint replacement, cosmetic and deformity correction, and diabetic foot care. He will see patients in LaFollette and Clinton.

Bailey Insurance Service recognized Tonia Miller for winning the Quality Service Award for CSR of the Year for Erie Insurance-Tennessee Division.

Steven A. Phillips, a private wealth adviser with Ameriprise Financial in Knoxville, qualified for the company's Circle of Success annual recognition program. Mark Stooksbury, a financial adviser with Ameriprise Financial, achieved professional designation of Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor SM through The College of Financial Planning.

Perry Roberts and April McMurray have joined CBBC Bank. Roberts was named the branch officer/lender at the Midland Branch. He recently worked as branch manager for United Community Bank. McMurray joins the bank as a mortgage loan officer. She recently worked as a closing agent with Southeast Title.

Janet Stamper of Knoxville is now affiliated with CryeLeike's North Knoxville branch office. Previously affiliated with Coldwell Banker, Stamper specializes in residential real estate and first-time homebuyers.

Tennessee State Bank promoted Tina Williams, Brad McCarter and Brooke Marshall. Williams was promoted to vice president, assistant internal auditor. McCarter was promoted to vice president/community banking officer for the Gatlinburg Branch. Marshall was promoted to administrative officer and operational branch manager for the Seymour Branch.
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By Susannah Felts, Chapter16.org

Memoir is not the exclusive stomping grounds of writers at or beyond mid-life, of course; but there is something especially rich in wisdom about a memoir that reveals a long life well lived. This is what Lee Smith offers in her new book, "Dimestore: A Writer's Life."

With 13 novels and four collections of short fiction to her name, Smith is virtually synonymous with Appalachian fiction. Born and raised in Virginia, she has long made her home in North Carolina. Her books have deeply mined the cultures and communities of the South, and this memoir begins with a loving remembrance of the mountain hamlet of Grundy, Va., where her father owned and ran the local five-and-dime.

That "dimestore" proved rich terrain for a budding tale-spinner: Smith writes of spending hours "observing the whole floor of the dimestore through the one-way glass window and reveling in my own power  nobody can see me, but I can see everybody! I witnessed not only shoplifting, but fights and embraces as well. Thus I learned the position of the omniscient narrator, who sees and records everything, yet is never visible. It was the perfect early education for a fiction writer."

Children today would envy Smith's childhood: free, wild, conspicuously lacking in parental oversight. She and her friends "ran our mountains ridge to ridge  climbing trees and cliffs, playing in caves, catching salamanders, damming up creeks,  playing Indians and settlers with our handmade slingshots or the occasional Christmas bow-and-arrow set."

But Smith doesn't whitewash her formative years. She openly explores the bouts of depression that struck her parents, both of whom were hospitalized on occasion. While she is frank about the family's struggles, her account suggests an upbringing that gave her just what a writer in training needed: abundant love alongside witness to pain, ample solitude alongside community. "This is my story, then, but it is not a sob story," she writes.

Smith is equally forthcoming about her own early stubbornness regarding subject matter. When several college professors suggested she write about the world she knew, and not made-up worlds that didn't ring true, Smith deemed it "terrible advice. I didn't know what they meant. I didn't know what I knew. All I knew was that I was not going to write anything about Grundy, Virginia, ever, that was for sure." Lucky for us, of course, she changed her tune in the wake of a life-changing reading by Eudora Welty, who wakened her to what it really means to write from one's own lived place, and whose words on the power of writing provide a fitting epigraph for "Dimestore."

This memoir is, in sum, less a detailed account of a beloved author's trials and triumphs on the page than a meditation on what has mattered most in her life  subjects that have influenced her bestselling fiction in some form. "Dimestore" is a writer's life in that it examines life in all its joys and sorrows and breathtaking flux. In one essay, Smith opens up about the early death of her son, who suffered from schizophrenia; in another, "Driving Miss Daisy Crazy; Or, Losing the Mind of the South," she explores the changing nature of the region through the story of opening a sushi restaurant in Carrboro, N.C., with her husband, the writer Hal Crowther.

And then, in one of the final essays, there it is, the wellspring of eminently quotable reflections on the writing life that Smith's fans have been anticipating throughout this charming memoir: "No matter what I may think I am writing about at any given time  majorettes in Alabama, or a gruesome, long-ago murder, or the history of country music  I have come to realize that it is all, finally, about me, often in some complicated way I won't come to understand until years later," Lee writes.

She closes that essay, "A Life in Books," with a graceful argument for the enduring power of writing: "Whether we are writing fiction or nonfiction, journaling or writing for publication, writing itself is an inherently therapeutic activity. Simply to line up words one after another upon a page is to create some order where it did not exist, to give a recognizable shape to the chaos of our lives. Writing cannot bring our loved ones back, but it can sometimes fix them in our fleeting memories as they were in life, and it can always help us make it through the night."

To read an uncut version of this review  and more local book coverage  visit http://chapter16.org/, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.
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SUSTAINABLE LIVING

The Harvey Broome Group of the Sierra Club will host a program on sustainable living at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, 2931 Kingston Pike. Mitzi Wood-Von Mizener, director of Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center will share information about the center. Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center is a nonprofit organization in Grainger County that was established over 25 years ago to study, teach and demonstrate an effort toward sustainable living. Narrow Ridge now protects approximately 600 acres of rural land including over 150 acres of wilderness, 45 home sites, and a natural burial preserve.

The program is free and the public is welcome. Info: Mac Post, mpost3116@aol.com

MUSIC IN OAK RIDGE

The Oak Ridge Civic Music Association presents the Aspen String Trio and flautist Eugenia Moliner at 7:30 p.m. today at the Pollard Auditorium in Oak Ridge. A pre-concert lecture with the artists begins at 7.

Moliner will join the Aspen String Trio for a program featuring flute quartets by Mozart and Rossini. The Aspen String Trio will also perform string trios by Beethoven, Richard Strauss, and Gideon Klein.

Tickets are $25 for adults; $10 for young adults and youth (29 and under). Tickets may be purchased online at www.ORCMA.org or by calling 865-483-5569.

COMMUNITY DAY

Clayton Homes is sponsoring a Community Day today providing free admission to the Museum of East Tennessee History, 601 S. Gay St., to see the latest feature exhibit, "Come to Make Records: Knoxville's Contributions to American Popular Music."

The East Tennessee Historical Society and the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound present a first-time look at the impact of the recordings made at the St. James Hotel in 1929 -30, when locals were invited to come make records. These old-time, jazz, blues, and gospel recordings added Knoxville's voice to American popular music and inspired the next generation of country music stars.

VESTIVAL IN SOUTH KNOX

Vestival 2016 will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. today on the grounds of the Candoro Marble Building, at the corner of Maryville Pike and Candora Avenue.

The event is filled with music, food, children's activities and family events.

Among the non-musical acts and activities will be a puppet show, storytellers, an art exhibit, an acrobatic act and a magic show. Three Rivers Market will supply a Mother's Day brunch and there will be an old-fashioned cake walk.

The music ranges from folk artists Jack Herranen and the Little Red Band, Jubal and Jordan Hull to old-time group Bill and the Belles to rap/poetry group The Good Guy Collective featuring Black Atticus. There will also be an open jam session for local musicians.

Admission is $5.
Former Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison continues to play a key role in the campaign of billionaire Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, as he looks for a local headquarters once Trump's nomination is secured.

The Republican National Convention is set for July 18-21 in Cleveland, Ohio.

"We're looking out west somewhere," Hutchison said Friday.

Several other Trump supporters, including Lillian Williams, who provided space in Powell for the Trump headquarters during the March presidential primary, said they understood the new headquarters would be in the Farragut area.

Hutchison is working with Darren Morris, Trump's Tennessee coordinator, to find space. Hutchison said he doesn't have an official campaign role, just as he didn't when was a volunteer during the primary.

"I'm unofficial. I don't want anything official," he said.

The former sheriff's role in the Trump campaign has raised speculation as to whether he would be interested in being U.S. marshal in East Tennessee in a Trump administration.

"I'm not interested in anything except getting him elected, right now," Hutchison said.

He said his work as a consultant and doing investigations for the O'Neill, Parker Williams law firm keeps him busy.

Hutchison also offered some thoughts about national GOP leaders like U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said Thursday he's not ready to support Trump.

"I think there is such a thing as the establishment, which has been making decisions behind the scenes, and they haven't been going well. I personally believe they don't want to give up control they have now," Hutchison said.

Hutchison was elected five times as sheriff but was removed from office along with 11 other Knox County officials when the state Supreme Court decided term limits applied to most county positions. He was in the Sheriff's Office more than 33 years.

The Knox County GOP also is looking for a site to open for the Aug. 4 and Nov. 8 elections. Buddy Burkhardt, county GOP chairman, said officials are looking in the Bearden area. The Republicans are not planning on having a permanent location as they have in the past.

"For long periods of time we don't have anything going on. We wind up paying for office space we don't use," Burkhardt said.

The Knox County Democratic Party has office space at the former Labor Temple at 311 Morgan St., with volunteers from noon-3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Democrats also participate in Knoxville's First Friday activities.
SHARE Carlie Marie Trent Gary Simpson The van believed to be driven by Gary Simpson, suspect in Amber Alert case. (Photo via TBI)

By Travis Dorman of the Knoxville News Sentinel

An Amber Alert remained in effect Friday as authorities searched campgrounds in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia for a 9-year-old Rogersville, Tenn., girl who authorities say was abducted from her elementary school by her uncle on Wednesday.

"The longer this goes on, the more concerned we become," Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said.

Gary Simpson, 57, picked up his niece Carlie Marie Trent from school under false pretenses, according to the TBI. Simpson, who authorities said has no criminal record, once had custody of Carlie and was authorized to pick her up from school, but a court had since returned custody to her biological father, DeVine said at a news conference at the TBI's Knoxville office on Friday.

The school was never notified of the change in custody, DeVine said.

Authorities issued an Amber Alert for Middle and East Tennessee on Thursday. A day later, the TBI had received no credible reports of sightings of Carlie, her uncle or the 2002 Dodge conversion van that Simpson was last seen driving, DeVine said, but authorities believe Simpson might have taken Carlie to an isolated area due to the unusually small number of tips received.

The TBI released video on Friday of Simpson shopping at the Walmart in Rogersville. Simpson purchased items "consistent with camping," DeVine said. He wouldn't say what items.

Authorities are calling every campground in the surrounding area to inform campground owners of the situation and encourage them to watch for any sign of the missing pair. DeVine said there is no evidence to suggest that Simpson and Carlie have left the state, but there is also no evidence to suggest they haven't. "We need the public to remain vigilant," DeVine said. "If you see something suspicious, we need to hear from you. If you think in the pit of your stomach, 'This might be them,' please give us a call at 1-800-TBI-FIND. "We really believe that it is going to be a good-natured citizen who might crack this thing wide open and help bring this girl home, which is ultimately what all of us want at this particular point." Carlie is 4 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 75 pounds. She has blond hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a black and gray tank-top shirt with blue jeans. Simpson is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 157 pounds. He is balding and has brown hair and eyes. He was last seen wearing a brown cap, a dark-colored shirt and jeans. Simpson was last seen driving a white 2002 Dodge conversion van with Tennessee registration 173GPS. The van has a dark stripe down the middle with light gold running boards and paint chipping off the hood. A warrant has been issued for Simpson's arrest on a charge of kidnapping, according to the TBI. Authorities asked that anyone with information about the missing pair call 1-800-TBI-FIND or email tipstotbi@tn.gov.
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Forty-five years after the U.S. military ceased using the chemical compound nicknamed "Agent Orange," questions about its legacy remain.

The Tennessee State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America and VVA Chapter 1078 hope to offer some answers.

The organizations will cosponsor a program to explain Agent Orange's history, its related diseases, its possible effects on children or grandchildren of veterans, and the claims and benefits that may be available to Vietnam veterans, dependents and their survivors.

The free meeting will be 6-9 p.m. Monday at Washington Pike United Methodist Church, 2241 Washington Pike.

The program will be followed by a question-answer period. Claims assistance will be available.

Although Agent Orange  a mixture of two herbicides used to kill crops  was used by the military during the Vietnam War, information for veterans of all conflicts will be available at the meeting.

Don Smith, president of Chapter 1078, will present "History, Diseases and Available VA Benefits."

Tom Humphries, Knox County veterans services officer, will discuss the Gulf War and other issues.

Also present will be members of the Vietnam Veterans of America and officials of Knox County Veteran Services and the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services.

For information, call Smith at 931-335-0477.

Studies indicate various illnesses, diseases and serious health problems more common in veterans could be linked to Agent Orange. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has determined some veterans can file for compensation.

Learn more at http://www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/claims-postservice-agent_orange.asp.
photos by MICHAEL PATRICK/NEWS SENTINEL Sue Tharp, left, assists Jo Roberts as they visit the new National Park Service Collections Preservation Center in East Tennessee on Friday in Townsend.

SHARE The National Park Service opened its Collections Preservation Center in East Tennessee to maintain items from five parks Friday in Townsend. The 14,000-square-foot facility will allow the National Park Service to take care of more than 418,000 artifacts and 1.3 million archival records. Visitors view a display in the new National Park Service Collections Preservation Center. The $4.2 million facility won't be public. It will instead be used by researchers and students. Cutting the center ribbon are Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander. Related Coverage Johnson: Displaced families made Smokies park possible

By Morgan Simmons of the Knoxville News Sentinel

The cultural artifacts and archival records that reveal the human history behind five East Tennessee national parks now have a new home.

In all, more than 418,000 artifacts and 1.3 million records from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, the Big South Fork River and Recreation Area, the Obed Wild and Scenic River, and Cumberland Gap National Historical Park will be housed in the Collections Preservation Center that officially opened Friday.

The 14,000-square-foot facility is on 1.6 acres next to the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center in Townsend.

"This is not just another building," said Smokies superintendent Cassius Cash. "This is a place to store cultural heritage as told by five national parks."

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, a longtime champion of the National Park Service, attended the ribbon cutting, as did retired Smokies superintendent Dale Ditmanson, National Park Service southeast regional director Stan Austin and the superintendents of the five national parks that will use the new facility.

The collections  everything from butter churns to farm implements and handmade tools  will be moved into the Collections Preservation Center later this year. Until now, these items have been scattered among various sites, including the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and the lower floor of the Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Smokies.

The collection will include the saddle bags carried by Cumberland Jack, the German shepherd owned by Paul Adams, who made numerous trips to Mount LeConte in the mid-1920s to establish a permanent camp that evolved into LeConte Lodge.

Unlike the former storage sites, the new building is climate-controlled to protect fragile photographs, documents and archaeological specimens dating back 8,000 years.

"We now can preserve the Appalachian heirlooms of this region in one facility, not five," said Lizzie Watts, superintendent of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.

The Collections Preservation Center will not function as a museum. The artifacts in storage will be cared for by museum curator John McDade and archivist Mike Aday, who will oversee the collection and schedule research appointments for researchers, genealogists, historians and students.

Items from the Collections Preservation Center may also be loaned to the nearby Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center for public display.

The center cost $4.2 million. The Friends of the Smokies and Great Smoky Mountains Association covered almost half the cost, with the rest provided by federal funding.

The primary contractor was Amec Foster Wheeler, and the primary subcontractor was Merit Construction of Knoxville. Construction began in November 2014, and the project was finished on time and at below cost.
Three-year-old Beckett Podominick, is seen playing in the Washington area. (family photo via The Washington Post)

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By Justin Jouvenal, The Washington Post

Erin TePaske rarely spent a moment away from her young son, but last Mothers Day, the single mother took a few minutes for herself. As she strolled through a park on that warm afternoon, her phone buzzed to life. The frantic caller said something had happened to 3-year-old Beckett.

TePaske raced a wailing ambulance to her home in Vienna, Va. The man who had been watching Beckett told her that the boy had fallen and hit his head in the back yard.

Medics wheeled Beckett to the ambulance as TePaske called out to him but got no response. TePaske sensed that he would never recover.

Beckett Podominick had suffered a massive skull fracture. Two days later, he was removed from a respirator at the hospital.

I held his little body for an hour and a half until he took his last breath, TePaske said.

She never doubted that her sons death was a freak accident. But she knew others would.

The man caring for Beckett was Kenneth Bartley, 24, who, as a troubled teen in 2005, opened fire at his Tennessee school. He killed an administrator and wounded two others.

Continue reading at The Washington Post.

Recent articles about Kenneth Bartley:

Mom a reluctant witness in school shooter's assault case

Bartley pleads guilty to assault, granted probation

3-year-old boy living with school shooter Kenneth Bartley dies

Campbell County school shooter questioned by police in death of Virginia toddler

Father glad for police probe of school shooter's story in death of his son

Bartley no longer living with counselor

Kenneth Bartley still on the run; warrant issued for his arrest

Probation officer files loaded' warrant against Bartley

Bartley's fugitive status, alleged Facebook taunt draw a yawn from authorities

Judge: Kenneth Bartley a ticking time bomb'

Anderson Co. drops robbery charge against Kenneth Bartley

Kenneth Bartley ID'd as Anderson County robbery suspect, found in Virginia

3-year-old boy in Bartley's care died of blunt head trauma'

Records: Boy who died in Kenneth Bartleys care deemed abuse victim
U.S. Sen. Bob Corker

By Mary Troyan, USA TODAY NETWORK

WASHINGTON  Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has offered to help Donald Trump develop a foreign policy platform, making him one of the few senators to publicly embrace Trump as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

The Tennessee Republican said Trump called him last week and he and Trumps campaign staff have talked since then, most recently on Thursday night.

I think he is well-aware now that he has to move into a period of really laying out more substantial policies and certainly as he evolves, to the extent we can be helpful and flesh those out, we are more than glad to do so, Corker said in a Thursday interview.

Top Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, have been slow to accept Trump as their partys nominee over concerns about his shifting positions on key issues, his past support of Democrats, and his frequently offensive rhetoric.

But Corker said Republican voters clearly prefer Trump, so he stands ready to assist him in the general election.

Corker did not endorse in the crowded GOP presidential primary and repeatedly refused to comment on the race as it developed, except to say he would support the nominee. That changed last week when Corker surprisingly volunteered his assessment of Trumps first formal foreign policy speech, delivered when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich were still in the race.

At the time, Corker called it a very good foreign policy speech.

Corker said Thursday that he decided to speak out, even before Trump became the presumptive nominee, because he welcomed Trumps effort to move his campaign beyond personality and more toward issues.

He also was responding to Republicans who were plotting to use the party's national convention in July to nominate someone other than Trump, the leading vote-getter.

We have a primary process and the notion that some group of people would get together and upend what the primary voters said was somewhat repulsive, Corker said.

Despite wide criticism of Trumps foreign policy speech as contradictory and muddled, Corker said he welcomed signals Trump may be willing to defy traditional Republican support for military interventions.

Look, the foreign policy establishment in the last 15 or 16 years hasnt gotten things exactly right, Corker said. What I hear in what hes saying... is more of a George H.W. Bush view of the world. I hear him embracing more of a James Baker view of the world, and a larger degree of realism is making its way into his thinking, and I very much appreciate that.

Baker was secretary of State under President George H.W. Bush, who formed a large international coalition to support the invasion of Iraq during the First Gulf War. By contrast, the second invasion of Iraq during the administration of Bush's son, President George W. Bush, was not backed by such a coalition.

Corker, also a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said hes eager to hear more from Trump regarding the nations debt and how the economy can work better for lower- and middle-income families.
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Imagine being pregnant, addicted to opioid drugs, and trying to seek help  yet no one can assist you. That's what happened to Brittany Hudson, a woman charged under Tennessee's fetal assault law that criminalizes mothers whose babies are born dependent on opioid drugs taken by their mothers.

When seeking help, Hudson discovered that only a handful of treatment addiction programs are equipped to serve pregnant women and, if you are lucky to find one of those, waiting lists are extremely long  up to half a year or more. And even if you're covered under the state's Medicaid program, some treatment options are not available.

So what happens to these women who seek treatment but can't get help? While doctors applaud the end of the controversial fetal assault law, we still have a problem.

The fetal assault law was intended to reduce the growing number of infants who suffer from a condition called Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS, but NAS numbers in Tennessee have not declined. NAS is a condition in which a baby experiences withdrawal symptoms after being exposed to opioids. The number of drug-dependent babies in Tennessee is three times the national average, and many counties have actually shown an increase in NAS rates despite the passage of the fetal assault law in 2014. Since 2000, Tennessee has seen an astounding 16-fold increase of NAS births.

Now that the fetal assault law is set to expire in July, pregnant drug-addicted women are more likely to seek help since the fear of criminal charges and the possibility of losing their child have dissolved. However, a perfect storm of structural and political barriers has produced more hardship for these women in the form of limited resources and insurance barriers.

Tennessee has a shortage of alcohol and drug-dependent residential rehabilitation beds, with some counties not having any. Even when substance abuse treatment is available, the quality of care is low. Addiction treatment for pregnant women is highly specialized, and many services are not prepared to meet the needs of a pregnant woman. This further decreases the treatment options available and leaves only 19 programs suitable for helping pregnant women who use or abuse opioid drugs in Tennessee.

Additionally, TennCare does not cover methadone treatment. Methadone maintenance treatment remains the standard of care for the management of opioid use during pregnancy. By not covering methadone costs, TennCare severely limits access to treatment services. Even if a pregnant woman suffering from addiction makes her best effort to receive treatment, she may not necessarily be able to access the help that she and her baby need due to these insurance coverage and eligibility barriers.

We need to increase drug treatment services available for pregnant women. We need laws to expand insurance coverage for substance abuse treatment and require TennCare to offer more comprehensive coverage of addiction treatment. Future efforts need to focus on improvements in access and quality of addiction treatment resources by providing education to health care providers, legislators and the public; increasing funds that support women addicted to opioids before and after pregnancy; and addressing addiction at earlier stages. While no one would argue against someone seeking help for drug addiction, we are not doing these women any favors by not offering them a place to get the care they and their babies need.

Amanda Letheren is a doctoral student in the Department of Public Health at the University of Tennessee.
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For more than 80 years, the Tennessee Valley Authority has served the public by developing and managing the multi-state Tennessee River watershed and providing flood control, navigation, power generation, economic development and land-use recreation facilities. These functions remain vital to the economic health of the region and have been accomplished efficiently and effectively.

Established in 1933, TVA was the product of a long period of growing concerns about the management of the abundant natural resources in the Tennessee Valley. There were leaders such as President Theodore Roosevelt who worried that America was using up her natural resources and who had ideas of better use of those resources so they would be available for future generations.

In 2006, a statutory change in the TVA Act increased the original three-member TVA board to a nine-member part-time panel. This board hires the agency's CEO and approves his salary.

When TVA was created and operated under a three-member board, the chairman of the board operated as the agency's chief officer. The highest-paid TVA official was the board chairman, with a salary commensurate with that of a U.S. senator. In today's market, that is equivalent to approximately $400,000 annually.

Currently, the CEO's salary is in excess of $6 million annually, making him the highest-paid government official by a mile. Salaries of some of his immediate subordinates are in the millions.

Consider for a minute officials with world-wide responsibilities such as the secretary of defense, chairman or vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chief of staff of the Army, commandant of the Marine Corps, chief of naval operations, chief of staff of the Air Force or commandant of the Coast Guard, all with salaries less than $400,000 annually. The joints chiefs' combined salaries are less than $6 million annually. These patriots received other additional benefits but nowhere near the equivalent of $6 million yearly.

The Tennessee Valley is basically an egalitarian society with a median household income less than $50,000 annually. The median household income in Tennessee in 2014 was less than $45,000 annually.

TVA is protected by certain members of Congress with little, if any, oversight. Since the agency is a part of the federal government, its employees are prohibited from striking and the agency is exempt from state and federal anti-trust laws. Thus, it appears that there are few or no restrictions on TVA upper management, while the rank and file must comply with federal restrictions, and the nine-member board appears to be no match for the agency's management.

Bill Johnson, TVA's CEO, says the agency continues to have challenges funding the retirement system and the pension liabilities exceed assets by more than $5 million. He proposes amendments to the retirement system rules and regulations, in essence, to make it easier for the agency to opt out of some or part of its responsibilities as required by the initial retirement agreement.

Johnson's proposal has merit. The TVA Retirement System board of directors should consider all options available. To save both TVA and the retirement system will require both moral diplomacy as well as dollar diplomacy.

TVA is at a point now where it must decide whether it will make fair and honest decisions to revamp and face its obligations or accept greed for a few at the expense of its employees, retirees, valley citizens and ratepayers. The values we cherish in TVA will not survive without the constant attention and oversight of our elected representatives.

TVA must see itself as a national icon. It is more than just a power company.

Frank Robinson, a TVA retiree, lives in Knoxville.
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A look at recent events in the news that pleased us ...

STEM champs: A steampunk-themed digital media campaign created by a Knoxville high school robotics team this week topped more than 180 submissions to clinch the international 2016 Media & Technology Innovation Award, presented for the team's efforts to encourage interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

Branded the "L&N STEMpunks," the group is composed of 48 students from L&N STEM Academy and a sprinkling of homeschoolers. The STEMpunks won the competition, sponsored by Comcast NBCUniversal, for their innovative media and marketing strategy, used to raise awareness of STEM, as well as to garner funds for the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.

Clinic expansion: A $1 million federal grant will help Cherokee Health expand its East Knoxville clinic, CEO Dr. Dennis Freeman said on Wednesday.

Cherokee plans to connect the two side-by-side buildings on both stories, more than doubling usable space to 8,200 square feet. It will expand the lobby area and add three exam rooms, four behavioral health offices and a large conference room that can be used for group therapy or community meetings. The clinic has 175-200 patient visits a week, a number expected to double after the expansion.

Strong showing: Scripps Networks Interactive announced this week that it had a 24 percent increase in revenues in the first quarter of 2016, compared with the same period last year, and profits rose 32 percent.

The Knoxville-based operator of TV networks such as HGTV, the Food Network, Great American Country, the Travel Channel and DIY Network said the positive results were "driven by [an] increase in ratings at all six U.S. networks, coupled with the strong advertising market."

Disturbing incidents: Six staffers at Mountain View Youth Development Center in Dandridge were injured in an incident the day after a new management team arrived in the wake of the superintendent's firing last week.

Tennessee Department of Children's Services officials Monday would not speak specifically to a number of staff-related incidents reported at the state facility that preceded the firing of superintendent Tommy Francis. DCS administrators would not cite any specific reason for Francis' departure, describing it as a mutual decision to end his contract.

Last month a former guard was indicted on charges of statutory rape, sexual battery and other offenses. A former nurse was indicted in January on charges of sexual contact with an inmate and official misconduct.
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Puerto Rico's economic situation is dire and has been brought on by years of fiscal irresponsibility by the Commonwealth's government, including many well-meaning but misguided progressive economic policies.

It is important that we not confuse Puerto Rico's troubles with the Puerto Rican people who as United States citizens have contributed much to our economy through their entrepreneurship, hard work and commitment to public service.

Still, something must be done. Instead of allowing the island to restructure all of its debt  including general obligation debt  under a Super Chapter 9 bankruptcy, the Puerto Rican government should see this as an opportunity to get its financial house in order by reducing spending and reforming its generous welfare and entitlement programs.

Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection is afforded only to municipalities and is not something that Puerto Rico or any U.S. state is legally able to declare.

Super Chapter 9 bankruptcy would force bondholders  which include individual Americans with retirement accounts  to forfeit their hard-earned savings. Instead of Puerto Rico seeking unprecedented relief through Super Chapter 9 bankruptcy on the backs of families, retirees and pension holders, Puerto Rico should negotiate in good faith with its bondholders.

Additionally, Super Chapter 9 bankruptcy would set a dangerous precedent for "big spender" states. What rationale would Congress have to deny a state when it decides it wants the same type of considerations that Puerto Rico received? What rationale would Tennessee have for maintaining fiscal responsibility when our neighbors can seek debt resolutions with little to no risk?

If Puerto Rico receives Super Chapter 9, it will negatively affect everyday Americans through our retirement plans and set in motion a contagion affect where states with massive debt seek similar bailouts on the backs of everyday families and retirees.

Raul Lopez, executive director, Latinos for Tennessee, Hermitage
By Choi Sung-jin



Korea, one of the most wired countries in the world, has sought to create a digital single market in Northeast Asia by tearing down barriers that block crossborder electronic commerce with China and Japan.



Yet there are more than a few stumbling blocks in the way to Korea reaching this goal, industry experts said Friday.



Above all, the taxation methods of the three countries on online commerce are different from one another. Unlike Korea that has detailed rules on protecting intellectual property and personal information, China and Japan are in their infancy in this regard, too, the experts added.



The Korean government will nonetheless push ahead with discussions through holding working-group talks with the two nations as part of the negotiations for a trilateral free trade agreement. Even that will not be easy, observers note, considering officials from the three countries have thus far failed to narrow their differences in goods and services of the FTA talks over the past three years.



According to a report by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP), the size of IP (Internet Protocol) traffic in the Asia-Pacific area, including the three Northeast Asian nations, is expected to surpass that of North America and Western Europe in 2019. Particularly Korea, with its strength in contents, such as games and dramas, and its peerless Internet infrastructure, will likely be able to get its wings if entry barriers collapse in the region.



Korea's biggest target is China.



China's digital commerce market is rapidly expanding based on its potential consumer market of 1.3 billion people. The KIEP report said Korea's B2C (business-to-consumer) e-commerce volume grew from 1.9 percent of its gross domestic product in 2010 to 2.6 percent of GDP last year. The comparable share in Japan increased from 1.6 percent to 2.3 percent during the same period while that of China jumped from 1.2 percent to 4.9 percent.



"The e-commerce markets of Korea, China and Japan are growing rapidly, and most remarkably in China," the report said, forecasting the Chinese online commerce market would record an annual growth rate of 56.5 percent on average between 2012 and 2017.



China's content market also has bright prospects. According to Korea Creative Content Agency, the Chinese content market, which stood at $132.84 billion in 2013, is expected to expand to $223.71 billion in 2018.



But the rosy future for e-commerce will not come automatically, the experts said. To create a single digital market, the countries involved should unify their different systems into one, including those of content, protection of personal information, and procedures for settling consumer disputes as well as their taxation and payment methods.



"Korea and Japan, for instance, have laws protecting personal information but China has yet to establish systematic and unified rules on privacy protection," the report said. "It is often pointed out that China's administration in this area is lacking in consistency because the country has no officials or agencies exclusively responsible for the protection of privacy."



Also, Japan and China are still in the early stages of crafting legislation for consumer protection compared to Korea.



"Since the early 2000s, Korea has modified its laws and regulations to better protect consumers who use e-commerce," the KIEP report stated. "In China and Japan, rules and procedures remain insufficient with respect to settling consumer disputes in digital commerce."




By Choi Sung-jin



If Korea drags its feet with its industrial restructuring, the nation will fall behind Japan in competitiveness, suffering serious damage to major industries, a report says.



"Provided Japan successfully completes its industrial reforms, Korea's major industries that are in fierce competition with their Japanese rivals, including shipbuilding and steel, are highly likely to suffer heavy blows amid the widening gap in their competitiveness," said the report by the National Assembly Budget Office.



According to the report, Japan is aiming to attain a 3-percent GDP growth rate at an annual average over the next decade. In order to improve the environment for business investment, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to repair the production base for Japan's manufacturing culture based on its unique workmanship called "monozukuri."



Tokyo will also lower the corporate income tax rate from the current 35.6 percent, sign more free trade agreements, implement the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and creatively handle the toughening environmental regulations and rising energy costs.



"The Japanese government is reviewing various regulations and administrative red tape from the ground up from the point-of-view of business," Abe said Wednesday while he attended an investment seminar in Belgium as part of his European swing. "We will build Japan into the best country in which to do business," Abe added vowing to reduce the corporate tax rate to Germany's level by 2018.



The report said Japan is pushing strongly to bolster its industrial competitiveness through a well-thought-out and timely executed government-led restructuring of its over-invested industries.



"The Korean government, too, should carry out its restructuring more swiftly and boldly of those industries where the competitive edge has become dull, and keep enhancing corporate competitiveness and the nation's industrial physique by nurturing a business environment where sound and steady restructuring is constantly helped along," it said.




By Choi Sung-jin



Employees at companies that operated in the now-defunct Gaeseong Industrial Complex have decided to sue the government for lost wages. It will be the first damage suit against the state in relation to the inter-Korean economic cooperation project.



A council of former Gaeseong workers met Friday, in which the representatives explained their plans and received letters from most of their fellow workers endorsing their mandate to the action against the government.



Workers said the government's unilateral shutdown of the inter-Korean factory park in the North Korean border city was an unlawful act, and as a consequence it should compensate the workers for their physical and mental damages.



They cited Article 2 of the State Compensation Act, which states, "When government employees violate laws, intentionally or negligently, and inflict damages on others, the central or local governments should compensate for their actions."



A lawyer representing the workers said that although the government says it made a policy decision under an urgent situation, few people think it was close to an emergency.



"It was unlawful for the government to withdraw from the industrial park without first listening to public opinion. The nation was neither at war nor suffering a natural disaster, but the government shut down the park, which severely hampered the workers' livelihoods," lawyer Lee Young-ki said. "We call for the court's judgment on this."



Almost three months have passed since the government closed the complex, it has provided no further support for the former workers except for giving each of them 650,000 won ($560) as subsidies to maintain their employment, the council said. As the financial conditions of the businesses have aggravated, they have been forced to dismiss more than 80 percent of the workers, even leaving only a small number eligible for the employment benefits, it added.



The council plans to demand a 12-month salary for each worker. As there are no precedents, however, a fierce legal battle is expected to ensue.



Earlier, an association of the top managers of the companies that operated in the industrial park also decided to request a judgment from the Constitutional Court, claiming the government's one-sided shutdown of the park was an illegal procedure that violated their "property rights" guaranteed by the Constitution.



The Park Geun-hye administration unilaterally shut down the joint-venture factory park on Feb. 20 after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test and launched a long-range rocket. In August 2015, the two Koreas agreed they would keep the park open without mutual consent to close it.








By Choi Sung-jin

Russia has reportedly decided to freeze all financial transactions with North Korea and suspend the imports of mineral resources from the belligerent regime.

Interfax, a Russian news agency, said these are part of a presidential decree to implement the U.N. resolution in March, which imposed economic sanctions on North Korea to punish the regime for its nuclear and missile provocations.

The news agency said the presidential decree stipulated instructions to "take all measures within 90 days from March 2 to close all North Korean banks and their subsidiaries, representatives and joint-venture companies within Russia, and prohibit the purchase of equities of North Korean banks as well as not to conduct remittance transactions with them."

The decree also states that Russia will ban the imports of mineral resources, including coal, steel, iron ore, gold, titanium and vanadium, from North Korea.

It, however, left intact the "Rajin-Hassan logistics project," a coal export business that uses the Russia-North Korea railway and the port of Rajin in the North.

The decree was made to implement the U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 2270 on March 2, aimed at punishing North Korea's fourth nuclear test and the launch of its sixth long-range rocket.

The news agency did not say whether or not the decree, which was posted on the Russian government's site, has been adopted and implemented, though. During a regular briefing of the Russian foreign ministry the same day, a spokesman said, "We are thoroughly implementing the obligatory provisions in the U.N. resolution on sanctions."
Federal officials accepted 76,575 acres of Nebraska land into the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to take environmentally sensitive land out of crop production to improve water quality, prevent soil erosion and strengthen wildlife habitat.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced plans to enroll 800,000 acres nationally into its CRP programs. Nebraska had the third most acres accepted behind Iowa, which got 128,212 acres, and Washington at 120,530 acres.

The U.S. has about 23.4 million acres in CRP, a voluntary program that pays landowners annual rent over 10 to 15 years and includes cost-share assistance to plant grasses, shrubs and trees in fields and along streams or rivers. About 1.7 million of current acres are set to expire.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said competition for the acres was heavy this year. The USDA offers three programs for CRP called continuous signup, general signup and the grassland program.

Of the 1.8 million acres farmers put applications in for the general signup, 410,000 acres were accepted.

The total of grassland program acres accepted was 101,000 acres and continuous program acres was 330,000, which is three times the rate farmers signed up acres for the continuous program last year, Vilsack said.

He called on Congress to revisit the caps it set in the 2014 Farm Bill as it begins to look to the 2018 Farm Bill. He said Congress set the caps at a time when commodity prices were at an all-time high and interest in CRP was waning as farmers planted every available acre.

You cant start with an arbitrary savings number and fit all the needs of rural America and the farming community into the arbitrary number," Vilsack said. "You really should let the needs dictate the amount.

With commodity prices and farm income significantly lower, farmers dont have as much financial incentive to plant marginal ground and CRP begins to look more attractive.

In fiscal year 2015, CRP paid out $1.7 billion nationally; of that, $61 million went to Nebraska. Projections for this fiscal year were not available.

Farmers are interested in being good stewards of the land but they also have to make sure their operations are economically sustainable," said Vilsack. "That is why we worked with the farming community to adjust rental rates when cash rent land rentals were going up. With lower commodity prices CRP becomes an attractive alternative for less productive land.

In Nebraska, the breakdown for the new acres being signed up is 20,462 acres continuous, 25,024 acres general and 31,089 acres grassland.

At its peak in 1993, Nebraska boasted 1.4 million acres of CRP. In February, the Nebraska Farm Service Agency listed CRP acres in the state at 763,000, of which 63,000 acres are set to expire Sept. 30.

In addition to preventing soil erosion and improving water and air quality, CRP acres create wildlife habitat popular with hunters and other outdoor enthusiasts, which can have a significant economic impact for rural areas.

By improving habitat obviously we improve opportunities for hunting, fishing, biking and hiking that bring people into rural areas. They spend money, they stay. They visit. They need shotgun shells. They need equipment. And to the extent that you improve hunting opportunities, you increase tourism opportunity, Vilsack said.
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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PRESS RELEASE

Italy Investigating Deutsche Bank for Its Role in 2011 Italian Debt Crisis

May 6, 2016 (EIRNS)State attorney Michele Ruggiero in Trani, Italy opened an investigation on the role played by Deutsche Bank in the 2011 Italian debt crisis. Deutsche Bank is accused of having unleashed a run on Italian bonds by selling 7 billion (almost the entirety of its stock) of Italian sovereign bonds, and at the same time purchasing credit default swaps (CDS) against those assets. While Deutsche Bank was telling its investors that Italian bonds were safe, it made those sales over the counter in a very short period of time, between January to June 2011. Thus, the formal allegation is "market manipulation."

Under investigation is the former Deutsche Bank leadership: Josef Ackerman, and the duo Fitschen and Jain. It was reported today that Italian police already searched the Milan office of Deutsche Bank in the last days.

Although the allegation is a financial one, the nature of the investigated crime is political: the artificial crisis of the Italian sovereign debt engineered in 2011 led to the dismissal of the Berlusconi government and its replacement under EU aegis with the unelected cabinet of technocrats led by Mario Monti. The coup was engineered by the famous Trichet-Draghi European Central Bank letter to the Italian government.

According to the prosecutors office, Deutsche Bank indicated as "sustainable" the Italian debt in three monthly reports over the period February-March 2011. But at the same time, Deutsche Bank massively sold those assets over the counter, without communications to the market and with a post-hoc explanation which is "false," namely the need to reduce its exposure in Italian debt after the acquisition of Postbank.

In that same period, Deutsche Bank purchased about 1.4 billions of CDS against the Italian risk. Those purchases were communicated neither to the market, nor to the Italian Treasury.

Thus, investigators say, by selling Italian bonds and purchasing CDS, telling the markets at the same time that the Italian debt was sustainable, Deutsche Bank carried out "market-manipulative actions, of informational-operational sort." Such actions are considered to have altered the market price of Italian bonds, both in the first semester 2011 (when the market ignored the bonds sale) and after the publication of Deutsche Banks monthly bulletin of June 2011. At that date (June 2011), the market learned about the massive and swift reduction of Deutsche Banks exposure to the Italian risk, interpreting it as a "clear signal of the groups distrust in the endurance of the Italian sovereign debt."
Theres no shortage of companies claiming to be the Uber of their industry, whether its food delivery, flowers, mattresses or medicinal marijuana.

But what happens when the real Uber  the one with a $62.5-billion valuation and a global footprint  decides that it wants to expand into other on-demand markets?

That puts these new start-ups in an interesting position, said Ted Graham, coauthor of The Uber of Everything, a book about the on-demand economy. If youre pitching yourself as the X for Y, then the real X for Y is X, he said.

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With the March rollout of the food delivery app UberEats and last years launch of UberRush  an on-demand package delivery service for online sellers in San Francisco, Chicago and New York -- the San Francisco company, which rose to prominence transporting people, is now seeing if it has what it takes to be the Uber of everything.

Diversification wasnt always on the cards for Uber, though. According to Bill Gurley, an Uber investor and partner at Benchmark Capital, investors see the size and potential of Ubers core business as being so massive it doesnt need to expand into other fields. As recently as last year when the company was fundraising, Gurley said it didnt even mention expanding beyond ride-hailing when pitching investors.

It might be the fastest-growing company in the history of Silicon Valley. Theyre diversifying out of opportunity  Bill Gurley, Benchmark Capital

FOR THE RECORD

June 10, 2:44 p.m: This article makes reference to Benchmark Capital. The firm is now known as Benchmark.

But the better Uber got at moving people, the more it made sense for it to move other things, too. The company -- which is a gorilla in the ride-hailing world, dwarfing its nearest U.S. competitor, Lyft, in valuation by more than 10-fold -- now has a division called UberEverything, whose job is to identify opportunities outside of its rides business.

It might be the fastest-growing company in the history of Silicon Valley, Gurley said. Theyre diversifying out of opportunity.

For pundits in Silicon Valley, Ubers expansion into everything else was never a matter of if but when. If the company could figure out how to transport people in a quick and reliable way, why couldnt it do the same for a sandwich?

If you look at why Ubers valuation is more than [10 times that] of Lyft, its driven by three things, said Kyle Lui, an investor at venture capital firm DCM Ventures, which has not invested in Uber.

First, he said, its because Uber is much bigger than Lyft. Second, it has a bigger presence internationally.

And third, growth in areas such as logistics and food delivery may account for a relatively small part of the valuation uptick, but its not trivial, Lui said. Even if you value it at $5 billion, thats the entire valuation of Lyft.

The biggest player in the food delivery market, GrubHub, went public in 2014 and is worth $2 billion. That same year, Caviar, which also delivers restaurant food, was acquired by payments company Square for a reported $90 million. Another rival, Doordash, is reportedly valued at $700 million. Although small compared with the ride-hailing industry, which has attracted billions of dollars in venture capital funding (Uber alone has raised more than $2 billion), investors clearly believe that theres money to be made.

Analysts say the opportunity is too tempting for Uber not to take, considering that the company already boasts a significant head start.

Millions of people already have the Uber app installed on their phones. Uber has more than 400,000 drivers in the U.S. who could just as easily start delivering food or parcels as they do passengers. Most of the infrastructure -- the mapping technology, the algorithms, the workforce -- is already there.

Everything were building is on top of a platform that already exists, said Jason Droege, a former Taser executive who joined Uber two years ago to head up UberEverything.

More importantly, Uber boasts something few competitors can claim: Its a household name that customers already know and trust.

Its not much work to say, Hey, if youre going to trust us to move you around, which is maybe the highest bar for trust, will you trust us to move your food to you quickly, efficiently and inexpensively? Droege said.

While companies looking to get into food or package delivery have to persuade potential customers to download their app and sign up for the service, Uber simply needs to update its app, and when people open the Uber app the next morning, poof, its a food delivery company too, said Paul Barter, who co-wrote The Uber of Everything with Graham.

Which is exactly what the company did when it launched UberFresh, now known as UberEats, in Los Angeles in 2014. It started by adding a tab within the main Uber app, from which users could order a meal on demand. Having gained traction, UberEats is now a stand-alone app available in more than a dozen cities. The day it launched, it shot to No. 1 in the Apple App Stores food and drink category, ahead of McDonalds, Starbucks and Dominos Pizza.

This spells trouble for smaller players.

When people open the Uber app the next morning, poof, its a food delivery company too.  Paul Barter, The Uber of Everything

Some start-ups have tried to insulate themselves. Postmates, which delivers from restaurants and shops, has partnerships that offer customers discounts. GrubHub bought on-demand food delivery company, Seamless, and now has huge market share. But Lui from DCM Ventures believes companies that cant differentiate themselves from Ubers service will struggle.

This year Berkeley start-up SpoonRocket was among the first on-demand food companies to close shop, citing intense competition and a tough funding environment. The company coincidentally ceased operations in the same week that Uber launched the UberEats app.

Sidecar, an Uber competitor that also moved into package delivery, sold its assets to General Motors late last year, citing stiff competition from Uber.

But just because a company excels at one thing does not mean that it will dominate another.

Google is irrefutably the king of search, yet its social network Google Plus struggled to compete with Facebook and Instagram, and is now widely regarded as a failure. Amazon is a giant in e-commerce, but even it stumbled in its foray into hardware. Its Fire phone was such a flop it was discounted from $199 to $1 on a two-year plan.

Diversifying is risky, and Uber could stumble. Its hard to maintain freshness when food is sitting in a car. Food safety issues could be a sticking point. As the company expands into other industries, Gartner analyst Jennifer Polk said it will naturally run into competitors. And unlike the transportation industry, where Uber ran into slow-moving taxi incumbents, the food and package delivery space is already full of tech-savvy start-ups bent on disrupting their industry.

Theyre going to run into competition potentially as innovative as Uber is, Polk said. So the question is going to be what gives them an edge in that space. They need to think critically about what problems theyre solving.

Thats Droege and his teams job. He declined to reveal the size of UberEverything, but said its entire focus is on businesses beyond ride-hailing. And its staffed by people who have had experience running start-ups within start-ups. There are employees who led the development of Android inside Google. Droege himself headed up a separate software division within Taser.

Its too soon to know whether Uber will succeed outside of ride-hailing. Droege says the company doesnt even think in such terms  his division is simply identifying problems that it can solve. Its ambition isnt to be the Uber for everything.

The name, though, suggests otherwise.

tracey.lien@latimes.com

Twitter: @traceylien
When the small painting with a slightly damaged surface and cracks in its wood backing materialized in September at an auction house in New Jersey, no one expected great things.

First and foremost was its murky provenance: The artist was unknown, and so was the date of its creation. The auction house estimated that the work would sell for $500 to $800.

We had no idea when it came up to sale that there were about to be fireworks, said John Nye, who runs Nye & Co., based in Bloomfield, N.J.

The seemingly unremarkable painting became the talk of the international art world after it was judged to be a long-lost work by the 17th century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn.

The paintings journey from a basement in New Jersey to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where it will be displayed alongside other works by Rembrandt starting Wednesday, is a story that involves eagle-eyed Paris art dealers and a New York financier with deep pockets and a fondness for Dutch art.

The Getty will be the first museum to exhibit the recovered painting. The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of the Sense of Smell) is among Rembrandts earliest known works, dating from 1624, when he was about 18. It depicts an unconscious youth receiving what could be smelling salts from one of two attendants.

The work of art stands just 9 inches tall. It was one of five pieces that the young Rembrandt created to depict the five senses. The Getty said the exhibition will feature two other paintings  hearing and touch  from the series.

The Unconscious Patient (An Allegory of the Sense of Smell), 1624, by Rembrandt van Rijn. (Getty Museum) (Getty Museum )

Nye & Co. listed Unconscious Patient as a painting by an unknown artist from the 19th century.



Nye didnt identify the northern New Jersey family that owned the painting but said he was called to their home to look at items for possible consignment. I found it in the basement, he said.

He said the parents had died and the brothers had taken what they wanted. He identified some art and silver that he deemed would be auction-worthy.

As for the Rembrandt, it was in a Victorian frame, Nye recalled. There were a lot of reasons we surmised it was 19th century.

Soon after the auction was announced, two Paris art dealers, Bertrand Talabardon and Bertrand Gautier, took note of the painting. We werent completely certain at the time that it was authentic. ... Maybe 90% certain, Talabardon said by phone.

The dealers, who run the Galerie Talabardon et Gautier in Paris, said they are normally wary of early Rembrandts , explaining that the artists students were close to him and that they created works in a style that could easily be confused for the real thing. But there were many stylistic similarities between the painting for sale and other early Rembrandts, especially those in the five-sense series, they said.

The vaguely exotic costumes worn by the characters in the painting are similar to those in the other works of the series.

They agreed to bid for the piece by phone at the Sept. 22 auction. But they werent the only ones who spied a potential treasure, according to Nye & Co. Two other parties from two European countries also ended up bidding for the painting, pushing up the price.

The Paris dealers ultimately prevailed, paying $870,000, or close to $1 million with the premium that auction houses typically add.

The following day, they received word that New York financier Thomas Kaplan was interested in purchasing the painting. Kaplan heads the Electrum Group, a privately owned investment management company that invests primarily in natural resources and precious metals, including gold.

Kaplan and his wife, Daphne, also own one of the worlds largest private collections of art from the Dutch Golden Age. The Leiden Collection holds works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and other painters from around the 17th century.

Gautier traveled to New York to negotiate the deal aboard Kaplans yacht, according to the gallery. The negotiations lasted about an hour. The gallery declined to say how much Kaplan paid for the work.

Kaplan said in an interview Friday that an alumna from his collections curatorial staff was working at a museum in Paris when one of the gallerists walked in and met with her boss. She later told Kaplan about the painting.

As soon as he had the work of art in his hands, I had no doubt that it was Rembrandt, recalled Kaplan, who studied history at Oxford. It was pure serendipity.

He said he purchased his first Rembrandt about a decade ago at auction and now has 10 works by the artist in his collection of approximately 200 objects. The Leiden collection also owns the two other sense paintings that will be on display at the Getty.

A fourth known piece from the set, the sight painting, is in the collection of the Lakenhal Museum in Leiden, the Netherlands. The whereabouts of the fifth painting in the series remain unknown.

Its not uncommon for works by a super-famous artist to go off the radar, said Anne Woollett, a curator at the Getty.

After Kaplan purchased the Rembrandt, the painting was restored. During the process, which removed a layer of varnish, an artists monogram was discovered in the upper left corner that reads RF.

The monogram has been taken to stand for Rembrandt Fecit, or Made by Rembrandt. It is believed to be the earliest signature by Rembrandt on a work of art.

After that, there was little doubt, said Talabardon.

Kaplan said that the monogram was somewhat visible prior to restoration, but you had to have young eyes.

I think its a very exciting discovery. It shows Rembrandt at the very outset of his career.  Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington

The restored painting was unveiled earlier this year to great fanfare at the TEFAF art fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

I think its a very exciting discovery, said Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

"It shows Rembrandt at the very outset of his career. At the time, he said, the artist was changing his style on a monthly basis.

Over the years, Kaplan has lent the Getty works from his collection, and his new acquisition seemed like a good fit for the institution.

In a way, it was a natural thing to do, said Timothy Potts, director of the Getty Museum. We have great early Rembrandts, so we are, from that perspective, the right place for this to be unveiled.

The display is a loan, and the Getty has not acquired the painting. Even the Getty cant purchase everything, Potts said.

Unconscious Patient will be displayed at the Getty along with Rembrandts Portrait of a Girl Wearing a Gold-Trimmed Cloak and Portrait of a Rabbi, both of which are on long-term loan to the Getty from the Leiden.

The exhibition will run through Aug. 28, after which it will travel internationally.

david.ng@latimes.com

UPDATES:

May 7, 9:55 a.m.: This story updated with additional comments.

This article was originally published May 5 at 3:26 p.m.
After nine years of character plotting, world-building and over a dozen movies, Marvel has unleashed Captain America: Civil War, which will forever be remembered as the undoing of the Avengers. Given the themes of personal apocalypses and broken family bonds, the studio knew it had to inject this bloody battle with the signature Marvel charm. Civil War needed Spider-Man.

In a move few could have seen coming back when Iron Man kicked first off in 2008 (only a year after Tobey Maguire ended his reign in Sam Raimis Spider-Man film series), Marvel Studios swayed Sony Pictures into rebooting its crown jewel superhero in Civil War. It wasnt easy getting Peter Parker into the Marvel Cinematic Universe fold, but, according to the crew behind Marvels new feature, it was very necessary.

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In February 2015 it was officially announced Spider-Man would be joining the Marvel movie world, but the negotiations to get Spidey back had long been underway. It was a very difficult process, Civil War co-director Joe Russo told The Times. Certainly trying to get two studios to collaborate on a very high-profile piece of [intellectual property], where theres a lot of money involved, is not easy. It is probably unprecedented. Only a guy like Kevin Feige could pull it off, and he did pull it off. Credit goes to him and Amy Pascal, who was running Sony at the time; the two of them collaborated and figured out how to share the character.

However, Marvel wasnt interested in acquiring Spider-Man as some sort of ornamental superhero dressing the films could vaguely reference to, like so many comic book Easter eggs weve seen before. The new iteration of the character would launch a whole new Spidey franchise back at Sony and bridge the gap between the previously split Marvel worlds. (Similarly, the X-Men franchise, also based on Marvel comics, is currently isolated at Fox.)

But more importantly, Spider-Man would also be saving the Avengers from their own predictable premise. The reason that we wanted the character in the movie is that we felt as we were working on the storytelling of Civil War it was becoming binary, it was bifurcated, two opposing sides and it was becoming very linear and predictable, Joe Russo said. So we wanted to introduce free radical characters into the storytelling.

Yes, a 15-year-old kid from Queens would be responsible for shaking up the whole of the MCU, right in the middle of a superhero war. We were all in lockstep pretty early on to make him as naturalistic as possible, said Civil War co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely. In addition to being as young as possible. So what is it really like for a 15-year-old kid? Where does he live in Queens? Thats partly why his aunt isnt 80 years old; if shes the sister of his dead mother, why does she have to be two generations ahead?

And with that youth comes the awe-inspired fun that may have been drowned out over the sound of Captain America repeatedly smashing his fist into Iron Mans face. The very point of the movie is the heroes, theyre having real problems with being superheroes now, said co-screenwriter Christopher Markus. Theyre jaded and its encroaching on their lives and its not easy. And if you only have those people in the movie, then youve got a movie that is saying the thing the audience enjoys isnt any fun. Its like slapping their hands when they reach for the candy. Its great to have a character, like Spider-Man, whos brand new. Whos still having a blast, hes super-excited to be meeting Captain America for the first time, because it injects that kind of wonder back into the situation. You need an outside voice to shine a light on the things the people in the scene already know. [Black Widow is] not going to look at anybody with wide-eyed wonder.

This fresh perspective couldnt be captured just on paper, it would need to be cast as well. As opposed to signing on yet another late twentysomething to play Peter Parker (as Sony had done with Maguire and recently with Andrew Garfield), the studio would look to 19-year-old Tom Holland.

Best known for his role on stage as the title character in Billy Elliot the Musical, Holland just happened to be working on a film with Jon Bernthal during the audition process with Marvel. (Somewhere, out in the great wide ether of cool things well probably never get to see, is an audition tape of Bernthal -- who would later be cast as the Punisher for Marvels Daredevil Netflix series -- running lines with Holland for his Spider-Man audition. And vice versa.)

I was doing a movie in Ireland [Pilgrimage] and the guy, Tom Holland whos going to be the new Spider-Man, he was in the movie with me and we had been making mini tapes for Marvel to try to get him the Spider-Man job, Bernthal told The Times. He and I made a tape for the Punisher [as well]. We worked on it together. Were really good friends.

Clearly the pairing worked because Holland is signed on for the next Spider-Man movie, officially titled Spider-Man: Homecoming. Whether thats a nod toward Parkers high school dance, or a return to the fresher-faced teen pop days of the Spider-Man comics, well have to wait and see. But so far Holland has already proved himself invaluable to Marvel Cinematic Universe by saving the wonder. Because no matter how serious these movies get, theyre still human adults in tight clothes pulling off incredible feats of heroism for cash.

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Kiefer Sutherland is returning to television screens just when fictional America needs him most.

ABC announced Friday that it picked up the conspiracy thriller Designated Survivor to series, along with releasing a teaser trailer for the show.

Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, a lower cabinet member thrust into the presidency after an attack on America renders him next in the line of succession. The challenges Kirkman will face are considerable, as he attempts to keep the country and his own family from falling apart.

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The role couldnt sound more different from the last time audiences saw Sutherland on the small screen, on Foxs 24. Sutherland won an Emmy playing Jack Bauer, a pivotal member of the Counter Terrorist Unit working to prevent an attack on America. The challenges he faced were considerable, as he attempted to keep the country and his own family from falling apart.

OK ... but on Designated Survivor he wears glasses, so thats different.

Joking aside, Sutherland as president may be change the country can believe in, though at this juncture, the most intriguing aspects of the show may be the ones that remain unclear. What was the attack on America? Was it locusts? Was it terrorists? Was it terrorists utilizing locusts?

Or perhaps the most pressing question is what cabinet position Sutherlands character held. Secretary of Agriculture? Housing and Urban Development? Education? I hope its Education and his first act as President is fighting terrorism through higher teacher pay.

(Upon further research it appears that Sutherlands character really is Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. You learn something every day.)

Joining Sutherland in the cast are Natascha McElhone (Californication), Kal Penn (House) and Maggie Q (Nikita). The series is created by David Guggenheim (Safe House) and the first episode directed by Paul McGuigan (Sherlock).

Follow me on Twitter @midwestspitfire
So many European luxury labels have stepped into the high-end sneaker game over the last few years that the news is hardly worth spilling ink (or slinging pixels) over when another brand sprints into the arena. But Paris-based Roger Vivier, which rolled out its first two sneaker styles for spring and summer 2016, is a standout  even among the legacy luxury brands.

Thats because the 53-year-old French labels namesake founder was as much a sculptor as a shoe designer, a man who focused almost fetishistically on the heel. In his hands, womens shoes approached the ornamentation of a Faberge egg: adorned with jewels, feathers and ruffles, combined with eye-catching colors rarely seen outside a crayon box. Viviers career achievements included designing a pair of gold kidskin pumps with ruby-studded heels for Queen Elizabeth IIs coronation (1953), whittling heels down to stiletto proportions (1954) and introducing a handful of new heel shapes including the comma-shaped Virgule heel (1963) that would go on to become a signature of the brand.

After the designer died in 1998, the brand was acquired and relaunched in 2004 by the Italian leather goods group Tods, whose Diego Della Valle tapped creative director Bruno Frisoni to helm Maison Roger Vivier. In the years since, Frisoni has breathed new life into the brand, translating its design DNA into new products including handbags, sunglasses, small leather goods and jewelry.

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Since the first style Frisoni chose to revive a dozen years ago was the Belle Vivier  a patent leather pump with a bold chrome pilgrim buckle on the vamp that became wildly popular after Catherine Deneuve wore a pair on screen in the 1967 film Belle de Jour  theres a certain symbolic significance in the inaugural sneaker offerings, which hit the three U.S. Roger Vivier boutiques (including South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa locally) and Neiman Marcus in early February. One version of the rubber-soled Sneaky Viv serves up leather, canvas or silk satin versions of a classic, slip-on skate shoe silhouette with pilgrim buckles  formed out of baguette-shaped crystals  at the vamp. The other, a side-zip version of the same silhouette, references the iconic buckle shape in a tiny rectangular zipper pull emblazoned with the initials R.V.

The Belle Vivier was a neutral, minimal proposal, Frisoni said during a recent trip to Los Angeles. It was just a pump with a thick heel and a buckle on the front . For me, this [sneaker] silhouette is todays equivalent.

Frisoni said the decision to add sneakers to the luxury brands offerings was a simple one. Sneakers became the most requested piece, he said with a shrug. Roger Vivier is a shoe brand and whatever shoe it is that people need  that people crave  that needs to be Roger Vivier.

While the vibe of the Sneaky Viv may be more casual than the rest of the brands shoes, which range from $500 to $4,000 (with some exclusive styles costing more), you and your wallet would be sorely mistaken to think that the price tag was equally low-impact because the debut collection walks out the door in the $725-to-$1,325 range. And that, Frisoni said, is exactly as it should be.

No, they arent cheaper. Its not about doing a secondary line, he said. People dont want that kind of item from Roger Vivier. They can go to Adidas for [less expensive sneakers]. And were not just trying to be expensive. Theres a certain craftsmanship and materials that justify the price.

Apparently customers agree because, to hear Frisoni tell it, the new sneakers have been flying off the shelves, with one style of big-buckled canvas kicks covered in a festive floral print from the brand archives, selling out (it has since been restocked). He said demand has generated waiting lists all over the world.

Despite the early sneaker success  and the fact that well-shod celebrities including Cate Blanchett and Jaime King have been dashing through airports and turning up at art exhibition openings wearing them, Frisoni said hes determined to take a grow-slow approach.

We have a high-top slip-on for winter and we may introduce a lace-up, but we wont grow too much because [Roger] Vivier is not supposed to be a sneaker brand. [Sneakers are] something that are intended to be an indispensable part of the collection  a staple.

The sophomore fall and winter collection, which will hit retail in mid-July, hints at how Frisoni is moving beyond the buckle in translating the Roger Vivier DNA for the sneaker set. It includes a slip-on silhouette covered in an exploded black-and-white houndstooth print, another covered in all-over crystals and the aforementioned high-top slip-on festooned with feminine frills around the ankle and vamp.

While sneakers might never become truly acceptable to wear on the Hollywood red carpet, the high-end, high-style versions Roger Vivier is offering might be considered a big step in the right direction.

adam.tschorn@latimes.com

For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me @ARTschorn.
Good morning. I'm Paul Thornton, The Times' letters editor, and it is Saturday, May 7, 2016. I did not celebrate Cinco de Mayo by eating a taco bowl, but let's talk about someone who did.

Donald Trump has all but officially captured the Republican Party's nomination for president. To mark the occasion (or tragedy, depending on your point of view), The Times' editorial board published something that reads like a cross between an unsympathetic eulogy for a major American political party and a rousing call to action:

Donald J. Trump is now what he has claimed to be for some time: the presumptive Republican nominee for president. His attainment of that status this week is a triumph for him and a tragedy for both his party and the country. Trump's lopsided victory in Tuesday's Indiana primary, the latest in a string of double-digit wins, prompted Sen. Ted Cruz to suspend his campaign even before the final ballots were counted. On Wednesday Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the last, best hope of Republicans appalled by the bombastic businessman's ascent, announced that he too would leave the race. Kasich's departure deprives voters in the remaining Republican primaries  including California's on June 7  of a meaningful choice. Trump's imminent capture of the Republican nomination is a monumental and mind-boggling political achievement. Over the last several months, to the surprise and embarrassment of pundits and political professionals alike, this political novice has eliminated one prominent and better qualified opponent after another. The casualty list includes current and former governors  most notably Jeb Bush, the well-funded scion of a political dynasty  and two senators who were considered rising Republican stars: Texas' Cruz and Florida's Marco Rubio. ... Trump's nomination may be a foregone conclusion, but prominent Republicans who recognize the threat he poses to their party aren't obliged to fall into line. They can strike profiles in courage by saying publicly what they believe in their hearts: "Never Trump."  Click here to read more.

A few hours before John Kasich quit, the editorial board wrote this to Trump's opponents: "Never give up, #NeverTrump." You can't fault us for not trying. L.A. Times

Here's the real fear for many Republicans: Trump could actually win. Doyle McManus lays out the dilemma for party insiders: "If [Trump wins], conservatives who don't love their candidate will face four years of having to defend his policies and trying to tame his excesses. That's when their real troubles would begin." L.A. Times

Hillary Clinton spoke to The Times' editorial board, and she started right off by explaining her appeal to voters this way: "When I'm actually doing a job on behalf of people, people who elected me as in the case of the voters of New York  or in the country when I was secretary of State  I actually have quite high approval ratings." L.A. Times

California politics are like a playlist on endless repeat. Mexican flag-waving protesters, bilingual education, a cigarette tax hike, and another Clinton on the ballot: It's starting to feel like the '90s in the Golden State, writes Bill Whalen, a former speechwriter for Gov. Pete Wilson. Sacramento Bee

Think all housing in L.A.'s most exclusive neighborhoods is unaffordable? Think again. Real-estate data analyst Constantine A. Valhouli finds property in Beverly Hills that's asking for about $475 per square foot  less than the average in Eagle Rock. "Looking at the range behind the neighborhood averages can help buyers recognize that there are often some relative bargains even in some of Los Angeles' most affluent neighborhoods," Valhouli wrote. L.A. Times

Stop police from going treasure hunting? There ought to be a law. Rep. Darrell Issa recommends one that closes a federal loophole permitting local cops to confiscate cash and property so long as their departments keep only 80% of the proceeds. "The current system  which allows police to go treasure hunting, beefing up their budgets on the backs of innocent Americans  stands in stark contrast to constitutional principles of due process and property rights," Issa wrote. L.A. Times

Here's some practical advice from two college presidents: Don't follow your dreams. The heads of Northwestern University and Lewis & Clark College cite a commencement quip by Stephen Colbert as a way to encourage new graduates to broaden their horizons: "If we'd all stuck with our first dream, the world would be overrun with cowboys and princesses." L.A. Times

Send me feedback: paul.thornton@latimes.com
Against all odds, the animals of the 401-acre Newport Banning Ranch oil fields have endured.

Burrowing owls, ospreys, least terns, red foxes, San Diego fairy shrimp and California gnatcatchers have survived decades of drought, oil production and encroaching development.

But now theyre in the crosshairs of a uniquely dangerous predator: the Coastal Toady.

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Yes, Im talking about the construction-friendly, science-doubting members of the California Coastal Commission  at least some of them.

The showdown had been scheduled for this Thursday, when the agency holds its monthly meeting at Newport Beach City Hall. Now the Banning Ranch issue has been postponed.

But the matter isnt going away, so let me tell you whats at stake.

Were talking about a plot of land 1,000 feet from the Pacific Ocean near Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Newport Beach, where oil has flowed since the 1940s. Some of the pumps are rusty and idle now, but the Big Oil owners  Shell and ExxonMobil are behind one of the companies involved  and their investment partners have a new plan to make money bubble up from the ground. Namely, a mega-development called Newport Banning Ranch that originally called for 1,375 beach pads along with a resort hotel and retail colony.

The developers are promising  either generously or with extraordinary chutzpah, depending on your perspective  to clean up the environmental damage they inflicted.

Newport Banning Ranch has been running full-page newspaper ads depicting its property as a rusted-out brownfield. They say theyll open a nature preserve for public use  as long as that public gets behind a huge development in which the developers walk away with millions.

But much of the property was designated as Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area by the Coastal Commission staffers whose expertise is supposed to inform the decisions of the politically appointed commissioners, and courts have ruled against development in such areas.

A staff ecologist called this one of the few reasonably intact wetland-bluff ecosystems left on the California coast. The staff recommended against the habitat-crushing project last year and said only about 19 acres were suitable for development.

But some commissioners werent swayed by science.

So they toured the property and reached their own conclusions, which they shared at an October hearing that came off as another embarrassment, like many of the commissions recent meetings.

Commissioner Martha McClure called the property a 400-acre mess that looked more like Oklahoma than California.

Commissioner Wendy Mitchell said of the vernal pools that are critical to the habitat, When I was a kid, we called them  ditches.

Commissioner Janelle Beland, the queen bee of the commission and a member of Gov. Jerry Browns administration, questioned the work of a state Fish and Wildlife biologist who backed the Coastal Commission staffer.

The commission then rejected the recommended denial of the project and ordered the staff, led at the time by Executive Director Charles Lester, to work with the developer and devise an acceptable plan.

In other words, the commission had already made up its mind. It wanted a development, native creatures, traffic concerns and science be damned.

The staff was demoralized, and the situation soon got worse.

In February, commissioners fired Lester in a 7-5 vote despite his work being praised by staff and hundreds of coastal advocates, government officials and former coastal commissioners.

The commissioners who dumped Lester pooh-poohed suggestions that they were developers best friends. They insisted that Lester, who has an Ivy League geochemistry degree and knew more about the Coastal Act than anyone alive, just wasnt up to the job.

And then late in April, the staff reversed itself on Banning Ranch.

With Lester out of the way and an interim replacement in his seat, the pressure was on. Staff recommended approval of a revised Banning Ranch proposal of roughly 895 homes, 45,000 square feet of retail and a 75-room hotel.

The approval recommends that multiple conditions be met. Still, the building area would be nearly triple the size the staff originally found acceptable, which came as a big disappointment to development foes whod rather pool public and private money to buy and safeguard the environment. They told me even the scaled-back version would be a win for developers and a devastating blow to threatened animals and their habitat.

And now comes word, in a story by my colleague Bettina Boxall, that Coastal Commission Chairman Steve Kinsey toured the property again on Dec. 22 with developers, whom he apparently found rather persuasive.

Ive seen agency records, by the way, indicating that Kinsey has had at least seven contacts with the developers since 2014.

But he didnt report one last December, and thats a no-no. If a commissioner meets with an interested party, the public and opponents have a right to know what they talked about.

Kinsey did eventually report the December meeting last week, four months after the fact, and just after being asked about it by The Times.

And theres more:

Boxall reported that Kinsey sent an email to a staffer in January saying he believed many of the areas given environmentally sensitive designations by the staff seem unwarranted.

He defended himself in an email to The Times.

I reject any suggestion that my comments were intended to pressure staff, he said.

Of course he does.

But its not in the publics best interest for commissioners to pretend theyre scientists, or to advocate for developers, or to try to rewrite the Coastal Act.

This is just the latest piece of evidence that this commission has lost its way.

Ive seen hallway confabs out of public view during meetings, which may or may not be legal.

One testy commissioner F-bombed people who attended a hearing.

Complaints have been filed against two commissioners for accepting donations from the domestic partner of a powerful lobbyist and then voting on projects the lobbyist brought before the commission.

Another commissioner voted on a project involving a client in her consulting business.

We have no idea how many private meetings with interested parties go unreported. And even when such contact is reported through whats called the ex parte system, access is much easier to come by for wealthy project applicants. Routinely, they hire high-powered, politically connected agents who just happen to be chummy with commissioners.

In the case of Banning Ranch, records show that of more than 40 ex parte communications between commissioners and interested parties, more than two-thirds were with representatives of the developers.

State officials do not have to remain silent while this nonsense plays out.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon cant fire the eight commissioners appointed by their predecessors, but they can remind them theres a thing called the Coastal Act and a thing called ethics.

Brown has been in deep hibernation on this issue, to his discredit. Unlike the legislative leaders, he has the authority to fire all four of his commissioners if he wants to.

Something to consider.

Public trust, like natural habitat, is rapidly disappearing.

steve.lopez@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATstevelopez

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A court fight delaying approval of a new method for executing inmates in California ended this week with the release of 12,000 pages of internal prison documents about the states plans for lethal injection.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which went to court in November to obtain the documents, said it would make them public early next week. The legal standoff ended when the California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to intervene in the case.

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For the Record:

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May 10, 4:55 p.m.: A previous version of this article said that 12,000 internal prison documents would be released. It is 12,000 pages of documents.

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Prison authorities unveiled the new, single-drug execution protocol in early November, but the litigation forced the state to extend the public comment period by about seven months.

The court fight is likely to be one of many as the state proceeds to try to restart the death chamber at San Quentin Prison. Litigation has put executions on hold since 2006.

Kent Scheidegger, a director of the pro-death penalty Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, accused the ACLU of using the records request to delay approval of the new protocol and to dig up ammunition for another lawsuit to prevent the state from going forward.

They have succeeded in getting a Superior Court judge to allow them to use the Public Records Act as a device to ridiculously extend this public comment period, Scheidegger said. I think they want more information to launch a lawsuit against the new protocol.

The ACLU said it needed the records to comment on the proposed protocol and to prevent botched executions.

Ana Zamora, the groups criminal justice policy director, said two of four possible barbiturates the state has proposed for executions  amobarbital and secobarbital  have never been used in executions.

Amobarbital, once thought to be a truth serum, has hypnotic and sedative properties. Secobarbital has been used in physician-assisted suicide, but Zamora said it is typically taken orally and there are questions about whether it can be injected in a potent amount.

The states plan to use compounding pharmacies also concerns the group because she said they are not licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An ineffective drug could result in a prolonged and inhumane execution, opponents of capital punishment say.

The corrections department aggressively fought to withhold these documents for months even after the court determined that these 12,000 pages must be turned over, Zamora said.

She said the ACLU has not had time yet to analyze or even read all of records, many of which the group must redact under a court order.

We have just been dealing with the sheer volume and the redacting, she said, adding that the documents arrived in 800 PDF attachments not long after the state high court declined to review the case.

The ACLU asked for the documents in August and September, arguing the California Public Records Act compelled their production. The group wanted them ahead of the prison departments announcement of the new execution protocol.

After failing to obtain most of the records, the group sued the state.

A Marin County judge reviewed the requested records and ruled that some must be made public. Communications between prison authorities and Gov. Jerry Brown were private, the judge said, but other records were subject to public disclosure.

Prison officials asked the California Supreme Court to overturn the lower court. They argued the records were protected by the legal privilege provided to lawyers and their clients.

In the meantime, opponents of capital punishment have submitted signatures for a Nov. 8 ballot measure that would end the death penalty and replace it with life without parole.

Signatures for a counterinitiative that proponents say would help speed up executions have not yet been submitted. A spokesman for the pro-death penalty measure said the signatures will be turned in within the next several days, and he expects the measure to qualify.

Scheidegger, frustrated by continuing delays in the capital punishment process, said the state must finalize the execution protocol one year after public comment.

They have to address every single comment that is made, Scheidegger said, and they might not make it.

maura.dolan@latimes.com

Twitter: @mauradolan

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A Louisiana advertising company is giving a political boost to Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander, providing free space on 50 billboards to promote his bid for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors.

Baton Rouge-based Lamar Advertising Co., which has been seeking to convert dozens of billboards to digital formats, has allocated $17,000 for pro-Englander signs in the final weeks before the June 7 election, said Ray Baker, the companys vice president and general manager.

Englander sits on the councils powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which is trying to decide how and where to allow new digital billboards. The five-member panel is also weighing whether to grant permanent legal status  some say amnesty  to hundreds of nondigital signs owned by Lamar and other companies that lack the proper permits at City Hall.

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With a vote on new billboard regulations expected later this year, the Lamar contribution has drawn complaints from residents who see digital billboards as a safety hazard and a form of blight.

Its a free gift to Mitch Englander, and any action he takes [on billboards] is now going to be tainted by that gift, said Venice resident Patrick Frank, who testified at City Hall last month on the sign proposals.

Its a free gift to Mitch Englander, and any action he takes [on billboards] is now going to be tainted by that gift.  Patrick Frank, Venice resident

Englander, who is in an eight-way race to replace departing Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, said he had no control over Lamars decision to put up the signs, many of which are in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. The companys donation is an independent expenditure  the kind that, by law, cannot be made in coordination with a candidate or the candidates campaign.

Englander said its ridiculous to think his vote would be influenced by such an expenditure.

The billboard industry wants amnesty on everything, and I dont support that, he said.

Sign industry representatives have long argued that the city cannot assume that billboards that do not have permits are illegal. City agencies did a poor job of keeping track of those records, they say, and cannot guarantee the documents werent lost.

Baker said Lamar picked Englander because of his support for public safety and his pro-business views. We feel that we know him better than any of the other candidates and what he stands for, he said in an email.

Lamar has been looking to replace its 4,000 comparatively small billboards  many of them in residential areas  with larger, and in some cases digital, signs that would go up in commercial and industrial areas. The company sued the city three years ago, demanding the right to put up 45 digital billboards, but lost at the appellate court level. Lamar is weighing its legal options, Baker said.

As the lawsuit made its way through the court system, Lamar used 100 of its billboards to promote the 2015 reelection campaign of Councilman Jose Huizar, who heads the councils planning committee. That same year, the company put up 88 signs for five other candidates, including eight for Englander.

Lamar isnt the only player in the sign industry to put its weight behind Englander. Clear Channel Outdoor recently contributed $10,000 to an independent expenditure committee set up to help Englanders county campaign. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11, which favors fewer restrictions on digital billboards, also spent money on Englanders behalf, giving the committee $50,000.

Meanwhile, Englander directly collected at least $5,000 for his campaign from outdoor advertising firms, their executives and a billboard trade group, according to county campaign records.

Englander is running in a district that stretches from Canoga Park on the west to La Verne on the east, taking in such disparate communities as Pasadena, Santa Clarita, Palmdale, San Marino and Gorman. If no one gets a majority in next months contest, a runoff between the top two vote-getters will be held Nov. 8.

Englander and his colleagues are set to meet next month to review a trio of proposals for regulating new signs. Part of their deliberations will focus on the types of trade-offs that would be imposed on companies that want to erect new electronic signs.

The Planning Commission, made up of appointees of Mayor Eric Garcetti, recommended that advertising companies be required to take down 10 square feet of existing billboard space for every square foot of new digital signage that is approved. Another proposal, prepared for council members, would be considerably less restrictive, requiring the removal of up to 2 square feet of existing billboard space for every square foot of new digital signage permitted by the city.

Also up for discussion is the question of where digital signs should be allowed. All three proposals call for new digital billboards to be limited to special sign districts  bustling commercial areas such as downtown, Koreatown and Hollywood or regional attractions such as Los Angeles International Airport and Dodger Stadium.

Two of Englanders colleagues have questioned that strategy, saying some council members dont represent areas that would be eligible for sign districts. Without a sign district, a council member would be unable to strike a deal to remove a large number of existing signs, they said.

Englander said he has not decided which strategy he prefers. But he insisted that any campaign spending by billboard interests would have zero effect on his vote.

That argument did not persuade Glendale Councilman Ara Najarian, who is also running for Antonovichs seat. Najarian predicted voters who learn about Lamars advertising campaign will be troubled by it.

Its just sending a message out that hes going to be partial to these companies, he said.

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidzahniser

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Alberto Retana wants a very specific kindergarten experience for his 4-year-old son: a dual-language Spanish and English immersion program, close to home near View Park-Windsor Hills, with a diverse student population and a track record of preparing students well.

Now the Los Angeles Unified School District wants to make it easier for parents like Retana to find the school that best fits their child by creating a search-engine-style website and a single application process for almost all district public schools, but not its charter schools.

According to a report that district employees prepared for the board of education in October and was obtained by The Times in April, the district would favor a website like that of Boston Unified School District, in which parents can come to one website, enter their preferences for their child and receive suggestions on schools that fit the criteria. The information technology department recommended hiring a vendor to create this "search engine," according to the report.

The paper also suggests moving the application timeline to the fall semester, and creating one common application for all L.A. Unified schools. This would allow the district to compete with charter schools that have their lotteries early in the school year.

Unlike some other districts that have adopted this kind of process, L.A. Unified would not include independent charters. During a budget meeting in March, superintendent Michelle King told board members this single enrollment system would be a way to keep students, and the revenues they bring, in traditional public schools.

The discussions come as more students abandon district schools in favor of charter schools.

Right now there are about 10 kinds of public school options for families, including neighborhood schools, magnets, open enrollment, and zones of choice. Even if parents know that they have options and figure out what the alphabet soup of words means, the enrollment and application dates are at different times of the year, from October through March.

(Test)

Retana, the father in Windsor Hills, has extra familiarity with L.A. Unified because he heads the South Los Angeles group Community Coalition, a nonprofit that works to improve education. So if even he has trouble finding a school for his son, he knows that other parents do, too.

But how long will parents have to wait before a unified enrollment system is a reality?

It could take a while.

There's no timeline or budget estimate for the project yet, district administrator Jesus Angulo said in April.

It's difficult to say how much it would cost to develop, implement and maintain the system, since each school district has different needs, said Neil Dorosin, co-founder and executive director of the Institute for Innovation in Public School Choice, an education reform nonprofit that helps districts implement unified enrollment plans.

Dorosin spearheaded New York City's move to unified enrollment and now sells the algorithm software to other school districts for up to $300,000. He said it could cost another $1 million to create and develop the program in the early stages.

Dorosin said Los Angeles Unified has not contacted him about the software.

In other cities that have implemented systems, it's taken about a year to get off the ground, said Betheny Gross, research director at the Center for Reinventing Public Education at University of Washington Bothell.

Creating a single enrollment process wouldn't guarantee children a spot in the school of their parents' choice, though. If there's a high demand for a few schools, families might be assigned a school they don't want, Gross said.

Dorosin also points out that while this would help families, it wouldn't necessarily keep them out of charters in the long-run: charter schools could just create their own unified enrollment process.

Jason Mandell, spokesman for the California Charter School Association, said the group plans to approach the district about the possibility of including charter schools, though they have not asked charter school members if they would want to be included in the district's system. There are currently no plans to create their own single enrollment system, Mandell said.

Keisha Mitchell knows firsthand the difficulty of finding a good school. In August 2014 she was in Tucson getting ready to move to L.A. and trying to find a school for her son from 500 miles away. Met with a confusing website and fragmented information sources, Mitchell couldn't figure out what all of her options were, so he attends his neighborhood school. She's happy with it, but wishes she had known her options.

Now as a community organizer for Parent Revolution, Mitchell spends her days helping other parents navigate the complicated web of finding the right school.

Parent Revolution is a group best known for helping parents take control of their schools under California's parent trigger law. But in January, Parent Revolution launched a program to help families navigate school choice.

"It can be very daunting for families, Mitchell said. "Were dealing with working-class families who really dont have a lot of time.

Mitchell would much prefer one enrollment process, during one time. That would allow working parents like herself and others in South L.A. to focus on this and simplify a complicated process.

Some critics say that if the goal is to keep students in the district, then the best use of money is to improve existing schools.

Retana wants to find the right school for his son and thinks this system would make it easier for him and other families. But he also wants the district to respond to Community Coalition's request for more resources, such as restorative justice counselors, for South Los Angeles schools.

"What would keep me in L.A. Unified isnt necessarily how easy the process is," Retana said. "Its knowing that we have quality programs."

Reach Sonali Kohli at Sonali.Kohli@latimes.com or on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli.
Los Angeles police are investigating how a charter high schools computer system was used to change student grades, after the University of Miami noticed something seemed amiss about an applicants transcripts.

After the university alerted New West Charter in West Los Angeles about apparent grade tampering, the charter filed a report in March with the LAPD suggesting that a student or students may have obtained a counselors password and logged into the schools computer system several times to change the course grades of three students, two of whom are brothers.

School officials said the breaches occurred in November, including two days during the Thanksgiving holiday break, according to a police search warrant obtained by The Times.

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One students grades were changed in early November. Grades for the two siblings were altered during the holiday break from a computer that appeared to be in Great Neck, N.Y.

School officials reported to the LAPD that they questioned the siblings about the grade tampering. The students, according to the school, said they were in New York during the same period but denied any involvement.

Police were granted a search warrant to access more information about the specific IP addresses tied to the reported breach, citing provisions in the law that would qualify the suspected grade changes as a felony.

Police declined to comment about the investigation.

New West Charter officials also were tight-lipped about the incident.

As an authorized charter, we have specific procedures in place to deal with any type of issue that may come up and, quite frankly, thats what we are doing, New West Charter Principal Sharon Weir said.

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Former President Bill Clinton delivered the commencement address Saturday morning at Loyola Marymount University, urging students to set the world on fire with their dreams and passions.

Clinton spoke at the ceremony attended by hundreds of undergraduates. His nephew Tyler Clinton was among them.

He told the Class of 2016 that they were graduating in the most interdependent age in human history.

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Whether we like it or not, for the rest of your lives, what happens to you will in some measure be determined by what happens to other people, by how you react to it, how they treat you, how you treat them and what larger forces are at work in the world.

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1 / 8 Former President Bill Clinton delivers the commencement address at Loyola Marymount University on Saturday. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 8 Former President Bill Clinton talks to students after delivering the commencement address. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 8 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton watches her husband, Bill, speaking at the commencement ceremony. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 8 Bill Clinton is awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by Timothy Law Snyder, Loyola Marymounts president, left, and Kathleen Hannon Aikenhead, chair of the universitys Board of Trustees. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 8 New graduates are jubilant at the commencement ceremony. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 8 Family and friends applaud new graduates. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 8 Karen Mary Davalos, professor of Chicano Studies, walking in procession, displays her point of view. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 8 Joe and Sandi Franco embrace while attending the graduation of their son. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

He had been in Los Angeles in recent days campaigning and raising money on behalf of his wife, Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton.

On Thursday, the candidate appeared at rallies in East Los Angeles to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, calling for comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally.

Earlier, she met with African American leaders and headlined a fundraiser hosted by Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar. She finished her swing through California on Friday with a rally, a visit to her Oakland field office and a series of fundraisers.

The former senator and secretary of state is still embroiled in a primary fight with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

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Although Californias primary is still a month away, mail-in ballots already are being distributed and supporters have been dialing voters in hopes of securing their support.

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A driver with a history of mental illness who fell asleep behind the wheel of his SUV, which then stuck and killed a Caltrans worker, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison.

Reginald Grigsby Jr., 32, pleaded guilty in March to gross vehicular manslaughter in the death of Leonardo Sandoval Pena, who had been repairing sprinklers in a roadway median in Escondido last year when he was fatally injured.

Grigsby had been accused of driving under the influence of drugs, based on statements he made to police and paramedics at the time of the accident. But toxicology tests revealed the only drugs in his system were low therapeutic levels of the medications he had been prescribed, a prosecutor said at a Vista Superior Court hearing.

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After hearing arguments from the lawyers and comments from the victims family, Judge Michael Popkins sentenced Grigsby to the maximum term allowed by law. The judge said he was persuaded not only by the the fact that an innocent person was killed, but by Grigsbys criminal history.

If he was a first-time offender, I think I would have looked at this a little differently, Popkins said.

Grigsby had a previous conviction for assault after he attacked and choked his mother into unconsciousness in 2009 at his parents Fallbrook home. His father, Reginald Grigsby Sr., resorted to shooting his son twice in order to save his wifes life.

The shooting was ruled justified by the district attorneys office, which said the son had suffered from schizophrenia since he was a teenager. He also had beat up his father in 2004 and attacked his sister in 2008, authorities said. He spent a year in jail on the assault conviction and five years on probation.

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Grigsby was arrested Sept. 14 after running over Pena. The driver had been headed south on Centre City Parkway in Escondido near Interstate 15 when he veered to the left and drove down the median. His Mitsubishi Montero hit Pena at what the prosecutor described as freeway speed. He lost control of the vehicle, which rolled several times before coming to a rest.

Pena was killed instantly.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Aimee McLeod said in court that Grigsby told emergency workers that he fell asleep while driving, and witnesses described him as lethargic or zoned out. She said Grigsby told investigators he had taken Klonopin, a drug used to control epileptic seizures, but none was found in his system.

Mr. Grigsby ignored the warning signs, McLeod said in the courtroom, arguing that the defendant knew he had not slept in a couple of days and that he was not fit to drive. And she acknowledged his history of mental illness.

This is a second offense that relates to his inability to properly medicate, the prosecutor said.

Grigsby apologized for what he had done to the victim and his family. Im truly sorry from the bottom of my heart, Grigsby said in the courtroom. This was a terrible judgment call on my part. I own up to my mistake, and I pray that one day you can forgive me.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Littlefield writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune

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A former LAPD jailer and a couple who owned a bail bond company were charged with operating a bail capping scheme at the Van Nuys jail, prosecutors said Friday.

Leonard Ramirez, 44, who was a detention officer in the Van Nuys jail, allegedly gave William Aroutounian, 34, and his wife, Iryna McCormick, 33, emergency contact information for friends and family of people recently booked into the jail, prosecutors say.

The couple owned BBB Bail Bonds Company in Sherman Oaks.

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After Ramirez would give the couple the inmates emergency contact information, the pair would then call that person and say that the inmate asked them to call so they could secure a bail bond to get the inmate out of jail, prosecutors claim. Its illegal to proactively solicit inmates and their families, and the groups scheme is called bail capping, prosecutors said.

After providing the information, Ramirez would meet Aroutounian in neighborhood alleys and Aroutounian would allegedly hand Ramirez money or drop it off in his car, authorities said.

The scheme was uncovered when an undercover police officer posing as a felony domestic abuse suspect listed another undercover officer as his emergency contact and Ramirez gave away the information.

Authorities believe the group was bail capping between September 2013 and November 2014.

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Ramirez is charged with accepting a bribe, conspiracy to commit bail solicitation and bail solicitation. He has posted bail and is scheduled to be arraigned June 3. He faces up to four years and eight months in prison.

Aroutounian and McCormick were charged with conspiracy to commit bail solicitation and bail solicitation and face up to three years in state prison. Theyre scheduled to be arraigned May 23.

For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna.

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Montebello gang member convicted of federal racketeering and firearm charges
A longtime member of a Montebello street gang was found guilty of federal racketeering charges, authorities said Friday.

A federal jury said George Vera Sr., 48, conspired to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The jury also found him guilty of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, according to the U.S. attorneys office.

Vera and his two sons are among 16 defendants who have been convicted in federal court on charges related to Operation Sudden Impact, a task force investigation among state, federal and local agencies into gang activities in Montebello.

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Sudden Impact solved six cold case murders and resulted in the convictions of nearly two dozen gang affiliates. The Los Angeles County district attorneys office charged six people in relation to the slayings. Four of those charged have been convicted in state court, the U.S. attorneys office said, and another two defendants are pending trial.

Five other defendants were charged by the district attorney on crimes ranging from drug sales to attempted murder, prosecutors said.

Vera, known as Rascal and Big Rascal, was a senior member of the Mexican Mafia-affiliated Southside Montebello street gang. Prosecutors said Vera led a double life, working as an electrician for Los Angeles County during the day and acting as gang leader and shot-caller by night.

George Vera Sr. was a senior member of a gang that undertook great efforts to quash its rivals, U.S. Atty. Eileen M. Decker said in a statement. This gang also maintained an arsenal of weapons, regularly engaged in acts of violence and was involved in significant narcotics trafficking.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

Two of Veras sons were also charged and pleaded guilty in the case, authorities said.

Marcus Matthew Vera pleaded guilty to drug, conspiracy and firearm charges and will be sentenced later this year. George Vera pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison.

The elder Vera provided a younger gang member with a firearm that was used in a murder, stored firearms and ammunition at his home for gang members to use and hosted gang meetings, according to court documents.

He was involved in the payment of taxes to the Mexican Mafia on the gangs behalf, directed younger members of the gang to protect his home from disrespect from rival gangs, and agreed to lie to his sons probation officer to shield him from prosecution for drug dealing, the documents said.

As a result of this collaborative effort, the city of Montebello is now a safer and more peaceful place, said Montebello Police Chief Kevin L. McClure.

Vera faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison and a mandatory minimum prison term of five years.

sarah.parvini@latimes.com

For more local and breaking news, follow me on Twitter: @sarahparvini

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Police have held for questioning a man found covered in blood inside the home of a retired San Francisco public defender who was stabbed to death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.

Marla Zamora was killed at her house in the 400 block of Arkansas Street, San Francisco police told the newspaper. Officers who were called to the Potrero Hill residence late Friday morning found her body in the backyard, police said.

It was unknown what relationship, if any, she had with the unidentified man found inside the home. The motive for the slaying remained under investigation, according to the Chronicle.

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Zamora, a public defender for three decades, was the offices principal trial attorney before she retired in 2007 and went into private practice.

Among her highest-profile cases was one involving the 2012 killings of a San Francisco father and two of his sons, according to the Associated Press.

Zamora defended gang member Edwin Ramos, who was found guilty of three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths.

The case drew national attention after it was revealed that Ramos had never been turned over for deportation despite previous run-ins with the law as a juvenile under San Franciscos sanctuary policy for unauthorized immigrants, the AP reported.

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Public Defender Jeff Adachi, with whom Zamora worked, expressed shock at the news of her death.

Marla was really a guardian angel, Adachi told the Chronicle. She is someone who epitomized what a public defender should aspire toward. She was just a tremendously caring, compassionate person.

kim.christensen@latimes.com

For more news, follow @kchristensenLAT on Twitter.

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A federal judge this week pushed back until March 21 the trial date for Enrique Marquez Jr., the man charged with buying the rifles used in the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

Attorneys for Marquez had sought the delay, arguing that the original July 19 trial date would not allow enough time to adequately prepare, given the governments voluminous evidence in the case.

U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal granted the request, ruling in part that the ends of justice served by the continuance outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.

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Marquez was indicted in December on charges of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, lying about the rifle purchases, marriage fraud and lying on a visa application. He has pleaded not guilty.

Marquez was at work during the Dec. 2 attack in which Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, massacred 14 people before police killed the couple in a shootout, prosecutors have said in court filings.

He is accused of plotting with Farook in 2011 and 2012 to carry out attacks at Riverside City College and on the 91 Freeway. Prosecutors allege that Marquez bought two rifles for Farook as they prepared for those attacks, which they never carried out.

kim.christensen@latimes.com

For more news, follow @kchristensenLAT on Twitter.

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James B. Taylor, one of the Los Angeles Unified School Districts first black principals  and a deputy superintendent during an era of integration controversies who lamented the intrusion of politics into education  died of congestive heart failure April 26 at his L.A. home. He was 89.

Taylor, an early advocate of magnet schools, began with the district as a math teacher at John Adams Middle School in the 1950s. He later broke racial barriers when he was appointed principal of predominantly white John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, then returned to South Los Angeles in 1967 to become the first principal of Locke High School.

Eventually, he ascended to the districts No. 2 post, working effectively as its chief operating officer as the debate over busing heated up in the 1970s.

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Rita Walters, a former board member and city councilwoman, praised Taylors ability to get along with all sorts of folks despite the bitter integration controversies of the time. Never did he get angry, just very cooperative with people and tried to reason things through, she said.

Taylor was in every aspect of his life ... quite measured, said his son Ron Taylor of Los Feliz. He was a very thoughtful person, and probably by nature cautious.

Taylors temperament helped him negotiate a period when the school board was becoming a political flashpoint, his son said. Newer members increasingly used it as a springboard for higher office. Taylor worked with them, but he privately regretted the shift.

Wanting to avoid the busing battles seen in other cities, Taylor sought fixes that would bring about racial integration voluntarily and seized early on the idea of magnet schools, his son said.

As the decades passed, Taylor grew to believe that education was becoming too politicized and industrialized, his son said. He regretted the loss of flexibility that came with a divisive new era. It kind of made him sad, the way public and charter schools are pitted against each other, Ron Taylor said.

James Brainard Taylor was born Jan. 28, 1927, in Los Angeles to William Horace Taylor, a postman and bartender, and his wife, Louise Evangeline Ponder Taylor. He graduated from Manual Arts High School and was a staff sergeant in the Army during World War ll, teaching math to fellow soldiers on the home front.

He earned his bachelors degree in math from UCLA and his masters in education from USC. At the end of his career in the early 1980s, he used his banked vacation time to return to teaching, volunteering as a math instructor at John Adams Middle School. That was really his favorite thing, his son said.

In 2014, Animo James B. Taylor Charter Middle School in Watts was named for him.

Taylor was preceded in death by his wife, Jane Carolyn Johnson Taylor, who had been his high school sweetheart. He is survived by five children, nine grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.

jill.leovy@latimes.com
The land  the largest private undeveloped coastal parcel in Southern California  is dotted with rusting oil pipes, abandoned wells and groaning pump jacks that continue to pull crude from the earth.

But nature hasnt let go. Patches of prickly pear cactus, grasslands, scrub-coated arroyos and peaceful marshes provide refuge for wildlife that has all but vanished from the Southlands crowded coastline.

The future of the Newport Banning Ranch site, where developers want to build a hotel and hundreds of homes, now rests with the California Coastal Commission  which is engaged in its own struggle for identity.

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Last fall, commission scientists concluded that despite seven decades of oil production, the 401-acre Orange County tract harbored an incredibly unique array of sensitive coastal species and habitats that merited protection under the state Coastal Act.

The findings  which threw up a huge obstacle to the project  emerged as a major point of friction between the staff and many commissioners. In public comments and emails, they echoed developers arguments that the site was a brownfield and pressured the staff to revise its assessment.

As the push-pull continued, the commission  charged with protecting and enhancing Californias coast and ocean for present and future generations  voted in February to fire Executive Director Charles Lester in what critics deemed an attempt to make the agency more receptive to development.

Those critics got some ammunition recently when the staff released a new report on Banning Ranch. This time, it recommended approval of the project, albeit with dozens of conditions that would mean shrinking the developments footprint.

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Oil company plans to develop Banning Ranch date back three decades. The current proposal has advanced the furthest with the help of consultants who have decades of experience lobbying the Coastal Commission: David B. Neish, president of an Aliso Viejo-based firm, and attorney Steven Kaufmann, who while working in the state attorney generals office represented the Coastal Commission from 1977 to 1991.

Roughly 1,000 feet from the Pacific Ocean, the oil field is a prime piece of real estate in one of Californias priciest pockets.

The current project calls for 895 residences and 45,100 square feet of retail space, along with a hotel, a 20-bed hostel and two clusters of oil wells. About three-fourths of the site, much of it lowland wetlands that cant be developed under the state Coastal Act, would be cleaned up and preserved as natural open space.

The project team  Aera Energy LLC, the real estate company Brooks Street, and Cherokee Investment Partners  twice has scaled back its proposal. If approved, it still would be one of the largest coastal projects in years.

The clusters of town houses, single-family homes, condominiums and the resort colony would rise on an upland mesa that offers sweeping ocean views from Santa Catalina Island to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

But Banning Ranch is also a rare remnant of Southern California coastal ecosystems that have been largely destroyed by roads, shopping centers and neighborhoods.

In 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated all of Banning Ranch as critical habitat for the California gnatcatcher, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Endangered San Diego fairy shrimp hatch in some of the mesas seasonal pools. Wetlands bordering the mouth of the Santa Ana River attract the endangered least Bells vireo. Burrowing owls overwinter on the bluffs.

In a 2015 memo, Coastal Commission ecologist Jonna Engel described the site as one of the only reasonably intact wetland-bluff ecosystems remaining along the coast of Southern California.

After inspecting the tract numerous times and reviewing field data provided by the developers, staff scientists identified much of the mesa as Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area, or ESHA, a key Coastal Act protection. Under the law, only resource-dependent uses such as nature trails or low-impact camping are allowed. Courts have ruled housing development is not permitted.

The staff concluded that only 19 acres of Banning Ranch was suitable for development and recommended the commission deny the project .

Commissioners who had gone on a group tour of the site last summer disputed the assessment at an October hearing and directed the staff to work with the developers to come up with an acceptable project.

Martha McClure, a Del Norte County supervisor, called the oil field a 400-acre mess.

Thats what I saw ... it was like, Oh my God, I cant believe that this is in California. I thought I was possibly in Oklahoma. Why are we not moving to clean the property?  Martha McClure, a Del Norte County supervisor, on the Newport Banning Ranch oil field

Thats what I saw  it was like, Oh my God, I cant believe that this is in California. I thought I was possibly in Oklahoma, she said. Why are we not moving to clean the property?

Janelle Beland, a nonvoting member who as undersecretary of the California Natural Resources Agency is considered a point person for Gov. Jerry Browns administration, raised questions about a state Department of Fish and Wildlife memo that backed up Engels conclusions.

The department biologist who visited the fenced oil field, Beland said at the hearing, stood at the edge of the property with

binoculars and did not walk it.

I think this was not done in the way it should have been done, she said, adding that the memo didnt go through the chain and the process that was required in this case for approval.

Steve Kinsey, a Marin County supervisor who is chairman of the Coastal Commission, remarked that some of this highly disturbed area wouldnt be my definition of ESHA .

In a Jan. 19 email obtained by The Times through the Public Records Act, Kinsey continued to challenge the staffs Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area finding.

After spending several hours at the oil field in late December with members of the development team, he wrote to staff Deputy Director Sherilyn Sarb: My overall impression is that the site has been so heavily degraded by historic oil operations that many of the areas identified as ESHA in the staffs October presentation seem unwarranted.

In an email to The Times, Kinsey said he had toured Banning Ranch with the full support of Dr. Lester, who also encouraged me to go and also to share my thoughts with staff.

I reject any suggestion that my comments were intended to pressure staff, he said  emphasizing that in his email to Sarb, he had stated that Coastal Commission staff have complete autonomy in making recommendations.

I work hard to be a strong protector of our coast, Kinsey said. I also work hard to expand respect for the commission by more than just environmental advocates. That doesnt translate into working for developers.

Over the winter, commission ecologists revisited the site several times, re-examined field data and remapped the sensitive habitat area. While they expanded California gnatcatcher habitat, they reduced the number of seasonal wetland pools and areas of purple needlegrass, the official state grass of California. That pushed the area available for development to 55 acres.

In an interview, former Commissioner Sara Wan complained that the staff had backtracked on the definition of wetlands. They backtracked on what constitutes an Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area.

They didnt just come up with more acres. Its the manner in which they came up with the additional acres thats disturbing, she said. It could set a terrible precedent.

Wan, who has a masters degree in zoology, also faulted commissioners who visited Banning Ranch and came back and said, Oh, it doesnt look like ESHA to me.

Excuse me, Wan said. Youre not a biologist. How do you know whether its ESHA?

Commissioners are required to fully disclose meetings and phone calls with interested parties that occur outside of an official proceeding within seven days of the so-called ex-parte communication.

Kinsey did not file a disclosure form detailing his Dec. 22, 2015, Banning Ranch visit with developers until Monday, after The Times questioned him about his email to Sarb.

He and other commissioners have been late in submitting the required forms before, according to a Times review of commission records. But a delay of more than four months struck Ralph Faust, the agencys general counsel from 1986 to 2006, as particularly egregious.

Disclosure violations carry civil fines of up to $7,500. And under the Coastal Act, commissioners who fail to report an ex-parte communication on time are not supposed to vote on the matter or try to influence the commissions decision.

He should step away and not have anything to do with it. He should not be talking to staff. He shouldnt talk to the commission. All of that is influencing a decision, Faust said. Thats what the law says. Now whether a court finds that to be something that it would enforce, thats a different issue.

To his knowledge, Faust said, no commissioner has ever been fined, nor has a vote been challenged, because of an ex-parte violation.

But it puts the decision at risk, he said. It creates a separate ground on which to challenge whatever decision the commission might come to.

In an e-mail, Kinsey said he intended to take part in future Newport Banning Ranch hearings.

I do not believe my late filing will have a material impact on the proceedings given that I have now filed, he wrote, adding that he had consulted with the commission counsel and others.

My lapse in filing occurred when I returned for the ensuing 10-day holiday. I simply lost track of filing my ex-parte, and the new year brought a wave of other commission duties that occupied my attention.

bettina.boxall@latimes.com

Twitter: @boxall

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Hillary Clinton finished her swing through California on Friday with a rally, a visit to her Oakland field office and a series of fundraisers  a triple-barreled approach to campaigning in the Bay Area.

Hundreds of supporters gathered at a school to hear Clinton rail against Donald Trump, who became the presumptive Republican nominee this week when his final rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, dropped out of the race.

The Democratic front-runner reminded her audience that Trump had pledged to deport immigrants who are in the country illegally and suggested that women should be punished for having abortions, a stance he later reversed.

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Clinton reserved some of her harshest comments for Trumps behavior toward women.

He doesnt think much of equal pay for women, because he doesnt think much of women, she said.

There was no mention of Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who is Clintons rival for the Democratic nomination. He has pressed on with his campaign, despite having little chance of closing the delegate gap.

Before speaking at the Oakland rally, Clinton visited her downtown field office, the first of several the candidate has opened around the state. It was plastered with placards and homemade signs, and buzzing with volunteers.

Although Californias primary is still a month away, mail-in ballots already are being distributed and supporters have been dialing voters in hopes of securing their support.

Election 2016 | Live coverage on Trail Guide | Track the delegate race | Sign up for the newsletter

We treat every day from May 7 to June 7 as election day, said Arielle Goren, a Clinton campaign spokeswoman.

The campaign will be training volunteers on Saturday in Oakland, and theyll be enlisting female supporters to reach out to female voters on Mothers Day.

Reena Sekhon-Johl, 36, who lives in nearby Pleasanton, said she signed up to volunteer a few weeks ago after a distressing conversation with a longtime friend who is supporting Trump.

I donated to Hillary Clintons campaign. I bought a shirt. I signed up to volunteer, she said.

Sekhon-Johl said she hoped Democrats would unite around the partys nominee after the prolonged primary rivalry.

We are not a Hillary or bust campaign, she said. We are for whats best for the nation.

It was a common theme among Clintons volunteers here, who often spoke positively about Sanders while expressing hopes that his supporters would eventually rally behind Clinton.

We need to be united, said Juan Cerda, 32, of San Francisco. Its about bringing a great coalition together.

Cerda volunteered for Clinton in Iowa and brought his parents from Bakersfield to the Oakland field office to help make phone calls. His father, David Cerda, 66, a mechanic, said Clinton was the right candidate for farm workers.

They want something new, they want someone to help their sons and daughters to have a better life, he said.

Clinton signed his hat as she shook hands and posed for photos with supporters.

Speaking alongside Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, Clinton urged the volunteers to reach out to as many California voters as you possibly can.

I cannot do it without you, she said. We still have some work to do to remind people theres a big primary.

chris.megerian@latimes.com

Twitter: @chrismegerian



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President Obama was not overtly political about the 2016 election season as he delivered the 148th commencement address at Howard University on Saturday.

But he didnt need to be.

Woven into his advice to graduates of the historically black college founded two years after the Civil War was a lengthy political to-do list -- including an admonishment for young people to vote.

You have to go through life with more than just a passion for change, you need a strategy, Obama said.

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Your plan better include voting -- not just some of the time, but all of the time.

Obama criticized barriers that make it tougher for Americans to cast ballots. But he also pointed to low voter turnout in midterm elections, during which Democrats lost majorities in Congress.

You dont think that made a difference? he asked. Just vote. Its math: If you have more votes than the other guy, you get to do what you want.

You got to vote all the time. Not just when its cool.

The Howard address was the first for Obama this graduation season, and came 51 years years after President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the last address to Howard graduates by a sitting president.

Obama was greeted with cheers as he arrived on the historic campus, which counts among its alumni Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice.

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Obamas address was sprinkled with references to other icons of black history, including Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin.

Alongside actress Cicely Tyson, Obama was awarded an honorary doctoral degree Saturday.

The president opened with what he acknowledged may be a controversial statement: America is a better place today than it was when I graduated college.

Stay with me now, he told the graduates and their families, recalling the early 1980s. Race relations are better.

He offered his own election -- actually, his 2012 reelection, he clarified, since voters knew what they were getting -- as evidence.

My election did not create a post-racial society, he went on.

You will have to deal with ignorance, hatred, racism, foolishness, trifling folks, he said. I promise you, you will have to deal with all that, at every stage of your life.

That may not seem fair, he went on, but life is not fair. Nobody promised you a crystal stair.

But the president urged graduates to listen and engage their adversaries -- noting he disagrees with college campuses that exclude speakers in protest -- and told them that democracy requires compromise, even when youre 100% right.

Obama also warned against a sense of entitlement. Thats a pet peeve of mine -- people whove been successful and dont realize theyve been lucky, he said.

And the president urged empathy for those from all walks of life, including the middle-aged white guy, struggling in the changing economy.

America is big and its boisterous and its more diverse than ever, he said.

NEWSLETTER: Get the days top headlines from Times Editor Davan Maharaj >>

But Obama also nodded to a new generation of black civil rights leaders -- on black Twitter and in the Black Lives Matter movement.

The president gave a shout out to superstars, like Beyonce, and intellectual leaders, like the author Ta-Nehisi Coates, a one-time Howard student who rode with Obama in the motorcade from the White House.

Mostly, the father of two daughters told the Class of 2016 to be confident in themselves and their black heritage.

Think about an icon we just lost: Prince, Obama said. He blew up categories .... And folks loved him for it.

You need to have the same confidence, he said. Or as my daughters tell me all the time: You be you, Daddy.

Or, as he said younger daughter Sasha puts it: You do you, Daddy.

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lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter @LisaMascaro
Good morning. It is Saturday, May 7. Heres what you dont want to miss this weekend:

TOP STORIES

Dramatic beginning: The trial over the mental competency of billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone started off with feisty testimony from the man himself. In a videotaped deposition, Redstone referred to former girlfriend Manuela Herzer with a two-word epithet. I hate her ... I want Manuela out of my life, he said. Herzer sued after she was ousted as his designated healthcare agent. Los Angeles Times

Presidential home: Ronald Reagan owned a Pacific Palisades home from 1957 until 1981 when he moved to the White House. The Midcentury Modern home that was a General Electric Showcase House is now on the market for $33 million after a massive makeover that makes the original property unrecognizable. The one nod to the late president is a plaque in the shower where Reagan learned he had been elected to the nations highest office. Curbed LA

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The taco salad: Thanks to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trumps tweet about Cinco de Mayo, people are attacking the taco salad as inauthentic Mexican cuisine. But writer Gustavo Arellano has the back story on the dish that began as the Tacup and was served at Disneyland. The Tacup proved popular enough with gabachos that people decided to make it bigger  and thus, the taco salad was born, he writes. OC Weekly

New location: The Santa Monica Museum of Art is moving to downtown L.A. and changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. The museum will be in a warehouse across from the Greyhound bus station in the trendy Arts District. Curbed LA

Making the cut: Take an inside look at auditions for the American Contemporary Ballet. Los Angeles Magazine

THIS WEEKS MOST POPULAR STORIES IN ESSENTIAL CALIFORNIA

1. The beauty of California is captured in these photographs taken along the Southern Pacific Railroad. SFGate

2. When a boat sank off Marina del Rey, a dozen passengers put on life vests and waited for help. One woman chose to use Snapchat to capture the experience. Los Angeles Times

3. In-N-Out is more than just delicious burgers. For one photographer, its a source of inspiration. Orange County Register

4. Video shows a skateboarder taking on one of the steepest streets in Los Angeles. Curbed LA

5. The San Andreas fault has been too quiet. The southern end of the dangerous fault hasnt experienced a major earthquake since 1857. Now, its locked, loaded and ready to roll, according to one expert. Los Angeles Times

ICYMI, HERE ARE THIS WEEKS GREAT READS

The perfect wave: Thats Kelly Slaters quest 110 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. Welcome to the artificial wave. Los Angeles Times

Art therapy: Donnell Alexander attended every court hearing for the man he believed killed his 18-year-old sister in 1988. To cope with his grief and the disturbing evidence presented by prosecutors, Alexander drew the attorneys, witnesses and judge. The artwork acted as his security blanket. On Thursday, Lonnie Franklin Jr. was convicted of murdering Alicia M. Alexander and nine others in the Grim Sleeper serial killings. Los Angeles Times

Cold case: Lonnie Franklin Jr. was convicted this week of killing nine women and a teenage girl. The killings took place between 1985 and 2007 but it wasnt until a reporter stumbled onto the story in 2008 that the public knew a serial killer had been targeting African American women in South L.A. Read the original story about the Grim Sleeper. LA Weekly

Slow progress: East Porterville, an unincorporated area in Tulare County, became a poster child for the drought two years ago when many of its wells ran dry. Now, officials want to restore the water supply, but thats turning out to be difficult. Los Angeles Times

Environmental policies: Columnist Robin Abcarian headed up to the delta to see why people hate on the delta smelt. Its easy to pick on the poor little delta smelt. They are obscure, where salmon is iconic, said Ted Sommer, a lead scientist with the California Department of Water Resources. Los Angeles Times

Mountaintop think tank: A billionaire wants to create a think tank of purpose in the Santa Monica Mountains. Los Angeles Times

LOOKING AHEAD

Monday: Transit officials will preview the new extension of the Metro Expo Line in Los Angeles.

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.
Two undeniable facts about the race to succeed Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate: Its been decidedly dull so far. And its been dull even though there are 34 candidates on the ballot.

Certainly, the Senate race has been overshadowed by the wild-and-crazy presidential primaries, which have defied prediction and common sense time and again. The leading Senate candidates, by contrast, have hewed for the most part to the usual party lines.

But another reason theres been so little attention paid to the Senate race  the first open Senate seat in California in more than 20 years  is that theres a sense of inevitability about the outcome. Even most of the candidates acknowledge that California Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris is expected to be the top vote-getter in the first round and that the real race is for second place, to challenge Harris again in November.

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That sense of inevitability isnt unwarranted. Harris was the first to enter the race, just days after Boxer announced her retirement. Harris has the state Democratic Party endorsement, and has raised three times as much money as her nearest competitor. Whats more, Harris is the strongest candidate in a field that is wide but not deep.

The Times recommends Harris, who is the candidate most likely to become the thoughtful, persuasive voice California needs in D.C.  if shes willing to throw herself fully into the job, rather than working with one eye always focused on her next career step.

Harris is likely to become a thoughtful, persuasive voice California needs in D.C. - if shes willing to throw herself into the job, rather than focusing on her next career step.

She is a former district attorney of San Francisco, who narrowly won her race for attorney general in 2010. As a rising star in the Democratic Party, she was given a prime-time speech at the 2012 Democratic convention and was even rumored as a possible successor to Justice Antonin Scalia. She would be the first black and the first South Asian senator from California.

When she met with The Times editorial board, Harris declared that California needs bold leaders. And shes certainly capable of boldness. When other states reached a settlement with banks accused of improper mortgage foreclosures, Harris balked at what she saw as an unsatisfactory deal. She ultimately won greater debt reduction for homeowners and a larger award for damages. She also fought for a Homeowner Bill of Rights to ensure fair lending and borrowing practices, against strong opposition by banks.

But too often, Harris has been cautious and calculated to a fault, perhaps to avoid mistakes that could impede her political rise. She literally wrote the book on criminal justice reform  Smart on Crime, which came out in 2009. Yet she sat on the sidelines while Gov. Jerry Brown implemented his critically important realignment policy, shifting low-level offenders from state prison to county jail and probation.

When California voters were considering Proposition 47, another dramatic criminal justice reform initiative that reduced certain drug, theft and other felonies to misdemeanors, Harris refused to take a position. Her voice was missing at a time when it was most needed. Later, she failed to take a leadership role in the laws implementation.

The Times is backing Harris, but wed like to see her focus on the job and take the bold stands she says California needs.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Orange) has often stepped into controversy  intentionally and unintentionally. She embarrassed party leaders by scheduling a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion during the Democratic convention in 2000. She had to apologize during the current race after making a stereotypical Native American war cry gesture. It would be easier to overlook Sanchezs unfiltered style if she had a more impressive track record during her 20 years in Congress. She is a solid member who has worked across the aisle on defense and national security issues  and she voted against the Iraq war. But she hasnt authored significant bills or stood out as a leader in the California delegation.

Republican Duf Sundheim is a former state GOP chairman who supports same-sex marriage and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. But hes never held office and is untested. Republican Silicon Valley multimillionaire Ron Unzs unconventional thinking ignores party ideology; he backs a higher minimum wage and a path to citizenship, but wants to cap legal immigration and opposes affirmative action. By his own admission, hes in the race to get publicity for his pet cause  defeating a ballot measure to repeal Proposition 227, which barred bilingual education in California. Another former state GOP chairman, Tom Del Beccaro, is a small-government, flat-tax, conservative Republican. There are 29 other candidates and the Times interviewed most of them, but few have the policy ideas and political or life experience to be a U.S. senator.

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To the editor: In criticizing the Pentagons response to a U.S. assault on a hospital in Afghanistan, The Times displays its armchair naivete by seeking to find order and predictability in the conduct of war. (A slap on the wrist for deadly U.S. attack on hospital that killed 42 civilians, editorial, May 2)

There is a reason why the historic guru of armed conflict Carl von Clausewitz is often quoted about the fog of war when commanders attempt to understand what is happening on the battlefield.

Certainly every effort should be made to avoid mistakes like the hospital being erroneously targeted, but to treat the involved military personnel like they had just embarked on an urban crime spree is ludicrous. Making a mistake is not the same as intentionally committing a crime.

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If appropriate administrative penalties fail to satisfy some understandable but misplaced desire for retribution, so be it. It is one reason why we should be slow to go to war in the first place.

Mike Post, Winnetka

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In this era of Donald Trump and political polarization, everyone has a strong opinion on everything. Like John Wayne.

Turns out the Duke was almost promoted to king this week (over the reigning Trump, naturally) when it comes to galvanizing letter writers. A rebuffed effort in Sacramento to designate an official John Wayne Day in California prompted more than a dozen readers to pen strongly worded letters on where they stand when it comes to the late actor. Two letters on Wayne were published earlier this week, but responses continued to trickle in. Here are some of those.

Glendora resident Thomas Marchetti addresses Waynes critics:

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I was deeply troubled by the Assembly refusing to honor Wayne. Democrats used Waynes political views as the reason to vote down a ceremonial day in his honor.

The standard attack is to quote a 1971 Playboy interview where Wayne used the term white supremacy. The phrase was over the top, but he was answering a question on political power sharing with black communist Angela Davis and the Black Panthers. Wayne rejected any cooperation with 1960s-style radicals.

The actor was loved by Republicans and Democrats. President Johnson brought Wayne to the White House several times; he personally approved the U.S. militarys assistance in making the film The Green Berets. President Carter was also a fan who invited Wayne to his inauguration. In 1979, Congress unanimously voted to honor Wayne with a Congressional Gold Medal. That means liberal icons like Sens. Ted Kennedy and George McGovern voted to honor Wayne.

Lastly, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger inducted Wayne into the California Hall of Fame in 2007.

No, it is not an American tradition -- it is not even normal -- for a whole people to be so deluded.  Steven Schechter, Thousand Oaks

Steven Schechter of Thousand Oaks noticed a trend among Waynes conservative fans:

The controversy over John Wayne Day highlights a disturbing quality of conservatives: Many of them they prefer illusion to reality, make-believe (open carry at the mall) rather than facing facts.

Why do they prefer actors to real-life heroes? Like Wayne, Reagan never served in combat. They prefer Trumps make-believe machismo to Sen. John McCains true heroism.

Surely this indifference to reality is of a piece with their indifference to facts. Scientists say the Earth is warming? Well, Rush Limbaugh says its not, and who cares anyway.

No, it is not an American tradition  it is not even normal  for a whole people to be so deluded. Something has happened, and Id sure like to know what.

Aliso Viejo resident Kenneth Blain highlights one of Waynes unintentionally prescient comments:

Wayne said he didnt believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.

Isnt the question of whether we should give authority to irresponsible people why we are in the mess we are in today?

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Bernie Sanders pushes ahead, but the math is not on his side

A month before voters in California go to the polls in the states Democratic presidential primary, his campaign is lagging in fundraising, and hes down in the polls.

But a defiant Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders isnt going anywhere, despite his uphill climb to defeat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner and likely nominee.

Im going to fight to see that we can win, Sanders said in an interview on the PBS NewsHour on Friday evening.

The Vermont senator needs about 1,000 more delegates to clinch the nomination, while Clinton needs fewer than 200.

All but a handful of states have held their primaries or caucuses, and most that remain allocate delegates proportionally, ensuring that both candidates will pick up some delegates.

For Sanders, Californias June 7 primary, in which 546 delegates will be up for grabs, is critical to his underdog candidacy.

Yet the polls are not in his favor.

In each of the last four polls of California Democrats over the last month, Clinton has led Sanders. An average of the polls has Clinton ahead by about 10 percentage points.

This week, Clinton called on Sanders to take a page from her 2008 playbook, when she dropped out of the primary after it became clear that then-Sen. Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee.

I knew then that whatever differences we might have had in the campaign, they were nothing compared to the differences between us and the Republicans, Clinton said while campaigning in Los Angeles. Now if that was true in 08, that is true on steroids today.
Uber and Lyft seem to be conquering California politics.

In just the last month, the ride-hailing giants have secured a string of victories at the Capitol, killing or delaying legislation and regulations they didn't like and shepherding in new rules favorable to the industry.

The companies are also resolving high-profile court cases that challenged how they hire drivers  without hurting their shared core position that drivers aren't their employees. These successes come as Uber and Lyft are dominating the market in California, transporting millions of passengers each month while taxi trips are dropping precipitously.

Here are four reasons why the ride-sharing companies are winning in Sacramento and what their victories might mean for their drivers and customers.

1. The companies have muscle outside  and inside  the Capitol

When somethings about to happen in Sacramento, Uber can marshal a huge response.

In April, more than 100,000 Californians drove for Uber and a whopping 2.3 million people took Uber rides in the state, said the company's director of public affairs, Aaron McLear.

Counting our drivers, thats 2.4 million different people who used our technology last month, McLear said. Thats a giant shared constituency with these policy makers.

Uber doesnt hesitate to use its network.

A day before the California Public Utilities Commission, the agency that regulates the ride-hailing industry, was set to roll out new regulations last month, Uber sent out a note to its drivers and customers with a link to contact CPUC commissioners. The company didnt like a proposed regulation that would have limited the ability to rent cars to drive them for Uber.

Ubers email to customers before an April CPUC decision (Email courtesy Uber)

Uber and Lyft have encouraged potential drivers to rent cars to boost their supply of workers, but regulators are concerned that liberal rules would lead to weaker driver training and vehicle inspections. At the hearing, the CPUC decided to punt on the issue and commissioners noted theyd received thousands of emails from Uber supporters.

The companies have ramped up traditional lobbying efforts, too. Three years ago, neither company had lobbyists. Now, they have a gaggle of them.

In the current legislative session, Uber and Lyft have spent nearly $900,000 combined on lobbying. Uber alone reached the top 3% of organizations in lobbyist spending at the Capitol last year. These figures dont count efforts to support the companies in Sacramento by technology-affiliated organizations such as TechNet and the Internet Assn.

Lawmakers have felt the weight of the ride-hailing industry's influence.

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego) introduced a major bill this year that would have allowed drivers for Uber and Lyft along with other workers in the so-called gig economy to collectively bargain for their pay and benefits  a major change to how the companies do business.

I know that these companies don't want to be regulated, Gonzalez said during an April hearing on the bill. That they've complained through every single bill through this Legislature that somehow we're impeding the progress of innovation if there are any kind of guidelines.

Gonzalez has since withdrawn her legislation, saying the issue was too complicated to get through the Capitol this year.

2. Democratic lawmakers like Uber and Lyft

To Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Glendale), Uber and Lyft have had as much impact on quality of life as the washing machine and the light bulb.

With every generation theres an invention that makes peoples lives easier, Gatto said.

Gatto, who has authored a bill that would clear the way for ride-hailing drivers to use rented vehicles, is one of a number of Democrats to offer full-throated support for the industry. The majority of Democrats who are vocal in their backing of the companies are young or represent regions with large tech employers.

State Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) fits both descriptions. The 38-year-old represents the Silicon Beach area of Los Angeles, home to companies like Snapchat, and said he wants to help tech businesses succeed.

I think its part of my responsibility to be a part of that story, Allen said.

Last month, Allen played a key role in killing a bill in a Senate committee that would have limited Uber and Lyfts ability to spike prices during high demand.

Legislative support for the industry is becoming more organized. Last year, bipartisan groups of lawmakers created caucuses to represent the concerns of the tech community and millennials. GOP legislators generally back the ride-hailing industry for economic reasons.

This combination of Democratic friendliness and Republican support is enough to overwhelm opposition to ride-hailing practices from the Democrats traditional labor allies. To union advocates, the enthusiasm for Uber and Lyft is misguided because they believe lawmakers are ignoring concerns about worker and consumer protections.

I think these Democrats better think twice about whether they want a system where theres 200,000 people driving around California without workers' comp insurance, and which part of government is going to pay for it because Ubers not, said Barry Broad, a labor lobbyist with the Teamsters.

3. The state doesn't want to regulate ride-sharing companies  but it doesn't want cities to either

The head of the California Public Utilities Commission has a lot on his plate. His agency is responsible for regulating gas and electric companies in California and has faced intense criticism for its handling of the San Onofre nuclear plant shutdown and Aliso Canyon methane gas leak in recent years. And now CPUC President Michael Picker is telling anyone who will listen that hed rather not have to deal with ride-sharing companies anymore.

They aren't something we can do effectively," Picker said of regulating the industry at a March Assembly committee hearing.

The agency has just 22 investigators statewide to enforce regulations for ride-sharing as well as tour buses, limousines, ferries, water taxis and moving companies, all of which are under its jurisdiction.

No one at the Capitol, however, has come up with a viable alternative. In the meantime, the agency has implemented major regulations that the companies favor while delaying those they dont.

Last month, the utilities commission formally approved Uber and Lyfts long-desired plans to offer carpooling by allowing customers to split fares as part of a package of new rules.

But it hasnt resolved more contentious issues such as rental cars and whether to require deeper background checks on ride-hailing drivers. The agency has also rebuffed local government efforts, notably from the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, to step in. In late March, the commission denied a request from Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to allow the city to scan ride-hailing drivers fingerprints in background checks, saying it was better to enforce a uniform policy across the state.

The agency expects to decide on rental car and background check regulations by the end of the year.

4. Delayed decisions are good for Uber and Lyft

Its unlikely Uber and Lyft can keep this streak of victories going forever. The companies face challenges on multiple fronts in the state, including CPUC fines for failing to turn over data and lawsuits alleging inadequate insurance policies. They also continue to face local government pressure.

The big unknown remains the status of the companies drivers. Both Uber and Lyft are in the process of settling major lawsuits that attempted to force the companies to turn their drivers from independent contractors into employees. This change could subject drivers to stricter schedules but also give them benefits including a minimum wage and meal breaks. The switch would also increase the companies costs by more than 30%, according to one estimate, because the companies would be forced to pay drivers' mileage, payroll taxes and unemployment insurance.

The legal settlements, which still need judicial approval, require the companies to pay millions to their drivers but leave them classified as independent contractors.

California lawmakers, perhaps through a revived version of the Gonzalez bill, regulators or other courts could end up forcing the companies hands by declaring drivers employees or otherwise forcing Uber and Lyft to provide drivers greater benefits.

But even delays are de-facto victories for Uber and Lyft. They're continuing to grow their share of the market while cabs are struggling under the strict rules legislators and regulators put on the taxi industry long ago.

liam.dillon@latimes.com

Follow @dillonliam on Twitter

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The 5th District seat for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has been occupied by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich since 1980. However, term limits approved by voters in 2002 will free up the position for the first time in 35 years.

On Tuesday, the Glendale/Burbank and Pasadena chapters of the League of Women Voters hosted a candidate forum for the vacant spot in the Burbank City Council chambers.

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All eight candidates participated in the discussion, giving their opinions on various topics, including a proposed Long Beach (710) Freeway tunnel, enhancing transportation networks and environmentally sustainable practices.

Each candidate was given the opportunity to answer the same number of questions. However, there was one question that all contenders were asked to answer.

The moderator asked all the candidates about the countys proposed 2017 budget, which is estimated to be $28.5 billion  $282 million more than the year before  and what programs and services they would prioritize.

Kathryn Barger, Antonovichs chief of staff, said increasing public safety, addressing the homeless population and improving mental-health services are her top priorities.

Its all about looking at not only the existing resources, but understanding that we have a finite amount of resources available to the county, she said. Two-thirds of the county budget is already allocated to mandated federal and state programs, so we should have a supervisor thatll understand how you allocate those resources.

Prosecutor Elan Carr also had a focus on public safety, saying that crime is up about 20% in some areas of the district. Centering his campaign on his career as a criminal gang prosecutor, Carr said it will take more than adding more police officers on the streets.

Public safety also means taking care of our kids, he said. It means fixing our schools so that our kids have a nurturing and empowering education with job training and after-school programs. It means bringing back quality jobs to Los Angeles County, so that every family and every child has a chance to succeed. Thats public safety too.

The proposed budget is not prioritized and that it needs to be a performance-based system, according to Los Angeles City Councilman Mitchell Englander.

You cant fix what you cant measure, he said. I introduced performance-based budget initiatives in the city, and now you could do a deep dive with a dashboard online to figure out what services are being done, how theyre being done and the fact that theyre measured with deliverable outcomes.

State Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) also has his sights set on making public safety his No.1 priority, with an emphasis on improving the revenue stream to fund projects and working with unincorporated cities to understand the services needed.

Palmdale-area real estate investor Raj Pal Kahlon was focused on helping homeless citizens, increasing support for foster children and those with mental illnesses.

Altadena Town Councilman Billy Malone said he wants to concentrate the budget on improving foster care and helping youth before they become a problem.

If you want to decrease the amount of money youre spending on programs or prioritize it, it means we take care of the issues before they happen, Malone said. Then we wont be spending the money on those programs because therell be no need for those programs. Rather than just throwing money at the top end, we need to take care of the bottom end.

Glendale City Councilman Ara Najarian said he will take a utilitarian approach to prioritizing the budget, providing the greatest good for the greatest number [of people], which means helping our children in the foster care system, reducing the case load for the case workers.

He is also focused on helping the homeless and veterans in the community.

Its in that manner that we can do the best for all the residents of L.A. County, he said.

The budget is large enough to tackle all the issues in the county, adding that the money is not being properly spent, according to entrepreneur Darrell Park

Once you solve the problems, theres crazy money that we can spend on infrastructure and other things we need in this county, he said. So dont let anybody tell you that you have to cut. If you have to cut, youre doing the wrong thing. If you solve the problem, that is the right answer.

The entire candidate forum can be viewed on Burbanks YouTube page.

--

Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio

--

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The proposed 710 Freeway extension figured prominently in a recent candidates debate for the 25th state Senate District.

Candidates Katherine Perez-Estolano, former state Assemblyman Anthony Portantino and retired Pasadena Police Lt. Phlunte Riddle  the three candidates attending the League of Women Voters forum  each oppose the long-simmering proposal to connect the 710 to both the 134 and 210 freeways.

The project would make traffic in the region worse, they agreed.

The tunnel is a boondoggle, and theres not one shovel thats going to hit the ground, Portantino said. It is a travesty that we have spent millions of dollars of taxpayer money on a project that will literally make arterial traffic worse in the region, not better.

Riddle said she wants more green space and that the state should invest in other ways to alleviate traffic.

Perez-Estolano, who has a background in transportation planning, added that the project is infeasible and should be taken off Caltrans project list.

High-speed rail proposal

Views differed on another controversial transportation project: Californias planned high-speed rail system.

Perez-Estolano, who served for two years on the California High Speed Rail Authority board of directors, called the bullet train a game changer that attracts highly paid workers.

I believe that it is going to be the centerpiece of innovation around transportation and mobility, she said. We are going to have engineers, scientists and all kinds of people participating in that program. And when Florida and New York figure out that they want high-speed rail, theyre going to come to California and ask, How did you guys do it? How can we learn from you?

Riddle opposes the project, saying both the route and funding remain uncertain.

We need to be sure that before we go into something that expensive, that extensive, that we know exactly what is going on, she said.

Portantino agreed, adding a comprehensive financial plan is necessary before they move forward with a project of this size.

Temporary tax debated

In 2012, voters approved Proposition 30, which temporarily raised sales taxes, as well as income taxes on the states highest earners.

The levies, which were meant to help schools as the recession ebbed, are set to expire at the end of 2018, but Portantino said they should be extended.

Riddle supports the taxes but wants to see innovative ideas to fund education programs.

Perez-Estolano agrees on the extension, hoping the state can make the first two years of community college free.

The Leagues Glendale, Burbank and Pasadena chapters sponsored the forum. Three of the six candidates vying for state Sen. Carol Lius seat in the June 7 primary participated. Also in the race are Teddy Choi, Chris Chahinian and Michael D. Antonovich.

Liu (D-La Canada-Flintridge) is termed out.

The 25th District includes Burbank, Glendale and LCF.

The forum can be watched on Burbanks YouTube page.

--

Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio
After a top Los Angeles County sheriffs official resigned amid mounting criticism over emails he forwarded mocking Muslims, blacks, Latinos, women and others while he worked at the Burbank Police Department, local leaders voiced concerns about how Burbank officials handled the discovery of the correspondence two years ago.

Tom Angel, who recently stepped down as Sheriff Jim McDonnells chief of staff, sent the emails in 2012 and 2013, when he was the No. 2 police official in Burbank, hired to reform a department reeling from allegations of police brutality, racism and sexual harassment.

Angels Burbank emails were first released in 2014 in response to records requests filed by a Los Angeles attorney on behalf of an unnamed client.

Reached this week, attorney Travis Poteat said the request stemmed from a desire to hold public officials accountable.

I dont care which agency he was servicing at the time, he shouldve been out.  Minnie Hadley-Hempstead, president of the NAACP Los Angeles

After recently learning of the requests, which sought various records, including four years worth of emails to and from top-ranking Burbank police officials containing derogatory language about Islam, African Americans, Latinos and others, the Leader sought the same records.

In an interview before the emails were published, Angel said he did not mean to embarrass or demean anyone.

Anybody in the workplace unfortunately forwards emails from time to time that they probably shouldnt have forwarded, Angel said. I apologize if I offended anybody, but the intent was not for the public to have seen these jokes.

City officials said this week that after Angels emails surfaced, he was counseled and reminded of city policies, though its unclear whether the event was recorded in his personnel file.

The public deserves to have more answers as to what happened and why, said Mike Chapman, president of the Burbank Human Relations Council, adding that the city needs a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination, one that has some teeth, and is consistent from top to bottom.

Angel should have been removed from his Burbank post as soon as the emails surfaced, said Minnie Hadley-Hempstead, president of the NAACP Los Angeles.

I dont care which agency he was servicing at the time, he shouldve been out, she said.

But some who worked with Angel in Burbank called him a respectful leader who comfortably interacted with different ethnic groups.

He has very strong leadership skills, and he is very compassionate, said Josephine Wilson, a Burbank police administrator and Ugandan immigrant.

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When asked about the emails, she said, I have never heard him once in his speech or otherwise make any such comments.

Before the emails were discovered, Burbank police officers, detectives and civilian employees were subject to random audits of their email folders and attachments, according to city spokesman Drew Sugars.

The recurring audits, which were conducted by a police sergeant on roughly 25 employees, did not extend to other sergeants or higher-ranked staff, such as lieutenants, captains, the deputy chief and police chief. At the time, Angel served as deputy chief.

After a June 2012 email audit, four employees  three civilians and one sworn officer  were counseled for policy violations. A similar review of emails in December of the following year left five employees  four sworn and one civilian  subject to counseling for policy violations. Sugars did not know the nature of the violations.

No violations were found in a September 2014 email review, so the following years audit focused on other areas, not emails, according to Sugars.

An audit scheduled for this year, he said, will include more ranks, including the command staff.

Michael Gennaco, an attorney hired in 2012 to provide independent oversight of the Burbank police agency, was unaware of the emails until recently.

After reviewing them at the request of the Leader, Gennaco asked LaChasse for a meeting to evaluate the agencys response and ensure that officers are aware of the citys email policies.Thats on the books for next week.

Unfortunately, its sometimes too easy to compose or forward an email without thinking a whole lot about it, Gennaco said, adding that the degree of culpability varies, depending on whether the sender composed the message or passed it along.

The uproar echoes recent controversies in other cities. In San Francisco and Ferguson, Mo., police officials who sent racially derogatory emails or text messages were placed on leave or fired.

Guidelines spelled out in Burbanks technology use policy  dated February 2011  prohibit using email to communicate offensive messages, including ones that may demean anothers race, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition, marital status, gender, sexual orientation or age.

Employees who abuse the system could lose their email rights or face disciplinary action, according to the policy.

The Burbank City Council this week received a memo addressing the police departments audit system, as well as Angels emails, though that document was not immediately available to the Leader.

--

Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @atchek

--

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Spoleto  My Italian Kitchen restaurant is planning to open its first California location in Irvine this fall, according to a news release.

The restaurants motto, Craft Your Culinary Freedom, reflects a menu that allows diners to create their own dishes with more than 30 Italian-inspired toppings to choose from, according to a news release.

The 4,260-square-foot restaurant will open in the University Center, next to Mendocino Farms, 4175 Campus Drive.

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Chef series coming to Irvine Spectrum

Irvine Spectrum Center is hosting its Golden Chef Series, a culinary showcase featuring chef demonstrations, beginning Saturday and going through June 18, according to a news release.

The demonstrations are free.

For more information, visit GoldenFoodieAwards.com.

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Sysmex opens Irvine office

Sysmex America, Inc.  which distributes and supports in vitro diagnostic hematology and laboratory products in North America  recently opened a West Coast office in Irvine.

The office is at 3161 Michelson Drive.

The Irvine location is evidence of our growth, as well as our very serious commitment to providing the highest level of customer care, for many years to come, John Kershaw, president and CEO of Sysmex America, said in a statement.

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Manpower hosts job fair

Manpower, an Irvine-based staffing agency, is looking to fill 200 manufacturing jobs in Irvine and surrounding areas, according to a news release.

A job fair at 2525 McGaw Ave., Irvine, is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 14.

Available positions include those in assembly, production and manufacturing.

Applicants are asked to bring a drivers license and proof of eligibility to work in the United States, such as a Social Security card.

For more information, call (949) 756-2111.
A recent John Wayne Airport passenger survey has indicated that visitors give Orange Countys airport A or B overall satisfaction ratings, according to a news release.

The survey also shows that the proportion of pleasure/leisure travel, at 55%, has returned to levels not seen since 2009, according to a news release, which also reported that the percentage of business travel has decreased from 46% in 2011 to 39% in 2015.

Our 2015 survey confirms that passengers continue to count on John Wayne Airport to deliver safe and convenient air travel and a superior guest experience, Barry A. Rondinella, airport director, said in a statement. We appreciate the high marks that Orange County residents and visitors have given us and look forward to keeping those ratings high.

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RSI Communities gets new COO

RSI Communities, based in Newport Beach, has appointed John Bohnen as its chief operating officer.

Bohnen will focus on growing the companys Texas operations and expanding its national footprint, according to a news release.

John Bohnen brings a unique and hard-to- find combination of strength in leadership and experience in homebuilding to the company, Todd Palmaer, CEO of RSI Communities, said in a statement. We welcome his proven success in land acquisition, particularly in Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, where he impressively grew a homebuilding division to be one of the highest performing and most profitable in the country.

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Room & Board moving to Costa Mesa

Furniture store Room & Board is relocating its showroom from Santa Ana to the South Coast Collection center in Costa Mesa this fall, according to the Orange County Register.

Room & Board will be moving from 1661 W. Sunflower Ave., in the South Coast Plaza Village, across the street from South Coast Plaza and near the Costa Mesa-Santa Ana border.

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Commercial Bank merges with National Bank

Commercial Bank of California recently completed its merger with National Bank of California, according to a news release.

Commercial Bank, which is retaining its name in the transaction, has locations in Irvine and Costa Mesa.

The newly combined bank will have more than $750 million in total assets, according to a news release.

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Volcom hosts pop-up shop

Volcom, the Costa Mesa-based sportswear company, is hosting a pop-up shop May 13.

The temporary setup will be at Surfside, 233 E. 17th St., from 1 p.m to 4 p.m.

Professional surfer Quincy Davis will host the store.
A Las Vegas man suspected of sexually assaulting female minors for decades in Huntington Beach and possibly other Orange County cities has been arrested, authorities said Friday.

Martin Rodriguez Garcia, 49, was taken into custody Thursday in Las Vegas through a joint effort with the Huntington Beach and Las Vegas Metropolitan police departments.

Garcia is suspected of committing numerous sexual assaults on girls from 1990 through 2011; most of the assaults are believed to have occurred in Huntington Beach, police said.

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Authorities have not released the number of alleged victims or their association with Garcia, but said they were most likely between ages 5 and 15 and living in Huntington Beach or other Orange County cities at the time.

Authorities are seeking the publics help in identifying possible additional victims. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Jeff Goodspeed at (714) 375-5066.

Garcia is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges that include aggravated sexual assault of a child and lewd or lascivious acts with a minor.

--

bradley.zint@latimes.com

Twitter: @BradleyZint
When a suicide bomb exploded Easter Sunday at a crowded park near his home, killing dozens, Khalid Saeed was saddened but not surprised. Saeed had already seen the reach of Islamist militants firsthand.

This year, a disgruntled former business partner had shown up at the 45-year-old builders office and handed him a summons from the Arbitration Court of Sharia, a reference to Islamic religious law.

It was printed on the letterhead of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the political arm of a terrorist organization whose founder has a $10-million U.S. bounty on his head.

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After he failed to appear for the hearing at a mosque in Lahore, Saeed said, he began receiving threatening phone calls. Undeterred, he sued the Pakistani government, and last week a judge ordered the Interior Ministry to investigate whether Jamaat-ud-Dawa was running a parallel justice system in the countrys second-largest city.

The group acknowledges operating a religious council to mediate disputes, but denies that it coerces anyone into obeying its rulings.

These goons are controlling Lahore. The government has no authority.  Khalid Saeed, businessman who challenged Jamaat-ud-Dawa

The legal tussle underscores the influence that extremist groups exert in Pakistan, often right under the governments nose. Even as the army vows to crack down on Islamist militants it blames for devastating attacks at home, it turns a blind eye to some groups, such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa, that support the militarys strategic aims outside Pakistan.

Since 2014, the army has waged an offensive targeting a federation of insurgent groups known as the Pakistani Taliban, a breakaway faction of which claimed responsibility for the Easter bombing.

But analysts say there has been no clampdown on what Pakistans security establishment regards as good militant organizations  those that dont attack Pakistan and whose ranks include fighters willing to carry out operations in India or Afghanistan.

Those organizations include Jaish-e-Mohammed, which India blames for a deadly raid on an air base near the border in January, and which is building a massive new seminary in southern Punjab. Then theres Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which the U.S. and United Nations have described as a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist group accused of planning the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa is so powerful in Punjab, said Saeeds lawyer, Maqbool Hussain Sheikh, that judges usually wont even hear cases against the group.

But Pakistans balancing act with good and bad militants has become riskier, analysts say. Under pressure by the military campaign, many Pakistani Taliban fighters are believed to have sought shelter with or switched to the good groups, which share similar jihadist ideologies even if they oppose shedding blood in Pakistan.

The militancy still has the wherewithal in Punjab  they have sufficient clout and power, and they continue to operate, said Ayesha Siddiqa, an independent expert on security affairs.

Increasingly, she said, it is difficult to separate good militants from bad militants.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa casts itself as a charitable and social organization, known in part for its extensive network of schools and medical facilities.

But it also operates out of a heavily guarded headquarters north of Lahore and has gained followers for its stance on ousting rival India from the disputed territory of Kashmir.

Its founder, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, who is not related to the builder, moves freely in Lahore and occasionally lectures at universities despite a U.S. State Department reward for his capture.

In surveys, most Pakistanis say the countrys laws should follow the teachings of the Koran, and in 1980 the country established a Federal Shariat Court that has the authority to determine whether laws conform to Islam. But amid widespread dissatisfaction with Pakistans justice system, informal Islamic arbitration mechanisms known as jirgas have sprung up in areas where militant groups have influence.

If I am an ordinary citizen and the courts are not delivering, the legal process is very cumbersome, the police are not going to help, heres an alternative, Siddiqa said.

That tension, between secular and religious legal systems, has been highlighted in the case of Khalid Saeed. His former business partner, Muhammad Azam, says Saeed owes him $100,000.

Saeed said he and Azam sought to resolve the real estate dispute in Pakistans formal courts beginning in 2011. The case was still pending when Azam handed Saeed the summons in January.

Saeed wrote to the Punjab government, the federal Home Affairs Ministry and military officials to take action against Jamaat-ud-Dawa, but no one did. Finally, he filed his own suit.

What makes Saeeds case unusual is that he received a written notice, complete with a logo featuring the scales of justice, and that he dared to challenge Jamaat-ud-Dawa publicly.

These goons are controlling Lahore, Saeed said in an interview at a small rented apartment where he has moved his family to escape threats. The government has no authority.

In court, a lawyer for Jamaat-ud-Dawa said that the summons was a forgery and denied that Saeed had been coerced.

A spokesman for the group, Yahya Mujahid, said in an interview that it has operated an arbitration council for the last two decades and its religious scholars have adjudicated thousands of civil disputes, including some involving murder. Mujahid said the group supports the Pakistani justice system and often refers cases to formal courts.

We only resolve matters of the public with the written consent of the parties involved, and no one is compelled to abide by the order, Mujahid said.

Militancy in Lahore has gained renewed attention since the Easter attack, which killed 75 people. Critics say Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose family has led the province for the better part of three decades, has gone soft on militants in Punjab for fear of incurring political costs.

Southern Punjab has one of the largest concentrations of Islamic schools, or madrasas, which have often been linked to radicalism.

Under a national counter-terrorism plan Sharif launched in late 2014, madrasas found to have ties to militants were supposed to be shut down. As of January, only two of more than 13,000 registered madrasas in Punjab had been closed, according to a report.

The government has short- and long-term targets when it comes to counter-terrorism, and it is first trying to dismantle the groups that are able to carry out attacks, said Peter Jacob, executive director of the Center for Social Justice, an independent advocacy group in Lahore.

Dealing with groups like Jamaat-ud-Dawa, which have a public face and a large following, will take time.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Special correspondent Aoun Sahi in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

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The Kenyan government said Friday it would close two refugee camps, including one of the worlds biggest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges as human rights groups condemned the plan.

The closure of the camps will have adverse effects and the international community should collectively take responsibility for the humanitarian needs that arise, said Karanja Kibicho, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry.

The government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which works with humanitarian organizations looking after the welfare of refugees, Kibicho said.

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The voluntary repatriation process -- contained in an agreement signed in 2013 by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Kenyan and the Somali governments -- has been very slow, Kibicho said.

He said Kenya has been hosting the refugees for nearly 25 years and it had taken its toll on the country.

The camps targeted for closure are Dadaab and Kakuma. Dadaab in eastern Kenya is the largest, with more than 328,000 refugees, mainly Somalis escaping conflict in their war-torn country that is struggling to defeat an insurgency by Al Qaeda-linked Shabab insurgents.

The Kakuma camp hosts 190,000 refugees, most of them South Sudanese escaping civil war in their country.

Kibicho said the camps have bred terrorists from Shabab. Shabab has vowed attacks on Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight the militants as part of the African Union forces bolstering Somalias government. Two assailants in the 2013 Westgate mall attack in Nairobi in which 63 people were killed lived in Kakuma camp.

Its not the first time Kenya has threatened to send home the refugees and international rights groups condemned the move.

Officials have not provided credible evidence linking Somali refugees to any terrorist attacks in Kenya. Human Rights Watch is not aware of convictions of Somali refugees in connection with any attack in Kenya, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Amnesty International said the move is reckless and could lead to the involuntary return of refugees to countries where their lives could still be in danger.

While it is true that resettlement to third countries has been slow, Kenya should itself consider permanent solutions towards the full integration of refugees, some of whose stay in Kenya is now over generations, said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnestys regional head. Forced return to situations of persecution or conflict is not an option.

Doctors Without Borders said the closure of the camps would risk about 330,000 Somali lives and would have extreme humanitarian consequences, forcing people to return to a war-torn country with minimal access to vital medical and humanitarian assistance.

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North Korea is one of the most secretive countries in the world. It is also one in which there is intense international interest--in part because Pyongyang has continued to develop and test nuclear weapons and long-range missiles in defiance of United Nations sanctions. The Los Angeles Times was one of several news organizations allowed to enter the country recently to cover the countrys first party congress in nearly four decades. Heres what we found.
Mexicos most notorious inmate and prison escape artist has a new home: a cell in Ciudad Juarez, the city across the Rio Grande from Texas that has long been a hub for cross-border drug trafficking and human smuggling.

Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, the convicted drug kingpin who has twice broken out of Mexican prisons in sensational fashion and is currently fighting extradition to the United States, has been transferred from a maximum-security lockup outside the capital to a prison in Juarez, Mexican officials confirmed Saturday.

The move, carried out late at night, immediately sparked speculation in the Mexican media that Guzman was being moved because of security concerns or as a precursor to possible extradition to the United States, where he faces charges.

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However, Mexican authorities described the move as a routine transfer while officials work on security upgrades at the so-called Altiplano facility outside Mexico City where Guzman had been held. The government also called the transfer part of an ongoing policy of rotating prisoners as a security precaution.

Officials said the Juarez prison, known as Federal Social Re-adaptation Center No. 9, was also a maximum-security institution.

While Mexican officials did not reveal any possible escape plots, the governor of Chihuahua state, which includes Juarez, told reporters the transfer was meant to ensure Guzman did not break out again. Gov. Cesar Duarte said conditions were more secure in Juarez than at the Altiplano prison.

There is no risk of an escape from the Juarez facility, Duarte assured journalists Saturday at a news conference.

Various experts said the transfer was likely unrelated to Guzmans prospective extradition to the United States, and he continues to pursue several legal avenues to block that process, one of Guzmans lawyers, Jose Refugio Rodriguez, was quoted as saying in the Mexican newspaper Milenio.

I dont see that the transfer has anything to do with the extradition, the lawyer said.

The newspaper described Guzmans transfer as a high-security operation that involved both a helicopter and an airplane and began at 9 p.m. Friday, ending at 3 a.m. Saturday.

Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, is a legendary figure in Mexico and has sometimes been called the worlds wealthiest and most powerful drug trafficker. Mexico has had difficulties finding a lockup that can hold the elusive kingpin.

Guzman pulled off a cinematic breakout July 11 from the Altiplano prison, which authorities had labeled escape-proof. The breakout via a mile-long tunnel connected to the shower stall in his cell was a bruising embarrassment for the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

It was Guzmans second sensational escape act. In January 2001, he decamped from a high-security Mexican prison, reportedly with help from bribed prison staff. He ran his expanding drug business as a fugitive for the next 13 years before being captured again in February 2014.

Following his flight from Altiplano prison, Guzman was captured in January in the Pacific coastal city of Los Mochis. Since his return to Altiplano, Guzman has been subjected to an intense security regimen, including 24-hour camera surveillance in a cell reinforced with thick concrete and iron bars, and a reduced number of visitors.

Guzmans family and legal representatives have mounted a public relations campaign alleging that tight security measures have allowed Guzman little sleep and have endangered his health. Mexican authorities have insisted that his rights and those of other inmates have been respected.

Word of Guzmans transfer to Juarez  where his Sinaloa cartel is reported to dominate drug trafficking, though rival factions still exist  prompted a wave of mocking comments on Mexican social media, where skepticism about government motives abounds. Many commentators viewed the border city, with its reputation for lawlessness and corruption, as an odd choice.

Some suggested Guzmans reported transfer would somehow facilitate the kingpins next escape, possibly to the United States. Some even wondered if Guzman was already at large and if the move to Juarez was just a cover story.

patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcdneville

Special correspondent Cecilia Sanchez contributed to this report.

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Outside an Istanbul courthouse Friday, Can Dundar was waiting for his hearing to resume when a man with a pistol approached.

Dundar, editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, was on trial along with one of its reporters, Erdem Gul, for publishing state secrets in a video last year that appeared to show Turkeys intelligence agency supplying weapons to Islamist insurgents in Syria.

The man with the gun cried traitor.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

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As Dundars wife and an politician attempted to restrain the man, he fired at least two shots from waist level, video footage shows.

He missed Dundar.

A television reporter was wounded, local media reported.

The attacker dropped his gun and was detained by plainclothes police. He was identified as Murat Sahin, from the province of Sivas, but authorities released little else about him.

I do not know who he is, Dundar told reporters. I only saw him point his gun at me.

After the shooting, Dundar returned to the courtroom for the verdict. He was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years and 10 months in prison. Gul received five years.

In response, Dundar accused the court of carrying out the days second assassination attempt.

Prosecutors had accused the journalists of espionage and seeking to violently topple the government. The men argued that they were acting in the public interest and stood by their reporting.

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Dundar called on his supporters to defend the free press, telling the Hurriyet Daily News: All of us have to be brave.

The verdicts  and the shooting  are the latest illustrations of the increasingly difficult conditions for the media in Turkey, which detains more journalists than most other countries.

The convictions are extremely worrying and amount to intimidation against any kind of critical journalism,said Erol Onderoglu, the Turkey representative of Reporters Without Borders. It clearly harms the rights of journalists to mount a public interest defense.

He added: I feel the constant verbal attacks and denunciations of critical journalists from government circles has created a hostile environment for reporters. This murder attempt and these convictions will have extremely negative repercussions for journalism in Turkey.

Press freedom watchdogs say that Turkeys president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is a plaintiff in the trial, is assailing the free press in Turkey as he seeks to expand his personal powers and muzzle dissent.

We know who made us as a target, said Dundar. I hope they take lessons.

Johnson is a special correspondent.

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UPDATES:

3:24 p.m.: This article has been updated with new details and background.

10:42 a.m.: This article has been updated with news of the court sentence.

This article was originally published at 9:23 a.m.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell will address the state of the country's health care system at the State of Enrollment Conference in Washington, D.C. late next week.

Secretary Burwell & Congressman Castro to Keynote

Organized by Enroll America, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that has helped increase health care enrollment through the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Burwell will first keynote the State of Enrollment Conference on May 12, where she is expected to share her insights about the ACA and its future. The following day, Castro will keynote the conference. Castro's attendance will be significant due to his post as congressman of Texas, which is among the three dozen states that have yet to adopt the ACA, and as a Latino, a population that has the highest uninsured rate in the country.

"We are excited to have, for the third year in a row, national and local leaders of the healthcare enrollment coalition be part of our State of Enrollment Conference to meet all in one place and share what has worked to maximize the number of Americans with quality, affordable health insurance," said Enroll America spokesperson Annette Raveneau to Latin Post.

The State of Enrollment Conference will include various, yet specifically crafted, sessions such as engaging the youth population, increasing Latino outreach, streamlining enrollment through technology, strategizing on enrolling farmworkers into the ACA and familiarizing the health care law's exemptions, penalties and taxes.

In addition to Castro, several guests are lined up to further speak and discuss the ACA's impact toward the Latino community, including The Children's Partnership President of Mayra Alvarez and League of United Latin America Citizens (LULAC) Executive Director Brent Wilkes.

"The future of health care enrollment will bring new challenges to reach the remaining uninsured and make sure the newly insured retain their coverage," said Raveneau, adding, "Enroll America's conference has been the ideal gathering where enrollment assisters and community leaders from around the country can interact and learn from each other as we work towards this mission together."

The State of Latinos & Obamacare

Based on data released in March, the HHS revealed 20 million Americans have gained health insurance coverage as a result of the ACA's first provisions went into effect in 2010, including 6.1 million millennials between the ages of 19 and 25.

Within the Latino community, the ACA helped the uninsured rate drop from 41.8 percent to 30.5 percent. Since 2010, approximately four million Latino adults gained insurance. Despite the declining uninsured rate, Latinos still represent the largest uninsured demographic in the U.S.

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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.
Several online clothing retailers are under severe scrutiny for conning online customers into buying clothing of poor quality by using false advertisements and images found on social media.

A variety of reports and social media posts have detailed how a lot of online shoppers have been scammed into buying what they think will be a trendy dress or top on sale but are later shocked to receive a product that looks nothing like it did in the photos.

These online retailers include sites like Rosewe, Rosegal, ModLily, Sammy Dress, DressLily, Zaful, RomWe and Choies, among others.

In a new report, one of the photos used by ModLily was proven to have been taken from designer Pascale Rowe's Instagram account and passed off to look like one of their own products.

Many of the product photos used in the ModLily website, as well as all the other sites, look like photos that could have been taken from fashion-oriented Instagram or Pinterest accounts. Rowe was notified by followers and media outlets about the site using her photos to false advertise products.

I dont mind if a company says Get the look like Ms. Bling, steal her look, but dont say youre selling Ms. Blings dress, Rowe said. Dont tell people that I got it from you, and dont act like Im wearing your piece, because it could be totally different. Its false advertising.

A photo posted by "THE MILLION DOLLAR MOUTH" (@msblingmiami) on Nov 25, 2015 at 5:17pm PST



There have been claims that all of the different online retailers may be connected. So who is behind it all? According to BuzzFeed, the culprit is a company in China called ShenZhen Global Egrow E-Commerce Co.

All the sites are tied together through an email found on all of their pages. A search of certain images will also reveal how the same misleading images are used throughout several sites.

In 2014, Global Egrow was purchased by clothing company Shanxi Baiyuan Trousers which is run by Yang Jianxin.

Jianxin was named one of the richest men in China last year and, with all these websites offering deals on "fashionable" clothing and no consequences in sight despite complaints, things may just stay that way.
Hillary Clinton used a recent California campaign speech to push for comprehensive immigration reform, vowing to keep all President Barack Obama's executive actions on the issue firmly in place if she is elected.

Speaking before an East Los Angeles College crowd where the student population was 88 percent non-white, Clinton also made it a point of blasting presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump over his pledge to deport millions of immigrants and build a massive wall along the Mexican border.

"With all of the challenges we face in the world, we can't have a loose cannon in the Oval Office," she said in reference to Trump. "That is a risk we cannot afford."

Clinton Pledges Support for DAPA

One of the president's biggest policy proposals, Clinton reiterared her support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DAPA), which gives undocumented immigrants who entered the country before their 16th birthday an opportunity to obtain a two-year work permit and avoid deportation.

"We are a nation of immigrants, and I'm proud of it," said Clinton, who also voiced support for the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA) proposal, which aids undocumented parents of U.S. citizen and legal permanent resident children currently in the U.S. to avoid deportation proceedings.

"We are stronger together, and our diversity is one of our strengths," she added. "So if people condemn or scapegoat or criticize or demagogue about immigrants, I wonder: Where are they living?

Clinton later branded all Trump's fiery, anti-immigration rhetoric as "hateful."

Clinton was joined on the podium by Mayor Eric Garcetti, U.S. Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., and Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis and their words seemed to resonate with many.

Pols, Organization Leaders Line up Behind Clinton

Later, leaders and organizations from across the country joined the former first lady by releasing statements chastising Trump, among them Reps. Luis Gutierrz, D-Ill., Xavier Beccerra, D-Calif., and Ruben Gallego, D.-Ariz., Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., and the Latino Victory Fund and the Hispanic Foundation.

In addition, Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Al Franken, D-Minn., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Planned Parenthood's Cecile Richards and entertainer Kenny Hamilton all took to social media to express their displeasure with Trump's position.

"Let's be clear: Donald Trump is a bully," said Gutierrez. "In the face of a candidate that leads with insults and bigotry, we must turn Trump's divisive rhetoric into actions and stand by Hillary Clinton. That's how you deal with bullies and bigots. From Latinos to Muslims to all immigrants across this nation -- Hillary Clinton will fight to break down barriers for everyone."

Meanwhile, Boxer called attention to Trump's avowed plan even flying in opposition to a conservative think tank study that concluded such deportations would be a drain on the overall economy.
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A new study found that Latinos are especially bad about distracted driving.

Latinos were early adopters of smartphones, and especially young Latinos, who were much more likely than the general consumer to own a smartphone back when now-ubiquitous computers in your pocket were still catching on.

That standout trendsetting status was something to be proud of, but a new study shows that Latinos are leading in a smartphone-related trend that's not: using their smartphones while driving.

Latinos Leading a Bad Trend

It turns out that Latinos are statistically more prone to this set of dangerous habits than the average person, according to research conducted by AT&T for the company's "It Can Wait" campaign.

AT&T's research found that 83 percent of U.S. Hispanics admit to using their smartphones behind the wheel.

That compares with 71 percent of Americans as a whole who admitted to the same dangerous impulsive behavior, which itself is way too many people.

But many Latinos' habits with smartphones while driving go far beyond occasionally checking a text message or spending too much time looking for the right song to play. In fact, there are large percentages of drivers in the Latino community whose smartphone habits behind the wheel are pretty outrageous.

For example, half of Latinos admitted to using their smartphones while driving to access social networking sites. That's more than the national average, which just under a still-troubling four in 10 using social media.

Even more shocking, over a quarter of Latinos (28 percent) have taken out their smartphones to snap selfies or take photos behind the wheel. That's far more than the average driver, according to AT&T's study, which found that 17 percent (still outrageous) of Americans have snapped a selfie or photo in traffic.

Nearly seven in 10 Latinos have admitted to texting while driving, which stands out above the national average, but in this case by only a few percentage points.

Harmful Habits

Texting while driving is a dangerous habit, and in most places it's now illegal. But even though distracted driving is obviously bad -- it can be just as dangerous as having four beers and getting behind the wheel -- it's a relatively new phenomenon, so there's still less of a social stigma around it.

Nevertheless, as drunk driving has been on the decline across the country, distracted driving is on the rise, as have accidents and deaths resulting from smartphone obsession in traffic.

According to national statistics compiled by Edgar Snyder and Associates, a law firm that specializes in representing people injured by accidents involving distracted driving, about one in every four car wrecks are caused by texting while driving. People who can't put down their smartphones behind the wheel also result in nearly 330,000 injuries per year from accidents.

Distracted driving includes texting, checking messages, and anything else with a smartphone that pulls your attention to the screen and off the road.

Anti-Texting Laws Help

While not all of those behaviors are against the law everywhere, the good news is that anti-texting while driving laws appear to be raising awareness -- and apparently helping people control the dangerous impulse to take their eyes off the road.

AT&T looked at three months of anonymous network data, and analyzed outgoing text traffic with cell tower locations to gauge how much texting traffic was coming from moving vehicles.

The data showed found that in the 46 states with statewide anti-texting bans, there was about 17 percent less texting while driving compared to the four states without a full ban.

Nevertheless, whether it's against the law in your area or not, you know it's a reckless thing to do that could seriously hurt you or someone else. So just don't.
Sunday marks the 103rd time in American history sons, daughters, and husbands across the country celebrate the most important women in their lives.

Mother's Day means more than saying "I love you" with a box of toffee and hurriedly picked flowers. It is an homage to mothers and wives that put family first beyond their needs, from their child's birth to the day they move away.

But the time-honored holiday didn't begin with real-life mothers. It began with Cybele and Rhea, mythological goddesses honored with Greek and Roman festivals, some lasting as long as three days. Rhea was the Greek goddess of fertility; Romans considered Cybele a parent to gods, man, and beasts alike. As the Roman Empire expanded, the goddesses' legacy intertwined to give each the title of Great Mother of the Gods.

Europeans created Mother's Day - or Mothering Sunday - sometime in the 1600s. They honored the Virgin Mary on the fourth Sunday of Lent, and children would bring their own mothers flowers and handmade gifts.

Americans didn't pick up on the custom until 1870 when women's right activist Julia Ward Howe penned her Mother's Day Proclamation advocating for a Mother's Day in Boston; her plead led to an observance two years later.

Mother's Day wasn't recognized until Ann Jarvis pressured lawmakers into it, through aggressive letter-writing campaigns and speaking engagements across the east coast. Jarvis' goal wasn't simply to pay tribute to her own mother, but to countless underappreciated women across the country.

President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother's Day a national holiday until May 8, 1914. Gifts change over time, as do the way we thank mom, but the reason for celebrating her will always remain the same.

Notable Bible Verses

"She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: 'Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.' Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

- Proverbs 31: 27-30

"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."

- Exodus 20: 12

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it."

- Proverbs 22:6

"May she who gave you birth be happy."

- Proverbs 23:25

"Children, obey our parents in the Lord, for this is right. 'Honor you father and mother' - which is the first commandment with a promise - 'that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."

- Ephesians 6: 1-3

Famous Quotes

"Children are the anchors that hold mother to life."

- Sophocles, Greek author and poet

"It may be possible to gild pure gold, but who can make his mother more beautiful."

- Mahatma Gandhi, pacifist and Indian civil rights leader

"La madre es nuestra providencia sobre la tierra en los primeros anos de vida, nuestro apoyo mas firme en los anos siguientes de la ninez, y nuestra amiga mas tierna y leal en los anos borrascosos de la juventud."

- Severo Catalina, Spanish writer and politician

"Mama was my greatest teacher, a teacher of compassion, love and fearlessness. If love is sweet as a flower, then my mother is that sweet flower of love."

- Stevie Wonder, 25-time Grammy Award-winner

"If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?"

- Milton Berle, pioneering actor and comedian

"Madre hay solo una, no la ames en pasado o future. amale en presente."

- Pedro Pantoja Santiago, Puerto Rican writer

"When my mother had to get dinner for eight (kids) she'd just make enough for 16 and only serve half."

- Gracie Allen, comedian and Hollywood Walk of Fame honoree
Jeremy Strausser was asleep, a few hours before he had to be up for work at 5 a.m. Friday, when he was awoken by a series of bangs and booms on Willow Park Road in front of his house.

He leapt up to see huge flames and dialed 911: A speeding car had crashed about 1:20 a.m. into three vehicles parked along the eastern shoulder of the two-lane road in Bethlehem Township.

"All of a sudden you just see this guy running down the street, on fire," Strausser recalled.

A police officer from neighboring Freemansburg, who had moments earlier estimated the car eastbound on Freemansburg Avenue at 90 to 100 mph in a 35-mph zone, arrived and was yelling for the burning male to get on the ground. Strausser shouted out his window to stop, drop and roll.

Three people inside the car that wrecked would be pronounced dead at the scene, the last of their remains removed toward 6 a.m. Their identities have not been released.

"It was absolutely sickening," Strausser said Friday afternoon, after working all day then racing this week's lingering rain to get his grass cut. "I can't get it out of my head."

Willow Park Road was dry, in between showers, when the crash occurred, said neighbor Andy Prickler. He's used to drivers speeding along the road, or texting, or drinking and driving. He watches them when he smokes cigars on his porch. Women drive by putting on makeup, said his wife, Tina Prickler. Sometimes they have to run across to their house from where they park.

"It's a racetrack. Period," Andy Prickler said.

The Chevy 4X4 pickup with dump-truck body he uses for hauling trash and his customized 2007 Ford Mustang, with about 25,000 miles, were demolished in the wreck, his sixth and seventh vehicles totaled in wrecks outside the house since moving there in 1998. His neighbor's Jeep Cherokee was also destroyed in Friday's wreck.

They're replaceable, Tina Prickler said.

"Those are three lives that can't be replaced is really what's hurting me," she said. "When I heard there were three people in that car, it just breaks my heart. I didn't even care about the vehicles."

The three vehicles were pushed about 30 yards. The pickup was southernmost along the road and the first to be hit. It weighs about 5,000 pounds and had a good half-ton of scrap in the back from a neighbor's recent garage clean-out. In front of it was the Mustang, which was only parked on the shoulder because the Nancy Run behind the Pricklers' house tends to threaten spilling over its banks toward their garage when it rains a lot. Both had full tanks of gas when they were engulfed in the fiery wreck.

"When the accident happened, I woke up instantly and I went to the window," Tina Prickler said. "It was a fireball out there."

Township police and the Northampton County Coroner's Office continued throughout Friday to investigate the crash and had not as of early evening identified the injured male occupant or the three people who died. Nor could authorities immediately say how the three died. At least one occupant was a female, Strausser said.

"I really think on impact, they probably lost their lives on impact," said Tina Prickler.

Charred earth, gouged trees and bits of debris, with a faint odor of gasoline, remained on the afternoon of May 6, 2016, along Willow Park Road just south of Fairview Street in Bethlehem Township, after a fiery crash about 1:20 a.m. claimed three lives and critically injured a fourth occupant of a vehicle that struck three unoccupied, parked vehicles. (Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com)

The wreckage had been towed by mid-afternoon, and what remained was charred earth, gouged trees and bits of debris, with a faint odor of gasoline. Some drivers slowed to snap cellphone shots of the scene.

Parking along the shoulder there is legal, the neighbors said.

"We were off the road," Tina Prickler said. "I don't know why they were going so fast."

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
A 19-year-old woman faces charges after allegedly abandoning a stolen car following a hit-and-run crash nearly a year ago.

A warrant was issued Friday for Jalecia Lozada, of Bethlehem, on charges including careless driving and receiving stolen property. The charges were filed with District Judge Daniel Copora and announced by Pennsylvania State Police.

The crash occurred May 16, 2015, on Morgan Hill Road in Williams Township.

A black 2013 Kia Sedan was traveling too fast for the wet road about 9 p.m. and crashed into the driver's side of a 2003 Toyota Camry, then sideswiping a 1998 Chevrolet S10 pickup, state police said at the time.

People in the other vehicles were not hurt.

The Kia, which was reported stolen to Allentown police, was found the next day off Cedarville Road, state police said.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
BY PAUL MULSHINE

How did so many members of the media get this Republican presidential primary race all wrong?

Consider the esteemed Nate Silver.

Silver made his reputation with his accurate prediction of the 2012 race for the New York Times.

But this time around on his own site, fivethirtyeight.com, Silver is admitting that he blew this one big.

Last August, he wrote a piece headlined "Donald Trump's Six Stages of Doom" in which he lumped Trump in with a lot of other losers and put the Donald's chances of winning the nomination at a mere 2 percent.

Where did he go wrong?

He didn't count on the Norbert Hofer phenomenon. If you've been following the news from Austria, you will note that Hofer recently shocked the punditry there the way the Donald is shocking them here.

He's an ardent nationalist from the anti-immigration Freedom Party who beat the candidates of the two establishment parties handily in the first round of voting for the presidency.

A tabloid termed the victory a "tsunami that has turned our political landscape upside down." But the phenomenon has its roots in the same force that caused Trump's rise, which is nationalism.

The media tend to take an internationalist view of politics. Actual voters often do not share that sentiment.

In the case of Austria, Hofer focused on the waves of refugees from the anarchy unleashed by internationalist meddling in the Mideast.

Here in America, Trump has also stressed nationalist positions on immigration and trade.

There are tens of millions of working Americans out there who believe they've been shortchanged by a system that exports blue-collar jobs at the same time it imports blue-collar workers.

How did the media miss this?

In a recent panel discussion, former New York Times editor Jill Abramson said it might be "Because so many newsrooms are filled with, you know, Ivy Leaguers like me, but a younger version, who haven't, you know, had the time to go live in the South for a couple of years and meet people who are really different."

The south? I just have to drive to Brick Township and hang around in my mechanic friend Zeke's driveway to meet working people who think they've been screwed by the system.

I'm sure Abramson could have found plenty in the less-prosperous parts of Long Island when she ran the Times.

Protesters at Donald Trump's appearance at West Chester University in Pennsylvania: With enemies like this, who needs friends?

And then there's the question of Trump's attitude.

Like my fellow pundits, I was surprised when Trump actually entered the race.

But I recognized a rare political talent from the beginning,

The Donald hinted he would run in 2012 but then backed off, so I expected that again.

But once the Donald was in the running, I recognized something special was going on.

The same week Silver was giving his gloomy assessment of Trump's chances, I ran a column based on an interview with G. Clotaire Rapaille, a French-born cultural anthropologist who has some very Tocqueville-like views on the American character.

Rapaille gave this assessment of the reasons for the Donald's surprising success:

"A lot of Americans are fed up with political correctness, the idea that you're not supposed to do that and not supposed to say that," he said. "This is the attraction Trump has. He goes by his own rules. This is what is so appealing to Americans."

It was also baffling to the media. They kept expecting him to be sunk by his own comments. But by then Trump had already survived several "gaffes" that turned out not to be gaffes in the public's mind.

And then of course there was the idiocy of an establishment that united behind Jeb Bush, a political retread so weak he could have been beaten by any of a half-dozen other contenders.

By the time the bigwigs figured out their mistake, Trump was already soaring past a splintered field by running up running up totals very similiar to the 36 percent Hofer ran up in Austria. Critics said that was his ceiling, but the others were stuck in the basement.

By the time the field narrowed, Trump was reaching the 50 percent mark. It was all over but the crying - from the same pundits who predicted Trump could never win.

I met this woman at a Trump rally in upstate New York. She was one of a number of vendors who follow Trump around the way vendors used to follow the Grateful Dead. That phenomenon should have given the pundits a hint that something different was going on.

The mistake these people made, if I may presume to deduce it, was that they turned their desires into their analysis.

They desired nothing more than for Trump to go away, which was fine. But they then predicted that wish would come true based on nothing more than the observation that most of the people in their social class shared that thought.

These guys need to get out more. There's a reason tens of thousands of people show up at Trump rallies.

And there's a reason our governor became the first major Republican to endorse the Donald.

At the time, that move was considered surprising. But I suspect that after observing Trump up close on so many occasions, Chris Christie simply realized he is a force of nature - not unlike Hurricane Sandy.

Assessing Trump's strength based on your personal likes and dislikes is similar to assessing Sandy's strength based on your personal likes and dislikes.

Better just to watch the wind gauge and see how it's blowing.
TURKEYS



Go ... what? The owners of Geakers Tacos, who operate a Bethlehem Township shop and three food trucks, were surprised when they were turned down for the Lehigh Valley Food Truck Festival at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, but that wasn't the end of it. In a Facebook message, a representative of the Greater Lehigh Valley Mobile Food Alliance told Jared Geake, "Unfortunately, we have received significant feedback that you've been difficult to work with. Go screw." The alliance then followed up with kinder-sounding email, Geake said, and blamed the "screw" directive on an auto-correct error. Later, the alliance said in a statement that it holds its members to a code of conduct, and decided against Geakers' participation because of its treatment of fellow vendors. Geake said his customers have rallied to the defense of his food and customer service.



How did a Nazareth student access the school district's student data and upload the information -- names, dates of birth, student IDs, addresses, phone numbers and parents' names -- to a flash drive? The exact nature of the breach and the identity of the student, who has since graduated, wasn't disclosed by Superintendent Dennis Riker in a letter to parents. The access occurred between December 2011 and April 2014; district officials became aware of it last year, after which they notified police and brought in a forensics firm to investigate, Riker said. While no evidence was found that the information was misused, the district couldn't be certain that some of the personal information on the flash drive wasn't leaked. The district got a copy of the student's flash drive before it was destroyed by the student and his or her parents, Riker said.



TROPHIES



The Bethlehem Police Department has begun a service to help families with special needs children or members suffering with dementia. The Special Needs Assistance Program provides information on community services and will make electronic tracking devices available to eligible families. A designated SNAP officer will act as a contact person for the families, to develop a relationship and try to identify potential problems before a person goes missing, according to Police Chief Mark DiLuzio. First responders took part in an autism recognition and response training session at Northampton Community College Fowler Family Southside Center. The college plans to donate fees for the training to Live Learn & Play, a nonprofit group promoting autism awareness.



If the roads leading into and out of Wind Gap are looking tidier these day, you can thank the Beautification Committee for Wind Gap, a newly formed group that is attacking roadside litter and debris. In addition to addressing conditions at the Route 33 interchange and along Route 512, they're going after empty lots and green spaces in the borough, according to organizer Danielle Seiple. Volunteers are welcome to join in the first cleanup, which will start at 8 a.m. today at the south end of the borough park on South Lehigh Avenue. Trash bags, gloves and safety vests will be provided, along with coffee and doughnuts.The committee is looking to coordinate with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to plant wildflowers near the highway ramps. For information email the committee at beautifywg@yahoo.com.



During the month of May, the Mary Meuser Memorial Library in Wilson Borough is offering forgiveness. Holders of overdue books and other materials will be able to return them without fines, as long as they're not damaged and can be put back into circulation. The Library calls the program Spring Cleaning Clemency. For information, call 610-258-3040 or email meuserlib@rcn.com.



Can there be enough ice cream in the world? Klein Farms, a dairy operation in Forks Township known for its raw milk, cheese, meats and baked goods, is branching out. In response to customer inquiries, owner Layne Klein has partnered with Daniel Duffin of Riegelsville to open the Happy Holstein Ice Cream shop, featuring all-natural ingredients. The business opened this week with 11 flavors, with plans to increase to 25 to 30 flavors plus Italian ice.
UPDATE: Fugitive who ran along Route 33 faces new charges, police say

Pennsylvania State Police said a 21-year-old allegedly ran off from his disabled pickup truck along Route 33 when police told him he'd be detained May 6, 2016, in Plainfield Township. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

A Pennsylvania man wanted in Long Island, New York, allegedly ran from police who had stopped by his disabled pickup truck Friday afternoon in Northampton County.

Francisco Jimenez, 21, of Hazle Township in Luzerne County, was apprehended without incident after a search of a heavily wooded area along Route 33 in Plainfield Township, according to Pennsylvania State Police at Belfast.

Jimenez was sent to Northampton County Prison pending extradition on a fugitive-from-justice warrant out of Nassau County, police said. Additional charges were pending.

It was not immediately known why Jimenez was wanted.

State police first encountered Jimenez in a disabled black Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck about 1:45 p.m. alongside Route 33 South near Filetown Road in Plainfield, according to a news release.

He had no identification and ran off when he was told he'd be detained for an investigation, the release states.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
It has stood as a Rock of Ages for almost 250 years on the northwest corner of The Square in Carlisle.

The First Presbyterian Church was the host site of a convention of local residents who, on July 12, 1774, passed resolutions declaring independence from Englands rule. Their protest was in response to the Intolerable Acts by the Crown in the wake of the Boston Tea Party.

Twenty years later, on the morning of Oct. 5, 1794, the first President and Commander-in-Chief George Washington worshipped in this stone meeting house as he mustered the militia of four states to quell the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania.

Fast-forward again almost 70 years to the night of July 1, 1863 when Confederate horse artillery fired shells into Carlisle during the Rebel invasion of Pennsylvania. Shrapnel chipped a windowsill on the east side of the building leaving what historians would call General Lees calling card.

Yet the building itself has a colorful history. It began when Scotch-Irish families from Lancaster County settled in the Cumberland Valley and by 1734 established a Presbyterian Church at Meeting House Springs.

Eventually this location proved too far removed from the larger settlement of Carlisle so the congregation moved to town in 1759, according to information on file at the Cumberland County Historical Society.

At first, the congregation divided itself into the New Side and the Old Side with each faction having its own house of worship. In September 1766, the Penn family granted church leaders the deed to the northwest corner at a cost of five shillings.

Information on the church varies depending on the source. A church chronology states that a formal contract for the construction of a unified house of worship was signed in 1769 and the building was completed one to two years later.

A booklet published in 1994 commemorating the 200th anniversary of Washingtons visit states that construction of the church was completed around 1768. Both sources cite Philadelphia architect Robert Smith as the designer of the building which had its pulpit on the north side with entry doors on the south side.

In 1827, a brick chapel was added to the main building and the pulpit was shifted from the north to the west side resulting in a change in the entry doors from the south to the east side. Later, in 1872, a stone chapel and tower was constructed replacing the brick structure, according to the chronology.

Other time other changes were made to the building. This includes the installation of a pipe organ in 1858 and stained glass windows in 1878. The chapel was remodeled in 1908 and an educational and social hall annex was built in 1952.
Those who have served in combat, Mike Doherty said, may best know the value of peace.

"They know the price that families pay, that the soldiers, the members of the military pay," the New Jersey state senator -- himself a West Point graduate -- told the veterans and their families gathered Saturday at Warren County's war memorial in Belvidere.

"Let's pray for leaders that talk to others instead of rattling sabers," he said.

Forty-eight in all were honored at the county's 12th annual ceremony, with medals for distinguished service given to veterans or their families.

The medal has been awarded to more than 2,000 veterans with local ties since the program started in 2003. Those recognized Saturday served in conflicts from World War II to Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq.

Elected officials from the county and state levels offered remarks praising those who served for their sacrifices and accomplishments.

It was also a solemn day for organizers with the Warren County War Memorial Corp., who for the first time had to conduct the ceremony without Terry Lee. The former county clerk and Coast Guard veteran who helped in the memorial's creation died in January.

Application are accepted all year for the ongoing veterans recognition program and are available in the county's public information department and online.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
It is so good not to feel completely crap on the day after an election. Sure, there has been some heartbreaking news from Wales in particular which we cant forget about, but for the first time in years, there is more good news than bad.

If I had any talent for graphic design at all, Id make this into a bar chart, but I dont, so you just get the figures from the BBC website:

Gaining more seats than any other party in England is not a bad result and shows that we are getting somewhere. It feels like weve managed to negotiate a juggernaut around one of those really steep mountain hairpins. The summit is still a way away, but at least were moving forward.

Cheltenham, where we lost the excellent MP Martin Horwood last year, was one such place. A day of celebration for resurgent Lib Dems is a headline youll never get tired of seeing. On Cheltenham Borough Council 20 seats were up and we won 15 of them, holding 10 and gaining 5. More from the Gloucestershire Echo:

Even before counting was half-way over Councillor Max Wilkinson (LD, Park) who wasnt up for election this year said: I think weve got a very good story here. Its all going rather well. The tone was set early on when council leader Steve Jordans All Saints ward was the first to declare and he held it with some ease. Then after a couple of routine holds for the Lib Dems in Charlton Kings and the Conservatives in Battledown came the first surprise. Jacky Fletcher had served Benhall & The Reddings for 24 years as a borough councillor for the Conservatives. But theres no sentiment in politics and this time the voters chose Mike Collins of the Liberal Democrats by just 145 votes. Such a victory, over such a long-serving councillor seemed to justify all that Liberal Democrat confidence. In the end the party held all 10 wards it had councillors in and gained another five. As well as Benhall & The Reddings, new Lib Dem councillors will represent the wards of Charlton Park, Warden Hill, St Pauls and Pittville. Councillor Jordan said: This would seem to be a vote of confidence in the Liberal Democrat administration and a desire from the people of Cheltenham for us to carry on with our priorities. Those are to continue to make sure that Cheltenhams economy does well, and were doing a lot of work behind the scenes with the Cheltenham Development Taskforce, and that seems to be working with all the investment coming into the town. We also want to invest wisely the money we get, such as with the new play area in Pittville Park, which is going to be great. Its very pleasing to get such support.

Well done to all the team there.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
After becoming Leader of the Liberal Party in Canada, Justin Trudeau wrote an autobiography Common Ground. The early chapters cover his life as the son of a Prime Minister, then his career as a bouncer, ski instructor and high school teacher. The book moves on to how he became a non-party political activist, then a Liberal candidate and (by just a few hundred votes) an MP in 2008, then party leader in 2013.

To me, a very interesting part of the book is that which deals with events after 2011.

In 2000 the Liberal Party was in government with 172 seats. They fell to just 34 seats and third place by 2011. He says about that:

Some blamed the Conservatives negative attack ads many were convinced [defeat] was the result of [the Liberal Partys] leadership. The truth was a lot more difficult and painful to face: [the voters] gave the Liberal Party the drubbing it had earned. In power the party had become focussed on itself rather than on [people] who supported it, elected it and faith in it.

After the election Trudeau and like-minded MPs, candidates and activists held a 3-day retreat to discuss what to do next.

He freely admits that merger between the Liberals and the NDP (Canadas Labour Party, who had come second in the election) was seriously considered. Such a move was endorsed by former Liberal Prime Ministers and former NDP leaders. Some said it was the only way to beat the Tories under first-past-the-post.

They also considered starting a completely new party without negative baggage associated with the Liberals. Trudeau writes:

Was the Liberal Party in the way? Did our continued existence perpetuate Conservative rule and therefore imperil much of what [we] had fought for?

A hard pragmatic view led to the conclusion that a brand new party could not build the infrastructure to win the next election. He and his colleagues would instead fight for leadership of the Liberal Party and reform it  a project which was ultimately successful in Trudeau becoming Prime Minister at the next election.

The key point is that the group were not focussed on tribal loyalty to the Liberal Party as an end itself. Trudeau argues that a self-centred attitude within the party is what had led to its downfall. The partys focus had to be on the public not on the party.

If we were going to win back their trust, we were going to have to earn it. We had to prove we were in it for the. We needed a new mission, new ideas and new people. The first step was to refocus the partys mission where it belongs: on the needs, hopes and dreams of ordinary people.

The something else, once merger or a new party is rejected, is focussing on voters. Looking out instead of in, reconnecting party and public.

Common Ground is a book to add to your summer reading list.

* Antony Hook was #2 on the South East European list in 2014, is the English Party's representative on the Federal Executive and produces this sites EU Referendum Roundup.
The Leader of the Party shall be elected from the Welsh Liberal Democrat members of the European Parliament, House of Commons and the National Assembly for Wales and shall become Leader of whichever Group they originate from.

From the Welsh Liberal Democrats website:

The National Executive Committee has announced Ceredigion MP Mark Williams as Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats following a meeting today.

Mark Williams was first elected the MP for Ceredigion in 2005. He studied at Aberystwyth University before working for Geraint Howells, the Liberal MP for Ceredigion, and then becoming a Research Assistant to Liberal Peers in the House of Lords. He later worked as a Primary School Teacher and Deputy Headteacher before being elected to Parliament.

Following the meeting, Mark Williams MP said:

It is a great honour to become leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.

It is a great challenge to follow in the footsteps of Kirsty Williams, who has served us outstandingly for eight years through challenging times. Every one of us owe her a huge debt of gratitude.

These coming months and years will test the flame of liberalism, and I will do everything possible to ensure that flame burns brightly again across our great nation.

Despite the election results, Im heartened by the growing number of members and activists joining us because they believe in our cause, and I call on any person who shares our values to join us in our fight.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie says that opposition to the SNP at Holyrood must be on a range of issues far broader than a narrow Tory agenda. For a start, Id suggest, neither Tories nor SNP are known for their commitment to civil liberties. The absence of a commitment to fight the Tories Snoopers Charter in the SNP manifesto is significant. Before you say thats Westminster, note that the manifesto talked a lot about Trident. Its notable that when SNP MPs had a chance to kill off the Snoopers Charter a few weeks ago, they bailed.

Since the election Ruth Davidson has highlighted a limited range of issues as her priorities for the new parliament.

Willie said:

Of course the issues that the Conservatives have highlighted are important. But opposition to the SNP needs to be far wider than a narrow Tory agenda. On issues like tax there is more that unites the Tories with the SNP than divides them. And on issues like justice they are more likely to chase cheap headlines than push for reforms which help cut offending and reduce the number of Scots who are imprisoned. On education there is no indication that they will press for the urgent investment that is required to make our schools the best again. Scotland is an open, tolerant, liberal minded country and the Liberal Democrats will provide a strong liberal voice at Holyrood.

The election provides the Liberal Democrats in Scotland with clear space on civil liberties and on using the powers of the Parliament. The SNP has been been elected to govern in the most powerful devolved Parliament in the world. They are very timid about using those powers. Its like giving them a run in a Ferrari that theyll never get out of second gear. Its up to us to present a radical, bold alternative and deliver proper opposition like we did in the last Parliament. The group with the best record at forcing policy change was the 5-strong Liberal Democrats.

The Parliament is now dominated by the two most well-funded dominant parties across the UK. They both need effective opposition. Wed better step up.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
Closing the Cancer Gap

Higher mortality rates. Less access to care. Poorer quality of life. These are some of the realities minority groups face when cancer care is not equitable.


A WOMAN who was sexually assaulted in the toilets of a city hotel says she still has nightmares and is afraid to do simple things while alone.

In a victim impact statement which was read to Limerick Circuit Court this Wednesday, the 25-year-old added that she attended counselling following the incident which happened more than two years ago.

Shane Byrnes, aged 26, who is originally Hyde Road, Prospect has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the woman on the afternoon of April 18, 2014.

During a sentencing hearing, Garda Colum OShea said the woman was changing, having used the leisure facilities at the hotel, when the defendant emerged from one of the cubicles. Byrnes initially apologised to her saying he believed he was in the lads room but later grabbed the womans arm and asked to see her breasts saying: Theyre nice  let me see them, let me touch them.

Garda OShea told John OSullivan BL, prosecuting, the defendant then stood and stared at the womans chest before grabbing one of her breasts.

Gardai were alerted by hotel management a short time after the woman informed them what had happened.

The defendant, the court heard, was identified as a suspect from CCTV footage covering the hotel lobby.

When arrested and questioned a number of months later, Byrnes made full admissions.

The defendant, who has a previous conviction for a similar offence dating back to 2009, told gardai he had entered the toilet area in the hope of finding money to pay for alcohol.

I was in there to get a fix for drink, he said insisting it was a spur of the moment thing which I seriously regret.

He admitted he had also searched the mens changing rooms before entering the ladies changing rooms. During interview Byrnes admitted making derogatory comments to the woman but denied that he had touched the woman inappropriately. I wasnt aggressive in any way, he told gardai.

Laurence Goucher BL said his client had entered the hotel with the intention of stealing money and he submitted the offence was opportunistic rather than premeditated.

He said Byrnes, who has reduced his consumption of alcohol since the incident, hopes to take up a place on a sexual offenders rehabilitation course.

However, referring to the contents of a probation report which was prepared for the court, he noted that there is no guarantee that participation in the course will eliminate the risk of him re-offending.

Judge Tom ODonnell adjourned the matter to next week when he will impose sentence.
IN what is likely to be one of the final and most poignant ceremonies of Centenary 2016 in Limerick, Con Colbert will be remembered this Sunday in Castlemahon, the parish where he was born and spent the first three years of his life.

Exactly one hundred years to the day after his execution in Kilmainham Gaol on May 8, 1916.

A full-size sculpture of Con, Irish Volunteer and member of the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood, will be unveiled at his one-time home in Moanlena. The sculpture will stand at the gable of the house where a memorial plaque was erected in 1966, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rising.

Meanwhile, in Limerick city, another ceremony will take place at noon at the railway station which was renamed Colbert Station in 1966. Extensive remodelling of the forecourt of the station has taken place and a wreath in honour of Con Colbert will be laid. Brian Murphy OSB of Glenstal Abbey, will give the oration.

Sundays ceremony in Castlemahon will begin at 3pm. Local teacher Alan Kelly will be MC for the event and the limestone sculpture of Con Colbert will be unveiled by Mayor of Limerick City and County Council, Cllr Liam Galvin.

John OCallaghan, who wrote a biography of Con Colbert, will deliver the oration.

OConnors in Newcastle West created the full-size sculpture, Cllr Jerome Scanlan explained this week in advance of Sundays ceremony. They have done a wonderful job, he said.

Cllr Scanlan is one of the small team, led by Jack King, who have organised this particular memorial ceremony. Others include a great grandniece of Colberts Fiona Dore Buckley, Coireall Mac Curtain, Pat Normoyle and Seamus McMahon, who was also involved with the 50th commemoration ceremony.

Michael ORegan, who now owns the house in which Colbert was born, is also on the committee and has carried out substantial work to ready the site for Sundays unveiling.

Con Colbert was born on October 19, 188 at Moanlena, the tenth of thirteen children born to farmer Michael Colbert and his wife Hanora, nee McDermott. When Con was three the family moved to Athea and to old Colbert family land at Templeathea.

As a youth, having moved to Dublin to work, he was a founder member of Na Fianna Eireann and in 1910 joined the staff of Patrick Pearses school as a part-time drill instructor. He joined the Volunteer movement in 1913 and about the same time was inducted into the Irish Fenian Brotherhood.

During Easter week, he commanded a contingent of 20 men and occupied Watkins Brewery in Dublins Liberties area. Following the surrender of April 30, he was court-martialled on May 4, executed by firing squad at Kilmainham on May 8 and buried at Arbour Hill.

Perhaps the best description of Con, comes from Grace Gifford, who married Joseph Mary Plunkett, one of the signatories on the night before he too was executed. When Con spoke, she wrote, his soft Limerick voice took on a passionate ring and the expression on his fact changed from its usual gentle and dreamy look to one of fierce purpose.

A plaque commemorating Con Colbert was unveiled at Moanlena in 1966 by the then Minister for Health, Donough OMalley.

Sundays ceremony begins at 3pm and is free and open to the public.
A total of 77 students from schools in Cumberland and Dauphin counties will compete May 10-11 in the National History Day in Pennsylvania Programs State Contest at Millersville University.

Winners will advance to the national contest June 12-16 at the University of Maryland, where they will compete for cash prizes and scholarships. Additionally, all first-place winners will be named National Humanities Scholars by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

National History Day features two divisions of competition (middle school and high school) and an assortment of categories. It is open to students attending both public and private schools, as well as homeschooled children.

This years theme is Exploration, Encounter, Exchange in History.

The state-level competition has been coordinated by the Army Heritage Center Foundation in Carlisle since 2007.

Kids spend the entire year working on research for their projects, said Jeffrey Hawks, education director of the foundation and state coordinator of National History Day in Pennsylvania.

They pick a topic. It has to be something they can relate to the theme. They pick the project they want to do, and then spend the year working on their project. They do a thesis, research, analysis and conclusion.

Projects

Hawks said the program gives students an opportunity to study a part of history that is of particular interest to them. Working individually or in teams, they create projects like website exhibits, performances and documentaries.

They are inspired to work beyond the textbook, he said. I call it the lab component of history where they actually do what historians do instead of just reading about it.

According to Hawks, 12,000 students participate in the statewide competition each year, and the program continues to grow.

We added another 10 counties (this year), he said. There are 67 counties (in Pennsylvania), and we are now represented in 57.

Hawks is also proud of the way Pennsylvania students have represented their state at the national level.

We are one of the top programs in the country, he said. We usually have several national champions  Last year, we won 14 percent of the medals.

Hawks, who has managed the state program since 2009, said he always enjoys seeing students become interested in history.

Its fantastic to see students get this excited about their studies  When they hear their names called (at the awards ceremony) and hear their classmates cheer out for them, its like they hit the winning home run, he said. It restores your faith in young people today to see how hard they work on these projects and the quality of work they do.

Teachers say their students benefit greatly from the experience.

Kevin Wagner, social studies chair for the Carlisle Area School District, has participated in the program for the past 19 years.

It is actually, in my class, a requirement, he said. The great thing for us, being in the Carlisle area, is that there is a lot of great history right here with our town and county, as well as Pennsylvania in general.

One of the neat things has always been that they can connect to local history and learn things that they dont read about in textbooks.

Research

In the past, Wagner said his students have learned that racial segregation existed in Carlisle, and that research involves more than searching the Internet.

Ive had students look at Carlisle High School, which was the last high school in Pennsylvania to integrate between blacks and whites in 1947, and two students found a Brown vs. the Board of Education (case) in 1896, on the same topic about racial segregation in schools, in the Carlisle School District, 60 years before the Brown vs. the Board of Education (from 1954) that we read about today.

Wagner said his students found that court documents from that era were handwritten in cursive  something that is not even part of modern curriculum.

Other students found information stored on microfiche machines while researching their project at the Dickinson College library.

They learn that good historical research takes hours and days and weeks, he said. You cant do it in one minute on a Google search engine.

Wagner said skills like reasoning, research and writing are really heightened by working with the program.

Local students participating in the state program this year include: Samantha Meacock, of Big Spring High School, and Joseph Dimino, Nick Bowman, Jacob Fisher, Samantha Martin, Julia Barone, Ava Wendelken, Brianna Murray, Jenna Cain, Madeline Barr, Lillian Sweeney, Brady Chilson, Julia Light, Katherine Barone, Maryanne Cantwell, Trevor Hamilton and Erik Praestgaard, all of Carlisle High School.

Also participating are Khawla Fentis, Cumberland Valley High School; Rachel Shin and Vanessa Abraham, Eagle View Middle School; Anika Gupta, Carly Smith, McKenna Reeves, Grace Milone, Gianna Massara, Anna Marchenka, Kayla Honeysett, Ella Willigerod, Minseo Kim, Tyler Thompson, Kathryn Petruzziello, Kyla Pratt and Isabella Zuccaroli, Good Hope Middle School; Zachary Yaninek, Good Shepherd School; Michael Toth, John Helm and Orion Dinh, Harrisburg Academy; Avery Keys, Kayla Macdonald, Grace Webster, Joseph Lynch and Samuel Gennett, Saint Patrick School; Michael Staiger, St. Joseph School; and Mary Michael, Camp Hill Middle School.
Big-name GOP leaders piled on Friday against Donald Trump in an extraordinary show of Republican-vs.-Republican discontent over his winning the partys presidential nomination. Trump just shrugged it off, declaring they didnt really matter when compared to all the voters who turned out to vote for him in this years primary elections.

Trump grudgingly agreed to meet next week with Paul Ryan, the Republican House speaker whose statement a day earlier  he said he was not ready to embrace Trumps nomination  set off the intraparty fireworks. Trump said he had no idea if they would patch things up and it wasnt all that important anyway.

The thing that matters most are the millions of people that have come out to vote for me and give me a landslide victory in almost every state, Trump said moments after Ryan, the nations highest-ranking Republican officeholder, announced their planned meeting.

Later in the day, two of Trumps vanquished GOP rivals, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, said they would not vote for him in November. That was a startling rejection by party leaders.

Trump said of Ryans stance: I figured, routinely, he would be behind me. The other day, he pulled a big surprise.

He said he was not surprised about Bushs stance and was tersely dismissive of Graham.

Of Bush, he said, I will not say hes low-energy, reprising a jibe he used frequently during the primary campaign. He mocked Grahams poor primary showing, saying, Like the voters who rejected him, so will I!
Although Albert Einstein's many iconic photographs have been plastered across mugs and T-shirts for years, physics enthusiasts and art collectors may now be able to get their hands on one of the original, autographed photos that inspired the memorabilia, according to International Autograph Auctions, the British auction house handling the sale.

The iconic photograph is a 15-inch-by-17-inch (38 by 43 centimeters) silver print of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, taken near the end of his life. It is one of the rare photos capturing Einstein in a pensive pose, his head and shoulders bowed, hands raised and clasped before him. And what makes the photo unique and even more valuable is that it is signed by both the photographer  Yousuf Karsh  and Einstein, with a quote in the scientist's handwriting that reads, "Truth is what stands the test of experience."

The vintage photograph will be sold in a live webcast auction tomorrow (May 7) at 7 a.m. EDT (12 p.m. local time in the U.K.), along with several other documents and photos of historical significance. The autographed photo is expected to sell for at least $8,600 (6,000 British pounds), according to International Autograph Auctions. [8 Ways You Can See Einstein's Theory of Relativity in Real Life]

Karsh had previously photographed numerous important men and women, including Winston Churchill, Walt Disney, Grace Kelly and Queen Elizabeth II. In 1948, when Karsh approached Einstein to photograph him, Einstein was already famous for his theories describing the physical world, but most photographers had portrayed him as a wild-eyed eccentric.

According to the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in Missouri, which describes Karsh's sitting with Einstein, the scientist was already an old man in poor health, though he still spent a few hours each day in his office working on the third edition of his book "The Meaning of Relativity." When Karsh arrived at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, he found Einstein in his office in wrinkled clothing and sockless shoes, and with wild, uncombed hair, according to the museum. Einstein was not happy with the wool coat he was wearing, so he sent an assistant to find something else. After he put on a sweater, Karsh offered him a comb for his hair, and Einstein replied, "I never use one." And Karsh later recalled on his website, that when he asked Einstein what the world would be like if another atomic bomb were to be dropped, Einstein replied wearily, "Alas, we will no longer be able to hear the music of Mozart."

Albert Einstein was one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, and his ideas revolutionized early 20th-century physics. When it comes to the genius, are you a dummy or an Einstein?

Einstein Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of the Famous Genius

Einstein signed the photograph using an English version of the last sentence of his foreword to "Relativity: A Richer Truth" (1950), by Philipp Frank (Image credit: International Autograph Auctions)

Three years later, Einstein signed the photograph Karsh had taken, using an English version of the last sentence of his foreword to "Relativity: A Richer Truth" (1950), by Philipp Frank, according to the auction house statement. The book was published by the Beacon Press of Boston in 1950 and by Jonathan Cape of London in 1951, the same year in which Einstein signed the photograph currently up for auction.

Other items featured in the auction include signed color photographs of NASA Apollo 11 mission crewmembers, the first spaceflight that landed men on the moon; individually signed vintage photographs of the first six cosmonauts; a photograph of Chang and Eng Bunker, the Siamese twin brothers whose condition and birthplace became the basis for the term Siamese twins; and a signed watercolor illustration of English author Beatrix Potter's first edition of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" from 1902.

More information about the sale can be found on the International Autograph Auctions website.

Follow Knvul Sheikh on Twitter @KnvulS. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
This map plots the detectable earthquakes detected on Mount St. Helens from March 14, 2016 to May 4, 2016.

Tiny temblors are shaking Mount St. Helens, indicating that the magma beneath the volcano is on the move, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) reports.

These mini earthquakes, along with the fact that the ground around the volcano is moving ever so slightly away from it, suggest that Mount St. Helens will one day erupt again, said Seth Moran, the scientist in charge at the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington.

However, this upcoming eruption is likely "years to decades down the road,"Moran told Live Science.

Mount St. Helens, located in the Cascade Mountain range in southern Washington, is known for its enormous eruption on May 18, 1980. The eruption, which was preceded by more than 10,000 earthquakes, killed 57 people, according to USGS. [In Photos: The Incredible 1980 Eruption of Mount St. Helens]

Mount St. Helens, located in southern Washington, is experiencing some low-magnitude tremblers. (Image credit: Victoria Ditkovsky Shutterstock.com )

These earthquakes started small, but grew into the 4-magnitude range as the volcano neared its eruption, finally reaching a magnitude 5.1 the morning of May 18, USGS reported.

"What we're looking at [now] is way smaller," Moran said.

Mount St. Helens had a much smaller eruption lasting from 2004 to 2008, USGS said.

The latest earthquakes  most registering a magnitude of 0.5 or less, with the largest reaching a magnitude 1.3  started March 14, 2016, at a depth between 1.2 miles and 4 miles (2 and 7 kilometers), USGS said.

During the past eight weeks, researchers have recorded more than 130 of these tiny earthquakes. The rate of the temblors has been increasing since March, reaching almost 40 earthquakes a week, the USGS said.

Moreover, global positioning system (GPS) instruments placed around the volcano show a slight ground movement. Over the past eight years, the ground has moved between 0.4 inches to 0.8 inches (1 to 2 centimeters) away from the volcano, Moran said.

Both of these signs  the earthquakes and the movement  are volcano-tectonic in nature, the USGS said. These signs are probably happening because of a slip on a small fault, the agency said.

"Such events are commonly seen in active hydrothermal and magmatic systems," the USGS said. "The magma chamber is likely imparting its own stresses on the crust around and above it, as the system slowly recharges. The stress drives fluids through cracks, producing the small quakes."

Similar events happened in 2013 and 2014, and in the 1990s a swarm of earthquakes were even more frequent and released more energy, USGS said.

However, the USGS hasn't detected any anomalous gases coming from the volcano, which would suggest magma is pushing up toward the surface. "As was observed at Mount St. Helens between 1987 [and] 2004, recharge can continue for many years beneath a volcano without an eruption," USGS said.

What's more, Mount St. Helens is hardly the only active volcano in the United States. For instance, the Pavlof volcano in Alaska spewed ash 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) into the air in late March, and Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has been continuously erupting since 1983, Moran said.

Follow Laura Geggel on Twitter @LauraGeggel. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
Known as the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, who would have turned 160 on May 6, founded a branch of psychological therapy that focuses on the conscious mind and the unconscious mind and how the two interact. Among his many attention-grabbing theories and ideas is the concept of penis envy.

In a 1933 lecture simply titled "Femininity," Freud said that women become envious of penises at a young age, when they realize boys derive more sexual pleasure from their penises than girls do from their own sexual organs. Freud said this penis envy grows over time and manifests in a daughter's love for her father and the desire to give birth to a son, because those are as close as a woman can get to having a penis of her own.

The strict interpretation of Freud's penis envy theory has been debunked. "It's in some ways really dated," said Sarah Wells, a clinical social worker in private practice in the Denver area, in an interview with Live Science. "It's not currently used in any kind of lexicon that I'm familiar with in mental health." She went as far as to say that if someone called her practice and said they needed help with their penis envy, she would be tempted to hang up with the assumption that the call was a prank. [Hot Stuff? 10 Unusual Sexual Fixations]

Less classical definitions of penis envy hold more water, however. "There's a symbolic aspect to it, and I think it's absolutely very real," said Vanessa H. Lopez, a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York. In the years since Freud introduced his idea of penis envy, many people have discussed nonliteral interpretations of the concept. The gist of these is that women may envy the features that make a man a man because they associate these with power and status.

It would still be unlikely that a woman struggling with these power dynamics would distill it down to penis envy, however, Wells said. Rather than these feelings manifesting as a woman deciding that she wants a penis, Wells said that penis envy only really makes sense as a metaphor.

Some girls do go through a stage of wishing they had a penis, said Wells. But this is, again, probably not as literal as it seems. Wells compared this to the way a child might envy another child's height, an aesthetic desire that has roots in a psychological one. For example, a girl might perceive that her brother has more advantages in life and, since his penis is one of the things that makes him different from her, she possibly expresses some type of penis envy, said Lopez.

While penises are a common indicator of being a man, penis envy is not necessarily an expression of nonconforming gender identity, said Lopez. However, penis envy is such a general phrase that she is cautious to define what it's likely to mean until she knows the individual situation in which the term is being used, she said. "I think that if a patient came to me and that was their presenting problem, I would just want to know more about it to try to understand it," said Lopez. [8 Wild Facts About the Penis]

Wells said she has a bigger-picture issue with the concept of penis envy: that it's yet another material solution to a complex, likely mental, problem. She warned that this kind of fixation by individuals on body parts and image can lead to significant mental health issues.

"Science has shown us that there is nothing inherently better about a tall person or a short person  or [that] there's no real difference between women who have large breasts or small breasts, or men who have bigger organs or smaller," said Wells. "But, unfortunately, people do get stuck on those ideas, and they can become mentally ill."

Whether it's obsessing over photos of fit celebrities or scouring the internet for penile-enhancement solutions, people are too quick to modify their bodies or spend large sums of money in order to address emotional distress, Wells said. Those emotional problems include feelings of vulnerability and inadequacy, she said.

Follow Live Science's Life's Little Mysteries @LLMysteries, Facebook & Google+.
Lakeland Dairies has reported a 10% increase to 12.8m in Profit Before Tax, from revenues of 588.5m in 2015.

Group revenues of 588.5m reflect a 6% reduction due to global conditions where there is continuing pressure on the returns from the markets; Profit Before Tax increased by 10% to 12.8m and the Society concluded 2015 with a strong balance sheet and shareholders funds of 109m.

During the year, Lakeland Dairies also acquired Taste Trends Ltd, the leading UK based maker of Coolicious branded frozen yogurts and commenced the expansion of milk powder processing operations at Bailieboro in Co Cavan.

The co-operative opened a new Global Logistics Centre at its dairy foodservice manufacturing site in Newtownards, Co Down, and other dairy processing sites, including Killeshandra were also upgraded.

Milk supply volumes (currently 900 million litres of milk per annum) increased by 13% which contributed to overall efficiencies across all dairy processing operations.

Lakeland Dairies continues to make strong progress, said CEO Michael Hanley.

As well as strategic developments, we have achieved positive business results in spite of volatile dairy market conditions.

We are focused on maximum efficiency across all operations. The balance within our business has enabled us to support milk price for our producers throughout the year.

Mr Hanley went on to say that while times were difficult for dairy farmers, the co-op's priority was to achieve all future growth on a long term and sustainable basis, to maximise milk price and to minimise future market volatility for all its milk producers.

We have, he added, invested considerably to ensure that we have globally competitive operations.

We have the customers, product portfolio and economies of scale required to add market value to every litre of milk processed.

Lakeland Dairies is a leading global provider of dairy products of quality, traceability and reliability across all applications.
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Mobile phone providers are being called upon to up their game when it comes to providing mobile phone reception to significant parts of rural Ireland.

Deputy Robert Troy told the Leader this week that he felt Longford has been totally neglected by the major service providers.

This is an issue which has been brought to my attention all across Longford.

In particular over recent times I have had numerous complaints from the Abbeylara area and Cllr PJ Reilly has been inundated with complaints on this issue.

In this day and age it is simply not good enough that an area could be completely devoid of mobile phone reception, Deputy Troy said.

The Longford-Westmeath TD said that he has communicated with 3 Ireland and Vodafone.

I have asked both of these companies to explain how towns and villages can at this stage be such black spots, he explained.

I have asked in particular about the Abbeylara area as according to reports the reception has actually deteriorated badly in recent times.

Deputy Troy said that he believed the phone companies had responsibilities.

They are making huge amounts of money from their Irish operations every year but are not investing any money into their infrastructures here, he claimed.

Regulator

Telecoms regulator, Comreg, was due to meet with Irish mobile phone operators in the past week to discuss the state of mobile phone coverage in parts of rural Ireland.

Comreg published details of mobile phone coverage last week which showed that some parts of the country, particularly the border and west, have very poor phone coverage.

Under licensing rules, operators are only obliged to provide mobile coverage to between 70pc and 90pc of the population, which covers mostly urban areas.

It is believed the issue has been raised at government formation talks between Fianna Fail and Fine Gael.

Out of coverage?

What is the mobile phone coverage like in your area? Let us know at newsroom@longfordleader.ie or message us on Facebook or Twitter.
In one of those rare occasions with the weather just perfect and no hitches to report, the Lanesboro Horse Fair went down at treat at the weekend.

They came from all over the country and from as as far as Scotland and the UK to participate and observe at one of Co Longfords most prestigious events.

It was a huge success, organiser Brigid Mullooly told the Leader.

There were lots of horses and lots of dealing too.

The overall Horse of the Fair went to Co Mayo native Charlie Gilroy.

Charlie attends fairs across the country and is no stranger to Lanesboro either.

For Charlie, the award iced the cake on what was a great day out for all the family.

People came from all over the country and indeed from overseas, added Brigid.

The weather was just perfect for the occasion and we are looking forward now to next years fair.

Brigid also took the opportunity to thank all those who supported Lanesboro Horse Fair and the many others who helped out in any way.

It was great to see everyone coming out to support the event; it was also nice to see everyone enjoying themselves, she said.

Thank you so much to everyone for all their help and support this year.

Hopefully next year will be as good; we will take a short rest and then the planning for 2017 will begin in earnest.
Heres the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nations wounds....

And heres the presumptive 2016 Republican presidential nominee, discoursing on Ted Cruzs dad:

His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswalds being  you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous... That was reported [in the National Enquirer], and nobody talks about it.

See, this is why Republican strategist Nicole Wallace sounded so aghast yesterday. In her immortal words, The whole party belongs in therapy.

It is truly historic  although pathetic might be a better word  that the so-called Party of Lincoln has devolved to the point where it would actually anoint, as its choice for president, a policy ignoramus and serial liar, a hate peddler who finds truthiness in the National Enquirer. But hey, as evidenced with finality Tuesday night in Indiana, this is what Republican voters want. Donald Trump has brilliantly channeled their rage and resentments, and fed their fantasies for a white America that will never be.

Can this demagogue actually win in November and own our nuclear codes? Seems implausible, but nothing is impossible. But for now, lets just assess the Trump phenomenon and try to understand how weve come to this shameful moment in our national life, how weve so swiftly convinced the rest of the civilized world that weve lost our minds.

The kindest interpretation of Trumpism is that he has given voice to the working-class voters who have lost ground economically and are freaked about free trade. Thats true, as far as it goes. But when I parse the exit polls, I find that Trump is doing boffo business with upscale suburban Republicans. This was true again Tuesday night; the voters with incomes between $100,000 and $199,000 favored Trump over Cruz, 60 to 33 percent. In fact, Trump did best in that income bracket. And Trump won the Republican college grads, 51-38, even though college grads are presumably taught to delineate the difference between truth and lies.

So something besides economic anxiety is going on here. And you know darn well what it is.

Lest we forget, Trumps first popularity surge came last July after he blanket-smeared Mexicans as criminals and rapists. Thats what put him in play with likely Republican voters. He signaled, right out of the gate, that hate was a great way to tap the racist nativist attitude thats endemic among angry whites. No need for code words and dog whistles anymore; visceral slander would work just as well.

He recognized early on that he could babble inanities, that he could peddle bigoted slurs and lies, and score big time with the angry nativist mob.

Those quoted phrases were coined by conservative Republican columnist, Jennifer Rubin. She said it better than I can.

But now I will quote myself. Last summer, I argued that Trump had to be taken seriously. The reason I offered then is just as relevant now  perhaps more so:

Trump appeals to the sizeable share of voters who hate all politicians. Hes thriving precisely because hes not politically correct, because hes not focus-grouped, because he doesnt hew to the traditional rules of discourse. Attacking Jeb Bushs Hispanic wife, calling John McCain a dummy because he finished near the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy  to some listeners, that kind of talk is refreshing. Yes, hes threatening to make a mockery of the campaign process, but a lot of people already think the process is a joke. Theyre dining out on his mockery.

His next step  if he is allowed to do it, if the anger and cynicism and racism has reached critical mass  is to make a mockery of the autumn debates, of the general election campaign, of the presidency itself. Going forward, the fundamental question is whether we are a people willing to be governed by dangerous passions unmoored from reason. Indeed, way back in 1920, the great American commentator H. L. Mencken foresaw it happening:

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks.org/polman) and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.
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Indian author Parashar Kulkarni wins 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Regional Prize

Published: May 6, 2016

Indian author Parashar Kulkarni has won the regional Commonwealth Short Story Prize for 2016 for the Asia region.

He was bestowed with this award for his politically grounded, funny fiction story Cow and Company about four men in search of a cow.

The short story was adjudged the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English from Asia and will receive 2500 pounds prize.

Now Parashar Kulkarni will compete with winners from other four regions- Africa, Cananda and Europe, Carribbean and the Pacific  for the 5000 pounds grand prize to be announced at the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica in June 2016.

For this prize, three authors besides Kulkarni were selected from India. They are Kritika Pandey (Dirty White Strings), Sumit Ray (Girdhars Mansion) and Vinayak Varma (Instant Karma).

Parashar Kulkarni is an Assistant Professor in Social Sciences at Yale NUS College Singapore.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2016

Topics: Awards  Parashar Kulkarni  Persons in News

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Two Romanian soldiers were killed and another was wounded today in an insider or green-on-blue attack, where Afghan security personnel turn their weapons on coalition forces. The Romanian troops were ambushed on a base in Kandahar as they were training Afghan forces. The assault is the first of its kind recorded in Afghanistan in more than a year.

Resolute Support, the NATO mission in Afghanistan, confirmed that two soldiers were killed today when two individuals wearing Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) uniforms opened fire at an ANDSF compound in Southern Afghanistan, according to a press release.

Coalition troops returned fire and killed the shooters, Resolute Support noted. The NATO mission did not disclose number of attackers who were killed or their affiliation or motivation, the location of the incident, or the slain soldiers home country.

We continue to train, advise and assist the ANDSF, and do not view this incident as representative of the positive relationship between our forces, Resolute Support stated.

The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed two of their soldiers were killed and another was wounded following an incident that occurred today near the city of Kandahar, while executing a mission to train the Afghan police.

Romania provided 588 of the 12,486 troops operating under Resolute Support, according to the NATO command.

It is unclear if todays attack was carried out by the Taliban or an allied group, or disgruntled Afghan forces. Given that more than one member of the Afghan security forces was involved in the ambush, it was likely executed by the Taliban. The Taliban has not released a statement claiming credit for todays attack, but has claimed similar incidents in the past and has promoted these kind of operations in its propaganda.

Todays insider attack is the first recorded in Afghanistan by The Long War Journal in more than a year. The last recorded attack was on April 8, 2015, when an Afghan soldier killed a US soldier and wounded two more in an attack at the governors compound in Jalalabad, Nangarhar. The attacker was killed after US troops returned fire.

The Long War Journal has recorded 92 insider attacks in Afghanistan since Jan. 1, 2008; 150 Coalition soldiers and personnel have been killed and 187 more have been wounded in those attacks.

However, many insider attacks remain unreported. If an attack by Afghan personnel does not result in a death or injury, and it is not reported in the press, the Coalition will not release a statement on the incident.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the predecessor of Resolute Support which was disbanded at the end of 2014, told The Long War Journal in March 2012 that these statistics, the number of attacks that did not result in a casualty are classified.

[A]ttacks by ANSF on Coalition Forces  either resulting in non-injury, injury or death  these stats as a whole (the total number of attacks) are what is classified and not releasable, Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, ISAFs former Press Desk Chief, told The Long War Journal. Cummings said that ISAF is looking to declassify this number.

More than four years later, the exact number of insider attacks in Afghanistan has not been declassified.

For more information on insider or green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan, see LWJ report, Green-on-blue attacks in Afghanistan: the data.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
As noted yesterday, the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) is taking part in the new jihadist-led offensive in Syrias Aleppo province against Bashar al Assads regime and his allies. The fighting was organized by Jaysh al Fath, a coalition of several groups that includes Al Nusrah Front, al Qaedas official branch in Syria. The TIP is a Chinese Uighur group that has long operated as part of al Qaedas international network and is closely allied with Al Nusrah.

Sources have promoted the TIPs role in Jaysh al Fath. For instance, the banner above was disseminated by the Twitter feed for Al Muhajirun, which was established last year to attract foreign fighters to Syria on behalf of Al Nusrah and its allies. The banner advertises a video hyping the return of Jaysh al Fath, which successfully overran the Idlib province last year. The first organization listed is Al Hizb Islami Turkestani, meaning the TIP.

The TIP has begun to disseminate propaganda photos from the fighting in Khan Tuman, the town south of the city of Aleppo where Jaysh al Faths new campaign began. The photos do not include Jaysh al Faths watermark in the upper right hand corner. Groups that belong to the alliance typically use the logo on the images they produce from the fighting. (See Al Nusrahs photos with the Jaysh al Fath watermark here.) In addition, some jihadist sources online do not count the TIP as an official member of Jaysh al Fath.

Regardless, the TIP is clearly coordinating its role with Jaysh al Fath and its member organizations. A video released by Al Nusrah yesterday explicitly mentioned the TIPs participation in the assault on Khan Tuman alongside Jund al Aqsa, which is not a named member of Jaysh al Fath but is also obviously integrated into the battle plan.

In any event, the photos below were posted online by the TIP. They document the groups spoils. Some of the photos also show Sheikh Abdallah Muhammad al Muhaysini, a popular al Qaeda-linked Saudi cleric, talking with a commander and other members of the TIP. Muhaysini often appears in the TIPs propaganda.

The TIPs spoils from Khan Tuman and the surrounding area south of Aleppo:

A scene from the fighting:

Sheikh Muhaysini talks with TIP fighters and one of the groups commanders:

The TIP and other groups have taken Shiite prisoners during the conflict:

Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
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NASSCOM, Facebook ink MoU to engage with India's entrepreneurs

Published: May 6, 2016

The trade body of Indian IT firms NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies) has signed a MoU with Social network giant Facebook to build a product design initiative for Indian entrepreneurs.

The NASSCOM-Facebook initiative seeks to catalyse the innovation ecosystem and to help design thinking in India.

Key facts

The initiative will engage the countrys young entrepreneurs into becoming problem solvers and solution builders.

It will be country-wide initiative and shall offer focused programmes to build awareness in product design and mentorship.

Under it, Nasscom Product Council through its flagship programme will support over 500 product start-ups on product design.

This is for the second time that NASSCOM and Facebook have partnered to promote entrepreneurship and startup initiatives in India. Earlier in 2015, they have partnered for its initiative called Leaders Building for the Next Billion.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2016

Topics: Facebook  NASSCOM  Startups

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Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Need For Legal Justice

by Bhat Rasif Manzoor and Mohammad Yousuf Dar

Legal justice looks utopian, rather invisible, in societies with big chunks of poor and illiterate population unless the government and its flawless delivery system steps in with probable remedies. Rich people generally seek privilege through courts when they are involved in suits with the poor as the latter can hardly afford the court fee and wakil fee required for pleading their cases. The result is in the form of injustice and exploitation meted out to the poor.

India, by having more than 30 per cent of the poor strata, is not unaffected by legal injustice. In order to tap the menace, the GOI carried out the groundwork during 1980s by starting the programme of legal services so that the downtrodden strata may not suffer. In 1980, the CILAS (Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes) was constituted under the chairmanship of Justice P.N. Bhagwati and in 1987, the Legal Services Authority Act was enacted by Parliament under which the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) was set up by the GOI in 1995. According to Section (12) of the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987, legal services will be assured to SCs, STs, victims of human trafficking, women, children, disabled, mentally ill, victims of mass disaster, ethnic violence, casteism, natural disaster, prisoners, industrial work, etc. Section 2(1)(c) of the Act provides that the legal services involve the rendering of any service in the conduct of legal proceedings before any court/authority/tribunal and the giving out of advice on legal matters. The authority will provide a counsel at state expense, pay the required court fee and bear all the expenses related to the case. The person need not spend anything on litigation once it is supported by the Legal Services Authority.

The legal aid services are mentioned in the Constitution of India under Part III and Part IV: Article 14 and Article 22,(1) under Part III of the Constitution make it obligatory for the state to ensure equality before law and a legal system based on justice available to all including the poor and downtrodden. Article 39 (A) under Part IV of the Constitution directs the state to promote legal justice based on equality of opportunity and to provide free legal aid through suitable legislation /schemes so that the opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or any other disability.

The sole superior authority which backs, promotes and implements legal services is NALSA. NALSA is an apex body which frames policies and chalks out plans to provide free legal services and free legal awareness to the disadvantaged sections of the society and to the people residing in tribal, backward and far-flung areas. It organises Lok Adalats across the country and stresses on them for amicable settlement of disputes. It is bringing legal awareness through seminars and conferences and is keen to develop and promote a culture of conciliation instead of litigation so that the citizens resolve their differences in a spirit of goodwill. It supports cost-free adjudication through Lok Adalats so that even the poorest of the poor doesnt suffer injustice arising out of any abrasive action on the part of the state/private person. The Chief Justice of India is the patron-in-chief and the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court is the Executive Chairman of the authority. At the State level, the State Legal Services Authority under the Chief Justice of respective High Courts and at District level District Legal Services Authority under the respective District Judge work and act to give effect to the policies of NALSA.

According to statistical estimates, 15 lakh Lok Adalats have delivered justice to about 8.5 crore people till now and the movement needs to be taken forward for better accomplishment. The Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law informed Parliament on March 2012 that 2,68,51,766 cases were pending in subordinate courts. The number of cases pending in all the courts is established to be more three crores. Concerned over a backlog of more than three crore cases in courts in India, H.L. Dattu on December 6, 2014 has asked the Chief Justices of all courts to ensure expeditious disposal of cases pending for five years or more. The present Chief Justice of India, T.S. Thakur, on December 3, 2015, also said on the issue of pending cases: We can announce that 2016 will be the year for cleaning arrears. He too estimated that 30 million cases are pending across various courts. While highlighting the need for legal services in India where most of the poor and illiterate suffer injustice owing to the negligible access to courts, Narendra Modi spoke about Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Nyay on November 9, 2015. According to the Chief Justice of India, Justice Thakur, NALSA is now planning to involve Bollywood actors, who are very sympathetic to the social cause, in promoting legal awareness of the poor through the audio-visual medium. This is an improvement and will help to counter the loopholes by reaching out to the poor people living in every nook and corner of the country. Moreover, Nyaya Deep, the official newsletter of NALSA, which promotes a healthy working relationship between legal service functionaries, needs to gain more circulation for making the project a successful accomplishment. In order to provide free and competent legal service, the NALSA has framed the National Legal Service Authority (Free and Competent Legal Service) Regulations, 2010. The salient feature of the Regulations is engaging senior competent lawyers on payment of regular fees in special cases like where the life and liberty of a person are in jeopardy.

Legal aid is not a charity or bounty, but is an obligation of the state and right of the citizens. The prime object of the state should beequal justice for all. Thus, legal aid strives to ensure that the constitutional pledge is fulfilled in its letter and spirit and equal justice is made available to the downtrodden and weaker sections of the society. But in spite of the fact that free legal aid has been held to be a necessary adjunct of the rule of law, the legal aid movement has not achieved its goal. There is a wide gap between the goals set and met. The major obstacle to the legal aid movement in India is the lack of legal awareness. People are still not aware of their basic rights due to which the legal aid movement has not achieved its goal yet. It is the absence of legal awareness which leads to exploitation and deprivation of rights and benefits of the poor.

Bhat Rasif Manzoor is a Lecturer in Political Science at Government model BHSS, Anantnag and Mohammad Yousuf Dar is a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science, University of Kashmir.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Free Speechs Relation to Objective Contribution to Public Sphere or Social (...)

BOOK REVIEW

by Aejaz Ahmad

Offend, Shock, or Disturb: Free Speech under the Indian Constitution by Gautam Bhatia; Oxford University Press; 2016; pages: 347 (Hardcover); Price: 750.

Gautam Bhatias magnum opus Offend, Shock or Disturb is the most comprehensive examination of the free speech discourse in the Indian Constitution from the doctrinal, comparative and philosophical vantage points. Notwithstanding his legal background, the author has masterfully avoided legal bias around an issue that is political and social in nature. The book is divided into twelve chapters, covering the major philosophical debates around the meaning and nature of right to free speech, the evolution of the constitutional free speech discourse in India, the controversial issues around free speech such as public order, sedition, obscenity, pornography, hate speech, film and internet censorship, defamation, privacy, contempt of court, corporate challenges on free speech and lastly the latest free speech issues such as surveillance, net neutrality, shield laws and copyright. The versatility and beauty of this work is that each chapter is given relevant philosophical, comparative and case-study treatmentall embedded in one highly readable text.

As challenges to free speech in India mount from parochial, social and religious quarters on a daily basis resulting in the charging of public sphere by the communal and conservative elements, Bhatias book is a timely reminder that free speech cannot be dealt with in rambling debates and discussions but in a meaningful exercise by courts to rely on egalitarian resources within the Indian Constitution per se, supplemented by rich philosophical lessons from foreign courts to keep with the changing times. To understand the underlying foundations of free speech, our dependence on theories is inevitable.

Theoretical Approaches in the Book

The author makes the Indian Constitution itself as a hub of resources that can be used to deal with the free speech problems, but also suggests to recognise and acknowledge the experiences of the free speech jurisprudence of other countries. The fall of timeless morality and the emerging challenge of moral relativism, especially in multicultural society like India, have made it increasingly difficult to solve the collective problems. Recognising this challenge, the approach adopted in the book is grounded in the Indian Constitution itself also called Constitutional Morality. The author does explore the plausibility of individual and public moralities in India to deal with free speech issues. But finds both of them wedded to serious problems. India is, after all, not an individualistic society. Can then public morality be taken up as the fulcrum? Certain not! First, society per se is dynamic and this dynamism is unreliable. Second, there is nothing called the Indian morality. Third, at no point of time of history is morality independent, it favours the morality of one over the other.

The author assumes the non-controversial nature of the precepts of equality in the Indian Constitution, which combines both colour blindness with correction of historical discrimi-nation that could well be used as a ground to test. For instance, pornography and obscenity are wrong not because of some moral problem, but because it both subordinates women and cause silencing, stripping of their agency. He calls this approach as anti-subordination. However, the problem with this approach is that it treats constitutional morality as complete and total, independent of outside influence. Living constitutionalism takes influence from the outside world and accordingly modifies the Constitution per se.

The government cannot indulge, the author argues, in paternalism because liberalism cannot claim moral purity for its own sake. If I use the existing political power to undermine the very foundation of the very institutions, then there is nothing within liberalism that deems it illegitimate. It ultimately boils down to the paradox of tolerance. Should the tolerant tolerate the intolerant? This has been recognised by the US courts. Germany has adopted militant demo-cracy that refuses to tolerate speeches that are illiberal and undemocratic. Moreover the principle of autonomy has also been recognised as a plausible principlethat is, coercion in any form is unreasonable if it leads to loss of autonomy. Indian courts, the author argues, are still unable to incorporate these developments.

Inbuilt Problems in Free Speech Jurisprudence

The author seeks to highlight the role of theories in court judgments in India related to free speech. Judgments thus made do resolve some issues but expose several others. When courts subscribe to one theory rather than the other, other possible eloquent views are unintentionally avoided. For instance, in Khushboo versus Kanniammal Case (2010), the court pronounced that freedom of speech doesnt just imply political dissent but also cultural dissent or it is not simply an individual issue but a social issue as well.

Such kinds or arguments are predicated on the view that free speech promotes a democratic culture to which everyone has an equal claim of participation. Bhatia shows that though this view settles one issue, it complicates the others. It puts the copyright issue within the domain of free speech. Thus, while net neutrality is normally a technological issue, the cultural democratic argument used in this case squarely puts it in the domain of free speech.

Historical Paradox

In tracing the genealogy of free speech in India, the author amazes the reader by directing the focus on a historical paradox in terms of the role reversal of the Indian nationalist leaders with respect to free speech. Ironically, the national movement favoured an unrestricted freedom of speech and expression during the freedom struggle but wanted to restrict it in post-independent India perhaps because of the urgency of ensuring unity. But the question is: what explains its persistence now? He carefully examines the wording in 19 (1,a,) to which 19(2) is subjected to. To understand how it changed from undermining/overthrowing the public order with incitement of an offence to the late introduction of reasonable requirement.

General Problems in Indian Free Speech Jurisprudence

Over-breadth, Vagueness, and Chilling Effect:

In the first five chapters, the author anatomises controversial issues such as sedition, public order, anti-terror, and national security and argues that their enshrinement in the Indian Constitution is marked by over-breadth,vagueness, and chilling effect. Firstly, the over-broadness gives ample scope to the government to throttle both speech and its expression. For example, reasonable restrictions was bound to be misused in coercive legislations such as TADA and POTA because of this over-broadness. Bhatia explores Section 295 (A) of IPC which criminalises insulting of religious beliefs when such insult is deliberate and malicious. In a case like Ram Lal Modi versus State of UP, the court said that it covered all issues where the acts have a calculated tendency to cause public disorder. Bhatia argues that the problem with such statistical probabilities is that it provides state privilege to anyone who has the capacity to break the law with impunity. Often people resort to violence on the pretext of hurt which frequently goes unheeded.

Second, statutes suffer from vagueness in that common people remain ignorant about what is allowed and what is permitted. Third, it sometimes runs the risk of arbitrary application of laws by non-elected police like in the Kartar Singh versus State of Punjab case. Fourth, the jurisprudence problematic has caused chilling effect on speeches. It pushes one into self-surveillance or self-censorship to make sure that the law is not crossed which consequently causes chilling effect even on a legitimate speech. These are some of the inward problems in the provisions and the way courts pursue them.

Passive Role of Indian Courts and the Malicious Interests of the Governments:

The author also notes that the government too has an interest in throttling certain speeches. Because of the judicial deference, the government acts as its own judge and it is the likely that the biases, interests in self-preservation and limited fore-sight it has got, the government would exaggerate or overestimate the threat. In Other case, Vijendra versus State of Punjab, the court creates the requirement of prior restraint and pre-emptive ban. Using this excuse, a number of books, films have been banned. Due to judicial deference, this problem has been justified over time. The author notes that when the state punishes for the considered actions of another autonomous individual, it mis-attributes responsibility. The responsibility for committing an attack on the person is put on the person who incites, not the one who actually commits it!

The author highlights some other problems like the existing approaches to hate speech. If a book is banned, the burden of proving its plausibility is placed on the individual who wrote it, and not those who oppose it or the state per se. Even the courts of India shy away from actual interrogation of its plausibility. This has seriously harmed free speech and expression in India. In the absence of any reasonable standard, over time, judges have added their own opinions in an otherwise empty vessel of subjectivity. What is even more reprehensible is that it privileges religious believers and their sentiments over those of non-religious, atheists or agnostics whose sentiments are relegated to secondary importance. In such cases, Indian courts have failed to ensure equality before the law to prevent such discrimination.

In one of the provoking analysis, the author examines the controversial nature of sedition which has been used by governments in India not just to kill political dissent, but also clear the meaning opposition to large scale projects. While the issue of sedition was mooted in the Constituent Assembly debates, there was no particular intention to continue it. Eventually, courts rested on public disorder and reasonable anticipation of it as the gist of it. As the High Court decisions on sedition had ranged from narrow to broader views, the Supreme Court ultimately decided that any law that is in the interest of all shall continue thereby failing the tests of causation and proximity. In assessing its possibility of repealing, the author suggests that unless courts depart from passive deference to an active interrogation of the reasonableness, there would no respite from such controversies in the future especially when Parliament is reluctant to repeal the law per se. Moreover, it will continue to be used in undemocratic ways.

Corporate/Economic Challenges to Free Speech in India:

If the Constitution is an overtly liberal individua-listic one as in the US or Britain, the question of its substantiveness is not expected, but if the Constitution envisages a substantive vision of democracy on strictly egalitarian principles as is the case in India, then the question of who determines the access to an infrastructure of speech is inevitable. The author raises this question by focusing on economic factors that influence the freedom of speech which ultimately has pellucid bearing on substantive democracy with equal access of all to the very infrastructure of speech. Given the concentration of the media in fewer hands, the very access is determined by those who eventually have this monopoly such as Network 18. This question still goes unanswered in India in both the Supreme Court and Parliament.

Newly Emerging Issues:

The book also explores in its last chapters the newly emerging issues such as net neutrality, surveillance, copyright laws, and shield laws that generally belong to the free speech domain, but are treated with respect to other laws perhaps because they have emerged quite recently in the legal and political realm. However, these issues are still in their embryonic forms.

Conclusion

In sum, from a constitutionalist parlance, Offend, Shock or Disturb is exposition of engagement between Originalist and Living schools of constitutionalism in India. The author acknowledges that as the question of what constitutes free speech remains wedded to perennial ambiguity, the test of a meaningful speech is not its intuitive understanding but what it objectively contributes to the public sphere or social discourse. Without this acknowledgement, as the author rightly warns, the recurrent issues in India such as flying a flag, doctor-patient relationship, consumer protection laws will continue to remain unrelated to free speech questions and hence the unnecessary ruckus around them.

However, the problem of what constitutes objective contribution as different from the subjective one in the post-modern age of ours has not been addressed. It can arguably be said that the challenge of subjectivism in a multi-cultural society will persist.

The reviewer studied Political Science at the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi. He is the contributing author of the book, Political Process in India. His forthcoming book, Modern South Asian Thinkers, is being published by Sage. He has contributed earlier to Economic and Political Weekly and Mainstream.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Water, water everywhere, but . . .

Our real problem is population, I told this to an American Nobel Prize winner. He contradicted me and said: Your problem is going to be water. We were discussing the ordeals that India would face in the years to come. Our views did not tally even after a long discussion.

What has happened at Latur, in a better-off State like Maharashtra, has renewed the Americans warning. Section 144 had to be clamped down to ensure that pots and pans were in an orderly queue to receive water from a tanker and it brought back my memory to the warning.

The American had also given me an optimistic side: there is an ocean of water under the Yamuna-Gangetic plain waiting to be tapped. I wonder if this is true. Had it been so, the government would have done a scientific study by this time to estimate the collected water. I have not heard of any such plan so far.

Maharashtra may be the worst hit State this year. There were some other States last year. The economy of most States or, for that matter, the country is very much dependent on the monsoon. We would continue to scan the sky for the dark clouds. Water means so much to us for growing crops and drinking purposes.

The Bhakra Dam in Punjab-Himachal Pradesh has converted the entire area, including Haryana, into Indias granary. Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, hailed the Bhakra Dam as a temple. He said at that time that Indias traditional temples, meaning the dams and industrial projects, would be there but new temples have to be built for our economic development.

This Bhakra Dam alone can feed the entire population of the country. However, it is not necessary to build big dams which creates the problem of rehabilitating people uprooted from their hearths and homes. Small, satellite dams can probably serve the same purpose well, if not better.

This was the genesis of the agitation led by social activist Medha Patkar over the height of the dam on River Narmada. She could not succeed even though the government-sponsored report by Saifuddin Soz, the then Water Resources Minister, said that the gain from the dam would be far less than the loss from the ousting of people who had been living in the area for many years.

However, the dam came to be built several years later when Gujarat gave an undertaking that it would give land to compensate farmers and others who got uprooted. It is another matter that the State Government could not fulfil its promise because there was not enough land to go around.

India has seven major riversthe Ganges, Brahmaputra, Indus, Narmadha, Krishna, Godavari and Cauveriand numerous tribu-taries. New Delhi has set up a Central Water and Power Commission to have a systematic plan to harness not only water but also generate power. This has worked to a large extent but in certain parts of India the fallout has been a series of disputes which even after decades remain unsolved.

This situation has also led to estrangement between people of one State and the other. For example, the sharing of Cauvery water between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has been hanging fire for several years now. This is despite the Supreme Courts verdict to release a certain amount of water to Tamil Nadu.

Nearer home, Punjab has refused to release water to Rajasthan. This goes contrary to the stand New Delhi had taken during the Indus Water Treaty. At that time, to claim more water from the Indus India argued before the World Bank, which was funding the project, that it required a large quantity of water to irrigate the sandy area of Rajasthan.

Its comical that Punjab has now refused to release water to Rajasthan which got a favou-rable verdict from New Delhi. The World Bank then accepted the argument that India could not give Pakistan water because it needed to retrieve the land from the sand dunes in Rajasthan. What explanation do we have when Punjab goes back on its undertaking to give water to Rajasthan?

It is conceded that water reaching Rajasthan would help grow numerous crops but some land in Punjab and Haryana, already under irrigation, would have to be denied water. Such incongruities are responsible for inter-State water disputes. Even after 70 years of indepen-dence, the disputes are far from settled. When the Congress ruled both at the Centre and in the States, the problems never assumed an ugly shape. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which then only commanded a few Lok Sabha members, did not count much. It is a different scenario today. Now that it has a majority in Parliament, the party sees to it that the States run by it get the maximum benefit, rules or no rules.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi did declare from the ramparts of the Red Fort soon after taking over that India was one and there would be no discrimination against States on the basis of their affiliation to different parties. But this is not true on the ground. The Congress party, which is now in the Opposition, does not allow even Parliament to function.

The Rajya Sabha stayed adjourned for several sessions till the party itself realised that differences would be better highlighted if there was a discussion in the House. At present it seems that all political parties have come to an understanding that Parliament should be allowed to function. One hopes that all parties will stick to the consensus they have reached and discuss the matters in right earnest as it used to happen.

If that spirit is translated into action, there would be no disturbance in Parliament and the elected representatives, who have exasperated the public by their boisterous behaviour, will be able to devote their attention to what ails the country. Then no dispute will stall a session, be it over water or other issues.

The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Remembering Rabindranath Tagore on his 155th Birth Anniversary

Today we are facing a frenzied furore on issues such as nationalism and patriotism artificially manufactured by the ruling dispensation which has created a vicious ambience whipping up divisiveness within our society. This recent trend to incite people with jingoistic ultra-nationalist feelings with a definite aim to target certain sections, mainly minorities, has bewildered the saner sections of our country. And precisely for this reason, we go back for solace to Rabindranath Tagore whose poems and songs keep on reveberating in our minds with the messages of universalism and humanism.

Being born and brought up in the cosmo-politan city of Kolkata in the post-independence era, I was imbued with ideas of internationalism and humanism of Rabindranath, with Swami Vivekanandas preachings of Karma Yoga (selfless service), with the unitarian ideas of Raja Rammohan Roy and other Brahmo Samaj stalwarts and with works of the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa etc. It was spontaneous and natural for our generation not only to celebrate the week-long Durga Puja festival but also to attend Christmas Mass at St. Pauls Cathedral or to visit Muslim friends on Eid. I still remember the massive impact the Tagore Centenary Celebrations, organised by the West Bengal Peace Committee, had on the common people who thronged to the Park Circus Maidan in November 1961 from far-off places. They were enthralled by the perfor-mances of the artistes in that weeklong festival. In fact, after the Tagore Centenary in 1961, Rabindrasangeet became a popular catalyst to bind all of us irrespective of religion, caste, class and even political affiliation into a distinct cultural and aesthetic category. On the 25th day of Boishakh (8th May or 9th May), Tagores birthday, year after year, since then men, women, children come from even suburbs to Jorasanko (his birthplace) or the Rabindra Sadan complex to listen to Rabindrasangeet recitals and poem recitations performed by distingui-shed artistes, known or less known young ones. Similarly Dhaka also grooms up for that day, even for a whole month, as a cultural hub, and presently many of the Bangladeshi artistes are some of the best exponents of Rabindrasangeet. Rabindranaths concept of Viswamanab and Jibandevata echoing through his verses creates a space for universal love for humanity and that goes deep into our heart.

Rabindranath set up a university at Santi-niketan with this concept of universalism and named it Visva-Bharati which was an effort to establish an international ensemble of cultural exchange. On 22nd December, 1918, he at a meeting placed this idea and the University was formally inaugurated in 1921. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan aptly explained Rabindranaths vision of Visva-Bharati in the following words: His Visva-Bharati is an international university where the whole world has become a single nest: yatra visvam bhavati ekanidam. In this institution he tried to impart the background of internationalism and help the students to realise the true character of our interlinked humanity and deep unities of our civilisation in the West and the East.1

Rabindranath had a wide vision of humanity and in that perspective nationalism for him tended to have been a narrow creed. He even said: I love India but my India is an idea and not a geographical expression. Therefore I am not a patriot. I shall seek my compatriots all over the world.2 Rabindranaths lecture in Seattle in USA in 1916 was later published in 1917 under the title Nationalism, where he said India has never had a real sense of nationalism. Even though from childhood I had been taught that idolatry of the nation is almost better than reverence for God and humanity, I believe I have outgrown that teaching, and it is my conviction that my countrymen will truly gain their India by fighting against the education which teaches them a country is greater than the ideas of humanity.3 Rabindranath strongly believed in the unity in human society, regardless of race, colour and creed.4 He once told Gandhi: The whole world is suffering from a cult of selfish and short-sighted nationalism.5

Rabindranaths warning against the fascist onslaught of Europe is relevant for all time to come. At the fag end of his life, he witnessed the holocaust of the Second World War and fascist onslaught of Hitler and Mussolini which made him write his famous booklet titled Crisis in Civilisation. He was extremely disturbed at the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany on 22 June, 1941. Even at his deathbed he was keen to know the course of the war, as has been narrated by Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis in the Visva-Bharati journal.6 Even in his last days his concern for humanity, writ large on his face, was noticed by the writer of the article who called it as Tagores Visva Vandana.

Today we are extremely disturbed to watch the tsunami of exclusive nationalism creating hatred towards the other, the enemy and thereby imposing majoritarianism, mainly Brahmanical hegemony, in the name of cultural nationalism. Any note of dissent from the views of the ruling party is often being misconstrued as anti-national or unpatriotic. Why do we have to be so defensive like Javed Akhtar and a few others to chant vociferously slogans imposed on us just to placate or appease a handful of leaders ruling the country? Why should we bow down to the dictat of a few autocrats and fall in their trap? Today when a Dalit woman embraces Buddhism to become free from the clutches of an unequal social system based on age-old caste discrimination, one wonders how can she connect herself to an artificially manufactured nationhood, deifying as Bharat Mata, where she has no space of her own? She will rather be able to connect herself with the agony and distress of an oppressed woman, a victim of apartheid and similar social exploitation from any part of the world. In the vast ocean of humanity and universalism, we need to rise above the narrow creed of ultra-nationalism.

Let us strive to build a world free of exploitation and discrimination, a world free of conflict and war and an egalitarian society. Let the voice of sanity prevail over madness. Let us remember our universal poet Rabindranath, his repeated appeal to the conscience of humanity when he wrote: Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;...... Increasing madness in the name of cultural nationalism knows no bound. We need to break our silence and remember Rabindranaths prolific words  Anyay je kare ar anyay je sahe, taba ghrina tare jeno trinasama dahe. (Those who commit wrongs and those who accept them, O Lord, let your wrath smite them as fire engulfs a blade of grass.)

Endnotes

1. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, Most Dear to All Muses in Rabindranath Tagore: A Centenary Volume, 1861-1961, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, 1986, p. xxiii.

2. Ibid., p. xxii.

3. Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism, Macmillan, 1976, p. 64.

4. Richard Church, The Universal Man, Rabindranath Tagore: A Centenary Volume,op.cit, p. 130.

5. Ibid.

6. Chinmohan Sehanavis, Rabindranather Antarjatik Chinta (in Bengali), Nabhana, Kolkata, 1983, pp. 115-116.

Gargi Chakravarttty, an activist in the womens movement, is the Vice-President of the National Federation of Indian Women.
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Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Cameos / The Legacy for Tomorrow

From N.C.s Writings

Gurudev Rabindranath Tagores 155th birth anniversary falls on Sunday (May 8, 2016). On this occasion we are reproducing two pieces by N.C. on Tagore written 75 years ago, in 1941. Both were published in The Calcutta Municipal GazetteTagore Memorial Special Supplement, September 13, 1941 (that appeared after the Poets death on August 7, 1941). The first piece was carried under the pseudonym Vanguard. Though written during World War II when the global scenario was radically different from what it is today, the relevance of these pieces remains undiminished.

Cameos

Vanguard

It was a wet September evening in 1936. We were driving back home after an interview with Tagore, then staying in a suburb of Calcutta. My companion was an Englishmana young professor of literature, who had just had his first glimpse of Tagore. He was impressed with the Poets personality. But he had so many things to ask about him. There was still something that he had yet to figure out about Tagore. After a pause, he asked me how the people, the common people, regarded Tagore. I replied: Well, we consider him as our national poet. But he is a votary of no narrow nationalism: he has condemned in no unmistakable terms the system that is dominating our country, but he has sought refuge in a broad humanism. Yes, but, he asked once again, would you call him a Peoples Poet, a poet who portrays the life, the struggle and the aspirations of the common manthe toiler in the field and the factory? I do not remember what answer I could mumble out then, but it was not something that fully satisfied either him or me at the time. As I returned home, the question came back over and over again: Is Tagore a Peoples Poet?

II

Two years later, the scene shifts. This time my friend is an Indian in London, who at one time was a student at Santiniketan. He has settled in England after a struggling academic career. We were discussing Andre Gide who had just come back from the Soviet Union and had started a tirade against that country. It was a shock to the progressive circles and was broadcast all over the world by the reactionary press. What a depressing feeling it was to find the great French writer in the camp of the enemies of the USSR! Little by little our discussion veered round to the favourite topics as to whether it was possible for the intellectuals to be above the battle and retreat into the Ivory Tower like the Eyeless in Gaza: while the world was being enveloped in a desperate struggle of power-politics, and culture stifled all around, nobody could remain neutral without helping the cause of reaction. Particularly was it true in a dependent country like ours, and, I asked, if our intellectuals were alive to their responsibility. Many were not, but how was Tagore? Was he socially conscious? Did he realise the issue at stake? Profit versus the Peopledoes he really know on which side he should stand? My friend kept quiet for a moment, and then, from under a huge pile of books, he drew out a dusty file of type-written pages. It was an English translation of Tagores Letters from Russia, and he told me the story behind it.

Years back when this young man was absorbed in his research, there came to him a copy of Tagores Letters from Russia. He started translating it and he did it at a time when he was nearly stranded. But he felt a sense of responsibility towards his Gurudeva and was anxious that Europe should know where Tagore stood in this crisis of progress. The impression that the West retained about Tagore with the lotus and the crescent moon was out of date. It was time that they should know him again as the realist who had reacted to the sufferings of exploited humanity. With this end in view, he translated the book, and Bertrand Russell willingly wrote a foreword to the proposed English edition. From the Poet himself came glad consent and everything was arranged but, at the eleventh hour, unexpected circumstances came in the way, and the book was never published.

As I listened to his reading of the manuscript till midnight I realised what an unbelievable loss it was that the book never saw the light of day, for it might have given Tagore a new recognition in the West, more impressive and more significant than what he had received on the publication of Gitanjali. This time he would have received more coveted laurels than the Nobel Prize, the gratitude of struggling millons from Spain to China. With what clear under-standing he could delineate the ruthless working of imperialism in his own country and compare it with the tremendous material and moral progress in the Soviet Union. Here was Tagore as something more than a poet and philosopher. Though not one of them, he had felt with his own heart the misery and starvation of the common people, and he had the courage to admit the great social advance made under a system which destroys the propertied class to which he himself belongs. Here was the great humanist who would never hesitate to condemn exploitation to welcome a better order of things.

III

Summer 1939. An international students delegation was visiting a concentration camp of the Spanish refugees in the south of France. It was a small party but comprised many nationalities from the Chinese and the Indian to the Yugoslav and the American. The visit was intended to demonstrate the youths common front against Fascism and Imperialism, and for the purpose of conveying the greetings of the world students to the youth of Spain as the vanguard of the Peoples struggle against Fascism. The camp was situated right at the foot of the Pyrenees, near the frontier, and had a population of 18,000mostly from the Army of the Ebro, which included men from all walks of lifewriters, artists, doctors, workers, peasants, clerks and shopkeepersmen of the famous International Brigade who came and fought shoulder to shoulder with the Spanish people because they realised that the front of Peace, Freedom and Democracy was indivisible and could be defended not by rival imperialisms, but by toiling millions out to build a new world.

The French commandant did not allow us to enter the camp which was under military control and was surrounded by barbed wire for miles around. He was polite but would not let us go in, lest the French Government should be exposed by the appalling treatment that had been meted out to the sons of the sister democracy of Spain. Daladier and Bonnet, the Chamberlains of France, who with their gang had abetted the Fascist attack on Spain, were now, by imprisoning these valiant fighters, acting as the goal-warders of Hitler and Mussolini. The alternative that was offered to these brave soldiers of democracy was either work in the labour-gangs in France or a passage back to Spain to face Francos firing squads.

We were allowed to interview about 20 people called out of the camp. There were Brazilians, Poles and Chinese in the International Brigade. Of the Spaniards, most of them in that particular camp were students from Colleges and Universities. One of them had been working in the University of Madrid on a thesis on literature for his doctorate, before the Fascist rising in 1936. We talked to each other in broken French, and he asked me a number of questions about India. He had heard a lot about Gandhi, Tagore and Nehru. Of these, he ruled out the first, for, as he said, Gandhi wanted to put the hands on the clock back, while we are out to create a new and better world. But Tagore and Nehru, he continued, were different though they might be under the personal spell of Gandhi. He had read the works of Tagore in French, and had listened to portions of Nehrus Autobiography read out by his comrades at the front. He wanted to know what Tagores attitude was towards Fascism. Fortunately I had then just read the Poets reply to Noguchi, and I told him about that. He was happy and remarked: He might not be coming from the ranks of the people, but he is sensitive and he is honest. He is on the side of progress and justice.

And he added after a pause: You know, Fascism can never be effectively fought by imperialist governmentsthat is why today we are in prison in the so-called democracy of France. These governments might one day stand up against Hitler and Mussolini when their own interests will be touched, but Fascism will never die so long as imperialism survives; and it is for the common people to rise and smash up the present system of exploitation. In that struggle the intellectuals will be called upon to make their choice. Many would be frightened and go over to the side of the bosses. But the better type, men like Malruax, Fox, Cornford and Lorca who fought alongwith the peasants and the workersand men like Tagore ad Rolland, Toller and Sinclair, who have sent their greetings from a distancethese will all be on our side. Many of them might not take part in the actual fighting, many might abhor the violence that will show itself in the process, but they will at least be honest when, moved by the agonies of suffering humanity today, they will welcome the birth of the new world of peace, freedom and happiness. By themselves they will not be able to build such a world, but they will welcome its construction when the toiling man will be enthroned. They are no doubt individualists and their reactions will be entirely emotional. Yet they will be our valuable allies in the struggle. Would you regard Tagore as one of them? I did not have to hesitate to give him the proud answer: Yes, we regard him soand was reminded of the foggy night in London when I had read the translation of the Letters from Russia, and of the monsoon evening in Calcutta when the Englishman had asked me, Would you call him a Peoples Poet?

IV

Things have moved since then and moved rapidly. I do not know what has happened to the young Spanish student. Perhaps he went back to the Spain that is Francos prison, or fell into the hands of the Gestapo after the betrayal of France, or if he is one of the few lucky ones, has escaped to some other part of the world, ever ready to carry on the real Peoples struggle against Fascism. But Tagore has not belied our hopes, he has reacted magnificently to the suffering of toiling humanity trying to sever the bonds that bind them. Even in this evening of his life, he has shown the alertness of youth in tearing off the mask from the face of Fascism and Imperialism alike. As I read and re-read his New Years Message, Crisis in Civilisation, there came back to my mind the face of the young comrade from Spain behind the barbed wire in the concentration camp, and I remembered the ringing words of Rolland, written on May Day 1934 on the advent of German Fascism: The decisive conflict has begun. It is no longer permissible to keep aloof..... Appeal to life against death, against that which kills, against these ravages of humanity: the forces of money, drunk with gold, the Imperialisms drunk with power, the dictatorships of the great companies, and the various forms of Fascism, drunk with blood. Working man, here are our hands. We are yours. Let us unite. Let us close up our ranks. Humanity is in danger!

(The Calcutta Municipal GazetteTagore Memorial Special Supplement, September 13, 1941)

The Legacy for Tomorrow

Lenin once asked a group of Soviet students as to whom they regarded as the greatest literary figure of Russia. Mayakovsky, they replied. Yes, but what about Pushkin? asked Lenin, and added, Could there have been a Mayakovsky without a Pushkin? A hundred years from today the people would speak of Tagore in the same way and with more truth. At the moment we are too near to his personality to fully appraise its greatness. You cannot size up a Titan when you stand next to him. Tagore cannot be mesured by our standards, nor can we comprehend the infinite variety of manifestations in which his genius has taken form. He was not a personality, nor an institution, he was an epoch. He was as much the product of an age as the age was his product.

On the changing face of India, personalities come and go in rapid succession. The leader of yesterday is discarded today, and the hero of today slips into oblivion tomorrow. That is not the fault of the nation nor of those who play these fleeting roles. We in India are in the ferment of a dynamic world, the giant is awake, the unchanging East has stirred. But even at this quick Tempo, Tagore tried to keep pace with the times. He was never a back number.

But he was a progressive in more ways than one. On the one hand, he broke away from traditionsin language, music, painting and religion; on the other, he never lost touch with the vital currents of the day, absorbing within his receptive mind all the new ideas and thoughts of his age. A scientific study of the last fifty years would no doubt recognise in him the Pole Star of our national culture.

II

Consider the invaluable legacy that he has left behind. Bengal has had a veritable Age of Tagore. In language, he destroyed the traditional fetters of old Bengali. Take away Tagore and we at once fall back with a thud upon Iswar Gupta, with perhaps the exception of Michael, as our immediate poetic heritage. The hide-bound code of traditional technique had to give way before this wizard of words. He enriched our language with a diction that is at once supple and powerful. This has been a great achievementa technical revolutionnot only for having made the language more elastic and expressive, but also for having destroyed, from the point of view of future progress, the germs that were ossifying our medium of expression. He narrowed the gulf between the spoken and the written tongue, between the language of the man in the street and that of the learned scribe. Bengali has become a living language, ready to welcome new forms and expressions which future generations will bring alongwith them.

When the common man comes to inherit the culture that is today the monopoly of the few, he will have to battle against the age-old conventions of language to make it the true vehicle of his own expression. Tagore played the historic role of making the first assault in this war against outworn literary conventions. The language that he created is now ready to adjust and expand itself to suit the needs of its votaries of tomorrow.

In music and painting too, he played a similar significant role. He tried to give new forms, though never totally rejecting the content of the classical tradition. He realised that no art-from could ever be permanent. A living culture though retaining all that is best in human values would express itself through new forms in every age. That is one of the reasons why the generation that has come in his wake has been so creative in its output. Not only the men of today, but the men of tomorrow too, will pay their tribute to his greatness, for he made our language, painting and music free from the shackles of the past and at the same time set up a new tradition of innovations and experiments.

Technical perfection by itself does not exhaust his great gifts to our culture. The literature that we inherit from him is stupendous in both volume and quantity. To have reaped so much and reaped so richly has seldom come the way of an individual mind. His poetry has given voice to almost all our varied emotions and experiences. Our joys and sorrows, our hopes and frustrationsas individuals or in the collectivefind echo in Tagores writings. He never lost touch with life and recognised that life is always on the move. The poet too moved forward with it, and not backward. He was not afraid to face realities, and that is why he soon discarded the escapist trends like symbolism with which he experimented in the days of Phalguni. Never since the age of Dante has the culture of a generation been epitomised so completely in one man.

Tagores religion is of no little interest to progressives. He never tried to reduce his idea of values to fixed categories. His God is not the Miltonic Taskmaster, a dispenser of Right and Wrong, nor does He speak in terms of Good and Evil. The Poet created his own God as the God of Beauty. For him, evil is bad because it is ugly, truth is good because it is beautiful. An idealist he no doubt wasfor religion itself was the product of idealismbut an idealist of the highest order. Here is a mind freed from the stifling narrowness of a rigid code. It would not be wrong to say that he was never affiliated strictly to any organised religion. He appreciated much that is beautiful in different religious forms. Personal ties might have kept him within a particular fold. But he was no believer in dogmas and ceremonials. To him religion was mostly personal. Born in a country where feudal conceptions of religion still dictate the standards of behaviour, Tagore had the liberality of a mind that seeks after a freer horizon. He played the same role as did the Humanists in Europe in destroying the foundations of a dogmatic religion. Though still confined within the limits of idealism, however beautiful in form, he brought us out of the narrow grooves of orthodoxy. A creed such as Tagores marks a distinct stage in the evolution of a freer mind.

III

The age of Tagore forms one of the significant chapters of our national history. It relates the story of the rise and fall of a colonial bourgeoisie. This is the period when the Indian middle class came into the political field leading the whole nation against the foreign rule. In the common struggle for freedom the interest of the middle class converged with that of the common people upto a certain point. 1905 was the turning point when the middle class came into the arena of the mass movement, and the climax of this alliance began in 1920. Placed at the vantage point of the movement, the middle class called halt whenever their own leadership appeared to be in jeopardy. This was what happened after the 1920 and the 1930 Civil Disobedience movements, and this is exactly what has been happening for the last two years when the fear of organised masses has kept the national bourgeoisie in a state of coma. Viewed from this perspective the bourgeoisie in a colonial country has certainly a progressive role to play, though the potentialities of that role are being more and more exhausted as the masses are coming to the forefront, and, externally, as the general crisis of the whole capitalist system deepens.

The reflection of this relation of class forces upon the cultural front is clear and unmistakable. With the first stirrings of national consciousness, our writers and poets achieved almost a renaissance and Tagore was its high-priest. The 1905 movement shook off his complacency and he began to take an active interest in the burning topics of the day. Through his songs and poems he inspired the nation, but he went further. His pen became merciless in the denunciation of Imperialism, and in course of his numerous tours abroad, his speeches were equally uncom-promising. At Santiniketan, he never failed to give shelter to the weary soldiers of the nation whenever they had approached him. Under his influence, our intellectuals as a whole have never lost touch with the national struggle.

This living link with the masses brought out the noblest instinct of Tagores humanism. He did not merely applaud the men in battle from the grandstand. He came down into the arena and responded to the demands of the people magnificently. The renunciation of knighthood was a small thing for a great man, but it brought down upon him the wrath of Kiplings kin. The Englishman at the time wrote: As if it mattered a brass farthing whether Sir Rabindranath Tagore who has probably never been heard of in the wilds of the Punjab, and who, as a writer is certainly not so popular as Colonel Frank Johnson, approved of the Governments policy or not! As if it mattered to the reputation, the honour and the security of British rule and justice whether the Bengalee poet remained a knight or a plain Babu! But the plain Babu was not to be brow-beaten by Frank Johnsons fans. His ceaseless denunciation of imperialism continued, drawing him out, once again, of his seclusion to the public platform. Even in his old age he came out to lead the nations protest against the brutalities of Hijli.

IV

Tagores reactions during the last ten years were remarkable. These were the years of tremendous activity in the national movement. But these were also the years that saw the nervousness of our national leadership drifting helplessly to a retreat through inaction. In the outer world too, these were the years of the menacing rise of Fascism, of the growing conflict between progress and reaction. For the intellectuals the hour of choice came. Many followed the line of retreat, either openly as advocates of reaction or indirectly by returning to their old discarded shell of romantic escapism. The hard realities were too strong for their frail constitutions to bear. But the nobler minds did not cross the line, they remained with the people. Consciously or unconsciously, they felt that their place was with the people and that there was no going back. Tagore chose this path of progress. He was, perhaps, not conscious of it but it came out of his mighty humanism. The poet who, years ago, realised the futility of Ivory Tower once again remembered his own old prayer: ebar phirao more,this time with even greater emphasis. He felt that in this decisive conflict he could not go to Innisfree with its nine bean rows and hive for the honey-bee. Even from his sick-bed he showed the daring and indignation of youth in his last public statement in reply to the Rathbone letter. Just when the class to which he belongs was following the line of retreat, the Poet chose to move forward with the people.

It is this which earns him the title of the Peoples Poet. Though born and bred in the best bourgeois tradition of Bengal, Tagore could move with the times, and the sign of the times indicated that in the alliance of the bourgeoise with the common people, the latter would be asserting more and more. Tagore as the finest cultural product of this alliance was its most worthy mouthpiece. To brand him as solely a poet in the service of the bourgeoisie would be unfair.

Equally would it be wrong to regard him as a declassed intellectual in the service of the people. Tagore had no clear conception of the class forces at work in society. The biggest thing that impressed him in the Soviet Union was not the Revolution, but the liquidation of illiteracya thing which was achieved under bourgeois conditions in the metropolitan countries. Even in his care for the peasantry, he started in the well-meaning indivi-dualist fashion with a patriarchal benevolence, believing sincerely that model villages like Sriniketan could eliminate poverty. His first reaction towards constructive national work was to spread education whether through the National Council or the Visva-Bharati, and here too he forgot that education itself is determined by surrounding social forces.

But these do not detract from his greatness. His progressivism lies in the fact that unlike many of his contemporaries, he was bold and candid enough to admit his disillusionment with the bourgeois standards of values. His last Birthday Message was a tragic confession of a class confronted with its own moral bankruptcy. He found out the futility of the philosophy of his class. True humanism, he realised, could come now only through a new philosophy, a new social order with new social values. He could only faintly discern its outline, but he welcomed it. Therein lies his greatness, a greatness that will get its true recognition, not today when the wide world is mourning him, but on the day when such a social order will be realised, when the common man will receive his rightful heritage. They will hail him as the poet of this age, whose rich legacy will be the starting-point of the richer culture of tomorrow.

(The Calcutta Municipal GazetteTagore Memorial

Special Supplement, September 13, 1941)
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Attack on Bipan Chandras Views on Bhagat Singh - A Rejoinder

The following is a rejoinder to the attack on Prof Bipan Chandra for his views on Bhagat Singh. The rejoinder is by the co-authors of the book Indias Struggle for Independence.

A vicious attack was launched by BJP MP Anurag Thakur in the Lok Sabha in Zero hour today (April 27, 2016) and in a section of the media on Indias Struggle for Independence, a book published in 1988, 28 years ago, by Bipan Chandra, Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee, K.N. Panikkar and Sucheta Mahajan. Deliberate misrepresentation of Bipan Chandras views on Shaheed Bhagat Singh is being done by saying he used the term revolutionary terrorism to denigrate the martyr.

In fact the first time the term revolutionary terrorism is used in the book on p. 142, Bipan Chandra, who wrote two chapters on the Revolutionary Movement, clearly said that it is a term we use without any pejorative meaning and for want of a different term. In his later writings, Bipan Chandra himself stopped using this term as the word terrorism had aquired a very negative meaning in recent years. For example, in his introduction to Bhagat Singhs Why I am an Atheist, published in 2006, Bipan Chandra does not use the word terrorism and says: Bhagat Singh was not only one of Indias

greatest freedom fighters and revolutionary socialists

, but also one of its early Marxist thinkers and ideologues. Chandra added further: Unfortunately, this last aspect is relatively unknown with the result that all sorts of reactionaries, obscurantists and communalists have been wrongly and dishonestly trying to utilise for their own politics and ideologies, the name and fame of Bhagat Singh and his comrades such as Chandrasekhar Azad. (Quoted fromThe Writings of Bipan Chandra: The Making of Modern India, From Marx to Gandhi, Orient Blackswan, 2012, p. 465)

He had also wanted to make the change in Indias Struggle for Independence and had said so publicly. However due to ill health and failing eyesight he could not revise the book as he had planned before his death. The co-authors had planned that the volume in its revised version will use the formulation that Bipan Chandra himself made in his later writings.

To attack a great scholar when he is no more, a scholar who did so much to bring Bhagat Singh to centre-stage, appears to be part of a larger design to silence critics. He was the person who first found and published in 1970 as a pamphlet at his own expense Bhagat Singhs now famous essay, Why I am an Atheist. His last public lecture was the Inaugural Lecture for the Bhagat Singh Chair at JNU in April 2011, in which he said that Bhagat Singh, if he had lived, would have been the Lenin of India, and his last (unfinished) book was a biography of Bhagat Singh.

A completely unfounded attack on the book by a section of the media is that it valorises Jawaharlal Nehru to the exclusion of other leaders. In fact, a special feature of Indias Struggle for Independence is the balanced treatment of all political trends, from Liberals to Socialists and Communists, and of all movements, from 1857 to Ghadar to INA, Swadeshi to Quit India, peasant and trade union movements, anti-caste movements and states peoples movements, and of all leaders, from Dadabhai Naoroji to Birsa Munda, and Lokmanya Tilak, and from Gandhiji and Sardar Patel to Jayaprakash Narayan and Aruna Asaf Ali.

Another completely baseless allegation made in the Lok Sabha is that while denigrating Bhagat Singh, the authors have praised Rahul Gandhi as a charismatic leader, an allegation that we strongly deny since none of the authors have written anything on Rahul Gandhi.

Mridula Mukherjee, Aditya Mukherjee,Sucheta Mahajan
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > A Tribute to Gerassimos Arsenis (May 1931 - April 2016)

Prof Gerassimos Arsenis expired in Athens on April 19, 2016. He was an economist of international repute, an eminent international civil servant, a pioneer in the realm of ideas of international cooperation for development and a highly respected political figure for close to 20 years. In the last-mentioned capacity, he held the portfolios of the Minister of National Economy, Finance, Shipping, National Defence and National Education and Religious Affairs. He was a prominent-member of PASOK, the Greek Socialist Party, which he served for many years.

I did not have the privilege of working with Gerry Arsenis, but I felt a sense of great intellectual and personal affinity with him. Our interests converged in many areas and we shared a common view on the state of the world economy and international economic relation-ship and a common vision of where it should be heading. In my capacity as the spokesman of my country and the Group of 77 on international economic issues, I drew heavily on his pioneering work, particularly on financial and trade needs of developing countries.

I was Indias representative in the Second Committee of the UN General Assembly when Gerry, as friends used to call him, was working with Sydney Dell in the New York Office of UNCTAD, along with Dr Manmohan Singh. During a part of his tenure in UNCTAD as the Head of its Money and Finance Division, I was Indias representative to the UN organisations, including UNCTAD, in Geneva. We both had the privilege of working with Sydney Dell at two different points of time, he in UNCTAD and myself in UNDP.

Gerry was principally responsible for high-lighting, through his studies in UNCTAD, the inter-relationship between Money, Finance and Trade. This was articulated in UNCTADs flagship Trade and Development Report. I recall the excitement of my participation in the debate on this Report, which was principally Gerrys handiwork, in the Trade and Development Board of UNCTAD in the early 1980s. The last serious and substantive debate on the subject took place at UNCTAD-VI in Belgrade in 1983. Gerry participated in this debate as the head of the Greek delegation and I as a spokesman of the Group of 77.

Gerry Arsenis was a real well-wisher and friend of India. I visited Athens in 1993 as the then Indian Prime Ministers Special Envoy to seek Greeces support for Indias candidature for the membership of the Security Council. Because of the very short notice given by me, Gerry could not meet me as he was engaged in a series of meetings that afternoon in his capacity as the Defence Minister of his country. But we had more than half an hours telephonic conversation in which he not only affirmed the support of the Government of Greece but also promised to do his best to obtain the support of the European Community as a whole. Greece delivered Gerrys commitment by voting for India.

In his death, Greece has lost a politician of great courage and sagacity and an ideologue who stood firm by his conviction; the developing countries have lost a sincere protagonist and a pioneer of ideas conducive to promoting their cause world-wide; and the world has lost a visionary statesman firmly rooted in the values of justice, equality and fair play. Greece will no doubt miss his wise counsel and reassuring presence; but it has at the same time reasons to rejoice in his great achievements as an intellectual and a political leader.

A former Foreign Secretary, Prof Muchkund Dubey is currently the President, Council for Social Development, New Delhi.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Vivekananda and the Sangh Parivar

by Ashok Celly

In his celebrated Chicago address, Swami Vivekananda declared that he was proud to belong to a religion which had taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. He also took pride in the fact that he belonged to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.

The Sangh Parivar in general, and the Prime Minister in particular, are supposed to be great admirers of Swami Vivekananda. Do they share his pride in the cultural legacy of tolerance and universal acceptance? Can we in all honesty claim that India is a still a nation which shelters the persecuted? In fact, recent events like hounding people on the barest suspicion that they eat beef or intimidating, even eliminating, intellectuals for expressing an opinion different from the overzealous members of the Parivar have generated the uncomfortable feeling that we are fast becoming a nation which persecutes others.

Also, Vivekananda had the highest respect for Islam. He respected Islam for its love of and commitment to equality. In fact, he believed that Indias salvation would be possible only if the Vedanta soul and the Islamic body came together. For our own motherland the junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and IslamVedanta brain and Islam bodyis the only hope. Now, does the Prime Minister share Vivekanandas amiration for Islam? Maybe he does. After all, at the recent International Sufi Conference he waxed eloquent about Islams love of peace and aversion to violence. In politics, however, you are judged more by what you do rather than what you say. So let the Prime Minister demonstrate his respect for Islam by ensuring for its followers a life of peace and dignity. The harsh truth is whenever such incidents as the intimidation of Muslims on the pretext of beef-eating or the attacks on Christian places of worship take place, the most loquacious of our Prime Ministers responds with an enigmatic silence. So that one is left wondering whether he is afraid of the fanatics within the Parivar or is in league with them.



Above all, Vivekananda was a passionate believer in the philosophy of Vedanta. To raise the self-esteem of his demoralised countrymen, he made use of the Vedanta philosophy. We are children of the Almighty. We are sparks of the infinite divine fire, he would say. Also, the most significant thing about Hinduism is its reverence for all life and belief in the essential divinity of all human beings best expressed in tat twam asi (thou art that). Now if you are a Hindu and an admirer of Vivekananda, can you divide the nation into ramzades and haramzades as a certain leader of the BJP, who happens to be a Minister and whose name carries the prefix Sadhvi, did sometime back? Imagine a sadhvi, a Hindu and presumably an admirer of Vivekananda, demonising an entire community. Herein lies the big difference between Viveka-nandas vision and that of the Sadhvi and others of her ilk. While Vivekananda is an advaitvadi and hence totally free from the I-thou dichotomy, the members of the Parivar are prisoners of dvaitvad (dualism) and their vision is dualistic and divisive. For, the Sadhvis observation cannot be dismissed as an eccentric view of a political rookie. Vilification of the Muslims with a view to marginalising them has been an important part of the RSS agenda. After all, it was no less a person than M.S. Golwalkar, the chief ideologue of the RSS, who made the following observations about the Muslims in his book Bunch of Thoughts:

But the question before us now is, what is the attitude of those people who have been converted to Islam or Christianity? They are born in this land, no doubt. But are they true to its salt? Are they grateful towards the land which has brought them up? Do they feel that they are the children of this land and its tradition and that to serve it is their great good fortune? Do they feel it a duty to serve her? No! Together with the change in their faith, gone are the spirit of love and devotion for the nation.

If the present leadership of the BJP does not endorse Golwalkars position on the issue, it should publicly dissociate itself from it. After all, it does not require very great intelligence to see that a humiliated minority can be dangerousa veritable threat to the integrity of the nation. How can a political party which flaunts its patriotism day in and day out and keeps on lecturing to others on patriotism not see that?

Finally, it may not be altogether out of place to recall the French philosopher Romain Rollands great tribute to India when he made the following observation: If there is one place where all the dreams of living man have found a home from the earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India. Can we say this of Modis India?

The author retired as a Reader in English from Rajdhani College, University of Delhi. He is now a freelancer.
Seventeen people were missing after a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Maltese cargo ship and sank in the East China Sea on Saturday, state media reported, citing the country's coastguard fleet.



The fishing boat, Lu Rong Yu 58398, had 19 people on board when the incident happened at 3.40 a.m. Beijing time (1940 GMT), the China News Service said, adding that two people had been rescued by passing fishing boats and a search and rescue operation was still underway.



China National Radio said that it had hit Maltese cargo ship Catalina, a 40,485 ton bulk carrier, which has continued sailing. They did not specify where in the East China Sea the collision happened.



The East China Sea is home to a group of uninhabited islets claimed by both China and Japan and previous incidents involving Chinese fishing boats and Japanese patrol ships have stoked diplomatic rows.



(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Scorpio Tankers Inc. announced it has received a commitment from NIBC Bank N.V. for a loan facility of up to $44 million.



The loan facility, subject to customary conditions precedent and the execution of definitive documentation, will be used to refinance the existing indebtedness on two 2013-built MR product tankers, has a final maturity of five years from the signing date and bears interest at LIBOR plus a margin of 2.5 percent per annum.



The availability can be used to finance the lesser of $22 million and 67.5 percent of the fair market value of the respective vessels.


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The Springfield area has been ranked 14th on a listing of America's drunkest cities, largely based on percentages of binge drinking and heavy drinkers. The region was ranked 2nd nationwide in the same survey last year.

(AP file photo)

A "Taste of Vermont" Beer Dinner is on tap at Max Burger in Longmeadow on May 16 as the restaurant plays host to Long Trail and Otter Creek Brewing Companies.



Paul Pelis, who represents the breweries, will be the evening's special guest; Max Burger chef Paul McKenzie has put together a five-course menu for the occasion.



McKenzie is planning to begin with lamb lollipops, then, after serving a spring salad dressed with a honey-truffle vinaigrette, his staff will present the chef's take on shrimp and grits.

Chimichurri skirt steak is to be the main course; a mixed berry crumble will wrap up the proceedings.

The beer dinner will begin at 6 p.m. and is priced at $60 exclusive of tax and service. Call Max Burger at (413) 798-0101 for reservations.



On May 18, the Munich Haus in Chicopee will be hosting its monthly Hops Club session with Radeburger Zwickle pilsner the featured beer.



The evening begins at 6 p.m. and features a buffet of Munich Haus favorites that have been specially selected to complement the month's beer selection.



Tickets, which must be purchased in advance, are $15.95 per person, a price that includes both the dinner and a stein of beer.

Contact the Munich Haus at (413) 594-8788 for more details.
LONGMEADOW  The topic of Islamophobia will be the focus of a community gathering next week at Longmeadow's First Church of Christ.

Author Dr. Peter Gottschalk and Muslim activist and attorney Tahirah Amatul Wadud will join Longmeadow community members at the church Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. to discuss the history of religious intolerance in the U.S., with a focus on Islam, a statement for the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding says.

"This event is part of the 'Muslims in America: Dialogues Across Divides' series across the Pioneer Valley, which is free of charge and open to the public," according to the Karuna Center, an Amherst-based organization that supports religious and ethnic harmony. "This event series draws a religiously diverse, mixed-gender crowd that includes Muslims and non-Muslims of various backgrounds."

Speeches by Gottschalk and Wadud are expected to last about an hour, and an open dialogue will follow.

The discussion comes almost six months after the Longmeadow Police Department responded to an anti-Islamic note left on a Muslim man's car at the Longmeadow Shops parking lot.
STOUGHTON

 A Stoughton man died after he was stabbed at least twice following a dispute with another man, police said.

The Brockton Enterprise reported the stabbing took place just outside a multi-family home on Canton Street at about 3:40 p.m. Thursday, near a busy intersection. Witnesses said two men were arguing when one man pulled out a knife and stabbed the other in the torso and the abdomen.

The assailant escaped on foot, running down Canton Street, then dodging behind buildings. Witnesses described him as a male in his early 20s.

The victim was taken to Good Samaritan Medical center in Brockton for treatment. He died of his injuries not long after arriving at the hospital.

Stoughton police and Massachusetts State Police detectives attached to the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office are investigating the incident.
NORTHAMPTON - In 1981, when the city hosted its first LGBT pride parade, it was under the specter of protests and nationwide homophobia, and many marchers wore bags on their heads to conceal their identities.

Now, more than three decades later, the parade turns downtown into a sprawling rainbow-colored dance party.

The 35th annual Noho Pride parade and celebration stepped off Saturday at noon. Contingents from across the Pioneer Valley marched about a mile from Old South Street to the Three County Fairgrounds, cheered on by thousands of people waving LGBT flags and voicing their support.

One parade-goer came from Brattleboro, Vt., to see his first Northampton pride parade as an open transgender man. Charlie Hyder said the experience was "awesome."

"I've been out since 1979 and I've gone to numerous gay pride parades, and I've never seen as many young people out and marching," said Hyder. "Schools! Elementary schools, middle schools, high schools. We're represented! It was incredible.

"That wasn't going on when I was growing up," said Hyder.

Indeed, school groups from throughout Western Massachusetts marched, including Westfield, Southampton and Ludlow. Local businesses big and small put together contingents, like Baystate Health, TD Bank and River Valley Co-Op.

The Diva's Nightclub float was a big hit. Drag performers, some dressed as superheroes, danced with the crowd and posed for pictures.

Diva's is a local institution for LGBT people, particularly youth, but it's closing its doors in the fall. On Saturday night, the Pleasant Street club is hosting a Pride celebration from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. to say farewell.

Shannon Parent of Northampton volunteered for the event with her wife, Jennifer Parent. Shannon said the Pride parade is a lifelong tradition for her, and Saturday's event was her 25th in a row.

"My mother started me in this when I was little and never let me quit," said Shannon.

For her, "pride" is all about accepting and celebrating who you are, and never letting anyone change you.

"I stand for being yourself at all times, and if somebody doesn't like that, you face that head-on, and explain that you are who you are, and they are who they are," she said.

A striking illustration of how times have changed: Numerous churches and other religious groups participated, saying they are open to everyone. While that's nothing new, it shows the difference between 1981 and 2016.

The contingent from The United Church of Bernardston said their church welcomes LGBT people, because theirs is a message of love.

"We function as a community and as a family," said Sharon Weyers.

Another church member, Barbara Morris, said, "Walk in with a smile and you'll be greeted."

Elizabeth Bettis of Swanton, Vt., grew up in a conservative Catholic home with little support for LGBT issues. This was her first Pride parade as an out lesbian, and she said she teared up as the floats went by.

"It took me so long to come out and be proud, and it's an amazing feeling," said Bettis. "I feel like I actually belong."
The Presbyterian Church of Farmington will host an open house May 15 at the church sanctuary, 403 West Columbia Street in Farmington. The event is open to the public.

Major restoration work has been completed on the church sanctuary, originally built in 1885-86 and in continuous use since that time. Gifts from the estate of Florence Hunt Hawn have supported major renovation of brick and stone masonry of the exterior; improved exterior lighting; restoration of ceiling and paintwork in the worship space (which seats approximately 200 people; and improved handicapped accessibility.

Work is presently underway to improve the electric lighting with minimal compromise to the traditional charm of the 110-year-old chandeliers.

The church was chartered in 1832, occupying a log structure where the St. Francois County Courthouse is presently located. The congregation later moved to the southeast corner of West Columbia and A Streets, occupying a building which has long since been replaced. In 1886 the move was made to the present structure. An education building was added in 1926 with additional education, fellowship and office space added in the early 1960s.

The restored worship space is to be re-dedicated to Christian service at the worship service on Pentecost Sunday on May 15. The open house is hosted by church elders and other members to welcome the public and celebrate Gods work in our midst. The congregation is connected to the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy, the Synod of Mid-America, and the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Rev. Paul Bembower has served the congregation as a pastor since 2007.
From beginning to end, the competition was stiff at the 27th annual John Ruffatto Business Startup Challenge http://www.business.umt.edu/orgs/made/startup-challenge/default.php , held at the Gallagher School of Business at UM. The event drew 16 entrepreneurs looking to secure the funding needed to send their business on to the next stage of development.

The challenge and the incentives that come with it only grows Montanas standing as one of the nations entrepreneurial hotbeds. While Silicon Valley gets all the glory, the New York Times reported last year, "the real hotbed of American entrepreneurship appears to be a few hundred miles to the northeast in Montana."

By Martin Kidston/MISSOULA CURRENT

Full Story: http://www.missoulacurrent.com/business/2016/05/startup-challenge-goes-big-27th-annual-event/
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk predicted Wednesday that half of all new cars will have self-driving technology within seven to 10 years, while cautioning that the change will threaten the jobs of people who now drive for a living.

Speaking at the World Energy Innovation Forum, Musk also called for the public to "revolt" against what he called the fossil fuel industrys "propaganda war" on renewable energy and electric vehicles.

By David R. Baker

Full Story: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Tesla-s-Elon-Musk-Time-to-revolt-against-7393284.php?cmpid=nl_biztek
The Australian High Commission hosted a reception to celebrate Australian Awardees (Australian Government scholarships) who will be shortly departing to Australia to take up their Masters scholarships.

The evening is also celebrating students who have returned from Australian studies in 2019, previous Australian Awards Ambassadors as well as the acheivements of the extended Australian Alumni family.

Six professionals from Mauritius have been awarded prestigious Masters scholarships to undertake studies in Australian universities in 2020 under the Australian Governments flagship programme Australia Awards  Africa.

The successful scholars include: Mr Shiva Mauree (Ministry of Health), Ms Shaneeza Fugurally (Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research), Ms Emilline Law Kwang (Ministry of Civil Service & Administrative Reforms), Ms Parbatee Seewoogalam (Mahatma Gandhi Institute), Ms Komal Poonith (the District Council of Grant Port) and Mr Yashvin Heeramun, from the Ministry of the Blue Economy, Fisheries and Shipping, who will study a Master of Science and James Cook University  departing in 2021.

Australia also runs short course awards through is Australia Awards program and 2019 receipients of Awards have been: Mr Kanden Armoogum, Mauritius Institute of Training and Development  Ministry of Education and Human Resources who studiesd the Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) Trainer Development, Ms Urvasi Gowtam Santokhee Chinniah, Mauritius Qualifications Authority  who studies Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) Trainer Development, Mr Subiraj Bhunjun, Mauritius Qualifications Authority, who studied Technical Vocational Education & Training (TVET) Trainer Development, Ms Naaziah Busawon, Mauritius Economic Development Board who studied Ocean Governance and sustainable fisheries and Mr Vencatesen Ponin, Ministry of Social Security, National Solidarity, Environment and Sustainable Development  who studied Climate Change Adaptation.

Australian High Commissioner to Mauritius Ms Jenny Dee and The Hon. Teeruthraj Hurdoyal, Minister of Public Service, Administrative and Institutional Reforms also awarded Australian Awards Ambassadors with plaques of appreciation for their work in promoting Australian Awards to Government, Private and NGO sectors. The Awards Ambassadors include Leesta Moteea (2013-2014), Deeptee Bungaree-Gooheeram (2014-2015), Kevin Koonjul (2015-2017) and Vikash Munbodhe (2017-2019).

Ms Dee congratulated all the Australian Awardees for their successful selection in this competitive Awards program and highlighted Australias commitment to gender equality and women in leadership across all sectors of society  government, business and the community sector.

The Australian Government is committed to building human capacity in priority sectors in Mauritus. We wish our new Awardees embrace the opportunity and maximize exposure to as much learning and development as possible in Australia  as Australias former foreign Minster said  Australia is a lifestyle superpower. Tonight we are also celebrating the on-going successes of our wider Alumni family  our Alumni publication of 2018 provides excellent examples or the work our Alumni community are doing. We look forward to your ongoing leadership and the contribution each of you will make to your nation to support the sustainable socio-economic development of the region as part of our global Australian alumni community, Ms Dee said.

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As the Farmington High School Class of 2016 prepares for Senior Week, they were given a graphic reminder of what happens when bad choices are made as they watched their classmates participate in a mock accident on the schools lower parking lot on Friday afternoon.

With the help of the Farmington Police and Fire Departments, St. Francois County Ambulance District and Cozean Memorial Chapel, students witnessed how a fatal motor vehicle accident is handled by first responders.

The message we are trying to deliver is drinking and driving is a dangerous thing to do, and underage drinking has serious consequences, said Sgt. Sam Weekley, the schools resource officer. It can lead to fatal accidents and life-changing events. If we can make a difference in someone doing this, the program has been a success.

With the help of the theater department, 10 students, dressed in prom attire, saturated in blood and made to look as if they were actually in a car accident, participated in a mock accident involving two vehicles.

As the drama played out, the senior students who watched from the hillside saw the accident was caused by a drunk driver and left one student dead, three seriously injured and the rest suffering moderate to minor injuries.

According to several students, watching their friends act out the scenario was quite effective.

I definitely thought it was going be a lot different before the mock accident, said Sydney Gibbs who was one of the participants in the mock accident. I didnt expect the realness of it. I was lying in an ambulance staring at the ceiling. That really put it into perspective.

During the accidents, first responders gave the students a simulation of what can happen in a serious accident.

We feel this program is really effective, said Farmington Fire Chief Todd Mecey. The students also get an education from people who have been involved in these types of situations, and I think it has definitely made an impact on the students.

Once the mock accident was over, the seniors were gathered into the Centene Center where they were shown a video of students in real-life accidents presented by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

This is one of the better programs that really hits home with the students, said Cpl. Juston Wheetley with the Missouri Highway Patrol. It brings the reality of the dangers of distractive driving, speeding and driving while impaired.
With Donald Trump heading toward what more and more Republicans believe will be victory in the GOP primaries, an increasing number of party figures -- none fans of Trump originally -- are making their peace with the idea of Trump as their nominee. Some are even working out an argument, at least in their own minds, that Trump has a plausible chance to defeat Hillary Clinton in a general election.

There have been brief establishment flirtations with Trump in the past. But those flirtations ended when Trump said something outrageous or the campaign took some (brief) anti-Trump turn, most recently when Ted Cruz won the Wisconsin primary on April 5. Now, with Trump's five-for-five victories in the Northeast last Tuesday, some establishment members are doing more than flirting with the idea of Trump. They're accepting it.

What follows won't include names, but is based on private conversations with several stalwart Republicans, including a former top party official, former members of Congress who have been active in the campaign, a member of the party's foreign-policy establishment, two former managers of GOP presidential campaigns, and more. In addition, several other influential Republicans, like Sens. Bob Corker and John Cornyn, along with former House Speaker John Boehner, have spoken out publicly in a somewhat Trump-friendly way recently.

Each says different things, but overall, there is one reason for the change in attitude: voters. In this case, 10,056,690 Republican primary votes for Trump (so far) have a way of changing a politician's mind.

The GOP politicos carefully count delegates -- some the old-fashioned way, on a legal pad, instead of using the various delegate calculators on the web -- and now believe Trump will win at least the 1,237 required to clinch the Republican nomination on the first ballot. Most began to feel that way after Trump won New York with 60.5 percent of the vote, not only stopping the momentum Cruz had gained by winning Wisconsin but also punching a hole in the idea of a Trump "ceiling."

"They are recognizing that the voters are speaking," said one GOP veteran of his establishment colleagues.

Because of that, the insiders dismiss continuing efforts to stop Trump as too little, too late. In hindsight, they now say that was true all along. The millions spent on ads against Trump in Florida? Too late. National Review's "Against Trump" broadside? Too late. #NeverTrump? Too late. For whatever reason, the GOP politicos have concluded, anti-Trump forces in the party were always behind the times, to Trump's benefit.

The insiders also know other Republicans think the same thing. They took notice recently when Republican National Committee members held a meeting in Hollywood, Florida. At that meeting, member after member said that he or she would support Trump if Trump is the party's nominee. Now, Republican National Committee members pledging to support the Republican nominee should be no surprise. But it was an institutional confirmation that the party will accept Trump.

Perhaps most importantly, some have begun to game out a Trump vs. Clinton general election contest. They know that dozens of polls have shown Clinton trouncing Trump, often by double digits. But they were struck by a recent George Washington University Battleground Poll that showed Clinton winning by just 3 points. It's just one poll, but for some it confirmed the idea that there might be a different dynamic at work in the race once Trump becomes the nominee and the contest is simply Donald vs. Hillary. The fight will become more even.

"Trump does bring a little magic to this in that he could shuffle the traditional battleground map," one former presidential campaign manager told me. "I haven't seen any data on that, but I'm just getting a feeling that he's going to put a couple of Midwestern states in play."

"I saw Goeas' poll this week," the former manager continued, referring to Ed Goeas, the Republican author of the Battleground Poll. "Look, Trump hasn't even started to take out Hillary yet. He hasn't even begun taking it to her, and when he does, it's a two-prong thing. One, it unites the party like no other thing, and two, it will start to damage her. Look at what he's done to Lyin' Ted and Little Marco and Low Energy Jeb."

Maybe the insiders are deluding themselves. The RealClearPolitics compilation of general election head-to-head polls is a long list of blue numbers favoring Clinton. But the fact is, some influential Republicans are beginning to question the assumption that Trump is guaranteed to lose big.

That's the kind of change that decisive primary victories produce. Add to that the belief that Trump's only remaining GOP rival, Cruz, is too unlikeable to win the White House. "The memories of Trump's last outrageous statements have faded a little bit and he's won big," said another insider.

None of this means party insiders are enthusiastic about Trump. As one less optimistic type told me, they are trying to figure out whether to try to help Trump in a general election race or sit out the campaign in a deep funk. But the bottom line is, they can read election results. They realize the voters are telling them something. And they are moving toward accepting Trump as their nominee. "If anything," said another insider, "it may be happening faster than you think."
by Sara Guaglione , May 6, 2016

The New York Times is partnering with online meal kit company Chefd to deliver meals to NYT Cooking readers homes.

Select recipes from NYT Cooking, an interactive recipe site, will be curated by food editor Sam Sifton and licensed to Chefd, which will take care of the ingredients, deliveries and other logistics, according to a Quartz report.

The multiyear partnership will launch this summer. Consumers will be able to order recipes from NYT Cooking; Chefd will deliver the ready-to-cook ingredients to homes within 48 hours, according to a statement.

The two companies will split sales from the initiative, Bloomberg reports.

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Were thrilled to welcome NYT Cooking to our family of brands, and were excited about collaborating to enhance the at-home cooking experience, stated Kyle Ransford, founder and CEO of Chefd.

Through our meal delivery capabilities we can provide The Times rapidly growing digital community the ease of cooking delicious meals the Times has always featured with a simple touch of a button.

NYT claims their meal delivery service is different from other options - like Blue Apron and Plated - because consumers can choose and reorder select NYT Cooking recipe meal kits a la carte, at any time.

Alternatively, consumers have the option to sign up for a subscription service to receive as many meals per week as they would like, with the option to swap out, add or delete any meal from their order.

NYT Cooking and Chefd will offer meal suggestions based on customer preferences. NYT Cooking also says they will continue to add new recipes to the service based on trends, seasonal items and holidays.

Our audience spends a lot of time cooking at home, Alice Ting, vice president of brand development, licensing and syndication for the NYT told Bloomberg. So for us it was a natural area to investigate.

NYT is hoping this foray into meal kit delivery will be a lucrative revenue stream amid a decline in advertising revenue. On Thursday, Publishers Daily reported NYTs announcement of six new video series, another project the company is launching to boost digital growth.
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"We won't sacrifice our high food safety standards in a barter trade for approval of European car blinkers," he said, in reference to industry standards on car parts. "One has nothing to do with the other," he said. "There won't be any such horse-trading." Environmental group Greenpeace on Monday released a trove of leaked documents about the closed-door negotiations, claiming that a deal would inflict a dangerous lack of standards on US and European consumers.To some observers, the draft text suggested that the US side is trying to use the carrot of easing restrictions on auto imports from Europe for concessions on its agricultural exports, perhaps including genetically modified foods. Germans are growing increasingly wary of the proposed pact, an opinion poll showed Thursday. Some 70 percent of Germans polled by the dimap institute for broadcaster ARD said it would bring "mostly disadvantages", up from 55 percent in a similar poll in June 2014.Chancellor Angela Merkel, meanwhile, this week reiterated her government's official position, saying that she would "do everything to conclude the negotiations", preferably by the end of 2016. But German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, warned last month that negotiations on the free trade deal "will fail" if the US refuses to make concessions."The Americans want to hold fast to their 'Buy American' idea. We can't accept that," he said. France has also hit out at the pact, with President Francois Hollande saying this week that Paris would reject it "at this stage" because his country opposes "unregulated free trade".Source: AFP
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A small but steadily increasing number of transgenders are travelling to socially conservative India for such procedures, which are cheaper than those in their homelands and with no waiting lists, according to industry experts. Some are even choosing India, which has traditionally shunned its own transgender community, over leading sex-change destination Thailand which is regarded as more accepting on this issue.In November, Archer found herself at the Olmec Centre nestled in a northern Delhi neighbourhood, which she picked over clinics in Thailand which she felt were "just a bit too expensive". "This is affordable. This is an option that some transgender people can look at and not have to kill themselves because they can't afford it," said Archer, who paid about $6,000, a fifth of the price back home, and said India's conservative views on transgenders had not been an issue when deciding to come.For up to $22,000, Olmec provides the treatment, but also accommodation, airport shuttles and post-operative care that includes shopping trips and visits to the Taj Mahal and other tourist favourites. Olmec founder and plastic surgeon Narendra Kaushik said he operates on up to 200 mostly local patients a year.But Kaushik said he was also seeing increasing numbers of foreigners: Westerners from countries such as the UK, US, and Australia, seeking lower costs and those from devoloping countries wanting better quality care than they receive at home. The number of foreign nationals having such surgeries has jumped from between five and ten to as many as 20 a year, Kaushik said, predicting the figure would continue to rise. He explained: "The number of surgeries are increasing day by day. "This community is very well connected all over the world. If they are satisfied with their procedures in India, they spread the word."The government is actively promoting India's booming medical tourism industry, including by recently overhauling a special M-visa, now issued faster and valid for one year. The $3 billion industry is expected to more than double in size by 2020, a report published last year from the Confederation of Indian Industry says. More than 250,000 patients -- seeking everything from hip replacements to facelifts -- are travelling to India annually, according to US-based consulting firm Patients Beyond Borders.The number pales in comparison to Thailand which draws up to two million patients a year, but the firm's CEO Josef Woodman was confident India would become a future leader in the niche area of gender affirmation surgeries. "I think in another three to five years. It takes time," Woodman told AFP of the surgeries, performed by less than a dozen Indian surgeons mostly in Delhi and Mumbai.Woodman said, however, some foreigners might question India as a destination given that its own transgender community is vulnerable to discrimination. Known as "hijras", India several million transgenders are often outcasts. Shunned from society some end up destitute forced to beg or into prostitution.Retired British violinist Rosy Mica Kellett decided to travel to India for male-to-female surgery based on glowing recommendations for her surgeon. It was also 14,000 pounds ($20,000) -- less than half the cost in the UK. "It's significantly cheaper here than it is back home and in most countries, even including Thailand," said the married 50-year-old during a recent follow-up appointment with Kaushik."Some of the feedback I received for this kind of procedure in Thailand didn't seem to be as super advanced as my surgeon performs," said Kellett, formerly known as Michael, dressed in a flowing maxi dress. "I wanted the very best and I got the very best."Indian surgeons are also developing their own techniques for transgender operations, including for female-to-male surgeries, which are complex and less widely available, according to industry experts. But Shobha Mishra Ghosh, senior director of Indian industry body FICCI, said policymakers need to work harder if India was to become a top destination.She suggested further streamlining of visa and immigration processes, as well as help desks at airports and more language interpreters. "If we can bring the entire ecosystem in place, a lot of traffic that is going to other countries will get diverted to us," Ghosh said. "In that sense, I think we have a winner out there."Source: AFP


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Right now, businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump has no Republican rivals except himself.

He won the Indiana primary and the media reaction was swift, declarative and breathless. David Brody tweeted a picture of a mock newspaper with the headline "The Fat Lady Sings."

Carl Bernstein, whose reporting with Bob Woodward took down Richard Nixon, appeared on CBS News and declared Trump to be "a revolutionary." (Pause, while President Washington spins in his grave over that characterization.)

Before the Indiana ballot machines were placed back in storage, my inbox was flooded with headlines from the nation's most prestigious, iconic newspapers, every one of which declared Trump to be the Republican Party nominee. Most of these headlines came before Ted Cruz and John Kasich ended their campaigns.

Though Trump's Indiana win sets him coasting to the nomination, he still has to win California's and New Jersey's June 7 primaries to reach the "magic number" of 1,237 delegates that would clinch the nomination. Despite the press declaration, it was Cruz's and Kasich's withdrawals that almost guarantee Trump's nomination.

Press coverage was different on the Democratic side. The Democratic Party's presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton, was barely mentioned. "Sanders' Win Keeps His Campaign Alive," the Los Angeles Times declared.

CBS News summed up the Democrats' Indiana primary with "Despite Indiana Loss, Clinton Intends to Rally Support Against Trump." These kinds of headlines bumped heads with ones that say "Clinton Widening Her Lead Over Trump in Polls."

Clinton is ahead in the number of delegates she needed to secure by this point -- by 106 percent. Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight forecasts the odds of Clinton winning California at 95 percent to Sanders' 5 percent.

Cruz finally realized his brand of hard-right conservatism is in the minority, and publicly acknowledged as much. Bill Kristol, editor of the mainstream conservatism magazine The Weekly Standard, bitterly tweeted, "If you're for Trump, you functionally are for a man unfit to be president, and for the degradation of Am. Conservatism." What went unreported is that Trump is no conservative.

As for Kasich, some are saying he wants to be Trump's vice president. They are so wrong. Kasich's personal distaste for Trump is far more intense than Americans' distaste for Limburger cheese. Besides, Trump has asked retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson to be on standby to help him find a suitable mate.

For now, the GOP's long and exhausting primary race is over. The Democrats will continue to battle it out for delegates until the final votes are cast on June 14 in the District of Columbia.

Sanders' path to the nomination is tough, although he continues to talk about a contested convention and fired a new broadside charge against Clinton. Sanders accused her of "money laundering" state party funds to her own campaign, which is not true. Make no errors here, Sanders still has it in his craw to win, and believes he can.

In politics, a week is like a century. A casual remark, a devastating new revelation, an event that changes what issue matters most to the public, all these can stop a winning candidate. Having said that, barring the unforeseen, the November race will be between Clinton and Trump.

Indiana gave us a taste of what's to come. Cruz blasted Trump as a "serial philanderer," and dug up an out-of-context quote from a 2004 Howard Stern interview that Trump gave about "sleeping around." The real news from the interview was Trump had his doctor check out all his dates for social diseases. Said Trump, "I feel like a great and very brave soldier."

For his part, Trump reached into New York's seedy tabloids to link Ted Cruz's father, a minister, with JFK's assassin. "What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, I mean before the shooting?" Trump bellowed on "Fox and Friends." After Ted Cruz withdrew, Trump told CNN, "Of course I don't believe it."

With a man like Trump as the Republican candidate, the campaign tone is not going to get any better.

So the pivot to the fall election has started: Trump's unconventional race and Clinton's uphill climb. Can Trump unite his party and bring all the various conservative factions back to the table? Will the decisions of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush not to comment or participate in the upcoming election hurt Trump's ability to consolidate the moderate wing of the GOP? And what about women voters? Will they embrace a candidate known for making disparaging remarks about females?

Sanders is going all the way to the convention to help reshape the Democratic Party to ensure his campaign message of addressing income inequality and getting big money out of politics are embraced by everyone.

With the GOP race all but over, Clinton will have to quell the Sanders' insurgency while simultaneously looking beyond the convention at how to take on a most unique challenge in Donald Trump.
HURON COUNTY  The Huron County Sheriffs Office will be offering a Boater Safety Course from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 17 and May 18.

The class will be held in the basement of the Huron County Sheriffs Office. Students must attend both classes.
NEW YORK (AP)  Pregnant women can't be kept out of New York City bars or refused alcoholic drinks just because they're expecting, under new city guidelines.

The city Human Rights Commission guidelines, released Friday, outline a variety of anti-discrimination measures and expound on a 2013 law that mostly concerns protections for pregnant workers.

But the guidance also warns against bouncers refusing to let mothers-to-be into bars or restaurants refusing to serve them alcohol, which the U.S. Surgeon General and major medical associations say women should avoid during pregnancy.

"Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities and what is or is not healthy for a fetus are pervasive in our society and cannot be used as pretext for unlawful discriminatory decisions" in public venues, the new guidelines say.

If perhaps unusual, complaints from pregnant women about bar policies aren't unheard-of: The commission is currently looking into one case concerning a pregnant woman denied entry to a bar or club, said Lauren Elfant, an agency lawyer. She wouldn't give more detail because the case is open.

How to treat women who use intoxicants of various sorts has long been debated in the U.S. Some states have laws allowing authorities to detain or bring criminal charges against women who use illegal drugs while pregnant.

New York City requires restaurants to post warnings that drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause birth defects. Commission officials say such health decisions are up to the woman, not a bartender.

Overall, the guidelines mostly address pregnant women's rights in the workplace.

Under federal law, employers must treat pregnant workers the same as any other temporarily disabled worker when it comes to allowing light duty and other accommodations. New York City's 2013 law goes further.

It requires all but very small employers to accommodate reasonable pregnancy-related requests  such as minor work schedule changes, providing a chair or letting workers eat at their desks  even if other employees can't do the same without a doctor's note saying they need it.

There are exceptions if accommodating the expectant mother would unduly strain the employer financially or operationally, or if the employee can't do her job, no other comparable jobs are available and a lesser post or an unpaid leave is unworkable, the guidelines explain.

"Far too often, pregnant employees are denied basic accommodations in the workplace, unnecessarily putting their pregnancy and health at risk," Human Rights Commissioner and Chair Carmelyn Malalis said in a statement. She suggested the guidance also gives employers a legal how-to for navigating a sometimes touchy subject.
COLFAX TOWNSHIP  The wheels are starting to turn a little faster for Meijer to make its way into the Upper Thumb.

On Monday night, during the scheduled Colfax Township Planning Commission meeting, a representative from Meijer is scheduled to pursue the next step in bringing the chain big-box store to the area.

At the meeting, which starts at 7 p.m., a public hearing will take place to consider the petition from Meijers representative Richard Blasey of Bergmann Associates. The petition is to request a change of zoning classification from Agricultural District to C2 Highway Commercial District of land located on the north side of Pigeon Road.

Frank Guglielmi, senior director of communications of Meijer, told the Tribune last month that the corporation has picked out a site at the northwest corner of M-53 and Pigeon Road, under contract for one year dating to January.

Following the meeting, the planning commission may adopt a recommendation or resolution relative to the rezoning request. If the request is approved, it will be forwarded to the Huron County Planning Commission for review and then back to the Colfax Township Board of Trustees for possible adoption.

The meeting is open to the public and residents are encouraged to attend if they have comments to share. Written comments also may be submitted prior to the meeting.

Meijer first confirmed its interest in the area in January when the corporation contacted Bad Axe city manager Dale VanDeVusse looking for water and sewer access through the city. Carl Osentoski, director of the Huron County Economic Development Corp., previously told the Tribune he provided information to the realtor regarding the sites capacity for electrical and natural gas services  and there is an adequate supply of it in that area.

This year, Meijer will continue to expand and open stores in Sturgis and Flat Rock, both in southern Michigan.

A Meijer representative could not be reached Friday for comment.
BAD AXE  One of the largest employers in the area says it anticipates adding 75 or 76 new employees during the next five years.

This week, Gemini Group told county planners it expects to break ground by June for a 201,000-square-foot warehouse near Ubly.

Gemini Group has had more manufacturing and less warehousing at its plants, which allows for more equipment in existing facilities, Facility Manager Curt Watchowski said.

Were running out of space everywhere else, he said.

The local manufacturer operates four plastic plants and three metal plants and is the largest employer in Huron County, according to the Gemini Group website.

The new warehouse would be situated on 38 acres on parcels both within and outside Ubly village limits near the railroad tracks between Leppek and Atwater roads, according to a site plan.

County planners this week unanimously approved the companys request.

You name it, we build it anymore, Watchowski, who also owns Watchowski Design Service in Ubly, told planners. Name any car and we have a part on it, and thats not just the Big Three (Ford, GM and Chrysler).

Heres a look at some of the local expansions at Gemini Group facilities in the past years:

 January 2015: Valley Enterprises, a division of Gemini Group, plans to add 10 full-time jobs and pour $125,000 into a new driveway, while local government rebuilds a portion of Leppek Road to accommodate the growth.

At the time, Bingham Township Supervisor Donald Wright said Valley Enterprises was one of the townships main contributors of tax revenue. Township trustee Kevin Grifka said Valley has provided job growth with huge expansions in the last few years.

 October 2013: Regency Plastics, a division of Gemini Group, completes a $1 million, 30,000-square-foot addition that Plant Manager Cliff Braun says could bring 12 to 15 jobs over the next two to three years.

The plant produces tractor seat pans, auto parts and parts for chainsaws and other lawn items. Regency said in August 2012 it had 91 employees. By March 2014, the count was 110.

 February 2011: Gemini Group plans to invest $53 million to renovate, upgrade and expend in Huron County. The company expects a project to create up to 290 direct new jobs and retain up to 555 direct jobs, resulting in state tax credits valued at $6.56 million over eight years.

The Michigan Economic Growth Authority said at the time Gemini Group chose Michigan over competing sites in Texas and Mexico.

 September 2007: Thumb Tool & Engineering expands to add a heat-treating operation as part of a $1.6 million project.

The project gains support from the Michigan Department of Transportation, which provides an $8,200 grant, and the city of Bad Axe, which provides a $2,050 matching grant. The money would widen the Liberty Street and Skinner Road intersection in Bad Axe, which trucks use to get to and from Thumb Tool & Engineerings loading docks.
Increasingly popular e-cigarettes and cigar varieties could be exempt from new Food and Drug Administration rules if House Republicans have their way. The effort alarms Democrats and public health advocates who argue it could lead to unsafe products.

Legislation approved by a House committee last month would ease rules announced by the FDA on Thursday to regulate e-cigarettes for the first time. The legislation would prevent the FDA from requiring retroactive safety reviews of e-cigarettes already on the market and exempt some premium and large cigars from those same regulations. E-cigarette products introduced in the future would face the safety reviews.

Vaping and cigar companies have pushed the exemptions, arguing that their products are safer than cigarettes and even help some cigarette smokers quit. They say many of the small businesses that make their products would go out of business once the rules are in place.

Public health groups say the regulations could allow many newer tobacco products to escape scrutiny just as more people, including teenagers, are using them. Cigarette smoking has decreased in recent years, but vaping and cigar smoking have risen, and some of those products come in flavors appealing to teenagers and young adults.

The legislation "pretty much comes down to driving a bus through public health protections," said Erika Sward of the American Lung Association.

The FDA's rules are aimed at eventually taming the fast-growing "vaping" industry. E-cigarettes are plastic or metal tubes, usually the size of a cigarette, that heat a liquid nicotine solution instead of burning tobacco. That creates vapor the user inhales.

The nicotine-infused vapor of e-cigarettes looks like smoke but doesn't contain all the chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes.

The rules will require e-cigarette brands marketed since February 2007 to undergo premarket reviews retroactively. The FDA will then ensure the product is "appropriate for the protection of the public health." If not, the agency could take it off the market.

Republicans said the premarket review will be a lengthy and expensive process. Gregory Conley, president of the American Vaping Association, says each review could cost more than a million dollars.

"There are thousands of small businesses and tens of thousands of jobs on the line," Conley said.

In addition to e-cigarettes, the FDA rules and the House legislation apply to other unregulated tobacco products such as cigars, hookahs, nicotine gels, waterpipe tobacco and dissolvable tobacco products. The FDA already regulates cigarettes, smokeless tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco products.

Cigars that would be exempted under the House bill would be premium and large cigars, including those that are hand rolled. An owner of one smaller cigar company pushing the legislation, the Tampa-based J.C. Newman Cigar Co., says customers for Newman's premium cigars are generally 45 and older.

"We are not the problem, but we could become an unintended consequence," said Eric Newman.

The legislation could make it easier for Cuban cigar companies to export to the U.S. market, if they are ever allowed.

Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids says the legislation is written broadly enough that some cheap, flavored cigars could fall under the exemption.

The legislation "is particularly tragic because of the very large numbers of young people who over the last several years have begun using these two specific products," Myers said of cigars and e-cigarettes.

The cigar exemption was included in the original agriculture spending bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala. The House Appropriations Committee approved on April 19 an amendment that would eliminate the pre-market reviews for products introduced after 2007.

The Senate has not weighed in on the e-cigarette regulations.

Lawmakers have long enjoyed a close relationship with the tobacco industry, which has already given more than $1.8 million to members of Congress this election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Often, they are smokers themselves. Former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was a smoker, and Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., supported the industry this year by vaping at a congressional hearing.

When Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., offered an amendment at the House Appropriations Committee meeting to drop the cigar exemptions, the chairman, Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., hinted he enjoys cigars as he called for a vote.

"In complete and full disclosure," Rogers said, his sentence trailing off to laughter. "I'm a sinner."

The amendment was rejected.
A small team of U.S. troops was on the ground in Yemen and Navy ships with Marines aboard were offshore to support friendly forces against an al-Qaeda offshoot as the U.S. deepened its involvement in yet another Mideast civil war, the Pentagon said Friday.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, declined to say how many U.S. troops were in Yemen near the port city of Mukalla, a former stronghold of the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula terror group, or whether they were Special Forces.

Davis said it was a "very small team" that had been sent into Yemen two weeks ago and was expected to be withdrawn soon. "We view this as short term," he said.

In addition, the U.S. has been conducting anti-terror airstrikes in Yemen against the terror organization apart from the effort to assist local forces on the ground, Davis said. Four airstrikes since April 23 had killed an estimated 10 fighters, he said.

The amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, lead ship for an amphibious ready group with Marines from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard, and two Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez, were also positioned off Mukalla, Davis said.

The troops on the ground and the ships offshore together were providing "airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, advice and assistance with operational planning, maritime interdiction and security operations, medical support and aerial refueling," Davis said.

At a Pentagon briefing, the spokesman was vague on the mission of the troops but stressed that they were not advising and assisting friendly forces much like similar teams embedded in Iraq and Syria.

After some back and forth with reporters on the semantics of how to characterize the troops, Davis said it was appropriate to call them an "intelligence support team. We have a small number of people who have been providing intelligence support."

Davis said that the U.S. troops were supporting forces of the United Arab Emirates, but in a sign of the complexity of Yemen's civil war, forces of Yemen's embattled government and troops from Saudi Arabia were also involved in the drive to oust al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula from Mukalla.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington said in a statement "Saudi forces are also on the ground alongside the UAE forces in Mukalla and that it is a Saudi-led Arab Coalition that is fighting AQAP alongside the U.S. military contingent on the ground."

The U.S. National Counter-Terrorism Center has described the terror group as "a Sunni extremist group based in Yemen that has orchestrated numerous high-profile attacks" against the U.S. It was the organization that sent Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a Northwest Airlines flight over Detroit on Christmas day 2009 to detonate explosives in his pants but other passengers foiled the attack.

The group's most prominent operative was the charismatic Anwar al-Awlaki, a dual U.S. and Yemeni citizen, who communicated with Army Maj. Nidal Hasan prior to Hasan's shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, killing 13 people. Al-Awlaki was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011.

Davis said that the organization remained fixated on attacking the U.S. "This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organization in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that," he said.

Yemen's civil war has killed more than 6,200 people, displaced more than 2.5 million and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in one of the world's poorest countries, according to the United Nations and human rights groups.

The war began in March 2015 when Houthi rebels, members of the Shia Zaydi sect and backed by Iran, overran the capital of Sanaa, forcing the government of Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee. A month later, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula took over Mukalla.

Saudi Arabia then came to the aid of Hadi, forming a coalition of Arab states including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Senegal and Sudan.

Davis said the U.S. involvement was specifically aimed at "at routing AQAP from Mukalla, and that has largely occurred," suggesting that the ships and troops would quickly be withdrawn.

--Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
The Astros have optioned Evan Gattis to Double-A, where hell get comfortable behind the plate, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle reports (links to Twitter). Houston has yet to utilize the 29-year-old as a catcher, but he broke into the league in that position. With the organization one of several struggling with receiving depth, it seems hell have a chance to don the tools of ignorance once again. Gattis, whos off to a rough start at the plate (.213/.269/.328), says that hes excited at the development. Kaplan suggests that Gattis is unlikely to spend more than the requisite ten days on optional assignment.

Heres more from the AL West:
The Angels were at Kyle Lohses recent showcase, Jon Heyman writes (Twitter links). Heyman also notes that they have considered Tim Lincecum, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle and others had previously noted.

Theres no indication yet that the Angels interest in either player is serious, although their connection to two veteran starters is still worth noting, given their apparent need for rotation help. Angels starters Garrett Richards and Andrew Heaney both have UCL damage, and Richards, at least, will require Tommy John surgery. The injuries leave the Angels rotation thin, and as Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times points out, the Angels trades of prospects Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis last season and their poorly rated farm system will make it difficult to trade for a good starting pitcher.

That leaves them as logical suitors for pitchers like Lohse and Lincecum who remain on the free agent market. Lohse, who had a showcase yesterday, posted a 5.85 ERA, 6.4 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in an ugly 2015 season with Milwaukee but was reasonably successful in the four seasons prior to that. What Lincecum might be able to contribute as he returns from hip surgery is unclear, but hes still fairly young, at 31, and was once a superstar.

With Richards, Heaney and C.J. Wilson unavailable, the Angels rotation currently consists of Jered Weaver, Hector Santiago and Nick Tropeano. Cory Rasmus, normally a reliever, started Friday night, although he allowed five runs over just 2 1/3 innings. Nate Smith or Matt Shoemaker, both currently with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, could also be candidates to take big-league starts, as DiGiovanna notes. Tyler Skaggs is also on a rehab assignment with the Bees, although he was shut down two weeks ago with biceps tendinitis and has not pitched since.
YPSILANTI -- Ann Arbor Community High School celebrated the 2016 prom at Eastern Michigan University's McKenny Hall Friday night.

This year's theme was 'A Night of Mystery.' It was a clue game designed by students. Attendees had to use the clues in the ball room to find out who kidnapped their favorite teacher Steve Coron.

More than 240 students and guests attended this prom which included a photo booth, DJ, and performance from their own student band, Earl Grey and the Teabaggers.

Check out photos from the event.
ANN ARBOR, MI -- Ann Arbor Police arrested a suspect Saturday, May 7 in an armed robbery near the University of Michigan's campus.

At 9 a.m. Friday, May 6 in the 600 block of East Washington Street, a suspect approached a woman and asked her for money, according to Ann Arbor police.

The woman reached for her money, but the suspect produced a gun and demanded it, police say. The man then fled west on Washington Street.

According to police, the suspect as a black man in his 20s, 5-feet, 10-inches tall with a slender-to-medium build. He was last seen wearing a long-sleeve white shirt and dark pants or jeans, and he was carrying a royal blue sweatshirt and a dark backpack.

Lindsay Knake is a cops and courts reporter for The Ann Arbor News. Follow her on twitter or contact her at 989-372-2498 or lknake@mlive.com.
Holding Check.jpg

Thelen Subaru raises momey for the Good Samaritan Rescue Mission

(Picasa)

BAY CITY, MI -- As part of its ongoing support of local communities, Subaru of America Inc. and Thelen Subaru raised $9,834 for Good Samaritan Rescue Mission of Bay City.

In addition to the national participating charities, Subaru retailers could also elect a local charity to help support their community. Thelen Subaru selected Good Samaritan Rescue Mission as its "hometown charity" choice for Subaru's Share the Love program.

From Nov. 19, 2015, to Jan. 2, 2016, customers who purchased or leased a new Subaru vehicle selected from a list of charities to receive a donation of $250 from Subaru.

Thelen Subaru is located at 4211 N Euclid Ave.
DETROIT -- At least nine people were shot in several incidents across the city Friday.

Five were shot in a single incident on the 12300 block of Gratiot Avenue on Detroit's east side, police around 8 p.m., police.

One of the victims in that incident died. Another was left in critical condition.

Three other shootings occurred in separate locations between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m., one of them fatal, police said.

Police said Saturday it was too early to determine whether any of the shootings were related.

Earlier in the day, a man was shot while driving on I-94 near M-10 around noon. That victim was left in critical condition at Henry Ford Hospital.

The gunfire came from another vehicle on the highway. The victim managed to bring his vehicle to a stop without causing a crash after being shot, a state police spokesman said.

A passenger in the car suffered minor injuries from broken glass.

Police did not believe the highway shooting was random, indicating the victim was targeted over "sort sort of dispute."

No immediate arrests were made in any of the shootings Friday.

Friday's series of shootings came a day after a father was shot to death in front of his two small children.

The 27-year-old man was in a van with a 39-year-old old woman and two girls, ages 1 and 5, at Rosa Parks Boulevard and Glynn Court when a black Chevy Impala with a silver stripe drove past and gunman inside fired shots around 7:20 p.m. Thursday in the city's historic Boston-Edison district.

The man died and the woman suffered non-life-threatening injuries.



"My deepest prayers and sympathy go out to the family of the young father of 2 children who was shot and killed Thursday night on Glynn Court and Rosa Parks Blvd.," said Detroit Councilwoman Mary Sheffield in a statement issued Friday evening.

"I join residents of this close knit community in their outrage, and call on anyone with knowledge of the shooter's whereabouts to speak up... The recent rash of homicides in Detroit and District 5 has renewed my resolve to continue the work of making our neighborhoods safer."

Anyone with any information on any of the crimes is asked to call Detroit police, or to leave tips anonymously via Crime Stoppers, 1-800-SPEAK-UP.


PONTIAC -- A police chase ended in a crash and an arrest Thursday, and dashcam footage of the incident was released Friday.

Oakland County Sheriff's deputies were called to the parking lot of an auto parts store on Perry Street around 3 a.m. after a call reporting a suspicious vehicle.

When police arrived, the 29-year-old driver of the suspicious vehicle sped away, and continued to flee when the deputy activated lights and siren.

The driver accelerated through a neighborhood and lost control at Kettering and Madison avenues, striking a light pole, a vehicle and a fence, according to police.

"He exited the vehicle he refused orders to lay on the ground and continued toward the deputy," the sheriff's office reported. "The deputy repeatedly told him to stop and to lay on the ground. He refused and the Deputy then deployed his Taser and he was taken into custody."

A pat-down search revealed a small amount of marijuana in the Pontiac man's pocket.

DTE Energy replaced the light pole and the suspect was taken to McLaren Oakland Hospital.

He remained in custody at the hospital Friday with charges pending.

Dashcam footage of the chase can be viewed above.
PONTIAC, MI -- Students from Bentley High School danced the night away during prom on Friday, May 6.

This year had a Hollywood theme and the prom was held at The Crowfoot in Pontiac. Students didn't know where the prom was going to be held this year, but met at Bentley High School to take buses to the secret location.

Tashira Hall and Dominic Johnson, both 18, made a fairytale entrance when they arrived at the school in a white carriage pulled by a large white horse.

Our goal is to be at all the dances, but we want your help documenting these events, too. We want you -- students, parents, and school liaisons -- to send us your prom photos.

Please email photos to flphoto@mlive.com. Make sure to include your name and school and we'll add your photos to our online community photo galleries.
FLINT, MI -- Genesee Early College students definitely didn't celebrate prom Friday night, May 6.

But, they did get styled up and danced the night away at the Northbank Center near downtown Flint for the school's last formal dance of the year.

The theme of the dance? "Definitely not prom."

"We didn't want to support what prom normally stands for, and were not like a normal high school, so we didn't want to have a normal prom," Delphine Garcia, student government adviser said.

Garcia and Frank Newsome, who is also a student government adviser at the five-year high school that combines college-level and high school courses, explained that they wanted to keep prom all-inclusive.

For the same reasons, the class did not vote for a prom king and queen, either.

Garcia said 95 tickets to the dance were sold.

Our goal is to be at all the dances, but we want your help documenting these events, too. We want you -- students, parents and school liaisons -- to send us your prom photos.

Please email photos to flphoto@mlive.com. Make sure to include your name and school and we'll add your photos to our online community photo galleries.
FLINT, MI - About 190 students danced the night away at the for Powers Catholic High School's prom Friday, May 6.

Students were greeted by a masquerade theme for this year's prom at Atlas Valley Country Club in Grand Blanc.

Powers was one of 11 schools competing for The Flint Journal prom of the week title. The high school received more than 2,500 votes making them this week's winner and their prom will be featured in an upcoming issue of The Flint Journal.

The Journal will be out this year covering about 30 Genesee County high school proms helping families share memorable moments of their high school students' big day.

Check out the slideshow above to see The Flint Journal's photos from the night. If you have pictures from Clio's prom that you would like to share, email them to flphoto@mlive.com.
Rabat (AFP) - A Moroccan court has sentenced the younger brother of suspected Paris attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud to two years in prison on charges including justifying terrorism, state media reported.

According to his lawyer, Yassine Abaaoud was unaware of the activities of his brother, who was killed in a French police raid just days after the November 13 attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.

Moroccan intelligence helped put French investigators on the trail of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin who had appeared in grisly Islamic State group videos and was linked to a series of plots in Europe.

Five other defendants were sentenced to between two and five years in prison on separate terrorism related cases by the same court in Rabat's twin city Sale on Thursday, the MAP state news agency reported.

Morocco, on guard against deadly attacks like those seen in Tunisia, says it has broken up 152 "terrorist cells" since 2002, including 31 with ties to jihadists in Iraq and Syria since 2013.
Kinshasa (AFP) - Three Red Cross workers kidnapped by armed men in the restive eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been released, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Saturday.

"We are relieved that their ordeal is over and that they are now back, safe and sound, with their families It's the end of their ordeal," said the head of the ICRC's delegation in DR Congo, Alessandra Menegon.

"However, we deeply regret that this abduction took place. These kind of acts put at risk the work of aid workers who are trying to help people who are suffering greatly from conflict," Menegon said in a statement.

An ICRC spokeswoman in eastern DR Congo told AFP that the three workers had returned to Goma city, the capital of North-Kivu province, on Saturday morning -- a day after their release.

"No ransom was paid by the ICRC," said the spokeswoman, Elisabeth Cloutier.

Contact was lost Tuesday with the three ICRC workers, who were part of a convoy heading to the town of Kyaghala where they were going to distribute aid to people affected by the conflict.

A local official has previously said the three workers were Congolese nationals.

On Wednesday, the ICRC announced it was suspending planned travel in the region.

Attacks against aid workers are regular occurences in the area, which has suffered chronic unrest for two decades.

The strife is fuelled by local armed groups and others committing ethnic-related violence, or over land or the region's mineral wealth.

In early March three Congolese workers for Save the Children were taken hostage for seven days by unidentified kidnappers in Lubero, in central North Kivu province.
07.05.2016 LISTEN

Nana Barimah Kwaku Duah, the Asantehene, is 66 today.

Before his ascension, many, myself included, doubted the relevance of chieftaincy to our modern nation. Each and everyday, during his reign, he has made the case, through his actions, that the ancient institution of chieftaincy can still be the anchor of a modern nation.

He has established an Educational Fund that educates thousands.

His interventions in public policy have been substantive.

His criticisms of public officials have been constructive.

Despite these noteworthy achievements, the area where this monarch and alumnus of Osei Kyeretwie Secondary school will leave his greatest legacy is in the area of peace-making. His ancestors used to make war but he makes peace.

He has worked tirelessly on Dagbon and but for middling politicians, there would be peace.

He has strived to lower tensions before and during elections-- As he did in 2012.

He has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to reconcile factions in both of our major political parties.

He dispenses profound advice to our leaders, as I and many others can attest to.

And he has humility.

My admiration and good wishes for him is boundless.

Nana, Happy birthday.

May God lengthen your years so that you can continue in your role as PEACEMAKER! !!

Arthur K
The Kenyan governments decision to close down two large refugee camps, including the worlds biggest at Dadaab, is likely to put thousands of innocent lives at risk, said Amnesty International today.

This reckless decision by the Kenyan government is an abdication of its duty to protect the vulnerable and will put thousands of lives at risk, said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty Internationals Regional Director for East Africa, the Horn and the Great Lakes.

It could lead to the involuntary return of thousands of refugees to Somalia and other countries of origin, where their lives may still be in danger. This would be in violation of Kenyas obligations under international law.

In a statement, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Dr Karanja Kibicho, said the decision to close Dadaab and Kakuma camps was due to immense security challenges such as the threat of Al-Shabaab.

He said Kenya had hosted more than 600,000 refugees for over a quarter of a century and had shouldered a very heavy economic, security and environmental burden.

He also asked for the support of the international community to expedite the process.

While it is true that resettlement to third countries has been slow, Kenya should itself consider permanent solutions towards the full integration of refugees, some of whose stay in Kenya is now over generations, said Muthoni Wanyeki. Forced return to situations of persecution or conflict is not an option.
By Iddi Yire, GNA

Accra, May 6, GNA - Mr Millison Narh, the First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, has hailed BEIGE Capital Savings and Loans Limited for their impressive performance on the nation's financial landscape over the past few years.

He also confirmed, to customers, the leadership of BEIGE Capital in the Savings & Loans category of Financial Service Providers in the country.

He explained that, having laid strong business structures for expansion, BEIGE Capital Savings and Loans continues to set a high standard for her peers in the industry and has recorded laudable achievements, which reflect the hard work of both staff and management of the Company.

Mr Narh gave the commendation at the BEIGE Capital awards night, dubbed: 'The RED Ball,' during which 38 staff of the Group who distinguished themselves in their line of duties were honoured.

The RED Ball started in 2010, and this year's edition which was the 4th to be organised by the company, also sought to honour distinguished costumers for their loyal support.

Mr Narh noted that in an era where the strength of an organisation is directly associated with its customer's satisfaction, 'having good and excellent staff is very crucial to the survival of the business'.

The Deputy Governor said the Central Bank remains committed to ensuring that there was total sanity on the nation's financial landscape.

Mr Michael Nyinaku, the Chief Executive Officer of BEIGE Capital Savings and Loans, congratulated the staff for their hard work and support over the years.

He said the progress of BEIGE Capital Savings and Loans in the country's financial sector shows the worth of its employees and clients, and the institution now commanded leadership in the country's financial sector.

He however, said, they would not be complacent about their feats since the competition was getting keener in the industry.

GNA
The Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper has panned the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for allegedly assaulting a constituency Chairman and a Member of Parliament.

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, speaking on Joy FM and Multi TV's news analysis programme, Newsfile Saturday, expressed disappointment in Bernard Antwi Boasiako for his actions even though the allegations are yet to be proven.

Bernard Antwi Boasiako allegedly slapped the Member of Parliament for Manhyia North and assaulted the Constituency Secretary, Felix Ibrahim on May 1 during the first phase of the Limited Voters' Registration exercise in Kumasi.

Mr Boasiako who is popularly known as 'Chairman Wuntumi was detained for a night after he turned himself in to the Police in Kumasi, Tuesday, May 3.

Some supporters of the NPP besieged the Central Police Station to demand his release. He was arraigned before court and charged with assault.

He was granted a 20,000 bail on Wednesday after the complainants withdrew the complaints and asked for out of court settlement.

Although the Chairman has denied assaulting the two, Mr Baako said he believes there was a form of assault on the two victims by the Chairman.

According to him, it has been stated in the brief facts that some policemen rescued the two complainants from the Chairman during the incident.

He indicated that "there were eyewitnesses, the two were given medical forms by the police to go to the hospital and are undergoing treatment, these are of evidential value. I don't think a ghost came from nowhere to assault the two guys. Nobody can convince me otherwise, so something went wrong."

The Veteran Journalist also condemned the conduct of the party supporters who besieged the police station, saying "That is no prescription for whatever you perceive as an infraction of his (Antwi Boasiako's) right."

Kweku Baako added that the actions of the regional party Chairman and the supporters have a negative effect on the image of the party both in the region and at the national level.

Contributing to this topic on the same platform, the Member of Parliament for Tamale Central Constituency, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini lambasted the NPP for not openly condemning the conduct of the Chairman.

Alhaji Fuseini who is also a lawyer said the differences between the three could have been resolved in an amicable way. He criticized the State-owned newspaper, Daily Graphic for publishing the story about the Chairman's bail on its front page.

Story by Ghana| Myjoyonline.com| Akosua Asiedua Akuffo| [email protected]
A federal jury this week convicted Evans Appiah, 27, on charges of wire and mail fraud, conspiracy and aggravated identify theft related to what authorities described as an Internet romance scheme with at least seven men and women.

In a six-day trial at the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, prosecutors said Appiah looked through online dating websites to initiate the relationships, including with victims in Wisconsin, California and Florida. Once he had their trust, prosecutors said, Appiah would ask for money.

Appiah and his co-conspirators often pitched false stories and promises to convince the victims to send them money, according to a statement from the office of Maryland U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein, which has prosecuted a series of similar cases.

The Silver Spring, Md., man searched popular online dating sites, posing as someone looking for love, prosecutors said. There were emails and instant messages that led to phone calls and texts as he courted potential partners.

But prosecutors said that once the man gained a persons trust, he used the promise of romantic relationships to obtain money  more than $600,000 over two years.

Four victims testified at trial, including a recently divorced high school guidance counselor. She paid Appiah $160,000, prosecutors said, for what he told her were emergency travel and health situations. Appiah had told the woman he was in love with her and would help raise her children, prosecutors said.

Appiah created 10 bank accounts to receive the funds, authorities said, and in some cases used the money to make purchases that he then shipped to others outside the United States.

In one instance, prosecutors said, Appiah used the name and other identity information of a victim as he deposited the victims cashiers check into his own bank account.

The scheme Appiah ran lasted from December 2013 to June 2015.

Appiahs attorney, Michael Rothman, declined to comment Thursday because his client faces sentencing in August. Appiah was taken into custody after the verdict on Wednesday and faces up to 20 years in prison on some of the charges.
By Kwamina Tandoh, GNA

Accra, May 7, GNA - Students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ) on Friday donated blood to the National Blood Service, Ghana in Accra as a sign of love to the role of mothers in the society.

The blood donation exercise was to commemorate this year's Mother's Day celebration.

Mother's Day is a modern celebration honouring one's own mother, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May.

Miss Selina Afia Agyeman Antwi, Student of GIJ, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), said this was a unique way donors can encourage Ghanaian women who have played a significant role in their lives and in the country while promoting the importance of donating blood'.

Miss Antwi said Ghana has not being able to achieve Goal 4 of the Millennium Development Goals which is to reduce child mortality because of health related issues which included blood.

She said every day, hundreds of women die from causes related to complications of pregnancy and childbirth, severe bleeding during pregnancy, delivery or after childbirth- the single biggest cause of maternal death, hence the donation was to help mothers at the hospitals to deliver babies safely.

Mr Stephen Addai-Baah, Public Relations Officer, National Blood Service, commended the students for the move and urged all clubs, institutions to form voluntarily blood donation clubs in their various institutions to donate blood to save lives because lives lost as a result of non availability of blood keeps increasing.

He said the National Blood Service Ghana would soon introduce the mobile trailer that would be positioned in every community to encourage people to donate blood.

He called on all Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of making regular blood donation to the hospitals to help save lives.

GNA
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The two candidates vying for the vacated seventh seat on Morgan Hill Unified School Districts board of education took center stage May 5 for a public forum inside the Morgan Hill Community Playhouse.

Homegrown product Thomas Arnett, 31, a well-traveled education researcher by profession who graduated through the MHUSD school system, and former classified union president Pamela Torrisi, 64, a retired MHUSD paraeducator of 34 years and Live Oak High School alumna, fielded a variety of questions from a four-person panel.

It was the first and only scheduled debate between the two school board candidateswho did their best to sway the more than 80 local voters in attendance into their corner come the June 7 election.

While they agreed on almost all topics coveredfrom a need for higher teacher salaries to intense evaluations of charter schools to a more robust career technical education program to an increase in school academic counselorsthe two candidates were shaped from different backgrounds.

In detailing his answers, Arnett drew from his experiences as a former student at San Martin/Gwinn Elementary, Britton Middle School and Live Oak, as well as his time as a classroom teacher in Kansas City, Missouri and current employment for a national, nonprofit think tank called the Clayton Christensen Institute.

I care about our community and I care about our schools, said Arnett, a father of three young children who will soon be entering local schools. Education is something Im passionate aboutI think I bring a valuable perspective to the board.

In her responses, Torrisi stressed the value of her extensive work pedigree at MHUSD assisting inside classrooms with a diverse group of students, including special education, at all grade levels. She also touted her union leadership skills as a 10-year head for the Service Employees International Union and part of the negotiating team.

Im running because I have a passion for teaching children. I have a passion for MHUSD, said Torrisi, who garnered endorsements from her former classified union and the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers. I firmly believe I am the best choice for this school board position.

The position the candidates took Thursday night on local education issues were quite similar, as audience members attempted to distinguish between the two.

I was looking for their differences and, after the first three questions, I wasnt seeing any differences (in their responses), said American Association of University Women co-President Mary Cox, who took notes during the proceedings. I thought it was a good panel, but I didnt feel a lot of differences came out.

The current six-member school board is one short after the resignation of former trustee Amy Porter-Jensen back in October 2015. The remaining members were unable to come to a majority on an appointment to fill the remaining months of Porter-Jensens term. Thus an election was ordered leaving it up to the voters.

I think maybe because of the past shenanigans of the school board, people expected (the candidates debate) to be testy or polarizing, but I didnt see that at all, Cox added. I think both of them answered the questions very intelligently, carefully and their responses were well thought out.

Four members of the current school board, President Bob Benevento and Trustees David Gerard, Rick Badillo and Gino Borgioli, were in attendance Thursday evening as well as Assistant Superintendent Ramon Zavala.

Two different kinds of experience, but I thought they both did very well, said Gerard of the two candidates performance at the forum.

Benevento also indicated that both candidates performed well during the nerve-racking question-answer format in front of more than 80 residents while generating their answers from their different life experiences.

The forum was sponsored by Morgan Hill Life, the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce and the AAUW. Life editor Robert Airoldi, Chamber Director John Horner, Ann Sobrato High School senior Parth Shah and AAUW past president Janet McElroy served as the panelists. The moderator was Margo Hinnenkamp of AAUW.
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In an attempt to intimidate his nephew, Aemond threatened to take out Lucerys' eye and later went after the young prince on dragon's back. The situation escalated to a bad one when Lucerys' dragon Arrax blew fire on Aemond's dragon Vhagar.
Nacogdoches, TX (75965)

Today

Cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 80F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Thunderstorms likely. Potential for severe thunderstorms. Low 51F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Someone should sue the President for ...
TCSD and K-9 Hans standoff with burglars on Good Shepard Drive in Sonora View Photos

Sonora, CA  In a twist, an alert resident tipped Tuolumne County Sheriffs Deputies off to the thieves after noticing suspicious activity at a home on Good Shepherd Drive in Sonora not knowing it was actually his neighbor, moving stolen loot inside the home.

The chain of events that led to the standoff began around 7 a.m. on Thursday when deputies took a burglary report from a homeowner on Confidence Road in Twain Harte. The thieves had broken into the house sometime in the past couple of days stealing a gun, several flat screen televisions, a lap top computer, numerous personal items and a white 2015 Lexus 350 car. It was three hours later that the call came into the sheriffs department alerting deputies to the possible burglary in progress at a home on Good Shepard Drive in Sonora. Deputies spotted the Lexus in the driveway of the home and surrounded it, but instead of storming into the home they ordered the suspects to surrender over a loud speaker. Sgt. Andrea Benson explains, There was a gun stolen from the burglary on Confidence Road. It was unknown if there were weapons in the home or if they had possession of a gun. For the deputies safety, they stayed back until they were able to contact and get the suspects to come out of the home.

After several attempts, K-9 Hans was called to the scene with threats to send the dog into the home. The thieves still refused to come out of the home prompting a SWAT team to be called to the scene. Several more tense moments passed, and then finally the two men surrendered.

Surprisingly, one of the suspects a residentof the home, 33-year-old Randall Ghione. He and his accomplice, 32-year-old Jacob Murray of Sonora were arrested and booked for possession of a stolen vehicle and burglary. Ghione remains in custody on a $50,000 bail.

Murray also had several warrants out for his arrest among them a felony for failing to appear on a stolen vehicle charge and three misdemeanor drug related charges. He is being held on $120,000 bail.

Once inside the home, deputies found .29 grams of methamphetamine along with some of the stolen items from the Confidence Road burglary. However, the gun, laptop and flat screens have not yet been recovered.
Clermont Police said they have arrested the man who led a 9-year-old girl into a library bathroom.

Police: Aaron Moseley arrested for incident at Cooper Library Wednesday

9-year-old girl says Moseley took her into bathroom and kissed her



Crimeline tip led to arrest



Aaron Moseley, 25, was taken into custody Friday night and charged with kidnapping and battery.

Police said he grabbed the girl by the hand and took her into the upstairs mens bathroom.

It happened Wednesday between 6 and 7 p.m. at the Cooper Memorial Library. Police said surveillance video shows Moseley in the library at the time.

Authorities said the girl was there for tutoring when he led her into the bathroom.

Investigators said once inside the bathroom, Moseley checked the stalls to make sure they were empty.

They said he then picked her up by the waist and kissed her on the cheek, forehead and the lips.

Investigators said Moseley admitted he was at Cooper Memorial Library, but refused to answer questions.

He is being held on a $26,000 bond.

Police are crediting a Crimeline tip for helping them identify Moseley as a suspect in the case.
Volusia County council members are calling for a ban on bear hunts, at least in the county.

Volusia County wants to stop the state from allowing bear hunts in the county

Last year 304 bears were killed in the state's first hunt in over 20 years

FWC to discuss another hunt at the June meeting

Jamie Schertler lives in the River Bend Acres subdivision near Ormond Beach, an area so familiar with bears in backyards that the landowner's association posted a sign letting everyone know bears could pop out of nowhere at any time.

One bear visits Schertler's home frequently.

"He's been in our yard picking through the trash, he has been resting against a tree," said Schertler.

Schertler and countless other county residents applaud Volusia County council's idea to try to ban bear hunting.

"I agree that they should stop it. It was upsetting to me when they killed the bears, especially when I hear that so many mother bears were killed and the cubs were left alone," said Schertler.

More than 300 bears were hunted and killed last year during the state's first sanctioned bear hunt in decades. About 20 of those bears were killed in Volusia County.

The state is considering another bear hunt. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials are expected to discuss options at the June meeting in Apalachicola.

The resolution passed by council members will head to FWC officials in Tallahassee, telling state leaders that should a second bear hunt happen, Volusia County doesn't want it to happen in county homeowner's backyards.

New estimates released in March show Florida's bear population is up 60 percent compared to estimates done in 2002.
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The Lord truly works in mysterious ways.

Molly Stringer of Floydada credits an unknown hacker who attacked her computer four years ago as being indirectly responsible for getting her started doing a daily inspirational blog. Those brief messages containing accounts of daily living and other timely comments have been compiled into the first two books of Stringers Just Checking In series, and delivered by the printer this past week. A third is now on the way to her publisher, with one or two more books planned in the series.

I dont expect to get rich or make a lot of money from these books, Stringer admits. But I hope to leave this as a family legacy, and a ministry. This is really a very personal history of day-to-day life.

Stringer will have a book signing at Waylands University Book Store in Plainview from noon to 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 18. Another book signing has been scheduled in Floydada on Saturday, May 28, in conjunction with the Floyd County Old Settlers Celebration. She will be at Hardys Classic Cars in Floydada from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Copies of the book are available at the University Book Store at Wayland as well as from Amazon and through the publisher Xlibris - www.xlibris.com, in hardback ($29.99), paperback ($19.99) and E-book ($3.99).

After my computer was hacked, Stringer told the Herald, I changed my email address, and send out a message to all my contacts simply saying, Just Checking In to make sure they all received my message. The next day, she sent out another Just Checking In message, adding a short inspirational thought.

Thus began a daily pattern, with Stringer sharing a daily devotional or personal story. Soon, she was receiving requests from others asking to be added to her email blog.

As interest in the blog grew, her enthusiasm did as well.

I often woke up in the midnight hours with thoughts and stories from my life and experiences others had shared with me, she write in the introduction of There You Have It! My mind is constantly open to receive what God brings to me. My purpose and goal is to bring encouragement and life-changing meaning to those who read my blogs.

Stringer was born in Eastland County and grew up in Wellman before moving to Kress in 1955, and later to the Floyd County community of Sandhill. Thats where she met her future husband, Bill - in the Sandhill Baptist Church. They were married in that church almost 60 years ago, and lived and farmed at Sandhill. Stringer also worked as a registered nurse in hospitals and clinics at Lockney and Floydada for 25 years. Now retired, she and her husband live in Floydada.

They have three children - Christy and husband Paul Newberry, music evangelists who live in Arlington; Melody and husband Jim Roberts who are in the medical field in Burleson and have a 16-year-old daughter; and son Steve who lives in Floydada.

Stringer began working on her books not long after she and Bill completed a fairly significant ministry, conducting worship services for five years at the RV park where they stayed each summer for three months. I felt sad that this ministry had ended, and my brother James Earp suggested that I consider putting all of these stories in a book. To help her get started, James drove from his home in Denton to Floydada and set up her computer with Microsoft Word, and I have never looked back.

Stringer explains that her books consist of life stories that are real, funny and sad. The people in these stories have really marked my life. I have grown in my spirit as I have shared my life and then been able to add a moral and spiritual thought to inspire those who read my words just as I have been inspired to write them.

While readers will quite likely break into an occasional smile as they read Stringers books, she points out that they are not just feel-good books of nice platitudes. It is real life stories of failures, of those who suffer, forgive, and live their way in our world, and yet become survivors, to live another day, week, month or many years, trying to create their life, their home, their family, their community, their church, and ultimately their country into a better place.

Along the way, she shares some very personal stories. One involves her husband Bill, buying a new pair of Wrangler jeans at Walmart without trying them on. After having them washed and starched, he discovered that he would have to cut down on the cherry pies he occasionally treats himself to at McDonalds while shopping at Walmart. Of course, one solution he tried to help cope with overly tight jeans was to flatten his billfold with his shop vise.

Another time, he took their toaster into the bathroom so as not to interrupt his wife as she blogged while at the kitchen table. Of course, he banged a few cabinet doors, and regular doors, along the way.
A Plainview martial arts and gymnastics teacher has pleaded guilty to a charge of injury to a child and misdemeanor assault. On Friday, Jesus "Jesse" Camargo Jr., 41, submitted a guilty plea to Judge Kregg Hukill's 242nd District Court. Camargo was originally charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact. He was arrested in February 2015 after a student told authorities Camargo inappropriately touched her in his martial arts studio in downtown Plainview. Hale County District Attorney Wally Hatch said the injury to a child charge was a state jail felony and Camargo received five years deferred adjudication probation. In brief, Camargo will serve probation for five years and if he does not violate probation terms the charge will be dropped from his record. Camargo also will have to pay a $3,000 fine and court costs. He does not have to register as a sex offender, but will face the extra monitoring and counseling that other sex offenders undergo. Camargo will also have to perform 320 hours of community service. In addition, he is not allowed to communicate with the victim or her family or visit places such as schools or playgrounds. Hatch said it is expected that Camargo will plead guilty Monday before Hale County Judge Bill Coleman for a Class A Misdemeanor Assault and will serve one year in jail with a day-for-day sentence. "The victim and her family approved the plea deal," Hatch said. "They were involved in the plea negotiations throughout the process, and agreed with the outcome."
After winter storm Goliath wreaked havoc on the South Plains Fair Grounds, Lubbock County Junior Stock Show moved its swine show last January to the Ollie Liner Center in Plainview.

Staged the weekend after Hale Countys show, Lubbocks stock show for 4-H and FFA brought more than 650 hogs to Plainview. In contrast, Hale Countys show had 501 animals, including 300 pigs.

While OLC was a bit crowded for Lubbock Countys larger event, show board President Michael Johnson said everything went smoothly considering the unusual circumstances. In fact, they went so well the Lubbock County Stock Show board wants to come back in 2017.

Johnson met with Hale County commissioners at Fridays work session in advance of Mondays regular session where he will formally request to return.

On Friday, Johnson said repairs to stock show facilities at the Lubbock fair grounds may not be finished in time for next years show, and his group needs to move forward with planning. We are at the point where we need to finalize dates for our judges, and to start putting together rulebook and show materials.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Mario Martinez, chairing the work session in County Judge Bill Colemans absence, recalled that Hale County welcomed the Lubbock show last year in a spirit of good neighbors, and it ended up being a positive experience for both parties. It was a good deal for us because it brought a lot of activity to the community.

If approved Monday by commissioners, Lubbock County would start setting up following Hale Countys premium auction on Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, with Lubbocks swine judging on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 20-21.

Also Monday, commissioners will be asked to sign off on a grant request by the Halfway Water Supply Corp. to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. A year ago, the community applied for grant to drill a new water well due to critically reduced supplies.

Precinct 4 Commissioner Benny Cantwell reported Friday that Halfway missed out on that round of funding, but hopes to be successful this time. If approved, the county would administer the grant in a pass-through process like it did with similar grants to Seth Ward Community Water Authority.

According to TCEQ, Halfway WSC serves 52 water connections and a population of 100.

In other action Monday, commissioners are to review and approve activity reports from Lubbock UMC for Abernathy EMS and from Petersburg Volunteer Fire Department; consider renewing its contract with Thyssenkrupp Elevator Co.; and consider hiring personnel for Precinct 1 Commissioner Harold Kings crew.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Monday in the Hale County Courthouse, 500 Broadway, and is open to the public.
Classical music listeners will be drawn to Lauren Belfers new novel, And After the Fire, but many of them may be in for an unpleasant jolt.

Belfers novel is a mix of history and fiction. The plot revolves around the historical fact that the beloved baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach, in some of his cantatas, incorporated anti-Semitic lyrics from texts originally written by religious reformer Martin Luther.

And After the Fire starts with two story lines separated by more than two centuries.

Just after World War II, U.S. soldier Henry Sachs, a fictional character finishing his tour in occupied Germany, finds an unknown J.S. Bach cantata manuscript in a Weimar home whose owners had been murdered during the war. Sachs brings the manuscript back to Buffalo, New York.

In 2010, Sachs dies, and his niece, Susanna Kessler, finds the manuscript in a piano bench in her uncles home, assigning the manuscript to her. Kessler then begins the process of learning whether the manuscript is authentic.

The novel alternates between that storyline and one that begins in 1776 in the Berlin home of an affluent Jewish family.

More Information And After the Fire By Lauren Belfer Harper, $26.99 See More Collapse

The teenaged daughter, Sara Levy, a historic figure, is the keyboard student of one of J.S. Bachs son, Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.

Fond of the girl, the elderly W.F. Bach gives one of his fathers cantata manuscripts to Sara as a wedding gift, along with a composition of his own.

The W.F. Bach wedding composition happened historically. The gift of the J.S. Bach cantata is fiction.

The rest of the novel unfolds a plot that brings these two stories together at the end.

The mysterious, fictional J.S. Bach cantata, when examined by musicologists, is considered especially offensive because it contains more anti-Semitic language than any of J.S. Bachs other known works.

The 21st-century fictional characters have to deal with the moral issues surrounding the manuscript at a time when Kessler is still coming to terms with a rape that eventually ended her marriage.

In Sara Levys story line, readers are treated to glimpses of historical figures she came to know in her own life, including brother-sister composers Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn, who had their own dramas of discrimination, having been born Jewish, but converted to Christianity at an early age.

In And After the Fire, the historic record is more interesting than the fiction. The novel is informative on the widespread discrimination against Jews, Catholics and Muslims that followed the Reformation.

Readers should feel free to ask themselves whether J.S. Bach, composer of so much brilliant music, would have held the same views were he alive centuries later.

dhendricks@express-news.net
Magik Theatre latest staging of "Charlotte's Web" is a lot of fun.

The show, adapted from E.B. White's classic novel by Joseph Robinette, is about a sweet-natured pig named Wilbur (Cody Asher) who is repeatedly prevented from being turned into bacon and other porky treats by those who love him.

First, Fern (Ashtyn Sonner), the daughter of the farmer (Dave Ankrom) who owns the farm where Wilbur was born, pleads with her dad not to kill the tiny piglet. Then, when he's been fattened up nicely and is on the verge of being slaughtered, a wise spider named Charlotte (Ariel Rosen) starts weaving pro-pig messages into her web, turning Wilbur into a celebrity. Her advocacy comes at a cost, though, and soon it is up to Wilbur to help her as her life force fades.

The tale is told by a narrator (well-played by Richard Solis) who occasionally appears to help move the story along.

The show, directed by Richard Rosen and artistic consultant Greg Hinojosa, moves along briskly. There's a burst of extremely entertaining anarchic fun in the middle, when Wilbur flees from a farmer (Dylan Collins) and a farmhand (Ankrom) who have come into the barn to put him down. He heads, of course, into the theater, where Asher mixes things up by climbing over seats rather than running up and down the rows.

The cast is strong, particularly those who embody the animals. Asher captures Wilbur's sunny disposition well, and Rosen delivers a strong performance as Charlotte, modulating her voice to give it a maternal quality that is pitch-perfect.

Jovi Lee and Solis bring a charming physicality to the geese, while Collins is amusingly cranky as the Old Sheep. And Devin Collins gives a thoroughly amusing performance as Templeton, the self-serving rat who finds his own personal Nirvana in the crumbs and other detritus he scavenges at the fair.

Susie Hamilton's costumes -- especially the elegant gray ensemble for Charlotte and the simple white clothing for the geese -- are terrific.

"Charlotte's Web" runs through June 11 at Magik Theatre, 420 S. Alamo St. Performance times vary. Tickets range from $12 to $15 at magiktheatre.org or by calling 210-227-2751.

dlmartin@express-news.net
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Suspected members of rival gangs put the Harris County criminal courthouse on high alert Thursday, a day after more than a dozen people were ejected from the courthouse for shouting and threatening each other.

More than a dozen deputies from the sheriff's office and the Precinct 1 constable's office lined the hallway outside of state District Judge Jan Krocker's courtroom Thursday, with more deputies from both agencies on the street outside in case of another disturbance.

The tensions may have contributed to a prosecution witness being jailed for contempt of court Thursday after refusing to testify despite repeated admonishments from the judge.

"I'm not saying anything," the 20-year-old man announced repeatedly on the witness stand.

Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen said a murder trial involving a known gang member brought several factions to court late Wednesday where they argued and had to be ejected from the courtroom.

He said the arguments increased in the hallway and more than a dozen people were escorted out of the 20-story courthouse at 1201 Franklin. Rosen said the increased police presence in and around the courthouse Thursday was "just in case."

"We just want to maintain a sense of decorum and keep everybody safe," he said.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers around the building said they witnessed large groups of young men, about 15 or 20 total, shouting at each other and challenging each other to fight as they were escorted out.

Rosen said Thursday he is investigating whether the altercations turned physical.

The man on trial, 23-year-old Jonathan Rawlins, is charged with murder, accused of gunning down Ernest Moore on May 17, 2015.

Moore, 21, was killed at a large pool party at the Chancellors Family Center in the 6500 block of Dumfries. Police said Moore was involved in a fistfight and when he tried to leave, he was followed and shot multiple times. He died at the scene. Another man, Dresean Holmes, 22, is also charged with murder in the case.

brian.rogers@chron.com

twitter.com/brianjrogers
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Dallas is spending up to $4,000 a day defending its ban on a porn expo that wants to set up shop in a city-owned convention center, according to reports.

RELATED: Police: Central Texas woman hit police officer in stomach with 'Karate Kid crane kick'

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.

Later that month, Three Expo Events sued the city in federal court, claiming that officials had violated convention runners' First Amendment rights.

RELATED: 'God is on my side' says high school football player who exposed himself in yearbook

The city's tab for lawyers fighting the Exxxotica adult expo in federal court hit $245,000 by mid-April, The Associated Press reported.

The Dallas Observer reported in April that the city had been coughing up $4,000 a day to pay outside attorneys in the case.

The city hired outside counsel because city attorneys had advised council members not to vote to ban Exxxotica, arguing that the city's ordinance regarding sexual oriented businesses did not apply to the convention, The Dallas Morning News reported.

RELATED: Texas woman convicted of beer theft did 'topless handstand' in witness room, investigator testifies

But, outside attorneys for the city alleged that the convention violated an agreement with the city to follow state law and city ordinances governing lewd acts when it set up shop at the convention center in 2015.

"Although [Exxxotica representative Jeffrey 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," an April 1 court filing reads.

The city also alleged that the convention in August 2015 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.

RELATED: Ted Cruz elbowed his wife Heidi in the face after quitting the Republican presidential race

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton backed the city's right to ban the porn convention in a court filing later that month, stating that the council's resolution was "both viewpoint neutral and 'reasonable in light of the purpose served by the forum.'"

Paxton wrote that the convention center is a "commercial enterprise" and "nonpublic forum" intended to stoke economic activity and generate revenue for the city, putting such resolutions within the council's authority.

U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater backed that sentiment in an April 21 ruling rejecting Three Expo Events' request for a temporary injunction that would allow the convention to be held later this month, court records show.

Fitzwater ruled that Three Expo Events had violated stipulations made with the city regarding the display of sexual content and nudity.

"On this record, the city has proved that its posited justifications for refusing to enter into a contract with Three Expo for Exxxotica in 2016 were reasonable in light of the purpose to be served by the convention center," Fitzwater ruled.

RELATED: Why Genene Jones, the 'Angel of Death' convicted of killing baby in 1980s, could go free in 2018

A trial date has not been scheduled, but amended pleadings in the case are due June 13.

jfechter@mySA.com

Twitter: @JFreports
SAN ANTONIO  A man allegedly shot two other men on the West Side following an altercation that occurred between the three mens wives, according to San Antonio police.

Two men were outside a home in the 400 block of Pace Street at about 11:50 p.m., Friday, when a grey Ford Mustang pulled up in front of the house.
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Cocaine, crack, ecstasy, acid and meth are some of the drugs one now-disbarred Florida public defender allegedly took while having sexually inappropriate relationships with clients, an investigation by the state bar found.

Linda Dawn Hadad, 43, consented to disbarment in January following a months-long investigation into her alleged interactions with clients, the Florida Bar said in a petition for emergency suspension filed to the Supreme Court of Florida.

RELATED: Police: Florida man kills bicyclist in hit-and-run while 'distracted' by oral sex from passenger

During a deposition, Hadad admitted to using the following illegal drugs: Powder cocaine, crack, ecstasy, marijuana, meth and acid. She also admitted to taking Xanax, Adderall, oxycodone and Lortabs without a prescription.

She admitted in records to renting vehicles for a man who repaid her with drugs.

She also reportedly had intimate relationships with at least two inmates housed at Volusia County Jail while she was representing them, according to Florida Bar documents, which detail explicit and sexual phone conversations she had with clients who were in jail at the time.

RELATED: Florida woman live streams her drunken crash, gets charged with DUI

In one reported conversation with a client, Brandon Carson, Hadad tells her client, Youre in jail and I cant touch your penis wrinkle. She also discusses getting one of her sex toys with the client, according to the court documents. She also admitted that during one of her visits to the jail, she kissed Carson.

Meanwhile, she spoke with another client, Steven Sullivan, saying I miss phone sex.

RELATED: Florida woman at center of online shaming firestorm for photo of dog with duct tape around mouth

Online jail records show shes been arrested or cited for driving with a suspended license four times in 2015, as well as a charge for fleeing from police. Hadad was charged with a DUI in 2010, according to Volusia County jail records.

[h/t Action News Jacksonville]

twhite@mysa.com

Twitter: @tylerlwhite
No other name causes more consternation in conventional Texas Ranger folklore than a hardworking vaquero  or cowboy  named Gregorio Cortez (1875-1916).

Opinion rests on two opposing views. To most early 1900s Anglo Texans, he was a criminal, but to Mexican-descent Texans he was a hero.

What exactly did he do to earn such a reputation?

South Texas in the early 20th century consisted of two worlds: mainstream Texas Anglo society, and Mexican-descent Texans, who occupied the lowest social status. For example, Spanish-surnamed Texans in many counties werent allowed to serve in juries until 1954, and they were denied front-door entry to public buildings.

This was also the time when crime was conveniently blamed on Mexicans. A vague police report is all that lawmen needed to intimidate and interrogate suspects, usually forcing them to admit guilt. That seems to have been the expectation on June 12, 1901, in Karnes County.

Gregorio Cortez, his brother Romaldo and other family members sat on the front porch of Romaldos house. As they chatted, a horse and buggy carrying the sheriff and a deputy acting as interpreter drove up.

Communication problems began immediately. The deputy made two critical errors due to his limited Spanish proficiency. First, he unintentionally set the wrong tone by asking if Cortez had traded a horse to a man in town. Cortez answered no, and he was right. In fact, Cortez had traded a yegua (mare) not a caballo (horse). Both terms were well known to Mexican-descent and Anglo ranchers alike. To confuse the two Spanish words was not only inexcusable but laughable.

Second, already uneasy by Cortezs first response, the deputy hinted that Cortez would be arrested if he didnt cooperate. It was after this attempted intimidation that Cortez asked, Porque me va arrestar, si no he hecho nada? (Why would you arrest me, if Ive done nothing wrong?)

Misunderstanding what he heard, the deputy took Cortezs words as a statement of defiance. When pressed by his boss for an answer, he wrongly translated, No white man can arrest me.

Taking Cortezs response as insolence, the sheriff pulled out his gun and fired. He missed and hit Romaldo instead. In self-defense, Gregorio drew his gun, and his aim was deadly.

Cortez had only one choice  run for his life  and so he took flight toward Laredo.

Stopping at a friends place in Gonzales County, he faced a posse led by the Gonzales County sheriff. Again, shots were fired, and Cortez killed the sheriff. Cortez was now a wanted man for killing two Anglo Texas sheriffs.

The pursuit took 10 days and covered more than 500 miles. Cortez walked (sometimes barefoot) about 120 miles. He also rode more than 400 miles on two different mares. Responding to criticism of their inability to catch Cortez, the Texas Rangers and local sheriffs complained to the governor that they needed help to defeat the Cortez gang.

Displaying his dry vaquero wit, Cortez observed, in Spanish, So many Rangers trying to catch only one Mexican. In spite of using the latest technology  railroad, telegraph and telephone  his pursuers, at times numbering more than 300 armed men, chased Cortez, to no avail.

On June 22, he stopped for a rest and was betrayed by an acquaintance who admitted he had done it for the $1,000 reward. The betrayer, however, received only a token.

Expectedly, the trial quickly crushed rumors. No, Gregorio Cortez wasnt leading a gang as authorities had wildly described via inflammatory news reports. He traveled alone. Exposing poor police work and deaths attributed to friendly fire, there was more than enough testimony to embarrass local sheriffs and damage the inflated reputation of the Texas Rangers.

Equally important, the trial served as a podium to air pervasive injustice and punctured the bigotry directed at Mexican-descent Texans. Most Anglos and English language newspapers expected a quick trial and then a hanging. A San Antonio newspaper complained to its readers that the Texas Rangers should have lynched Cortez immediately after arrest.

Worse, negative media reports labeling him a bandit and sheriff-killing fiend caused wholesale Anglo violence against Mexican-descent Texans. The harshest reprisals occurred in Gonzales, Refugio and Hays counties, where several innocent ranchers were killed, accused by lynch mobs of being in Cortezs gang. His wounded brother Romaldo died mysteriously while in custody. Cortezs family, including his 3-year-old son, was jailed for months without being charged.

Yet a number of Anglo Texans condemned the malice against Cortez and learned to admire his intellect, wisdom and ingenuity. Serving time in several county jails as he went through the process, jail officials initially treated him unkindly. Born with a natural charm, he eventually befriended them. Admirers included the Texas governor and members of his staff.

Following three separate trials, he was found guilty and sent to prison. By now, Gregorio Cortez had many supporters, including two influential San Antonio Spanish language newspaper editors. Appeals were filed. Eventually, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned all the convictions.

After his pardon in 1913, he moved to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico. He died while visiting in Anson, near Abilene, at age 40, on Feb. 28, 1916.

Only Gregorio Cortez himself can describe the essence of his ordeal, as he did during his trial: Self-defense is allowed to any man. It is in your own law and by your own law do I defend myself. I killed the sheriff, and I am not sorry, for he killed my brother. He spilled my brothers blood, which was also my blood. And he tried to kill me, too. I killed the sheriff defending my right.

Jose Antonio Joe Lopez is an Air Force veteran with 37 years of military and federal service. He is a direct descendant of Don Javier Uribe, one of the earliest families that settled in what is now South Texas in 1750. He is the author of four books: The Last Knight: Don Bernardo Gutierrez de Lara Uribe, A Texas Hero, Nights of Wailing, Days of Pain: Life in 1920s South Texas, The First Texas Independence, 1813 and Preserving Early Texas History: Essays of an Eighth Generation South Texan. He founded the Tejano Learning Center, a website dedicated to Spanish and Mexican people and events in U.S. history.
Connecting San Antonio and Austin by rail has long been a regional dream. Its an easy vision to see and embrace.

The two cities are so distinct, and yet economically and socially bound. Rail would deepen ties between area universities, companies and regional tourism.

These are natural ties that are often blocked by congestion on Interstate 35, the parking lot between the two cities that sometimes moonlights as a highway.

How many trips have you not taken to Austin because you dont want to fight traffic?

With growth exploding in this region, the need for additional transportation capacity is evident. Yes, we will need more freeway lanes, but we will also need more road alternatives. Its not an either/or proposition. Rail would link our cities, help ease congestion, and address our growing air quality concerns.

Its a no-brainer. We are completely on board with the Lone Star Rail concept.

The problem is, despite years of planning, Lone Star Rail is still a concept. It is fair to wonder if this train will ever leave the station. There is still nothing concrete about the project. We dont know the route, for example, which is kind of a key detail.

In February, Union Pacific dealt a huge blow to the project when company officials said its freight tracks could not be used as a potential commuter route. That had been the presumed route.

The Lone Star Rail District is continuing an environmental study for a variety of route options, including the off-the-table UP line (just in case things change).

Officials have said the study will help determine the route, but it wont be finished until 2018. This has put local agencies in the uncomfortable bind of having to justify funding for a project with obvious regional importance but still lacking in definition and form.

For example, the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which serves the San Antonio region, reserved $20 million for passenger rail in 2007. But its 2016 and those funds have never been spent. They are specifically for final design, construction and right-of-way acquisition.

Board members of AAMPO are wondering about the wisdom of dedicating funds to such a vague project. Its a fair question.

Its also a question that has repercussions for the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which serves the Austin region.

CAMPO has already spent millions on the project for early planning work, but now its members are debating whether it makes sense to continue funding Lone Star Rail if the San Antonio region doesnt step up.

The project is on tenuous ground. Bexar County Commissioner Kevin Wolff has told Texas Public Radio that the operational arm of the Lone Star Rail District should be abolished. Likewise, City Councilman Joe Krier told TPR the Austin and San Antonio MPOs should lead the rail project.

Lets remember, the goal is to have viable passenger rail between the San Antonio and Austin regions  and to get it built as quickly as possible. Maybe that means abolishing the Lone Star Rail District and making a seamless transition to the MPOs. But if abolishing the Lone Star Rail District means redoing an immense amount of planning, a process that could take years and millions of dollars more, then its hard to see the benefit of such a move.

To that end, the MPOs should convene a joint public meeting with the Lone Star Rail District that gets everyone on the same page. Local and regional leaders need to see evidence that the Lone Star Rail District can deliver. But they also need to understand what the repercussions might be if local entities back out.

Congestion on I-35 is intolerable now. Just imagine what it will be like with a million more residents in the San Antonio region. The region needs this project. There is no time to waste.
Posted on 05/07/2016, 1:00 pm, by mySteinbach

In November 2015, the Oakbank RCMP Detachment commenced a lengthy investigation into the trafficking of cocaine and illegal counterfeit pills involving several individuals within the Oakbank community. This project, targeting the drug trade in Oakbank, was identified as Project DECAL.

During the course of the investigation, several officers from different specialised sections and units were involved, including Manitoba Justice Safer Homes and Neighbours Unit.

The information and intelligence gathered during Project DECAL led to the execution of a search warrant at an Oakbank residence on May 4, 2016. An undisclosed quantity of drugs, and items used in the drug trafficking trade were located.

In total, eight individuals are facing several drug trafficking charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

On May 4, 2016, Tyler John Kevin Augustine, a 25-year-old male from Oakbank, was arrested in Winnipeg. He is facing charges of trafficking a controlled substance and production of a controlled substance. He remains in custody.

Also arrested and facing charges for trafficking a controlled substance are 19-year-old Dylan Robert Hutchinson of the RM of Springfield, 20-year-old Kelson Ryan Hopgood of Oakbank and 21-year-old Cole Alexander Paul Zammit of the RM of Springfield.

54-year-old Paul Joseph Caissie, 42-year-old Allan Peter Tanchak, 27-year-old Daniel Konrad Searcy and 29-year-old Gabriel LaBossiere, all from Oakbank, are also facing charges of trafficking a controlled substance and are currently wanted on outstanding warrants.

Project DECAL was initiated to specifically target individuals trafficking drugs and negatively impacting the lives of our local residents, said Sgt. Bert Paquet of the Manitoba RCMP. The arrests and subsequent charges laid in this case serve as proof of our commitment to make Manitoba a safer place to live.

The Manitoba RCMP also want to remind all residents that counterfeit OxyContin pills containing Fentanyl have been linked to several deaths across Canada. Taking medication that is not prescribed can be dangerous, cause unpredictable side effects and can lead to an overdose and death.
Martha r flagged a new story at Suddeusche Zeitung from John Doe, the source for the Mossack Fonseca revelations, on what he intended to accomplish and what he feels needs to be done. Im posting on his manifesto to encourage you to read it in full and circulate it.

The whistleblower, John Doe, states his underlying objective was to tackle massive, pervasive corruption that promotes and perpetuates income inequality. He is encouraged by the debate so far but stresses that the underlying behavior was criminal and needs to be treated as such:

Shell companies are often associated with the crime of tax evasion, but the Panama Papers show beyond a shadow of a doubt that although shell companies are not illegal by definition, they are used to carry out a wide array of serious crimes that go beyond evading taxes. I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which have come to light thus far. It will take years, possibly decades, for the full extent of the firms sordid acts to become known.

And he throws down the gauntlet:

The prevailing media narrative thus far has focused on the scandal of what is legal and allowed in this system. What is allowed is indeed scandalous and must be changed. But we must not lose sight of another important fact: the law firm, its founders, and employees actually did knowingly violate myriad laws worldwide, repeatedly. Publicly they plead ignorance, but the documents show detailed knowledge and deliberate wrongdoing. At the very least we already know that Mossack personally perjured himself before a federal court in Nevada, and we also know that his information technology staff attempted to cover up the underlying lies. They should all be prosecuted accordingly with no special treatment. In the end, thousands of prosecutions could stem from the Panama Papers, if only law enforcement could access and evaluate the actual documents. ICIJ and its partner publications have rightly stated that they will not provide them to law enforcement agencies. I, however, would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able.

However, he also points out how whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden, Bradley Birkenfeld, and Antoine Deltour have all been prosecuted, and they are not alone.

He calls for company registers to be made public, an issue our Richard Smith has identified as key and has been pursuing in New Zealand and other countries. But he is not optimistic that this will change soon:

Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand has been curiously quiet about his countrys role in enabling the financial fraud Mecca that is the Cook Islands. In Britain, the Tories have been shameless about concealing their own practices involving offshore companies, while Jennifer Shasky Calvery, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the United States Treasury, just announced her resignation to work instead for HSBC, one of the most notorious banks on the planet (not coincidentally headquartered in London). And so the familiar swish of Americas revolving door echoes amidst deafening global silence from thousands of yet-to-be-discovered ultimate beneficial owners who are likely praying that her replacement is equally spineless.

It should come as no surprise that the official response to the Panama Papers scandal has been to leave this glaring loophole open. For instance, yesterday, the FACT Coalition made a new statement: Anti-Money Laundering Experts Deeply Concerned by Administrations Flawed Panama Papers Response. A key section (boldface original):

The loopholes in the final Treasury rule allow banks to open accounts for companies without having any idea of the identity of the people who ultimately own or control that company. Without this critical information, banks cant determine whether the people behind the company are on a sanctions list, a drug kingpin list, or are public officials who may be stealing from their countries treasury or trying to stash their bribe money in U.S. banks, noted Heather Lowe, legal counsel and director of government affairs at Global Financial Integrity.

And in some ways, John Doe buried the lead (boldface ours):

The media has failed. Many news networks are cartoonish parodies of their former selves, individual billionaires appear to have taken up newspaper ownership as a hobby, limiting coverage of serious matters concerning the wealthy, and serious investigative journalists lack funding. The impact is real: in addition to Suddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ, and despite explicit claims to the contrary, several major media outlets did have editors review documents from the Panama Papers. They chose not to cover them. The sad truth is that among the most prominent and capable media organizations in the world there was not a single one interested in reporting on the story. Even Wikileaks didnt answer its tip line repeatedly.

So much for those who wonder why the papers werent given to Wikileaks.

And one has to assume that the media outlets that were approached about the Panama Papers and declined included the New York Times and/or the Washington Post. The irony here is that, as Richard Smith has pointed out, Panama isnt a the tax haven of choice for Americans save for low-level types, such as drug lords. Panama law firms use mainly the British Virgin Islands; the bank that is most deeply implicated is HSBC. Yet the reflex of these unnamed media outlets was to decline to cover the story. Who were they trying to protect?

And he finally turns to a fundamental issue, the corruption of the bar:

But most of all, the legal profession has failed. Democratic governance depends upon responsible individuals throughout the entire system who understand and uphold the law, not who understand and exploit it. On average, lawyers have become so deeply corrupt that it is imperative for major changes in the profession to take place, far beyond the meek proposals already on the tableIf the industrys shattered economics were not already evidence enough, there is now no denying that lawyers can no longer be permitted to regulate one another. It simply doesnt work. Those able to pay the most can always find a lawyer to serve their ends, whether that lawyer is at Mossack Fonseca or another firm of which we remain unaware. What about the rest of society?

Weve documented the consequences of the breakdown of legal standards on multiple fronts: lawyers first allowing their clients to ignore the securitization procedures set forth in their own contracts, followed then by factory-style foreclosures, including fabrication of affidavits and title documents on a mass scale. And rather than use the massive abuses as leverage to force mortgage servicers to provide more loan modifications, which for borrowers who still had some income, would have been a better outcome not just for them but also for investors, the Federal government and all but one state validated this pervasive misconduct and gave the mortgage-industrial complex a massive bailout in the form of the National Mortgage Settlement of 2012. Servicers continue to engage in abusive practices and are seldom punished. In credit cards and for medical debts, debt collectors, again with the assistance, make a business of buying invalid debt and collecting from consumers who dont know how to combat their fraud.

John Doe concludes:

The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery. In this systemour systemthe slaves are unaware both of their status and of their masters, who exist in a world apart where the intangible shackles are carefully hidden amongst reams of unreachable legalese. The horrific magnitude of detriment to the world should shock us all awake. But when it takes a whistleblower to sound the alarm, it is cause for even greater concern. It signals that democracys checks and balances have all failed, that the breakdown is systemic, and that severe instability could be just around the corner. So now is the time for real action, and that starts with asking questions. Historians can easily recount how issues involving taxation and imbalances of power have led to revolutions in ages pastIt doesnt take much to connect the dots: from start to finish, inception to global media distribution, the next revolution will be digitized. Or perhaps it has already begun.

Spread the word.
Delivering nanodrugs to the placenta to support healthier pregnancies (Nanowerk News) Nearly 10 percent of babies born in the United States are born premature, according to the March of Dimes. The underlying cause of many complications during pregnancy is often a poorly functioning placenta, the organ that nourishes and maintains the fetus.

A new study by an international team of researchers, including Erkki Ruoslahti, Ph.D., distinguished professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institutes (SBP) NCI-Designated Cancer Center, and adjunct professor at the Center for Nanomedicine and Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology, UC Santa Barbara, has found a way to selectively deliver drugs to the placenta without harming the fetus.

The discovery could one day help prevent some premature births and treat complications such as preeclampsia, a condition characterized by high blood pressure and sometimes, fluid retention. The study appears in the journal Science Advances ("Tumor-homing peptides as tools for targeted delivery of payloads to the placenta").

Our findings emphasize the similarities between placentas and tumors, said Ruoslahti. The scientists demonstrated that two peptides  chains of amino acids  originally used to target tumors selectively, will perform the same function on a placenta, delivering drugs which improve placental function and benefit the growing baby without causing it harm. That similarity makes it possible to use existing tumor-homing peptides. This paper shows that this strategy increases the delivery of drugs into the placenta, he added.

Many pregnancy complications are the result of the placenta not growing or functioning properly, but currently there are no drugs that can be used to treat those problems. Instead, doctors have to induce early delivery, which puts the infant at increased risk of developing infections and cerebral palsy in the short term and heart disease and diabetes later in life. This new research has the potential to avoid these problems by treating the baby in utero, thereby avoiding induced labor.

Placentas behave like well-controlled tumors, said lead author Lynda Harris, Ph.D., of the University of Manchester in the UK. They grow quickly, produce growth hormones and evade the immune system. A lot of cancer research focuses on finding ways of delivering drugs to kill the tumor without affecting the rest of the body. We had the idea that if we could selectively target the placenta in the same way, we could deliver other drugs to help improve placental function and therefore treat pregnancy complications.

Using a mouse model, the researchers delivered a growth hormone to the placenta via peptide-coated nanoparticles. The drug had no effect on normal-sized fetuses but caused undersized ones to grow.

The targeted drug did not build up in the mother mouses organs, and there were no levels detected in the mouse fetuses, suggesting that this method has the potential to one day be used in humans. The possibility of potential harmful effects still exists for mothers who have undiagnosed cancers because the drugs also target their tumors, but a screening program could overcome this problem.
SHARE Commencement speaker, Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley, Archdiocese of Boston, talks to graduates Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Ave Maria University's Tom Golisano Field House in Ave Maria, Fla. The higher education institution held its 12th commencement ceremonies for the graduating class of 2016. Duvan Rios, left, a Psychology major graduate, nuzzles up with his girlfriend Raquelle Kochel, between their son, Izaiyah Kochel, 16 months, all of Miami, Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Ave Maria University's Tom Golisano Field House in Ave Maria, Fla. The higher education institution held its 12th commencement ceremonies for the graduating class of 2016. Business Administration graduate, Lucas Michael Fassbender, acknowledges the crowd after hitting a backflip as Tom Monaghan, founder of Ave Maria, Ave Maria University and Domino's Pizza, center right, looks on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Ave Maria University's Tom Golisano Field House in Ave Maria, Fla. The higher education institution held its 12th commencement ceremonies for the graduating class of 2016. Related Photos 2016 Ave Maria University Graduation

By Greg Stanley of the Naples Daily News

A record 211 graduates crossed the stage Saturday morning in a tightly packed gymnasium at Ave Maria University. The new alumni at the young school then poured outside with family and friends under a cloudless sky.

In many ways, the class of 2016 has grown in lockstep with the town and the university, which were built in rural Collier County in the mid 2000s, said President Jim Towey.

Four years ago, Ave Maria was a neighborhood with just 37 homes and a seemingly permanent "Coming Soon" sign promising a Mobil gas station. Over the past four years, building has soared in the town while enrollment at the university has climbed 25 percent and the number of majors offered tripled to 33, Towey said.

Now the graduates will be called to live out their vocations and the Catholic mission that the school was founded to instill, he said.

"Remember that the world craves your passion and dedication," Towey said. "You've learned much from the liberal arts about truth, beauty and goodness. But, for these lessons to bear fruit, you must be rooted in the art of mercy, passion, forgiveness."

If the graduates find themselves in an increasingly cynical world, or a world caught up in celebrity and the fleeting things of life, then they must remember the lives of the saints, said commencement speaker Cardinal Sean O'Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston.

"There's this contemporary cynicism about the call to holiness," O'Malley said. "There's a belief that we can be Christians but remain strangers. Discipleship is not a solo flight."

O'Malley has led the Boston archdiocese for the past 13 years. He was hand-picked by Pope Francis to be a part of a group of eight Cardinals tasked with helping the pope reform the church's governance and central administration. Hinting at the pope's call for the church to be like a field hospital that heals the wounds of patients, O'Malley called on the graduates to take care of each other.

"The words the pope has used so often are tenderness and closeness," he said. "We must be willing to give our cloak along with our tunic.

"If we don't the patient will die. We all need to discover more deeply our vocations, to serve, not to be served. Love and justice must work to transform the world around us."
Key players in 2022-23 Silly Season Can you hear it? Just listen. That is the sound of the NASCAR rumor mill starting up, and there are plenty of questions to answer for 2023.
India recently negotiated better terms for a long-term LNG deal with Qatar and importer Petronet LNG is in talks with Exxon to renegotiate pricing for gas from Australia's Gorgon project.

India plans to shift to a gas-based economy by boosting domestic production and buying cheap liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the world's third-biggest oil importer seeks to curb its greenhouse emissions, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said. New Delhi has promised to shave a third off its emissions rate by 2030, partly by boosting the use of cleaner burning fuels.

"Gradually we are shifting towards a sustainable gas economy," Pradhan told Reuters in an interview. Gas accounts for about 8 percent of India's energy mix, while oil accounts for more than a quarter. India's gas supply deficit is expected to widen from 78 million cubic metres a day (mscmd) this fiscal year to 117 mscmd in 2021-22, according to a government estimate.

India recently negotiated better terms for a long-term LNG deal with Qatar and importer Petronet LNG is in talks with Exxon to renegotiate pricing for gas from Australia's Gorgon project.

"The price should be affordable to us. We respect long-term contracts but everybody has to appreciate the changing scenario," said Pradhan. "In a bigger canvas ... India has the potential of a huge market base".

Pradhan last month visited Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran to deepen ties with its main oil suppliers. "We want to move beyond a buyer-seller relationship," he said, adding that India was offering them stakes in its pipelines, petrochemical complexes and refineries.

India is also in talks with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and Saudi Aramco to lease strategic oil storage.

GAS GIANT

Pradhan said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Iran later this month would "certainly" deliver concrete results. Iran has set aside its Farzad B gas field for development by Indian firms, a move that could result in the building of an LNG plant as India consumes or markets its production share, he said.

Over two years Asian LNG prices have slumped by three quarters to $4.65 per million British thermal units (mmBtu). Pradhan expects hefty LNG investments worldwide to ensure affordable long-term prices, a trend that "will suit India as a consuming country."

GAS CONNECTIVITY

India is building import terminals on its eastern and western coasts and pipelines to boost industrial use of gas. In the fiscal year to March, India's gas production declined by about 4.2 percent, while imports rose around 15 percent.

India recently offered better gas pricing to boost domestic output, but its most recent investment in an LNG terminal in Kerala has been underutilised since it lacks pipelines to connect to demand centres after farmer opposition caused land acquisition problems. Pradhan said the government was talking to the states and hoped obstacles to a pipeline connecting Kochi to Mangalore would be resolved after state elections in Kerala.
Did delays worsen the damage?

'Common' doesn't mean 'safe'

(NaturalNews) A 34-year-old British woman was left paraplegic  paralyzed from the waist down  after receiving "routine" epidural anesthesia during the birth of her first child.Irrum Jetha can now only move around via wheelchair, suffers chronic pain, and goes through five hours of agonizing physical therapy daily in the hopes of restoring some mobility.Her lawyers are investigating whether the hospital acted negligently by acting too slowly once it became clear that she was suffering side effects from the anesthetic.An "epidural" is not a drug, but rather a method of delivering one: via injection into the "epidural space" just inside the spine. Epidural anesthesia is used by roughly a quarter of UK women undergoing a hospital birth , and roughly 50 percent of US women undergoing hospital birth.But just what is in these commonly given anesthetics, and are they as safe as their heavy usage would suggest?The goal of an epidural is to dull rather than completely numb sensation in the lower part of the body. There is no traditional formula for doing so, and each anesthesiologist puts together their own personal cocktail of local anesthetics (such as bupivacaine, chloroprocaine or lidocaine), narcotics (such as fentanyl, sufentanil or morphine), and other drugs (such as epinephrine or clonidine).In August 2014, Jetha received one of these injections upon the advice of her doctor, who said that her heart  which had a pulmonary valve replaced when she was 19  might not be able to stand the strain if her body was allowed to sense the pain of childbirth "The birth itself was a fabulous experience," Jetha said. "I was euphoric afterwards. And when Adam cried 'It's a girl' we were both in tears."Three hours after her child was born, she still had no feeling in her legs, but her doctors dismissed her concerns. Another nine hours later, she was becoming alarmed. It was another hour, though, before her doctors admitted there was a problem. She was transferred to another hospital to receive an MRI  which took another four hours.There, doctors discovered that Jetha had suffered a side effect known as epidural hematoma; the epidural had ruptured a blood vessel, causing a clot to form, and that clot had compressed the spinal cord, causing nerve damage. She had to undergo a life-threatening operation to remove the pressure from her spine. Her life was saved, but she was left paralyzed from the waist down.Jetha says that one of the hardest things had been her sudden inability to care for her daughter as she'd thought she would."There have been so many mother-and-daughter bonding moments that I have missed. And I will never get those back," she said. "Every time I see a mother walking with her baby I am in tears."I've gone from being an active young wife to being entirely dependent on Adam. Not only does he have to care for Amelie, he has become my carer too."The British National Health Service (NHS) lists epidural hematoma as a known but "very rare" side effect of epidurals, and says these clots can "very rarely" lead to nerve damage.Other known potential epidural side effects include shivering, ringing of the ears, backache, nausea, and difficulty urinating or loss of bladder control. A small number of women develop severe headaches caused by leaking spinal fluid.Epidurals can also dramatically change the course of labor. They can cause blood pressure to drop abruptly, necessitating further medications and interventions. Women receiving epidurals need to remain lying down, which can slow labor and lead to cesarean delivery. Epidural medications pass to the infant, and can cause changes in fetal position, heartbeat or breathing, thus increasing the risk that emergency interventions, including cesarean, will be needed. Evidence suggests that babies delivered with epidurals are more likely to have trouble establishing breastfeeding.According to the NHS, other potential side effects include infection developing weeks later, sometimes causing nerve damage; convulsions; difficulty breathing; and death.
(NaturalNews) The Defense Department has been sued by a nonprofit watchdog organization after failing for more than three years to divulge results of testing on the security of online voting systems that are used more and more often by Americans casting absentee ballots.According to, the Pentagon's Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) "has effectively bankrolled many states' shift to online voting, disbursing tens of millions of dollars in grants," so they could buy equipment which includes Internet balloting technology.The failure to disclose and ongoing secrecy has drawn the ire of cyber experts who have warned for years that Internet voting systems are likely and easy targets for hackers who would be able to tamper with and even rig elections. In addition, they note, the government's own top technology testing agency has also refused to issue an endorsement of the systems.That's a problem, critics say, especially as the November midterm elections fast approach; more than a million people have already cast ballots , according to The Associated Press. Since 2010, that early voting trend has only grown.So, says one electronic privacy organization, that makes the issue all the more important. McClatchy further reported:[EPIC]In a statement to the newspaper group, FVAP officials said that they expect to release results of security testing in 2015. And because they "contribute to the larger, ongoing decision-making process" regarding the Pentagon agency's congressional mandate to stage a demonstration of the technology surrounding electronic voting, officials said the results of those trials are considered "pre-decisional," which makes them exempt from being disclosed -- for the time being.EPIC filed its suit Sept. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the circuit that hears cases involving conduct of federal agencies, as well as rules and regulations that they issue. It is the latest battle in a long-brewing conflict over the Pentagon agency's role, which is primarily to ensure that deployed troops and other Americans living abroad can vote by absentee ballot.FVAP said it has staged tests for use by another agency, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which is trying to establish standards for Internet voting systems. However, a dearth of appointed commissioners has curtailed the agency's mission and progress; as such, the Pentagon says it is preparing to release data on its test results on its own.As McClatchy further noted:The last time the standards agency had anything to say on the matter was in 2012, when it concluded that Internet voting systems "cannot currently be audited" with any degree of confidence, because there is no verifiable paper trail like there is with electronic voting systems in use at polling stations around the country.Because of that, it said, "additional research and development is needed to overcome these challenges before secure Internet voting will be feasible."In a previous statement in 2011, the institute claimed that it would be "difficult to mitigate" malicious software attacks on the personal computers of voters, because those are outside the control of election officials. And while each attack would simply impact that single vote, "attackers have demonstrated an ability to infect a large number of clients, and thus client-side attacks have the ability to have a large-scale impact," the institute said.FVAP officials have said they don't favor online voting but don't mind having Americans use an online form to mark a ballot that they then have to print out and mail in.
A Group 1 carcinogen

Why didn't we know all of this already?

(NaturalNews) The latest research on health problems caused by processed meats indicates that they are responsible for dramatic increases in cancer rates among men and women who consume larger quantities.Last year, the World Health Organization issued new guidelines that warned about the dangers of processed meats such as hotdogs, bacon and sausages, in that they dramatically increase your risk of cancer  on a scale similar to smoking cigarettes or breathing in asbestos.As reported by, the WHO, citing research, highlighted the dangers of eating processed meats by placing bacon, ham, sausages and burgers on its list of cancer-causing substances. In addition, even fresh red meat made the list as being unhealthy.The WHO warning about the "carcinogenicity of red and processed meats," came in a WHO and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) analysis, published in the UK-basedmedical journal.The guidelines brought the UN's position into line with the World Cancer Research Fund, which also noted that there is enough evidence to suggest that red and processed meats can lead to colorectal cancer (which is also increasing, by the way)."The Continuous Update Project Panel judged that there was convincing evidence that consuming red meat, processed meat and alcoholic drinks (men); body fatness, abdominal fatness and adult attained height increase the risk of colorectal cancer," the WCRF noted.Indeed, notes Cancer Research UK, the evidence that processed meats increase the risk of cancer has been building for decades. What's more, the organization says that this claim is well-supported by "careful" research.With years of evidence, and numerous studies that have previously linked processed meats to colorectal (bowel) cancer , the WHO reviewed more than 800 epidemiological studies to make its determination."WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies processed meat  meat altered through salting, curing, fermenting or smoking  as a Group 1 carcinogen," reports Science News . "This group of cancer-causing agents also includes smoking and asbestos. The ranking means there's convincing evidence linking the modified meats to colorectal cancer , evidence as strong as that linking smoking to cancer."The website reported further that hotdogs were among the worst of processed meats, when it comes to an increased cancer link.And that's in large part due to how hot dogs are manufactured, the site noted:"Hot dogs are usually made from chicken, beef and pork meat , but the production process involves adding animal remains such as legs, claws, skin and fat. ... Additives such as corn syrup, monosodium glutamate, salt and many others are added to improve the flavor, which differs from country to country. The worst part about the flavors is that monosodium glutamate and carmine flavors are derived from the shells of tiny bugs that are boiled in sodium carbonate and ammonia!"Still want that hot dog this summer?What's more, the site notes, it's hard to be certain of just whatcontained in some hot dog brands, because the labeling isn't clear Processed meats do not just affect the bowel. According to research conducted by the University of Hawaii, and cited by, processed meats can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by as much as 67 percent, which is astounding."Processed meat almost always contains additives such as nitrites and nitrates, hazardous substances which have been proven to increase the risk of stomach, pancreatic, bladder and bowel cancer. As the American Institute For Cancer Research claims, only a single hot dog daily can increase the risk of colorectal cancer by 21%," the site noted.
"CLIMATE HUSTLE, hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Marc Morano, reveals the history of climate scares including global cooling; debunks outrageous claims about temperatures, extreme weather, and the so-called "consensus;" exposes the increasingly shrill calls to "act immediately before it's too late," and in perhaps the film's most important section, profiles key scientists who used to believe in climate alarm but have since converted to skepticism."



Bill "The Shill" Nye strikes again

"[T]he introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen. So I can see where people are very concerned about this and are pursuing criminal investigations...."



Climate change skeptics fight back

"I have always been amazed that anyone would pay attention to Bill Nye, a pretend scientist in a bow tie.



"As a man who has studied the science of meteorology for over 60 years and received the [American Meteorological Society] Meteorologist of the Year award, I am totally offended that Nye gets the press and media attention he does. And I am rooting for the 'Climate Hustle' film to become a huge hit  bigger than 'An Inconvenient Truth' by Al Gore."



Why are they so afraid of letting America see Climate Hustle?

"It's all an attempt to silence the debate, to silence any science and go right to centralized planning. That's what this is all about. The U.N. has admitted their goal is wealth redistribution and it doesn't have anything to do with environmental policy."


New Delhi: The central banks of India and Iran have reached an arrangement to use European banks to process pending oil payments to Tehran, India's Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told Reuters, unlocking $6.4 billion in stalled funds.

Buyers of Iranian oil were prevented from using global banking channels to clear their transactions after sanctions were imposed on Iran in 2011 over its nuclear programme. With the end of those sanctions in January, after an agreement to curb the programme, Iran is finally gaining needed access to the funds.

Iran hopes the money will revive its moribund economy and raise Iranian living standards as well as help to integrate the country into the global economic system.

Indian refiners have been holding 55 percent of its oil payments to Iran after a route to make payments through Turkey's Halkbank was stopped in 2013, although payment of some of those funds was allowed after an initial temporary deal to lift the sanctions.

"There is an agreement between (India and Iran's) central banks. European banks will be the clearing agent. They will be dealing with Iranian banks and we have to pay those European banks," Pradhan told Reuters in an interview.He did not elaborate further, saying the finance ministry was dealing with the issue.

Also because of the previous sanctions, Indian refiners have been depositing 45 percent of their oil payments to Iran in rupees with India's UCO Bank.Tehran has been using the funds, currently about 130 billion rupees ($1.95 billion) to import non-sanctioned goods from India.

Indian government sources said during Pradhan's visit to Tehran last month Iran had asked India to consider clearing the oil payments through Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIH) of Germany, Central Bank of Italy and Halkbank of Turkey. One of the sources said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ruled out channelling funds through Halkbank.

"Halkbank's Iran-related foreign trade activities with Iran have been carried out since 2004 ... Halkbank will continue its operations in accordance with international law," a senior Halkbank official told Reuters.No immediate comment was available from EIH and Central Bank of Italy.

The government sources said Indian refiners will remit funds to Iran through state-owned UCO Bank.UCO Bank's chairman did not respond to calls from Reuters to his mobile phone.Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said on April 5 India will make payments to Iran in a staggered manner.

"Oil companies are working out the banking arrangements in coordination with Iranian counterparts and payments will be made by them presumably over time with minimal impact on the market," an RBI spokesperson said on Thursday.

Despite the sanctions, India continued its engagement with Iran and was among a handful of countries that sourced oil from Tehran.

Iran was India's second-biggest oil supplier before the sanctions hampered its trade relations. The country is set to import at least 400,000 barrels per day of Iranian oil in the year from April 1.
A protest against police brutality in support of the San Francisco hunger strikers turned violent and costly Friday night, with protesters claiming to have been manhandled by sheriff's deputies and thousands of dollars worth of damage being done to city hall.

All told, police arrested 33 people, according to Mission Local reporter Joe Rivano Barros. City hall was also damaged, according to a spokeswoman for the building.

The protest left City Hall with smashed front windows and destroyed metal detectors, at the side facing Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place.

"Thousands of peaceful individuals have long expressed their views in protest on our front steps," City Administrator Naomi Kelly said in a statement. "However, yesterday's actions crossed the line, causing thousands of dollars in property damage and impacting weddings and elections activities."

Repairs are slated to begin Monday. The full costs of the damage won't be known until after the repairs are completed, but will likely cost thousands of dollars in labor and material costs due to the landmark status of City Hall, according to the city administrator's office.

Twitter videos of the scuffle shows sheriff's deputies in riot gear roughly holding protesters back and pushing them out of the building with batons.

One video shows a young woman screaming as a deputy pushes her towards the city hall exit, while another shows deputies dragging a man by his arms across the floor of city hall.

Barrows wrote that officers brusquely and roughly attempted to corral the crowd toward city hall's exit after it closed for the evening at about 8 p.m. More than 100 protesters were at the scene, separated into roughly two groups. Those in the smaller group, who had formed a circle and locked arms with one another inside city hall, were all arrested.

This latest action follows a string of other protests in support of hunger strikers who have vowed not to eat until Police Chief Greg Suhr resigns. Dubbed the "Frisco Five," the strikers were on Friday morning taken to the hospital after spending 16 days outside the Mission District police station.

Police Chief Greg Suhr has previously said that he will not resign, and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has told strikers that he supports Suhr.
Phin Hause weighed less than two pounds when she was born eight weeks early. For 14 months, she remained in the ICU. Every day, her parents Lori Ann Dotson and Jeff Hause, made the long drive from their home in Napa to Kaiser in Roseville.

When doctors decided Phin was strong enough to leave the hospital, her parents started looking for caregivers to assist her in the home. She needs round the clock care and a team of skilled nurses to administer life-sustaining treatments. Phin still uses a ventilator to breathe, feeding tubes to eat and a host of other medical machines to stay healthy.

After weeks of trying, the search for fulltime at-home nursing support in their area came up short. So the family moved500 miles south to San Diego Countyto get Phin, now 2years-old, the care she needed.

What was so disappointing was when we got to this precipice that we could potentially bring her home, it was harder than it needed to be, Dotson said. We were willing to do the work and learn whatever we could to care for her at home. But there werent adequate resources to do it.

Phins long journey home highlights what many people call a lack of vital homecare for medically fragile kids. Testimony from parents, nursing agencies and hospitals, as well as a review of state and industry data, point to significant challenges in accessing consistent homecare for children.

And while a state lawmaker introduced legislation earlier this year to address what he calls a crisis, the state department that oversees millions of disabled and low-income Californians isnt convinced theres an access problem.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit contacted the childrens services or public health departments in all nine Bay Area counties. Five countiesincluding Napa, Sonoma, Marin, San Francisco and Alamedareport they have experienced problems matching kids with at-home nursing agencies. San Mateo said it has concerns about whether local agencies can provide care. Santa Clara and Solano Counties said they havent faced challenges. Contra Costa County doesnt have any data.

Kids are on nursing agency waiting lists for months, according to Marilyn Romero, nurse manager for the Alameda County Public Health Department. In Napa, where Phins family lived, county officials report that none of the nursing agencies on the countys list of providers could provide home health for kids. Both San Francisco and Sonoma Counties point to the low acceptance of Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for the difficulty placing pediatric patients with in-home nursing agencies.

State data analyzed by the Investigative Unit shows a small percentage of home health agencies actually provided homecare to kids. According to home health agency utilization data maintained by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, 144 agencies in the Bay Area accepted Medi-Cal in 2014. But just 35 of them, or less than a quarter, report they actually provided care to children age 10 or younger.

A 2015 study shows access to homecare is decreasing for patients like Phin, whose complex medical conditions entitle them to home health services through Medi-Cal. The research was performed by Leavitt Partners, a health care consulting company, and funded by Maxim Healthcare Services, one of the largest pediatric homecare agencies in the nation.

Researchers surveyed more than 600 home health agencies in the state and found many are shifting resources away from providing care to Medi-Cal patients and almost all Medi-Cal certified agencies report being unable to staff all the hours approved for their Medi-Cal patients.

The study also found the problem is impacting kids. The picture becomes particularly concerning in light of pediatric services, researchers noted. According to the state, 3,900 children on Medi-Cal are entitled to homecare.

It pretty much sealed the deal that theres a problem when it comes to access, said Kris Frank, Maxims western regional director of government affairs.

He said Maxim is increasingly turning down new patients referred to the agency after they are discharged from the hospital. He also said the agency is experiencing greater challenges staffing all of the hours new patients require. Frank said its difficult to recruit and retain new homecare nurses, partly because many opt to work in acute care settings, such as hospitals, where the pay is higher.

North Bay Senator Mike McGuire recently proposed legislation to raise the Medi-Cal reimbursement rate for homecare nurses by 20 percent in three test areas of the state, including the Bay Area. Rates for in-home pediatric nursing care havent increased in 15 years. The current reimbursement rate is $29.41 an hour for a licensed vocational nurse and $40.47 an hour for a registered nurse, though industry representatives say nurses wouldnt pocket the full amount.

McGuire said raising pay could incentivize nurses to work in the homecare setting. More nurses may mean greater access for thousands of children in California who rely on Medi-Cal services.

During a state senate health committee hearing in April, a neonatal nurse specialist at UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital in Oakland and a pediatrician from UCLA Medical Center testified that children have to stay in the hospital months longer than necessary in some cases, because families cant find available at-home nurses.

Dr. Daniel Karlin is a pediatrician at UCLA Medical Center. He discusses how children are staying in the hospital longer than necessary because of the lack of homecare agencies that will accept pediatric patients.

McGuire said its costing the state more money to care for kids in the hospital instead of at home. He also called it unacceptable that once kids are home, they may not be able to obtain the resources that were promised to them by the states Medi-Cal program.

We are not following through on a promise for some of the sickest kids in California, McGuire said. If department heads from the Department of Health Care Services spent 10 minutes with any of these families they would know there is an access to care issue, but as long as they dont track the numbers they can plead ignorant.

Jennifer Kent, the director of Health Care Services, the department that oversees Medi-Cal, said the state does not have a systemic access problem.

Anecdotally weve been made aware that there are cases that are challenging but were not sure that constitutes a statewide access problem or an access problem more broadly, she said.

Kent said the state tracks the number of homecare hours authorized but doesnt track the hours agencies cant fill. She also said the state doesnt track when agencies turn down care to patients, though she noted the department will begin informing families how many homecare hours they are entitled to so they can choose to seek assistance from other agencies.

But families argue the nursing supply is dry and doubt other agencies can pick up the slack.

Kaitlyn Heflin is eligible for homecare through Medi-Cal. She suffers from seizures. She explains the total parenteral nutrition (TPN) she receives from a feeding tube.

Windsor resident Liz Helfins 14-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, has been on a waiting list for homecare services for a year and a half. Kaitlyn suffers from debilitating seizures and requires intravenous feeding that provides her with essential fluid and nutrients.

She is eligible for shift care nursing through Medi-Cal, but the Heflins cannot find any agencies in Sonoma County to provide care to Kaitlyn. Heflin quit her job as a daycare provider to stay home fulltime with her daughter.

I dont like to complain about our life because it doesnt get our day any better, Heflin said, but its really frustrating that there are services she is eligible for that are really important that we cant get.

Liz Heflins daughter has been on a waiting list for homecare for more than a year. She talks about the stresses of trying to find an at-home nurse in the Sonoma County area.

The Department of Health Care Services contacted Heflin for details after the Investigative Unit began raising questions about homecare resources. When asked if she will begin seeking information from families and providers about potential access problems across California, Kent said she would be happy to look into it.

But the Investigative Unit also found obstacles accessing homecare isnt limited to Medi-Cal patients. Larkin OLearys 2-year-old son James is covered by commercial insurance through her employer. After 40 days in the hospital following two surgeries on his esophagus, James returned to his Santa Rosa home in January.

James is not as medically complex as Phin Hause or Kaitlyn Heflin, but his doctors decided that he could benefit from 100 hours of homecare. James eats through a feeding tube, and when OLeary needed help using the pump, she called Kaiser. But the hospital didnt have a nurse to send.

To have been in the hospital for so long and then to come home and just feel isolated and feel like nobody is looking out for you or nobody is thinking about you is just heartbreaking, she said.

OLeary said Kaiser told her there is no pediatric home health care available in her area. The hospital finally sent a nurse 10 days after James came home.

Kaiser cant comment on the case because of patient privacy laws, but said in a statement, As the demand for home health care increases, the shortage of home health nurses, especially in certain specialties, is a challenge affecting the entire health care community, not only Kaiser Permanente. The hospital said it is successfully recruiting home care nurses, but there is great demand, and a limited pool to draw from.

Dotson and Hause said the healthcare community must make homecare a priority and believe the state has a responsibility to understand and address problems. They said with the right resources and committed caregivers, kids like their daughter can thrive at home.

Every day is a miracle with Phin, Hause said. We are just so happy she is with us.

If you have a tip for the Investigative Unit email theunit@nbcbayarea.com or call 888-996-TIPS.
Fire officials in the Bay Area are watching intently as a massive wildfire devours communities in Alberta, Canada.

The blaze has charred nearly 400 square miles and forced more than 85,000 evacuations, and experts like Bill Stewart, a UC Berkeley forestry specialist, say it should provide a warning to firefighters and residents across the Bay Area.

He said the Canada fire is similar to recent ones that occurred in Northern California, citing last years Lake County fire and others that happened closer to home.

When everything catches on fire, thats just what it looks like; scary beyond belief, Stewart said.

Such damaging fires, officials said, often happen in growing communities and show how critical quick evacuations are. Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said the dry conditions in the Canadian city of Fort McMurray could be similar to those found in the Bay Area, especially after the four-year drought.

Its a very good reminder for all of us here in California just how destructive fires can be, Berlant said, adding that the dry spell in California has caused about 29 million dead trees. Drought and significant tree mortality increase the fire risk.
Five hunger strikers have been hospitalized after fasting for 16 days to try and force San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to fire police Chief Greg Suhr.

"Due to their deteriorating health, all five of the hunger strikers have been hospitalized. At this time we are not able to release any additional information due to privacy concerns," hunger strike organizers wrote on Facebook today.

Meanwhile, about 40 of their supporters gathered today inside City Hall on the steps in the main lobby, chanting "fire Chief Suhr," cheering, singing and creating deafening echoes in the cavernous building. The group subsequently moved to the area outside Lee's office.

Around 5 p.m. the doors of city hall were closed, and additional protesters were unable to join in.

The hunger strikers, dubbed the #Frisco5, are calling for Suhr's job in the wake of police shootings like of Mario Woods, Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez-Lopez and Luis Gongora.

In wheelchairs with hundreds of supporters, they marched to City Hall on Tuesday demanding to speak with the mayor, but found he was not in his office. As they rallied at City Hall, Lee posted photos on Twitter of himself at events elsewhere in the city.

On Thursday, the hunger strikers said they spoke to Lee by phone. He stood by Suhr, and said the chief was working on making reforms to the department.

But the hunger strikers vowed to continue their protest, saying they would not stop until Suhr gets fired or steps down.

"Mayor Ed Lee's refusal to listen to the will of the people has awoken a sleeping giant. The people are demanding that he fire Chief Suhr!! If he does not then he must step down," organizers said in an email.

"They will shut San Francisco down! There will be no more business as usual. As long as this administration is an accomplice to murder, the people will rise up and demand justice."[[378491675, C]]
A member of the #Frisco5 spoke out against San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee moments before all members were hospitalized on Friday, the 16th day of their hunger strike.

Its not supposed to be where you have a mayor whos just unaccountable, unapologetic for his police tactics, his tactics on his homeless policies, Averi Sellassie Blackwell, 39, said in a video interview posted to YouTube by Lets Get Political SF on Friday. He just seems like he doesnt care.

Blackwell was briefly hospitalized on Wednesday before returning to the protestors post in front of Mission Station on Valencia Street that day. As the #Frisco5 continued their strike from an undisclosed hospital location Friday, members of the community took over San Francisco City Hall in protest, leading to arrests.

The #Frisco5 have pledged not to eat anything until Lee fires SFPD Chief Greg Suhr, which Lee said on a phone call Thursday that he would not do.

If you care about having a mayor who is accountable to his citizens, to his taxpayer citizens and want him to have accountability to how he treats his citizens, then you let him know by calling up his line, blowing up his line, emailing him, sending him letters, Blackwell implored viewers. You let him know your dissatisfaction of people in the city starving while I bet, since Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, hes eaten a meal. Probably three a day!
Jurors Friday convicted an Oakland man of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the shooting death of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in Oakland in July 2013 and the unrelated fatal shooting of a man in Berkeley about seven weeks later.

Jurors deliberated for only a day and a half before reaching their verdicts against 25-year-old Darnell Williams, who will now face a separate

penalty phase at which jurors will choose between recommending the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutor John Brouhard alleged in his closing argument in the month-long trial that Williams fired at least 13 shots into an apartment in the 3400 block of Wilson Avenue in Oakland at about 11:15 p.m. on July 17, 2013, in retaliation for the fatal shooting of his close friend, 26-year-old reputed gang member Jermaine Davis, in the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley about five hours earlier.

Brouhard said Williams wanted to harm anyone who was close to Antiown York, the man he thought had murdered Davis, and went to the apartment because York's ex-girlfriend, who was the mother of York's 7-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy, lived there.

The mother wasn't home when Williams arrived at the apartment but the two children were there along with their 63-year-old grandmother and Alaysha, who was a close friend of the 7-year-old girl and was spending the night there.

The 7-year-old girl, the 4-year-old boy and their grandmother were also struck by gunfire but survived their injuries.

Brouhard alleges that Williams shot Medearis because he thought he was a snitch and also because he wanted to rob him because he had run out of money to buy guns, drugs and jewelry.

Brouhard said Williams killed Medearis after a dispute at a dice game, chasing Medearis down and shooting him in the back as he pleaded for his life.

But Williams' lawyers, Deborah Levy and Darryl Billups, asked jurors to find Williams not guilty, saying there wasn't enough evidence to convict him.

In her closing argument, Levy said, "There are no fingerprints, no DNA, no guns and no eyewitnesses" that tie Williams to the two fatal shootings.
The Chicago Police Department will be deploying 2,000 additional body cameras in seven police districts by the summer, authorities announced Friday.

Chicago Police currently use about 30 body cameras in one district on the Northwest Side, where police Superintendent Eddie Johnson says complaints about officers have dropped dramatically. This is proof, according to the department, that cameras help to restore the community's trust.

It assures police respond appropriately, professionally, and respectfully, and it also changes behavior of citizens we encounter, said Johnson, who wore a body camera on beat patrol Friday evening. So far interaction with community has gone quite well, he said.

The cameras will be used in seven of the most violent districts across Chicago, mostly concentrated on the South and West Sides, according to police. Those districts are the 14th (Shakespeare), 9th (Deering), 15th (Austin), 2nd (Wentworth), 10th (Ogden), 4th (South Chicago), and 6th (Gresham).

A push for these body cams came on the heels of dwindling public trust and controversial police encounters, like the dashcam video of the shooting death of Laquan McDonald at the hands of Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke. Video in that instance contradicted what officers reported occurred that night.

While advocates of the body cameras say they promote accountability, some critics are unsure that this move is the best idea.

Police union president Dean Angelo, Sr. questions the utility of the additional cameras.

Is that going to fix someone from coming at the police officer? No, said Angelo, who is president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Chicago, adding that many rank-and-file members arent happy about having to maintain another piece of equipment, or cameras possibly capturing private conversation between officers.

We don't want them to get written up for squad car humor, he added.

But Angelo said ultimately that videos could help vindicate officers and bring about a new understanding of Chicago Police as a whole.

It's important the people of the city of Chicago come to realize how professional and how compassionate and how good of a department we have, Angelo said.

Officers will be required to activate their body cameras on every call on a public way, according to Johnson. Video from the body cameras will be stored for approximately 30 days.
"It's been seven hours and fifteen days / Since you took your love away," Sinead O'Connor sings in her cover of "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Prince.

And approximately seven hours and 15 days after the musical legend passed away, fans in Chicago gathered for a "Thousand Princes Purple Walk" to honor their hero.

"He was prolific in his music art form and what he did," said Prince fan Sally Mawlas, who was one of hundreds of people who showed up at the memorial event in Wicker Park on Friday.

"It really is celebration of life," said Nadine Mollino. Chicago was one of many cities across the country celebrating the life and legacy of the prolific musician, who died April 21 at age 57.

Fans shared their favorite memories of Prince, including how they felt when they first saw him performing.

"I fainted and bumped my head because I swore he was looking right at me," one fan shared.

"If you know him like I do, his diehard fans," said Joel Matos, "and I've been to Paisley Park eight times-- he's a very funny guy."

"He points at me, he goes 'you' and he came up and he hugged me," another fan shared, reminiscing about the musician's ability to transcene musical genres. "Think about it: blues, soul, rock and roll, gospel. He did all genres of music."

As the investigation continues into Prince's medical history, hundreds of Chicagoans simply enjoyed a memorial walk in honor of their hero, culminating at nearby Crocodile bar for a purple afterparty.

Prince's family said in a statement that they are planning an official memorial service and public event in the near future.
Noida: Sounding a word of caution to students on education loans, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said they should not fall prey to "unscrupulous schools" which leave them with high debt and "useless degrees".

Observing that education at high quality research universities will remain expensive in near future, he said efforts should be made to make degrees affordable to all deserving students.

One part of the solution is student loans, he said, adding, "We have to be careful that student loans are repaid in full by those who have the means, while they are forgiven in part for those who fall on bad times, or those who take low paying public service jobs."

In his convocation address at the Shiv Nadar University, he said, "We also should make sure that unscrupulous schools do not prey on uninformed students, leaving them with high debt and useless degrees."

The RBI Governor said private education across the world is expensive and is getting more expensive all the time.Beginning his address in a lighter vein, Mr Rajan said he embarks on this talk comforted by the knowledge that the "bar for convocation speeches is low".

"If you even remember a word I say a few years from now, I will have surpassed the average convocation speaker - most people don't remember who spoke at their convocation, let alone what they said."

Mr Rajan, a globally known economist, emphasised that free market is not fair saying even well-run market economies seem to be favouring those who already have plenty.

"In part, this is because skills and capabilities have become much more important in well-paid jobs, and those born in good circumstances have a much better chance at acquiring these," he said.

While education loan is one solution to make degrees affordable, philanthropy, not just by the founders, but by the successful students from a university, can also play an important role, Rajan said. "Giving back to the university is a way of subsidising the costs of future generations acknowledging the subsidies you received from the founders when you got your degree.

I hope we develop a strong culture of alumni giving in India," he said. He also said Reserve Bank was in touch with the government to deal with issues related to education loan. Referring to a book by renowned Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel, who seems to prescribe banning monetary transactions, the Governor said in a free market, all it takes to buy what you want is money.

"You do not need a pedigree, a great family history, the right table manners, or the right fashionable clothing or looks," Rajan said. Money has no odour and is a great equaliser, that so many people across history have been able to acquire resources and invested them to make this world, he added. "Indeed, making it easy for Dalits to start businesses may do more for their social status because money empowers than many other forms of affirmative action.

Rather than prohibiting the use of money and wealth, let us think about increasing society's tolerance for its use," said Rajan. Speaking about the country's GDP, he said: "I have no problem with India's growth. It is doing great. It could do better". India has emerged as one of the fastest growing large economies in the world with a growth rate of 7.6 per cent in 2015-16 fiscal
The woman gunned down at a Maryland shopping center on Friday was shot in the same area terrorized by the D.C. snipers when they went on a murderous spree 14 years ago.

Her suspected killer ate at the same nearby Boston Market Friday that John A. Muhammad stopped at in 2002 after one of his random attacks with Lee Boyd Malvo, according to a Maryland state's attorney.

"[It] was an irony that was not lost on me," said Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy.

Some of the snipers' victims were shot near the Aspen Hill Shopping Center, where Friday morning Eulalio Tordil allegedly killed a woman.

Tordil is also suspected of killing his estranged wife at a Beltsville, Maryland, school Thursday, as well as a man at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda Friday. Three others were hurt in the shootings.

Tordil was taken into custody at a shopping center's parking lot without incident, after plainclothes officers saw him at the Boston Market and other stores Friday, McCarthy said.

"When Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Mohammad committed those murders here in Aspen Hill," McCarthy said at a news conference Friday, "They ate at the same restaurant where we had [Tordil in] surveillance here today."

The snipers killed 10 people in Maryland and Virginia in October 2002. Among the victims: A bus driver on Grand Pre Road who was standing on the top step of his empty bus, a man pumping gas at a Mobil gas station on Aspen Hill Road and a woman sitting on a bench near a post office on Rossmoor Boulevard.

The Boston Market connection is likely nothing more than a coincidence, McCarthy added. He said authorities had information that Tordil once lived in the area and was familiar with the neighborhood.

Tordil is facing charges including first-degree murder. Authorities believe the deadly shootings were the result of a failed carjacking attempt.

Friday's shootings brought back memories of the Beltway shootings for many Aspen Hill residents.

Muhammad, who was executed in 2009, terrified the area, gunning down residents over three weeks as they went about their everyday lives. Until he was captured, sporting events were canceled, schoolchildren kept inside during recess and people wary as they pumped gas or walked through parking lots.

Muhammad was put to death at a Virginia state prison in 2009.

His accomplice, Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He later told The Washington Post that he was a monster who had stolen peoples lives. Some investigators believed he was under Muhammads spell.

At one point, they taunted police, leaving behind a "Death" tarot card with the words, "Call me God."

After the shootings, his former wife, Mildred Muhammad, described in an interview with NPR an increasingly manipulative man who threatened to kill her. The former soldier had changed after his return from a deployment to the Persian Gulf, his wife said. She believed he was suffering from an untreated case of post-traumatic stress disorder, she told The Frederick News-Post.

Malvo said that Muhammad had snapped when he lost custody of his children and wanted to get back as his wife.
President Barack Obama said Saturday that the country is "a better place today" than when he graduated from college more than 30 years ago, citing his historic election as "one indicator of how attitudes have changed."

But gaps persist, he told Howard University's Class of 2016, citing racism and inequality as examples.

In a commencement speech at one of the nation's leading historically black schools, Obama said there were no black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and few black judges when Columbia University awarded him a bachelor's degree in 1983.

"A lot of folks didn't even think blacks had the tools to be a quarterback," Obama said. "When I was graduating, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T. Rap and hip-hop were counterculture, underground. Now Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night and Beyonce runs the world." Rhimes is the executive producer of television hits "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy," which air on Thursdays.

Today, he said, "We're no longer entertainers. We're producers, studio executives. No longer small-business owners, we're CEOs. We're mayors, representatives"  and someone in the crowd shouted out, "President."

"I'm not saying gaps do not persist. Obviously, they do," Obama said. "Racism persists, inequality persists."

He called on the university's 2,300 graduates to step up and take on the work of closing those gaps.

"America needs you to gladly, happily take up that work ... so enjoy the party, because you're going to be busy," Obama said.

He cited income inequality, an issue in the presidential campaign to choose his successor in November, as well as disparities in unemployment, pay and criminal justice. He also listed disease and conflict worldwide, along with terrorism and climate change as other issues needing attention.

"So make no mistake, Class of 2016. You've got plenty of work to do," said Obama, who was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree. "But as complicated and sometimes intractable as these challenges may seem, the truth is that your generation is better positioned than any before you to meet those challenges."

"America is a better place today than it was when I graduated from college," Obama said, adding "by almost every measure." He said the country "also happens to be better off than when I took office, but that's a longer story."

The line drew cheers and applause. "That's a different discussion for another speech," Obama said.

Obama told the graduates to be confident and embrace being African-American and all that it entails, including "our particular awareness of injustice and unfairness and struggle. That means we cannot sleepwalk through life. We cannot be ignorant of history. We cannot meet the world with a sense of entitlement."

He urged them to vote and not to fear opposing voices. Many in the audience of about 15,000 chanted "four more years" as Obama received the degree. He cited low voter turnout in general and among younger voters in particular for control of Congress switching from Democratic to Republican during his presidency.

"You don't think that made a difference in terms of the Congress I've got to deal with," Obama said. "And then people are wondering, well, how come Obama hasn't gotten this done? Just vote. It's math."

Obama, 54, opened by telling the graduates that most of them were just starting high school when he was first elected in 2008.

"I used to joke about being old. Now I realize I'm old. It's not a joke anymore," he said.

The address was the first of three commencement speeches Obama has scheduled this spring, his final ones as president.

Obama is set to speak May 15 at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and June 2 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport leaders said Thursday they were confident the airport has enough police officers to protect the public, despite airport staffing documents describing police staffing insufficient to deal with threats.

The records, obtained through an open records requests, were first reported Wednesday in an NBC 5 Investigation.

Speaking after am airport board meeting Thursday, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he had never seen the staffing plan that details a lack of officers. Rawlings is a member of the airports board of directors.

Still, Rawlings said he has no concerns about the number of police protecting the airport.

I am confident that our CEO knows what he's doing on this, said Rawlings.

A recent airport police strategy document shows even a five-year plan to add more than two dozen police and three dozen security guards would still leave D/FW with fewer police patrolling terminals and curbside areas than at other major airports.

Security experts say visible officers are one of the best deterrents against terrorism.

It gives that person who wants to do harm pause. It says, 'Wait a minute, A: am I going to be discovered before I can carry out mission? Or, B: if I am discovered are they going to be able to stop me?' said LaPonda Fitchpatrick, a former Los Angeles police commander who was in charge of staffing at Los Angeles International Airport.

At the meeting, D/FW CEO, Sean Donohue told NBC 5 Investigates the airport is constantly evaluating staffing along with federal agencies at the airport but he would not say if he plans to step up the pace of hiring police.

A third of my employees at the airport are in the department of public safety so we are always looking at it. Obviously its our top priority and we will continue to look at it, Donohue said.

While the airport has 600 public safety employees, payroll records show only about 175 of those employees are police officers and 100 are security guards. The Department of Public Safety also includes D/FWs fire department.

Airport documents obtained by NBC 5 Investigates show on most shifts just 12 uniformed officers are assigned to patrol the five terminal buildings at D/FW. The airports international terminal alone is 2 million square feet.

The records also show police response times at the airport are lagging a minute and 15 seconds slower than 10 years ago.

When asked if that seemed to indicate a need for more police Rawlings responded, You could argue that. I mean lots of people can argue each of these points. Our budget is so big. Weve got to allocate a certain amount.

Security is not cheap but whats really not cheap is if theres an attack, said airport security expert, Jeff Price.

Price said the slower response times combined with police requests for help deserve attention.

When you have the police themselves saying you dont have enough cops thats a person you really need to listen to at that point, said Price.

Airport official insist they are listening and police have what they need.

And we feel confident with our security plan, said Donohue.

I think good diligence has been looked at this process. Best practices have been played and right now Im in a pretty good situation, said Rawlings.

The staffing plan obtained by NBC 5 also says the Transportation Security Administration sent the airport three notices in three months noting more than 30 security violations.

D/FW and the TSA would not release the specifics of those violations, saying that is security sensitive information.

The TSA does not require airports to have a certain number of police, only that they have enough police to respond to threats in a reasonable amount of time.
A human case of Zika virus has been confirmed Friday in Denton County, officials say.

Denton County Public Health said a Carrollton man who recently traveled to the Dominican Republic is battling the virus.

Zika virus is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected mosquito.

This is the second confirmed case in Denton County, and health experts warn there will be more as summer approaches.

The virus has been linked to birth defects in other countries, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. North Texans are urged to protect themselves against mosquitoes for protection.
A controversial film claiming a certain vaccine has links to autism is now playing in North Texas.

"Vaxxed - From Cover Up To Catastrophe" plays at the Angelika Theaters in Plano and Dallas this weekend.

According to its promoters, "at the heart of the film's controversy is data compiled by the CDC but intentionally excluded from the final published results.

This data was forwarded to the filmmakers by a whistleblower at CDC, William W. Thompson, who now has asked Congress to subpoena himself so that he might testify under oath without fear of legal reprisal by the CDC."

The CDC is firm vaccinations are safe and unvaccinated children are at risk for the disease.
In Midlothian, there is one question nagging the entire town: Who murdered 45-year-old fitness instructor Missy Bevers?

"Everyone is talking about it," said human resources manager Tonya Stanton. "Everyone is obsessed with it."

A railroad town, Midlothian was founded in 1888. Rarely has a crime mystery so captivated everyone.

At Ellis County Barbecue, the chopped beef is mixed with cold beer and hot gossip.

"You know we're all just shocked," Stanton said. "This is such a small town community and we just want this person caught."

Amy McClain, an executive for a medical device company, said everyone feels the same way.

"Everyone wants to make sure it's solved," she said. "Nothing like this ever happens here."

But 18 days without an arrest is taking its toll on this growing town of 20,000.

Midlothian bills itself as the cement capital of North Texas. Now it's desperate for concrete answers.

"It's crazy. I've never seen anything like it," said Sharlene Cazares who works at a salon downtown. "There was a lot of fear, especially with young teenage girls. I heard a lot of the mothers say that they had to sleep with them the first week or two."

That fear is turning into suspicion. People are now playing amateur detectives.

Was the killer, captured wearing a police uniform on church surveillance video, a man or a woman?

"Not only myself, but everyone in town, everywhere they go, they're looking at someone possibly built that way," Cazares said.

And then, there's the killer's unusual way of walking with his or her right foot bent outward.

"You know, you get a person walking around with a foot out like that, there's something wrong," said Vietnam veteran Don Radabaugh. "Somebody has got a broken leg or something. Somebody knows."

With the killer still walking the streets, the growing question in town is: Is he or she getting away with murder?

"Even though it's taking a while, I think Midlothian will definitely get it solved," McClain said.
The judge overseeing the Prince estate case has authorized genetic testing on a sample of his blood in case it's necessary to determine who's entitled to shares of the estate.

Carver County District Judge Kevin Eide on Friday granted a request by the special administrator overseeing the estate, Bremer Trust, to hire DNA Diagnostics Center to perform the genetic testing on a blood sample now held by the medical examiner's office that conducted the autopsy on Prince.

Prince's sister, Tyka Nelson said he left behind no will.

Nelson and Prince's five half-siblings decided last week that Bremer Trust should continue acting as special administrator of the musician's fortune, according to NBC News.

In his order, the judge says he's "recognizing that parentage issues might arise" in the administration of Prince's estate. He's authorized the medical examiner to release the blood sample to the testing laboratory.

Prince's estate is believed to be worth an estimated $300 million. It is rumored that he also left behind thousands of unrecorded songs.

Aside from his siblings, Prince is survived by two ex-wives. His only known child, a son named Boy Gregory, died in October 1996 at just a week old.

Prince died April 21 at his home in suburban Minneapolis. The cause remains under investigation.
A group of mothers gathered Thursday in north San Diego County to build 1,000 teddy bears designed to help fellow moms grieving the loss of a child.

About 100 new moms involved in the San Diego Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) assembled in Vista to create Comfort Cubs, weighted teddy bears distributed by the San Diego-based organization of the same name.

The Comfort Cub organization gives the bears to mothers suffering the devastating loss of a child. Comfort Club founder Marcella Johnson created the concept of the therapeutic bear after her own baby, George, died 17 years ago.

My heart hurt and my arms ached, Johnson said in a video on the Comfort Cub website.

The plush is meant to provide comfort for moms in a time of mourning and let them know someone cares and feels their grief as they begin to try to heal. It can also be used by anyone experiencing the loss of a loved one, at any age.

Johnson likes to say the teddy bears cure Broken Heart Syndrome and help ease sadness.

The Comfort Cubs created by MOPS Thursday will be delivered to mothers across the nation before Mothers Day.

For at least one mother in MOPS, Gracie Del Mar, the project holds a very special place in her heart.

When Del Mars baby girl, Jocelyn, died, she a weighted Comfort Cub was delivered to her hospital room.

I was so grateful to have something to hold after losing my child. It brought comfort to my arms during the worst time in my life, she said.

The gesture inspired Del Mar to pay-it-forward to other mothers. When her MOPS group was looking for a service project to do for Mothers Day, she immediately thought of the Comfort Cub organization.

"With the help of all of these caring San Diego moms we will be able to heal a lot of broken hearts in time for Mother's Day," Johnson said.

According to the organizations website, since 1999, the Comfort Cub program has delivered 8,240 teddy bears to mothers around the globe.

Comfort Cubs are available at every hospital in San Diego via onsite social workers and nursing teams. The organization is also in the process of expanding the service to other hospitals across the nation.

To learn more about the Comfort Cub or to donate to the organization, click here. This video also has more information about what the teddy bear can mean to mothers.
A man who was eating dinner with his family at a pier at Sunny Isles Beach jumped off the pier to save a young woman who was struggling against a strong current.

Sunny Isles Beach Police said 27-year-old Javier Fernandez was with his wife and child at the Beach Bar restaurant at Newport Pier Thursday night when he began hearing screams for help.

Rose Cireus, 19, had entered the water near the pier when she noticed her 23-year-old sister in distress. Cireus helped get her sister to shallow water but was pulled out by the strong currents, officials said.

She began going under water and started screaming for help. That's when Fernandez jumped off the pier into the water to save her from the currents.

Cireus was taken to Aventura Hospital. Police are now calling Fernandez a hero.
Akshay said although the incident should not have happened, sometimes the bodyguards need to take care of the actors. Photo: Viral Bhayani

Bollywood star Akshay Kumar on Friday said the incident where his bodyguard punched a fan should not have happened and that he would make sure such things are not repeated.

A video had recently emerged wherein the actor's bodyguard was seen punching a fan who came close to the actor for clicking a selfie at the Mumbai airport.

Akshay said although the incident should not have happened, sometimes the bodyguards need to take care of the actors because of some extreme situations.

"It is wrong to raise your hand on someone, I agree... But about two to three years ago I was shaking hands with many people and suddenly I found my hand was bleeding," he told reporters.

Read: Akshay Kumar's bodyguard punches a fan trying to take a selfie

"Then I realised someone had put a blade between his or her finger nails. So while shaking hands I got a cut. Now, whether it is madness, stupidity or 'fan-pana', you need to take care of these things as well," he said.

The actor was speaking at the launch of the new song "Taang Uthake" from his upcoming film 'Housefull 3'.

Akshay said artists need to take care of such situations, too, and added that the bodyguards are there to handle such things.

Read: Akshay Kumar reprimands bodyguard for punching a fan at the Mumbai airport

"What my bodyguard did was wrong. I apologised for that too. But sometimes you need to take care of these things because the actors don't realise, they're walking, they don't understand that sometimes they might get injured too.

"I have seen with many heroines that sometimes some wrong things happen (to them). They (bodyguards) are there to take care of it. Raising your hand on someone is wrong and I'll make sure it doesn't happen," the 'Airlift" star said.

Apart from Akshay, 'Housefull 3' stars Abhishek Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, among others.

The film, directed by Sajid-Farhad, is scheduled to release on June 3.
Three teens have been arrested in a random attack on a 60-year-old man on a Long Island street that left him unconscious, police say.

Surveillance video captured the three Deer Park teens approaching the man from behind on Deer Park Avenue Wednesday afternoon, then one of them punching him in the face.

The man fell to the pavement, and the teens fled, leaving the victim inches from passing traffic, Suffolk Police said.

Several witnesses called 911, and the victim, whos from Shirley, was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center to be treated for fractures to the face, police said.

The two teens who were with the alleged puncher, 16-year-old Jean Jiminez and 16-year-old Adonis Byers, were arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree assault. They were arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip Friday.

The North Babylon teen who allegedly threw the punch  who was 15 at time of the attack but is now 16  was arrested Friday on charges of first-degree reckless endangerment and third-degree assault. Hes being charged as a juvenile and is set to be arraigned in Family Court on May 25, police said.

The juvenile has also been charged in a similar attack on Wednesday afternoon at a Taco Bell on Deer Park Avenue. The teen allegedly approached an 18-year-old man from behind and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Attorney information for the teens wasnt immediately clear.
Oscar-winning actress Julianne Moore joined hundreds of people Saturday in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge to demand stricter gun laws.

The fourth annual march across the bridge was organized by the group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. The march started at Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn and went to City Hall in lower Manhattan.

Participants carried signs and photos of loved ones killed by gun violence.

At times, they shouted: "What do we want? Gun sense!"

Moore has been pushing for universal background checks for all gun purchases.

She said she was spurred to get involved to advocate for stronger gun laws after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 children and six adults in December 2012.

"We're really pushing for more gun safety regulations," she said. "It is not an anti-gun movement. It is not a partisan movement. It is a safety movement."

Other speakers included the mother of broadcast journalist Alison Parker, who was killed on live television by a disgruntled former reporter. Parker died alongside video journalist Adam Ward while working for Roanoke, Virginia, TV station WDBJ.
Police collared a 26-year-old man Saturday who they believe repeatedly attempted to pick up young girls in the Bronx.

Osita Enweronye was charged with luring a child to commit crime and acting in a manner injurious to a child.

Officers have been looking for Enweronye for several days. They provided no information about how he was located and apprehended.

Enweronye is accused of approaching three different girls in the Baychester area within a 15-minute span on Wednesday morning, police said. He tried to convince each of them to go with him, in one case offering to take the girl shopping, according to police. Two of the girls were 12 years old, and the other was 11.

None of the girls was physically harmed.

On April 8, Enweronye approached a 13-year-old girl as she walked to school just before 8 a.m., police said. The girl told investigators that he said: "I'll take you somewhere nice."

With the permission of her father, the girl told NBC 4 New York on Friday that she feared for her life.

"My legs were shaking a lot, and I was thinking, This is going to be my last day, she said. Im not going to see my friends again, Im not going to see my mom and dad.

The girl said she felt a tug on her jacket as the suspicious character sidled next to her.

He stopped right next to me and put his shoulder on mine and started saying, Oh, youre so pretty, can I have your number? You want to come with me? Ill take you somewhere nice, she said.

The girl said she warned the attacker that her father was nearby, inside their house.

She then spotted her friend and screamed her name. Thats when he finally started walking away, toward a bus stop.

The girl told a crossing guard and school security guards, and called her mother, who now walks with her.

My moms been protecting me, the girl said. I havent been thinking about it. But when I saw his face, I started thinking he was out there still.
Former New York congressman Michael Grimm says he hasn't ruled out a return to politics after being released from federal prison following his conviction for tax evasion.

In an interview Friday with Time Warner Cable's NY1 Grimm said that his experience as an inmate at a federal penitentiary in western Pennsylvania was a "horrible experience" that he wouldn't wish on anyone.

The Staten Island Republican pleaded guilty in December 2014 to aiding in the filing of a false tax return. He served about seven months at the McKean Federal Correctional Institution in Lewis Run and was released in April. He said he is serving the remainder of his sentence on house arrest.

Grimm says he plans to work as a prison-reform activist and is also working on a book.
The Bronxs only no-kill animal shelter is in danger of closing if the city or donors dont bail it out, its administrator told NBC 4 New York.

New Beginnings Animal Rescue founder Pedro Rosario said that the shelter on Newbold Avenue is on its last leg and that without some sort of intervention the shelter will be shut down within two months.

We are in dire need, Rosario said.

Rosario has been running the 5,000-square-foot shelter on private donations and his own life savings for the last six years and has adopted out thousands of animals in that time.

He said Friday that if the shelter closes, many of the animals would have to be taken to other rescue groups.

Some that cant find new shelters or homes could make their way to city shelters, which euthanized more than 4,000 of the 29,211 dogs and cats taken in in 2015.

Odds are theyll get 48 hours and theyll join the chamber, said volunteer Danielle Benbrahim.

Rosario said that he doesnt want that to happen, but knows he might have to go it alone. The city said that his shelter is not part of the citys system, so there's not much they can do to help.

"So many nights I go to sleep thinking, Whats going to happen tomorrow?, he said.
Donald Trump ramped up his attacks on Hillary Clinton Friday, calling the Democratic front-runner an "unbelievably nasty, mean enabler" who "destroyed" the lives of her husband's mistresses, NBC News reported.

The comments, made during an evening rally in Eugene, Oregon, marked the sharpest tone he's taken against Clinton since becoming his party's presumptive nominee.

Without citing specific examples, Trump asked the audience: "Have you ever read what Hillary Clinton did to the women that Bill Clinton had affairs with? And theyre going after me with women? Give me a break, folks."

His comments came as part of a defense against recent attacks from Democrats focused on his controversial comments and stances on women's issues. Trump told the crowd "nobody respects women more than me."
It was a dark start to the weekend in Philadelphia and Norristown as intense fires killed six people, including a child, and sent seven to the hospital over a 12 hour span Saturday, fire officials in both towns said.

The deadliest fire kindled inside a Norristown twin home along the 800 block of Dekalb Pike around 4 a.m.

Norristown Fire chief Tom O'Donnell said when firefighters got to the home, they were met with heavy flames on the first floor. The fire quickly grew to two alarms, he said.

Two adults were found dead inside the home and a child was taken to Albert Einstein Medical Center and later died, O'Donnell said. It's not yet clear if they were related.

Another child was rushed to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in critical condition. Five other people were taken to nearby hospitals. Their injuries and conditions were not immediately known.

O'Donnell said his department, Pennsylvania State Police and the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is investigating. He couldn't say whether smoke detectors were in the home.

A few hours before, in South Philadelphia, a couple died in their bedroom as a fire tore through the third floor of their rowhome, the city's acting fire commissioner said.

Philadelphia firefighters were called to the home along the 1700 block of Moore Street around midnight. When they arrived, heavy flames were coming from the house's third floor front bedroom, said Derrick Sawyer, the fire commissioner.

Sawyer said the couple had six smoke detectors in the home, but that the batteries were bad. There was a lot of debris piled up inside the home, which may have provided fuel for the flames. The alley next to the home was blocked with debris as well.

The Philadelphia Fire Marshal is investigating the cause.

As probes into both fires got underway, a third blaze broke out inside a West Philadelphia apartment.

Heavy flames tore through the apartment inside a building along the 4700 block of Hazel Avenue around 7:35 a.m.

Sawyer said it appeared a man tried to fight back the flames instead of escaping. He was overcome inside the apartment and died. Firefighters found an extinguisher near where the fire started as well as a working smoke alarm system.

"If there's a fire, get out and stay out," Sawyer advised residents. "Don't fight the fire. Especially if you don't have a large enough fire extinguisher. The second thing is this apartment building had bars on the windows. If you're going to have bars on the windows you want to make sure that everyone has a quick-release button on the bars so that people can get out safely. Have an escape plan. You have to have a plan to get out when there's a fire."

Another resident was taken to a nearby hospital with undisclosed injuries. Eight people inside the building were able to escape. Eleven people in all were displaced from the apartment complex as well as an adjacent building.

There have been eight fire fatalities so far this year in Philadelphia. Last year at this time there were five fire fatalities.

"You can see we're not doing a pretty good job of keeping our people safe in the city," Sawyer said.

Sawyer took to Twitter following both fires reminding residents that firefighters will install smoke detectors with 10 year batteries in homes for free. All they need to do is call 311 and make the request.

"If there's a fire get out first and dial 911," he said. "If you try to fight the fire you may not be successful."
A man wanted for the murder of a teenage boy outside a Cherry Hill, New Jersey motel has been captured in Georgia, prosecutors said Friday night.

Kevin Fentress, 21, was nabbed by U.S. Marshals on Friday morning at the home of an acquaintance in Marietta, Ga., officials said.

The 21-year-old allegedly shot 17-year-old Jadrye Gordon and an unidentified 20-year-old man in a car outside The Inn of the Dove at 725 Cuthbert Boulevard early February 28, police said.

The victims were taken by private vehicle to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital for treatment. Gordon was later transferred to Cooper University Trauma Center where he died, police said.

All three men were at a party in one of the motels rooms when a fight broke out. The shooting happened shortly after, police said.

Fentress is sitting in a Georgia jail awaiting extradition. Its not immediately clear if he retained an attorney.
Pennsylvania needs to change the way it tracks school childrens immunizations and more kids need to be vaccinated against preventable diseases, according to a report released Friday by a bipartisan group of state policymakers.

The report on youth vaccinations among K-12 students said that not enough children are being immunized by federal standards. Only 10 of 67 counties in Pennsylvania had vaccination rates for measles, mumps and rubella -- the MMR vaccine -- of 95 percent or higher, the group reported. Doctors strive for a rate of 95 percent or higher to keep the easily spread infections, like measles, at bay.

They also highlighted lax rules around how easily a parent can have their child exempt from being vaccinated and issues about the availability of collected immunization data.

Last year, NBC10 discovered flaws with immunization records collected by the Pennsylvania Department of Health following a review of data from hundreds of school districts around the state. Records for some districts were wildly incorrect leaving open the potential for a slowed response to a disease outbreak. Health department officials said the records were being corrected and that new systems were being put in place to double-check record accuracy.

In the study, the group stated a need to strengthen vaccination reporting by requiring schools report immunization records into a statewide tracking database. Currently, schools have access to the database, but using it is voluntary.

More than a dozen recommendations were made around collecting more data about vaccinations, providing more education to families about the importance of vaccinations, and implementing stricter enforcement of state regulations.

The rules of what should be required to grant a philosophical exemption to being vaccinated should be more clear, the group said. Under this exemption, parents can opt out of having their kids immunized based on personal objection to the practice. The exemption is granted at the discretion of school administrators.

The Work Group recommends that the Department of Health and the Department of Education provide clear procedures and criteria for documenting and certifying the allowable exemptions, the group wrote. They did seek to change any of the exemptions.

In another recommendation, the group called for a shortening in the amount of time a student can be in school without being fully immunized. Currently, a student has eight months to get up to date on their shots before being barred from school.

The state should ensure school nurses have access to an online database of vaccination records and provide public, district level reports of vaccination rates, the group said.

Other recommendations include updating the required list of vaccinations children should get and connecting immunization reporting systems to strengthen data collection.

The 15 member confab, made up of lawmakers, health officials and policy makers, conducted the study for the Joint State Government Commission, the research arm of the state House and Senate, at the request of State Sen. Shirley Kitchen of Philadelphia (Pa. - 3rd). Kitchen is the minority chair of the Senate committee on Public Health and Welfare.

We were hoping that the study would have painted a better picture of Pennsylvanias oversight of vaccinations. Instead, it confirmed our fears, Kitchen said in a statement.

Kitchen said shes hopeful the state will adopt the groups recommendations soon.
Sunny Leones pictures recently created a stir in Hyderabad when hackers uploaded her nude photos on the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Cooperation website.

Women activists of a right-wing group have demanded shutting down of a website, run by a private firm, which features photographs of Bollywood actor and former adult star Sunny Leone.

The activists of Hindu Jana Jagruti Samiti called on the Thane police commissioner yesterday and argued that the site features "objectionable" photographs of the actor.

Thane police commissioner Parambir Singh told the activists that the police had earlier written to the company, but received no response. He assured them that the police would again ask the firm to close the website.

A police release said that the organisation had earlier filed a similar complaint in this regard.

Sunny Leones pictures recently created a stir in Hyderabad when hackers uploaded her nude photos on the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Cooperation website. The technical team swung into action and managed to remove it from the main page, but despite their valiant attempts, the pictures began to appear on other link pages.
Doctors and nurses in Philadelphia hope to lower the city's high infant mortality rate by distributing baby boxes that encourage safe sleeping habits for newborns and their caregivers.

Temple University Hospital this week began giving out the cardboard boxes that are lined with a mattress and function like a bassinet. They're meant to discourage parents from sleeping with their babies, which could lead to accidental suffocation.

The program is the largest effort of its kind by an academic health system in the U.S., hospital officials said, though that could not immediately be confirmed. It's based on a successful baby box initiative in Finland that began in the 1930s and lowered that country's infant mortality rate.

At Temple, Brianna Devero received the first box a few days ago after her son, Steven Tonzelli Jr., was born. The boy arrived two weeks early  before her house was ready for the new arrival.

"He loved it because it was like sleeping in the bassinet from the hospital," Devero said Friday. "And it was really just good because it was something that I could use just right then and there, and didn't have to worry about assembling anything."

Philadelphia, which has one of the nation's highest poverty rates, has an infant mortality rate nearly double the U.S. average  11.2 deaths per 1,000 births compared with six per 1,000 nationwide, according to the city Health Department. The rate is even higher in some low-income neighborhoods that Temple serves.

Poor families sometimes don't have the resources or education to properly care for newborns. Temple's box initiative aims to reduce risky behavior associated with infant deaths, such as sharing beds or using unsafe bedding.

The hospital plans to give out 3,000 boxes for free over the next year  one for each woman who gives birth there, regardless of need. The boxes, which include clothing, diapers and educational materials, are worth $80 to $100 and were partly paid for with grants and crowdfunding, officials said.

"We have every hope that our patients will find this a useful tool in caring for their newborns," said Dr. Gail Herrine, medical director of the postpartum unit.

Temple patient Victoria Mack received a box Friday for her son Reign  who also arrived unexpectedly early.

"It's nice to know that you have something that you can go home with ... until when you finally have everything ready to go," she said.
Parents and teachers at a Burlington County school are praising a police officer who went above and beyond to congratulate students on the opening night of their spring musical.

Roxanne Ferguson, a Burlington Township Middle School music teacher and director of the school musicals, told NBC10 over 775 people attended the first night of their spring musical The Little Mermaid Friday. One person in the audience happened to be one of their biggest supporters, Burlington Township Police officer and Student Resource Officer Javier Ortiz.

Hes a big musical fan, Ferguson said.

Officer Ortiz surprised the students with over 100 bouquets of flowers and 30 flower baskets.

Each child received two bouquets, one for them and the other for them to give to their mothers for Mothers Day, Ferguson said. This is not only a celebration of the students but a moment to recognize a police officer who went above and beyond his call of duty.

Be sure to watch the musical Saturday night starting at 7 p.m. at Burlington Township High School on 610 Fountain Avenue in Burlington, New Jersey.




I'm at home sick so forgive me if I'm not quite as enthusiastic about the weekend as I was yesterday. It's just that looking at all of these amazing things going on in San Diego bums me out a little. So do me a favor and go have some fun for me? You can start of by catching some of the Fiesta Cinco de Mayo festival at Old Town or Gator By The Bay at Spanish Landing. Then as the day turns to night, catch Anamanaguchi at the Irenic, or the Hotline Spring tour with Magic Man and the Griswolds at the Observatory. If those don't suit you, the Wild Fires are at Soda Bar and Manic Hispanic are at the Casbah. I'll be on the mend soon enough, but go out and enjoy it for me, too, won't you?

Saturday, May 7:

Gator By The Bay @ Spanish Landing Park

Fiesta Cinco De Mayo @ Old Town

Manic Hispanic, the Touchies @ Casbah

Hotline Spring Tour: Magic Man, the Griswolds, Panama Wedding @ The Observatory North Park

Anamanaguchi, Lindsey Lowend @ The Irenic

MetalSucks presents: So Hideous, Bosse-de-Nage, Griever, Empty Gods @ The Merrow

The Wild Fires, King Shelter, Free Roary @ Soda Bar

DJ Mike Delgado @ Bar Pink

Solana Beach Bash @ Belly Up (4 p.m.)

Fiesta De Fido @ Quartyard (2 p.m.)

Wayward Sons, Way Cool Jr. @ Belly Up

The Slackers, Viernes 13 @ Music Box

Abba: The Concert Tribute @ Sycuan Casino

"Records Collecting Dust" screening and RCD 2 fundraiser @ Whistle Stop (5-8 p.m.)

80s vs. 90s with DJ Saul & Gabe Vega @ Whistle Stop (9 p.m.)

Saul Hernandez @ House of Blues

Brad Perry @ Crossroads, House of Blues

Torche, Wild Throne @ The Hideout

Stairs & Towers @ The Bancroft

Los Shadows, Noble War, the Art Dealers, Fake Tides @ SOMA

Gregory Porter @ Copley Symphony Hall

Exhumed @ Queen Bee's

Druden, Hours, Spectral Death @ Tower Bar

Poor Man's Whiskey (doing the Allman Brothers), Homesick Hitchers @ Winston's

AM Gold @ Winston's (5 p.m.)

SD Metal Swap Meet Official Afterparty with Ruthless and more @ Til-Two Club

Dropdead, Magrudergrind, Yautja, Thanatology @ Brick By Brick

Peter Bolland @ The Grassroots Oasis

Zero To Billy @ Java Joe's

The Gloomies @ Shaper Studios

Lily & Madeleine @ The Loft, UCSD

Author, Sea Cycles, Traffic Bear @ Che Cafe

Bad Neighborz, Ocean Natives @ 710 Beach Club

Comedy @ The Bancroft

Los Fabulocos @ Tio Leo's

Trade Winds @ Humphreys Backstage Live (5 p.m.)

Detroit Underground @ Humphreys Backstage Live (9 p.m.)

Chachi @ Fluxx

Patrizia The Sultry Lady Of Jazz @ Tango Del Rey

Wiwe @ Bassmnt

Ookay @ Omnia

DJ Kon Flikt @ Parq

Cut Snake @ El Camino

Wax Motif, Klatch @ Bang Bang

Ascension@ Kava Lounge

Project N-fidelikah @ Ramona Mainstage

Robot Ears & Divinity Present Carlo Lio @ Spin

Rosemary Bystrak is the publicist for the Casbah, the content manager for DoSD, and writes about the San Diego music scene, events and general musings about life in San Diego on San Diego: Dialed In. Follow her updates on Twitter or contact her directly.
After his classmates plea for a visit from Captain America went viral, 18-year-old Ryan Wilcox got quite a treat from Chris Evans and his school on Friday.

The actor sent San Diego's Grossmont High School a video, offering Wilcox well-wishes and telling him simply to stay strong.

Its people like you with strength like yours that inspire people like me, Evan says in the video posted to YouTube.

The actors video was in response to a social media campaign by the high schools ASB, seeking a visit to Wilcox, who is battling cancer and is a devoted Captain America fan.

The ASB club posted its plea on Facebook and the post has since amassed more than 3,100 shares.

On Friday, the school had an assembly for Wilcox, where they featured Evans video.

Amazing support by Grossmont HS students! Captain America themed pep rally for stricken classmate. #nbc7 #ryanstrong pic.twitter.com/H0xNwf0tFH  Artie Ojeda (@ArtieNBCSD) May 6, 2016

Im thinking of you, the star says. Stay strong!

The student body also showered Wilcox with support, dressing up in Captain America garb and holding a banner that read: #RyanStrong.
Donald Trump will testify and attend the trial in the Trump University class-action lawsuit scheduled for November 28 in San Diego, his attorney said Friday.

The trial is scheduled for after the presidential election, something Trumps attorney, Daniel Petrocelli argued against in court. The plaintiffs attorney suggested a July or August timeframe for a trial date.

We strongly prefer for trial to be after the inauguration if Trump were elected," Petrocelli said. The trial should not become a political tool." He asked the judge for a trial date in early 2017.

In the class action lawsuits, Trump University is accused of misleading students with unfulfilled promises of teaching them the secret to being successful in the real estate business. The allegations outlined in court documents include Trump University, which took in over $40 million, was fraudulent and deceptive. Students paid up to $35,000 for real estate seminars, according to court documents.

Trump denies the allegations in the lawsuits. His attorney, Petrocelli said, the case is unwarranted; (Trump) will defend himself fully."

Two class-action lawsuits against the now-closed Trump University are being heard in San Diego courtrooms, another lawsuit is based in a New York court. The San Diego cases include: Cohen v. Trump, a nationwide class action lawsuit and Makaeff v. Trump, a class action in California, Florida and New York.

In court Friday, U.S. Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel said a 14-day trial seems possible. Petrocelli said he thinks it could take that amount time just for jury selection.

Curiel said he is not inclined to have a 12-person jury but would like to see an eight or nine-person jury. Both parties have agreed on a jury questionnaire and have permission from Curiel to move forward with that process. According to Curiel, the questionnaire is needed to get a pool of jurors that is unbiased.

Petrocelli told NBC 7 Investigates Trump plans to attend most, if not all of the trial and will testify. Trump has strong feelings about the trial," he said.

Right now, there are around 300 exhibits entered into the court record, whittled down from more than 1,000.

One of those exhibits is a deposition of the presumptive GOP Presidential nominee. When asked about releasing that deposition to the public, Petrocelli said it would "not be a good idea."

While deciding when the trial should take place, Curiel said he considered three things: making sure everyone receives a fair trial, the trial takes place in a reasonable amount of time and that waiting too far after the November presidential election, if Trump were to be elected, would mean a sitting president is spending time defending himself, taking away from his time serving the country.

Earlier this year, Trump said Curiel is prejudiced against him, claiming the judge has shown "tremendous hostility" to him.

"I think it has to do with perhaps the fact that I'm very, very strong on the border," Trump said on Fox News in February. "Now he is Hispanic, I believe. He is a very hostile judge to me."

Trump said the judge is biased because of Trumps call to build a wall along the border.

Friday, Petrocelli said they will not be asking the judge to recuse himself.
A San Diego Police Officer investigated for a fatal shooting of a homeless man in the Midway District, fired his gun accidentally weeks after returning to duty, lodging a bullet in a crib, an Oak Park mother told NBC 7 San Diego Friday.

"He left us traumatized," Kimberly Espinoza said.

Espinoza said she forgives San Diego Police Officer Neil Browder for accidentally shooting her son's crib in her home, but she and her family can't get over the incident.

"Because how can you be so reckless? My son wouldn't be here. I mean I'm grateful nothing happened to him but officers like that, you're not supposed to be scared of an officer," she told NBC 7 Friday in an exclusive interview.

After weeks of trying to learn more about the accidental shooting, the NBC 7 team received tips and uncovered documents leading us to the home on Bayview Heights Place where it happened.

Police confirm, on April 20, Officer Browder was conducting police duties when he accidentally discharged is firearm.

The bullet lodged into Espinoza's 1-year-old son's crib. She and the baby were in the kitchen at the time and were not injured.

"You're supposed to be careful. You're supposed to know there's a child in the house. Whether there is a child or not," said Espinoza.

NBC 7 San Diego

Ten months before the accidental shooting, Officer Browder was involved in an officer-involved shooting where he killed an unarmed, mentally ill man in the Midway District.

"It made me more mad because if that would've hit my son and he started firing because he saw a little boy in there. That's what he did last year. He didn't even give the guy a chance," she said.

Browder did not face criminal charges, although the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice have launched an investigation into the incident. We've reached out to San Diego police Friday night by phone and by email, but have not heard back yet.

In the past, a police department spokesman said a thorough investigation was immediately initiated and the case was looked into administratively, not criminally, because it was an accident.
A murder victims family is talking to police again after a News4 I-Team report about the oldest cold case in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Ralph Smith remembers his family never talked about the case when he was growing up in Bethesda in the 1930s. It wasn't until he was a teenager when he began to hear whispers his father had been a suspect in the Car Barn Murders -- one of the region's most famous murder mysteries.

"My dad was home asleep, Smith said, when police, came and rousted him out of bed. They said at that time he was a suspect, they wanted to know where his uncle was. He said he was at work."

Smith's father worked at the Capital Transit Car Barn and its ticket station on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase along with his uncle Emory Smith, the stations night watchman.

But a cold January night in 1935, someone stole more than $1,200, or $20,000 in todays money, and killed the clerk, who was found inside a locked office, Montgomery County Police said.

There was no sign of Emory Smith.

"They found him the next day in Rock Creek Park," Ralph Smith said. Police records show Emory Smith was probably shot about a mile north of the station, at what is now the Kensington Parkway Bridge and thrown into Rock Creek.

Ralph Smith said his father was quickly cleared of his uncle's murder and, along with three of his uncles, continued to work for the trolley company. "They always thought it was an inside job," Ralph Smith said.

But as time passed, the Smith family assumed police had given up on finding the killer -- until they saw the I-Team story showing how Montgomery County Detective Brian Stafford is still working on what is now his oldest cold case.

"I think they're all solvable," Stafford said.

But, he said, his files showed police lost contact with the Smith family in the 1980s, and Stafford wasn't sure if anyone was even still alive.

Ralph Smiths daughter Karen Smith said she couldnt believe it when a cousin sent her a link to the story.

"I called Dad and said, 'Did you know they have a whole case file on Uncle Emory? she explained. And he goes 'Well, they have a little." And I said, 'No, they have a lot!'"

Karen and Ralph Smith said they had no idea the case file contained bullet fragments, original notebooks, hand-drawn maps and 81 year-old evidence photos.

"In 1935, it's not like everybody just walked around with a 35 millimeter digital camera and photographed everything, Karen Smith said. That was a big deal to photograph the desk and all the evidence in the shoe prints, and they didn't know what we know now. To collect all of that and take meticulous notes, they did a really good job."

And she should know. Shes a retired homicide investigator who now runs her own forensic evidence consulting firm in Florida. She estimated shes worked on more than 500 murder cases, including cold cases, and said finding evidence this old is extremely rare.

"Tells me they've taken extraordinarily good care of that case file, she said. I'm very grateful for my family, for my dad. Especially want to tell them thank you for that."

Ralph Smith moved to Florida to be closer to his daughter. Theyve now gotten in touch with Stafford.

At 81 years old, Ralph Smith is the last of his generation who remembers what it was like after the murders. This case, it's probably never ever going to be really solved," he said.

But Karen Smith then said, I like to be more of an optimist."

She said the fact her family is still searching for answers shows how cold cases can haunt families for generations, as they continue to hold out hope their murder can be solved.

"To have some kind of catharsis, Karen Smith said. Even though we know there will never be any justice, it would still be an answer."

Reported by Tisha Thompson, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Steve Jones.
Two people were killed and two others wounded during a day of violence on Friday in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Eulalio Tordil, 62, is accused of shooting the people at two separate locations in Bethesda and Aspen Hill. Tordil is also accused of shooting and killing his estranged wife on Thursday.

Police said Tordil shot three people at the Westfield Montgomery Mall on Friday, killing one and injuring two. Malcom Winffel, 44, of Boyds, Maryland, was killed when he and a friend rushed to help a woman Tordil allegedly shot in the parking lot outside of Macys.

Winffel was pronounced dead at the hospital. He was a husband and father of two children. A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for funeral expenses and support the family.

The friend, who has not been identified, is in critical condition. The woman who was the first to be shot is expected to survive.

Police said 35 minutes later, Tordil shot a woman outside the Giant Food store at the Aspen Hill Shopping Center. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

Tordil was arrested by police across the street from the Aspen Hill Shopping Center on Friday.
The Maine Fire Marshal's office arrested the Old Orchard Beach fire chief early Saturday morning and charged him with setting a fire that burned more than 40 acres three weeks ago.

Ricky Plummer, 59, was arrested at 2 a.m. Saturday and charged with one count of arson.

More than 100 firefighters from southern Maine fought the April 15 fire in the Jones Creek Marsh.

About a dozen investigators from the fire marshal's office and the forest service, acting on warrants Friday, seized computers at the Old Orchard Beach fire station and seized Plummer's town-owned car and his cell phone.

Plummer was arrested in Scarborough and taken to Cumberland County Jail, where he is being held on $10,000 bail. His arraignment will likely be scheduled next week.
Today was a turning point...of sorts. We managed to shake the dampness for a few hours and break out some sun. Although it wasn't enough to catapult us out of the 50s in Boston - thanks to the east wind - we did manage 60 in Bedford and 63 in Nashua.

Before we break out the party favors, we have to face the fact that more rain has entered Southern New England this afternoon, and is slowly inching north. While I expect most of Northern New England to remain dry, wet weather will continue to fan out across Southern New England.

Once again, this means a cool, showery start to the day tomorrow. As this weather system slowly unravels and decays, there is some hope for afternoon dry and brightening, but I'm hesitant to really pull the trigger on significant clearing.

That might have to wait until the afternoon on Mother's Day as a front crosses and the dry air pushes in from the west. It's at that point that we can talk about a real change in our weather pattern.

Which brings us to the start of next week. Tons of sun and a run for 70 degrees on Tuesday. Was it worth waiting for? Ask the folks in Northern New England who hit the low and mid 70s this afternoon.

(I suspect yes.)

Have a great weekend.
Tinsel townies seem to have found a new detox destination  Austria. A spa resort there was made famous in India by Rani Mukerji and Aditya Chopra a few months ago.

The couple were so impressed by the treatment they had received there that upon their return to Mumbai, they had hosted a dinner where they had invited the doctors from the resort as well as their own industry friends.

Karan Johar, who had attended that dinner, is now all set to check in at that resort. He has been wanting to head to Austria for a while now, but work kept him occupied. Now that he has found a small window, he has taken off on a short break.

Karan had read about the resort after Rani told him about it. Sources close to him say he was highly impressed by what he learnt about the medical spa. A friend of the director said, Yes, he has left to Austria and will come back in few weeks. He is excited to explore the place that has helped so many of his friends.

Other celebs who have been there:

Parineeti Chopra

Alia Bhatt

Anil Kapoor and family

Ranbir and Katrina

Arjun Kapoor
Police in West Newbury, Massachusetts, found a missing 15-year-old girl late Friday after searching for five hours through densely wooded areas.

Four neighboring agencies assisted in the search, which started at about 7 p.m. when the girl's parents called police and reported their daughter missing.

The search party, including K-9 units from the Salisbury and Amesbury police departments and officers from Newburyport and Newbury, located the girl at about midnight in the Pipestave Hill area.

She was unharmed and reunited with her family, police said.
Police are investigating after two people exchanged gunfire in Lynn, Massachusetts, on Friday afternoon.

Lynn Police said the incident took place around 3:18 p.m. Two parties reportedly exchanged gunfire at 144 Washington St., in front of a barber shop. One bullet hit the front of the barber shop window.

No one was injured, according to police. The shooting incident remains under investigation.


Pilgrimage marks start of East Anglia anniversary Pilgrimage marks start of East Anglia anniversary

Celebrations to mark the 40th anniversary of the Diocese of East Anglia got off on the right foot when over 1,000 people joined the annual Diocesan Pilgrimage to the National Catholic Shrine at Walsingham on Bank Holiday Monday, May 2. Keith Morris reports.



The Pilgrimage began with the crowning with flowers of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham by Bishop Alan Hopes in the Friday Market Place at the village of Walsingham, watched by pilgrims from right across the Diocese.



They were joined by a group of 150 plus young people who had spent the weekend at the Ignite Youth Festival in Swaffham. Around 60 of them had, that morning, walked six miles to Walsingham.



The procession set off along the Holy Mile to the Basilica and Catholic Shrine, accompanied by singing and reciting the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary.



Pilgrims then gathered outside the Sanctuary at Walsingham where Bishop Alan led a penitential service, followed by the sacrament of reconciliation and the opportunity for individual confession.



There was a lunch break and the opportunity to pass through the Holy Door at the Slipper Chapel before Bishop Alan led a Solemn Mass of Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy with pilgrims both inside and braving some showery weather outside.



During his homily Bishop Alan said: The desire to share ones life with others and to share communion is at the heart of every individual life and in every generation. It is also at the heart of our Christian life. We are made for communion, for friendship. None of us should be alone in living the Christian life. Christian friendship is a grace of God we cannot afford to do without.



Through the love and support of others we learn how to love and be loved by God. Mary knew this and the first disciples knew this, which is why they chose to live life in common and hold all things in common.



This pilgrimage today is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen and encourage one another because on pilgrimage our faith is always buoyed up by the joy and faith and prayers of each one of us.



This is even more so at World Youth Day, which takes place in Krakow at the end of July. Our young people will discover the beauty of their Catholic faith in a whole new way in communion with Pope Francis and millions of other young people from around the world, said Bishop Alan.



He then commissioned many of the young people and adults who will be attending the World Youth Day, before the concluding rites.



See a full picture gallery of the pilgrimage below.






Ian built his reputation by performing at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970s and 80s.

Hollywood star Sir Ian McKellen, best known for his role of Magneto in the X-Men series, is all set to visit India later this month, to sit down for a conversation with Aamir Khan. The two will mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare (which was on May 4) by talking about his legacy and world cinema at large.

Ian, who built his reputation by performing at the Royal Shakespeare Company in the 1970s and 80s, had released the first of a series of apps meant to make Shakespeares plays more accessible. As Shakespeares plays were originally meant to be performed live in a theatre, and not read as books, these apps feature actors performing dramatic scenes from the plays, while text scrolls on the screen.

The conversation is slated for May 23 in Mumbai, in front of a large audience of cinema enthusiasts. This event will also mark the debut outing of MAMI Film Club.

Ian McKellen recently amused fans by narrating rapper Drakes lyrics in Shakespearean style poetry. Take a look at the video below.
Krishnadasi lead pair Sana Amin Sheikh and Shravan Reddy may share a bittersweet relationship onscreen but the moment the two are out of the cameras focus, they are inseparable. So much so that their chemistry has now become a talking point among fans across social media. The duo believes that it is their friendship that makes their chemistry real. In a candid chat, Sana and Shravan reveal what makes them click as the hot new jodi on television.

How did the ice break when you guys met each other for the first time on the sets?

Sana: The team wanted to see if we shared a good chemistry during the auditions. We started talking to each other and since then there has been no looking back. The two of us are warm towards each other. So by the time we started shooting, we got along well.

Shravan: I came on board at the last minute, so I really cant recall the first time we met.

Was it awkward filming the romantic scenes initially?

Sana: It has never been awkward with Shravan because he makes it very comfortable for me. When we have to shoot a romantic scene, we talk to each other, so it makes it easy for the both of us. If you arent comfortable with your co-stars, it is difficult to shoot romantic scenes. Thankfully, we share a close friendship so it isnt awkward at all.

Shravan: It is always awkward to shoot romantic scenes with a co-star. In fact, initially we were slightly uncomfortable but now we are at ease while shooting intimate scenes.

So, what makes your onscreen chemistry work?

Sana: Our friendship. It isnt easy to find co-actors who are just friends. They are either in love or dont get along. Im lucky to have found a co-star like Shravan.

Shravan: We have an inside joke about Physiques (Physics). I think this is the

reason behind our chemistry! (laughs).

Who is a better co-star between the two of you?

Sana: I think its me. A lot of times, Shravan asks for retakes and I agree. Also, he doesnt have the habit of greeting people with a Hi or Good morning. I always greet him first and start right from where we had left.

Shravan: I think Sana is much more easy going than I am!

How many times have you burst out laughing while filming a scene?

Sana: We have never done that! When Shravan starts with his scenes, he gets immersed into it. So there is no scope to have a light moment while working.

Shravan: I dont think I have ever burst out laughing while filming a scene.

Who takes more re-takes?

Sana: Of course, Shravan! Even when the director says the scene is perfect, Shravan insists on redoing the scene.

Shravan: Definitely me! I guess I am too committed to my work.

Is there any particular scene that has made its way to your heart?

Sana: Every scene that Aradhya (played by Sana) has with her mother, her aaji or Aryan require me to give my best. So shooting these scenes have been special.

Shravan: My entry on the horse was was both challenging and fun! Can you imagine that I learnt horse-riding just two days before I could shoot the scene? Only god knows how I managed to pull it off!

One thing you like about each other and one thing you dislike?

Sana: Shravan is very passionate about acting. However, this also has a downside since he does a lot retakes while shooting!

Shravan: One thing I really like about her is that she is humble, so it is very easy to work with her. A downside is that sometimes she can get a little laid-back and I have said this to her.

Whats your off-screen equation like?

Sana: We are really good friends. Shravan and I talk a lot about work and life in general.

Shravan: We are quite comfortable with each other and I think its been this way since we dont let our egos come in between our friendship.

Is there any interesting fan comment thats caught your eye?

Sana: I like the way our fans call us Aara (a combination of Aradhya and Aryan). They make lovely collages of us and share on social media. I find this very overwhelming.

Shravan: I love the way our fans call us Aara!

Where are you most likely to be found during breaks on the sets?

Sana: When we arent shooting, I visit this little pond-like area on the sets. I like to have my coffee and relax there.

Shravan: Most times I am in my makeup room taking a nap.

So, who is the jagga jasoos of the sets?

Sana: Every actor in the team is a jagga-jasoos. In fact, we indulge in gossip as well.

Shravan: Sana.

Any annoying habits/secrets you would like to reveal about each other?

Sana: He never greets me in the morning but now I dont take it seriously anymore.

Shravan: I hate it when she talks about her lunch menu, and asks me what I have for lunch.
Fashion is no longer restricted to the ladies. Today, men too want to look good and dress appropriately for occasions. Looking for inspiration on appropriate dressing? Look no further! Sneha Kalra talks to the five mens fashion bloggers from namma city about their style and inspirations.

Ambrish Sonari

Ambrish Sonari, of Boy in a Bowtie is a senior business manager. And for him, prints are the way to go. Though I only started blogging recently, I always had an inclination towards the field. According to my mother, I was very particular about my clothes even as a kid, he says. Prints inspire me. It sounds a little vague, but I like to put together two different prints and coming up with quirky looking ensembles, says the blogger who gets his clothes custom made and believes in just going with the flow.

Allen Claudis

I have always had a penchant for writing and used to contribute to websites on music and fashion, says Allen Claudis of Bowties and Bones. It was my upbringing that influenced me largely. I was inclined to fashion ever since I was a kid, says Claudis who leads the fashion and community engagements with Wooplr. My biggest inspiration has to be Nickelson Wooster. His style is classic rebel meets contemporary dapper gentleman. Apart from him, I follow the happenings in the fashion industry and mix it with my personal style but never attempt at replicating things because I've realised that that's when you fall, he adds wisely. The only drawback of the field is that fashion for men is only picking up now and there is a given assumption that any fashionable man is gay, which deters some men from experimenting with trends like prints, adds the 33-year-old, in conclusion.

Prashant Priyadarshi

Adamsapplelist or Prashant Priyadarshi credits his mother for introducing him to the field. My mother is an excellent couturier and I have seen her stitch heavy gowns from scratch. She always liked being well dressed and made sure my sister and I were too, says Prashant, who started blogging back in 2012! I focus on mens fashion and lifestyle and I started blogging to show the world that men can be fashionable and keep up with the industry too, in their own way, says the blogger who is also a freelance stylist. Apart from my mother, I get my inspiration from legends like David Bowie, Lady Gaga and Anna Wintour, who have contributed to the field of fashion massively, he says.

Sandeep Nandi

Sandeep Nandi of Muffins on Style, has been interested in fashion from the time he was a child but only started blogging about it a year ago. I wanted to document my daily outfits for fun so I started off on a very casual note. Soon, I started getting requests from men on fashion choices so I started helping them out and guiding them through emails and phone calls, says the 25-year-old blogger. I take inspiration from the modern Indian man and am trying to incorporate simplicity and minimalism with contemporary Indian styling, for which I have received a lot of positive feedback. Some of my favourite designers are Ujjwal Dubey, Shantanu and Nikhil and Rahul Mishra, opines the fashionista before adding, Indian men today are stylish and fashionable and look for unique ways to style themselves.

Uday Shanker

While some have been interested in the field of fashion from the time they were little, Uday Shanker was first drawn to it when he was in school. It was my interest in hip hop that triggered my foray into the field and the field still continues to influence me to this day, says the blogger of Stranger in Suede, who began blogging in 2015. He also inspires men abroad with his bold fashion choices. Some of my fashion inspirations are Errolson Hugh and Dwayne Wade and my favourite designers include Jerry Lorenzo and Rei Kawakubo who have drastically different designs from the rest of the industry, says the blogger who also guides and gives frequent tips and fashion advice to his audience.
A 12-year-old Bangladeshi girl is suffering from a rare condition known as 'werewolf syndrome' or hypertrichosis. The condition is so severe that Bithi Akhtars whole body is covered in thick black hair from head to toe.

According to local reports Akhta from Tangail district in central Bangladesh was born with this syndrome. But some reports also suggest that she might be suffering from hirsutism which leads to excessive hair growth that is dark and thick.

According to medical journals, hypertrichosis is an abnormal amount of hair growth over the body. The extensive cases of hypertrichosis is called as werewolf syndrome, because the appearance is similar to the mythical werewolf.

There are two distinct types of hypertrichosis. Generalized hypertrichosis occurs over the entire body while localized hypertrichosis is restricted to a certain area. Hypertrichosis can be either from the of birth or can acquired later in life.The excess growth of hair occurs in areas of the skin with the exception of androgen-dependent hair of the pubic area, face, and axillary regions.

My daughter was born with thick black hair that looked like wool all over her body. We sought help from several doctors but no one could treat her completely. Now, at least, the hair has stopped growing any longer, Beauty Akhtar, 27, mother of girl told The Daily Mail.

(Photo: Screen grab)

However last year when Bithi reached her puberty, her breast started growing at an abnormal rate. By the end of the year she wasnt able to stand straight under her own weight and was forced out of school.

Her breasts grew so fast that they became really heavy and started sagging below her stomach. She would cry all day long because of the immense pain due to the weight. She could not walk or sit straight, explains her mother.

Bithis other two siblings have health issues. Abdur Razzak, Bithis father, ferries passengers on a rented motorcycle and makes 30 a day. He took loan and got her admitted to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujb Medical College.

(Photo: Screen grab)

I have already spent a lot of money on Bithi's treatment even though that has not paid off well. My daughter's condition has shattered me. I am heartbroken to see her in pain and live a life of recluse. But my daughter's condition has shattered me," said Abdur Razzak.

" I am heartbroken to see her in pain and live a life of recluse. I want to give her a normal life and I am determined to get help from specialists. I borrowed 100 from bank and brought her straight to the hospital. I am hoping they will give the best treatment to Bithi, he adds.

The doctors are trying to find a possible treatment for Bithi.

This looks like a severe case of abnormal hormones. While we think some of the problems will go away with medicine, we are yet to ascertain her medical history and causes and start the treatment, said Dr Farid Uddin, Head of the Department of Hormones at the hospital.
The initiative aims to reach 30,000 children via multiple touchpoints in the city through MCVs and workshops conducted over a period of 3 years.

New Delhi: Muppets and other fun-filledactivities are now being used to help children acquire healthy financial skills and behaviour under a new multimedia initiative in the city.

The "Sapna, Bachat, Udaan: Aarthik Bal, Har Parivar ka Haq" initiative is the Indian adaptation of a global programme - Dream, Save, Do: Financial Empowerment for Families begun by 'Sesame Workshop' a non-profit organisation behind 'Galli Galli Sim Sim' - the Indian adaptation of American TV series 'Sesame Street'

Along with MetLife Foundation, the initiative is set to provide engaging content featuring 'Galli Galli Sim Sim Muppets', language for discussion, and effective strategies for spending, saving, sharing and donating.

The workshops and mobile community viewings (MCV) are being held in Najafgarh area of Delhi. The initiative aims to reach 30,000 children via multiple touchpoints in the city through MCVs and workshops conducted over a period of 3 years in collaboration with implementation partners.

A core set of audio-visual, print and digital resources have been created for the initiative in Hindi language.

"The MCVs and workshops aim to improve the knowledge, language and strategies on financial empowerment, to increase the dialogue between parents and children towards making informed choices around spending, saving, sharing and to helpthem realize their financial and non-financial goals," says Sashwati Banerjee, Managing Director, Sesame Workshop in India.

A vegetable car converted into a mobile TV, travels to each street of the selected area calling out for children to watch educational and entertaining videos on financial literacy. All children gather around the TV for the MCV which is followed by workshops.

During the workshops, facilitators engage children in activities like making their own piggy bank or activities related to saving and sharing.

"Being a fun and entertaining activity for the community, the MCVs and workshops are enjoyed thoroughly by children and even adults. These activities provide parents the right vocabulary to talk to their children about financial literacy.

"It is important that young children understand the concepts of sharing, saving, delayed gratification so that they become informed and better decision makers as they grow," says Banerjee.
Industrialist Narendra Surana and Sunita had an arranged marriage 33 years ago, but by their chemistry one can see that it was a match destined by the stars.

It all started on April 1982. Our meeting was arranged by my aunt who lives in Pune. My entire family came with me to see her. The same evening we went out for a cup of coffee. Yes, it was love at first sight; we decided at that moment itself that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together, but we needed some time to convey it to our parents, recalls Narendra.

The very next day our families planned an outing to Mahabaleshwar. And to my shock and surprise, Sunitas parents said that until I said yes for the marriage, Sunita wouldnt come for the holiday. I agreed and we went for a long drive to Mahabaleshwar. Spending time together, in those days, before marriage was in itself is very exciting, he adds.

The couple got married on January 2, 1983. It was a grand affair as most Marwari weddings are. Getting married at the Pune Trust Club was a big affair, because they very rarely allow people to host weddings or any event there. The baraat, instead of one day, stayed over for two days. And they were also taken to Mahabaleshwar for an overnight stay, he says.

Sunita adds, On the wedding day I was wearing a typical Rajasthani attire. There were no designer collections those days. The saat pheras were the most memorable for me. The couple says that every small gesture matters a lot.

Even after 33 years, when he is travelling he calls and asks if I want to travel with him. If its drizzling, he asks me to me to join him for a cup of coffee in his office despite his hectic schedule, explains Sunita.

About the best part of being married, Sunita says, We are very different people, nature-wise, but we complement each other. Whatever he is lacking in, I make up for that and the same goes with him.

Narendra adds, I love her attitude towards life and the way she takes care of me and the children. We love to spend time together and make it a point to go on a vacation every three to six months. I dont mind extending my business trips for 11 or 12 days when I am with my family.

The couple has three children  Vinita, Manish and Shresha. Narendra is not only a loving husband but also a doting father. He always encourages the children to do whatever they want to do. Its because of his encouragement that the kids have excelled in their education, says Sunita.
This mothers day, young city-based couple, Bharat and Sneha Bevinahally aim to touch your heart by striking the right notes  quite literally, as the music duo are all set to release their concept song Mother from Aural Mural, their newly formed band. In a candid chat, they tell us what egged them to start out and how they intend to express the magical relation between a mother and a child through the concept song.

Mother takes listeners on a journey that explores an emotional conversation between mother and child. The conversation is an interplay between the Vidyut Vichitra Veena, which denotes the traditional mother and a voice that represents a modern child. The musical arrangement weaves both Indian and western elements together to encapsulate the essence of a modern day relationship between a mother and a child, elucidates Bharat, about the message the song wishes to convey.

He goes on to add, The song was originally written for a private event that was hosted in 2015 to felicitate the mothers of some of Indias high achievers including Mr AR Rahman, Shankar Mahadevan and Bombay Jayashri. The musical arrangement originally only had guitar and voice but we were keen on giving it more emotional depth. It was then that we hit upon the idea to bring in an Indian context to the arrangement to truly capture a modern day relationship between a mother and a child in an Indian context. And here we are, all set to release it this evening!

Started early last year, the couple who left their plum corporate careers for the love of music. Sneha and I are quite the unconventional kind, we decided to do something we love than just slog all day for a fat pay at the month end. So start-up as a plan seemed lucrative, and we decided well base it on something we love. And thats how Octavium happened, reveals Bharat.

While music seems more like a lifeline to them, Sneha reiterates how they believe in creating a balance by pursuing other interests. Weve love traveling, and make it a point to visit a hill station every year. Were also big time foodies, so when were not training, we digging into calorie-rich delicacies! she quips.

As the band has just begun to take baby steps in the scene, the duo seem unfazed about the responses. At this point we are absolutely open-minded. Wed be the happiest if people find our music meaningful and are able to build a strong connect, opines Sneha, who reveals, The idea was to ensure it instantly strikes a connect to whoever watches it  be it from any social strata. Were complete social bodies. So the next on our bucket list is to use music as a medium to conduct corporate training, to break barriers and get people to chill.
The police filed the cases against accused when the victims family brought the issue to the notice of the police late on Thursday night. (Representational Image)

Adilabad: The Devapur police booked five persons under Criminal Amendment Act -2013 for sexually assaulting a minor girl studying Class IX over past nine months. The girl was a native of Pallamguda in Kasipet mandal of this district.

The police filed the cases against accused when the victims family brought the issue to the notice of the police late on Thursday night.

It is found that an elderly person, father of a prime accused also sexually exploited the minor girl. Parents of the girl came to know the issue only when their daughter fell sick and confirmed that she was pregnant and the girl revealed about how the accused sexually exploited her. The girls parents brought the issue to the notice of the village elders who conducted a meeting.

The village elders tried their best to settle the matter in a village meeting by offering Rs 2.50 lakh compensation to the girls family and one among the accused has to marry the girl.

But, the accused refused to marry the girl and the issue came to light and started making rounds in the village. Meanwhile, the issue came to the notice of the local police who investigated the incident. The girl was studying at in Kasipet.
Delhi Police Special Cell escorting Jaish terrorists after they were produced at Patiala House courts in New Delhi. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Investigators interrogating the three youths arrested for alleged links with banned Jaish-e-Mohammed on Friday said the trio were shown videos pertaining to alleged atrocities against Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarnagar and Iraq to induct them into the outfit and execute terror strikes in the national capital.

A senior police official said prime accused Sajid had joined a social media page where he met a cyber entity 'Talha', believed to be close to JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, who is wanted by India in connection with 2001 Parliament attack case and the terror strike on Pathankot IAF base in January.

The web page had links to several websites which allegedly propagate jihad ideology. In one such website, Sajid found a phone number, which pertained to Pakistan and the contact number later turned out to be that of Talah, the official said.

Once Sajid had roped in the other accused youths  Sameer Ahmed and Shakir Ansari into the module -- the cyber entity sent them links to videos showing alleged atrocities against Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarnagar and Iraq. The idea was to induct them into the outfit and plan serial blasts here, the official added.

Investigators had yesterday said the trio was initially inspired by the dreaded ISIS and later shifted their ideological leaning.

Sajid was self-radicalised and propagated ideology which was in line with that of the Islamic State until he came in touch with Talha. However, the circumstances behind the change in the ideological unit was yet to be ascertained.

All 13 people, including the three arrested, picked up by police in connection with the matter were members of a WhatsApp group, the communications under which is currently being scrutinised by investigators.

Apart from data shared through Internet and an 8 GB pen drive recovered from the possession of the arrested persons, investigators are also scrutinising books which the trio possessed.

The police had claimed to have recovered from Sajid's residence one live improvised explosive device (IED), one damaged IED and materials like batteries, timer devices, pipes, wires, adhesives and over 250 grams of suspected explosives in powdered form, all sent to a forensic lab now.

The three youths, who were under the lens of intelligence agencies for the past one year, were arrested after late night raids starting Tuesday. While Sajid and Sameer hail from Delhi-NCR, Ansari is a resident of Deoband in Uttar Pradesh.

The three had been learning to put together IEDs over the past fortnight and on Tuesday, Sajid got injured while making the explosive device. His left hand was damaged when it went off accidentally. Sajid had called up Sameer immediately after the explosion and the latter rushed to his house.
After 6 years, Newport skate park closer to becoming a reality

Friends of Newport Skatepark has advocated for the city to offer space for a new public skatepark since 2016. Now a plan is in place.
Preliminary probe eventually revealed that three of the men captured in the CCTV footage were constables attached to the Shahu Nagar police station. They have been identified as Rajdeep More (32), Vishal Bhagar (27) and Yashwant Kamble (27). (Photo: Videograb)

Mumbai: Three constables attached to the Shahu Nagar police station have been booked by the Mumbai police after a CCTV footage showed them breaking into a shop and beat up the workers sleeping inside.

The incident occurred at around 1.15 am, in the wee hours of Saturday at Sandesh Sweets located in Matunga area. The owner of the sweet shop, Chandan Singh informed that the five people, two of them in police uniform entered the shop from the back door and woke up his workers, thrashing them up.

"There was childbirth in my house yesterday and to celebrate the same, I gave some money to my workers and asked them to buy some food and have at the shop. After they did so, a few minutes after 1, one of them Ramesh Patel, was woken up with a kick to his stomach. Shocked and writhing in pain, he saw one man in police uniform standing over and threatening him," said Chandan.

The workers in their complaint, have further alleged that the five men, three in civil clothes, soon started roughing all the workers up. "Nearly 13 of my workers were beaten up and assaulted. They also broke my cash counter and some glass cabinets," Chandan said.

Surprisingly, the five assaulters then called up the Police control room alleging that some workers of a shop had beaten them. The responding officers, then allegedly, arrested the workers and took them to the police station.

When contacted, an officer at the Mahim Police station said that at night, 10 workers had been brought to the police station and they had started the investigation.

"We first booked them but then when we were given the CCTV footage by the owners of the shop and we realised that it was the other way round; that the workers had been beaten up. So we registered a case against unidentified men," he said.

Preliminary probe eventually revealed that three of the men captured in the CCTV footage were constables attached to the Shahu Nagar police station. They have been identified as Rajdeep More (32), Vishal Bhagar (27) and Yashwant Kamble (27).

"We are investigating what the policemen were doing at the sweet shop and why they assaulted the workers," said an officer. The police are still trying to identify the remaining two people.

The constables have been booked under section 324, 323 and 452 of the Indian Penal Code.
Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).
Noida: Sounding a word of caution to students on education loans, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said they should not fall prey to 'unscrupulous schools' which leave them with high debt and "useless degrees".



Observing that education at high quality research universities will remain expensive in near future, he said efforts should be made to make degrees affordable to all deserving students.



One part of the solution is student loans, he said, adding "we have to be careful that student loans are repaid in full by those who have the means, while they are forgiven in part for those who fall on bad times, or those who take low paying public service jobs."



In his convocation address at the Shiv Nadar University, he said, "we also should make sure that unscrupulous schools do not prey on uninformed students, leaving them with high debt and useless degrees."



The Governor said private education across the world is expensive and is getting more expensive all the time.



Beginning his address in a lighter vein, Rajan said he embarks on this talk comforted by the knowledge that the "bar for convocation speeches is low."



"If you even remember a word I say a few years from now, I will have surpassed the average convocation speaker most people dont remember who spoke at their convocation, let alone what they said."



Rajan, a globally known economist, emphasised that free market is not fair saying even well-run market economies seem to be favouring those who already have plenty.



"In part, this is because skills and capabilities have become much more important in well-paid jobs, and those born in good circumstances have a much better chance at acquiring these," he said.
Srinagar: Three Hizbul Mujhahideen terrorists were killed on Saturday in an encounter with security forces during a search operation in south Kashmir's Pulwama district.



A joint team of police and army cordoned-off Panzgam village in Pulwama district after receiving specific intelligence about the presence of terrorists in the area, an army official said.



As the forces were conducting a search operation, the hiding terrorists fired upon them, triggering an encounter, the official said.



He said in the ensuing gunfight, three terrorists - all locals who belonged to Hizbul Mujhahdeen militant group were killed.



They were identified as Ashfaq Ahmad Dar, a resident of Dogipura, Ishfaq Ahmad Baba, a resident of Tahab and Haseeb Ahmad, a resident of Brao Bandyun, he said.



Three weapons have also been recovered from the encounter site, he added.
New Delhi: JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Friday ended his nine-day hunger strike after he was discharged from AIIMS even as the university administration asked students not to invite outsiders saying it might vitiate the academic atmosphere and peace on campus.



While five students on Thursday withdrew their fast against the punishment by the university in connection with the February 9 event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, 15 others continued with the hunger strike.



Kanhaiya, who is out on bail after his arrest in a sedition case, was on Thursday admitted to AIIMS in a semi- conscious state. He was discharged after treatment for mild dehydration and ketosis.



"Kanhaiya has been discharged from AIIMS. He has been advised bed rest for few days. He has to undergo some medical tests too, so keeping his health condition in mind he has withdrawn from the fast but will continue with the agitation," a JNUSU statement said.



The ketone level of the fasting students is high and the BP is low, according to the test reports from the health centre.



On the other hand, JNU issued fresh advisory for the students and teachers to avoid inviting outsiders to the campus.



The administration also asked the students to refrain from using "direct or indirect coercive measures and come forward for dialogue and discussion".



"The administration requests all the teachers and students to avoid inviting people from outside the campus for any gathering or activity to press their demands, which could undermine peace and security in the campus," JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar said in an appeal.



"Thousands of students on the campus are busy preparing for or writing their end semester examinations and also writing their dissertations. Continuing hunger strikes and escalation of it through involvement of outsiders may further enhance the stress level in the campus and affect the career of those students," he added.



While members from civil society joined the protests on Friday, alumni of the university will gather tomorrow to express solidarity by fasting for a day.



In a separate notice, the Registrar asked the students not to use the public address system without permission and around the administration block, which has been the venue of protest ever since the sedition row broke out.



Twenty five students had gone on hunger strike last week. While five members of ABVP called off their fast on Wednesday claiming they have an assurance from the JNU administration that their demands will be considered, five members of the Left-affiliated groups withdrew from the stir on Thursday citing deteriorating health.



JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar had earlier this week appealed to students to put forward their demands using "constitutional" means and asked them to come for a "dialogue" to resolve the matter.
The incident, occurred on May 3 during a summer camp organised by the school. (Representtaional Image)

Bengaluru: A four-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted by a dance instructor of a school in Bengaluru last week, city police said on Saturday.

The accused, Peter (21) has been arrested on a complaint from the girl's parents, they said, adding that he was produced in a local court on Saturday which remanded him to judicial custody.

The incident, occurred on May 3 during a summer camp organised by the school, came to light when the girl complained of pain after returning from the camp.

The girl's parents took her to a clinic where the doctors confirmed sexual assault and a second opinion in a hospital also confirmed it, police said.

The girl narrated her ordeal and named Peter as the person who sexually assaulted her, police said, adding subsequently, the parents lodged a complaint against him, following which he was arrested.

The accused confessed to his alleged crime during interrogation, police said.

Peter has been arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) and remanded to judicial custody by a court, police said.
Narendra Modi's 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign left no one in doubt that if he became the Prime Minister he would take a hardline with Pakistan and the terror attacks coming out of there would end. But two years into Narendra Modi's prime ministership, things haven't quite worked out that way.



Indian Prime Ministers have always wanted to put their imprint on the Indo-Pak relationship and Modi is no different. But his extending the hand of friendship from the very start of his term had surprised many.



It began with the invitation to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony on May 26, 2014. More recently, Modi made an unscheduled stopover in Islamabad in December 2015 which broke all protocol.



The optics suggested there was a definite upward trend in the relationship. With the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government enjoying an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, the two countries perhaps, could finally be friends. But that display of winter bonhomie was followed by a stab in the back.







On January 2, 2016 six Pakistani terrorists attacked the Indian Air Force in Pathankot and killed seven Indians. The Modi government was quick to accept that the terrorists were acting without state support and Pakistan was invited to send its own investigating team.



But Pakistan's response was a slap in the face. Their investigating team leaked to their media that the attack had been staged by India.



So much for trust and friendship!



On April 1, 2016 National Investigation Agency Director General Sharad Kumar claimed, "The interaction with the JIT was held according to the terms of reference mutually agreed upon on a reciprocal basis."



But it didn't help that Pakistani officials were saying exactly the opposite.



A few days later on April 7 Pakistani High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit said, "Investigation is not about reciprocity in my view. It is more about extending cooperation."



Pakistan kept on speaking in different voices and casting shadows on the future.



When asked if the India-Pakistan dialogue had been suspended following the Pathankot attacks, Nawaz Sharif's advisor Sartaj Aziz said, "See suspended can be for one month, for two months. When there is a hiatus and dialogue is not taking place, the word suspended does not mean cancelled or given up. I don't think there is any difference. For the time being it was suspended but from January three and a half months have passed."



Yet Indian Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry did meet in Delhi in April 2016 at the Heart of Asia conference. It is not clear what transpired but it is fair to say that Modi is not the first Indian prime minister to be disappointed by the Pakistani leadership. Nor will he be the last.



The problem in dealing with Pakistan is that nobody is sure what line to take. Should India be soft? Should India rely on the Americans? Should India talk tough? Should India threaten war?



Only one prime minister has got the balance right - Indira Gandhi.



It was 1966 and Indira Gandhi had just become the PM, days after Pakistan's unsuccessful attempt to infiltrate Kashmir and incite a rebellion against India.



Both countries claimed a military victory but within five years Pakistan was facing trouble in the East. West Pakistanis who controlled the government refused to accept the electoral victory of the East Pakistani Awami League and allowed its army to unleash a reign of terror.



More than 90 lakh refugees crossed into India. Though the world was horrified, when it came to actual support India was on its own. Moreover, America actually supported Pakistan.



Out of that crisis emerged the Indira Gandhi approach to Pakistan. First, never count on the rest of the world to help you. Second never talk about what you are going to do. And third: act swiftly and covertly.



Using the then recently created Research and Analysis Wing, Indira Gandhi launched a massive covert operation to help East Pakistan. The move eventually culminated in the 1971 War that carved Bangladesh out of Pakistan.



The 1971 War was followed by the Simla Agreement, where it's believed Pakistani PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto agreed to regard the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir as the international border and to give up any claims to Kashmir in exchange for the 90,000 Pakistani Prisoners of War.



Unfortunately, as Indira Gandhi's critics point out, this assurance wasn't in writing. There is said to be a tape, somewhere in the R&AW archives, of that conversation. Though few have heard it, career diplomats like G Partharathy, who served as India's High Commissioner to Pakistan between 1998 and 2000 will vouch for it.



"Well, both PN Haksar and PN Dhar was there and have spoken to me personally and said yes, that is right. So I have no reason to doubt them," says Parthasarthy.



"We'll be happy. If we had it, we would have used it by now," he replies when asked if there is supposed to be a tape that of the conversation between Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi.



Anyway, her strategy worked. From 1971 to 1989, India had no trouble from Pakistan.



But by the 1990s, successive Pakistani leaders started to disown the Simla agreement dismissing it as a treaty forced by a victor on the losing side in a war. Since then India's Pakistan problem has been mainly about Pakistan sponsored terrorism.



"The state of Pakistan is a terrorist state. Right, from its inception in 1947, the state of Pakistan has sought terrorism as its tool or as an instrument of state policy. Whether we look at the 1947 invasion of Jammu and Kashmir or the 1948 invasion and occupation of the independent state of Balochistan or the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh where 3 million people were killed. And as long there's Pakistan that is based on Mohammad Ali Jinnah's two nation theory of contempt and hatred towards the Hindu, there will be terrorism as as an instrument of state policy," says expatriate Pakistani writer Tarek Fateh.



So it all boils down to how do India handles Pakistan.



Former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao believed that the solution was to quietly run a covert operations. He was, after all, Indira Gandhi's chela (disciple).



But one of his successors, prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral, took a diametrically opposite view. He believed that friendship and dialogue were the way forward.



Gujral went so far as to ask R&AW to wind up its networks in Pakistan. As a result assets cultivated over years were suddenly lost forever. In retrospect that dovish stance cost India big.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday said the "trust deficit" needs to be removed for better relations with India even as it voiced support for any effort to restart the stalled bilateral dialogue between the two nations.



Talking about the resumption of talks with India, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said Pakistan would support any effort to restart the dialogue process.



Chaudhry said that there was a "trust deficit" between Pakistan and India which needs to be removed for better ties between the two nations.



"Whenever there will be talks between Pakistan and India, Kashmir will remain on top of the agenda," he added.



He also talked about the arrest of alleged Indian spy Kulbushan Yadav, and termed it as proof of "Indian involvement" in Pakistan's internal affairs.



India has acknowledged Yadav is a retired Indian Navy officer but denied the allegation that he was in any way connected to the government.



Chaudhry also urged the US not to attach any conditions for the sale of F-16s, after the Congress stalled the sale by refusing to authorise funding for it.



"We are making diplomatic efforts to convince the US to make the purchase of F-16 possible as Pakistan needs them in its ongoing war against terrorism," he said.



Earlier, Pakistan had said that it would look towards other countries to get the latest fighter jets if the US did not deliver the F-16s.



The foreign secretary also rejected the impression that Islamic State militants were active in Pakistan. "Pakistani agencies are on alert in order to deal with any possible threat, which is why action has been taken against such elements," he said.



He also reiterated support for the peace process in Afghanistan but rejected the use of force against the Afghan Taliban as demanded by the Afghan president after April's bombing in Kabul which killed over 60 people.



Chaudhry said all groups in Afghanistan should stop violence and join talks for lasting peace in the country.
New Delhi: A bullet stuck in the back of Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai's neck for the past 17 years was successfully removed on Friday at a hospital in Delhi.



"He (Rai) has had a bullet in his neck from 1999, which was lodged at the back of his neck and over time had migrated to burrow under the skin at the back of his body. The surgery has been performed successfully and the bullet has been removed without complications," a statement from the Apollo Hospital said.



His condition after the surgery is stable, Rai's close aide said.



The minister was admitted to the hospital on Thursday for a planned surgery.



Rai had suffered the gun shot in 1999 during an agitation for decriminalisation of students' politics in Lucknow University, following which he had complete quadriplegia for one-and-a-half years. Then, he started recovering and after three years, he was able enough to walk and became independent, the statement said.



The gunshot wound caused spinal cord injury by indirect effect (kinetic energy from a projectile travel, shock wave propagation and temporary cavitation along the track of the bullet) which is miraculous as direct gunshot wound to the neck leads to complete irreversible quadriplegia in most cases, it said.



Rai, according to the statement, also has residual neurological impairment in his extremities, mainly in the right upper limb and some imbalance in the lower extremities for which he will visit Apollo hospital at Hyderabad for upper limb rehabilitation and later move to Apollo hospital Chennai for gait training.



Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Delhi Tourism Minister Kapil Mishra met him in the hospital.


Panaji: Goa's controversial MLA Atanasio "Babush" Monserrate is again in the news for wrong reasons. The MLA and former minister who represents Santa Cruz seat in Goa Assembly is not new to allegations of criminal cases and controversies.



But, the latest charge against him is horrific and dwarfs all his previous cases of alleged crimes in nature and proportion. He is accused of buying an underage girl for Rs 50 lakh and raping her later.



After his arrest two days ago, Monserrate is being interrogated by the Goan Police. Five years ago, his son was also accused of raping a German teenage girl. He was acquitted after the teenager and her mother refused to testify against him.



The minor girl allegedly raped by Monserrate used to work in a Hallmark outlet at Miramar owned by Babush Monseratte. She worked from November 2015 to March 4, 2016. Her neighbour, whom she called Aunty Rosy, had introduced her to Babush.



Two days after she quit her job, her "Aunty" and mother took her to meet Monserrate. He asked the girl what she was interested in and whether she wanted to study.



The girl refused and said wanted to go back home. After three-four days, the girl was taken to his farmhouse in Talegaon by her "Aunty" and mother.



She was made to have a drink which the police believe was spiked. She passed out after having the drink.



According to the girl when she woke up, she found that she was lying on Monserrate's bed. There was blood on the bed sheet and the MLA was sitting on the chair shirtless, she claimed



He asked her if she wanted to stay at the farmhouse but she refused. This incident took place in the second week of March.



Thereafter, she went to her friend's place and kept the clothes that she was wearing inside a bag. The bag has been recovered by the police.



She went back home and had an altercation with her mother when she was asked why she had come back. The mother told her that she had sold her off to Monserrate for Rs 50 lakh. She left the house and started staying with her friend.



On April 11, the girl's mother saw her with friends. Realising that she wasn't staying with Monserrate, the mother told Panaji police that her daughter wasn't staying at home and was loitering around.



The police called the mother and the girl in the presence of the victim assistance unit. The girl was furious and did not want to return home with her mother. She was taken to a children's welfare home.



It was during her stay at the children's home, she opened up and narrated the horrific incident to a counselor.



Monserrate first won an election and became an MLA in 2002. Goa's real estate boom helped to him to acquire a huge fortune and cement his position in state politics. He has hobnobbed with both the Congress and BJP depending on the situation.



He is an ambitious leader and has made it clear that he wants to be become Goa's chief minister after the 2017 Assembly elections.



He dealt a body blow to the ruling BJP in the Panaji Municipal elections by winning the city corporation under the banner of his own party.


PM @narendramodi meeting with UP CM @yadavakhilesh on the drought situation in various parts of UP. @CMOfficeUP pic.twitter.com/REdQ9eraOf  PIB India (@PIB_India) May 7, 2016

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to discuss the drought and water-scarcity situation in the state. Yadav has sought an aid of Rs 10,000 crore from the Centre to tackle drought and water crisis."Had a productive meeting with UP CM on the drought situation in various parts of UP. The various drought mitigation measures undertaken in the state were discussed extensively in the meeting. We discussed the need to effectively utilise the period before monsoon for water recharge and conservation efforts," Modi tweeted soon after the meeting.This meeting comes a day after the UP Government refused a water train sent by the Centre for the drought-hit Bundelkhand. The government claimed that there is no Latur-like problem in the state.After meeting Modi, Yadav claimed that there is no water crisis in the state but they need tankers to distribute water in the villages. "There is water in dams, we need to transport the water through tankers. Train can't go deep inside villages," he said.Modi will also be meeting Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to assess the drought situation in the states. UP, Maharashtra and Karnataka are worst hit by water scarcity and drought problems.
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have "enough courage" to arrest Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. Launching a scathing attack on the Modi government and Congress over the AgustaWestland chopper scam, Kejriwal said that the two parties have an "alliance in corruption".



Questioning the Congress on the issue of PM's alleged "fake" degree, Kejriwal also said that the two parties had a "setting" that the BJP government will not arrest Gandhi in chopper scam and the Congress will not raise the matter of Modi's educational qualification.



"The Italian Court order also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her. Modi ji you have been made PM to take action not to leave the task for Italy court. Our chest would also be of 56 inch if you would have sent her to jail. When my PM says that Italy's court is taking Gandhi's name not and not him, I want to ask Modiji why are you scared of her?" Kejriwal said, addressing a rally at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.



Questioning the progress of the investigation in the chopper deal, Kejriwal alleged that there hasn't been an "inch" of movement on the probe, despite the Modi government coming to power on the assurances that the corrupt will be taken to task.



"What investigation did they do in AgustaWestland case in two years? The Italian government completed investigation, filed the cases in court, judgment came and those who were involved in paying bribe were sent to jail."



"When Anna agitation started, people wanted to change the government. They knew that both Congress and BJP are two sides of the same coin, but Modi ji gave such wonderful speeches before Lok Sabha polls that people's hopes were build that corruption will end," Kejriwal said.



Noting that during the poll campaigns, Modi said that he will take action against Congress President's son-in-law Robert Vadra for alleged irregularities in the land deal, but despite being in power for two years, and having state governments in Haryana and Rajasthan, he (Vadra) hasn't been interrogated even once.



"Modi had said that the corrupt will be sent to jail. It has been two years and not a single person has been sent to jail. The country has been cheated and hence we had to again gather against their 'alliance' four years after we had gathered at the same place to protest the corruption of these two parties," he said.
Mexico City: Convicted drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early on Saturday.



The Sinaloa cartel boss was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, a security official said, without giving a reason for the transfer.



The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.



Jose Refugio Rodriguez, an attorney for Guzman, confirmed that he was sent to the Cefereso No. 9 prison. He said Guzman's defense team was not notified beforehand, and one of his lawyers was traveling to Juarez to try to meet with their client.



"I don't know what the strategy is," Refugio said. "I can't say what the government is thinking." Guzman's lawyers are appealing a bid to have him extradited to the United States, where he faces charges in multiple jurisdictions.



"El Chapo" first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001. He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape the Altiplano lockup the following year through a mile-long tunnel dug to the floor of the shower stall in his cell.



Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain. He was returned to Altiplano, where officials beefed up his security regimen.



Guzman was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 16-inch (40-centimeter) layer of concrete.
Kathmandu: Nepal government has levelled three charges against the country's ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay to justify its decision to recall him, with officials on Saturday saying he was working 'against national interest'.



"Envoys should follow government's directives and maintain diplomatic decorum," Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters. In a late night development, Nepal on Friday recalled Upadhyay over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.



Upadhyay, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April 2015, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari's planned visit to India.



The diplomat has been also charged with siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's government, according to reports.



He has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying India's ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Rawal said.



Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandari's trip to India has no connection with the government's decision to recall Upadhyay. The president was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in the Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.



Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed the Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandari's India visit. "The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now," he said.



"We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically," he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.



According to the report, Thapa said Upadhyay's "recall was made in a bid to strengthen the existing relations between the two nations" but did not explain what the envoy failed to do to strengthen the ties.
Thumbs up to Girls on the Run of Central Virginia which marked its 10th anniversary this past weekend with a series of events at Sweet Briar College in Amherst County.

GOTR of Central Virginia began in 2006 in an attempt to reach elementary- and middle-school aged girls across the region and, through two programs a year (one for 12 weeks and the other for 10 weeks) instill in them the concepts of self-reliance but also the importance of team building skills.

Since the Central Virginia chapter of the national organization, which is celebrating its own 20th anniversary this year, began operations in 2006, more than 5,000 girls have gone through the program. And over the years, many GOTR alumnae have returned as coaches and mentors themselves.

To learn more about GOTR of Central Virginia, visit the groups website, www.GirlsOnTheRunCenVa.org.

Congratulations on your 10th, and best wishes for the next 10.

* * *

Thumbs up  a big, enthusiastic thumbs up  to Boy Scouts of America Troop 1437 of Charlottesville, the first Islamic Boy Scouts troop in this part of Virginia.

The troop officially came into existence back in February with 12 Scouts and seven adult volunteers; its sponsored by the Islamic Society of Central Virginia and meets at its mosque in Charlottesville. The National Islamic Committee on Scouting was formed back in the early 1980s to encourage troops in Muslim communities.

Zahra Ihsan, a top executive with the Stonewall Jackson Area Council of the Boy Scouts, says Scouting is more than open to boys of all religious backgrounds. Most people think of Christianity when they think of Scouting, but thats not the case. The Boy Scouts are a non-denominational organization. It encourages a belief in God, but you dont have to believe in one particular God, he said. Across the country, there are troops that cater to boys of all religious backgrounds, including the Bahai faith, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

Congratulations to these young boys and their troops advisers. All the best in the years ahead as these young boys grow into the leaders of tomorrow.
Kochi: The Kerala police has finally zeroed in on the culprit in the Perumbavur law student rape and murder case. A top police source confirmed to this newspaper that a pervert is in custody and the police is waiting to corroborate the scientific evidence to make a formal arrest. The source added that a man is under custody, and is an active mobile phone user. There were reports that the murderer was not using a phone that delayed the probe.

Read: Kerala rape case: Jisha got raw deal in life, after too

Earlier in the day, the state police chief T.P. Senkumar visited the victims house and told media that the probe is at a crucial phase. Were taking all evidences to a logical end. There is no lapse in investigation, he said. The police was after a key suspect whom the cyber team found to be in the vicinity of the victims house on the fateful day on April 28.

Read: Kerala rape case: Will there be justice for Jisha?

Cops withdraw plea for footwear

The cops on Friday withdrew an application filed before the Kuruppampady Judicial First Class Magistrate to conduct scientific examination on a pair of footwear and other material objects found at the victim's makeshift house on the banks of a local canal in Rayamangalam panchayath. The police team also used the expertise of a retired Cyber Crime Investigation Cell CI Francis Periera on Friday.

Read: Kerala rape case: Locals hostile, probe slackens

Earlier in the day Additional Director General of Police K. Padmakumar, supervising the probe said, "It appears to be a pre-meditated murder. Weve got crucial evidence and are hopeful of cracking the case. 10 special teams are on the field even as experts, including cyber and forensic, have been called in to assist the probe."

Read: 21.3 per cent is conviction rate in crimes against women
Kang the Conqueror - the powers and origin of the next big MCU villain

Here's everything you need to know about Kang the Conqueror, the next big MCU villain
It is unbearable to hear the cries of Jisha's mother. It should wake up the conscience of every Keralite. This is the tale of the underbelly of the celebrated Kerala Model. Two dalit landless women, living in a small hutment in a waste land, a mother struggling as a daily wager to eke out a livelihood and educate her daughter. Jisha, made a valiant attempt get out of their grim life through studies as a law student. It is a tale of a lonely struggle of two women in an insecure environment.

In this institutionalised setting, the underbelly of Kerala Model, justice for Jisha also involves the unravelling of these layers of inequality, apart from more serious efforts to catch the person or persons involved in this brutal violence.

The Colony: From reports, the households near the canal bund are similar in that they do not have Pattas and most do not even have proper doors or any toilets.

Jisha was well liked by all but as her mother was very protective and did not like anyone going near their hut, people hesitated to do so. Yet it does not explain how no one heard Jishas cries or that of her mother when she found her daughters body at night on return from work. Is it because they were a single women household or are people so alienated in their misery?

It is on 6th day everyone woke up. It appears that no local governance, no law and order, extends over the people living in such colonies. There is no citizenship. There are over 26,000 dalit colonies in Kerala, some set up during colonial period, most emerging post land reforms and newer ones emerging in recent years. Do they figure in the ongoing political discourse?

Surely not Jisha's life: In the midst of visits to Jisha's mother by a continuing line of politicians and her traumatic outbursts while talking to them, what emerges is their lone struggle as an all women household in an insecure environment. There would be knocks on the door at night, sometimes sound of someone walking on the roof, finding cigarette butts in a make shift pit used as toilet . Having availed of 5 cents of land under a government scheme, a house was just beginning to be built, giving hope for a roof in a secure environment.

Jisha wanted to pursue law not only to better their own life but also to help others. There is no law for the poor. It appears that the more poor you are, the more everyone looks down on you and your struggle to find work, to earn, to build a better life. There is no more any dignity assigned to labour and hard work by society in Kerala today. This is indeed also a significant cultural shift as well in a state shaped by a strong Left movement.

Response of institutions: Every institution responds only when a violation takes place. Take for instance, the state SC/ST Commission. Was it not the responsibility of the commission to know the situation on the ground, the vulnerabilities, of women and push for redressal. So also is the role the State Women's Commission. Was it not the responsibility of the local police to look for evidence immediately rather than look at Jisha's mobile (presumably to look for any relationship to find fault with her) and only move when public and media pressure is exerted.

Was it not the responsibility of the local elected members, including an MLA, who Jishas mother had approached earlier, to respond to her anguish and sense of insecurity. What happened to the Jagrata Samitis (part of local governance institutions)? Is the states gender policy, despite its flaws, just on paper?

Not a single narrative: There is single narrative around what Jisha faced. There are many. The political, electoral, criminal investigative process, negligence, post-mortem, perhaps loss of crucial evidence are one part of the ingredients of the narrative. The role of local governance institutions and elected members including the MLA, the ayalkootam, the kudumbashree are the other ingredients of this narrative. What were they doing in the five days that followed the brutal murder or even when the mutilated body was taken to hospital?

This violence could have been prevented if the local representatives whom Jishas mother had approached about her insecure environment and isolation as an all women household, financial help for building the house in the five cents of land allotted to her, had received some response. Isolating any one narrative will not help in moving even one step towards ensuring justice for Jisha and also preventing more of such violence

(Dr. Meera Velayudhan, Fellow, Council for Social Development (CSD) Hyderabad, is the daughter of Dakshayani Velayudhan, a member of the Constituent of Assembly of India.)
Servol students graduate

The students were yesterday encouraged to make use of what they learnt as they get older in life. Addressing the students, Programme Coordinator, Sharon Mottley said, You have learned how to identified what is gender base violence in your homes, in your lives, in your communities, and the skills to make better choices when it comes to healthy relationships, she said.

A journey is completed in single steps, so to take bits of nugget from what you have leant to make small differences in your life and as you get older you can implement it in your own relationships as you become parents, members of communities, employees and as an adult. Mottley said the programme was designed to provide young people with the knowledge and skilled abilities to make better decisions around healthy relationships.

Also addressing the students Marketing and Communications Manager of PSI Caribbean Keron Foderingham told the students that they were now equipped with knowledge to make better decisions as they go forward in life. He said from the months of January to May, and each week the students were taught different skills, how to communicate in healthy ways, and to identify their own values.

You know what is gender base violence, what is gender in terms of power and control, looking at the impact of society on your behaviours, and now you can tell where you stand in the range of options. He continued, We believed that it was crucial to develop a program that empowers young men and women to challenge negative gender norms that lie at the root cause of gender-based violence, Foderingham said.
Cudjoe bigs up TT tourism

Speaking on Thursday at the Trinidad and Tobago Convention Bureau (TTCB) Meeting Planners Study Tour cocktail reception and cultural night at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre on Wednesday night, Cudjoe said tourism has become a major player in international commerce, with its business volume equalling or even surpassing that of oil exports, food products or automobiles.

She said there was an increasing appetite for travel the world over and the Caribbean continued to be a region of high appeal. The Caribbean is the most tourism-dependent region in the world, given its importance in generation incomes, jobs and growth, she said.

The World Travel and Tourism Council report has indicated that business travel spending was expected to grow by 1.2 percent in 2016 to TT$2,968.8 million and the (TTCB) was poised to take advantage of this lucrative market.

Cudjoe said the TTCB acted as a one-stop shop for meeting planners seeking independent information and assistance on hosting events in TT. The project was initiated to build awareness of TT, the TTCB and the services offered, generate leads for meetings and conferences in TT, and strengthen relationships with key meeting planners, she said.

Cudjoe said TT was considered to be the gateway to the Americas and the Caribbean as one of the premier meeting destinations in the Caribbean.

Our islands are a cultural melting pot and home to numerous ethnic groups, she said.

Cudjoe said in 2015, 60 percent of trips made to TT were for holiday purposes, while the rest were split between business travel and family visits.

Businesss and tourism makes up about 20 percent of all arrivals in TT, and 80 percent of business tourism arrivals came from the North American market, she said
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Sambhal: A 9-year-old girl of Devpura village,who went missing six years ago, was recovered from a neighouring village here, police said on Saturday.

The girl was recovered on Friday following a raid in the neighbouring Vairpur Khera village after a tip-off by the girl's mother, who was informed by other villagers, police station in-charge Kunj Bihari Misra said.

The minor said she was lured by a person of her village six years ago and was taken to Delhi, where she was exploited for three years, Misra said.

The victim said she was later sold to Bhura (45) for Rs 15,000, who married her forcibly and was living with her in the neighbouring village, the in-charge said, adding Bhura has been arrested and the girl has been sent for medical examination.

Misra said an FIR has been lodged in this connection and hunt is on to apprehend the other accused.
The "mother lode" of primate fossils was discovered in southern China by University of Kansas researchers. Recording the impact of ancient climate change on the six new species, they noted that the fossils originated approximately 34 million years ago, just after the Eocene-Oligocene transition. A huge global cooling had made the continent inconducive to primates, thus reducing their population.

"At the Eocene-Oligocene boundary, because of the rearrangement of Earth's major tectonic plates, you had a rapid drop in temperature and humidity," said K. Christopher Beard of the University of Kansas and co-author of the study. "Primates like it warm and wet, so they faced hard times around the world - to the extent that they went extinct in North America and Europe."

"Of course, primates somehow survived in Africa and Southern Asia, because we're still around to talk about it," he added.

Though earlier evidence indicated the earliest anthropods, ie monkeys, apes and humans, as originating in Asia, it was not clear why they landed in Africa. However, it is now evident that severe climate change had erased Asian anthropods, so that the only place left for evolution was Africa.

The study was due to a decade of fieldwork by scientists at southern China. This was a region to which the primates emigrated when it was warmer. The jaw and tooth segments of the fossils lasted because of the tough enamel surfaces.

"The fossil record usually gives you a snapshot here or there of what ancient life was like," Beard said. "You typically don't get a movie."

"We have so many primates from the Oligocene at this particular site because it was located far enough to the south that it remained warm enough during that cold, dry time that primates could still survive there," he continued. "They crowded into the limited space that remained available to them."

Scientists are clear that without the intense global cooling of the Eocene-Oligocene era, the primates would have continued to live in Asia instead of shifting to Africa and evolving into humans.

Hence, primates were vulnerable to climate change even millions of years ago.

"This is the flip side of what people are worried about now," Beard said. "The Eocene-Oligocene transition was the opposite of global warming - the whole world was already warm, then it cooled off. It's kind of a mirror image. The point is that primates then, just like primates today, are more sensitive to a changing climate than other mammals."

The findings were published in the May 6 issue of the journal Science.
Apple has just announced that the glitch affecting Apple Store's search functions last Thursday has now been fixed. The Cupertino-based tech giant did not cite any particular reason for the tech issue leading some people to speculate on a possible malicious hack.

"App Store searches are pretty broken at the best of times, but this does appear to be a specific glitch," Apple watchdog 9to5Mac said in a report.

Before the bug was fixed, users of Apple's mobile devices have took to the social media to vent out their frustrations after getting incorrect or incomplete search results even for highly popular or well-known brands.

According to Tech Crunch, this problem is not entirely unique to Apple-related apps. Similar glitches have been observed in other major tech brands on app store like Google, Uber, Tumblr, Vine, Spotify, Candy Crush, YouTube, and countless others.

Apple acknowledged the problem and posted a status message on the site saying, "Service is not working as expected for all users." As reported by USA Today, the issue appeared to have reached to music and book searches in iTunes and iBooks Store respectively.

Meanwhile, the company has recently included a 'dedicated accessibility accessories category' to its online store which covers products tailored to meet the specific needs of people with disabilities when using their iPhone, iPad, and the Mac, Amvsement reported.

In another development, Apple CEO Tim Cook is scheduled to meet high-level Chinese government officials this month including those from the Communist Party's propaganda department. His visit to China comes at critical period as the Silicon Valley giant faces problems ranging from plunging iPhone sales in its second largest market after the US and censorship troubles that saw the closure of iBooks Store and iTunes Movies services. Despite the storm, Cook remains firmly optimistic on China.

"I see China as may not have the wind at our backs that we once did but it's a lot more stable than what I think is the common view of it. We remain really optimistic on China," said Cook during the company's earning's call as quoted by the Reuters.
Google's driverless car research program has been one the most conspicuous initiative that started out in Silicon Valley. Its recent partnership with Fiat Chrysler allows the tech giant to gain a sizeable lead in the self-driving car development. But maybe not for long as General Motors and Lyft enter the fray.

Detroit-based General Motors is keen on punching a hole in the competition as the company closes in the technological gap. The automotive giant is now embarking on road testing a fleet of autonomous Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis in partnership with Lyft, Uber's direct competitor in ride-hailing business.

As per Wall Street Journal, the car manufacturing company intends to make use of Lyft's increasingly growing horde of drivers as the primary test market for Bolt while publicizing its driverless electric vehicles to the public. In addition, GM is also pursuing a $1-billion buy-out of San Francisco-based developer of self-driving technology, Cruise Automation. This would allow the company to leverage new technology acquistion while taking advantage of Lyft's wide cab network for launching its ambitious autonomous-driving initiative.

For its part, Lyft is reportedly working on to deploy GM-manufactured self-driving cars within a year, at least, in one unidentified city. Technically speaking, a human driver would still be around for the time being, as per law, in case of malfunction. The company, however, hopes to eventually make human drivers 'obsolete' in the future, BGR reported.

In another development, while Lyft and Uber are obvious rivals in the ride-sharing business, they are currently on the same side amid a controversial proposed law in Austin, Texas requiring drivers to be fingerprinted. Both companies vowed to leave the city should voters choose to approve Proposition 1- the first fingerprinting-ride-share legislation being subjected to a plebiscite in the United States.

Both companies argued that additional backgrounds are unnecessary but advocates of stringent regulations demand said that the proposed legislation is a response to the Kalamazoo shooting leaving some people dead after an Uber driver sprayed bullets randomly on unsuspecting people according to CNBC news.
BENGALURU: The Amruthahalli police arrested a 21-year-old dance instructor for sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl during a summer camp on May 3. The accused, Peter, was hired by a private school in Kempapura to teach dance during the camp. The girl, who had enrolled for the camp, returned home and complained about abdominal pain.

The parents took her to a private clinic, where the doctors confirmed sexual assault after examination. They took her to another hospital for a second opinion, where it was confirmed again. The parents immediately approached the police and filed a complaint of sexual assault.

The girl told the parents and the police that Peter was responsible for the act. Peter, who was arrested, too confessed to the crime, the police said. He has been arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act) and remanded to judicial custody.

Later in the evening, the Amruthahalli police detained Bharath, the summer camp organiser, in connection with the sexual assault case of a four-year-old minor girl. The incident, which took place on May 3, came to light on Friday after the girls father approached the hospital and filed a case.

Peter was residing in Chintapur and has studied till 12th grade. He underwent six months training in ballet dance, before joining as a dance instructor, said a police official.
Mathura:

Two days after two children died following consuming milk as part of mid-day meal at a school in Kansi Ram colony here, the area is facing another crisis - with over 100 people suffering from cholera which virtually has taken an epidemic form.

Anganwadi Assistant Usha Devi, who was also taken ill after consuming the milk, died last evening. The number of children and adults suffering from vomiting and loose motion has swelled from 48 by Thursday evening to 118 today, officiating Chief Medical Officer Dr Sajjan Kumar said.

Since only 29 children had consumed milk on Wednesday as part of mid-day meal and a majority are of different age groups, it has been established that cholera has spread in the area, District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar said.

There was no casualty today. On the basis of stool test it has been established that most of the patients are suffering from cholera which virtually has taken an epidemic form, he said, adding the other cause appears to be mixing of drain water with drinking water.

Over 100 patients have been discharged after treatment and 79 are still admitted at different hospitals but they are out of danger, the district magistrate said.

Since nothing wrong was found in the overhead water tank of Kanshi Ram Colony, underground pipeline leading to different houses, was checked. At a few places the pipeline was found damaged with some portion in contact with drains. It may be another reason of cholera, he said.

A temporary 20 bed hospital, lead by two doctors, has been set up in the primary school adjacent to Kanshi Ram Colony. Also two teams of experts will arrive here from Lucknow, Kumar said.

Since cases from adjacent Baad, Aurangabad and Sarai Azmabad villages have also been reported, 50 beds have been added in Swarn Jayanti Hospital and District Hospitals each, he said.

Cleanliness drive with 250 Safai Karmi has started in the area. Since it is an infectious disease, people are advised not to consume stale food or cut fruits and wash hand before eating, Kumar added.

The officiating CMO said though he is not in a position to give the exact break up of the patients, a majority of them are children and asserted that cholera may be another reason of the casualties and people falling ill.

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New Delhi:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal led a protest by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) against the AgustaWestland deal scam at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas and other AAP leaders also joined the agitation.

Also Read: Should those involved in chopper theft be punished or not? asks PM Modi

Earlier on Saturday, the AAP workers staged a protest against the AgustaWestland deal scam near Race Course Metro Station in New Delhi. The AAP workers will try to ghrao the Prime Minister house in 7 RCR as part of their protest. As the protesters were moving towards the PM house, clashes broke out between AAP workers and the police.

Also Read: Congress knew where 'Ganga of corruption' was flowing, says Manohar Parrikar

All the routes towards 7 RCR have been blocked in view of AAP protest. The Gate No 2 of Race Course Metro Station has also been closed in order to stop the protesters. Security has been hightened around 7 RCR.

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New Delhi:

Facebook has introduced a new feature which will let its users celebrate Mothers Day in a special way. The new feature will allow users to send floral tributes to their mothers on this day. For a short time (May 7-May 9), youll see a new purple flower icon in Messenger. Tap on the flower to decorate your messages - text, photos, GIFs and more - with colourful blooms. The person youre sending the message to will see the flowers on their end, too, the social media giant said in a statement.



Mothers Day is celebrated on May 8. We hope you enjoy sharing these sweet flowers as you celebrate....whether thats by being with your mom, or by thanking all the moms that make up your virtual village, the mother-like figures you learn from and all your special friends, Facebook Messenger said in its post.



Facebook has also rolled out new stickers just for Mothers Day and named it as motherly love. The feature is active in 82 countries including India till May 9.
Washington:

US President Barack Obama today said he does not pay attention to the tweets of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, which of late has been creating a lot of controversies in the social media. I have no thoughts on Mr Trumps tweets, Obama said.



As a general rule, I dont pay attention to Mr Trumps tweets. I think that will be true for, I think, for the next six months. So, if you could just file that one, Obama told reporters when asked about Trumps latest taco bowl tweet. A day before, Trump tweeted picture of him showing eating taco bowl.



I love Hispanics! Trump said. I had 59,000 retweets in a short period of what, thats like, almost got to be some kind of a record, Trump told Fox News. People loved it. And you know what? Im going to do great with the Hispanics. I mean, Im going to do fantastic, because Im bringing jobs back to America, he said. Trump has nearly eight million followers on Twitter.

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New Delhi:

Reviewing the drought situation in Uttar Pradesh with its Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today issued directions for providing immediate assistance as per a memorandum submitted by the state two days back amid a promise to work with it in dealing with the situation. At the meeting here with Yadav which also discussed water scarcity, Modi said the Centre and states have to work together to mitigate the problems faced by the people due to the drought, a PMO statement said.

He pitched for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing. Yadav apprised the Prime Minister of efforts undertaken for mitigation of problems faced by people because of drought conditions, particularly in the Bundelkhand region, the statement said,



It was noted that the state has submitted a memorandum two days back for assistance for the Rabi 2015-16 season and the Prime Minister directed that the process be completed, and assistance be provided without delay.



The state shared the action plan for revival and restoration of 78,000 water-bodies including tanks, ponds, and farm ponds; one lakh new water-bodies and recharge structures. This is to be achieved by utilizing funds available in schemes such as MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, the statement said.



The meeting was told that an amount of Rs 934.32 crore has been released to the state under the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), after adjustments of the state balances.



This is in addition to Rs 506.25 crore released as central share of State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) for 2015-16 to the state. A further amount of Rs. 265.87 crore has been released as first instalment of SDRF for 2016-17.

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Kolkata:

Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Suranjan Das today said it us for the police to act against the culprits who allegedly molested girl students during a clash over a film screening at the varsity campus even as he blamed the organisers for screening the movie without permission.

We have lodged an FIR against outsiders who were caught by our students and then handed over by us to the police. It is the police which has to act now. It is their job to take action. We did everything on our part, Das said.

He also put the blame on the organisers for screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film Buddha in a Traffic Jam in open-air in the campus late last evening without prior permission of the authorities.

As per the rules any organisation has to take permission from us to do any programme inside the campus. But they did not take our permission to hold the event, Das said.

In the meantime, Governor K N Tripathi has also sought a report on this from the VC who said he is sending it.

Jadavpur University which was once known as centre for excellence is fast turning into centre for disturbances. The authorities should take stern action against it, Tripathi, who is also the chancellor of the state-run varsity, told PTI.

Trouble began at Jadavpur after Bollywood filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri decided to screen his upcoming film in open-air after the alumni association cancelled their booking in an auditorium run by them.

The auditorium is not run by us. We have no control over it, the VC said.

The fracas began after the films screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.

Some girl students alleged that they were molested during the melee that ensued after the incident.

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Madurai:

Taking on AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today alleged that she preferred to stay within four walls without bothering to visit the people or listen to their grievances during last years devastating floods.

Attacking the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister over a host of issues, including unemployment, he alleged that her rule was marked by corruption and that industries had migrated to other states.

Addressing his maiden election rally here for the May 16 Assembly election in Tamil Nadu along with DMK Treasurer M K Stalin, he targeted Jayalalithaa over the unprecedented floods that hit parts of the state, including Chennai, during last monsoon.

Tamil Nadu does not need a government which is run by a person who stays within four walls and does not even have the decency to come out and see what has happened when the floods came to Chennai.

I could come from Delhi to see what has happened in Tamil Nadu and to help, to give a hand to the poor people but the Chief Minister could not walk out of her house, Gandhi said.

He claimed that under the AIADMK regime, umemployment had risen. Lakhs of youth were unemployed and corruption had gone up at every level, he charged.

Previously, factories and industries used to come to Tamil Nadu, but now nobody is interested, he said, adding they understand that if they wanted to open up industries they will have to pay money to people in the government.

Referring to a generation of leaders from Periyar E V Ramasamy, Kamaraj, AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, he said such leaders went to the people, listened and learnt from them.

I am confident Stalin also has these qualities. On the other side, we have the Chief Minister who is absolutely convinced that she does not need to meet anybody in Tamil Nadu, the Congress leader said.

She is absolutely convinced that nobody in Tamil Nadu has anything to say to her from which she can learn something. She is convinced that there is only one wise person in Tamil Nadu and that is Jayalalithaaji.
The dispute over distribution of Krishna waters between the two states is with the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court and arguments have been going on for two years.

Hyderabad: At a time when both Telangana state and AP are reeling under acute shortage of water due to insignificant inflows into the Krishna, politicians both in the ruling party and in the Opposition are holding each other responsible for the crisis-like situation.

The dispute over distribution of Krishna waters between the two states is with the Krishna Waters Disputes Tribunal as well as the Supreme Court and arguments have been going on for two years. Unless there is clarity on the issue, including the question of taking up irrigation projects based on surplus waters, the matter will become fodder for a political fight.

A year ago, TS and AP had reached an agreement before the Central water resources ministry that till a final decision is reached, both states would share 811 tmc feet of assured water in the Krishna in a ration of 512 and 299 tmc ft. However, there was no significant inflow into the Krishna not only in the Telugu states but even in Karnataka and Maharashtra this year.

Against this background, YSRC president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to sit on a three-day protest fast in Kurnool to pro-test the AP governments failure to prevent the Telangana state government from building the Palamuru Ranga reddy and Dindi projects and using surplus waters of the Srisailam dam.

He said the water at Srisailam this year had touched its lowest levels, and asked the AP government to raise water to 854 feet to supply Rayalaseema while Telangana draws more water for its projects.

Even Congress leaders Dr S. Sailajanath and Dr N. Tulasi Reddy on Satur-day objected to the projects being taken up by the TS government and criticised the AP government for not acting to stall them. Reacting to Mr Reddys fast, Telangana irrigation minister T. Harish Rao said in Mahbubnagar on Saturday that there was no question of stopping the two new projects. They were approved by the previous Congress governments, he said.

He also warned AP leaders against creating controversies as otherwise the TS government would move against projects taken up by the AP government like Handri Neeva and Galeru Nagari which also use surplus water.

He said like his father late Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy is trying to divert Krishna waters to Rayalaseema. Mr Harish Rao noted that the AP government had filed some objections with the Krishna tribunal and some farmers were trying to file petitions in the Supreme Court.

As per the AP Reorgani-sation Act, the Krishna River Management Board is entitled to approve new projects taken up after the state bifurcation and adjudicate on disputes between the two states.

The AP government has already filed a complaint with KRMB against the Palamuru-Ranga Reddy and Dindi projects. The Telangana state government has also lodged a few complaints on diversion of Godavari water to the Krishna through the Pattiseema project.

Elsewhere, TD leaders including some legislators began blaming the BJP for the Centres rejection of special category status to AP. They said the BJP would face the same fate as the Congress in AP. Both the YSRC and the Congress, on the other hand, bla-med the TD-BJP combine.

In a related development, actor and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan appealed to both the TD and the YSRC to fight unitedly to secure special status for AP. He appealed to the BJP not to delay it. He said the people were agitated and a positive decision should be taken before the people begin to press for fulfilment of an election-time promise.
The girls' families stopped sending them to the government school in neighbouring Lala village, where a student was allegedly raped on April 18. (Photo: Representational Image)

Rewari: Citing safety concerns, parents of at least 38 girls have stopped sending them to a school in a neighbouring village, where a student was allegedly raped last month.

The panchayat of Suma Khera village, which said they were forced to send their children to the neighbouring village as the village had only a primary school, announced an indefinite dharna till it was upgraded, even as the Opposition attacked the BJP government over the issue.

Deputy Commissioner of Rewari Yash Garg said the girls' families stopped sending them to the government school in neighbouring Lala village, where a student was allegedly raped on April 18.

In the wake of the incident, parents got the names of their girls, studying in classes IX and XII, deleted from the school's rolls and the panchayat concerned started demanding that the primary school in Suma Khera be upgraded to senior secondary level, he said.

The panchayat on Friday decided to launch an indefinite dharna if the state government failed to upgrade the primary school in Suma Khera even as district authorities assured them safety in Lala village, Garg said.

"We have also arranged teachers in Suma Khera so that the girls' could continue with their studies," he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told reporters he was hopeful of people of both villages reaching a settlement and offered to upgrade the primary school in Suma Khera to Class VIII.

The villagers, however, have turned down the offer and stand firm on their demands, the DC said. "Now state Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, along with two of his cabinet colleagues, will hold a meeting with villagers to discuss the issue," he said.

Also, families from Kotapuri village have also stopped sending their children to the government school in Lala village, Garg said.

Opposition INLD today attacked the Manohar Lal Khattar government over the issue, saying it "boasts of 'Beti-Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign for the girl child, but the sad reality is that girls are not feeling safe and parents are forced to withdraw them from schools".

"The BJP government is not bothered about actual problems. While it speaks of Beti Bachao and teaching Gita in schools, the truth is that girls are not feeling safe and there are not enough teachers," INLD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala said.
Undocumented man ruins Texas mans life after stealing his identity, branding this innocent victim a sex offender

A decades-long ordeal ruined a Texas man, but his life might start to get better now that the convicted sex offender in Kansas who stole his identity has pleaded guilty to misusing a Social Security number.

After years of fighting, Marcus Calvillo almost gave up on trying to clear his name. Then he read an Associated Press story about a case in 2013 in which a Houston teachers entire identity was stolen. Calvillo contacted the federal prosecutor in Wichita who was involved in that case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Anderson, hoping the official might help him as well.

(Article republished from //latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/05/04/texas-mans-life-ruined-by-undocumented-sex-offender-who-stole-his-identity/)

I dont know of a case where the theft of an identity had a more devastating impact than this one, Anderson said of Calvillos plight.

The guilty plea Monday from Fernando Neave-Ceniceros, a 41-year-old convicted child sex offender and Mexican national, will help untangle the impostors long criminal history and begin to repair the havoc left behind for Calvillo, the man whose identity he assumed.

Now we have a court on-the-record admission of who he really is, Anderson said after the hearing.

Neave-Ceniceros admitted in his plea deal in U.S. District Court in Wichita to unlawfully using Calvillos Social Security number to hide his own identity and lack of legal status in the United States. He will be sentenced July 25. His attorney, David Freund, declined to comment.

The defendants criminal record  including convictions for indecent liberties with a child, bribery, drug offenses and other charges  became wrongly linked to Calvillo when the impostor was first fingerprinted as a teenager using the false identity.

Calvillo, now 46 and living in Grand Prairie, Texas, went public with his ordeal in October, telling the AP at the time that his whole life has been put on hold because of this person, and it has gotten worse and worse and worse.

He recalled his confusion when he got fired from his job as a cable installer, being told only, You know what you did.

He was in his early 20s when he learned his identity had been hijacked. His marriage fell apart. He couldnt find or keep a job, and fell behind on bills and child support.

Calvillo, who prosecutors say has no criminal record, began rebuilding his life after the government found him an alternative Social Security number. Now self-employed, he has a home services business that power washes houses.

Once Neave-Ceniceros is sentenced, Anderson said he can begin clearing Calvillos name in each county where the impostors seven felony convictions for past crimes took place.

Under the plea agreement, Neave-Ceniceros would get a year and a day to be served concurrently with a state prison sentence he is already serving. He then will likely be deported.

Read more at: //latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2016/05/04/texas-mans-life-ruined-by-undocumented-sex-offender-who-stole-his-identity/

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Police, which had made extensive preparations by putting up three layers of barricades, detained senior AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Dilip Pandey along with party volunteers, and took them to Parliament Street police station. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Over 300 AAP supporters and some party leaders were today detained as they on Saturday took out a protest march towards the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging a BJP-Congress alliance in corruption.

Following a rally at Jantar Mantar, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal and its top brass attacked Modi and his government for not taking action against Sonia Gandhi in AgustaWestland chopper scam, groups led by Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas went to gherao residences of the Prime Minister and the Congress President.

Kejriwal left the venue before the protest march began. Several AAP MLAs, including Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Bandana Kumar, participated in it.

Police, which had made extensive preparations by putting up three layers of barricades, detained senior AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Dilip Pandey along with party volunteers, and took them to Parliament Street police station.

"Over 300 people were detained from the first layer of barricade in Parliament Street as they started their march from Jantar Mantar. And over 100 were detained in the morning.

They were a separate group who had reached near Tughlaq Road police station, which is near the PM's residence, to protest.

"The protesters were detained under Section 144 of CrPC. They have all been taken to Parliament Street police station," DCP, New Delhi, Jatin Narwal said.
DANBURY  After two Connecticut residents were diagnosed with the Zika virus this week, state officials have again urged the public, especially pregnant women, to avoid traveling to countries affected by the virus.

With no vaccine or antiviral drug currently available to prevent infection or protect a developing fetus, it is imperative that women in any trimester of pregnancy, women who are planning to become pregnant, and their male sexual partner follow recommendations for prevention, Commissioner Raul Pino, of the state Department of Health, said Friday morning in Hartford.

The briefing, which featured Gov. Dannel Malloy, comes a day after the fourth case of Zika was reported in the state and three days after a Connecticut woman became the states first pregnant Zika virus patient.

The woman conceived while visiting a Central American country, was tested while back in Connecticut and has since returned to Central America. WFSB reported on Wednesday the patient is a 17-year-old Danbury woman and was in Honduras. The woman could not be reached for comment, and Danbury Hospital would not disclose any information about a possible case of Zika there.

The fourth Zika virus patient was a nonpregnant woman in her 30s. She traveled from the Caribbean to Connecticut on April 25 and became ill four days later. Her symptoms included fever, rash and conjunctivitis, health officials said.

The state confirmed the patients result using PCR testing, which is used for patients who are actively experiencing symptoms of the virus. The states laboratory was approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March for PCR testing, after Malloy directed DPH to develop and begin testing for Zika.

Two other state residents were previously diagnosed with the virus.

Dr. Majid Sadigh, director of the Global Health Center at Western Connecticut Health Center, which includes Danbury and New Milford hospitals, said the travel warnings are especially important for the Danbury area because of its large South and Central American communities.

He said local residents traveling to affected countries, such as Brazil and Puerto Rico, should always use insect repellent and try to stay in air-conditioned rooms.

(But) pregnant women and people with immune deficiency should just avoid going to countries like Brazil, he said. Otherwise, you can go, enjoy your time, but avoid getting mosquito bites.

The doctor recommends returning travelers abstain from having sex or use a condom in the first few weeks after their return.

Zika virus is spread to people primarily through mosquito bites, but it can spread from men to women through sex.

While illness from Zika is usually mild, Pino said, the possible link with miscarriages and birth defects makes prevention of infection among pregnant women essential.

With hundreds of positive cases nationwide, I encourage residents to be vigilant, the commissioner said.

In Connecticut, 245 patients, including 217 pregnant women, have been tested for Zika virus.

Sadigh said the overwhelming majority of the samples the CDC gets come up negative, and those who get infected may never have any symptoms.

They acquire the virus, but they dont get sick, he said.

Sadigh said the symptoms are not unique to Zika, so its tough to diagnose it. The most common signs are rashes, fever, red eyes and body aches.

Staff writer Jim Shay contributed to this report.
TORONTO, May 6, 2016 /CNW/ - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today welcomed the Twenty-Third Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canada from Michael Wernick, the Clerk of the Privy Council, Secretary to the Cabinet, and Head of the Public Service.

The report outlines the Clerk's priorities and expectations of the Public Service for the coming year, and emphasizes the need to improve mental health and well-being in the workplace, and boost efforts to attract, retain, and develop talented public servants.

The report also highlights a number of success stories from the past year that made a real difference in the lives of Canadians, including efforts to:

Work with partners at all levels  international, federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal  to bring Syrian refugees to Canada , and help them resettle as quickly as possible;

, and help them resettle as quickly as possible; Help move goods across the longest international border, at a rate of over $1 million per minute; and,

per minute; and, Process 82 per cent of all tax returns electronically, making tax filing faster and easier for Canadians.

The report is available on the Clerk of the Privy Council's website: www.clerk.gc.ca/report.

Quote

"A modern, professional Public Service plays a vital role in our democracy. The Clerk is taking important steps to renew this important institution. By working together, I am confident that we can build an even better, more capable, and effective Public Service  one that addresses the needs and expectations of the Canadians we serve."

- Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

Quick Facts

Michael Wernick was appointed the 23 rd Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet on January 22, 2016 , by the Prime Minister to help the government deliver its agenda and to renew the Public Service.

was appointed the 23 Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet on , by the Prime Minister to help the government deliver its agenda and to renew the Public Service. The Annual Report to the Prime Minister on the Public Service of Canadaa requirement under section 127 of the Public Service Employment Act was first introduced in 1992.

was first introduced in 1992. The Public Service of Canada is the country's largest employer, with approximately 257,000 employees. It is also the country's most diverse workforce, including administrative, scientific, engineering, medical, and enforcement professionals, among others.

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

For further information: PMO Media Relations: 613-957-5555
Delhi court allowed Khalid to travel to the city from May 20 to 23 to attend panel discussion organised by Bastar Solidarity Network (Kolkata Chapter). (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: JNU student Umar Khalid, facing sedition charge for allegedly raising anti-India slogans at the university campus here in February, was on Saturday granted permission by a Delhi court to travel to Kolkata to attend a panel discussion.

Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh allowed Khalid to travel to the city from May 20 to 23 to attend panel discussion organised by Bastar Solidarity Network (Kolkata Chapter). As per the application, the discussion will be held on May 21 in Muktangan Hall, Kolkata.

Khalid, along with another varsity student Anirban Bhattacharya, was granted interim bail for six months by the court on March 18 on the ground of parity with co-accused and JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar in the case.

In its bail order, the court had directed Umar and Anirban not to leave Delhi without its permission during the period of interim bail and to make themselves available before the investigating officer as and when required for the purpose of the probe.

Umar and Anirban had surrendered to the police on the intervening night of February 23-24 after which they were arrested. Earlier, Kanhaiya was granted six-month interim bail by the high court on March 2.

Police had arrested Umar and Anirban over a controversial event at JNU on February 9. The duo had returned to the JNU campus on February 21 after going missing since February 12.

Delhi Police had issued a look-out notice on February 20 against Umar, Anirban and three other students, Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash.
A team of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) operatives yesterday stormed the Abuja residence of former Aviation Minister Fem...

EFCC operatives storm Fani-Kayodes residence

Fani Kayode

It was ostensibly a move to arrest him in connection with the N2.5 billion allegedly withdrawn illegally from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and paid into the accounts of six chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Goodluck Support Group (GSG).The operatives arrived the gate of the building a few hours after the anti-graft agency formally served him a summons to present himself for interrogation on Monday.Fani-Kayode is suspected to have received N840 million of the slush funds allegedly disbursed for the 2015 Presidential campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan.Former Finance Minister Nenadi Usman and ex-Imo State Governor Achike Udenwa, both of whom also got from the funds, have already had their own sessions with EFCC interrogators.Nenadi is believed to be the operator of an account named Joint Trust Dimension Nigeria Limited, where a substantial part of the funds was lodged and disbursed to party chieftains.The largesse, according to EFCC, was shared as follows: Fani-Kayode (N840 million); Goodluck Support Group (N320 million); Achike Udenwa and Viola Onwuliri (N350 million); Nenadi Usman (N140 million); Olu Falae (N100 million) and Okey Ezenwa (N100 million).The EFCC action followed an intelligence report.He gave no details but merely said:We have been looking for him and now that we have located him, we mobilised our men to effect his arrest.It has become necessary to arrest Fani-Kayode before his interrogation begins on Monday. Some of those involved in the N2.5 billion scandal are already with us.On sighting the EFCC team, the former minister took to the social media to alert his Facebook friends about the development.He said:The operatives however took their leave as journalists began to gather to record the development.In inviting Fani-Kayode for questioning on Monday via a May 6,2016 letter, the Acting Head, CTGI / Pension Fraud Section, Mohammed Umar Abba, said: This Commission is investigating a case of criminal conspiracy, fraud and money laundering involving Joint Trust Dimension Ltd, in which you featured prominently.In view of the above, you are requested to kindly report for an interview with the undersigned, scheduled as follows: Monday 9th May, at Block B, Idiagbon House, 5 Fomella Street off Adetokunbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 11 Abuja by 10 am.This request is made pursuant to Section 38(i) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004 and Section 21 of Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.Preliminary findings by EFCC indicated that the said N840 million was paid in three tranches into the former ministers account.A source familiar with the investigation said: The first tranche of payment involving N350 million hit the account on February 19, 2015. Another N250 milion was also paid into the account on February19, 2015 while N240 million was similarly credited to the account a month later; precisely, March 19, 2015.The balance in this account as at 31st December, 2015 was N189, 402.72.Next in the pecking order of beneficiaries of the heist was Goodluck Support Group which received N320 million.Chief Falae allegedly received N100 million through Marreco Limited, a company of which he is Chairman. The fund was credited into the companys United Bank for Africa Plc account No. 1000627022 on March 25, 2014.Achike Udenwa and Viola Onwuliri got N350 million in two tranches.The first tranche of N150 million was paid into their joint account with Zenith Bank on January 13, 2015 and the second tranche of N200 miilion was credited into their account with Diamond Bank.Fani-Kayodes account remained frozen at press time and will be so until investigation is concluded.The former minister said yesterday before his arrest that he was ready to honour the EFCC invitation.His media aide, Jude Ndukwe, issued a statement in Abuja saying: The EFCC wrote a letter of invitation to my principal, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, this morning, asking that he reports to their Abuja office on the morning of May 9th for a discussion.The letter was dated 6th May 2016 and it was signed by one Mr. Mohammed Umar Abba on behalf of the Acting Chairman, Mr. Ibrahim Magu.This is the first and only letter of invitation that Chief Fani-Kayode has received from the EFCC and it puts a lie to the shameful allegation that was being peddled around by The Nation newspaper that he had been served with an earlier invitation which he had shunned and that he was running and hiding from the Commission.The letter of invitation was delivered to his Abuja home and he has responded promptly through his lawyers by assuring the EFCC that he would make himself available on Monday morning to assist in their investigations.Soon after the departure of the EFCC team, the former minister confirmed on Facebook that After 8 hours, the massive siege on my home has been lifted. The EFCC has left my gates and I look forward to my date with them at their office on Monday.
With rising uneasiness over the menace of Fulani herdsmen, and the aftermath of the Nimbo, Enugu State attack where suspected Fulani her...

The Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is also reaching out to other groups across the five states in the geo-political zone to form a united front against further onslaughts by killer herdsmen.The various state governments in the zone have similarly been mapping out their own plans to avoid a re-enactment of the Enugu State massacre.It was gathered in Awka that leaders of the Bakassi Boys have been meeting in Abia, Imo, Anambra and Ebonyi on how to defend the states from further attacks by killer herdsmen.A top member of the group who did not want his name mentioned, said never again would anyone or group be allowed to terrorize the zone for no just cause.Speaking in the same vein, a MASSOB leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu, said the movement was reaching out to other Igbo groups on the matter.There is need for Ndigbo to form a synergy on this issue, he said.We have started making consultations. This is not an issue MASSOB and other positive groups in Igboland will leave for the governors and policemen to decide.The groups we are talking about are not ones that find favour on the pages of newspapers, but groups that have the interests of our people at heart like MASSOB, Madu said.Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State met on Thursday night with traditional rulers in the state on how to forestall a repeat of the Enugu mayhem in Anambra.The governor told the gathering that government was already monitoring closely suspicious movements in some parts of the state.He said government was working in concert with the security agencies in this regard and assured residents of safety of their lives and property.He said that where the options available to government fail, the state is ready to defend the people, but he was quick to add that we do not want it to get to that point.He said: We do not want anything to destroy the beautiful relationship that has existed between Igbo and Fulani and other Nigerians. We want Anambra to be a shining example and that is why we are the light of the nation.What we intend to do is to send the Fulani that are living with us here to go and meet with the Fulani in that area with a view to finding out whether they are coming in peace or otherwise.We agreed at the Security Council Meeting that we will not allow herdsmen to carry arms.That is a clear directive from Abuja. Herdsmen are not supposed to bear arms. Please, if you see any herdsmen with AK47, report them early to the police so that they can be picked up.The chairman of the South East zone of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Siddiki Gidado, commended the governor for convening the meeting and stressed the need to entrench in the psyche of the herdsmen and their host communities the code of healthy engagement.His words: I must confess that life out there in the jungle where our people breed their cattle is rough and this is often compounded by either some acts of carelessness by some herdsmen or sheer acts of suspicion from natives who might not be hospitable to the herdsmen traversing their physical space.Neither of the issues can be adjudged insurmountable. It only demands constructive commitment from the governments and other concerned groups who would deconstruct the underlying hate mind-set and create a healthy room for mutual trust amidst diverse business interestsThe code of healthy engagements must be entrenched in the psyche of the herdsmen and their landlords wherever they are found.
Bishop Mattew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has said that the Nigerian government is finally turning the tide on Boko Har...

Bishop Mattew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto has said that the Nigerian government is finally turning the tide on Boko Haram, the ISIS-aligned terrorist group that has held the north in its bloody grip for years. The Christian leader told the FoxNews in a recent interview.In the last six months, there has been significant progress, we can proudly say, they no longer control territory and that they are literally on their last legs now.Kukah said the central African nations recent advances against the extremist group have been hard-won. The terror group has existed for more than a decade, but gained international infamy in April, 2014, when members kidnapped 276 Christian schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, in the northern Borno state.Some 57 of the girls escaped and others are feared dead. But the terrorist group is believed to be holding as many as 200 more than two years after seizing them. The government in Abuja has sought their safe return even as it has waged war on the Islamist terror group."Boko Haram has become outed and they are no longer a threat to the Nigerian society," he said. "[They] are now involved in some sort of back door negotiations with the federal government, and these negotiations are certainly tied to the release of the Chibok Girls.Last month, Nigeria's government said it was examining a "proof of life" video showing 15 of the schoolgirls, the first footage of the missing girls released since May, 2014, when Boko Haram put out a video showing about 100 of them in Islamic garb and reciting the Koran.
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday travel to London, United Kingdom to participate in the international Anti-Corruption Summit, ...

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday travel to London, United Kingdom to participate in the international Anti-Corruption Summit, which will be held in the British capital on Thursday.According to a statement on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President, as an internationally recognised leader in the global fight against corruption, will play a prominent part in the summit which will be hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron with many other Heads of State and Government in attendance.Adesina said Buhari would head of the summits opening, deliver a keynote address titled, Why we must tackle corruption together at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups on Wednesday.The presidential spokesman also disclosed that the President is one of the world leaders scheduled to speak at the opening session of the Anti-Corruption Summit with others, including Prime Minister Cameron and the President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim.He added that Buhari would thereafter join other participating heads of state and government at special plenary sessions on exposing corruption, tackling corruption and driving out corruption.The statement read in part, In his address to the summit and interactions with other participating leaders, President Buhari will urge the international community to move faster on the dismantling of safe havens for the proceeds of corruption and the return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of origin.The President will also reaffirm his administrations unwavering commitment to the fight against corruption and the Federal Governments readiness to partner with international agencies and other countries to identify, apprehend and punish corrupt public officials.President Buharis delegation to the Summit will include the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami and the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.Before returning to Abuja on Friday, May 13, 2016, the President is expected to have a separate meeting with Prime Minister Cameron to discuss ongoing Nigeria-Britain collaboration in the war against corruption and terrorism, as well as other issues, including trade and economic relations between both countries.
Pope Francis has called on Europe to be an open and multicultural society by welcoming refugees and helping young people to start familie...

Pope Francis has called on Europe to be an open and multicultural society by welcoming refugees and helping young people to start families, while offering them job opportunities.He made the call on Friday during an acceptance speech in Vatican City for the Charlemagne Prize, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.The Pope stressed the need for Europe to respect the foreigner, immigrant and people from different cultures as worthy of being listened to.He said there was need to follow the moral obligation of building a new economic system with dignified and well-paying jobs, especially for our young people.Francis, who recalled the impact of founding fathers of the European Union such as Robert Schuman and Alcide De Gasperi, said their vision inspired to build bridges and tear down walls.I dream of a Europe where being a migrant is not a crime but a summon to greater commitment on behalf of the dignity of every human being.
Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, has decried the perennial communal conflicts in many parts of Cross River Central se...

Minister for Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, has decried the perennial communal conflicts in many parts of Cross River Central senatorial district, including his hometown, which have led to the wanton destruction of lives and property.According to reportS, the Minister said he was very sad and irredeemably ashamed of such violence in his locality.I am ashamed of these developments in my locality at a time we are expected to show optimum understanding and common working relations, Usani said in an interview.I hereby decry insinuations of political underpinnings to those irresponsible acts because ascribing political notions to acts of barbarism is an attempt to down play criminality which ought to be dealt with decisively, the minister said.For nearly a month now Inyima/Onyadama, Nko/Mkpani, Nkum/Mgbegede communities have been at war, killing, maiming and destroying property despite the intervention by security agencies, describing the seemingly endless violence as criminal and barbaric.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, says former president Goodluck Jonathan, was booed by male parliamentarians for support...

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, says former president Goodluck Jonathan, was booed by male parliamentarians for supporting gender equality.In a speech titled: Why Should Finance Ministers Care About Gender Equality? addressing finance ministers across the world, Okonjo-Iweala said a special entrepreneurship programme for women in Nigeria, succeeded in creating 10,000 jobs for the nation.EXCERPTS BELOW:I am delighted to see so many ministers and officials around the table. How over the last two years did this come about, you many wonder.The idea first came to me in 2013, when I became Nigerias minister of finance for a second time. I had grown tired, quite candidly, of the phrase gender mainstreaming.It wasnt getting us anywhere fast enough. Yet here I was, minister of finance, with so many tools at my disposalwhat excuse could I give for not moving forward on this? So I sat down with my team and asked, What can we do? What incentives can we offer through the budgetthats the big tool we havethat would really empower women and move us toward gender equality? It took us some time, but we realised we had this powerful instrument and we needed to use it.Budget incentiveThe president was supportive. We came up with the idea to work with the World Bank Group and the UK aid agency, DFID. And we designed a system whereby, through the budget, if a ministry delivered certain additional results for girls and womenover and above its targetsit would receive additional budget as an incentive.We offered this to the cabinet on a voluntary basis and five ministries initially signed up: agriculture, health, water, communication technology, and public works. The ministry of womens affairs agreed to monitor and evaluate progress, and our colleagues, partners, and the donor community agreed to support our initiative.We kicked off with a small amount, US$21 million dollars, to see if this would work. When the president announced it in parliament, he was booed by male parliamentarians and cheered by female MPs, but it passed. It stayed in the budget and achieved excellent results:Our ministry of agriculture was eager to boost productivity from a very low level, subsistence, to a high level. And if 70 percent of your workforce is in agriculture, and most of them are women, then women surely need access to the right inputs.Very quickly, the minister of agriculture, who is now President of the African Development Bank, designed a system of electronic walletsgetting the middleman out of the graft-prone distribution of inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides. We said, If you get an additional number of women to use these wallets, your ministry will get additional budget.The results were spectacular: 2.5 million women began using electronic wallets, far more than anticipated. Our health ministry was concerned about vesico-vaginal fistula, a debilitating and degrading condition we werent able to address quickly or widely enough.Our initiative prompted an additional 3,000 surgeries to repair it. Our ministry of water resources developed a system for women to manage health and sanitation centers in their communities, which just won a prize in the 2016 World Water Exhibition. Our ministry of Public Works began to train women as subcontractors in procurement. This was critical and absolutely unprecedented.Those are just a few examples of how we were able to leverage the budget to advance gender equality. If you incentivie fellow ministers, they will deliver. This will empower more women and get more resources into their hands.Support for entrepreneursSecondly, we developed a program for women entrepreneurs. A World Bank team supported us, and again we achieved spectacular results. We used a portion of the budget to incentivize young entrepreneurs, 40 and younger, who would register their businesses, get peer learning and mentoring, and a grant if they won a business planning competition.In the first round, only 17 percent of the applicants were women. But more than 50 percent of small and medium-sized firms in Nigeria are run by women. So we held a second round just for women, setting aside about US$8 million dollars. About 64,000 thousand people applied. We ultimately selected 1,200 women to receive grants of US$10,000 to US$90,000and they created about 10,000 new jobs.These programs are helping women and men at the grassroots. Theyre targeting our poorest and most vulnerable people. Our results in Nigeria should remind everyone what a vital role Finance Ministers can play to level the playing field and create truly equal opportunity for all.
A leopard at a South African game reserve snatched a six-year-old boy and ran off with him. Little Kellan Denny was attacked and drag...

A leopard at a South African game reserve snatched a six-year-old boy and ran off with him.Little Kellan Denny was attacked and dragged away by the big cat at Kruger National Park.As the male leopard ran off with the youngster, his father Justin chased the big cat and screamed out: No! No! No! This cant be happening.Kellan was dragged 30 metres by the leopard who had sunk his teeth into the boys shoulder before he was recovered.Justin was able to retrieve his son after the leopard dropped the boy from his jaws. Kellan, who is said to be quite traumatised is now recovering at home.He had been playing with his eight-year-old brother near a wall when he was attacked and dragged off by the big cat.Officials at Kruger think the leopard was hunting at the time which is why he attacked the youngster.Kellan was running along the wall when he was called back for lunch, Justin told the local Cape Argus newspaper. But Kellan ran along the wall one more time which is when he was attacked.His father said: By the grace of God, it dropped him.I picked him up and rushed him back to the rondavel (African-style hut). A neighbour arrived with his wife who is a nurse.The boy was eventually taken to hospital and received stitches as well as a tetanus injection.He has now been dubbed leopard boy by his family.Officials at the park, which is north-eastern South Africa, said nothing like this had happened before in more than 40 years.
New Delhi: JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday ended his nine-day hunger strike after he was discharged from AIIMS even as the university administration asked students not to invite outsiders saying it might vitiate the academic atmosphere and peace on campus.

While five students yesterday withdrew their fast against the punishment by the university in connection with the February 9 event during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, 15 others continued with the hunger strike.

Kanhaiya, who is out on bail after his arrest in a sedition case, was admitted to AIIMS in a semi- conscious state on Friday.

He was discharged after treatment for mild dehydration and ketosis.

"Kanhaiya has been discharged from AIIMS. He has been advised bed rest for few days. He has to undergo some medical tests too, so keeping his health condition in mind he has withdrawn from the fast but will continue with the agitation," a JNUSU statement said.

The ketone level of the fasting students is high and the BP is low, according to the test reports from the health centre.

On the other hand, JNU issued fresh advisory for the students and teachers to avoid inviting outsiders to the campus.

The administration also asked the students to refrain from using "direct or indirect coercive measures and come forward for dialogue and discussion".

"The administration requests all the teachers and students to avoid inviting people from outside the campus for any gathering or activity to press their demands, which could undermine peace and security in the campus," JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar said in an appeal.

"Thousands of students on the campus are busy preparing for or writing their end semester examinations and also writing their dissertations. Continuing hunger strikes and escalation of it through involvement of outsiders may further enhance the stress level in the campus and affect the career of those students," he added.

While members from civil society joined the protests today, alumni of the university will gather tomorrow to express solidarity by fasting for a day.

In a separate notice, the Registrar asked the students not to use the public address system without permission and around the administration block, which has been the venue of protest ever since the sedition row broke out.

Twenty-five students had gone on hunger strike last week.

While five members of ABVP called off their fast on Wednesday claiming they have an assurance from the JNU administration that their demands will be considered, five members of the Left-affiliated groups withdrew from the stir yesterday citing deteriorating health.

JNU VC Jagadesh Kumar had earlier this week appealed to students to put forward their demands using "constitutional" means and asked them to come for a "dialogue" to resolve the matter.
Niger Delta militants have blown up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) crude trunkline supplying both the Warri and Kadu...





Niger Delta militants have blown up the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) crude trunkline supplying both the Warri and Kaduna refineries. This is happening few days after a Chervon oil installation was blown up in Warri Delta State.An oil flow station feeding the Chevron Tank farm in Warri south west local government area of Delta state, was also attacked, in addition to a gas line that feeds Lagos and Abuja electricity plants.The incidents came barely 24 hours after suspected militants blew up Chevron Valve Platform, still in Warri south west.Confirming the attack, N.B Lamu, spokesman of the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Delta said the developments had disrupted flow of oil in the affected area.
The Nigerian movie industry otherwise known as Nollywood has just lost Genevieve Nene . It was gathered that the actress had not been...

It was gathered that the actress had not been enjoying good state of health for sometime but had continued working on movie sets till few days back.Before her death, Genevieve, who is a graduate from the Institute of Commerce, featured in many movies including Hottest Strippers, Hottest Virgins, Quest Of A Life Time, Romantic Heart, and Mistake Women Make, among others.Also, the Ebonyi State-born actress made several appearances as a video vixen, featuring in the videos of artistes such as May D, Reekado Banks, Pasuma, Samklefs Birthday Girl and Skriptures Sweet Trouble.May her soul rest in peace.
The Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano, has summoned a meeting of Fulani leaders, monarchs of agrarian communities in the state a...

The Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano, has summoned a meeting of Fulani leaders, monarchs of agrarian communities in the state and the state government to fashion out a proactive response to herdsmens activities.Addressing the meeting on Friday at the Governors Lodge, Amawbia, Obiano noted that there were suspicious movements in some parts of the state that were being monitored to ensure that there would not be a threat to the security of the state.He said, What we intend to do is to send the Fulani that are living with us here to go and meet with the Fulani in that area with a view to finding out whether they are coming in peace or otherwise.More importantly, we want the Fulani in this committee to tell the members of this committee if their people are nursing any grievance in whatever form.The governor noted that at the beginning of his administration, he had set up a special committee to nurture a mutual relationship between the Hausa/Fulani community in the state and their hosts.I dont want anybody to take laws into their hands. That is why we set up this committee and we have agreed that compensation should be paid for any losses on either side. That is the way to co-exist in a multi-ethnic and diverse society.We agreed at the Security Council Meeting that we will not allow herdsmen to carry arms. That is a clear directive from Abuja. If you see herdsmen with AK47, report them to the police early enough so that they can be picked up, the governor said.He said Fulani herdsmen used to be known with their long sticks and daggers which they wielded to protect their cows.But these Fulani herdsmen that carry AK47 riffles are worrisome. We dont want what happened in Enugu to happen here. But if the three options we are proposing fail, we are ready to defend ourselves.
Former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.), says it will take structural changes in government to get Nigeria out of its cur...

Former military Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon (retd.), says it will take structural changes in government to get Nigeria out of its current economy challenges.The structural changes, Gowon said, must cut across the executive, legislature and the judiciary.According to him, one of the major tasks before the government is to strive to balance the often competing interests of foreign investors and indigenous companies.Gowon was the keynote speaker at the 2016 PUNUKA Annual Lecture held on Thursday in Lagos.The lecture, which was organised by the law firm of Chief Anthony Idigbe (SAN), was themed, The challenges of balancing the need for protection of developing economies and the provision of enabling environment for foreign investment.Gowon said, A perennial difficulty for economic advisors of governments at all tiers has been balancing the competing interests of the indigenous industries and those of foreign companies seeking to do business in Nigeria.On one hand, one has to decide whether to promulgate primarily protectionist policies that are aimed at cushioning Nigerian local companies from incursion by foreign multinational companies. With this type of strategy, one predominantly sees policies targeted at promoting exports and discouraging imports, tax incentives and tax holidays for indigenous companies.On the other hand, one has to also consider the many advantages of foreign direct investment that comes with the influx of foreign businesses, whereby Nigeria is seen as a truly international economic hub.We need to champion the review of our entire structures from the executive to the legislature to judiciary to reinforce what we already have.A professor of Trade and Investment at Harvard University, United States of America, Robert Lawrence, who delivered the lecture, warned against the culture of borrowing to drive the economy, stressing that no nation can achieve sustainable economic growth by borrowing.Countries that are able to persuade others to lend them money can in fact experience growth for a period of time, but this kind of growth runs out steeply, Lawrence said.Lawrence, who classed Nigerias economic growth as commodity-led, which requires high level of discipline to operate, said it was time Nigeria began to consider how to key into the supply chain in the world.The don said, The Nigerian President should call a conference and identify the highest supply chain in the world and ask them what they need to operate in Nigeria. There are very few of them. We need policies that can stimulate growth, but those policies require skills. There is a synergy between government and businesses in developed economies. Therefore, profound intervention is the ultimate.A former Chairman, Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Sam Ohuabunwa, who was one of the discussants, advocated the application of incentives to drive indigenous industries.Ohuabunwa said, We need to apply incentives to create competitiveness. It is not going to be in our own interest to create an economy that is under lock and key. Let us look at what we are good at and sell it to the world and take what they are good at. That is what China, Japan and South Korea have done.Earlier in his welcome address, Idigbe said the choice of the PUNUKA lecture theme for 2016 was influenced by the socio-economic condition that Nigeria was grappling with.
The statement made by Ekiti governor, Ayo Fayose calling on farmers in the state to poison their water to ward off invasion by herdsmen...

Fayose made the statement on Tuesday while delivering a lecture organized by the Oyo State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Ibadan, the state capital to mark this years World Press Freedom Day.A member of the Fulani community in the state who spoke in confidence said that his members were shocked by the governors comments and have resolved to lodge a complaint with the Ewi of Ado Ekiti, Oba Adeyemo Adejugbe.Also, the Fulani cattle rearers resident in Ekiti who found the remarks offensive have resolved to report Fayose to the State Council of Traditional Rulers led by the Ologotun of Ogotun Ekiti, Oba Oladapo Oyebade.The source who pleaded not to be quoted because he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Fulani in Ekiti State described the governors comment as unbecoming and capable of creating unwarranted crisis between them and the local farmers.According to him, the Fulani in Ekiti State are now living in palpable fear because anything could happen to them and their herds since the governor issued directives to people to poison their water if they notice any untoward attitude from herdsmen.He said: What many people dont know is that there is a difference between the Fulani and the Bororo . We have been in Ado for long doing our businesses and I dont think any of us could resort to killing of our hosts , what for?We know that the Obas own the towns and the land, so we want to appeal to them to help us reach out to the governor not to go to that extent. We have been co-existing peacefully with our hosts and I dont think such a statement would help in sustaining the existing peace in the land.Though, we want to make it abundantly clear that we condemn the wanton killings and maiming of innocent Nigerians by some suspected herdsmen , but we are assuring that such will not happen in Ekiti.As much as we are ready to cooperate with government and other stakeholders to make the state peaceful , we should also be mindful of our comments, actions and inactions because that too could ignite unnecessary tension.
The Federal Government says it will partner with the Akwa Ibom Government on the operations of Ibom Specialist Hospital, Uyo, to stop Ni...

The Federal Government says it will partner with the Akwa Ibom Government on the operations of Ibom Specialist Hospital, Uyo, to stop Nigerians from seeking medical treatment abroad.The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, made this promise on Saturday in Uyo while inspecting facilities at the Akwa Ibom governments owned Ibom Specialist Hospital.Mr. Adewole noted that with facilities at Ibom Specialist Hospital, medical tourism abroad can be reversed.Visiting the hospital complex today is an eye opener, there is no such complex like this anywhere in Nigeria, the minister said.He announced that with the proposed partnership, no Nigerian would be allowed to go abroad for treatment on government sponsorship from Jan. 2017.We will partner to make sure that it works and reverses medical tourism. People from Ghana and Togo can come to Nigeria for medical treatment.We will start using this facility, with this facility, no Nigerian will be allowed to go abroad for treatment, Mr. Adewole said.The minister warned medical doctors to desist from running a syndicate of sending people abroad for treatment for pecuniary interest.Mr. Adewole, however, said that individuals could go abroad on their own expenses if they so wish but not on government sponsorship.The minister said the state owned Diagnostic Centre at Ikot Ekpene would be converted to Lassa Fever Diagnostic Centre.He commended the state government for constructing the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) at Ikot Ekpene to help reduce the pressure on the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH).Earlier, the minister and his entourage had paid a courtesy visit on the state governor, Udom Emmanuel, at Government House.The governor had appealed for assistance from the Federal Government to make the state a healthcare tourism destination in Nigeria.Mr. Emmanuel said the state government had invested much in the health sector and would like the Federal Government to help boost the patronage of the Ibom Specialist Hospital.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was the maiden visit of the minister to Akwa Ibom since his appointment last October. (NAN)
President Muhammadu Buharis administration, Friday, received a damning verdict from the Academic Staff Union of Universities.





President Muhammadu Buharis administration, Friday, received a damning verdict from the Academic Staff Union of Universities.ASUU, at its 19th National Delegates Conference held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said Nigerians were yet to experience the much talked-about change Mr. Buhari promised the nation.The president of ASUU, Nasir Isa, while addressing the conference, said, Mr. Buhari was waging a half-hearted fight against corruption, and that the poor was getting poorer, while a tiny club of nouvea riche, treasury looters, phantom contractors, subsidy scammers and rent collectors are flowing in scandalous opulence and manipulating the legal structures of the state to escape.One year after, there has been no positive change in the major indices of growth and development, be it poverty reduction, safety and security, disease control or access to basic amenities and public good, he said. Mr. Isa said the government appeared to have no direction in its policies, thereby causing Nigerians to be disillusioned with it.The disappointment of Nigerians stems from the fact that we have a government whose leadership promised change but which is not practising transformation (deep, fundamental change).Mr. Isa said ASUU must not relent in working with other progressives to fight for the common good of Nigerians.
CAMDEN -- A New Jersey man wanted in the shooting death of a 17-year-old in a Cherry Hill motel earlier this year has been arrested in Georgia after more than two months on the run, officials said.

Kevin Fentress, 21, of Burlington City

Kevin Fentress, 21, is accused of shooting Camden resident Jaydre Gordon and a 20-year-old Willingboro man, who were sitting in a car parked outside the Inn of the Dove during the early hours of February 28.

Police said the shooting occurred after an altercation during a party in one of the motel rooms.

Gordon was transported to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital where he later died. The other victim was treated and released.

Fentress was named a suspect in the fatal shooting last month, which sparked a multi-state investigation spanning New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

The Burlington City man was arrested around 11:30 Friday morning at a friend's house in Marietta, Ga., about 20 miles north of Atlanta, by U.S. Marshals Service Regional Fugitive Task Force.

Fentress is charged with murder and is currently being held in Georgia awaiting extradition, Camden County Prosecutor's Office announced Friday.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CAMDEN -- A South Jersey man pleaded guilty to murder in the fatal shooting of two men, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.

Misael Lopez, 22, pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of felony murder of Louis Narvaez, 32, and Jose Payas Garcia, 28, both of Camden.

The shooting occurred in March 2012. Narvaez and Garcia were found dead in the kitchen of their home, located off North 24th Street.

Lopez and his 36-year-old brother Alexander Lopez forcefully entered the home, according to authorities.

Alexander Lopez also pleaded guilty on April 7 of this year to second-degree conspiracy to commit burglary. He will receive an eight-year prison term.

Alexander Lopez is required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Misael Lopez will receive two concurrent sentences of 30 years in state prison and will be required to serve at least 30 years before he is eligible for parole.

Both brothers are scheduled for official sentencing on Thursday, June 23 before Superior Court Judge Richard F. Wells.

Brittany Wehner may be reached at bwehner@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @brittanymwehner. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
CAPE MAY -- The United States Coast Guard safely rescued a 27-year-old fisherman Friday who was suffering from a leg injury, officials said.

The fisherman was rescued 62 miles east of Cape May while on a fishing vessel -- Stacy Lee.

A crew member on board contacted the Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay in Philadelphia at roughly 12:45 a.m. for help.

An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter flew from an air station in Atlantic City and arrived on scene by 2:40 a.m.

The fisherman was hoisted up and transported to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City.

"The crew of the fishing board did a good job administering first aid to the survivor. The boat was rocking forward and aft in the large seas, so we had to be careful not to hit the antennas as we performed the hoists," Petty Officer Third Class Joe Foss, a rescue swimmer on scene, said.

"All of our training definitely made this a successful rescue."

The condition of the fisherman is not known at this time.

Brittany Wehner may be reached at bwehner@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @brittanymwehner. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Patna: In the wake of total prohibition in Bihar, a rich haul of foreign brand alcohol and chloroform spirit used for manufacturing illicit alcohol was seized from Danapur area late last night during a drive, Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said on Saturday.

Acting on a tip-off that illicit liquor was sold in the name of foreign liquor available from Army cantonment, Danapur Station House Officer on instruction of the SSP raided a house where hooch was being prepared.

The police team seized chloroform spirit, colour and raw spirit used to manufacture medicines from the place, the SSP said.

Some unauthorized wrappers of famous foreign brands that were pasted on bottles to convince buyers that they were original ones, were also recovered, the SSP said in a statement.

Two persons were arrested from the spot it was stated, adding that action would be initiated against the house owner also.

In another raid, the police seized 32 bottles of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) from Mainpura locality here.

In yet another search, a police team raided a restaurant in the heart of the capital under Kotwali Police Station and seized 9 bottles of English brand sold at a premium cost, the SSP said.

The manager and a staff member of the restaurant were arrested from the spot, the SSP added.

Rich haul of liquor in the capital is part of intensive drive launched across Bihar in the wake of government announcement completely banning country, spiced and IMFL since April 5.
TRENTON -- New Jersey's graduation requirements for current high school students will remain in effect, but students still scrambling to graduate this spring will have more protections under a settlement agreement finalized Friday.

The state will allow districts to review last-resort portfolio appeals from seniors until Sept. 1, and students still appealing can walk in their graduation ceremonies if they have met all graduation requirements except the one for standardized testing, according to the settlement.

The agreement resolves a lawsuit filed by the Education Law Center and American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of students and families challenging the state Department of Education's graduation requirements announced in 2014.

"Through this settlement, we hope to remove some of the hurdles the department placed in front of students, as the window of time before graduation rapidly closes," said Ed Barocas, legal director for New Jersey's ACLU.

New Jersey has required students to pass a standardized test to graduate since the 1981-82 school year but changed its graduation requirements when it introduced new state exams last school year and stopped administering the old graduation test.

In a memo sent to districts in the fall of 2014, the state education department announced a series of tests students could use to meet the requirement. Among those are the SAT, ACT, PSAT and the controversial new state exams, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exams.

The lawsuit argued that changing graduation requirements through a memo was illegal because the proper procedure is to propose graduation requirements to the state Board of Education and earn board approval, the ELC and ACLU said.

In a hearing last month, an administrative law judge said the state did not follow the proper process but he was not sure how to remedy the situation, according to Politico NJ.

As attorneys argued the case, some high school seniors across the state were still trying to meet the graduation requirement. Seniors who did not score high enough on PARCC, the SAT or the ACT have been participating in extra testing, including a seldom used military competency test.

It remains unclear how many seniors statewide have yet to meet the requirement for standardized testing.

The settlement obligates districts to notify any students who have not yet met the testing requirement within five days. Those students must be offered a chance to file a portfolio appeal, which involves answering open-ended questions to prove proficiency.

The state will be required to track how many students are graduating through the appeals process or are still attempting to and the Department of Education must report that data to the ELC and ACLU, according to the terms of the settlement.

"We believe that the deliberative process set forth by the NJDOE and informed by stakeholders adequately ensures that all those students who have demonstrated successful completion of graduation requirements will be certified to graduate," the Department of Education said in a statement.

A proposal for graduation requirements for future high school students is pending before the state board.

Adam Clark may be reached at adam_clark@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on twitter at @realAdamClark. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Meljia T. Oliver, 31 (Photo: ECPO)

-- Prosecutors brought charges against men in two of six separate killings that occurred within a bloody weeklong span in the city.

Meljia T. Oliver, 31, of East Orange, was charged with murder and weapons offenses in the April 30 shooting death of Taquan Boston, 27, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray said Friday. Boston, of Newark, was gunned down on Isabella Avenue.

In another case, Newark resident 24-year-old Khalid Greene is accused of fatally shooting Tyree Scott, 20, also from the city, on North Munn Avenue around 11:30 a.m. April 29, authorities said.

Greene also faces murder and weapons charges. The shooting stemmed from a dispute, according to the prosecutor's office.

Khalid Greene (Photo: ECPO)

Both men were at large as of Friday, officials added.

The allegations were made public as authorities also announced charges against two men in the slaying of a New Jersey Institute of Technology student. Detectives took both men into custody this week.

"This was a tragic week for us here in the city of Newark," Mayor Ras Baraka said at a press conference about the homicides. "There were senseless deaths in our community."

The latest in a series of homicides came late Thursday on Mount Prospect Avenue. Details on that investigation were not immediately available.

Authorities urged anyone with information about the wanted men to call 1-877-847-7432.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK --With her voice cracking, Marjorie Dingle stood in a Newark courtroom Friday and said it was "not enough" for Al-Shareef Metz to be sentenced to 15 years in state prison for killing her son.



"My son is gone now," said Dingle, before referring to Metz: "He don't know the pain we go through."



A reputed gang leader, Metz, 30, formerly of Newark, received the 15-year prison term after having pleaded guilty on March 24 to an aggravated manslaughter charge in connection with the July 11, 2011 drive-by shooting in Newark that ultimately killed 28-year-old city resident Kenyon Simon.



As part of a plea deal, that 15-year sentence will run concurrent to the 65-year prison sentence Metz received in March 2015 for the July 29, 2011 fatal shooting of Tariq Walker on Shephard Avenue in Newark. Metz was convicted at a 2014 trial of murder and weapons offenses in Walker's death.



Metz will not be eligible for parole until November 2066, when he will be 81 years old, according to the New Jersey Department of Corrections.



Before being sentenced on Friday, Metz offered his apologies to Simon's family members for their loss.



"I just want to apologize sincerely," Metz said.



In pleading guilty, Metz admitted he was a passenger in a vehicle being driven on Spruce Street in Newark on July 11, 2011 when he opened fire into a crowd of people with an assault-type weapon. Metz said he was looking to shoot people in the crowd.



One of the bullets struck Simon in the head and Simon died from his injuries on Aug. 4, 2011.



A reputed leader of the Brick City Brims - a set of the Bloods street gang - Metz has a long history of violence in Newark.



In the summer of 2007, for example, Metz allegedly helped kick off a bloody street war by seeking revenge for his half-sister getting shot, authorities said. That war left at least two dead and four wounded, police have said.



During Friday's hearing, Superior Court Judge Richard Sules -- who became a judge in 2014 and sentenced Metz in both homicide cases -- noted that "in the short time that I've been on the bench, I've had the opportunity to sentence you to not one, but two sentences involving your killing two of our citizens."



With the two lengthy prison sentences, Sules said he hopes "this will be the last."

Bill Wichert may be reached at bwichert@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillWichertNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
NEWARK -- City police are asking for the public's help in identifying a man allegedly involved in a shooting at the end of April.

Police believe that one or more of the men shown in the surveillance video released Friday may have been involved in a shooting on the evening of April 24, which stemmed from a verbal argument outside the Sonic on the 200 block of Springfield Avenue.

According to the report, a 27-year-old woman told police that an unknown man pulled a gun and threaten to shoot her after the two exchanged words.

The woman told police that as she got into her car, she heard a gun shot and quickly drove away.

No one was hurt in the incident.

Police are asking for any information about the men shown in the video.

Craig McCarthy may be reached at CMcCarthy@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @createcraig. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
-- The city will host a ceremony Monday for the Police Unity Tour, a bike ride that brings more than 200 officers from Ground Zero in New York City to Washington, D.C.

Seventeen of those riders will be Newark officers, the department announced. The ceremony, scheduled for noon at the Police Memorial at 22 Franklin Street, will include the riders and a bugler playing "Taps."

The Police Unity Tour raises money and awareness for the National Law Enforcement Officer's Memorial and Museum, according to a news release. The bike tour will stop in Newark before joining other New Jersey officers in Somerset and reach the nation's capital May 12.

Hernandez Thomas, who retired from the Newark force last month, is making the bike trek for the 19th time.

The tour was launched in 1997 by Florham Park Police Department Officer Patrick P. Montuore.

Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Kentucky Oaks Horse Racing.JPG

Javier Castellano celebrates as he rides Cathryn Sophia to victory in the 142nd running of the Kentucky Oaks horse race at Churchill Downs Friday, May 6, 2016, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Racing in the colors of Chuck Zacney's Cash Is King Stables in Phoenixville, Pa. and his partners, Cathryn Sophia went after the leaders around the far turn and got home the winner of the $1 million, Grade 1 Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs on Friday afternoon (May 6).

The Maryland-bred daughter of Street Boss from the Mineshaft mare Sheave began her racing career with a maiden win at Parx last October.

She then rattled off wins in Laurel's Gin Talking Stakes, Gulfstream's Grade 2 Forward Gal and Grade 2 Davona Dale for Parx-based trainer John Servis.

Champion rider Javier Castellano took over the ride in the Davona Dale and was aboard when Cathryn Sophia finished third in the Keeneland's Grade 1 Ashland three weeks ago.

Castellano was given the call when the filly beat 13 rivals in the mile and furlong Oaks, the sister race to the Kentucky Derby.

They came out of Post 12 as the 4 to 1 second choice in the betting. Castellano kept her tucked in and saving ground around the first turn.

Down the backside, they went out five wide to get clear and went around the outside of three rivals to make the lead.

After getting back to the rail a furlong out, Castellano gave his charge a reminder a sixteenth from the wire and then hand rode her home to win by 2-3/4 lengths.

Land Over Sea, the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks winner, was second with Mario Gutierrez aboard. Lewis Bay, who took Aqueduct's Grade 2 Gazelle over a muddy track last month, was third with Irad Ortiz, Jr. in the saddle.

Rachel's Valentina, a daughter of Champion Rachel Alexandra and the 5 to 2 favorite in the Oaks, was sixth after fading in the stretch.

Cathryn Sofia ran the mile and furlong in 1 minute, 50.53 seconds.

A jubilant Castellano told post-race interviewers, "She felt like belonged with this group."

The win was the first Oaks for Servis. But, he is no stranger to Churchill Downs the first week in May. In 2004, he sent out Smarty Jones to win the Kentucky Derby for Pennsylvanians Pat and Roy Chapman.

A year later, owner Zacney's Afleet Alex finished third in the Derby before going on to win the Preakness and the Belmont.

For current equestrian news see Horse News or check out the online version of the print edition.

Horse News covers everything equestrian in the mid-Atlantic area and can be reached at horsenews@hcdemocrat.com

To subscribe to the print edition call 908-948-1309.

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A Jersey City man wanted out of Pennsylvania for violating his parole was found in Bayonne after he shoplifted about $100 worth of gum from a Rite Aid, police said.

On April 17 at 8:40 p.m., William E. Alston Jr., 49, of Virginia Avenue was found shoplifting $95.56 worth of gum from the Rite Aid at 471 Broadway, police said.

Police did not provide details about the nature of Alston's alleged parole violation.

Police said Alston was arrested on the charges of shoplifting and fugitive from justice. He was taken to the Hudson County jail in Kearny pending extradition on a $10,000 bail with a 10 percent option, according to police.

Meanwhile, a Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania man was arrested last month in Bayonne on a warrant for violating his probation out of Williamson County, Tennessee, according to city police.

On April 20 at 10:03 p.m., Richard Andino Jr., 23, was arrested in the area of Avenue A and Route 440 South and sent to the Hudson County jail in Kearny on a $100,000 cash-only bail, police said.

Police did not provide information about the nature of Andino's probation.
TRENTON - A man who authorities said hit a police car during a chase with Ewing and Pennsylvania officers, was sentenced to one year of probation Friday, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office.

Shawn Crawley (Ewing Police)

Shawn Crawley, of Ewing, was issued the sentence after pleading guilty to resisting arrest in connection with a police chase and crash in August, 2013.

The chase started in Morrisville, Pa. continued over state lines and into Ewing, where local police joined the effort to stop Crawley, police have said.

Crawley drove his car onto the lawn of an apartment building on the 600 block of Parkway Avenue. There, the car slid into the front of a police car.

Crawley's car continued to slide but after it stopped in the lawn, Crawley got out and tried to run from police on foot, authorities have said.

He didn't get far before he was taken into custody and charged with resisting arrest, aggravated assault on a police officer, eluding, obstruction and disorderly conduct.

In an initial press release after the crash Ewing police did not say what started the chase but the Bucks County Courier Times reported that Crawley - who was 40-years-old at the time - was found in his car in Morrisville just before the chase with a 15-year-old girl.

They reported that police got the girl out of the car and spoke with Crawley briefly before he instigated the chase.

Crawley will serve his New Jersey probation alongside another probation sentence he was issued in Pennsylvania, prosecutors said.

Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.
Atlanta Braves v New York Mets

Rene Rivera #44 of the New York Mets hits a second inning two run home run against the Jhoulys Chacin #43 of the Atlanta Braves during their game at Citi Field on May 4, 2016 in New York City. (Al Bello | Getty Images)

SAN DIEGO -- Given Noah Syndergaard's struggles to control the running game, manager Terry Collins opted to start Rene Rivera behind the plate in the Mets' game against the San Diego Padres Friday at Petco Park.

Rivera, who was promoted from Triple-A Las Vegas following the injury to Travis d'Arnaud, is known for his defense and threw out 23 of 63 base runners in 2015, the third-best percentage (36.5) in the majors. His career 34.4 percent caught stealing rate is second among active catchers, behind only the St. Louis Cardinals' Yadier Molina (40.3).

"He's known to have a real good arm, so we'll see if he can help out," Collins said.

Syndergaard had had difficulty holding runners since breaking into the majors, as base stealers are 27-for-29 against him over his young career. That weakness has been exploited in Syndergaard's two most recent starts, when the San Francisco Giants and Cincinnati Reds combined to swipe eight bags against the Mets.

Collins said Syndergaard has been working on quickening his delivery to the plate in an effort to halt the running game.

"I want his pace to be a little quicker," Collins said. "We're not going to change the delivery side of anything. We're gonna try to just get him back on the mound and try to keep the pace going because I think he'll be a little more consistent with making his pitches."

The Padres are tied for sixth in the majors with 17 steals and have converted 65.38 percent (17-for-26) of their stolen base attempts this year. Left fielder Melvin Upton Jr. leads the team with six steals in 2016.

Maria Guardado may be reached at mguardado@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @mi_guardado. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
EAST BRUNSWICK -- A man is in critical condition after his vehicle flew off the New Jersey Turnpike and onto a road below, police said.

The man, who was not identified by police, was traveling north on the outer roadway of the turnpike near milepost 81.6 when his vehicle went over the guardrail and landed on Tices Lane, which runs beneath the highway, according to Trooper Lawrence Peele, a spokesman for the New Jersey State Police.

The man, who was driving a gold Nissan Murano, was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, Peele said.

Police were still investigating the scene as of about 5:30 p.m. Tices Lane between Elkins Road and Ryders Lane was closed in both directions, according to a statement from the East Brunswick Police Department.

No other vehicles were reportedly involved in the crash, officials said.

Spencer Kent may be reached at skent@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpencerMKent. Find the Find NJ.com on Facebook.
he threat from ISIS is extremely serious and they are trying hard to radicalise the Indian youth but so far our security agencies have very successfully managed to thwart such attempts, says an oficial. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi: When home minister Rajnath Singh informed Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that terror outfit Islamic State (ISIS) has not been able to make significant inroads in India, it was not without reason. The aggressive strategy adopted by the home ministry in dealing with the threat from ISIS has not only successfully thwarted all attempts by the terror group to radicalise Indian youth but has so far led to the arrest of 50 persons in the last eight months primarily by the NIA and some of the state police.

According to the latest data compiled by the home ministry regarding ISIS activities, NIA arrested 25 persons, six in Telangana, four in Maharashtra, four in Delhi, three in Tamil Nadu, while Karnataka and Rajasthan arrested one each.

Most of these accused persons were either on their way to join the ISIS or trying to recruit and radicalise youth within the country. At least one Areef Majeed, a resident of Kalyan area in Mumbai, was arrested when he returned to India after having fought for the ISIS in Syria. The threat from ISIS is extremely serious and they are trying hard to radicalise the Indian youth but so far our security agencies have very successfully managed to thwart such attempts, a senior home ministry official said.

Sources in the security establishment pointed out that home minister Rajnath Singh had given specific instructions to take tough measures to deal with the ISIS threat. Singh, sources added, has directed both the cybercell of the IB and the NIA to further enhance their cyber capabilities as cyber space is said to be the biggest source being used by the ISIS for radicalising youth.

The home minister who has already chaired at least two high-level meetings in the last six months in this regard has also instructed top ministry officials to work in close co-ordination with the various state police to neutralise the ISIS threat. At one of the recent meetings, intelligence officials had expressed concern over the rapidly growing influence of ISIS in Indias neighbourhood, particularly in Maldives and Bangladesh.

We are constantly screening the social media sites that are being used by ISIS to radicalise the youth. Some of these have been blocked also. In wake of continuous preventive measures taken by security agencies, the ISIS so far has not been able to establish a network for recruitment within the country. We are also working closely with the community leaders who have been critical of the ISIS ideology, the official added.

Singh had also informed the Rajya Sabha that majority of the members of the Muslim community in the country did not subscribe to the ideology of the ISIS and believed in Indian values, culture and ethos. But the government is making all possible attempts to ensure that any threat from ISIS is dealt with firmly, he added.
PHILADELPHIA -- New mother Brianna Devero wasn't prepared for little Steve to enter the world for another two weeks, but thanks to a new hospital program, his early arrival was celebrated with a gift.

Steve Tomzelli Jr. was born May 1 at Temple University Hospital. His parents, Devero and Steven Tomzelli were the first family to receive a "Baby Box" from the hospital-- a functioning bassinet with a sheet, mattress, and essential baby needs.

Temple University launched a new "Baby Box" distribution program Friday morning in the lobby of the hospital in Philadelphia.

The "Baby Box" is dedicated to new mothers in an effort to promote safe newborn sleep and is one of the first distribution programs like this in the country, according to Medical Director of the Well Baby Nursery at TUH Megan Heere.

There are roughly 3,000 births a year at Temple, according to Heere, and as of May 1, mothers will be given a baby box at the hospital.

North Philadelphia has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the entire country with many babies born into poverty, hospital officials said. Young moms don't always have the efficient resources ready to care for these newborns.

These box itself serves as a functioning bassinet and comes with fleece and cotton clothing, a baby book, diapers, a thermometer, nasal aspirator, baby wash, and essential education and resource information.

For Devero, she wasn't prepared for the arrival of her son, and the box made for a smooth and comforting transition home.

"I appreciate everything they have done for me. By receiving the box, now I want to give back and raise awareness and be a representation," Devero said about why she attended the launch of the program.

The concept of the baby box originated in Finland, according to Heere, where they experienced a high infant mortality rate in the 1930s.

Government officials began distributing baby boxes and since, the mortality rate has dropped steadily, Heere said.

"It was like a maternity right of passage, with the increase of prenatal care. Women were always offered a box. Now we are the first in the country to do a box distribution of this scale," Heere added.

Children's Hospital of San Antonio in Texas announced a similar program earlier this year.

Once the baby outgrows the box, it can be used for storage, hospital officials said.

"It doesn't replace a crib. If a mom doesn't have a crib, sometimes they don't have a place for their baby to sleep. This works as a bridge until you can get the resources to get a proper crib," Heere said.

The baby box distribution program was created through collaboration between Temple pediatrics and maternity nurses -- Sleep Awareness Family Education at Temple -- targeting the common high risk behaviors associated with infant mortality.

The goal is to reduce Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) -- which describes the sudden, unexplained death of an infant. SUIDs can be attributed to suffocation, asphyxia, entrapment, infection, ingestions, metabolic diseases and trauma.

Roughly 3,500 infants in the U.S. die suddenly each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

SAFE-T members at Temple collected research starting in January 2015. Then, all mothers who delivered a baby at that hospital received standard practice safe sleep education. Following this, Temple followed up with post-discharge questionnaires to help assess sleeping environments for babies.

As of May 3, mothers of newborns also receive safe sleep education with the new baby boxes. In a year, Temple officials will summarize their findings and look at any data following the distributions.

Brittany Wehner may be reached at bwehner@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @brittanymwehner. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Atlantic City may be rescued from bankruptcy this week, if the factions in Trenton can put down their knives long enough to cut a deal.

But it will take much longer for state Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto to recover from his self-inflicted wounds, if he ever can.

He was rebuked Thursday by his own troops, the ones he is supposed to lead, as his version of reform for Atlantic City failed to win the votes he promised to deliver. It was a display of political ineptitude that is rare, even in Trenton.

"Everything I do gets undermined and derailed," said Prieto (D-Hudson) after his defeat. "But that's OK. I feel good about myself."

If he really felt good after this, he was all alone. The governor was exasperated for good reason. And Prieto's counterpart in the Legislature, state Senate President Stephen Sweeney, sounded like he wanted to slowly roast Prieto over a pit fire. He has offered several substantial compromises, and is still waiting for a counter offer from Prieto.

"I get tired of this," said Sweeney (D-Gloucester). "This was not about policy. It was not about doing the right thing. It was about politics."

Before turning to the politics, let's look at the outcome: Thanks to Prieto, the Legislature just wasted two months, fiddling as Atlantic City burns.

The Senate delivered a strong rescue package in March with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, one the governor promised to sign.

But Prieto stopped it on his own, refusing to even allow a vote. He promised he would draft a better reform, and secure the 41 votes needed to pass it.

As the weeks dragged on, he did neither. His weaker reform would not force the ferocious spending cuts needed in a city that has lost two-thirds of its tax base.

That was never more obvious than on Thursday, when the Statehouse was flooded by police and firefighters pushing Prieto's cause. They weren't there to support spending cuts.

But the lasting damage to Prieto stems from his failure to win passage of his reform, as he had promised he would, over and over.

The next time he plants a flag like this, smart legislators will hesitate before taking any risks to join the cause. Why follow the general if he might lead you into a ditch?

That's why political leaders don't make promises like this until they know they can win. Prieto broke that golden rule.

The delay did tangible harm. Convention planners in Atlantic City cut their estimates of visitors by nearly half, from 300,000 to 180,000, blaming the political stalemate. Casinos took calls asking if they were still open.

And for now, the drive to expand gambling to North Jersey, which would require a referendum, is dead. Private polls show a dramatic drop in support over the past few months, and big-money donors are pulling back from the cause, according to several sources.

So much for a potential $5 billion in private investment in Jersey City, and in the Meadowlands. So much for the many thousands of jobs.

"The speaker has done enormous damage," Gov. Chris Christie said. "And his county stands to benefit probably more than anyone else's."

So why did Prieto do this? That brings us to the politics.

He says it is driven by principle. His reform would delay a state takeover by at least two years, giving local voters control of their own destiny, and protecting the right of union workers to collective bargaining.

His critics see darker motives. They believe Prieto is doing the dirty work for his home-county ally, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, who is expected to challenge Sweeney in next year's governor's race.

The theory is that picking a fight over collective bargaining will damage Sweeney. Public worker unions are already skeptical about him for his success in cutting pension and health benefits in 2011, a reform that was opposed by most Democrats. Now Sweeney is pushing a reform that threatens collective bargaining rights.

Fulop at first said he had nothing to do with this fight. But then he went to Atlantic City, preened before public workers, and launched a scathing public attack against Sweeney's reform. You do that math.

Another current: Democrats outside South Jersey are increasingly fed up with the influence of George Norcross, a power broker from Camden and Sweeney's lifetime friend and ally. Fulop hit that hard last week, too, suggesting that the takeover was a disguised attempt by Norcross to enrich himself, somehow.

It's an outrageous charge Fulop can't back up. But he has many sympathizers.

"I think there is South Jersey fatigue in the Legislature," said Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver (D-Essex), the former speaker.

For Fulop, though, there is risk. Because to get elected governor, he has to nail down support in North Jersey, his base, where many political leaders and unions support casino gambling. If this cat fight kills that prospect, the blame may splatter on Fulop.

"Just because someone is doing something political doesn't mean they're smart," Christie said Thursday. "This shows the level of selfishness that he (Fulop) and the speaker are engaged in."

On Friday, several members of the Assembly met in Prieto's office, with Sweeney's view represented by Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden).

On his way to that meeting, Greenwald sounded like Gen. Ulysses Grant on his way to accept Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender.

"The time to compromise is over," he said. "There's not a whole lot more to discuss."

Afterward, he seemed content. "We're very close," he said. "We're going to get together again on Monday."

Will Prieto face reality and yield? Does he have a choice?

Stay tuned. He has scheduled a new vote for Wednesday.

More: Tom Moran columns

Tom Moran may be reached at tmoran@starledger.com or call (973) 836-4909. Follow him on Twitter @tomamoran. Find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.
Donald-Trump.jpg

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of his party.

(AP Photo)

I have a confession to make. I am not a lifetime Republican. I am not all that socially conservative; I am pro-choice, believe gays should be able to live freely as Americans, and am an atheist. I am, however, a staunch supporter of our founding doctrines and am an entrenched supporter of the Second Amendment and states rights. I changed my party affiliation a few weeks ago to be able to vote as a Republican in the June 7th primary.

I was determined to vote Republican this year because I revile Clinton, recoil at socialist Sanders, and Obama "cured" me of my partisan liberalism. I was abandoned by the Democrats when they demanded I embrace criminals over law enforcement because I am a racist by virtue of DNA. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have even told me racism is in my DNA and yours regardless of how we live our lives. Obama cinched it in refusing to acknowledge the dangers of ISIS and Muslim immigration, despite glaring examples from all over Europe. The ill-conceived and implemented Iran Deal was the icing on the cake; I have a child today because Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War. I am no one's fool.

Donald Trump is the antithesis of all I have ever known politically - on both sides of the fence. I know this better than some on the Right because I have lived my adult life on the Left. He damages the Republicans in ways no party deserves.

Those on the Right are not the "Enemy" as Clinton believes. There is no "Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy" as she has claimed for decades. There are, in both Democrat and Republican parties, simply, Americans who love our republic and differ ideologically on how best to serve its needs. We are losing our political objectivity to the rampant, radical polarization on both sides.

We have lost our ability to look to the past, tend to be intellectually lazy, and simply wish to be led so that we don't have to think or act politically other than on Election Day. Which brings me back to June 7th. I am encouraging Republicans who see Donald Trump as a disaster to still go to the polls on our primary day. He is the "presumptive nominee," not The Nominee. The Convention and its delegates have yet to cast a vote. We must register our displeasure, repugnance, and protest the candidacy of a man who will not only destroy the vitality of the Republican party, but all that defines who we are as American citizens.

ELIZABETH J. MILLER

SALEM
mr0309lucko

Irish immigrants working on a farm

(Submitted Image)

By Tom Deignan

There has been much sound and fury on the Internet in recent weeks regarding a topic thought to be consigned to the dustbin of U.S. history -- slavery.

It seems various "Neo-Nazis, White Nationalists (and) Neo-Confederates" -- in the words of a recent "Hatewatch" blogpost from the Southern Poverty Law Center) -- have been burning up Twitter and Facebook, arguing that Irish slavery in the 1600s was actually worse than anything faced by African-Americans.

You've never heard of Irish slavery?

Therein lies the problem.

Because this debate is not really about what happened in the 17th century. This debate is about racial tension in 2016.

"When was the last time you heard an Irishman bitching how the world owes them a living," reads one widely circulated Internet meme, accompanied by a photo of what are (presumably) meant to be "Irish slaves" but appear to be child coal miners. Even if the wording and imagery are questionable, the point is clear.

In case it isn't, another popular online image is a Confederate flag bearing this message: "Why aren't Irish-Americans in an outrage? They were the first slaves and were treated worse than African-American slaves."

Now, it is true that a significant number of people from Ireland were sold by the British into indentured servitude and other forms of forced labor. To this day, several hundred descendants of what could be termed Irish slaves still live in Barbados. Known as "redlegs," they are conspicuous for their close-knit community, not to mention their fair skin.

But an independent scholar from Limerick, Ireland, named Liam Hogan has convincingly argued that much of what passes online for "history" regarding Irish slavery has been wildly exaggerated and, in some cases, simply made up.

In one bizarre case, the deaths of over 130 African slaves, in what has come to be known as the Zong massacre of 1781, has been transformed, on some websites, into the deaths of over 1,300 Irish "slaves."

Hogan estimates that roughly 10,000 Irish were sent against their will to various British colonies throughout the 17th century. The overall number of African slaves, meanwhile, is estimated at more than 12 million.

Indeed, one of the many ugly side effects of a debate such as this is that it turns important history into a kind of misery Olympics, in which groups appear to be competing for the most awful treatment.

Let's be clear: Irish immigrants and African slaves were both treated appallingly in the United States. There is even evidence that, at times, immigrants were hired to do jobs considered too dangerous for slaves. After all, slaves would cost quite a bit of money if they died while productive, while immigrants were essentially expendable.

But historical complexities such as this are not likely to appease today's angry online masses. And while the Southern Poverty Law Center and others are calling out bigots with a sudden interest in Irish-American history, it's important to add that this phenomenon has already gone mainstream.

In March, Fox News contributor Kimberly Guilfoyle was fulminating against the Black Lives Matter movement. She then noted other groups have faced adversity, adding: "The Irish got over it. They don't run around going 'Irish Lives Matter.' "

It is beyond repugnant to exploit the ethnic pride of one traditionally marginalized group solely for the purposes of making it feel superior to another.

Furthermore, if these right-wingers are suddenly so interested in history, they should know the Irish didn't "get over it" simply by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps. It was actually big government that helped the Irish survive. Political machines from Jersey City to San Francisco assisted the Irish when times were toughest. This, along with a very charitable Catholic Church, helped immigrants assimilate in the New World.

African-Americans, on the other hand, generally could not even cast a vote, much less get a civil service job such as ward heeler or police officer.

If we truly analyze history -- rather than manipulate it -- there's no avoiding our shameful racial past. As a nation, we're still paying for those sins today.

Tom Deignan (tdeignan.blogspot.com), a regular contributor to The Star-Ledger who lives in Woodbridge, is a columnist with the Irish Voice newspaper and author of "Coming to America: Irish Americans."
trumpclinton.jpg

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton are leading the race to become their parties' nominee for president.

(AP photos)

Now that Donald Trump officially has won the Republican nomination for president of the United States, the following reasons I believe is why he will win in a landslide in the general election in November against Hillary Clinton:

First it's fair to say that voters tend not to vote for the party incumbents after 8 years. The other two reasons are: Donald Trump is so much like Ronald Reagan, and Clinton's scandals will also seal a Trump victory decisively.

Trump and former president Reagan have more in common than you think:

Reagan/Trump both are/were Washington outsiders.

Reagan/Trump both are/were dismissed as a serious candidate.

Reagan/Trump both were attacked by the establishment as being extreme and naive.

Reagan/Trump share/shared "passion" for what each believes in.

Reagan/Trump both have/had similar views on illegal immigration

Reagan/Trump both are/were straight talkers.

Reagan/Trump both are/were TV stars.

Reagan/Trump both began as Democrats before becoming Republicans.

The Clinton scandals will ramp up through November, and I feel that the following will be mentioned in the presidential campaign should Trump become the Republican nominee. They are as follows:

The Clintons have been accused of hiring private investigators to not only dig up dirt on perceived adversaries - such as Juanita Broaddrick, the woman allegedly raped by Bill Clinton, and other abused women such as Gennifer Flowers, Kathleen Willey and Paula Jones - but to stalk, scare and threaten them. Hillary claims she is for women's rights!

Huma Abedin, who served as Hillary Clinton's longtime deputy chief of staff and has worked with her for nearly 20 years, has known ties to the Muslim Brotherhood - a group bent on "destroying Western civilization from within" - and other Islamic supremacists.

Clinton gave 55,000 emails from her private email account to the State Department in December. On March 10, Clinton announced she had deleted 30,000 emails she considered personal. She was warned by Congress way back in 2012 against using a private email account for government business - and her response? Silence. This alone makes her unfit to be the next president.

On Sept. 11, 2012, while Clinton was secretary of state, Islamic militants attacked a U.S. special mission in Benghazi, Libya, and murdered U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management officer Sean Smith. Two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were also killed.

Several months leading up to the attack, Clinton's State Department cut security in Libya. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., accused her of "dereliction of duty" that led to the deaths of the four Americans.

Clinton's scandals, Trump being so much like Ronald Reagan, I feel makes him an excellent candidate to be the next president of the United States.

KEVIN STANLEY

JERSEY CITY
This past July, with his political career careening toward irrelevance, former Texas governor Rick Perry called Donald Trump's candidacy "a cancer on conservatism" that "must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded."

He added that it "threatens to metastasize into a movement of mean-spirited politics that will send the Republican Party to the same place it sent the Whig Party in 1854: the graveyard."

And this past Thursday, Rick Perry announced he is supporting Donald Trump for president.

There are countless examples of such political flip-floppery, with Republicans lining up like lemmings, and men like Gov. Christie leading the wary embrace - the same Christie who characterized Trump's call to ban Muslims as "the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don't know what they're talking about."

Apparently, all these grenades come with replaceable pins.

Now the virus has spread to other New Jerseyans in Christie's party, which is just another sign of how morally and ideologically bankrupt the Republican Party has become.

Rep. Leonard Lance (R-7th) is the saddest case. Once admired as a hero in Trenton, he was a man of great integrity, and someone who was dethroned from his budget committee chair because he refused to put party ahead of principle. He was even a true environmentalist, only that was forgotten as soon as he got to Washington.

Here's what Lance says now: "While no one would confuse my personality with his, Donald Trump will have my enthusiastic support for President."

Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11th) and Scott Garrett (R-5th) also jumped on board Thursday, pledging their allegiance to a bigoted, misogynistic Islamaphobe.

Some Republicans won't go there. The closest progenitors to the GOP's beloved St. Gipper - Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush - announced they have no plans to endorse Trump. And House Speaker Paul Ryan is hedging - "I'm not there right now," he said - though we'd be surprised if he stays on the fence for long.

But Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain's campaign in 2008, said it best: "Republicans need to ask whether they love their country more than their party."

That would carry a little more weight if McCain himself agreed. But the Arizona senator, whose war record was mocked by Trump, is endorsing the nominee. He did say, however, that he may not campaign with Trump.

That'll show him.

Clearly, this is purely tribal, and no longer a matter of policy or principle.

And as we go deeper into this campaign season, with a surprising number of reasonable people endorsing a message of nationalistic hate, this American moment feels like science fiction.

Author John Foley likens it to Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, in which the leader of the "Psychohistorian Movement" develops a method of predicting human behavior. His theory is that individual behavior is a wild card, but predictions can be made when the sample is large enough.

Then along comes a mutant humanoid robot with the ability to read and influence emotions, and all calculations are rendered moot.

"Too bad Nate Silver wasn't around to sort it all out," Foley laments.

Or, as King Theoden says in Lord of the Rings, just as the giant Orc army crashes through the tower gate: "What can Men do against such reckless hate?"

This isn't Tolkien, but it looks like we're going to find out.

It turns out OK in the book, but it's touch-and-go until the Horse-lords show up.

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Despite the decades of millions upon millions of gambling dollars that have flowed through Atlantic City, the municipality is near to filing bankruptcy. Obviously the promise of great things to come when gambling was introduced in 1978 was a big lie. Now, the proposals to staunch the city's fiscal bleeding is part of the 2017 gubernatorial campaign drama.

The Jersey Shore city's problems are an excuse for political types to take the stage and voice their displeasure with rivals and foes. Deep down no one living in the political landscape cares about Atlantic City. It is Troy with two camps (plus Gov. Chris Christie) claiming they can protect it, restructure its government and pull it out of the financial abyss, proving they can make a difference. It doesn't matter that all this is happening at the 11th hour.

The reason this column even mentions the Atlantic City crisis is that Jersey City, which once was interested in becoming another America's Playland for gamblers, is a character in this play and its mayor, Steve Fulop, is exhibiting a Tybalt personality -- picking street fights -- in the narrative. And while those of us who chronicle Democratic Party skirmishes among gubernatorial hopefuls Senate President Steve Sweeney, millionaire Phil Murphy and Fulop shouldn't be surprised over this week's sparks, the smoke has made visible the line between the north and south factions of the Democratic Party.

Atlantic City is just a convenient proxy fight between Sweeney, whose alter ego is South Jersey insurance and political broker George Norcross (and Christie), and rival Fulop, backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization, whose chairman is Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto. This just didn't evolve over the past couple of weeks. It's been brewing for months. Essentially it's an extended pissing match. The idea is to convince Democrats that one side or another has the clout to win the governor's seat. Fear plays a role in the convincing part or rather the fear of backing the wrong horse.

I might add that the dust that this has kicked up in this skirmish has hidden Murphy from public view. Instead of being the Curly of the trio, he has become Curley Joe.

Again, the MacGuffin is the competing "avoid bankruptcy" plans between Sweeney and Prieto, who is seen as Fulop's puppet. More credit should be given to the Assembly speaker. He only answers to North Hudson strongman Nick Sacco, the 32nd District senator and mayor of North Bergen. I'd venture to say Nick is not a Norcross (or Christie) fan.

The Sweeney plan was approved by the Senate, but the Assembly Speaker is having some problems getting his measure to a vote. By Wednesday, he had 41 of the 80 votes in the house, a razor thin margin confirmed by Hudson County sources. By Thursday, some of those Assembly members on Prieto's side of the ledger suddenly had others things to do during the scheduled vote. One, according to sources, had to attend a child's tea party. Norcross must have been pouring.

A couple of these reluctant Assembly members are from Essex County, which makes you wonder what Essex County Executive Joe DiVincenzo's role is in this. A new vote on the Prieto measure has been rescheduled for the coming week. It will also be interesting to see how the Assembly eventually perceives the Sweeney plan.

This week, the big shock to the system came from Fulop who publicly addressed the unflattering role of he-who-shall-not-be-named. Hudson County's Tybalt called Norcross, who some say is the saint of Camden, a little devil and the de facto boss of the Legislature. No one has ever dared speak out against Norcross and politically lived.

Here's one thing Fulop said: "Residents throughout the state should ask themselves some simple questions -- why is an insurance broker, a non-elected official who has made tens of millions of dollars on the backs of public taxpayers actively involved in drafting Atlantic City's takeover bill and then lobbying for it all over New Jersey?"

Fulop received many text messages supporting him for speaking out about the "bully," a term also sometimes applied to the mayor himself by local activists. Fulop's backers believe his remarks were audacious and that he is on the side of the angels, but Norcross supporters call them mendacious. Some in the media have their own opinions, a few calling for proof to back up the negative description of Norcross and, furthermore, even calling the mayor's assertions a dumb stunt.

In Hudson County this overall mixed view of a political boss is recognized as the Frank Hague Syndrome. For acolytes, Hague was a power for good as long as you ignored certain other traits.

The Fulop comments reminded me a little of North Hudson boss, 33rd District Senator and Union City Mayor Brian Stack. Stack called out some Hudson County Democratic honchos during that county's Democratic Party civil war, circa 2006-2007. Stack was unapologetic and never wavered. Am I reading too much into the fact that Fulop's chief of staff, Mark Albiez, was once Stack's right-hand man and all too familiar with this direct shoot-from-the-hip approach?

Norcross and Sweeney (and Christie) come across as being slightly ahead in this game because of the vote delay. The long view is that Fulop and company have expanded the public view of Sweeney, Norcross -- and Gov. Christie and his low approval ratings -- as being politically aligned (visualize a group hug) and that this bunch should be considered an anathema to New Jersey voters. What is certain is that name recognition will never be a problem for any candidate and it's too soon to declare winners and losers in the Atlantic City matter, unless the fun factor is paramount.

All the animosity and probable back room threats and shenanigans started way earlier than expected. If there can be this much commotion in April 2016, just think of what is possible on the way to Democratic gubernatorial primary next June.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Agustin C. Torres' columns appear in The Jersey Journal every Saturday.
Hundreds of protesters from the Patel community have been detained in Surat. (Photo: PTI)

Ahmedabad: The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti on Friday announced to intensify its agitation over the Patel quota issue, adding that it would invite prominent politicians from other states, including Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray to address the rallies. The organisation, which is spearheading the Patel quota movement, said that it would organise several rallies till the end of this year to highlight their demands and the next round of agitation will start from Visnagar in Mehsana district on May 8.

The decision comes in the wake of Gujarat government's recent decision to provide 10 per cent reservation for Economically Backward Classes (EBC).

To chalk out their road map for the agitation, several PAAS leaders, including Akhilesh Katiyar, who is also the national general secretary of Patel Navnirman Sena (PNS), today held a meeting near Gandhinagar.

Talking to reporters before the meet, Katiyar rejected the 10 per cent reservation announced by the Gujarat government.

"We never demanded reservation under EBC quota. Since the beginning of our stir, we have been demanding inclusion of Patels under the OBC quota only. Since our demand is not fulfilled, we will intensify our stir in the coming months by involving national leaders," said Katiyar.

Convener of Saurashtra unit of PAAS, Lalit Vasoya, said, "The next round of agitation will see presence of several national leaders, such as Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, MNS chief Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. They will be invited here to address rallies and gatherings in the coming months."

PAAS also plans to invite social activist Anna Hazare, Jat quota leader Yashpal Malik, Gujjar quota leader Colonel K S Bainsla as well as Himmatsinh.

"We will also take the agitation at national level by organizing a huge gathering in Delhi," he added.

After the meeting, PAAS released a list of rallies and gatherings they have planned to hold across Gujarat. On May 8, Patels will hold a maha-panchayat in Visnagar, followed by foot-marches, rallies and gatherings in parts of the state at regular intervals till the end of December.
Nainital: Suspense mounted on Saturday on the fate of the nine disqualified rebel Congress MLAs with the Uttarakhand High Court reserving its judgement for May 9, a day ahead of the floor test in the state Assembly for sacked Chief Minister Harish Rawat to seek a confidence vote.

"The hearing has been concluded. I will pronounce the judgement at 10.15 am on May 9," Justice U C Dhyani said in brief remarks counsel at the conclusion of nearly three hours of arguments on both sides.

While ordering the floor test, the Supreme Court had said that the disqualified MLAs cannot participate in the voting if continue to remain disqualified at the time of voting.

Observing that "if they (disqualified MLAs) have the same status" at the time of vote of confidence, they cannot participate in the House.

The court had also said, "However, our observation in praesenti will not cause any kind of prejudice to the merits of the case of disqualified Members of Legislative Assembly, which is sub-judice before the High Court."

At present, in the 70-member assembly, BJP has 28 MLAs, Congress has 27, BSP has 02, while there are three independent MLAs and one belongs to Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (P) lawmaker. Nine MLAs are Congress rebels and one is a BJP rebel.

Counsel C Ariyama Sundaram, appearing for the disqualified MLAs, argued that the Speaker's action against them was "biased" that went against tenets of natural justice.

He contested the three grounds on which the action against the MLAs was taken. He asked what was wrong in the Congress MLAs writing a joint memo to the Governor with their BJP counterparts seeking a division of votes on the Appropriation Bill.

Sundaram said writing a joint memo was an act of dissent which was healthy in democracy and not defection within the meaning of the 10th schedule of the Constitution.

If according to the Speaker the Appropriation Bill was passed by the Assembly, then how does the question of rebel MLAs voting with the BJP in the Assembly arise, he asked.

The Speaker's action was defended by counsel Amit Sibal who said the action of the rebel MLAs going with the BJP MLAs in the same bus to the Governor and later in the same chartered aircraft outside Uttarakhand in the company of BJP General Secretary Vijay Vargiya showed their ideological compatibility.

The rebel MLAs parading before the Governor with the BJP MLAs also amounted to defection under the anti-defection law, Sibal said.

Sundaram maintained there was nothing wrong in the rebel MLAs going with the BJP MLAs which he said was not an issue of ideology nor did it attract the provisions of the anti-defection law as it did not amount to defection.
The boy's father said he is not well-educated and that he has been supporting his family by selling tea. (Representational Photo: PTI)

Baghpat: In a regressive incident, a public school in Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, had removed a young student from their institution because his father is a tea seller. The school's decision has attracted a lot of public derision on social media and other platforms.

The decision of the school authorities is being seen as bizarre and shocking in a country whose Prime Minister has expressed pride over the fact that he also once sold tea on a railway platform in Gujarat and rose to greater heights by sheer willpower and determination.

As now of now the concerned student, Arihant Jain, is at home, and the matter has reached the office of the District Magistrate of Baghpat, and he has ordered the DIOOS, Baghpat, to conduct an immediate inquiry into the incident related to the Mahavira Academy School in Baghpat District's Baraut Tehsil and give him a report for further action.

Arihant's father, Mangatrai Jain said that he is not well-educated and has been supporting his family by selling tea. He said that it was his desire to see his son become a doctor, and described the latter, a student of class five, as a bright and smart child and one who has performed with distinction so far.

Mangatrai Jain asked, "The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, also sold tea. Does it mean that a child whose father sells tea today does not have the right to study or cannot study? Will a school such as this one be allowed to continue with its authoritarian ways?"

Jain further claimed that his son has spent the past two years at home and is mentally depressed. The irony of it all is that the school authorities are refusing to come on camera.

The question in everyone's mind is will action be taken against the school and those who run it? And, will Arihant's future be saved and will this policy of children of tea sellers not being allowed to study or attend school end?

Baghpat's District Magistrate Hriday Shankar Tiwari said, "When the Modi government is trying to raise the literacy rate by facilitating the education of downtrodden, this sort of situation cannot be allowed to prevail or be tolerated."

"We will look into this issue again and make sure the student is admitted again in the school. An enquiry has been ordered into the issue to look into why this happened," Tiwari told ANI.

Mangatrai Jain said, I have told the District Magistrate that after this investigation is conducted, if nothing positive comes out of it, I will approach Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. I have asked for her time."
The clashes erupted amid a spontaneous strike following the killing of three militants (Photo: PTI)

Srinagar: Irate crowds clashed with riot police in various areas of Jammu and Kashmirs southern Pulwama district on Saturday, leaving over twenty people injured.

The clashes erupted amid a spontaneous strike following the killing of three militants of indigenous Hizb-ul-Mujahedin outfit during an overnight encounter with security forces in the districts Panzgam area.

Officials said the slain men Ashfaq Ahmed Dar, Ishfaq Ahmed Baba and Haseebullah Pahlla figured in the list of most wanted militants by security forces.

They added that in their killing the security forces have achieved a major breakthrough against the Hizb deeply entrenched in Pulwama and neighbouring districts.

Continuing with the recent successes against the terrorists by the security forces in south Kashmir area, three top terrorists were gunned down in a swift encounter in Dogirpura village near Panzgam of Pulwama, a defence spokesman said here.

Reports said that police and CRPF fired teargas canisters and pellet guns to quell stone-throwing mobs at various places in Pulwama including the district headquarters.

Six of the seriously injured protesters have been brought to Srinagar for specialized treatment, police and hospital sources said.

Police said several of its men also sustained injuries in daylong stone-pelting incidents.

Earlier, rail services through Pulwama were suspended and mobile Internet services withdrawn as a precautionary measure in view of heightening tensions.

Defence spokesman Lt. Col. N.N. Joshi said that the operation against militants was launched late Friday night on specific intelligence about their presence in Dogirpura village.

Reports said that J&K polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) along with Armys 55 Rashtriya Rifles and CRPFs 185 battalion laid siege to the village around 10.30 pm on Friday and as they zeroed in on a private house owned by one Dawood Ahmed Wagay they came under rifle fire from militants hiding in the premises.

The holed up militants also hurled grenades towards security forces in a failed attempt to flee from the besieged house.

At 3.30 am on Saturday, the security forces blew up the house using explosives and with that the firing from holed up militants stopped.

With first light a mopping-up operation was launched during which the corpses of three militants were retrieved from under the debris along with 3 AK assault rifles, six magazines and 85 rounds of ammunition, officials said.

Later during the day when the security forces had left the scene of encounter, an unexploded grenade went off seriously injuring 18-year-old Waqas Ahmed Wagay among residents who had gathered there, witnesses said.

Later thousands of mourners attended the funerals of slain militants in their ancestral villages amid chanting of pro-freedom and anti India slogans, reports said.
New Delhi: Launching a fresh attack on the Congress, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar drew a parallel between the Bofors scam and the controversial VVIP chopper deal, claiming that the hierarchical set up in both scandals was the same.

In an interview to NDTV, Parrikar said, "The Bofors scam was 30 years ago but the hierarchical set up is still the same.

"The Congress knows who took the money, that is why they are scared," he further added.

Read: Enforcement Directorate widens AgustaWestland copter deal probe

BJP had repeatedly said that Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and senior leader Ahmed Patel were the architects of the AgustaWestland scam. The party had claimed there is enough circumstantial evidence to show that Congress bigwigs were involved in the approval of the tainted contract.

Parrikar however said that he did not take anybody's name in particular in Parliament, and therefore, the walkout of the Congress from Parliament only suggested that there was someone very powerful was involved in corruption.

"First of all you should see the situation. I did not take anybody's name and, therefore, there was no reason for the Congress Party to stage a walkout. They staged a walkout because the circumstantial evidences which I produced in Parliament only showed that someone very powerful was involved in corruption. Former defence minister AK Antony himself had accepted about corruption. Staging a walkout from Parliament was a sign of their weakness," Parrikar told ANI.

"I will not take anybody's name but I believe that all angles should be investigated and all documents need proper reading... We did a lot of things in the last two years. We are seriously investigating the case," he added.

Earlier on Saturday, BJP had attacked former Union Minister AK Antony over the AgustaWestland deal, saying since he held the Defence portfolio when the contract was awarded to the foreign firm in 2010, he has to explain who was driving the controversial deal for supplying VVIP choppers to IAF.

Read: BJP targets AK Antony over AgustaWestland deal

"Surely," Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad said when asked whether Antony is also responsible for the agreement with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW101 VVIP choppers to the Indian Air Force.

"S P Tyagi retired as air chief in 2007. The contract was given in 2010. Antony should explain who was driving this contract," the senior BJP leader told reporters.
Im a second-year nursing student, said Leera Dutton as she addressed an audience Friday, during the pinning ceremony for students receiving an associate degree in nursing at North Platte Community College.

Scratch that, Dutton added quickly. I am a graduate.

Dutton was one of 24 students who received pins Friday. The pin doesnt automatically make the students nurses, but it qualifies them to take the NCLEX-RN examination through the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. They will receive a registered nurse license upon successful completion of the exam.

Kathy Harrison, director of nursing, introduced the graduates and said she found it fitting that the pinning was taking place on Nurses Day.

You have weathered the storm. You have made it, Harrison told them. Being a nurse isnt about the grades. Its about being who you are. Its about being able to love people when they are at their weakest.

Dutton, of Kearney, and classmates Trevor Blake and Jessica Fochtman spoke during the ceremony.

Dutton called the nursing field an amazing profession and introduced a flower presentation for the instructors.

Blake, of North Platte, said he felt hed found a second family within the program.

This ... has been a very tight-knit experience, Blake said. No matter where we all go, we all got our start here, which will forever be the common thread that holds us together.

We did it, guys, Fochtman, of Cozad, said excitedly. We challenged ourselves, worked hard and achieved our goals. We will leave here with friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.

Before closing his speech, Blake shared a quote from Buddha:

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.
A new specialty grocery store aims to fill a void DeRosa Imports left in downtown Griffith when it closed after 20 years.

Charcuterie, at 128 N. Broad Street, offers a wide array of deli meats and cheese such as aged gouda cheese, prosciutto and Serrano Ham. Freelance writer Valerie Gonzales and carpenter Skip Jones, both longtime Griffith residents, opened a grocery store foodies would appreciate in a storefront that was originally a Strack & Van Til, but was most recently a vitamin shop.

Charcuterie, named after the French word for a platter of cured meats, features specialty honeys and jams, imports from Europe and locally sourced items, such as pasta that's made in Munster and coffee beans that are roasted in Chesterton. They'll also carry items from the nationally acclaimed Smoking Goose meatery in Indianapolis.

"We're looking to have as many local items as we can," Gonzales said. "We have some great imported stuff but are also focused on the emerging artisanal community. There's so much of it, and we believe in supporting local."

The 2,500-square-foot specialty grocery is part of a resurgence in downtown Griffith that includes craft breweries, record stores, a home renovation store, a juice bar, the Grindhouse coffee shop and a bar arcade that's supposed to open this summer. Crain's Chicago Business even ran a lengthy article that named Griffith as the community of choice for young families in Northwest Indiana.

The new deli downtown makes charcuterie plates to order, such as for a customer who was hosting a "Game of Thrones" watch party. It also carries craft beer and wine.

"We're looking to have more exclusive craft beer than you can find in that section of the liquor store," Gonzales said. "We hope to have double the selection. With wine, we're looking to have a wide variety so there's something for everyone."

Charcuterie is now focused on the retail end, but will soon offer sandwiches and soups to go. It will mostly be carry-out, but Gonzales hopes to add a few bistro tables outside.

"The funny thing is we've had this in our mind, but places like this are popping up all over the country," she said. "The closest thing here is the Old World Market in Valparaiso, which is great. Our niche is really just the food. Everything is special, especially for foodies who won't have to go across the state line into Chicago."

The owners plan to have regular chef presentations and wine and cheese pairing in the back for those interested in learning more about food.

Charcuterie will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

For more information, find it on Facebook or call 219-902-2037.
ST. JOHN  Two men were arrested by St. John police Thursday after one of them allegedly tried to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a Dairy Queen.

Police said the man entered the DQ at 9461 Wicker Avenue after 5 p.m. and tried to use the counterfeit bill. When the employee was suspicious and tried to question the man about the bill, the man ran out of the store and into a waiting car.

The employee got the license plate number and a vehicle description and reported them to police. A vehicle matching the description was stopped by police a short time later. The front seat passenger matched the description provided by the employee. During the investigation, police found a bag in the cars truck containing counterfeit bills in excess of $1,500.

Equipment used to make counterfeit currency also was recovered. The United States Secret Service was contacted and later arrived to take over the investigation. The male occupants were arrested and transported to the Lake County Jail. Their identities were withheld pending formal charges by the federal prosecutors office.
ST. JOHN  Former police Cmdr. Michael Fryzel is accused of sexually battering three women and of receiving pay for hours he didn't work, according to court records.

Fryzel, 54, was charged Thursday in Lake County Criminal Court with three counts of sexual battery, five counts of official misconduct, two counts of theft and three counts of battery.

His defense attorney, Thomas Vanes, said Fryzel would surrender Thursday to police and intended immediately to post the $75,000 surety, or $7,500 bond, issued in the case. In a previous statement, Vanes said Fryzel was confident he would be vindicated once the full truth was known.

Fryzel, a former St. John Town Council member, resigned from the department in March 2015, days before federal lawsuits were filed accusing him of sexual harassment.

In the charges filed Thursday, one of the women, who worked for the St. John Police Department, told Indiana State Police that in 2013 Fryzel commented on how he wished she would apply for a position so he could see her breasts during a physical test required for the position, according to the affidavit.

The same woman told police that on Jan. 27, 2015, Fryzel pressed his groin against the woman while she was sitting down, according to the affidavit.

Another woman, who worked for the department, told investigators that on Feb. 2, 2015, Fryzel smacked her buttocks. Two days later, Fryzel commented on the woman's breasts. The woman questioned another officer who was present if the comments were in violation of policies he had just written.

Fryzel answered, "Those policies don't apply to me. I am a commander so they don't apply," according to the affidavit.

During another incident, he is accused of poking the woman's breasts while explaining that her body was the reason he was a, "sick (expletive)," according to the affidavit.

A third woman, who worked as a janitorial contractor, told detectives Fryzel frequently called her a name that was a reference to a sexual position. According to the affidavit, Fryzel and former Police Chief Fred Frego would ask if she had sex with a black man.

Fryzel also is accused of smacking her buttocks, according the affidavit.

While police were investigating the allegations, investigators compared the department's payroll with police dispatch logs from the Lake County sheriff's department. An analysis determined Fryzel was paid $5,356.97 from 2011 to 2015 for hours he didn't work, according to the affidavit.

The charges come months after women filed federal lawsuits against Fryzel, the department and the town. One of the lawsuits was settled, though the details were sealed. The other two remain pending.

Last year, the prosecutor's office announced it would convene a grand jury to investigate allegations involving the St. John police. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said his office instead decided to file the charges directly.

"After reviewing the case and speaking with the investigators, we decided to file it directly," Carter said.

Vanes said he was suspicious of the timing surrounding Thursday's filing.

"For at least six months, the prosecutor has been talking about a grand jury," Vanes said.

"Then it got stalled, by them not us. Then all of a sudden they are taking a short cut. I smell a lot of outside pressure to file something."

He wasn't sure where the pressure was coming from, but he said there were a lot of people looking to make money.
Some girls were allegedly molested and BJP actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter the JU premises on Friday (Photo: PTI)

Kolkata: With Jadavpur University witnessing student unrest since on Friday, West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi on Saturday said the varsity is fast turning into a "centre for disturbance" and authorities should take stern action against it.

"Jadavpur University which was once known as centre for excellence is fast turning into centre for disturbances. The authorities should take stern action against it," Tripathi, who is also the chancellor of the university, said.

Read: Jadavpur University: Students clash over film screening; girls molested

When asked whether he would ask for a report regarding the incident from VC of the Jadavpur University, Tripathi said," I have not decided any such thing as of now,".

Rival groups of students clashed at the university campus on Friday over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' triggering chaos during which some girls were allegedly molested and BJP actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter its premises.

Read: Jadavpur University hub of anti-nationals, VC supporting them: BJP

The fracas began after the film's screening ended late in the evening, and students from ABVP fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.

Read: Buddha in a Traffic Jam screened open air in Jadavpur University amid protests
PORTAGE  Residents and business owners here will pay an additional tax beginning next year that will pave the way for additional road projects.

The City Council approved in a 4-3 vote Wednesday night a wheel tax that will go into effect Jan. 1.

The decision followed a 90-minute meeting in which hundreds of residents packed the Portage High School auditorium, most speaking against the new tax.

Resident George Stahl, who opposed it, left the auditorium with many others some yelling to city officials they would remember who voted for the tax and would remember that during the next election.

"It was a waste of time. I'm very disgusted," Stahl said, after the meeting.

Introduced at the council's meeting earlier this month, the wheel tax would collect $25 per residential vehicle and $40 per commercial vehicle registered within the city. An amendment introduced at Wednesday's meeting lowered the tax to $12.50 for motorcycles, motor-driven vehicles, recreational vehicles and personal trailers.

Portage Mayor James Snyder, a Republican, said a bipartisan group of himself, Clerk-Treasurer Chris Stidham, a Democrat, and City Council President Mark Oprisko, a Democrat, proposed the wheel tax as a source of continuous revenue for road projects. He said their proposal already included using the $954,000 in 2016 as a grant match for road paving.

Snyder said the city must adopt the wheel tax by June 30 to have matching grant funds in 2017 and beyond. He said several municipalities, including Portage, pushed for the legislation to allow cities to adopt a wheel tax for additional revenue for infrastructure improvements.

Stahl, who was the first of several residents who lined up to speak, said it was one of the first times he has spoken out against a city proposal.

"It's not necessary. It's a bad time, especially for poor people," Stahl said.

Retired resident Beto Barrera also criticized the wheel tax.

"I'm here opposing it. It is a burden and will be a burden to many. And it's also anti-businesses since they will be hit hard," Barrera said.

A few residents, who were booed by many in the audience, spoke in favor of the wheel tax.

Resident Eric Ballard, one of those tax advocates, said he's a proud homeowner and also the owner of several vehicles.

"We can all agree that there's more work needed to be done on our streets. I'll get hit pretty hard but it's a worthy investment," Ballard said.

Those voting in favor of the wheel tax included council members Liz Modesto, D-1st; Pat Clem, D-2nd; John Cannon, R-4th and Mark Oprisko, D-at-large.

Those voting against it were council members Sue Lynch, D- at-large; Scott Williams, D-3rd and Collin Czilli, D-5th.

Lynch, Williams and Czilli had all gone on record previously at a news conference held Friday morning outside Portage City Hall.

During the news conference, the three said they wanted the city to step back before handing residents another tax.

The three said they believe the wheel tax should be tabled right now. Instead, a $954,000 one-time distribution from the state of local option income tax should be used as the match.

Williams also suggested the city could use the $800,000 it is saving by recently raising the trash fee for road funding.

"We already have the match money rather than impose a wheel tax," Lynch said.

All three repeated their earlier messages at the meeting.

"I'm opposed to the wheel tax because we're rushing into putting a forever tax on the residents," Lynch said.

Oprisko, one of four council members voting in favor of the new tax, said the state has done absolutely nothing to help cities like Portage pay for road repairs.

"I don't like to be taxed myself but I've driven around our streets and the streets are going bad. I'm going to vote for the tax," Oprisko said.

Cannon said that the cost to repair vehicles damaged by bad roads is much more expensive to a family than paying the wheel tax.

"Folks, no one wants to raise taxes, but if we don't do it now it will quadruple in 10 years. I will be voting for the tax," Cannon said.

Diane Bowman, a field director for Americans for Prosperity, a right-wing political advocacy group founded by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, stood at the entrance of the auditorium prior to the start of the meeting.

Bowman handed signs saying no to the wheel tax proposal as well as T-shirts.

She said Indiana residents are already paying their fair share to repair roads.

Crown Point officials also have raised the issue of a similar wheel tax.
INDIANAPOLIS  Another Purdue University graduate is headed for space.

U.S. Navy Capt. Scott Tingle has been assigned to a mission on the International Space Station.

The 50-year-old Tingle becomes the 23rd Boilermaker to fly in space.

Tingle will begin the mission in September 2017 and return to earth the following March. He'll be the only U.S. astronaut on the assignment. He began training in Russia in January.

Tingle earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue in 1988 with a specialty in fluid mechanics and propulsion.

He was one of nine astronaut candidates selected in 2009 from more than 3,500 applicants.
SPRINGFIELD  Democrats and Republicans in the Illinois Senate believe they've found a successful formula for ending nearly yearlong partisan standoffs over state spending.

For the second time in as many weeks, senators from both sides of the aisle came together Thursday to approve funding for public universities, community colleges and grants to low-income students, all of which had been deprived of state money since the fiscal year began July 1 without a budget in place.

The winning formula: spending bills that aren't tied to items on Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's pro-business, union-weakening "turnaround agenda" but are tied to specific revenue sources.

Its worked in the Senate, and I strongly encourage the House to do the same as we have done, said Sen. Pat McGuire, D-Joliet, chairman of the Senate Higher Education Committee, because its the best thing to do  the best way to move forward, obviously, in a bipartisan manner  for all the people of Illinois.

The measure approved Thursday would spend $454 million to bring eight state university systems up to 60 percent funding, the same level that Chicago State University received in a measure Rauner signed into law last week. That part of the plan was approved on a 55-2 vote.

The spending would be covered by letting the state off the hook for repaying money borrowed from special funds to plug holes in last years budget. That portion passed on a 54-3 vote.

McGuires comments came at a news conference shortly after the votes. He was joined by a fellow Democrat, Sen. Gary Forby. of Benton, and Republican Sens. Jason Barickman. of Bloomington; Chapin Rose, of Mahomet; Dave Luechtefeld, of Okawville, and Karen McConnaughay, of St. Charles.

Barickman, who represents Illinois State University, called the legislation yet another small step forward, but an important one.

Were demonstrating an ability to work together in a bipartisan manner, he said. I think theres a blueprint here for how we can continue to work together on all the various things that are important to our state and ultimately get a budget passed for this next fiscal year.

Forby, whose district includes a portion of Southern Illinois Universitys Carbondale campus, acknowledged that this could be the last state funding universities see for the current year.

But were not going to give up on it, he said.

Approval of the measure came a day after Eastern Illinois University President David Glassman told a House committee that the $12.5 million his school is receiving from the $600 million stopgap measure Rauner signed last week wont be enough to get the school through the summer.

Glassman told committee members that hell likely have to cut more positions on top of the 363 jobs that have been eliminated since last summer.

The initial stopgap measure funded Eastern Illinois and seven other state universities, aside from Chicago State, at 31 percent of last years levels. If the House approves the new Senate measure and Rauner signs it, Eastern Illinois would receive an additional $11.7 million. Southern Illinois would receive $53.8 million, and Illinois State would receive $19.6 million. Community colleges, which received 27 percent of their funding in the previous bill, would also be brought up to 60 percent funding.

The Senate is also waiting for the House to take action on a measure it approved two weeks ago on 55-0 vote that would authorize spending $441 million on social service programs that have been deprived of funding amid the budget impasse. Like the money in the earlier higher education stopgap plan, the social services money would come from a dedicated state fund.

The Senates newfound bipartisan spirit hasnt extended to a Democratic proposal to overhaul the way the state distributes money to local school districts.

Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, didnt call his measure for a vote Thursday following strong criticism from Republicans a day earlier upon the release of the Illinois State Board of Educations district-by-district analysis of the plan.

John Patterson, a spokesman for Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, said leadership wanted to give members more time to review what it would mean for the school districts they represent.
Police arrest a man they say tried to lure several young girls in the Bronx.

Cops say 26-year old Osita Enweronye turned himself in Saturday.

He is charged with child luring and acting in a manor injurious to children.

Investigators say he approached one of the girls on April 8th.

On Wednesday, he tried to lure three other girls within a 15 minute span.

They say he tried to get each girl to go with him but they were all able to get away unharmed.

The girls were between the ages of 11 and 13.

Police sources say the victims did not know the suspect.
Harold Cohen, an abstract painter who developed Aaron, one of the first and eventually one of the most complex computer software programs for generating works of art, died on April 27 at his home in Encinitas, Calif. He was 87.

The cause was congestive heart failure, his son, Paul, said.

Mr. Cohen was a painter growing weary with the traditional practice of art in the late 1960s when he taught himself, out of curiosity, how to program a computer.

Applying his newfound expertise, he invented a computer-programmed drawing machine, whose works he exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1972 in a show called Three Behaviors for the Partitioning of Space.

He then spent two years at Stanford Universitys Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the invitation of Edward Feigenbaum, a pioneer in the field, to continue his programming work. Aaron was the result. Mr. Cohen chose the name because he assumed that the program would be followed by a new, B version, and so on through the alphabet.
Ursula Mamlok, a German-born composer who fled the Nazis and went on to establish an esteemed career in New York, died on Wednesday in Berlin. She was 93.

Her death was announced by Bridge Records, which has released five albums of her work.

Ms. Mamlok, who moved back to Berlin 10 years ago, was for decades a fixture of the New York contemporary music scene. A longtime faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music, she was known in particular for her chamber music, piano works and vocal pieces.

Her compositions have been performed by some of the worlds leading soloists, orchestras and chamber ensembles, among them the oboist Heinz Holliger, the pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the San Francisco Symphony, the Daedalus Quartet and the Da Capo Chamber Players.

Her best-known works include an oboe concerto, recorded by Mr. Holliger; a song cycle, Der Andreas Garten, with text by her husband, Dwight Mamlok, a businessman and poet; Stray Birds, a setting for voice, flute and cello of poems by Rabindranath Tagore; and Sintra, for alto flute and cello.
The Treasury Department on Friday rejected a plan to cut benefits for 270,000 union drivers and retirees who belong to a deeply troubled Teamster pension fund, a decision that could thwart the intentions of other large, financially struggling pension funds.

The move, welcomed by workers and retirees, reopened the vexing question of how to save the huge Central States pension fund, which is on track to go bankrupt in about 10 years. Its restructuring was seen as an important test case of what pension trustees can do when they discover they have promised more in benefits than their funds can hope to deliver.

Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasurys special master appointed to review Central States planned reorganization, said the proposal was based on flawed assumptions and did not demonstrate it would successfully rescue the ailing fund.

The proposed cuts, which would have begun in July, were meant to rebuild the Central States pension fund and ensure its survival for decades. Sent to the Treasury for review in September, the reorganization would have been the first under a 2014 law allowing troubled pension funds to cut benefits, if that was the only way to keep them afloat. Previously, cutting pensions that workers had already earned had been illegal except in the most unusual circumstances.
Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how news, features and opinion come together at The New York Times. In this piece, Emily Bazelon, a staff writer at The Times Magazine, recounts how she and the photo editor Stacey Baker convinced more than three dozen sex workers to come out from underground and pose for the camera.

When Jake Silverstein, the editor of The New York Times Magazine, and Kathy Ryan, the magazines director of photography, proposed a cover image showing dozens of sex workers for my article on the debate over whether prostitution should be a crime, I was daunted. I had been reporting the article for months and Id spoken to lots of people who do sex work (for a range of reasons: some out of economic duress and others as a matter of true choice). They were suspicious of the media, and I couldnt blame them. Often, news media coverage of prostitution is sensationalized or one-dimensional, or plain disrespectful. Its hard for people who have been portrayed in those ways to trust us, and that includes The Times. Also, sex work is against the law. So we were asking people to take a legal risk  to come out from underground.

We got lucky. The sex worker who helped me begin my reporting for this article is a dominatrix in Seattle who goes by the name Mistress Matisse. She got excited about the possibility of a photo spread that portrayed sex workers as their ordinary, everyday selves  a concept that, we hoped, would be the opposite of exploitation. She connected us to a friend of hers, Savannah Sly (also her professional name), who is the president of the Sex Workers Outreach Project USA and a born organizer.

SWOP was hosting a four-day festival in Seattle. So, working with Stacey Baker, the unflappable photo editor on this project, Savannah helped us wrangle more than two dozen sex workers into a photo studio. Holly Andres, our equally unflappable photographer, took group shots and portraits. We told people they didnt have to show their faces. They could turn their backs or wear masks. And we asked them to wear the clothes they would wear to the grocery store  to just be themselves.
Nicolas Noxon, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose subjects included wild animals, the remains of humanitys ancestors and the undersea wreck of the Titanic, died on Tuesday at his home in Westlake Village, Calif. He was 79.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, his friend and colleague Steven Reich said.

Mr. Noxon cut his teeth in the early 1960s as a writer and producer for the television series Biography, produced by David L. Wolper and hosted by Mike Wallace. He worked on more than 40 episodes, about notable figures like Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, Eva Peron and Mao Zedong.

In 1966 Mr. Noxon wrote, directed and produced Dr. Leakey and the Dawn of Man, a National Geographic special that traced the search conducted by the anthropologist and archaeologist Louis Leakey and his wife, the anthropologist Mary Leakey, for fossils of prehistoric hominids in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania.

Mr. Noxon went on to write, direct and produce or help produce many more films for National Geographic, including The Great Whales (1978) and Tigers of the Snow (1997), both of which won Emmys.
Bengaluru: The late night decision of the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) to cancel the medical and dental Under Graduate Entrance Test (UGET) scheduled for Sunday following an interim order of the Supreme Court, left many students confused.

The announcement was made at around 11 pm Friday night on its website, taking many students by surprise. Several rushed to its office in the morning to check for themselves. The notification on the website said while the medical and dental UGET was being cancelled , the entrance exam for engineering would be held on May 8 as scheduled.

Several students felt COMED-K should have cancelled the UGET much before Friday. The SC had made its displeasure clear on admission tests by private colleges on Thursday, but COMED-K announced its decision lonely ate Friday, creating confusion, pointed out Ms. Bhuvi Shreyas, a student from Kerala.

Most students from outside the state opt for COMED-K for MBBS and BDS courses as Karnataka has highest number of private medical and dental colleges offering them and there are a greater number of seats available here. And with COMED-K proposing an online admission test to be conducted by TCS this year, the interest was even greater as students felt there would be no scope for any kind of irregularity this way. But now it has been cancelled and I am disappointed, said Goutham Mehta, a student from Delhi, however adding that he welcomed NEET, as it was expected to bring radical changes in the medical admission process.

Meanwhile COMEDK officials clarified that the Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics entrance tests would be held as scheduled. Only the Biology paper has been cancelled. We are just following the Supreme Courts directions, said an officer.

Way forward for students

Students, who had applied for the COMED-K Medical/ Dental UGET , have no choice now but to prepare for NEET Phase 2. According to an officer of the state medical education department, most applicants for the COMED-K UGET are from other states as Karnataka has the largest numbers of medical and dental seats under the all- India merit quota. The quota will remain, but the students will have to appear for NEET on July 24 to get a seat under it in Karnatakas colleges, he explained.

No impact on seat Matrix & consensual agreement

Dr. M.R.Jayaram , honorary secretary, Karnataka Private Medical Colleges Association , says the cancellation of COMED-Ks Medical and Dental UGET will not have any impact on the admission process and the seat matrix.

Officers of the state higher education department meanwhile believe seats could even now be allotted based on the consensual agreement as the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 prescribes a mandatory reservation of 50 per cent. We are expecting a consensual agreement as private colleges are unlikely to opt for the reservation, said a senior officer.

Private universities' admission tests

While COMED-K has cancelled its medical and dental admission test, none of the private universities have taken such a decision. Students, who have applied for the admission tests of the deemed universities, say they have received no intimation about their cancellation. All the private medical universities are continuing with their admission tests, said Ajay Shrivatsav, a student from the city, adding,I have applied to three private universities and when I called them to check the status of the admission test, they said there was no change in their schedule.

Refund issue

Parents of the students are worried about the refund of the examination fee they have paid for the cancelled tests. Most of the students have applied for multiple medical admission tests and the fee for each is around Rs.2,500. If they cancel the tests, they must refund the fee.And so many universities and colleges are silent on the examination controversy.

A few have made the admission test optional now to avoid the refund mess, said one anxious parent, Shankara Narayan Bhat. Mr B N Subramanya, CEO of Era Foundation , which collaborated with COMED-K to conduct the Medical/Dental UGET , said it must also take a decision on refunding the fee collected from students who had applied for it, now that it has been cancelled.
ALBANY  As a former aide to both Andrew M. Cuomo and his father, Todd R. Howe built a reputation as a prominent lobbyist in Albany and Washington, with top clients like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and major developers in upstate New York.

Trading on his connections as a Cuomo loyalist, Mr. Howe was seen by many as a reliable conduit to the governors office. Now, amid a sprawling federal investigation into the Cuomo administrations marquee economic development projects, he has emerged as one of its top focal points.

The allegations against Mr. Howe, who has not been charged with a crime, are not clear. But a review of court documents and public records found that his professional persona masked a history of chaotic and slipshod financial dealings, including a 2003 bankruptcy and nearly $400,000 in federal tax liens and other judgments against him.

Though he looked every bit the prosperous Beltway insider, with large homes in the Maryland suburbs and children in elite New England boarding schools, he appeared to be often short of money, dodging tens of thousands of dollars in bills from a long lineup of local car dealerships and home-improvement businesses.
Even if undamaged copies of the recordings are located, the Justice Department contends it does not have to release them under the FOIA, according to court papers. Though the tapes were played in court and the transcripts have been published in a book, they are now under seal and are no longer in the public domain, the government argued in court filings.

Complicating matters, F.B.I. officials in Washington handed over a redacted copy of one of the tapes on a compact disc in late March, only to ask for it back a few days later, saying they had made a mistake. On Monday, prosecutors went into Federal District Court in Brooklyn and asked Judge Glasser to order Mr. Locascios lawyers to return the CD.

The suit is the latest in a long series of unsuccessful attempts by Mr. Locascios lawyers to get a new trial. Judge Glasser and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit have repeatedly upheld his conviction  five times.

In 2011, Judge Glasser also rejected Mr. Locascios request to unseal the tapes, noting that his lawyers were given copies of the original recordings at trial. The judge said he had ruled against Mr. Locascio at trial when he tried to call on an audio expert to interpret the tapes for the jury. That ruling still stood, he wrote.

This is a thinly disguised effort to re-litigate a ruling made during the trial upon which Locascio and his counsel can only be described as fixated, he wrote.

Mr. Locascios lawyer, Ruth M. Liebesman, said Mr. Locascio should be able to analyze the original tapes with modern audio techniques, just as other defendants have been allowed to re-examine old DNA evidence with advanced technology. Why shouldnt we be able to do that with tapes as well? she said.
In a sharp and public escalation of its response to a raft of investigations, the Campaign for One New York, a nonprofit political group tied to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said that it would refuse to comply with a subpoena issued by a New York State ethics panel.

The letter, written by the groups lawyer, Laurence D. Laufer, accused the ethics panel of a blatantly political exercise in seeking further information related to possible lobbying activities.

The state panel, known as the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, has been investigating the activities of the Campaign for One New York since last year over concerns, voiced by good-government groups and in the news media, that the group may have violated state regulations by acting as a lobbyist without registering as one with the state. The group registered as a lobbyist in 2014, but did not do so in 2015.

In the 12-page letter, Mr. Laufer argued that Campaign for One New York did not perform any lobbying activities in 2015, and therefore was not required to register. He questioned several aspects of the investigation, its timing and its targets, noting that the panel sought information related to potential lobbying of the State Legislature, the mayor and the City Council, but not to any potential lobbying of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.
1. This victory is not a surprise to the average American, such as graduates with masters degrees working for $12 an hour, trying to pay off $30,000 in student loans or 50-year-olds with $400 left in savings after being unemployed for two years.

We need jobs, not handouts. Hillary wants to help the poor.

Heres a better idea  create jobs so there arent any poor to help. Trump gets it. He is one of the few who understand what the average American is going through.

 Lark, reacting to an article about Donald J. Trump all but securing the Republican presidential nomination after the Indiana primary.
THE outcry over the Senates failure to hold hearings on Judge Merrick Garlands nomination to the Supreme Court is fully justified. But that isnt the only judiciary scandal on Capitol Hill. Even as the spotlight shines on the high court, the Senate has refused to confirm dozens of uncontroversial nominees to fill vacancies in the federal trial courts.

Such obstructionism has become an everyday occurrence. Just last week, Senate Republicans refused to vote on 11 federal district court nominees whom the Judiciary Committee had already approved  even those who were supported by Republicans in their home states. During President George W. Bushs last two years in office, the Democratic-controlled Senate confirmed about 57 district court judges. Since Republicans took power in 2014, the Senate has confirmed only 15 of President Obamas trial court nominees.

This is an even bigger problem than Judge Garlands stalled nomination. Trial court judges do the bulk of the work in the federal court system: Last year they heard nearly 375,000 new cases, while the Supreme Court justices issued just under 75 opinions. And because most trial court decisions are never appealed, they become the final word in significant disputes that affect millions of Americans.

I know this firsthand. I served as a trial judge for over 21 years, and stepped down from the bench last week. As I walked out of a federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on one of my last days, an African-American United States marshal asked me if he could have a word.
Months away from their expected nominations, theres already ample reason to expect Clinton vs. Trump to be the ugliest, most cringeworthy presidential contest of the modern era. It promises to be a half-year slog through the marital troubles, personal peccadilloes, financial ambitions, social-media habits and physical appearances of Dangerous Donald and Crooked Hillary, two labels that the campaigns and their allies are already deploying.

That doesnt mean Hillary Clinton shouldnt try to elevate the debate. Deep beneath the accumulating rancor is a fascinating and potentially illuminating contest between a longtime Democrat and a come-lately Republican who both claim to speak for working-class people who feel betrayed by the political system. Both candidates are appealing to some of the nations most beleaguered citizens  lower-income whites for Donald Trump, and racial minorities for Mrs. Clinton. And both candidates won big victories among the 19 states where unemployment exceeds the national average, many of them in the South.

Though Mr. Trumps ideas have so far been both muddled and changeable, his proposals may challenge Mrs. Clinton to present her domestic and foreign policy positions with greater power and clarity to draw a sharp contrast with a Trump campaign that is more headline than story.
The Food and Drug Administration issued sensible regulations on electronic cigarettes and other tobacco products on Thursday. The rules should help curb addiction to nicotine from e-cigarettes among young people.

Starting on Aug. 8, retailers will not be allowed to sell e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco to people younger than 18, the F.D.A. said. People under the age of 26 who are buying these products will have to show photo identification. Businesses will no longer be able to give free samples of these products or sell them through vending machines, except in adults-only locations, like bars. After two years, the products will also be required to carry health warnings.

While the proportion of teenagers who smoke conventional cigarettes has fallen in recent years, the use of e-cigarettes, which provide nicotine in vapor form, and other tobacco products has increased at an alarming rate. In 2015, 16 percent of high school students said they had used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days, up from just 1.5 percent in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though not as common, hookah tobacco use also increased among high school students; cigar use declined.

Using e-cigarettes, or vaping, is dangerous for teenagers because the nicotine can disrupt the formation of brain circuits that control attention, learning and susceptibility to addiction, the C.D.C. says. Public health experts also say that the vapor can contain carcinogens and metal particles.
Theres no reason you couldnt do the Republican vice-presidential search as a reality show. Donald Trump is good at that stuff. Plus its more than two months until the convention, and I believe that many members of his party would welcome a diversion.

The contest for the second slot is already a lot like The Celebrity Apprentice. Everybody has to refer to the candidate as Mr. Trump and pretend his boorish exhibitionism is actually a demonstration of sublime leadership.

Dont make jokes about nobody wanting to be the winner! There are plenty of contenders. Mike Huckabee made it clear he wouldnt say no. And look at Newt Gingrich, hopping up and down and waving his hand. Whoops  Chris Christie just shoved Newt out of the spotlight. Trump said he might like a governor, so that should give Christie a boost. And a recent poll showed that as many as 15 percent of New Jersey Republicans think hed be a good choice.

Just imagine the reaction at the network:

Producer 1: Are you kidding me? Do you know what kind of ratings those guys will draw? Anybody remember The Mullets? Life on a Stick?
It is the second complaint lodged by the states Judicial Inquiry Commission against the judge. In 2003, he was ousted by the same body from his position as chief justice after disobeying a federal court order to remove a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments that he had installed in the rotunda of the state judicial building.

He was elected to that office again nine years later.

The current complaint concerns Chief Justice Moores actions after federal court decisions regarding same-sex marriage. Last spring, he directed probate judges in Alabama not to abide by a Federal District Courts order striking down the states ban on same-sex marriage, holding that issuing licenses to same-sex couples would violate the Alabama Constitution.

In January, six months after the United States Supreme Courts ruling that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right, Chief Justice Moore, in an administrative order, instructed the states probate judges that they had a ministerial duty to enforce the states ban on same-sex marriage. Nearly all of the probate judges in the state have been issuing licenses to same-sex couples, though a few have stopped issuing marriage licenses altogether.

In his order, he argued that the Supreme Courts decision applied only to the four states involved in the case that was before the court, and not to Alabama. That view runs counter to that of the federal district and appellate courts with jurisdiction over Alabama, and, according to the formal complaint, is contrary to clear and determined law about which there is no confusion or unsettled question.

The complaint lists six charges against Chief Justice Moore, and lays out several violations of the states canons of judicial ethics.
Users of the app receive anywhere from 20 cents to $1 for each task completed  in Crests case, a snapshot taken while brushing your teeth with your favorite Crest product. Users cant double-dip; the app allows only one selfie per task.

The selfies are a good way for companies to obtain information that people cant or dont articulate in focus groups or other traditional research methods, said Ravi Dhar, director of the Center for Customer Insights at the Yale School of Management. For example, they could lead to an understanding of which rituals go along with certain types of consumption, he said.

Pay Your Selfie, which has been in business since last September, doesnt require participants to have followers on a site like Instagram. In fact, users dont have to share their images publicly at all (although they can). That makes it different from a company like Popular Pays, which offers Instagrammers the chance to post about brands like Nike in exchange for giveaways or cash.

The option of privacy suggests a greater possibility for authenticity, said Aparna Labroo, a professor of marketing at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management. If the task comes up when a person is naturally engaging in a relevant activity and its minimally intrusive to take a selfie, they might actually capture some authentic moments.

About 11 percent of the men in the Crest photos were shirtless, a level of comfort the brand rarely sees when it uses other tools in its research arsenal, said Kris Parlett, a senior communications manager for P.&G. Oral Care. Other research methods include recruiting volunteers to record videos of their oral care routine in their bathrooms or to brush their teeth in insight suites, mocked-up home bathrooms with mirrors that allow analysts to observe them.
NEW DELHI: Launching a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government and the Congress over the AgustaWestland copter scam, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the Prime Minister does not have enough courage to arrest Congress president Sonia Gandhi and that the two parties have an alliance in corruption.

Mr Kejriwal was addressing a protest rally at Jantar Mantar by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) demanding the arrest of Mrs Gandhi for interrogation.

Questioning the silence of Congress on the issue of Mr Modis alleged fake degree, Mr Kejriwal also said that the two parties had an arrangement that the BJP government will not arrest Mrs Gandhi in the copter scam and the Congress will not raise the issue of Mr Modis educational qualification.

The Italian court order also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her. Modiji, you have been made PM to take action... not to leave the task for the Italy court. Our chest would also be of 56 inches if you send her to jail. When my PM says that Italys court is taking Gandhis name not and not he, I want to ask Modiji, Why are you scared of her? Mr Kejriwal asked.

Meanwhile, the CBI on Saturday questioned cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief S.P. Tyagi  Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep  besides advocate Gautam Khaitan for nearly eight hours asking exhaustively about finances, firms established by them and their relations with European middlemen in Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal.

The sources said questioning revolved around accounts of IDS Tunisia and remittances received by it. They said some documents which Khaitan was not carrying on Friday were brought by him. CBI claimed that Khaitan was being evasive during questioning and concealing information.

The Managing Director of IDS Infotech Partap K. Aggarwal and CEO of Aeromatrix Info Solutions Pvt. Ltd Praveen Bakshi have been called in connection with its probe in the case.

It is believed that their firms were used to route alleged bribe money in India.

Former Air Force Chief S.P. Tyagi has also been called on Monday again for a fresh round of questioning.
Judi Winston Katz, 45, a real estate agent in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., agrees. She believes that ambivalence played a role in her decision not to wear a ring during her 20-year marriage. While her former husband, whom she loved as a best friend, wore his ring right up to the day they signed their divorce papers, she found hers a nuisance and removed it after their first year of matrimony. I always wondered if it was subconsciously because I didnt want to be married to him, she wrote in an email.

Just as customs about weddings have become less conventional, so, too, have rules about rings, both in the type of band or whether you wear one at all.

Many gay men have exchanged wedding bands, but it may be too soon to say that these rings are here to stay. Dominick Miciotta and Jason Smith of Huntington, N.Y., however, always wear the matching titanium bands they gave each other at their October 2013 wedding. The ring is a part of marriage for both of us, said Mr. Miciotta, 46. We are both fairly traditional. We both feel the same way about commitment and love.

In England, the appearance of wedding rings for men is a relatively recent phenomenon. In his 1996 book, Debretts New Guide to Etiquette & Modern Manners, the etiquette expert John Morgan wrote that in Britain it is customary for the bride alone to sport a wedding ring, and although some brides have adopted the Continental habit of presenting the groom with his own band during the vows, this remains not quite comme il faut.

In the 16 years that Nick Sullivan, the English-born fashion director of Esquire, has been married, nothing has adorned any of his fingers. While he was very happy to get married, he didnt feel the need for an extra symbol. My wife doesnt care, he said.
One of my students was Maryam, a 19-year-old who spoke better English than the others. She was one of the few unmarried women in the class, and the older women were always teasing her  in Arabic, though I gathered that the jokes were about men. They would turn to her to confirm that she was blushing. Whenever this happened, Maryam gave me an impatient smile, the look of a serious young person seeking distance herself from the frivolity of her elders.

I had heard from the other teachers that Maryams mother died when she was young and that her father was ill. As an only child, she was his primary caretaker. It must have been a hard-won luxury for her to attend these classes, and she understandably wanted the time to be used efficiently.

After class one day, I asked Maryam if she would prefer to meet with me for one-on-one lessons. Her English was advanced, and I said she could benefit from private tutoring. After some hesitation, she agreed.

For several weeks we met in an attic room that was just large enough to accommodate a table and two chairs. I brought an English textbook, and sometimes we read newsmagazines together, wading through reports about the Iranian election and the Northern Ireland peace process.

There was a sadness about her, a palpable distress that made me eager to help her  though I wasnt sure what to do. I sometimes felt the urge to evangelize her, an impulse that arose almost against my will, like the itch of a phantom limb. I no longer believed in God, but then again, it was possible that I was wrong, and it pained me to think that I might be responsible for the state of someones soul. As I drove home each afternoon, my mind drifted into a familiar hive of anxieties. Were these women going to hell? Was I? I sometimes wondered whether Maryam was thinking the same of me.

As the summer wore on, she began to speak more candidly about her life. She said she liked school very much and would like to possibly go to college to become a dentist. She had a cousin who was in school for this occupation, a woman her age who lived, she was careful to note, on the west side  code that the relative was more liberal.

That night, I looked up the educational requirements for dental school and printed the information from my parents computer. Though my efforts had no claim on her eternal destiny, I confess that there was a certain questing vigor, a missionary zeal, to my assistance. I would be her steward into secular life, a handmaiden to her hegira. When I gave her these documents at our next meeting, she stared at them for a long time without saying anything. Then she thanked me and slipped the papers into her bag.
When was the last time you saw an origami maker become the focus in your night at the theater? Never, you say? Then why, you might ask, would anyone make it happen?

The playwright Rajiv Joseph, a Pulitzer finalist for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, has some metaphorical answers to that question in his comic and surprising Animals Out of Paper, the current offering of the Hudson Stage Company in Armonk. If origami seems to you just a darling way to fashion a crane, youll come away with other ideas after seeing it here as a symbol and device to examine the mysteries of the human heart.

Creating from paper a human heart is the task before the despondent origamist Ilana (Jenny Sheffer Stevens), who as the play opens is burrowed into the couch of her messy studio, days of empty cartons of Chinese food within her reach. Seems Ilana cant get herself to create much of anything after a divorce and the loss of her elderly, three-legged dog. But when a fan, the calculus teacher Andy (Michael Guagno), asks out of the blue to be buzzed into her apartment, she begins a journey back to her next paper fold.
It was a blustery spring Saturday in Brooklyn Heights, and the customers shopping at Sahadis Importing Company on Atlantic Avenue had their heads covered  hijabs, snapbacks, church derbies, pork pies, bandannas, kufi skull caps  and their hands full of products, samples and numbered tickets. The tickets are needed to keep order and flow at this foodie dreamscape, which resembles an active bazaar with a jumble of containers and barrels, crowded counters and overstocked shelves. The action is all inside, but the stores primary advocate was out front, telling stories.

Charlie Sahadi, the 72-year-old family patriarch, is a natural storyteller. And one of his favorites is the tale of the family business, which began in the late 19th century as an importing enterprise in Lower Manhattan. His father, Wade Sahadi, emigrated from Lebanon in the early 20th century to join the business. He eventually migrated to Brooklyn in the late 1940s, to the building on Atlantic Avenue between Court and Clinton Streets, where the shop still operates. The street looks very different today from the way it looked then, or even recently.

If you told me 20 years ago, Mr. Sahadi said, pointing out the front window of his office above the original storefront, that Id be operating across the street from Barneys New York, I would have had you institutionalized.

Though many of the Middle Eastern businesses that once surrounded Sahadis have been replaced by ones catering to a different Brooklyn, Sahadis has endured. The store is practically a case study in how to run a business in a gentrifying neighborhood. So when a new kind of customer started showing up in the 1980s, someone who wanted foie gras in addition to baba ghanoush, Mr. Sahadi took notice.
Republican legislators in Virginia are threatening to sue Gov. Terry McAuliffe to block his executive order restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 residents who have completed their felony sentences. The lawmakers have no good legal case, and worse, such a suit would be affirming Virginias racist history.

Virginia is one of just four states  along with Iowa, Florida and Kentucky  that continue to impose a lifetime voting ban on people convicted of felonies. In recent years, both Democratic and Republican governors have worked to lift this burden, either by streamlining the application process for individuals or trying to restore rights to specific classes of people, like those convicted of nonviolent felonies.

Mr. McAuliffe took a bolder and more just step last month by restoring those rights to all people with felony convictions. Republican lawmakers say this action overstepped the bounds of his authority and the constitutional limits on executive powers.
Politicians thinking of a presidential run in 2020 have their own incentives. If they believe that Mr. Trumps brand of populism will become the new normal in the party, theyll need to adapt accordingly. But if Mr. Trump loses badly to Mrs. Clinton and his candidacy damages the party, those who failed to oppose him aggressively will be held to account.

Two Republicans to watch are Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Both are plausible contenders in 2020 and will soon need to decide between urging their supporters to back Mr. Trump or remaining holdouts in hopes of re-creating a more traditional conservative coalition in four years. Mr. Walker, on Wednesday, said he would support Mr. Trump because hes better than Mrs. Clinton but wouldnt commit to campaigning for him.

The intellectual wing of the party has pledged resistance to Mr. Trump, with leading voices like George F. Will urging Republicans to sabotage his campaign. Theyre facing off against lobbyists and consultants, who dont want to risk losing clients and money in a world where Mr. Trump controls the party infrastructure. The party establishment has reportedly threatened to blacklist consultants who work for Mr. Trump. With Mr. Trump as the nominee, that leverage reverses.

Even the party machinery will be fractured. The Republican National Committees mission is to support Mr. Trumps candidacy while helping fund get-out-the-vote operations in battleground states. But the partys congressional campaigns are already plotting the best ways to distance themselves from his campaign in states and districts where Mr. Trump is unpopular.

ITS not inconceivable that Mr. Trump could navigate the general election as he did the primary, without the support of party officials and campaign experts. He spent less money on ads and get-out-the-vote operations than some better-funded rivals, and he beat them. His ability to attract nonstop coverage made up for his limited finances.

Donald Trump won by being an outsider, so he should run an outsider candidacy, said Ari Fleischer, a former press secretary in the George W. Bush administration who announced last week that he would support Mr. Trump. But can he run as an outsider without antagonizing or alienating all the insiders? If you alienate potential supporters, you make it almost impossible to get a majority.

Will he bring out new voters? Mr. Fleischer added. Would some crossover Democrats vote for him? Those are the wild cards that could offset his losses among more establishment types.
WE progressives believe in diversity, and we want women, blacks, Latinos, gays and Muslims at the table  er, so long as they arent conservatives.

Universities are the bedrock of progressive values, but the one kind of diversity that universities disregard is ideological and religious. Were fine with people who dont look like us, as long as they think like us.

O.K., thats a little harsh. But consider George Yancey, a sociologist who is black and evangelical.

Outside of academia I faced more problems as a black, he told me. But inside academia I face more problems as a Christian, and it is not even close.
WHEN the histories of this warped campaign are constructed, when a lasting inventory of its every last ignominy is done, Donald Trumps guarantee that all of his appendages measured up to greatness will be front, center and protuberant, evidence of the elections vulgar endowment.

But theres a more specific reason to dwell on that pants-dropping moment during a jaw-dropping debate. It broke with decades of political history, challenging the belief that one of the greatest threats to a presidential future was a profligate past.

John F. Kennedy admitted nothing. Bill Clinton denied everything. He had to persuade a leery electorate that his libido was overrated so that he could demonstrate, in the White House, that it wasnt.

From Gary Hart through Newt Gingrich, politicians raced to stay a step ahead of sexual scandal.

Or they were relished for their apparent immunity to it. Four years ago, the G.O.P. chose a nominee who wore special religious undergarments.
So while he sometimes does massage his own statements  as he tried to do last month after his remarks on punishing women for getting abortions  Mr. Trump is most effective when he simply says the opposite of what he said before. In part, thats because Mr. Trumps contradictions are loud and confident. (I love Hispanics! he tweeted on Thursday, Cinco de Mayo, along with a picture of him with a taco bowl.) But it is also because when a person says something as well as its opposite, his listeners can infer that he really believes whichever statement they wish him to believe.

That contradictions are particularly useful to Mr. Trump also tells us something about what some people find appealing about him. Indeed, it reveals an even deeper contradiction. Mr. Trumps explicit lack of authenticity is what makes him so authentic. He is like a walking oxymoron (which is perhaps not surprising, given that reality TV is the medium in which he has most flourished). To some, that he is contradicting himself so freely shows that he really doesnt care what they (read: the news media, liberals, women, minorities) think. The signal this sends is one of strength: Only the strong can afford not to care.

There is also a deeper philosophical issue here. The most disturbing power of contradiction is that its repeated use can dull our sensitivity to the value of truth itself. Thats particularly so given that most Americans live in a digital world that both makes it easier and harder to figure out what is true. Googling is like being in a room with a million shouting voices. It is only natural that well hear those voices that are most similar to our own, shouting what we already believe, and as a result Google can find you confirmation for almost anything, no matter how absurd.

Of course we are aware that those with different views can do the same. And that very fact, if we arent careful, can lead us into thinking that objectivity is a dead value. We get so used to contradictory information, rival sources, that we find ourselves no longer valuing truth.

In George Orwells 1984, the protagonist is tortured until he agrees that two plus two equals five. The point, his torturer makes clear, is to make him see that there is no objective truth other than what the party says is true. Thats the deep power of contradiction. Repeated enough, political contradictions can lull us into giving up on critical thought altogether. And once that happens, we risk giving up on truth. At which point contradictions  and everything other than power  will no longer matter.
It often doesnt matter what the word is, said Michael Wehmeyer, the director and senior scientist at the Beach Center on Disability at the University of Kansas. Its that people associate that word with what their perceptions of these people are  as broken, or as defective, or as something else.

For many years, the preferred term was, simply, idiot. When Massachusetts established a commission on idiocy in the mid-1840s, it appointed Dr. Samuel G. Howe, an abolitionist and early disability rights advocate, as its chairman. The commission argued for the establishment of schools to help this segment of society, but made clear that it regarded idiocy as an outward sign of an inward malady.

It seemed impious to attribute to the Creator any such glaring imprecation in his handiwork, Howe wrote in 1848. It appeared to us certain that the existence of too many idiots, in every generation, must be the consequence of some violation of the natural laws; that, where there was so much suffering, there must have been sin.

After Howe established the Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children  the first of its kind  there gradually developed a profession to provide services to people with intellectual disability, as well as efforts to diagnose, define and categorize. The term feebleminded began to be used as a catchall, Dr. Wehmeyer said  as in, say, the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children.

With the pseudoscience of eugenics finding traction by the turn of the century, some came to perceive people with intellectual disability as a threat to the American stock. The eugenicist Henry H. Goddard provided the cautionary tale of an American Revolutionary War soldier he called Kallikak (a twinning of the Greek words for beauty and bad), who was said to have fathered children with his virtuous Quaker wife and with a feebleminded barmaid. His legitimate heirs were held out as upstanding citizens, while the illegitimate descendants were said to be criminals, paupers and dull-witted wastrels.
As children, we are all taught to be polite, decent, law-abiding citizens, and we are taught that we should go to the police or the authorities when someone threatens or harms us. We are told not to take law into our hands.

On the contrary, defending oneself from a rowdy, robber or rapist is not "taking law into our hands", it's self-defence. And it's time we learnt to defend ourselves, and armed ourselves for it. For, the police in Bengaluru have not only failed in their primary duty, they have themselves become, as several recent incidents have shown, predators, taking the side of criminals and wrong-doers and further victimizing the victims.

I learnt this lesson the hard way. I am a migrant techie. Not too long ago, I was returning home from a shopping mall when I was molested -- the man came from behind, touched me and made lewd comments. But I did not just sit and cry, I chased the man down and gave him a sound thrashing. What was shocking, though, was that the man felt emboldened enough to do his lecherous thing in public, in broad daylight! Obviously, there is no fear of the police in this city.

Worse, when I called for help - and there were many people around who were watching the spectacle - not one person came to my aid. Have men become sheep in this city? Or are people happy just updating their Facebook pages with what they saw?

My misgivings about the police and people were confirmed last week when another migrant in this city was simply lifted off the street and molested by a local rowdy, right outside her paying guest accommodation and in front of many mute spectators! And again, yesterday, when two men went to the police with a grievance against their landlord, and the police turned on them and beat them black and blue, taking the landlord's side.

Having learnt my lesson, I have come to believe that perhaps its time the decent citizens of this city armed and protected themselves. Maybe we should emulate the US in this respect, where citizens own and carry guns for protection. When in trouble, a corrupt police force is not of much help, nor are fellow citizens who themselves live in fear and would not put in danger their own safety for the sake of a stranger. I now go out armed to protect myself.



Payal is a pseudonym. The authors real name is being withheld to protect her identity.
LAFAYETTE, La.  At 17, Devin Harris is not old enough to buy a pack of cigarettes. But when he was accused of trying to use someone elses credit card to buy cigarettes, he swiftly realized that  at least when it comes to the criminal justice system  the state of Louisiana considers him to be an adult.

The last thing I wanted was to be in the system, said Mr. Harris, who was in jail for nine nights in April because his mother could not afford the bond before he entered a pretrial diversion program. For the teenager, those were long nights. I called my dad  I aint talked to my dad in almost two years, he said. I just needed somebody to talk to.

Louisiana is one of nine states where 17-year-olds are treated as adults in the criminal justice system. However, that could change as jurisdictions across the country re-evaluate tough-on-crime policies.

The State Senate overwhelmingly passed legislation to include 17-year-old offenders in the juvenile justice system. The measure now goes to the House. The state District Attorneys Association dropped its opposition to the measure when its authors agreed to extend the phase-in period.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont has cut into Hillary Clintons lead in the Democratic presidential race by more than two dozen delegates, based on new data from Washington State, while Mrs. Clinton won the Guam caucuses on Saturday.

Mr. Sanders handily won the Washington caucuses on March 26, taking 25 of the 34 delegates awarded that day. An additional 67 delegates could not be divided up until the state party released vote data broken down by congressional district.

District-level data provided to The Associated Press on Saturday showed that Mr. Sanders would pick up 49 of those delegates, while Mrs. Clinton would receive 18.

Still, even with the additional delegates, Mr. Sanderss mathematical chances of winning the nomination have not improved.
THE IMPACT The two-minute ad was instantly seen as a preview of general-election attacks on down-ballot Republican candidates with Mr. Trump at the top of the ticket. It received even more attention on the right than on the left: This is brutal, wrote Erick Erickson, a conservative writer who opposes Mr. Trumps candidacy. He called it a road map for how Democrats are going to take back the Senate.

THE TAKEAWAY Mr. Trumps victory in the primary campaign has created a sense of worry and uncertainty for lower-level Republican candidates, unsure if he will drag them down or if they will need to hold onto his avid supporters to have a chance in November. The threat contained in this ad  effectively using Mr. Trumps and Mr. Boozmans own voices against them  could well prompt some Republicans to try to distance themselves from their presumptive nominee. Either way, it provides a warning: Every vow to support the Republican standard-bearer  normally a routine statement, not a fraught one  may now be turned into a Democratic cudgel.

Sight Gag

One of Senator Ted Cruzs final commercials sought to tie Mr. Trump to Hillary Clinton, calling them two sides of the same coin on tax increases, guns and transgender bathrooms. But something seemed off: It showed Mr. Trumps and Mrs. Clintons profiles on a spinning gold coin  the sort ordinarily reserved for esteemed former presidents. Then again, at least the ad reflected Mr. Cruzs desire to return to a gold standard.

In the Wings?

NextGen Climate, a super PAC run by Tom Steyer, a billionaire hedge fund manager turned environmentalist, released a 30-second ad showing Mr. Cruz dismissing climate change as not science and Mr. Trump calling global warming a hoax. But in the ads second half, Mr. Steyer, a Democrat, faces the camera in blue shirt sleeves, with rolling green hills behind him  classic Im a candidate staging. He urges people concerned about climate change to vote, without saying for whom. But the healthy face time could help make him a more familiar figure in California, where he is said to be considering a run for governor.

Earshot

Mrs. Clinton and her allies were ready when Mr. Trump became the presumptive nominee. Both her campaign and Priorities USA released digital ads mocking his promise to be a unifier. One showed other Republicans calling Mr. Trump a con artist, phony, bully and more, with Jeb Bush saying Mr. Trump needed therapy. Another repurposed Mr. Trumps own unifier audio over video showing violence and protests at his rallies.
Mr. Trump now feels so empowered that he does not think he needs the political support of the party establishment to defeat the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. He is confident that his appeal will be broad and deep enough among voters of all stripes that he could win battleground states like Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania without the support of leaders like Mr. Ryan, Mr. Trump said in an interview on Saturday.

Although he plans to meet with Mr. Ryan and House Republican leaders on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he would not materially change his policies or style to win their endorsements. Everything is subject to negotiation, but I cant and wont be changing much, because the voters support me because of what Im saying and how Im saying it, Mr. Trump said. The establishment didnt do anything to make me the nominee, so its support wont really make much difference in me winning in November. (Mr. Trump will, though, be somewhat dependent on the partys fund-raising muscle since he has indicated he will not fully self-finance his general election campaign.)

One reason Mr. Trump takes a skeptical view of establishment support is that he does not believe much in the power of the Republican elite. He is the partys presumptive nominee, after all, because the political forces that once might have halted his rise have been enfeebled. Leaders such as Mr. Romney warned in the direst terms that Mr. Trumps nomination would stain the party and lead it to ruin. Venerable media outlets on the right, like National Review, sought to reprise their role as arbiters of who is fit to carry the banner of conservatism. Their pleas fell on deaf ears.

Mr. Trumps arsenal was far more fearsome. Combining modern-day fame and an age-old demagogy, he bypassed the ossified gatekeepers and appealed directly to voters through a constant Twitter stream that seemed interrupted only by television appearances.

In doing so, he seemed to grasp that a new twist on direct democracy was in the offing: that disaffected voters who tune out the traditional modes of political communication might be reachable through their smartphones, and Twitter messages or Reddits might be more relevant to those voters than the findings of a more scientific poll.

On the left, too, Senator Bernie Sanders has built his own movement with millions of voters, and $210 million in fund-raising, by using online tools as simple as email to seek support. Yet Mr. Trumps celebrity has been an enormous asset with voters who feel gratified and inspired that he would lavish them with attention and bluntly express some of the ideas and attitudes they share.
Consider Jack S. Blanton Sr., an oil tycoon and philanthropist from Houston who died in 2013 at age 86. His brothers were born in Texas but, to his chagrin, he was born in Shreveport, La. One day 40 years ago, his daughter, who was living in Boston, went into labor with his first grandchild. By the time he arrived from Houston at the hospital, visiting hours were over.

So Mr. Blanton climbed up the hospitals fire escape to see his newborn granddaughter. And he had something with him: a baggie of Texas dirt, which he put under the babys bassinet, so she could begin her life over Texas soil, or something close to it.

Its sort of like getting baptized, said Mr. Blantons daughter, Elizabeth Blanton Wareing.

As the world grows smaller, as technology obliterates the significance of where we live and work, as Americans become more transient, Texas resists. It declares, to itself and the nation: Place matters. America needs a superstate, or to put it another way, an antistate. Sometimes we love it here and sometimes we are disgusted here, but, to twist Gertrude Steins line about Oakland, Calif., there is a here here. We tattoo Texas on our arms, buy Texas-built trucks and climb fire escapes with Texas dirt in our pockets. Place, we are unsubtly suggesting, matters.

At Mr. Abbotts inauguration last year in Austin, I sat facing a stage assembled on the steps of the Capitol. Before Mr. Abbotts speech, Texas marked the occasion with the sounds of warfare. It was the inaugural tradition of cannon fire.

People flinched as the echo of artillery filled the streets. From a distance, it must have sounded like Austin was under attack. Up close, it felt like the opposite: Austin was doing the attacking. And there, for me, was Texas: The last best place with state-sanctioned cannon fire, making people proud while making people wince.
HARARE, Zimbabwe  The independence festivities took place just as they have for decades: led by President Robert Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has ever had.

But as Mr. Mugabe, 92, inspected a military parade during the celebrations last month, he did something unusual. When his vehicle stopped in front of a framed picture of the president, Mr. Mugabe bowed before his own portrait. Zimbabweans were stunned. Had their president grown so feeble, they wondered, that he could no longer recognize the person in front of him?

Mr. Mugabe, the worlds oldest head of state, said this year that he would preside over Zimbabwe until God says, Come.  His increasingly powerful wife, Grace, vowed that her husband would rule from a special wheelchair until he was 100.

But the end of an era looms over this capital. As Mr. Mugabe has grown visibly weaker in the past year, talk of his death dominates the private conversations of the governing class, leading to some cutthroat maneuvering for the endgame.
MEXICO CITY  Joaquin Guzman Loera, the convicted drug trafficker known as El Chapo, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the border with Texas early Saturday.

Lawyers for Mr. Guzman, who was recaptured in January, have filed multiple appeals to prevent him from being sent to the United States, where he faces charges in multiple jurisdictions. Mexican officials have said it could take as long as a year to reach a final ruling. There was no immediate indication that the transfer was a sign that the process was nearing a conclusion.

Mr. Guzman, the boss of the Sinaloa drug gang, was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano prison near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, government officials said. The Interior Department said the move was made because of work being done to reinforce security at Altiplano.

Mexicos National Security Commission said in a statement that the transfer was in line with security protocols and that it had rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a security strategy put in place in September.
BEIJING  Three Nobel laureates in science and economics who visited North Korea this week for what was billed as an educational exchange said Saturday that they had met university students who were eager to learn, but who were hampered by the Norths tight Internet controls and by rudimentary, decades-old equipment.

Two of the laureates, Aaron J. Ciechanover of Israel, a biologist, and Sir Richard Roberts, the chief scientific officer at New England Biolabs in Massachusetts, said at a news conference in Beijing that they had invited North Korean students to come and work in their laboratories. But that prospect appeared unlikely.

The weeklong visit by Mr. Ciechanover, Mr. Roberts and a third laureate, Finn Erling Kydland, a Norwegian who shared the Nobel for economics in 2004, was organized by the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation and by the National Peace Committee of Korea, an organ of North Koreas ruling Workers Party. The trip, which ended Friday, was authorized by Kim Yong-nam, the president of North Koreas Supreme Peoples Assembly, and was intended as an exchange of educational views, the organizers said.

On Friday, the Workers Party opened its first congress in 36 years in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, but the timing was coincidental, said Uwe Morawetz, the chairman of the International Peace Foundation. He said that the South Korean ambassador in Bangkok had asked that the trip be delayed until after the congress, which is a major propaganda event for North Koreas top leader, Kim Jong-un, but that the organizers had declined to do so because the visit had been planned long in advance.
KABUL, Afghanistan  The closer integration of the feared Haqqani militant network into the leadership of the Taliban is changing the flow of the Afghan insurgency this year, with the Haqqanis senior leader increasingly calling the shots in the Talibans offensive, Afghan and American officials say.

The Haqqanis have refined a signature brand of urban terrorist attacks and cultivated a sophisticated international fund-raising network, factoring prominently in the United States militarys push to keep troops in Afghanistan. Just last month, the Haqqanis were believed to be behind a truck bomb attack in Kabul that killed 64 people and wounded hundreds.

Now, the groups growing role in leading the entire insurgency has raised concerns about an even deadlier year of fighting ahead, as hopes of peace talks have collapsed. The shift is also raising tensions with the Pakistani military, which American and Afghan officials accuse of sheltering the Haqqanis as a proxy group.

Though it has always nominally been a branch of the Taliban, the Haqqani network was seen as largely autonomous. But the selection of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the groups chief, to become the deputy leader of the Taliban during a leadership struggle last summer has turned out to be far from a symbolic move, officials say.
SUBIC BAY, the Philippines  Rodrigo Duterte, the outspoken mayor of Davao City and the front-runner in the Philippines presidential election, told voters recently that he would settle territorial disputes in the South China Sea by taking on the Chinese Navy on a Jet Ski.

The candidates bravado worries some voters. If Duterte wins, it will be frightening, said Joyce Asilo, 30, a Manila resident who was visiting Subic Bay, a former American base. He could start a war with China. Hes very inconsistent in what he says.

The countrys relationship with China is one of the issues facing voters in the Philippines on Monday, when they will elect hundreds of government officials  from president to mayors  to address a raft of problems that threaten to derail the Philippine economy, one of the fastest growing in Asia. But the presidential race has descended into a series of off-color jokes, threats, name-calling and allegations about hidden bank accounts.

Mr. Duterte, who has a substantial lead in the polls, has joked that he would have liked to have raped an Australian missionary who was killed in a 1989 prison riot in Davao City and said disabled people should consider suicide. He has been accused of having a secret bank account containing ill-gotten wealth. He is running on a strict law-and-order platform and has denied accusations of corruption, but has also refused to reveal details about the account.
New Delhi: Union minister Babul Supriyo was injured on Friday when the motorcycle he was driving hit a SUV near southwest Delhi's Subroto Park area.

The incident took place around 9.10 pm when he was on his way to the IGI airport to receive his daughter. His car was tailing the cruiser motorbike which he was riding. He suddenly lost control over the two-wheeler and hit the rear side of the SUV, a senior police official said.

The Minister of State for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation suffered injuries in his elbow and his security officials, who were following him in the car, rushed him to AIIMS Trauma Centre where his condition was stated to be stable.

Supriyo was wearing his helmet, for which he did not receive injuries on his head.

No complaint has been received in connection with the incident. The condition of the minister is stable, DCP (Southwest) Surender Kumar said.

Dr Amit Gupta, Additional Professor of Trauma Surgery and Critical Care at JPNATC, AIIMS said because of the high velocity impact of the accident, Supriyo is being kept under observation for 24 hours.

"Union minister Babul Supriyo was brought to the Trauma Centre this evening with history of road traffic injury. On arrival he had normal vital signs and on further examination he was found to have suffered injuries to left elbow soft tissue and left chest wall soft tissue. CT scan of head, chest, abdomen was normal," he said.
KABUL, Afghanistan  Taliban insurgents publicly executed two women, one of them in an apparent honor killing, in northern Afghanistan recently, according to Afghan officials, members of the victims families and a video posted online.

The killings, which were thought to be unrelated, took place in recent months in northern Jowzjan Province, in predominantly Uzbek areas where Taliban presence has traditionally been weak except among ethnic Pashtuns.

The killings came to light after a video was circulated of one of them and officials discovered evidence of the other.

In one of the cases, a pregnant 22-year-old woman named Rabia, a mother of two young children, was accused by her husband of adultery, tried and convicted by the Taliban on the spot, and then publicly shot three times. Members of her family said that her husband had concocted the adultery charge because of a land dispute between their families, and that he had wanted to inherit his wifes interests in the land.
BANGKOK  The mother of a pro-democracy activist faces up to 15 years in prison after acknowledging that she had received a private message on Facebook that the police say insulted Thailands monarchy.

The activists mother, Patnaree Chankij, 40, who works as a maid, will be tried by a military court under Thailands lese-majeste law, which makes it a crime to insult the long-reigning King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the queen or the crown prince.

On Saturday, human rights activists called Ms. Patnarees arrest a day earlier a new low for Thailand, which has increased prosecutions under the lese-majeste law since the military took power in 2014.

Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a lawyer advising Ms. Patnaree, said Ms. Patnaree had sent only a one-word reply, Ja, acknowledging receipt of the Facebook message, similar to saying Yeah, but had not expressed agreement with it or commented on its content. The message was not made public, so as not to repeat the alleged insult, as is typical in such cases. The sender of the message, Burin Intin, 28, was arrested last month.
Guns

2000 I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.  The America We Deserve, by Donald J. Trump

MARCH 3 Asked about the assault ban in a G.O.P. debate on Fox News: I dont support it anymore. I do not support the ban on assault  [Audience boos.]

Syrian refugees

SEPT. 2015 On the U.S. taking them in: I hate the concept of it, but on a humanitarian basis with whats happening, you have to.  on Fox News

NOV. 2015 When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we dont know if theyre ISIS, we dont know if its a Trojan horse. If he wins the presidency, the refugees are going back, we cant have them.  on ABC News; campaign rally

Hillary Clinton

2012 Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I am biased because I have known her for years.  I really like her and her husband both a lot. I think she really works hard.  on Fox News

2015 Hillary Clinton was the worst secretary of state in the history of the United States.  The world blew up around us. We lost everything, including all relationships. There wasnt one good thing that came out of that administration or her being secretary of state.  on MSNBC

Health care

2000 Im a conservative on most issues but a liberal on this one  We must have universal health care.  from The America We Deserve

2016 It is not enough to simply repeal this terrible legislation, referring to Obamacare. We will work with Congress to make sure we have a series of reforms ready for implementation that follow free market principles on health care.  from campaign website

Abortion rights

1999 Well, look, Im very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I listen to people debating the subject. But you still  I just believe in choice.  on Meet the Press

FEB. 22, 2016 You know, many years ago, Id be asked the question, and as a developer and a real estate person and as a business person, I was, like, never asked a question about pro-life. And they should leave that whole statement because I said, you know, I really dont like it. They dont show that. But Im pro-life. [Inaudible] When I said this, I guess I said pro-choice.  on Fox News

MARCH 30 Women who get abortions should be punished.  on MSNBC

MARCH 30 Only doctors should be punished; women are victims.  from campaign website

Taxing the rich

1999 I would tax people of wealth, of great wealth, people over $10 million, by 14.25 percent.  on MSNBC

2015 This is actually a tax reduction, I  a big tax reduction, including for the upper income.  on his tax plan at a news conference

MAY 5 Asked about his tax cuts for billionaires on CNBC: I am not necessarily a huge fan of that, adding that his tax plans would be negotiated later.

Torture

MARCH 4 I will not order a military officer to disobey the law. It is clear that as president I will be bound by laws just like all Americans, and I will meet those responsibilities.

MARCH 3 In G.O.P. debate: We should go tougher than waterboarding. Pressed about whether military officers would carry out orders like killing terrorists family members, a violation of the Geneva Conventions, Trump replied, If I say do it, theyre going to do it.
KOCHI: Hundreds of people, protesting against the alarming levels of pollution in the River Periyar, laid siege to the office of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board in Eloor on Saturday alleging that the Board had revoked the order to close down Sree Sakthi Paper Mills Ltd accused of dumping toxic effluents to the river.

The agitators, who closed the doors of the office from outside, have held three staff members hostage. The women staff members were allowed to leave the office at 5 p.m while three male staff members including assistant engineer Eby Varghese are being held captive inside the office, said an agitator.

We demand the PCB to issue a fresh closure notice against the company and file criminal case against it for polluting the river, said Shabir O.V, an Eloor native and member of the Jana Jagratha Samithi. We needed an assurance from the authorities including the district administration that action will be taken against the guilty, he added.

The district Collector has failed to take any action despite repeated incidents of fish death due to high levels of pollution in the river, said another activist.

The Collector, not visiting Eloor despite the day-long protest, deserves to be condemned, he added.

The protesters are angry that the Board has revoked the closure notice issued to the company three days ago without any improvement in the situation. The people made a garland of dead fish from the river to highlight the toxicity level and the failure of the office to take appropriate measures to prevent the recurring incidents of fish death.

The Environmental Surveillance Centre of the Kerala State Pollution Control Board at Eloor had served a closure notice to the company on Wednesday stating that the dissolved oxygen levels near the Pathalam Bridge and regulator were found to be alarmingly low.

The order stated that river water, in and around the factory, has been found to be of inferior quality. The order stated that the situation is so alarming that the huge quantity of the untreated effluent having a high degree of BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) may result in imminent fish kill in the region. The permissible level of BOD in the effluent is 30 mg per litre while the effluent released by the company has BOD levels of around 1,000 mg per litre.
Opelika residents Rob and Jen Slocumb of the band Marthas Trouble are renovating a Victorian house built in 1910 in downtown Opelika into a studio/creative space.

Weve wanted to do this for about four years, and we looked at a number of potential locations including warehouses, Rob Slocumb said.

This particular house came available in February, Jen Slocumb said, and we liked the look of it and the vibe of the place. We wanted something that would be part of the town, to help support and grow the arts scene here, to support the community, and a space that would inspire artistic endeavors and creativity.

The renovation should take approximately five months, and the completed facility will be called The Sound Wall. The Slocumbs are hoping to provide a small-town recording experience in a premier space. Two studio rooms are planned for the first floor; the rooms can be used for recording, rehearsals, writing sessions, post-editing video, photo shoots, video shoots, and will be available for special events. A gourmet kitchen with a large family-style farm table will allow local chefs to prepare meals on-site for visiting artists and bands. A one-bedroom apartment will be situated upstairs, offering lodging to artists using the studios downstairs or to people who want an inspiring place to stay in town.

The Slocumbs moved to Opelika from Canada 10 years ago. We are always asked, Why did you move here? Jen Slocumb said. And really the short answer is we felt - and still do - that there is something special about the Auburn-Opelika area. Now that we are touring less and spending more time at home raising a family, we are very passionate about contributing to our local community.

We hope The Sound Wall will become an extension to the already existing and expanding arts community, Rob Slocumb said.

Marthas Trouble, called a hidden gem by Billboard Magazine, is known for its signature sound of folk and country twang, which has been praised by some influential and well-respected music critics. Marthas Trouble has been listed and featured in the Billboard Magazine, as well as USA Today, AOL Music, Sirius XM Satellite Radio and Performing Songwriter. Their songs have received awards and have been featured in the show Army Wives and made-for-TV movies on Lifetime and CBS. The duos band name comes from a Bible story about Martha and Mary, one that they say is a reminder to stop and smell the roses and to keep an eye on the bigger picture and the important things in life.

Late last year, Marthas Trouble offered some new additions to their holiday repertoire with two digital singles, River and White Christmas, which followed on the success of two independent holiday albums, Christmas Lights (2002) and This Christmas (2008). Prior to that, they also released Jen Coates Seed Sessions (2014), A Little Heart Like You (2012), Anchor Tattoo (2011), EP (2008), Forget October (2006), Still (2003), Sleeping Dogs (2002), and The Road Ahead (2000).

People can follow the band online at www.marthastrouble.com as well as at www.facebook.com/marthastrouble and twitter.com/marthastrouble.
A bit of China has arrived in Los Angeles, in the form of an extensive exhibit at the Getty Center that recreates an ancient landmark along the legendary Silk Road.

The Cave Temples of Dunhuang, also called the Mogao Caves, is a complex of almost 500 caves in northwest China that was active between the 4th and 14th centuries. Its also a UNESCO World Heritage site. The caves were a thriving center for Buddhism. And as an important stop along the Silk Road, they also became the repository for a huge collection of documents, shrines, art and objects from many other cultures.

A common perception is that globalism is a modern phenomenon, Thomas Gaehtgens, director of the Getty Research Institute, said at a recent preview of the exhibit. But, as the caves exhibit shows, regional exchange has been going on for a long time.

The Silk Road was the name of the network of trade routes that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to China in ancient times. From before the birth of Jesus Christ to the 1400s, it was the route for the lucrative Chinese silk trade and other goods. Religions, especially Buddhism, languages, customs and ideas also spread through the network.

In China, the caves along the ancient route are a remote spot visited by tourists, mainly Chinese. The Getty Conservation Institute has worked at the site for more than 25 years alongside the Dunhuang Academy, which manages the cave temples. Both organizations and the Getty Research Institute organized this show.

What you have in Dunhuang  is one place of artistic practice for a millennium, for a thousand years, said David Brafman, associate curator at the Getty Research Institute. Its an extraordinary place. One of the things that we wanted to get across, in the beginning of the exhibition, is just how much cultural diversity is found at the site.

Brafman was referring to the collection of artifacts that make up one part of the Getty Center show. The exhibit is split into three sections. Three recreated caves are definitely the highlight. But a good place to start is at the galleries of the Getty Research Institute.

The galleries open with a map of the region to give some context. Several rooms full of original artifacts from the cave temples reveal the extent of exchange that happened along the Silk Road. These objects come from the Library Cave, which held more than 40,000 documents, paintings and textiles. It was sealed for about 1,000 years before it was discovered and reopened in 1900.

Some of the artifacts are remarkable evidence of the traffic that must have passed on the Silk Road. A hand-written scroll from sometime between the years 700 and 900 includes the Christian hymn Gloria in excelsis Deo, written in Chinese. A letter of introduction written in Tibetan was likely carried by a 10th-century Chinese monk on his way to India. Another highlight is a copy of the Diamond Sutra, which, according to the exhibit, is the oldest dated, complete, printed (with woodblock printing) book, dating to the year 868.

Once you get a little background at the galleries, hopefully its time to see the star of the show, the re-created caves. A timed ticket will get you into two of the three caves.

From the outside, they dont look like much, housed in a big canvas structure in the Getty Center courtyard. But inside, theyre pretty impressive.

In painstaking detail, artists from the Dunhuang Academy recreated three caves known as Cave 275 from the 5th Century, Cave 285 from the 6th Century and Cave 320 from the 8th Century. The replicas, which took two to three years to make, were then shipped from China to the Getty Center and reassembled.

Soft lighting accentuates the greens, blues and reds on the walls, ceilings and Buddha statues to great effect, making visitors feel like they are in the original caves in China  except that at the original caves, the light comes only from the sun through the doorways and a guides flashlight. Remaking that experience is the aim of a third part of the Getty Center exhibit, a 3D presentation of Cave 45, from the 8th Century.

This cave features a seated Buddha flanked by six other figures, plus wall paintings. Visitors don 3D glasses and step in front of a curved projection screen. As a narrator describes each of the figures, they loom up before visitors as if seen by a guides flashlight in the cave.

Organizers chose Cave 45 for this 3D presentation because of its impressive statues, said Jeff Levin of the Getty Conservation Institute. But even with a trip to China, theres no guarantee that a guide will take you to this cave out of the almost 500 there, he added. This was an opportunity to show off a cave that even visitors to Mogao dont typically get to see.

Similarly, the Getty Center show is a chance to see a remote part of China without traveling 7,000 miles.

Contact the writer: aboessenkool@ocregister.com
Re: Criminalizing climate change skepticism [Opinion, May 1]: George Will doesnt mention any climate skeptics, except ExxonMobil. Sure, he quotes a 2001 National Academy of Sciences report, but the language he quotes doesnt indicate any scientific skepticism about global warming. Indeed, in a much more recent report of theirs called Climate Change Evidence and Causes, the National Academy of Sciences stated, It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earths climate. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, accompanied by sea-level rise, a strong decline in Arctic sea ice, and other climate-related changes.

Mr. Will attacks politicians and lawyers because he knows they are easier to vilify than science. He attacks the president for believing that the debate is settled, various attorneys general for investigating ExxonMobil, Al Gore for miscalculating the rate of arctic ice melt and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for wanting to criminalize the fossil fuel industrys climate denial apparatus. None of these is an effort to criminalize scientific thought or belief.

Christopher Hilger

Fountain Valley

  

Re: Kenya burns $105 million worth of ivory in pointed message to poachers [World, May 1]: Burning ivory confiscated from poachers was a totally misguided effort to combat the illegal ivory trade. All they have really succeeded in doing is to reduce the world supply of ivory, which will make it more valuable and inevitably lead to more poaching. It will only accelerate the extinction of the African elephant. Instead, I would suggest that they concentrate their efforts on catching and prosecuting the poachers, and selling the confiscated ivory to raise funds for the program.

Roger A. Murray

Aliso Viejo

  

Sen. Ted Cruz gave a most gracious speech as he suspended his campaign and those media types that said Donald Trump had a ceiling are eating crow.

This race is proving once more that the media are often wrong. As to Trump not being able to beat Hillary Clinton, which has been the media mantra, a recent Rasmussen poll says otherwise.

Now the most interesting issue of the conventions may be nominating a Democrat, as Bernie Sanders won in Indiana and Hillary was booed out of town in coal countries, and the pending criminal investigation.

Barry Levy

Hawthorne
SANTA ANA  Inside a large white tent and surrounded by other high school seniors at Santa Ana College, Leode Vazquez sifted through paperwork and then clicked away on a tablet, registering for his first semester.

Tuition wont be a problem  there isnt any.

The community college announced this week that Santa Ana Unified School District students will receive free tuition their first year, beginning in September.

The Godinez High student had planned to work and attend college part time after graduation. No longer.

Im now planning to go to school full time, Vazquez said. That way, I can get all my general ed classes for free.

Santa Ana College is the first in Orange County to make the tuition-free offer, joining a growing national trend among community colleges.

Long Beach Unified was a pioneer with its Long Beach Promise, which offers students from that K-12 district a tuition-free first year at Long Beach City College. At least 10 such programs exist across California, including those in the San Diego Community College District and at Ventura College.

In Santa Ana, students from Orange Countys largest school district become eligible for the tuition-free year just by graduating.

Tuition will be paid by the nonprofit Santa Ana College Foundation, funded in part by city and Santa Ana College employees through payroll deductions, a $5 million state grant and Santa Ana Colleges Centennial Scholarship Campaign.

Santa Ana Colleges tuition for full-time students is $1,104 a school year.

About 85 percent of the students there, from low-income families, already receive tuition waivers through the California Community Colleges Board of Governors. Others get help from other state and federal grants.

So those who take advantage of the new free-tuition offer could come from more affluent families.

Jimmy Bravo, Godinez Fundamental High Schools higher-education coordinator, said the new program will be tremendous for the students who apply to the Cal State and UC systems and who didnt get a good financial-aid package.  Middle-class students will really benefit from this.

Godinez Highs Christopher Zotea had his heart set on studying kinesiology at Cal State East Bay in Northern California. But with the offer of a free first year of school, hes reconsidering. He said he was offered little financial aid.

Now, I have a lot of thinking to do, said Zotea, who registered at the college this week just in case he chooses to stay.

Others are pondering staying put, too, instead of immediately going to four-year campuses.

Weve already been getting phone calls from students saying, We might change our minds, said Sara Lundquist, Santa Ana College vice president of student services.

Cindy Garrido, 18, also is thankful for the offer.

I was definitely going to come here. My sister did two years here and transferred to UCI, the Godinez High senior said while registering at the college. She wants to become an ob-gyn doctor. Now, I dont have to worry about tuition my first year. Its amazing.

Free tuition is old-school.

Californias community colleges were free for state residents until the 1980s. Today, the cost is $46 per unit, the nations lowest, said Larry Galizio, president and chief executive of the Community College League of California.

With 113 colleges, Californias system is the countrys largest higher-education one.

Free tuition programs, such as Santa Ana Unifieds, provide an added bonus besides the money, Galizio said: Theres this sort of motivational, inspirational, symbolic impact: Hey, I can afford to go to college.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7829 or rkopetman@ocregister.com
New Delhi: Launching a scathing attack on the Modi government and Congress over the AgustaWestland chopper scam, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the Prime Minister does not have "enough courage" to arrest Sonia Gandhi and that the two parties have an "alliance in corruption".

Questioning the Congress on the issue of PM's alleged "fake" degree, Kejriwal also said that the two parties had a "setting" that the BJP government will not arrest Gandhi in chopper scam and the Congress will not raise the matter of Modi's educational qualification.

Read: Those involved in VVIP chopper deal scam must be punished, says Modi

"The Italian Court order also has names of Sonia Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, certain officers and Congressmen, but Modi is not able to gather enough courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi, to ask her even two questions, to interrogate her..."Modi ji you have been made PM to take action not to leave the task for Italy court...Our chest would also be of 56 inch if you would have sent her to jail...when my PM says that Italy's court is taking Gandhi's name not and not him....I want to ask Modiji why are you scared of her?" Kejriwal said, addressing a rally at Jantar Mantar here.

Questioning the progress of the investigation in the chopper deal, Kejriwal alleged that there hasn't been an "inch" of movement on the probe, despite the Modi government coming to power on the assurances that the corrupt will be taken to task.

Read: Agusta deal row: AAP hold rallies against 'BJP-Congress corruption alliance'

"What investigation did they do in AgustaWestland case in two years? The Italian government completed investigation, filed the cases in court, judgment came and those who were involved in paying bribe were sent to jail."

"When Anna agitation started, people wanted to change the government...they knew that both Congress and BJP are two sides of the same coin, but Modi ji gave such wonderful speeches before Lok Sabha polls that people's hopes were build that corruption will end," Kejriwal said.

Noting that during the poll campaigns, Modi said that he will take action against Congress President's son-in-law Robert Vadra for alleged irregularities in the land deal, but despite being in power for two years, and having state governments in Haryana and Rajasthan, he (Vadra) hasn't been interrogated even once.

Read: We may do what we could not do in Bofors: Government on Agusta deal

"Modi had said that the corrupt will be sent to jail. It has been two years and not a single person has been sent to jail...the country has been cheated and hence we had to again gather against their 'alliance' four years after we had gathered at the same place to protest the corruption of these two parties," he said.

Kejriwal said while the CBI raided his office, it could not even interrogate Vadra. "They got a CBI raid conducted on me but could not get anything beyond four mufflers in a day long raid. But there is no raid on Sonia Gandhi. Why is Modi scared of her? Before elections he used to say Vadra is Congress' son-in-law, now it looks like even Modi has adopted him.

"The papers of his (Vadra) land scam are lying in Rajasthan. They have government in Haryana, Rajasthan and Centre. What are they waiting for? Why is there no action against him? CBI hasn't called him even once because Modi doesn't have courage.

Read: BJP targets AK Antony over AgustaWestland deal

"You arrest her, interrogate her for two days, the truth will come out automatically.

Read: UPA govt did everything to help Agusta bag contract: Manohar Parrikar

"Amit Shah says Sonia ji please you tell us who who all took bribe. Manohar Parrikar says Sonia ji you please tell who all have taken bribe. Is any interrogation conducted like this? If you would have told earlier that you both (Congress and BJP) were hand in glove nobody would have voted for you," Kejriwal said.

He said that both parties possessed "secrets" of each other and claimed that the details of Modi's degrees were given to them by Congress leaders from Gujarat, who were not "permitted" to raise the issue earlier by the Gandhi family.

"There is a very good setting. Modi has assured Congress that he will just abuse them but not arrest Gandhi in Agusta issue and Sonia Gandhi has assured him that his degree's issue will not be raised by Congress.

Read: Agusta deal: How did Swamy get sensitive confidential info?, asks Congress

"UPA was in power for 10 years and during those years they have kept secrets of Modi's all scams. Modi knows that if Gandhi is arrested, Vadra is arrested, his secrets will also be in public domain," he said.

Again raising the degree issue, Kejriwal said the country will continue to respect him if he accepted that his degree was "fake", but people will not tolerate fraud and forged degrees.

He said his party MLAs were arrested over trivial issues and demanded that Modi should also be treated like former Delhi law minister Jitendra Singh Tomar, who was arrested in an alleged fake degree row.

"His one such secret is his degree. He said in his affidavit that he did BA from DU and MA from Gujarat. I am not saying you need to be educated to be PM, people without degrees can also be talented....If he is 12th pass, we have no issues...if he says that the country would still respect him...but if he does cheating and fraud, forged degrees, country will not tolerate," he said.

Read: Agusta rocks August Houses: Who benefitted, asks Parrikar

"We want Modi to take action against those who have been named in the Italian order and we want him to come out with his degree, he can apologise that he committed a mistake by telling that he has BA and MA degrees," Kejriwal said.

The Chief Minister alleged that there is no movement on the anti-graft cases filed against Sheila Dikshit and demanded control of the Anti-Corruption Branch.

"When we came to power during our 49-day regime, we filed three FIRs against Sheila Dikshit regime but in two years they haven't filed a single FIR. The moment I resigned, the cases went to cold storage. After an year, when we again came to power and wanted to get the files opened, Modi was baffled.

"He sent his paramilitary force to take over ACB. I challenge him to give ACB to us and we will tell you how interrogation is conducted and how corrupt people are sent to jail," he said.

Maintaining that Modi should also be treated in a similar way the way Tomar was treated, Kejriwal said if his MLAs could be arrested over trivial matters then why not Gandhi.

"When the issue of Tomar's fake degree emerged, he was taken (by the police) and asked to identify the college, why similar investigation is not conducted for PM.

"Somnath Bharti had a fight with his wife. Doesn't a couple have a fight, but they put him in jail for five days but not Sonia ji.

"Mahender Yadav staged a protest when a 4-year-old girl was raped in his constituency and he was sent to jail for two days. Commando Surinder (Singh), who showed bravery in Mumbai 26/11 attack, had gone to NDMC area where he saw some officials demanding bribe from a vegetable seller. When he intervened, he was charged under SC/ST Act but Sonia Gandhi won't be arrested," he said.
A decision on the proposed 401-acre Newport Banning Ranch development has been postponed at the request of the developer.

The project was scheduled to go before California Coastal Commission on Thursday in Newport Beach, and was expected to draw a large crowd of residents. As of Friday afternoon, the commission, which must approve the development, hadnt settled on a new hearing date or location, but agency officials said they were aiming for late summer somewhere in Southern California.

Last year, the developer submitted an application to build on the former oil field  the largest piece of undeveloped, privately owned coastal real estate in Southern California. At the time, commission analysts recommended the 12-member panel reject the proposal. Commissioners instead instructed staff and the developer to present a revised project they could approve.

The smaller plan subsequently presented by the developer called for 895 homes, 45,000 square feet of shops and offices, and a 75-room hotel on a quarter of the land. A week ago, agency analysts recommended the revised proposal be approved with a series of conditions that were spelled out across dozens of pages.

Applicants for coastal project permits can request one postponement. Friday, the developer said it needed more time to process the very lengthy staff report, and cited unresolved issues.

As a result, we are not prepared to respond to the Staff Recommendation at next weeks May Commission meeting, Mike Mohler, a representative for the developer, wrote in an email to Coastal Commission staff.

Project opponents said the developer is requesting a postponement to avoid crowds of activists.

Theyre hoping for a hearing further away where it would be difficult for the public to attend, said Steve Ray, the executive director of the Banning Ranch Conservancy, a group that opposes the project.

The conservancy and others are seeking ways to ensure the hearing is held close to Orange County.

Contact the writer: aorlowski@ocregister.com. Twitter: @aaronorlowski
In the waning hours of a euphoric 11-month journey, in which he ended horse racings 37-year Triple Crown drought, raced mini-motorcycles on The Tonight Show and jived to La Bamba on Dancing With The Stars, Victor Espinoza looked up from the entrance of the Kentucky Derby Museums newest exhibit Sunday night to see his own face staring back from every direction.

For Espinoza, it was a surreal scene, at the end of a surreal year. Like walking into the final epilogue of your own biopic. The exhibit was opened to honor American Pharoah, the first horse since Affirmed in 1978 to sweep from Kentucky to Pimlico to Belmont Park. But in a grander sense, it was for all of horse racing, to revel in the lifting of a burden the sport had felt until last May, when Espinoza and American Pharoah first sat at the Churchill Downs gate.

In every corner of the room, mementos of Espinozas charmed run with The Greatest Living Racehorse stood enclosed in glass  the blue and yellow silks he wore, the saddle he rode, the trophies hed held in the Winners Circle. At one end stood a statue of him and American Pharoah, draped in a garland of fake roses. Hundreds of photos and newspaper clippings and even an oil painting hung on the exhibits walls, nearly all of them depicting the 42-year-old jockey atop the legendary horse. As he explored, Espinoza was overcome by pangs of nostalgia.

I didnt know what to say, Espinoza said. I never thought in my mind that (the Triple Crown) would really happen. And now, Im in a museum, a part of history.

As the Kentucky Derby returns this weekend, Espinoza seems particularly taken with this notion. But with the sport hoping to move forward, the jockey that rode his way to horse racing immortality now finds himself, in some ways, back at the start. Espinoza will mount 20-1 long-shot Whitmore on Saturday, a horse he only met earlier this week, and again, hell ride with history on the line. No jockey has won three straight Kentucky Derbys. Only six have won two in a row  a club that Espinoza joined last year  but of the previous five, none won another after his back-to-back wins.

This years field is wide open, with only undefeated Nyquist, trained by Hall of Fame trainer Doug ONeill, anywhere close to a clear favorite at 3-1. But ahead of this 142nd running, all anyone outside of racings inner circle really wants to talk about is the 141st.

For Espinoza, this is a difficult line to toe. He enjoys reliving the memory of his summer with American Pharoah, one hell almost certainly never match. But how does one move forward in a sport so focused on a near-unattainable goal when that goal is finally attained? How does one move on knowing theyll never quite reach that same high or live that history again?

No matter what happens now, it wont be the same, Espinoza said. It was 37 years. We made history. Im human. Im here just for a short time. But history, its here forever. Thats what we have.

  

What Espinoza didnt have, three weeks before his run at a third straight Derby win, was an actual horse for the race.

Summer was a whirlwind of talk shows and appearances and, eventually, dance rehearsals, so jam-packed that Espinoza did most of his sleeping on the go  in cars and on planes. The media tour felt endless and tiring. At times, he longed to return to the simplicity of the track. But for weeks and months, he continued on, knowing he and the sport might never have such an opportunity again. Its why he accepted an invite from Dancing With The Stars, in spite of a lot of heat from owners who privately called him selfish.

We could have just gone back about our business and concentrated on the everyday, his agent, Brian Beach, said. But I think it helped lift racings profile.

Espinozas racing profile, too, had never been higher. He won the Breeders Cup with American Pharoah in November and the Dubai Cup with California Chrome in March, putting the finishing touches on an historic year. Still, as the Derby drew closer, none of his potential mounts came to fruition. The threat of the Triple Crown-winning jockey not riding in the next years Kentucky Derby was, for a brief period, very real.

Beach admits to some anxiety about this  I dont like leaving things to the last minute like that, he says. But when Whitmores original jockey committed to ride a different Derby horse, trainer Ron Moquett chose Espinoza over five other jockeys who wanted into the field. A Triple Crown resume certainly didnt hurt.

At Santa Anita Park, a few days before the Derby, Espinoza walks the dirt path from the track to the jockey room, describing fondly what he sees in Whitmore, who he feels has never had a real chance to run. But soon, hes pulled away again. A woman asks for a photo. Another asks about American Pharoah. Win number three, Victor! one man cheers. The reminders are constant.

Outside the jockeys room, he wonders aloud what goals might lie ahead. Growing up poor in Mexico, Espinoza constantly set benchmarks to keep himself focused, mimicking the strategies of billionaires he idolized. But now, with over $186 million in lifetime earnings, a Triple Crown to his name, and wins in five of the last six Classics races, he has reached most of those marks he once set.

A third straight Kentucky Derby victory, however, would make for arguably the best three-year stretch in horse racing history. Not since Jimmy Winkfield in 1903 has a jockey even finished in the top three in the follow-up to consecutive Derby wins.

Calvin Borel, the last to win two in a row, finished 10th in his attempt at a third in 2011. Eddie Delahoussaye, who won the Derby in 1982 and 1983, had the best finish since Winkfield (4th place), but was disqualified after his horse, Gate Dancer, bumped another down the stretch.

Derby success, any jockey will remind you is fleeting and fortuitous. Delahoussaye, who went on to place in later Derby years, has seen winning jockeys lose their way before in search of it.

You cant worry about how youve done it before, how youre successful, Delahoussaye said. The Derby doesnt work that way. Every day is a different day, a different horse, a different race. You worry about that, and youll never ride a horse right again.

Even with the specter of last summer lingering, Espinoza insists he has no trouble focusing on the Derby, which he says will always remain a benchmark. Only three other jockeys  Eddie Arcaro, Bill Shoemaker, and Bill Hartack  have managed to win four times at Churchill Downs, and joining that rarefied air would cement his place alongside the greats.

At 42, there is time to add a few more to his mantle. But after a charmed run like his, Espinoza said he looks at things differently now. He knows the racing world may again never bend to his favor like it did with American Pharoah.

But the day I stop aiming for that is the day I probably stop riding, he said.

  

After meeting Whitmore for the first time on Tuesday, Espinoza made the drive east to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky. He was there to see an old friend.

American Pharoah looked so different from the last time hed seen him, six months earlier. He put on weight. He looked older, more mature. Still, when the horse peered down at the jockey, Espinoza could still sense the bond between them.

Its amazing how the time goes by, he said.

Theres a wistfulness to his voice, as he says it. Before long, hell be immortalized in the Hall of Fame, and forever, theyll remember him for helping unbind the sport from four decades of narrative shackles. But as he  and the rest of the sport  moves forward from the Triple Crown, the reality that he may never again ride a horse like American Pharoah or California Chrome has set in. To move past that realization is no easy thing.

Part of him, though, relishes the idea of riding an underdog. Few have given Whitmore a chance to win this weekend, and even as history pulls Espinoza back to last summer, the lure of proving himself again  on Whitmore or another horse  pushes him ahead.

Anything is possible, he said. If I told you last year that Id win the Triple Crown after 37 years  

At the thought, Espinozas voice trailed off. A grin stretched across his face.

I guess well just have to do that all over again, he said.

Contact the writer: rkartje@ocregister.com
The Pentagon has placed a small number of U.S. advisers on the ground in Yemen to support Arab forces battling al-Qaida, military officials said on Friday, signaling a new American role in that countrys multi-sided civil war.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said U.S. personnel had been in the country for about two weeks, supporting Yemeni and Emirati forces that are fighting a pitched battle against militants near the southeastern port city of Mukalla.

We view this as short-term, Davis told reporters.

Officials said the U.S. military is also providing Emirati forces with medical, intelligence and maritime support, and is flying surveillance and aerial refueling missions.

In addition, it has staged ships from the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit off Yemens coast. The flotilla includes the USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship with Marine infantry and aircraft, and two destroyers, the USS Gravely and the USS Gonzalez.

Col. Patrick Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said the United States is helping the Arab forces plan operations as part of its limited mission in and around Mukalla.

We welcome operations undertaken by Yemeni Forces, with the support of Arab Coalition Forces, to liberate the Yemeni port city of Mukalla from control by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Ryder said in an email.

A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive operations, said that the U.S. presence, approved at the request of the United Arab Emirates, was way small.

Even a tiny military footprint marks a milestone for U.S. involvement in the Yemeni conflict, which 11/2 years ago brought an end to a long-running U.S. mission there against AQAP.

After the internationally recognized Yemeni government, unable to contain Shiite Houthi rebels, collapsed at the end of 2014, the United States was forced to pull out Special Operations troops who had been training and advising their Yemeni peers.

The departure was a blow to U.S. efforts to battle AQAP, which has long been considered the most menacing al-Qaida branch and which has seized on the chaos of the ongoing conflict to strengthen its military position.

Since then, the United States has confined its military activities mostly to supporting a Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthi rebels, which the kingdom sees as an Iranian proxy force. The Pentagon has provided some intelligence and aerial support to the Saudi-led air war.

The new U.S. advisory team will support Emirati troops and Yemeni forces loyal to the old government as they seek to capitalize on recent headway against AQAP in Mukalla, which was seized by militants last year.

Ilan Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the U.S. presence would reinforce an encouraging trend. This is exactly the type of situation where a little bit of American support goes a long way, he said.

President Obamas preference for using small Special Operations teams to conduct targeted operations or advise partner forces has been a hallmark of his global security strategy.

U.S. officials also considered the Mukalla offensive a success because it marked an unprecedented coalition action against AQAP. American officials have long encouraged Saudi Arabia to broaden its focus in Yemen beyond the Houthis and have also complained of high civilian casualties in a conflict that has killed at least 6,000 people.

The United Nations continues to seek a political solution to the conflict in peace talks in Kuwait City.

Military officials declined to say what type of U.S. personnel were on the ground in Yemen or to provide their exact location. They are not in harms way, the U.S. official said.

Even after the end of its training mission, the United States has tried to contain AQAPs growth using periodic airstrikes of its own.

Davis said the United States has conducted four strikes against al-Qaida fighters since April 23, killing 10 militants and wounding one. In March the Pentagon announced it had killed more than 70 al-Qaida fighters in Yemen in one of the largest U.S. strikes conducted in the country since the beginning of operations there.

According to a database maintained by the online Long War Journal, the United States has conducted roughly 140 airstrikes in Yemen since 2002.
Hi, its me, Marla Jo, your columnist and deals maven. Check out my Cheapo Travel column in the Sunday Travel section. If you know a great deal, let me know at mfisher@ocregister.com. You can also find me at Deals Diva on Facebook and Twitter.

DINING DEAL

The Anaheim White House restaurant is celebrating 30 years in business by giving two $30 gift certificates, with a total value of $60, to the first 30 tables people reserved for any Friday night in May, i.e. May 13, 20 and 27. Use the certificates on your next visit. Only one per table, and cant be combined with other promotions. Mention this deal when you call to make your reservation at 714-772-1381.

FREE BOWLING

The annual AMC Kids Fest, in which kids bowl for one hour free, including shoes, is coming. This occurs Saturday, May 14, at numerous local AMF bowling centers. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Also deals: $1 Nathans hot dogs and sodas and special discounts on an hour of adult bowling, too. Learn more here: Amf.com/specials

FREE FLEA MARKET

If youre involved with a nonprofit, you can sell for free at the Orange County Market Place in Costa Mesa. This huge swap meet now has a Treasure Island section, just for selling used items, and theyre offering free space for 501 (c) (3) nonprofits and churches. Note: Everything for sale must be second-hand or otherwise used. Learn more by calling the corporate sales office at 949-723-6660 Mon.-Fri. or at Ocmarketplace.com. Location: 88 Fair Dr. Costa Mesa.

FREE CARE PACKAGE

Do you have a loved one deployed overseas in the service? Stater Brothers would like to send him or her a free care package from home with Stater Bros. brand goodies, snacks and more. Email charities@staterbros.com with the service members name, title and address. Yet another reason I shop at this local, family-owned grocery chain.

CATALINA DEAL

If you show your IKEA Family loyalty card at the Carson stores Smaland playroom, theyll give you a $5 off coupon for the Catalina Express ferry that can be used for up to six people, until May 26. This deal is only available at the Carson store, which you can easily see from the 405 north of Long Beach. If you shop at IKEA, you should join their free loyalty club for numerous deals and discounts, including free coffee and tea in their restaurant, an extra 30 minutes of free child care and more. Learn more: info.ikea-usa.com/FAMILY/

SAMPLE SALE

Like to wear clothes? LRG Clothings sample sale in Irvine will be May 13-15, from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. each day. Mens and womens clothing, accessories, backpacks, hats, watches and more. Items sold by weight, average savings 40-75 percent. Cash, Visa or MC. All sales final. Location: 7 Holland, Irvine.

WHITE SPORT COAT AND A PINK CRUSTACEAN

Like lobster? Note that Joes Crab Shack has is offering up a whole Maine Lobster for only $15 all day every Thursday, no coupon required. Im not sure how they can afford to make this offer, maybe they make up the difference on the drinks you order, but if you like lobster as much as I do, head on over. And if you want to get notice of deals like this, sign up for their loyalty club. JoesCrabShack.com

FRAME DOCTORS

If youve damaged your eyeglass frames, talk to the folks at Frame Doctors before you throw them away. They do soldering, welding, repainting, mending, bonding and even replace broken temples (side arms), usually within one day. 2140 W Chapman Ave. Orange, 714-939-2020 or framedoctors.com
BOGOTA, Colombia  Colombian authorities have arrested a prominent Panama businessman theyre calling the worlds most-wanted money launderer and froze assets belonging to dozens of companies linked to him that were allegedly used to hide millions in illegal drug profits.

The coordinated operation was announced Thursday as the U.S. Treasury Department froze assets belonging to 68 companies in this Central American nation and in Colombia under a drug kingpin designation.

On Friday, Colombian police showed videos taken during the arrest of Nidal Waked, who the U.S. has signaled as the co-leader with his uncle, Abdul Waked, of a money laundering network that stretched across an empire of real estate, financial and retail businesses in 14 Latin American nations.

Nidal Waked, 44, was arrested Wednesday night on a U.S. drug warrant upon arrival to Bogotas international airport from Panama City. Police said he seemed surprised but was cooperative and explained he had traveled to the Colombian capital on business and with a family member who he was accompanying for a medical appointment. Born in the Colombian city of Barranquilla, hes being held in Bogota pending a U.S. extradition request.

A statement from U.S. Attorneys Office in Miami described Nidal Waked as one of the most significant money launderers and drug traffickers in the world. If convicted, he faces up to 70 years in prison.

The U.S. law enforcement operation has come as a major shock to Panama, which is still reeling from a huge leak of documents known as the Panama Papers detailing how the worlds rich and famous used the Central American nation to hide their wealth. On Friday, the Obama administration announced tougher rules and proposed legislation to prevent wealthy individuals, including politicians, from using offshore shell companies to embezzle money or avoid paying taxes.

Panamas tradition for financial secrecy and crossroads location along the path of South American cocaine heading to the U.S. has long made it an attractive money-laundering center.

President Juan Carlos Varela, who was in Washington when the sting took place, said he had instructed his finance minister to work with U.S. authorities to protect the jobs of Panamanians affected by the asset freeze. He said Panamanian prosecutors are also investigating and banking regulators taking action so that depositors and capital markets arent hurt.

I want to assure Panamanians that our independent system of justice and regulators are doing their jobs, Varela said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Abdul Waked has taken distance from his nephews alleged actions, saying that he hadnt conducted any business with his older brothers family since the 1980s.

Hes not my partner and hes never been, Waked told Colombian radio station La W, adding that he was unaware of any money-laundering investigations against his companies until Thursday. I want to defend myself. My books are open. And Ill do everything to defend my honor, that of my family and my children.

Abdul Waked, who was born in Lebanon and immigrated to Colombias Caribbean coast, is behind some of Panamas highest-profile investments including a luxury mall, a bank and the countrys oldest newspaper, La Estrella de Panama. Grupo Wisa, the familys holding company, employs more than 6,000 people who work at duty-free zones at airports across the Americas, including Mexico Citys international terminals.

The base of operation was Panama Citys international airport, a major travel hub that has come under U.S. scrutiny before. In 2007, Grupo Wisa along with the owners of Panamas Copa Airlines paid $173 million to run the airports duty free zone.

A leaked 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks described the airport as tainted by a seamy underside of alien smuggling, money laundering, narcotics trafficking and corruption. Passengers in transit could launder money through the many jewelry, perfume and electronics shops found at every turn and which face little regulatory scrutiny, the cable said.

The duty-free zone at Tocumen is a good example of the kind of live-and-let live attitude permeating the airport, the cable said.

Grupo Wisa issued a terse statement saying the accusations are false and unfounded. The company said it had instructed its lawyers to cooperate fully in the investigation announced by Panamanian officials.

Its still unclear who they believe the Waked family was allegedly laundering drug proceeds for.

A law enforcement official, who agreed to discuss the matter only if not quoted by name because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly, said the family worked with a wide range of drug cartels from Colombia and Mexico as well as independent drug-trafficking organizations.

The indictment unsealed against Nidal Waked and a co-defendant alleges the two conspired to defraud Ocean Bank by misrepresenting transfers into their account at the Miami bank as loans from another financial institution in Panama.
BANGKOK  Myanmar recognizes 135 ethnic groups within its borders. But No. 136? They are the-people-who-must-not-be-named.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmars first democratically elected government since 1962, embraced that view last week when she advised the U.S. ambassador against using the term Rohingya to describe the persecuted Muslim population that has lived in Myanmar for generations.

Her government, like the previous military-led government, will not call the Rohingya people by that name because it does not recognize them as citizens, said her spokesman, Kyaw Zay Ya, a Foreign Ministry official.

We wont use the term Rohingya because Rohingya are not recognized as among the 135 official ethnic groups, said Kyaw Zay Ya, who was at the meeting. Our position is that using the controversial term does not support the national reconciliation process and solving problems.

The stance does not bode well for the Rohingya people or for rights activists who had hoped that Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, would reverse discriminatory policies that marginalized the Rohingya and prompted many to flee the country.

She is not saying anything about the Rohingya people in Myanmar and their rights to religion and education and health care, said Aung Win, a Rohingya community leader in Rakhine state. As a Nobel Peace Prize winner, why is she so silent?

The U.S. Embassy confirmed that the newly arrived ambassador, Scot A. Marciel, had met with Suu Kyi but would not comment on their discussions.

Suu Kyis stance on the issue of the Rohingyas name has taken on great significance as her party, the National League for Democracy, establishes the countrys first nonmilitary government in decades. Barred by the military-drafted constitution from serving as president, Suu Kyi holds the posts of state counselor and foreign minister, among others, but she is the countrys de facto leader. The new government took over in March.

The Rohingya in Myanmar, Muslims in a primarily Buddhist land, are denied many basic rights, including citizenship, freedom of worship, education, marriage and freedom of travel. More than 100,000 who were driven from their homes by violence in 2012 remain in resettlement camps. Many Rohingya have fled by boat on dangerous sea voyages.

Many nationalist Buddhists reject the name Rohingya and call them Bengalis, implying that they are interlopers from across the border in Bangladesh, a position also taken by the former military government.

The U.S. Embassy recently drew criticism for using the word Rohingya in a statement expressing condolences for the deaths of at least 20 people whose boat capsized on April 19 off the coast of Rakhine.

Nationalist Buddhists challenged the new Myanmar government to protest the Americans use of the word and staged a demonstration outside the United States Embassy in Yangon.

At an April 28 news conference, Marciel responded by saying that it was standard practice around the world to let communities decide for themselves what to be called.

And normally, when that happens, we would call them what they want to be called, he said. Its not a political decision; its just a normal practice.

Suu Kyis decision to raise the issue with Marciel the next day was an apparent concession to the extremists and was welcomed by the nationalist Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, also known as Ma Ba Tha.

We dont want that word because they are not our nationality, said Thaw Bar Ka, a leader of the group. And now I read the news that the Foreign Ministry agrees with us. Its really good. At first, I thought the new government would be useless on this issue.

Rights advocates, however, expressed disappointment that Suu Kyi was not willing to go against popular opinion and publicly support a dispossessed people.

Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch, noted that President Barack Obama had used the word Rohingya when he spoke at Yangon University during his visit to Myanmar in 2012.

Its dismaying that the new NLD-led government is continuing this wrongheaded effort to police the language of Yangon-based diplomats about the Rohingya, Robertson said, referring to the National League for Democracy. The U.S. and other governments need to stand up to this pressure and assert that they accept the rights of the Rohingya to call themselves what they want.

Kyaw Zay Ya said Suu Kyi had not ordered the Americans to stop using the word or threatened any consequences if they continued to do so.

We dont want anyone to use the word Rohingya because its not an official word, he said. But if members of the international community use that word, we wont object officially.
California in November will elect a new U.S. senator for the first time in 24 years. To replace four-term Sen. Barbara Boxer, who decided not to seek re-election, we endorse Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Orange, because she has demonstrated incredible judgment on the most crucial issues of our generation, taking tough stands in the face of tremendous opposition.

When thinking deeply about the most consequential policy decisions made by Congress in the past two decades, the vote to invade Iraq in 2003 should be at the top of the list. The loss of life, the standing of the United States globally, the drain on economic resources, the national debt and the deeper political divisions in our country arguably flow from that congressional authorization of war.

Hindsight has led many members of Congress who voted for the war to regret their actions. But only a minority of members of Congress can say that they voted no at the time. Rep. Sanchez is one of the few that stood up against public opinion and political pressure to vote her conscience.

Too many of my colleagues have rushed to use the military for every single thing, she told us. The military is the last thing I want to do, she added, and should be utilized only after diplomacy and all other options had been exhausted.

When pressed about when it is appropriate to send American citizens to war, the congresswoman, whose husband was in the military and whose son is currently serving, asserted that she would picture what she would say to the mother of a dead soldier to determine if military conflict was worth the cost. Her discernment on military matters and experience as a member of both the House Armed Services and Homeland Security committees alone eminently qualifies her to represent California in the Senate.

Aside from the Iraq War vote, Rep. Sanchez has also shown independence of thought when voting to oppose the USA PATRIOT Act, a law that has led to the expansion of executive power and unprecedented government surveillance of Americans private data and communications. She also voted against the $700 billion bank bailout in 2008 when it was politically unpopular for legislators of either party to do so.

This is not to say that Rep. Sanchez has a perfect voting record, but, rather, that when she is faced with the biggest and most complex decisions, she typically makes the correct choice. It is those big issues such as war and the surveillance of millions of Americans that have a greater impact on citizens lives than perhaps anything else Congress has done. For these reasons, Rep. Sanchez is the right choice for the United States Senate.
The coroners office on Saturday identified one of two men who died early Thursday morning when a car that flipped on I-5 freeway in Tustin, just south of the 55.

Santa Ana resident Edgar Garfias Ramirez, 21, was pronounced dead at the scene of head injuries. The name of the second victim, a 22-year-old Tustin man, has not been released. Both were passengers in the car.

Isaac Sauceda, 19, of Santa Ana, was driving at 12:11 a.m. on when he veered off the road, according to a California Highway Patrol report.

The maroon 2008 Scion TC then crashed into a raised asphalt curb before going airborne and overturning onto its roof into a dirt and ice plant area.

Orange County Fire Authority firefighters used the jaws of life to extricate them from the mangled vehicle by cutting off the roof and popping open the doors, OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi said.

Sauceda was not intoxicated at the time of the crash, CHP Officer Florentino Olivera said.

He was sitting on the side of the freeway when firefighter paramedics arrived, Concialdi said. He was transported in moderate condition with a head injury to Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana.

Investigators are asking any witnesses to call the CHP Santa Ana office at 714-567-6000.

Contact the writer: aduranty@ocregister.com
Tyler Armstrong is determined to be the youngest person to climb Mount Everest, but in the meantime he wants to tackle another tough summit.

Tyler, 12, was recently denied a permit for this spring to scale Mount Everest, the worlds tallest mountain, by the Chinese government because of his age. If he gets a permit next year he could still set the record.

Meanwhile, he will attempt to climb Alaskas Denali, formerly known as Mount McKinley, in June.

Denali is considered by some climbers to be the most challenging of the Seven Summits, Tylers father, Kevin Armstrong, said of the 20,310-foot mountain.

Tyler has scaled three of the Seven Summits  being the youngest person to trek the tallest mountain on each continent is another goal. He plans to attempt Australias Mount Kosciuszko, the shortest of the peaks at 7,310 feet, in August.

Tyler is trying to raise $1 million toward a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which causes progressive muscle degeneration and weakness, primarily affecting boys.

The financial support Tyler had lined up for Mount Everest evaporated. He is seeking financial help for his trip to Denali, which is expected to cost $45,000.

Tyler hopes that successfully climbing Denali it will help him get an exemption to climb Mount Everest.

Learn more about Tylers climbs at topwithtyler.com.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7868 or desalazar@ocregister.com
SAN CLEMENTE  If you are queasy about the smell of rotted whale carcass, you may want to avoid Lower Trestles the next couple of weeks.

If you are a hardcore surfer, chances are youll ignore that.

A week after the decomposing remains of a 60,000-pound whale were carted away from one of Americas premier surf beaches, the crowds are returning to normal at Lower Trestles, a spot known to attract multitudes of surfers from newbies to world champions.

Thursday evening, about 40 surfers packed the point at Lowers, jockeying for waves, even as lingering odors from the 40-foot whale continued to permeate the beach.

It kind of smells bad on the beach still, said Malia Ward, 18, of San Clemente. Its kind of nice, because it hasnt been crowded. People are still a little paranoid. But no bad feelings, no shark sightings, no nothing. Its been so good! Ive been getting so many waves, and less hassling in the water.

While the beached whale sat high, dry and malodorous April 24-29, Trestles waves were mostly small, windblown, junky and devoid of surfers. Surfers resolve was not put to the test.

I dont think anyone would have stopped surfing if there had been waves, said Jim Pinkerton, a former national surf champion who was at Lowers with his daughter Kirra.

David Economos, 16, said he was wary that the remnant odors might attract sharks.

But as soon as I saw everyone was out, I just came back out, he said. As soon as it got good, everyone came back out. Its pretty crowded. Its kind of hard to get waves.

The cobblestone reef a mile south of San Clemente is North Americas only stop on the World Surf Leagues elite tour. From April 24-29, it drew worldwide notoriety because a dead gray whale  drifting offshore, zigzagging down the coast, shifting direction with each turn of the winds  ended up smack on the prized point at Lowers.

The news headlines and the looky-loos the whale attracted led some surfers to ask why the whale wasnt towed out to sea when first spotted 3.5 miles off Dana Point at midday April 22.

Todd Mansur, a whale-watching skipper with Dana Wharf Sportfishing, said he saw no cause for alarm that day because currents appeared to be carrying the whale out to sea.

We kept checking in with that whale all through the day, he said. It was moving outward. It hadnt started to decompose. My best guess was that when the whale bloated, it gave itself a sail. So instead of being controlled by the currents that were taking it out, it was now vulnerable to the wind, which brought it in. By the time it was sighted  there was no time to react.

Rich Haydon, area state parks superintendent, said lifeguards had about 45 minutes heads-up. He said the states rescue boat at Dana Point was down for maintenance and another boat there was short a required deckhand. Lifeguards were mobilizing their Huntington Beach boat when the whale carcass came to rest on Trestles exposed reef at low tide.

As local officials pondered the logistics of trying to tow it off the reef, the whale fully beached. State parks settled on a contractor with experience removing beached whales to a landfill in dump trucks.

The contractor did a great job, Haydon said. Not much of a residual smell. Im hoping we can just close that chapter.

For the future, Haydon said he hopes for a protocol where lifeguards up and down the coast are alerted if a dead whale is offshore. Mansur said Dana Wharf reported the dead whale to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as required.

All the boaters knew about it, he said.

The whale wasnt reported seen again until near the beach.

From these situations we learn, Mansur said. Im going to try to pass the word around.

Justin Greenman, NOAAs assistant stranding coordinator in California, said 30 dead whales washed ashore in California or were spotted afloat and never made landfall last year. Towing is an option, he said, but can be expensive and the animal must be moved far enough out so it wont just end up on shore.

Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127
Chennai: Union environment minister Prakash Javadaker accused the Dravidian majors of playing a cruel joke on the voters by making false assurances on implementing total prohibition and forming Lok Ayuktha. Also, he charged Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa with copying Prime Minister Narendra Modis schemes and announcing them as her own in her partys poll manifesto.

While the ruling AIADMK prevented the Centres good schemes from reaching people of Tamil Nadu, the opposition DMK appeared to make peculiar promises.

Both the AIADMK and the DMK are talking about Lok Ayuktha and introducing total prohibition in Tamil Nadu. This is something unheard of. If Lok Ayuktha comes the leaders of both these parties will be in jail. So, this only means they will not allow Lok Ayuktha to be formed. Their promise is mere lip service, Mr. Javadekar said on Friday.

Similarly on the prohibition issue, their assurances would never materialise. It is because both AIADMK and DMK are for the liquor lobby, by the liquor lobby and of the liquor lobby; and not for democracy. They are playing a cruel joke on the people of Tamil Nadu and think voters can be taken for a ride, he told reporters here on Friday. These parties construed Tasmac as the major source of revenue for these parties, he added.

The minister who had earlier raised the issues of CM Jayalalithaa inaccessible and TN government claiming credit for Central schemes; said the AIADMK poll manifesto had Amma stamp on the Central schemes. The Thuimai Grammam is nothing but Modis Swachch Bharat. When we have planned this scheme for entire India, can we not carry this out in Tamil Nadu? he asked and said Ms. Jayalalithaas promise of free internet was also borrowed from the BJP government which was implementing the free broadband for 2.5 lakh village panchayats across India.

TN would also benefit through our free broadband scheme but the Jayalalithaa government had declined to grant us permission to lay the cables in the state, Mr Javadekar said. The minister also accused the AIADMK government of not signing a MoU for harnessing wind energy.

On Ms Jayalalithaas assurance on providing 80 per cent subsidy to replace worn out agricultural pumpsets, he said his government was the first to announce free replacement of pump sets for farmers.
DANA POINT  Groups of mother and baby gray whales delighted beachgoers and whale-watchers, Thursday, as they spy-hopped, rolled and filter-fed in coves along the South Orange County coastline.

Capt. Todd Mansur, of Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching, saw his first group of eight whales  four mothers and four babies  off the Dana Point Headlands at noon.

He had been tipped off that they might be en route by Carla Mitroff, a naturalist for the whale-watch company, who had stopped off for a look at the ocean near Las Pulgas Road earlier in the morning on her way to Oceanside.

RELATED: Surfers get a thrill from spy-hopping whales off Huntington Beach pier

Mansur followed the whales as they swam past Strand Beach and Salt Creek Beach, then headed in to shore at Monarch Cove and played for an hour.

It was like they were on a playground and they didnt have a care in the world, he said.

Experts say the number of gray whale calves that have been spotted with their mothers off Orange and Los Angeles county beaches this season is on pace to be the highest seen on a northern migration in 33 years.

Wayne Perryman, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has studied the effects of how the reduced amount of ice in the Bering Sea in the spring has given the whales more time to feed  and led to a baby boom.

In the last five years weve had less ice in the springtime and the whales get to the feeding grounds early, Perryman said. This is why theyre so successful. Its had a dramatic impact on their reproduction.

The 6,000-mile northbound migration begins at Baja and ends in the feeding grounds of the Bering Sea. The first gray whales start passing the Southern California coastline in early March, without babies. The mothers and calves seen now stay in the lagoons of Baja for up to eight weeks  so calves can grow and learn to swim.

Mansur and his passengers watched the whales for an hour until they stopped playing and headed up the coast toward Laguna Beach.

After he turned his boat back south toward Dana Point, Mansur caught sight of another species: Pacific white-sided dolphins who were jumping out of the surf. Marine biologists know them as avid bow-riders and acrobatic jumpers.

Mansur and his group watched as they launched, plunged and belly-flopped through the air and into waves. Some jumped up and fell sideways playing in the water.

The dolphins are smaller than common dolphins and dramatic in their physical markings. Their back is black and their sides are light gray with thin, white stripes that go from above the eye along the sides, widening toward the tail. The have a black beak and lips and a black ring around each eye. Their bellies are white.

Mansur continued toward Dana Point Harbor to pick up his second group of whale-watch passengers. As he headed back out past the Dana Point Headlands, he spotted another 12 gray whales, six pairs of mothers and their babies swimming north.

On Thursday night, Mansur saw another group of four pairs off Thousand Steps Beach in South Laguna.

Its like a highway out here, he said, laughing.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or Twitter:@lagunaini
TORONTO  With the Dodgers bullpen, it seems to be deja blew all over again.

A little over a month into his first season as Dodgers manager, Dave Roberts is learning the same painful lesson Don Mattingly had to learn every year  its just a matter of time before his circle of bullpen trust narrows to the circumference of Kenley Jansens wingspan.

Joe Blanton is the most recent Dodgers reliever to earn Roberts trust. Originally signed for a long relief role, he had pitched well enough to move into higher-leverage situations recently as other setup men fell by the wayside.

Roberts turned to Blanton in a tie game Friday night at Rogers Centre and Blanton gave up the decisive three-run home run to Kevin Pillar that gave the Toronto Blue Jays a 5-2 victory over the Dodgers.

The home run was the eighth given up by Dodgers pitchers in the first three games of this interleague road trip. The Dodgers have now lost 10 of their past 13 games in American League stadiums.

I think after the first month you let things play themselves out. But its a performance-based game and I think Joe has earned the right to pitch towards the back end, Roberts said of Blanton who had allowed just one run and four hits in his first 12 appearances this season.

With Joe, I just felt with his usage the past few days and the way hes been throwing the baseball, it was a no-brainer of having him come in for that spot in the seventh and to finish off the eighth.

Roberts has no doubt felt the same way at times this season about Chris Hatcher and Pedro Baez and Yimi Garcia and  each has failed him at times, leaving questions about where the first-year manager can turn.

Outside of Kenley, theres really no set roles. Ive expressed that to the guys and theyre all open to it, Roberts said. Theres been some good innings. Weve also given up some home runs late. But Im going to keep putting them out there. Im going to keep putting these guys out there.

I feel with all these guys there are certain guys that match up better against.  I like our guys. There have been some very good innings but if you look back at their outings, theyre victims of one pitch, two bad pitches. But theyre big pitches. So those are things we obviously have to eliminate.

Dodgers starter Kenta Maeda made just one bad pitch in his six innings. Jose Bautista punished him for it, launching the hanging slider into the seats for a two-run home run in the sixth innings. It was one of only two hits allowed by Maeda.

But Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman was just as good. He gave up a two-out single to Justin Turner in the first inning then didnt allow the Dodgers to hit another ball out of the infield until  a two-out single by Turner in the sixth.

In the seventh, the Dodgers matched Bautistas homer with a string of two-out hits  back-to-back doubles by Joc Pederson and Carl Crawford and an RBI single by Chase Utley. It was left to the bullpens to decide things.

Penalty kicks might have been better for the Dodgers.

Blanton came on with two outs in the seventh and a bases-loaded mess left behind by Adam Liberatore. But Blanton got reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson to pop out, defusing that situation.

He couldnt survive another one. With one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Edwin Encarnacion doubled off Blanton. The Dodgers intentionally walked the left-handed Justin Smoak to bring up the right-handed Pillar.

At that point with a base open late in the game, youre not going to let the lefty beat you, Roberts said. I loved the matchup with Pillar and (Russell) Martin on deck. Got ahead in the count. He had him 1-2. Threw a fastball down and in. Pillar put a good swing on it.

Pillars line drive just cleared the fence in left field.

That was the machup I kind of wanted, Blanton said. I got ahead of him, had him where I thought I wanted him, tried to come inside. He hit it.

Contact the writer: bplunkett@ocregister.com
SCOIL Bhride, Clara was one of sixteen lucky schools to be chosen to take part in a unique collaborative, cross curricular project in association with Irish Rail and Galway, Athlone, Portlaoise, Kildare and Drumcondra Education Centres.

SCOIL Bhride, Clara was one of sixteen lucky schools to be chosen to take part in a unique collaborative, cross curricular project in association with Irish Rail and Galway, Athlone, Portlaoise, Kildare and Drumcondra Education Centres.

The Keep on Track project connects sixteen schools and stations from Galway to Dublin along the Inter City Rail Line. Each school was assigned a station and asked to tell the story of that station through a variety of formats.

Through blog posts on line, all the hard work and efforts of the children and their teachers was accumulated and presented.

The Keep on Track project came about in Scoil Bhride when the Director of Athlone Education Centre, Frank Walsh approached the school to ask them to tell the story of Clara Train Station.

Fifth class of Scoil Bhride was only too eager to become involved in the project and was chosen to represent their school and Clara Train Station.

Since January the girls and their teacher Ms Triona OLone have been creating timetables, making model trains, researching for mini-projects, writing poems and stories and creating fabulous artwork all in association with trains and Clara Train Station.

As part of the project fifth class had to visit the local station. They were lucky to have a brilliant tour guide and an employee of Irish Rail, Eoin Brennan to show them around the station and answer all the girls questions.

They had a great visit learning about the history of the station, the daily running of the station, watching two trains arrive and depart and taking plenty of photographs.

On June 9 a launch day was held in the Radisson Hotel in Galway in which schools presented their Project Findings. A Special Iarnrod Eireann train brought all schools involved to and from Galway for the day of celebration, and a celebration it certainly was.

All the girls of fifth class had a fantastic day meeting all the other schools and had a chance to see all the work the other schools completed. Each school was presented with a certificate for their hard work and Paul the MC kept all the children greatly entertained for the day.

It was a particularly special day for Scoil Bhride, Clara and one pupil of fifth class. At the beginning of the project all the children of each school had to create a logo for the Keep on Track project. The best logo would win a special prize and appear on the certificates awarded to each school.

Aoife Digan was the very lucky and talented winner from our school. Aoife designed a fabulous, colourful logo of a railway surrounded by each of the stations involved in the project and a smiling sun. Aoife was very surprised and delighted with her prize. She did her school and class very proud.

After all the hard work the girls completed during the year the day in Galway was an occasion which went above and beyond our expectations, a special thanks to everyone who made it possible.

The Keep on Track project was a fantastic experience for everyone involved and the teachers and pupils of Scoil Bhride will remember it for many years to come.
Thiruvananthapuram: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday questioned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "silence" on the brutal rape and murder of a Kerala Dalit law student and said he has "no time" to visit her family just because it happened in a state ruled by his party.

Attacking the Congress leader, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said Rahul "politicised" the suicide of Rohith Vemula by twice visiting Hyderabad and questioned if he had done so as the state was ruled by a non-Congress government.

"The student was raped and murdered in Kerala. Rahul has no time to visit because his party is ruling the state. He visits Hyderabad twice to politicise students suicide.

Read: Kerala rape case: Pervert held for Dalit law student's murder

"Kerala people are asking why when a student and a Dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered Rahul is not visiting Kerala. They are reminded that he visited Hyderabad twice. Is it only because it's a state ruled by non-Congress government?," he said at an election rally in Chelakara in Thrissur district.

Kerala people are asking why when a student and a dalit girl was brutally raped and murdered Rahul is not visiting kerala.  M Venkaiah Naidu (@MVenkaiahNaidu) May 7, 2016

Naidu also attacked former Defence Minister A K Antony for his "BJP-free Kerala" remark, saying Antony wants "corruption to continue" in the poll-bound state whereas BJP wants a "corruption-free Kerala".

Read: Kerala rape case: Locals hostile, probe slackens

"We want corruption free Kerala and Shri A K Antony wants BJP free Kerala. May be he wants corruption to continue. Congress and Communists are worried about BJP gaining ground in Kerala. Beware they may come together and exchange votes," he also tweeted.

Attacking the previous UPA government, Naidu said "most dirty scams had happened during the time of Mr. Clean 1 Sri Manmohan Singh and Mr Clean 2 Sri AK Antony."

He also took a dig at the "understanding" between the Left and Congress in West Bengal assembly elections, saying

"Congress and Left!!! Bengal mein dosti, Kerala mein kusti. Yeah kya hai?"
The longest-standing store in Sears chain will close in August after 90 years in operation. A liquidation sale at the store in Chicagos Ravenswood neighborhood will start May 19, said Sears Holdings spokesman Howard Riefs. The store opened in November 1925. Store closures are part of a series of actions were taking to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model, Riefs said.

Shares of Herbalife surged Friday after the company disclosed that its in advanced talks to settle a federal investigation into claims that the company essentially operates as a pyramid scheme. Its a claim that has dogged the company for years and set off what has become an epic battle with activist investor Bill Ackman, who has been waging a campaign against Herbalife since late 2012. Herbalife, which sells supplements and weight-loss products, said in a regulatory filing that the possible settlement with the Federal Trade Commission would likely include a monetary payment and injunctive and other relief.
Museum exhibits: The Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum opens two new exhibitions in conjunction with National Travel & Tourism Week today.

The exhibit opening includes a meet and greet with photographer Abby Jensen from 10 a.m. to noon. Beauty in Flight features 21 prints by photographer Abby Jensen from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Jensen will be at the Museum from 10 a.m. to noon to greet guests during her exhibit opening. The exhibit is a selected display of prints capturing the raw beauty and motion of flight.

"Caproni & World Pioneers of Aviation" features iconic aircraft produced by innovators following the successful controlled flight by the Wright brothers. Featured prints include the Caproni Ca-8 which revolutionize Italian military aviation, the 1909 Bleriot Mono-plane that set several records and became the most copied mono-plane design of the era, and the 1911 Curtiss Hydro which we become the first aircraft to not only successfully make a water landing but also a takeoff.

Exhibits are included with general admission: $12 adult; $11 seniors and Military; $6 youth older than 4.

Charity garage sale: Head to a garage sale to benefit Homeward Bound in the Heartland Saturday at 1214 N. Monroe St. in Papillion. The animal shelter will have books, clothing, stuffed animals, jewelry and other items available for sale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. All proceeds benefit Homeward Bound.

New playground: Hundreds of community volunteers will work to build a new playground at Phoenix Academy, 1110 N. 66th St., Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Construction will run from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2:30.

Concert: Greenblatt & Seays Schoolhouse Performance Series will feature a performance of The Feminist Manifesto on Sunday at The Old Avoca Schoolhouse in Avoca, Nebraska. The 2:30 p.m. event is $5 for adults and $1 for children and students.

Free comics: Kypton Comics, 2819 S. 125th Ave., celebrates Free Comic Book Day Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nell Campbell from The Rocky Horror Picture Show will be on-site from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 5 p.m. signing autographs. Other guests and local artists will make appearances, too. Hundreds of free comic books will be given away. Those who come in costume will be entered to win a costume contest. Go online to facebook.com/kryptoncomics/ for more information.

Cinco de Mayo: Head to South 24th Street to see a parade celebrating Cinco de Mayo beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday. The annual event will run south down 24th Street from D to L Streets. Go online to cincodemayoomaha.com for more information about the event.
Fact Check: This BJP worker from Gujarat is not rooting for AAP in the state

After AAP, Congress is the emerging drama queen of Indian politics

Feature

oi-Pallavi

By Pallavi

Yesterday's fiasco over Sonia, Rahul and Manmohan Singh's arrest for leading the 'Save Democracy' march is etched in our minds. As never before have we seen a senior Congress leader (sic Renuka Chowdhury) mounting a gate and clinging to it shouting protest against the arrest.

But wasn't that cliche to another party that we know of? The Aam Aadmi Party entered the field of politics with drama and is continuing to set standards in that field (remember Arvind Kejriwal's night out outside the Rail Bhavan).

The drama permeates across parties-old or new. But what strikes us the most is the hullabaloo surrounding it.

AAP, Congress play the characters, BJP plays the audience

After the Congress protests yesterday, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was seen Tweeting:

BJP n Congress both r dharna parties. They do dharnas almost everyday. Today, BJP on dharna against itself. Only AAP delivers governance  Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) May 6, 2016

Probably Arvind Kejriwal forgot his own Dharna days. But Delhiites remember sir; the 4 metro stations that were shut down becuase of his ill-famed Rail Bhavan Dharna. The roads were clogged and commuters had a harrowing time reaching home, office or hospitals. That's governance for you!

The Rail Bhavan protest diaries

Congress protests yesterday were similar in cause and reason like that of the Congress's protest yesterday. The arrest of Delhi transport minister Saurabh Bhardwaj and the assault of AAP legislator from Model Town Akhileshpati Tripathi.

The drama started when the Delhi Police did not suspend four police officers who allegedly did not perform their duties. AAP's ministers Somnath Bharti had raided a drug and sex racket run by Kenyans and anothe minister Rakhi Birla demanded the arrest of the in-laws of a woman who burnt her alive.

[Read: Sonia, Rahul, Manmohan detained; released later ]

This was followed by a dharna when their demands were not met. AAP blocked the Raj Path ahead of the Republic Day celebrations. Creating a national drama, he said that the nation cannot celebrate freedom when rapes are commonplace in the capital city. Kejrwial went ehead and said that all thegovernment office work will be done from outside the Rail Bhawan (Nayak style).

And the list goes on!

The road to 'Save democracy' to 'Sonia Bachao'

The path was not easy. Mostly considered as a hideout for the Congress ministers named in the AugustWestland case, the 'save democracy' protests were more of an attention deviation.

An old political tactic, which triggered the party sentiments. Suddenly, Sonia became more important for the party than the dying farmers whom Rahul Gandhi claimed to be the 'sons of the soil' and ill-treated by the present government.

[Read: Truce between warring factions? Yadav, Kejriwal camps discuss modalities of 'AAP expansion']

Back to square one

Old habits are hard to die, they say and Arvind Kejriwal proves it. Just a day after his claiming that the Congress and the BJP are dharna parties, Kejriwal is back to his old habits. This time, he is lambasting both the parties for their alleged involvement in the AgustaWestland scam.

However, that is not all. There has been a huge gap between their last protest and the present one. No wonder, the 'expressions' have been piling up. The JNU protests were dragged, the 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' fiasco.

Just four hours into the day, more is in store. So, Netizens, brace yourself for more spoof!
Dear Kejriwal, there are more important issues than Modi's degrees

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

Arvind Kejriwal is at it again. The chief minister of Delhi refuses to let go the controversy surrounding the educational qualification of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After it came to light that Modi has a BA degree, Kejriwal has claimed that the degree is fake and it belongs to one Narendra Kumar Mahavir Prasad Modi and not Narendra Damodardas Modi, who came to power with an overwhelming majority in 2014.

The '3 Idiots' moment of Kejriwal-Modi tussle

Now, this '3 Idiots' moment of the latest controversy counts little apart from keeping Kejriwal in the limelight. Just like the confusion over a Gujarati named Ranchhoddas Shamaldas Chanchad in the 2009 Aamir Khan-starrer, the real-life confusion over another Gujarati called Modi is no less attractive for the media and its manipulator like Arvind Kejriwal. [Sorry Mr Kejriwal, you cannot call India's PM a 'psychopath']

But the question is: How does Modi's formal educational qualification matter? The PM is not just any other member or minister who can be cornered by just playing the qualification card. Before anything else, Modi is known to be an administrator who has led a progressive state like Gujarat for 13 years. [Media asked not to touch Modi degree row: Arvind Kejriwal]

He is neither a prime minister by accident nor has been nominated by a superior power centre. He is perhaps the first regional leader of the country to have single-handedly influenced the outcome of a national election.

Trying to expose Modi on grounds of educational qualification, hence, makes little sense.

Why this meaningless move makes a lot of sense for Kejriwal

But for Kejriwal, this senseless move makes a lot of sense. The AAP leader has renewed his old battle with Modi for two reasons.

One, a recent survey has said that still 74 per cent people back Modi as the prime minister. With three years to go for the next Lok Sabha election which Kejriwal is eyeing like a hawk, this is not a great news. Secondly, the administrator in Kejriwal met a disappointment after his much-acclaimed odd-even formula hit a wall. This certainly left Kejriwal's ego bruised and he had every reason to believe that he fell behind Modi in the race to the 2019 general polls.

The AAP chief, hence, put the focus on Modi's educational qualification. This is an issue that Kejriwal has capitalised on in the past as well. His own party had also seen people with dubious educational qualifications. This is something that connects well with India's moralistic middle-class and Kejriwal is no fool not to understand that.

But this weapon is far too weak to unsettle Modi; Did Manmohan's degrees come to any use?

But hoping to unsettle Modi with that weapon is perhaps too ambitious. It's not just Modi's proven record as an administrator that shields him against such charge. The fact that he is the immediate successor to Manmohan Singh, who perhaps has an educational qualification unparalleled among the current breed of politicians but mattered little as an administrator, makes Modi invincible against the latest charge. Formal education has very little to do with administrative prowess.

Kejriwal's tirade against Modi is for his own personal benefit

However, it is also expected that Kejriwal will continue with his tirade against Modi for his own benefit. Being a leader with a limited reach but unlimited ambition, Kejriwal's only way forward is by chasing Modi and ride on the latter's popularity.

The AAP leader had started his political career as a crusader against corruption but after the goof-up after 49 days in 2013-14, tactically transformed himself into crusader against Modi.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, he even contested against Modi from Varanasi, proving the extent of risk he was ready to take just to enhance his political career for he had nothing else to offer to the people.
3 Indian naval ships in Dubai to bolster ties

India

oi-Oneindia

By OneIndia Defence Bureau

Bengaluru, May 7: Three ships of Indian Navy - INS Delhi, INS Tarkash and INS Deepak -- under the Command of Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, Rear Admiral Ravneet Singh arrived at Dubai on a four day visit.

Naval officials said that the trip is demonstration of India's commitment to maritime relations with countries in the Gulf.

The current visit also seeks to bolster the strong bonds of friendship between India and UAE and contribute to security and stability in the Indian Ocean Region.

During the visit, the crew would undertake professional interactions with the UAE Navy, towards enhancing co-operation between the two forces. The ships are also likely to conduct exercises with the UAE Navy.

Indian ships visited UAE last year too

INS Delhi is commanded by Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu, INS Tarkash by Capt Pradeep Singh and INS Deepak by Capt Sujit Kumar Chhetri.

Indian naval ships had last visited UAE in September 2015, including INS Delhi, INS Deepak, INS Trishul and INS Tabar.

Navy says bilateral relations between India and UAE are characterised by strong bonds of friendship based on cultural and economic ties dating back to nearly 3000 BC.

"These have been further strengthened in recent times by a vibrant economic relationship and growing convergence on security issues. UAE is India's second largest trading partner and Indians are the largest expatriate community in the UAE," says a Navy spokesperson.

Modi visit opened up new avenues

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the UAE in August 2015 opened up new avenues of a strategic partnership between the two countries.

Both nations had then agreed to cooperate in maritime security and strengthen defence relations. Modi along with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is scheduled to visit UAE from May 18.

Maritime cooperation between the two countries has increased steadily since the inaugural Navy-to-Navy staff talks in January 2007.

Navy says reciprocal port visits, high-level delegations and training exchanges have further bolstered naval cooperation between the two countries.

India and UAE are also members of Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS), a voluntary and co-operative initiative between 30 countries of the Indian Ocean Region, which has served as an ideal forum for sharing of information and cooperation on maritime issues.

OneIndia News
Vijayawada: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday hit out at opposition parties for criticising him over the special category status for Andhra Pradesh, even as he called on them to exert pressure on the Centre on the issue.

"Their criticism is meaningless. I am doing everything to secure special status for the state. I am constantly pursuing the issue with the Centre," Naidu said addressing a water conservation programme at Kurnool this evening.

Naidu asked the opposition parties also to apply pressure on the Centre over the special category status issue, which he said he was "pursuing relentlessly".

"I visited New Delhi 30 times (in the last two years). I have been repeatedly pleading with the Centre to aid the state by all means as we have suffered heavily due to the bifurcation," Naidu said.

He reaffirmed that the onus was on the Centre to extend due financial assistance to AP, including bridging the Rs 16,000 crore revenue deficit caused due to the bifurcation.

Naidu said the TDP aligned with the BJP only to safeguard the interests of the state.

"Just imagine what would happen if we did not align with the BJP," he said, and took a dig at the opposition that had been demanding that the ruling party severe ties with the NDA.

"If we listen to the opposition, we will only end up as the biggest losers," he remarked.

With some Union Ministers making it clear in Parliament that according special category status to AP was not possible, the opposition parties in the state have been demanding that the TDP pull out of the NDA.

While leader of opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy alleged that the chief minister mortgaged the state's interests with the Centre, the Congress and the Left parties, which lost their moorings in the state, too, threatened an agitation over the special status issue.

In the last few days, Naidu had been raising the issue almost daily at every forum and reminding the Centre, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, of the promise to grant special status to AP for "10 years" in the wake of the bifurcation.

The opposition parties have also directed their ire at the BJP in general and Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in particular for "ditching" the state on the special status.
AgustaWestland: After saying witness may have died, ED cites a little birdie to say he is alive

AgustaWestland spent Rs 28 lakh on this journalist

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, May 7: The Enforcement Directorate is hot on the trail of several persons alleged to be part of the AgustaWestland deal and will soon question journalists who were part of a junket to Italy.

While one journalist has been questioned in the past, the ED plans to further its probe in this regard.

However for the ED questioning a senior journalist on whom an amount of Rs 28 lakh was allegedly spent will be crucial to the probe. This journalist who was questioned last year too will be summoned again by the Enforcement Directorate.

An important trail:

James Christian Michel one of the middlemen was in charge of the media. His job was to ensure that the narrative did not go against AgustaWestland in the media.

In this regard he had organised junkets for officials and media personnel as well. During the investigation, the ED found that Michel had spent Rs 4 crore only on the tickets which were meant for the junkets.

Among the various names that have cropped up, the ED is also probing the role of journalists in this case.

A senior journalist is on the scanner of the ED as the agency attempts to find out his exact relationship with Michel. It has also been found that this journalist who was with a Hindi news channel had travelled with his wife on a junket allegedly sponsored by AgustaWestland.

The ED wants to know the exact nature of the relationship between AgustaWestland and the journalist. The ED alleges that only on the journalist and his family an amount of Rs 28 lakh had been spent.

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 14:49 [IST]
Assam Elections: BJP-led alliance in danger; partners to backstab Modi?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Maitreyee Boruah

It has been a long wait, but definitely not an easy one for the political leaders of Assam. This election season, politicos of the northeastern state have learnt the art of waiting patiently for the results.

The voters decided the faith of the party leaders in the two-phase Assam Assembly Elections 2016 in the state that got over on April 11. Now, the result date is nearing, slated to be declared on May 11. Thus political activities have once again gained momentum in the state.

If reports in the local media are to be believed, the BJP is likely to lose its key allies the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland Peoples' Front (BPF), post the results, if the Congress gets maximum numbers of seats. Before the elections, the BJP had made an alliance with the AGP and BPF to give a tough fight to the incumbent chief minister Tarun Gogoi of Congress.

Congress woos AGP?

Many poll-assessments predicted that Gogoi would be ousted by the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance. It was a coup of sort when the BJP managed to forge an alliance with the AGP and BPF. However, now it looks the partnership is in danger of ending.

According to reports the Congress is keen to work out a post-poll arrangement with the AGP. As per a report published in The Times of India, a Congress strategist said if the party ended up as the single-largest party, it'd look towards AGP.

"The AGP wouldn't want to stay allied to the BJP if the latter gets lesser seats than the Congress. Anything more than 55 seats, the governor will be bound to invite the Congress to prove its majority. Getting eight to nine MLAs shouldn't be difficult," the Congress strategy-maker said.

However, former CM and AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta rubbished such theories. He said: "The Congress's idea is just a political strategy. The BJP-led alliance will form the government."

BJP loses BPF?

On the other hand, reports suggest that BPF is also rethinking on its alliance with the BJP. The party in its forthcoming two-day conference, starting from May 13, is likely to discuss on other options of government formation.

"The five-month-old BJP-BPF partnership was built on the promise of a Rs 1,000-crore package from the Centre for the Bodo Territorial Council. It ran into rough weather after PM Narendra Modi failed to announce the deal when addressing a BPF rally at Kokrajhar in January," stated The Times of India report.

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 14:59 [IST]
India raises worrying trend of children being used for terror at UN

Rushdie attack a reminder of how big a threat Iran is to the US, others

The two widows fighting for justice for the Munich victims

Four terror suspects released by Delhi police

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, May 7: The Delhi Police has released four terror suspects that it had detained last week. The Delhi police had claimed to have busted a major module of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and even stated that these persons were planning a Pathankot like attack.

The police decided to release the four persons as there was nothing that was found on them. The police however continues to have in their custody five more persons.

These persons were remanded in police custody. The police continues to question them in a bid to unravel more details regarding an alleged terror plot.

Last week the Delhi police had arrested nine persons in connection with a terror plot. The police picked up some of the accused from Delhi while the rest were detained from Uttar Pradesh.

The police had claimed that these persons were part of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and had plotted several attacks.

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 17:16 [IST]
JU campus on fire for controversial film screening and molestation

India

oi-Pallavi

Kolkata, May 7: JU is tense once again! This time because of the screening of a film by Vivek Agnihotri-Buddha in a Traffic Jam, followed by the molestation of female students.

With protests from the left-wing students loyal to the FETSU, vice chancellor Suranjan Das blamed the JU Alumni association for giving permission to the organisers to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium and then cancelling it.

Das said, "We have never given permission, nor cancelled it. The Triguna Sen Auditorium is owned and managed by the JU Alumni Association and we have no say in its running. We have no control over to whom and when they will rent the hall, or the money they will charge."

He further added, "The main culprit is the alumni association. Why did they give the hall to the Pune-Based organisation in the first place, and then again cancelled it? We will talk to the alumni association."

He further said that the organisers should have taken permission from the university authorities before holding the open-air screening.

Stating the protocol, Das further said, "If any outside organisation wants to hold a meeting on the ground, they need to take permission from the authorities. The organsiation which held the screening is not even remotely connected to the university. But they never bothered to take permission."

On asking why the authorities did not stop the screening immediately after it was started, Das said that it could have triggered more problems. Das said that the university authorities have received complaints from a few female learners that they had been molested. "Four of them were identified and kept in our estate office. But no one was confined. They have been handed over to the police. We have filed an FIR on behalf of the university against them".

Meanwhile, BJP leader Roopa Ganguly said that the four students were beaten mercilessly and that one of them had fainted. The four had been invited for the screening of the film and were wrongly confined on a false accusation.

After straging a demonstration at the Jadavpur police station, the leader rushed to the university. "We have come to take the four of our invitees safely home. They have been beaten up. They are in a bad condition. We will wait for ten minutes. And then our people will take one minute to climb the gates and enter the campus," said BJP leader Debasree Chowdhury.

The situation went out of control when the ABVP-BJP came face to face with the students, ready to attack each other but separated by an iron gate. After much convicting by Suranjan Das, the crowd dispersed.

Meanwhile, Agnihotri was asked why there were protests against the film. To which he answered, "Because for the first time in 70 years somebody has dared to expose the Naxal-academia-intellectuals-media nexus."

However, the protesting students said, "Preaching divisiveness and Hindu fundamentalism should not be allowed on the campus."

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 14:42 [IST]
Aryan Khan gets clean chit in drug case: Here is the timeline

Relief for SRK as SC upholds quashing of case against him for Vadodara stampede

Trouble for Shah Rukh Khan? Shop owner sends legal notice to 'FAN' actor, producer

India

oi-Mukul

New Delhi, May 7: Days after its release, Shah Rukh Khan starrer movie 'Fan' faces legal trouble. Reportedly a Delhi based sweet shop 'Ghantewala' has sent a legal notice to SRK and producers the film.

As per Indian Express report, sweet shop's owner Sushant Jain has alleged that his brand name 'Ghantewala' was used in the film without taking permission from him.

In one of the scenes of the film, Shah Rukh Khan's duplicate was seen carrying a box of 'Ghantewala' sweet when he goes to meet his favourite actor Aryan Khanna in Mumbai.

Jain, who claims that his shop has been operating in old Delhi since 1790, wants filmmakers to remove the dialogues and scenes that "infringe the trademark" of the shop. He wants all the references of his brand name must be removed as they (filmmakers) didn't seek prior permission for the same.

Legal notice has also been given to Yash Raj Films, Aditya Chopra, director Maneesh Sharma, writers Habib Faisal and Sharat Katariya.

The notice was quoted by the daily as saying, "Our client is perhaps a one-of-a-kind business that has, over the past more than 225 years of its existence, witnessed history unfold before itself and has been instrumental in its own way in shaping it".

Filmmakers have yet not responded on the legal notice.

OneIndia News
Minor raped by five persons; all accused held

India

oi-PTI

Hyderabad, May 7: A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped by five persons in Adilabad district of Telangana, following which all the five accused, besides 16 villagers, who held a panchayat to "settle" the matter were also arrested today, police said.

The victim, a 10th class student, had on May 5 lodged a complaint with Madamarri police station, alleging that five persons, who are her neighbours, threatened her and raped her separately since January, 2015, police inspector P Sadaiah said.

The minor girl said that she got impregnated, and the medical examination has revealed that she is 25 weeks pregnant, he said.

The accused, identified as Mahendar, his father Laxmaiah, Santosh, Vijay Kumar and Prashant, were arrested, the inspector said. Sixteen out of 20 villagers, who had held a village panchayat seeking to "settle the matter" concerning the alleged rape were also incarcerated, the official said.

The arrested persons were produced before a court and efforts are on to nab the four other villagers who are absconding, he said. The girl in her complaint said she approached the villagers of Pallemguda of Kasipet mandal of Adilabad district, who held a panchayat over the issue, even as one of the accused came forward to marry her, he said.

Also, she was offered Rs 2.5 lakh (Rs 50,000 each) by the five accused "to settle the matter", though she and her family members lodged a police complaint, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Bellampalli Sub-Division) Ramana Reddy earlier said.

"The villagers, who held the panchayat should have actually informed the police about the matter (of rape). However, it did not happen. Hence, a case under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of IPC has been registered against the 20 villagers, who organised the panchayat," the DSP had yesterday said.

The five persons, aged between 20 and 50 years, were booked on charges of rape and criminal intimidation under relevant sections of IPC besides the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

PTI
Tamil Nadu voters want governance not freebies

India

oi-Vicky

Chennai, May 7: Political parties in Tamil Nadu have been liberal in doling out freebies ahead of the elections in a bid to attract the voters. The freebie mania is such that one Delhi based journalist remarked on Twitter that the people do not have to work as everything is free in the state now.

However do the people really want freebies? An extensive survey that was conducted by the Association for Democratic Reforms in every constituency suggests that the people would rather chose good governance over freebies. The survey involved 16,000 people from each constituency in the state.

Give us governance not freebies

During the survey a majority of the people in Tamil Nadu said that they were not interested in the freebies. Give us good governance instead they said. Speak about good governance and no politician wants to talk about it. All they talk about is freebies, the survey also discovered.

Further the voters also said that the only agenda of every political party is to defeat the other. Their goal is achieved by doing so and hence the freebies are so high. If anyone asks for good governance then they are bound to be disappointed, the voters also said.

The voters in the urban areas have spoken about bettering the traffic situation and also the pollution problem. The rural voters have however pointed out that their prime concern remains the disbursal of loans.

They say that the government has failed on this front. Instead of giving out freebies the government should focus on these problems. This is our right and the government must address this problem the voters have said.

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 15:02 [IST]
Uttarakhand Floor Test: PDF MLAs hold the key

India

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, May 7: May 10 is a crucial day in Uttarakhand. There is hectic activity as the parties get ready for the floor test to be held on May 10 between 11 AM and 1 PM as per the orders of the Supreme Court of India.

The Congress has already whisked away 18 of its MLAs to a resort to protect them from horse trading.

For Harish Rawat the magic number of 32 and if he is able to attain this mark then he will be reinstated as the Chief Minister of the state.

Number game:

For Rawat to be reinstated he would need the support of 32 MLAs. The Congress has 27 MLAs while the BJP 28. Nine Congress MLAs had been disqualified and the Supreme Court had said yesterday that they would not be entitled to vote in the floor test.

This means that Rawat in order to be back as the CM would need the support of five more MLAs. All eyes would be on the 6 MLAs of the PDF apart from one nominated member who will be entitled to vote on May 10. Both the BJP and the Congress would depend heavily on these seven members.

Under the court's observation:

The floor test will be held under the eyes of a court appointed observer. The Attorney General had told the Supreme Court that the centre was fine with the floor test being held. He however said that the floor test must be held under the supervision of the court.

The Supreme Court in its order yesterday gave the go ahead for the floor test.

It however said that the nine disqualified MLAs will not be entitled to vote. It was the Supreme Court that had earlier suggested that a floor test be held at the Uttarakhand assembly. It had also sought an opinion from the Attorney General in this regard.

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 14:56 [IST]
Sonia chose Manmohan Singh as he posed no threat to her, Rahul Gandhi: Obama

I don't pay attention to Donald Trump tweets, says Barack Obama

International

oi-PTI

Washington, May 7: US President Barack Obama on Friday said he does not pay attention to the tweets of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, which of late has been creating a lot of controversies in the social media.

"I have no thoughts on Mr Trump's tweets," Obama said. "As a general rule, I don't pay attention to Mr Trump's tweets. I think that will be true for, I think, for the next six months. So, if you could just file that one," Obama told reporters when asked about Trump's latest taco bowl tweet.

'Race to White House not a reality show: Obama warns Trump

A day before, Trump tweeted picture of him showing eating taco bowl. "I love Hispanics!" Trump said.

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016

"I had 59,000 retweets in a short period of what, that's like, almost got to be some kind of a record," Trump told Fox News.

"People loved it. And you know what? I'm going to do great with the Hispanics. I mean, I'm going to do fantastic, because I'm bringing jobs back to America," he said. Trump has nearly eight million followers on Twitter.

PTI
Partial Solar Eclipse 2022: City-wise timings, when and where to watch

With AQI of 259, Delhi's air on day before Diwali least polluted in 7 years

IRCTC update: 190 trains cancelled on October 24; here is the complete list

Delhi LG and CM greet people on Diwali, ask people to be mindful of pollution

Arvind Kejriwal protests at Jantar Mantar, dares Modi to arrest Sonia

New Delhi

oi-Sandra

New Delhi, May 7: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday protested at Jantar Mantar against the AgustaWestland case.

AAP on Saturday demanded that prime minister Narendra Modi arrests Congress president Sonia Gandhi after the latter was named by an Italian court in the AgustaWestland case.

Kejriwal was present with other AAP leaders like Ashutosh, Kumar Vishwas, Sanjay Singh among others. AAP party workers raised slogans against Modi government and during the protest several workers clashed with police personnel.

Addressing AAP workers, Kejriwal said: "BJP has not done anything in the last two years." Questioning Modi on the AgustaWestland case, Kejriwal said: "Why Narendra Modi is so scared of Sonia Gandhi. Modi does not have the courage to arrest Sonia Gandhi ."

Modi is saving the entire Congress party, Kejriwal added. "Nation won't tolerate Modi's betrayal," he said.

On Friday, Congress took out a 'Loktantra Bachao March' against the BJP lead by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who lashed out at the Modi-led government saying that the 'power hungry BJP was killing democracy.'

Meanwhile, Kejriwal on Friday, responding to Congress' march took to Twitter and said: "BJP and Congress both are dharna parties. They do dharnas almost everyday. Today, BJP on dharna against itself. Only AAP delivers governance."

OneIndia News
KOCHI: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has castigated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for spreading blatant lies about the development situation in Kerala. In a twitter message, Mr. Yechury took umbrage of Mr. Modis speech in Palakkad on Friday claiming that the state has not seen any development for the 60 years.

Kerala remains the only state in India to have high human development, as per UN parameters, Mr. Yechury said. He also posted the image of HDI along with the tweet.

Image from Yechurys tweet

He said The LDF is not going to rest on its past laurels but we won't accept blatant lies insulting Kerala & the achievements of its people. Mr. Yechury however stated Yes, LDF has a lot to do after winning elections but the data speaks for itself about Kerala, compared to all states.
NIA has a tough task probing ISIS case

New Delhi

oi-Vicky

New Delhi, May 7: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has its task cut out and unless and until it gets information from abroad, it would find it difficult to bust the ISIS trail in India.

On Friday, a court had granted the NIA 3 more months time to probe the case against five persons suspected to be part of the ISIS in India.

While the arrests of these persons two months ago was a quick affair the same cannot be said about the probe. The NIA has been questioning these operatives and has secured ample information. However for the agency to take it forward it has to get information from abroad as most of the communication was over the internet.

Confusion regarding the mastermind

All the five persons being questioned by the NIA have said that the person handling them was Shafi Armar. The NIA is still ascertaining whether Armar a resident of Bhatkal in Karnataka had been killed in an air strike in Syria or not.

Only a few weeks back there were reports stating that he had been killed in an air strike that was conducted by the United States of America.

NIA officials say that they are seeking confirmation of his death, but so far no concrete information has come by. In addition to this the accused persons have told us that they have been using social media accounts to communicate. We have written to several countries for more information and are awaiting the same, the NIA also says.

For this probe to go ahead there is a great deal of cooperation required from abroad. India had even sought China's assistance to crack the communication details between these operatives and those living abroad. Such cases are never easy to probe as a lot of the evidence is digital in nature, the NIA official also noted.

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Story first published: Saturday, May 7, 2016, 14:51 [IST]
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Lucknow: Janata Dal(U) leader K C Tyagi on Saturday said that efforts were on to form a Mahagatbandhan before the coming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on the lines of Bihar.

"Efforts are on to have a Mahagatbandhan with different political outfits before the UP elections to defeat the BJP," Tyagi who was here in connection with a programme told news agencies.

To a question, Tyagi said that his party wanted to work with RLD under the Mahagatbandhan but its president Ajit Singh was yet to respond to the talks which were held with him earlier.

The JD (U) spokesman said that though his party president Nitesh Kumar is prime minister material but he has not been projected as one by anyone in the party. "If someone else does so we cannot stop them", he said.

To a question, Tyagi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should put to rest the controversy over his degree as the nation wants to know the truth. Tyagi who was in the state capital to oversee the preparations for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's programme later this month, said that prohibition was implemented in Bihar amidst adversities as it is a social ill which should be brought to an end.

This step of Nitesh Kumar is being praised all over the country for which he will also be coming to Lucknow on May 15 Tyagi said.

Terming the drought situation in Uttar Pradesh as grim, he said that both the state and central government need to work on it without worrying about political mileage.
by  Graham Pierrepoint



Imagine a mobile device that intelligently anticipates your intended action even before you touch the screen.

Its hard to imagine just where technology will lead us in a few years time. After all, the tablets and videocalling of today were science fiction fantasy thanks to Star Trek episodes of history gone by  meaning that its highly likely we may well see technological innovation based on even more outlandish fictional instruments  but to innovate in a world that is overrun by such amazing and seamless gadgets and technology is perhaps becoming harder to do. Coming up with the next big invention or way to simplify our lives may not be something that everyone could do  but there are thankfully teams of engineers and innovators that continue to dazzle us with their insights into the world around us.

Microsoft may have spent much of the past two years preparing for its launch of Windows 10  learning from a number of issues that rendered Windows 8 so unpopular with users and even lifelong fans of Microsoft products  but a recent innovation from the Microsoft Research lab appears to want to challenge how we see and use our favorite smartphones and tablets. While Apple, Sony and Samsung may continue to battle for the Smartphone crown, Microsoft are experimenting with a new display feature that could well elevate their Windows Phones and Surface product lines above the relative crowd.

Researchers have developed a touchscreen which doesnt need to be touched  and no, its not just a normal screen  it is a display which reacts to close movements as opposed to direct pressing, meaning that you can control interfaces and make choices purely by hovering your digits close to the screen. While this may sound like something that Apple have tackled previously, where the innovation really hits a home run is in its ability to present unique buttons and links to press when a users digits hover above a certain part of the screen, or provide specific features in certain applications. This could mean that a back button in a mobile browser could show up if you hover to the left of the screen, or if you are playing mobile video a stop button could appear if you hover close enough to the display.

This innovation may still be in the testing phases but it is extremely interesting to know that Microsoft  who once dominated the productivity market  are continuing to pool their resources into development and research that could see our lives become even simpler with future hardware releases.
Chennai: Seeking the mandate for a successive term for uninterrupted continuation of her welfare schemes, Chief Minister and AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa appealed to the electorate in Dr Radhakrishnan Nagar Assembly Constituency to ensure her victory with a higher margin than the previous time.

During her 30-odd km long road show in the constituency on Friday, she said the huge victory in the June 2015 bypoll, in which all other candidates in the fray lost their deposit, was proof of the affection people have towards her. "That is my breath", she added, striking a chord with the voters.

In June 2015, Jayalalithaa won the by-election to RK Nagar Assembly Constituency defeating CPI candidate C. Mahendran by a margin of 1.5 lakh votes. She appealed to the voters to elect her again with higher margin in the May 16 poll and vote for the party symbol, 'two leaves'.

She appealed to the voters to give her another chance to the serve people, especially the poor and downtrodden. She said she was elected earlier by the people to defeat "adharma and opportunism." Similarly, she asked them to elect her again in the May poll to defeat 'adharma'.

When Jayalalithaa made her often-repeated catch phrase, "I am for people, and because of people," the crowd cheered her with thunderous applause.

Jayalalithaa recalled that during the 'unprecedented rainfall' in November and December last year, R.K Nagar was also affected by the flood. She said, "I had visited the constituency and ordered speedy relief work". "As a result, relief work was taken up on war-footing and affected families were immediately moved to schools where food was provided. As many as 97,000 families were provided with Rs 48 crore worth of assistance.

She noted that after AIADMK assumed power in 2011, R K Nagar had been provided with various schemes including drinking water, port, flyover and drainage projects, much more than what the previous DMK government had done. She said, "My government had taken up infrastructure projects worth Rs 320 crore and drinking water and drainage schemes worth Rs 23 crore in the constituency."

She also assured the people of more welfare schemes if the party returned power with a huge victory in the polls. During her speech, she pointed out a few proposals announced in the party manifesto.

Braving a sultry weather, a large number of people, mostly women and children, assembled along the roads and greeted her. She addressed the people at Surya Narayana Street, VOC Nagar, EH Road, Tondiarpet, JJ Nagar, Korukkupet and Ezhil Nagar. The convoy passed through several arterial and narrow roads in North Chennai wending its was slowly past party cadres and people.
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Hyderabad: The Centre has made it clear that the heat wave is not included in the notified list of natural disasters like floods, drought etc. and as such, states cannot claim special financial assistance from it for heat wave victims.

While maintaining that the Union home ministry does not maintain information relating to the number of deaths which occur in various states due to heat waves, the Centre stated that 1,369 deaths were reported from AP and 541 from TS due to heat wave during the summer of 2015, as per information provided by the governments of these two states.

This was disclosed by Union minister of state for home, Kiren Rijuju in reply to a question raised by Congress MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy in Rajya Sabha.

Mr Rijuju said, The issue of inclusion of any disaster in the list of notified natural disasters has been considered by successive Finance Commissions from time to time. The present 14th Finance Commission had also considered the proposal for the inclusion of heat wave but the same was not included in the Centrally notified list of natural disasters eligible for relief under the State Disaster Response Fund or National Disaster Response Fund.

However, considering the need for flexibility with regard to state-specific disasters, the 14th Finance Commission has recommended that expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims of state-specific disasters, which are not included in the notified list of disasters eligible for assistance from SDRF / NDRF, can be met from SDRF within the limit of 10 per cent of annual fund allocation of SDRF subject to fulfilment of certain prescribed conditions, he said.

The TS government has recently decided to pay compensation of Rs 50,000 each to the families of heat wave victims, irrespective of their age, contrary to the earlier norm of 65 years and above.

The government had pinned hopes on the Centre on extending financial assistance to TS for the purpose. About 230 heat wave deaths have been confirmed by three-member committees in districts, for whom the government needs to pay compensation.
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Ifu Ennada does not agree with Uti that CeeC is the most successful BBNaija 2018 housemate.

Uti took to Instagram to praise Cynthia Nwadiora. He said of all the people who went for the Big Brother Naija reality show with her, she is the most successful since leaving the house (read here).

Former BBNaija housemate Princess criticized him for his statement (read here) and he made amends by saying CeeC is one of the most successful housemates (read here).

Now, Ifu Ennada has joined to criticize him. She said Uti wouldnt know how successful she is until she pays him 5 million Naira and signs him as her first brand ambassador.

See the rest of what she wrote below:-

Share this:
As many as 60 Andhra-native Section Officers and 17 Assistant Section Officers secured postings in TS in the tentative allocation.

Hyderabad: The tentative bifurcation of Secretariat employees between AP and TS, done by the Kamalnathan Committee on Saturday, resulted in a flaring up of regional passions and protests from TS employees against allocation of AP native staff to TS.

As many as 60 Andhra-native Section Officers and 17 Assistant Section Officers secured postings in TS in the tentative allocation.

The committee has given 15-days to lodge objections, if any, on this. However, TS employees claimed that this process was only an eyewash and they would figure in the final allocation list. TS employees demanded the TS government avoid giving posting to AP native employees in TS.

After bifurcation, the Centre issued orders to serve to Secretariat staff to work in AP and TS Secretariats till division of staff was done.

In this, 87 AP-native SOs got postings in TS while 67 TS-native ASOs got posting in AP. Out of 87 AP-native SOs, 67 secured postings in TS in the tentative allocation. While TS-native ASOs working for AP opted for TS and secured postings, an additional 17 AP-native ASOs also secured postings in TS.

A majority of the employees working in the Secretariat in undivided AP hailed from Seemandhra region.

With this, the Kamalnathan Committee was forced to allocate them to TS, since there are no sufficient vacancies in AP to accommodate them all, while TS has vacancies due to poor representation of TS-native employees.

The employees were bifurcated in the ratio of population of 52:48 between AP and TS. Options were also taken from employees, wherein AP native employees sought postings in TS on spouse and medical grounds.

If there are no vacancies in AP for their staff, the AP government should create super-numery posts and accommodate them, said A. Padma Chary, TS Secretariat Employees Association president.

However, his AP counterpart U. Murali Krishna, denied these charges and said the allocation was made as per provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act. If there are any violations of the Act, they have the choice to challenge it in court, he said.
This month, Narendra Modi completes his first two years as PM. Lets have a look at how he has performed.

Political record: Mr Modi remains our most popular politician by far. The aura he had two years ago, he retains. Every opinion poll last year has shown his popularity at around 70 per cent. This is what Americans call approval rating, and 70 per cent is an incredibly high number. Mr Modi may be assisted by the fact that his rival Rahul Gandhi is not charismatic and that regional leaders like Nitish Kumar and Arvind Kejriwal do not have a large enough stage to project their talents. But even with this admission, it must be accepted that Mr Modi has a credibility with Indians that nobody else has. The BJP lost elections in Delhi and Bihar, but its march towards dominance and the Congress march towards irrelevance continues under Mr Modi.

Economy: I talked to P. Chidambaram a few days ago. I asked him whether his analysis of Mr Modis economic policies was not overly harsh. Even if the data on exports and manufacturing and companies profitability was grim, as he has been writing it is, surely two years is too short a span of time to judge Mr Modi on economic performance? That is what I asked. No, Mr Chidambaram said, it is 40 per cent of the term.

It is fair to say that here the government has promised more than it has delivered. The breakout phase into double digit growth, more jobs, an escape from socialist schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Aadhaar that Mr Modi promised has not come. Indeed, he has embraced some of the policies he promised to end. I still believe that though the numbers indicate otherwise, Mr Modi must be given time to show whether he has made a difference.

Corruption: This was one of the items on which the 2014 election was fought. It is said that Mr Modi has either ended big-ticket corruption in the Central government or news of it has not yet come out. As in Gujarat, he has been personally involved in this issue. I have known businessmen in Gujarat who have had to face bribe demands from those lower down, because it is impossible for one individual to change a centuries old culture. However, just as in Gujarat, I know Mr Modi regularly calls people to ask if they are facing a problem from his ministers and bureaucrats, and he asks them to inform him if they are.

Legislation and governance: The role of a Central government is to make new laws. Governance, in the way we understand the word, means controlling the structure of the state, is secondary. I say this because any Union government governs India through a few hundred IAS officers. Given the smallness of the apparatus, it is not possible for there to be much difference in governance performance.

On legislation, it is not easy to name successes because a theme is missing. If we look at the Manmohan governments legislative focus, we can identity the following: Right to Information, Right to Food, Aadhaar, Direct Benefits Transfer, Right to Education, Right to Work and so on. There is a clear aim here: these laws are for the poor. Mr Modis record lacks such focus. Perhaps this will emerge in time.

Foreign policy: It is strange that here there is a wide difference between the perception of amateurs and experts. Those who have been attracted to the spectacle of Mr Modis first year have been impressed. The PM held many glittering events in foreign capitals where thousands of Indians gathered to cheer him. This was seen as a foreign policy success, though it was not. The truth, and experts admit it, is that Mr Modis highly personalised diplomacy has been a failure. On Pakistan we have no policy that anyone can explain coherently. Mr Modis record has been to talk, not-talk, embrace, sulk, blame, invite over, set conditions and remove conditions randomly. I hope he changes this because it shows Indias foreign policy as not serious.

Overall: If we return to the first point, popularity, we should admit that Mr Modis term has so far been a success. Electoral popularity is the only currency of success in democracies. It doesnt really matter ultimately what commentators say about Mr Modi. So long as he continues the BJPs march towards greater vote share, and the crushing of the Congress, he is a success.




Cattle rearers

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, has called for establishment of Fulani Youth Vigilante body in communities of the south east, to compliment its host community counterparts and other constituted security apparatus in the zone, a report by Vanguard has revealed.

The cattle breeders made the request just as the South east Governors told them that nobody in the zone was against rearing of cattle but that it was paramount for everyone to understand that there are rules of engagement in every relationship, including that of herders and farmers.

In the same vein, the Nigeria Police Service Commission, PSC, lampooned the yearly recruitment of 10,000 policemen, saying that it was a far cry from meeting the demand of police personnel that are in very shortage in the country.

The security stakeholders made their remarks, Thursday, during the South east Security summit organized by South East Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture, SECCIMA, in collaboration with South East Governors Forum, SEGF, in Enugu.

Speaking as it affects herdsmen, the National President of MACBAN, Alhaji Mohammadu Kirowa regretted that once insecurity was mentioned in Nigeria, the first idea that comes into minds was Fulani herdsmen.

Represented by the National Secretary, Alhaji Baba Usman Ngelzerma, MACBAN noted that south east was a good host which was reason why it condemns all forms of violence and criminalities with its patrons such as the Sultan of Sokoto, the Emir of Kano and the Lamido of Adamawa.

The group however said it wants an establishment of Fulani Youth Vigilante group, noting that the Fulani Youth Vigilant body will be working with the security, the neighborhood watch or vigilante to ensure security in all communities, as it was done in Enugu state.

We will solicit for your support and cooperation in adopting dialogue where problems exist as a means of brokering peace and to report cases against our members to either the Fulani Youth Vigilante Group, state or local branch of the association, Kirowa said.

Chairman of the South East Governors Forum and Governor of Ebonyi state, Engr. Dave Umahi who was represented by his Deputy, Dr. Kelechi Igwe stated that the region cannot engage in policy of exclusion to limit any farmer or herder, but that rules of engagement should be observed in every relationship.

Igwe said We will continue to accommodate the Miyetti Allah but our plea to them is that as we are magnanimous to allow settlers, every community has a custom that need not to be violated. It is the violation that breeds problem.

I believe that at the end, resolutions will generate further national dialogue, promote agenda setting and a solution to the lingering national insecurity. All we need is the good idea of one or two men to find direction and I believe this summit will do that.

On its part, the Commissioner in charge of Human Rights in the Police Service Commission, Mr. Rommy Mom lamented the inadequacy of the Nigeria Police personnel, noting that today Nigeria boasts of under 350, 000 police officers.

This translates to 1.6 police officers to every 100,000 Nigerian, which is a far cry from the world standard of 225 police officers to every 100,000 people. In some local governments, you have less than 10 police officers.

Lack of data is a major challenge to the extent that even the Inspector general of Police is not very sure of the exact number of police officers under his command. Electronic data is very important, Mon said.

He also stated that it was high time Nigeria embraced the use of Information Communication Technology, ICT, and other equipment for policing the country.
The Bombay High Court judgement striking down some of the contentious provisions of the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act establishes the right of people to eat the food of their choice if it is not injurious to their health. It also decriminalises the possession of beef in ones home, permits the sale and possession of beef thats been imported from outside the state and puts the onus on the police to prove that the meat in the possession of an individual is not imported.

This is a big victory as it not only brings relief to beef eaters in the state but is also a cue for anti-beef-ban activists in other states to challenge the ban in their states. There are nearly 20 states in India that have banned cow slaughter and the possession of meat of bovine animals illegally slaughtered in the state.

The judgement came on a slew of petitions, 20 in all, filed by citizens representing a cross-section of filmmakers, students, lawyers, womens rights activists and butchers associations challenging the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act gazetted by the BJPs Devendra Fadnavis government in March 2015. Amongst the sections struck down was 5D that made the possession of beef brought from outside the state a crime.

The court said the state had not convinced them that Section 5D had an element of public interest. It further said that if the state told citizens what particular type of food to eat or possess in the privacy of their homes, it would certainly be an infringement of their right to privacy and the right to be let alone.

Whilst beef eaters are happy, the butchers whose livelihood depends on slaughtering animals are still in a quandary. They have suffered huge losses in the last one year and even now wonder about the mechanics and logistics of importing and selling the meat in the state. Apart from the fact that importing beef will be expensive, issues like all of them having to have in their posession some kind of receipt to prove the material is imported also have to be decided.

The victory for beef eaters and the right to privacy, however, didnt mean a total loss of face for the Fadnavis government as the court upheld the ban on slaughter of cows, bulls and bullocks. It accepted the governments contention that it is necessary to preserve cows, bulls and bullocks as Maharashtra is an agricultural state.

The ban on slaughter of cows, bulls and bullocks across the country, coming as it did in the wake of other pernicious utterings like ghar wapsi and the national/anti-national debate, was seen as targeting certain communities. Even the dalits felt threatened. Only time will tell whether this feeling will abate following the Bombay High Court judgement.
Kate Henshaw

Ever wondered why A-List actress, Kate Henshaw looks younger than her age?

The 47-year-old star actress is a fitness enthusiast. She likes to work out at the gym to keep fit and be in good shape.

The mother of one was spotted at the gym working out really hard. The video of her working out has motivated lots of celebrities and fans.

Watch the video below:
Charla Nash smiles as her care worker washes her face at her apartment in Boston. The Connecticut woman who underwent a face transplant five years ago after being attacked by a chimpanzee is back in a Boston hospital after doctors discovered her body is rejecting the transplant.

Hartford: The Connecticut woman who underwent a face transplant five years ago after being attacked by a chimpanzee is back in a Boston hospital after doctors discovered her body is rejecting tissue from the transplant.

Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said Wednesday that Charla Nash is experiencing a "moderate rejection episode" and the transplant is not in jeopardy.

Nash was taking part in an experiment in which doctors had tried to wean her off the anti-rejection drugs she had been taking since the 2011 operation. Anti-rejection drugs can have serious side effects, and the military had funded the experiment in hopes of using the findings to help soldiers who had transplants after returning from war.

Pomahac said doctors have removed Nash from the experiment and put her back on her original medication. He said she will most likely leave the hospital in the next day or two.

"We expect this rejection episode to be resolved within the coming week," he said in a statement. Nash, 62, recently discovered several unusual patches on her face, said Shelly Sindland, her publicist. Doctors on Monday did a biopsy and determined her body was rejecting the transplant, she said.

"I gave it my all and know my participation in the study will still be beneficial," Nash said in a statement to The Associated Press. "I'd do it all over again, if I could. The men and women serving our country are the true heroes."

The immuno suppression drugs that transplant patients are typically given for the rest of their lives carry such risks as cancer, viral infections and kidney damage. Because of those dangers, many transplants of non-vital body parts, such as thumbs, are not considered worth doing. But doctors say that could change if the drugs don't have to be a lifelong commitment.

The Pentagon, which also paid for Nash's transplant, has provided grants to 14 medical facilities across the U.S. through its hand and face transplantation program. The face and the extremities are the most frequently injured parts of the body in war.

"I'm just happy I had the chance to help," said Nash, adding that she feels fine. "I wish I could have done more. I believe in the power of prayer and appreciate everyone who is praying for me."

Nash lost her nose, lips, eyelids and hands when she was mauled in 2009 by her employer's 200-pound pet chimpanzee in Stamford, Connecticut. Doctors also had to remove her eyes because of a disease transmitted by the chimp.

She later received new facial features taken from a dead woman. She also underwent a double hand transplant, but it failed when her body rejected the tissue.

When she began the experiment involving the suspension of anti-rejection drugs in March, 2015, doctors said it would eventually include other patients and its findings could potentially affect hundreds of thousands of people, military and civilian alike.
In 2004, the United States, which had previously occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934, kidnapped the president of Haiti, overthrew his government, and sent in United Nations "peace keepers." In 2010, an outbreak of cholera hit Haiti for the first time ever. The disease had previously been unknown in the country.

The UN had sent in soldiers from Nepal where cholera had just broken out. It hadn't tested the soldiers for the disease. At the soldiers' camp in Haiti, a truck picked up their fecal waste on October 17, 2010, and drove it to a hilltop septic pit overlooking a river. The pit was already full and overflowing. The driver's boss told him to dump his load anywhere. So he dumped it into the river.

Downriver, people started dying of cholera. An outbreak would spread rapidly. Thousands (and still rising) would perish. The "international community," with its benevolent military takeovers, had literally shat on the health of the Haitian people.

Next it proceeded to make matters worse. The United Nations, international diplomats, hired scientists, the New York Times, National Public Radio, the Lancet, and the respectable humanitarian NGO complex in general spent years covering up and lying about what had happened.

Because the armed occupying army of "peace keepers" was widely resented as an armed occupying army, many were concerned, or professed to be concerned, that honestly stating what had begun the cholera outbreak would lead to an outbreak of violence. In fact, the refusal to state what had happened led to the lynching of dozens of practitioners of voodoo who were scapegoated. And false claims about what had caused the outbreak led to misdirected resources in the struggle to eliminate the disease -- and in fact to the false belief that the disease could not be eliminated as it supposedly lay lurking in the environment ready to emerge in any natural disaster.

Avoiding the blame it deserved, the United Nations was happy to blame Haiti and to suggest that poor countries lacking in modern services simply must deal with disease outbreaks eternally. Meanwhile, smaller, better targeted steps, at relatively limited cost, could have eliminated cholera from Haiti as this nasty, deadly disease has been eliminated from other places -- and those steps still could eliminate cholera from Haiti this year.

Ralph Frerichs' new book is called Deadly River: Cholera and Cover-Up in Post-Earthquake Haiti. The author cites a $2.2 billion ten-year plan that could eliminate cholera and improve water and sanitation. That's 0.00002% or so of U.S. military spending. Can it possibly be spared? Dare we cancel half a weapons system, tax a few corporations, or divert some of Hillary Clinton's speaking fees? Apparently not.

Frerichs' book is largely the story of French doctor Renaud Piarroux's efforts to uncover the truth of what happened in Haiti. It's a story of bureaucratic coverup and deception undone by science and journalism. It's a story of supposedly benevolent Western agencies and authorities declaring it unimportant how a disease outbreak began, in a manner that they never would have attempted in the United States or Europe. The New York Times actually denounced "the feverish urge to blame," even though finding the source of a disease is generally considered essential to halting its spread.

Western NGOs proved better in this case and others at helping out during a crisis than at ending it. They began pushing the idea that Haiti would simply have to control cholera as well as it could from here to eternity, a claim that Piarroux had heard before in Comoros, Madagascar, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Guinea. Even years later, NPR was airing a folksy liberal newsy-ish story on the views of a discredited scientist exonerating the UN of all blame for cholera in Haiti. And with years gone by, attention and available funding had moved on to other disasters around the globe.

Past cholera pandemics have often followed armies. The UN sends more armies to more places than anyone other than the United States. That has to stop. Not because the cholera contamination was intentional, not because a secret world government run by black helicopters is planning to destroy apple pie or Christianity, but because countries are better off without their governments overthrown, doctors are better assistance than soldiers, unaccountable bureaucracies often do more harm than good, and peace is not going to be found at the end of a thousand guns.

Here's Chelsea Clinton in early 2010 as Haiti dealt with an earthquake and had yet to be hit with cholera: "The incompetence is mind numbing. The UN people I encountered were frequently out of touch " anachronistic in their thinking at best and arrogant and incompetent at worst. There is NO accountability in the UN system or international humanitarian system." But the focus of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to her emails, was on public relations, specifically on countering all negative accounts of U.S. involvement in Haiti. She had just supported another coup in Honduras, and later that year U.S. diplomats would clamp down on efforts to honestly report what had brought cholera to Haitian shores.

If Haiti had the same vote at the United Nations that the United States does, this would not have happened. If democracy were a serious worldview rather than a fund-generating slogan, this would not have happened. The Catholic Church of all ancient bloated bureaucracies is considering dropping "just war" sophistry after 1,700 years. How many years will it be before the United Nations tries nonviolence, democracy, independence from the five war powers, and respect for human life?
Exclusive to OpEd News: General News 5/7/2016 at 5:27 AM EDT H3'ed 5/7/16

Ted Cruz and John Kasich may not have suspended their campaigns after all. Conservative pro-Trump commentator Bill Still says both are telling their volunteers to continue campaigning for them (at the 4:00 minute mark): There is also this from The Record in New Jersey : N.J. Cruz backers haven't quit :

Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)


This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Reprinted from Alternet

Inside the pro-Israel campaign to crush Labour's left-wing insurgency.





Chris Mullins' 1982 political thriller, A Very British Coup, introduced British readers to a Marxist former steelworker named Harry Perkins who sends his country's political elite into a frenzy by winning a dramatic election for prime minister. Desperate to foil his plans to remove American military bases from British soil, nationalize the country's industries and abolish the aristocratic House of Lords, a convergence of powerful forces led by MI5 security forces initiate a plot to undermine Perkins through surveillance and subterfuge. When their machinations fail against a resolute and surprisingly wily politician, the security forces resort to fabricating a scandal, hoping to force him to abdicate power to a more pliable member of his own party.

Adapted into an award-winning 1988 television miniseries, Mullins' script closely resembles the real-life campaign to destroy the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. A left-wing populist with pronounced anti-imperialist leanings, Corbyn is seen by his opponents in much the same light as Perkins was in Mullins' treatment: "You're a bad dream. I could always comfort myself with the thought that socialism would never work," Percy Brown, an aristocratic MI5 chief sworn to the prime minister's ruin, told his enemy. "But you, Mr. Perkins, could destroy everything that I've ever believed in."

After years as a backbencher in parliament railing against Tony Blair's business-friendly agenda and mobilizing opposition to the invasion of Iraq, Corbyn emerged last summer as a frontrunner for Labour leadership. Against vociferous opposition, he stunned his opponents with a landslide victory, winning nearly 60% of the vote with help from a grassroots coalition of Muslim immigrants, blue-collar workers and youthful left-wing activists.

Just as Corbyn's success stunned the party establishment, his rise infuriated the country's powerful pro-Israel forces. Corbyn's parliamentary office has served as a hub for the Palestine solidarity movement and his name has been featured prominently on resolutions condemning Israeli atrocities. At an election forum convened last year by the Labour Friends of Israel, Corbyn redoubled his support for key components of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement that is pressuring Israel to respect the human rights of Palestinians while Blair's favored candidate, Liz Kendall, said she would fight it with "every fiber in my body."

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Daily we are barraged by mass media accounts as to the impossibility of Bernie Sanders winning the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. For just one example, consider CNN's "badgering" Sanders to drop out of the race following his upset victory in the Indiana primary. See HERE and HERE. Or just read, watch, or listen to any mainstream media about the Democratic race.

2,382 delegates are needed to win. Where the race actually stands as of May 6, 2016 is Clinton 1,703 delegates to Sanders 1,415, a net lead for Clinton of 288. See HERE. 933 pledged delegates remain to be selected. 475 of these are from California alone. See HERE for details. To win with pledged delegates alone, Clinton needs 2382 - 1703 = 679. Sanders needs 2382 - 1415 = 967.

For the remaining primaries. Sanders will win Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, West Virginia and Oregon by wide margins. He will lose New Jersey and the District of Columbia (DC) by a wide margin. It seems reasonable to assume that Sanders will win the states listed above by an average margin of 60 percent to 40 percent. As Democratic primaries award delegates roughly proportionally to the vote, this gives Sanders 132 delegates to 88 for Clinton. That is a net gain of 44 delegates for Sanders.

On the other hand, Clinton will win New Jersey, with 126 pledged delegates, likely by about 55 to 45 percent. That gives her 69 delegates to Sanders's 57, a net pickup of 12 delegates for Clinton. DC, with 20 pledged delegates, will strongly favor Clinton--75 percent to 25 is possible. This results in a 15 to 5 delegate split, a net pickup for Clinton of 10 delegates. Combining all of these pickups together we have 44 gained by Sanders to 22 gained by Clinton. Ultimately, Sanders net pickup is 44-22 = 22 gained for Sanders. Sanders will then be 266 delegates behind Clinton.

Guam, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico also will be voting. Between them they have 74 delegates--60 for Puerto Rico alone. There does not appear to be any polling for these areas. I'll assume 53 to 47 percent advantage Clinton. This gives 39 delegates Clinton to 35 for Sanders--a net gain of 4 for Clinton. This places Sanders 270 delegates behind Clinton. These numbers will likely be more favorable for Sanders due to a probable 75 to 25 percent blowout win for Sanders in Oregon, however, I will be conservative in my math. So Sanders will find himself at most 270 delegates behind Clinton, not considering California.

California will award 475 pledged delegates in its June 7th primary. Clearly, Sanders MUST win California, and win it decisively. Everything that follows hinges on this outcome. How will Sanders fare? Consider that in the first three months of this year over 850,000 Californians have registered, or changed their registration status. More than 41 percent of this figure is accounted for by voters 18 to 30 years of age. This age cohort favors Sanders by at least a 70 to 30 percent margin. See HERE for details. This information strongly suggests a massive turnout for Sanders.

Consider that if Sanders were to win California by a 60 to 40 percent margin, this would result in his winning 285 delegates, versus 190 for Clinton--a net pickup of 95 delegates for Sanders. This would shrink Clinton's delegate lead to 175 at most, and possibly, because of Oregon, closer to 150. Sanders would end the primary season with 1,894 delegates to Clinton's 2065.

Clearly, Sanders is not going to win a majority of pledged delegates. Can Clinton? Only if she wins at least 73% of all remaining pledged delegates. That simply WILL NOT HAPPEN. Therefore, neither Clinton, nor Sanders will win a majority of pledged delegates.

Super delegates wield an additional 715 votes. Therefore, super delegates will determine the Democratic nomination.

This is where things get interesting. Changes made to Democratic Party rules arising from the McGovern-Fraiser Commission report, were intended, in part, to ensure that the party would not select a non-viable candidate as its nominee. With the later creation of the super delegate system, it is primarily through the mechanism of these super delegates that the party is able to intervene to prevent such an electoral outcome this year.

Let me restate: the primary purpose of the super delegates is to ensure that the Party does not nominate a candidate who is likely to lose, over one who is likely to win. Normally, both candidates are roughly equally electable, so the one with the most pledged delegates is "pushed" over the top by a majority of super delegates. This is NOT this case this year, however.

All polling data consistently shows Sanders beating Trump by large margins, whereas Clinton either loses to Trump or wins by small margins. See HERE and also HERE, for supporting information. This strongly suggests that Clinton would lose to Trump in the general election.

Clinton has an almost infinite array of negative "baggage" associated with herself. From the Clinton Foundation's spending only about 10 percent of the millions it takes in from special interests for charity, to her ongoing e-mail server scandal, to her Goldman Sachs transcripts; the list of potential scandals is nearly infinite. We can be 205 percent certain that Trump will hit her relentlessly and viciously with all of these and more. Her already sky-high negative net approval rating will collapse to sub-basement levels. Clinton will lose disastrously to Trump.

Sanders, conversely, is that rarest of creatures--a truly open and honest politician. Trump's ability to "tar and feather" him will be minimal to nonexistent. Call him a "socialist"? Sanders will simply thank Trump and go on to explain what democratic socialism means for contemporary America.

With Sanders, what you see is what you get. Sanders, as all polling shows, will decisively trounce "the Donald."

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Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future

In 2011 the Obama administration sold the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) by promising "more exports, more jobs." The U.S. Trade Representative's website on KORUS still offers those promises. It still says right there the agreement "means countless new opportunities for U.S. exporters to sell more Made-in-America goods, services, and agricultural products to Korean customers -- and to support more good jobs here at home."

So how has that worked out? New data is in on trade with South Korea and the numbers are really bad. Really bad. Public Citizen's Eyes on Trade has looked at the data and a post up showing what the numbers mean:

-- The U.S. goods trade deficit with South Korea has increased 115 percent, or $16 billion, in the first four years of the Korea FTA (comparing the year before it took effect to the fourth year data).

-- This increase in the trade deficit with Korea equates to the loss of more than 106,000 American jobs in the first four years of the Korea FTA, counting both exports and imports, according to the trade-jobs ratio that the Obama administration used to promise job gains from the deal.

-- Since the FTA took effect, U.S. average monthly exports to Korea have fallen in 11 of the 15 U.S. sectors that export the most to Korea, relative to the year before the FTA.

-- Exports of machinery and computer/electronic products, collectively comprising 28.6 percent of U.S. exports to Korea, have fallen 22.6 and 6.6 percent respectively under the FTA.

-- U.S. goods exports to Korea have dropped 9 percent, or $4.4 billion, under the Korea FTA's first four years.

Automobile trade data also just came out. (Note: This had not yet posted at Global Trade Watch as of Thursday at 2 p.m. Eastern.)

-- The U.S. trade deficit with Korea in passenger vehicles grew 66 percent. U.S. imports of passenger vehicles from Korea has increased by 69 percent, or by an additional 597,607 vehicles by the fourth year of the Korea FTA on top of the 862,789 vehicles sold to the United States by Korea before the FTA. This import flood dwarfed the 36,580 increase in U.S. passenger vehicles that the United States exported to Korea by the fourth year of the pact.

Real Damage

These numbers represent real damage to our economy, jobs, wages (all those people are competing for the remaining jobs now), and -- and this is important to our country's future in the long run -- to our manufacturing ecosystem. As factories close, the suppliers go under; the experience, education and training system for how to run the factory moves away; the industries' design and innovation knowledge migrates out of the country.

This is what happened with the KORUS agreement. Sold as "jobs" but in reality jobs and factories and knowledge move away. But a few Wall Street types get to pocket the wage differential in the short term, so they pay politicians and "think tanks" to support this "free trade" ideology.

Trade is supposed to be about people in areas where bananas can grow being able to get things from areas where they can't. But "free trade" is not about "trade" at all. It is about Wall Street shareholders moving jobs out of the US to places where workers are exploited and governments let companies pollute. Then they pocket the wage and environmental protection cost differential and the resulting loss of jobs pits the remaining workers against each other, driving down American wages. Hence the terrible inequality we see today.

This isn't "trade" and the countries where we send the jobs and factories do not "trade" with us. It is entirely about "lowering costs" so the workers there do not make enough to buy things made here. The result of "free trade" is that the US has had a trade deficit every single year since "free trade" ideology was sold to us in the 1970s. Working people's wages have not increased since "free trade." Inequality has soared. Democracy has declined.

TPP
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Reprinted from Counterpunch

With only eight more months in office, Barack Obama shows no signs of giving up his role as the most aggressively imperialist American president in modern history. Liberal Democrats rightly point fingers at Hillary Clinton's bellicosity, yet they say nothing about Obama as he continues on a path of destruction around the world.

Nations on every continent are victims either of outright American military violence or of war waged by other means. Venezuela sinks further into despair as a result of American manipulations of oil prices and sanctions that cripple its economy. Millions of people have had their homes destroyed by United States interventions in Somalia and Libya and Syria and are forced to make dangerous treks in hopes of finding safety.

While the American instigated war goes on in Syria, that country's government and its Russian ally make gains against terrorists. Because they are winning the United States continues to make bizarre demands that "Assad must go." Obama has to turn over the keys in January 2017 but Assad may sit in his presidential office watching as his enemy rides off into the sunset.

The least reported and yet biggest danger is taking place in Europe. The United States and NATO continue to provoke Russia in what could be a deadly game that spins out of their control.

In recent weeks the Russians have made clear that they won't take the provocation lying down. While the corporate media follow the president blindly, they won't tell viewers and listeners that Russia has territory on the Baltic sea coast. Kaliningrad is Russia, just as Hawaii and Alaska are America. Of course there are Russian planes and submarines in the Baltic. They belong there while American vessels do not. Russia has every right to "buzz" United States ships and escort spy planes out of its airspace.

These very simple facts are rarely presented to Americans who have no idea that 200 of their troops will perform exercises in Moldova, a small country located between Ukraine and Romania. It is an example of how American presidents from Bush to Clinton to Bush to Obama made a mockery of a promise not to encircle Russia.

Instead they do just that and keep adding to the NATO arsenal. Nations like Sweden, traditionally neutral, are being lured into that organization's grasp. In the absence of the old Soviet block there is no use for NATO except to act as the foot soldiers for American dirty work.

It seems that the end of his presidency has made Obama more anxious and therefore more dangerous. There are now "boots on the ground" in Syria, so far just 300 Special Forces, but even that small number is too high and represents the extent to which the United States is committed to maintaining the imperialist project.

Only the now inevitable Republican nominee, Donald Trump, questions this premise of American foreign policy. Hillary Clinton assisted Obama in his designs and the supposedly left wing Bernie Sanders warns of non-existent Russian aggression, supports presidential "kill lists" and thinks that having U.S. troops in Syria is a fine idea.

While the United States threatens to start World War III, the corporate media go into overdrive in their determination to distract us from the dangers our government poses to the world. They turn trivialities into major controversy but rarely report anything we ought to know. For example, Larry Wilmore saluted the president as "my nigga" during the last Obama era White House Correspondents Dinner. There was much arguing back and forth about the propriety of the words but no one spoke of the impropriety of the event inself.

The media ought to have an adversarial relationship with presidents. At the very least they should be somewhat distant and skeptical. Instead they are very cozy and quite publicly too. They even celebrate their collusion at this love fest as a president makes jokes with television comedians who compete for the chance to be sidekick for an evening.

There is no longer any pretense of impartiality. The media want access so they play along and tell lies of commission and omission with every presidential administration. They tell jokes at Russia's expense but won't tell readers and viewers that it is the United States who is provoking Russia in its sphere of influence.

Obama apparently wants to commit more destruction than he has already. Turning Libya into an utterly failed state was not enough. That act unleashed ISIS and Boko Haram and a wave of refugees. The coup in Ukraine ignited a civil war. The Syrian government hangs on but at a terrible price. Russia answered the call to help but America doesn't want that war to end and will continue to use its allies to prevent a cease fire or an end to the conflict altogether.

A lot of damage can be done between now and January 20, 2009. There is no reason to mourn or rejoice Obama's departure because he will be followed by someone who likes his foreign policy as it is. That person will also like Americans as they are: mostly intelligent but uninformed even if they wish to know what is happening around the world. The expression to do something "like there's no tomorrow" is poignant. If Obama and company continue down this path, we shall all find out what those words mean.
Now that Trump is the last man standing, the Republican party should start writing its 2016 obituary and autopsy. And the autopsy results should say "Death by Suicide." While establishment Republicans are scratching their heads about a Trump victory, those of us on the outside could easily see it coming. The Republican party sold its soul long ago, and this is the inevitable result.

Response to Obama's 2008 Election -- the First Nail in the Coffin

It all began when Mitch McConnell gathered his "forces" about him and proclaimed that the only goal of the Grand Old Party would be to make Obama a one-term president. To do this, they would have to open their doors to the likes of the Sarah Palins of the country -- those fringe elements that are racist, nativist, and who see the only solution to America's problems as dismantling the federal government. They played on these low-information voters' fears and stupidity and supported their candidacies until they won a majority in Congress. But the monster they created began to eat them up. They had to move to the right, taking positions that the majority in the country opposed and making promises that they could not keep.

Looking for a Savior -- The Second Nail

Nothing changed for the new "fringers" who brought the party so many votes in mid-term elections. They became angry. Obama got re-elected, their lives got no better, the evil "big government" stayed big, and even shutting down the government to try to rid the country of Obamacare was a defeat. Cruz was a hero but an ineffective one. They needed a savior that was stronger, tougher and who spoke their language. They needed someone to give them "real" solutions to the problem they faced -- a country being taken over by dangerous progressives and non-white aliens who weren't really Americans with the values upon which this country was founded -- you know, slavery, white Anglo-Saxon supremacy, religion and guns.

Enter the Biggest Con Man of All -- The Third and Final Nail

The thing about low-information voters is this: They keep thinking there is a savior out there. They just know that if they can get the "right" president in office, things will change. They know so little about the Constitution and about how decisions are really made in Washington, they really believe that a single man can "fix" what's wrong. Enter Donald Trump, a man who knows how to take advantage of this anger and rage and to use it to promote himself. He's a cunning, savvy man, who, like the "snake oil" salesman of the past, can play upon fears, find scapegoats, and make promises he knows he can't keep. And they still buy into it.

And where are the "responsible" establishment leaders of the party? Well, they are sitting on the sidelines, chewing their nails, and trying to figure out how they can at least save some down-ticket elections. This is what happens when you sell your soul. And it would make a great cause-and-effect essay topic for a student of political science.

The Appeal of Trump

Tell them what they want to hear. That's Trump's battle cry. And so it began with convincing speeches from a man who is a narcissistic showman above all else. He knows how to persuade his audience, that's for certain. Here are some of his now infamous words:

The Mexican government is somehow involved in illegal immigration and is sending murderers and rapists to our country.

All Muslim immigration must be banned, their mosques must be policed, and they must "register." And we need a religious test to get into this country.

Women who dislike him have "blood coming from somewhere."

Women who have abortions must be punished.

The Bible is his favorite book.

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Reprinted from Ramzy Baroud Website

I had mixed feelings when I learned that Palestine has erected a statue of Nelson Mandela, the iconic South African anti-Apartheid leader. On the one hand, I was quite pleased that the unmistakable connection between the struggles of Palestinians and South Africans is cemented more than ever before. On the other hand, I dreaded that rich, corrupt Palestinians in Ramallah are utilizing the image of Mandela to acquire badly-needed political capital.

The six-meter bronze statue now stands in its own Nelson Mandela Square in Al-Tireh neighborhood in Ramallah, where the Palestinian Authority headquarters are based. The PA is known for its endemic political and financial corruption. In some ways, its survival is both essential for the richest Palestinian class and also for the Israeli military Occupation.

Thus, it was quite disheartening to witness the travesty of political theater where the likes of PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, who rules with a long-expired mandate, unveiling the statue in a ceremony attended by his ministers and foreign diplomats.

The statue was a gift from the City of Johannesburg, and its costs of R6 million was paid for by the people of that city, whose solidarity with Palestine is rooted in a long history, that of blood and tears, and the haunting cries of pain and freedom. At that, the gift is most appreciated.

But the Mandela that now stands erect in Ramallah has been incorporated into the zeitgeist of this city, particularly the rich and beaming neighborhood of massive white-stone villas and luxury cars.

It would have meant much more if it had stood in the center of Gaza, a city that is withstanding an ongoing genocide; in the heart of Jenin, a town known for its bravery and hardship; in Al-Khalil, in Nablus or in Khan Younis. Seeing rich Palestinian officials and businessmen rubbing shoulders with unmistakable giddiness while fighting for space before the many cameras, made the occasion vastly less special.

Oddly enough, the main location of the Nelson Mandela Square and statue in Sandton City in Johannesburg is equally unsettling. I visited the place more than once, and despite my immense admiration for Mandela, it failed to move me.

The commercial atmosphere there felt as if it was an attempt at redefining who Mandela was: from a populist leader and a former prisoner with proud ties to the Communist Party to an emasculated icon, a warm, fuzzy figure with no radical roots.

Worse, he is being promoted as if a merchandise within a precarious neoliberal marketplace, where revolutionary values are shunned and everything is on sale. This is how the Sandton City website describes the square:

"Home to some of South Africa's finest restaurants, exclusive couture and designer labels and a European styled piazza, Nelson Mandela Square offers chic sophistication, culture and glamour, all under the African sun."

Yet, the Mandela that is promoted by some in South Africa and their counterparts in Palestine is fundamentally different from the Mandela many of us knew about. The man passed away on December 5, 2013, but he clearly left behind two legacies, one celebrated in Palestinian refugee camps and South Africa's slums, while another is sold to the culturally 'sophisticated' tourists and Ramallah's corrupt class.

The name "Nelson Mandela" was a staple in my family, living in a dilapidated refugee camp in Gaza under military Occupation and the constant threat of violence. We rushed to the television to watch whenever his name was mentioned in the news. The finest young men in camp were chased down, beaten, arrested and shot while trying to write his name on the decaying walls of our humble dwellings.

That was the Mandela I knew, and most Palestinians remember with adoration and respect. The one standing in Ramallah, unveiled by those Palestinians who speak proudly of conducting "security coordination" with Israel -- as in jointly cracking down on Palestinian Resistance -- is a whole different Mandela.

He is a different Mandela because Abbas and his Authority do not, in the least, embody the spirit of Mandela the freedom fighter, the defiant prisoner, the unifying leader, the champion of a boycott movement.

In fact, the Palestinian leadership as represented in the unelected government of Abbas in Ramallah, is yet to endorse the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), itself modeled after the South Africa boycott movement.
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This microscope photo provided by The Rockefeller University shows a human embryo 12 days after fertilization in vitro, with different cell types marked by separate colors.

New York: New lab techniques have provided the first good look at a crucial but mysterious stage in the development of human embryos, scientists reported Wednesday.The researchers said follow-up research might eventually lead to new treatments for infertility and perhaps new forms of birth control. The work extends the amount of embryonic development that can be observed in a laboratory.

In the first week after fertilization, an egg grows into a hollow ball of cells, and scientists have long been able to watch that happen. But then this early embryo  about the size of a grain of salt  attaches itself to a woman's uterus and undergoes radical change, and that stage has been a "complete black box," said Ali Brivanlou of Rockefeller University in New York.

He's a member of one of two scientific teams that reported on Monday that they were able to extend embryonic development into a second week in a lab dish. Neither team simulated implantation, because the embryos attached themselves to the plastic of lab dishes rather than to uterine tissue. But even without any direction from a mother, the embryos proceeded with critical steps toward making a body.

They flattened into disks, which then assumed a volcano-like shape. They produced primitive internal structures and specialized cells. Brivanlou's team spotted an unexpected type of cell that he said had not been detected in any other mammal species. Researchers have "no clue" what it does, he said."We can now ask how the fundamental structures of the embryo are formed after implantation," said Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz of Cambridge University in England, who led the second team.

Both groups worked independently to modify a lab technique Zernicka-Goetz's lab had developed for working with mouse embryos. Brivanlou and colleagues reported results in the journal Nature, while Zernicka-Goetz's team reported in Nature Cell Biology. Both teams used embryos donated by couples who'd used fertility clinics.

Brivanlou's team terminated its research at the embryonic stage corresponding to 14 days after fertilization, and Zernicka-Goetz's experiments were stopped on days 12 or 13.

That's because of the "14-day rule," an international ethical standard that limits laboratory studies of human embryos.Experts not involved in the research were impressed by the results. The "beautiful work" provides new ways to look at how early embryos develop, said reproductive biologist Bruce Murphy, a University of Montreal researcher who is president of the Society for the Study of Reproduction.

"You're seeing the way cells begin to organize in the very early stages of producing a new baby, and that is fascinating for anybody," said John Aplin of the University of Manchester in England."It gives us all kinds of new ideas to work on," said D. Randall Armant of Wayne State University in Detroit.

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Every year, thousands of climbers make the attempt to summit Mount Hood. It's not a venture to be taken lightly: Many train for months in advance, obsess over weather forecasts and conditions, and pack in gear such as crampons, harnesses, ice axes and anchors.

Maurice Isserman

They're all part of a "brotherhood of the rope," as Maurice Isserman puts it in his new book "Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering" (W.W. Norton & Co., 448 pages, $28.95). Isserman gives credit for the origin of the sport to an Irish-Englishman named Darby Field, whose 1642 ascent of what is now called Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, was the first recorded climb of an American mountain. (As to whether Native Americans engaged in mountaineering, Isserman writes that a local tribe, the Pigwacket, sent a couple members to accompany Field, but they did so unhappily, "fearing evil consequences.")

No American mountaineering history would be complete without a mention of the Cascades. Two Washington peaks - Mounts St. Helens and Adams - were the first Cascades to be climbed, according to Isserman. Then came Mount Hood, which drew the attention of several men whose names remain prominent in Oregon history.

Here is an excerpt from "Continental Divide."

***

For the earliest settlers, Mount Hood was an obstacle. From The Dalles, a point on the Columbia River to the mountain's east, they were forced to load their wagons onto rafts to complete their journey to the Willamette Valley. When a settler named Joel Palmer arrived at The Dalles in 1845 and discovered how expensive it would be and how long it would take to get a boat to take him around to the western side of the Cascades, he balked. Instead, he joined with a group of settlers led by Samuel Barlow to find a wagon route across a pass on the south side of the mountain.

On October 12, 1845, to get a better view of the surrounding hills, Palmer climbed above 9,000 feet on Mount Hood's south side in moccasins (and went on in bare feet when his footwear fell apart). His route took him up what would later be known as Zigzag Glacier and the rock formation of Mississippi Head, probably reaching the base of Crater Rock, a lava dome that is a prominent feature on the south side and that had been formed only a few decades earlier.

Palmer was interested in the practical problem of getting around the mountain, not in reaching its summit. But he did have some thoughts on that question, which he shared in a subsequent account of his climb. "The opinion heretofore entertained that this peak could not be ascended to its summit, I found to be erroneous," he declared confidently. "There is no doubt that, but any of the snow peaks upon this range can be ascended to the summit."

Nine years passed before anyone again ventured to the higher elevations of Mount Hood. Having summited Mount Saint Helens in 1853, Thomas Dryer decided to add Mount Hood to his list of conquests the following year. On August 8, 1854, with six other men (including William Barlow, son of road builder Samuel Barlow), Dryer attempted to climb the mountain's south side. Several dropped out en route. At noon that day, according to Dryer, they reached the summit, from which they could see not only Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, and Mount Jefferson (the peaks he had already seen from the summit of Mount Saint Helens), but also Mount Shasta in California, and Fremont Peak in Wyoming. In reality, neither Shasta, nearly 300 miles away, nor Fremont Peak, even farther distant, are visible from the summit of Mount Hood. A host of other details about the climb (including Dryer's estimate of Hood's summit height at 18,361 feet) suggest that imagination outstripped mountaineering judgment.

Three years later, Henry L. Pittock led the next party to attempt Mount Hood. Pittock was born in England but he had been raised in Pennsylvania and had emigrated to Oregon in 1853, where he went to work as a typesetter for Dryer's Oregonian. On August 6, 1857, accompanied by four others, Pittock climbed the south side of the mountain and reached the summit by what remains today the most popular route, past Crater Rock, up the steep snow ridge known as the Hogsback, and then through another chute to the final summit slope.

For a group of completely inexperienced climbers, it was an impressive piece of route-finding on snow and ice. And while it presents no serious technical difficulties, the route is not without dangers to the unwary and the unlucky, including rockfall and a yawning bergschrund (the crevasse formed at the head of the glacier, where it pulls away from mountain bedrock), both especially treacherous in late summer. To put Pittock and his companions' achievement in perspective, it was only two years earlier that English climbers had first reached the summit of Mont Blanc unaccompanied by local guides. And, unlike Mont Blanc, which been ascended scores of times by 1857, Hood had been climbed, at most, once before.

Pittock and his climbing partners found that the summit of Mount Hood bore little resemblance to what Dryer had described three years earlier. They concluded that Dryer's claim to a first ascent was unjustified. His description suggests that he reached only the "Crow's Nest" above Steel Cliffs, high on the mountain's southeast ridge, but still 350 vertical feet below the summit by the challenging Wy'East route.

For their part, the members of Pittock's party left a flag on the summit and carved their names on a rock to ensure that their own claim to Hood's conquest would stand up.

Excerpted from "Continental Divide: A History of American Mountaineering" by Maurice Isserman. Copyright (c) 2016 by Maurice Isserman. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
A Washington man suspected of killing a Clackamas County weighmaster in 2014 was found guilty by a Los Angeles County jury of shooting at police in Hollywood months after the Oregon killing.

Dirck White was convicted Wednesday of attempted murder, assault on a police officer with a semiautomatic firearm, exhibiting a deadly weapon while resisting arrest, possession of a firearm by a felon and second-degree burglary of a vehicle, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

White, 43, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 26.

In Oregon, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office has accused White of fatally shooting 47-year-old Grady Waxenfelter when the assistant weighmaster stopped White's truck along Oregon 224 in Boring to check his trailer. White then fled. He has not officially been charged in the February 2014 killing.

The following November, Los Angeles police officers investigating a car break-in spotted White, according to the department. White ran off, but was later found hiding behind another parked car.

White fired a handgun at the officers, they shot back and hit him, the police department said. White was taken to a hospital and later booked into jail. He is also wanted in connection with a child rape investigation in Pierce County, Washington, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office.

The Clackamas County District Attorney's Office will seek having White extradited to Oregon after his sentencing in California, Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Horner said Friday. It is not clear when White would be taken into custody in Oregon.

Clackamas County has not allowed weighmasters to conduct traffic stops since Waxenfelter's death. The county was fined $2,100 in August 2014 by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division for not properly training and equipping weighmasters for such stops.

One month later, Clackamas County agreed to pay Waxenfelter's widow $700,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that initially sought $2.75 million.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBailey
Bullseye Glass, the Portland glassmaker already under heavy scrutiny from state regulators and neighbors over heavy metals in its air pollution, is now facing more problems.

State inspectors on site April 28 and 29 noticed visible, thick smoke coming from a furnace that had no filtration, the state Department of Environmental Quality said in a fact sheet released late Friday.

The agency said the emissions violated Oregon pollution standards.

The state has passed emergency rules meant to control emissions from glassmakers like Bullseye, leading the company to install a filtration device known as a baghouse on one of its furnaces. That controlled furnace is now used to make glass with cadmium, a heavy metal detected in high levels in neighborhoods near Bullseye.

However, Oregon regulators have allowed the company to continue making glass with other metals in furnaces that have no pollution controls.

State inspectors, trained to measure how opaque the smoke is, found that emissions were thicker than allowed, the state's fact sheet said. The measurement, known as opacity, can indicate whether the company is emitting too many particles from its smokestacks.

State inspectors were at Bullseye to see whether its use of naturally occurring trivalent chromium resulted in emissions of carcinogenic hexavalent chromium.

The inspectors didn't report any noticeable emissions from a lone furnace at Bullseye that the company has connected to the baghouse.

The state on May 4 sent the company a warning letter explaining the violation and its required next steps. The agency is requiring the company to submit an action plan by June 5 for dealing with the issue.

Jim Jones, a company spokesman, said Bullseye is moving forward with filtration on all its furnaces that burn hazardous metals and will have those controls in place by Sept. 1. He noted that a state inspection three weeks ago had not detected any problems with the company's opacity.

The violation comes with intense pressure on both state regulators and Bullseye Glass to address neighborhood concerns about the company's pollution. The firm shot into the public spotlight Feb. 3 when the state revealed that monitoring had found unsafe levels of two heavy metals, arsenic and cadmium, in the air nearby.

Jessica Applegate, a nearby resident who's since helped found the Eastside Portland Air Coalition, a neighborhood group, said she was particularly troubled that the company was still being allowed to use unfiltered furnaces through the summer.

"It's just beyond belief," Applegate said. "The DEQ doesn't know what to do - and because of it they're making really dangerous mistakes."

-- Rob Davis

rdavis@oregonian.com

503.294.7657
Clinton's use of a private server for both official and private correspondence first came to light in 2015 (Photo: AP)

Washington: The FBI would question Hillary Clinton over the use of a private email server during her tenure as the US Secretary of State, media reports have said.

The FBI and Justice Department are investigating if there was any violation of rules or if any sensitive information was compromised because of this email scandal.

Ahead of Clinton's interview, the top investigating agency questioned one of her close confidant Huma Abedin, Fox News reported.

CBS News said Clinton, the Democratic presidential front-runner, will be interviewed by the FBI within the coming weeks in connection with the investigation into her private email server.

The Clinton campaign has said it's confident that the FBI's review "will conclude that nothing inappropriate took place," CBS News reported.

However, there has been no official word on the investigation.

Clinton, 68, has already admitted that the use of a personal email server was a mistake. But she insists that no classified information was compromised because of this.

Clinton's use of a private server for both official and private correspondence first came to light in 2015 during Republican-led Congressional investigations into her handling of a militant attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.

The assault in 2012 left the US ambassador and three other Americans dead.

The FBI has since launched a criminal investigation amid Republican charges that use of the unsecured system endangered national security.
Hunter.jpg

Hunter Stewart

(Steve Duin)

In recent weeks, I've spent hours talking to Hunter Stewart and her father, Fred, about the impact of the volatile argument that brought Portland police to Fred Stewart's home in September 2013.

While Officer Mike Chapin subsequently wrote, "I was unable to find any visible signs of injury to either party," the wounds run deep.

And there is no squaring their accounts of what happened that morning, or the rancorous family history that preceded it.

Yet only one of their stories is increasingly self-aggrandizing and defensive, diminishing its author. Only one of the narratives hints at redemption.

Only one of the accounts rings true to me, and my understanding of fathers and daughters.

When I first heard about the family strife last summer, I didn't write about it because I considered Hunter's privacy more important than her father's political ambitions.

Fred Stewart, a North Portland real estate broker, is running for Commissioner Steve Novick's council seat in the May primary.

Hunter Stewart, 19, eventually reached a different conclusion, and spoke this spring to Willamette Week's Nigel Jaquiss.

His April 13 story sparked additional hostilities on social media, including a rant on GoLocalPDX by one of Fred Stewart's most vocal supporters.

Stewart and Hunter's mother, Robin Raymond, divorced in 2003. During one of Hunter's visits to her father's Northeast Portland home in 2013, Amelia Morrison, a friend of the teenager, called police to report that father and daughter were fighting.

The argument began, everyone agrees, when Hunter told her father she'd just spoken to Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish for a story she was writing for Grant Magazine.

"I was so excited," Hunter says. "It was my second story and I was talking to a city commissioner."

Fred Stewart promptly asked for Fish's phone number.

Hunter hesitated, remembering her father had lost a 2008 council race to Fish.

"'Hunter, go get the number!'" she remembers her father saying. "He started using the stern voice, when you know he's not playing and you need to do what he says now.

"As I'm reading it off to him, I said, 'Would you please not ruin this for me?'"

The next thing she knew, Hunter Stewart says, her father had her up against the wall, his hands at her throat.

"He's not crushing my throat," Hunter says. "He's not trying to strangle me. But he grabs me hard. He's never done that before. I was dry heaving and gasping for air."

Fred Stewart denies all that. He says he "reacted" because Hunter "said something to me, something to the effect that I wouldn't have his number, that I'm a nobody."

"You're not going to tell me I'm a nobody," Stewart remembers saying. "Let me see that number."

According to the police report, Stewart told Chapin his daughter "pushed him and he pushed her up against the wall."

He dramatically expanded that account Tuesday.

"It was her yelling and throwing things at me. She hit me and she kicked me," Stewart says. "I only got mad about her hitting me. I got in her face. I gave her a good ol' fashioned Sgt. Carter. I'm yelling at her, the loudest I've ever yelled at her.

"I wanted to leave an impression with my daughter about how wrong this was."

Mission accomplished. Stewart didn't leave much of a mark - the following day, police at Central Precinct only noted "some light bruising under the right side of her jaw line and a small red mark under her chin" - but he left a lasting impression.

Hunter decided she was done with her father, done with the turbulent home in which she grew up, done with the guy who would ask the restaurant hostess, "Do you have discounts for a retarded daughter, because I have one?"

(Fred Stewart says such quips were just part of the family banter: "We made jokes about this with each other her entire life.")

She says she needed distance from his temper and his bitterness about the divorce. She needed distance from the memory, when she was quite young, of fleeing into a bathroom with her mother to avoid her father's wrath.

"I've had nightmares my entire life, not being able to lock a door fast enough," Hunter says.

We are sitting in a cramped Manhattan bagel shop, at the edge of the campus where Hunter is studying journalism. As Hunter describes the disarray in which she grew up, she is oblivious to the woman lingering at an adjacent table, quieted by her story.

Loneliness and doubt are worse than an audience. Hunter recalled another verbal squabble with her father, almost 10 years ago, that brought police to the house.

"When they left, he said, 'Hunter, that cop told me that if he had a daughter acting like you did, he'd be pulling her by the hair down the hallway,'" Hunter says.

"I'm thinking, 'Did he say that? Is that normal? Is that how people are disciplined?' I didn't know boundaries."

She spent her junior year at Grant High, Hunter says, with "my eyes glazed over. I wasn't inspired. I wasn't happy. I was just angry, and I didn't think I had a single person that I could talk to."

The ordeal made her wonder how many other teenagers slip through the cracks at school because they don't have the words or confidence to explain why they are so distracted, so stressed, so guarded.

As she has written to friends in a long and reflective

, "For much of my life, I did not feel strong and I did not have the right language to express what I was experiencing. Just having someone to talk to could have been revolutionary to me."

For Hunter, there's no talking to her father. Fred Stewart has dug in. As Jaquiss reported, he filed a $4 million lawsuit against his ex-wife and daughter in 2013, claiming Raymond slandered him by persuading Hunter he was physically abusive.

Stewart later reduced his claim to $7,500. He also named Hunter as a co-defendant for comments she made to The Oregonian/OregonLive and for her role, Stewart says in his affidavit, in "some kind of plan to discredit me."

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Karin Immergut ruled in Raymond and Hunter's favor in 2014, dismissing the case and ordering Fred Stewart to pay attorney fees.

He hasn't. "I will eventually pay it," he says, "but it's not a priority for me."

Stewart continues to insist he's the victim here, his reputation savaged by an inept legal system and an ungrateful daughter.

"There's nothing I did that day I wouldn't do again," Fred Stewart says. "I love my daughter. I'll never give up on my kid. But there are so many things she has to apologize for. I want her to understand why my side of the family has written her off."

They last spoke on the phone the day after police took Hunter to her mother's home in September 2013, a nine-minute call Hunter recorded.

When she tries to end the conversation, Fred Stewart says, "I'm not done yet. I love you."

"Oh, sure, Dad," Hunter says. "That's bull. You wouldn't be doing this, Dad. This is not what love is."

"Oh, yes it is!" Fred Stewart says, his voice rising.

Oh, no, it isn't.

-- Steve Duin

stephen.b.duin@gmail.com
courthouse.JPG

The Multnomah County Courthouse in downtown Portland.

(Elliot Njus/Staff)

By Jeff Barker and Andy Olson

In a recent guest column ("District attorney elections and Oregon's criminal justice status quo"), David Rogers, the new executive director of the ACLU of Oregon, argues that a lack of contested district attorney elections equals a lack of understanding by the public of the DA's duties and responsibilities. In our view, the op-ed underestimates the intelligence of Oregon's voters and ignores the sustained success of our criminal justice system.

While the assessment misses the mark on most fronts, it is right in one respect -- district attorneys have important responsibilities. Chief among them is keeping our neighborhoods, homes and citizens safe and, when crime occurs, working with the courts, defense attorneys and victims to ensure a just outcome.

Contrary to what Mr. Rogers asserts, most district attorneys have faced competitive elections and won. In Bend, incumbent DAs were ousted twice in the last six years. All of the DAs currently in office through appointment were selected by democratic governors after competitive processes. Many faced tough elections immediately after their appointments.

This month there will be seven contested races for DA in Oregon. In each race, the pivotal issue will be public safety. Which candidate will keep the community free from crime? What strategies will they use to reduce victimization? These are tough questions for which the public demands accountability. As a result, district attorneys' first thoughts are always the safety of the citizens they represent.

Mr. Rogers' guest column is not about lack of elections. His true motives emerge when he suggests the governor appoint district attorneys "who are willing and able to modernize and reform criminal justice policies and practices" rather than using the current criteria: experience and expertise. Clearly, his concern is that many DAs do not agree with the ACLU's preferred policy and he would rather have DAs that acquiesce to their position. This stance is in stark contrast to the policy of free and open speech that defines the work of the ACLU over the last century.

We entrust prosecution to district attorneys because they base their decisions on public safety factors -- the severity of the crime, the impact on the victim, mental health or addiction challenges of the accused, and the likelihood of re-offending. DAs also consider other dynamics, such as voter-approved mandatory sentences for violent felons and the availability and effectiveness of addiction services. It is challenging work that requires experience and dedication.

We do not feel the ACLU is best suited to decide who in our communities are charged with crimes and who are not. It is difficult to see how the ACLU can advocate for the accused, rather than the victims, while determining sentences for violent offenders. Effective criminal justice policy requires a wide range of opinions and actions.

Given those keys points, we have great confidence in Oregon's experienced, professional district attorneys.

*

Rep. Jeff Barker, D-Aloha, is chair of the Oregon House Judiciary Committee, a retired police lieutenant and a member of the ACLU of Oregon. Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, is vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a retired Oregon State Police area commander.
By Rich Lowry

Every Trump critic had "Oh, hell" moments during the primary season.

They were when Donald Trump demonstrated a keen, gut-level political instinct that even an exceptionally talented conventional politician would be hard-pressed to match.

An example: During a Republican debate in Florida in February, Trump was asked about former Mexican President Vicente Fox's comment that his country wouldn't pay for Trump's "[expletive deleted] wall."

"The wall just got 10 feet taller," Trump shot back. The rejoinder was funny and memorable. A Republican senator told me that his cellphone instantly lit up with constituents thrilled at what Trump had said. In slapping down el presidente, Trump advertised his toughness and nationalistic bona fides in a way a $10 million ad buy never could.

Oh. Hell.

Then there was the time he turned Ted Cruz's "New York values" attack into a riff about 9/11, leaving the college debate champion no option but to applaud Trump's answer. Or when he made the disruption of a Chicago rally by protesters into an advertisement for his stalwartness against thuggery. Or his temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S.

You could have locked 100 political consultants in a room and told them not to leave until they had a perfect response to the San Bernardino terror attack, and they never would have come up with it. When Trump proposed the ban, the world collapsed around his head. No one agreed with Trump -- except Republican voters. According to exit polls, it was his strongest issue.

The ban is completely unreasonable and, if you were going to try to implement it, impractical. Trump's insight was that it didn't matter. Its emotional punch, and the way it differentiated him from the other candidates, was the important thing.

Trump's achievement is difficult to fathom. With no pollsters, no speechwriters, no fundraising staff, little campaign organization, few TV advertisements, no debate prep and a paper-thin knowledge of public affairs, he has won a major-party presidential nomination. This is a 100-year event.

Trump did it by pounding a simple message over and over again in big rallies and media appearances. His shibboleths are burned into the consciousness of his supporters in a way we haven't seen since the Barack Obama of "hope and change." The Trump supporter with whom Cruz argued a few days before the Indiana primary wasn't highly informed, but he sure knew to shout "Lyin' Ted!"

The standard rules for political candidates are not to offend and not to court unnecessary controversy. Trump, a creature of the tabloids, has an ingrained instinct to do the opposite. It made him stand out from an initial field of 17, and almost every act of outrageousness reinforced his image as the "truth-telling" outsider.

Trump also was fortunate. For the longest time, there wasn't any organized effort against him. He won three out of the first four contests while his rivals squabbled among themselves. The establishment initially bet on Jeb Bush, and then, tapped out financially and psychologically, did nothing to rally around Cruz, whom many insiders hate more than Trump.

It seemed that Cruz's Wisconsin victory was a watershed. In retrospect, it was the beginning of the end. Once it became clear that the only alternative to a clean Trump nomination was a contested convention -- with the agony of the primary prolonged two more months and perhaps punctuated by riots in Cleveland -- Republican voters seemed to want to shut down the process as soon as possible.

Now it's on to the next test. At the same time he has lit up 40 percent of the Republican Party, Trump has alienated large swaths of the general public and key voting groups, who are (understandably) not as charmed by his bombast and free-swinging insults. It would be foolish to discount his chances. But it may be that he's just good enough at this to get into the general, where he will take down a lot of good conservatives with him. Oh, hell.

Rich Lowry can be reached at comments.lowry@nationalreview.com

(c) 2016, King Features Syndicate
By Charles Krauthammer

RINOs, corrupted by donors and lobbyists, sold out. Did these Republicans In Name Only repeal Obamacare? No. Did they defund Planned Parenthood? No. Did they stop President Obama's tax-and-spend hyperliberalism? No. Whether from incompetence or venality, they let Obama walk all over them.

Not just let down or disappointed. Betrayed. But then comes the paradox. If insufficient resistance to Obama's liberalism created this sense of betrayal, why in a field of 17 did Republican voters choose the least conservative candidate? A man who until yesterday was himself a liberal. Who donated money to those very same Democrats to whom the GOP establishment is said to have caved, including Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton.

Trump has expressed sympathy for a single-payer system of socialized medicine, far to the left of Obamacare. Trump lists health care as one of the federal government's three main responsibilities (after national security); Republicans adamantly oppose federal intervention in health care. He also lists education, which Republicans believe should instead be left to the states.

As for Planned Parenthood, the very same conservatives who railed against the Republican establishment for failing to defund it now rally around a candidate who sings the praises of its good works (save for the provision of abortion).

More fundamentally, Trump has no affinity whatsoever for the central thrust of modern conservatism -- a return to less and smaller government. If the establishment has insufficiently resisted Obama's Big Government policies, the beneficiary should logically have been the most consistent, indeed most radical, anti-government conservative of the bunch, Ted Cruz.

Cruz's entire career has consisted of promoting tea-party constitutionalism in revolt against party leaders who had joined "the Washington cartel." Yet when Cruz got to his one-on-one with Trump at the Indiana OK Corral, Republicans chose Trump and his nonconservative, idiosyncratic populism.

Which makes Indiana a truly historic inflection point. It marks the most radical transformation of the political philosophy of a major political party in our lifetime. The Democrats continue their trajectory of ever-expansive liberalism from the New Deal through the Great Society through Obama and Clinton today. While the GOP, the nation's conservative party, its ideology refined and crystallized by Ronald Reagan, has just gone populist.

It's an ideological earthquake. How radical a reorientation? Said Trump last week: "Folks, I'm a conservative. But at this point, who cares?"

Who cares? Wasn't caring about conservatism the very essence of the talk radio, tea party, grass-roots revolt against the so-called establishment? They cheered Cruz when he led the government shutdown in the name of conservative principles. Yet when the race came down to Cruz and Trump, these opinion-shaping conservatives who once doted on Cruz affected a studied Trump-leaning neutrality.

Trump won. True, the charismatically challenged Cruz was up against a prepackaged celebrity, an already famous showman.

True, Trump appealed to the economic anxiety of a squeezed middle class and the status anxiety of a formerly dominant white working class. But the prevailing conservative narrative -- of anti-establishment fury -- was different and is now exposed as a convenient fable. If Trump is a great big middle finger aimed at a Republican establishment that has abandoned its principles, isn't it curious that the party has chosen a man without any?

Trump doesn't even pretend to have any, conservative or otherwise. He lauds his own "flexibility," his freedom from political or philosophical consistency. And he elevates unpredictability to a foreign policy doctrine.

The ideological realignment is stark. On major issues -- such as the central question of retaining America's global pre-eminence as leader of the free world, sustainer of Western alliances and protector of the post-World War II order -- the GOP candidate stands decidedly to the left of the Democrat.

And who knows on what else. On entitlements? On health care? On taxes? We will soon find out. But as Trump himself says of being a conservative -- at this point, who cares?

As of Tuesday night, certainly not the GOP.

Charles Krauthammer's email address is letterscharleskrauthammer.com.

(c) 2016, The Washington Post Writers Group
Bees_on_HWY_226_Photo.jpg

Some honey bee hives fell onto Oregon 226 in Scio after a truck from Olsen Honey Farms broke down in the middle of the road, the Linn County Sheriff's Office reported Friday, May 6, 2016.

(Linn County Sheriff's Office)

Honey bee hives fell onto a state highway Friday morning in Scio, creating a buzzing swarm over the road and a two-hour detour around the site as a team worked, well, like busy bees, to corral the mess.

A flatbed truck from Olsen Honey Farms was hauling a load of hives with more than 100,000 bees when it broke down in the middle of Oregon 226 near Richardson Gap Road in Scio, Linn County Sheriff Bruce Riley said.

Workers from the farm arrived to remove the hives from the flatbed before the sun overheated them, Riley said in a news release.

But as they used a forklift to transfer the hives, some tipped over and fell on the highway, "causing thousands of bees to vacate the hives and form a large cloud of bees over the roadway," the news release said.

Beekeepers managed to collect some of the bees and secure the hives, the sheriff's office said. Traffic was rerouted around the hive of activity for two hours. No human was injured in the accident.

-- The Oregonian
Billy Underwood, Dylan Martin

Dylan Martin (right) of Kennewick, Washington, pleaded guilty to abducting his great-grandmother, whom he forced into the trunk of her own car and drove to Wood Village, Oregon, some 200 miles away. He and co-defendant Billy Underwood face as much as 14 years in prison when they are sentenced May, 12, 2016, in Benton County Circuit Court.

(The Associated Press)

KENNEWICK, Wash. -- A Kennewick teen has pleaded guilty to stuffing his great-grandmother into the trunk of her own car and driving about 200 miles before she escaped during a stop at an Oregon Walmart.

Dylan Martin, 17, pleaded guilty this week in Benton County Superior Court to first-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary and theft of a motor vehicle for his role in the November 2015 abduction, The Tri-City Herald reports.

The kidnapping charge includes aggravating circumstances because Hazel Abel, now 87, was vulnerable and the crime was deliberately cruel, prosecutors said. As a result, they are recommending a 14-year sentence, which is nearly twice the standard for kidnapping.

He and a teenage co-defendant, Billy Underwood, will be sentenced Thursday, May 12. Underwood is also looking 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the same charges last month.

The third co-defendant, a 15-year-old girl, was ordered to serve as much as 21/2-years in a state juvenile institution but is appealing her sentence. She was 14 at the tie of the incident and was charged in juvenile court. Martin and Underwood were charged as adults.

Martin abducted his great-grandmother Nov. 2, 2015, with the help of the two friends by throwing dirt in her face, putting an apron on her head and tying her hands, then stuffing her into the trunk of her 2001 Dodge Neon. They drove for six hours, stopping at a Walmart in Wood Village, Oregon, court documents show.

The three teens went into the store to buy toiletries. While they were inside, Abel untied her hands, pulled a cord to pop open the trunk and ran to a store employee who called police, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The teens ran when they saw Abel talking to the employee. They were arrested hours later after a Multnomah County sheriff's detective spotted them near a gas station across the street from the Walmart.

Court documents show that Martin and Underwood told investigators that they considered knocking Abel unconscious, killing her and torching the car with her body still inside, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported in 2015. Martin claimed he had stolen $60 from his great-grandmother a week before, the affidavit said.

-- The Oregonian staff and wire reports
The Bernie Sanders campaign announced that the Democratic presidential candidate will host a rally in Salem on Tuesday.

The event is to take place at the Salem Armory, 2320 17th St NE. It will start at 4 p.m. and the campaign encourages potential attendees to RSVP. The event description also asks that attendees leave bags at home and only bring phones, keys and other small items.

Sanders was last in Oregon on April 28. He visited a cafe near the University of Oregon campus before heading to Springfield for a rally.

His last appearance in Portland was March 25. As he spoke to a crowd at the Moda Center, a small bird perched on the podium, giving rise to the Birdie Sanders meme.

He trails Hillary Clinton by 846 delegates ahead of Tuesday's primary in West Virginia. Seven days later, Oregon and Kentucky will cast votes for the contest, with a 61 and 55 delegates to hand out, respectively.

--Eder Campuzano

503.221.4344

@edercampuzano

ecampuzano@oregonian.com
'It is the policy of the United States to undertake all reasonable efforts to ensure that Presidential transitions are well-coordinated and effective, without regard to party affiliation,' Obama said in his executive order. (Photo: AP)

Washington: US President Barack Obama has signed an executive order establishing a team to aid smooth transition process for the new administration as he demits his office next year after eight years in power.

The White House Transition Council, comprising of about a dozen members, is headed by his Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough. The other officials include Director of National Intelligence and those from the national security, homeland security and counter-terrorism team. "The peaceful transition of power has long been a hallmark of American democracy. It is the policy of the United States to undertake all reasonable efforts to ensure that Presidential transitions are well-coordinated and effective, without regard to party affiliation," Obama said in his executive order.

"To facilitate the Presidential transition, including assisting and supporting the transition efforts of the transition teams of eligible candidates, there is established a White House Transition Coordinating Council," Obama said. Obama's second four-year term ends on January 20, 2017; the day on which his successor would be sworn in. The US has a term limit on its president. An individual can't be elected for more than two four-year term.

The election of the new president would be held on November 8, 2016.

While the Republican party would be represented by Donald Trump, the Democratic party is expected to represented for the first time in American history by a woman -- Hillary Clinton. Even though the new president would be elected on November 8, 2016, he would not be sworn in till January 20, 2017. In between the president elect would have a transition team that would make the necessary preparation for the takeover.

The White House Transition Coordinating Council would provide guidance to executive departments and agencies and the Federal Transition Coordinator regarding preparations for the Presidential transition, including succession planning and preparation of briefing materials. "It would also facilitate communication and information sharing between transition representatives of eligible candidates and senior employees in agencies and the Executive Office of the President, including the provision of information relevant to facilitating the personnel aspects of a Presidential transition and such other information that, in the Council's judgement, is useful and appropriate, as long as providing such information is not otherwise prohibited by law," the executive order said.
Panama City: Sueddeutsche Zeitung said on Friday that the source of millions of documents leaked to the German newspaper from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca had sent them a manifesto, saying his motivation was the "scale of injustices" the papers revealed.

The source had never before publicly stated why he leaked the documents, now known as the Panama Papers, said Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), one of Germany's most reputable newspapers.

In an 1,800 word manifesto published on the SZ website on Friday, the source, calling himself "John Doe", praised others who have leaked secret and sensitive documents, such as Edward Snowden, who revealed details of the U.S. government's mass surveillance programme.

"For his revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA), he deserves a hero's welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment," the source wrote.

He also said he would be willing to co-operate with law enforcement agencies.

He called on the European Commission, Britain, the United States and other nations to take steps to protect people who reveal private information about such sensitive issues rather than punishing them.

"Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop," he said.

The source, who contacted the paper a year ago with an offer of encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, denied being a spy but said he had recognised the "scale of injustices" described in their contents.

The documents cover a period over almost 40 years, from 1977 until last December, and purport to show that some companies domiciled in tax havens were being used for suspected money laundering, arms and drug deals and tax evasion.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the source was the same person who leaked the original documents. The source's identity and gender is not known.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung spent more than a year, along with other media outlets and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, analysing the huge cache of documents.

On Friday, Sueddeutsche Zeitung introduced the manifesto by saying: "Now 'John Doe', the anonymous source, has sent the SZ a manifesto, which can be read as an explanation of his actions  and as a call to action."

The source welcomed the fact that the leak had triggered a debate on "wrongdoing by the elite" but said not enough action had been taken.

"For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have," he said.

The source was critical of banks, financial regulators, tax authorities, the courts, and the legal profession, as well as the media, saying he had offered the documents to several major media outlets that had chosen not to cover them.

"The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery."

The source ended the manifesto by saying "inexpensive, limitless digital storage and fast internet connections" should help digitise the revolution against income inequality.


Dr Raymond Staals

Dr Raymond Staals worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Fineran lab, Department of Microbiology and Immunology. His work was on a bacterial adaptive immune system called CRISPR-Cas. This interview was conducted in 2015.

CRISPR-Cas provides protection against virtually all sources of incoming foreign DNA, such as viruses and (conjugative) plasmids. The adaptive aspect of this system ensures that the bacterium remembers prior invasions. As such, when the cell is exposed to the same foreign genetic element again, this system can quickly recognise and eliminate the potential threat. My goal is to work out the molecular basis underlying the formation of this genetic memory.

I really enjoy the combination of tackling fundamental questions on one hand and contributing to potential medical applications on the other.

Ive always been fascinated by how things work, whether its a TV or a molecular mechanism. Im still often amazed by the clever approaches scientists use to prove or disprove their hypotheses.

I do really enjoy working with people that are truly dedicated and enthusiastic. Equally important, I work best in an informal environment with fun colleagues. After meeting Associate Professor Peter Fineran during his sabbatical in The Netherlands, I knew that I would find all these things in Otago. The atmosphere is very relaxed, while still retaining the drive to perform at your best.

Receiving the Fellowship felt like a confirmation to me that this field of research was more widely appreciated and that a future career for me in science was indeed possible. It enabled me to continue working on the CRISPR-Cas system in an inspiring environment. The financial independence allowed me to work with different collaborators as well. This has had a great impact on my scientific output and keeping my broad interests.

Of course, moving about 18,000 km from home (The Netherlands) is quite a big step to take; leaving behind all your friends and relatives. Especially since my brother had his first-born in the time I was away.

You really have to enjoy the work youre doing and be prepared to put in more hours than is written in your job description. Theres often competition and getting scooped on a particular research question is one of the worst things that can happen.

Im having a great time here with many friendly colleagues and a great research environment. Everybody has been very supportive, not only in the Fineran group, but also in the Department and the Health Sciences Division.
Amanda Lewis (left) was convicted of killing her daughter Adrianna (right) by drowning her (Photo: Youtube video grab)

Florida: When seven-year-old Adrianna Hutto died of drowning in a swimming pool at her home in Esto, Florida, authorities never suspected anything sinister.

According to a report in the Mirror, her mother Amanda Lewis said she had been cleaning bugs out of the pool, slipped, fell in and drowned. Her younger brother AJ had tried to save her but couldnt, and cried for help.

Amanda rushed to the pool, found her daughter lying face first, and tried to give her the kiss of life even as she called emergency services. Fire services arrived soon and they then airlifted Adrianna to hospital.

However, Adriannas younger brother AJ soon began to tell a different story. While Amanda attended hospital as doctors battled to save her daughters life, AJ was in the care of his grandparents. He began to tell them how his mother had drowned Adrianna in the pool, using her hand to cover her face and push her underwater.

After hearing AJs version of events, Amandas mothers Brenda Burns and step father Charles Burns took AJ to the police department for questioning.

Amanda's son AJ told his grandparents his mother had 'dunked' his sister in the pool for being naughty. (Photo: YouTube screengrab)

AJ was interviewed twice that day - August 8, 2008 - by investigators and a child expert and both the times he told a story that broadly remained the same: Adrianna had been dunked by his mother as a punishment for being naughty. Her fault? She sprayed window cleaner in the living room over the TV, making her mother very angry.

AJ described the events of Adriannas death graphically, using actions to show how his mom had dunked and drowned his sister. "She done some stuff that she ain't suppose to so my mama got mad, so she throwed her (sic) in the pool," he said.

Adrianna died in hospital. Over the next two days Amanda was interrogated by the police. She denied the allegations and even passed a polygraph test.

The authorities weren't convinced though and over the next month the investigators and the local prosecutor corroborated multiple elements of AJs story and decided to investigate further.

An inspection of the childrens home led to the discovery that their bedroom was squalid and reeking of urine. Adrianna had ADHD and had been wetting the bed. Moreover, the room was devoid of toys.

A month later, Amanda was charged with murder. During the trial, the court was shown a sketch AJ drew of the events on the fateful day.

Moreover, an autopsy showed a bruise on Adriannas face which developed into a handprint. The doctor, who tried to save Adrianna, said Amanda was emotionless when she heard her daughter had died, asking where the vending machine was.

Amandas co-workers at the nursing home said that she had spoken of killing her daughter after an incident where shed vandalised her mums car, writing loser with permanent marker in the interior.

The jury eventually found Amanda guilty after a four-day trial, and sentenced her to life imprisonment without parole, plus 30 years for child abuse.

It also emerged that Amanda had lost her first baby  16 month old Alex  when she was 17 years old. The cause of death was seizure.
When Paula Kee left the Art of Friends exhibit Thursday, she said she felt enlightened.

She was one of the more than 100 people attended the exhibits opening reception at Creative 360 Thursday evening.

The exhibit features artists Sue Ellison, Kathy Jones, Kathleen Sullivan and Sally Young  the women have been friends for more than 20 years.

Colleen Reed deemed the exhibit breathtaking. Reed, the Creative 360 program director and exhibit curator, said the women are exceptional artists.

The exhibit really captures the essence of the artists, Reed said.

Jones, who has large abstract oil paints on display, said the four women met while getting advanced degrees at Central Michigan University. She said the exhibit works because all four of the women present different mediums and are at different stages in life. They are different ages, lived different lives and each brings something unique to the table, thus taking the exhibit viewer on a journey.

It was a different exhibit than most, said Bob Pierce after exploring the display. Its very diverse art. It was very nice.

Jones said when Sullivan suggested the idea of doing an exhibit together, Jones thought it would be a great idea.

All four women are artists in their own right and have done other exhibits  Jones said this is the first time theyve done a showing together.

She also credits Reed for the layout of the exhibit.

She did a fantastic job, Jones said.

Barb Ecarius was in awe of the pieces lining the Creative 360 walls. This is just amazing.

Ecarius lived in Midland for 30 years and moved to Florida 20 years ago. She attended the reception to visit Creative 360, a place she remembered fondly and was delighted to see it was still displaying wonderful art.

Jones said the four are really good friends outside of art. Yet, they also share that they are artists and will bounce ideas off each other, critique each other and make suggestions.

I think this is wonderful, Ellison said of the exhibit and the turnout.

Ellison paints and draws, yet has experimented with many approaches to art.

I draw and paint the things I love, places I like to visit, people I care about and things that fascinate me, Ellison said.

Sullivan focuses on portraits, especially those of close family and friends.

The full frontal pose continues to interest me, but now Im including more of the figure, adding to the complexity of the subject, Sullivan said.

Young, on the other hand, is intensely receptive to the sensory stimuli of nature and curious about how and why it works.

Because we have evolved in the presence of the world, it resonates within us, Young said. My work is a celebration of the natural world.

Art of Friends remains on display at Creative 360 until June 24. For more info, www.becreative360.org.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is seeking public input on a report from The Dow Chemical Co. describing its efforts to clean up the soil in Midland, and detailing its future plans for long-term monitoring and financial assurance.

The report is the final step in a years-long cleanup of soil contaminated by historic, airborne dioxin emissions from Dow. Under the DEQs supervision, Dow sampled soil from more than 1,600 residential and residential-like properties in Midland. At more than 130 homes, the company removed and replaced the top 12 inches of soil before restoring the lawns and landscaping. More than 98 percent of affected homeowners agreed to participate in the cleanup.
WakeUp! Midland welcomed Wendy Block from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce at its monthly meeting held Friday at the Great Hall.

As director of health policy and human resources for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Block oversees the policy, lobbying and advocacy work for the Chamber on a wide range of health car, legal reform and employment related for the chambers Health and Human Resources Committee.

I spend my days mainly in Michigans capital talking to legislators from across the state about key issues, key legislation and regulatory issues that impact our members that focus on job creation and growth in our state. In other words, Im a lobbyist, she said.

The Michigan Chamber has about 6,700 members across all 83 counties of Michigan. The statewide business federation works closely with the Midland Area Chamber of Commerce, but, we dont tell each other what to do, Block said, who enjoys the fast paced nature of her position. Block has worked in state politics for nearly two decades. Prior to joining the Michigan Chamber, she served as a policy adviser for the Michigan House of Representatives covering health insurance, financial services and education issues.

Friday, Block was in town to share possible state proposals that might appear on the November general election.

MANDATORY PAID SICK LEAVE

The Time to Care Coalition has proposed the Earned Sick Time Act, a bill to provide workers with the right to earn sick time for personal or family health needs.

Its actually the same group that tried to put the minimum wage increase on the ballot in the 2014 election. That never actually made it to the ballot, Block said.

Presently, the group is in the process of gathering the 252,000 valid signatures needed to place the proposal on the ballot.

They think they will qualify for the ballot, Block said.

The Michigan Chamber opposes the act, which would require those employers with 10 or more employees to provide one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of work. Each employee would be able to use up to 72 hours in a given year.

Those employers with less than 10 employees would still be required to comply and would also provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours of work. However, the employee could use just 40 hours of paid leave in a year. The remaining 32 hours would be provided in the form of unpaid leave.

Even for companies that currently provide paid sick leave, there is no guarantee that they will comply with the act. There are several nuances with the act, Block said.

The act would also allow workers to accumulate sick leave to use for purposes related to domestic violence and sexual assault and school meetings needed as the result of a childs disability, health, or issues due to domestic violence and sexual assault.

REPEAL OF PREVAILING WAGE

The proposal would repeal Michigans prevailing wage. Currently, state and local construction projects that are funded with taxpayer dollars, the wages for those projects must be paid in accordance with local prevailing wages or union wages.

That adds about 10 percent to the cost of tax payer-funded construction projects, Block said.

There have been efforts to repeal prevailing wage in the legislature. This session, the Senate has passed a three-bill package to repeal, but the legislation has stalled in the House.

MARIJUANA PROPOSALS

Block said that there are three groups that are trying to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in Michigan, which the Michigan Chamber opposes.

This has been flying a little bit under the radar, she said. Two of the groups are fairly serious, the third not so much.

Both serious groups, MI Legalize (Michigan Comprehensive Cannabis Reform Committee) and MCC (Michigan Cannabis Coalition) would apply to those over 21. MCC would establish a state regulatory structure similar to alcohol. However, MI Legalize would allow local entities to regulate the sale and use.

Municipal governmental entities would decide individually for the community, Block said of MI Legalize. How do you regulate it? What does that look like for retail establishments? We are concerned that (this proposal) could create severe havoc, especially in communities where there are volunteers serving in local government.

With federal OSHA rules, the implications for the workplace could be significant. Under OSHA rules businesses are required to provide a safe and hazard free workplace for their employees. Block mentioned there were a lot of questions with the MI Legalize proposal: When you legalize a chemical that is still illegal under federal law, what does that look like? There is no criteria to determine when someone is impaired. What does that mean for unemployment benefits? For workers compensation?

There are a lot of ways the details of the proposals intercept with employers and their ability to kind of make sure their workplace is safe and they are able to implement their zero tolerance drug policies, said Block,

The Michigan Chamber has taken a formal position in opposition to the legalization of marijuana in Michigan.
Photo provided

Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society recently inducted 57 new student members and three honorary members into the Alpha Omicron Omicron (AOO) chapter at Mid Michigan Community College. Students must earn a minimum 3.5 grade point average and complete at least 12 credit hours at MMCC before being eligible to join the international honor society. An honorary member is a person who has rendered distinguished service to the local chapter or society.

Chartered on April 18, 1989, AOO is one of more than 1,285 chapters in the dociety. In their 26 years of existence, AOO members have grown to obtain the highest level of achievement  a 5 Star Chapter.
The Purdue Alumni Club of Mid-Michigan will host its annual spring dinner on Friday, May 13.

The featured speaker will be Dr. Timothy Ratliff, Robert Wallace Miller director of the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research and distinguished professor of comparative pathobiology in the college of veterinary medicine. His topic is Boiler Up, Hammer Down Cancer.
 The 2016 student Sea Scholars, who will sail along the East Coast during an unforgettable voyage aboard the Appledore V.

 Brenda Scramlin, who received the Lorraine Patterson Award from the YWCA Great Lakes Bay Region.

 Misty Janks, who was named the new executive director of the YWCA Great Lakes Bay Region.

 Spirit of the Community honorees for their dedication to changing lives through volunteering and community organizations.

 All As Automotive, which was honored by state of Michigan officials for its outstanding service.

 Deb Sugg and Anita Barrett, who reconnected after falling out of touch with each other nearly 49 years ago.

 Gary Williams on his retirement from WMPX/WMRX after 37 years as a radio show personality.

 Matt Cross, who underwent a double lung transplant in January and is enjoying life to the fullest.

 Micheal Tacey, who was awarded six medals, two badges, two ribbons and a button in honor of his military service.

 Charles Parsons, who received top honors at the State Finals competition of Michigan History Day.

 Marcia Dilling, who received the Michael W. Stutelberg Award.

 The volunteers who participated in Midland County Habitat for Humanitys Women Build Week.

 Robotics teams from Meridian, Bullock Creek and H.H. Dow high schools, which participated in the state competition.

 Audrey Harding, who celebrated her 99th birthday.

 Andy and Marge Kobisa, who celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary.

 Gerald and Edith Miner, who celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary.
Washington: Shootings at two shopping centers in Washington suburbs killed one person and wounded three others on Friday, although it was known if the incidents were related and no suspects were in custody, police said.

Authorities locked down schools and recreational facilities as a precaution. A confrontation led to the first shooting at Westfield Montgomery Mall in affluent Bethesda, Maryland, where two men and a woman were hit by gunfire and taken to a hospital, police said. They were in critical condition.

The incident was originally reported as an assault at about 11 a.m. (1500 GMT). Two of the wounded were bystanders who came to the aid of the first victim, said Assistant Chief Darryl McSwain of Montgomery County police. There was no reason to believe they knew one another, he said.

Montgomery County, Md. Police Captain Paul Starks speaks to the media in the parking lot outside the Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. (Photo: AP)

No suspect was in custody but "we are looking at a person of interest," McSwain told a news conference in the pouring rain. A second shooting about half an hour later killed a woman at the Aspen Hill Shopping Center in Silver Spring, some 8 miles (13 km) away, Montgomery County police said on Twitter.

Bethesda and Silver Spring are suburbs just north of Washington in Montgomery County, Maryland. Investigators were unsure whether the two shootings were related, Montgomery County police spokesman Rick Goodale said.
The following list includes recent reports from the Midland County Sheriffs Office and the Midland Police Department.

Wednesday, May 4

3:19 p.m.  A Jerome Township man, 69, reported receiving a phone call from a caller who said he won $5,000, and then threatened him. The man was told the call was a scam.

4:02 p.m.  An Edenville Township home was broken into sometime within the last 16 days. Nothing was stolen. A window screen, valued at $20, was damaged.

7:47 p.m.  A deputy was sent to U.S. 10 near Shaffer Road for a report of a woman walking in the rain without shoes. The woman was not found.

8:01 p.m.  Deputies assisted a Child Protective Services worker at a Lee Township home.

9:23 p.m.  Police made arrests for drug possession and driving on a suspended license in the 3500 block of Isabella Street.
As part of U.S. Pacific Commands first iteration of the Air Contingent in the Philippines, four U.S. Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II aircraft and two HH-60G Pave Hawks flew a final mission April 28 in international waters west of the Philippines.

The aircraft, staged out of Clark Air Base, Philippines, conducted air and maritime domain awareness missions for the past two weeks, to provide greater transparency in international waters and airspace.

This represents a significant milestone in our efforts to strengthen our regional presence, enhance partnerships and ensure security while laying the groundwork for all future joint air contingent deployments, said General Lori Robinson, Pacific Air Forces Commander and U.S. Pacific Commands Theater Joint Forces Air Component Commander. We sincerely thank our Philippine partners for providing this exceptional opportunity to strengthen our interoperability.

Throughout their time here, the A-10s flew four missions in international waters and international airspace increasing air and maritime domain awareness while promoting regional stability and security.

Hosting the U.S. Pacific Command Air Contingent was very beneficial to both our forces as it affords us the opportunity to work alongside one another, said Major General Del Rosario, 1st Air Division Commander, Philippine Air Force (PAF). We look forward to future Air Contingents with more opportunities to train with our counterparts through Mutual Defense Board/Strategic Engagement Board events.

As part of the Air Contingent at Clark, pararescuemen from the 33rd Rescue Squadron deployed from Kadena Air Base, Japan, also conducted subject matter expert exchanges with Philippine Air Force pararescuemen, pilots and flight engineers, discussing combat search and rescue tactics and procedures. Training opportunities, afforded because of the Air Contingents presence, foster stronger relationships with Philippine counterparts, as well as help respective forces become increasingly interoperable and capable.

Information sharing is key to both our air forces success; we are able to share best practices and experiences to make our operations more successful, said Del Rosario. This contingent gives us the opportunity to strengthen our collaboration and partnership with our U.S. counterparts.

The PAF aircrews also flew aboard the HH-60s affording them an opportunity to familiarize themselves with a U.S. airframe in the event they would need work together during humanitarian aid and disaster relief operations.

In addition to the missions, the A-10s flew 24 training sorties and conducted personnel recovery training in collaboration with the HH-60s. This improves the interoperability between the two aircrafts crews and ensures the pilots are qualified to conduct rescue operations. Training in the airspace over the Philippines allows the pilots of both airframes more freedom of maneuverability and more versatile terrain to practice than normally available at ranges in the United States.

Im so proud of the professionalism all the individuals have shown. We told our Airmen from the beginning this is different  your job is simply to fly and observe, but its an extremely important mission, said Col Larry Card, the Air Contingent Commander.

The missions conducted here that provided maritime domain situational awareness were unlike any the aircrews had flown before, and are vital in ensuring freedom of access to the air and maritime domains in accordance with international law.

These men and women stepped right up to the plate, were excited about the mission and determined the best way to go about it. Im extremely impressed with this team; we have the best Airmen and it shows everyday, Card said.

The Air Contingents continued presence and missions reaffirm both nations commitment to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

The A-10s departed the Philippines on April 30, and will be replaced by the second Air Contingent iteration at a later date.
The United States and Lao PDR conducted their seventh annual Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue on May 6 in Vientiane. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel led the U.S delegation, which included officials from the U.S. Departments of State and Defense and the United States Agency for International Development.

During their discussions, Assistant Secretary Russel and Lao Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Sengphet Houngboungnuang agreed that the U.S.-Lao relationship is stronger than ever. Both officials discussed the importance of the upcoming visit to Laos of President Barrack Obama in September, which will be the first visit by a U.S. President. In addition, they discussed Laos current role as chair of ASEAN and the opportunities that the country has when it welcomes world leaders for the ASEAN and EAS Summits this year.

Assistant Secretary Russel reconfirmed a U.S. commitment to help Laos remove unexploded ordnance (UXO) and to fund specialized teams to conduct this important work. He highlighted the progress that Laos has made in surveying, locating, and clearing UXO, and said the United States is eager to help Laos speed up the process to protect lives and livelihoods and to assist in the economic growth of Laos. U.S. and Lao officials also reviewed progress towards locating the remains of personnel missing from the Indochina conflict period.

U.S. and Lao officials agreed on goals for a comprehensive U.S. development assistance program in Laos, valued at nearly $50 million. Vice Minister Sengphet thanked the United States for its support of Laos Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in nutrition, health, education, trade, and justice. He also discussed the benefits of U.S. assistance for Laos ASEAN Chairmanship year, which includes training of officials in policy related issues and summit logistics, and in English language.

U.S. and Lao officials also reviewed broader regional and global developments. Assistant Secretary Russel emphasized the commitment of the United States to constructive and beneficial relations with Laos and with ASEAN, indications of the importance the United States places on the broader Asia Pacific region.
This column is being brought to you today courtesy of Betty Lower.

In fact, just about everything Ive ever written is, in some fashion, a result of her wit, wisdom and inspiration. Mrs. Lower was my beloved teacher, mentor and friend. She died April 24, 2016, at the age of 80, in Springfield.

Professionally, she was an English teacher, but Mrs. Lowers influence extended beyond her classroom at Pontiac Township High School. More than 35 years later, I look back on the magical time with her and appreciate the complex woman Betty was.

Raised in Franklin, Ind., Betty Smith may have had an ordinary name, but she was an extraordinary individual. She was valedictorian of her high school and college, and after graduating from Franklin College, received a Fulbright Scholarship to study one year at University of Bristol in England. She also received a masters degree from the University of Illinois.

She came to Pontiac, along with her former husband William, to serve as the dean of women at Winston Churchill College. After the college closed in 1971, she continued her career at PTHS.

As her student, I was captivated by Mrs. Lowers style. She was more educated and cultured than most people I had encountered in my young life, yet she was fun. She conducted herself with grace, discipline and elegance and, at the same time, had a charming openness and drive.

Fittingly, a former student recently described her as our own Katherine Hepburn.

She explained literary techniques not just for the sake of teaching American literature, but in the service of opening our minds to new ideas. As if someone had turned on a light, we began to grasp the power of works by Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and others.

And it stuck. Just last week, as I smelled the blooms from a lilac tree near our back door, I recited lines taught by my favorite teacher:

When lilacs last in the door-yard bloomd, and the great star early droopd in the western sky in the night, I mournd  and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Now, today, like Walt Whitman, I am mourning. And remembering.

Writing well was a process, she said, not an overwhelming task, but achievable skill. If you cant think of a lead for your paper, start in the middle. Just start writing.

She pushed us to reach our potential and sparked new levels of confidence. The fire she lit in me spread to other classes and my parents nicknamed her the miracle worker."

As sponsor of the school newspaper, she urged me to join the papers staff. I agreed, and havent stopped writing since. At Mrs. Lowers side, I learned to make assignments, edit copy and prioritize work -- all skills I use today.

She taught me some silly things, too, like how to write my name in cursive upside down and backward. (Its a great party trick.)

This week, many former students and friends are sharing thoughts of Mrs. Lower. Sharon Jones of Bloomington said, Betty was a great mentor to me as I did my student teaching under her direction. She was a phenomenal mentor, esteemed colleague, and treasured friend.

Several people recalled Mrs. Lowers beautiful singing voice. A talented performer, she was involved in multiple choirs and theatrical groups and led several productions.

Mrs. Lowers most treasured role, however, was mother and grandmother. Her three children, twins Bill and Tracy, and Rob, and three grandchildren, Courtney and twins Willie and Matthew, were the absolute joy of her life.

A few years ago, Mrs. Lower sent me a lovely note, ending it with a quote from Helen Keller. It perfectly describes my feelings today.

What we have enjoyed once we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

How blessed we are to have known and loved her. She is a part of me forever.
BLOOMINGTON  Property tax relief and workers' compensation reform are among actions needed to support small businesses, Gov. Bruce Rauner said during a visit Friday afternoon to Nord Outdoor Power on the south side of Bloomington

We can't have a balanced budget if we're not growing, said Rauner, adding that, for Illinois to grow, we've got to become more pro-business.

The cost of workers' compensation is the No. 1 problem, but property taxes also are too high, said Rauner after touring the business at 1716 E. Hamilton Road, which sells and services tractors, mowers, chainsaws and grills, among other things.

Owner Doug Nord, who has been operating his business for 12 years, said it's truly a family business. His wife, son and daughter-in-law all work there. Even the family dog, Henry, was greeting visitors.

Like many in small business, you have to have that passion, said Nord, who estimated he works 60 to 70 hours a week. If you're just in it for the money, you're going to be disappointed real quick.

He said the high costs that hurt businesses also affect you as a consumer because costs have to be passed along to stay in business.

It's simple math, he said.

Rauner said the property tax is crushing working families. It's crushing small business.

He said reforms that would give local governments more control with less state requirements would enable them to hold down taxes.

Although Rauner's visit was tied to Small Business Week in Illinois, he took time to talk about big business, too.

The governor said Peoria-based Caterpillar would like to increase jobs in Illinois but is frustrated by the high workers' compensation costs. Rauner said Illinois missed an opportunity to have GE move here from Connecticut because the company wanted reforms first and didn't want to move from one failed state to another.

Rauner said he intends to travel on my own dime to other countries and states  including neighboring Indiana  to bring jobs here because I'm a competitive son of a gun.
BLOOMINGTON  The second birthing center in Illinois  and first outside the Chicago area  should open this summer in Bloomington.

"The gestation is almost complete," said registered nurse and certified nurse midwife Marlyce Klopping-Davis, during a tour this week at the Bloomington-Normal Birthing Center, 6 Westport Court.

Klopping-Davis is the center's director of midwifery services.

Renovation of the former child-care center building is nearly complete, said project manager Laura Wiegand.

The 6,000-square-foot building was gutted inside and has been rebuilt at a cost of $1.1 million, said Dr. Joe Santiago. Santiago and Dr. Dele Ogunleye  Bloomington-Normal obstetrician/gynecologists  are co-owners of the birthing center.

"To come from where I had an idea many years ago to today, it's overwhelming," Santiago said.

"It feels like home," said certified nurse midwife Jenni Tilson.

"This will be a benefit to a great majority of women with low-risk pregnancies in Central Illinois," Ogunleye said.

The birthing center is for women at low risk of birthing complications. Illinois Department of Public Health has a long list of conditions that would preclude women from delivering in a birthing center. Even so, most women have low-risk deliveries and more are opting for birthing center deliveries, the doctors said.

More women want to give birth in a less clinical setting, Klopping-Davis and the doctors said. And more women want to labor and deliver in birthing tubs even as fewer hospitals allow water births.

In addition, giving birth at a birthing center costs less than at a hospital, Santiago said.

OSF St. Joseph Medical Center and Advocate BroMenn Medical Center agree that the birthing center will be a good option for women with low-risk pregnancies and who don't wish to deliver in a hospital.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and American Academy of Pediatrics support certified midwives and accredited freestanding birth centers.

Illinois didn't allow birthing centers until recently. A center opened in Berwyn in December 2014. The Bloomington center will be the second and Santiago and Ogunleye expect the center to attract pregnant women from throughout Central Illinois.

The center received an occupancy permit from the City of Bloomington on Thursday, Wiegand said. The next step is an IDPH inspection and approval, which is expected within 90 days, she said. After that, probably in August, women can begin to labor and deliver at the center.

With the occupancy permit, the center expects to begin seeing pre-natal patients on July 1, Ogunleye said. Pregnant women will meet the certified nurse midwife, tour the center and take classes before their delivery.

A certified nurse midwife and registered nurse will attend each delivery while the doctors will oversee care. When complications happen, the birthing center has an agreement with nearby St. Joseph to accept the patient. The birthing center is developing emergency transfer protocols with paramedics.

The center has a living room with a fireplace, a kitchen, a multipurpose room for prenatal education and exercise, two exam rooms for prenatal care, a nurses' station and three birthing suites, each with a labor and birthing tub and bathroom. Each birthing suite will be decorated differently.

"We want it to be warm and inviting," Klopping-Davis said.

Kathleen Lorenz, who was birthing center administrator, recently became practice manager for Soderstrom Dermatology in Normal but remains involved in the birthing center. Her administrative responsibilities have been assumed by Klopping-Davis, Tilson, Wiegand and marketing coordinator Theresa Lage.

"It's exciting to have this alternative for moms and families," Tilson said.
BLOOMINGTON  Naythen Biddle pressed his paint-covered hand onto a wall outside his school this week as a way to wave goodbye to his former self.

I didnt hang with the best people, said Biddle, 16. But I grew out of them and Im with a better crowd now.

His hand print is part of a mural designed and painted by students at Regional Alternative School in Bloomington with help from world-renowned muralist Joel Bergner of New York.

The RAS serves students with a variety of academic, social, economic or behavioral issues with locations in Bloomington, Clinton and Pontiac.

Its one thing for students to talk about their challenges and goals. Its another thing to put it out for the public to see, said Bergner, a Normal Community High School alumnus.

The painting adds a pop of color on a north wall next to the school at 408 W. Washington St., Bloomington. It is the second mural completed by RAS students and Bergner in downtown. The first is a symbolic phoenix painting on a south wall of 121 N. Main St.

Both community paintings were sponsored by the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation.

The latest mural is more complex than the first, leading viewers through a journey traveled by many RAS students.

The mural starts on the far right side of the wall, a cinder block canvas donated by Joe and Ruth Haney of Bloomington. The paint begins as a rusty brown where students created images and words that described their deepest struggles: a pair of handcuffs and bottles of pills and alcohol.

The collage of hardships creates half of a face, with two of the building windows as sunglasses. The other half of the face is more vibrant, and from there the mural becomes brighter.

While working with these students Ive learned about their struggles. Its a tough age. Theyve gone through these struggles but they have a second chance. Now theyre trying to succeed, said Bergner.

An angel rises with wings outstretched. Painted within the wings are memorials for deceased love ones, even a purple guitar to remember Prince. On the angels right wing is Biddles salmon-colored hand print.

Biddle hopes the community will see the work of art and know the school isnt full of delinquents.

Were just kids, he said. It doesnt take a lot for us to all come together and create something.

Following the angel is a magician with four hands. The magician is holding a crystal ball full of RAS student aspirations.

Chelseanna Gilmer, 16, painted a giraffe in the purple globe to signify her desire to someday work with animals.

There are sometimes fights around this area and it can be pretty dark, said Gilmer. I hope this wall brings color to the area and shows people there is beauty in the madness.

The magician also points a wand at a top hat. A stream of colorful birds flies from the hat into the final segment of the mural: a tree full of inspiring quotes.

Art is a great medium of expression. It gives the students the opportunity to not only dream, but to formalize some plans, said Bryan Kendall, RAS principal. They have the opportunity to reflect, correct and move forward. In this mural, thats clear.

A public reveal of the completed mural with student reflections will be at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
NORMAL  Illinois State University, like other higher education institutions in the state, is hoping for more state funding, but it might need to get in line behind social service agencies, according to what ISU's director of state governmental relations has been told.

The Illinois Senate passed a bill Thursday to add $454 million to $600 million in stopgap higher education funding approved last week. But Jonathan Lackland told the board of trustees Friday that the bill, which would give ISU another $19.6 million on top of the $20.9 million in the previous stopgap measure, probably will sit in the House for a while.

If no more money is received, it would be equivalent to what we received 46 years ago, said ISU board of trustees Chairman Rocky Donahue.

Lackland, who handles legislative matters for ISU, said he was told by Rita Mayfield, DWaukegan, chairwoman of the House Black Caucus, that nothing can be done with the higher education bill until funding is found for social service agencies that also are struggling since no budget was adopted for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Gov. Bruce Rauner, who was in Bloomington on Friday to mark Small Business Week, said higher education is a key part of quality education in Illinois, but he was not specific about the amount of funding it should receive.

Instead, he pointed to reforms that would free up money for higher education, such as procurement reform, to yield enough savings to pay for Monetary Award Program grants for low-income students. He said a pension reform plan outlined by Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat, would save $1 billion a year, which Rauner called a good place to start.

The stopgap measure Rauner signed last week provided ISU with $20.9 million  about 31 percent of what it received in state funding in fiscal year 2015  and $7.5 million for MAP grants, about half of what was awarded to students. The bill pending in the House would raise the funding level in fiscal year 2016 for all public universities and community colleges to 60 percent of what they got the year before.

Lackland said our message was clear that universities supported the stopgap funding measure that gave schools a percentage of their money, as long as we know this isn't the end.

Donahue said after Friday's meeting the stopgap funding bill just kicked the can down the road for three months.

Without pointing fingers at anyone, Donahue said, The nonsense has to stop.

Uncertainty about state funding was one factor singled out in passage of a 3 percent increase in tuition and fees for incoming ISU students.

Board member Anne Davis said, We truly find ourselves between a rock and a hard place, not due to any of our own doing, because the state hasn't done its job.

The university has left positions vacant and delayed maintenance projects not related to safety as it waits for the state to pass a budget.

Unlike several other Illinois public universities, ISU has not resorted to layoffs and has described itself as financially stable.

The board has had periodic work sessions during the budget impasse and Donahue said more might be needed if the state doesn't pass a budget.

After May 31, we'll have a better picture, said Donahue, pointing to the date when the legislature is scheduled to adjourn.
BLOOMINGTON  McLean County could get much closer this year to a bike trail that spans the entire county.

More than 20 miles of trail could stretch from Bloomington-Normal to Lexington in the north and Funks Grove in the south if the Illinois Department of Transportation accepts grant applications approved by the County Board's transportation committee.

Trails already run across the Twin Cities, from Bloomington for 3.7 miles to Shirley and for 4.2 miles through Lexington.

A 4-mile trail being built from Normal to Towanda should be done in June, and work will start this spring on a 2.5-mile segment north of Towanda.

If IDOT signs off on the grants, crews would build a 4-mile segment connecting the trails north of Towanda and in Lexington and a 3.25-mile section stretching from south of Shirley to Funks Grove.

IDOT would cover 80 percent of the two projects, which would cost $380,000 and $200,000, respectively. The remaining 20 percent is spread across municipalities: $48,000 from Bloomington, $35,000 from Normal, $29,000 from McLean County and less than $1,500 each from Chenoa, Lexington, McLean and Towanda.

The transportation committee on Tuesday also signed off on building a segment stretching 1.1 miles south from Shirley, and work on it already is set to begin this summer and finish in September.

A grant would pay 80 percent of the $360,000 budget for that project. The local shares would be: Bloomington, $37,000; Normal, $27,000; McLean County, $22,000; and less than $1,200 each for Chenoa, Lexington, McLean and Towanda.

The grant applications and the 1.1-mile Shirley segment were approved Tuesday by the transportation committee. They go to the county executive committee for approval Tuesday and then to the County Board on May 17.

Old Route 66 stretches about 50 miles across the county, and officials envision a Historic Route 66 Bike Trail running 370 miles from Chicago to the state line.
Stopping environmental catastrophe could require cleanup crews to face total darkness, extreme storms and dangerous sea currents

The skimmer is lowered from the rear of the icebreaker, its weight pushing massive pieces of ice under the water and forcing the spilt oil up to the surface, where the sticky black goo can be sucked up.

Luckily, this is just a test: as the world's superpowers eye the lucrative Arctic region with growing interest, unprecedented oil spill clean-up tests in icy Finnish conditions reveal just how hazardous and challenging an accident in the Arctic's pristine sea ice could be.

Emergency crews could face total darkness, extreme storms and shifting pack ice, racing against time as the oil puts endangered polar bears, seals and other wildlife at risk.

With countries and companies increasingly venturing into the polar region - the melting ice caused by global warming has opened up new shipping routes and potential oil, gas and mineral deposits - the risk of an environmental catastrophe has skyrocketed, worrying ecologists and authorities.

"If oil is spilt into the Arctic Ocean, recovering it will be a difficult, if not impossible, task," the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank, says in a recent report.

"The challenges go beyond extreme cold, freezing spray, snow, extended periods of low light, strong winds, dense fog, sea ice, strong currents, and dangerous sea conditions to include the limited infrastructure that could support an emergency response," it says.

Fearing an oil spill in its own heavily-trafficked, ice-covered Baltic Sea, Finnish authorities are racing against the clock to develop an efficient response to an oil spill in icy conditions.

On any other day, Antti Rajaniemi, the 37-year-old captain of Finnish icebreaker "Ahto", would be clearing the way in the country's northern ports, where even the largest vessels can get trapped within hours.

But now he's on a special mission.

A thick layer of solid ice groans and crunches before giving in and breaking into pieces, as the bow of the small but forceful icebreaker forges a path.

Finland's state-owned icebreaking operator Arctia has set itself the goal of being able to recover oil in the harshest of conditions: when a lid of thick ice covers the sea.

"We have to separate the oil from the ice out on the sea since all this ice can't be taken ashore," Rune Hogstrom of Finnish oil spill response company Lamor explained to AFP, invited aboard the icebreaker in the northern Baltic Sea on a recent numbingly cold day.

"An oil spill here is a real challenge, when you think we've got half a meter of ice, and if you break the ice up then the oil just gets mixed in even more," he says.

The shallow waters here provide unique conditions for the tests, with brackish water and thick ice, Arctia said.

While Finland is not an oil producing country, it fears a leaking oil tanker could cause irreparable damage to the Baltic Sea's fragile ecosystem.

There are around 350,000 ship crossings a year in the Baltic, even though 45 percent of its surface is covered by ice an average winter.

Hindered by ice

A typical oil spill in water is usually skimmed, dispersed with chemicals, contained with booms or even burnt off.

Similar methods could be used in frozen waters, but recovering the oil is severely complicated by the black goo floating under the ice - hidden from sight - which risks mixing with the crushed ice around an icebreaker trying to locate it.

"When you recover oil mixed with ice, only one percent of it is oil and 99 percent is ice. You need to be able to sort out the ice," Rune Hogstrom explains.

As he speaks, engineers brave the mercury at minus 15 C to descend onto the ice, drilling holes to inject harmless red test liquid to mimic oil.

Hogstrom says the skimmer deployed from the rear of the vessel was capable of separating oil from ice, but more tests were needed to figure out how to use the icebreaker's propeller flows to suction the oil toward the skimmer.

Finland has been developing this technology for 20 years, and a 2015 study by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers found the method being tested now to be one of the most suitable methods for mechanical recovery.

Other technologies being developed elsewhere involve different types of skimmers to collect the oil.

In the US and Canada, research has focused on burning off the oil in open water, but that can be difficult in densely packed ice.

Environmental organizations like Greenpeace have expressed concerns about the elevated risks of Arctic ventures.

"The ice has melted so fast that oil drilling and industrial fishing are now spreading to regions where they weren't possible before and where there aren't any rules yet," head of Greenpeace Finland Sini Harkki says.

Anglo-Dutch oil group Shell abandoned its test drills in Alaska last September and Russia's Rosneft has put its own project in the Kara Sea on hold due to the plunging oil price, but Russian Gazprom Neft and Lukoil continue to drill in Russia's Arctic regions.

Clockwise from top: Marine experts in Tornio, northern Finland drill holes in the seaice and inject dye into the water to study how it flows, to model how an oil spill would behave underneath the arctic ice; the icebreaker Ahto; an oil skimmer attached to the icebreaker Ahto. Photos By Sam Kingsley / AFP

(China Daily 05/07/2016 page16)
Kumar previously pleaded guilty to two counts of 'indecent assault' after he preyed on intoxicated young women who had trusted him to drive them home, the report said. (Representational image)

Melbourne: An Indian-origin taxi driver in New Zealand has been sentenced to three months home detention for 'sexual assault' on two women in separate incidents, a media report said on Saturday.

Sandeep Kumar, an Auckland taxi driver, twice groped women passengers in his cab. He has been sentenced to three months home detention so that he can support his wife and child, NZ Herald reported.

Kumar previously pleaded guilty to two counts of 'indecent assault' after he preyed on intoxicated young women who had trusted him to drive them home, the report said.

"People should be able to catch taxis without the threat of offending against them. It should be a safe way for young women to get home at night," Judge Nevin Dawson said.

"Your offending not only makes it difficult for young women to rely on taxi services but now also casts aspersions on all other taxi drivers; unfairly so," the Judge said.

The first incident took place in September 2014 when Kumar picked up a young woman from Ponsonby suburb of Auckland city.

As she sat in the front passenger seat, the defendant began massaging her leg, the report said.

"She was very scared at that point and did not want to confront you," judge Dawson said.

Kumar asked her if she wanted to go "somewhere else" but she declined and he dropped her home.

Nine months later, he picked up another female partygoer from the upmarket suburb. She told police that Kumar touched her inappropriately and groped her in the taxi.

Because Kumar was supporting his wife and 18-month-old child, Judge Dawson ordered he should be allowed to continue working in his new job at a catering company if that could be arranged, the report added.

Home detention is an alternative to full-time imprisonment. In this sentence, a person is confined in his or her residence by the authorities.
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Along with modernization of education, our young students are also not falling behind. The modernization includes classrooms that started with black boards with chalk to white boards with markers. Students before were using pens and papers, but now most of them are using laptops, netbooks and tablets to take down notes.

Students and teachers choose new technology in the name of efficiency, but does it mean it's more advantageous than the old ways? New studies have shown that students who use pen and paper in class are outperforming the ones who type using different gadgets in taking down notes.

Proof According To Experts

According to Writechoice, a group of researchers coming from University of California and Princeton University in Los Angeles have found that those people who are writing notes in longhand form rather than typing are said to retain information better.

Wondering why? Writing and typing are just the same in terms of expressing what's in your mind in to readable texts but according to Wall Street Journal, researchers who used advanced tools like magnetic resonance imaging found that writing by hand improves idea composition and expression. The researchers suggested that there's a real value why we have to keep this ancient skill of writing.

Other Supporting Research

In a related research, it was explained by a psychology professor at the Washington University, Virginia Berninger, that our hands perform several kinds of strokes when writing letters that activate a part of our brain which is involved in thinking, language, and memory. Writing by hand trains our brains which is better compared to just pressing buttons to type in letters and numbers.

Berninger proved it in her study when she observed students in grades two, four and six when answering an essay by writing. The students have written more words and expressed more ideas in their answers than typing them.


Detroit public school teachers returned to work on Wednesday after two days of protests that forced school cancellations. However, the closing of Detroit public schools for a few days did not resolve the district's real financial crisis.

During the weekend, teachers were informed that they would not be receiving their paycheck after June, without financial aid from the state, according to Parent Herald. In protest, over a thousand teachers called in sick to work on Monday and Tuesday forcing the district to close most of its public schools.

After new assurance from administration officials on Tuesday evening that teachers' pay would not be cut off, Detroit pubic school teachers went back to work. Being paid for the work that they did is not a win, but is rather a legal right and expectation, according to Emma Howland-Bolton, a Grade 5 Detroit public school teacher.

Aside from the district's financial problems, there are lingering concerns with the district's leadership. For example, an audit to determine the cause of the district's deficit was left ignored.

Bolton explains that without the forensic audit, the district could easily find themselves in the same position in just a matter of weeks or months. Despite receiving $49 million in emergency aid, the money is still not enough for public school funding.

Detroit public schools have been in crisis for years. The district's long-term debt totals at $3.5 billion while its projected year-end budget deficit is at $320 million, according to The New York Times.

In addition, the district is facing a corruption probe from the feds as nine principals cut deals less than a month after getting charged with scamming. Enrollment has declined to only 46,000 students or 71 percent since 2000 while two-thirds of the district's schools have closed in the last 15 years.

In January, a similar teacher sickout occurred when the Detroit Federation of Teachers posted about the dangerous and deplorable classroom environments. Hazardous and unsafe conditions include mold, extreme temperatures and rodent infestations, according to Huffington Post.

Michigan is largely considering controversial reforms that would direct more money to the district, pay off some of its debt, and create a new commission to oversee the openings and closures of the schools in the city, including charter schools. Another proposal was to do away with the overseeing committees, curb the union's bargaining powers and allocate less money to the district.
The wonders that come along pregnancies are often paired with myths, worries and questions. As soon as the pregnancy is announced, it becomes inescapable for the expectant mother to hear pregnancy stories, superstitions and myths. Uncovering which tales to believe in can be a challenge, especially for first-time parents.

Most of these folktales have been existing for a number of decades and can be a little hard to disprove. Some of these fallacies can provide risks to both the pregnant mothers and unborn babies, therefore, it is critical to debunk these myths.

Myth: You're Eating For Two.

Fact: The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends that the average woman with a normal weight prior to pregnancy only requires a daily dose of 300 extra calories for her baby's growth. Eating for two will obviously result to excessive weight gain and might lead to further complications like a higher risk for a cesarean section because the baby would be too fat for a vaginal birth.

Myth: Hair Dyes Can Be Harmful

Fact: The myth is proven wrong, as quoted in WebMD's website, Nancy Chescheir says, "We don't believe there's any fetal risk from hair dyes and such." Chescheir is a clinical professor or maternal and fetal medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Most pregnant women easily experience nausea especially in the first trimester. Using hair treatments with strong odor might trigger getting nauseated but the chemicals that the skin might absorb will be minimal and will not be dangerous.

Myth: No More Sex

Fact: The fetus in the womb is shielded from internal and external pressures by the amniotic sac and uterus muscles. Pregnant women should be extra careful for sexually transmitted diseases though, some of these are known to be passed on to the baby. The myth to stop having sexual intercourse during pregnancy is false, however, it is recommended to seek the expert advice of gynecologists for high-risk pregnancies.

Myth: Food Cravings Are The Baby's Demands

Fact: Author of Conception, Pregnancy & Birth Dr. Miriam Stoppard, MD, was quoted inBabble.com, "Cravings are also thought to be a response to a deficiency in certain minerals and trace elements in your body." Like someone with sodium deficiency might crave for salty food. The rising hormone levels affect the saliva in pregnant women, thus making usual palate favorites taste differently than before the pregnancy. Some food might taste better now than before and it is the mother's own taste buds craving for it and not the baby demanding so.

Myth: Belly's Shape Tells Baby's Gender

Fact: ACOG Spokeswoman Kate Connors states, "The only way to identify gender before birth is through an ultrasound." The shape of the pregnant woman's belly can be dependent on the size and position of the baby inside the womb, or other factors like body shape, height and size of the mother. It is simply a myth that the shape of the belly would not be an indicator of the baby's gender.

Debunking pregnancy myths would help expectant mothers have a healthier and safer pregnancy. The current knowledge gained from expert sources can correct the myths of the past. These information can be passed on to future pregnant women and the myths would vanish over time.
Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Over 10,000 people have gathered for the re-opening of a mosque in Bosnia that was destroyed by Christian Orthodox Serbs during the 1992-1995 war.

The Ferhat Pasha mosque was a masterpiece of 16th-century Ottoman architecture. It was one of 16 mosques in the city Banja Luka that were destroyed by the Serbs to erase any traces that Muslims lived there as they expelled and killed them.

A postwar attempt in 2001 to lay a foundation stone for its reconstruction was disrupted by a Serb nationalist mob which attacked the Muslims visitors, injuring dozens and killing one. NATO forces had to evacuate foreign ambassadors from the ceremony with helicopters.

On Saturday, Bosnian Serb authorities deployed over 1,000 policemen to secure the event which will be attended by Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu.
A family from California was allegedly kicked out of an Allegiant flight from Provo Utah due to the peanut allergy of their son. The couple, Kyson and Sara Dana said that they were flying back to Oakland with their two-year-old son when they told the flight attendant of their son's condition.

According to Fox News, Kyson Dana had asked a flight attendant if the Allegiant staff could do anything to help them such as avoiding serving peanuts in the part of the plane where they were seated. The attendant said that "she didn't recommend them flying on the plane." Another attendant then supposedly asked the passengers around the Danas to avoid eating peanuts and everyone seemed to agree.

Family kicked off Allegiant Air flight over their toddler's peanut allergy - https://t.co/gPgfPHB0du  Airline News (@Airline___News) May 6, 2016

Family Prepared For Allergy Attack

"My wife said, 'We're obviously flying on the plane, and we recognize the risks. We have an EpiPen with us," Kyson Dana said, as per CNN. The epinephrine pen is used for severe allergies.

Another attendant gave the Dana family a message from the pilot, telling them to get off the plane. The allegiant staff said that they decided to have the family off the plane after a consultation with a medical professional.

We let @Allegiant know that my son has a peanut allergy so they kick us off the plane! Worst customer service ever!!!!  Kyson Dana (@kysondana) May 2, 2016

I am so upset. Words cannot describe my fury right now. Who kicks someone off a plane?!!!  Kyson Dana (@kysondana) May 2, 2016

Father Of Boy With Peanut Allergy Rants On Twitter

Kyson Dana took his complaint to Twitter, New York Daily news reported. He said that Allegiant provided them with the "[w]orst customer service ever."

The family caught another flight home free of charge after a Provo Municipal Airport employee drove them to Salt Lake City, New York Daily News said. Their son, Theo, had suffered an allergic reaction the weekend before they were going home

What do you think about this incident? Share your comments below.
Is humanity really doomed due to the ubiquity and prevalence of artificial intelligence? According to several AI believers, humans should not fear artificial intelligence, instead look at the positive impacts of AI in changing the way humans manage their lives.

Despite artificial intelligence's growing benefits and use in addressing some of the major problems of the society, some experts are still wary about its existential risks to mankind. So, this article will give you a glimpse of AI's terrifying and astonishing future in the eyes of the world's smartest, philosophers and entrepreneurs as well as known AI advocates.

Dr. Adam Coates

Coates is the director of the Baidu Research's Silicon Valley AI Lab. According to Coates, the future of artificial intelligence should not be feared because there are still a lot of things in the world that the machine learning algorithm just can't learn on its own.

Coates also added the development of artificial intelligence and deep learning systems that rely on neural network technology should not be considered as efforts to rival intelligence. Instead, machine learning would allow people to create systems that are capable of making decisions without relying on explicitly programmed systems, Information Week notes.

Bill Gates

Gates is the 60-year-old co-founder of the world's largest PC software company, Microsoft. Gates is also the world's richest man who believes near-future low intelligence artificial intelligence as a positive tool for labor replacement but he also worries that "superintelligent" systems might become a threat, Time reveals.

Elon Musk

Musk is the 44-year-old cofounder, CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors and the founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX. But despite being an artificial intelligence investor, Musk has spoken out against AI, saying it is the biggest existential threat to the survival of humanity.

Musk also stressed that his investments in artificial intelligence research aim to watch closely on what's going on, instead of aiming for the viable return on capital. According to The Guardian, Musk also called the rise of AI as "summoning the demon," calling for more regulatory oversight at national and international level.

Dr. Michio Kaku

Kaku is a 69-year-old futurist and theoretical physicist who calls artificial intelligence as an end-of-the-century problem. He adds most of the fears dominant in pop culture are premature, saying the most advanced AI-driven robots have the intelligence of a "retarded lobotomized cockroach," Reverb Press reports.

Nick Bostrom

Bostrom is a 43-year-old University of Oxford philosopher known for his contributions in the discussions of the artificial intelligence development. In his book, "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies," Bostrom warns the rise of AI could turn dark and the sci-fi scenes of intelligent machines taking over the world could become a reality, leaving a society of technological magnificence but with nobody to benefit, FT.com shares.

Ray Kurzweil

Kurzweil is a 68-year-old futurist, computer scientist and Google's engineering director who's optimistic that human-level artificial intelligence will be achieved by 2029. In his Time article, Kurzweil reveals the most significant way to keep AI safe is to work on human governance and social institutions.

Sam Altman

Altman is a 31-year-old venture capitalist, programmer, Y Combinator president and co-chairman of OpenAI. He admits the possibility that his artificial intelligence project will surpass human intelligence but stressed that making it available and accessible to everyone will limit its existential risks, as per Wired.

Stephen Hawking

Hawking is a 74-year-old English theoretical physicist and University of Cambridge's Centre for Theoretical Cosmology research director. According to Hawking, artificial intelligence could be both phenomenal and cataclysmic, warning AI's explosive growth could be the last event of history if risks are not avoided, The Independent learns.

Do you agree on what the experts said about artificial intelligence? Sound off below and follow Parent Herald for more news and updates.
There is more to laughter than being the best medicine - it is also the secret to long life. A 111-year-old Turkish woman, who already has 120 grandchildren, shared that laughing more often every day has been one of her secrets why she is living a longer life.

The 111-Year-Old Turkish Woman Laughs And Jokes All The Time

Fayikiye Soker, a native from the town of Samandag in Hatay Province of southern Turkey, told the Mirror that aside from eating and drinking in moderation, laughing more often everyday has been her secret to a long life. The 111-year-old Turkish woman, who was born on July 1, 1904, is one of the country's oldest citizens and has been regarded as the nanny of her village.

"God granted me such a long life. I hope God gives everybody long life. I think one of the secrets is to laugh loud and often," the 111-year-old Turkish woman shared.

According to Fayikiye, living a healthy lifestyle filled with laughter has made her to hardly ever seen a doctor in her entire life. The 111-year-old Turkish woman added that she loves to laugh and joke all of the time, and has been inspiring her huge family to do same.

The 111-Year-Old Turkish Woman Has 120 Grandchildren And Countless Great-Grandchildren

Fayikiye, who lost her husband in 1984, has eight children, 120 grandchildren, countless great grandchildren and two great, great-grandchildren. The 111-year-old Turkish woman is now living with one of her daughters-in law.

Hanifi Soker, Fayikiye's 42 year-old grandson, said that her grandmother is a living legend. "We are so happy that she is still with us. May God give her an even longer life," he stated.

Laughing More Often Is The Secret To Long Life, According To Science

The 111-year-old Turkish woman's secret to long life has been backed by several scientific studies. In 2011, a study by the University College, London, found that older people who live a happy life have a 35 percent lower risk of dying compared to unhappy people. In 2012, researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine discovered that most centenarians are extroverts who live a life filled with optimism and laughter.

Do you agree with the 111-year-old Turkish woman's secret to long life? Share your thoughts by leaving some comments below.
Germany will soon legalize medical marijuana by 2017. The health minister confirmed the announcement through a press conference on Tuesday, May 3.

Germany's gesture to have medical marijuana legalized it through the influence of its neighboring countries. Several counties including the United States, Amsterdam and Canada have already legalized medical marijuana. Their aim to have medical marijuana accessible is due to its medical benefits that some pharmaceutical drugs could not provide.

According to Telegraph, the draft of medical marijuana was presented by Hermann Groehe to the German cabinet on Wednesday. Their goal is to provide maximum health care by the spring of 2017.

"Our goal is that seriously ill patients are treated in the best possible way," Groehe told the German Daily. "Without wishing to pre-judge the work of the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), it is likely that the law will come into force in the spring of 2017."

As for Germany's federal drug commissioner, Marlene Mortler, marijuana should not be referred to as completely safe. She suggested that further studies should be done before having it legalized.

"The use of cannabis as a medicine within narrow limits is useful and should be explored in more detail," Mortler told CNN. "At the same time, cannabis is not a harmless substance; legalization for private pleasure is not the aim and purpose of this. It is intended for medical use only."

Marijuana legalization continually moves forward in providing quality health care with lesser risk. Medical marijuana is said to treat epilepsy, cancer and major health complications. With its benefits, more countries are already taking into consideration in having it accessible.

According to National Marijuana Conference of State Legislatures, 24 American states and Guam have already considered medical marijuana access. Uruguay, on the other hand, was the first country to have marijuana accessed for recreational use.
A Chinese baby was born in January 2016 with multiple fingers and toes. He is almost four months old and has 31 fingers and toes.

The baby, named Hong Hong, was born with multiple fingers (15) and toes (16) in Pingjiang County in Hunan province. He also has two palms on each hand but no thumbs.

The Baby With Multiple Fingers And Toes

Hong Hong was diagnosed with polydactylism, a congenital condition that occurs in humans, cats and dogs, CNN reported. Patients like baby Hong Hong generally have multiple fingers and toes. The condition is actually not uncommon and happens in one out of every 1,000 live births. Polydactylism is also usually genetic, similar to the present case.

Sydney Morning Herald stated that the mother of the baby with multiple fingers also have polydactylism. She has six fingers and toes. Hong Hongs parents were already concerned that he may also inherit the same condition while his mother was still pregnant with him. The prenatal scans did not reveal the abnormalities, so the couple only discovered that Hong Hong had the same condition when he was born.

Medical Response To Polydactylism

The main medical approach in treating a baby with multiple fingers and toes involves surgical removal of the extra digits. However, there are a number of issues in the case of Hong Hong. First, he is still too young to undergo surgery. Second, doctors advised the family that the baby will require the removal of his multiple fingers and toes, as well as the reconstruction of his absent thumbs. Thumbs are important because these are necessary to grasp objects.

According to father of the baby with multiple fingers and toes, surgery can cost as much as $30,000. The couple resorted to crowdfunding online to ask for help in raising money for Hong Hongs operation. So far, they have raised over $6,000 from online donors. In the meantime, they decided to stop raising funds online due to the mixed reactions they received regarding crowdfunding.

At present, the family plans to return to their home in the city of Shenzhen. CBS News noted that the previous record for the baby born with the most multiple fingers and toes was held by DevendraSuthar of Himatnagar, Gujarat, India since 2014. He is a carpenter with 14 fingers and 14 toes. Devendra shared that the extra digits do not really affect his job, although he has to be very careful when cutting.

More updates and details on the baby with multiple fingers and toes are expected soon.
Valls has previously criticised Trump, accusing him on Twitter of "stoking hatred" in December following the real estate mogul's suggestion that Muslims be banned from entering the USA. (Photo: AP)

Paris: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls accused the presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump of being a "bad man" on Saturday, having previously criticised him over his views on Muslims.

Trump's win in Tuesday's hotly contested Indiana primary, pushing his remaining rivals out of the race and leaving him as the presumptive nominee, has drawn criticism at home and abroad, including from within the Republican party.

"Look at what is happening in the United States, we have great challenges but at the same time...," he said before being interrupted by his interviewer from France's Public Senat channel, who suggested: "Little men?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes. Little men," said Valls during the interview, seen by AFP ahead of its broadcast this evening. When asked if Trump was a "little man", Valls said: "Yes, and probably a bad man."

He said that populism had grown as democratic societies struggled to confront the challenges of globalisation and terrorism, hinting at France's own experience with the growth of the far-right National Front (FN).

Valls has previously criticised Trump, accusing him on Twitter of "stoking hatred" in December following the real estate mogul's suggestion that Muslims be banned from entering the USA.

Trump's path to Tuesday's victory was defined by a brutal primary campaign and a string of insulting remarks about other candidates, Muslims, Mexicans, refugees, women and others made by the billionaire businessman.
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Each month, the Paste staff brings you a look at the best new selections from The Criterion Collection. Much beloved by casual fans and cinephiles alike, The Criterion Collection has for over three decades presented special editions of important classic and contemporary films. You can explore the complete collection here. In the meantime, here are our top picks for the month of April:

Brief Encounter

Director: David Lean

Year: 1945

As romantic movies go, David Leans Brief Encounter is something of a categorical anomaly. It does hinge upon a centralized romance between its two leading characters, as any truly romantic film must, but that centralized romance is an impossible romance, a wholly accidental affair that can never be fully realized by its participants. Laura (Celia Johnson) and Alec (Trevor Howard) fall madly, recklessly in love with each other, and after only a handful of chance meetings; in a freer world where actions have no consequences, you can picture them running off together to live an untroubled life of unfettered joy. But they do not live in that world. They live in 1930s England, a place defined culturally by stiff upper lips and high values. Brief Encounter does not smolder with raw, unbridled sexual tension, and is instead stirred by unexpressed emotion and fleeting gestures of attraction. Its a film that indulges in transitory passions, where the futility of Laura and Alecs mutual infatuation lends their liaisons subtle sensuality and an excess of heartache. That sounds like a rather miserable experience, but the bittersweet doom Lean weaves into Brief Encounter is precisely what has allowed it to endure. Andy Crump

Only Angels Have Wings

Director: Howard Hawks

Year: 1939

At last, another Howard Hawks film gets the Criterion treatment. Only Angels Have Wings has all of the markings of a long line of great Hawks films. The snappy dialogue pops and is fast paced, the women are independent and strong, the visuals are the best around, and the experience is only which the likes that Howard Hawks can deliver. There is no shortage of great films by Hawks, but with Only Angels Have Wings we can see a bridge between his films of the 30s with what was to come throughout the next two decades. Quentin Tarantino referred to Hawks Rio Bravo as the great hang-out film, although Angels is a close second. The characters feel like people were in the same room with, as if were in Dutchys bar having a drink with the gang. Life simply seems to go by while the piano pounds away. Cary Grant and Jean Arthur provide fantastic performances, although Thomas Mitchells Kid Dabb might be the greatest joy to watch, and Rita Hayworth in a breakout performance is no less engaging. You can just feel this filmevery fiber of it comes alive. As usual, the digital restoration is beautiful, but the special features worth exploring include audio excerpts from an interview with Peter Bogdanovich and Howard Hawks, an interview with film critic David Thomson, and the Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film. Nelson Maddaloni

Phoenix

Director: Christian Petzold

Year: 2014

The Holocaust film is a genre unto itself that splinters into countless and familiar subgenres: They can be war movies, like Saving Private Ryan, or courtroom dramas, a la The Woman in Gold, or revenge flicks, as in Inglourious Basterds. Christian Petzolds masterful paranoiac identity thriller, Phoenix, occupies a niche it shares only with films like Black Book, neo-noirs set against the backdrop of the Shoah. Phoenix deals specifically in the wars aftermath as disfigured Auschwitz survivor Nelly (Nina Hoss) returns to Berlin after enduring facial reconstruction surgery; she is in search of her husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), who may have betrayed her to the Nazis, and who does not recognize her when they reunite. He only sees a stranger who bears resemblance to his wife. Immediately, he sets about auditioning Nelly to play herself in a scheme to claim her inheritance for his own. An accomplished film in Petzolds accomplished body of work, Phoenix examines Nellys transformation into the person she used to be with dizzying cool and breathtaking style, blurring lines between trust and doubt, between past and present, between forgiveness and retribution. A.C.

The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates

Director: Robert Drew

Year: 1960 (Primary); 1961 (Adventures on the New Frontier); 1963 (Crisis); 1964 (Faces of November)

Nelson Maddaloni: The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew were, by all sense of the word, phenomenal. The best of the bunch being Primary and Crisis, they seem ever more important in todays political climate. It was fascinating, this being a first-time viewing. I went in blind, came out feeling thrilled. These are intimate portraits of not only the Kennedys but of Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace. This is not to ignore the other films of the series, but in focusing on these two I feel they capture the essence of Robert Drews style and his cinema verite approach. These are remarkable films that capture the heart of American documentary filmmaking. I guess I want to open up the dialogue by asking what you thought of these films, let alone as important documents of American history? Ive not watched many documentaries prior to the 1960s, in America, but surely these were game changers in not just subject matter but in how they were shot, edited, etc.

Michael Dunaway: All the Drew Kennedy films are spectacular, but I agree with you about singling out Primary and Crisis. The latter is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at one of the most important moments in our entire history as a nation. Just the fact that such a document exists is amazing enough, but to be so well done is truly something to be thankful for. And Primary is, I believe, nothing short of the greatest political documentary ever made, up until that time. Intimate is a perfect word to use to describe the looks we get at Kennedy and Humphrey. And in the cinematography of Albert Maysles and the editing of D.A. Pennebaker, youre basically seeing the modern documentary being created before your eyes. Those men would go on to produce some of the greatest documentaries of all timePennebaker would even arguably surpass Primary with his own political masterpiece, The War Room, which he and his wife and partner Chris Hegedus directed in 1993. Speaking of that worddirectingdid you notice that theres no director credited on any of these films? For a long time, that title didnt exist in the documentary form, and some old-timers (especially editors) still bristle at the idea that a documentary has one director. Thoughts?

NM: I agree with you about Pennebaker surpassing Primary with The War Room. As for noticing there was no director list, I didnt actually. I find that fascinating, especially the idea of a documentary having no one director. However, Im used to thinking that even documentaries have just one director. I think it was Michael Moore who led me to think this way, since all of his films are listed as Michael Moores Bowling for Columbine, and so on. The same goes for the Jacques Cousteau documentaries Id watch like The Silent World, though I now know that was a collaboration. Then again, Im fond of auteur theoryalthough I recognize the importance of everyone involved in the production, these also feel like Robert Drews personal pet projects. Its a matter of how I grew up and I see these as unmistakably Robert Drew films because of the personal flair and style, just as a Pennebaker or a Maysles film is their own.

As for the films themselves, they definitely stand the test of time and are nothing short of masterpieces. With the 2016 election as well as the varied political atmosphere we find ourselves in, Primary and Crisis speak volumes. Drew was wise in letting the subjects paint their own portrait when he framed these films. Every shot of a Kennedy or Wallace or Humphrey had to be deliberate, sure, but they revealed themselves to us through language and actions. Of course, you could say thats the nature of a documentary, but I feel like these days theyre always more slanted. The only sense you get that it is being pointed in any direction is the choice of music, and that was masterful in its own right. (I Wish I Was in) Dixie Land blaring as Wallace comes out of the Capitol or Humphreys campaign set to Ballad of Davy Crockett did more than enough to set a tone and a mood for these pieces. Well-placed songs and scores are essential to filmmaking, and this was close to perfect in its execution.
HBOs ragged rock n roll drama Vinyl is quickly approaching infamy. The rookie series, which recently capped off its lackluster first season by parting ways with its showrunner, is now the target of a lawsuit brought by hip-hop originator DJ Kool Herc, who claims the Mick Jagger- and Martin Scorsese-created show used his name and likeness without his permission.

In Vinyls third episode, Whispered Secrets, a young DJ Kool Herc appears, played by Dominique JohnsonLester Grimes (Ato Essandoh) marvels at Hercs cutting-edge work on the turntables, but other listeners cry foul, resulting in one of the episodes most ridiculous moments. Of course, it was in a moment like this that DJ Kool Herc, aka Clive Campbell, created hip-hop.

According to the complaint, filed in New York state court, DJ Kool Herc was offered $10,000 by HBO to waive overall rights and consult for Vinyl, an offer he rejected as too low. The lawsuit calls for a trial to determine damages for HBO and production company Broken Records unauthorized use of his identity, name and voice, plus trademark infringement, per Pitchfork.

Taso Pardalis, DJ Kool Hercs attorney, told The Hollywood Reporter, Its beyond us why HBO and the producers of Vinyl, a successful show about artists and music, would hurt an artist like Herc who has contributed so much to the music industry. HBOs spokesperson responded by stating, We are confident there is no validity to the claims.

Read our 2013 feature on DJ Kool Herc and hip-hops beginnings here, and cross your fingers that Vinyl gets its shit togetherboth on and off the screenbefore its second season.
Patna: Police in Patna had to stop seizing the properties of criminal-turned-builder Anil Singh half way through the process as they moved exquisite pieces of furniture from Hotel Pataliputra Exotica on Wednesday, a day after the government ordered the attachment of Singh's properties.

Situation took a strange turn when right in the middle of the seizing process in the presence of hundreds of onlookers, officials delivered a stay order by the court forcing the cops to stop the process.

As reported, the civil court in Patna not only stopped the seizure of Singh's properties, it also put a stay on the builder's arrest under further notification putting the cops in a very embarrassing situation.

It may be recalled that last Tuesday amidst the beating of a drum, police posted notice of the attachment of Singh's properties including Hotel Pataliputra Exotica on Exhibition Road and his residence on Frazer Road while ordering him to surrender before the police or a court or face serious legal consequences.

Singh was also declared an 'absconder' and his bails in 13 separate cases cancelled.

On April 29, Singh and his men beat up many shop-keepers on Exhibition Road in an attempt to force them to vacate the land that he claimed to be his own.

Meanwhile, former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and the chief of the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) Pappu Yadav, MP from Siwan, accused the government of harassing Anil Singh saying Hotel Pataliputra Exotica had three partners and the government knew about it and yet, initiated procedure to seize his properties.
Patna: Daily wage workers in Patna on late Friday evening attacked the police after a large piece of stone crushed a labor to death at the construction site of a new stadium being built near the DAV School in Board Colony.

22-year old Sunil Kumar died instantly when a very large boulder that arrived in Patna on a truck from Rajasthan rolled out of the truck crushing him under its weight.

The incident enraged other workers, involved in the project, including four brothers of Sunil, who blocked the road with the dead body of the victim demanding compensation for the victim's family.

When the police arrived to remove the blockade, the mob assaulted them with bricks, stones, and whatever other objects they could get their hands on. One projectile hit Shastri Nagar police station in-charge S A Hashmi in the head and had to be rushed to a hospital for stitches.

Police then resorted to lathi charge to disperse the crowd in which several people were injured.

Native of Jharkhand state, the victim's brothers said the construction area was not properly lighted resulting in the tragedy.

The stadium is being built by Classic Buildcon.

Sunil's body was sent to the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences for an autopsy.

Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Manu Maharaj said on prima facie, it appeared the accident was the result of negligence and actions against Labor Act would be taken against the project supervisor and other officials.
He was also ordered to pay a USD 500,000 fine by US District Judge Denise L Cote, who noted that Budovsky did not express any "genuine remorse". (Representational image)

New York: The founder of an online underworld bank that allegedly laundered billions of dollars for criminals has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Arthur Budovsky, 42, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering on January 29, three days before the scheduled start of his trial in New York.

He was also ordered to pay a USD 500,000 fine by US District Judge Denise L Cote, who noted that Budovsky did not express any "genuine remorse".

"The significant sentence handed down today shows that money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime," Assistant Attorney General Leslie R Caldwell for the Justice Department's Criminal Division said in a statement.

"Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky ran a digital currency empire built expressly to facilitate money laundering on a massive scale for criminals around the globe," US Attorney Preet Bharara for the Southern District of New York was quoted as saying.

Prosecutors said Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve operated an alternative digital currency that helped cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder the proceeds of illegal activity.

The company was a "financial hub" for Ponzi scheme operators, credit card traffickers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals, authorities said.

The system became operational in 2005. By the time it was shut down in 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than 5.5 million user accounts, including more than 600,000 in the US, the US Department of Justice said.

Overall, it had processed more than 78 million financial transactions with a combined value of more than USD 8 billion. The digital exchange mechanism, which allowed depositors to mask their identities, was similar to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Budovsky, who was arrested in Spain in May 2013, had renounced his US citizenship and acquired Costa Rica nationality in an apparent bid to avoid prosecution.

As part of his plea agreement, Budovsky admitted to laundering between USD 250 million and USD 550 million in criminal proceeds linked to US-based Liberty Reserve accounts.

Six other people with ties to Liberty Reserve face charges in the case that involved police and investigators from 17 countries. Co-defendants Maxim Chukharev and Mark Marmilev, who also pleaded guilty, were sentenced to three and five years respectively. Two others are set to be sentenced on May 13, while another two remain at large.
RIVERSIDE  The man accused of supplying rifles and explosives used in the San Bernardino terror attack was granted an eight-month delay of his trial.

Both parties, the U.S. attorneys office and defense counsel for Enrique Marquez Jr., sought to have the trial moved from July 2016 to March 2017 due to the amount of evidence both parties need to review and other pending trials the attorneys are committed to.

U.S. District Judge Jesus G. Bernal signed the order stating the trial in this matter is continued from July 19, 2016 to March 21, 2017.

A status conference and hearing date on motions is set for March 6, according to the recent order.

Marquez, 24, of Riverside was indicted by a federal grand jury Dec. 30 and charged with the unlawful purchase of two assault rifles used in the deadly Dec. 2 terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino. Fourteen people were killed and 22 others were wounded. He also is charged with defrauding immigration officials by entering into a sham marriage with a relative of Syed Rizwan Farook, who carried out the massacre.

Marquez reportedly told FBI agents that he and Farook, who were longtime friends, planned to attack both the 91 and Riverside City College with pipe bombs and firearms in 2012, but the pair pulled back when other local terror arrests were made at that time.

Marriage fraud allegations against Marquez were brought to light after his arrest in December.

Recently, Marquezs Russian bride, Mariya Chernykh; her sister; and her sisters husband, Syed Raheel Farook, were arrested. Authorities say they conspired to keep Chernykh in the United States under the guise of the fraudulent marriage.

Authorities said Marquez and Chernykh married in 2014, and Marquez accepted money to participate in the arranged marriage, but the couple never lived together, contrary to legal paperwork they had signed.

The Farooks were described as aiding in the marriage fraud.

Syed Raheel Farook and Tatiana Farook, both 31, of Corona, and Chernykh, 26, of Ontario, all pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Riverside on April 28.
A civil grand jury is recommending that Banning start the process of collecting money owed to it by the Banning Chamber of Commerce for utility bills and from a judgment against the chambers executive director.

In a report issued recently, the county panel also suggested city officials make sure the chamber complies with all the terms of its lease or be evicted. It also recommended that chamber directors request Jim Smiths resignation unless he settles up.

The current situation poses a conflict of interest and is in direct conflict with the chamber mission statement of cooperative interaction among business, government and community, the report reads.

The city has to respond to the report within 90 days, but does not have to act on the findings.

Its going to be interesting to see how this plays out, said Councilman Don Peterson.

Peterson, who took office in 2012, is the one who contacted the grand jury after he said his colleagues werent doing enough to collect what the city is owed.

Were entrusted with the peoples money, he said. Im not going to go out there and waste their money.

Banning Mayor Art Welch said he did not want to comment on the issue before its discussed at the Tuesday, May 10, City Council meeting. Efforts to reach Smith and City Manager Michael Rock were unsuccessful.

According to the grand jury report, the chamber was given a 50-year lease in January 2006 by the citys Community Redevelopment Agency for the property located at 60 E. Ramsey St. Rent was set at $1 per year.

The lease  which is still in effect  required the chamber to name Banning as an additional insured and as the payee on an insurance policy for the building. An amendment required a minimum $10,000 maintenance fund be established.

But neither action has taken place, according to the report.

The report also noted that the chamber did not pay utility bills incurred between 2006 and 2013 and stated the jury learned the bills were waived based upon a handshake agreement between the city and chamber.

According to the report, the chamber offered to pay back $15,800 at the rate of $32.10 per month over the remaining 41 years of the lease  an offer the city rejected. A year later, the two sides still have not reached a settlement.

Finally, Smith has a judgment against him for nearly $75,000 over a dispute with former Councilwoman Barbara Hanna. The judgment was issued in March 2011 after Smith sued the city, claiming Hanna acted inappropriately in denying him an opportunity to present a business proposal to the city. Smith lost the case and was ordered to pay attorneys fees.

This is not the first time a grand jury has issued a report concerning the city. The Banning Council rejected a 2010 report that sought the return of $162,000 it awarded to the Banning Cultural Alliance.

The panel asserted that the alliance did not fulfill its contractual obligations and that the governing board of the citys Redevelopment Agency  which was the Banning City Council  seemed willing to provide the nonprofit alliance financing without a measure of accountability.

The agency responded by defending the alliance, calling it an effective partner in redevelopment efforts and saying it has adequately fulfilled its contract.

How council members will respond is unclear. Welch, Debbie Franklin and George Moyer tend to be on one side of issues with Peterson and Edward Miller on the other.

Having a split council, it will be interesting to see what they do with this report, Peterson said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9086 or cshultz@pressenterprise.com
Any day now, Wal-Mart Stores representatives are expected to get the ball rolling on building a Supercenter in Lake Elsinore, and another one just down the road in Wildomar soon may follow.

Proposed Wal-Marts are typically magnets for lawsuits, so it was no surprise that both the Lake Elsinore and Wildomar projects encountered legal challenges on environmental issues shortly after they received approvals from those cities decision-makers.

However, two lawsuits against the Supercenter earmarked for the 74 and Cambern Avenue in northern Lake Elsinore recently were dismissed by a Superior Court judge, without the right of appeal.

Lake Elsinore Planning Director Grant Taylor said the city eagerly is awaiting the corporation to begin seeking permits to build its proposed 154,500-square-foot Supercenter, accompanied by three pads for smaller retail businesses, including restaurants.

Wal-Marts free to submit for plan check at any time, Taylor said. Hopefully, theyll submit soon, but they havent given us a time frame.

A possible incentive for the retail giant to proceed quickly is the citys initiation of a drainage project to relieve flooding on Third Street, which borders the back side of the proposed site. The project will enable the Supercenters drainage system to tie into the citys infrastructure.

In Wildomar, the City Councils approval of a 185,700-square-foot Supercenter and 7,800-square-foot retail building on Bundy Canyon Road and Monte Vista Drive spawned a lawsuit by Creed-21, represented by the Briggs Law Corp. The firm, led by environmental attorney Cory Briggs, is well-known for challenging Wal-Marts projects.

In the Wildomar case, Creed-21 failed to respond to Wal-Marts demand for a deposition and the judge dismissed the case, though Creed-21 still can appeal.

It was a victory for Wal-Mart and the city in that the lawsuit was dismissed, but theres another step we have to go through before its official, Wildomar Planning Director Matt Bassi said.

Wal-Mart representatives have assured the cities the corporation is intent on proceeding. Once permits are secured, they said, a store typically takes about one year to build.

Public support for both proposals greatly outweighed opposition, most of which came from concerns about drainage and traffic.

We need the super Wal-Mart, Lake Elsinore resident Linda Post said in an emailed response to an interview request. Everyone I know is going to be so disappointed if the store isnt built.

One potential drawback will occur. With the emergence of the new mega-stores, both situated along the I-15 corridor, the corporation will close its smaller Wal-Mart in a shopping center on Grape Street near the Railroad Canyon Road junction.

Wal-Mart officials have said they will offer jobs at the new sites to the Grape Street employees and would seek a viable replacement tenant.

I do have a great concern about the site on Grape Street, Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce President Kim Cousins said. If that was vacant for any length of time, it would be negative for that center, but obviously Wal-Mart is a driver of traffic to that center.  We definitely want a quick turnaround.

On the other hand, leaders from both cities welcome the commerce as well as tax revenue the giant stores will bring. An analysis of the economic effects of the Lake Elsinore project estimated it could generate nearly 760 jobs, and $393,000 to $428,000 in annual tax revenue.

Wal-Mart is an economic development engine, Taylor said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9690 or michaelwilliams@pressenterprise.com
A San Diego County man, whose meet up with a 12-year-old girl in Nuevo was interrupted when her father punched him, pleaded guilty in Riverside County Superior Court to a charge of arranging a meeting with a minor for purpose of committing lewd acts.

In a Friday, May 6, plea agreement, Scott Michael Stilwell, 28, of Spring Valley, faces up to two years in custody, according to court records. Sentencing is scheduled June 1.

The investigation began when the girls parents discovered her missing from her bedroom before dawn June 29. Her bedroom window was open and a window screen missing.

While her mother called 911, her father and brother began searching the neighborhood east of Perris. They spotted the girl walking toward the passenger side of a vehicle with a grown man, a Riverside County sheriffs deputy testified during an August preliminary hearing for Stilwell.

The man, later identified as Stilwell, was knocked to the ground and still there when deputies arrived. Stilwell admitted to investigators that he communicated with the girl via social media for about six months, at one point receiving a semi-nude photograph of her and sending her an indecent image of himself.
Joanna Alexander of Idyllwild was standing in a parking lot in town when two hikers, seeming barely out of their teens, walked up to her.

We really just need a mommy for a little while, she recounted the young man and woman saying. And a place to camp and a bath.

The pair were hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, a Mexico-to-Canada route that passes near Idyllwild in the San Jacinto Mountains. Every April and May, hundreds of PCT hikers stream through Idyllwild on their northward journey  and those who stop in town receive a warm welcome.

In previous years, Alexander brought hikers home for breakfast or drove them from town to Humber Park, where they hike Devils Slide Trail back to the Pacific Crest Trail. Now she sized up the two in front of her and decided an overnight stay was in order.

I brought them to the market and got stuff for spaghetti and took them home and mommied them until the rain let up the next day, Alexander said.

Though Idyllwild is not the first resupply point for hikers  who often have supplies mailed to themselves in Mount Laguna, Julian or Warner Springs farther south  Idyllwild the first large town, said resident Alice Bodnar.

By the time most hikers arrive here, roughly 150 miles by boot-step from the trailhead near Campo on the Mexico border, theyve been on the trail for about two weeks, said Bodnar, a hiking-app developer and former PCT thru-hiker.

A relative few intend to spend four to six months tackling the PCTs entire 2,650 miles. Most hike a section, with some covering multiple sections over a few seasons.

Regardless, many hikers are eager for a break when they hit Idyllwild, and Alexander is not alone in her desire to oblige.

COMING TOGETHER

The hikers bring a sense of unity (to Idyllwild), because everyone wants to help them, said Bill Gianakos from behind the counter at Idyllwild Pizza Co.

Those who make a habit of helping out hikers become known as trail angels.

Because a roughly 15-mile section of the PCT coming into Idyllwild remains closed because of damage from a 2013 forest fire, hikers reach town either by walking along roadways or getting rides from Paradise Valley Cafe at the intersection of highways 371 and 74.

Once in town, hikers seek out the post office, laundry facilities  and one another.

Our busiest days other than snow days and holidays are when hikers come, Gianakos said.

This year, the pizza shop bought an instant-film camera, put up a photo board above the beer taps and started documenting its hiker-customers. By the start of May, more than 200 enthusiastic faces had been captured and posted.

BUYING FOOD, TELLING STORIES

Hikers buy lots of food and beer, Gianakos said, and if they happen to be there at the 8 p.m. closing time, the staff lets them linger for another hour or more.

I dont know the exact dollar amounts, he said, but I know it helps a lot.

Its not known how many dollars the hikers spend in town, for Idyllwild doesnt have a chamber of commerce to do an economic survey.

A couple of doors down from the pizza shop, the Idyllwild Library attracts hikers with service-y amenities, said librarian Shannon Ng. In addition to accessing the internet and relaxing in a comfortable chair near the fireplace, hikers can grab a free used paperback, mark on a map from where they hail and learn where to find reliable water sources along the trail.

Wherever they go in town, hikers often are stopped by locals who want to hear about life on the trail, Ng said.

People in this town love other peoples stories, and these hikers have great stories, she said. Were living vicariously through them. Theres no way Id get out on the trail, but I certainly want to hear about it.

THE WILD EFFECT

Ng said a spike in hiker traffic after the 2014 movie Wild  based on Cheryl Strayeds 2012 memoir of hiking the PCT  seems to have diminished, yet Bodnar said the 2016 season seems to be off to a strong start.

I cant believe how many (hikers) are already in town, she said April 27. This is the week of the traditional start, and usually this kind of crowd is here two weeks from now.

The hikers are keeping Alexander busy, her Subaru Forester doubling as a trail taxi. She said she can transport only two at a time because their packs fill up the back.

Two days after her overnight guests departed, Alexander found a note left next to her computer.

Dear Joanna, they wrote. Thank you for your incredible hospitality! What a treat to stay with you. Thank you for the delicious meals, warm shower and cozy bed. Love from your hikers, Brenna and John.

Contact the writer: jblodgett@pressenterprise.com
Environmentalists are challenging Riverside Countys plan to swap land in Lake Elsinore thats home to two endangered plants for property that was once part of a clay mine.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Northern San Jacinto Valley and Idyllwild environmentalist Tom Paulek on Thursday filed a lawsuit contending that the 40-acre swap violates state environmental law and conflicts with a regional conservation plan.

The 40 acres to be traded to the Castle & Cooke development company includes an area just off Lake Street that is one of only three places left in the world where the San Diego ambrosia  a ground-hugging herb with fuzzy, blue-gray leaves  still grows in the wild, the suit alleges.

The trade also would provide the developer with an area occupied by the Munzs onion, which can grow only in a special kind of clay-laden soil.

The 40 acres were part of 598 acres that Riverside County acquired in 2004 to be part of a wildlife habitat reserve for 146 sensitive plants and animals in what was then a landmark agreement with federal and state wildlife officials.

The agreements goal was to create an interconnected 500,000-acre wildlife reserve between the Cleveland National Forest and the San Bernardino Mountains. Reserving that land allowed developers to build elsewhere in western Riverside County with less red tape from the state and federal wildlife agencies.

Officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game last year submitted a strongly worded letter to the county that described the land swap as a retreat on conservation accomplishments that help meet preservation goals for the two endangered plants.

Castle & Cooke has been to trying acquire the 40 acres in recent years.

On April 5, the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to trade this land for another 40 acres of land near hillsides. For decades, those hills were mined by Pacific Clay Products to get clay to make bricks.

In a 2014 report to his board colleagues, Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, who supports the land swap, said trading the streetside land where the plants grow for the hillside property would help the developers create a viable project that would result in new employment opportunities and sales tax revenues.

The habitat land is next to the companys future Alberhill Ridge planned community, which will include more than 1,000 homes.

Jeffries could not be reached to comment Thursday. But last month, Jeff Greene, Jeffries chief of staff, said that Castle & Cooke will have to successfully relocate the endangered plants or develop a management plan to protect them, before anything can be built. The deal also relieves the county of slope maintenance costs.

April Rose Sommer, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity, said that relocating endangered plants is rarely successful and that their best chance of survival is to preserve their existing habitat and leave them undisturbed.

County spokesman Ray Smith said no tax dollars will go toward the litigation. In the land swap deal with the county, Castle & Cooke is responsible for any legal cost stemming from the trade.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9471 or ddanelski@pressenterprise.com
A Hemet man was arrested Friday, May 6, after a tense skirmish with store employees and a police officer.

Luis Alvarado, 34, is being held on suspicion of robbery, carrying a loaded and concealed firearm in public and resisting arrest.

The incident started at 7:20 p.m., when a man entered the CVS Pharmacy at 3055 W. Florida Ave. and began cutting open packages with a knife, a Hemet Police Department news release states.

A Hemet police officer dispatched to investigate found the man outside the store struggling with two CVS employees. As the officer approached, the man reached into his jacket pocket, the release states. The officer took the suspect to the ground, where he continued to struggle before being handcuffed.

A search revealed the suspect was armed with a loaded .380-caliber semi-automatic handgun in the same pocket in which the suspect was reaching into and two knives.

Neither the employees nor the officer was injured during the arrest.

Alvarado was booked into the Southwest Detention Center. His bail has been set at $30,000.
When Olga Pacot was 12 years old in Ukraine, her mother died.

But she clung to something her mother and late grandmother had both told her years before: Education is something that no one can ever take away from you, Pacot said.

Other than her mother, who worked in the medical field before her death, Pacot came from a long line of teachers.

I knew I had to be strong for myself, she said. I knew this is the only way. I had to make sure I had the tools in my life to get me where I wanted to go.

Pacot would study late into the night, ultimately graduating with honors from both college and graduate schools.

Thats what inspired me to go back into education, she said. You need to show how to light the way.

Pacots not shy sharing her story with her students at Fontana Unifieds Citrus Elementary, where she works as an instructional support teacher, helping students who are struggling with reading catch up and succeed in school.

I wanted them to realize that, yes, right now, you are struggling, but this is fixable, she said. I want them to be able, just like me, to be able to have the job they want to have.

The message has gotten through: Last week, Pacot was one of six reading teachers nationwide to be recognized by textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt with 180 Educator Awards, for her success in using their Read 180 program to improve the scores of struggling readers.

I dont want to just teach them reading, she said. My goal is to teach them the habits to help them get the job, their goals, whatever they want in their life.

And that means helping students who are often unable to understand their assignments in school believe that theyll be able to read and move on from her intervention program.

I know where theyre coming from, so I establish that trust first, Pacot said. I want them to feel I can do it, too, its possible.

By the time students leave her program and return to their regular classrooms, Pacots students have surpassed where their peers are, according to assistant principal Nita Sandoval, one of the administrators who recommended Pacot for the award.

She has a relentless commitment to student success and creates an environment in her classroom that encourages students to give other time to achieve their goals in the classroom, Sandoval said. She gives them time after school, before school, during recess. And thats completely voluntarily.

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Pacot will receive her award in June at the 24th annual Model Schools Conference in Orlando. Before that, Pacot will be recognized at the May 18 meeting of the Fontana Unified school board.

Lack of money is not a barrier to success, she said. Language is not a barrier to success. Not being able to read is a barrier, but a little bit of ability and hard work and you can do it.
Re: Pot prohibition should come to an end [Opinion, April 30]: Sal Rodriguez notes that a 2011 UCLA study found no evidence that marijuana dispensaries were associated with an increase in crime in their surrounding areas. In fact, he says, these areas may be safer because the dispensaries have security cameras and guards. Im sure the vendors feel more secure in their shops, but one wonders about problems that may occur beyond the reach of cameras and guards as patients take their medicine and leave.

His closing paragraph warns governments that fail to consider alternatives to prohibition risk being unprepared to deal with legalization when it comes. Or, perhaps Californians will mitigate those risks by rejecting the widespread approval of this debilitating drug.

Ken Cable

Canyon Lake

No on Measure A

As a proud Riverside resident, taxpayer and career law enforcement professional, Im urging you to vote No on Measure A.

I served 33 years with the Riverside County Sheriffs Department, retiring as the undersheriff. As a patrol deputy and major-crimes investigator, I spent countless hours investigating criminal cases, which were then submitted to the Riverside District Attorneys Office for prosecution. I was passionate about the cases that I handled, and it was comforting to know that our D.A.s office had the same passion for justice. The D.A.s office is committed to collaborating with community-based organizations, law enforcement and other government agencies to promote crime prevention, public safety and equity within the justice system.

Our elected D.A. does an excellent job. There is no reason to shift his duties to an appointed attorney who works for other city officials, not the voters. And Riverside taxpayers dont need a new expensive bureaucracy. The city already faces a budget deficit, with service cuts proposed.

Measure A just does not make sense. It is expensive, unnecessary and would remove power from the people.

Valerie Hill

Riverside
For the past six months, Michael Fusaro, 33, of Moreno Valley, has repeatedly traversed a shadowy criminal underworld, all in the hopes of finding his 27-year-old sister, JamIe Nastali.

Shes my baby sister, said Fusaro, his voice cracking as he looked at a stack of freshly printed missing-person fliers, the pretty brunette with the hazel eyes smiling back at him. I just need to find her.

Fusaro was convinced his sister, who was last seen in San Bernardino, was being held by human traffickers based on one of the last conversations he had with her late last year.

Nastali, who Fusaro acknowledges has a drug problem, called him with a cloak-and-dagger story of being kidnapped and taken to San Diego.

She told me they threatened her if she didnt prostitute for them, said the thin Fusaro, his heavily tattooed arms waving expressively as he recounted one of the siblings last exchanges. She told me she had escaped and that she had gotten away from them.

He slowed down, looking away for a moment. Tears began to form in his dark eyes.

My heart is heavy with guilt, he said. I wish I wouldve done something then, but I didnt know. I didnt know if it was the drugs or if what she was telling me was reality. That weighs heavy on me.

That weight was lifted early Saturday morning when he learned his sister had been picked up by police and was being processed into West Valley Detention Center for drug and identity theft, he said. Fusaro said he believes there may also be a prostitution charge, which reinforces his belief that she was being trafficked.

Im just so happy that shes safe and away from those people, he said Saturday morning. I hope that now she will get the help she needs and Im so grateful to everyone who helped look for her and especially the police.

Booking records show Nastali was arrested in Los Angeles County on Thursday on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale and identify theft. No prostitution offense shows up on her booking record.

The brother and sister, who spent a lot of time in the High Desert, endured a difficult childhood filled with neglect and emotional and sexual abuse.

For me, I turned my hurt into anger, he said, explaining he would hurt himself and lash out at others. But her, all she wanted was love since we didnt really get it at home. She was always looking for that love and didnt care where it came from.

Investigators with San Bernardino police and the countys Human Trafficking Task Force are aware of Nastalis case and say the human trafficking ties are still under investigation.

But for Dianne Amato, victim advocate with the Family Assistance Programs The Open Door human trafficking extension, Nastalis story is all too familiar.

These predators are adept at finding who is vulnerable, said Amato, a survivor of human trafficking. They use all their vulnerabilities against (the victims) no matter their age.

For the last 11 years, Amato has been working as an advocate trying to reach those enslaved by pimps and human traffickers. For the last month, shes been in San Bernardino County working closely with the countys Human Trafficking Task Force, helping pull women, men, boys and girls off the streets.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that women who are 24, 25, 26 years old are adults and know what theyre getting into, she said. But when you talk to them, you learn that they have been in the life for a really long time and some started when they were 16 or 17.

Fusaro believes his sister was coerced, possibly by a former boyfriend, into prostitution after her marriage  one of the few stable moments in her life  fell apart about two years ago. Then, life spun out of control last February when she lost custody of her three young children, he said.

The two older ones are with their father and we have her youngest, Fusaro said.

With a history of sexual and drug abuse and feeling emotionally taxed due to the loss of her children and husband  sources of love, acceptance and support for many  someone in Nastalis situation could be a prime victim for sex traffickers known as boyfriend or Romeo pimps, Amato said.

They wine and dine you and make you feel good and special, said Amato, who also fell prey to a manipulative boyfriend pimp when she was 17. They try to sell you on a dream. They may tell you youre going to live in a big house and have a lot of great things, things that everyone wants. I bought into the dream.

Once they gain that hold on the victims, pimps and traffickers can easily force them into sex trafficking through manipulation, intimidation, physical abuse and getting the victims hooked on drugs.

Nearly 1,000 victims of human trafficking were identified in 2015, according to the National Human Trafficking Resource Centers, but there could be hundreds or even thousands more.

Amato says the collaboration between law enforcement agencies and the countys District Attorneys Office has been invaluable in rescuing victims and prosecuting their abusers.

In the first year after the creation of the San Bernardino County District Attorneys Office Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, 14 sex traffickers were arrested and convicted in the county in 2013. In 2014, that number climbed to 17 convictions, and last year a total of 25 people were convicted of the crime.

Victims are silenced by their captors through violence and intimidation, said Amato.

Were taught not to talk to police, that they will just throw us in jail, she said. Taught obedience and loyalty toward your man. There is a lot of brainwashing.

Fusaros quest to find his sister has led him to several unsavory neighborhoods, and says it has brought the issue of human sex trafficking into focus for him.

This isnt just about my sister but all those other women and children, he said. These people need to be exposed. If the light isnt spread into that darkness it will continue to happen. Dont turn your back on someone. Listen to them and always be there for them.

Those looking for help or who may know someone being trafficked can call The Open Door hotline at 909-333-7476.
Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka, left, and Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano sit before their meeting in Rome, Thursday, April 28, 2016. Italy is watching warily as Austria moves to tighten controls along its borders as it fears the closure of the Balkans route being used by migrants (Photo: AP)

Around 400 protesters are expected to gather at the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria on Saturday afternoon to protest a plan to restrict access through the Alpine crossing to control the movement of migrants, police said.

Austria has said it plans to erect a fence at the Brenner crossing it shares with Italy to "channel" people. Part of Europe's borderless Schengen zone, Brenner is one of the routes that migrants use as they head towards wealthy northern Europe.

Local police in Tyrol, Austria said they expected the demonstration to start around 2:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT), meeting at the Brenner station in Italy.

Italian newspaper Corriera della Sera reported earlier this week that the protest had been organised by an anarchist group from Trentino, northern Italy, and was expected to attract demonstrators from abroad.

Austria planned to send 300 police officers to the protests but were "ready to increase the number," Tyrol police said, adding the Italian police were prepared to send the same number.

Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in Rome last month that as many as a million migrants were poised to cross the Mediterranean from Libya this year. Italy says the figure is much lower, though calm summer seas may well bring a surge.

Italy and Germany are utterly opposed to Austria's plan to build a fence at its border with Italy, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Thursday after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
For many Inland voters, the reward for doing ones civic duty is best delivered adhesively.

Oval and emblazoned with the American flag, I Voted stickers have evolved from a simple thank you to an election day status symbol capable of boosting egos and cajoling others into casting a ballot.

I believe wearing an I Voted sticker is a badge of honor and a friendly reminder to those who havent voted to go to the polls and vote!, said Steve Ruth, a Democratic Party activist from Corona.

Inland elections officials will have thousands of stickers ready for Californias June 7 primary, which could have an above-average turnout from voters excited about the Republican and Democratic presidential races.

Polling place voters expect to get a sticker, and there may be voter frustration if this expectation is not met, said Melissa Eickman, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Elections Office of the Registrar of Voters.

Voters also can get a virtual sticker through Facebook. The social media website gives users the option of clicking a button to add an I Voted badge to their statuses.

The stickers took on another meaning during New York states April primary. I Voted stickers covered the Rochester, N.Y. gravestone of Susan B. Anthony, who fought for a womans right to vote in the 19th century.

MAIL-IN STICKERS

Riverside County also sends the stickers with ballots mailed to vote-by-mail voters. The practice started with the June 2015 mail-in election, said county Registrar of Voters Rebecca Spencer.

San Bernardino County doesnt include the stickers with mail-in ballots, but that might change. The county relies on a vendor to mail ballots, and whether stickers can be included depends on the cost and the vendors ability to mail the stickers, Eickman said.

Theres no timetable for deciding whether to include stickers with mail-in ballots, Eickman added.

Orange County gives the stickers to mail-in and polling-place voters. Its probably the most requested thing that I get, said Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley, adding that the county will have about 800,000 stickers at polling places June 7.

This year marks the first time Los Angeles County will send stickers to mail-in voters. Before, they were given only to voters who cast ballots in person. The stickers popularity led to the decision to include mail-in voters, said Cecilia Reyes, a spokeswoman for the registrar.

Businesses that want to encourage voting by giving something to sticker-bearers need to be careful. Federal law prohibits giving anything of value in exchange for proof of voting in an election for a federal office, said Sam Mahood, press secretary for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

It would be different if the primary didnt include races for Congress and the White House.

State law prohibits anything of value being given to urge a voter to vote or refrain from voting for a particular candidate or measure, Mahood said. But it is not illegal to give away items to people solely for voting in a local or state election where no federal candidates are on the ballot.

I DID MY PART

Despite their popularity, the stickers havent led to more voter participation in recent years. A record low 42 percent of voters turned out for the November 2014 general election. Turnout for the June 2014 primary was a mere 25 percent.

Political scientists said stickers can be a source of peer pressure. (The stickers are) a public reminder that it is Election Day and someone voted, said Shaun Bowler, a UC Riverside political science professor.

It may help prompt a couple of others to turn out and vote, but the sticker also is a public sign that someone voted  its equivalent in some ways to the ribbons people wear for various causes or T-shirts for giving blood. It allows people a public expression of, I did my part. 

According to the science journal Nature, seeing the Facebook I Voted status button led another 340,000 to cast ballots in the 2010 congressional elections.

Melody Crowder-Meyer, assistant professor of politics at Sewanee: The University of the South in Tennessee, said the stickers factor into whether people decide to vote.

When political scientists evaluate why an individual chooses to participate in politics, a key factor that many studies have found matters is the benefit that comes from feeling youve done your civic duty, she said, noting the time it takes voters to register, find their polling place and possibly stand in line to cast a ballot.

  One could argue that I Voted stickers are both a sign and supporter of democratic engagement, Crowder-Meyer said. People care about them because they, or those around them, value when people participate in politics through voting. And people who wear their voting stickers perpetuate the social norms of civic engagement that encourage further political participation.

Even voters who have reasons to believe the system is rigged value the stickers, said Meg Mott, a professor of politics at Marlboro College in Vermont.

Its as if the presence of all those stickers will restore  democratic decision-making to the voting public, sustaining the illusion that the majority, not the party elites, ultimately decide, she said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9547 or jhorseman@pressenterprise.com
With presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich in the GOPs rear-view mirror, Temecula-area supporters of presumptive nominee Donald Trump used a rally at the citys Duck Pond Park on Saturday to denounce former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the leading candidate for the Democratic Partys nomination.

I cant trust that woman at all, said John De La Torre, a Trump supporter who was holding a U.S. flag. She has lied about everything.

The rally, which did not feature an appearance by Trump, was held at the same site of a March 26 event that featured Trump supporters verbally sparring with people carrying Mexican flags and All Lives Matters signs.

De La Torre, a Temecula resident since 2006, moved to the city after time in San Diego and service in the U.S. Marines, which included a tour during the Gulf War.

The Mexican native, who moved to the U.S. in 1958, supports Trump because he believes the businessman will secure the border.

My mother said, Mijo there is nothing for you in Mexico,  he recalled. We came here, we came here legally, we did not jump the fence.

Orly Taitz addressing crowd at Duck Pond Park rally for Trump supporters #IETrump pic.twitter.com/UlWmvkYtnE  PE_Claverie (@PE_Claverie) May 7, 2016

One of the speakers, constitutional attorney Orly Taitz, said polls that show Trump trailing in California to Clinton in a general election matchup  Clinton is favored by around 57 percent of the electorate in a poll she cited  are not insurmountable.

We can knock down 7 percent, she said, eliciting cheers from the crowd.

Taitz also said Trumps support in the state may be underreported because some people may be hesitant to admit their admiration for the businessman due to, what she called, the medias portrayal of him as a racist and misogynist.

In the early days of the primary season, De La Torre thought former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush would be the nominee but he has since warmed to Trump and plans to support him in the general election.

Ill never vote for Hillary, he said.

A heavy police presence at that March 26 event was credited with preventing any physical violence and the Temecula Police Department deployed a similar force for Saturdays get together, which featured a roster of speakers and a street rally at the intersection of Ynez and Rancho California roads.

About 100 people had gathered at Duck Pond park by 11 a.m. About 20 people from The Remembrance Project formed a semi-circle in the park held banners honoring victims of crimes committed by those in the country illegally.

At 12:30 p.m., supporters staked out positions along the eastern edge of Rancho California Road, waving signs and shouting Donald Trump! into megaphones.

Some people honked in support but others shouted epithets from their windows as they drove by.

A few people showed up to serve as counter-protesters, a mix that included a Bernie Sanders supporter, a couple of Never Trump folks and a man touting the Modern Whig party.

The Sanders supporter, Oscar Valentine, said hes opposed to both Trump and Clinton, calling them elitists cut from the same cloth.

Thats what scares me the most, he said, talking about what he called their shared globalist outlook.

Although Sanders faces an uphill climb for the Democratic Party nomination, Valentine said supporters are cheered by the possibility of getting super-delegates to swing their votes.

The only way to beat a populist candidate is with a populist candidate, he said.

Giovanna Tavares, of French Valley, who said she is undecided about her Democratic primary vote, said she came out to oppose, what she called, Trumps xenophobic rhetoric.

Its really for me just racist. This is not the America my parents came to, she said.

During the speech from Maria Espinoza, national director of The Remembrance Project, the crowd of Trump supporters began to chant, Build that wall.

And build it high, said Espinoza, drawing a loud round of applause.

Canyon Lake Mayor Tim Brown was the first speaker on the program. He referenced the 1970s movie Network and its message of disillusionment.

Brown repeated the memorable line from the movie uttered by the late actor Peter Finch.

As the speeches wound down, people started making their way over to the corner of Rancho California and Ynez roads for a demonstration featuring flag- and sign-waving.

Police were present at the rally and there was no conflicts involving the supporters and the handful of counter-protesters.
Hey, Sydney: despite evidence suggesting otherwise, you didnt actually wake up in purgatory this morning.

Rather, the thick n gritty layer of smoke enveloping your fine city can be blamed on hundreds of controlled fires the Regional Fire Service is conducting this weekend.

While thats not as cool as, you know, entering some form of the afterlife, fire crews are pretty stoked on todays weather conditions giving them the ability to safely clear all that flammable material.

Less stoked are those with respiratory conditions, or sightseers who were deadset on capturing the citys iconic visage. It also stinks.

Then again, the conditions are providing a rarely-seen ~ a e s t h e t i c ~ for Sydney:

Sydney shrouded in haze #beautifulmorning #hydepark #autumn A photo posted by @wendyallsop on May 6, 2016 at 8:35pm PDT

City of smoke #ghostbuildings #smoky #2spooky4me A photo posted by v i e n n a (@atomicbongos) on May 6, 2016 at 8:17pm PDT

sydney today A photo posted by Yuxiao (@hakunamatatalalala) on May 6, 2016 at 7:40pm PDT

Smokey Morning in #Sydney A photo posted by Paddy (@paddybhall) on May 6, 2016 at 7:58pm PDT

One of the coolest sunrise ive ever seen.. ?? #sydney #australia #sunrise A photo posted by tama (@dirgatamasan) on May 6, 2016 at 6:42pm PDT

Hello #sydney #australia A photo posted by mi.sun. (@msarchitect) on May 6, 2016 at 7:49pm PDT

Most of the burn-offs are happening in the Blue Mountains region. Weather permitting, theyll keep up for the next couple of days, giving our fine bridge a chance to muscle in on the Golden Gates legendarily fuzzy views.

Eat it, San Francisco.

A photo posted by Asian TV Awards (@asiantvawards) on May 6, 2016 at 6:33pm PDT

Source: ABC.

Photo: Spiro Arkoudis / Instagram.
After the Spice Girls broke up, Victoria Beckham put out just one album  albeit featuring some of the greatest cover art of all time  before turning her attention to fashion and just generally existing as a fabulous entity.

#2001 #NeverForget

She hasnt tried her hand at music since, and, to the surprise of probably no-one, recently revealed that, when she was at the peak of the pop game with the Spice Girls, she wasnt even allowed to sing live with group.

During a recent talk at Londons National Portrait Gallery, the former Posh Spice told the audience:

They used to turn (my microphone) off and just let the others sing. Luckily because I used to wear heels, I just used to jig about a bit and I got away with it, but it never came easily. I was always much more reserved than the other girls. I got the last laugh  and now my mic is well and truly on, finally.

So there you have it  Posh Spice lied to us through song, although to be honest, were okay with that. Now, since you were probably going to look for it anyway:

Source: Entertainment Weekly.

Photo: Xaume Olleros / Getty.
Darryl McSwain

Assistant Montgomery County Police Chief Darryl McSwain leaves after speaking to reporters under a tent during a heavy rain at Westfield Montgomery Mall parking lot in Md., after a shooting Friday, May 6, 2016.

(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A federal security officer is now facing multiple murder charges in a shooting spree across three Maryland parking lots that left three people dead.

Court records show 62-year-old Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi was formally charged Saturday in Montgomery County with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, along with four firearms charges.

He will make an initial court appearance Monday.

This photo provided by the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration shows Eulalio Tordil. A manhunt was under way May 6, 2016, after authorities said they were looking into whether three fatal shootings in the Washington area were connected. The first shooting occurred May 5 at a high school. The second occurred in a mall parking lot and the third happened minutes later at a nearby shopping center. Police have identified the school shooting suspect as Tordil, an employee of the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties.

Tordil had already been charged with first-degree murder in Prince George's County for the shooting death of his estranged wife, Gladys, in a high-school parking lot Thursday. Hers was the first in a string of shootings Thursday and Friday in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013.

The shooting spree began with a domestic slaying in an unusually public place, and comparisons to the 2002 D.C. sniper shootings leapt immediately to the minds of area residents. Tordil's arrest took place just steps away from a Michaels craft store that was the first target of snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

Police say Tordil's spree began when he shot and killed his estranged wife -- who had obtained a protective order from him -- as she waited to pick up her children in the parking lot of a High Point High School in Beltsville. He also shot and wounded a bystander who tried to intervene, police said.

Detectives worked through the night, trying to use cellphone technology to pinpoint Tordil's location. But they weren't able to catch him. The next day, according to police, he struck again, this time apparently choosing his victims at random.

On Friday morning, police said, Tordil shot three people outside Montgomery Mall, an upscale mall in Bethesda that sits off the Capital Beltway. One man died and two others were wounded, one of them critically. Then, he drove to a supermarket several miles away in the Aspen Hill section of Silver Spring, where he fatally shot a woman who was sitting in her car, police said.

Unlike the 2002 sniper shootings that stretched over a period of weeks and left 10 dead, police had an idea about who was responsible for Friday's shootings. Plainclothes officers spotted Tordil's car at a strip mall across the street from the supermarket, and they watched him for more than an hour as he moved from store to store, eating at Boston Market and getting coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, police said. Fearing that he wanted to provoke officers into shooting him, police waited him out until he returned to his car. Then they boxed him in and drew their guns. He emerged from the car with his hands up.

"We did not want to endanger anyone and have a shootout when we took him into custody," Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said. "That may have been what he wanted."

Instead, Tordil will have to answer in court for the string of carnage attributed to him: three people dead and another three wounded in roughly 20 hours.

Hank Stawinski, the police chief in neighboring Prince George's County, where the school shooting took place, lamented that his detectives couldn't find Tordil sooner.

"It's tragic that we were not able to intervene prior to additional individuals being harmed," Stawinski said.

Tordil worked for the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him when his wife said he had threatened to harm her if she left him, The Washington Post reported (http://wapo.st/1WOrwyg). Tordil subjected their children to "intense-military-like discipline," like push-ups and detention in a dark closet, according to the order.

The protective service said Tordil's weapon, badge and credentials were taken when he was placed on leave. Police found a weapon in his car but did not describe it.

The arrest occurred in full view of dozens of witnesses who were working, shopping, eating lunch or getting their nails done.

"They had a bunch of guns pointed at him, and he was coming out of the car with his hands up," said Dominique Lee, who was walking out of the flower shop where she works when Tordil was arrested.

"He just got out of his car. He gave up," said Jason Palmer, a private investigator who lives nearby and had started to search for the gunman himself. "They pinned him in."

Tordil ate at the same Boston Market as Muhammad and Malvo, who were also convicted in the sniper attacks.

"They ate in the same restaurant where we were having the surveillance here today, which was an irony that was not lost on me," said Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy, who prosecuted Muhammad. "I think it's a coincidence."
Police detained four people after heroin, drug paraphernalia and packaging material used to sell heroin allegedly were found in a Carlisle home Friday.

Carlisle Police, the Cumberland County Special Response Team and the Cumberland County Drug Task Force served a search warrant at 136 Liberty Ave. when the undisclosed amount of heroin, paraphernalia and packaging material were found Friday.

One of the detainees is Hasan Manson, who police arrested on an outstanding warrant.

Officials with Carlisle Borough codes enforcement inspected the home after the raid and condemned the property.
Police in Lebanon are searching for man they say shot someone in the face Friday night.

The shooting took place at about 9:15 p.m. along the 1300 block of Walnut Street, police said.

"Upon arrival police found two victims, one of which had an apparent gunshot wound to the area of his mouth," according to a statement from the police.

The shooting victim was identified only as a 23-year-old man from Lebanon, police said. Another victim, who was not injured, was identified as a 17-year-old from Lebanon. Police did not say if the second victim was a boy or a girl.

Police said they have identified the shooter as Brandon Soboleski, 23, with a last known address of Walnut Street in North Cornwall Township.

Soboleski is described as white, about 5-feet 10-inches tall, about 185 pounds with blue eyes and brown hair.

Police said they did not immediately have a photo of Soboleski.

"The 23-year-old victim and Soboleski are familiar with each other and had a conversation just prior to the incident. The motive for the shooting is being investigated," police said.

The shooting victim wounds are not considered to be life-threatening, police said.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Soboleski on two counts of attempted homicide, two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.

Anyone with information about Soboleski is asked to contact police at 717-272- 2054 or Crime Stoppers at 717-270-9800.
Restaurant Inspections.jpg

(PennLive)

Many midstate restaurants are inspected each week and come through with no problems.

But some restaurants in Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties had violations during inspections conducted from April 10 to April 16.

In Lebanon County, inspectors found problems at various establishments, ranging from mold-like growth on equipment to food that wasn't date-marked.

Inspectors at a Dauphin County business found open rodent bait in a food-storage area.

A Lancaster County restaurant reused boxes that once had contained raw chicken to store cooked food.

Food items containing potential allergens were not labeled with a warning at one Cumberland County business.

A school inspected in York County had ants in the kitchen.

And at a Perry County restaurant, inspectors observed evidence of mice and noted mildew-like growth and food spills on shelving in walk-in cooler, among other violations.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture oversees restaurant inspections in the state. Inspection reports are "snapshots" of the day and time the inspections took place. In many cases, violations are corrected on site prior to the inspector leaving.

Click on the links below to see how restaurants and other food establishments in the region fared:
By Jim T. Ryan

Staff Writer

Republican challenger John DiSanto and Democratic incumbent state Sen. Rob Teplitz won their respective primaries April 26 and will square off in the general election for the 15th Senatorial District, which includes Harrisburg, northern Dauphin County and Perry County.

The closest race of the night was that between Republicans DiSanto and Andrew Lewis, which was too close to call until all precincts had reported.

DiSanto won the contest with 51 percent of the vote.

But for much of the evening 29-year-old Lewis was winning, backed by overwhelming support in his native Perry County.

Lewis, an Army veteran of the Iraq war and executive in a family construction business, lives in Centre Twp. with his wife and three sons.

Lewis could not immediately be reached for comment and it was unclear if he would specifically endorse DiSanto.

Lewis thanked supporters, family and friends, and congratulated DiSanto in a message on his Facebook page.

"You have my word that I will never stop fighting for the little guy, and will continue to be an advocate for liberty," Lewis wrote.

When the electoral fog had cleared Tuesday night, DiSanto won by just 653 votes.

"He's a smart guy with a bright future," DiSanto said of Lewis.

DiSanto said his message won't change, focusing on making Pennsylvania business-friendly through lower taxes and reduced regulation, as well as fixing the pension crisis and eliminating Common Core standards in schools.

He did acknowledge he has work to do to bring Perry County over to his camp for the general election. DiSanto received just 14 percent of the Perry County vote, according to the local election bureau.

He plans to open an office in the county soon to reach out to residents. "The people of Perry County will be as high on my priority list as the people in Dauphin."

On the Democratic side, Teplitz, 45, cruised to an easier victory over challenger Alvin Taylor, a minister and clergy consultant from Lower Paxton Twp., winning 76 percent of the vote.

Taylor, 62, said he doesn't plan to throw his support behind a candidate.

"My whole thing was to let the voters decide in a competitive race," he said.

Teplitz is aware of the redrawn district's competitiveness and isn't taking anything for granted.

"You have to take every election seriously," he said.

Serving all citizens in the district, as well as focusing on education, jobs, government reform and the economic recovery of Harrisburg are his priorities, he said.

Jobs and economic development include helping the agricultural communities, such as those in Perry County.

Teplitz isn't running away from the job he's done over the past four years, even if his adversaries have tried to use it against him.

"I'm proud of my record," Teplitz said, "and I'm going to continue talking about that."

Jim T. Ryan can be reached via e-mail at jtryan@perrycountytimes.com
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Hartford, Conn., on April 15, 2016. Donald Trump had a contentious first week for a presumptive presidential nominee. His party's former presidents and last nominee wouldn't endorse him. The top Republican lawmaker said he'd consider it -- but Trump essentially told him to get lost. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Charles Krupa
Britain's Labour party candidate for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is applauded by supporters as he takes part in a campaign event to highlight the choices Londoners face at the London mayoral elections, in the Canary Wharf business district in London. (Photo: AP)

London, United Kingdom: At the Lahore Karahi restaurant in south London, customers and staff celebrated on Friday as it became clear the capital was to have its first Muslim mayor, shouting out in Urdu, "Sadiq Khan Zinda Baad!" (Sadiq Khan well done!)

A favourite haunt of the Khan family, the restaurant in the south London district of Tooting -- where the 45-year-old son of an Pakistani immigrant bus driver is the local MP -- buzzed with excitement.

"We are happy now but he has to fulfil the promises he made," said waiter Shehzad Azhar, 30. "The housing crisis and the transportation come first."

"He will do good things," added fellow employee Malik Ahmed, 32.

Khan's victory came after a straight fight with his conservative opponent, ecologist Zac Goldsmith, son of the late tycoon financier James Goldsmith and a scion of one of Britain's wealthiest families

The lack of affordable housing and the overcrowded transport system were key concerns for many Londoners, but Khan's faith also became an issue in an unusually negative campaign, with Goldsmith seeking to establish links between Khan and Muslim extremists.

Outside Khan's mosque, 50-year-old Asim said: "He is above the polemics. He ran a very clean campaign, very honest, and that's what Londoners liked."

Khan, a former human rights lawyer and Labour government minister, was attacked by both Goldsmith and Prime Minister David Cameron for allegedly voicing support for Muslim extremists in past.

Tooting-born Khan. who grew up in public housing in south London, dismissed the claims as "desperate", insisting he did not have extremist views.

Some Conservatives voiced concern that the attacks on him could hurt Muslim community relations.

Businessman Shahzad Saddiqui said Khan's background would help him to bring Londoners together.

"Sadiq Khan will have a unifying factor because he is Muslim, an immigrant, he is from the working class, so he understands the working-class people and he can associate with them," he said.

"He knows also how the Muslim community is constantly bashed in the media and he will address that."

'From Our Culture'

The latest census showed that 12.4 percent of Londoners are Muslim, 48.4 percent Christian, 1.8 percent Jewish and 20.7 percent have no faith.

The Muslim community is hugely varied, covering multiple ethnic and social backgrounds as well as a variety of moderate and traditionalist views.

In the East End, which has a large Muslim minority, voters said they had cast their ballots for Khan because of his policies rather than his religion.

Fahim Ahmed, a 35-year-old stallholder of Bangladeshi origin selling Islamic dresses at Whitechapel street market, said he was voting for the centre-left Labour party as much as for the individual.

But he welcomed the election of a candidate whose parents emigrated from Pakistan to Britain in the 1960s, saying: "He's from our culture."

At a nearby stall, Sabiha Choudhary was shopping for vegetables dressed in a black robe and green headscarf.

"It will not help only the Muslims, it will make a difference for all communities," she said. "Things will be better for people with not much money like us."
East Jordan asks voters for fire equipment millage

East Jordan is asking voters for a 1.5 mills increase for fire equipment in the upcoming November election.
Police on May 5 had arrested the third suspect (Photo: PTI)

Berlin: A third teenager, who was arrested in connection with the bombing of a Gurudwara by Islamist militants in the German city of Essen, has admitted to the authorities that he was part of a group which carried out the terror attack, according to a media report.

Tolga I, who is known in his circle as 'Amir', appears to be a sort of "commander-in-chief" who gave the order to Mohammed B and Yussuf T to explode a bomb at the Nanaksar Satsangh Sabha Gurudwara on the evening of April 16, 'Report Muenchen' programme of the ARD TV network said.

During interrogation, 17-year-old Tolga did not reveal the background or motive for targeting the Sikh temple, which hosted a wedding ceremony attended by over 200 guests.

He admitted that he was part of a group which carried out the bomb attack on the Gurudwara.

Investigators are trying to establish whether Tolga I as well as sixteen-year-old secondary school students Mohammed and Yussuf arrested four days after the attack are part of a terror network or their group included more young people, the report said.

A 60-year-old Sikh priest was seriously injured and two others suffered minor injuries in the explosion, which ripped through the entrance hall of the Gurudwara.

Investigators have traced a link of the three men to a radical Muslim clergy and to a travel agency in the city of Duisburg, near Essen, the report said.

The three have also frequently visited the Assalam Mosque in Essen, which is known to the authorities as a meeting place of radical Islamists.

Meanwhile, Germany's federal prosecutor's office is examining the possibility to take over the investigations into the bomb attack from the state prosecutor in Essen on suspicion that the three teenagers arrested are part of a terror network, the report said.

Tolga, who was taken into custody on an arrest warrant issued by the district court in Essen, came to police attention after his mother informed them about his links to radical Islamists and handed them over some notices made by her son, the report said.

She was worried that Tolga was preparing to leave for Syria to fight for the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

He is also known to have contacts with the "Lohberger Brigade", in Dinslaken, a group of jihadists who have joined IS militants as fighters some years ago, according to the report.
As the militant pulls the pin of the bomb and throws it on the staircase, a loud explosion can be heard. (Photo: YouTube Videograb)

Baghdad, Iraq: A terrifying video of a British ISIS fighter blowing up a bomb and then throwing it off the staircase of a building in Iraq has surfaced online.

According to a report in the Daily Mail, the militant can be seen standing in front of a staircase with a bomb in his hand. He then looks at the camera, says something in Arabic, laughs and jokingly pulls of the pin of the explosive before throwing it off.

Identified as Gezim Klokoci, 19, from Finsbury Park, London, the fighter is believed to be a dropout from a London college.

In the video, Klokoci is seen wearing a light brown coloured robe. He appears to be laughing when he pulls off the pin of the suicide vest.

As the militant pulls the pin of the bomb and throws it on the staircase, a loud explosion can be heard. Pieces of masonry and shattered surroundings can be seen as the bomb explodes.

According to statistics, Islamic State group executed over 4,000 people within two years. UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) called on UN to stop the crimes and violations committed against people.

Last month, Barack Obama vowed to wipe out Islamic State and put an end to the war situation in Iraq and parts of the Middle East.
These airstrikes mark fresh rounds of hostility after the 2014 war that left 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead. (Photo: AFP)

Jerusalem: Israeli aircraft targeted two Hamas sites in southern Gaza early Saturday in response to a cross-border rocket attack, the army said, as tensions along the Palestinian territory's border simmered.

"Earlier today... a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel," a military statement read. "In response... aircraft targeted two Hamas terror infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip."

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The rocket and air strikes marked the fourth day of the worst cross-border violence since the 50-day war in 2014, which left 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead.

Mortar and tank fire between Israel and Palestinian militants, as well as Israeli air strikes, have raised concerns of a new war in the Hamas-run territory.

No Palestinian group immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, but an Israeli military spokesman said Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, "must be held accountable" for it.

Since Wednesday, Hamas and other militant groups have fired at least 12 mortar rounds across the frontier at Israeli forces conducting searches along the border and just inside Gaza for infiltration tunnels leading into southern Israel.

The tunnels are among the most feared weapons of Hamas fighters during the 2014 summer war, and one was uncovered by the army stretching into Israeli territory on Thursday.

Ismail Haniya, Hamas' leader in Gaza, said meanwhile on Friday his organisation was "not calling for a new war", but would not accept Israeli incursions into the Palestinian enclave.
Syrian citizens and firefighters gather at the scene where one of rockets hit the Dubeet hospital in the central neighborhood of Muhafaza in Aleppo. (Photo: AP))

Moscow: Russia's defence ministry on Friday said that a temporary truce in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo has been extended for 72 hours "in order to prevent the situation from worsening".

At Moscow's initiative "the regime of silence in the province of Latakia and in the city of Aleppo has been extended from 00:01 (local time) on May 7 for 72 hours," the defence ministry said in a statement.

The truce had been due to end early Saturday after giving residents some respite from two weeks of fighting that killed more than 280 civilians, even as clashes raged south of the city.

The halt in fighting in Aleppo is part of international efforts to revive a landmark February ceasefire and galvanise peace talks to end a five-year war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria since September to back up the forces of its ally President Bashar Al-Assad.

Together with the United States, Moscow has been spearheading the latest diplomatic push to resolve the protracted conflict in the country.
The Lu Rong Yu collided with a Maltese freighter at 3:40 AM Beijing time (Photo: AP)

Beijing: A collision between a fishing boat and a cargo ship in the East China Sea has left 17 missing and two dead, Chinese state media said Saturday.

The Lu Rong Yu collided with a Maltese freighter at 3:40 AM Beijing time, according to state broadcaster China Central Television.

Passing ships rescued two additional passengers who later died, the report said, adding that search and rescue operations are ongoing.

The cargo ship, which was under a Maltese flag, left the scene, according to China Radio International.

The incident occurs as China's aggressive pursuit of its territorial claims in the East and South China Sea has raised regional tensions.

Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam, among others, have complained about reckless behaviour by Chinese fishermen that has occasionally led to accidents at sea.

Tokyo and Beijing both lay claim to small islands in the East China Sea. known as the Senkakus in Japanese and the Diaoyu in Chinese.

In 2010, the Japanese coastguard arrested a Chinese trawler captain for allegedly ramming two of its patrol boats near the disputed territory.
Just a few miles inland and you're immediately greeted by some pretty big mountains.

Varazze is simply stunning, with clear blue waters and hills that grow rapidly as the eye moves away from the sea.

There's no shortage of sunbeds or hotels here...

Uplifts are allowed for practice here at the Superenduro.

And straight into the classic Liguria rock, which is very light, dusty, unforgiving and amazing for riding on.

With a trail crew working full time on the trails it's no wonder they are so well maintained and have become part of the landscape.

Stages one and four take you all the way to the sea.

You have to be wary of following riders too closely, just so you can see past the dust clouds.

The Lupato brothers.

All the trails are so well signposted so anyone can find their way, even this guy...

A lot of the liaison stages are away from the crazy Italian roads.

Flowery shirts through the flowy singletrack in the hills of the Italian Liguria.

A lot of the trails look like they are old access trails for some of the abandoned buildings.

Fun, flowy and fast.

Andrea Pirazzoli.

Through some lush woodland... summer is coming!

The Rocky Mountain Team flowing down some switchbacks.

The trails have been literally carved into the landscape.

This is a moment when the trail comes out the woodland for a breath of fresh air, but it's far from that for the riders, descending into a super technical steep rock slab.

Towards the end of the day it was a race back to Varazze to cool down and wash the dust off...

To the beach!

Hmm yes. He is walking on water... kind of.

Goodnight from Varazze.

And there's always time for a Gelato... When in Rome as they say, or in Varazze for that matter.

Now that the race season is well underway, we head back to Italy for the second round of the Superenduro series, this time, we head to Liguria, on the spectacular northwest coast. The series itself wants to showcase exactly what Italy has to offer and not just the obvious; amazing coffee and food.Residing 40-minutes west of Genoa by car, Varazze is amazingly accessible straight off a plane. You may be close to some pretty big hills and incredible trails (very close) but the town itself is a stunning seaside resort in its own right. And the riding. Oh, and the riding... Its awesome! With a large variation of fast flowy trails to technical tight trails, which make it the perfect destination for the Superenduros second stop on its 2016 tour.This is also race organiser, Enrico Gualas (the Pope of Enduro) stomping ground - he admitted to us earlier that hes been riding here for 25-years! This place holds a special place in his heart, and rightly so. Practice got underway today and we were trackside to capture the action...
Kathmandu: Nepal government has levelled three charges against the country's ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya to justify its decision to recall him, with officials on Saturday saying he was working 'against national interest'.

"Envoys should follow government's directives and maintain diplomatic decorum," Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters here.

In a late night development, Nepal on Friday recalled Upadhyaya over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Read: Nepal recalls India envoy, cancels President's visit

Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari's planned visit to India.

The diplomat has been also charged with siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's government, according to reports.

He has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying India's ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Rawal said.

Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandari's trip to India has no connection with the government's decision to recall Upadhyaya.

The president was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in the Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed the Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandari's India visit.

"The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now," he said.

"We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically," he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.

According to the report, Thapa said Upadhyaya's "recall was made in a bid to strengthen the existing relations between the two nations" but did not explain what the envoy failed to do to strengthen the ties.
Better Poker, Better Cards, Papazian: Alexandru Papazian Wins EPT Monaco High Roller

May 06, 2016 Remko Rinkema Contributor

The 2016 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final 25,750 High Roller was won by Alexandru Papazian from Romania, and he took home 1.197 million after defeating Alexandros Kolonias heads up.

The third and final day of this event started with 12 hopefuls, including three-time World Poker Tour champion Anthony Zinno, 2015 November Niner Zvi Stern, and top UK pro Max Silver.

The first player to get knocked out was Azerbaijani Ramin Hajiyev, who lost a coin flip with king-queen versus [Removed:2]'s tens. He was followed by Thomas Miller, who busted to Silver.

With 10 players remaining there were seven double ups before Ivan Deyra busted on the final-table bubble. Deyra took home 103,570 for his 10th-place finish after running sixes into Silver's jacks. That allowed Silver to come into the final table with the chip lead, followed by Papazian, Stern and Kolonias.

Stern's fellow countryman Saar Wilf busted in ninth place, as he ran ace-jack into Zinno's ace-queen. Wilf collected 122,250 for his efforts, while Zinno became a real contender after he also busted Imad Derwiche.

Last season, Derwiche finished second in this event to Charlie Carrel, and this year he busted in eighth place for 147,710, with Zinno's ace-queen beating his pair of jacks after connecting with the river to give him a pair of aces.

Although he came into the final table as the chip leader, Silver had an awful day. Since reaching the final nine, Silver didn't win any significant hands before losing a huge flip against Maksoud with tens versus ace-king. Maksoud took the lead, and Silver busted out two hands later to take home 202,050.

Zinno's downfall started shortly after Silver had busted, and he exited in sixth place for 276,750. Zinno lost a big pot with ace-jack versus Rafael Da Silva Moraes' ace-ten before Kolonias finished him off.

Maksoud, who held the lead for some time, busted in fifth for 364,500, after which it was Stern who took fourth. The Israeli player cashed for 460,700, which is his second biggest score behind finishing fifth in the 2015 WSOP Main Event. Stern ran ace-seven into Papazian's queens, and the Romanian player took a massive lead into three-handed play.

Moraes was knocked out next, and he took 568,200 back to Brazil. Moraes flopped top pair, which turned out to be inferior to Papazian's better kicker.

Papazian started the heads-up phase with 10 million of the 11.5 million chips in play, but almost immediately Kolonias doubled up twice in quick succession. After the dinner break, Kolonias doubled up once more, and that evened the match entirely. The heads-up match then went back and forth for hours before Papazian dealt the final blow.

On the final hand, Papazian, who held a big chip lead, found ace-four to call Kolonias' shove. The Greek player held pocket nines, but they were cracked when an ace hit the river.

Final Table Results

Place Winner Country Prize 1 Alexandru Papazian Romania 1,197,000 2 Alexandros Kolonias Greece 805,900 3 Rafael Da Silva Moraes Brazil 568,200 4 Zvi Stern Israel 460,700 5 [Removed:2] Lebanon 364,500 6 Anthony Zinno USA 276,750 7 Max Silver UK 202,050 8 Imad Derwiche France 147,710

That concludes the PokerNews live reporting from the Grand Final at the French Riviera, but make sure to tune back in regularly for the latest news and updates from events all over the world.

During the 2016 EPT Grand Final festival at the conclusion of Season 12, the tour announced the key dates to pencil in on your calendar for Season 13. The kickoff event will once again be in the beautiful city of Barcelona, and it is scheduled to run Aug. 16-28 with another jam-packed offering, including the always-booming EPT Barcelona 5,300 Main Event.

Dates for EPT Malta in October and EPT Prague in December were also announced, and you can find out more by checking out the story right here on PokerNews.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
A Denver police SWAT officer seriously wounded during the fatal shooting of a wanted suspect in December was struck by friendly fire, a report released Friday by prosecutors says.

From forensic evidence and the positions of the officers involved in the encounter, investigators believe Technician John Ruddy was struck in the upper leg by a round fired from the rifle of a fellow officer, District Attorney Mitch Morrissey wrote in a letter to Denver's police chief.

The report said the round likely passed through 35-year-old Philip Munoz, the suspect killed in the encounter, before hitting Ruddy, the Denver Post reports.

The shooting happened on Dec. 2 in the city's Sloan's Lake neighborhood as tactical officers were trying to arrest Munoz.

Munoz was sought on a warrant issued out of Adams County for shooting his ex-girlfriend and in another case in which he allegedly kidnapped and attempted to shoot another ex-girlfriend.

The warrant was being served by the FBI's Rocky Mountain Safe Street's Task Force, comprised of federal, state and local officers, who requested assistance from the Denver Police Department's SWAT team.
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The highest ratings  and therefore the biggest lies  on the Fox News Channel belong to that of Bill OReilly, easily lampooned by Stephen Colbert before he went legit as a talk-show host. Soon someone is going to have to lampoon Jesse Watters: Bill OReillys lamentable cable-news legacy.

On Tuesday Friday Fox Follies published Jesse Watters, Fisticuffs and Fox Fibs, so theres no need to rehash that here.

However, Taken Out of Context by Jesse Watters, Bill OReilly and the Fox News Ministry of Truth  The False Narrative of Out-of-Control Kids is well worth covering in detail. Educator Larry Strauss was contacted by Watters for a piece on school violence because his book Students First and Other Lies came up in a search. Ill let him tell his own story:

I warned Watters that if he and OReilly intended to advance the tired thesis that kids are running amok in our schools I was the wrong person to interview. If they wished to attack those who are promoting restorative justice  an attempt to stop criminalizing student misbehavior  that I would be their adversary.



[] I warned Watters that I would say these things and he said that was great. He had no preconceived notions. He just wanted viewers to get some insight into what is going on in our schools around the country.



My wife warned me  dont believe them, she said. She told me I was being used.



[] Almost nothing I said did make it into the five minute segment that aired a few nights later:



[] But my wife was right. I was used. My words became part of the false narrative that inner-city kids are out of control and we need the police in the schools to root out the problem. Probably not a coincidence that all the offending students in the videos they showed were African American. One wonders if the real agenda wasnt some refutation to the assertion that Black Lives Matter.



By the time OReilly furrowed his brow and offered up his assessment, he seemed perfectly reasonable calling for the police to storm our classrooms.

You really need to read the whole article and then watch the segment that came out of it:

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Its just more proof of Watters smarmy mendacity. This is no more obvious than in his Watters World Man on the Street comedy segments. They are all slanted to make fun of the Left, cities OReilly has a mad-on for, and/or Democratic candidates. Clearly running out of men or women, watch the Kids Election Edition:

Speaking of Loofahs: Ive been calling him a racist in print for years and I think its finally getting to him because OReilly Complains That The Terms Sexism And Racism  [Are] Being Used To Punish Bigots as Bill OReilly Takes On San Francisco And Our Liberal Attitudes Toward Property Crime, because hes looking out for us.

This next video needs to be watched on a meta level. Its OReilly On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, no longer pretending to be a clueless OReilly clone, a case of art imitating life. But, its never mentioned. Its like waking up from a dream where that whole thing never happened because Bobby Ewing was in the shower:

Bill OReilly Enters The No Chill Zone

HATE CLUB: The first rule of Hate Club is to talk about Hate Club  as often as possible  so these cockroaches have no place to hide. Thats why on occasion FFF writes about comment threads at Fox Nation that turn into the ugliest racist sewers this side of Stormfront. This week the Fox News audience truly distinguished itself:

Fox News Fans Found Out

Malia Obama Is Going To

Harvard, So They Called Her

A N***** (SCREENSHOTS)

Vile Racism Forces Fox

News To Close Comments

On Malia Obama Article

FoxNews.com Closes Comment

Section on Malia Obama Article

After Avalanche of Racism

This was going on long before Donald Trump decided to run for POTUS. Where do you think they get the idea that this is welcome?

Meanwhile, as this weeks column is being compiled Fox and Friends piled on the Islamophobia:

Fox Hosts: Somali-Muslim

Community In Minnesota

Considered By Some As 

Ground Zero For ISIS

Recruitment In The US

Ah, yes, the old some people say thing. Foxs favorite thing.

FOX EXPERT CONVICTED: When the history is finally written Fox News Benghazi Expert Wayne Simmons Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Government will forever be a(nother) black mark against the purported news channel. You barely heard about it at Fox after Wayne Simmons, Right Wing Medias Benghazi Expert, Pleads Guilty To Fraud:

In an April 29 press release the Department of Justice noted that Simmons falsely claimed he spent 27 years working for the Central Intelligence Agency and had pleaded guilty to major fraud against the government, wire fraud, and a firearms offense.



[] Dana J. Boente, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said, Simmons admitted he attempted to con his way into a position where he would have been called on to give real intelligence advice in a war zone. His fraud cost the government money, could have put American lives at risk, and was an insult to the real men and women of the intelligence community who provide tireless service to this country.



Simmons was a frequent guest on Fox News, appearing on the network dozens of times purporting to be a former CIA operative. In those appearances, Simmons regularly criticized Democrats on foreign policy and national security issues. In one instance, he said, If the Democrats come into power in the United States and re-employ their vision of defense for this country, we will have 9-1-1s unabated.

Because he was saying what Fox wanted its audience to hear, no one ever bothered looking at his credentials.

THE NERD PROM: It was amusing to see how Fox News Wasted No Time Attacking Larry Wilmore And President Obama At WHCA Dinner, maybe because Larry Wilmore Drops A Truth Bomb On Fox News Racism At White House Correspondents Dinner:

Wilmore took the podium and delivered the [sic] a fantastic joke, Welcome to Negro night here at Washington, or as Fox News would report two thugs disrupt elegant dinner in DC. Thats how they do it.



Wilmores joke was awesome because, like all good humor, it contained an element of truth. In the case of this joke, it was the total truth. Fox News has been fanning the flames of racism since before President Obama became the Democratic nominee in 2008. Fox has been a willing partner in the Republican plot to win elections by dividing the country along racial lines.



The joke was met with some uncomfortable mumbles and squirms in the press audience because most people who wont work in the mainstream press wont admit the ugly bias of Fox News.

Oddly enough, thats not what got the personalities at the White Privilege Station really hyperventilating:

White Fox Host Attacks

Race-Baiting Larry Wilmore

For Calling Obama My N***a

Fox News Martha MaCallum

Seems to Think N-Word

Hurts White People

White Fox Host: N-Word Is

Divisive Because It Makes You

Feel Like There Are Different

Rules For Different People

Theyre just jealous they cant use the word whenever they want.

TARGETING THE TRUTH:

Foxs Special Report Falsely Claims

Obamas New Smart Gun Technology

Push Is Flat-Out Dangerous

Fox Business Pushes Four Lies

About Smart Guns In 45 Seconds

Im sure the NRA will love them for that.

AVUNCULAR A-HOLE: One of my least favorite personalities on Fox is one of the least known. Peter Johnson, Jr., pops up on Fox & Friends to read editorials off the TelePrompTer from time to time most days. Some people say that, as Rogers Ailes lawyer, Junior is channeling Ailes thoughts in his OpEds. Whether thats true, or not, some of them are ugly to the core. Frinstance:

Foxs Peter Johnson Jr. Lectures

Young Latinos On How To

Protest Like Americans

He gets away with this because he looks harmless. Hes not. Hes evil.

TRUMP STUMPS LUMPS: The most bizarre thing that happened in the GOP race this week, before Donald Trump became the soon-to-be presumptive nominee, happened on the Curvy Couch when  well, just Watch Fox & Friends Hosts React To Donald Trumps JFK Conspiracy Theory.

In the TOO LITTLE TOO LATE Department:

Foxs Kilmeade: I Let Myself

Down By Not Following Up

When Trump Raised JFK

Conspiracy On Fox & Friends

THE TRUMP DUMP: This is where we quickly dismiss all the ways Fox News defended and supported The Donald. This weeks Trump Dump comes in several flavors:

ROCKY ROAD:

STUDY: Trump Won The Fox Primary, Doubling Any Other Candidate In Interview Airtime  16 Times The Media Let Trump Falsely Claim He Opposed The Iraq War From The Beginning  Trump Calls Clintons Off The Reservation Remark Demeaning To Men  Fox Liberal Has Never Heard Donald Trump Say Anything Bad About Black People  Just Like Trump, Fox Declares Open Season On Hillary Clinton, Too  Kurtz And MacCallum Laughably Pretend Fox Is Not The Donald Trump Network  Foxs Guilfoyle Floats Condi Rice As Potential Trump VP Pick  Fox Host Calls Trump Surrogates The Real Stars Of The White House Correspondents Dinner  Foxs Howard Kurtz Calls Three Trump Surrogates The Real Stars Of The White House Correspondents Dinner  Neil Cavuto Calls Trumps Taco Bowl Tweet An Olive Branch To The Mexican People  Foxs Cavuto Tells Former Mexican President That Trumps Taco Bowl Tweet Is An Olive Branch To Mexicans  Foxs Bolling: Bloody Protests By Anti-Trump Animals Help Trump  Foxs Charles Payne Denies That Dirty Trickster Roger Stone Is A Proxy For Trump

OREILLY FLAVOR:

OReilly Writes Off Trumps Accusation Against Cruzs Father As Him Being Emotional  On On-Air Meltdown, Bill OReilly All But Admits Network Is In It For Ratings, Calls Trumps Insults `Newsworthy  OReilly Slams NBC For Interviewing Trump From Trump Tower  Bill OReilly Tries To Sell The Border Wall To Former President Of Mexico  OReilly Lectures Former President Of Mexico On The Humane Benefits Of A Border Wall  Trump: Michelle Fields Was Terrible, Maybe I Should File A Report, She Was Grabbing Me  OReilly: Hillary Needs to Move Center, Pick Sherrod Brown for VP  Bill OReilly: Anti-Trump Protesters Are Too Stupid To Realize Theyre Helping Trump  OReilly Believes He Knows Why Trump Won  Trump Tells OReilly Hes Ready To Take The Low Road Against Hillary Clinton In The General Election

OREILLY: But wait. Youre fine with the low road? Most people dont want to go on the low road?



TRUMP: No, I can handle the low road if I have to do it. I mean, weve had some low roads over the last few months.



OREILLY: Really?



TRUMP: Im fine with it if we have to go that direction. Maybe you havent noticed.



OREILLY: You know what? I hope you dont have to go it. I would like to see you and Mrs. Clinton in a spirited campaign about issues without the low road. I know the media likes it. I know they like all that stuff but I dont. I would like to see you, you know, you guys just fight it out over issues.

And, in the Pot Meet Kettle Department:

OReilly Decries News Outlets

Giving Trump Far Too

Much Airtime To Get Ratings

OReilly Slams NBC For Interviewing

Trump From Trump Tower

HANNITY FLAVOR:

Hannity: Dont Blame Me For Donald Trump!  Hannity Says Its Extremely Shallow for People to Blame Him for Rise of Trump  Hannity: When Has Trump Shown Hostility To Non-White Voters?  Hannity Asks, When Has [Trump] Been Hostile To Non-White Voters?  Sean Hannity Wont Rebuke National Enquirer Story Accusing Ted Cruzs Father Of Helping JFK Assassination  Hannity Advocates Replacing House Speaker Paul Ryan After He Fails To Endorse Trump  Sean Hannity Endorses Trump, Lashes Out At Paul Ryan For Sabotage  This Has Been Going on a Year!: Hannitys Frustration Mounts Over GOPs Split Support For Trump

MEGYN KELLY FLAVOR:

Megyn Kelly: The Stunning

Victory That Trump Has Pulled Off

In This Race Cannot Be Overstated

TED CRUZ FLAVOR:

Ted Cruz: Rupert Murdoch Turned Fox News Into the Donald Trump Network  Foxs Cavuto to Cruz: Theres No Fox News Cabal to Help Trump  Fox News Issues Statement on Cruzs Claim Theyre in the Tank for Trump

Now that Trump is the GOPs presidential pick, Fox News has fallen into line. All is forgiven.

PASSAGES:

WEDDING BELLS:

Fox News Arthur Aidala

weds Marianne Bertuna

Arthur Aidala celebrates

celebrity wedding

DIVORCE BELLS:

Fox News Family Values: Ed

Henry Taken Off The Air After

His Mistress Reveals Affair

Fox Newss Ed Henry goes off-air

following expose by InTouch

magazine regarding his private life

Ed Henry to take time off after

tabloid affair report, Fox News says

Heres All You Need to Know

About the Ed Henry Affair

Will Fox Newss Ed Henry

survive his scandal? There

are plenty of reasons he will.

DUMBBELLS:

Andrea Tantaros Breaks

Silence, Suggests Standoff

With Fox Is Over Free Speech

Lets Talk About Andrea

Tantaros Cruel Diss of Mika

Brzezinski in Her New Book

CREDIT WHERE CREDITS DUE: This rubric is larger than usual this week. There must be something in the water.

Watch Fox News Steve Doocy squirm

as hes repeatedly owned by the

liberal he invited on to play a patsy

Watch as you read along:

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Doocy had no facts on his side, so he decided to invent some statistics. Ninety-nine percent of the violence is from the anti-Trump people, he said, not from the Trump supporters. They were just there for the show!



I dont know where you got that stat, Brown replied, but I think you need to check your stats. Brown said this while in split-screen with Doocy, who tried to laugh away the fact that hed just been righteously nailed for lying on television. What Ive seen is a man being punched in the face by a Trump supporter, and [Trump] offering to pay his legal fees.



Youre right, Doocy said, in that one case. He then turned Schlapp and asked, Am I off-base on this stuff?

Fox News Looks Donald Trump

In The Eye And Tells Him That

He Cant Win In November

Geraldo Rivera: GOP Candidate Will

Never Be Elected Because Only A

Crazy Person Can Win Nomination

Foxs Wallace: Media Put

[Trump] On Too Much

Because It Spiked The Ratings

I hate that I suddenly agree with this crazy MoFo:

Mark Levin Rips Fox News for

Not Challenging Trump: Theyll Be

Rubbing Their Faces In Their Own Feces

Levin: Fox News not a news channel anymore

Trump had mentioned on Fox and Friends earlier Tuesday a National Enquirer story that claimed Cruzs father was with Oswald before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.



Levin said the hosts of the program failed to challenge Trumps claim.



Several of the people on The Five thought this was hilarious, Levin continued. As a matter of fact, they were defending the National Enquirer.  Thats why its not the Fox News Channel, its the Fox Channel, and the Donald Trump super-PAC.



Were going to get our asses kicked in the general election, ladies and gentlemen. Thats the trajectory. Maybe itll change, but likely, it will not, Levin said, adding that Trump is limping across the finish line to the nomination.



They may be laughing today, but theyre going to be rubbing their own faces in their own feces. Ill tell you that after the general election, because they have humiliated themselves.

Foxs Host: Trump is Pivoting

Into The Alex Jones Presidency

With His Conspiracy Theories

Foxs Greg Gutfeld Asks

if Trump Will Be the First

Conspiracy Freak President

Watch Nomiki Konst Crush

Foxs Attempt To Smear

Anti-Trump Protesters

However, the Poster Boy for CREDIT WHERE CREDITS DUE has to be Charles Krauthammer. While he appears on several Fox shows, its his appearances on OReillys Hate Fest where he really shines. Without coming out and saying Youre wrong to his face, he subtly tells OReilly hes wrong about something in just about every appearance:

Charles Krauthammer:

Do You Want Trump

To Have Nuclear Codes?

Charles Krauthammer Undecided

If Hed Vote For Donald Trump

Charles Krauthammer (again)

exposes Bill OReillys bankrupt

apologism for Donald Trump:

Essential context for that chat is OReillys status as a longtime, vanilla-milkshake-sharing friend of Donald Trump. No dummy, OReilly surely recognizes that Krauthammer schools him on this topic. Back in March, after some other Trump outrage, OReilly defended the candidate on similar terms, saying that he gets emotional and doesnt always process his thoughts too well. OReillys suggestion then that Trump readjust his rhetoric triggered a repudiation from Krauthammer, who called it weaselly.



These pointed-but-highly-civil disagreements make for good television, as Krauthammer articulates as strong a case against Trump as cable news can provide. Accordingly, OReilly deserves plaudits for hazarding these pro-Trump arguments in Krauthammers presence. With Trumps ascent as the presumptive GOP nominee, there should be more of these moments down the road.

Thats good news for those who think OReilly is the hardest of blowhards.

CLINTON CONTEST: No winner this week looking for a positive story on Hillary Clinton, as we add another zero to the prize pack.

Foxs Andrew Napolitano Repeats

False Claims About Clinton

Email Investigation Over A

Month After They Were Debunked

Fox News Pretends That

Clinton Hacker Found

Damning Evidence

Foxs Juan Williams Pours

Cold Water On Fox

Conspiracy Theory Clintons

Email Server Was Hacked

FOX BYTES: Fox News Meme Of The Day: Bin Laden Not A Big Deal  Michael Moore Jabs at Megyn Kellys Departure Rumors: Youre LeBron James: You Wont Be Here Very Long!  Foxs Gutfeld: Coal Is A Moral Substance, Where Coal Reaches, People Live Longer, Happier Lives  Foxs Bream Cites Debunked GOP Talking Points To Undermine Reality That Strict Voter ID Laws Have A Discriminatory Impact  Fox Contributor Calls To Unleash Total War And Destroy ISIS Capital, Ignores That Civilians Live There  Foxs McDowell Mocks Sanders Supporters As Bong-Smoking Losers  The Daily Show Calls Out A Fox Guests Opposition To Equal Pay For US Womens Soccer Team  Fox Darling Scott Brown Accuses Elizabeth Warren Of Being Drunk After She Blasted Trumps Toxic Stew Of Hatred  Fox Host on Bathroom Law: What About the Civil Rights of Women Who Dont Want Men in Their Bathrooms?  Foxs Bartiromo And Rep. Issa Blame Dems For Slow Economic Growth  Fox & Friends Follows Conservative Playbook To Spin GDP Report, Mislead On Obamas Economic Record

Headly Westerfield spends the entire week collecting Fox News headlines to carefully craft each Friday Fox Follies for your reading pleasure.
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* The following is an opinion column by RMuse *

Its possible that some Americans memory is good enough to recall the Republican Partys Great Recession and its aftermath when instead of bringing in more revenue, they only cut spending on crucial services. In fact, in several Republican states that are drowning in debt and suffering monthly revenue shortfalls, Republicans only cut more services and resist any attempt to bring in revenue. It was, and still is, an outrage that Republicans are willing to cut spending for the people during an economic downturn, but they never consider simply ending subsidies to special interests that would serve the purpose of bringing in revenue.

American taxpayers unwittingly dole out inordinate amounts of money every year to organizations and corporations that do not need more money, and Republicans regularly cut spending for domestic programs to fund subsidies for their special friends. Of all the special interest subsidies that Republicans, and likely many Democrats, will never consider cutting are the religious special interests, or in street parlance the churches. At the last approximation, in 2011 American taxpayers furnished churches with well over $71 Billion every year while Republicans cut social programs due to a lack of revenue.

One might think that an intelligent nations solution to bring in revenue would be to stop doling out free taxpayer money, and while America is terrified of ending welfare to religious organizations, Puerto Rico is showing courage and beginning to rein in churches tax exemption.

Puerto Rico, an American territory, is like Kansas in the midst of a spiraling debt crisis and is taking several drastic steps to bring in much-needed revenue. Thus far it has cut education spending, raised sales tax to the highest level in America, and increased the cost of essential utilities like water and electricity. Still, those steps alone will not suffice and unlike America where church welfare is sacrosanct, Puerto Ricos Treasury is cracking down on churches that abuse tax-exempt status.

It is true it is not putting an end to church welfare, but it is a monumental step forward for an American territory. If any state or congressional representative even suggested looking at churches tax exempt status, they would be summarily drawn and quartered; likely on the steps of the nations capital.

According to Primera Hora, a Puerto Rican newspaper, the Secretary of the Treasury Jan Zaragoza announced a plan to begin auditing churches beginning this month. Mr. Zaragoza said the unusual tactic is the continuation of a program that began investigating over 40 so-called non-profit religious organizations last year. Now the Treasury Department is turning its undivided attention to actual churches Mr. Zaragoza says are operating as religious non-profits but are still posting record profits from business endeavors without paying taxes; it sounds like every church in America.

Now, many Americans have noted ad nauseam that America has a problem of churches operating as a business, and making profits, and yet are exempt from paying tax on business profits. Unless an Americans business is located offshore, they have to pay tax on their income and profits. Mr. Zaragoza related the same issue in Puerto Rico when the country is drowning in debt. Zaragoza said,

The problem is that there are churches that are family businesses and where people are making a profit. You can have a church for profit, like any other, just like a shoe store. You can operate a church as a for-profit entity, but every year you should file returns with your profits and pay.

As one might suspect from religious organizations, many church groups expressed frustration and outrage at the Treasury Departments new tactic. Zaragoza and many other could not care less how outraged the religious freeloaders are and charge that several religious organizations refuse to comply with Puerto Ricos Treasury Department regulations and standards required to accrue full tax-exempt status. Zaragoza continued,

The message were sending here is that we have a responsibility and will oversee all groups. This is not an attempt to demonize anyone. On the contrary, we are not giving privilege to anyone. These organizations think that by just registering as a non-profit organization they gain automatic rights to tax exemptions. They get incorporated and begin operations without ever requesting tax exemptions. They have spent years not paying taxes. Now they have to make retroactive payments.

Of course a church is going to complain if they have to make payments of any kind; they are used to getting everything, including city, county, state, and national services for free just because they are churches. It is why in America the idea of challenging the tax-exempt status of churches is considered the work of Satan, an affront to god, and patently un-American. American religious institutions (churches) are given free rein to operate for a profit without paying taxes, filing or keeping financial records, or submit to any government supervision.

Technically, churches in mainland America are prohibited from doing business as a for-profit company, or from taking and promoting explicitly political positions. But this is America where an unwritten, but universally-understood, law says questioning a church is a mortal sin; expecting the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to enforce such laws is bordering on apostasy and the religious right knows it has the upper hand; government officials are terrified of evangelicals.

In fact, for the past five years nearly two thousand separate evangelical churches in all 50 states and Puerto Rico have openly dared the government to crack down on criminal houses of worship for abusing their tax exempt status and free money. In 2014 alone, there were 1,800 pastors participating in what is known as Pulpit Freedom Sunday by campaigning from the pulpit and endorsing Republican candidates as part of their sermons. Then, to incite the IRS to take action, the 1,800 preachers mailed their political endorsements, often with video, to the IRS daring them to do their job and apply the letter of the law and revoke their tax exempt status.

According to the Puerto Rican Treasury, the territory stands to gain quite a bit from shaking down lucrative businesses masquerading as churches. What Mr. Zaragoza did say was that this proposal to rein in churches enjoys broad support from Puerto Rican lawmakers who are desperate to alleviate the stress of the declining revenue crisis by extraordinary measures such as adopting a Value-Added Tax system (VAT) expected to inject $1.5 billion into the economy.

Zaragoza was clear that the Treasury Department was not going after ever church in the territory. He said, for example, that the occasional sale of goods by Churches or religious organizations are exempt from the new VAT system. But, Zaragoza said, several of the churches under investigation are doing far more than making infrequent sales selling cookies or cakes opening them up to audit and making them a potential moneymaker for a government drowning in debt and starved for tax revenue. We hit the jackpot because we have realized that many of these organizations are businesses, and others have never requested tax exemption and still dont pay taxes. We have realized that the potential for tax collection is very high.

If an American territory like Puerto Rico can muster the courage to take on profit-driven and profit-making churches, then there is no reason mainland America cannot do the same thing; and much more. It would not be enough to simply audit churches massive land holdings and financials, because those churches operating as profit-making businesses would certainly illegally cook the books as quickly as they illegally campaign from the pulpit.

The better idea is just strip tax exemption from all churches forthwith and save Americans well in excess of $80 billion (2012 figures) annually, and pour that revenue into cash-strapped city, county, and state coffers for schools, hospitals, roads, fire and police protection and myriad other services churches use but contribute nothing towards building and maintaining; they are by any definition the ultimate takers and welfare queens in America.

Americans, and their government, can learn a lot from other nations and territories regardless of how exceptional they think they or their country is. In this particular instance, America should not only learn from Puerto Rico, but from Founding Father and third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson who said no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever.

What that means is that allowing churches to enjoy tax-exempt status is contrary to the Founders intent. Because when a church is tax exempt to the tune of $82.5 billion (2013) annually, American taxpayers are compelled to support religious places of worship and ministries by subsidizing tax-exemptions. It is something Puerto Rico is tackling head on and a policy that Americans should demand if for no other reason than the potential for tax collection is very high. If Puerto Rico can do it, there is no reason America should be left behind.

image  ThinkProgress
It took five simple sentences for President Obama to destroy the myth of a divided Democratic Party while speaking at the White House.

Video:

Transcript via The White House:

Q And on Sanders dropping out?

THE PRESIDENT: I think on the Democratic side, lets let the process play itself out. You mentioned the delegate math. I think everybody knows what that math is. I think Senator Sanders has done an extraordinary job raising a whole range of issues that are important to Democratic voters as well as the American people, generally. And I know that at some point theres going to be a conversation between Secretary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about how we move towards the convention.

The good news is that despite the fact that during the course of primaries everybody starts getting a little chippy  Ive been through this, its natural, sometimes even more with the staffs and supporters than with the candidates themselves  the good news is, is that theres a pretty strong consensus within the Democratic Party on the vast majority of issues.

Theres some disagreement about tactics. Theres some disagreement about political strategy or policy nuance. But both Secretary Clinton and Bernie Sanders believe that every American should have health care. So do I. Both candidates believe that we should be raising the minimum wage. Both candidates believe that we should invest in our infrastructure and put more people back to work. Both candidates believe that we should pass a comprehensive immigration reform policy that makes sure were enforcing laws and improving our legal immigration system and making sure our borders are secure, but also that we continue to enjoy the incredible boost that we get from attracting talent from all around the world. Both candidates agree that we should be prudent in terms of how we use our military and that we should care for our veterans when they come home.

So if you look at 95 percent of the issues, theres strong agreement there. You dont see the same kinds of divisions between the two Democratic candidates that remain that youve been seeing in some of the Republican debates.
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A new Electoral College projection map shows the immediate impact of Donald Trumps nomination as 11 states have moved towards the Democratic column.

The Cook Political Reports updated Electoral College map contains all bad news for Republicans. Colorado and Florida were moved from toss-up to lean Democratic. Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin moved from toss up to solidly Democratic. North Carolina went from leaning Republican to toss-up. Georgia and Arizona went from likely Republican to lean Republican, and Indiana went from solid Republican to likely Republican.

According to The Cook Political Report more states could be projected to go blue in November, With these changes, 190 Electoral Votes are in the Solid Democratic column, 27 are in Likely Democratic, and another 87 are in Lean Democratic  enough for a majority. Yet another 44 Electoral Votes are in Toss Up. Although Iowa, New Hampshire and Ohio could shift to Lean Democratic and Nevada could shift to Likely Democratic, we are holding off on changes in these states until we see more evidence.

The Cook projection sees Democrats keeping the White House by an Electoral College margin of 304-190.

The Donald Trump nomination is already having a disastrous impact on the presidential map for Republicans. Trump claims that he is bringing millions of people into the Republican Party, but polling numbers and voter registration data suggest that he is driving people to register for Hillary Clinton in the fall.

The initial Electoral College projection is valuable because it provides a sense of the starting point for the general election campaign. However, this map is only a projection. The map can shift. Fortunes can change. While Democrats should be excited by what they see, the map should not deter them from working hard to make sure that they keep the White House and do their best to retake Congress in November.
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Donald Trumps Cinco de Mayo message, Happy Cinco de Mayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! has justly earned him some criticism. And not because taco bowls are not actually served in the Trump Tower Grill.

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of Latino civil rights group La Raza, tweeted that it is a Trump trifecta: clueless, offensive, and self-promoting. The judgment of social media is that she is right. Trump claimed his tweet was loved, but then Trump also claims he loves women and Hispanics.

In two more tweets, she added that eating a taco or wearing a sombrero doesnt cut it w/ our community in 2016 and we know what @realdonaldtrump has said and what he has proposed. #wall #massdeportation #TrumpNotoDACA, DACA being Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Trumps defenders have pretended a guileless response of Whats so offensive about eating a taco bowl and saying you like Hispanics? Murguia got called a puta and told to Take your ILLEGAL Latinos and go back to the nearest Latino country.

Bill OReilly is one of those pretending to be horrified by the storm of criticism in response to Trumps tweet, saying Friday on The OReilly Factor,

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. Donald Trump tweeted out a picture of himself eating tacos. Above the picture he said that he loves Hispanics. Almost immediately, the president of the militant organization La Raza tweeted out, Eating a taco or wearing a sombrero doesnt cut it with our community in 2016. Trump is clueless, offensive and self promoting.

So eating a taco on Cinco De Mayo is now offensive? Thats like saying eating corned beef and cabbage on St. Patricks Day, and saying you love the Irish is offensive. Thats how insane American culture has become.

OReilly was being disingenuous. Not only has the point been made that Cinco de Mayo is not a Hispanic holiday but a Mexican holiday, and not only has Murguia made the point that no self-respecting Latino would even consider a taco bowl part of their culture, but OReilly ignored Murguias third tweet, the one that explained the reasons for her offense:

We know what @realdonaldtrump has said and what he has proposed. #wall #massdeportation #TrumpNotoDACA.

Of course, if OReilly would have been honest about Murguias objections, hed have had no argument, which has been a problem haunting all of Republican politics since 2000, when Bush Jr. introduced truthiness into our discourse.

Hillary Clinton, whom OReilly was quick to point out had some Hispanic detractors too, was quick to make the point in a tweet OReilly refused to make in his analysis:

I love Hispanics! Trump, 52 minutes ago https://t.co/b9mv7nUduN Theyre gonna be deported. Trump, yesterday https://t.co/HzFWUT1XFl  Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) May 5, 2016

Former Mexican president Vincente Fox made the point to CNN that They dont know about Mexican food in Trump Tower. Youre gonna get indigestion eating that. Today he loves us, he says. Yesterday he said he hated us. What is he going to say tomorrow?

It was Full Frontals Samantha Bee who had perhaps the best response, however:

The best taco bowls are made by immigrants who resent a rich prick calling them rapists. Love inauthentic Mexican! pic.twitter.com/9tEORJxoZp  Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) May 5, 2016

What Trump said has nothing to do with saying you love the Irish. Trump hasnt called on building a wall around Ireland, or deporting Irish-Americans, and he hasnt called them rapists and thugs.

Obviously this whole brouhaha is about much more than Trump eating a taco. Trump doesnt love Hispanics, not for tacos or taco bowls or for any other reason, as he has thoroughly and completely demonstrated with his proposed Great Wall of Trump, by calls for a Nazi-like round up of 11 million men, women, and children, and by calling them thugs and rapists and killers.

Sorry, but eating a taco bowl and saying you love Hispanics doesnt compensate for that. Gallup showed last month that 77 percent of Hispanics have an unfavorable opinion of Trump (82 percent according to a CBS News Poll). Eating a taco bowl and saying he loves them, as Murguia said, isnt going to cut it.

OReilly is right that America has become crazy, but the author of that craziness isnt Murguia and other Trump opponents, but in thinking that eating a taco bowl and saying you love Hispanics makes up for all the terrible things Trump has said about them in the past.
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Bryan Fischer is warning America about the rise of Wicca, what he calls ancient, recycled superstition. For Fischer, Wicca is the worship of Satan and somehow spiritual warfare against Christians. You know, because apparently people dont have the right to believe what they want to believe despite the First Amendment.

Worse, he sees the increase in Wiccan numbers as evangelism in witchcraft and demonism. It is, of course, Christianity that turned the gods of Paganism into demons. Even the word demon does not mean what the Pagan word daimon meant two thousand years ago. Christianity developed all these false believes about Paganism and then proceeded to blame the Pagans for them. Fischer still does.

This is not unusual. Pagans definitely do not enjoy a privileged position in our culture. If you go online you can regularly find Christian merchandise under the category of religion, while everything Pagan goes under the category of mythology. Never mind that the Exodus is no less mythological than the Dorian migrations ancient Greeks believed so strongly in. There is no evidence for either.

Fischer starts off his rant by claiming that Russell Moore of the Southern Baptists falsely says we are not a Christian nation. We were and are a nation of mostly Christians but that is a far cry from the claim that the United States was founded as a Christian nation.

According to Fischer, in 1892 the Supreme Court ruled that the United States is a Christian nation. This is not true. In fact, what was written by Justice Brewer in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 143 U.S. 457 (1892), is that These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.

On the other hand, Fischer is more than happy to ignore the Treat of Tripoli (1797) which, as ratified by Congress, stated that the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.

And in fact, in 1905, Justice Brewer explained in words Fischer strongly disagrees with that,

Neither is it Christian in the sense that all of its citizens are either in fact or name Christian. On the contrary, all religions have free scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in public service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially.

So when Fischer says Tough nutsthis is the law of the land, he is not only wrong, and Moore right, but he is lying through his teeth.

This led to Fischers tirade about Wicca, because a group of Wiccans are meeting right out there in front of God and everybody in a coffee shop, where they dared to talk about members of their group visiting a local cemetery to commune with the spirits. Fischer is outraged, saying theyre not hiding this as though it is somehow a shameful thing to go to a cemetery and talk to the dead.

Fischer describes Wicca as a modern version of ancient Pagan religion. Hes both right and wrong about that. Though often called the Old Religion Wicca is not old, but new.

Wicca is not, as is sometimes described, a survival of ancient religion. Rather it is an amalgam of beliefs, some very old, some dating to the 19th century, at best a modern interpretation, or better, a reincarnation, of ancient religion for a new era. It embraces the beliefs of many ancient cultures, as indeed does Fischers Christianity.

Fischer is bothered by the fact, he says, that these Wiccans think theyre hip, sophisticated, and edgy, because, even assuming it is true, it is somehow a sin to be hip, sophisticated, and edgy. Never mind all the evangelicals out there who think theyre hip, sophisticated, and edgy.

The fact is, and these are actual facts rather than Fischers invented facts, there is no evidence for a great deal of what is found in the Bible. Secular humanists are quick to point out Christianitys own reliance on superstition and myth, as were the Founding Fathers, an example of which is Jeffersons removal of all miracles from his version of the Bible.

Jefferson also referred to Christianity as our particular superstition in a letter to William Short in 1820.

Yeah. So pot calling kettle black here. In fact, it could be argued that if there is one religion group today that has absolutely no right to throw stones at anybody over superstition and myth, if is the Religious Right.

For the Pagan Romans, the word religio, or religion, for the Romans, was defined as a proper reasonable awe of the gods and its opposite, superstition, as an excessive fear or awe of the gods. This, for the Romans, made both Judaism and Christianity superstitions, rather than religions. We see this excessive fear of God today as a primary symptom of the Religious Rights war on everything.

There is no proper reasonable awe in Fischers lexicon. For his crowd, its chicken little every time something doesnt go their way or they see something they dont like. With the number of times weve been threatened with divine wrath in just the past fifteen years, its surprising were still here to talk about it.
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By Ginger Gibson and Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters)  By Ginger Gibson and Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters)  Now that Donald Trump is the last man standing in the Republican presidential race, his critics in the party are intensifying their search for a candidate they could back as a serious third-party alternative.

Political operatives are courting donors, calling potential candidates and developing legal contingency plans for overcoming onerous ballot qualification laws.

This is as much as anything a battle for the future of American party politics, said Republican strategist Joel Searby, who is working with conservative writer Bill Kristol, among others, to identify a third-party candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election.

The group Conservatives Against Trump, which includes blogger Erick Erickson, has been holding calls and meetings to discuss third-party candidates as well as other options to stop the New York billionaire from winning the White House.

The hurdles for a third-party candidacy are high. No independent candidate has ever won a presidential election, although some have played spoilers. But the efforts by the Republican groups underscore the unusual divisiveness of Trumps candidacy within Republican ranks ahead of a likely general election fight with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Trumps opposition to free trade is at odds with the views of many Republicans, especially in the partys business wing. Many of Trumps critics also find his rhetoric offensive, including his call to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country and his comment describing Mexican immigrants to the United States as rapists and drug dealers.

Some Republicans say they worry that any third-party candidate would only siphon votes away from Trump and help Clinton win the election.

Ralph Naders run as the Green Party candidate in the 2000 presidential election has been blamed by some Democrats for the razor-thin loss of Democratic nominee Al Gore to George W. Bush. Ross Perots independent candidacy in 1992 was seen by some Republicans as contributing to President George H.W. Bushs loss to Democrat Bill Clinton.

One outcome, although rare, may be that no candidate crosses the necessary threshold of 270 votes in the U.S. Electoral College. In that case, the vote for the next president would pass to the U.S. House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans.

Deborah DeMoss Fonseca, who recruited donors for former Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush and is working with Conservatives Against Trump, said her group was trying to find a candidate who would be high-profile enough to compete with Trump and Clinton.

NO EASY TASK

But finding a candidate of that caliber who would be willing to run is no easy feat. Searbys group has reached out to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and James Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, among others, but both declined after discussions.

Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska has emerged as a favorite of the Republicans seeking a third-party candidate. Kristol has had warm words for him.

Sasse, a freshman lawmaker and former Bush administration official, is a strong critic of Trump and has called for an alternative candidate to him. But he says that person should be someone other than him.

On Wednesday, the morning after Trump emerged as the presumptive presidential nominee, phones at the office of Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson were ringing off the hook with calls from small-government Republicans who feel they cannot get behind Trump.

But as a Libertarian, Johnson holds views on some issues, such as the legalization of marijuana, that are antithetical to the views of some Republicans.

In March, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, said he had considered jumping into the race as a third-party candidate but opted against it, saying he feared it would only serve to help get Trump elected.

The possibility for a third party to succeed are slim to none, said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. The structure of American politics have consistently made it impossible for third parties to gain ground.

One of the biggest obstacles to a third-party run is simply getting on the ballot in enough states to mount a viable campaign.

Texas requires more than 79,000 signatures from voters who did not participate in either primary. Its deadline is Monday. Among other states, North Carolinas deadline is the end of May, and Illinois and Florida in mid-July.

A third-party candidate is a pipe dream, said Republican strategist Tony Fratto, who worked in Bushs administration and strongly opposes Trump. Whats going to happen is Hillary Clinton is going to win big. It wont be close.

(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)

Political operatives are courting donors, calling potential candidates and developing legal contingency plans for overcoming onerous ballot qualification laws.

This is as much as anything a battle for the future of American party politics, said Republican strategist Joel Searby, who is working with conservative writer Bill Kristol, among others, to identify a third-party candidate for the Nov. 8 presidential election.

The group Conservatives Against Trump, which includes blogger Erick Erickson, has been holding calls and meetings to discuss third-party candidates as well as other options to stop the New York billionaire from winning the White House.

The hurdles for a third-party candidacy are high. No independent candidate has ever won a presidential election, although some have played spoilers. But the efforts by the Republican groups underscore the unusual divisiveness of Trumps candidacy within Republican ranks ahead of a likely general election fight with Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Trumps opposition to free trade is at odds with the views of many Republicans, especially in the partys business wing. Many of Trumps critics also find his rhetoric offensive, including his call to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country and his comment describing Mexican immigrants to the United States as rapists and drug dealers.

Some Republicans say they worry that any third-party candidate would only siphon votes away from Trump and help Clinton win the election.

Ralph Naders run as the Green Party candidate in the 2000 presidential election has been blamed by some Democrats for the razor-thin loss of Democratic nominee Al Gore to George W. Bush. Ross Perots independent candidacy in 1992 was seen by some Republicans as contributing to President George H.W. Bushs loss to Democrat Bill Clinton.

One outcome, although rare, may be that no candidate crosses the necessary threshold of 270 votes in the U.S. Electoral College. In that case, the vote for the next president would pass to the U.S. House of Representatives, currently controlled by Republicans.

Deborah DeMoss Fonseca, who recruited donors for former Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush and is working with Conservatives Against Trump, said her group was trying to find a candidate who would be high-profile enough to compete with Trump and Clinton.

NO EASY TASK

But finding a candidate of that caliber who would be willing to run is no easy feat. Searbys group has reached out to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and James Mattis, a retired U.S. Marine Corps general, among others, but both declined after discussions.

Republican U.S. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska has emerged as a favorite of the Republicans seeking a third-party candidate. Kristol has had warm words for him.

Sasse, a freshman lawmaker and former Bush administration official, is a strong critic of Trump and has called for an alternative candidate to him. But he says that person should be someone other than him.

On Wednesday, the morning after Trump emerged as the presumptive presidential nominee, phones at the office of Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson were ringing off the hook with calls from small-government Republicans who feel they cannot get behind Trump.

But as a Libertarian, Johnson holds views on some issues, such as the legalization of marijuana, that are antithetical to the views of some Republicans.

In March, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, said he had considered jumping into the race as a third-party candidate but opted against it, saying he feared it would only serve to help get Trump elected.

The possibility for a third party to succeed are slim to none, said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. The structure of American politics have consistently made it impossible for third parties to gain ground.

One of the biggest obstacles to a third-party run is simply getting on the ballot in enough states to mount a viable campaign.

Texas requires more than 79,000 signatures from voters who did not participate in either primary. Its deadline is Monday. Among other states, North Carolinas deadline is the end of May, and Illinois and Florida in mid-July.

A third-party candidate is a pipe dream, said Republican strategist Tony Fratto, who worked in Bushs administration and strongly opposes Trump. Whats going to happen is Hillary Clinton is going to win big. It wont be close.

(Additional reporting by Emily Stephenson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney and Bill Trott)
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Hillary Clinton has added a few more delegates to her total and stopped Sen. Bernie Sanders winning streak at one after beating Sanders 60%-40% in the Guam Democratic caucus.

According to Guam Democratic Party chairman Joaquin Perez, Clinton won 60 percent to Sanders 40 percent. The two campaigns were competing in Guam. Clinton and Sanders both spent tens of thousands of dollars in advertising on the island. Chelsea Clinton penned an op-ed, and Sen. Sanders promised that if elected president, he would give Guam its own news outlet.

Guam matters from the perspective of momentum. Sen. Sanders is staying the Democratic primary race and trying to use electability and momentum as his arguments for flipping superdelegates. Former Sec. of State Clinton has pivoted towards the general election, but the campaign is still working hard and conceding nothing to Sanders in the remaining primary states.

Clinton learned from losing to President Obama in 2008 that the successful Democratic nominee can leave no stone unturned in the search for delegates. The Clinton campaign may be saving their ammo by not running television ads, but they are making sure that they come out of all of the remaining contests with more than enough delegates to clinch the nomination.

Bernie Sanders needed to win all of the remaining contests to have a reasonable argument to make about momentum. The loss in Guam makes it more difficult for the Sanders campaign to argue that Democrats should make him their nominee.
Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency has signed a 20-year contract with Lemond Solar Center to buy all electricity generated from a 5-megawatt solar photovoltaic array that will be built on a 40-acre site near Owatonna.

The Lemond Solar Center, a subsidiary of Coronal Development Services of Charlottesville, Va., is scheduled to be operational in June 2017.

"SMMPA and our members have been looking forward to having a large stake in solar to expand our already significant renewable energy portfolio," said Dave Geschwind, SMMPA's executive director and chief executive officer, "and we thank everyone who worked hard on this project to get us to this point."

According to Coronal, the Lemond Solar Center will produce enough electricity to meet the needs of 775 homes per year.

"Coronal is thrilled to partner with SMMPA and the Owatonna community on this exciting project," said Ben J. Alingh, senior project developer for Coronal Development Services. "We commend SMMPA for taking a leadership role on an energy-procurement strategy that is both environmentally and economically sound."

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SMMPA generates and buys electricity for sale to 18 nonprofit municipal utilities in Minnesota, with 96,000 residential customers and about 13,000 businesses.
Jessica Attwood, of Rochester, a doctor of bioethics at Mayo Clinic, went to TV's "Judge Judy," but not because she was involved in a case.

As part of the upcoming 20th anniversary celebrations for the show, there was a contest for viewers to write 500-word essays on how Judge Judy influenced their lives. At the end of January, Attwood got a call from the show's producer saying she'd won the grand prize, from more than 75,000 entries.

As the grand prize winner, they flew Attwood and a guest (her sister, Emily Hagensick) to L.A. for three days, where they got to go to the CBS studio for a taping of the show.

"We got to sit in the front row of the audience and watch several cases"  everything from a mauled dog whose owner was suing for damages to landlord and renter disputes, automotive accidents and stories of bullying  "and they took us back to the control room and showed us all the camera angles and how it was produced and edited and things like that," Attwood said. "We also went out to lunch with Judge Judy and the rest of the crew.

"At lunch, Judge Judy hadn't heard much on bioethics before, so she was really interested in my field of work because it is heavily law-based," Attwood said. "We ended up talking a lot about reproductive law and how genetics is changing reproductive medicine, and we talked about issues of surrogacy and the decision-making rights, so it was an intense lunch conversation, for sure."

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'Very to the point'

Judge Judy has the same personality off-camera as on, Attwood said.

"She is a spitfire, very to the point, and I admire that," She said. "She is not rude about it, just very to the point and doesn't waste anyone's time. She is not as intimidating as you might think it would be when it's one-on-one. She is definitely someone that I had always wanted to meet in person, but I didn't want to do it as a plaintiff or a defendant, obviously."

What made her essay stand out from the rest?

"When I was younger, I would spend a lot of time with my grandparents over the summers, and they were really into Court TV, so the tradition for my grandma and I was to watch 'Judge Judy' together every afternoon. I wrote about that being my first introduction to her and the show, but what she showed me was that you can still be successful in a field that is primarily male-dominated if you are confident in what you are saying and you are poised and well-spoken.

"It is more difficult for women, but you are still capable of doing it," Attwood said. "That was really important in that stage of my development because I was getting ready to leave for college, and I started with physics, which is primarily males, and then switched to medicine, which is also male-dominated, so even though it sounds silly, the way she held herself and how she didn't take any B.S. and how she is extremely logical in her decisions made me feel empowered and helped me conduct myself when I was asked to give a speech or defend a thesis or defend an argument or belief that I had.

"Now, I am trying to teach the same thing to my kids, my daughter especially, that she doesn't have to compromise," Attwood said.

Audience of actors

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An interesting fact she didn't learn until she was in the studio: "The audience is entirely composed of paid actors. When we would have a break, the producer would come in and say, 'Numbers 11, 15 and 27, you guys are looking a little tired, why don't you go and take a break,' and then other actors would come in and replace them. People think all the time that you can just get tickets to the show, but that's not how it works; it's all just actors.

"The whole experience was fantastic, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for sure," Attwood said.

Watch for her on shows airing during "Sweeps Week" at the end of this month. You'll see her in the front row.
Randy Camp has been appointed to the Linn-Benton Community College Board of Education to fill a position left vacant by the departure of Lyn Riverstone.

Camp, of Corvallis, will be sworn in at the next board meeting, set for 6 p.m. May 18 in the Calapooia Center boardroom on the Albany campus. He will represent Zone 6-7, Corvallis.

Camp will serve through June 30, 2017. He will be eligible to run for a four-year term when the position is up for election next May.

Camp was one of three people to apply for the opening. The others were Ana Gomez, Juntos Program coordinator at Oregon State University's Open Campus; and Kia Sorensen, an instructor in OSU's sociology department.

Board members voted 5-1 on April 20 to name Camp. Jim Merryman dissented, saying he preferred a different candidate.

In a statement, LBCC President Greg Hamann said Camps deep involvement in the community as well as his significant current involvement with LBCC made him the board's overall choice.

We were grateful to have outstanding applicants for this open board position, Hamann said. Were very excited to have Randy Camp join our board, and we were honored to have such quality among the three applicants for the position.

Camp is general manager of CoEnergy Propane, which has operations based in Albany and Redmond. He also is the incoming president for the Pacific Propane Gas Association.

Camp also is a member of the LBCC Foundation Board and is active in numerous other community organizations, including the ABC House, the Philomath Frolic & Rodeo, Court Appointed Special Advocates and Boys & Girls Clubs of Corvallis, Albany and Lebanon.

A Michigan native who moved to Oregon seven years ago, Camp and his wife, Joanne, have three grown children.

In his application letter, Camp said he'd like to use his business experience and leadership skills to help the college reach its goals. He noted he has helped LBCC's Advanced Transportation Technology Center get the equipment and money it needs to move forward and that he hired one of the center's first graduates.

"I have witnessed firsthand what LBCC can do and see the potential for even greater things," he wrote. "By working with community leaders, business leaders and civic leaders, the potential of making LBCC an even greater institution is very viable."

Camp also thanked the college for the skills it helped teach his oldest son, Robert, an LBCC graduate who is currently working on a master's degree at OSU. "My hopes are that being on this board will give me the opportunity to pay back this great institution for what it has done for my son and our family," he wrote.
LA CROSSE, Wis.  A conference on frac sand mining will be the site of an anti-fracking protest Monday and Tuesday at the La Crosse Center in downtown La Crosse, Wis.

Ken Tschumper, a representative for the Houston County Protectors, a grassroots organization working to enact bans against mining silica sand for hydraulic fracturing, said his group, along with several others opposed to frac sand mining, will conduct a news conference and protest rally in conjunction with the Frac Sand Insider 2016 Conference and Exhibition.

"Right now, the frac sand industry is on its back because of the low cost of oil," Tschumper said. "We're anticipating it'll be back. This conference means they're interested in continuing that industry."

The Alliance to Ban Frac Sand Mining and Address Climate Change, a new coalition of organizations from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa working to end the frac sand industry in the Midwest, will start with a press conference at 1 p.m. Monday with representatives from each member organization of the alliance speaking. On Tuesday, there will be an anti-frac sand rally beginning at 5 p.m.

Tschumper said he expects about 20 different alliance groups plus local and state elected officials to participate.

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"We're really working on building support in the broad public and with public officials," he said. "We really want to push elected officials to be more serious about climate change, and especially extreme oil production, which is what hydraulic fracking is."

Tim Fearney, event organizer for the conference, said this will be the third event focused on frac sand mining his company has produced. This will be the first in Wisconsin, and the first to expect protesters. The other two events were held in Pittsburgh, he said.

"We had a lot of requests from producers and suppliers to hold an event in that part of the country," he said.

The conference is a marketplace to bring together buyers and sellers of equipment and services for companies that produce frac sand. There will be conveyor belts and screens instead of political statements from within the exhibit hall.

"We're not a lobbying group," he said. "As long as they're not disrupting our show, we won't disrupt them as long as they're doing it legally."

There are no permitted frac sand mines in Houston County and only one in neighboring Winona County. The Biesanz mine is permitted by the city of Winona, but is not currently mining sand to be used for fracking, according to Keith Nelson, director of public works for the city of Winona.

Tschumper said the conference is designed to prop up support for the industry.

"As we continue to address climate change, we'll get energy from sources that are less environmentally demanding," he said. "But these companies want to make money still before this occurs. They want to create the image this is a viable industry even though it isn't."
Prosecutor in police shooting to enter alcohol program

MINNEAPOLIS  The prosecutor whose office won a recent conviction in the high-profile case of a Minneapolis police officer who killed an unarmed woman says he will be entering a treatment program for alcohol issues.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman issued a statement Friday saying he was evaluated for alcohol issues and agrees he needs treatment. Hell be entering a program Monday.

Freeman announced last week that he was taking a medical leave, but didnt say why.

His Friday statement says he has also worked to stabilize his "unacceptably high blood pressure." He says hes determined to reclaim his health and hopes to be back to work in mid-June.

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Last month, a jury convicted Mohamed Noor of murder in the 2017 fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia who called 911 to report a possible crime.

Minnesota seeks to add Purdue Pharma owners to opioid suit

ST. PAUL  Minnesotas attorney general is asking a state court for permission to add the owners of drugmaker Purdue Pharma to a lawsuit that seeks to hold the company responsible for the opioid addiction crisis.

Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma makes OxyContin and has been the subject of legal action in nearly every state.

Attorney General Keith Ellison wants to add eight members of the Sackler family to Minnesotas lawsuit. He says the Sacklers, who own and operate Purdue, were involved in deceptive marketing tactics and strategies to sell more opioids, despite knowing the risks.

If a judge approves, Minnesota would become at least the 11th state to take legal action against one or more members of the Sackler family.

A family spokeswoman issued a statement denying the allegations, calling the lawsuit a misguided attempt to place blame where it doesnt belong.

Man holed up in hotel surrenders to police

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BROOKLYN PARK  Authorities say a standoff at a Brooklyn Park hotel ended after more than six hours when a man suspected of assaulting his girlfriend surrendered to police.

SWAT officers and crisis negotiators were called to the La Quinta Inn early Friday after a woman reported she was being assaulted by her boyfriend and threatened with a gun. Police say the standoff began at 3:30 a.m. and ended when the man was arrested at about 9:50 a.m.

Authorities say the woman was taken to a hospital with minor injuries. Police say the 31-year-old suspect was not carry9ing a gun but it was unclear if there were any weapons in the room.

The suspect, who has not been formally charged, has previous convictions for drug possession, motor vehicle theft, aggravated robbery, making terroristic threats, drunken driving and burglary.

Jail inmate accused of running prostitution ring

MORA  An inmate at the Kanabec County Jail is charged with running a prostitution ring from his cell.

Thirty-eight-year-old Daniel Ellington is charged in Washington County District Court with two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of promotion of prostitution.

Prosecutors say Ellington communicated with a prostitute by text and "promoted and profited" from her activities in Woodbury last month.

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East Metro Sex Trafficking Task Force director Imran Ali says Ellington was 100 miles away and incarcerated, yet was promoting prostitution and profiting from it. The task force began investigating after a Woodbury detective found an online ad entitled "Blonde Bombshell."

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports Kanabec County Sheriff Brian Smith says Ellington used a jail-issued iPod to text and paid a certain price for each message.

 Associated Press
What's the best advice you've ever received from your mother?

The Post-Bulletin asked five people in downtown Rochester, and here are their answers:

Q: What was the best advice your mother ever gave you?

"Move out of Philadelphia."  Tommi Robinson of Rochester.

"The greatest success in life is to be happy,"  Lance Crowson of Rochester.

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"Live your life to the fullest, because they came over from Romania and sacrificed a lot to get us here, and she told me to just embrace my youth." Emma Carabenciov of Jacksonville, Fla.

"Loop, swoop and pull," (instructions on how to tie your shoes)  Giuseppe Curry of Rochester.

"The best advice my mother ever gave me were the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life." June Overall of Dexter, Mo.

"When to stop and relax. Life is not just about work sometimes. You have to relax and enjoy yourself."  Kara Jasper of Pine Island.
Rochester police used a stun gun to bring a 42-year-old man into custody Friday night after an alleged domestic assault that resulted in a brief chase.

A 40-year-old woman Rochester woman flagged down a police officer from the Silver Lake Foods parking lot, following an alleged domestic assault Friday evening.

The woman got out of her vehicle, and approached the officer to report the incident, police said. The suspect was seated in the passenger side of the vehicle. He attempted to get out of the vehicle, but officers told him to stay put.

He then moved from the passenger side of the vehicle to the driver's seat. Officers attempted to remove him from the vehicle, but he drove off "at a high rate of speed."

Officers learned he sped through the Kellogg Middle School parking lot, without his headlights on, as the school's dance was letting out. A short time later, the vehicle was reported crashed, near the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 16th Street Northeast. The suspect fled on foot.

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Shortly before 9:30 p.m. officers later located him near the 900 block of 11th Avenue Northeast, said Sgt. Dan Monnet, and after a short chase, police subdued the man with a stun gun.

He was taken into custody, and transported to a hospital for non-life threatening injuries that resulted from the vehicle crash. Monnet said he will be transported to jail shortly.

The suspect has not yet been charged.
While some southeast Minnesota Republicans are already pledging to vote for presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, others aren't ready to commit.

"At this point, I'm just going to wait and see what happens. I know that Trump is not a conservative. He's not a conservative on life. He's not a conservative on guns. He's not a conservative on a lot of issues," said Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa.

Rochester GOP Sen. Carla Nelson hasn't made up her mind about Trump yet, saying she's been focused on the legislative session.

"I haven't given it any thought, to tell you the truth at this point. But I'm sure there will be plenty of time between now and Nov. 8 to give that some thought," Nelson said.

Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, had a similar response.

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"I haven't thought that far ahead at this point. I'm worried about getting through the next two weeks of the legislative session," Miller said.

Trump's big primary win in Indiana on Tuesday cemented his status as the party's presumptive nominee. His two remaining opponents, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, ended their presidential bids following Trump's win. In Minnesota, Trump's campaign struggled to take hold. He placed third in the state's Republican caucuses, behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Cruz.

Some Republicans have been hesitant to declare support for Trump. Minnesota GOP House Speaker Kurt Daudt  a delegate to the national GOP convention  told reporters this week he's not ready to say whether he'll vote for Trump.

"I don't think you can say that I will support him or not support him. I'm not saying either one," Daudt said.

Nationally, U.S. GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he's not ready to support Trump at this point.

Some say time to get behind Trump

Republican Party of Olmsted County Chairman Aaron Miller said the time has come for local Republicans to get behind Trump.

"I will tell you this: People are slow to warm to the idea in southern Minnesota," Miller said.

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Nonetheless, Miller is urging his fellow Republicans to unite behind Trump. He wrote a letter-to-the-editor to the Post-Bulletin in March calling on Republicans to rally behind the New Yorker. He's also seeking to be a delegate at the national convention for Trump.

Miller added, "It comes down to this: Do you want Hillary or do you want a Republican?"

Several local Republicans said they are willing to vote for Trump because they can't support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

"Donald Trump was not my first choice, not my second choice and probably not my third choice, but the process worked, the people have spoken and I consider the alternative to be far worse," said former Rochester Rep. Fran Bradley, who is running for the House District 25B seat.

Rochester GOP Rep. Nels Pierson agrees.

"I certainly think Trump compared to Hillary Clinton is a positive alternative and certainly over Bernie Sanders as well, so I will be voting for him in the fall," Pierson said.

'Happy' to run with Trump

First District GOP candidate Jim Hagedorn said he has no problem supporting Trump if he's the party's nominee. Hagedorn hopes to defeat 1st District DFL Rep. Tim Walz in November. He said Republicans are offering a bold vision focused on securing the nation's border, defending America from radical Islam and reducing government bureaucracy.

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"Whoever wins, I'm happy to run with. I'm focused on Tim Walz and showing the differences," Hagedorn said.

Byron GOP Rep. Duane Quam is also ready to cast a ballot for Trump if he's the party's nominee, saying that it's critical something is done to improve the nation's economy.

"We've got to do something to change things around," Quam said.

House Taxes Committee Chairman Greg Davids, R-Preston, said he's said from the beginning he'd support party's nominee and "I see no reason to change that position."

Toning down the rhetoric

Some Republicans are holding out hope that Trump will tone down his rhetoric as attention shifts to the general election.

"I think, at least I would hope, that Mr. Trump mellows out a little bit in subsequent months, and I think he will," said Rochester GOP Sen. Dave Senjem.

As for Drazkowski, he said he realizes that Trump may end up being the only option conservatives have because of the hope he will support at least some conservative principles. Still, he said the Republican party needs to do some serious soul searching about the future.

Drazkowski added, "I think us conservatives need to use these next four years to regroup and work to re-brand things."
On May 6, LG Display Vietnam launched its $1.5 billion industrial complex to produce high-tech screens in the central province of Hai Phong.

This is the first time LG Display has poured money into a project out of South Koreas territory. The industrial complex is the second project conducted by LG in Hai Phong.

The investor pledged to complete the project by the end of 2016 and officially go into operations beginning 2017. The project is believed to generate about 6,000 jobs for local people.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the groundbreaking ceremony that the complex would trigger the development of Hai Phongs economy as well as the whole country. He asked the investor to obey Vietnamese law and focus on protecting the environment.

At the end of March 2014, the first industrial complex of LG Electronics was completed and put into operation.
A lawyer in HCM City yesterday won a controversial lawsuit against his client who refused to pay him the agreed legal fees once they lawyer had won back a house worth $7 million.

Vuong Thi Khanh and her husband Nguyen Duc Kha owned a big house on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, District 3, HCM City. They left Vietnam and settled abroad in 1982. 17 years later, in 1999, the city government established state ownership of the house as it was identified to be owned by no one and then the city leased the house to a bank.

In 2004, Nguyen Duc Kha, passed away, leaving in his will all his possessions to nine of his children. Vuong Thi Khanh and her son Nguyen Dac Quang then came back to Vietnam to claim the house from the city. They had since pursued the case for three years but failed.

In 2007, Vuong Thi Khanh hired lawyer Dang Dinh Thinh to take back the house, promising to give him 15 percent of the total value of the property. In 2008, Khanh raised the award to 35 percent.

Dang Dinh Thinh, the lawyer. Photo by Hai Duyen

In 2011, after pursuing the case for five years, the lawyer won and helped Khanh to take back the house. However, she refused to give the lawyer the award as promised, saying that the contract was invalid.

She claimed that the lawyer was not eligible to receive 35 percent of the total value of the property as it was inherited by 10 different people, including her and nine of her children. As the contract was signed between her and the lawyer, Khanh argued that the award only amounted to 35 percent of her share of the property.

In 2010, before the city gave back the ownership of the house to Vuong Thi Khanh, Nguyen Dac Quang, the son, had made several purchasing and leasing contracts with three different parties. Quang sold the house to Vu Huy Hoang for more than VND200 billion ($9 million). One year later, in 2011, he leased the property to a bank and the following day, he sold it to Dang Thu Ha for VND250 billion ($11 million).

In 2015, the lawyer took Vu Thi Khanh to court.

The HCM City Supreme Peoples Court concluded yesterdaythat Vu Thi Khanh must pay the lawyer $2.5 million, equivalent to 35 percent of the property's value, estimated by the court at VND156 billion ($7 million). Additionally, Khanh and Quang have to return all the deposits they had received from the two buyers and the leasing contract with the bank was pronounced invalid.

I am glad that my five year effort to help the defendant take back the house finally paid off. However, I think the valuation is much lower than the actual value of the property, the lawyer said.
Ted Cruz got at least one thing right in naming Carly Fiorina as his running mate in his futile bid to win the Republican nomination: the proper attributes for a vice presidential candidate.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could do worse than to base their choices on the Cruz parameters for prospective running mates: knowledge and experience, judgment and character.

Vice presidential choices are always important; one out of three has become president, including four of the last nine. But the choice has become more important in an age in which candidates must pass intensive media scrutiny and perform before millions in a single vice presidential debate. An added factor this year is that Trump will be 70 next month, and Clinton 69 in October.

Since Jimmy Carter made Walter Mondale the first significant vice presidential partner, most nominees have wisely picked someone qualified to play a significant governmental role, rather than serve primarily as political attack dog, ticket balancer or traveling envoy. That could be especially important for Trump, given his lack of governmental experience.

Trump's unpredictability makes assessing possible GOP choices hard. But it would seem sensible for him to pick someone with the Washington experience he lacks, like Mitt Romney selected Rep. Paul Ryan and George W. Bush picked Dick Cheney.

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His top Washington ally has been Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a former federal judge. A small group of GOP lawmakers that met in March with Trump included another prospect, Sen. Tom Cotton, an ambitious young Arkansan and Iraq War veteran.

Another possibility is a former GOP foe like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who enthusiastically endorsed him and could complement his blue-collar appeal. But the blunt Christie may be too similar to Trump and, besides, has very low approval ratings in his home state. Another Trump endorser, Ben Carson, is popular with GOP conservatives but also has no governmental experience.

On paper, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida seems a natural fit. Though Trump denigrated him as "little Marco" and lured him into the political gutter, the young Cuban-American senator and former state legislator would provide generational, ethnic, geographic and experience balance.

Thanks to Tuesday's victory in Indiana, Trump won't need to make a deal to reach the required 1,237 delegates. And his repeated denunciations of Cruz as "lying Ted" and their continuing enmity make the Texas senator an unlikely vice presidential choice. That leaves Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who would bring both state and federal experience, though he has adamantly rejected the idea. He wouldn't be the first to change his mind.

Three women who have been suggested, if Trump wants to counter likely rival Clinton, are Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina and Gov. Susanna Martinez of New Mexico. All three backed Rubio, and Haley was particularly critical of Trump.

Agreeing to be Trump's vice president might involve a gigantic leap of faith, both in terms of what life would be like and politically. History says being on a losing ticket doesn't benefit future ambitions.

As for Clinton, the Democratic front-runner's campaign did something unusual recently in providing a list of people under consideration that looked very much like a real list, not one leaked for political purposes.

Two names stood out, by virtue of experience and background: Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Kaine, a former mayor and governor, is a Spanish-speaking Roman Catholic designated to speak for Clinton on foreign policy issues. Brown is a populist with positions similar to those of Bernie Sanders, like requiring banks to down size. Both have won several state-wide elections in major swing states.

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The other three were former Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, an African-American who was assistant attorney general under Bill Clinton; Virginia's other senator, Mark Warner, also a former governor; and Tom Perez, the secretary of labor. Another Hispanic sometimes mentioned is Julian Castro, the secretary of housing and urban development and former San Antonio mayor. So is Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

But given how Trump has disparaged minorities and women, the likely first major party female nominee might prefer a qualified white male like Kaine or Brown, rather than a minority or a woman.

As for Fiorina, her tenure as a vice presidential candidate was one of the shortest in history, though she showed she definitely fit two traditional vice presidential roles, political soul mate and attack dog.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News.
What lies behind Donald Trump's nomination victory? Received wisdom among conservatives is that he, the outsider, sensed, marshaled and came to represent a massive revolt of the Republican rank and file against the "establishment."

This is the narrative: GOP political leaders made promises of all kinds and received in return, during President Obama's years, major electoral victories that gave them the House, the Senate, 12 new governorships and 30 state houses. Yet they didn't deliver. Exit polls consistently showed that a majority of GOP primary voters (60 percent in some states) feel "betrayed" by their leaders.

Not just let down or disappointed. Betrayed. By RINOs who, corrupted by donors and lobbyists, sold out. Did they repeal Obamacare? No. Did they defund Planned Parenthood? No. Did they stop President Obama's tax-and-spend hyperliberalism? No. Whether from incompetence or venality, they let Obama walk all over them.

But then comes the paradox. If insufficient resistance to Obama's liberalism created this sense of betrayal, why in a field of 17 did Republican voters choose the least conservative candidate? A man who until yesterday was himself a liberal. Who donated money to those very same Democrats to whom the GOP establishment is said to have caved, including Chuck Schumer, Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton.

Trump has expressed sympathy for a single-payer system of socialized medicine, far to the left of Obamacare. Trump lists health care as one of the federal government's three main responsibilities (after national security); Republicans adamantly oppose federal intervention in health care. He also lists education, which Republicans believe should instead be left to the states.

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As for Planned Parenthood, the very same conservatives who railed against the Republican establishment for failing to defund it now rally around a candidate who sings the praises of its good works (save for the provision of abortion).

More fundamentally, Trump has no affinity whatsoever for the central thrust of modern conservatism  a return to less and smaller government. If the establishment has insufficiently resisted Obama's Big Government policies, the beneficiary should logically have been the most consistent, indeed most radical, anti-government conservative of the bunch, Ted Cruz.

Cruz's entire career has consisted of promoting tea-party constitutionalism in revolt against party leaders who had joined "the Washington cartel." Yet when Cruz got to his one-on-one with Trump at the Indiana OK Corral, Republicans chose Trump and his nonconservative, idiosyncratic populism.

Which makes Indiana a truly historic inflection point. It marks the most radical transformation of the political philosophy of a major political party in our lifetime. The Democrats continue their trajectory of ever-expansive liberalism from the New Deal through the Great Society through Obama and Clinton today. While the GOP, the nation's conservative party, its ideology refined and crystallized by Ronald Reagan, has just gone populist.

It's an ideological earthquake. How radical a reorientation? Said Trump last week: "Folks, I'm a conservative. But at this point, who cares?"

Who cares? Wasn't caring about conservatism the very essence of the talk radio, tea party, grass-roots revolt against the so-called establishment? They cheered Cruz when he led the government shutdown in the name of conservative principles. Yet when the race came down to Cruz and Trump, these opinion-shaping conservatives who once doted on Cruz affected a studied Trump-leaning neutrality.

Trump won. True, the charismatically challenged Cruz was up against a prepackaged celebrity, an already famous showman.

True, Trump appealed to the economic anxiety of a squeezed middle class and the status anxiety of a formerly dominant white working class. But the prevailing conservative narrative -- of anti-establishment fury -- was different and is now exposed as a convenient fable. If Trump is a great big middle finger aimed at a Republican establishment that has abandoned its principles, isn't it curious that the party has chosen a man without any?

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Trump doesn't even pretend to have any, conservative or otherwise. He lauds his own "flexibility," his freedom from political or philosophical consistency. And he elevates unpredictability to a foreign policy doctrine.

The ideological realignment is stark. On major issues  such as the central question of retaining America's global pre-eminence as leader of the free world, sustainer of Western alliances and protector of the post-World War II order -- the GOP candidate stands decidedly to the left of the Democrat.

And who knows on what else. On entitlements? On health care? On taxes? We will soon find out. But as Trump himself says of being a conservative  at this point, who cares?

As of Tuesday night, certainly not the GOP.

Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for the Washington Post.
WASHINGTON -- The tweets and emails started immediately after Donald Trump's victory Tuesday night:

"You've got a promise to keep, bub."

"Get ready to eat it."

"EAT IT!!!"

To them, I say: Con gusto.

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Seven months ago I said I would eat an entire column, newsprint and ink, if Trump won the nomination, calculating that Republican voters were better than Trump. The Republican voters let me down: Though a majority didn't support him, enough did, and no viable alternative arose.

But you, the reader, have revived my faith in America. I put out a call for recipes and you responded, via Twitter, Facebook, email and the comments section. Through the magic of crowdsourcing, I have discovered that eating newspaper can be downright mouth-watering. This is going to be huge! We are going to build a big, beautiful meal -- and Mexico is going to pay for it.

On Thursday, May 12, after readers have voted for their favorite newspaper cuisine, acclaimed chef Victor Albisu of Washington's Del Campo restaurant will select and prepare a wide variety of newsprint-based dishes. Tom Sietsema, The Washington Post's James Beard Award-winning food critic, will be on hand to taste and judge the dishes, and I will eat them  streamed live on the Post's Facebook page.

I've dispensed with the unhelpful suggestions from readers that I consume my column with hemlock, cyanide or excrement. And though I appreciate all the Hannibal Lecter references, I won't be eating the column with fava beans and a nice Chianti, nor will I be eating it with crow (it's out of season), although Robert Howland, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, suggested a crow-free crow pie that sounds tasty.

Many readers proposed ways to get the paper down painlessly: Blended in smoothies. Folded into bearnaise, marinara or jerk sauce. Wrapped in bacon. Topped with Sriracha, mustard or ketchup. Or shredded and mixed with Parmesan cheese.

Reader "Mhitchons" posited that "newsprint dissolves well in scotch, bourbon, whiskey or any other potent alcohol." Mary Ann Liebert suggested "mustard or vodka. Maybe both."

"NotDeadYet" suggested jalapeno-infused tequila blanco, and Nathan A. Wallace thought a Grand Marnier, flambe style. But the many suggestions that I pair the meal with Trump wine give me indigestion.

A large number of readers said eating the newspaper in any form but raw would be cheating. "Man up! No sneaky dodging!" argued Jeffrey Drummond.

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I disagree. There's no reason why a newspaper shouldn't go down easily. In addition to Albisu's original suggestion  newspaper chilaquiles in tomatillo-jalapeno sauce, crispy newspaper dumplings, saffron rice and newspaper-smoked lamb, newspaper-lined tacos, ground newspaper falafel, newspaper Wagyu steak, candied-newspaper waffles and newspaper-stuffed churros -- there are many other promising dishes to consider for this feast.

Joe Yonan, the Post's food editor, suggests a "cold minty pea-and-newspaper soup" with Greek yogurt, feta and chives.

Bonnie Benwick, the deputy food editor, proposes "op-ed spring rolls" with dipping sauce.

John Bussey, my old editor at the Wall Street Journal, suggests a "fresh vegetable soup, generously seasoned with garlic and herbs and reduced on a low flame for one news cycle."

Sara Polon, otherwise known as "Soupergirl," a Washington soupmaker, submits an "Indian-style mulligatawny with toasted newspaper."

Probably the most creative recipe came from Shava Nerad via Twitter  ersatzbrot, a bread made with sawdust fed to German soldiers in World War I.

Several readers  "JC," "CalithDem" and Roy Wakefield among them  went with the British classic of fish and chips, while many others -- including Emmanuel Touhey, Becky Timmons and Dan Grosz -- thought meatloaf would be the right choice.

Linda Garceau sent me a recipe, in French, for fish cooked in newspaper, but it appears the removal instructions  "degager le papier"  disqualify the dish. And Douglas Peterson took great care in emailing a highly detailed recipe for Trump steaks (18 column inches Washington Post shredded in 3-inch strips, 1/2 -inch wide).

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Nearly every world cuisine was represented: German beef and newspaper cabbage rolls (Mark Gibson), a Louisville newspaper Hot Brown (Mark Linton), blueberry newspaper pancakes (David Umansky), newspaper matzo brei (Adam Wizon), newspaper lasagna (Andrea Stone), newspaper spanakopita (William Hamby) and Trumpkin pie with newspaper and yams ("MArlington Thomas").

Among the most popular comments was from "ACounter," who suggested soaking the newspaper in water first "to get as many of the chemicals out as possible. And before you eat the soaked paper, don't forget to soak yourself -- in your favorite alcoholic beverage."

Unnecessary. These newsprint dishes will be delectable. But another six months of Trump? That will require a stiff drink.

Dana Milbank is a columnist for the Washington Post.
WASHINGTON  The Republican Party this week is like fifth-century Rome must have been after the Visigoths stormed the city's gates. Anarchy and confusion reign, there is the sound of anguished wailing, and political leaders are making an urgent calculation: Resistance or collaboration?

The suddenness of Donald Trump's final victory over the GOP establishment was shocking. On Monday, Pollyannas were still convincing themselves that Trump could be thwarted at a contested convention. Within 48 hours, he had won the Indiana primary in a landslide and his last two opponents, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, had surrendered. Even Trump couldn't have expected it to happen so fast.

But no one should be surprised, at this point, that the result of the Republican primary process is Donald J. Trump as the party's presumptive nominee for president. He has been the clear front-runner for the better part of a year. Too many observers, both inside and outside the party, saw the race as they thought it should be, not as it actually was. They ignored the obvious fact that Trump was gaining momentum as the primaries went on. They believed it was unthinkable that he would win, so they gave too little weight to clear evidence that he was doing just that.

I mention these issues of perception only because I'm now seeing a lot of analysis predicting how easy-peasy it will be for likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton to wipe the floor with Trump in the fall. Anyone buying into this story line should first try to ascertain whether it's based on reality or wishful thinking. As for me, I'll continue not to take anything for granted.

Republican elected officials and party leaders do not have time for such retrospective contemplation. They have a decision to make. The party belongs to Trump now, just as Rome belonged to the barbarians, and GOP politicians have to decide whether to fall in line or take up arms against the new order.

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So far, GOP luminaries are mostly choosing collaboration over resistance -- although many have so far declined comment and seem to be still pondering.

The biggest blows to Trump's legitimacy as the standard-bearer of the Party of Lincoln were struck by the two most recent Republican presidents. Spokesmen for George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush announced that 41 and 43 have no plans to endorse Trump -- an extraordinary rebuke from the family that has defined the party since the era of Ronald Reagan.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, asked if he was ready to endorse Trump, said that "I'm not there right now." Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts said he will not vote for Trump  or for Clinton, a spokeswoman added. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has vehemently opposed Trump, was unbowed in a lengthy Facebook post that called for a third-party candidate to emerge.

Most of the rest of the party, however, seems to be boarding the Trump train, even if it might be heading over a cliff.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus set the tone Tuesday night just minutes after Cruz's withdrawal with a tweet announcing that Trump was the presumptive nominee and that the party should unite behind him.

The most commonly stated position of prominent Republicans who have spoken thus far is that they will support "the nominee of the party." For example, this is the view of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whom Trump cruelly ridiculed for being shot down and captured during the Vietnam War. According to Politico, McCain said at a fundraiser last month that his re-election bid "may be the race of my life" because of Trump's vicious rhetoric about Latino immigrants.

Some other senators facing tough battles to hold on to their seats seemed to disappear into witness protection. One who emerged, but probably shouldn't have, was Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who tried to stake out the impossible position that she would "support" Trump but not "endorse" him. Sorry, Senator, but that's not even a distinction, much less a difference. You're on board.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley also said she "will support the Republican nominee for president," treating Trump's name like that of Lord Voldemort. Then she hastened to add her name to the growing list of rising GOP stars who say they are not interested in being considered as you-know-who's running mate.

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What does "I support the nominee" buy you? Trump's allegation that Mexican immigrants are "rapists." His promise to deport 11 million people living here without papers. His pledge to ban Muslims from entering the country. His misogyny. His bigotry. His willful ignorance of foreign and domestic policy. And much, much more.

The emerging Republican message: We're all Visigoths now.

Eugene Robinson is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post.
As Rochester Public Schools continue to address equity concerns in the district, barriers are being tackled.

On Tuesday, the district hopes to help parents of diverse backgrounds understand how school culture can create obstacles to equity and how families can help overcome barriers for students.

Renowned educational consultants Anthony Muhammad and Luis Cruz have been enlisted to discuss equity and family engagement, starting at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday in the Mayo High School auditorium.

However, simply hiring consultants and opening the doors won't bring change. To encourage parents to help break down obstacles for their children, family barriers also must be removed.

Thankfully, the district is helping in that regard. "We're really trying to break down barriers for our families," RPS Assistant Superintendent Brenda Lewis said.

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To ensure the widest reach possible, the district will serve a free meal at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in the school's cafeteria. Child care is available to ensure parents can attend, and transportation is being provided to eliminate another obstacle. (Call 328-4300 to arrange a ride.)

Lewis said staff has been scouring the community to reach as many parents as possible, with the hopes that hundreds will take the opportunity to see how barriers can be overcome.

We'd love to see the auditorium's 620 seats filled.
Anyone who has tried to submit a 230-word letter to the editor knows the Post-Bulletin's editorial page editor can be a stickler for policy. Writers are asked to revise their submissions to within the 225-word limit or have them rejected.

The policy helps ensure we have space for as many letters as possible on a regular basis, but it's also a matter of fairness. Every potential letter writer who reviews the policy knows what to expect.

That's why we were disappointed during the public-comment period for Monday's Rochester City Council meeting.

The council's policy clearly limits the open-comment period to 15 minutes, with each speaker allowed up to four minutes.

Council President Randy Staver was gracious in allowing more than 15 minutes for comments, much like we occasionally add space for more letters when local concerns increase demand. We applaud the council's flexibility.

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However, the four-minute limit was stretched. A frequent council meeting attendee was allowed seven minutes to propose the creation of a vicious-dog ordinance, which took the comment period beyond the 15-minute limit. The other seven commenters averaged two minutes apiece.

If the number of comments was going to be limited, the length should have been as well, especially after the evening's first commenter opened by noting many people were waiting to speak.

The council already has a process to hear longer presentations. Residents can request the added time after the public-comment period.

Allowing a longer presentation on a topic that wouldn't be addressed during the meeting while refusing to hear from people who may have wanted to comment on issues from the night's agenda was an unfortunate decision.

Granted, the council doesn't know what each person will address when he or she approached the podium, and members didn't know how many people were waiting to step forward. However, the uncertainty indicates a need to change.

Perhaps a sign-up sheet would help guide future decisions about enforcing or waiving the limits.

If nothing else, it would give speakers another chance to encounter the council's policy.
If reaching a broad audience was the goal of Thursday's TEDx Zumbro River event, the population of cars filling Autumn Ridge Church's enormous parking lot pointed toward a massive success.

Local and national speakers presented thoughts on addiction recovery, resilience in the face of disability, the importance of laughter, the benefits of bicycles and other topics to an auditorium packed with a wide cross-section of Rochester's populace. It was the kind of event where people from all walks of life could co-mingle under an umbrella of fresh ideas. Its nearly sold-out status points to an appetite for more of these types of forums.

Katie King, 31, a self-described "local gal," and her husband were already big TED talk fans and bought tickets the moment they went on sale. "We just enjoy the innovation and the new insights that they bring," King said, "A lot of times they're inspiring and insightful, and I like to help try to drive our world forward."

Tabitha Kimani, 17, a student at the Rochester Alternative Learning Center, attended with her speech teacher, looking for techniques to absorb into her own speaking style. She picked up on the speakers' relaxed posture, tone and lack of repetition.

"I thought it was really inspiring," Kimani said.

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We expect this week's event will inspire speakers for future talks, but it also should inspire change and participation in the community year round.

It's a good thing the community showed up to listen.
How will the news media handle the battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? I suspect I know the answer  and it's going to be deeply frustrating. But maybe, just maybe, flagging some common journalistic sins in advance can limit the damage. So let's talk about what can and probably will go wrong in coverage  but doesn't have to.

First, and least harmful, will be the urge to make the election seem closer than it is, if only because a close race makes a better story. You can already see this tendency in suggestions that the startling outcome of the fight for the Republican nomination somehow means that polls and other conventional indicators of electoral strength are meaningless.

The truth, however, is that polls have been pretty good indicators all along. Pundits who dismissed the chances of a Trump nomination did so despite, not because of, the polls, which have been showing a large Trump lead for more than eight months.

Oh, and let's not make too much of any one poll. When many polls are taken, there are bound to be a few outliers, both because of random sampling error and the biases that can creep into survey design. If the average of recent polls shows a strong lead for one candidate  as it does right now for Clinton  any individual poll that disagrees with that average should be taken with large helpings of salt.

A more important vice in political coverage, which we've seen all too often in previous elections  but will be far more damaging if it happens this time  is false equivalence.

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You might think that this would be impossible on substantive policy issues, where the asymmetry between the candidates is almost ridiculously obvious. To take the most striking comparison, Trump has proposed huge tax cuts with no plausible offsetting spending cuts, yet has also promised to pay down U.S. debt; meanwhile, Clinton has proposed modest spending increases paid for by specific tax hikes.

That is, one candidate is engaged in wildly irresponsible fantasy while the other is being quite careful with her numbers. But beware of news analyses that, in the name of "balance," downplay this contrast.

This isn't a new phenomenon: Many years ago, when George W. Bush was obviously lying about his budget arithmetic but nobody would report it, I suggested that if a candidate declared that the Earth was flat, headlines would read, "Shape of the Planet: Both Sides Have a Point." But this year it could be much, much worse.

And what about less quantifiable questions about behavior? I've already seen pundits suggest that both presumptive nominees fight dirty, that both have taken the "low road" in their campaigns. For the record, Trump has impugned his rivals' manhood, called them liars and suggested that Ted Cruz's father was associated with JFK's killer. On her side, Clinton has suggested that Bernie Sanders hasn't done his homework on some policy issues. These things are not the same.

Finally, I can almost guarantee that we'll see attempts to sanitize the positions and motives of Trump supporters, to downplay the racism that is at the heart of the movement and pretend that what voters really care about are the priorities of D.C. insiders  a process I think of as "centrification."

That is, after all, what happened after the rise of the Tea Party. I've seen claims that Tea Partiers were motivated by Wall Street bailouts, or even that the movement was largely about fiscal responsibility, driven by voters upset about budget deficits.

In fact, there was never a hint that any of these things mattered; if you followed the actual progress of the movement, it was always about white voters angry at the thought that their taxes might be used to help Those People, whether via mortgage relief for distressed minority homeowners or health care for low-income families.

Now I'm seeing suggestions that Trumpism is driven by concerns about political gridlock. No, it isn't. It isn't even mainly about "economic anxiety."

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Trump support in the primaries was strongly correlated with racial resentment: We're looking at a movement of white men angry that they no longer dominate American society the way they used to. And to pretend otherwise is to give both the movement and the man who leads it a free pass.

In the end, bad reporting probably won't change the election's outcome, because the truth is that those angry white men are right about their declining role. The United States is increasingly becoming a racially diverse, socially tolerant society, not at all like the Republican base, let alone the plurality of that base that chose Donald Trump.

Still, the public has a right to be properly informed. The news media should do all it can to resist false equivalence and centrification, and report what's really going on.

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist, a professor at Princeton University and a columnist for the New York Times.
An overnight stay on a wooden ship in the scenic Ha Long Bay will soon become a memory, according to northern province Quang Ninh's authorities.

The local authorities of the world heritage site have taken a series of measures to improve safety after a cruise ship, full of foreign tourists, went up in flames yesterday morning and this isnt the first time such incident has happened.

Wooden vessels in Ha Long Bay, visited by millions of tourists each year, will be all gone in the next 15 years, said Le Quang Tung, deputy chairman of the Quang Ninh Peoples Committee.

The provincial transport department has decided to gradually replace wooden cruise ships, which are highly flammable, with steel boats.

Quang Ninh has even stepped up further its effort to make the iconic Ha Long Bay safer by banning cruise ships from staying overnight on the water in both Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay.

A specific timeline for the ban to come into effect remains unclear. However it is said to be enacted soon, Quang Ninh authorities said as quoted by the Vietnam News Agency.

A luxury wooden cruise ship caught on fire on May 6 in Ha Long Bay, forcing about 40 passengers to jump in the water and swim to the shore.

After the tragic accident in February 2011, which killed 12 people on an overnight tour boat in Ha Long, local authorities immediately took a number of measures to ensure the safety and protect the reputation of the countrys top tourist attraction, including requirements for staff on board to have first aid training. The most recent measure is to slash the lifespan of tour boats, a 15-year operating license issued to wooden vessels and 25-year to metal ships.

A cruise ship caught on fire yesterday morning, forcing about 40 passengers to jump in the water and swim ashore, is the latest accident with anchored wooden boats. Four victims were reportedly lightly injured and already sent to Bai Chay General Hospital for a health check.

The vessel, which is owned by the Ha Long VIT Tourism Service Company, was moored at Tuan Chau Port alongside with other cruise boats at the time of the fire after a two-day tour in Ha Long Bay.
Obamacare was built on an edifice of calculated lies. Some of us could see the propositions on which President Obama sold Obamacare as falsehoods at the time of the selling. Others have learned from bitter experience after the buying. President Obama and his team hold a low opinion of the intelligence of the American people. See, for example, the case of Jonathan Gruber. Having elected him president twice, we have done much to earn Obamas contempt.

Now comes Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes to reveal the lies on which Obamas alliance with the Islamic Republic of Iran was promoted. See David Samuelss May 8 New York Times Magazine profile of Rhodes, The aspiring novelist who became Obamas foreign-policy guru.

Rhodes is not, as he should be, confined to fetching coffee and performing other menial tasks befitting his qualifications to formulate national security policy. He is, writes Samuels, according to the consensus of the two dozen current and former White House insiders I talked to, the single most influential voice shaping American foreign policy aside from Potus himself.

Rhodes himself, however, is an odious ignoramus who knows one thing: Obamas servitors in the mainstream media are useful idiots.

Hes certainly got that right. Samuels quotes Rhodes observing: All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus. Now they dont. They call us to explain to them whats happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. Thats a sea change. They literally know nothing. We can agree on that.

The Atlantics Jeffrey Goldberg doesnt fit the 27-year-old average. Maybe Goldberg raises the average to 27. He is reputed literally to know something. He is nevertheless inarguably a fool for Obama even though youth and inexperience are no excuse in his case. I do look forward to Goldbergs response to Rhodess estimate of him now that Rhodes has revealed himself as an ingrate.

All of which raises the question: What does Ben Rhodes know? He knows hes selling a bill of goods to fools and he knows how to sell to fools. Congratulations.

On this point, Rhodess mind meld with Obama (discussed by the Obama officials interviewed by Samuels) is complete. Rhodess knowledge and Obamas overlap perfectly.

He doesnt think for the president, Samuels observes, but he knows what the president is thinking, which is a source of tremendous power. Samuels quotes Rhodes saying with a touch of bafflement, I dont know anymore where I begin and Obama ends.

Referring to his brother, David Rhodes, the head of CBS News, Rhodes tells Samuels: [David] was like the kid who carried the briefcase to school. I actually didnt do that great in high school because I was drinking and smoking pot and hanging out in Central Park. So hes got that in common with Obama as well.

In addition to the knowledge he shares with Obama, Rhodes shares a set of attitudes. We know them well. Many of us had figured them out without undue difficulty during the 2008 campaign.

Samuels homes in on the Iran deal:

Rhodess innovative campaign to sell the Iran deal is likely to be a model for how future administrations explain foreign policy to Congress and the public. The way in which most Americans have heard the story of the Iran deal presented  that the Obama administration began seriously engaging with Iranian officials in 2013 in order to take advantage of a new political reality in Iran, which came about because of elections that brought moderates to power in that country  was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal. Even where the particulars of that story are true, the implications that readers and viewers are encouraged to take away from those particulars are often misleading or false.

I dont think it was too difficult to figure that out at the time either, but Samuels goes some way to showing how they pulled it off. Rhodes is not just an odious ignoramus. He is also shameless.

A final point: Samuelss article demonstrates the correctness of Michael Dorans reading of Obamas foreign policy several times over. Dorans Mosaic essay is Obamas secret Iran policy.

Samuelss profile of Rhodes is must reading. Among those who have written usefully on it are Lee Smith, John Podhoretz, Richard Fernandez, Claudia Rosett, Max Boot and David Gerstman.

Quotable quote: Watching Rhodes work, I remember that he is still, chiefly, a writer, who is using a new set of tools  along with the traditional arts of narrative and spin  to create stories of great consequence on the biggest page imaginable. The narratives he frames, the voices of senior officials, the columnists and reporters whose work he skillfully shapes and ventriloquizes, and even the presidents own speeches and talking points, are the only dots of color in a much larger vision about who Americans are and where we are going that Rhodes and the president have been formulating together over the past seven years.
Breaking News! All Disease And also Illness Originates from Our Cells Vibrational Frequencies!

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Popular Nollywood actor and comedian, Okon Lagos, whose real name is Imeh Bishop Umoh, has been appointed an aide to Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State.

Okon Lagos is now Special Assistant to the Governor On Ethical and Social Reorientation.

The comical actor confirmed the appointment on his Instagram page and also thanked the Akwa Ibom governor for finding him worthy for the new job.

He said, Yes its true been made Special Assistant To The Governor On Ethical and Social Reorientation, Akwa Ibom State. Thank you Governor Udom Emmanuel. Most above all, Thank you, Jesus!

The comedian, who came by the name Okon from the lead role he played in the movie Okon Lagos which also brought him to limelight.

He later did Okon Goes to School, and several other films.

Okon Lagos is one of the best comic actors Nigeria has produced, those familiar with his work said.

He has won the the hearts of fans both locally and internationally.
Three Nigerian films made the final shortlist in the 2016 Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) which holds from July 9th -17th 2016.

Walter Taylaurs Gbomo Gbomo Express and The Wages as well as Umar Turakis Salt were selected out of a record 490 films submitted from 32 countries for this years competition.

A total of 95 films comprising feature fictions, documentaries, Sembene, animations, Bongo, and shorts were shortlisted.

It was the first appearance in the competition of films from Nigeria, Bangladesh, Finland, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda, as well as works from Albania and Estonia.

The ZIFF panel selected 80 films to compete under 5 different jury categories; 59 General Competition, 15 Sembene Ousmane; 12 Bongo movies, and 6 films in this years newest jury category, The Emerson of Zanzibar Award recognizing films about Zanzibars culture and history, the organizers said in a statement.

The last competition for Music Video production will also take place this year with videos nominated for competition revealed at the end of May being shown during the plenary sessions of ZIFF in the Old Fort Amphitheatre.

One of the most exciting developments in this years selection is the substantial increase in the quantity and quality of films from Tanzania with the greatest number of entries from Tanzania ever received, the statement said.

Over 40 films were received for competition and this year we have 4 films from Tanzania competing in the Sembene Ousmane Competition. All of East Africa features strongly in this years selection with five from Kenya, and three from Uganda, and two from Rwanda.

The organizers said three world premieres would take place this year, with the screening of three films funded by ZIFF and GIZ (German Development Cooperation Agency) through the Sembene Ousmane award.

The three 2015 winners who were each given $2,000 to produce a new film will also premiere their new films in this years competition.

Two film workshops would be held during this years festival, according to the organizers.

The first workshop on Cinematography will be run by Barry Bravermann, an official tester of many film equipment producing companies such as Panasonic and Sony. The workshop will focus on how to get the best out of the Canon D5 camera but also work on visual storytelling.

The second, an Animation Workshop sponsored by the Goethe Institute in Dar es Salaam, will focus on enhancing skills of young Tanzanian artists.

Fifteen students from secondary and high schools will be selected and trained with the aim of encouraging new skills for school leavers.
Despite 2016 appropriate law becoming operational in the second quarter of the year, the federal government said it was targeting 100 per cent budget implementation for the year.

Our aim will always be 100 per cent implementation, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udoma, told State House correspondents Friday.

We know we started late and we may not achieve it. But 100 per cent achievement is our aim. The budget is a law, we will try to implement it as quickly as we can.

Although the minister said details of the approved budget would be given later, he however said what was assented to by the president was slightly lower than what he presented to the National Assembly on December 22, 2015.

He said his ministry would set up a budget monitoring committee to ensure effective implementation of the law.

To ensure the 2017 budget did not suffer similar delay, the minister said the executive planned to submit the draft bill in October this year, to enable passage before the end of the year.

He said the ministry already sent a memo to the Executive Council of the Federation on the matter, securing approval was for a timetable for the early presentation of the 2017 budget.

The minister said the administration was determined to get the budget ready by December because the dry season remained the best time to commence budget implementation, particularly for road construction.

Our intention, going forward, is to get us back to where we can get a full January to December budget implementation cycle. We are working with a time table to achieve this, he said.

Mr. Udoma said going forward, there would be extensive consultation with the National Assembly and non-governmental organisations prior to the presentation of the next appropriation bill to speed up the approval process.

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that FEC had already approved a budget monitoring and evaluation framework submitted by the ministry .

The framework, Mrs. Ahmed said, would guide the implementation of the budget, while the ministry has developed a specific implementation guideline for the implementation of the 2016 budget.

She said the guideline would be disseminated to all ministries, departments and agencies and would be monitored vigorously and reported upon to FEC on a quarterly basis.

The implementation plan has some checks the ministry would follow as best as possible, Mrs. Ahmed said. (NAN)
U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam, Ted Osius, has warmed up the atmosphere ahead of the upcoming Obama visit, inviting local facebookers to give advice on where the president should go in the Southeast Asian nation.

In a statement posted May 6 on his personal facebook which got nearly 43,000 likes, the ambassador asked if other people are excited for Obamas visit as he is. If you had control of Obamas schedule while hes in Vietnam, where is the one place or cultural site that you would insist he visit, and why?, he wrote.

The posting has drawn attention and comments from his followers. Some wanted the president to visit Vietnams strategic Cam Ranh Bay by the East Sea while the others liked him to come to Mekong Delta where drought and salinity intrusion are negatively affecting local residents.

The White House has announced president Barack Obama will visit Vietnam this May but did not give specific time frame.
Wednesdays visit of the Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, to Nigeria, opened another chapter in the two countries relations. During the visit, Mr. Biya and his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, signed a new trade agreement for bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and Cameroon on several issues to promote their mutual interests, particularly on security, agriculture, immigration as well as conservation of the Benue River.

At the end of the visit, the chief executive of African Trade Group and author of Unleashed: A new paradigm of African Trade with the world, John Akhile Snr., spoke with PREMIUM TIMES from his base in Wisconsin, United States on the significance of the trade agreement, particularly the opportunity it would avail Nigerians to expand regional market between the two countries. Excerpts:

PT: Aside talks on security, agriculture and immigration, are Nigeria and Cameroon on strong enough ground to cement trade ties, particularly at this time when both countries are facing sub-regional security challenge?

AKHILE: The question to ask is: Can the private and public sectors of both countries take advantage of synergistic opportunities to create investments that would enhance the economic foundation and diversify sources of income for both countries?

The population of Nigeria and Cameroon are 170+ million and 21+ million respectively. The bilateral trade agreement has created labour and consumer markets of nearly 200 million people. Yes, both countries can benefit significantly from closer trade relations anchored by open markets and freer movement of goods and people between them.

PT: As an African trade expert, what are the possibilities both countries can offer each other in terms of a mutually beneficial trade alliance?

AKHILE: Nigeria is a regional economic super power. The country is also a rising manufacturing hub, and currently exports auto parts, household products, textiles, cosmetics, etc., to Cameroon. On the other hand, Cameroons exports to Nigeria are mainly rubber, cotton and foodstuffs, which fall under the non-petroleum products category.

Nigeria is the second largest exporter to Cameroon, after China. Much remains to be done to amplify the opportunities available to both countries. There are two key areas that will benefit both countries in the short-term.

One, heavy industries, where Cameroonians and Nigerians can jointly exploit the availability of raw materials in both countries to develop basic industries, and two, joint ventures in petroleum industry to convert raw materials into finished goods for export.

One of the areas that is least emphasized in trade relations with African countries is the combination of public and private sector joint ventures that produce intermediate goodschemicals, metallurgy, petrochemicals, etc.

The sky is literally the limit for how much Nigeria, Cameroon and other African countries can do if they concentrate on synergistic ties in areas of their comparative advantage.

PT: Can trade alliances between African countries ever survive in the midst of economic challenges and terrorism issues?

AKHILE: Trade draws countries closer in all spheres, including politics and defence. The agreement between our two countries is a no-brainer. It builds on a long cultural history of the border regions of both countries and also the proximity of the nations.

Security challenges facing both countries have increased the rationale for closer relations. Economic challenges are what lead to outside-the-box thinking and fresh ideas. Both countries have a culture of entrepreneurship.

By removing barriers to free movement of goods and people, you formalize an already existing cross border trade and increase such activities.

In addition, the formal sector has more opportunities to create linkages and joint venture opportunities in construction, merchandising, conversion industries and services. Cameroonians will get access to a much larger market, and Nigerians will also expand market opportunities.

PT: Will the long standing controversy regarding border markets for both countries create a problem for this trade agreement?

AKHILE: If the controversy was not addressed conclusively, then the discussions would have missed an opportunity. The purpose of such agreements is, first, to formalize trade opportunities and to reach an accommodation on pending trade related issues.

Part of the challenge is the arbitrary borders created between the two countries during their struggles for independence. It is not only a matter of borders, but also cultural affinities.

A permanent settlement has to affect parties at the table. By having the key people at the table, it is possible to engineer a long-term settlement where the parties reach agreement on some things and compromise on others.

In the bilateral trade agreements, issues like festering cross border hostilities due to competing claims of territorial rights and sovereignty are usually, albeit not universally, handled as part of the overall agreement.

PT: Nigeria and Cameroon have shared economic interactions since the pre-colonial period. So, what is new with this recent trade agreement between the presidents of both countries?

AKHILE: It is a new era. African countries are weaning themselves from the shackles of neo-colonial influence and pressure. It is less important to trade with the colonial power that colonized African countries than to seek trade alliances that make sense.

Trade between Cameroon and Nigeria makes much more sense than trade between both countries and their former colonial governments.

There is greater understanding of the importance of economic synergies from trade and flexible borders. The European Union, EU has shown the way and Asian nations are following the trend successfully.

North American Free Trade agreement and the recent Asian trade agreement with the United States are indications of global recognition that trade between nations is vital for sustainable economic development. If trade is vital to nations, trade between neighbour-states is of paramount importance.

PT: In our current economic climate, the people should come first. Should Nigerians and Cameroonians hope to benefit directly from this trade agreement?

AKHILE: People of both countries have a direct stake in the outcome of not just the agreement, but its implementation. After all, the governments of both countries signed it on behalf of their citizens. At the heart of a trade agreement between nations is the desire to increase prosperity for the people of the nations involved.

Trade agreements are supposed to create an atmosphere that enables business to flourish. If that happens, the people of both countries are in line to benefit from the jobs that the businesses would create.

In addition, entrepreneurs in both countries, especially in the border regions would have new opportunities to market their products and services to consumers that did not have before the agreement.

PREMIUM TIMES: Thank you for your time.

AKHILE: Thank you.
The federal government has commenced the process for the establishment of a mining intervention fund.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, said the fund was part of governments determination to diversify the countrys economic base and ensure that the solid minerals sector contributed significantly to the gross domestic product, particularly its jobs creation efforts.

The minister said the fund was designed to provide incentives for local miners and investors in a bid to stimulate growth in the sector.

The minister disclosed this during a breakfast meeting organised by the Stanbic IBTC Bank with investors in the Iron and Steel sector in Lagos on Friday.

Mr. Fayemi said the ministry was already working with the Bankers Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the Bank of Industry, BOI towards achieving that objective.

The Bankers Committee is made up of managing directors and chief executives of all the commercial banks in the country.

The minister said the intervention fund was part of the incentives government was putting in place to boost local production of solid minerals.

He reiterated the ministrys commitment to exploit the nations mineral endowments in an environmentally sustainable manner.

Government is determined to establish a vibrant minerals and metal industry for wealth creation, poverty reduction, promotion of economic growth and significant contribution to the countrys gross domestic product, Mr. Fayemi said.

He decried a situation where the country currently imports an estimated $3.3 billion (about N650.1 billion) of processed steel and associated derivatives every year, representing 80 per cent of the total annual expenditure of $4.2 billion (about N827.4 billion) on metal products imports.

He said despite the countrys relatively robust iron ore reserves, the combined national installed capacity of the 30 steel rolling mills was 6.5 metric tons per annum.

Of the 30 mills, the minister said only 18 were operational, with annual production capacity of about 2.8 metric tons using 100 per cent scrap metals.

He was confident that government would realize its plan for a major turnaround in the solid minerals sector through a strategic support for the local and foreign investors to create the enabling environment through the right policy for mining activities.
Sadiq Khan, the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver, on Saturday emerged the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London.

Mr. Khans success at the polls is even more remarkable as it came at a period of heightening Islamophobia in Europe.

His victory however underscores the reputation of London as a truly cosmopolitan city.

London is centre for international finance. According to the New York Times, a quarter of its inhabitant are foreign-born and an eight of its population are Muslims.

Mr. Khan, the Labour Party Candidate, won 56.8 percent of vote to beat Zac Goldsmith, the candidate of the Conservative Party, who managed to score only 43.2 percent, effectively ending eight years of Conservative reign in City Hall.

The human rights lawyer, however, is not a newcomer in United Kingdom politics. He was first elected to parliament in 2005 and was the UK transport minister in 2009 under the last Labour administration of Gordon Brown.

Mr. Khan clearly wasnt oblivious of the questions about his ethnicity and religion that came up during the campaign which he described in his victory speech as not without controversy.

He, however, said he was proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division.

I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer, it only make us weaker and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city, he said, making reference to the widespread Islamophobia in Europe over growing threat of terror attacks.

His closest rival in the poll, Mr. Goldsmith, ran a particularly divisive campaign drawing criticism from even his own party, which described his campaign as appalling.

Mr Goldsmith was denounced trying to link Mr Khan to Islamist extremism and for sending letters to voters based on ethnicity, the Independent newspaper wrote.

Our appalling dog whistle campaign for the #LondonMayor2016 lost us the election, our reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion, Sayeeda Warsi, the former Conservative Party chairman and the first Muslim woman to attend Cabinet, tweeted Saturday evening even before the official announcement of the result.

Mr. Khan is the fifth of eight children of his Pakistani parents who came to the UK in the 1960s. He was born in Tooting, South London, and has represented his town in parliament.

In 2008 when he was appointed to the Privy Council, a ceremonial body, which required him taking an oath to the Queen, he told The New Statesman he swore on the Koran

The palace called me and said, What type of Bible do you want to swear on? When I said the Quran, they said, We havent got one. So I took one with me, he said.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Timi Frank, in this interview with PREMIUM TIMES Festus Owete and Samuel Ogundipe, speaks on the crisis in the ruling party, the corruption trial of the senate president, Bukola Saraki, the Buhari administration and other issues. Excerpts:

PT: Why are you troubling your party?

Frank: I think it is a very funny one. Let me just make it clear that I am not troubling my party; I am only trying to put my party on the right track. Thats what I think I am doing right now.

PT: What is really your grouse?

Frank: Just like I have always said, there are issues in my party, very critical issues. First of all, let me set an example with my case. Since my immediate boss (Lai Mohammed) was appointed minister of information, automatically since I am his deputy and going by the partys constitution, I should act as spokesperson of the party pending when well go for a convention and elect a new spokesperson and then Ill come back to my position and continue as deputy spokesman of the party. Since this happened the leadership of my party has refused me my constitutional right. Being somebody that knows my right, definitely Ill have to fight. I dont need to keep quiet because this is something that I dont need to lobby anybody for. I dont need to beg anybody. My party should accept what God has put in place. My party also failed to follow the right path by honouring Gods decision.

PT: What reasons are they giving for not elevating you to the position of spokesman, at least in acting capacity?

Frank: As a journalist, you have every right to go and ask the leadership of my party and the national chairman why is this man not acting when the constitution of your party is very clear? It is not just about the constitutionality of the matter; there is also the issue of federal character. That is why we have office of the deputy. But today, that case does not play out in our own scenario as a party. The APC I belong to today, sorry to say, has made Nigerians to start thinking twice: Is this a party we can trust? A party that cannot allow a process to take place! So, its a very sad one. But for me Ill keep shouting because there are issues and we cannot run away from these issues. I cannot see why my party should refuse me from acting as spokesperson. So, if my party knew that I did not have the capacity, from day one, they should not have made me the deputy national publicity secretary; they should have looked for something else for me.

PT: What reasons did your partys leaders give for not appointing you into the position?

Frank: Since this matter started till today, not even my chairman (John Odigie-Oyegun) has called me for a discussion to give me any reason why theyre not allowing me. Ive written an official letter and at the appropriate time, Im going to publish that letter for Nigerians to see. I wrote not just to the chairman but the entire NWC of my party. I wrote and I copied including the president. I sent out these letters through DHL Courier but till today I did not get any response.

PT: Even from the president?

Frank: I have never got any response. Again, it boils down to my national chairman. If the chairman truly has the capacity I bet you we would have created the right development.

PT: The national chairman told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview recently that you were not elevated to the position because youre not from the North Central zone.

Frank: Is there anywhere in our partys constitution that made it very clear that if the spokesperson is not there the deputy should not act because hes not from that zone? That shows you that we have a chairman that does not even understand the partys constitution. The chairman should have resigned for making such a statement to the public. You cant say because I am not from the North Central I cannot fit into the position of acting spokesperson. It is laughable. That shows we have a chairman that does not have the will to put the party together. That is a very big failure on his part.

PT: Youve been telling us what your party did to you, what did you do to your party?

Frank: Well, as far as I am concerned, I have not done anything wrong to my party. The only thing I did to my party is to put my party on the right path; to make sure my party did the right thing. Let me take you back a little bit. We have two factions of the party at the National Assembly, especially in the Senate  the Ahmed Lawan group and the Saraki group. As a party, till today, weve not been able to summon those two factions and say come what are the issues? Lets harmonise these issues. Lets stop this infighting. Till today, the party has not found itself to be seen as a party that can unite the family. This cannot happen in PDP. We saw it very clearly in 2011 when the former Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, emerged. Even though he wasnt the product of the PDP, as soon as he emerged as Speaker, the party had no option but to accept him. They felt that since they could not throw him away, the best thing to do was to harmonise that situation at the time. Mulikat Akande (an aspirant for the position) and others came together to accept him. But in our own case today, the party has not been able to do that. Its very important for the leadership of the party to be interacting with party members and the leadership the leadership of the National Assembly. So, so far as I am concerned, the leadership under Oyegun cannot manage our party.

PT: Are you saying in clear terms that Oyegun is incompetent?

Frank: I can tell you without any fear or favour. That is my own position.

PT: That hes incompetent?

Frank: I can tell you without any fear or favour. That is why you have so many issues in the party. I am very, very worried. I am always saying it that I am very, very worried because I love this party so much. I mean well for the party, I mean well for the president. As a party we should be able to support the president on his activities. Whenever the presidency is going wrong, the party should be able to harmonise issues. We should be able to tell Nigerians that look, we can still make it. But because we have a chairman that cannot manage issues every state chapter of the party today has crisis.

The best way we can resolve the crisis in the party is to first of all acknowledge that we have problem. After acknowledging that we have problems then we should be able to go round within our leaders or set up a reconciliation committee to reconcile all differences. But today, as I speak, no reconciliation process has been put in place at the centre to harmonise all these issues. That is why theyre talking about suspending (Senator Rabiu) Kwankwaso in Kano. Go to Kaduna, theyre talking about suspending Senator Shehu Sani. Go to Bayelsa, the former Governor Timipre Sylva has been suspended by the party.

PT: Do you think all these problems are caused by the PDP bloc within the APC?

Frank: I believe for some of us that came from the PDP, weve not been treated fairly. Tell me, if this party (APC) has been treating us well, why would they refuse me to speak? I still repeat: Is it because I came from PDP to join the party? Today, they have turned some of us to be like an outcast within the party. And that is why when my chairman made that statement about the Senate President that the party does not mind if the PDP takes over the position and so on. Shortly afterwards, because of some pressures, he came back to fine-tune his statement by saying that the party still wants to hold the position. But he never denied making the statement. How can you allow your number three citizen, no matter what.? Its because the party is not mediating between the executive and the legislature. The party has every power, to go to the president, to appeal to the president, to make it clear that this issue is not just about Bukola Saraki. This is beyond Saraki. It could be anybody. Anybody could be in his shoes. As a party, weve not been able to take a position that will please Nigerians. What is happening to Saraki is not just Saraki but its something that is making Nigerians to look at APC as a party having issues. Our chairman came out to demonstrate that statement. I wasnt the one that said it. I also read it in PREMIUM TIMES. So, these are issues that are very, very critical that we must go back to our drawing board because if we dont, my worry is this: I dont want us to have a scenario whereby we have power today and in the next four years were not in the office. We worked hard to bring this change and we must defend this change. This is because we have a president that has the goodwill to deliver the change agenda. But how you can do that lies on the party?

PT: You said Saraki shouldnt be going through what hes going through because hes the senate president. If the senate president has done anything wrong, is the senate president above the law?

Frank: Well, youve asked a very sensitive question. The senate president is not above the law. But, what I am trying to say is that this is the first time the number three citizen of our country is being tried. Nobody is above the law. But there is a way we should have addressed this issue that it will not put our party in a bad light before the public. Theres a way we could handle internal issues.

I wish, as a party, we took a position from the beginning after the president has emerged. As at then, I wish we had made it very clear from the beginning that the senate presidency should go to a certain zone either North Central, South West or the North East. Then we also defined where the position of the speaker should go. By today, we would not have been in this kind of situation. But again, it still boils down to the fact that we dont have an effective leadership within the party. We were confused at that time. As at that time, if my party never wanted Saraki to run they should have called him before the election and told him so. For Gods sake, hes a loyal member of the party. If they had said they didnt want him, he would have stepped aside. But the party didnt say anything.

PT: Do you think your party is having all these issues because it is not ideologically based? By this I mean that the politicians from all the merging parties dont share common principles and APC was a special purpose vehicle to get power?

Frank: Yes, because everybody knew at the time that the PDP had maltreated Nigerians and that was why we left the party. We were tired of the impunity that was going on in our party then in PDP. We said if our party cant give Nigerians the best, then some of us that are progressives will take a decision to leave, and we left that party with good intention. We said lets join our brothers from the ACN, from the CPC, from the ANPP to build a party that would rescue Nigerians at that time. But its just bad that we dont have a chairman that could unify the party. We could be from 10 different parties but if there is one man that can unite the party there will not be issues. But today, theyve made the party look as if some of us are enemies. If you talk, theyll say youre Sarakis boy. If you talk, theyll say youre Atikus boy. That is one of the major reasons why they dont want me to be the spokesperson of the party.

PT: But there was a mock election which produced the partys candidates for the principal positions in the National Assembly..

Frank: (cut in) Nobody violated that process, neither the Speaker nor anybody. For Gods sake, that was the first time I was seeing a mock primary. That was a wrong step my party took, by going to do a kangaroo primary that they called mock as at that time. What is mock? The party had power to confront anybody and should not have said lets go for a mock primary. If we never wanted the Senate President (Saraki) or the Speaker (Yakubu Dogara) at that time we would have gone to them to talk to them and plead with them and tell them the reasons why we didnt want them as a party. But we failed. We allowed them to go to the contest and at the dying minute when you know that you have an unpopular candidate, or a candidate that cannot win, you now said within the party lets go and do mock primary without consulting all those involved. They didnt call anybody and the next day they said they were calling a meeting and by then it was too late. When people have campaigned and spent their resources you want them to back out at the last minute. That was a laughable decision that we took.

PT: If the CCT finds Senate President guilty of false assets declaration charges, what would happen?

Frank: First of all, I will tell you clearly  not this current CCT trying him will find him guilty, not this chairman.

PT: But he has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the EFCC?

Frank: What is EFCC? Is EFCC a competent court of law? We cannot get justice as at today. I repeat, without fear of favour, as much as were thinking of kicking Saraki out of power, I want my party to also think of the repercussion of kicking him out. Look, let me tell you, this is how the case of the PDP started. When the party was trying to chase Rotimi Amaechi out of power that was when the problem of the PDP started. They didnt do their own homework very well. They were busy fighting him as a governor and some of us were shouting that this is injustice! But PDP failed to listen and it is the same scenario with us now. The fact that we dont like the senate president does not mean we should not give him justice. If we want to say because were fighting corruption, a lot of things were charging Saraki for, a lot of our leaders within the party are also guilty of the same offence.

PT: If hes convicted, what will happen?

Frank: Well, if it happens, then the party should be prepared to face that repercussion.

PT: What repercussion?

Frank: I dont know, but that is what I can tell you now. We should not allow it to happen. If it is this chairman of CCT that will try and convict him, of course, Nigerians already know the answer. A new born baby can even give you the judgement before the time. This is the same person that Nigerians have been shouting that he is not competent to carry out this trial. So clearance or no clearance, only a competent court can come out to clear anybody. It is not EFCC that will be saying they cleared somebody. On what ground did they clear him? Why didnt they clear him before this trial until now that Nigerians are shouting that he is corrupt?

PT: But he was actually cleared in 2015?

Frank: So why did they keep it internally? Why didnt they say it to the general public? Again, that is the problem. If you say someone has been cleared since 2015 why didnt they show us the letter then? Why now? The EFCC does not have the power to clear anybody. If you have a case, let the competent court of law clear you.

PT: The CCT is under the president and youve been praising him so far in the war against corruption.

Frank: The presidency is big. I cant say because of what theyre doing to Saraki the presidency has failed. No, the presidency has not failed. But the presidency should tread carefully in the process of trying to get issues right. We should get issues right with justice, not by impunity or by imposition.

PT: What role is Bola Tinubu playing in all of this?

Frank: I am not going to put blame on anybody. The chairman is not a small boy. The chairman is a father. The chairman is older than Atiku. The chairman is older than Bola Tinubu. The chairman is older than everyone in the party. He should have assumed the power of a leader, to take charge and not let anybody push him around. The chairman is not someone that could take a position within the party and stand by it.

PT: Does this have anything to do with the 2019 permutations?

Frank: Well, I can tell you clearly that the issue of 2019 should be left to God. So as a party or as a people if we start fighting over 2019 from now then we dont believe in God. Who knows if Im going to be alive? Who knows if any of my leaders is going to be alive? So, the best thing we should be praying for as human being is to keep praying to God to keep us till 2019 and beyond. When that time comes, well decide.

PT: Are you aware that some politicians who joined APC from the PDP are now plotting a return to the PDP?

Frank: Well, I cant speak for others. I can only speak for myself. Everybody has their right. If you think youre not getting justice in the APC today, its left for you to know whether you want to leave the APC or you want to remain there or you want to go elsewhere. But, to me, I can tell you that the way APC is going some people might be forced to leave the party. This is because I cant sit down in a party where I am being harassed and being intimidated and not getting justice. I cant sit there for anybody to oppress me. So I can get up tomorrow to say Im not getting my right and go to any party I want. But that is if I want to do that. But for people like us were going to try our best to make sure that we reconcile and not leave the party. But if it gets to that stage, anything the party sees the party should take it in good faith. I started shouting they were not taking me serious. Today, we have Alhaji Kawu Baraje who was one of the founding fathers of this party coming out to shout that if this party is not careful it would break. So we must either act fast or we lose our members.

PT: What is the way forward?

Frank: The way forward is peace, a dialogue.

PT: How do you achieve that?

Frank: We can achieve that if we have a leadership that has capacity.

PT: Who will set the process in motion?

Frank: We have a national chairman, he should do his job.

PT: Youre close to the former Vice President Abubakar Atiku, what is he planning to do now?

Frank: Please allow the former Vice President to speak for himself at the appropriate time. But I can tell you clearly that hes a loyal member of this party. He loves this party. He wants the best for this party. He believes in this party. That is why he tells you he believes hell continue to do his best. Leaving the party, to him, that is not the issue right now. Hes still a member of the APC. He wants APC to succeed. That is why hes doing his best to support the president to succeed.

PT: What is your assessment of Buharis administration almost one year after?

Frank: The president has really done well. You know Nigeria is a very complex country and you cannot please everyone at the same time. Some Nigerians are very angry with the president and some are very pleased with him. But to me as a party man, I can tell you clearly that from when he took over from the PDP, you should be able to give our administration a pass mark. The president has been able to fight corruption to a limit.

PT: If youre giving him a pass mark in the area of anti-corruption, why are you still saying Saraki shouldnt face trial?

Frank: That doesnt mean the president is not trying in the fight against corruption. What I am saying is that, for Gods sake, this is something the party could have managed. The senate president is not just any man. Hes not an opposition leader. I am not trying to promote corruption. But we need to be sure of the allegations because if you look at those that are testifying against him at the CCT, they cannot even come up with clear evidence to hold him as at today. Instead of mocking the fight against corruption theres a way we could have managed the case against the senate president. But outside that, the fight against corruption is looking good.

PT: Is APC able to advise the president on critical issues?

Frank: We must have a strong leadership to tame the executive as a party. The executive can only succumb to you when they see that the leadership of the party is strong and united. But if the executive sees that the leadership of the party is not united, you cannot control them. This is where were having issues. If you have a strong national chairman, what is happening in the party today will not be happening.

PT: Has the president jettisoned the APC manifesto or hes implementing them in part?

Frank: Definitely, the president is doing that. Hes a product of the party.

PT: Theres crisis in Bayelsa APC which you belong, which of the factions are you supporting? And is there any issue between you and Timipre Sylva?

Frank: Again, there are issues between me and Sylva. When the issues started, I expected the leadership of my party to either call me or Sylva but till today, nobody has called me. They all ignored me. I came out to tell Nigerians that my party, the APC, will not win the election if we field Timipre Sylva as our candidate. They should have called me because I raised a very critical question within the party. I knew then that the Bayelsa people wanted a change, but the change they wanted was not Timipre Sylva. I bet you, if we had presented Timi Alaibe, Bayelsa today would have been an APC state. But nobody listened to me. The party at the state level have now realised that I was right about Sylva all along.
The Federal Government says it is set to open the process for prospective investors interested in exploring the countrys vast bitumen deposits to bid for allocation of operational licenses.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Kayode Fayemi, who disclosed this on Friday during a working visit to bitumen bearing communities in Agbabu area, Ondo State, said only serious investors with proven work and financial plans would be allowed to participate in the bid round.

The minister, who assured the communities of governments readiness to protect their interest through the right policy and regulations, said the licencing process would be completed within a year.

Nigerias bitumen reserve, spanning approximately 120 square kilometres, is reputed to be the second largest in the world.

But, the exploitation and development of the resource has been limited to the artisanal level, as the operational permit is yet to be formalized by government.

During the visit, the minister, in company of other ministry officials, inspected samples of bitumen in Agbabu, Ilubirin and Lado communities and also interacted with leaders of the communities.

We want your mineral to work for you, and we are fully ready to assist your communities get the best from the process, the minister told the community leaders. Federal Government would partner with states, investors and the communities to create the enabling environment.

He assured that within the next six months massive work would commence on the bitumen project, adding that government has put in place policies that would guarantee the effective exploration and exploitation of the mineral.

The minister lamented that about 80 per cent of asphaltic materials used for road construction in the country were still being imported in spite of the vast bitumen deposit, assuring that the government would focus on ensuring that serious investors with proven work and financial plans were given licences.

Priority will be given to investors with the capacity to build processing plants to boost local production, help meet local demand and create jobs for our youth, the minister said.

He reiterated the commitment of the ministry to ensure that the solid minerals sector contributed an average of 0.3 to 10 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the near future.

The mining sector, he pointed out, has witnessed extensive reforms since 1999, as a result of the implementation of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act of 2007, saying the country would continue to provide a transparent and workable regulatory and policy environment for a private sector-led mining sector to emerge.

Apart from the regulatory framework to protect local and foreign investments, Mr. Fayemi said other incentives, like tax holidays and duty-free regime on mining equipment, have been put in place to encourage serious investors.

Equally, local investors would be supported through access to funding as well as equipment leasing.

Prospective investors, he said, must be prepared to play according to rules and standards, warning that the ministry would monitor closely activities of investors to ensure compliance with laid down procedures and guidelines.
The Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, has announced the redeployment of some of its senior personnel in an effort, as the commission intensifies efforts to improve its operational efficiency.

A statement signed Saturday by FRSC Head of Media Relations, Bisi Kazeem, said the redeployment was approved by the FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi.

Those affected include principal officers at the commissions headquarters and other commands, Mr. Kazeem said.

The affected principal officers include Austin Aipoh, Head, Command Administration and Strategy, at the headquarters to replace Stephen Maitizumahs, at Zone 11 Osogbo, who will now head Manpower Development (MPD), FRSC.

Similarly, former head, Manpower Development , Kingsley Agomoh, now to command Zone 7, Gwagwalada, covering FCT and Niger State while Jonas Agwu, Zonal Commander, Zone 7, now to Command Zone 6, Port-Harcourt covering Bayelsa, Rivers, Cross River and Akwa Ibom States.

Mr. Oyeyemi also approved the redeployment of Victor Nwokolo, Zonal Commander, Zone 1, Kaduna, covering Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa and Katsina States.

Mr. Nwokolo will now serve as head, Command Administration and Strategy, FRSC headquarters, while Bitrus Darwang of Zone 6 will now command Zone 1 consisting of Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina sector commands.

Others affected are some Zonal Heads of Operations, Zonal Administration Officers, Unit Commanders among others.

The redeployment letter, signed by Corps Secretary, FRSC, Kayode Fanola, states that affected officers are to report at their new commands on or before May 17, after proper handover and takeover.

The FRSC also used the announcement to remind the general public of its upcoming stakeholders forum on tyre which is scheduled to hold on Monday, May 9 at YarAdua Centre Abuja.
The Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, on Saturday described the continued detention of a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Warimopei Dudafa, and Fridays siege on the home of a former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, as the height of executive rascality.

Mr. Fayose said the EFCC operatives must understand that the nation is currently running a democratic system in which rule of law is sacrosanct.

In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Mr. Fayose condemned the invasion of Mr. Fani-Kayodes home despite an invitation by the EFCC for the politician to appear on Monday at its headquarters for questioning.

The EFCC under President Muhammadu Buhari is acting as if it is above the law and Nigerians and the international community must remind the commission that we are in a democracy where rule of law is sacrosanct, Mr. Fayose said.

Mr. Fayose further stated that the EFCC was recently scolded by a judge for its uncivilised manner the agency treats suspects.

The EFCC must be reminded of the judgement delivered in March, this year by Justice Yusuf Haliru of the Federal High Court in Nicholas Arinse Vs EFCC & Nigerian Army where the judge held that the EFCC did not behave as if we were in a civilised society and that the anti-graft commission was behaving as if we were in a military dictatorship, where they arrest and release person at will.

In the case of the former Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to ex-President Jonathan, no one is saying those suspected of corrupt practices should not be investigated and tried, but it is wrong for Warimopei Dudafa to have been kept in EFCC custody for over two weeks without trial.

Also, it is a demonstration of barbarism for the same EFCC that invited Fani-Kayode to its office on Monday to have invaded his house yesterday, holding the occupants hostage for eight hours when there is no evidence that Fani-Kayode refused to honour EFCC invitation.

Why the show of barbarism by the EFCC as if Nigeria is now back to 1984 when Buhari was a military dictator? the governor questioned.
President Muhammadu Buhari will Tuesday travel to London to participate in the international Anti-Corruption Summit which will be held in the British capital on Thursday.

President Buhari will play a prominent part in the summit which will be hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain with many other Heads of State and Government in attendance, a statement on Saturday signed by presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said.

President Buhari will, ahead of the summits opening, deliver a keynote address titled: Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups on Wednesday.

The president is one of the world leaders scheduled to speak at the opening session of the Anti-Corruption Summit with others, including Prime Minister Cameron and the President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim.

Thereafter, President Buhari will join other participating heads of State and Government at special plenary sessions on Exposing Corruption, Tackling Corruption and Driving out Corruption.

In his address to the summit and interactions with other participating leaders, President Buhari will urge the international community to move faster on the dismantling of safe havens for the proceeds of corruption and the return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of origin.

The President will also reaffirm his administrations unwavering commitment to the fight against corruption and the Federal Governments readiness to partner with international agencies and other countries to identify, apprehend and punish corrupt public officials.

President Buharis delegation to the Summit will include the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami and the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.

Before returning to Abuja on Friday, May 13, 2016, the President is expected to have a separate meeting with Prime Minister Cameron to discuss ongoing Nigeria-Britain collaboration in the war against corruption and terrorism, as well as other issues, including trade and economic relations between both countries, the statement said.
The opposition Peoples Democratic Party is set to prevail nationwide over the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2019 general elections, Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, has said.

The governor, who said the PDP was getting stronger all over the country, spoke at Owa, Ika North-East local government area of Delta State, while addressing PDP faithful after the local government congress in the area.

We are confident that going into the future, we will win all the states of the federation, Mr. Okowa said.

We must continue to build consensus, we must be able to build friendship and ensure that every voice is heard; we have always won elections in Delta State but we cannot go to sleep.

The governor said although Delta State had always been known as the home of PDP, the peaceful ward and local government congresses in the state were further evidence that the reconciliation and consensus efforts of the party were yielding fruits.

Mr. Okowa added, I congratulate the chairman and those who were elected into the executive committee of the party at the local government areas, including the national delegates.

I must thank our party leaders because what we witnessed today, shows unity and strength; we had very peaceful congresses not only in Ika North-East but the 25 local government areas of Delta State.

We have engaged in the process of reconciliation and building consensus and the peace we are enjoying in our party today is a product of hard work.

Because we worked hard, we had a peaceful congress and we have seen a wonderful showing that we love ourselves and the consensus we have built is good for us.

Declaring the result of the congress in the local government, the PDP Returning Officer in the local government, Chux Nwaebuni, thanked the people for their orderly conduct which he said produced peaceful elections.

According to the result he declared, Godwin Ogadi was re-elected chairman, with Johnbull Miti elected deputy chairman.

Others who clinched different positions during the congress are Hubert Obiagwe (Secretary), Ngozi Onyedum (Assistant Secretary), Rufus Uzochi (Publicity Secretary), Igah Samuel (Assistant Publicity Secretary), Lawrence Eziokwu (Treasurer), Mark Idegwu (Auditor), Itoroh Donstus (Legal Adviser), Odum Andrew (Financial Secretary), Aghanti Godwin (Organizing Secretary), Ikem Virgina (Woman Leader), Idehen Alfred (Youth Leader), Sylvanus Tudeme (Ex-officio), Joseph Okorie (Ex-Officio), Ben Obuh (Ex-Officio), Orie Catherine (Ex-officio) and Omashor Nkechi (Ex-officio).

A former Commissioner for Transport in the state, Lawrence Osiegbu, was elected national delegate.

In his acceptance speech, the newly elected local government party chairman, Mr. Ogadi, assured party faithful that he would work with his team to pursue reconciliation and bring in more members from other parties into PDP.
The Joint Task-Force (JTF) in Enugu State says it has re-strategised to meet current security challenges and check killings by herdsmen.

The Commander of Nigeria Air Force (NAF) Base Enugu, Mahmud Madi, Air Commodore, vowed in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu to prevent herdsmen attacks in the State.

As you are aware, just some few days ago we had a problem in one community (Nimbo Community in Uzo-Uwani LGA) where herdsmen were purported to have attacked and several lives were lost.

Before now, the Nigerian Air Force in conjunction with the (Nigerian) Army and other security agencies formed the Joint Task-Force (JTF) and has worked hard to make sure that that is not repeated.

And to let people know that we are willing and ready to be able to deter whatever it is that will be here to cause mayhem, he said.

Mr. Madi, who is also the Commander of NAF 95 Helicopter Combat Training Group, Enugu, said the JTF was ready to confront criminals and trouble-makers in Enugu State from all fronts.

He called on the residents of the state to cooperate by reporting and giving useful information about crimes and criminal elements in the state. (NAN)
In Angola, the three most important human rights abuses during 2015 were cruel, excessive, and degrading punishment, including reported cases of torture and beatings; limits on freedoms of assembly, association, speech, and press; and official corruption and impunity  that is the finding of the U.S. Department of States Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2015, released in April.

The report is released annually on human rights practices around the world. The report for Angola also discussed other human rights abuses, including arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life, harsh and potentially life-threatening prison conditions, arbitrary arrest and detention, lengthy pretrial detention, impunity for human rights abusers, lack of due process and judicial inefficiency, forced evictions without compensation, restrictions on non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trafficking in persons, limits on workers rights, and forced labor.

The Angolan government took some steps to prosecute or punish officials who committed abuses; however, accountability was weak due to a lack of checks and balances, lack of institutional capacity, a culture of impunity, and widespread government corruption.

But recent events continue to cause concern for human rights in Angola. The United States publicly expressed concern over the harsh sentences an Angolan court handed down in March to 17 civil society activists, noting that their conviction threatens the exercise of the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly in Angola. Their sentences range from two years to and eight and a half years in prison.

The activists, known as the 15+, were arrested last June, reportedly after a peaceful political discussion about democracy and governance.Two other activists were later charged with crimes. The 15+2 were eventually convicted in March of preparatory acts of rebellion and criminal conspiracy.

Secretary of State John Kerry said the annual human rights report renews the U.S. commitment to promoting and protecting universal human rights, to supporting and defending civil society in its peaceful efforts to hold governments accountable, and to working with our partners to advance peace, development, human rights, and democracy.
The Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, branch of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria has accused the non-medical staff of the institution of milking the institution for their selfish interest thereby causing a setback in the efforts to achieve healthcare for the general public.

The association made the allegation on Thursday while reacting to a statement credited to the non-medical staff alleging that it (MDCAN) had derailed from the primary objectives of making positive contributions to healthcare delivery.

The non-medical staff under the aegis of Joint Health Workers Staff Union had embarked on a weeklong strike, alleging that the MDCAN members were showing nonchalant attitude to work.

They claimed that members of the association had almost turned the hospital to a death zone.

In a statement by its acting chairman, Gabriel Awodeyin, and a member of the executive committee, Jabez Akinipe, MDCAN said JOGESU was ignorant of the workings in the health institutions, stressing that its allegations were not true.

The association claimed that JOHESU was not only envious of its members but also trying to equate themselves with them, especially in the area of remuneration.

It said, The leadership of JOHESU in Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta has continued to make every efforts to turn Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, into human abattoir as they view the hospital primarily as a platform for money making and position seeking for selfish reasons. It is also to their displeasure that illicit transactions have been largely curtailed in the hospital in the last few years.

The association accused JOHESU of quest for power, profit and position, and cared less about the welfare of patients who patronize the hospital.

It also accused the union of always embarking on strikes and violent protests, which it said were usually based on flimsy reasons and borne out of over-bloated ego and exaggerated sense of importance.

The doctor becomes the milestone for their development and advancement, MDCAN said.

Whatever is due to the doctor must also be extended to them simply because all work in the hospital.

They paint the doctor in bad light and at the same time seek equality and oftentimes superiority over the doctor.

The association said the allegations by JOHESU against its members were designed to deceive the unsuspecting public in their bid to attract sympathy and support for their activities that continued to impact negatively on the health care delivery to the citizens.

It stated further, They seek to deceive even the government of the day into believing that because we are in democracy, liberty has no bounds.

They cannot differentiate between equity and equality. They unleash terror on the system based on their erroneous conviction that they deserve equal treatment with the doctor.

But need it be said that we all have different training, job description and responsibilities? Where in the world are doctors paid same wages as every other health worker?

Even among doctors the wages vary. Among the coalition called JOHESU, salaries differ from cadre to cadre. What is due to them is what they should ask for, not equal salaries with doctors.

The association also alleged that in the FMC, Abeokuta, the negative activities of JOHESU leadership had reached a feverish pitch and required urgent appropriate action.

It condemned JOHESUs claim that patients now buy water packaged in sachets for bathing while there was no power supply in the hospital.

These are laughable and only lend credence to the fact that these group of people actively sabotage the effort of the hospital management to provide water and electricity, MDCAN said.

These are easily verifiable as the hospitals four 500KVA generators procured at different times within the past six years often breakdown need servicing all the time just in order to make money out of the system.

It is instructive to note that doctors are not in charge of providing water and electricity, JOHESU members are in charge.

But doctors and helpless patients bear the brunt of these acts of sabotage more than their members and they care less about it.
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.




TORONTO, May 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- AuRico Metals Inc. (TSX: AMI) ("AuRico" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) a National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Technical Report for the Kemess Underground Project and Kemess East Resource Estimate located on the Company's 100%-owned property in British Columbia, Canada.

This update supports the disclosure made by the Company in its news releases dated March 23, 2016 entitled "AuRico Metals Announces Positive Feasibility Study Update for the Kemess Underground Gold-Copper Project" and "AuRico Metals Identifies High Grade Core to Kemess East Deposit".

The NI 43-101 technical report assumes a base case gold price of US$1,200 per ounce, whereas the March 23, 2016 press release assumed US$1,250 per gold ounce. There are no material differences in the NI 43-101 technical report from the results disclosed in the news releases.

About AuRico Metals

AuRico Metals is a mining royalty and development company whose producing gold royalty assets include a 1.5% NSR royalty on the Young-Davidson Gold Mine, a 0.25% NSR royalty on the Williams Mine at Hemlo, and a 0.5% NSR royalty on the Eagle River Mine  all located in Ontario, Canada. AuRico Metals also has a 2% NSR royalty on the Fosterville Mine and a 1% NSR royalty on the Stawell Mine, located in Victoria, Australia. Aside from its diversified royalty portfolio, AuRico owns (100%) the advanced-stage Kemess Gold-Copper Project in British Columbia, Canada. AuRico Metals' head office is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

For further information: Chris Richter, President and Chief Executive Officer, AuRico Metals Inc., 416-216-2780, chris.richter@auricometals.ca; John Fitzgerald, Chief Operating Officer, AuRico Metals Inc., 416-216-2780, john.fitzgerald@auricometals.ca

SOURCE AuRico Metals
WASHINGTON, May 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Inspector General (OIG) is conducting a complex investigation into cross-border aid programs providing humanitarian relief in Syria. These programs are run from both Turkey and Jordan by multiple nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with funds from USAID and other international donors. Recent international press reports have raised issues of irregularities involving some of these programs.

USAID OIG's investigation has identified corrupt practices involving a number of these programs operating from Turkey. The investigation to date has identified a network of commercial vendors, NGO employees, and others who have colluded to engage in bid-rigging and multiple bribery and kickback schemes related to contracts to deliver humanitarian aid in Syria. Some early concerns about these practices surfaced through one USAID implementer, which identified and self-reported procurement irregularities affecting its programs.

Aid organizations providing life-saving assistance in Syria and the surrounding region face an extremely high-risk environment. Lack of fully competitive procurements, insufficient oversight, and the absence of adequate internal controls for obtaining, storing, and delivering relief supplies can jeopardize the integrity of these relief efforts and deny critical aid to those in need.

To date, OIG's investigation has established grounds resulting in the suspension of 14 entities and individuals involved with aid programs from Turkey. As a result of the suspensions, these parties are no longer able to receive U.S. government awards. A portion of USAID-funded cross-border programs in Syria were suspended as a result of this investigation, and several NGOs delivering aid to Syria have terminated staff members' employment based on demonstrated misconduct.



USAID OIG will continue to promote integrity and accountability in cross-border aid programs for Syria and routinely coordinates with the oversight and accountability offices of other international donors.

Those with information involving fraud, waste, or abuse in USAID programs in Syria and around the world are urged to contact USAID OIG. Reports can be made directly and confidentially through OIG's hotline at 1 (800) 230-6539 or (202) 712-1023 in the United States. Complaints can also be sent via email to ig.hotline@usaid.gov, or submitted through OIG's web site at: https://oig.usaid.gov/content/oig-hotline.

Related Links

http://oig.usaid.gov



SOURCE USAID OIG
According to the U.S. State Departments annual country reports on human rights practices around the world, in The Democratic Republic of Congo during 2015, there were numerous reports the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. Most reports concerned political tensions related to the national elections scheduled for 2016 or military operations in the East.'

Authorities charged political prisoners with a variety of common crimes, including abuse of confidence, inciting tribal hatred or civil disobedience, and attacking state security.

There were reports of government intimidation of opposition members, such as denying opposition groups the right to assemble peaceably limiting travel within or outside the country, and political influence in the distribution of media content.

Both state security forces and rebel and militia groups routinely arrested or detained persons arbitrarily. Additionally, rebel and militia groups committed arbitrary and unlawful killings throughout the year.

In a statement issued on April 28th, State Department press spokesman John Kirby noted, The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is experiencing a historic year that should  according to that countrys constitution  culminate in the DRCs first democratic transfer of executive power.

The United States supports the Congolese people in their pursuit of timely, free, and fair elections and underscores the importance of open political space to a credible electoral process.

We are deeply concerned by the governments arrest and intimidation of Congolese citizens participating in and preparing for peaceful political activity in Kinshasa and Haut Katanga Province the weekend of April 24.

The DRC government has, under its own constitution and its international human rights obligations, the responsibility to respect its citizens human rights including the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Repression destroys the trust and confidence of the very citizens who are needed for any credible dialogue amongst all Congolese stakeholders.

The United States underscores UN Security Council resolution 2277s pronouncement that a peaceful and credible electoral cycle, in accordance with the constitution, is critical to the DRCs long-term stabilization and consolidation of democracy. The United States strongly believes that the Congolese people, free of fear, should shape the future of Congo.
London, May 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

TEST TEST This Is a Test From PR Newswire - PLEASE IGNORE



Test Pivotal ReMail ETE Post Hybrid Deployment - Please ignore - PIVREMAIL ETE IMMEDIATE

PIV Post Excite 070516 Deploy Test EdAp1 - End to End In Production after Hybrid Deployment. Product 24UK - Immediate

07.05.16 at 15.20 - Test transfer PIVtoEDAP (All Fields) & Distribution to TestEmail & PRNeWebsite DIST 1613

Company: PRN Test Company

Test: Pivotal to Excite ETE Test

LONDON

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(in thousands, except per share amounts)

Three Months Ended Six Months Ended (unaudited) (unaudited) June 30, June 30, June 30, June 30, 2010 2009 2010 2009 Continuing operations $'000 $'000 $'000 $'000 Revenues (see note 4) 221,125 195,192 415,305 324,971 Cost of revenues (excl. amortization) (30,323) (23,628) (51,865) (36,417) Amortization of purchased intangibles (14,898) (15,105) (29,432) (20,459) Total cost of revenues (45,221) (38,733) (81,297) (56,876) Gross profit 175,904 156,459 334,008 268,095 Operating expenses: Research and development (27,741) (28,781) (55,523) (48,791) Sales and marketing (50,557) (37,110) (93,457) (65,870) General and administrative (17,264) (15,508) (34,519) (26,796) Other costs Post-acquisition restructuring costs (558) - (558) (846) (Loss) profit on foreign exchange (2,777) (694) 184 (1,127) Total operating expenses (98,897) (82,093) (183,873) (143,430) Profit from operations 77,007 74,366 150,135 124,665 Share of loss of associate (333) (85) (671) (526) Interest receivable 2,178 168 2,985 791 Interest payable (11,372) (2,757) (16,169) (3,261) Profit before income taxes 67,480 71,692 136,280 121,669 Income taxes (15,129) (20,817) (34,215) (36,278) Net profit 52,351 50,875 102,065 85,391 Basic earnings per share $ 0.22 $ 0.21 $ 0.42 $ 0.36 Diluted earnings per share $ 0.21 $ 0.21 $ 0.42 $ 0.36

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1. This is an endnote

SOURCE PRN Test Company
MCKINNEY, Texas, May 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Torchmark Corporation (NYSE: TMK) announces the following webcast:

What: Torchmark Corporation Annual Shareholders Meeting Webcast

When: May 12, 2016 @ 11 AM Eastern 10 AM Central

Where: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/904/15196

Live over the internet  Simply log on to the web at the address above.

If you are unable to participate during the live webcast, the call will be archived on the Web site http://www.torchmarkcorp.com/ on the Investors/Calls and Meetings page under "Annual Meeting of Shareholders".

Torchmark Corporation is a holding company specializing in life and supplemental health insurance for "middle income" Americans marketed through multiple distribution channels including direct response, and exclusive and independent agencies. Torchmark has several nationally recognized insurance subsidiaries. Globe Life And Accident is a direct-response provider of life insurance known for its administrative efficiencies. American Income Life provides individual life insurance to working families. Liberty National Life is one of the oldest traditional life insurers in the Southeast. United American is a consumer-oriented provider of supplemental life and health insurance. Family Heritage Life provides individual supplemental health insurance.

Related Links

http://www.torchmarkcorp.com



SOURCE Torchmark Corporation
SAN DIEGO, May 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three new studies being presented during this year's Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association highlight differing approaches in the diagnosis and management of prostate cancer, including variations in practice patterns. These studies will be presented to the media during a special press conference on Saturday, May 7 at 10 a.m. PT, to be moderated by AUA Public Media Committee Chair Dr. Scott Eggener.

Studies being presented include:

Informed Decision-Making for Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening (Abstract MP37-02): Despite an increase in advocacy for shared decision making and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, conversations may be more likely to address the advantages of screening than the disadvantages, according to researchers in Boston. Using data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (PRFSS), researchers examined data for 130,592 men aged 40 and over without a history of prostate cancer who were surveyed using the PRFSS prostate cancer screening questionnaire. Of those men, 60 percent had been counseled about the benefits and/or risks of PSA screening, with 58 percent being counseled about advantages and 28 percent being counseled about disadvantages. Race, age, insurance status, higher income and education level were identified as independent predictors of the level of counseling received.

Men with Low-Risk Prostate Cancer: Nationwide, Population-based Study in Sweden (Abstract PD08-0): Active surveillance is increasing as an option for managing men with very low risk and low-risk prostate cancer, new data shows. Researchers from the United States, Sweden and the United Kingdom reviewed data from the National Prostate Cancer Register (NPCR) of Sweden and found that, between 2009 and 2014, the use of active surveillance increased in men aged 55 years and under with very low risk disease (44 percent to 84 percent) and low risk disease (22 percent to 59 percent). This increase was also seen men aged 55 to 59 (45 percent to 90 percent for very low risk and 33 percent to 71 percent for low risk) and 60 to 64 years (60 percent to 90 percent for very low risk and 40 percent to 74 percent for low risk).

Analysis of Active Surveillance Follow-Up: How Closely are Patients Monitored Over Time? (Abstract MP25-12): Though the use of active surveillance is increasing, there are wide variations in follow-up testing, according to new analysis of data from the Michigan Urological Surgery Improvement Collaborative (MUSIC). Using data from the registry, researchers in Royal Oak, MI and Ann Arbor identified 431 patients with prostate cancer who opted for active surveillance (and remained on the protocol for two years) and found that only 31 percent had follow-up PSA tests and biopsies according to guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Of the men who did not receive follow-up care in line with NCCN guidance, 53 percent did not receive a repeat biopsy. Sixteen percent did undergo a repeat biopsy, but did not complete three or more PSA tests during the two years of follow up.

"These studies raise a number of important points, including an increase in the use of active surveillance to manage prostate cancer in men with low-risk disease," Dr. Eggener said. "But most importantly, they highlight a need for consistency in how we discuss the benefits and risks of PSA screening and how we manage patients on active surveillance protocols."

About the American Urological Association: The 111th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association takes place May 6-10, 2016 at the San Diego Convention Center in California.

Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology, and has more than 21,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health policy.

Contact:

Christine Frey, AUA

443-909-0839, [email protected]

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SOURCE American Urological Association

Related Links

http://www.AUAnet.org


WAYNE, Pa., May 6, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ryan & Maniskas, LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in United States District Court for the District Court, District of Massachusetts on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased Alere Inc. ("Alere" or the "Company") (NYSE: ALR) securities between May 9, 2013 and April 20, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period").

Alere shareholders may, no later than June 20, 2016, move the Court for appointment as a lead plaintiff of the Class. If you purchased shares of Alere and would like to learn more about these claims or if you wish to discuss these matters and have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights, contact Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire toll-free at (877) 316-3218 or to sign up online, visit: www.rmclasslaw.com/cases/alr.

Alere provides diagnostic tests for infectious disease, cardiometabolic disease, and toxicology.

On February 1, 2016, Alere disclosed that it had entered into a merger agreement with Abbot Laboratories. On this news, Alere's stock price climbed $16.91, more than 45%, to close at $54.11 per share on February 1, 2016.

The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about Alere's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Alere improperly recognized and reported revenue in violation of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles; (ii) Alere's quarterly and annual SEC filings would thus be delayed; (iii) therefore, Alere's planned merger with Abbott Laboratories would be thrown into doubt; (iv) Alere lacked adequate internal controls over accounting and financial reporting; and (v) consequently, Alere's financial statements, as well as Defendants' statements about Alere's business, operations, and prospects, were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.

On February 26, 2016, Alere disclosed its inability to timely file its Annual Report for 2015 because it was investigating "certain aspects of revenue recognition in Africa and China" and evaluating "internal controls over financial reporting for the year ended December 31, 2015." Alere also disclosed that it had received an SEC subpoena on January 14, 2016, seeking "additional information related to sales of products and services to end-users in Africa, as well as revenue recognition" regarding the same.

On this news, Alere stock fell $0.48 to close at $53.30 on February 29, 2016, the next trading day.

On March 15, 2015, Alere disclosed its inability to file its Annual Report for 2015 within the 15-day extension period because the previously disclosed investigation remained ongoing and had expanded in scope. Finally, the Company disclosed that on March 11, 2016, the Company received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking information on "sales, sales practices and dealings with third-parties (including distributors and foreign governmental officials) in Africa, Asia and Latin America and other matters related to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."

On this news, Alere stock fell $4.14 per share, or 9.2%, to close at $49.32 on March 15, 2016, on unusually heavy volume.

On April 20, 2016, the CEO of Abbott Laboratories, during the company's quarterly earnings call, would not affirm Abbott Laboratories' commitment to merge with Alere.

On this news, Alere stock fell $6.11, or 12.3% per share, to close at $43.36 on April 20, 2016, on unusually heavy volume.

If you are a member of the class, you may, no later than June 20, 2016, request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff of the class. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain Ryan & Maniskas, LLP or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.

For more information regarding this, please contact Ryan & Maniskas, LLP (Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire) toll-free at (877) 316-3218 or by email at [email protected] or visit: www.rmclasslaw.com/cases/alr. For more information about class action cases in general or to learn more about Ryan & Maniskas, LLP, please visit our website: www.rmclasslaw.com.

Ryan & Maniskas, LLP is a national shareholder litigation firm. Ryan & Maniskas, LLP is devoted to protecting the interests of individual and institutional investors in shareholder actions in state and federal courts nationwide.

CONTACT: Ryan & Maniskas, LLP

Richard A. Maniskas, Esquire

995 Old Eagle School Rd., Suite 311

Wayne, PA 19087

484-588-5516

877-316-3218

www.rmclasslaw.com/cases/alr

[email protected]

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SOURCE Ryan & Maniskas, LLP

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SAN DIEGO, May 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Not all men with prostate cancer benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy after radical prostatectomy; however, African American men and men with a higher tumor stage may, according to a new U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) study featured at the 111th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA). The research will be highlighted by study authors during a special press conference. Sam S. Chang, MD, MBA, AUA spokesperson, Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair in Urologic Surgery and Professor of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt Medical Center will moderate the session at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA on May 7, 2016 at 9:15 a.m. PT.

This year, approximately 200,000 men will be told they have prostate cancer. In the United States alone, it is the leading cause of cancer in Veterans and the second most common cancer in men, affecting one in seven. Odds increase to one in five if the men are African American and one in three if they have a family history. Each year, more than 130,000 men opt for a radical prostatectomy to treat this disease; however, because 20-30 percent of these men will be found to have locally advanced or high-grade disease, they will be at risk for relapse. As such, researchers from VA centers across the U.S. sought to examine the efficacy of early adjuvant chemotherapy on patients who had a radical prostatectomy, but who based on clinical and pathologic parameters, were high risk for relapse.

Study Details

Publication Number: PI LBA 06

Nearly 300 patients at high risk for relapse after prostatectomy were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either a standard of care observation group or to a chemotherapy group where docetaxel and prednisone were administered every 3 weeks for 18 weeks. Randomization was stratified for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), Gleason score, tumor stage and the presence of positive margins. Patients were observed via PSA for a minimum of one, up to a maximum of five years. Results showed:

Adjuvant chemotherapy in high-risk prostate cancer using docetaxel and prednisone was tolerated well by patients

Of those who received chemotherapy, there was no statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival for the population as a whole; however, benefit in progression-free survival was seen in African American men (HR 0.54, 95 percent CI 0.29-1.01, p=0.054) and men with higher risk pathology T3b (HR 0.58,95 percent CI 0.34-0.98, logrank test p=0.041)

The most common adverse events Grade 3 related or possibly chemotherapy related included neutropenia in 40 percent, hyperglycemia in 18 percent, and fatigue in 5 percent, with febrile neutropenia in 1.4 percent.

"What this study shows is that men with aggressive disease, thus at higher risk for prostate cancer relapse, may benefit the most from chemotherapy after radical prostatectomy," said Dr. Chang. As urologists, we are always looking for new treatment options for our patients following localized therapy. Despite our best efforts, our established treatments for localized prostate cancer fail 30 percent of the time. Knowing to whom we should offer adjuvant chemotherapy is a real step forward in our attempts to improve our therapy success."

About the American Urological Association: The 111th Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association takes place May 6-10 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA. Founded in 1902 and headquartered near Baltimore, Maryland, the American Urological Association is a leading advocate for the specialty of urology, and has more than 21,000 members throughout the world. The AUA is a premier urologic association, providing invaluable support to the urologic community as it pursues its mission of fostering the highest standards of urologic care through education, research and the formulation of health policy.

Contact:

Christine Frey, AUA

443-909-0839, [email protected]

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SOURCE American Urological Association

Related Links

http://www.AUAnet.org


"Troy is a talented hospital operator with executive experience in multiple communities served by HCA," said Jon Foster, president of HCA's American Group. "He is a proven leader who embodies HCA's culture and shares our continual commitment to improving clinical quality and the patient experience. We are pleased to welcome him to the Gulf Coast division."

A 23-year veteran of HCA, Villarreal has served as chief executive officer of HCA's Medical City Dallas Hospital since 2013. Med City Dallas is a full service tertiary care center with more than 660 beds and 1,150 affiliated physicians and is the flagship hospital of HCA's North Texas Division. Prior to this role, Villarreal was CEO of HCA's Medical Center of Plano for five years, where he oversaw a major facility upgrade, significant growth, and increased patient, physician and employee satisfaction. Before that, he was CEO of HCA's Plaza Medical Center of Fort Worth. He joined the company in 1993 as a hospital administrative resident and held a number of hospital leadership positions, including chief operating officer of Med City Dallas from 1999 to 2003.

Villarreal earned his bachelor's degree in psychology at Texas A&M University and a Master of Healthcare Administration and Master of Business Administration at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Texas. He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. Villarreal has a strong history of community service. He is a graduate of Leadership Plano Class 27 and formerly served on the Executive Committee Board, Strategic Planning Committee, and Alumni Committee of Leadership Plano. He also has served on the board of the Plano Chamber of Commerce, as Campaign Cabinet Chair for Collin County in 2009-2010, and as a member of the Advisory Board of the United Way of Greater Dallas.

Walsh has been with HCA for twenty-nine years, serving in a number of different executive capacities. She held seven different executive positions including COO of West Houston Medical Center, COO of Bayshore Medical Center, CEO of Doctors Hospital of Little Rock, CEO of Rosewood Medical Center, CEO of Mainland Medical Center, CEO of Bayshore Medical Center and president of HCA's Gulf Coast Division, a position she has held for 12 years.

"We are fortunate to have people like Maura who have dedicated long careers leading our hospitals and serving our communities," said Foster. "We appreciate her many contributions, and we wish her the very best in retirement."

All references to "Company" and "HCA" as used throughout this release refer to HCA Holdings, Inc. and its affiliates.

Investor Contact: Media Contact: Mark Kimbrough Ed Fishbough (615) 344-2688 (615) 344-2810

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160506/364808

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160506/364819LOGO

SOURCE HCA
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Mumbai, May 3 : The central government will give between Rs.22,000-Rs.30,000 crore over the next three years to complete various pending small and medium irrigation projects in the drought-hit areas of Maharasthra, it was announced on Tuesday.

The decision was taken at a joint meeting of union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana.

The pending projects will be taken up through the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, and a proposal will be brought up before the union cabinet soon, Gadkari said.

"Maharashtra ia a major focus state as it has a lot of irrigation potential which has not yet been realised," he added, not the drought-hit regions of Vidarbha and Marathwada would be benefited.

Uma Bharti agreed to take up 132 projects falling in 14 suicide-prone districts of Marathwada (34) and Vidarbha (98) as "special projects" worth Rs.7,188 crores.

On its part, Maharashtra has shortlisted 26 AIBP projects under the PMKSY in a 60:40 ratio to which she accorded in-principle approval.

Fadnavis sought a special package for the state reeling under four consecutive years of drought, and urgency to increase the irrigation potential in the state which currently stood at only 18 percent, by providing central aid to complete the long-pending Ghosikhurd and Tapi recharge irrigation projects.

He said that a joint team of central and state officials will be set up to chart a future plan for Ghosikhurd project and its report would be submitted shortly which Uma Bharti agreed to onsider on priority basis.

Maharashtra ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan and Vijay Shivtare were also present at the meeting.
The countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia are uniquely positioned to take advantage of their geographic location, abundant natural resources and the skills of their people to enter a new period of economic growth.

For many countries in the region record low oil and gas prices have brought home the importance of diversifying their economies. Central to this process, said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic and Business Affairs Kurt Tong in a recent speech, is increasing trade and investment ties with neighbors in the region, the European Union and United States.

In order to achieve this, countries across the Caucasus and Central Asia need to make trade and transit through the region as seamless as possible. Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstans recent formation of the International Trans-Caspian Transportation Consortium exemplifies the type of concrete steps governments can take to better coordinate regional trade and transit.

Taking advantage of the great potential of the Trans-Caspian Trade Route, said Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Tong, will help bring sustainable security and economic development to tens of millions of people across the Caucasus and Central Asia, with positive results both regionally and globally.

As part of the wider New Silk Road trade corridor, Azerbaijan and Georgia will need to ensure efficient customs clearance, predictable commercial courts and transparent enforcement of regulations. All three are critical to creating a favorable investment climate. In such a competitive global market for investment, poor scores on key indicators  such as rule of law shortcomings and unpredictable enforcement of contracts, problems with payment of taxes, or weak protection of minority investors  could mean that investors will go somewhere else.

The United States is supporting a New Silk Road program throughout the broader Central Asia region, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, focused on advancing regional economic connectivity in four areas: creating a regional energy market; trade and transport; customs and borders; and people-to-people exchanges. The U.S. is working with governments, international financial institutions, aid agencies, civil society and commercial firms on these efforts.

The United States is optimistic that expanded regional connectivity, including through strong cooperation with the regions private sectors, will spur new economic growth and stability in Central Asia, the Caucasus and beyond.
Brasilia, May 4 : The suspension of WhatsApp in Brazil was scrapped, hours after an appellate court upheld a 72-hour nationwide shutdown of the messaging service.

Sergipe State Court magistrate Ricardo Mucio Santana de Abreu Lima on Tuesday overturned the initial decision, made by Marcel Maia Montalvao, a criminal court judge in Lagarto, Sergipe.

Brazil's five mobile operators - TIM, Oi, Vivo, Claro and Nextel - began blocking WhatsApp at 2.00 p.m. on Monday, a move affecting some 100 million Brazilian users of the service, EFE news reported.

Montalvao ordered the shutdown in response to a motion from the Federal Police, who are seeking to force social media giant Facebook that owns WhatsApp to comply with previous court orders requiring the company to reveal the content of texts sent via WhatsApp by the defendants in a drug case.

Earlier on Tuesday, appellate magistrate Cezario Siqueira Neto agreed with Montalvao that WhatsApp should be able to recover the texts and he criticised Facebook for failing to dispatch technicians to discuss the matter with authorities.

Technology experts have suggested Facebook is unable to comply with the Brazilian demands because WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption technology that makes it impossible for the company to monitor messages travelling across its network.

Last December, a judge in Sao Paulo mandated a 48-hour nationwide shutdown of WhatsApp in another case involving a demand for information in a criminal probe. Within 12 hours, another magistrate lifted the ban, calling it "unreasonable" to punish the service's "millions of users".

Brazil's telecom regulator, Anatel, called the latest shutdown of WhatsApp disproportionate, but said it was powerless to intervene.

WhatsApp said on Tuesday that it has cooperated with the Brazilian courts to the fullest extent of its capacity.
Washington, May 5 : The former US presidents George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) and George W. Bush (2001-2009) has ruled out the possibility of supporting Donald Trump for the presidency of the US.

The two former presidents has planned to "stay silent" in the race to the White House, Efe news agency reported on Thursday.

"At the age of 91, President Bush is retired from politics", spokesman Jim McGrath said, although the nonagenarian recently endorsed his other son Jeb Bush.

Meanwhile, the personal assistant of former president Bush (son) Freddy Ford, on Wednesday said the former president "does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign".

The 2016 presidential race will be the first election cycle in which the Bushes are not involved in the Republican nomination since both left office.

In 1996, Bush (father) endorsed the campaign of Bob Dole, his longtime political rival, while in 2000 and 2004, he also campaigned for his son George W. Bush.

In 2008 and 2012, both Bushes supported Republican nominees US Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney, respectively.

The former governor of Florida Jeb Bush, supported by his father and brother, dropped out of the GOP presidential race in February.

In Trump's victory speech in Indiana, the tycoon asked his fellow Republicans to bring "unity": "We have to bring unity -- this (election) is so much easier if we have it."
Washington, May 5 : Donald Trump assumed control of the Republican Party as its presumptive presidential nominee after Ohio Governor John Kasich exited the race and planned for a six-month battle for the White House against Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Trump, who has proudly touted how he has self-funded his campaign, said on Wednesday post Kasich dropping out that he would begin actively seeking donations for his campaign and raise money for the national party, part of the arduous task of coalescing a party deeply divided over his toxic brand of politics, The Washington Post reported.

Trump acknowledged that he would have to liquidate some of his real estate holdings to muster the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to self-fund a credible fall campaign.

Party leaders are scrambling to stave off a parade of prominent Republicans endorsing Clinton, but already there were notable defections.

The two living Republican past presidents, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, have no plans to endorse Trump, according to their spokesmen.

The Clinton campaign released a brutal video mash-up of Republican rivals condemning his character and fitness for office, while the former secretary of state called him "a loose cannon" and invited Republicans and independents seeking an alternative to Trump to join her.

"Let's get off the red or the blue team. Let's get on the American team," Clinton told CNN.

However, Trump said he was hardly fretting about whether leading Republicans, such as 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, would eventually back him.

"I believe that the people are going to vote for the person," Trump said, adding "They love their party, but until this year, the party was going in the wrong direction. We've made the party much bigger."

Kasich, a career politician whose sunny campaign failed to gain traction in a year dominated by anti-establishment anger, suspended his bid on Wednesday in an emotional speech tinged with wistful anecdotes about town-hall meetings he called "absolutely magic".

"The people of our country changed me," Kasich said, adding "The spirit, the essence of America lies in the hearts and souls of us. You see, some missed this message. It wasn't sexy. It wasn't a great sound bite."
Beijing, May 6 : China will step up law enforcement in the South China Sea to prevent illegal fishing activities and rehabilitate marine resources during the upcoming seasonal ban.

Zhao Xingwu, head of the bureau of fisheries under the agriculture ministry, on Thursday said the enforcement will be jointly conducted by the Chinese Coast Guard and local fishery bureaus, the China Daily reported.

"We will definitely step up law enforcement in the South China Sea to enhance regulation of our fishing vessels. Meanwhile, we will also step up the regulation of foreign ships," he said.

Since 1999, China has imposed an annual fishing ban in parts of the South China Sea between May 16 and August 1 as part of an effort to protect marine resources in an area under its jurisdiction.

The ban covers areas north of the 12th parallel, including Huangyan Island but excluding most of the Nansha Islands.

In the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea, the fishing ban falls between June 1 and September 1.

China's territorial waters have long been troubled by overfishing. Around 8-9 million tonnes of fish can be harvested legally in China's territorial waters each year, but the actual amount reaches 13 million tonnes.

Overfishing has resulted in the destruction of spawning sites for some species, reducing stocks in China's coastal areas, as well as leading to a prolonged recession in the sector, especially in the East China Sea.
New Delhi, May 6 : The Samajwadi Party on Friday raised the issue of an empty water train reaching drought-hit Budelkhand, even as Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien stressed that there should be no politics over water.

SP members also staged a walkout from the upper house on the issue.

Naresh Agrawal, raising the issue in the upper house, said: "The train that arrived was empty... it did not have water. Centre can help only when states seek help; we asked for money for making a dam in Bundelkhand."

He called for the resignation of the concerned central minister.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the centre is ready to extend all help, and the issue should not be politicised.

"If there is drought anywhere in the country, we all should be sensitive towards it. There is no need to do politics about that. There is a special package for Bundelkhand, it should be used properly. Centre is ready to provide more help," he said.

Kurien pointed out that no one should play politics over water.

"In the name of water and drought nobody should play politics. I would also request that this point may be talked, and settled," said Kurien.

In his explanation, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu said that the train was supposed to be filled in Agra.

"We usually fill the tanker in the same state where water has to be supplied. That train was to be filled in Agra," said Prabhu.

He also said he had spoken to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday.

Agrawal however stressed that the state did not ask for a water train, but for tankers and money for digging tanks and constructing dams.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati said that the Centre and state should coordinate and help the people of Bundelkhand.

Nearly 50 districts are facing drought in Uttar Pradesh. In such a situation, the Centre and state government should rise above party politics and work together to solve the water crisis, Mayawati said.

"The state government maintains that the train sent was empty... We want to say that the government should have used whatever water was there in the train," she said.
New Delhi, May 6 : Amid a political slugfest between the Samajwadi Party and BJP over the water crisis in Uttar Pradesh, especially in drought-hit Bundelkhand region, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday.

"The chief minister will formally meet the prime minister here tomorrow (Saturday), where issues relating to governance and drought and water scarcity will figure," an informed source said here.

Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party on Friday raised in the Rajya Sabha the issue of an "empty water train" reaching Bundelkhand. SP members later staged a walkout from the upper house.

In Lucknow, the state government on Thursday accused the Centre of "playing politics" over drought and said nobody had requisitioned water from the union government as there was not much need.
Nairobi, May 7 : Kenya will close all refugee camps, a move that would displace more than 600,000 people living there, the government announced.

The decision taken on Friday includes Dadaab, the largest such camp in the world. It is home to more than 300,000 people on the Kenya-Somalia border, CNN reported on Saturday.

The government is shutting down the camps because of "very heavy" economic, security and environmental burdens, senior Interior Ministry official Karanja Kibicho said in a statement.

"Kenya, having taken into consideration its national security interests, has decided that hosting of refugees has come to an end," Kibicho said, pointing to threats, such as the terror group Al-Shabaab.

Kenya announced the closure of refugee camps last year for the same reasons but backed down in the face of international pressure. Most of the camp residents come from Somalia, which has been torn by civil war.

At the time, government officials were not clear where they expected the refugees to go, other than somewhere into Somalia and out of Kenya.

While it is not immediately clear if or when a closure might happen, the interior ministry said it has already disbanded the department of refugee affairs as a first step.
Washington, May 7 : Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton's campaign is trying to seize on the turmoil Donald Trump has caused within the Republican Party, hoping to gain the support of Republican voters and party leaders disillusioned by their standard-bearer.

The efforts come after House speaker Paul D. Ryan, on Thursday said he was "just not ready" to back Trump, comments the Clinton campaign hailed on social media.

At the same time, Priorities USA Action, a "super PAC (political action committee)" supporting Clinton, intends to reach out to Republican megadonors disillusioned by their party's presumptive nominee, The New York Times reported.

With the Democratic nomination in sight, Clinton has broadened her economic message, devoted days to apologising for a comment she previously made that angered working-class whites, and pledged that her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who remains widely popular among the blue-collar voters drawn to Trump, would "come out of retirement and be in charge" of creating jobs in places that have been particularly hard hit.

The campaign expects to assemble a "Republicans for Hillary" group, and Clinton has, from her days in the Senate and as secretary of state, cultivated strong relationships with prominent Republicans and their top staff members.

Mark Salter, a top adviser to Senator John McCain, this week expressed his support for Clinton on Twitter minutes after Trump clinched his party's nomination.

Clinton has also enjoyed a strong relationship with former defence secretary Robert M. Gates, a Republican, who described her as "a superb representative of the US all over the world".

On Friday, President Barack Obama helped in Clinton's effort. "Republican women, voters, are going to have to decide, 'Is that the guy I feel comfortable with representing me, and what I care about?'" he said of Trump at a news conference.

The Clinton campaign is also moving to exploit the public criticism of Trump by prominent Republicans.

On Wednesday, the campaign released an online ad that quoted Trump's former primary opponents describing him as a "know-nothing candidate", "a narcissist" and "the most vulgar person ever to aspire to the presidency", among other epithets.

However, Clinton's pitch to Republicans reflects the grim political realities of 2016, according to the CNN/ORC poll.

More than half of the registered voters who said they would vote for Clinton planned to do so in opposition to Trump, rather than in support of her candidacy, the poll said.
Kozhikode (Kerala), May 7 : Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar on Saturday urged the people of Kerala to ensure that Oommen Chandy is given a second term as chief minister.

"To take forward the development agenda of Kerala, Chandy should get another term," Nitish Kumar, who is in the state to take part in his party's campaign for assembly elections, told reporters here.

The JD(U) or Janata Dal (United) is a minor constituent of United Democratic Front (UDF) that Chandy's Congress leads.

In the outgoing Kerala assembly, the JD(U) has two legislators including M.V. Shreyams Kumar, the son of state party chief M.P. Veerendra Kumar.

Nitish Kumar criticised the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for not joining the 'grand alliance' in Bihar in last year's assembly polls and also attacked the wrong policies of the BJP, which he said are detrimental to secular Kerala.

Chandy had taken part in Nitish Kumar's swearing in as chief minister of Bihar last year.

Kerala votes on May 16 to elect its 14th legislative assembly.
Seoul, May 7 : South Korea and the US Saturday agreed to mount pressure on North Korea, as Pyongyang held its party congress for the first time in 36 years.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se spoke to US Secretary of State John Kerry earlier in the day and reached the agreement, Xinhua news agency reported citing a ministry statement.

"(They) agreed to keep sending strong warning messages together with the international community to deter additional nuclear tests and provocations by North Korea," the statement said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday celebrated the "great success" of the country's nuclear programme at the seventh congress of the ruling Workers' Party.

The two officials also shared their assessment of North Korea's ongoing ruling party congress and the possibility of further "provocations" by Pyongyang.
New Delhi, May 7 : As mountainous waves struck the German U-Boat under dark and roiling skies, its captain emphatically advised Subhas Chandra Bose against leaving the vessel to board a Japanese submarine.

Bose replied: "I haven't come all this way to go back."

Disregarding the fact that he could not swim, Bose stepped into a raft with two of his aides and crossed the stormy seas to board the Japanese vessel, anchored a 100 metres away to prevent the possibility of collision.

This is an anecdote from the nationalist leader's life narrated by Major Gen G.D. Bakshi at the launch of his book, "Bose: An Indian Samurai", published by the Knowledge World. He was highlighting Bose's single-minded devotion to the national cause and the struggle for independence.

Gen Bakshi said he had chosen to focus on the 'Samurai' aspect of Bose.

"This kind of warrior chooses death, therefore he lives. The safest place for a samurai is under the edge of the enemy's sword," Bakshi said, adding that he had attempted to correct what he regards as "discriminatory" treatment of Bose at the hands of historians.

The British, for all their antipathy to Bose's Indian National Army (INA), paid a grudging tribute to the tenacity and sheer grit of its men.

According to Peter Ward Fay, Maj Gen Gracy, then General Commanding in Chief of an Indian Division, questioned INA Colonel Prem Sahgal, why bereft of numbers, artillery, air support, logistics and supplies, did they not surrender to the British.

"Instead of surrendering, you fought. It was madness. Why did you do it?"

"Of course it was madness," said Col Sahgal, then a POW, adding the INA was "a revolutionary Army".

Gen Bakshi mentioned the conversation that the then Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court, P.B. Chakraborthy, had with Clement Attlee whom he hosted during his visit to India in 1956.

Attlee, who had signed the transfer of power to India as the prime minister of Britain, revealed the reasons behind quitting India: they (the British) could not take the loyalty of the Indian Army and Navy for granted any longer, after the INA trials at Delhi's Red Fort had angered the public.
Seoul, May 7 : South Korean authorities on Saturday confirmed the fourth Zika virus case in the country in a woman who recently returned from a trip to Vietnam, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Saturday.

The 25-year-old woman worked in Ho Chi Minh City from April 10 to April 30 and entered South Korea on May 1, said the KCDC.

She visited a hospital in the western port city of Incheon on May 4 to treat a chronic thyroid gland problem after having rash and joint pain and was diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus, Xinhua news agency reported.

The KCDC suspected that she might have been bitten by a mosquito while in the Southeast Asian nation, noting that the patient is currently in stable condition.

Health authorities are also examining a person who met with the woman in Vietnam between April 13 to April 17 for potential transmission of the virus.

The latest case raises the number of confirmed infections in South Korea to four.

The first South Korean Zika case was found from a 43-year-old man on March 22.

The other two Zika cases were confirmed on April 27 and April 29 respectively, from two brothers who had travelled to the Philippines together.
Cairo, May 7 : An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced to death six people, including two Al Jazeera journalists, who were accused of leaking state secrets to Qatar.

The case of jailed former president Mohamed Morsi, who is also charged for espionage for Qatar, was however, adjourned.

The judgement will either be approved or reduced in June after consultations with Egypt's Mufti, the highest Sunni religious leader in the country. The court may or may not consider the Mufti's feedback, Al Jazeera reported.

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is not binding but is usually respected by courts.

The defendants have the right to appeal the verdict. Morsi has already been sentenced to life and 20 years in prison in three separate trials.

According to the prosecution, Morsi and the other 10 co-defendants had leaked "classified documents" to Qatar.

The documents allegedly contained secrets on "national security", and were allegedly traded with the Qatari intelligence for a million dollars.

Al Jazeera rejects Egypt's allegations that the network was collaborating with Morsi's elected government.

"I believe that this is a weak point in the Egyptian system, which might bring catastrophes to the whole country , especially when it comes to freedoms and human rights," Al Jazeera's Middle East Analyst Yahia Ghanem said on the judgement.
New Delhi, May 7 : Before it takes action on 'relocating' Indian tigers, Cambodia's forestry administration is on a special mission - scouting for signs of indigenous tigers in its dense jungles, where according to reports they are "functionally extinct".

"More than hundred cameras have been installed and more are being set up in the southern part of the Cardamom mountains and eastern part of the Mondulkiri Protected forests to look for the signs of tigers," Keo Omaliss, Director, Department of Wildlife and Biodiversity, Cambodia told IANS.

Omaliss said they are also searching for tigers in the north-eastern region of Cambodia, a large part of which comes under Mondulkiri and which also shares border with the neighbouring Yok Don National park in Vietnam.

He said they are doing it with the help of Wildlife Alliance, a non-profit wildlife conservation organization which has programmes in Cambodia.

The last wild tiger in Cambodia was spotted in 2007 in the Eastern Plain dry forests landscape of Mondulkiri forests.

Cambodia lost most of its tigers due to poaching and deforestation. It is now left with vast "tiger-less" bio-reserves, which includes the 1,700 sq km of Mondulkiri Protected Forests, 1,500 sq km Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary, 2,000 sq km Seima Protected Forests - a mixed evergreen forest, and 470 sq km of Phnom Nam Lyr Wildlife Sanctuary.

"This programme would also help us with tiger prey assessment. However, the focus is to get sign of any tiger out there," Omaliss said.

"Before reintroducing tigers in Cambodia over the next five years, with Indian help, we also need to prepare ourselves. We don't have intensive research on the tigers or the tiger prey," he said, adding that talks with India are on but not official yet.

Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has denied about any proposal for relocating Indian Royal Bengal Tigers to Cambodia, in Lok Sabha on Thursday, May 5.

He however, during a conference on tiger conservation last month here reiterated India's willingness to help increase the tiger population in countries where there was a low tiger count.

The prime location in Cambodia to search for tigers are the Mondulkiri Protected forests and the Cardamom Mountains covering over one million hectares of area. This is also the region where Cambodia aspires to 'reintroduce' tigers from India in two separate enclosed breeding areas.

The camera traps in Cardamom mountains, in the western and south western region of Cambodia, would also help check illegal logging in the area.

Asked what makes him believe that some Indo-Chinese tigers that once roamed in the Cambodian jungles are still alive, Omaliss added, "I am optimistic that some tigers are still roaming in Cambodian jungles silently, because that's the nature of tiger."

"There had been no report recently of hunting or poaching in the Cambodian forests. Around ten tigers were confiscated from poachers in the last five years. Besides, the area is vast and tigers are few so it's hard to spot them, but that doesn't make them extinct."

Omaliss also doesn't agree with the apprehension of some tiger experts claiming that introducing Indian tigers in Cambodia is a "bad idea".

"I dont agree that tiger introduction would not be successful. The key point is prey. If the tigers get their food then they will thrive. Indian and Cambodian jungles are not very different," said Omaliss.

A WWF report also finds tigers from India or Nepal best suited for re-introduction as the habitats are similar.

"There are tigers from different regions in the zoo of UK and USA and they are doing fine. Beside, given the right tigers and tigresses, of right age and build, the rehabilitation would be a success," Omaliss said.

(Kushagra Dixit can be contacted at kushagra.d@ians.in)
Imphal : Imphal May 7 (IANS) The issue of Inner Line Permit (ILP) is a political hot potato in Manipur, with parties challenging each other ahead of the municipal election here.

While most of the political outfits have said that they support implementation of the ILP, the tribals of the state remain staunchly opposed to the idea. And that has led to a situation in which parties are asking each other to make their stand clear on the issue ahead of the June 2 Imphal civic election.

Former state president of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Thounaojam Chaoba said that his party backed the idea of ILP under which Indian citizens are granted permission to travel inward to the protected areas.

"State BJP president Khetrimayum Bhabananda has started consulting party leaders in Manipur and he will come out with a policy statement soon," Chaoba said.

He said that all the 60 elected MLAs of the state should go to New Delhi to urge the central leaders to give assent to the three bills which were passed in the Assembly in this regard.

Chaoba also asked the Congress to clarify its stand on the issue.

"State Congress president T.N. Haokip should come out with a statement on his party's stand on the issue," Chaoba said.

While the Joint Committee on ILP has asked the parties to clarify where they stand on the matter by May 8 (Sunday), the Lok Janshakti Party has accused both the BJP and the Congress of evading the sensitive issue.

Currently, the ILP system is operational in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.

In 2012, the Manipur Assembly passed a resolution seeking implementation of the ILP system in the region.

But in March 2015, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh introduced the Manipur Regulation of Visitors, Tenants and Migrant Workers Bill under which all such categories of people were to be registered with a directorate.

However, protests erupted in the state.

Nine youths died in the violent protests against the ILP. Houses of an MP and several MLAs were set on fire in Churachandpur town in 2015.

Four MLAs belonging to the Naga People's Front resigned from the Assembly, saying their dissenting opinion was not considered while the bills were passed.

Meanwhile, besides the issue of ILP, the Imphal municipal election is likely to witness a political slugfest over corruption and the law and order situation in the state.
New Delhi, May 7 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Centre, states, local bodies, NGOs and citizens must work together to resolve problems posed by drought in various parts of the country.

Chairing a meeting here on the drought and water scarcity situation in parts of Maharashtra with the state's Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and senior officials, Modi said the authorities must focus on medium and long-term solutions to tackle drought.

He also stressed on the importance of using water efficiently through drip irrigation and sprinklers in agriculture, stating that drip irrigation in sugarcane increases the quality of sugar.

The prime minister said there was a need to adopt a judicious mix of traditional and modern water conservation and storage mechanisms. He said that a lot can be learnt from the water management practices and measures adopted by Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Chief Minister Fadnavis said that his government was working on a plan to ensure that the entire sugarcane belt in Maharashtra comes under drip irrigation in three years.

The chief minister stated that he was also working to rejuvenate the water bodies in the state.
Dhaka, May 7 : Unidentified attackers hacked a "pir", or spiritual leader to death in Bangladesh's Rajshahi district, some 256 km northwest of capital Dhaka, a police official said on Saturday.

Abdur Razzak, officer-in-charge of Rajshahi's Tanor Police Station, told journalists that the body of the victim, Shahidullah (65), was recovered on Friday night on receipt of information from locals.

The motive behind the killing could not be immediately known.

The murder reportedly bore the hallmark of previous murders of bloggers and secular activists, reported Xinhua news agency.

Two persons including the editor of a LGBT magazine were hacked to death by unidentified assailants in Bangladesh capital Dhaka on April 25, hours after a prison guard was shot dead in a separate incident.

The killing of the pir is the latest in the spate of killings that has been haunting the north since last year. A university teacher in Rajshahi was murdered in similar fashion last month.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh has seen a surge in violent attacks over the past few months in which members of minority Muslim sects and other religious groups have also been targeted.
The Farm Credit of the Virginias Calendar Photo Contest is open to the public at: http://www.farmcreditofvirginias.com  Members, employees, and friends of Farm Credit of the Virginias can submit photos via the website until May 31, 2016. Since the contest kicked off this past January, weve received a variety of excellent photo submissions. We encourage you to submit your photos prior to the deadline.

Those participating are allowed to submit up to three photos that have been taken within Virginia, West Virginia and/or Maryland. Were looking for images that include anything related to farming, ranching, country life and rural settings. All photo files must be at least 1MB in size. The top 3 photos will be featured in the 2017 Farm Credit of the Virginias calendar-- with the top 3 photos receiving gift cards for: $100.00, $75.00, and $50.00. Those selected to be featured, will also receive three copies of the 2016 calendar!

You can find the Calendar Photo Contest under the News tab on our website. We look forward to seeing the photos you share! Give us your best shot!

Farm Credit of the Virginias provides over $1.7 billion dollars in financing to more than 10,000 farmers, agribusinesses and rural homeowners throughout Virginia, West Virginia and western Maryland. Farm Credit is a cooperative capitalized largely through investments made by farmers, ranchers and the rural homeowners and businesses that borrow from them. Farm Credit helps maintain and improve the quality of life in rural America and on the farm through its constant commitment to competitive lending, expert financial services and for facilitating and sharing knowledge and resources through the Farm Credit Knowledge Center. For more information, visit http://www.FarmCreditKnowledgeCenter.com or http://www.FarmCreditofVirginias.com.
The tasting was a beautiful showcase of the many different terroirs, vines and producers he touched; Tachis created a new class of wines that today represent the best of Italy.

On April 13th in Verona, the Vinitaly International Academy closed out its seminar series with a tasting in tribute to Giacomo Tachis, the renowned father of the Italian wine renaissance, who passed away on February 6 of this year. The 50th edition of Vinitaly was the first without this iconic Italian winemaker, credited for launching the astronomically successful Super Tuscans, as well as developing outstanding wines throughout the peninsula.

The tasting was led by Ian DAgata, the Scientific Director of the Vinitaly International Academy, with Ilaria Tachis, Giacomos daughter and acclaimed winemaker in her own right. Ilaria shared a moving tribute to her father, remembering not only his work as a world-renowned enologist, but who he was as a parent, friend, student, and lover of Italian culture. Representatives of 12 of the wineries with which Tachis collaborated in his storied career also contributed reflections on the ways in which Giacomo touched their own lives, and work.

As Ilaria recounted to the over 100 participants in the tasting, Giacomo Tachis was born in Piedmont in 1933. A rebellious uninspired student, he found his passion at the Enological School of Alba, and launched his wine career in 1961, when he began working as a junior oenologist at the San Casciano estate of the Antinori family, eventually becoming the estates wine director. His aim was to increase the quality of production at the San Casciano estate at a time when Tuscany was flooded with the image of lower quality, high quantity Chianti wines, explained Ilaria.

I worked side by side with Giacomo Tachis for more than 30 years, remembers Piero Antinori. Those years changed the face of Italian wine. It was an extraordinary experience, both professionally and personally.

Giacomo Tachis was the leading figure in the rebirth of Italian wine, agrees Allegra Antinori. Together my father Piero Antinoris spirit of innovation and Tachis talent and knowledge created modern Italian wine  innovating with courage and curiosity, convinced that our grapes and our land had the potential to achieve more.

Giacomo Tachis was also instrumental in developing Sassicaia, now one of Italys most prestigious wines. Today's tasting was a very special tribute to Giacomo Tachis, whom we have to thank for the rebirth of Italian wine, said Priscilla Incisa Della Rochetta of the Sassicaia estate. The twelve wines showcased many aspects of Giacomo Tachis' genius, his capacity to imagine potential and create the best out of it. For us it was a great honor to be included in his life work and we will be forever grateful to him. We thank the Vinitaly International Academy for giving us the opportunity to be part of this memorable event.

Tachis was likewise fondly remembered by Michael Falchini, whose father Riccardo collaborated with Tachis at the Falchini estate in Tuscany. Hearing all the stories of Giacomo Tachis not only as an enologist, but also as a passionate student of science and love of the ancient classics, was very emotional. The tasting was a beautiful showcase of the many different terroirs, vines and producers he touched; Tachis created a new class of wines that today represent the best of Italy. My father was always very thankful to have had him by his side and call him a friend, and to this day we still follow his teachings.

Tachis left Antinori in 1993, and worked as a consultant, predominantly in Sicily and Sardinia. For my father, winemaking in the south was more satisfying, explained Ilaria, not least because he enjoyed the historical ties with Greek and Phoenician settlers. They maintained that wine likes to breathe sea air, and its still true today, he said. My father thought that wine was the essence of the earth. He believed that wine had a soul.

That passion left its mark on the wines and winemakers of the south.

When I met Giacomo Tachis, he was a man who had an enormous amount of historic and cultural knowledge, remembers Diego Planeta. In those days, it was almost impossible to find someone interested in the wine of Sicily. In him I found a great master  and Sicily needed masters. When he thought of wine, he thought first of the territory, the land, and then the product. He probably understood Sicily more than I did. He was someone born to share his knowledge  what he knew, he gave to the world.

Franco Argiolas, of Cantine Argiolas in Sardinia, echoes this sentiment: "When he arrived here we were simply wine growers but we had a great dream; we wanted to make a Sardinian wine that would bring our island to the world. We needed a man who was as much in love with our land as he was ingenious. Tachis once said to me, Wine must be an expression of the territory it comes from and of the spirit and passion of those who produce it; I'm only a wine blender, its you who make the wine great."

Giacomo Tachis had been recognized earlier that week as this years Vinitaly International Awardee for an Italian Estate.

It is such an honor to close the 50th anniversary of Vinitaly with an homage to Giacomo Tachis, together with 12 of the great producers he worked with, Managing Director of Vinitaly International told the audience. Giacomo Tachis was truly one of the worlds greatest winemakers, and he made the storytelling of Italian wine much easier for all of us.

About:

Veronafiere is the leading organizer of trade shows in Italy including Vinitaly (http://www.vinitaly.com), the worlds largest wine and spirits fair. The next edition of the fair will take place on 10 - 13 April 2016. Since 1998 Vinitaly International travels to several countries thanks to its strategic arm abroad, Vinitaly International. In February 2014 Vinitaly International launched an educational project, the Vinitaly International Academy (VIA) with the aim of divulging and broadcasting the excellence and diversity of Italian wine around the globe. VIA has now also organized a Certification Course with the aim of creating new Ambassadors of Italian Wine in the World.

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The Honorable Judge Horace T. Ward "Judge Ward was a Morehouse Man in every sense."

The Morehouse College community joins other Georgians as we mourn the loss of legal, political and civil rights trailblazer, the Honorable Judge Horace T. Ward, a member of the class of 1949. He was 88.

Following Wards wishes, his funeral will be held at Morehouse College in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on Tuesday, May 3 at 11 a.m. The service is open to the public.

Ward, who died April 23, was the first African American judge to serve on the U.S. District Court in Georgia after he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979 and was Georgias second African American to serve in the state legislature after Reconstruction. The first was his Morehouse classmate, Leroy Johnson

After graduating from Morehouse, Wards application to law school at the University of Georgia triggered a long court battle, as he would have become the first African American to attend UGA. Ward eventually earned his law degree at Northwestern University. But he helped break down the doors of segregation at UGA as part of the legal team that successfully fought to get Hamilton E. Holmes and Charlayne Hunter admitted as UGAs first African American students.

Judge Ward was a Morehouse Man in every sense, said Morehouse President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. Our students and alumni strive to live consequential lives that make a difference in our world. I am proud to say that Horace T. Ward did that and so much more. He will be missed and his legacy will live on.
The American creative-writing community comes together every year for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) conference. This years conference, held in Los Angeles from March 31 through April 2, featured far-reaching conversations about diversity, inclusion, access, race, and racism that have been simmering and, more recently, boiling. While the vibe at the conference was mostly positive, a great deal of anger was also expressed. Writers are attempting to address these issues, by protesting, advocating new programming, and developing caucuses within AWP.

Race, Diversity, and Creative Writing at AWP and Beyond

Perhaps the most notable evidence of, and response to, the mounting frustrations was the AWP keynote delivered by poet Claudia Rankine, whose 2014 collection, Citizen, brought attention to the myriad ways racism is expressed in everyday situations and made Rankine a public intellectual. The speech, which AWP will publish in its entirety in the fall issue of its Writers Chronicle magazine, is an indictment of institutionalized racism within the creative-writing community.

Boris Kachka, reporting on the keynote in New York magazines Vulture blog, wrote that Rankines stated topic was what keeps us uncomfortable in each others presence at the book fair, or, more specifically, what she sees as persistent racial tokenism in M.F.A. workshops.

Rankine said that even some writing programs with a diverse student body have successfully tokenized a person of color, objectified, exploited, and disregarded her all at once. As an example, she cited a letter she received from an anonymous African-American student who was thinking of leaving his or her program because they were told that certain life experiences are said to belong to sociology and not to poetry, and that to write beyond the imaginations notion of normality is to write political poetry, sociology, identity politics poetry, protest poetrymany labels, but none of them poetry. For in order for poetry to be poetry, white readers must find it relatable, and only then can it transcend its unrelatable colored writer. According to Rankine, simply admitting people of color into creative-writing programs doesnt solve the deeper problems.

Rigoberto Gonzalez, poet and faculty member at Rutgers UniversityNewark, agrees and looks toward steps his program and others might take.

Rankine is placing, quite rightly, responsibility and accountability on even those M.F.A. programs, like RutgersNewarks, that have reached a commendable level of diversity not only reflected in the graduate programs student body, but also the programs faculty, Gonzalez said. Achieving diversity is not an end goal; it is only the next vital step. What happens next? Rankine is challenging all creative writing spaces to imagine fresh avenues of discussion, critical feedback, and even community building with language and pedagogy that dont rely on the insular, even trite discourse that has become the default teaching method in the writing workshop. A cultural shift happens not only with a diverse classroom, but with innovative instruction.

One purpose of the AWP conference is to create forums for this kind of discussion. Here are the titles of just a few of the AWP 2016 panels that addressed the issues of race, and inclusion and diversity: What Are You? Mixed-Race Writers Find Voice and Community, Write Me Right: Ideas and Resources for Writing Diverse Characters, Coming-Out Narratives: Beyond Queer 101, What Makes an M.F.A. Program LGBTQ-Friendly?, and The Absence of Color: Addressing the Lack of Diverse Writers of Childrens Books.

Most AWP events are selected by a subcommittee through an application process, and though conference subcommittees have worked to create schedules with diversity-focused panels, not everyone is confident the members are using the right criteria.

My understanding is that AWP subcommittee members have been asked to assess diversity as it refers to variety, not to an increase in racial, class, and gender equity, said Ken Chen, executive director of the Asian-American Writers Workshop, a New York City arts advocacy organization focused on supporting Asian-American creative writers. This has meant that a panel of half white men and half white women would be considered more diverse than, say, a panel of all black queer women. Diversity becomes, perversely, a way to increase white representation rather than a way of equalizing power structureswhich might explain how a diversity panel I attended once at AWP featured three white writers and only one person of color.

It may be a positive indication of how seriously writers concerns over institutional racism are being taken that AWP scheduled Rankines keynote. Christian Teresi, AWPs director of conferences, explained how it came about: Claudia Rankine had given a previous address at our Washington, D.C., conference in 2011, where she challenged the prejudices in creative writing programs and in poetry, Teresi said. When we booked her in February 2015 for the keynote in L.A., we did so because she is a world-class literary author, but we also hoped she would extend that previous discussion, and her analysis from Citizen. He called her L.A. keynote one of the best lectures I have ever heard on art and community and the challenges before us.

But Teresi also sees some impatience on the part of members of the writing community: Change cant happen quickly enough for many writers, especially in academe, where academic disciplines sometimes fall into institutional habits, he said. Academe sometimes can only change after a new generation has become the teachers, the opinion makers, and the leaders. The younger generation is a lot more diverse than the older generation of creative writing professors and gatekeepers. So there is a lot of frustration, some of it generational, about the making of literature, about who gets to decide whats valuable and whats not, and about what literature and which authors portray humanity most fully.

These are issues, of course, that extend far beyond AWP, but, Teresi said, passions about that cant help but to spill over into the AWP conference. Writers interests are so varied; there really can never be enough diversity, not even with 560 events, but we do our best to facilitate discussions about race, gender, class, sexual orientation, social justice, aesthetics, professional development, and every other topic important to writers.

AWP Caucuses Addressing Accessibility and Race

In addition to panels and readings, AWP also solicits proposals for caucuses, which, according to the AWP submission guidelines, should be made up of a specific demographic group that shares academic, literary, and professional development concerns. An AWP caucus is a way to establish an annual gathering, and a kind of mini-organization with AWP, for a group that wants to represent its interests and to amplify its voice within the larger creative-writing community.

There is currently a Latino caucus, a womens caucus, an LGBTQ caucus, and others. AWP 2016 saw the establishment of a disability caucus, which seeks to address longstanding complaints about accessibility at the conferences and to foster more disability-related programming, and an Asian-American caucus.

Writers Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, and Meg Day set up the caucus with the help of many others. In an April 1 post on her blog, Bartlett wrote that after months of work and voluminous correspondence with Teresi and others, the Conference Steering Committee of the AWP board of trustees finally approved the caucus. In the post, she explained its accomplishments: We were able to build a caucus with a website, bylaws, a board, and social media; get AWP to put more benches in the convention; put a disability activist on the 2017 selection subcommittee; meet numerous writers through social media; make AWP very much aware of the issues of disabled writers; and agree to only list accessible sites on the off-site schedule (although this didnt pan out as we intended).

Bartlett told PW that AWP still needs to take specific steps to address the needs of its disabled attendees: The only way to make AWP realistically accessible is to hire a full-time coordinator, she said. With a conference of this magnitude, this is a necessary position. I also witnessed firsthand [at other conferences] that when the venue is accessible and disability is included, disabled people attend in droves. The absence of disabled writers at AWP reflects the absence of disabled writers as students, teachers, and administrators in M.F.A. programs.

Teresi said that accessibility is a huge priority for AWP, and that the conference works hard at listening to disabled attendees. AWP has always provided interpreters and many others accessibility services, and we keep refining the delivery of those services, he said. We had a dedicated accessibility desk this year in L.A. to address needs and questions in real time, and we enabled registrants to notify us at the time of registration if they had accessibility needs. These allowed us to provide consistent communication to facilitate accessibility.

Jillian Weise, who led the campaign to get more benches throughout the conference and worked on establishing the caucus, expressed her continuing frustration with AWPs handling of accessibility. I have never made a request that was accommodated until this year, she said. I asked for benches at the convention centers starting in 2013. I was told the request was too late. I was told the fire marshal said no. I was told to ask again next year. This year my request was met with very many conversations. It was the first year of extra seating, and that was a success. I credit the success to the vitality of the caucus, which, in my opinion, should not have to make such accommodation requests.

This year also saw the first Asian-American Caucus at AWP. Ken Chen, who was involved with its establishment, said, AWP helped us create a wonderful community space for Asian-American writers of color to gather. But he has reservations about AWPs caucus system as a whole. The organization also vetoed my petition to create a social justice caucus, he said, which is ironic, since the idea of Asian-American identity came out of the Asian-American movement, a social justice groundswell that originated in San Francisco in the late 1960s.

Obviously, the issues around race and accessibility within the creative-writing community are broad and not limited to those described here, nor to just the AWP conference. As Teresi said, change happens slowly over time. And as Gonzalez and others said, the conversations going on now represent progress and also lay the groundwork for action that needs to be taken within academic institutions, within AWP, and by individuals. The anger and progress of the last year serve as reminders of how much work remains to make the creative writing community truly inclusive.

Below, more on the subject of M.F.A. programs.

Correction: This article was modified to reflect that the disability caucus was established before the online petition over accessibility, not because of it.
PW recently talked with a few M.F.A. grads and faculty members to ask them about any cautionary tales they might have. Based on their answers, here are five pieces of advice for those starting or thinking about an M.F.A.

1. Dont try to pack too much in

Its only two or three years. Youre there to read and write. Several teaching writers advised avoiding work and family obligations as much as possible. Maybe you can fit it all in, but as Betsy Sholl,

a poet and longtime Vermont College M.F.A. faculty member, says: The creative life requires time to absorb experience and unwind tensions. Its worth making space in your life, even if it means living on noodles. Nonfiction writer and UNH faculty member Jaed Coffin adds, The M.F.A. should be about the writing, not about learning how to be an M.F.A.

professional. Obviously, teaching fellowships are great opportunities; maybe you have to have a part-time job, and you shouldnt ditch your family if youve got one, but make sure to consciously plan for time to write and read and think and wallow.

2. Ask for what you need

Poet and Auburn University faculty member Keetje Kuipers says: The M.F.A.the whole universityis there to feed your intellectual needs for two or three years. If you dont get everything you want out of your M.F.A., thats on you. She means that you should try to stay open to surprises and new possibilities, whether that means new forms of writing, collaborations, or projects that deviate from your plans. At the same time, if youre not getting what you know you need, dont be afraid of speaking up and asking for it.

3. Create community

Poets and writers often exist on the marginsbut theres no reason to be on the margins of the margins. Find your people. Former M.F.A. students mentioned the importance of friendships. Fiction writer and Iowa M.F.A. Lewis Robinson says: The key to productive time in an M.F.A. program is involving yourself in a lot of loose talk in bars. Workshops can be helpful, but whats better is figuring out whats truly important with your friends over beers. If beer isnt your thing, coffee works too.

4. Watch out for profs who pick favorites

Some teachers choose a pet each semester; dont take that too seriously. A good teacher will help you figure out what kind of writer you want to be. However, if you change your style to fit a teachers taste, or become too dependant on one mentors feedback, it can paralyze you and stunt your growth. It can also prevent you from forming writing friendships with your peers. As poet and Columbia M.F.A. Tom Haushalter says, this kind of favoritism leads tothe wrong sort of competitiveness among students.

5. Dont worry about publicationyet

Some teachers urge students to constantly send work out and test the waters, but others caution that worrying too much about immediate publication can fog your judgment about the quality of your own work. School is a time for experimentation and figuring out what you dont know. If you publish too early, it can lead to shame, once you realize that the work wasnt ready for prime time; stunted development, when you tie your confidence as a writer to quick publication; and out-of-whack expectations, if you dont develop the toughness and perseverance that comes from rejections.

Remember, an M.F.A. should be fun, first and foremost! What you gain from those two or three years can nurture your creativity for the rest of your life.

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For readers reluctant to read about science, author Mary Roach is like a gateway drug. The focus of Roachs seventh book, Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War, is the science of the human body, and she approaches her craft with a curious mind and a humorous bent, translating high science into a highly enjoyable read. Grunt, out in June from Norton, looks at the scientists who are diligently keeping human beings alive, safe, and even comfortable through the difficulties of war.

Roach, 57, lives and works in Oakland, Calif., but she was born in Hanover, N.H., and grew up in the nearby town of Etna. Her parents both worked at Dartmouth Collegeher father in theater and speech, her mother as a secretary. The couple met late in life, and Roachs father was 65 when she was born. Everyone thought he was my grandpa, Roach says. Yet, she says, My day-care center was the public library; because he was retired, hed take her along with him to the library every day.

Though Roach was an avid reader, she had no aspirations of becoming a writer. She got straight As all the way through high school and majored in psychology at Wesleyan University, only because, she says, I wanted to go abroad for my entire junior year, and the psych department didnt care. Roach notes that she didnt have a knack for science. It wasnt interesting to me, which is amazing to me now.

Now Roach is one of the most popular science writers working. She regrets not taking those high school honors science classes for the practical reason that my life would be easier if I had a better understanding of cell biology and basic chemistry. But perhaps her beginners knowledge base helps to maintain her curiosity. I visit researchers and end up using them as tutors, she says. Roach compares herself to a sheepdog in her persistence in keeping scientists talking to her at a simple level, so that she can translate their work for a general audience. One of my books was excerpted in a kids science magazine, and I asked them if they needed me to change the vocabulary to make it simpler, and they said, No, youre good, and it was at a sixth-grade level.

After college, Roach moved west to San Francisco, about which she knew only its reputation for having really good dim sum. While she didnt know if the move was permanent, she fell in love with California: I didnt have a career. I just decided to stay because its beautiful.

Roach slowly built a career, starting out as a freelance copy editor, then working in public affairs for the San Francisco Zoological Society, writing press releases and dealing with reporters. But there was one problem: while dealing with reporters, Roach felt connected to them. Im not really a good spokesperson, because I tend to relate to the reporter, she says. Someone once called about a rumor of a cheetah dying from being sucked dry by fleas. Instead of giving an answer, Roach responded to the caller with questions: How many fleas would that be? How much blood does each flea draw? My boss said, What are you doing? Youre supposed to do damage control. Im too honest for that. I like communication to be straightforward. So I didnt last very long at my public relations career.

Roachs next gig was freelance writing for various magazines: I did a lot of fun reporting, which involved travel, which I love. During this time, she wrote for the Hippocrates Health Institute magazine, Hippocrates, where she reported on medicine and health. She spent 15 years doing magazine features, because back then there was a budget. But that economic landscape eventually shifted, which helped prompt her to start writing her first book, in 2000.

Did Roach ever envision a career as a book author? No, she says. I have a short attention span, and I tend to not do long narratives, which is usually what you think of as books. So I thought it wouldnt work for me. To this day, Roach attributes the start of her book career to her agent, Jay Mandel, who called her, suggesting she turn ideas from her Salon column into a book.

Writing that first book, Stiff, was an experience Roach calls terrifying: A book is both incredibly liberatingyou can go off on any tangent you wantbut its also scary. Theres no manual about how to do it. But Stiff took off, and Roach became a well-known pop science writer. Her accessible, morbid, and funny sensibilities writing about science have won her fans. Despite her lack of a scientific background, Roach says that as a freelancer she found herself drawn to science-centered stories. Looking back at her column for Salon, which she calls very Mary Roach, she says: When given total freedom, I covered the fringes of the human body. It wasnt a conscious effort. It was just me, left to my own devices, steered by my curiosity.

Grunt came about when Roach was in India reporting for the Smithsonian magazine on the worlds hottest chili pepper. The Indian military had weaponized it and made a natural form of tear gas, she says. So I went to the Indian Defense Ministry to talk about it and saw these other projects going on and realized military science is fascinating. You hear a lot about the military, but its always in the context of combat. Theres this whole world of science that doesnt get covered. Thats what planted the seed.

While Grunt takes on the science of war, and its accompanying effects, the book maintains its levity despite the seriousness of its topic. The book examines a range of dangers, from heat to bombs that cause flesh to flower,and introduces the scientists and engineers who work tirelessly to mitigate these threats. Alongside descriptions of blown-off limbs, there are passages on diarrhea and stink bombs. Humor is one of Roachs calling cards. The humor makes it more fun for me to write and even to report, she says. Im definitely selecting places to go that will enable me to have some fun, not at the expense of anyone, but maybe myself. There are different ways to be funny. You cant be funny about most things. I have the luxury of cherry-picking what I put in the book. So Im looking for stuff thats surprising, quirky, strange, funny, and hasnt been covered.

Roachs books often deal with topics that evoke fear and repulsion. She puts herself in situations that many people wouldnt be able to stomach. Im not afraid of anything in my books, she says. The body farm was definitely gross, but it was so interesting that it overrode any kind of revulsion. Im not easily disgusted. Its like my superpower.

Roach also goes the extra mile to participate in research. For her book Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, she and her husband volunteered to do MRI coital imaging (which is exactly what it sounds like) for an experiment, except they didnt get the privacy of being inside an MRI tube. That would have been fine because its enclosed, says Roach, who adds that the experience of having sex while wearing ultrasound equipment and being observed was awkward, but fun to write up. She goes on, It was mostly my husband who had to deal with that. It was such a weird thing to ask him to do. He was an amazingly good sport about it. He has always agreed to help me with any of my books, but I took advantage of his generosity. It was memorable in a what have I done? kind of way.

Did writing Grunt change Roachs perception of war? I have a lot more respect for the people who not only serve as soldiers but the people who dedicate themselves to work that will make that experience more survivable or more bearable, she says, adding that many working in military science are not fans of war. She notes: If you spend a lot of your time dealing with the aftermath of war, its a pretty effective way to turn off war. It would be great if there was no war. But there is, and there probably always will be.

Roach hopes that readers not only enjoy her books but come away with respect for the work of scientists. Its not an easy road to be a scientist, she says. They work really hard. And some of them do a lot of brave work. Most of the people in my books are working toward making peoples lives better, and they often labor unseen and unacknowledged.
Several years ago, Florida author Donna Gephart saw I Am a Girl!, a 2013 Dutch documentary about a remarkably self-possessed 13-year-old who was transitioning from male to female. It was really my first foray into any understanding of gender identity, and I was so moved, I just knew right away I had to write about it, says Gephart, who also knew she was wading into tricky territory. It was not my lived experience, she says. She wondered, Could I possibly get it right?

And there was also this: Gephart writes middle grade novels. Many of her readers are still in elementary school.

Ultimately, Gepharts passion for the topic trumped her hesitation, and now, Lily and Dunkin (Delacorte), about a boy who is transitioning to being a girl and the new kid in town who befriends her, looks uncannily prescient, arriving at a moment when the idea of whats appropriate reading for tweens is rapidly expanding. Though the YA category continues to explore darker and more difficult topics, books for upper-middle-grade readers are increasingly tackling subjects once considered almost exclusively the province of books for teenagers: sexual awakening, sexual identity, mental illness, suicide, eating disorders, terrorism, and war and its collateral damage. All of these issues are routinely cropping up in the plots of books aimed at eight-to-12-year-olds or for those 10 and up.

Ive been in this business long enough to remember when the topic of divorce in a middle grade novel was startling, says Gepharts publisher, Beverly Horowitz. But the cultural changes that are happening now are coming a hundred or a thousand times faster. The fact that you are seeing more serious issues in middle grade is not so much a literary trend as it is a response to these huge cultural changes were going through.

Its never easy to be on the wobbly fulcrum of puberty, but has it ever been harder? The years between 10 and 14 are known as the storm-and-stress period, because so much changephysical, emotional, socialcan happen seemingly all at once. Books that address the toughest issues kids face can help them navigate their way through a crisis, if books on those topics exist, and if kids have access to them.

I dont think there are any taboos anymore, says David Levithan, v-p, publisher, and editorial director at Scholastic. But the litmus test for me is whether you contextualize something so that a kid understands whats going on. Some issues are very hard to contextualize for an elementary school level, but it can be done. Rita Williams-Garcia managed to explain female genital mutilation in No Laughter Here [Amistad, 2003] so nine- and 10-year-olds could understand.

Some would say that discussing suicidal ideation in a YA book and handing it to a ninth grader might be appropriate, but there are also seventh and eighth graders struggling with the topic, says Lisa Von Drasek, curator of the Childrens Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota and a former childrens librarian at the Bank Street College of Education. Indeed, recently released data from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control, show that suicide rates for girls aged 1014 have tripled over the past 15 yearsthe biggest increase among any population subset covered in the study. The years between 11 and 14 are the most fluid with regards to maturity and growthmental and physical, Von Drasek says. This age group can be the most neglected as a group because they are impossible to categorize.

The bottom line, Levithan says, is that if something is actually happening to childrenwhatever it isits important to have a way to talk about it with children, and often that way is through a book.

A Watershed Moment

Levithan acquired and edited George by Alex Gino (Scholastic Press, 2015) a book many think has successfully redefined the outer limits of topics that a middle grade novel can address. The title character is a boy who wants to live as a girl but whose family has not accepted her desire to transition. The books jacket, with the title printed in a sunny confection of rainbow colors, looks perfectly at home among other early chapter books aimed at third and fourth graders.

Honestly, what I felt when we acquired it was that it was one of the great moments of my career and I think everybody at Scholastic felt, its about time, Levithan says. Not only was this a groundbreaking book, it was ground that needed to be broken.

But Levithan says George is just following a rich tradition of middle grade novels that have been pushing the boundaries of the genre since he started reading them as a kid. Carolyn Comans What Jamie Saw (1995), aimed at readers 10 and up, dealt viscerally with child abuse and battered women. Judy Blumes oeuvre took on death, divorce, bullying, body image issues, menstruation, and masturbation. One of Levithans favorite books as a young reader was The Great Gilly Hopkins, Katherine Patersons 1979 Newbery Honor book about a foul-mouthed tough cookie in foster care.

Brenda Kahn, the librarian at Tenakill Middle School in Closter, N.J., shelved George in the all-access section of her library (I not only have a separate YA section but an eighth-grade-only section. The eighth graders love it!), although a number of colleagues have George in their YA collections. I feel rather strongly that if [a book] is written with a younger audience in mind, that younger audience should have access to it, Kahn says. George, to my delight, has been checked out by students in all grades.

Where to Shelve It

Booksellers have confronted the shelving issue for years, and the result has been that many split their elementary fiction collections into separate sections. At Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Mass., books aimed at third to fifth graders are shelved separately from books aimed at sixth and seventh graders, said Sara Hines, the stores children and teen buyer, who follows publisher guidelines when deciding where to slot a book. We shelve books based on who the publisher says the target audience is, Hines says. We dont move books to YA based on content.

Hines notes that she and other store employees make sure customers who are purchasing books with mature content know what they are getting. There was a lot of conversation around George in the store and around town, Hines says. If Im at the register and somebody brings me George, or any other book that might address some kind of serious issue, I usually ask, How did you hear about this? just to start the conversation. Eight Cousins held an event at a local middle school for author Gino that Hines calls incredibly beneficial for the community. She adds, One child came forward to talk to the teachers because the topic was finally out in the open. And the teachers at the school felt much more prepared to deal with the situation because there had been so much conversation about the book.

At Politics & Prose in Washington, D.C., fiction titles are also split among three sections (four, if you count the separately shelved graphic novel collection): Elementary; JTF (junior teen fiction) with books for readers ages 1114; and YA, which the store calls PG-15.

We have a lot of customers who are adults shopping for the children in their livesnieces, nephews, grandchildrenand we need to have a way to signal to them that the content of these books is really aimed at 14-to-18-year-olds, even if what we mean by that is that the book asks deeper philosophical questions, says Mary Alice Garber, the childrens and teen book buyer. She adds that when the store strays from publisher guidelines, the books in question tend to be labeled for 8-to-12-year-olds, such as Sara Pennypackers Pax (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray), a novel about a boy and his pet fox who become separated during a war. Despite the publishers 812 recommendation, Pax went into Politics & Proses JTF section. The trim size, the inviting cover, even some of the double spreads inside, everything about it makes it look so much younger than it really is, Garber says.

Similarly, Esther Ehrlichs novel, Nestabout a girl whose mother, a dancer, spirals into depression after she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and commits suicide rather than live with the prospect of permanent physical impairmentwas deemed too mature for the youngest chapter book readers. Its a lovely story but that particular issue [suicide] is delicate, and we werent sure there was enough preparation in the story for the youngest reader so that went into JTF, too, Garber says. Its a judgment call. Were all for free speech and access, but we are probably more cautious when it comes to some topics because we are all mothers, too.

Crossing the School Rubicon

In school libraries, the shelving issue can be even tougher. Despite booksellers near-universal love for George, Scholastic is not offering the novel to schools through its book fair division (although the book is available for purchase from Scholastic online).

Its when its gone into schools that it has become a lightning rod for people who want to make an issue out of it, Levithan says. There have been principals who wouldnt allow the book, or even a book report on the book. Its a pattern weve seen over and over again, started by ignorant people who dont even want the issue discussed. They treat it as if its about sex. It has nothing to do with sex. Its about identity. But if they can sexualize it, its easier to convince people to ban it.

Pat Scales, former chair of the American Library Associations Intellectual Freedom Committee, says that as necessary as books on serious topics are, they dont help anyone if they dont reach the readers who need them. I dont believe the subject matter or the themes are too tough for a younger audience: kids deal with these issues, and librarians have an obligation to serve all patrons and their needs, says Scales, whose next book is Defending Young Adult Books (Rowman & Littlefield, Sept.). My main concern is self-censorshipthat librarians may not purchase these books because they fear a challenge. This type of censorship is tough to deal with, because we rarely know where it exists.

A Note from the Author

The shelving confusion leads to one more complication, says Kate Milford, author of Greenglass House (Clarion, 2015), who is also a bookseller at McNally Jackson Books in Manhattan: books that straddle the middle gradeYA divide can be tougher to sell to publishers, and once published, tougher to market to the readers who need them.

This was the fate of Milfords second novel, The Broken Lands (Clarion, 2012), a sophisticated fantasy set in late-19th-century Coney Island. There was some carnage and some fairly bad stuff in one characters backstory, but my publisher never batted an eye, there was no push back, Milford says. The novel got tremendous reviews but it just didnt find an audience.

Milford, whose first bookselling job was at a Barnes & Noble, says books can fail to gain traction when they dont fit into the available marketing slots. If you cant say confidently to Barnes & Noble or Target where a book belongs, they lose interest, she notes. And its not the stores fault. They cant make those kinds of decisions at the store level.

As a result, Milford says, many authors she knows are encouraged to age their protagonists up or down to squarely fit in one category or another. But, she says, aging characters up or down doesnt help the kids who are 12, 13, and 14 who need these bookskids, perhaps, like the boy at an elementary school in Palm Beach County, Fla., who was given an advance reading copy of Lily and Dunkin and sent Gephart an email when he finished. The last sentence said, Because of this book, I feel stronger and braver dealing with the bullies at my school,  Gephart says. That gave me courage. If young people can be brave enough to be true to who they are, then I guess I can be brave enough to write about it and go out in the world and talk about it.
Dlouhy Lands Reynoldss Dreamer

In a North American rights deal, Caitlyn Dlouhy, for her eponymous childrens imprint at Simon & Schuster, bought Letter to a Dreamer, an inspirational poem by Jason Reynolds. Reynolds, who has won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award and two Coretta Scott King Honors, first performed the poem at the Kennedy Center in 2011 during an event celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. The book version of the poem, explained Pippin Properties Elena Giovinazzo, who represented Reynolds, will not be illustrated but, rather, designed.

Krentz Strikes Two Seven-Figure Deals at Berkley

Bestselling romance author Jayne Ann Krentz, who writes under several pseudonyms, closed two separate seven-figure deals with Berkley. (Krentz writes her contemporary romance series under her own name, her historical romantic suspense novels under the name Amanda Quick, and her futuristic/paranormal romantic-suspense novels under the name Jayne Castle.) In her first new deal at Berkley, she sold North American rights to two contemporary romantic thrillers, set for 2017 and 2018, to Cindy Hwang. In the second deal, Hwang took North American rights to two historical romantic thrillers, which Krentz will write as Amanda Quick. The historicals, scheduled for 2018 and 2019, will be set in 20th-century America. Krentz has written over 150 novels and, per Berkley, sold more than 40 million books to date; she was represented by agent Steven Axelrod, who has an eponymous shingle.

Perri Re-ups at Putnam

Camille Perri, whose novel The Assistants was published this month by Putnam, closed a new deal with her current publisher. She sold world rights to When Katie Met Cassidy to Putnam executive editor Kerri Kolen. Perri, who previously worked as the books editor at Cosmopolitan and Esquire, was represented by Kerry Sparks at Levine Greenberg Rostan. The novel, Putnam said, is a smart and sexy romantic comedy about a New York City lawyer, in her late 20s, whose life is thrown off course when shes dumped by her fiance. She then strikes up an unexpected friendship with a colleague, a promiscuous lesbian, which propels [her] to question everything she thought she knew about love and sexualityand herself.

Harper Voyager Takes Draydens Debut

Nicky Drayden, editor-at-large of the audio fiction podcast The Drabblecast, sold her debut novel to David Pomerico at Harper Voyager. Pomerico took world English rights, in a two-book deal, to The Prey of Gods; the second book in the deal is currently untitled. Prey, which Jennifer Jackson at Donald Maass Literary sold, is slated for summer 2017. Jackson said the book is a near-future thriller set in South Africa that follows a diverse set of characters imbued with supernatural abilities by a street drug who must join forces to stop a goddess intent on remaking their world.

Caine, Aguirre Land Six Figures for SF YA Series

For their new young adult science fiction series, the Honors, Rachel Caine and Ann Aguirre scored a mid-six-figure deal at HarperCollins Childrens Books Katherine Tegen Books imprint. Claudia Gabel took North American rights to three books from agents Lucienne Diver at the Knight Agency (who represented Caine) and Laura Bradford at Bradford Literary (who represented Aguirre). The series, Diver said, follows a misfit named Zara who feels lost in a highly ordered future world. Diver went on: She is chosen to partner off-world with a living alien ship... but soon, Zara, the ship Nadim, and a rogues gallery of characters discover that the universe is bigger and much more cruel than theyve been led to believe. Caine has written more than 50 novels, including the Morganville Vampire series; Aguirre is a RITA Award winner whose works include the Sirantha Jax series.

Briefs

Sarah Skiltons debut adult novel, Club Deception, was acquired by Maddie Caldwell at Grand Central. Caldwell took world English rights to the book from Victoria Marini at Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners. The book, Marini said, chronicles the magicians at a private Los Angeles magic club and the women who love, inspire, or control them.

HarperTeens Karen Chaplin took North American rights to Lauren Gibaldis young adult novel This Tiny Perfect World. Gibaldi (The Night We Said Yes) was represented by Claire Anderson-Wheeler at Regal Hoffmann & Associates. Anderson-Wheeler said the 2017-slated novel follows a scholarship girl at a theater camp struggling to figure out if her small-town life, and small-town boyfriend, can ultimately be enough for her.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said the book Club Deception follows musicians at a Los Angeles club; it follows magicians. Also, Nicky Drayden's title at The Drabblecast is editor-at-large, not editor-in-chief.
Wild About Coloring

As we reported last week, the coloring book trend has prompted at least one company to enter book publishing for the first time: Newbourne Media, which specializes in CDs and digital music content, began releasing coloring books paired with stress-relieving CDs earlier this year. The first of those books to hit our list, Wild About Cats, debuts at #22 in Hardcover Nonfiction.

On our Trade Paperback list, two new titles draw on established trends: coloring books based on beloved fictional worlds, and self-published, foul-mouthed coloring books. At #15, The World of Debbie Macomber contains scenes inspired by the prolific authors homespun romance novels, and one notch below, Memos to Shitty People by James Alexander channels aggression toward neighbors, coworkers, and others, with highly decorated, decidedly NSFW phrases to color.

(See all of this week's bestselling books.)

Fanning the Flames

Memorial Day is coming, and that means a bunch of barbecue books are getting all up in our collective grill. Two of them debut this week in trade paperback: at #9, Master of the Grill, new from Americas Test Kitchen, offers tool tips, examines the relative merits of coal and gas grills, and supplies regional recipes including Alabama BBQ Chicken and Kansas City Sticky Ribs. Diva Qs Barbecue by Danielle Bennett, at #17, features almost 200 recipes from the host of the Travel Channel show BBQ Crawl and is new from Vancouver-based lifestyle imprint Appetite by Random House. Pass the Smokin Good Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon Butter, please.

Stand and Deliver

A couple of books for desk jockeys are new to our Hardcover Nonfiction list. At #3, The Ideal Team Player is the latest business title by Patrick Lencioni, whose The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002) has sold 1.7 million print copies, 51K during the first four months of this year alone.

Physical therapist Kelly Starrett checks in at #6 with Deskbound, offering advice on how to counteract the ill effects of too much sitting. Starretts Becoming a Supple Leopard, which draws on his experience with Olympic gold medalists, professional ballet dancers, and others, has sold 175K hardcover copies over two editions.

Movie Watch

The big-screen adaptation of Me Before You, the 2013 novel by Jojo Moyes, opens in theaters June 3. This week, two tie-in editions were published and hit #3 on our Trade Paperback list, and #9 on our Mass Market list. The conventional trade paperback sold even better, and this week is the #7 book in country; since its release, its sold 652K print units. On our Hardcover Fiction list, the 2015 sequel, After You, continues to do well. Its #16 on the hardcover fiction list, up two notches and 16% over last week.

New & Notable

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

Frans de Waal

#24 Hardcover Nonfiction

Primatologist and animal behaviorist de Waal (2013s The Bonobo and the Atheist, among others) examines the ways scientists work to understand various animals intelligence in what our starred review called a thoroughly engaging, remarkably informative, and deeply insightful book.

Hide Away

Iris Johansen

#8 Hardcover Fiction

Our starred review called the 19th Eve Duncan outing, in which a Mexican drug lord seeks to kill the 11-year-old daughter of a rival gang leader, a first-rate novel of romantic suspense.

The Raven King

Maggie Stiefvater

#1 Childrens Frontlist Fiction

In this fourth and final novel in the authors Raven Cycle YA fantasy series, the playful, imaginative force of Stiefvaters writing works its magic once again, according to our starred review.

Top 10 Overall

Rank Title Author Imprint Units 1 Extreme Prey John Sandford Putnam 37,009 2 The Last Mile David Baldacci Grand Central 35,487 3 Oh, the Places Youll Go! Dr. Seuss Random House 23,327 4 Fire Bound Christine Feehan Jove 22,058 5 The Melody Lingers On Mary Higgins Clark S&S/Pocket 21,271 6 Undercover Danielle Steel Dell 19,567 7 Me Before You Jojo Moyes Penguin 17,994 8 The Rainbow Comes and Goes Cooper/Vanderbilt Harper 17,515 9 The Obsession Nora Roberts Berkley 17,135 10 Best of My Love Susan Mallery Harlequin 16,491

All unit sales per Nielsen BookScan except where noted.
Before the sales of e-books exploded in 2010 and 2011, lowering the rate of book returns was one of the major issues that publishers, distributors, and booksellers grappled with on a regular basis. But as the surge in e-book sales called into question the future of print books, the topic of returns was put on the back burner for most companies. Now that sales of print trade books have stabilized, we checked in with companies in different parts of the supply chain to find out about the recent trends in returns.

For the most part, the executives said that returns have gone down in the era of digital books. Industry consolidation and improved technology that has increased the efficiency in the supply were cited as the two major reasons for the reduced return rate. Statistics compiled by the Association of American Publishers in its monthly StatShot program showed that returns fell in each of the major three print formatshardcover, trade paperback, and mass market paperbackin 2015 compared to 2014. The trade paperback return rate from reporting publishers was the lowest, around 20%, while hardcover returns were 26% and the mass market return rate was 48%.

Sasha Quinton, v-p of marketing at Readerlink Distribution Services, said the return dollars at the distributor were down by double digits through April, compared to the same period in 2015. Readerlink has made a number of acquisitions over the past couple of yearsthe most recent, the purchase of Anconnects retail arm, last monthand those purchases have allowed the company to operate more efficiently by consolidating the number of shipments it makes to its growing number of accounts. Readerlink has invested heavily in new systems over the years, and it has installed those systems in each of the companies it has bought. Among the benefits those upgrades have yielded is an improved ability for Readerlink to engage in what Quinton called strategic purchasing. With improved analytics, Readerlink can better understand what types of books sell best at different accounts and in what quantities, Quinton explained. Many accounts have lowered their initial orders and trust in Readerlinks ability to replenish stores quickly on hot-selling titles, Quinton said.

Since Readerlink has only a small presence in the distribution of e-books, returns have always been a priority for us, Quinton said. We did a lot of work in 2015 to improve our efficiency, and we are enjoying the fruits of our labor in 2016. Despite the gains made, Quinton sees more room for improvement. The store environment is always changing, she said. The key is picking the right book, at the right time, in the right quantity.

Independent Publishers Group president Joe Matthews said the return rate has stayed about the same in the last few years, although the pattern of returns has changed. He noted that with mass merchandisers now an important part of sales for certain titles, if a title misses at one of those chains, you are going to get a big return. Another thing that can trigger many returns is when a large customer changes its buying algorithm or product mix. It can take a while to get adjusted, he said. Those two factors, Matthews speculated, account for why, at different points over the past 18 months or so, returns have spiked alarmingly then fallen back to normal levels.

The adult-coloring-book phenomenon has also played a part in recent return patterns, as stores sent back titles in other genres to make way for the new titles in the fast-selling segment, Matthews said. But coloring books have a decided upside as well: the return rate for them is just about zero.

Like most experienced distributors, Matthews said he doesnt want to see returns drop too low. When talking to publishers, Matthews said if he sees an overall return rate fall too much, to around 8%, it is a sign that the house is not being aggressive enough in the marketplace. He thinks an average return rate of 20% is acceptable, but once the rate gets closer to 25% you are starting to eat into your margin.

Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy also thinks returns are an industry necessity. It is important to get enough copies into stores so titles can be visible, she said. There is value in creating a showroom, she said. Still, S&S has worked to limit returns. With e-books taking a large slice of some frontlist titles, many accounts have become more cautious about the size of their initial orders. With more data available, we work with accounts to find the ideal number for orders, she said. Like Quinton, Reidy said that faster shipping times by publishers has made accounts more comfortable with depending on speedy reorders to meet demand for hot titles.

Compared to five years ago, returns for hardcovers and trade paperback are down by double digits, although Reidy said declines have slowed the last two years. Returns for mass market paperbacks, however, are another story. The mass market paperback business is undergoing a wrenching transition, Reidy said, with returns only one part of the challenges facing the format.

At wholesaler Bookazine, COO Richard Kallman said that returns for his company have declined percentage-wise year over year due to better frontlist buying, technology, and sales increases.

For many indie booksellers who rely on companies such as Bookazine, little has changed. Some stores, including Eagle Eye Book Shop in Decatur, Ga., continue to have a relatively high rate of return: 45% in 2013, 50% in 2015, and 42% last year. In part thats because the store holds about 200 book signings a year and doesnt like to run out of stock for them. We are using Above the Treeline and our point-of-sale system, Basil, to help us with frontlist ordering, owner Doug Robinson said.

Other stores make a more concerted effort to keep returns in the low double-digits. At 34-year-old Schuler Books in Grand Rapids, which operates three stores under that name, and Nicolas Books in Ann Arbor, buying-department administrator T.J. Moore said that he keeps returns between 15% and 20% and has seen them trending downward over the past five years. Publishers have told him that they would happily take more back and encourage him to take more risks. The problem with that, Moore said, is the vast majority of our returns are titles that have sold zero copies within 10 to 12 months of receiving, and most of these are frontlist.

Rapid replenishment, a publisher program to speed up indie orders designed to encourage booksellers to buy direct, hasnt affected returns except in those instances in which a bookseller decides not to wait for the order to come from the publisher and orders from the distributor as well. The speed and consistency is not currently comparable to the service we get from our distributors, and it may never be, as speed is their specialty, Moore said.

Boulder Book Store in Boulder, Colo., keeps a similarly low returns rate. Any increase or decrease is basically related to the events and conferences we are doing. The more things we do, the more returns we generate. We never, ever want to run out of a book at an event, so we basically always over order, head buyer Arsen Kashkashian said.

As at Schuler Books, rapid replenishment has had little effect on returns for Boulder Book Store. The main effect has been to increase our overall margins and lower our orders with wholesalers, Kashkashian said. Of course, with Partners West going out of business and the Baker & Taylor sale to Follett, it makes you think about what are the larger repercussions of these changes in publishers replenishment times. Will the wholesalers be viable in the long run?

One area where Kashkashian has seen a change is the replacement of mass market paperback with trade. We order the trade paperbacks a little more conservatively on the frontlist than we used to order the mass markets, he said. Thats because mass markets often came in dumps and booksellers could strip the cover and send it back for returns, whereas stores have to return the full trade paperback. I might like to see some trade paperback books offered on a strip cover return basis, so we could take the chance and really stack them up the way we used to do in the 1990s, Kashkashian said.

Kashkashian still regards low returns as a sign of an industry problem. I try to buy aggressively in many areas, especially in fiction and poetry, because I believe we have a responsibility to give these authors some exposure. Many, many of these titles arent going to work, and I dont hesitate to return them. But I worry that if returns are really going down and if that becomes a focus, it becomes harder for those authors to get a foothold, he noted.

On the bargain books side, some large wholesalers have found a niche in returns. Book Depot in Thorvald, Ontario, for instance, is completing a $3 million project to update its sortation technology to grow its returns processing business. For the past five years, Book Depot has been processing returns for one of the Big Five publishers, and CEO Wilf Wikkerink said he would like to do more. We have the ability to sort the books according to publisher disposition rules, so that books can be returned to the publisher, destroyed, or seamlessly purchased by Book Depot as a return for a prearranged price, he explained.

At Texas Bookman, the wholesale division of Half Price Books, director of acquisitions James Palmer has found no shortage on the hurts/returns side of the business. But even though theres no huge shortage in terms of the breadth of titles, depth is another matter. Its pretty obvious that print runs are better managed to accommodate demand, and stores are ordering smarter, because there are rarely the larger numbers of single titles in returns, Palmer said. Fewer desirable returns have caused Texas Bookman to increase the number of printed or packaged books that it prints.

That said, returns continue to be important to Texas Bookman. Returns give us better margin and more flexibility in pricing for both retail and wholesale, Palmer said. Their existence allows us to take more risks finding new books to give a new life as a bargain title.
In 1996, Robert Crumb (popularly known as R. Crumb), one of the most acclaimed comics artists of the 1960s underground comics movement, released a series of full-page black-and-white drawings as a one-volume collection called Art and Beauty Magazine, originally published by Kitchen Sink Press. A second volume of Art and Beauty drawings was published in 2003 by Fantagraphics.

In July, David Zwirner Books, the publishing division of David Zwirner Gallery, a major New York City contemporary art dealer, will publish a complete hardcover edition of Art and Beauty Magazine that will collect the previous two volumes, as well as a third volume of drawings done for the series that have never been published.

Although not comics, the drawings in Art and Beauty Magazine are classic Crumb renditions: full-figured women, clothed and nude, rendered in bold lines and detailed crosshatching that vividly delineate their forms. Needless to say, the womenamong them his wife, Aline; friends; athletes; and photos of Crumb-proportioned strangersare spectacularly voluptuous, drawn doing everything from sitting around the house to contorting themselves into impossible poses.

The book also serves as a deluxe catalogue for an exhibition of the original drawings from the book that opened at David Zwirner Gallery in London during the London Book Fair. David Zwirner Books is an art book publisher based in New York that publishes about 20 books a year. The house is distributed by DAP in North America and Thames & Hudson in the U.K. and Europe.

Although Crumbs last hardcover work, The Book of Genesis Illustrated, published in 2009 by W.W. Norton, was a bestseller that sold more than 150,000 copies, David Zwirner Books will release an initial printing of 5,000 copies of Art and Beauty for North America and the U.K./Europe. The house is also publishing a limited edition of 400 copies for collectors, which will include a signed book plate.

Why such a modest print run for one of the worlds most popular cartoonists? Crumbs literary agent, Lora Fountain, said the cartoonist wanted a high-quality [book] edition to be the catalogue of the London exhibition. But Crumb also liked the small publishing house and its young editor, Lucas Zwirner, the son of the gallery owner/publisher David Zwirner. She said Crumb expected that the David Zwirner Books edition of Art and Beauty Magazine would reach a very different public from Roberts usual fan base.

Lucas Zwirner agreed. Crumbs art is more than just eroticism; its about honesty, desire, and the elimination of shame. Young people respond to his drawings and to the text. Zwirner said he is prepared to go back to press if demand warrants. Zwirner first met with Crumbs agent before visiting the artist at his home in France, and the two hit it off. He also said that Crumb was able to oversee the books production, another advantage offered by the small press. He worked on every aspect of the book. Its his baby, Zwirner said. Aline says its the only book he hasnt complained about.
Scandinavian literature has been having a moment in the U.S. market since Stieg Larsson posthumously stormed onto the scene with the American publication of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo in 2008. That success has remained mostly in the suspense and thriller category, with Karl Ove Knausgards My Struggle proving itself an exceptionand Atria Books believes its found another exception in the books of Fredrik Backman.

Backman first found success in the U.S. with A Man Called Ove (pronounced OO-va), a novel about that most enduring character, the angry old man next door. When it was published in July 2014, Atria did a first printing of 6,600 copies. As of this month, Ove has 325,000 copies in print in trade paperback after 18 printings, and another 26,000 in hardcover. The novel hit the New York Times bestsellers list during the first week of 2016 and was the #1 hand-sold book in independent bookstores from May to December of 2015. A Swedish-language film adaptation, with subtitles, is planned for U.S. release in September.

Since Oves publication, Atria has put out two more Backman titleswhich, along with Ove, its billing as an unofficial series, the Wonderful World of Fredrik Backman. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You Shes Sorry, published in hardcover in June 2015 and paperback this April, follows a seven-year-old girl as she carries out her grandmothers wishes to apologize to everyone her grandmother had ever wronged. Backmans most recent title, Britt-Marie Was Here, was released on May 3 of this year. Its eponymous heroine, a fussy busybody who walks out on her cheating husband, finds more adventure than she could have imagined as a newly single 63-year-old in a backwater Swedish town.

For Britt-Marie, Atria printed more than eight times as many hardcovers as it did for Oves first printingroughly 56,000 copiesand had to return to press three times before its on-sale date. Backman will be featured at BookExpo America, giving an in-booth signing on May 11 and included in a May 12 panel, Favorite Book Group Authors from Abroad, alongside British writer Chris Cleave. His BEA appearances will coincide with the beginning of a 10-day 12-event tour across the Midwest and Northeast, culminating with a stop in Los Angeles.

Each of Backmans books have seen sales accelerate. Through March of this year, Atria has shipped nearly as many copies of Ove as it did in all of 2015, and the novel is now being sold in Costco and Target. The publisher has gone back to press eight times for the hardcover edition of Grandmother, and for the April paperback edition Atria did a 60,000-copy first printing. E-book sales have done well too; Ove and Grandmother combined have sold more than 150,000 digital editions.

Atria thinks it knows why Backmans readership is growing; the publisher sees Backmans works as universal. All of his stories are about people who are, for one reason or another, alone in different phases of their lives, Atrias president and publisher, Judith Curr, said. Its about this human connection.

The loneliness of Backmans characters may ring of Knausgardian pathos, but thats only one piece to the puzzle, in Currs mind. Along with the pathos comes charm, wit, and humor all his own. I think its against trend, and thats part of why its appealing, Curr said. Its the yin to everybody elses yang.

Backmans editor at Atria, Peter Borland, concurred. I think Fredrik is different from the dark crime writers and doing something different from writers in general, he said. He has such a distinctive voice and point of view. He might be the herald of a larger trend in Scandinavian literature, but I think hes doing his own thing. Theres a certain charm that comes from his Swedish heritage, but I dont think thats whats driving interest here.

The big drive, Borland continued, is the books themselvesthe characters, the themes, and the stories. And Atria believes that, with Britt-Marie, Backman has come up with his best yet. I really feel that were sort of at the tipping point with Fredrik Backman, Curr said. Weve been working with him a long time, and weve always believed in his ability to appeal to people.
MOLINE -- The rhetoric of fear and intolerance has reached epidemic proportions and should stop, according to local leaders.

"Many Quad-Citians have been greatly distressed by the dramatic increase of intolerance which is spreading within our nation and around the planet," said Rabbi Henry Karp, of Temple Emanuel, in Davenport. "We have likewise been distressed by those who have played upon the fears of others, and, in so doing, have morphed those fears into anger and hate."

More than 160 people of all faiths have signed a statement opposing such rhetoric, Rabbi Karp told members of the newspaper's editorial board Friday.

The statement, written by former Rock Island Mayor Mark Schwiebert, was edited by a committee that included Rabbi Karp, the Rev. Jay Wolin of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities and the Rev. Rich Hendricks of the Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities, all in Davenport.

Rabbi Karp said a large group of "like-minded people" planning a May 1 Yom Hashoah program began discussing such a statement, which was read aloud at the annual Holocaust Remembrance Program at Rock Island's Tri City Jewish Center and sent to the newspaper.

Some supporters questioned if it was an appropriate thing to do at an event designed specifically to memorialize Holocaust victims. Others -- including Rabbi Karp, Rev. Wolin and Rev. Hendricks -- said they didn't think they could memorialize Holocaust victims without addressing the current issues of fear, intolerance and hatred seen across the world, similar to conditions that led to the Holocaust.

"In our conversations, the question kept coming up: 'Is this a political statement?'" Rabbi Karp said. "And the answer is, 'It is not.'"

Values shared by people of many faiths and traditions "call upon us to show compassion for the afflicted and appreciation for those of other religious and ethnic backgrounds or sexual orientation," the statement reads. It was the absence of these values, the statement reads, that led to the Holocaust and to the senseless death of millions of innocent children, women and men from 1933 to 1945.

"They are religious issues," Rev. Wolin said. "It's about how we treat our fellow human beings."

Rabbi Karp cited parallels to what's happening to Syrian refugees. He also discussed intolerant and fear-causing language used when discussing transgender bathroom issues or the "Black Lives Matter" campaigns.

"We are fighting for the soul of our country," Rev. Wolin said. "And it's important for us to not be silent in this face of hate. We must stand up and encourage others not to be silent."

Rev. Hendricks said his biggest concern is what children may be witnessing or learning about such fear and intolerance.

Rabbi Karp encouraged people to sign the statement. He, Rev. Wolin and Rev. Hendricks also encouraged people to attend a "Building Bridges" meeting May 15, part of an ongoing "Toxicity of Fear" series of interfaith dialogues, and a May 21 "Hands Across the Table for Racial Healing" potluck at Moline's First Christian Church.

For details, call Rabbi Karp at 563-326-4419, Rev. Hendricks at 563-324-8281 or Rev. Wolin at 563-359-0816.
SOUTHPORT, N.C. -- Gathered in long convoys of military trucks, National Guard units from Nebraska, South Carolina and Pennsylvania thundered through the front gates of Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, N.C.

Their mission, Operation Patriot Bandoleer, was a rare real-world training opportunity for more than 800 National Guard and 500 Army Reserve soldiers.

OPB involves the movement and lifecycle management of thousands of tons of ammunition and war reserve materiel in support of the U.S. Army Sustainment Commands Army Prepositioned Stock-3.

This leg of the mission, called Task Force Steel Delivery, included transportating and redistributing 526 containers to Joint Munitions Command installations in Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Oklahoma and Utah. The units also supported the redistribution of 107 containers of war reserve material and 250 Container Roll In Roll Out Platforms to the Army Strategic Logistics Activity-Charleston in South Carolina.

Begun March , Task Force Steel Delivery will concludes May 6.

Ive been in the Nebraska National Guard for 18 years now, and Ive never had annual training like this," said Capt. Tim Buskirk, project officer S-3 (Operations). "Its such a real-life mission to execute,

The Nebraska National Guard headed the mission this year. Planning began in February.

National Guard units are required to train at least one weekend per month and for two additional weeks out of the year. Soldiers are required to be proficient at their jobs, and they must be ready to deploy. Buskirk said that combining their training with a real operation is invaluable to achieve combat readiness.

This is a perfect exercise for a unit that is getting ready to mobilize or who could potentially be mobilized, Capt. Buskirk said. If we were overseas  they would be hauling containers just like these up and down the road, except it would be in a combat zone.

Military prepositioned stocks are comprised of warehouses filled with equipment and supplies around the world. These stocks are used to increase the speed of military mobilization worldwide, and they serve as deterrents to foreign aggression. Distributed among large ships at sea, APS-3 is the Armys only mobile APS platform, and is a significant military strategic tool.

The (APS) program is considered the third leg of the strategic triad, prepositioning stocks strategically around the world for initial use until airlift and sealift options can be established to support contingency operations, said Tim Fore, APS director, ASC. Linking Reserve component Soldiers to APS stocks redistribution not only supports the Total Force Development concept of the Army, but (also) gives the Soldiers exposure to real-world mission experiences they will need to support humanitarian assistance and contingency operations in the future."

The transported ammunition and other items were offloaded from the Motor Vessel SSG Edward A. Carter, Jr, in March. Seventeen Army Reserve units from 11 states worked alongside the National Guard to load the trucks with containers. Reserve Soldiers were at MOTSU to support the installation during the operation.

OTM involves the offloading and on- base transportation of all the cargo that arrives at MOTSU, and is also a real-world mission that trains soldiers.

We are integrated into the MOTSU staff, including the contracting staff, said Capt. Jamie Meikle, project officer Trans Mariner 2016, 1179 Transportation Brigade. Were not just here for training; we are here to actually use our skills. It gets us ready.

Rick Hamilton, plans and training specialist, 596th Transportation Brigade, Military Surface Development and Distribution Command, said support from reservist units is important to Army operations. The 596th TB operates MOTSU, which has one of the only ammunition ports the Army owns.

Thats the way the Army is now, were relying a lot on the National Guard and a lot on the Reserves, he said.

While at MOTSU, munitions are stored on concrete pads spaced throughout the installation. Each pad is licensed for specific net-explosive loads of munition, and they are each surrounded by small man-made hills called berms. The berms are positioned to redirect explosive forces upwards in case of an accident.

We are definitely one of a kind, said Hamilton. We can handle a lot more munitions than, really, any other installation.

Specialist Hamilton stressed that while MOTSU can store munitions for short periods of time, it is actually just a transport hub.

Were not a storage area here, were more a transit unit, he said. We like stuff to come in, get discharged, and leave the installation.

OPB is intense because it involves tight deadlines with real consequences. said 1st Lt. Stephen Skelly, operations officer, 1052nd Transportation Company, South Carolina National Guard.

The stress is real. We feel that stress level; our soldiers feel that, he said. They know its a real-world mission. They know that we have to meet our deadlines.

APS-3 staff first identifies which containers need to be offloaded and sent to the installations. Army reservists then offload the containers from the ships and place them on the appropriate pads. Next, National Guard units are assembled, and the Reserve units upload the containers to the trucks.

Finally, National Guard units begin their journey across the country. While en route, they are tracked using equipment soldiers might operate while deployed. Maj. Partrese Barr, support operations, 1050th TB, South Carolina National Guard, said navigating the drivers is not as simple as using a personal GPS system.

We advise the drivers against using the GPS in their phones, because those generally give the fastest route options, and a lot of the times those routes will be restricted to our trucks, she said. They might not be able to travel to those areas because the roads might be too narrow, they might be restricted by the type of cargo they are hauling, or there may be a bridge or overpass that is not strong enough for our trucks.

Soldiers in the operation agreed it has helped improve their readiness.

It enhances our readiness because it gives us an opportunity to get a feeling of what deployed situations could be like -- having to work at a moments notice, and just get in your machine and still know that the team behind you has your back 100 percent, said Pfc. Liam Artair, 430th Inland Cargo Transfer Company.

Pfc. Artair, a Mi-Jack operator stationed out of Baltimore, Maryland, said he believes training reservists is important during a time when the Army is downsizing.

The Reserve and the National Guard are both parts of the Army, he said. This enhances our ability to deploy, and also makes it so that you dont have to keep such a large active force. In allowing us to operate and train in a real-world scenario, it gives the Army more fluidity.

Sgt. Geoffrey Wideman, motor transport operator, 1055th Transportation Company, South Carolina National Guard, said he thinks his job as one of the drivers is tough but rewarding.

We are out here to prove a lot to the big Army, he said. You learn a lot. Sometimes its tiring, sometimes its frustrating, but its always good at the end of the day.

Spec. Robert Lee Aiken, motor transport operator, 1055th TC, South Carolina National Guard, agreed with Wideman.

This mission, Im just proud to be a part of it. Its incredible, it really is, he said.

Planning for the next stage of OPB, Task Force Missouri, are already underway. MOTSU and APS leadership met with representatives from the Missouri National Guard and other supporting units on April 13 for an operational briefing and a tour of the installation.

TFM is scheduled for August. During the operation, National Guard units plan to redistribute 555 munitions laden containers off of the MV LTC John U. D. Page, and 245 empty containers currently positioned at MOTSU.

These 800 containers will be the largest OPB training event that we have executed to date, said Mr. Fore. A significant highlight will be the 310 containers taken out to Hawthorne, Nev., simply because of the sheer scale of the mission, he continued.
Challenging but Amazing Experience

By Ella Douglas

Eighth grade

A Book By Me is a great experience. It opens your eyes and shows you what people really went through during World War ll. I was lucky enough to meet Eva Apathy. Evas story is about how she and her husband never gave up, even though they were refugees from Hungary. Hearing a first hand story from WWII was truly inspiring and gave me a whole new outlook on this time period. Being able to tell Sandor and Evas story is a huge honor. This generation of people are slowly fading away, and I am glad I could help get their story told. Doing this project also takes teamwork. Mia and I worked countless hours writing and illustrating our book, My Guardian Angel. Working on a book is a huge commitment and challenge. In the end it is worth it; it feels great to preserve the story of a wonderful person. I suggest writing a Book By Me; it is a great program. I think everyone should write a Book By Me.

Experience of Writing a Book

By Kylee Simon

Eighth grade

Writing a Book By Me was an amazing experience. During the experience I got to meet a World War 2 Veteran with an amazing story to tell and then wrote that persons story to make sure that others read or heard about his story too. All of the stories have a positive message that should be shared with others. Not only are the stories amazing, but so are the people! Listening to their stories and what they had to go through, changes your way of thinking. When I heard the story for my Book By Me, I realized how lucky we are now that we dont have to go through what they did. The experience was fascinating, and I think that more people should write a Book By Me.

Story of World War II Veteran

By Gracie Ryckaert

Eighth grade

To m,e writing a Book By Me is an amazing opportunity because you get to meet some wonderful people that have done remarkable things. People my age need to remember what other people have done for the country we live in. We are free because of other people's bravery. The past isn't going away. You can try and push it away and ignore it, but it will still be there, and we need to learn about it. Writing a book about it is a great way to learn about it. You get taught about it from someone that was there and that knows what happened better than any historian. You meet some very extraordinary people, and with writing a book about them, you become extraordinary to them. Giving someone something that they will be remembered by is an amazing feeling, and I have had the pleasure of being able to do this for a World War 2 Veteran. This experience is one I would never trade.

A Week for Teens

By Olivia Drish

Seventh grade

Recently, Rockridge Junior High students celebrated Teen Week. Our teachers celebrate with us as well. Activities and themed days started on Monday, March 21st and went through Thursday, March 24th. The student council members and their leader, Mrs. Bizarri, made up themes and helped plan activities for each day.

During Teen Week, students dressed up in a variety of different ways. The theme for Monday was dress as a dynamic duo or as twins! My friend Maleigha and I dressed as Ana and Olaf from the Disney film, Frozen. It was a really great idea, and we had a lot of fun planning our costumes. The theme Tuesday was favorite team day. I wore a Cubs shirt because they are my favorite team. The theme for Wednesday was camo day. I didnt wear any camo because I dont hunt, and I didnt have anything camo. The theme for Thursday was class color day - 7th grade students wore yellow. The colors for each grade level represented a type of cancer.

In addition to the themed outfits, student council planned different activities for us to participate in. On Monday, everyone went in the auditorium and watched the movie, The Good Dinosaur. We had popcorn too. Tuesday afternoon was a dodge ball tournament for the whole junior high. Wednesday we had ice cream malts from Shivers and Shakes in Andalusia. On Thursday there was a dance planned for after school. Unfortunately, the dance was cancelled due to the snow that came that day.

Overall, Teen Week was very relaxing and fun! Rockridge Junior High staff and students like to have a lot of fun! Students get a chance to be creative and let loose at the activities! In my opinion, everyone had a blast that week before spring break.

The Hills are Alive

By C.J. Elliott

Seventh grade

Rockridge High School will soon be presenting the production "Sound of Music." This will take place on May 5, 6, and 7 at 7:00 p.m. at Rockridge High School and May 8 at 2:00 p.m. at Rockridge High School. If you do not know the story, "Sound of Music" is a musical set in the 1930s containing love, drama, singing, and the upcoming World War I. The young Maria Rainer lives in the Abbey with her fellow nuns and gets told to become a governess to the Von Trapp family. She arrives and sees a beautiful home and along the way meets Georg Von Trapp and the Von Trapp children.

The acting process is a long difficult one, learning songs, dances, lines and more but before that you need a cast. The auditions are also long. There are difficult casting decisions for directors, and it is a nervous process for the students auditioning. The cast is made up of 1st through 12th graders from the Rockridge district. After the audition process the directors (Curtis Fischer-Oelschlaeger, Jessica Zabransky, and Tammy Clark) chose Courtney Stice as Maria Rainer and David Eddy as Georg Von Trapp along with 35 others to round out the cast.

The rehearsals began shortly before spring break and are still continuing. Some days we practice with just the kids or just with the nuns or just Maria and the Captain, but rehearsals will continue until it is performance time. I am a member of the cast and play Kurt Von Trapp and just love the cast so much, especially my siblings. We spend so much time together daily, that they are becoming like actual siblings. We have a great cast that I love working with.

It is a wonderful show and a wonderful cast, so please join us May 5, 6, 7, and 8 at the Rockridge High School auditorium for an enjoyable performance.

The Heart in a Suitcase = Awesome

By Trinity Herrick

Seventh grade

"My Heart in a Suitcase" was put on by the Arts Power National Touring Theatre on April 5, 2016, at Rockridge Junior High in Edgnington, IL. Junior high students gathered in the school auditorium to watch this dramatic play.

This play was based on the real life story of Anne L. Foxx, a young Jewish girl living in Germany before World War II begins. Her mother (Mutti) and her father (Vati) live with her in a small apartment. Her older brother (Gunther) had moved to England. Up until 1938, Anne enjoyed going to school and playing with her friend, Dorit. When Germany starts to change, her teacher Mrs. Waldenburg, tells her she can no longer go to school. She has to wear a six-pointed yellow star to identify herself as a Jew. After the attacks begin, her family makes a fateful decision. They send Anne to safety on the Kindertransport to Great Britain.

The Arts Power National Touring Company has been performing plays since 1985. The props and actors all travel in one van. They often multi-purpose props. For instance, the train station window doubled as a wall in the family home. They sure know how to purpose and repurpose!

In the end, the play was very educational. It helped students learn about the struggle of the Jewish people during World War II. One seventh grade student, Genesis Parker said, It was very sad, but very educational too.
MILAN -- Emma Hoke recently received the 2016 Governors Award in the Senior Division of Northwest Illinois for her volunteer efforts with Handy Buds, handicap/special needs 4-H Club members.

At an April reception in the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Mrs. Hoke, 69, was honored by the Serve Illinois Commission on Volunteerism and Community Service for making a difference in Illinois.

Cheryl Geitner, 4-H youth development educator for Rock Island County, nominated Mrs. Hoke for the award, stating that for 46 years, she participated as a volunteer for the 4-H youth development program in Rock Island County and, before that, as a 10-year 4-H member.

"Her special contribution has been leading the 4-H Handy Buds special needs group, Mrs. Geitner wrote. These unit members would come to the meetings, and would bring the crafts to each meeting, and then volunteer by helping the Handy Buds with their crafts and make their snacks.

Handy Buds was created in 1962 by the University of Illinois Extension Unit Rock Island County in cooperation with the Home and Community Education Association. The group gives special needs people of all ages a place to socialize, make crafts, learn about nutrition and make a snack.

Mrs. Hoke was a member of the Home and Community Education Association, which led to her involvement with the Handy Buds. She became a 4-H leader in 1970 and began helping the Handy Buds in 1974. Her daughter, Suzanne Hoke, is co-leader of the Handy Buds.

About 25 to 30 people attend the monthly Handy Buds gatherings. Mrs. Hoke has brought together special needs group homes to join the 4-H group.

"The group has a limited budget, and this gives them an activity that is affordable, Mrs. Geitner said.

Emma (Hoke) plans and coordinates each monthly meeting, sets up the meeting room to accommodate wheelchairs, works with 4-H Extension staff to determine the snacks and helps to lead the activities during the meetings," Mrs. Geitner said. "Her enthusiasm is endless and her contributions have lifted many people who need a great day for themselves.

Mrs. Hoke has received the Friend of 4-H Award, the Handy Bud Volunteer Award, the Lois Mitchell Award and the Outstanding Lifetime 4-H Volunteer Award. She was inducted into the 4-H Hall of Fame in Springfield.

"You can never be too old to volunteer," said Mrs. Hoke, who turns 70 in August. "It is hard to get the younger people to help these days because they have their own families, and it doesnt seem to be a priority in their lives.

Her compassion for helping others continues in her home life, where she lives with her daughter and her granddaughters, Julia and Rachael Sandhaas-Hoke.

Rachael is 16 and is autistic, Mrs. Hoke said. I take her places when her mom cant. She and I do things together -- we go to church and out to eat and I help in any way I can.

"Even though I started working with handicap kids before Rachael was born, I can see there is a need to help all special needs kids.

For the last 25 years, Mrs. Hoke has been a secretary/receptionist in the dental office of Dr. Robert Nacin, Rock Island. She said she has no plans to slow down and will continue in her career and volunteer work as long as I am able.

She is a member of the Beulah Presbyterian Church, where she also is on the Christian Education Committee, sings in the choir and is secretary-treasurer of the Sunday school department.

For more details on Handy Buds, call 309-756-9978.
For any aspiring entrepreneurs, Basson said to make sure you have a product or idea that retailers want to sell and consumers want to buy.

1 hour ago
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.
A U.S. ballistic missile defense (BMD) system site in Romania became operational yesterday. The system is intended to defend against attacks by one or a few missiles. The system has been under consideration and construction for several years - it came online in December, but had to be integrated into NATO's larger BMD framework before it could become operational. Missile defense in Europe has become as much a political symbol as a weapon. I would argue that if political symbols matter, then it has served a purpose, because it is hard to envision the military purpose of the system.

The system is designed to block one or a few (the precise number is likely unknown) missiles targeted toward a large area. This would be ineffective against Russia, should it wish to launch a nuclear strike against Europe, because the system would be easily saturated by a relatively small number of missiles and would be completely irrelevant if the Russians launched a massive strike, which is certainly something they could do. If some other nuclear power decided to launch an attack, it would likely have fewer missiles to launch, so the system could be effective.

The problem with this is that it is unclear why a country with relatively few missiles would launch a strike at all, and totally unclear why their target would be Europe. Nuclear weapons were developed by the United States in World War II as a substitute for massed bombing attacks. World War II bombers were so inaccurate that the destruction of a single factory required thousands of bombs. Inevitably, since most factories needed workers and were in cities, the destruction of a few factories required the destruction of a city.

Over 100,000 people were killed in Tokyo over the course of three days in massed air raids. A comparable number died in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was not necessary for mass destruction. It was primarily needed for efficient mass destruction. It was precisely that efficiency that stunned people. They had gotten used to casualties between 1914 and 1945, but the idea of a single weapon killing so many people turned nuclear bombs from weapons to the embodiment of hell. Hiroshima is remembered around the world. The Bombing of Tokyo not so much.

Nuclear weapons became reasonably associated with the apocalyptic end of the world. Novels were written on it. I recall three: "Alas, Babylon," "On the Beach" and "Fail-Safe." Each was about catastrophic nuclear war, but none attempted to explain the political origins of the war. The decision-making that led to the war was left out. "Fail-Safe" postulated a technical glitch that led to war. "On the Beach" had some vague mention of Albania (of all places), but no discussion of why the missiles were launched. "Alas, Babylon" had a navy fighter fire a missile at a Soviet plane over Syria that went awry and hit a warehouse that had nuclear weapons stored there. One exploded leaving the Soviets to launch an all-out nuclear attack on the United States.

The origins of the war were left murky because while everyone could imagine a nuclear war, no one could imagine a coherent line of reasoning that would lead a country to launch a war against another nuclear power. This was simply because there was no rational reason. The military reason - destroying targets in cities through mass destruction - was obviated with advanced precision weapons. The battlefield use of the weapons depended on the generosity of the enemy in massing forces and the indifference to one's own forces. As for annihilating cities, that was not where the enemy forces were, and doing so would achieve nothing. In the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Israel, under heavy pressure, contemplated the use of nuclear weapons. It chose not to for several reasons, but mainly because it would achieve nothing militarily. It could have destroyed Damascus, but the Syrian army and its field commanders were not there. Attacking the forces on the Golan would have killed both sides' forces.

The political calculation that obviated nuclear war was rationality. Therefore, those terrified by nuclear war, turned to another explanation: madness. "Dr. Strangelove" assumed that a U.S. Air Force general lost his mind and sent his B-52s to attack the Soviet Union. However, to make this work, the bomber pilot had to be mad as a hatter, the Russian ambassador to the United States was nuts, and Dr. Strangelove, who appeared to the National Security Advisor, was completely insane. Everyone in the room was crazy.

During the 1950s, it was assumed that once China had gotten nuclear weapons, world holocaust would follow. Mao was known to be insane. One of his comments was that losing a few hundred million people in a nuclear exchange would not be a problem for China. Mao was not squeamish about death on a massive scale, but he was not that crazy. More important, the other people in the room were not that crazy. Absent a psychosis as widespread as we find in "Dr. Strangelove," somebody in the room loves their family enough to kill the loon.

The madman scenario is the only coherent explanation for starting a nuclear war, but it confronts a hard reality. Since World War II, no nation has used nuclear weapons for any purpose. For the U.S. in Vietnam and the Soviets in Afghanistan, nuclear weapons had no utility. Even if they had, both countries would have accepted defeat rather than use them. The empirical reality is that of all the nations that have nuclear capability, and wish ill toward their neighbor, none have used it. You would have to be crazy to use it. It is always posited that the current enemy doesn't value human life as we do. Thus, Iran and North Korea might launch attacks. Kim Jong Un is clearly enjoying playing God too much to spoil that. In Iran, the sheer corruption is comforting. People who love accumulating money are rarely suicidal. The madman theory doesn't work.

Wars are of course waged by helicopters, armored fighting vehicles and well-trained infantry firing wire-guided missiles at tanks. This is the substance of war. The problem with BMD is that the money spent to build it could have been spent preparing Romania, Poland and the Baltics for war. But the United States has a fixation with complex weapons designed to handle improbable threats, and Poland and Romania regard building this system as a symbol of American commitment to defending them. All this defends them against is a threat that is improbable for two reasons. First, nuclear attacks are unlikely. Second, a European city is unlikely to be a target over cities like Tel Aviv, Mumbai or Karachi.

Nuclear weapons are not trivial. A nuclear attack would be terrible, and however unlikely, it is a threat that must be negated. To assert otherwise is to be casual with the fate of humanity. Ideally, we would destroy nuclear weapons, but nuclear weapons do not live in silos. They live in the minds of people who know how to build them. Destroying the weapons will not destroy the knowledge. But whatever the risk, it is essential to be rational in assessing risk. The threat of a nuclear strike is extremely low. The probability of conventional war is much higher. Ballistic missile defense addresses an apocalypse for which even great novelists could not imagine a convincing origin. But conventional wars have been waged many times since World War II. The money spent on BMD should have been spent on far more probable threats.
Spain heads to the polls again on June 26 in an election that is widely expected to result in another hung Cortes - Spain's parliament - just as it did in December of last year. The problem is that Spain's electoral system may again give parties reason to play profiling games to prepare for new elections, rather than forming a coalition government. Which parties will dare to take responsibility after June 26?



With the possible exception of the socialists of the PSOE and the centrist Ciudadanos, most parties never lost sight of the possibility of new general elections after those of Dec. 20. One of the winners of the 2015 elections, the left-wing newcomers of Podemos, seemed to vacillate for months, never really committing to join a government with the PSOE.



It was as if every time the PSOE offered up a compromise Podemos couldn't refuse, its leader Pablo Iglesias, or someone else high up the Podemos hierarchy, found a new argument to back away.



Meanwhile, sitting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of the Partido Popular - which lost the 2015 elections but remained the biggest party in the Cortes, holding a firm majority in the Senate - cunningly played the role of Mister Responsibility. Rajoy at every turn harangued Pedro Sanchez of the rival PSOE about joining a grand coalition, knowing full well that the socialists would never accept, as it would mean political suicide. The PP and the PSOE have been implacable archrivals ever since democracy was re-established in 1978.



At the end of February, the socialists cut a deal with Ciudadanos, a new political party of reformist centrists and like Podemos also a winner of the elections. But while Podemos had at first signalled an interest in supporting a PSOE-Ciudadanos government, and maybe even joining one, it backed out almost immediately after the PSOE and Ciudadanos announced their cooperation.



Meanwhile, the center-right Partido Popular welcomed the PSOE-Cuidadanos agreement. Ciudadanos has been viewed as a rival to the PP, with both parties vying for parts of the same voter bloc. There's no doubt that some cheering erupted in PP headquarters when Ciudadanos tied the knot with the socialists, potentially pushing away disgusted right-wing voters.



This is probably the reason Ciudadanos sought to distance itself from the PSOE, downplaying the deal. One Cuidadanos official declared it "dead and forgotten".



Cut a deal before the elections, not after

And so the posturing and profiling in preparation of new elections went on and on. Attitudes are expected to toughen in the weeks ahead as the campaign heats up. Although King Felipe called on the parties to not recriminate during the election campaign, the PSOE and Ciudadanos can be sure that the PP and Podemos will beat them around the head with their old compromise agreements.



So far, the only party that seems to be benefiting from the infighting among the other parties is Rajoy's PP. Despite being harassed by corruption scandals, the PP is slowly recovering in most polls, while the PSOE and Ciudadanos are shedding votes. Still, PP's slow revival is expected to not be enough by clinch a majority in Congress. Rajoy's party is expected to retain its current majority in the Senate though, making any changes to the Constitution sought by the reformist Ciudadanos impossible.



So the question remains which parties will dare to get their hands dirty after June 26. The Spanish Constitution prescribes new elections two months after the first investiture vote. Spain is not used to coalition governments; perhaps it would be a better idea if some parties would agree on a coalition agreements before June 26, as is common in Denmark.



This way, voters know what they can expect and parties would be hard-pressed to sabotage the negotiation process for another go at the polls.
Never had a First Lady of the United States traveled to Europe without her husband. Despite the German Luftwaffe prowling the skies, Eleanor R
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Real estate market is one of the places where investors see some security for their money. Amid a weak global economy and falling oil prices that affected many countries, investors want to safeguard their investment by divesting into the property market. Manulife could take advantage of this.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Manulife US Real Estate Management Pte. Ltd. is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore, which aims to generate as much as US$470 million. This would be the company's second attempt to launch in Singapore's IPO market after last year's plan to do so was canceled due to the economic conditions worldwide.

According to the report, the unit of Canadian insurer Manulife Financial Corp. is looking to sell 566 million units at an offer price of US$0.82 to US$0.83 per unit. Manulife US REIT would offer a yield of 6.7 percent in 2016 and 7.2 percent in 2017. Of the 566 million units that the company is planning to offer, 169.54 million units are said to be being taken up by select investors such as Oman Investment Fund and DBS Bank Ltd. Their purchase of the shares come ahead of the IPO and would help the company better market the deal among other investors. WSJ noted that Manulife's IPO in Singapore would give a "rare exposure to the U.S. property market" and "improve sentiment toward the IPO market in Southeast Asia."

The news came after a recent report that Realty Today also covered wherein experts are positive that the capital market is keeping the commercial real estate sector healthy. Although prices and deals concerning commercial properties have slowed down, foreign investments in the U.S. is expected to grow as big institutional investors including pension funds are increasing their real estate portfolios. There is also enough supply to meet the ongoing demand, so the market is believed to be currently balanced.
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Never had a First Lady of the United States traveled to Europe without her husband. Despite the German Luftwaffe prowling the skies, Eleanor Roosevelt shrugged off the danger and flew to England in 1942. She had four sons in military service and wanted to do something for the war effort, if only to raise British spirits and carry a vital message across the pond, America is coming. She and Franklin had been visited by King George and Queen Elizabeth at the White House, so returning the call seemed only fitting. She also hoped to bring good tidings to the few American troops already in country and study the effects of wartime programs on average families. Additionally, a chief priority was spending time with refugee children, three in particular whom she had adopted and supported for years. Among them was a Basque boy, Kerman Mirena Iriondo.

Five years earlier in 1937, Kerman had been swept up in the aftermath of Gernika. In the first aerial assault in world history, Hitlers Condor Legion dropped bombs for three hours on this center of Basque culture, killing men, women and children, and reducing homes and livestock to ash. Hundreds, if not thousands, died (the number remains disputed), as survivors fled to Bilbao, the last refuge against the indiscriminate onslaught. Fearful of a similar attack, the Basque parents of Bilbao pled with other nations to take their children and keep them safe. England was one of a few nations that answered the call.

Kermans mother and father bundled him, then only 8 years old, in a heavy jacket in spite of the warmth of May, and packed food for several days. They pinned a cardboard hexagon to his jacket that included an identification number and the words, Expedicion a Ingleterra, and then escorted him, his older sister, and two older brothers to the harbor.

There were children everywhere, all clothed in heavy jackets with a pinned hexagon like Kermans. Parents hugged and kissed their sons and daughters once, twice then a third time, and loaded them on a boat. No child was older than eighteen, and others were not yet old enough to walk. There were tears, lots of tears, even wails from many children who did not want to leave, and from moms and dads who agonized whether giving up their children was foolhardiness or a supreme act of love.

As the ship raised anchor, Kerman remained stoic. A part of him looked forward to being on a ship at sea. His father had told him stories of the ocean and of men who had sailed to distant lands. It felt very much like an adventure. He waved to his mom and dad, who stood on the dock, and to his four-year-old sister, who wore a sun bonnet and sat in the crook of their fathers arm. It was a scene hed recall well into old age.

Kerman and his older siblings found a corner of the SS Habana and settled in. The ship had a capacity of 800, but on this day it overflowed with 3,840 children, 80 teachers, 120 helpers, 15 Catholic priests, and two doctors. They covered every inch, slept above and below deck, even in lifeboats, the legs of one child touching the head of another. The choppy waters caused many to wretch until the ship pulled into Southampton port two days later on May 23, 1937. Pale and dizzy from seasickness, Kerman stepped onto English soil with his brothers and sister and never again yearned for the ocean.

Few had noticed these thousands of Basque children fleeing their homeland, but Eleanor Roosevelt had. I noticed yesterday that the Basque children taken to England were not very happy, she wrote in her daily column. It makes me feel more strongly than ever that our own contribution should be in money and these children should be kept as near their own country as possible.

Her suggestion could not have been more astutely timed. The British government had agreed to accept the refugees but not pay for their upkeep or education. To do so would have violated a non-intervention pact with the Spanish government. Encouraged by Eleanor, a group of citizens formed the Foster Parent Program for these Tomases, Marias, and Teresas. The program solicited $15 per month to house, clothe, feed, and educate Basque children.

The children desperately needed the help. Soon after their arrival, Kerman and the other kids were taken to North Stoneham Camp in Eastleigh where rows of white tents stood ready to receive them. Each tent was designed for five but ended up housing 10 to 15, food supplies ran short within a couple of weeks, and septic overflowed. Despite these conditions, the children made the most of the ordeal, dressing in Basque costumes and dancing jotas on Sundays.

The camp at Stoneham proved temporary as children moved into foster homes throughout the country. Kerman and his brothers were separated from their sister and transferred to a convent in Darlington. He found the experience miserable, and it only worsened when, shortly after, he was separated from his brothers too and moved 250 miles south to Barnet, a borough of London. He was 8 years old, alone in a foreign land, separated from parents, brothers and sisters, and living among people he could not understand.

No one can say what Kerman might have felt at this moment, but fair guesses would include isolation, desperation, and profound sadness. But then a kind of other-worldly news reached him. He was told that he had been selected for adoption by a woman in America named Eleanor, and she was the presidents wife. He did not know the full import of the news, or even what the word adoption meant in this context, but he came to know her as the American Queen.

By supporting a Basque child financially, Eleanor wanted to set an example and encourage others to do the same. The motivation succeeded. Housewives across America dug into sugar and flour jars for quarters and dimes that had been squirreled away, churches passed extra collection plates, and schools and civic clubs knocked on doors for nickels and pennies. Her example fired up Hollywood, attracting contributions from Bing Crosby, Fred Allen, Jack Benny, and Helen Hayes.

By the time Eleanor flew to England in 1942, her on-going efforts had inspired multiple programs in several countries, all raising money for Basque children and orphans from World War II. Most of the Basque children had already been repatriated to Spain, although 250 or so remained in England, including Kerman. His parents had died shortly after the Spanish Civil War, so at a young age, he had made a very adult decision to stay in London rather than return to the country of his birth with its terribly painful memories.

He was then 13-years-old and waited anxiously to meet the American Queen who had supported him all these years. He followed her in the London Times which reported her arrival on October 24, 1942, her stay with King George and Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, her lively conversations with Winston Churchill at 10 Downing Street, her visit to the bombed wreckage of St. Pauls Cathedral and Nelsons Tomb, and her review of American soldiers on bases around the country. To think that in a few days he would be in her presence set his heart aflutter.

Kerman was a shy, quiet boy, who struggled still with English. It gave him some relief to learn that he would not be meeting the American Queen alone. Two other children whom Eleanor had adopted would be present as well  Janina Dybowska, a 17-year-old Polish girl who had been orphaned after Germanys invasion in 1939; and Tommy Maloney, a 4-year-old son of a London stoker who had been orphaned during the Blitzkrieg.

When Eleanor entered the warm living room at Hertford Heath, a childrens colony where the three had gathered, she greeted them in a stately black suit with a fur collar. In Kermans eyes, she lacked only a crown to finish her regal impression. Had any of the children been nervous, her toothy smile quickly soothed them, and a few toys from her bag drew their smiles. Janina was dressed in a traditional Polish outfit with beads and flowers braided in her dark hair. Little Tommy climbed on Eleanors lap as he might a grandmothers. Not sure what to say or do, Kerman stood stoic, though clean and groomed with slicked-back hair and pressed clothes. Their conversations were not recorded, but the foursome sat for a portrait and seemed at ease in one anothers company. The meeting lasted no more than an hour, yet he would recall the encounter and Auntie Eleanor, which she had asked him to call her, until his dying breath.

Eleanor left England two days later. She continued to nurture the Foster Parent Program, and others that had evolved from it, through the war and beyond. With her guidance, several of the programs coalesced after the war into the United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund, which the world still knows today as UNICEF.

Kerman would not see Auntie Eleanor again, but she continued supporting him until his 18th birthday. During his teen years, he boarded in Carshalton London where he befriended and later married Manolita Abad, another Basque child from the SS Habana. He completed his studies at commercial college and entered the import-export and international banking business. His skills in Basque, Spanish, and English served him well.
Gov. Nathan Deal believes that people who apply for food stamps should be tested for drug use if there is any suspicion that they are abusing illegal substances. Many individuals disagree with Deals signing of this law and view it as unconstitutional. These discriminatory acts, that the governor proposes, reveal his view of food stamp recipients.

This group is targeted simply because they are poor, and the word poor is associated with much negativity; for example, many believe that the poor steal, kill and use drugs more than any other class of individuals. The truth of the matter is that people abuse drugs no matter what class they belong to in this country. Yet, the poor are more likely to be punished for drug abuse. Therefore, they become targets for anything that society associates with their status, hence this attempt to hinder food stamp recipients.
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Q. What is guilt as it relates to faith? How can we forgive ourselves for something we regret?

The connection of guilt to faith is indirect. Guilt is a relationship to a law; either a subjective one, I feel guilty, or an objective one, I am guilty, whether I feel it or not.

The main concern, as far as Christianity is concerned, is objective guilt. Because of sin, every person stands guilty before God. Faith, then, is a way, the only way, to alleviate that guilt. By placing faith, or trust, in Jesus Christ, our guilt in relation to God's law is removed, graciously, absolutely and completely.

The idea of being able to forgive ourselves, a very questionable pursuit, pales in comparison with the need to have the holy God forgive us, something that is freely available through faith.

The Rev. Gene Crow, pastor

Redding Reformed Fellowship

Some would say we are too easy on ourselves. We can often rationalize or make an excuse for the wrong we have done, or good we fail to do. On Good Friday  in other faiths their own days of repentance  we honor the cross upon which Jesus died. For most of us, that meditative opportunity brings to mind all the chances we had to do right rather than wrong, speak rather than remain silent, act rather than slip away, repent rather than offer excuses. We all need to ask for God's grace, forgiveness and new courage when we fail to live up to our spiritual duty. Perhaps more harm is done by our reluctance to even get involved than by direct bad actions. At Easter, it's the time for every good man and woman to rise again and hear proclaimed the word of the Lord.

Deacon Mike Evans

Sacred Heart Church, Anderson

Guilt, like all our emotions, are part of our guidance system that calls us to reflect upon our choices and behaviors. It's part of having consciousness. It asks us such things as: Is my action congruent with my beliefs and values?

Forgiveness and regret are also a part of our guidance system design to keep us in health and sacred relationship with self and all other beings. Forgiveness and regret are a recognition that the intended mark has been missed, calling for a change in thought, behavior, the making of amends and the charting a new course congruent with who we are and what we believe. Sometimes we also recognize we need to update or adjust our belief. The most challenging aspect is practicing it with self.

The Rev. Lynn E. Fritz

Centers for Spiritual Living, Redding

Bow with love to guilt.

Learn the lesson it taught you.

Leave it all behind.

Dennis Kessinger, Zen Buddhist

Redding

Of course, Waheguroo forgives. But ask yourself this question: "How many times will he forgive?"

If someone keeps on making mistakes and keeps on asking for forgiveness, there comes a time when one knows that the person is not taking things seriously. You have to earn trust to be forgiven.

Listening to Kirtan is good because the music makes it easier to focus the mind. But listening is just the first step. You have to understand what the kirtan/gurbanee is saying and then start acting upon it. Once you start acting upon it, your life will start to change. The mistakes that you are currently making now will not be repeated. It won't happen overnight as it's a gradual process, but at you're on the right track. Don't make mistake of just listening and not understanding, as otherwise you will not know how to change.

Amarjit Singh

The Sikh Centre, Anderson

In ancient times, before the temple was destroyed, expiation for guilt was animal sacrifice. This, event described in Torah, was highly ritualized and usually in the hands of the priesthood. It gave rise to our term scapegoat, for the innocent victim.

Orthodox Judaism tends to retain the concept of a ritualized connection to God through the commandments. Reform Judaism sees the answer in seeking closure and forgiveness from the one we have wronged. In the Days of Repentance, at the Jewish New Year, we are commanded to go to those we have wronged, apologize and/or make amends by other means. God can forgive only those sins that are affronts to God.

Self forgiveness is more challenging. Our liturgy says, "Penitence, prayer and charity avert the severe decree." This would seem to infer that we create an entirely new person, devoted to helping others and more broadly living a life of awareness and meaning.

Art Tilles, Social Action chairman

Temple Beth Israel, Redding

As sons and daughters of God, we were made in the image of likeness of God. We are Spirit's manifestation on this plane of existence. Our words and actions may fall short of the divine perfection inherent in each of us. To carry the burden of guilt is not conducive to our spiritual growth. We must forgive ourselves and choose again. Choose words and behaviors that reflect the Christ consciousness that is our divine birthright. Harboring unforgiveness eats away at our soul and keeps us from experiencing the love of God. Unforgivingness keeps us from living in alignment with our basic nature, which is love. Our job is to be aware of what we do and say, when we make a mistake to choose again and do it differently the next time, and forgive ourselves so that we can heal and accept all the good the God has to offer us.

Carolyn Warnemuende, spiritual director

Unity in Redding

Good luck! God instructs us to forgive others in the same way he will forgive us through Jesus. But trying to forgive ourselves is extremely difficult because, along with free will, God gave us a memory. Unlike God, who once he forgives us forgets the issue, we will continually bring it up again and again. It's by trusting in God that he will do what he promises that we can ultimately find peace. If that peace and security is continually compromised, then we need to come a little closer to God. The beautiful thing is that Jesus is completely trustworthy; it's Satan that whispers, "Are you sure?"

Jim White, lay leader

Weaverville Church of the Nazarene

Next week's question: I'm a good person. Why should I join a faith organization?
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Most Wanted driver arrested after chase

One of Shasta County's Most Wanted was arrested early Friday morning after a pursuit that started in Redding and ended in Bella Vista.

Johnny Paul Bass, 54, of Bella Vista, was arrested on suspicion of evading arrest and two outstanding arrest warrants. The arrest was made on Deschutes Road south of Old Alturas Road.

Around 2:30 a.m., Redding police observed a 1999 Honda sedan near North Market Street and Benton Drive. Officers said they recognized the vehicle as belonging to Bass and attempted to make a traffic enforcement stop.

Police said Bass refused to stop and turned east on Lake Boulevard toward Bella Vista. Officers put out spike strips, which flattened two of the vehicle's tires before it came to a stop.

Bass was taken to Shasta Regional Medical Center where he was treated for a medical condition and then booked into Shasta County Jail, police said.

Anyone with information regarding any member of Shasta County's Most Wanted is asked to call 245-6540.

Driver killed in crash is from Boise, Idaho

A 77-year-old man driving the wrong way on northbound Interstate 5 just north of the Pit River bridge died Thursday night after colliding with a semitrailer, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The Boise, Idaho, man, who hasn't yet been named by the CHP, entered northbound I-5 at the O'Brien rest area, about 16 miles north of Redding, but drove south against traffic, the CHP said.

About 8:30 p.m., the man's 2002 Hyundai collided with a 2009 Kenworth big rig driven by Singh Baljinder, 40, of Sacramento, who was uninjured in the crash.

The wrong-way driver died at the scene, the CHP said. The crash closed a northbound lane of I-5 during the investigation, which officers said is ongoing.

Just before the collision, at 8:26 p.m., the CHP said it received a report of a possible DUI driver who was stopped in the O'Brien rest area.

Jury convicts man of having child porn

A 74-year-old Redding man was convicted Friday of possessing child pornography following a six-day jury trial in Shasta County Superior Court.

Douglas Austin Wroe, a registered sex offender, is facing a maximum of seven years in prison when he's sentenced June 10.

Wroe has two prior convictions  one in 1999 and the other in 2007  for possession of child pornography.

Man turns himself in to authorities

One of Shasta County's Most Wanted turned himself into authorities Friday, the Shasta County Sheriff's Office reported.

Kenneth William Griffis turned himself in to the Shasta County Jail, where he was arrested on a warrant charging him with revocation of probation, authorities said.

Griffis was featured on Shasta County's Most Wanted on April 10. He will remain in custody pending arraignment in Shasta County Superior Court.

Anyone with information regarding any member of Shasta County's Most Wanted is asked to contact 245-6540.

Tips or information can also be provided anonymously through Secret Witness of Shasta County at 243-2319 or via their website at www.scsecretwitness.com/tip.htm.

Staff reports
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By Sean Longoria of the Redding Record Searchlight

Shasta County sheriff's deputies twice dealt with apparently suicidal men Thursday night and early Friday, they said.

The men  both 26  were taken to Shasta Regional Medical Center for mental health evaluations and holds after incidents that left both them and deputies unharmed, according to the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Tom Bosenko on Friday commended the actions of his deputies and noted the situations could have ended in shootings.

The calls highlight Shasta County's continued struggles with suicides, which happen locally at about twice the rate of state and national trends.

"That's remained consistent," said Amy Sturgeon, a community education specialist for suicide prevention for Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency.

Officials are pushing for more resources to deal with mental health as education and outreach remain key efforts to combat the issue.

The first of the two recent cases started about 7:15 p.m. Thursday when an employee of Dutch Bros. on Airport Road called to say a man was acting strange and made a comment about wanting to kill himself and having a gun.

When deputies arrived they had to talk down the man before learning the gun was actually fake. The man had pointed the gun at his head and put it in his mouth and under his chin, saying he was going to shoot himself, sheriff's deputy Jon Ruiz said.

A few hours later deputies confronted another 26-year-old man  who they later identified as a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder  after he was spotted waving a machete at passers-by in Shingletown, they said.

Dispatchers just before 1 a.m. received reports of the man waving the machete near Reed's Market on Highway 44.

Deputies found the man walking along the highway and spotted him holding a machete.

He put down the machete and knelt to the ground on deputies' orders, before putting a knife to his neck and telling deputies he wrote a letter, which they took to mean a suicide note, Ruiz said.

Deputies talked to the man in an attempt to get him to drop the knife, which he did after several minutes, according to the Sheriff's Office.

They detained the man, eventually learning he was a veteran from another California county who had been unable to find work since his release from the military, Ruiz said.

Deputies found a suicide note in the man's backpack, Ruiz said.

Shasta County's suicide rate of about 21 people per 100,000 in population is nearly double both the state and national average, according to the California Department of Public Health's 2016 County Health Status Profiles.

The county in recent months has pushed for a crisis stabilization unit for those dealing with immediate mental health issues.

"We recognize there is a need for that," County Chief Executive Officer Larry Lees said.

The county is looking to Redding voters, who'll be asked to approve a half-cent sales tax increase to help fund public safety, to help pay for ongoing costs. The tax and suggestion for the stabilization unit came out of work done on the recent Blueprint for Public Safety.

Shasta County will pursue creating the center regardless of whether voters approve the tax by looking to grants or other sources, Lees said.

"I think it needs to remain on the table and continue to look for ways to find revenue for it if we don't get this additional support," he said.

The county has also awarded a contract for a community mental health resource center designed to connect people not in crisis with available services. The idea for the center has been lauded locally by law enforcement and local health care  including mental health  officials.

"The things that two or three years ago we were wishing for are happening," said Susan Power, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Shasta County.

Much of the work to address suicide continues to be outreach and education through a Suicide Prevention Working group. That group handles outreach efforts, trainings and the creation of the Good Grief Suicide Loss Support Group, which serves the survivors of suicide loss.

"This is really important because those who have suffered a loss like this are at higher risk of suicide themselves," said Sturgeon.

Dispelling misconceptions and stigma about mental health  which left unchecked can deter people from seeking help  is also important. That includes recognizing that those with mental health issues are statistically more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrate it, officials said.

May is also National Health Awareness Month and the county is holding its ninth annual Minds Matter Mental Health Fair and Music Festival from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday at Library Park, 1552 Placer St. in Redding.

Call 229-8246 or visit http://www.co.shasta.ca.us/index/hhsa_index.aspx for more information.

Warning

signs of

suicide

Threatening to hurt or kill oneself or talking about wanting to hurt or kill oneself.

Looking for ways to kill oneself by seeking access to firearms, pills or other means.

Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person.

Feeling hopeless.

Feeling rage or uncontrolled anger or seeking revenge.

Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities.

Feeling trapped, like theres no way out.

Increasing alcohol or drug use.

Withdrawing from friends, family and society.

Feeling anxious, agitated or unable to sleep or sleeping all the time.

Experiencing dramatic mood changes.

Seeing no reason for living or having no sense of purpose in life.

How to help

Do not leave the person alone.

Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.

Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional

Local

resources

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255), www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. 24 hours a day. Free and confidential.

Help, Inc.: 530-244-2222, www.helpshasta.org. The Shasta County crisis intervention/suicide prevention line is available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Shasta County Mental Health Crisis Access Team: 530-225-5252, www.shastahhsa.net. Calls answered 24 hours a day.

Emergency services: 911. Use this number for emergencies only.

2-1-1: 211, www.211.org. Information and referral for help with food, housing, employment, health care, counseling and more.

Good Grief Suicide Loss Support Group: goodgriefredding@yahoo.com. Meets first and third Monday of each month, 7-8:30 p.m., inside community room at Starbucks, 2400 South Bonnyview Road in Redding. For more information call facilitators Rhonda Ramsey at 530-921-2018, Cindy Yuill at 530-638-6000 or Margaret Quintana at 530-209-0941.

Source: Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency

Warning signs of suicide

Threatening to hurt or kill oneself or talking about wanting to hurt or kill oneself.

Looking for ways to kill oneself by seeking access to firearms, pills or other means.

Talking or writing about death, dying or suicide when these actions are out of the ordinary for the person.

Feeling hopeless.

Feeling rage or uncontrolled anger or seeking revenge.

Acting reckless or engaging in risky activities.

Feeling trapped, like theres no way out. Increasing alcohol or drug use.

Withdrawing from friends, family and society.

Feeling anxious, agitated or unable to sleep or sleeping all the time.

Experiencing dramatic mood changes.

Seeing no reason for living or having no sense of purpose in life.

How to help

Do not leave the person alone.

Remove any firearms, alcohol, drugs or sharp objects that could be used in a suicide attempt.

Call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Take the person to an emergency room or seek help from a medical or mental health professional.

Local resources

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255), www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. 24 hours a day. Free and confidential.

Help, Inc.: 530-244-2222, www.helpshasta.org. The Shasta County crisis intervention/suicide prevention line is available 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Shasta County Mental Health Crisis Access Team: 530-225-5252, www.shastahhsa.net. Calls answered 24 hours a day.

Emergency services: 911. Use this number for emergencies only.

2-1-1: 211, www.211.org. Information and referral for help with food, housing, employment, health care, counseling and more.

Good Grief Suicide Loss Support Group: goodgriefredding@yahoo.com. Meets first and third Monday of each month, 7-8:30 p.m., inside community room at Starbucks, 2400 South Bonnyview Road in Redding. For more information call facilitators Rhonda Ramsey at 530-921-2018, Cindy Yuill at 530-638-6000 or Margaret Quintana at 530-209-0941.

Source: Shasta County Health and Human Services Agency
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The holes in Shasta County's mental health system became strikingly apparent this week as law enforcement officers talked down two men who said they wanted to kill themselves during tense standoffs.

Thursday evening, a man came up to the Dutch Bros. on Airport Road and told employees he wanted to kill himself and that he had a gun. To be on the safe side, they called 911. Shasta County sheriff's deputies arrived and found the 26-year-old man walking along Airport Road. They parked a safe distance a way and called out to him. He took out a gun and held it to his head, telling the deputies he wanted to die. For the next 20 minutes, deputies talked with the man, and finally encouraged him to put the gun down and walk toward them. He was safely taken into custody and sent to Shasta Regional Medical Center.

It turns out the gun was a replica and the man a resident of a group home who has long suffered from mental illness.

A few hours later, shortly around 1 a.m. on Friday, deputies again were called out to assist another 26-year-old man who said he wanted to die. Witnesses reported seeing the man walking near Reed's Market in Shingletown waving a machete at passers-by and motorists. Deputies stopped and talked with him near Highway 44 and Emigrant Trial, but the man kept on walking, carrying the machete. They ordered him to stop and put the machete down. As deputies went to take him into custody, the man took out a knife and held it to his neck, then tossed it away. Deputies were able to get him to medical help.

Turns out the man, who lives in another county in California, recently left the military, suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome and was distraught because he can't find a job.

The deputies handled these tense calls with clarity, compassion and courage. We are glad the men will have a chance to work to overcome the inner darkness they experienced that night.

But while crisis help is available to both men, when released from the temporary intense medical care, they will return to living with a system that offers little for them on a daily basis.

Last year, the Record Searchlight investigated the fragmented mental health services available in the county. We found that numerous people with mental health issues fall through the cracks and are left trying to get by until a lack of medication, psychiatric help and support sends them down a spiral to where they're holding a gun to their head, a knife to their throat or some other drastic action that lands them in jail.

A person shouldn't have to be on the brink of killing himself to get mental health help, but sadly that is the reality for some of our most vulnerable residents. We lack a local, long-term mental health facility. The county struggles to keep up with the demand for outpatient services for those on Medicare and Medi-Cal. The we have too few psychiatrists and other mental health professionals to assist even those who have private insurance.

There are a few bright spots on the horizon. The county recently signed a contract with a vendor to operate a mental health center that will allow people not in crisis to drop in to find help and connect to what services are available. The Blueprint for Public Safety Implementation team suggests Redding and the county each contribute $1 million to operate a mental health crisis center that will help people like the two men this week. The county also recently provided a psychiatrist to help patients at Shasta Regional Medical Center and Mercy Medical Center.

But the incidents that took place Thursday night and early Friday show that we as a community and as private individuals need to step up and help as we can. We must each be aware of the signs that someone may want to kill themselves  such as talking about death, being depressed, losing interest in things they once cared about, saying goodbye. We need to know how to effectively talk with them and to direct them to the suicide hotline at 800-273-TALK.

The Suicide Prevention Workgroup has resources available for those who want to learn more about trying to prevent suicide. You can learn more by calling Amy Sturgeon at 229-8426.

We also must ask our local leaders to dedicate more resources to providing mental health services. We need to find new financial resources or reallocate funds to help those who are suffering. As suicide rates rise, there's a desperate need for more mental health services. Let's find a way to make it happen.
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With the prolonged drought, many are calling for yet more water storage, often accompanied by the statement that "water just running to the ocean is wasted."

Such calls for more reservoirs ignore the vital role natural systems play to keep the planet healthy. Simply put, a natural system is created by the forces of nature, in contrast to that which has been produced by man.

One such natural system is the Sacramento River System. It includes its mountain headwaters, long course through the Sacramento Valley, the estuary, the San Francisco Bay, and finally the Pacific Ocean.

In this interconnected system, the Sacramento River delivers nutrients and sediment to nourish life in all of its myriad forms throughout its long journey to the ocean.

In turn, anadromous creatures, especially salmon, migrate from the ocean and transport nitrogen, phosphorous, carbon and other life-sustaining elements back to sustain the entire system, including its denizens. One study showed that salmon, in life and in death, supported over 130 organisms.

The system has already been severely degraded ever since farmers in the Central Valley demanded water from the Sacramento River to grow their goods. Dams and water diversions were put in place to achieve these ends, with little regard for the consequences, of which there are many.

Reservoirs trap life-sustaining sediment and nutrients behind the dam and prevent it from being dispersed throughout the system. The "dead" water sits, warms and evaporates, anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent. So every impoundment actually leads to a loss of overall water.

And dams block salmon from returning to their natal waters, thus denying these vital creatures their life destinies.

The loss of enormous quantities of water from the system for agricultural irrigation has been catastrophic. Less than 60 percent of the Sacramento River's water now reaches the ocean. Less than 20 percent of the water from the second largest river, the San Joaquin, reaches the ocean.

The estuary known as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was once a great biological engine that birthed one of the world's richest food webs. Today it is sick and on the verge of total collapse. The same can be said of San Francisco Bay.

The health of oceans is also in severe decline. The Pacific Ocean's own web of life depends on influxes of sediment and nutrients. Beaches need to be replenished to provide habitat for many marine species. Water flowing into the ocean is decidedly not "wasted." In fact the more massive and powerful the inflows, the more they flush vital elements into the ocean.

In the midst of this prolonged drought, agribusinesses have been switching from staple crops to more water-thirsty crops that deliver more income, like almonds, pistachios, grapes, rice and ever more alfalfa. Up to 90 percent of almonds and rice are exported to Asia; alfalfa is also being shipped overseas.

It is one thing to grow food necessities essential to American families. But when the water is being mainly used to grow "luxury" and export items  another winery is decidedly not a necessity  then what we have is a terrible and short-sighted trade off: precious water that should be sustaining the web of life instead diverted to expand the growth of agribusinesses.

At present there are 1,300 named dams in California, and another one is not going to solve California's arid climate. All more water storage does is to divert precious water from where it is supposed to be and instead have it be used to prop up agribusinesses that are already too large. Did you know California has the largest cotton farm in the world?

As a result of the degradation of the Sacramento River system, many species that once thrived, like Chinook salmon, are today threatened with extinction. Salmon are far more important ecologically and economically than most of what is being grown in the Central Valley. And the Delta and San Francisco Bay are far more crucial than orchards, vineyards and cotton farms.

What we have created in California is unsustainable, and the sooner we recognize this, the better for all. Creating yet more water storage just hides the problem and delays real solutions, like a remaking of the Central Valley into a place that is sustainable with realistic amounts of water. It should not involve yet more remaking of the Sacramento River system.

Bob Madgic lives in Anderson and wrote the book "The Sacramento: A Transcendent River."
DEAR DOCTOR K: A doctor who specializes in womens health told my wife that some diseases cause different symptoms in men compared to women. Is that really true?

DEAR READER: Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is yes.

Heart disease is a good example. Angina and heart attacks occur when too little blood flows to the heart through arteries. When that happens in men, they usually have chest pain or pressure that travels to the left arm, jaw or neck when they exert themselves (or get angry).

In contrast, women are less likely than men to have these symptoms. Also, they are much more likely to have shortness of breath, abdominal pain and fatigue.

In addition, misleading test results for heart disease are more common for women. An angiogram is considered to be the gold standard for checking for blockages in the coronary arteries (the main arteries of the heart). But the test may miss important narrowings in women. Thats because women with angina are more likely to have narrowing of small coronary arteries that do not show up well with an angiogram. Men more often have narrowings of the large coronary arteries that are seen by the test.

There are other examples of how men and women respond differently to a disease or its treatment. Women usually heal faster from injuries, and they recover better from strokes than men. Women also respond differently to medications: They tend to have more or different side effects from the same dose of medication, perhaps due to body size and hormones.

There are also conditions that are more common in one sex than the other:

 Depression and certain autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, are more common among women. Interestingly, most autoimmune diseases in animals also are more common in the females of the species.

 Sleep apnea is more common among men.

Im afraid that sometimes doctors forget these gender differences. I had a female friend who went to her doctor because of more than a month of unusual breathlessness and fatigue. He didnt think to test her for heart disease. She had a heart attack a few weeks later.

Ive learned that lesson more than once myself. I vividly remember a man in his late 70s who called me to say he was concerned about a lump under the skin on his chest. At least 99 times out of 100, such a little lump under the skin is one of two things: a ball of fat called a lipoma, or a plugged-up gland called a sebaceous cyst. So I was sure thats what it was going to be.

But when I examined his lump, it wasnt soft and squishy as I had expected. It was rock hard and was sitting in the skin right over his breast. I almost dismissed it and sent him on his way. However, instead I got a biopsy: The man had breast cancer. Its rare, but it happens. And I almost missed it. You dont forget those lessons.
Daiichi alleged that Singh brothers had concealed and misrepresented critical information concerning US Food and Drug Administration and Department of Justice investigations into Ranbaxy

A day after news broke that former Ranbaxy owners Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh had been fined Rs 2,562 crore by an arbitration court in Singapore for concealing facts from Daiichi Sankyo, the Japanese pharma major has put the damages at around Rs 3,500 crore.

The amount of 56.2 billion Japanese yen (Rs 3,500 crore) includes interest cost, lawyers fee and amount incurred by Daiichi Sankyo in the arbitration process, according to a statement issued by the Japanese company on Friday. The Rs 2,562 crore figure, presented by the Singh brothers on Thursday, excluded these three costs.

The judgment was pronounced by an arbitration court in Singapore on April 29. Daiichi said former shareholders of Ranbaxy have to pay Rs 851.06 crore as interest, Rs 96.81 crore as lawyers fee and Rs 3.98 crore as compensation of arbitration costs.

Daiichi had launched the arbitration proceedings in 2013, alleging that Singh brothers had concealed and misrepresented critical information concerning US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Justice (DoJ) investigations into Ranbaxy in 2008 when the Japanese company acquired controlling stake in the company.

The total amount of award is approximately 56.2 billion Japanese yen (conversion rate; 1 rupee = 1.6 yen, 1 dollar = 107 yen), stated Daiichi Sankyo.

This translates to around Rs 3,510 crore, which would keep increasing if the payment gets delayed. The Singh brothers spokesperson did not respond to the queries sent by Business Standard.

Even as Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Mohan Singh, owners of the Fortis group, are contemplating to appeal against the fine imposed by Singapore arbitration court, their listed companies stocks showed mixed signals on Friday. Religare Enterprises saw its share price increase 1.44 per cent to Rs 277.95.

Fortis Healthcare saw its share price decrease 1.85 per cent to Rs 167.05.
Centre could ban wheat import from Bangladesh, apart from restricting cultivation in West Bengal and Assam

On an average, every Indian eats about four kilos of wheat every month. But Indias wheat crop faces potential danger from a disease lurking across its eastern border in Bangladesh, where it has led to the burning down of standing crop in 15,000 hectares.

Wheat Blast is an agricultural disease that can cause more than 75 per cent yield loss in affected fields, rendering the region non-cultivable for years. It is caused by the Magnaporthe oryzae fungus, which also causes Rice Blast. It thrives in hot and humid climates.

The government has taken the development seriously and might consider directing eastern states of West Bengal and Assam to stop farmers from cultivating wheat in border areas, if Bangladesh fails to contain the disease. The government might even ban import of wheat from Bangladesh.

Quarantine facilities in Bangladesh might not be very good. Hence, infected wheat might have sneaked into the country, but we (India) have very strict quarantine norms, which is why there is no possibility of any infected wheat coming into the food chain, said R K Gupta, acting director of the Karnal-based Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research.

Bangladesh detected the first case of Wheat Blast a few months ago. It was notified in the first week of April, sending alarming signals across South Asia. Subsequently, Bangladesh has burnt down the standing wheat crop in 15,000 hectares to control the disease.

Like India, wheat is the second most consumed grain in Bangladesh, after rice. A wider outbreak could be devastating for South Asia, where 300 million malnourished people consume over 100 million tonnes of wheat each year.

India is also in the process of dispatching 35 Wheat Blast-resistant varieties to Brazil and other South American countries, where the disease is believed to have originated. Wheat Blast was first identified in 1985 in Brazil and thereafter spread to Bolivia and Paraguay.

According to Indian agricultural scientists, these varieties would enable South American countries to uproot the disease altogether. According to experts in the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), the majority of wheat grown in India is resistant to Blast infection.

A high-level team of senior ICAR officials visited the wheat growing areas of Assam and West Bengal but could not find any trace of Wheat Blast. We already have Blast-resistant varieties and our record shows that Indian wheat has not been impacted by any major epidemic in the past four decades. Nonetheless, we are not taking any chances, Gupta told Business Standard. He said that till now there has not been any report of Wheat Blast in India and there is no need to panic.

What is Wheat Blast?

It is caused by the Magnaporthe oryzae fungus, the one which causes Rice Blast. The fungus is known to occur in 85 countries worldwide

Wheat Blast was first identified in 1985 in Brazil and has thereafter spread to Bolivia and Paraguay. It has become a dreaded agricultural disease for South America

It can cause more than 75 % yield loss in affected fields, rendering the region non-cultivable for wheat

In 2011, Wheat Blast was detected in the US but the situation was controlled immediately

Bangladesh first detected the disease some months earlier and notified it in the first week of April

Bangladesh has so far burnt down standing wheat crop in 15,000 hectares to control the disease. Wheat is second biggest grain in Bangladesh

The consequences of a wider outbreak in South Asia could be devastating to a region of 300 mn malnourished people, whose inhabitants consume 100 million tonnes of wheat each year

Photograph: Ajay Verma/Reuters
Overseas education consultant NNS Chandra shares advice on how to pick the right international education.

In an online chat with readers every Friday, overseas education consultant NNS Chandra offers advice on how to pick the right course and career abroad.

For those who missed the chat on May 6, here's the unedited transcript:

Annie: Sir, I am now working in Infosys in Mangalore. BTech in CS. Now want to do a Masters in Project management. What do you think?

NNS Chandra: You must look at a program that brings realistic examples from the workplace.

Columbia University like schools offer technology focused and software development focused PM graduate programs.

Have you considered getting a PMP certification?

I cleared that early 2000 and from my experience I can assure that the process of getting a PMP certificate would make you understand PM really well. Check out PMI website.

They also have an entry level certification program called CAPM. Get PMBoK (Project Management Book of Knowledge - from PMI) and go over. All the best.

Bhasi Nair: Mr Chandra - Read your FB post. I am writing for my daughter. She is now studying in BITS Bilani. 2nd year. She was to study Control Systems Enginerring in Europe or USA. What will you recommend?

NNS Chandra: Dear Nr Bhasi Nair, I am familiar with and can recommend control engg programs in Manchester (UK) and University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany). My students who did their programs in Michigan and schools in USA were really successful (both academically and career wise)

Rashmi Putran: Sir, I am quite interested in understanding what are the courses in MBA (International Business). What is the difference between regular MBA and MBA (IB)

NNS Chandra: Great Question, Rashmi. A management program with International business focus would have several additional courses.

Additional courses can be - International Business Environment, Cross Culture Management, International Strategic Management, WTO and International Regulatory Environment, Foreign Trade Documentation and Trade Finance.

The basic difference between the international business master's degree and an MBA is that the master's degree in international business programmes are highly specialised and will allow you to focus almost exclusively on issues related to international business, while an MBA offers a skill set that can be transferred to other areas of business.

Padma: My son is doing second year mechanical engineering. He is keen to do Ms in mechanical engineering either from Germany, Canada or USA.He is interested in designing and would eventually like to make his carrier in either automotive, petroleum or any other relative field. Please advise universities offering these courses and countries with better job prospects.

NNS Chandra: This is a research-focused program for candidates with prior design training or professional experience who want to probe more deeply into the theoretical and research issues related to design research, interdisciplinary design development and strategic design planning that adds new knowledge to the design field.

The MDes program enables graduates to positively affect the greater integration of design principles, methodologies and interdisciplinary design development processes into private and public sector business practice. The School of Industrial Design provides a collaborative graduate studio space, a sensor lab and prototyping labs.

These kind of programs will enable the graduate to secure jobs pretty easy.

I read a study few months back saying there is a huge short fall of professionally trained (with graduate/university level training) design professionals. Several schools offers similar program. Please ask him to e-mail me I would be glad to help.

Mehta Bhai: As she will be international student will join as full pay and don't kn the scholarship chances.

Any suggestions for the good colleges for Bio Technology/Bio Chemistry??? Her current list is Wisconsin Madison, Rutgers, Georgia, Virgina Tech, Texas AandM, Bloomington, Purdue, WPI. Are these Party school?

NNS Chandra: Is the goal medical school, work, or graduate study? If by biotechnology, you mean bioengineering and biomedical engineering, you can check Accredited Program Search , which lists 73 ABET-accredited degree programs in the subject.

Your daughter seems to have pretty good credentials, and you might want to consider adding some more selective schools to her list. Going to a more selective college might help her get into graduate programs, and generally more selective colleges are less likely to be party schools -- students have to study hard to get in, and they still study hard when they're there.

And - You might find that some of the Ivies are cheaper than non-Ivies for foreign students. I would encourage her to get SAT Subject Scores as well. ALL THE BEST

Have questions for NNS Chandra? Post them here!

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com
'The Congress president gets into samurai mode only when there is a direct attack on her and her family.'

'Is being the president of the oldest and one of the most respected parties in India only about personal reputation and survival?' asks Sudhir Bisht.

IMAGE: Congress President Sonia Gandhi, 69, and former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, 83, court arrest during the 'Save Democracy' march in New Delhi, May 6, 2016. Photograph: Shirish Shete/PTI Photo

I watched with amusement as the First Lady of the Congress party courted arrest along with a two-term prime minister. This brief cameo lasted under two hours and within minutes of being arrested Sonia Gandhi and the former PM were released.

The occasion was the 'Save Democracy Rally' that took place within an earshot of the Press Club of India on Raisina Road where I was tearing into the crispiest of Dosas on this side of the Equator.

Sonia Gandhi read out the written speech at Jantar Mantar and her loyal followers including the ever cheerful Renuka Chaudhry raised slogans against the Modi Sarkar.

Holding rallies is the democratic right of all parties. And I have no objection to that. The reason for my amusement is the timing of the rally. I have observed that the Congress president gets into samurai mode only when there is a direct attack on her and her family. Let me explain this in detail.

The fact that the Congress lost its government in the key North Eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh should have provoked the party enough to organise a rally against the alleged BJP plot to usurp power in the tiny hill state.

Also the imposition of President's Rule in Uttarakhand, the state where my father was born and where my grandfather was cremated, didn't happen in the recent past. Why is the Congress president in fighter mode only now?

Especially since the Congress party is in an advantageous position in Uttarakhand now that the Supreme Court has barred the nine rebel Congress MLAs from participating in the May 10 floor test.

I would like to question the timing of Sonia Gandhi's rally. I have observed that she was at her aggressive best when her name was dragged in the National Herald case and she is at her aggressive best now as her name figures in the alleged Agusta Westland helicopter scam.

Is being the president of the oldest and one of the most respected parties in India only about personal reputation and survival? This is a question that begs to be answered.

Apart from questioning the timing of Mrs Gandhi's 'Save Democracy' rally I would like to ask a few pointed questions about the rally's intent:

Mrs Gandhi's intent to save democracy is welcome, but what is the meaning of democracy for Mrs Gandhi?

Not allowing Parliament to function?

Stalling Parliament for the law and order situation in Hyderabad or in JNU or in the FTII?

Not allowing Parliament to function because a Congress MP was not accorded respect at a temple a few years earlier?

Not allowing the GST Bill to pass for one flimsy reason or the other?

Not allowing the highest law making body in the country to function because of a fugitive named Lalit Modi?

Is democracy about NOT allowing a popularly elected government to function just because you lost the elections?

Not allowing Parliament to function? Stalling Parliament for the law and order situation in Hyderabad or in JNU or in the FTII? Not allowing Parliament to function because a Congress MP was not accorded respect at a temple a few years earlier? Not allowing the GST Bill to pass for one flimsy reason or the other? Not allowing the highest law making body in the country to function because of a fugitive named Lalit Modi? Is democracy about NOT allowing a popularly elected government to function just because you lost the elections? Mrs Gandhi seems especially peeved at the plight of Harish Rawat, the recent 'one-day- CM-in-a-hurry.'

I want to tell Madam Gandhi -- and I say this after travelling across the plains of Roorkee and the Garhwal hills and the Kumaon region -- that Harish Rawat's plight is due to Mrs Gandhi's excessive reliability on a coterie of advisors who have always treated Rawat with scant respect.

Let me explain this in detail. In March 2002, Harish Rawat was the architect of the Congress party's victory in Uttarakhand. However the coterie that surrounds Mrs Gandhi ensured that Rawat wasn't made the CM. This led to the decay of democratic spirit and ascendency of the high command culture in Uttarakhand.

In March 2012, history repeated itself. Your concept of democracy, Mrs Gandhi, is 'what my coterie tells me is the gospel truth.'

So you appointed a man who was the brother of your favourite politician in UP. Rita Bahuguna Joshi's brother Vijay Bahuguna was appointed Uttarakhand chief minister whereas the rightful claimant was Harish Rawat.

When Rawat finally became CM, when Vijay Bahuguna failed to deliver on all fronts, he was not the confident general who had delivered two victories to the Congress party in Uttarakhand.

On the contrary, he was frightened, always-on-guard, susceptible to threats, a CM who was treated as an errand boy by the high command's 'observers'.

Your high-handed treatment of a popular leader led to the indiscipline and uprising in Uttarakhand which you seek to correct by holding a 'Save Democracy' rally. Can it get more farcical than this?

I want to tell Madam Gandhi -- and I say this after travelling across the plains of Roorkee and the Garhwal hills and the Kumaon region -- that Harish Rawat's plight is due to Mrs Gandhi's excessive reliability on a coterie of advisors who have always treated Rawat with scant respect. Let me explain this in detail. In March 2002, Harish Rawat was the architect of the Congress party's victory in Uttarakhand. However the coterie that surrounds Mrs Gandhi ensured that Rawat wasn't made the CM. This led to the decay of democratic spirit and ascendency of the high command culture in Uttarakhand. In March 2012, history repeated itself. Your concept of democracy, Mrs Gandhi, is 'what my coterie tells me is the gospel truth.' So you appointed a man who was the brother of your favourite politician in UP. Rita Bahuguna Joshi's brother Vijay Bahuguna was appointed Uttarakhand chief minister whereas the rightful claimant was Harish Rawat. When Rawat finally became CM, when Vijay Bahuguna failed to deliver on all fronts, he was not the confident general who had delivered two victories to the Congress party in Uttarakhand. On the contrary, he was frightened, always-on-guard, susceptible to threats, a CM who was treated as an errand boy by the high command's 'observers'. Your high-handed treatment of a popular leader led to the indiscipline and uprising in Uttarakhand which you seek to correct by holding a 'Save Democracy' rally. Can it get more farcical than this? What are the outward signs of a strong democratic set-up? These are manifested in developing strong second-line leaders at the party headquarters and charismatic regional leaders at the state level.

And what do we see in the Congress under your leadership? Second-rate speakers like Ghulam Nabi Azad and insipid leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge occupying the coveted positions of Leader of the Congress party in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively!

Why can't the combative, knowledgeable and fiery Anand Sharma be the leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha? Or someone like Jairam Ramesh (relatively young) or Digvijay Singh (your party's Dronacharya)?

Why can't someone like Kamal Nath be the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha? Or the giant-slayer Amarinder Singh? Or the young turk Jyotiraditya Scindia?

Is it because you feel that in democracy those leaders who have the ability and popularity to upstage you or your son must never make it to the Top?

And what do we see in the Congress under your leadership? Second-rate speakers like Ghulam Nabi Azad and insipid leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge occupying the coveted positions of Leader of the Congress party in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha respectively! Why can't the combative, knowledgeable and fiery Anand Sharma be the leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha? Or someone like Jairam Ramesh (relatively young) or Digvijay Singh (your party's Dronacharya)? Why can't someone like Kamal Nath be the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha? Or the giant-slayer Amarinder Singh? Or the young turk Jyotiraditya Scindia? Is it because you feel that in democracy those leaders who have the ability and popularity to upstage you or your son must never make it to the Top? I want to ask Madam Gandhi if her concept of democracy means enjoying the powers of the monarch without having to wear the crown of thorns?

So the scion of the Congress' first family will continue to tear a copy of an ordnance and increase the number of subsidised cylinders we Indians would get without having anything to do with what is called 'accountability'

The BJP has been very vocal about a 'Congress-mukht Bharat'. This would a very dangerous situation to be in. With the Left parties dying their natural deaths and with partisan regional parties raising their heads with the sole purpose of getting bigger and better deals from the Centre, a national party like the Congress must survive for democracy to survive.

And for the Congress to survive there is a need for the party to look beyond the current high command. The sooner it happens, the better it would be for democracy.

Sudhir Bisht, an author and independent columnist, writes from New Delhi. He tweets at @sudhir_bisht
'For every Kangana, every Shreya, every Teri complainant -- for every woman who challenges power, tries to rise in the world, or owns her own decisions, we'll produce thousands of Jishas.'

Mital Saran takes on India's male establishment.

IMAGE: Salma Pathan, 21, from Maharashtra, rides a bike in the 'Well of Death'. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters

There's a serious possibility that a woman will be President of the United States, leader of the free world.

A woman!

With her hormones and hysteria and moon-driven moods -- irrational, emotional, indecisive, jealous, weak-willed, bird-brained, vain, easily confused.

Hillary Clinton has been going about screeching about equal rights, equal pay, and rights for sexual deviants. That's fine, but how's she going to manage ISIS and Putin -- threaten to cry?

Can she handle work and home?

What if she quits to spend time with family?

Plus she's wrinkly and wears pantsuits. And there are rumours that she might, might, might field Elizabeth Warren, the equally female Senator from Massachusetts, as her running mate.

A broad in the White House is bad enough, but two? We should never have let them out of the kitchen.

At least Donald Trump is a committed bigot, decidedly self-regarding, and reliably xenophobic.

A manly man, with the firmness to thrash dissenters, the spine to bomb ragheads, the braggadocio to take on the Commies, the confidence to be President with only the shakiest understanding of which country is where, and the open-mindedness not to not have any discernible plan for how to Make America Great Again.

The Orange One is adaptable enough to make it up as he goes, and he's got the world's top advisors (somewhere).

His own party hates him, but he's crazy rich and has a hot wife, and frankly, he's a man, and we're used to men in the Oval Office. At least he won't redecorate it in pink and make it smell like potpourri.

Speaking of women and serious business, did you hear about Shreya Ukil, at Wipro in the UK, raising a stink because someone groped her and paid her less than the men? That's the market rate for women, sweetheart, suck it up.

Instead of being grateful for having a job at all, she had the gall to sue the company for millions. And, ridiculously enough, it looks like she won. Talk about stabbing a boss in the back. She fleeced the place, regardless of the outcome of the case.

Like that witch at Teri, who got her star scientist boss fired by whining about his attentions. First she refused to come to work because of him, and then complained about lost earnings! Meanwhile, she destroyed an eminent career over her stupid little feelings. If anyone deserves to be disgraced it's her, for making India look bad internationally.

IMAGE: Kangana Ranaut receives her National Award -- her third -- from President Pranab Mukherjee. Photograph: The President of India/Facebook

Speaking of witches, did you see Kangana Ranaut on television, cool as ice, saying that she doesn't care about being called names, because that's really old? Outdated, she called it. She'll discover the meaning of outdated when nobody wants to marry her because of her reputation.

Who does she think she is, with her National Awards and her sangfroid and getting on prime time to tell them where to get off? No wonder she's being called a witch and a slut and a psychopath.

I know what you left-wing liberals are thinking: That these women represent the kind of steely empowerment that women across the world strive for -- the triumph of hard work, grit, and unyielding resistance in the face of misogyny. Maybe.

But we are powerful, traditional, and entitled; we're the patriarchal establishment, and we aren't going gently into the night.

You want social growth, we'll make sure it comes with growing pains.

For every Kangana, every Shreya, every Teri complainant -- for every woman who challenges power, tries to rise in the world, or owns her own decisions, we'll produce thousands of Jishas.

Jisha was a 30-year-old Dalit woman living with her largely ostracised mother in a village in Kerala. She was studying law to help improve their lives. What we did to her is so horrible that people have even forgotten to debate the ethics of using her name in the press.

Jisha was probably strangled and raped, but also stabbed over 30 times and injured in the head, and possibly bitten all over her back. We left her in a pool of blood with her intestines spilling out of her body.

You remember Nirbhaya in Delhi, right? Bit like that, except Jisha wasn't on a near-empty bus, cruising a darkened city with strangers aboard -- she was at home.

Here's how powerful we are: Nobody has been arrested, and it took the police six days to cordon off the scene and collect forensic evidence. Of course, it wasn't Delhi, so it just takes that much longer to register.

Can you imagine the number of cases that never make it to the news?

Remember your place, ladies. Because the further you get from it, the more we'll remind you of where it is -- and this country has already had a woman prime minister.
He is starting to realise that an era is ending. And he is not ready to have a five-decade career besmirched by two alphabets -- AP -- that have cropped up in the AgustaWestland papers, says Aditi Phadnis.

Whether the 'AP' in the AgustaWestland papers is Ahmed Patel or not, two things are clear: There is little about the Congress that Patel doesn't know; and when the Congress was in power, no decision was taken by the government without consulting him first.

He has never been a particularly profound or inspiring politician. His speeches are pedestrian, his interventions sensible rather than brilliant and he is a middle-of-the-road politician, an ordinary man of simple habits. Neither his children nor their spouses have embarrassed him by showing any inclination to join politics. Patel also handles money -- a lot of it -- but it leaves him unmoved.

When the rest of India fell to a wave of anti-Congressism and the Janata Party came to power after the 1977 general election, it was Gujarat that saved the day for the Congress, sending to the Lok Sabha a handful of members: among them, Ahmed Patel. Then under 30, Patel was elected from his native Bharuch district, a region that still swears by him, though it may not elect him from there any more.

The 1977-1979 period is important in Patel's career. Today, when younger politicians question Patel's political antecedents (he has been a member of the Rajya Sabha since 1993) they are probably unaware that he was not just a member of the 6th but also the 7th and 8th Lok Sabha and was president of the Gujarat unit of the Youth Congress from 1977 to 1982.

While his election to the 6th Lok Sabha established him as a political leader of promise, it was during his second term in the Lok Sabha -- 1980 to 1984 -- that Patel really came into his own.

Rajiv Gandhi was being groomed to take over and the young, slightly shy Patel found favour with the young leader. When Indira Gandhi was assassinated and Rajiv Gandhi came to power in 1984 with a 400-plus majority in the Lok Sabha, Patel was promoted rapidly as party apparatchik: He was made general secretary of the Congress in addition to his responsibilities as a member of Parliament.

By 1986, Gandhi had formalised his plan to substitute the older Congress leaders with his own boys. Patel was sent back to Gujarat as the president of the party unit in the state. After Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, P V Narasimha Rao offered him a place in his council of ministers. Patel had lost the Lok Sabha election.

The government -- his government -- was threatening to turf him out of his New Delhi house. It was the middle of the school exams and both his children were taking the boards. An eviction notice one day and a ministership the next? 'Accept something from that man,' his supporters said scornfully of Rao later.

What he did accept, however, was the secretaryship of the Jawahar Bhavan Trust, a project begun by Rajiv Gandhi, visualised as a think-tank for the Congress, but pushed in real earnest by Sonia Gandhi in the years after his assassination. It was Patel who worked tirelessly to raise money and drove contractors and others to finish the project.

The appointment, as can be imagined, gave him a unique opportunity denied to other Congress members -- access to Sonia Gandhi. Unlike Sheila Dikshit, equally close to Rajiv Gandhi during his days in power, or N D Tiwari, Patel did not join the group that tried to break away from the Congress during the Rao regime, although personally and politically he got little from the Rao years of the Congress except membership of the Congress Working Committee.

While he was unfailingly polite to Rao, he never accepted his authority. He never forgave Rao for allowing the Babri Masjid to be demolished and campaigned overtime for his removal when it became clear that there were alternatives to him.

But for Patel those were lonely years, mitigated only by the vast network he had created as a result of holding so many party positions. This was demonstrated most clearly during the party conference in Tirupati in 1993 where, after years, elections were held to the CWC. He got the third-highest number of votes.

There are two previous occasions when corruption charges were voiced against him: And he announced that if they were proved he would quit politics. One was by former Mizoram governor Swaraj Kaushal some decades ago; and the other, more recent, was his role in funding an operation to secure the support of some Bharatiya Janata Party members of Parliament -- to get them to quit their party and vote in favour of the ruling coalition during the final confidence motion against the Manmohan Singh government after the Left parties pulled out.

Patel was exonerated by a parliamentary committee that looked into the incident.

It is not that Patel is a particularly prosperous man. His money belongs to his wife whose family owns large tracts of land in Bharuch and were local zamindars. He himself is fondly referred to as 'Babu' in his village Piraman in Ankleshwar, Bharuch. It was he who encouraged the chemical industry development at Ankleshwar and especially the Jamnagar refinery, something that brought him close to the Ambani family.

But Patel is beginning to realise that an era is ending. And he is not ready to have a five-decade career besmirched because of two alphabets.
Four of the 10 terror suspects who were detained by Delhi Police for their alleged ideological leaning towards banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed were released on Saturday due to lack of adequate evidence, three days after being questioned by its Special Cell.

The Delhi Police has also approached the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the government of Indias nodal agency that deals with cyber security threats, to help them in the investigation.

Of the four suspects who were released on Saturday, three are residents of east Delhis Chand Bagh locality and the other is from Ghaziabads Loni area. They were let off from the forces anti-terrorism unit Special Cell's Lodhi Colony office around 4 pm.

We have arranged for a Delhi-based clinical psychologist and the four of them have been asked to visit him on a regular basis. The psychologist will provide us with a report on their progress every week, Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Arvind Deep said.

He said during questioning it emerged that the youths had extreme anger within them as a result of which they were vulnerable, making them potential inductees in terror rings.

The four youths were freed after investigators said they did not find adequate evidence to prove their involvement in the suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed ring, which was busted earlier this week with the arrest of three youths and Improvised Explosive Device were recovered from their possession, police sources said.

13 persons were picked up by the Special Cell after a late night operation on Tuesday. Of them, three -- Sajid, Sameer Ahmed, and Shakir Ansari -- have been arrested, four let off and six are still being questioned by the investigators.

Meanwhile, the police on Saturday approached the CERT-In to help them in the investigation, with encrypted messages and decoding online conversations which have emerged as the biggest hurdles in the probe so far, Deep said.

Most of the conversations over Whatsapp among the prime accused Sajid, his associates Sameer and Shakir, and the detained persons were found to be in Urdu, for which a translator has also been engaged.

The CERT-In will make sure that access to the technical data do not lead to tampering of evidence in any way, a senior official said, adding that CERT-In will also help in decoding encrypted codes and accessing secured data, mainly exchanged during closed chats.

The police also claimed to have found several videos of JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, who is wanted by India in connection with 2001 Parliament attack case and the terror strike on Pathankot Aibase in January.

Police has, however, still not been able to ascertain the source of funds for the suspects who were allegedly tasked with executing serial strikes in the city, senior officials said.

The four youths who were set free today were given counselling by community leaders and a psychiatrist before their release, sources said adding that the police is pondering over similar arrangement for all the suspects who were picked up after a series of late night raids on Tuesday.

Investigators interrogating the three youths arrested for alleged links with banned Jaish-e- Mohammed had on Friday said the arrested trio and their associates were shown videos pertaining to alleged atrocities against Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarnagar and Iraq to induct them into the outfit and execute terror strikes in the national capital.

Investigators had earlier claimed that the trio was initially inspired by the dreaded ISIS and later shifted their ideological leaning. Sajid was self-radicalised and propagated ideology which was in line with that of the Islamic State until he came in touch with a cyber entity, Talha, believed to be close to Masood Azhar.
Over 600 Aam Aadmi Party supporters, including 24 MLAs and several senior party leaders, were today detained as they took out a protest march towards the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging a Bharatiya Janata Party-Congress alliance in corruption.



As many as 462 persons, including 24 MLAs were detained at Parliament Street Police Station in New Delhi and 140 at the police station in Tilak Marg.



All detained persons were released by 2.10 pm, a senior police official said.

Following a rally at Jantar Mantar, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal and its top brass attacked Modi and his government for not taking action against Sonia Gandhi in AgustaWestland chopper scam, groups led by Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas went to gherao residences of the prime minister and the Congress president.

Kejriwal left the venue before the protest march began. Several AAP MLAs, including Deputy Speaker of the Delhi legislative assembly Bandana Kumar, participated in it.

The police, who had made extensive preparations by putting up three layers of barricades, also detained senior AAP leaders which include Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Dilip Pandey.

While the group of 462 was detained from the first layer of barricade in Parliament Street as they started their march from Jantar Mantar, the other group comprising 140 AAP supporters were detained earlier in the day as they reached directly close to the barricading near the PM's residence in 7 Race Course Road here, the senior official said.

The protesters were detained under Section 144 of CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure), Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.

Image: AAP leaders during a protest in New Delhi on Saturday. Photograph: @AamAdmiParty/ Twitter


Over 300 Aam Aadmi Party supporters and some party leaders were on Saturday detained as they today took out a protest march towards the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging a Bharatiya Janata Party-Congress alliance in corruption.

Following a rally at Jantar Mantar, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal and its top brass attacked Modi and his government for not taking action against Sonia Gandhi in AgustaWestland chopper scam, groups led by Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas went to gherao residences of the prime minister and the Congress president.

Kejriwal left the venue before the protest march began. Several AAP MLAs, including deputy speaker of the Delhi Legislative assembly Bandana Kumar, participated in it.

Police, which had made extensive preparations by putting up three layers of barricades, detained senior AAP leaders Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Dilip Pandey along with party volunteers, and took them to Parliament Street police station.

Over 300 people were detained from the first layer of barricade in Parliament Street as they started their march from Jantar Mantar. And over 100 were detained in the morning. They were a separate group who had reached near Tughlaq Road police station, which is near the PMs residence, to protest.

The protesters were detained under Section 144 of CrPC. They have all been taken to Parliament Street police station, Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Jatin Narwal said.

Photograph: Police drag an AAP supporter away from the rally. Photograph: PTI
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday questioned cousins of former Indian Air Force chief S P Tyagi -- Sanjeev, Rajeev and Sandeep -- besides advocate Gautam Khaitan for nearly eight hours asking exhaustively about finances, firms established by them and their relations with European middlemen in Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter deal.

The sources said questioning revolved around accounts of IDS Tunisia and remittances received by it.

They said some documents which Khaitan was not carrying on Friday were brought by him.

The CBI claimed that Khaitan was being evasive during questioning and concealing information.

The agency sources said managing director of IDS Infotech Partap K Aggarwal and chief executive officer of Aeromatrix Info Solutions Pvt Ltd Praveen Bakshi have been called in connection with its probe in the case.

It is believed that their firms were used to route alleged bribe money in India.

Former Air Force chief S P Tyagi has also been called on Monday again for a fresh round of questioning.

The sources said Aggarwal, Bakshi and Tyagi have been called after some new facts have emerged during the questioning of the four accused on Saturday.

Sanjeev Tyagi has not denied his relations with European middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa saying that they know him five to six years before the order was placed.

He has said that the payments received by him were for power sector jobs which were all received through proper banking channels with income tax paid on them. He has said that payments received from middlemen were not for helicopter deal but for some power sector job.
ELKO  Rancher Cliff Gardner of Ruby Valley will give a presentation Tuesday and moderate a discussion titled Federal Jurisdiction within Western States  Lawful or Unlawful  Constitutional or Unconstitutional.

The program begins at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday upstairs at Stockmens casino. There is no charge to attend, said Mary Ann Polish, vice chairman of the Independent American Party of Nevada.

Gardner, an independent researcher of public lands history, said the purpose of this meeting is to accomplish two things: discuss research on the original intent of the founders as expressed in the records of the Constitutional Convention, and discuss the formation of a coalition supporting efforts to impact the outcome of upcoming legislation.

We find that the greatest violations that are now occurring, here in the western United States, is the people being deprived of local self-government, he said.

When asked what he meant by denial of rights, he explained the Founders were adamant on the definition of the right of trial  in particular, an individual being tried by his or her peers, especially locals who understand the issues discussed.

Tuesdays meeting will also serve as an organizational meeting for his proposed coalition.

The second thing we want to discuss is putting together a coalition of persons that are concerned about the loss of constitutional rights and protections, in order to be more effective in communicating our concerns to state and federal representatives, he said.

The last item of discussion stems from the recent public lands dispute in Oregon. It concerns what Gardner described as the loss of being considered innocent until proven guilty.

Many of us are concerned that the Bundys and Hammonds are being treated as political prisoners, particularly in view of the fact they are being held in solitary confinement, even before theyre convicted, which is an abridgment of their right to be treated innocent until proven guilty, said Gardner.
The Nepal government has levelled three charges against the countrys ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya to justify its decision to recall him, with officials on Saturday saying he was working against national interest.

Envoys should follow governments directives and maintain diplomatic decorum, Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters in Kathmandu.

In a late night development, Nepal on Friday recalled Upadhyaya over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepals envoy to India in April last year, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris planned visit to India.

The diplomat has been also charged with siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister K P Sharma Olis government, according to reports.

He has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying Indias ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Rawal said.

Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandaris trip to India has no connection with the governments decision to recall Upadhyaya.

The president was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in the Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed the Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandaris India visit.

The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now, he said.

We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically, he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.

According to the report, Thapa said Upadhyayas recall was made in a bid to strengthen the existing relations between the two nations but did not explain what the envoy failed to do to strengthen the ties.
A packet containing some suspected explosive substance, a detonator and a threat letter in connection with Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumars expected visit in April, was received by the office of the director of the Film Training Institute of India in Pune on Saturday evening, police said.

The packet was addressed to the previous director of the FTII Prashant Pathrabe.

Bhupendra Kainthola, the present director of the institute, said, My office received the packet at 5.30 pm and since the contents were suspicious, we alerted the police.

Senior police inspector Sushma Chavan of the Deccan Gymkhana Police Station said the parcel contained a detonator and a white powder, suspected to be some explosive material. It also had a letter, warning the director against allowing Kumar to visit the FTII campus.

Police suspects that the packet must have been sent before Kumars visit to Pune on April 24, when Pathrabe was the director of FTII.

Kumar, who addressed a gathering in Pune on that day, was reportedly going to visit the FTII too, but eventually he did not.

The contents have been sent to the forensic lab, inspector Chavan said.

The FTII Students Association said it was shocked by the incident.

The FTII students, throughout the strike last year (against the appointment of TV actor and Bharatiya Janata Party member Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of FTII) had received numerous threat letters, but now the price of questioning the government has reached a stage where you receive an explosive substance, it said.

This only speaks of the intolerant, insensitive and criminal attitude of people who are doing everything to stop dissent across the country. We strongly condemn this cowardly act and appeal to the government to immediately enquire into this issue, the association said in a statement.
What did Narendra Modi tell former Utah governor Jon M Huntsman when he met him? Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com reports from Washington, DC.

IMAGE: Jon M Hunstman, Chairman, Atlantic Council, centre, and Frederick Kempe, President and CEO, Atlantic Council, left, with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, March 17, 2015. Photograph: Press Information Bureau

The Atlantic Council, now headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's friend, former Utah Governor Jon M Huntsman, Jr, jumped on the India bandwagon with a US-India Trade Initiative.

Huntsman -- who also served as the US Ambassador to China and US Trade Representative -- and Modi have known each other since their days as Utah Governor and chief minister of Gujarat respectively. Huntsman led a trade delegation to India, which visited Gujarat.

Frederick Kempe, president and CEO, Atlantic Council, who moderated the conference on 'Unlocking the Potential of US-India Trade,' the first public event of this trade initiative, recalled how when a Council team visited India last year led by Huntsman and met with Modi, the prime minister had hugged Huntsman. The first words Modi uttered even as they continued in their warm embrace were inquiring from Huntsman: Hows Asha?

Huntsman and his family had adopted Asha, a child from Gujarat, several years ago during Modi's first tenure as chief minister.

Huntsman, who took over as chairman of the Atlantic Council nearly two years ago, said he had visited India twice in the last year "and with each visit, as I have over the last 30 years of visits to India, I sense a growing enthusiasm, desire, and keen willingness to engage deeper and deeper with the US."

"Later this summer," he added, "Ill be traveling once again to India to host the first workshop of this particular initiative on trade."

"In forging collaborations on issues of trade and commerce, we hope to cement a pathway for broader and more effective cooperation between our two countries through analyses and work that will include a series of workshops," Huntsman said.

The goal of this initiative, he explained, is "simply to provide a forum to discuss some of the key issues coloring the debates and do our part to help leverage commercial and economic collaboration between our two countries."

"As a former trade negotiator," the former USTR said, " I recognize that this endeavor will not happen overnight and there are numerous obstacles to overcome before implementing bilateral trade treaties or even trade and investment framework agreements like the one I worked with some 15 years ago between the United States and India."

"However, the steps we are taking today and during the short-term are crucial to the broader effort," Huntsman added, "and I believe it will be imperative to achieving the joint role set forth of raising US-India trade to $500 billion over the next decade."
The National Investigation Agency on Saturday submitted chargesheet before a special court against 10 accused in the double murder case of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in Bharuch, claiming the killings were part of a larger conspiracy involving co-accused located in Pakistan and South Africa.

As per the chargesheet submitted before the special NIA court of principal judge P B Desai, The case relates to murder of two persons ...as part of a larger conspiracy in which co-accused located in foreign countries too, were conspiring to kill and strike terror in the minds of people belonging to a particular section of society.

During investigation, role of co-accused located in Pakistan and South Africa has also emerged and investigation of the case is being continued to collect more evidence against the accused, it said.

The central agency said chargesheet against two more arrested accused -- Abdul Samad and Nasir Khan Pathan -- will be filed later.

The chargesheet was filed against accused Saiyed Imran, Zuheb Ansari, Inayat Patel, Mohmad Yunus, Haider Ali, Nissarbhai Sheikh, Mohsin Khan Pathan, Mohmed Altaf Shaikh, Abid Patel and Abdul Salim Ghanchi.

Former BJP president of Bharuch and senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member Shirish Bangali and general secretary of Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha Pragnesh Mistry were shot dead in the district by two unidentified gunmen on November 2 last year.

Public prosecutor Geeta Gorambe also submitted three applications before the court, seeking permission to keep identity of some witnesses secret, details of certain documents hidden, and NIA protection to the witnesses.

Gorambe told the court that the NIA will itself provide protection to certain witnesses but wanted court permission for the same. The court granted permission for all three requests.

A total of 12 accused were arrested in connection with the case and were booked under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, the Indian Penal Code, Arms Act and the Gujarat Police Act.

The special court had in December last year granted the NIA more time for filing the chargesheet.

Initially, Bharuch police along with Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad conducted the probe and had termed the murders as an act of terror.

Investigators said the contract for killing the two BJP leaders was allegedly given by absconding Javed Chikna, apparently to avenge riots in Bombay (Mumbai) during 1993 and in Gujarat during 2002.

One of the chargesheeted accused Abid Patel is brother of Javed, an accused in the 1993 Bombay (Mumbai) bomb blasts case.

During investigation it was also found out that Javed and others associated with Dawood Ibrahim gang instructed local module to kill BJP leaders to avenge 1993 Bombay (Mumbai) riots and 2002 riots, they said.

Based on the request of the Gujarat government, the Union Home Ministry has handed over the probe to the NIA in December last year.
Rival groups of students on Friday clashed at the Jadavpur University campus over the screening of Vivek Agnihotri-directed political film Buddha in a Traffic Jam triggering chaos during which some girls were allegedly molested and Bharatiya Janata Party actor-turned-politician Roopa Ganguly was not allowed to enter its premises.

The fracas began after the films screening ended late in the evening, and students from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad fought with activists of Left-backed student unions in which a few of them received minor injuries, officials said.

Agnihotri faced black flags at the campus gates, sloganeering and placards bearing message that asked him to leave.

The filmmaker claimed he was manhandled and gheraoed by some students and even the glass pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion.

The agitating students said they have nothing against the screening of the film, but were protesting against the divisive content in it, which also stars Anupam Kher.

We all know Khers views in the whole debate on whatever happened in Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is acting in this film which has divisive content. We are protesting against that, Sounak Mukherjee, a first year MA student of English Department, said.

Some girl students were allegedly molested during the melee that ensued after the incident, police said.

The students had isolated four of them inside the campus following the incident. I have handed them to the police. There were some outsiders also. The students said they molested some girls, University Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das said late Friday night.

A senior varsity official said the four youths were outsider and FIR is being lodged against them.

BJP leader Roopa Ganguly also rushed to the campus but was stopped at the gate by the police.

The state-run varsitys alumni association, which runs the Triguna Sen auditorium, had decided to cancel the booking for a pre-release screening of the film in their hall.

The producers, however, went ahead with the screening at an open-air space in the campus claiming they have support from another group of students.

The students arranged a bedsheet and turned it into a screen to see my film. Many watched it and realised its not what they were thinking. It is a realistic film, Agnihotri, the director of Hate Story and Goal said.

Even as the screening was going on in the evening, after classes were over, the agitators carried on with demonstration near the spot.

We did not arrest anyone but keeping a close watch on the situation so that it does not escalate beyond control, a senior Kolkata Police official said.

Meanwhile, ABVP activists were holding demonstrations demanding arrest of those who had allegedly beaten up some of their fellow members.

Police has put up barricades few metres away from Jadavpur police station to stop a rally led by university students who were on way to the police station to stop any possible clash between ABVP members and JU students.
A 65-year-old Muslim Sufi preacher was hacked to death by unidentified machete-wielding assailants in northwest Bangladesh, two weeks after a liberal university professor was killed in a similar attack claimed by the dreaded Islamic State.

Shahidullah was found dead with gashes on the right shoulder and a slit throat in a mango orchard in Rajshahi citys Tanor upazila, in an attack that bears the hallmark of previous murders of intellectuals, bloggers and minorities by Islamists in the country.

His body was recovered after locals called the police around 10 pm on Friday night, said Abdur Razzak, officer-in-charge of Tanor Police Station.

Shahidullah was a local grocer but was regarded as a Sufi saint with a number of followers in the area, Razzak said.

He said autopsy of the body was carried out at a local hospital and then returned to the relatives for burial.

Razzak said their initial investigations found that Shahidullah was involved in a property dispute with neighbours which could be a reason of the murder.

It seems he was hacked first and then slaughtered, he was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

But Rajshahis police chief Nisharul Arif told reporters that Islamists could also be behind the killing which was similar to the murder of liberal Rajshahi University professor Rezaul Karim two weeks ago for which the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed the responsibility.

An investigation has been launched into his Shahidullahs murder, Arif said.

Meanwhile, the deceaseds son has sued anonymous people in a case filed with Tanor Police Station. He said his father was a follower of Torika Ponthi (a spiritual path) and might have had enmity with followers of other paths.

There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent weeks especially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners.

In the recent attacks, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death last month by machete-wielding IS terrorists who slit his throat near his home in Rajshahi city.

Two days later, Bangladeshs first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists.

Last week, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death by machete-wielding IS terrorists in his shop in central Bangladesh.
A third teenager, who was arrested in connection with the bombing of a gurudwara by Islamist militants in the German city of Essen, has admitted to the authorities that he was part of a group which carried out the terror attack, according to a media report.

Tolga I, who is known in his circle as Amir, appears to be a sort of commander-in-chief who has given the order to Mohammed B and Yussuf T to explode a bomb at the Nanaksar Satsangh Sabha Gurudwara on the evening of April 16, Report Muenchen programme of the ARD TV network said.

During interrogation, 17-year-old Tolga did not reveal the background or motive for targeting the Sikh temple, which hosted a wedding ceremony attended by over 200 guests.

He admitted that he was part of a group which carried out the bomb attack on the gurudwara.

Investigators are trying to establish whether Tolga I as well as sixteen-year-old secondary school students Mohammed and Yussuf arrested four days after the attack are part of a terror network or their group included more young people, the report said.

A 60-year-old Sikh priest was seriously injured and two others suffered minor injuries in the explosion, which ripped through the entrance hall of the gurudwara.

Investigators have traced a link of the three men to a radical Muslim clergy and to a travel agency in the city of Duisburg, near Essen, the report said.

The three have also frequently visited the Assalam Mosque in Essen, which is known to the authorities as a meeting place of radical Islamists.

Meanwhile, Germanys federal prosecutors office is examining the possibility to take over the investigations into the bomb attack from the state prosecutor in Essen on suspicion that the three teenagers arrested are part of a terror network, the report said.

Tolga, who was taken into custody on an arrest warrant issued by the district court in Essen, came to police attention after his mother informed them about his links to radical Islamists and handed them over some notices made by her son, the report said.

She was worried that Tolga was preparing to leave for Syria to fight for the Islamic State terror group.

He is also known to have contacts with the Lohberger Brigade, in Dinslaken, a group of jihadists who have joined IS militants as fighters some years ago, according to the report.

Local authorities in the town of Schermbeck, near the area where the family lives, banned Tolga from travelling abroad and impounded his passport after his mother approached the police.

This cooperation may have prevented him from travelling to Syria, but could not take him away from his radical Islamist course, the report said.

Investigators found on Tolgas Facebook profile a message from April 17 that he got married on that day.

They believe that Yussuf and Mohammed also did the same during the last six weeks and all of them found their partners through Islamic matrimonial agencies.

Their wedding ceremonies were conducted under strict Islamic traditions, according to the report.

Investigators are still groping in the dark about whom the terror suspects married and what was their motive, the report said.
With Uttar Pradesh hit by a severe drought, its Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday sought nearly Rs 11,000 crore from the Centre as Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the situation in the state and directed immediate assistance.

Days after rejecting the Centres offer for a water train for Bundelkhand, Yadav sought financial assistance to buy 10,000 tankers to carry water to villages of parched region and other drought-hit districts of Uttar Pradesh.

The Centre and the state have to work together... farmers have faced the onslaught of both hail storm and drought...we want to increase the number of tankers to carry water to villagers, Yadav told reporters after the hour-long meeting with the prime minister.

Under various heads, Yadav demanded nearly 11,000 crore from the Centre for drought relief.

Asked why the state government had rejected offer to send water train to Bundelkhand, he said there is water in Bundelkhand but his government needs means to carry it to villages. Can a train carry water to villages, he questioned.

At the meeting, Modi said the Centre and states have to work together to mitigate the problems faced by the people due to the drought, a prime ministers office statement said.

Yadav apprised Modi of the efforts undertaken for mitigation of problems faced by people because of drought conditions, it said.

It was noted that the state has submitted a memorandum two days back for assistance for the Rabi 2015-16 season and the prime minister directed that the process be completed, and assistance be provided without delay, it said.

The state shared the action plan for revival and restoration of 78,000 water-bodies including tanks, ponds, and farm ponds; one lakh new water-bodies and recharge structures.

This is to be achieved by utilising funds available in schemes such as MNREGA and Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, the statement said.

The meeting was told that an amount of Rs 934.32 crore has been released to the state under the National Disaster Response Fund, after adjustments of the state balances.

This is in addition to Rs 506.25 crore released as central share of State Disaster Response Fund for 2015-16 to the state. A further amount of Rs. 265.87 crore has been released as first instalment of SDRF for 2016-17.

The PM later tweeted: Had a productive meeting with UP CM @yadavakhilesh on the drought situation in various parts of UP.

He said the various drought mitigation measures undertaken in the state were discussed extensively in the meeting.

CM @yadavakhilesh & I discussed the need to effectively utilise the period before monsoon for water recharge and conservation efforts, Modi added in another tweet.

Usage of latest technology & community participation, particularly of our Nari Shakti can play a key role in effective drought management, he said.

The PMO statement said the meeting ended with a resolve on the part of the Centre and the state to work together.

A statement from the Uttar Pradesh government said Yadav demanded funds to complete potable water schemes, allocation of pending amount from the 2015 memorandum submitted to the Centre for drought and hail storm relief and money to buy 10,000 water tankers.

Yadav also demanded enhancing work under MNREGA to 200 mandays in Bundelkhand and Vindhychal regions and 15 mandays in other districts of UP. He also demanded enhancing daily wages under MNRGEA to Rs 300 from the present Rs 250 in Bundelkhand.

At the meeting, the PM pitched for focus on medium and long term solutions for drought-proofing, the PMO statement said.

Modi stressed on the use of technologies like remote sensing and satellite imaging for planning of water conservation and recharge structures.

The need to change cropping patterns based on scientific advice, use of drip and sprinkler irrigation for increasing water use efficiency, community participation, especially women, for better water management, was stressed, the PMO said.

The PM also called for treated urban waste water to be used for farming in the adjoining areas. He mentioned the need to monitor delivery of water through tankers in the affected areas, using technology such as GPS.

The meeting also discussed how best the period before the upcoming monsoon can be utilized for water conservation and recharge efforts. This includes efforts at desilting, check dams, recharging of rivers and other water storage mechanisms.

Yadav apprised Modi of efforts undertaken for mitigation of problems faced by people because of drought conditions.

These include provision of drinking water, food to the needy in Bundelkhand, employment, water and fodder for cattle, and efforts for long and medium term solutions.

He said the state has undertaken preparatory steps to implement the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana in right earnest.

The NITI Aayog also outlined the steps taken already for the release of funds under the Bundelkhand package.

Akhilesh thanked Modi for this meeting, which he said was a welcome development, given the acute problems being faced by people on account of water shortage, especially in the Bundelkhand region, the PMO said.

Image: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav with Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussing ways to tackle the drought in Bundelkhand. Photograph: Press Information Bureau
ELKO  Candidates have two opportunities to connect with voters through the Elko Daily Free Press this month.

The newspaper is hosting a meet and greet Candidates Night event on May 25 at the Elko Convention Center, just prior to the Elko Area Chambers forum for county commission candidates.

All candidates for any races in the 2016 election are invited to attend between 4-6 p.m. in the Turquoise Room at the convention center.

Candidates will be given name tags, and light refreshments will be served. The public is invited to come out and meet participating candidates in either the primary or general races.

Candidates are also invited to submit written statements to the Free Press to be published prior to the June 14 election. Please limit statements to 400 words and email them to editor@elkodaily.com by May 20.
Halloween is nearly here. Find out when Trick-or-Treat is happening in Martinsville.

The leaves are changing, the evenings are getting cooler and excitement is building as Halloween draws closer.
President Obama recently sent a budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year to Congress. Its a vast document, touching everything from medical research and agriculture to American manufacturing and space travel.

But buried under all those details is a little-discussed provision that would impose a $10.25 per-barrel tax on oil. This tax comes with good intentions: the proceeds would be directed to public infrastructure projects. But it would have devastating consequences on the American economy, destroying jobs, and driving up energy prices for hardworking American families.

The energy industry is a central pillar of the American economy. In total, energy firms employ more than nine million people and generate billions in annual growth.

But recent global trends have left the energy industry on shaky grounds. The price of oil has fallen nearly 40 percent over the past year. Today, the average barrel costs about $37.

This falloff has driven down industry revenues and forced firms all over the country to contract. Over the last year, American companies cut over 104,000 positions. In January alone, the energy sector laid off over 20,000 workers.

This tax couldnt come at a worse time. First it would hit every American because energy firms would compensate for the new tax by raising prices at the pump. The average gallon of gas would cost about 25 cents more.

Drivers would have to shell out even more money just to get to work. Jason Furman, the Presidents chief economic advisor, has acknowledged this sad reality. He recently told CNBC that some of [the tax] would certainly be passed along to consumers.

Second, it would also further sap firms of revenues, forcing them to inflict further layoffs. Hard-working Americans would be thrown out of the job market.

While this tax proposal is discouraging, its not surprising. The President has condemned traditional energy since the day he took office. In recent years, hes ramped up his crusade, taking every opportunity possible to hobble domestic energy growth.

In November, he denied approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have connected crude oil fields in Canadian with American refineries in the Gulf Coast. Keystone XL would have created 42,000 jobs and generated $3.4 billion in new economic growth. And most Americans supported the project.

Then in January, the White House proposed new rules that would restrict greenhouse gas emissions produced on federal lands. If enacted, energy companies could be forced to cut methane emissions by nearly half over the next ten years  costing them up to $161 million every year.

In March, President Obama scrapped a plan he drafted last year that would have allowed offshore energy development in the Atlantic. The reversal will deprive the country of thousands of new jobs and billions of dollars in revenue.

Fortunately, leaders in Congress have mounted a counter campaign against the Presidents anti-energy agenda.

The president should be proposing policies to grow our economy, House Speaker Paul Ryan stated in response to the proposal. Ryan added, instead of sacrificing it to appease progressive climate activists. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise rightly noted his radical policies have cost jobs while increasing costs on hardworking families.

The President should heed the message coming from Congress. This tax will destroy jobs and drive up costs for everyday Americans. Our public infrastructure could certainly use an upgrade, but withougr squashing an energy industry that fuels the American economy.
CHRISTIAN WOMEN'S JOB CORPS

The Christian Women's Job Corps of Abilene has set its Spring 2016 Graduation Celebration for 6:30 p.m. Thursday at 1450 N. 17th St., Come hear what God has done in 10 years of ministry.

MOTHERS' DAY SUNDAY

Bishop J. Scott Mayer and the Rev. David Romanik will on hand to confirm the New Member Formation Class in Sunday morning services at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest, 602 Meander St.

CHRISTIAN WOMEN'S CONNECTION

The next Abilene Christian Women's Connection Meeting and Luncheon is set for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 23 at the Abilene Country Club, 4039 S. Treadaway Blvd. Karleigh Wood of Frisco, Texas, will speak on 'Stability in an Unstable World.' Contact Sharlyn Garoutte at 325-370-6567 or AbileneCWC@aol.com to make reservations or for cancellations. Cost to attend is $16.

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST FELLOWSHIP

The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Abilene, 1541 Sayles Blvd, welcomes people of any and/or all religions to hear Ed S. speak about 'Learning at any age: Strategies from Learning Science.' He will describe applying some principles from learning science to improve our learning effectiveness and efficiency, which works for any age group at 11 a.m. Sunday. For more information visit uuabilene.org.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL INFORMATION WANTED

Information about churches' Vacation Bible School for the summer can be included in this column. Please send information on the theme, time, date, church address, ages involved, and contact number, to woodwardj@reporternews.com or fax to 325-670-5242.

Send news of your religious organization or group to Religion Editor, Abilene Reporter-News, P.O. Box 30, Abilene, Texas 79604; fax it to 325-670-5242; or email it to jan.woodward@reporternews.com. Deadline is noon Monday.
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.
Regular readers of education content in the newspaper or on our website may have noticed my name missing from stories this week. It's because I was out of town, visiting Boston, Massachusetts, as part of a national seminar for education reporters.

The conference, put on by the Education Writers Association, offered me a chance to learn about what other reporters and experts are working on around the country and bring the new techniques back home to Abilene.

Topics discussed include poverty, disenfranchisement, teacher evaluations and the new federal education law known as the Every Student Succeeds Act. Expect many stories in the next few months on these topics and more, as I incorporate what I've learned into my reporting. The future is bright in the education world, I believe, and I'm happy to continue to tell of the educational successes and failures in Abilene and the Big Country.

Career Day, Take Two

It seems more and more schools want me to represent journalism during their career day presentations.

Last month, I had the pleasure of speaking to fifth grade students at Clyde Intermediate School. This coming week, I'll put on my presentation hat again to meet with the eighth grade students at Craig Middle School.

According to Kimberly Cline, who is organizing the event, the Texas Education Agency is encouraging eighth grade students to begin investigating career choices as they head toward high school. She decided to include me in helping guide some young souls on the path to becoming the voice of the people.

I'll be able to speak on topics like skills needed to be a journalist, what the advantages and disadvantages are and how to get started.

Brownwood Helpers

The school nutrition department at the Brownwood Independent School District is using some new helpers in the East Elementary School cafeteria.

Students in the Healthy Helpers program are joining Manager Connie Gresham as they learn about exercise and nutrition while assisting in food preparation.

'We're so excited about the Healthy Helpers program that Ms. Gresham has started with our kids at East,' said Nanda Wilbourn, East Elementary principal. 'They love it. They've come by my office on their way from the cafeteria telling me how they washed the veggies, made yogurt cups and toured the kitchen.'

Healthy Helpers is complementing another program at the school, started by Kimberly Harvey, Wilbourn said. The running club is also focusing on making healthy choices at a young age, she said, adding that elementary school is the perfect time to address making these health-conscious decisions.

The Healthy Helpers program will be debuting at Coggin, Northwest and Woodland Heights elementary schools, as well as Brownwood Intermediate School, before the end of the school year, Brownwood ISD said in a news release about the program.
Close to 250 Hardin-Simmons University graduates got to experience a once-in-a-lifetime feeling Saturday as they filed out of Behrens Auditorium, some for the last time.

'It's kind of like a 'we made it' moment,' said Lane Beamon of Graham, a brand new college graduate, with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice. 'I feel like I've got some confidence to go forward.'

Beamon was among the students who got their diplomas in a morning ceremony at Hardin-Simmons, while others received theirs Saturday afternoon.

Lanny and Carol Hall, president and first lady of Hardin-Simmons, experienced their own 'me made it' moment, as they addressed students for the last time. Carol Hall delivered a charge to the students in the morning ceremony and Lanny Hall gave the address in the afternoon ceremony.

Lanny Hall is retiring as president of Hardin-Simmons this month but will remain as chancellor. A retirement reception will be held 1-3:30 p.m. May 15 in the Johnson Building on campus.

Among the highlights of the Saturday morning ceremony was the bestowing of an honorary doctor of divinity degree on Emmanuel McCall, an adjunct professor in the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He also has served as an adjunct professor in the Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons.

'Emmanuel is a Baptist hero,' Don Williford, Logsdon dean, said in his introduction.

McCall, whose career spans 60 years, is a preacher, educator and prominent figure in civil rights. He developed the Black Church Studies program at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1999, Morehouse College inducted McCall into the Martin Luther King Jr. board of preachers.

Williford said McCall is noted for building bridges among people and cited him as an example to follow.

'May our graduates be such bridge builders in their generation,' he said.

The 247 degrees issued in the two ceremonies at Hardin-Simmons included 205 bachelor's degrees, 37 master's degrees, and five doctorates.

In her charge to the students, Carol Hall recalled that when she attended Hardin-Simmons, the president at the time, Elwin Skiles, would begin each chapel service with the familiar Psalm 118, verse 24: 'This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.'

Each new sunrise is a gift, Hall said, and urged students to be grateful for that blessing.

'How we choose to receive it is up to us,' she said.

Some days may be better than others, Hall said, but Jesus promises in scripture to always be there. Hall encouraged the students to remember that promise as they leave the university and venture into a new life.

'Rejoice in knowing that he loves you,' she said.

Following each of the two ceremonies Saturday, new graduates and their families gathered for a reception on the lawn outside Behrens Auditorium. There was much rejoicing.

Some had more than a diploma for which to be grateful. Kelli Barris of Pueblo, Colorado, earned a degree in biology with minors in biochemistry and Spanish.

She plans to become a physician's assistant, but first she has a wedding to attend  her own. She and Brent Vogler will marry on Friday and start their new life together. But first things first.

On Saturday, Barris clutched her diploma and tried to keep her mortar board from flying off her head in the brisk breeze. She was enjoying her 'we made it' moment.

'It's a lot of relief,' she said, 'and also a lot of accomplishment.'
John Matthews, Abilene

Lois Lerner, the IRS manager who orchestrated the IRS attack on conservative political action groups, was subpoenaed by Congress to testify under oath about those IRS attacks on the conservative groups. She was sworn in, and proceeded to state that she 'had done absolutely nothing wrong.'

From that point, she evaded every question she was asked by pleading the 5th Amendment, saying 'I can't answer that because in doing so I might incriminate myself.' Congressman Trey Goudy, a former prosecutor, pointed out she can't swear she did nothing wrong and at the same time plead the 5th Amendment.

In my opinion, this is the same tactic Susan King is trying to pull on the voters in the current election. She is trying to make us voters believe the unbelievable. She claims there was nothing wrong that the public needs to know about in the 911 calls to her home while at the same time she blocks the release of those 911 calls the media has requested under the Freedom of Information Act. She claims privacy under the HIPPA Act (medical privacy). But she had already let that medical privacy cat out of the bag months ago when she announced that she was being treated for depression.

She has filed a lawsuit in court 250 miles away from Abilene, in Travis County, to block the release of those calls to the news media and voters. She made sure the case won't come to court before the general election in November.

In my opinion there must be something about those 911 calls that she is desperate to keep from the voters. Ms. King seems to forget that she is running for high public office and in doing so she must be honest and forthcoming to the voters. Instead, it appears that she has chosen to be deceptive and evasive  not good qualities for an elected public servant.
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Joye Fuller, Eula

Gov. Greg Abbott has declared May 11 as School Nurse Day for the state of Texas.

The Texas School Nurse Organization wishes to congratulate all public and private school nurses for providing care to the schoolchildren in Region 14.

School nurses do more than apply Band-Aids and give out Tylenol. School nurses are involved in yearly vision, hearing, acanthosis and scoliosis health screenings. They provide in-services to school staff on blood borne pathogens, teach the signs and symptoms of an anaphylactic reaction and how to administer an EPIPEN, make staff aware of food and insect allergies, treatment of asthma and inform staff of special accommodations that must be made for a student.

There is an increase in the number of children with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. School staff are trained by the school nurse on how to manage the care of a diabetic. Your school nurse also has to maintain and update immunization records, ensure appropriate staff are CPR/AED/FIRST AID certified, maintain daily health records, report child abuse, provide emotional and social support to students and parents, provide emergency care, take care of medically fragile children, develop Individual Health Care Plan, provide community resources to parents and guardians, communicate with doctors and dentists, coordinate disaster planning, administer medications, provide employee wellness, report communicable diseases, provide classroom education and be a community liaison.

The school nurse job is not an easy job. Your school nurse does the job because he/she loves your child(ren) and wants every student to be safe and healthy at school. Research shows that healthier students are better learners.

Let your school nurse know how much you appreciate them.

Editor's note: Joye Fuller is school nurse at Eula ISD and is president of TNSO Region 14.
Today in history: On May 7, 1915, the British ocean liner Lusitania is struck by a torpedo from a German submarine near the south coast of Ireland. It takes only 20 minutes for the ship to sink. Almost 1,200 of the 1,959 passengers and crew drowned, including 128 Americans. Germany had stated it would attack ships in the war zone around Britain. U.S. travelers had been warned earlier, but the afternoon attack came without warning. Germany was correct that the ship carried British munitions.
Celebrate National Hospital Week

Editor,

National Hospital Week is May 8-14. It is the perfect time to celebrate the heroes who care for and provide support to their communities.

Every day, Hospital Heroes deliver our babies, mend broken bones, and save lives. They get us home faster through innovative care. They even keep us healthier through preventive care services that ensure we get the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

They deserve a thank you, today and every day. Yet Congress has cut federal funding for hospitals by $158.1 billion since 2010. If they continue to slash this funding year after year, heroic caregivers could be laid off, ER wait times could increase, and patients could have a harder time accessing the latest medical technology.

So this National Hospital Week, Ill be thanking our caregivers and hospital staff. I hope our members of Congress will stand up for our hospitals too.

Christine Richardson

Spring Creek
Police move in to stop protestors from disrupting workers erecting a fence on land confiscated for the Letpadaung copper mine project in northwestern Myanmar's Sagaing division, Dec. 23, 2014.

Police in northwestern Myanmars Sagaing region have charged two leaders of a local protest against the Chinese operator of the controversial Letpadaung copper mine with unlawful assembly, a local police officer said.

Police from Salingyi township, where the mine is located, arrested Ma Sanda and Mar Cho for leading about 200 farmers and other residents from area villages in a protest that began Wednesday when Chinas Wanbao Mining Copper Ltd. Company said it would resume operations on Thursday, said Sergeant Than Nyunt.

The two were changed under Article 18 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law and Article 147 of the penal code, he said.

Rights groups say the two articles are commonly used to arrest activists for exercising their right to freedom of assembly.

These two women and some other villagers were charged, Sergeant Than Nyunt told RFAs Myanmar Service. We have to wait for orders from higher level officials as to what to do next with this case.

Wanbao resumed operations, despite cries from protesters that it had ignored recommendationsincluding payments to farmers who lost crops to the projectmade by a parliamentary commission led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi when she was an opposition lawmaker.

The large project run by Wanbao and Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. (UMEHL), a Myanmar army-owned conglomerate, has come under fire by local farmers who have long protested the companys land takeovers in the area.

Local residents are protesting because Wanbao Company announced that it would resume the project on May 5 without approval from local residents, a Buddhist abbot from Setae village told RFA.

The situation has become tense today because the company has used police forces to face down protesters, and one policeman has cursed at us, he said.

Letter of protest

Protesters told the online journal The Irrawaddy that they sent a letter on Tuesday to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, chairwoman of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, to stop the company from restarting operations.

The protesters also sent the letter to the regional and national government, the news report said.

Farmers who lost crops in 2014 and 2015 during land confiscations for the mine project have demanded proper compensation from Wanbao. The company, however, has said that it has offered them money, but they refused to accept it.

The parliamentary inquiry commission on the Letpadaung project called for more transparency in Wanbaos land appropriation process and for police riot-control training in the wake of a violent raid on protesters at the mine site in 2012.

Aung San Suu Kyi accused the government of former President Thein Sein of ignoring the commissions recommendations to improve conditions at the mine, saying these had sparked clashes in December 2014 between police and farmers trying to prevent Wanbao employees from fencing off land for the project. The incident left one farmer dead and dozens injured.

Reported by San San Tin and Wai Mar Tun for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been accusing each other of violating their cessation of fire agreement by shelling each other's military positions in their border area.

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said May 8 that Armenian forces violated the cease-fire more than 120 times over the past 24 hours, targeting Azerbaijani positions with grenade launchers, machine guns, and mortar fire.

The ministry said Armenian troops shelled Azerbaijani positions from settlements along the state border between the two countries and in areas adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh.

Meanwhile, Armenia's Defense Ministry accused Azerbaijani forces of breaching the cease-fire agreement.

"In the early hours of May 8, the Azerbaijani side continued opening random fire using various sniper weapons and firearms in the direction of positions of the Armenian army in the northeastern part of Armenia's state border," the ministry said in a statement.

Similar statements were issued by both sides on April 7.

The mutual charges come as a cessation of fire agreement reached by the two sides on April 5 has largely held.

In early April, Nagorno-Karabakh saw its worst violence since a shaky cease-fire was reached in 1994 that effectively froze the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed separatists in the breakaway region.

Based on reporting by Interfax, and TASS
The European Union has expressed concern after news that Belarus, the only country in Europe still to apply capital punishment, had executed another prisoner.

In a statement issued on May 7, the EU said the recent execution of Syarhey Ivanua was "particularly disturbing" due to the fact his complaint was pending with the UN Human Rights Committee.

The EU also said the death sentence against Syarhey Khmelevsky, which was upheld by the Belarus Supreme Court on 6 May, has also been confirmed.

In its statement, the EU said it expected Belarus to join a global moratorium on the death penalty as a first step towards its abolition.
Early signs coming from Ukraine's new government are "very encouraging," a top International Monetary Fund official said on May 6.

Mahmood Pradhan, deputy head of the IMF's European department, delivered the Fund's first public endorsement of the new government in Kyiv following the departure of key Western-backed reformers last month.

The IMF suspended its $17.5 billion loan program for Ukraine when Kyiv's political crisis broke out and Pradhan told reporters in London it may resume the program soon.

"We think the signs of the new government's willingness to adhere to the program, to stay with the program, and their own adjustment efforts are very encouraging," he said.

"We hope the program will be on track and most importantly, the adjustment policies already implemented which are paying dividends and are working, will continue."

The IMF is due in Ukraine next week to formally review progress.

In another upbeat sign, the IMF's latest economic forecast for Ukraine has it eking out growth of 1.5 percent this year after a deep economic contraction of nearly 10 percent last year.

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS


Tehran says several of its soldiers have been killed in fighting near Aleppo, in what could be one of Irans biggest losses in Syria since deploying forces to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Fars news agency on May 7 quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 military advisers had been killed and 21 wounded in the clashes with Islamist insurgents on May 6 in Khan Tuman, some 15 kilometers southwest of Aleppo.

According to Reuters, dozens of people were killed in the battle.

Reports said the attack on Khan Tuman was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front.

Jaish al-Fatah and its affiliates have published on videos and photos on social media of what appear to be the bodies of Iranians or other Shi'ite militias who were killed in Khan Tuman.

Earlier this week, the United States and Russia brokered a cease-fire in the city of Aleppo itself. But fighting in the countryside to the south of the city has escalated in recent days.

In related news, a senior Iranian official has met with Assad and vowed continued support for his government in the country's five-year-old civil war.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met with Assad in Damascus on May 7.

Syria's state news agency SANA quoted Velayati as saying that Tehran will always stand by Syria because it "knows that terrorism does not target Syria but the whole people of the region."

Velayati's comments came as Russia's Defense Ministry announced that a cease-fire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo has been extended by three days starting on May 7.

The Russian Defense Ministry statement early on May 7 said the extension was made at Moscow's initiative and would also apply to the Latakia region.

With reporting by Reuters and AP
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe believes his three-hour talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin achieved a "breakthrough" in solving their dispute over the Kurile Islands.

The Japanese Foreign Ministry said the two leaders agreed to deal with the issue personally, and "cast aside old thinking" about the decades-old dispute over the islands that Russia seized at the end of World War II but Japan wants back.

"The prime minister said that today he could feel a breakthrough...in the currently stagnated negotiation," ministry press secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said May 6 following Abe's first visit with the Russian leader since 2014 in Sochi.

"The prime minister said that Mr. Putin also shared...the same feeling." The leaders "agreed today that they themselves directly get involved in the negotiation," Kawamura said. "This is literally a new element."

Putin said at the meeting that "we have certain questions that demand special attention, maybe for this reason we must devote special attention to building relationships."

Before the meeting, the Kremlin had downplayed hopes of a breakthrough. Moscow has shown no sign it is willing to give up possession of the islands.

Based on reporting by AFP, The Wall Street Journal, and Interfax
Kazakh police have arrested about two dozen people in Almaty in an apparent effort to preempt new protests urging the government not to pursue large-scale farmland privatization.

The arrests came May 7 as several dozen people gathered in the central square. Police surrounded the gathering and dispersed it immediately, despite the participants saying they had only come to lay flowers at the square's monument to Kazakh independence as the country marks its national Army Day.

Police also arrested some activists in their neighborhoods before they could join the rally. All those arrested May 7 in the square or en route were released shortly afterwards.

Hundreds of Kazakhs have taken to the streets in several cities over the last two weeks in a rare show of public dissent against President Nursultan Nazarbaev's government.

The protesters demand the reversal of a legal reform aimed at launching large-scale privatization of state-owned farmland. The reform includes allowing foreigners to lease plots for up to 25 years, an increase from the current 10 years.

The protests have seen two ministers resign as Nazarbaev has sought to defuse the crisis by declaring on May 5 that he would impose a moratorium until 2017 on the privatization plans.

Kazakh Economy Minister Erbolat Dosaev resigned immediately after Nazarbaev's announcement. Agriculture Minister Asylzhan Mamytbekov resigned on May 6, after Nazarbaev officially reprimanded him for not being fully fit for his post.

The government had previously announced that just under 2 percent of the country's agricultural land would be put up for privatization in an auction process beginning on July 1.

In declaring the moratorium on May 5, Nazarbaev did not say when in 2017 the plan would now be implemented. But he announced the formation of a government commission to oversee land reforms, adding that "we have to do everything to explain to our people the legislation on land privatization via the commission's work."

Demonstrators have also expressed concern that the land auctions would not be done in a transparent way and that the country's elite, rather than farmers, would end up owning the land and selling it at high profit to foreigners.

The government has stressed that while foreigners would be able to rent farmland for up to 25 years, they would not be able to own land or participate in the planned auctions.

Amid the protests authorities have warned that it is a crime to spread "false information about land privatization."

With reporting by Reuters
Violent clashes between police and protesters have erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir following the killing of three rebels in a gunbattle.

Indian Army spokesman Colonel Nitin N. Joshi says the gunbattle on May 7 between militants and government forces began after troops acting on a tip cordoned off Panzgam village.

Joshi said the rebels belonged to Hizb-ul Mujahideen, Kashmir's largest rebel group.

Later, residents in neighboring Pulwama town threw rocks at police and paramilitary soldiers and chanted slogans against Indian rule.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since an anti-India insurgency broke out in 1989 in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region.

Rebels have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or merger with Pakistan, which controls another portion of the territory in the west.

Based on reporting by AP and Reuters
Russia's defense ministry said that a temporary truce in the Syrian battleground city of Aleppo has been extended for three days "to prevent the situation from worsening."

"Following Russia's initiative, the regime of silence in the province of Latakia and in the city of Aleppo has been extended from 00:01 (local time) on May 7 to a total of 72 hours," the ministry said late May 6.

The truce had been due to end early on May 7 after giving residents some respite from two weeks of fighting that killed more than 280 civilians.

The halt in fighting in Aleppo is part of international efforts to revive a February nationwide cease-fire and revive peace talks to end a five-year war that has killed more than 270,000 people and displaced millions.

Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria since September to back up the forces of its ally President Bashar Al-Assad.

Together with the United States, Moscow has been spearheading the latest diplomatic push to reinstate the cease-fire and resolve the protracted conflict in the country.

Based on reporting by AFP, TASS, and Interfax
Slaughter in Syria: 300 casualties in recent weeks (video)

In spite of the ceasefire agreement, people are killed in Syria. The latest attack was on the camp of refugees near Syrian Idlib province on May 5. 28 refugees were killed and more than 80 were injured in airstrikes. According to Aleppo National Primacy press secretary Jirayr Reisyan, today situation is calm in Aleppo unlike the previous days. Because of low quality telephone service no details were provided; Mr Reisyan only managed to inform that the Armenian population didnt suffer any human losses. Sago Arean, Editor-in-Chief at www.arevelk.am website is in constant contact with Aleppo Armenians, There is ceasefire, though in different northern regions of Aleppo there are missile strikes. Situation is relatively calm in Aleppo. The Armenian community of Syria has thinned out, the condition of the other is inconsolable. Mr Arean notes, The situation remains serious, elementary human conditions- water, electricity etc, these are serious alarms. There are serious concerns that after this strike there will be serious outflow. The international organizations voice the possibility of new flow of refugees. According to the data of the UNO, new escalation in Aleppo may become a reason for outflow of more than 400 thousand refugees toward the borders of Turkey. Mr Arean claims Turkeys support to terrorists deteriorates the situation. Today the most powerful among the Islamist groups is Turkeys factor Al Nusra front and I should remind that the Armenian regions were shelled by Al Badr unit and caused serious damage. The escalation of situation in Syria is also conditioned by the tense inner political situation in Turkey; the activation of Kurdish factor. According to Reuters news agency, on Friday night Syrian rebel forces occupied Khan Tuman village 15 km far from Aleppo. During the defense of the settlement 73 people were killed, though, the government forces refute this information. According to the international human rights organizations, during the recent weeks 300 peaceful civilians were killed in Syria. Watch the video!
ISTANBUL -- Mohamed Nizar Bitar is never far from his seven Syrian restaurants in Turkey. Even as he sat down to a lunch of fried falafel, fresh hummus, and lamb dumplings in warm yogurt at one of his Tarbush eateries in April, he monitored the other six restaurants via security cameras that stream live to his mobile phone.

Once he noticed a worker who had not put on his white hat, so he fined him. "He paid 100 lira," or around $36, Bitar said. "We must be clean. You must be careful about your customers."

Bitar, of Damascus, is one of hundreds of restaurant owners catering to the 2.7 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey. He left Syria five years ago, abandoning three factories that made mosaics and stone, and reinvented himself as a restaurant mogul in Istanbul. Today his seven restaurants and two bakeries employ around 300 people, mainly Syrians, he said, and they have been anchors in the "Little Syria" of Istanbul, Aksaray. The business is named Tarbush -- Arabic for fez -- in a nod to the hat commonly worn during the Ottoman Empire's rule.

"We live in Turkey, not Damascus," he said. "We must respect this country."

Cook Amar Helwani, 23, worked on the front counter, spreading eggplant dip on plates and using a spoon to notch a circular pattern into the paste. He wore a black chef's jacket with two Turkish flags embroidered on the right arm, and said he brought his family out of Damascus to join him in Istanbul. Behind him, glossy brown fava beans boiled in a large pot.

"It's good here," he said. "We're all Arab. The atmosphere is Syrian, the food is Syrian, the customers are Syrian."

Aksaray neighborhood reflects the pull of Europe amid an increasing permanence for some 400,000 Syrians in Istanbul: Although many shops still sell life jackets and waterproof mobile-phone cases used on smugglers' boats to Europe, in early April these stores were interspersed with dozens of stands offering falafel and cardamom-laced Syrian coffee, all advertised in Arabic.

Syrians own about 7,500 companies in Turkey, according to Mohammed Hallak, head of the business organization the Syrian Friendship Association. Syrian firms compose one-quarter of all new businesses established annually in Turkey, outstripping German and Iranian new investment. They concentrate in restaurants, construction, trade, textile, real estate and travel, and they offer vital jobs to Syrian refugees who contend with a cap of 10 percent foreign workers in Turkish-owned concerns.

Neighbors With Different Cuisines

Dalia Mortada, a Syrian-American journalist who follows Syrian food in Turkey for Culinary Backstreets and GroundTruth, says the cuisine has billowed onto Istanbul's culinary scene since she moved there five years ago. The difference between Turkish and Syrian food is apparent, she said, even though the two countries share an 800-kilometer-plus border.

"They both use a lot of lamb, a lot of tomato, and a lot of eggplants," she said. "But when you look at the spices and the combination of ingredients, they are very different."

Syrians love hummus; Turks don't serve it, she said. The mulukhiyeh green that forms a base for Syrian stews is nowhere to be found in Turkey, she said. Turkish bread is lofty; Syrians use a flatbread called lavash that can be folded around a crisp fried falafel -- which is also uncommon on Turkish menus.

In the last two years, Syrian food has become prolific in Istanbul, especially in the Aksaray neighborhood where Bitar has most of his restaurants. There are stands selling spit-roasted shawarma meat; there are two branches of the Salloura restaurant, revered in Syria for its sweets; and several at-home cooks selling jars of labane yogurt cheese and pickled eggplants. The cosmopolitan effect is new in Turkey, Mortada said.

"Because Istanbul is this huge city, you would expect it to have many types of cuisines," she said. "And that really hasn't been the case. A lot of the minorities from the Ottoman Empire left or faded away -- like the Greeks and Armenians. The food scene is very Turkish, and if there is a foreign restaurant it has been Turkified, like a Thai restaurant run by Turks."

Bitar credited his success in part to Turkey's growing openness to foreign cuisine, and partly to the kindness of strangers. He first visited Turkey in the 1990s as an importer of stonecutting machinery to Syria, and learned Turkish. After the current Syrian war began in early 2011, Bitar left for good, he said. He sold his equipment and took $1,000 with him to Istanbul. He said he negotiated a two-month grace period on a basement in central Taksim Square, where he mashed chickpeas into hummus and eggplants into mattabal spread and sold the two to local restaurants. With his profits, he opened his first restaurant branch. He said he now has 27 business partners, from Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

"When I left Syria and come to here, I know, like many, many thousands of people...[who] succeed in Turkey, I am not [alone]," he said, "I am one from thousands."

Since he moved, Bitar said, Syrian spices have become easier to find in Istanbul; at first, he relied on friends to stash them in their luggage. He depends on his two bakeries to provide the soft lavash used for scooping bites of hummus, and said he is working on a corn-based variation.

At Tarbush in early April, most tables were filled with Arabic speakers from Syria and Iraq.

Luay Alkussaiyr, a redheaded photographer from Homs, sat with three friends for lunch. They ate identical bowls of fatet hummus, made by layering toasted pita chips, cumin-laced chickpeas, warm garlic-spiked yogurt, and pomegranate seeds in a deep bowl. The food was good and the price,7 liras -- or $2.50 for a full meal -- was right, he said.

"Life is expensive" in Turkey, Alukssaiyr said. "I am trying to get situated to bring my wife and children."

Hiyam Hamze Omar, a housewife from Iraq, sat at a table with her husband, her mother, and their three children. They picked at a salad while waiting for rotisserie chicken and hummus to arrive. Omar, 26, said she came from Kirkuk and hoped to carry on to Europe to give her children a good education.

"I come here every week," she said. "It's not exactly like Iraqi food, but it's good."

Bitar said he hopes to expand his restaurants to other cities in Turkey. He said he has no plans to leave for Europe.

"I like this country because it's helped me so much," he said. "I don't like lazy people who go to Europe. What do they do there?"
Wielding longswords and halberds, more than 750 fighters from 34 countries have descended upon the Czech Republic to compete in the Battle of the Nations on May 6. The medieval-fighting competition, which takes place over five days in Prague, pits national teams against each other in a number of categories, including women's 3 on 3. Blades are blunted as a precaution, but the fighting is full-contact and brutal -- as one would expect to see on a medieval battlefield.
From left to right: EGHA Board Chair Cindy Overton, Cove Homes president Ruth Feder, EGHA Executive Director Marcia Sullivan and East Greenwich Free Library Director Karen Taylor at the ceremony announcing the RI Foundation grant.
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Serzh Sargsyan receives a group of philanthropists

Serzh Sargsyan today received a group of Armenian Argentine philanthropists on, who, with the cooperation of Hayastan All Armenian Fund, implement charitable projects worth of total 3.5 million US dollars. Welcoming the guests, Serzh Sargsyan highly appreciated their patriotic activity and expressed gratitude by the names of our people to their work done in different spheres. Serzh Sargsyan warmly recalls his official visit to Argentine on July, 2014 stating that he had an opportunity to see how much respect exists towards the Armenians in Argentine, and what kind of high reputation they have in that country. President says this creates excitement and a sense of pride, and he believes that the Armenian street in Buenos Aires can serve as a perfect example of Armenian unity for many Armenian communities of the world. Serzh Sargsyan emphasized the important role of Armenians of Argentine in the development and strengthening of the Homeland since the independence of Armenia. Taking into account that the philanthropists succeeded in many fields, the President discussed with them the possibility of establishing enterprises in the prospective fields of our countrys economy which will contribute to the the state and the philanthropists in terms of new job openings and attracting investments in the economy. Armenian philanthropists of Argentine said with satisfaction that every year they see positive progress in Armenia, and they also think to make investments in different fields. In this regard, representatives of the Armenian community of Argentine consider honest discussion with the President encouraging and useful.
A mother is suing the Richmond school district in an attempt to keep her 8-year-old son, who is severely disabled, enrolled at Linwood Holton Elementary School.

Natalynne Hicks is demanding that the school system accept that she is a city resident and that her son, Micah, is entitled to attend the school.

The lawsuit stems from an almost two-year, on-and-off dispute between Hicks and schools officials who, according to the lawsuit, assert she lives in Henrico County and is not entitled to send her son to a city school.

This dispute reached a boiling point about a month ago when, on Micahs return to school after spring break, Hicks was told that he could no longer attend Linwood Holton.

Micah was allowed to return to the school Thursday after Hicks asked a court for a preliminary injunction to force the school system to allow the boy back in the school.

But the school districts acquiescence is only temporary, and it is still demanding that Hicks prove she is a city resident, said Lisa A. Bennett, an attorney for the Legal Aid Justice Centers JustChildren Program.

Bennett represents Hicks in the lawsuit.

Kenita Bowers, a spokeswoman for the school system, said in an email: I am unable to provide a comment because of student privacy as well as this being a pending legal matter.

***

Micah, born at 22 weeks, suffers from periventricular leukomalacia, which is characterized by the death of the white matter of the brain due to softening of the brain tissue, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

It affects an area of the brain that houses nerve fibers that carry messages to the bodys muscles, the institute says.

At 8, Micah stands 4-foot-9 but weighs only 29 pounds.

He cant control the trunk of his body, and his extremities are rigid. To get around, he uses a gait trainer that is like a childrens walker. It helps him use his legs to move while he learns to possibly walk on his own one day.

The lawsuit states that because of his condition, Micah has an individualized education plan that the school must fulfill. The plan calls for educational services and medical accommodations that include physical, speech and occupational therapy; a classroom aide; activity chair; emergency evacuation stroller; adaptive toilet and changing table.

Some of his therapies are taken care of at home.

Cognitively, he is perfectly alert  he wants to be a doctor, Hicks said  and like any other child, he cares about his friends and wants to play sports.

Among the more than 4,000 pictures Hicks has on her phone are shots of Micah on the back of an elephant, Micah playing baseball and Micah at a school dance.

He doesnt allow his disability to hold him back, she said. And I dont either.

One of the most important aspects of the boys life is going to school at Linwood Holton.

He calls them all his best friends and they love him, she said, adding that prior to being forced out of school, he was a straight-A student in general studies.

***

Hicks filed the lawsuit in the hope that Micah will be allowed to remain at the school next year.

The lawsuit claims that on April 4, Hicks was notified by Linwood Holtons principal, David Hudson, that Micah could not attend the schools due to a residency issue.

The following day, Hicks contacted the executive director of Exceptional Education and Student Services for the school system. Hicks was sent a text message showing an image of a letter stating that Richmond schools had discovered that Hicks and Micah were living at an address off Nine Mile Road in Henrico rather than the Richmond apartment listed as their official address.

The lawsuit argues that Hicks and Micah have never spent the night at the Henrico address where the school system says they live. The house, Hicks said, belongs to a friend and Hicks has had some of Micahs medical supplies mailed there because its safer to leave a package outside that house than at their residence.

On Friday, Hicks allowed a reporter to visit her at a small, neat apartment on Bath Street near Virginia Union University that she says she shares with Micah.

According to the lawsuit, Hicks signed a one-year lease, with an automatic renewal option, on the apartment Oct. 28, 2014, and Micah has received some school instruction at the apartment multiple times each week since then. They have also been subject to several unannounced visits from school officials, according to the lawsuit.

The property manager went so far as to create a handicap parking spot for the family, and Hicks renewed the lease for one year in October 2015, according to the suit.

Ms. Hicks and (Micah) have no plans to abandon or relocate, according to the lawsuit.

***

On April 7, three days after being told that Micah could not return to Linwood Holton, Hicks appealed the decision and included several pieces of documentation. She was informed 12 days later that her appeal was denied.

The school district says the documentation she provided failed to rebut evidence in possession of the district that they did not live at the Bath Street address, according to the lawsuit.

That information, according to the lawsuit, includes unspecific medical records, vague descriptions of stairs at an unidentified residence and an online search that shows an N. Hicks lived at the Henrico address.

To counter the findings, Hicks has provided an affidavit signed by the property manager, recent correspondence including bills, records of the home-bound services, tax returns and a vehicle title.

The school system did allow Micah back in school Thursday but said he may attend only through the end of the school year, Hicks said.

Hicks said she is suing to keep Micah in school permanently and to not have to go through the ordeal again.

She said the month off school hurt Micahs psyche and left him depressed, wondering when hed see his friends. She wants to make sure that doesnt happen again.

What she wont venture to guess, publicly at least, is why the school system is trying so hard to keep him out.

She said that when Micah went back to school Thursday, he was greeted in the hall by his classroom aide, who was smiling.
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

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

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

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Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

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

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

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

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

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
I cannot oppose Levon Ter-Petrosyan (video)

Former Deputy Head of the NSS Gurgen Yeghiazaryan thinks that Armenia should immediately recognize the independence of Artsakh. In the interview with A1+, replying to this question, he noted, Yes, definitely [Armenia] should recognize. And in case of resumption of negotiations, Artsakh must become a party to negotiations and only Artsakh and Azerbaijan should negotiate without Armenia. Upon our request Mr Yeghiazaryan commented on the statement of the first President of Armenian Levon Ter-Petrosyan. To remind, the latter noted that as long as Armenia lacks the support of any international organization or superpower, it should refrain from a frantic idea of unilaterally recognizing the independence of Karabakh. I cannot oppose Levon Ter-Petrosyan, as he is a serious political figure. As for the support of superpowers, you know, no one supports the weak. In 1998 when Levon Ter-Petrosyan hadnt resigned yet, he presented a new resolution connected with the Karabakh issue. That resolution corresponded to the European approaches. But there wasnt agreement to that resolution, and he wrote War or peace. At present there is no peace, there is war. At present, he says, Turks are not ready to cede anything, I dont say Azerbaijan, as I dont consider what was established by Ulyanov to be a country. In reply to the question what Serzh Sargsyan should do in this situation, Mr Yeghiazaryan said, First of all Serzh Sargsyan should enter into consolidation with the political forces. It shouldnt be done formally, it should be done seriously. What does the former deputy head of the NSS think about the territorial concession? I would be a formal patriot if I say that no inch of land should be given. It is at least foolishness. To the remark that Seyran Ohanyan personally expressed such a viewpoint on April 24 at Tsitsernakaberd, Mr Yeghiazaryan noted that he doesnt want to comment on the words of the minister, The negotiations process implies receiving and ceding something. And if negotiations resume, they should have a solution. The people of Artsakh must decide yes or no, to cede land or not.
There wont be war, but there will be territorial change on both sides (video)

The Nagorno Karabakh must have been recognized by Armenia long ago, thinks ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary Arman Navasardyan. Before including the draft connected with that issue into the agenda, we must have prepared at least 10 states, which would recognize the independence of Karabakh first. But at the moment the diplomat considers a priority the issue of including Artsakh into the negotiations process. Retired colonel, military-political analyst Hayk Nahapetyan notes, Thanks to the heroism of our soldiers and determination not to surrender the homeland, the enemy stepped back. He highlighted that Russia must have been aware of the steps prepared by Azerbaijan. Retired colonel reminded also of another adversary, Turkey has the third field army, which military task is to occupy Armenia and Georgia. In reply to the question whether during the upcoming days, May 8-10, there will a resumption of war, Mr Nahapetyan said, The statements, which were prior to the operations by Azerbaijan at the beginning of April, there are such phenomena also at present. There have been reports, where the adversarys power and invincibility are talked about. Those are the elements of information war. But the capabilities of our army are great. Several missiles are enough so that the half of Azerbaijan appear under water. He says that if besides Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia and other countries intervene, it will be the beginning of the third world war. Besides, the former colonel also spoke about Yevlakh city, which is considered to be the heart of Azerbaijan, If we start operations even only in the direction of Yevlakh, it will cause serious harm to them, and Azerbaijan will try to do what it did on May 12, 1994; it will ask for ceasefire. He thinks that Azerbaijan will enter into large-scale war only if it loses the sense of reality. In connection with this issue, Arman Navasardyan noted, There wont be large-scale war, but there will be territorial changes on both sides.
Parents of injured soldier negotiate with foreign specialists

For more than a month, 19-year-old Arman Lazgiyan, who was injured during the Four-day April war, has been in the intensive care unit of Erebuni medical center. The bullet penetrated into Armans gullet and came out of the backbone. At present he has spinal cord, throat, gullet and spinal injury. In addition to it, there are various complications connected with heart, lungs, duodenum and other organs. He needs operations and long treatment, Armans father, Mikael Lazgiyan, told A1+. At present he is negotiating with several clinics in Germany in order to organize further treatment of his son abroad. The doctors have done their best here, as of now Arman needs treatment abroad, he highlighted. In reply to the question how much money is necessary for Armans treatment, his father highlighted, About EUR 100.000. Arman Lazgiyan was conscripted in July of last year. This year in January he was awarded title of junior sergeant. The soldier was wounded on April 7 in Talish. He was transferred to Martakert in extremely serious condition and the doctors were able to save his life. Then Arman was moved to Stepanakert, from where on April 2 he was transferred to Yerevan by helicopter. The soldier has already underwent 4 operations. As of now Armans condition is assessed critical but stable. The following bank accounts have been opened in order to aid the soldier: HSBC bank. AMD 006057517001 RUB 006057517103 EUR 006057517102 USD 006057517101 Recipient Mikael Lazgiyan
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
Of the six petitions filed in the Supreme Court alleging corrupt practices leading up to the general elections in March, not one of them proceeded to a court hearing.

They were summarily withdrawn just before they were to be heard in a court of law, and the general feeling then was that it seemed the course of justice had once again been derailed.

Now the question is: By whom?

Answer: By the Samoan culture and traditions collectively known as the Faasamoa, and somehow Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was openly involved.

The word then was that Tuilaepa had actually encouraged certain petitioners to withdraw their claims, telling them there is always another day, and naturally then the general feeling was that of confusion, shocking disbelief and even outrage

Asked if he had not interfered with the course of justice when he said what he did, Tuilaepa said: No.

I did not interfere with these matters, he told the Sunday Samoan. Remember, our culture is a very important factor. Every action I make is because of our faasamoa culture and traditions.

Well, hes an astute politician allright, our dear prime minister. Even when hes got himself entangled in the fray hell always find a way through which he can weasel himself out.

The point is that having said hed not interfered with the course of justice when hed urged certain petitioners to withdraw their claims, and yet hes revealed that every action hes made hes been dictated to by the Samoan culture and traditions, that revelation of his is also his admission that he had, indeed, interfered.

That was also when he revealed that hed tried to contact his former Associate Minister, Lafaitele Patrick Leiataualesa, to discuss his petition accusing the newly elected woman M.P. for Alataua West, Aliimalemanu Alofa Tuuau, of bribery and treating.

Tuileapa said he could not find Lafaitele, but then later he found out that Lafaitele had, indeed, gone ahead and withdrew his petition. As it turned out though, Lafaiteles petition was withdrawn under intense pressure from his constituents, and yes, with the endorsement of Prime Minister Tuilaepa.

And then there was the petition alleging corruption against the election of the senior MP, Leaupepe Toleafoa Faafisi, which, like others before it, was also quietly withdrawn.

This time though, as if an obstacle that had been giving Tuilaepa his most excruciating worry was now finally out of the way, he promptly appointed Leaupepe to the top post of his administration, that of Speaker of Parliament.

To be sure, it is clearly a token of appreciation for Leaupepes long service to his country through the contributions his business empire, has been making to the government over the years hes been spending in Parliament.

And yet it appeared that having done what he did Tuilaepa, all of a sudden, found himself haunted by the idea that he had made a plunder out there somewhere, which was when he declared: Its difficult because Samoa is not like other countries  it has its own culture.

He went on: We cant stop our cultural norms but the purpose of the legislation is to prevent these (electoral matters). We cant stop the culture but it doesnt mean that the law is not important  its main purpose is to prevent (unlawful) conduct during an election.

Now we know.

He is torn between his respect of justice and his love of sweet power that he knows will keep him where he is for as long as it takes, and now his confusion has become the festering wound that would not give his conscience peace.

Thats what we think anyway. Hes hurting inside because now he knows that he shouldnt have ever interfered with those election petitions the way he did; instead, he should have stayed aloof minding his own business and let the Judiciary do what its meant to do, which is weaning out bribery and treating during general elections so that one day everyone would be living happily in corrupt free Samoa.

And yet it appears that the mans overworked mind is rebelling and now hes accusing everyone as hes saying: Any Samoan who is a true Samoan understands that, but if youre not a real Samoan then you would feel upset.

Hogwash.

So whats the point in having a Parliament if the laws itd made for everyone to follow and obey, are ignored by those whod made them when it suit their warped purposes?

Which follows that perhaps Prime Minister Tuilaepa should - the sooner the better - make an effort to combine his infatuation with his beloved faasamoa with the things called justice, integrity and honesty.

He should do this starting from the public service hes been lording over with such carefree abandon over the years, otherwise his failure to do so could well lead to the curse called corruption hacking away surely and inevitably at his beloved Samoa all the way down to its knees, in a wave of poverty-triggered violence hed have never seen before.

Today were seeing the ugly signs staring at us in the face.

They are in the pictures we see of innocent people being maimed and killed in their homes at night for no reason at all other than that they are there, and it is up to Tuilaepa and his government to put a stop to this madness otherwise it may well become a permanent illness causing unstoppable suffering everywhere.

And then there is the legal matter brewing here and in American Samoa involving Samoas newly appointed Minister of Justice, Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu.

On 8 May 2008, the Attorney General of the government of American Samoa, Fepuleai Authur Ripley, filed a claim in the District Court of American Samoa naming Katopau Ainuu, as the defendant in a criminal complaint.

Katopau was accused of having committed two crimes, one of Embezzlement and the other of Criminal Fraud.

On the charge of Embezzlement, court documents showed that on 3 November 2006, the Defendant knowingly misappropriated funds which had been entrusted to him in violation of ASCA 46.4104, a class C felony punishable by imprisonment for up to seven years, a fine of up to double the amount gained by the crime, or both.

On the charge of Criminal Fraud, court documents showed that on 3 November 2006, the Defendant knowingly and willfully obtained money by use of a scheme to defraud by false pretenses.

To wit: Defendant agreed to represent the victims(s) as an attorney, in a matai case; on that day, Defendant took payment from victim(s) as payment to represent victim(s) in a count case, while at the same time knowing that the Defendant was moving off-shore 

Now ten years later, in March 2016, Samoa held its general elections and the defendant, Katopau Ainuu, who was now holding the matai title of Faaolesa, ran for Parliament and he was elected.

Later, when Prime Minister Tuilapea chose his cabinet, he named Faaolesa the Minister of Justice, and shortly afterwards the ghosts of the past, having stirred into life, emerged to give both Faaolesa and Tuilaepa a hard time.

Asked for a comment on the reports, Tuilaepa said he was shocked by them. I have spoken with the Minister (concerned) who is (also) shocked (by them).

Tuilaepa revealed that Faaolesa has contacted his lawyer in American Samoa who is also shocked about it, and (from what hes been told) the matter had been resolved a long time ago but it has been dug up again.

Shocked?

What is the meaning of the word shock these two are talking about here? Never mind. But please dont ask me to try and explain anything.

All I can say is that when this newspaper asked Faaolesa for a comment, he said he was unaware about the warrant; he then asked for a copy so that he could look at it before he could comment.

Copies of the warrant were sent to him but by press time that night he had not responded.

Over there in American Samoa at the time, the current Attorney General, Talauega Eleasalo Ale, said his office was conducting an investigation into the matter.

This is something that happened before I came into office, he said. (We) are definitely looking into it.

He also said all he knew was that the matter is still valid and apparently its still in the books of the Court, and therefore it is still outstanding.

Its a matter thats up to the law enforcement and the Police to enforce if the person is in our jurisdiction.

(As for) the background and reasons for the warrant, those facts are still out there. I dont know what happened.

He explained: The warrant is valid and if he is in American Samoan jurisdiction he can be arrested by the Police in pursuant to the Courts warrant.

Here in Samoa on the other hand, it appears that the embattled Minister of Justice, Courts and Administration, Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu, is a worried man.

He is apparently seeking to quash the outstanding warrant of arrest made against him in American Samoa with the aid of his American Samoan lawyer, he revealed in a telephone interview.

My lawyer will make a motion to quash the warrant, he said. The delay is because they are trying to find the affidavit to support the warrant.

There was nothing at the Attorney Generals office and they are also looking for a copy from the Court.

Asked if he was going to American Samoa when the matter would be heard in Court, Faaolesa said no.

Its being done by my lawyer, he said.

Once I get the results Ill call you for my official response. In the meantime, I cannot say anything more that might compromise my lawyers work.

To date, Faaolesa has not called.

Still, bear in mind that American Samoa is a part of the United States of America, and that way the faasamoa cannot possibly be used there  as its being used here  to derail the course of justice for whatever reason at all.

So lets be warned. Tuilaepas gift from American Samoa may well become his undoing yet. So lets wait and see.

In the meantime, you may want to read the story Justice is served, says Governor Cuomo of New York, then tell the rest what you think.
Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has attributed the growing problem of interschool violence to Samoas decision to adopt a number of international conventions giving children more freedom.

He said these contradict the teachings of the Holy Bible, which should be strictly adhered to.

Tuilaepa made the comments following the closure of Avele College last week as Police investigate threats made on social media in relation to a fight with Maluafou College.

Referring to the Bible, Tuilaepa said Biblical principles bring peace.

We cant hide this from parents and the teachers that they can no longer control their children, said Tuilaepa.

Its all because they reached out to these legislations from overseas instead of using the teachings of the Bible.

Spare the rod and spoil the child is one of the teachings that should be used to deal with children.

The Prime Minister said the lessons he learnt from being beaten by the teachers have shaped him to be the person he is today.

I wouldve been another thief out there assaulting people if it wasnt for that beating from the teachersthat is what Im saying, why should we follow palagi laws when we have the teachings from the Bible?

The Prime Minister did not mention any specific legislations in terms of international conventions he was referring to.

He also confirmed that Cabinet has directed the Office of the Attorney General to draft legislation to help discourage, stop and prevent the type of behaviour that leads to acts of violence between school students, thereby causing injury and creating an environment of fear amongst students, teachers, parents and the general public.

Tuilaepa said the legislation should reflect Samoas principles of Christian living, cultural practices and modern-day disciplinary measures that are also used by other democratic forms of government, like Samoa, within the Commonwealth and United Nations family of nations.

Asked if he thought the closure is unfair on innocent students and teachers, Tuilaepa said its a tough issue.

Once decisions are made there are other solutions to it, he said.

Another way is for them to go back to schools in their districts. Do you know that there are children from Lepa attending Avele when there are Colleges in the district that they should attend instead?

This is what happens when they come to town and muck around, ride on the buses and do stupid things in town that can affect other children that were not involved at first. The only solution is to close the school.

Tuilaepa also scorned at the Old pupils association and parents of the school for not acting earlier to resolve the problem.

This school used to have a very unified old pupils and parents association, he said.

But this has been happening for so long and I dont know where they are sleeping which means that even they cannot do anything about it.

He recalled his comments he made about three months ago where he warned the students including Avele College that Cabinet would do something drastic to stop the fights forever.

I thought Avele wouldve caught that statement I made infront of here, said Tuilaepa.

Another solution, he said, is to stop giving government funds to schools who break the law.

Tuilaepa admits that the government has no power over the missionary schools but they can stop injecting funds to the schools.

We will give the funds directly to the principal of the school like Leulumoega for church school, he explained.

Whats happening is whatever is done there is always something that goes wrong.

At first the church said to give it to their boards and the schools have complained that they were only give a portion of rice.

Now that this has happened we will ask the police for a report. If the school has bad records of school fights then we will stop giving them funds.
Celebrating Mothers Day this year is going to be an unforgettable time for Avemaoe Manuele Viiga, of Mulifanua.

Yesterday, the 29-year-old drove away with a brand new Ford Fiesta from Ford Samoa and Digicel. She had won the joint Mothers Day promotion.

I thought it was a prank, she said about receiving the call to inform her she had won.

I didnt believe it because I never texted my name. What I didnt know, is that my husband was the one who kept texting my name to Digicel.

Avemaoe doesnt own a car of her own. But with her prize, she is delighted.

Who wouldve thought that I would win such an expensive car this Mothers day? Samuelu Viiga, Avemaoes husband was equally elated.

There is nothing more beautiful than seeing your wife smiling and happy, he said. To me, thats all that matters.

Samuelu said he doesnt remember how many times he texted his wifes name to Digicel.

I think I spent about $20 on texts, he said. I really wanted her to win that car.

But even then, I never really thought that she would win it.

My mother is still alive, but I texted my wifes name because I wanted her to have this car so that it will be easier for her to go to work and back.

The couple thanked the two companies for giving back to their customers and for giving them the chance to win a brand new car.

Mothers day celebration for this year is going to be memorable because of this. Thank you very much.

There were also consolation prizes provided for the top five winners of the draw.

Pepe Leuelu from Fagalii won a gift voucher from Farmer Joe where she can collect anything she wants within one minute.

Rosie Paulo from Leauvaa won a prize of one thousand tala cash from Digicel. Tea Leilua from Malaemalu won a voucher at Misiluki bar worth $500. And the last winner is Moe Laulu from `Savaii.
Prominent businesswoman and mother, Fiti Leung Wai, believes Mothers Day is an opportunity not just to honour the mothers of Samoa; it is also a chance to appreciate them for what they do.

Speaking to the Sunday Samoan, she said Mother's Day is a time to celebrate motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society.

The Managing Director of Samoa Stationery and Books is among thousands of mothers honoured across Samoa today as the country pauses to acknowledge the vital role they play.

The special day will be followed by a national holiday tomorrow.

Mrs. Leung Wai, who is a lawyer by profession, is an example of a modern day mother.

She has a tough juggling act between motherhood and developing one of the fastest growing businesses in Samoa.

On days like today, she says its important to pause, reflect and look to the future with optimism.

Whilst mothers are special every day, Mothers Day is the one day of the year where mothers should be afforded extra special treatment by their children and their husbands, the mother of four said.

There are many ways to express such extra special treatment. For example, breakfast in bed, a card especially made for your mother, meal at a nice restaurant, or a nice gift.

[But] we also have to be careful about commercialising Mothers Day as that can trivialise the true meaning and purpose of Mothers Day as it ends up being a contest of providing the most expensive gift when Mothers Day is much more than that.

Reflecting on her experience as a mother, Mrs. Leung Wai, who is married to another lawyer and former Attorney General, Aumua Ming, said they have had had to overcome a lot of struggles to be where they are today.

I recall in the early days of our marriage, we didnt have much money, she said. My husband could not afford an expensive gift for me then but he would write for me these love poems that I cherished because I know that he took the time and effort to write them.

One time when we were still going out whilst at university, he gave me a little teddy bear holding a heart called Ziggy.

I guess the point that I want to make is that Mothers Day should not be defined or determined by the monetary cost if the gift you give your mother but by the effort and the thought behind the gift and gesture.

For us mothers, we play a vital part to ensure that we dont put pressure on our kids or husbands to provide us with expensive monetary gifts in Mothers Day.

Mrs. Leung Wai went on to say how her twin boys made her Mothers Day cards.

On Friday afternoon whilst I was being interviewed by a reporter of the Samoa Observer my twin boys who are 3 years old came into my office with their Mothers Day cards for me, she said.

They really made my day and made me the happiest mother in the world and I dont need a diamond to make me happy.

[But] I am not saying that we shouldnt buy our mothers expensive gifts, but if we can afford them, then by all means buy them as our mothers deserve the best.

However I just dont want us to be under financial pressure to provide expensive gifts if we cannot afford them when there are other ways to express our love for our mothers on their special day.

Asked how she does it running a business and being a mother to her children at the same time, Mrs. Leung Wai said there are sacrifices that have to be made from time to time but she still tries her very best.

Running a business and raising four boys is a real delicate balancing act, she said.

On the one hand I have four boys to raise and on the other is my business that employs over 100 people.

Sadly, sacrifices have to be made from time to time but I still try my best to spend time with them after work, particularly my twins as they are the youngest.

I also dont do any work on Sundays that is another precious time with my boys. My husband and I agreed many years ago to keep Sunday holy by not doing any work on that day as per the Lords commandment.

Its amazing when you obey the Lord because keeping Sunday holy has really blessed our family and enabled us to rest and be fully recharged before the start of the next working week.

I am also fortunate to have a husband who is very supportive and helps out with the raising of our boys.

So what are her plans for Mothers day?

I will try not to do any work but to spend quality time with my boys and husband and most especially I am going to get some well deserved rest, she said.

Mrs. Leung Wai went on to wish mothers a very special day today.

Mothers are the backbone of any family, she said. They give advice to their husbands and are strong intercessors.

My own mother, Nino Stanley Vito is my role model who is so humble and spends most of her time on her knees praying for our well-being and blessings.

She brings her prayer partners to our Megastore that is open to the public any time during working hours and I invite anyone who wants to fellowship with the Lord to come and pray in our prayer room.

I would also like to acknowledge my other mother, Epenesa Saifoloi from Moataa who is always praying for me and my family and the business.

Lastly, I want to wish all the mothers of Samoa a blessed Mothers Day and I hope you are all being spoiled and treasured not just on Mothers Day but every day.
Jellyfish species have been found by marine researchers, which were described as strange, alien-looking creatures. The new species were discovered while doing an exploration in the underwater world that is found under the Earth's deepest ocean trench.

The new jellyfish was seen by the group of scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during a Mariana Trench expedition in the Pacific ocean. The newly-discovered creature was caught in a film when it swam near the surface of the ocean close to the research ship of the team, the "Okeanos Explorer," according to Smithsonian Mag.

These new jellyfish species have the same features with those of the Crossta genus that are also popular for spending most of their existence gliding through water. The creatures have two sets of long and short tentacles. Researchers are assuming that when the jellyfish is keeping its long tentacles outward while the bell is motionless, it is an indication that it is going to attack.

The discovery supports the fact that there are still so many things about the oceans that people has not explored yet. A proof that it is important to bring into more expeditions like the one being conducted by the Okeanos Explorer. At present, the NOAA researchers are doing some studies on the deep-sea life and geology at the Mariana Archipelago. Among their objectives is to explore the 43-mile wide and 1,500-mile long Marianas Trench, with its deepest point reaching about 7 miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

But according to NOAA, the mining activities being carried out on this portion of the Earth's crust may lead to far-reaching effects on the ecology of the ocean. The agency explained further that the deep sea floor of the Pacific is among the least explored regions of the Earth, and that there is no enough details about the deep-sea animals that may exist beyond the Prime Crust Zone, News Max reported.
The San Andreas Fault in California has been violently building up tectonic tension for a really long time as per reports. Now experts are predicting that the fault is quite close to erupting as an enormous earthquake.

According to the director of the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), Thomas Jordan, the southern portion of San Andreas Fault is locked, loaded and ready to roll. "The pressure has been building on that part of the fault without being relieved for more than a hundred years," Thomas Jordan said. The springs on the San Andreas system have been wound very, very tight".

The San Andreas Fault runs across the whole length of California and measures around 1,290 kilometers. At the moment, scientists are more worried about the part that is close to Los Angeles. The last massive earthquake that shook the fault's southern part took place in 1857, and was 7.9 in magnitude. The seismic event ruptured 298 kilometers between San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles and Monterey County. Since then, the area has been quiet and it is this very fact that is worrying scientists. According to a report on CBS News, fractures like the San Andreas Fault need to release tension from time to time so that there is no gradual build up leading to one shattering earthquake.

A US Geological Survey report released in 2008 warned that a tremor measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale could result in the death of more than 1,800 people and injure a population of 50,000. A quake of such a high magnitude would cause the ground to shake for two whole minutes.

According to seismologists, for now California should take a step towards becoming resilient on the possibility of a massive earthquake, which could measure up to 8 on the Richter scale. Experts have meanwhile praised LA's plan to necessitate earthquake retrofits on concrete buildings and apartments.
Dead sea animals such as sardines, salmon, whales, cuttlefish, squids and other more sea creatures are piling up the Chile's Pacific beaches these recent months. The scientists are trying to analyze the reason why.

Chile is known for its beautiful beaches. It is the world's second-largest producer of the fish next to Norway. On the other hand, the beaches are unsightly as of today because of the dead animals. There were about 8,000 tons of sardines, 300 whales and about 12 percent of the country' salmon catch were seen dead in the Chile coast, according to Smithsonian.

Surge in algae causes wave of dead sea creatures to hit Chile's beaches https://t.co/RcEr9dYW54  Becky Dempsey (@GreenBizBecky) May 4, 2016

Some experts believe that El Nino phenomenon would likely be the cause of the killing of sea creatures. The warm water carried on by the phenomenon put strain coral reefs near Hawaii. Some Chilean authorities also reproached "red tide" of algae and banned fishing in the affected areas. This stopped thousands of fishermen out of work.

Jorge Navarro, a researcher at the marine institute IDEAL said that they have red tide every year in Southern Chile, but this time it reached further north. This affected the bivalve population such as clams.

Thousands of cuttlefish have also been spotted dead in shores of Santa Maria Island off the center of Chile's long coast. Likewise, thousands of squids were also seen dead.

Meanwhile, scientists said that the current El Nino is subsiding. This causes the sea surface to cool. This mass destruction of sea life has been a wake-up call.

Valera Montes, a fishermen specialist at Chilean branch of the World Wildlife Fund said that Chile still lacks information about the sea. He further said that they have to invest in oceanographic studies, so that they can predict certain events and better prepare for climate change, according to Yahoo.
The prestigious evening, attended by more than 300 of the industrys leading personalities, was hosted by Editor of Seatrade Maritime Review, Bob Jaques, in the presence of the guest of honour, IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim.

Among those collecting awards were key industry names that included:

Philippe Louis-Dreyfus OBE, Chairman, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs received the Seatrade Lifetime Achievement Award;

Jorge L. Quijano, CEO, Panama Canal Authority who received the Seatrade Personality Award;

Stavroula Betsakou, received the Seatrade Young Person in Shipping Award;

Philip Pascoe accepted the Seatrade Award for Countering Piracy on behalf of the Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre  Gulf of Guinea whilst Special Commendation was given to Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) and accepted by Jamal Al Ali;

Andrew Baldwin, Head of CARE and Customer Change, Carnival UK, accepted the Seatrade Global Performer Award on behalf of Carnival Corporation and plc

Peter Hinchliffe OBE accepted the IMO Themed Award 2016 Shipping: indispensable to the world award.

IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim commented: Each year shipping faces an ocean of challenges. Some planned and some unpredictable. It is our task, together, to navigate these with all the skill, dedication and cooperation that we can muster. This is why it is so encouraging to have these Seatrade Awards as a vital reminder of shippings ability to tap into rich currents of innovation and excellence, because by recognising and celebrating those who have demonstrated a clear ability to make improvements in key areas such as safety at sea and clean shipping, others may be encouraged to strive for similar achievements.

Quijano accepted the Seatrade Personality Award as recognition not of himself but of the 10,000 staff of the Panama Canal Authority, the 40,000 people who had worked on the expansion project over the last nine years, and finally the Panamanian people where an overwhelming 77% majority had backed the project in a national referendum. This is a gift to them, he said.

The awards, in time old tradition, remain a secret until the night and are unveiled to great fanfare and celebration.

All the Seatrade Awards 2016 winners:

1.Safety at Sea

Sponsor: Lloyds Register

Announcer: Tom Boardley, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Corporate and External Affairs, Lloyds Register

Recipient: IMABARI SHIPBUILDING CO., LTD

Kazuyuki Higaki, Executive Senior Managing Director

2.Clean Shipping

Sponsor: RINA

Announcer: Michele Francioni, CEO, RINA Services SpA

Recipient: GAC EnvironHull Limited

Simon Doran, Managing Director

3.Innovation In Ship Operations

Presented by: Seatrade Cruise Review

Announcer: Mary Bond, Managing Director of Publishing, Seatrade

Recipient: ExxonMobil

Nathalie Freeman, Global Marketing Project Advisor

4.Investment in People

Sponsor:DNV GL

Announcer:Martin Crawford-Brunt, Regional Business Development Manager, DNV GL

Recipient: Marine Society

Carla Rockson, Head of Seafarer Education

5.Corporate Social Responsibility

Presented by:Seatrade Maritime News

Announcer:Vanessa Stephens, Global Events Director, Seatrade

Recipient: Drydocks World Dubai LLC

Mohammad Abdulrazaq Alawadhi, Director - HSSEQ & Business Excellence

6.Deal of the Year

Announcer:Fergus Bird, Global Sales Director, Seatrade

Recipient: Topaz Energy and Marine

Geoff Taylor, Chief Operating Officer

7.Seatrade Young Person in Shipping

Presented by: Seatrade Cruise News

Announcer: Mary Bond, Managing Director of Publishing, Seatrade

Winner: Stavroula Betsakou

8.Seatrade Award for Countering Piracy

Sponsor:DP World

Announcer:Dirk van den Bosch, Commercial Director, Europe and Russia, DP World

Special Commendation: Kuwait Oil Tanker Company

Accepted by: Jamal Al Ali

Winner: Maritime Trade Information Sharing Centre  Gulf of Guinea

Accepted by: Philip Pascoe, Project Lead

9.IMO Themed Award 2016: Shipping: indispensable to the world

Presented by: Seatrade Maritime Review

Announcer: Fergus Bird, Global Sales Director, Seatrade

Winner: Peter Hinchliffe OBE

10.Seatrade Global Performer Award

Presented by: Vanessa Stephens, Global Events Director, Seatrade

Winner: Carnival Corporation and plc

Accepted by: Andrew Baldwin, Head of CARE and Customer Change, Carnival UK

11.Seatrade Special Contribution Award

Presented by: Andrew Williams, General Manager, Seatrade

Winner: China Classification Society

Accepted by: Zhang Hui, Director, Europe Regional Center

12.Seatrade Personality

Sponsor: ClassNK

Announcer: M Abdul Rahim, Regional Manager, ClassNK

Winner: Jorge L. Quijano, CEO, Panama Canal Authority

13.Seatrade Lifetime Achievement Award

Sponsor: ABS

Announcer: Kirsi Tikka, Executive Vice President, Global Marine, ABS

Winner: Philippe Louis-Dreyfus OBE, Chairman, Louis Dreyfus Armateurs
Urenda, a lawyer by profession, served as a senator from 1989 until 2002.

He was the force behind the consolidation of CCNI transforming the shipping line into, the second largest Latin America liner company. Urenda was the president of Sonap, and Alamar and a former president of Chiles Shipowners Association.

CCNI, part of Empresas Navieras Holding, whose subsidiary companies form part of a complete chain of cargo services, celebrated its 80 years of existence in 2010 by achieving historical results, closing the year with the best profits in history. But the scenario has since changed with CCNI losing $78.8m in 2011, although the company was back in black the following year.
HKND chairman Wang Jing said the success of the $40bn project is based on the US shale gas revolution, which is seen leading to bigger tankers that exceed the Panama Canal's capacity.



HKND has been talking to banks and financial institutions and has had preliminary contact with large companies, including those from the energy sector, Wang said.



Wang also clarified that HKND would be doing all the fund raising for the project without any investment from the Nicaraguan government or the Chinese government.



While HKND's stake may change depending on the composition of potential investors, he insisted its holding would be significant enough to maintain a controlling stake.



Previous story: Nicaragua awards canal concession to HK firm
While the Panama Canal expansion serves to attract foreign companies wishing to set up regional headquarters in the country, some firms, which have made the move, now face obstacles. The maritime sector is comprised of around 200 companies operating the Canal, terminals and ancillary businesses and represents 24% of Panama's GDP and has other spillover benefits for the rest of economy.

The new law has been enacted despite the fact that Panama's maritime sector is being promoted internationally as one that is open to both foreign and local investment. Its implementation will raise questions about Panama's international promotion strategy two years before the completion of the Panama Canal expansion. It could impair Panama's aspirations to become a logistics hub for Latin America and curtail foreign investment in a sector that is seen as the backbone of the country's future economic development.

Law 41 was published in the Official Gazette on June 15th, a day after its approval. It has been rejected by the maritime business community because of its restrictions on the participation of foreign companies. The maritime auxiliary services that Law 41 regulates include all fuel bunkering barges, launches taking people to and from ships, and ship chandler vessels that operate in Panamanian waters. Spanish and Dutch companies have invested in bunkering facilities in the sector. The Panama Chamber of Shipping has voiced its opposition to the restrictions.
TMT's 23 entities filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors last Thursday, according to court filings.

I accept full responsibility for the problems TMT now faces but I am working 18 hours a day to ensure that this major asset for Taiwan's national economic and global business reputation is not brought down because of adverse circumstances beyond my control, said Nobu Su, chairman of TMT.

Su believed that Chapter 11 will facilitate TMT's restructuring and help bring the company and its entities back to stable financial position.

TMT has hired restructuring specialist AlixPartners as its financial adviser.

Lisa Donahue, co-head of AlixPartners' restructuring practice, said in a court filing that in the face of extremely low charter rates after the financial crisis, TMT began to face difficulty in servicing its debt, and was unable to take possession of several of its newbuild orders.

She said seven existing vessels had been detained at various ports around the world, restricting the company from generating income.
The negative performance of its Brazilian operations is likely to affect the company until delivery of the last vessel in the current book of its Niteroi shipyard.

While the company remains confident in the long term potential of the Brazilian market, the overall industrial context in Brazil is still challenging, being characterised by high personnel turnover and very high pressure in the subcontracting market, Vard said.

Singapore-listed Vard warned investors that its results for the quarter ended 30 June 2013 will be lower than the current consensus market estimates. Vard did not give a forecast figure for its second quarter profit.

Margins are impacted by further delays and cost overruns at the Niteroi yard due to lower productivity than expected, additional costs for outsourcing of hull construction activities to subcontractors, and revisions to the estimates of start-up costs at the new shipyard, Vard Promar, it said.

The company said that stabilising the Niteroi operations and ramping up the new yard are a top priority, adding that its presence in Brazil, despite the challenges, offers opportunities for growth and improving cost position.
The 6,450 vehicle capacity NOCC Oceanic is being investigated for a possible collision with the fishing vessel Yujin Maru No.7 off the coast of Japan on 23 June which caused it break in two. Eight crew members from the fishing vessel were rescued while the Master is missing.

The NOCC Oceanic was requested to proceed to the nearest port of Sendai-Shiogama for investigations by the Japanese Coast Guard. An inspection of the hull of NOCC Oceanic conducted this morning [Tuesday] has revealed damage to the bow area of the vessel, indicating physical contact with an object. The investigations are ongoing, a statement from NOCC said.

NOCC has a team present at the Japanese port to assist with investigations.

Norwegian Car Carriers ASA would like to express its deep concern for the well-being of the missing crew member and sincerely hopes the search will end well, the company said.

It is not the first time a large merchant vessel has been in an involved in a possible collision with fishing vessel in Northeast Asian ports, and some past cases have led to lengthy legal proceedings.
Paint samples taken by Japan Coast Guard confirmed that the collision took place some 300 km off the Japanese coast south / east of Ishinomaki city, Miyagi prefecture.

NOCC announced on Thursday that the rescue operation for the missing captain Hiroshi Yoshizawa from Yujin Maru no. 7, the fishing vessel, has been discontinued. The Norwegian firm has expressed its deepest sympathy with the family of Yoshizawa, and with his colleagues and crew.

Eight crew members from Yujin Maru no. 7 were rescued when the fishing vessel broke in two.

The captain and third officer of the car carrier NOCC Oceanic remain in Sendai-Shiogama for further interviews by the Japanese authorities, NOCC said.

The investigations by the Japanese coast guard and Japanese transportation safety board regarding the circumstances around the collision are still on-going. Norwegian Car Carriers ASA will continue to do its utmost to assist Japanese authorities in these investigations, NOCC said.

The 6,450 vehicle capacity NOCC Oceanic, built in 2012, has continued her voyage to the US East Coast.
MPA said Golden Lights, a Singapore-based marine gas oil supplier, had allowed another company to use its Bunker Delivery Note (BDN) to supply bunkers to the customers of that company.

At the same time, bunker craft operator Shing Li Shipping also had its bunker craft operator licence cancelled for delivering bunkers on behalf of an unlicensed company to customers of that company.

The licences were cancelled with effect from 24 June, according to MPA. Sources had told Seatrade Global last week that two to three small privately-owned bunker suppliers may soon lose their accredited licences.

Golden Lights and Shing Li Shipping will no longer be allowed to operate as bunker supplier and bunker craft operator, respectively, in Singapore, MPA confirmed.

MPA would like to emphasise to all licensed bunker suppliers that the bunker supplier's licence is not transferable under the terms and conditions of the bunkering licence. All licensed bunker craft operators are also advised not to make use of any bunker tankers to deliver bunkers on behalf of any person, firm or company that is not a bunker supplier licensed by MPA, the Singapore authority said.

Last year June, MPA revoked the bunker supplier licence of Winbuild Petrofin for the same reasons of allowing another company to use its BDN to supply bunkers.

As at 24 June, Singapore has 70 accredited bunker suppliers licensed to supply bunkers with the government-approved BDN.
Coast-Channels was found to have breach a clause of the bunker supplier licence after it allowed other companies to use its Bunker Delivery Notes (BDNs) to supply bunkers to the customers of those other companies, according to MPA.

This non-renewal of licence is akin to a cancellation. This is the second such case this year, MPA said in a statement.

Last week, the Singapore port authority cancelled the bunker supplier licence of Golden Lights HS Bunkering for the same reason.

MPA warned that a bunker supplier's licence is not transferable and all licensed bunker craft operators are also advised not to make use of any bunker tankers to deliver bunkers on behalf of any parties that are not licensed bunker suppliers.

Bunker craft operator Shing Li Shipping had its bunker craft operator licence cancelled last week as well after it delivered bunkers on behalf of an unlicensed company.

Last year June, MPA revoked the bunker supplier licence of Winbuild Petrofin for the same reason of allowing another company to use its BDN to supply bunkers.

As at 1 July 2013, MPA listed 69 licensed bunker suppliers in Singapore.
The new office reflects the important role the Philippines plays in the company's global operations and will provide seafarers with improved facilities and better access to management and services, the company said in a press release.

The company's focus on welfare has rewarded it with a crew retention rate of 95%, a figure it attributes to individual long term career tracks and immediate fixed plans of employment every time a seafarers comes off contract form a vessel.

"We are celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2013, and this investment in Manila lays the foundation for the next 40 years as we have a long term commitment to our business in the Philippines," said Bjorn Hojgaard, ceo of Univan.

The new office follows the opening of a training centre in Manila in 2010, which continues to complement the company's cadet training and officer development programmes.
Kidnap and ransom insurance provider Seacurus would make a worthy addition not only in terms of the portfolios of business, but also the culture which exists in each organisation, asserts Barbican ceo David Reeves. Todays acquisition marks a significant milestone in the continuing growth of our marine operations. Seacurus has built a leading position within the marine insurance broking sector, particularly in the kidnap & ransom arena.

Seacurus md Thomas Brown said Becoming part of Barbican provides us with an excellent platform from which to further expand and enhance the comprehensive range of bespoke solutions we deliver to our clients in the shipping industry.

One of these, CrewSEACURE, is the companys latest offering, offers cover in the event of an employers financial default, and includes the indemnification of unpaid seafarers wages, allowing employers the assurance of meeting regulatory requirements under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 and the International Guidelines on Seafarer Abandonment.
There is a large African community currently living in India. They are regularly faced with racism from local Indians, and are often the target of violence. BBC reporter, Vikas Pandey, believes one reason for this is because many Indians do not know that Africans played a large role in the history of their country.

Pandey travels to the African Sidi community in India with one local African Indian man to learn more about the history of Africans in India. Watch the video from BBC News below to see their journey.
Press Release

May 6, 2016 Legarda Renews Call to Safeguard World's Oceans

from Climate Change Impacts As the nation celebrates Oceans Month this May, Senator Loren Legarda today renewed her call to safeguard the world's oceans from climate change impacts through the sustainable management and protection of marine and coastal ecosystems. Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and UNISDR Global Champion for Resilience, said, "Studies have shown that oceans have acidified, having absorbed about a third of the carbon dioxide emitted, which has caused coral bleaching." According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), every time there is monitored heating of the bottom of the ocean, they expect casualty to the corals, which are vital to marine life and food security. "It is estimated that a square kilometer of healthy coral reef can yield a catch of over 15 tons of fish and other seafood every year. But ocean acidification, which causes destruction of coral reefs, would mean less fish population. This would translate to lower fish catch and lower protein for the people," Legarda said. The Senator said that the government must address the impacts of climate change on oceans and marine ecosystems. "Carbon emissions reduction is crucial in protecting our oceans. Regrowing mangroves, seagrass beds and marshes, which absorb up to five times more carbon than tropical forests, will greatly help alleviate ocean acidification. These coastal ecosystems likewise serve as buffers for storm surges and tsunamis," said Legarda. "Moreover, if we will adopt responsible fishing practices and sustainable marine management and conservation, a healthier marine system and larger catch at sea will both be possible in the long term," she added. The DENR is set to undertake a nationwide coral restoration program and improve on mangrove reforestation projects. Legarda, who also chairs the Committee on Finance, said that under the 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA), Php500 million has been allocated for the coral restoration program. The DENR will implement the project based on current programs, such as the sustainable coral reef ecosystem management program (SCREMP). Also under the 2016 GAA is a special provision mandating state universities and colleges (SUCs) to coordinate with the DENR for the establishment of nurseries including the clonal nurseries, the conduct of forest research, and mangrove reforestation activities, and other similar activities within the scope of the National Greening Program (NGP). "The degradation of our marine ecosystems has always been a gut issue as it pushes poverty deeper in the coastal communities through loss of livelihood, vulnerability to natural hazards, hunger and even health problems. The future of our oceans, and that of us humans, relies on how much action we are willing to take today. We must all work together to bring back our oceans and the whole marine ecosystem to excellent condition so that our seas can benefit us in a sustainable manner," Legarda concluded.
Press Release

May 6, 2016 MIRIAM FEARS YOUTH UPRISING Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago on Friday warned that the Filipino youth who have rallied behind her are likely to protest the results of the May 9 polls if the numbers do not reflect the youth choice. Santiago, who has been topping campus mock polls since the filing of certificates of candidacy, said youth engagement in the elections seem to be at a peak again, similar to the 1992 campaign which almost won her the presidency. "When I was not declared winner of the 1992 elections, many of my volunteers threatened to take to the streets to protest the election results. Back then, the choice was clear to me: I cannot allow violence," the senator said. But Santiago said she might not be able to stop any youth action against perceived electoral fraud this elections, especially amid mounting youth clamor for moral leadership fueled by allegations of plunder against other candidates. Some 40 percent of the total 54.4 million registered voters are aged 18 to 35. This means that the candidate who can secure at least 75 percent of the youth vote would have numbers comparable to what made Benigno Aquino III president in 2010. "The combined power of millennials will be sufficient to overcome any violence threatened by other presidential candidates, but it also means that if these voters stage their own protests, they will be a force to reckon with," Santiago said. The senator has earlier urged her supporters to be vigilant against early efforts to rig the elections, citing reported glitches in the polling machines used by the Commission on Elections and widespread vote-buying. Santiago has also repeatedly criticized the results of commercial surveys. She accused the top two pollsters of removing her name from the survey forms to force respondents to vote for other presidential candidates.
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Vision Zero, San Franciscos ambitious program to eliminate traffic deaths, is off to a rough start this year  with six people in crosswalks struck and killed by cars and accusations that the Municipal Transportation Agency is protecting parking instead of pedestrians.

In addition to the six pedestrian deaths, three people in a car were killed in a Super Bowl Sunday crash on a city street, and a cable car operator hit by an allegedly drunken motorcyclist in June 2015 died of his injuries in January.

The Vision Zero policy was adopted in 2014 with a goal of eliminating all deaths from traffic collisions in a decade. To that end, a collection of city departments has focused on the most dangerous streets and intersections.

The MTA has made at least 30 major renovations and scores of simpler safety improvements based on data compiled by the Department of Public Health identifying the citys deadliest streets and intersections and most common causes of crashes. At the same time, police have stepped up enforcement efforts at deadly locations. Education campaigns focused on getting drivers to yield to pedestrians were also launched.

The goal of Vision Zero is that nobody should be dying on our streets just trying to get around town, said Ed Reiskin, transportation director for the MTA. While lots of good things have been put in place, it is troubling and tragic that people are dying.

Rash of deaths in 2016

The seven deaths this year compare with just one, a motorcyclist, during the first 10 weeks of 2015, and seven, five pedestrians and two motorcyclists, during the same period in 2014. Two pedestrian deaths in March this year have not yet been officially entered into the Vision Zero database but were recorded by the MTA and Walk San Francisco, a pedestrian advocacy group that is part of a community coalition supporting Vision Zero.

Nancy Sarieh, a Department of Public Health spokeswoman, said the early spate of deaths, as well as serious injuries, is tragic but its too soon to tell statistically if Vision Zero is losing ground.

Its an unfortunate start, but its too early to make any conclusions, she said. We still have 10 months ahead of us.

Many of the projects have only been on the streets for months, Sarieh and Reiskin said, and some of the streets and intersections identified as most dangerous have yet to see safety improvements.

Easier said than done

Common safety improvements at intersections include painting more visible crosswalks, clearing parking from street corners, installing extended pedestrian waiting areas and transit boarding platforms, traffic signals that give pedestrians a head start, and bike lanes. Others include erecting new stop signs or traffic signals, lowering the speed limit and restricting turns.

But making major changes to street intersections is not without controversy in San Francisco, especially when it means parking spaces are lost.

Anything we do to redesign streets is going to have trade-offs, Reiskin said, and one of those trade-offs is parking.

This years fatal crashes have occurred at or near the intersections of Leavenworth and Ellis streets, Broadway and Powell streets, Athens and Geneva streets, Market and Seventh streets, Dolores and 30th streets and Post and Divisadero streets. Of those, only Seventh and Market has seen any Vision Zero improvements.

Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The Chronicle

Every one of those collisions is tragic, and every one of them was preventable, Reiskin told the MTA Board of Directors at a recent meeting.

Vision Zero, Reiskin said, is a work in progress, and by year end, hundreds of intersections across the city will have been improved.

We will continue doing everything we can to redesign the streets, he said at the MTA meeting.

But he said safety improvements arent enough. There are behavior issues at play here, he said. We need everyone in the city to be careful and mindful about how theyre getting around. We need people to slow down.

Parking is a sore point

Pedestrian advocates applaud the progress thats been made on Vision Zero projects but said they fear the MTA is weakening its resolve, and pulling back on some of its projects, when it meets neighborhood opposition  particularly over parking.

A plan in the works on Taraval Street calls for construction of concrete boarding islands to provide a safe haven for people getting on or off the L-Taraval line. According to the MTA, 46 pedestrians have been hit by cars on Taraval over the past five years, and 22 of them were getting on or off the L-Taraval in the middle of the street.

MTA planners say the boarding islands would make the street much safer for pedestrians. Merchants, however, say it would remove too many parking places from in front of their businesses, many of them small restaurants and shops.

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.

It will give pedestrians safety but it will suffocate any kind of prosperity on the street, said Albert Chow, secretary of People of Parkside-Sunset, a merchants association that opposes the boarding islands. What we are trying to do is find a solution that will preserve parking and let traffic continue to flow.

The MTA plan calls for parking displaced by the boarding islands to be moved around the corners to nearby streets  a plan the merchants dont like. Chow, who owns Great Wall Hardware, said many of the businesses, including his, require street-side parking.

Merchants alternative

The merchants have suggested that instead of installing boarding islands, the MTA should paint bold diagonal stripes in the street at Muni stops and post signs telling drivers to stop outside the zone when streetcars are present. The plan would allow curbside parking to remain.

While the MTA has not completed the Taraval plan, it may test the merchants idea on at least part of the street. That, in turn, has angered pedestrian advocates, who say the agency is sacrificing pedestrian safety for parking places.

You can be Vision Zero leaders and not let this plan be watered down, Cathy DeLuca, policy and program manager for Walk San Francisco, told the MTA board.

In an interview, DeLuca said she considered her remarks a call to action for the board to put pedestrian safety above all these other issues like parking.

Reiskin said Friday that the Taraval plan, which will continue to be worked on for a couple more months, has not been diluted, and that the MTA is putting safety first.

While the street safety markings may be tested starting later this year on the side of the street where the inbound streetcars stop, he said, physical boarding islands will be included on the outbound side because thats where the majority of pedestrians are hit stepping off trains.

I wont support compromising on those, he said. We absolutely will not compromise on safety.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
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Authorities arrested 33 people during a protest calling for the firing of San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr at City Hall late Friday, officials said.

Protesters stormed through City Hall, banging on doors and blowing whistles before stopping to chant for Suhrs removal in front of the closed door to Lees office. They remained inside City Hall late into Friday evening, past the buildings closing time.

Protesters defied six orders to disperse, and then deputies made the arrests, said Eileen Hirst, a spokeswoman for the sheriffs department.

The 33 protesters, including one minor, were detained on suspicion of trespassing and failure to disperse and were in the process of being cited and released Saturday, she said. The minor was released to a parent at the scene, according to Hirst.

Videos shared on social media by news service Mission Local showed helmeted deputies using batons to force the protesters out of the building after the order to disperse was given.

Those at the protest described a hectice scene and an aggressive response by sheriffs deputies.

Joel Angel Juarez, a freelance photojournalist and student, said he was taking pictures of the protest and was pushed to the ground by a sheriffs deputy.

I was pushed with a lot of force to the point I fell to the ground right next to the stairs, he said.

Juarez, who said he was carrying a press pass from El Tecolote, a neighborhood newspaper, on his neck, also said he witnessed protesters being struck with batons.

Hirst, the sheriffs spokeswoman, said she saw deputies holding batons and using them to corral the crowd and did not witness any deputies striking protesters with them. She welcomed those who alleged such action to make a formal complaint with the sheriffs department.

If people experienced something very different than what I saw we would like to hear about it. We cant resolve it if we dont know, she said. Hirst said she saw cracks on the front window and a piece of iron work torn off of the building as well.

The protest came hours after five demonstrators who have been refusing to eat until Suhr resigns or is fired were taken to the hospital Friday due to deteriorating health, supporters said, and their 16-day protest camp outside the Mission Police Station was packed up.

But the Frisco Five plan to continue their hunger strike under the care of doctors, supporters said.

They started the strike April 21 to protest two recent police shootings of men of color in the Mission District, as well as revelations that city officers have exchanged racist and homophobic text messages. The five said they were prepared to die of starvation for their cause, but on Thursday they were told by Mayor Ed Lee in a telephone call that he would not meet their demand.

The protesters are Ike Pinkston, 42, Sellassie Blackwell, 39, Edwin Lindo, 29, Maria Gutierrez, 66, and her son Ilyich Sato, 42. They were being treated late Friday at UCSF Medical Center, though the hospital would not release any further information about their condition.

At Mission Police Station, about a dozen people stayed behind to pack up tents and other supplies at the camp, which was all but gone by 3 p.m.

Its been emotional to see this, said San Franciscan Bianca Gutierrez, who was helping clear out the camp. Ive never seen a movement this impactful before.

Daily evaluations

While at the protest camp, the demonstrators were evaluated daily by nurses with the city Public Health Department. They had been drinking water as well as consuming coconut water and chicken broth daily, but several said they had fainted or suffered dizzy spells.

On Wednesday, one man was taken to a hospital as a precaution, but returned to the camp outside the police station a few hours later.

Theyre not giving up, said Victor Picazo, as he packed up pallets of water Friday. Theyre just too sick to be out here.

It was unclear whether the protesters planned to return to the camp at a later time.

According to medical experts, people can die very quickly  within a week or so  without water. But they can persevere many weeks even on a very severely calorie-restricted diet.

The effects of starvation typically start with a slowing down of some basic functions as the body conserves energy. Blood pressure, heart rate and temperature will fall first. Eventually, starvation can cause hormonal changes and affect cognition, causing people to feel confused, forgetful or just mentally slow. But the effects are generally reversible.

The body will first burn through fat stores, then muscles, for energy. Eventually, people can die when chemical imbalances and stress on certain organs cause severe heart problems.

City health officials said in a statement Friday that the protesters have a good awareness of their risk, and they have been continuing to access care as needed.

In an emailed statement, supporters said they would not release additional information about the health of the people on strike due to privacy concerns. Several protesters have said that they would refuse feeding tubes or other types of nutritional supplementation even if they became very ill.

Erin Allday, Evan Sernoffsky and Hamed Aleaziz are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: eallday@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @erinallday, @EvanSernoffsky, @haleaziz
Apparently the whole flying car thing isnt going to happen. Which is too bad, because with traffic gridlock, San Francisco would be the perfect place to sail above the clogged streets.

Instead, were looking at what J.R. Eppler, president of the Potrero Boosters Neighborhood Association, calls a traffic tsunami. Now what are we going to do about it?

While many local residents are just beginning to grasp the concerns, the neighborhoods south of AT&T Park are ahead of the curve. The booming Dogpatch/Potrero Hill area is already traffic-clogged, and it isnt going to get better.

Neighborhood groups are meeting with city officials, considering options and making recommendations. Mark Dwight, the owner of Rickshaw Bagworks in Dogpatch, says they dont have a choice.

Were the epicenter of development right now, Dwight said. In the next 18 months were going to add 1,500 new residents, which doubles the population of Dogpatch. And in the two to three years after that were going to add another 1,500, effectively tripling the population.

So what can be done to move all those residents around the city? Heres a hint: It doesnt involve individuals driving their own cars. Henry Karnilowicz, president of the South of Market Business Association, thinks San Franciscans will have to rethink their driving priorities.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

If you get a birds-eye view of downtown Manhattan, do you see any cars? No, Karnilowicz said. Nobody drives in New York. I think thats the point we are coming to.

How would that work? Here are some ideas.

Driverless cars: No, seriously, driverless cars. Gillian Gillett, director of transportation policy for the mayors office, says that not only are self-driving cars becoming a reality, but also San Francisco is campaigning for funds that could get them on the streets.

The technology is coming faster than anyone thought it would, she said. And no matter what we do, year in and year out, 30 million people die in car crashes. And 80 percent are caused by human error.

Michael Macor/The Chronicle

The U.S. Department of Transportation has created a $50 million grant to be awarded to a city with a plan to use technology to ease congestion. Seventy-eight cities applied for the Smart City Challenge, and San Francisco is one of the seven finalists.

We are trying to match up neighborhoods that think they have transportation problems and want to have a conversation to fix them, Gillett said. Dogpatch may be one.

Actually, residents say, were way ahead of you. Bruce Huie, president of the Dogpatch Neighborhood Association, says hes using another relatively new transit option:

Uber, Lyft, etc: It is the only way I get around the city, Huie said. I dont have a car anymore. I got rid of it three months ago.

Adam Gould, a member of the Potrero Dogpatch Merchants Association, thinks the city is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new services.

We have all these (ride-hailing) vehicles running around the city, he said. We are the perfect petri dish for that.

Ride-hailing vehicles solve the perennial parking problem. But, Dwight says, theres a catch to both self-driving cars and ride-hailing services.

The fundamental problem is, they are subject to the same traffic problems on the street, he said. It has become so painful to drive your car. Im done with cars. I accept and promote public transportation.

Which gets us to:

Light rail: The T-Third Street line runs right to Dogpatch and farther south. But its far from perfect.

For starters, like the rest of Muni, its often jammed. And although its reliable, Eppler said, theres definitely a lag. Youre waiting, waiting, waiting, asking, Where is it?

The good news is weve got the T, Dwight said. The bad news is it doesnt run frequently enough to be viable. In Manhattan, the subways run every three minutes. I will go out to get on the T, and the wait will be 30 minutes.

Suggestions include longer trains, more cars and clearing bottlenecks. Dwight says the Fourth Street Bridge, near the ballpark, becomes gridlocked when the Giants have a home game.

Fourth Street should be made one-way for cars, he said. And then the other lane should be Muni-only.

Can we really get people out of their cars? Maybe we already are. Gillett says the data show that new, younger residents feel they dont need their own vehicle.

Ten thousand people moved to San Francisco last year, she said. And 80 percent didnt have a car.

Theyre the new, car-free generation. And if you think the rest of us wont join them, ask the residents of Dogpatch. Theyll say you might not have a choice.

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cwnevius
Facebook is going to court over claims that it violates its users privacy when it stores their facial features  a result of friends tagging, well, friends in photos.

Facebook subscribers sued the company, claiming that they never gave permission for their faces to be used as biometric identifiers.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Donato in San Francisco dismissed a motion to drop the case.

Facebook had claimed that an Illinois state statute in question did not apply to the social network because its headquarters are in Menlo Park.

The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act stops companies from storing such information  such as facial features  without peoples approval.

A Facebook spokeswoman said that the company couldnt comment directly on the case.

She said that while she couldnt share exactly how the social networks facial recognition technology works, it does measure the distance between, say, a persons eyes, nose and ears to help it recognize users faces.

The spokeswoman also emphasized that the company doesnt sell its users data, regardless of what that data is.

Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum in San Diego, said she still sees problems with Facebook policies.

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People who consent to tagging, it would be very difficult for them to understand that when you allow someone to auto-tag you, you are really engaging in a lot of facial biometrics, she said.

I dont think even to this day that Facebook makes that clear enough.

A hearing in the case is set for June 15.

Sean Sposito is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ssposito@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @seansposito
The last city Diane Evans called home was decimated by one of the deadliest hurricanes the nation has ever seen.

She fled the Katrina-ravaged, flooded streets of New Orleans for the foggy hills of San Francisco in 2005. It gave her hope, she said, finding her way in a new city so full of life. Before long, though, she felt a new storm brewing: a tech boom that brought with it young workers who, by and large, Evans said, didnt seem to care about the people who had come before them.

People move into a place and take advantage of the city and the communities that were built by people of my generation, but then they look at us old folks and say, Move along down the road, you dont matter anymore, said Evans, 70. If you come here, you should do something to give back to the community, to leave it better than you found it. No one could make a quarter in this city if it werent for what these old people built and left behind.

On Friday, Evans was one of the first seniors to get a ride on the Curry Senior Centers new trishaws  three-wheeled rickshaws pedaled by volunteers from local tech firms that, officials hope, will help entice seniors from the Tenderloin to get out and explore other parts of the city that may ordinarily be beyond their reach.

Watching volunteers from Zendesk, which donated the pedicab-like vehicles to the senior center, ride up Turk Street on bikes of their own to escort the first group of seniors on the trishaws inaugural ride, Evans grinned. Twitter employees wove past them, wearing neon orange vests and picking up trash off the ground.

Gabrielle Lurie/Special to The Chronicle

Too often, Evans said, seniors watching the city change around them can feel helpless, lost and overlooked. Taking the time to make a senior feel seen and appreciated, she added, goes a long away.

Back in my day, the young people used to take care of the old people; that doesnt happen anymore, said Evans, who was homeless for several months in her late 60s before finding her way to an apartment in the Tenderloin. All these offices are literally walking distance from here, and still we have seniors who are isolated and homeless and feel like no one is looking out for them.

About 14.5 percent of of San Franciscans are 65 and older, according to the most recent census data. Many, like Evans, live in single rooms in residential hotels.

Todd Thorpe, the director of development at the Curry Senior Center, said the biggest misconception he encounters from young San Franciscans is the feeling that seniors can no longer contribute to the community. Its what allows them to be so easily cast aside and overlooked, he said.

Gabrielle Lurie/Special to The Chronicle

Roughly 15,000 seniors in San Francisco live in low-income housing or are homeless, Thorpe said, and of those about 10 percent live on the streets. Many come to the senior center for services.

Every week, workers from tech firms  including Dolby, Salesforce, Twitter and Zendesk  who volunteer at the senior center engage with these low-income and homeless seniors.

Twitter and Zendesk, both recipients of the tax break that allowed companies to forgo $34 million in city payroll taxes last year, have signed community-engagement agreements that include a stipulated amount of volunteer time.

Mikkel Svane, Zendesks CEO and co-founder, was the first to break in the seniors new ride. He hopped on the drivers seat of the red trishaw and began to pedal down Turk Street as a caravan of his employees trailed behind.

The rain came down, not a storm but a light drizzle that could not wash the smile from Evans face.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae
Steve Burrill loved an audience. And he found plenty of them.

With his trademark pink tie and grand exhortations about the future of biotechnology, Burrill gathered awards and speaking gigs the way hobbyists collect stamps and Pez dispensers. An online biography runs to no less than 1,100 words. Among his assembled plaudits: Scientific American once named him one of the worlds top visionaries in 2002.

As much as he adored the spotlight, Burrill may have grown too fond of the perks that came with it. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently barred Burrill from professional investing after he admitted to embezzling $31 million from the venture funds he managed. Burrill used the money to support his failing businesses and to pay for a lavish lifestyle.

Burrill did not respond to a request for comment left through his attorney or messages sent to him through LinkedIn. Public records do not list a current address or phone number. The office in the Presidio of San Francisco listed on his website is vacant, with his name off the building directory and the space up for lease. No one seems to know his current whereabouts.

Burrill left behind more than an empty office. He left behind empty promises, too. He helped fleece an entire state, playing the starring role in a notorious boondoggle that people in Minnesota would rather forget. In 2009, around the same time he was beginning to siphon off money from his investors for personal use, Burrill traveled to Minnesota, promising to raise a $1 billion venture fund to back a biotech park in  of all places  an elk farm in rural Pine Island.

Music Man

Based on Burrills ambitious plan, Minnesota spent $36 million in state funds and federal stimulus dollars to build a highway interchange directly to Elk Run, as the project was called. The interchange was built. The fund and park never materialized. Its now Minnesotas own bridge to nowhere.

Burrill was the Music Man, said Peter Bianco, a health care executive who worked at a Minneapolis firm at the time Burrill came to town. He was always this mythical figure. He was too good to be true.

How Burrill could so easily seduce Minnesota offers a cautionary tale to all of the government officials and economic development groups from around the world who flock to the Bay Area and Silicon Valley, hoping to replicate our seemingly magical blend of money, innovation and entrepreneurship. To people in the Midwest, a region left unsettled by the decline of manufacturing and agriculture, Burrill was more than a pocketbook and a pocket square. He personified the idea that they, too, could create an economic miracle out of nothing.

Or in Minnesotas case, an elk farm.

Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune

Former accountant

As a reporter in the Twin Cities at the time, I wrote pieces that, in hindsight, should have been more critical of Burrills background and intentions. I spoke to Burrill several times, but to this day, Im still not quite sure if he deliberately tried to con Minnesota. My best guess is that Burrill, so absorbed in his own hype, genuinely believed he could pull off his biotech dreams, despite all suggestions to the contrary.

Burrills transformation into a nationally known biotech guru is a bit surprising. He was not a scientist or entrepreneur. He was an accountant from Wisconsin who desperately wanted to distinguish himself from his father, George, a prominent accounting executive himself.

Every place I went, I was Georges boy, Burrill once told me. I didnt like being Georges boy, so I was going to get as far away from my dad as I could.

He ended up in the Silicon Valley office of Ernst & Young, where over the course of nearly three decades he rose to partner and head of the firms manufacturing and high-tech practice. But Burrill grew restless, and wanted a direct piece of the deals he frequently helped advised.

I built probably the greatest Rolodex in the world, Burrill said to me. The frustrating side of that was we saw enormous value (and) wealth being created, but I didnt share in it. I decided as I got into my later life that it was time for me to make my living based on what I owned instead of what I did.

He eventually formed Burrill & Co. in San Francisco, an unusual hodgepodge of businesses, including merchant banking, private equity, venture capital and publishing. The last business really distinguished Burrill, whose annual reflections on the state of biotech under the Burrill Report name were considered an industry bible. (The Burrill Report website is now offline, and the Internet Archives last record of it is in August.)

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Burrill became a sought-after speaker who traveled around the world, telling audiences in Brazil and China what kind of breakthrough technology to expect next.

He was a great motivator and ideas person, said Bob Egan, executive director of the Vilas County Economic Development Corp. in Wisconsin, where, according to Egan, Burrill still owns a home.

Burrill made sure to project a certain image: He always wore a pinstripe dark suit with that trademark pink tie and pocket square. Attractive young female assistants were never far from his side.

For Tower Investments, a real estate firm outside of Sacramento, Burrill was a secret weapon. Tower was trying to convert more than 2,000 acres of empty land in rural Pine Island into residential homes and commercial office space.

Given the sites remote location in southeastern Minnesota, the company desperately needed the state to build an interchange to connect Highway 52 to Elk Run.

That interchange was everything to making that project work, Bianco said.

Glen Stubbe/Minneapolis Star Tribune

Timing off

It was extremely bad timing. The recession struck the country in 2008, and state officials were in no mood to give tax dollars to an out-of-town real estate company trying to develop a large cornfield primarily inhabited by elk.

Enter Burrill. In 2009, he and Tower proposed an audacious plan to win public support for the project. Tower would build a 200-acre biotech business park that would incubate startups funded by a $1 billion venture fund created by Burrill. The idea was to build a biotech corridor that would connect the University of Minnesota and medical device makers in the Twin Cities north of Pine Island with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to the south of the town.

But Bianco, a fierce critic of Elk Run, had major doubts.

It made absolutely no sense, he said.

Neither Tower nor Burrill had any experience developing a research park. And despite Burrills reputation, raising $1 billion during a severe economic downturn seemed unrealistic.

But with Burrills name attached to Elk Run, Tower was able to persuade the administration of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty to spend $2 million in state funds on infrastructure improvements to the site and snag $34.3 million in federal stimulus money to build the interchange  all before Burrill signed up any investors for the $1 billion fund or Tower recruited any tenants to the park.

Everything happened just so fast, said former Minnesota state Sen. Kathy Saltzman. You got the sense that people like Burrill must see something here, they must know better than us so you shouldnt be questioning things.

Crumbling fortunes

Behind the scenes, Burrills empire was falling apart.

From 2007 to 2013, as Burrill was promoting Elk Run, he was secretly transferring millions of dollars from a $283 million life-science venture fund he managed to support his other money-losing businesses. The cash shortage got so bad that Burrill could not even afford to pay rent or his employees.

So using his accounting skills, Burrill concocted several schemes to hide the illegal transfers, according to the SEC. He listed cash transfers as advances on fees the fund regularly paid Burrill to manage the portfolio. He also began asking investors to commit more capital to companies and then used the extra money to cover expenses unrelated to the fund.

Burrill knew, or was reckless in not knowing, that the money called from investors would be used in part to continue funding cash flow shortages, significant portions of which were wholly unrelated to the funds business and included propping up Burrills other business ventures that were operating at a loss, SEC officials wrote in the agencys orders barring Burrill from the industry.

But Burrill wasnt content to just exploit the fund to finance other parts of the company. He also used cash to pay for things like vacations to Paris and the Caribbean, private car and jet service, charitable contributions, jewelry and gifts for both his wife and mistress, SEC documents say.

And in addition to Elk Run, Burrill was actively trying to start new funds, which would presumably pay him more management fees. In 2012, Burrill & Co. said it raised $125 million to create a venture fund in Brazil, backed by money from Brazilian institutional and corporate investors and up to $5 million from the Inter-American Development Bank. The organization in Washington would also invest up to $4 million in the Burrill Chile Fund.

In August 2013, the investment committee of the fund Burrill was pilfering discovered the scheme and eventually removed him. Other investors quickly moved to sever ties with him.

Geri Smith, a spokeswoman with the Inter-American Development Bank, said the Chile fund never started operations, though the Brazil fund is active but under a different name and managers.

The General Partner and Fund discontinued its relationship with Steve Burrill in April 2014, Smith said in an email. Steve Burrill is no longer associated in any way ... with the GP or the Fund.

In addition to barring him from the industry, the SEC ordered Burrill to pay back $4.8 million and pay a $1 million fine. The agency declined to comment on whether he has done so.

But thats little comfort to the people of Minnesota. The state had built the interchange, but with no $1 billion venture fund, there is no Elk Run Biosciences Park. Tower Investments still owns some of the still-vacant land but no longer lists the Elk Run project on its website.

Silicon tumbleweeds

A few years ago, I spoke with Jawed Karim, a co-founder of YouTube who originally hails from St. Paul. A product of both Silicon Valley and Minnesota, Karim uniquely understands how each region works.

In Silicon Valley, if people knew you worked for a big company like Hewlett-Packard or Oracle, they would offer to get you a job at a startup, Karim said. But in the Midwest, if people knew you were starting a business, they would offer to get you a job at a corporation like Medtronic or 3M.

In other words, entrepreneurship and risk taking dont come naturally to Midwesterners, who tend to prize stability and longevity. Yet they envy Silicon Valleys dynamic economy and want to replicate it.

Therein lies the danger.

To outsiders, the temptation is to quickly construct a building, slap the word innovation on it, and hope something takes root. But Silicon Valley owes a great deal of its success to its natural fortunes. The region happened to be blessed with world-class research universities in Stanford and UC Berkeley, a fail-fast culture, a large venture-capital industry, and visionary leaders like William Hewlett, Steve Jobs and Andy Grove.

Everyone tries to copy Silicon Valley, but in reality theres no copying it, said Marc Weiser, a managing director of RPM Ventures in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Empty fields

Regions should develop their own model for economic development, spearheaded by local leaders in education, government, and business, instead of an outsider like Burrill, said Weiser, who splits his time between the Midwest and Silicon Valley.

When we blindly follow someone, thats when we get into trouble, Saltzman, the former state senator, said.

I recently visited Burrills office in the Presidios Headquarters Building. Burrill had long cleared out: The office was dark and empty, with the window blinds closed. He had planned to run a virtual biotech incubator from the stately building. Like the fields elk once roamed in Minnesota, it proved entirely virtual.

Today, the only visible sign of life at Elk Run is a new elementary school built on land that Tower donated to Pine Island.

We have commercial parcels available for sale on Bioscience Drive, Tower Senior Vice President John Pierce said in an email. The new freeway interchange is complete and the frontage roads have been constructed.

The project is ready for construction, he said.

And Minnesota is still waiting.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee
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An Oakland man was found guilty Friday of capital murder in the killings of an 8-year-old girl at a sleepover in 2013 and a 22-year-old man during a robbery in Berkeley later that year.

An Alameda County jury also found Darnell Williams, 25, guilty of three special circumstances that could lead to a death sentence: lying in wait, committing multiple murders and committing a murder in the course of the robbery.

He was also convicted on three attempted murder charges, personal and intentional discharge of a firearm, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, and possession of a firearm by a felon.

Jurors were ordered to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland on May 16 to begin the death penalty phase of the trial.

As the verdict was announced, Williams stared straight ahead, showing no emotion.

The jurys decision comes after a lengthy trial for the slayings of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine on July 17, 2013, and Anthony Medearis, whom Williams shot and killed during a robbery at a dice game in Berkeley almost three months later.

Were happy. We appreciate the closure we got, Medearis aunt, Jackie Winters, said outside the courtroom.

Over the course of 13 days of testimony from more than 30 witnesses, Deputy District Attorney John Brouhard painted Williams as a vigilante angry over the killing in Berkeley of a friend, Jermaine Davis, hours before Alaysha was shot.

Williams went to the apartment on Wilson Avenue looking for Antiown York, who he believed was responsible for killing Davis, Brouhard said. The apartment belonged to Yorks ex-girlfriend and the mother of his two children.

The prosecutor said Williams knocked on the door and started shooting before it opened. Alaysha was mortally wounded and died at a hospital.

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One of 13 bullets fired by Williams also wounded Alayshas close friend, Amara York, and her 4-year-brother and grandmother.

Much of the prosecutions case rested on the testimony of two women, Williams ex-girlfriend Britney Rogers and another acquaintance, Laquana Nuno, both of whom said that Williams confessed to the shooting.

Defense attorneys Deborah Levy and Darryl Billups asked jurors to distance themselves from the emotional nature of much of the testimony. They argued that neither Rogers or Nuno were credible, noting that Nuno was initially charged with second-degree murder in Medearis death but took a plea deal in exchange for her testimony against Williams.

Brouhard argued that each woman knew details of Alayshas death that had never been released to the media and corroborated the others stories despite not knowing each other.

On Sept. 8, 2013, Williams allegedly shot and killed Medearis, with whom he was supposedly friends. The slaying happened on the 1400 block of Eighth Street in Berkeley, in an alleged robbery attempt during a dice game.
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Financially troubled UC Berkeley will eliminate 500 staff jobs over two years to help balance its budget by 2019-20, The Chronicle has learned.

Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees Monday informing them of the job reductions and said they will amount to a modest reduction of 6 percent of our staff workforce.

Berkeley employs about 8,500 staffers, from custodians to administrators. Faculty members will not be affected. Dirks said the reductions will be done in part through attrition and did not mention layoffs.

But the campus is in the process of laying off about 60 employees, spokesman Dan Mogulof said without identifying the departments theyre from.

Some staff members in at least one area, residential student services, were told by managers two weeks ago that they should prepare to be laid off, sources said. Other departments are bracing for similar news.

The job elimination message comes as the campus is projecting a deficit of $150 million this fiscal year  6 percent of its operating budget of $2.5 billion, which campus officials have blamed largely on state allocations that have not kept pace with campus needs.

Berkeleys deficit was $109 million last year and $12 million in the 2013-14 fiscal year, campus officials told The Chronicle in February.

The campus will receive at least $200 million in loans and debt restructuring from University of California headquarters and is identifying other areas to cut and raise more cash.

An estimated $50 million will be saved by eliminating the jobs, Dirks said in the memo, which offered few details.

The news was greeted with anger by some labor union leaders, who criticized Berkeley and the entire UC for what they say is excessive spending on executive salaries at the expense of lower-paid workers.

My concern and the publics concern is that UC Berkeley is going to start cutting the people it can ill afford to lose  the people who clean buildings, who work in food services or health clinics, said Todd Stenhouse, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents such workers at Berkeley.

Theres a very clear need for those front-line services. But the question is whether there really is a need to hemorrhage resources on executives.

Meanwhile, campus sources say that departments have been told to reduce their budgets by 10 percent and can choose how to do so. Employees say they are hopeful that large numbers of layoffs can be avoided by leaving vacant positions unfilled or by shrinking programs.

Dirks said he expects other savings to come from reducing travel expenses and spending less on students health insurance premiums, among other efforts.

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
With his mothers sense of style and his fathers background in landscape design, Sheldon Harte was destined to become a tastemaker from the start. The respected Southern California interior designer honed his collectors eye from an early age, when, in fits of boredom, he spent hours antiquing with his fashionable mother. This grew into a personal passion., and by the time Harte was in his 20s he had already begun to amass a sizable collection of his own. Now in his 50s, he also has the homes in which to feature his finds.

The designers latest pet project, a pied-a-terre at the Four Seasons in San Francisco, was a highly personal one. A longtime resident of Laguna Beach (Orange County), Harte began making regular business trips to the Bay Area in 2012 for clients; his husband, John Combs, president of a real estate company, was also traveling to San Francisco frequently for business. So it was a natural next step for the two to set down roots here.

Some might call it kismet, Harte says. The decision about the Four Seasons was an easy one for the couple, who always enjoyed the comforts of the hotel when in town for work. Being centrally located was appealing, and the residences are great, he says. Plus, theres a palpable pride of ownership in the apartments.

The next decision, about how to decorate, was also an easy one. Combs, a competitive show jumper in his earlier days, had his heart set on a modern mens club theme  both moody and masculine  with a good amount of equestrian fine art. Harte was happy to pull from his own extensive archive. The striking wooden starburst mirror above a French postal cabinet in the living room, the bust of a horse atop a pedestal, and the smattering of sculptures and figurines around the pied-a-terre are all pieces he has collected from his favorite shops over the years.

In Los Angeles, he turns to Lee Stanton Antiques, whose clientele includes celebrities such as Tom Ford and Ellen DeGeneres. The French postal cabinet in the living room is one of the treasures we bought from Lee, and I fashioned the floor lamp next to the sofa out of an old gas canister I found there. In Palm Springs, where the couple has a vacation home, Harte frequents Colin Fisher Studios and Palm Canyon Galleria. This is where I find the surprises, he says. Hidden behind something, there will be a great find. And here in San Francisco, Harte already claims Coup Detat, C. Mariani Antiques and Candace Barnes as his favorites.

Equestrian references are everywhere: The focal point of the one-bedroom apartment is a collection of sepia-toned wild horse portraits by Kimerlee Curyl that Harte, who sits on the board of trustees of the Laguna Art Museum, and Combs first spotted at Los Angeles design event Legends of La Cienega a few years ago. The two were so smitten that they bought multiple pieces, which now make up a striking gallery wall above the sofa.

Harte deftly maneuvered around space constraints  the apartment is less than 1,000 square feet  by adding a custom desk with a hand-crackled linen-lacquer finish to the foot of the bed and installing shelving in the hallway to showcase Combs equine ephemera, along with framed black-and-white photos of Combs and his horses. A pocket door between the bedroom and living room (built by the previous tenant) opens sight lines from both rooms and makes the home feel twice as big.

Harte, not one for subtlety, carries the equine theme to every corner of this space, including a floor-to-ceiling ink sketch off the entry that Harte commissioned by Los Angeles artist Mark Willems. If ever there was a statement powder room, its here  where bold black leather floors and a Philippe Starck vanity are tempered with stallion-printed wall coverings of upholstered fabric by Spanish company Gaston y Daniela, a prominent textile house in Spain.

Luxurious textures continue in the living room with embossed leather wing chairs in a crocodile pattern, a wool and angora wool Turkish Tulu rug, and Ron Dier rock crystal occasionals. Curious objects, such as old car parts by Mexican artist Feliciano Bejar, add a touch of whimsy. Theres a sort of balanced tension here, also evidenced in the juxtaposition of natural materials with industrial elements. A polished nickel nightstand from Restoration Hardware is the perfect counterpoint to the worn wood pieces  driftwood sculptures and petrified wood coffee table  that Harte treasures. I like the unexpected friction of mixing styles, combining smooth with rough, he says. It really keeps things interesting.

Harte and Combs life in the Bay Area is just starting. The Four Seasons place serves as a jumping-off point for the couple to explore the culture here, and friends are already planting the seeds for another purchase in nearby Wine Country. Now that we have a home here, we cant wait to get to know the northern half of the state, Harte says of the place where he and his husband very well might retire.

Allison McCarthy is a freelance writer. Email: home@sfchronicle.com

Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more.

Tips from design leader Sheldon Harte

Unify the space When youre working with smaller spaces, its best to keep the walls and ceilings the same color to tie everything together. Bold hues can make a statement, set a mood, and give the illusion that the area is larger than it actually is.

Decorating with a specific theme Approach the theme with taste and have a little abandon. Just dont take it to the point where it feels silly and overdone.

Finding the perfect pieces Be patient and go with your gut.

Blending different styles Dont be too safe. Theres already far too much formula decorating in this world. Try looking at things in a different way and create a bit of tension. If it really doesnt work, your friends will tell you.

Building an art or antique collection Do your research, choose carefully (impulse purchases are a no-no), and buy what you love. If youre not confident, talk to collectors. And if youre buying as an investment, hire a good consultant.

 A.M.
Just like that, the era of the airship ended.

The Chronicles front page from May 7, 1937, covers the Hindenburg explosion that ended up killing 36 people, including a worker on the ground.

Germanys great silver Hindenburg, the worlds largest dirigible, was ripped apart by an explosion tonight that sent her crumpling to the naval landing field a flaming wreck with horrible death to about a third of those aboard, the Associated Press story on The Chronicles front page read. Exactly how many died was still in dispute, as the flames licked clean the twisted, telescoped skeleton of the airship that put out from Germany 76 hours before on its opening trip of the 1937 passenger season.

The disaster was captured in photos and as a newsreel that went the 1930s equivalent of viral the following day. The photos  especially the iconic shot that found its way onto a Led Zeppelin cover  hit front pages across the globe, and the images became a story in themselves.

At the exact moment the Hindenburg exploded at Lakehurst last night an Associated Press staff photographer had his camera focused on the mammoth dirigible and captured one of the most remarkable news photos ever taken, a short story near the top of the page read.

Even Adolf Hitler was roped into the coverage. A story near the bottom of the page is headlined Hitler stunned by tragedy.

Reichsfuehrer Hitler was called from his bed early today to receive news of the worst disaster to German air transportation in history  loss of the proud dirigible Hindenburg, the United Press story read. The dictator was apparently stunned by the news. He refused to comment.

See more front pages: Go to SFChronicle.com/covers to search a database of hundreds of Chronicle Covers articles that showcase the newspaper's history.

Chronicle Covers is a project that highlights one classic Chronicle newspaper page from our archive every day for 366 days. Library director Bill Van Niekerken, art director Danielle Mollette-Parks, producer Michelle Devera and editorial assistant Jillian Sullivan contributed to the project. Tim ORourke is the executive producer and editor of SFChronicle.com. Email: torourke@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TimothyORourke

(Click to enlarge)




Americans who want to keep Donald Trump out of the White House would be wise not to draw too much comfort from polls that show Hillary Clinton with a robust double-digit lead.

Pre-election polls, even some taken within days of voting, time and again have proved unreliable predictors of primary results.

In Michigan, they were shockingly off the mark. The average poll had Hillary Clinton up by 21 points in the Democratic primary; one even had her lead at 37 percentage points. A forecast from the numbers-crunching analysts at FiveThirtyEight had given Bernie Sanders a 1 percent chance of winning. Yet he did.

It was eye-popping, said Bill Carrick, one of Californias leading political strategists. It was probably the biggest upset weve had in a decade, really.

Just last week, Sanders pulled yet another big upset  at least against expectations based on polling  by winning the Indiana primary.

Its not just a U.S. issue. Across the pond, pre-election polls in last years general election in the United Kingdom failed to detect what would become a resounding Conservative Party victory.

So whats going on here? Has the science of public opinion polling lost its way? Or is it being stymied by Americans telling pollsters to get lost  if they even bother to pick up the phone?

There is no shortage of theories.

Any analysis of the recent surprises must begin with the caveat that primaries  with lower turnout and, in some cases, rules that allow cross-party voting  are notoriously more difficult to forecast. Its also important to note that a poll is just a snapshot in time. Minds can change. A candidates big blunder or shining moment can lead to a late surge. Weather and traffic can sway turnout.

Seasoned pollsters know how to collect a representative sampling of the population with great precision. But that group can be dramatically different from the demographic that actually votes.

Whos going to show up has become much harder to predict, Carrick said. What weve seen is wide discrepancies in the number and type of voters who show up from primary to primary.

Polling is the rare scientific endeavor that advanced technology works against. Fewer and fewer people have landlines. Caller ID allows people to avoid calls from numbers they do not recognize.

The challenge to pollsters can be measured in the steady drop in response rate, from the 60 percent range in the 1980s to the single digits today. Online polling, while becoming more prevalent, remains a work in progress: The methodology and accuracy of such surveys vary widely.

Millennials can be the toughest of all to reach, even as they have emerged as the most political generation weve had since the Baby Boomers in the 60s, as Carrick noted.

Theyre a big reason for the volatility in this years election polls, Carrick added. Imagine pollsters trying to get ahold of these people ... their parents cant get ahold of them.

Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of the Public Policy Institute of California, acknowledged this is a time of transition in public opinion surveys. PPICs surveys go well beyond political horse races: Its research on Californians aspirations and concerns are highly influential in shaping public policy.

We follow the trends of the industry leaders and thus we have been increasing our cell phone interviews, extending the amount of time to reach our eligible respondents, and adjusting our statistical weights, Baldassare said.

Bottom line: Statistically valid polling is getting more complex  and more expensive.

The Trump phenomenon seems to be gliding lightly through the pollsters radar lately. His election-day numbers have outperformed his polling averages in a succession of GOP primaries starting in New York.

Perhaps its because Trump supporters dont trust pollsters. Or maybe theyre simply embarrassed to admit theyre voting for the bombastic tycoon and reality-show host. Or there might just be something about his mad-as-hell message that doesnt detonate until one pulls the curtain on the voting booth.

So stay tuned. This election is far from a done deal, no matter what the polls say.

John Diaz is The San Francisco Chronicles editorial page editor. Email: jdiaz@sfchronicle.com

When the numbers didnt add up

Some of the high-profile examples of opinion polls that proved off the mark:

Indiana primary

Polls said: RealClear Politics polling average on the day of the primary had Hillary Clinton up by 7 percentage points.

Results were: Bernie Sanders, above, won with 52.7 percent of the vote, giving him 44 delegates to the Democratic convention.

Theory: Indianas ban on automated calling made polling more expensive and more precarious. Open primary allowed independents to vote in Democratic race, a possible edge for Sanders.

Michigan primary

Polls said: Hillary Clinton, above, was on the brink of a huge victory. One poll taken two days before the primary had her 37 points ahead.

Results were: Bernie Sanders won in a close race.

Theory: Did Democrats, sensing their own party race was a done deal, cross over to vote in the GOP primary? Or did Sanders strong showing in the final debate change voters minds?

Iowa caucuses

Polls said: Thirteen statewide surveys showed Donald Trump well ahead of the field.

Results were: Sen. Ted Cruz, above, finished first, with nearly 28 percent of the vote. Trump came in second.

Theory: The caucuses are notoriously hard to project, because they hinge on turnout and last-minute decisions. Pollsters underestimated evangelical turnout and Cruzs get-out-the-vote operation.

Midterms/November 2014

Polls said: Republicans were projected to achieve modest gains in U.S. Senate and House races.

Results were: A Republican landslide. GOP regained control of the Senate and solidified its House majority with a net gain of 13 seats.

Theory: Low turnout and a nationalized election aimed at the politics of President Obama, above, helped generate a Republican wave that was evident in state and local races, too  except in California, where Democrats won every statewide office.
The U.S. drought monitor released a report Thursday showing that Californias drought will persist  despite this winters modest improvements in precipitation.

The news shouldnt be surprising. Californias had four consecutive years of a punishing drought. The past several months have brought increased rainfall and even heavy precipitation in some parts of the state. But it makes no sense for California officials to imagine that a few wet months would pull the state out of a historic drought.

Why, then, are some water managers pulling back on water conservation requirements and fines?

The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which pioneered the drought-shaming concept of publicizing the names of its biggest water hogs, announced that it will stop fining water guzzlers as of this month. (The policy was controversial, but it was effective  and in a time of extreme drought, its hard to feel sorry for people who were flouting the districts rationing rules.)

Meanwhile, the State Water Resources Control Board is expected to consider adjustments to the current emergency water conservation regulations at its meeting on May 18.

This is despite the results of a recent Field Poll showing that a majority of California residents call the ongoing drought situation extremely serious. That same poll found that three-quarters of them are committed to ongoing conservation.

When asked to cut back, most California residents have done an excellent job of responding. Californians conserved 24.3 percent in March 2016 compared with the amount they used in March 2013. Statewide, cumulative savings between June 2015 and March 2016 were 23.9 percent over the same months just two years ago.

In other words, California residents are ready, willing and able to save water.

Their leaders shouldnt discourage them from doing so.

There are some parts of the state where water is so scarce that people are truly suffering. Communities such as East Porterville in Tulare County, where residents have been struggling to get by with private wells, deserve more support.

But with the statewide snowpack at just 59 percent of normal in the Sierra Nevada, other California residents dont need to be told to ease up on water saving.
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Hillary Clinton, looking more and more like the Democrats nominee for president, brought out enthusiastic crowds Friday in a pair of Oakland campaign events.

The highlight was an afternoon rally at La Escuelita Elementary School, where supporters began lining up early in the morning for a chance to get inside the auditorium for the 4 p.m. appearance.

By the time Clinton hit the stage, about 800 people were in the house, with an additional 500 kept outside by the Oakland fire marshal.

The former secretary of state gave the partisan crowd a full-out fall campaign speech, virtually ignoring her primary challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and focusing her fire on Donald Trump, who is just about guaranteed the Republican nomination.

I will do everything I can to make sure the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party never gets near the White House, Clinton told the crowd.

She slammed Trump for what she said was his suggestion that American wages are too high and for his comments on womens issues.

He doesnt think much of equal pay for women, because he doesnt think much of women, she said.

It was a made-for-Oakland event, with Mayor Libby Schaaf and Democratic Assemblymen Rob Bonta of Alameda and Tony Thurmond of Richmond welcoming the crowd and Oakland Raiders punter Marquette King leading the crowd in a loud chant of Hill-a-ry! Hill-a-ry.

Retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced Clinton, promising that the two-term senator from New York would win big in Oakland.

Republicans are going to have to search hard for any votes for whats his name, she said.

Covering familiar ground

Clinton didnt break any new ground in her half-hour talk, promising to continue funding Planned Parenthood, defend marriage equality, support abortion rights, stand up to the gun lobby, and push for comprehensive immigration reform.

Can you imagine the military and police action in our country, knocking on doors and pulling undocumented immigrants from their beds? she asked, referring to Trumps stated plan to find and deport an estimated 11 million immigrants. He needs to be repudiated, Clinton said, adding in Spanish, Basta! Basta! (Enough! Enough!)

Clinton admitted that even her friends joke about her tendency to provide a detailed plan for every problem facing America, but she argued thats not a bad thing.

When you vote for a president, you ought to know what a person is going to do, Clinton said. All youre getting is slogans and one-liners on the other side.

The auditorium was packed with Clinton supporters, cheering every slap at Trump.

She was on my bucket list, said Doris Belcher, a 70-plus year-old retired teacher who lives in Richmond. Belcher had never donated to a political campaign before giving $300 to Clinton this year. She is just amazing, such an impressive woman. I have been following her since she worked for the Childrens Defense Fund as a lawyer.

Seeing Clinton in person enabled Stephanie Yim to get more context from Clintons policy speeches. People of my generation just share 10- or 20-second clips, said Yim, a 23-year-old Chabot College student who lives in Castro Valley.

Sanders supporters

Outside the rally, a few lonely Sanders supporters made their voices heard.

Anamaria Enriquez, 46, was among a knot of pro-Sanders demonstrators camped outside the school. Even though the Oakland resident would love to see a female president, she said Clinton is only co-opting feminism.

She changes her approach on everything, Enriquez said. Bernie Sanders is the first politician Ive known that is more about a movement and not about himself.

Oakland resident Naomi Hatkin, who was outside holding a pro-Sanders sign, prefers the senator from Vermont because he is the only candidate who is all in on climate change. She moves whichever way the wind blows  or depending which state shes in.

Before the rally, Clinton made a 30-minute stop at her newly opened headquarters in downtown Oakland, where she was greeted by Schaaf and about 100 excited volunteers.

The walls of the small storefront office on 14th Street were covered with Clinton campaign signs, including hand-drawn efforts declaring that Hillary is my She-Ro, Im with Her, and LGBTQ 4 HRC.

The candidate eased her way through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, shaking hands and signing autographs. She finally made it to the small stage, where she was introduced by Schaaf as someone needed to bring this country together.

In her 10-minute talk, she thanked the volunteers, calling them the heart and soul, the arms and legs of her campaign. But despite what delegate numbers show is a clear run to the nomination, she reminded the workers that the June 7 California primary still counts and that we still have a lot to do to remind people that there is so much at stake.

To loud cheers, Clinton spun out a Democratic wish list of campaign promises, telling the crowd that the election is about unifying our country. Thats how well get all of this done, by working together.

Fundraiser in S.F.

Clinton was in no hurry to leave the headquarters, staying to share a word or a photo with just about everyone in the crowd.

Later in the day, Clinton got a firsthand introduction to Bay Bridge commute traffic as she hurried from her 4 p.m. Oakland rally to get to a 5 p.m. fundraiser in San Francisco. The sold-out event featured Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, plus actress-director Elizabeth Banks and author Cheryl Strayed.

The campaign was double-teaming California Friday, with former President Bill Clinton headlining another evening fundraiser in Los Angeles.

But even as Hillary Clinton turns her view toward an almost-certain fall matchup with Trump, she cant put her primary battle with Sanders in the rearview mirror.

Not only did Sanders win Tuesdays Indiana primary, but hes also poised for a couple more wins on May 10 and 17, when voters in West Virginia and Oregon go to the polls. Although Clintons chances look better in Kentucky on May 17, any new victory gives Sanders more reason to stay in the race  and keep slamming Clinton.

On Friday, Sanders threatened a floor fight at the partys July convention in Philadelphia if the convention committees were filled with Clinton supporters.

Focusing on convention

In a letter to Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, Sanders said the 9 million voters who supported him in the primaries deserve to be represented.

I will not allow them to be silenced at the Democratic National Convention, he wrote.

While Sanders cant get enough pledged delegates in the few remaining primaries to win the nomination outright, and theres no indication that he can persuade many of the officially unpledged superdelegates to turn their backs on Clinton, every day he stays in the race is a day that Clinton and her team have to turn some of their attention to the Democratic convention instead of the fall general election campaign.

John Wildermuth and Joe Garofoli are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com, jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuth, @joegarofoli
SACRAMENTO  When it comes to presidential election year politics in California, Republicans in the Legislature have one strategy: Play defense.

They will attempt to hold on to their 14 seats in the 40-member Senate and 28 seats in the 80-member Assembly. The first test will be the June 7 primary.

How well Republicans will do in November with Donald Trump as the presumptive party nominee is anyones guess. But party leaders in California have a plan for navigating around the polarizing pick  essentially by ignoring him.

I think local issues will drive the results in the elections, said Jim Brulte, chairman of the California Republican Party. I havent heard any of the remaining (presidential) candidates talk about whether BART workers should be able to strike, but Ive heard (Democratic state Sen. Steve) Glazer and (Republican Assemblywoman Catharine) Baker talk about that issue. This will be a local campaign focused on local issues.

Dem supermajority

Brulte said he doesnt have lofty expectations of winning new seats this year when California Democrats are expected to flood the polls, as they do every four years when electing a president. Its been decades since Republicans have picked up seats in the Legislature in a presidential election year.

During the last presidential election in 2012, Republicans lost seven legislative seats. That was enough to give Democrats a supermajority in both houses, a threshold that gave them the power to raise taxes and put a constitutional amendment on the ballot without a single Republican vote.

It also marked the first time in nearly 80 years that one party controlled two-thirds of both houses. The supermajority was short-lived and the Assembly now is two Democrats shy and the Senate is one short of such power.

Our goal is to hold what we have, Brulte said. We want to stay above a third in the state Senate and above a third in the state Assembly. We want to lay the foundation in 2016 for 2018.

East Bay battle

One of the biggest fights will be in the East Bay, where Republicans took a surprise victory in 2014 in a district Democrats used to count on. Assemblywoman Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon, will face Democrat Cheryl Cook-Kallio, a Pleasanton City Council member and retired teacher, on June 7, with both candidates then competing on the November ballot under the states top-two primary system.

Baker said that as a Republican, she anticipates being lumped in with Trump, whom she said is a disappointing pick that she does not agree with on many issues.

There will be efforts  and its politics  to try to take what is unpopular about any other candidate and morph them into the person you are running against, Baker said. I fully expect that distraction and that tactic to be used. I will focus on my own service and my own record.

Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio said he sees a Trump ticket helping Democrats win seats in California.

I think we will see a record turnout that will be extremely beneficial to any Democrat on the ticket, whether you are on the top or bottom, said Maviglio, a delegate for Hillary Clinton. A presidential race is always a good year for Democrats in California, and one where many Republicans will stay home because they cant vote for their nominee is nothing but good news for Democrats running for the Legislature.

Assembly Republicans are fighting to keep the Los Angeles County seat of David Hadley, R-Torrance, who took a longtime Democratic seat from incumbent Al Muratsuchi in 2014. The two face off again in the June primary along with a third candidate, Democrat Mike Madrigal.

State Senate races

In the Senate, the Los Angeles County seat held by Sharon Runner is up for grabs after the Lancaster Republican decided not to run again. Republicans are pinning their hopes on Assemblyman Scott Wilk, who will face Democrats Johnathon Ervin and Steve Hill and Republican Star Moffatt.

The seat vacated by former Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County) is also a key race. Republican Assemblywoman Ling Ling Chang will face two Democrats  Sukhee Kang and Josh Newman  in the primary.

GOP strategist Mike Madrid said Republicans face tough fights on multiple fronts this election, and that he doesnt see Trump as a bigger obstacle than a strong Democratic turnout.

Is Trump going to be a drag on Republicans? I dont think it will be any more of a drag than normal in California, Madrid said. If you are a Republican, you have to batten down the hatches anyway. Does Trump help? No. Will Republicans stay home? I dont think so. Those who are turned off by Trump just wont vote for him.

Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez

Republican seats to watch in the June primary

Senate District 21

Incumbent: Sharon Runner, R-Lancaster (Los Angeles County), not seeking re-election

Candidates:

Jonathon Ervin  Democrat. Aerospace engineer/Air Force reservist

Steve Hill  Democrat. Appraiser/businessman

Star Moffatt  Republican. Law firm co-owner

Scott Wilk  Republican. Assemblyman

Why it matters: Democrats and Republicans are nearly even in this district, so expect decline-to-state voters to make the difference.

Assembly District 66

Incumbent: David Hadley, R-Torrance (Los Angeles County)

Candidates:

Hadley

Al Muratsuchi  Democrat. Former assemblyman

Mike Madrigal  Democrat. Retail manager

Why it matters: Hadley and Muratsuchi faced off in 2014. Hadley won by just a few hundred votes, which allowed Republicans to pick up a key seat.

Assembly District 16

Incumbent: Catharine Baker, R-San Ramon

Candidates:

Baker

Cheryl Cook-Kallio  Democrat. Teacher

Why it matters: This was a Democratic seat that Baker was able to win, and Democrats want it back. Expect to see a major cash infusion in the race.

Senate District 29

Incumbent: Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, termed out

Candidates:

Ling Ling Chang  Republican. Assemblywoman

Sukhee Kang  Democrat. University educator/businessperson

Josh Newman  Democrat. Veterans advocate

Why it matters: Chang was just seven months into her first Assembly term when she announced shed seek the seat held by former Senate Republican leader Bob Huff. Kang is the Democrats pick and has $302,000 cash on hand while Chang is backed by Republicans and has $474,000 cash on hand.

Assembly District 36

Incumbent: Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale (Los Angeles County)

Candidates:

Lackey

Steve Fox  Democrat. Attorney/former assemblyman

Ollie McCaulley  Democrat. Businessman/educator

Darren Parker  Democrat. Assembly speakers deputy

Why it matters: Fox won the seat in 2012 by just 145 votes, then lost it to Lackey in 2014 by a landslide. Now Fox is back, but Lackey has the clear upper hand in fundraising so far.

Assembly District 35

Incumbent: Katcho Achadjian, R-San Luis Obispo, termed out

Candidates:

Dawn Ortiz-Legg  Democrat. Small business owner

Jordan Cunningham  Republican. Businessman/school board member

Steve Lebard  Republican. Businessman

Dominic Robert Rubini  Libertarian. No ballot designation

Why it matters: This is a seat both Democrats and Republicans think they can win, as they throw their support behind Ortiz-Legg and Cunningham.

 Melody Gutierrez
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The planet Mercury will cross the face of the sun Monday in a rare event called a transit, and, weather permitting, it will be visible to Bay Area viewers through solar telescopes manned by astronomers throughout the region.

Mercury passes between Earth and the sun about a dozen times a century, and the last time was in 2006. The suns closest planet wont repeat the passage until Nov. 11, 2019, so many of the regions science museums and astronomy hobbyists have geared up now to show off Mondays event.

The phenomenon will last more than seven hours, but in California less than six hours of the transit  from sunrise at 6:01 a.m. to 11:44 a.m  will be visible, and most sites for public viewing in the Bay Area will not open until 7 or 8 a.m.

The planet will appear as a small black dot moving sedately from northeast to southwest across the suns blazing surface, but will not be visible to the naked eye. Any effort to look at the sun directly would be extremely dangerous, said Andrew Fraknoi, professor of astronomy at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills.

People who want to observe the transit safely should use eclipse glasses that have been checked for tears or damage, or go to one of the viewing sites that have safe telescopes for a safe experience, Fraknoi said.

Only the orbits of Mercury and Venus lie closer to the sun than Earths, which is why only those two can be seen during their solar transits. Transits of Venus are even more rare than Mercurys. The last was in 2012, and the next wont be until 2117.

Astronomer Johannes Kepler was the first to predict a transit of Mercury, but he didnt live to see it. He died in 1630, and French astronomer Pierre Gassendi became the first to observe the transit in 1631.

Today, every planet in the solar system has been visited, at least remotely, by earthbound scientists, and NASAs Mariner 10 spacecraft made the first successful flybys past Mercury more than 40 years ago.

Since then, the spacecraft named Messenger has circled Mercury in orbit to study it in detail for eight years until its fuel ran out and it crashed into the planet on April 30 only a year ago.

David Perlman is The San Francisco Chronicles science editor. Email: dperlman@sfchronicle.com

Planet watching

Here is a partial list of public observation sites from the Astronomical Association of Northern California:

In Contra Costa County, the Hercules Stargazers will set up telescopes from about 9:30 to 11:45 a.m. in Foxboro Park, 1025 Canterbury Drive, Hercules.

In Oakland, the Chabot Observatorys telescope named Leah will focus on the transit from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. Admission, $5.

At Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, members of the Peninsula Astronomical Society will deploy solar telescopes from 8 to 11:45 a.m.

The San Jose Astronomical Association will set up telescopes from 7 to 10:30 a.m. in Houge Park, 3972 Twilight Drive, San Jose.

The College of San Mateo will have telescopes available at the observatorys fourth-floor viewing deck and at the College Centers patio from 7 to 11:45 a.m.

In Walnut Creek, Mount Diablo Astronomical Society will have telescopes at Larkey Park, 1931 First Ave., from 7 a.m. to noon.

In Kenwood, the Robert Ferguson Observatory, 2605 Adobe Canyon Road, will be open from 7 a.m. to noon.

In Cloverdale, amateur astronomers and their telescopes will be at Cloverdale High School outside the physical science classroom at Cloverdale High School, 509 North Cloverdale Blvd.
Call it Frisco

Count Jamba Juice as another company abandoning California because of the high cost of doing business. The smoothie cafe chain said in a regulatory filing that it will move its headquarters and support center from Emeryville to the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas. About 120 employees will be affected by the move, which the company said was prompted in part by an expected rent increase when its lease expires at the end of the year. Some of the workers will make the move to Texas and other employees will be hired there, the company said.

Cooking up revenue

The New York Times, which has delivered newspapers for decades, now will deliver food to your doorstep. The publisher has partnered with Chefd, a meal kit delivery company, to ship boxes of uncooked food based on recipes from the New York Times Cooking site and app. It is seen as another way to boost revenue outside of its print business. Customers cook up the meals on their own, using step-by-step recipes that come in the boxes. The Times, which is licensing its brand to Chefd, said the meals will go on sale this summer.

Hear here

I dont find it that unsettling. I see this as having tremendous use in real life.

Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, having become a true believer in autonomous vehicles now that the automaker has signed an agreement with Google to add self-driving technology to 100 Chrysler Pacifica minivans that Google will use in its test program.

The Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techbriefing
LOS ANGELES  Inside a closed courtroom, Judge David Cowan and a handful of lawyers on Friday morning watched media mogul Sumner Redstone fight to demonstrate his mental competency in a 30-minute video questioning.

Immediately afterward, reporters, who were barred from the room, hastily inspected a written transcript of the testimony. It showed that Redstone did not respond to some basic questions but was able to answer others. When asked what his birth name had been, for instance, he remained silent. The executive, who is 92 and in ill health, showed a glimmer of his well-known ferocity, with the conversation filled with profanity.

In the first question, Redstone was asked who was Manuela Herzer, his former companion and romantic partner, who had brought the suit challenging his capacity. His response denigrated her with two obscene words. He repeated that description of her several times over the course of his testimony, in which lawyers for both sides asked him questions for roughly 15 minutes each.

When asked what Herzer had done to assist in his health care, he struggled to find words and failed to help an interpreter spell out an answer.

On viewing the testimony, with its clear assertions about his distaste for Herzer, Cowan expressed skepticism as to whether her legal team could overcome his current wishes.

Your burden now is a hard one, the judge told a lawyer for Herzer, Pierce ODonnell, in brief remarks as the public portion of the trial resumed.

He added: Im not sure we need to hear about all of these shenanigans that did or didnt happen six months ago.

The video came on the first day of the trial, in which Herzer sought to show that Redstone was mentally incompetent and under the undue influence of others when he removed her last October from an advance directive that would have given her authority over his health care.

The trial, in the probate department of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, has attracted widespread attention, both with its plethora of embarrassing details about Redstones love life and deteriorating physical condition, and with the questions it raises about his continuing competence to make decisions about his two big media companies, Viacom and CBS. He is chairman emeritus and controlling shareholder of both.

As the trial opened, ODonnell cast Shari Redstone, the executives daughter, as the central villain in a supposed conspiracy to deceive and manipulate him.

She established a broad intelligence-gathering network inside Sumner Redstones home, featuring a ring of spies, said ODonnell, in describing what he said was a yearlong effort by Shari Redstone, then estranged from her father, to get control of his money and media properties.

In arguments before Cowan, Robert Klieger, who represents Sumner Redstone, sharply dismissed the notion of a conspiracy led by Shari Redstone or the various nurses and lawyers who surround the media mogul.

Instead, he said the plaintiff, Herzer, had worked to remain in Sumner Redstones good graces, and to share his wealth, by weaving lies about other women with whom the media executive had become romantically involved.

Describing Herzers behavior as classic emotional abuse, Klieger sought to focus the case closely on issues related to the advance health care directive from which Redstone removed Herzer late last year, after breaking off his relationship with her.

On the same day Herzer was removed from the health care directive, she was also removed from Redstones estate plan, in which he had planned to give her $50 million and his $20 million Los Angeles mansion.
1 Shooting spree: A federal security officer is now facing multiple murder charges in a shooting spree across three Maryland locations that left three people dead. Court records show Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi, was charged Saturday with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, along with four firearms charges. He will make an initial court appearance Monday. Tordil had already been charged with first-degree murder for the shooting death of his estranged wife, Gladys, in a high-school parking lot Thursday. Hers was the first in a string of shootings Thursday and Friday in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. Police say he shot three people, one fatally, in the parking lot of a mall in Bethesda, then shot and killed a woman at a shopping center in Aspen Hill.

2 Firefighter arrested: A fire chief in southern Maine accused of intentionally setting a grass blaze that was fought by more than 100 firefighters and led to evacuations was arrested Saturday on an arson charge. Old Orchard Beach Fire Chief Ricky Plummer, 59, was charged in connection to an April 15 fire that burned 42 acres at the Jones Creek Marsh. Residents of a condominium were forced to evacuate. Investigators from the State Fire Marshals Office and the Maine Forest Service seized computers at the fire station and in Plummers vehicle, state police said.
In 2015, Stanford University launched a program called a Year of Learning, seeking to engage its own students in shaping the future of education.

Were asking fundamental questions, such as how should we, as a research university, make sure that the teaching we offer and the learning we hope to inspire can both develop and improve? said John Mitchell, Stanfords vice provost for Teaching and Learning. How might we rethink our teaching in the face of new technology, new demographic trends and the new political, social and economic realities?

The challenge for constant improvement is one that large institutions face, but for community colleges, it can be an even more daunting task, given their generally more transient student bodies and smaller operating budgets.

For example, a school like the City College of San Francisco is Californias largest public school and serves a diverse population, including potential, current and former welfare recipients. Here, the first step often can be just keeping students enrolled, when a year of learning might be overwhelmed by the demand for a year of working.

There are solutions, however. Here are some programs that address both educational and economic realities, with specialty curriculum to get students ready for jobs.

City College of San Francisco

The CalWORKs Education and Training Program partners with the San Francisco Human Services Agency for assistance, like developing welfare to work plans, and fulfilling basic needs like child care and transportation support.

We are unique in that we have three county employment specialists located in our office to meet the needs of our students, said Natasha Lockett, the colleges CalWORKs program coordinator.

Students can also earn money while learning important job skills through on-campus work study opportunities without affecting their school aid. Eligible students can also take advantage of book purchase and school supply assistance, free tutoring, laptop use and even funding for graduation caps and gowns.

Through it all, the eye is on the prize  a full-time job  with students taking workshops on business writing, interview skills and salary negotiation.

One CalWORKs student recently completed her associates degree in accounting, Lockett noted, and last fall, transferred to San Francisco State University to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration.

Chabot College

The Career and Transfer Center at this Hayward college hosts a Career Pathways and Education Program providing assistance with career exploration, job searches, resume and cover letter writing, interviewing and access to an extensive new online job search database.

Chabot instructor Amber Hatter also leads a work and internship program, whereby students can earn college credits if they work at least five hours a week or volunteer at least four hours per week in a position related to their major or classes.

Special Aspire programs are available, as well, for first-generation college, low-income or disabled students. Services include tutoring, academic survival skills courses, career exploration workshops and transfer assistance to complete education at four-year colleges.

Details

City College of San Francisco: www.ccsf.edu

Chabot College: www.chabotcollege.edu
Andrew Kornfelds flight to bring a prescription drug to Prince has been described by his attorney as a lifesaving mission to persuade the superstar to start treatment for addiction.

Instead, the 26-year-old from the Bay Area found Prince collapsed in an elevator at his Paisley Park home.

Neither Andrew Kornfeld nor his father, an addiction and pain doctor in Mill Valley, has been accused of wrongdoing. But a law enforcement official said on Friday investigators want to interview both of them about the drug that was never administered to Prince. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press.

Kornfeld helped in his fathers medical practice by teaching surfing to young drug users in recovery.

Kornfelds father sent his son to Princes Minneapolis-area home, a decision that has raised questions about whether the doctor was acting legally at the time. The elder Kornfeld was not licensed to practice medicine in Minnesota and was not registered to care for patients there via telemedicine, as the state requires. His son was not a licensed prescriber.

Since his connection with Prince became known, the younger Kornfeld has been stalked by photographers and has avoided talking publicly. Reached by phone Friday, he said simply, Sorry. Im not making a comment at this time.

Last year, Kornfelds father, Dr. Howard Kornfeld, published a paper on the use of buprenorphine, which can be used to treat opioid addiction by easing cravings and withdrawal symptoms. He wrote about using a buprenorphine patch to avoid the painful abstinence period before standard buprenorphine treatment for addiction. In a 2011 letter to a medical journal, he praised buprenorphines potential for pain patients.

Howard Kornfeld was called by Princes staff on April 20 as they sought help for the musicians addiction to painkillers, according to the Kornfelds attorney, William Mauzy. The doctor sent his son on an overnight flight with a small amount of buprenorphine for Prince. The musician never took the drug.

After finding Prince in the elevator, Andrew Kornfeld called 911 because two of his staffers were shocked and screaming, Mauzy said.
Two women who allege that Uber drivers sexually assaulted them, one in Boston and the other in South Carolina, can sue the ride-hailing company, a federal judge said.

The women showed the possibility that the drivers were Uber employees who acted within the scope of their employment, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco ruled Wednesday.
Sorry, Stanford: it looks like you've been edged out as the highest regarded global university by  ugh  Harvard. MIT, too.

In Times Higher Education's 2016 rankings of the schools with the best reputations in the world, Stanford, as well as UC Berkeley, didn't take first place, but they did land at at a still very impressive #3 and #6, respectively.

The "World Reputation Rankings," as the site is calling them, were compiled from the opinions of more then 10,000 "top scholars" from around the world. Only academics invited by the site were allowed to contribute their own thoughts about how the schools stacked up against each other.

Save for Stanford and #7-placed Princeton which didn't land any differently on the organization's World University Rankings (or "WUR"), these reputation-derived rankings vary quite a bit from the overall college ranks roundup. Although Harvard falls at #6 on the WUR list, it comes in at #1 here. Meanwhile, the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) here at #10, actually places at #1 on the WUR. Berkeley's reputation places itself at #6 despite that the WUR put them at #13. Stanford remains at #3 on both lists. Not bad at all.

From a more global perspective, Asian universities from China and Japan are shaking up the charts this year. Peking University and Tsinghua University, both in Beijing, and Tokyo University each took top 25 positions on the reputation-based rankings.

U.K. universities, meanwhile, to the alarm of the Brit site The Telegraph, have fallen in this year's placements.

"According to the latest tables, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, have overtaken the highest ranked British institutions to claim second and third place, pushing Cambridge and Oxford into fourth and fifth respectively," the site writes. "The US has continued to maintain its dominance in the sector, with 43 universities in the top 100 and Harvard University taking top spot for the sixth year in a row."

AMERICA.

See the top 25 in the above list, and all 100 ranked here.
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So its just been one of those weeks where razor blades keep ending up in fast food. Or at least its happened twice. And neither turned out to be a hoax, which is probably the most surprising part since the incidents hearken back to Halloween-related urban legends.

RELATED: Houston restaurants with health inspection violations

Earlier this week, a Houston woman claimed to have found a razor blade in a Torchys taco. Apparently, around a few days earlier, a woman in Keene, N.H., discovered a razor blade in a Wendys soda cup.

Aubrey Simonds posted on Facebook last Friday about how she found the sharp object in her daughters drink. "I am beside myself, sick to my stomach, shaky, disgusted and so THANKFUL my child didn't get hurt from this," she wrote.

READ THIS: Fort Worth father lied about finding razor blade in Halloween candy, police say

Keenes acting health director investigated the claim, and found the blade was left behind by a cleaning company. A mixture of poor luck and carelessness resulted in the item ending up in a cup. The Keene Sentinel wrote:

An employee found the razor blade in the trash, and, concerned someone might get cut by it, put the blade in a cup with the intention of disposing of it, Rogers said. But the employee didn't take care of it right away, and another employee accidentally filled the cup with soda and gave it to a customer, Rogers said.

The local franchise apologized to Simonds. City officials said the Wendys would remain open, while encouraging the fast-food spot to review its training protocol.

In the local incident, Torchys Taco management explained that a razor blade from a mango-slicer fell into a salsa at the restaurants Heights location. Alexa Keel, who found the blade in her brushfire taco, is asking for $5,000 donation to the Houston Food Bank in lieu of moving forward legally.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is flirting with the idea of letting 16- and 17-year-olds vote in local elections. Last year, Supervisor John Avalos floated the notion, but it didnt go anywhere. But this is an election year  and in election years, noxious proposals carry extra currency. So expect City Hall to pass the measure and put it on the ballot. Then expect voters to exercise better judgment and reject the measure.

Sadly, Supervisor Scott Wiener  San Franciscos idea of a moderate  has announced that he is inclined to support the measure. Ditto progressive Supervisor Jane Kim.

Of course the citys progressive wing wants high school kids to vote  they want to lure young people into the tent before they start working for a living and paying taxes. At a Chronicle debate Wednesday for the race to replace state Sen. Mark Leno, candidate Kim said she loves the scheme. She explained, 18 years old can be a very awkward time to register to vote, before adding that its better for young people to register to vote when theyre living at home with their families. In other words, its easier to get teens to register when they are under their parents charge and before they are independent. Translation: Its easier to get children to do what they are told.

Voting, smoking, drinking

Wiener, a rival in the race, said that he has seen many intelligent high school students who are more informed than people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who deny climate change, say that President Obama is not a citizen of this country  I think he meant they say Obama is not a natural born citizen  and believe other things not sustained by the facts. Its the rare politician who is willing to disparage older voters by saying many are less worthy than high school students who have never had to work for a living and pay the rent.

Only Ken Loo, the non-elected fireman in the Wednesday debate, talked sense. The voter age should be 18, he said. Most kids under 18 dont have a job yet. Most of them dont have an income yet. Loo charged Wiener, Kim and other supporters with hypocrisy for pushing the nanny state  San Francisco voted to raise the age at which adults can buy cigarettes to 21, before Gov. Jerry Brown signed a similar state law. City Hall thinks youre not responsible enough at age 18, 19 and 20 to choose to buy, or not buy, tobacco. Yet somehow 16-year-olds are responsible enough to decide who passes such laws.

(Like Loo, I would discourage any adult from smoking, but it is legal and I dont think the government has the right to outlaw a legal activity for law-abiding adults. The same goes for the drinking age.)

Last year, when Avalos was pushing his Vote at 16 measure, I asked him whether he believed 16- and 17-year-olds should be able to buy cigarettes. No, he replied. Giving a teenager the right to vote, he added, is very different from saying someone is adult. Somehow San Francisco has constructed a system where adults cannot choose to buy legal products  tobacco  while children should be encouraged to vote for the folks who write these crazy laws.

Blurring the lines

Conservatives dont have clean hands on this score. I have supported laws that allow the state to charge minors as adults for certain violent offenses. Under President Ronald Reagan, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, which led all 50 states to set a drinking age of 21. That put an end to a bright line between adulthood and childhood.

Liberals have blurred the lines much further. Girls of any age can elect to have an abortion in California, but they cant get a tattoo without parental consent until they are 18. Liberals construct fancy arguments to justify the differences, but we know that they are using age as a pretext to trample on the rights of free adults to do things they do not like. If you fit their politics, they want to expand your franchise. If you do not, they feel free to tell you what you cannot do. Next stop: You have to be 21 to buy a gun to protect yourself.

Attorney generals stance

Attorney General Kamala Harris came to The Chronicles editorial board Thursday to ask for the papers endorsement in the race to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer. After the states top law enforcer discussed how the brains judgment faculties begin to develop at age 18, I asked her about Vote at 16. Harris, a Democrat of course, had just said childrens brains havent developed judgment yet, and still she answered that she liked the idea of letting minors vote. Heres an idea for a slogan: Voting. Judgment optional.

Like the bulk of Sacramento, Harris also supported a ban on tobacco sales to adults under age 21. I dont know whats worse in California politics, the fact that state solons keep redrafting the age of adulthood to suit their whims, or the fact that they dont even realize when they are trampling on peoples rights.

Debra J. Saunders is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: dsaunders@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DebraJSaunders

Old enough to ...

In 1971, states ratified the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which prompted states to set a drinking age of 21 or lose federal transportation funds.

In March, San Francisco raised the legal age to buy tobacco to 21. In May, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a similar state law.
The premise of the new eight-part Viceland docuseries Woman is provocative: that by tackling womens issues we can solve some of the thornier problems of the 21st century.

Gloria Steinem, the host and producer of the series, which premieres on Tuesday, May 10, insists that the greatest indicator of the worlds stability, wealth and safety is the status of women.

The declaration may seem simplistic when you hear Steinem say it in her introduction to each episode, but what youll see and hear in at least two of those episodes may well begin to convince you that shes absolutely right.

Tuesdays premiere, Rape as a Weapon of War, takes viewers to Kivu province on the eastern side of Congo, still reeling from the aftereffects of the First and Second Congo Wars of 1996-2003 and continuing incursions by Rwandans. Among the casualties were thousands of women in Congolese villages who were raped by Rwandan soldiers and even by Congolese soldiers. It is estimated that 1.8 million women have been raped in the last 20 years. The women were revictimized afterward by being shunned by other villagers.

With nowhere else to go, the women, and their children, also shunned, have settled in the village of Bugunga, where for many years a woman named Masika Katsuva protected and cared for her fellow rape victims.

Mama Masika, as she was known before her recent death from malaria, had been raped by 12 men who also impregnated her two preteen daughters.

Reporter Isobel Yeung travels more than 3 miles through the jungle in South Kivu to meet with a local warlord who heads one of the vigilante defense units known as the mai mai. Asamoa used to be a farmer, but the forays into Kivu from Rwandan marauders became so frequent and threatening that he dropped his plow and became a mai mai.

Its either I die today or my child dies tomorrow, he says grandly.

But when asked about reports that mai mai themselves have committed rape, Asamoa offers a verbal shrug, saying, in essence, how can he control what his soldiers do when they are off in remote places?

A few years ago, 100 Congolese soldiers went on trial for rape, but only two low-ranking fighters were actually convicted. Nonetheless, the provincial vice governor says that there is a clear improvement in the governments efforts to protect women.

He is not convincing.

The second episode provided to critics for review takes us to Colombia, where civil war has been raging for more than half a century but is showing signs of coming to an end. Thats a good thing, of course, but it may not be for the many women who are full-fledged members of the rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Over the years, women have sought refuge from the sexist civilian society in Colombia by joining FARC, where they have enjoyed both status and freedom, as well as economic independence. They are right to worry about losing all of that if they have to return to civilian life.

If youre thinking that perhaps the women could effect change in Colombian society, consider that FARC isnt a paragon of equality. A former FARC militant recounts how she was drugged and forced to endure an abortion after she got pregnant through a relationship with another FARC member. The fetus, she says, was torn from her piece by piece, despite her desire to keep the child.

If you are used to PBS documentaries, in which big issues are often discussed in polite terms, watching Woman will be a different experience. Woman is provocative, thoughtful and most of all, tells stories you wont see anywhere else. The series will make you think, yes, but its also likely to keep you up at night.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV Follow me on Facebook

Woman: Documentary series. 10 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, on Viceland. Viceland is carried by Comcast and many other cable providers, as well as DirecTV, Dish and Apple TV. To find out if your content provider carries Viceland, go to www.viceland.com.
1 Money laundering: Colombian authorities arrested a prominent Panama businessman sought by the United States and dismantled an empire of businesses that the U.S. says were part of a top worldwide money-laundering organization for drug traffickers. The coordinated operation was announced as the U.S. Treasury Department froze U.S. assets owned by 68 companies in Panama and Colombia under a drug kingpin designation. As part of the effort, Colombian police arrested Nidal Waked the previous day at an airport in the capital, Bogota.

2 Mass evictions: As Kenyan emergency workers retrieved four bodies from a building that collapsed a week ago, bringing the death toll to 41, hundreds of Nairobi residents were evicted Friday from nearby buildings that are being torn down to prevent other deadly disasters. The demolitions began even as the rescuers continued digging the debris from the seven-story building that collapsed a week ago. At least 70 people remain missing, and as rescue work continued in the rain Friday, hopes dimmed of finding more survivors.
LONDON  Sadiq Khan became Londons first Muslim mayor Saturday, as voters rejected attempts to taint him with links to extremism and handed a decisive victory to the bus drivers son from south London.

Khan hailed his victory as the triumph of hope over fear and unity over division.

His win was the most dramatic result in local and regional elections that produced few big changes but underscored Britains political divisions ahead of a referendum on whether to remain in the European Union.

Labor Party candidate Khan received more than 1.3 million votes  57 percent of the total  to Conservative rival Zac Goldsmiths 43 percent, after voters first and second preferences were allocated.

Turnout was a relatively high 45.6 percent, up from 38 percent in 2012.

Khan was elected to replace Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson after a campaign marked  and many said marred  by U.S.-style negative campaigning. Goldsmith, a wealthy environmentalist, called Khan divisive and accused him of sharing platforms with Islamic extremists  a charge repeated by Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior Conservatives.

Khan, who calls himself the British Muslim who will take the fight to the extremists, accused Goldsmith of trying to scare and divide voters in a proudly multicultural city of 8.6 million people  more than 1 million of them Muslim.

The attacks, criticized by some senior Conservatives, appear not to have deterred voters from backing Khan. London has seen attacks by Islamic extremists, including July 2005 suicide bombings that killed 52 bus and subway commuters, but has avoided the level of racial and religious tensions seen in some European cities.

Fear does not make us safer  it only makes us weaker, Khan said in his victory speech. And the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.

Even Goldsmiths sister criticized his tactics. Journalist and socialite Jemima Goldsmith tweeted: Sad that Zacs campaign did not reflect who I know him to be  an eco-friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity.

Labor, Britains main opposition party, performed strongly in the capital, taking more than 40 percent of Londoners votes. That and Khans victory were bright spots for Labor, which was pushed into third place in Scotland, where it was once dominant.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party secured a third term in government in the countys parliamentary elections, but failed by two seats to retain a majority. That may lessen the partys appetite to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence.

SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon said the party would form a minority government rather than seek a coalition.

While Labors losses in Scotland were humiliating, the party fared less badly overall than many had predicted. It lost only a handful of council seats and held on to control of major English cities including Birmingham, Newcastle and Sunderland.
BEIRUT  A coalition of Syrian rebels and jihadists seized a strategic village from pro-government forces outside the contested city of Aleppo on Friday, signaling the reemergence of a powerful, ultraconservative insurgent coalition on the oppositions side in the Syria conflict.

Renewed fighting erupted around the village of Khan Touman hours after opposition fighters took the position from pro-government forces, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported. Fighter jets, presumed to belong to either Syria or its powerful ally Russia, were launching strikes on opposition positions.

At least 43 insurgents and 30 fighters on the government side have been killed in the fighting since Thursday afternoon, according to the Observatory.

The offensive was commanded by the Jaish al-Fatah, or Army of Conquest, an ultraconservative group led by al Qaedas Syria affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front, and the jihadist militias Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham. The Observatory said other non-jihadist rebels fought for Khan Touman on the side of the coalition, as well.

The Army of Conquest seized Idlib, a strategic and symbolically important provincial capital, from government forces last year and threatened to make advances toward strongholds on the Mediterranean coast and toward Damascus. Russia intervened military on the side of the government partly in response to that threat.

But the coalition is internally divided over who it considers enemies and how it rules areas under its control.

The suicidal Jund al-Aqsa brigade is ideologically close to Daesh, said Britain-based Syrian activist Asaad Kanjo, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. Aqsa said it didnt want to fight Daesh and withdrew from the coalition that was suggested.

Khan Touman is just 4 miles rom Aleppo, Syrias largest city and onetime commercial capital. It overlooks the main route between Damascus and Aleppo, parts of which remain under opposition control.

It is part of the governments defensive line in south Aleppo, said Observatory head Rami Abdurrahman.

Also Friday, Russian and Syrian officials denied that their aircraft struck a refugee camp for people displaced by fighting, killing 28 in Idlib province.
WASHINGTON  The United States will endorse a tougher tone with Israel in an upcoming international report that takes the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state, diplomats told the Associated Press.

The U.S. and its fellow Mideast mediators also will chastise Palestinian leaders for failing to rein in anti-Israeli violence. But the diplomats involved in drafting the document said its primary focus will be a surge of construction in Jewish housing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The U.S. approval of the harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called Quartet of mediators with careful diplomatic language, but the diplomats said the U.S. in this case will align itself closer to the positions of the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, who emphasize Israels role in the Mideast impasse.

The reports release is sure to infuriate Israel. And although the mediators will endorse some long-standing Palestinian complaints, the Palestinians are likely to complain the report does not go far enough.

Diplomats acknowledge the report, which could come out in late May or June, will be largely symbolic, requiring no action. It could be unveiled at the United Nations and possibly sent to the Security Council for an endorsement, according to the diplomats, who included three U.S. officials.

The diplomats said the report is intended to highlight obstacles to a two-state peace agreement  the stated goal of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders  and offer recommendations for restarting negotiations in a process that is stalled.

The Palestinians dont want talks as long as settlement construction continues; the Israelis say theyre open to negotiations but have shown little interest in making any meaningful concessions.

One diplomat said the report would be balanced because it would criticize the Palestinians for incitement and violence against Israeli citizens. Near-daily attacks in recent months by Palestinians, mostly stabbings, have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans. Some 193 Palestinians have been killed. Israel says most of these were attackers and the rest died in clashes with Israeli forces.

The document wont look only at East Jerusalem activity and West Bank settlement construction, but also at a problematic trend of legalizing smaller so-called outposts, the officials said.

In 1972, there were just over 10,000 Israeli settlers, with 1,500 living in the West Bank and the rest in East Jerusalem. Two decades later, by the time of the Oslo peace accords, there were 231,200 Israelis living in the territories. That number rose to 365,000 by 2000, when the second Palestinian uprising began, and 474,000 by the time Benjamin Netanyahu became Israels prime minister again in 2008.

The settlements are now home to more than 570,000 Israelis, according to the Israeli antisettlement watchdog Peace Now  370,000 in the West Bank and 200,000 in East Jerusalem.

Some 2.2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, with another 300,000 in East Jerusalem. Israel captured these territories in the 1967 war.
Being a military spouse is a tough job, maybe the toughest on the planet. Imagine, then, the challenge of being a military spouse from another country.

Its a challenge that Bernardette Henderson, born in Bolivia, knows very well  and one that led her to establish the Sheppard International Spouses Group last November.

Its a tough situation, Henderson said, because you are trying to keep your own culture, and also to learn two new cultures  not just the American culture, but also the Air Force culture.

The experience, she said, can be isolating.

When you dont feel confident with the language, with English here, it can make you hesitant to go out or attend events, she said. Simple things are hard, like buying the right product at the store, communicating with the school, calling for appointments. It can make you feel like you just dont want to leave your home.

When you combine that with the fact that many international spouses dont drive, its a situation that can easily lead to loneliness, depression, and even cultural misunderstanding.

For a spouse who feels stuck inside, it can be easy to believe that Americans are cold, and that makes me sad because the American people are very warm and giving. That was my vision  I wanted to narrow the gap between the internationals and the Americans, to build understanding.

With that vision in mind, Henderson approached Dee Dee Doherty in October, wife of installation commander Brig. Gen. Patrick Doherty, with the idea of starting a group for international spouses.

Upon seeing Bernardettes passion to help other international spouses, and realizing just how many international spouses were here at Sheppard, Mrs. Doherty said, I thought it was a wonderful idea.

It was something I thought about when I first came to Sheppard, and general and Mrs. Doherty gave me the support I needed to start, she said.

They decided to move quickly, and hold the first meeting in November.

I didnt want to wait too long, Henderson said, so we just kind of jumped in.

It was rough at first, she said, because they were starting from absolute scratch.

We didnt know where to hold it, how to advertise, what to do. I told Dee Dee, If one person comes, I will be happy.

Eight people came to the first meeting.

Only four were internationals, the rest were my American friends who came to support me. But I was happy with two!

The group has grown since then, though, to more than 30, and 20 routinely attend meetings.

We try to do something practical at the meetings, and try to have a theme, Henderson said. The most important thing, though, is to have fun!

In December, for example, she heard some of the spouses worriedly talking about Texas weather, and especially tornadoes.

They didnt know what to do, so we invited the Emergency Management office to come speak to us, Henderson said.

The spouses had plenty of questions, from where to shelter in their homes to whether or not to pick up children from school. As it turned out, the discussion was more timely than anyone had guessed  the base had a near-miss with a tornado in March.

They were well prepared, Henderson said.

On another occasion, Henderson had asked some of the group about their Key Spouses.

The way they looked at me, I thought they didnt know who their Key Spouse was, she said. But they didnt even know what a Key Spouse was  which surprised me because we have such a good program here.

The next month, the topic of discussion was Key Spouses and the Airman & Family Readiness Center.

It was very helpful, because many of the spouses didnt know they could use the all the services and classes offered on base, Henderson said.

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of every month at the North Chapel Annex from 10 a.m. to noon. Ish.

We always stay longer. I usually come home at two, just because I have to pick up my kids from school.

Thats one of the ways Henderson knows the effort was worth it.

It was rough in the beginning, she said. But Im so glad for the support I received from the Dohertys and from the group commanders that gave me the confidence to do it.

During one meeting, a spouse said to her, This is oxygen for me, so I can breathe. God bless you for doing this.

Thats what I wanted for them, Henderson said. To have fun and enjoy being at Sheppard.

The May meeting will include a presentation by an image consultant, and in June a member of the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce will provide information on things to do in the community this summer.

Meetings are open to everyone, but the focus is to support international spouses. This includes active duty, retired, enlisted and officer spouses as well as the spouses of international military members assigned to Sheppard.

We meet in a big circle, Henderson said, so everyone can look at each other and talk. Its OK if they dont know the word or how to say something, because we are all learning!

The June meeting will be Hendersons last at Sheppard, as her family has permanent change of station orders. After the June meeting, the group will take a break for the summer and restart in September. Karen Wolf will take over for Henderson in managing the group.

We are definitely going to miss Bernardette  shes done so much for so many people. Shes a perfect example of how one person really can make a difference, Mrs. Doherty said.

As for Henderson, her hope is that the group will continue to grow, and that more international spouses will feel the love and support that will give them the confidence to get involved.

If we dont go out and get involved, she said, were missing out. Who knows? Maybe you will meet your best friend for life.




President Tran Dai Quang (R) and Kuwaiti PM Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabad (Photo: VNA)



The President lauded the outcomes of talks between the two Prime Ministers which reached numerous measures to boost multifaceted bilateral ties.

He expressed his appreciation for Kuwaits support in development aid and oil cooperation that Vietnam has received for many years.

Vietnam and Kuwait together should engage more in the fields of education-training, politics, trade and multilateral diplomacy, Quang noted, adding that he will continue directing the implementation of the agreement sealed by both governments.

Human resources and agro-fishery-forestry production are fields of Vietnamese strength, which matches demand in the Kuwaiti market, the President said.

Agreeing with his host, the Kuwaiti PM said his country wants to stimulate the traditional partnership with Vietnam.

The favourable conditions created by the Vietnamese Government for Kuwaiti enterprises operating in the country is the driving force behind Kuwaits efforts to lift bilateral trade revenue with Vietnam, he stressed.

He congratulated President Quang on his recent election as head of the Vietnamese State and passed along an invitation from Kuwaiti Emir Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, inviting the Vietnamese President to visit the Middle East nation.

Concerning current situations in the Middle East, both host and guest agreed on the need to continue with efforts to restore peace, security and end conflicts, as these are key to regional development./.
Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong (R) shakes hands with Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabad (Photo: VNA)

The Party leader made the call during a reception for Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabad in Hanoi on May 6

He welcomed the Kuwaiti PMs official visit to Vietnam and took the occasion to express joy at the development of bilateral ties over the past 40 years.

General Secretary Trong informed his guest on the outcomes of the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam as well as the implementation of the countrys major policies in domestic development and external relations.

Vietnam appreciates the effective assistance that Kuwait has extended to Vietnams national development, he said.

The Kuwaiti PM praised Vietnams achievements in national development and the countrys position in the region and the world.

He said Kuwait hopes to boost cooperation with Vietnam in all fields, particularly in investment, energy, commerce and education-training.

The PM also discussed with General Secretary Trong the situation in Kuwait, emphasizing that Kuwaiti people wish to deal with conflicts by peaceful measures and via negotiations and dialogue instead of confrontation./.
MUMBAI: In another step towards the commercial launch of Jio 4G services, expected later this year, Reliance Industries has unveiled an referral programme in which employees can offer the experience to 10 select friends.

"We give you the opportunity to extend this digital life experience with 10 of your special friends by inviting them to an exclusive Jio preview offer powered by LYF smartphone," a mail to the employees said.

"Simply with your invitation, your friends will be entitled to avail the below offer on the purchase of any LYF smartphone brought to you by Reliance Retail. Experience the Jio preview offer while the Jio network is getting tested on LYF Smartphone."

The offer comes with 90 days of unlimited access to high-definition voice and video, high-speed data and SMS. This apart, it also comes with access to 10 Jio apps, including its chat, video in demand, music, news, cloud back-up and even one for personal security.

The LYF handsets are being sold at between 5,490 and 19,399.

The Jio SIM cards earlier were available only to Reliance employees, post its beta launch in December last year.

Morgan Stanley has forecast that led by local players notably LYF, India will overtake the US as the second-largest smartphone market next year. "Reliance Industries is our play on the rising tide. In near term, many players should benefit from 4G smartphone and network proliferation."

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During a reception for SCG Country Executive Director Dhep Vongvanich, Thang assured the guest that Ho Chi Minh City always offers all possible support to investors in and outside the country, adding that it is working toward the goal of becoming a financial, economic and cultural hub in the region.

Vongvanich, for his part, informed the host that SCG is joining with the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and other partners to invest in Long Son petrochemical complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau  a key project of national significance in refinery.

Construction on the USD4.5 billion complex is slated to begin later this year on an area of nearly 450ha.

Operating in Vietnam since 1992, SGC has generated nearly 7,000 jobs for Vietnamese workers and its total investment has neared USD700 million.

SGC is further increasing its investment in Vietnam, particularly in cement and processed oil refining./.
Sunthone Sayachak, head of the Lao Party Central Committee's Commission for External Relations, hands over the money to Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Manh Hung. (Photo: VNA)



Sunthone Sayachak, head of the Lao Party Central Committees Commission for External Relations, handed over the money to the Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos at a ceremony in Vientiane on May 6

Sunthone Sayachak said the aid is not large, however, it demonstrates that the Lao Party, Government, and people are willing to share difficulties with the Vietnamese people.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Manh Hung expressed thanks to the Lao Party, Government, and people for the support.

Earlier, the Lao Government released water from its dams to the Mekong River to help Vietnam cope with drought and salt intrusion in the Mekong Delta.

From February and March, the Mekong Delta was hit a double blow of prolonged drought and salt intrusion due to the impacts of El Nino, as well as low ground water supplies and from the upper river./.
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The 13th ASEAN Regional Forum Security Policy Conference (ASPC) in Laoss former capital city of Luang Prabang on May 6th. (Source: VOV)

The conference drew the participation of the blocs 10 member states and 17 dialogue partners and observer countries, including the US, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, India, China and Russia.

The primary objectives of this years ASPC were to evaluate regional security and propose cooperation solutions in an attempt to build trust and create preventive measures, while putting forward conflict management and monitoring measures.

Participants shared the same view that multilateral collaboration is needed to address regional security challenges.They also discussed measures to enhance regional and international efforts against global terrorism, especially matters relating to the Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific regions, nuclear weapons in the Korean Peninsula and marine security in the East Sea.

The delegations proposed opening a hotline in order to strengthening information exchanges between defence officials to jointly handle conflicts by peaceful measures.

The conference appreciated the regions mechanisms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting (ADMM), the ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus (ADMM+) as well as the blocs leading role in maintaining regional and international peace, stability and development./.
The home of Australia's international agricultural research has attracted interest from Canberra and interstate purchasers as the deadline for expressions of interest looms.

After a year that saw the ACT's most expensive government-leased property go for more than $200 million to an overseas buyer, the two-storey office in Bruce was set to return something closer to the $7 million mark, its selling agent said.

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research has been based at the Bruce building since it was completed in 1996.

The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, a statutory authority, has occupied the nearly 5600 square metre corner block since the offices opened in 1996.

A company trust out of Tasmania has owned the land since it was bought from developer Lend Lease in 1995. The property was later transferred at a price of $3.3 million between company trusts in December 2004.
Lyons residents living in the street surrounding Dirk Jansen's former house fear safeguards during demolition are not being followed strictly enough.

Neighbours watched on with alarm on Thursday, April 28, as a team of men wearing no personal protective equipment broke through the front door of 4 Barrow Place using a sledgehammer and crow bars to begin internal preparatory works such as ripping out cupboards, fixtures and carpets from the condemned home.

Lyons residents Marc Morton, Carl Jackson, Marie Huttley-Jackson, Michael Calkovics, Ron Rogers and Leo Carvalho are concerned for safety procedures being undertaken during demolition. Credit:Elesa Kurtz

"The teams were in their normal work clothes and boots, none had protective gear on at all," Barrow Place resident Meg McFarlane said.

"The government's own protocols say asbestos shouldn't be being disturbed unless the situation is controlled. The Taskforce has made many public statements that carpets must be treated as if they are contaminated. So if that is the case, why can it be rolled up un-bagged and tossed into a skip?"
It is now just over three years since Canberra beauty therapist Jamie-Leigh Lynch died in a car accident, but for her parents Sheila and Mark it sometimes feels "like three minutes".

"After the initial shock and everything, one learns to live with it, because you have to," Ms Lynch said. "But on the other hand, you look at a picture, and then you give it another look because you can't really believe it really happened. For just a fraction of a second.

Sheila and Mark Lynch and their dog Freddy. Their entry, Team Jim Jam, is again the lead fundraiser for the Million Paws Walk. Credit:Jamila Toderas

"It makes you realise how fragile life can be. It truly makes you appreciate things a lot more, and it has the opposite effect as well. You have less tolerance for some things and a huge amount more for others."

The Gordon couple have endeavoured to put their energy into projects that honour their daughter, who was 26 when she died, and her love of animals.
The opening of a childcare centre in booming Gungahlin may be delayed after the company expected to operate the centre was placed into voluntary administration.

Brisbane-based liquidator John Shanahan said Amaroo Early Learning Centre Pty Ltd was put into liquidation on April 28, with insufficient funds to achieve its purpose of operating the childcare centre on Mornington Street.

A new childcare centre at 2 Mornington Street in Amaroo is nearing completion but could be delayed. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Mr Shanahan said there were limited debts, with four unsecured creditors claimed to be owed a combined $10,000.

Four investors combined to purchase the central block for $882,000 in 2013. They then sold it to a company the following year with a deed providing for the Amaroo company, of which they were owners, to have the right to enter into a lease to run the childcare centre once it was built, according to an affidavit filed in a separate matter in the ACT Supreme Court by one of the four investors.
The Productivity Commission's description of copyright protection terms as "excessive" in Australia has left Canberra authors concerned about the future of the system.

The commission's draft report on intellectual property found an optimal copyright term for works would be "closer to 15 to 25 years" after their creation, far less time than the current arrangements which provide protection for the author's life, plus 70 years.

The Productivity Commission has found copyright terms should be lowered. Credit:Michele Mossop

Australia would require international co-operation and negotiation to lower its copyright terms, which the commission felt did not deserve "high-priority policy attention" but argued current arrangements were inconsistent with "an efficient and effective IP framework".

If the commission's draft finding was adopted, the author of a book published this weekend could lose their exclusive rights to their work by the early 2030s.
The fact that Australia/Japanese relations have deteriorated as a result of Japanese disappointment at not winning the contract is solely due to Abbott. The Japanese never should have been led to believe they had it in the bag. The blunder only adds to the list of Abbott's foreign affairs disasters. Relations between Australia and Indonesia became strained when the Abbott government unilaterally adopted its turn-back-the-boats refugee policy. They worsened when Abbott initially refused to personally respond to Indonesian concerns over Australian intelligence agencies tapping Indonesian leaders' phones. As prime minister, Abbott had a habit of announcing the conclusion of an investigation and then seeking the evidence to back this up. When the Malaysian airliner MH-17 crashed, Abbott was quick to say that the aircraft was probably shot down by a pro-Russian separatist-controlled surface-to-air missile.

"I want to say to the Australian people that as far as I am concerned when you have a situation where Russian-backed rebels appear to have killed Australians using, it may well turn out to be, Russian supplied heavy weaponry  Australia takes a very dim view indeed and we want the fullest possible investigation." He then added, "I mean this is not an accident, it is a crime. I stress it is not an accident, it is a crime and criminals should not be allowed to get away with what they have done." Having made up his mind about what had happened, he called for an international investigation. And if this wasn't enough he later escalated the war of words with Russian President Vladimir Putin by promising to "shirt-front" the Russian leader when he met him at a coming G20 summit in Brisbane. After being deposed as prime minister, Abbott could not restrain his inclination to dabble in foreign affairs. In Rambo mode, he suggested that Australia should send special forces to Syria and Iraq to help defeat the Islamic State.

He also wanted less-restrictive targeting rules for airstrikes. In the last week, we have seen the result of such rules with 20 civilians killed in an air attack on the Al Quds hospital in Aleppo, Syria. In February, another 25 people were killed by missile attacks on a hospital in Idlib Province in Northern Syria. Theses killing are being blamed on the Syrian military, but in October we had the US airstrike on the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) trauma centre in Kunduz Afghanistan which killed at least 42 people. The destruction resulting from less-restrictive rules on Australian airstrikes would only add to the condemnation of Australia's involvement in the war. Thankfully we no longer have the international embarrassment of Abbott as prime minister.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is now in election mode, hoping that the submarine announcement will ensure he holds Coalition seats in South Australia. Labor has welcomed the decision, but the economic theoreticians don't like it. They would rather see jobs go overseas. They don't say so, but they would prefer a 100 per cent $50 billion drain on our balance of payments. There is also the basic opportunity cost question: would the funds be better spent on other activities that give us lasting benefit -- transport systems, scientific research, schools, hospitals etc? Few seem to question the project itself. Why do we need these submarines? We are told that we must have big long-range submarines because we are a maritime trading nation and must range far to our North.

China is the unnamed threat. But why would China want to hamper or stop trade that is mostly to and from China? It wants our iron ore and coal and it wants to export its cars, smart phones, textiles, clothes and footwear. We are also told that ships must have freedom of navigation in the South China Seas. But when have any of our ships, or anyone else's, been prevented from sailing through the region? Even US warships have sailed these seas without incident, thanks largely to Chinese restraint. Militarisation only increases tension. Having our submarines sailing in disputed waters will do nothing to resolve the territorial disputes to our north. On top of that they are likely to be obsolete by the time they are launched. By 2030 China will undoubtedly have underwater acoustic devices and drones deployed in the region to detect military intruders.
PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc (R) and his Kuwaiti counterpart (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam wants to deepen bilateral ties with Kuwait for the development of each country as well as for the benefit of the two peoples, he said.

Both sides affirmed their determination to further develop bilateral partnership across trade, oil and gas, investment, development assistance, labour and education-training.

The two leaders spoke highly of mutual support in economic cooperation and at multilateral forums, especially the United Nations, since the establishment of diplomatic ties 40 years ago.

Hailing the efficiency of the bilateral partnership in the field of oil and gas, the Kuwaiti PM wished that both sides will put into operation the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex as scheduled.

He also took note of Vietnams proposal to provide the country with more preferential loans for rural infrastructure and poverty reduction via the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.

The PM also promised to consider the continued granting of scholarships to Vietnamese students to study Arabic and the admission of more Vietnamese workers to the country.

On the Middle East and East Sea issues, the two sides shared the view that active solutions are needed to settling disputes and conflicts, ensuring peace and stability in the region.

They also expressed support of the settlement of disputes by peaceful means in line with international law, respect for the UN principles, and avoidance of intervening in other countries internal issues.

The two PMs condemned terrorism and asserted their support of global efforts to counter terrorism on the basis of respecting the UN Charter and international law.

Host and guest expressed a wish for further information exchanges and continued mutual support at international forums.

On the occasion, the Vietnamese leader also accepted his guests invitation to visit Kuwait. The visit will be arranged via diplomatic channels.

Following the talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements on culture, arts and sports; a deal within the framework of the Nghi Son refinery and petrochemical complex; and another agreement between the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam and Kuwait./.
The ACT government needs to allay the fears of residents living near Mr Fluffy homes as workers descend on the properties to demolish them.

A group of residents from ground zero of the territory's loose fill asbestos crisis have spoken to the Sunday Canberra Times about their concerns over the scheme and it is critical they are listened to.

It would be a conversation residents are having all over Canberra as the affected homes are knocked down  particularly when there are a cluster of Mr Fluffy residences.

Residents are quite right to flag concerns with the government over what they believe is a disregard for the correct work procedures around the removal of the houses' contents.
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A man armed with a knife robbed a pizza delivery driver at Miami on the Gold Coast just before midnight on Friday.

Police are appealing for public assistance to find the offender who fled on foot with the delivery man's mobile phone and money.

A man armed with a knife robbed a pizza delivery guy at Miami on the Gold Coast just before midnight on Friday.

The robbery happened about 11.45pm in the front yard of a Gold Coast Highway address.

The 24-year-old male employee was not physically injured during the incident.
A panel of experts will be appointed as a "matter of urgency" to help protect southeast Queensland's koala population.

Environment Minister Steven Miles said on Saturday he would also conduct a review of existing koala programs.

A panel of experts will be appointed as a "matter of urgency" to help protect southeast Queensland's koala population. Credit:Julian Robinson

The announcement follows the release of a University of Queensland report in August 2015, which found koala population densities from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast had declined by about 80 per cent between 1996 and 2014.

AAP
Queensland government moves to give cannabis the same status as heroin and cocaine as the most dangerous drugs will push marijuana users onto harder drugs, according to a visiting Canadian advocate.

Dana Larsen, who operates cannabis dispensaries in Vancouver, will give a public talk on Sunday about Canada's new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plans to legalise and regulate cannabis use.

Cannabis.

Mr Larsen said Queensland's move to equate cannabis with heroin, ecstasy and cocaine would push marijana users onto harder drugs.

"I'm all for harm reduction," he said. "I know a lot of people who use cannabis to stay off heroin, methadone and alcohol. Cannabis is a safer alternative."
A 22-year-old man was taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital in a critical condition on Saturday afternoon after a skydiving accident at Toogoolawah, west of Brisbane.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said the man had head and leg injuries after a rough landing in which he hit concrete.

A 22-year-old man was taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital in a critical condition on Saturday afternoon after a skydiving accident at Toogoolawah, west of Brisbane.

The incident happened about 1pm.

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ARM may be consummate storytellers. But they haven't always gotten away with it. In March 2001, 10 days after the launch of the National Museum of Australia in Canberra, the public servant in charge of construction reportedly twigged to something his bosses might not approve. The ratbags had taken the liberty of including a giant braille text on the building facade which read "sorry". If the prime minister wouldn't apologise to the stolen generation, they would. The message was erased. "It's now just a bumpy panel that says nothing," says Raggatt. Provocative: ARM Architecture's National Museum of Australia Credit: John Gollings One imagines such acts of provocation would prove their honourable intentions when the Portrait building was unveiled with a 32-storey image of Wurundjeri elder William Barak etched into its balustrades. Instead the architects were pilloried. How did they convince a commercial developer to make a statement of Aboriginality? Shouldn't such a bold statement come from a public building? Despite the left-field attack it confirmed the architects' ambition that the building would be a conversation starter. Or perhaps encourage people to wonder and investigate further who the figure is that stands sentinel over the city. Underneath Barak's portrait another Braille text ran: "Wurundjeri I am who I am".

Standing sentinel: ARM Architecture' Barak Building, Swanston Square Credit:Peter Bennetts If the Barak building created controversy, the building he looks down to along the Swanston St axis has received universal acclaim. Under the Shrine of Remembrance, ARM has, over a 10-year period from 2003-14, sensitively embedded educational facilities. Four zigzag-walled courtyards are the only additions visible externally. But being respectful doesn't mean it shies away from the truth of war. A courtyard in blood red, a poppy-shaped canopy. Lest We Forget in monumental script across a wall. Metal wall panels perforated with Binyon's Ode of Remembrance translated into Morse code into which visitors can thread cloth poppies through its holes. While there is a breadth of ways to experience and read the symbolism, the many references fall into respectful line. Field of dreams: ARM Architecture's redevelopment of the Shrine of Remembrance Credit:John Gollings "One of their best and most satisfying works," according to architecture critic Joe Rollo in 2014, the project won the Victoria Medal, one of five the practice has received and an unprecedented achievement.

The project helped establish the latter half of their career with major commissions such as the Melbourne Central masterplan, Albury and Geelong libraries, Hamer Hall refurbishment, and the Perth Arena. Geelong Library was one of the construction sites where union activities raised questions. Credit:John Gollings What's noticeable in ARM's 30-year career is the relatively small number of houses, the staple of young architectural practices. But, from the beginning, ARM embraced the city and the civic building. Easy to say, hard to do. "We were lucky in the '80s," McDougall reflects. "The housing commission under Jeff Kennett and later John Devenish gave emerging practices public work, which gave them the credentials to say they'd worked in the public arena. Leon van Schaik at RMIT took that model to the universities." Today those architects, alongside ARM, represent a who's who of Melbourne architectural culture: Greg Burgess, Norman Day, Peter Corrigan, DCM, Nonda Katsalidis, Peter Elliott, among them.

And while ARM's gold medal may suggest "Establishment" they still acknowledge it's tough  particularly for young practices. "It's got a lot harder," says McDougall. "Local government has a lot to answer for that because they are one group that should be employing emerging practices on projects." "Propaganda", too, has been a vital part of building that culture, says McDougall. Raggatt and McDougall have been telling stories about Melbourne architecture and its place in the world through teaching at RMIT, publishing magazines like Transition and, of course "advocacy"  talking to anyone who'd listen. Plenty do. Like an open-cut mine, the acoustic panels withing ARM's Melbourne Recital Centre. Credit:John Gollings To hear ARM tell it, you can be convinced of their cerebral art, even if your heart sometimes says no. The Melbourne Recital Centre's interior is an ode to the ineffability and wonder of music. Its international-standard acoustics is achieved with the aid of topographic timber walls that employ the imagery of saints solarised on its surface. Beautiful sure. But why wrap it in a "styrofoam" container? Bit of a pop art one-liner, no? "In your dreams," says Raggatt. Out-of-the-box thinking in this case looks inside the box. Packaging always holds something precious. Music is precious to humanity yet written on the wind. Styrofoam packaging itself looks abstract. Maybe it's an idea for a building. Then translating the lightness of Styrofoam into concrete transforms brutalism into pop art. A similar trick takes place on the nearby Hamer Hall. On the building's wall along the Yarra ARM manipulates concrete into a curtain wall, a playful pun on the city it reflects, as well as a theatrical motif of the hall behind.

Brutalist sculpture: ARM Architecture's Hammer Hall redevelopment Credit:John Gollings It's the expertise ARM has gained from these two concert halls that has landed them their first Sydney project; one that seems almost impossible to imagine. Ratbags storming the citadel, the Sydney Opera House. "We regard ARM as the best architects of concert halls in Australia," says Louise Herron, CEO of the Sydney Opera House. "We chose ARM because they did the Melbourne Recital Centre and did a superb job. What we're doing is taking a 1960s [concert] hall and we're turning it into a 21st-century hall." If it's tempting  or horrifying  to imagine ARM going to town on Utzon's building, Herron says "ARM understand very well that they need to work within the world-heritage listing". In some respects Utzon's domed building is not that unlikely a project for ARM. Their architecture may brim with often esoteric ideas that they arrange into narratives, but one thread unites them, explains McDougall: "The cave recurs in our work. From Storey Hall to Hamer Hall they are all wondrous caves. As opposed to the derivative cool minimalist spaces that you see many public gathering places have, [these halls] have the sense of safe gathering."
Police are investigating a suspicious factory fire in West Melbourne on Saturday night.

Thick plumes of smoke were spotted billowing from the printing factory on Ireland Street shortly before 9pm.

Credit:Paul Jeffers

Metropolitan Fire Brigade spokesman Steve Moore said it took almost two hours to bring the fire under control.

Mr Moore said crews in breathing apparatus had entered the building but had trouble locating the seat of the fire, due to the stock and layout of the building.
Government safety inspectors have suspended the Great Moscow Circus in St Kilda over concerns about the structural strength of the big top.

The circus was due to open on Thursday, but on Saturday morning was dismantling its big top after the Victorian Building Authority revoked its permit. Organisers hope to have the show back by Monday or Tuesday.

The Moscow Circus big top at St Kilda beach. Photo: Leigh Henningham Credit:Leigh Henningham

The VBA granted a temporary structure permit to the circus, which erected its red-and-yellow big top on the St Kilda foreshore this week.

But when inspectors came to visit, they discovered a much larger structure than they expected in a different spot than was permitted.
The identity of 15 priests are known because they were convicted in a criminal court, most of whom are now deceased or in prison. Moved away: Father Mato Krizanac, who was placed on "administrative leave" over a substantiated abuse complaint in 2014, has resumed his duties in Bosnia. In January, after a query from The Sunday Age, the archdiocese admitted it did not know how many of the other 69 alleged and known offenders were still alive but believed "many of them have died". The archdiocese has since provided three different estimates for the number of priests found to have committed abuse under the Melbourne Response that are still in the community. Left the country: Father Peter Grasby, who was found to have abused a 10-year-old boy, moved to Malaysia this year against the orders of Archbishop Hart.

On Friday, the archdiocese said it could finally confirm 10 priests with substantiated sexual abuse claims were still alive, three of whom live overseas. The archdiocese has refused to explain the discrepancies in its figures. The identities of most are unknown to the public as the archdiocese has historically failed to inform parishioners that a priest or former priest has been the subject of a finding of sexual abuse under the Melbourne Response. Names and information about disgraced priests are also removed from the Official Directory of the Catholic Church in Australia. Under canon law, priests accused of abuse are placed on "administrative leave" pending an investigation by the church's independent commissioner.

Those found to be abusers are permanently banned from engaging in any public ministry  conducting mass, last rites, blessings, weddings or funerals  which is called a "withdrawal of faculties". However, they technically remain under the jurisdiction of the church and are eligible to receive financial support. The Melbourne archdiocese reports that eight of the 10 priests have been subjected to this sanction, with another "laicised" or ejected from the priesthood altogether. But The Sunday Age has found one priest has repeatedly flouted his ban, participating in public religious activities with the approval of senior figures in the church and avoided serious punishment for other reported violations. Father Joseph "Joe" Doyle, former parish priest of Bayswater, was found by the independent commissioner Peter O'Callaghan in the mid-2000s to have committed "acts of sexual abuse" and barred from ministry. Priests who are placed on administrative leave or stripped of their faculties are placed under the supervision of the vicar-general, who is responsible for monitoring their activities and providing financial support.

Yet vicar-general Bishop Les Tomlinson conducted a mass alongside Father Doyle in early 2012, posing for a photo together next to the church altar. In 2013, a complaint about Father Doyle flouting his ban was made to Archbishop Denis Hart, who claimed he could do little about his conduct. "Joe has been pushing the boundaries. I think he is in denial about the seriousness of what has happened and I suspect that this playing down of the seriousness may be shared by some of his confreres," Archbishop Hart wrote in a letter obtained by The Sunday Age. "I have acted with the strongest resolve in these matters but Joe has been particularly difficult. I do not have the power to laicise a priest." The archdiocese reports Father Doyle, who currently lives in private rental accommodation in the suburbs, was "spoken to" again in 2015 following another complaint about inappropriate behaviour.

In another case, Father Peter Grasby, who was placed on "administrative leave" in 2012 following accusations of abusing a 10 to 14 year-old boy, moved to Malaysia against the orders of Archbishop Hart. He is still receiving private health insurance coverage from the archdiocese. Father Mato Krizanac, who was placed on "administrative leave" over a substantiated abuse complaint in 2014, has resumed his duties in Bosnia with the apparent permission of the Archbishop of Sarajevo. The Melbourne archdiocese says it does not support him financially. Mr Healy said priests living in the archdiocese were being monitored by church sanctioned-officials with "appropriate qualifications, training and experience", including a retired senior police officer who specialised in sex offenders management. "[It is] an imperfect but satisfactory system," Mr Healy said. However, the archdiocese has also admitted it has no written policy or protocols for managing sex offenders despite establishing the Melbourne Response two decades ago.

Priests who violate their ban may receive a verbal warning from the archbishop, withdrawal of any funding support, or be referred to Rome for punishment like laicisation. There is also the option to seek a "precept" against the priest, which allows an archbishop to set conditions on where they can live and restrict their movements, including having contact with the public and children. The archdiocese said such "safety plans" had been used in certain situations but were not commonly applied for those found to be abusers under the Melbourne Response. They have most often be used to manage priests convicted of sex crimes in a criminal court. The Archdiocese of Melbourne declined to comment on the photo of Father Doyle at mass. Bishop Tomlinson did not respond to a request for comment. Mr Healy said it was now church policy for a notification to be made to a parish when a priest is placed on "administrative leave" over sexual abuse allegations.
Shanghai: Seventeen people are missing after a Chinese fishing boat collided with a Maltese cargo ship and sank in the East China Sea on Saturday, state media reported, citing the country's coastguard fleet.

The fishing boat, Lu Rong Yu 58398, had 19 people on board when the incident happened at 3.40am Beijing time (5.40 AEST), the China News Service said, adding that two people had been rescued by passing fishing boats and a search and rescue operation was still underway.

Previous tensions: Japanese Coast Guard patrol boats approach a Chinese fishing boat in 2013. Credit:AP/File

China National Radio said it had hit Maltese cargo ship Catalina, a 40,485-tonne bulk carrier, which continued sailing. They did not specify where in the East China Sea the collision happened.

The East China Sea is home to a group of uninhabited islets claimed by both China and Japan. Previous incidents involving Chinese fishing boats and Japanese patrol ships have stoked diplomatic rows.
Washington: In spite of his insistence that he will not run, Mitt Romney is being courted this week by a leading conservative commentator to reconsider an jump into the volatile 2016 presidential race as an independent candidate.

William Kristol, the long-time editor of The Weekly Standard magazine and a leading voice on the right, met privately with the 2012 nominee on Thursday afternoon to discuss the possibility of launching an independent bid, potentially with Romney as its standard-bearer.

2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney attacks Donald Trump in a speech in March. Credit:AP

"He came pretty close to being elected president so I thought he may consider doing it, especially since he has been very forthright in explaining why Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton should not be president of the United States," Kristol said in a phone interview on Friday, where he confirmed that he and Romney had a "little meeting in Washington".

But knowing Romney's reluctance, Kristol told Romney that if he remains unwilling to run, many top conservatives would appreciate having the former Massachusetts governor's support for an independent candidate, should he and other right-leaning figures enlist a willing contender.
PHILIPSBURG:--- As a service to help the community, the Rotary club of St. Maarten has organized an eye examination program to support the Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity (VOSH) initiative on Sint Maarten, to provide free eyeglasses to those who cannot afford it. The primary mission of VOSH is to facilitate the provision of vision care worldwide to people who can neither afford nor obtain such care.

Fourteen Colorado Members of the VOSH team will travel to St. Maarten this weekend where they will execute their mission on Monday May 9, Tuesday May 10 and Wednesday May 11 from 9AM to 5 Pm. All examinations will take place at the white and yellow cross located in St. Johns estate. These volunteers will focus on providing free eyeglasses first to children, as they are the future generation. An eye exam will first take place to decide whether or not a person needs eyeglasses.

Jeffrey "Soc" Sochrin, President of the Rotary Club of Sint Maarten, stated that "The Rotary Club of Sint Maarten is thrilled to be able to support the Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity (VOSH) initiative on Sint Maarten. Eye care and proper corrective lenses, if required, are such an important part of living a healthy and productive life. If this initiative puts a single pair of corrective eyeglasses on one person or student, who might not have been able to otherwise afford glasses, we will have made a huge difference. We encourage the general public to join us for this free eye examination at the White and Yellow Cross on May 9, 10 and 11 from 9 AM to 5 PM. We may even be able to give you free eyeglasses depending on the results of the exam". Sochrin continued, "A special thank you goes out to the visiting optometrists of VOSH, Rick Cassidy, who helped organize this event, the Summit Hotel, who provided lodging to the visiting optometrists, the White and Yellow Cross for offering us a fantastic venue to conduct the eye testing and all the members of the project team that made this event possible.

Dr. Godfrey who is an optometrist from VOSH said: These volunteers love helping the human population and will do the very best they can with what they have. Their passion is giving and they will give eye exams and eye glasses to those in need. We are very fortunate to have them here.

Emil Lee ,Minister of Public Health, Social development, and Labor stated:  I would like to commend the initiative of the Rotary club of St. Maarten to help the less fortunate members of our community to be able see properly. Also special thanks to the white and yellow cross for their support in providing to assist this worthwhile endeavor.

The Rotary Club of St. Maarten was chartered on March 17, 1972 as result of a September 1970 meeting to form a club on the island. For more information, visit the club website at www.rotarysxm.org.
CAY HILL:--- On Friday May 6th, Deputy Prime Minister / Minister of Finance Richard Gibson delivered an Opening Address to the participants at the Leadercast Conference held at the Belair Community Center in Cay Hill.

The Opening Address

For the fourth consecutive year Victorious Living Foundation has hosted the simulcast on Sint Maarten for the worlds largest one day leadership conference, Leadercast Live. This in itself is an indication that Sint Maarten realizes the need for an event of this nature which will help to hone the leadership skills of the participants that will eventually transform our community positively. The theme for this years Leadercast live conference, broadcast directly from Atlanta and beamed to hundreds of location worldwide is Architects of Tomorrow. For us on Sint Maarten, this theme is of special relevance given the fact that we have embarked on a nation building process since we attained a new Constitutional Status on 10-10-10, a process that requires many qualified Architects of Tomorrow, today.

When we speak of an architect we usually have in mind someone who is innovative, creative and visionary; a person who can see far in the future, and galvanize all the human and other resources around him or to make that future a reality that benefits the entire community or even the world at large. According to the website of Leadercast, this years conference will focus 3 aspects / things that an Architect of Tomorrow must explore.

These three things are:

1. The ability to see a preferred future,

2. operate in the presence

3. and utilize the resources around them to architect a clear path to a new destination.

That is what visionary leadership is all about. This, according to Leadercast, is the role of all Architects of Tomorrow: to imagine a future that is rich and full of hope. A future where problems are solved, questions are answered and confusion gives way to clarity. Need I say more?

Sint Maarten needs leaders who will fulfill that role without fail, who will use their imagination in such a way to imagine a nation in which the full potential of all its residents would be realized and work relentlessly to achieve this. I am sure this Leadercast Conference will unleash that creative genius in all its participants especially from Sint Maarten and inspire and stimulate them to design a new future for the island that will catapult us in to that place of hope and prosperity we all intuitively believe is our manifest destiny. Congratulations to Victorious Living Foundation for hosting this important event and success to all participants.
For city money, South Bend apartments allot 40% of rooms to poor tenants

The need for reasonably priced one- and two-bedroom units is dire in the city. Many renters are older and disabled residents who live alone.
This Cudahy resident walked away from addiction by walking from Green Bay to Cudahy
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Even if you can't find a solar telescope to watch the Mercury transit on Monday (May 9), you don't have to miss the action: NASA will have three satellites watching the planet pass across the face of the sun, with one satellite providing nearly real-time imagery to skywatchers online.

Mercury will make its way across the sun from Earth's point of view between 7:12 a.m. and 2:42 p.m. EDT (1112 to 1842 GMT) and should only be viewed with binoculars or a telescope and a solar filter. (Projecting the sun's image through a pinhole will not work because Mercury is so small on the sun's surface, making it invisible.)

For those without access to those tools, a near-real-time feed of images will be available throughout the event at nasa.gov/transit.

Mercury transits are rare because Mercury's orbital plane is tilted with respect to Earth's orbit. The two planets align perfectly only about 13 times a century. When a transit does happen, scientists can use the information to fine-tune their knowledge about how planets and stars move in space. [The Mercury Transit of 2016: Full Coverage]

During Monday's transit, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which is operated by NASA and the European Space Agency, will measure the sun's rotational axis using two instruments that have been shut off for five years but will be turned back on to witness the event: the Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope and the Michelson Doppler Imager.

On May 9, 2016, Mercury crosses the face of the sun in a solar transit. See how Mercury transits work in our full infographic here (Image credit: Alan Eilander/Space.com)

Meanwhile, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will align its instruments using the transit. This is possible because scientists know so precisely where Mercury is supposed to be in relation to the sun. Researchers will also compare SDO measurements of the transit with SOHO's.

"Instruments on board SDO and SOHO use different spectral lines, different wavelengths, and they have slightly different optical properties to study solar oscillations," SOHO project scientist Joseph Gurman said in a statement. "Transit measurements will help us better determine the solar rotation axis."

NASA, along with several other space agencies, will also observe the transit using Japan's Hinode satellite. Hinode is led by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and is used in collaboration with NASA, the European Space Agency and the U.K. Space Agency.

The first telescope observation of a Mercury transit occurred in 1631, NASA officials said in the statement. At the time, it showed astronomers how big Mercury's disk appeared and also helped them figure out the distance between the Earth and the sun.

Editor's note: Visit Space.com on Monday to see live webcast views of the rare Mercury transit from Earth and space, and for complete coverage of the celestial event. If you SAFELY capture a photo of the transit of Mercury and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a story or gallery, you can send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace, or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
Editor's note: This article, originally posted for the May 2016 Mercury Transit, has been updated for the Nov. 11, 2019 transit of Mercury.



This Monday (Nov. 11), Mercury will appear to cross in front of the disk of the sun, and will be visible as a tiny black dot against the bright source of light.

The event, which astronomers call a transit of Mercury (opens in new tab), will occur only 14 times during the 21st century. As seen from Earth, only transits of Mercury and Venus are possible, because these are the only planets that lie between Earth and the sun. Transits of Venus occur in pairs separated by about eight years, with more than a century separating each pair.

Transits of Mercury (opens in new tab) and Venus hold an interesting place in astronomical history, mostly because of the slightly different times when the events occur as seen from different locations on the surface of the Earth. Astronomers noted that, for example, Mercury moved off the edge of the sun's disk at a different time when seen from one geographic location compared to another. This effect is called parallax (opens in new tab), and it can be used in astronomy to measure distances.

Mercury transits are rare celestial events. Here's a look at how they happen and why from Space.com's friends at All About Space magazine. (Image credit: Future Plc/All About Space Magazine)

Using parallax during the transits of Venus, astronomers were given the best opportunity available to measure the distance from the Earth to the sun  known as one astronomical unit. Kepler's third law showed that with this one measurement, it was possible to then measure the distance between the sun and other planets, based on how long it took each planet to go around the sun. The distance from the Earth to the sun was poorly known at that time. Astronomer Edmund Halley  of Halley's Comet (opens in new tab) fame  was the first to realize that transits could be used to measure the astronomical unit.

The transit technique relies on the precise measurement of the exact moment when Mercury or Venus began moving onto or off of the disk of the sun; two centuries ago, measuring those moments with high accuracy was difficult. Nonetheless, elaborate expeditions to observe the transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769 provided astronomers with their first good value for the astronomical unit. Since the 1960's, this method has been completely superseded by radar measurements of the distances to the other planets in the solar system.

Related: Here's Why Mercury Transits Are So Rare (opens in new tab)

Kepler predicted it, but Gassendi observed it

It was Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) who made the surprising discovery that, in 1631, both Mercury and Venus would transit the sun within less than a month of each other. Mercury would transit the sun on Nov. 7, followed by Venus on Dec. 6. The sight of a planet passing in front of the solar disk had never been seen before, so Kepler and his soon-to-be son-in-law, Jacob Bartsch, issued an "admonition" to all astronomers to be on the watch for these events. Because Kepler himself was uncertain about the exact circumstances (as he was concerned about the accuracy of his own tables), he urged prospective observers to carefully watch the sun a day early and, should nothing be seen, not give up until the day after.

Unfortunately, early November 1631 brought a very stormy and unsettled period of weather to much of Europe. So far, as historians know, only three individuals actually observed the transit of Mercury and only one, Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655), left a detailed account.

A photographic plate shows the transit of Venus in 1882. The image was taken as part of an expedition, commissioned by the U.S. Naval Observatory and Transit of Venus Commission, to image the transit from different locations on the Earth. (Image credit: U.S. Naval Observatory)

According to Gassendi's writings, he observed the transit from Paris, by means of projecting an 8-inch-wide (20 centimeters) image of the sun from his telescope's eyepiece onto a white screen. At around 9 a.m. local time on Nov. 7, through a scattered-to-broken layer of cloud cover, Gassendi anxiously watched the black dot of Mercury  which was much smaller than he had expected  as it slowly moved across the sun.

Unfortunately, Kepler did not live to witness this event; he died on Nov. 15, 1630, almost a year to the day before the Mercury transit. Despite his fears that his calculations might be off by a day or two, Kepler predicted the transit within 5 hours of it actually taking place  an astonishing feat for that time.

What to expect, and how to observe

The times for the occurrence of the Mercury transit next week on Nov. 11, 2019. This map also shows from what parts of the world inhabitants can view the event and when. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Mercury Transit 2019 (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech) Mercury Transit 2019: Here Are the Stages to Watch

Skywatchers must use special sun-viewing lenses to safely observe Mercury's transit.

Here's what observers in the United States can expect for the 2019 transit of Mercury on Nov. 11.

If you draw a line from roughly Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, anywhere to the left (west) of that line, observers will see the black dot of Mercury on the rising sun. To the right (east) of that line, observers will be able to see the entire 5.5 hours of the transit from start to finish. Mercury will move into the left side of the disk of the sun at 7:35 a.m. EST (1212 GMT), and move to the right. The midpoint of the transit comes at 10:19 a.m. EST (1519 GMT), and Mercury will exit off the right side of the sun at 1:04 p.m. EST (1804 GMT).

Related: The Gear You Need to Safely Watch the Mercury Transit (opens in new tab)

More: How to Use Mobile Astronomy Apps to View the Mercury Transit of 2019 (opens in new tab)

Skywatchers who have the proper equipment for observing sunspots will also be able to observe the transit of Mercury. (NOTE: Never look directly at the sun without protection. Doing so may result in serious eye damage or blindness. Scientists use special filters on telescopes to safely view the sun.)

The safest way to watch the transit event is to project the sun's image through a small telescope onto a white card or paper. This arrangement permits several observers to simultaneously view an enlarged solar image.

Based on observations made during previous Mercury transits, the planet can be readily perceived with a 2.4-inch or 3-inch refracting telescopes with 50x magnification, while at 150x, Mercury will appear as a round, black dot.

Here is a timeline in UTC/GMT of the rare Mercury transit of Nov. 11, 2019 and Mercury's path across the sun. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Reflecting telescopes can be similarly used, but with instruments that have larger than a 6-inch aperture, it's best to use a mask to reduce the aperture to 3-inches or less. Training a large reflecting telescope on the sun for long periods can cause a build-up of heat on the mirror or inside the tube, potentially damaging the instrument. Mercury should be readily recognizable as a tiny, sharp-edged dot, having only about 1/194th the sun's diameter. Through the transit, this dot will gradually crawl across the sun's face.



If there are any sunspots on the sun's disk, they will not appear quite as dark against the sun as the jet-black silhouette of Mercury.

The planet Mercury transiting in front of the sun, as captured by a NASA satellite. Mercury is near the center of the image, while dark sunspots appear near the edges. (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

Coming attractions

After Nov. 11, the next transits of Mercury will occur on Nov. 13, 2032 and Nov. 7, 2039. However, the Western Hemisphere will be turned away from the sun and in darkness when they occur, rendering both invisible for skywatchers in the Americas.

Not until May 7, 2049, will another Mercury transit be visible from North America!

So keep this in mind: Over the next 30 years, Americans will have only one chance to see Mercury pass across the disk of the sun and that lone opportunity comes this Monday morning, so don't miss it!

Here's to good luck and clear skies!

Editor's Note: Visit Space.com on Nov. 11 to see live webcast views of the rare Mercury transit as shown from telescopes on Earth and in space, along with complete coverage of the celestial event. If you SAFELY capture a photo of the transit of Mercury and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a story or gallery, you can send images and comments in to spacephotos@space.com.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium . He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine , the Farmers' Almanac and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for Verizon FiOS1 News in New York's lower Hudson Valley. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook . .

(opens in new tab) for the latest amazing news from the final frontier! Need more space? Subscribe to our sister title "All About Space" Magazine for the latest amazing news from the final frontier! (Image credit: All About Space)

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Mercury's rare passage across the face of the sun on Monday, May 9, should be an exciting event for skywatchers and scientists alike. The planet's pass across Earth's nearest star may provide information about its thin atmosphere, assist in the hunt for worlds around other stars, and help NASA hone some of its instruments.

As seen from Earth, Mercury appears to cross the disk of the sun  an event known as a transit  only about 13 times per century. Currently, transits of Mercury always occur in either May or November (this changes over hundreds of years), with spring transits only occurring about a third of the time.

"During May transits, Mercury's closer to us, so it appears larger than in November," David Rothery, a planetary geoscientist at Open University in the United Kingdom, told Space.com by email. "You can make more precise measurements in May." [The Mercury Transit of 2016: How to See It and What to Expect]

The plane of Mercury's 88-day orbit around the sun doesn't quite line up with the plane of Earth's orbit, so the smaller planet appears to pass above or below the disk of the sun most of the time. The last transit of Mercury took place in 2006, and the next one will occur in 2019. Although the rocky planet appears larger in May, the spring transits are rarer; the next one won't happen until 2049.

Searching for other worlds

On May 9, 2016, Mercury crosses the face of the sun in a solar transit. See how Mercury transits work in our full infographic here (Image credit: Alan Eilander/Space.com)

During Monday's 7.5-hour transit, scientists will use the giant New Solar Telescope at the Big Bear Solar Observatory in California to try to catch a glimpse of sodium in the planet's thin atmosphere. A planet's atmosphere extends slightly above its surface, so starlight can illuminate the atmosphere when the planet passes in front of a star. On Monday, the scientists hope their observations will help them to better understand how sodium is released from the planet's surface. [The Mercury Transit of 2016: Visibility Maps and Pictures]

Mercury isn't the only planet that transits the sun. Venus makes even less-frequent passages as seen from the Earth  Venus transits the sun in pairs, with the second transit occurring about 8 years after the first. However, the pairs are separated by about a century.

In general, a transit refers to the passage of a object in front of a star (as seen by an observer), and these events are not limited to the bodies in Earth's solar system; NASA's Kepler Space Telescope studied other stars to search for the faint dimming of light that occurs when a planet passes between the disk of the star and the telescope. According to Jay Pasachoff, a professor at Williams College in Massachusetts who will be at Big Bear on May 9, the dimming of light from the 2003 and 2006 transits of Mercury were too faint to be detected, opening a door to understanding the limits of Kepler and the upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which will be launched in 2017.

Mercury's transit will be too small to view using homemade pinhole cameras made to study Venus' passage. Telescopes outfitted with special filters will be able to spot the event.

NOTE: Never look directly at the sun without proper protective equipment. Doing so can cause serious eye damage or blindness. Check here to find out how to view the sun safely.

Fixing space cataracts

Specially-outfitted telescopes will also observe the transit from space. The NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), along with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency-led Hinode solar mission, will all study the event.

SOHO launched in 1995 on a mission to study the sun. Two of its instruments will be brought back into full operation during the transit, after spending five years offline, according to a statement from NASA.

The transit will also help calibrate instruments on the various spacecraft. Specifically, it can help scientists determine how to handle stray light in the images collected by the spacecraft. As Mercury crosses the disk, it should look black, but scattered light from the instruments will cause it to appear slightly illuminated, according to the statement.

"It's like getting a cataract  you see stars or halos around bright lights as though you are looking through a misty windshield," Dean Pesnell, SDO project scientist, said in the statement. "We have the same problems on the instruments."

According to Rothery, however, the most valuable thing to come from the transit of Mercury on May 9 may be public education. NASA and other agencies, along with observatories and astronomy clubs around the world and online, will provide the general public with a chance to see the transit for themselves.

"This event is a chance to tell people about Mercury  it's a very perplexing planet for a geologist," Rothery said. "It's important for outreach, to inspire the next generation of scientists."

Editor's note: Visit Space.com on Monday to see live webcast views of the rare Mercury transit from Earth and space, and for complete coverage of the celestial event. If you SAFELY capture a photo of the transit of Mercury and would like to share it with Space.com and our news partners for a story or gallery, you can send images and comments in to managing editor Tariq Malik at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd on Twitter @NolaTRedd or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
El Aaiun (Occupied Territories), May 7, 2016 (SPS) - The Moroccan occupation authorities on Friday expelled two Polish journalists from the occupied city of El Aaiun, capital of Western Sahara.







The journalists concerned are Dominik Sipiniski and Anna Suzanna Olczak, they are experts in coverage of international conflicts, zones of conflict and social and political events.

The two journalists were in association with Saharawi activist Abdelkrim Emboirkat when his house was besieged by ten Moroccan police cars, the journalists were forcibly removed, insulted and their documents confiscated. They were transferred to the Moroccan city of Agadir.

The Polish journalists had intended to visit the occupied territories to find out about the state of human rights and the miserable situation in which the Sahrawi population live under the Moroccan occupation. (SPS)

062/090/TRA




El Aaiun (Occupied Territories), May 7, 2016 (SPS) - Moroccan police arrested and tortured Thursday disabled Saharawi minor, according to the Ministry of the Occupied Territories and Community Abroad.

The Moroccan forces beat up last night minor Jalil Eabeilil who is disabled, said the same sources.

The Saharawi minor had been beaten by Moroccan settlers in a general avenue simply for touching a motorcycle exposed to sale in the street.

The child's grandmother was forced to sign a record without knowing its content. (SPS)

062/090/TRA
Lavish green jungles, monkeys and crystal clear waters, Costa Rica is a travelers paradise. Pura vida is not all sunshine, waves and coconuts though. On every corner of every town, you can find drug dealers rocking the ever so fashionable fanny pack. Yes, fanny packs. The same thing you see those meathead bodybuilders with scrunchy socks wearing.

Related: 3 Lessons About Setting Your Price Learned From a Vegas Prostitute

Serious entrepreneurs need to take notes. Here are 6 surprising skills you can learn from Costan Rican drug dealers that may convince you to start wearing a fanny pack:

1. Persistence

We saw the same drug dealer 27 times on one beach, and it wasnt an accident. Every time he approached us, he gave us a head nod or a wave, always letting us know he was right there able to provide us whatever we needed. Building a successful startup takes the same persistence. Meetings, phone calls, emails, messages, third-party endorsements, whatever it takes. Gary Vaynerchuk claims that persistence is the key to startup success.

2. Connections

Every person on the street knows who the drug dealers are and can can refer you to who you want or need. In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to network the f--k out of your life and build as many connections as possible. Every interaction, whether at the beach or supermarket, is an opportunity to meet someone who can benefit your business (or vice versa).

3. Expertise

Heroin. Cocaine. Crack. Speed. Whatever you want, they have. You want to know where the cocaine came from? Why should you purchase from him or her, and not the other 10,000 dealers on the other corners? These hustlers can provide a list of benefits, their competitive advantage and value.

As entrepreneurs, we must be able to articulate our benefits. What competitive advantages do you have? Why should your potential customer or user choose your product or service? What are you doing differently, better and how do you provide that level of expertise?

Related: What Emmy-Winner 'Breaking Bad' Teaches Us About Brand Management

4. Personal branding

Every street hustler in Costa Rica has a funny pack. Walking around the crowded streets could get difficult for you to find who youre looking for. But not if your contact is wearing a fanny pack. Im big on standing out in business and life. I write about it constantly (6 Ways to Stand Out in a World That Wont Shut Up). There are 27 million entrepreneurs in the U.S. alone. Do you see why this is vital?

5. Accessibility

If you wanted to purchase said drugs, these street hustlers have exactly what you want, right then and there. Doubling as a very fashionable outfit accessory, the fanny packs provide a more immediate benefit by housing the hustlers goods. They make it very easy to do business with them.

You should practice these same skills, whether it be making it easy for people to purchase your product or service from your website, or making it easy for customers to pay you. Figure out how to make your business frictionless.

Related: Two Men Accused of Using Taco Bell as a Meth Lab

6. Creative recruiting

A carrier pigeon was caught smuggling cocaine into a prison wearing a fanny pack. Talk about creativity. Entrepreneurs must practice this same type of creative recruiting, especially early on when there are limited funds. Learning how to recruit the right talent can be the most important skill you learn.

Image credit: Reuters

I have a passion for finding lessons in entrepreneurship in the most obscure and extreme places. Successful entrepreneurs all over the world use these same skills across different sectors, spaces and industries. Learn their processes early on to catapult your success, so you can have an army of pigeons doing your dirty work, while you're sipping fresh coconut juice on the beach in Costa Rica. Pura f--king vida.

Related:



Copyright 2016 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved
The kick-off party to the first annual Greenwich Art Gala was held at a private estate on May 6, 2016?

Art dealers Saya Ishii Velazquez, Suhayb Ibn M Zarroug in collaboration with Unik Ernest and Jen Danzi brought a world-class selection of art to town to attract collectors from near and far.

Were you SEEN?

The event continues through May 17, and proceeds benefit the Edeyo Foundation. Edeyo, derived from a Haitian Kreyol word meaning "help them", is a NYC based non-profit organization, devoted to improving the future for children in Haiti through programs focused on education.

Supporting the impoverished Bel-Air neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Edeyo's primary school supplies life-changing opportunities through free education and the provision of desperately needed food, water, health care and social support to affected children. Since its grassroots beginning in 2007, Edeyo has grown to support a school of 300 elementary school students annually, providing them with a haven of safety and hope. Edeyo also provides full scholarships to 39 high school students, facilitating their path to long-term success.

Visit greenwichartgala.com for a full list of artists. Some of the artists on view include:

Matheus Goulart - Matheus Goulart is a visual artist and furniture designer from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. His studio is in New York City, and his expositions have been featured in New York Magazine and national publications in Brazil. The 'Paris Nights' series was a collaboration with French fashion photographer, Mik Lelman, and was first seen during Art Basel Miami Beach 2015.

David Guzman - Guzman resides in Manhattan NYC. He fell in love with the creative process early on in my life. Guzman is a self-taught artist / photographer. I see photography as a natural extension of my passion for the arts. Being a photographer is like observing life's every moment. If you have a camera, by just living your life you're bound to find some things that are worth taking pictures of. Currently, I work as real estate sales person in NYC and I also run my own fitness company here but my true passion will alway remain creating art.

Eric Jiaju Lee - Eric Jiaju Lee, who was recently profiled in the Huffington Post, exhibits regularly both locally and abroad, with works belonging to many international private and corporate collections (USA, UK, Canada, China, Germany, Philippines, Australia, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Dixon Advisory, China Springboard). The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Lee is a professor of fine arts, an independent curator and a guest lecturer at various institutions in the greater New York area.

Lee grew up in Cos Cob and graduated from the Brunswick School whereupon he moved to New York City to attend art school, eventually earning his Master of Fine Arts degree at Hunter College. After twenty two years in the city Lee is a recently returned Greenwich resident and has established a new working studio locally, while still maintaining an auxiliary space in the vibrant arts community of Bushwick, Brooklyn where he has been a part of the growth of the area since it's early beginnings as an art district. Lee has also worked in Beijing, China where he maintained a part-time studio practice from 2004 to 2008.

Jennifer Caviola - Jennifer Caviola (born in Greenwich, CT in 1979) is a painter interested in documenting the inner workings of severed connections. Caviola has a B.F.A. in Painting from Pratt Institute and a M.F.A. in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and has been featured in publications such as: Vogue, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Complex Magazine, Papermag, Juxtapoz and High Fructose.

Michael Hafftka - Michaels work is represented in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, New York Public Library, Housatonic Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Yeshiva University Museum and other museums. Born to European refugees and Holocaust survivors his underlying destiny to paint was driven by a quest for freedom and his perception of his parents wartime experiences. 35 of his paintings resurfaced recently after not being seen for 30 years. They were originally purchased in the 1980's by London's best-known and most successful dealer in antiquities at the time, Robin Symes. Some of these paintings hung at the Rockefeller Guesthouse on 52nd Street, a building designed by Philip C. Johnson in 1948. Viewing Michael's work you feel the emotion, the expression, the intimacy of his life, the personal transference of his spirituality. Often categorised as a neo-expressionist. Michael's work portrays influences of Goya, Bacon and Schiele. I can only imagine Michael's delight when he introduced his art to the often 'difficult' character that was Francis Bacon who declared his work 'beautiful' praise that is certainly deserved.
L asers are being shone at aeroplanes more than three times a day with Heathrow pilots reporting the most incidents in the country, new figures show.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), there were 1,439 such incidents in 2015 and 121 of them were reported at Heathrow.

The overall total is similar to the figure for 2014, when 1,447 cases were reported.

Stephen Landells, flight safety specialist at the British Airline Pilots Association, described the trend as a "menace".

He said: "The problem with lasers just isn't going away despite all our efforts.

"We continue to work with the CAA and the Department for Transport in trying to find ways to counter this menace."

In February, a Virgin Atlantic flight was forced to return to Heathrow when the co-pilot reported feeling unwell after a laser was directed at the plane shortly after take-off.

Mr Landells said: "Even with the smallest laser, the dazzle and distraction that a pilot experiences at night is putting an aircraft and its passengers in danger."

He called for the police to be given the power to stop and search people they suspect may be carrying a laser for illegal use.

Mr Landells also wants more restrictions on the importation of high-powered lasers, and stressed the importance of making more people aware that pointing a laser at an aircraft is dangerous.

The CAA issued a statement which read: "We strongly urge anyone who sees a laser being used in the vicinity of an airport to contact the police immediately."

A Government spokesman said: "The UK has strict laws dealing with people who recklessly use lasers against aircraft and endanger the lives of passengers and crew - and anybody who does so faces up to five years in prison."

Additional reporting by the Press Association.
A n electrician told today how he helped save the life of a man who suffered a suspected heart attack on the Tube.

Stuart Howell, 38, sprang into action when he saw a man, believed to be in his 60s, slumped in his seat on a packed Victoria line carriage.

Mr Howell, who works for Epping Electrical Company, was on his regular commute from Tottenham Hale to Vauxhall when he spotted the man in trouble.

He told the Standard: He was sitting right back in his chair and all of a sudden we noticed some strange gargling type noises.

I went over to him and he wasnt responding to anything I was doing. I felt his neck for a pulse and I couldnt feel anything.

Resuscitated: The station defibrillator at Oxford Circus was used to revive the man / PA

I wasnt just going to sit there while someone is struggling. It does shake you up but if someone needs help then you have to do it.

The driver made an announcement for a doctor after an emergency alarm was activated on Mr Howells instructions.

Thankfully, a trainee anaesthetist was sat in another carriage. She joined Mr Howell as the pair gave CPR chest compressions to the man on the floor of the train.

At Oxford Circus station, the man was moved onto the platform for emergency treatment to continue as Mr Howell remained on the train.

He added: The station staff were exemplary really. They wanted everyone to get out the way while they worked on him.

Dr Oliver Warren, a consultant surgeon, told the Standard he was at the station when he heard a call for a doctor.

Fortunate: Dr Warren said the man was lucky to receive immediate life-saving treatment / Dr Oliver Warren

He said he helped resuscitate the man with the help of the anathesiast and a couple of off-duty police officers before he was rushed to the Royal Free Hospital.

Transport for London confirmed the stations defibrillator was used during attempts to revive him.

Dr Warren said: He was in good shape when we left him. He was fully conscious and speaking, knew where he was and was able to tell us all about himself.

He was lucky in the sense he got immediate life-saving care due to the people in his carriage and that there appeared to be a lot of medical expertise in the station at that time in the morning.

The hospital later confirmed the man had survived following the incident on Thursday.

Dr Warren said he managed to speak to the man via telephone who said he was grateful for the help he received. He was expected to be in hospital for a few days.

Mr Howell he said: Obviously Im very pleased to hear the man is recovering in hospital and for his family.

A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: We were called at 6.51am on May 5 to reports of an incident involving an unconscious man at Oxford Circus station.

"We sent ambulance crews, an advanced paramedic and a single responder by car, arriving within seven minutes.

"We resuscitated a man at the scene and took him to hospital as a priority".
A north London couple have told of their shock after they returned home from holiday to find their cherished camper van was stolen.

Katie Smith, 31, and her husband Sam, 32, of Highgate, have launched a Twitter appeal to recover the VW Trident after it was taken from Shepherds Hill, near the Tube station.

The couple say they mystified how the van, which cost them 9,500 two years ago, was taken as the keys were inside the home while they were away.

Pictures of the vehicle have been uploaded to Twitter as part of an appeal, which has since been retweeted by London police forces.

Treasured: The couple said the camper van was used on most weekends / Katie Smith

Mrs Smith told the Standard: We have absolutely no idea how it was taken. The keys were in the house and there was no sign of broken glass around. Its like it has just vanished.

We are really upset. We were saying on the way back how wed like to take it to Cornwall in a couple of weeks and in the summer we use it most weekends.

We have driven up to Orkney in it, been to Exmoor and were hoping to take it to northern Spain this year.

The white coloured van is decorated with stickers that were bought as souvenirs when driven on mini-breaks.

A Met spokeswoman said: Police were called on Friday, May 6 at 6:15pm following a report of a theft of a camper van from Shepherds Hill.

The victim reported that he left the vehicle parked at the location on Saturday, April 30 at 7am and when he returned on Friday, 6 May at 6pm hours it was gone.

She added no arrests have been made and no CCTV is available.

Anyone with information on the van should call police on 101
A group of south east Londoners is to be given a plot of land to build dream homes in a radical scheme to help tackle the capital's housing crisis.

The ambitious project will turn the site of a disused primary school, once earmarked as land for travellers, into a self-built and sustainable community in Ladywell, Lewisham.

Lewisham council has now signed a deal with the Rural Urban Synthesis Society (RUSS), a community land trust which will take on the Church Grove site, providing 33 affordable homes for people who have joined its organisation.

Each one will be designed and built by its future residents, who were picked in a lottery-style process from 150 members who wanted to get involved.

Kareem Dayes from RUSS, who has been planning the project for six years, said: "It's a real mix of people. We've got young families, older people wanting to downsize, people who just want to rent.

"We'll have tenures from social rents up to shared equity so it's a real mix of income as well.

"The idea is to have a real community which reflects a mix of people."

An initial grant to get the scheme going came from the Greater London Authority, but Mr Dayes said the group had found "ethical investors" and loans to help raise the 9million needed for the project.

The group are now in the design stage, with everyone discussing how they want their homes to look, and the aim is to have a planning application submitted in October.

He said: "There's talk that we want to grow as much food on site as we can and we'll be trying to produce energy through micro-generation.

"There'll be a community space somewhere with a shared communal room.

"It's right by the river too so there's a few ideas about how to interact with that too."

Residents: A group discussing the design of their new homes (Sam Brown) / Graziano Milano

If approved, work could start in 2017 with the homes ready in two years and Mr Dayes, who grew up in Lewisham's last wave of self-built housing around Honor Oak, is hoping it wil be the start of more new communities.

He said: "The community land trust model is taking off at the moment.

"There's definitely a political appetite to deliver these schemes. We'll be working hard to build more in the future because we've got 500 members who want thousing too."

The idea is part of a number of Lewisham council projects to tackling housing shortages, with a "pop-up" village of pre-built homes already open nearby.

Councillor Damien Egan, Lewisham's cabinet member for housing, said: We are absolutely thrilled weve taken this next significant step towards creating a great new genuinely affordable housing development in Lewisham.

"The self-build community land trust is the first of its kind in London and builds on Lewishams radical housing tradition.

"Cooperative housing provides affordable homes, forever, and were looking at how we can build more.
S adiq Khan was this morning set to be formally sworn in as Londons first Muslim mayor following his historic victory in the City Hall race.

The Labour MP for Tooting, who will now stand down from Parliament, won a bigger mandate than any other London Mayor with 1,310,143 votes in a count delayed by technical difficulties.

He will be sworn in as Boris Johnsons successor in a multi-faith service at Southwark Cathedral on Saturday.

Mr Khan, the son of bus driver, is the first Muslim to hold the 16-year-old post. Today Tottenham MP David Lammy hailed his victory and said it could pave the way for an ethnic minority candidate to become prime minister.

Victor: Sadiq Khan leaves his home in south London on Saturday morning / PA

Mr Lammy said: "If we ever get a prime minister of colour it will be because of what Sadiq Khan has achieved."

In a dramatic contest that lasted hours longer than initially expected, Mr Khan took back London for the Labour Party after eight years with a staggering 1,310,143 votes to Tory rival Zac Goldsmiths 994,614 after second preferences were counted.

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In his words of acceptance, he said he had a burning ambition for every Londoner to have the same opportunities that he had growing up on a council estate in Tooting.

He added: The opportunity not just to survive but to thrive. The opportunity to believe in a better future for you and your family.

He also had thinly veiled words of criticism of the campaign led by Mr Goldsmith which was branded racist and divisive by his opponents, as well as some Tories.

This election was not about controversy and Im so proud that London has chosen hope over fear and unity over division, he said to cheers from his supporters.

Sadiq Khan's victory speech

I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer it only makes us weaker and a politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.

The result was finally declared at 12.25am after the count was held up by "discrepancies" in the mayoral count.

Zac Goldsmith makes concession speech

The result means he won a bigger share of the vote than even his predecessor Boris Johnson, taking 56.8 per cent to Mr Goldsmiths 43.2 per cent, a difference of 13.6 per cent.

It is the biggest margin in the history of the mayoralty, apart from when Ken Livingstone ran as an independent in 2000 against Tory Steve Norris.

Mr Goldsmith congratulated Mr Khan and added: I wish him well to build on the success that weve seen under Boris Johnson and to take them further.
S taff at Wormwood Scrubs have returned to work after staging strike action because they dont feel safe.

Workers at the famous London prison gathered outside for a demonstration on Friday morning following a spate of allegations of assaults by inmates.

But a Ministry of Justice spokesman said the staff had since returned to work.

He said: "All officers at HMP Wormwood Scrubs have now returned to work and the prison is running a normal regime.

"The safety and security of our prisons remains our top priority."

The temporary walk-out came weeks after an inspection report sparked claims of "Dickensian squalor" at the prison - one of the best known in Britain.

Mike Rolfe, of the Prison Officers' Association, said there had been a number of assaults on staff, while so-called "legal highs" were said to have been thrown over the walls.

Speaking from outside the prison on Friday, he said the jail was "flooded with drugs, mobile phones and weapons", adding: There are concerns for health and safety of staff, and they have decided to stay outside until they can seek assurances from management that their concerns will be addressed."

Additional reporting by PA
S adiq Khan today pledged to be a Mayor for all Londoners as he seized the capitals top job with the biggest ever mandate from the electorate.

The new Mayor took back London for the Labour Party after eight years with a staggering 1,310,143 votes to Tory rival Zac Goldsmiths 994,614.

In his words of acceptance, he said he had a burning ambition for every Londoner to have the same opportunities that he had growing up on a council estate in Tooting.

He added: The opportunity not just to survive but to thrive. The opportunity to believe in a better future for you and your family.

In a personal speech, he evoked the memory of his father Amanullah Khan, an immigrant from Pakistan whose job as a bus driver became one of the hallmarks of Mr Khans campaign.

Spotlight: New London mayor Sadiq Khan, flanked by opponents Zac Goldsmith, from left, Lee Harris, Ankit Love and Caroline Pidgeon / Carl Court/Getty Images

He would have been so proud that the city he chose to call his home has now chosen one of his children to be the Mayor, he said.

But Mr Khan also had thinly veiled words of criticism of the campaign led by Mr Goldsmith which was branded racist and divisive by his opponents, as well as some Tories.

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This election was not about controversy and Im so proud that London has chosen hope over fear and unity over division, he said to cheers from his supporters.

Zac Goldsmith makes concession speech

I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer it only makes us weaker and a politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city.

The new Mayor, who will be sworn in at a multi-faith service at Southwark Cathedral later on Saturday, had to wait hours before the result was finally declared at 12.25am.

He added: I promise to always be a mayor for all Londoners, to work hard to make life better for every Londoner regardless of your background and to do everything in my power to make sure that you get the incredible opportunities our city gave to me.

Applause: Sadiq Khan is congratulated by his opponents, including Zac Goldsmith, left / Carl Court/Getty Images

Mr Khan was watched by his wife and teenage daughters, as well as his campaign team, as he was announced winner of the biggest job in London politics.

The result means he won a bigger share of the vote than even his predecessor Boris Johnson, taking 56.8 per cent to Mr Goldsmiths 43.2 per cent, a difference of 13.6 per cent.

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It is the biggest margin in the history of the mayoralty, apart from when Ken Livingstone ran as an independent in 2000 against Tory Steve Norris.

Mr Goldsmith congratulated Mr Khan and added: I wish him well to build on the success that weve seen under Boris Johnson and to take them further.

Mr Khans means City Hall will be run by a Labour mayor for the first time since his predecessor Ken Livingstone was beaten by Mr Johnson in 2008.

The win will be a major boost to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after his party slumped to third place in Scotland and achieved mixed results in council elections across England.

Victorious: Sadiq Khan / REUTERS/Toby Melville

Outgoing mayor Boris Johnson, who remains Mayor until Monday morning because of the delay in the announcement of the result, spent the evening at a family dinner.

He said: "Many congratulations to Sadiq on securing a huge mandate to do the best job in British politics. I wish him every possible success and will be calling him in the morning.

"I have also been in touch with Zac and thanked him for his heroic efforts to carry the Conservative banner in our city, in spite of the strong headwinds he faced at this stage in the political cycle.

"I believe the high turnout is proof once again that the London mayoralty is now firmly established in the public mind, and I have no doubt the incoming mayor will be able to use the growing powers of the job to deliver improvements in the lives of Londoners."

Chancellor George Osborne pledged to try to co-operate with Mr Khan in his new role, tweeting: .@zacgoldsmith would have made a fine Mayor. But congratulations to @sadiqkhan. We'll try to work together in the interests of London.

Labour leader Mr Corbyn was among the first to pay tribute to Mr Khan after his victory, tweeting to the new Mayor: "Can't wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all".

Former Labour Minister Yvette Cooper tweeted: "Congratulations Sadiq! Fantastic, well-deserved result. Brilliant that Britain's capital city chose hope not hatred @SadiqKhan #LondonElects".
A Tory cabinet minister has defended Zac Goldsmith's controversial campaign to be Mayor of London, describing it as part of the "rough and tumble" of politics.

Senior Conservatives blasted Mr Goldsmith's team's "appalling" tactics yesterday, with Baroness Warsi saying they ran a "dog whistle camapaign" that divided people.

The ex-party chairman said the tactics had for "lost us the election, our reputation and credibility on issues of race and religion".

But this morning Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who previously branded Mr Khan a "Labour lackey who speaks alongside extremists", defended the Conservative campaign.

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He told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "Both candidates were asked questions about their backgrounds, their personalities, their judgment, the people they associate with.

"That's the nature of our democracy and the rough and tumble of politics."

Zac Goldsmith makes concession speech

The Defence Secretary was repeatedly challenged on Today to say whether he was worried about the capital's security with Mr Khan in City Hall.

He replied: "London is safe with a Conservative Government working with the new Mayor of London."

But former justice secretary Ken Clarke also admitted there were problems with the tactics.

He told the BBC the way the campaign had been run was a "mistake" and "probably had a counter-productive effect"
S adiq Khan today began the job of Mayor of London to rapturous applause and an impromptu standing ovation at a multi-faith swearing in ceremony in south London.

Less than 12 hours after being officially confirmed as Boris Johnsons successor, Mr Khan strolled into Southwark Cathedral to undertake his first ceremonial duties as the first Muslim leader of a major Western city.

He was greeted warmly by friends and supporters including actor Sir Ian McKellen at the signing-in ceremony on Saturday morning, which marked the end of the Conservatives' eight-year reign at City Hall.

'Mayor for all Londoners': Sadiq Khan in Southwark Cathedral on Saturday morning / PA

Large crowds applauded and rose to their feet as he entered the packed cathedral shortly after 11.30am.

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Mr Khan then received a second sustained burst of applause and loud whooping when he introduced himself with: "My name is Sadiq Khan, I'm the mayor of London."

During an address lasting barely four minutes, the human rights lawyer-turned-politician brought laughter from the floor as, in a nod to a much-referenced and parodied theme of his election campaign, he said: "Some of you don't know, but I grew up on a council estate."

He repeated his vows to be a "mayor for all Londoners" during the short, multi-faith service.

He said: "I can't believe the last 24 hours. I want to start my mayoralty as I intend to go on. I want this to be the most transparent, honest and accessible administration London has ever seen."

Mr Khan said his "burning ambition" was for people all across the capital to have the same opportunities he enjoyed.

Sadiq Khan sworn in as Mayor of London 1 /13 Sadiq Khan sworn in as Mayor of London Victor: Sadiq Khan addresses crowds during the ceremony in south London Ceremonial duties: The new Mayor 'signed in' as one of his first acts in the post Celebration: Doreen Lawrence welcomed Mr Khan's victory Glorious setting: The swearing in ceremony took place at Southwark Cathedral Rapturous applause: Hundreds rose to their feet as Mr Khan entered the building Roared to victory: Sadiq Khan arrives with the Dean of Southwark Cathedral The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn Supporters: Former Labour leader Ed Miliband with MP Karen Buck Family man: Mr Khan sits with his wife Saadiya New boss: Met chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, whose work will be scrutinised by Mr Khan, talks with Mr Miliband Warm welcome: Acting legend Sir Ian McKellen bows as he shakes Mr Khan's hand

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn led congratulations on Twitter using the hashtag YesWeKhan, telling the new mayor: "Can't wait to work with you to create a London that is fair for all".

But he was conspicuously absent from the formal signing-in ceremony.

Sadiq Khan's victory speech

Former Labour leader Ed Miliband, a close ally of Mr Khan, Met Police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and campaigner Baroness Lawrence, mother of murdered black teenager Stephen, were all present as Dean of Southwark Andrew Nunn told the congregation Mr Khan's victory brought a "carnival atmosphere" to the sacred building.

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Baroness Lawrence added: "This really is a glorious day.

"I never imagined in my lifetime I could have a mayor of London from an ethnic minority."

Mr Khan took 1,310,143 votes after second preferences were taken into account, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith into second place on 994,614. His tally gave him the largest personal mandate of any politician in UK history.
T his was the moment a 12-year-old boy stole a school bus then went on a joyride through the streets of a US city.

Footage captured from a car behind the errant vehicle shows it veering across the road and mounting the kerb before stopping at a busy junction.

The young crook was only halted in his tracks when a passenger in the trailing car got out and hopped on the bus as it waited in traffic, Bangor Maine Police Department said.

Public-spirited John W. St Germain then wrestled control of the blue, rolling missile of destruction from the youngster before officers arrived at the scene and arrested him.

In a Facebook post the police force said: The young man was taken into custody and John continued on his day.

[John] probably saved much property damage and even injury or death to an innocent driver.

Police said there were no passengers on board the bus during the joyride.
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WASHINGTON  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission confirmed on Friday that it had voted to approve Charter Communications Inc.s acquisitions of Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks.

The deals, which would create the second-largest U.S. broadband provider and third-largest video provider, now need approval from regulators in California.

A state administrative judge last month recommended that Californias public utilities commission approve the deal. The decision is expected at a hearing Thursday.

Tom Rutledge, president and chief executive of Charter, said in a statement Friday that the transactions have significant benefits including greater competition, broader access to affordable broadband, and new U.S. jobs. The FCC-imposed conditions are largely extensions of the longstanding consumer friendly values and practices of our company, Rutledge said.

A majority of the five-member FCC voted to approve the deals earlier this week.

The FCC said in a statement Friday that an order detailing the commissions reasoning and the conditions will be issued in the coming days.

Charter, based in Stamford, Conn., has valued its deal for Time Warner Cable at $56.7 billion, excluding debt, and the acquisition of Bright House at $10.4 billion.

The U.S. Justice Department gave antitrust approval to the acquisitions with conditions on April 25 and earlier Charter and Time Warner Cable shareholders approved the companies deal. The approval carried conditions to protect competition, coming at a time when the pay television industry faces stagnation due to new competition from over-the-web rivals like Netflix Inc and Hulu.

The Justice Department said Charter agreed to refrain from telling its content providers that they cannot also sell shows online as part of the approval process.

The conditions placed on FCC approval would require Charter to extend high-speed Internet access to another two million customers within five years, with one million served by a broadband competitor, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said.

Charter, backed by billionaire John Malones Liberty Media Corp, had pursued Time Warner Cable as far back as 2013.

The two companies had acrimonious exchanges in 2013 and early 2014 that ended with Time Warner Cable rejecting unsolicited approaches by Charter and instead finding a white knight in Comcast Corp, the No. 1 U.S. cable services provider, which ultimately abandoned the transaction.

Separately, the FCC on Tuesday approved European telecoms group Altice NVs acquisition of U.S. cable company Cablevision Systems Corp. in a $17.7 billion deal that includes assumption of debt. The Dutch firm still needs approval from the state of New York and New York City. If the deal is approved, Altice would become the fourth-largest U.S. cable provider. Cablevision has 3.1 million subscribers, mostly in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
OMAHA, Neb.  Two suspects wanted in connection with a fatal shooting of two men outside a motorcycle club in northeast Omaha, Neb., have been arrested in Missouri.

Bryana Larimer with the Columbia Police Department said Friday that 36-year-old Phillip Osby, who faces second-degree murder and weapons charges, and 39-year-old Zabrina Dunn-Osby, who was wanted on a terroristic threats charge, were arrested.

The two suspects are accused of being involved in the April 16 shooting deaths of 47-year-old Allen McReynolds and 52-year-old Victor Beatty.

The suspects have been transported to the Boone County Jail, where they will await extradition to Omaha. It was not immediately clear if the two have attorneys.
From the moment he took the helm of Harris-Stowe State University two years ago, Dwaun Warmack has touted his vision for the school to one day be recognized as one of the areas premier institutions.

It was always going to be a tough job, considering he inherited a university that dramatically lags behind its peers in numerous measures, from graduation rates to overall student performance.

Even so, Warmack sees potential for growth, working to add the schools first graduate degree programs and team up with other universities on programs aimed at boosting enrollment.

But despite promises to raise the standards at the small midtown campus, there are signs of dysfunction  with questionable hires of key administrators, tumultuous firings and clashes between underlings.

The human resources department  charged with handling sensitive tasks such as hiring, firing and payroll  was, for much of the last two years, overseen by a four-time felon with convictions for theft and embezzlement. Warmack apparently hired her without knowing she had served two stints in prison.

The universitys public-safety operations, which have experienced high turnover among top brass, have been under the command of an ex-police officer from East St. Louis who had resigned from the force after showing up drunk to a burglary call.

Most glaringly, the school has struggled to comply with federal standards on crime reporting.

The administrative gaffes threaten to distract the school from a challenging and vital educational mission. Harris-Stowe is taking on one of the most difficult jobs in all of higher education  enrolling some of the least prepared students and guiding them through to graduation.

For decades, the school has had a pattern of low academic performance.

Its 10 percent graduation rate is among the worst in the country; starting salaries for recent graduates are nearly $20,000 lower than the national average; and a whopping 57 percent of freshmen dont return for their sophomore year.

Even when theres money on the line, Harris-Stowe, so far, finds it difficult to raise achievement levels.

State lawmakers recently passed a performance funding bill that rewards colleges and universities with extra cash for showing improvement in areas such as keeping students enrolled, how students fare on tests and how many students earn degrees.

This year, schools are competing for a share of $33 million. To get a piece of the money, each school is judged on five categories of its own choosing.

In last years performance report, Harris-Stowe stands out for its poor showing  hitting its performance target in just one of five categories. Every other public university in the state hit all five targets, except for Northwest Missouri State University, which hit four of five.

Leroy Wade, interim commissioner with the state Department of Higher Education, notes that Harris-Stowe was close in a couple of categories, missing its targets by only a few students.

Its a tough situation for them to be in, but youve got to have a threshold somewhere, he said

You wouldnt know of Harris-Stowes struggles by talking to Warmack.

We just had the most outstanding year in school history, he said recently, referring to the 2014-15 school year. We raised more money than we had in the previous three years, we saw record enrollment and weve increased our degree offerings. Were on track to do amazing things.

Warmack and others in higher education say that statistics dont always tell the story at a school like Harris-Stowe.

In general, a Harris-Stowe student comes from a low-income family and attended a low-performing high school, and, as a consequence, the climb to college is typically much harder. But for all those same reasons, Harris-Stowe and schools like it have been viewed as perhaps the best hope of delivering an education to those who need it most.

The school  formed after the all-white Harris Teachers College merged with the all-black Stowe Teachers College in 1954  has been among the most accessible higher-education options for students in urban St. Louis. And its teaching college has long supplied St. Louis Public Schools with much of its faculty.

Its a school with a significant number of so-called nontraditional students  students who didnt go to college immediately after high school but later decide to pursue a degree.

Nontraditional students typically take a meandering path toward earning a degree, transferring from one school to another, and often not finishing within six years.

Transfer students and students who dont finish in six years are not counted in a schools official graduation statistics  wreaking havoc on the statistical performance of institutions such as Harris-Stowe that enroll large numbers of nontraditional students.

At Warmacks previous job at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.  another historically black university  he boasted of having raised enrollment while also increasing academic standards.

He sees opportunity to do the same at Harris-Stowe.

Warmack is the third president to run the university since 2011. Prior to that, the school was run by Henry Givens Jr., a leader who loomed large over the school for more than three decades.

Warmack, 39, says one of the keys to improvement is forming partnerships in the community.

Early last year, Warmack secured a $500,000 gift from Emerson to provide scholarships at Harris-Stowe.

Hes also recently formed alliances with schools such as St. Louis University and Washington University for dual degree programs. The programs allow students to earn bachelors and masters degrees in a shortened time frame.

Questionable hire

In October 2014, in his first few months on the job, Warmack hired Tammy Kimbrough to run human resources and also oversee payroll for a time.

Kimbrough brought with her a rap sheet that included mail fraud, thefts from a bank, and later a credit union, and multiple incidents of lying to the government to secure welfare or unemployment benefits.

In 2001, when she was working at Metro East Credit Union, Kimbrough deposited at least three checks payable to the credit union into her own account, and issued a $40,000 check from the credit union to buy herself a Lexus. After she was fired, she fraudulently filed for $16,000 in unemployment.

After more than three years in federal prison, she was released to probation, but violated her probation numerous times by misusing Social Security numbers and making false statements to authorities. A judge revoked her probation and sentenced her to a federal medical center for eight months before she was released in February 2012.

In an interview in March, Warmack said he knew none of this before hiring Kimbrough as director of human resources. He said shed passed the necessary background checks and had come with a recommendation from a previous employer.

Warmack said he learned about her criminal past after he hired her. He kept her on staff, though she no longer oversaw payroll, he said. Harris-Stowe is a place that believes in giving second chances, he said.

But one expert says such a job is too important to take that risk.

Steven L. Thomas, a professor of human resources management at Missouri State University, said a director of human resources has access to sensitive information and should be an individual with uncompromising integrity (and) a high level of ethical responsibility.

You take a great deal of risk and create the potential liability for that company or organization when you hire someone with that type of criminal record in an area that is related to the responsibilities of the job.

Kimbrough said her problems with stealing were long in the past by the time she started working at Harris-Stowe in fall 2014. She said she deserved a chance.

She chalked up her criminal history to mistakes she made to survive while living as a battered wife in two different marriages. I was younger with children, broke and frightened, she said. Both occasions were of me trying to get out of the marriages and running with my children. I am not proud of it, and I have learned from my mistakes.

Kimbrough left her position in December. A university website lists her as being on disability leave. School officials provided no additional details, saying they will not comment on personnel matters.

Problems with security

Shortly after Warmack took over as university president in July 2014, he arranged for a consultant to assess Harris-Stowes public-safety office. In January 2015, the consultant issued a report critical of the schools approach to campus safety.

It points to sparsely trained officers and polarizing leadership. The department lacks clear direction and operates almost exclusively reactive on a day-to-day basis, the report says. Furthermore, the department presently lacks any updated formal standard operating policies and procedures.

The consultant added that there is no incident or case-tracking program, and from our interviews the consensus was that responses to calls for service (were) slow to not at all, and that complainants do not typically know what happened to their report.

In light of that study, the university, in October, brought in Lynne Harrison, a former St. Louis County police officer who had worked for three years as an instructor in criminal justice and sociology at Virginia State University.

But Harrison said she was blocked from performing her duties and was unable to penetrate the inner circle of Warmacks administration.

What happened was that I was obstructed from doing my job, she said.

In one particular case, Harrison wanted to interview Kimbrough about two incidents where checks were fraudulently written or cashed from a university account.

Kimbrough balked at Harrisons attempt to interview her as part of the investigation. She went to her superior, Emmanuel Lalande, dean of student services and one of Warmacks closest confidants.

Lalande said he put a stop to Harrisons investigation because of the tension between the women.

Harrison said she also was blocked numerous times from investigating other suspected crimes on campus.

In addition, she said she raised concerns about the campus nonfunctioning blue emergency call boxes. More than just practical, the phones are symbolic of the commitment colleges make to public safety. But Harrison said she was told the repairs were too expensive.

Broken emergency boxes could be a liability, said Chris Dorn, an analyst with Georgia-based Safe Havens International, which promotes campus safety.

If you have something in place, it should be kept up to date, he said. Because whether the box is going to help you or not, if you see it there, if you were under attack and its dark and you make it there, and you realize its not working, and you could have gone to safety somewhere else, thats obviously an issue.

Harrison was fired on the 89th day of a 90-day probationary period.

Today, the public-safety department continues to fall short when it comes to reporting, tracking and following up on criminal incidents.

In March, St. Louis police revealed that Harris-Stowe botched a drug case by waiting three weeks to file a police report after finding marijuana in a students bag, then making inconsistent statements to a police officer sent to investigate. The police dropped the case without making an arrest.

Warmack did not respond to questions about the universitys handling of the case.

Additionally, the university recently told reporters that several months of its crime reports couldnt be produced either because the records didnt exist or because they were inaccurate. Later, Lalande, the dean whose role includes oversight of campus public safety, backtracked and said he misspoke and the records did exist. The university has yet to produce certain records requested under Missouris public records law.

Unapologetic

Warmack remains confident that Harris-Stowe is entering a new era. He discounts the severity of the administrative problems, saying all organizations if scrutinized are prone to reveal blemishes. He suggests that disgruntled former employees are trying to damage not only his but also the universitys reputation.

Yet, the pattern of troublesome personnel decisions in key roles has continued.

After Harrison was fired from the public safety position in December, the role was filled by Ricky Perry, a former police officer who resigned from the East St. Louis police force three years ago after he was accused of being drunk and belligerent while on duty.

During his career in Illinois, Perry was named a defendant in eight police brutality cases, stretching back more than a decade.

In 2009, a judge threw out evidence obtained by Perry in a murder case, and prosecutors accused Perry of lying. Perry did not respond to a request for comment.

Warmack, for his part, said he will continue pushing forward his agenda  one he said will elevate the quality of the university by expanding degree programs and broadening its recruitment to boost enrollment.

I am unapologetic about our commitment to providing opportunities for the underserved, Warmack said. Thats our mission.

Last month, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education granted Harris-Stowe permission for the first time in its history to offer masters degree programs  the second step in a three-step process, and something Warmack has been lobbying for since early in his tenure as president.

And Warmack has made clear that he wants to control how his administration is portrayed, going to lengths uncommon in public higher education.

In March, he sent an email to all faculty, staff and students mandating that ALL media questions, inquiries or contact, including calls, emails, social media outreach and in-person visits, MUST BE REFERRED to the Director of Communications and Marketing...

But privately some students are voicing concerns about campus safety.

A freshman from north St. Louis County said there have been a few occasions this school year when nonstudents came on campus and started fights.

You call public safety and they dont come, or they dont come until 15 minutes later when its all over, she said.

Meanwhile, the blue emergency phones that Harrison complained about still werent functioning last week. On two of them, the wires inside the unit appeared unattached. Neither Warmack nor a university spokeswoman responded to questions about the call boxes.

One student said she was surprised to learn the emergency phones dont work.

I think its pretty crazy, said the student, who spoke on the condition that her name not be used because she is afraid of repercussions from the university. We should be aware of that. Security can get on us about not having parking passes on cars, but they dont feel the need to tell us these boxes arent working? They are supposed to be for our safety, but its pointless.
EDWARDSVILLE  A group including Madison County Treasurer Kurt Prenzler, a Republican candidate for county board chairman, submitted a petition Friday for a public vote to cut property taxes.

If upheld, the petition would put the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot. Passage would reduce the maximum levy allowed for the countys general-fund levy, which is only a small part of a property owners total bill  school taxes being the largest share. Promoters say it would save owners of a home valued at $100,000 about $17 annually.

Prenzler is challenging County Board Chairman Alan Dunstan, a Democrat, in the November election. Prenzler has sparred with Dunstan and the Democratic-majority board since becoming treasurer in 2010, and is the GOPs only countywide officeholder.

Joining Prenzler before submitting the petitions to the county clerks office was Dr. Mike Firsching, a veterinarian who led a separate petition drive in December that stopped a bond issue being considered by the Edwardsville School Board. Firsching said the cut proposed for the county levy barely moves the big rock, but its a start.

Asked about the politics of the petition, Prenzler said it is consistent with my campaign and my belief that Illinois property taxes are too high. He said the proposed cut would not affect schools or hurt general county operations because the tax now brings in a surplus.

This is about the easiest decrease we can see, he said. The county is overtaxing its citizens.

Dunstan called the idea a campaign gimmick and said it will force the county to reduce public-safety services  a warning Prenzler called ridiculous. The disagreement is a preview to the coming campaign.

They also disagreed on the savings to taxpayers. Dunstan said it would save the owner of a $100,000 home only about $5 per year, adding, Even if you take his number ($17), is that worth taking sheriffs deputies off the streets? This idea of a tax break is misleading the people.

Prenzler said the petition bears 10,000 signatures, more than enough to meet the minimum of 8,033 to put the issue onto the ballot. Opponents have until May 16 to challenge the petition, and disputes go to a special three-person panel  the circuit clerk, states attorney and county clerk  and then, if necessary, to court.

Dunstan said he wont file a challenge. But I believe there will be one, probably in law enforcement. Madison County Sheriff John Lakin and States Attorney Tom Gibbons already have said they oppose Prenzlers effort.The referendum would reduce the maximum general-fund levy by 20 percent, to 20 cents per $100 assessed valuation from 25 cents. The county is under the maximum rate now, at 22 cents, although the cut would force a small levy reduction.
All but 360 people in Metro East had regained power by Sunday night after powerful thunderstorms hit the region on Saturday.

The storms had caused about 30,000 people to lose power on Saturday as high winds downed trees and power lines. By Sunday night, most of those remaining without power were in the Highland area, according to Ameren. There was also a small outage Sunday night in the Clarkson Valley area of St. Louis County

The storm downed 14 subtransmission lines, Ameren said, and the utility initially focused on those in order to restore power to the most customers.

The storm swept through the St. Louis region with high winds and lightning strikes, hitting hardest in the Metro East.

Weve got lines down everywhere, Alton Deputy Fire Chief Mark Harris said during the crisis on Saturday.

By midnight on Saturday, Ameren had restored service to about two thirds of the 30,000 without power.

Additional safety and outage information is available at http://AmerenIllinois.com. Updates on outage restoration are available at the Ameren Illinois news feed at http://twitter.com/AmerenIllinois and http://facebook.com/AmerenIllinois.
Among the littlest people diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder  ADHD  nearly half get no more help dealing with their distractedness, impulsiveness and hyperactivity than that provided by prescription medication, says a new government report.

Thats despite the fact that for these patients  children ages 2 to 5 diagnosed with ADHD  behavior therapy can help children develop self-control, organizational skills and coping mechanisms, tools that would help them over the long run.

More than 6 million American kids  about 11 percent  have been diagnosed with ADHD, and a third of those kids, generally those most severely affected by the disorder, got a diagnosis before they even entered first grade. For kids this young, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that psychological services be tried first before medications are prescribed.

But 3 in 4 such children receive prescription medication, generally stimulant medication that can disrupt sleep patterns, cause irritability and stomachaches and blunt appetites.

And about half do not, in any given year, see a psychologist.

LASTING BENEFITS

That pattern of over-reliance on medication alone has changed little over recent decades, even as rates of pediatric ADHD diagnoses have soared.

A 2015 study in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry reported a 43 percent jump in ADHD diagnoses among American schoolchildren in a recent eight-year stretch alone. Among girls, the hike in diagnoses was even steeper.

Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters in early May that the benefits of behavior therapy can last for years.

At the same time, Schuchat said the effects of long-term ADHD medication use by young children is unknown.

The CDC is therefore encouraging pediatricians and other health care providers to work with families to make sure children with ADHD are receiving the most appropriate treatment, she said.

And that should include a discussion about behavior therapy as a first step, Schuchat added.

In addition to psychological services aimed directly at helping the child, services that help train parents to deal with and mold a childs behavior can be highly effective in managing a childs ADHD symptoms.

EFFECT

of Medicaid

Schuchats comments came against the backdrop of a CDC report that tracked the health care claims data of at least 5 million children from the age of 2 to 5.

It found that children on Medicaid, the federal health care program for low-income families and the disabled, are more likely than children who are privately insured to receive psychological services if they are diagnosed with ADHD.

Among young kids on Medicaid with ADHD, 54 percent received such services.

Among those who are privately insured, just 45 percent did.

Schuchat acknowledged that behavioral training is not available everywhere and is not covered by all insurance plans.

Some centers base their fees on income or offer group sessions, which are less costly than individual sessions, she said.

While states oversee the expansion of services available to children with ADHD, Schuchat added, physicians should stress to parents the desirability of getting such help for their children with ADHD.
By Jonathan Spicer and Jim Finkle

(Reuters) - In the years before hackers stole $81 million from a Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, senior Fed security officials examined the risk of such an attack - but judged the prospect unlikely, bank sources told Reuters.

The Fed managers worried that lax security procedures and outdated technology at some foreign central banks could allow cyber-criminals to commandeer local computers and breach foreign accounts at the U.S. central bank, according to interviews with seven current and former New York Fed officials and a former U.S. government official familiar with the discussions.

Over several years, New York Fed and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials discussed the risk of an attack made using the banking systems communications network, known as SWIFT, according to Fed and government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The New York Fed was concerned with lots of vulnerabilities, said the former government official. SWIFT was one of them.

But the Fed focused security resources on other priorities, such as preventing money-laundering and enforcing U.S. economic sanctions, officials with knowledge of the banks security operations told Reuters. Fed officials took some comfort in the fact that SWIFTs security software had never been cracked, the officials said.

The immediate result of the breach for the New York Fed is a claim from the Bangladesh Bank for payment of lost funds and a potential lawsuit. Beyond that, the heist showed that the U.S. central bank long understood a potentially systemic risk to a vital global finance network, but was unable or unwilling to address it.

The New York Fed declined to comment on past security priorities or on whether it had made changes since the heist. SWIFT declined to comment.

Before the heist, some New York Fed officials considered the threat of fraudulent transfers ordered through SWIFT a fat tail risk  a statistical term for events with low probability but dire consequences, said one well-placed official with knowledge of the discussions. Februarys theft from the Bangladesh Bank fit that definition - a bold cyber heist in which thieves attempted to withdraw nearly $1 billion in dozens of requests.

The crime rattled the banking industry because the conduit for the theft was the SWIFT network, an acronym for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. A cooperative overseen by 20 of the worlds largest central banks, SWIFT connects about 11,000 financial institutions globally that use it to order money transfers.

What everyone is realizing right now is that no one has ever really appreciated the risk, said the person with direct knowledge of the New York Feds deliberations.

SWIFT has said that the scheme involved altering SWIFT software on Bangladesh Bank computers to hide evidence of fraudulent transfers. Last week, SWIFT acknowledged that the Bangladesh Bank attack was not an isolated incident but one of a number of recent criminal schemes aimed at its messaging platform. SWIFT has declined to elaborate further.

Two Bangladesh Bank officials have told Reuters they believe both the New York Fed and SWIFT bear some responsibility for the failure to prevent the attack. The officials previously told Reuters that SWIFT gave Bangladesh Bank no prior warning about vulnerabilities, and the New York Fed failed to stop fraudulent orders when they reached New York.

The head of Bangladesh Bank is scheduled to meet next week with New York Fed president William Dudley and a senior executive from SWIFT to discuss the matter. SWIFT has said the attack was related to an internal operating issue at Bangladesh Bank, and the New York Fed has said it has no evidence that its systems were compromised.

Richard Dzina, head of the New York Feds wholesale product office, in remarks at a banking conference Tuesday said bank workers acted properly in releasing the funds. The system was penetrated, he said, because the hackers had acquired valid credentials to order the transfers.

$80 BILLION A DAY

The New York Fed holds trillions of dollars in funds for central banks worldwide. It processes about $80 billion in fund transfers in and out of their accounts each day, according to a New York Fed official.

Security is handled by the New York Feds Central Bank and International Account Services (CBIAS) division, a closely-guarded operation inside its fortress in lower Manhattan. CBIAS assigns risk profiles to individual countries and regions, assessing government stability, terrorism threats, and organized crime activity when deciding how to dispense cash to central banks and other official institutions, current and former Fed officials said.

In the months before the attack, the security unit was focused on bulking up its anti-money laundering protections, an initiative driven by the Board of Governors at the Feds Washington, D.C. headquarters, according to two people familiar with the plan. Another priority was protecting the Feds own Fedwire payments system from cyber attacks, several current and former Fed officials said.

Most transfer requests are approved automatically after computer screening. Only a few of about 2,000 daily transactions are flagged for review by employees, according to a New York Fed official.

One of the officials said automated scanners used for SWIFT payments were effective for preventing money laundering and enforcing economic sanctions - but would not defend the bank against fraudulent money transfers.

There is a balance here that has to be struck between allowing customers to make new payments and to conduct their business in a timely manner, and also to prevent really obnoxious or obvious cases of fraud, said Shehriyar Antia, a former senior New York Fed policy advisor and analyst in the CBIAS unit.

The CBIAS system specifically checks for typographical errors - and it was a thiefs typo, along with an unusually high number of requests for payments to private entities, that alerted the Fed to Februarys cyber attack, banking sources have told Reuters. Once alerted, the Fed suspended payments on most of the requests coming from the Bangladesh Bank, but not before the thieves extracted $81 million.

The Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh police and the FBI are investigating the attack.

A Bangladesh police official who heads the departments forensic training institute previously told Reuters that SWIFT servers at Bangladesh's central bank were vulnerable to hackers because of the absence of a firewall and a lack of basic security protocols.

LOOSE CONTROLS

Three former officials said that the New York Fed had recently focused on loose controls over terminals and other access points to the SWIFT network at foreign central banks, where bankers often order withdrawals for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The concerns focused on the possibility that banks would purchase computers implanted with malicious software or that attackers could steal or buy legitimate credentials from employees, said the former U.S. government official. An additional worry, according to two former Fed officials, was the possibility that a corrupt insider  possibly a bank employee  might have access to the SWIFT network and submit a fraudulent payment request.

Years of managing foreign central bank accounts gave some Fed officials concern that certain banks were ill-equipped to handle local security because of a lack of infrastructure investment and other procedural problems. But the Fed does not have the ability to audit the security protocols at correspondent central banks.

The vulnerability is that central banks, even in developing countries, have a lot of money relative to their level of sophistication, said the official with knowledge of the security concerns. Its not just Bangladesh.

(Writing by David Greising; editing by Brian Thevenot and Edward Tobin)
Andrzej Rzeplinski, head of Poland's Constitutional Court, is seen through a video camera viewfinder as he attends a session at the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw, Poland March 8, 2016. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's finance minister has asked the constitutional court's head to cool its dispute with the government until ratings agency Moody's has made its review of the economy next week, a sign of concern that the row is hurting investors' confidence.

Another agency, S&P, downgraded the country's rating last January, saying that reforms carried out by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) conservatives had weakened the independence of the top court and other key institutions.

Moody's, which is due to make its review on May 13, has said that Poland is facing heightened political risk as a result of the crisis, making its less attractive to foreign investors.

Government critics say the PiS party has undermined judges' independence by enacting reform that increases the majority of judges needed to pass top court rulings and changing the order in which cases are heard. The court has ruled the reform as illegal.

In a letter to the court's head, Andrzej Rzeplinski, published on the court's website on Thursday, Finance Minister Pawel Szalamacha asked the judge to show restraint in the conflict until Moody's decision on May 13.

"We will likely stick to our views as to the causes and the course of this disagreement, however I ask you to consider refraining until May 13 from public statements which could escalate it," Szalamacha said.

Rzeplinski has been an outspoken critic of the government's actions which he says amount to an assault on the court's independence. The PiS has said Rzeplinski's comments are politically-motivated, accusing him of supporting the former ruling centrists.

Even as Szalamacha's letter was published, Poland's zloty hit a three-month low against the euro on Thursday.

Financial markets say that the legal and political uncertainty generated by the conflict is certain to rebound on Poland's image as a poster child for successful economic transformation.

(Reporting by Wiktor Szary; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
A 37-year-old woman has been charged with murder after a woman's body was found on Friday evening

The Wellington woman killed on Friday night had only recently been married.

The woman, 37, whose name is suppressed, was found dead on Friday night at a house in the Wellington suburb of Strathmore Park.

A 37-year-old Wellington woman appeared in court on Saturday morning charged with her murder.

KATIE KENNY/FAIRFAX NZ The house where a 37-year-old woman was killed on Friday evening.

On Saturday afternoon a group of people were gathered at the victim's Wellington home.

READ MORE: Wellington police investigate homicide after woman found dead in house

An unnamed spokesperson said the victim was recently married but said the family were distraught and the victim's husband did not want to comment.

KEVIN STENT/FAIRFAX NZ Forensics workers arrive at a Strathmore, Wellington property where a 37-year-old woman was found dead on Friday night.

The spokesperson said the victim had no children.

One of the victim's neighbours was surprised to learn of the incident.

She did not know the victim well but said she and her husband were "quiet neighbours".

KEVIN STENT/FAIRFAX NZ Forensic workers at a Strathmore, Wellington property where a 37-year-old woman was found dead on Friday night.

The accused appeared in Wellington District Court on Saturday morning looking slightly dishevelled, with tangled hair and wearing a sleeveless, cream prison uniform.

Forensics teams were seen at the property on Saturday morning.

Speaking from outside the scene, Detective Senior Sergeant Warwick McKee said police were not looking for anyone else in connection with the death.

DAVID WHITE/FAIRFAX NZ Police at the Strathmore Park address on Friday night, after a woman was found dead.

He confirmed the accused had a young child, who was now with family.

"We're continuing to provide support to the families of both the victim and the alleged accused."

He would not comment on the relationship between the women, or the circumstances surrounding the death.

A neighbour of the accused said he had lived next door to the woman and her partner for about 10 years and described them as a "lovely couple".

She was a professional, the neighbour said.

In court defence counsel Chris Tennet sought interim name suppression for the accused, as he said he was still trying to track down her parents.

This was granted by Justice of the Peace Ann Clark.

The woman's next appearance is in two weeks in the High Court, but Tennet told the court he was trying to move the date forward.

"This is someone who has never been in court before or arrested, let alone had contact with the police before, except possibly to report crime," Tennet said.

Sergeant Garth Coffey sought interim suppression of the victim's name, which was also granted.

"Police consent to interim name suppression of the defendant and also seek suppression of the victim's name, again there are family members that need to be informed," Coffey said.

Clark said interim name suppression for both the victim and the accused would be reviewed at the accused's next appearance.

Murder carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

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Central Bank mulls curbs on finance companies By Duruthu Edirimuni Chandrasekera View(s): View(s):

The Central Bank (CB) is mulling measures to restrict finance companies from mobilising public deposits, senior officials said. While this will not be done in the short term, they said the regulator is keenly studying the Indian model where finance companies borrow from the banks  not the public  to carry out their operations. Well let the local finance companies utilise their existing deposits and then we want to bring in fresh regulations pertaining to deposit mobilisation, a senior CB official told the Business Times. According to him, the CB has identified that despite the monitoring and stringent rules that govern the finance companies sector, some firms dont comply with and abide by them.

This is the reason that therere always boom and bust cycles in this sector as we witnessed in the recent past starting with Golden Key, he added. He said that despite the CB conducting public awareness programmes through notices, posters and publications to inform the public of authorised financial institutions and to warn them of unauthorised persons / entities that engage in finance businesses, still a gullible set deposit their cash in these. When this happens in cycles, the system stability is affected. He added that the CB is aiming at establishing a clear and predictable framework of rules that helps finance firms to nurture the more stable forms of capital movement.

The regulator now governs 48 licensed finance companies and in January took over the crisis-hit primary dealer Entrust and two of its finance company subsidiaries  Standard Credit Finance Ltd and Multi Finance PLC. Several other finance companies including the Central Investments Central Investment and Finance Ltd (CIFL) are in trouble, depositors in the lurch and seeking government intervention. In India, finance firms (or non-bank finance companies) cannot accept demand deposits, they arent a part of the payment and settlement system. The official said that people are condemned to unregulated saving schemes and scams and the CB has tried hard in the past but issues of micro- and macro-prudential oversight have happened.

He added that more needs to be done to ensure accountability, independence, transparency and integrity of the financial sector. He reiterated that public confidence plays an important role in sustaining financial system stability. The regulation and supervision of finance firms, the promotion and use of standards of sound business and financial practice, explicit deposit protection and an effective disclosure mechanism all help to reduce the adverse consequences of a financial crisis, he said adding that restricting finance firms from mobilising public deposits will be another step in securing sector stability.
European carriers and domestic tourism View(s):

Some significant developments are taking place in Sri Lankas tourism industry, this year in particular when the country marks its golden jubilee in the organised leisure sector. Two announcements this week should not go unnoticed for many reasons. The return of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to Sri Lanka after a near 20-year absence bodes well for a sector trying to whip up more enthusiasm from Europe while a government plan to promote domestic tourism should whole-heartedly be encouraged by local hoteliers and the travel sector. After the conflict ended in mid-2009, only two European carriers have or announced plans to return. British Airways resumed flights to Colombo and Maldives in April 2013 but exited two years later in March 2015 as the route was not viable. The airline however continues to fly direct to Male.

Austrian Airlines resumes flights in October last year after a 7-year absence, so far the only European carrier to operate direct flights until this weeks announcement that KLM is returning to Colombo with twice weekly flights from the start of the winter season in October. On the contrary, there has been a surfeit of carriers from West Asia (Emirates, Etihad, Qatar, Saudi, Flydubai, etc) not only servicing the labour market but also tourist travel with seamless connections through Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha for the European market. A few Chinese carriers have also entered the Sri Lankan airspace. KLMs return has got Colombos travel trade buzzing as it has convenient through access to across North America and South America, providing better options for travellers from US and Canada if considering visiting Colombo.

I am excited by the return of KLM. This is a massive boost to Sri Lankan tourism particularly for the European and North American sector, said Ahintha Amerasinghe, Managing Director at Worldlink Travels. Amerasinghe, a travel sector veteran. Equally supportive was Sunil Peiris, Director at Jetwing Travels, who said that with only SriLankan Airlines and Austrian Airlines operating direct flights to Europe, a strong carrier like KLM will be a tremendous boost to the European market. Tourism is booming in post-war Sri Lanka with arrivals targetted at 2.5 million this year while room strength has risen to 28,000 from 14,215, 10 years ago. Revenue from the sector has also soared to US$3.0 billion last year from $349 million in 2009. European travel was hit a couple of years ago due to the recession but is making a comeback.

While Indian and Chinese travellers are the stars of Sri Lankas rejuvenated tourism product, the advent of more European carriers will be the vital shot in the arm for increasing business from that continent. Europeans stay longer than Asians and spend more though Chinese visitors to Sri Lanka are also seen as high-spenders. Germany and UK were the biggest source markets for Sri Lanka until India and (very recently) China took over the top spots. Meanwhile the Cabinet decision this week to approve a See, feel and protect campaign to promote Sri Lankas domestic tourism is a long-awaited move that should finally herald the Sri Lankan traveller harking back to the days when the old rest houses essentially were used by tired state officials on official outstation visits.

Often the Appu managing the place would whisper in the ears of a visitor Sir there is good venison or wild boar available. A shot of arrack with this meat as bite was the ideal respite after a hard days work on the field! During the difficult war years, it was Sri Lankans who kept the industry afloat when tourist arrivals dropped sharply. With arrivals in 1982 peaking at 407,230 from just 153,665 in 1977 (when liberal economic policies were introduced) and based on growth, Sri Lanka should have easily topped a million visitors by around the end of the 1980s, if not for the conflict. Arrivals hit a low of 182,620 (1987) and 184,732 (1988), these years being the period when the Indo-Lanka accord was signed, leading to the induction of Indian troops in Sri Lanka.

The recovery since 2009 has been phenomenal but could be even better, as the industry has repeatedly pointed, if the Government fast-tracks the country promotion campaign in overseas markets. While the domestic tourism campaign is linked to the golden jubilee campaign it should not be a one-off promotional event. Similar to the annual international promotion campaigns, equal prominence needs to be given to domestic travellers who form a sizable percentage of the tourism product. In some resort hotels, at least 20 to 30 per cent of the business comes from locals. Long holidays in Sri Lanka are spent vacationing in the South or East while Nuwara Eliya is a must-go for many Colombo dwellers during the hot April-May period.

A new type of accommodation  guesthouses, homestays and chalets  is also encouraging Sri Lankans to visit various parts of the country, as incomes grow and the standard of living is enhanced. Additional focus on the domestic traveller with enticing pricing options may also help Sri Lankans to choose holidays within instead of travelling to popular destinations like Thailand, Malaysia or Singapore, where barring Singapore, visa requirements are getting more and more stringent. Foreign exchange is one of the barometers of growth in the tourism sector but Sri Lankan visitors can help the economy in other ways  increasing employment and village economies. However in improving promoting visits to never-seen-before places for the younger generation of domestic travellers, Sri Lankans should also be conscious of the environment and waste and ensure that protection of culture and the habitat is part of the travel package.
Magistrate orders Entrust directors to be present in court on May 13 By Quintus Perera View(s): View(s):

A Colombo Magistrates Court was told that due to the lackadaisical supervisory function of the Central Bank (CB) some failed financial companies are allegedly involved in criminal frauds which would place the entire financial health of the country at peril due to losing investor confidence in government-backed securities. On a private plaint filed by C. Noel Shamil Mendis, a depositor of the failed Entrust Ltd and Entrust Securities Ltd, Colombo Magistrate Lanka Jayaratne issued summons on all the directors and some top management of the companies to be present in court on May 13. The complainant alleges that he had entered into an agreement with two Entrust Companies for his deposit to be invested in government securities and the money to be paid to him on maturity.

The two companies have failed and thus have committed offenses of Criminal Breach of Trust and Cheating in terms of the Penal Code, which permits the Magistrate to impose a jail term or a fine if found guilty. The complainant had expressed shock that Entrust Securities being a licensed primary dealer and supposedly being regulated by the CB has indulged in such a fraudulent conduct to date and though the companies have not repaid deposits of the complainant, these companies continue to put notices in the print media canvassing new deposits. His counsel submitted to court that this conduct continues even after the new board of directors has been appointed to Entrust Securities Ltd by their managing agents  National Savings Bank (NSB).

Counsel for the complainant further submitted to court that the fraud has jointly been continued by Entrust Securities and Entrust Ltd due to the lapse in the regulatory and supervisory function of the CB and this lapse on the part of the CB caused a serious dent in investor confidence in government backed securities and placed the entire financial health of the country at peril. The parties summoned to court consist of directors (past and present) of both Entrust Ltd and Entrust Securities and some officials of the National Savings Bank serving on the Board of Entrust and some top management of these companies.

They are R. Dushiyantha Senarath, K.P.N. Sanjeewa Dayaratne, T. Kanagasabai, Chanuka Ratwatte, B.N. Romelo Mendis, I.D. Bandara Dissanayake, C.V.A. Udayasiri Kariyawasam, N.N. Perera Jayasuriya, G.A. Crishantha Nanayakkara, R.M.S. Thilakawardhana, Sivagnanasundaram Jayawarman, A. Aswin de Silva, D.L.W.P..Rohana Abeyratne, A. Kithsiri Seneviratne, S. Navullage, C. Chulendra Hemachandra and A.M. Padmadeva Rajakaruna. The Magistrate ordered that the accused be present in court on May 13 despite objections from the lawyers for the accused-company directors. Jeewantha Jayatilake with Ralitha Amarasena appeared for the complainant while Kalinga Indatissa PC with Ranil Samarasooriya appeared for Entrust Ltd and its directors. Upul Jayasuriya PC appeared for Entrust Securities Ltd and its directors.

Entrust Capital temporarily barred from business The Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka in an announcement on Friday said that Entrust Capital Markets has been temporarily barred from all business activity. The commission said that the company has been ordered to refrain from accepting new clients, carry out purchases, transfer of securities porfolios and also refrain from client withdrawal of funds.
NDB Mobile App wins Most Admired Mobile App at the ACEF Awards View(s):

National Development Bank PLC was felicitated for its recently introduced NDB Mobile App as the Most Admired Mobile App at the recently held Asian Customer Engagement Forum (ACEF) Awards in Mumbai. The award was accepted on behalf of the bank by its Assistant Vice President  Marketing Sanjaya Senarath. Commenting on the receipt of this award, Mr. Senarath said We are honoured and humbled to be recognised by CEF. The bank worked hard to introduce one of the most customer friendly mobile apps delivering convenience to the user.

As a late entrant in this space we needed to create awareness to highlight the value and unique aspects of the app. Hence the shake and bank campaign that aimed to break the clutter and gain attention. While the marketing communication campaign is still ongoing with many stages to follow we are thrilled to be recognised at this forum. NDBs mobile banking App is the banks flagship IT lead initiative. Customers can bank with convenience; access their account to carry out various secured transactions from any mobile devices running iOS, Android or Windows. This comprehensive solution can be used on any mobile network. This app introduced the Shake element to make mobile banking fun and easy.
Sri Lanka sails towards fiscal consolidation By Bandula Sirimanna View(s): View(s):

Sri Lankan Government is set to prune capital expenditure of state institutions amounting to Rs. 626 billion while re-working the 2016 budget aimed at fiscal consolidation in the wake of an agreement with the IMF on a 36-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for 185 per cent of Sri Lankas quota in the IMF (about SDR 1.1 billion or US$1.5 billion), state policy makers revealed. The IMF is now working on the staff report for the Executive Board to get their approval towards disbursing the EFF in installment basis to Sri Lanka commencing from next month, IMF sources in Washington said.

The Treasury is facing a major task of tackling weak income generation with tax revenues down considerably while the budget deficit in 2015 has gone up to 7.2 per cent of GDP from 6 per cent in 2014. Amendments to revenue proposals have disfigured the 2016 budget beyond identification, an economic expert in the state policy think tank who wished to remain anonymous said. The IMF EFF will boost the countries dwindling foreign exchange reserves which has dropped to US$ 6.2 billion in March from $6.3 billion in January this year, he said adding that tax reforms are not possible at the moment due to low economic growth and missing budget targets.

Sri Lanka should take prompt action to improve tax administration, broaden the tax base and eliminate a range of tax loopholes as suggested by the IMF during negotiations for the EFF, he pointed out. The Central Bank is likely to issue sovereign bonds to the tune of $2.2 with the clinching of the IMF bailout facility by Sri Lanka. Economist Professor Sirimal Abeyratne expressed the hope that an IMF programme will bring short term temporary benefits, raising the confidence of investors and businesses that government finances will be put on a more stable path. He told the Business Times that the bailout facility would help to treat the countrys economic ills for two or three months and thus the government should take prompt action to tackle the current situation.

The governments action of tax hike increases revenue will help to reduce the budget deficit, he said adding that like spending cuts, it could cause lower spending and lead to a fall in economic growth. One of the best ways to reduce the budget deficit as a percentage of GDP is to promote economic growth. With economic growth, people pay more VAT, companies pay more corporate tax (tax on profits), and workers pay more income tax. High economic growth will reduce the budget deficit as there is a need to raise tax rates or cut spending, he disclosed. Meanwhile Fitch Rating said Sri Lankas IMF programme eases near-term balance-of-payments risks but will require sustained commitment from the authorities to address long-standing weaknesses in external and public finances.

Fitch said therefore it has no immediate impact on Sri Lankas B+/Negative sovereign rating. The downgrade resulted from rising refinancing risks, a decline in foreign reserves, and weakening public finances. But refinancing risk remains high. Sri Lanka has large external debts to refinance, with over $3 billion of external debt due in 2016 and an external liquidity ratio far below the B and BB category medians, the rating agency said The programme sets ambitious fiscal targets that may be hard to achieve. It aims to slash Sri Lankas fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2020 from a recently restated 7.4 per cent last year, partly through comprehensive tax system reform.

Persistently low government revenue, which has dropped to around 12 per cent of GDP, is a key contributor to fiscal weakness, and implementing reforms to the tax system could be challenging (last Novembers budget did not outline any major tax reforms), Fitch Ratings said. Meanwhile Moodys said the IMF programme will ease Sri Lankas liquidity pressures but not its fiscal challenges. In a media statement on Thursday, the rating agency said that the IMF programme will have a credit-positive effect on liquidity, but will only marginally affect government credit metrics, unless fiscal policy implementation is much smoother than we expect.

The IMF programme has three potential benefits for Sri Lankas external financing profile. First, programme disbursements, together with $650 million of forthcoming multilateral and bilateral loans, according to the IMF, will increase liquidity. Second, the IMF financing will be at more favourable terms than Sri Lanka can get through the market. Third, the agreement may help restore market access, Moodys said. However, we expect bumps in the sovereigns fiscal consolidation path because of difficulties in implementing robust revenue raising measures. We forecast a further increase in the governments debt burden and debt/GDP ratio this year and next, leaving Sri Lanka vulnerable to a shift in financing conditions.
Freedom of the press and power to suppress View(s):

What a cruel irony that was. While media bodies in Sri Lanka like others round the globe were preparing to observe World Press Freedom Day underscoring the importance of media freedom in strengthening democratic governance and calling on governments to remove the constricting shackles that inhibit effective and serious journalism, Sri Lanka was threatening to throttle the media.

Whether the timing of the threat a few days before Press Freedom Day was fortuitous or a premeditated move to warn the media it was time to draw the line, let the public judge.

Whichever it was, it showed poor judgment. When world attention, from the UN down to the media in member states and elsewhere was focused on the perennial struggle between governments determined to weaken if not silence the media and journalists who refuse to be cowed by the heavy-hand of authority, for anybody to issue notice virtually compelling compliance, might well be interpreted by international media watchers and civil society as an overture to impending nightmares.

The warning shots across the bow were fired by the newly appointed Secretary to the Ministry of Parliamentary Reform and Mass Media who had hardly warmed his secretarial chair when he dashed off a media release. Its content indicated that it is not the media that should undergo reform but those who espouse such ludicrous views.

The Secretary spoke with seeming authority on ethics, media responsibility and even proffered unsolicited legal advice admonishing the media it was courting trouble by describing a group of opposition parliamentarians as the joint opposition.

He made matters worse by saying that using the term joint opposition is tantamount to an offence which, coming from one who is said to be a lawyer, seems like a deliberate attempt to grapple with his own shadow.

One would have expected this official with a legal background to have quoted chapter and verse to point to the provision in the penal code or any other code which the media had transgressed or would transgress if they continued to use the term.

But alas there was not even vestigial evidence to suggest it was an offence to call the joint opposition (as it calls itself) by that term. Nor was it unethical, unless it was based on a hitherto unknown code of media morality.

The Minister concerned washed his hands of the episode calling it the secretarys personal views which in itself was strange since the release to the media was printed on a ministry letter head which should make it official.

Then the Deputy Minister speaking at a meeting organized by the Sri Lanka Press Council for Press Freedom Day was quoted in a newspaper as emphasising the need to introduce regulatory mechanisms including one for the electronic media.

Deputy Minister Paranawithana had apparently not stated what the regulatory mechanisms would be like. For instance he makes no mention whether he is referring to self-regulation or one imposed by the government. As for the electronic media it has already been reminded that they depend on licences issued by the government and is therefore at its mercy.

Lacking clarity, the Deputy Ministers remarks seem to point at the imposition of state-sponsored mechanisms.

We already have one example of such a system. Those who have been acquainted with the functioning of the Government established Press Council from the very start as I have and how it has been nothing but a tool of the Government of the day would surely see the SLPC observing Press Freedom Day as an unfortunate joke fathered on the public.

This is of course not the first time nor the last (one supposes) that this Government which had promised to bring back and safeguard media freedom and have proclaimed at national and international forums the return of a free press, growled at the media and made noises that hardly sounded encouraging to media practitioners.

So the latest threatening sounds just days before the world observed press freedom day would surely be read by the outside world as early signs that Sri Lanka may be preparing to retreat to the bad old days when critical media was muzzled and journalists killed or otherwise harmed.

It was only the other day that Reporters sans Frontieres (not an organization I particularly respect having written several times about its antecedents) elevated Sri Lanka some 14 places in its 2016 World Press Freedom index, but the country was still hovering round the 140s.

If the current theatrical utterances against the media are going to amount to a practical clamp down on them one way or another, the government would surely be reneging on pre-election pledges and would be hard put to defend itself in assemblies round the world.

Such retrogressive actions would hardly advance the cause of democracy and good governance that it promised the people. Today it speaks of sustainable development, a phrase that has now become a cliche, as the road to economic and social amelioration.

Perhaps those who advocate such a development path might take to heart UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moons message on Press Freedom Day in which he said that human rights, democratic society and sustainable development depend on the free flow of information and press freedom, stressing that these fundamental rights are vital in providing information to citizens.

He said that the media, including increasingly new online media, serve as our eyes and ears and all benefit from the information they provide. In many parts of the world there have been attempts to shut those eyes and ears.

All this is not to say that the media have not been without sin. That would be to distort reality. The sooner the media recognises and accepts this and the industry collectively takes corrective measures the stronger it would be in confronting the efforts of governments to threaten them into submission.

One can understand countries such as China with its one-party rule imposing harsh conditions on the media and their practitioners. Such states tolerate no criticism of their rulers or those around them. Recently the editor of one of Hong Kongs leading and respected newspapers Ming Pao was sacked the day after the paper carried a powerful front-page story based on the names of the rich and powerful Chinese mentioned in the Panama Papers.

Protesting Hong Kong media organizations and journalists blame it on Chinas creeping hand to control this special regions media, especially under Chinese President Xi Jinping whose brother-in-law is one of those named in the Panama Papers.

But it is understandable, though not condonable, that a one-party state will brook not an iota of criticism of its leaders. The problem starts when multi-party states that present themselves as paragons of democratic virtue or claim to be aspiring to such laudable heights, act with the same political malignity for the very same reasons  that their rulers are vulnerable and are increasingly paranoid about criticism.

Due to limited space one must put off for another occasion a detailed discussion on recent moves to control the media even in some countries which have been noted in decades gone by as upholders of media freedom and still retain some of those features.

Still one cannot put off comment of the media at home and abroad for bringing some of these troubles upon themselves by their unprofessional and obnoxious conduct that has sharply eroded public faith not only in politicians but the media also.

As seen from here there are two developments that have led to increasing public opprobrium of the media. Technological advances especially in the area of communication have created not only a plethora of information sources but also a lucrative field of mass titillation. News and information travel much faster through social media outlets and mainstream media are quickly devising ways to try and keep pace with them. But breaking news is often hurriedly put together and sometimes speculative.

Quite often information in social media is also gossip that passes from one or more recipients to others without ever going through the rigorous checks that mainstream media subject them to or should do. Thus gossip is accepted by some as believable fact and privacy is encroached.

Technology has helped in the setting up of websites run by persons who have had no training in news media. Some of them become purveyors of gossip more than respected news sites while some operate outside Sri Lankas shores. Even fugitives who have run away from the country ahead of arrest warrants issued by court and Interpol international alerts operate websites on developments in Sri Lanka which public officials have made use of in order malign their own colleagues.

The spread of communication especially via electronic means has created a demand for staff to man the new outlets resulting in largely untrained or partly trained persons being called upon to shoulder journalistic duties they are not yet capable of.

Without an understanding of the basic tools of journalism and journalistic ethics these people are let loose in the world causing more damage to the image of the media and arousing the philistine hostility of politicians.

While publishers and senior journalists have moved forward to try and overcome these difficulties through organizations directed at training in journalism and ethics, it is incumbent on all media outlets and operators of websites to join together and act collectively to strengthen the hand of the media against the censorious impatience of politicians.
Joint Opposition draws first blood in Parliaments black day of shame View(s):

Did rebel horde form unlawful assembly with vicarious liability attached to each?

The joint opposition stands in the nations dock this morning accused of turning Parliament into a well of violence. With scant regard to the inviolable norms of the House, their leader by proxy Dinesh Gunawardena led the charge to the well of Parliament on Tuesday to demonstrate their protest over a speech being made by General Fonseka and thus caused the 14th Parliaments first bloodletting when UNP parliamentary fresher Sandith Samarasinghe had his baptism of blood.

The fact that the well is the designated no mans land in the House upon which no trespass is permitted to ensure peace reigns in the House and had been so for centuries coming from Britains Mother of Parliament, had no bearing on those who were determined to bring their little war of attrition to their enemys table and raise the ruckus that risked their raid turning violent.

The question now is not who threw the first punch but who first flouted the rules of parliamentary engagement and crossed the borders of parliamentary decorum to set the scene to make violence the inevitable fruit of their original sin.

That dubious honour must go to Dinesh Gunawardena, the ground commander of the rebel forces, who, it seems, has given up the daunting challenge of following in the dogged steps of his father, the Borolugoda Lion Philip Gunawardena and instead chosen to become the Rajapaksa cats paw to further the Rajapaksa cause, sacrificing the interests of the Mahajan Eksath Peramuna  the party his father founded and which he inherited to lead.

Read in his own words what led to the melee. Addressing a press conference that same evening he gives the media a blow by blow account of how Tuesdays Parliamentary drama unfolded. Blaming the UNP MPs for starting the brawl, he says: The Joint Opposition sought permission from the Speaker to express their views on the removal of army personnel from the security detail of Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa.

That is entirely correct procedure and Dinesh Gunawardena was right in following it. The Governments decision to withdraw the military security provided for the former president and replace it with the same police security as provided to President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and to another former President, namely, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunge, was bound to stir a hornets nest amongst the joint opposition camp as any issue involving Mahinda Rajapaksa invariably does.

This is hardly surprising since the sole purpose and aim of this ragbag collection of small time parties with a breakaway faction of SLFP MPs who had received the best of all possible worlds under the Rajapaksas and were not only beholden to their former boss for past privileges received but also hero worshipped him as their future saviour from the toll of fate that awaits them, is to perpetuate the Rajapaksa image as the nations saviour too and ensure his welfare at all times. It is quite understandable. Furthermore it is the right of every Member of Parliament to ask the Government questions on any matter.

Then Mr. Gunawardena says, The Speaker granted us permission and we questioned the Prime Minister about it. That too is entirely correct. It conforms to Parliamentary procedure. The Prime Minister in turn gives his answer.

Then Mr. Gunawardena says: When the Prime Ministers explanation was over, Minister Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka sought permission to express his views on the same subject, and with the Speakers permission, Minister Fonseka had started to read out a prepared speech regarding the withdrawal of the army security of Mr. Rajapaksa.

The state of play at that moment was that Dinesh Gunawardena had asked the speaker permission to raise a question from the Government. The Prime Minister had answered it and upon ending his speech had passed the baton to the Field Marshall for him to explain why the decision was taken to change the guard. Sarath Fonseka had sought the Speakers permission to contribute his mite and thus expand the answer to the question the joint opposition has asked the Government. The speaker had granted it. All had followed parliamentary procedure to the letter. So far, so good!

But then comes the jarring part as events take a dramatic turn. Apparently to the joint opposition the answers to a question posed by them must sound sweet music to their ears or else it justifies a full charge into the pit of the House to show their vehemence against an opposing viewpoint. Dinesh Gunawardena tells the media: Then we went on to the Well of the House to show our disapproval of it.

Here, in this first deviation from parliamentary norms on Tuesday, lies the root of the rumpus. Democracy is based on tolerance and founded on mutual respect for anothers opinion, howsoever obnoxious it may be. Parliament is the forum for the vital exchange of ideas and the stamping ground for debate and discussion. And the right to answer a question and to receive answer is sacrosanct. But not the right to seek recourse to violence  the first refuge of the incompetent  merely because logic, commonsense and reasonableness desert the intransigent who champion without pause their blinding prejudices with bigoted fervor.

Take, for instance, the case the joint opposition was espousing with such simulated passion. The very charge levelled by the rebel opposition that the Government was practising political discrimination against former president Rajapaksa when it decided to withdraw the military guard so far provided to him and to replace it with a similarly trained police guard with STF back up, cannot be maintained when it is also the case that the president, the prime minister the former president Bandaranaike and other VIPs are also provided with the same police security. In other words only Mahinda Rajapaksa is provided with a military security guard. If the opposition claims it is discrimination, then it is indeed a form of discrimination  reverse discrimination, to provide one with a special contingent of military guards denied to others.

The justification claimed for this special treatment is that Rajapaksa won the terrorist war and therefore is a target. But then arent the president and the prime minister also targets? The threats come not only from terrorism but also from disgruntled elements in the SLFP who have the means and the motive to see the last of the two and would have no qualms in getting rid of their problems for good if they had half the chance to do so.

Or for that matter, isnt former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga who relentless continued waging the war against the LTTE during her double tenure as President, also a terrorist target even as she was in 1999 when a LTTE suicide bomber blew herself to smithereens only a few yards away from her presence? Providence saved Chandrika that day though she lost an eye in the service of Lanka as president.

Or how about Sarath Fonseka who, as army commander, laid out the battle plans and, personally leading from the front, motivated his troops to gain that elusive triumph over the Tigers? Have the LTTE stragglers forgotten his existence or forgiven the indispensable role he played in securing victory for the nation and wreaking disaster for the Tigers?

The president, the prime minister, former president Chandrika and former army commander Fonseka are today in power and are all terrorists targets. But they havent surrounded themselves with military guards though it is well within the power of the president, who is also the commander-in-chief of the nations armed forces, to order the immediate deployment of battalions to protect them. They have not done so. Instead it has been deemed that police security is adequate cover for them; and if its good for them, why, it is asked, isnt it good for a former president? Thus it appears that the decision to replace Mahinda Rajapaksas military security which he had with him when he lost the presidential election but was allowed to retain until now, is to correct the anomaly that had existed for the past 16 months in the security firmament.

In the eyes of many, the argument forwarded may justify the Governments belated decision. However if any parliamentary member has his doubts, it is his absolute right to raise the question in that august House. But when Dinesh Gunawardena, having immaculately followed parliamentary decorum up to that point, says we went on to the Well of the House to show our disapproval of it, does he consider he has the legal or moral right to order his troops down the mountainous aisle to lay siege at the prime ministers seat in the no-go area that is the well of Parliament?

And when he remains there along with his band of rebels, in spite of the Speakers assurance that he will be given time to reply to the answer, wasnt he aware that such occupation by force would inevitably invite counter measures from the UNP confirming the maxim that every action has a similar reaction? Can this joint opposition justify in any way their abject failure to match words with words with their attempt instead to make their arguments cogently with their fists? Hadnt their leaders the experience in street protests to know that a group once unleashed assumes the mob spirit that makes violence inevitable?

At this point at the press conference the self-righteous Dinesh Gunawardena refers to Sarath Fonseka and adds: His behaviour was also contrary Parliamentary procedure. Rich, isnt it, coming from one who had just violated the cardinal rule of parliamentary behaviour by storming the well of Parliament along with his comrades merely because he and they didnt like the gist of the answer given to the question he had raised? Then he says: The joint opposition never expected such an eventuality. What did he expect? A welcoming committee handing out strawberries and creme with a glass of the bubbly?

But it also takes two to tango. Whilst deploring the initial action of the joint opposition, the UNP members reaction in their leaders presence, no less, must also be condemned. The UNP member Palitha Thewarapperuma who was suspended for a week from Parliament after being named in the report submitted to the speaker denied he assaulted anyone. In a boorish comment posted on his Facebook on Thursday he gloated: If I had attacked someone, they would have ended up in a surgical ward and not in the accident ward. The Prime Minister, the UNP chief should make careful note of this and take the necessary measures to prevent the slide of his own party to the abhorrent levels of the SLFPs rebel faction.

Parliaments Black Tuesday must not be repeated. But the Speakers mere warning to the MPs will sadly not be effective. On April 11, he issued a draft code of conduct to all the MPs in the House and asked them to return it within two weeks to him with their comments and suggestions. It was a self-regulatory code which was described in the SUNDAY PUNCH of 24th April as one that was all bark and no bite. The deadline was April 25. Not a single MP of the 225 MPs in parliament has even bothered to return their copies so far.

Thus it is clear that appeals to members to voluntarily maintain the dignity of the House by being polite to other members and parliamentary staff, by being selfless in their natures, by respecting others opinion, by placing country before self and all that twaddle will not do the trick. What is required is for the criminal law of the land to be equally applicable to members within the Parliamentary chamber as it would be to members outside its hallowed halls. The members should be made to understand that though they are empowered to make laws they are not above the laws they or their predecessors have made.

Tuesdays incident which led to UNP member Sandith Samarasinghe being hospitalised after being punched, shoved, trampled and kicked on the head following his failed bid to break up the brawl should be a good starting point to commence police inquiries as to the possibility of framing charges against those who assaulted. Like in any other criminal investigation, Parliaments CCTV cameras could be used to determine the offenders.

Inquiries should also be made to determine whether all the members who participated in the melee were members who knowingly participated in an unlawful assembly of more than five people pursuing a common objective. In such a case, under section 146 of the Penal Code, if an offence is committed by any member of such an unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object and possessing the common intention of that unlawful assembly, every person who is a member of that unlawful assembly, is guilty of that offense.

Should the Attorney General hold that the actions of those that brought shame to the House of parliament can be held to fall within the ambit of the legal doctrine of unlawful assembly where vicarious criminal liability attaches to every member whether he personally committed an offence or not, it will surely be a compelling deterrent to delinquent MPs inclined to plummet parliament into pandemonium to think before they leap into the well.

When the internal mechanism to maintain discipline in the House has failed miserably, it is time to dial 911.
SriLankan pilots divided: Guild writes to Chairman View(s):

SriLankan Airlines pilots have declared that they have no confidence in their Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Captain Suren Ratwatte over what they claim is his derogatory and unprofessional conduct.

The accusations are contained in a letter Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka (ALPGSL) President, Captain Renuke Senanayake, wrote to SriLankan Chairman Ajit Dias after the pilots held an extraordinary general meeting.

A section of the membership is now up in arms with their own president following allegations that he compromised the Guilds position when the Guild letter prompted a response from Chairman Dias.

First to the Guild President Senanayakes April 26th letter to the Chairman: It was also copied to the Secretary to the Ministry of Enterprise Development and the Board of Directors.

Dear Sir,

Subsequent to the conduct and statements of the CEO at the meeting held with the pilots, on 21st April 2016 at the BMICH, which is also on record, we wish to state the following which is of serious concern and seek clarification of the below comments made by him:

1. The CEO stated that there was no proof of corruption/malpractices as highlighted by the Weliamuna report, mandated by the Government.

The CEO stated that the Honourable Prime Minister has intimated that he would close down the Airline in the event of any industrial action by any union of SriLankan Airlines.

3. The CEO stated that he was in active discussion for the induction of a new type of aircraft (Bomabardier C Series) into the SriLankan fleet.

Apart from the above, the CEO during this meeting made statements that were threatening and demeaning to the pilot community present.

Based on the above statements, the antagonistic and threatening language used by the CEO, and his demonstrated lack of competency in his capacity, the ALPGSL membership has unanimously decided to place on record our loss of confidence in the current CEO.

This derogatory and unprofessional conduct of the CEO has occurred while the pilots have been continuously willing to extend goodwill in support of the airline.

Thank you

Capt. Renuke Senanayake

President  ALPGSL

The Sunday Times asked Captain Suren Ratwatte, formerly a pilot at Emirates Airlines, to respond to the accusations of the Guild and also whether his tenure of office, despite a probationary period, had been confirmed at a recent meeting of the SriLankan Airlines board. His response: You should be speaking to Mr Saminda (Perera  head of corporate communications).

The Sunday Times: This relates personally to you.

Captain Ratwatte: Sorry, no comment.

The ALPGSL Presidents letter drew a response to him within three hours from SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajit Dias. Evidently he does not understand what loss of confidence means. He said, I am in receipt of your letter and contents noted. Please let me know what you mean by loss of confidence in Captain Ratwatte.

ALPGSL President Captain Senanayake replied; Reference to your request of clarification of the loss of confidence in Capt Ratwatte, as stated in our correspondence addressed to you, I wish to state the following:

Despite the events that transpired at the meeting between the CEO and the pilots, the ALPGSL wishes to state that it was not intended to seek the removal of the CEO nor an intimation of no future co-operation with him.

The loss of confidence was in fact due to the seemingly less favourable response the CEO displayed towards the good intentions of the ALPGSL and the entire pilot community, in assisting the management in their unenviable task of turning the fortunes of a mismanaged, debt ridden airline back to profitability.

The earlier correspondence was therefore intended to merely state our stance and seek better cooperation and mutual professional respect from the CEO in future. Whilst I hope this would suffice in clarifying the previous correspondence, I wish to remind you that the ALPGSL is yet to receive a response to the points raised therein, regarding three specific statements made by the CEO.

Members decided at their extraordinary meeting that they would meet President Maithripala Sirisena after ascertaining the response of Chairman Dias.

Esala new Foreign Secretary

Esala Weerakoon, Sri Lankas High Commissioner in New Delhi, will be the new Foreign Secretary.

He will assume office after the incumbent Chitranganee Wagiswara retires on May 30. Thereafter, she is to be named the new Sri Lanka High Commissioner to India.

One among two senior career officers who were next in seniority to Ms Wagiswara is being given an overseas posting. The other will remain at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Government sources said more changes in the Foreign Service are likely in the coming weeks.

Media freedom: Obituaries still on Lankas front page

As the United Nations marked World Press Freedom Day last Tuesday, Sri Lanka did not escape the scrutiny of human rights organisations focusing on the safety and protection of journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 1,189 journalists were killed worldwide since 1992, both by terrorist organisations and governments in power.

Of the 20 deadliest countries for journalists, Iraq claimed the largest number: 174 killed. Sri Lanka was among the 20, with 19 journalists killed.

Still, the worst offenders in Asia were North Korea and Turkmenistan described as enforcers of blanket press censorship. Josette Sheeran, the President and CEO of Asia Society, was quoted as saying: The Asian nation that saw greatest improvement? That was Sri Lanka  jumping 24 places, to #141, thanks to a lessening climate of fear that had gripped many journalists covering the government.

But the lingering questions is: what action has the present government taken to either find missing journalists or bring to justice the killers, most of whom are still at large? Journalists in Sri Lanka are also awaiting an answer; or is it an unanswerable question?

PM responds to Champikas complaint

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday assured ministers he would discuss with them recent fiscal measures adopted by the Government. The idea is to explain the reasons necessitating them.

The move follows an issue raised by Patali Champika Ranawaka, Minister of Megapolis and Western Development.

He said that Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake and Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran had written a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over fiscal measures to be adopted. He alleged that ministers were not consulted on the matter.

Pujiths poojas push him to be police chief

The new Police chief Pujith Jayasundera was being feted by old boys of his alma mater, Dharmaraja College in Kandy.

In a jovial mood, he revealed, that there was a secret he had to share on how he became the Inspector General of Police.

He forgot about his usual physical training as he woke up in the mornings. Instead, he rose at 3.30 a.m. and was ready with 35 pooja mallas or floral baskets for offering to the deities.

He went to temple after temple and first recited jayapiritha followed by atavasipiritha. The last such piritha or offering to the deities was on April 18. That divine help made him become the IGP, he said as the guests at the ceremony laughed.

Mr Jayasunderas nearest rival, senior DIG S.M. Wickremesinghe also had a similar ceremony at the Devinuwara Vishnu Temple at 4.30 a.m. Yet, he was not successful.

It transpired that a person under investigation by the FCID, the former chairman of a state corporation, had arranged the Devinuwara ceremonies.

Dheepan gets rave reviews in New York

A movie about a former LTTE fighter, coping with life as a refugee in the backstreets of Paris, opened in New York theatres last week to rave reviews. Titled Dheepan, the film won the prestigious Palme dOr at the Cannes Film Festival last year but took almost a year to hit the screens in the US.

According to the New York Times, the lead role is played by a former Tamil Tiger who went by the code name Antonythasan Jesuthasan, described as a guy with the charisma of a Hollywood gunslinger.

The irony of the story is that the Sri Lankan arrives in France in search of peace and quiet but finds himself living in squalid quarters in a neighbourhood resembling a war zone populated by asylum-seeking immigrants. The wife, also a Tamil from the Northern Province, wears a hijab even though she is not a Muslim but the head scarf helps her to blend in with the migrant Muslim population in the Paris housing project.

The movie has been described as an immensely powerful thriller and a radical and astonishing film that turns conventional thinking about immigrants on its head. Directed by reputed French film maker Jacques Audiard, the movie is in French with English sub titles.
VIP security; what about citizens security? View(s):

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksas security detail came into parliamentary debate this week, and rightly so, but with an unseemly spectacle. The ruckus over who was right and who was wrong saw one MP hospitalised for trying to intervene and two suspended for going at each others throat.

The downgrading of the former Presidents security from an Army contingent to a Police one is at the crux of the issue. That it is politically motivated rather than based on some genuine threat assessment needs little argument. Political leaders often use VIP security as a political instrument to browbeat opponents. Ministers who resign from the cabinet have found their security withdrawn before they reach home.

The former President is getting a taste of his own medicine. When in office, he would provide security to his cabal and deprive it to those more deserving. Major General Janaka Perera, one of the officers in the forefront of the war against terrorism did not get his due security because he joined the UNP, which was then in the Opposition. The war hero paid for this with his life in a suicide attack in Anuradhapura. The countrys only Field Marshal has made no bones about his own experience at the hands of the former President whom he challenged on the political front. The Prime Minister gave him the floor in Parliament to defend the Governments decision to scale down the former Presidents security  and this led to the scuffle in the House.

On the other hand, when the Supreme Court ordered that former President Chandrika Kumaratunga was not entitled to a Government bungalow, the then President Rajapaksa ordered his secretary to ensure she got one  at Independence Avenue in Colombo. So, it seems, in these matters kissing goes by favour and not by any given law even though the Presidents Entitlement Act (1986) provides for a Government bungalow (or rent money), a secretary and transport as is provided to a cabinet minister for any ex-President or his widow/her widower. Alas, theres no mention of security.

Recently, a Government leader told a media delegation that an ex-Presidents widow who was entitled to such a Government bungalow was now asking that it be transferred to their children. He, for one, of course, was not going to live in a Colombo Government bungalow after he retires, he said. Rather, he would go to his village and spend his days on top of a tank bund.

The Governments argument that the National Security Council (NSC) has deemed it proper to withdraw the Army contingent guarding ex-President Rajapaksa is something it can tell the Marines. The NSC is headed by the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces and Defence Minister who is the President. Back in 2001, the Supreme Court rejected a request for the then President Kumaratunga and a few of her ministers to vote from home at the Parliamentary election citing security reports that they were to be targeted at the polling booth. Justice Mark Fernando held that the material put forward by the state agencies did not disclose any credible threat for them to claim that right. So much for these politically inspired threat assessment reports. After President R. Premadasas assassination in 1993, the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe asked the United States of America for assistance in VVIP security training. The request came on the grounds that democracy itself was under threat in Sri Lanka with elected leaders being targeted by the LTTE and therefore their protection was paramount.

President Bill Clinton arranged for the US Secret Service to train the PSD (Presidents Security Division) and the PMSD (Prime Ministers Security Division), Sri Lanka being only the second or third country to get that specialised training. Teams  all from the Police, were sent to the US, but shortly thereafter, the new President (Kumaratunga) discontinued the programme not wanting America involved, and almost paid the ultimate price with an untrained PSD when an LTTE suicide bomber targeted her in 1999.

The security of former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar is a case study in VIP security. When he was made a minister, and gave speeches defending the Sinhalese, he quickly became an LTTE target. From a solitary constable, he was provided special Police protection until he topped the LTTEs hit-list, at which point the Police detail was upgraded to an Army Commando detail. In 2001, when the UPFA lost the parliamentary election, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe had no hesitation in continuing Mr. Kadirgamars security strength  the entire paraphernalia of bullet-proof vehicles, escort jeeps, armed guards, dummy cars, maintaining the status quo up to retaining his official bungalow.

Back in ministerial office in 2004, Mr. Kadirgamar began having disagreements with his leader by about 2005, and requests for further security were being shelved at the Ministry of Defence. The three constables on static duty at his newly purchased private residence had to withdraw when the Minister came with the Commandos. It is the Police that check the neighbourhood  Commandos dont do that kind of mundane stuff. Ultimately, the Minister was shot from a window across his home; and as simple as that. So, for the former President it is not necessarily a bad move to be given Police protection. The para-military Police squad, the Special Task Force (STF), is adequately capable of handling VIP security.

Outgoing US President Barack Obama is already contemplating his exit from office after serving his two terms. In a convivial evening with the US press corps (White House Correspondents Association) he said he has decided to remain in Washington DC unlike most of his predecessors. He joked about having to get a new Driving Licence (as he hadnt driven for eight years) and played a funny video of how he would spend his free time but nary a word about security because that is a given. His successors cannot come and play around with such factors. Here in Sri Lanka, the issue of VIP security is not a matter of mere academic interest to the citizens. While they would appreciate the fact that political leaders, especially those who were in the forefront of the war against terrorism in recent years deserve adequate protection, consider the factual case of one Colombo Police station that has 450 men. Half of them are protecting VIPs, another lot are on traffic duty and only 17 are handling the Crime desk at the station.

Murders, robberies, rapes, drugs, cases of incest, sexual exploitation of children continue unabated throughout the country while Police stations are hamstrung by the lack of manpower due to an over-emphasis on VIP protection from Ministers to deputy ministers to Provincial councillors.

Following Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhis assassination, a report on VVIP protection said that the task assigned to many of her bodyguards was to make chai (tea) for visitors. Even here, many of them are used to take children to school or deliver letters. They are glorified domestics but few of them complain because they see this as a short-cut to promotions courtesy the VIP.

The increased VAT that the ordinary people are asked to cough up from this week is not only for the free health and free education that the Government says it must pay for. It is also for the Police. But what is the commensurate service the Police provide if their very existence seems to be to protect VIPs and water-cannon anti-Government demonstrators rather than ensure normal policing measures so that the life and property of the ordinary citizen  not just the VIP  is safe and sound.
Everest Trek blog: Making the journey to Camp 2 Sri Lankans Jayanthi Kuru-Utumpala and Johann Peries who are gearing to summit Mount Everest have already begun their journey. The following is a short description of their progress as conveyed to their support team in Colombo View(s): View(s):

This week we trekked up to Camp 2 (6,400m / 19,685ft). This involved trekking to Camp 1 (6,000m / 19,685ft), where we stayed two nights for acclimatization, then trekking up to Camp 2. We stayed at Camp 2 for two nights and did a day trek up to 6,600m  the highest altitude weve ever been to. We were pleased to get to this height and to not suffer altitude sickness.

From Everest Base Camp (HEIGHT), we departed at 3:30am and crossed the Khumbu Icefall, reaching Camp 1 about 6 hours later. Camp 1 is very basic and food involves snacks and meals that get boilt in water. At Camp 1 the winds were constant  they were blowing all day, and then throughout the night as well!

Trekking to Camp 2 involved leaving at 7am then there was a section involving ladders over crevices and steep uphills until we got to the Western Cwm, which is a gently undulating valley, and it felt like it went on forever. The surfaces in the cwm can amplify solar radiation, and if it is sunny and windless, the temperatures can rise to as high as 350! We had a windy day so it didnt get hot. We had two nights at Camp 2, and to help with the cold we would sleep in our sleeping bags which are designed for -40 degree temperatures, then double layers of thermals, a fleece top and a goose down top, down socks.

From Camp 2 we trekked back down to Base Camp to finish our acclimatization rotation. We were physically tired when we got back but please with our progress and looking forward to our next rotation which will take us up to Camp 3. In regards to the rotations Jayanthi said:  Getting to Camp 2 was not easy but it was amazing to get there and test our bodies at that altitude. Our next rotation will see us trekking up to Camp 3 where we will spend 1 night  this will be the biggest test of our bodies due to the high altitude there. Also, getting to Camp 3 involves climbing up a blue ice wall  which will be tough. Johann added Camp 3 is at an altitude of 7,200m and is going to be a big challenge. We are ready to do this as our final rotation before the summit attempt. God willing everything will go well.
Ranjan to build a cinematic bridge between India and Sri Lanka View(s):

Popular actor turned politician Ranjan Ramanayake was recently in India to build a cinematic bridge between the two South Asian neighbours. A film, a joint production between India and Sri Lanka is planned to be the highest budget cinematic production in Sri Lanka.

According to Ranjan the film is to be presented by an Indian producer who is welknown for high budget movies. During his visit Ranjan has met filmmaker Shankar who is famed for his directions like Boys, Aniyan, Indiran, Shivaji, and I Robot. An Indian Production Manager is to visit Sri Lanka soon to finalise the film and the pre-production of the movie is to be within the next four months.

The selection of the cast for the film is to be started once the Indian production team arrives in Sri Lanka and a massive cast comprising both Indian and Sri Lankan stars is to be played in the film.

Ramanayake believes that this film would be an opening to take Sri Lankan cinema to international prominence.

During his visit Ranjan also met two South Indian superstars Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth. (SRF)
Well met, young cast and weather gods By Adilah Ismail View(s): View(s):

For a person who has been dead for 400 years, Shakespeare has never been more alive. He is alive in our vocabulary  having moulded the English language, twisting verbs, nouns and adjectives to coin and tie over 1700 new words and well-known phrases. Words such as monumental, critic, obscene and phrases such as Alls well that ends well, Kill with kindness, Too much of a good thing and Love is blind can be traced back to Shakespeare.He is alive when academics spar with each other, debating questions of authorship and untangling themes. He is alive in pop culture Shakespearean themes, plots and archetype characters are periodically knitted into music, film, theatre and contemporary literature. He is also very much alive when agitated students seek refuge in coffee, expletives and condensed SparkNotes summaries of his plays, the night before exams.

In honour of the 400th anniversary of the Bards death, the Workshop Players in partnership with the British Council Sri Lanka presented Shakespeare in the Park, bringing Shakespeare to life in Colombo. The theatre group are taking on three Shakespeare plays in the syllabi of local O/Level, A/Level and university curriculums. The plays chosen for the festival are A Midsummer Nights Dream, The Merchant of Venice and Othello.

As dusk descended on the second evening of A Midsummer Nights Dream staged late April, an enthusiastic crowd armed with mats, refreshments, fans and umbrellas arrived at the open air theatre at the Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo. Making the festival free immediately increased its accessibility and it was heartening to see large clusters of students in the audience(often entire classes in tow with their teachers), otherwise noticeably absent when theres a hefty price tag attached to cultural events. The only dampener for the evening were the rumours of lightning and stray raindrops which ominously marked the beginning of the play and the false bursts of rain which punctuated it, sending people scuttling to seek refuge in tents or prop up their umbrellas. It seemed oddly appropriate that the heavier bursts of rain were reserved until the end of Act 2, after the four lovers clash in the forest  apparently even the rain gods have a sense of theatrical timing.

Shakespeares light-hearted comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream flits between love, the ethereal and the absurd. Drawing from a vat of references ranging from Greek mythology to varied texts, the play dances between reality and illusion, through the pairs of ill-fated lovers, never pausing long enough to dwell on substantial themes or character. In the Workshop Players interpretation of the play, it was refreshing to see fresh faces in lead roles and younger names taking on the mantle of director.Lahari Jayetilekes Hermia and Amaz Irshads Lysander were skilful portrayals of a young, lovelorn couple with their backs against the world and how the course of true love never did run smooth. Dinendri Indatissa brought the insecurities of a plaintive, querulous Helena to life, whose characters lamentations about love being a winged Cupid painted blind has a universality which still stands true today. The cadences in the chemistry  from playful banter, irritation, elation  between Oberon, played by Rehan Amaratunga, and Puck, played by Jerome Moritt was also noteworthy.

Perhaps areas of improvement were occasional instances of muffled diction and a penchant for over-enthusiastic performances when more measured, controlled acting would have been more powerful. While the first two acts were brisk, there was a tendency for the remainder of the play to occasionally lag in pace and energy.

Despite the erratic weather, it was immensely enjoyable seeing the Workshop Players work out of the confines of a theatre and with minimal sets  a nice departure from the theatre groups fondness for elaborate sets in their standard repertoire of musicals. The production made good use of the open space the anarchic carnival atmosphere, humour and chaos of the play is one that lends itself to open spaces  and was a solid effort by a young cast and crew.

Shakespeare in the Park, presented by the Workshop Players in partnership with the British Council Sri Lanka was a part of the British Councils global Shakespeare Lives Programme which commemorates the 400th anniversary of the playwrights death. The Merchant of Venice directed by Javin Thomas is being staged today, May 8 at 7 p.m. and the last of the festivals plays Othello, directed by Jerome de Silva and Nadishka Aloysius will be staged on May 14 and 15 at 7 p.m. at the Viharamahadevi Open Air Theatre.
10 Kelaniya undergrads face charges over ragging a fresher By Kasun Warakapitiya View(s): View(s):

Ten undergraduates of Kelaniya University allegedly involved in ragging a female fresher are to be charged under the Anti Ragging Act for which tough penalties could be imposed, police said.

Officer-in-Charge of Kiribathgoda Police, Chief Inspector (CI) S.K. Meeallage said police had acted after the student complained to them of being assaulted and verbally abused for wearing jeans to university.

CI Meeallage told the Sunday Times that according to the complaint, the fresher had been told to remove her jeans in public. Thereafter, abusive language was used on her and one of them had slapped her hard, causing her to strike her head against a wall.

Seven suspects were arrested with the assistance of other police stations in various parts of the country where they were residing. They were remanded till May 17 after being produced in the Mahara Magistrate courts, he said.

He said that, among those arrested are two first-year undergraduates who allegedly told the victim to withdraw her compliant. However, the possibility that these two undergraduates were forced to threaten the victim has not been ruled out. Police and the university will provide special security for the fresher who complained. We intend to offer her a safe house and security outdoors. The university will be requested to provide her security within the campus, he said. A search for three other suspects is in progress. They are from Negombo, Gokerella and Ibbagamuwa.

Under the Anti Ragging Act, sexual harassment or causing grievous hurt to a student or member of the staff in Educational Institutions is a non-bailable offence, for which bail should be obtained from a High Court.

If found guilty, they are liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, and could also be ordered to pay compensation of an amount determined by court.

Kelaniya University Vice Chancellor (VC) Prof Sunanda Maddumabandara said that, this time they allowed the girl to file a police complaint before an internal investigation. We are taking disciplinary action against the suspected students while ensuring the safety of the victimised girl, he said.

Ragging is a menace that affects university activities. To date, eight students have left our university this year for ragging. There could be more planning to leave or have already left without giving notice, he said.

He said that most students are experiencing stress and are mentally depressed, while some commit harm to themselves due to this.

Prof Maddumabandara said, Therefore, the university administration is compelled to take maximum action under the Act Prohibiting Ragging in Educational Institutions.

Kelaniya University Teachers Association Chairman Prof Sumathipala Halpita said the student victim took the right action.

He said the University academic staff too stood with her against ragging within the university.

Prof Halpita condemned the actions of the group of students who verbally and physically attack university students.

The University Grants Commission recently decided to initiate tough action to prevent ragging. Among the measures were to implement the anti-ragging act with tough penalties including expulsion. The Anti-Ragging Act introduced in 1998 has so far not been strictly enforced.
9,000 Rotarians worldwide attend Vaticans Jubilee Audience View(s):

Nearly 9,000 Rotary members worldwide attended the Jubilee Audience at the Vatican in St. Peters Square on April 30, at the invitation of Pope Francis. Rotary International President K.R. Ravindran who led the Rotarians, said, It is a tremendous honour to be a part of this Jubilee Audience.

Pope Francis has inspired men and women throughout the world  regardless of their faith  with his humble acts of kindness. His call to alleviate the root causes of extreme poverty and human suffering transcends religion, age, nationalism and politics. Rotary members from every religion, nation and creed share Pope Francis spirit of mercy and compassion, which inspires us to act boldly to address the most difficult challenges facing our world today, he said.

By promoting peace, fighting disease, ending polio, providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene, supporting education, saving mothers and children and growing local economies, Rotary members are improving lives and bringing positive, lasting change to communities around the world, a press release from the Rotary said.

Rotary has donated US$ 1.5 billion and countless volunteer-hours to protect 2.5 billion children in 122 countries from polio. More than 13 million people are able to walk today, who would otherwise have been paralysed with polio.
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said he hopes for an economic growth in the country despite Russia's aggression.

"Unfortunately, we have another tendency. I think it is very good that even in war times, even under conditions of aggression, when the country has to spend 5% of GDP or almost 25% of state budget means for defense and security, we find an opportunity to finance roads, medical establishments not forgetting about culture and spirituality," Poroshenko said speaking to Poltava citizens on Saturday.

He added that despite the conflict in the east of Ukraine, the country holds necessary reforms, and IMF makes positive economic forecasts.

"We restored a GDP growth," the president said adding that the state will move forward with the reforms.
Differently-abled still denied their right to equality- Activists View(s):

Activists claimed that, while the Government is taking measures to enact Right to Information (RTI) legislation, the countrys differently-abled were still being denied their right to equality, despite Sri Lanka having ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Persons with restricted ability make up Sri Lankas largest and most disadvantaged minority, said activist Dr Ajith Perera, a wheelchair user since 1992.

He said the countrys population of over-65-years will soon reach 17%, of which a significant number would, for different reasons, spend time living with deficiency in ability- to move, see, hear or to establish physical coordination. However, we are, still, routinely discriminated against and deprived of our basic rights- even for our education and gainful employment, in spite of being suitably qualified- resembling third-class citizens.

Dr Perera further said it was imperative to move quickly to ensure that the transition from exclusion to growing equality is rapid, and for the differently-abled to lead fulfilling lives as students, workers and citizens enjoying access to society on an equal basis with others.

However, he stressed this will not be possible unless the Government recognised the need to enforce existing legislation to ensure the rights of the differently-abled.
EU links human rights to trade: 58 conditions for GSP Plus By Our Diplomatic Editor Human Rights Action Plan etc. called for; talks in Brussels next week View(s): View(s):

In its haste to regain the GSP Plus facility, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has agreed with the European Union (EU) to implement a sprawling list of 58 conditions linking human rights, national security and other domestic concerns with trade, a document obtained by the Sunday Times shows.

Among the 58 conditions imposed are to revoke the Prevention of Terrorism Act, to expedite cases of remaining detainees, to introduce a new Human Rights Action Plan, review the status of the Tamil diaspora organisations and individuals on the terrorist list, to devolve power under the new Constitution, return all private lands to owners in the North, adopt a policy of National Reconciliation and on National Resettlement, finalise the re-settlement of all displaced persons, and to ratify the Convention on Enforced Disappearances with accompanying legislation as well as issue certificates of absence.

The EU insists that the conditions be met before Sri Lanka can even consider applying for the GSP Plus. The stringent stipulations come with short deadlines (most have now elapsed) and were accepted by the Foreign Ministry without any form of negotiations at the EU-Sri Lanka Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights in January, authoritative sources said.

Many were kept in the dark about the list, the sources said, adding that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had been furious when he learned of all the commitments made. He has appointed a steering committee to process it. Meanwhile, the MFA is expected to update the list to reflect new deadlines.

This is a clever ploy by the EU to rope us in on so many commitments and actions that it will be holding us to for many, many years to come, a senior official said on condition of anonymity. After all, given our middle income status, Sri Lanka is eligible for the GSP Plus only for a few more years.

David Daly, EU Ambassador to Sri Lanka, has informed the Government that implementation will be monitored and that it will be necessary to quantify progress, wherever possible. He has said that a continuous flow of progress from Sri Lanka is a key factor in being able to decide when Sri Lanka should lodge its application.

Commerce Director Sonali Wijeratne, who is said to be vehemently opposed to linking trade with human rights, is being sent to the Belgian capital, Brussels, for further talks next week. Ms Wijeratne will lead a delegation to the EU-Sri Lanka Working Group on Trade and Economic Relations Cooperation scheduled for Wednesday. She has asked to include Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda in the team to handle the non-trade components of the discussions.

The Government has committed to rehabilitate all ex-combatants by 2017 and to amend the Code of Criminal Procedure to include the rights of detainees by 2016. It has been agreed to adopt new regulations for public disorder management by the police by the end of March 2016; review the Public Security Ordinance; expedite the processing of remaining cases referred to by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; and to establish an office on Missing Persons.

The Government has agreed to security sector reform; to put an end to all surveillance, harassment and reprisals against civil society, human rights defenders and journalists; propose legislation allowing individuals to submit complaints to the UN Human Rights Committee under the First Optional Protocol to the ICCPR and to the UN Committee against Torture; and to reconsider the decision to establish the Press Council.

The list also includes an undertaking to propose legislative changes to ensure non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; to expedite prosecution of reported cases of torture; to launch wide public consultation and to disseminate information during the various stages of setting up a transitional justice mechanism; and to design a transitional justice architecture consistent with the Human Rights Council resolution and the results of the public consultation.

A fortnight ago, the European Commission decided to put forward a favourable report to lift the ban on Sri Lankan fish imports after the country was red flagged for engaging in IUU (Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated) fishing practices. The EU Council of Ministers was expected to endorse the Commissions recommendations.
Foreign criminals are targeting your ATM; two nabbed, more at large By Sandun Jayawardana View(s): View(s):

CID launches countrywide hunt; skimming device found in Kandy machine week after Colombo arrests As a countrywide operation is underway to hunt down the remaining members of a foreign gang involved in stealing credit and debit card information from automated teller machines (ATMs), detectives have advised ATM users, especially those in the Kandy region, to examine the machine before inserting the card.

The warning comes following the detection of a skimming device attached to an ATM of a state bank in Kandy town on Thursday, a week after detectives in Colombo arrested two Chinese nationals who had allegedly placed such devices at several city ATMs.

Criminal Investigations Department officers said the device detected in Kandy was similar to ones recovered from two Chinese nationals arrested last week. The suspects were arrested while they were trying to remove the skimming device they had attached to an ATM of a private bank in Wellawatta. In addition to the skimming device, the suspects had attached a camera on the ATM machine to get the PIN number of card users.

Thursdays detection puts the number of ATM card skimming devices found by authorities in the past two week to seven.

This is by far the biggest ATM card skimming operation detected in Sri Lanka, a top CID officer told the Sunday Times. He said this was the second occasion where the CID had come up against a gang involved in ATM card skimming. The first was in 2011, when a Romanian couple together with their Sri Lankan accomplices were found to be involved in attaching card skimming devices to ATMs.

The CID believes that the case at hand appears to be far more extensive than the 2011 case, given the number of skimming devices already recovered and the number of suspects involved.

Detectives believe that the gang, believed to be comprising Chinese nationals, had come to Sri Lanka with the sole purpose of stealing money from ATMs. If authorities had believed that the remaining members of the gang would go underground after the arrest of the two suspects last week, Thursdays detection in Kandy appears to indicate otherwise. They seem to have simply shifted their operation away from Colombo, the CID official noted.

CID officers said that one major hurdle faced by them  a matter that should raise concerns among bank customers  is that security arrangements for ATMs at some banks are far from satisfactory.

The Kandy ATM, where the skimming device was recovered on Thursday, had no CCTV camera inside. We have to hunt for footage captured by CCTV systems located in establishments nearby to see if the suspects were in it, the CID officer said.

He added that security was also lax in some of the ATMs targeted by the suspects in Colombo.

The CID began its probe following a complaint made by a private bank manager on April 26. The complainant had stated that someone had been illegally obtaining data of cardholders by attaching an electronic device to the banks ATMs.

Hard on the heels of this complaint, three private banks handed over to the CID three skimming devices saying they were detected by bank employees at ATMs at Fort, Wellawatta and Kompannaveediya.

Detectives had then analysed CCTV footage from cameras placed at the ATM booths and observed that the electronic devices were being attached by some foreign nationals.

While the detectives were studying the case further, the CID received information regarding two Chinese nationals occupying a hotel room in Colombo. The suspects were promptly put under surveillance. The surveillance teams had observed the suspects visiting several ATMs in Colmobo. They were arrested when they arrived at a Wellawatte ATM to remove the electronic device they had allegedly attached earlier.

A search of the suspects and their hotel room led detectives to recover a range of items. These included anATM card skimming device, 14 electronic cards, four cards with magnetic strips, a laptop, mobile phones, a 16 GB pen drive, Rs, 90,000 in cash and some US Dollars, Hong Kong Dollars and Chinese Yuan. The suspects are now in remand custody.

Jayanath Dias, Chairman of the Payment Card Industry Association of Sri Lanka (PCISL), said ATM card scams had been reported in Sri Lanka in the past and that each bank has its own security system to counteract such attempts.

Each bank has its own monitoring mechanism in place to detect ATM card scams. These include CCTV cameras and digital security monitoring systems plus internal follow-up measures Mr. Dias observed.

He also said all ATM card issuing banks and financial institutions were members of PCISL and that they were all part of a risk forum where they are able to alert each other in the event of a security breach. There are risk officers attached to all these institutions, creating an extensive network where risk assessments can be made quickly and information shared. It was through this forum that the banks which were targeted alerted others regarding the scam. This ensured that banks were made aware of the threat and the CID was also informed.

An extensive CID probe continues to apprehend the remaining suspects believed to be involved in the scam, it is not known whether the suspects had managed to steal any money or how much they have stolen.
With Jaffna boiling at nearly 40 degrees Celsius and little signs of rain, the municipal authorities try to provide some relief by sending bowsers to pour water on the main streets. Pic by N. Parameswaran
Photo focus: Anawilundawa wetlands under threat Story and pix by Hiran Priyankara Jayasinghe View(s): View(s):

The Anawilundawa Sanctuary, a bird-watchers paradise has a multitude of both resident and migratory birds and has been designated an international RAMSAR wetland ( the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides a framework for the conservation of wetlands), is under threat from several different fronts.

It has a total of 131 species of birds and 74 species of butterflies. It is also home to around 20 species of amphibians, 30 species of reptiles, 20 species of mammals including the Slender Loris and Rusty-spotted cat (Handun Diviya).

A tank system, dating back to the time of King Parakramabahu the Great in the 12th century, provides water to the sanctuary in addition to providing water for the cultivation of some 4000 hectares of paddy land.

However the fate of the sanctuary is endangered facing threats on multiple fronts.

For instance the ancient waterway which fed the sanctuary has all but disappeared. The ongoing drought has worsened the problem

Additionally, despite protests from area residents a large factory is under construction. Residents accuse these politicians now turn a blind eye on the issue and accuse them of being bought over by factory owners.

Another major threat is the spread of an invasive species of aquatic plant that is rapidly taking over the tank system inside the sanctuary.

W.M.K.S. Chandraratne, Assistant Director of the Department of Wildlifes Puttalam office said

a plan to provide water had now been approved and was being put in place with the assistance of the Puttalam District Secretary. He added human activity had contributed to threats faced by the wetland system.
President to meet Modi on Saturday View(s):

President Maithiripala Sirisena will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next Saturday in New Delhi, a spokesman for the Presidents Office said. The meeting will take place when the President comes back from Britain.

President Sirisena is visiting India on an invitation extended to him by the ruling Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP) to attend a religious festival at Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. The invitation was personally handed over in Colombo by a BJP secretary.

In London, President Sirisena will be attending the international anti-corruption summit hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron.

It will bring together world leaders, business and civil society leaders to agree on a package of practical steps to expose corruption, punish the perpetrators and support those affected by corruption.
Torture still continues: UN rapporteurs slam CID, TID By Chandani Kirinde View(s): View(s):

Two United Nations Special Rapporteurs yesterday accused the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and the Terrorism Investigation Divisions (TID) of using torture as a common practice in their probes.

Juan E. Mendez, the Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and Monica Pinto, Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, told a news conference at the end of a ten-day visit that despite a decrease in the number of reported cases of torture, the practice of interrogation under physical and mental coercion still exists and severe forms of torture continue to be used.

Torture is a common practice carried out in relation to regular criminal investigations by the CID. In cases where there is a real or perceived threat to national security, there is a corresponding increase in acts of torture and ill treatment during detention and interrogation in TID facilities, Mr. Mendez said.

He said both old and new cases continued to be surrounded by impunity and the present systems and laws in place like the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) open the door to  almost invite  police investigators to use torture and ill treatment as routine methods of work.

He added that confessions appeared to be the primary tool of investigations by the Police. The practice of conducting investigations while the suspects were in custody, rather than determining the detention based on preliminary investigations, also incentivised the use of torture.

The UN Rapporteurs said they had unfettered access to all the places they wanted to visit including detention centers, prisons, police stations and military camps and also met with victims of torture and detainees.I received many testimonies from victims and detainees. I found the testimonies truthful and many were substantiated with physical evidence that is conclusive of torture, Mr.Mendez said .

**Mr. Mendez also said that lack of access to lawyers from the time of detention of suspects amounted to inadequate and meaningless legal protection and this fuelled the widespread fear and mistrust of the police system among the population.

It would be important to establish a clear rule that a person must have access to a lawyer from the moment of deprivation of liberty, the UN official said. He added that the access to counsel only after a statement was taken by the Police in the initial 24 hours of detention was not appropriate and violated the due process.

Mr. Mendes also said the Government should repeal the PTA and any replacing legislation must be enacted after a robust and transparent national debate. The laws should guarantee protection against arbitrary arrest, absolute prohibition on torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, provisions for access to legal counsel from the time of detention and protection of privacy rights of citizens.

He also said prison detention conditions were more than deplorable and deficient infrastructure, overcrowding, lack of adequate sleep accommodation, ventilation and extreme heat combined to constitute a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

The two rapporteurs shared their preliminary observations and recommendations with the Government earlier yesterday and will give a full report in two to three months. Later, along with the Governments response to their findings, the two UN officials will present the report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) next year.
A perfect cuppa from the hills of Uva View(s):

Cecily Walker visits Amba Tea Estate that specialises in a small scale production of hand-rolled tea

Located in a remote part of the Uva Highlands, even the journey to Amba Estate adds to its perfect marketing image! The last six km is a small, windy dirt road, followed by one km of concrete track and 300 metres of cobblestone. Arriving at Amba Estate, which is more like a small-scale farm in the middle of nowhere, you are offered an authentic tea experience unlike most of the large commercial plantations one drives past in this area.

But apart from the setting, what makes Amba special?

Amba Estate produces tea on a small scale, following their mantra: Quality not quantity. In fact the estate only produces 30 kilos of organic black tea per month, an amount which at first seems implausibly small but in fact increases their exclusivity. To put it into perspective: most commercial plantations expect their pluckers to pick a minimum of 25 kilos of tea a day but at Amba the average amount picked by all the pluckers collectively is as little as 4.9 kilos a day. Emphasis is placed on the finest quality leaf rather than the quantity.

Due to their unique concept and smart marketing, Amba has conquered the high-end foreign market, supplying tea to renowned companies such as Londons Fortnum & Mason and New Yorks Harney and Sons. A huge achievement was breaking into the worlds rarest tea category in Fortnum & Mason known as Tea Hunter. They currently export 10% of their tea to the legendary Fortnum & Mason guaranteeing very high prices. The concept has been so successful that they have an impending list of high-end buyers with orders adding up to 200 kilos but they are currently unable to meet that demand.

Organic is a word too often thrown around and frequently misunderstood. In Ambas case all their tea is produced without the use of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, or other artificial chemicals and their land is certified organic by Control Union. Similarly, all their tea is processed by hand using a variation of traditional techniques. They do make some machine quality rolled tea which is distributed to the local market at a lower cost, however what sets them apart is their hand rolled tea. Because tea was introduced to Sri Lanka, India and other former colonies by the British as an industry all teas are rolled by machine for maximum efficiency.

Initially the idea of hand rolling Amba tea was a practical one: with their small volumes, it did not make sense to build a conventional factory so they decided to make teas by hand. Simon Bell, one of the directors explains, It was a bit of luck  we chose to make our teas by hand because that was the only thing that makes sense for a farm of our size, but when we took the teas to Fortnums and other top retailers, they were so excited to find a hand-made single-estate tea from Sri Lanka. Thus, they had stumbled upon a place for themselves in the niche market. Around 70% of teas from China and Japan are still made by hand so Amba adapted and imitated these ancient systems to create a hand rolling technique of their own. It is a highly technical and time consuming process, using the knuckles to carefully roll the leaf around the bud. It must be done slowly, requiring enormous patience in order to not break the leaf. In two hours one woman will only roll on average 750g worth of tea.

This level of precision and patience is why Neethanjana Senadheera, Ambas Production Manager jokes that only women can do this job! He explains how the same women are employed to pick and roll the tea as the process is continuous and that way they can control quantities.

Amba is made up of four directors who all value the hard work and skill of their employees, crowning them the superstars of the company. Salaries at Amba are fixed and do not vary depending on weight quantities. On top of regular salaries and bonuses, 10% of revenue is shared among all workers. Unlike a regular profit-share, workers receive this benefit even when the enterprise is not making profit. This provides motivation to work hard ensuring more money for each worker. Amba directors also encourage their employees to try the tea, reducing prices in order that they can appreciate and value good tea themselves which ultimately has a positive effect on the overall flavour. These employee benefits successfully overcome the shortages of tea labourers and Amba directors urge other local companies to adopt this system in order to stop the Sri Lankan tea industry diminishing further.

Currently with a work force of 50, Amba have a waiting list of over 250 local men and women who wish to work at the business. Their on-farm value addition has increased local employment by 300% and local incomes by 400%. Its a simple idea: keeping workers happy and valuing their skills results in a happier and more efficient working environment.

Constantly increasing demand means Amba Estate is planning on expanding to increase their production; but this has to be done cautiously in order to maintain the finest quality of tea. Being an organic business means it is hard to expand at a quick rate for two main reasons. Firstly, the land has to be carefully nurtured without the use of any fertilizers or pesticides and this process can take time. Re-planting and infilling the tea fields is a challenge in itself; in the first couple of years they lost 90% of new plantings during the drought in May-September. Now they only replant about 2 acres per year. So far they have replanted about 4 acres, and they plan to replant a further 6 over the next 3 years. But it takes 4 years before the bushes are ready to pluck.

Simon describes their second option: to persuade more local smallholders to supply Amba with fine leaf. He says This is also a slow process  although we pay almost 10 times as much as conventional factories, smallholders are not used to plucking only 1-leaf-and-a-bud, so it takes a long time to persuade them to try this new system and to ensure that they maintain the quality we need. The plan is to employ a full-time outgrower manager to increase the outgrower supply (and also increase Ambas impact on the local economy). Secondly, the work is skilled and involves a high level of training and experience in order to maintain the quality. Training new employees is possible but again can be a lengthy process.

Amba Estate offers a truly unique experience of tea production in Sri Lanka. A free tour is offered every day at 11 a.m. which shows off the lovely, intimate tea estate where tea and coffee, cinnamon and lemongrass grow side by side. All production takes place in the tiny tea factory made from the former tea labourers living quarters and for R. 300 they put on an informative tea tasting in the 125-year- old colonial planters bungalow which is also a small guest house. The tea is exceptional and even an amateur tea drinker can tell it is made from the finest quality leaves. Be sure to purchase some from the estate itself: if you wait for a trip to London it retails at 43 (Rs. 9000) for 1.25kg!

See the Amba website http://ambaestate.com/index.php for more information on the socially responsible organic tea estate.
Living together: A lesson from the animal kingdom By Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala View(s): View(s):

My brother recently acquired a kitten. Both my brother and his doting black Labrador, Dusky, are completely bemused by this new addition to the family. Already, at two months, Masty (short for Mastodon, named because he was the biggest and rowdiest in his litter) is ruling the roost. The image (at right), exemplifies the difference between him and Dusky.

Solitary animals  like Rudyard Kiplings The Cat that Walked by Himself  live most of their lives alone, and only socialise during the mating season or when a female has offspring. They usually carve out territories for themselves, and feed, hunt or escape from being hunted, sleep, and generally carry out their daily activities within these territories, defending these areas from entry by individuals of the same species. Wild cats, with a few exceptions, are solitary.

In contrast, social animals live in groups, sometimes forming elaborate societies.

The simplest form of social grouping is a temporary aggregation. This may be in response to a stimulation  for example, the reduction in the length of a day, which is one of the stimuli for migration in birds. When this stimulus is triggered, birds flock, and fly southwards in search of warmer climes. Sometimes these flocks, for example, such as those of the common starling, can be two million strong.

Another stimulus for temporary aggregation is mating. In some instances this does not involve a single male or female, but instead swarms of individuals. One of the most extreme forms of such an aggregation is seen in the Tisza mayfly (Palingenialongicauda) found in the Tisza River in Serbia and Hungary. Eggs are laid on the surface of the river and they sink and mature in about 45 days, but the larvae remain and grow in the mud for as long as three years, and then turn into adult mayflies. Millions of Tisza mayflies emerge in a synchronised event as one reporter writes  as huge clouds from the river, and have just about three hours to live in which to mate, before they die. This materialisation of the mayflies from the Tisza River is called the Blooming of the Tisza.

Other animals live solitary lives, but collect communally to nest. Examples of communal animals include orangutans and tarsiers of Southeast Asia.

Yet others live in colonies. These animals nest or roost in large numbers at a specific location. For example, some 402,571 black-browed albatrosses nest in the Falkland Islands, at a density of 70 nests per 100 m2. Many bats are also colonial.

Then, there are species which not only exhibit communal living, but also cooperatively care for their young, and show some distinction between who does and does not reproduce. In wolf packs,the pack is like a family  parents and their offspring from many litters.In lion prides, there may be up to three males and about 12 related females and their offspring. The females care for these cubs cooperatively, and even nurse each others cubs. The males defend the pride from other males. Females also hunt together.

Elephants live in matriarchal groups. Herds are led by the oldest and biggest female, and comprise many related females and their offspring. Elephants communicate extensively, look after each others calves, find food together, and collectively protect their young.

However, the most elaborate form of social grouping in animals is found among ants and termites which are termed eusocial (truly social). Here, there is a caste system  with a queen and her consort solely responsible for reproduction;sterile workers who clean the nest, find food, look after the young; and sterile soldiers who defend the nest from intruders.

As interesting as these examples are, much more interesting is why social behaviour has evolved.

In the simplest form of social grouping  aggregations, such as flocks  the obvious benefit is the advantage of avoiding predators. Species that aggregate gain strength and security by sheer numbers. If there are ten birds in a flock and a predator comes along, given that all other factors are equal, each bird has a one-in-ten chance of being caught and eaten by the predator. Multiply the flock number by ten and it becomes apparent that the chance now decreases to one chance in a hundred. If there are a million birds, the chance of any single bird being eaten by the predator is a mere one in a million.

Similarly as the old adage says many hands make light work, many eyes and ears will spot danger more easily. This increased vigilance from many individuals results in a decrease in the amount of time spent by each animal looking for predators and in more time feeding.

There is also the confusion factor: fish are well known for a stunt they pull when attacked by a predator that is called the fountain trick. When a predatory fish swims at a shoal of fish, in a flash of a second the shoal splits in two and swims outwards and towards the back of the predator in the shape of a fountain, grouping again behind the predator. This confuses the predator.

The corollary is also true. Hunting lionesses often confuse prey: one lioness makes a mock charge and the prey flee in another direction straight into the jaws of another female.

However, when one considers the alarm calls of deer (made when a predator is around), cooperative care of young, delaying or giving up reproduction in order to help another, the benefits become less clear. In Darwinian terms, what would one animal benefit by helping another, instead of getting ahead in the race for the survival of the fittest? What is the purpose of this seeming altruism?

Empirical data have shown that social animals do not help just anyone, but mainly their relatives. And this changes the picture, as relatives carry the same genes. The evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane, when asked whether he would lay down his life for his brother, famously replied For two brothers, or eight cousins quantifying the genes we share with our relatives.

This selection of relatives in the act of altruism is called kin selection. Kin selection explains, in Darwinian terms, why altruism in animals makes sense. In helping their relatives, individuals are, in fact, helping to pass their genes on to the next generation.

But what about examples where social animals help animals who are not their relatives? Vampire bats feed on the blood of other mammals. It is common that a foraging bat may not be able to feed each night. This is dangerous as these bats cannot live for more than a couple of days without food. Bats who have fed, regurgitate their bloody meal so that others can feed. Again, this alone does not make sense in a Darwinian context, but observations have shown that such favours are returned, exemplifying the biblical quotation Do to others as you would have them do to you. This form of altruism has been dubbed reciprocal altruism. (I must emphasise here that the term altruism, as applied in biology, must not be compared to the altruism that we, humans, refer to in our societies. As is stated in a dictionary of philosophy altruism in the context of animal behaviour is just delayed self-interest. )

Many of the animals described above have not escaped from the destruction that humans are wreaking on the Earth. For example, the Tisza mayfly is found currently in the Tisza River and its tributaries. However, in the past, they were found in many of Europes lowland rivers. Scientists are convinced that this disappearance is a consequence of pollution from industries and engineering of riverbanks.

The biggest threat to Asian elephants is habitat loss and fragmentation. In the past, most of our island had thick forest cover and this allowed elephants to roam freely, feed wherever they wanted and take long walks in search of water. At the beginning of this century, nearly three- quarters of the island had forests. Now less than a quarter is forested. As a result, the elephants natural habitat has become fragmented. Now, when elephants move in search of water and food, they encounter human habitation with the invariable consequence of conflict.

Lion prides are not only affected by habitat loss but also by hunting and poaching, again because of conflict.

In the case of gorillas, which are affected by the threats listed above, there is the additional threat of disease. Gorillas are closely related to humans and share many diseases. It is reported that Ebola outbreaks in Africa may have killed as much as 25% of the worlds gorilla population.

The problem with animals that live in groups is that often, when one is affected by some threat, so are the others. What could kill off one solitary animal, could decimate an entire group. At the other end of the scale, in an inter-species context, the most selfish of all species are humans. We have seen off to oblivion many species; we have destroyed, damaged and degraded large swathes of ecosystems and habitats in order that we may develop our cities and roadways and other infrastructure. In addition, we have killed off large numbers of our fellow humans while warring with each other. (It is reported that 108 million people were killed in wars of the twentieth century.)

Perhaps we humans should turn to the animal kingdom to learn how to live in peace with one another.
Marjorie De Alwis School marks jubilee year with pirith and day outing View(s):

As Marjorie De Alwis International Kindergarten and School of Music, Speech, Ballet and Drama marks its 50th anniversary this year, the school administration has organiseda series of events, including a ceremony to commemorate its founder Principal,the late Majorie De Alwis.

On March 19, the school held a pirith ceremony followed by an alms giving on the following morning, to invoke blessings on the school. Clad in white, students, teachers, staff members and the parents, both past and present,assembled at the school premises to listen to the over-night pirith chanting.

The school also organised a Kids summer tour on March 30. Around 200 kindergarten students and their parents and teachers joined the fun-filled day outing.

The event turned out to be a wonderful experience for the children, as they toured the city on board a double-decker bus. They toured along the streets of Colombo, with a stopover at McDonalds. They clapped and sang along with the cheer leaders to the music of a papare band.

Established in 1966, Marjorie De Alwis International Kindergarten and School is an activity school, which is far from being the mundane. Its curriculum is a blend of a whole lot of fun events, games and education. Here the students learn English as a life skillthrough music, dance, drama and art.
The organization of local elections in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions cannot be considered in technical terms, and no deadlines can be set in this context, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy said.

"This issue requires a very deep and philosophical discussion. We are ready to start this discussion at the parliament, and we are willing to discuss any options of developments, but I believe it is inappropriate when someone sets some deadlines to us, makes some demands, and turns the election issue into some technical forms," Parubiy said on Channel 5 television on Friday.

"We should talk about elections only when we can ensure security and relevant rights and freedoms," Parubiy said. "I wouldn't like the issue of elections to be put into some technical framework or a timeframe, especially when our soldiers are attacked on the eastern front and when someone is killed or injured on the eastern front every day," Parubiy said.

The political subgroups of the Trilateral Contact Group for settling the crisis in Donbas "are developing certain recommendations" for a bill on such elections, Parubiy said. "But there is no such a bill in the Verkhovna Rada database yet," he said.
Sri Lankan appointed to top Yale position View(s):

Sri Lankan Nilakshi Parndigamage, has just been appointed as Dean of one of Yale Universitys undergraduate colleges, Ezra Stiles. Nilakshi, who receieved her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Yale in 2006, has a juris doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, and has been practising as an attorney in the United States.

Nilakshis appointment was announced to the Ezra Stiles students by the Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway at a dinner held on Thursday, May 5. During his announcement, Dean Holloway noted Nilakshis leadership qualities and her many achievements at Yale and at the University of Virginia as making her particularly suited for the Dean position at Ezra Stiles College. Nilakshi has worked at various international human rights organizations in the Hague, Cape Town, Washington, D.C., and Baghdad, and has won numerous awards and fellowships relating to international law and human right. For the past five years, she has been practising as a lawyer specializing in complex commercial litigation at one of the worlds leading law firms, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP in their New York and Washington, D.C. offices.

In her capacity as Dean, Nilakshi will be the chief academic advisor to the 500 undergraduates of Ezra Stiles College, help in all matters concerning their academic programmes, apply and enforce the Academic and Undergraduate Regulations that govern student behaviour, and will teach a class at Yale the following year.

Nilakshi, who is a past head prefect at Visakha Vidyalaya, attended Yale University on a full scholarship. During her time at Visakha, she won several international public speaking contests and was honoured at the Buckingham Palace by Prince Phillip for winning the ESU International Best Speaker Award, where she beat over 50 competitors from around the world to clinch the title. During her time at Visakha, she was also involved in Sinhala and English drama and debate, was a member of the Visakha swimming, water ballet, and water polo teams, and represented Sri Lanka at various UNESCO conferences.

As a student at Yale, Nilakshi was involved in many student activities, including serving as the President of the Yale Center for Buddhist Life, where she was instrumental in organizing what is believed to be Yales first overnight pirith chanting ceremony in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.
Poroshenko sees Lutsenko as only one candidate for prosecutor general's chair  parliament speaker

Verkhovna Rada Chairman Andriy Parubiy has said that President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko see Yuriy Lutsenko, leader of Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, as the only one candidate for a post of prosecutor general of Ukraine.

"No other candidates named during a talk with the president," Parubiy said on TV Channel 5 on Friday.

He also said that according to Poroshenko the prosecutor general should be appointed as soon as possible.

Previously Parubiy said that Lutsenko "was the best possible candidate for prosecutor general's post."

The parliamentary speaker also said he expects that lawmakers will approve president's nomination for prosecutor general's post at forthcoming plenary week within May 10-13.
The running man dance challenge has hit the Bay of Plenty, first it was New Zealands womens sevens team who were based at Mt Maunganui. Now it appears a Bay kapa haka group are set to do one.

Now SunLive have heard Rotorua kapa haka group Te Matarae-i-Orehu are busy making a video up to challenge other groups in New Zealand to get involved in the challenge.
Improving health care in the Bay of Plenty was the drivers behind two major projects which now allow health professionals to access patient information more easily.



Bay of Plenty District Health Board information management general manager Owen Wallace says health professionals need to be as fully informed as they can be to give the best care in the shortest amount of time. These systems help the process.

Owen is talking about two new information sharing systems CHIP for GPs and MedCheck.

These were developed by the Board in co-operation with the districts three Primary Health Organisations and various other health providers.He explains the issue they have addressed.

People can receive healthcare from several places, such as their GP, pharmacy, or hospital, says Owen.

Each holds information about that persons health needs and medications. Until now that information has largely remained with those organisations.

So when a person goes to their GPthey may well have to repeat a lot of information that is already known and held by the pharmacy and vice versa.

"CHIP for GPs and MedCheck have linked up systems which improves and speeds up patient care.

Knowing at the touch of a button what medications and dosages a patient is on avoids delays in patient care and gives all the information necessary for decision making.

Simon Hodgson at Bureta Pharmacy says MedCheck has been a game changer.

Its really changed the way we help our patients, he says. We now have easy access to discharge summaries to reconcile their medication, in particular if there are changes to their regimen.

We use it almost every day now. In fact a patient discharged today, without a copy of a discharge summary, was given their blister-packed medication in a timely fashion after we were able to ascertain the reason for medication changes online through MedCheck.

Clinical Pharmacist Murray Foreman, from Medwise, agrees.

Having access to discharge information and dispensing information enables me to have a clearer picture when I see a patient, he says.

The ability to gather all the relevant information and then ensure other health providers are fully informed helps us provide a high level of care to mutual patients.

More than 90 per cent of the community pharmacies in the district have joined the MedCheck initiative and there are currently more than 650 registered health professionals accessing CHIP for GPs.
SH 29, is still closed near the scene of the crash and detours are in place. Despite this traffic is slow and motorist are asked to be patient. SunLive chief photographer Tracy Hardy who is travelling to the game says its taken more than an hour to travel to McLarens Falls.

The Chiefs host last years Super Rugby Champions Highlanders.

Update 2.19pm: Police have closed the road on the Lower Kaimai, State Highway 29 after a fatal crash between a car and truck.

Police have put diversions in place and ask motorist to avoid the area if at all possible.

The diversion is; Eastbound traffic is right onto Mclaren Falls Rd, left onto Omanawa Rd, right on to SH 29. Westbound traffic is left on to Omanawa Rd, right on to Mclaren Falls Rd, left on to SH29.

Update 2pm: Reports from our readers who are stuck at the scene says the traffic has "backed up for miles", at a fatal on the lower Kaimai Ranges, State Highway 29.

Reports from one witness who didnt want to be named says powerlines had been brought down in the crash.

A media release from Highway Information says the crash happen about 2.4km north of McLaren Falls and 2.5km northwest of Omanawa.

Motorists are being advised to avoid the area while police put diversions in place.

Earlier 1.32pm: Emergency services are heading to a fatal at the intersection of State Highway 29 and Poripori Rd near Tauranga.

A witness has called SunLive to say the crash which happen about 1.30pm was between a car and a truck.

A police report says the crash happen about 1.30pm a car and a truck collided near the intersection with Poripori Road and SH29. The driver of the car died at the scene.

Traffic diversions are in place and the Police serious crash unit will be investigating.

More information as it comes to hand.
This October we all get to have our say on who runs our city via the local body elections  but the process of voting will not be dragged into the 21st Century this time round.

Associate Local Government Minister Louise Upston has announced an online voting trial proposed for eight councils at this years local body elections will not proceed.
To celebrate National Nurses Week (May 6-12), we are honoring all of our exceptional Sunrise nurses and the outstanding care they provide within our communities each day. One of these extraordinary nurses, April Manuel, was nominated by her colleagues to receive a blog spotlight highlighting her determination to provide consistent, excellent care to all of her residents.

It is an honor and a pleasure to work alongside April.  Alexia Carballo, Resident Care Director, Sunrise of Marlboro, NJ

April, a wellness nurse at Sunrise of Marlboro, spends her days monitoring the condition of each resident. She plays an integral role in ensuring that all residents service plans are up-to-date and inclusive of any changes in condition. She is adept at using the latest technology, and quickly immerses herself in any new computer systems rolled out within the community. April is part of the BeSafe Committee and delegates safe practices to our medication care managers.

To me, nursing means providing quality care while ensuring safety, preserving dignity and loving what you do, April said. Nursing has its many challenges that can only teach and empower me at the end of the day. I believe nursing is to care unconditionally with a soft heart, thick skin and sharp mind.

The entire Sunrise family benefits from nurses like April. Please join us in thanking her for all that she does for the Sunrise of Marlboro community. Click here to learn more about the nursing team at Sunrise and meet the rest of our 2016 Nurses Week Finalists.

Join us in celebrating a nurse who has made a difference in your life this week. Share a photo or story about your favorite Sunrise nurse on Facebook or Twitter and use the hashtags #SunriseCares and #NursesWeek.
The Donbas militants resorted to armed provocations against Ukrainian government forces early on Saturday and shelled their positions seven times over the past 24 hours, the press center of the military operation conducted by the Ukrainian government forces in the eastern part of the country reported on Facebook on Saturday morning.

"In the Donetsk sector, [...] our strongholds near Avdiyivka, Pisky, and Luhanske were shelled with grenade launchers of various systems, large-caliber machineguns, and firearms. In addition, an enemy sniper regularly shot at Ukrainian defenders near Luhanske," the press center reported at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday.

A Ukrainian government forces stronghold near Shyrokyne not far from Mariupol was shelled with firearms and under-barrel grenade launchers on Friday evening, it said.

The situation in the Luhansk sector was relatively calm last nigh, it said.
The Australian-first Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub (AIR Hub) will bring together the best of Victorias aerospace research, design and manufacturing leaders to work with industry on the next generation of air mobility.
Three Ukrainian military servicemen were injured by hitting an explosive device near the community of Bakhchovyk in the Volnovakha district, the Donetsk region, Ukrainian presidential spokesman for the military operation in Donbas Andriy Lysenko said.

"No Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in action over the past 24 hours, but, unfortunately, three sustained injuries," Lysenko said at a news briefing in Kyiv on Saturday.

After receiving medical aid, the servicemen returned to their unit, he said.

No shooting has been recorded in the Luhansk sector over the past 24 hours, he said.

Low-intensity fighting is continuing in the Donetsk sector, he said.

The militia "are provoking Ukrainian servicemen into returning fire near Avdiyivka by shelling their positions with grenade launchers and firearms. The enemy also violated the ceasefire near the Svitlodar water reservoir and the Donetsk airport," Lysenko said.

The situation in the Mariupol sector has somewhat stabilized, he said.

"The enemy has not used heavy weapons. Brief enemy provocations were recorded in Hranitne, Hnutove, and Shyrokyne," Lysenko said.
The State Migration Service of Ukraine on a request of Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Valeriya Lutkovska to verify citizenship affiliation of Hennadiy Afanasyev, who has been sentenced to seven years of imprisonment in Russia, has officially confirmed that he is a citizen of Ukraine.

The State Migration Service's database confirmed that Afanasyev Hennadiy Serhiyovych was documented with a passport of citizen of Ukraine, said Lutkovska's press service.

It said that Ukrainian ombudsperson many times paid attention that automatic acquiring of Russian citizenship by Ukrainian citizens is one of the most cynical violations of human rights in Crimea.

Besides, in early March Lutkovska addressed to human rights envoy in the Republic of Komi in Russian Federation to defend the rights of convicted Afanasyev.

Previously, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has expressed its protest against the forced change of citizenship of Crimea resident Hennadiy Afanasyev, who was been convicted in Russia, from Ukrainian to Russian.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry recalled that on March 27, 2014, the UN General Assembly issued resolution 68/262 which reaffirmed the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, as well as confirmed the illegitimacy of the referendum in Crimea and Sevastopol held on March 16, 2014.

"Accordingly, citizens of Ukraine who live in the territory of Crimea, can be recognized neither as Russian citizens, nor as persons with multiple nationality. According to the law on Ukraine's citizenship, Ukrainian citizenship can be terminated only through the renunciation of citizenship of Ukraine, the loss of citizenship of Ukraine, as well as on the grounds stipulated by international treaties signed by Ukraine. Despite the presence in Hennadiy Afanasyev's personal file of a foreign travel passport of a Ukrainian citizen, as well as his official statements about the refusal of the Russian citizenship and his recognition of his Ukrainian citizenship, the Russian side does not recognize his Ukrainian citizenship and refuses to grant permission for his meeting with consular officials of Ukraine," the comment reads.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that the citizens of Ukraine who live in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and Sevastopol, and who were improperly provided Russian citizenship, will be treated in legal relations with Ukraine only as citizens of Ukraine.

Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) said on May 30, 2014, that members of Right Sector had been arrested in Crimea on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in some Crimean cities.

The FSB later said that the detainees had been plotting "detonating improvised explosive devices before dawn on May 9, 2014, near the Eternal Flame memorial and the Lenin monument in Simferopol and setting fire to the offices of the public organization Russian Community of Crimea and the representative office of the United Russia party in Simferopol on April 14 and April 18, 2014."

On December 25, 2015, the Moscow City Court convicted Afanasyev of a terrorist attack and sentenced him to seven years in a high-security prison. Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in a high-security prison, Kolchenko to ten years in a high-security prison, and Soloshenko to six years in a high-security prison.

On March 10, 2016, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry said it sent a request to the Russian counterparts asking them to hand over Ukrainians Oleh Sentsov, Hennadiy Afanasyev, Oleksandr Kolchenko, and Yuriy Soloshenko, convicted by Russian courts to Ukraine under the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

The Russian Justice Ministry said it will respond to Ukraine's inquiry on within a month's time.

On April 14, Afanasyev's mother said that her son had been informed by the Federal Migration Service of Russia that he is a Russian national.

"I have bad news. Gena has received a document, in which the Federal Penitentiary Service recognizes him as a Russian national," Olha Afanasyeva wrote on Facebook.

This calls into question the possibility of Afanasyev's transfer for serving prison time in Ukraine, as Russian law prohibits transferring Russian inmates abroad.
The Fort Pierce City Commission on Wednesday voted to send the investigation of the fatal officer-involved shooting of Demarcus Semer to the U.S. Department of Justice. (JEREMIAH WILSON/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Will Greenlee of TCPalm

FORT PIERCE  The St. Lucie County sheriff and state attorney on Friday said a letter from Fort Pierce asking that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate an April 23 police-involved shooting won't impact their work on the case.

Fort Pierce police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney immediately asked the Sheriff's Office to investigate the incident involving Officer Ralph Keith Holmes and Sgt. Brian MacNaught that happened after investigators say Demarcus Semer, 21, was shot as he fled a traffic stop.

In a Thursday letter to a lawyer in the civil rights division of the Justice Department, Mayor Linda Hudson wrote the City Commission unanimously voted to ask that department to start its own investigation into the Semer shooting. The letter came after public outcry and concerns voiced about the case.

Sheriff Ken Mascara said via email the letter doesn't affect his agency's investigation.

"I am a constitutional officer and chief law enforcement officer of the county," he said. "I was requested by Chief Hobley-Burney to investigate this incident and once initiated, there is no abandoning the investigation."

Asked whether sending the letter had any significance to the Sheriff's Office, Mascara said, "None, other than causing further division in our community."

Phone and email inquiries made Thursday and Friday with Justice Department press officials were not returned.

State Attorney Bruce Colton on Friday said his agency is investigating whether any state laws were violated.

"If the DOJ does an investigation, it would be as to whether or not there are any violations of federal law, which are not necessarily the same," he said.

He said the Justice Department might look into civil rights violations.

"As to whether or not there were any violations of Florida law, which is our duty to investigate and prosecute, they would not have the authority or the jurisdiction to prosecute anything that was a violation of state law," Colton said.

Colton said he has no issue with the Justice Department opening an investigation, nor is his office competing with the department.

"I would be more than happy to share any information that we have gathered and any information that we do gather  with representatives of the federal government, whether it be the U.S. Attorney's Office and/or the FBI," he said.

FATAL STOP

Fort Pierce police tried to stop Semer's car on North 19th Street about 11:55 p.m. April 23, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Mascara has said that at some point, Semer attempted to flee in his car and in doing so, ran over one of the officers, injuring the officer's leg, as a second officer was getting in Semer's car. The second officer couldn't exit the moving car. Semer was shot outside of his vehicle and died.

Colton said it's his understanding that if the state prosecutes, it wouldn't preclude the federal government from prosecuting an offense under the federal jurisdiction.

Mascara said he thought "the (Fort Pierce) commission, fueled by pressures from groups outside our community, is feeding into a national narrative that does not frankly apply here."

"Never before has me or my office's independence, integrity and professionalism been questioned," he said.

Mascara noted several months ago the city expressed "full confidence" in him and his agency to investigate a Fort Pierce police officer-involved shooting.

Nicholas Mimms, Fort Pierce city manager, said via email that if the Justice Department doesn't investigate, the city will "exhaust all efforts to coordinate with the Saint Lucie County Sheriff's Office and the State Attorney's Office to conduct a thorough investigation."

Mimms said the city did not request the Sheriff's Office stop investigating.

Fort Pierce Police Deputy Chief Frank Amandro in a Thursday email said there have been threats on Holmes, MacNaught, their families and all Fort Pierce police officers.

He said officers have been asked to remember basic safety techniques, such as being aware of their surroundings when getting out of their patrol cars; waiting for backup; listening to their radio; and being aware of their location and reporting their location when checking out.
More than 500 people attend the funeral for Demarcus Semer on Saturday at the Havert L. Fenn Center in Fort Pierce. (LAMAUR STANCIL/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Lamaur Stancil of TCPalm

LIVE COVERAGE HIGHLIGHTS

2:30 p.m.: Services end of Demarcus Semer at Riverview Memorial Park.

2:20 p.m.: Semer's body arrives at Riverview Memorial Park.

2 p.m.: The funeral service has ended at the Fenn Center. Mourners will soon be leaving for Riverview Memorial Park.

1:25 p.m.: The sermon has ended.

12:06 p.m.: Individuals step up to the microphone to recall Semer, including Fort Pierce Central football Coach Keith Powell. "He brought so many smiles to my home."

11:08 a.m.: The funeral begins at the Fenn Center with gospel songs.

See below for live tweets from Lamaur Stancil and Jeremiah Wilson.

FORT PIERCE  A funeral service for Demarcus Semer is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at the Havert L. Fenn Center, 2000 Virginia Ave.

Following the funeral, burial will be in Riverview Memorial Park, 1109 N. U.S. 1.

Semer was shot fatally while fleeing a traffic stop. The shooting, in which two officers fired their weapons, happened after police tried to stop Semer's vehicle on North 19th Street about 11:55 p.m. April 23, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Ken Mascara has said that at some point, Semer attempted to flee in his car and in doing so, ran over one of the officers, injuring his leg, as a second officer was getting in Semer's car. The second officer couldn't exit the moving car. Semer was shot outside of his vehicle and died.

Follow our live coverage of the services:

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

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Asus has already started the countdown for the official product launch on their website On May 30, they'll also broadcast a livestream of the announcement straight from Computex.

is a. And it also happened to be one of my favorite daily smartphones from 2015. So I can't wait to see how the Taiwanese electronics giant has improved and upgraded their flagship smartphone line to make it even more enticing to consumers this year.On May 30 at, which will be held in Taipei - the home of Asus, the purported follow-up to the best-selling ZenFone 2 is expected to be formally unveiled.In terms of design, rumors have it that theas well as its more powerfulversion will look very different from their predecessors. In fact, various sources claim that the 2016 flagship ZenFone models will don a design language that's highly reminiscent of theand-- that is, they're going to have a real metal mid-frame and a glass flat back panel in lieu of the curved polycarbonate rear of the ZenFone 2. Personally, I'm also expecting to see a home button replete with fingerprint scanner on this year's top-of-the-line smartphones from Asus.Other rumored features and specs include a 2.5D curved scratch-resistant glass touchscreen, new Intel processor, USB Type-C charge and data sync port, Dual Tone LED flash for the main camera, and front-facing Soft LED flash for selfies.As of writing, official information about these new devices is still very limited.A couple of weeks ago, I received an invitation from our friends at Asus Philippines to join them in Taiwan on May 30 to see their exhibit at Computex as well as to witness the launch of their latest devices. They didn't mention the exact models that will be introduced at the event but considering their product timeline for the past two years, I instantly knew that it's going to be their next flagship handsets.
Google wants its artificial intelligence engine, otherwise known as a neural network, smarter and chatty by feeding it an array of romance novels, reports BuzzFeed News.

Over the past months, Google's AI has been consuming 2,865 bodice-ripping tales, such as Jacked Up, Ignited, Fatal Desire and Unconditional Love.

Yes, the AI has managed to read them all as the researchers developing the technology believe that this is an effective way of beefing up the engine's conversational skills and personality that it previously lacked.

"In the Google app, the responses are very factual," Google software engineer Andrew Dai told BuzzFeed News. "Hopefully with this work, and future work, it can be more conversational, or can have a more varied tone, or style, or register."

Dai leads the team that oversees this Google project along with Oriol Vinyals.

What makes the AI engine more interesting now is its ability to come up with a romance novel of its own. Dai said that theoretically, this neural network could actually pen its own sentences. In fact, the technology was able to compose sentences that resemble passages in the novels during a few tests.

While the AI has now become a romance novel writer, the main goal of the researchers behind the project is to make it even more conversational.

"It would be much more satisfying to ask Google questions if it really understood the nuances of what you were asking for, and could reply in a more natural and familiar way," Dai told The Verge in an email. "It's like how you'd rather ask a friend about what to do in a vacation spot instead of calling their visitor center."

Then why did the researchers choose erotic romance novels? Dai said these tales come with typically similar stories. They contain sentences that are alike, but written in different ways, which can help big in enriching the neural network's vocabulary. This can also make the network comprehend how the English language works as a whole.

On top of that, this very same system could likewise be used in improving Google's "Smart Reply" functionality. The feature could use the AI engine in reading blocks of text in a particular email and give out more chatty responses. The Mountain View-based company reveals that 10 percent of replies within Inbox's mobile app are using the Smart Reply feature.

In any case, the enhanced AI engine is a welcome treat for users as it should provide them a better experience down the road.

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Evolutionary scientists accept the theory that humans first evolved from primates in Africa, and hundreds of unearthed fossils support this idea.

However, there are still gaps in the gigantic puzzle that is the Asia-Africa human evolution. For instance, how did the transition occur between species in Asia and in Africa? Were prehistoric ancestors automatically "residents" of Africa?

Now, newly discovered fossils in China strengthen the case that primates first emerged in Asia millions of years ago. But what happened? Scientists say the effects of a changing climate got in the way.

Had there been no extensive global cooling  which was a climate event that helped alter the course of history  human evolution could have continued in Asia instead of transitioning to Africa, experts say.

The Extinction Of Primate Species

The six newly found primate species were forms of extinct animals that had been identified from jaw and tooth fragments, researchers say.

These primate species were estimated to have roamed the Earth 34 million years ago, or during the transition between the Eocene and Oligocene eras.

Unfortunately, as climate all over the world rapidly transformed and became cooler, several regions became uninhabitable for these primates, which liked environments that were warm and wet.

K. Christopher Beard, co-author of the report and senior curator at the Biodiversity Institute at University of Kansas, says primates became extinct in Europe and North America, but not all of them. Several primates survived in Southern Asia and Africa.

"An Enigma"

Anthropoid primates  the ancestors of modern apes, monkeys and humans  had first appeared in Asia.

Beard says understanding the arc of early primate and human evolution in Asia has always been an enigma.

The ancient primates in Asia were tropical tree-dwellers. One of the newfound species was somehow incredibly similar to a species in the Philippines and Indonesia known as the tarsier.

At some point, the evolution of primates shifted from Asia to Africa, but Beard says that was something they never understood until now.

The climate crisis during the Eocene and Oligocene transition ultimately wiped out anthropoids in Asia.

The surviving species could only move to Africa in order to evolve into apes, monkeys and humans. When they arrived in Africa, they began to spread. This resulted in the birth of new species.

Implications Of The Findings

The study, which is featured in the journal Science, emphasizes the vulnerability of primates to climate change.

Although the Eocene-Oligocene was the opposite of global warming, it was kind of a mirror image, says Beard.

"This is the flip side of what people are worried about now," adds Beard.

Photo: Roberto Verzo | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
A newly discovered regulatory report has revealed that contaminated medical scopes may have caused a bacterial outbreak at a California hospital that led to the deaths of at least three people last year.

Officials from the Huntington Hospital in Pasadena said that three of its patients were sickened in August, but they declined to provide any additional details regarding the matter.

An article by the Los Angeles Times on Thursday revealed that officials later informed Olympus Corp., the maker of the medical scopes, about the deaths of the hospital patients. This was based on a federal regulatory report that the news agency had obtained.

The Huntington Hospital said that it was not able to reveal more information about the deaths because of the privacy laws it maintains with their patients.

This is not the only instance where people were sickened because of contaminated Olympus medical scopes.

The company's duodenoscopes have also been linked to bacterial outbreaks that infected hundreds of patients in different hospitals around the United States. Hospital officials said that their staff had followed the instructions on how to clean the medical scopes provided by the manufacturer.

A memo released by U.S. congressman Ted Lieu from California reported that over 41 hospitals in different parts of the world had experienced bacterial outbreaks related to medical scopes from 2010 to 2015.

Lieu said it is likely that these figures fail to represent the magnitude of the situations since not every hospital tests their patients for possible infections caused by antibiotic-resistant "superbugs".

In January, U.S. senator Patty Murray from Washington called for an investigation following another bacterial outbreak involving contaminated medical devices at Seattle's Virginia Mason Medical Center.

The senate report found that as many as 32 patients confined at Virginia Mason were sickened in 2013. At least 11 of these patients later died, though it is still unclear whether these were directly caused by the infections. The Seattle Times said that the number of infection cases later increased to 39.

The patients at Virginia Mason were believed to have been infected by antibiotic-resistant superbugs that were not properly removed from the medical scopes despite having been cleaned according to the maker's directions. Some of the superbugs found included the carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae bacteria (CRE) and multidrug-resistant E. coli bacteria.

The senate report recommends that several regulatory and legislative changes should be made regarding the use of medical devices. One of these involves having Congress to require electronic health records, device registries and insurance claims to include unique identifiers for such devices.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should also determine whether these medical devices need design modifications. If so, the agency should require device makers to carry out repairs on their products through a recall.

"Patients should be able to trust that the devices they need for treatment are safe and effective," Murray pointed out.

NIAID | Flickr

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Do you suffer from hypertension? There's good news for you: a new study has revealed that adding at least one glass of cherry juice to your daily meals can significantly reduce the pain linked with this ailment.

Delicious cherries have been associated with a wide array of health benefits, such as reducing osteoarthritis symptoms, inducing deep sleep and helping drinkers lose weight.

Now, the new report has found that cherry juice can lower the blood pressure of drinkers, perhaps to an extent that the need for medication may be eliminated.

Scientists from Northumbria University, Newcastle studied 15 adults with blood pressure readings of at least 130/90 mmHg, suggesting the risk for heart disease-related problems.

The research team found that men with early signs of hypertension who drank cherry juice saw a 7 percent reduction in their blood pressure levels in the 3 hours after intake, compared to men who drank fruit-flavored cordial.

To the surprise of experts, the lower blood pressure prompted by the cherry juice can be compared to the levels achieved by blood pressure medications such as ACE inhibitors or beta blockers.

Study co-author Professor Glyn Howatson says they believe the benefits offered by cherry juice could be linked to the combined actions of the plant compounds within the juice and the positive impact they have on vascular function.

The findings of their study will be featured in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Meanwhile, another study published in 2014 revealed that drinking tart cherry juice can alleviate gout pain because of its effect on uric acid metabolism.

The report, which was again conducted by scientists from Northumbria University, explored the impact of cherry juice consumption in healthy participants, determining uric acid levels in the urine and blood.

Each of the 12 study participants was given two doses of concentrated cherry juice for several phases. The phases lasted two days with a 10-day washout period. The first dose of cherry juice was given during the morning, with 30 mL (1 fluid ounce) of cherry juice mixed with 100 mL (3.38 fluid ounces) of water. The second dose was taken before dinner, with double the mL of cherry juice but with the same amount of water.

In the end, researchers found no difference between the doses of cherry juice given. Uric acid levels in the blood became lower while uric acid in the urine spiked, revealing that the juice indeed promotes elimination of harmful acids in the body.

Photo: Quinn Dombrowski | Flickr

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Around 35 tons of dead fish have washed ashore on Hainan Island in China, as bodies covered vast areas of Hongcheng Lake. Biologists are struggling to understand what may have wiped out the vast population of marine animals.

One possible explanation is the creatures may have been killed as they passed through the pumping system used on the lake. The animals may have been carried in an estuary by a tidal surge of water. They would have then entered a pumping system before being deposited back into the lake. Dead fish then floated to the surface of the water over the course of the next two days.

"Massive dead fish found in lake in S. #China's #Hainan Wed for uncertain reason; workers clear over 20 tons in 5 hrs," People's Daily tweeted.

The deceased yellow and white fish are members of the herring family. They normally live in salt water, and any unfortunate specimens which found themselves in freshwater would quickly perish as water rushed into their bodies, rupturing blood vessels.

Dozens of sanitation workers were called in during an effort to clean up the mess from the mass death. Bodies of the marine animals were burned, in an effort to prevent the fish from being sold as food.

"Fan Jinghu, a department head of Jinghuan City Environment Service Co in Haikou, told reporters that the company was called after some local residents tried to scoop the fish out of the lake. More than 40 sanitation workers participated in salvaging the dead fish and preventing them from entering the market and ending up in residents' kitchens," The Global Times reported from China.

Hainan Island is the southernmost, and smallest, province in China. The island makes up the main part of the region, located on the South China Sea. The province is home to 10 counties, as well as the same number of major cities.

Despite the official hypothesis of how these creatures perished, some observers believe pollution may have been to blame for the recent event. A similar mass death occurred in August 2015 at Tianjin Port. The cause of those deaths was found to be a pair of explosions at a chemical plant which released cyanide into local waterways.

While some of the fish remains from this latest die-off will be incinerated, part of the population will be sent to landfills.

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Will removing grizzly bears from the endangered species list put them in harms way and put them in hunters' sight once again?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a draft rule back in March to remove the bears from the list. Grizzlies have been a threatened species since 1975.

Forty years ago when the bears first occupied the endangered species list, their population was less than 140 bears, which has not currently surged to around 700 in the Greater Yellowstone vicinity.

Plans for Delisting

The draft urged caps on how bears can be killed in a 19,729-square mile area including Yellowstone National Park as well as parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, with caps varying based on the population a given area.

The federal plan  which would have a fine rule set later this year  would allot Wyoming 58 percent of the total bears that can be killed, 34 percent for Montana, and 8 percent for Idaho. States, too, are required to have a bear management plan in place.

Shortly after the drafts release, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks issued draft regulations that include spring and fall hunting seasons in seven districts near Yellowstones borders. Referred to as a Grizzly Bear Management Unit, each district would maintain a quota on the number of bears to be killed.

The state rules state that licenses will be restricted based on quotas. Hunters with a license, too, will need to wait for seven years before getting another one.

"This is a first attempt at hopefully a management option that were going to have here down the road," said Ron Aasheim, spokesperson of Montana FWP.

There will be no state hunting until the final proposal, which is deemed inclusive of the states hunting programs, is released.

Grizzly bears were delisted in 2007 for a brief period but were afterwards reinstated following a lawsuit. A similar conflict could be brewing: one side arguing that bear populations havent revive adequately, and another side pinning its hopes on revising sport hunting of the bears.

Impending Threats and Challenges

Theres the argument that grizzlies are simply becoming more visible to humans because they are looking for food that is no longer found in Greater Yellowstone. There has been a sharp drop in whitebark pine nuts due to climate change and in cutthroat trout  both primary food sources for the bears.

The loss of these food sources have driven grizzlies to search for others such as garbage, elk carcasses, and livestock, which often lead them to a conflict with humans.

Yale University professor David Mattson told Christina Science Monitor that these bears are quite known to reproduce slowly, noting the critical role of female bear mortality.

Sierra Clubs Bonnie Rice further argued that vulnerability is still present  61 bears, Rice noted, perished in 2015 even without hunting.

Also from Sierra Club, campaign director Dan Chu warned that the bears isolation and hostile state policies are other areas of concern.

"They remain isolated from other bear populations, a disconnect which leads to inbreeding and all the problems associated with a lack of genetic diversity," he wrote in Huffington Post. "They also face hostile state policies which focus on reducing bear numbers instead of implementing proven coexistence measures, and would allow sport trophy hunts of grizzly bears."

In addition, over 50 Native American tribes  who consider grizzly bears sacred  have passed resolutions that oppose delisting. The great bear symbolizes the earths very spirit.

Researchers are employing relatively new methods to assess grizzly populations, as data on wildlife composition are quite limited due to difficulties in measurements and the length of time necessary for measuring individuals within that population.

Photo: Michael Whyte | Flickr

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A newly discovered Chinese stick bug holds the distinction as the world's longest insect, the Chinese state media has reported.

The stick insect, measuring 62.4 centimeters (24.57 inches), discovered in the province of Guangxi Autonomous Region two years ago now holds the record for being the longest among 807,625 identified insects in the world.

Insect Museum of West China (IMWC) scientist Zhao Li shared that his knowledge of the insect came from the locals who told him in 1998 that they have previously seen a big bug as thick as a human index finger. That was when he started on a quest to look for the bug.

"I was collecting insects on a 1,200-meter-tall mountain in Guangxi's Liuzhou City on the night of Aug. 16, 2014, when a dark shadow appeared in the distance, which looked like a tree twig," Zhao said. Upon closer inspection, Zhao said the insect's legs were almost the same length as that of the bug's body.

While Zhao was studying the insect at the IMWC, the bug laid six eggs. The smallest of the offspring measured 26 centimeters (10.24 inches) at birth, double the size of previous record holder.

The bug toppled previous record holder, a 56.7-centimeter (22.32 inches) long Malaysian stick bug found in 2008. The stick insect is presently showcased in the London's Natural History Museum.

For Zhao's efforts and discovery, the stick bug is now tagged as Phryganistria chinensis Zhao. Zhao said he will release details of his findings in a thesis.

The body of a stick bug adapts to its surrounding vegetation to camouflage itself. Some of the species like those of Carausius morosus can even change its pigmentation to match its environment. This ability of stick insects, a past fossil study showed, was developed as early as the ancient times as part of their defense mechanism.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on Ukrainians to unite so as not to "become a very easy prey for the enemy in a hybrid war."

"The record teaches us that, when we lapse into amnesia, we become a very easy prey for the enemy in a hybrid war. We have learned to defend our land, and we have built one of the most powerful and certainly one of the most patriotic and strongest armies on the continent. The enemy realized that attempts to directly attack our boundaries have no prospects," Poroshenko said in unveiling a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa in Poltava on Saturday.

The enemy has now switched to a different tactic, that is, "financing and supporting fifth columns, which are destroying Ukrainian unity," Poroshenko said.

"Politicians should also take history lessons today and, most importantly, for the future. I'd stress once again that a lack of unity has repeatedly been fatal to Ukraine. This is a more than obvious conclusion from events of both the 18th and the 20th century," Poroshenko said.
Nvidia took the lid off its next-gen graphics GPUs, and the GeForce GTX 1080 and GeForce GTX 1070 were worth waiting for.

The GTX 1070 is set to replace the value-for-money GTX 970 card, while the GTX 1080 will offer a powerful alternative to the already formidable GTX 980. According to insiders from the company, the impressive Titan X will lag behind the new GTX 1080.

Both graphics cards will bring a significant performance increase to the table, and sport unrivaled power efficiency. The two GPUs were heralded last week, and we are happy to report on their impressive details.

GTX 1080 And GTX 1070

After years of using the 28nm transistor process node, both Nvidia and AMD switched to using GPU architectures with smaller transistors.

The beastly GTX 1080 is the first GPU that was manufactured under TSMC's 16nm FinFET process node. The tinier size of the node is essential to making the card work harder while consuming less power.

Rival AMD are scheduled to implement the FinFET node process in its Polars GPU, which should benefit from a 14nm process.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang noted that alongside minimized power consumption, a myriad of improvements were poured into the new technology. The GTX 1080 packs no less than 7.2 billion transistors and 2560 CUDA cores, running at a staggering 2.1 GHz. According to Nvidia, the GPU holsters 9 TFlops of rendering performance.

To put things into perspective, the existing GPU flagship from Nvidia, Titan X, offers half the performance and needs significantly more juice to run.

The company also has a slightly less powerful but more affordable GPU in store. Little official information is known about the GTX 1070, but Huang did mention a number of 6.5 TFlops of floating point performance.

This means that the second Nvidia GPU will overtake Titan X, as well.

GDDR5X

In 2015, AMD brought the Fiji GPU line equipped with the new HBM memory, which outclasses the standard GDDR5.

Nvidia avoided using the HBM in its recent hardware, but it is expected to include HBM2 memory in Pascal architecture sometime in the future. Instead, the company chose to fit GDDR5X in its latest flagship cards, as the type of memory can multiply the prefetch size by two.

The GTX 1080 has 8 GB of GDDR5X memory, although the running clock was not disclosed; 8 GB of memory sit under GTX 1070's hood, albeit GDDR5X was not put into use in the cheaper GPU. The GTX 1070 uses standard GDDR5 to get its point across.

Simultaneous Multi-Projection Pipeline

The company underlines that Pascal scores outstanding rendering performance due to the Simultaneous Multi-Projection Pipeline technology.

The problem with standard rendering processes is that they rely on a single-view port when displaying images on screens. This might be efficient for single-display rigs, but desktop gaming is increasingly tapping into having multiple displays. What is more, ultrawide screens and VR HMDs need a novel approach to rendering.

One way to ensure you get the correct image on each of your multiple displays would be to have a dedicated GPU for each screen, but that is plain bankruptcy. Nvidia's Multi-Projection Pipeline technology allows for no warping and fast processing, as it is tailored to multiple displays.

Lens Matched Shading

Nvidia has VR rendering in its crosshair as well. Due to the new technology, the company was able to embed eight view ports in head mounted diplays, four for each eye. What is more, a prewarping process modifies the image before it is projected onto the lenses, which leads to much more accurate images for VR headsets. The Lens Matched Shading, as Nvidia calls it, keeps the proportions in VR renderings as close to real-life imagery as possible.

Pricing and Availability

Nvidia announced that gamers will see the official launch of the GTX 1080 on May 27.

The processing behemoth will land in two models. The GTX 1080 will be priced at $599, while the Founders Edition will cost a tad more, but it will offer superior overclocking capacity. The Founders Edition will have a price point of $699.

The GTX 1070 will hit the shelves next month, on June 10. It, too, will come in two variants. The basic GTX 1070 will cost $379, while the Founder Edition will ask customers to shell out $449.

Are you excited about the upcoming GPUs from Nvidia? Let us know in the comments section below.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Are you looking for The Pirate Bay proxy list for 2022 to unblock the pirate bay torrent site?

Dont worry anymore, as in this article we have shared some of the best Pirate Bay Alternatives and TPB Proxy and Mirror Websites that are working.

The first word that probably strikes our mind when we talk about Torrent Sites is The Pirate Bay.

This immensely popular BitTorrent website uses peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing technology and has stood the test of time and is by far one of the most reliable torrenting websites.

However, due to legal issues, you might not be able to access the pirate bay in several countries.

This blockage can be bypassed using pirate proxies.

NOTE: Techworm does not condone using torrents to illegally obtain content. Using the following torrent websites for illegal purposes is done entirely at your own risk.

Techworm takes no responsibility for any legal problems you encounter.

One the earliest Pirate Bay Alternative when any of the top pirate bay proxy servers were not working. Kat torrents have all the latest films, movies, music, and more releases.

Due to copyright violations, the original domain kat.cr was blocked in several regions. You will find a wide range of Kat proxy domains to help you access this TPB alternative.

1337x was the ultimate torrent site back in the period between 2010 to 2014. Then like every popular torrent site, it was blocked virtually everywhere.

According to TorrentFreak, it is amongst the third most popular torrent sites. You will find quality torrents here, contributed by groups such as Yify, EZTV, RARBG, and others.

There is also a Top 100 torrents section that houses the most sorted out and trending torrents right now on the website.

TPB houses everything ranging from retro games to movies, and it is considered the best torrent site out there. Consider Yify/YTS as the best for movie torrents, having the best prints available in the least possible size.

You will find Yify movies torrents in different places as it is widely popular and considered the benchmark for quality video torrents.

Yify offers torrent files alone, and there are no magnets links available. Use the torrent files for downloading movies on your device using an excellent torrenting client.

We have Torlock, where all the torrents are verified, hosting a tracker library of over seven million torrents.

As we were lurking on the site, we came across a distinct category  image, which we dont often find on other torrenting sites.

Along with that, we can also create an account on the site to maintain a list of the favorite bitrrorents.

The last one here is Anidex, which is the best TPB alternative for downloading anime and manga torrents.

They house over a million different anime torrents here, with the manga ones in .cbz format, easy for reading. Find diverse anime games here in a dedicated section.

Finding the proper subtitles is a real problem for Animes. Search for them here as they are listed in a different language, from German to Arabic.
Worlds first digital currency creator found guilty of money laundering charges, gets 20 years in prison

Long before Bitcoin came into existence, there was this virtual currency called Liberty Reserve. Liberty Reserve was a Costa Rica-based centralized digital currency service that billed itself as the oldest, safest and most popular payment processor serving millions all around a world.

42 year old Arthur Budovsky, its creator first started the digital currency service in 2006 from Costa Rica. However it fell foul with US authorities and the Liberty Reserve creator was arrested. In a ruling yesterday, a US judge sentenced Budovsky to 20 years.

The U.S. government contended that the whole thing was just a massive, $6 billion money laundering operation. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote sentenced him to two decades in federal prison. She said Budovsky did not show genuine remorse, according to the Department of Justice.

For seven years starting in 2006, anyone could use Liberty Reserve to transfer money to any place they wanted. All the site required was someones name, e-mail address, and birthday. Normally, banks have stricter standards to avoid funneling criminal funds.

US authorities said that Liberty Reserve was a money laundering website and a favourite haunt for stashing cash by credit card traffickers and identity thieves. At its height, according to a federal indictment, Liberty Reserve had more than 1 million customers worldwide, including 200,000 in the United States. It handled 12 million financial transactions a year.

Liberty Reserve caught the eyes of US authorities in the worldwide sweep against money launderers and terrorists after 9/11. After identifying the website for doing illegitimate payment processing, US administration used the newly formed Patriot Act to act against it.

In 2013, American investigators took over the website and shut it down. In 2014, Budovsky and several coworkers were arrested in Spain. Then Budovsky was extradited to the United States to face trial for money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Subsequently, during trial, Budovsky pleaded guilty to money laundering and admitted to secretly moving at least $122 million.

Despite all his efforts to evade prosecution, including taking his operations offshore and renouncing his citizenship, Budovsky has now been held to account for his brazen violations of U.S. criminal laws, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement.
Researchers find that badBIOS PC virus spreads through the microphone audio stream

Security researchers have found that PC viruses can be spread to microphones. Over the years, there has been news about viruses spreading through sound medium but no study was conclusive. Now, the researchers Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics in Germany have proven it is indeed true. They have submitted a proof of concept demonstrating how a PC virus called badBIOS spread through microphones.

The study found out that its possible to transmit computer viruses via sound, confirming a controversial suspicion reported earlier this year. However the shocking news is that the malware was mutating into strange, unexpected new forms.

Three years ago Dragos Ruiu, a computer security expert,discovered that several of his computers were infected with some kind of virus  and, even weirder, they were managing to talk to each other even when their Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections were turned off. Disconnecting the ethernet and power cables didnt work either. He physically removed the wireless cards from the machine and it didnt have any effect on stopping the virus.

Unable to find a plausible explanation, Ruiu continued with his own research and in October, submitted his hypothesis.

This malware would first get onto a computer on an infected USB stick, where it would burrow into the machines BIOS (thats the fundamental program that runs directly off its hardware). It would then take over the computers microphone and speakers and communicate with other computers by high-frequency sounds that humans cant hear.

He found out that the badBIOS malware can literally communicate with each other. Ruius finding were not accepted by the larger security researchers community who assumed Ruiu had made some fundamental mistake.

Now Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Communication, Information Processing, and Ergonomics in Germany have now provided some proof-of-concept that the mechanism Ruiu describes is possible. Using a program originally developed for transmitting information acoustically underwater, they managed to get computers exchanging inaudible broadcasts over distances of up to 65 feet, according to their paper in the Journal of Communications.

Importantly, it wasnt just two computers talking, but also a demonstration of how the scenario of covert acoustical communication over the air medium can be extended to multi-hop communications and even to wireless mesh networks. That mesh network, where each computer talks to several others, would explain how Ruiu was unable to completely clear his lab of infected machines  each time he would wipe a machine then turn it back one, it would be infected by at least one of the remaining machines that had yet to be wiped.

The bandwidth of this method is incredibly small, only a few bits per second, which makes this a pretty useless tool for extracting large files from target machines. It would work well as a keylogger, though, noting down usernames and passwords. These could be used to give access for more traditional viruses.

Though the research can explain how it spread, it has not yet been able to confirm how it first infected Ruius computers. Without any previous known infections, that is a big mystery that researchers have to solve. Till then, the research now proves that is possible to spread a virus, trojan, malware through sound system and microphone.
Her murder occurs amid extremely violent attacks against the residents of Molleturo who are resisting illegal and legal mining. | Read More
Nearly 50 armed people burst into the mosque in the village of Molodizhne (Simferopol district, Crimea), where people were praying, and ordered parish to come to the police office, said President's Envoy for Crimean Tatars Mustafa Jemilev.

"It was reported that nearly 30-50 armed people suddenly burst into the mosque in the village of Molodizhne of Simferopol district after a Friday prayer. As lawyer Emil Kurbedinov said, Muslims were ordered to come to the police office on their own," Jemilev wrote on Facebook on Friday.

For his part, Kurbedinov wrote on Facebook that armed people made an attempt to bring over 100 Muslims in the unknown direction, though soon they let them go.
Ho Chi Minh City's culture department announced Saturday it decided to impose a fine of VND22.5 million (around $1,000) on a woman for attending a beauty pageant abroad without permission.

Lam Thuy Anh became the third runner-up at the Miss Global Beauty Queen 2015 organized in Seoul, South Korea early this month.

Anh, who represented herself at the city's culture department on Wednesday after returning from the beauty competition, said that she was waiting for a written decision from authorities.

I hope to resolve this problem as soon as possible," she said.

Anh added that she had not applied for a permission because she got a visa to South Korea to participate in the beauty pageant too late, just two days before the opening day of the contest.

Anh flied to Seoul on October 7, two days after the beauty competition kicked off.

The HCMC culture department said it had reported the case to the Performing Art Department and the culture ministry's inspectorate for consideration.

According to Vietnam's official rules, those who want to compete in beauty competitions abroad must have at least one national title and must secure permission from the Ministry of Culture and Information.

However, as the maximum cash fine is only VND30 million (more than $1,000) and a three-month working ban, many models have broken the rule over the past few years, in hopes of winning an international title to give themselves a career boost in Vietnam.
A Hanoi model is likely to face a cash fine after entering herself into a regional beauty pageant without permission from the culture ministry, local media reported.

Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga, 20, is now competing at the Miss Southeast Asia, formerly named Miss Tourism Queen International, in Malaysia, alongside participants from eight other countries in the region.

Nga told local media that her invitation letter came too late and that she did not have time to seek permission from culture officials.

Her spokesperson said the organizers had paid for her air tickets and hotel room so she decided to join the contest, despite a possible cash fine.

Nga is willing to receive penalties when coming back to Vietnam, the spokesperson said.

The contest began on September 24 and will conclude on October 3.

Quynh Nga (1st, R, second row) attends an event at the ongoing beauty contest Miss Southeast Asia in Malaysia. Photo credit: VnExpress

Officials said they will make a decision on the case soon.

According to Vietnam's official rules, those who want to compete in beauty pageants abroad must have at least one national title and must secure permission from the culture ministry.

However, as the maximum cash fine is only VND30 million, or $1,400, and a three-month working ban, a number of models have broken the rule over the past few years, in hopes of winning an international title to give themselves a career boost in Vietnam.

At last year's Miss Tourism Queen International, a Vietnamese contestant was found violating the rule. Dieu Linh was fined VND22.5 million, after winning the Miss South East Asia title at the event.
BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- China's health, police and transportation authorities have jointly established a "green passage" to ensure fast and safe transfer of donated human organs.

The move is aimed at shortening transportation time and reducing damage or waste of human organs to help patient survival.

According to a Friday circular on the mechanism, police will help ensure ambulance right of way when health authorities receive donated human organs. Airlines should provide priority boarding services and allow planes carrying human organs to depart first.

Health authorities transporting human organs may buy tickets after boarding a train. The Red Cross will also provide help during the transportation process.

"The transportation of human organs is like a race between time and life," said the circular.

Many human organs, such as the liver, cannot be stored for longer than 12 hours or they will become unusable or dysfunctional following transplant, it said.

China has a serious lack of human organs, though the nation ranks third globally in terms of the number of organs donated. Some patients must wait for years for transplant surgery, and many don't survive long enough to receive a transplant.

In 2015, 2,766 people donated major organs after death, almost double the number in 2014.

Previously, executed prisoners were one of the major source of organs. On January 1, 2015, China banned the harvesting of organs from prisoners.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (C) at a ceremony to start construction of a LG Display Group factory in Hai Phong. Photo: VNA

LG Display Group, the screen-making subsidiary of South Korea's LG Electronics, on Friday started work on a US$1.5 billion factory in Hai Phong City.

The facility, covering more than 40 hectares in Trang Due industrial park, is slated to go into operation next year.

It will produce digital displays using LG's latest technology organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, according to a memorandum of understanding the group signed with the People's Committee of Hai Phong last month

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said LG Display Group's project along with others will create a major electronics and information technology complex in Vietnam.

The government will do its best to support investors in the country, he promised.

In March last year LG Electronics opened a $1.5 billion factory to produce digital devices and electronics such as TVs, cell phones and washing machines in Hai Phong.

South Korea is currently the third largest trade partner of Vietnam. Two-way trade has surged 75-fold from 1992 to nearly $38 billion.
Sweet tamarinds from Thailand on sale at a market in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Bach Duong

Fruits and vegetables from Thailand have become popular in Vietnam thanks to competitive prices and presumed high quality, but recent safety tests may make consumers think again.

Thailand since August 2014 has surpassed China to dominate the imported fruit and vegetable market in Vietnam, making up 38 percent of all sales.

Figures from Vietnams Fruits and Vegetables Association showed that nearly US$60 million worth of Thai produce were sold in Vietnam in the first quarter of this year, up more than 2.2 times year-on-year.

China came second with nearly 25 percent, followed by the US with 10 percent.

Nguyen Thanh Ha, deputy director of Thu Duc wholesale market of agriculture produce in Ho Chi Minh City, said many local consumers have switched to Thai products as they were concerned about the quality of Chinese produce.

She said most of Thai fruits are very popular in Vietnam because they look better but are not much more expensive than local ones.

It therefore came as quite a shock for Vietnamese consumers when many Thai produce reportedly failed safety tests at home.

Thai media reported earlier this week that tests conducted by Thailands Pesticide Alert Network (Thai-PAN) on 138 samples of popular fruits and vegetables found 46.6 percent of them contained residues higher than the safety standards.

The tests were conducted in March, looking into 450 kinds of toxic residues.

Thai-PAN coordinator Prokchol Ousup was quoted by Bangkok Post as saying that residues of 11 prohibited substances were found in the samples.

Many of the tainted samples were guaranteed by the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards as of high quality.

Ousup said 25 percent of the products certified as being organic, which were supposed to be free of chemicals, were found to contain chemical residues beyond the safe limits.

All orange, guava and red samples failed the tests, so did 71.4 percent of dragon fruit samples, 66.7 percent of papaya, basil and long beans, 44 percent of mango, 22 percent of water spinach and 11 percent of tomato and cucumber.

But cabbage and watermelon samples were free of harmful residues, according to the network.

Vo Huu Thoai, deputy director of the Southern Fruit Research Institute, said Vietnamese government needs to take actions given new alerts from Thailand.

The authorities need to urgently deploy technical measures to protect consumers, he said.

However, according to some traders, the authorities have not been able to control quality of Thai fruits and vegetables brought into Vietnam via cross-border trade.
LG Display Group, the screen-making subsidiary of South Korea's LG Electronics, is set to start works on a US$1.5-billion factory in the northern city of Hai Phong this month.

The factory is slated to go into operation next year, producing digital displays using LG's latest technology organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, according to a memorandum of understanding the group signed with the People's Committee of Hai Phong on Tuesday.

Local authorities asked LG Display to set aside about 20 percent of its output, including TV panels and computer monitors, for selling locally, news website Dau Tu reported.

Covering more than 40 hectares in Trang Due Industrial Park, the factory is expected to create around 6,000 jobs when it becomes operative.

In March last year LG Electronics opened a $1.5 billion factory to produce digital devices and electronics such as TVs, cell phones and washing machines in Hai Phong.
A file photo of a worker moving cartons of Saigon Beer. Photo: VNA State-owned Sabeco, which controls more than half of Vietnam's beer market with its iconic Saigon brand, has reported a year-on-year increase of 28 percent in its net profit in 2015, to more than VND3.6 trillion (US$159.5 million).

The company's revenue grew 10 percent to over VND27.16 trillion ($1.2 billion), mostly from beer sales.

After an initial public offering in 2008, the government's stake was reduced to 89.59 percent. Dutch brewer Heineken owns around 5 percent.

Last year the company announced a plan to sell 40-60 percent of shares, at least to two investors.

The plan immediately attracted interest from many international brewers such as Japan's Asahi and Kirin, London-based SABMiller, and Thai Beverage Pcl.

However, Sabeco reportedly said later that it may not welcome foreign investors, fearing of a possible hostile takeover.
A worker rides his bicycle in a tunnel of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) Large Hadron Collider during maintenance works in Meyrin, Switzerland on July 19, 2013

The world's most powerful proton smasher is preparing for its biggest run yet which scientists hope will uncover new particles that could dramatically change our understanding of the Universe.

"We are exploring truly fundamental issues, and that's why this run is so exciting," physicist Paris Sphicas told AFP at Europe's physics lab, CERN, last week.

"Who knows what we will find," he added, with CERN saying preliminary results from the run could be available in the next few months.

Scientists had been gearing up to resume experiments at the LHC this week, but the plans were delayed after a weasel wandered onto a high-voltage electrical transformer last Friday, causing a short-circuit.

CERN told AFP that experiments were now expected to get underway next week.

Late last year, before CERN shut down its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) for a technical break, two separate teams of scientists said they had discovered anomalies that could possibly hint at the existence of a mysterious new particle.

The discovery of a new particle could prove the existence of extra space-time dimensions, or explain the enigma of dark matter, scientists say.

The LHC, housed in a 27-kilometre (17-mile) tunnel straddling the French-Swiss border, has shaken up physics before.

In 2012 it was used to prove the existence of the Higgs Boson -- the long-sought maker of mass -- by crashing high-energy proton beams at velocities near the speed of light.

A year later, two of the scientists who had in 1964 theorised the existence of the Higgs, also known as the God particle, earned the Nobel physics prize for the discovery.

'Totally unthinkable'

The Higgs fits in with the so-called Standard Model -- the mainstream theory of all the fundamental particles that make up matter and the forces that govern them.

But the anomalies, or "bumps", seen in the data last December could indicate something completely new.

Going beyond the Standard Model would "mean that there is yet another unbelievable idea out there. Something that is totally unthinkable," Sphicas said.

The LHC, he said, could unveil whole new dimensions, help explain dark matter and dark energy, of which we have no understanding but which together make up 95 percent of the universe.

The giant lab might also prove the exotic theory of supersymmetry, SUSY for short, which suggests the existence of a heavier "sibling" for every particle in the universe.

The unexpected excess pair of photons spotted last year could be a larger cousin of the Higgs, according to one theory.

"Who knows, maybe there's a whole Higgs family out there," Sphicas said.

But to determine whether the observed data "bump" is merely a statistical fluctuation or could actually be the first cracks in the Standard Model, much more data is needed.

When the massive machine comes back online, it is expected to quickly pile up astounding amounts of data for scientists to pick through for clues.

Very rare phenomena

After the Higgs discovery, the LHC underwent a two-year upgrade, reopening last year with double energy levels which will vastly expand the potential for groundbreaking discoveries.

The LHC ran for six months last year at the new energy level of 13 teraelectronvolts (TeV), but since the machine was just getting started again, it was not pushed to create the maximum number of collisions.

Once it gets started again, the machine at its peak should see two beams each containing around 273,600 billion protons shoot through the massive collider in opposite directions, slamming into each other with a joint energy level of 13 TeV to produce two billion collisions a second.

"What we are looking for are very rare phenomena, (and) when you are looking for very rare phenomena you need a very large number of collisions," Frederick Bordry, CERN director for accelerators and technology, told AFP.

"We are really at an energy level that enables discoveries," he said, adding that he expected the lab to have clarity by the end of summer on whether the data "bump" was more than "statistical noise".

Bordry added that the proton smasher is due to run until 2019.

"If we have nature on our side, I think we will discover new particles and open a new road for physics beyond the Standard Model," he said.
Vietnam signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea on Tuesday which is expected to boost its exports to the Korean market and more than double bilateral trade over the next five years, the Vietnamese government said.

The agreement with Seoul is among a series of trade deals Vietnam has been chasing as part of its ambitions to become a regional manufacturing dynamo and lure investment to strengthen its $184 billion economy.

"Signing the FTA is an initial step, while it is more important for the two countries to have sincere cooperation so that the pact's implementation will be smooth," Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told South Korea's trade, industry and energy minister Yoon Sang-jick, according to a government statement.

Communist Vietnam, a major agriculture, seafood, textiles and electronics exporter, is expected to sign FTAs soon with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It could conclude talks on an FTA with the European Union next month.

It is also nearing finalisation of a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with 12 countries that include Japan, Australia, Canada and the United States.

South Korea currently has eight FTAs in effect, including the United States and India.

Analysts expect Vietnam to undercut some regional rivals with its cheaper labour and lower duties from the trade pacts. Microsoft is among some firms that have preemptively shifted some operations to Vietnam from Thailand and China, which are not part of the TPP.

Tuesday's signing concluded two years of talks and could see Vietnam and South Korea's annual trade reach $70 billion by 2020, Vietnam's trade minister Vu Huy Hoang said in the statement.

Two-way trade last year rose 6 percent from 2013 to a record $29 billion, three-quarters of which were Vietnam's imports, government data shows.

The FTA covers a range of areas from goods and services to customs, trade protection and technical barriers in trading.

The pact is expected to see a sharp increase in Vietnam's exports of agricultural produce and seafood to South Korea, and more Korean materials and components imported for Vietnam's garments and electronics factories.

The deal will be a boon for Korean firms operating in Vietnam, including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and LG Electronics Inc.

South Korea is the biggest investor in Vietnam, with pledges totalling $38 billion in more than 4,200 projects. Vietnam's high-tech exports surged to $37.3 billion last year from $2.8 billion in 2009.
A Singaporean court has jailed five Vietnamese tourists for stealing over 17,000 Singapore dollars (US$12,400) worth of clothes at a shopping mall last January.

Dinh Ngoc Luan, 27, got 31 months for masterminding the scheme while his four accomplices, aged between 25 and 28, got 28 months each, Channel News Asia reported.

They arrived in Singapore via Malaysia on Jan 27 and went to the ION Orchard shopping mall to steal clothes from H&M and Zara store the next day.

Three of them were caught red-handed by police officers patrolling the shopping mall, while the other two were caught while attempting to leave Singapore via the Woodlands Checkpoint.

Channel News Asia quoted deputy public prosecutor Sivabalan Thanabal as saying the group had come to Singapore specifically with the intent to commit shoplifting.

The stealing was well-planned, he said, noting that the group had managed to steal the clothing in less than 48 hours after arriving in Singapore.
A court in Singapore on Monday sentenced a 40-year-old man to jail for killing his Vietnamese girlfriend, local media reported.

Lim Hou Peng Jackson was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to a jail term of four years and six months.

He was also guilty on an additional drug consumption charge and was sentenced to five years imprisonment and three strokes of the cane.
Authorities in Vietnam have suspended a boat in Ha Long Bay for overcharging a group of tourists after serving them seafood early this month, according to local media reports.

The suspension of an undetermined length came after one of the tourists wrote on her Facebook that her group of six was "extorted" by the vessel named Minh Huong 58.

The Minh Huong 58 tourism boat in Ha Long Bay. Photo credit: Minh Cuong/VnExpress She said the group was shocked when receiving a bill of nearly V ND10 million (US$446) and complained to the owner that they had not ordered a big enough meal to justify that total amount.

They eventually had to pay the bill and filed a complaint to local authorities.

Inspectors later confirmed that they were overcharged and that the boat did not list food prices as required.

The boats owner has also been fined VND1.5 million and ordered to return the extra money to the tourists.
A Singaporean court has jailed two Vietnamese women for arranging a sham marriage between a Vietnamese woman and a Singaporean man three years ago for immigration benefits, The Strait Times reported.

Nguyen Thi Yen, 41, was sentenced to nine months in jail and fined US$2,200 in a trial on Thursday while her accomplice Le Thi Tra My, 31, was sentenced to seven months in jail on April 5.

According to Singapores Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, in February 2013, My suggested to the bride involved in the sham marriage that she marry a Singaporean in order to apply for a Long-Term Visit Pass and extend her stay in Singapore. In return, the woman would pay her $5,509.

The woman agreed, and My introduced her to Yen, who then found her a suitable groom who would get a cut of the brides money.

The wedding took place at a Peninsula Plaza restaurant on March 18, 2013.

Later that year, the bride and groom were each jailed for six months for entering into the fake marriage.

Under Singaporean laws, the maximum punishment for contracting or entering into a sham marriage is a $7,345 fine and 10 years' jail term.
The file photo shows the world's longest insect (C) compared with other insects in size. The Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, told Xinhua Thursday that a 62.4-cm-long stick insect found during a field inspection in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2014 has broken the record for length for all 807,625 insects discovered so far. [Photo: Xinhua]

A long silhouette found wriggling on a mountain road in south China has proved to be the world's longest insect, authorities said Thursday.

Zhao Li, with the Insect Museum of West China (IMWC) in Chengdu, found the 62.4-cm-long stick insect during a field inspection in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in 2014, breaking the record for length for all 807,625 insects discovered so far, according to the IMWC.

The previous record holder was a stick insect found in Malaysia in 2008. It measured 56.7 cm and is currently at the Natural History Museum in London.

Zhao Li said he had expected to find the insect since a field inspection in Guangxi in 1998, when locals told him about seeing a half-meter-long "huge insect" as thick as a man's index finger. Zhao assumed a giant stick insect might exist, but never managed to see one until two years ago.

"I was collecting insects on a 1,200-meter-tall mountain in Guangxi's Liuzhou City on the night of Aug. 16, 2014, when a dark shadow appeared in the distance, which looked like a tree twig," Zhao recalled. "As I went near, I was shocked to find the huge insect's legs were as long as its body."

Zhao took the insect back to the IMWC, and it laid six eggs. After hatching, Zhao found the smallest of the young insects' bodies measured at least 26 cm, almost twice the size of those at the Natural History Museum.

The insect has been named Phryganistria chinensis Zhao, and a thesis about it will be published soon.

Stick insects are good at disguising themselves as twigs or tree leaves, making them hard to notice. More than 3,000 kinds of stick insects have been discovered so far.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday hailed a potential breakthrough in a decades-long territorial dispute with Russia, after talks with President Vladimir Putin, Japan's foreign ministry spokesman told AFP.

"The prime minister said that today he could feel a breakthrough, he could make a breakthrough in the currently stagnated negotiation," Japanese foreign ministry press secretary Yasuhisa Kawamura said.

Tokyo-Moscow relations are hamstrung by a row dating back to the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the four southernmost islands in the Pacific Kuril chain, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.

Japan and Russia's lingering tensions have prevented them ever signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II hostilities, hindering trade and investment ties.

Abe, in a rare visit by a G7 leader to Russia, met Putin for talks at his holiday residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi with their talks focusing on the dispute.

"The prime minister said that Mr Putin also shared ... the same feeling" and the leaders "agreed today that they themselves directly get involved in the negotiation," Kawamura said.

Putin and Abe agreed to "promote negotiations by employing a new approach without being bothered by the old previous thinking," Kawamura said.

"This is literally a new element," he said, without giving more detail.

"Japan is not just our neighbour, it is a very important partner for us in the Asian-Pacific region," Putin told Abe at the start of the meeting.

"We have certain questions that demand special attention, maybe for this reason we must devote special attention to building relationships," the Russian leader added.

- Symbol of warming ties -

The Kremlin had dismissed hopes of any major breakthrough towards resolving the dispute at Friday's meeting, while playing up Abe's visit as a symbol of warming ties despite Western attempts to isolate Putin.

The leaders held talks lasting more than three hours, including a tete-a-tete section, in what Abe called "an extensive, frank and candid exchange of views," Kawamura said.

Both sides had earlier mooted the possibility of starting negotiations on signing a peace treaty, with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida saying in April that they could begin "as soon as possible" after the leaders met.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said briefly after the talks Friday that the sides "discussed the problem of the peace treaty," giving few details but announcing another round of foreign ministry consultations in June.

While in Tokyo last month, Lavrov said Russia wants to "move forward" but is not prepared to budge on the "result of World War II".

Russia has angered Japan recently by building new modern compounds for its troops stationed on two of the disputed islands.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev also infuriated Tokyo last year by visiting one of the islands, home to some 19,000 Russians.

The two leaders on Friday discussed a long-planned visit by Putin to Japan this year, but did not announce a date.

"we agreed in principle that Mr Putin will visit Japan. We will continue to discuss this," Kawamura said.

- Lingering tensions -

Despite the warmer words from both sides, tensions between the two sides continue to surface and Japan has hit Russia with sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

Though the situation in Ukraine was raised, Lavrov said Putin and Abe did not discuss a potential lifting of sanctions by Tokyo, imposed over Russia's support for separatists there.

Putin said last month he welcomed Abe's visit as it comes despite "pressure from (Japan's) partners, particularly the United States".

Abe will later this month host a summit of the Group of Seven advanced industrial countries, from which Russia has been excluded over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

"Evidently Japan will try to act as a kind of middleman in the talks process between Russia and the US," Russia's government newspaper the Rossiiskaya Gazeta said Thursday.

US President Barack Obama reportedly asked Abe in February to postpone his trip to Russia, according to sources quoted by Japan's Kyodo news agency.

Japanese foreign ministry spokesman Kawamura insisted Friday that Abe's visit "has been well explained to the United States side."
Sueddeutsche Zeitung said on Friday that the source of millions of documents leaked to the German newspaper from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca had sent them a manifesto, saying his motivation was the "scale of injustices" the papers revealed.

The source had never before publicly stated why he leaked the documents, now known as the Panama Papers, said Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), one of Germany's most reputable newspapers.

In an 1,800 word manifesto published on the SZ website on Friday, the source, calling himself "John Doe", praised others who have leaked secret and sensitive documents, such as Edward Snowden, who revealed details of the U.S. government's mass surveillance program.

"For his revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA), he deserves a hero's welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment," the source wrote.

He also said he would be willing to co-operate with law enforcement agencies.

He called on the European Commission, Britain, the United States and other nations to take steps to protect people who reveal private information about such sensitive issues rather than punishing them.

"Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop," he said.

The source, who contacted the paper a year ago with an offer of encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, denied being a spy but said he had recognized the "scale of injustices" described in their contents.

The documents cover a period over almost 40 years, from 1977 until last December, and purport to show that some companies domiciled in tax havens were being used for suspected money laundering, arms and drug deals and tax evasion.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the source was the same person who leaked the original documents. The source's identity and gender is not known.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung spent more than a year, along with other media outlets and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, analyzing the huge cache of documents.

On Friday, Sueddeutsche Zeitung introduced the manifesto by saying: "Now 'John Doe', the anonymous source, has sent the SZ a manifesto, which can be read as an explanation of his actions  and as a call to action."

The source welcomed the fact that the leak had triggered a debate on "wrongdoing by the elite" but said not enough action had been taken.

"For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have," he said.

The source was critical of banks, financial regulators, tax authorities, the courts, and the legal profession, as well as the media, saying he had offered the documents to several major media outlets that had chosen not to cover them.

"The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery."

The source ended the manifesto by saying "inexpensive, limitless digital storage and fast internet connections" should help digitize the revolution against income inequality.
Philippine presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte (pictured) has an 11-percentage-point lead over his nearest rival, Senator Grace Poe, according to the latest poll released on Friday

Philippine leader Benigno Aquino called Friday on the trailing presidential candidates to unite against frontrunner Rodrigo Duterte, in a sensational finale to one of the nation's most divisive election campaigns.

Aquino has repeatedly warned Duterte is a dictator-in-the-making, and made the plea after polling showed the favourite had kept a huge lead ahead of Monday's elections despite allegations he has overseen vigilante death squads and a spate of controversies over vulgar campaign speeches.

Aquino told CNN Philippines in an exclusive interview that he was trying to get the other four presidential candidates to unite to defeat Duterte, who he said was likely to get 30 percent of the vote.

"The whole point is to get even two of them to unite... then we have more than 40 percent," Aquino said.

In the Philippines, a president is elected simply by who gets the most votes.

Duterte has 33 percent support, with Senator Grace Poe next at 22 percent and administration pick Mar Roxas at 20 percent, according to the latest poll released on Friday by Social Weather Stations.

Aquino said he had talked to Roxas, his longtime friend and fellow Liberal Party stalwart, and sent a text message to Poe to try and get them to forge an eleventh-hour partnership.

This would mean one of the candidates withdrawing. If one did, they would ask Filipinos to instead vote for the other, but there are no guarantees the public would do so.

'Unity, decency'

Roxas gave a short speech on Friday night saying he was ready for talks with Poe.

"I call for unity, I call for decency, I call for democracy," Roxas said, without saying whether he would be prepared to back out.

Poe, the adopted daughter of a dead movie star who owes her popularity to her father, said she would not pull out of the race, seemingly leaving a Roxas withdrawal the option for a unity ticket.

"We can talk anytime. But I will say this now... if they are thinking that someone among us will withdraw, I won't withdraw," Poe told reporters.

Duterte, 71, has gained support across all sectors of society by fashioning himself as an anti-establishment politician who can achieve quick fixes to deep-rooted problems, particularly crime.

The mayor of the southern city of Davao has vowed to end crime within six months of his presidency by ordering security forces to go on a killing spree.

He has said he would kill tens of thousands of criminals, then pardon himself if he was found guilty of mass murder.

Duterte has been accused of running vigilante squads in Davao that have killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals. At times he has boasted about his involvement but on other occasions denied any links to the vigilantes.

A self-confessed serial adulterer, he also generated outrage last month when he joked at a campaign rally that he had wanted to rape a "beautiful" Australian missionary who was sexually assaulted and murdered in a 1989 Philippine prison riot.

He has faced a barrage of last-minute attacks in recent days over allegations he hid millions of dollars in undisclosed bank accounts.

Duterte has also infuriated his opponents by warning he is prepared to shut down Congress if lawmakers disagree with him, and establish a revolutionary government that could rewrite the constitution.

Upending conventional political wisdom, the controversies appeared to have fuelled his popularity.

Aquino, whose mother led the 1986 "People Power" revolution that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos, said Thursday the Philippines was in danger of repeating history if Duterte was elected.

"We won't be able to run if we make a U-turn back to a martial-law style," Aquino said at Roxas campaign rally.

"We will go back to a Marcos-style martial law where he will monopolise the decision making."

Duterte's campaign manager on Friday described the election as a "war of the classes".

"All the innuendos, attacks, and mud thrown at us and our candidate, are acts of desperation, of panic and of cowardice," Leoncio Evasco said in a statement.
The weapon was a .45-caliber handgun the boy found on the floor of the pickup truck.

A Florida gun activist accidentally shot by her four-year-old son in March has agreed to deliver speeches about gun safety as part of a deal to avoid prosecution, officials said Friday.

Jamie Gilt, 31, agreed with prosecutors to avoid a charge of negligence if she also completes a gun safety course, installs a mounted holster in her vehicle and provides proof of safe storage of firearms in her home, the state attorney's office said in a statement.

The deal specifies that she must give 10 speeches about the March 8 shooting and the need to safely secure firearms, although the authorities did not indicate where.

Gilt, who had boasted online about her toddler's shooting prowess, was cruising down a major thoroughfare with her son in the back seat when he shot her on March 8. The bullet went through the seat cushion.

The mother and boy were on their way to pick up a horse, according to police, who rushed to Gilt's aid after a police officer slowed to check why the vehicle had stopped.

The weapon was a .45-caliber handgun the boy found on the floor of the pickup truck.

Gilt was said to have posted on her Facebook page: "Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22."

Police had recommended a charge of "unsafe storage of firearm" -- a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in prison.

She has 90 days to comply with the deal.
Forces loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni president advance towards the entrance of Abyan province as part of an operation to drive Al-Qaeda fighters out of the southern provincial capital, on April 23, 2016

The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time Friday it has deployed US troops to Yemen since the country's collapse last year, in a push to bolster Arab and local government forces battling Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military has also stepped up air strikes against AQAP fighters in the war-torn country.

A "very small number" of American military personnel has been working from a "fixed location" with Yemeni and Arab coalition forces -- especially the Emiratis -- in recent weeks around Mukalla, a port city seized by AQAP a year ago, Davis said.

"This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organization in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that," the spokesman added.

He said the troops were helping the Emiratis with "intelligence support," but declined to say if they are special operations forces.

AQAP fighters have now fled Mukalla and other coastal areas, due to the government offensive.

While the number of US personnel on the ground is limited, the United States is also offering an array of assistance to partners in Yemen, including air-to-air refueling capabilities, surveillance, planning, maritime security and medical help.

The Pentagon previously had more than 100 special operations forces advising the army in Yemen, but pulled them out early last year as the country collapsed.

The US Navy also has several ships nearby, including an amphibious assault ship called the USS Boxer and two destroyers.

AQAP took advantage of the chaos of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed rebels to expand its control in southern Yemen, including the seizure of Mukalla.

The Pentagon announced it has carried out a recent string of strikes on AQAP in recent weeks, outside of Mukalla.

"We have conducted four counterterrorism strikes against AQAP since April 23, killing 10 Al-Qaeda operatives and injuring another," Davis said.

The United States periodically targets AQAP in Yemen, including a strike in March on a training camp that killed more than 70 fighters.

AQAP, which has long been entrenched in Yemen, is regarded by Washington as the network's most dangerous branch.

The group claimed responsibility for last year's deadly attack in Paris on the staff of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, and has been linked to more than one attempt to blow up aircraft bound for the United States.

The Yemen conflict has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
MOSCOW, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putinand visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abeon Friday vowed to shore up bilateral ties in all directions after their relations have been at a low point since the Ukraine crisis.

The two sides agreed to maintain close high-level contact this year on such occasions as the Group of 20 summit and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and to build up bilateral dialogue in all directions -- economy, trade, investment and the humanitarian sphere, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying by the TASS news agency after the two leaders met in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Lavrov said the issue of lifting Tokyo's sanctions against Moscow was not discussed during the meeting, but he added the two sides are expected to hold consultations over a peace treaty at the level of deputy foreign ministers in June.

Russia and Japan have not signed any peace treaty mainly due to their long-held disputes over four Pacific islands.

Meanwhile, Lavrov said Putin and Abe discussed the details of the former's visit to Japan.

"Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe confirmed his invitation to President Vladimir Putin (to visit Japan). They discussed the details of this invitation, including concrete dates."

The two leaders also shared views on removing nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, while the Russian side noted that Pyongyang's nuclear actions should not be used as a pretext for the United Statesto bolstering military presence in the Asia Pacific region, Lavrov said.

The relationship between Tokyo and Moscow became increasingly strained after Japan slapped new sanctions against Russia in response to its annexation of Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine, alongside steps taken by the U.S. and the European Union. Abe's visit has been widely seen as an effort to mend frayed ties and seek rapprochement with Moscow.
A man suspected of burglary in Canberra will face extradition to NSW on Monday in relation to alleged gun and ammunition offences.

Ernest Bruce Jacky, 32, was refused bail after being arrested at 12.36pm on Friday for allegedly failing to appear as required by bail conditions, with a warrant for his arrest issued after he did not attend the ACT Magistrates Court in February for the hearing of a property damage charge.

ACT Policing Detective Senior Constable Luke Napier told the ACT Magistrates Court he had received an email on Saturday morning with CCTV footage of a man he believed to be the defendant involved in burglary offences in Lyons.

The defendant had also recently attempted to access a security company's premises in Fyshwick to obtain six Glock firearms, Senior Constable Napier said. No charges have been laid in relation to the alleged burglaries.

Senior Constable Napier said NSW police were pursuing the defendant for alleged unauthorised possession of firearms and ammunition, with warrants for his arrest issued in NSW on Monday and Wednesday. He had information the defendant had used a firearm to "stand over" and intimidate people, and several people had declined to make statements to police because they said they were threatened, he said.
Phillip traders have slammed the government decision to introduce paid parking across the commercial precinct, saying it will make some businesses unviable and undermine the ability to attract staff.

One employer said the limited consultation showed an "arrogance and disregard" for those making a living in the area, while the Canberra Liberals said they would "not proceed" with what the government has proposed.

Phillip Business Community members Ian Whiteford and Dan Holliday, president Robert Issell and secretary Serena Singh, are upset with new parking plans for the area. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Margaret Hadfield runs a gallery and studio in Colbee Court where she offers seven art classes a week, and said the extra cost would make people think twice about coming.

"It's going to kill my business I think," she said. "It's a big deterrent, and the first 2 hours should be free.
"It's largely to do with the stadium deals with what they have got and potentially what they could lose. They will get compensated for it  that's a guarantee  it's just whether how much they lose [elsewhere] ... for clubs that have got multiple games at Etihad or the MCG, they could [be interested]," he said.

"They would definitely not lose anything. It's an issue for the fans. They will lose a membership game and we understand that and we are very sensitive to that but clubs have been doing that and, again, because we are an interstate club, we are not a big drawing club over here, so I think there would be some clubs who can say, maybe we can afford to do it somewhere else.

"That's what they have got to go through."

Shanghai tycoon Gui Guo Jie's has agreed to tip in $1 million-a-season over three years to stage the match.

The Power will hold a training camp in Shanghai in the first week of December to help players adjust to local conditions and also to stimulate interest in the match. As part of this, the club will bus local children to a "come and try AFL carnival".
A 14-year-old boy with Down Syndrome was travelling with his family. He was feeling increasingly air sick and decided to lie on the floor. Such was his determination and distress, he rejected entreaties by his parents and siblings to get back in his seat. Under the law, this prevented the captain from landing. The plane, running low on fuel, circled the sky above Melbourne, the chagrin and anxiety of the other passengers mounting.

One was moving, the other alarming. Both, in their own way, underscored the pivotal importance of fine teaching and well-resourced schools to the social and economic future of our nation, one of the world's wealthiest and most culturally diverse.

The cabin manager put out a call. "Is there a special-needs teacher aboard?" Sophie Murphy stepped forward. During her two decades as a teacher, her roles included overseeing early years specialised education curriculum at Westbourne Grammar and Wesley College. Gently and expertly, she used her skills. The plane landed safely soon after.

Now to the troubling story. Education reporter Timna Jacks revealed an emerging divide in inner Melbourne state schools between white middle-class families and less economically fortunate families from the growing community of families from Africa. Timna wrote of "white flight"  unofficial segregation on the basis of race and wealth. The white middle-class families are shunning schools close to housing commission towers, schools where as many as nine in 10 students speak a language other than English at home.

It has got to the point where Abselom Nega, an Ethiopian refugee, community leader and board member of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, says: "The white parents don't send their kids to these schools because all they see is black kids. They may not view it as racism, but it is."

While his claim is understandable, I would like to think he is incorrect. Parents, above all, want to give their children an opportunity to thrive and to explore their potential. I would like to think that those who might be taking their children out of these schools, or declining to place them there, are doing so in the misguided belief that children who speak a language other than English at home may somehow hold back overall learning in an English-language classroom. These parents are not bad citizens; they are seeking to be good parents and are concerned their children will not get adequate attention and tuition. Ultimately, it is a question of resources.

The mother tongue of two of my three children is not English and English is far from spoken all the time in our home. Our third child's mother tongue is English but he, too, is bi-lingual. All three went to a state primary school in Melbourne with a diverse ethnic and cultural mix. Indeed, around half the students in that school these days come from the French community and there is also a significant chunk from the Hebrew community.
Australians face a formidable choice on July 2, when voters must decide which of the major parties will lead the nation through the next few years of economic transition. With the polls indicating Labor is level-pegging the Coalition at 50-50 on a two-party-preferred basis, the eight-week campaign is poised to be a tough one. The array of economic and social challenges bearing on the nation have been only partly addressed in Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's budget speech and, separately, in Labor leader Bill Shorten's response. Much remains outstanding. How will either party in government manage the needs of a rapidly growing and ageing population, and provide services that the community is entitled to expect, when the revenue growth that successive governments have enjoyed over the past two decades has eased? The Turnbull government suggests the solution lies in economic growth, not higher taxes. It intends chipping away at corporate tax rates, lowering them over the course of a decade to 25 per cent, and thus spurring businesses into hiring more workers and, in turn, generating increased activity. Such tax cuts might cost $48.2 billion in forgone revenue over 10 years and add about 1 per cent to national income. Treasury secretary John Fraser, however, warns there is "considerable uncertainty" about such estimates.

Considerable uncertainty, indeed. While it is the duty of a government to have a vision of the nation's future, an ambitious, coherent and practical plan that can be adopted in stages, there are too many domestic variables and global uncertainties for 10-year costings to carry much weight. A four-year estimate is necessary, six years might be useful, but a 10-year figure is a guess. Instead of haggling over numbers that might apply in the third political cycle after the next, we urge the parties to identify their respective paths. Labor's approach is to allow tax cuts only for small businesses that have less than $2 million of revenue  those that are currently on a 28.5 per cent rate  and to bring their rate down to 25 per cent. The time frame has not been announced. It suggests that would "save" $49 billion, being the cost the government would otherwise bear if it went ahead with tax cuts. Over the next three years, the nation will face complex challenges as the drivers of economic activity and wealth continue to shift from the mining industry to the services sectors. Challenges arise from global trade and regional competition; from climate change and the degradation of our environment; from entrenched inequities of opportunity; from legacy models of taxation and incentives that inordinately favour the wealthy; and from the seemingly inexorable rise in property prices that has made housing less affordable. There are funding demands for road and rail developments; for high-quality and efficient healthcare; to improve literacy and numeracy rates and the development of job skills; for fair and timely access to justice, as well as safety nets for the aged, unemployed, marginalised and vulnerable. While the parties are closer on some policies than they were a month ago, neither the Coalition nor Labor has yet presented a wholly coherent picture of a potential government.
So Peter Dutton thinks advocates are stirring up false hope among detainees. In Mr Dutton's world, false hope takes the guise of setting oneself alight and is equivalent to protesting. So what does he think someone with no hope whatsoever would potentially do? Someone who cannot ever envisage the prospect of living a decent life? Someone whose mental state is deteriorating rapidly as they confront an endlessly bleak future? Perhaps rather than investing energy in blame-shifting and mind-reading, or slamming other politicians for not being as tough-minded as him, Mr Dutton could deal with the reality of the situation before him: desperate people in search for a decent life. Deflecting legitimate questions by arguing that he doesn't deal with "operational matters" is taking us for fools. What is "Stop the boats!" other than an operational strategy? Cherry-picking which aspects he will and won't talk about is merely using people to serve his political ends and is a gross failure of ministerial responsibility. Pauline Hopkins, Beaconsfield Behind the numbers The federal budget cut payments to residential aged care providers by $1.2 billion over four years to help curb a predicted $3.8 billion blowout in costs. Aged care providers are predictably up in arms. Unfortunately, government subsidies often serve the interests of the providers more than residents.

Under the current arrangements, the providers do their own assessments of residents. When a resident is reclassified as requiring a higher level of care, the provider receives more money from the government. However, staff levels rarely change nor are extra services provided to the resident. One in eight claims submitted by providers are reportedly incorrect. The Aged Care Funding Instrument is based on residents' level of care rather than "restorative care". There is no financial incentive for providers to introduce services such as strength training or lifestyle programs that would improve residents' quality of life. The funding of aged care homes requires greater scrutiny and transparency to ensure the best possible care for frail, elderly people. Sarah Russell, Northcote Fomenting unrest The Treasurer claims class warfare is "finished". On the contrary, it is booming, especially under the privatisation agenda which the Coalition champions.

Privatisation divides those with resources from people without them. Education is a glaring example. The divide between the growing number of prestigious private schools and the battling public schools has never been wider. Private health separates those who can afford treatment when they need it from those who can't. The same is true regarding transport. Not only with private (toll) roads but possibly coming to airports near you. Under a budget proposal, wealthy passengers will be able to pay for a premium experience, including being fast-tracked through border clearance. A privatised society that separates the experience of the "haves" from the "have nots" is a breeding ground for class warfare. Andrew Barrington, Ivanhoe War has been won With awful predictability the PM is asserting that criticism of his tax changes, some of which are steps in the right direction, amounts to class warfare. At the end of the 1970s Australia was one of the most egalitarian countries in the developed world. Today, we have joined the US and Britain as one of the least equal. If there has been any class warfare, it has been well and truly won by people like Mr Turnbull and his mates.

Norman Huon, Port Melbourne Hold on to gains Adulation for the down-to-earth Ricky Muir should be tempered by the fact that he is pro-guns. Voters need to think carefully about who stands for what. For example, the Australian Country Party is a brand new and misleading name for the shootin', fishin' and drivin' party that was called Country Alliance. As we go to the polls with the horrific memories of Port Arthur still in our minds, let's not be deluded by gun-friendly politicians in disguise. John Howard squandered our mining boom, but we can at least hang on to the one enduring gain he achieved for this country. Joan Reilly, Surrey Hills Crux of the matter

What an appropriate headline: "New laws to aid the dying?" (News, 1/5). It highlights how current laws don't aid the dying and (as per written submissions and testimony to the committee) often prolong and enhance suffering through depriving the dying of choice over their lives. Janine Truter, The Basin Irritated by message I am a behavioural paediatrician who has been living and working in Melbourne for the past year. I wrote my first Ritalin prescription for a child with ADHD in 1978. I read with increasing concern the article "Irritable, distracted, winging it? Maybe you have adult ADHD" (1/5). Nearly all the information offered by the doctors is based on Big Pharma-sponsored research and professional education. I am not against ADHD diagnoses or medication. But the good and bad effects of amphetamine on everyone (with ADHD or not) are well known. The doctors left out the risks for adults of misuse and abuse of, and addiction to prescription stimulants, a big problem in the past and which is now an epidemic in the US. The inattentive form of ADHD is broad enough to include anyone whose talents and temperament are not consistent with their goals and aspirations. Australia is taking big risks in entertaining and treating ADHD in all but a very highly selected group of adults. Beware of Americans bearing gifts.

Lawrence Diller, South Yarra Don't take it literally Catherine Manning highlights the connection between jealousy and men killing their partners (Opinion, 1/5). Perhaps it is time to do away with the marriage ceremony, which gives a clear message that obeying and not parting until death is the foundation stone of the union. Is it surprising that some are going to take this literally. Since Lesley Gore's impassioned plea in the '60s to her boyfriend to understand that You Don't Own Me, nothing really seems to have changed. In fact, is it getting worse? Margaret Guest, Seddon One-way street

Chris Fotinopoulos displays little of the tolerance he purports to champion (Opinion, 1/8). Any "moral code" that differs from his (in the context of this debate) is "regressive or offensive". Scriptural interpretations not in accord with his are "myopic". And practices he disagrees with are "ethically unpalatable", while opposition to school programs he approves of is "offensive". He wants unqualified support for the so-called "safe schools" program, with no regard for "religious sensibilities". The same does not extend to any faith-based program, regardless of anti-religious sensibilities. For many, tolerance is a one-way street on which people of faith are decidedly up the wrong end. Rowan Forster, Surrey Hills Emphasis on message Chris Fotinopoulos neatly divides Christianity in Australia into two camps: the "progressive" Christians who are tolerant and accepting of others; and the "conservative" Christians who discriminate against minority groups due to a "myopic interpretation of scripture". So how can two groups that both profess to be "Christian" find themselves at opposite ends of some quasi-political spectrum? Perhaps the answer lies in Fotinopoulos' solitary reference to "scripture". Are the Christians the writer identifies with as "progressive" following these same scriptures from a distance, as it were, rather than at the close proximity of their "conservative" cousins? Same message, different emphasis.
In an ideal world, there would be a definitive and fair method of selection. But the world of constitutional law is not an ideal one. The Constitution merely provides: "After each first meeting of the Senate following a dissolution thereof, the Senate shall divide the senators chosen for each state into two classes, as nearly equal in number as practicable; and the places of the senators of the first class shall become vacant at the expiration of three years, and the places of those of the second class at the expiration of six years." So it is a matter for the senators themselves, and it will remain that way unless there is a constitutional amendment  very unlikely. In short, the senators (read a majority of them) can force whatever selection method they like to determine which senators get the long terms and which get the short. As it happens, the Parliament has provided in the Commonwealth Electoral Act a very fair method to determine the matter, but it is not binding on the senators because this clause in the Constitution, unlike many other clauses, does not begin with the crucial words "until the Parliament otherwise provides . . . ". The Electoral Act method is to do a recount of all the votes as if the election were for just six senators in each state, not 12, and the six senators thus notionally elected would get the long terms. All very fair and democratic.

But after the 1987 election, Labor and Democrat senators did the dirty. They just ignored the Electoral Act and resolved, as the Constitution permits, that the order of election would determine who got the long terms. The difference is critical. During the count, those who get a quota are elected before those who get a seat after distribution of preferences. So if the Greens or Xenophons got two clear quotas, they would both be elected before the distribution to second-on-the-list major-party candidates. Under the Electoral Act method, only one Green or Xenophon candidate would win one of the notional six seats that would translate into a six-year term. You watch. The major parties will form an alliance of convenience either with each other or with a minor party to cook up a method so they get as many long-term senators as possible. They could draw lots if they wanted. Or the major parties could be utterly skulduggerous and resolve something like that, where a party gets three or more senators elected, the first three of its senators will get the long terms.

That would give Labor and the Coalition all the long-term senators. It would mean that in the 2019 election for half the senate, all the minor-party senators would face re-election. The Greens would be reduced to five or six senators rather than the nine or 10 it gets in the usual rotation. On a related matter, the determination of the major parties to rid the Senate of minor-party representation appears permanently doomed (skulduggery aside, of course). Support for the major parties has fallen so significantly in the past 35 years, that they cannot prevent one or two non-majors to be elected in every state at a half-Senate election and two to four in every state at a double dissolution. Further, under the new optional-preferential voting system, a lot of votes will exhaust during the count. That is, before the last one or two senators are elected, a vote expresses no preference for any of the live candidates.

It is likely therefore that the last candidate elected will be elected on a lot less than the quota of 7.7 per cent of the vote after preferences. Maybe as low as 2 per cent. It may be that enough votes exhaust that the last two senators are both elected with less than a quota. That will happen if more than a quota (that is 7.7 per cent) of votes exhaust. Given Australians' proclivity for political apathy and laziness, that is very likely. So the idea that the new voting system will clean out the micro-parties and independents may be a bit optimistic from the view of the major parties. The latest Morgan poll has Labor on 32.5 per cent (4.2 quotas); the Coalition on 40.0 per cent (5.2 quotas); Greens 13.5 per cent (1.75 quotas); Independents 13.5 per cent (1.75 quotas).
Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, south China. (Xinhua file photo)

NEW YORK, May 6 -- The Barack Obamaadministration's provocative policy in the Pacific is gunboat diplomacy in disguise and may lead to war in the region if not quickly reversed, a U.S. journal warned on Friday.

The article "Prelude to War in the Pacific," published on the latest issue of Executive Intelligence Review, provided a detailed analysis on why the provocative meddling in the Pacific region by the United Statesis dangerous, why China's territorial claims of the Nansha and Xisha Islands are legitimate, and how the United States is sabotaging the amicable resolution of the regional conflict.

Bylined by the Washington Bureau Chief of the publication William Jones, the article noted that Washington did not sign the UN Law of the Sea Convention, but elaborated its unilateral "freedom of navigation policy" out of the country's own selfish interests.

The policy effectively allows the U.S. Navy to sail wherever and whenever it wants, unimpeded by any treaty, which essentially making U.S. military vessels a modern form of "gunboat diplomacy," wrote Jones.

It denounced Western media for depicting China's claims to the Nansha and Xisha Islands as a Chinese "power grab," arguing that for most of China's history, these claims have never been contested.

Throughout the region's history, extensive activities by Chinese on the islands were present, including fishing and planting, and some Chinese even lived on the islands for years. Many Chinese relics and remains have been found there, including the remains of temples, the article said.

Jones also argued that Chinese possession of the islands would have a beneficial effect on navigation in the region.

"Already China has constructed two lighthouses on Huayang Reef in the Nanshas, and emergency rescue facilities have been established on the Nanshas and Xishas."

The article made an accurate analogy to display the hypocrisy of the U.S. rhetoric.

"Remember that the United States in 1872 sent General John Schofield to the then independent kingdom of Hawaii to investigate those islands for the purpose of eventually putting U.S. military facilities on an advanced perimeter in the Pacific," said the article.

"But the Hawaiian Islands are 2,390 miles from the coast of California, while the Nansha Islands are 500 miles from the Chinese coast and the Xisha only 180 miles. And while the United States had no claim to the Hawaiian Islands (but would soon annex them in rather murky circumstances), China does have such a claim, a claim which was once universally recognized," Jones argued.

Jones believed that countries in the region had a path to peaceful resolution to the conflicts of their territorial claims, but Washington was actively sabotaging the efforts.

"China is clearly aware of the conflicts that have arisen with its neighbors over its attempt to make good on its claims," said Jones in the article. "It is also concerned to maintain amicable relations with its neighbors, and is therefore engaged in coming to agreements with the various claimants through a process of bilateral negotiations."

The article highlighted the agreements between the countries of the region, encapsulated in the 2012 Declaration of Conduct signed by the members of ASEANand the government of China.

The document calls on the parties "to resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations by sovereign states directly concerned, in accordance with universally recognized principles of international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea."

However, the Philippineshas taken the issue to arbitration in its dispute with China. And with the blessing of the United States, the Philippines is hoping that the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague will rule in its favor, said the article.

Jones argued that if the disputes involved only the countries in the region, they could be resolved amicably. "Given the economic strength of China and its clear willingness to use that strength to create a win-win situation for its neighbors -- as we have seen in China's Belt and Road Initiative -- there is no reason that satisfactory arrangements beneficial to all could not be worked out."

The article warned sternly against U.S. provocative policy in the Pacific region, saying that the U.S. invasions of Chinese waters, and the attempts by the United States to create a mini-NATO to target China using the few allies it has in the region, have made an amicable solution impossible.
The order decided by State council has seen dumped minister David Johnston relegated to the unwanted sixth spot.

The two female West Australian Senators, Cabinet Minister Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds, have stared down a rogue push to have them dropped to the bottom of the Liberal party's Senate ticket.

Rural party members were worried that a push to prevent Senator Back, a regional representative for the state, from being placed last on the ticket would see Senators Cash and Reynolds sidelined.

But the preselection has also exposed tensions within the party centred around Senator Dean Smith with private accusations he was seeking the number two spot, ahead of Senator Cash, a Cabinet Minister.

Senator Smith sent an email 48 hours before the preselection which said "I am now seeking your support to be actively considered for the number 3 spot on the WA Liberal Senate Ticket."

A senior source said at the same time the email was sent, Senator Smith's supporters in the Swan division were phoning requesting he be voted in at number two. Senators appearing in Estimates hearings in Canberra on Friday were also amazed to see Senators Smith and Johnston leave for Perth before the committees concluded at 11pm on Friday night.

Senator Smith attended every hearing and left in the early evening, hours after Senator Johnston departed for Perth leaving behind a pile of documents, in a move designed to look like he was still there.
This week, in the theatrette at Parliament House, Canberra, glasses of bubbles in hand, a few of us got to see a preview of Secret City's first episode. It is bewitching, based on what we saw of the first episode. First-class actors  Jacki Weaver, Anna Torv, Alan Dale, Dan Wyllie  strong, tight scripting and an engrossing plot that just happens, as if serendipity guided the hands of the script writers, to hook in to the big issues of right now. There's a prime minister intent on building multi-billion-dollar submarines in Australia and snubbing the Japanese, growing tensions concerning China and the US, seething defence chiefs, secrets everywhere. It confronts the viewer from the very first scene with a ghastliness that is suddenly infecting our national story: a self-immolation, though not, in this film, on Nauru. But it is Canberra that turns out to be the star. The physical city. Beyond its great parliament house, but including it, too. And even for someone like me who lived and worked there for so long, this film-star Canberra is revealed as a genuinely secret city, one so physically arresting and surprising that it knocks you back in your seat.

Canberra's tourism boosters ought to be doing handstands, for here is a place a lot of Australians could barely imagine: night scenes on the bridge over the lake as spooky as anything from the great cities of the world long favoured by directors intent on disquieting audiences; aerial panoramas of vast green parks that appear to float; a city hidden within a forest; a lake mysterious beneath its morning blanket of mist; a parliament brooding on its hill. Another mate of mine, the writer Paul Daley, offered readers this city as a love story and a gritty history extending way back into the dreaming in his wonderful little book of 2012, simply entitled Canberra. Daley explained his exasperation at the knowledge he would be wasting his time trying to explain the intricacies and the secrets of the place to those who insisted on dismissing it as a cliche  a boring town of roundabouts and self-satisfied public servants and politicians. "I don't tell them because first they would have to understand Canberra is the manifestation of a dream  Canberra is an accidental miracle," Daley wrote. Quite. You need to have spent time around Canberra to begin to understand its rhythms and moods; the things that are more lasting than the shouting in the large house on the hill.

You need to start with the knowledge that it is a mountain town, almost 600 metres above sea level, with higher mountains around. Understand that and you can forgive and embrace its cracking cold in winter and learn to love the sight of snow on the peaks. You need to know, too, that it was a bare bowl until visionaries decided to embark on the world's largest urban tree-planting exercise, changing the very essence of its light. A million trees were planted to get things going in the 1920s, and 53 million more trees, shrubs and plants have been grown in a single nursery for Canberra's public spaces over the past 90 years. Up on Dairy Farmers Hill, a hillside roasted to naked earth in bushfires 13 years ago, 104 separate forests  42,000 examples of Australia's and the world's most captivating species of trees  are growing. The National Arboretum is going to be a dreamy treasure when its forests grow up. Meanwhile, when autumn visits, which is to say, right now, you can become lost in the change of colours of the leaves on streets lined with claret ash or red oak; of English elms and Chinese pistachio or pin oaks; or the grove of ornamental pear on the southern shore of the lake.
A man will face Warwick Magistrates court in June after police allegedly found drugs in his car. The man was pulled over on Backer Street in Goondiwindi on March 31 as the result of a drug operation set up in the area. Drugs and cash seized in raids in Goondiwindi Credit:Queensland Police When police attempted to detain the man they allege he became aggressive and a physical altercation ensued. Officers then searched the man's car, where they allege a quantity of drugs was located.

He was charged with possessing drugs, supplying dangerous drugs, possessing property believed to be the proceeds of crime, serious assault police and obstruct police. As part of the same operation police conducted another exercise on Wednesday executing 27 warrants at various addresses in the area with 11 people charged with 31 drug related offences as a result. Among those arrested was a 26-year-old woman, who will face a variety of charges including trafficking a dangerous drugs, drug possession and possess property suspected of being proceeds of crime. Police have so far located a total of 50 grams of methylamphetaine, 4 grams of cocaine, $780 in Australian currency, one firearm and seized three cars allegedly used to transport drugs to and within Goondiwindi. Darling Downs district Detective Inspector David Isherwood said the operation was sending a strong message to drug dealers in the community.
"He would have said, 'Son whatever adversity arises before you, don't shy away from it'. "The oath that I took as a sworn member of the police force meant everything to me." Dillon first fought against corruption from the inside, refusing to participate in the bribery rife inside the Licensing Branch and becoming a thorn in the side of corrupt senior officers taking hand-outs in return for protection from the law. Standing up in front of the Fitzgerald Inquiry would be the first time he fought corruption openly, but it continued throughout his career both within the force and out. And it made him unpopular with his colleagues.

Even after the Fitzgerald Inquiry heralded a new era in policing in Queensland, the old guard who were complicit in the corruption, got away with it, or turned a blind eye remained, and in Code of Silence Dillon doesn't pull any punches from calling them out. With years flowing between then and now, Dillon isn't bothered about upsetting the apple cart again. "I don't care at all," he says. "I hope they rush out and buy the bloody book so they can go looking through it and find their names and see what I have written about them." And he is proud of what he did then and what he continues to do now.

"Absolutely [II am proud]. They were doing the bloody wrong thing," he says. "They were acting contrary to the terms of their oath of office, they shouldn't even be in the bloody job, these are the sort of people that efforts should be made to rid the force of people like that." While his role in the Fitzgerald Inquiry is what shot Dillon to notoriety both within the force and externally, Code of Silence also rips open the inner workings of policing and charts his journey from a seven-year-old boy desperate to become a copper to Australia's most senior Indigenous officer. And the journey wasn't always rosy. Dillon joined the force in 1965 when Queensland was a very different place.

Racism was worse than it is now and Dillon was introduced to it before he even put on the uniform. His entrance to the force was unconventional. While he was walking past the headquarters in Ipswich, an elderly sergeant recognised his strapping figure would be suitable for a role in policing and encouraged him to apply. Later Dillon found out through a friend that another officer at the station had told the senior sergeant if he were to join the force the officer would refuse to walk down the same side of the street as him. It wouldn't end there. "Let me say this, there are a lot of really decent, good police officers, not all of them are racist," he says.

"But there was those who were outright, bigoted, bloody racists. "I was dogged by racism, right through to the end of my career and even by very senior officers and that is the last place you would think they would have those shocking bloody traits." Dillon says he had to develop a thick skin against the taunts, but the thought of reacting physically did cross his mind. And if it weren't for the advice of someone who had similar experiences he might have. "This was a bit of advice given to me by a fella in the force, an Irishman, he told me what had happened to him where they set him up and [he reacted with his fists] and he was arrested, charged and convicted and he did time in jail," Dillon says. "He said, 'Don't let them push you, don't let them goad you into reacting, otherwise, surely, you will end up the way I did.' I took that advice on board."

Now 17 years into his retirement, Dillon, 71, still hasn't stopped fighting for what he believes is right and working towards a better future. He sits on a number of boards and still involves himself in the Indigenous community. And he hasn't looked back on his decision to leave the force after decades of service. "I walked out on my last day in the afternoon, never looked back over my shoulder, no farewell from the hierarchy, nobody saying goodbye, walked into the sunset and moved on with my life," he said. But for someone who was treated so poorly by the police force despite being integral to ending the corruption that was rife in the organisation, he bares no ill will.

"People should give every support to the men and women of the police force," he says. "They do such a great job, putting their lives on the line." Fairfax Media took Dillon back to the infamous Bubbles Bath House, now top-end restaurant Les Bubbles, for our photo shoot. The sense of nostalgia as he walked through the doors for the first time since the '80s was evident. "It certainly didn't look like this," he says as he peruses the photos on the wall of those he helped put behind bars.
A 23-year-old man was almost sexually assaulted twice by the same unknown male, inside a Melbourne city shopping centre toilet cubicle earlier in the year.

Police have been told the 23-year-old went into the toilets at a La Trobe Street shopping centre about 4pm February 6.

Police released this image of a man that may assist with inquiries into a sexual assault in Melbourne.

He walked into the toilets, where an unknown man tried to push his way into the victim's toilet cubicle.

Police said when the victim tried to leave the toilet, he was sexually assaulted by the man.
It's not every day that the carpets of Government House are used as a play mat for toddlers. But Friday was no ordinary day.

Governor Linda Dessau, who is the hospital's patron, welcomed 160 mothers and their babies to the historic residence for a special morning tea to mark the 160th anniversary of the Royal Women's Hospital.

Women and babies from "the Women's" gathered at Government House to celebrate the hospital's 160th anniversary. Credit:Jason South

The women had all recently given birth at the Royal Women's.

On the eve of Mother's Day weekend the Governor said she was delighted to see so many babies enjoying the beautiful surrounds of Government House.
Melbourne Girls' College, which recently turned away 12 students including nearby public housing residents, asks aspiring Year 7 students to respond to the following question: "the core values of the college are diversity, excellence and teamwork. What does each of these values mean for you?" Temperatures are expected to soar early next week as students across NSW return to school. Credit:Michele Mossop Why do principals care so much about grades? Since the MySchool website launched, every schools' NAPLAN scores were made publicly available. This data is being used by parents and policymakers to form assessments about the value of schools, putting state schools in competition with private schools for top grades and prestige. Illustration: Matt Davidson.

According to University of Melbourne's Professor John Polesel, it is important to have transparency and accountability around school performance, but NAPLAN scores were a crude measure of success and could be easily "manipulated or misinterpreted". "We have instigated a system of competition between schools ... I don't entirely blame the schools, I blame the system as well, and the way the government is pitting schools against each other, on measures such as NAPLAN scores." Can we also blame the parents? Partly. Their decision to avoid local state schools is contributing to this issue. In order to secure a spot in coveted schools, parents pen long letters to schools to advocate for their child's enrolment. They offer to donate money to the school, or volunteer their time and services. Sometimes, they claim to live at a false address to make it appear they are within the school zone.

However, parents argue it is their responsibility to do all that they can to ensure their kids receive a good education. Many claim they dodge disadvantaged schools because the schools have less resources and facilities, and are inclined to fund certain initiatives such as language programs and breakfast clubs, which do not benefit their kids. These schools have very little access to parent donations, yet grapple with high costs to support their students' needs. But what about school zones? Education Department rules state that schools must accept all students if it is their local state school. If there are vacancies, it must then accept the siblings of students already attending the school, even if it is not their closest school. The next step is contentious. Some schools are are able to fill vacancies using their discretion, based on "curriculum grounds". This allows for kids to get in if they have special skills in music, sport, or a second language. Who are the winners and losers?

Winners: Academic students and advantaged parents who know how to play the system. Losers: Disadvantaged families, especially those who are newly arrived. Students who can secure enrolments in over-subscribed schools are high achievers and generally from more advantaged backgrounds, said Professor Polesel. And, wealthier and educated parents are more equipped to investigate how well their local schools are performing, study their results and make an informed choice about a school. "Obviously, if you're a refugee or children of refugees or from a poor or uneducated background, it's going to be more difficult to make an informed choice about which school is best for your children."

What does segregation mean for learning? Former principals turned researchers Chris Bonnor and Bernie Shepherd found the widening economic and social gaps between schools is affecting academic performance. A comparison of NAPLAN scores from 2008 to 2014 showed wealthy schools' scores improved over the six-year period, while poorer schools' grades declined. This is particularly concerning, given the gap between the highest and lowest performing students is already greater than most other developed countries. How to fix it? We have a few suggestions: Go local

The principal of one of Victoria's most sought-after state schools is urging parents to send their children to their local school. McKinnon Secondary College principal Pitsa Binion said every state school should promote their successes so parents had the confidence to send their children there. "I want to see a system where everyone supports their local school," she said. "We are a good school, but there are very good schools everywhere. The teachers are qualified in the same universities. People need to vote with their feet and support their local schools." While most students at McKinnon Secondary have grown up in the area, about 40 per cent of families have moved houses to secure a spot for their child at the popular school. The school's success has pushed up property prices, and Ms Binion can't afford to buy a house in McKinnon.

"I wish I had bought here. Instead, I am funding every one else's retirement," she joked. Target ability, not age Templestowe College principal Peter Hutton has proven that a principal can save a struggling and neglected school, by catering to students with different backgrounds and varying levels of ability. When he took over in 2009, the school had fewer than 300 students including just 23 students in year 7. He abolished year levels and allowed the students to decide which subjects they would focus on from year 7 to 12.

The curriculum includes accelerated academic subjects and many vocational courses, which caters to students' range of ability. The model allowed for the gifted students to be pushed, and weaker students could work at their level of ability. "School is one of the only places where you can only work with people within 12 months of your age. Our classes would have a 14-year-old working with a 16-year-old or 17-year-old year old." Fund low-performing schools Chris Bonnor said the best way to avoid fierce competition between schools was to follow the Gonski scheme and fund schools based on need.

"That will ensure that every local school has a good profile, and will attract parents and families regardless of their interests and level of achievement." Melbourne University's senior lecturer in education policy and politics, Dr Glenn Savage, said poorer schools struggled to attract good teachers, and creating incentives that would help put high-quality teachers in struggling schools was worthwhile. "A quality teacher can change the lives of a young person ... it can be the crucial difference between a young person doing well and miserably," he said. Stricter enrolment policies Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals president Judy Crowe said the department's policy on enrolments was too vague, and this was causing some parents to feel that they had been unfairly rejected.
Police are appealing for information after a 41-year-old man was stabbed to death at a Balcatta home on Friday afternoon.

Police were called to a disturbance at a house in Amelia Street about 5pm, a police spokesman said.

"WA Police and St John Ambulance personnel attended and located a 41-year-old man with an injury consistent with a stab wound," he said.

"He was taken to Royal Perth Hospital by St John Ambulance, where he was later pronounced deceased."

A 49-year-old man from the same suburb, who is known to the victim, has been charged with murder.
Premier Li Keqiang checks employment data on Friday at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in Beijing. Wu Zhiyi / China Daily

Premier says efforts to create opportunities must focus on college students, migrant workers

Premier Li Keqiang vowed on Friday that the government will provide opportunities for steady employment to college graduates and migrant workers, even though the country is undergoing economic restructuring.

He made the remark while visiting the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security as part of efforts to review the nation's employment situation.

Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security, said 4.43 million people found jobs in urban areas from January to April, accounting for 44.3 percent of this year's target set in March.

Yin also said the registered urban unemployment rate was 4.04 percent by the end of March  lower than the maximum 4.5 percent annual rate set forth by Premier Li in the Government Work Report in March.

The premier said employment opportunities must focus on key groups  college graduates and migrant workers  by helping them with training and other supportive policies.

Li said migrant workers are the most vulnerable group during economic restructuring.

"Channels have to be broadened to boost employment for migrant workers and increase their income," he told officials during a meeting on employment at the ministry.

"In this way, their lives can be improved and the new type of urbanization can proceed together with agricultural modernization."

A record 7.65 million college students and about 5 million vocational school students will graduate this year, so more than 12 million young people will need to find jobs.

Li said many traditional industries have a limited capacity to provide new jobs. "So we have to create more jobs for young people by cultivating new economies, new technologies and new business models, as the national economy restructures," he said.

Zheng Dongliang, director of the ministry's Work Science Research Institute, said, "The premier's visit underscores the importance the central government has attached to employment."

Migrant workers should learn new skills to work in the service sector or start their own businesses in their hometowns, Zheng said.

He suggested that the government work out more favorable policies to create job opportunities in small cities or townships, where migrant workers can settle down with affordable housing and education for their children.

Zheng also said universities should provide students with proper training that caters to market demands and should also find more ways to help graduates.
A Perth vet has issued a warning to pet owners to be vigilant after a dog was poisoned by a rat bait-filled sausage thrown into its owner's yard on Monday.

The MalagaVet clinic said in a Facebook post that the dog was lucky to be alive after it ingested the poison.

The picture of the poisoned sausage which MalagaVet posted to Facebook.

"The toxin stops the blood from clotting, which causes internal bleeding and can be fatal," the post read.

"Luckily the dog was brought in quickly and we were able to get her tested and on treatment, but before she had suffered from some bleeding.
Perth received a downpour overnight on Friday, but forecasters are predicting the skies will clear just in time for Mother's Day on Sunday.

A total of 18 millimetres fell over Perth in the 24 hours to 9am Saturday morning.

The wet weather in Perth is expected to clear just in time for Mother's Day. Credit:Nick Moir

The heaviest falls occurred between 9pm and 9.30pm when 3.6 millimetres was recorded and between 6.30am and 7am on Saturday morning when 2.4 millimetres fell.

Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Neil Bennett said the rain is expected to subside for Mother's Day on Sunday but some coastal areas may still receive showers.
Whether we like it or not, the United States and its allies are now in an urgent battle for influence with al-Qaeda's most effective and successful affiliate yet. The consequences of ignoring, or losing, that battle are potentially catastrophic. BUILDING POWER By mid-2015, Nusra Front had become a dominant military power in much of the northern Syrian province of Idlib. Only the Syrian Salafi group Ahrar al-Sham wielded comparable power in the region. Despite having initially proclaimed its intention to share power and govern together with other civilian and military opposition bodies, Nusra Front soon launched unilateral attempts to rule over parts of Idlib city and the towns of Jisr al-Shughour and Ariha. Despite local civilian resistance, Nusra Front has remained determined to establish its influence, steadily expanding the scope of its control. In particular, the establishment of the "Liberated Districts Administration" as a body in charge of a broad range of governance activities indicated the group's intent to formalise its control over territory and population. By the summer of 2015, following Nusra Front's withdrawal of forces from northern Aleppo, Idlib had quite clearly emerged as the centre of al-Qaeda's Syrian project. As Nusra Front attempted to consolidate its control in Idlib, bolstered by the newly arrived forces from northern Aleppo, perhaps the most influential living al-Qaeda figure other than leader Ayman al-Zawahiri crossed into northern Syria. Having been released from an Iranian prison as part of a prisoner swap deal with al-Qaeda's Yemeni affiliate, former Egyptian special forces Colonel Saif al-Adel was allegedly expressly ordered by Zawahiri to aid Nusra Front. "This is all part of al Qaeda's plan," a senior Salafi figure based in Idlib said. "Saif al-Adel is here to ensure that Zawahiri's project in Syria is realised."

Coming amid Russia's intervention in Syria, Abu Julaybib's arrival in northern Syria in late 2015 has been widely interpreted as a sign that Nusra Front is preparing for similar targeted attacks against any detractors of its emirate plans. "It's a really scary move, to be honest," a Latakia-based Islamist commander said. "Everyone knows what Abu Julaybib is capable of, and, given the circumstances, it can only point to one thing: more death." Influential Nusra Front clerics then began an informal consultation process with a small number of conservative sheikhs in Idlib, Latakia, and Aleppo to judge the appetite for the group's plans. "They didn't get the answers they were looking for," the Idlib-based Salafist told me. "It was a big shock to them. They really didn't expect it." Concerned by this early opposition, Nusra Front changed tack. In January, the group convened a meeting of leaders of armed groups in Idlib and proposed a grand military merger. In doing this, Nusra Front exploited its principal source of leverage over opposition groups: Although the vast majority of Syria's opposition opposed an overt al-Qaeda project on Syrian soil, the global jihadi movement's Syrian affiliate remained an invaluable ally on the battlefield. While some groups in the room indicated an interest in a merger, Ahrar al-Sham rejected the proposition altogether due to Nusra Front's allegiance to al Qaeda. Two sources who requested anonymity claimed Nusra Front's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, had used that initial meeting as a sounding board for his emirate plans, by meeting on the side with two smaller jihadi factions  Jund al-Aqsa and the Turkistan Islamic Party  both of which expressed their support. UNDERMINING THE CEASEFIRE

Already discouraged by the early negative responses, the cessation of hostilities that went into effect in large parts of Syria in late February posed a second challenge to Nusra Front. As its influence in Syria was directly linked to its capacity to demonstrate value on the battlefield, the decline in violence catalysed a dramatic re-empowerment of Syria's moderate protest movement and the revitalisation of the most moderate elements of the opposition. In parts of Idlib, some protests even began to adopt slogans hostile to Assad's regime and al-Qaeda. In the town of Maarat al-Numan, Nusra Front's patience wore out on March 11, when its fighters violently dispersed demonstrators and attacked the bases of the 13th Division, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) group vetted by the CIA and supported through a multinational command centre in Turkey. The expulsion of the 13th Division from Maarat al-Numan sparked days of protests in Idlib and further afield, some of which included leading members of Ahrar al-Sham. For the first time in several years, al-Qaeda's strategy in Syria appeared to have failed the group. Nusra Front quickly identified the cessation of hostilities as a threat to its influence and set about attempting to undermine it. Beginning around March 20, the al-Qaeda affiliate convened a series of meetings with armed opposition groups active in northern Hama, Latakia, and southern Aleppo, with the intention of persuading them that their interests were better served in fighting than in supporting the political process in Geneva. "They presented some convincing arguments," an opposition commander who attended one of the meetings said. "But mostly, it seemed we were being threatened: If we didn't join the operation, we would be seen as an enemy." While opposition groups had felt under increasing pressure to retaliate against continued regime violations of the cessation of hostilities, it's unlikely that they would have been able to mount a significant offensive in northern Syria without Nusra Front's military power.

"Don't you think we would prefer not to have al-Nusra in our trenches?" one FSA commander asked. "They represent everything we are opposed to. Sometimes, they are the same as the regime. But what can we do when our supposed friends abroad give us nothing to assert ourselves? We rely on others only because we cannot do the job by ourselves." Now that fighting has resumed, Nusra Front has allegedly intensified its consultation process surrounding its plans for an emirate in Idlib. On al-Qaeda's invitation, Rifai Ahmad Taha, a highly influential Egyptian jihadi figure, crossed into northern Syria on April 1 from Turkey. He was killed in a US drone strike only four days after arriving in Syria. Alongside him was Abu Omar al-Masri, the former right-hand man of Emir Khattab  a Saudi jihadi famous for his leadership in Chechnya  who had been active in Syria as early as 2012. Since Taha's death, Nusra Front has continued to very slowly expand the breadth of its consultation process, seeking to win some level of acceptance for its emirate plans. Internally, the al-Qaeda affiliate remains split on how fast to establish the emirate. In the end, developments on the battlefield may play a role in determining the outcome of these debates. While a renewed cease-fire would likely spoil al-Qaeda's plans, a steady escalation of hostilities could potentially provoke a level of desperation within opposition ranks that may provide space for some limited level of grudging acceptance of the emirate. A rejuvenated version of the "Army of Conquest," a rebel coalition including Nusra Front, now looks set to emerge in Idlib and Aleppo, as a consequence of the discussions initiated by the al-Qaedaaffiliate in January. This development indicates that some Syrians have already begun to tighten their cooperative bonds with Nusra Front, albeit out of a perceived military  and not ideological  necessity.
Harley-Davidson Reignites Marvel Studios' Partnership To Help Defend Freedom In Latest Saga - Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War"







MILWAUKEE - May 6, 2016: Captain America and Iron Man may have drawn battle lines for the biggest superhero fight the Marvel universe has ever seen, but Harley-Davidson and Marvel have reunited to bring Dark Custom style and horsepower to defend the city streets in Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War."

Harley-Davidson has long been by Captain America's side in his stand for freedom, and the latest chapter of the hero's epic saga showcases a strong pulse of torque with "Team Captain America" member Winter Soldier riding a one-of-a-kind Harley-Davidson Street 750 customized for the film and Team Iron Man member Black Widow  riding an Iron 883.

"Harley is proud to continue to join forces with Marvel with two bold, powerful and rebellious motorcycles  The Street 750 and all-new Iron 883 featured in 'Captain America: Civil War,'" said Dino Bernacchi, Harley-Davidson U.S. Marketing Director. "And, with pricing on both models starting below $9,000 the unique feeling of freedom that only can be found on a Harley is more attainable than ever."

Feel the Thrill of the Throttle

The Street 750 and Iron 883 are both part of Harley-Davidson's Dark Custom line-up.

The Street 750 features the liquid-cooled Revolution X engine, housed in a narrow and lean chassis built for agility. New suspension and a broad handlebar sweep provide the confidence and maneuverability you need when managing tight turns and fast moves in defense  or pursuit of  freedom. It also has the premium, minimalist Dark Custom style that serves as a blank canvas for riders to customize.

The Iron 883 is inspired by the rebellious spirit of the past updated with modern design and performance. Intentionally raw and rough around the edges, the Iron 883 boasts a modern design inspired by garage-built bobbers.

With nine models under $12,000, including the Street 750, the Iron 883, and Harley's brand-new Roadster model, Harley-Davidson Dark Custom motorcycles provide the perfect balance of style, function, and attainability.

Visit H-D.com to see all the 2016 Harley-Davidson models and to find a local authorized Harley-Davidson dealer.

About Harley-Davidson Motor Company

Since 1903, Harley-Davidson Motor Company has fulfilled dreams of personal freedom with cruiser, touring and custom motorcycles, riding experiences and events, and a complete line of Harley-Davidson motorcycle parts, accessories, general merchandise, riding gear and apparel. For more information, visit www.h-d.com.

About Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War"

Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War" finds Steve Rogers leading the newly formed team of Avengers in their continued efforts to safeguard humanity. But after another incident involving the Avengers results in collateral damage, political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability, headed by a governing body to oversee and direct the team. The new status quo fractures the Avengers, resulting in two campsone led by Steve Rogers and his desire for the Avengers to remain free to defend humanity without government interference, and the other following Tony Stark's surprising decision to support government oversight and accountability.

Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War" stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Frank Grillo and Martin Freeman, with William Hurt and Daniel Bruhl.

Anthony & Joe Russo are directing with Kevin Feige producing. Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Patricia Whitcher, Nate Moore and Stan Lee are the executive producers. The screenplay is by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely. Get ready to pick a side and join the nonstop action playing out on two fronts when Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War" opens in U.S. theaters on May 6, 2016. Marvel's "Captain America: Civil War" is rated PG-13 for extended sequences of violence, action and mayhem.
Seventeen Chinese nationals were injured on Saturday when a Hong Kong Airlines flight hit severe turbulence over Borneo Island after taking off from Bali Island of Indonesia, officials said.

The incident occurred above Banjarmacin city, the capital of South Kalimantan province, about one hour after the Hong Kong-bound flight HX6704 take off from the Bali international airport, forcing it to return to the airport, said Herni Pramuharjo, spokesman of the transport ministry.

"Twelve people were rushed to a hospital, one of whom got very serious injury. Five others were only treated at the health clinic of the airport. All of them (17 people) are Chinese nationals," he told Xinhua via telephone.

One of the injured is a crew of the airline which carried 204 passengers and 12 crews, Pramuharjo said.

The turbulence incident is the second time involving Airbus 300-200 in Indonesia this week.

On Wednesday, Etihad Airways flight EY74 from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta encountered severe turbulence, 45 minutes prior to landing at the main airport in Jakarta, leaving 31 people wounded with 9 of them taken into hospital, and damaging cabin storage area, according to the spokesman.
Photo taken on April 5, 2016 shows the lighthouse on Zhubi Reef of Nansha Islands in the South China Sea, south China. (Xinhua/Xing Guangli)

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- China said on Friday it is unrealistic to force China to concede or accept the verdict of the South China Sea arbitration case as a fait accompli.

"No matter what the verdict will be in the arbitration case initiated by the Philippines, it will be unlawful and invalid. China will not accept nor recognize it," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei at a daily press briefing.

"The idea that China will be forced to concede or accept a fait accompli through the verdict will turn out to be unrealistic," Hong said.

China is determined to safeguard territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, said the spokesperson.

China will also uphold the international rule of law and maintain the integrity and authority of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), he said.

Manila unilaterally initiated an arbitration case against China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in early 2013 under UNCLOS. The verdict will probably be announced in May or June.

China has repeatedly said it will not accept nor participate in the process.

The South China Sea disputes between China and the Philippines are over territorial and maritime delimitation.

China declared in 2006 that arbitration and other compulsory dispute settlement procedures do not apply to issues such as maritime delimitation, which was outlined in Article 298 of UNCLOS.
Now that Derby days are here again, aficionados of horses, whiskey, and drinking in general are dusting off their pewter mint julep glasses and breaking out the bourbon.

With good reasonthe chilled cocktail has been the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs since 1938, and well over 100,000 mint juleps are served at the event each year. Theyve been enjoyed by Southerners (William Faulkner was especially fond of them) for generations, with mentions of the potation appearing in America as early as the 18th century.

The true origins of the mint julep, however, stretch back considerably further. The word julep derives from the ancient Persian gulab, used to denote a sort of sweetened rosewater (if youve ever had gulab jamun at an Indian restaurant, its made with just such a syrup). In classical Arabic, the word became julab, only to cross over into Latin as julapium. Across medieval Europe, variants of the name would come to express a variety of medicinal syrups, generally flavored with herbal essences of some kind. The 17th-century poet John Milton described spirits of balm and fragrant syrups called juleps, and by 1755, English dictionaries were defining the term as an extemporaneous form of medicine, made of simple and compound water sweetened, serving for a vehicle to other forms not so convenient to take alone.

So how did a centuries-old medicine transform into a deliciously minty and modern cocktail? Well, as is the case with many of our most treasured beveragesCoca-Cola and G&Ts among themwhat began as a restorative tonic was quickly adopted for more recreational purposes. By the early 1800s, the practice of using sugar water and Mentha spicata (a.k.a. spearmint) to render spirituous liquors more palatable was commonplace in Virginia. As many of those early Virginians crossed the Appalachians into Kentucky, it was only natural that they would begin making their restorative juleps with the most plentiful liquor at hand: bourbon. The drinks were consumed at any social, warm-weather gathering that merited a little extra cocktail-based cheer, celebrated horse races most prominent among them.

So when you take that first frosty sip of your mint julep in celebration of the Kentucky Derby, enjoy it. Its been a drink one thousand years in the making. And hopefully all that history (not to mention a little luck with the ponies) will only make it that much sweeter.
Dick Cheneys presidential pick is a man he once suggested was a 9/11 truther.

Cheney reportedly told CNN on Friday he intends to support the GOP nominee in 2016, just as he has every prior cycle.

This issurprising.

Shortly after the first presidential debate, Cheney told Fox News Bret Baier that the real estate moguls assertions regarding the September 11 attacksincluding that George W. Bush willingly let them happenwere way off base.

He clearly doesnt understand or has not spent any time learning about the facts of that period, Cheney said.

Its, um, misleading for him to campaign on that basis, he added.

Its a little curious that Cheney has decided to board the Trump Train. Its also a break from the rest of Bush World, as representatives for George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush say neither former president will back the moguls presidential bid.

But, in fairness, Trump may not be too thrilled with Cheneys endorsement either.

In 2011, Trump made a YouTube video for his From The Desk of Donald Trump series, (a series I cannot recommend highly enough), in which the presumptive nominee trashed the former VP and his then-newly released memoir.

Hes very, very angry and nasty, the mogul said. I didnt like Cheney when he was a vice president. I dont like him now. And I dont like people that rat out everybody like hes doing in the book. Im sure itll be a best-seller, but isnt it a shame? Heres a guy that did a rotten job as vice president. Nobody liked him. Tremendous divisiveness. And hes gonna be making a lot of money on the book. I wont be reading it.

And in 2008, Trump said he was disappointed Nancy Pelosi didnt push to impeach Bush over the Iraq War.

It just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which, personally, I think would have been a wonderful thing, he said, discussing Nancy Pelosi with Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room.

In the same interview, Trump asserted that Bush deliberately lied to persuade Americans to support the Iraq Wara view that Cheney et al (unsurprisingly) find deeply problematic.

He got us into the war with lies, he continued. And, I mean, look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant. And they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense. And, yet, Bush got us into this horrible war with lies, by lying, by saying they had weapons of mass destruction, by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true.

Speaking of national security, Cheney told radio host Hugh Hewitt in December that Trumps proposed ban on Muslim immigration goes against everything we stand for and believe in.

Religious freedoms been a very important part of our history and where we came from, he addedbut if Cheney has anything to do with it, then Trumps America is where were going.
It was the Boston Market from hell.

After an alleged shooting spree that stretched from Thursday evening into Friday afternoon, killing three and wounding three, federal law enforcement officer Eulalio Tordil cooly walked across the street for lunch.

Loitering near the scene of the crime, Tordil lingered for a chilling one-hour meal at the same chain restaurant where the D.C. Beltway snipers had eaten after they started a shooting rampage that terrorized the region in the fall of 2002.

Tordil was a Federal Protection Service officer placed on administrative leave in March after a protective order was issued against him by his wife, whom he is suspected of killing Thursday night.

The officers alleged spree ended after a series of apparently random shootings, concluding in Aspen Hill, the same Washington suburb near where the D.C. Beltway snipers had shot one of their first victims nearly 14 years ago.

When Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad committed those murders in Aspen Hill, they actually went and did not leave the area, and they ate in the same restaurant, state's attorney for Montgomery County John McCarthy told the press Friday. Same Boston Market, we were in the same parking lot during the sniper shootings.

McCarthy dismissed this as a mere coincidence, since there was some indication that Tordil had lived in the neighborhood in the past and came back to the neighborhood, I believe, that he was familiar with."

But the cold indifference with which the alleged gunman apparently ate lunch Friday after a series of shootings, which yet again terrorized this neighborhood, brought violent flashbacks to a time in the early 2000s when men and women in this area were too petrified even to pump their gas, lest they become victims of a random sniper.

As Tordil ate lunch Friday, he gave no indication that he had just allegedly shot a woman in the parking lot of a Giant supermarket across the street. He had even stopped casually for a coffee at Dunkin Donuts along the way, raising no suspicion among the general public.

But plainclothes officers who canvassed the area after the shooting noticed a silver car matching the tag and description of a vehicle related to Thursday evenings killing of Tordils wife, local authorities said. They silently observed Tordil for more than hour before confronting and arresting him without further violence.

More disturbing even than Tordils apparent nonchalance after a shooting spree is that he had been a law enforcement officer, one whose estranged wife filed a domestic-violence claim against him. His employers at the Department of Homeland Security had placed him on administrative duties as a result.

In March, FPS placed him on administrative duties after a protective order was issued against him, and removed his duty weapon, badge, and credentials. He was subsequently placed on administrative leave, a Federal Protective Service official told The Daily Beast.

Tordil was twice divorcedonce in 1994 and again in 2003before marrying his current wife, Gladys Ubaldo, court records show. By June 2015, Tordils third marriage appeared to be headed toward separation, when his estranged wife Gladys filed to change her last name to Ubaldo, Prince Georges County circuit court records show. A judge granted the name in September.

But Tordil did not want a third divorce, Ubaldo told officials six months later, when she filed a domestic violence claim accusing Tordil of a decade of child abuse and intense-military-like discipline, The Washington Post reported. According to the Post, Tordil kept at least four guns in the home, and warned Ubaldo that he would hurt her if she ever attempted to leave him.

The Prince Georges County District Court granted Ubaldos protective order against Tordil, prohibiting him from contacting her or approaching her home, her workplace, or their childrens school. The court also ordered that Tordil surrender his firearms.

Tordil had more guns than Ubaldo reported: at least seven, including a FPS-issued firearm, which he surrendered after the domestic violence suit. Police do not know what gun Tordil allegedly used during the shooting spree, they told WTOP.

When he surrendered his gun, Tordil told colleagues he wanted to commit suicide by cop, The Washington Post reported. One of his coworkers says he wrote a suicide note to his brothers in blue, asking forgiveness for his actions.

The violence began when Gladys Ubaldo, Tordils wife, left work to pick up her children at high school Thursday evening, WTOP reported, but Tordil followed her to the school parking lot, where they began arguing. A man tried to intervene, but Tordil shot him, before shooting and killing Ubaldo.

The subsequent shootings were apparently random, law enforcement authorities say: We dont know of any connection between the victims of Fridays shootings and the suspect, Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger told the press, although he said the matter was still under investigation.

Meanwhile, at two Maryland high schoolsone where Tordils two daughters studied, and one where his wife taughtclasses are scheduled to resume Monday. But some students are missing a teacher, and Tordils two daughters, both seniors, are missing two parents.
Nine male teachers are suing their Pennsylvania school district, claiming theyre victims of an unfair and gendered pay scale that favors their female counterparts.

The federal lawsuit, filed on May 2, alleges that the Moon Area School District, located about 13 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, failed to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871.

The plaintiffs have accused the school district of hiring female teachers at higher pay levels while also giving them more credit for their prior teaching experience. The men claim their prior teaching experiences were not recognized at the same salary level.

The complaint also alleges female teachers without any previous teaching experience were hired at higher levels on the salary scale. It does not note whether or not the female teachers had other salary-altering qualifications like a more advanced degree.

Board of Directors President Jerry Testa said the school district has yet to be served the lawsuit and had hoped to deal with the dispute outside of court.

We knew they had this complaint and it was our hope that we would sit down and work this out without the need to go through the court system, Testa told The Daily Beast. Unfortunately, that did not occur and we were blindsided by the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs, who were hired between 2003 and 2011, include three elementary-school teachers, one middle-school math and science teacher, and five high-school instructors in the areas of social studies, science, education, and industrial arts.

Seven of the teachers could not be reached while two refused to comment.

There are 500 individual school districts in Pennsylvania and teachers statewide are paid according to a step system, Testa said, for example, everybody in step one within their district is paid the same salary, unless a teacher has completed a Masters degree. Every year, teachers advance a step and get a raise; in the Moon Area School District, a teacher starting at step one would make a little less than $47,000 a year, Testa said. Moon is one of the higher-paying districts in Pennsylvania, according to Testa.

Because steps and salary ranges differ from district to district, a teacher starting in the Moon Area School District may be offered a different salary than that of his or her previous district, Testa said.

Teachers who work in other school districts will apply for jobs at Moon and lets say maybe I am at step four at a neighboring district but Moon will start me at step one, Testa explained, so, maybe I dont make as much initially but over the years Ill make it up.

According to the civil complaint, all nine plaintiffs appear to have transferred from outside districts, where they worked for a varying number of years.

We do not discriminate against anybody for any reason, Testa said. We categorically deny any sort of discrimination as a district and we will defend the lawsuit vigorously.

Catherine Hill, vice president for research at the American Association of University Women, said although men suing for wage discrimination is uncommon it is not necessarily unique.

There are always going to be exceptions, Hill said. The Paycheck Fairness Act is called the fairness act for a reason.

The AAUW did an analysis of college graduates one year out of school going into different fields and found male teachers were earning a little more than their female counterparts, though 75 percent of all public school teachers (kindergarten through 12th grade) are female.

These individuals may be experiencing [wage discrimination], but in general men are earning more in this field, Hill said.

According to the 2015 U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, among elementary and middle-school teachers across the United States, men were paid a weekly median of $1,077 compared with women, who were paid $957. Among high-school teachers, a typical male teacher was paid a weekly median of $1,149, whereas a female high-school teacher was paid $1,006.

The equal pay act permits either sex to pursue a claim if a member of the opposite sex is paid more favorably or paid more for the same kind of work, the plaintiffs attorney Colleen Johnston told The Daily Beast. You hear more about it with women but it can equally and does equally apply to men and in this case we have males who are not paid the same as women and women who were paid more favorably.

Johnston said she has represented a number of both men and women in wage discrimination cases, specifically teachers who are employed by Pennsylvania public schools.

In the cases where Johnston Lykos, LLC represented men, Johnston said theyve been able to receive several substantial verdicts and settlements for our clients, ranging in the six figures to $3 million.
As humans, we are first and foremost programmed to survive. Millions of years of evolution through natural selection have sculpted instincts and intellect aimed at staying alive. Fast, sudden movements instantly capture our attention, and unexpected noises cause us to jump back reflexively. It only takes common sense to see that survival requires a certain degree of sensitivity to threat. A desire to feel safe is part of our hardwiring, and as such, we tend to want people and rules in our lives that are going to help protect us from harm.

For some people, Donald Trump and his policies are seen as that protection. Afraid of the radical Islamic terrorists who are out there plotting attacks? Dont worryDonald Trump is going to ban every single Muslim from entering the country. Do you fear the Mexican immigrants coming across the border that you heard were drug dealers, murderers, and rapists? Fear not, President Trump is going to build a wall to keep out all the bad guys.

It is clear that those politicians who are best able to exploit our most basic biological traits, like our instinct to survive, are going to occupy a timeless niche in the political environment. The effectiveness of fear mongering in politics is no real secret to anyone anymore. But there were many GOP candidates who were great fear mongers, like Ben Carson and Ted Cruz, whose success flailed in comparison to Trumps. That is because fear mongering alone isnt enough.

After you succeed in making them afraid, you must also convince them that everything will be A-OK if they have you on their side. First you create the need for a hero, and then you pretend you are that hero. Donald Trump is the candidate who is offering the most extreme measures for protection. Hes strong and the other candidates are weak or low energy. It is only he who can save the day.

So an obvious question is, why does Trumps tactic work on some people but not others? Dont we all want to feel safe? Why is it that liberals and progressives feel like Trump is the actual danger and not the protector? Neuroscience and psychology research supports one clear explanation: Conservatives are hypersensitive to threat compared to liberals, and thus respond more fearfully.

For example, a 2008 study published in the journal Science found that conservatives have a heightened physiological response to threatening stimuli. Researchers tested this by showing participants threatening imageslike spiders on faces or car crasheswhile they measured skin electrical conductance, and presented loud bursts of white noise while they measured the strength of their eye blinks. The data showed that those who held conservative values startled more easily and had increased electrical skin conductance, which indicates a heightened state of arousal. Those with liberal views did not seem to be affected by the stimuli.

Additionally, an MRI study published in Current Biology in 2011 found that self-described conservatives had larger amygdalas than those who identified as liberals. The amygdala is the region of the brain that is involved in threat processing. Generally speaking, as the strength of the electrical response of the amygdala increases, so does the sense of fear we feel in response to a stimulus. As a result, stimuli that might seem neutral to most people, like Muslims or Mexicans, might appear threatening to conservatives.

Trump is popular amongst the right because he can tap into irrational fears and amplify them. Then, when threat seems imminent, he offers the most drastic solutions. And when danger is on the doorstep, theres not much time for rational thinking.

One might be inclined to point out that not all Trump supporters appear to be fearful. In fact, at Trump rallies many of the attendees are angry and aggressive toward anti-Trump protesters. But hostility is a natural response when one feels threatened, and the anger that fuels their behavior stems from deep-rooted anxieties.

It is also important to remember that we arent just programmed to survive. We are also hardwired to flourish. It is in our nature to vigorously compete for success. In essence, we are constantly trying to win. Its part of the mentality that drove so many civilizations to conquer others.

As such, we shouldnt expect all Trump supporters to be fearful or irrational people. Some are just Americans who acknowledge that all of the countries in the world are contenders in one big game of power, and that most of them are not going to play by the book. Are nations like North Korea, Iran, and Russia always going to follow the rules and act according to what is fair? Absolutely not, and to some it would seem unwise and even flat out foolish for us to do so when everything is at stake.

Trump told a journalist what hes constantly telling the world: I always win. Knock on wood. I win. Its what I do. I beat people. I win. For many, Trump is a president who is going to do everything in his power to ensure that we get ahead as a nation. He will be tough. He will wheel and deal. And he will definitely play dirty when the situation calls for it. Whatever shady dealings Trump does, he is doing it for us, and we should be thankful to be on the winning team.

The rise of Trump has defied almost all logic. But he isnt appealing to logic. He is appealing to our most basic survival instincts. Those include fear and the natural tendency to thrive and conquer. This presidential election will be an important test for our nation. We will see if we are evolved enough for our logic to overcome our instincts.

Bobby Azarian is a neuroscientist and science writer. He has written for Scientific American, Psychology Today, Slate, The Daily Beast, and The Huffington Post. He tweets at @BobbyAzarian.
If your pill had a passport, it might get more stamps than your own. To make the drugs you rely on, the ingredients may have been manufactured in China and India, then combined together in Germany, and pass through a half-dozen other countries before arriving at your local pharmacy.

Its really difficult to trace the path of any particular pilleven regulators struggle with thisbut nearly all drugs are made in enormous batches, then divvied up and shipped around the world.

Thats not an inefficient method, but it has its downsides. Since the process takes a while, it can cause shortages when medicines are in high demand. The concentrations of ingredients or quality of the drug can fluctuate with each batch. Its also easier for counterfeiters to slip potentially dangerous fakes into the existing system.

But a number of scientists and experts think that drugs be produced continuously, the way cars and electronics are made. To make continuous drug production more efficient and economical, a team of scientists from MIT has been working to improve the manufacturing technology. Their most recent machine, published in a study in the April 1 issue of Science, is about the size of a refrigerator and can produce hundreds of doses of a drug per day. The technologys not yet perfect, but it might be enough to start to cause a tidal shift in the way our drugs are made.

The machine, which the researchers are calling pharmacy on demand or POD, relies on flow chemistry, in which a chemical reaction is performed continuously as pumps move the substance through a tube.

The best way to understand how this differs from batch production is to think of it like an oven baking a cake, says Timothy Jamison, a chemistry professor at MIT and one of the study authors. The batch method of production is like baking one cake at a timeyou start with a raw cake and after a few hours, you end up with a cooked one. But flow chemistry enables you to make a continuous series of cakes, running each through an oven while theyre on a conveyor belt. With this technique, you have cakes at different stages of being cooked, and that allows you to make more cakes overall in the course of a day.

The POD starts with simple chemicals and mixtures that, through a series of reactions, can be distilled into the active ingredients in four common drugs: diphenhydramine hydrochloride (found in Benadryl and Dramamine), lidocaine hydrochloride (used in anti-itch creams), diazepam (a sedative used in Valium) and fluoxetine hydrochloride (an SSRI used in Prozac and its ilk).

Despite this sophistication, the POD has its limitations. Gases and liquids are much easier through the system, so if by accident a chemical reaction creates a solid, the whole system can get clogged, Jamison says. Right now, the POD cant continuously complete the final steps to making a drug after synthesizing the active ingredient. Its just too complex at the moment, he says. His team is working on those downstream (post-active ingredient) steps more efficient and continuous in future versions of the POD.

In theory, though, the same technology could be used to create dozens or hundreds of other drugs. To make drugs that are chemically more complex, the POD will need the capacity for more steps, which will take more time. The team is working to give the POD the capacity to make Ciprofloxacin, a common antibiotic, and the active ingredient contains a molecule that is slightly more complex than the drugs the POD currently generates.

The team will need to add more pumps and reactors and other pieces of technology, Jamison says. [Cipro] is going to need more like four or five steps to make it instead of the three or so that we used for the paper. That doesnt sound like a large increase, but the complexity does go up significantly as molecular target gets larger.

Someday, even the most complex drugs could be made with the POD or something like it. Another team at MIT is working on a similar system, called BioMOD, that can generate biologic drugs, a complex array molecules that are typically about 800 times the size of small molecule drugs and can currently only be synthesized from living cells.

If something like the POD were brought to scale, it would be much more economical than the batch methodbecause of the small size of the machine, the electricity, and operating costs would simply cost pharma companies much less, and they wouldnt have to ship ingredients across oceans to manufacture a complete drug.

So whats stopping the pharma companies? Its mostly the barrier of regulatory approval, Jamison says. By necessity, for good reason, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is cautious about changing processes that are going to be making [drugs] that patients are going to take, he says.

Officials at the FDA are enthusiastic about a shift towards continuous productiontheyve been pushing for it since 2004, officials told the Wall Street Journal last year, but pharma companies have been slow to adapt. But the shift is already happening; in early April, pharma giant Eli Lilly announced that it will devote $40 million towards continuous manufacturing in its facility in Ireland.

Once it catches on, pharma companies will probably use continuous drug production to manufacture drugs for an entire region or continent, Jamison predicts. Devices like the POD might even enable hospitals to generate pharmaceuticals for their patients, though that would require a lot of regulation.

But were not quite there yetthe POD is the cutting edge of technology right now, Jamison says. And I would say this is inventor-level expertise required to operate it.
UNITED NATIONS, May 6 -- China and the United Nations signed an agreement on Friday covering a multi-year contribution of 200 million U.S. dollars from China to the UN to finance activities relating to peace, security and development.

Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the UN and Edmond Mulet, UN secretary-general's chef de cabinet signed the agreement.

According to the agreement, China will contribute 200 million dollars to the United Nations in next 10 years to the newly established UN Peace and Development Trust Fund. The fund will be used to support activities in the area of peace and security, as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In practice, the UN will set up a committee made up of personnel from both China and the UN to guide the operation of the Fund, according to the agreement.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moonis "extremely appreciative of this generous contribution to the UN," said UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Friday.

"The contribution is a further demonstration of the strong commitment of the Government and people of China to the goals and activities of the UN," said Dujarric.

Last year during the UN's 70th anniversary summit, Chinese President Xi Jinpingannounced that China will establish a 1-billion-dollar China-UN peace and development fund to support the UN's work, advance multilateral cooperation and contribute more to world peace and development.

Based on the initiative, China and the United Nations have agreed that the 200 million dollars of the total amount will be hosted by the United Nations and will finance relative activities in the form of UN Peace and Development Trust Fund, according to China's permanent mission to the UN.
Get off a plane at Louisvilles airport and one of the first things you see is a giant ad for Makers Mark Bourbon and a Woodford Reserve themed bar.

Is it any wonder why most people think that Kentucky and bourbon are synonymous?

While the whiskey can technically be made anywhere inside American borders, for decades the Bluegrass State has effectively been able to stake claim on the liquor and box out the rest of the country.

Sure, theres now some competition with distilleries from New York to California making the spirit, but for all intents and purposes the Kentucky name still carries a huge amount of weight with drinkers and bartenders on a bottle label.

So with all eyes on Louisville today for the 142nd running of the Kentucky Derby, its the perfect time to look at how the state managed to become the bourbon capitol of the world.

In order to start our investigation, we need to travel back to the origins of whiskey in America and the beginning of the country.

During the early 1800s there were really just a few main spirits available to drink, including gin, rum, brandy and, of course, bourbon.

While these terms refer to specific types of liquor today, according to historian Mike Veach, the author of Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage, at that time they were used to refer to wider categories.

In fact, a lot of early things called bourbon were actually rye whiskey or maybe even wheat whiskey, Veach says.

That, of course, begs one of the great drinking questions of all time: Where does the name bourbon come from? One theory is that it comes from the French Bourbon Kings. (The likelihood of that being true is probably pretty slim.)

Some claim that it comes from Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The idea is that people were looking for the same drink that they enjoyed while down in NOLA. (Its plausible given that barrels and barrels of whiskey were floated down the Mississippi River, and New Orleans has always boasted an impressive bar scene.)

The final (and most vocal) school of thought is that the whiskeys name comes from Bourbon County, Kentucky, where bourbon was supposed to have been originally distilled. (The jury is still out on the veracity of this widely circulated claim.)

But what we do know is that, according to Veach, the first reference to bourbon in print was published in an 1821 advertisement that ran in a newspaper in Bourbon County, Kentucky.

Kentucky certainly has the right combination of key attributes to produce excellent whiskey: a plentiful supply of soft water, fertile fields for growing corn and a hot summer and cold winter, which aids the barrel aging process.

As a result, Kentucky built a big reputation on making the finest bourbon, says Veach. The reputation starts just before the Civil War and takes off in the 1870s.

While plenty of other states, including Indiana and Illinois, boasted large and impressive bourbon distilleries they werent able to create the same kind of reputationso much so that some brands would actually buy whisky in Illinois and rectify it or blend it in Kentucky so they could put Kentucky on the label.

By 1840s old Bourbon County whiskey was very prized, but you didnt know where it was from, Robert Moss, author of the recently published Southern Spirits: Four Hundred Years of Drinking in the American South, with Recipes.

Why bother? Even drinkers then, according to Moss, were willing to pay 20 to 30 percent more for Kentucky bourbon. (Monongahela rye from Pennsylvania also enjoyed that same name recognition and premium pricing.)

Ironically, even Prohibition helped Kentucky establish itself as the center of the bourbon world.

Four of the six companies that were licensed to bottle medicinal whiskey during the famously dry period were based in Kentucky and the two others had facilities in the state. As a result, drinkers continued to associate the area with the whiskey, while distillers in other states were out of business.

Even later in the 1970s and 80swhen whiskey sales started to slide and Americans began drinking craft beers, domestic wines, and imported vodkathe distilleries in Kentucky continued to produce bourbon hoping that one day drinkers would rediscover their products. With the rebirth of the cocktail and whiskey, Kentucky has once again taken its place as the king of the bourbon world. Now, with increasing competition, its just a question of whether they can hold on to that title.
Beggars Banquet was the Stones first true tour de force. It was recorded between February and June 1968 at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. Its worth lingering on that studio, which was, in its way, just as important as any single musician. You cant listen to Beggars Banquet without imagining the smoky rooms, the people hanging out, sleeping it off, or rousing themselves for one more take. Olympic began as a vaudeville house early in the last century and was later fitted for recording. It was home base for the Stones by 1966, where they were most at ease, where nothing could touch them. One evening, as the band recorded Dandelion, the cops burst in. Mick was smokin a big joint, Glyn Johns said. Mick was so brilliant. He puts this joint behind his back and says Andrew, what we need on this are two pieces of wood bein hit together in unison. Like claves. What about these, offered the bobbies as they voluntarily pulled out their truncheons. So [Mick] escaped by puttin em on the record.

Not long ago, I spent a day at Olympic with Chris Kimsey, who began working there when he was 15. The studio had been remade by the late 90s. Its since been renovated into a movie theater and a private club. The hallways are lined with pictures of Mick and Keiththey hover over the place like benevolent deities. Kimsey, burly and kind, pointed out everything with the melancholy of a man who has watched the kingdom fall. He seemed slightly lost as he led me through the theater, which had been Studio A. He talked about the artists who recorded there, Mick and Keith jamming in the bathroom for the echo. When you listen to the great records, its this place youre hearing, he told me. Its a unifying element. It gives everything that Olympic sound.

Most sessions began with the Stones sitting in a circle on the floor playing through a tune on acoustic instrumentsthis was the methodology of Glyn Johns, a famed producer and sound engineer who collaborated on many of the Stones classics. Charlie Watts pounded a kind of pillow drum. Like a read-through for a play, it established tempo, delineated groove, and gave each player time to absorb the mood and the message. In these years, the Stones achieved a seamless correlation between their music and their lives. As the vibe grew out of the studio, the songs grew out of the moment.

Take that signature tune Street Fighting Man. In New York, London, and Paris, crowds were protesting the Vietnam war. Jagger joined a throng that marched on the American embassy in London. If you go there today, you will see high walls and narrow windows, barricades, wire, and statues of Eisenhower and Reagan, but on March 17, 1968, you would have seen thousands of people demanding change. For Mick, this flirtation with dissent was an anomaly, a moment of action punctuating an indolent life. A rock star is a status quo figure. He does not want struggle, but its aura. Street Fighting Man is not about revolutionits about limits. When it comes to protesting, celebrity just gets in the way. Wherever Jagger went, the message changed from America out of Vietnam! to Its Mick! The lyric registers this reality with a shrug: What can a poor boy do, except to sing in a rock n roll band? Bruce Springsteen called it one of the greatest lines in rock history. When Jagger brought it in to the studio, Keith added his own signature. The lick that opens Street Fighting Man is among his most distinct. It leads to a maraca groove thats as sinewy as a girl dancing in the jukebox light at a biker bar.

Or Stray Cat Blues, the albums eighth track, which is a rock star singing about a groupie. I can see that youre 15 years old . . . Or Parachute Woman, the fourth track, which is about groupies, or record promoters, or possibly both. Its a slow blues, barnacled by influencea Bob Dylan lyric, a Muddy Waters riffremade by the vibe in Studio A, the Stones playing Ping-Pong between takes. On most nights, they did not start till two in the morning. The first takes were walk-throughs, at half speed, Evel Knievel running his bike to the top of the jump and letting it roll back. Then, all of a sudden, they find the extra gear. Phill Brown, who would become an admired sound man and record producer, worked the control board at those sessions. On rare occasions, usually during an exceptional performance by a musician, a feeling would occur of being transported and becoming unaware of my surroundings, he wrote later. This wonderful, detached feeling took over, for example, while I was listening to Parachute Woman loud at 3 a.m. with 20 people in the control room, Then it was everythingromantic, happy, and all-powerfula great rush.

Sympathy for the Devil was being recorded in the wee hours of June 10. Mick was on the floor in headphones, singing. Marianne caught his eye from the booth. With red lipstick, in reverse letters, she wrote on the glass: BURN BABY BURN. At some point, the studio actually did catch fire. Richards believes Jean-Luc Godard had taped tissue paper to hot lights on the ceiling, which, well, you know. I think we have a fire, Glyn Johns said calmly. People headed for the exits as Jimmy Miller gathered up the masters. Within 15 minutes [he] was gone with the tapes, said Phill Brown. The fire department put out the blaze, but there was a hole in the roof. The Stones continued recording beneath the open sky. Now and then, you think you might hear a plane flying over.

Released in December 1968, Beggars Banquet was immediately recognized as a breakthrough. The Rolling Stones coming of age, said Glyn Johns. It has ten tracks, each a gem, but my favorite is No Expectations, as thats the last song in which you have Brian Jones at his finest. He was a mess by then. Even when he did show up, he was usually too wasted to contribute. Thats what made No Expectations so special. Keith recorded a crisp acoustic track and Micks vocal is haunting, but it was Brian who made the tune with his slide guitar, the same sort of bottleneck work that first caught the attention of Mick and Keith at Alexis Korners club a lifetime before. It was as if a fog had lifted, and for a moment, there was Brian. [He] was emotionally very up one night, Phill Brown wrote, and played a beautiful slide acoustic guitar. Haunting and forlorn, like no other sound in music. It makes my mind wander and my teeth itch. I picture shotgun shacks when I hear it, green fields and levees, thunderheads a moment before the rain comes down. The Buddhists talk of a flame so pure it consumes all its fuel. On No Expectations, Brian Jones vanished into his playing.

From the Book: The Sun & the Moon & The Rolling Stones by Rich Cohen. Copyright (c) 2016 by Tough Jews, Inc. Published by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

Rich Cohen, a co-creator of HBO's Vinyl, is the author of The Sun & The Moon & The Rolling Stones.
I know Ive got a lot of my mother in me. I am doing a lot of things that she would probably do.

It was nothing short of remarkable for Prince Harrys friends to read that he had publicly uttered those words in an interview given to the US tabloid magazine People to promote the Invictus Games, which start this weekend.

Harry, they say, spent much of his teenage years so utterly traumatized by the death of his mother that he would never even mention her, let alone invoke her memory.

Harry kept a photograph of Diana on his desk, according to contemporaries at Eton, but didnt talk about his mom openly. And no-one else would have brought it up. It wouldnt be the kind of thing youd raise.

It has never been publicly disclosed whether Harry received formal psychological support at Eton, but the school does have a full-time in-house child psychiatrist, and, like all children experiencing trauma there, Harry would certainly have been offered such help.

If he did avail himself of therapy, it did not appear for many years to have helped much.

Harry, who cut a pitiful sight walking behind his mothers coffin at the age of 12 in front of a global audience, spent most of his twenties apparently trying to do all he could to quash the memories of Diana with copious quantities of alcohol.

He also found relief in the drill of army life and front line fighting (an experience which, he recently revealed, has left him, like many other former soldiers, suffering flashbacks).

If the army has been a constant of royal growing up, a fondness for alcohol has also been a wearyingly familiar feature of life in both the Windsor and Spencer family historiesthe Queen Mother, Princess Margaret and Dianas father Johnny are some of the better-known casualtiesand on several occasions Harrys friends had reason to fear that he was going down the same route as some of his troubled ancestors.

The problem was that after the alcohol, Harry could, like many young men, become bolshy and unpredictable and sometimes, after drinking bouts, there came trouble: fights with photographers, strip-billiards with random blondes, and a familiarity with Gloucestershires posh druggy set at the local boozers such as the Rattlebone Inn, where, as Harry admitted to his father, he smoked marijuana.

Now however, sources say that Harry has cut back on the booze and is drinking significantly less, as he faces up to the responsibilities of his position.

He is clearly determined to honor the memory of his revered and idolized mother not just through his charity work but also in his private life.

That doesnt mean sobriety (and the sobriety with gritted teeth of the kind endured by Princess Margaret at the end of her life would hardly be a great encouragement to follow that path, although Prince Andrew provides, whatever his other faults, a realistic example of teetotal living)but it does mean cutting out the all-nighters.

Dont expect to see Harry dancing with his shirt off at any festivals this year.

Of course, Harry has spoken about his mother before, but the terms in which he has been speaking about her in recent days are strikingly mature and confident.

All I want to do is make my mother incredibly proud, he told People magazine, Thats all Ive ever wanted to do.

When she died, there was a gaping hole, not just for us but also for a huge amount of people across the world.

He had clearly thought about what he was going to say ahead of the interview, and on Wednesday evening he raised Dianas memory again in another moving tribute.

He was giving a speech after a polo match, a fundraiser for Sentebale, a charity he co-founded to help children affected by Lesothos HIV/AIDS epidemic, now expanding into Botswana.

He said: 12 years ago I made my first visit to Lesotho hosted by Prince Seeiso.

As we travelled across the country I was amazed by its beauty but I was also struck by the many children that I met who lives had been torn apart by the loss of one or both parents to AIDS related illnesses.

Having lost my own mother seven years before I felt a profound connection to these children. In spite of the obvious differences in our lives we shared the loss of a parent and that ever present emptiness that could never be filled.

The words sounded completely natural. The ring of authenticity was unmistakable. It would be hard to imagine William saying the same thing into a microphone in a crowded public room.

That may be because, as a former confidante of Princess Diana, Lady Colin Campbell, tells the Daily Beast: Harry has inherited many of Dianas virtues while William has certainly inherited one of her vices, in that he is very self-willed.

But Harry leads with the heart just like Diana did, and he has a natural propensity towards being affectionate and generous, and has that same ability to connect on a human level.

Christopher Andersen, author of the new best seller, Game of Crowns, who has been covering the royals for several decades concurs, saying, Dianas influence is so much more noticeable in Harry than it is in William.

While William has retreated into formality, Harry is an envelope-pusher in the way that she was, and he has that rebel quality that Diana had and William does not have.

Another example of Harrys more emotional style of communicating came at the Sentebale dinner, when, reflecting on the fact that Sentebale means forget me not, he told his audience, Incidentally I found out today that forget-me-nots were my mothers favorite flower growing up, so thats a very nice thing for me anyway.

Harry reportedly was told the information about his mothers floral preferences by a member of the royal family earlier in the day, and although he stopped short of implying Dianas spirit was somehow steering him, there was a sense in his words that the choice of name for his charity was more than mere coincidence.

Again, it would be hard to imagine William publicly channeling Dianas memory in such an emotional way.

Andersen suggests that William and Harrys childhood roles may have as much to do with the brothers different characters as genetics.

Harry was not having to play that role of peacemaker between his parents. And you see that, as a result, William is cautious. William is fundamentally a traditionalist but Harry likes nothing more than throwing convention to the winds. In that sense he really is Dianas son.

Andersen suspects however, that, ironically enough, had Diana survived she would have been a calming influence on her son.

A mother-son bond is so special, and I have no doubt that were she alive today she would be the one person capable of reining him in and making him toe the line. Her personality and her attitudes would have changed. She would have been able to guide him and help him avoid some of those PR gaffes.
DAKAR, May 6 -- Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi met with Senegalese leaders on Friday here in a visit amid efforts to materialize the outcomes of recent summits of Chinese-African leaders.

During his meeting with Senegalese President Macky Sall, the Chinese state councilor conveyed greetings from Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Yang said the purpose of his visit is to materialize the important consensus reached by the heads of state of China and Senegal, and the fruitful outcomes of the Johannesburg Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) summit, enhance the two countries' strategic cooperation in development and promote bilateral friendly cooperation of mutual benefit.

With close high-level contacts in recent years, China and Senegal have achieved satisfactory results in their pragmatic cooperation in various fields, said Yang.

China is willing to work with the Senegalese side to enhance mutual trust, promote cooperation for development, foster active industrial cooperation and production capacity cooperation, strengthen bilateral cooperation in fields such as infrastructure construction, agriculture, fishery, culture and education and tourism, and enhance bilateral coordination in international and regional affairs, said Yang.

The Senegalese president asked the Chinese state councilor to convey his greetings to President Xi Jinping.

The successful holding of the FOCAC summit is conducive to the forging of Africa-China comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, said Sall.

President Xi's speech at the summit, which dovetails nicely with Africa's development needs, is warmly welcomed by the African people, said Sall.

Sall spoke highly of the "vigorous" bilateral relations and "fruitful" cooperative outcomes reached in various fields, saying that the two sides share broad consensus on a collection of important issues.

He also thanked the Chinese side for extending help to Senegal's social and economic endeavors.

Also on Friday, Yang met with Senegalese Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne to have an in-depth exchange of views on bilateral relations and the two countries' pragmatic cooperation in fields such as infrastructure, the building of industrial parks, transportation and agriculture.
Sunday

Unity Spiritual Center of the Brazos Valley, 4016 Stillmeadow Drive, Bryan, will have services at 10:30 a.m. Call 324-9857 or unityspiritualcenterbv.org.

Trinity Baptist Church, 1070 N. Harvey Mitchell Parkway in Bryan, will host Awana Clubs for children ages 3-12 from 5 to 7 p.m. The meetings will consist of scripture memorization, games, a light meal and a short devotional. Club meetings will continue at 5 p.m. every Sunday during the school year. 571-1404.

Faith United Church (UCC), 2901 Austin's Colony Parkway in Bryan, celebrates Mother's Day and Ascension Sunday with 9:15 a.m. Sunday study, 10 a.m. fellowship, and 10:30 a.m. worship. Pastor Karl's message is, "A Mother's Prayer." Faithuccbryan.org.

First Christian Church, 900 S. Ennis St. in Bryan, will celebrate Ascension Day and Mother's Day in worship at 10:45 a.m. The Rev. Jesse Myers' sermon topic will be "Joyful Waiting," based on Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11. Sunday school classes for all ages begin at 9:30 a.m. and a nursery is available. Youth groups meet at 3 p.m. 823-5451 or firstchristianbcs.org.

St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1101 Rock Prairie Road in College Station, will celebrate Holy Communion at 8 a.m. (Rite 1) and at 10:30 a.m. (Rite 2). Adult Sunday school meets at 9 a.m. and children's Sunday school meets at 10:30 a.m. During the 10:30 a.m. service, we will collect flour and sugar for the church food pantries in Bedias and Iola. The adult Sunday School class will hear from Harper and Maggie Cunningham, sisters who started the "Books and a Blanket" program last fall. Contact the church for information about additional services and classes during the week. 696-1491 or stfrancisbcs.org.

Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church, 217 W. 26th St. in Downtown Bryan, will have services at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Christian education for all ages will be from 10:15 to 11 a.m. Centering prayer is from 10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. All are welcome. Standrewsbcs.org. 822-5176.

Unitarian Universalist Church of the Brazos Valley, 305 Wellborn Road, will meet at 10:30 a.m. The Rev. Aaron Stockwell will deliver a sermon on "Occupy Mother's Day," which will explore the Unitarian and pacifist origins and the evolution of Mother's Day, as well as a discussion about how we might reimagine this holiday. 696-5285.

Covenant Presbyterian Church, 220 Rock Prairie Road in College Station, will worship at 10:30 a.m. Classes for all ages meet at 9:15 a.m., followed by coffee and fellowship. 694-7700 or covenantpresbyterian.org.

Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church, 3610 Plainsman Lane in Bryan, will have Sunday school classes for all ages at 9:15 a.m. and morning worship service at 10:30 a.m. 846-4753.

Monday

First Baptist Church, 2300 Welsh Ave. in College Station, will host its weekly bible study on Mark, 1 Peter and 2 Peter at 7 p.m. 779-7700.

First Baptist Church Bryan, 3100 Cambridge Drive in Bryan, will host its weekly Bible study fellowship session at 6:55 p.m. BSF is an international, interdenominational women's study group. This year's topic is The Life of Moses; there is also a children's program. Bsfinternational.org.

Tuesday

Eagle's Nest Praise and Worship Ministries will be opening a free prayer line from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. The prayer line number is 775-1513, and calls will be answered by a trained prayer ministry associate. The prayer line is coordinated by pastors Gary and Sheila Jones.

Wednesday

Faith United Church, 2901 Austin's Colony Parkway in Bryan, invites men of all ages to Wednesday morning coffee and guy talk at 10 a.m. All are welcome. Faithuccbryan.org.
ROME, May 5, 2016 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi (1st R) meets with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (1st L) in Rome, Italy on May 5, 2016. (Xinhua/Jin Yu)

by Marzia De Giuli, Ge Chen

ROME, May 7 (Xinhua) -- China and Italy have vowed to enhance cooperation and try to dovetail their respective development strategies to guarantee a healthy and sustainable progress of bilateral relations.

The two sides made the pledge at and after the seventh joint session of the China-Italy Governmental Committee and the 3rd meeting of Sino-Italian businessmen association held here on Thursday.

China is willing to explore new fields of cooperation, step up efforts to create synergy between development strategies of the two countries, and promote long-term, healthy and stable development of ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said when he met with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi after attending the meetings.

He added China stands ready to work with Italy for common development and prosperity in both countries and in Eurasia.

Italy hopes to deepen friendly relations with China, strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation in such areas as trade and investment, and push forward the Italy-China comprehensive strategic partnership, Renzi said.

He said he looks forward to attending the G20 summit slated for September in Hangzhou, China, and is willing to work closely with the Chinese side to help achieve positive results.

At the joint session of the China-Italy Governmental Committee, Wang hailed the development of the Sino-Italian comprehensive strategic partnership as good.

Positive results had been obtained in cooperation of five major areas of priority set by leaders of the two countries, he said.

He welcomed Italy's participation in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, which comprises the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road aimed at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient Silk Road routes.

"We have to work together to bring our people closer," Wang said.

He also called for more student and tourist exchanges between the two countries and strengthened collaboration on key issues such as security and sustainable development.

Current international issues, such as the fight against the Islamic State, migration and regional crises were also among the main topics on Thursday's agenda.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said that Italy is determined to attract an increasing flow of investments and carry out cooperation in the transport and infrastructure sector particularly with China to build a new Silk Road.

"We will work to reinforce our economic relations and export capacity to the Chinese market, and to increase Chinese direct investments in Italy to help raise employment levels in our country," Gentiloni said.

"Now Italy is China's fourth largest trading partner in the European Union, we want to conquer at least the third position," he said.

Last year, bilateral trade reached around 39 billion euros (44.5 billion U.S. dollars), the Italian foreign minister added.
Mississippi River levels impacting Burlington tourism, barge transport

The problem is especially dire on the Lower Mississippi, where low water-level barriers are restricting corn and soybean shipments to New Orleans.
NORWALK  Connecticut writer Kristen Harnisch will discuss her new book, The California Wife, at the Norwalk Public Librarys AuthorSpeak luncheon event on Friday, May 20, at noon in the Main Auditorium.

Harnischs sweeping new book, both a sequel to her debut novel, The Vintners Daughter, and a stand-alone, begins in the same scene in which her first novel ended. She takes readers back to 1897, when Sara Thibault has returned to France following the devastating end to her relationship with Philippe Lemieux, the vintner with whom she fell in love in California, and on a journey from the Paris Worlds Fair in 1900 to a small vineyard in France, from the rough streets of San Francisco to its newest college, and on into the 20th Century.
NORWALK  Girl Scouts of Norwalk invite ALL Norwalk girls to help them in a Rock Painting Community Service Project #kindnessrocksproject at the South Norwalk Library Community Room on Sunday, May 15 from 1-3 p.m.

Please wear clothes that you don't mind getting stained with paint. Supplies included. The South Norwalk Branch Library is located at 10 Washington, St., Norwalk.
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Linkedin Hans David Tampubolon and Teriani ZB SSimanjuntak (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

The ASEAN Literary Festival (ALF) 2016 entered its second day on Friday without major disruption, despite earlier protest from Muslim groups over controversial event programming that included discussions on homosexuality and the 1965 tragedy.

Police officers were sent to guard the festival location, the Taman Ismail Marzuki arts center in Central Jakarta, in anticipation of a possible security breach after the festival organizer received complaints over fringe events discussing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues and Indonesias 1965 tragedy, an aborted coup blamed on the now defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The festival hosted various programs, including Ingat 65  a showcase of how young people have used digital storytelling to remember the tragedy that claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people across the country, mostly alleged PKI supporters.

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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7, 2016

With a positive response from the public, the Big Bad Wolf (BBW) 2016 book sale will be extended until Monday, the event organizers say.

BBW 2016, a book sale with price reductions of up to 90 percent, is being held in the country for the first time, with 40 containers filled with 1.5 million imported books.

BBW has held book sales regularly in many cities in its country of origin, Malaysia. A franchise was later bought by PT Jaya Retail with Uli Silalahi as director. Uli asked BBW to hold a sale in Jakarta on account of the low literacy rate in Indonesia.

Initially, the event at Hall 10 of the Indonesia Convention Exhibition (ICE) in Tangerang was scheduled to be held from April 30 to May 8, from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. during weekdays and 24 hours during the long weekend.

"We've seen huge demand for our books, but the long lines might have turned some customers away during their first visit. To serve our customers better, we have decided to extend our sale for an additional 24 hours until Monday 11pm, a total of 110 hours since Thursday, giving people more time to buy the books they want," Ulli told thejakartapost.com on Friday.

She further said that visitors had also been spreading news of the event through social media.

"Weekends have been crazy, packed with book-loving customers from morning until night," she went on.

Previously, the organizer expected 25,000 to 30,000 visitors per day over the long weekend. While on its first day of public operation on April 30, BBW saw 8,000 visitors, and the number jumped to 25,000 on Sunday.

"So far we've had 100,000 visitors. Our target is to sell 90 percent of our books," she said.

She went to say that the company would like to hold the event again next year, following the positive response to this years event. According to her, the event has been a great eye opener for the company.

"And when we hold another one in the future, we'll definitely be able to put on a bigger and better show," she promised.

As for improvements, she continued, the company wanted to rent a bigger hall, offer more books and provide better deals to customers. (bbn)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7, 2016

Reading fairy tales to your children as a bedtime story, you will help your children develop a reading habit, a crucial early step for their further education.

The problem in Indonesia  maybe you can argue with me later  is that people dont read at home, John McGlynn, chairman of the Jakarta-based Lontar Foundation, an outfit that has translated works by Indonesian writers for global readers, said on Friday at the 2016 ASEAN Literary Festival in Jakarta.

If parents dont read to their children, the children are not going to have that head start when they get into school. It doesnt matter what you read, it could be a newspaper, it could be the bible, it could be the childrens book, but the important thing is to read, he added.

Without that, it would be hard to develop childrens reading habit, because they would enter schools that generally did not put literature on the curriculum, McGlynn said.

Moreover, the countrys educational system tended to teach the students to memorize things, not to be critical, said Endy Bayuni, editor in chief of The Jakarta Post.

Several other factors contributed to the lack of a reading habit, such as difficult access to reading materials and the lack of appreciation for Indonesian writers.

The consequences of these very poor reading habits are a lack of critical thinking among our children, a lack of creativity, a lack of innovation, and also poverty. Part of the problem of poverty is ignorance, and ignorance comes from poor education and a very low literacy rate, Endy said.

A recent study conducted by John Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University in New England, US, ranks Indonesia the second-lowest among 61 countries measured for literate behavior characteristics, which includes the number of libraries and newspapers, years of schooling and availability of computers.

Meanwhile, McGlynn said books could be the glue connecting people in society and facilitating communication on a daily basis.

Without literature holding the nation together, they will look for other things. I have nothing against religion, but people, for lack of this national identification, now have begun to rely on religion as the glue that holds them together, whereas that should not be the case. Because religion, as we know, can bind communities, but it can also separate them, he said. (vps/bbn)
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Linkedin Ayomi Amindoni (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7, 2016

Most people born after 1965 only learn about the 1965 tragedy through school textbooks and the G30S/PKI movie that many historians deem a propaganda tool of the New Order regime. Therefore, many remain clueless about the reality of the communist purge in the dark past of our country.

A digital storytelling movement that goes by the name of Ingat65 (which translates to Remember65) sets out to raise concern among young people for the 1965 tragedy.

The movement, according to Ingat65 chief editor Prodita Sabarini, aims to provide a platform for young people and their family members to collectively remember the purge and do something about the findings.

"Hopefully in the end we can show that there's a lot of support to create justice for the victims," Prodita told The Jakarta Post after a discussion on remembering the 1965 tragedy during the ASEAN Literary Festival 2016 in Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta on Friday.

Prodita explained that the movement had begun after she had talked to many people who were pessimistic about young peoples poor knowledge of the dark past. Unfortunately, many did not know what to do, she added.

The objective of Ingat65 is to the spread of knowledge on the tragedy, as the government remains reluctant to establish transparency on what really happened. That's what the movement is all about," she went on.

Ingat65, which can be accessed at medium.com/ingat-65 has been running since March 24 with two stories related to the anticommunist purge published every week to shed light on long-forgotten facts.

We want to make the stories a permanent archive in order to move them forward and make them [a part of collective] memory. We've been told to forget about it, but in fact we are now remembering it," Prodita said.

Ingat65 editor and podcast producer Febriana Firdaus only found out from her mothers bedtime stories when she was fourteen years old that her grandfather had been a Communist Party member and suffered in the anticommunist purge.

"After that day, I began to dig deeper into my mothers and my grandmothers stories, and also in literature. My grandmother said the family never found out about my grandfather's fate," she said, adding that the country itself remained silent on what had happened.

Similarly, Puri Lestari, the granddaughter of Sutoyo Siswomiharjo -- an Indonesian general who was kidnapped and murdered in 1965 --, said it had taken a long time for her to find out the truth about her family history.

My parents never told me about it, and I just found out by myself when I began to read Pramoedya Ananta Toer's short stories, Cerita dari Blora (Story from Blora), during my early university years. My father told me that it was a communist book. I knew then that Pram was once part of LEKRA (the cultural wing of the Communist Party)," she explained.

She added that by sharing the stories she hoped young people could move on and not be emotional about the 1965 tragedy. She added that to demand a government apology for the tragedy was contradictory.

"It seems like we are putting ourselves in the position of you are wrong, I am right. In my opinion, it is strange to demand an apology," she said.

The ASEAN Literary Festival 2016 also features three more events related to the 1965 tragedy: a panel discussion on exile stories, the launching of a book on 1965 victims and a monolog called Nyanyi Sunyi Kembang-Kembang Genjer on Saturday. (bbn)
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Linkedin Corry Elyda (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

Despite its hasty move to evict Pasar Ikan residents and plans to kick out residents of Luar Batang in North Jakarta, the city administration has not made a detailed plan on the revitalization of the areas.

Assistant to the governor for spatial planning and environment, Oswar Muadzin Mungkasa, said recently that the city administration did not have a master plan for the revitalization as it was still collecting information and taking suggestions from various parties regarding the design.

I cannot talk about it right now. There will be an integrated design for the entire area, Oswar said.

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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

As the nation seems united in demanding the death sentence for the alleged perpetrators of the brutal rape and murder of a 14-year-old schoolgirl, law experts have turned to the textbook and asserted that a death sentence would serve little to no purpose as many of the suspects are still underage.



University of Indonesia law expert Ganjar Laksamana is worried that rage has made the public blind to the fact that seven of the 12 suspects are still minors, five being 17 years old and two being 16 years old.



In the 2012 law on childrens trials, those considered underage or below 18 years old are divided into two categories. The first is those who cant be asked to take responsibility for their actions at all and [second] is those between 8 and 17 years old, who can. However, the punishment [for the latter group] is still limited to half that of adults, he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.



Therefore, Ganjar says, the Indonesian legal system does not utilize the death penalty for minors.



Lets say the maximum punishments allowed in the criminal code are the death sentence and life imprisonment. This means that the maximum prison sentence for minors is 15 years, which is for premeditated murder, he said.



Yuyun, a Padang Ulak Tanding junior high school student, was found dead and badly bruised at the base of a five-meter ravine in the woods near Kasie Kasubun village.



Villagers found her body on April 4, three days after her disappearance, due to a strong stench. The girl was found naked, with her hands bound.



The police claim that Yuyun was raped and killed by 14 young men, some of whom were around her age. The men allegedly dragged her into the woods and tied her up before raping and beating her. Police have arrested 12 of the 14 suspects while two others are still at large.



Although the incident happened in early April, it is only now that it has become a nationwide issue and a trending topic on social media with more people now calling for the suspects to be sentenced to death.



If you want to be really sadistic [and demand the death sentence for underage suspects] then you have to change the law first, Ganjar said. The main goal is to straighten out these kids behavior and killing them will not deter them [from committing another crime] because, how could they if they are dead?



He said that the law on childrens trials was designed specifically for the sorts of minors that committed crimes.



No matter how evil a kid is, that kid doesnt really understand what he or she does. When the law was made, we asked psychiatrists and psychologists who said that if someone was not yet 18 years old, his or her [mental] development was not complete and thus he or she could not be punished too severely, Ganjar said.



National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) deputy chairwoman Yuniyanti Chuzaifah also said that the key to preventing such horrendous crimes was not death sentences but education.



While she understood that the crime had induced public rage, she said that the death sentence, especially for minors, was an inhumane punishment that would only hurt peoples dignity.



Yuniyanti added that the proper punishment for the underage suspects was an educational one that could help learn how the suspects were able to commit the crime in the first place.



Ganjar said the government should also ensure that the underage suspects were not subjected to treatment that could further fuel public rage, such as publication of their faces in mass media.



I blame the people who decided to publish the faces of the suspects. No matter how much we hate them, thats still unethical. We have to remember that under the law on childrens trials, a trial in which the suspect is still underage should be closed to the public. If the trial itself should be closed to the public, how can we publish the faces of the suspects for the public to see? he said.

________________________________

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

Police have arrested a transgender woman, identified as Ika, 34, at her rented house in Depok, West Java for allegedly uploading racy pictures and videos of herself on to her Twitter account.

City polices child, teen and women division unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Suparmo said Ika, who was believed to have had offered sexual services since 2013, was apprehended on Tuesday night while allegedly meeting a customer at the house.

The suspect offered sexual services through her private Twitter account, Suparmo was quoted by tribunnews.com as saying on Wednesday.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

Best known to Indonesia as the hajj destination, Saudi Arabia is now developing its status as an export target.

Ardhi Setyo Putranto, an entrepreneur from Yogyakarta, is seeking a new market for his organic banana chips. His eyes are set on Saudi Arabia, home to more than 30 million people.

The 24-year-old has already successfully promoted his Banana Queen chips in Malaysia, the Netherlands, Pakistan and the US.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jambi  Sat, May 7 2016

Prosecutors in Jambi have managed to reclaim state funds amounting to Rp 10 billion (US$750,000), the proceeds of corruption in 2015.

The funds were retrieved via the Jambi province prosecutors office network, Jambi Provincial Prosecutors Office Legal Division head Dedy Susanto said on Friday.

He said the provincial prosecutors office had reclaimed state funds amounting to Rp 2 billion during case investigations, while the regency and mayoralty prosecutors offices managed to secure Rp 357 million during investigation and Rp 56 million during prosecution.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Gorontalo  Sat, May 7 2016

Gorontalo residents took advantage of extended holidays  the Ascension Day of Jesus Christ and the Ascension Day of Prophet Muhammad  to explore provincial tourism sites, including the Saronde Island tourist resort, an outer island located off the north coast of Gorontalo.

The uninhabited island offers pristine scenery; a white-sand beach, crystal clear water and an expanse of blue sky.

To reach the island, visitors must drive from Gorontalo city to Kwandang Port and hire a boat. The boat trip takes approximately half an hour.

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Linkedin Tama Salim (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are taking a multi-pronged approach in addressing maritime robberies and abductions along their shared border areas, framing the issue as more than just a security threat, but also a menace that brings negative economic and social impacts.



The three countries have opted to build on existing provisions from the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines-East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) framework  a subregional economic mechanism that has so far struggled to live up to expectations  allowing them to bypass bilateral red tape and provide a quick response to emergency situations in areas of common concern.



The abduction of civilians by armed groups could undermine confidence in trade and commerce in the region if it was not addressed appropriately, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi told the press in Yogyakarta on Thursday.



We share the urgent need to take action to ensure our citizens feel protected while conducting activities in the area, she said.



The tripartite meeting resulted in a four-point action plan, including an agreement to conduct joint coordinated patrols, which will be carried out by military forces from each of the countries.



The neighbors also agreed to devise an emergency protocol under which any of the countries could render immediate assistance for the safety of people and ships in distress within the maritime areas of common concern.



To facilitate close coordination, the three littoral states would establish a focal point for the timely sharing of information and intelligence, as well as setting up a communication hotline to enable quick responses.



We took lessons from the very close communication and collaboration between our three countries in the effort to release the 10 Indonesians held hostage, Retno said, referring to last months abduction of sailors by Philippine militant group Abu Sayyaf.



Abu Sayyaf killed a Canadian hostage late last month. The government is still working to secure the release of four more Indonesians taken hostage in the Sulu-Sulawesi corridor.



The minister cited the strategic importance of the tri-border area as one of Southeast Asias busiest alternative thoroughfares. Annually, over 18 million people travel through the Sulu-Sulawesi waterway, carrying more than 55 million metric tons of goods.



According to the International Chamber of Commerce, roughly half of the worlds container ships, worth approximately US$5.4 trillion in trade and two-thirds of the worlds oil shipments, pass through the South China Sea from the Malacca Strait, the largest economic corridor in Southeast Asia.



As such, the BIMP-EAGA platform provided an existing avenue of cooperation among the three countries to increase economic activities in the area by implementing the necessary security protocols, ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir argued.



In the context of the BIMP-EAGA, there was a declaration in 2009 to discuss an agreement on coordinated patrols, but it wasnt fully implemented, he said. We think its a very important [platform] considering these three countries are the most affected by incidents of abduction in the past few years.



The three countries will sit down again to devise the standard operational procedures of the cooperation. The joint-working group in charge of fine-tuning the technical aspects is expected to finish its work before the end of the month, Indonesian Military commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said.



Thursdays trilateral agreement may be lauded as a significant step in addressing the recent spate of abductions, but questions remain about whether the move will inspire an ASEAN-wide solution for the non-traditional security threat.



International relations expert Adriana Elisabeth of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) criticized the use of the BIMP-EAGA platform to expand what should be region-wide cooperation on security, saying that the threat of abductions by armed groups in the region would remain a problem for the next 10 to 20 years.



Adriana said that developing security protocols through the subregional mechanism was a distortion of its original function  to facilitate trade, investment and tourism.



She called for an ASEAN-wide solution that would preempt any further development of non-traditional security threats such as abductions and armed robbery at sea.



There should be pressure for regional cooperation when such urgent situations occur, so that the countries closest [to the incident] would have a shared guidelines they could adopt  as of now, I dont think anything like that exists, she said on Friday. The whole of ASEAN must be involved in addressing the problem.

_____________________________

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Linkedin Agnes Anya (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, May 7 2016

Residents have criticized the city administration for ignoring suburban development, accusing it of having prioritized specific projects in a bid to beautify the capital ahead of the 2018 Asian Games.

Lutfi Hadi Kusuma, a resident of Kebayoran Baru in South Jakarta, questioned the urgency of the administrations current plan to rearrange, as well as beautify, Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta.

In my opinion, Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin are already well-developed, especially when compared to other main roads in Jakarta, Lutfi told The Jakarta Post recently.

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Linkedin Hans Nicholas Jong (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

Indonesia will use game-changing Japanese technology to monitor water levels in real time for various purposes, including to prevent land and forest fires as well as flooding.

National Research Council (DRN) chairman Bambang Setiadi said that the technology, called Sensory Data Transmission Service Assisted by Midori Engineering (SESAME), would change the way Indonesia managed its water resources, including in peatland.

SESAME is a tool that can measure water levels in real time. The country doesnt currently have a water management for flat terrain. If we implement SESAME, we can control the movement of groundwater and thus decrease land and forest fires, he said on Tuesday.

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Linkedin Tom Odula (Associated Press) Nairobi, Kenya  Sat, May 7, 2016

The Kenyan government said Friday it will close two refugee camps, including one of the world's biggest, due to a lack of security and economic challenges as human Rights group condemned the plan.

The closure of the camps will have adverse effects and the international community should collectively take responsibility for the humanitarian needs that arise, Karanja Kibicho, permanent secretary at the Interior Ministry, said.

The government has disbanded the Department of Refugee Affairs, which works with humanitarian organizations looking after the welfare of refugees, Kibicho said.

The voluntary repatriation process in an agreement signed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, Kenyan government and the Somali government in 2013 has been very slow, Kibicho said.

He said Kenya has been hosting the refugees for nearly 25 years and it had taken its toll on the country.

The camps targeted for closure are Daadab and Kakuma. Daadab in eastern Kenya is that largest, with more than 328,000 refugees, mainly Somalis escaping conflict in their war-torn country that is struggling to defeat an insurgency by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab insurgents. The Kakuma camp hosts 190,000 refuges, the majority of them South Sudanese escaping civil war in their country.

Kibicho said the camps have bread terrorists from al-Shabab. Al-Shabab has vowed attacks on Kenya for sending troops to Somalia to fight the militants as part of the African Union forces bolstering Somalia's weak government. Two attackers in the September 21 Westgate Mall in Nairobi in which 63 people were killed lived in Kakuma camp.

It's not the first time Kenya has threatened to send home the refugees and international rights groups condemned the move.

"Officials have not provided credible evidence linking Somali refugees to any terrorist attacks in Kenya. Human Rights Watch is not aware of convictions of Somali refugees in connection with any attack in Kenya," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

Amnesty International said the move is reckless and could lead to the involuntary return of refugees to countries where their lives could still be in danger.

"While it is true that resettlement to third countries has been slow, Kenya should itself consider permanent solutions towards the full integration of refugees, some of whose stay in Kenya is now over generations," said Muthoni Wanyeki, Amnesty's regional head. "Forced return to situations of persecution or conflict is not an option."

Doctors Without Borders said the closure of the camps would risk some 330,000 Somali lives and have extreme humanitarian consequences of forcing people to return to a war-torn country with minimal access to vital medical and humanitarian assistance.

Doctors Without Borders "is urging the government to reconsider this call, and  alongside the international organizations already present in the camp  to continue to provide humanitarian assistance and ensure acceptable living conditions for the hundreds of thousands of people who desperately need it," said Liesbeth Aelbrecht, DWB head of mission in Kenya. (bbn)
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Linkedin Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post) Cilacap  Sat, May 7 2016

Due to the governments impending execution of a number of drug convicts on death-row, Nusakambangan Island in Cilacap regency, Central Java, has received widespread national and international media coverage over the last few days.

Although the date is yet to be announced, if the execution does happen, it will not be the first time capital punishment has been meted out on the prison island. Bali bombing trio Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas, faced the firing squad together there in November 2008.

In January and April 2015, the Attorney Generals Office (AGO) also approved the execution of 14 death-row inmates on the island. Nirbaya Valley was the location used by the police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit to execute the convicts.

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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7, 2016

The door remains open for Surabaya Mayor Tri Rismaharini to be nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) as its Jakarta gubernatorial candidate, although she is not among the 34 hopefuls that have registered as the partys potential candidates.

Risma can still be nominated by the PDI-Ps central executive board, PDI-P Jakarta treasurer Adi Widjaja told kompas.com on Saturday.

He was responding to a movement to nominate Risma as a Jakarta gubernatorial candidate through Twitter account @Karisma-Jakarta with hashtag # RismaDKI1 # BekerjaDgnHati.

Risma has said that she is not ready to be nominated as a gubernatorial candidate, wanting to instead concentrate on developing the provincial capital of East Java. PDI-P chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri met with Risma during a recent visit to Surabaya.

In regard to the meeting, PDI-P secretary-general Hato Kristanto hinted that his party was still considering Risma as a potential candidate, saying Jakarta also needs good management of parks like in Surabaya,.

Adi said that up until the final day of candidate selection by PDI-Ps Jakarta chapter, last week, there were only two party members  PDI-P Jakarta chapter chairman Boy Sadikin and Jakarta Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat, who were on the list of the 34 hopefuls.

Any member can be proposed. But it must done through the central executive board because she [Risma] has not registered as a candidate, Adi added.

In a survey conducted by the Discussion Group and Public Opinion Study (Kedai Kopi) in February, Risma was at the top list of the most electable candidates, followed by Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, incumbent Governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) politician Hidayat Nur Wahid and former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

Ridwan has expressed his intention to participate in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, while Yusril is seeking support from political parties for his candidacy. Ahok , meanwhile, has declared himself an independent candidate. (bbn)
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Linkedin thejakartapost.com (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7, 2016

Local authorities announced that they have identified the victims in a four-vehicle accident in Hancock County, Mississippi, the US, on Monday night.

Hancock County coroner Jim Faulk said the victims were all Indonesian nationals, identified as Uken Bremani, 29, the driver; Yayan Royani, 37, both males and Sri Dewi Mursi Alumni, 48, female.

The hospitalized survivors were identified as Ronas Ilham, 44, and Triatmojo, 48.

Faulk said the Indonesian consulate in Houston had worked on contacting the families of the victims, adding that he received information that all next of kin had been notified.

Faulk was quoted by local news The Sun Herald as saying that the five people were all in the country working in the food service industry. One, he said, worked on a cruise ship.

The driver, Uken, had a Washington state driver's license, Faulk said.

Triatmojo, one of the survivors, was released from the hospital on Thursday.

An officer at Indonesias consulate general in Houston, Kalista Siregar, said the ill-fated Indonesians were on vacation to Louisiana when the accident occurred.

Kalista cited eyewitnesses as saying that the highway lanes narrowed to one lane due to construction work.

An 18-wheeler truck came to a stop in front of their car, forcing them to suddenly slow down. However, before the car stopped completely, another 18-wheeler truck came from behind at high speed and rammed into the sedan as the truck driver was unaware of the narrowing lane, Kalista was quoted as saying by tempo.co.

The sedan was completely crushed due to the impact that involved four vehicles.

Kalista said Ronas Ilham remained unconscious due to head trauma when she visited him.

Doctors said his condition remained critical, Kalista said.

Currently, the Indonesian consulate general were preparing the necessary documents to arrange the release of victim's bodies from the morgue, which would likely take at least a week, Kalista said. (dmr)
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Linkedin Suhardi Suryadi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

The Berau regency in East Kalimantan has developed a model of ecosystem development in Kampung Merabu in Kelay that integrates economic growth and protection of through ecotourism. Attractions include the karst mountain range of Sangkulirang Mangkalihat. The Berau policy is very interesting, in contrast for instance to Pati regency in Central Java, where the local government has allowed the mountainous region Kendeng to become a mining site for basic materials for a cement factory, thereby inciting ongoing conflicts with local communities.

The case of Pati and other areas are classic examples of approaches to development that pursue economic growth at the cost of ecosystems and the social welfare of communities. Economic growth has even widened income inequalities and poverty. East Kalimantan, for instance, is dominated by the extractive industries of coal, oil and gas and wood. The provinces Gini ratio is 0.367 and is 13th of the 33 provinces. Papua is also a province that has among the highest poverty rates in the nation (Central Statistics Agency, 2013)

Inequality and poverty in our regions, which are rich in natural resources, cannot be separated from policy management and control of natural resources that emphasize cash benefits for a particular party through corrupt practices that eventually discriminates against citizens, as cited by researchers.

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Linkedin Stefani Ribka (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7, 2016

To tell his life story to a wider audience, Dato Sri Tahir launched the Chinese-language edition of his biography, Living Sacrifice, in Singapore on Wednesday.

The book, recounting his journey from living in poverty to becoming Indonesias 10th richest person, was written by Alberthiene Endah and first published in Indonesian last year before being translated into English and Chinese.

Tahir, emotionally attached to Singapore, where he completed his undergraduate studies at Nanyang University  now the National University of Singapore, said that he wanted to share his life story with the Chinese community in the country and hoped to inspire them.

He said he made meaningful friendships with Singaporeans, some of whom had given him significant contributions in his early days in business.

At first, I was a bit hesitant about writing it because those who know me would tell you that I like to be low key. I felt  and still feel  I have not done enough to merit a book about my life and thoughts. But after thinking about it some more, I decided to give it a go, he told the audience during the book launch at Singapore Management University in Singapore on Wednesday.

The book mainly recounts his experiences growing up in poverty, his parents hard work to improve their welfare through ups and downs in various businesses  ranging from a pedicab workshop, minimarket to gold sales  which start bearing fruit, giving them the means to send him abroad to study in Singapore.

The book also gives personal insight into how he felt becoming the son-in-law of Lippo Group founder Mochtar Riady: how he struggled to adapt to the huge gap between the tycoon lifestyle and his modest lifestyle, and how he strived hard to establish his own business.

Present at the book launch were former president BJ Habibie and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Habibie saw Tahir as his intellectual son and said that Tahirs story showed the importance of hard work.

The future of the nation depends not on natural resources, but manpower. Thats why the middle class is so important. They must get special attention because out of that middle class we will see leaders of economics, finances and politics, he said at the event.

The book is priced at S$200 (US$147). All proceeds from book sales, plus $S400 from the Tahir Foundation for each sold book, will go to a Singaporean charity. (bbn)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Denpasar  Sat, May 7, 2016

Seventeen passengers and crew were injured when a Hong Kong Airlines' flight ran into severe turbulence early Saturday on the way from Indonesia's resort Bali island to Hong Kong.

The Airbus A330-200 with 204 passengers and 12 crew returned to Bali about 2 and a half hours into the flight and landed safely at 4:34 a.m. (2034 GMT Friday), said Trikora Harjo, general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport.

The plane encountered the turbulence above Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, he said.

Most of the injuries were head bruises and there were no serious cases, Harjo said. Three crewmembers and eight passengers were brought to a hospital while six others were treated at the airport clinic, he said.

He said there was no damage to the plane, but an inspection was underway.

Ninety-five passengers were flown to Hong Kong on board a Garuda Indonesia plane Saturday morning while the rest were waiting at the airport and hotels.

It was the second such incident involving Airbus planes over Indonesian territory in the past four days.

On Wednesday, an Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi ran into sudden turbulence as it prepared to land in the Indonesian capital, injuring 31 passengers and a crew. (bbn)
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Linkedin Anggi M. Lubis (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sat, May 7 2016

Indonesia is faced with regulatory obstacles and the weak perception of potential workers in its battle to effectively integrate its labor force into ASEAN, which promises free movement of skilled labor within the region, according to an academic forum.

To date, those two problems represent the main challenges for Indonesians hoping to integrate promptly among the ASEAN labor market.

There are currently 100,000 Indonesian workers employed in alternate ASEAN member states, according to data presented by Indonesias permanent representative to ASEAN Rahmat Pramono during a seminar held by the Foreign Ministry and the University of Indonesia (UI) on Tuesday.

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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post)  Sat, May 7 2016

The recent release of the global tiger census has indicated a significant rise in the tiger populations of Asia and Russia, with India being the most successful nation at conserving the grand predator.

India, as the report indicates, is home to 70 percent of the global tiger population, represented by the majestic subspecies, the Bengal tiger.

Heartiest congratulations to Indonesia for presenting a healthy Sumatran tiger population of 371, as revealed in the recent global tiger census report.

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(lead article)

Workers need international solidarity,

not Americanism

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says hes going to make America great again. Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton says America is already great.

Both want workers to think of ourselves as Americans, and to view working people across the globe as our enemies. We need to recognize ourselves as part of a worldwide working class with common interests and a common enemy: capitalism.

Clinton is for using U.S. military might to defend American interests and argues for more robust intervention than President Barack Obama. Trump claims to be the peace candidate who will put America First by building up a strong military and let nations around the world know they should come to the table or else.

What America are they talking about? The America of the Verizon workers, forced out on strike by bosses who want to slash medical coverage, contract out work at lower pay and close down call centers? Or the America of the Verizon bosses? The America of fast-food workers fighting for $15 and a union? Or the America of the propertied rulers who have nothing but scorn for working people here and abroad?

Capitalism is in a deep worldwide crisis. Unable to make the high profits they want by investing in production-expanding factories, the capitalist class instead speculates on everything from stocks and bonds to the future prices of oil and other commodities. In the factories, mills and mines they speed up the work pace with total disregard for safety and the lives of workers, slash pay and attack our unions.

The U.S. bosses foreign policy is an extension of their course at home.

Washington emerged victorious from World War II as the dominant imperialist power. Today, the world order they established is coming apart. From the Middle East to Europe to the South China Sea, Washington faces challenges, conflicts and disorder.

Thats whats at the root of the disputes between Trump, Clinton and Obama.

More drones or fewer, more diplomacy or less, more special forces or more infantry, more money for NATO or less, trade pact or no trade pact  everything Washington does, whoever the occupant of the White House happens to be, is to defend the interests of U.S. capitalists around the world, not working people anywhere.

Clinton and Trumps tactical differences are on how to best defend imperialist interests.

Working people need our own foreign policy independent of the bosses.

Revolutionary Cuba proves that this is possible. Cuban revolutionaries dont say Cuba first. They start with recognition of the right of self-determination of every nation and offer solidarity to all those fighting imperialist domination.

The Socialist Workers Party stands shoulder to shoulder with Verizon workers standing up to the bosses here. We stand with workers and farmers in Syria who are being battered by the dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad and its backers in Moscow and Tehran, the reactionary Islamic State, and the efforts of Washington to defend its imperialist interests in the region. We demand the withdrawal of all U.S. troops abroad, from Korea to Syria to Latin America.

Under capitalism there is no peace.

Building a movement capable of replacing the dictatorship of the propertied rulers here at home with a government of workers and farmers is decisive to the future of all humanity.





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Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home




(front page)

Strikers reject Verizon offer, receive solidarity

Well stay out one day longer, one day stronger!

Militant/Jane Harris

JERSEY CITY, N.J.  The East Coast strike of 39,000 unionists against telecommunications giant Verizon, the largest strike in the U.S. since the last Verizon walkout five years ago, is making an impact across the country.

Hundreds of members of the Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers rallied here April 29 to tell Verizon they werent accepting the last, best and final offer the company had presented the previous day.

Verizon workers from Massachusetts to Virginia went on strike April 13 after 10 months of fruitless contract negotiations. Their previous contract expired Aug. 1.

The company cut off health care benefits for strikers and their families May 1.

Verizon, which made an operating profit of $30 billion last year, overnighted a letter from Executive Vice President Marc Reed outlining the companys offer to every striking employee.

To Mr. Reed  its just your final best offer if we take it, and we wont take it! IBEW Local 827 President Robert Speer told the rally, which erupted in cheering and chants of One day longer, one day stronger. Members of the painters union and the Amalgamated Transit Union were there to show their support.

Verizons latest offer upped the wage increase from 6.5 to 7.5 percent over three years. Reeds letter claimed the raise will be greater than the average increase in healthcare expense over the life of the contract, which most strikers dispute. The company also pledged that if the unions sign the agreement by May 20, demands for changes in involuntary temporary work assignments to another state and modifications in Sunday premium pay would be dropped.

There was no movement on the closing of call centers in the offer, an April 28 CWA District 1 bargaining report commented. They gave us an insulting proposal on contracting out plant work that does not return any contracted work to the bargaining unit, but might possibly slow down further contracting out in the future. Verizon proposes reducing disability benefits as well.

Support for strike

At the rally Tom Sterlacci, who pickets a Verizon work center in Secaucus described the support the strikers receive. All day people roll down the window and say, Were with you. They bring water and coffee. Theres been UPS drivers, a couple of Walmart workers and county garbage collectors.

Dawn Sickles and Liz Null had been on the picket line in Manhattan since 7 a.m. when this reporter dropped by in the afternoon May 2. Usually we start the morning at a hotel that is housing scabs. Weve gotten the support of the hotel workers union, so many hotels have asked them to leave, Sickles said.

Many strikers say public support for them is strong because of the economic difficulties faced by most workers. People are upset, Sickles said. Theyre aware of the disparities. They have kids at home in their 30s, living in the basement.

A central issue in the strike is the companys demand to cap pensions after 30 years of service and revise the calculations used to set lump sum retirement payments, Null said. The companys offer includes incentives for voluntary early retirement.

We recognize why they are downsizing with the change in technology, Null said. But they are so mean-spirited. They track workers with a GPS. If you come in a minute late they make you stand against the wall like youre in elementary school.

Bosses try to make unions look bad

Whats happening to us has been happening to a lot of workers, Rudy Destin told theat a Brooklyn picket line May 2. Motown was called that because it was Motor City, the heart of blue collar work. Now Michigan has become a right-to-work state and they want to do the same in New York. The bosses are trying to make the union into something bad  like a drug cartel. Workers driving past honked in solidarity as pickets chanted, Every job a union job! and New York is a union town!

Verizon considers Washington, Maryland and Delaware one service region, technician Lapreia Terry said at a May 2 picket line at a wireless store in Washington, D.C. Previously, when workers accepted two-week assignments away from their workstation, Verizon footed the bill for lodging. Now they want us to go for 60 days at a time and pay our own lodging, she said.

A National Day of Action May 5 will include strike rallies and will expand picketing at Verizon Wireless stores across the country with the help of CWA districts and other unions.

Glova Scott in Washington, D.C., contributed to this article.





Related articles:

On the Picket Line

Framed-up Quebec rail workers gain union support







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(front page)

Wis. May Day action protests law targeting immigrants

MILWAUKEE  A spirited march and rally of more than 1,000 people here May 1, International Workers Day, demonstrated the self-confidence of immigrant workers and youth who are leading a fight against anti-immigrant legislation in the state. Many carried handmade signs and banners in English and Spanish, saying Keep families together! We are all Wisconsin! Enough of the migra [immigration cops]! Rights for immigrants, NOW!

Buses came from Racine, Madison, and Green Bay. Voces de la Frontera (Voices from the Border), which organized the protest, held a neighborhood block party before the march with informational tables, music, food, and poster-making.

There were small contingents of home care and nursing home workers from the Service Employees International Union and the United Food and Commercial Workers calling for a $15 minimum wage and union rights.

I came here to support the fight of immigrants. We all need to stick together, home care worker Maggie Ressalier, who was carrying an SEIU Fight for $15 banner, told the Militant. A lot of immigrant workers get paid $7.25 an hour doing work that we get paid more for.

The May Day action stands on the shoulders of a Feb. 18 Day Without Latinos, when some 20,000 people, many waving American and Mexican flags, protested in Madison against two anti-immigrant and anti-worker bills in the Wisconsin state legislature. In an echo of the May 1, 2006, protests that shut down factories and businesses across the United States to protest anti-immigrant bills before the U.S. Congress, workers at factories, warehouses, stores and dairy farms across Wisconsin skipped work that day.

The February strike and protests helped block passage of Assembly Bill 450, which would have withheld funding from so-called sanctuary cities and banned any local legislation that blocked government employees from cooperating with a federal immigration officer or that prevented cops from questioning anyone they stop about their immigration status.

Law denies ID to immigrant workers

But Gov. Scott Walker signed Senate Bill 533 April 25. That law blocks county officials from issuing photo identification to anyone who cant prove they are legal residents. This makes it harder for a wide range of working people to get needed ID. Villages and cities would still be allowed to issue IDs but the card would have to say, Not authorized for voting purposes.

Im against SB 533 because people need state identification to do practically anything, including immigrants, former prisoners, homeless people and others, Jordan Greene, a student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said at the May 1 protest.

Another side of the Milwaukee march was support for two executive orders by President Barack Obama that temporarily halt the deportations of some immigrant children without papers who have grown up in the United States and the undocumented parents of children who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Federal courts have blocked the deferred action orders and the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review the case.

Deferred action, would help 5 million people, not specifically all the community, Huelmely Jesus told Wisconsin Public Radio. But at least it would benefit the children and some families.

The Latino community is present and were not going anywhere, Kennia Coronado, a youth organizer with Voces de la Frontera, told the Militant. Were a strong labor force in this community.





Related articles:

UK candidates debate govt anti-Muslim law







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(front page)

Socialist Workers Party joins fights, gets on

Colorado ballot

Militant/Horace Kerr

Socialist Workers Party vice-presidential candidate Osborne Hart and supporters filed papers in Denver April 29, putting him and presidential candidate Alyson Kennedy on the Colorado ballot. Then they drove to Fort Morgan in a snowstorm to talk to workers at shift change at the big Cargill Meat Solutions plant there.

Seeing a sign inviting them to Meet Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for vice president, many workers driving out of the plant pulled over to talk to him and take campaign biographies. Thirty-four bought copies of the Militant. The Fort Morgan Times ran a front-page photo story on the plant-gate campaigning May 3.

The Colorado campaigners stopped to warm up at a cafe frequented by Somali workers, some of whom were fired by Cargill Dec. 23 after they walked off the job when the company began refusing them prayer breaks. I was fired a week before the others, Abdi Ali told Hart. I asked for a break to pray and my supervisor said no. I went anyway and was fired. Ali said he is getting unemployment compensation, but Cargill is appealing payments to some workers.

If Cargill gets away with this here, it has an effect beyond Colorado, Hart said. Other bosses are watching what is happening here. Working people need to stand with you and fight this.

Hart traveled to Milwaukee to join the May Day rally there, while Kennedy marched with hundreds of thousands of workers at the rally in Havana.

SWP campaigners are introducing many workers to the partys revolutionary program through efforts to put the partys candidates on the ballot in Tennessee and New Jersey as well.

I am so excited reading these articles in the Militant, Carolyn Kelley, a retired social worker, told SWP member Rachele Fruit on the phone April 29. Fruit and others met Kelley going door to door in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Fruit invited Kelley and her husband, a union electrician, to attend the Socialist Workers Party conference in Oberlin, Ohio, June 16-18. Now I have someone to vote for, and we wish we could attend the conference in Ohio, she said. The Kelleys agreed to be electors to help put the SWP on the ballot.

In four days the Socialist Workers Party team went to workers districts in Chattanooga, Smyrna, Murfreesboro and Cleveland, Tennessee. They met six potential electors and sold six Militant subscriptions and four books.

At a Verizon strike rally in Jersey City April 29, 17 workers signed petitions to put the SWP on the ballot in New Jersey, one bought a subscription to the Militant and seven got single copies. The Socialist Workers Party has been building support for the strike and discussing the important stakes involved for working people everywhere campaigners go.

Syrian-born mechanic Nart Zakaria liked the SWPs call for Washington to get out of the Mideast. He subscribed to the Militant after talking to socialists at his door in Haskell, New Jersey, April 30. Washington, Moscow and Tehran just want to divide up the pie so each can dominate Syria and Iraq, he said.

When a neighbor told the campaigners about a nearby Verizon picket line, they stopped by to show their support.

Integrating the New Jersey ballot drive into such activities, SWP teams have collected more than 1,000 signatures, while winning many new readers of the partys paper and books. The ballot drive will wrap up May 8.

I came across an old issue of the Militant in the prison dayroom here and found it quite informative, a worker incarcerated in Illinois since 1967 wrote. I wish to inquire whether you share your zine with those of us confined to these gulags. He received a reduced-rate subscription covered by the Militant Prisoners Fund. This spring 14 workers behind bars have subscribed.

Keep up progress on Militant fund

At the end of the fourth week of the six-week effort the Socialist Workers Party is leading to win 1,550 readers and $110,000 in contributions to the party press, 1,009 subscriptions and $48,550 have come in. We want to continue picking up the pace of contributions to the Militant Fighting Fund, which is behind schedule. Nearly $20,000 arrived last week. Supporters in France pledged $450 and have already collected $390.

Contact a Socialist Workers Party branch near you (see list on page 8) to join in party-building activity at labor and social struggles, campaigning door to door in large cities and small towns and increasing the readership and support for the partys press.





Related articles:

Workers need international solidarity, not Americanism

Spring subscription drive chart April 2 - May 17 (week 4)

Militant Fighting Fund chart April 2- May 17 (week 4)







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(front page)

Trump, Clinton debate best foreign policy to advance US imperialism

As Hillary Clinton heads toward clinching the Democratic Party nomination and Donald Trump the Republican nod, there has been increased discussion of their foreign policies. Both defend U.S. imperialist interests around the globe, and the use of military might to enforce those interests. Butcolumnist Maureen Dowd gets at some of their differences in an April 30 column, where she wrote, Its Hillary the Hawk against Donald the Quasi-Dove.

Along similar lines the April 24 Times magazine featured the article How Hillary Clinton Became a Hawk by Mark Landler, the papers White House correspondent. He writes approvingly that Clinton believes that the calculated use of military power is vital to defending national interests, that American intervention does more good than harm and that the writ of the United States properly reaches, as [George W.] Bush once put it, into any dark corner of the world. He adds that Clinton is the last true hawk left in the race.

Landler notes Clintons decades-long cultivation of the military, beginning when her husband Bill Clinton was president and continuing during her stint as U.S. senator in New York and later as President Barack Obamas secretary of state.

A month after the Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Sen. Clinton traveled to Fort Drum in New Yorks Jefferson County at the invitation of Gen. Buster Hagenbeck, the new Army 10th Mountain Division commander. She sat down, he told Landler, took her shoes off, put her feet up on the coffee table and said, General, do you know where a gal can get a cold beer around here?

Clinton for more robust intervention

Spurning a long tradition of New York senators, Landler adds, she took a seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee instead of Foreign Relations when offered a choice in 2002. For a politician looking to hone hard-power credentials  a woman who aspired to be commander in chief  it was the perfect training ground, Landler said. She dug in like a grunt at boot camp.

During her time as secretary of state, Clinton generally favored more robust intervention than Obama, Landler notes. Obama has been reluctant to send large numbers of ground troops, preferring to use drones, airstrikes, special forces and diplomacy to advance Washingtons interests.

Clinton was a proponent of Gen. Stanley McChrystals recommendation in 2009 to send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan. She supported the Pentagons plan to leave a residual force of up to 20,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. She opposed proposals by aides to Obama in February 2009 to make symbolic concessions to Moscow as a gesture of good will in resetting the relationship, the Times says.

In 2010 after the North Korean military allegedly torpedoed a South Korean ship, Clinton backed a plan to send a U.S. warship to the Yellow Sea between North Korea and China, a move sure to provoke Beijing. Weve got to run it up the gut! Clinton said. Obama declined her plan.

In one dispute with Obama where she won out, Clinton pushed for the use of U.S. air power in 2011 to hasten the fall of the regime of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.

There are numerous other examples.

Trumps America First

In a speech April 27 Trump said that since the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Soviet Union the U.S. government has lacked a coherent foreign policy and under Obama and Clinton has been reckless, rudderless and aimless.

Trump says he is going to put America First. He says he opposed the U.S. war in Iraq and that Washington should be getting out of the nation-building business.

Unlike other candidates for the presidency, war and aggression will not be my first instinct, Trump said. A superpower understands that caution and restraint are signs of strength.

We went from mistakes in Iraq to Egypt to Libya, to President Obamas line in the sand in Syria, referring to Obamas empty threats to take action against the Bashar al-Assad regime if it used chemical weapons.

Each of these actions have helped to throw the region into chaos, Trump said and gave ISIS [Islamic State] the space it needs to grow and prosper. While Trump says Obama gave too much away with his disastrous deal with Iran, unlike his now-defeated Republican competitors he has never said he would tear it up. Instead, he says he will renegotiate it.

The Republican candidate also says that to bargain from a position of strength he will rebuild our military and spend more money on new armaments. At the same time he said he will tell ISIS their days are numbered.

In the increasing disorder in the Mideast, Trump says that Washington should seek common ground with Moscow and Beijing.

Conservatives and liberals alike who are apoplectic about Trumps march to the Republican nomination derided his foreign policy speech. The liberal Huffington Post said it was an incoherent view of the world, while the conservative National Review called it incoherent and shallow.

But many working people who have been drawn to Trumps meetings, seeking answers to the grinding depression conditions spawned by the capitalist economic crisis, are skeptical of U.S. intervention around the world. They are attracted to his portrayal of himself as the candidate of peace and prosperity, not war and destruction.

More drones or fewer, more diplomacy or less, more special forces or more infantry, everything Washington does is to defend the interests of U.S. capitalists around the world, not working people, said Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. vice president, May 3. While Clinton and Trump have tactical differences on how to best defend imperialist interests, nothing they do advances the interests of the working class. Working people need our own foreign policy independent of the bosses.





Related articles:

Workers need international solidarity, not Americanism







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(front page)

Deaths mount in Syria as US, Russian govts

continue talks

Syrias dictatorial regime of Bashar al-Assad, reinforced by Russian airstrikes and Iranian-backed forces, has escalated attacks in parts of the northern city of Aleppo controlled by anti-government groups. As civilian casualties mount, the two-month partial cease-fire cobbled together by Washington and Moscow has virtually collapsed.

The Russian and U.S. governments, through rounds of talks in Geneva, are seeking to reduce hostilities and impose some degree of stability in Syria to protect each of their interests in the region.

Meanwhile, Washington has increased its special operations forces on the ground in Syria and continues to raise its troop levels in Iraq.

From April 22 through May 1 daily airstrikes, including with barrel bombs, killed more than 250 civilians in Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. One of the targets hit overnight April 27-28 was al-Quds Hospital in an opposition-controlled area, the only one providing pediatric care in the city. At least 50 people were killed, including six medics, according to Doctors Without Borders.

Massive protests began in Syria in March 2011 demanding political rights and an end to Assads rule, but they were crushed by the government with bombings, arrests and killings. An assortment of armed groups formed in response and took control of territory, including areas around Aleppo, the countrys largest city. Shifting coalitions of Islamist as well as secular groups have been competing for territory and fighting government forces since then.

Over the course of the five-year war close to half a million people have been killed and more than half of the countrys population displaced. Amid this chaos and the lack of a revolutionary working-class leadership, the reactionary Islamic State was able to seize swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq.

In recent months Assads forces backed by Russian firepower and special forces have seized key parts of Aleppo. Some 300,000 people still live in the rebel-controlled eastern parts of the city and have faced years of air and artillery bombardment by the regime.

In two villages in northwest Syria where Nusra Front, an affiliate of al-Qaeda, was driven out by rebel forces in April, civilians took to the street in anti-Assad demonstrations, reported the Washington Post, but were then heavily bombed by Assad.

U.S. military presence grows

Washington is sending an additional 250 special operations forces to Syria, boosting the 50 deployed in October. Their aim is to equip, advise and expand the numbers of Sunni Arab fighters combating Islamic State, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a U.S. Senate hearing April 28.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, which is leading the fight against Islamic State in eastern and central Syria, is led by some 30,000 Kurdish fighters, and involves 6,000 Sunni Arabs, according to Dunford.

A week earlier Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced an additional 200 U.S. troops were on their way to Iraq, pushing the official Pentagon troop cap to 4,087. That figure doesnt count at least 1,000 U.S. military personnel there on temporary rotations. They include Marines in northern Iraq stationed at a satellite base positioned to protect American trainers at a nearby, larger base, reported the Post.

President Barack Obama has also authorized U.S. commanders in Iraq to use Apache attack helicopters and established a new task force where U.S. troops will play a greater role in advise and assist missions.

In deepening its involvement, Washington seeks to reshape the Iraqi army into a fighting force to drive Islamic State out of Mosul, the countrys second largest city, that it has occupied for nearly two years.

But the Shia-led Iraqi government of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is in deep crisis, fueled by a drop in oil prices, sectarian frictions it has promoted against Sunnis and Kurds and factional divisions with other Shiite politicians. Supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed into Iraqs parliament April 30, scaling concrete walls surrounding the exclusive Green Zone area, where government offices and foreign embassies are located. They demanded Abadi appoint a new cabinet.

The government declared a state of emergency in Baghdad, and brought back some troops from the front lines against Islamic State in Anbar province.

Iran-backed militia groups aligned with Iraqs government announced late Sunday night [May 1] that they are deploying fighters in Baghdad to help secure the city, the Wall Street Journal reported. Al-Sadrs supporters withdrew from the Green Zone that day. The same weekend Islamic State conducted suicide attacks that left dozens dead, including in Baghdad.





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(In Review, special feature )

Book by Cuban 5 is powerful indictment of

capitalist justice

. 135 pages. Pathfinder Press, 2016. OAKLAND, Calif.  The book was awesome! Truly enlightening and inspiring how the five Cubans were able to turn prison into a learning experience and come out stronger! Watani Stiner, a fighter for Black rights who was framed up in the 1960s and recently released from San Quentin, told me after reading

The book, an interview by Socialist Workers Party leaders Mary-Alice Waters and Roger Calero with five revolutionaries who spent 16 years in prisons in the United States, is a powerful indictment of mass incarceration in the U.S. As Stiner points out, its a book about resistance, including the solidarity the Five extended to their fellow prisoners and the support they received in return. And, above all, it gives a picture of the values and human character that are the product of the Cuban Revolution.

All of the Cuban Five  Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez  became revolutionaries growing up in Cuba, where workers and peasants overthrew capitalist rule in 1959 in a massive movement based on solidarity and internationalism.

They were framed up by the FBI in September 1998 for working to monitor counterrevolutionary Cuban groups in Florida to prevent violent attacks on Cuba. From that moment until December 2014, when the last three were freed, the Five were subjected to many of the cruelties they describe in the book.

A microcosm of capitalist society

The U.S. prisons are a microcosm of the dog-eat-dog system of capitalism, Hernandez says in the interview. A place that fosters violence, gangs and racism, where the road to rehabilitation does not exist.

The American system of justice is used by the US government to enable a powerful minority to control a vast majority, Labanino says. A person who is poor  Black, Latino, Native American, white  faces the enormous savagery of whats called American justice. It serves above all to sustain a system that has no solution for the poor, present or future.

The Five do not gloss over what Labanino calls the brutal mentality of many of those they lived with, a product of the values that permeate capitalist society as a whole. But the book is filled with examples of acts of solidarity, help and respect the Five extended to their fellow prisoners and the respect and support they received in return.

Hernandez said when African-American prisoners learned about Cubas support of liberation struggles in Africa, they would ask, Were you part of that? When he told them he had fought in Angola against the South African apartheid regime  as did Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez  they offered support.

Labanino says when he received the book Cuba and Angola, it caused a sensation. Many prisoners didnt know Cuban volunteers had been in Angola for sixteen years, defending its sovereignty against South Africa. The system of disinformation in the United States erases history, he said. Books by Malcolm X flew out of my hands.

Whats possible with a revolution

In one chapter, the Five talk about Cubans they got to know in U.S. jails, some who had also spent time behind bars in Cuba. There are less material resources in Cuba, but prisoners there have access to education, conjugal visits, passes to be with family, and women inmates can stay with their newborn babies.

I was inspired by what the Cuban Five say about incarceration in Cuba, Anita Wills told me. She is a fighter against police killings whose son is in prison. Prisons there are not about dehumanizing people. It shows whats possible with a revolution.

In Cuba a prisoner is another human being, Labanino said. In the U.S. prisoners are treated as the enemy, just as the cops see people as the enemy. If you dont understand this, he said, you wont understand why the police act the way they did in Ferguson, Missouri, [in 2014]. Why there is no solution within that system.

The book includes some 40 photos. It highlights facts showing the scope of mass incarceration in the U.S., and explains why the Cuban government opposes the death penalty, and why life sentences there are rare. The Cuban Revolution has been inspired always by a spirit of justice and not vengeance, says President Raul Castro.

In the conduct of the Cuban Five, readers will find lessons of value for any working-class fighter  examples of their courage, humor, dignity and discipline, of how they held onto and shared their ideas while respecting the views of those who disagreed.

Despite being separated for so many years in different prisons, each acted in the same manner, leading a worldwide struggle to win their freedom and emerging from prison stronger. How was this possible? It was the Cuban Revolution itself, the political consciousness and values they learned growing up.

To spend seventeen months in the hole and sixteen years in prison and create paintings that dont contain a shred of hatred  thats a product of the way we were educated as revolutionaries, Guerrero says in a talk to students at the science and engineering university in Havana reprinted in the book.

Nothing that happened is about us as individuals, he told the students. The standing we gained represents the resistance of our people.

Their revolutionary convictions were strengthened by what they learned from prisoners from El Salvador, Mexico and other countries about what workers face today with the deepening capitalist economic crisis, a crisis that has helped spawn a growth in the drug trade, violence and repression.

We came to know the problems of many places around the world, Hernandez said. Thanks to the empires publicity machine, some people think capitalism is a house with two cars and a swimming pool. That Haiti isnt capitalism. Central America isnt capitalism. The poor neighborhoods of the United States arent capitalism. Capitalism is whatever it suits them to show!

The actions of these five representatives of the Cuban Revolution  before, during and after their time within the U.S. working class  offer proof that its possible to build a world where brutalities they describe will not exist.
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Brace for surge in Chinese interest in Phuket property

PHUKET: The CEO of Chinas largest international property website has predicted huge growth in the interest in Phuket property from Chinese buyers.

propertylandChineseeconomics

By The Phuket News

Saturday 7 May 2016, 10:00AM

The past 12 months have seen strong growth in Chinese interest in Phuket, which they have really only discovered in big numbers during the last couple of years, said Charles Pittar, CEO of Juwai.com.

Chinese overseas real estate investment has grown from US$5 billion (B174.32bn) in 2010 to US$52 billion (B1.81 trillion) in 2014. It is set to increase again by 2020 to US$220 billion (B7.668 trillion), he added.

The real estate industry in Phuket should use this time to improve its ability to reach and to service buyers from China, Mr Pittar noted.

A large number of buyers who havent yet purchased an overseas property will in the next couple of years begin to have that opportunity. Those agents and developers who are in a position to help these buyers will benefit most.

Phuket is a notoriously opaque market because of a lack of government or third-party reporting, but by following the buyers through our data we can get a sense of whats happening there, Mr Pittar explained.

Most Chinese enquiries come from investor-minded buyers. Their top three priorities are return on investment, ease of management and quality of facilities and neighbourhood.

Overall, our buyers prefer new property rather than existing homes. They are looking for as much in terms of luxury finishes and services as they can get for their money, he added.

Feedback indicates that Chinese property investors like Thailand due to its proximity to their homeland. We believe Chinese interest will increase in 2016, and we will release more data tracking that later in the year, Mr Pittar said.

Thailand is almost purely a lifestyle and investment destination, unlike say the US or the UK, where one of the top motivations is to purchase a home for their children to live in while in the country for their education. Because of the appealing quality of life in Thailand, the second most-reported motivation is immigration.

Phuket is more like a lifestyle investment, with less expectation of capital gain compared to Bangkok. They can own property by the beach and put that into a hotel-managed rental program. They can enjoy it for 60 days a year and dont need to manage it the rest of the time, he said.
Distressed anchovy fishermen, families on Koh Yao Yai island protest coastal fishing ban

PHANG NGA: Some 300 villagers yesterday afternoon (May 6) gathered in protest in the area of Laem Mai Pier, located in Moo 7 of Koh Yao Yais Phru Nai sub district, seeking the government reconsider a ban on coastal fishing using large vessels.

agriculturenatural-resourcesmarine

By Darawan Naknakhon

Saturday 7 May 2016, 07:31AM

Speaking on behalf of the villagers at about 3.30pm, Mr Tiwakorn Thongkerd, president of the Midday Anchovies Fishing [using] Surrounding Net group of Koh Yao Yai said that the ban has seriously affected livelihoods of families depending on harvests from more than 30 vessels, and has had a negative snowball effect on the local economy, affecting hundreds of households.

The ban  which has been effective for about one month now and restricts fishing utilizing vessels weighing 10 or more gross tonnes to operate within three nautical miles of the island  is part of government measures aimed at curbing overfishing, as well as clamping down on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices.

Anchovies are a key part of the entire fishing system that is directly linked to other types of fishing, and many families here depend on it. Most of the anchovies are found within three kilometres of shore, said Mr Tiwakorn.

Sure, there are some anchovies beyond that, but not many, and it becomes too expensive for us to fish so far off shore, he added, noting that expense was also the reason why fishermen need to use larger vessels.

We used to require two vessels [per operation], one to catch the anchovies, the other to prep and boil them. Using one large vessel proved to be more economical, greatly reducing our base costs, he explained.

Villagers handed their complaint to Mr Buree Thammarak, Koh Yao District Chief, who appeared to sympathize with the villagers.

The district and province [of Phang Nga] are aware of this problem and have met about it recently. We agree that the ban needs to be revised for these fishermen. Mr Narong Pipatchai of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative will lead a committee to visit Koh Yao Yai on May 11 to hear the problem from the villagers directly and well take it from there, he said.
First week of South Dakota's traditional pheasant hunt is in the books
The recent political developments have caused a great deal of inconvenience to the Congress and its leaders in the ongoing Parliament session and has forced the party to change its course of action in dealing with a spirited BJP even as it is battling serious allegations of corruption.

The Congress was all set to take on the BJP in the winter session over the issues of President's rule in Uttarakhand, drought and farmers' suicide. While the BJP leaders were putting their best defence to take the Opposition head on, an Italian court judgement provided the government with fresh ammunition to target the Congress.

A Milan court convicted top officials of Finmeccanica, Agustawestland's parent company, for bribing decision makers in the Indian government to bag the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper deal. The verdict has revived the scam, which had hitherto faded away in the whirlpool of other political issues in the country.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy's jagged arguments against Congress in the Rajya Sabha was hurting the party besides forcing the Congress to re-think of its political strategy.

The new strategy was 'Save Democracy' protest, which has seemingly helped the Congress in boosting the morale of its members. The party's heavyweights led the protest rally on Friday to put the focus back on the Centre's intervention in politics of Congress-led states.

Sonia, party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among other top guns led the march from Jantar Mantar to Parliament House. When they were stopped by the security, the leaders courted arrest at the Parliament Street police station. They were detained for some time and later released.

At the time when everything seems to be going downhill for the Congress, its party chief Sonia Gandhi has taken the frontline. She took on the Modi government, accusing of its hand in ousting the Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh.

"Do not try to frighten or defame us... life has taught me to struggle, we have faced a lot of challenges. They don't know what we are made of," she said on Friday at Jantar Mantar during Save Democracy' rally.

"They should understand very well that when matters would become unbearable, people of India know how to teach them a lesson.... The way the Modi government is playing a fraud on the mandate, it seems its days are numbered," the Congress president said.

"But, I would like to tell them they should not commit the mistake of assuming that Congress is a weak force. Congress is never going to bow before injustice. We will play our role of an alert opposition with full vigour in coming days, (both) within Parliament and outside too and combat injustice," she said.

She alleged that the Modi government has murdered the democracy by using money and muscle power to dislodge elected governments.

The Friday protest march has provided an opportunity for the Congress to draw some attention away from the chopper scam and to force the BJP to engage it in the newly opened frontline.

Sonia leading the charge against the government has rendered her party fruitful in the past. She took up the issue of land acquisition bill last year and spearheaded the protests with the support of opposition leaders. The high-voltage political move, forced the government to drop the proposed bill, giving some political points to the Congress.

However, it remains to be seen whether, Sonia will be able to upset the BJP's applecart, again?
Citing safety concerns, parents of at least 38 girls have stopped sending them to a school in a neighbouring village, where a student was allegedly raped last month.

The panchayat of Suma Khera village, which said they were forced to send their children to the neighbouring village as the village had only a primary school, announced an indefinite dharna till it was upgraded, even as the Opposition attacked the BJP government over the issue.

Deputy Commissioner of Rewari Yash Garg said the girls' families stopped sending them to the government school in neighbouring Lala village, where a student was allegedly raped on April 18.

In the wake of the incident, parents got the names of their girls, studying in classes IX and XII, deleted from the school's rolls and the panchayat concerned started demanding that the primary school in Suma Khera be upgraded to senior secondary level, he said.

The panchayat on Friday decided to launch an indefinite dharna if the state government failed to upgrade the primary school in Suma Khera even as district authorities assured them safety in Lala village, Garg said.

"We have also arranged teachers in Suma Khera so that the girls' could continue with their studies," he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told reporters he was hopeful of people of both villages reaching a settlement and offered to upgrade the primary school in Suma Khera to Class VIII.

The villagers, however, have turned down the offer and stand firm on their demands, the DC said. "Now state Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma, along with two of his cabinet colleagues, will hold a meeting with villagers to discuss the issue," he said.

Also, families from Kotapuri village have also stopped sending their children to the government school in Lala village, Garg said.

Opposition INLD today attacked the Manohar Lal Khattar government over the issue, saying it "boasts of 'Beti-Bachao, Beti Padhao' campaign for the girl child, but the sad reality is that girls are not feeling safe and parents are forced to withdraw them from schools".

"The BJP government is not bothered about actual problems. While it speaks of Beti Bachao and teaching Gita in schools, the truth is that girls are not feeling safe and there are not enough teachers," INLD senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala said.
A 32-year-old woman was allegedly raped in a bus in Jharkhand's Koderma district, police said Saturday.

According to the police, the woman was travelling to Jharkhand's Koderma district from Bihar's Nawada district in a Sri Travels bus on Friday.

The driver took the bus to an Isolated place after all other passengers got down at Tilaiya of Koderma district and his assistant raped the woman, the victim told the police.

The woman's medical test will be conducted, police said, adding that an operation has been launched to arrest the accused.

One woman/girl is raped, on average, every eight to nine hours in Jharkhand.
Nepal on Friday recalled its Ambassador to India over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyaya had "confronted" with Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli regarding the cancellation of President Bidya Devi Bhandari's scheduled visit to India, Nepalese Foreign Ministry sources said.

The conversation between Oli and Upadhyaya reportedly took place after the cancellation of the President's trip.

The Nepalese Cabinet had decided to recall Upadhyaya after his brief conversation with the Prime Minister, they said.

Bhandari was scheduled to visit India from May 9 as the state guest at the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee. She was also scheduled to participate in a 'Shahi Snan' in Ujjain's Simhastha Kumbh on May 14.

Earlier in the day, government sources in New Delhi said, "We have learnt that Nepali President Bidyadevi Bhandari's official visit to India has been postponed by the Nepali side. We understand that this is on account of the political developments in Nepal."

Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, has been charged with indulging in anti-government activities.

He has also been accused of visiting Madhes districts of southern Nepal along with Indian envoy Ranjit Rae without informing the Foreign ministry, The Kathmandu Post reported.

The Nepalese diplomat has been also charged with involvement in toppling the Oli government, it added.

Prime Minister Oli yesterday survived a threat to his government after a U-turn by Prachanda-led Maoists who decided not to withdraw support to him "for the time being".
In a controversial ruling, various mosques and Islamic associations in Britain asked women to delete their Facebook account with one of the groups calling the social networking site a 'sin' and an 'evil'.

The mosques, affiliated to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), also urged women not to wear trousers or leave the house without their husband's permission.

The rulings, published by Blackburn Muslim Association, have sparked an outrage with several activists and moderate Muslims calling it 'disgraceful.' They called for the MCB to order its affiliated institutions to delete the online advice.

The Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham said the women were not allowed to wear trousers even in front of their husbands, while the Central Masjid of Blackburn called Facebook a 'sin' and an 'evil', according to a report in the Daily Mail.

As per the rulings, a woman should not travel more than 48 miles without a male chaperone. Croydon Mosque and Islamic Centre called abortion a 'great sin' and described acting and modelling as immoral acts.

Female scholar at the Islamic Sharia Council in London, Khola Hasan, said the patriarchal views were setting a bad example. These views are clearly outdated and reflect a patriarchal, narrow world view that is out of step with the rest of the Muslim world, she was quoted as saying by media reports.
An Egyptian court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and documents to Qatar.

Jordanian national Alaa Omar Sablan and Ibrahim Mohammed Helal, who both work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, and Asmaa Al Khateeb, a reporter for Rassd, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news network, were sentenced in absentia. They can appeal.

The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped former president Mohammed Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.

Following Saturday's ruling, a final decision is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy, who announced the verdict, also said that a ruling against Mursi and several others charged in the same case, would be postponed to the same date.

Prosecutors in Saturday's case argued that Mursi's aides were involved in leaking sensitive documents to Qatari intelligence that exposed the location of weapons held by the Egyptian armed forces.

Defence lawyers said that documents were moved out of the presidential palace to protect them during growing protests against Mursi's rule, but this process was not the responsibility of the president and the documents presented in the case show no signs of spying.

"The case's documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in it," a defence lawyer told Reuters.

Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.

Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.

Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt's then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi.

Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt's most organised political group.
Sri Lanka continues to use torture mechanisms even after the end of the civil war due to weaknesses in law, a top UN official said in Colombo on Saturday and described the condition of detention camps and prisons in the country as "deplorable".

"Torture continues in the system due to weaknesses in law," said Juan E Mendez, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.

Mendez was on an 8-day visit to Sri Lanka with the UN Rapporteur on Independence of Judiciary Monica Pinto.

Their findings are to be given to the Sri Lankan government and the government's response would be reported at the UN Human Rights Council's next sessions in March 2017, Mendez said. He said the cases of torture had reduced since the end of the conflict in 2009.

He said the UN was encouraged by the positive steps taken by the government to uphold human rights values.

Having visited the detention camps and prisons, Mendez described the conditions as "deplorable" .

"Sri Lanka is at a crucial moment in its history and we hope that our recommendations will continue to setting out a path for the future that will be fully aligned with the international human rights obligations of the country," he said.

The visit of the rapporteurs are in accordance with the UN Human Rights Council resolution of March 2014 when the council prescribed an international investigation on alleged war crimes blamed on both the government troops and the LTTE.

The current government adopts a conciliatory attitude towards the UN mechanism since the obdurate position followed by the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa administration.

Hundreds of ethnic Tamils have been lodged in jails without trial since 2009, when Sri Lanka's military crushed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in a three decade-long conflict for control of the island's northern Jaffna peninsula.

According to a UN report, up to 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the final months of the fighting.
But the tribe has a long way to go
Millions of holidaymakers this summer will rely on travel insurance from their bank if anything goes wrong. But they could be making a big mistake. The Mail on Sunday explains why this cover is often limited and poor value for money.

Holidaymakers are expected to make more than 30million trips abroad this summer  but many will gamble with their financial security by relying on insurance that could let them down in their hour of need.

Experts say those relying on travel insurance offered as part of a packaged bank account are most at risk. Costing between 5 and 25 a month, these accounts provide travel cover as well as mobile phone insurance and motor breakdown cover. But the cover is riddled with holes.

Disappointed: Laura Giuffrida (below) was due to go on a cruise to St Kilda, but it had to be cancelled

Eligibility

Packaged bank accounts have come in for much criticism in recent years because too few customers make use of the benefits they pay for  or are not eligible under the terms of the cover offered with the account.

Three years ago, banks were told by the City regulator to send warning letters to customers if they no longer qualified for insurance provided with their account.

But some leading insurance brokers believe these eligibility statements are not effective.

In a recent case reported to The Mail on Sunday, a customer who believed he was covered by travel insurance linked to his bank account only realised after returning from holiday that he was uninsured. This is because he was deemed too old, exceeding the policys age limit.

Consumer group FairerFinance rates financial companies on trust and customer satisfaction. Boss James Daley says: Age limits are a real problem with travel insurance offered as part of a bank account.

Insurers are under more pressure to make customers aware of such upper-age limits. But this wasnt happening five years ago, which is why were now seeing a spike in complaints.

'Our trip to the Outer Hebrides was cut short  but bank's 'free' insurance left us out in the cold' Insurance troubles: Laura Giuffrida Laura Giuffrida felt confident she would be covered by the free travel insurance included with her bank account when her trip to St Kilda in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland was cut short. Last year, Laura and her husband Jonathan travelled from their home in Twickenham, South-West London, to Oban  from where they were to take a cruise. But they were told the cruise was cancelled because of a mechanical fault. The couple received a full refund from the cruise operator but costs for unused flights, travel home and an overnight stay in a hotel added up to an extra 600. They tried to claim on their travel policy included with Nationwide Building Societys FlexAccount but were rejected. Although the insurance provides up to 5,000 for cancellation or curtailment, they were told it did not cover costs that are a result of an operator not fulfilling their journey. But Laura and Jonathans two travelling companions received payouts for similar costs from their respective insurers. Laura, who is recently retired, says: At no time during this upsetting period did it occur to us that our cover would not be appropriate. We have been loyal Nationwide customers for more than 30 years and felt confident we were in safe hands. But we were left disappointed. The Mail on Sunday asked Nationwide to look again at the case. A spokeswoman says had Laura and Jonathan claimed under the travel delay part of their policy they would have been successful. This pays out up to 250 per person, minus the policys excess fee. But she says the couple did not provide enough information first time around, adding: It is only when customers confirm in writing they cant claim from the travel company that we assess if they can claim. Laura has been told she can now claim.

Complaints

Dissatisfaction with packaged bank accounts is widespread. According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, these accounts are the second most complained about financial product  after payment protection insurance.

Ombudsman spokesman Martyn James says: The biggest risk for people with packaged bank account travel insurance is a change of circumstance that might affect their policy. People who purchase standalone cover are given the opportunity to renew every year  adjusting the cover for any changes in their health, for example.

Even if they are alerted that their cover will automatically renew, they are still able to search for a better policy.

But those with packaged account travel insurance, which rolls on from one year to the next, are unlikely to check whether the policy is still right for them.

James says: We receive complaints from people who did not realise they had to disclose to their insurer changes in their health  with the result they got landed with medical bills when falling ill abroad.

When you take out normal travel insurance, you are asked questions beforehand to help the insurer assess your eligibility for cover.

A high price

Not all travel insurance deals linked to current accounts are poor value for money.

But anyone embarking on an adventure holiday, coping with ongoing health issues  however minor  or in their 60s will need to upgrade their cover and pay extra.

Those not taking full advantage of everything offered as part of a packaged bank account are likely to be overpaying  with annual fees amounting to between 60 and 300. By way of contrast, the average annual travel insurance policy costs 32.

Leap in cost: Adventure holidays incur increased bills for upgraded cover

As part of an investigation into competition in banking, the Competition and Markets Authority said packaged accounts were the most profitable type of current account for banks as they generally require a monthly fee that exceeds the cost of the benefits provided.

It is due to report back later this month with solutions for improving competition.

James adds: Travel insurance policies offered through packaged bank accounts range from the excellent to poor value for money.

Some deluxe policies cover families worldwide, individuals up to a ripe old age with few exclusions, and allow lots of time abroad. Others may only cover a single person for travel in Europe, end when you reach 65, or even limit the amount of time you can spend travelling before cover is withdrawn.

How to buy

Few people spend enough time ensuring their travel insurance is fit for purpose.

Daley says: You do need to be careful when buying travel insurance. We recommend at least 5 million of medical cover in the event of a serious incident abroad and ending up in intensive care.

Also, watch out for excesses, which can be high. The excess is the fee you pay before a claim is paid.

An insurance broker will search for a deal that best suits your needs  according to any medical conditions you have, age and level of cover required. Use the find a broker service provided by the British Insurance Brokers Association.

This allows you to search for a professional according to insurance type and postcode. Visit biba.org.uk or call 0370 9501790.
For 18 years, Omar Negyal has made a good living from running emerging markets portfolios for a number of investment houses  Foreign & Colonial, Lansdowne Partners, HSBC and now JP Morgan. His investors, long-term at least, have benefited from his acumen.

He has experienced euphoria as emerging markets have soared  but he has also had to knuckle down as they have plunged.

Today, he is firmly in knuckle-down mode, yet he is clinging to his belief that the firms he invests in are solid and will eventually come through the emerging markets morass and prove successful investments.

Fears: ECB boss Mario Draghi says problems are structural. Right: Fund manager Omar Negyal

A morass that some, such as Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, believe will not clear in a hurry. Last week, he said that the problems affecting emerging market economies  waning productivity growth and tighter financing conditions  were more structural than passing.

Negyal is part of a three-man team that manages JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust, a fund that hunts down dividend friendly companies. They also run JP Morgan Emerging Markets Income, a fund with a near identical investment mandate.

The trust was launched nearly six years ago to take investment advantage of a rising number of companies in emerging markets that are prepared to pay dividends. Unfortunately, the corporate backdrop has made it difficult for the trust to deliver on its objectives.

Launch investors have enjoyed overall returns of 15 per cent  well below the FTSE All-Share Indexs 50 per cent over the same period.

Though a healthy five per cent yield has comforted investors who bought in for income, annual dividends have been flat for the trusts past three financial years. Yet Negyal believes the trusts income bent provides a degree of protection in a sector where it is in short supply. He says: Its a good way to invest in an asset class where there is a lot of risk.

Companies that pay dividends show a level of corporate governance that provides investor comfort.

JP Morgan Global Emerging Markets Income Trust hunts down dividend friendly companies

He also says meeting the bosses of firms he invests in is essential. He has met representatives from all of the trusts 70 holdings, scattered worldwide. Its key, he says. You need to make sure management has a commitment to paying dividends from the cash they are generating.

For example, he just spent a week in Brazil meeting companies the trust holds and those it is interested in buying into. Among the former was Ambev, the countrys dominant beer maker.

Its a good example of the type of company we invest in, he says. Ambev is a great brand that generates a lot of cash and the management is focused on paying out a lot of it in dividends. Its a good stable company that is pretty resilient, even in as difficult an economic climate as the one that prevails in Brazil.

Negyal maintains that emerging markets are cheap from a historical perspective, but accepts that Chinas economic slowdown is still proving a headwind. His view reflects comments made last week by Martin Gilbert, boss of investment house Aberdeen Asset Management, which focuses on emerging markets.

Were not past the worst of it but we can see light at the end of the tunnel, said Gilbert. I would hope next year we would see an improvement in emerging markets.
Buying or selling a home is invariably more expensive, time-consuming and stressful than anyone cares to imagine before they first embark on the process.

The legal procedure only adds to the strain, with conveyancing solicitors frequently demanding new information, calling up at inconvenient moments and presenting a hefty bill at the end.

ULS Technology strives to make matters smoother and cheaper. The company joined the junior AIM market in July 2014 at 40p and the shares shot up to almost 70p by last summer. They have since fallen to 55p. At this level they are undervalued and should go higher both this year and in the longer term.

Housing business: USL is a comparison website enabling banks and mortgage brokers to compare prices and services from conveyancers

ULS was founded in 2003 by financial adviser Nigel Hoath and software entrepreneur Andrew Weston, both of whom took the view that the conveyancing market needed shaking up. They created a comparison website, enabling banks and mortgage brokers to compare prices and services from conveyancers.

Over the years, more and more solicitors have signed up to the website, so there are now about 220 law firms, encompassing about 2,000 individual conveyancers. ULS has also attracted customers such as Lloyds Banking Group, the UKs biggest mortgage lender, as well as 4,000 mortgage brokers, including all the top players.

The product that ULS provides, eConveyancer, is simple but effective. When would-be homebuyers or sellers visit their bank or mortgage broker, they will be asked if they need a conveyancing solicitor. Some will have hired a lawyer already. Many will not.

The banks and brokers then log on to ULSs website and enter their customers details. A list of prices from conveyancers will pop up, much like on other comparison websites.

But there are a couple of differences between those sites and ULSs. Those other sites tend to act as providers of information, primarily focused on price. However, ULS monitors the progress of the conveyancing process and can help consumers if problems arise. It also provides service ratings so people can see not just how much conveyancers charge but also whether previous clients were satisfied with their services.

ULS makes its money by charging the conveyancer a fee whenever a new customer signs up. It works primarily with banks and brokers, though individual customers can talk to the company once they have chosen a conveyancer with their mortgage provider. But ULS does provide the eConveyancer product to comparison website MoneySupermarket, too, so homebuyers and sellers can use it directly.

The business has grown steadily over the years and is used by thousands of people. But many of them do not realise whose product they are using, as MoneySupermarket and other businesses have branded eConveyancer with their own name, so it looks like their service rather than ULSs. In each case, however, the savings on conveyancing are considerable, averaging more than 500 per customer and increasing to about 1,000 in more expensive parts of the country.

Looking ahead, the company is keen to expand by adding more business customers, increasing its exposure to consumers and broadening the services it offers.

Hoath and Weston are still on the board, but a new chief executive, Ben Thompson, was brought in when the company floated.

Under his watch, ULS launched estateagent4me, which enables consumers to compare estate agents in their area, using criteria such as which agents sell homes quickly, which sell nearest to the asking price and which have the biggest market share in any given neighbourhood.

In March, ULS bought a 35 per cent stake in online advisory forum HomeOwners Alliance, which now includes the eConveyancer service. Also in March, Thompson launched a will comparison site, so hundreds of mortgage brokers are now offering this service as well.

ULS will announce its results for the year to March 2016 in June, just after the Brexit vote. Brokers expect profits to climb 31 per cent to 3.8million and they are looking for a dividend of 2.1p per share, up from 1.34p last year. Profits for the year to March 2017 are expected to be at least 4million, with a dividend of about 2.2p per share.
Recent terror attacks in Brussels, Paris, Egypt and Turkey will have hit travel companies such as budget airline easyJet and tour operator TUI, which both report half-year results this week, say analysts.

But while some destinations will be hit hard by consumer fears, others such as Spain, Portugal and Greece have been adding capacity as holidaymakers return to more traditional haunts.

Broker Numis estimates that the terror attacks in Paris and Egypt will have cost easyJet 45million in the first quarter of the year due to a fall in revenues, and that the Brussels attacks in March will cost it a further 35million.

Losses: Broker Numis estimates that the terror attacks in Paris and Egypt will have cost easyJet 45million

Numis analyst Wyn Ellis said: Though Brussels accounts for only about 1 per cent of easyJets capacity, we believe the bombings are likely to have a knock-on impact on short-haul, city-to-city travel and on customer confidence.

Stockbroker Morgan Stanley predicted that easyJet would reveal an interim pre-tax loss 23.5million. It also revised down its full-year profits forecast for the Luton-based airline by 37million to 701million, including the effect of French air traffic control strikes as well as the Brussels attacks.

EasyJet is expected to outline its cost-saving plans for the medium-term in its half-year presentation on Tuesday.

Meanwhile TUI, Europes biggest tour operator, which owns the Thomson and First Choice brands, is expected to reveal at its half-year results on Wednesday increased traffic to Spain, including the Balearics and the Canary Islands, as well as to long-haul destinations including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Costa Rica.

TUI said earlier this year that bookings to Turkey, which accounted for 14 per cent of its passengers last summer, had fallen by 40 per cent because of security fears caused by the migrant crisis and the war in neighbouring Syria.

There have also been terrorist attacks in Ankara and Istanbul. However, analysts remain positive about the company, which has reacted quickly to events, for example, instantly adding more capacity in the Canaries after the attack on a Russian passenger jet in Egypts Sinai peninsula last October.

TUI chief executive Friedrich Joussen has said that the group remains well positioned to meet its target of delivering underlying full-year earnings growth of at least 10 per cent. In the UK, revenues for this summer were up 8 per cent.
Change: Notonthehighstreet's boss Simon Belsham

Simon Belsham, chief executive of online retailer Notonthehighstreet, has said the businesss first pop-up shop is an indication of where we are going, and argued that the future of retail is a mixture of online and offline.

The former online managing director of supermarket giant Tesco, who was also instrumental in the development of grocery retailer Ocados website, is holding an interactive shopping experience called Open Door this weekend at Old Spitalfields Market, East London.

He said: Its the first time weve done anything physical in this way. We did Colour Saturday last year, but there was no retail element to it. Its going to be a great showpiece for our partners.

Notonthehighstreet specialises in personalised gifts, and Colour Saturday was a day dedicated to the colour that small creative businesses bring to the UK in the run-up to Christmas.

But Belsham, who has been at the firm for almost a year, said Open Door, a three day pop-up shop celebrating the firms 10th anniversary, is absolutely not just a marketing gimmick, and will be the first of many physical retail and workshop events.

He added: Weve got about 300 different partner products on sale across eight different zones. Its a bit of an indication of where we are going in the future. My belief is that retail in the future is neither online or offline. Its going to be a combination of the two, and thats as true for our brand as it is for others. Its all about using the different channels to give customers a great experience.

Its about using that touch point to help customers, to guide them to what they ultimately want to buy and to give them an experience of your business and your brand.

Notonthehighstreet was founded in 2006 by Sophie Cornish and Holly Tucker and turned over 134,000 in its first year. The online marketplace now has more than 5,000 firms selling products from personalised gifts to wedding dresses on its site and more than 200 employees. Its turnover was 155million in 2015.

Back to the high street: Open Door is combination of demonstrations and workshops, with partners making products on site

Belsham, whose parents ran a toyshop during his childhood, said: This is a big year for the brand because the business is 10 years old. We thought we would go back to the traditional high street and have a more physical retail experience. Open Door is combination of demonstrations and workshops, with partners making products on site.

The plan is to bring the brand to life across all points of contact. It isnt either or. Were doing lots around the online experience and the apps, but also the physical experience.

A number of partners have grown from being almost nothing to turning over 1million. In fact this year weve got our first 2million and 3million partners.

We want to give customers the chance to meet us and experience the breadth of what we do. Weve got a strong core in gifting, but we do so much more. This business has enormous potential to grow.

A lot of retail has become undifferentiated in terms of what it sells

He added: Its a very relevant business for today. Retail has always changed but its unprecedented now. This business is well-positioned at the forefront of that change. It was founded with the idea that technology can enable small businesses to access customers around the world, and were still true to that. In doing that weve changed the way the retail supply chain works. The principles are the same, but theyre different in how theyre executed.

Also its part of a society change. We put partners at the heart of our business. Without partners we dont have product. Weve got over 100 businesses in rural Wales. When all the headlines were about the steel industry in Port Talbot, I was visiting partners in Caerphilly and Abergavenny who are bringing skills and employment back to tough parts of the country. Its a huge entrepreneurship story made possible by a combination of their skills and our technology and marketing. Youve got heritage industries and entrepreneurs bringing skills back.

Belsham said traditional retail has always been tough. He said: My argument has always been, youve got to have a reason why customers shop with you rather than someone else. We are really focusing on what makes us different and for us its the unique product. A lot of retail has become undifferentiated in terms of what it sells. In a world of price transparency, youve got to have real value in the product.

It is only through partnership we can make this work. The community we put around our partners is important. We run workshops for them all the time, we have an ambassador programme regionally and we have an internal social network where they can interact with each other. On things like payment, we know Christmas is tight for our partners so we reduce our terms to help them out rather than extend them.
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By Bill Lewis

We have heard, at least until the results of Tuesday's Indiana primary, about a possible contested Republican convention with Sen. Ted Cruz and some members of the Republican establishment seeking to prevent Donald Trump from getting their partys nomination for president.

It could be said the most contested convention occurred at the Democratic Party convention in Chicago during the summer of 1968.

There are certain similarities in the Democratic convention of 1968 and what might still happen at the Republican convention. Then Vice President Humphrey was challenged by the demonstrators and Eugene McCarthy had a position similar to Bernie Sanders.

Although Humphrey got the nomination for president, there were debates over the party platform and violence occurred outside the convention hall. Large groups of young people fought with Chicago police, as today young demonstrators have caused disruptions at presidential political rallies.

In 1968, aside from Humphrey running against Richard Nixon, there was a third-party candidate. That was Governor George Wallace of Alabama. The Democratic convention of 1968 was one of the most controversial in American history.

The anti-war Democratic group considered the Chicago police force as the enemy. A significant portion of the demonstrators engaged in physical confrontations with the police. Meanwhile, as indicated, the Republican convention seemed to go off peacefully as they nominated Richard Nixon.

We hope that a similar type of situation to what occurred in Chicago in 1968 does not occur this year. In 1968 the American people were tired of the Vietnam War, as Americans today are tired of the negative economic situation and the breakdown of law and order.

Today the two-year campaign cycle for president has shown to be the most unusual. We have had several people interested in running as a third-party candidate. It can only be hoped that both major party conventions will be peaceful and orderly. However, political history does repeat itself.

If the Republican convention, as is now expected, picks a presidential candidate on the first ballot, the process should be orderly. If the convention werer to go to a second or third ballot, the convention could become disorderly.

As I have mentioned, the 1924 Democratic Party convention went on for 103 ballots. This year as we have seen the political process develop there seems to be a high degree of anger among the potential voters.

For democracy to prosper it has to function in an atmosphere of orderliness. It would be good for all the delegates to keep that in mind as they go through the convention agenda.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

Trend:

Politicians like the pro-Armenian senator Mark Kirk are responsible for fanning the flames of injustice and human suffering in regions such as the South Caucasus, Denis Jaffe, a US military analyst, wrote in his article posted on The Hill.

There, on one side of the geostrategic spectrum there is a pro-Western US ally Azerbaijan, which has its legally recognized territories occupied by neighboring Armenia, which is on the opposite side of the geostrategic and ideological spectrum, wrote Jaffe.

Despite similarities that these nations have due to centuries of friendship and living side by side, there are also key ideological and cultural differences, said the article.

Azerbaijanis made a philosophical choice of a strategy of peaceful development and modernization with no territorial ambitions based on selective historical claims, whilst Armenia chose the path of territorial aggrandizement and claims (against nearly all of its neighbors), ethnic cleansing (99 percent of the population is now Armenian) and embracing terrorism as a way of achieving their goals (members of such terrorist organizations as ASALA are celebrated as national heroes to this day), the author wrote.

Armenia is an extremely poor country from which Armenians are running away in droves, said the article.

Military occupation is expensive for the country in terms of both financial and human cost, according to the author.

According to Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Armenia is spending 4.2 percent of its GDP on military, said the article.

No wonder that in the opinion of the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Armenia's shift away from a war footing would also help Armenia's economic development and improved standards of living, said the author.

But Armenian government is not hearing this advice, in major part because of prominent politicians like Sen. Mark Kirk, who was the co-chairman of the Congressional Armenian Caucus and received the top score of A+ from an Armenian lobby's annual ranking of members of Congress, Jaffe wrote.

Instead of heeding the advice of so many independent and authoritative analysts and instead of at least refraining from rhetoric that is directed against a US and Israel ally nation of Azerbaijan, Sen. Kirk like the other members of Congress he cites support the illegal Armenian military occupation of Azerbaijan's territory and disregard Azerbaijan's right of self-defense, and blatantly ignore four UN Security Council resolutions - for which the US voted - that call for unconditional withdrawal of all occupying forces of Armenia from Azerbaijan, said the article.

"Perhaps he has forgotten that Azerbaijan was among the first to support the US and NATO mission to Kosovo, and sent its peacekeepers battalion to serve there (it did the same for Afghanistan and Iraq as well)," Jaffe wrote.

The author believes that Sen. Kirk is not the most credible person to dispense any advice or threaten "consequences" to US allies that pursue their inherent right to self-defense.

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.
By Oscar A. Marcilla and Marc Lavietes

Queens has been severely impacted by our nations health care crisis. As of 2014, 332,000 people14 percent of Queens residentswere still uninsured. Within the last decade, five hospitals (Mary Immaculate, Parkway, Peninsula, St. Johns and Victoria Memorial) have closed. With these closings, 1,054 hospital beds have been lost, as well as over 1,000 jobs. Hospital crowding is severe.

The Affordable Care Act, passed six years ago, expands access to health insurance but fails to limit rising costs or provide universal coverage. While some have benefited from the ACA, insurance companies continue to raise premiums and maintain soaring profits. The average deductible on all plans$1,077 in 2015discourages many from seeking care. The relentless merger of insurance company conglomerates lessens the possibility that competition will limit future cost escalations.

Our state has proposed a viable solution to this crisis. In 2015, our State Assembly passed the New York Health Act (A.5062), a bill to provide health care for every resident via a single public fund, aka a single-payer health care system. This bill has received little attention from the press and now faces an uphill battle in the state Senate (S.3525). Many doctors, nurses, social workers, small business owners and patients, however, support this.

Given the current national political climate, passage of a universal health care system is unlikely. Republicans vote to repeal the ACA almost daily. Yet there is hope. The ACA provides that a state can institute its own universal health care system in 2017 as long as it meets three criteria: it must cover at least as many people as the ACA, it cannot increase cost to the government, and it must offer the minimum benefit package stipulated by the ACA.

While guaranteeing access to health care for all residents, S.3525 provides for a single-payer payment mechanism, similar to those used successfully in other industrialized countries. S.3525 establishes a fund designed solely to facilitate the flow of money needed for health care. We all pay into it according to our ability. 98 percent of New Yorkers will save money under this plan.

Hospitals and physicians will continue to operate privately. There are no networks limiting your choice of providers: patients would be free to select their own physicians and hospitals.

Opponents of the plan often say we cant afford it. In truth, we cannot afford not to have it. Other countries with economies comparable to ours have universal coverage, yet pay half as much per person as we pay for health care in the United States. Approximately 30% of our health care dollars are consumed by administrative costs because of our wasteful private health insurance system. We urge all Queens residents to familiarize themselves with this bill and to ask their state Senators and Assembly persons to support it.

Oscar A. Marcilla, MD

Associate Director, Emergency Medicine

Flushing Hospital Medical Center

Marc Lavietes, MD

Secretary, Physicians for a National Health Program, New York  Greater Metropolitan Area Chapter
An Egyptian court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets to Qatar, in a ruling condemned by the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel as shocking.

Jordanian national Alaa Omar Sablan and Ibrahim Mohammed Helal, who both work for Al Jazeera, and Asmaa Al Khateeb, a reporter for Rassd, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news network, were sentenced in absentia. They can appeal.

The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped former president Mohammed Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.

Al Jazeera said the ruling provoked "shock and anger" and called for international action to safeguard journalists\ rights to report news freely.

"The death sentence against journalists is unprecedented in the history of world media and amounts to a real stab against freedom of expression around the world," the satellite channel said in a statement posted on its website.

Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.

Following Saturday\s ruling, a final decision is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.

Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy, who announced the verdict, also said that a ruling against Mursi and several others charged in the same case, would be postponed to the same date.

Prosecutors in Saturday\s case argued that Mursi\s aides were involved in leaking sensitive documents to Qatari intelligence that exposed the location of weapons held by the Egyptian armed forces.

Defence lawyers said that documents were moved out of the presidential palace to protect them during growing protests against Mursi\s rule, but this process was not the responsibility of the president and the documents presented in the case show no signs of spying.

"The case\s documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in it," a defence lawyer told Reuters.

Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.

Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges.

Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt\s then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi.

Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt\s most organised political group.

SOURCE: REUTERS
TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS Jon Larvick, left, president of the Sheppard Military Affairs Committee, Tom Myrvold, mayor of Orland, Norway, Kevin Pearson, senior vice president for economic development and Tim Ingle, Wichita Falls mayor pro tem, visit during a meeting Friday at the Wichita Falls Country Club. A delegation from Norway wanted to learn more about the relationship between Wichita Falls at Sheppard Air Force Base. Orland Main Air Station will be the home of the F-35 fighter aircraft for the Royal Norwegian Air Force.

SHARE TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS Rikke Maske, communications advisor for Orland, Norway, talks with Wichita Falls City Manager Darron Leiker, during meeting Friday with a delegation from Orland. The group discussed the favorable relationship between Sheppard Air Force Base and Wichita Falls. Orland is home to an air station for the Royal Norwegian Air Force. TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS Orland, Norway Mayor Tom Myrvold, right, talks with Jon Larvick, president of the Sheppard Military Affairs Committee during a meeting Friday at the Wichita Falls Country Club. Representatives from Norway came to town to learn more about the relationship between Sheppard Air Force Base and the community of Wichita Falls. Orland is the location of an air station of the Royal Norwegian Air Force which is a member of the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program at SAFB.

By John Ingle of the Times Record News

A delegation from Orland, Norway, visited several location in the United States recently to learn more about how communities and military bases function together and coexist.

Tom Myrvold, mayor of Orland and a graduate of the 80th Flying Training Wing's Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, said Orland Air Force Base was selected by the Royal Norwegian Air Force to host the NATO nation's fleet of 52 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The mayor said the discovery trip to the U.S. to is learn how communities are able to leverage local military bases to promote growth.

The group was in Wichita Falls Friday to meet with representatives from the Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Sheppard Military Affairs Committee, the city of Wichita Falls and an ENJJPT country sponsor. They also visited Luke Air Force Base near Phoenix, Arizona, as well as the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth.

"I'm very impressed by the patriotism you have here in the U.S. That pretty much helps," Myrvold said. "But I also think there are, even though Phoenix and a city like Dallas have some common challenges as we have, you have to pay attention to the military. You can never take it for granted that you have a military base in your community, otherwise you can lose it."

Arne Solli, business development manager for Orland, said the general business climate in Norway has been down recently and, much like people in Texas, depends on a booming oil economy. But, the country is starting to feel the pinch of low oil prices.

But, he said, Orland is somewhat isolated because of the presence of the air force base.

"In Orland, in particular, because of this huge investment in the military, it's almost like a boom town, I would say. We're doing really well," he said. "There's a lot of business and a lot of development going on right now in connection with the building, the construction of the base. But, of course, that's short term. That's only going to last, what, five years maybe?"

Solli said the base was built in the early 1940s by the German military during World War II and was decommissioned shortly after the war ended. It was reopened in the 1950s to serve as a NATO base. The new construction and expansion of the base will double its footprint in the area.

The business developer said the economy of Orland is fairly diverse, but like Wichita Falls, the air force base is the largest employer with about 2,000 people working at the installation.

During an informal luncheon, the delegation shared the purpose of their visit, and leaders from different sectors shared what their role is in the relationship between Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls and other communities. The Norwegian delegation then visited their countrymen stationed at Sheppard.
TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS A group calling itself Clay County Against Wind Farms met Tuesday evening to share information about the many negative effects of wind turbines and to voice growing public opposition to additional wind farms in Clay County. The wind turbines pictured are in far southwest Clay County.

By Christopher Collins of the Times Record News

"The war is on" for local wind energy opponent John Greer, who this week gave talks at Midwestern State University about how the wind power industry will deplete rural land value while sucking up federal tax credits.

Really, the war started for Greer several years ago when he unsuccessfully tried to stem the development of the Shannon wind farm in Clay County. He said he circulated a petition signed by a large number of area landowners who wanted to stop the installation of wind turbines there, but soon after a county official told media that few opponents of the project existed.

"I thought, 'The war is on here,'" Greer said at a classroom inside MSU's Dillard College of Business Administration. "You do not know what's happening until it's in your backyard. And it's too late by the time that happens."

Greer is a managing partner and founder of Matador Capital Partners LLC, an energy-focused merchant banking firm in Dallas. He also is listed as the registered agent for Matador Oil and Gas LLC, according to Texas Secretary of State filings.

He admitted to attendees that he was speaking on the subject of wind energy with bias, "but it's a researched biased opinion."

Greer's efforts to dismantle the North Texas wind industry have been amped up in recent months  two new wind farms have been proposed near the Clay County communities of Bluegrove and Byers. The projects are expected to span more than 11,000 acres and cost $450 million.

He started his talk by addressing what he called myths perpetuated by the industry: that wind energy is a clean source of power, that it reduces dependence on imported fossil fuels and that it reduces greenhouse gases. Instead, Greer said, the wind industry swindles landowners, gathers federal tax credits and causes fluctuations in Texas' power grid.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas  commonly called ERCOT  is charged with providing a steady stream of electricity to homes in the state. Most of that power comes from coal and natural gas, but when the wind blows, ERCOT is more apt to purchase wind energy because it's cheaper.

The problem, Greer said, is that the wind doesn't always blow, and ERCOT's other electricity providers have to switch their distribution system to the state power grid on or off depending on wind availability. This also causes fluctuations in available power and could result in large-scale brownouts, he said.

"It's an unreliable energy source," Greer said. "The more power generated by wind, the more unreliable ERCOT will become."

In 2015, the state's leading power source was natural gas (48 percent), followed by coal (28 percent), wind (12 percent) and nuclear power (11 percent), an ERCOT report indicates.

The linchpin of Greer's argument is that it's just not fiscally smart to sign a lease allowing wind turbine construction on your property. Payments to landowners in those agreements are negligible and the towering structure could make your property unsalable should residents decide to move.

More money could be made by simply letting your property's value appreciate, he said.

"What's your land worth then? I guarantee you it's not worth nearly as much," Greer said. "Your land is dead at that point."

Tactics used by wind energy developers to convince landowners to sign leases can be coercive, deceptive and predatory, Greer asserted. A developer who has acquired a small swath of land leases can use them as leverage to acquire leases for nearby properties, and eminent domain can be used to string power lines across the properties of those who won't play ball, he said.

"Once they get their nose under the tent with 6,000 to 8,000 acres, they're off and running," Greer said. "They will run over you to get one of these things up."

Jimmy Horn, owner of Horn Wind PM LLC and developer of the Bluegrove and Byers projects, took issue with those remarks, defending the landowners who have signed leases with his company as intelligent, savvy businesspeople.

"Horn Wind has negotiated with some of the best lawyers in the wind and oil business on these leases and I would think some of these landowners may take offense to an outsider saying they are not capable of managing their own businesses and get tricked in negotiations," Horn wrote in an email.

About 20 landowners have entered into agreements with thus far regarding the proposed projects. No construction has started and Horn Wind reportedly is still running feasibility studies in connection with developments.
SHARE Contributed photoS Lulu Canan and Christie Watson from Sacred Heart Catholic Church have fun with the children at Nuestra Senora del Carmen School in Guatemala. The Mayan children from about 40 villages walk through a treacherous mountain region every day to go to school. Some travel two hours by foot to school and then two hours home to work in the fields with their families. An event May 13 at Stone Palace will raise money to purchase a bus to take the children to and from school. Contributed photo Children play "wedding" in the village near Nuestra Senora del Carmen School in Guatemala, but decided to give the flowers to the American visitors instead. Contributed photo Liliana Samuelson, in the foreground, and Lulu Canan show a group of children the "art" of the selfie. On behalf of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Samuelson visited Guatemala and has raised money for the people there for many years. She and her husband, Brad, are hosting a dinner May 13 to raise $45,000 to purchase a bus for children who attend school in a remote village. Contributed photo Two young girls play with Liliana Samuelson's hair. They decide to braid it, each doing half. About 270 students attend the Nuestra Senora del Carmen School in Guatemala. Contributions from five parishes in the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth, including Sacred Heart, have chosen to support the work of the Carmelite nuns to educate Mayan children in this area.

By Sarah Johnson

Mayan Indian schoolchildren from about 40 different villages trek across a treacherous region in the central mountains of Guatemala just to attend school. Some walk two hours to school and two hours home to work in the fields with their families.

A world away in Wichita Falls, a group of people want to help those children get to school more safely and quickly. Liliana Samuelson, a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, is raising money to buy a bus that will transport the kids so they can spend more time at school. The "Through the Eyes of a Child" fundraiser will be at 7 p.m. May 13 at Stone Palace, 1211 Indiana St.

Samuelson has hosted several fundraisers in her home to support the children of Guatemala, but this is first time she has opened it up to the public.

"This is probably the sixth time I have done this event for this cause," Samuelson said. "I have usually done this in my home and cooked for my guests. This is the first time that I have done it outside of my house, as our goal is higher and I could only sit 200 people previously. The beauty of it is that even as hard as it is to put together, I find joy in receiving the help from my husband and friends. They are always there to support my crazy projects. The first time we had this event we raised about $5,000. Every year we have been blessed to receive more and more."

The goal is to raise $45,000 to purchase a bus and continue the work being done in that area by Catholic nuns.

"For many years, there has been an order of Carmelite nuns in this area of Guatemala whose mission has been to educate this sect of Mayan Indian children in reading, writing, arithmetic, as well as religion," Samuelson said. "As these children speak a specific Mayan dialect, they also have to teach them Spanish. Parishioners of five parishes within the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth have chosen to support the work of this Carmelite order in their calling to educate children. Through the past years these parishioners have built many churches in the area, as well as a school, Nuestra Senora del Carmen, in Patzun, for kindergartners through eighth-graders."

Samuelson said the area of Guatemala they are focusing on has seen organized, government-supported genocide of the Mayan people and endemic poverty.

"At this time, there are approximately 270 students," Samuelson said. "Through contributions from these parishioners, there is also a carpentry school for the boys and more recently a sewing school for the girls. Some of the students who have graduated have gone on to higher education, returning back to the school to be teachers and administrators."

Samuelson believes education is everything for any community  whether it's in America or in the hills of Guatemala.

"Why are there poor in the world?" Samuelson asked herself. "Why not ask 'Why are there wealthy in the world?' The answer is that we have been given wealth, health, race, gender and power by God. Not because we deserve it, but because God wanted us to learn to give what we have to those who don't. Charity and social justice are the two feet that allow us to walk toward holiness. We must give both to those in need, in equal measure. Education is the key to the future of any community and it serves as the bridge to hope and success."

Samuelson believes Mother Teresa's words sum up the mission: "It is not how much we give, but how much love we put into the giving."

"I believe that, as Christians, we are all called to help those in need," she said. "One interesting way of looking at poverty in the world is to ask the question, 'Why do I have what I have?' One might answer that I have because I have worked hard, educating myself and overcoming many obstacles to get where I am today. However, just going a little deeper, why was I born to this family? Why was I not born in the hills of Guatemala? Why was I given the opportunities that I have been given? Why have I been given the health, or the race, or the gender that provides me with the benefits that I have?"

The event on May 13 will feature a sit-down dinner, live Colombian music, dancing, live and silent auctions and a raffle. Through the Eyes of a Child has been totally underwritten, so all proceeds from that evening will go to the purchase of a bus. Reservations for the event must be made by Monday.

For reservations or more information about the fundraising efforts in Guatemala, call Samuelson at 687-7102 or email her at liliver2012@yahoo.com.

Life without limbs

Nick Vujicic meets as many people as he can, spreading information on combating bullying, suicide prevention and ultimately, hope and inspiration. The message comes from a man with a unique physical form  Vujicic was born without arms and legs.

The president and CEO of the "Life Without Limbs" ministry, Vujicic will speak at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. May 17 at First Baptist Church, 1200 Ninth St.

"Quite a bit has taken place in Vujicic's life since his last visit to the Falls, which is why First Baptist is billing his return to the city with the tag line 'Come hear the rest of his story,' " Rod Payne, pastor of missions and media at First Baptist, said.

Vujicic has spoken to more than 6 million people in 57 countries through his ministry.

"Despite having physical challenges, I can honestly say that I am a happy guy," Vujicic said. "This is because I know without a doubt that God is with me and loves me. This truth is the foundation of my joy. God gave me my purpose, taught me to hope in him and showed me my destiny. I'm thankful and content for what I do have in my life, instead of being discontent for what I don't have."

For more information, call First Baptist Church at 723-2764.
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President Barack Obama's visit to Vietnam this month is an opportunity to remind that authoritarian nation's leaders of their obligations to respect basic human rights.

Vietnamese-Americans will be following the trip. Many of them fled communist rule themselves and remain concerned about the welfare of their loved ones in the homeland.

A recent crackdown on peaceful critics of Vietnam's one-party government casts doubt on the country's ability to adhere to the promises it made as one of 12 signatories to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

To be included in that international trade agreement last year, Vietnam agreed for the first time to allow the formation of labor unions and to follow higher environmental-conservation standards. Such promises supposedly marked the beginning of a new era of transparency and civil discourse.

For part of 2015, Vietnam reported a decline in arrests and prosecutions of political dissidents.

But the numbers have suddenly crept up. As of last December, the U.S. State Department estimated that the government was still holding 95 political prisoners. On its Vietnam webpage, Human Rights Watch warns the country's record "remains dire in all areas." Those who dare to question state media or discuss civil rights in the open are subject to intimidation and assault.

In the last week of March alone, Vietnam courts convicted seven bloggers and activists.

Blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his editorial assistant, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, were sentenced to five and three years in prison, respectively, for "abusing democratic freedoms" by simply posting critical views of the government on their popular website.

Last December, lawyer Nguyen Van Dai was removed from his Hanoi home after teaching human-rights workshops. His family has not been allowed to visit him or get him an attorney.

Other activists have been beaten up by police and subject to arbitrary detention. More than a dozen others have died while in custody.

Before Vietnam and the U.S. get too chummy over trade deals and a mutual desire to contain China's rise, they must first confront Vietnam's systemic oppression against its own people. At every stop, President Obama should not let his hosts forget that the international community is watching and waiting for real reforms.

The Seattle Times
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

Trend: Umid Niayesh

It has been over two decades since the occupation of almost 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the occupied territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

Amid the ongoing long-term peace talks between the two countries, recently certain Armenian military officials and politicians have voiced controversial remarks against Baku: using nuclear weapons.

Last month, Armenia's former prime minister, MP Hrant Bagratyan said during a press conference that Armenia has a nuclear weapon. Asked by journalists to clarify his remarks, Bagratyan said Armenia has an opportunity to create a nuclear weapon.

Behrooz Bayat, a former consultant at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Trend that "notwithstanding the capability of Armenia for making a dirty bomb, I don't think that Armenia would have any incentive or motivation to deploy a dirty bomb in Azerbaijan because of the geographical entanglement between both countries: radio isotopes do not recognize borders."

While responding to a question, about possible transfer of nuclear wastes from Iran to Armenia, Bayat said that it will be impossible.

"Firstly, Iran doesn't have a high production capacity for radio isotopes and secondly, the entire nuclear activities of Iran are under a very tight supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency," Bayat said.

The expert said that reprocessing the nuclear waste of nuclear power plants and gain a variety of radio isotopes also for the purpose of making "dirty bombs," is technically possible.

Armenia has an outdated Chernobyl-type nuclear reactor operating long past its original planned lifetime.

According to an article by Washington Times, the reactor is not only a safety threat, but also potentially a source of radioactive material for a "dirty" bomb.

Amid the recent statements by Armenian officials, recently there has been an increase in cases of citizens of Armenia trying to get nuclear materials.

Last month, the Georgian State Security Service reportedly arrested three Armenian nationals and three citizens of Georgia for attempt of illegal sale of nuclear-grade materials which is an alarming case for the region.

Among all of these challenging statements by Armenian officials, Yerevan still pretends commitment to the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)!
In American politics, raising taxes is seen as a sure way to provoke a voter revolt. In Germany, taxing Muslims is seen as a strategy to keep them from becoming radicalized.

The standard-bearer for a "mosque tax" is Alexander Radwan, a member of the Christian Social Union, the right-wing party in Bavaria that has called for cutting the influx of Muslim immigrants from the Middle East into the southern German state. Radwan, 51, who is a first-term Catholic member of the German parliament, is the son of Egyptian-born Christian father and Bavarian mother.
The Beatles had a song about the taxman.

"Be thankful I don't take it all," the lyrics go. "Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman."

Flash forward 50 years to all those IRS impersonation calls. We better add another verse: "Oh, yeah, I'm the scam man."

The federal government warned consumers in late April that scammers are singing a new tune when they're pretending to be from the IRS or U.S. Treasury. Now, some are demanding that you pay your back taxes via an iTunes gift card.

Yes, an iTunes card.

I've been warning about the crooks who pretend to be from the IRS for a few years now. The scam can take various forms. At one point, the IRS warned that the crooks might try mailing or faxing falsified forms to seem more legitimate.

Sometimes, the fraudsters sound like the real deal because they rattle off your Social Security number, or at least the last four digits, so it might appear like they know what they're talking about here.

And many are very aggressive and downright nasty when they threaten jail time and demand money on the spot.

But now, they want money on an iTunes card. In some cases, fraudsters can use an iTunes card to buy a product or they can resell those cards online, according to Adam Levin, founder of Identity Theft 911.

Levin said scammers also have asked victims of the so-called grandparents scam to load money onto multiple iTunes gift cards.

"Vulnerable senior citizens who believe their grandchild is in danger and that they must pay to get them out of jail or harm's way are then directed by the fraudster over the phone to read them the serial numbers off the back of the card," Levin said.

The fraudster then uses that information to sell the gift cards online and receive cash.

Levin offered another iTunes related warning: Consumers would be wise to avoid the scam man who is peddling a promotion for an iTunes card via social media or a spoofed email. If you click on that link, you'd download a malware infected link and the fraudster can get access to bank account information.

Tax officials in Canada have issued similar warnings. Calgary police reported that a woman was defrauded after putting $20,000 on iTunes cards in order to avoid a threat of jail time for unpaid taxes. She reportedly received a call April 20 from the Canada Revenue Agency.

The caller told the victim he was at the courthouse attempting to have the arrest warrant removed, according to the Calgary police.

"He then noted that the warrant had been reissued and once again told the victim that more money was required to have the arrest warrant removed," the police said in a statement.

The con artist was convincing enough to scare the woman into going to her bank to withdraw more money. But then she also contacted a family member to ask for money, too.

"The family member contacted police, who were able to locate the victim and stop the fraud," the police said.

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In the past, we've heard of scammers demanding tax dollars owed on Green Dot Prepaid Cards, MoneyPak Prepaid Cards, Reloadit Prepaid Debit Cards, and the like. It's a scammers currency of choice because they get access to the money on the prepaid cards without being traced.

I've been to some drug stores recently that actually have consumer alerts on the shelves about MoneyPak scams.

"Green Dot MoneyPaks can be targets for phone scammers," read one such alert at a Rite Aid store.

The notice warned consumers that it's a scam if you receive a phone call from any agency, such as the IRS or a utility, saying you owe money and demanding payment for that bill with a MoneyPak.

"Never give out a MoneyPak or any personal information or financial information over the phone," the notice posted on the store shelf said.

And now we can add iTunes and taxes to that list of warnings.

"Any call requesting that taxpayers place funds on an iTunes Gift Card or other prepaid cards to pay taxes and fees is an indicator of fraudulent activity," according to a bulletin from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

Regulators say consumers should be wary of a variety of so-called "money transfer" scams, where you put money onto a prepaid card or wire money.

The Federal Trade Commission said when it comes to tax schemes, the callers frighten you into thinking the only way to get out of trouble is to pay quickly. But that's not true.
Train service to Burlington from the Capital Region could begin within three years, thanks to a federal grant announced Friday.

Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express service, which now terminates in Rutland, Vt., will be extended north to Burlington, thanks to a $10 million Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant. The funds were announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx and Federal Railroad Administrator Sarah E. Feinberg during a press conference at Burlington's Union Station. They were joined by three of Vermont's top elected officials, Gov. Peter Shumlin, U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch at the event.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 8

Trend:

Twenty four years have passed since the occupation of Azerbaijan's Shusha city by Armenia.

Shusha, one of the unique cultural centers of Azerbaijan, is a city, characterized for its natural beauty, and is a valuable monument of national architecture and medieval urban art. Constantly keeping the Azerbaijani national-spiritual values and traditions of music, Shusha before forming as a city of great economic, political and cultural significance, has passed a rich way as a center of Karabakh khanate, played its role in the lives of the people of Azerbaijan. This city, which went down in history thanks to Gasim bey Zakir, Khurshidbanu Natavan, Mir Mohsun Navvab, Najaf bey Vezirov, Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev, Yusif Vazir Chemenzeminli, Firidun bey Kocharli, Ahmad bey Agaoglu and other eminent personalities, is known worldwide as the cradle of the Azerbaijani mugham.

In 1977 at the initiative of Heydar Aliyev a decree "On the declaration of the historic part of the city of Shusha as historical and architectural reserve" was passed. Since that time, creative work in Shusha became widespread, house-museums of the great figures of our culture and arts Uzeyir bey Hajibeyli, Khurshidbanu Natavan and Bul-Bul were created, a mausoleum of an outstanding poet Molla Panah Vagif was built.

As a result of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Republic of Azerbaijan, which adopted on October 18, 1991 relevant documents for the restoration of its national independence, came face to face with the aggressive policy of ethnic cleansing by Armenia. Given that the country which was undergoing profound political, economic and social crisis and finding ways out of from tense situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, has not yet formed its own national army, it relied only on voluntary assistance of self-defense units during defense of Shusha which has high military and strategic importance. However, despite the fact that they fought valiantly, and had a decent resistance, on May 8, 1992 the Armenian armed forces armed to the teeth occupied Shusha.

In the battle for the defense of Shusha, 195 our compatriots were killed, 165 people were injured, 58 people captured and taken hostage. During the occupation the Armenian vandals looted the museums, in which there were thousands of pieces, destroyed hundreds of historical and cultural monuments, defaced shrines and mosques, destroyed a large number of specimens of rare manuscripts, ruined the education and health care institutions.
THE ISSUE:

Donald Trump is now unchallenged in the Republican presidential primary.

THE STAKES:

If he wins, America loses.

More Information To comment: tuletters@timesunion.com or at http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion See More Collapse

With a campaign built on bigotry, misogyny, nationalism, militarism and character assassination for anyone who doesn't agree with him, Donald J. Trump has become the presumptive presidential nominee of the Republican Party.

And many party leaders, desperate to remain relevant even as their base snubs them, unwring their hands to extend Mr. Trump their welcome.

With enough primary voters rejecting moderation, in the form of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and conservatism, as preached by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mr. Trump has nothing blocking his path to capturing the Republican nomination and, it seems, the blessing, sincere or reluctant, of much of the Grand Old Party's establishment.

There are some notable exceptions. Both former Presidents Bush have rejected him, as has the last GOP nominee, Mitt Romney. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest ranking national Republican at the moment, says he isn't "ready" to endorse Mr. Trump. What that will ultimately mean, and what the GOP will ultimately become, who knows.

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What is stunning about Mr. Trump's rise is not just that he has made it this far in spite of his loathsome attacks on Mexicans and Muslims, his degrading of women, his childish name calling of opponents, his adolescent boasting about the size of his penis, and all the other bluster and blunders that have garnered him so much media attention  and would normally have long since sunk a candidate with national ambitions. Even his regular flip-flops don't faze his fans.

What's equally stunning, and far more consequential for America, is that over 10 million voters have either accepted or ignored his vacuous platform, which has all the depth of a barroom philosophy cobbled together between innings and shots of tequila. It's built on the notion that Donald Trump, by force of threats, brilliance, negotiating skills, and sheer will, will cow U.S. companies into bringing millions of jobs back to America, force other nations to accept U.S. dominance while paying for our military protection, put an end to Islamist terrorism, and pay off the national debt in eight years  with a fiscal plan that the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says would actually increase the national debt by upward of $15 trillion over a decade. And don't forget the wall, or the chilling prospect of 10 million illegal immigrants, adults and children alike, being rounded up.

With even many of the right-wing radio hosts from whom Mr. Trump cribbed this script rejecting him, it's tempting to believe he can't possibly sell his snake oil to the general electorate. But it's impossible, and unwise, to deny that with his vows to "Make America great again" and "win bigly again," Mr. Trump has tapped a rich vein of fear, anger and disillusionment. Democrats, as well as Republicans who want their party back, must understand the underlying grievances  among them, no doubt, a government and an economy that no longer seem to work for the vast middle  and answer them believably.

Otherwise, come November, America could lose, as Mr. Trump would say, bigly.
What defines us, beyond such accidents of birth as race and gender? Religious faith, perhaps, and economic status; and for some people, over time, political allegiance. People become fiercely attached to their political identity.

But that is proving to be challenging for some Americans this year, because our political system is in upheaval, especially in the Republican Party. With Donald Trump crossing the threshold to become the GOP's presumptive nominee this week, a lot of people who have long identified as Republicans are anguished. Some are turning away.

Social media lit up Wednesday with video of Republicans around the country burning their voter registration cards. Our most recent Republican presidents, both named George Bush, quickly ruled out endorsing the man who has effectively taken over their lifelong political party. The highest-ranking GOP officeholder, House Speaker Paul Ryan, said he's "not ready" to endorse Trump, and lots of Republicans in Congress are notably silent at a time when officeholders are usually scrambling to curry favor with their party's standard-bearer.

So if the Republican Party belongs to Trump, but a lot of Republicans can't stomach being identified with Trump, are they still Republican? Or will they embrace a new political identity?

More Information Rex Smith is editor of the Times Union. Share your thoughts at http://blog.timesunion.com/editors. See More Collapse

There's precedent for this in America, ironically in the creation of the Republican Party. For horrified Republicans, maybe there's some comfort in this: Just as the new Republican Party brought political vitality to 19th-century America, ushering in a decades-long era of that party's dominance, so could a new political identity reshape U.S. politics in the 21st century.

It was 160 years ago that the new Republican Party nominated its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont of California. He lost to Democrat James Buchanan, who turned out to be a terrible one-term president, setting the stage, thankfully, for Abraham Lincoln. More interesting than the Buchanan-Fremont race, however, was the presence on the ballot of Millard Fillmore, who had been the last Whig president. In 1856, he was the candidate of the Know-Nothing Party.

The Know-Nothings were a remnant of the split between the "Cotton Whigs," ultra-conservatives who supported states' rights and slavery, and the "Conscience Whigs," whose ranks included an ex-congressman named Lincoln.

Notably, the Know-Nothings drew support from people fearful of an influx of foreigners, and its candidates promised to preserve the power of so-called native Americans  which back then meant white people whose families weren't newcomers.

They weren't worried about the Muslims and Hispanics that Donald Trump wants to block from our country. Eight score years ago, our forefathers hated Irish and German immigrants, especially those who were openly Catholic. The party demanded "the sending back of all foreign paupers" and a repeal of naturalization laws.

Raise your hand if any of this sounds vaguely familiar.

The Know-Nothings swept the state of Massachusetts in the 1854 elections. Know-Nothing mayors were elected in Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco, where the anti-immigrant sentiment was aimed at Chinese people, too.

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But the harsh negativity of that platform didn't appeal for long to the patriots who saw America's mission to be, in the words of New York newspaper magnate Horace Greeley, a "champion and promulgator of liberty." The first rumblings of the Civil War surely speeded the new party's growth, but the Republicans won the heart of the Union by firmly opposing slavery (and, of course, by being in power when the Civil War was won).

Of course, unlike the Union in 1860, America in 2016 isn't facing an immediate existential crisis. So perhaps we're not ripe for the sort of turmoil that tore apart the Whigs, yielding both the Know-Nothings (briefly) and the Republicans.

But the GOP can't just apply Band-Aids to this year's lacerations. The angry white working class men who disproportionately back Trump in primaries don't have much in common with the donor class that tried to stop him. If Trump's platform sounds like a latter-day evocation of Know-Nothingism, it wouldn't be surprising if more thoughtful Republicans, who can't imagine voting for Hillary Clinton, find a way to push forward a third candidate, which Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska and others are urging.

Democrats licking their chops at the Republican chaos should be careful what they wish for.

What comes after the Republican wreckage may be as potent as what followed the splintering of the Whigs. It may depend on whether today's Republicans are wedded to their party or to the ideals it once represented.
Motherly wisdom from new, and not so new, moms
[May 07, 2016]

Integrity Digital Solutions Announces the Release of Veracity Surgical Management Solution

TEMPLE, Texas, May 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Integrity Digital Solutions, LLC, today announced that it has released the Veracity surgical management system for its customers and prospects. Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160505/364285LOGO "Veracity is a stand-alone surgical planning system that connects relevant data from the Integrity EMR for Eyes, along with biometric data from diagnostic testing equipment to provide the highest level of surgeon confidence and the best possible outcome for patients," said Kyle Smith, MD, founder of Integrity EMR for Eyes.

Veracity was designed from the ground up with the help and input from world-renowned surgeons Kerry D. Solomon, MD and Warren E. Hill, MD. Through their unique vision and insight, Integrity will be offering game-changing technology to help surgeons better prepare for optimal outcomes in their ophthalmic surgical procedures.

"The bet technical surgeon in the world will never achieve ideal results without accurate data and meticulous, thoughtful planning. Veracity makes that process easy," said Warren Hill, MD, Medical Director for East Valley Ophthalmology.







Integrity will be demonstrating the new Veracity surgical management solution at the 2016 ASCRS-ASOA Symposium and Congress in New Orleans, LA, May 6-10 in booth #2529.

About Integrity Digital Solutions

Integrity Digital Solutions, LLC is a leading innovator in EMR software for ophthalmology and optometry. Developed from the ground up by ophthalmologists and optometrists, Integrity EMR for Eyes is designed to expedite EMR implementation while providing a product that enhances patient care. Integrity EMR for Eyes is delivered as an efficient cloud-based platform and is backed by the company's concierge-level customer support. Integrity's team includes ophthalmologists, optometrists, certified ophthalmic technicians as well as software engineers who specialize in interface design, workflow optimization, and healthcare data security. For more information or to schedule a demo of Integrity EMR for Eyes, visit www.IntegrityEMR.com

Media Contact: Integrity Digital Solutions

Name: Brent Michael

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 877-353-0373

This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit: http://www.newswire.com.

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/integrity-digital-solutions-announces-the-release-of-veracity-surgical-management-solution-300264253.html

SOURCE Integrity Digital Solutions
Lawrence County Council adopts increased budget for 2023

The final total for next years budget was adopted at $28,405,574, an increase of 3.5% from the approved budget for 2022.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

Azerbaijan's successful experience in the sphere of agriculture should be used in other countries in order to reach the Sustainable Development Goals in the region, Jose Graziano da Silva, director general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) said.

He made the remarks during a meeting with Azerbaijan's Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ilham Guliyev, said the country's Ministry of Agriculture.

The meeting was held during Guliyev's visit to Antalya to take part in the 30th session of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe.

Jose Graziano da Silva believes that the opening of FAO's coordination office in Azerbaijan and the creation of the partnership program is the beginning of a new stage of cooperation between FAO and Azerbaijan.

He praised the role of Azerbaijani government, in particular, the Ministry of Agriculture in this sphere.

Guliyev, for his part, talked about the success achieved in ensuring the food safety and in agricultural sphere in general, the increasing state support to farmers, the positive results of the reforms carried out in the country.
Nvidia's Ansel is designed to give you all the tools you need to create artistic in-game screenshots of your favorite scenes. Take control of the camera, change the lighting, add a vignette, or snap a 360-degree image.

Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang revealed a surprising new addition to the companys portfolio of graphics technologies. The company founder talked about a new form of artwork that has emerged from the gaming community. Several digital artists have made a name for themselves by capturing breathtaking images of video game scenes. Huang said that some of those artists are able to capture such imagery only with access to custom builds of games, granting them access to change camera positions and other options. Huang said that he wanted these features to be accessible to anyone, so Nvidia created Ansel.

It's an in-game 3D camera system that lets you capture anything your heart desires, with all the control of a digital camera. Ansel includes features such as Free Camera, which gives you free reign over the cameras position and motion, allowing you to break free from the standard in-game viewpoint. Ansel also offers the ability to apply filters to your images that let you change the look and feel of your screenshot. You can apply vignettes, change the brightness or the color levels, and even adjust the camera angle. You can also export EXR data so you can later edit the images in Photoshop to apply even more effects.

Ansel includes Super Rez technology, which can render images at 32x your monitor's native resolution. Huang said that Ansel will let you render an image with 1000x higher resolution than an iPhone 6 can capture. The maximum resolution capture of a game running on 4K screen works out to be 61,440 x 34,560 pixels. The incredibly high resolution will enable you to crop the image as you desire, without limiting the final output resolution.

Most impressive is the ability to choose between native resolution, high resolution, 360-degree, stereo image, and even 360-degree stereo image capture. When you grab an image in this way, you can use a VR HMD, such as an HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift, to view it. If you dont have an expensive PC-connected VR HMD, Nvidia also offers the ability to view the images from your phone with a Cardboard VR viewer and an app you can download. If you dont have a Cardboard viewer, you can view the images in 360-degree pano instead.

Ansel isnt available with every game--developers do have to add support for it to their titles--but Nvidia said that developer response has been positive. There are already seven titles announced that support Ansels 3D camera system: The Division, The Witness, Lawbreakers, The Witcher III: Wildhunt, Paragon, No Mans Sky and Unreal Tournament. Nvidia said that more titles will be announced in the near future.

Nvidia did not reveal when Ansel will be released, but you can download the Nvidia VR Viewer app today and check out some sample 360-degree screenshots.

Follow Kevin Carbotte @pumcypuhoy. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.
While you can buy one of the best gaming PCs, putting together your own desktop is more rewarding. When you build a gaming PC yourself, you get total control of everything from the exact make and model of motherboard to aesthetics of the chassis and how many RGB fans you want.

By putting together your own PC from components, you will also probably save hundreds dollars over the cost of buying a prebuilt system. For example, right now, getting a desktop with similar specs to our $1,000 PC build will cost you more than $1,300 at Best Buy (opens in new tab).

To help you assemble the best PC build for gaming or productivity on your budget, we've created a set of recommended parts lists below for different builds. We've identified budget builds that cost less than $500 and less than $1,000, along with mid-range, high-end and super high-end gaming rigs.

Caveats for Best PC Builds

Prices change so rapidly that we are only trying to come up under a specific price point with the $500 and $1,000 builds. Note that the prices we list below were current at publication time but could be different when you read this.

We are also going to recommend GPUs rather than specific makes and models of graphics cards. For example, we'd recommend an RTX 3080 Ti (opens in new tab) and link to a list of available cards rather than, for example, the Zotac RTX 3080 Ti Trinity OC (opens in new tab) Given frequent price changes (with prices now going down), you should get whichever third or first-party card is available with the GPU you want for the best price at the time you read this.

Also note that we don't include the cost of an operating system, because you can get Windows for Free or Cheap. Nor do we include the price of peripherals such as the best gaming monitors, best gaming keyboards or best gaming mouse. And if you've never made a computer before, see our article on how to build a PC.

Best $500 PC Build for Gaming

(Image credit: Newegg)

Good news. For around $500, you can build a PC that has a discrete graphics card. You won't get the fastest GPU around, but you will be able to play games at 1080p with modest settings. That's a big improvement over the market a few months ago when we couldn't fit any graphics card into this budget and would have had to rely on a CPU with an integrated GPU.

For the graphics card in this system, we're going with either AMD's bottom-of-the-line Radeon RX 6400. This isn't a fast card, but it managed a very-playable 52 fps on our gaming tests at 1080p medium. If you can could find one in stock, substitute the hard-to-find Intel Arc A380 (opens in new tab) graphics card, which got 54.7 fps on the same test and was nearly-playable at 1080p ultra with 28.3 fps. Better yet, splurge another $30 - $40 and get a buy a Radeon RX 6500 XT (opens in new tab), which hit a very playable 30.8 fps at 1080p ultra and a smooth 65.8 fps at 1080p medium.



For our CPU, we're going with Intel's Core i3-12100F, which is just over $100 but delivers plenty of pep for the price. This CPU has four cores, all of them performance cores, and a solid boost clock of 4.3 GHz. We found that it outperformed AMD's more-expensive Ryzen 5 5600X, which costs about $100, in gaming workloads. The 12100F comes with a cooler in the box so we don't have to spend money on buying a CPU fan.

To hit our $500 price point, we have to cut some corners and Intel H610 motherboards don't come cheap. We went with the ASRock H610M-HVS, simply because it's $10 cheaper than its nearest competitor. However, there's one huge trade-off: the H610M-HVS doesn't have an M.2 slot for PCIe NVMe SSDs. Therefore, we have to go with a 2.5-inch SATA SSD.

Our SSD is the tried-and-true Crucial MX500 at 500GB capacity. It's fast and reliable for a SATA drive, with rated sequential read and write rates of 560 MBps / 510 MBps. When we reviewed the MX500 back in 2019, we gave it high marks for its strong endurance rating and solid performance. If we could stretch our budget over $500, however, we'd have gotten a motherboard that supports M.2 PCIe SSDs and a 1TB SSD.

One area where we didn't compromise is on the RAM, where we got 16GB of DDR4 PC-3200 RAM in a 2 x 8GB configuration. The Silicon Power Value RAM we chose isn't the flashiest, but it's inexpensive and from a reputable brand. Whatever you do, don't build or buy a gaming PC with less than 16GB of RAM.

Our case is the DIY-S08-G, because it was just $41 at publication time. The mint green color may be polarizing, but you are getting a tempered glass panel and room for plenty of fans. Our power supply is the Thermaltake Smart 500W 80+ certified, because it's a good value, is actually certified and comes from a reputable brand.

Best $1,000 PC Build for Gaming

(Image credit: Amazon)

If you can stretch your budget up to around $1,000, you can build a PC with the ability to play games really well at 1080p and competently at 2K. At press time, we could find an Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti card for as little as $459 and an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT for as low as $379. When running our 8-game test suite at 1080p resolution with ultra settings, the 6700 XT offered an impressive frame rate of 95.8 fps while the RTX 3060 Ti hit 91.5 fps. The GPUs achieved very-playable rates of 70.8 and 69.7 fps at 2K resolution.

If ray tracing performance is more important to you, Nvidia's card is better. the 3060 Ti hit 65.3 fps at 1080p ultra settings with ray tracing enabled. However, the Radeon RX 6700 XT was only able to deliver 45.9 fps.

Image 1 of 2 (Image credit: Tom's Hardware ) 1080p Gaming (Image credit: Tom's Hardware ) 2K Gaming Performance

Our recommended CPU for this build is the Core i5-12400F, which has 6 performance cores and 12 threads (no E cores) while boosting up to 4.4 GHz. To go with Intel processor, we're using a Gigabyte H610M S2H motherboard that has an M.2 slot and supports PCIe 4.0 SSDs. AMD is not as good of a value at this price point as the 12400F (aka 12400 with integrated GPU on board) outperformed the Ryzen 5 5600X and Ryzen 7 5700X in our 2K gaming benchmarks. There's a cooler in the box with the 12400F so no need to buy one.

(Image credit: Future)

We're also sticking with 16GB of DDR4-PC3200 RAM here. There's no real need to go faster or increase the capacity at this price point.

For storage, we're stepping up to a 1TB drive and a faster one in the form of the Silicon Power UD90. Our favorite value-priced NVMe SSD, the UD90 promises sequential reads and writes of up to 3,900 MBps and 1,800 MBps respectively. On our tests, the UD90 was only a few points behind the pricey but popular Samsung 980 PRO.

(Image credit: Future)

Our case is The NZXT H510. We like the clean, classy aesthetic of this case, which is available in black, black and red or white. It also has a USB-C Gen 2 (10 Gbps) front-panel connector, along with a Type-A connector and a headphone jack. It comes with two case fans and has room for a 240mm front radiator if you want to go that far.

Finally, we've stepped up to a 600-watt power supply and we're going with Thermaltake's GX2, which is both 80+ Gold certified but not modular. You can get a modular PSU for $20 more, but that seems like money you don't need to spend.

Best Mid-Range PC Build For Gaming

Phanteks P360A Case (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

As we step up to a build that should be brilliant at 1080p gaming really strong for 2K gaming, we're looking at around a $1,500 budget, depending on the current price of the GPU. We recommend going with either an AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or an Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti.

At press time, 6800 XT cards selling for as little as $619 (opens in new tab) on Amazon and RTX 3070 Ti cards for as little as $624. In our GPU benchmarks hierarchy, AMD's card outranks its Nvidia competitor, achieving average frame rates of 123 fps at 1080p Ultra and 99 fps at 2K Ultra to the 3070 Ti's rates of 104 and 82 fps. The differences are really clear on some individual titles such as Borderlands 3 at DX12 Ultra.

(Image credit: Future)

However, if you plan to play games with ray tracing, Nvidia's card is a better choice, achieving 78 and 34 fps at 1080p and 2K Ultra resolutions where the 6800XT got 69 and 29 fps.

We're sticking with the Core i5-12400F from our $1,000 build, because we're putting more money into the GPU. The Core i5-12400F has 6 performance cores and 12 threads, but none of the efficiency cores we see in most Alder Lake processors. The 12400F cannot be overclocked and tops out at a boost speed of 4.4 GHz, but at this price, we're not looking to overlock anyway. Intel's processor comes with its own cooler in the box so you don't need to pay for a third-party one.

We're going with the $119 ASRock H670M PRO RS as our motherboard, because i t provides a step up from the H610M motherboards in our cheaper builds. For one thing, it has four RAM slots so you can easily add more RAM after your build. It has has support for a couple of different M.2 drives and sports two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (10 Gbps).

With our increased budget, we're stepping up to 32GB of RAM with the well-known and respected Patriot Viper Steel series. We're also going to the performance-leading SK hynix Platinum P41 (2TB) SSD. This M.2 drive promises sequential read and write speeds of 7,000 and 4,700 MBps respectively. That currently puts it at the very top of our list of best SSDs.

(Image credit: Future)

Our chassis of choice is the Phanteks P360A, which offers excellent thermals, a premium tempered glass side panel and two included RGB fans. Our power supply is a 650-watt Cooler Master MasterWatt. This 80 Plus Bronze certified PSU is fully modular so you can only attach the cables you actually need.

Best High-End PC Build for Gaming

Fractal Design Meshify 2 Case (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

At a current price of $2,200 to $2,300, our high-end gaming PC build should provide enough performance to play games at 2K ultra settings with strong frame rates, and 4K ultra with playable frame rates. The system gets its GPU muscle from an RTX 3080 (12GB) card, which currently goes for $739 to $879, backed by the Intel Core i5-12600K, which is one of the best CPUs for gaming.

In our tests, an RTX 3080 card with 12GB of VRAM achieved an average frame rate of 66 fps at 4K resolution with Ultra settings. If you drop down to 2K resolution or 1080p, those numbers jump to 104 or 124 fps respectively. With ray tracing enabled at 2K, the average was 47 fps, which is only a few frames behind the more-expensive RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090.

The Intel Core i5-12600K has 6 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, which make it capable of using 16 threads at once (two for each P core). It carries a top boost frequency of 4.9 GHz and can be overclocked to higher frequencies than that. We easily overclocked it to 5-GHz where it averaged 186 fps on our Windows 11, 1080p gaming suite (which uses an RTX 3090 card). That's only a little bit behind more expensive CPUs such as the Core i9-12900K and Ryzen 7 5800X3D.

In order to make the most of our CPU overclock, we need a Z690 motherboard that supports DDR5 RAM and the Gigabyte Z690 Aorus Pro fits fits the bill. This full ATX board has a Twin Hybrid Digital VRM design and it even sports built-in Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

Our CPU doesn't come with a cooler in the box and we plan to overclock it to more than 5-GHz anyway, so we're using the Corsair iCUE H100i PRO XT RGB, a 240mm AIO liquid cooler, to keep its temperature down. We're using 32GB of G. Skill's Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 RAM. The Trident Z5 kit tops our list of best RAM, thanks to its tight-timings, fast performance and overclocking potential. In our tests, the Z5 also had the lowest memory latency of its competitors.

(Image credit: Future)

We're sticking with the SK hynix Platinum P41 SSD (2TB) from our mid-range build. At the moment, you really can't find a better consumer drive at any price.

Our case for this build is the $159 Fractal Design Meshify 2, which combines fantastic thermals, a classy design and strong cable management. It also comes with three non-RGB case fans and plenty of room for our radiator.

To power all these high-end components, we're using a Corsair RM750x PSU which is 80+ Gold certified and fully modular. You might be able to economize by going for a slightly-cheaper unit that

Best Super High-End PC Build for Gaming

Corsair iCue 5000T Case (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

For our super high end build, we've got a system that's capable of playing high-end games in 4K at ultra settings and delivering smooth ray tracing. This is made possible thanks to the RTX 3090 Ti card which serves as our GPU.

After the insanely-overpriced RTX 4090 card that's just coming out, this is the top card on when it comes to both 4K gaming and ray tracing. In our tests, the RTX 3090 Ti averaged 75 fps at 4K Ultra resolution, 113 fps at 2K Ultra resolution and 57 fps at 2K Ultra with ray tracing enabled. If $1,149+ seems too expensive, consider AMD's RX 6950 XT, which is a relative bargain at about $949. It has the highest 1080p Ultra (137 fps) and 2K Ultra (115 fps) frame rates, though its 4K rate (70 fps) and its 2K Ultra ray tracing (36 fps) are not nearly as good as those from 3090 Ti. Our CPU is AMD's Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which uses 96MB of cache memory to dominate our gaming benchmarks. It's a modest $404 and yet overpowers Intel's top-of-the-line, Core i9-12900KS. In our tests, this chip averaged 201 fps in 1080p gaming and 177 fps at 2K resolution (tested with RTX 3090 graphics). In fact, in our Windows gaming tests, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D actually beat the new Ryzen 9 7950X, which costs about twice as much, by a hair.

(Image credit: Future)

We're building the system around an Asus X570 ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi motherboard. The board has a 14-phase voltage regulator that should allow you to push the CPU to its limits. It provides 12 different USB ports, 8 of which can run at 10 Gbps and it even has built-in Wi-Fi 6 connectivity should your desktop not be close enough to your router to use the 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port.



To cool the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, we're using a Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML360R ARGB AIO cooler. The cooler has a 360mm radiator and offers an impressive light show.



Because we're fattening our budget for this build, we're going with 64GB of RAM, specifically TeamGroup's T-Force Xtreem 3600 MHz ARGB RAM. Unfortunately, AMD's Ryzen 5000 platform doesn't support DDR5 so we have to go with DDR4 memory.



We can't do much better than the SK hynix Platinum P31 that we also recommended for the high-end build. However, because 2TB is may not be enough storage for a gamer with a lot of titles, we will add in a secondary 2TB SSD for data, the SK hynix Gold P31.

Our chassis choice is the Corsair iCue 5000T, which comes loaded with three brilliant RGB fans and plenty of room for our 360mm radiator. It also has a great selection of ports on the front panel, including four USB Type-A connectors, a single USB Type-C and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It had excellent airflow in our tests.



With these high-end components, we don't want to skimp on the power supply, and having something that's fit for a future graphics card upgrade makes sense. We're going with a full 1000-watts of power and the Corsair HX1000. This power supply is 80+ Platinum certified and fully modular.

Finding Discounts on the Best PC Components

With shortages of key components and prices on the rise, locating discounts on everything from cases to RAM is more important than ever. To find savings on components of all types, check out our lists of the best PC hardware deals, along with the latest Newegg promo codes, Corsair coupon codes, Best Buy promo codes, and Micro Center coupons.
An Egyptian court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and documents to Qatar.



Jordanian national Alaa Omar Sablan and Ibrahim Mohammed Helal, who both work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera, and Asmaa Al Khateeb, a reporter for Rassd, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news network, were sentenced in absentia. They can appeal.



The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped former president Mohammed Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule.



Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail.



Following Saturday's ruling, a final decision is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion.



Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy, who announced the verdict, also said that a ruling against Mursi and several others charged in the same case, would be postponed to the same date.



Prosecutors in Saturday's case argued that Mursi's aides were involved in leaking sensitive documents to Qatari intelligence that exposed the location of weapons held by the Egyptian armed forces.



Defence lawyers said that documents were moved out of the presidential palace to protect them during growing protests against Mursi's rule, but this process was not the responsibility of the president and the documents presented in the case show no signs of spying.



"The case's documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in it," a defence lawyer said.



Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas.-Reuters
Germany plans to give Tunisia and Jordan funds to buy armoured vehicles to help defend their frontiers against Islamic State, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday.



Berlin will give Amman 25 million euros ($28 million) to buy "Marder" armoured personnel carriers, Spiegel said without giving sources. Tunisia would get a double-digit million sum.



Jordan neighbours Syria where Islamic State has taken large portions of territory, while the militant group has also doubled its fighters in Libya which borders Tunisia.



Tunisia saw two major attacks by islamist militants last year. Thirty-eight tourists were killed in an asault on a hotel, three months after 21 were killed by gunmen attacking the Bardo National Museum in the capital Tunis.



The German money comes from a 100 million euro fund to strengthen partner states south of the European Union with crisis prevention, Der Spiegel said.



A spokeswoman for the Defence Ministry declined to comment on the report.



She added, however, that a programme to help partner states ensure their security had been in place for years and said countries, including Iraq, Tunisia and Jordan were currently in focus.-Reuters
Tehran, Iran, May 7

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

The Iranian government authorized investments worth $3.418 billion, the spokesman of the government, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht said.

In the past three months, 16 foreign trade delegations, eight presidents, three heads of parliaments, and five prime ministers have visited Iran, he further said, SHANA news agency reported May 6.

On February 1, Iranian Deputy Minister of Economy Mohammad Khazaei said Tehran considers luring in $25 billion worth of foreign investment to spend on the country's development projects.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Iran's annual inward FDI (foreign direct investment) was $2.408 billion on average during 2005-2007, while this figure for 2011-2014 was $3.523 billion.

Iran's total FDI inward from 1995 to 2011 was a little over $33 billion, according to the UNCTAD.

On March 15, Khazaei announced the approval of 14 plans worth $2.6 billion by Iran's Foreign Investment Board. The plans involved electricity production, car making, mining, and industries.
Russia is paying due attention to imports of commodities from Iran and have eased tariffs on Iranian products by 25%, an official said, IRNA reported.

Hassan Mortaji, the director of Iran-Russia Trade Conference due to be held in Moscow on May 24-25, said that trade with Russia is also economical for Iran due to low transport costs.

Nearly 100 Russian chambers of commerce have signaled readiness to participate in Iran-Russia Trade Conference which is aimed to link Iranian and Russian merchants, Mortaji said.

'Although the ground is prepared for Iran's active presence in Russia and despite the elimination of rivals like Turkey, our country has not seized the chance properly,' Mortaji added.

Tensions between Russia and Turkey flared up in late November, when a Turkish F-16 jet shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber over Syria, and one Russian pilot was killed. Russia introduced a series of economic sanctions against Ankara following the incident.

Russia has said it plans to provide a large part of its food needs from Iran.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev and John Watson, chairman of the board and CEO of the US Chevron Corporation have discussed the expansion of the company's participation in developing the fields in Kazakhstan, press service of Kazakh president said.

The discussions were held during a meeting in Astana.

The parties also discussed the future cooperation between Kazakhstan and Chevron in the oil and gas sphere, as well as in the implementation of joint projects.

Watson noted that overhaul work will be carried out at Kazakhstan's Tengiz field where Chevron has the largest share. He added that this work will make it possible to stop the sulfur emissions into the atmosphere.

Nazarbayev, for his part, noted that Kazakhstan is going through hard times due to the lower oil prices.

"It is necessary to learn to live with such prices," he added.

Chevron is a shareholder of the projects for developing the largest oil fields - Tengiz and Karachaganak - in Kazakhstan. It has a share in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium and owns a plant for manufacturing polyethylene pipes in Kazakhstan's Atyrau city.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 6

A two-day protest by DC office employees across the state in support of their long-pending demands came to an end today.

Wearing black badges, the protesters burnt an effigy of the state government. They have warned to intensify their protest in the coming days.

Om Parkash, state chairman of the Punjab State District DC Offices Employees Union, said while the financial commissioner, Revenue, had agreed to fill the vacant posts, the department of finance was not accepting their demands.

The union has called an urgent meeting tomorrow to decide the date to launch the pen-down strike.
Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, May 7

The community across Doaba, that has been a sympathiser of those booked for post-Vienna violence for nearly seven years, has come together demanding the withdrawal and cancellation of pending cases.

A 21-member Vienna Kand Sangharsh Committee has come up in the election year. Its members want their campaign to gain momentum and make the issue bigger and larger in the coming days. The members have so far been trying to unite families and collate data of the total FIRs registered and the youth booked in various lower courts across the region.

Dr Satish Suman, who heads the committee, said, Tempers had flared up as our guru was killed in Austria. There have been some acquittals and discharging of cases. But there are still about 146 youth who are facing trial. These youths have not even been able to get jobs. On the contrary, those who had taken huge compensation at that time, could not even prove the losses later.

Dr Raj Kumar, another activist, gives the figures, There were 75 FIRs put up in May 2009. Of these, 35 could not be traced and the trial went on for the 45 remaining cases. Of these 45 cases in court, there have been acquittal in 19 and conviction in one with 25 cases still pending. This leaves 149 persons under trial, of whom three have passed away. In the 19 cases of acquittal, 51 persons have been set free.

As per the data collated by the committee, The cases discharged and acquitted include those at Adampur police station, Mehatpur, Nurmahal, Maqsudan, Division No. 8, Rama Mandi, Rahon, Phagwara, Jalandhar Cantonment. As of now, there are eight cases pending in Jalandhar rural, five in Jalandhar City, eight in Hoshiarpur, two in Nawanshahr and one each in Amritsar and Malout.

Background

It was on May 25, 2009 that Sant Ramanand of Dera Sachkhand Ballan was killed in Vienna. As the news spread, there was widespread violence in the region. Two were killed and several injured as a mob set train, buses and cars on fire.
Mahesh Sharma

Raikot, May 7

The Management Committee of Maharaja Dalip Singh Memorial, popularly known as Bassian Kothi and Wada Ghallughara Memorial, has urged the Punjab Government led by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to impress upon the Union Government to take diplomatic steps to bring the Kohinoor from the British Government and display the same at the museum of the memorial.

The demand was raised by members of the trust led by president Ranjit Singh Talwandi during a regular meeting of the committee chaired by Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat at the District Headquarter near here.

As it has been proved universally that the diamond, once owned by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, is a heritage item of the Sikhs, we earnestly demand that CM Parkash Singh Badal should impress upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring it back to India and entrust it to our management committee for displaying at the museum at Kothi Bassian, said Ranjit Talwandi maintaining that a formal memorandum would be soon sent to the state government.

Meanwhile, Talwandi said the principal secretary of the Archeological Department should be asked to withheld payments of the company undertaking construction work at the memorial till all pending works were completed.

Resolving that Barnala Chowk at Raikot should be named in the memory of Maharaja Dalip Singh, office-bearers and members of the committee said administrative steps should be initiated for rechristening the chowk.

Taking notice of suggestions and demands raised by the members, DC Ravi Bhagat advised Sub-Divisional Magistrate Harpreet Singh Sudan to get the decisions implemented at the earliest. Bus service to Siloani village and Bassian Kothi, three-phase power connection, supply of literature for the library, enhancement of security arrangements and installation of display screen for meteorological observation were some of the major demands of the committee.
Berlin, May 7

A third teenager, who was arrested in connection with the bombing of a gurdwara by Islamist militants in the German city of Essen, has admitted to the authorities that he was part of a group which carried out the terror attack, according to a media report.

Tolga I, who is known in his circle as Amir, appears to be a sort of commander-in-chief who has given the order to Mohammed B and Yussuf T to explode a bomb at Nanaksar Satsangh Sabha Gurdwara on the evening of April 16, Report Muenchen programme of the ARD TV network said.

During interrogation, 17-year-old Tolga did not reveal the background or motive for targeting the Sikh temple, which hosted a wedding ceremony attended by over 200 guests.

He admitted that he was part of a group which carried out the bomb attack on the gurudwara.

Investigators are trying to establish whether Tolga I as well as sixteen-year-old secondary school students Mohammed and Yussuf arrested four days after the attack are part of a terror network or their group included more young people, the report said.

A 60-year-old Sikh priest was seriously injured and two others suffered minor injuries in the explosion, which ripped through the entrance hall of the gurudwara.

Investigators have traced a link of the three men to a radical Muslim clergy and to a travel agency in the city of Duisburg, near Essen, the report said.

The three have also frequently visited the Assalam Mosque in Essen, which is known to the authorities as a meeting place of radical Islamists.

Meanwhile, Germanys federal prosecutors office is examining the possibility to take over the investigations into the bomb attack from the state prosecutor in Essen on suspicion that the three teenagers arrested are part of a terror network, the report said.

Tolga, who was taken into custody on an arrest warrant issued by the district court in Essen, came to police attention after his mother informed them about his links to radical Islamists and handed them over some notices made by her son, the report said.

She was worried that Tolga was preparing to leave for Syria to fight for the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

He is also known to have contacts with the Lohberger Brigade, in Dinslaken, a group of jihadists who have joined IS militants as fighters some years ago, according to the report.

Local authorities in the town of Schermbeck, near the area where the family lives, banned Tolga from travelling abroad and impounded his passport after his mother approached the police.

This cooperation may have prevented him from travelling to Syria, but could not take him away from his radical Islamist course, the report said.

Investigators found on Tolgas Facebook profile a message from April 17 that he got married on that day.

They believe that Yussuf and Mohammed also did the same during the last six weeks and all of them found their partners through Islamic matrimonial agencies.

Their wedding ceremonies were conducted under strict Islamic traditions, according to the report.

Investigators are still groping in the dark about whom the terror suspects married and what was their motive, the report said.  PTI
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 7

After flagging it in Parliament repeatedly, the Congress today took the matter related to Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (SGPC) gas exploration to President Pranab Mukherjee demanding a judicial investigation into the "scam".

Basing its demands on a CAG report which revealed recently that the GSPC fruitlessly invested around Rs 19,700 crore in exploration of gas in Krishna Godavari basin, the Congress said GSPC must be made accountable for loss of public money.

The explorations were based on the purported discovery of India's largest gas reserves, of 20 trillion cubic feet, valuing Rs 2,22,000 crore in 2005 in the basin. An announcement to this effect had been made by the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. He had then promised commercial production from 2007 on an investment of Rs 1500 crore. But no gas was found or produced.

The Congress leaders led by party president Sonia Gandhi's political adviser Ahmed Patel and comprising state unit chief Bharat Singh Solanki and Shankarsinh Vaghela argued before President for a judicial probe saying the state cannot be the judge in its own case.

1st or last family, none will be spared: Parrikar

New Delhi: Ramping up the attack against the Gandhi family on AgustaWestland issue, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar today said the government will not hesitate to take action against them if they are proven guilty, asserting no one is above law, whether "first or the last family".

He also took a dig at Arvind Kejriwal for his remarks that the Modi government does not have "enough courage" to arrest Sonia Gandhi, saying the Delhi Chief Minister was feeling left out because he did not get any media publicity for the last 10 days when the focus was on the VVIP chopper scam.  PTI
Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 6

Nidhi Chaphekar, the Jet Airways flight attendant who was injured in the terrorist attack in Brussels in March, returned home in Mumbai after being hospitalised for more than a month in that city.

Chaphekar arrived on a Jet Airways flight at 7 am and was taken to Breach Candy Hospital from the airport where she would continue with her treatment. She was accompanied by her husband Rupesh and brother-in-law Nilesh.

She is in good spirits and is very happy to be back with her family. Nidhi will now undergo treatment in Mumbai as part of the next phase of her recovery programme outlined by doctors....Jet Airways continues to provide all necessary support to Nidhi and her family during this time. Our priority is to ensure that she continues to receive the best medical care and attention so she can resume her normal life at the earliest possible, a statement issued by the airline said.

A picture of a stunned Nidhi with her clothes ripped off became the identifying image of the terrorist attack at Brussels airport.

Nidhi was to board a flight to Newark and was waiting to check in when the bombs went off. She suffered 15 per cent burns and a fractured ankle. She spent about 25 days in medically induced coma and underwent skin grafting. Another Jet Airways employee Amit Motwani, who was injured in the attacks, is still recovering at a Brussels hospital.
Kathmandu, May 7

The Nepal government has levelled three charges against the countrys ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya to justify its decision to recall him, with officials today saying he was working against national interests.

Envoys should follow governments directives and maintain diplomatic decorum, Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters here. In a late-night development, Nepal yesterday recalled Upadhyaya over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepals envoy to India in April last year, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandaris planned visit to India. Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandaris trip to India has no connection with the governments decision to recall Upadhyaya. The President was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandaris India visit.

The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now, he said.

We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically, he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.  PTI
New Delhi, May 7

Four of the 10 terror suspects who were detained by Delhi Police for their alleged ideological leaning towards banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were today released due to lack of adequate evidence, three days after being questioned by the anti-terrorism unit.

Of the four, three are residents of east Delhi's Chand Bagh locality and the other from Ghaziabad's Loni area. They were let off from the Special Cell's Lodhi Colony office this evening.

They were freed after investigators said they did not find adequate evidence to prove their involvement in the suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed ring, which was busted earlier this week with the arrest of three youths and Improvised Explosive Device were recovered from their possession, police sources said.

As many as 13 persons were picked up by the Special Cell after a late night operation on Tuesday. Of them, three have been arrested, four let off and six are still being questioned by the investigators.

Police have still not been able to ascertain the source of funds for the suspects who were allegedly tasked with executing serial strikes in the city, senior officials said adding that investigators were scrutinising the contents of the Whatsapp group and the chat room in which all 13 persons who were picked up by them were members.

The four youths who were set free today were given counselling before their release, sources said.

Investigators interrogating the three youths arrested for alleged links with banned Jaish-e-Mohammed had yesterday said the trio were shown videos pertaining to alleged atrocities against Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarnagar and Iraq to induct them into the outfit and execute terror strikes in the national capital.

A senior police official said prime accused Sajid had joined a social media page where he met a cyber entity 'Talha', believed to be close to JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar, who is wanted by India in connection with 2001 Parliament attack case and the terror strike on Pathankot IAF base in January.

The web page had links to several websites which allegedly propagate jihad ideology. In one such website, Sajid found a phone number, which pertained to Pakistan and the contact number later turned out to be that of Talah, the official had said.

Once Sajid had roped in the other two youths -- Sameer Ahmed (arrested), Shakir Ansari (arrested) and few others into the module -- the cyber entity sent them links to videos showing alleged atrocities against Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarnagar and Iraq. The idea was to induct them into the outfit and plan serial blasts here, the official had said.

Investigators had earlier claimed that the trio was initially inspired by the dreaded ISIS and later shifted their ideological leaning.

Sajid was self-radicalised and propagated ideology which was in line with that of the Islamic State until he came in touch with Talha, they said.  PTI
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 6

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today accused the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of spreading rumours that the Punjabi language was being discontinued in government-run schools of Delhi.

Party MP Bhagwant Mann said no change had been made in this regard for the current academic session, adding that the reports were baseless.

He said all schools under the Directorate of Education were affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education and they followed its scheme of Studies and Examination Bylaws. Under this scheme, students of Class IX and X can opt for two languages during the 2016-17 academic year. The list of options includes Hindi, English, Punjabi and about 25 other languages, he added.

Mann stated that besides the two compulsory languages, students could opt for a third language as an optional subject.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:

Instead of focusing on coming together with an arbitrary or artificial intervention in the oil market, we should focus on the market addressing itself, says the Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs leading the Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR) at the US Department of State Amos Hochstein.

He made the remarks during a press briefing via telephone.

Hochstein said he doesn't think anybody should have been surprised by the lack of the ability to reach an agreement during the oil producers' Doha meeting.

The meeting of oil producing countries on output freeze was held in Doha on Apr.17. The representatives of 17 OPEC and non-OPEC countries took part in the event. No agreement was reached during that meeting.

"One of the major producers coming back on-line is Iran," he said, adding that it should have been hardly anybody's expectation that a country that has been under extreme sanctions would adhere to a cap of production, freezing them at sanctions levels.

"Second, when you have a price reduction in oil that is a result of a glut in oil supply versus demand, freezing production at peak levels is hardly the answer that would result in much more than a psychological signal," he added.

"Demand will rise, instead of capped production by governments, we're seeing capex reduction by companies that will ultimately lead to less production, balancing the market again, and reaching out to a future that has a more balanced approach and maybe a different price level," said Hochstein.

The oil markets have been volatile since they were, since trading started, said the State Department representative, adding that he doesn't expect that to change.

OPEC is still an important organism in the oil markets. But so are several other oil producers, namely the US that have not and will not participate in these kinds of artificial interventions, he said.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @E_Kosolapova
Hugh & Colleen Gantzer

In Finlands Arctic Circle we went to meet the Sami people. The Samis are the original inhabitants of Finland and their lives revolve around their herds of reindeer. We drove through the impressive silence of the taiga conifer forests and stopped at a little settlement in the woods. Birches raised their bare, white trunks against a leaden sky, a fire plumed resinous blue smoke from a cooking platform, and a teepee-like hut stood solitary against the dark wall of the woods. Our host, Janne, dressed in beautifully embroidered Sami clothes, invited us in. A log fire blazed in the centre of the hut, sequestered by an apron of gravel and a circle of stones. We sat on a wooden bench built against the sloping walls of the hut. And the ceremony began.

Intoning in the deep-throated manner of the Shamanistic chant, that had an oddly Tibetan ring about it, Janne drew a short knife, went through the motions of blooding us and marking us with charred faggots, then proclaimed us worthy visitors to the Arctic Circle. After that we stepped out and entered the reindeer corral.

Male reindeer were just shedding the velvet from their growing antlers: some of their branching horns were still engorged with growth. The males drop their horns every year, and grow larger, more branched ones the next season, we were told.

Janne had much to say about his reindeer. Their outer hair are hollow, trapping insulating air; their inner pelt is thick, water-proof and warm. You can spread a reindeer hide on damp ground and you will stay dry and warm. And that their hooves were splayed to allow them to walk on snow and on the damp bogs that spread between the forests of the taiga and the permafrost wastes of the tundra. We learnt that the blood circulation of reindeer allows their extremities to stay cold and virtually without feeling while a very special brown fat, rich with energy-storing mitochondria, ensures that their essential organs stay warm and rich with blood. And that they live on twigs and shoots and bark and a white lichen that they dig out from under the snow.

Said our Finnish friend: They have to be hardy to encircle the globe, pulling Santas sleigh high in the stratosphere, on Christmas Eve. He seemed to be so deadly serious that we didnt smile. We had a lunch of wild salad, a reindeer casserole called poronkaristys in a ring of mashed potatoes eaten with lingonberries that look like fish roe; forest mushrooms and freshly baked brown bread. There was also a home-brewed dark and non-alcoholic beer and jugs of fresh berry juice.

Twice a year there is a great herding of all the reindeer. Every reindeer has its owners mark notched on its ears: marks that have been registered and are unique to individual herders. Their reindeer are the wealth of the Samis, their bank balance, and so it is impolite to ask a Sami how many reindeer he or she owns.

Since the Samis and others have been harnessing reindeer to draw their sleighs since 5,000 BC, theyve learnt to use every part of this animal. We visited the very creative Irene and Ari Kangasniemi, who have built themselves a beautiful wooden home at the edge of the forest, find enough in the wilderness to fill four deep-freezes, and create handicrafts using hard and knotted burl-wood and the antlers and skins of reindeer.

On the glowing, wooden walls of their workshop were displayed shaman drums and throw rugs, shoes, lampshades and other delicate creations: in the feminine half. And in the masculine half, the domain of Ari, reindeer antlers and burl wood were fashioned into the handles of hunting knives, cups, spoons, salt cellars, sugar bowls, candelabra and even chandeliers.

One evening, when our caution had been lulled by draughts of cranberry vodka, we asked, facetiously, Can reindeers fly?

Our friend regarded us gravely for a moment. There is a legend he said, that once in a million births a pure white reindeer is born. We had seen a white reindeer in Jannes farm.

Our friend paused, choosing his words. It is said to be a witch-deer. Maybe it can fly!
Tribune News Service

Mussoorie, May 6

Four youths from Tehri Garhwal district, who were stuck at in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, are likely to return home by an Air-Asia flight that will land at Kochi around 7.30 am tomorrow.

Rajeshwar Painuli, senior BJP leader and chief coordinator the Dobra Chanti Pul Banao Sangarsh Samiti, said the four youths had got their passports that were confiscated by the owner of the hotel where they were working. They had also been paid pending salary.

Paninuli thanked the Union Ministry of External Affairs, Uttarakhand Governor KK Paul, the Tehri Garhwal district administration and the police for cooperation in helping the youths return to India.

The Union government arranged the air tickets for the youths who had gone to work at a hotel through a travel agent in Delhi in 2014 but were stuck there. The hotel owner had confiscated their passports and even not paid them salary.

The arrangement was being made for their speedy return to their villages in Uttarakhand as soon as they land at Kochi tomorrow, said Painuli. The youths are Uttam Singh from Gadoliya village, Umarao Singh Rawat from Khaliyan Bangar village, Nathi Singh from Magroon village and Vishwanath Pratap Singh from Syalsi village.

The Union government, after it was apprised about the problem, had contacted the Malaysian government and ensured that all employees working in the hotel at Kula Lumpur get their due salary. The youths had sent a video depicting their miserable condition to Painuli. Meanwhile, family members of the youths heaved a sigh of relief at the news of their scheduled return tomorrow.

Painuli said a large number of youths go abroad for jobs and when in trouble have no channel to contact the right persons in the government. A helpline should be set up so that migrated people from Uttarakhand could seek timely help in time of need. A database of people working outside the state should also be prepared, he added.
Dehradun, May 7

The Medical Council of India (MCI) team that inspected the Government Doon Medical College and Hospital yesterday seemed satisfied with the facilities. It was expected to give the first letter of proposal to the college for starting the academic session this July. The team visited the administrative block and inspected the facilities coming up over there.

Later, the three-member team visited the Doon Medical College and Hospital.

The members seemed to be satisfied with the facilities, except for a few changes that they asked us to bring, said Dr KK Tamta, Medical Superintendent, Doon Hospital.

The hospital authorities have been asked to bring minor changes in the operation theatre, common billing centre, TB ward and separate the male and female wards. TNS
Tribune News service

Dehradun, May 6

The rebel Congress MLAs are keeping their fingers crossed about the decision of the Uttarakhand High court on their petition against their disqualification by the Assembly Speaker under the anti-defection law tomorrow. The Supreme Court today ordered for a floor test on May 10 and disqualification of the nine Congress rebel legislators who are not allowed to vote in the May 10 floor test, The single judge Bench of Justice UC Dhyani will hear the case tomorrow.

The decision of the Uttarakhand High Court will be vital for us, said a rebel MLA. A couple of other rebels said the high court decision on their disqualification could change the equation either way.

In the new scenario after the Supreme Courts verdict where (if) the nine rebels remain disqualified from the state Assembly, the effective strength of the 71-member House would be reduced to 61, including one Congress-nominated member RV Gardner, who can vote in the floor test. This mean Rawat requires the support of 31 members to pass the floor test.

CHRONOLOGY

Following is the chronology of events relating to the Uttarakhand Constitutional crisis in which the Supreme Court today ordered a floor test in the Assembly on May 10 by keeping in abeyance the Presidents rule for two hours during which sacked Chief Minister Harish Rawat will seek vote on confidence motion.

March 18: Nine rebel Congress MLAs join BJPs demand of vote on Appropriation Bill. The Speaker adjourns the Assembly, claims Finance Bill passed by voice vote.

March 19: The Governor asks Harish Rawat to prove his majority in the Assembly by March 28.

March 20: The Speaker issues notices to rebel Congress MLAs.

March 24: Uttarakhand High Court dismisses the rebel Cong MLAs plea for stay on show-cause notices issued to them by the Speaker.

March 26: Harish Rawat seeks disqualification of the rebel MLAs. Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds a Cabinet meeting, The Centre mulls Presidents rule.

March 27: Uttarakhand comes under Presidents rule. Speaker disqualifies 9 rebel Congress MLAs.

March 28: Harish Rawat moves the high court against imposition of Presidents rule.

March 29: High court orders a floor test in the Assembly on March 31. PIL filed in the Supreme Court by a Delhi-based lawyer against Presidents rule in Uttarakhand.

March 30: The Centre moves the high court challenging the floor test order. Division Bench stays the floor test till April 7.

April 1: High court defers hearing on the rebel MLAs plea to April 11.

April 4: High court to hear pleas by the Centre and Harish Rawat on Presidents rule on April 6.

April 6: High court rejects the Centres plea to adjourn hearing on Harish Rawats petition.

April 7: High court grants time till April 12 to the Centre for filing its response on Harish Rawats pleas. Harish Rawat seeks an interim order to restrain the Governor from inviting the BJP to form government after revoking Presidents rule.

April 8: High court defers hearing on the rebel MLAs plea to April 18.

April 18: High court says the Governor should have stayed his hand. The Supreme Court refuses to entertain the PIL by the Delhi-based lawyer against Presidents rule.

April 19: High court says the Centre inducting chaos, taking away power of elected governments.

April 20: Even Presidents decision is subject to judicial review and hopefully the Centre will not provoke us, says the division Bench of the high court.

April 21: High court sets aside Presidents rule.

April 22: The Centre moves the Supreme Court against the high court order. Supreme Court stays the high court order on Presidents rule till April 27.

April 23: The Assembly Speaker seeks the dismissal of the petition of the 9 Congress MLAs against their disqualification.

April 25: Nine Congress rebel MLAs tell the high court that they had not left the party but only wanted removal of Chief Minister Harish Rawat.

April 27: Supreme Court extends stay on the high court order on Presidents rule. Says no floor test on April 29.

May 3: Supreme Court asks the Attorney General to take instruction and apprise it about the feasibility of holding a floor test in the Assembly under its supervision.

May 4: Supreme Court grants time till May 6 to the Centre to apprise it about the feasibility of holding a floor test.

May 6: Supreme Court orders a floor test in the Assembly on May 10. The nine rebel MLAs may be able to vote if the high court permits.PTI
Brasilia, May 7

A special impeachment committee in Brazil's Senate recommended that President Dilma Rousseff be put on trial over charges of breaking budget laws, setting the stage for her potential suspension and new leadership for Latin America's largest economy.

The committee voted 15-5 on Friday to approve a report that concluded there was enough evidence to try Rousseff in the Senate for allegedly using accounting trickery to hide a wide budget gap.

Rousseff has denied the allegations. "I am the living proof that a coup is being orchestrated against all advances made in the last 13 years," she said, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Rousseff also addressed the decision to suspend Eduardo Cunha, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, who began the impeachment process against her in December.

Cunha is facing graft charges from a corruption probe at Brazil's state oil company Petrobras. "It took a person void of any moral and ethical principles, accused of money laundering and hidden accounts, to perpetrate this coup," she said.

Her removal would mark an end to 13 years of rule by the left wing Worker's Party that began in 2003 under her mentor, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The full Senate appeared almost certain to vote for a trial by late next week. If a simple majority of the body's 81 senators agreed that Rousseff should be prosecuted, she would have to step down immediately to face trial.

Vice President Michel Temer would then replace her as president during the proceedings, which could last a maximum of six months.

If she is convicted, he would finish out her term, which ends on January 1, 2019. According to sources, support for Rousseff's eventual ouster is strong in the Senate.  IANS
Kathmandu, May 7

The Nepal government has levelled three charges against the country's ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyaya to justify its decision to recall him, with officials today saying he was working 'against national interest'.

Envoys should follow governments directives and maintain diplomatic decorum," Minister for Defence Bhim Rawal told reporters here.

In a late night development, Nepal yesterday recalled Upadhyaya over charges of non-cooperation and indulging in anti-government activities.

Upadhyaya, a leader of opposition Nepali Congress who was appointed as Nepal's envoy to India in April last year, is being seen as the first casualty of the cancellation of Nepalese President Bidhya Devi Bhandari's planned visit to India.

The diplomat has been also charged with siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister KP Sharma Olis government, according to reports.

He has been accused of being involved in toppling the government, breaching his jurisdiction without informing the government and visiting some western Nepal districts accompanying India's ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae, Rawal said.

Rawal said the cancellation of President Bhandari's trip to India has no connection with the government's decision to recall Upadhyaya.

The President was occupied with some unavoidable tasks like announcing the policy document of the government in the Parliament on Monday due to which the visit was cancelled, he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, briefed the Parliament about the cancellation of Bhandari's India visit.

"The government has informed India to postpone the visit for now," he said.

"We have informed that the President will pay a visit at an appropriate time to be fixed diplomatically," he was quoted as saying in a Kathmandu Post report.

According to the report, Thapa said Upadhyaya's recall was made in a bid to strengthen the existing relations between the two nations" but did not explain what the envoy failed to do to strengthen the ties.  PTI
Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 6

In an unexpected development, the first official visit of Nepal President Bidyadevi Bhandari to India has been cancelled. It was on the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee that Bhandari was to embark on her first official visit to India next week.

Sources in the government confirmed that the visit has been cancelled by the Nepali side. Sources said they believed the reason to be the political developments in Nepal. The main reason for her visit being cancelled is likely the refusal of the Nepalese cabinet to approve her visit. Also, an attempt was made earlier this week to topple Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli by the Maoists, a key partner in the ruling coalition. However, the move failed when the Maoists backtracked.

Relations between and India and Nepal havent been very positive since Oli became the Prime Minister. Speculation in Nepal is also rife that the move to remove Oli had support from India. The Maoists wanted to replace Oli with their chairperson Pushpa Kamal Prachanda.

The Nepalese President was scheduled to meet Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and leaders from political parties, besides signing three agreements.
Brasilia, May 6

Brazils Supreme Court removed the speaker of the lower house of Congress on Thursday on charges of obstructing a corruption investigation, days before an impeachment process that he engineered to oust President Dilma Rousseff.

The removal of Eduardo Cunha, a bitter rival of Rousseff and one of Brazils most divisive public figures, was the latest in a series of political earthquakes in South Americas largest country as it struggles with a sweeping corruption scandal and the worst recession in decades.

The Supreme Court voted unanimously to approve a request by Brazils top prosecutor to strip Cunha of his influential post for allegedly intimidating lawmakers and obstructing an investigation into accusations that he held undeclared bank accounts in Switzerland. Cunha said he would appeal. An evangelical Christian with strong support from the religious right in Congress, Cunha has for months fended off ethics committee hearings in the lower house about whether he lied about the accounts, using every trick in the procedural book. The bespectacled speaker has remained unflappable, calmly denying prosecutors accusations he had used the Swiss accounts to stash millions of dollars in bribe money.

Meanwhile, a Brazilian Senate committee voted today to recommend starting an impeachment trial against President Dilma Rousseff, who now faces being suspended from office in less than a week.  Agencies
Dhaka, May 7

A 65-year-old Muslim Sufi preacher was hacked to death by unidentified machete-wielding assailants in northwest Bangladesh, two weeks after a liberal university professor was killed in a similar attack claimed by the dreaded ISIS.

Shahidullah was found dead with gashes on the right shoulder and a slit throat in a mango orchard in Rajshahi citys Tanor upazila, in an attack that bears the hallmark of previous murders of intellectuals, bloggers and minorities by Islamists in the country.

His body was recovered after locals called the police around 10:00pm last night, said Abdur Razzak, officer-in- charge of Tanor Police Station. Shahidullah was a local grocer but was regarded as a Sufi saint with a number of followers in the area, Razzak told PTI over phone. He said autopsy of the body was carried out at a local hospital and then returned to the relatives for burial.

Razzak said their initial investigations found that Shahidullah was involved in a property dispute with neighbours which could be a reason of the murder. It seems he was hacked first and then slaughtered, he was quoted as saying by The Daily Star.

But Rajshahis police chief Nisharul Arif told reporters that Islamists could also be behind the killing which was similar to the murder of liberal Rajshahi University professor Rezaul Karim two weeks ago for which the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed the responsibility.

An investigation has been launched into his Shahidullahs murder, Arif said.

Meanwhile, the deceaseds son has sued anonymous people in a case filed with Tanor Police Station. He said his father was a follower of Torika Ponthi (a spiritual path) and might have had enmity with followers of other paths.

There have been systematic assaults in Bangladesh in recent weeks especially targeting minorities, secular bloggers, intellectuals and foreigners.  PTI

Trail of horrific killings

April 25, 2016: Xulhaz Mannan, the editor of Roopban  the only gay magazine in Bangladesh  and his friend Tanay Majumder killed by armed assailants

April 23: Rezaul Karim Siddique, an English professor who encouraged others to listen to music, killed with machetes as the Islamic State accused him of atheism

April 6: Student activist and blogger Nazimuddin Samad, who shared his secularist opinions online, hacked and shot to death by the three masked assailants

Feb 21: Two men armed with guns and cleavers hack a Hindu priest to death at a temple in northern Bangladesh, an attack claimed by the IS

Oct 31, 2015: Faisal Arefin Dipan, the publisher of murdered atheist writer Avijit Roy and other secular books in Dhaka, hacked to death in his office

Oct 4: Masked assailants on a motorcycle kill Japanese citizen Kunio Hoshi, who was working on agriculture in Bangladesh

Sept 28: Three assailants on a motorcycle gun down Italian citizen Cesare Tavella in Dhakas diplomatic quarter

Aug 8: Niloy Chottopadhay, an atheist blogger, dies after hes attacked at his home by men with machetes
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, May 7

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

In the result of the progress achieved, the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) of Turkmenistan in January-April 2016 has remained steady at the level of 6.3 percent, the country's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said, the government reported in a message May 7.

The president, speaking at a meeting of the county's cabinet of ministers, said that the volume of investments in the various sectors increased by 5.7 percent.

In average, wages increased by 9.6 percent in Turkmenistan, he added.

Construction of various facilities worth over $50 billion is being held in the country. On the results of the four months, more than 30 major facilities have been built and commissioned.

Turkmenistan's GDP growth will be 5.4 percent in 2016 (compared to 6.5 percent in 2015), according to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Turkmenistan ranks fourth in the world in terms of the volume of natural gas and has opportunities to export it to China and Iran. Meanwhile, Russia suspended the purchases of Turkmen gas in 2016.

Ashgabat chose a course to diversify the local economy. The textile industry, as well as the area of petroleum products, advanced. The oil, gas and chemical industry and the production of building materials are being actively developed.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7



By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:



Iran's Deputy Transport Minister Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan has dismissed the reports suggesting that the Islamic Republic and South Korea's Daewoo have recently reached an agreement for cooperation on the construction of the Tehran-Shomal Freeway.



"No agreement was reached on the construction of any section of the Tehran-Shomal Freeway with Koreans," ILNA news agency quoted him as saying May 7.



"Koreans have offered to cooperate on the Tehran-Shomal Freeway but no agreement has been made so far," he added.



"Any company, including Khatam-al Anbiya, which are capable of meeting the Transport Ministry's requirements, will be eligible to join the project," the deputy minister said.



Khatam-al Anbiya is a giant Iranian construction firm affiliated with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).



The official said that a significant criterion for companies to join the project is that the contractor should be capable of financing 60 percent of the project.



## 2528465##In an early May report, the official IRNA news agency reported that Iran and South Korea have signed a document for cooperation in constructing a part of the Tehran-Shomal Freeway.



The report on the agreement was published during South Korean President Park Geun-hye's recent visit to Tehran.



The deputy minister said that Iran and South Korea have agreed to cooperate on the construction of Esfahan-Ahvaz railroad.


Tehran, Iran, May 7

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

Iran is in talks with two Norwegian and Sweden companies to make firefighting equipment it needs in the oil industry, said Shahab Tafazoli, a member of the Oil Industry Equipment Producers Association of Iran.

From Sweden Firemax and from Norway FFS has been chosen for the purpose, he said, Mehr news agency reported May 6.

He added that the agreement underlines the transfer of technology to Iran for making the equipment rather than buying produced goods.

Tafazoli added circumstances are also being studied to pave the ground for exporting the products in future to neighbor countries such as Iraq.

The oil industry is one of the most important industries in Iran that have been hit hard by sanctions.

Tehran is now trying to refurbish the industry as soon as possible in order to streamline its oil production.

As a general rule, the government stresses that it will not buy goods from abroad as much as possible. Rather, it says tis post-sanction cooperation with foreigners will be limited to importing technology and fund.
4:51 p.m., May 6, 2016--For the Record provides information about recent professional activities of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent honors, presentations, publications and service include the following:

Honors

Xuan Yu, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Geological Sciences, has been named a distinguished lecturer by EarthCube, a collaborative effort initiated by the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and the National Science Foundations geoscience directorate to advance the cyberinfrastructure for geosciences. In this role, Yu is giving invited lectures at universities and research institutions across the country on best practices for data management in geoscience publications and on the benefits of open science engagement.

A team of master of business administration students from the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics has won an honorable mention in the Aspen Institute Business and Society International Case Competition. In April, MBA students Edwin Brown, Arpita Gandhi, Dan Matera and Nathan Snodgrass spent 72 hours analyzing a case on Illy Coffee and creating a six-page written analysis. The Lerner Colleges Graduate and MBA Programs opened the facilities at One South Main Street over one weekend so that the team could spend much of this time sequestered and working together. Aspen Institute founder and director Justin Goldbach thanked the team for their hard work and participation, saying, With your help, we truly believe that we are helping to make the next generation of executives savvy to the centrality of social, environmental and ethical issues in business.

The Universitys Mineralogical Museum, housed in the Department of Geological Sciences, recently was ranked at 17 in The 30 Most Amazing Higher Ed Natural History Museums by bestcollegereviews.org. Rankings were based on the number of artifacts or specimen in the collection, public access and opportunities at the museum for college students and community involvement. Founded with a gift from Irenee du Pont Sr. in 1964, the museum is housed in Penny Hall and displays approximately 350 specimens from a collection of more than 2,500 specimens of minerals, meteorites, gems and carvings. It was the only mineral museum included in the list of comprehensive natural history museums with collections of fossils, dinosaurs and other age-old artifacts such as Yales Peabody Museum, making it a particularly notable feat.

Presentations

Margaret Stetz, Mae and Robert Carter Professor of Women's Studies and professor of humanities, delivered a paper titled "Teaching 'Comfort Women' Issues: The Hidden Stories of Girls" at "War and Sexual Violence: An International Conference," on April 28. The conference, which was held at the City University of New York Graduate Center, was sponsored jointly by the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and the Society for Military History. Stetz's presentation focused on how and why to reframe the Imperial Japanese Army's so-called "comfort system" of World War II as a war crime that involved child abuse and child sex trafficking

Publications

Rudi Matthee, John and Dorothy Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, published Patterns of Food Consumption in Early Modern Iran, in Oxford Handbooks Online (2016).

The forthcoming summer issue of the Smithsonian Museum's journal American Art, the premier journal in the field, includes articles by three faculty members in the Department of Art History. Wendy Bellion and Monica Dominguez Torres, both associate professors, offer what the journal calls paired perspectives on John Singleton Copleys Watson and the Shark. Bellions article is titled Land Shark: Copley's Reiterative Acts of Representation, and Dominguez Torres is the author of Havana's Fortunes: Engaged Histories in Copley's Watson and the Shark. Jason E. Hill, assistant professor, is the author of How to Look at News Pictures in America in the same issue of the journal.

Service

Marianna Safronova, professor of physics and astronomy, has been elected vice chair of the American Physical Societys Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. The position will rotate to chair upon the expiration of the appointment of the incumbent chair.

Books

Wayne Batchis, associate professor of political science and international relations and of legal studies, is the author of The Rights First Amendment: The Politics of Free Speech and the Return of Conservative Libertarianism, published in March by Stanford University Press. The book examines how the concept of constitutional free speech rights  an issue closely associated in the 1960s with American political liberalism  has been adopted by conservatives. Mark Graber of the University of Maryland School of Law has called the book an important, readable guide [that] expertly documents the powerful impact of this 30-year transition on constitutional law, politics and the development of free speech.

New faculty

Deborah Gump will join the UD faculty on July 1 as director of journalism. The journalism program offers an interdisciplinary minor that is housed in the Department of English but is open to students from any major. Gump, who earned a doctorate in journalism and mass communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been a visiting professor at the University of South Carolina, professional in residence and director of the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence at Middle Tennessee State University, director of the Knight Program for Editing and Editing Education at Ohio University and director of print and online training for the Committee of Concerned Journalists in Washington D.C.

To submit information to be included in For the Record, write to publicaffairs@udel.edu.
There were no Ukrainian soldiers killed in the anti-terrorist operation (ATO) zone in Donbas in the past twenty-four hours, although three soldiers were wounded.

Presidential Administration Spokesman for ATO Issues Andriy Lysenko said at a briefing, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. No Ukrainian serviceman was killed as a result of military actions over the past day, but three soldiers were wounded, Lysenko said. ish
The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine condemns the recent air strikes on the al-Kamouneh refugee camp in the Idlib province in Syria that left dozens of civilians dead and wounded.

The press service of the Foreign Ministry reported this.

"This crime is particularly especially cynical, bearing in mind the previous agreements on the cessation of hostilities in Syria and the ongoing international community efforts to address of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the country," the statement said.

All parties to the conflict in Syria must unconditionally fulfill their cessation of hostilities commitments and stop hostilities immediately.

As a non-permanent member of UN Security Council, Ukraine calls on the parties to comply strictly with their obligations under the UNSC Resolutions 2268 (2016) and 2254 (2015).

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Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya held a meeting with Ambassador of Germany to Ukraine Christof Weil and Ambassador of France to Ukraine Isabelle Dumont.

The press service of the Foreign Ministry reported this.

The parties discussed a range of issues related to cooperation within international organizations, including the OSCE, Council of Europe and the UN.

During the conversation, the participants also paid attention to issues of bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

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Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin discussed with Foreign Minister of Romania Lazar Comanescu the issues of cross-border and regional cooperation, as well as infrastructure development of the Ukrainian-Romanian state border.

This has been reported by the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

"The sides discussed a wide range of issues of bilateral cooperation and, in particular, the implementation of the agreements reached during the visit of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to Romania on April 21, 2016. Particular attention was paid to the issues of cross-border and regional cooperation, infrastructure development of Ukrainian-Romanian state border, solution of educational and cultural problems of the Ukrainian minority in Romania and the Romanian people in Ukraine," the statement said.

The ministers signed the agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Government of Romania on the abolition of payment for registration of long-term visas.

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Russia has blocked a UN Security Council statement that condemns the air strikes hitting a refugee camp in the Idlib province in Syria.

An Ukrinform correspondent learned this from Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations.

"Russia has blocked a draft press statement in the UN Security Council regarding the airstrikes on refugee camps in the Syrian province of Idlib on May 5," the mission said.

The Russian side has explained it considered the situation "unclear."

The draft press statement of the Security Council expressed deep concerns about the reports of civilian deaths in the Syrian refugee camps on May 5. The document urged all sides to respect the norms of international humanitarian law and human rights, and to immediately start investigation of the airstrikes.

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Our training mission in Ukraine is a mutually beneficial project, Canadians have much to learn from Ukrainians

The last two years have shown that Canada is one of the closest friends of Ukraine even despite huge distance between two countries. It is consistently ranked as one of the top three countries in the world in terms of the amount of assistance to Ukraine. Though regarding the speed of response to critical requests of Kyiv, Canada is probably the world champion. However, in addition to valuable financial and material resources, such as soft loans, tens of thousands of military footwear and uniforms, means for demining, goggles, night vision devices, mobile hospitals and lots of other very useful equipment, Canada also conveys its priceless experience. Thus, for more than 6 months around 200 Canadian Armed Forces personnel have been training Ukrainian soldiers at International Peacekeeping and Security Centre in Starychi and Demining Centre in Kamyanets-Podilsky.

Ukrinform had an exclusive opportunity to interview the Joint Task ForceUkraine Commander of Operation UNIFIER, Canadas training mission in Ukraine Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Arsenault.

TRAINING IS CONSTANTLY ADAPTED TO THE NEEDS OF THE FRONTLINE

Canadian military training mission in Ukraine has undergone one rotation already. Have you changed your training course since previous group left Ukraine?

Of course the training is adjusted to theneeds of Ukrainian partners. Compared to how our programme was build before - it has certainly evolved.We are maintaining contacts with Ukrainian soldiers who have been trained here so that they can provide us with lessons learned and we then adapt our training to their needs.

Do you hear back how useful your training is on a real battlefield?

Yes. We are currently completing our second training block. Few weeks ago we had an opportunity to meet with the leadership of the battalion that was here on a first block.They were able to give us a lot of feedback on the training that theyve received here and how useful it was for them. It was a great talk that helped us update our programme.

Does Ukrainian training mission differ from other similar Canadian missions abroad?

This mission is a little different for us. For example, when we were doing training in Afghanistan, we were starting from zero with military forces that were essentially civilians joining new military units. Whereas here in Ukraine the soldiers are experienced, many of them have already been to combat, in a lot of cases they have experience thats very different from ours. It is a mutually beneficial mission. We are trying to show Ukrainian soldiers how to do their work differently, offer them diverse options and try to improve proficiency. At the same time we are very open to learning new lessons from them as well.

What exactly can Canadian soldiers learn from Ukrainian counterparts?

Ukrainian army is different from Canadian in many different ways. While we are able to teach such skills as the marksmanship, junior leadership, navigation techniques or first aid, lessons that Ukrainian soldiers bring back are as well important. Canada hasnt experienced the kind of operationsUAF are currently conducting and thatknowjedgde is very useful to us.

PATRIOTISM AND PROFESSIONALISM OF UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS ARE IMPRESSIVE

You are training Ukrainian soldiers to better use their own weapons, but how can you combine Canadian Western tactics and Ukrainian mainly Soviet equipment?

The equipment actually isnt really an important factor when we talk about interoperability.Canada has many allies, whichuse different types of equipment that we dont necessarily have. Where it becomes very important is to be able to talk and plan together. but this crucial factor is not equipment related. There are no real issues regarding differences in equipment.

Have you already formed your own opinion about Ukrainian military personnel?

Ever since we got here in Ukraine, I was quick to notice that Ukrainian culture is very similar to our,we share same values. Two things that have struck me the most are the strong patriotism and professionalism of Ukrainian soldiers that weve been working with. They are very good and they want to be even better! They are also very proud and truly appreciate the training that we provide. In the short period of time that weve been training,Ukrainian soldiers quicklymade a significant progress.

What are the strongest sides of Ukrainian soldiers?

They are very physically strong and have a high morale, even though theyve been serving for a certain amount of time already. Young Ukrainians have a very strong leadership and a lot of potential. I would say, thats probably their biggest strength and thats what we are trying to build on.

OUR CONTRACTS WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES WORTH $4 MLN

Did you have a chance to communicate with locals? How do they react on the presence of Canadian military?

There are a lot of contacts with local population. Recently we did a fundraising activity for the Dzherelo rehabilitation centre in Lviv:soldiers raised money, went to the centre and donated for the children.We are trying to show the community that we are here to support Ukraine. In the end thats what Canada wants to show Ukraine. Also most of our sustainment is based on local contract system so we invest significant amount of money in the local economy to run our mission. As of today weve signed contracts with local businesses worth of around $4 mln.

Do you have people of Ukrainian descent in your team? Do they feel anything special about this mission?

Yes, we do have some Ukrainian descendants. Their language skills arevery useful for our mission. So it is good to have them with us. They also provide advices on cultural issues: the differences between our Christmases or Easters and things like that.

There are more than 200 CAF personnel in Starychi and Kamyanets-Podilsky. Is it enough to perform necessary tasks?

I would say it is, because even very few people are able to make a significant difference. To use the example of something that really pays of is our first day training when we had only 5 Canadians, who trained over 250 Ukrainians. Overall even with a very small number of personnel we are able to organize training process efficiently.

UKRAINIAN TROOPS SHOW PROGRESS EVERY SINGLE DAY

Do you only train personnel or do you also give your advice on the reform of UAF?

We do provide advice but at the tactical level. In particular here, in Starychiwe offered our views on howtraining centre can be further developed. We currently dont have any senior advisers doing institutional development, which is addressed at the strategic or governmental level. All advices we provide are on the level of a leadership we work with on a daily basis.

Can you see the differences in the level of initial training of Ukrainian soldiers? Is there a unit that is markedly better prepared than others?

Im not able to point the unitthat is better prepared. But I can tell you, that there is a tangible difference on proficiency and overall performance from when students arrive to when they leave. That is very encouraging for our personnel.

What is your opinion on Ukrainian military motorised vehicles?

BMP-2 was a very interesting piece of equipment to me because it was something that we would study inschool and not necessarily see in person. It is very interesting for us, Canadian soldiers to train with the equipment that we have here. What attracts me the most though is how good Ukrainian soldiers are at maintaining theirequipment.It has been around for some time but is still in perfect working conditions thanks to the way soldiers are maintaining it.

There are also military personnel from the UK and the US doing training in Ukraine at the moment. How do you divide your duties?

We are all working under the auspices of the Multinational Joint Commission. Every few months there are meetings where coordination happens at that level, but we all stay in contact almost on a daily basis to better do our job. Thecooperation is very good. We stand united for Ukraine, and it is important to have that typeof an approach if you want to make a difference in the country.

BASIC SKILLS IN FIRST AID SHOULD BE IMPROVED

Except of what your team is currently teaching Ukrainians, what additional knowledge are they lacking?

The point that we message the most with the senior leadership in Ukrainian army is the necessity to developjunior leadership, empower them and delegate responsibilities that are kept on a very high level here. We are trying to show Ukrainians that if they want to have military that is interoperable with Western armies, they have to delegate those responsibilities to lower levels and trust their junior leadership. It is really important to move forward.

There are quite a few volunteer organisations in Ukraine that provide a medical military training. Do soldiers that are coming to the training camp now have more knowledge on that matter than their predecessors?

Generally speaking the basic knowledge in first aid is very low. The most problematic though are the equipment and the means to evacuate wounded that are often not available to Ukrainian soldiers. But still they leave our hands much more skilled.

Do you still provide your students with individual medical kits?

Yes, every single Ukrainian soldier that has been trained by Canadian medic receives a first aid kit. And it is exactly the same as our own individual medical kits.

Do you take into consideration crucial differences in logistics between Canadian and Ukrainian military? What is possible in Canada not always can be done in Ukraine.

Yes, absolutely, but Canadian military is small and sometimes has to deal with what is available. So we are able to give different option to Ukrainian partners based on the equipment that is available to them.

What does Canadian Armed Forces personnel feel about their job in Ukraine?

Canadian soldiers are really proud to work in Ukraine. We dont feel we are not at home even despite the distance. Ukrainians are great hosts, theyve been very hospitable. By participation in this mission we are helping to developmodernised and capable Ukrainian forces and we are seeingthe real results in that respect. Overall, it is a fantastic mission and a great experience for us.

Maksym Nalyvaiko, Ottawa.
Could have it been possible to restore gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Ukraine and to Europe in general?

In the new work of the Centre for Global Studies "Strategy XXI" "Putin Hybression" we focus on crypto-war (from the Greek - hidden, secret, encrypted) Russia against Ukraine. It was conducted a long time and was preceded by a hybrid type of aggression. The main front of the crypto-war was gas one. Russia fully used hypertrophied high gas dependence of Ukraines economy. The main supplier of gas to Ukraine was Turkmenistan, which the country had an appropriate intergovernmental agreement.

Starting point of early stage energy crypto-war was 2003, when Russia interrupted direct gas relations between Ukraine and Turkmenistan. April 10th, 2003 in Moscow President of Turkmenistan was forced under pressure from Putin to sign a 25-year agreement on all contracting amounts of natural gas produced in Turkmenistan for "Gazprom". Saparmurat Niyazov subsequently rejected Leonid Kuchma for prolongation of the intergovernmental agreement on Turkmen gas supply to Ukraine, saying, no free volumes and address Russia. Masterfully created a problem for Ukraine, in a year Russia offered its "solution". It was "Rosukrenergo" (RUE) scheme that maximized Ukraines gas dependence on Russia and created corrupt mechanisms of Kremlin's influence on countrys political leadership. Gas relations between Ukraine and Turkmenistan have been updated, but the main playmaker for them was the Kremlin, acting through the mechanism of transnational gas corruption - partnership "Gazprom" - RUE.

Kyiv has repeatedly tried to resume direct gas relations with Ashgabat, taking advantage of varying opportunities. Another attempt was made in 2016. Because "Gazprom" announced the early termination of 25-years contract signed in 2003 from the beginning of the year. That was a hypothetical possibility to resume purchasing Turkmen gas, which no longer was necessary for Russia. And not just unnecessary but also one that prevents Gazprom in the context of low prices for hydrocarbons. In Russian logic, competitors must be destroyed. Therefore, the refusal of Russia from its obligations for Turkmens gas purchase is not just a consequence of unfavorable business conditions in the energy markets, but also action to defeat a competitor who is Turkmenistan for Russia, given its gas potential.

Updating of Turkmens gas import by Ukraine would assist Turkmenistan in its rather difficult economic situation. But despite the visit of President of Ukraine to Turkmenistan in October 2015, a breakthrough in relations did not happen. What was the reason? Of course, that Turkmen gas can go to Ukraine so far only through Russia. Russia also does not want to provide freedom of transit for it, even though it is contrary to WTO rules. But the problems are not only for renovation of gas relations between Ukraine and Turkmenistan, they arose across the whole spectrum of bilateral economic relations. In the mid-90s, Ukraine, buying the bulk of Turkmenistan's natural gas was trading partner 1 for the Central Asian countries. Now Ukraine barely visible in the structure of foreign trade of Turkmenistan - less than 1%.

One of the main causes of significant reduction in the activity of bilateral Ukrainian-Turkmen cooperation, observed in 2016, is increasing pressure on the leadership of Turkmenistan by the Russian Federation, which continues the policy of economic isolation of Ukraine to the breakdown of the country during the protracted aggression hybrid type.

State of Turkmen-Ukrainian trade on the results of the 1st quarter of 2016 demonstrates a serious fall. The main exports to Turkmenistan from Ukraine in the pre-war period (2013) was the production of steel industry, agriculture, engineering, chemical and wood industries. Imports of goods from Turkmenistan to Ukraine in 2013 consisted mainly of wool, cotton, textile and petroleum products. For the 1st quarter of 2016 bilateral trade amounted was $21.5million, whereas in the same period in 2015 it was $52.2million. This means that it can not even achieve a $100 million level later in the year. For comparison - the turnover in prewar 2013 was $495.8 million. Exports of goods in 2013 amounted to $395.3million. Imports - $100.5 million. The balance of trade was positive for Ukraine - $294.8 million. It should be noted that in the mid-90s turnover was approximately $1 billion, and in mid-2000s - nearly $3.5 billion.

The main factor of Russian Federation influence Turkmenistan is speculation on the possibility of recovering the purchase of natural gas. The issue is sensitive for Turkmenistan, because of suspension of Russian gas imports. This has led to a shortage of funds for large-scale projects planned by Turkmen leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. Turkmenistan would fail to receive about $2 billion in 2016, comparing to 2015. Ashgabat may succumb to Russian pressure. Indirect evidence of this is the removal of Turkmen Presidents tacit ban on trade with Russian companies, which was introduced after a sharp decline in purchases of Russian natural gas since January 2015. Removing the ban was conducted after the visit of delegation from Moscow headed by Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Pryhodko to Turkmenistan in late March this year. During the Russian and Turkmen talks guests from Moscow pointed to political and economic instability in Ukraine and in this regard expediency of Turkmenistan and Russias cooperation development. Two Turkmen-Russian business forums that took place in Ashgabat and Yekaterinburg at intervals of several days in late March were indicative.

As a result of these actions of Russian Federation, the state of Ukrainian-Turkmen relations significantly deteriorated by creating artificial obstacles to the activities of Ukrainian companies in Turkmenistan.

"Altcom" that implements Turkmenistan large-scale infrastructure projects worth $1.3 billion has found itself in situations of force to abandon the airport complex construction project in Turkmenabat, which total value is $477,4 million. The main reason is financial debt from Turkmenistan for actually performed works. At the beginning of April debt to the company for performed and accepted works is $24.6 million and $145.9 million. for works actually performed, but "artificially" not accepted  the acts of acceptance were not signed. At the same time the Turkmen side continues to exert pressure on the Ukrainian company trying to reclaim the project to the construction of the airport in Dasoguz, which is completed by 85%.

"Azovzahalmash" won a tender to supply for the needs of "Turkmenhimiya" 20 rail tankers for transportation of sulfuric acid (contract amount is $1.3 million) in February 2016, and the end of March 2016 the company was reported of a change in the decision allegedly because of violation of tenders bidding rules . The Turkmen side gave the contract the Russian company "Uralvagonzavod."

According to previously reached agreements "Eurasian Pipeline Consortium" should have been supplier of large diameter pipe products for pipeline Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI). However, without any explanation the pipeline tubular goods are bought from Russian "Vyksunsk metallurgical plant".

In general, the debt to Ukrainian companies working in Turkmenistan ("EATK", "Altcom", "Interbudmontazh" "Severodonetsk factory of non-chemical equipment", "Fakel", "Sumy Machine Building Research and Production Association", "Universal drilling rigs", " Kompresormash") from the Turkmen government organizations by April 2016 was about $274 million.

Despite the agreements reached on the opening of direct air, the company "Ukraine International Airlines' (UIA) on March 16th, 2016 the sixth time was denied registration offices and permission for direct flights from Ukraine to Turkmenistan.

Also the process of preparing for signing an intergovernmental agreement on the program of the Turkmen-Ukrainian military-technical cooperation for 2016-2017 years is slowing. These processes have led to the postponement of the 5th session of the intergovernmental Ukrainian-Turkmen commission on economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation. The dates of the meeting are still not certain. The leadership of Turkmenistan intends to postpone indefinitely the visit of President Berdymuhamedov to Ukraine that would take place in late May - early June.

Thus, it can be traced that the deterioration of Ukrainian-Turkmen relations is directly related to the active work of the Russian Federation aimed at harming Ukraine in the sphere of international economic and political cooperation.

Could have it been possible to restore gas supplies from Turkmenistan to Ukraine and to the whole of Europe? Hypothetically, yes. It was the case in the past, besides the technical possibilities of gas transportation system of Central Asia - Center stores. But this requires consolidated international efforts, which is pressure on Russia from the EU. Instead of wondering how to give the "green light" to "North Stream - 2" project, the European Commission would put strict condition: any discussion of this proposal will be possible only after unlocking the transit of Central Asian gas to Europe. But Brussels, which is so concerned about the diversification of sources and routes of gas stay silent. And the Ukrainian side does not seek accomplices in this case. The last thing looks rather strange. Therefore, "Gazprom" and its vassal in Europe feel quite confident as that Turkmen gas will no come to Europe as there is no alternative to the "Nord Stream -2".

Mykhailo Gonchar, President of the Centre for Global Studies "Strategy XXI"
Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan says the Islamic Republic sees no limits to holding military maneuvers in its territorial waters in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran makes no claims on any grounds in coastal, regional and trans-boundary waters beyond international demarcation lines," Dehqan said on Saturday.

He added that Iran has the right to defend its airspace, land and waters and will "allow no one to carry out any act of aggression."

"We have no limitations to holding military plans and those who came [to the region] from thousands of kilometers away and claim to establish security in the region must know that their presence is a source of insecurity," he pointed out.

The Iranian defense minister's remarks came after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on May 2 that Iran must show off its military power to the US in the Persian Gulf waters.

"The Persian Gulf coast and much of the coasts of the Sea of Oman belong to this powerful [Iranian] nation, therefore we have to be present in this region, [stage] maneuvers and show off our power," the Leader said.

He emphasized that this is while Iran contributes to stability and sustainable security in the region

In recent years, Iran has made major breakthroughs in its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in the production of important military equipment and systems.

The country has also conducted major military drills to enhance the defense capabilities of its armed forces and to test modern military tactics and state-of-the-art equipment.

The Islamic Republic maintains that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence.
President Hassan Rouhani underlined development, consolidation and deepening of bilateral ties between Tehran and Ashgabat, IRNA reported.

According to the report of the Presidential Office on Saturday, President Rouhani made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov.

Rouhani said that the two countries have had joint successful cooperation with each other and this should be expanded in line with interests of the two nations.

Iran, as a gate to connect Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf and southern waters and Turkmenistan as an access gate to the Central Asian states and even east of Asia, should try to develop and strengthen all-out ties with each other, the president said.

President Rouhani said that the two countries may develop cooperation in Caspian Sea, protection of environment in the region, assisting to compile and accelerate legal regime of the Caspian Sea.

Fight against drug trafficking, establishment of security and stability in the region, confrontation with the terrorist and extremist groups are among other fields of cooperation, Rouhani added.

President Rouhani also underlined the need for multilateral cooperation between Iran, Turkmenistan and other countries of the region, and said that multilateral cooperation will lead to development of economic relations, strengthening stability, unity and consolidation among regional states.

Meredov conveyed greetings of Turkmenistan president to his Iranian counterpart and by referring to cultural and historical commonalties between the two nations, called for all-out development of ties between Tehran and Ashgabat.

He appreciated Iran's supports for Turkmenistan in regional and international circles and organizations and underlined the necessity to use all capacities and opportunities for cooperation in direction of all-out ties upon good neighborliness, equality and common interests.

Meredov said that fight against terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking has always been emphasized by senior officials of Iran and Turkmenistan.
Union Pacific Plans to Invest $83 Million in its Arkansas Rail Infrastructure

Union Pacific plans to invest $83 million in 2016 to improve Arkansas' transportation infrastructure. The company's multi-million dollar private investment will enhance employee, community and customer safety and increase rail operating efficiency. Freight railroads like Union Pacific operate on track built and maintained without taxpayer funds. Union Pacific's private investments sustain jobs and ensure the company meets growing demand for products used in the American economy.

Union Pacific's planned investment covers a range of initiatives: $73 million to maintain railroad track and $9 million to maintain bridges in the state. Key projects planned this year include:

$10 million investment in the rail line between Mulberry and Van Buren to replace 21 miles of rail.

$10 million investment in the rail line between Brinkley and Pine Bluff to replace 73,237 railroad ties and install 49,140 tons of rock ballast.

$9 million investment in the rail line between Pine Bluff and Grady to replace 18 miles of rail.

This year's planned $83 million capital expenditure in Arkansas is part of an ongoing investment strategy. From 2011 to 2015, Union Pacific invested more than $753 million strengthening Arkansas' transportation infrastructure.

"We constantly evaluate our customers' needs to make targeted investments that enhance our efficiency and deliver the goods American businesses and families use daily," said Brenda Mainwaring, Union Pacific vice president - Public Affairs, Southern Region. "Continuing to aggressively invest in our infrastructure is an important element in Union Pacific's unwavering safety commitment."

Union Pacific plans to spend $3.75 billion across its network this year, following investments totaling approximately $33 billion from 2006-2015. These investments contributed to a 25 percent decrease in derailments over the last 10 years.

ABOUT UNION PACIFIC

Union Pacific Railroad is the principal operating company of Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE: UNP). One of America's most recognized companies, Union Pacific Railroad connects 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country by rail, providing a critical link in the global supply chain. From 2006-2015, Union Pacific invested approximately $33 billion in its network and operations to support America's transportation infrastructure. The railroad's diversified business mix includes Agricultural Products, Automotive, Chemicals, Coal, Industrial Products and Intermodal. Union Pacific serves many of the fastest-growing U.S. population centers, operates from all major West Coast and Gulf Coast ports to eastern gateways, connects with Canada's rail systems and is the only railroad serving all six major Mexico gateways. Union Pacific provides value to its roughly 10,000 customers by delivering products in a safe, reliable, fuel-efficient and environmentally responsible manner.

The statements and information contained in the news releases provided by Union Pacific speak only as of the date issued. Such information by its nature may become outdated, and investors should not assume that the statements and information contained in Union Pacific's news releases remain current after the date issued. Union Pacific makes no commitment, and disclaims any duty, to update any of this information.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says 13 of its military advisers have been killed and 21 others wounded in Syria in recent days, Press TV reported.

In a statement on Saturday, the IRGC said the forces were all from Iran's northern province of Mazandaran.

It added that they were killed and injured in the town of Khan Tuman, located in the southwest of the Syrian province of Aleppo.

The statement said the identity of the victims would be released later.

On Thursday, the Syrian army troops delivered a major blow to al-Nusra Front terrorists after the latter launched an attack on the government forces in Khan Tuman.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Friday, dozens of the Takfiri terrorists as well as government forces lost their lives during the heavy fighting.

The UK-based group further claimed that the Takfiri militants had managed to retake Khan Tuman and its surrounding villages from the army troops.

The Syrian military is yet to confirm reports about Khan Tuman's fall into the hands of the terrorists. The Syrian armed forces had driven the terrorist out of Khan Tuman in December.

Iran maintains military advisers in Syria, where the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is fighting an array of foreign-backed militant forces, including, but not limited to, those of the Daesh terrorist group.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has furthermore displaced over half of Syria's pre-war population of about 23 million.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iran has invited Leonardo DiCaprio, famous Hollywood star and environmentalists to visit Iran to see the latest situation of the country's Lake Urmia.

After DiCaprio posted a warning message on his Instagram account, about the decline of Lake Urmia, Hadi Bahadori, head of the Western Azerbaijan Province's Committee for the Restoration of Lake Urmia invited him to visit the drying lake, Mehr news agency reported.

Two days ago DiCaprio posted a picture of the lake, located in Iran's West Azerbaijan province and wrote "A dilapidated ship dock remains on dried up Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. It used to be the biggest salt lake in the Middle East, but it now contains five percent of the amount of water it did two decades ago due to climate change, dam construction and decrease in precipitiation."

DiCaprio's move was welcomed by many Iranian figures including environmentalists, climate change activists and officials.

Bahadori, who is also an MP from Urmia constituency expressed his appreciation for DiCaprio's concerns and invited him to visit the lake.

He expressed hope that these kinds of social movements will trigger a significant rise in sensitivity and cooperation among people across the world towards the lake, the Iranian official said.

Bahadori further said that global movement to save the world's second largest saline lake will be very promising and fruitful.

Lake Urmia is in the northwest of Iran. Over 70 percent of its area has dried up. The level has been declining since 1995. Its area is about 6,000 square kilometers. Lake Urmia needs 3.1 billion cubic meters of water per year to survive.

The lake water contains high amounts of salt and other minerals. If the lake dries out, these can be carried over adjacent areas by wind, causing serious hazards. President Hassan Rouhani has set up a working group for saving Lake Urmia.

Recent heavy rains and initiatives such as the release of water from other lakes and the channeling of rivers to Urmia have recently resulted in a relative rise in its water levels.

It should be noted that Worried about environmental issues, DiCaprio set up the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation in 1998, to promote environmental awareness and later in 2014, he was appointed as a United Nations representative on climate change.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Assemblyman Mike Gatto has scheduled an emergency hearing on widespread problems with the Frontier Communications takeover of Verizon's television, Internet and landline phone services last month, which impacted Ventura County and other parts of Southern California. Gatto chairs the state Assembly committee that oversees utilities.

By Gretchen Wenner of the Ventura County Star

When an Oxnard eye surgeon's phones died this week after Frontier Communications took over services, it was more than an inconvenience.

Patients could go blind or worse, he said, if his office couldn't be reached.

"If they were to get an infection after surgery, they need to reach me right away," said Dr. Lee Wan, president and medical director of Coastal Eye Specialists. "They had no way of doing that."

Nor could a hospital emergency room contact him if a patient made it to the ER, he said Friday. What's more, the seven-line phone system, which was down for more than two days, couldn't forward the clinic's calls to an answering service.

A state lawmaker Friday announced a hearing on Frontier after similar complaints continue in Ventura County and across Southern California. Outages persist more than a month after Frontier took over Internet, television and landline phone services from Verizon Communications.

Assemblyman Mike Gatto, a Democrat from Los Angeles who chairs the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, set the hearing for 1:30 p.m. May 18 in Sacramento. It will be streamed live on the California Channel.

"We've got to figure out: How did this happen?" Gatto said Friday. "We had a large number of meetings with them before the transition," he said, and the company assured regulators it would go smoothly.

Customers instead have experienced "severe" telephone, Internet and cable outages since April 1, when Frontier took over services, his announcement notes, including reports of residents unable to call 911, home security alarms not working and, in Oxnard, City Council meetings that couldn't be streamed live.

Frontier, with headquarters in Connecticut, took over Verizon's fiber-optic system known as FiOS in California, Texas and Florida last month in a $10.5 billion deal announced in early 2015. The switch affects about 3.3 million residential and business customers.

Thousands of complaints in all three states  of outages and abysmal customer service, including no-show technicians and hours on hold  have lit up Twitter and Facebook feeds and spawned the hashtag #FrontierFail, among others.

The California Public Utilities Commission received 584 complaints about Frontier in April through the 29th, the agency said Friday. By comparison, it received 146 about Verizon for all of 2015.

Frontier, however, continues to insist the transition has gone well.

"I'm proud to say it has been very successful," said Dan McCarthy, Frontier's chief executive, in a quarterly earnings call Tuesday.

McCarthy acknowledged "some issues at the outset" that affected "less than 1 percent of our customers," and some disappointed customers who "resulted in some negative publicity."

"We now have these issues resolved and behind us," McCarthy said Tuesday.

The Public Utilities Commission said Thursday it had coordinated with Frontier and Verizon before the deal's close on March 31 to ensure compliance with the regulatory agency's approval of the transaction.

"Frontier has reported to the CPUC that voice and 911 services transitioned without disruption," Thursday's statement reads. "However, some customers have experienced service disruptions associated with broadband connections and video content, which Frontier is continuing to address."

There have been widespread media and social media reports of telephone outages since April 1, including six previous stories in The Star alone, with customers including the Camarillo YMCA and multiple businesses and residential users. A commission spokeswoman said the agency's statement was based on "what Frontier has told us." The agency is planning a workshop on the transition issues.

"The problem is they're a disaster, and they're trying to cover it up," said industry consultant Michael Bremmer of Telecomquotes.com in Orange County.

Bremmer said Verizon wouldn't let Frontier access its system before the actual turnover.

"It makes no sense," he said. The good news, he added, is that some of the logjam is starting to clear.

For some customers who have had services restored, anger lingers over charges.

Newbury Park resident Cathleen Niday lost phone, Internet and TV services for the better part of a month. She was promised a credit on her bill during one call and given a confirmation number.

"Frontier has no record of that promise, even though I had the name of the person and the confirmation number," she wrote in an email last week.

Niday has since received a credit calculation that doesn't cover a month's loss of service and also doesn't make up for missed work, missed appointments and many hours spent resolving the problem, she said Friday.

"I just got a giant bill from them," said Alyson Dutch, who runs a public relations company from a rural Malibu office that is out of cellphone range.

She lost Internet service, which the firm relies on for phone and email access, for "five miserable, horrible days" last month, she said, shortly before the firm was to produce an event in New York City. At one point, she had been promised a free month of service.

Wan, the eye surgeon, emailed The Star on Wednesday.

"We have spent hours trying to reach Frontier customer service," he wrote, "and the best they can tell us is they won't even investigate it until next week."

By chance, Gatto's office issued its first statement on Frontier that day, saying the lawmaker would hold a hearing if problems continued.

Wan's email was forwarded to Gatto, then to Frontier. Technicians jumped in and had fixed the doctor's phones by Thursday.


The tequila was flowing and patrons were dancing as social media personality and international model Jessa Hinton partied the night away for Cinco de Mayo at Tacos and Tequila in the Luxor Hotel and Casino last night (Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / www.j3photo.net).

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / www.j3photo.net.

Hinton, best known for roles in Comedy Centrals Tosh.0 as well as the popular drama series Baywatch, attended the event in a form fitting baby blue dress and nude strappy heels. Hinton was accompanied by boyfriend, Sam Asghari.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / www.j3photo.net.

Fans lined the red carpet as the model arrived, anxiously awaiting their turn to have her sign their Hinton memorabilia. Hinton graciously posed for dozens of photos with fans after walking the red carpet with the cast members of Excaliburs male revue, Thunder from Down Under and the ladies of FANTASY, Luxors award-winning adult revue.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / www.j3photo.net.

While inside the venue, decorated with pinatas, sombreros and maracas, the model danced around while pouring shots of El Jimador tequila in the mouths of excited guests celebrating the holiday, Las Vegas-style. After enjoying tacos and drinks, Hinton started a conga line that snaked throughout the restaurant, getting people up and out of their seats to join the fun.

Photo credit: Jeff Ragazzo / www.j3photo.net.

Throughout the night, Hinton was posting photos and videos of the party on Snapchat and Twitter.


Las Vegas popular dayclub party, Ditch Fridays inside Palms Casino Resort, kicked off their season opener in style with hip hop artist, Yo Gotti (Pictured: Yo Gotti and Hazel E  Photo Credit: Joe Fury).

Photo Credit: Joe Fury.

A little wet weather didnt dampen the party spirit, as the dayparty moved from Palms Pool & Dayclub to Rain Nightclub, where hundreds of partygoers went wild to see the performer and social media sensation, Kirill Was Here, best known for his champagne facials, who hosts the party each week throughout May and June.

Photo Credit: Joe Fury.

Also spotted enjoying the Ditch Fridays festivities was Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood star, Hazel E, who turned heads in a sheer nude two-piece Angel Brinks bathing suit cover up and gold bikini.

Photo Credit: Joe Fury.

After taking the stage to perform hits including Down in the DM and The Law, Yo Gotti posed for photos with fans, even grabbing a handful of admirers phones to give them a special shoutout on their Snapchat.

Yo Gotti captured his afternoon at Ditch Fridays and Palms on his own Snapchat account throughout the afternoon (@IamYoGottiKOM.)


Selena Gomez arrived at her official Revival Tour kick off after party at Light Nightclub at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on May 06, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada (Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage).

Photo credit: Denise Truscello / WireImage.


Public House, an American gastropub located in The Grand Canal Shoppes at The Venetian, will celebrate Fathers Day with a prix fixe menu and beer pairing priced at $48 per person and half-priced Drafts for Dads on Sunday, June 17.

Fathers will begin the three-course meal with the Scotch egg made with barley wine sausage and topped with bacon-mustard sauce paired with a Firestone Double Barrel Ale. The main-course will feature Public Houses mouthwatering short rib made with sweet peat potato puree and IPA battered onion rings paired with a smooth Deschutes Black Butte Porter. For the final course, fathers will indulge in the sweet Chocolate Stout Layer Cake made with malted milk ice cream and caramelized bacon rice crispies and paired with Big Dogs Tyrone! My Man! Black IPA.

Public House will offer half off all draft beers for dads all day long in honor of their special day.
In late April, Korean Dawon Vina Co., Ltd. proposed the management board to license the additional sum of $6.6 million to its existing $1 million investment capital, however, the management board refused due to the companys continuous losses, as well as the proposed additional capitals unclear purposes.

According to the management board, Dawon Vina has yet to prove its hale finances and submit its 2014 financial report. Furthermore, in its application for a new investment certificate, the company failed to outline the purposes and specific plans for its operations once approved.

In 2015, a fire broke out at the company, destroying its paint warehouse, furniture, machinery, and electronic component products. It was considered the major reason for the companys losses, leading to a narrowing down of its operations in 2015.

The added capital is considered to be used for the recovery and expansion of the companys operation.

Starting operation in February 2011, Dawon Vina is a wholly Korean-owned company. It specialises in manufacturing electronic components.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Friday confirmed that its first-quarter profit rose 8 percent, while operating results fell short of analyst forecasts as falling oil prices and coal demand hurt its BNSF railroad unit, Reuters reported.

The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate, which has close to 90 operating units, also said its book value per share, measuring assets minus liabilities and Buffett's preferred gauge of growth, rose 1.2 percent from year end.

Net income rose to $5.59 billion, or $3,401 per Class A share, from $5.16 billion, or $3,143 per share, a year earlier.

Operating profit fell 12 percent to $3.74 billion, or $2,274 per Class A share, from $4.24 billion, or $2,583 per share.

Analysts on average had expected operating profit of about $2,759 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, before Berkshire released preliminary results at its annual meeting in Omaha on April 30.

Results suffered as falling oil prices and lower demand for coal contributed to a 25 percent drop in profit at BNSF to $784 million, as overall volume fell 5.5 percent.

Freight revenue from industrial products such as petroleum fell 18 percent, and from coal tumbled 39 percent.
Under the draft resolution, the country will have one million enterprises by the year 2020. The private sector will contribute about 48-49 per cent to GDP, and investment from people and private enterprises will account for 49 per cent of total investment. - VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

"The resolution will contribute to protect the business rights of enterprises as per the laws and wipe out hurdles and sub-licenses, which are really burdens refraining the development of the business community," said Phuc.

Speaking at the meeting, the leader affirmed that the resolution will not discriminate between business sectors, and that foreign direct investment, State-owned and private enterprises will all be treated equally.

The Party, State and Government considered private business as a motivation to improve the competitiveness and independence of the country's economy, he said.

Under the draft resolution, the country will have one million enterprises by the year 2020. The private sector will contribute about 48-49 per cent to GDP, and investment from people and private enterprises will account for 49 per cent of total investment.

The resolution focuses on five major tasks and measures including administrative procedural reform, the build-up of a favourable business environment, ensuring business rights and equality in business opportunity and approaches to human resources, the reduction of business fees, and the protection of legal rights and benefits of enterprises.

Notably, under the resolution, chairmen of cities and provincial People's Committees will have to organise monthly dialogues with the business and investor community and set up hotlines and online Q&A meetings.

The chairmen must also take responsibility to the Government for staff management violations including any negative acts of corruption and bureaucracy.

The resolution mentions credit assistance measures for small- and medium-sized businesses and start-up enterprises. According to Vu Tien Loc, chairman of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the first target of the resolution was to strengthen belief and trust in businesses.

"The No1 important target of the resolution is to create belief and trust in the business community," Loc said.

In addition, the resolution should focus on solving difficult issues raised in the recent meeting between enterprises and the Prime Minister, Loc said.

He suggested the resolution should be supplemented and adjusted every year.

The chamber chairman also proposed that the resolution should focus on developing private enterprises as well accelerating the restructure of State-owned businesses.

The cabinet agreed with the targets and tasks mentioned in the resolution.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said, "The resolution must express a main point: that enterprises should put their trust in the State and vice versa." He also suggested that the Vietnam General Federation of Labour should act as a representative of employees as the VCCI does for employers.

According to the deputy Prime Minister, along with administrative procedural reform, the resolution must focus on measures for developing markets of capital, labour and real estate so as to effectively support business development.

He recommended setting up criteria for assessing business development effectiveness.

Concluding the meeting, PM Phuc asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment  the resolution compiler  to collect opinions so as to complete the resolution and submit it to the Government next week for approval.
Minister Kishida and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh on Friday attended a signing ceremony marking the Japanese governments official development assistance (ODA) for the Ho Chi Minh City water improvement project, worth JPY20.967 billion ($196 million).

The Japanese official started his visit on Thursday and is scheduled to conclude it later today.

The Japanese official on the same day joined Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung in signing a deal to provide JPY500 million ($4.6 million) in non-refundable aid to help Hanoi with medical equipment.

A similar ceremony was also attended by Kishida and Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha to pledge support for Vietnams project on human resource development worth JPY390 million ($3.6 million).

Prior to the events, Kishida and Minh chaired the eighth meeting session of the Vietnam-Japan cooperation committee on Friday.

During a press conference following the gathering, Deputy PM Minh said that the result of the meeting would contribute to the enhancement of the two nations comprehensive strategic partnership in the future.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (L) shakes hand with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh at a press meeting in Hanoi on May 6, 2016.Photo: Tuoi Tre

The Vietnamese deputy head of government extended his gratitude to the Japanese government for its financial support for Vietnam in 2015 and hoped that more assistance would be provided in the coming years.

Tokyo is expected to help Hanoi figure out temporary and long-term solutions for the serious drought and salinization in central and southern Vietnam, according to Minh.

The two sides also agreed to continue introducing their agricultural and aquacultural products to each others market as well as together preparing for the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

The deputy premier requested Japan to create more favorable conditions in terms of visas for Vietnamese traveling to the East Asian country, which would encourage more people-to-people exchanges.

Minister Kishida promised that his country would continue to support Vietnams social-economic development by providing assistance for projects on infrastructure, boosting competitiveness, improving human resources, and responding to climate change.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and chairman and CEO of Global Gaming Asset Management and principal of Weidner Holdings William Weidner.- Photo VNA/VNS

He also pledged the best-possible conditions for foreign investors, including those from the United States.

At a reception for a delegation of US investors led by William Weidner, chairman and CEO of Global Gaming Asset Management and principal of Weidner Holdings, in Ha Noi on Wednesday, the Prime Minister hailed the performance of US businesses in Viet Nam and their contributions to promoting the relationship between the two countries.

The Prime Minister said the Viet Nam National Assembly was considering the approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which was expected to boost collaboration between businesses of the two nations.

Expressing delight at the fruitful development of bilateral ties in various areas, the host said the Vietnamese people were delighted to welcome US President Barack Obama to the country.

For his part, Weidner stressed the support of senators for US enterprises to operate in Viet Nam.

Highlighting the great opportunities afforded by the TPP deal, Weidner said US businesses wanted Viet Nam to become the world's investment attraction gateway.

At a meeting with Chairman of the HCM City People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong yesterday, several US groups delivered their intention to develop a large-scale project in the Thu Thiem new urban area in HCM City. They said the project targets to support the city's urban development and facilitate the growth of trade and financial services in Viet Nam.

During the talk, the US investors also proposed recommendations on investments.

Weidner said that after the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement was signed, many US enterprises wanted to seek investment and co-operation opportunities in the city.

All businesses that want to invest in the project in Thu Thiem have strong economic capacity and rich experience in building leisure centres all over the world, he stated.

According to him, the implementation of the project will help attract more direct investments from the world's leading financial groups, thus contributing to making HCM City a financial centre of the region.

For his part, Phong said that the city is doing its utmost to create a favourable environment for foreign investors.

Regarding the Thu Thiem project, he assigned the municipal Departments of Planning and Investment and Architectural Planning, and the Thu Thiem new urban area construction and investment management board to work with the US partners on specific contents.
Several issues of the newspaper dated Apr 4, 2016 about the "Panama Papers" with illustrations by German artist Peter Hoffmann are seen on Apr 7, 2016 in Munich, Germany. (Photo: AFP/Christof Stache)

BERLIN: The anonymous source behind the Panama Papers on Friday (May 6) offered a passionate explanation for the mega-leak, arguing that the corruption of the super-rich has broken capitalism and could spark revolution.

Calling himself "John Doe" - a common legal 'placeholder name' for a person unknown - the source offered to help authorities to bring tax cheats and other criminals to justice but voiced fears of meeting the fate of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden.

Writing in the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung - to which the original documents were leaked - 'John Doe' also stressed that "for the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have".

The Panama Papers are a trove of about 11.5 million leaked documents of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that reveal the large-scale use by firms and wealthy individuals of offshore shell companies that enable hiding assets from tax authorities.

The source's manifesto starts with the words "income inequality is one of the defining issues of our time" and blames it in large part on the "massive, pervasive corruption" of a wealthy global elite, aided by lawyers, politicians and the media.

"I decided to expose Mossack Fonseca because I thought its founders, employees and clients should have to answer for their roles in these crimes, only some of which have come to light thus far," wrote John Doe in an English-language text published by the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

"It will take years, possibly decades, for the full extent of the firm's sordid acts to become known."

'ECONOMIC SLAVERY'

In the manifesto, John Doe argued that "the collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery".

"In this system - our system - the slaves are unaware both of their status and of their masters, who exist in a world apart where the intangible shackles are carefully hidden amongst reams of unreachable legalese."

The source says that history shows how issues involving taxation and power imbalances have "led to revolutions in ages past" and predicts that "the next revolution will be digitised. Or perhaps it has already begun."

John Doe charged that "thousands of prosecutions could stem from the Panama Papers, if only law enforcement could access and evaluate the actual documents".

Unlike the media organisations involved, "I ... would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement to the extent that I am able", wrote the source.

"That being said, I have watched as one after another, whistleblowers and activists in the United States and Europe have had their lives destroyed by the circumstances they find themselves in after shining a light on obvious wrongdoing."

John Doe pointed to Snowden - the former US intelligence contractor behind the US National Security Agency leaks, now stranded in Moscow - arguing that "for his revelations about the NSA, he deserves a hero's welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment".

"Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop.

"Until governments codify legal protections for whistleblowers into law, enforcement agencies will simply have to depend on their own resources or on-going global media coverage for documents."
About $49.52 of this $247.6 million, equalling 20 per cent of the total investment capital, is the investors equity capital, while the remaining $198.08 million will come from loans.

Covering an over 2,400 hectare area of land and water surface, the plant will have 48 wind turbines, each rumbling with 2MW.

Once the plant comes into operation, it will, in collaboration with other wind power plants, contribute to ensuring the energy security for the Mekong Delta region in general and the province in particular, said Pham Van Re, deputy director of the Tra Vinh Economic Zone Management Authority.

The investor has proved its sound finances, however, the management authority will ask them to submit a specific implementation schedule. We will be willing to co-operate with the investor to deal with difficulties arising during the construction process, Re added.

In February, Woojin held the ground-breaking ceremony for the first phase of the Korea-Tra Vinh wind power plant. The $130 million first phase has a designed capacity of 48MW with 24 turbines, which will span over 1,200ha of land and water surface in Truong Long Hoa and Dan Thanh communes of Duyen Hai town.

Re stated that the first phases construction is being implemented on schedule. The management board is currently trying to hand over land for the investor to construct its administrative building.

The first phase is expected to start operation in February 2017 and generate an electrical output of over 173,000 MWh per year.
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Two Turkish journalists were sentenced to at least five years in jail for revealing state secrets on Friday, just hours after a gunman tried to shoot one of them outside the courthouse in Istanbul, Anadolu agency reported.

Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, who was unscathed in the shooting, was given five years and 10 months. Erdem Gul, the newspaper's Ankara bureau chief, was sentenced to five years.
A Cambodian flutist was selected to play in a prestigious orchestra performance at the National Cathedral in Washington last week in front of an audience of several hundred.

Panh Panhlauv, 15, came from Phnom Penh to study in the United States in 2012 is now in Grade 10. A flute player for 10 years already, Panh Panhlauv told VOA Khmer that he practices three times a day  at school, in private classes at home, and at weekly classes in Washington.

Music is really important for life because it teaches discipline and also helps your brain, because music makes us smarter and thats a scientific fact, he said.

Panh Panhlauv was chosen to play in this years High School Choir Festival for the first time as part of the D.C. Youth Orchestra Program. Parents, students and other audience members cheered and applauded after the performance.

The orchestras director, Mariano Vales, said that Panh Panhlauvs playing was at the highest level for both the flute and the clarinet.

We have seven orchestras and this is the top, which is the highest level in our own organization, he said. So for them is very important to play in this orchestra.

The young virtuosos father, Panh Meng Heang, said a lot of practice had gone into his sons musical abilities.

He has his talent, that is the reason the director selected him to play in the National Cathedral today in Washington, D.C., he said, adding that his daughter was also a musician, and that another son is hoping to become a film actor. He was proud that his children had the chance to pursue such interests, since many Cambodians did not get the opportunity, said Panh Meng Heang.

In all, students from eight schools took part in the event, which was attended by about 800 people and was organization by the Cathedral Choral Society. The numbers performed included Battle of Jericho, Hallelujah Chorus from Christ on the Mount of Olives, Sound of Silence, and Precious Lord.

Kate Breytspraak, director of operations and community engagement at the society, said she would not be able to stage the festival without the enthusiasm and hard work of directors and students.

It is thrilling to see these individual parts come together [and] strengthen our community through the joy of music, she said.
Pakistan has greater control over the Taliban than the Afghan government initially thought, but contrary to its public assurances, Islamabad has never intended to bring the insurgency to peace talks with Kabul, allege senior Afghan officials.

In fact Pakistans old policy vis-a-vis Afghanistan that was claimed to be abandoned in fact has not been, a close aide to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told VOA. He requested anonymity.

Afghans have long accused the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment of covertly supporting the Taliban and the Haqqani network of militants to counter archrival Indias growing influence in the war-shattered country.

We had more hopes in (General) Raheel Sharif, but now believe he also plays a game with Afghanistan and never meant what he promised, the aide to Ghani told VOA, referring to the chief of Pakistans powerful military.

General Sharif has personally led the effort to try to remove misgivings and improve relations by undertaking several visits to Kabul since Ghani took office. The diplomacy resulted in the first direct meeting between Taliban and Afghan officials Pakistan hosted last July.

Bilateral relations have plunged to new lows since last months complex Taliban suicide bombing in the Afghan capital that killed nearly 70 people and left hundreds wounded.

Kabul blamed Pakistan-based Haqqanis for plotting the violence and called for Islamabad to take military action against the group.

Consequently, an outraged Ghani announced he would no longer ask Pakistan to bring fugitive Taliban leaders sheltering on the other side of the border to the negotiating table, although he did not entirely close the door for talks with the Taliban.

The Afghan president also demanded Islamabad uproot sanctuaries in its territory the insurgency has been allegedly using for directing attacks in his country.

The move effectively ended what analysts saw were the bright days of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan for which President Ghani was credited for promoting peace efforts.

Right now, of course, I acknowledge that the relationship between the two countries (is) at a very low. The trust between the two countries is not existent, Kabuls ambassador to Islamabad, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal told VOA.

The current instability and insecurity challenges facing the two countries, the ambassador says, are a direct consequence of the mistrustful environment in the bilateral ties.

Pakistani leaders condemned the Kabul attack and dismissed Ghanis criticism and allegations that Islamabad has not abandoned its past polices of fomenting trouble in Afghanistan as remarks made in the heat of the moment."

They also insist that Pakistans military has conducted operations against all terrorist groups on its soil without discrimination to help in the Afghan stability and reconciliation efforts.

Tariq Fatemi, who assists the Pakistani prime minister on foreign policy matters, says Islamabads own thorough investigation into the Kabul attack has concluded neither his country was involved nor was there any involvement of Pakistan-based elements.

It was basically an indigenous terrorist action. Pakistan had nothing to do with it. We have conveyed this to them (the Afghan government) and we have made it clear that if there is any evidence available with them that is contrary to this evidence that is available to us then they should share it with us, Fatemi told state-run Pakistani television in a rare wide-ranging interview late Friday.

Fatemi admitted deep mutual distrust, and suspicions engulf bilateral ties, but he vowed our endeavor is to overcome them.

He said Ghani's criticism and outrage "will not deflect and discourage Pakistan because Islamabad's commitment "is undoubtedly genuine and 100 percent in terms of promoting Afghan peace and reconciliation.

We are dealing with the legitimate and the elected government of President Ghani. We have high regards for him and have full confidence in his leadership. We will continue to work closely with him, Fatemi asserted.

He added that Islamabad believes the so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) involving senior Pakistani, Afghan, Chinese and U.S. officials should not give up on efforts to promote the reconciliation process because the only solution to the conflict in Afghanistan is through peace talks.

And we shall remain on this track till such time that the Afghans come and tell as along with the other members of the QCG that this process is redundant and useless, Fatemi noted.

The four-nation group has been making efforts since the beginning of this year to arrange talks between Taliban and Afghan negotiators. An initial round was expected to be hosted by Pakistan in early March, but the insurgent group refused to attend in a last-minute move.

To the surprise of Afghan officials, however, a three-member Taliban delegation from its Qatar-based political office visited Islamabad this past week for conversations with Pakistani interlocutors "to explore" possible peace talks with Kabul.

No official details were released about the three-member Taliban delegation's engagement that Pakistani and diplomatic sources described as "exploratory contacts."

But the move apparently angered the Afghan government, condemning Pakistan for allowing the "terrorist group" to undertake such a visit.

It as was an attempt by Pakistani authorities to deflect attention and ease growing pressure they were facing after the Kabul attack, the Afghan presidential aide said.

We had already abandoned peace talks through Pakistan, but the visit demonstrated greater control they (Pakistanis) have over the Taliban than we initially thought," the aide asserted.

He went on to allege that Islamabad could have pushed the insurgents to the talks in March according to its pledge to QCG, but they have never wanted to do so and wanted the Taliban to go ahead and launch their spring offensive in Afghanistan.
Roy Moore, chief justice of the Alabama state Supreme Court, was suspended for his efforts to block same-sex marriage, counter to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.

A state judicial oversight commission filed ethics charges against Moore Friday, saying the controversial judge abused the power of his office. The accusations could lead to his removal from office.

The charges stem from an administrative order Moore issued early this year to probate judges, telling them to follow Alabama law banning same-sex marriage. This came after a federal judge ordered the state's probate judges not to enforce the ban.

Late Friday, Moore issued a statement saying he does not believe the oversight commission has the authority to take such actions against him.

In 2003, Moore was ousted from his position as chief justice by the same body for disobeying a federal order to remove a huge monument of the Bible's Ten Commandments he had placed on the grounds of the judicial building.

Alabama voters elected Moore to the same office nine years later.
Scientists struggling to unravel the mysteries of a Zika epidemic in Brazil hope they can learn from cases of women giving birth to twins in which only one child is afflicted by the microcephaly birth defect associated with the virus.

Jaqueline Jessica Silva de Oliveira hoped doctors were wrong when a routine ultrasound showed that one of her unborn twins would be born with the condition, marked by stunted head size and developmental issues.

"When I found out one of them had microcephaly, the ground fell out from beneath me," the 25-year-old said as she sat on the sofa of her home in the city of Santos. "You always hope that they will be born well, thinking that it could be a mistake by the doctor or in the ultrasound."

Her son Lucas, who she holds in her arms, was born healthy in November. His twin sister Laura, whose head is visibly much smaller, requires regular treatment by a team of neurologists and physiotherapists in nearby Sao Paulo.

With two young children already, Oliveira - who suffered the symptoms of Zika early in pregnancy - knew that life would be difficult with a child with developmental problems. Her husband, the family's only breadwinner, brings home just over 2,000 reais ($566) a month.

"I thank God for giving her to me... I would never abandon her," Oliveira said, adding she had never questioned why only one child was born with microcephaly. "The doctors want to study them so they can see what protected Lucas in case it can help other children."

Clues to Nature of Disease

Cases of only one twin developing a disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis or diabetes, have been widely documented. Medical research has focused on the interaction between the environment and genetic issues.

Lucas and Laura are one of five cases of Zika twins scientists are studying in Sao Paulo.

Similar cases of newborn twins - one with and one without microcephaly - caught the attention of doctors last year in northeastern Brazil, where the mosquito-borne Zika was detected for the first time in the Americas. The divergence in twins was one reason why researchers began to suspect the presence of a new disease.

Brazil has since registered nearly 5,000 confirmed and suspected cases of microcephaly associated with Zika, according to the Health Ministry. The outbreak, and its impact on pregnant women, has cast a shadow over the upcoming summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on August.

The Zika outbreak is affecting large parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with Brazil the hardest hit so far. It is likely to spread to all countries in the Americas except for Canada and Chile, the World Health Organization has said.

Last month, the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention officially confirmed that infection with Zika in pregnant women is a cause of microcephaly and other severe brain abnormalities in babies.

A team from Sao Paulo University studying the five cases believes they may hold clues to the nature of the disease itself and hope to have results from their investigation in a year's time.

"The importance of these twins...is that they could give us some very important answers," said Mayana Zatz, director of the Human Genome Research Center at the university.

"How can we explain that one of the twins was not affected: did they have a gene that protected them? Do they have a different genome that disposes them to the infection or not?"

Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. Zatz said the placenta of one twin may be permeable to Zika, while the other may not, barring the virus from attacking the fetus.

Another possibility is that the virus penetrates both placentas but that the neurons of one baby are resistant, while the other's are not.

"The third possibility that we want to investigate is that certain genes predispose the child to microcephaly, and they are altered by the presence of the Zika virus," Zatz said, noting that around 15 genes are believed to govern microcephaly.

($1 = 3.5313 Brazilian reais)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized one of the European Union requirements regarding visa freedom for Turkish citizens, Anadolu reported.

Among five remaining benchmarks for Turkey to address, the EU demanded a change in Ankara's legislation on terrorism in exchange for visa liberalization for Turkish citizens.

"We will go our way; you go yours," he said, addressing a local rally in Istanbul on Friday. "The EU is telling us to change our law on combatting terrorism. [They] are allowing terrorists to raise tents and then [they] come with requirements. "

Erdogan was referring to a controversial tent raised in March by PKK supporters near the European Council building in Brussels. PKK is declared a terrorist organization by the EU, the U.S. and Turkey.

His comments come two days after the European Commission proposed visa-free travel for Turks.

The 28-nation bloc's executive body said Turkey has five remaining benchmarks, out of an initial 72, to fulfill before the European Parliament is set to vote on whether nearly 80 million Turkish citizens will be able to travel freely in the Schengen borderless zone.

The five remaining benchmarks touch on issues including: measures to prevent corruption, data protection in line with EU standards, cooperation with EU's law enforcement agency Europol, judicial cooperation on criminal matters with all EU member states and "revising the legislation and practices on terrorism in line with European standards".

Erdogan also commented on Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stepping down from his post. He said that he hoped the decision would be beneficial for everyone and thanked Davutoglu for his services while in office.

"Our nation does not forget those who serve this country. I believe Davutoglu has an exceptional place in the hearts of our people," Erdogan said.

Davutoglu said on Thursday that he would step down after an extraordinary party meeting on May 22 and not to be a candidate for the party chairmanship again. He has been a member of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party since 2002 and has led it since August 2014.

The party held its last extraordinary congress in August 2014, when Davutoglu replaced Erdogan as prime minister after Erdogan was elected president.
A Senate committee recommended on Friday that Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff be put on trial by the full chamber for breaking budget laws, moving a step closer to the likely suspension of the leftist leader from office next week.

Despite renewed promised by Rousseff on Friday to resist her removal, her chances for staying in office are dimming. Her departure would come at a time when a majority of Brazilians are against Rousseff because of an economic recession and a massive corruption scandal that has exposed wrongdoing by ruling party officials.



The full Senate is expected to vote to put her on trial on Wednesday, which would immediately suspend Rousseff for the duration of a trial that could last six months. During that period, Vice President Michel Temer would replace her as acting president.

The upper house committee voted 15-5 to accept the charges against Rousseff, which involve budget irregularities that critics say masked budget problems while she ran for re-election in 2014, and her opponents are certain to muster the simple majority needed to begin a trial.

"I will resist until the last day," Rousseff said at an event where she announced the delivery of low-cost housing. The president said she would not resign because she committed no crime, and called her looming ouster a "coup d'etat."

If the Senate convicts Rousseff, by a two-thirds majority vote to oust her, Temer would serve out the remainder of Rousseff's second term through 2018.

Local newspaper surveys say the opposition has 50 of the 54 votes needed, with many of the 10 undecided senators likely to favor her ouster.

Rousseff has struggled to survive politically in the face of Brazil's biggest ever corruption scandal and its worst recession since the 1930s. Her removal would mark an end to 13 years of leftist rule by the Workers Party that began in 2003 under her mentor, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

While Rousseff is not directly accused of corruption, Brazil's top prosecutor has asked for her to be investigated for obstructing justice in the kickback scandal that has engulfed state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA and fueled Brazil's political crisis.

In a separate initiative launched by the opposition, Rousseff's 2014 re-election campaign is being investigated by an electoral court for alleged funding with bribe money.

At Rousseff's presidential palace Friday, officials had glum faces and appeared resigned to the end of her administration.

One aide denied they were packing up already, but added: "No doubt, we have to start organizing things."

Echoing the sense of an administration that has run out of time, no reporters showed up for a news conference called by Women Affairs Secretary Eleonora Menicucci, a close Rousseff aide. She ended up speaking only to a government television camera.

Rousseff's supporters on the Senate committee have called for annulment of the impeachment proceedings because the man who launched them last year, lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha, was himself removed from office on Thursday by the Supreme Court for obstructing the investigation of corruption accusations against him.

The top court has so far dismissed all government requests to halt the impeachment proceedings.

Workers Party Senator Lindbergh Farias said the ouster of Rousseff was aimed at undoing Lula's work to help the poor, and at rolling back workers' benefits, privatizing state companies and aligning Brazil's foreign policy closer to the United States.
A line of Chinese riot police marched through a Tibetan protest against mining operations this week in Lhagang township, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province.

Cellphone video circulated online captures the sound of people wailing Wednesday at the site of a mass fish kill, purportedly caused by the mining operation that Chinese police had come to guard.

"This is how things are  the nation's military is sent [on us] to crack down on us," said one man whose face is not visible.

WATCH: Activists Protest Mining Operations

"This is how things are, brothers and sisters of Tibetans," said another. "This is what Chinese do!"

Locals gathered Wednesday after a massive number of fish were found dead in the Lichu River, a tributary of the Yangtze River.

Exiled Tibetans tell VOA that their local contacts say the fish kill occurred after a Chinese company restarted lithium-mining operations in the area. Mining at the location had been postponed since 2013, after an official investigation linked pollution from the operation with a mass die-off of aquatic life.

Pollution at the site also triggered a die-off of fish and some domestic animals in 2011, prompting protests.

In 2014, three civilians petitioned Beijing to issue a ruling on the incidents, asking officials to ban mining in the area.

The same mining company involved in all three incidents reportedly returned to the area April 11.
Colombia's armed forces will launch air raids on crime gangs involved in drug trafficking and illegal mining, the defense minister said Friday, as the government steps up its offensive against what it considers the biggest threat to national security.

President Juan Manuel Santos authorized bombing raids on the gangs, which formed after a 2006 peace accord with right-wing paramilitary fighters failed to absorb many into society. There are about 3,000 members spread across three groups earning millions of dollars from illegal drugs and mining.

"This will allow the application of the entire force of the state, without exception, against organized armed groups, against powerful mafias, against those that launch hostile actions against institutions and the population, against those that have camps, long-range weapons, and uniforms," Defense Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said during a military event.

The government was previously prevented from taking such action against crime gangs because it was not proven that they used automatic weapons.

Air raids have been the most powerful offensive against insurgent groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army, leading to the deaths of many of their most feared commanders.

Air attacks against the FARC are currently suspended while the government conducts talks with the rebel leadership to end five decades of war. More than 220,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the conflict began.

Santos said earlier this week that the United States will provide intelligence support to help battle crime gangs.
Presumptive U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump struck back at Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leader in the progressive movement, Friday night after Warren launched into a Twitter tirade against Trump earlier in the week.

On Wednesday, soon after Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out of the race for president, leaving Trump as the sole candidate on the Republican side, Warren took to Twitter to chastise Trump in a flurry of nine tweets in which she accused him of being racist, sexist and xenophobic.

There's more enthusiasm for [Trump] among leaders of the KKK (white supremacist organization) than leaders of the political party he now controls, Warren said in one tweet.

Warren, revered among progressive Democrats for her work in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, went on to accuse Trump of inciting violence among his supporters and supporting Russias strong-man President Vladimir Putin.

Twitter comments

I'm going to fight my heart out to make sure [Trumps] toxic stew of hatred & insecurity never reaches the White House, she said.

Trump on Friday responded to Warrens criticism with a stream of his own tweets, referring to Warren as Hillary Clintons flunky, and saying that her career is based on a lie.

Goofy Elizabeth Warren and her phony Native American heritage are on a Twitter rant. She is too easy! I'm driving her nuts, Trump said.

Trump was referencing Warrens controversial claim that she is part Native American, which first became an issue in 2012 when Warren was running for the Senate in the state of Massachusetts.

During that campaign, it was reported that Warren claimed Native American heritage while applying to teach at both the Harvard Law School and the Pennsylvania Law School.

Between 1986 and 1995, Warren listed herself as a minority in the Association of American Law Schools directory, which some say she did to further her academic career. In 1995, after gaining employment at Harvard, Warren no longer listed herself as Native American.

Despite never being an official member of a Native American tribe, Warren received recognition from the University of Pennsylvania Law School for being a minority law professor.

Lets properly check goofy Elizabeth Warrens records to see if she is Native American. I say shes a fraud! Trump said in another tweet.

Native American controversy

Warren has long defended her Native American ancestry as based on stories told to her as a child by her parents, but has produced no official documentation to make the connection.

"These are my family stories," Warren said during the 2012 election. "This is what my brothers and I were told by my mom and my dad, my mammaw and my pappaw. This is our lives. And Im very proud of it."

Warren responded to Trumps attack Friday night, calling him a bully and saying his statements were hate-filled lies.

Whatever [Trump] says, we won't shut up. We won't back down. This election is too important, & he wont step foot in White House, she said.

Warren has been mentioned by some political pundits as a possible running mate as vice president for Hillary Clinton in her run for the presidency.
Forty students were hospitalized after consuming midday meal at a secondary school in Banswara district of India's northwestern Rajasthan state on Friday.

The children had pulses and chapatis for lunch which were prepared in the school. Shortly after having the food, the children complained of uneasiness and started vomiting.

Students were rushed to a community hospital, but when their condition did not improve, they were transferred to District Hospital. Extra beds had to be arranged to accommodate all the students in the children's ward.

Additional District Collector of Banswara, Narendra Kothari, said that all the children were out of danger.

"We have been told that children had pulses and chapatis for lunch. Children also played for a while after having the food, but then they started vomiting. The children were rushed to the hospital and all of them are out of danger," said Kothari.

Samples being tested

Food samples will be sent for testing to find out the cause of poisoning.

India's midday meal scheme aims to tackle malnutrition and encourage around 120 million poor children to attend school. For millions of poor families, the lunch is the only full meal their children eat in a day.

It has been widely lauded as one of the most successful welfare measures in India, but has repeatedly drawn widespread complaints over food safety.

Many states have faced criticism over the quality of food in the scheme and the way it is provided.

Hygiene problems are exacerbated by a lack of fresh water and basic sanitation in some rural areas.
A 72-hour cease-fire extension in Aleppo has provided some breathing space for residents in the battleground northern Syrian city.

Displaced families returned home, schools reopened and vendors resumed some activities as the truce went into effect on Saturday (00:01 local time).

The city had seen days of heavy fighting that killed nearly 300 civilians, including 57 children, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The United States welcomed the extension of the cessation of hostilities in Aleppo, but continues to seek broader results.

State Department spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. goal is to get to a point where we no longer have to count the hours and that the cessation of hostilities is fully respected across Syria.

His statement Friday came after Russian Defense Ministry issued a statement confirming the extension of the cease-fire.



Earlier in the day, Kirby said the U.S. had not ruled out the prospect of working with Russia to broker more localized truces in Syria, if needed.

The U.S. and Russia are co-chairs of a cease-fire task force. Russia has been using its leverage with the Assad regime and the U.S. has been using its influence with the opposition to try to curb the countrys unrest.

Both countries announced localized truces for Latakia and the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, last week, in a bid to help keep a nationwide cessation of hostilities announced in February from completely unraveling.
Sadiq Khan of Britain's Labour Party has become the first Muslim elected mayor of a major Western capital after beating conservative rival Zac Goldsmith in a bitter campaign to become the mayor of London.

Election results announced Friday night show Londoners voted Khan, 45, into office over Goldsmith, 57 percent to 43 percent.

In becoming mayor of Britain's capital, Khan ends eight years of conservative control of the city.

During his acceptance speech, Khan talked up his roots growing up in government housing and said he never dreamed someone like him could be elected mayor of London.

I want every single Londoner to get the opportunities that our city gave to me and my family. The opportunities not just to survive, but to thrive, he said.

Congratulations

Mayors of cities from around the world took to Twitter to congratulate Khan on his win.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he will look forward to working together!

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said Khans humanity, progressivism will benefit Londoners.

Khans victory in the mayoral race offered a bit of hope to the Labour Party after it took losses in local and regional elections across Britain on Super Thursday, in which 45 million Britons were eligible to vote.

The Labour Party came in third in the devolved Scottish government elections, and for the first time in decades, fell behind the conservatives and the pro-independence Scottish National Party. The party held onto power in the Welsh assembly, but lost a seat.

With results in from 115 out of 124 local English city councils, Labour lost control of one council, down to 57, and 19 seats, down to 1,265.

Conservatives stayed even, controlling 31 councils, and losing 18 seats, down to 708.
A forest fire that forced the evacuation of tens of thousands from a Canadian community has the potential to double in size and might not be extinguished for a very long time.

Chad Morrison, senior manager of wildfire prevention at the Province of Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Division, said forest fires were continuing to burn out of control in the parched region, and could double in size.

This is a dynamic, challenging, extreme fire so you know, many things can happen. But at this point, the prediction over the next two days is for the fire to move away to the northeast, Morrison said Friday.

The fires have engulfed 156,000 hectares of forest, including nearly 5,000 hectares in the area surrounding the community of Fort McMurray where 2,000 homes have been destroyed.

Despite firefighters efforts, Morrison said blaze in Alberta's oil sands region will not go out until there is significant rain. Rainfall was possible Sunday.

Margarita Carnicero was among the first evacuees to reach Wandering River, a community more than 100 kilometers south of Fort McMurray.

Carnicero told the French news agency that she feared for her life on the journey to safety.

"It was a terrible experience," she said, sitting in her dust-covered SUV alongside her teenage daughter Michelle. "I was afraid, but I tried not to show it (so as) not to frighten my daughter."

Police positioned themselves at intersection to keep evacuees from coming back to get their belongings.

The Canadian government forecast a 30 percent chance of rain on Sunday followed by sunny conditions on Monday. More rain is expected on Tuesday and Wednesday with 40 percent precipitation.

Investigators are still trying to pinpoint the cause of the fires.

More than 1,100 firefighters are battling 49 blazes across the western Canadian province  seven of them are totally out of control.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said about 12,000 evacuees had been airlifted from oil sands mine airfields over the past two days and about 7,000 had been evacuated in police-escorted highway convoys. She said the goal was to complete the evacuation of evacuees from northern work camps by late Saturday.

I would say that the folks in my community are stronger, bolder, braver and more prone to succeed, and these setbacks arent going to stop anybody who came (to Fort McMurray) with that kind of spirit in the first place, the city's mayor, Melissa Blake, told the Edmonton Journal newspaper.

Once the crisis is over, officials will work toward rebuilding.

I think it will just be a stronger community when we come out of this, Blake said.

To deal with the needs of all affected communities, Notley started a recovery task force that is set to guide officials during the restoration.

The Edmonton Journal reported that on Friday, the cabinet allocated $200 million toward a disaster recovery program for the area and financial relief of $1,250 per adult and $500 for each dependent.

"It's likely going to be several weeks before the situation stabilizes," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Garrett Woolsey said.

The Canadian government declared a state of emergency in Alberta. The province is the size of France and is home to one of the world's most lucrative oil industries.

No deaths or injuries have been reported and at least 14,000 people have registered with the Red Cross.
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

A would-be female suicide bomber has been detained during a special operation in Turkey's Konya province, the Dogan news agency reported May 7.

Reportedly, the 25-year-old Turkish citizen is a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorist group and was planning to commit a terrorist attack in one of the malls in the province.

Another four people, who had close ties to the would-be suicide bomber, were also detained.

Earlier, a suicide bomber who was a member of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization was detained in Turkey.

Turkey's intelligence service earlier warned about the possibility of new terrorist attacks in the country.

Turkey faced deadly terrorist attacks in March.

On March 13, a car bomb attack in Ankara left 37 people dead. Istanbul was also targeted by a suicide attack on March 19, leaving five people dead. Turkish authorities have accused the IS, the PKK and the PYD terrorist groups for the attacks.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
The NATO-led military coalition said two of its soldiers were killed Saturday in southern Afghanistan when two individuals wearing local forces uniforms opened fire at a military compound.

A statement from the international Resolute Support mission in Kabul said its members returned fire and killed the shooters. It said Afghan and coalition officials had launched an investigation into the incident but gave no other details and did not reveal the nationalities of the slain soldiers.

The NATO-led noncombat mission consists of around 13,000 soldiers, mostly Americans, and has been training Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, known as ANDSF, since January 2015.

We continue to train, advise and assist the ANDSF, and do not view this incident as representative of the positive relationship between our forces, the statement said.

Meanwhile, The Associated Press cited Romania's Defense Ministry as saying two of its soldiers had been killed and another injured while they were training Afghan soldiers near the southern city of Kandahar on Saturday morning.

The injured man was in stable condition and was to be transferred to Germany for treatment, the ministry said, adding that Romania has 631 troops serving in Afghanistan.
The Nigerian military has launched a military offensive aimed at putting pressure on the Islamist militant group Boko Haram as well as rescue unarmed civilians kidnapped by the militants, according to military spokesman Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman.

We still have remnants of Boko Haram hibernating inside Sambisa Forest so the essence of it is to clear the remnants of Boko Haram in that forest and also intensify our rescue operation and so far the operation is progressing very well. Even though, the other time the [militants] attempted to attack our positionBut of course our troops rose to the occasion, and dealt decisively with Boko Haram militants to the point of killing quite a number of them and recovered weapons anti-aircraft guns, and of course mortal bombs like 81 millimeter,  said Usman.

His comments follow reports that the United States is considering selling 12 A-29 Super Tucano light attack aircraft to Nigeria to help the West African country in the fight against Boko Haram.

Washington had refused to sell weapons to former president Goodluck Jonathans administration over concerns of human rights abuses by the military.

Critics of the Nigerian government say Islamic militants are active and still attacking civilians and soldiers, despite government pronouncements that Boko Haram has been effectively defeated. They have also engaged in suicide bombings using civilians they had abducted.

Usman disagreed. He said the military has been able to thwart numerous attacks from Boko Haram. He said a lot of the militants have either been killed or surrendered to the Nigerian military adding that groups is a shell of itself, incapable of seizing territories.

If you look at it, the Boko Haram militant caught virtually everybody unawares because lets say six years ago nobody in Nigeria ever thought that we will have a problem of terrorism let alone the magnitude of Boko Haram terrorism as it wereWithin a short period of time lets say from July last year up to this moment, all those gains made by the Boko Haram have been reversed to the point that we have even recaptured not only the villages and towns they hitherto called their caliphate including their spiritual headquarters.

Asked about the efforts to locate and free the abducted Chibok school girls and others kidnapped by the militants, Usman said the military is still working hard to bring the girls back home to their families. He said the military has been able to rescue Boko Haram kidnapped victims including foreigners.

We have been able to rescue over 12,000 people and I believe that we have more people that are being held hostage by the Boko Haram militant in some of these their hideouts We have been working to also ensure that we rescue them, including the abducted Chibok school girls. And we are hopeful, definitely, wherever they are we will definitely rescue them, said Usman.
A U.S. monitoring group says that North Korea may be preparing to carry out another nuclear test in the near future.

The website 38 North, which focuses on North Korean issues and is run by Johns Hopkins University, said Friday that commercial satellite images taken May 5 over the country's nuclear test site show vehicle movement at a command center, where there is often no activity "except during preparations for a test."

South Korean officials have been on alert in the event that North Korea will conduct a fifth nuclear test to coincide with its high-profile political gathering now underway, the first of its kind in 36 years.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un opened the seventh Workers' Party Congress Friday by hailing the country's January nuclear test and subsequent launch of a satellite into space.

Wearing a dark Western-style suit, Kim delivered his opening speech before more than 3,400 delegates.

Kim was expected to announce major policies and the reshuffling of senior party officials during the event. But Fridays speech showed few signs of a dramatic change.

Instead, he laid out a series of accomplishments that he has made since he took power in late 2011.

Kim called the latest nuclear test and a subsequent long-range missile launch a demonstration of dignity and power at the highest level.

In this year of the seventh party congress, our military and people accomplished the great success in the first hydrogen bomb test and the launch of an earth observation satellite, he said.

Washington called on Pyongyang to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilize the region in response to Kims comments.

Kim also praised the success of so called 70-day battle, a short-term economic campaign for maximizing industrial and construction output with limited time and resources. Since late February, the Norths state media has enhanced coverage of the campaign.

Few signs of change

The young leader was flanked by Kim Yong Nam and Hwang Pyong So.

Kim Yong Nam is president of the Presidium of the Supreme Peoples Assembly and the countrys nominal head of state. Some South Korean news organizations speculated he could be ousted after the congress.

Hwang, who holds the rank of vice marshall in the North Korean army, heads its General Political Bureau, a position considered as the most powerful in the military after Kim Jong Un.

However, some analysts in Seoul cautioned it was too early to judge the outcome of the gathering, noting the agenda of the event still remains unclear. The gathering is expected to end on Monday.

The last party congress in North Korea was held when Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, was president. Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, who rarely spoke in public, did not hold a party convention.

Preparation for the congress involved mobilizing the entire country in a 70-day campaign of intensified productivity and cleaning up the capital city.

Concerns about new test

Despite the warning, Pyongyang did not conduct the test before the gathering.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul, said Beijing might have sent a warning to Pyongyang.

North Korea is not likely to conduct another nuclear test in the near future because of pressure from Beijing, Yang said.

But Seoul remains vigilant against a possible nuclear test. An official at South Koreas presidential office told VOA Friday it is possible the North will conduct the test after the gathering, adding it is ready to conduct a test at any time.

The United States says it is in close consultation with its Asian allies to monitor the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

"We will continue to look at ways we can apply and increase pressure on them, at the same time as we ensure that the security of the peninsula is kept ironclad," U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper arrived in Seoul earlier this week.

Clapper met with South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo and discussed security issues, according to South Koreas Yonhap News Agency. The possibility of another nuclear test from North Korea was also discussed.

Kim Jong Un will need to deliver a report that summarizes the Korean Workers Partys accomplishments since the last congress in 1980 and present new policy directions. As for the new policy directions, I expect him to highlight the byungjin line, James Person of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington told VOA Thursday.

But Person does not expect any new major policy directions in economic development because North Koreas Workers Party Congress meetings are usually scripted affairs and typically do not offer major policy announcements.
North Korean President Kim Jong Un told a ruling party congress that his country would not use nuclear weapons unless its sovereignty was threatened by other nuclear powers, North Korea's state news agency said Sunday.

Kim also said he was willing to normalize relations with states that have been hostile toward the Pyongyang government, and called for more talks with South Korea to reduce distrust and the potential for further misunderstandings, the Korean Central News Agency report said.

"As a responsible nuclear weapons state, our republic will not use a nuclear weapon unless its sovereignty is encroached upon by any aggressive hostile forces with nukes," the report quoted Kim as saying.

It was unclear whether Kim's pledge indicated any change in North Korea's often belligerent attitude toward its neighbors and the United States.

In March, North Korea threatened a "preemptive" and "indiscriminate" nuclear strike on the U.S. and South Korea in response to the two nations' joint military drills.

Kim's comments to a reported 3,400 delegates came as South Korean monitors remained on high alert over the threat of further nuclear-related testing by the North in the near future.

The United Nations toughened sanctions against Pyongyang in March, after the communist state's fourth nuclear test and the launch of a long-range rocket that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

At the congress, which opened Friday and will last several days, Kim described his five-year plan to simultaneously develop nuclear weapons and boost the country's economy.

Analysts say the plan, published Sunday in the North's Rodong Sinmun newspaper, is doomed for failure because of the heavy international sanctions North Korea will face for developing its nuclear program.

Nuclear activities

The website 38 North, which focuses on North Korean issues, said Friday that commercial satellite images taken the day before over Pyongyang's nuclear test site showed vehicle movement at a command center, where there is often no activity "except during preparations for a test."

Kim opened the seventh Workers' Party Congress on Friday by hailing the country's January nuclear test and February launch of a satellite into space, calling them demonstrations of dignity and power at the highest level.

In this year of the seventh party congress, our military and people accomplished the great success in the first hydrogen bomb test and the launch of an Earth observation satellite, Kim said.

In response, Washington called on Pyongyang to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilize the region."

Few signs of change

Kim was expected to announce major policies and the reshuffling of senior party officials during the event.

But Fridays speech showed few signs of a dramatic change. Instead, the North Korean leader laid out a series of accomplishments that he has made since he took power in late 2011.

Kim also praised the success of so called 70-day battle, a short-term economic campaign to maximize industrial and construction output with limited time and resources.

Since late February, the Norths state media have enhanced coverage of the campaign.

The young leader was flanked by Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme Peoples Assembly and the countrys nominal head of state; and Hwang Pyong So, who holds the rank of vice marshal in the North Korean army and heads its General Political Bureau, a position considered the most powerful in the military after Kim Jong Un.

Some South Korean news organizations speculated Kim Yong Nam could be ousted after the congress.

However, some analysts in Seoul cautioned it was too early to judge the outcome of the gathering, noting the event's agenda still remained unclear.

The gathering is expected to end Monday.

The last party congress in North Korea was held when Kim's grandfather, Kim Il Sung, was president.

The current leader's father, Kim Jong Il, who rarely spoke in public, did not hold a party convention.
An indoor security camera gave the world a haunting five-minute glimpse of one of the worst wildfires in Canadian history as it roared through a living room in Fort McMurray and the homeowner watched it burn on his mobile phone.

The video from a fixed camera in James O'Reilly's home began with a seemingly serene shot of red walls, a brown couch and a glowing fish tank before the view turned to heavy smoke, ash and flames outside the window, the slow breaking of glass and smoke filling the room.

Traffic and weather cameras and security webcams have allowed those who fled to remotely see if their homes have been lost to the fire that has consumed at least 1,600 buildings and forced 88,000 to evacuate the city.

O'Reilly, 51, and his wife pulled out on Tuesday, driving through flames and ash to put distance between themselves and the inferno. He pulled over 20 minutes outside Fort McMurray, his phone buzzing with an alarm from his in-home security system. He watched as the house was consumed by flames, live on the screen in his hand.



"My wife couldn't watch it, but at that point I thought we were dead coming through the flames like we did," said O'Reilly.

"I was euphoric, so it didn't bother me. I knew the house was gone already, I knew we were alive, and I was so happy we were alive, the rest was all -- who cares, right?"

O'Reilly said he had installed the camera, a home security system known as a Canary, only a month before more because he is a technology geek than out of security concerns.

Entire neighborhoods have been burned to the ground in Fort McMurray. No one has died in the fires, but two people died in a car crash during the evacuation.

O'Reilly said he and his wife regretted leaving behind their two clownfish, which were so tame they would eat from his wife's hand.

Audio accompanying O'Reilly's video recorded the crackling wildfire, breaking glass, a beeping smoke detector and an automated voice warning that there was "smoke in the hallway" before the recording cut out.

Canary spokesman John Carter said it was not the first time the company's cameras, which feed live video and audio to the smartphones of homeowners, had captured destruction.

"The more these kinds of devices get out there, the more you see people capturing some pretty surprising things, of all nature, in their homes," Carter said.

Leslie Booker was luckier than the O'Reillys. By looking at an online security camera video, the child development worker saw that her home was still standing. An air monitoring camera in another neighborhood showed that dozens of other homes had also made it through.
Tanzanian parliamentarians are meeting in the capital, Dodoma, to discuss and approve the Magufuli administrations proposed budget for this year, the information minister says. Parliament plans to complete the budget approval process in July.

The budget is John Magufulis first since his election as president in October. Forty percent of the proposed budget will cover national development projects, a sharp departure from previous practices when allocations for development stayed at 27 percent, Information Minister Nape Nnauye said.

Because it is his first budget, people in Tanzania are expecting a lot," Nnauye said. "We have talked about the industrialization process of Tanzania. Tanzanians are expecting that this budget will revive the industrial process of the country, increase the growth of the economy, will provide employment, and it is expected [it] will [improve] the standard of living of many of our people in the country.

Expectations among Tanzanians are high because of actions Magufuli has taken since he was sworn into office. These include his impromptu visits to government institutions, which the government says are aimed at ensuring accountability and improving public employees' work ethic.

Three days after assuming office, Magufuli went unannounced to the Ministry of Finance and Muhimbili National Hospital. At the hospital, he transferred the executive director and dissolved the health board after expressing concern about the poor hygienic conditions, lack of drugs and lack of essential functioning equipment.

Officials' trips barred

Magufuli banned public officials from traveling abroad on expensive trips paid for by taxpayers. Officials said the frequent overseas trips were a drain on public finances and were preventing the government from undertaking development projects.

The minister also noted that Magufuli had fired top officials of the countrys ports because of alleged corruption. Since the firings and the appointments of new leaders, the minister said, efficiency has sharply risen and revenue generation has increased.

President Magufuli has performed since he was sworn in  and has taken great measures, such that he has been the talk of Africa, the talk of the world," Nnauye said. "Some of the Kenyans were telling us, 'Can you give us Magufuli even for one month?' "

Nnauye also said the president had cut government expenditures and canceled Independence Day and Union Day celebrations that would have cost the government millions of dollars. Such moves enabled the government to set aside more funds for development, the minister said.

Projects that had been stopped because of a lack of money "are now progressing because of the new measures Magufuli has taken, and this is a good indicator that we are going to the right direction, Nnauye said.
Firefighters are still battling huge wildfires that forced mass evacuations of some 80,000 people earlier this week in Alberta, Canada.

Police and military officers are leading a convoy of about 500 vehicles through wreckage out of the oil sands camps where they had been staying since Tuesday. As many as 8,000 people were airlifted to safety Thursday, 5,500 more were expected to be flown out Friday, and another 4,000 were expected to be airlifted Saturday.

More than 80,000 people have fled Fort McMurray in the heart of Canada's oil sands, where the fire has destroyed 1,600 buildings.

The Alberta provincial government, which declared a state of emergency, said Friday that the size of the fire had grown to more than 101,000 hectares.

So far, investigators have not figured out what sparked the wildfires that erupted Sunday. Officials said the fire started in a remote forested area and could have been ignited by lightning.

Unseasonably hot temperatures combined with dry conditions have transformed the boreal forest in much of Alberta into a tinder box.
Two more suspects were arrested Saturday over Friday's gun attack targeting Turkish journalist Can Dundar, who was on trial in Istanbul's Caglayan courthouse on charges of revealing state secrets.

According to the Istanbul Police Department, the suspects were reported to be associates of the gunman arrested at the scene, identified as Murat S. Their arrest brings the number of detained suspects to three.

Dundar was not wounded in the attack, but a Turkish news channel correspondent, Yagiz Senkal, was slightly injured.

Following the attack, Dundar, the editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Erdem Gul, the paper's Ankara bureau chief, were convicted by an Istanbul court and sentenced to five years and 10 months and five years in prison, respectively.

The duo was put on trial following the publication of images purporting to show arms being transported to Syria in trucks belonging to Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, also known as the MIT.

The 14th High Criminal Court acquitted Dundar and Gul of charges of attempting to overthrow the government, while ordering that the charges of "knowingly and willfully" helping the terrorist FETO/PDY organization or the so-called "parallel state" be separated from the trial.

Their case was linked to searches carried out on MIT trucks on two occasions in January 2014. Last May, Cumhuriyet ran a story and images claiming to show the discovery of arms in the Syria-bound trucks.

The two defendants were arrested late last November and held in prison until Feb. 26, when Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that their rights had been violated and ordered their release.
Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have agreed to meet next week, but the presumptive Republican presidential nominee doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic.

Trump said that he had "no idea'' if the talks to bridge the party's divide over his nomination would succeed and that it didn't really matter that much to him.

"The thing that matters most are the millions of people that have come out to vote for me and give me a landslide victory in almost every state,'' he said.

Trump said he told Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus that Ryan's comments in refusing to endorse him were "totally inappropriate," but he agreed to the party leader's desire for a meeting.

Ryan announced Friday that he and other members of the House Republican leadership will meet with Trump Thursday morning.

He said talk will center on "the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November.''

Just days after Trump essentially clinched the GOP presidential nomination with a win in Indiana's primary, Ryan said he was "not ready" to support Trump because of questions about his commitment to conservatism.

Trump responded with a statement saying he is not prepared to back Ryan's agenda. He took on Ryan on Twitter Friday, saying: "Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong, I didn't inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!"

Ryan isn't the only one who has refused to endorse the businessman-turned-presidential hopeful.

According to The Wall Street Journal, only 12 of the 300 Republicans serving in the House and Senate, and three of the 31 Republican governors, have endorsed Trump.

The party's last two White House occupants, President George H.W. Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, say they will sit out the 2016 campaign and not even comment on it.

The party's last two losing presidential nominees, Arizona Senator John McCain in 2008 and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in 2012, both said they, like the Bushes, also plan to skip the party's July national convention where Trump will be officially nominated.
A Turkish court sentenced two prominent journalists to five years in prison Friday, hours after one of them escaped an attack by a gunman outside the courtroom.

Can Dundar, editor of a leading opposition newspaper, Cumhuriyet, was sentenced to five years and 10 months at the closed-door trial in Istanbul, while the paper's Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, received five years behind bars. Both were found guilty of revealing state secrets, but were acquitted of several other charges, including trying to topple the government.

The case stemmed from the pair's reporting on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria.

Hours before the verdicts were handed down, a gunman shouting "traitor" fired two shots at Dundar outside the courthouse. Dundar was not hurt, but The Associated Press said a journalist working for the private television station NTV, Yagiz Senkal, was injured in the leg.

Following the verdicts, Dundar accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and pro-government media of creating a climate of hatred against him that he said paved the way for the attack against him. "We will continue to do our job as journalists, despite all these attempts to silence us," Dundar said.

Dundar and Gul are expected to appeal the verdict and to remain free until the end of the appeals process.

The United States said it was concerned by the guilty verdicts. State Department spokesman John Kirby called on Turkish authorities to "support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society."

The case, which has come to be seen as a test for press freedom in Turkey, has brought condemnation from media and global rights groups.
Authorities in Turkey detained two more people in connection with Fridays attack on a leading journalist hours before he was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

According to Turkish media, two friends of the gunman who fired at Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, were detained for questioning Saturday.

Dundar, who escaped unharmed, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison at the closed-door trial in Istanbul, while the paper's Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul was sentenced to five years.

Both were found guilty of revealing state secrets, but were acquitted of several other charges, including trying to topple the government. The case stems from the pair's reporting on alleged government arms smuggling to Syria.

Hours before the verdict was handed down, a gunman shouting "traitor" fired two shots at Dundar outside the courthouse. A journalist working for the private television station NTV, Yagiz Senkal, was injured in the leg.

Following the verdict, Dundar accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and pro-government media of creating a climate of hatred, which he said paved the way for the attack on him . "We will continue to do our job as journalists, despite all these attempts to silence us," Dundar said.

The case, which has come to be seen as a test for press freedom in Turkey, has brought condemnation from media and global rights groups, which repeatedly sounded the alarm about the intolerance of dissent shown by authorities in Turkey.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the Turkish court's sentencing of the two journalists Friday.

While the journalists are free, pending appeal, and the court lifted a travel ban imposed on them, they still risk a separate trial on charges of committing a crime in the name of a terrorist organization without being a member, CPJ said.

The United States said it was concerned by the guilty verdicts. State Department spokesman John Kirby called on Turkish authorities again Friday to "support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society."

Earlier this year, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited the country, where he criticized Turkish leaders for cracking down on freedom of expression, saying that the Turkish government was not setting the right "example" with its imprisonment of journalists and others for voicing their criticism toward it.

Since becoming president in 2014, 2,000 people have been prosecuted for insulting Erdogan.

In the recently released 2016 World Press Freedom Index, Turkey fell to 151st out of the 180 countries ranked by Reporters Without Borders.
President Barack Obama delivered a rousing commencement speech Saturday at historically black Howard University, telling graduates that race relations have improved over the last three decades but that more work needs to be done.

"America is by almost every measure better than it was when I graduated from college," Obama told the Class of 2016, in looking back to 1983. The nation's first African-American president, however, said racism and inequality persist as he noted disparities in unemployment, pay and the criminal justice system.

He also told the graduates in Washington that if they want to see change, they cannot "sleepwalk through life" but must actively participate in the democratic system.

In 2012, nearly two out of three African-Americans turned out [to vote]. And then in 2014, only two in five turned out to vote. You dont think that made a difference in terms of the Congress I've got to deal with? he asked.

The president told young people they had no excuses not to vote.

You dont have to risk your life to cast a ballot; other people already did that for you, he said as he urged the 2,300 graduates to vote not just for president, but in every election.

Societal improvements

The president said today's college graduates are better positioned than at any other time to address outstanding problems.

Since the year I graduated, the poverty rate is down. ... American cities have undergone a renaissance. There are more women in the workforce. They are earning more money. The dropout rate by-African Americans was cut by almost 60 percent, Obama said.

The president was also awarded an honorary doctor of science degree during the commencement ceremony.

Yetunde Akinola, who graduated Saturday with a master's degree in psychology, said the ceremony held special significance.

"The Class of 2016 celebrated with the FIRST African-American in his last term as our United States president," she said. "Howard University is known for many great achievements. However, this is one for the books!"

Faculty member Adedoyin Kalejaiye of Howard's College of Medicine echoed those sentiments.

"It was an immense honor to have President Obama as our commencement speaker. ... He serves as an example of how far our nation has come, and his words today pointed us towards areas where our continued pursuit of excellence can advance our communities even better," she said.

Saturday's speech was the first of three commencement addresses the president has on his agenda.

The president is scheduled to speak May 15 at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Then on June 2, he will addresse graduates at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Incorrectly depicting India's borders on a map could land violators in jail for 7 years and cost them fines of up to $15 million, if a proposed bill becomes law.

Citizens and stakeholders will have 30 days to comment on the proposed bill, released to the public Wednesday.

"No person shall depict, disseminate, publish or distribute any wrong or false topographic information of India including international boundaries through internet platforms or online services or in any electronic or physical form," the draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016 stated. "Whoever acquired any geospatial information of India in contravention of the law shall be punished with a fine ranging from Rs 1 crore ($150,000) to Rs 100 crore ($15 million) and or imprisonment for a period up to seven years."

The ruling BJP in India has been critical of Western depictions of the country, which often show parts of neighboring Jammu, Kashmir, and Arunachal Pradesh as parts of Pakistan and China.

In April of 2015, all Al Jazeera programming was taken off Indian airwaves for five days after the network showed parts of Kashmir in Pakistan. New Delhi insisted that the entire territory be depicted as part of India.

Social media sites and Wikipedia have also been condemned by New Delhi as incorrectly portraying their borders.

The draft bill additionally states that acquiring geospatial (or spatial) information (imagery or data) through space or aerial platforms would require approval from the Indian government, potentially making it mandatory for online platforms such as Google maps and Google earth to acquire a license before operating in India.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been claimed by both India and Pakistan since the two countries' partition in 1947. An eastern region of the state that borders Tibet has been controlled by China since 1962.
Bambaataa. Photo: Scott Gries/Getty Images

Hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa appears to have been removed as the leader of the Universal Zulu Nation amid growing allegations of child molestation, according to an announcement from the organization. Last month, Ronald Savage, a former New York State Democratic Committee member, accused Bambaataa of sexually abusing him in 1980, when Savage was 15 years old.

Since then, three more men have come forward with similar allegations: A man named Hassan Campbell told the New York Daily News that Bambaataa repeatedly sexually abused him when Campbell was 12 and 13, calling the DJ a pervert who likes little boys. Two other men whose identities were not fully disclosed also say Bambaataa abused them when they were minors  a former bodyguard also claims Bambaataa abused hundreds of young boys since the early 1970s. Bambaataa has denied all of the allegations.

Initially, the Universal Zulu Nation (which Bambaataa founded in the 70s) defended their leader, calling the accusations a government-sponsored media attack. But in a press release issued on Friday, the organization now says it is significantly restructuring its leadership. Despite not mentioning Bambaataa by name, they note: ALL accused parties and those accused of covering up the current allegations of child molestation have been removed and have stepped down from their current positions. The Zulu Nation also calls public scrutiny  including from Talib Kweli  over how the organization has handled the allegations trial by social media. Read their full statement below:
Iran's Ambassador to Turkey Mohammad Ebrahim Taherianfard on Saturday conferred with Turkish deputy minister of customs and trade, Cenap Asci, IRNA reported.

The meeting came on the eve of a visit to Iran of the Turkish Customs and Trade Ministry's delegation.

The officials underlined the need for promoting customs cooperation between the two countries through further coordination in a bid to remove customs obstacles on the borders.

Asci is scheduled to visit Tehran on Sunday at the head of nine-member delegation to attend the fifth meeting of the two countries' customs chiefs.

Meanwhile, the first joint workshop of Iran-Turkey customs workshop is due to be held during the Turkish delegation's two-day visit to Tehran.

The two sides are to discuss renovation of customs buildings and terminals, problems surrounding lorries conveying cargo, thwarting smuggle of goods and exchange of electronic data.
Scandal Trump Card Season 5 Episode 20 Editors Rating 5 stars * * * * *  Previous Next   Previous Episode Next Episode  SCANDAL - Trump Card - Olivia and Abby have to put their differences aside and work together to try and take Hollis Doyle down. Meanwhile, Edison realizes he may have made a deal with the devil as Rowan and Jake continue to try and pull the strings behind his campaign, on the penultimate episode of ABCs Scandal, THURSDAY, MAY 5 (9:00-10:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Byron Cohen) KERRY WASHINGTON Photo: Byron Cohen/ABC

#Gladiators! Sorry for the tardy recap. Life got in the way, but Im here and ready to get down to business with this weeks episode of Scandal, which is keeping the streak alive! Two weeks in a row, weve gotten really good episodes, chock-full of jaw-dropping moments (Rowan revealing one of Olivias secrets to friend-turned-enemy-turned-frenemy Abby), great musical numbers (of course Shonda can get Princes music licensed), an amazing summarization of race and racism in two separate scenes, and Artemis Pebdani, who plays Susan Ross, should definitely get a best supporting actress Emmy nomination for her work this season. If she doesnt, I will be shocked.tumblr.com. All in all, Trump Card was fantastic, so lets discuss it all, shall we?

We open with Abby and Liv behind closed doors at OPA. Marcus and Quinn are perhaps naively hopeful that whatever is happening between the two women is good; meanwhile, Huck is like, UHHHHHH, they bout to cut each other. But maybe not! We go inside the meeting. Abby and Liv are still agreeing to the terms of teaming up to take Hollis down together because he is still leading the Republicans in the polls, despite straight chilling with the KKK (LOL. Wut?). His reaction to his ex-wife claiming that he sexually assaulted her amounts to Ive never had to convince a woman to have sex with me and hes just constantly being ignorant and/or trifling about everything else. Great! Meeting adjourned  and both Liv and Abby return to their camps and request getting dirt on Mellie and Susan, respectively, just in case. Oof. This is gonna be ugly, yall!

Next, we catch up with Cyrus who is meeting with Liv in the park. Hes all like, Liv, Frankie Vargas is the real deal, but hes still behind Edison in every poll. Is it just because Im screwing up and dont have the goods anymore to lead a campaign. HOLD. UP. Yall, Edison is basic, meanwhile Frankie is hot, charming the Fruit of the Looms off everybody. People know about his dying daughter, and he has sound policies. In short, Edison is the equivalent of a bowl of lukewarm borscht or whatever it is that orphan kid Oliver Twist had to eat, and Frankie is an entree that would appear in an episode of Chopped. How the hell is Frankie still losing? Oh, thats right. Papa Pope is running the show and fixing the election so that Edison can get the delegates. In that case, I get it. And so does Cy when Liv tells him this and hes, like, Okay. Cool. Look, I know you dont want me to kill your dad because hes Dad, but I would totes do it, with the casualness that I have when pouring an extra scoop of Crystal Light powder in my drink. The point is, Cy is too chill about wanting to kill Rowan and Liv is like, We cant beat my dad. Im out. Figure this mess out on your own. But maybe Liv should rethink having her dad killed, because 

Rowan meets with Abby and he gives her a confidential file with the information that Liv aborted the baby that she wouldve had with Fitz. Yooooooo, what the hell, Rowan! I know you want to win, but this is your daughter. Do you not give zero damns about this?!?! Fitz doesnt know this happened. Mellie doesnt know. No one knows. This is just foul, and Im pretty much ready for Rowan to die in a fire.

But wait a minute. Then, he has this awesome conversation about race and racism with Edison, who was saying things basically downplaying it. Rowan says Edison has been pampered and sheltered his whole life, whereas Rowan grew up in the ghetto and dealt with tons of horrible racist things. I stood up and applauded. YAAAAAS! And then Rowan bullies Edison by stating that if he knows whats good for him, he will do everything that Rowan says (like make Jake his VP) and not make him angry because, fill in the blanks, a.k.a. Edison will get beat up/murdered/or some other horrible thing. Yikes! Poor Edison!

At the White House, David and Susan are talking. Hes really working overtime to win her heart back, and Im guessing that, since last episode, they are officially a couple again. That was quick! Theyre talking about his boring-ass job, and he basically proposes to her. Huh? This is uber quick. Like quicker than an Uber coming to my crib to pick me up. Susan starts crying and says, Yes, and Im  less than enthused. This is way too soon! Havent they seen the Sex and the City when Charlotte and Trey rushed to get married and she didnt learn until the night before their wedding (she wanted to save herself for him even though shes not a virgin. That is real basic-B ignorance if Ive ever heard of any) that Treys dong is always hibernating. In short, this engagement is a banana sandwich, and I dont think their rushing things bodes well for them in the long run, but maybe Im wrong.

Back to Operation Hollis. Rowan sees Liv and tells her to take Holliss deal before Abby does. She scoffs and tells him shes not falling for his tricks. Next, we see Mellie and Marcus working hard on the campaign, and obviously theyre feeling each other, but, more importantly, he tells her she is going to win the nomination, and they wont have to team up with Hollis. Yay! Except Liv goes to see Hollis  and makes a deal. NOOOOOO! But its all good because it turns out Liv was secretly videotaping Hollis during their meeting and got him on record saying that hes only saying these crazy things to get tons of supporters, and, once hes the nominee, hell be way more moderate. Liv leaks this tape to Sally who airs it on The Liberty Report. And, just like that, Hollis is out of the race! If only it were that easy to get rid of Donald Trump. Moving on.

Now, that Hollis is gone, Abby and Liv are back at odds. So Quinn and Huck dig up some dirt that is enough to torpedo Susans campaign. Ruh-roh. Next, Liv goes to see Edison, who is on edge after being threatened by Jake to make him the VP nominee. Liv tells Edison that she knows Rowan is calling the shots and stealing the election for him. She says his only way out of Rowans control is to tell the press what he really thinks about Hollis and his racist antics. Cut to the next day. Edison is about to get on his campaign bus when a reporter asks him about Hollis  Edison delivers an epic speech about Black Lives Matter and about what America should be. Its raw and real and he knows he crushes it when he finishes because he basically does this:

Which has me like:

Maybe Edison isnt so basic and I underestimated him. Anyway, this plan works and he drops out, leaving Frankie as the Democratic nominee. Rowan is supremely pissed, but more on him in a second. We have to deal with Susan and Mellie first.

Abby and Liv summon both camps to the Oval so they can share the dirt they have on each other. And say that if the other stays in the race, this info will be made public, but if they drop out it will remain private. Oh. This is literally a horrendous idea. Livs abortion is going to come to light! Liv goes first and reveals that David made a deal with Annie Potts, a.k.a. Gov. Baker, in exchange for her endorsement of Susan. And Susan loses her shit. She cant believe David lied to her again and Fitz wants David to resign. YIKES! Susan, devastated, asks what dirt Abby has. Instead of revealing the abortion, she just talks about when Mellie hired a psychic after her son died. So glad Abby didnt go to the dark side! So, with that, Susan says shes dropping out of the race and leaves the Oval. Fudge. Shes amazing.

David finds her in his office and he pleads his case. She tells him that if he really believed in her, he would have let her try and win on her own. He goes, I do believe in you. I think youre amazing. She goes, I know I am and launches into an amazing speech that every woman should say to herself because the message of it is this: I know Im the shit. I dont need a man to validate me. I need a man who believes in me because Im going to do amazing things. You dont fully believe? Then get the hell out of my life.

A THOUSAND TIMES YES. Thank you, Shonda & Co., for being the champion of women, people of color, and people in the LGBT community on all of your shows since day one. That will be your biggest and best legacy, in my opinion. Back to the show.

So Susan officially ends her engagement to David and withdraws from the race. Mellie celebrates with Marcus and they almost kiss until shes called on to speak to the media. Im loving this potential ship!!

Liv swings by Abbys with a bottle of wine and wants to know what she didnt say in the Oval. After some prodding, Abby says its about the abortion. Liv says that no one knows about it and wants to know how Abby found out: Rowan. Thats when Abby warns her that Papa Pope is far from done with her. Eeep!

Speaking of eep!, Rowan and Jake pay Edison a visit and threaten him. Rowan leaves, and thats when Jake gives a message to Edison that needs to be passed onto Liv: I need her help. I want to escape. I want to chase the sun. AAAAAAH!

Alrighty, what did you think of this episode? Are you digging Mellie and Marcus? Do you think Jake and Liv can team up without Rowan finding out? Did anyone elses heart break for Susan?
For the past seven seasons, Bonnie Bennet has been put through the ringer again and again  and after last nights episode, theres no end in sight. (Except for the finale next week!) Lets recap.

Leading Lady

Our favorite sidekick gets her own category in the recap tonight, for sidekick she is no longer  after seven seasons, Bonnie has entrenched herself into my heart in a way that can only be described as a long con. There have been times I hated her, times I loved her, times I thought she could be stronger or smarter or frankly, just more herself. But through all of that, Bonnies defining characteristic, no matter what she has gone through, is that she has always been a good friend.

Tonight, that all changed. Within the first minute of the episode, Bonnie woke up, threw the love of her life into a fire and decapitated Caroline with a fire poker  only for us to realize that it was a hallucination; killing her friends is what Bonnies subconscious was fearing would happen, thus preventing her from waking up to take Raynas place as a huntress.

What if the reason Bonnie isnt waking up is because shes Bonnie? Enzos right; Bonnie would rather die, would rather face hell or become an anchor to the Other Side or any number of things rather than give up her humanity.

But of course, theres a plan! If they delve into Bonnies mind and convince her that vamps arent all that bad, maybe shell wake up and pretend the whole thing never happened.

Turns out whats inside Bonnies subconscious is just a boring college class at Whitmore  or at least it seems to be, until all her classmates start dying, as vampires appear out of nowhere to feed on them  including Ric, who looms over her, his eyes shifting into darkness. Bonnie escapes to find Caroline. Your body is safe in Damons bedroom, said no one EVER except Caroline in this moment.

Even Carolines talking about her daughters and urging Bonnie to fight against her brain rewiring her memories to turn her against vampires does no good. Do your kids know that youre a vampire? Bonnie asks, the subtle shift between Our Bonnie and Huntress Bonnie depicted with nuance by Kat Graham, who rocked it this entire episode. Bonnies subconscious brings blood to the floor, causing Caroline to start to lose control. Bonnie envisions Caroline hurting her daughters and stakes her, forcing Caroline out of her head.

But what happens in the subconscious does not stay in the subconscious; Carolines been marked by Bonnies stake, which means she needs to run  lest her BFF wake up and decide shes the first vampire on her kill list.

Next up is Enzo, who applauds Bonnies epic takedown of a few vamp stoners outside Mystic Falls High. Bonnie guesses her subconscious has brought her to high school because shes trying to hold on to a time before vampires were a part of my life.

So, Enzo pulls a typical high-school move and invites his girl to jam-out with him on a guitar, hoping that that will connect her back to the girl who DID love a vampire.

I have always wanted to be loved be someone, in the way that you loved me. And I would rather have those memories than any future where I destroy them. This moment was heartbreaking. Bonnie had to watch while Elena had not one, but two epic loves. Bonnie got like  half of a high school romance. Now, when she dies, Elena will resume her epic love with Damon, and Bonnie will have gotten gypped once again. But, ever the best friend, she accepts this and tells Enzo to leave and let her go. When he refuses, she stakes him, too.

Heres where Damon comes in: unlike Bonnie, who has always been a good friend, no matter what, Damons had his moments. Sometimes hes a good friend. Sometimes hes a good brother. Sometimes hes not. Then, he can be your worst enemy. He decides theres no reasoning with a hero  so instead, he decides to fight with one. No more Stefaning the situation. I gotta be me.

I almost cried when I saw the silhouette of Elena in her room. Id almost forgotten that even while Bonnies become BFFs with Damon, fallen in love with Enzo  theres still one big thing missing from her life, and shell never see her again. Damon reminds her of that by taking her through all of his and Elenas beautiful moments on the Gilbert porch, ending with where Bonnie is standing: because thats the spot where shes going to decide to die for Elena.

Thank God Bonnie heartsnatched him, because I couldnt take it anymore. Its one thing when Damons being a genuine asshole; its another when hes faking it to prove a point. Now Bonnies awake, Damons on the run, and we just have to hope that neither one of them kills the other, or Elena will be rull mad when she wakes up.

Plus 100 for Bonnie carving stakes out of the wooden spoons. I may not like Huntress Bonnie, but I love resourceful Bonnie.

True Love Waits

Meanwhile, Caroline and Alaric decide to be the most normal couple in this entire group by fighting about something that has nothing to do with what they really should be fighting about, which is that Caroline doesnt love him and belongs with Stefan.

Alaric makes a good point here that a human should be around for Bonnie to not kill, but Caroline wins out and Alaric agrees to go home to Lizzie and Josie (and, um, regarding Carolines later assertion that the girls dont know shes a vampire  she may want to rethink that. Kids are observant. I think they have a sixth sense, like ESPN or something.)

Speaking of avoiding our problems, Stefans in a bar. (Funny how six years ago, Alaric was always at the bar. Now hes got kids. Stefans taken his place.) Even Damon remarks on this strange turn of events: I dialed H for hero, he says. Wheres his brother with a plan when he needs one?

So Stefan is the one who goes to the Salvatore house and suggests the totally foolproof (lol) plan of diving into Bonnies subconscious to remind her of how good life is when everyone she loves isnt dying, and shes not dying, and Elenas not dead, and Steroline is broken up, etc etc.

After Caroline gets marked, though, Steroline are forced to actually have a conversation. Meanwhile, I was so desperate I called Klaus for help, who is nowhere to be found, by the way. That Klaus mention made millions of people so very happy. I wondered if they were ever going to pick that thread up again. Well, it doesnt matter, because Klaus is MIA and Stefan is right here, and hes not letting anything happen to his girl. So, in a totally Damon move, he vervains her and carts her off to a motel for her own protection. Atta boy. (As Damon says later, its a solid move. Rinse and repeat as needed.)

But even when Caroline tries to go home to her girls, she cant. She knows Stefan is right; its not safe, and that means she understands even better what he was going through when he left her three years ago. I love you, and the thought of you getting hurt is not an option Im willing to entertain.

So they run, possibly to Maine, to Nova Scotia, and who knows where else after that. All Caroline can focus on his getting to safety and making sure her girls are safe. But thats not enough for Stefan, who with clenched jaw and hero hair asks the question we all want to know the answer to:

Do you love him?

Whatever nonsense came out of Carolines mouth after that, I wasnt listening. The look on her face was enough.

Forgive Me

Matt shows up just as Bonnie about to go hunting, and he convinces her that despite having acted to the contrary all season, he doesnt actually want to hurt their friends. And now, neither does she. Then help me not do this, she says, revealing that there is a bit of Bonnie left inside of her. All Matt has to do is help her kill Damon, the one vamp that started it all, that ruined her life  that killed your sister, because he was bored.

Duh Matts in; after that impassioned speech worthy of an Emmy, Id agree, too.

These fighting scenes in the woods were some of Ian Somerhalder, Kat Graham, and the writers best work yet. I only see a smug parasite where my friend Elena should be. Burn!

At Bonnies grave site, the tree stump where they held their memorial for her back in season I-cant-even-remember, Damon tries to convince Bonnie that hell let her kill him because he loves her. If you kill me right now, its not your fault.

Tears streaming down her face, Bonnie fights to remember. But at the last second, she goes to stake him, only to be taken down by Matts dart gun. Once again, Damon gets a second (third, tenth, five-hundredth) chance: If Damon loves her, hell find a way to fix Bonnie.

Which may come at yet another cost: the shaman who cursed Rayna may be able to fix the problem  except hes locked away in the Armory, which, in case you forgot, has been ravaged by a terrible and unknown evil that turns human being into the worst versions of themselves. Into living monsters. The camera pans across a house full of dead (and some almost-dead, or wishing they were dead) bodies, leading into the darkness of the vault, and whatever terror awaits our gang in next weeks finale, when they go in there in the hopes of saving Bonnies life.

One more episode left! I cant believe were almost done with this season, and that summer hiatus is almost upon us. Heres hoping next week delivers all those TVD cliffhangers we love so well. Until next time, Ill be on Twitter @Talkativetara.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday hit out at "circles" disturbed by Turkey's growing global position.

Addressing NGO representatives in Malatya, eastern Turkey, he said: "Turkey has become a country that has gained resistance to global crises and has overcome these crises on its own.

"We know that there are some circles who cannot digest this situation."

The president said these circles benefited a weak Turkey beset by internal problems because "for them, Turkey is a country to benefit, not a homeland to die for."

Erdogan said there were a number of Turkish groups who were enemies of the country. "Whatever their names and representatives are, their aim is same," he said, going on to identify the "parallel state" led by U.S.-based cleric Fetullah Gulen as one such group.
Councilman Kyle Deaver will become mayor of Waco on May 17 without having to put out a single yard sign or ask anyone for campaign contributions.

Youd like to think its because youre doing a good job, Deaver said a few days before Saturdays election, in which he was unopposed. I dont know if its that or nobody wants the job.

But other council members say Deaver has already earned his place at the head of the table.

I think hell be amazing, District 4 Councilman Dillon Meek said. I think Kyle is experienced and wise. I think he is going to carry on the torch well that Mayor Duncan has carried so well. . . . Im thrilled to serve under him.

Deaver will be sworn in May 17 to replace Malcolm Duncan Jr., who is stepping down after four years in office.

Deaver, 52, is expected to be a departure from the gregarious Duncan in style but not substance. Duncan routinely put in 40-plus hours a week for the volunteer position, serving on numerous boards and convening leaders from nonprofit groups, government and business to solve community issues. The fruits of his labor include a revamped animal shelter and the Prosper Waco antipoverty initiative, on which Deaver will serve as a board member.

Ive learned a lot from watching Malcolm in that role, Deaver said. Hes done a fantastic job reaching across to other forms of government. I really applaud what hes done there and I dont want us to lose any of that momentum.

Balancing act

But Deaver said he will have to balance his mayoral duties with his business affairs, which include ownership and legal roles at American Bank and American Guaranty Title.

Im going to have to take a different kind of approach, he said. I wish I could dive into that depth. But the reality for me is that we have a wonderful staff, a great city manager, city attorney, municipal judge and city secretary. We have a great council thats willing to take on different roles. Im not going to say Ill delegate everything, but I wont be able to do it full time.

Deaver said he also hopes to continue Duncans emphasis on collecting and analyzing data on city operations and sharing it with the public.

I think transparency is really important so citizens can understand whats working and whats not working, he said. Then again, I dont know that theres anyone in Waco as obsessed with data as Malcolm is.

Other council members say Deaver has shown himself to be a thoughtful presence on the council.

Hes a quiet person, but ultimately what hes doing is thinking, really absorbing the issue, said District 2 Councilwoman Alice Rodriguez, who has been on the council for much of the last quarter-century. He listens and then he makes his judgment call. . . . One thing Ive noticed is that hes real open, that he listens.

With typical bluntness, Duncan puts it another way.

Hes much more considerate than I am, Duncan said. He thinks before he talks, unlike me. He does a really good job looking at both sides.

He said Deaver brings important skills to the council. Deaver knows the world of nonprofit groups as a board member of the Waco Foundation and through other community work, Duncan said. He knows city issues as a former Plan Commission member.

And Deavers experience as a business attorney, banking official and former owner of a Harley-Davidson dealership will help as the city deals with economic development, including the proposed redevelopment of the Brazos Riverfront with Catalyst Urban Development, Duncan said.

Knowing the nuances and details of a deal is really critical on something like that, he said.

Deaver said economic development is indeed a priority, and like Duncan, he wants to make sure that new employment opportunities benefit those who are currently unemployed or underemployed.

That may mean improving skills for workers and incentivizing companies to move into lower-income parts of town.

He said hes an enthusiastic supporter of Prosper Waco, which seeks to coordinate nonprofit, government and business players in a coherent effort to improve income, health care and education.

I think were in the early stage of seeing some progress, Deaver said. At least were facing the poverty problem. I think well make progress because were all working together and measuring what were doing.

This isnt the first time Deaver has taken Duncans old job. In June 2012, the council chose him to fill the District 5 council seat Duncan vacated when he was elected mayor. Deaver was elected to the seat without opposition in 2013 and defeated challenger Robert Cervantes this year.

Waco City Council will likely do interviews and select a candidate for Deavers District 5 seat in June, city officials said.

Deaver said becoming mayor hasnt been a longtime ambition. In fact, he didnt consider becoming a councilman until he was on the Plan Commission and friends urged him to think about it.

Deep Waco roots

But his roots run deep in Waco. Deavers maternal grandfather is Waco broadcasting pioneer Buddy Bostick, and Deaver grew up mowing the lawn at the KWTX studio. He spent his teen years working the teleprompters and cameras in a nicotine-stained newsroom, where his father, Ray Deaver, was station manager.

After he graduated from Baylor University, he went to work full time for the station.

My long-term plan was to run the station, he said. I went into ad sales, but after about three years, I decided I didnt want to do it. Being a salesman was not the best thing for me.

He joined his younger brother, John, at Baylor Law School, then clerked at law firms in Dallas and Austin  experiences that confirmed for him that he belonged in Waco. He and his wife, Diane, raised two now-grown children here, Nick and Morgan.

Ive always knew it was a great place to raise a family, Deaver said. I always thought Waco had a lot of opportunity, and I always thought it would continue to get better and have more things to do. I liked the proximity of Dallas and Austin and Fort Worth. But more and more we find ourselves staying in town on weekends and enjoying what Waco has to offer.
Sunday we recommended voters in District 3 in southwest Waco support Waco City Council incumbent John Kinnaird in todays election. He has done his homework and taken his duties seriously. One gets accustomed to seeing him involved in everything, whether battling poverty through Prosper Waco, trying to set transportation priorities through the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization or setting the pace on preventative health-care measures through membership on the public health district board.

Tuesday we condemned all Texas schools blocking enrollment of children of immigrant parents  clear violation of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision that slapped down what was then a Democratic-run Texas Legislature that ordered school districts to refuse the enrollment of students not legally in this country. If such children do become legal residents or even citizens one day, we best ensure theyre taxpaying Americans who meaningfully contribute to the betterment of us all rather than being a drag on the system, as former Texas Gov. Rick Perry once observed.

Wednesday we bid a sad farewell to longtime road contractor and philanthropist F.M. Young, who died Sunday at 86. Anytime some ambitious undertaking was contemplated for the public good, Youngs involvement was regarded as both fundamental and foundational. Think of him when you lay eyes on accomplishments as varied as the five-story heart hospital at Providence Health Center, the Waco Mammoth National Monument and the remarkable W.R. Poage Legislative Library at Baylor University.

Thursday we raised the question facing thinking Republicans, at least those who subscribe to common-sense conservatism  not crazy talk and pandering to the lowest denominator: Do they follow presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and risk transforming their party into one that casually disparages women, Hispanics, Muslims, even POWs? Or do they, as some Republican seers now advise, work against Trump to save the Republican Party and maybe even our nation in the long run?

Say what? Waco Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr. on the unstable roadway and slope along Lake Shore Drive and its costly prescription: This is a really high-risk place to have a road. Indeed.
Two PKK terrorists have been killed by security forces in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli, officials said Saturday.

In a statement, the provincial governor's office said the deaths occurred during a counter-terrorism operation around the village of Okurlar on Friday and Saturday.

Arms were also recovered, the statement added.

The PKK - listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU - resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015. Since then, more than 430 security personnel have been martyred and more than 3,800 PKK terrorists killed.
WAHOO  Making the most of his time while the Nebraska tundra was still frozen, Doug Bartek of Wahoo went to Mexico in February with 10 other soybean farmers.

The trip was as part of the See For Yourself program with the Nebraska Soybean Checkoff in an effort to nurture international ag relations.

Mexico is the largest importer of soybean meal and soybean oil, said Bartek.

Bartek is a director for the Nebraska Soybean Association and farms just northeast of Wahoo.

Face-to-face relations work well in an international market. In the fall, Taiwanese buyers come to Barteks farm to see first-hand where their beans are grown.

Trips like these allow you to put a face with it. When you gain trust, it makes it that much easier to buy, said Bartek. Sometimes you have to prove your product is what you say it is. You have to be competitive.

This also allows farmers to see their checkoff dollars at use, educating other countries on the value of soy, he added.

The group visited Puerto Progreso, a major port on the Yucutan peninsula; Crio Poultry feed facility, which mixes feed for poultry operations, the Proteinol soybean processing plant; the BUBUL-HA aquaculture shrimp and tilapia farm and various supermarkets which sell soybean products.

This trip really shows you where your money goes and what its doing, said Bartek.

After soybeans leave the farm and go to Archer Daniels Midland in Fremont or Lincoln, the trip showed where it goes and how its uses, he said.

Were trying to find new products all the time, said Bartek.

One of the stops showed the demand increase for one of the uses.

The tanks at the aquaculture shrimp and talapia farm doubled in number this last year, proving the high demand in the area, said Bartek.

Talapia and shrimp from that farm are not exported, but all used within Mexico, he added.

The focus is to produce a good product thats healthy. Soybeans are a healthy, nutrition-based feed to help animals put on good weight, not just fat, he said.

In addition to these uses of soy, Bartek said the Nebraska Soybean Association works on the lobbying end of things, advocating for other uses like soy diesel and to include soybean oil in biodiesel as a renewable source of energy.

Saunders County is the number one soybean producer in the state. And as of 2014, 45 to 47 percent of soybeans grown go to export, that means every other row, he said.
China to Crack Down on Online Advertising and E-commerce Amid Baidu Probe

Li Yanhong, also known as Robin Li, president of Baidu (Photo : Getty Images)

China's Internet regulator will launch a campaign to clean up misleading and false online advertising following the death of a college student who underwent cancer treatment that listed high in his Baidu search.



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The State Administration for Industry and Commerce announced the intensified protection for Internet users which will run through November, per a report from the South China Morning Post.



According to the announcement, China will be monitoring all advertisements posted over the Internet and called on to all levels of commerce and industry to join the campaign.



Many were enraged after Wei Xi, a student from Northwestern China's Shaanxi Province who suffered from a rare form of cancer known as synovial sarcoma, posted his disappointing experience with a hospital that listed high in his Baidu search.



Affected Companies



While it did not specify companies to be affected by the crackdown, Reuters believe that it will affect some of the country's biggest Internet companies such as Baidu Inc., Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and JD.com Inc.



Baidu had been under investigation after the accusations posted by the deceased college student, but has defended their ad for the military hospital where Wei underwent treatment by posting a certificate, according to CNN Money.



The SCMP also noted that Baidu had declined some 30-million-yuan worth of promotional requests and closed some 438,000 advertising accounts that appeared suspicious.



On the other hand, a spokesperson from JD.com assured their clients and consumers that the company continues to implement a strict regulation of posts on their site.



"Our business model targets the scourge of counterfeits and we support efforts to protect consumers, wherever they may shop online," the spokesperson said.



Reuters was not able to get any response from Alibaba when they attempted to get a comment from the company as of the writing of this article.



The Crackdown



Aside from Wei's viral posts about Baidu, dozens of nongovernment organizations and patients' rights groups have already called for a probe on the company for its placement of medical advertisements, the SCMP noted.



According to Zhang Haoyu, a spokesperson for the groups, their pleas had been continuously ignored by authorities for months now.



But because of the college student's death, industry and commerce, national health, cyber affairs and military authorities are teaming up to investigate Baidu's medical advertising and initiate a regulatory policy for similar cases.



Between May and November, China's regulators will be monitoring online ads as well as other commerce-related posts to ensure the security and protection of Internet users.






South Korea and the United States have joined forces to study the viability of deploying a powerful missile system called the THAAD in the U.S. military base in the ROK. (Photo : Getty Images)

Russia and China will be holding a series of anti-missile drills for the first time after the United States talked about an anti-missile defense system with South Korea amid threats from the North.



According to RT, the Russian and Chinese military are aiming to get their personnel prepared for any "incidental or provocative" missile attack by conducting computer-assisted anti-missile drills in Russia later in May.



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The move comes after the U.S. and South Korea discussed the possibility of bringing in the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to counteract North Korea's incessant test fires over the past few months.



China and Russia Military Ties



Previous reports have confirmed that China and Russia are making efforts in improving their ties by increasing the number of joint military activities with each other.



The drills, which are expected to be conducted at a Russian military research center, are seen to be a part of this venture, proof that the relationship between the two countries is warming up.



Another reason seen to have sparked the anti-missile drills is the recent weeks-long talk between the U.S. and South Korea about the possible deployment of the THAAD along the Korean border to monitor hostile activities against Seoul.



According to Reuters, both Russia and China discourage the deployment of the missile monitoring system because it will tilt the already-fragile balance between the Koreas, which technically remained at odds after the 1950s war ended in a truce instead of a treaty.



Third-party Target



While the timing of the of the China-Russia joint drill appears to be related to the same purpose as the U.S.-South Korea talks, both the Russian Defense Ministry and the Chinese Ministry of National Defense denied that the activities "target any third party."



"The drill later this month should not necessarily be targeted at a certain country . . . because anti-missile cooperation is a component of long-term bilateral military cooperation," Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies former director Wu Enyuan told China Daily.



According to Wu, the joint military drill is a significant step toward a "greater maturity" of the cooperation between the two countries.



Meanwhile, Li Jie, one of the top experts at the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Naval Military Studies Research Institute, explained that the drill that will cover command structures and data transmission will be a great help for the armies to be able to familiarize themselves with the differing systems.



"The drill not only shows political and moral support for each other, but also introduces joint anti-missile efforts that will effectively fend off threats by enemies on their doorsteps," Li explained.






Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence DPP, is Taiwan's new president-elect. (Photo : Reuters)

China is keeping a close eye at Taiwans newly elected president as her administration under the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) might promote the dangerous Taiwan independence Beijing is warning about.



According to AFP as posted in Yahoo News, the Communist Party of China has been intensifying the pressure on the incoming government led by Taiwan's first female president because of her party's traditional pro-independence stance.



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Because of this, Reuters said that Tsai is faced with the grueling task of convincing Beijing that her democratic party is not seeking independence because any sign of it could bring the island into a war with China. The mainland has not ruled out the use of force to reign in Taiwan, which it considers a wayward province.



Clause Celebre



Despite constant assurances from Taiwan's first lady president, a clause in the DPP charter states the exact opposite.



"Based on the principle of national sovereignty, (we) advocate establishing a sovereign and independent 'Republic of Taiwan' and a new constitution that should be decided on by all residents of Taiwan in a referendum," the 591-word clause from DPP's charter states.



However, officials from the DPP clarified that the 1991 clause is already defunct, but to remove it would mean the destruction of the party; thus, the emergence of the "splittist" or separatist force that China warns about.



Pressure on Taiwan's New President



According to Koo Kwang-ming, China's constant warnings on independence is actually their way of showing that they have no way to deal with how Taiwan is progressing.



"China's attitude on opposing independence is out of touch with the real situation. They really have no way (how to deal) with Taiwan, so they take what has been stated in the past and repeat, repeat and repeat it," he told Reuters.



Tunghai University Political scientist Francis Hu believes that Beijing is sending Tsai a message with the recent grapple on sovereignty over Taiwanese suspects involved in the widespread telecom fraud.



"Beijing wants to teach Tsai a lesson. The incidents are intentional and send a very clear message that it is tightening the screws," the Taiwanese expert told AFP.



According to experts cited by the outlet, China wants Tsai to follow the footsteps of her predecessor, KMT's Ma Ying-jeou, who agreed on Beijing's idea of a "one China."



But because more and more Taiwanese feel a greater sense of nationalism, it appears as though China is threatened that their hold on their so-called "wayward province" might be at risk.



Tsai, who is living proof of the nationalistic generation that monopolizes Taiwan now, is plagued with a complex "balancing act" to please her people while maintaining the "status quo."






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Apple has lost a legal grapple with a local leather company over the iPhone trademark. (Photo : Getty Images)

Apple plans to bring its case against a leather company to Chinas highest court in the wake of a Beijing court ruling against their exclusive use of the iPhone trademark.



In a statement, Apple told the South China Morning Post that the company is not giving up the fight and will attempt to request a retrial from the Supreme People's Court.



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"We intend to request a retrial with the Supreme People's Court and will continue to vigorously protect our trademark rights," the company declared on Thursday.



According to China.org, the smartphone manufacturer reported of a breach of the trademark rules to the country's trademark authority in 2014, citing that a leather company has been branding the widely known Apple brand "IPHONE" into their leather products.



However, the authority ruled against Apple, prompting the American firm to file a lawsuit in a lower court in Beijing.



After that did not turn out as they wanted, the iPhone maker proceeded to file a case at the Beijing Municipal High People's Court, which recently ruled against them as well.



Because of this, Apple cannot currently use the brand "iPhone" in their smartphone in China as the Beijing-based leather company Xintong Tiandi Technology currently holds the trademark rights.



According to analysts, Apple's situation reflects China's current position on Western countries' products as well as the Asian giant's approach to trademark protection.



"Apple's trademark woes in China are typical of those faced by other Western brands, and are symptomatic of China's approach to trademark protection," Pinsent Masons law firm partner Paul Haswell explained to SCMP.



According to Haswell, China's intellectual property protection is "fatally flawed."



"The system allows so-called trademark trolls to keep a close eye on brands which are successful outside of China, register trademarks associated with that brand in China, and then hope either to profit off their goodwill or achieve a large cash settlement with the brand itself," he explained.


by Sam Duncombe

Politics, law and the environment

The government of The Bahamas is increasingly dysfunctional and perverse. They continue to wilfully ignore, downplay and reframe the very serious matters and concerns that have been raised by Save The Bays (STB) and others: oil pollution at Clifton, the Rubis fuel spill, the burning dump, and unregulated and unlawful development, for starters. And even after a Supreme Court judgement, Prime Minister Perry Christie and the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Alfred Gray have failed to close the illegal facility Blackbeards Cay notwithstanding the Supreme Courts order requiring them to do so.

Invasion of privacy  more illegality

Most recently, we witness the Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald reading private emails of STB directors - illegally obtained - under the protection of the House of Assembly. How does this look to the world of investors and bankers?  knowing that when the government wants to, it will spy on them?

What an obscene violation of privacy!

The complete lack of self control and common sense is staggering! In successive stunning moves, the Government ignores the rule of law, discards democratic principles and takes its depravity down to the lowest of depths to advance its agenda, obscure its wrongdoings and defend the indefensible. Its Cabinet Ministers then attack citizens in Parliament where we have no opportunity to respond.

How could the honourable Ministers of Education and Immigration abuse their power by using the protection of the House to lambaste, insult, cast innuendos and attempt to degrade the reputation of its own citizens?

Why would the Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration be so concerned? Shouldnt they be at least as interested in finding out if there has been criminal misconduct that has threatened their own citizens?

We have been called the Bahamian Hustlers. Thats laughable  who are bigger hustlers than this government?

Decades of non responsive government

Why has every government for the past 25 years resisted the environmental movement? Science has repeatedly demonstrated that key protections of the environment are necessary to ensure a sustainable healthy environment as the best way forward and yet successive governments continue to ignore it at our collective peril.

Minister Fitzgerald claims that Save The Bays is trying to overthrow the government an outrageous assertion!  It seems to me they are doing a pretty fantastic job of overthrowing themselves.

Imagine if the Government put as much effort trying to do right by Bahamians, instead of zealously attacking its citizens  if only that energy could be put to good use running the country responsibly, effectively and efficiently.

The reality is environmental groups would not have to exist if the government did its job.

Clearly, we cannot trust the government to protect the environment for the Bahamian people, and we cannot allow it to continue to scandalize the country by dragging it through the mud of cronyism and self-dealing.

Maligning patriotic Bahamians who care about our environment and its people, is not the answer we can accept. The government needs to be responsible and respond appropriately.

Why would the Minister of Education and Minister of Immigration address the House with their spewing of hostility and spitefulness? It is sad and disheartening and honestly shameful given the desperate need for rational debate in this country. The stature afforded the Ministers by their profession and official posts as Members of Parliament and Cabinet Ministers in The government of the Bahamas should have dictated greater wisdom and discretion in their response to a lawsuit which alleges a murder plot. Moreover, their fuss and fury certainly does not set a good example of how to deal with controversy, particularly as the entire nation can watch their petty, vindictive and malicious behaviour. This is a sad performance.

Politics of Intimidation and Insults

In 25 years as an environmental activist in The Bahamas I have frequently discovered that those who unjustly attack an opponents character and reputation, rather than their contentions and arguments, avail themselves of this tactic of last resort due to weakness of their position. It may well also be that their point of view betrays their transparent motives that advance a very narrow agenda of tribalism and self-interest.

I am a proud Director and Campaign Manager for Oil Pollution for STB which has at its core 7 objectives to promote environmental awareness, and to protect and strengthen environmental laws. The disingenuous attacks on STB is patronizing and seeks to silence us for disagreeing with them - to intimidate, so that we either submit or disappear. We dont want to fight: we demand a seat at the table to ensure the environment is being protected and laws are being followed. And were not going away.

It is the classic control and suppression move of those who see themselves as entrenched in power and privilege. Their aim is often to impose their own agendas, not only on those they want to silence now, but also those that may be awakened by the current protests.

Accountability?

It is indeed ironic that the government is calling for the IRS to investigate STB funds, when the government cant seem to produce any information regarding political donations, and cant produce public accounts satisfactory to the Auditor General. And then again, we need to consider the multi- millions of dollars that are unaccounted for and misused by this administration: Bank of the Bahamas, BAMSI, VAT, Carnival, NIB, Real Property Tax, the Post office etc Perhaps its best not to throw stones when living in a glass house? The government ought to stop their smoke and mirrors tactics and focus on disclosing where OUR money is going.

History and Political Expediency

Some fascinating facts: In 2002 when another group of Bahamians (myself included) were fighting the Clifton Cay development and the PLP was the opposition, the PLP were quick to jump - nay trample all over the coattails of all those patriotic Bahamians who stood loud and proud to preserve our historic cultural and natural heritage at Clifton for political mileage. I gather that a ground swell of public opinion to be used in their favour was perfectly acceptable. Political expediency determines the validity of a cause as they readily and quickly ran to the front of the parade and proceeded to espouse the virtues of protecting the environment and our heritage.

During the same time the current Minister of Tourism Obie Wilchcombe was a talk show host at More 94 FM. I was invited to appear on the show so many times I practically became his co host!

But that was ok because we used our time on air to speak out for saving Clifton. Whats that Shakespeare quote again?... Adversity makes strange bedfellows.

But that was ok then because it suited them, and frankly it suited the fight at the time. Shouldnt it be the job of both the government and the opposition to stand with its citizens?

In fact Prime Minister Christie acknowledged after winning the 2002 election that supporting the Clifton fight had helped them win the election.

The then FNM government also used the protection of the House to attack those of us in the fight. We were called operatives of the PLP at the time among other things. It is really rather perverse that in 25 years the same old dirty, slimy tactics are used interchangeably from one government to another government in attempts to intimidate and silence any dissention from the public.

But what amuses as much as angers me with this fiasco is that the government now wants to unleash the IRS and FBI hounds on Louis Bacon, who is the same person that helped us in the first Clifton fight in 2000. And the PLP had no problem using Louis Bacons support in 2000. His Moore Charitable Foundation (MCF) assisted those of us on the ground with financial and professional resources. Does anyone care to remember EDAW  ( an international landscape architecture, urban and environmental design firm) which the last PLP administration utilized for the Down Town Redevelopment Project? EDAW was sourced through MCF to provide the Clifton Heritage Park Committee with the first conceptual plans for the Clifton Heritage National Park.

So while Minister Fitzgerald is claiming that no PLP members were involved with this group in actual fact they were involved with them long before the FNM party ever was. They supported a very vocal and visible fight in which Mr. Bacon played an important and meaningful role. We owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Bacon, the man being persecuted by the government today, for his help in saving one of the most important historical, cultural and environmental sites in The Bahamas. I for one, will forever be grateful.

Challenging the Status Quo

As a patriotic Bahamian, it is my duty, honour and privilege to ceaselessly challenge these antiquated ideas, outdated attitudes and spoon-fed rationales that are routinely served up primarily to support and maintain the status quo and far too frequently defending vested interests by diverting or subverting the legitimate interests and rights of the Bahamian people at large.

We should in 2016 be enjoying a government that has the capacity to implement our collective aspirations in an authentic and sustainable relationship with the natural world, meeting the challenges of today. Our government should take measures to arrest the ongoing destruction of our environment by unscrupulous developers, and educate our people to re-member our connections to the natural world and thereby cure the dysfunctional relationship between people and nonhuman nature.

The governments behaviour in the House is not worthy of the very honoured position they hold. I am thoroughly disgusted that the government would use the protection of the House of Assembly to denigrate citizens who are trying to make positive and constructive contributions to the environmental well-being of our Bahamas.

The unholy alliances and relationships between family, friends, fornicators and financiers of the political and economic elite are destroying our country. What is clear is that more and more, all of us on the outside do not belong to this club/country named the Bahamas. For far too long the politicians have treated our country as though it was their own private land where they can help themselves to everything they can extort, grab, or manipulate. And they have evidently forgotten that they were elected to serve US  NOT themselves.

Why is it that our government is not working for us? Why are they constantly rushing to defend certain foreign developers / party financiers often at the expense, literally and figuratively of the good people of the Bahamas? It seems to me that the majority of politicians are their own top priority and the rest of us are situated way down on the totem pole. It is depraved that this government has more reverence for some foreign developers than it does its own people.

If the government feels threatened that an environmental organization is trying to over throw them (which is laughable) perhaps they might take some time they so willingly give to some foreign developers / party financiers and pay attention to the concerns of their citizens. It is under their governance that concerns raised about environmental issues are continually ignored, and as patriotic Bahamians it is our duty to take a stand and make sure the Government does its job to protect the environment for future generations.

Glen Albrecht, an Australian professor of environmental studies, has observed that large numbers of people are experiencing a type of stress and negative emotions that he calls solastalgia: which he defined as "the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault.

Our beautiful country is not a basket of resources to be exploited and plundered by greedy politicians and their patrons. It is living system of interconnectedness and we must rediscover and reinvent our place as caretakers of the environment which sustains us.

Reject the continuous lies  repetition does not make them true. We need real answers and we need positive action.

As reEarth supporter Jeremy Peterson stated,

Its time to truly look ahead to our future and decide whether or not we want one.

Sam Duncombe

President

reEarth

Director,

Campaign Manager for Oil Pollution

Save The Bays

____________________________________________________

The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of WeblogBahamas.com (which has no corporate view) or its Authors.
Birmingham Hospital Conducts Kidney Transplant (Photo : Getty Images)

Another case of illegal organ harvesting was reported in China after Epoch Times questioned in February the source of 1,600 liver transplants done in a top Chinese hospital over a 13-year period.



The South China Morning Post reported on Friday that Liu Yongwei, a farmer from Suzhou, Anhui Province, was involved in a vehicular crash in June 2015. He was hospitalized at an affiliate of the Xuzhou Medical College in Jiangsu Province for treatment of multiple fractures and chest injuries.



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The farmer had chest surgery to bring back the organs to their right position displaced by the accident. According to hospital records, the surgeon removed his right kidney, but after checking that it was not damaged, claimed to have returned the organ.



Before Liu was discharged from the hospital, he had to undergo another procedure for infected tissues. After two and a half months, the farmer went to Hefei City to have more treatments, but doctors said his right kidney is missing based on CT scans performed in three hospitals.



Liu asked for the help of authorities, but nothing happened. Now, the hospitals are even refusing the man treatment because of his missing organ. The Xuzhou government said the incident is under investigation, but hospital officials are now saying his missing right kidney was probably naturally decayed, hinting it was actually removed.



According to an Australian documentary, government hospitals kill prisoners and then harvest their organs for transplantation. Although there are few people on Chinas organ donor register, annually, 10,000 organ transplant procedures are done across the nation every year, reported Punchng.






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By West Kentucky Star Staff

May. 02, 2016 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 02, 2016 | 11:43 AM | PADUCAH, KY

UPDATE: The McCracken County Sheriff's Department said in a press release that 14-year-old Kaili Robinson was located about 5:00 pm, and she was apparently safe. No other details were made public. Robinson was reported missing on April 14, and the Sheriff's Department notified the public on Monday, May 2.



PREVIOUS STORY:

The public's help is needed in the search for a missing teenage girl.



McCracken County Sheriff's Deputies say they were notified about 1:30 am on April 14 that 14-year-old Kaili Robinson had left her home during the night. She has friends and family in both western Kentucky and southern Illinois.



Kaili is described as 5'-3" tall and weighing about 105 pounds. She has brown eyes and dark brown hair, possibly with blonde highlights. It's not known what she was wearing at the time she left home.



Anyone with information about Robinson's whereabouts should contact the McCracken County Sheriff's Department.



Kaili Robinson was previously reported missing in November, but was found a couple of days later.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff May. 05, 2016 | 04:12 PM | PADUCAH, KY





Starting Wednesday, if you visit the National Weather Service webpage or see information from them, they won't be yelling at you any more.Since email became prominent, and especially through social media, when someone types in all capital letters, it's generally perceived as "yelling," but the software used by the Weather Service was designed to mimic older wire service teleprinters for the news media, which always printed in capital letters. Even though their information is now shared through email, websites, and Facebook, its appearance hasn't changed, because there were still some media groups that used the old technology.Now that those customers have caught up with the times, new forecast software is in place that allows for mixed-case lettering.People are accustomed to reading forecasts in upper case letters and seeing mixed-case use might seem strange at first, said NWS meteorologist Art Thomas. It seemed strange to me until I got used to it over the course of testing the new system, but now it seems so normal, he said.Three forecast products will transition to mixed-case use on May 11, including area forecast discussions, public information statements and regional weather summaries. Severe weather warnings will transition this summer, with other forecasts and warnings transitioning to the new system through early next year.Upper case letters in forecasts will not become obsolete  forecasters will have the option to use all capital letters in weather warnings to emphasize threats during extremely dangerous situations.Certain forecast products with international implications, such as aviation and shipping, will continue to use upper case letters, per international agreements that standardize weather product formats across national borders.

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Tasha Joseph, the creator of the Don'tDateHimGirl.com website is pictured showing the site that permits women to post warning to other women about men cheating. (Photo : Getty Images/ Joe Raedle)

China has banned online boyfriend loyalty testing sites, claiming it only ruins marriages and relationships. The online service that aims to assess the clients' partner's loyalty was recently prohibited in China, but its popularity is still very evident in North America.



The Chinese government has stopped the business of online boyfriend loyalty testing sites because of the conflict, it brings to couples. Most of the clients were Chinese women, who were willing to pay $16 (100 yuan) or less to test if their boyfriend would remain faithful to them, according to China Daily.



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When a client seeks the service of these companies, the private investigators employ models to flirt with the client's partner. The whole conversation is recorded, and then a copy is returned to the client.



Critics claimed that those who seek these services, feel less secure in their relationship and are in a more, deeper trouble. Some even argued that those who resort to these tests must be the first one to undergo the same to check if they can pass it.



Some people argued that one's loyalty should never be tested through online chats. Even the test provides negative results, critics say that it should not be taken seriously by the clients because it can take a great toll on their relationships.



While the sites were banned in China, it remained operational in North America. Chad Peterson, an owner of North American-based sites, TestHisLoyalty.com and BaitMyDate.com, contradicted the claims that loyalty sites provoke relationships and marriages.



Peterson told Asia Times that his clients were happy with the results. "Our clients are either reassured that their partner is faithful or they find out that their partner is willing to cheat and this helps them end the relationship and move on to someone better," he said.



Peterson added that through online boyfriend loyalty testing sites, his clients were able to know the true score of their relationships. He claimed that, whether the outcome is good or bad, it helps them to move forward with their life in the end.



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Wexford family to discuss Lamh sign language on Late Late Show  It would mean so much to Lori May to have other children communicate with her
The Apple iPhone 5C is displayed at an Apple Store. (Photo : Getty Images / Justin Sullivan)

Los Angeles police investigators have successfully hacked an iPhone of April Jace, 40, who was killed in 2014 allegedly by her husband, "The Shield" actor Michael Jace. The LAPD detectives were able to bypass the security features of the slain victim's white iPhone 5S earlier this year at the time when FBI was demanding Apple Inc. to unlock the iPhone 5C of San Bernardino shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook.



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United States law enforcers have been struggling to crack the security features of digital devices which may contain potential evidence for criminal investigations. However, the LAPD found an expert who could override the iPhone's locked function.



The iPhone has been at the focus of the criminal case against her husband who is charged to have carried out her killing. It was not revealed what operating system was on the victim's smartphone, but she was killed before Apple rolled out iOS 8 which came with more enhanced encryption.



The iPhone 5C is an earlier version of 5S and does not have Secure Enclave, an additional security layer on Apple's smartphones, according to Digital Trends. A search warrant of the case stated that an Apple technician helped the LAPD access information from April's phone, but investigators sought an alternative way to bypass the lock.



Investigators contended that the couple Michael and April argued through text messages before the husband opened fire. Michael's lawyers countered that the wife, who was a well-liked financial aid counselor at Biola University in La Mirada had an extramarital affair. A judge delayed the actor's trial, when his defense attorneys argued that April's phone should be investigated further, the Los Angeles Times reported.



Investigations over April's killing were hindered by her iPhone being passcode-protected. An L.A. judge ordered an Apple technician in June 2014 to help the police extract data from the phone's hard drive. The technician met with detectives in February 2015 when LAPD received the hard drive.



An investigator in the L.A. Country district attorney's office tried to extract data from April's phone in late January but could not. The contents of the phone's SIM card were the only ones accessible.



In March, authorities sought the help of a forensic cellphone expert to pass through the security features of the device and allow the authorities to view the contents of the phone. In April, the district attorney's office had examined April's iPhone.



The 53-year-old suspect is now awaiting trial. It was about 8:30 p.m. on May 19, 2014, when authorities received a call about the crime. Two children, who were reportedly below 10 years old, were inside their home during the incident. Authorities recovered a handgun from their house at 5400 block, Brynhurst Avenue.



Michael played L.A. Police officer Julien Lowe in "The Shield." The other films he starred in were "Boogie Nights," "Forrest Gump" and "Planet of the Apes."



The video below reports FBI dropping its fight with Apple over unlocking an iPhone.






Local news outlets have reported that the businessmans family paid the kidnappers EGP 5 million

A Saudi businessman who was kidnapped on the outskirts of Cairo last week has been freed, Saudi Arabias ambassador to Egypt Ahmed El-Qattan wrote on his Twitter account on Thursday.

Hassan Al Sanad, a Saudi businessman who owns a private business and factories in Egypt, was kidnapped on the Cairo-Ismailia road on 27 April after masked men stopped his car.

The ambassador did not divulge details about how the 70-year-old businessman was released, but some local news outlets reported that his family paid the hijackers around EGP 5 million to have him released.

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the world of outlaws and gangbangers, few reached the legendary status of Danny Wolfe.

Wolfe, along with his brother Richard, co-founded the Indian Posse in 1988 in Winnipeg. The Posse was Canadas first and largest aboriginal street gang  eventually boasting 12,000 members.

Wolfe, who had his first brush with the law at age four, took part in a brazen jail break with five other inmates at the Regina Correctional Centre in 2008.

In 2010, he was killed in a brawl involving at least 10 other inmates inside Saskatchewan Federal Penintentiary near Prince Albert.

Wolfe, 33 when he died, had been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of killing two people and injuring three others during a Saskatchewan home invasion.

The Ballad of Danny Wolfe: Life of a Modern Outlaw examines Wolfes upbringing and the system and society in which he lived.

* * *

ARRIVING AT THE MOUNTAIN

1995-96

The note of warning that preceded Danny Wolfes arrival at the Stony Mountain penitentiary was spelled out in block capitals. It distilled what the justice system knew of Danny on Sept. 20, 1995, the day he set foot inside The Mountain for the first time: HIGH-RANKING INDIAN POSSE GANG MEMBER.

The note was handed to the sheriffs who transported Danny by van from the Remand Centre (where prisoners await trial) in downtown Winnipeg, and the sheriffs then passed it to the guards at the penitentiary when they delivered Danny to his new home later that morning. Its not clear whether the block capitals were for ease of reading or emphasis. It might have been difficult to convince the sheriffs that this quiet 19-year-old, who weighed about 120 pounds, was to be treated with extreme caution.

POSTMEDIA NETWORK INC. Daniel Wolfe is shown arriving for a Court of Queen's Bench appearance in Regina in October 2009. Danny was arrested the day after he threatened Darryl and Christa in May 1995. It didnt take long for police to find him, as theyd been questioning him in connection with the attempted murder barely 12 hours before. He submitted quietly. He was charged with obstruction of justice and using a firearm in the commission of a crime  a small price to pay, in his view, if it helped set his brother free.

Bail was set at $10,000, a sum he could have raised but didnt. In those days, prisoners on remand were given credit of two days of time served on their eventual sentence for every day spent awaiting sentencing.

When he walked through the gates of the federal penitentiary, his peers treated it not as a failure, but as an achievement. By receiving federal time he had reached a senior level in the gang. Danny was a founder, of course, but that had never been enough to guarantee a position at the top of the gang. It had to be earned.

On arrival, as part of the intake process, Danny submitted to a battery of psychological tests and interviews that revealed a great deal about him.

Danny had no bank account, no credit, no collateral, no hobbies and his relationships were described as predatory.

Among gang members, particularly those still in their teens, bragging about rank and status is often overblown. Danny, however, tried to sound as humble as possible when speaking to the psychological assessors. He played down his status, telling his interviewer that he wasnt a high-ranking member, despite the intelligence reports to the contrary. He was just one level above a striker, he said.

Both of those statements are probably true. Danny wasnt on the gangs council, its highest rank, in 1996, but he was no mere foot soldier either. He was one level below the top. In the gang world that meant he could earn by taking a portion of what more junior members made selling drugs or committing robberies.

Still, prison officials were skeptical of Dannys story. In their eyes he was an Indian Posse leader and his mere presence posed a threat within the institution. During his first lengthy interview, Danny explained that leaders could be easily identified because they had the right to speak on the gangs behalf. He did not have that rank, he said. But then he raised eyebrows with a frank statement about what he intended to do once he was admitted into the prison population.

He states that when he enters the Stony Mountain population he will go and talk to other members of the gang and find out what they are doing (i.e., selling drugs, taking programs, etc.). He states he will then do what he thinks is good for him and he does not care if the other members want to follow him or not, the interviewer wrote in his prison file.

Thats not typically how things work in prison, a highly regulated world where those who break norms place themselves at risk. Dannys attitude was taken as proof that he enjoyed what they called the privileges of a high-ranking senior member.

BRYAN SCHLOSSER / CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Daniel Wolfe was serving time for killing two people in a home invasion.

Over the next few months the psychologists and psychiatrists who met with Danny compiled a long list of issues he needed to confront. His life story, as they summarized it, read like a guide to building a sociopath.

His parents were absent and their relationship was abusive and dysfunctional, creating an absence of family ties in childhood. Some of his family members were criminals. He was socially isolated and easily influenced by others, and had mostly criminal friends who abused substances. He didnt use hard drugs because the gang forbade it, but he sold drugs for profit.

They described the area where he lived, the North End, as criminogenic, meaning likely to cause criminal behaviour. Danny had no bank account, no credit, no collateral, no hobbies and his relationships were described as predatory.

A prison psychologist who spent some time with Danny described him as a high energy individual who showed signs of underlying anger and anxiety. Danny had relatively low ego strength, the psychologist wrote, which partly explained his impulsiveness and inability to deal with frustration. The family history of abuse and neglect was a contributing factor to his difficulties forming attachments.

Don Healy / Postmedia Network inc. Somewhat nervous, the psychologist noted in a looping scrawl. Likely to get involved in [the prison] population.

Stony Mountain is Manitobas federal penitentiary, a medium-security jail about 25 kilometres north of Winnipeg. It is also the de facto seat of government for the Indian Posse. The prison council inside the jail is home to the gangs senior leadership, sometimes referred to as the circle. In theory, the circle at Stony Mountain calls the shots.

In the four months of dead time before he was sent to Stony Mountain, Danny began to step out from [his older brother] Richards shadow. He organized an extortion racket in the Remand Centre, where he forced prisoners to either pay him protection money or face a beating, according to a prison intelligence report. He also ejected some members of the gang by rolling them out  in other words, by initiating a vicious beating.

Danny got so cocky he walked around with the Indian Posse logo painted on his jail uniform, a provocation that resulted in a formal disciplinary procedure. He might have seemed quiet, the disciplinary report suggested, but he was dangerous, and extremely influential behind the scenes. He was becoming a leader in his own right.

Three months after his 20th birthday, on Oct. 6, 1996, Danny met with prison psychologist Richard Howes in a private room at Stony Mountain for an extended evaluation. The purpose of the meeting was to see whether Danny could qualify for early release. Dr. Howes began with Dannys early life. He asked him when he had last seen his father. Danny provided a very specific answer: it was in 1988, the same year the gang was founded. He told Dr. Howes about not having seen his father in years and then bumping into him on the street, only to be ignored. The psychologist described it in his notes:

After greeting his father and a brief exchange the father moved on with a rather lame See you later. The 12-year-old Mr. Wolfe thought to himself, Thats my dad. Why doesnt he even want to talk to me? and in fact he never talked to his father or even saw him again. It is relatively easy to see the attraction of a gang to a young boy who felt so hurt and neglected by the one man who should have cared about him.

Mr. Wolfe has been described in previous reports as a street orphan, and I have no doubt the neglect and inadequacies in his childhood led him to willingly join his older brother in the founding meetings of the Indian Posse, which he says took place in his mothers home when he was just 12 in 1988.

POSTMEDIA NETWORK INC. Courthouse security was heightened after Wolfe's arrest in 2009.

We had nothing, Danny told Dr. Howes. He and his friends were raised in impoverished, broken homes surrounded by alcohol and violence. Dr. Howes recorded his observations that the Indian Posse had provided a sense of strength in aboriginal unity for Danny and friends that loved one another.

Dr. Howes concluded that forming a gang, given Dannys circumstances in life, was perfectly understandable, but his membership in the gang made it much likelier that Danny would live his whole life as a criminal.

He had surrounded himself with people who held selfish, exploitive criminal values and who live in an undisciplined, hedonistic fashion that Danny embraced. For as long as he chooses to maintain [his place in the gang] he is unlikely to pursue any sort of conventional life, for such would be the antithesis of all he has experienced and practiced, Dr. Howes wrote.

Danny wanted the psychologist to understand that there was something different about the Indian Posse, that it was more than a typical street gang.

When we first started it was all crime, Danny told him. But as the gang members grew up, the Posse became a source of aboriginal spiritual teaching, a way for kids raised without their families stories to understand their place in the world.

Together they attended sweat lodge ceremonies, smudged with sweet grass, and carried medicine bundles, or at least they did when they were in Stony Mountain, where these services were provided for indigenous offenders.

Above excerpted from The Ballad of Danny Wolfe by Joe Friesen. Copyright  2016 by Joe Friesen. Published by Signal, an imprint of McClelland & Stewart, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, a Penguin Random House Company. All rights reserved.

SUPPLIED When the Indian Posse gang was founded, it was all about crime, Danny Wolfe told a psychologist. But the gang became a spiritual gateway for aboriginal youth, he said.
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This article was published 04/05/2016 (2364 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

EDMONTON  Nurse Sherrie Whiffen says staff at the Northern Lights Regional Health Centre in Fort McMurray practice evacuating the hospital every year, but she never had to do the real thing until Tuesday night.

Whiffen said she had to remain calm in order to reassure patients and their families. They started with the long-term care patients on the fourth floor and worked their way down. All staff pulled together to get everyone into ambulances or on to city buses.

But then there was a moment that shook her.

I did look up to the hill, up to the left, and there was flames and fire right there, Whiffen recalled Wednesday morning, shortly after arriving at the evacuation centre in Edmonton. When you see those bright orange flames burning, yeah, its scary.

Whiffen composed herself.

I said, Just give me a moment, turned around, and I was OK. I kept it together. Its crazy, looking back

Dr. Verna Yu, interim president and CEO of Alberta Health Services, said all 105 patients at the hospital were moved to three different reception areas outside Fort McMurray on Tuesday night and were moved to Edmonton by Wednesday morning.

Yu said some of the patients, including nine babies in the neonatal unit and their mothers, were flown on WestJet planes to Edmonton.

She said she was grateful and proud of Health Services staff, who completed the evacuation in two hours.

Dont forget that those employees and staff also had their families to worry about. Weve actually reserved 92 rooms locally in Edmonton to help house them and were working hard to connect them with their families so they know where they are, Yu told a news conference in Edmonton on Wednesday.

Whiffen said that after leaving the hospital in Fort McMurray, she ended up at a reception centre at Suncors Firebag oilsands site north of the city. The facility has its own runway and she said there were several WestJet planes that flew patients out. She helped triage patients for transport, and then early Wednesday she took off in a Boeing 737 for Edmonton International Airport.

Her sister, who lives in Edmonton, met her at the evacuation centre. Still wearing work clothes, Whiffen was finally off the clock after going more than a full day without sleep.

Im so proud of the nurses. I dont want to get emotional, but when times get like that, its amazing what you can do. You pull everybody together  patients, families, administration, all the different units  we pulled it all together and we got the job done, Whiffen said.
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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Beekeeping has gone high-tech.

Beehives no longer have to be disturbed to see whats inside thanks to new technology developed by Manitoba researchers.

SUPPLIED The bees at Durston Honey Farms will soon be monitored by remote sensors, saving the company time, money and effort, says head apiarist Alan Campbell.

The system uses sensors that monitor a hives temperature and weight, population, and the amount and type of pollen that bees bring inside. The information is automatically sent via a wireless network and computer software adds up the amount of honey that bees produce. Beekeepers can tap into the software using an iPad, that will also notify them when its time to harvest.

Durston Honey Farms, based in Dauphin, teamed up with Function Four, a Winnipeg software company, and Mitacs researchers led by University of Manitoba Prof. Cyrus Shafai to create the program.

Alan Campbell, head apiarist at Durston Honey Farms and president of the Manitoba Beekeepers Association, said the technology will change how bee farmers harvest honey.

It has great potential as a way to monitor your hives, check on their health, and see what kind of progress theyre making remotely without having to go into a hive, which, for people like myself, is kind of a big thing, Campbell said.

Bruce Hardy, Function Four CEO, said his company already had the software, which was used in the health-care sector, but it needed help with the hardware so beekeepers didnt have to invade habitats.

If youve seen hives stacked in the field, on the bottom of the stack is where the queen is, Hardy said.

If you want to check on the queen or the health of that hive, you have to take 40-pound stacks of honey off and then you have to open the hive up, which is very invasive.

Hardy said thats where the team from the University of Manitobas department of electrical and computer engineering came in. Over the last year, Shafai and the students developed the sensors to be built into the hives.

Shafai said there are different sensors to remotely monitor different aspects of the hive, and the technology will simplify work for beekeepers such as Campbell.

The hives are usually placed far away out in the country in some field  you cant lay cable links all the way back to Winnipeg, Shafai said.

The way they have to deal with it now is they have to send a group of people out in a truck, drive a few hours to where the hive is and check it and drive all the way back. If they can do that just by logging on to the beehive remotely from wherever the office is, then you can check all the hives really quickly in a few minutes.

Campbell said the technology will save a lot of time, money and effort for Durston Honey Farms, which has 3,500 hives producing nearly one million pounds of honey each year in Manitoba and British Columbia.

SUPPLIED

It takes a lot to have to go out and do inspections, Campbell said.

Maybe youve gone to a yard and you plan on harvesting honey. But, for whatever reason, that neck of the woods is a little further behind. Youve wasted all that time and energy going to a place that youre not going to get to harvest from anyway.

The sensors will also monitor for problems such as mite infestations, vandalism or wildlife damage.

Campbell said a recent incident could have been solved more quickly had the software already been in place.

One of our hives in Vancouver got attacked by a bear, he said. If we would have had remote sensors in there, we would have known about it the minute it happened. I couldve had an alert come to my phone.

Campbell said Durston Honey Farms will be the first to start using the software this summer, soon to be followed by a bee farm in Alberta.

bailey.hildebrand@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Its well-known in cattle country there is one breed that produces the best beef.

But ask a group of ranchers which breed that is, and youll get a whole bunch of different answers. They will also differ on best management practices, such as when to calve or how to feed, based on what works best on their ranches.

Thats free enterprise.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Customers are weighing in on how they want their beef raised.

Judging from the beef industrys swift and merciless reaction to the announcement by Canadian-owned Earls restaurant chain last week, the free enterprise principle does not apply to their customers.

The message from the Canadian beef sector is loud and clear: you are morally bound to support us even if we dont have what you want to buy. And dont you dare try to be different because it makes everyone else look bad.

Earls crime was in announcing it would convert its entire restaurant chain of 66 locations to using beef that is certified humane, a program run by the U.S. organization called Humane Farm Animal Care.

It promises beef raised, transported and processed according to a code of practice designed to ensure a high standard of animal welfare throughout the value chain. This beef is raised without routine use of antibiotics or growth promoters.

However, Earls found  as did fast-food giant A&W when it moved to its antibiotic-free and no-added-hormone marketing  the Canadian industry cant deliver enough product produced in that fashion.

The problem isnt with the ranchers, many of whom would have little difficulty complying with such standards. The difficulty lies in finding Canadian feeders and packers that comply and can deliver in the volumes these businesses require.

So Earls decided to buy certified humane beef from Kansas  incurring the wrath of the Canadian beef lobby through social-media campaigns urging a boycott of the restaurant.

Within days of its announcement, the restaurant chain caved in the face of cowboy bullying, saying it made a mistake and would work with local suppliers to find Alberta beef that meets its criteria.

Its a hollow win for the cattle business and one that could prove costly in an era when consumers are considering whether they should eat beef.

The irony is the Canadian cattle industry, headquartered in Alberta, works tirelessly to ensure the beef and cattle trade throughout North America is not influenced by country of origin.

Truth be told, Earls wasnt serving purely Alberta beef beforehand. It served certified Angus beef and when its supplier couldnt get enough of it in Canada, which was often, it substituted with American.

The certified humane code of practice bears a striking similarity to the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle. The main differences are that the Canadian code is a voluntary guideline and condones the use of growth promoters and prophylactic antibiotics.

The certified humane program does annual audits to ensure compliance and only allows antibiotics to treat animals that are sick. Given the growing global urgency around sustainable antibiotic use, its only a matter of time before that becomes the norm.

The hormone issue is more a matter of preference. Cattle feeders use growth promoters because the animals finish faster, producing more beef with less feed. But some customers dont like them.

Earls is another example of a well-documented food-industry trend towards incorporating ethical sourcing into food marketing. And its gaining momentum, despite the industrys recalcitrance.

The ethical-eating story caters to consumer concerns about their own health, animal and worker welfare, and environmental sustainability. It sells much better than the prevailing mantra in agriculture  which is, were efficient and food is cheap.

Customers who order steak in a restaurant are immediately asked how they like it cooked. Increasingly, they are weighing in on how they want it raised, too.

Rather than lashing out at businesses trying to get ahead of changing customer tastes, the Canadian beef value chain needs to find ways of meeting this emerging market demand.

Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator and editorial director for Farm Business Communications. She can be reached at laura@fbcpublishing.com or 204-792-4382
The Journalists Syndicate is holding an emergency assembly to discuss escalatory measures in the current crisis

Egyptian journalists will gather on Wednesday in the headquarters of their syndicate in downtown Cairo to defend the freedom of their union after police raided the building on Sunday to arrest two journalists who were staging a sit-in inside.

The board of the syndicate described the move as "unprecedented and unconstitutional."

Amr Badr and Mahmoud El-Sakka were among dozens of activists and journalists who were ordered to be arrested a few days before the 25 April protests against the recent Egyptian-Saudi Arabia Red Sea island agreement.

The prosecution ordered that the two be detained for 15 days pending investigation into charges of plotting to overthrow the regime and spreading false news.

The storming of the Journalists Syndicate caused outrage among journalists who started an open sit-in on Sunday demanding the resignation on the interior minister.

"We condemn this barbaric attack and this flagrant assault on our journalists and we call for the immediate sacking of the interior minister," the syndicate said in a statement on Monday.

However, the interior ministry attempted to defend its position on Monday by saying that "the two journalists are accused of inciting violations of the protest law, disrupting security and attempting to destabilise the country as they sought to use the syndicate building to avoid arrest."

On Monday the police started blocking off the streets around the syndicate building and preventing anyone other than journalists with membership with the union from entering the street of Abdel Khaleq Tharwat.

Security forces banned delegations from several political parties as well as professional syndicates who sought to enter the building to show solidarity.

The lawyers syndicate said in a statement that a solidarity meeting was due to be held between a number of its board members and those of the press syndicate but was aborted by "tight security" around the building.

It called for holding those responsible for such measures to account, while demanding the dismissal of the interior minister.

The head of the Journalists Syndicate Yehia Qalash told a press conference on Tuesday that the regime is at war with journalists.

"This year we mark World Press Freedom Day with Egypt declining in all the international rankings," he said

"Instead of seeing the government take concrete measures to overcome this situation, we are surprised to see it escalating the war against journalism and journalists," he said.

On Tuesday evening Egypt's top prosecutor issued a gag order in the case of the storming of the Journalists Syndicate premises on Sunday and the arrest of journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud El-Sakka.

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Randy Stowell used to control huge, hulking robots. His startup Bot & Dolly rigged two-metre-tall industrial machines with swivelling arms and cameras to film commercials and movies. The robots helped make Sandra Bullock appear to float in space in the film Gravity. In 2013, Google bought Bot & Dolly and another startup Stowell co-founded as part of a robotics shopping spree, an effort that has since begun to fizzle.

Since then, Stowell and about a half-dozen colleagues have left to try their hand at something a bit less futuristic: co-working spaces with in-house meditation and a bevy of snack options, including chia pudding and beet dip.

Their startup Mod, which Randy runs with his brother Brian Stowell, has been quietly testing an office of the near-future in Phoenix. This week, it opened a second location in San Francisco.

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg News Randy Stowell, co-founder and chief experience officer for Mod.

The company hopes to elbow its way into the much-hyped co-working industry, dominated by the US$16-billion startup WeWork Cos., by catering to a professional who wants the finer touches in a shared office space: design-forward furniture, daily guided meditation, curated healthful nibbles, and on-site concierge services.

The new space in San Franciscos Mission neighbourhood is a warehouse full of snake plants, unvarnished wood furniture and soft lighting. Mod staff are held to a high standard.

If someone didnt offer you something right when you walked in the door, we have to fire that person, Randy said after greeting a reporter.

(In fact, Id been handed a snack before even putting down my coat: an oat-and-cacao ball and a lemon-ginger-turmeric juice, which was designed by Mods in-house food team to mimic the exact shade of yellow in the company logo. No one was fired.)

Before becoming a snack taskmaster, Randy helped start what became a major force in robotics. He co-founded design and robotics business Autofuss in 2008 with Jeff Linnell, and they formed a sister company, Bot & Dolly, two years later. The startups made an impression on Google after they worked together on advertising campaigns for Nexus phones. Google acquired both startups, herding them along with a half-dozen or so other robotics companies the Internet search giant purchased around the same time. Android co-founder Andy Rubin assembled them into a robotics division known within the company as Replicant, named for the terrifyingly human-like robots in Blade Runner.

Randy and the Autofuss team, who know robots but also have storytelling chops, were tasked at Google with shaping the robotics divisions story, both internally and for the public. For starters, they tried to come up with a less foreboding name than Replicant. But it soon became clear that the division didnt yet have a story to tell, Randy said. Googles robot army hasnt quite fallen into lockstep, especially since Rubin left in 2014. Bloomberg reported last month Google has been in talks to sell Boston Dynamics, its marquee robotics acquisition. Google declined to comment.

Its hard for any company to take eight or nine companies and make them work toward a single focus, Randy said.

So he and some of the other design-focused colleagues from Autofuss transferred to Googles retail division, where they were tasked with imagining the future of shopping. The company was interested in moonshot concepts of a Google store, which could track each customers location inside a space or incorporate robots into the buying experience. The team hacked together retail concepts inside a Mountain View, Calif., warehouse. They also helped design pop-up installations, including Googles 2014 Winter Wonderlab, where holiday shoppers could step inside a tent near New York Citys Bryant Park skating rink to find a huge snow globe surrounded by Nexus tablets and Chromecast sticks. If Google were a space, what would it feel like? Randy said. Thats the question, philosophically, we were wrestling with.

Meanwhile, Randys older brother Brian was building a space of his own. Hed slowly moved away from his law practice toward real-estate development and found that as he moved around among properties, he kept wishing he had an office that moved with him. He found an affordable spot in Phoenix to experiment with what would become Mods first co-working space. Last August, Brian persuaded his brother to join him as chief experience officer, and over the next few months, other Google robotics employees followed suit.

Brian, Mods 53-year-old chief executive officer, felt the current shared-office options, especially WeWork, lacked something for mid-career professionals. Randy, 48, agreed.

It wasnt for me, culturally, Randy said. He said the crowd is young and tech-heavy, and the space is cluttered. Brian said theres a vast, underserved market of his peers, who wouldnt go to WeWork because it might be perceived to be too hip and too cool, who think its for coders or the entrepreneur solo person.

David Paul Morris / Bloomberg News Mod hopes to cater to a professional who wants the finer touches in a workspace: design-forward furniture, daily guided meditation, curated healthful nibbles, and on-site concierge services.

WeWork declined to comment.

Randy compares Mod with Neuehouse, a hand-picked co-working community that targets creative professionals who want to work in a few chic shared spaces for up to US$1,500 a month. Mod is asking $9 per hour, $45 per day, or $395 per month. A desk at a WeWork starts at $325 a month.

Mod wants to be more than a place to work.

Everything in the office  whether its a bookshelf, backpack or chair  is for sale. This makes it both a workspace and a street-level store. The team has designed its own software that can handle check-ins, food requests, retail purchases and analytics.

The operation has been funded by investments from friends and family so far, though Mod declines to say how much. The company hopes to raise more to pay for future leases. Its still small, but the founders are convinced theres a place outside the shadow of WeWork.

There has not been an environment yet thats meant for the professional, Randy said. I want to walk into a space and have someone take care of me.

 Bloomberg News
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Manitobas spring seeding has shifted into high gear after a recent string of warm, sunny days allowed farmers in most parts of the province to finally get onto their fields.

May 1st  thats when everybody turned (the page on) the calender, Keystone Agricultural Producers president Dan Mazier said. It was dry enough and warm enough that things were good to go (in most regions).

In its first crop report of the year, released Monday, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Development said farmers in the central part of the province are off to the fastest start.

MIKE APORIUS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files Seeding in the central region has taken off while other areas are a tad behind.

It said most farmers in the Interlake wouldnt begin seeding until late this week  their fields have been too wet  but some in the central region are already half done.

In the central region, spring melt was early, with runoff lower than normal following a winter of lower-than- normal snow accumulation, it noted.

The report said some farmers in the region had expected to get on the field extra early this year. But a long stretch of cold, sometimes rainy, weather in April prevented them from doing so until the recent bout of warm, dry weather.

While seeding in some parts of the region is only about 15 per cent completed, farmers in some drier areas already have their cereal crops in the ground, it added.

In other regions of the province, progress varies. In the northwest and eastern regions, seeding is barely underway. Its 10 per cent completed in the southwest.

KAP vice-president Glenn Young, who lives near Cyprus River, confirmed some farmers in the central region have been seeding for almost two weeks.

Its non-stop now, he said, adding one of his neighbours expects to finish planting his spring wheat, which is usually one of the first crops to be put in the ground, within days.

Although Young rented out his land this year to a young family, hes helping out with the seeding.

Im quite optimistic about this year, he said. I think things are going to be off to quite a good start.

Mazier said because most of the snow was gone by the beginning of April, it seemed like spring seeding was late to start this year. But it wasnt. It usually doesnt get fully underway until early May.

He said the cold, windy weather in April prevented farmers from getting an early start. The ground was too cold, and in some cases too wet, to seed.

Mazier farms about 2,000 acres near Justice, northeast of Brandon.

He said he didnt start seeding until late last week. If it remains dry, he should be finished by the third or fourth week in May.

Just like normal, he said.

He also noted Manitoba farmers are better off than some of their counterparts to the west.

Im hearing some real horror stories  everything from really wet to really dry  in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

He said while a few more weeks of dry weather would be great for Manitoba farmers, well be looking for some rain by the end of May. Once you get the crop in, a nice rain can help everything along.

murray.mcneill@freepress.mb.ca
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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

VICTORIAVILLE, Que.  A second man has been arrested in the theft of five million bees in Quebec.

Provincial police say the 43-year-old suspect surrendered to police on Friday in Joliette, about 50 kilometres north of Montreal.

He will appear in court on Monday.

Earlier this week the mans 36-year-old brother was also arrested and arraigned in connection with the theft.

Police suspect the accused also made off late last month with 180 hives belonging to Jean-Marc Labonte, who estimated the value of everything stolen at $200,000.

The bees have not yet been found.
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A group of accused Winnipeg drug dealers has dropped its bid to have all Manitoba judges disqualified from hearing their case on the grounds they may be biased.

Manitoba Chief Justice Glenn Joyal released a 41-page decision Friday in which he had strong words for the accused and their lawyers, noting they may have inflicted damage simply by raising the issue in the first place.

Given the acknowledgement by the accused that their argument had no merit and given the abrupt and casual manner in which such a motion was abandoned, questions can be legitimately asked about the ethical appropriateness of bringing such a motion in the first place, Joyal wrote. However indirectly framed in the language of apprehended bias, the motion has nonetheless the effect of calling into question the impartiality (or the capacity to be impartial) of members of an entire court.

 Questions can be legitimately asked about the ethical appropriateness of bringing such a motion in the first place

Wally Oppal, one of the countrys biggest legal names, was recruited last year from British Columbia on behalf of 13 accused Winnipeg drug dealers to fight to have the Manitoba judges disqualified and prohibited from further involvement in the high-profile case.

Justices of the Court of Queens Bench have a collegial and subordinate relationship with potential affiants and witnesses in this proceeding, read an affidavit filed by Oppal on behalf of the accused.

His clients were arrested in the spring of 2014 as part of Project Sideshow, one of the largest and most elaborate organized crime investigations undertaken by Winnipeg police.

They are now seeking to have the bulk of the evidence dismissed against them in the form of court-authorized surveillance that allowed police to monitor their activities through more than 300,000 intercepted communications that paved the way to breaking up alleged drug cells in Manitoba, Ontario and British Columbia. They have filed motions arguing their charter rights were violated by the authorization of those warrants. A separate hearing on that issue is set for September.

Before they get to arguing the merits of that issue, it first had to be sorted out who could hear it.

Where a motion such as this one is not responsibly brought with the required full care and reflection, the motions supposed goal of ensuring and reinforcing public confidence will be compromised. In fact, paradoxically, where such extraordinary and comprehensive relief is sought, it is the superficially formulated motions themselves which could lead to a loss of public confidence, Joyal said Friday.

Whatever the context or circumstance, and however it is framed, no allegation goes more directly to the heart of the service a judge and a court are expected to provide. Any such allegation, however isolated and unique, can have long-lasting effects on the reputation of the court as it relates to its own institutional integrity, the integrity of its individual members and, as well, the integrity of the entire administration of justice.

Although they no longer were seeking to disqualify all Manitoba judges, they were still asking Joyal to step aside. This was based on a number of factors, which a Free Press investigation previously detailed concerning a longtime senior federal prosecutor who became a Court of Queens Bench justice and ended up overseeing tactics police used during the nearly two-year probe.

Justice Chris Mainella authorized six different legal applications in Sideshow. He began hearing the applications three months after he left the federal prosecution service and was appointed to the bench. The applications were also overseen by prosecutor Judy Kliewer, a former colleague of Mainellas who was the assigned Crown agent in Sideshow. And one of the main targets of Sideshow was a man Mainella and Kliewer had previously prosecuted together in a similar drug-related case.

There is no allegation being made of any specific wrongdoing or impropriety. But one of the cornerstone axioms of Canadas justice system is not only must justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.

In their application, the accused wanted Joyal excluded because they believed he oversaw Mainellas involvement in the case. But Joyal said thats simply not true.

The accused are also already aware that Justice Mainella received the application for wiretap authorization in the context of his role as a duty judge and that he was not assigned to the application per se, Joyal said Friday. I had no involvement, direct or indirect, with the assignment of Justice Mainella.

Joyal added based on a full review of all factors, he has determined there is no cogent evidence establishing a real likelihood of any sort of bias, apprehended, institutional or otherwise.

During the Sideshow case, police say they documented 92 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of $5 million, 31/2 kg of methamphetamine (street value $192,000), one kg of ecstasy (street value $20,000) and more than $4.3 million in cash believed to be from proceeds of drug sales throughout the Sideshow investigation.

www.mikeoncrime.com
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Inmates death investigated

THE chief medical examiners office is looking into the death of an inmate in the Winnipeg Remand Centre.

A provincial corrections spokeswoman said the man was admitted into custody at the remand centre last weekend when he took ill and was taken to hospital. The spokeswoman said the man died Sunday afternoon.

A fellow inmate is alleging the death occurred after the mans seizure medication was withheld from him. The inmate, who asked not to be named, said when the man began having a seizure Sunday guards hog-tied him and put him on the floor.

The inmate said about 45 minutes later, when the man was found to have stopped breathing, corrections staff began doing CPR and an ambulance was called.

You could tell his heart wasnt going, the inmate said. The blood never came back to his hands. They were blue.

The spokeswoman said the department cant comment any further on the death because the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has been notified and an investigation is pending.

MP eyes national memorial day

A Winnipeg MP is playing host to an event to talk about the potential creation of a national Indian residential school memorial day.

Robert-Falcon Ouellette (Liberal-Winnipeg Centre) is organizing the meeting today at 1 p.m. at 615 Academy Rd., the site of the former Assiniboia Residential School, which is now the Canadian Centre for Child Protection.

A news release from Ouellete said those who attend the meeting will hear an explanation of the purpose of the private members bill that was initiated by Maeengan Linklater, a community volunteer and son of a residential school survivor. He and Ouellette will be joined at the meeting by aboriginal education consultant Rebecca Chartrand.

Police arrest child-porn suspect

ACTING on a tip from Switzerland, Winnipeg police this week arrested a River Heights man on charges related to the online possession and distribution of child pornography.

In January, police in Zurich and Aargau were conducting an online investigation into the distribution of child pornography when they tracked an IP address to Winnipeg. They notified the Winnipeg Police Services internet child exploitation unit, that picked up the investigation.

On March 22, investigators executed a search warrant at a house on Renfrew Street, seizing various electronic devices that police said contained pornographic video and image files of children between the ages of two and 12.

On Wednesday, police arrested Andrew Harrison, 36, who faces a number of charges related to child pornography.

16 to vie for school board seats

THREE school board byelections set for June 11 have attracted 16 candidates.

Two of the byelections were called after trustees elected in the fall of 2014 won provincial seats April 19.

Nominations closed Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Candidates must be electors within the division but are not required to live within the ward they are contesting, city election officials said in an online guide (http://winnipeg.ca/clerks/election/byelection2016/pdfs/CandidatesGuide_ST.pdf).

Robert Page, Carlene Rummery, Laurissa Sims and Chris Wilson are running in Ward 2 of Louis Riel School Division, where Colleen Mayer is now the Conservative MLA (St. Vital).

Eight people are running in the King Edward-Deer Lodge ward of St. James-Assiniboia SD, including former trustees Roxane Delbridge and Rockford MacKay. Also running are Nicole Bowering, Stacey McAlpine, Allan Wise, Peter Woods, Christina Poolie and Tim Rafter.

Theyre contesting the seat formerly held by Scott Johnston, who is now Tory MLA for St. James.

Four people are running in Ward 2 of River East Transcona SD: Brianne Goertzen, Roland Headley, Peter Manastrysky and Keith Morrison.

RET trustees took the extraordinary step of ousting veteran trustee Wayne Ritcher after discovering he had moved to a residence outside the division and was no longer eligible to sit on the board.

Officials have said stand-alone byelections cost about $6 a voter, which would be about $100,000 in each ward, but there could be some shared costs by holding all three the same day.

Water meter readers on the move

CITY water meter readers hit the streets for the start of Winnipegs annual campaign this week.

The city issued a bulletin Monday to announce city workers will be knocking on doors from 2:30 p.m. to dusk from May 4 to the end of August.

It wants residents to keep an eye out for the meter readers and, at the same time exercise caution when strangers knock on their doors.

Each meter reader will have photo identification, a handheld computer and a uniform with the City of Winnipeg logo. For your safety, please ask to see identification before allowing a meter reader into your home, the public service announcement said.

The city requires at least one meter reading per year from each household.

If no one is home at the time of the city visit, a meter-reading card will be left. The city asks residents to follow the directions on the card to call in a reading by phone.

For more information on water meter reading or billing, residents can contact the utility billing centre by phone (204-986-2455) or email (utilitybill@winnipeg.ca or visit www.winnipeg.ca/waterandwaste/billing/meterreading.stm).

 staff
Opinion

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It is, by a mile, the most enduring interview Ive conducted in 27 years with this newspaper.

For more than two decades, my September 1994 interview with Indian Posse co-founder Richard Wolfe has been resurrected and cited in articles, academic papers and, now, a new book as evidence of some point or other the author is trying to make.

Wayne Glowacki / Winnipeg Free Press files Indian Posse gang member Richard Wolf on Sept 16, 1994. My favourite of these citations came in a master of arts thesis submitted in 2012 by a University of Regina student, who lumped my Wolfe interview in with a bunch of other articles on aboriginal street gangs as evidence of how Canadian journalists were engaged in the racialization of gang crime and the production of a moral panic.

Ive read that paper and I still have no idea how journalists are to blame for racializing a gang that gave itself the name Indian Posse, but I admit I do kind of like the idea that I have played a small role in the production of a moral panic.

Its good to know Ive left my mark.

But heres a confession: I have no personal recollection of that Wolfe interview. Nothing. I went looking for that Wolfe story as part of putting together this column, just to jog my memory on whether Id done the interview in person or by telephone.

So why has an interview that others seem to remember so well has been completely erased from my memory? Ive got a simple theory.

Before we get to that, first let me tell you what I do remember about being this papers cop reporter in the 1990s at a time a gang problem that beleaguers this city to this day was in its earliest formative years.

I remember before we called them street gangs, we called them youth gangs. Seems quaint now.

I remember before anyone had even really heard of the Indian Posse, there was another local street gang named the Raider Boys  they wore the team memorabilia of the NFLs Oakland Raiders  making headlines and causing trouble all over town.

I remember both gangs got their start  and made their name  with an unusually prodigious talent for stealing cars. It was a pointless crime  sophisticated thieves would have had the cars boxed up in shipping containers and on a slow boat to Russia in a matter of hours. These simpletons just drove the cars until they ran out of gas or got wrapped around a pole.

While it was stupid, it caused huge problems for MPIC, which in turn put huge pressure on Winnipeg police to do something about it.

That, in turn, set the stage for the day the Winnipeg Sun published what amounted to a how to story on stealing cars, complete with a front-page picture depicting a broken steering column and a screwdriver pointing to exactly the wires you needed to bridge to start a car without a key.

It was wildly irresponsible journalism, but as dumb as it was, it added up to nothing  anyone who wanted to go into the car-stealing business back in those days wasnt reading the local tabloid to learn how to do it.

However, the Sun gave city cops the scapegoat they needed to dodge responsibility for a problem police never saw coming and had no idea how to stop. For weeks afterward, the local constabularys answer to why there were so many cars being stolen in Winnipeg was to refer inquiries to the Sun.

It was as absurd back then as it sounds now. And while the cops were blaming the media and burying their heads in the snow, the local street gangs  led by Wolfes burgeoning Indian Posse  were graduating from stealing cars to running drugs and prostitutes, with a little robbery and murder sprinkled in.

Then, into the middle of that maelstrom came a little outfit called the Hells Angels, whose arrival in the city in the mid-1990s immediately shifted away police resources from a street-gang problem that at that exact moment needed more police attention, not less.

True story: I sat on the roof of a federal government building in the Exchange District with two cops for the better part of a week back in 1995, watching a restaurant across the street that was a reputed front for the Angels.

I cannot remember what the cops  or I  hoped to gain by watching diners come and go for a week. But at a time no one really seemed to know what to do, it was at least doing something, I guess.

Two decades later, that restaurant still exists, although its serving sushi instead of Italian these days. And while the Raider Boys are long gone, the Indian Posse and Hells Angels still have a presence, albeit diminished by decades of law enforcement and a war of attrition.

And Wolfe? At last report, hes in prison yet again, doing a five-year bit for sexual assault and weapons offences. His brother and Posse co-founder, Daniel Wolfe, died in 2010 as he lived  violently.

But the Wolfe legend only continues to grow as authors, journalists, filmmakers and academics continue to try to attach some broader sociological  even anthropological  significance to the Wolfes and the Indian Posse.

In that world, these young gentlemen werent in a gang but rather in a surrogate family. Their drug trafficking was simply the manifestation of generations of resentment towards a country that had marginalized their people. And the pimping? Residential schools, I guess.

It is the worst kind of historical revisionism. It is an insult to aboriginal people everywhere. But it is also exactly the kind of stuff that sounds good over a chilled glass of Chardonnay in a cafe with your fellow intellectuals.

Listen, I was there at the time  Richard Wolfe was no Malcolm X and the Indian Posse werent the Black Panthers.

Wolfe was cut from the same cloth as all the other hoodlums and clowns I grew up with in the North End. Yes, he was a little brighter than most, but thats an extremely low bar.

Another true story: A couple years after I took over the cop beat, an incident report came across my desk detailing how police had caught a guy stealing two-fours from the old Carling OKeefe brewery on Redwood Avenue by tossing them over the fence, one at a time, to an accomplice.

Lets just say I was familiar with both the perpetrators and their methodology.

Wolfe and his brother were smarter than those idiots, but the idea of the Wolfes as either a fulsome expression of the alienation of indigenous peoples and/or criminal masterminds is an intellectual dishonesty of the highest order.

The Wolfes were just thugs, and not particularly sophisticated ones at that.

All of which brings me to my very simple theory on why I have so completely forgotten that Wolfe interview  because he is so utterly forgettable.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek
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This article was published 06/05/2016 (2362 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is under fire for failing to include any women on a powerful cabinet committee that controls government spending.

The newly appointed provincial Treasury Board is a rural-dominated group consisting of five ministers, only one of which is from Winnipeg.

Although its decisions can be overruled by cabinet, Treasury Board is generally the place where department projects get approved or die.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister

The Free Press surveyed other provinces to determine their Treasury Board makeup. All had at least one woman on these cabinet committees.

NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine (St. Johns) called the Manitoba omission highly problematic and quite offensive. She said was there no diversity in this weeks cabinet and Treasury Board appointments. Neither government body has indigenous or ethnic minority representation.

Im not sure if anybody has actually let Brian Pallister know that its 2016 and not 1950, Fontaine said. In the last four days, hes successfully marginalized the voices and representations of more than half of Manitobas population.

This week, Pallister, whose Progressive Conservatives won a whopping 40 seats April 19, reduced the size of Treasury Board as well as the overall cabinet, compared to what was in effect under the previous NDP government.

While Greg Selinger had named eight ministers to Treasury Board, including three women, Pallister opted for a five-person committee with no women.

Pallisters spending overseers include Cameron Friesen (minister of finance) as chairman and Ralph Eichler (agriculture) as vice-chairman, with Cliff Cullen (growth, enterprise and trade), Scott Fielding (families) and Blaine Pedersen (infrastructure) rounding out the group.

Fielding (Kirkfield Park) is the lone Winnipegger on the committee.

The other four represent southern Manitoba constituencies outside the provincial capital.

Winnipeg political scientist Paul Thomas said being a member of Treasury Board  which manages government spending after the finance minister sets out the broad parameters of taxing and spending in the provincial budget  can be a thankless job.

Other ministers often dont lobby for positions on that body because most of the time it consists of saying no to your colleagues, he said. It doesnt make you a popular figure if youre a part of that.

The number of women in cabinet will affect the gender balance of subcommittees, Thomas said. Often, selections to Treasury Board are made based on which portfolio a minister holds.

I guess in the balance between inclusiveness and representation versus efficiency and, as Pallister would say merit, hes opted for the latter, Thomas said. He says he wants to put people there who have the background and the knowledge and the skills to do the job.

Reached late Friday after returning from a meeting of western premiers in Vancouver, Pallister said he only had two returning female MLAs in his caucus and one of them, Myrna Driedger (Charleswood), is seeking election May 16 as Speaker of the House.

The other returnee with legislature experience, Heather Stefanson, is already carrying a big load as justice minister, attorney general and deputy premier, he said.

Pallister named three rookie female MLAs to his cabinet: Eileen Clarke (indigenous and municipal relations), Cathy Cox (sustainable development) and Rochelle Squires (sport, culture and heritage). But he said he didnt think it was fair to saddle them with the onerous responsibilities of Treasury Board.

I dont think it would be particularly fair or beneficial to thrust them into a Treasury Board role in addition to all those other responsibilities, he said of the new ministers.

Pallister said the PCs ran a record number of female candidates in last months election and elected twice the number  eight  they did in 2011.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
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An off-duty Manitoba RCMP officer awoke to a horrific sight outside his home  a young woman being beaten, cursed at and then run over by a truck driven by her own sister.

Const. Joshua Dauphinee took the witness stand Friday to tell jurors about the June 2013 attack in Little Grand Rapids, about 300 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

He is a key Crown witness in the second-degree murder trial of Pandora Nancy Owens, 27. She admits to killing Madison McKay, 22, but is fighting the murder charge on the grounds it wasnt a deliberate act.

I woke up to screaming and tires spinning on gravel. It was very loud and sounded very close, Dauphinee said of the 5 a.m. incident. He peered out his open bedroom window and immediately recognized Owens. She was standing over McKay, who was down on the ground near the rear of Owens vehicle.

She started to kick the person on the ground. She then reverted to stomping her in the face. They were deliberately and directly to the face. She was using her full bodys ability to do that, said Dauphinee.

Owens was also shouting numerous expletives at her sister as this was occurring. Dauphinee scrambled to get dressed and rush outside  only to watch helplessly as Owens got behind the wheel of her truck.

She put the vehicle in reverse, turned the wheel slightly and then backed up, he said. McKay was directly in the path while Owens continued to scream as she drove away.

She was tumbling under the vehicle, said Dauphinee.

He quickly called for emergency help, including his off-duty sergeant, and rushed to McKays side. It was a horrific sight.

She was moaning. Her face was puffed out and swollen. She was wearing a white sweater which was torn and covered in blood. She was bleeding heavily from the mouth, said Dauphinee.

He tried speaking with her, calling McKay by name and asking if she could get up. She mumbled that she could.

But from that point on she didnt move her arms or her legs. Her eyes started to roll back in her head, said Dauphinee. He picked McKay up and carried her to the back of his police vehicle and rushed her to the nearby nursing station, since there are no paramedics in the community.

It was too late.

She was no longer focusing. Her breaths were very far apart, said Dauphinee. At that point, in the back of the truck, Madison McKay took her last breath.

Nurses at the facility pronounced her dead on arrival.

Dauphinee and his sergeant then went to Owens home, where they saw her clearly damaged truck parked outside. They pounded on the door and pleaded with her to come out, eventually arrested her after several hours because they didnt have a warrant allowing them to go inside.

She was sitting on her bed, smoking a cigarette. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was crying heavily, he told jurors.

Dauphinee was the Crowns fourth and final witness in a trial that only started Thursday. The others includes the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, a forensic identification officer who documented the evidence and a traffic collision expert who did a re-construction of the scene.

Jurors will return to court next week to see if the defence calls any evidence before moving on to closing arguments and deliberations.
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Art, meet business.

Business, art.

Those were essentially the introductions on Friday as representatives of the Winnipeg Art Gallery made their first public pitch to the citys business community in an effort to raise the $65 million needed to fund the WAGs proposed Inuit Art Centre.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Winnipeg Art Gallery director Stephen Borys (left) and Mayor Brian Bowman at a model showing the gallerys proposed Inuit Art Centre.

We havent come to you yet, WAG board member Sandy Riley told members of Winnipegs Chamber of Commerce. But were coming. As the government support is now coming together, and we have a lot of private support from people who really understand the national importance of this  now we have to galvanize the Winnipeg community.

Riley, the CEO of Richardson Financial Group Ltd., told the crowd at the Fairmont Hotel luncheon the root of his sales pitch: Its our turn, its your turn, to step up and participate in projects like that that really distinguish Winnipeg from every other community in this country.

The four-level, 40,000-square-foot facility  the only one of its kind in the world  will include Inuit and indigenous art galleries, studio and learning spaces and artist-in-residence and curator-in-residence spaces. WAG officials hope to break ground on the project in the spring of 2017 and complete it in 2020.

The building will cost $50 million, with an additional $15 million to fund programming and endowment. The project is eligible for upwards of $15 million in federal funding, while the former NDP provincial government committed $15 million to the centre last fall. Another $15 million in private funding has been committed, Riley said.

On Friday, Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman announced the city would invest $5 million toward the centre over the next five years.

Im committed to helping make Winnipeg an internationally recognized leader in indigenous arts and culture, Bowman said. Indigenous arts and culture constitute a large part of our collective heritage as Winnipeggers, and that makes Winnipeg the logical place to celebrate it. The Inuit Art Centre will play an integral role in promoting indigenous arts and culture, and Im proud to be a part of that.

Riley said soliciting for private funds should benefit from the recent success of projects such as the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the MTS Centre and the Assiniboine Park Conservatory and Journey to Churchill.

These projects build on themselves, he said.

Were all in this together. Winnipeg is unique WAG director and CEO Stephen Borys

Riley said the potential for tourism is enormous, describing a scenario in which a visitor arrives at the newly renovated RBC Winnipeg Convention Centre.

When conventions come to Winnipeg, they want to see something they cant see anywhere else, he said. On the first day, theyre going to go out and see the Assiniboine Park Conservatory in the morning, and then theyre going to see the polar bears. Then theyre going to get in their car and drive down to the WAG and learn about the people of the North.

Then theyre going to go down and see the museum for human rights, and theyll spend the day wandering through there and understanding the whole issue of how rights affect indigenous people in this country. You cant do that anywhere else in the world.

And these are world-class facilities, Riley added. If we as a community take advantage of this..we will reap enormous benefits.

WAG director and CEO Stephen Borys called the project a seminal moment for the gallery. No one has ever seen Inuit art displayed in such a breathtaking and state-of-the-art venue, he said, referring to the conceptual drawings of the gallery.

Were all in this together, Borys said.

Winnipeg is unique. Were our own economy in a way. Were physically removed from other major centres, and yet weve done incredibly well to build up all the sectors. And the arts and culture sectors are critical.

Riley said the gallery not only had an element of reconciliation but will also serve as a conduit for and gateway to the North. Its an opportunity for us to connect with those communities and understand those communities and help build those communities. Were becoming a bridge between the North and the south.

SUPPLIED A rendering of the Winnipeg Art Gallerys proposed Inuit Arts Centre along Memorial Boulevard. The 40,000-square-foot facility is slated to be finished by 2020.

Theres something happening, Riley said. Its real. And we have to believe it. And its happening because people in this community are making it happen.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @randyturner15

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Opinion

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I was in the Grade 8 when Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French were abducted, sexually assaulted and murdered by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Then a resident of the Niagara Region, I vividly remember the collective anxiety the community felt during the summer of 1992. My family sat in our living room to watch the television re-enactment of Kristen Frenchs abduction from a busy street in St. Catharines in broad daylight, after which I listened with rapt attention as my father warned my sister and me about stranger danger.

This regional tragedy morphed into a national media spectacle when the public learned that a newlywed couple was charged with these crimes.

Few criminal figures in Canadian history have captured the national media attention as much as Homolka. When you search her name in Canadian Newsstand, a database that contains national and leading regional English newspapers from across the country dating back to 1985, it generates more than 9,000 hits. This is significantly more than there are for Robert Pickton, who was convicted of murdering six women in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver and is suspected of killing upwards of 60 women. While Picktons victims were sex workers, many of whom were indigenous, Bernardo and Homolkas victims were white, teen girls from middle-class families in small-town Ontario.

RYAN REMIORZ / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Media gather at Karla Homolkas house in Chateauguay, Que.

And so the media paid attention.

Most of the time, the spotlight shone on the Crowns star witness, Homolka. Her image sold (and continues to sell) newspapers, and Canadians voraciously read every detail about the case, shocked that such acts of violence could take place where they did and astonished that such a beautiful couple could commit them.

While the crimes took place a quarter of a century ago, Homolka remains a lightning rod for sensational media coverage. When she was released from prison in 2005, after serving every day of her 12-year sentence, the media camped outside the Joliette prison for days and even weeks to try to capture a current photo of her. When she tried to quietly reintegrate into a Montreal suburb, she was followed on the streets and harassed at her place of employment. When she gave birth to her first child, there were reports that some hospital staff refused to treat her. Homolka eventually relocated to Guadeloupe with her new husband and children and faded from the limelight until CTV journalist Paula Todd flew there in 2012 to track her down. And just last month there was a series of news reports featuring paparazzi-style Homolka sightings in Chateauguay, Que., accompanied by interviews with parents whose children attend school with Homolkas three children.

How can we explain the cultural fascination with Homolka? I explore this question in my latest book, The Enigma of a Violent Woman: A Critical Examination of the Case of Karla Homolka (co-authored by Sylvie Frigon). Her ability to transgress gender norms that situate women as nurturing or passive by assisting her husband to sexually assault other young women shocked our collective moral and cultural sensibilities. Moreover, the crimes she committed are extraordinarily rare for criminalized women, who comprise only about five per cent of federally sentenced offenders and are much more likely to be victims of violence than they are to commit it against others. Many people neglect the fact Homolka was also a victim of her husbands sadistic violence. Acknowledging this does not diminish the tragic violence she committed against her own victims. Instead, it suggests she may no longer be a danger to others; after all, she has been living in the community for 11 years without incident.

While Homolka may be uncomfortably accustomed to being thrust into the frenzied national media spotlight, the same cannot be said for her children. Recent coverage went as far as to show a picture of her home and to identify her address on television. Regardless of how we feel about Homolkas past transgressions, why do her children have to suffer, as well? When asked, some parents said they would not permit their children to spend time at Homolkas house or with her children. They questioned the wisdom of welcoming Homolka on school grounds, leading the school to release a statement that students are safe while on campus.

Allowing the stigma that Homolka will eternally carry to affect how we treat her children is a community failure and runs the risk of irrevocably damaging the mother-child relationship. While Homolka remains enigmatic in her dual identity as both victim and victimizer, it is important to consider that after 25 years, being a mother of three is now her most significant identity. Permitting Homolka to reintegrate and fade from our gaze will not only help protect her relationship with her children, it will prevent re-traumatizing the community with each media story that recounts the lurid details of this case.

Jennifer M. Kilty is an associate professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa. She will be presenting some of her findings in her book at the Placing Justice conference, May 9-11, at the University of Winnipeg. The conference is open to the public.
The court is yet to issue Morsis verdict, but today's verdicts make it likely he wont be sentence to death in this case

Related Egypt court postpones Morsi verdict in Qatar espionage case to 7 May

A Cairo criminal court issued Saturday preliminary death sentences against six of ousted president Mohamed Morsis co-defendants in what is known as the Qatar espionage case.

The court is yet to issue a verdict on Morsi, but this likely means that he wont be sentenced to death in this case.

The verdict will be either confirmed or reduced on 18 June after consultation with Egypt's mufti, the highest Sunni cleric, whose opinion is not mandatory to the court.

The defendants sentenced to death are five men; Ahmed Abdo Afify, Mohamed Adel El-Kelany, Ahmed Ismail, Alaa Omar and Ibrahim Helal as well as one woman, Asmaa El-Khateeb.

The court will reveal Morsis verdict, along with verdicts on three other co-defendants, in the June court session once it deliberates the Muftis consultation.

Once the criminal court issues its verdict, Morsi and his co-defendants can appeal in front of the appeals court.

Morsi, who was ousted in July 2013, was charged with using his post to leak classified documents to Qatar with the help of secretaries and Muslim Brotherhood figures.

Morsi and the head of his office, Ahmed Abdel-Ati, were also charged with leaking secret information on general and military intelligence, the armed forces, its armaments and other state secrets. The prosecution argued that the two used their positions to pass the files from the presidential offices to Amin El-Serafy, a presidential secretary, who then passed them to his daughter, Karima, who gave them to agents to give to the Qataris.

The other defendants  who include Ahmed Afify, a documentary producer; Mohamed Kilany, a flight attendant; Ahmed Ismail, a teaching assistant; and Khaled Radwan and Asmaa El-Khatib, two journalists at pro-Brotherhood TV channels  were charged with turning over copies of the classified documents to two staffers of the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera and an unknown Qatari intelligence officer.

Three of the 10 defendants are being tried in absentia.

The espionage case is the fourth major trial of Morsi on various criminal charges since his ouster in 2013.

Morsi has already been sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in the "Ittihadiya case," received a death sentence in the Wadi Natroun jailbreak case, and life in jail (25 years in prison) over leaks to foreign groups, including militant groups Hamas and Hizbullah.

All other sentences are currently being appealed.

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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On Tuesday afternoon, the wildfire burning outside Fort McMurray, Alta., jumped the highway into the city of 80,000. The next day the Canadian military, including helicopters and cargo planes, was put on standby, while elements of the armys regular and part-time forces were ordered to prepare to move, if needed.

The military is usually called in as a last resort when events overwhelm civilian capabilities. So far, ground troops havent been asked to support firefighting or evacuation operations, although military helicopters are providing aerial surveillance.

In a country such as Canada, with its vast geography and distances, big rivers, dense forests and treacherous terrain, the military is frequently asked to help stave off disaster to civilian centres. The army and its reserves have fought several floods in Manitoba, including the 1950 flood and the Flood of the Century in 1997. Almost every province and territory has relied on the military to respond to various disasters.

Jason Franson / The Canadian Press A helicopter flies past a wildfire in Fort McMurray, Alta.

And that is one of the reasons Canada needs to maintain a robust military that is well-trained, fully equipped and ready for action. Unfortunately, a critical component of the countrys military capability is barely functional.

On the same day fire was attacking Fort McMurray, the federal auditor general issued a report that found Canadas reserves have been neglected. They are poorly equipped and understaffed, auditor Michael Ferguson said in his report, adding only a fraction of the part-time force is fit for international operations or domestic emergencies.

The Defence Departments goal is 27,000 reserves, but there are only 21,000 positions on the books. Of those, less than 14,000 were considered ready for service. Nor does the future look any brighter. The report, for example, found the number of reserve soldiers has been steadily declining because the army reserve is unable to recruit and retain the soldiers it needs.

During the Afghan war, the reserves made up roughly 25 per cent of all troops serving in the theatre. More than 4,600 were deployed, 16 were killed and 75 were wounded.

The most disturbing part of the auditors report in the context of events at Fort McMurray was the army reserves were not prepared for domestic deployments.

We also found that army reserve units and groups did not always have access to key equipment. Furthermore, we found that the Canadian army did not require formal confirmation in writing that army reserve brigade groups were prepared to support domestic missions.

The reserve army frequently pleads with the regular force for equipment to train, only to be told it is not available.

This limited access to equipment impedes the ability of units to train their soldiers and teams, the auditors report said.

Canadas army reserves have traditionally been left out of anything transformative since the end of the Second World War.

In fact, the 1950s and 1960s were known as the snakes and ladders period because the reserves were mainly trained to carry stretchers, ropes and ladders, primarily in homeland duties.

Since then, the reserves have evolved into a force that is intended to augment the regular forces, as well as serving in homeland defence, including responding to terrorist threats.

It wasnt that long ago when even regular forces did not have the equipment they needed for modern combat. The reserves have always been a poor cousin of the full-time services, but it should be clear by now Canadas Armed Forces need to be ready for a century of surprises, as it was called at the beginning of the new millennium.

With growing threats around the world, combined with an increasing number of natural disasters at home and growing climate uncertainty, it is simply indefensible for Canada not to maintain a full range of military capability for both full- and part-time soldiers.

The next big disaster could very well happen at home. We better be prepared.
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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In her mid-30s, Monica Kelsey learned her life began in tragedy. Her mother, at the age of 17, had been attacked, raped and left for dead. In the aftermath of her assault, she decided to have an abortion, still illegal in 1972. But at the underground clinic she had a change of heart, according to Kelseys autobiography, and continued with her pregnancy. Later, she would abandon her infant when Kelsey was two hours old.

More than four decades later, Kelsey is now a volunteer firefighter and anti-abortion advocate. Shes among those leading the charge to install climate-controlled baby boxes  places for mothers to anonymously deposit their unwanted children  across Indiana, the first of which were placed at the end of April.

This is not criminal, Kelsey recently told the AP. This is legal. We dont want to push women away.

Michael Conroy, File / The Associated Press Monica Kelsey: This is not criminal. This is legal

The boxes work a bit like a cross between a library book drop-off and a people-pod you might find in a Japanese capsule hotel. Padded and kept at comfortable temperature, the small box automatically alerts emergency responders within a minute of a baby being deposited. Kelsey told the Indianapolis Star the incubator locks after a baby is placed inside, and any baby left in one will be retrieved within five minutes.

The first receptacle was recently embedded in the brick wall of a fire station in the Indiana town of Woodburn, near the Ohio border. Another box followed in Michigan City. Each box costs between US$1,500 and US$2,000, according to Kelsey; Indianas Knights of Columbus will fund the initial batch of 100.

Baby boxes are legal thanks to so-called safe-haven legislation, also known colloquially as Baby Moses laws. In 1999, then-governor of Texas George W. Bush signed the first Baby Moses bill into law in the wake of 13 dead infants found in Houston trash bins.

All 50 states, as well as Washington, D.C., now have some form of such child-abandonment laws. Abandoned infants must be no older than a certain age; Indianas law stipulates children under 45 days old may be anonymously dropped off at a firehouse, hospital or police station.

Such boxes are not a uniquely American phenomenon. South Korean pastor Jong-rak Lee, profiled in the 2015 film The Drop Box, constructed a Moses box at his house in the mid-2000s. Of the 660 babies reported to have come through his box, the Lee family has adopted 19.

The boxes seem to invite just as much controversy, however, as they do infants. In Europe, the boxes became a point of contention in 2012, when the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child argued drop-offs facilitate abandonment.

Baby boxes do not operate in the best interest of the child or the mother, committee sociologist Maria Herczog told the Christian Science Monitor. They encourage women to give birth in unsafe and life-threatening conditions.

Despite these laws, child abandonment in trash bins and other often-fatal areas has not stopped. Between 1999 and 2006, only 40 women in Texas used the states Baby Moses law, the Dallas Morning News reported. During the same seven-year span, 3,000 children had been abandoned.

Looking for an explanation why the Baby Moses laws went unused, the Morning News turned to Geoffrey McKee, a forensic psychologist and author of the book Why Mothers Kill. A mixture of fear and shame, he said, likely prevented women from using the law, particularly among teenagers and other women who want to keep their pregnancies secret. Advocates have also found spreading information about the existence of Baby Moses laws  particularly to women who might abandon children  to be a challenge.

But other initiatives have seen more success than Texas. In 2013, the Secret Safe Place for Newborns Program, which began in Alabama but now operates nationally, said it had saved the lives of 2,000 abandoned children.

 The Washington Post
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This article was published 07/05/2016 (2361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just days into his new role as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump is walking away from key positions that have defined his anti-establishment bid  including his pledge to keep wealthy donors at bay.

The New York real estate tycoon, who frequently boasted throughout the primary race that he was financing his campaign, is setting up a national fundraising operation and taking a hands-off posture toward super PACs.

He is expressing openness to raising the minimum wage, a move he previously opposed, saying on CNN this week, I mean, you have to have something that you can live on.

Steve Helber / The Associated Press Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has regularly boasted he is financing his own campaign, is now setting up a national fundraising arm.

And Trump is backing away from a tax plan he rolled out last fall that would have given major cuts to the rich. I am not necessarily a huge fan of that, he told CNBC. I am so much more into the middle class, who have just been absolutely forgotten in our country.

The billionaires tendency to change his mind on policy matters is a hallmark of his unconventional campaign  a quality he casts as an asset, saying it shows he is open to new ideas. Even so, his latest reversals are striking, particularly when it comes to the financing of his presidential bid, a central part of his pitch to voters.

They also come amid an escalating battle between Trump and many Republican establishment figures, who blanch at his combative tone and controversial policy positions. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wisconsin), the countrys highest-ranking elected Republican, said Thursday he was not ready to endorse Trump as the nominee; Trump responded he would not endorse Ryans proposed policies.

Throughout the primary contest, the Manhattan mogul bragged he was the only contender unencumbered by alliances to rich backers. Even though he has been accepting donations (US$12 million worth through the end of March), Trumps proclamation of financial independence fed a sense among his supporters that he alone was standing outside a corrupt process.

The candidate furthered that impression by regularly denouncing his opponents for leaning on super PACs, which can take unlimited contributions.

But Trump expressed little concern this week that a super PAC called Great America PAC was emerging as the vehicle of choice for wealthy Trump supporters.

I know that people maybe like me and they form a super PAC, but I have nothing to do with it, the candidate said Wednesday on NBC Nightly News, adding, So well see what happens.

He acknowledged he cannot personally cover the cost of an election campaign for the next six months, unless he is willing to sell a couple of buildings, as he said on MSNBCs Morning Joe.

On Thursday, Trump tapped hedge-fund manager and film investor Steven Mnuchin to assemble a national fundraising operation, tasked with raising at least US$1 billion for the election. That will probably require the creation of a traditional bundling effort, in which rich supporters are offered perks for collecting cheques from their friends and family members.

Although the campaign said Trump still plans to put substantial money into his bid, the first-time candidate will be seeking support from the very donor class he has vilified.

If Trump makes it clear he wants to change the rules but hes stuck playing under them, I dont think there will be a big turn-off, said conservative political consultant John Pudner, whose group Take Back Our Republic seeks to reduce the influence of the wealthy in politics. But if it looks like hes just abandoning the one thing that got him here, I think therell be trouble.

Selecting Mnuchin to lead the effort is a particularly jarring choice for a candidate who has lambasted hedge-fund managers on the trail.

When asked if Trump was undercutting his pledge to be independent of big donors, spokeswoman Hope Hicks responded in an email: Mr. Trump is not raising money for his own campaign. He is raising money for the party.

She did not respond to an inquiry about whether any of the money Mnuchin will help raise will go into Trumps campaign coffers.

The Republican National Committee has been counting on getting robust fundraising assistance from its nominee to finance its quadrennial get-out-the-vote efforts  massive operations that lift not only the White House nominee but down-ballot candidates across the country.

In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney and the RNC together raised US$493 million through a joint committee.

Even wealthy contributors who said they were supportive of Trump expressed surprise he was going to begin soliciting donations.

I thought he was self-funding, said Dallas investor Doug Deason.

And there is still resistance to Trump among key segments of the partys major donor base.

Its going to be hard to ask people for money for someone who says hes so rich he doesnt need peoples money, said Republican fundraiser Lisa Spies.

 Washington Post
The way she travels is slow and circuitous. Still, she gets there.

Her steps are deliberate as the tip of her slender white cane scans the boundary between lawn and sidewalk  tapping concrete, brushing grass. A misplaced trash bin elicits a pause, then some reconnoitering as her cane tip searches for anticipated objects and landmarks, circling back until, reassured, she continues on her chosen path.

Kelsi Watters was born without sight, but not without direction.

This is normal for me, she said. I have to adjust to a sighted world.

To that end, Watters, who graduates from Saint Marys University Saturday, went to public elementary and high school in her hometown, Cameron, Wis., about 50 miles north of Eau Claire. After considering and visiting a number of college campuses, she enrolled in Saint Marys.

I felt such a sense of community when I came to tour here, she said of her decision, one shes never regretted. I wouldnt be where I am today without this community. Here, people look at your face before they look at your cane.

That first year, she arrived on campus a week before the rest of the students checked in, two weeks she spent carefully making her way around the campus, making notes of every turn, curb and obstacle as she familiarized herself with a new set of surroundings so that when classes and activities were in full swing, she could join in without impediment.

She was part of the schools first Living and Learning Community, was active in the St. Teresa Servant Leadership Community, sang in the liturgical choir and campus ministry.

Raised non-denominational, Kelsi was baptized and confirmed into the Catholic Church as a sophomore, going on to live her faith through mission service trips to rural Iowa, inner city Chicago and Minneapolis, and the Catholic Worker community in Kansas City. That was the most powerful experience for me, she said.

With a double major in psychology and youth ministry, her academic program involved off-campus internships at the Franciscan Spirituality Center and with hospital chaplains at Mayo in La Crosse. There she was introduced to the harp as a means of bringing peace and solace to her patients and to her own life as well.

Harp music is like a promise from God, she said. Each note lingers on the air, but instead of fading away it blends into the next note like Gods eternal promises.

I wouldnt trade living without sight, she said. It is, in its way, a blessing.

There is a wonder in reading Braille the sighted world will never know. she said. To touch words and have them touch you back ...

I feel I was called to serve God as a person without sight, she said, Im just not sure where he will lead me next.

I feel I was called to serve God as a person without sight. Im just not sure where he will lead me next.
Winona State Universitys Education Village took a big blow this week at the Minnesota Legislature, after the Senate narrowly shot down a $1.5 billion spending bill that would have funded infrastructure projects across the state.

The so-called bonding bill, which required three-fifths of the Senates members to support it, failed by a single vote. Only one Republican, Carla Nelson of Rochester, voted for the measure, telling the Post-Bulletin that she did so to support her constituents and advocate for area projects the bill would have funded.

Sen. Jeremy Miller, R-Winona, voted against the bill, along with the rest of the Senates Republicans. He said in an interview Friday that he voted against the bill both because of its size and the projects it would have funded.

It was the largest bonding bill in state history, Miller said. It was simply too large.

Miller said that while the bill did include many projects he supported, it fell short in other areas. For instance, it didnt have full funding for the Lanesboro dam project.

Miller had supported an earlier amendment to the proposal from the DFL-led Senate, a $992 million version that would have included $800 million in bonds and the remainder from other sources, and dedicated about half of the money to transportation and water infrastructure funds.

Both proposals included primary funding for WSUs Education Village. The DFL version also included funding for improvements for a whistle-free train zone in Goodview and Minnesota City.

What happens next is unclear, given the increasingly divisive tone at the Capitol and the fact that the Legislature doesnt technically have to approve any major spending bills before the mandated end of the 2016 session on May 23.

The Senate will head back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled House has yet to release a detailed plan for its own version. Some form of a bonding bill would have to clear both the Senate and House before heading to a conference committee to iron out a compromise on details, with the ultimate approval resting with Gov. Mark Dayton.

Well get it done, Miller said. Im cautiously optimistic.

The process doesnt have every lawmaker feeling quite as hopeful.

Sen. Matt Schmit, DFL-Red Wing, said the bill wouldnt have stretched spending too far and that most of the concentration was on funding vital water, transportation and other public use areas. The Republicans earlier proposal to reduce the bill wasnt sufficient for the states needs, he said.

Theres a big commitment to helping communities pay for infrastructure upgrades, Schmit said. There were a lot of good projects; its too bad we didnt have the votes.

Schmit said that with the House Republicans setting a spending target at $600 million without yet releasing specifics, combined with the fact that the Senate has demonstrated it cant agree on its own amount, imperils the process as the session enters its final weeks.

I dont know if we can sweeten the bill for Republicans, Schmit said. Im just not sure what we can do.
After being told by a judge that it cant keep snooping through residents trash, the city of Seattle remains determined to stop residents from throwing food in the garbage.

King County Superior Judge Beth Andrus ruled last week that the city cannot simply dig through residents trash without first getting a warrant to do so. The city had told trash collectors to search trash bins as a way to enforce Seattles ban on throwing away compostable trash.

Andrus said the city was allowed to ban residents from throwing food waste in the trash, but ordering trash collectors to search through the garbage for violations was a violation of privacy rights by authorizing warrantless searches of private property.

We relied on Washingtons right to privacy, which ensures that no person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, said Ethan Blevins, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which brought the lawsuit against the city. The judge agreed that the garbage can contains private information about our lives that deserve protection from prying eyes. If Seattle wants to rifle through your trash, itll now need a warrant.

Now, the Seattle Times reports city officials are recalibrating the ban and weighing whether to appeal the decision  in other words, they are deciding whether they should spend more public money to continue a legal battle over what people throw in the garbage. In the meantime, city officials say the trash-snooping will stop.

The city-wide ban on throwing food in the garbage was passed in 2014. The rules took effect Jan. 1, 2015.

Violations of the ban were punishable with $1 fines for each instance of compostable food found in the trash  three banana peels, three bucks.

It wasnt a precise thing by any means, Andy Ryan, a spokesman for Seattle Public Utilities, told the Seattle Times. The inspectors were eyeballing cans for visual signs like chicken parts.

Because God forbid anyone want to dispose of chicken parts in a trash can instead of letting them fester away in a homemade compost bin, right?

Its one thing to expect residents to compost their trash when they have a home and a yard (but even then its madness to require it). Its quite another to expect someone living in a one-bedroom apartment without so much as a balcony to keep a steaming pile of chicken guts, rotten vegetables and old egg salad rotting away in one corner of the kitchen. Didnt these people ever see Singles?

Like many Nanny State policies, the trash ban comes with good intentions. Before the ban, Seattle sent more than 100,000 tons of food waste to landfills, according to Seattle Public Utilities. That not only takes up a lot of space, but adds to the cost of collecting and trucking away the citys garbage.

But also like many Nanny State policies, the good intentions arent enough to make change happen.

Rather than simply asking residents to compost their food trash, or encouraging the practice with a public service ad campaign, the city went further and made it mandatory. That requires an enforcement mechanism to catch those who arent complying, which makes trash collectors the garbage police.

Thats how the Nanny State quickly becomes the trash police state.
You probably recall the case where a woman sued McDonalds because the coffee she was served was too hot. There was an obvious logic to that lawsuit, because we all understand that coffee served too hot can burn your lips and mouth.

When we read recently that a woman was suing Starbucks because her cold coffee drink had too much ice in it, we wondered for a moment if wed inadvertently clicked to the website of The Onion, the satirical newspaper with fictional stories.

But no, it was MSNBC.com which reported Monday that an Illinois woman, Stacy Pincus, has filed suit in Northern Illinois Federal Court against Starbucks for $5 million over the amount of ice used in its drinks.

Pincus suit says because of the amount of ice Starbucks uses in its iced beverages, customers often end up with half of the amount of drink that is listed on Starbucks menus in fluid ounces. The suit alleges that Starbucks is purposefully tricking customers into paying for more product than what they are provided.

The word beverage is defined as a drinkable liquid. Ice is not a beverage by definition. Accordingly, Starbucks actually gives the customer much less beverage in the cold drinks they order and pay for, the lawsuit says.

This has all the indicators of a lawsuit intended to do nothing more than get money out of a multibillion-dollar corporation, either through a jurys verdict or an out-of-court settlement.

Setting aside our cynical interpretation of the actions of Pincus and her legal representatives, Hart McLaughlin & Eldridge LLC of Chicago, lets presume for a moment that Pincus outrage is legitimate.

Did she not, even for a moment, consider returning the iced coffee drink and requesting one with less ice in its place?

If she didnt, was this her first-ever visit to Starbucks?

If youve ever stood in line behind someone ordering, as an anonymous barista quoted by MatadorNetwork.com put it, a triple grande half-caf two-pump vanilla two-pump hazelnut half-soy half-nonfat 1.5 Splenda latte, you know full well that Starbucks, and the other chain restaurants with $4 coffee drinks on the menu, will make every drink to every customers exacting specifications.

Starbucks spokeswoman Jaime Riley told NBC News that Pincus claims are without merit.

Our customers understand and expect that ice is an essential component of any iced beverage, Riley said. If a customer is not satisfied with their beverage preparation, we will gladly remake it.

Starbucks isnt unique in the business world. If you are dissatisfied with your purchase, the overwhelming majority of businesses, large or small, will replace the item with something more to your liking, or otherwise work with you to achieve customer satisfaction. Which is why we strongly suspect Pincus isnt quite as outraged about the ice in her drink as her lawsuit would suggest.

If this is found to be a frivolous lawsuit, as we suspect, Pincus should be ordered to pay all legal costs.

The decision to sue a business should be a last resort, to be set aside in favor of first seeking satisfaction as a customer.

Lets try harder to be business owners and customers, not defendants and plaintiffs.
Janet Shumaker has helped generations of Beaver Dam High School graduates to appreciate literature during her 47 years of teaching. She will be retiring at the end of this school year but appreciates her years in the district.

I have had thousands of wonderful students, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my career as an English teacher in Beaver Dam, she said.

Of course the staff at the schools is appreciated by Shumaker as well. She taught from 1969 to 1987 at Beaver Dam Middle School and has been teaching at Beaver Dam High School since then.

Im sure everyone loves their job, but I had a wonderful career, Shumaker said.

I had many outstanding role models in Beaver Dam who exemplified the best of the teaching profession, Shumaker said. One of my first mentors was Roger Van Haren, whose classroom at the junior high was next to mine. He had a great sense of humor, knew his subject matter, cared deeply about his students and was always available to answer my questions. Beaver Dam has had so many exemplary teachers with great character who expected students to strive for excellence.

Shumakers mother was also an English teacher and Janet felt being an English teacher was a natural fit for her, as was her move to Beaver Dam.

Long-time superintendent Eric Becker liked Concordia College graduates and had hired Charlie McDonald who graduated from Concordia a few years earlier, Becker said about coming to teach at Beaver Dam Junior HighSchool, now Beaver Dam Middle School. After Mr. Becker received my resume, he planned to come to Concordia to interview me, but had something unexpected come up. So I came to Beaver Dam and interviewed with Bob Hanson, who was then the director of curriculum and later the junior high principal.

Shumaker said she liked being close to Madison because of the University of Wisconsin. She eventually earning her masters degree in English education at UW-Madison.

Shumaker said she was fortunate to get to teach many different English classes over the years, from eighth to 12th grades.

Among the courses I taught were 20th Century American Literature, World Literature, College Preparation Literature, and Advanced Placement Literature and Composition, Shumaker said. The board of education, central office administrators, and principals have generally understood that studying literature is central to a good education, whether a student goes on to college or enters the workforce after graduation. Studying great literature is essential not only to developing reading, writing, and analytical skills, but also to understanding our world and having empathy for others.

Shumaker couldnt point out one book that she enjoyed teaching the most.

There are so many different books that unlocked the possibilities for students, she said.

Another one of Shumakers loves over the years has been traveling, which she began doing when she was 19.

My first few years of teaching, I saved money and was able to travel in Europe, Canada and the United States during the summers, Shumaker said. More recently I have been fortunate enough to visit China, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and other countries in Asia and Europe.

Shumaker said she plans to continue traveling in her retirement. Reading, of course, will still play a role in her life.

Because Beaver Dams curriculum has historically included novels, plays and poetry by many of the worlds greatest authors, I have been able to read and teach great literature, Shumaker said. I would like to read the Pulitzer, Nobel, and Man Booker Prize winning books that I have not yet read. I would also like to volunteer to read to elderly people and help with adult literacy projects.

As the year ends and she attends the 2016 graduation ceremony, Shumaker said she doubts it will be her last time in the high school.

I have some students who are juniors and they have already asked me to attend their graduation, Shumaker said. I may just do that.
Egypt finalizes deal to purchase French military satellite after seven months of negotiations

Egyptian officials are expected to sign a contract with two aerospace companies for the sale of a military telecommunications satellite in France on Tuesday, French newspaper La Tribune reported.

The contract for the sale of the satellite amounts to approximately 600 million Euros.

The deal will be signed with Thales Alenia Space (TAS), Franco-Italian aerospace manufacturer, and Space Systems Airbus.

According to La Tribune, the deal came following seven months of negotiations between Cairo and the two industrial companies.

During French president Francois Hollande's visit to Cairo on 17 April, 30 memorandums of understanding between the two countries were signed.

In December 2015, it was reported that the two countries were unable to reach an agreement concerning Egypt's purchase of two satellites, citing technical reasons for the failure in negotiations.

Meanwhile, La Tribune reports that TAS and Space Systems' initial proposal was two satellites, one specialized for telecom and the other for observation.

The finalized contract specifies that Egypt will only purchase the military telecommunications satellite.

Cairo and Paris have enjoyed close ties since current president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was elected in 2014. During the past two years, Egypt and France have signed several arms deals.

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Egyptian speaker of parliament Ali Abdel-Al is expected to devote part of Sunday's plenary session to discussing the current crisis between the Journalists Syndicate and the Interior Ministry

Members of parliament told parliamentary correspondents Saturday that they have directed a number of "information requests" to prime minister Sherif Ismail, asking him to answer questions about the current crisis between the Journalists Syndicate and the Interior Ministry.

MPs also said they have asked parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al to open these "requests" for a debate during Sunday's plenary session.

Mostafa Bakri, an independent MP and journalist, told reporters that parliament speaker Abdel-Al has approved to open a debate on the crisis.

"As far as I know a government official will attend Sunday's plenary session to answer questions and requests submitted by MPs on this subject," Bakri said.

Bakri declined to indicate whether the interior minister will be the government official in attendance to answer the questions.

"Regardless, he will be an interior ministry official," Bakri noted.

Parliament's Sunday morning session was originally scheduled to review seven agreements, with two of them on generating electricity, both between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and Egypt and the European Investment Bank.

Other agreements include a loan from Italy to support small-scale Egyptian industries, and a grant from the Kuwaiti Development Fund to help Egypt provide assistance to Syrian refugees who fled the war-torn country.

Bakri said the information requests on the crisis between the Journalists' Syndicate and the interior ministry would be discussed before the debate on the above agreements.

"It will be up to speaker Abdel-Al to determine when these requests will be discussed on Sunday," said Bakri.

Other MPs such Saad Al-Gammal, chairman of parliament's Arab Affairs Committee and head of the pro-government parliamentary bloc entitled In Support of Egypt, disclosed Saturday that he and many MPs submitted information requests on the crisis.

During a debate held by the Arab Affairs Committee on Saturday, many MPs focused their anger on the board of the Press Syndicate, taking it to task for the eruption of the crisis.

Ahmed Al-Sharaawi, an independent MP and a former police officer, launched scathing attack against the Press Syndicate, accusing board members of trying their best to sow "seeds of sedition" between President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and the Egyptian people.

"The Journalists Syndicate believes that their building is a shrine that is above the law," said Sharaawi, adding that, "during Sunday's plenary session, [Sharaawi] will urge other MPs to reject that the Journalists Syndicate stands in violation of the country's laws."

In comment, Al-Gammal, a former leading official of former president Hosni Mubarak's ruling party, argued that "while two former presidents, and a former agriculture minister were sentenced to prison, the Journalists Syndicate refused to implement the orders of the prosecution-general and the judiciary."

Al-Gammal praised the interior ministry for "implementing the law" during the raid that resulted in the arrest of two journalists last week. "The ministry has the right to arrest two persons who hid in the syndicate building," said Al-Gammal.

Al-Gammal, however, said he and other MPs do not plan to turn parliament's plenary session on Sunday into "attacks against journalists and the media."

"In this respect, I see that there is a pressing need that the new laws on the media include harsh penalties against those who breach the code of media ethics," said Al-Gammal.

Mohamed Khaled Al-Hashash, a Menoufiya governorate MP affiliated with the In Support of Egypt bloc, also joined forces and accused the Journalists Syndicate of exploiting the recent border demarcation agreement between Egypt and Saudi Arabia revolving around two Red Sea islands  Tiran and Sanafir  to mislead the public and drive a wedge between El-Sisi and Egyptians.

MP Shadi Abul-Ela, an independent MP from the upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, said his information request aims to bring two men in charge of guarding the Journalists Syndicate to testify before parliament.

"The two security guards told MP Mostafa Bakri on his TV talk show on Friday that the head of the Press Syndicate, Yehia Qalash, exerted pressure on them to tell prosecutors that security forces had stormed the Syndicate building," said Abul-Ela.

In contrast to the hostile attitude toward the Journalists Syndicate among pro-regime MPs, most of the leftist MPs in parliament are supportive of the syndicate, denouncing what they call the interior ministry's repressive measures against the media and journalists.

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The activist-who was given a life in prison sentence in February 2015-has asked to suspend the verdict until Egypt's Court of Cassation issues a decision on his appeal

Egypt's court of cassation rejected Saturday a request from jailed activist Ahmed Douma to suspend his life in prison sentence over charges of involvement in the December 2011 cabinet clashes case.

The rejection of Douma's request means that he will continue to serve his sentence until the cassation court looks into the appeal of the initial verdict presented by his defense.

The court did not specify the date on which it will issue its verdict on Douma's life sentence appeal.

According to the Egyptian penal code, a life in prison verdict carries a sentence of 25 years in jail.

Douma has been a long-time rights activist who protested against the regime of toppled president Hosni Mubarak, the military council in 2011-2012, as well as ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi. He is already serving time in prison.

The activist was among 229 others named in the case who were sentenced to life in prison. Some 39 minors were also sentenced to ten years in prison.

Douma, along with 269 defendants, were accused of possessing bladed weapons and Molotov cocktails, assaulting personnel from the armed forces and the police, torching the Scientific Complex in downtown Cairo and damaging other governmental buildings, including that of the cabinet and the parliament.

Meanwhile, Douma is serving time for two different verdicts in different cases. He is serving three years in prison on charges of holding an unauthorised protest, and six-months for assaulting a police officer.

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi received on Saturday Libya's head of presidential council and prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj, during which El-Sisi expressed Egypt's faith of the inevitability of a political solution for the Libyan crisis.

According to presidency spokesman Alaa Youssef, El-Sisi welcomed al-Sarraj, stressing the depth and strength of historical relations between Egypt and Libya in a meeting attended by members of the Libyan presidential council, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry, and Egypt's Ambassador to Libya.

El-Sisi referenced Egypt's support of the Libyan Presidential Council and Libyan institutions, including the national army, noting the importance of preserving these institutions to allow it to exert control in Libyan territory, restore security in Libya, and fight terrorism.

El-Sisi also noted the necessity of lifting an arms ban on the Libyan army so it can fully perform security operations as it grapples with a direct confrontation with terrorism on its soil.

Youssef added the Libyan prime minister designate Al-Sarraj expressed his appreciation for Egypt's leading role in the Middle East, considering it a pillar for security and stability.

He stressed that Libya deeply appreciates the continuous Egyptian efforts to establish security and stability in Libya and maintain its safety in the region, the unity of its lands, and preserving the capabilities of its people

Al-Sarraj asserted the Libyan government's keenness on bolstering the Libyan state and securing the integrity of the nation while it faces terrorist groups that aim to destroy the unity of the country and target innocent people.

Youssef added that the present parties reviewed the latest developments in Libya and the efforts being made to bolster Libyan stability. El-Sisi and Al-Sarraj affirmed the importance of working to accomplish a Libyan political consensus through the Libyan Parliament's approval of the unity government with the utmost urgency.

El-Sisi highlighted the urgency of a parallel workflow in the fields of politics and security to prevent an outbreak of terrorism. The president then stressed the importance of executing the Skhirat agreement so the Libyan government could undertake its work efficiently.

Five years after Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi's fall, Libya is deeply fractured, with a self-declared government in Tripoli and an internationally recognised one in the east  each backed by coalitions of former rebels and militias.

The Egyptian president has continually expressed his support for a Libya, while stating that Egypt would not intervene militarily in turmoil-stricken Libya, describing the neighboring country as a "sovereign state."

Egypt has been in coordination with General Khalifa Haftar, who controls militia forces loyal to the internationally recognised government in northeastern Libya.

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On April 19, Josh Park-Fing, an 18-year-old unemployed youth from the rural town of Meringandan, near Toowoomba, Queensland, died in an accident while being forced to work for the dole.

His death underscores the unsafe conditions imposed on jobless workers via the Australian governments forced work scheme, which compels them to undertake unpaid labour in order to receive poverty-line welfare payments. This amounts to compulsory servitude in sub-standard and potentially dangerous conditions.

The tragedy also highlights the lack of workers compensation and insurance coverage for Work for the Dole participants.

The teenager was collecting rubbish at the local Toowoomba Showgrounds. It is believed that he was on a trailer being pulled by a tractor when it jolted. The jolt threw the young man from the trailer, and he suffered head injuries. Park-Fing died on the way to the hospital after attempts to revive him failed.

Park-Fings twin brother Jayden, siblings Matt, Locklyn and Jemma, and mother Jenny Fing were too distraught to speak to the media immediately. A friend and work colleague of Jenny Fing, Christabel Dodds, told reporters: They dont want this to ever happen to another family again, but at the moment all theyre focused on is grieving Joshs loss.

The local community has raised money to support the family because of the inadequate Work for the Dole insurance coverage. Whereas families of workers killed in the course of paid employment are eligible for up to $750,000, the families of unemployed workers forced into the Work for the Dole program are paid a maximum of $250,000.

Participants in the program are also denied workers compensation if injured. According to the government, they are not workers but volunteers and therefore not covered by WorkCover, the official agency that regulates occupational health and safety and work-related injury compensation.

There is nothing voluntary about Work for the Dole. As of July last year, everyone under the age of 50 who has been on unemployment benefits for more than six months is required to work for the dole for six months every year. People aged under-30 must perform 25 hours labour per week and those aged between 30 and 49 must do 15 hours. Unemployed workers aged over 50 can volunteer to take part.

Work for the Dole, first imposed in 1998 by the Howard Liberal-National Coalition government, was maintained by the Rudd and Gillard Labor Party governments from 2007 to 2013. Initially, it was limited to the long-term unemployed, but it was extended to nearly all unemployed workers last year, when the current Coalition government declared it would place 100,000 people on the scheme during 201516.

The Australian Unemployed Workers Union (AUWU), which claims to represent Work for the Dole participants, has reported numerous cases of workers with chronic injuries being forced into strenuous physical labour on the program. If they do not comply, they are threatened with loss of Centrelink (welfare) benefits.

An unemployed worker, Nick Smart, told the media he was expected to dig holes and push heavy wheelbarrows despite chronic back problems. I fell down a retaining wall and twisted my back pushing a wheelbarrow, he said. Ive been told I have no access to WorkCover because technically I was not workingI was a Centrelink volunteer.

In other cases, Work for the Dole workers had been denied toilet breaks. One worker reported being exposed to 40-degree plus heat and poisonous snakes at a Work for the Dole site.

These conditions highlight the punitive character of the scheme. Far from being intended to help jobless workers gain experience and improve their job prospectsas successive governments have claimedWork for the Dole is designed to harass and demoralise workers, while using them as a cheap labour force.

A study by the Australian National University Social Research Centre demonstrated that the scheme does little or nothing to improve participants job prospects. According to the research: It is estimated that in the short term [work for the dole] resulted in an additional 2 percentage point increase in the probability of job seekers having a job placement (from a low baseline of 14 percent).

Above all, with almost 750,000 workers officially unemployed, the program is intended to coerce them into seeking low-paid work on inferior conditions to avoid being compelled to work for nothing. By the official statistics, more than one million workers are also under-employedthat is, looking for more work. As of February, however, there were only 166,500 job vacancies. That meant that for every job vacancy there were more than 10 people seeking employment.

Initially, the scheme was limited to working for not-for-profit organisations, including local councils. This led to calls by business groups for private employers to be given access to the program as well. Last year, the scheme was extended to allow aged care providers to exploit participants, as a first step.

Last May, after this expansion was proposed in the 2015 federal budget, the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott told employers they would soon be able to try-before-you-buy, referring to unemployed workers.

This years budget, handed down by the Coalition government on May 3, took that expansion to a new level. In his budget speech, Treasurer Scott Morrison unveiled what he called real work for the dole. Over the next four years, 120,000 unemployed workers aged under-25 will be pushed into a nominally voluntary cheap labour scheme that enables businesses to employ them as government-subsidised interns.

Under Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls new scheme, PaTHwhich stands for Prepare Trial Hirethe unemployed will be expected to work up to 25 hours a week for private employers. For this, to supplement their pitiful unemployment benefits, they will receive $100 a week, effectively making their hourly rate just $4 an hour. To further sweeten the deal for business, employers will receive a $1,000 bonus and a wage subsidy of between $6,500 and $10,000 per year.

The Labor opposition has welcomed the new scheme, falsely claiming that it represents an improvement on Work for the Dole. But previous studies have shown that such programs lead to only 19 percent of the participants being offered paid employment. In other words, more than 80 percent of the participants will simply be exploited as low-wage interns.

The tragic death of Josh Park-Fing highlights the shocking conditions to which unemployed workers will continue to be subjectedconditions that will be increasingly imposed on all workers as the economic situation worsens globally and in Australia.

The author also recommends:

Work for the dole in Australia

[5 February 1998]

Unemployed forced to work for the dole in Australia

[6 July 2015]
PART ONE | PART TWO | PART THREE

The Flint water crisis, in which an entire city of 100,000 inhabitants has been poisoned with dangerous amounts of lead and other deadly contaminants, is an indisputable crime of capitalism. The city, the site of the 1936-37 General Motors sit-down strikes, and once an international symbol of working class militancy and strength, has become a living embodiment of the ruling classs reckless disregard for the lives of workers in its toxic quest for financial gain. The poisoning of the citys population has created a tremendous public health catastrophe, the effects of which will be felt for generations to come.

Though officials at all levels of government have sought to whitewash their role in the affair, an examination of the major players in the crisis reveals a far-reaching conspiracy to force through a switch from a reliable water supply, with no regard for public health or safety, in the service of powerful financial interests. Once the devastating effects of the switch came to light, these same figures then engaged in a filthy cover-up, and sought to publicly smear those who fought to expose the truth.

The preparation for cutoff of the citys decades-long source of reliable drinking water and switching to the polluted Flint River required collusion of officials at multiple levels of government, including both Democrats and Republicans.

Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright

The seeds for the Flint water disaster were embodied in the drive by Genesee County Drain Commissioner Jeff Wright to push for the creation of the Karegnondi Water Authority (KWA) and the KWA pipeline project.

Wright, a fixture of city politics for over 30 years, has a long and sordid history in the local Democratic political machine. After two failed attempts at becoming County Drain Commissioner, he succeeded in 2000. Certain improprieties in Wrights campaign were exposed, claiming endorsements in its advertising without permission. In 2005 he was accused of taking part in a money laundering scheme with Burton developer Blake Rizzo, who was at the time under investigation for insurance fraud and bribery. Though no charges were ever filed, Federal agents confiscated Wrights campaign finance documents from the Genesee county clerks office. Two years later, Wright agreed to serve as an FBI informant against Sam Riddle, a Detroit political consultant whom Wright had hired to help marshal support for the KWA project. It was noted at the time that officials in Wrights situation rarely agree to serve as informants unless the FBI has something on them.

Wright campaigned heavily for the KWA, which would be tasked with building a water pipeline from Lake Huron to Genesee County, parallel to, and just six miles North, of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Departments (DWSD) pipeline that Flint had been using for half a century. Powerful financial interests hoped to profit handsomely from the cheap, untreated water that would flow through the new pipeline, which would be well-suited to industrial and fracking operations. Wright, who was also the CEO of the KWA, publicly insisted that the pipeline project would save the cash-strapped city of Flint millions of dollars over its lifetime.

The KWA had no intention, however, of addressing the needed upgrades to the archaic City of Flint water treatment plant, which was in no condition to handle a massively increased volume of untreated water, as it had been virtually mothballed for decades. As for Wright, the pipeline project would ensure that he, as the Genesee county drain commissioner, would wield enormous power over contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

With some city officials skeptical of the project and questions lingering about how Flint would meet its water needs during the construction of the pipeline, Wright issued an ultimatum to the Flint City Council on March 18th, 2013, stating, Were going to build the pipeline  whether Flints a partner or not.

Wrights strident declaration, like many of his claims relating to Flints interest in signing with the KWA project, were largely bluster. One week later, the City Council voted 7-1 to disconnect from the DWSDs water system and switch to the KWA, committing to some 30 percent of its construction costs.

As Genesee County Drain Commissioner, Wright had authority over areas outside Flint and for those areas, he opted to remain in the Detroit system until the completion of the KWA pipeline rather than use Flint River water. In order to do this, because the county purchased its Detroit water indirectly, as a customer of Flint, Wright oversaw the purchase of a nine-mile-long section of existing water pipeline from Flint in 2014 for $3.9 million.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder

Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder continues to claim publicly that he had no knowledge of the developing disaster with Flints water after the switch to the Flint River, and that he was the victim of misinformation from those under him. He also claims, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that the decision to change Flints water source from the treated DWSD water they had been using for years to the polluted Flint River was a decision made by the city itself.

Snyder, a multi-millionaire who built his fortune as a venture capitalist and a technology executive, has presided over a deeply reactionary administration that has been at the forefront of the assault on workers rights since his inauguration in 2011. His administration has presided over sweeping cuts in social benefits, health care, and education across the state. In regards to the latter, the effects of the cuts can be seen in the moldy, dilapidated, mushroom-infested cesspits that have become common in Detroit Public Schools.

While attempting to exercise plausible deniability throughout the Flint water crisis, Snyders political agenda led directly to the disaster. As governor of Michigan, his primary undertaking has been to implement drastic cuts in social and public services and to change the laws to allow the state to override any legal obstacles to plundering public-sector workers pensions and municipally-owned public assets. Snyder was personally at the head of engineering the forced bankruptcy of Detroit, using the system of unelected emergency managers he put in place.

That bankruptcy, which gutted city workers pensions and benefits and privatized assets such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, has served as a model for similar attacks across the country. The DWSDs loss of the Flint water contractits largest suburban customer, accounting for 20 percent of its revenuesplayed into the hands of Snyders co-conspirators in seeking to monetize and eventually privatize one of the countrys largest water systems.

As the disastrous effects of switching the citys water supply became apparent, Snyders administration engaged in a deliberate and calculated attempt to block and discredit scientific reports that revealed the horrific effect the water was having on the population. Snyders office claimed that Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician whose research revealed that blood lead levels in Flint children had spiked dramatically since the switch, had spliced and diced her data for emotional reasons, and it accused Dr. Marc Edwards, the Virginia Tech professor whose work exposed the hazardous lead levels in Flint drinking water, of pulling a rabbit out of his hat.

It was only after public outrage mounted over the crisis that Snyder was forced to respond, making the absurd claim that he only learned of the lead contamination in October 2015. This in spite of email records showing individuals high up in his administration engaged in tense discussions about the water quality for many months beforehand. Even then, his administration did not declare a state of emergency in the city until January 2016.

Since then, Snyder has put on a show of false contrition in a transparent attempt to obfuscate his criminal role in the affair. His mealy-mouthed apologies and carefully repeated assertions that I let you down, and I kick myself every day, are part of a deliberate effort to present his role in the crisis as a series of mistakes rather than calculated criminal activity.

Flint Emergency Manager Ed Kurtz

In August 2012, Snyder appointed Ed Kurtz as Flints emergency financial manager. Kurtz, a former president of the private Baker College System, had previously served as the citys emergency manager a decade earlier, when he had been appointed to the position by then-Republican Governor John Engler. His tenure during this first emergency was defined by a slash-and-burn approach to gutting wages and benefits, which led to the elimination of health, dental and vision benefits for the majority of city officials, an 11 percent increase in water and sewer bills, a sharp reduction in retirement benefits for city employees, and a 4 percent municipal pay cut (the latter implemented with the assistance of the citys largest union).

No doubt Snyders office saw in Kurtz a man well suited to the task of seizing control of the citys main assetits water systemfor the sake of financial interests.

Kurtz signed off on the City Councils decision to sever ties with the DWSD and begin purchasing water from the KWA in March 2013, ultimately choosing to purchase $1 million more in water than the city regularly used. In response, the DWSD gave a one-year termination notice to the city in April, leaving the city with a significant gap between the end of its connection to Detroit water and the completion of the KWA pipeline.

In June 2013, Kurtz contracted the engineering firm Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. to begin figuring out how to draw Flint River water as a primary drinking water source. This in spite of the fact that, according to a 2014 deposition by Kurtzs chief financial officer Jerry Ambrose, the emergency management team had rejected a plan to use Flint River water as a primary source in 2012, citing concerns by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ).

Whatever reservations Kurtzs team may have initially had, he ultimately signed off on the plan to draw water from the Flint River, and he sent the plan to the State Treasurer for final approval.

Michigan State Treasurer Andy Dillon

With the mayor, the City Council, and the emergency manager on board with the KWA scheme, final approval rested with the Michigan state treasurer, Democrat Andy Dillon.

Dillon is a former business lawyer and venture capitalist who served as vice president at General Electric Capital and president of the Detroit Steel Co. Elected to the Michigan House of Representatives in 2004, Dillon quickly rose through the political ranks, becoming Speaker of the House in 2007. His tenure was defined by a number of bipartisan initiatives that expanded the reactionary attack on workers benefits, while improving the financial position of major corporations. His signature achievement, the so-called 21st Century Jobs Fund, was a $2 billion giveaway to tech firms and pharmaceutical corporations, and he attempted to cut public employee health care benefits statewide by consolidating them all into a single contract. Throughout his political career he has collaborated with Republicans to destroy workers living standards in the interests of capital.

After a failed gubernatorial bid in 2010, Dillon accepted a position as state treasurer in the Snyder administration, making him the second most powerful political figure in the state. He played a leading role in the looting of Detroits public assets during the 2013 bankruptcy, collaborating closely with Snyder and Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr to force through the restructuring and slash public employee wages and benefits.

Dillon was Kurtz supervisor during the latters tenure as Flint emergency manager, and his approval was required on all contracts that exceeded $50,000. On April 15, 2013, Dillon signed off on the KWA project, giving final approval to the citys plan to cut ties with the DWSD. He has since claimed that he was unaware of the plans to draw water from the Flint River, stating, I assumed they would work something out with Detroit, to stay on the DWSDs system until the completion of the pipeline project. The DWSD publicly announced the one-year termination notice a mere two days after Dillon signed off on the KWA project.

In an internal email, Snyders then-Chief of Staff Dennis Muchmore admitted that Dillons actions made the state culpable in the affair, writing, Dillon did make the ultimate decision so were not able to avoid the subject. The email was written on September 25, 2015, nearly a month before Snyder claims he became aware of the water contamination issues.

To be continued
A member of an Egyptian performance band, whose online videos are often critical of the regime, was arrested Saturday and is now facing charges.

On its Facebook page, Atfal Shawaree, or Street Children, announced that Ezz El-Din, who appears to be the youngest of the band's six members, was arrested from his home at dawn before being transferred to prosecution.

Prosecutors accused him of "inciting protests" and "uploading videos insulting state institutions," before ordering his detention for four days pending investigation.

Atfal Shawarees satirical one-shot videos, which are a few minutes in length and are shot in the street, usually mock the rhetoric of supporters of the regime.

Some of their videos also contained revolutionary messages, such "the interior ministry [are] thugs" and "the revolution continues."

The group's videos have recently grown in popularity, and their Facebook page has over 220,000 likes.

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In a recently published opinion piece in the New York Times philosophy section, titled Should Everybody Vote? Gary Gutting, a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame, aired the frustration of a substantial layer of intellectuals over what they see as the electorates failure to vote in a reasonable way. Societys problems, Gutting and others believe, could be substantially fixed if only election outcomes were determined entirely by the correct ideas of properly educated people, that is, by people like themselves. In the course of what purports to be simply an overview of recent philosophical thinking about the right to vote, Gutting essentially offers a philosophical defense for its abolition.

Outside of his regular contributions to the Times and other publications as a public intellectual, Guttings particular academic specialty is in making philosophical irrationalism more comprehensible and acceptable within the philosophical circles that so far maintain a somewhat stronger connection to the rationalist traditions of the Enlightenment than the milieu dominated by postmodernism and the Frankfurt School.

To that end, Gutting has written several historical overviews on French philosophy, Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy since 1960 and French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, which have brought the thought of postmodernists such as Jacques Derrida, Alain Badiou and Michel Foucault to wider audiences. In regard to Foucault, Gutting has become an influential interpreter of his thought, and one of his most well-known popularizers, having written both Michel Foucaults Archaeology of Scientific Reason and Michel Foucault: A Very Short Introduction. Philosophically, Gutting is a pragmatist. He is indebted intellectually to Richard Rorty, whose work is a main focus of Guttings Pragmatic Liberalism and the Critique of Modernity. However, unlike Rorty and many of the other figures he writes about, Gutting is not a postmodernist.

Guttings recent article from April 25 is written as though it were simply a philosophical examination of the claim that society should always try to increase voter participation. He starts off innocuously enough, noting that not voting can be a form of protest against all the available candidates. He gives lip service to the real state of American democracy, or rather its domination by a financial aristocracy, by referring to the Gilens and Page study which suggests that the US is an oligarchy.

It soon becomes clear, though, that he is most interested in bemoaning what he sees as voter ignorance about candidates and issues, and speculating about what can be done to prevent these voters from having any further influence over elections. He writes:

Those who think everyone should vote also think that voting should be adequately informed about the candidates and issues. But theres a tension here, since theres considerable evidence from pollingnot to mention just reading online comments about politicsthat many people are poorly informed about candidates and issues. In The Ethics of Voting, the philosopher Jason Brennan has argued that such people have a duty not to vote. Its unlikely that many of them would agree with that conclusion, but given a large number of poorly informed voters, we might consider dropping campaigns urging everyone to vote or even insisting that we all have a duty to vote. [1]

Gutting devotes the largest section of his essay to the provocative idea of an enfranchisement lottery, which would supposedly solve the problem of uninformed voters. This idea Gutting borrows from Claudio Lopez-Guerra, Associate Professor of Political Studies at Mexico Citys Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), who is currently serving as a visiting fellow at Princeton Universitys Center for Human Values.

The idea behind the enfranchisement lottery, as elaborated in Lopez-Guerras book Democracy and Disenfranchisement: The Morality of Electoral Exclusions, is that instead of elections based on a popular vote of all citizens, elections could instead be decided by a randomly selected jury.

These jurors would be sequestered, then educated by teams of policy experts and forced to watch presentations and debates about the candidates. Only then would they be able to make their selections. The outcome of this process, being made by an electorate composed entirely of informed participants, would then avoid all of the supposed negative election outcomes resulting from an ignorant and apathetic population. According to Gutting,

The result would be voters informed to a level most us can only hope to achieve. We would need a fairly large juryperhaps several thousandto properly represent the nations diverse views and interests. Televising the proceedings would help ensure transparency. Since the jury was randomly chosen, its vote would very likely represent the outcome of an election in which we were all well-informed voters. [2]

The idea that such a process would lead to better electoral outcomes reveals a great deal about the theoretical assumptions and class positions of both Lopez-Guerra and Gutting. Most importantly, the idea that the problem with society is simply one of widespread ignorance, which can be cured by a concentrated dose of factual knowledge, is an ahistorical and idealist conception. In fact, it reproduces, though in a very vulgar form, certain conceptions of utopian theorists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They believed that enlightened monarchs who were educated and guided by impartial mentors, experts and, of course, philosophers, could overcome the ills of society. In reality, the exercise of political judgment and its transformation on a mass scale is a far more involved process than Gutting appears to admit, involving complex historically formed socioeconomic circumstances and interests.

This perspective was clearly understood and criticized by Karl Marx, in his Theses on Feuerbach, written in 1845. In the third thesis, he wrote:

The materialist doctrine that men are products of circumstances and upbringing and that, therefore, changed men are products of other circumstances and changed upbringing forgets that circumstances are changed precisely by men and that the educator must himself be educated. Hence this doctrine necessarily arrives at dividing society into two parts, of which one towers above society (in Robert Owen, for example). The coincidence of the changing of circumstances and of human activity can only be conceived and rationally understood as revolutionizing practice. [3]

Ignoring this insight, Gutting maintains that the problem with elections is that most voters have not been properly educated. The solution is therefore an idealized jury system which will create the circumstances for such an educated electorate. But the reality of social life is not nearly so simple.

Somewhat ironically, Guttings recourse to the concept of an impartial jury, standing entirely above society and evaluating facts with absolute impartiality, exposes the bankruptcy of his intellectualist schema. As every experienced attorney knows all too well, the selection of a jury is the most critical and contentious of processes. Whether in a civil or criminal case, the lawyers expend enormous time and effort in the process of examining the background, life experiences and, above all, professions and economic status of each potential juror. It is taken as a matter of course that the jurors response to the facts of the case will be influenced, both profoundly and subtly, by their class status. If this is the rule in every civil or criminal case, what would be involved in selecting a jury empaneled to determine the future of society?

If the proposal for the enfranchisement lottery were to be implemented, the project would soon be overwhelmed by conflicting views on how the electoral jury was to be selected, the instructions they were to receive, the evidence they were to examine, etc. How would these issues be decided? Would another pre-electoral panel be created to adjudicate such issues? Would not that preliminary panel be also overwhelmed by controversies relating to its selection, decision-making process, evidentiary rulings, etc.? Would not vast sums of money be spent by wealthy individuals and powerful corporations to influence and corrupt the process?

Which candidates and their policy teams would be allowed to present their views to the jury? Any that are interested, or just viable candidates, in the manner used frequently to bar parties outside of the Democrats and Republicans from presenting their views on television? How, and by whom, would the standards of electoral eligibility be determined?

And once the process actually gets underway, the assumption that experts and candidates would present unbiased information to the jurors is simply untenable, tantamount to an expectation that they abandon their class position.

One presumes Lopez-Guerra and Gutting expect that jurors will soberly evaluate candidates on the basis of their devotion to the national interest. But on what basis will the national interest be determined. What definition of national interest will be employed? How will it take into account the indisputable fact that the very concept of national security assumes the priority and legitimacy of national state interests?

In evaluating Guttings project, let us consider how the jury project would have worked out had it been applied in the election of 1860, when the national interest was defined in absolutely irreconcilable terms by the supporters and opponents of slavery. How would an electoral jury have decided between Lincoln, Douglas, Bell and Breckenridge? And, by the way, would slaves have been included on the jury?

Let us return to the issue of a poorly educated jury. Chad Flanders, reviewing Lopez-Guerra's book in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, an online review journal co-edited by Gutting, notes quite correctly that disenfranchisement is not the only logical conclusion following from voter ignorance. The response that would be more in line with the historical expansion of the right to vote would be to ensure that everyone is educated enough to make an informed decision. Gutting paraphrases Lopez-Guerras revealing response to this challenge, writing: Ideally, we would provide everyone with the relevant knowledge, but that would be impractical, time-consuming and expensive.

Guttings casual dismissal of mass education is of a piece with the profound shifts to the right over several decades by the formerly liberal intelligentsia. This petty-bourgeois layer is becoming convinced that workers can no longer be trusted to vote. In the event of a military coup or the imposition of dictatorial methods of rule, these figures could be counted on to provide their moral benediction and support.

This is not a farfetched. Back in 2012, Gutting published a piece with the title, Should We Cancel the Election? (A Socratic Dialog), an imagined dialog between himself and Socrates in which he has Socrates argue that the election should be canceled, on the grounds that the selection of leadership based on elections is a worse method than letting politicians and elites make the selections themselves. In the end he asks Socrates if he trusts politicians more than the people. Socrates responds,

Yes, I do. For all their failings, most politicians are reasonably sincere, honest, and much more intelligent and educated on the issues than their constituents. Very few of them come up to the standards I set, but once freed from the necessity of courting uninformed public opinion, most of them could do a creditable job of making decisions in the public interest. And remember, without elections, politicians would no longer need the vast amount of money that gives big donors so much influence. [4]

One would imagine that the real Socrates would not have argued so stupidly. Moreover, the wily old philosopher, who had plenty of experience in the rough and tumble of Athenian politics, would have hardly been so confident of the integrity of politicians. But Gutting is hardly Socrates. His claim that politicians, freed from the burdens of running elections, will be freed to do the right thing, is ahistorical nonsense. Guttings arguments are refuted simply by citing the decisions of the Supreme Court, whose justices are appointed for life. They need not court uninformed public opinion. How, then, does Gutting explain the Courts ruling in the Dred Scott case, Plessey v. Ferguson, Citizens United, or, let us add, Bush v. Gore? Why did Scalia, Thomas, OConnor, Kennedy, and Rehnquist interpret the facts of the 2000 election in such a dishonest manner?

Following the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court ruling that handed the 2000 election to George W. Bush, and the refusal of the Democratic Party to fight the theft of the election, the World Socialist Web Site warned that there was no longer any significant constituency among the US ruling class for a defense of democratic rights. Since then, anti-voting-rights laws and methods of voter suppression have proliferated, as seen recently in the Supreme Courts upholding of North Carolina House Bill 589.

This rightward shift has now embraced the academy, with figures like Gutting offering up philosophical arguments which provide intellectual defense and cover to such anti-democratic efforts. Regardless of whether he set out to do so is entirely beside the point. The theoretical conceptions Gutting is toying with have serious political implications whose logic may lead much farther than he intends, rooted as they are in definite class positions and interests.

Guttings pragmatism, the product of a long and comfortable career in the academy which required only that he continuously keep shifting his views to correspond to the common sense or humdrum views that circulate there, has now intersected with crisis-ridden class society and the needs of the bourgeoisie. Following an unprecedented primary campaign that has resulted in the likely nomination of two of the most unpopular Democratic and Republican candidates in recent US history, Gutting may well find a receptive audience for his views among sections of the ruling class.

[1] Gary Gutting, Should Everybody Vote?, New York Times, April 25, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach, in Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical German Philosophy, ed. Frederick Engels (New York: International Publishers, 2010), p. 83.

[4] Gary Gutting, Should We Cancel the Election? (A Socratic Dialog), New York Times, August 23, 2012.
The US Consul General in Kolkata, Craig L. Hall, provocatively endorsed Indian territorial claims against China, while meeting April 28 with the Chief Minister of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, Kalikho Pul.

Referring to Chinese claims on parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Hall said that the US government considers Arunachal Pradesh to be an integral part of India. Arunachal Pradeshlocated in a strategic position bordering Bhutan in the west, Burma in the east, and China in the northincludes several areas that are also claimed by China, such as Tawang, site of the famous Tawang Monastery.

Hall called for infrastructure development in this remote and strategic region, where the construction of roads and transport infrastructure are vital to deploying military power. He also called for US-Indian joint ventures and partnerships in trade and commerce that could be arranged through the Consulate in Kolkata. The Consulate, said Hall, is aware of the US companies interested in contract works for infrastructure development in India and in the North-East, in particular with special focus on Arunachal Pradesh.

Halls comments were a calculated attempt to stoke the border dispute between India and China and were made just days after Indias National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had visited Beijing for talks on resolving the border issue.

In 1962 India and China fought a month-long war over their disputed Himalayan border that claimed over 4,000 casualties. The war erupted following a series of violent border incidents in the aftermath of the 1959 CIA-backed Tibetan uprising against the Chinese regime. Following the uprisings defeat, India had granted asylum to the Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, and to this day, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile is in Dharamsala in northwestern India.

India and China share a long border that passes through several disputed regions, including much of Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin. The latter is located between the Chinese autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, and is claimed by India as part of the Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir. During the 1962 Sino-Indian War, Chinese forces overran Arunachal Pradesh, only later to pull back, and expanded their control over Aksai Chin.

Halls comments amounted to pouring fuel on the fire of the Sino-Indian border conflict. They make clear that as part of its pivot to Asia, which is aimed at isolating and preparing for war with China, Washington is willing to back Indian territorial claims that are viewed by Beijing as threats to Chinas territorial integrity.

Halls remarks come as India, aligning increasingly with the US strategic offensive against China, seeks to leverage its relationship with Washington to attain the status of a global power. India is rapidly expanding its military and demanding that the states of South Asia recognize it as the regional hegemon.

The US is pushing for India to become a frontline state in its pivot against China. In April it got New Delhis agreement in principle to a bilateral Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) which will give the US military access to Indian military bases for resupply, repair and rest.

China strongly objected to Halls comments. On Wednesday, Beijing said that any irresponsible third party intervention in the Sino-Indian border dispute would complicate the issue.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said, The boundary question between China and India bears on Chinas territorial sovereignty and Chinese peoples sentiment. All third parties must respect the history and reality concerning the boundary question, respect efforts by China and India to solve territorial disputes through negotiations, not get involved in the disputes or take sides on issues relating to the ownership of disputed territory.

The Ministry added: Sound negotiations between China and India on the boundary question as well as peace and tranquility in the border areas over recent years have created favourable conditions for the growth of bilateral relations and their respective development.

Halls remarks constitute yet another deliberate provocation against China by US imperialism as it stokes tensions across the region.

As part of its pivot to Asia against China, the US is fomenting separatism in China, particularly in Tibet and Xinjiang. US officials recently attended a conference of US-funded Chinese separatist organisations in Dharamsala, India. Washington is seeking to exploit bitter social and ethnic conflictsrooted in the reactionary policies of the Chinese regime, which has increasingly fomented Han Chinese nationalism since restoring capitalism in China over the course of the 1980sto threaten to break up China along ethnic lines.

As in the nearby Chinese region, where ethnic minorities suffer poverty and repression from Beijing, northeast India is the countrys most impoverished and least developed region and is beset by ethnic tensions and insurgencies.

Its the most complex place in Asia, says Sanjoy Hazarika, chairman and director of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research in New Delhi. You have 220 ethnic groups packed into a triangular shape of land linked to India by just a tiny corridor.

As in Jammu and Kashmir, New Delhi has for decades given the military sweeping draconian powers in Arunachal Pradesh and six other northeastern states, under the notorious Armed Forces Special Powers Act, so as to suppress numerous armed, anti-government ethno-national secessionist movements. As a result of rampant poverty and insecurity, hundreds of thousands of people from this impoverished region have migrated to Indias main cities to seek employment. There they often face discrimination.

Washington fears that China could exploit the insurgencies in Indias northeast, encouraging separatism in India to retaliate for Washingtons promotion of separatism within China, and it is responding by recklessly inserting itself into the disputes between New Delhi and Beijing.

As Washington aggressively moves to integrate India into its strategic offensive against Beijing, the decades-long rivalry between India and China, including border disputes, is becoming intertwined with the even more explosive US-China strategic rivalry, pushing Asia, if not the entire world, towards a conflagration.
Security forces erected heavy concrete blast walls and strung barbed wire across two strategic bridges in the capital of Baghdad Friday as heavily armed troops deployed across the city. The security lockdown was meant to prevent a repeat of the events last Saturday, when thousands of demonstrators stormed the Green Zone, the walled-off seat of the Iraqi government.

On April 30, demonstrators denouncing the Iraqi governments corruption, failure to provide basic services and inability to prevent terrorist bombings pulled down the massive blast walls surrounding the Green Zone, a high-security enclave created by the US occupation authorities after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. They occupied the parliament, breaking up furniture and sending lawmakers fleeing for their lives.

Friday saw no repeat of those dramatic scenes, in large measure because the populist Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who called on his supporters to join the siege of the Green Zone last weekend, this time urged them to only protest outside the citys mosques at the end of Friday afternoon prayers.

Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia waged an insurgency against US occupation troops a decade ago, was called to Iran after the events of last weekend. He had supported the protest ostensibly to further the bid by the US-backed Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to overhaul the current government with the aim of curbing corruption and introducing more competent governance.

It appeared, however, that Sadr was in less than full control of the protest, which followed a series of largely spontaneous actions demanding that the government provide basic services and denouncing its corruption. Last weekends attacks on the parliament and assaults on several legislators expressed the bitter hostility of the masses of Iraqs impoverished population toward a regime dominated by reactionary exile politicians brought back to the country by the US war of aggression.

The storming of the Green Zone shook the Baghdad regime and has provoked serious consternation in both Washington and Tehran, which are both allied with the Abadi regime in the conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Among the security forces occupying Baghdads bridges and major roads on Friday were reportedly three regiments of the elite US-trained counterterrorism police, which had been withdrawn from the battle against ISIS to protect the Iraqi regime from the people of Baghdad. These troops, equipped with armored Humvees armed with machine guns, also took up positions inside the Green Zone itself.

On Thursday night, Prime Minister Abadi delivered a televised speech vowing to prevent any repeat of the storming of the Green Zone. A day earlier, he sacked the officer in charge of security in the fortified enclave, Gen. Karim Abboud al-Tamini, who in an earlier protest had been filmed kissing the hand of Sadr in a sign of loyalty to the Shia cleric.

We fear that some may take advantage of the peaceful protests to pull the country into chaos, looting and destruction, Abadi said in his televised remarks. This is what happened in the attack on the parliament and the MPs.

At the center of the current crisis is the dispute over the attempt by Abadi to replace incumbent ministers drawn from the various Iraqi political parties with a cabinet of technocrats. The proposal is bitterly opposed by the politicians and parties that have benefited from the divide-and-rule system imposed by the US occupation, which accorded political positions and influence based on a religious- and ethnic-based quota system.

Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties all have used their control of different ministries as a means of looting public funds derived from the countrys oil exports, while infrastructure and basic services continued to deteriorate and masses of people were plunged into deepening poverty.

The parliament has blocked Abadis appointments, and there are growing calls for his ouster, including from within his own ruling Dawa Party. In one recent parliamentary session, 100 out of the legislatures 328 members called for the prime minister to resign.

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, in large part due to the collapse in oil revenues, which are the source of 95 percent of its budget.

Jan Kubis, the United Nations Secretary Generals Special Representative to Iraq painted a grim picture of the political situation there in a report Friday to the UN Security Council. He said that the country was engulfed in a profound political crisis that will only be worsened by the ongoing escalation of the US-led war against ISIS.

Under conditions in which the government is beset by paralysis and deadlock, the envoy said, Iraqs humanitarian crisis is one of the worlds worst.

Nearly a third of the populationover ten million peoplenow require some form of humanitarian assistance, Kubis said. He warned that the US-led assault now being prepared against the ISIS-held city of Mosul would lead to mass displacement in the months ahead.

In a worst case scenario, more than 2 million more Iraqis may be newly displaced by the end of the year, the envoy warned.

Adding that political crisis and chaos would only strengthen ISIS, the special representative told the Security Council that the demonstrations are set to continue.

In apparent anticipation of deepening unrest, the Pentagon rushed an additional 25 US Marines to Baghdad to beef up the security force guarding the US Embassy. Located in the heart of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified embassy is the largest such facility in the world, built at a cost of over $750 million and occupying a space roughly equivalent to that of Vatican City.

The political crisis in Baghdad is unfolding even as the US steadily escalates its military intervention in Iraq. The increasingly direct involvement of US troops in the fighting was underscored by the announcement Tuesday of the death of a Navy SEAL in combat with ISIS fighters in the north of the country. And it was announced Friday that US Apache attack helicopters will be sent into combat imminently.

What the simmering protests make clear is that ISIS is merely one of the symptoms of the catastrophe created by the US war of aggression begun in 2003, which claimed the lives of over a million Iraqis and left an entire society in ruins.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his senior ministers this week welcomed the reported assassinations, via US airstrikes, of two young Australians in Iraq and Syria and declared that Australia was directly involved in targeting them.

Interviewed on Sky News on Thursday, Turnbull went further, warning that other Australians allegedly supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the Middle East will be targeted in the same manner.

Turnbull hailed the news as a very positive development in the war on terror, while Attorney-General George Brandis said we should be gladdened by this news.

These remarksand Turnbulls chilling threat of further assassinationshave not received the slightest criticism in Australias political and media establishment, even though they amount to sanctioning extra-judicial killings as a matter of government policy, without the pretence of any legal process.

This development demonstrates the readiness of Australias ruling elite to abrogate even the most fundamental legal and democratic rights as part of the fraudulent war on terrorism. Officially, the death penalty has been banned by Australian law for more than four decades, but these young people were summarily executed, without trial.

One victim, 24-year-old Neil Prakash, was said to have been killed by an American airstrike in Mosul, northern Iraq, on April 29. The joint media release of Brandis and Defence Minister Marise Payne said Prakash was targeted because he was a terrorist recruiter and attack facilitator.

Prakash was not accused of being an ISIS fighter, nor was he killed on a battlefield. Instead, he allegedly appeared in propaganda videos and encouraged acts of terrorism. These activities may have been crimes under the terrorism laws introduced since 2001, but Prakash was not charged or convicted of any offences. Instead, in the words of Brandis, he was taken out.

The other victim, Shadi Jabar Khalil Mohammad, a student believed to be in her 20s, was apparently even further removed from any military combat. According to the official media release, she was killed near Al Bab, Syria, on 22 April 2016, along with her Sudanese husband, Abu Saad al-Sudani.

Both were said to be active recruiters of foreign fighters and had been inspiring attacks against Western interests. The only other fact cited to justify Mohammads murder was that she was the sister of Farhad Mohammad, a 15-year-old boy who was shot dead by police in Sydney last October after fatally shooting a police employee.

Despite offering no evidence of any involvement in fighting, Turnbull justified the killing of these two young people, both of whom grew up in Australia, declaring they were enemies of Australia who were waging war against Australia.

Turnbull indicated that other Australian citizens were on a death list. Asked if Prakash was specifically targeted, Turnbull replied: Yes, and has been for some time. While refusing to elaborate for operational reasons, he declared: We are unrelenting in the war against terrorism  Australians will be targeted.

This war has nothing to do with protecting people against terrorism. For more than 15 years, the war on terror has been waged by the US and its allies, with Australia in the frontline, to seek to establish American hegemony over the resource-rich and strategically-vital Middle East. Entire countries have been devastatedAfghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syriafuelling the rise of ISIS. In fact, the US and its partners have funded and armed ISIS and similar militias linked to Al Qaeda in order to oust governments, and then exploited the atrocities of their proxies to escalate their predatory interventions.

Interviewed on Sky News, Brandis echoed the assertions of the Obama administration that the US president has the power to routinely select citizens for assassination. At least three American citizens have been killed so far, in flagrant breach of the US law and constitution: Anwar al-Awlaki, his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki and Samir Khan.

Brandis confirmed that Australia cooperated with the US in the identification and location of Prakesh. He insisted that it took quite a while to isolate a target in order to avoid killing innocent people and family members of targets. Australia took this responsibility, under international humanitarian law, very, very seriously, as did the US.

In reality, the targeting is based on unproven allegations, as well as family links. Moreover, tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been killed throughout the Middle East by US drone attacks and Allied airstrikes.

The attorney-general pointed to the integration of Australias military and intelligence agencies into the global operations of the US, referring to the cooperation throughout the Five Eyes countries, which also include Britain, Canada and New Zealand. The joint US-Australian spy base at Pine Gap in central Australia plays a crucial role in pinpointing targets and coordinating US military operations across the region.

The Liberal-National governments blatant celebration of the assassinations of Prakash and Mohammad marks an escalation of a bipartisan policy of placing Australian citizens on US hit lists. In April 2015, the Australian reported that an Australian citizen, Mostafa Farag, had been selected for drone execution in Syria, initially by the previous Labor government. A year earlier, another citizen, Christopher Harvard, and a dual Australian-New Zealand citizen, Muslim bin John, were killed in a US drone strike in Yemen.

Significantly, Turnbulls government proclaimed the two killings on the eve of calling a double dissolution election of both houses of parliament in an attempt to remove a political blockage to the imposition of deeply unpopular social spending cuts and other austerity measures. Once again, the fraudulent war on terror is being ramped up to try to distract the population and whip up support for militarism abroad and unprecedented attacks on basic democratic rights domestically.

In the media, Prakash has been demonised for alleged procurement of young Muslims to attempt a series of terrorist attacks in Australia. These unsubstantiated claims have been splashed throughout the media, prejudicing the trials of a number of teenagers whose cases have yet to get to court.

The allegations are also being utilised to bring forward another package of anti-terrorism laws, which will feature detaining and interrogating suspects, as young as 14, for up to 14 days without charge. These measures, agreed to by a meeting of federal and state leaders last month, will also include keeping prisoners convicted of terrorism offences incarcerated indefinitely after they have completed their sentences.

In his Sky interview, Brandis said jihadists had to be kept in prison beyond their sentences because they were driven by ideology to violence. This logic could be used against a wide range of supposed extremists, including political opponents, allegedly motivated by ideology.

These draconian laws, like the unlawful executions, have the full support of the Labor Party. The Greens, while previously professing opposition to aspects of the terrorism laws, have remained silent on the latest assassinations, as they were on the earlier ones.

This alignment behind the criminal activities of Washington goes far beyond killing Australians in Syria and Iraq and victimising vulnerable Muslim youth at home. It is a warning to workers and young people of the brutal methods that will be used by the political and security establishment to suppress opposition to the underlying agenda of war and austerity.

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Australian citizen on US drone kill list

[14 April 2015]
The following speech was delivered by Chris Marsden, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (UK), to the International May Day Online Rally held on May 1, 2016.

The Socialist Equality Partys campaign for an active boycott of the June 23 referendum on UK membership of the European Union seeks to mobilise the working class against nationalism and war.

The EU is playing a leading role in the remilitarisation of the continent.

It participated fully in the US-backed right-wing putsch in Ukraine, used to justify the deployment of thousands of NATO troops along Russias borders, bringing the world closer to war than at any time since 1945.

Chris Marsden speech to the International May Day rally

As soon as the Brexit referendum was called, 12 former heads of the UK armed forces signed a letter insisting that Britains role in the EU strengthens the security we enjoy as part of NATO in combating Russian aggression.

This month, US President Barack Obama urged a Remain vote, citing a special relationship forged between the US and UK as we spilt blood together on the battlefield of World War II.

The task for the UK as an EU member, he said, was to roll back the Islamic State, intervene in the Middle East, from Yemen to Syria to Libya, and to continue to invest in NATO to both counter Russia and meet military commitments from Afghanistan to the Aegean.

This is the real nature of the EU being defended by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, some pseudo-left groups and by the Trades Union Congress.

Only this week, former TUC leader Brendan Barber issued a joint letter with Prime Minister David Cameron to argue, For the sake of every worker in Britain, that the unions must unite with the Tory government to support EU membership. This is a government whose brutal social counterrevolution is destroying the National Health Service, illegalising strikes and plunging millions into poverty.

The SEP is irreconcilably hostile to the EU. It is an instrument of the major European imperialist powers for conducting both trade and military war and for imposing austerity on the working class.

Under different circumstances, we would be urging a vote to Leave.

Had there been a political and social movement of the working class across Europe, invoking solidarity with the Greek masses and other victims of the EU and IMF, a vote to leave would have acquired an anti-capitalist character.

But this European-wide offensive was blocked by Syrizathe party held up by all of our political opponents as their model. Its betrayal of the struggle of the Greek working class against EU-dictated austerity handed the political initiative, for the time being, back to Europes ruling class.

Under these conditions our central responsibility is to ensure that working class opposition to the EU is not corralled behind a nationalist campaign led by the right wing of the Tory party and the xenophobes of the UK Independence Party.

The greatest danger would be to allow the attempt by the pseudo-left groups to channel hostility to the EU in a nationalist direction to go unopposed.

The Brexit campaign has underscored the criminal political role of all these groups and their hostility to the working class.

Those who are not supporting the EU are instead aligning themselves with right-wing forcesjust as Syriza did in forming a coalition with the Independent Greeks. Whereas Barber stands alongside Cameron, former anti-war MP George Galloway embraces UKIP leader Nigel Farage and declares, Left, Right, Left Right, Forward march!

Their role is to deliver the working class over to the Tory right and UKIP because they are pro-capitalist formations.

Our central responsibility is to establish the political independence of the working class and to prevent at all costs the mixing of class banners.

We reject the claim by the Stalinist Communist Party of Britain, the Rail Maritime and Transport union, the Socialist Workers Party and Counterfire that they are different to Galloway and offer a genuine alternative Left Leave option.

On the Left Leave web site, we are told that whereas Many, particularly on the left, predicted this would be a vile campaign dominated by racism and the presence of Nigel Farage and Ukip ... it hasnt worked out like that.

This is an obscene lie.

Not only is Farage given every opportunity to spew bile, but UKIPs anti-migrant message is also being amplified by the Tory leaders of the Leave campaign. Almost every statement they make is to demand migration be curbed.

Moreover, the pseudo-left have aligned themselves with the Communist Party and the RMT union, which both advocate immigration controls and whose propaganda centres on opposition to the free movement of labour within the EU.

The door is being opened to political reaction. Left Leaves leading figures include author John King, who writes, Ukip has done so well because it tells the truth about the EU. ... Most important in all this is peoples sense of identity. ... It is no shame to want to preserve your culture.

For its part, the main complaint of the Socialist Party, which has not yet signed up to Left Leave, is that Corbyn should have reached out to important layers of working-class UKIP voters.

The socialist phrases employed by Left Leave are a tawdry fig leaf. The EU is a big business club, they say. It is anti-working class, anti-democratic, anti-socialist, imperialist, etc.

So what about the UK, that most blood-soaked of imperialist states? On this there is not one word!

We are told only that a return to British sovereignty and its traditions of parliamentary democracy will bring about the best of all possible worldsthe future election of a Labour government.

At the very outset of the referendum campaign, we warned that the stand taken by the pseudo-left advocates of a Leave vote echoed that of the German Communist Party (KPD) in an earlier period. The KPD supported the Nazi referendum in 1931, calling for the bringing down of the German Social Democrats as supposedly promising a national peoples revolution. It ended instead in the triumph of fascism, paving the way to global war.

Left unopposed, the impact of the Left Leave campaign would be no less dangerous.

The EU is breaking apart, and many of its constituent states, including the UK, are fracturing. But everywhere the beneficiaries of this decomposition are nationalist forces. Not for nothing does Marine Le Pen of the French Front National declare herself to be Madame Frexit.

We are taking a stand against austerity, militarism and war and pointing a way forward for the British and European working class.

An active boycott provides workers and young people with an independent socialist and internationalist policy in opposition to the noxious poison of nationalism spewed out by both the advocates of Remain and Leave in the referendum.

We want to see the destruction of the EU, but not through the nationalist fracturing of the continent. We are for the unification of the working class across all national borders in a common struggle against the ruling class and its governments.

Our rallying cry is: No to the EU and British nationalismFor the United Socialist States of Europe! Our goal is the building of sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International throughout Europe.

My appeal to you today is to join us in this task.
The following speech was delivered by Julie Hyland, assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (UK), to the International May Day Online Rally held on May 1, 2016.

There is a terrible symmetry to the fact that my remarks are made only days after it was confirmed that up to 500 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean, when the boat carrying them from North Africa to Italy capsized on the high seas in the middle of the night.

Last years May Day event was held shortly after the world had learned with horror that 800 migrants, packed onto a small fishing vessel, had drowned attempting a similar route when their boat sank just off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Julie Hyland speech to the International May Day rally

Whereas the Lampedusa tragedy provoked immense shock and sympathy worldwide, news of the latest deaths was barely reported and was even denied for days.

The blackout was deliberate. The Lampedusa drownings shone a light on the human consequences of what we have described as the age of perpetual war.

All the humanitarian pretensions evoked to justify imperialist intervention into Libya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere were revealed as lies. Far from protecting the populations of these countries, as was claimed, they have become collateral damage in the ongoing and escalating efforts by the imperialist powers to redivide the world and its resources between them.

The result is that there are more refugees in the world today than at any point in history. Some 60 million people and rising have been forcibly displaced. One in every 122 people on the planet is now effectively a refugee, more than half of them aged 18 and below. The vast majority are trapped in massive refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey in horrendous conditions.

That is why, in the 12 months since the Lampedusa drownings, every effort has been made to stifle and isolate sympathy for the plight of refugees and migrants.

This has taken several forms. The ruling elite and their apologists in the media have manufactured incidentssuch as the supposed Cologne sex attacks on New Years Eveto encourage the most right-wing and fascistic elements.

Then we have been treated to the spectacle of Frau Merkel, recast as the patron saint of refugees and open borders. But her preferred method of solving the so-called migrant problem has turned out to be every bit as draconian as her nominal opponents. This can be seen, most notably, in the European Unions dirty deal with the Turkish authorities for the mass deportation of migrants from Europe.

Of course, anti-immigrant measures are by no means a solely European phenomena. In America, Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump threatens to bar Muslims from entering the US and has declared his intention to build a wall on the US/Mexican border.

But what Trump provocatively demands, the European bourgeoisie is realising. Some 1,200 km (750 miles) of anti-immigrant fencing is currently under construction in Europe, a distance equivalent to almost half of Americas border with Mexico. The right to freedom of movement, at least for workers and their families, is increasingly meaningless as national borders are resurrected and fortified.

The right to asylum no longer exists in Europe, as the EU deports refugees en masse back to the war zones from which they are trying to escape. Nothing remains of the EUs supposed civilising mission and the liberal values proclaimed in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Instead, Europe once again resembles the 1930s: The victims of war and persecution forced into makeshift camps without adequate food or sanitation; trains disgorge fleeing migrants to one or another border where they are met with batons, rubber bullets and tear gas; registration numbers stamped on the forearms of those detained and imprisoned; boats blocked, barged or left to sink.

The nets of fishermen in the Mediterranean continue to deliver up the bodies of children with grisly regularity. At just one hurriedly built plot at a cemetery near Izmir, Turkey, the remains of some 400 refugees are interned, mostly anonymous. Sixty percent are women and children. The notes on their graves invariably repeat the same tragic detailsborn in Syria, drowned in the Mediterranean, buried in Turkey.

Yet only last week, Britains parliament vetoed a resolution to enable just 3,000 lone children, currently trapped in refugee camps or on the streets of Europe, into the UK. It did so after Europes leaders had met with President Obama to draw up plans for a renewed military intervention in Libya, which will include mass internment camps for the victims of their violence.

How is such a monumental regression possible in a continent that knows only too well the horrors of nationalism, xenophobia and war?

Here the pseudo-left play the most critical political role. For decades, these organisations professed their anti-racism. Now Professor Slavo Zizek, the darling of postmodernist irrationalism, demands the militarization of Europes borders, insisting that Europe should abandon this liberal dream that we can simply have different cultures coexisting.

Zizek is only one example of what the WSWS has described as the transformation of pseudo-left ideologues into open right-wingers. This putrid political layer, which represents the interests of more affluent sections of the middle classes, is directed ever more openly against the working class.

Zizeks proscriptions are being put into effect by his political counterparts in Greece in the Syriza government, to whom the EU has subcontracted the forcible and violent deportation of refugees to Turkey.

Likewise in Spain, Podemos signed off on the EUs deportation deal with Turkey. Without its support, the EU-Turkey deal, which required the approval of all EU member states, could not have been activated.

And so the mass deportations now underway, which have been condemned by human rights organisations as a violation of international law, are the direct responsibilitypractically and politicallyof the pseudo-left coalitions in Greece and Spain.

In Germany, in Thuringia, Left Party state premier Bodo Ramelow is directing the deportations of refugees, mainly from the Balkans. Some 460 people have been deported so far this year, many subject to raids in the middle of the night.

And in the UK, a consensus is rapidly emerging between Corbyns Labour Party and its pseudo-left backers that freedom of movement must be curtailed.

These organisations are fully complicit in the crimes against humanity now taking place in Europe.

The fate of migrants and refugees is an appalling manifestation of the barbarism and irrationality of the capitalist profit system. Their defence is the fundamental touchstone of the socialist movement. It can be carried out only through the development of revolutionary opposition to imperialist war and militarism, based on the working class. This is the task to which the Fourth International is dedicated this May Day. I appeal to you to join in this vital struggle.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, beginning May 6, is presenting a retrospective of the films of Jean-Marie Straub (born 1933) and Daniele Huillet (1936-2006), the Franco-German filmmakers. Straub, at 83, continues to be active.

Straub first made an impression with his intensely pared-down adaptations of works by postwar German author Heinrich Boll, Machorka-Muff (1963) and Not Reconciled, or Only Violence Helps Where Violence Reigns (1965), which both bristled with anti-Nazi and anti-militarist sentiment.

The former film, only 17 minutes long, follows a German army officer as he pays a visit to his oft-married, wealthy mistress and tries to clear the name of a World War II Wehrmacht general accused of retreating without accepting a sufficient number of losses. The latter, in 50 minutes, deals elliptically (and sometimes puzzlingly) with three generations of a family and their various responses to the Hitler regime and postwar German society.

These are probably Straubs best, or at least most concrete films, but, deliberately so, they are not especially appealingexcept perhaps in their chilly rigor and restrained but evident anger. An admirer, Martin Walsh, described the characteristic constituents of Straubs style: the documentary mode, the flat monotony of the actors dialogue, an ascetic camera style.  One might even say that impersonality is a central motif.  [T]he characters in NOT RECONCILED are alone, set in a hostilely impersonal environment. One shot that clinches this mood of pessimism is a 360-degree panning shot around a suburban desert. (Jump Cut, 1974)

Straub-Huillet are credited as a team for the direction of The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968), a full-length, black-and-white work that presents the life and struggles of composer Johann Sebastian Bach (played by renowned Dutch keyboard player Gustav Leonhardt) through the medium of a fictional diary kept by his second wife. The films attention to the music, the authenticity of the locations, instruments and documents and its general air of seriousness brought Straub-Huillet a certain distinction. Again, a documentary style and the rapid, droning delivery of lines prevail.

Much of the work over the subsequent decades was ambitious. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) refers in a press release to personal film interpretations of stories by Boll, Kafka, Duras, and Pavese; poems by Dante, Mallarme, and Holderlin; a long-forgotten Corneille play, an essay by Montaigne, a film by D.W. Griffith, a painting by Cezanne, an unfinished opera by Schoenberg.

Ambitious and idiosyncratic, yes, but artistically successful or significant? No, in my view, not for the most part. The early works are worth viewing (they are accessible online), and they communicate an unquestionable intelligence and sincerity. They convey, above all, the horror felt by a certain generation for the crimes of Nazism, the atrocities committed by imperialism, in Algeria (Straub left France to avoid conscription during Frances bloody colonial war in that country) and elsewhere, and the danger of another militarist-fascist catastrophe represented by the continued existence of global capitalism.

Likewise, the films expressed a disgust for the ornamentation, exploitation of emotions, laziness and banality to be found in conventional commercial cinema.

However, along with much of their generation, Straub and Huillet lost their way almost completely in the post-1968 period. Despite MoMAs reference to their films reflecting on the lessons of history and advancing a Marxist analysis of capitalism and class struggle, the duos conceptions had little or nothing in common with genuine Marxism. Far more significant were the pessimistic influences, directly or indirectly, of the Frankfurt School, existentialism and other postwar anti-Marxist trends, along with illusions in Maoism and various petty bourgeois-nationalist movements.

Something of the disorientation of their outlook and work found expression in a letter Straub sent to Venice film festival officials in 2006 on the occasion of a retrospective of his and Huillets film: I wouldnt be able to be festive in a festival where there are so many public and private police looking for a terrorist. I am that terrorist, and I tell you, paraphrasing [Italian poet and New Left figure] Franco Fortini: so long as theres American imperialistic capitalism, therell never be enough terrorists in the world. In fact, the increasing European-nationalist, anti-American tone in the couples work has been noticeable for some time, as we observed in 2002 [see below].

Straub and Huillet made countless films that are virtually unwatchable. In them unmoving performers deliver lines without expression, often so quickly as to make them incomprehensible, or they turn their backs on the audience, or the screen goes black, etc. This is passed off as Brechtian distancing. For all his limitations, Brecht would have rejected with contempt the alienation effect of this work, which is merely alienating, as we have previously noted. To make war on legitimate human emotions and movement and the natural curiosity that people have about the drama of other lives and circumstances in this manner is as tyrannical as the most oppressive Hollywood blockbuster. Their version of Corneilles Othon is a useful example.

This is deeply misguided filmmaking, skeptical and hostile toward its audience, despite the protestations of Straub and Huillet to the contrary. Here nearly everything is eliminated, including art, drama and any serious effort to make a point of contact with other human beings. There is something selfish and arrogant about this type of left filmmaking.

German filmmaker R.W. Fassbinder worked with Straub and Huillet in the late 1960s. He acted in their short film, The Bridegroom, the Comedian and the Pimp (1968). Later, after Fassbinder critically portrayed a German Communist Party member in his Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven (1975), Straub mused in an interview as to whether the younger filmmaker might not be a fascist.

In any event, in a 1974 interview, Fassbinder noted that Straubs weakness is that he continually works against his audience. Othon is a film which I reject completely.

Writing in the New York Times on May 3, veteran critic J. Hoberman headlined his comment on the MoMA retrospective, Sick of Popcorn Movies? Straub-Huillet Retrospective Offers an Antidote. He suggested that the couples films were monuments to their own integrity and that they embodied cinemas conscience. Hoberman is no doubt perturbed by the present state of filmmaking and would like to introduce his readers to a more serious-minded alternative.

However, in my view, Straub-Huillet represent no alternative at all. On the contrary, their constipated, often unendurable work complements the mindlessness of the commercial cinema. Their films, by and large, are not an antidote to the trivia and bombast, but the other side of the same coin, the complete divorce of a variety of leftism from life. Both trends in their own fashion speak to a period of political and cultural stagnation.

A revolutionary socialist artist would be concerned with reaching and influencing an audience, with investigating life and making its complexities and mysteries comprehensible to masses of people. This would inevitably require, as Leon Trotsky suggested, A definite and important feeling for the world  a feeling for life as it is  an artistic acceptance of reality, and not  a shrinking from it  an active interest in the concrete stability and mobility of life  a preoccupation with our life of three dimensions as a sufficient and invaluable theme for art.

This is the near exact opposite of the dry, immobile art, which shrinks from reality, that Straub-Huillet produced for much of their collective career.

* * * * *

We have discussed a number of the Straub-Huillet works on the World Socialist Web Site over the years. I am including comments from 2002 and 2015, editing out as many repetitions as possible.

2002 (at the Buenos Aires film festival):

Workers, Peasants (Operai, contadini), directed by the well-known team of Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet, is an absurdity. A group of performers, non-professional presumably, stands in the woods and reads monologues for two hours. The material comes from the pen of Elio Vittorini (Le donne di Messina), a left-wing Italian writer (1908-66). It recounts the story of a group of Italians who, at the end of the Second World War, decide to build together a new social life in the ruins of an abandoned village in northern Italy. Various dramas ensue, which will be incomprehensible to all but the most masochistic viewer. The piece is uninvolving, finally excruciating, pure charlatanry.

Straub and Huillet have represented a certain tendency, of artistic asceticism and the refusal to adapt to popular tastes, for several decades in European filmmaking. 

[I then referred to an article from the WSWS in 1998] In commenting on [Straub-Huillets] From Today Until Tomorrow (1997), based on a relatively obscure Schonberg opera composed in 1929, I wrote: Still, it is difficult to be entirely enthusiastic about a project whose production one feels is permeated by rigidity, self-seriousness and a nearly religious attitude toward art. The work is remarkable for what it is, a film of a Schonberg opera, but there is something disturbing about left-wing artists so frightened of chaos, emotion and confusion, and finding it so difficult to reach, rather than intimidate, an audience.

These comments, as it turns out, were all too generous. To a certain extent, From Today Until Tomorrow and Sicilia! (1999, also based on the writings of Vittorini) deceived us. They were both relatively short, to the point, even accessible. Now with Workers, peasants (no less!), Straub-Huillet have inflicted on us their maximum program. Two hours of flatly delivered, unintelligible nonsense. And people politely sit through this at film festivals.

This passes for dialectical art, for communist art, as the films presenter described it in Buenos Aires. Well, Straub-Huillet have certainly perfected the alienation effect; the new work is indeed alienating. They have not, however, after some decades of work, proven able to dramatize even the most elementary human emotions or situations. Or to convince anyone of anything. If such a thing as sectarianism in art exists, Straub and Huillet belong in that category.

The pair are possessed by a messianism. They believe they are the only true filmmakers on earth. But a messianism toward what end? This is a quote: We must make specific films, for specific languages, dealing with specific questions. We must reinvent borders, destroy the Europe of Dr. Goebbels. We are the only European filmmakers, filmmakers of European nations. Long live borders! Long live the European nation-state! This is fairly dire.

Little more needs to be said about Straub and Huillet. To those who continue to be deceived, so much the worse.

2015:

Straub and Huillet for several decades, starting in the 1960s, made a series of films that were for the most part hermetically sealed from the public, in the supposed name of Marxist or Brechtian cinema. 

[I then quoted my 2002 review.]

Kommunisten (Communists), Straubs latest, carries on the absurdity. A black screen; disembodied, monotonous voices; two unmoving figures with their backs to the camera, etc. The work is unwatchable.

For the record, Straubs outlook has nothing in common with revolutionary Marxism. This is a man who has said, For me, industrial society is barbarism (and who also called himself, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, an old Stalinist!) The trend Straub has much in common with, however, is the anti-Marxist Frankfurt School of Adorno, Marcuse and Horkheimer, and through them, irrationalist and idealist strains of thought.

Jacques Ranciere is a dreadful ex-left post-modernist, but he was right on the mark when he commented about Straub-Huillets moving away from a workerist conception of communism and their increasing fascination with a peasant-based, ecological one. Ranciere also commented, in 2004, about the couple: I dont know if you can call that mystical. What is certain is that it is a matter of going back to a religion of the earth that existed under diverse forms during the Romantic era. The Straubs Marxism has more and more of a tendency to move towards Heidegger and to distance itself from the Brechtianism of thirty or forty years ago.
In his first campaign event after becoming the presumptive presidential candidate of the Republican Party, billionaire demagogue Donald Trump held a large rally Thursday in Charleston, West Virginia. As he has done in a series of Midwestern rust belt states, Trump sought to exploit the frustrations and grievances of workers, including coal miners, devastated by the economic crisis.

More than 11,000 miners have lost their jobs in the Mountain State since 2013, with employment in the logging and mining sector falling by 20.5 percent in the last year alone. West Virginia is the second poorest state in the US, behind only Mississippi. In abandoned mining towns like Mullens, Welch, Gary and Matewan, anywhere from half to three-quarters of the adult male population is jobless.

In his familiar routine, Trump railed against Mexico, China and Japan for taking our jobs and blamed the conditions in the coalfields on bad trade deals and overregulation of the mines. He declared, Were going to reopen the mines and put the miners back to work, and make America great again.

The phony populist Trump has nothing to offer workers in West Virginia. His pledge to eliminate silly regulations means the destruction of whatever restraints still exist on the exploitation of miners, who are regularly sent to their deaths by coal companies that are, at most, given a slap on the wrist. After his remarks, Trump accepted the endorsement of the West Virginia Coal Association, the very body that has directed the attack on the jobs, pensions and safety conditions of the states miners.

To the extent that Trump is able to win a hearing among workers, it is due to the treachery of the unions and their subordination of the working class to the Democratic Party, which seeks to mask its indifference to the economic plight of workers with racial and identity politics.

West Virginia and neighboring eastern Kentucky have a long history of bitter class struggle, dating back to the late 19th century, when the robber barons first used native Appalachians, eastern and southern Europeans and black workers from the South to work their deadly mines. From the Paint and Cabin Creek strikes (1912-13) and the Mingo County Wars (starting in 1919), which included the famous Matewan Massacre (1920) and Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), to Kentucky battles in Bloody Harlan (1931-32), miners fought, in many cases arms in hand, against the violence of the coal bosses, their hired gun thugs, bribed judges and federal troops.

The formation of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) gave an impulse to the organization of millions of workers in steel, rubber, auto and other basic industries and the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1935. During the post-World War II period and into the 1970s, miners continued to be among the most militant and class-conscious contingents of the American working class.

The Achilles heel of the movement of miners, and of the American working class as a whole, was its subordination through the UMWA and the other unions to the Democratic Party and the capitalist system. Speaking for the entire union bureaucracy, UMWA President John L. Lewis in 1937 appealed to the employers and the capitalist state to recognize the CIO, declaring that unionization, as opposed to communism is based upon the wage system and it recognizes fully and unreservedly the institution of private property and the right to investment profit.

After the war, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and CIO carried out a purge of the socialist and left-wing workers who had played the leading role in establishing the industrial unions. In 1955, the two federations merged to form the AFL-CIO on the basis of anticommunism and support for US imperialism.

The catastrophic implications of the alliance of the unions with the Democratic Party became fully apparent as American capitalism entered a period of protracted decline in the 1970s and into the 1980s. The ruling class responded with a brutal counteroffensive, initiated under Democratic President Jimmy Carter, who invoked the Taft-Hartley Act in an effort to crush the 111-day miners strike in 1977-78, and intensified under the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan.

Reagans firing of the PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981 was the signal for an all-out assault on workers throughout the country. In the coalfields, the mine bosses, with the full backing of Democratic governors, resorted to the methods of the 1920s to break strikes and bust unionsusing gun thugs, government frame-ups and the murder of striking miners.

Then-UMWA President Richard Trumka isolated and sabotaged strikes at AT Massey, Pittston, Milburn and other companies. Trumka was rewarded for reducing the UMWA to an empty shell by being named president of the AFL-CIO.

The miners never lacked courage, militancy or self-sacrifice, but they fell victim to the subordination of the working class to the Democratic Party and economic nationalism. The betrayals inflicted on miners were part of a broader transformation of unions in the US and throughout the world in response to the emergence of transnational corporations capable of shifting production anywhere in the world in pursuit of cheaper labor and higher profits. In the face of globalization, these organizations abandoned any resistance to the attacks of the employers, adopted a corporatist policy of wage cuts and concessions to entice companies to produce within the US, and integrated themselves fully into the structure of corporate management and the capitalist state.

As with the entire working class, workers in West Virginia confront a political system that is thoroughly hostile to their interests. The Democratic Party has repudiated its previous association with social reforms. It is a party of Wall Street, aligned with corrupt layers of the upper-middle class on the basis of identity politics. Its leading candidate, Hillary Clinton, is justly despised, a fact that Trump has sought to exploit.

The hostile attitude of the Democratic Party to the working class, and the use of race-obsessed politics to smear white workers, in particular, was summed up Friday by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, who wrote of Trump: Were looking at a movement of white men angry that they no longer dominate American society the way they used to.

In other words, workers in economically devastated regions such as West Virginia are only getting what they deserve! This outlook permeates the milieu of middle-class left liberals and pseudo-lefts in the political orbit of the Democratic Party. The contemptuous and arrogant attitude of what is presented as the left in American politics toward the working class, and the right-wing policies of austerity and war it supports, create the conditions for a fascistic pitchman like Trump to gain a hearing, by default, among sections of workers.

The ultra-right politics of Trump pose immense dangers. But enthusiasm for Trump is by no means universal. There is deep hostility and opposition among working people and youth to his nativism and anti-immigrant racism. Many workers and young people see the billionaire candidate for the fraud he is. The leftward movement of the working class has found expression in support for the candidacy of Bernie Sanders (who is leading Clinton in polls in West Virginia). But Sanders principal aim is to direct this opposition back into the dead end of the Democratic Party. He has proposed nothing for workers devastated by deindustrialization but token job training programs combined with trade war rhetoric that mirrors that of Trump.

In our election campaign, my running mate Niles Niemuth and I are fighting for a genuine socialist program for the working class. This includes the transformation of the major corporations into democratically controlled utilities, run on the basis of social need, not private profit. It also includes a multitrillion-dollar public works program to rebuild infrastructure and ensure that everyone is guaranteed a job as a basic social right. The vast wealth accumulated by the corporate and financial elite must be seized and used to eliminate poverty and unemployment.

There are growing signs of the reemergence of class struggle and an anti-capitalist radicalization. The Socialist Equality Party is building a political leadership to lead a mass socialist movement of the working class and youth that will defeat reactionary demagogues like Trump and provide a way forward to end social inequality, war and the threat of dictatorship.
Billionaire Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, announced Thursday that hedge fund boss Steven Mnuchin had agreed to become his national finance chairman for the general election campaign. Mnuchin will be tasked with raising as much as $1 billion for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee.

The decision marks a shift in Trumps campaign operations, which have largely self-funded and have relied more on free media coverage than paid advertisements. As of the latest reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Trump campaign has spent about $48 million, of which $36 million came from a series of loans from the candidate, which could be repaid from future contributions. The remaining $12 million came from individual contributions.

The choice of Mnuchin is a demonstration of the cynical doubletalk that has become a trademark of the Trump campaign. While posturing as the defender of those devastated by the Wall Street crash and the dismal-to-nonexistent economic recovery under Obama, Trump has brought in as his finance chairman a Wall Street figure closely tied to the mass evictions and foreclosures that were characteristic of the subprime mortgage collapse.

Steven is a professional at the highest level with an extensive and very successful financial background, Trump said in a statement. He brings unprecedented experience and expertise to a fundraising operation that will benefit the Republican Party and ultimately defeat Hillary Clinton. Actually, Mnuchins experience includes making financial contributions to Hillary Clinton for both her US Senate and presidential campaigns.

Mnuchin was a partner for 17 years at Goldman Sachs, the biggest and most influential Wall Street investment bank, which has supplied top Washington officials for decades, including the Treasury secretaries in the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

During his tenure at Goldman Sachs, Mnuchin contributed liberally to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton for US Senate in 2000 and 2006. He continued to support Clinton in her first presidential bid, giving the maximum of $2,300 in 2007. After Clinton was defeated by Barack Obama, Mnuchin gave the maximum donation to the Obama general election campaign.

Like most Wall Street figuresand Trump himselfMnuchin cultivated politicians in both parties, giving contributions to Republicans Rudy Giuliani, Steve Forbes and Mitt Romney, as well as Democrats including John Edwards, Charles Schumer, Al Gore and John Kerry. He also donated to Barack Obamas Senate campaign in 2004.

After leaving Goldman Sachs in 2009, Mnuchin moved to Los Angeles and launched OneWest Bank Group LLC, serving as president and CEO for six years, with significant financial backing from a group of billionaires including George Soros, a longtime backer of the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton. The bank was sold last year to CIT Group for $3.4 billion.

Mnuchin also opened a hedge fund, Dune Capital, which provided financing for several top-grossing Hollywood films, including Avatar, several iterations of the X-Men franchise, and the hideous pro-war film American Sniper.

As a banker, Trumps new fundraising chief made a specialty of targeting the most vulnerable sections of borrowers, including the elderly and racial minorities. Among the facts reported in the press over the past 24 hours are the following:

 According to a judge in Long Island, OneWest Bank engaged in harsh, repugnant and repulsive acts in attempting to evict a couple from their home around Thanksgiving. In 2009 the judge erased $525,000 in mortgage debt as a penalty. He also called the banks conduct inequitable, unconscionable, vexatious and opprobrious.

 OneWest attempted to foreclose on an 89-year-old widow in California, Irene Jones, who said that the stress of repeated foreclosure threats had contributed to her husbands depression and subsequent death.

 The bank changed the locks on a Minnesota woman, Leslie Park, during a blizzard, during which she returned home and discovered she could not gain shelter in her own home.

 The California Reinvestment Coalition found that OneWests reverse mortgage servicing subsidiary Financial Freedom was responsible for 39 percent of reverse mortgage foreclosures, although it held only 17 percent of the market for reverse mortgages, which are primarily contracted with the elderly. OneWest was thus foreclosing its elderly customers at twice the average rate.

 Of the 35,877 foreclosures the bank carried out over a six-year period in California, more than two-thirds took place in neighborhoods that were more than 50 percent nonwhiteblack, Hispanic or Asian.

 In 2011, Mnuchin encountered protests on the lawn of his Bel Air mansion by foreclosed homeowners angered at his lenders handling of soured mortgages, according to Bloomberg.

All in all, a record that explains the mutual attraction between the financier and the political con-man who is about to become the Republican presidential nominee, posing as the advocate of the downtrodden and dispossessed.
The United States and India are stepping up their naval collaboration in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, targeting China, according to statements by military officials from both countries. This marks an important further step in US efforts to transform India into a frontline state in its drive to strategically encircle and prepare for war against Chinawhat Washington euphemistically refers to as its Pivot to Asia.

US and Indian officials are holding talks about countering Chinese submarines in the Indian Ocean, including collaborating in submarine-tracking and augmenting their anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities.

An anonymous senior US official, familiar with bilateral military ties with India, told Reuters: These types of basic engagements will be the building blocks for an enduring Navy-to-Navy relationship that we hope will grow over time into a shared ASW capability.

An Indian naval spokesman declined to comment on the issue, as New Delhi wants to cloak its growing military ties with the US in secrecy because of fear of popular opposition.

An Indian naval source told Reuters that anti-submarine warfare will be the focus of the next round of joint Indo-US naval games, the Malabar exercises. The venue for those exercises, which will be staged in June, will be the northern Philippine Sea. This is near to both the South China Sea, where the US has launched provocations against China under the pretext of freedom of navigation, and the East China Sea, where Japan has moved to aggressively assert its claim to the Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, which were annexed by Japan after the 1894-5 Sino-Japanese War.

India recently invited Japan, the USs most important strategic ally in Asia, to become a permanent third member of the annual Malabar exercises. The June event in the Philippine Sea will be joined by Japan, which has repeatedly deployed its navy to confront Chinese vessels in the vicinity of the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

Building on the Indo-US global strategic partnership forged by its Congress Party-led predecessor, Indias two year-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has dramatically expanded its military-strategic cooperation with Washington. This has included parroting the US line on the South China Sea, which portrays China as an aggressor and a threat to freedom of the seas, when it is the US that seeks unbridled access for its warships off the Chinese mainland. New Delhi has also significantly increased bi-lateral and trilateral military-strategic cooperation with the US, and Washingtons other key Indo-Pacific allies, Japan and Australia.

A key strategic aim of the US, including in its pursuit of ever-more comprehensive military alliances with Japan, Australia and India, is to prepare to impose a naval blockade on China in the event of a war crisis. By seizing control of Indian and Pacific Ocean chokepoints, Pentagon strategists calculate they can deny China access to the Indian Ocean shipping lanes that carry the oil and other raw materials that sustain its economy.

Confronted with the possibility of being denied access to the Indian Ocean, China has moved to increase its naval presence there, including by deploying submarines. This has in turn panicked India, which views a growing role in policing the Indian Ocean as vital to realizing its great-power ambitions.

India, which is in the midst of a massive expansion of its navy, has moved aggressively to counter Chinas growing economic interests in various Indian Ocean states. This has included, assisting the US in engineering the 2015 ouster of Sri Lankas President, Mahinda Rajapakse, who was deemed too close to China, and bullying the tiny Maldives to pledge that it will pursue an India first foreign policy.

The Indo-US naval talks come in the wake of a call from Admiral Harry Harris Jr., the head of the US Pacific Command, for joint US-Indian naval patrols across the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and last months announcement that New Delhi and Washington have agreed in principle to a Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). The LEMOA will give the US military access to Indian military ports and bases for resupply, repair and rest and will invariably entail the stationing of US military personnel in India.

The US is also seeking to harness India to its predatory strategic agenda through partnerships to co-develop and co-produce advanced weapons systems, including aircraft carrier technology.

Washington is seeking to exploit Indian concerns about China's growing naval presence in the Indian Ocean to press New Delhi into collaboration in anti-submarine warfare. Reuters cites Indian naval officials as saying, Chinese submarines have been sighted on an average four times every three months. Some are seen near India's Andaman and Nicobar islands that lie near the Malacca Straits, the entry to the South China Sea through which more than 80 percent of China's fuel supplies pass.

Expressing the US military establishment's satisfaction with Washingtons success in enticing and cajoling India into closer military collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region, former US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jon Greenert told Foreign Policy: Is this driven by China? I think so. I think clearly it is... The Indian Navys interest in moving further east in the Indian Ocean and coming into the Pacific to exercise is an indication of that.

With US encouragement, the BJP has transformed Indias Look East policy, an economic and strategic outreach to East and Southeast Asia, into Act Eastthat is, a more aggressive intervention into that region in pursuit of Indias geo-political ambitions. Numerous US officials, from President Obama to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter have repeatedly boasted about the convergence between Indias Act East policy and the Obama administrations pivot to Asia, and pledged US help in India realizing Act East.

Nilanthi Samaranayake, a South Asia analyst at the US military's Center for Naval Analyses, noted that New Delhi is cautious not to be seen as an open ally of US against China: India is always going to be hedging a little bit, because they dont want to be seen as antagonizing China too much. But she was quick to point to the possibilities an expanded Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean provide Washington to project Beijing as an aggressor and prod New Delhi into an even closer alliance. If we actually see China be aggressive in the Indian Ocean, said Samaranayake, that could really help crystallize Indian policy toward China, and move the relationship with the US forward.

Voicing the views of powerful sections of Indias elite who want a more aggressive stance against China, G. Parthasarathy, a former High Commissioner to Pakistan, published a comment this week decrying Chinas close relations with Pakistan, Indias historic rival, and arguing for this to be countered by a robust relationship with Chinas maritime neighbours such as Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines. Military exercises with the US, Japan, Australia and Indonesia in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean should be expanded.

For his part, the former head of Indian Navys Eastern Command, retired Vice Admiral Anup Singh, has welcomed the growing naval partnership between the US and India. Of course there has been a change in Indias strategic vision, he told Foreign Policy. He added that the BJP government and the Indian military-security establishment are all in favor of a solid handshake with the United States, because that is the only way to maintain the balance of power.

Australia is also keen to collaborate with India and the US in enhancing submarine warfare capabilities and policing the Indian Ocean. David Brewster, an Australian National University expert on the strategic rivalry in the Indian Ocean, has suggested that Australia, which has just ordered 12 new submarines, may eventually join that US-led AWS collaboration. He told Reuters, We are likely to ultimately see a division of responsibilities in the Indian Ocean between those three countries, and with the potential to also share facilities.

China has responded cautiously to the US-Indian talks on collaborating on anti-submarine warfare. Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for Chinas Foreign Ministry, said: We hope that the relevant cooperation is normal, and that it can be meaningful to the peace and stability of the region.

Whatever Chinas hopes, US imperialisms aggressive moves for developing military ties with India, including anti-submarine warfare, will further escalate geo-political tensions across the Indo-Pacific region and the danger of an all-out war among nuclear powers.
Qatar's Foreign Minister on Friday met Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to pressure Moscow after fighting in Syria's Aleppo threatened to sink peace efforts.

"We came here today to discuss possible ways to save the political process, to save the civilian population," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani told journalists after the meeting, adding that he had brought a message from the Emirate's leader "on the escalation in Aleppo".

"We all need to unite efforts to bring an end to the crisis and punish the guilty," he said in comments translated into Russian.

Russia has been flying a bombing campaign in Syria to back up the forces of its ally Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and is seen as one of the key power brokers that can pressure Damascus to accept a negotiated settlement.

Qatar supports Syrian rebels fighting Al-Assad's regime in a conflict which has killed more than 270,000 people since it began in March 2011.

Fighting over the past two weeks in the Syrian city of Aleppo has killed more than 280 civilians after a truce deal between regime and moderate rebel forces unravelled.

A fresh 48-hour ceasefire in the battleground city entered its second day on Friday, allowing residents some respite.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that despite the differences between Russia and Qatar over the conflict they both wanted to find a peaceful solution.

"Despite all the nuances in our approaches the main thing that unites us is striving to political resolution, a resolution that will preserve Syria's territorial unity and sovereignty," Lavrov told journalists.

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The United States will endorse a tougher tone with Israel occupation authorities in an upcoming international report that takes the Israel to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state, diplomats told The Associated Press.

The U.S. and its fellow Mideast mediators also will chastise Palestinian leaders for failing to rein in anti-Israeli violence. But the diplomats involved in drafting the document said its primary focus will be a surge of construction in Jewish housing in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

The U.S. approval of the harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called "Quartet" of mediators with careful diplomatic language, but the diplomats said the U.S. in this case will align itself closer to the positions of the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, who emphasize Israel's role in the Mideast impasse.

The report's release is sure to infuriate Israel occupation authorities, where officials are already bracing for expected criticism. And on the other side, although the mediators will endorse some long-standing Palestinian complaints, the Palestinians are likely to complain the report does not go far enough.

Diplomats acknowledge the report, which could come out in late May or June, will be largely symbolic, requiring no action. It could be unveiled at the U.N. and possibly sent to the Security Council for an endorsement, according to the diplomats, who included three U.S. officials. They all demanded anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the unfinished work publicly.

The diplomats said the report is intended to highlight obstacles to a two-state peace agreement  the stated goal of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders  and offer recommendations for restarting negotiations in a process that is stalled.

The Palestinians don't want talks as long as settlement construction continues; the Israelis say they're open to negotiations, but have shown little interest in making any meaningful concessions.

One diplomat said the report would be "balanced" because it would criticize the Palestinians for incitement and violence against Israeli citizens.Since the start of October, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 200 Palestinians. Meanwhile, almost daily stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks by frustrated and unarmed Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and two Americans.

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.

But the diplomat added that those involved in writing the report understand the focus on Israel will be its most contentious aspect.

Another diplomat said Israel will be put "on notice" that its appropriation of land isn't going unnoticed.

The document won't look only at east Jerusalem activity and West Bank settlement construction, but also at a "problematic trend" of legalizing smaller so-called outposts, the officials said. In addition, it will criticize Israel for a growing backlog of housing block approvals.

In 1972, there were just over 10,000 Israeli settlers, with 1,500 living in the West Bank and the rest in east Jerusalem. Two decades later, by the time of the Oslo peace accords, there were 231,200 Israelis living in the territories. That number rose to 365,000 by 2000, when the second Palestinian uprising began, and 474,000 by the time Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister again in 2008.

The settlements are now home to more than 570,000 Israelis, according to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now  370,000 in the West Bank and 200,000 in east Jerusalem. Settlements range from small wildcat outposts on West Bank hilltops to developed towns with shopping malls, schools and suburban homes.

Some 2.2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, with another 300,000 in east Jerusalem. Israel captured both territories after the 1967 war.

The Quartet, which is supposed to guide the two parties to peace, has been largely irrelevant for the past several years. It was created in 2002 at a low point in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and in the years since has held sporadic meetings. Most have ended with bland statements condemning violence, criticizing settlements and calling for both sides to improve security and the atmosphere for peace talks.

The new report will repeat those calls, but the diplomats said they hoped the new criticism of Israel, in particular, would jolt the parties into action.

The Palestinians recently put off their push for a new U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, in part because of the coming report, the diplomats said. And with anti-Israel sentiment growing in Europe, France may delay a planned May 30 meeting of foreign ministers on the situation.

The French also are talking about hosting a Mideast peace conference this summer. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to discuss the French initiative with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault while on a trip to Paris next week. *The story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Former West Valley resident shot in the line of duty to be released from hospital
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Israeli aircraft hit two Hamas targets in Gaza early Saturday in response to rocket fire, the Israeli occupation army claimed.

This is the biggest flare-up in months and raised concerns for a ceasefire between Israeli occupation authorities and Gaza's Hamas rulers that has held since the last Israeli offensive on the strip that ended in summer 2014.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket launch and most such fire since 2014 has been carried out by fringe Islamist groups but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such attacks.

"Earlier today (Saturday)... a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel," the Israeli occupation army said in a statement.

"In response... aircraft targeted two Hamas terror infrastructures in the southern Gaza Strip."

Hamas security sources said the retaliatory raid hit two brickworks in the southern city of Khan Yunis, causing damage but no casualties.

But witnesses said two missiles hit a base of Hamas's military wing east of the city, causing significant damage.

It was the fourth day of the worst violence across the border since the 50-day Israeli deadly offensive on Gaza which left 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead in 2014.

Mortar fire by Palestinian fighters, and Israeli air strikes and shelling have raised concerns for the future of an informal truce that has held since the assault ended.

An Israeli tank round killed a Palestinian woman when it hit her home east of Khan Yunis on Thursday.

Since Wednesday, Hamas and other groups have fired at least 12 mortar rounds at Israeli forces searching along the border and short distances inside Gaza for infiltration tunnels leading into Israel.

Such tunnels were among the most feared weapons of Hamas fighters during the 2014 offensive and one was uncovered by the Israel occupation army on Thursday.

Hamas's Gaza leader, Ismail Haniya, said on Friday that the group was "not calling for a new war", but would not accept Israeli incursions into Palestinian territory.

*The story was edited by Ahram Online.

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Yemen's government delegation pulled out of direct negotiations with representatives of the Houthi rebels on Saturday after there was no sign of progress, a member of the government delegation said.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will now have to go back to indirect negotiations in the talks that began in Kuwait on April 21.

On Thursday, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the foes had begun discussing major political and security issues in face-to-face negotiations aimed at bringing an end to 13 months of devastating war.

But after two unproductive meetings on Saturday, "direct talks are suspended" and the UN mediator must resume separate consultations with the two sides, the government official said, blaming the Houthis for the impasse.

The rebels "went back on their word" to discuss substantive issues in three joint working groups formed under UN auspices, he said.

These were formed on Wednesday when direct talks resumed following a three-day interruption after the government delegation walked out in protest against the rebel seizure of an army camp on Sunday.

The working groups exchanged views on resolving political and security issues and the release of prisoners and detainees, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

This orders the rebels to withdraw from territory they have taken since 2014 and to surrender heavy weaponry they had seized.

However, the delegation from the rebels and their allies was demanding "prior agreement on the establishment of a transitional executive body", the government official said.

In a statement on the sabanews website, a rebel delegate said the three joint teams will resume work "after an agreement on the form of the state and the transitional authority".

Without such an agreement, the talks were "a waste of time" said the rebel delegate, adding that President Abd-rabbo Mansour Hadi's government was "an adversary and it is unacceptable that he embodies the state".

Each side accuses the other of not respecting the truce which has been constantly broken since it came into force on April 11.

There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.

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Facing the desk of Col. Yaffa Mor, head of the IDF Casualties Administration, is a large photograph of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul. Whenever Mor sits in her chair, Oron's face smiles at her from the picture. "I look into his deep, blue eyes, and that's how I start my morning," said Mor.

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Shaul, a combat soldier in the Golani Brigade, was killed during Operation Protective Edge in the "APC of Death" (an armored personnel carrier that was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade, killing seven Golani soldiers) in Saja'iyya. A short time later, he was declared a slain IDF soldier whose place of burial is unknown.

Col. Yaffa Mor (Photo: Eli Attias)

Mor was with his family in the first days after the tragedy. It was she who performed the " kriah " (the ritual Jewish rending of garments at a funeral) on Zehava, Oron's mother, after her son was declared dead and the decision to ritually mourn him was taken.

The picture of Oron was photographed on Independence Day, two months before he was killed, at a ceremony for outstanding soldiers at the President's Residence. Oron's parents, Zehava and Herzl, gave the picture to Mor only recently.

Oron Shaul honored by then-president Peres at ceremony for outstanding soldiers (Photo: Yosef Avi Yair Engel)

"The APC incident took place on Sunday, and I got to their home on Monday," Mor recounted. "I remember seeing this photo of Oron, which is now in my office, in the living room. Oron's eyes are exactly the same as Zehava's, his mother. I looked at the photo, I looked at her, and I had this feeling that we had come and turned their lives upside down. What would happen now? Would they managewould we manageto get him back, and when?

"Nothing can prepare you for something like that," she said after 28 years of service, 20 of which were spent dealing with IDF casualties. "You know that you need to tell the family everything that you know and also everything that you don't knowyou have to tell them that."

And then you did the kriah for Zehava?

"The rabbi did the kriah for Herzl, and I did it for Zehava. The rabbi explained to me how, and I did it for her."

And?

"And what? My heart broke together with hers."





Col. Yaffa Mor comforts Oron Shaul's mother Zehava at a monument in memory of Protective Edge casualties (Photo: Efi Shrir)

"I had 67 casualties in Protective Edge," Mor said. "There are two slain soldiers whose missions need to be completed; they need to be brought home for burial in Israel. Hadar (Goldin) received a (partial) burial, but the task to bring his body back still stands. And Oron. We have an obligation to bring them back.

"It's a daily part of my thoughts and of my daily life. I sit at dinner on Friday night, and I think about them. And I make the meatballs that Zehava taught me how to make, and I think of them. On Friday, I visited Zehava and Herzl. You leave there, and you say, 'Let it happen already.' The IDF, the defense establishment, and the political echelon are really working on this all the time, on bringing Hadar and Oron back. The families are updated on everything."

Do you find yourself imagining the day when Oron will be brought for burial and Hadar's burial will be completed?

"Yes. I hope we reach that day. I hope that the Goldin family can have closure. And I image Zehava and Herzl having a grave to go to on Memorial Day when the siren is sounded at 11am. I imagine this, too. Last year, they stood by the memorial to Oron. I really hoped, and I still hope, that we'll complete this task before I leave this position."

220 knocks on the door

Mor, 48, will finish in her current position and be discharged from the IDF this summer. She was appointed head of the IDF Casualties and City Officers Administration three and a half years ago. Since then, 220 families have lost a relative in the IDF and thus become "bereaved families."

"220 messages, 220 knocks on the door," Mor elaborated, "220 families whose lives were turned upside down, who need to learn how to live with loss, with longing, with incomprehensible pain."

"I estimate that I've had hundreds of thousands of meetings with bereaved families," she shared. "I remember perfectly the first time I entered each home. I remember perfectly where I sat the first time, where every member of the family sat, what we talked about. It's a part of me. The faces, the names.

"When you go to visit a widow who gave birth after her husband was killed, and she lets you hold the baby. Or when a bereaved father dies, and you're updated on that, and you can't bring yourself to delete his number from your phone.

"You become a part of the family. You go into the son's room; they want you to know him. They show you his uniform, ironed and handsome in the wardrobe, ready, as if he's just about to leave for the army, even though he was killed 30 years ago. And they hand you his clothes to smell."

And what do you do?

"I smell them. There's a scent, even after all those years."

Col. Yaffa Mor (Photo: Eli Attias)

Until now, Mor refused to be interviewed. Even now, she is uncertain. Her fear was mainly that she would take the attention away from the bereaved families. No difficulty, she emphasized, is comparable to their pain. In the end, she acquiesced. We met twice. The first time, she barely spoke. She almost backed out.

"You have the hardest job in the army," I told her. That's something that senior officers and commanders tell her. Mor didn't agree and even protested, "How can I say that this is hard? Who am I, anyway? Everything pales in comparison. I don't think that you can really talk about what we in Casualties feel, because the real pain and difficulty is felt by the families, and their coping.

"We accompany the bereaved families. We hold them and try to make it a little bit easier on them, but in the end, that unimaginable pain is entirely the families'. Only theirs."

Once, she recalled, bereavement struck the same small moshav twice in a few months. She was the casualties officer of the Nahal Brigade at the time. "I came to visit the first bereaved family immediately after the shiva (the week-long initial Jewish mourning period), and a very impressive woman was sitting there. She told me that her son was serving in Nahal, too," Mor recounted.

"Three months later, he was killed, as well. I can really remember our arriving at the second family's house, the battalion commander and me. This was after they had been notified. And you already know the way to the moshav and know who is going to speak from the local council. And people were standing on the sides, and we walked in, and somebody said, 'The Angel of Death has arrived.' I heard him; I remember that they said, 'The Angel of Death has come to the moshav a second time.' I didn't feel that I was the Angel of Death. And we really try to deliver the news in the most sensitive way possible."

When the phone in the operations room rings

Mor was born and raised in Haifa. She was drafted at 20 to the Intelligence Corps. She became a career officer. Five years later, she was sent by the army to study social sciences at Bar Ilan University. There, she met the woman who was the Navy's casualties officer at the time. That meeting led her to become a casualties officer herself.

"I felt that it was my mission," said Mor. To the Casualties personnel who interviewed her, she said she was bringing mostly herself to the position and promised that she "would learn while doing."

At that time, Mor was already married and had a daughter. Because the Intelligence Corps's casualties officer position was filled, Mor was offered the role in the Ordnance Corps, which would serve as "a trial." She ended up staying in the position for four years.

"The first bereaved family that I visited was the family of a non-commissioned officer who died of cancer and who left behind a wife and two little girls," Mor remembered. She stayed in contact with the family. Recently, she met one of the NCO's little daughters, currently an IDF soldier, when the latter came to be a guide at a day camp that the army provides for IDF orphans. "Coming full circle," said Mor.

Shortly after Mor took up the position, the 1997 helicopter disaster took place. Four of the soldiers who died in the disaster were in the Ordnance Corps.

"I remember where I was sitting in the living room. And I remember the newsflash on TV and the phone calls, and I started trying to ascertain if there were deaths from the Ordnance Corps. Collecting crumbs of information. I was pregnant at the time with a seventh-month belly.

"I went into the family's house, and I was wearing civilian clothes, so I had to explain who I was. And I sat with the widow who had gotten married just a few months earlier. Just a young girl, really. And I was flipping through a photo album that was passed to me. It was her wedding album. And I was looking at the parents who had only just seen their son married and who now, insanely close to his wedding, had to bury him. It was incomprehensible. And that young widow, she was the first to send me flowers, two months later, when I gave birth."

What happens when you go home after something like that?

"I once came home from a bereaved family's home, and that very same night had to take the kids to Luna Park. You can't do that. The transitions are very sharp. You need to breathe a little."

In 2002, when Mor was the Nahal casualties officer, the Hebron ambush took place. Twelve Israelis were killed, including three Nahal soldiers. "I got to Hadassah (Medical Center) at night. A female soldier came up to me and told me that parents had arrived, and they were looking for their son. And I knew that their son had been killed, that the news was on its way to them.

"I went to them, and I sat with them, and I held their hands. And I told the notifiers where we were, and I waited for them to come to the hospital so that they could tell them what happened."

Later on, during the Second Lebanon War, Mor was the head of the infantry's casualties branch. "Out of 121 fallen soldiers," she counted, "51 were infantry."

She later became the head of the Casualties and City Officers Branch, then she went to a position in the General Staff (secretary for the high command) and returned three and a half years ago to be the head of the Casualties Administration.

The apparatus for which she is responsible includes the Casualties and City Officers Branch (which deals with the families in the initial stages, including notifying them), the Family Liaison Branch (which supports bereaved families for their entire lives) and the "Eitan" ("Missing Persons") Branch. She was at the head of the administration during Operation Protective Edge a year and a half ago.

Col. Yaffa Mor (Photo: Eli Attias)

Mor shared what she felt during the operation: "You sit in situation assessment meetings, and you understand that something's coming, that there could be a difficult price in human life, and there's a kind of suspense and assessments of what's going to happen. And you say a prayer of sorts that maybe, maybe this time, it'll end without casualties.

"During the operation, I got up every day with a stomachache. My stomach turned with every notification to a family. And the operation continued. And I knew that it was very likely that there would be more deaths and more injuries. And every time that the telephone in the operations room rang and we got the name of somebody who was injured, I felt like there was a knife in my stomach. I imagined the family and the home and his girlfriend and his parents. Even when I didn't know them. Your brain and your thoughts go to them."

Twice during Operation Protective Edge, she sent the notifiers to houses that she knew, to families that she knew.

The first time was when Staff Sgt. Daniel Pomerantz, the son of Varda Pomerantz, was killed in the APC incident. Col. (res.) Varda Pomerantz was one of the architects and founders of the casualties network. Like Mor, she also was the head of the Casualties Administration in the IDF. Nimrod, another son of Pomerantz's, was a soldier of Mor's.

Col (res.) Varda Pomerantz, center, at her son Daniel's funeral (Photo: Ido Erez)

"Your stomach always turns over before you send the notifiers, but when you know the house, like Varda's, and you know exactly where you're sending them, then your gut gets even more mixed up," said Mor. "Because you can imagine it much worse and much more painful.

"I knew that Nimrod knew the entire process because he served here. When we got the message, he called his commanders and the soldiers that served with him. They didn't answer him. It was clear to me that he knew exactly what was happening at that moment. How we verify the names and how we send the notifiers to knock on their door. He had done it himself in the past. He knew how it worked."

When did you go to their home?

"After the notifying phase. I remember that on the way there, I was thinking, 'Varda, Varda, Varda,' 'Varda, Varda, Varda.' That's what was going through my head. 'Varda, Varda, Varda.' I kept repeating her name to myself. I saw her face before my eyes. And I came, and I remained silent. Because I had nothing to say. I just embraced her and was beside her."

Since the disaster, the two have gotten very close. "Varda was a source of advice before Daniel was killed and even now," Mor explained.

The second time was when Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar, the commander of the Gefen Battalion in the Officers' Training School, was killed. The two had met during previous assignments, when Mor was secretary for the high command and Keidar was the deputy chief of staff's bureau chief.

Funeral of Lt. Col. Dolev Keidar (Photo: Eli Mendelbaum)

"Suddenly, the regular pain had a name and a face, and I knew exactly how to picture Michal, Dolev's wife, and their children," said Mor. "I was in the operations room. I asked them to leave me alone for five minutes, and then I continued."

A lieutenant general next to a private

Every report of the death of a soldier comes to the administration's operations room, which is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the main Adjutant Corps base in Ramat Gan. That's also where Mor's office is. "There's a crazy amount of pressure to reach the family's house as fast as possible," said Mor. "We know that we can't make mistakes."

The notifications are for anyone who dies during their military service, regardless of the circumstances. "Bereavement is bereavement is bereavement," she said. "We bury our dead one next to the other, no matter the circumstances and no matter the rank. A lieutenant general is buried next to a private. Everybody was in military service, everybody came to defend the country and to protect it, and everyone is one of our soldiers."

The operations room alerts the relevant city officer in accordance with the fallen soldier's place of residence. At the same time, the "notifiers" are sent. Everyone volunteered for the position, which does holy work. At any given time, there are 140 casualties notifiers in a state of preparedness throughout the country. Every one of them went through special training. Three notifiers go to every family.

"Once we came to notify of the death of an NCO," Mor shared. "There were two (people with the same name) in the same building. So we called the NCO's apartment, and I asked the notifiers to listen for where the phone would ring."

City officers and casualties notifiers are with the families during the shiva. Only afterwards does the casualties officer come in. There is a "passing of the baton," as Mor puts it. The connection with the casualties officers is nicknamed "an eternal relationship," and it's kept up even with veteran bereaved families. "For the families, their child forever remains a soldier and part of the unit where he served," explained Mor, "even when all his friends have been discharged or stop doing reserve service."

Col. Yaffa Mor offers condolences to members of Oron Shaul's family (Photo: Elad Gershgoren)

Are there bereaved families who get angry?

"There are families who get angry at the army, at the commanders, sometimes at the casualties network. Some of them justifiably, and you have to correct or explain where possible. And part of this also comes from a place of great pain. We need to deal with it.

"There was a soldier who was killed (in friendly fire) from the IDF Spokesperson, and his father was angry. There was some kind of mistake there, and that mistake cost the life of his son. In the end, it's the same army, and he was angry at the army, and we were there. Inside the house. And I felt his anger. But I contain it.

"I learned that you need to hear the angry families and listen to them. Sometimes what they bring up belongs to personal anger, and sometimes they point out things that really need to be changed.

For example?

A bereaved father contacted me, a returning resident (from abroad) whose son was drafted immediately when they got back to Israel, and he committed suicide afterwards in the army. He thought that things needed to be done differently. He said to us, 'Pay attention.' And really, today we understand that we need to give kids like that a year to adjust, and only after that do we send the initial call-up letter."

Are there families that tell the casualties officer, "I don't want you"?

"Out of thousands of visits, that's happened to me once or twice. Still, the understanding is that we have to be there. It's the only option. And once in a while, we try to contact them again and to go to them again.

"When I was the casualties officer of the Ordnance Corps, I had one family that said to me that they didn't want contact. And then one day, I was speaking with my replacement who told me that she had just left the annual commemoration of their son's death. I was extremely surprised. She told me that she decided to call them, and they didn't remember that they had told me that they didn't want any contact with us. They were shocked that nobody had contacted them for two years."

In addition to the photograph of Oron Shaul, Mor has hanging on her wall a frame containing five small pictures of the five Israeli MIAs: Ron Arad, Guy Hever, and the three MIAs of the Battle of Sultan Yakoub: Yehuda Katz, Zachary Baumel and Zvi Feldman. "We deal with the subject of the MIAs all the time," Mor assured. "Just last week we had a status meeting at the head of the Manpower Directorate's, and we presented everything on the subject of the MIA Guy Hever."

Yosef, the father of Yehuda Katz, died during Operation Cast Lead. "I decided that I would go to the funeral," Mor shared. "I knew him. A Holocaust survivor. I had been in his home, together with the officer assigned to the family, and he told me about meeting his wife and how they raised their children and made a home anew, when suddenly, 'Yehuda's MIA.' It was impossible not to connect to that man. And so I decided to go to the funeral. And I went. I left the operations room in the middle of an operation, I even turned off my phone, which was getting tons of calls, but I didn't care. I decided that I wanted to be there. With Yehuda's father."

And what did you think?

"During the funeral? I was thinking that I wish we could have resolved this for him."

She also feels an obligation towards the 179 soldiers whose place of burial is unknown, including Oron Shaul. "These are families whose loved ones we must bring to burial in Israel, to resolve this and allow the families to truly start their mourning process," Mor said.

She's proud of the fact that over the past six years, the IDF's Missing Persons Unit was able to replace 28 tombstones of unknown soldiers killed in the 1948 War of Independence with tombstones bearing their names. "Even after 68 years, the IDF continues searching for its dead and to really leave no stone unturned to find them," she said.

When her son enlisted in the Paratroopers

Mor is married to Nir, an Israel Electric Corporation employee. They have three children, and they live in Modi'in.

"I had two of my children during my service as a casualties officer," she said. "I was pregnant, and I came to the families with my big belly, and didn't always feel comfortable with that, but the families were always very happy for me. And the amount of good wishes and phone calls I received from them after giving birth was very, very touching. I think about their thoughtfulness, and their mental strength to be able to send flowers to the casualties officer despite their pain and losssending the casualties officer flowers three months after their son had been killed."

Mor's eldest daughter, Yuval, 23, is an officer in the Air Force. Omer, a combat soldier in the Paratroopers', enlisted last March, and her son Ido is a 10th grade student. Throughout the years, during "mass" events, as she calls them, like races in memory of fallen soldiers, her family and job came together. Her children and husband know some of the bereaved families. And yet, she hasn't told nearly any of the families she remains in touch with that her son, Omer, had enlisted as a combat soldier.

Col. Yaffa Mor on her way to deliver the horrible news to a family (Photo: Gil Nechushtan)

"I'm there to listen to them, not to talk about myself," she said. "This is their place. If they ask me, I tell them that he enlisted."

One of the mothers she did tell about Omer's combat role called and asked Mor for her son's phone number. "She called and told him that she was very proud of him for enlisting in a combat role. Afterwards, Omer told me, 'That was the most touching phone call I ever received.'"

How did it come to be that a son of a casualties officer chose to serve in a combat role?

"I think with my job and the stories he heard at home about people who chose to serve in combat roles and worked hard to raise their army (medical) profile so that they could be accepted, he couldn't allow himself not to have a meaningful service."

"My concern for Omer is within the limits of the reasonable," she said when asked about her own feelings. "The level of hysteria in my DNA is not different to that of any other Israeli mother. Maybe it's because he's still in training."

The curse of social media

When she first entered her new role, Mor wanted to maintain and increase the level of professionalism in the IDF's Casualties Administration, strengthen her team's relationships with the bereaved families and wounded soldiers, as well as families of MIA soldiers, and strengthen the involvement of the commanders on the ground, at all ranks, in the field of casualties and bereaved families.

Her predecessor had already established cooperation and training for casualties officers with NATAL Israel (an Israeli trauma center treating victims of terrorism and war), and today, all of the casualties officers attend weekly classes at NATAL over the course of two years. In addition, there is training within the unit given to all ranks, from the young officers to the head of the administration.

"We've bolstered a lot of fields, including lessons we learned from Operation Protective Edge," Mor admitted.

For example, the administration put an emphasis on procedures in cases of MIA soldiers. Lessons have also been learned with regards to social media. Earlier this week, the administration launched a campaign against "rumors" on social media.

"People just post information on social media and on WhatsApp, at times even false information, before it reaches the family," Mor said. "It became a very serious problem during Protective Edge. We realized social media was not going to go away, and what we could do about it was simply call on the public to act responsibly."

Can you give an example?

"During the operation, after we notified all of the families of the soldiers killed in the APC incident, I received a phone call from a casualties officer. She told me a friend approached her, a military man, whose neighbors received a message that their son had been killed, and they even set up a mourning tent. That soldier was not on our lists.

"After consulting with the head of the Manpower Directorate, I decided to do something we've never done before. I called the family and told them I was the head of the IDF Casualties Administration, and while I couldn't tell them who was killed, I could tell them that all of the families that were supposed to be notified had already been notified. And that their son's name was not among the dead. And this was a family that was already sitting inside a mourning tent, while their son was alive and well."

Over the past 20 years, there has been a change in Israeli societys attitude towards bereavement and bereaved families. Nowadays, Mor said, there is a close and successful cooperation between all of the different bodies dealing with the issue: the IDF's Casualties Administration, the Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Department, Yad LaBanim (an organization commemorating Israel's fallen soldiers), and the widows and orphans organizations.

"There is more of a conversation about needs that go beyond remembrance and memorials," she said. "Our job is to remember and keep the memory alive, but also to support the families. And that support should also be emotional and financial. At the end of the day, a bereaved family's ability to make a living is affected by losing a son. When talking about bereaved families, no cost can be too high. We need to look them in the eye and see what we can do to help them, rather than worry about how much it's costing us."

What about the older bereaved families? For example, parents who lost their sons during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

"The older bereaved families are a matter in itself. If I enter a room, and I know in advance that there is a bereaved family there, it doesn't matter how many people are in the room or how many years have passed, I would know exactly who the members of that family are. You can see it on their face: the sadness, the pain, the longing. You can see it."

The Casualties Administration also deals with wounded soldiers. The news about wounded soldiers reach the same operations room. "When it's a wounded soldier arriving at the hospital, if he can talk, we make sure he calls his family and talks to them," Mor said. When the soldiers are critically wounded, notifiers are sent to their families. "We want to make sure they get to the hospital as quickly as possible."

While the wounded soldiers are discharged from the IDF, undergo treatment at the Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Department, and eventually receive recognition as disabled veterans, the casualties officers are entrusted with staying in contact with them on behalf of the IDF.

"To be recognized as a disabled veteran, one must first undergo a complicated process," Mor said. "This process is hard for the wounded soldier, but I know the Rehabilitation Department does everything it can to make the process as painless and quick as possible."

The Casualties Administration's personnel have a "Growth Group," as they call it, which is akin to support groups. Those who need are also given personal sessions. The conversation at the group mostly focuses on their role as a casualties officer, Mor said.

"I think casualties officers are also allowed to cry," she said. "We're only human.

"Many times I ask myself why we chose this profession. But the very knowledge that you play a significant role at such a painful situation, that you are there to offer assistance, that you can participate and accompany the family and make it just a little bit easier for themthat fills you with a sense of satisfaction," she said, and then corrected herself: "Satisfaction is not the word. Accomplishment and a sense of mission."

On the same day as our second meeting, she received an invitation to a wedding of a bereaved brother. His brother was killed 13 years ago. "I attended his bar mitzvah," Mor said. "They still remember me, even though I haven't visited them in over 10 years."

What do you think changed in you over the 20 years you've spent at the Casualties Administration?

"I think I know how to appreciate the good, small things in life. I can say that health is all that matters and mean it."

A moment before Independence Day

She still doesn't know what she is going to do after being released from the IDF in September. "I keep saying that I want to 'give back a little,'" she said, laughing, mostly because people don't really understand what is it that she wants to 'give back' exactly. She is very interested in working with at-risk youth.

Mor said she will definitely keep in touch with some of the bereaved families, "because it's a part of me."

On Memorial Day, she accompanies the IDF chief of staff wherever he goes; it is a part of her job. Afterwards, she goes to visit bereaved families. "I never plan in advance whom to visit," she said.

And then?

"I go home, a minute before the (Independence Day) fireworks begin."

And...?

"I never go out to see the fireworks. I'm too exhausted."
Israel Air Force (IAF) fighter jets attacked two Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip early Saturday in retaliation for a rocket fired at Israeli civilians.

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The rocket, fired shortly after midnight, exploded in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. A Code Red rocket alert siren was sounded before the rocket fell.

So far over the past week, Hamas has been firing mortar shells only at IDF forces operating in the border fence area in search for border-crossing tunnels. The rocket fired overnight, which was aimed at civilian population in the Gaza border communities, constitutes an escalation in recent tensions in the area.

Archive photo of rocket fired from Gaza at Israel (Photo: Roee Idan)

Over the past week, some 16 mortar shells were fired at IDF troops in at least 12 incidents, which is double the amount of mortar shells and rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel since the beginning of 2016. The latest rocket fire against troops was on Friday morning , when two mortar shells were fired at forces operating near the border fence in southern Gaza. No one was hurt and no damage was reported. The IAF attacked Hamas observation posts in retaliation.

In light of the escalation on the border over the past week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened the security cabinet on Friday. The Prime Minister's Office said that the cabinet "received an update from security officials on IDF operations in recent days and on the discovery of the latest tunnel ."

In a speech he made ahead of the Friday prayers , deputy Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh claimed that "We are not calling for a new war, but we will not allow incursions or imposing facts on the ground by Israel in Gaza."

Haniyeh explained that the Palestinians objected the Israeli prohibition on Palestinian traffic in the "perimeter," a 300-meter buffer zone inside the Strip and bordering the frontier.

"We say no to the perimeter inside of Gaza's borders, and Israel must understand this," he stated. "We are in contact with Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and also with the UN's (Special Coordinator for Middle East Peace Process) Nickolay Mladenov to bring an end to the Israeli escalation, and these efforts are continuing."

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah also talked about the escalation in Gaza on Friday, saying, "We need to direct the world's attention to the Israeli aggression, bombardment and operations in the Gaza Strip in recent days. Everyone must condemn it so Israel doesn't continue with its aggression."
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Lieberman and former Likud member Gideon Sa'ar, who were both ministers during Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday following the leak of parts of a scathing State Comptroller report on the most recent war in Gaza.

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Lieberman and Sa'ar were critical of the operation even while it was ongoing. At the time, Sa'ar demanded Netanyahu to hold a government discussion on the cabinet's decision to cease fire , while Lieberman criticized the fact Hamas had not been defeated

Lieberman, the foreign minister at the time of the operation, said on Friday that "the prime minister's response to the report shows, more than anything else, that the State of Israel's current leadership, headed by Netanyahu and (Defense Minister Moshe) Ya'alon, is one that shirks responsibility. I cannot and I don't intend to comment on the State Comptrollers report on Protective Edge, but what is clear, and what must be said, is that the leadership's reaction to it is indicative of the fact it is incapable of making the necessary decisions and of ensuring the security of the citizens of Israel."

Lieberman, Netanyahu, Sa'ar (Photos: Gil yohanan, AP, Eli Mendelbaum)

Officials in Netanyahu's close circle rejected the report draft, asserting that the operation was managed in a transparent manner and concluded successfully. All the rest is slander. Moreover, they insisted that cabinet sessions were convened many times and their meetings included talks of the threat of tunnels.

Lieberman pointed out that the Shin Bet has passed on information about the tunnel threat to the prime minister, the defense minister and the IDF chief, but the intelligence agency's warnings "did not receive serious response from the army and not brought to the cabinet's knowledge," noting that this fact only "strengthens the truth in the reports of the failings the State Comptroller is pointing to."

He criticized the fact that "Israel only responds to actions and threats made by Hamas, rather than take any real initiative in order to change the situation completely and remove the ongoing and growing threat from Gaza to the citizens of Israel."

Sa'ar, who was the interior minister during the operation and retired from political life less than a month after the war had ended, wrote on his Twitter page: "The '50 day campaign' in the summer of 2014 was a failure for Israel. I said these things in real time as a member of the government. The way to fix failings is not to attack the criticism."

He went on to say that "We must learn from mistakes and failings. Denying reality is not a good way to go."

IDF forces on the Gaza border during Operation Protective Edge (Photo: EPA)

The Prime Minister's Office did not respond to these comments.

Former IDF chief Benny Gantz, who commanded the military during the operation, addressed the leaking of the report draft on Friday as well. "I regret the fact the comptroller's report got to me 24 hours after it got to the press. Protective Edge was managed by the prime minister, the defense minister, and myself, in a level-headed, responsible and balanced manner. And I will act in the same manner on this issue," he said.

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog joined the chorus of criticism against Netanyahu. "Then, exactly as they do today, the conversation focused on slogans against Hamas instead of stopping and striking at Hamas's leadership," Herzog wrote on Twitter. "It turns out that not all who shout are truly frightening. Instead of trying to defeat the comptroller, who is a very serious man, they should deal with defeating Hamas."

Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelah, meanwhile, said that "the leaks from the comptroller's report are a grave issue, a continuation of the unrestrained behavior of some members of the cabinet during Operation Protective Edge. However, one thing remains clear, and we don't need a report to know it: Israel was unprepared to a war that it saw was in the making for years, it had no plan or goals, and the IDF was not properly prepared. The main and direct man responsible for that is the prime minister in the five years that preceded the operation - Benjamin Netanyahu. The lesson for the public is clear: Don't be fooled by slogans, demand an investigation of the truth and for lessons to be learned, not just to honor the fallen, but also in order to improve what needs to be improved for the future."

'Irresponsible politicians leaked draft'

According to reports in Israeli media, the draft report claims that Netanyahu and Yaalon did not update the cabinet about Shin Bet warnings of possible military conflicts against Hamas in July 2014 and Netanyahus government never discussed the tunnel threat until Operation Protective Edge itself.

Gantz is expected to be criticized over the military evaluations he submitted to the cabinet before and during the operation.

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira asked the prime minister and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit on Friday to investigate who among those whose conduct is examined in the report leaked the draft of a report classified as "top secret." He also called on those who appear in the report to focus on responding to the draft.

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Shapira stressed that all of the reports his office compiles "are done according to strict professional standards, as was the case in the reports on the prime minister's residences and the housing crisis."

In recent weeks, Netanyahu has undertaken great efforts to soften the harsh charges leveled in the report. Among other things, he met with Shapira and with other officials from the State Comptroller's office in an effort to explain the damage which can be caused by the report if it is published in its current version.

Netanyahu's close associates criticized the leaking of details from the report's draft, claiming that "there are no similarities between what was reported by the press and what's written in the draft. This draft will also surely change before the final report is released, after responses are received."

They went on to say that "without going into the details of the report, even the comptroller states that the prime minister defined the tunnel threats as a central one long before the operation and instructed all bodies to act to thwart the threat. The report's draft was leaked and distorted by irresponsible politicians who were members of the cabinet and know the truth but still prefer to distort it for political reasons. Operation Protective Edge was managed responsibly and with level-headedness, and delivered the harshest blow Hamas has suffered since its establishment. The time that has passed since Protective Edge has been the calmest in the Gaza border area since 2000."
WASHINGTON - The United States will endorse a tougher tone with Israel in an upcoming international report that takes the Jewish state to task over settlements, demolitions and property seizures on land the Palestinians claim for a future state, diplomats told The Associated Press.

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The US and its fellow Mideast mediators also will chastise Palestinian leaders for failing to rein in anti-Israeli violence. But the diplomats involved in drafting the document said its primary focus will be a surge of construction in Jewish housing in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The US approval of the harsh language marks a subtle shift. Washington has traditionally tempered statements by the so-called "Quartet" of mediators with careful diplomatic language, but the diplomats said the US in this case will align itself closer to the positions of the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, who emphasize Israel's role in the Mideast impasse.

Construction in Har Homa in East Jerusalem (Photo: AFP)

Diplomats acknowledge the report, which could come out in late May or June, will be largely symbolic, requiring no action. It could be unveiled at the UN and possibly sent to the Security Council for an endorsement, according to the diplomats, who included three US officials.

The diplomats said the report is intended to highlight obstacles to a two-state peace agreement - the stated goal of both Israeli and Palestinian leaders - and offer recommendations for restarting negotiations in a process that is stalled.

The Palestinians don't want talks as long as settlement construction continues; the Israelis say they're open to negotiations, but have shown little interest in making any meaningful concessions.

Palestinian rioting in Hebron (Photo: Reuters)

One diplomat said the report would be "balanced" because it would criticize the Palestinians for incitement and violence against Israeli citizens. Near-daily attacks in recent months by Palestinians, mostly stabbings, have killed 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals. Some 193 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom were attackers while the rest died in clashes with security forces.

But the diplomat added that those involved in writing the report understand the focus on Israel will be its most contentious aspect.

Another diplomat said Israel will be put "on notice" that its appropriation of land isn't going unnoticed.

The document won't look only at East Jerusalem activity and West Bank settlement construction, but also at a "problematic trend" of legalizing smaller so-called outposts, the officials said. In addition, it will criticize Israel for a growing backlog of housing block approvals.

In 1972, there were just over 10,000 Israeli settlers, with 1,500 living in the West Bank and the rest in East Jerusalem. Two decades later, by the time of the Oslo peace accords, there were 231,200 Israelis living in the territories. That number rose to 365,000 by 2000, when the second Palestinian uprising began, and 474,000 by the time Benjamin Netanyahu became Israel's prime minister again in 2008.

The settlements are now home to more than 570,000 Israelis, according to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now - 370,000 in the West Bank and 200,000 in East Jerusalem. Settlements range from small wildcat outposts on West Bank hilltops to developed towns with shopping malls, schools and suburban homes.

Construction in Ariel in the West Bank (Photo: AFP)

Some 2.2 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, with another 300,000 in East Jerusalem. Israel captured both territories in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The Quartet, which is supposed to guide the two parties to peace, has been largely irrelevant for the past several years. It was created in 2002 at a low point in the Israeli-Palestinian relationship and in the years since has held sporadic meetings. Most have ended with bland statements condemning violence, criticizing settlements and calling for both sides to improve security and the atmosphere for peace talks.

The new report will repeat those calls, but the diplomats said they hoped the new criticism of Israel, in particular, would jolt the parties into action.

The Palestinians recently put off their push for a new UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity, in part because of the coming report, the diplomats said. And with anti-Israel sentiment growing in Europe, France may delay a planned May 30 meeting of foreign ministers on the situation.

The French also are talking about hosting a Mideast peace conference this summer. US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to discuss the French initiative with Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault while on a trip to Paris next week.
GAZA CITY - Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has opened to audiences in the Gaza Strip, albeit with a distinctly Palestinian twist.

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Instead of the forbidden love story of Renaissance-era European aristocracy, the star-crossed young couple in Gaza's version of the play is divided by politics stemming from the deep internal Palestinian split between two rival movements.

Yousef, a son of a member of Gaza's ruling Islamic militant group Hamas, falls in love with Suha, the daughter of a fanatical member of the rival Fatah party.

Dubbed "Romeo and Juliet in Gaza," the performance has brought a rare taste of foreign culture to this conservative and isolated territory. But it is even more noteworthy for its critical look at the political rift that has crippled life in Gaza for nearly a decade.

Photo: AP

In 2007, Hamas routed forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas and ousted his Fatah party in a week of deadly street battles. Since then, Abbas' rule has been confined to the West Bank, while Israel and Egypt have imposed a blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza. The measures, which are needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms, have brought Gaza's economy to a near standstill.

Attempts by Hamas and Fatah to reconcile, meanwhile, have repeatedly faltered. The rift is so deep that today some families may reject a marriage proposal based on the political affiliation of the suitor.

The "great resemblance" between the feuding families in Shakespeare's original tragedy and "the reality of Gaza" inspired Abu Yassin and Atef Abu Saif, a renowned novelist, to come up with play, Abu Yassin said.

The play was performed eight times last month - just as the Hamas-controlled police prevented academics and national figures from holding a conference calling for unity with Fatah.

Photo: AP

On a recent evening at Al-Mis'hal Cultural Center in Gaza City, the audience laughed and clapped - and on occasion, even got up on its feet in appreciation of the 70-minute performance on the theater's modest stage.

After the Palestinian national anthem was played, the black curtains opened to a scene of a cafe shop in a refugee camp neighborhood where youths were talking and playing cards.

To the 350 spectators, it was an accurate depiction of Gaza's reality: in a territory where unemployment is over 40 percent, cafes are often crowded with idle young men who have little else to do.

The same cafes are also packed with Fatah members, who continue to collect salaries from the West Bank government under the condition that they not work in Hamas' administration.

In the play, as Suha's father, a local doctor, enters the cafe, it is clear from his shaven face that he is from Fatah.

Yousef's father Awni, a bearded merchant representing Hamas, also frequents the cafe, where he quarrels with the Fatah doctor. At times they scuffle, prompting the cafe owner to kick them out.

"Don't reconcile! Keep cursing at each other" the owner yells at them.

"We will leave this land to you and go," he adds, drawing a burst of applause from the audience.

Then, laughter erupted when the doctor asked the cafe owner if he was following the reconciliation news between Hamas and Fatah. The two parties have held dozens of negotiation rounds and announced several agreements, but none has been implemented.

Photo: AP

Abu Yassin, the 54-year-old director, said the warm reception reflects public discontent with the situation.

"They feel the play represents them, expresses what they can't express. They live with the story because it's exactly like them," said Abu Yassin.

Knowing the consequences, the old cafe owner advises Yousef to change his mind and not to fall in love with Suha because their families won't accept each other.

However, in the Gaza take on Shakespeare's famous story, the ending is different.

Yousef, like hundreds of young Gaza men, flees to board an illegal migrant boat promising a better life in Europe, as Suha screams for him to return. His fate is never revealed, a reminder of dozens of Gazans who disappeared when a migrant boat sank in 2014.

The European families in the original tragedy reconciled after the death of the star-crossed lovers, but in the Gaza version, they remain enemies.

Mohammed Zoghbor, a doctor who watched the play, says the ending reflects the lack of hope in the bitterly divided Palestinian society.

"The home remains divided, the families remain divided, the youths are divided and talks take place for the sake of talks without results," he said.

Abu Yassin said it is a coincidence that the play is being performed around the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. He said the play would be performed again soon as part of a series of activities organized by the British Council, a UK-backed cultural organization, to mark the anniversary.

Abu Yassin has directed dozens of plays and other arts in Gaza, which lacks a national theater, but "Romeo and Juliet in Gaza" was the most important and most successful, he says.

"What makes Shakespeare's work distinguished is that it fits all the times and all the places. It's universal," he said. "The theater here of course is not like the theater Shakespeare used to perform in, but it's still important to try to keep it operating."
For many people, if not most, the dream of quitting ones profession in mid-career to pursue their passion remains just that: an unfulfilled fantasy. For Marco Camorali and Sissi Pagano, however, it was an inevitability -- fortunately for those of us in Israel who enjoy quality ice cream.

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Several years ago, the Italian couple quit their jobs as marine biologists in Bali and returned to Tuscany to study the art and science of making gelato; last year they moved to Israel and opened Arte, selling their handcrafted gelato on the Nahalat Binyamin pedestrian mall in downtown Tel Aviv. This month, to celebrate their first anniversary, they held an afternoon of workshops and tastings.





Italian gelato at Arte (Photo: Daniela Contini)

The good news is that customers can always enjoy tastings as they try to decide which flavors to order among the dozens that are on offer on any given day.

There is no doubt that Marco and Sissi mastered their new craft: within months of finishing their training, Marco won first prize at the gelato festival of Viareggio, Tuscany, for his creation Marco's Cake: cheesecake with berries and crumble.

Italian gelato at Arte (Photo: Daniela Contini)

All of our ice creams are made from scratch on the premises, using only the finest natural ingredients, and no industrial products, says Camorali. Moreover, our fruit flavors are seasonal, for maximum freshness.

We do our best to source our ingredients locally, he adds, but do not hesitate to import them when the best quality is available only from overseas.

Arte Gelateria (Photo: Daniela Contini)

Artes website publishes a complete table listing approximately 30 flavors, including no fewer than five variations of rich chocolate. In addition, the table contains detailed information on possible allergens, as well as noting which flavors are vegan, alcoholic or gluten-free.

Artes owners also traveled to Sicily to learn how to make granita, and the results are on display in eight icily refreshing flavors, including several for adults only. In the summer months, from now until October, Arte is open seven days a week, from 11am to 11pm.

Nahalat Binyamin 11, Tel Aviv

Tel. (055) 895-4868

Gerald Bopp was a master patissier in Fribourg, Switzerland, when he moved with his family to Israel in 1993. Business took him back to the continent, but his son and daughter stayed here and studied architecture. Yet dreams die hard; and just last year, the two generations of the family opened Gerald, a bakery/restaurant in the finest European tradition, in the heart of Tel Avivs Ibn Gvirol Street.

Initially, Gerald opened strictly as a patisserie, featuring cakes and pastries that are a feast for the eyes as well as the palate. At the behest of customers, however, the menu was expanded; the restaurant now serves meals all day seven days a week, opening for breakfast at 7:30am and not closing until 10:30pm (4pm on Fridays).





Geraldo

Naturally, Geralds baked goods take center stage even at mealtimes: there are more than a dozen varieties of croissants and pastries on offer at breakfast time (breakfast itself is served all day long). Still, there are healthy options as well, including vegan choices.

Starting at 9am, small plates (apero) make their appearance, savory specialties unique to Gerald. More substantial courses are served beginning with lunch, as well as sandwiches and salads. The sandwiches are made with the house rolls known as delices, baked from pretzel dough.

I could not resist tasting the quintessentially Swiss gruyere cheese sandwich. The soft and chewy oven-fresh delice was stuffed with generous slices of the nutty cheese, along with cornichon, tomato, baby lettuce and Dijon mustard. It came with a nice side salad dressed in a pleasant vinaigrette and sprinkled with crunchy toasted almonds. The delicious sandwich was paired nicely with a refreshing glass of rose wine.

The highlight of my visit, however, was the arrival of two of Geralds signature treats: the Jennifer and the B-Bopp. The former is a lemon biscuit smothered in panna cotta mousse and a confit of berries, enclosed in a delicate pink shell. The rich, sweet mousse combined with the succulent fruit to melt in the mouth before exploding in flavor.

Geraldo's the Jennifer.

The B-Bopp is Geralds chocolate creation par excellence: chocolate mousse and pralines atop a Lotus cookie crunch encased in chocolate ganache. It doesnt get better for any lover of chocolate.

For all its excellent bakeries, Tel Aviv is fortunate to have this lone outpost representing the best in Swiss culinary arts.

Gerald

Ibn Gvirol 36, Tel Aviv
NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has upgraded its ties with Israel, bringing Jerusalem even closer into its circle at a time of mounting instability throughout the Middle East.

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Israel will open offices at NATOs Brussels headquarters and will credential its representative, Israeli Ambassador to the European Union David Walzer.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu welcomed NATOs inviting the State of Israel to open office at the organization's headquarters, adding that he saw the move as an important expression of Israel's standing in the world.

NATO headquarters in Brussels (Photo: AP)

In a statement posted on its website, NATO announced that it had agreed to accept the request that an official Israeli Mission be established at NATO headquarters.

In what some interpreted to be a tampering down of Israel bravado, the statement added that "NATO has invited all partners to open diplomatic missions to the Headquarters of the Atlantic Alliance in Brussels.

Israel has been a member of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue since December 1994.

But the real news behind the upgrade was that that Turkey, which has used its membership in NATO to block Israels request for years, had lifted its veto and may, despite the lack of a formal agreement for normalization of ties, be ready to patch up a six-year rift with Israel.

Gen (res.) Yaakov Amidror, Israels former National Security Adviser, said that as a small country all contacts with international organizations are important to us, both so as to bring our voice to the table and, no less, as a way of learning from one another.

Speaking with The Media Line from Europe, he said a small country such as ours, with real problems and needs and also the need to present its case in public forums, should actively promote all contacts with multinational groups, most definitely with a large and important organization like NATO.

Not all Israeli experts were quite as convinced, though in Jerusalem the upgrade is viewed positively across the board.

Ephraim Inbar, the director of the Begin-Sadat center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University and an expert on Israel-Turkey relations, said Turkeys acceptance of an Israeli office at NATO headquarters is apparently a gesture within the framework of negotiations to end the crisis between the two nations.

Its not nothing, he told The Media Line, but it is a symbolic move. We have representative offices in all too many unimportant countries, too. Its not that big a deal.

Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu and Turkish's President Erdogan (Photos: Avishag She'ar Yeshuv, AFP)

Asked about the now abandoned veto at a press conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu supported the Israeli upgrade and said Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain should get similar treatment. This isnt just Israel, the same right needs to be given to all the southern partners, he said.

There are any number of reasons Turkish president and strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan may have decided this is the week to play nice with Israel, but simple exhaustion may be one of them.

Turkey, in crisis with the Jewish state for the past six years, since Israel staged a raid on the Mavi Marmara, a boat attempting to break the Gaza blockade, in which ten Turkish citizens died, finds itself at odds with almost every regional neighbor.

Supporting the rebels, Turkey is in an undeclared war against Syrian president Bashar Assad. Diplomatic ties to Egypt, a regional colossus, were ruptured over Turkeys support for the Muslim Brotherhood, which was unseated by current President Abdel Fatah Al-Sissi. Turkey is embroiled in an ongoing civil war with nationalist Kurds. It is at an impasse with Russia, with whom it has skirmished in the Syrian theater.

For Gallia Lindenstrauss, a researcher at Tel Avivs Institute for National Security Studies who specializes in Turkish foreign policy, loosening the anti-Israeli veto at NATO is one of the more tangible forms any normalization agreement will take, and Israel has waited for it for a long time.

Speaking with The Media Line, she said it indicated that the deal is very close.

In 2009, in a pre- Arab Spring, pre-Mavi Marmara world in which Turkey found itself resurgent, foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu designed a foreign policy based on a principle he called zero problems with neighbors.

The congenial-sounding policy was formulated only a few months after a heated exchange about the loss of civilian life in Gaza between a fervid Erdogan and Israels then-president, Shimon Peres. Erdogan stormed off stage after protesting that Israeli air strikes were "very wrong" and saying "many people have been killed."

But by the summer of 2013, only four years after Davotoglus reboot, the journal Foreign Policy published an article entitled How Turkey Went from Zero Problems to Zero Friends

This week, he seems to have lost definitively. Now prime minister, Davotoglu resigned on Thursday after losing yet another political battle with Erdogan, whom the British newspaper The Spectator has dubbed the most powerful man in Europe.

Less sympathetically, the headline is followed by Turkeys thuggish president has European leaders exactly where he wants them.

Lindenstrauss points out that lifting the veto on Israel also resolved long-standing tensions between NATO and its Muslim member states. Turkey had the role of limiting the constructive cooperation between NATO and Israel, and this has been a big problem.

The next round of Israeli-Turkish talks, which are expected to be critical, is scheduled for later this month. Most of the points of contention have been resolved, including the issue of Israel scaling back its blockade of GazaIsrael has purportedly agreed to enable Turkey to carry out a number of infrastructure projects there, such as building a new power plant (in a collaboration with Germany) and building a long-awaited desalination plant. The principal open question regards the activities of Hamas in Turkey, where Israel claims the planning and financing of West Bank terrorism is conducted sotto voce.

Article written by Noga Tarnopolsky
Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabay on Saturday came out in support of Deputy IDF Chief Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan , who was harshly criticized for saying he "identifies in Israel today processes that happened in Germany 70 years ago."

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"Maj.-Gen. Golan has enough of a right and a perspective for us to listen to what he has to say and not just jump at him," Gabay said at a cultural event in Petah Tikva. "The recriminations against Golan are inappropriate. We need to encourage senior officials to speak their truth, and not the other way around."

Gabay went on to say that he didn't think Golan was referring to World War II and the Holocaust. "There's nothing similar between what's happening here and the Holocaust, but there are definitely recriminations and signs of racism that at times are similar to the sentiments in Germany of the 1920s and 1930s."

Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabay (Photo: Yuval Hendler)

Former IDF chief Dan Halutz also spoke in Golan's defense on Saturday.

Speaking at a cultural event in Be'er Sheva, Halutz said that "while we can argue about the timing or the place the things were said in, I think we need to listen to what he has to say. Let's talk about the trends that he was talking about, these trends exist in part."

Halutz also asserted that "those in uniform are the gatekeepers of morals."

In a speech on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Maj.-Gen. Golan said that The Holocaust must lead us to think about our public life, and more importantly, it must lead everyone who can, not merely those who want, to carry public responsibility. If there is something that frightens me about the memory of the Holocaust, it is seeing the abhorrent processes that took place in Europe, and Germany in particular, some 70, 80 or 90 years ago, and finding manifestations of these processes here among us in 2016."

Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan (Photo: Yair Sagi)

After the uproar caused by his comments, the IDF Spokesman's Office released a statement saying that The deputy chief of staff would like to clarify that he had no intention to compare the IDF and the State of Israel to the process that took place in Germany 70 years ago. The absurd comparison is entirely without foundation, and there was no intention to draw such parallels or to criticize the state's leadership. The IDF is a moral army which safeguards the purity of arms and human life.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process turned down on Saturday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's idea to give a history lesson to United Nations personnel, after UNESCO called on Israel to respect the Muslim freedom of religion in a document that completely omitted any Jewish historical connection or religious significance to the site.

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Last month, UNESCO "strongly condemn(ed) the Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims access to their Holy Site Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif," the third holiest site in Islam.

For Jews, who refer to the area as the Temple Mount, it is the holiest site in the religion.

Temple Mount (Photo: Reuters)

Netanyahu was furious that the Jewish term for the site was not mentioned and terming the resolution "absurd" and stating that it "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." On Friday, he proposed to "personally organize" what he termed "a seminar on Jewish history for all UN personnel in Israel" and for diplomats.

No thanks, responded the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, the next day.

"If somebody wants to send invitations, he can address them to Paris and to the member states' ambassadors to UNESCO there," he stated in a communique. "The UN personnel in Jerusalem knows very well the history of the region, of its people and of its religions."
DUBAI- Several Iranian soldiers were killed near Aleppo, the Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, in what appeared to be one of Iran's biggest losses in Syria since it deployed forces to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Islamist insurgents on Friday seized the strategic village of Khan Touman, some 9 miles southwest of Aleppo. Dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the battle.

Fars news agency on Saturday quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded in the fighting.
A candidate for mayor in the southern Philippines was shot dead on Saturday, police said, bringing to at least 15 the number of people killed in violence related to national elections.

The Philippines has a long tradition of political violence -- fuelled by lax gun laws, politicians with private armies and corrupt law enforcement agencies -- and dozens of people are killed each election campaign.

In the latest incident, unknown gunmen broke into the home of politician Armando Ceballos in a mountainous town in the southern Philippines at dawn Saturday and shot him dead, a provincial police spokesman said.

"The killers wore bonnets... as of now we are treating this as an election-related case," the spokesman, Chief Superintendent Surki Serenas, told AFP by telephone.

Ceballos was one of two candidates standing for mayor of Lantapan, a remote town about 840 kilometres (520 miles) south of Manila. His opponent is the incumbent vice mayor.

In the far southwestern island of Puerto Princesa, gateway to some of the Philippines' most popular holiday destinations, two supporters of the local mayor were stabbed to death at a campaign sortie late on Thursday, police said.

The two men were part of a motorbike convoy in support of Puerto Princesa city mayor Lucilo Bayron, who is stumping to retain his seat, police investigator Earl Torres told AFP on Saturday.

The attackers were not identified, though the Bayron camp blamed supporters of his rival.

There had been 14 deaths in 26 "validated election-related incidents" of violence between January 10 and May 5, national police said in a statement. It was not clear whether the Puerto Princesa deaths were included in the list.

In the country's deadliest single incident of political violence on record, 58 people were massacred in 2009 as gunmen allegedly belonging to a local warlord in the southern Philippines attacked a group of people to stop a rival filing his election candidacy.

Thirty-two of the victims were journalists covering the contest, making the attack the deadliest ever recorded against media professionals.

Twenty-eight members of the Ampatuan clan accused of orchestrating the killings are on trial for the massacre, but one of them is running for mayor in the family's home territory after the trial court allowed him to post bail.

About 18,000 posts are being contested in Monday's elections, from the president down to the village councillor level.

More than 70 people were killed in violence related to the 2013 mid-term elections.

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Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN Rafael Ramirez accused Israel of implementing a "final solution" against the Palestinians in the UN Security Council on Friday.

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"Is Israel trying to impose a 'final solution' on the Palestinians in the West Bank?" Ramirez asked at the Security Council meeting.

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon immediately condemned the statement, and Ramirez apologized to "the Jewish people, if they were offended by my statement."

The declaration occurred while the Yesh Din organization was presenting statistics pertaining to law enforcement as it relates to crimes of an ideological nature carried out by Israeli citizens against Palestinians, and the effects of the lack of law enforcement on the Palestinians who live in the West Bank to the UN Security Council.

Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN Rafael Ramirez

Yesh Din representative Michael Sfard also presented the organization's assertion that the violence carried out against Palestinians is designed to drive them off of their land.

The Venezuelan ambassador asked, "What is Israel planning to do with the Palestinians? Do the Israelis want the Palestinians to disappear? Is Israel preparing a 'final solution' for the Palestinians similar to what was done to them?"

Sfarad condemned the Venezuelan ambassador's statements.

Israeli Ambassador Danon responded harshly to Ramirez's statements, "These are blunt anti-Semitic statements coming from the Venezuelan ambassador towards the Jewish nation. The ambassador's statements are a continuation of the Palestinian representative's statements which equated Israel to the Nazis only a few days ago. The Palestinians are bringing anti-Semitism to the UN and are bringing the language of racism to the world parliament."

The Israeli UN delegation immediately turned to the members of the UN Security Council bodies to condemn these strong statements. The US, Britain, and France decisively condemned the Venezuelan ambassador's statements.
Is the future of the new airport in Eilat doomed before its establishment? What if the new airport doesn't raise the number of tourists traveling to the city, as forecasted by the Ministry of Tourism?

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Statistics published at the end of April show that the number of flights from Europe arriving in Eilat dropped by 83% in the last 20 years.

The statistics show that the number of travelers visiting Eilat in the past two decades has practically plateaued.. Municipal leaders and the Ministry of Tourism are hoping that the new Ramon Airport being built in Eilat won't turn into a resource drain on the city.

Ramon airport in Eilat hopes to bring in more European tourists (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Records from the Central Bureau of Statistics show that in 2015, despite preferential airport slots for foreign airlines, only 26,100 foreign tourists arrived in Eilat via direct flights. This number is 83% less than the number that arrived in Eilat in 1997. Additionally, this statistic encompasses the time in which the Pope visited Israel , which was considered the "year of Europe" in regards to how many people came and visited the country from that continent.

Although the Second Intifada began in earnest that same year, the effect on tourism wasn't felt until 2001. Before that, 143,000 tourists arrived in Eilat on direct flights from Europe.

Eilat (Photo: Shutterstock)

From then on, the numbers of tourists have consistently been between 68,000 up until 2015, which only saw 26,100 tourists arrive on flights originating in Europe.

With the addition of Ryanair, the number of tourists in the first quarter of 2016 reached 22,100. Yet if one is to compare this to the first quarter of 1997, wherein 54,700 people flew into Eilat, they can see that the number is still 60% less today than it was two decades ago.

'We need to upgrade the city'

Amir Halevy, director general of the Tourism Ministry, said that one must take these statistics and look at the glass as half full.

"We will be able to return Eilat to its former glory with the arrival of these low cost airlines. But it's still not enough."

"The authorities in Eilat need to improve their 'product' and make it more attractive not only to low cost international flights, but to also upgrade the city so that the city will become the number one spot for 'Sea and Sun' for European tourists."
MILAN- Dozens of hooded anarchists clashed Saturday with riot police who blocked their approach to the Austrian border during a protest against plans to tighten border controls to prevent the passage of migrants.

Riot police just 100 to 200 (yards) from Italy's border with Austria responded with tear gas after a group of 50 to 80 anarchists who covered their faces with motorcycle helmets and gas masks threw objects including bricks and firecrackers at a police blockade. The news agency ANSA said about 20 protesters were detained and four officers were injured.

Hundreds of Austrian police were deployed, but never activated, on the other side of the border, while helicopters hovered overhead.
CAIRO- An Egyptian appeals court expelled diplomats, journalists and family members from a hearing on Saturday over whether to extend the detention of a rights campaigner who had been advising the family of an Italian student found tortured to death in Cairo.

Ahmed Abdullah, the head of the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, was arrested at his suburban home early on April 25 and stands accused of inciting revolt and terrorism. His detention came just hours before thousands of riot police stifled planned demonstrations in Cairo that were to be held in defiance of a protest ban to denounce President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's recent decision to surrender control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Abdullah entered the courtroom carrying a note on a small piece of origami that read in Arabic "truth for Regeni." A fight broke out between bailiffs and lawyers in the chaotic chamber when activists tried to photograph Abdullah, with police confiscating phones temporarily to delete the photos.
LUBUMBASHI - Democratic Republic of Congo opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi has been summoned to appear before a prosecutor on Monday to respond to accusations that he hired foreign mercenaries, his lawyer said on Saturday.

Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba ordered the national prosecutor general on Wednesday to investigate Katumbi's alleged use of mercenaries, including several retired American soldiers.

Hours later, Katumbi declared himself a candidate for president in an election scheduled for November.

Katumbi's lawyer, King Kasongo Mushilanama, told Reuters that his client had received a summons on Saturday to appear in the office of the prosecutor general of Congo's second city of Lubumbashi on Monday to respond to the government's charges.
Ken Livingstone has described the creation of the State of Israel as "a great catastrophe" and said Jewish people should have been resettled in the UK and America after the Second World War.

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The former Mayor of London was suspended from the Labour Party after he invoked Hitler to defend a colleague over anti-Semitic remarks and claimed that there was a well-orchestrated campaign against the party by the Israel lobby.

However, in an interview broadcast in Arabic by TV station Al Ghad Al Arabi on Wednesday, and posted by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), he said the creation of Israel had been "fundamentally wrong."

The creation of the state of Israel was a great catastrophe, he repeated. We should have absorbed the post-World War II Jewish refugees in Britain and America. They could all have been resettled, whereas 70 years later, the situation is still very tense, and there is potential for many more wars, potential for nuclear war, Livingstone told Al-Ghad Al-Arabi.

Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone (Photo: youtube)

The former mayor recently came under fire for saying that Hitler didn't initially intend to kill Jews, but he went crazy at the end. He reiterated his stance by saying, When Hitler won the elections in 1932 and came to power, his policy was not directed toward killing the Jews. He wanted to deport all the Zionists to Israel."

Livingstone also attributed the mass expulsion of Jews across the Arab world to Israels founding.

Prior to the creation of the Jewish state, he said, there were large Jewish communities that never suffered threats or attacks. They lived in peace alongside their Arab neighbors. But all of this was destroyed with the establishment of the State of Israel, and all the Israeli communities in the Arab world were deported to Israel.

The veteran politician also blamed Israels ongoing conflict with the Palestinians for global terrorism, including the recent brutal Islamic State attacks in Paris and Brussels.

I have always believed that the failure to resolve the (Palestinian) problem fuels the terrorist attacks, he said. What makes a 15- or 16-year-old boy go and fight with ISIS, or carry out the barbaric attacks that we saw in Paris or Brussels? They dont do it because they enjoy killing, but because they believe that they are the victims of injustice. The West must deal with the injustice, or will continue to fuel terrorism.
ISLAMABAD- A shadowy, Pakistan-based militant faction is on the rise within the Taliban after its leader was appointed deputy and played a key role in unifying the fractured insurgency.

The ascendency of the Haqqani network, a US-designated terrorist organization, could significantly strengthen the Taliban and herald another summer of fierce fighting in Afghanistan. The firepower it brings to the Taliban was shown by a Kabul bombing last month that killed 64 people, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in years, which experts say was too sophisticated for the insurgents to have carried out without the Haqqanis.

The network's role could also further poison already tainted relations between Islamabad and Kabul. Afghanistan is pressing Pakistan to crack down on the Haqqanis, accusing it of tolerating the group, a charge the Pakistanis deny.
LA VISTA  A Vietnam veteran with a terminal brain tumor has received an Honor Flight salute at his home in a suburb of Omaha.

Local criminal defense attorney James Martin Davis knew that 65-year-old Walter Roberts wouldnt be able to participate in an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., for Nebraska Vietnam veterans in June, the Omaha World-Herald reported.

Davis helped Patriotic Productions, which sponsors the flights, to bring the honor to Roberts home in La Vista on Wednesday. They presented him with a red Nebraska Vietnam Flight polo shirt, a ball cap and pin, an Army branch insignia sign and a combat engineer pin.

Roberts joined the Army in 1967, when he was 17. He served in two combat tours in Vietnam.

During his time in Vietnam, he suffered four bullet wounds in his legs, a bayonet in his left wrist and 168 pieces of shrapnel in his back. He was also soaked three times with Agent Orange, the toxic chemical that U.S. warplanes dropped as part of a campaign to kill jungle foliage that hid the enemy.

Despite his wounds, Roberts said his Vietnam memories are only of his buddies who didnt come home.

All the rest, it doesnt matter to me, he said.

Eve Roberts said her husband was troubled by PTSD for many years.

He was in and out of work and in and out of rehab, she said. He did a lot of drinking, had a lot of DUIs. He went to a lot of counseling and finally got cleaned up and his life on track.

Eve and two dozen other friends and family members are planning to keep their banquet reservations for Honor Flight participants on the eve of the event, no matter what the future holds.

Everybody loves him, she said.
Airmen at Work: Inspector General resolves complaints

Col. Kenneth Herstine, 910th inspector general (IG), and Master Sgt. Princeton Lowe, 910th IG superintendent, discuss the Air Force complaint resolution process with a member, here, April 3, 2016. The IG complaint resolution process indicates where command involvement is needed to correct systematic, programmatic or procedural weaknesses. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Rachel Kocin)
Thousands of Muslims flocked to the capital of Bosnia's Serb region on Saturday for the reopening of a historic mosque destroyed during wartime, a ceremony seen as encouraging religious tolerance among deeply divided communities.

Twenty years after the devastating war between its Muslim Bosniaks, Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, Bosnia remains split along ethnic lines, with rival groups blocking reconciliation and reform needed to join the European Union.

The return of Muslim believers to the rebuilt Ferhadija mosque in the largely Serb city of Banja Luka, capital of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, offered hope for change to many, although some were more cautious.

Amid tight security, about 1,000 police officers patrolled the streets as buses arrived with Muslims from across the country. Traffic was barred from the city centre and alcohol banned.

Turkey's outgoing Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose country contributed to the cost of rebuilding, reopened the mosque in front of a congregation of up to 10,000, saying the new building sent a message of peace.

"Bosnia-Herzegovina, with its Muslims, Catholics, Orthodox and Jews, is one body, one heart. If there is any attempt to split it up, it means that this one heart would be split," he said, apparently referring to secessionist threats by Bosnian Serbs.

The 16th-century mosque, under UNESCO protection as an outstanding example of Ottoman architecture, was blown up 23 years ago. A parking lot was built where it had stood.

Many believe its destruction was ordered by Bosnian Serbs aiming to erase any traces of Muslim heritage in the once multi-ethnic city.

Ethnic Cleansing

During a ceremony to lay a foundation stone for the mosque in 2001, Serb nationalists attacked visitors and dignitaries, wounding dozens and killing one Muslim.

It took another 15 years for Bosnia's Muslims to obtain construction permits and funds to rebuild the mosque. Thousands of pieces of rubble from the original building were used after being recovered from the Vrbas River and a garbage site where they were dumped.

The day it was levelled, May 7, is now the Day of the Mosques in Bosnia, where 614 mosques were destroyed during the 1992-95 war.

Today, only 10 percent of Banja Luka's pre-war Muslim and Croat population remains in the city following a wartime Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik said representatives of Islamic, Orthodox, Catholic and Jewish communities "have gathered here and sent messages of peace".

Efendi Husein Kavazovic, head of Bosnia's Islamic community, spoke of a "triumph of light over darkness", although he had earlier expressed doubts that reconciliation was close at hand.

Bakir Izetbegovic, the Muslim chairman of Bosnia's three-man inter-ethnic presidency, said the rebuilt mosque was sign that Bosnia's Muslims could return to the region.

Some residents were less sanguine, with many of Banja Luka's Serbs apparently staying away from the ceremony.

"I only want this opening to pass peacefully and without any incident as tensions still run high," said Tatjana Kecman, a Serb from Banja Luka.

War casts a long shadow here, with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic jailed for genocide only in March. The United Nations says Bosnian Serb backing for secession from the fragile Bosnian state is a challenge to the 1995 peace settlement.

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Barack Obama visited a predominantly black college Saturday, making the case that the last decades and his presidency had brought substantial improvements for African-Americans.

Acknowledging that more needs to be done to reduce inequality, Obama took head-on the issue of race relations that have sometimes appeared to fester under his administration.

Since Obama came to office in 2009 as the first African American president, a strain of opposition to him has emerged that often appears racially driven.

Meanwhile, cities from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland have exploded amid the killing of young black men at the hands of white police officers.

African-American men are still far more likely to have served time in jail and to earn less than their white peers.

But Obama insisted progress had been made. "America is by almost every measure better than it was when I graduated from college," he said, looking back to 1983.

"Race relations are better since I graduated. That's the truth. No, my election did not create a post-racial society, but the election itself and the subsequent one -- because the first one, folks might have made a mistake... was just one indicator of how attitudes have changed."

"Racism persists. Inequality persists," he told graduating students at Washington's Howard University, while offering a litany of examples of how things had changed for the better.

"When I was graduating, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T," the burly, Mohawk-wearing former professional wrestler. "Rap and hip-hop were counter-culture, underground. Now, Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night, and Beyonce runs the world."

"We're no longer entertainers, we're producers, studio executives. No longer small-business owners, we're CEOs, we're mayors, representatives, presidents of the United States."

In a nod to the lingering problems that have spurred the Black Lives Matter movement, Obama insisted that anger at injustice was not enough.

"You have to go through life with more than just passion for change. You need a strategy.

"I'll repeat that. I want you to have passion [but] you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness but action. Not just hashtags but votes. You see, change requires more than righteous anger."

There was also a call for young black graduates to put themselves in the minds of others, police officers who may have bias or "the middle-aged white guy" who "you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change and feels powerless to stop it."

"You got to get in his head, too," he said.

Amid an election that has seen millions of white Republican voters embrace Donald Trump's populist message, Obama tried to offer a strategy.

"There's been a trend around the country of trying to get colleges to disinvite speakers with a different point of view or disrupt a politician's rally. Don't do that. No matter how ridiculous or offensive."

"My grandmother used to tell me, every time a fool speaks, they are just advertising their own ignorance.

"Let them talk."

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An Iranian director sentenced to 223 lashes for making a film that has never been officially shown in his homeland said Friday he just wanted to be left alone to work rather than "be turned into a hero".



Keywan Karimi ran into trouble with Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards over a documentary he shot called "Writing on the City" about graffiti in the capital Tehran.



He spent 15 days in solitary confinement in 2013 and was accused of making "propaganda against the regime" and "insulting religious values".



But since then, the young avant-garde filmmaker told AFP, several other "ridiculous" charges have been added including drinking alcohol, having extramarital affairs and making pornography.



"All I was doing was filming what was being written on the walls of Tehran," said the 33-year-old, who comes from the country's Kurdish minority.



Karimi was sentenced to six years in prison in 2015 but after an international outcry in which acclaimed Iranian directors including Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf rallied to his support, five years of the term was suspended.



The threat of the 233 lashes has not however been lifted, and the prison authorities are now demanding that the punishment be carried out.

"I am not a political activist," Karimi told AFP in a telephone interview. "I am not being sent to prison because I oppose the regime but because I am a filmmaker."



The police have contacted him several times but have not yet arrested him to bring him to prison to be whipped and serve his sentence, he said.



"Writing on the City" has since been shown at film festivals in France, Spain and Switzerland and in the meantime Karimi has continued working on another film project.



"I am waiting for them to come for me. The support I have received helps break the solitude and solidarity from the film world also warms my heart," he added.



Karimi said that he could have immigrated "quite easily but I want to remain to defend my right to live my life.



"The fact that my artistic activity is seen as an act of political opposition says a lot about the situation in Iran," he added.



"When the (Turkish Kurdish director) Yilmaz Guney won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for his film 'Yol' (in 1982), he said that cinema was a part of his political activism.



"He was an activist who was part of a political organisation. But what I draw from his experience is that making films is also a kind of struggle, a struggle in defence of the courage to think," Karimi insisted.



"I do not want to be turned into a hero. Whether my films are seen and I become well-known is really secondary. Cinema is what gives sense to my life."

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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During his recent stay in Cairo, India-based French dancer and choreographer Gilles Chuyen spoke with Ahram Online about the Bollywood-style shows, Teamwork Arts, his own creative 'laboratory' In Step and passion for India

The fourth edition of India by the Nile, a multidisciplinary arts festival, takes place between 23 April and 7 May, bringing a variety of Indian offerings to six cities: Cairo, Alexandria, Ismailia, Port Said, Sharm Al-Sheikh and Beni Sweif. The festival invites the audience to enjoy the many layers of Indias culture, this year presenting Odissi classical dance, an Indian Ocean fusion band as well as Indian cuisine and wellbeing exercises among many other elements.

But to many Egyptian followers of Indias films and TV series, the glimpse of Bollywood is the festivals core attraction. Following its annual tradition, on 22 April, the Indian artists marked their arrival to Egypt with a Bollywood-style dance flash mob that took place at Cairo International Airport. The event was just a small teaser for the musical Bollywood Love Story, which was staged at the Cairo Opera House on 26-29 April and at the Alexandria Opera House on 3-4 May.

Produced and directed by Teamwork Arts (read the interview with the companys head Sanjoy Roy here), the show is choreographed by the India-based French dancer Gilles Chuyen. It depicts two protagonists in love whose happiness is obstructed by a villain. As to be expected of a typical Bollywood-style fairy tale, love wins in the end, but on the way to the happy ending the spectator is offered a highly dynamic treat with rich costumes, sparkling colours and well-known songs from the Bollywoods repertoire.

We all know about the Bollywood film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay). As it developed over the past century, it also became a style of acting and dancing. However, the Teamwork Arts is based in Delhi. With musicals such as Love Story, we bring a sample of the Bollywoods spirit to the stage. In those productions, we do not work with the film stars but rather we incorporate the well-known songs, dance and visuals into a storyline created by Sanjoy Roy himself, choreographer Gilles Chuyen explains.

He adds that shows such as Love Story or the Bollywood Extravaganza (which was staged in Egypt last year) are the companys products for export. We do not really perform those musicals inside India, where people can see and experience Bollywood on a daily basis. Today, in India, people crave for other shows, those based on the contemporary dance for instance.

Chuyen adds that Love Story too was performed in Egypt in 2014, during the second edition of India by the Nile. This year the storyline remains the same, but many of the songs, sets and costumes, as well as the cast including the narrator are new. Since 2008, the show has toured dozens of countries. Chuyen confirms that it is always received with great acclaim and enthusiasm regardless of the audiences background. The same is true of Teamwork Arts newer production, the Bollywood Extravaganza musical.

Chuyen explains that those shows allow people to dream again and get transformed, even if this takes place for a short while. You would notice how at the beginning of the show the audience is very calm and as the performance progresses, they stand up and even join in the dance. Shows like the Bollywood Love Story talk to their emotions and have a power to open up human expression. And the reason is very simple: in Bollywood, everything is bigger and louder than life and even if many of its elements might not make sense, it is exactly the kind of reverie that attracts the audience."

"If you decide to approach those shows with a very critical mind, reproving each element, maybe Bollywood is not the choice for you. They still speak to many people and cultures, help them open up and invite them to enjoy the experience, even if it is a short-lived one. On the other hand, those shows are simple celebrations of the Indias multilayered culture. Dont forget that India is not an idea, it is an experience of the senses, from the smells to the colours, as well as the food, and much more. Bollywood and the shows we present find joy in that versatility; they celebrate this craziness of India.

The more Chuyen talks of the Bollywood show, the more his eyes begin to shine with enthusiasm  for, to this French choreographer, these shows represent a part of his much more complex personality. The Bollywood-style dance is only a small fraction of his passion for movement as a liberating human expression. In our conversation, he soon reveals that dance represents one of the fundamental components of his wide creative, academic and spiritual journey. I discover that Chuyens life-story intertwines profound academia with a passion for life.

Indias adopted Frenchman

Born in France, Gilles Chuyen has many kinds of blood. With a grandfather from Vietnam  hence name Chuyen  he is quarter French, quarter German, quarter Spanish and quarter Vietnamese. He swiftly points to his familys cultural background as the reason behind his fondness for Asias culture and history. Though he practises many aspects of creativity  painting and writing as well as dance  Chuyen stresses that he has always been particularly interested in dance.

Since I was a small child, I danced in folkloric groups in the south of France where we lived. I would also try choreographing different tableaux with family and friends. I always enjoyed designing the dances and working with bigger groups.

Though the dance played an important role in the young mans life  he did ballet for more than ten years, explored other genres, touching on modern jazz, contemporary, etc  he cultivated this passion alongside his regular studies. For several years, he continued to divide his life between dance and the Institute of Political Studies at the Aix-Marseille III University. It was the latter faculty, he believed, that could help him understand the world. And though the academia provided knowledge, to Chuyen it also opened an even wider territory of questions about life and spirituality.

As Chuyen explains, those questions directed him to many readings and once you explore life you will automatically find yourself in the literature of India. It is a country that gives you a wealth of knowledge and truth. I found that in India, there are many perspectives on life, each fascinating and deeply enriching. Chuyen completed his university and MA in political science in France and received a scholarship to proceed with a PhD in India, where he wanted to do a field work.

At this stage, I was already leaning towards a mix between political science and sort of political anthropology. My PhD thesis was titled Who is a Brahmin? The Politics of Identity in India and the book that I published afterwards revolved around the understanding of the connection between politics and religion in India, with the caste system being an essential part of my work focusing on Brahmins.

Chuyen adds that the four years of his PhD studies allowed him to go deeper into the essence of India and its complex society. It was a fascinating journey, one that cannot be achieved when you are a tourist. India offers many images but it needs time to decipher the messages hidden within them.

Chuyen compares those hidden messages to the mudrahs (hand gestures) and abhinayas (face expressions) practiced in Indias classical dance forms. Both components have a charismatic appearance yet at the same time they are profound encodings of meanings and centuries of cultural philosophy. And it is in this context that Chuyen expresses how lucky he feels to have been able to develop knowledge of India first from an academic and intellectual point of view.

While completing his academic mission, Chuyen also came to the realisation that my artistic and spiritual journey finally merged and dance became the core of that matter. I felt I finally found myself as I was ready to incorporate all those new experiences into a creative practice. In an interview published a few years back Chuyen recalled those days expressing, I got the courage to make the shift, from saying I dance to saying I am a dancer. I was in my 30s and Id had enough of reading and writing.

As he indulged in the dance, he also understood that dance was not about the steps, but about the energy, the rasa (which in Indian aesthetics denotes a mental state). "It is when the dancer who enters a certain mood, connects to the emotions and his own energy. This notion of energy travels from the dancer to the audience and back to the performer. It is in fact one of the core elements of Indias classical dance theory.

Chuyen further explains the concept pointing to a more obvious example in the energy created between the performers and the audience of the Bollywood show. It is this circulation of energy that transforms the whole experience, making it a journey. Understanding this truth was revolutionary to me, he stresses.

Today, as he looks back on over 20 years he has spent in India, Chuyen embraces many testimonies of his personal growth and transformation, on the artistic and spiritual levels. Apart from working in the Bollywood-dance for 14 years now, he also touches on many undertones of creative expression. He gives workshops, and works with dance and theatre troupes.

In 2007, he launched his dance company called In Step, which is sort of a laboratory where I do research. I hold workshops, I create shows. It is in this company that I use whatever I have learnt through meditation, yoga and other experiences which allowed me to understand myself better.

With In Step, Chuyen presented several shows in which he explores and puts in practice the creative and emotional triggers, abstract notions or emotions, he has collected over the years. On the technical level, Chuyens works fuse contemporary dance techniques with Indian classical dance elements, with the latter being obvious in the work of the hands.

This creative fusion is apparent in Prakriti (Nature, 2009), for instance, where the dancers, as the title indicates, walk the viewers through the elements of Mother Nature. On the stage we find a small group of the performers who depict the images and behaviours of wild flora and fauna. The soundtrack underlines the natural environment. At a certain moment, each dancer depicts a tree which transforms into a larger than life insect. In 2011, Chuyen also choreographed Bija which is the story of a flower and a butterfly. This show tackled topics of female and male energies.

Truth's Colors

But there is also another layer in Chuyens creative mind: colour. Whether in the process of work, choreography or while he paints, colour is not limited to a shade or a tone perceived by the eyes. Chuyen finds in a given colour a particular energy and sees it in music.

I remember, as a small child I would imagine that even words have distinctive colours and shades. Equally, the music carries different colours, he clarifies, explaining how his creative process is embedded in this belief. In all my work with Teamwork Arts, the director Sanjoy Roy works on a storyline and the mise-en-scene. Then we choose music. As I listen to the final selection, I close my eyes and feel the colours. This directs me to movement, as well as the concrete colours that should characterise each character. He adds that he also makes many decisions regarding the costumes and their colours.

In fact, the very first performance that the In Step company staged was titled Colors (2007). For two or three months we worked on different vibrations of the colours: red, purple, orange, yellow, blue, etc. Each of them was represented by one dancer. While imagining those colours, the dancers captured each colours unique energies which in return triggered their emotions. Then they translated this charge into movement. Following individual experimentation with a given colour, Chuyen would join the dancers in pairs. He explains that some of those colours fit together perfectly, while others did not match. He also believes that the whole experience allowed the dancers to discover themselves as human beings and touch on many elements of their personalities, breaking their emotional blocks and as such becoming a healing experience.

One of Chuyens recent performances, titled The Color White, is a solo contemporary dance show which he created in collaboration with an India-based Iranian musician, Fakhroddin Ghaffari. As Chuyen dresses in a white gown and whirls, reminding us of the Mevlevi tradition, he finds in white purification, innocence as well as other concepts such as a white clown. Last March, The Color White was performed within the first round of Expressions  International Contemporary Dance Festival, a three-day annual event launched by the Teamwork Arts which showcases contemporary dance from India and the West.

As he dances, exploring concepts and colours, Chuyen continues to ask questions. One such poignant inquiry came in the course of a performance entitled What Is Dance, a contemporary dance show he choreographed in 2014 with In Step. The performance is linked to a book of the same title which Chuyen is in process of writing. The performance represents his reflections on the creative journey and his attempt to answer questions related to dance as one of the fundamental forms of expression. On Facebook, he accompanies the performances inquisitive title with a few simple words aimed at providing a concise definition: form, rhythm, concept, color, emotion, memory and energy.

He explains it further in our conversation: In my workshops, I often tell the participants that dance is like cooking. The more ingredients you have, the richer the recipe becomes. Our bodies consist of all those ingredients. Chuyen speaks about two components which are dominant in many Western dance traditions: form (created through body) and rhythm. Form is related to space, rhythm to time. It is perfectly alright to build dance on those concepts only, yet there are many more layers to dance. We also have breath, emotions, memories, we can feel colours. I explore all those components with dancers but also with the audience.

It is in dance that Chuyens research, intellectual, artistic and spiritual developments ultimately meet since to him answering the question of what dance is also an answer to who am I? Chuyen captured the same thought in an online video interview which followed his performance during the Expressions festival: Dance is not about technique, dance is using technique to express. In another post on the In Step Facebook page, he adds that dance for me is like a magic wand reenergizing the connection to my Self, with creativity guiding me into the mysteries of Creation.

Touring the world, working with the Teamworks Arts and in his laboratory, Chuyen seems to have his hands full. While he moves on his creative journey of self-discovery, each time he finds an answer to one question, he ends up asking more questions. Yet to Chuyen this is the natural process of growth and development. As an artist, he keeps dancing, directs and choreographs, paints and writes. He works with theatre troupes and gives workshops. Having lived in India for over 20 years Chuyen does not plan to leave any time soon. It is in India that he has found himself:

When I first came to India I felt my mind consisted of boxes. India is about breaking all those boxes and preconceptions. India offers such a wide range of experiences and truths. Even in Hinduism alone, there are so many sects and subgroups, different ways of dressing and different customs. In India you find so many rituals, an endless variety of food. Its like a mini universe where everything is available and you are free to choose from it. At the same time people are very warm and caring. They love to connect to one another. I think that India helped me connect to the human experience. I became in touch with the texture of life.

This article was first published in Al Ahram Weekly

For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture

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Hurray! The torture has finally ended after 8 long years- a little too late I would say but better late than never. Its time to rejoice So here is raising a toast to the unnatural death of Ekta Kapoors flagship<i> rona dhona, maha drama</i> Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. May the dreaded K never return to haunt us again <br><br> Wonder why I am being so cynical? <i>Kyunki</i> it drove us to the wall, <i>Kyunki</i> it tested our patience and intelligence, <i>Kyunki</i> it portrayed us (women) in the most stereotypical fashion, <i>Kyunki</i> it did not come with a warning of watching at ones own risk and <i>Kyunki</i> one did not need a reason to detest this show or cast suspicious glances at those who did like the show. <br><br> So in case you are a Kyunki fan then please leave or forever hold your peace for this write up; its not meant for the faint hearted or weak willed. Readers discretion is advised as we are going to dive in some serious whipping and no holds barred bashing of this soggy saga. <br><br> But just like any other Balaji serial which begins on a chirpy note with the birds singing and the temple bells tolling; Kyunki wasnt all that bad initially. So I would like to venture into un-chartered waters and risk appreciating this k katha just a bit. For, like it or not, the show had the potential of being met with a different fate had many aspects been handled differently. <br><br> <b>The Good</b> <br><br> <b>Family ties:</b> A joint family in the confused 21st century was one of the major USPs that got the viewers hooked on to the show. When most of the soaps were busy celebrating nuclear family freedom, Kyunki came as a refreshing break. A show about an affluent <i>Gujarati</i> family that had a modern outlook yet traditional values immediately clicked with the audience and garnered the highest TRPs. <br><br> <b>Widow re-marriage:</b> Everything said and done, the show did break a lot of taboos. The soap, time and again, took up the cause of widow re-marriage. Tulsi, her daughter Shobha and daughter-in-law Nandini were urged to remarry once their spouses passed away. <br><br> <b>Marital rape:</b> The prima donnas of TV serials Kyunki once again took the lead in bringing the harsh reality to the fore. The loveless marriage of Nandini and Ansh served the plot to present this brutal truth. Nandini is raped by her husband Ansh, who was subsequently dragged to court by Nandini on the behest of guess who??? Anshs mother Tulsi. <br><br> <b>Mother India Tulsis killing of own son:</b> Not that I want to promote domestic violence but Tulsi killing her own son Ansh to protect her <i>bebas bahu</i> was one of the few eye popping, unbelievable, exaggerated sequences. Nevertheless, it was the right thing to do. May be killing was a little to much for anyones taste but the idea was well conveyed. <br><br> <b>Baa-the 84 yr old (or was she 400?) fashionista:</b> This was one of the few crowning moments of the show. Just when critics were breathing fire down Ektas neck to send Baa to the grave, she sends her to the school of fashion design. Once again the point was taken well. The aged cant be just nudged away, they have a life too. <br><br> Even a Kyunki basher like me feels that the show did have the potential had it not slipped from good to bad to downright ugly. <br><br> <b>The Bad</b> <br><br> <b>Blah blah blah about <i>sanskaars</i>:</b> Anyone watching the show could easily give religious channels like 'Sanskaar' and 'Aastha' a miss. The characters of the show had loads of <i>faltoo gyaan</i> to pass on to its poor moral defunct viewers any given day. <br><br> <b>Privacy went for a toss:</b> From bedroom talk to kitchen politics, everybody overheard everybody. Whether is was a husband and wife doing coochie coo or a <i>saas</i> bitching about the new bride, someone would always overhear and pass on the golden words. The motto being: if informed then better misinform. <br><br> <b>Drama queens galore:</b> Who needs dialogues, when your body language speaks volumes? Cunning smirks, weird eye moves, and look east talk west actions, exaggerated reactions reduced the dialogues to mere lip service. In fact, put the show on mute and you are as good as someone whos heard all the wailing, screeching and thundering. <br><br> <b>Sleeping beauties:</b> They smiled in make-up, they wept in make-up (water proof of course), they even slept in make-up; the characters were good enough to enter a beauty pageant on any given moment. Being glamorous is good, but did no one tell these <i>saas bahus</i> that sleeping with make-up on was a beauty disaster. Quiet literally the characters hid their true colours behind the glossy exteriors. <br><br> <b>The Ugly</b> <br><br> <b>Reverse ageing process:</b> Generations leaps had a different connotation here. The most bugging factor was the characters getting younger and sassier with each passing year. Instead of getting sober with age, they just got lousy make up jobs done and the beauticians had a ball. Getting older here meant extra coats of foundations, oodles and oodles of mascara, and even more glam accessories. <br><br> <b>Arise from the dead:</b> Grrr grrr even Ramsay Brothers would have bowed to Ekta Kapoor when she pulled Mihir out of the coffin. The day Mihir returned from the dead, the show was fated to be doomed. For the tacky scheme was used time and again as the characters deemed dead would suddenly appear and instead of going BOOM, the audience went Yawn <br><br> <b>In-law incest:</b> Being accommodating is one thing but marrying your brothers ex-wife is simply tacky. Every now and then a wife would leave her husband and go and marry her devar. What kind of a sick minded plot was the show promoting? <br><br> <b><i>Saaziish</i> and more <i>saazish</i>:</b> Mindless conspiracies ruled and misunderstandings were the order of the day. Just when something good would happen; the bad immediately followed leaving room for ample of drama. <br><br> It will always remain a mystery as to how a serial so banal and plot-dead, where the characters always remained dressed as if they were attending a barat or a Halloween party, could become so popular. <br><br> But like it or not Kyunki was one the most popular shows the telly has ever known. But with the channel the tying a goose around its neck and finally sending it to the dungeons, all I am left is with a list of if only that could have saved it from its unprecedented death <br><br> If only Mihir had not died or brought back from the dead on popular demand, if only the characters looked their part, if only Baa bid adieu before she turned 400, if only the family members understood the term privacy, if only Ekta Kapoor gave some credit to the viewers intelligence and did not take them for a ride, if only Tulsi did not have to be such a goody two shoes. The show could have been bearable!
My sole motivation behind letting myself into that abominable prison house called school was the little white stick that my mother allowed me to grab and lick after the classes were over. I used to look with wishful eyes the attractive white box of ice cream walla who also had other varieties-the red tangy one that came in twenty five paisa, the slightly yellow one that came in fifty paisa and the expensive white creamy one that came in full one rupee. My mother had warned me against eating the orange one as she said it contained worms that came out if you sprinkled salt on it! So my childhood remained deprived of that one single taste that so often contented the appetite of my not-so-affluent friends. <BR><BR> When I went to college I read about globalisation, about the invasion of markets by foreign goods and of absolute wiping out of the local economy by organized production houses. But I could not understand these things till one day while crossing from near my school my eyes failed to spot that old ice cream walla whose presence had become such an inseparable part of the entire set up. It came as a rude shock to me that his place was now taken by three four colourful wheeled vans endorsing attractive logos and pictures of branded ice cream. <BR><BR> That changes are always for better or worse is like putting an emotion into plain black and white. I may have in my own personal way some attachment with the white stick ice cream or with the more expensive soapy, frothy softie of my school days but the accessibility, taste and variety that the present day ice cream industry is offering is no doubt incomparable. <BR><BR> Who would have thought barely a decade ago of eating ice creams made of real fresh fruits- a la Gelato Vittorio or a cool creamy liquid fried in hot boiling oil or what is called today the fried ice cream. <BR><BR> In India the ice cream industry took sometimes to catch the global cue because the country has an indigenous rich and well developed dessert market. What ice cream would stand in competition against Indian sweets? But no you cant say so just because you are born in the land of Kulfi. You will have the authority only when you taste Baked Alaska (an ice-cream sponge cake dish topped with meringue), Arctic roll (British dessert made of vanilla and flour), Adzuki (Japanese red bean ice cream) and Dondruma( a Turkish ice made of salep and mastic resin). <BR><BR> We Indians who generally go gaga over a handful of varieties that Baskin Robbins offers are unaware of the fact that the company actually makes 1000 flavours! What we get in India generally as branded ice cream is nothing but milk and corn flour seasoned with a few chemicals and packed in attractive cones, cups and cornettos. Our knowledge of Ice cream is so poor that we do not even know what cornetto is! Most of us think it is the name of an ice cream that Kwality offers. Update your dictionary- it is actually the registered name of an improved variety of waffle cone that does not become soggy and that was invented and patented by an Italian firm called Spica in 1960! <BR><BR> The world offers so much in shape of that delicate, cool, tender delight called ice cream that I being a lover of it feel choked with emotion at my own minisculeness and misfortune of not having tasted even a fraction of that tremendous, rich and inexhaustible treasure. What is thy life O mortal, my heart cries out, if thou hast not known the glories of the Australian Giant Sandwich Monster, the Manoco Bar, the Irish Scottish Sliders, the Argentine Helado, the Greek Kimaki and the Japanese Macha! <BR><BR> Sometimes I wonder whether there is an intricate connection between the survival of a race and its appetite for ice cream! Otherwise why would the Greeks, the Romans, the Chinese and the Persians survive the ravages of time and the Glorious Harappan civilization fade into oblivion? And let us be pragmatic and not blame some harmless ecology or innocent river for their decline. The reason I am sure was hidden in their food habits-they having failed to secure the divine blessings of the Gods. Yes, thats precisely what the ancient Greeks called ice cream! Imagine what foodies they must have been that nearly 4000 years ago they got for themselves ice houses constructed at the banks of Euphrates and as early as 5th century BC they began its marketing by selling ice cones mixed with fruit and honey. A honey flavoured cornetto.! <BR><BR> Roman emperor Nero (62 AD) was fond of fruit ice cream and hence sent his servants to fetch ice from mountains! The Falooda that we eat today is actually a Persian dish Faloodeh made from starch and has its origin around 400BC. The Chinese who claim to be the pioneers in almost everything -be it the first currency notes, the first stint with silk or the first to flood the markets of neighbours with cheap plastic goods-were not far behind in making ice cream too. They are credited to have invented a device that made quick ice using salt peter (no, it was not imported from Bihar, China had enough of it). <BR><BR> The unfortunate Charles I whom the world knows as an autocrat, a despot, a tyrant, an enemy of democracy and parliament was also a lover of ice cream! It is said that he made his chef keep the formula a secret so that it remained a royal prerogative. <BR><BR> Our great Mughals, we should not forget were the die hard lovers of food and all that is rich and luxurious in the modern Indian cuisine has a Mughal origin. So they too loved ice cream and they too enjoyed it in royal feasts and ceremonies. When they could get choicest fruits from Farghana and Samarquand and the best wines from Persia, why couldnt they send relays of horsemen to bring ice from Hindukush for their aromatic fruit sherbets? <BR><BR> But were sending horsemen to run and fetch ice or storing ice in underground icehouses near rivers, the only way of making ice creams in those days? Sadly, yes. And thats why the common man remained deprived of and unknown to its delectable taste. But lets thank Nancy Johnson of Philadelphia who first got the patent for a small hand run ice cream freezer. Gradually with the coming of electricity there also came a revolution in ice cream making. Thereafter Giant corporates like Howard Johnson, Dairy Queen, Baskin Robbins, Gelato Vittorio, Ben and Jerrys, Haagen Dazs and Carvel changed the concept of ice cream in the world. Soft serves, Sundaes and super premiums began to be offered by shops next door. <BR><BR> Thanks to globalisation, the world has really become a small place to live in. Today I can access any ice cream from the world over in my local confectionary shop. but among the confused tastes of multitudinous flavours I some how always try to find that one singular taste of the white stick ice-cream which trickled through my fingers and ran into my nursery uniformspoiling it but leaving an imprint on my memory which has failed to faint in all these years.
Egypt is going through harsh times relative to the economy and international relations. This ordeal is made worse not by an evil scheme, as the president says, but rather by the failure to establish a modern and transparent regime, and the adoption of a regime that grants the president unlimited powers.



The president is running the state single-handedly, or maybe with the help of a few army generals and a few leading members of the intelligence apparatus. On the face of it, Egypt is said to have a civil regime.

However, it is a regime that has a military heart and brain. And it has been historically proven that this type of regime has no chance of realising success, neither in the medium nor the long term, even if it sometimes manages to score short-term successes.

The military mentality is mostly associated with secretive decisions and the need-to-know basis sharing of information. This is incompatible with a civil regime and is actually a trusted recipe for failure, as we saw happening with the mega projects that were pursued without any thorough feasibility studies or public debate.

The extension of the Suez Canal, which was done at potentially double cost and without sufficient feasibility studies, is but one of many examples. It was completed in one year at a very high cost, and with no return revenues whatsoever.

The same goes for the new administrative capital that is being openly criticised by all experts.

This is also the case with the scheme to cultivate 1.5 million feddans in the New Valley.

I would strongly recommend those concerned to thoroughly read the relevant studies done by prominent experts, including Rushdy Saiid, among others. If they do they would become alert to the fact that this scheme is simply unrealistic.

Still these projects are underway, despite worrying criticism. This is simply due to the fact that in the military mindset all announced objectives have to be attained and all missions have to be accomplished. This is not the way things work in real life.

Then we have the "medical adventure" that promised a breakthrough in curing Hepatitis C and AIDS through a "meat-ball" medical approach. This undertaking was firmly ciriticsed by many medical doctors, including myself. We tried to warn against this silly proposal but were shrugged off. As a result, the country faced a huge medical embarrassment.

When all is said and done, the great Egyptian army can never be fully separated from the lives of Egyptians. However, at the same time, it is not particularly wise to go too far in expanding the space that the army has in attending to civil matters. The more the scope of military public engagement, the more the chances are for misunderstandings and problems.

In the mindset of many people, an army officer, unlike perhaps a police officer, is someone with considerable discipline and uprightness. It is unwise to challenge this image.

If look back at our history we would immediately recall that on the eve of the major defeat of 1967 the army had been involved in almost all aspects of state management, including agrarian laws, state-run supermarkets, and so on. This led to a military disaster as it took the army away from its major duties.

Today, we need to reconsider heavy army management of non-military state affairs. This is in the interest of the army and of the nation at large.

We have to attend to the fact that there is a large section of citizens who are held in police custody on no legal charges and without being referred to trial under an unfair and unconstitutional law.

We have to have a clear list of numbers and names, and we have to have the unconditional release of whoever is not indicted on legal charges. We are simply turning innocent citizens into potential terrorists by subjecting them to so much unfairness and torture.

Meanwhile, we need to realise that the handling of the Tiran and Sanafir file dealt a serious blow to the popularity of the president among many Egyptians who take matters related to sovereignty over territory as matters related to personal honour.

The utter absence of transparency on this matter which was dealt with away from the people, government and parliament was a big mistake, for sure.

The situation was complicated further by very unfortunate official statements both from the president, who said publicly he wanted the matter to be discussed no further, and by the speaker of the parliament who openly compromised the right of the legislative authority to oversee the Tiran and Sanafir matter and went as far as openly saying that the separation of the judiciary and executive powers could be overlooked under the current circumstances.

It seems that the entire nation is in a fix over this matter because clearly there is no will on the side of the executive power to refer the matter to parliament, for fear of a shocking rejection that would embarrass the president and incite further public discontent.

If the state cannot find an adequate accommodation on the matter with the Saudis then the only face-saving exit is to offer the agreement on the handover of the two islands from Egypt to Saudi Arabia to an honest public referendum.

I have heard some suggesting that this deal included generous financial benefits to Egypt and I think it is perfectly legitimate to ask for transparency on these assumed economic benefits. It is overdue to ask for equal transparency on all economic assistance that has been offered to Egypt since 30 June 2013.

It was very unfortunate that when there were considerable demonstrations in the heart of Cairo against this deal, two weeks ago, Egyptian TV channels, both state-run and private, declined to cover these protests in favour of airing cooking and family planning programmes. This is extremely unfortunate, harking back to the way things used to be before the January 2011 Revolution.

Finally, on this matter of Tiran and Sanafir, I would like to remind the president that Palestine was Arab and that Sudan was part of the Egyptian kingdom and that Pakistan was originally part of India and that California was part of Mexico and Hong Kong was part of the British Empire, and there are ample documents to prove all of the above.

Old documents are not the most consequential matter here. And, of course, we only need to remember that in 1906 there was no Saudi Arabia to begin with.

Ultimately, we have Egyptian soldiers who died on the lands of Tiran during the wars with Israel and we have a great many tourists who visited Tiran as an Egyptian island, while Tiran was never a destination for Saudis.

Mr President, all of the above reveals the serious threats that Egypt is facing and I think you need to think very carefully about these matters and to prudently make your choices.

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New Delhi: The CBI questioned three cousin brothers of former IAF chief S.P. Tyagi for the second consecutive day on Saturday along with a city-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan in connection with the alleged payoffs in the Rs.3,600-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal.

The three Tyagi brothers - Sanjeev, Rajiv and Sandeep - were questioned for over eight hours at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters in Delhi. Khaitan was questioned for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday.

The CBI sources said the agency has asked S.P. Tyagi, who was questioned from Monday-Wednesday, to come to the agency`s headquarters again on Monday for further questioning. He was also questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday.

Apart from S.P. Tyagi, the CBI has also called Pratap Kumar Aggarwal, the chairman of IDS Infotech Ltd (India), and Praveen Bakshi, chief executive officer of Aeromatrix Info Solution Pvt Ltd, on Monday to quiz them in the Agusta case.

Firms Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, IDS Infotech Ltd (India) and Aeromatrix India are the accused companies booked by the CBI in the First Information Report (FIR) lodged in March 2013 in connection with the AgustaWestland case.

S.P. Tyagi and 13 others, including his cousins and European middlemen, have also been named in the FIR.

The former IAF chief has been accused in Italy and India of helping AgustaWestland win the chopper contract by reducing the flying ceiling of the helicopter from 6,000 metres to 4,500 metres (15,000 feet). The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned S.P. Tyagi on Thursday in the case.

He, however, has denied the allegations against him and said the decision was reportedly taken in consultation with officials of the Special Protection Group (SPG) and the Prime Minister`s Office. Twelve helicopters were to be bought by India.

Khaitan, who is alleged to have formed shell companies to route the bribe money to India, told CBI that he had taken payments from Augusta middlemen Guido Ralph Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. He has also been a former board member of Aeromatrix.

He was also instrumental in setting up IDS Infotech (Tunisia) -- a subsidiary company of IDS Infotech (India), one of the accused companies.

The source said they have information that "lots of money" was transferred to the account of IDS Infotech Tunisia from some bank accounts in Italy. This was later sent to other countries.

But, the informed sources said, Khaitan did not give clear input about the purpose for which he had received the payments.

The chopper deal resurfaced after an Italian court last month purportedly referred to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh among others in connection with the chopper deal but gave no details of any wrongdoing by the two leaders.

The CBI has told the court that the three Tyagis were associated with Haschke and Gerosa for a long time after they entered into a consultancy with a Tunisia-based company of the two middlemen in 2004.

In January 2013, India cancelled the chopper deal and the CBI was told to investigate the bribery allegations.
New Delhi: Over 600 Aam Aadmi Party supporters, including 24 MLAs and several senior party leaders, were on Saturday detained as they took out a protest march towards the residence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging a BJP-Congress alliance in corruption.

As many as 462 persons, including 24 MLAs were detained at Parliament Street Police Station here and 140 at the police station in Tilak Marg. All detained persons were released by 2.10 PM, a senior police official said.

Following a rally at Jantar Mantar, where party chief Arvind Kejriwal and its top brass attacked Modi and his government for not taking action against Sonia Gandhi in AgustaWestland chopper scam, groups led by Sanjay Singh and Kumar Vishwas went to gherao residences of the Prime Minister and the Congress President.

Kejriwal left the venue before the protest march began. Several AAP MLAs, including Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Bandana Kumar, participated in it.

Police, which had made extensive preparations by putting up three layers of barricades, also detained senior AAP leaders which include Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Dilip Pandey.

While the group of 462 was detained from the first layer of barricade in Parliament Street as they started their march from Jantar Mantar, the other group comprising 140 AAP supporters were detained earlier in the day as they reached directly close to the barricading near the PM's residence in 7 Race Course Road here, the senior official said.

"The protesters were detained under Section 144 of CrPC," DCP (New Delhi) Jatin Narwal said.
Panaji: Troubles seem to be mounting for Goa lawmaker Babush Monserrate, who has been accused in alleged rape of a 16-year-old Nepali girl, as another accused in the case surrendered today.

Rosy Ferros, the third accused, who was on the run till now, surrendered before the crime branch today morning.

According to police sources, they have found certain crucial evidence from the surrendered accused and are also said to have recovered victim's mobile phone from her. It is believed that Ferror introduced victim's stepmother to MLA Monserrate who sold her in exchange of Rs 50 lakh. The police had earlier also arrested the mother of the victim on the charges of trafficking.

Monserrate has been accused of raping a 16-year old Nepali girl at his bungalow in Goa. Monserrate, who is currently in police custody, has been charged in rape as well as human trafficking in a police case.

Meanwhile, the lawmaker has rubbished all charges against him and said that the complaint against him was a result of a political conspiracy. He also claimed that the teen used to work at a shop owned by him and was fired for stealing Rs 4,000.

Monserrate was elected to the St Cruz constituency on a Congress ticket, but was sacked from the party after he started hobnobbing with the BJP. He has been booked in the past for extortion.

His son Rohit was also arrested for allegedly raping a minor German girl five years back, but was later acquitted.



On Friday, in a statement before the police, the victim said that her stepmother and another woman had sold her to Monserratte for Rs 50 lakh. She also alleged that Monserrate spiked her drink and then raped her at his bungalow in Goa.
New Delhi: Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday asserted that someone very powerful was involved in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper bribery scandal.

Speaking to ANI, Parrikar said he did not take anybody's name (while speaking in Parliament) but added that it's clear someone very powerful was involved in corruption .

The minister further said all angles need to be investigated in the case that pertains to acquisition of 12 VVIP choppers for a cost of over Rs 3600 crores.

All documents need proper reading, Parrikar added.

He separately told PTI that the government will not hesitate to take action against those who are proven guilty of corruption whether it's the first family or the last family, as no one is above law.

"I feel no one is above the law. So whether it is the last family or the first, I don't see any reason why anyone should be given a differential treatment, provided you have proper legal evidence," Parrikar said.

He said this in response to a question on whether the government could take on the Gandhi family, which is often referred to as the first family of Indian politics.

The minister, while referring to his statement in the Lok Sabha in which he hoped to do what could not be done in the Bofors case, said, "We have the intention and seriousness and I will ensure that proper and good attempts are made. So there is every possibility we may be able to (do)."

Speaking in the Lok Sabha yesterday, Parrikar had said that the previous UPA government had "done everything" to help AgustaWestland bag the chopper deal.

He had also asserted that the main beneficiaries of the kickbacks will be tracked so that "may be we can do" what "we could not do in Bofors".

The "entire corruption" in the deal took place during the UPA tenure but former Air Force chief SP Tyagi and businessman Gautam Khaitan are "small people" who "simply washed their hands in a flowing ganga (of corruption)" and that the government will "find out where the river was going".

An Italian court judgement in the case has mentioned the names of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, and former prime minister Manmohan Singh but did not say whether these people were involved.
New Delhi: Four of the ten terror suspects who were detained by Delhi Police for their alleged ideological leaning towards banned outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) were on Saturday released due to lack of adequate evidence, three days after being questioned by the anti-terrorism unit.

Of the four, three are residents of east Delhi's Chand Bagh locality and the other from Ghaziabad's Loni area. They were let off from the Special Cell's Lodhi Colony office this evening.

They were freed after investigators said they did not find adequate evidence to prove their involvement in the suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed ring, which was busted earlier this week with the arrest of three youths and Improvised Explosive Device were recovered from their possession, police sources said.

As many as 13 persons were picked up by the Special Cell after a late night operation on Tuesday. Of them, three have been arrested, four let off and six are still being questioned by the investigators.
There isn't one media discourse in any society. But there is a dominant discourse that is not only competing with less influential opposing or marginalised discourses, but also cooperating, coexisting and borrowing from them

Generally, discourse in any society is the entire body of words and deeds, and it is social practice. Media discourse conveys this social practice to the audience through media, which has its declared and undeclared prejudices.

Hence, it is necessary to analyse communication and media processes regarding formation, ownership, work regulations, the nature of the political regime, the audience and the discourses they produce.

This is done in order to get to know the extent of capability and accuracy in conveying reality and what its strategies are, what it conceals or highlights and for whose interests does it work or be employed.

Of course, there is a reciprocal effect between media, producing the discourse and disseminating it, to the extent that it is rather difficult to discern the difference between them except for the necessities of study and attempts at understanding.

Media industry, laws and professional media traditions represent one form of social practices, i.e. discourse. Communication and media as a process have political, social and cultural facets which in its turn are included in the heart of the social practice and are affected by the dominant general atmosphere and societal circumstances.

Thus, Manuel Castells asserts that power in a society of networks is based on controlling communication and media, whether this power is exercised by the state, big corporations or other kinds of organisations.

As a beginning, we must agree that the media is not the perfect process which school books propagate as being the entire communicational activities which supply the audience with truths, correct news, information and sound opinions regarding issues, topics and problems.

It is the absolute opposite, for most of what is presented in the mass media is not committed to truths or convey reality as it is, it rather presents some of its facets. It may delete or add, exaggerate or trivialise, because it works under many extremely complicated kinds of compulsion.

Even media messages, whether they are news or opinions, are the outcome of balances and social negotiations between journalists themselves, governments and vested interests in society.

In this frame, it is agreed upon and axiomatic that he who owns the media influences directly and indirectly its work and news coverage. Moreover, the income earned from advertisements represents one of the mechanisms of influence in the work of media.

To sum up, it is impossible to accept the definition or the scholastic concept of media because it speaks about situations that do not exist in reality on the ground. Even many of historys events and courses refute and deny its authenticity.

However, this concept can be acceptable as a virtual matter or idealistic description which humanity seeks to achieve. I think that it is difficult to achieve, and all that can be done is considering that this concept is an idealistic model or an ultimate objective which citizens and those working in the media struggle and strive to achieve through clear legislations, professional regulations and journalists syndicates everywhere.

It is worth mentionion here that journalists can sometimes have the capability to resist and circumvent many restrictions and kinds of compulsion to pass on media messages they think it serves public interest.

As for the realistic side, we should deal with the old and new means of communication and media and the entire forms of social media on the bases that they present daily and at every moment a changing and unbalanced blend of media in its idealistic concept and propaganda with its concept and negative dimensions and connotations.

Regarding form and content, this blend belongs to the world of media, advertisement, propaganda, promotion and public relations.

Therefore I always ask in my writings that members of the public deal critically with what the media presents to them, especially the communication technology, which provided every person with the capability to follow and compare between every news or opinion via different means of media.

They will discover the degrees of difference and diversity regarding the extent of accuracy, depth and comprehensiveness of covering this news or opinion.

However, this critical follow-up and comparison between different kinds of media coverage requires the existence of an active recipient. This is a difficult matter which is not available except among limited sections of Arab audiences characterised with knowledge, awareness and the availability of time and effort necessary to perform these untraditional roles in dealing with media.

An academic debate has begun  and has not been settled to this day  regarding whether social media users can be included among the active audience who is capable of choosing and critical comparison between kinds of media coverage or it is a submissive audience like the traditional media audience.

This kind of audience is those who sit in front of the television submissive in a voluntary way to what is presented to them in the form of one perspective media discourse despite the multiplicity of channels, images and forms which propagate this discourse and their differences.

If we moved to media discourse, it is certain that there is no single media discourse, but instead there exist competing media discourses. However, there is always a dominant and widespread media discourse regardless of its accuracy in conveying social practices. It is important to pay attention to analyse the dominant media discourse and how it is produced, who finances it, how it is disseminated, its relations with power, ideology and hegemony over society, whether it reflects the predominant cultural bias and discrimination within society or if it produces other forms of discrimination.

Undoubtedly, language and images play extremely important roles in the analytical criticism of the discourse of language, and images are ideological choices. Moreover, media discourse is a practice with an ideological nature from the perspectives of formation and influence. Hence, schools of discourse analysis used a concept regarding ideology and ideological control which is the closest thing to Neo-Gramscianism, where Van Dyck and others agree that practising power in modern democratic societies did not depend on compulsion in the first place but on persuasion or soft hegemony in the Gramscian sense.

I add that the undemocratic countries also depend on soft hegemony where it has become a basic rule in falsifying peoples awareness and shaping public opinion and manufacturing whats known as national consensus.

In order to realise soft hegemony of media, an attractive media discourse in form and content is to be produced and be capable of falsifying reality and manipulating minds without the audience realising this.

Members of the audience follow this predominant media discourse out of their free will and become accustomed to consuming this discourse on daily basis and refuse or resist any different discourses.

The irony lies in that members of the persuaded audience, who are happy with what they see and follow on media, may refuse or resist marginalised or discarded discourses regardless of its importance or perhaps its truthfulness and correct expression of reality.

However, the general refusal of these discourses lessens its effectiveness and impact on society. Hence, it remains subsidiary and marginalised in spite of its presence and hustle in social media. What is confirmed is that preventing media discourses in traditional means of media drive them to be strongly present on social media platforms.

But, this presence does not always guarantee strong influence or the ability to change public opinion. For the social media is not exclusive to marginalised discourses, it is rather an open space for the presence of the predominant discourse, which may be its presence is reinforced via social media.

What is interesting is that there are many studies that observed what is known as inter-discourse between the predominant media discourse of power and the discourses opposing it and the marginalised discourses.

This means that the relationship is not restricted to competition and conflict; it takes other patterns such as coexistence, cooperation, borrowing and political and propagandist re-utilisation.

In this respect, it is possible that the predominant media discourse borrows some concepts, ideas and images from the competing discourses and re-utilises them for its own benefit, such as defending minorities, respecting human rights, social justice and immigrants rights and other concepts.

Similarly, marginalised and opposition discourses may borrow prevalent concepts and ideas in the predominant discourse, such as preserving the strength of the state, respecting the law, the priority of development.

This confirms the relativity of concepts used in media discourses and its ability to be borrowed and be mutually utilised among competing media discourses in society.

I think some forms of inter-discourse may be beneficial in realising a kind of national consensus, especially in the light of a democratic climate and mature political practices that elevate public interest over narrow partisan or sectarian interests.

But, on the other hand, the inter-discourse may lead to negative effects on the meaning of many concepts and ideas and their credibility among wide sections of media discourse consumers. Perhaps their confidence in media discourses might decline or suffer from befuddlement and confusion.

The writer is dean of the Faculty of Communication and Mass Media at the British University in Egypt (BUE).

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Noida: Sounding a word of caution to students on education loans, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said they should not fall prey to 'unscrupulous schools' which leave them with high debt and "useless degrees".

Observing that education at high quality research universities will remain expensive in near future, he said efforts should be made to make degrees affordable to all deserving students.

One part of the solution is student loans, he said, adding "we have to be careful that student loans are repaid in full by those who have the means, while they are forgiven in part for those who fall on bad times, or those who take low paying public service jobs."

In his convocation address at the Shiv Nadar University, he said, "we also should make sure that unscrupulous schools do not prey on uninformed students, leaving them with high debt and useless degrees."

The Governor said private education across the world is expensive and is getting more expensive all the time.

Beginning his address in a lighter vein, Rajan said he embarks on this talk comforted by the knowledge that the "bar for convocation speeches is low."

"If you even remember a word I say a few years from now, I will have surpassed the average convocation speaker most people don't remember who spoke at their convocation, let alone what they said."

Rajan, a globally known economist, emphasised that free market is not fair saying even well-run market economies seem to be favouring those who already have plenty.

"In part, this is because skills and capabilities have become much more important in well-paid jobs, and those born in good circumstances have a much better chance at acquiring these," he said.

While education loan is one solution to make degrees

affordable, philanthropy, not just by the founders, but by the successful students from a university, can also play an important role, Rajan said.

"Giving back to the university is a way of subsidising the costs of future generations acknowledging the subsidies you received from the founders when you got your degree. I hope we develop a strong culture of alumni giving in India," he said.

He also said Reserve Bank was in touch with the government to deal with issues related to education loan.

Referring to a book by renowned Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel, who seems to prescribe banning monetary transactions, the Governor said in a free market, all it takes to buy what you want is money.

"You do not need a pedigree, a great family history, the right table manners, or the right fashionable clothing or looks," Rajan said.

Money has no odour and is a great equaliser, that so many people across history have been able to acquire resources and invested them to make this world, he added.

"Indeed, making it easy for Dalits to start businesses may do more for their social status because money empowers than many other forms of affirmative action. Rather than prohibiting the use of money and wealth, let us think about increasing society's tolerance for its use," said Rajan.

Speaking about the country's GDP, he said: "I have no problem with India's growth. It is doing great. It could do better".

India has emerged as one of the fastest growing large economies in the world with a growth rate of 7.6 per cent in 2015-16 fiscal.
New Delhi: As war of words continue between Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress over the Rs 3600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, newly-appointed Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on Saturday made a sensational revelation that a 'paid news journalist' is being interrogated in connection with the alleged scam.

Not only this, the BJP MP also claimed that the Enforcement Directorate is looking at another journalist, who also got Rs 5 crore from Rafale deal.

The first paid news journalist in AW scam to be interrogated. On trail, ED is looking at another journo who also got Rs.5 crores from Rafael  Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) May 7, 2016

Both Lok Sabha nd Rajya Sabha have been witnessing a huge furore after over the alleged VVIP chopper scam.

The issue has become major political affair in the country after a court in Milan, Italy, jailed AgustaWestland's former head Bruno Spagnolini on the charges of false accounting and corruption in the sale of the firm's 12 VVIP choppers to India.

Some documents submitted to the court contain the names of former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political adviser Ahmad Patel and former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi.

As negotiations between India and France for the sale of 36 Rafale jet fighters are on, a parliamentary panel recently expressed its displeasure over the non-conclusion of the deal.

The deal for the purchase of Rafale jets in fly-away condition was inked during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to France in April last year.
Chandigarh: The Haryana Vigilance Department on Saturday registered an FIR against former state chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for his alleged involvement in the National Herald case.

Hooda, who as the chief minister was the ex-officio chairman of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), has been accused of illegally transferring land to Associated Journals Ltd (AJL), which published the newspaper, at Panchkula in 2005.

Hooda has been charged with cheating and breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and also criminal misconduct under Prevention of Corruption Act.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy had accused the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by paying just Rs. 50 lakh, by which Young Indian (YI) obtained the rights to recover Rs 90.25 crore which the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) had owed to the Congress Party.

Swamy had earlier alleged that over Rs. 2,000 crore worth of assets also got transferred to YI, whose 76 percent of shareholding is with Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, while the remaining 24 percent shareholding is with the other accused.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, both states facing drought in some parts, as well as the chief minister of Karnataka and said that the Centre, states, local bodies, NGOs and citizens must work together to deal with problems posed by drought in parts of the country.

PM Modi asked the state leaders to generate awareness among people in their respective states to use water resources judiciously.

"Had a productive meeting with UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on the drought situation in various parts of UP. The various drought mitigation measures undertaken in the state were discussed extensively in the meeting," Modi tweeted after meeting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

Yadav apprised the prime minister of the work done by the state government for farmers and drought-affected areas. Nearly 50 districts are facing drought in Uttar Pradesh which is reeling under acute water scarcity.

In yet another tweet, Modi said: "Akhilesh Yadav and I discussed the need to effectively utilize the period before monsoon for water recharge and conservation efforts. Usage of latest technology and community participation, particularly of our Nari Shakti can play a key role in effective drought management."

The prime minister told Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that the government must focus on medium and long-term solutions to tackle drought in various parts of the state.

He also stressed on the importance of using water efficiently through drip irrigation and sprinklers in agriculture, stating that drip irrigation in sugarcane increases the quality of sugar.

The prime minister said there was a need to adopt a judicious mix of traditional and modern water conservation and storage mechanisms. He said that a lot can be learnt from the water management practices and measures adopted by Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Chief Minister Fadnavis said that his government was working on a plan to ensure that the entire sugarcane belt in Maharashtra comes under drip irrigation in three years.

Modi also discussed all water related problems in Karnataka with Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah.

Drought-like conditions prevail in several states across the country with Maharashtra and Odisha being the worst affected.

People in the parched areas continued to suffer from the scarcity of water even as crops over hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have been severely affected.

Besides Maharashtra and Odisha, some parts of states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are experiencing severe water scarcity and drought-like conditions.
New Delhi: All three militants were gunned down by security forces following hours of a fierce gunbattle in south Kashmir's Pulwama district on Saturday morning.

"Three local militants belonging to Hizbul Mujahideen outfit were killed today morning (Saturday) in Panzgam village of Pulwama district, a senior police officer told IANS.

"When the cordon around the hiding militants was tightened, they resorted to indiscriminate firing at the surrounding security men triggering an encounter.

"Firing at the encounter site has stopped, but search operation was still on," said the officer.

Troopers from Rashtriya Rifles, special operations group and central reserve police force surrounded Panzgam village late Friday and the encounter started around 3.30 am. (With inputs from agencies)
Jammu: Accusing ruling ally BJP of "sell out" to appease separatist forces, former minister and Udhampur MLA Pawan Gupta Saturday said there is a "conspiracy" going on to demilitarise the Valley and the party is an "equal stakeholder" in that.

"There is a conspiracy going on in the state wherein the BJP is an equal stakeholder, the conspiracy to demilitarise Kashmir Valley by gradually removing the army," Gupta told reporters here.

Gupta fought and won 2014 Assembly polls as a BJP rebel. Later he announced his allegiance to the party. He was MoS in the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed-led BJP-PDP alliance government. He was dropped when Mehbooba Mufti took over.

He said the army bunkers are being dismantled and they are being asked to vacate the land in the Valley.

"It clearly shows that the BJP-PDP government is following Hurriyat's agenda," he said.

He alleged the "dismantling" of the army bunkers is aimed at winning support in Anantnag assembly by-elections, poll necessitated due to demise of former CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir's youth have been the "biggest casualty" of more than two decades of violence in the state, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday said and promised to "heal their scars" by securing their future.

"I admire your perseverance to go on, despite the cycle of violence that snatched your childhood. I promise to heal your scars by securing your future," Mehbooba said during meetings with youth delegations from different parts of the Valley.

The Chief Minister also asked youngsters to become role models in propagating the message of peace and harmony that Islam teaches.

"It is very disturbing to see our youth getting sucked into the vortex of violence when they should be attending schools and colleges," she said.

Referring to years of turbulence that have wreaked havoc on all growth indicators, Mehbooba said she wanted to bring the focus back on the potential of youth and channelise the same for rebuilding the state.

"Only peace and stability will enable us to invest in empowerment, education and employment of youth in the state. Increasing investment in young people is the key and this includes quality education and skill development that prepares you better for future opportunities," she said.

Mehbooba said she would work for creating an enabling environment that allows abundant employment opportunities for youngsters.

The Chief Minister vowed to mobilise all resources at her disposal to firmly entrench a system where merit would be the sole determinant of selection, either in government or private sector.

"I look forward to provide them a level-playing field to succeed collectively," she said.

"The government will try to tap the huge potential in tourism, hospitality, horticulture, industry and floriculture segments so that the avenues of productive employment are created for our youth," she said.

She sought co-operation of youngsters in creating a "feel-good factor" for tourists, which would go a long way in increasing visitors' footfall in the state.

She also batted for youth to take up agri-entrepreneurship in a big way, especially in horticulture sector where economic returns are very high.

Mehbooba also stressed on a more proactive role for Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) so that it reaches out to talented youngsters at the district level by enhancing their skills and providing them hassle-free access to finance.

Youth delegations from Kupwara, Baramulla, Budgam, Shopian, Pulwama, Ganderbal and Kulgam met the Chief Minister and brought into her notice various issues confronting them.
Bengaluru: A four-year-old minor girl was sexually assaulted at a summer camp in the IT City, according to reports.

Police have arrested a 21-year-old youth for allegedly molesting the girl. The accused has been identified by the name of Peter and is one of the faculty members.

According to information, he was produced before the court following which he was taken into custody. Police have registered a case under POCSO Act.

A medical test was conducted on the minor girl today.

As per the report, the victim was attending a summer camp in a Bengaluru school on May 3, when the incident took place.

A series of similar incidents have taken place in Bengaluru schools in the past. Last year,

In 2014, a teacher was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a six-year-old child in Bengaluru school after the classes ended. In 2014 alone, four such incidents took place in city schools were minor children witnessed sexual assaults.

Past rape incidents:

In July 2014, a 63-year-old part-time teacher sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl inside the school premises in Thala gattapura police limits.

In July, 2014, a six-year-old was reportedly gang-raped by two physical education instructors at an upmarketschool in Marathahalli.

In September 2014, a 10-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her tuition teacher in HSR Layout.

In October 2014, a three-year-old kindergarten student was allegedly raped by a 45-year-old school attender in Jalahalli.

In October 2014, a six-year-old student of class I was reportedly lured to the boy's bathroom and raped by her Hindi teacher in side a private school in Jeevan Bhima Nagar.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday said the real fight in some constituencies in the state for May 16 polls is between Congress-led UDF and BJP candidates.

In constituencies like Manjeswarm and Kasargod, where BJP is strong, the fight is between UDF and BJP and CPI-M-led LDF will finish third in these segments, he told an election meeting in Kuttanad in Alappuzha district.

Reacting to Chandy's remark, CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said it was part of Chandy's secret tie-up with RSS to allow BJP's entry into the assembly.

He alleged Chandy had entered into an "understanding with RSS and that is why he is projecting BJP as a force."

Countering this, BJP State President Kummanom Rajasekharan said Chandy's remark showed BJP's strength in the state has been recognised.

Chandy also said refuted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement that those parties which were in power in Kerala for the last 60 years had looted the state, saying a surge was witnessed in development projects under the UDF rule in the last five years and referred to Vizhinjam port and Kochi Metro Rail Project.

"Only to open an account in the assembly polls in Kerala, Modi has come out with such a blatant lie", Chandy said in his facebook post.

People would not allow the BJP to open its account as secularism and its values were "lifeline" for them, he said.

"Development agenda of BJP is only a mask to cover up their real agenda - communal poison", he alleged, adding, the party wanted to create misunderstanding between communities and make gains.

KPCC president VM Sudheeran said BJP cannot make any surge in the state. "They are trying to make inroads, but their efforts will not succeed", he said.

CWC member AK Antony said BJP's call for a third force in the state was the "beginning of danger" in the state. Congress is the only party that can challenge BJP at the national level, he told a press meet in Thrissur.

Antony also came down on the LDF and wanted the Front to come out with its clear stand on liquor policy.

"Our policy is very clear. No closed bars would be opened. Availability of liquor would be reduced with an aim to have total prohibition in 10 years time", he said adding this is mentioned in UDF's manifesto.

But, LDF manifesto was no specific about their liquor policy. LDF should declare whether they would re-open the closed foreign liquor bars or not, Antony said.
Pune: The FTII (Films & Television Institute of India) here on Saturday reportedly received a parcel containing bomb materials and a letter threatening to kill JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar.

A panic was created inside the campus after the incident.

According to media reports, the parcel contained explosive powder, detonator and a letter threatening to kill the student leader.

ANI reported that Prashant Pathrabe, the Chairman of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Pune, received the parcel containing detonator with a yellow chemical on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Police have registered an FIR against unknown people in Deccan Gymkhana Police Station here.

Kanhaiya, who was charged with sedition in connection with pro-Afzal event, is currently out on bail.

Kanhaiya had raised the issue of FTII on several occasions and criticised the Centre for appointing film actor Gajendra Chauhan as the institution's head.

The actor is known for his association with BJP.

Kanhaiya is considered as a hero by a section of the student fraternity in FTII because of his left-leanings.

The letter sent to Kanhaiya is not the first death warning he has received.
Western classical music has made its way into concert halls and conservatories in most major cities in China. It has also crept into traditional Chinese music and opera performances. At the same time, Chinese melodies and philosophy started influencing Western sounds in the early 19th century.

Western music formally arrived in China in 1601, when the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci presented a clavichord to Wanli, the longest-ruling of the Ming emperors.

Western technique changed the way Chinese instruments are played and made. Conservatories adopted Western notation to teach traditional music. Today the Sichuan Conservatory, in the southwestern city of Chengdu, is said to have more than 10,000 students. Juilliard in New York has 800.

Ensembles like the China National Traditional Orchestra have been created in the image of the Western symphony orchestra to promote the country's "traditional" music culture. Chinese virtuosos and composers crowd the international music scene and Western critics regularly declare that the future of classical music lies in China.

Musical influence has, however, largely been a one-way street, with Western musicians and audiences slower to adapt and import music from China. Despite this reticence, some composers have sought and found inspiration in Chinese music and poetry and used it to create new work over the past several centuries.

Early examples of this are found in the works of German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826). Weber composed a Chinese Overture in 1804, inspired by what he called a "Chinese air" discovered in French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Complete Dictionary of Music (1768). The air, or folk song, that Rousseau included had been brought from China by French Jesuit missionary Joseph-Marie Amiot and published in a book by another Jesuit monk, Jean-Baptiste du Halde, who compiled an encyclopedia of the history, culture and society of the country without ever setting foot in it. In 1809, Weber was asked to compose incidental music for the play Turandot, which was penned by Venetian dramatist Count Carlo Gozzi in 1762 and adapted by the great German poet Friedrich Schiller in 1801.

The opera is about a despotic Chinese princess who has her suitors beheaded unless they can answer three riddles. Weber borrowed heavily from his Chinese Overture to write the music for Turandot.

Weber wrote his music at the tail end of a great vogue in Europe for things Chinese that saw writers like Oliver Goldsmith, Voltaire and even Goethe incorporating Chinese literature and philosophy into their work. This faded as the 19th century progressed, but revived somewhat in the wake of the Opium War, as Europeans and Americans grew eager to do business with China and spread Christianity in the country.

Meanwhile, a growing, albeit still small, number of Chinese began to visit Europe. So it was that when Napoleon III hosted a grand World Expo in Paris in 1867, it included a Chinese pavilion replete with a memorial arch, teahouse, restaurant, market and a Cantonese opera troupe. Although this is largely forgotten to history, the sponsors of the pavilion commissioned an Austrian composer named Louise Haenel de Cronenthall to arrange Chinese songs. She transcribed an 18th century tea song by the Qianlong Emperor, a Tang Dynasty ode and several dance songs, among others. One critic later described her compositions as having "sinuous lines that presage Debussy's embroidery." Haenel won a medal for her work, which was performed every day at the expo.

One European business to enter China in the early 1800s was the Bovet Co., a Swiss watchmaker founded by Jean-Frederic Bovet to make watches for Chinese customers. The founder's son, Frederic, was a violinist and composer who went to China on business but devoted time to collecting and transcribing folk songs. When he returned to Europe with these songs, the family decided to use them in music boxes for the Chinese market. One tune included in the box was the widely known Jasmine Flower, and another was the bawdy Eighteen Touches, which was generally performed in brothels.

Several decades later, in the early 1900s, an Italian baron, Eduardo Fassini-Camossi, who fought in China during the Boxer Rebellion, took one of these music boxes back to Italy. Opera composer Giacomo Puccini visited the baron's house in 1920, during the period he was composing his operatic version of Turandot based on the earlier play. Puccini heard the music box and decided to make Jasmine Flower a central motif of his final opera. He never visited Asia and died before finishing the piece that is full of historical inaccuracies, including events taking place in the Forbidden City more than 1,000 years before it was built. But it contains one of the most famous numbers in opera, the soaring tenor aria Nessun dorma! Or None shall sleep!, which borrows heavily from Chinese folk tunes.

Musicologist W. Anthony Sheppard said that some of Puccini's musical inspiration for his earlier Japanese-themed opera Madame Butterfly may have come from Eighteen Touches and two other Chinese tunes on this same music box. This music box was part of the Guinness Collection at the Morris Museum in New Jersey but in 2015 China Daily reported that it had been purchased by a Chinese collector who hoped to auction it off for nearly US$ 500,000.

In the first few decades of the 20th century, several Western composers lived and worked in China. Alexander Tcherepnin (1899-1997) and Aaron Avshalomov (1894-1965) were two of the most notable among this crowd.

Avshalomov was born to a Jewish family in eastern Siberia and was raised by a Chinese nanny. As a young man, he moved to China, living in the northeastern city of Harbin, and in Tianjin and Shanghai on the coast. He deliberately incorporated Chinese themes into his compositions and warned Chinese musicians to resist the "invasion" of Western-European music and to retain their own traditions. His Hutongs of Peking was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski in 1935.

Tcherpnin came from a wealthy St. Petersburg family for whom music was a kind of religion. They fled to Paris after the Bolshevik Revolution where he pursued his career, composing four operas, 13 ballets, four symphonies, many orchestral and chamber works and more than 200 piano pieces. In the mid-1930s, he taught at the Shanghai Conservatory and wrote the first piano primer based on the pentatonic scale. Like Avshalomov, Tcherpnin encouraged Chinese composers to create music that sounded Chinese. Twentieth century composer He Luting's Buffalo Boy's Flute was written for a contest he organized.

Other 20th century composers also drew inspiration from traditional Chinese melodies. Harry Partch (1901-74), known as "the hobo composer" because he spent the Great American Depression riding the rails in search of work, was born to parents who had served as missionaries in China. His mother sang him to sleep with Chinese lullabies and he later wrote a musical piece called Seventeen Lyrics of Li Po based on translations of Li Bai's poetry. He performed the piece in 1932 at Henry Cowell's New Music Society of California, where it attracted reviews and attention from other composers, including Cowell himself.

Cowell (1897-1965) spent his childhood in San Francisco and grew up singing the songs of his Chinese neighbors. He studied violin but his family was too poor to attend concerts. Instead they sat outside the city's Chinese opera houses and listened for free. Cowell later used Chinese tonality in his compositions and became famous as the teacher of John Cage and Lou Harrison, pioneers of the experimental music scene that emerged after World War II.

Cage was deeply intrigued by music from China and the rest of Asia but wrote that he doubted "whether it was mine to study." He did, however, study the I Ching, or Book of Changes, an ancient book of divination written in the Western Zhou period (1000750 BC), which inspired a composition called the Music of Changes. Half of the "sounds" on the composition denoted silence.

Lou, who also grew up in San Francisco, read the Book of Rites, which describes the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou Dynasty when he was 18. He often went to Chinatown to hear Chinese opera. In 1939, he attended a performance created by Pauline Benton, a woman who had studied shadow puppetry in rural China and then formed a touring ensemble to introduce it to Western audiences. The show was accompanied by Western musicians performing on Chinese instruments, and Harrison was deeply affected by it. He called the music "fascinating" and said it "went directly into my heart and was permanently impressed there  the vision of it, like stained glass in motion; and the sound of it, the Chinese melodies and the tones of the instruments." He later incorporated Chinese rhythms and instruments into his music and in the 1970s helped create a version of the opera White Snake, which was presented in San Francisco.

Nowadays, it is much harder to draw a line between Chinese and Western composers, since so many musicians of Chinese heritage live in the West, compose for symphonic orchestras and still retain their Chinese roots. As Newsweek Magazine declared in 2010, "Chinese influence on Western classical music goes far beyond the rise of new star soloists; it's affecting the music itself."

Sheila Melvin is a newspaper columnist. Her latest book, Beethoven in China: How the Great Composer Became an Icon in the People's Republic, co-authored with Jindong Cai, was published by Penguin Books
Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday backed a plan proposed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to seek help from the World Bank to execute an innovative water project to combat the persistent droughts in the state.

The prime minister held a wide-ranging discussions with Fadnavis on the prevalent situation in the drought-hit areas of the state.

PM Modi stressed on the vitality of increasing water use efficiency through sprinkler and drip irrigation, including in sugarcane cultivation.

During the meeting, he pointed out that the usage of modern solid and liquid waste management practices in the urban areas would benefit the adjoining rural areas.

In his tweet messages after the meeting, Modi said that Fadnavis had apprised him about the Jal Yukt Shivar Abhiyan and the state government's efforts to complete the irrigation projects across the state.

I held a wide-ranging discussions on the drought affected parts of Maharashtra and how to mitigate it, PM Modi tweeted.

PM Modi said that the Centre fully supports Maharashtra government's Climate Resilient Agriculture Modernisation Project for a World Bank loan.

He also said that the project is worth $600 million.

The prime minister called for medium and long term solutions for mitigating drought and urged the centre, states, local bodies, NGOs and citizens to work together to resolve the problem.

He emphasized the need to adopt a judicious mix of traditional and modern water conservation and storage mechanisms and said that it will help in crop diversification, value-addition and broadbasing sources of income for farmers.

The chief minister informed the prime minister that the state is focusing on climate resilient agriculture to ensure water security at the farm level. He said that currently 28,000 villages of Maharashtra were hit by drought.

Fadnavis said that the state has set a target of 51,500 farm ponds for the 2016-17 financial year, which may be scaled up further. He also sought Rs 10,000 crores from the Centre for the three years to complete pending irrigation projects in his drought-hit state.

He also explained the states efforts to complete critical irrigation projects in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions in a time-bound manner.

He also spoke of the work done to bring more farmers under the umbrella of institutional credit.
Coimbatore: The members of Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhakam (TPDK) were arrested here on Saturday when they staged a black flag demonstration against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over Sri Lankan Tamils' issue, hours before his visit to the city for addressing an election rally.

A total of 91 TPDK workers, including 15 women, assembled near the city bus stand and protested against the "failure" of the previous Congress-led UPA government to safeguard the Sri Lankan Tamils during the war against Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, police said.

The party vice-president is scheduled to address an election rally here along with DMK MP, Kanimozhi, later this evening.

Led by TPDK General Secretary, K Ramakrishnan, the activists raised slogans against Congress, accusing it of having remained "a mute spectator", when thousands of Tamils were killed in the guise of eliminating the LTTE.
Varanasi: At least 12 persons were left injured after an oxygen cylinder exploded at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi on Saturday morning, police said. 

All the injured have been admitted to the hospital while the reasons behind the incident is yet to be ascertained.

According to information, a loud explosion was heard at Sir Sunder Lal hospital emergency ward in the university campus on Saturday morning. Fire brigade were called in to handle the situation.

After the explosion, an atmosphere of chaos was witnessed in the hospital for some time. Later, 12 people were reported to be injured in the accident. According to reports, 3 nurses and 2 ward boys were among those injured. All the injured were admitted to trauma centre.

Meanwhile, after the incident, the emergency is being shifted to a new block. Police have sealed off the emergency and have sought CCTV footage from the BHU administration.
Varanasi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday night enquired about an oxygen cylinder blast incident at Sir Sunder Lal Hospital in Banaras Hindu University which injured at least 12 people.

PM @narendramodi has enquired about condition of injured people in an oxygen cylinder blast at emergency ward of BHU Hospital in Varanasi.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 7, 2016

Announcing financial relief to four persons being treated at the trauma centre, the Prime Minister also wished all the injured a speedy recovery.

The Prime Minister has wished a speedy recovery to all those injured in BHU Hospital in Varanasi.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 7, 2016

Union Minister Mahesh Sharma also visited Sir Sunderlal Hospital. "Eyewitnesses say there were 2 blasts, walls and a beam collapsed," he said, ANI reported.

"Prima facie it is hard to tell the reason, it can only be ascertained after investigation," Sharma added.

Varanasi (UP): Union Minister Mahesh Sharma visits Sir Sunderlal Hospital in BHU after an oxygen cylinder blast pic.twitter.com/IACsbImZ4O  ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 7, 2016

According to media reports the blast took place at an AC compressor pipe today evening at around 1.05 pm at the emergency ward.

The fire brigade was called immediately, though there was no incident of fire outbreak.

Soon after the blast, hundreds of people gathered outside the building.

The injured persons are out of danger. While eight persons are being treated in the emergency, four others injured are at the trauma centre of BHU.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav to discuss water scarcity and drought in the state.

According to reports, CM Yadav sought an assistance of Rs 10,600 crore from the Centre to tackle drought and water crisis in the state. CM Yadav also urged the centre to send tankers in large numbers to the parched Bundelkhand region for supply of water from dams and canals there.

"Water is available in Bundelkhand, dam is hardly 5 kilometers away. We just have to make arrangements for distribution of water," ANI quoted CM Akhilesh Yadav as saying.

"Had a productive meeting with UP CM Akhilesh Yadav on the drought situation in various parts of Uttar Pradesh," PM Modi tweeted after the meeting.

Had a productive meeting with UP CM @yadavakhilesh on the drought situation in various parts of UP. @CMOfficeUP pic.twitter.com/1pJKedMPbK  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

The various drought mitigation measures undertaken in the state were discussed extensively in the meeting.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

CM @yadavakhilesh & I discussed the need to effectively utilise the period before monsoon for water recharge and conservation efforts.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

Usage of latest technology & community participation, particularly of our Nari Shakti can play a key role in effective drought management.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 7, 2016

PM Modi will also be meeting Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis and Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to assess the drought situation in the states. As per the government report, at least one-third of India's districts are affected by severe drought of which Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka are worst-hit.
Dehradun: Uttarakhand High Court on Saturday reserved its judgement for May 9 on the petition challenging disqualification of nine rebel Congress MLAs.

The HC will pronounce its verdict at 10 am on May 9.

"The hearing has been concluded. I will pronounce the judgement at 10.15 AM on May 9," Justice UC Dhyani said in brief remarks counsel at the conclusion of nearly three hours of arguments on both sides.

The Supreme Court on Friday ordered floor test in Uttarakhand Assembly on May 10,

If these MLAs are allowed to vote, former chief minister Harish Rawat's fate in the 70-member Assembly may be sealed.

The apex court directed that the nine rebel Congress MLAs, who have challenged their disqualification by the Speaker in the High Court, will not participate in the floor test "if they have the same status" at the time of vote of confidence.

With the top court order, the effective strength of the House will be reduced from 70 to 61 in which any party mustering the support of 31 MLAs will have the majority.

The rebel Congress MLAs had sided with BJP to demand a division of votes on the Appropriation Bill in the state Assembly.

Uttarakhand was plunged into political uncertainty after nine Congress legislators, including former chief minister Vijay Bahuguna, whom Harish Rawat replaced, revolted and turned to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The crisis peaked on March 18 when the assembly passed the Appropriation Bill by voice vote even as the opposition sought recorded voting. Speaker Govind Kunjwal declined the request, leading the BJP to cry foul.

Rawat was then asked by Governor KK Paul to prove his majority on March 28 but a day before that the central government ousted his government by imposing President's Rule. Rawat immediately went to court.

The Uttarakhand High Court by its April 21 verdict had quashed the President's rule.
Kolkata: A police complaint has been filed against four outsiders - three of them ABVP activists - for allegedly molesting female students of Jadavpur University during a commotion over an open-air screening of Vivek Agnihotri's film "Buddha In A Traffic Jam".

According to media reports, the complaint was lodged yesterday after police confirmed that some girl students were allegedly molested during the melee that ensued after the incident, as per PTI.

Demanding police to take action over their complaint against the outsiders, Jadavpur University Vice Chancellor Suranjas Das on Saturday said, We hope police take appropriate action according to the law. I expect an answer from them. I would like to know what happens after the FIR," IANS reported.

Meanwhile, a section of students hold a protest march today against the "planned fascist attacks" in educational institutions.

Advocating 'Indomitable Jadavpur', the agitators had appealed to the student community from West Bengal to participate in the protest march at the varsity playground in the evening.

"The students of this country are facing the fascist rage directly, and since they are trying to confront their ideas and challenging their role in education, the students everywhere in this country are being threatened, beaten up and even murdered. Today, Jadavpur University is also facing similar planned fascist attacks on its autonomous space. So we appeal the student community of this state to join us in a rally to protest against such kind of fascist makeover of the educational institutions," said a statement from the students which was issued earlier.

Calcutta University students have also expressed solidarity with the agitators.

With the campus on the boil over the screening of the movie, that faced loud protests from a large section of Left-leaning students loyal to the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students' Union (FETSU) and sparked clashes, Das blamed the JU Alumni Association for granting permission to the organisers to use the Triguna Sen Auditorium and then cancelling it.

The agitators claim the movie "is a debatable one for its misrepresentation of the tribal resistance against neoliberal attacks and the attacks on Dalits on behalf of the state."

(With Agency inputs)
Tehran: Thirteen military advisers with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been killed in Syria in recent days and 21 others wounded, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

All were from Iran`s northern province of Mazandaran, Hossein Ali Rezayi, a Guards spokesman in the region, told the ISNA and Fars news agencies.

The casualties happened in Khan Tuman village some 10 kilometres (six miles) southwest of the battleground city of Aleppo, according to a Guards statement, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Pro-regime troops had driven jihadists out of Khan Tuman in December, but fighting between regime forces and Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists and their allies killed more than 70 people south of Aleppo, a monitor said on Friday.

Al-Nusra Front and allied Islamists seized Khan Tuman and surrounding villages after less than 24 hours of clashes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Around 30 pro-regime troops were killed in the battle, said the Britain-based Observatory which relies on a network of sources in Syria.

Russia said on Friday that a temporary truce in Aleppo had been extended for 72 hours "in order to prevent the situation from worsening".

More than 300 civilians were killed in two weeks of fighting in the divided city before the truce took hold on Thursday, in regime air strikes on its opposition-held east and rebel shelling of the regime-controlled west.

Iran is Syria`s main regional ally, sending financial and military aid, including military advisers and volunteer forces from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, to prop up President Bashar al-Assad`s regime.

Dozens of Iranian "advisers" have been killed in Syria since late 2015, including Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Alberta: Canadian police led convoys of cars through the burning ghost town of Fort McMurray on Friday in a risky operation to get thousands of people to safety on the other side.

Monster forest fires were continuing to burn out of control in the parched region, and could potentially double in size by the end of Saturday, said Chad Morrison, senior manager of wildfire prevention at the Alberta Agriculture and Forestry Division.

The blaze in Alberta`s oil sands region will not be extinguished for "a very long time" until there is significant rain, he said.

There was a 30-percent chance of rain on Sunday, the Canadian government forecast said, followed by sunny conditions on Monday. More rain was possible later in the week.

In the latest harrowing chapter, convoys of 50 cars at a time made their way through Fort McMurray at about 50-60 kilometers per hour (30-40 miles per hour), TV footage showed.

Police took up positions at intersections along the way to keep evacuees from detouring to try to salvage belongings from charred homes and make sure the route remains safe from the fire, which has encircled the town of 100,000, now evacuated.

Three army helicopters hovered above to sound the alert if the flames got too close to the road, Highway 63, or cut it off completely, as has happened in recent days.

Those being evacuated -- for a second time, after first abandoning their homes -- had fled this week to an area north of the city where oil companies have lodging camps for workers.

But officials concluded they were no longer safe there because of shifting winds that raised the risk of them becoming trapped, and needed to move south to other evacuee staging grounds and eventually to Edmonton, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the south.

Some 8,000 people were airlifted out of the northern enclave Thursday on helicopters and planes. Officials expect the road convoys for the remaining 17,000 will take around four days.Security camera footage from the inside of one family`s home underscored the speed at which the blaze could overcome any stragglers. Thick grey smoke filled the living room within 30 seconds, while flames quickly ate away a wall.

Among the first evacuees to reach Wandering River, a hamlet about 200 kilometers south of Fort McMurray, Margarita Carnicero said she had feared for her life on the journey to safety.

"It was a terrible experience," she told AFP sitting in her dust-covered SUV alongside her teenage daughter Michelle. "I was afraid, but I tried not to show it (so as) not to frighten my daughter."

"With all of the smoke, the trip was hard on the lungs," said Greg Stengel, an oil company employee who also joined the convoy.

Before they got under way, officials had to make sure the escape route was passable, and truck fuel in so people had gas to make it across a city in flames.

Television footage earlier this week showed trees ablaze on the edge of highways crowded with bumper-to-bumper traffic trying to leave town.

Bright embers whizzed wildly through the air and floated down onto cars, like hot, orange rain.

"We understand that this is still an active situation. The wildfires are still raging," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a press conference Friday.

"It`s likely going to be several weeks before the situation stabilizes," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Garrett Woolsey said.

Evacuees are finding shelter with friends, family and even strangers close to Fort McMurray but also as far away as Edmonton and Calgary, Trudeau said.

The government has declared a state of emergency in Alberta, a province the size of France that is home to one of the world`s most prodigious oil industries.

Alberta has been left bone-dry after a period of unusually scant rainfall and unseasonably high temperatures.More than 1,100 firefighters are battling 49 separate blazes across the province -- seven of them totally out of control.

The fires have engulfed 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of forest including at least 12,000 in the area surrounding Fort McMurray, now the epicenter of the inferno, where 2,000 homes have been destroyed.

Oil companies crucial to the region such as Suncor, Syncrude and Shell have pulled out non-essential employees, and analysts said all three have slashed output by a total of a million barrels a day.

The cuts amount to around a quarter of the country`s entire production, and one-third of Alberta`s, and mean a loss of tens of millions of dollars per day in income.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said Thursday that people evacuated from Fort McMurray face a long wait to return home.

"I must be very, very direct about this," she said. "It is apparent that the damage to the community in Fort McMurray is extensive, and the city is not safe for residents at this time."
Trump said he told Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus that Ryan's comments in refusing to endorse him were "totally inappropriate," but he agreed to the party leader's desire for a meeting.

Trump said that he had "no idea'' if the talks to bridge the party's divide over his nomination would succeed and that it didn't really matter that much to him. "The thing that matters most are the millions of people that have come out to vote for me and give me a landslide victory in almost every state," he said.

Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan have agreed to meet next week, but the presumptive Republican presidential nominee doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic.

Ryan announced Friday that he and other members of the House Republican leadership will meet with Trump Thursday morning. He said talk will center on "the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November."

Just days after Trump essentially clinched the GOP presidential nomination with a win in Indiana's primary, Ryan said he was "not ready" to support Trump because of questions about his commitment to conservatism.

Trump responded with a statement saying he is not prepared to back Ryan's agenda. He took on Ryan on Twitter Friday, saying: "Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong, I didn't inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!"

Ryan isn't the only one who has refused to endorse the businessman-turned-presidential hopeful.

According to The Wall Street Journal, only 12 of the 300 Republicans serving in the House and Senate, and three of the 31 Republican governors, have endorsed Trump.

The party's last two White House occupants, President George H.W. Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, say they will sit out the 2016 campaign and not even comment on it.

The party's last two losing presidential nominees, Arizona Senator John McCain in 2008 and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in 2012, both said they, like the Bushes, also plan to skip the party's July national convention where Trump will be officially nominated.
Cairo: Six Muslim Brotherhood members including three journalists were on Saturday sentenced to death for leaking state secrets to Qatar by an Egyptian court, which postponed its verdict on ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi.

The documents of the six defendants were referred to the Grand Mufti, who according to the Egyptian law must review all death sentences. His decision is, however, not binding.

Judge Mohammed Shirin Fahmy said that the final verdict will be announced on June 18 after the mufti's response.

Once the final verdict is issued, the sentences can be appealed.

Morsi as well as other defendants are charged with leaking classified documents to Qatar and selling them to Doha-based Al-Jazeera channel.

The defendants include Ahmed Abdo Ali Afifi, a documentary films producer who is in jail; Asmaa el-Khateeb, a reporter in Rassd news network (RNN) (sentenced in absentia), Alaa Omar Mohammed, a Jordanian news producer in Al-Jazeera channel (sentenced in absentia), and the news editor Ibrahim Mohammed Hilal in Al-Jazeera channel (sentenced in absentia).

Morsi's co-defendants include his office director and private secretary.

The classified documents allegedly included information on general and military intelligence, the armed forces, its armaments and the state's policy secrets.

Other charges include leading and joining outlawed group Muslim Brotherhood, that aims at changing the country's regime by force, and attacking army and police posts and public property.

The Egyptian government has been cracking down on Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters since the ouster of Morsi, which left thousands in jail and hundreds facing trials on a variety of charges.

Morsi and Muslim Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and 100 other leaders were sentenced in June to death for escaping from prison in 2011.

Badie and Morsi were also sentenced to life in prison in the espionage case.

Their sentences are currently in appeal.
Washington: London's new mayor Sadiq Khan may not be allowed to enter the United States if Donald Trump is elected president, a media report speculated.

The likely Republican candidate during his poll campaign pledged to ban Muslims from entering the US and reportedly said he doesn't care if it spoils his poll prospects.

"I don't care if it hurts me," the Times of India quoted Trump as saying on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" this week, some 48 hours before Khan's election.

"I'm doing the right thing when I do this. And whether it's Muslim or whether it's something else, I have to do the right thing, and that's the way I've been guided," he was quoted as saying.

Although he was not specifically asked about Khan's election in the interview, Trump reportedly called his proposal to ban Muslims "common sense".

"We have to be careful. I mean, we're allowing thousands of people to come into our country, thousands and thousands of people being placed all over the country that frankly nobody knows who they are. They don't have documentation in many cases. And we don't know what we're doing," Trump reportedly said.
Mexico City: Mexican authorities unexpectedly transferred the drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to a prison in Ciudad Juarez on the US border Saturday morning, a source from the National Security Commission told AFP.

Guzman`s transfer, conducted under a large military security presence, was determined "solely by security protocols as part of a rotation of prisoners" that normally takes place, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Yangon: Hundreds of Myanmar villagers rallied Saturday against a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine, activists told AFP, reigniting a contentious issue that could pose an early challenge to Aung San Suu Kyi's new government.

The Letpadaung mine in the central town of Monywa has for years been dogged by complaints of land-grabbing, environmental damage and brutal police crackdowns on protesters.

Growing numbers of villagers have gathered over the past four days in the first major anti-mine demonstration since Suu Kyi`s civilian administration took power this year, ending decades of military domination.

"Today we demanded our rights by showing up with over 200 local protesters," Khin Lae, a protest leader, told AFP.

"No one was hurt today. Yesterday there were some clashes between protesters and the police," she added.

Winbao -- the Chinese firm that jointly runs the mine with a major Myanmar military conglomerate -- said this year it aimed to start production in May after years of construction.

Winbao was not immediately available for comment.

Another protest organiser, Amar Cho, told AFP the demonstrations have swelled since Wednesday, as have the number of police dispatched to control the crowds.

Police sparked public outrage in 2012 when they moved to clear a protest camp near the mine using phosphorous cannisters, leaving dozens with severe burn wounds, including several monks.

Suu Kyi led a parliamentary probe into that incident, which attracted the ire of activists after it recommended construction be allowed to proceed.

Protests have continued over the years and crackdowns have also spurred bouts of anti-China demonstrations in Yangon and other major cities.

Renewed controversy could strain relations with China, Myanmar`s largest trading partner and a key player in its foreign policy.

Suu Kyi, who now holds several top government positions, met with her Chinese counterpart in her first diplomatic foray as foreign minister last month.

China is by far Myanmar`s largest foreign investor, with a cumulative total of $15.4 billion of approved investments, and the two countries also share a long and restive border.
District of Columbia: The Pentagon acknowledged for the first time Friday it has deployed US troops to Yemen since the country`s collapse last year to bolster government and Arab coalition forces battling Al-Qaeda.

Spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis said the US military has also stepped up air strikes against fighters with Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

A "very small number" of American military personnel has been working from a "fixed location" with Yemeni and Arab coalition forces -- especially the Emiratis -- in recent weeks around Mukalla, a port city seized by AQAP a year ago, Davis said.

"This is of great interest to us. It does not serve our interests to have a terrorist organization in charge of a port city, and so we are assisting in that," the spokesman added.

He said the troops were helping the Emiratis with "intelligence support," but declined to say if they are special operations forces.

AQAP fighters have now fled Mukalla and other coastal areas, due to the government offensive.

While the number of US personnel on the ground is limited, the United States is also offering an array of assistance to partners in Yemen, including air-to-air refueling capabilities, surveillance, planning, maritime security and medical help.

The Pentagon previously had more than 100 special operations forces advising the army in Yemen, but pulled them out early last year as the country collapsed.

The US Navy also has several ships nearby, including an amphibious assault ship called the USS Boxer and two destroyers.

AQAP took advantage of the chaos of fighting between pro-government forces and Iran-backed Huthi rebels to expand its control in southern Yemen, including the seizure of Mukalla.

The Huthis denounced the return of the US military "with their weapons in southern Yemen and Al-Anad airbase," the largest in the country.

American personnel had been deployed at the base gathering intelligence for drone strikes on Al-Qaeda until they pulled out in March last year, shortly before the Huthis overran the area.

In a statement posted online, the Huthis threatened to "fight with all our means" the US and UAE presence in southern Yemen.

Pro-government forces backed by the Saudi-led coalition recaptured Al-Anad and other southern areas from the Huthis last year, but the rebels still control large parts of the country, including the capital Sanaa.

The Pentagon announced it has carried out a string of strikes on Al-Qaeda in recent weeks, outside of Mukalla.

"We have conducted four counterterrorism strikes against AQAP since April 23, killing 10 Al-Qaeda operatives and injuring another," Davis said.

As pro-government forces have battled the Huthis, there has been no let-up in the US air war against AQAP, which Washington regards as the network`s most dangerous branch.

A March strike on an AQAP training camp west of Mukalla killed more than 70 fighters.

The group, which has long been entrenched in Yemen, claimed responsibility for last year`s deadly attack in Paris on the staff of satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, and has been linked to more than one attempt to blow up aircraft bound for the United States.

The Yemen conflict has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. On May 6 and throughout the morning of May 7 the Azerbaijani side fired irregular shots from various caliber weapons and sniper rifles at Armenian positions in the northeastern part of the Armenia-Azerbaijan state border, Press Service of the Armenian Defense Ministry informed Armenpress.

The Armenian Armed Forces are confidently monitoring the border and take appropriate measures only in case of intentional Azerbaijani violations.

According to the information provided by Nagorno Karabakh Defense Army, the situation remained the same during the night of May 6-7 in the Nagorno Karabakh-Azerbaijan line of contact. Azerbaijan continued violating the ceasefire agreement and fired various caliber weapons and 82mm mortars.

The Defense Army forces exercised restraint and conducted response actions only in case of strict necessity.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. In an interview with Armenpress director of Oriental Institute of Armenian NAS Ruben Safrastyan says Turkish Parliaments Armenian MP Garo Paylan's safety is on danger.

-Mr. Safrastyan, these days Armenian MP Garo Paylan is distinguished by its activity in Turkish Parliament. Do you see any safety issue related with him?

-Yer, I see a safety issue. I remembered an expression of Hrant Dink related with Garo Paylans incident. When I met him in one of the scientific conferences in the US, he said the following: Its very difficult to be an Armenian in Turkey, but it is much more difficult to be an Armenian politician there. We should not forget that Hrank Dink was active not only on the issue of the Armenian question, but also in the leftist movement of Turkey. Now we see that the same is being formed around Garo, which creates concerns.

-According to you, what can contribute to the safety of Armenian politicians in Turkey, maybe the existence of Armenian community in Istanbul? What do you see as the way for it?

-I can say the following that Turkish political and social circles that express views different from Turkish authorities, are in danger. We have numerous examples, for instance, pressure is being put against political opponents, media representatives. This is themodern reality of Turkey. I think the international opinion can have a great role in changing the situation in a better way, in this case putting a pressure on Turkey. However, I doubt that Turkey will be affected by that pressures, but there is no other way. Concerning the Armenian community, it does not have such power to defend its representative.

-You talked about the pressures on Turkey, however, we have seen a few days ago that the European Commission gave a green light to Turkey in terms of visas.

-Yer, it was a political contract between Europe and Turkey on migrants issue. And this was strictly condemned by the prominent European political and social circles. The proposal of migrant contract was made by Davutoglu. As a result Turkey receives billions. The majority of Germans has a negative attitude towards that contract of Europe. We see that European leaders do not take into account the public opinion and go to a deal with Turkey. It is dangerous for Europe. We see how Turkey supports the Islamic extremists, uses refugees as a mean of pressure on Europe. One thing I want to stress that till now Turkey has succeed in many ways, it wasnt punished for supporting Islamic State terrorist group, but rather, it still continues to keep open the border with Syria using weapons, ammunition, and transporting fighters.

-Can we say that Europes same policy of double standards is seen in the case of Azerbaijan? In fact, Azerbaijani soldiers behead Armenian soldiers, while at the same time Baku holds forum of UN Alliance of Civilizations, European leaders praise Baku.

-Yes, unfortunately, Europe applies its double standards policy and betrays its statements taking into account its short-term interests or simply receiving bribery. Strategic interest of Europe is to spread European values in various states, including Azerbaijan. However, they close their eyes on decapitation of Armenian soldiers, its a disgrace.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Eurovision-2016 Armenian participant Iveta Mukuchyan said she is a perfectionist in her interview to wiwibloggs.com website.

Im a perfectionist, if one thing isnt perfect then I focus on it. Its a pity, but I cant enjoy the rest if something is out of place. Working on the little things is how you deliver a great performance, Iveta said.

Iveta Mukuchyan spoke about the selection of the song and the clip shoot. She said she is going to have a perfect performance, and the remaining is not on her hands.

Eurovision 2016 Song Contest will take place on May 10, 12 and 14 in Stockholm, Sweden. Iveta Mukuchyan is representing Armenia with the song LoveWave. Her first performance is scheduled on May 10. 42 countries are participating in the contest.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan received a group of Armenian-Argentine philanthropists on May 7, who, with the cooperation of Hayastan All Armenian Fund, implement charitable projects worth of total 3.5 million US dollars, Press Service of the Presidential Administration informed Armenpress.

Welcoming the guests, Armenian President highly appreciated their patriotic activity and expressed gratitude by the names of our people to their work done in different spheres.

Serzh Sargsyan warmly recalls his official visit to Argentine on July, 2014 stating that he had an opportunity to see how much respect exists towards the Armenians in Argentine, and what kind of high reputation they have in that country. President says this creates excitement and a sense of pride, and he believes that the Armenian street in Buenos Aires can serve as a perfect example of Armenian unity for many Armenian communities of the world.

The Armenian President emphasized the important role of Armenians of Argentine in the development and strengthening of the Homeland since the independence of Armenia. Taking into account that the philanthropists succeeded in many fields, the President discussed with them the possibility of establishing enterprises in the prospective fields of our countrys economy which will contribute to the the state and the philanthropists in terms of new job openings and attracting investments in the economy.

Armenian philanthropists of Argentine said with satisfaction that every year they see positive progress in Armenia, and they also think to make investments in different fields. In this regard, representatives of the Armenian community of Argentine consider honest discussion with the President encouraging and useful.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Two gunshots were fired on University of Missouri's flagship campus on May 6 though no one was injured, Armenpress reports citing Reuters.

Police were investigating the shooting near a plaza on the campus, and were searching for a suspect, the university said.

"There is no indication of a current threat to campus," the school added.

About 35,000 students attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, 125 miles (200 km) west of St. Louis.

Photo by AP
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Armenian National Committees of different states visit Stepanakert for expressing their support to Nagono Karabakh, media relations officer of Europes Armenian National Committee Peto Demirhcyan said this to Armenpress. He also plans to visit Stepanakert to participate in May 9 ceremonies.

Referring to the recent works of Europe done towards the NKR issue, Peto Demirchyan said political circles of European Parliament, PACE had more pro-Armenian stance due to activities of the Armenian National Committees.

At this moment the Azerbaijani side also actively works and tries to present its views, however, we can say that Armenian positions are in more favorable conditions within the political circles. We can say the same in terms of public circles, pro-Armenian approaches prevail within various organizations in Brussels, Peto Demirchyan said. He says NKR issue has always been priority for Armenian National Committee. Every year information ceremonies on Nagorno Karabakh are being held. Until July of this year there will be a talk on several important initiatives related to NKR.

Peto Demirchyan said Brussels also provides financial assistance to Nagorno Karabakh. Donations still continue.

Brussels was the first that responded to Karabakh events, existing Armenian organizations gathered and initiated a fundraising for Nagorno Karabakh. These works still continue. On May 8 Armenian organizations of Belgium will organize ceremonies devoted to Shushi liberation during which there will be a donation and the allocated money will be sent to Nagorno Karabakh, Peto Demirchyan said.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. A senior Iranian official has hailed Syrias firm resistance in the face of terrorism, saying the Islamic Republic will employ all its capacities to help counter the terror groups wreaking havoc in regional countries, Armenpress reports citing Press TV.

In a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said the anti-terror fight is key to the establishment of peace in the entire world.

Iran will mobilize all resources to fight the terrorists that are perpetrating crimes against oppressed nations in the region regardless of the ridiculous categorization of those terrorists as moderates and extremists, Velayati stated.

He also praised the Syrian nation and government for vigorously defending their homeland against terrorists, expressing hope that Arab country will eventually emerge victorious.
Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster has said she is expecting to be returned as Northern Ireland's First Minister.

As election counts continue across the country, Mrs Foster has claimed her party is on course to again emerge as the largest in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The DUP leader topped the poll in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, after she was elected on the first count with more than 8,000 first preference votes.

Mrs Foster said: "I feel great, it is a great endorsement of our campaign and I am absolutely delighted.

"I am confident that I will be the First Minister of Northern Ireland."

During the election campaign, she placed particular onus on beating Sinn Feinn's Martin McGuinness in the race to see which one of them takes the job.

It would require a significant electoral turnaround for Sinn Fein to topple the DUP as the largest party.

DUP East Antrim representative David Hilditch was the first MLA returned to Parliament Buildings.

Gerry Carroll, of the People Before Profit Alliance, stormed home in west Belfast, topping the poll ahead of high-profile Sinn Fein rivals.

This year, 703,744 people voted, a turnout of 54.91%, which is slightly down from the figure of 55.71% in the 2011 Assembly election.

SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has predicted an "Independents' day" across Northern Ireland.

The 33-year-old, presiding over his first election in charge of the party, said early results appeared to show a voter trend in the Republic spreading across the border.

"This is the year of the Independents," he said.

"We have seen it in the south, we've seen it in west Belfast, we've seen it right across the north, where people who are frustrated with the lack of delivery from this executive are voting Independent in large numbers."

A total of 276 candidates stood for 108 seats across 18 constituencies.

The final outcome of the vote is not expected until Saturday afternoon.
The former first lady of East Germany, Margot Honecker, has been cremated in Chile a day after she died of cancer at the age of 89.

Mrs Honecker had moved to South America in 1992, three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In her own country she was known as the "purple witch", after her dyed hair, and because of the communist governments repressive regime.

Despite her husband Erich Honeckers administration being described as a dictatorship that crushed dissent and spied on its citizens, Mrs Honecker remained unrepentant.

Speaking in 2000, she said that, in East Germany, "there was no unemployment, no homelessness, no property speculation, no rent extortion.

"Proper apartments, fair rents, health, culture, education for all, kindergarten for the young, pensions for the old: all that was reality.

"The elections were free, secret and equal."

But critics told a very different story.

Former Bundestag president Wolfgang Thierse described her as "the most hated person" in East Germany after the head of the Stasi secret police, Erich Mielke.

Mrs Honecker was East Germanys education minister for 26 years.

In 1978, despite opposition from parents and churches, she introduced military lessons for 9th and 10th grade pupils, including weapons training.

She said that youngsters had to defend socialism "if necessary with a weapon in the hand".

It was also claimed that she was responsible for the forced adoption of jailed dissidents children, or the offspring of those who tried to leave East Germany.

Education Ministry files discovered in 1991 appeared to confirm the allegations.

In one case, a couple expelled to the west were apparently forced to abandon their three children.

But when asked about a programme of forced adoption, Mrs Honecker said: "It didnt exist."

Born in 1927, she joined the Communist Party in 1945.

In 1950, at the age of 22, she became the youngest lawmaker in the East German parliament.

Story continues

She married Erich Honecker in 1953.

Two months after the reunification of Germany in October 1990, Erich Honecker was charged with manslaughter for ordering shootings along the east-west border.

The couple took refuge in a Soviet military hospital outside Berlin, and in March 1991 were taken to Moscow.

In a TV interview two months later, Margot Honecker complained of a "witch hunt" and said their names had been "dragged through the mud".

When the Soviet Union collapsed later that year, they took refuge at the Chilean Embassy in Moscow.

Erich Honecker was extradited to Berlin for trial in 1992, but proceedings were halted in 1993 because he had liver cancer.

He then joined his wife in Santiago - where she had fled to avoid also being extradited to Germany - before his death in 1994.
An advertising board (L) showing a Chinese stone lion is pictured near an entrance to the headquarters (R) of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), in Beijing, China, September 7, 2015. REUTERS/Jason Lee (Reuters)

By Xiaowen Bi

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's securities regulator on Friday urged commodity futures exchanges to curb excessive speculation following a surge in prices that has sparked fears markets were heading for a dangerous boom-and-bust cycle.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) said it would not allow the futures market to become a "hot-bed" for speculators.

The CSRC comments confirmed a Reuters story earlier on Friday that the regulator had asked commodity futures exchanges in Dalian, Shanghai and Zhengzhou to bring speculative trading activity under control.

Investors, including hedge funds and retail investors, have placed big bets on Chinese commodities futures this year, driving up contracts including in iron ore, rebar, cotton and even eggs. The rally has prompted many analysts to warn of similarities with a boom in the country's stock markets, which reversed into a sharp crash last summer.

The futures market should stick to its fundamental purpose of serving the real economy, and regulators will "adamantly prevent the futures market from becoming a hotbed for short-term speculators," the CSRC said in a statement on its official microblog.

"We will continue to guide the exchanges to take appropriate actions against excessive speculation and illegal behaviors," the regulator said.

Three people with direct knowledge of the situation said the CSRC had issued its order to the exchanges to bring speculative trading under control on Monday.

In response, the exchanges ordered major institutional investors that lack a commodities background to rein in their trading, the people said. They didn't define what was meant by a lack of background in commodities.

"Many local media and researchers mentioned the huge volume and volatility," said one of the people. "The regulator felt nervous. They hope to keep stability."

A spokesman at the Dalian Commodity Exchange declined to comment on the CSRC order, but said the exchange would further improve its mechanism for controlling risks.

Story continues

The Shanghai Futures Exchange did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange could not be reached for comment.

The sources said the latest measures were partly aimed at cracking down on high-frequency trading, although they did not provide further details.

The exchanges have made several public announcements this week of measures that increase the cost of trading, such as a rise in transaction fees and minimum margin requirements, action that has taken some of the heat out of the rally and traded volumes. Market trading limits have also been widened.

At their peak this year, Dalian iron ore had risen 73 percent, and Shanghai rebar 62 percent. On some days, the trading volume in iron ore futures on the Dalian exchange exceeded China's total imports for 2015.

The measures this week appear to have had an impact and broadly futures prices have calmed, although steelmaking raw materials iron ore, coking coal and coke ended April with their biggest monthly gain on record.

Rebar, a construction steel product, posted its biggest monthly rise ever, with volumes in the most-traded contract in Shanghai hitting a record 1.4 billion tonnes - enough to build San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge more than 15,000 times over.

Analysts said speculators have been betting that government plans for more infrastructure spending and signs of a pick up in the economy would fuel more demand for commodities.

Others suggested commodities futures markets were the only place left for speculators to make quick profits given weakness in stocks, bonds and housing.

The volatility in prices has already deterred some major industry players from using the futures market. It also marks a setback for attempts to give China's domestic markets more influence over global pricing, analysts say.

The run up in steel prices has been blamed for encouraging some idled steel mills to restart production, adding to a production glut in the country and exports of the metal, which is upsetting other countries.

The CSRC came under fire as China's Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets slumped as much as 40 percent in just a few months last summer.

In a further blow, a stock index "circuit breaker" introduced in January to limit stock market losses was deactivated after four days of use because it was blamed for exacerbating a sharp selloff.

In its attempts to stabilize stock markets last year, the CSRC instituted a flurry of blunt measures including halting short selling, suppressing trading in index futures and banning share sales by major shareholders in companies.

The official state news agency Xinhua reported in February, without giving details, that the head of the regulator had been removed and succeeded by Liu Shiyu.

(Additional reporting by Ruby Lian in SHANGHAI and Watson Zhang and Samuel Shen in BEIJING: Writing by Pete Sweeney; Editing by Jason Subler and Neil Fullick)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany expects Turkey to uphold an agreement with the European Union on curbing migration to the bloc following the departure of the minister who struck it, a German government spokesman said on Friday. Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Thursday he was stepping down as leader of the ruling AK Party and therefore as premier, raising questions about the migrant deal. Davutoglu negotiated the terms with Brussels on stemming the flow of illegal migrants to Europe - an accord pushed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who hopes it will shore up support for her conservatives ahead of a federal election next year. German deputy government spokesman Georg Streiter said Merkel's government had worked well with Davutoglu and all Turkish officials, "and we expect this good and constructive cooperation to continue with a new Turkish prime minister." "We will fulfill our commitments and expect that Turkey will also fulfill its commitments," Streiter told a regular government news conference, adding that the agreement was between states rather than between individuals. Under the deal, Turkey agreed to help stem the flow of illegal migrants to Europe in return for accelerated EU accession talks, visa liberalization, and financial aid. It was already showing its first successes, Streiter said. Asked whether Davutoglu's decision to step down was a bad sign, Streiter declined to give an assessment, saying: "It is a domestic political procedure within Turkey that I am not commenting on here." On Thursday, politicians from Germany's ruling coalition voiced concern over Davutoglu's departure, saying it paved the way for President Tayipp Erdogan to rule unchecked. (Reporting by Paul Carrel; Editing by Gareth Jones and John Stonestreet)
While landmarks like the Fairmont Empress attract a fair number of tourists to Victoria's Government Street, it was only a year ago that vacant storefronts were a common sight along the strip.

City council floated ideas such as tax breaks for some business owners as a way to boost business.

But now, several new businesses are moving in and the neighbourhood may be rebounding.

"Talking to the landlord last week he told me there isn't a single vacancy on the street," said Darryl Stean, co-owner of Pour, a recently-opened coffee shop at the corner of Government and Courtenay Streets.

Also opening on Government Street this month is Black Goat Cashmere, a Vancouver-based brand that sells luxury cashmere clothing.

Jewelry store Lugaro is also opening a new location on the street this summer.

Attracting tourists and locals

Though Stean said he did pick the location for Pour partly because of all the tourists the street attracts, he said "it's in a geographical location that speaks to the business community and local patrons."

"Through the last couple of months of construction renovation I got a chance to meet a lot of local people that stuck their head in and said, 'Hey, we used to come here years ago, what are you going to be doing?' There was a lot of interest in what we were going to be doing here."

Stean says his business will thrive even after tourist season passes.

"We want to become a destination so people will walk a block or two for the quality of our product, that's really important to us," Stean said.

"We want to offer a locally made product at a high, high quality that people will leave their office and walk a couple of blocks to get to."

With files from CBC's On the Island and KhalilAkhtar

To hear the full story listen to the audio labelled: Government Street in Victoria showing signs of rejuvenation, business owner says
ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday urged other countries and the United Nations to speed up the process of repatriating stolen money held abroad, which he said was becoming "tedious". Since taking office last May, after winning an election largely on his vow to crackdown on corruption, Buhari has sought help from several nations including the United States and Switzerland to recover money he said was stolen by public officials. [nL2N1731OT][nL8N14W31Y] Despite the oil wealth of Africa's top crude exporter, which has the continent's biggest economy, 70 percent of Nigerians live on $1 a day or less while endemic corruption over decades has enriched a small elite. "We are looking for more cooperation from the EU, United States, other countries and international institutions to recover the nation's stolen assets, particularly proceeds from the stolen crude oil," said Buhari. "It is taking very long and Nigerians are becoming impatient," said the president, adding that the process had "become tedious". Buhari made the comments to the executive secretary of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), who was visiting the president. He also urged UNODC to help speed up the recovery of stolen money. Nigeria is going through its worst economic crisis in decades and Buhari's critics have said the focus on corruption has distracted his administration from dealing with the impact of low oil prices which have cut much needed revenues from crude sales. Last week Buhari urged the World Bank to assist in the repatriation of $320 million stolen by former military leader Sani Abacha, which is being held by authorities in Switzerland. [nL5N17U6BE] The 73-year-old former military ruler has said his government will recover "mind-boggling" sums of money stolen from the oil sector and that public coffers were "virtually empty" when he took over from his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan. The opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), which was in power for 16 years prior to Buhari taking office, has accused Buhari of mounting a witch-hunt against its members. (Reporting by Felix Onuah; editing by Ralph Boulton; Writing by Alexis Akwagyiram)
MUSCAT (Reuters) - Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said returned home on Tuesday from Germany after undergoing "successful" medical checks, the royal court said in a statement carried by state media. Qaboos previously spent eight months in Germany for medical reasons before returning home in March last year, fuelling concern over succession in the Western-allied Arabian Peninsula state which the 75-year-old Qaboos had ruled since 1970. The sultan arrived home late on Tuesday after "routine medical checkups in the Federal Republic of Germany which ... have been crowned with the desired good results", the statement read out on state television and carried by state news agency ONA said. At the time of his previous trip to Germany between July 2014 and Macrh 2015, some Omanis had expressed concern about reports that the sultan was suffering from colon cancer. The authorities have not commented on those reports. The Western-backed Qaboos has ruled since taking over from his father in a bloodless coup with the help of the Oman's former colonial power, Britain. (Reporting By Fatma Alarimi; Writing by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
LISBON (Reuters) - A young man's attempt to take a selfie snapshot with the statue of a 16th century Portuguese king ended badly when the 126-year-old statue crashed to the ground and shattered, police said on Wednesday. The man, whom police did not identify, accidentally toppled Dom Sebastiao's statue after climbing up to its pedestal outside the ornate Rossio railway station in central Lisbon just before midnight on Tuesday. He tried to flee the scene but police caught him. He will appear before a judge at a later date. The child-sized statue of the sad-eyed, sword-wielding king stood in a niche between two horseshoe-shaped arches at the entrance to the station. Completed in 1890, the station is a protected monument. Dom Sebastiao, who ruled between 1557 and 1578, is a tragic figure in Portuguese history, dying in battle at the age of 24 during a crusade of his own making in Morocco. His body was never properly identified, giving rise to a legend that the king would one day return to claim his throne and save Portugal in times of trouble. (Reporting By Andrei Khalip, editing by Axel Bugge and Gareth Jones)
SATURDAY, May 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- Men who undergo surgery to create a new penis seem to fare well in the long term, two new studies show.

The surgery, known as phalloplasty, is most often done for transgender men who want to undergo a surgical transition. But it's also an option for men who've lost their penis to cancer or trauma -- including soldiers who've been wounded on the battlefield.

The new studies, to be presented Saturday at the American Urological Association's annual meeting in San Diego, included both groups of patients. And the studies suggest that by and large, both types of patients do well in the long run.

"A lot of people may not know there are surgeons who have this capability," said Dr. Gregory Bales, a urologist and surgeon at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the studies.

But the procedure can be "life-altering," both for transgender men and for those who've lost their penis in an accident or other trauma, said Bales, a spokesman for the AUA who will moderate these meeting presentations.

In one of the studies, British researchers at University College London followed 10 men who'd undergone phalloplasty after a traumatic loss of the penis -- most often from a blast injury or traffic accident.

In each case, the surgeons used skin and other tissue from the man's forearm to construct a new penis. That approach -- known as radial artery-based forearm phalloplasty -- is probably the most commonly used method, according to Bales.

It also tends to be the most successful, said Dr. Nim Andrew Christopher, a consultant uro-andrologist who worked on the study.

That's in part, he said, because the forearm has little fat, little hair and a large nerve and blood vessel that can be harvested along with the skin and some soft tissue -- to create a penis that has the look and sensation of a natural one.

From there, the organ is carefully attached to blood vessels and nerves in the groin.

Some of the men in Christopher's study also needed a complete reconstruction of the urethra -- the tube that carries urine and semen through the penis.

"It's not a surgery for the fainthearted," Christopher said. "It takes multiple procedures, and we don't always get it just right the first time."

Two patients in the study developed blood clots, and one developed a blockage in the new urethra -- all successfully treated, according to the researchers.

And in the long run (a little over four years, on average), all of the patients said they were happy with the size, appearance and sensation of the new penis. All of the men were also able to urinate normally.

"It's as good as the real thing," Christopher said.

For a man to have sex after the surgery, he needs to have an inflatable device implanted in the new penis.

"Just creating the penis is a bit like making a hood ornament," Bales explained. "It will have no ability for penetrative intercourse without the implant."

Six men in Christopher's study opted for an implant; three ended up needing a revision surgery because of an infection or because the implant had a "mechanical failure."

The saline-filled devices can break, Bales explained, or can sometimes "erode" through the skin. And ultimately, he said, any man with a penile implant will need another procedure, because the devices "don't last forever."

The second study looked at 93 patients who had undergone phalloplasty at one Virginia hospital between 1983 and 2015. The group included 44 transgender patients and 49 men who'd had the procedure after a trauma, or to treat a congenital defect.

After an average of 4.5 years, 39 percent of transgender men and 48 percent of other men rated their urinary function as "excellent." Most -- 70 percent -- were happy with the sensation from the new organ, and one-quarter said they were sexually active.

Transgender men were more likely to develop a blockage in the urethra: 56 percent, versus 30 percent of other men. According to Bales, that is probably because the urethra is constructed "from scratch" for transgender patients.

There can be other issues, too. The surgery leaves a scar on the forearm, and patients may be left with numbness or weakness in the arm, Bales said.

There are also practical obstacles to getting the procedure. In the United States, there are probably only 30 to 40 surgeons who perform the operation, Bales estimated. So many patients may have to travel to get it.

Insurance coverage varies, but plans may pay for the procedure -- if, for example, a transgender patient has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, Bales said.

"The cost of the entire endeavor is dependent to some extent on complications and the number of surgeries," Bales said. "But it is safe to say that it is well over $100,000."

Research presented at meetings is considered preliminary until it has been subjected to the peer review of a medical journal.

More information

The Canadian Cancer Society has more on penis reconstruction.
Swedish English

One of Betsson subsidiaries has on April 28, for the brand Triobet, received a gaming license to operate in Latvia. Recently Betsson Group also received a license in Ireland. Betsson now owns operations with local licenses in Malta, Denmark, UK, Ireland, Italy, Estonia, Georgia and Latvia.

When outdated legal structures and old monopolies are dismantled great favorable conditions for long-term profitable growth are created. Our strategy is to increase the proportion of sustainable revenue by participating in local licensing procedures as well as increasing strong growth both organically and by acquiring companies in local regulated markets. The gaming tax in Latvia is 10 percent on gross gaming revenue which is a level that guarantees high channeling and a sustainable system, Ulrik Bengtsson President and CEO of Betsson AB, said.

For further information, please contact:

Malin Sparf Rydberg, Director of Communications, Betsson AB (publ), telephone: +46 (0)8 506 403 00, malin.sparfrydberg@betssonab.com
As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ
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AGI - Il presidente della Repubblica francese Emmanuel Macron ha incontrato questa sera in un hotel romano la presidente del Consiglio Giorgia Meloni. "I rapporti tra Italia e Francia - afferma all'AGI Macron al termine dell'incontro - sono piu importanti delle persone". Macron prosegue: "Abbiamo preferito che questo incontro fosse informale, ma e importante nell'ambito dei rapporti tra Italia e Francia e per quanto riguarda l'Unione europea". Macron ha confermato che domani incontrera il Papa e
Oh yes, we know all about that sore and tired and "we just want to be done!" feeling. We especially think when we were blogging every day and trying to churn out a ton of projects it was harder for us to keep our vision intact and our quality high (and frankly even to be sure we were doing something in the best way - sometimes it just felt so rushed). The nice thing has been since taking a step back and slowing down our process, it's amazing how much more excited and sure we are about the updates that we undertake. It might sound weird, but thinking until we're more confident about our course of action and then boldly and excitedly diving into it gives us time to let the soreness fade and also keeps our DIY enthusiasm running high. It's also comforting to remember that transforming a home is a serious journey and it can take years to make one your own, so trying to enjoy the process - and taking time to gain inspiration (and muscle strength again - haha!) can only help you slowly inch towards a home you'll love for the long haul. So just give yourself permission to enjoy a project that's 90% done and wait until you have the energy to finish it properly so you're happy with it down the line. Don't go to the store for that 15th time. Go to the movies. Let go of the ticking clock that is your project and hopefully once you have a little escape, your DIY mojo will come roaring back.
Thai police on Saturday defended arresting the mother of a prominent student activist, following public outcry over a case rights groups described as a "new low" for the junta's crackdown on dissent. Patnaree Chankij, 40, was charged Friday with violating Thailand's severe royal defamation law, which bans disparaging the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison. Her detention followed a sweep of arrests over the past two weeks that saw at least nine people detained for criticising the junta or monarchy on Facebook. Patnaree's lawyers said she was charged for simply writing "ja" -- the Thai equivalent of "yeah" -- in response to private Facebook messages that allegedly insulted the royal family. "I saw the conversation and I can say that at no point did she share any opinions [of her own] about the royal family," Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, a member of the team of human rights lawyers assisting Patnaree, told AFP. But the police officer behind the case insisted Patnaree -- whose son is one of Thailand's most vocal junta critics -- had breached the law. "There are also other actions involved, but we cannot reveal them," Olan Sukkasem told reporters at a press conference. He added that "implying agreement" to unlawful web comments, through 'likes' or other means, is grounds for legal action. The activist accused of sending the messages to Patnaree has also been detained. Both were denied bail. Lese majeste prosecutions have sky rocketed under the royalist generals who seized power two years ago, as authorities broaden their interpretation of the crime to include even vague references to the monarchy. A host of other harsh laws, including sedition and the broadly-interpreted computer crime act, have also been wielded against critics. Patnaree's son Sirawith Seritiwat has been a thorn in the military's side ever since their 2014 power grab, leading small but persistent anti-junta demonstrations across Bangkok. His mother has not participated in the protests, which are outlawed by the junta and often end in arrests. Human Rights Watch said Patnaree's arrest was an example of Thailand's "blatant contempt of its human rights obligations". "The Thai junta has sunk to a new low by charging an activists mother under the insulting the monarchy law, which has been systematically abused to silence critics," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director. Thailand's ailing 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the world's longest reigning monarch and revered by many Thais as a demi-god. Observers say anxiety over succession has helped fuel the past decade of political turmoil, which the junta claims it is seeking to resolve. The military government has become increasingly jittery ahead of an August 7 referendum on a new constitution it scripted and is determined to see pass. Critics say the document is deeply undemocratic and aimed at enshrining the influence of the military and other traditional elites.
A 48-hour ceasefire took hold Thursday in Syria's battered second city of Aleppo after President Bashar al-Assad's regime and rebel forces gave in to mounting diplomatic pressure. Relieved residents returned to the streets after two weeks of heavy fighting in the divided metropolis, a key battleground in Syria's five-year civil war. The Syrian army said late on Wednesday that it had agreed to calls from Russia and the United States for a two-day truce in Aleppo that would begin from 1:00 am on Thursday. The agreement followed an intense diplomatic push by Moscow and Washington -- the co-sponsors of a February 27 ceasefire agreement that had begun to fall apart -- to salvage peace efforts. Renewed fighting in recent days, especially in and around Aleppo, had threatened the full collapse of the ceasefire, a landmark in attempts to finally resolve a conflict that has left more than 270,000 dead. More than 280 civilians were reported killed since April 22 in the clashes in Aleppo, with regime air strikes pounding the opposition-held east while rebels fired a barrage of rockets into the government-controlled west. Early on Thursday, an AFP correspondent in the city said there had been no signs of fresh air raids since the ceasefire took effect. As residents emerged, shopkeepers were reopening their doors while fruit and vegetable markets -- one of which was struck in an April 24 raid that left 12 dead -- were again up and running. - US, Russia monitoring - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, confirmed there had been no bombing in the city, though it said a civilian had died in a western district from rebel shelling that came minutes after the ceasefire took effect. After a whirlwind of talks involving diplomats from top world powers and the United Nations, US Secretary of State John Kerry announced the truce had taken effect and that violence had already fallen off. "We've seen an overall decrease in violence in those areas even though there are some reports of continued fighting in some locations," Kerry said. Kerry said US officials in Geneva were coordinating with their Russian colleagues on "enhanced monitoring efforts for this renewed cessation". The Russian defence ministry said its ceasefire monitors had agreed with their US counterparts to oversee this truce until midnight on May 6. In Aleppo, the head of the local branch of the powerful Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) rebel force, Ahmad Sanada, said the group would respect the ceasefire. "We are in favour of any initiative that relieves the suffering of civilians and avoids bloodshed and we will respect" the ceasefire, he told AFP. Diplomats are hoping a nationwide ceasefire can underpin efforts to resolve Syria's war, which evolved from a crackdown on anti-government protests into a devastating multi-front conflict. UN-backed peace talks in Geneva, which mediators hope can resume later this month, have so far made little headway, with the regime rejecting the opposition's demand that Assad step aside as part of a political transition. The conflict led in part to the emergence of the jihadist Islamic State group, which has seized control of large areas of Syria and neighbouring Iraq. - Twin bombings kill 10 - On Thursday, twin bombings in central Syria killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 40 more, the Observatory said, amid recent fighting in the area between IS fighters and regime troops. State television reported that at least six people were killed and 28 seriously wounded in the suicide attack and car bombing in a square in Mukharram al-Fawqani in Homs province. The area, controlled by the regime, is located between the cities of Homs and Palmyra, which was recaptured by the Syrian army from jihadists last month. The blasts came just days after IS seized the nearby Shaer gas field, one of the biggest in Homs, in an attack that killed at least 16 regime troops. There was no immediate claim of responsiblity for Thursday's attacks but suicide and car bombings are a favourite tactic of IS jihadists. Western powers are hoping that ending the fighting in other parts of Syria will help focus efforts against IS, which a US-led coalition has been targeting with air strikes in Syria and Iraq since mid-2014. Syrian officials have insisted they are targeting jihadists in Aleppo not covered by the ceasefire, in particular members of the Al-Qaeda affiliated Al-Nusra Front, which is fighting in the city alongside other rebel groups. At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Aleppo Wednesday, Syria's Deputy UN Ambassador Mounzer Mounzer defended the regime's actions in the city. "What the Syrian government has been doing in the city of Aleppo is merely the fulfilment of its obligations to protect its citizens from terrorism," he told the council.
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
By Jim Finkle (Reuters) - SWIFT, the global financial network that banks use to transfer billions of dollars every day, warned its customers on Monday that it was aware of "a number of recent cyber incidents" where attackers had sent fraudulent messages over its system. The disclosure came as law enforcement authorities in Bangladesh and elsewhere investigated the February cyber theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. SWIFT has acknowledged that the scheme involved altering SWIFT software on Bangladesh Bank's computers to hide evidence of fraudulent transfers. Monday's statement from SWIFT marked the first acknowledgement that the Bangladesh Bank attack was not an isolated incident but one of several recent criminal schemes that aimed to take advantage of the global messaging platform used by some 11,000 financial institutions. "SWIFT is aware of a number of recent cyber incidents in which malicious insiders or external attackers have managed to submit SWIFT messages from financial institutions' back-offices, PCs or workstations connected to their local interface to the SWIFT network," the group warned customers on Monday in a notice seen by Reuters. The warning, which SWIFT issued in a confidential alert sent over its network, did not name any victims or disclose the value of any losses from the previously undisclosed attacks. SWIFT confirmed to Reuters the authenticity of the notice. SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is a cooperative owned by 3,000 financial institutions. Also on Monday, SWIFT released a security update to the software that banks use to access its network to thwart malware that security researchers with British defense contractor BAE Systems said was probably used by hackers in the Bangladesh Bank heist.[L2N17S0RG] BAE's evidence suggested that hackers manipulated SWIFT's Alliance Access server software, which banks use to interface with SWIFT's messaging platform, to cover their tracks. BAE said it could not explain how the fraudulent orders were created and pushed through the system. But SWIFT provided some evidence about how that happened in its note to customers, saying that in most cases the modus operandi was similar. It said the attackers obtained valid credentials for operators authorized to create and approve SWIFT messages, then submitted fraudulent messages by impersonating those people. FireEye, the internet security company whose Mandiant unit was hired by Bangladesh Bank to help investigate the heist, said the same group behind that hack had probably attacked other financial targets. "FireEye has observed activity in other financial services organizations that is likely by the same threat actor behind the cyber attack on the Bank of Bangladesh," Vivek Chudgar, Mandiant's senior director for the Asia Pacific said in a statement emailed to Reuters. FireEye declined to go into detail. Rakesh Asthana, the World Informatix Cyber Security CEO, who is overseeing Bangladesh Bank's probe into the hack, declined to discuss the other attacks that SWIFT referred to. He did, though, urge banks to conduct independent security assessments to make sure their networks are secure and prevent future attacks. SWIFT builds on security practices established by the customer itself and therefore it is imperative that in the wake of this attack, customers using SWIFT Alliance Access must strengthen their cyber security posture, Asthana said FOLLOWING THE MONEY Cyber security experts said more attacks could surface as SWIFT's banking clients look to see if their SWIFT access has been compromised. Shane Shook, a banking security consultant who investigates large financial crime, said hackers were turning to SWIFT and other private financial messaging platforms because such attacks can generate more revenue than going after consumers or small businesses. "These hacks specifically target financial institutions because smaller efforts result in much larger thefts," he said. "It's much more efficient than stealing from consumers." Justin Harvey, chief security officer with Fidelis Cybersecurity, said hackers followed the money and would be drawn into such schemes in hopes of emulating a big heist like the one on Bangladesh Bank. "After the Bangladesh Bank heist became public, every other attacker out there is looking to see if they can do the same," he said. SWIFT spokeswoman Natasha Deteran told Reuters that the commonality in these cases was that internal or external attackers compromised the banks own environments to obtain valid operator credentials. "Customers should do their utmost to protect against this," she said in an email to Reuters. SWIFT told customers that the security update must be installed by May 12. "We have made the Alliance interface software update mandatory as it is designed to help banks identify situations in which attackers have attempted to hide their traces - whether these actions have been executed manually or through malware," she said. (Reporting by Jim Finkle in Boston; Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in Dhaka; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Martin Howell and Peter Cooney)
STEM

Lockheed Martin Gives $800,000 to Denver Public Schools to Expand STEM

Lockheed Martin is investing $800,000 in Denver Public Schools (DPS) to expand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programming and education. The investment will underwrite the cost of implementing Project Lead the Ways STEM-based curricula at up to 100 elementary, middle and high schools in DPS over a three-year period.

Project Lead the Way is a nonprofit organization that provides learning experiences in computer science, engineering and biomedical science for K-12 students and teachers across the United States.

Studies show that nearly 20 percent of the U.S. workforce  more than 26 million jobs  require significant STEM knowledge and skills, said Vince Bertram, president and CEO of Project Lead the Way, in a prepared statement. Schools help students through Project Lead the Way by developing in-demand knowledge and transportable skills  like creative thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration  to succeed in all career paths and thrive in our rapidly advancing world.



The announcement was made today at Denvers Colorado Convention Center, where the Society of Women Engineers were hosting a Girls Exploring Science, Technology, Engineering and Math event. More than 1,000 middle school girls participated in science and technology activities, getting a taste of how science and math can be fun and can solve real-world problems.

Since 2007, Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda, MD, has committed $6 million nationally to expand Project Lead the Way programs in selected school districts. In 2015, the aerospace and global security company directed $13 million and nearly 110,000 volunteer hours to STEM initiatives.
ATHENS (Reuters) - The website of the Central Bank of Cyprus briefly came under cyber attack, days after a hacking collective said it conducted a similar attack on the Greek central bank's site.

The central bank's website came under "some form of a denial-of-service" attack, a spokeswoman said on Friday, via email.

She did not say when the attack occurred, but several on-line news sites covering cyber security said it came on Thursday. The bank could not be reached to verify the date.

The attack "... resulted in some delays in user connections, but generally the website could handle the anticipated number of users for the day," the spokeswoman said.

Greece's central bank was attacked by the hacking group Anonymous on Tuesday, which disrupted service on its web site, a Bank of Greece official said on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear whether Anonymous was behind the attack on the Cypriot central bank. But in a video posted on YouTube, the group said the attack on the Bank of Greece marked the start of a 30-day campaign against central banks around the world.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas, editing by Larry King)
NEW ORLEANS, LA--(Marketwired - May 06, 2016) - Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC ("KSF") and KSF partner, the former Attorney General of Louisiana, Charles C. Foti, Jr., remind investors that they have until June 24, 2016 to file lead plaintiff applications in a securities class action lawsuit against La Quinta Holdings Inc. (LQ), if they purchased the Company's securities between February 25, 2015 and September 17, 2015, inclusive (the "Class Period"), including in the March 24, 2015 secondary public offering. This action is pending in the Southern District of New York United States District Court.

What You May Do

If you purchased shares of La Quinta and would like to discuss your legal rights and how this case might affect you and your right to recover for your economic loss, you may, without obligation or cost to you, call toll-free at 1-877-515-1850 or email KSF Managing Partner Lewis Kahn (lewis.kahn@ksfcounsel.com). If you wish to serve as a lead plaintiff in this class action, you must petition the Court by June 24, 2016.

About the Lawsuit

La Quinta and certain of its executives are charged with failing to disclose material information during the Class Period, violating federal securities laws.

On July 29, 2015, La Quinta announced its second quarter 2015 financial results, reporting that its earnings had been adversely affected by a $4 million loss on the sale of a property and a $42 million impairment charge on the potential sale of 24 Company-owned hotels. Then, on September 17, 2015, La Quinta announced that it had further reduced its 2015 financial guidance and that its President and CEO had stepped down.

On this news, the price of La Quinta's stock plummeted.

About Kahn Swick & Foti, LLC

KSF, whose partners include the Former Louisiana Attorney General Charles C. Foti, Jr., is a law firm focused on securities, antitrust and consumer class actions, along with merger & acquisition and breach of fiduciary litigation against publicly traded companies on behalf of shareholders. The firm has offices in New York, California and Louisiana.

To learn more about KSF, you may visit www.ksfcounsel.com.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Sueddeutsche Zeitung said on Friday that the source of millions of documents leaked to the German newspaper from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca had sent them a manifesto, saying his motivation was the "scale of injustices" the papers revealed.

The source had never before publicly stated why he leaked the documents, now known as the Panama Papers, said Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), one of Germany's most reputable newspapers.

In an 1,800 word manifesto published on the SZ website on Friday, the source, calling himself "John Doe", praised others who have leaked secret and sensitive documents, such as Edward Snowden, who revealed details of the U.S. government's mass surveillance programme.

"For his revelations about the National Security Agency (NSA), he deserves a hero's welcome and a substantial prize, not banishment," the source wrote.

He also said he would be willing to co-operate with law enforcement agencies.

He called on the European Commission, Britain, the United States and other nations to take steps to protect people who reveal private information about such sensitive issues rather than punishing them.

"Legitimate whistleblowers who expose unquestionable wrongdoing, whether insiders or outsiders, deserve immunity from government retribution, full stop," he said.

The source, who contacted the paper a year ago with an offer of encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, denied being a spy but said he had recognised the "scale of injustices" described in their contents.

The documents cover a period over almost 40 years, from 1977 until last December, and purport to show that some companies domiciled in tax havens were being used for suspected money laundering, arms and drug deals and tax evasion.

Reuters could not independently verify whether the source was the same person who leaked the original documents. The source's identity and gender is not known.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung spent more than a year, along with other media outlets and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, analysing the huge cache of documents.

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On Friday, Sueddeutsche Zeitung introduced the manifesto by saying: "Now 'John Doe', the anonymous source, has sent the SZ a manifesto, which can be read as an explanation of his actions  and as a call to action."

The source welcomed the fact that the leak had triggered a debate on "wrongdoing by the elite" but said not enough action had been taken.

"For the record, I do not work for any government or intelligence agency, directly or as a contractor, and I never have," he said.

The source was critical of banks, financial regulators, tax authorities, the courts, and the legal profession, as well as the media, saying he had offered the documents to several major media outlets that had chosen not to cover them.

"The collective impact of these failures has been a complete erosion of ethical standards, ultimately leading to a novel system we still call Capitalism, but which is tantamount to economic slavery."

The source ended the manifesto by saying "inexpensive, limitless digital storage and fast internet connections" should help digitise the revolution against income inequality.

(Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Louise Ireland)
MADRID (Reuters) - Acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy has asked the European Commission to waive a fine that could be imposed on Spain for missing its deficit target in 2015, El Pais newspaper reported on Saturday.

Citing a letter sent to Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, El Pais said Rajoy had stressed Spain's efforts in the past four years to halve the public deficit, and offered up additional measures to control spending next year.

A Commission spokeswoman confirmed it had received a letter from Spain and would study it. A source with the Spanish government said the letter contained information that had already been sent to Brussels on Spain's latest plans to bring the deficit down.

The Commission is in charge of policing the budgets of the EU's 28 members to make sure they improve each year in line with recommendations set by finance ministers.

The rules were sharpened in 2011 to make financial sanctions for rule-breakers more automatic and harder to circumvent through political alliance-building as had happened in the past.

Spain missed its 2015 target of cutting the deficit to 4.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), after overspending by regions and a social security revenue shortfall pushed it up to 5 percent.

The Commission is considering penalising Spain as well as Portugal for missing their goals. Officials have told Reuters the fines - which would be unprecedented - could be symbolic and be set at zero percent of GDP, though even that would ramp up political pressure.

Spain's deficit tussle comes at an sensitive time for Rajoy's acting centre-right government, which faces a second election in six months after an inconclusive ballot last December which stripped the People's Party (PP) of its majority.

The PP has tried to sell itself as a safe pair of hands on the economy, after the country emerged from a deep recession under its administration.

The new election is now set for June 26. The Commission is due to issue its recommendations on whether or not to fine Spain and Portugal later this month, though the size of any fine may not be announced until after the vote, El Pais said.

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The maximum penalty is up to 0.2 percent of GDP, or 2.16 billion euros (1.7 billion) in the case of Spain.

Brussels is also expected to give Spain more leeway to whittle its public deficit below its recommended 3 percent threshold, through an extension of one or even two years, sources have said.

By exercising better controls on regional spending and helped by an economic rebound, Spain aims to bring the deficit down to 3.6 percent this year - instead of the 2.8 percent originally envisaged - and sees it standing at 2.9 percent in 2017.

Brussels has projected the deficit will reach 3.8 percent of GDP this year and 3.1 percent in 2017.

(Reporting by Sarah White in Madrid and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Toby Chopra)
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - May 5, 2016) - Teck Resources Limited (TSX: TCK.A and TCK.B, NYSE: TCK) ("Teck") announced today that it will donate $75,000 to the Canadian Red Cross in support of emergency efforts concerning the wildfires in Northeastern Alberta. A further $25,000 will go to match donations made by Teck employees.

"Our thoughts are with all those impacted by the devastating wildfires in the Fort McMurray area," said Don Lindsay, President and CEO. "Teck will continue to work with our partners in the region to identify opportunities where we can offer support during this incredibly difficult time."

Teck's donation to the Canadian Red Cross will be made through the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) Energy Together: Fort McMurray Wildfire Relief initiative. Teck is a member of CAPP.

Go to www.redcross.ca for information on how to support the Canadian Red Cross.

About Teck

Teck is a diversified resource company committed to responsible mining and mineral development with major business units focused on copper, steelmaking coal, zinc and energy. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, its shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbols TCK.A and TCK.B and the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol TCK. Learn more about Teck at www.teck.com or follow @TeckResources.

Teck's activities in Alberta include operating the Cardinal River mine in west-central Alberta as well as being a partner in the Fort Hills oil sands project and owner of the Frontier oil sands project in northeast Alberta.
The 42-year-old is all set to assume the position left vacant by Liz Truss.
TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's biggest bank is handing over to the government names of clients with relationships or connections to a Panamanian law firm at the centre of a massive leak of offshore financial data, national media reported on Thursday. The Toronto Star and CBC, citing legal documents filed on Wednesday, reported that the Canada Revenue Agency had sought a court order against the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to compel disclosure and that the bank would not be challenging it. The bank and the Canada Revenue Agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The tax agency's action came about one month after the Star and CBC, in partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, published their investigations on the law firm, Mossack Fonseca. Leaks from the Panama-based law firm, dubbed the "Panama Papers," have embarrassed several world leaders and shone a spotlight on the shadowy world of offshore companies. Governments across the world have begun investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the rich and powerful after the leak. RBC last month said it was reviewing its records after being named in leaked documents and told Reuters that it had controls in place to prevent illegal activities and it would not do business with those who evaded tax. Canada last month said it was closely watching the cases of citizens found to have set up offshore companies in Panama and elsewhere and would refer cases to prosecutors if necessary. (Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto)
By Vincenzo Damiani BARI, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian prosecutor is investigating Deutsche Bank for possible market manipulation regarding the sale of 7 billion euros (5.5 billion pounds) in Italian government bonds five years ago, an investigative source said on Friday. Deutsche Bank said it was cooperating with Italian authorities and had given information to market regulator Consob about a related inquiry in 2011. It did not give any further details or comment. The German bank sold the bonds in the first half of 2011 as Italy slid towards a debt crisis that eventually brought down the government of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A prosecutor in Trani, southern Italy, is investigating the fact Deutsche told clients in a research note in early 2011 that Italy's public debt was no cause for concern, and then sold almost 90 percent of its own holding, the investigative source said. Five former Deutsche Bank managers as well as the bank itself are under investigation in the case, the source added. In recent years the same prosecutor also opened probes into ratings agencies Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch, saying their reports on Italy and its banks during the crisis were mismanaged and provoked sharp losses on the Milan stock market. The case against Moody's was dropped before a trial began in Trani last year. The case against Fitch Italia and its country head was moved to Milan, where a judge threw it out on Friday. However David Riley, Fitch's former head of sovereign ratings, remains on trial in Trani, along with five S&P officials. The ratings agencies have denied wrongdoing. In a written response to a question from a parliamentarian about the issue in August 2011, Italy's economy ministry said Deutsche Bank had explained the sale by saying it needed to balance out its exposure to Italian debt after taking on more when it bought out Deutsche Postbank in 2010. The U.S. ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, mentioned the ratings agency probe in a speech to students in Milan last month in which he said Italy's justice system was deterring investors. In the United States it was "highly unlikely that such a case would be brought outside the major financial centers, where prosecutors have both jurisdiction and expertise in securities fraud prosecutions," Phillips said. "Needless to say, it is startling that executives may be restricted from international travel based on arrest warrants issued in a small city with no direct connection to Standard and Poor's," he added. Berlusconi and his ministers often cited Deutsche Bank's sudden offloading of its billions of euros of Italian bonds as evidence of an international plot to bring down his government. (Writing by Isla Binnie; Editing by Giselda Vagnon and Mark Potter)
By Dmitry Solovyov and Lidia Kelly MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russia will reinforce its western and southern flanks with three new divisions by the year-end, officials said on Wednesday, threatening retaliation to NATO's plans to boost its military presence in eastern members Poland and the Baltic States. While Moscow accuses the Western alliance of threatening its Russia's security, NATO says intensified military drills and its plans for increased deployments on its eastern flank are purely defensive after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014 and backed separatist rebels in Ukraine. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Monday NATO was weighing up rotating four battalions of troops through eastern member states amid rising tension in the Baltic. Russia has scrambled jets to intercept U.S. reconnaissance planes in recent weeks and made simulated attack passes near a U.S. warship in the Baltic Sea. Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed the alliance would deploy "batallion-sized" multinational units on a rotational basis in the east. Andrei Kelin, a department head at Russia's Foreign Ministry, said the proposed NATO deployment was a source of concern for Moscow. Russia once held sway in eastern Europe as the Soviet-era overlord. "This would be a very dangerous build-up of armed forces pretty close to our borders," Kelin told the Interfax news agency. "I am afraid this would require certain retaliatory measures, which the Russian Defence Ministry is already talking about." Russia announced in January it would create three new military divisions and bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service. On Wednesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the new divisions would be formed by the end of this year to counter what Moscow saw as NATO's growing strength. Russian media, citing unnamed military sources, said the new Russian divisions would most likely be motorized rifle ones and number around 10,000 soldiers each. "The Ministry of Defence has adopted a series of measures to counter the growing capacity of NATO forces in close proximity to the Russian borders," Shoigu said in televised comments. The new divisions are likely to be deployed in military districts close to Russia's borders with Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland as well as Georgia and Azerbaijan. NATO TO KEEP COURSE "What we do is defensive, it's proportionate ... And therefore we will continue to respond," Stoltenberg said. "There can be no doubt that what NATO does is a reaction to the Russian behavior in Ukraine. We didn't have any troops in Baltic countries ... before the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia's destabilizing activities in eastern Ukraine." He was speaking at news conference with NATO's new Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), General Curtis Scaparrotti, who said he intended to continue NATO's response so far to what the West sees as a more assertive and muscle-flexing Russia. "My intent is to continue that. I think that is the response," he said, adding NATO and Russia still needed to talk. "I do believe we should have communication, it's how we ensure that we dont have an accident or miscalculation. But I would reinforce this by saying it's expected that they adhere to international norms and international laws. And until such time, those communications will likely be limited." Scaparrotti said he was in favor of arms supplies to help Ukraine "successfully defend their territory and their sovereignty". (Additional reporting by Jack Stubbs in Moscow and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels, Writing by Andrew Osborn and Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Richard Balmforth)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With the cessation of hostilities in Aleppo, Syria, nearing the end of its 48-hour time-frame, the United States said on Friday it was committed to keeping the deal in place as long as possible and was in touch with Russia to ensure it was holding. "The U.S. side and the Russian side are in direct communication around the clock now about the situation, particularly in Aleppo, and the purpose of that round-the-clock communication is to ... make sure that violations don't occur," State Department spokesman John Kirby told a briefing. Kirby said the cessation of hostilities had reduced violence in Aleppo and the United States was committed to keeping it in place as long as possible, despite an initial agreement by Syria to only 48 hours. Kirby also said the United States was still processing information about an air strike on Thursday against a camp for displaced people in Syria that killed at least 28 people. He said the United States still was not able to say who was responsible for the attack. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Writing by David Alexander; Editing by James Dalgleish)
YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS. A regular session of the National Council for Sustainable Development of the Republic of Armenia took place at the Government chaired by PM Abrahamyan. The concept of the implementation strategy of assignments of UN Rio-20 summit elaborated in the sidelines of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, reports on Sustainable development goals, as well as other issues were discussed at the session.

As Armenpress was informed from the press service of the Government, Karine Danielyan, Head of the Association for Sustainable Human Development NGO, introduced the concept of the implementation strategy of assignments of UN Rio-20 summit elaborated in the sidelines of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to the Council. Particularly, the concept envisages events and programs aimed at sustainable development in the spheres of sustainable management of alternative energy, energy efficiency, agriculture, tourism, education, environmental protection, water resources, waste and other spheres. It was mentioned that the concept was elaborated considering the assignments of Rio-20 summit, as well as researches for sustainable development done in Armenia, problems and challenges. The concept was approved.

It is mentioned in the statement that Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian delivered a report on Sustainable development goals. According to Nalbandian, the summery of the Millennium Development Goals program showed that the UN member states were unable to fully achieve their goals, and the main obstacle for that was the global economic crisis of 2009. Edward Nalbandian had mentioned that despite the crisis had not bypassed Armenia, but according to the study of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, Armenia has been the leader in terms of increasing allocations to social welfare from governmental expenditures during those years among the 22 regional countries, recording 21% rise. In the same list Azerbaijan ranked the last.

Summing up, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan expressed satisfaction over the fact that Armenia exceeds a number of countries.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London - boosting Labour after it slumped in Scotland's elections, Armenpress reports citing BBC.

Sadiq Khan is the city's first Muslim mayor, after beating Tory Zac Goldsmith by 1, 310,143 votes to 994,614.

The result bolsters leader Jeremy Corbyn after Labour were beaten into third in Scotland by the Tories and lost some English councillors.

In Scotland, the SNP said it would form a minority government after winning its third election in a row.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is celebrating what she said was an "emphatic" victory, her first as party leader, after the SNP emerged as the largest party at Holyrood with 63 seats, ahead of the Conservatives on 31 and Labour on 24.

But she played down talk of another independence referendum after falling short by two seats of an overall majority.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. The United States is concerned by the guilty verdicts in the trial of Cumhuriyet Editor Can Dundar and Ankara Bureau Chief Erdem Gul, who were convicted of leaking state secrets stemming from their journalistic work, Armenpress reports, citing the official website of US Department of State, US State Department Spokesman John Kirby said this.

We reiterate that the United States supports freedom of expression, and we call on the Turkish authorities to support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society. As Turkeys friend and NATO Ally, we again urge Turkey to abide by its constitutional and OSCE commitments to fundamental principles of democracy, including due process, judicial independence, and freedom of expression. These principles are key elements of every healthy democracy and are enshrined in the Turkish constitution, Kirby stated.

Mr Dundar and Mr Gul were charged in November with espionage after their reports in May 2015 alleging that Turkey's intelligence services were sending weapons and ammunition to Islamist rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A Turkish court has jailed two prominent journalists for revealing state secrets, in a case widely criticized by international observers. Erdem Gul received five years and Can Dundar five years and 10 months.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan sends a congratulatory letter on Radio Day, Press Service of Yerevan Municipality informed Armenpress.

The letter reads:

Respectable employees of the radio

I cordially congratulate all of you on the professional holiday-Radio Day. Despite the variety of mass media and sources of information the radio remains the convenient and available source of information.

Id like to state with pleasure that you do you work with a great responsibility and honor providing the society not only with timely but with precise information as well. We had the opportunity to make sure in it at the beginning of this April, when together with your colleagues you left for the front line and informed us about the development of the situation on the spot.

I am sure that you will go on you responsible work of providing people with precise and objective information bringing your significant contribution to the development and well-being of our country and its capital.

I wish you uninterrupted broadcasting, success and new achievements.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. Two other people, who made an assassination attempt against Turkish journalist Can Dundar, were arrested, Armenpress reports citing Hurriyet journal.

Earlier Murad S. was arrested who committed the attack. Thus, overall, three people were arrested.

Can Dundar and Erdem Gul were charged in November with espionage after their reports in May 2015 alleging that Turkey's intelligence services were sending weapons and ammunition to Islamist rebels fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A Turkish court has jailed two prominent journalists for revealing state secrets, in a case widely criticized by international observers. Erdem Gul received five years and Can Dundar five years and 10 months.

The assailant fired several shots while Can Dundar was briefing reporters outside the courthouse. Dundar escaped unharmed and the gunman was arrested. A reporter was slightly injured in the leg.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian National Committee of America calls on the State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch to raise their voices in defense of Garo Paylan, an ethnic Armenian member of Turkey's Parliament who has come under attack for his Armenian identity and the free expression of his views regarding democracy, human rights, and genocide, ANCA informed Armenpress.

Garo Paylan, Armenian member of the Turkish parliament representing Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), has announced that he was attacked by MPs representing the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP) on May 2 during the discussion of depriving the Kurdish MPs of immunity for being ethnic Armenian.

The attack had been planned in advance, and the reason was that I am an ethnic Armenian. I have posted that footage in the social networks. Those interested can watch it and make sure, Paylan said.

He added that those who attacked him were shouting Garo is here, Garo is here.
YEREVAN, MAY 7, ARMENPRESS. On May 7 Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan received the leading specialists, professors, doctors of University Medical Center Freiburg who arrived Armenia by the invitation of Armenian Minister of Health Armen Muradyan, Press Service of Armenian Defense Ministry informed Armenpress.

Issues related to the recovery of soldiers wounded by the Azerbaijani aggression were discussed during the meeting. German doctors-specialists presented to the Defense Minister the results of their studies in several Armenian medical institutions and ensured that Armenian doctors had done all the necessary interventions for servicemens recovery.

The participants discussed the issue of continuing servicemens treatment in abroad. German specialists stated that there is no need to take servicemen to abroad for their treatment, and it will be more efficient to continue their recovery works in Armenia.

Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan expressed gratitude to German doctors for standing together with Armenian partners and providing additional professional advice to them.

Other issues related to the organization of Armenian servicemens treatment were discussed during the meeting.
Greeks went on a 48-hour nationwide strike on Friday to protest against tax and pension reforms, as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appealed to fractious lawmakers to approve the overhaul as part of a multi-billion euro bailout.

Lowering its annual pension bill, one of the most expensive in the euro zone, is a condition for Athens to qualify for a fresh installment of the bailout worth up to 86 billion euros it signed up to almost a year ago.

Greeks, incensed at years of austerity, declared a 48-hour strike starting on Friday. Major labour unions were planning protests outside Greece's parliament on Sunday, when the reforms are due to be put to the vote.

Tsipras, who is clinging to a slim majority of 3 seats in the 300 member parliament, appealed to members of his Syriza party to approve the package. Whether Greece signed up to a bailout or not, he said, the reforms were still needed.

"The necessity to make an intervention into the pension system must be understood by all. It was a necessity borne from the need to make it viable Without this intervention, the pensions system would collapse."

In the meantime, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, urged euro zone finance ministers to start talks on Greece's debt relief together with discussions on reforms, according to a letter published by the Financial Times.

Tsipras has called for debt relief of some form to help Greece as it introduces the reforms.

Friday's strike left ships docked at port, disrupted public transport and kept civil servants and journalists off the job.

Greece's largest labour union, the private sector GSEE, said the reforms, now pending approval in parliament, were the "last nail on the coffin" for workers and pensioners who have sacrificed enough after six years of austerity.

"They are trying to prove to the Eurogroup that they are good students but they are destroying Greece's social security system," a GSEE official said, referring to euro zone finance ministers who are due to meet on Monday.

Civil service union ADEDY held rallies in central Athens on Friday. Thousands of protesters with the Communist-affiliated group PAME marched before parliament holding banners that read: "Rise up now!" and "Resist".

Athens hopes the measures, due to be voted on in parliament on Sunday, will help persuade creditors to approve the release of bailout cash.

A tranche of more than 5 billion euros is overdue, after talks faltered over the pace of reforms. The Eurogroup is expected to discuss the stalemate on May 9 and long-desired by Athens debt relief measures.

Greece needs the bailout funds to pay IMF loans, ECB bonds maturing in July and growing state arrears, subject to lenders signing off on a review in its reform progress that includes changes to its tax and pension laws.

The proposed legislation would raise social security contributions, increase income tax for high earners and introduce a new national pension. It would also gradually phase out a top-up pension for low income earners.

Worn by years of austerity, Greeks fear that the new reforms will push the country further to the brink.

"We don't have food to eat and nobody asks us how we are," said shopkeeper Anna Papadopoulou, 74, who wept as she spoke.

Asked what she wanted to tell the Greek government, she said: "Wake up. We are dying. (Reuters)

Source: www.businessworld.ie
Ibec have today called on the new minority Government to not shy away from taking tough decisions in tackling the big challenges facing the country.

The group which represents Irish business claims it is vital that the "enormous" opportunities presented by a fast growing economy are fully grasped.

They have also warned a minority government will undoubtedly face greater challenges in securing the necessary support for key initiatives. Ibec claim the next government needs to "think big, plan for the long-term and invest accordingly."

Ibec CEO Danny McCoy said, "The incoming government should plan ahead with confidence, ensure urban growth doesnt come at the expense of rural areas, and develop thriving, well-managed and well connected towns and cities across the country."

He added, "To make this happen, all political parties and TDs in the new Dail need to recognise the intrinsic link between a successful business community, job creation and a thriving economy and society."

Source: www.businessworld.ie
The company said its hiring enough people to make sure things dont go wrong this holiday season

Walmart says its doubling down on convenience for its customers including a new policy about returns and updated shipping plans, all in hopes of setting the stage for a better holiday shopping experience.

When it comes to returns, the big box retailer calls its updated blueprint a no concerns and seamless policy  one that comes with several new and expanded options. Customers can return almost anything with the new "Holiday Guarantee," including everything from a n...
Fundamental Forecast for the Yuan: Neutral

The offshore Yuan (CNH) rate closed at a five-week low against the US Dollar on Friday following the biggest downward move in Yuan fixing by the PBOC since the Yuans de-pegging. The onshore Yuan (CNY) touched 6.5092 on Thursday, the weakest level in a month. On a weekly basis, the onshore Yuan was down -0.36%. The Shanghai Composite Index eased early gains this week and dropped -2.82% on Friday, the biggest daily loss since March. Major commodities in China also fell this week after hitting multiple limit-ups in the previous week. Looking into next week, the Central Banks moves on the daily fix, as well as volatility in Chinese equity and commodity markets will continue to weigh on the exchange rate. Additionally, China will release key economic reports next week including April New Yuan loans, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and trade data.

The volatility in the Yuans reference rate has increased of recent and this trend is likely to continue. Before March, a 200-pip move on the fix was rare and yet over the past two weeks, we have seen this take place multiple times. The PBOC fixed the rate 238 pips stronger on April 26th and an additional 365 pips on April 29th, and then weakened the rate by 378 pips on May 4th. Such big moves may reduce market speculation on one-way moves in Yuan rates. More importantly, the Central Bank is showing control in guiding rates lowers of recent unlike previous instances that received global attention. Ahead of the Yuans August de-pegging as well as the January devaluation, the spread between onshore and offshore rates widened significantly, and this increased depreciation pressure on Yuan. The weakness in the daily fix was more led by external forces and the market reaction was likely more-related to panic with capital rushing out, like a sudden tire burst caused by a change of the weather. It appears as though the Chinese Central bank knows that there is excessive air in the tire and are looking to release the air gradually before the tough weather comes, such as what may occur when the Fed next hikes rates. Over the following periods, traders may see additional Yuan weakness guided by the Central Bank for such a reason.

Next week, there are major event risks coming from China, which may add volatility in Yuan rates. The April Consumer Price Index (CPI) report is one such report: Pork prices, a major contributor to CPI, remain at elevated levels despite the government introducing policies in the effort to stimulating the supply. The consensus forecast for CPI by Bloomberg is 2.3%, the same as March. Higher-than-expected CPI prints could affect the Central Banks monetary policy and, in turn, impact Yuan rates. Aprils New Yuan loan report is another indicator worthy of watching. The all-time high new yuan loan print of 4.61 trillion in the first quarter raised concerns that the Chinese government would attempt to continue using stimulus to boost the economy as they did during the 2008 global financial crisis. The government news agency responded that the country will not resort to large stimulus measure and the rapid increase in loans was temporary. The April new Yuan loans data will be a good gauge of that statement.

Also, recent turbulence in the Chinese equity and commodity markets could impact the direction of capital flows to China. Chinas equity markets have been stabilizing over the past two months, and the Shanghai Composite Index is testing major resistance at the psychological level of 3,000. However, the equity market comes into the spotlight again as major shareholders of multiple listed companies have reduced their holdings over the past few days. This raises concerns on whether such reductions will cause another round of selling in the equity market and, in turn, drive capital flows out of China. At the same time, the commodity market has cooled a bit this week with the governments intervention. The fever in Chinese commodities has led to an increased risk of price bubbles. Next week, traders will want to keep an eye on the commodity market to see whether the upward trend is remains moderated or whether the cooling down is only a temporary observation before new highs print yet again. The latter could be harmful to the Yuan rates.
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Join the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) - South Bay in welcoming IMA Chairperson Eni Lestari as she discusses the need to end the root causes of forced migration and the urgency to advance the international movement of migrants, refugees and displaced people.Eni Lestari, a Indonesian migrant worker and movement organizer in Hong Kong, will be joined by other migrant workers in the South Bay engaged in grassroots struggle for dignity and justice.The International Migrants Alliance is the first ever grassroots global alliance of migrants, refugees and displaced people established in 2008. Since then, IMA has grown to over 130 member organizations from Latin America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, Middle East, Canada and the U.S.This event will take place at Our Lady of Guadalupe Chuch in East San Jose, which is historic to migrant workers organizing in San Jose.Dignity & Justice for Migrant Workers!End Forced Migration!Long Live International Solidarity!Eni Lestari's Bio:Eni Lestari is an Indonesian domestic worker and migrant rights activist who has been working in Hong Kong since 1999. In addition to being the current Chairperson of IMA, Eni is also the founding member of the Association of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Hong Kong (ATKI-HK), Coordinator for United Indonesians Against Over Charging (PILAR) and spokesperson for the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB), an alliance of migrant organziations of Nepalese, Sri Lankans, Thais, Filipinos and Indonesians. She is also the former board member of the Global Alliance Against Trafficking of Women.For more information, please contact at 669-247-9378.For more information on IMA: https://wearemigrants.net/about/
This Week in Palestine, May 6th, 2015 by IMEMC

Welcome to this Week in Palestine, a service of the International Middle East Media Center, http://www.imemc.org , for April 30, to May 6, 2016.

Listen now: Copy the code below to embed this audio into a web page: <audio preload="none" src="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2016/05/06/thisweekinpalestine-week182016.mp3" controls="controls"></audio>

Israeli attacks targeting Palestinian communities in Gaza and the West Bank leave two killed civilians, meanwhile international efforts to deescalate the situation in Gaza are reported this week. These stories, and more, coming up, stay tuned.





The Nonviolence Report



Lets begin our weekly report as usual with the nonviolent activities organized in the West Bank. scores of protesters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation fired by Israeli troops who attacked on Friday anti wall and settlements protests organized in West Bank villages. This week anti wall and settlements protests were organized in the central west Bank villages of Bilin, Nilin, and al Nabi Saleh. In addition, protests took place in the village of Kufer Qadum in northern West Bank and Beit Jala town in the south. Israeli soldiers used live rounds, tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets against the unarmed protesters.



Scores of residents and their international supporters were treated for the effects of tear gas inhalation as Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly protest organized in Kufer Kadum village. Troops also fired tear gas into residents homes after invading the village. In Bilin and Nilin ,protesters managed to reach the Israeli wall. Meanwhile in al Nabi Saleh village, Israeli troops fired several rounds of rubber-coated steel bullets at the villagers as soon as they reached the village entrance.



Also on Friday, Combatants for Peace Movement organized the monthly peaceful demonstration against the occupation and the violence it creates. Protesters gathered at Batteer village roundabout adjacent to road 60 near Beit Jala town and marched heading to the tunnel checkpoint separating Bethlehem from Jerusalem. Around 300 Palestinian and Israeli activists joined the freedom march. During the protest people chanted against occupation and settlements.





The Political Report



This week, regional players are reported to have intervened to prevent further escalation on the ground in Gaza. IMEMC Rami al Meghari with the details:



Qatari ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Alamadi, is reported to have mediated a ceasefire in Gaza, following the eruption of a fresh spate of violence in the coastal region. Alamadi has stated that a calm will be observed soon.



In the meantime, Israeli inner cabinet decided Friday that Israels army will continue excavations along the Gaza-Israel border lines, in what Israel says attempts to discover and destroy subterranean underground tunnels, dug by Hamas and other armed resistance groups in Gaza.



Meanwhile, Israeli army fire on Gaza killed a Palestinian woman of her fifties and injured a number of civilians , others. On the other hand, resistance factions in Gaza responded with a barrage of mortar shells.



Over the past 48 hours, Israeli drones and tanks opened fire on farm lands, open fields and factional sites, across the Gaza Strip.



In Gaza, Palestinian factions including the ruling Islamist Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, declared that they can not accept a new De-facto on Gaza borders and called for international intervention to prevent further Israeli actions , which they consider as a violation of last 2014s ceasefire deal.



The factions warned that they would be obliged to respond their own way.



For IMEMC News, I am Rami al Meghari in Gaza.





The West Bank and Gaza Report



Israeli troops kill a Palestinian man in the West Bank, meanwhile Israeli bombardment targeting Gaza leave on killed and four injured. IMEMCs Ghassan Bannoura Reports:



On Tuesday of this week, Israeli soldiers shot and killed Ahmed Shehada 36, from Qalandia refugee camp, north of occupied Jerusalem. He was killed after he ran over a number of Israeli soldiers at a military checkpoint, west of Ramallah city.



Witnesses indicated that the incident was a traffic incident but the soldiers opened fire at Shehada killing him claim he ran over the soldiers with his mini truck.



Also on Tuesday, dozens of Palestinian journalists gathered in front of Ofer prison, southwest of Ramallah, to protest against the detention of Palestinian journalists on the World Press Freedom Day. Israeli forces immediately started firing tear gas canisters and sound bombs. As a result, three journalists were wounded.



Earlier in the week, a Palestinian youth was injured on Sunday during clashes between Palestinian youth and invading Israeli troops at al Azza refugee camp in the southern west Bank city of Bethlehem.



Also this week, Israeli forces conducted at least 54 military invasions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. During these invasions, Israeli troops kidnapped at least 40 Palestinian civilians, including 11 children.



In Gaza this week, Palestinian medical sources have reported that a Palestinian woman was killed, on Thursday evening, after the Israeli army fired shells into Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.



The sources said that Zeina al-Amour, 55, was killed after the Israeli army fired artillery shells into the al-Fakhari area, east of Khan Younis. One Palestinian, identified as Khozeima al-Farra, 21, was injured in the bombardment.



Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian medical sources have reported that an elderly man, and three children, suffered moderate-to-severe wounds at dawn Thursday in a serious of Israeli air strikes targeting a number of areas in the Gaza Strip.



Israeli invasions and destruction of Palestinian farm lands targeting Gaza border areas continued this week. Such attacks were reported on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday of this week.



For IMEMC News this is Ghassan Bannoura.





Conclusion



And thats all for today from This Week in Palestine. This was the Weekly report for April 30, to May 6, 2016. From the Occupied Palestinian Territories. For more news and updates please visit our website at www-dot-imemc-dot-org, This weeks report has been brought to you by George Rishmawi and me Eman Abedraboo-Bannoura.
4/11 Rally-Speak Out On Japan Kyushu Earthquake And Dangers Of Another Fukushima Ignored By Abe GovernmentWednesday May 11, 2016 3:00 PM275 Battery St./California St.San FranciscoOn Wednesday May 11th at 3:00 PM , people will speak out at the San Francisco Japanese consulate to demand the closure of all nuclear plants in Japan including the Sendai nuclear plant and another nuclear plant in Kyushu. The recent 7.3 earthquake in Kyushu was very close to the Sendia plant which has been restarted by the Abe government and the corporate controlled Nuclear Regulatory Agency. The same corporate controlled agency has said that "the Sendai reactors can withstand seismic damage and dont pose a risk to the surrounding area." The government using secrecy laws is also now clamping down on the press in Japan not to let the public know about the serious dangers to the communities and public about another Fukushima. The Abe appointed head of the national Japanese channel warned the reporters that they "shouldn't stir up needless alarm". This attack on journalist to shutdown information has even been criticized by the UN last month when U.N. Special Rapporteur David Kaye said "The independence of the press is facing serious threats -- a weak system of legal protection, persistent government exploitation of a media lacking in professional solidarity,"The government and nuclear industry has refused to allow the media to go to the Sendai nuclear plant to check on what is happening there. There is now a national campaign and international campaign to demand that the nuclear plants be shutdown in Kyushu. This cover-up is also going on at Fukushima where the government is demanding that the refugees return or have their housing subsidies eliminated.The Japanese government which runs TEPCO is continuing to release radioactive water including Tritium into the Pacific ocean and telling the children of Fukushima there is nothing to worry about while keeping information about the growing thyroid cancer surgeries in people in Fukushima and Japan.People in the United States must not remain silent. They need to speak out for the people of Fukushima and the world that the nuclear plants in Japan as well as the US need to be closed including Diablo Canyon which is also on an earthquake fault.Our lives and the lives of all people depend on it.Speak Out and Rally initiated byNo Nukes Action CommitteeFor more information(510) 495-5952Growing Anger In Japan And Around The World Over Reckless Abe Continuing To Keep Nuke Plants Operating In KyushuDespite assurances, quakes prompt calls to switch off Japans nuclear reactorsBY ERIC JOHNSTONSTAFF WRITER APR 18, 2016OSAKA  Despite official assurances of no abnormalities at nuclear power plants in Kyushu and nearby areas after a series of earthquakes rocked the region, calls in and outside of Japan are growing to shut down the nations only two operating reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.Since Thursday, the Meteorological Agency has recorded nearly 530 quakes at level 1 or above on the Japanese intensity scale in Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. This includes more than 80 registering a 4 or higher on the scale. The agency has warned that seismic activity in the region may continue over the next week, possibly prompting more deadly landslides.inRead invented by TeadsBut despite the frequency of the quakes, the Sendai plant, just over the border from Kumamoto in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, has continued to generate electricity since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake rocked Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.3 temblor early Saturday.The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday morning it had confirmed there were no abnormalities at the Sendai plant or at the nations other nuclear facilities.It said the seismic intensity measured by the earthquakes was well below the level at which reactors should be switched off.In addition, the NRA said, no problems were reported with the spent fuel pools at the Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture, the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture and the Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture.But with continued quakes and aftershocks, fears are growing about what the constant shaking could mean in terms of cumulative damage that could result in a nuclear crisis.An online Japanese- and English-language petition by a former Kumamoto resident to shut down the Sendai plant had drawn over 42,000 signatures worldwide as of Monday morning, while anti-nuclear activists in Fukui Prefecture have also criticized Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the NRA for continuing to operate the plant.In Saga Prefecture on Sunday, about 100 mayors and town heads belonging to the Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan added their voices, calling for the central government and the NRA to re-evaluate the way earthquake safety standards for nuclear power plants are calculated.They also want the government to grant localities within 30 km of a nuclear power plant the legal authority to approve or reject reactor restarts.The decision to keep the Sendai reactors running is also drawing criticism overseas.Given the general situation on Kyushu  including the ongoing seismic and volcanic activity, the large number of evacuees, and the damage to the transportation infrastructure  I believe it would be prudent for the reactors to be shut down until conditions have stabilized, Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists and an expert on nuclear materials and atomic power safety policy, said in an email to The Japan Times.In Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku Electric hopes to restart the Ikata No. 3 reactor by this summer. But the revelation that the plant lies near the same fault line running through Kumamoto, the Japan Median Tectonic Line, the possibility of a disaster caused by a quake has locals concerned, especially about damage to infrastructure damage that would make it difficult to evacuate residents by either land or sea.In light of the continued quakes and concerns by locals, political leaders in the area who OKd the restart are likely to face intense pressure to rethink their stance.Japan weighs release of tritium from Fukushima plant into seaTHE ASSOCIATED PRESSApril 12, 2016 at 17:40 JSTTo dump or not to dump a little-discussed substance is the question brewing in Japan as it grapples with the aftermath of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima five years ago. The substance is tritium.The radioactive material is nearly impossible to remove from the huge quantities of water used to cool melted-down reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, which was wrecked by the massive tsunami in northeastern Japan in March 2011.The water is still accumulating since 300 tons are needed every day to keep the reactors chilled. Some is leaking into the ocean.Huge tanks lined up around the plant, at last count 1,000 of them, each hold hundreds of tons of water that have been cleansed of radioactive cesium and strontium but not of tritium.Ridding water of tritium has been carried out in laboratories. But it's an effort that would be extremely costly at the scale required for the Fukushima plant, which sits on the Pacific coast. Many scientists argue it isn't worth it and say the risks of dumping the tritium-laced water into the sea are minimal.Their calls to simply release the water into the Pacific Ocean are alarming many in Japan and elsewhere.Rosa Yang, a nuclear expert at the Electric Power Research Institute, based in Palo Alto, California, who advises Japan on decommissioning reactors, believes the public angst is uncalled for. She says a Japanese government official should simply get up in public and drink water from one of the tanks to convince people it's safe.But the line between safe and unsafe radiation is murky, and children are more susceptible to radiation-linked illness. Tritium goes directly into soft tissues and organs of the human body, potentially increasing the risks of cancer and other sicknesses."Any exposure to tritium radiation could pose some health risk. This risk increases with prolonged exposure, and health risks include increased occurrence of cancer," said Robert Daguillard, a spokesman for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.The agency is trying to minimize the tritium from U.S. nuclear facilities that escapes into drinking water.Right after the March 2011 disaster, many in Japan panicked, some even moving overseas although they lived hundreds of kilometers away from the Fukushima no-go zone. By now, concern has settled to the extent that some worry the lessons from the disaster are being forgotten.Tritium may be the least of Japan's worries. Much hazardous work remains to keep the plant stabilized, and new technology is needed for decommissioning the plant's reactors and containing massive radioactive contamination.The ranks of Japan's anti-nuclear activists have been growing since the March 2011 accident, and many oppose releasing water with tritium into the sea. They argue that even if tritium's radiation is weaker than strontium or cesium, it should be removed, and that good methods should be devised to do that.Japan's fisheries organization has repeatedly expressed concerns over the issue. News of a release of the water could devastate local fisheries just as communities in northeastern Japan struggle to recover from the 2011 disasters.An isotope of hydrogen, or radioactive hydrogen, tritium exists in water form, and so like water can evaporate, although it is not known how much tritium escaped into the atmosphere from Fukushima as gas from explosions.The amount of tritium in the contaminated water stored at Fukushima No. 1 is estimated at 3.4 peta becquerels, or 34 with a mind-boggling 14 zeros after it.But theoretically collected in one place, it would amount to just 57 milliliters, or about the amount of liquid in a couple of espresso cups--a minuscule quantity in the overall masses of water.To illustrate that point, Shunichi Tanaka, chairman of the Nuclear Regulation Authority, showed reporters a small bottle half-filled with blue water that was the equivalent of 57 milliliters.Public distrust is running so high after the Fukushima accident that Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, the utility that operates the Fukushima plant and oversees its decommissioning, has mostly kept quiet about the tritium, pending a political decision on releasing the water.Privately, they say it will have to be released, but they can't say that outright.What will be released from Fukushima will be well below the global standard allowed for tritium in the water, say Tanaka and others favoring its release, which is likely to come gradually later this year, not all at once.Proponents of releasing the tritium water argue that tritium already is in the natural environment, coming from the sun and from water containing tritium that is routinely released at nuclear plants around the world."Tritium is so weak in its radioactivity it won't penetrate plastic wrapping," said Tanaka.Japan's Worst Quake Since 2011 Seen Delaying Nuclear StartsStephen StapczynskisstapczynskiApril 25, 2016  5:23 PM PDTUpdated on April 25, 2016  9:16 PM PDTJapans biggest earthquake in five years may slow a government plan to restart the countrys atomic fleet that was shuttered amid safety concerns after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that caused the triple meltdown at Fukushima.A series of earthquakes, including a magnitude-7.3 tremor that struck about 119 kilometers (74 miles) from the Sendai nuclear facility on the southern island of Kyushu this month, destroyed hundreds of homes, snapped bridges and left at least 49 people dead. It has also revived an effort to halt the plants operations.The events may delay Prime Minister Shinzo Abes goal of returning the countrys nuclear power plants to operation. About 60 percent of Japanese citizens oppose restarting reactors, according to a Nikkei newspaper poll from February, and the earthquake is intensifying pressure on the countrys nuclear regulator to vet safety rules.Nuclear is under a magnifying glass now, so even the smallest problem can create big delays, Michael Jones, a Singapore-based gas and power analyst at Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said in an e-mail. Fukushima has changed everything, and earthquakes and volcanoes are only making things worse.Transport DisruptionsTrains and highways were damaged in the Kyushu earthquake and if there is a nuclear accident from another earthquake or volcanic eruption, evacuations may be difficult, Datsugenpatsu Bengodan, a group of lawyers working to wean Japan off nuclear power said in an April 19 statement. The group said Kyushu Electric Power Co.s Sendai No. 1 and 2 reactors, which were the first to restartunder post-Fukushima safety rules last year, should be shut.An e-mail to Japans Nuclear Regulation Authority outside of normal business hours wasnt immediately answered.Evacuation ProceduresGiven this is the largest earthquake in over a century in Kyushu that has caused significant damage to infrastructure, it could slow down the pace of restarts, said Tom OSullivan, founder of Mathyos, a Tokyo-based energy consultant. It may now be even more imperative that emergency evacuation procedures are thoroughly tested.A nuclear accident at Sendai would require the evacuation of about 5,000 people in the surrounding 5 kilometers and more than 200,000 would need to seek immediate shelter within a 5- to 30-kilometer radius, according to a local government simulation from 2014.The NRA, Japans nuclear regulator, said on April 18 that it sees no need to shut the two Sendai reactors. A high court on April 6 upheld a ruling that the Sendai reactors can withstand seismic damage and dont pose a risk to the surrounding area.A local court issued an injunction in March preventing the operation of Kansai Electric Power Co.s Takahama No. 3 and 4 reactors, questioning whether evacuation plans and tsunami prevention measures -- which had been endorsed by the government -- were robust enough.The earthquake near Japans only operating reactors may boost the nations anti-nuclear sentiment, Joseph Jacobelli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in an April 22 note. Technical and political obstacles mean even those units approved for restart are returning at a snails pace.
"Couldn't Not Stand With the #Frisco5." City Hall Shut Down. Hunger Strikers to Hospital.

Supporters of the #Frisco5 Hunger Strikers called a vigil for 3:00 PM on Friday, 5/6 at the UN Plaza, a block away from City Hall. But it was a diversion - a larger group entered San Francisco City Hall and took up a presence outside the Mayor's office about 4:00 PM. As the evening wore on more supporters, now being referred to as the #Frisco500, came and occupied the lobby of the building.

[Protesters lock arms to resist removal from City Hall by deputies and police. Photo by Kossack Alyssa

As of 8:00 PM when City Hall officially closed the protesters - along with a large presence of police - were still inside. Supporters had been holding a door to outside open in defiance of police attempting to close the building, but the police were making no arrests.

An hour after closing time the police began to make their move. Some twenty people were eventually arrested as the crowd was, slowly, pushed out of City Hall. Everyone was removed by 11:00 PM but the crowd remained outside until nearly midnight. Some press and protesters were beaten with batons including Kossack Alyssa (@Alyssa011968), who took a blow to her rib (she's okay, but sore). Many of her tweets appear below. A reporter for 48Hills.org, @sanasaleem, also got her ribs bruised and was taken to the hospital.

An SF Sheriff just pushed me to the ground while taking images. At least 3 photojournalists assaulted during tonight's coverage of #Frisco5  Joel Angel Juarez (@jajuarezphoto) May 7, 2016

Meanwhile, earlier today, the sixteenth day of the hunger strike, the hunger strikers themselves were all taken to the hospital, and the encampment outside the Mission Street Police Station, about a mile from City Hall, was packed up.

Whatever the eventual outcome, the #Frisco5 and their supporters have caught the attention of the Bay Area and the nation, possibly the world. As Shaun King tweeted today:

That we have to starve ourselves to death to get attention and justice for police brutality is sinful.  Shaun King (@ShaunKing) May 6, 2016

Follow the events from vigil to occupation and to arrests in tweets and tweetpics below.

People gather for the vigil.

People are starting to gather for the #Frisco5 vigil pic.twitter.com/pwVZkDkGoe  mary mad (@marymad) May 6, 2016

This was not the real action. This was a decoy. Folks are taking over City Hall now. #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/Wxb2DeoNDD  mary mad (@marymad) May 6, 2016

The real action forms.

Group in from SF CITY HALL going in soon. #Frisco5 no business as usual until #FireChiefSuhr @hngr4justicesf pic.twitter.com/JmDCknooEg  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 6, 2016

And... inside, in front of the Mayor's doors.

Couple dozen chanting "#FireChiefSuhr" outside mayor lee's office on day 16 of #Frisco5 hunger strike. pic.twitter.com/tuPRuoOH5V  Andrew N.C. Klein (@ancklein) May 6, 2016

Ed Lee you can't hide. We charge you with genocide. #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/9ARBRWY8RR  mary mad (@marymad) May 6, 2016

Boisterous crowd banging on @mayoredlee's door at SF City Hall pic.twitter.com/1iO1mlUgYg  Evan Sernoffsky (@EvanSernoffsky) May 6, 2016

Police decide to block the doors, as if protesters could walk through solid oak.

Protest moves to the rotunda lobby and staircase.

#Frisco5 #hungerforjusticesf supporters on #SF city hall steps, say they won't leave until SFPD Chief Suhr is fired pic.twitter.com/XMXtjq2SD0  Joe Rivano Barros (@jrivanob) May 6, 2016

Clap get loud. For the champion generation- this is freedom tine #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/UO3A0snSqA  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 6, 2016

"You know what that means? At this moment, the Frisco500 shut down City Hall."

KPIX, TeleMundo, ABC and possibly NBC are all locked inside. Sheriff says "a supervisor" said to lock doors. #Frisco5 #HungerForJusticeSF  Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) May 7, 2016

"We shut down city hall" crowd breaks into applause #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/tFL5niC14w  48 Hills (@48hills) May 7, 2016

Protesters read message from @EdwinLindo "I'm so proud of what you guys are doing" #hungerforjusticesf  48 Hills (@48hills) May 7, 2016

This day the music did not die.

Cops try and turn off music chant #FireChiefSuhr pic.twitter.com/jryvW5S0UF  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 7, 2016

Some more singing as protesters form a human chain around the loud speaker. #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/TojgzCq00b  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

Keeping the door open. Waiting for reinforcements.

We need everyone at city hall now! No more business as usual! #shutdownsf #Frisco500 #Frisco5 #hungerforjusticesf NO MORE BUSINESS AS USUAL  HungerForJusticeSF (@hngr4justicesf) May 7, 2016

Holding it down inside.

It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win! Frisco fight 4 justice #Frisco5 #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/hQEXjVuW52  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 6, 2016

Alyssa makes a cameo appearance.

Still in a standoff with cops, listening to Kendrick #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/DSuZ0ullR0  Nastia Voynovskaya (@nananastia) May 7, 2016

"In line. Couldn't not stand with the Frisco5." - Alyssa

Im not getting back in line. Feel bad may change mind but ive been 3 times  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 7, 2016

City Hall is about to close.

Protesters still here as one minute remains in official closing time. If they don't leave they could be arrested #hungerforjusticesf  48 Hills (@48hills) May 7, 2016

Now is the time to rise up! #Frisco5 see city hall shutdown. Come now! #Frisco500 pic.twitter.com/7Z621iodh5  Smedley Butler (@Smedley_Butler) May 7, 2016

City Hall group just declared an unlawful assembly. They gave 10 min to disperse. #Frisco5 #HungerForJusticeSF  leigh (@davens) May 7, 2016

Sheriff's deputies announce protesters must disperse or face arrest #Frisco5 #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/EZhomnMIo3  Joe Rivano Barros (@jrivanob) May 7, 2016

Protesters have managed it bring in a massive placard #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/letl8mG0gM  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

#Frisco5 #hungerforjusticesf protesters answer deputy's dispersal order with chants of "Fire Chief Suhr" pic.twitter.com/1MMgpHc06U  Joe Rivano Barros (@jrivanob) May 7, 2016

Ok hard to just stand there and wait but I'll jump back in back in line. Get me our if i go pic.twitter.com/URIsQnzhcy  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 7, 2016

Crowd still chanting despite warnings. An hour after the official closing time #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/gI7Ve7Hr2f  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

Police Attack.

Was pinned down against a table despite the officer knowing I was with the press. Student reporter tossed to the ground #hungerforjusticesf  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

OH FUCK cops got @eyeslam - sounds like they took him into a side room #Frisco5 #Frisco500  mary mad (@marymad) May 7, 2016

Now: Current scene in SF City Hall, police trying to remove occupying protestors #FriscoFive



(credit @cececarpio) pic.twitter.com/ddOazbwvMS  Shadi Rahimi (@shadirahimi) May 7, 2016

They're hitting ppl w/battons and poking ppl. That's how they got me. Had it in my ribs #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/CcPjtdNHTW  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 7, 2016

People being hit on the head with a baton, pepper sprayed & dragged as police concerned about crack on door pic.twitter.com/pGJL5e03jS  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

Being pushed out of City Hall. 10:30 PM.

Protesters pushed back amidst chants "Fire Chief Suhr" #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/dnLWXmFxxr  48 Hills (@48hills) May 7, 2016

Police arresting remain protesters one by one, crowd breaks into applause each time one of them is taken #hungerforjusticesf  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

Outside City Hall protesters sign as their friends get arrested #hungerforjusticesf pic.twitter.com/RL4k07m1ub  Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) May 7, 2016

Most Everyone's Outside.

Police with batons now forming line outside city hall #Frisco5 pic.twitter.com/zdcbuIveHz  48 Hills (@48hills) May 7, 2016

They just forced us off the steps. I hear hissing pic.twitter.com/waJ0KuX8FT  Henry (@panhenomium) May 7, 2016

Protester says they will stay until those arrested are released #Frisco5 #Frisco500 pic.twitter.com/JRW58xFNuU  48 Hills (@48hills) May 7, 2016

So far about 20 people are being held in the basement of SF City Hall-Scores of people are outside and regrouping.. Shame on Lapdog Ed Lee  Davey D (@mrdaveyd) May 7, 2016

Midnight.

Folks are still locked up, but we have a crew calling the jail and waiting outside for them. #Frisco5 #Frisco500 #hungerforjusticeSF  leigh (@davens) May 7, 2016

Reflections.

I mean non-violent but strong, determined and serious as fuck. so much respect for #Frisco500.  Alyssa (@alyssa011968) May 7, 2016

The courageous actions of #Frisco5 reminds us that police brutality & militarization must cease in all parts of the US. #HungerForJusticeSF  Dr. Jill Stein (@DrJillStein) May 7, 2016

Previous diaries covering the hunger strike:

Theres a Hunger Strike Going on now in San Francisco Against Police Violence.

One Week In There Is STILL a Hunger Strike in San Francisco Against Police Violence.

And on the 10th Day They Spoke. They Drummed. They Rallied. But They did not Eat.

The #Frisco5 Hunger Strikers and Supports March to City Hall Today at 12:30 PM.

Hunger Strikers Speak with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. Blood Will Be on Your Hands.
General Strike SF: in Honor of the Frisco Five

Date:

Monday, May 09, 2016

Time:

8:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Event Type:

Protest

Organizer/Author:

#Frisco500

Location Details:

San Francisco City Hall

1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Pl

San Francisco, CA 94102

With all your love, share and share far and wide:



General Strike, San Francisco, Monday, May 9, 2016



We, the people, invite you to join us for an unprecedented historical moment: a general strike of San Francisco this Monday, May 9, 2016. In honor of the Frisco Five Hunger Strikers and against SFPD killings of our brothers, we urge you to strike from work and school and to boycott any corporate restaurant eating and purchasing.



The time is ripe, and your action is needed now. Because of the Mayors unwillingness to fire corrupt police chief Suhr, the Frisco Five have been forced to prolong their hunger strike and have now all been hospitalized. It is time for all of us to action with honor, courage, and sacrifice for those who no longer have a voice, like Alex Nieto, Amilcar Perez Lopez, Mario Woods, and Luis Gongora Pat, all unlawfully killed by SFPD.



Instead of going to work or school, join us to peacefully picket in front of San Francisco City Hall starting at 8:00 a.m. Striking for a righteous cause is nothing new. Gandhi led the Swadeshi movement for Indian self-sufficiency. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott against segregation. For farmworkers rights, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and the United Farm Workers held strikes against grapes and Safeway stores. Striking is a successful strategy that all of us can contribute to for the sake of justice.



Wear red and black in honor of our fallen brother Alex Nieto.



General Strike, San Francisco, Monday, May 9, 2016



With all your love, share and share far and wide.
Trenton, NJ More More Invokana lawsuits have been filed by plaintiffs alleging they were not warned about the risk of potential Invokana side effects and were harmed as a result of using the drug. Lawsuits have been filed against the maker of the drug in both the United States and Canada, by patients who say the drug is unreasonably dangerous.

According to court documents, one such lawsuit was filed in New Jersey by Maria and Carlos Puente. In October 2013, Maria began taking diabetes medication - known as an SGLT2 inhibitor - Invokana, but only took the drug for a month. In that short time, Maria suffered diabetic ketoacidosis and severe kidney damage. Ketoacidosis is a serious condition in which the patients blood has dangerously high levels of acidity. The American Diabetes Association warns that diabetic ketoacidosis can lead to diabetic coma or death. Symptoms of diabetic ketoacidosis can reportedly develop quickly, giving patients little time to react.Maria argues that she would not have taken Invokana if she had known all the risks associated with the drug. The lawsuit alleges that Janssen Pharmaceuticals - a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson - negligently marketed and sold Invokana without proper warnings about the unreasonably dangerous risks.The development of Plaintiffs injuries was preventable and resulted directly from Defendants failure and refusal to conduct proper safety studies, failure to properly assess and publicize alarming safety signals, suppression of information revealing serious and life-threatening risks, willful and wanton failure to provide adequate instructions, and willful misrepresentations concerning the nature and safety of INVOKANA [capitals in original], the lawsuit alleges.Maria says she has suffered severe and permanent physical and emotional injuries, and suffered financially due to significant costs associated with medical care.Similar lawsuits have been filed in Canada, where patients say they, too, were harmed by the use of Invokana and were not warned about the potential risks. A lawsuit seeking $1 billion on behalf of Canadians affected by Invokana was filed in Ontario. That lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of a woman who used Invokana for eight months and was later diagnosed with kidney failure.In December 2015, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about the risk of ketoacidosis in patients taking Invokana. Other drugs in the SGLT2 class were included in the warning. At the time, the FDA urged doctors to consider patient history that may predispose the patient to ketoacidosis before prescribing drugs in that class.The Puente lawsuit iscase number 3:15-cv-08070, in US District Court, District of New Jersey.
Top Class Action Lawsuits

Drive Around to the First Window and Its been a while since weve reported a data breach class action. This week, one such lawsuit was filed against Ohio-based Wendys by First Choice Federal Credit Union, alleging a five-month long data breach could have been prevented if the company had acted faster.

From October 22, 2015 through to March 10, 2016, hackers accessed Wendys computer systems and stole what could be millions of consumer credit cards that had been used at certain Wendys locations. So someone besides was making change on your burger and fries. And lets not get started on the issue of inconvenience!

As a result of Wendys data breach, plaintiff and class members have been forced to cancel and reissue payment cards, change or close accounts, notify customers that their cards were compromised, investigate claims of fraudulent activity, refund fraudulent charges, increase fraudulent monitoring on potentially impacted accounts, and take other steps to protect themselves and their customers, the Wendys data breach lawsuit claims.

Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that Wendys holds on to credit card information longer than necessary and failed to meet the October 2015 deadline for EMV cards and terminals.

Despite the growing threat of computer system intrusion, Wendys systematically failed to comply with industry standards and protect payment card and customer data, the lawsuit states, noting that as a consequence, financial institutions have borne the brunt of the data breach.

The complaint asserts that Wendys used outdated and easily hackable computer and credit card systems, and that the company failed to meet federal regulations and guidelines around computer and data security, stating that Wendys refused to take steps to adequately protect its computer systems from intrusion.

A Wendys spokesman has said that malware was discovered by third-party investigators, but the company has yet to confirm how many of its 6,000 stores had been hacked.

Honeywell Warranty Class Action Warranted This is why you want your day in court: A proposed defective products class action brought by consumers against Honeywell International was given the green light this week, by a judge who just wasnt buying the corporate line. US District Judge Berle M. Schiller of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania told the defendant, Honeywell International, that essentially they couldnt make a case to have the suit tossed.

The Honeywell class action asserts that Honeywell TrueSTEAM humidifiers were defectively designed and inadequately covered by warranty. Feel the swamp waters rising? Yes, well, read on.

According to the complaint, the humidifiers are unreliable, difficult to maintain, and prone to malfunction and deterioration.

Judge Schiller wrote in his memorandum, According to plaintiffs, Honeywell is aware of the problems with its humidifiers, but uses an overly burdensome warranty claims process that is designed to, and does, deter customers from making claims under their warranties. And, Honeywells remedy to repair fails of its essential purpose because Honeywell simply replaces defective humidifiers with the same defectively designed humidifiers that are prone to the problems complained of by plaintiffs and members of the classes.' Thank you Judge Schiller.

The plaintiffs also allege they were told their defective units would not be serviced until technicians inspected them. They are seeking recovery for the related removal and repair costs, since they claim Honeywell promised that each unit would be free from defect, and if it wasnt, the company would repair the unit. Oh yes, the fine printbut just wait

According to the amended complaint, however, that promise was false. Instead, plaintiffs were required to satisfy Honeywell, through an authorized technician and/or a contractors inspection, that the humidifier actually was defective, Schiller wrote. Thus, Honeywell placed an additional burden upon plaintiffs seeking to repair or replace their defective unit.

The judge wrote that the plaintiffs have adequately alleged that the humidifiers were defective five years after the purchase date as the warranty promised, and that Honeywell failed to replace the units as it expressly warranted.

The plaintiffs asserted breach of express warranty, breach of implied warranty, unjust enrichment, and other claims.

Ill bet those plaintiffs are happy campers this weekend.

Top Settlements

A Bittersweet Victory This week, a $55 million settlement was leveled against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) by a jury hearing the case of a woman who alleges her use of the companys talc-powder products for feminine hygiene caused her to develop ovarian cancer.

This is the second J&J talc powder verdict in a row against J&J in talc-cancer lawsuits J&J plans to appeal. The company is facing some 1200 such lawsuit all claiming the company failed to adequately warning consumers about its talc-based products cancer risks.

The trial took three weeks, and returned the verdict in favor of Gloria Ristesund in a day. She was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.

According to her suit, Ristesund used J&Js talc-based powder products, which include the well-known Baby Powder and Shower to Shower Powder, on her genitals for decades. According to her lawyers, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and had to undergo a hysterectomy and related surgeries. Her cancer is now in remission.

The verdict in the first J&J talc-cancer lawsuit awarded $72 million to the family of a woman who died from ovarian cancer. She had also used the talc powder for feminine hygiene for years.

Ok, thats a wrap folksHave a good one. See you at the Bar!
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Oct-14-20

The heartburn medication Prilosec (Omeprazole), which is one of nine proton pump inhibitor (PPI) medications, has been linked to bone fractures, heart attacks, cardiac birth defects and severe kidney disease, including Prilosec kidney failure and Prilosec renal failure. Long-term use of Prilosec has been associated with a tripled risk of kidney inflammation, or nephritis. This over-the-counter antacid medication is commonly used to treat heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), ulcers in the stomach and small intestine, and inflammation of the esophagus.Prilosec was the first member of the Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI) group of medications introduced by manufacturer AstraZeneca and FDA-approved in 1988. Originally called Losec, the PPI is used to treat gastroesphageal reflux disease (GERD) and peptic ulcer disease (PUD) by blocking the proton pumps that release acid into the stomach.Because Prilosec is available over the counter, it is potentially more at risk of being overused than prescribed PPI medications. Researchers have noted that these drugs are generally viewed as safe and may be over-prescribed and continued for long periods without being necessary,reported.study (January 2016) indicates that patients should use PPIs only when medically necessary. Gastroenterologists are already cautious in prescribing PPIs, as they've been linked to other health problems, including bone fractures and an increased risk of intestinal infections such as Clostridium difficile infection, and pneumonia, Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly of the Clinical Epidemiology Center at the VA Saint Louis Health Care System, told. Dr. Morgan E. Grams, a kidney specialist at Johns Hopkins and another author of the JAMA study also toldthat patients who require a long course of PPIs should routinely monitor their kidney function.A study from the University of Copenhagen and published in(July 2009) found that patients have almost impossible difficulties in stopping PPIs because the medications eventually cause the same problems they are supposed to treat. This phenomenon, called "rebound acid hypersecretion," can occur after taking prescription-strength PPI medication for just two months. Researchers concluded that this rebound effect can continue for up to three months after discontinuing the PPI.Prilosec has been linked to the increased risk of hip, wrist and spine fractures. The FDA in 2010 warned doctors and the public that consumers who had taken high doses of Prilosec and other PPI drugs for longer than a year were most at risk. The FDA warning came four years after a study published in the(JAMA) found that patients over 50 years old who took PPIs, including Prilosec, for more than a year were 2.65 times more likely to break a hip.In June 2015published a study from Stanford University that showed PPI medications may increase the heart attack risk by up to 21 percent, even if the patients had no history of heart disease. The FDA issued a warning in 2011 regarding Prilosec's risk of causing hypomagnesemia, or a magnesium deficiency, after long-term use. This condition can cause neurological, muscular, and cardiac complications.In April 2016, the (JASN) reported that PPIs --including Prilosec-- may lead to an increased risk of kidney disease and kidney failure. Researchers said that people who take these popular PPI drugs are more likely to develop kidney failure and 28 percent more likely to develop chronic kidney disease, particularly if the drugs are taken for a long time.In January 2016, a study published infound a 20-50 percent increased risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) associated with Prilosec and other antacid drugs. The risk of a decline in kidney function was 32 percent higher for people taking PPIs and the risk of new cases of chronic kidney disease was 28 percent higher, according to. Thestudy involved more than 20,000 people from national VA databases who recently took PPIs. This group was compared to almost the same amount of people who were taking H2 blockers. The study team concluded that people taking PPIs were at a much higher risk of new kidney problems than those people taking H2 blockers.Prilosec kidney failure lawsuits have been filed against AstraZeneca, the manufacturer. Investigation has begun for hundreds of claimants who allege the heartburn drug and other PPIs have caused chronic kidney disease, acute kidney injury, acute interstitial nephritis, renal failure, and kidney failure.Prilosec patients claim that AstraZeneca failed to warn physicians and patients of the increased risks of kidney damage and renal failure. Further, if AstraZeneca had properly warned of the risks, patients would have chosen a different medication and/or would have had regular kidney function monitoring.Approximately 15 million people in the US alone are taking either over-the-counter or prescription PPI medications. In 2000 Prilosec generated $6.1 billion for AstraZeneca before its patent expired the following year and the drug company introduced Nexium, the "next generation" formulation of Prilosec. In 2013 Prilosec became available over-the-counter (OTC) and sales that year were about $400 million, as reported by. It continues to be one of the top five OTC proton pump inhibitor drugs.If you or a loved one has suffered similar damages or injuries, please click the link below and your complaint will be sent to a drug and medical device lawyer who may evaluate your claim at no cost or obligation.
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A currency is the legal exchange for goods and services in a country. It also reflects the current situation and strength of the economy of that country in comparison with other countries in the world.

The value of a currency in respect to anther greatly determines the level of satisfaction a person derives from it. All African countries have a specific currency specific to it, that it use as a legal tender to transact business and for foreign exchange.

Here are the 10 strongest currencies in Africa:

1. Libyan Dinar  R8.53

Libyan dinar note

The dinar (Arabic:  ) is the currency of Libya. Perhaps its oil which is keeping things afloat but one Libyan Dinar will set you back around R8.53 currently, making it the strongest currency in Africa.

READ ALSO: Naira crashes to N320 against dollar in black market

2. Ghanaian Cedi  R3.79

Ghanaian Cedi

Another surprising example of a strong African currency, is Ghanas Cedi. Ghana is well known for its extensive natural resources, namely Gold from its Ashanti region. The Cedi is actually in it's 3rd rendition under the same name as the currency has been revalued a couple of times. The most recent revaluation was 2007 and its lost almost 50% of its value against the Rand since then, so the current rate of R3.79 for 1 Cedi shouldnt last long.

3. South African Rand

South African Rand

The Rand has had a lot of flack for its devaluation over the past couple of years.

4. Tunisia Dinar  R6.65

Tunisia Dinar

Tunisias Dinar gained almost 20% against the Rand this year. One Tunisian Dinar will now cost you around R6.65.

5. Eritrean Nakfa  R1.01

Eritrean Nakfa

The nakfa is the currency of Eritrea. The country split from Ethiopia in the early 90s but has a currency, roughly on the same value as ours. This is only a recent development though since the beginning of 2014 and is as a result of the currency being pegged to the US Dollar. 1 Nakfa will cost you R1.01.

6. Sudanese Pound  R1.85

Sudanese Pound

Revalued successively during its post-colonial period, the most recent revaluation came in 2011 following the independence of the oil rich Southern half of the country which became South Sudan. The Sudanese Pound is now worth R1.85.

7. Botswana Pula - R1.20

Botswana Pula

The Pula has been stronger than the Rand for some years now and the countrys economy and political structure is often lauded as a shining example of how an African democracy can work. 1 Pula will cost you around R1.20.

8. Moroccan Dirham  R1.29

Moroccan Dirham

Moroccos currency wasnt always as strong against the Rand, in fact it was as recently at October 2012 when the Rand was more valuable. 1 Moroccan Dirham will cost you R1.29 currently.

READ ALSO: Naira weakens slightly against dollar to N319 in black market

9. Zambian Kwacha  R1.73

Zambian Kwacha

The country formally known as the colony of Northern Rhodesia has sadly never been known as an economic success story and at a stage had an exchange rate of 1 US Dollar = 5120 Kwacha. The currency was revalued in January 2013 and until recently 1 Kwacha cost over R2, today 1 Kwacha buys you only R1.73.

10. Egyptian Pound  R1.50

Egyptian Pound

Egypt, despite all its political turmoil has been able to retain a lot of its countrys currency value.

Source: Legit.ng
- Suspect reveals that their members were recruited from over six states

- Explains that over 100 of them were assembled to carry out the attacks on the Enugu community

- Adds also that their attacks were planned in Kogi state before the d-day

One of the Fulani herdsmen who allegedly participated in the Enugu massacre has made shocking revelations in police custody, Saturday Sun reports.

The rampaging herdsmen had killed over 50 people in a recent attack on an Enugu community, a situation which has left many tongues wagging about the dangers posed by the rustlers' continuous attacks.

Mohammed Zure, one of those arrested in connection with this deadly attack, has now made startling revelations of how members were recruited from different parts of the country to carry out the attack.

READ ALSO: Prioritizing President Buhari's directive to end herders attacks

During his confession to the Kogi state police command, Zure, who had been initially released on bail after the prime suspect in the kidnap case for which he was nabbed, was arrested, was rearrested when the police watched a gory video of the Enugu massacre on his phone.

A police source said: "He was granted bail and because he needed someone to take him on bail, the investigating officer decided to switch on his phone. Out of curiosity, he decided to go through the content of the phone. It was in the process that he discovered horrible video clips of a murder scene.

"Everything changed immediately and he was taken back to the interrogation room. He later confessed that he was the one who took the video while they were slaughtering one of the victims during the Enugu killings. In the video, you could hear him shouting and saying in Hausa I have killed you now. You think that you can kill Fulani herdsmen and go free.

"He personally took the picture to show his family members that he was actually successful and participated in the killings."

READ ALSO: Tears flow in Enugu as Fulani herdsmen wreak havoc (photos)

Zure also confessed that over 100 Fulani herdsmen were recruited for the Enugu attack, after being invited from over six states from across the federation.

"He confessed that they were more than 100 and were selected from different states especially from Taraba , Kogi, Benue, Nasarrawa , Kastina , Niger and Kaduna states. He claimed that the people of Nimbo had killed so many of their people in the past and government did not do anything about it.

"He claimed that they also reported severally to Nimbo elders but they refused to investigate, that was why they decided to retaliate," the police source added.

"He alleged that their people in Nimbo shared Kolanut to all cattle rearers across the country. What it signifies is that there is going to be an attack and everyone should send representatives to support them. He alleged that this is their custom and has been existing.

"He was nominated to join them because he was born and raised in Enugu by his father who is also a herdsman. Two days before the attack, they all gathered in a community in Kogi and perfected how they would execute the attack," the police officer added.

The police has since commenced serious manhunt for the fleeing herdsmen who they believe have fled the eastern state since the attack.

And to forestall future occurrences, the dreaded Bakassi Boys may soon be reorganised to also ensure sanity returns to the region.

Reports suggest that some prominent Igbo leaders, at their meeting over the weekend, decided on urgent need for the Igbo nation to organize the people for self-defence against the invasion and killing of Igbo indigenes by the Fulani herdsmen.

The dreaded Bakassi Boys, a violent vigilante group mobilized to terminate the troubling armed robbery menace in the south east some years ago, were revealed to have started regrouping to strengthen other vigilante groups to provide security for local communities and towns in the south east.

Source: Legit.ng
- The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria called on the federal government to build cattle ranches in states where cattle rearing is prevalent

- The bishops also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the recent attacks by herdsmen and declare the perpetrators of the attacks, insurgents

- The CBCN commended Buhari who restated his administrations resolve to deal decisively and expeditiously with the continued attacks on communities across the country

President Buhari with Most Rev. Matthew Kukah and others at a closed door meeting

Catholic Bishops urged the federal government to build cattle ranches in states where cattle rearing is prevalent.

Premium Times reports that a delegation of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) stated this during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja.

In his speech, Ignatius Kaigama, the leader of the delegation and the Catholic Bishop of Jos Arch Diocese, called on the president to investigate the recent attacks by herdsmen and declare the perpetrators of the attacks, insurgents.

Cattle ranches should be created in states known for cattle breeding, with adequate water and fodder provided and nurtured.

Farmland for root crops and other plants should be protected for their specific products in states known for such.

This will reduce or eliminate clashes stemming from trespassing, he said.

READ ALSO: Catholic Bishops declare support for PMB, read what they say

Stressing that Nigerians should not live in perpetual fear of attacks by fellow citizens, Kaigama called on the government to focus on disarming herdsmen.

The fact that armed attacks and wanton killings have become a national threat, it should be declared an insurgency and treated as such, with the aim of dislodging the insurgents from occupied communities by the security and military operatives.

Our people cannot continue to live in perpetual fear of attacks by fellow Nigerians with criminal intent, he said.

Kaigama commended Buhari who announced that his administration would deal decisively and expeditiously with the continued attacks on communities across the country.

The CBCN leader called for serious approach towards the investigation into the Agatu and Nimbo killings.

The Agatu killings, the Nimbo killings and many other killings in Benue, Taraba, Nassarawa, Ondo, Edo, Delta and elsewhere should be seriously investigated, with the perpetrators unmasked and decisively dealt with.

For a more permanent peace between herdsmen and farmers in our country, some streamlining is necessary for the good of the cattle rearers in the North and for the welfare of farmers in the South and elsewhere in Nigeria, he noted.

READ ALSO: Declare Fulani herdsmen terrorists  Muslim group asks FG

Meanwhile, one of the Fulani herdsmen who allegedly participated in the Enugu massacre has made shocking revelations in police custody.

The suspect confessed that over 100 Fulani herdsmen were recruited for the Enugu attack, after being invited from over six states from across the country. He added that two days before the attack, they all gathered in a community in Kogi and perfected how they would execute the attack.

Source: Legit.ng
- President Buhari set to make another foreign trip over anti-corruption campaign

- To attend with Attorney-General and EFCC chairman

- President Buhari is also scheduled to meet specially with the British PM

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday, May 10 depart the shores of Nigeria for the United Kingdom, Legit.ng has gathered.

According to a statement issued by Femi Adesina, the presidential spokesperson, Buhari will leave for London to participate in the international Anti-Corruption Summit which will be held in the British capital on Thursday, May 12.

"As an internationally recognised leader in the global fight against corruption, President Buhari will play a prominent part in the summit which will be hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron of Great Britain with many other Heads of State and Government in attendance.

READ ALSO: President Buhari to get minister's nod to sign 2016 budget

"President Buhari will, ahead of the summit's opening, deliver a keynote address titled: 'Why We Must Tackle Corruption Together' at a pre-summit conference of development partners, the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, Transparency International and other civil society groups on Wednesday, May 11, 2016.

"The President is one of the world leaders scheduled to speak at the opening session of the Anti-Corruption Summit with others, including Prime Minister Cameron and the President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim.

"Thereafter, President Buhari will join other participating heads of State and Government at special plenary sessions on Exposing Corruption, Tackling Corruption and Driving out Corruption," Adesina's statement read in part.

In his address to the summit and interactions with other participating leaders, President Buhari will urge the international community to move faster on the dismantling of safe havens for the proceeds of corruption and the return of stolen funds and assets to their countries of origin.

READ ALSO: President Buhari set to visit Daura on Friday

"The President will also reaffirm his administrations unwavering commitment to the fight against corruption and the Federal Governments readiness to partner with international agencies and other countries to identify, apprehend and punish corrupt public officials.

"President Buhari's delegation to the Summit will include the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Alhaji Abubakar Malami and the acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu.

"Before returning to Abuja on Friday, May 13, 2016, the President is expected to have a separate meeting with Prime Minister Cameron to discuss ongoing Nigeria-Britain collaboration in the war against corruption and terrorism, as well as other issues, including trade and economic relations between both countries," the statement further stated.

President Buhari is presently in his hometown of Daura in Katsina state, where he is on a four-day visit to open and participate in the Katsina State Economic and Investment Summit, aimed at diversifying the states ailing economy.

Source: Legit.ng
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The quality of air in Delhi-NCR seems to be getting worse by the day. Having now touched 6 level Air Quality Index (AQI), the situation could soon get completely out of hand if action is not taken immediately. It is for this reason that the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) has ordered that all private cars will be stopped from plying in Delhi if air pollution levels do not improve.

Bhure Lal, Chairman of EPCA has confirmed that should this situation continue at these levels, it will only be public transport system that will operate while all private vehicles will be ordered off the roads.

Burning of farm lands in neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, use of older and more polluting vehicles and unfavourable weather conditions with low speed winds which have failed to disperse pollutants, have all contributed to this alarming situation.

A total of 17 areas on the national capital have been declared with severe air quality. The cities AQI increased from 366 points on Sunday to 367 points on Monday and now stand at 398 points. Areas such as Ghaziabad are the worst with API at 444 points while in Gurugram it stands at 422 points and Noida at 410 points.

Data released by Central Pollution Control Board for air quality to be declared as severe, PM2.5 should be between 250-300 or PM10 should be between 450-500. The optimum levels of AQI should ideally be at 0-15 which is considered good, 51-100 is said to be satisfactory while 101-200 is marked as moderate. 200-300 is poor while 301 and beyond is considered very poor to severe.

This alarming situation is likely to escalate even further. A senior scientist at IITM, Pune has revealed satellite images of North India showing a large number of biomass fire spots in Delhi while weather experts also state that pollution in the region could escalate as western disturbances could hit the Himalayan region from October 31st onwards.

Health experts have warned persons of any excessive physical activity till the situation comes under control while doctors advise persons against going outdoors as air pollutants could lead to eye irritation and breathlessness.
Misty mountains, glistening forests and blue-green lakes make Cameroon, the wettest part of Africa, a tropical wonderland for amphibians.

The country holds more than half the species living on the continent, including dozens of endemic frogs -- an animal that has been under attack across the world by the pervasive chytrid fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis). Africa has been mostly spared from the deadly and rampant pathogen that wiped out entire species in Australia, Madagascar and Panama, until now.

University of Florida herpetologist David Blackburn and colleagues at the Museum fur Naturkunde in Berlin have documented declines in frog species on Cameroon's Mount Oku and Mount Manengouba over a span of more than 12 years. The scientists link the decline of at least five species of frogs found only in these mountains to chytrid, which may have been exacerbated by habitat destruction, pollution and climate change resulting in weaker and more susceptible frogs, said Blackburn, an associate curator of herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus.

"There's been this perception that frogs in Africa are not affected by chytrid at all, but we have evidence of the disease in some animals," said Blackburn, co-author of a new study appearing online this week in PLOS ONE. "This is the first real case of a decline across multiple amphibian species in Africa."

Study scientists collected and documented abundance and diversity of frog species living on the two mountains before and after the immergence of chytrid in the area between 2008-2010. The persistent pestilence latches onto the frog's skin and can spread internally to the animal's organs, quickly leading to death.

Blackburn said many of the once common species, like the bright red Cardioglossa manengouba, a frog he discovered and named during graduate fieldwork in the early 2000s, are now scarce and nearly impossible to find.

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"It's looking like some of these frogs may not be around by the time my kids are old enough for me to take them to Cameroon to see them," he said.

While chytrid is to blame for most of the patterns of decline in frogs worldwide, Blackburn said scientists have linked the fungus to climate change, which may drive the emergence of chytrid in some places.

In studies exploring declines of amphibians in Latin America, University of South Florida herpetologist Jason Rohr has shown that unpredictable climate fluctuations associated with climate change can increase chytrid-related die-offs.

"Our research has shown there may be an underappreciated link between climate change, disease and biodiversity losses," Rohr said. "Global warming and the severity of unpredictable variations in temperature increase chytrid growth on amphibians."

Blackburn said extreme temperature changes may affect the biology of the frogs by making them more, or less, susceptible to pathogens. He said this could easily be a factor in Cameroon, though he and colleagues have not yet collected enough data to make that call.

In captivity, frogs with chytrid are treated with an effective fungicide bath. In the Sierra Mountains of California, scientists have successfully released frogs inoculated with bacteria that make them less vulnerable to chytrid. But these methods are less practical in the mountains of Cameroon.

"Even if a cure was found, it would be hard to inoculate all of the individual frogs out there," Backburn said. "Promoting a healthier environment in general for Africa's amphibians in terms of water quality and habitat protection is our best shot for keeping these species around."
<p><a href="http://www.afd.org.au/" target="_blank">Australia for Dolphins</a></p>

Most people couldn't imagine working into their 80s, let alone being forced to work. Yet this is pretty much what's happening to a captive bottlenose dolphin named Bucky, who lives at Dolphin Marine Magic, a marine park in Coffs Harbour, Australia. Bucky was only 6 months old when he was rescued in 1970 by the original founder of Dolphin Marine Magic, Hec Goodall. According to a report, Bucky had been stranded in the Nambucca River in New South Wales, Australia, and was badly dehydrated and sunburned. But instead of being rehabilitated and released back into the wild, Bucky has spent his entire life at the marine park.

Bucky is now 47 years old. With a dolphin's average life span being anywhere between 40 and 50 years old, he'd be the human equivalent of 80-something. What's more, Bucky has cancer. His condition was first reported to the public in a 2013 episode of "Bondi Vet," a TV series presented by Dr. Chris Brown in Australia. Bucky's trainer, Greg Pickering, asked Brown to come check out a few lumps in Bucky's mouth, which Brown confirmed to be cancer.

Dodo Shows Wild Hearts Guy And Wild Shark Have Been Best Friends For Decades

Dr. Chris Brown, vet and TV celebrity from Australia, with Bucky the dolphin

Instead of being allowed to take it easy, Bucky is forced to perform regular shows, which involve jumping through hoops and doing flips for tourists. He also participates in swim-with-dolphin programs, dragging people across the pool on his back, and offering paying guests "dolphin kisses."

"There are two to three shows per day," Sarah Lucas, CEO of Australia for Dolphins, tells The Dodo. "When we spoke to a staff member, he said Bucky does most shows, but we don't know how many he does per day precisely." Paige Sinclair, the CEO of Dolphin Marine Magic, denies that Bucky is overworked. In a recent investigative piece published by the Australian public broadcasting network SBS, Sinclair claims that the resident dolphins perform on a rotating roster, getting regular days off. Sinclair also asserts that the dolphin shows offer the animals necessary enrichment.

Lucas, however, thinks Bucky's forced participation in dolphin shows has less to do with enrichment, and more to with profit. "Bucky is considered the star performer," Lucas tells The Dodo. "As with all aspects of dolphin captivity, the animals are used because they draw in crowds, and thus draw in money for the park." Marine Dolphin Magic is also steeped in controversy over the recent death of a 1-year-old dolphin, Ji-Ling, who was one of Bucky's three children. Ji-Ling died after he consumed leaves, sticks and a piece of metal in one of the park's two tanks. A staff member had tried to remove these items from the baby dolphin's stomach, but Ji-Ling died from a heart attack during the procedure.

Ji-Ling, the baby dolphin who died after ingesting garbage

Bucky lives inside the same two tanks at the park - the tanks that killed Ji-Ling. Australia for Dolphins is calling for Dolphin Marine Magic to end its controversial breeding program, and release all of the remaining dolphins into sea pens. "Such a facility would provide a far more humane and natural environment for the animals," says Lucas, "free from chlorine and with much more space."

The dirty tanks at Dolphin Marine Magic | Australia for Dolphins

Dolphin Marine Magic is one of two marine parks in Australia that keeps captive dolphins, the other being Sea World on the Gold Coast in Queensland. "In a nutshell, we think it's unfair that Bucky be forced to perform due to the growing body of scientific evidence which concludes that cetaceans suffer in captivity," Lucas tells The Dodo. "If you add into the equation the fact that Bucky is recovering from cancer, it is beyond belief that he still participates in outdated, circus-style shows."

"It breaks our hearts to know that this highly intelligent animal has spent more than 45 years swimming between two tiny concrete pools," says Lucas. "In addition to his daily duties of jumping through hoops and dragging tourists around on his back, he has had to contend with cancer and the other physical ailments that come with being an animal of such old age."
The 'hot' pursuit began just the way the llama liked it: lazily.

Dodo Shows Adoption Day Hairless German Shepherd Puppies Find The Perfect Families

She was spotted earlier this week in a Colorado alfalfa field that runs along a highway. There wasn't much of any other kind of running. Just slow circles as llama-wrangling professionals - staff from Boulder County Animal Control - tried to corral the wayward animal, according to the Daily Camera.

It turns out the fugitive llama's name is Ethel. She had escaped from a nearby property where she and another llama named Lucy were awaiting adoption.

But the operation to recapture her only heated up when someone tried to get a rope around Ethel's neck.

Well, more like a simmer. This wily llama frustrated animal control for a full two hours before she could be reunited with Lucy. At one point, people even tried to form a human fence to trap her, the Associated Press reports. "They are so smart," Jennifer Appelman, an animal control officer, told the Daily Camera. "They just don't come to you, like a horse. They aren't enticed."
We are living in a golden age of bad ideas.

Its as if the captains of industry are now mad scientists. These lunatics keep unleashing shame in R&D labs, cackling into beakers of folly and mixing things that should never be mixed. You know, like a mattress that detects cheating. Or a sex theme park. It wont be long before someone markets an umbrella that fills out the census or a coffee table that actually makes coffee.

The worst bad idea yet arrived this week when KFC decided to combine chicken with nail polish: Simply apply and dry like regular nail polish and then lick  again and again and again to taste why the worlds favourite chicken is Finger Lickin Good.

Yes, then tuck into a Big Crunch while recalling the friends you lost.

As a general life rule, you should never eat anything thats packaged as Edible. When you buy eggs, that word is not stamped on the carton. At the grocery store, no one asks, Hey, are these apples edible? What about them crackers? Edible?

Edible is only imprinted on products  paint, spoons, undies  that do not belong to a food group. Unless you are explicitly told it is edible, you wouldnt swallow a comb or nibble on a doorknob. But even if you are told, basic instinct should guide what goes in your mouth.

And I can think of nothing more revolting than chicken nail polish. Yeah, yeah, I get the finger lickin tie-in. But slogans are not supposed to be literal. After all these years, my cat has never once asked for Meow Mix by name. Ask any parent if Disneyland is really the happiest place on earth. There will be tears.

Do your Energizer batteries keep going and going and going?

No, eventually they need to be replaced.

Thats exactly what should happen to the KFC execs who brainstormed this disgusting biohazard. Does that secret blend of 11 herbs and spices include marijuana? Is that what these chuckleheads are smoking? Have they not spent any time on public transit? We already have an epidemic of questionable hygiene. We dont need people jonesing for drumsticks during rush hour, hogging three seats and madly licking themselves like drunk primates.

Whats really frightening is the fast food industry is built on imitation. Its like this $590 billion game of copycat. So if Edible Nail Polish is a hit in the Hong Kong test market, dont be surprised if other companies release equally repulsive products.

Do you want to live in a world in which your neighbour lounges in her backyard, slurping Beef Crunchy Taco Supreme Sun Tan Lotion off her elbow? Or be in a meeting when a colleague removes his shoe and gnaws on a Big Mac Insole?

Ancient cosmetics were made of olives and rosewater and castor oil because thats all there was. We have perfectly good chemicals. We regress at great peril by embracing an era of Whopper Moisturizer, Bacon Poutine Rouge, Turtle Pecan Cluster Blizzard Balm and Ghost Pepper Fries Hairspray.

And of all the places to encourage people to lick their fingers ... Hong Kong? Really, KFC? Chicken nail polish in a region that had an outbreak ofbird flu? Whats next? Mutant 18-Piece Buckets of Original Recipe for Chernobyl? A Toasted Twister Antiperspirant for the Tornado Belt?

Maybe KFC is hedging its marketing bets with Hong Kong, knowing its like 13,000 kilometres away from Louisville headquarters, a distance that should prevent any mass protests after Kowloon ERs bulge with people who accidentally blinded themselves by rubbing Hot & Spicy into their eyes.

Or maybe KFC figures Hong Kong is not yet wise to bad ideas.

The same certainly cant be said for North America. Just this week, as Edible Nail Polish made headlines, Google and Fiat-Chrysler announced plans to build a self-driving minivan. Im sorry, what? Driving a minivan is the only good thing about owning a minivan. Take the driving away and now Im locked inside a prison on wheels. Am I supposed to play with the cup holders? Open and close the glove box?

Then again, if beauty-foods become a trend, maybe itll be better to curl up in the back seat and watch Fast Food Nation as my daughters lick their delicious nails, my wife applies a fresh coat of quesadilla mascara and our invisible chauffeur drives us toward the end of days.

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Judging by the line at the two-month-old San Cosme in Kensington Market on a Saturday afternoon (or even a Wednesday), you would think that the torta  a hearty Mexican sandwich served on a crusty white roll  is the latest food trend to hit the city. But really, its been a fixture on Toronto menus for years. It just needed to be shoved front and centre for diners.

Weve had them on the menu at Milagro for 10 years, but they were also very low on the Toronto mind for some reason, says San Cosme owner Arturo Anhalt, who also owns the Milagro Cantinas restaurants. Now, the torta is in the spotlight at his sandwich shop, at the corner of Baldwin and Kensington. Inside, bright murals and colourful tiles make for a year-round fiesta atmosphere with the soundtrack permanently set to salsa-inducing tunes.

Tortas are my go-to street food in Mexico, Anhalt says. In Mexico City, theres this amazing stand on the north end thats called the Enchanted Shack in English. Its behind what used to be some very important discos from the 80s, and after the parties youd go to the torta stand.

Outside a crispy French-style white roll, called a bolillo, or its rounder cousin the telera, what goes into a torta is fair game  refried beans, smashed avocado, breaded and slow-cooked meats are common fillings. At San Cosme, Anhalt says a good entryway into the world of tortas is the ham and cheese, named after popular 70s sitcom El Chavo del Ocho, in which the main character is an 8-year-old orphan (played by legendary comic Chespirito), who likes hiding in a barrel in the courtyard of a housing complex.

The program is huge in Latin America and (everyone) knows that he eats a ham and cheese torta, he says of the show, which had a 12-year run. Its still playing in reruns, its like the Mexican Seinfeld.

The sandwich itself is a delightfully meaty, gooey mess of smoked ham, Oaxaca cheese melted on the griddle, mashed avocado and velvety refried beans in a crusty bun with a soft, chewy interior. The ham is from Sanagans Meat Locker across the street. Via the Global Cheese Shop, the Oaxaca cheese is made by what is probably one of the coolest bits of Canadian culinary trivia: Local Dairy, a prizewinning cheese company run by a Sikh family in Ingersoll. So after eating a torta at San Cosme, you can just go across the street to get the ingredients to make your own.

The bread, however, is a custom order from Blackbird Baking Co., that take two days to make. Even though the shop makes 300 of them at a time, its just enough to keep up with the demand at San Cosme.

San Cosmes Del Chavo torta

The only real cooking required in making this sandwich is reheating the refried beans. Anhalt says the canned stuff will never compare to the from-scratch beans his shop makes, but you can dress up a regular can of refried beans by sauteing them with onions.

2 tsp (10 mL) canola or vegetable oil

1/4 cup (60 mL) diced onion

1/2 cup (125 mL) refried pinto beans

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 thick ham steak slice

1 bolillo, telera, demi-baguette, Portuguese corn bread or any crusty white roll, sliced open

1 avocado, peeled, pitted and mashed

2 oz (60 g) sliced Oaxaca or mozzarella cheese

Mayonnaise, to taste

Yellow mustard, to taste

Pickled jalapenos, for garnish (optional)

Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat and saute onion until it begins to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add refried beans and cook until beans soften and develop a paste texture. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Place in a small bowl and set aside.

Wipe pan clean. Sear ham in skillet until hot, about 2 to 3 minutes each side.

Layer bread with beans, ham, avocado, cheese, mayonnaise and mustard.

Serve immediately or toast sandwich in oven for a few minutes to melt cheese. Serve with pickled jalapenos, if using.

Makes 1 torta.

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Sure, you could buy mom some flowers and chocolate, or maybe take her out for brunch at that overcrowded little bistro around the corner. (Nothing says I love you like congealed hollandaise, right?)

Instead, this Mothers Day, why not treat her to a beer?

And who better to pick that beer than moms dear daughter? We asked five of Torontos top female brewers what theyd serve their moms on Sunday. You might even find some inspiration for what to serve your own mother.

Christina Coady, Folly Brewing

Coady, who hails from Newfoundland, says shed serve her mother Tish a Flemish Cap, a Belgian saison-style beer available at Folly (928 College St.). Her mom, who usually prefers red wine, would enjoy the subtle funky notes from the use of brettanomyces, a semi-wild yeast. The beer is also a nod to the Coady family heritage. Being a proud Newfoundlander, whose husband fished on the Flemish Cap, she already loves the name of the beer. Its time she tried it, Coady said. Shed also serve her mom Farmageddon, a funky, peppery and slightly fruity barrel-aged brew from Bellwoods Brewery (120 Ossington Ave.)

Mary Beth Keefe, Granite Brewery

Keefe admits her mother Denise usually prefers a full-bodied red wine to beer. Thats one reason why shell serve her Granites Peculiar, a dark, full-bodied ale. A lot of people who coin themselves as not into beer more often than not enjoy this one because of all the flavour at play, the maltiness and slight sweetness. Peculiar is available at the LCBO and at the brewerys bottle shop. (245 Eglinton Ave. E.). Her other choice? Indie Alehouse Broken Hipster, a Belgian-style witbier brewed with lavender, rosehips, coriander, orange peel and ginger.

Anna Kirk, Indie Alehouse

Kirk would serve her mother Lisa a Raspberry Spadina Monkey. Its the next brew in Indies special edition Fates and Furies series. Its a tart brew, flavoured with raspberries, on a wheat beer base. She would love anything Ive had a hand in making, but she is a huge fan of sours, and I know this is nothing like anything shes ever tried, said Kirk. (Its available at the brewerys bottle shop at 2876 Dundas St. W.) Shell also be serving mom Wild Sage Mountain Saison, a brew she recently brought back from Colorados Crooked Stave brewery.

Jamie Shillow, Shillow Beer Co.

Shillow, whose mother Cathy Diamond lives in Nova Scotia, would serve her Bitter Waitress if she were in town. The dark, hoppy brew appeals to coffee drinkers like her mom, said Shillow. The other brew shed serve is Sidelaunch Wheat, a classic Bavarian-style wheat beer hailing from the German heartland of, er, Collingwood, Ont. Its brewed by Sidelaunch brewmaster Michael Hancock, formerly of Denisons. Both brews are available at the LCBO.

Kaitlin Vandenbosch, Mill Street Brewery

Vandenbosch will be serving her mother Louise Mill Streets Lemon Tea beer. Admittedly, when her daughter started brewing, Louise wasnt much of a beer drinker, but enjoys a nice cuppa. The lemon tea beer is just what it sounds like  a beer brewed with the addition of black tea and lemon. It was the first beer she really enjoyed. Shell also be serving Hoegaarden, the worlds best-known Belgian witbier, flavoured with orange peel and coriander seed. Both beers are available at the LCBO and the Beer Store.

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When I was 18, I had a job in a carwash. Id just graduated from Father Mercredi High School in Fort McMurray, had my life in front of me and had no idea what I wanted to do with it.

My friend Adrian Stoll had worked at the carwash, Mels Mohawk in Thickwood, through our senior year and helped get me hired. The job was simple: wash out and sweep carwash bays as theyre used and keep the grounds of the store tidy. I think I made $7 an hour.

One moment always stuck with me from that job. I was changing the garbage by the vacuums near the exit of the carwash. There was a strip mall across from the carwash and in the rare perfect storm of traffic, youd have someone exiting the carwash, someone backing in or out of the strip mall, and someone trying to drive away from the vacuums. It always created an impromptu three-way stop and more often than not an awkward no-you-go-first moment before it was resolved.

In the year or so that I worked at that carwash, Fort McMurray began to change. The population sat at around 30,000 to 40,000 when I grew up there. Then in the late 1990s, new neighbourhoods were being built and the cost of housing started to skyrocket. Surveyors popped up everywhere, sizing up the city for a growth that few of us could have fully anticipated.

So at that one memorable three-way stop, the same awkward moment popped up. The guy leaving the carwash rolled ahead as the gate lifted for his exit. All three drivers looked at each other and hesitated. Then the guy leaving the carwash unleashed a well-constructed string of obscenities, told everyone to learn how to drive and ripped out of there.

It was a small thing, but one I started to notice more as the present oilsands plants began to expand and more companies arrived, looking to pull the billions of barrels of oil that sit under northern Alberta out of the ground. The city that I knew began to feel transient, its passers-through showing up, working, making a lot of money and taking it home, or on to their next adventure and using Fort McMurray like a rest stop.

Remember Pottersville, the alternate reality version of Bedford Falls in Its A Wonderful Life? For years  20 of them, actually  I felt like thats what my hometown had become.

Then it caught fire.

Two weeks ago my familys group text chat flaunted their glorious weather in my often-chilly Toronto face. By Wednesday, the chat had turned to terrifying updates on how quickly the fire outside the city turned with the wind, roared and pillaged thousands of homes.

Voluntary evacuations quickly became mandatory. As thousands fled north to work camps, like my sister Nancy, her husband Tom and their three young kids, or south through the fire, like my parents did (my mom channelled the guy at the carwash as she tried to convince my dad to turn around; he wouldnt), the real Fort McMurray showed itself and I was wrong. Bedford Falls came to life in Fort McMurray this week.

Weve all read stories about people helping each other on the side of the road, sharing whatever they took with them going out the door, of homes opened to strangers. Around the province there were free meals at restaurants and recovery days offered up for free at the West Edmonton Malls waterpark and galaxy land (my nieces and nephew lapped that up).

Whats blown me away is the resiliency of the people who are going through this. Some have lost everything and everyone else is hoping day by day, update by update that theyre not next on that list. Still, every person Ive spoken with at home, as scared as they might be, has said the same thing: Fort McMurray will come back from this.

At its core, in the people who have built lives in Fort McMurray, that got-your-back spirit was always there. My friend Adrians dad, Harold, was a firefighter at Syncrude until he retired five years ago. With his childrens homes in danger, he came out of retirement at 64 and is helping fight these fires. Its one of the most heroic things Ive heard in a week where it feels like everyone out there is wearing a cape.

As it grew and changed, as it became an economic powerhouse for Canada and had its name dragged through the mud at times, Fort McMurray was always a community with more Harold Stolls than guys who blew through three-way stops. The rest of us are just having our eyes opened to it now.

Chris OLeary is a sports reporter for the Star

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MONTREALTen young Muslims from Montreal with plans to join an Islamic terror group were foiled last year after one of them was caught lying about a school trip to Greece, police allege in an affidavit.

If that teenaged boy had not asked his parents for $150 for the trip  and if the parents had not called his bluff after checking with the school  a larger group of young Muslims who had assembled at the Montreal airport on the night of May 15, 2015, might have slipped out of the country, according to the document.

Instead, RCMP national security investigators arrested the group members at the airport and their homes and conducted interviews with the young people, their family members and their friends. That information, compiled into an affidavit sworn by RCMP Const. Sony Wolfgang Gaillard on May 25, 2015, was used to obtain a search warrant of an unspecified location. The 33-page document was unsealed Friday by a judge in Montreal in response to a request from the media.

According to the affidavit, the male and female members of the group had airplane tickets in hand, instructions for getting across the Turkey-Syria border, and elaborate back stories about sleepover parties, honeymoon vacations and a burning desire to visit Istanbul.

Under questioning those explanations fell apart, police claim in the affidavit, although none of the people arrested that day have been charged with a crime and the claims in the document have not been tested in court.

Police allege the true plans of the group  to join the ranks of either Daesh (also known as ISIS and ISIL) or Jabhat al-Nusra  were laid bare in two notebooks found in the luggage of a girl who was arrested.

One contained a goodbye letter to the girls family and the names of her fellow travellers. She also wrote of choosing between life in Canada and the demands of her faith, including an obligation to live under sharia law, the affidavit states.

In a second notebook, she allegedly wrote: My place is not in this country of unbelievers . . . . The war against Islam is clear.

The affidavit gives a rare and intimate glimpse into what police say is the process of radicalization and terrorist recruitment.

The probe started with a call to the RCMP on the night of May 14, 2015 by a father who had caught his son lying about a school trip to Greece, the affidavit says. When confronted, the teen told his father that a man had been communicating with him through his Instagram account and showing him Islamist propaganda.

The man told him that living in Canada was a sin because its not a Muslim country, the police affidavit states. The man said that he should close his Instagram account, go to Greece and that he would be contacted once he was there.

The boys name, like those of other suspects and witnesses interviewed by police, is blacked out in the affidavit, as are other parts that discuss sensitive parts of the investigation. But the boy told police he felt hypnotized by (the mans) words, according to the affidavit.

The details of the investigation that led police to the Montreal airport just 24 hours later are redacted in the affidavit, but by 10 p.m. on May 15 the RCMP had arrested eight individuals who were due to leave Canada on Turkish Airlines Flight 36.

Most had round-trip tickets to travel to Italy with stopovers in Istanbul of varying lengths. But the affidavit states that police found written instructions in the luggage of indicating that the plane tickets were a ruse to hide their ultimate destination: Syria.

In an RCMP statement released several days after arrests, the police force said the individuals are suspected of intending to leave the country to join the ranks of jihadist groups.

All had their passports seized and, while their identities are not all known, they are believed to be still living in Canada. The investigation is ongoing.

Those arrested had concocted stories to hide their plans, the affidavit says, citing interviews with parents of the teens. They ranged from a bus trip to New York City to a sleepover at a friends house to a wedding vacation in Milan, Italy.

One boy, whose parents told police that their son had a radical version of Islam, declared his passport stolen in order to get the necessary travel documents, the affidavit states.

Another parent told police that their son had showed them jihadist videos, admitted his plans to be smuggled into Syria from the Turkish town of Antakya, and expressed a desire to fight with an Islamic terror group, according to the affidavit.

In the interrogations, the young Muslims were mostly reticent. Some refused outright to answer the questions of investigators. Others stuck to their original story.

One girl said she was taking a one-week trip with her boyfriend in Milan, but did not have any hotel reservations. She said she planned to find a place to stay upon her arrival, the document stated.

Im not a terrorist, she told police, according to the affidavit. I have always lived in Montreal.

A boy who claimed to have booked his ticket a day or two in advance, paying with cash, said he was bound for Casablanca, Morocco but had always wanted to visit Turkey, according to the affidavit.

Only one of the boys admitted outright to police that he had been possibly indoctrinated by jihadist videos shown to him over the course of about a year, the affidavit states. They werent necessarily violent, but convincingly explained a radical vision of the Quran.

He had started to believe the ideas in the videos because he lost his bearings, the affidavit states.

The young man first told police he intended to go to Syria before going back on that story. Instead, he told police, he was going to Milan to see an exposition.

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MONTREALThe approval in principle this week of the Liberal assisted death legislation by an overwhelming majority of MPs should not be confused with a show of collective enthusiasm.

But by the same token, nor should the 235-75 vote be construed as anything less than a noteworthy government victory. Over and above all else, the will of the House of Commons is  by all appearances  to have a federal law on the books within the next month.

The large majority that gave Bill C-14 the nod does include an unspecified number of MPs who will be pushing for the legislation to be amended before it is brought back to the Commons for a final vote.

If the government refuses to make changes, some may decline to continue to support the legislation.

The definitive vote on Bill C-14 will almost certainly be closer than this weeks sounding. But given that the legislation passed second reading by a margin of more than two to one, the Commons dice are loaded in favour of its adoption.

Indeed, based on this weeks free vote, the government could probably get its bill passed on the sole basis of its majority.

Ive covered free votes on issues ranging from the death penalty to abortion rights to same-sex marriage and cant recall a governing party so united on a so-called conscience issue as on this bill, or a time when the religious right had so little visible influence within a Liberal caucus.

From the past three decades, the Liberal parliamentary wing had been home to a sizeable contingent of social conservatives whose presence was felt on every free vote dealing with womens reproductive freedom and gay rights.

But on Wednesday, Manitoba MP Robert Falcon-Ouellette was the sole Liberal to oppose the bill, based  he explained  on his spiritual beliefs and the ongoing suicide crisis in Attawapiskat. Trudeaus prescription that those running under his banner should be ready to toe the line on charter rights has clearly had an impact on the make-up of his caucus.

Over on the official opposition side, the take on medically assisted death could not be more different. In the absence of former prime minister Stephen Harper  who otherwise has rarely missed votes since the election  the Conservatives opposed the bill by a margin of about four-to-one.

With the notable exception of MP Michael Chong (Wellington-Halton-Hills), the other declared and undeclared aspirants to the Tory leadership voted against it. Had the Conservatives been re-elected to office last fall they might have been hard-pressed to come up with an assisted-death law their caucus could live with.

The broad support for Bill C-14 in the House of Commons cannot have gone unnoticed in the Senate.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the Supreme Courts June 6 deadline to avoid a legal vacuum on medically assisted death does not loom as large in the upper house at it does in the Commons. More than one senator has already challenged the politically expedient notion that any law  even a flawed one  is better than no law.

But assuming MPs from each of the five parties in the Commons remain on side with the proposed legislation, only a bold (reckless?) Senate majority would dare counter the will of the elected house.

For decades, successive Parliaments have left Canadians to their own devices as they sought to obtain the right to medically assisted death, forcing in the process seriously ill applicants to ask the courts to intervene on their behalf. Bill C-14 is unlikely to put an end to those poignant battles.

By the admission of the governments own justice department, the bill  as it stands now  is vulnerable to charter-based court challenges on a variety of fronts. Many legal experts believe it falls significantly short of the Supreme Courts prescriptions.

The NDP has suggested that the legislation  once passed  be referred to the Supreme Court for validation. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau argued that would somehow undermine the independence of the government and of Parliament. Given the latters absence of leadership on this file, it is hard to see on what moral ground the prime minister believes he is standing on to make that assertion.

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FORT MCMURRAY, ALTA. Fire officials are bracing themselves for a long, long fight against the blaze that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray and has eaten up more than 1,500 square kilometres of northern Alberta forest.

Unless we have a significant rain event of 100 millimetres of rain, we expect to be out fighting the fire in the forested area for months to come, Chad Morrison with Alberta Wildfires told a media briefing Saturday afternoon.

Thats not uncommon with such large fires.

As for the city of Fort McMurray, he said he expected they would get a good handle on the situation over the next coming month or two.

There still is no timeline for any of the 80,000 evacuated residents to be allowed back into their homes, but the Alberta government has begun preliminary planning, though it stresses fighting the fire is still the first priority.

Premier Rachel Notley said officials expected the fire to possibly double in size on Saturday and reach the boundary with Saskatchewan to the east.

The good news was that the fire was burning away from communities. Firefighters continued working to protect the downtown and homes in Fort McMurray and held the line for a second straight day, Notley said.

She added the gas supply has been turned off in the city and the power grid has been damaged. Water in the city isnt drinkable and hazardous material will have to be cleaned up to make the community safe.

The return wont be in coming days, said the premier. Once the immediate fire damage is completed there will be an enormous amount of work to do to make the city safe and habitable.

RCMP Insp. Kevin Kunetzki said Saturday that during their checks of houses in the city, officers are seeing significant signs of water and smoke damage.

Scott Long of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency said that may have been one of the costs of protecting the community.

He said firefighters use large, industrial sprinklers to spray continuous amounts of water on houses to protect them from embers, sparks, etc., from spontaneous combustion, from the heat. So its quite possible there could be water damage.

On top of that, a few days ago water bombers were dropping their loads on some of the houses in the highest-risk neighbourhoods.

So a little bit of water damage in the basement is acceptable at this point, Long said.

Non-essential personnel at both Syncrude and Suncor oil facilities in the area have been evacuated as a precaution.

We do expect the fire to bump again the edge of the south end of the Suncor facility today, said Morrison, but he added the companies highly trained industrial fire department would remain to protect the facilities.

These sites are very resilient to wildfires, largely because theyre free and clear of vegetation and trees.

Noralta Lodge, an oilsands housing facility where RCMP and firefighters have been staying, was placed on a two-hour evacuation notice.

They have a solid evacuation plan in place, said Morrison. If theyre under any kind of a threat there will be a safe, controlled evacuation.

Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said firefighters from other provinces were being brought in to relieve those who have been battling what he calls this beast of a fire for a week.

Eighty firefighters from Ontario have already arrived. Goodale told a news conference in Regina that another 44 are on their way from Quebec and 22 from New Brunswick. Equipment, such as pumps, hoses and tankers, are also coming from other provinces.

What were trying to do, with the co-operation of other provinces and territories, is bring in rotations of other firefighters that can give them a break.

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Paper lanterns floated into the dusk sky as mourners were gathered to remember Cynthia Mullapudi, a 24-year-old woman killed in a double-shooting last Friday.

Friends and family came together for a candlelight vigil at the New Life Christian Church in Scarborough on Friday, where Mullapudis parents gave their first public statement on their daughters death.

It was the simple little things in life that brought peace to her heart. She had so much love and kindness to share with the world, said John Mullapudi-Caleb, her father.

His family arrived in Canada when Cynthia, the eldest daughter of three girls, was 9 years old. He emphasized his daughters selfless nature, and how she gave up time with friends to care for her sisters.

We would never have to ask it of her, it was just in her personality to help anyone who needed it, he said.

Mullapudi completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough, had secured a new part-time job, and was a dedicated volunteer at SickKids Hospital. Through tears, her father said she loved working with children and interacting with parents at the hospital. As his emotions overcame him, Mullapudis friend, Katrina Ferro, stepped in to finish the speech.

Paper lanterns rise into the sky at a candlelight vigil in memory of Cynthia Mullapudi on Friday evening.











Cynthia, we will always love you, we will always miss you and we will never forget the joy you brought to our lives, she said.

Earlier Friday, Toronto police made an appeal to the public for help in locating a vehicle connected to the double shooting.

Joseph Anzolona, 26, the second victim, was sitting with Mullapudi and two others in a parked car in front of an LCBO near Ellesmere Rd. and Victoria Park Ave. when a lone gunman opened fire into the rear seat.

Harris Nnane, 24, was arrested on May 1 and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

At a news conference Friday morning, Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux said the suspect fled in a 2006 grey four-door Ford Fusion with the licence plate BYYW 755.

The offender was firing at the two (victims) and ran into this car and got inside, he said. The registered owner of the vehicle is Juliana Talevski, 24, of Toronto.

At this point in the investigation, police cannot confirm whether she was present at the scene of the shooting, but say she is connected to the accused.

Police are appealing to the public for information on where she lives and where she parks her car. It has huge, significant investigative value and we would like to recover that car as quickly as possible, Giroux said.

Police believe Anzolona was targeted and that Mullapudi was hit by collateral bullets. He added that she was a friend of the female passenger in the front seat of the car, and had just met the two males for the first time that evening.

They picked her up to attend a party, and within an hour or so, she was deceased, Giroux said.

On Sunday, the Gun and Gangs Task Force arrested 24-year-old Harris Nnane, of Toronto, and charged him with two counts of first-degree murder. Another male occupant of the car was also taken into custody. Giroux said both Nnane and Anzolona were known to police.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the homicide squad at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

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As new violence explodes along Gazas border with Israel, and a cycle of Palestinian attacks and Israeli reprisals continue inside Israel and the West Bank, a prominent Israeli analyst says the time for reviving decades of negotiations for a two-state solution is over.

We need a different agenda, says Yossi Alpher, who was in Toronto Thursday for an event sponsored by Canadian Friends of Peace Now. There are no solutions. All I can say is we are on a slippery slope to some kind of one-state reality and this is where were heading.

Alpher has the credentials to deliver his bleak assessment. A veteran of Israeli military intelligence and former Mossad analyst, he has also worked for peace and dialogue with the Palestinians, and partnered with Palestinian former politician Ghassan Khatib in the cross-cultural website bitterlemons. His latest book is No End of Conflict: Rethinking Israel-Palestine.

He spoke a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a French effort to break a long-standing stalemate of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians by proposing an international peace conference this summer.

It came after numerous attempts to reboot the peace process, including a visit to Israel in March by U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden. All have failed.

The roadblocks, Alpher says, range from settlement expansion to ideological hardening, political dysfunction, internal strife and demographic shifts.

Although he believes the rash of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and automobile attacks on Israeli civilians  which have cost the lives of more than 30 Israelis and 200 Palestinians  do not amount to a third intifada, more serious violence could break out at any time.

Attempts to repeat the pattern of past negotiations will do nothing to break the cycle, Alpher warns: The two sides are hopelessly apart because nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Abu Mazen (Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas) and Netanyahu are dug into the big narrative issues.

For Israel, that means including Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state and its claim to Temple Mount as a holy site. And for Palestinians, the right of millions of exiles to return, which would significantly change the regions demographics.

Meanwhile, Israel is steadily expanding its settlements.

Netanyahu is smart enough to pay lip service to a two-state solution. But its a fiction. Hes moving slowly, inexorably, toward gobbling up more West Bank land through settlements, exploiting Palestinian weakness in leadership and otherwise, and the fact that its impossible to end the conflict. Willy-nilly its putting us on that slippery slope.

The Palestinians themselves are on a knife edge, Alpher says. In the West Bank, politicians and security officials are positioning themselves for the presidency after 81-year-old Abbas leaves office.

In Gaza, Hamas is also waiting. It has been in a bitter struggle with Abbass Fatah party, which it accuses of corruption and nepotism. A Hamas bid for power, Alpher says, could lead to a civil war and expand to a conflict with Israel.

Gaza, ruled by Hamas, has been isolated and blockaded by Israel, choking its economic development and restricting freedom of movement. Militants fire rockets into Israel from the tiny coastal strip, and Hamas digs tunnels from which to attack Israelis by land.

The UN predicts economic disaster within a few years, Alpher says. Its a worsening situation and we cant be far from the next conflict.

In Gaza, the West Bank and Israel, he adds, what you have is a three-entity reality evolving. A dim prospect for Israel.

The Jewish population of Israel is about 6.3 million, and the Arab and Palestinian population of the West Bank, Israel and Gaza combined  with a higher birth rate  has reached parity. Jews will be outnumbered, and with the failure of negotiations for a Palestinian state, a bi-national state where they do not have equal rights would be unsustainable.

The best that can be hoped for, Alpher says, is an incremental approach that allows for accommodation on issues without an overarching agreement. But he sees little appetite for that at the moment.

Theres a strong anti-normalization movement on the Palestinian side, he says. In Israel the political mainstream is increasingly religious and messianic. It colours the nature of the education, system, the judicial system and who becomes an officer in the army. That is the Israel that is emerging.

If the ugly reality of one unresolved, perhaps quasi-apartheid state is unavoidable, Alpher says, I am concerned about the future of Israel. How will it look and function when it cant claim to be Jewish, democratic and Zionist?

But he adds, bear in mind that everything is reversible in the Middle East. All the major turning points have come unexpectedly  the 1973 war, the 1977 peace with Egypt, the assassination of (President Yitzhak) Rabin, the collapse of the Arab world in 2011. The future is always unpredictable.

Correction - May 10, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that incorrectly said 300 Palestinians have died in the recent rash of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and automobile attacks in Israeli civillians. In fact, about 200 Palestinians - mostly attackers, Israel says - have been killed.



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ROCKVILLE, MD.A federal security officer is now facing multiple murder charges in a shooting spree across three Maryland parking lots that left three people dead.

Court records show 62-year-old Eulalio Tordil of Adelphi was formally charged Saturday in Montgomery County with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, along with four firearms charges.

He will make an initial court appearance Monday.

Tordil had already been charged with first-degree murder in Prince Georges County for the shooting death of his estranged wife, Gladys, in a high school parking lot Thursday. Hers was the first in a string of shootings Thursday and Friday in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Maryland abolished the death penalty in 2013.

The shooting spree began with a domestic slaying in an unusually public place, and comparisons to the 2002 D.C. sniper shootings leapt immediately to the minds of area residents. Tordils arrest took place just steps away from a Michaels craft store that was the first target of snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

Police say Tordils spree began when he shot and killed his estranged wife  who had obtained a protective order from him  as she waited to pick up her children in the parking lot of a High Point High School in Beltsville. He also shot and wounded a bystander who tried to intervene, police said.

Detectives worked through the night, trying to use cellphone technology to pinpoint Tordils location. But they werent able to catch him. The next day, according to police, he struck again, this time apparently choosing his victims at random.

On Friday morning, police said, Tordil shot three people outside Montgomery Mall, an upscale mall in Bethesda that sits off the Capital Beltway. One man died and two others were wounded, one of them critically. Then, he drove to a supermarket several miles away in the Aspen Hill section of Silver Spring, where he fatally shot a woman who was sitting in her car, police said.

Unlike the 2002 sniper shootings that stretched over a period of weeks and left 10 dead, police had an idea about who was responsible for Fridays shootings. Plainclothes officers spotted Tordils car at a strip mall across the street from the supermarket, and they watched him for more than an hour as he moved from store to store, eating at Boston Market and getting coffee at Dunkin Donuts, police said. Fearing that he wanted to provoke officers into shooting him, police waited him out until he returned to his car. Then they boxed him in and drew their guns. He emerged from the car with his hands up.

We did not want to endanger anyone and have a shootout when we took him into custody, Montgomery County Police Chief Thomas Manger said. That may have been what he wanted.

Instead, Tordil will have to answer in court for the string of carnage attributed to him: three people dead and another three wounded in roughly 20 hours.

Hank Stawinski, the police chief in neighbouring Prince Georges County, where the school shooting took place, lamented that his detectives couldnt find Tordil sooner.

Its tragic that we were not able to intervene prior to additional individuals being harmed, Stawinski said.

Tordil worked for the Federal Protective Service, which provides security at federal properties. He was put on administrative duties in March after a protective order was issued against him when his wife said he had threatened to harm her if she left him, The Washington Post reported. Tordil subjected their children to intense-military-like discipline, like push-ups and detention in a dark closet, according to the order.

The protective service said Tordils weapon, badge and credentials were taken when he was placed on leave. Police found a weapon in his car but did not describe it.

The arrest occurred in full view of dozens of witnesses who were working, shopping, eating lunch or getting their nails done.

They had a bunch of guns pointed at him, and he was coming out of the car with his hands up, said Dominique Lee, who was walking out of the flower shop where she works when Tordil was arrested.

He just got out of his car. He gave up, said Jason Palmer, a private investigator who lives nearby and had started to search for the gunman himself. They pinned him in.

Tordil ate at the same Boston Market as Muhammad and Malvo, who were also convicted in the sniper attacks.

They ate in the same restaurant where we were having the surveillance here today, which was an irony that was not lost on me, said Montgomery County States Attorney John McCarthy, who prosecuted Muhammad. I think its a coincidence.

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There is no meaning to the horrific killing of Canadian hostage John Ridsdel in the Philippines. It had no strategic value. It had no higher political purpose.

From all accounts, Ridsdel appeared to be a wonderful human being and the nature of his murder has only served to torment his family and friends. For that, our hearts go out to them.

But his death may still leave an important legacy. If Canadas prime minister holds to his word, it may finally trigger a crucial change in the hypocritical way that most governments respond when militant groups kidnap their citizens.

Justin Trudeau promised that he will work with Britain to press other governments to stop the flow of ransom payments to kidnappers: Canada does not and will not pay ransom to terrorists, directly or indirectly.

As a tenet of Canadian policy, this may not sound new. After all, the long-standing public policy of the government has been to refuse ransom for Canadian hostages. On behalf of the former Conservative government, both ex-prime minister Stephen Harper and foreign minister John Baird often solemnly expressed this view.

But these statements were nonsense, of course. There were several occasions when the Canadian government, like their Western counterparts, did pay ransom  directly or indirectly. And this was widely known.

Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine militant group, captured Ridsdel and another Canadian, Robert Hall, last September. It should have come as no surprise who the group blamed for not getting what it wanted.

After releasing video on Tuesday of Ridsdels monstrous beheading, the group issued a statement attributed to Hall: To the Canadian government, Im told to tell you to meet the demand. I dont know what youre doing, but youre not doing anything for us.

Canadas insistence that it doesnt pay ransom has long been suspect. In 2009, an Al Qaeda group in Africa released kidnapped Canadian diplomats Robert Fowler and Louis Guay. The government denied it paid any ransom, but there was considerable speculation at the time that Canada had paid, even if indirectly.

In 2011, U.S. diplomatic emails released by WikiLeaks listed Canada as one of the countries that pays kidnappers. According to a U.S. embassy cable about Mali: It is difficult to level criticism on countries like Mali or Burkina Faso for facilitating negotiations when the countries that pay ransom, like Austria and Canada, are given a pass.

Two years later, The Associated Press reported that it found an Al Qaeda letter in Mali that indicated that Canada paid $1.1 million for the release of Fowler and Guay.

In a revealing analysis in the Ottawa Citizen on April 28, a retired Canadian diplomat challenged the way Canadas past policy has been portrayed.

Responding to Ridsdels death, Gar Pardy, former director of the consular affairs bureau in Foreign Affairs, wrote: The continued reliance on the public iteration of the no ransom, no negotiations policy fools no one. It certainly does not fool the kidnappers and it does nothing to affect their ability to kidnap.

In the 11 years before he retired, Pardy wrote, I managed the release of more than 100 kidnapped Canadians in all parts of the world  It can be said with certainty: if a kidnapped person has been released, then a ransom of some sort has been paid.

For terrorist groups, one of the most lucrative channels for getting hard cash is ransom for hostages. The Philippine militant group that killed Ridsdel has made tens of millions of dollars off hostages since its founding in the 1990s. For Al Qaeda, kidnapping Europeans has bankrolled its global operations.

In 2013, all major Western countries signed a G8 commitment not to pay ransom to terrorist groups. But this has been largely ignored. Major European nations  such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany  have paid terrorist groups in different ways to free their citizens.

Even countries that publicly oppose ransom are often devious. Pardy wrote that the United States and Israel, loudest in spreading the no ransom gospel, have (also) done so.

As terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and Abu Sayyaf know to their delight, this is a global issue where international hypocrites abound. That will be Prime Minister Trudeaus challenge if he is sincere in delivering on his promise.

Tony Burman, former head of CBC News and Al Jazeera English, teaches journalism at Ryerson University. Reach him @TonyBurman or at tony.burman@gmail.com .

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Scientists are deciphering the inner workings of the healthy and not-so-healthy brain in fascinating new ways. With tools like high-volume genome sequencing, synthetic biology, precision imaging and nanotechnology, research can move forward infinitely faster than was possible even just a few years ago. But considering this progress, why are the 1.5 billion people around the world who live with mental health and brain disorders still left with little more than old-school solutions?

One reason is a research funding and academic system that places a greater value on individual competitiveness over collective brainpower. Individual scientists still compete for narrowly focused grant funding and high-profile journal space, all too often conducting research in relative isolation. In the private sector, a similar model is at play with pharmaceutical companies keeping their R&D secret, leading to the duplication of unshared data. We are hindered by a century-old model that falls short when it comes to pioneering new and better treatments.

This is all about to change. It has to. For one, pharmaceutical companies have largely pulled out of early-stage R&D, especially in the complex and challenging area of brain research. This leaves a void for visionary, long-term-focused investors to fill  a demand pull. At the same time, the digital revolution is connecting minds and data across global networks of scientists to enable mass collaboration. Top this technology push off with a demographic kick  a new generation of young researchers and scientists who have come of age as digital natives  and you have all the ingredients for a drastic realignment.

We are already seeing these forces come together in other areas of biomedical research with ambitious collaborations like the Structural Genomics Consortium. Based at the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford and Swedens Karolinska Institute, this is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership doing the early fundamental science that could lead to new drug discoveries. Researchers collaborate with pharmaceutical company partners on projects such as studying rogue cancer-causing proteins and designing chemical probes to identify potential drug targets. The new compounds and discoveries coming out of this work are available free to all other researchers worldwide.

This open-access science speeds up early-stage drug discovery, bypassing lengthy patent and legal agreements and risk analyses. Instead of building fences around their early findings, pioneering firms and researchers are beginning to treat intellectual property more like a mutual fund: they manage a balanced portfolio of intellectual property assets, some protected and some shared. And its often private donors who are enabling some of the most innovative models  collaborations such as the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research.

So, could a similar, open-innovation model unlock the potential of neuroscience to yield new treatments in conditions like Alzheimers disease and mood disorders? Just as weve learned about the brains remarkable abilities to rewire itself, we think the system of brain research has that same potential.

This is why the University of Toronto is forming a new collaborative model called the Neuroscience Catalyst. A partnership between academics, research hospitals and health centres, as well as pharmaceutical company Janssen Inc., it uses the Toronto research communitys well-established strengths in brain science to identify the most promising early-stage discoveries and technologies through an open innovation model.

We are also actively involved in the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium  a federation of more than 200 scientists at 60 institutions in 19 countries committed to sharing data. Researchers from Torontos Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have helped to identify more than 100 locations in the human genome associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia, in what is the largest genomic study published on any psychiatric disorder to date. By taking down the fence around once-proprietary raw material, we are accelerating the development of new therapies for a debilitating disorder that has seen few new treatment options over the past 60 years.

This seismic shift towards collaboration is changing how we work as scientists. Soon the silos in research will be gone  both within universities and between industry and academia. In their place, collaborative and effective partnerships of the best minds, funded by public as well as private sources, will lead to robust new therapies for the body and for the brain.

Don Tapscott is one of the worlds leading authorities on innovation, media, and the economic and social impact of technology. He is also deeply committed to the mental health cause.

Ruth Ross is director of the Centre for Collaborative Drug Research and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto. She is also a senior scientist with the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at CAMH.

Correction - September 8, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly said Medicine by Design project is funded by private donations. In fact, the project is funded by the federal governments Canada First Research Excellence Fund.



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There are few things so Canadian as worrying that were falling behind our competitors and in danger of being run over. Were too comfortable in our traditional role as hewers of wood and drawers of water (or at least oil), goes the decades-old refrain. Our businesses are slow-moving and dont invest enough. We just arent innovative.

Its a well-worn lament, documented in piles of hefty reports and scores of speeches. And as recent studies confirm, theres a lot of truth in it. Canada, they show, is worrisomely far down the list of leading countries when it comes to competing and winning in the global information economy.

Now, though, we have a new Liberal government that promises to put innovation at the centre of its agenda, along with a minister whose sexed-up job title begins with the word innovation itself. Navdeep Bains has been tasked with developing a new national innovation strategy, and theres pressure on him to come up with something more than a warmed-over version of the usual plan  subsidies to a regionally balanced array of industries and tax breaks aimed at getting companies to boost their spending on R&D.

As todays special issue of the Star shows, a smart plan to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship across the country has never been more needed. The economic environment has changed in fundamental ways that put Canadas future prosperity at risk. Don Tapscott, who edited this edition, writes: The Canadian economy has been based on resources and traditional industrial-age manufacturing and approaches to everything. Its time to move forward.

This isnt a concern only for business people and the bureaucrats who craft industrial policy. Technology is driving change and challenging the established order in every sector, as the stories throughout todays Star demonstrate. The well-being  both economic and social  of every Canadian depends on how effectively we respond.

Finance is being disrupted by revolutionary blockchain technology that allows people to manufacture trust and deal directly with each other rather than through the usual channels. Universities must confront new models of learning that threaten academic traditions going back centuries. Medicine and science are being revolutionized by the ability of researchers to collaborate on a global scale. Self-driving cars are quickly going from concept to reality.

Governments must respond to all this in creative ways. So far in Canada the track record is largely disappointing: scores of billions of dollars have been poured into industrial subsidies, grants and tax breaks, often with meagre results.

Study after study shows Canada turning in a middling performance at best when compared with similar countries. We ranked 9th out of 16 last fall in a survey by the Conference Board of Canada, earning a mediocre C grade overall for such measures as R&D spending, patents and productivity  all indicators of economic innovation.

And earlier last year, the Centre for Digital Entrepreneurship and Economic Performance (DEEP Centre) in Waterloo highlighted the worrisome fact that research spending by Canadian corporations has failed to keep pace with the OECD average. Weve been steadily losing ground.

Thats the result of the same-old way of doing business  and of successive governments continuing along the well-worn path. If Bainss innovation agenda turns out to be just an updated version of that, he will have fallen short.

It doesnt have to be that way. Government can take a more active, more effective role. Far from being just an impediment to business, it has often been crucial to developing technologies that form the basis of todays most dynamic  and innovative  industries.

In her influential book The Entrepreneurial State, economist Mariana Mazzucato argues that governments can and should take the lead in promoting ground-breaking technology by championing areas like the transition to a clean, green economy. She documents how early government funding was key to the prosperity of Silicon Valley  from the Internet itself to the technologies that make the iPhone such a marvel. The trend continues with the Obama administration providing early-stage financing for Elon Musks Tesla venture in electric cars.

Other successful countries  Germany is a notable example  take a similarly active approach. One result is that Canadas direct research spending falls disappointingly short of those competitors: while Washington spends 2.9 per cent of GDP on R&D, and Germanys figure is 2.8 per cent, Canada spends less than 1.7 per cent. We should listen to voices like Mazzucatos and not skimp on investing in the future.

As the stories in todays Star show, theres lots of innovation happening right now in Toronto and throughout the country  even with our creaky old approach. Imagine how much more could be accomplished with policies that encouraged corporations to reinvest profits rather than hoard them as so-called dead money; made it easier for home-grown tech firms to scale up quickly; put protection of intellectual property at the centre of global trade negotiations; and helped Canadian firms take their ideas from research labs to success in the marketplace.

At the same time, the benefits of such policies should not flow only to an economic elite at the cutting edge of technology. Figuring out how best to encourage true innovation should not be just a way to help the winners in the new economy win even bigger.

But before wealth can be shared, it must be created. So far, weve spent too much time watching as our competitors did better at figuring out the way to do that in the 21st century. Its past time for Canada to step up  and for a government that thinks of itself as forward-looking to chart the way ahead.

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According to an April letter to supporters from the Council of Canadians, This February alone the government was lobbied a record 2,983 times.

The same letter mentions that Big Oil, Big Pharma and countless more industries essentially wrote some of the very laws and trade deals that our new government is promising to fix.

Having corporate lawyers inside government to negotiate in legalese with a stream of corporate lobbyists no doubt helps the bureaucracy work smoothly, but this cushy government work at taxpayers expense is kept confidential, with little if any public oversight.

This conjures up an image of poor old hard-done-by corporate lawyers lined up outside of the government soup kitchen. The same corporate lawyers work hard to keep their employers vast profits hidden in offshore tax havens.

Corporate and labour union donations to political parties have always influenced government, but it is coming to light again in Ontario. Would medical doctors and nuclear power executives be any different? The phrase corporate welfare seems an apt description of this deeply entrenched corruption in democracy.

Fred Brailey, Orangeville

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Re: Keeping a bomber crew's memory alive, April 30

Keeping a bomber crew's memory alive, April 30

Kudos to feature writer Katie Daubs for another poignant story about Canadas war dead. She pays tribute to two mens determined effort to honour the crew of a Halifax bomber shot down over Holland, and, until their research, were just names among the thousands of airmen lost in combat. Noteworthy, as well, is the reverence shown by the villagers of Ten Boer, who buried the light corpses from the crash, first class.

I recently had the opportunity to teach two Grade 10 classes the disastrous Dieppe Raid, and the terrible losses suffered by the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division. Having visited that French port with an group of World War II veterans in 2004, and having spoken to an aged nun who had tended the wounded and dying Canadians that day, I felt prepared to help the students with the classroom material left by their teacher. Their apathy was disheartening.

Few watched the excellent National Film Board video; iPods, cellphones and inane chatter ruled. My expectation of assisting with the written assignment morphed into keeping track of the constant, gotta go to the bathroom parade. A handful submitted work. The rest viewed the material for that lesson as, like, you know, totally boring. Sadly, for the majority in both classes, Aug. 19, 1942 means nothing.

Laurence Binyons poem, For the Fallen, penned in 1914 and often recited during Remembrance Day ceremonies, soothes the bereaved with the assurance that soldiers killed in battle will never age, and that, At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, We shall remember. The teens who amused themselves instead of doing the Dieppe assignment will, no doubt, bow their heads for a minute of silence during the school assembly on Nov. 11.

Perhaps that token gesture is better than nothing. Its just that, for someone my age, who remembers so many who served overseas during World War II, and who notices in the daily obituaries the passing away of the dwindling number of our veterans, its a tough pill to swallow that 15-year-olds can ramble on about Drake, or Beyonce, but the name Dieppe will draw a blank stare.

George Bernard Shaw mused that youth is wasted on the young. With many of todays adolescents, so is the teaching of Canadian history.

Garry Burke, Oro-Medonte

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Re: Muslim Canadians echo pride of country, April 28

Muslim Canadians echo pride of country, April 28

In this article, there are two aspects with which I find concern: 1. Young Muslims also identify primarily as Muslim rather than as Canadian; and 2. the intermingling of politics and religious ideology.

At the core, these two are interrelated, and we as Canadians should espouse a free society in which there is a complete separation of church from state  indeed many Canadians do not subscribe to belief in any religious authority whatsoever, and all have equal consideration under the law.

Whether a person is an atheist, a Satanist, Judeo-Christian or Muslim should have no bearing on matters of politics because politics should be concerned with the material well-being and security of the nation as a whole. If politics is pandering to religion for the securing of votes, then it is the politics that is misguided and that which is deviating from acceptable conduct by laying its loyalties in areas it should not, by becoming beholden to non-Canadian interests. All religions are non-Canadian interests and none serve the interest of the nation.

Likewise if young Muslims also identify primarily as Muslim rather than as Canadian, their loyalties toward their nation might be considered in question by others if they hear the call of foreign or divine influence above that of the needs of the nation that provides them with home and security. As a Canadian, I find this particularly alarming. Such unpalatable ideas are also likely to be a source of discrimination.

Canada has welcomed many cultures and religions to its bosom, however religion is a personal choice and is not one of any national import. As such, it does not belong in the realm of political discussion. If a persons loyalty is such that they would like to live in a nation with a religious government, instead of a free society, I would suggest they relocate to such a place.

Politicians need to stop pandering to any religious group and it should be an offense to do so.

I myself am proud to be Canadian and to openly accept and welcome others but cannot accept the notion of giving away hard-fought freedoms in exchange for cultural diversity.

Tom Whent, Sault Ste Marie

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Re: Censored report raises more questions, April 30

Censored report raises more questions, April 30

The abbreviated Special Investigations Unit report into the death of Andrew Loku is surely in its current form an insult to the intelligence of the people of Ontario. Here we have the attorney-generals office hiding behind the convenient excuse that deletions are a result of privacy and safety constraints as well as legal requirements, delivering what is essentially a nothing report and no doubt keeping fingers crossed that the public will accept the whitewash.

Well, it is high time this government learned that we have had enough and that we want, no, we demand, answers. Too many men have died at the hands of police and it is time to put an end to the SIU charade that presents itself as the arbiter of an impartial judicial report.

So, what is going on? Is it Queens Park or the police union that is preventing us from learning what really happens when shootings occur? Or (perish the thought) are these two bodies in on the act together?

It is difficult to think of any other group that would seek to keep SIU reports confidential and it is long past time for decisive action. In such crucial issues the public has a right to know exactly what is going on.

Are you listening, Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Liberal government?

Eric Balkind, Ontario

The release of the SIU report into the death of Andrew Loku provides very little information that we dont already know thanks to the daily reporting by the Star. The hiding of 34 pages of the report simply indicates that nothing has changed. We are left in the dark on key issues surrounding Lokus death.

I continue to be amazed as to why a political party that has just won an election all of a sudden forgets that it should be reflecting what the vast majority of the people want and deserve. Instead, these Liberals ignore legitimate requests as is the case is here.

There is a strong need to know exactly how, why and by whom a mans life was taken. This should not be a secret society. Who can possibly be against shining a light on terrible events?

Al Truscott, Collingwood

Police cant claim to be highly trained specialists then claim their only option was to shoot a drunk, overweight man armed with a hammer. I dont care where the hammer was or what he was doing with it. Its irrelevant.

We have to expect more from members of a police service that puff out their chest and tell us how great they are. Their complete lack of respect for any oversight or criticism is alarming as well as the apparent belief that they are the smartest people around and how dare we question them.

We should expect them to show constraint, patience and intelligence in their job if they are to deserve the respect they feel like they deserve. They should be embarrassed by this whole thing, not showing a complete disdain for anyone who disagrees.

Someone needs to do something about this before its too late, assuming its not already.

Marc Baker, Hamilton

Once again the dysfunction of our democracy to police the Toronto police is clearly demonstrated. The systemic problem of our democracy is evident when the civilian elected officials and appointees are co-opted by the secret system of policing to preserve its bad practices.

Its not enough for the Star to demonstrate in its pages regularly the secrecy concealing the truth about one case  the problematic shooting of Andrew Loku and its subsequent cover-up.

Citizens, who are the many, who wont or cant administer their police, who are the few, have no right to claim that they are a democracy. Shame on us.

Tony DAndrea, Toronto

Intense public pressure was required for the release of the SIU report and the coroners inquest to follow in order to reveal the facts surrounding the death of Andrew Loku and to make recommendations to improve police actions. The Loku family and the public deserve answers.

There is another situation that needs to be addressed immediately that came to my attention at the coroners inquest into the killing by police of Ian Pryce. There were six lawyers at the Pryce inquest, some representing individual officers, the police chief and the Police Services Board  each of these lawyers publicly funded. There was no such compensation available to Ians family. Victims families did not bring on the coroners inquest and they should be entitled to full compensation for their legal counsel  same as police.

If it were not for the generosity of Peter Rosenthal, Heather Thompson, the mother of Ian Pryce, would not have been represented. The family of Andrew Loku will find themselves in the same situation with lack of funding for legal counsel unless this inequitable social justice issue is addressed asap.

Victims families are outnumbered and should not be expected to represent themselves in these emotionally charged Inquests. Only with the help of skilled legal counsel will meaningful recommendations by families be successfully put forward to the jury.

Such was the case in the coroners inquest into the death of Ian Pryce, who was mentally ill and in possession of a pellet gun  both facts known to police at the time he was shot. If the coroners inquest jury recommendations had been in place, Ians death could have been avoided, as well needless deaths of others such as Andrew Loku.

Bev Salmon, former Metro Councillor, Toronto

Regarding culture at Toronto police force.

1. Bad culture and acting above the law have existed in Toronto police for years.

2. Not all members of this force act as above; there is majority of police men and women who try to fulfil their duties with professional ethics and respect to society.

3. At the same time there is a large group of the force lead by police union boss Mike McCormick and his supporters that stands in defence of cops, no matter how stupid or criminal are the acts of the cop involved.

4. No chief was and is able to change the culture of Toronto police, while the basket of bad apples is tolerated in the force. Unfortunately parts of the police training, which allows the police members to use lethal or physical force at their discretion (if you feel in danger shoot right in the chest of the person, for example boy with little knife in hand). Thanks to that excuse many hothead policemen use the gun or taser without proper warning, they do not even bother to use pepper spray any more.

5. In recent years the criminal courts are very lenient (or possibly afraid) to abusers of the law in uniforms and that impunity creates the culture of immunity and continuation of acting aggressively and brutally by cops with such tendencies. Example it is known fact, that Mr Forcillo has a history of pulling his gun to often. Such police members shouldnt work in police force. The other ones used simply their fist or other methods of brutality.

Those kind of police culture has to end. Finally, I do not see that any police chief or Police Board is able to fix that problem. There are to many connection between those bodies including SIU, which includes mostly former cops. The problem has to taken by the Provincial Government.

The above problem is pretty urgent and would like your popular newspaper to get strongly and continuously involved.

Matthew Odziemkowski, Mississauga

There is an old saying: Never take a knife to a gun fight. In this shooting by police, and others, were talking about a hammer against a gun or a knife or some other non-artillery item. Shouldnt the police be trained in disarming a suspect or combative person who is not carrying a gun? Usually, its two or three against one in these situations. Couldnt one of the police distract the individual by tackling him/her? The first response should not be to shoot.

Ann Nelles, Etobicoke

The subject of civilians getting shot by police keeps recurring in national media, whether it is Andrew Loku or the young man shot in the TTC. Having been a soldier myself, I am often surprised at the incidents.

There is something called shoot to incapacitate, in place of shoot to kill. I am shocked that police in this part of the world are not trained in this classic distinction. Soldiers in India, when deployed in aid to civil power, are given strict instructions to use the minimum force. Shoot to kill is resorted to in extreme cases, either in self defence or protect a life in danger.

Policemen should remember that shooting to kill should be resorted to in extreme cases, not routine ones, where other means of stopping the individual are available. Police are not summary executioners of people but are their protectors. When this happens, shooting deaths will fall substantially.

Major Sulakshan Mohan, Indian Army (ret.), Brampton

It has become increasingly apparent that those responsible for releasing the circumstances relevant to the killing of Andrew Loku by the police are reluctant to share them with the same general public who place their faith in the police for their own protection. Its not a healthy situation and this veil of secrecy must be removed.

In an effort to resolve mistrust, many police departments in the United States are now utilizing body cameras to record an officers interactions with the public. Its implementation locally would go a long way in removing any question as to the propriety of actions taken by the police and restore public trust.

Harry J. Sultz, Thornhill

We have to be so careful with how we record and read vital facts presented, in this case the timeline. As reported in your article the officers arrived at the scene at 0005 hours and a shot was fired at 0007 hours. I realize that this is a verbatim report but not everyone has had experience with the military time especially with the colons removed.

Thus confusion arises over a critical fact and many might assume that the shot occurred a few seconds after arrival, as John Sewell is reported to have said in your article, Experts Weigh In on page 3 of the GTA section.

The Star editor informed readers that the words in italics had been censored by the province of Ontario. A similar note about the reporting of time using a Military Time and not the usual World Clock format might have helped readers avoid misunderstanding. There is a big difference in reaction time between 2 seconds and 120 seconds.

Arnd Koechlin, Scarborough

Some 74 per cent of this report is secret. This abuses the very basic platform of transparency. The 26 per cent transparency shows how little respect for the voter the government really has. When public trust is bankrupt, remediation is needed.

I suggest that all such reports be made public within three months of receipt, the timetable verified by the Ombudsmans Office. The report will contain no redactions that have not been approved by an independent council of legal experts and voters and shall be housed at arms-length in the Office of the Attorney General.

It is a sad day when I pick up the Star to learn that once again Ive been blindsided by politicians committed to transparency. Its a vote of no confidence by the politicians of the people. Public trust has never been so  redacted.

Don Graves, Burlington

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Nicolai Cikovsky Jr., an art historian who became a curator at the National Gallery of Art, where he took a leading role in organizing several major exhibitions, including a 1995 retrospective of the works of painter Winslow Homer, died May 1 at his home in Washington. He was 83.

He had colon cancer and leukemia, said his wife, Sarah Greenough, the National Gallerys senior curator of photography.

Dr. Cikovsky, whose father was a painter, developed an interest in 19th-century American art as a student and became a leading authority on such painters as Homer, William Merritt Chase, George Inness and Samuel F.B. Morse  who also invented the telegraph.

After teaching at several colleges, Dr. Cikovsky joined the National Gallery of Art in 1983 as curator of American art. He was instrumental in acquiring many important paintings for the museum, including Homers Home Sweet Home, Albert Bierstadts Lake Lucerne, Georgia OKeeffes Black White and Blue and works by Asher B. Durand, Rembrandt Peale, William Harnett and Childe Hassam, among others.

As a curator, Dr. Cikovksy was credited with greatly expanding public interest in American art. He was responsible for many celebrated exhibitions at the National Gallery, including shows devoted to Chase, Inness, James McNeill Whistler, Thomas Eakins and photographer Ansel Adams.

One of his most memorable exhibitions, curated with Franklin Kelly, was the 1995 retrospective showcasing a wide range of paintings, watercolors and drawings by Homer, a somewhat reclusive New England artist who lived from 1836 to 1910. On CBS Sunday Morning, Dr. Cikovsky pronounced Homer surely the greatest American artist of the 19th century.

It took more than five years to plan the Homer exhibition. Dr. Cikovsky and Kelly negotiated with other museums and with private owners around the world to obtain loans of Homers art. They considered more than 1,000 works before choosing the 245 that went on view.

We traveled intensely for two years, Dr. Cikovsky told the New York Times. Then we took a break to see what we had. Then we traveled again.

The curators also prepared a lavishly illustrated 420-page catalogue, which Washington Post art critic Paul Richard wrote was certain to become a standard text on Homers life and pictures.

The blockbuster exhibition was seen by more than 345,000 people at the National Gallery before traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Weve had in-depth shows on French artists like Degas and Manet, Dr. Cikovsky told The Post in 1996. It was time for an American artist to have that kind of treatment, and Homer is one of those who really deserve it. His work is a reflection of us as a culture and as a nation.

In a review in the New Republic, novelist John Updike said the exhibition was one to make an American proud.

Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. was born Feb. 11, 1933, in New York City. His father, who was born in Poland and studied in Russia, came to the United States in the 1920s and had a distinguished career as a painter of landscapes, portraits and still lifes.

Dr. Cikovsky was a 1955 graduate of Harvard University, where he also received masters and doctoral degrees in art history in 1958 and 1965, respectively. He taught at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., and Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., before joining the faculty of the University of New Mexico in 1974.

Before coming to the National Gallery, he published books on Inness and Morse, as well as several exhibition catalogues. When he retired from the National Gallery in 2002, Dr. Cikovsky held the title of senior curator of American and British painting.

His first marriage, to Thelma OBrien, ended in divorce. Survivors include Greenough, his wife of 37 years, of Washington; a daughter from his first marriage, Emily Hilbert Cikovsky of Los Altos, Calif.; a daughter from his second marriage, Sophia Greenough Cikovsky of San Francisco; and two grandchildren.

In addition to organizing exhibitions and writing dozens of articles, books and catalogues, Dr. Cikovsky was an early proponent of technology as a tool for solving the puzzles of art history. He used infrared film to reveal how Inness, a 19th-century artist known for his landscapes, often painted over earlier versions of his work, sometimes dramatically changing the subject matter.

While examining Homers Breezing Up with infrared technology, Dr. Cikovsky discovered that the artist had significantly altered his painting of a sailboat scudding in choppy waters. Homer eliminated other boats from the painting, as well as the figure of a boy, substituting an anchor in his place.

That he removed a boy and added on an anchor  a 19th-century symbol of hope, Dr. Cikovsky told The Post in 1986, suggests he intended the painting to convey a sense of optimism.

If you can see an artist doing something, youve caught him in his tracks, he added. You can then ask why. Why did he make this change?


The Paris Tasting in 1976. (Bella Spurrier/National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)

The winning white and red, both Californian. (National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)

Forty years ago, a publicity stunt for a small wine school in Paris changed the world of wine forever. The scene would look unremarkable today: Nine wine professionals swirling, sniffing, sipping, spitting and scoring their way through 20 wines in a blind tasting, meaning the wines were not identified until after the scores were tallied. Yet the Paris Tasting, also known as the Judgment of Paris, became famous because of its quirky cast of characters, a bit of luck and, most of all, the results: California wines beat the best of France.

The story is well known among wine lovers. Steven Spurrier, a young British expat who owned the Academie du Vin and an adjacent store, Caves de la Madeleine, in central Paris, and his American associate, Patricia Gallagher, held the tasting of California and French wines in honor of that years American Bicentennial. They wanted to draw attention to the revolutionary new wines of California. The judging panel included some of Frances wine and culinary elite. And while the organizers implored several journalists to cover the event, only one came: George M. Taber, a young correspondent for Time magazine who had taken a class at Spurriers school and who had nothing else to cover. To this day, the California wine industry is grateful that May 24, 1976, was a slow news day in Paris.

[California vintners who made a difference]

Tabers short article deep in the June 7, 1976, edition of Time trumpeted the surprising news that California defeats all Gaul as the Chateau Montelena 1973 Chardonnay and the Stags Leap Wine Cellars 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon were the top wines. He described how the judges could not always distinguish California wines from French, and he ended with a classic reaction from Jim Barrett, owner of Chateau Montelena: Not bad for kids from the sticks. Within days, demand for the winning wines soared in retail shops across America.

Winemakers around the world were inspired, and the French realized Californias potential. Its no coincidence the first vintage of Opus One was in 1979, Spurrier says now, referring to the joint venture in Napa Valley between Bordeauxs Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and Californias Robert Mondavi Winery, launched a few years after the tasting. Spurrier, now a consultant editor at Britains Decanter magazine, said in an email that the tasting opened up the wine world. Before then, the New World simply did not exist as a wine producer in the mind of the public.



Members of the Chateau Montelena team  Ernie Hahn, from left, Jim Barrett, Mike Grgich (wearing beret) and Lee Paschich  in 1972, four years before the tasting that changed the fortunes of the winery. (Chateau Montelena)

An underdog story

The Paris Tasting still captures our imagination. Wine enthusiasts enjoy brown-bagging bottles and conducting their own blind tastings. New wine regions pit their products against the worlds best, hoping to show they belong in the ranks of top-quality wine. Its great marketing, and great fun.

[The Judgment of Washington: Virginia wines show they can compete]

The story also embodies the American dream. Miljenko Mike Grgich, a Croatian immigrant who fled communism to come to Napa Valley to make wine, crafted the winning chardonnay at Chateau Montelena. Barrett, Montelenas principal owner, was transitioning from a successful law practice to a second career to be close to the land. About 25 miles to the south, Warren Winiarski, the son of Polish immigrants, had founded Stags Leap Wine Cellars after abandoning a promising future in academia and moving his family west.

Taber told the story of the Paris Tasting and its impact in his 2005 book, Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine (Scribner). A highly fictionalized movie, Bottle Shock, was released in 2008, with Alan Rickman sneering his way through Napa Valley more like Severus Snape than Steven Spurrier.

[Bottle Shock: A giddy ode to vino]

Why has this wine tasting captivated us so?

Its a wonderful underdog story with a great narrative arc, pitting upstart Americans against centuries of Old World tradition, says Paula Johnson, curator and project director for food and wine history at the Smithsonians National Museum of American History. Her teams ongoing exhibit, Food: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000, includes bottles of the winning wines. The museum will mark the tastings 40th anniversary May 16 and 17 at two events, both of which sold out within days of being announced in January.



Warren Winiarski, the son of Polish immigrants, founded Stags Leap Wine Cellars in Napa Valley and created the red wine that won the 1976 Paris Tasting. (1969 photo from National Museum of American History)

People who take it for granted that we have a wide choice of wine today dont realize what it was like before the Paris Tasting, when France really ruled the world, Johnson says. Fine dining back then still meant French, but the undercurrents of change from California with Alice Waters and Chez Panisse were already beginning. It was also inspiration for other people across the country who were already making good wine.

Winiarski, now 87, looks back on the tasting as a Copernican moment that changed the way people look at wine. Its getting more grand, larger in scope than ever before, he told me in a recent interview. There may have been a twinkle in his eye, since he has been a leading promoter of Paris Tasting commemorations over the years.

Winiarski sold his winery in 2007 to a partnership of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, based in Washington state, and Italys Marchese Antinori. The winerys new tasting room, opened last year, features a small exhibit about the Paris Tasting. Winiarski still lives in a house overlooking the vineyards and the basalt outcropping known as Stags Leap, and he tends a small vineyard of his own in southern Napa Valley. The tasting gave an enlarged vision to others who might have sold their fruit short and settled for making less than world-class wine, Winiarski says.

Bo Barrett, Jims son who now runs Chateau Montelena, expressed the same sentiment but with a little more American bravado. It let us walk on the same playing field and play with the big guys, he told me in a small kitchen next to Montelenas tasting room. We became a meritocracy, with the French no longer considered superior.



The telegram Jim Barrett sent from Paris to Chateau Montelena announcing the tasting results. (Chateau Montelena Winery/National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution)

A tastings echoes

The Paris Tasting helped make Napa Valleys reputation, but Spurrier and Gallagher had included wines from the Chalone, David Bruce and Ridge wineries in Californias Central Coast as well. And although Chateau Montelena is in Napa Valley, its winning chardonnay was made primarily with Sonoma County fruit.

On a cool April Sunday, I visited Bacigalupi Vineyards in Sonomas Russian River Valley, where Pam Bacigalupi showed me the familys Paris Tasting Block. Her in-laws, Charles and Helen, sold Montelena 14 tons of the 40 tons of grapes that made the winning chardonnay. The Bacigalupis, grape growers for 60 years, have been marketing their own wines only since 2011. Framed in their modest tasting room is the original receipt for the 1973 grapes. From an era when labeling laws were less precise, the bottles label credited only the Napa and Alexander valleys as sources of the fruit.

These vines only produce three tons a year today, but we dont have the heart to rip them out and replant, Bacigalupi said.

The previous day, I met Mike Grgich at his old home in Yountville to discuss his memories of those early days at Chateau Montelena. The Paris Tasting, he said, convinced winemakers in California and around the world that they could match the French for quality.

The French always claimed that only French soil could make world-class wine, he said. But then California cabernet and chardonnay went to Paris. After that, Australia, Chile and other countries started thinking their soil is as good as French.



Mike Grgich, left, crafted the winning Paris Tasting chardonnay at Chateau Montelena. He later founded Grgich Hills Estate in Napa Valley, which is now run by daughter Violet Grgich and nephew Ivo Jeramaz. (Rocco Ceselin/Grgich Hills Estate)

Grgich Hills Estate, the winery he founded in 1977 with siblings Austin Hills and Mary Lee Strebl of the Hills Brothers coffee company, has been a stable partnership for nearly 40 years and now farms 366 acres of vineyards throughout Napa Valley. His daughter, Violet, handles management and sales, while his nephew, Ivo Jeramaz, oversees the vineyards and winemaking.

We sipped an exquisite 2013 Paris Tasting Commemorative Chardonnay, with an image on the label of a younger Grgich wearing his trademark beret. Unlike the victor 40 years ago, this wines grapes came from Napa Valley, from the Carneros region. Sonoma chardonnay has such elegance, while Napa has more power, he said.

Now 93 and slowed by spinal stenosis, Grgich smiled as he recalled the winning wine.

The 1973 chardonnay that won the Paris Tasting started with my mothers bevanda  wine cut with water, which he drank as a child in Croatia  then my viticulture studies at the University of Zagreb, followed by my work with Lee Stewart, Christian Brothers, Andre Tchelistcheff and Robert Mondavi. Then I arrived at Chateau Montelena. I was fortunate I could absorb the knowledge of others. They had their own knowledge, but I had knowledge of all of them.

Perhaps his greatest achievement came after the 1976 Paris Tasting. As he spoke, I detected in his voice both a hint of the idealism of that years American Bicentennial and an echo of politics today.

I am very happy that as an immigrant, I found a job for myself and created jobs for 60 others, he said. I have had so many miracles in my life, because I had opportunities to have miracles.
A destroyer built in the 1950s is heading from the Washington Navy Yard to an inactive ship depot in Philadelphia. Washingtonians watched somberly as the USS Barry departed on its final voyage. (Twitter/Sam Harper)

A destroyer built in the 1950s is heading from the Washington Navy Yard to an inactive ship depot in Philadelphia. Washingtonians watched somberly as the USS Barry departed on its final voyage. (Twitter/Sam Harper)

They had cut down the masts, severed the underwater anchoring lines and adjusted the ballast to make the ship ride bow high.

The towing chain had been passed through the bull nose up front. The skeleton crew was on board. And the moon had provided a very high tide, with plenty of extra water under the keel.

At 7:38 a.m. Saturday, three powder-blue tugboats backed the former USS Barry away from Pier 2 at the Washington Navy Yard and into the Anacostia River for its final voyage.

There she goes, said a man in the crowd that lined the boardwalk along the river to bid farewell to the old destroyer, which had served as a popular museum ship since 1983 and had been a fixture in the neighborhood.

Bye, Barry, said another.

The former USS Barry, once a Navy destroyer, is towed down the Potomac River on its way to a ship graveyard at the former Navy base in Philadelphia. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

Under a blue sky with broken clouds, the tugs got the ship into midstream and turned it to face downriver toward the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge.

For a moment they paused, waiting for the venerable swing bridge to pivot open. At 8:13 a.m. it did, and the entourage filed through.

The river was placid as the Barry began its 50-hour journey to be mothballed in Philadelphia. The surface was disturbed only by feeding fish, a few ducks and the churning from the tugs propellers.

The 418-foot-long vessel, which has ties that stretch from Pearl Harbor to the Vietnam War, was powerless during the operation. Its engines were silenced long ago, its rudder locked in place, the Navy said.

Its final voyage was termed a dead ship tow.

Its basically, at this point, a long hunk of metal that theyre . . . towing through the water, said Lt. Luke J. Adams, the officer in charge of port operations at the Navy Yard.

But it cut a sleek profile with its sharp, angled bow and its bold hull number  933  as it was towed by the tugs Emily Ann, Meagan Ann and Thomas D. Witte of the Donjon Marine Co., which handled the job for the Navy.

Local resident, Anne Seymour, 58, waits on a dock near the Washington Navy Yard for the old Navy destroyer, the USS Barry, which has a storied history and has served as a museum ship at the Navy Yard since 1983. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)

A D.C. fireboat lofted a salute with its water cannons as the Barry passed. Nearby vessels sounded their horns.

And as the ship passed Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, where the Anacostia meets the Potomac River, the strains of Anchors Aweigh drifted across the water from loudspeakers on shore.

Very emotional, said Anne Seymour, who lived in the Navy Yard neighborhood in Southeast Washington and carried two American flags as she watched the ship leave.

The Barry is a landmark institution in our hood, she said, as she stood on a nearby pier. We love him. Ive been here almost 26 years. . . . Ive seen the neighborhood go through a lot of changes. The one thing that did not change was the USS Barry.

Always here, always reliable, she said. Im very, very sad.

The Barry, a Forrest Sherman-class destroyer, was built at the Bath Iron Works, in Bath, Maine, in the mid-1950s and commissioned in 1956.

Its first skipper was Cmdr. Isaac C. Kidd Jr., whose father, Rear Adm. Isaac C. Kidd, was killed on the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.

The Barry participated in the blockade of Cuba during the missile crisis of 1962, and in 1965 and 1966 served off Vietnam, firing on enemy coastal positions.

The ship was decommissioned in 1982 and stored in an inactive ship facility at the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.

The next year, it was brought to Washington to serve as a museum ship, and has since hosted hundreds of tours, ceremonies and sleepovers for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.

The ship had to be moved because plans for a new Douglass bridge called for an immovable span that would have locked the Barry on the river for good, the Navy said.

Cmdr. Joshua Collamer of the Naval Reserve, who works at the Pentagon, was in charge of the Barry from 2003 to 2005.

It was a lot of fun, he said Saturday as he watched the ship depart.

He said he and his staff had found sailors letters and pictures of girlfriends that had gotten lost on the ship over the years.

They discovered ships china and silverware that had been locked up and left behind. Nothing fancy, he said. Just part of the life of the crew.

And they found artwork that sailors had left on the ships interior  a portrait of a dragon and a large tank painted to look like a can of beer.

He said there was also an eerie sleeping area near a rear turret that his men found creepy. The crew didnt like to go down there, he said. Theyd hear people or noises . . . after hours. Its no joke.

One of the guys came up to me and said, I was down there and I thought I heard somebody behind me, and I looked and there was nobody there,  he said. That aft berthing, they felt very uncomfortable about.

As for the destroyer itself, its a part of the Navy thats disappearing, he said. This ship, the way its configured, the smell, the feel of it, the new ships dont have that. Its a different era. I was sad to see it go.

For its final journey, the Barry had a small crew that included Navy and towing company officials. The last riders of the Barry, Gordon Lorenson, a Donjon Marine project manager who was aboard, said Friday.

Special pumps had been brought on board in case the ship took on too much water.

One of the tugs  the Emily Ann  was lashed to the back of the destroyer to push. The Meagan Ann picked up the towing chain, or bridle, and pulled from the front. The third tug, the Thomas D. Witte, positioned the vessel.

Beyond Bolling, the vessels headed down the Potomac, passing Quantico around noon.

They were expected to reach the Chesapeake Bay on Sunday morning, Lorenson said via email Saturday.

The route then would take the vessels up the bay, through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal to the Delaware River, and on to the same Philadelphia inactive ship depot the Barry had come from 33 years before.
Environmentalists are asking Maryland officials to prosecute more polluters after learning that the number of cases the state is referring for criminal investigation has dropped by one-third over three years.

Representatives from 11 groups, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Blue Water Baltimore and the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, sent a letter to Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles, urging him to consider whether existing enforcement policies and resources are sufficient to protect our citizens.

In the year from March 2015 through February 2016, state environmental regulators referred 222 cases to the Maryland attorney general for prosecution, according to data the Center for Progressive Reform said it obtained in a public information request. From March 2014 through February 2015, they had referred 272 cases, and in the year before that, 339 cases.

The letter said that air pollution referrals decreased about 50 percent, lead poisoning prevention referrals declined 46 percent, and clean water referrals dropped 27 percent.

The groups accused state environmental policing to be quiescent relative to national enforcement of clean air and water laws.

To fully meet the states commitment to its neighbors with regard to the Chesapeake Bay, as well as its commitments to the citizens of Maryland to ensure that our air, water, and lands are clean and healthy, we need a full commitment to enforcing the law, the letter said.

A state spokesman said officials are reviewing the letter.

The Department of the Environment is fully committed to enforcing the laws and regulations that protect public health and the environment, spokesman Jay Apperson said in an email.

Most of the departments enforcement activity involves working with permit holders to correct any minor deficiencies, he said. This assistance may be the most efficient method to achieve compliance.

Significant or repeated violations can warrant penalties, corrective orders, legal injunctions and criminal sanctions, he added.

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) has emphasized a business-friendly, customer-service-oriented approach to environmental regulation in the past.

But the issue is not a political one, the groups said. To be sure, enforcement trends were headed in the wrong direction in the final years of Governor [Martin] OMalleys administration, they wrote. The numbers they cited cover the final 23 months of the OMalley administration and the first 13 months of the Hogan administration.

The letter calls on Grumbles to restore more than a decade of funding cuts that have reduced the states staff of inspectors, increase financial penalties for repeat-offender polluters, and more consistently levy fines on polluters. The groups call for the state to establish a task force to discuss methods for identifying and bringing to justice chronic violations of the law.

Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) said that although he cant control which cases are handed up to his office, he would like to see more law enforcement. Efforts to work with polluters without taking action to enforce the law isnt fair to businesses that spend significant sums to comply with environmental standards.

We dont want to create an economic benefit to folks who are polluting, Frosh said. If we get the cases, were going to enforce the law. Well do it vigorously.

Other groups that signed the letter include the Chesapeake Legal Alliance, the West and Rhode Riverkeeper, the Environmental Action Center, Food and Water Watch, the Potomac Riverkeeper Network, the Assateague Coastal Trust and the Environmental Integrity Project.

State environmental regulators levied $3.7 million in fines and took about 7,700 enforcement actions in fiscal 2015, according to an annual enforcement report. The state reported $3.6 million in fines and 2,150 enforcement actions in fiscal 2014. The massive increase in enforcement actions came from a surge of about 5,000 actions regarding lead exposure in fiscal 2015.
Martha Pauly with her son, Andrew Paukstitus, and daughter, Megan Paukstitus, 26. Andrew was born with a heart defect. He died in January. (Family Photo)

Mom dilemma No. 9,786: The son wants a tattoo.

But the question was all kinds of messy for Martha Pauly.

This wasnt about aesthetics. This wasnt a taste or a class thing.

The tattoo question went to the heart of Paulys parenting dilemmas, from that first moment when they gave her the news about her son at the hospital, to the last decision she made by his bedside.

How much should she protect his fragile health? And how much should she let him live it up, seize the day, carpe diem?

Because every day really could be his last. He knew it. And she knew it. Now Pauly, a 62-year-old social worker who lives in Falls Church, Va., is facing her first Mothers Day without him.

Andrew Paukstitus was not all that unusual when he was born 30 years ago, because 1 in 110 babies are born with a heart defect.

Until doctors started performing open-heart surgery on newborns, only about a quarter of those infants, known as blue babies, survived. Once those surgeries became common and successful, about 95 percent of children with congenital heart defects  such as Olympic snowboarder Shaun White  grew up and moved on.

Paukstitus grew up, but he couldnt move on.

His single ventricular transposition of the aorta meant that he would endure seven surgeries in his life. It was a complex set of heart anomalies that very few infants survived at that time.

It meant he couldnt play sports. That hed spend at least one of every major holiday in the hospital. That the metal in his chest would set the airport security alarm off every time. That hed have to stick with pediatric doctors at Childrens National Medical Center in Washington, who didnt think hed live to 15.

Pauly spent so much of her early motherhood at the hospital. She and her husband divorced soon after their second child, Megan, was born when Paukstitus was 5. And she single-parented most of it.

All three of them had to learn resilience and flexibility. Because so much of the time, they felt so alone  medical pioneers.

The disease as an adult is completely different than the other kinds of heart disease adults get, his pediatric cardiologist at Childrens Hospital, Karen Kuehl, told the Associated Press a decade ago when she helped open one of the nations few specialty clinics for adults with congenital heart disease.

Paukstituss treatments became part of this growing body of research: how to help adult congenital heart patients transition their hearts into middle age.

He went to medical conferences with his mom. And he lobbied on Capitol Hill for more funding for research. He raised funds every year at the Congenital Heart Walk in Washington. They were Team Pauk, the shirts with the picture of that tattoo he asked his mom to let him get at 18.

The tattoo.

How much do I bubble wrap him, and how much do I just let him do it? was what Pauly asked herself and the doctors so many times.

She knew most doctors would say no way to the tattoo, that it was way too risky for someone who knows the entire ER staff on a first-name basis.

But she knew he had an enormous zest for life and would probably get that tattoo no matter what anyone said. It was just one more normal thing he had to do, Pauly explained.

He designed it himself, then had an artist help him. Its a juicy red heart with laces, like a sneaker, unstitched.

Then he got his actual EKG  which was very weird  across his chest, she said. (She calls it ewww.) And he got another heart with his moms and sisters initials inside. (She calls that one awww.)

He had a retail job working in technology, he got his own apartment, then he found his true love, phlebotomy, and became one of the most beloved blood collectors on a Virginia blood mobile.

His sister, Megan, 26, a veteran of hospital visits, became a cardiac nurse.

Toward the end of last year, right after Pauly arranged and escorted a crazy 30th birthday party trip to Las Vegas, she could see he was getting sicker.

He died on Jan. 10, at Childrens Hospital.

A week ago, Pauly did her first congenital heart walk without him.

I know some of those other people, seeing me, seeing me without Andrew, thats not what they want to see, she said. But she went, and his team raised $25,000.

This fills my heart and breaks my heart, she said.

On Sunday, she will mark Mothers Day without him, mourning his death but celebrating his life.

I knew from the beginning that he would probably die before I did, she said. So I adopted a philosophy for us to live by. That philosophy was very simple  live life.

You can still donate to his cause, Team Pauk, to fund more congenital heart research, advocacy and education, at www.congenitalheartwalk.org.

Twitter: @petulad
Montgomery County Assistant Chief Russ Hamill described the attempted carjackings at Md. shopping centers on May 6, and detailed how two of the victims "selflessly and heroically" saved a woman. She and one man were injured, while the other died. Suspect Eulalio Tordil is in custody. (WUSA9)

Montgomery County Assistant Chief Russ Hamill described the attempted carjackings at Md. shopping centers on May 6, and detailed how two of the victims "selflessly and heroically" saved a woman. She and one man were injured, while the other died. Suspect Eulalio Tordil is in custody. (WUSA9)

A man fatally shot in the parking lot of a suburban Maryland mall on Friday was coming to the aid of a woman being threatened at gunpoint, according to court files.

That woman was one of two allegedly approached by a gunman on the run who was attempting to carjack their SUVs, court records show.

Im not kidding. I will shoot you, he told the woman after flashing a black handgun at her outside Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, according to charging documents.

Malcom Winffel, 45, of Boyds, was one of five other people Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi, allegedly shot less than 24 hours after gunning down his estranged wife in the parking lot of a high school, according to charging documents.

The shooting rampage ultimately killed three and wounded three others. Montgomery police recovered a .40-caliber handgun in the car after they arrested him, court documents state.

Eulalio Tordil, 62, of Adelphi, Md. (Montgomery County Police Department/Montgomery County Police Department)

He was arrested in Aspen Hill in Montgomery County at the end of a series of shootings that police say began with his alleged attack on his wife Thursday in Prince Georges County. A man wounded in the school lot also was a bystander who, police say, tried to come to the aid of Tordils wife.

Police swarmed Tordil, who was in his car in a lot close to the Aspen Hill shooting site, and after pulling him from the vehicle asked whether there was anything inside police should know about, the charging documents state. According to the document, Tordil replied, the gun.

Police on Saturday identified the woman shot inside her SUV in Aspen Hill as Claudina Molina, 65, of Silver Spring. Relatives of Molinas did not respond Saturday to interview requests.

Montgomery police called Winffel heroic. Malcom gave his life for someone he doesnt know in order to protect her from a predator, Assistant Chief Russ Hamill said.

Hamill said the people shot in Montgomery during the mayhem appear to have been random targets that stemmed from Tordils attempted carjackings.

On Saturday morning, Montgomery County police announced Tordil was being held without bond in Montgomery on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted first-degree murder and related handgun charges. Tordil is expected to have a bail review hearing on the Montgomery County charges on Monday.

Winffel was heading into Montgomery Mall for lunch with a friend when he saw a woman running toward him and screaming for help, Winffels sister Pilar Winffel said in an interview Saturday with The Washington Post.

1 of 23 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  The scenes of two shootings in Montgomery County, Md. View Photos One man was slain at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda and a woman was killed outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill. The suspect, Eulalio Tordil, is in custody. Caption One man was slain at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda and a woman was killed outside a Giant grocery store in Aspen Hill. The suspect, Eulalio Tordil, is in custody. May 6, 2016 Police take Eulalio Tordil, 62, a suspect in the Westfield Montgomery Mall shooting and two other fatal shootings in the D.C. area, into custody in Bethesda, Md. Alex Brandon/AP Wait 1 second to continue.

As Malcom Winffel and another man ran to help the woman, who was at the mall to return a piece of merchandise, the gunman fired, leaving her brother fatally wounded, according to Pilar Winffel and court documents.

At a vigil at Clarksburg High School on Saturday night, Winffels wife, Norma, said her husband was a kind and caring father and family man best known for his sense of humor.

I will miss him dearly, she said. Everyone in the world who met him said he was a gentle giant. He was a loving man, a funny, funny guy who could make you laugh in the worst of times.

The couples son and daughter attend Clarksburg High. At the vigil, Kayla also called her father a hero and in his memory wore a shirt bearing the emblem of Captain America. It doesnt feel real, she said, addressing the gathering of about 100. Youre never going to be walking in the front door again.

Winffel worked in the facilities department at the Carderock division of Naval Sea Systems Command in Maryland.

The shootings Friday in Montgomery County followed an overnight manhunt for Tordil after police said he killed his wife, Gladys Tordil, 44, as she sat in her SUV in a school parking lot waiting to pick up her daughters.

In addition to those killed, the bystander who tried to intercede at the school scene and two people at the mall were wounded in shootings.

[Suspect in custody in shootings at mall, grocery store, high school.]

Police in Prince Georges County have charged Tordil with first-degree murder and related charges in connection with the slaying of his estranged wife. He also is charged with assault for allegedly shooting the bystander at the school.

A protective order that Gladys Tordil requested in March alleges that Eulalio Tordil physically abused her and her children over the course of a decade and that he had threatened to harm her if she left him, according to court records.

Tordil, an officer with the Federal Protective Service since 1997, was stripped of his service gun and badge and placed on administrative duty after a judge granted the protective order. Authorities also seized several of his personal weapons after the protective order was granted.

After those weapons were taken from him he obtained the gun he allegedly used in the Montgomery shootings, Hamill, the assistant chief said without further details about that process. Hamill said  and charging documents state  that ballistics tests showed that gun removed from Tordils car was the weapon used in the fatal Montgomery shootings and that tests were being done to determine whether the same weapon was used in the shooting of Tordils estranged wife.

Federal officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about the case, said Tordil worked as an inspector for the agency, supervising guards who work in federal buildings.

[Man arrested in Md. killing spree allegedly menaced his wife, stepdaughters]

Police launched a search for Tordil after his wife was killed at High Point High School. But Tordil turned off his cellphone and eluded authorities overnight and into late Friday morning, police said. His car was spotted by a patrol officer near the scene of a fatal shooting outside a Giant supermarket and after reports of the shooting at Westfield Montgomery Mall.

Both the woman shot outside the mall and the woman at the Giant had Toyota Rav4s that Tordil was attempting to take, charging documents state.

The sporadic shootings and the manhunt that followed rattled a region that recalled the string of Beltway sniper shootings that killed 10 people in 2002, with at least one incident occurring in the same strip mall where Tordil was arrested. After the shootings in Montgomery, Tordil reportedly had a salad and a glass of water at the same Boston Market where snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Allen Muhammad dined, police and witnesses said.

Before lunch, authorities said, Tordil got a cup of coffee at Dunkin Donuts and walked to a Michaels craft store to browse. All the while, about 100 police officers descended on the area to track him before apprehending him.

Tordil said he planned to die in a suicide by cop, according to law enforcement authorities familiar with the investigation. Police said they were careful to monitor his movements while hoping to avoid a shootout that could claim more victims.

The shootings devastated the teachers and students at Parkdale High School, where Gladys Tordil was a chemistry teacher known for pushing students to be ambitious and sharing home-cooked food with colleagues.

Her students loved her, fellow teacher Mary Alvarenga-Hercules said. They dont know how theyre going to go back inside of her classroom.

Grace Mary Relador, a fellow Filipino immigrant who started teaching at Parkdale this year, recalled Tordil as an excellent teacher and caring colleague who made her feel welcome at the new school.

Tordil also often spoke of her hopes for her children but was less likely to discuss her own troubles, Relador said.

She looked very tough and very strong unless you know her personally, Relador said. She did not open up to everyone, only to a few people.

Hamil R. Harris, Jerry Markon, Alice Crites and Rachel Weiner contributed to this report.


Rockville resident Patricia Dubroof, 57, and her mother, Gilda Dubroof, 88, of Silver Spring, sit beside a portrait Patricia painted of her father, Sol, who died nine years ago. (Tara Bahrampour/The Washington Post)

Mothers. They are our first teachers, the repositories of inside jokes, the keepers of family secrets. Too often we take them for granted, figuring theyll be around for years to answer whatever questions come up and to reveal more of their own inner worlds. But then one day they are gone, and the unasked questions are left hanging. For this Mothers Day, we sat down with daughters  and one son  as they asked their mothers something theyd always wondered about but had never brought up.

Patricia Dubroof, 57, is an artist and art teacher in Rockville, Md., whose mother Gilda, 88, lives nearby in Leisure World. Gilda has lived alone since her husband (Patricias father) died nine years ago.

Patricia: Knowing your relationship with Dad and how really special and loving and delicious it was, and then thinking, gosh, its been years of not having that relationship with him. You spent 57 active years with him before he got sick, and I was thinking, wow, that was your only relationship. Did you ever have another relationship?

Gilda: No, I had dates, but I had no relationship. I was a blushing bride.

Patricia: I sometimes worry about that for you, because it was such a physical relationship.

Gilda: I do miss the whole gamut. Of course. Your father was always very tender and romantic, and we had a great relationship and a great marriage. Sure, I miss someone giving me a pat on the back, giving me a hug, everything else, sure you miss it, if youre alive. But life goes on, and you reach different stages. I am very adaptable, and I just take this on as my way of life. Would I like to have someone to have dinner with? Sure. But Im not going to go out and seek it. Because these old men, theyre only interested in certain things  and Im not willing to do it!



Gilda and Patricia Dubroof at Dulles International Airport in the early 1960s. (Photo by Sol Dubroof)

Patricia: Has anyone taken an interest in you?

Gilda: I play bridge with a mixed group, and the men are very pleasant, very nice, and we joke, and some of the stories are double-entendre.

Patricia: But nobodys inviting you out to dinner or anything of that nature?

Gilda: No, no.

Patricia: What if it fell into your lap?

Gilda: Id go out to dinner, sure. Dutch treat, with these men!

Patricia: How long into your life do you decide that the sexual part of your being doesnt need attention?

Gilda: Well, you kind of consider the health of your mate.

Patricia: And if you dont have a mate?

Gilda (after a few seconds of silence): You dream a lot.

* * *



Juanita Beltran, 45, with her daughter, Anya, 12, and mother Beatriz Almendarez, 79, at their home in Washington (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

Juanita Beltran, 45, is a property manager who lives in Anacostia with her mother, Beatriz Almendarez, 79, and 12-year-old daughter, Anya Beltran. Beatriz came from Ecuador as a young woman, , raised six children in the District and helped Juanita go through treatment for thyroid and kidney cancer, which was diagnosed a couple of months after Anya was born.

Anya to Juanita: What was your dream job or career when you were in school?

Juanita: I really wanted to try to be a writer or write. You know how you write all your stories? So thats why I try and encourage you, because I used to do that, too, at your age. And I didnt have that push or that encouragement to say, Oh, yeah, you should do that, or You should try to publish that, or show someone my work. So thats why I tell you to keep writing. Keep up with all your stories.

Juanita to Beatriz: Can you imagine what your life would have been like if you hadnt had kids?

Beatriz: I had the option to enter the army in Ecuador. A man who worked where I worked, he was a marine commandant and he was encouraging me to go into the army. He said, You can finish school there, and in that day, the army offered lots of opportunities. I was 19 or 20, I was thin, I could do all the physical things required for the army, and I wasnt married. The commandant said, Enter the army. This is your best option. But I didnt want to. I lived with my father, who was a soldier, and I didnt want to submit myself to the same regimentation Id seen with him. I didnt want to be treated like a soldier.

Juanita: Wow, mom, Ive lived with you all these years, and this is the first time Im hearing this.

Beatriz: If Id gone into the army, none of you would have been born!

* * *



Anna Straw, 73, of Fairfax County and daughter Silvana Straw, 52, of the District have lunch at a restaurant in Fairfax County. (Tara Bahrampour/The Washington Post)

Anna Straw, 73, of Fairfax County emigrated from Italy in 1963 and married a U.S. naval officer. Her daughter Silvana Straw, 52, is a poet and performer who sometimes portrays her mother in her work.

Silvana: Knowing what your family went through in World War II and having to escape that region where there was genocide, what did you learn from Nonna Pina and Nonna Anna about survival?

Anna: What I learned from them was you have to be human and youre no different than anyone else. And also to have hope and also to move on. You learn to go beyond what your eyes can see. If you act on fear all the time, you dont move. When you start walking, you take a little step. The second time, it becomes easier. You become a teacher to yourself. You can go through anything. It is in there, if you listen to yourself.

Silvana: You came from such a vibrant culture and beautiful place, you were singing at an open mike, your boyfriend was a famous jazz musician, this incredible culture in the early 60s, and all of a sudden youre in this completely different country, the United States. I wonder how you survived coming here?

Anna: It was difficult for me. We had to move every two years. I used to go to the beach and snorkel. I almost walked on water one time: It was full of jellyfish, so dense it looked like a carpet, for kilometers and kilometers. The only place I enjoyed was the sea. The water reminded me of home.

* * *



Iola Williams, 78, with her son, Pernell Williams, 45, at Zion Baptist Church in Washington. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

Iola Williams, 78, a retired nurse and founder of the Sickle Cell Association of the National Capital Area, sat down at Zion Baptist Church with her son Pernell Williams, 45, who works in health-care administration at the National Institutes of Health. Both live in the District.

Pernell: After Id left medical school and I really wasnt sure what to do, you told people that youd thought that I would be a minister. Why is that?

Iola: Well, I always felt that you had sort of a serene personality, like a religious type of means of interacting with people, and you had a lot of faith. And then when you played in the little skit, as a minister, it epitomized what some ministers are like. You could have done a lot better job than a lot of them Ive heard.

My main thing was not to push my children into any field. Choose your field. And when you headed initially toward medicine, I was kind of anxious. But I didnt say anything because I thought, Maybe this is what he really wants. And when your children voice opinions about their hopes and dreams, you should be the last person to cut that down.

* * *



Anjelique Barnes, 17, with her mother, Minette Barnes, 56, outside Zion Baptist Church in Washington. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

Minette Barnes, 56, a computer specialist for the federal government from Glenn Dale, Md., sat down with her only child, Anjelique Barnes, 17, at Zion Baptist Church, where they worship.

Anjelique: Why did you want to be a mother?

Minette: I had a lot of love locked up inside of me that I wanted and needed to express, and to share that love with a child. Having a little human being growing and developing inside of you, and then that awesome day when the child is born. Your dad and I, we didnt know what the gender was going to be. It didnt matter. As you know, I got married late in life and didnt know if I was going to be able to have any children. And then when I found out that I was pregnant, I was just so excited, and I couldnt wait to tell your dad. Nothing can top the day you were born.
VIRGINIA

Costly lawsuits on redistricting

Virginia taxpayers have so far spent $3.7 million on private attorneys in three ongoing redistricting lawsuits, as well as a fourth case targeting the states voter identification law.

The costs are largely due to the hiring of private firms with expertise in niche areas of the law, as well as an unwillingness on behalf of the General Assemblys Republican majority to have Democratic Attorney General Mark R. Herring represent them, the Daily Press reported.

Herrings office has hired outside counsel to represent the State Board of Elections in two cases because it needs help dealing with the paperwork-heavy cases, the office said.

The costs will continue to grow for months, said House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) as he blamed what he called the plaintiffs partisan aims.

Attorneys with Democratic ties are trying to overturn Virginias voter ID law and redraw district lines that have helped bend Virginia elections toward the Republican majority that drew them.

State Democrats argue that the law requiring voters to show a photo ID is unconstitutional because it aims to suppress the voting rights of minorities and young people.

Republican lawmakers who championed the legislation said it is intended to deter voter fraud.

The House and Senate both asked the attorney generals office to hire outside counsel for them in the voter ID case.

Last year, the attorney generals office spent about $14.8 million on outside counsel, according to a required annual report.

 Associated Press

Hazing probed at Radford University

Radford City Police have announced that they arrested four Radford University fraternity members on hazing charges.

Media outlets report that school officials previously said a student was injured in an incident involving the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity in April. University spokesman Joe Carpenter says the student was hospitalized for five days and has since been released.

The chapter is suspended while the university, police and the national chapter of Pi Kappa Phi investigate.

The university hasnt released the name of the injured student or details as to what sparked the investigation.
SEOUL -- The fourth case of a Zika virus in South Korea has been detected from a woman who recently came back from a trip to Vietnam, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said Saturday.

The 25-year-old woman worked in Ho Chi Minh City from April 10 to April 30 and entered South Korea on May 1, said the KCDC.

She visited a hospital in the western port city of Incheon on May 4 to treat a chronic thyroid gland problem after having rash and joint pain and was diagnosed with the mosquito-borne virus.

The KCDC suspected that she might have been bitten by a mosquito while in the Southeast Asian nation, noting that the patient is currently in stable condition.

Health authorities are also examining a person who met with the woman in Vietnam between April 13 to April 17 for potential transmission of the virus.

The latest case raises the number of confirmed infections in South Korea to four.

The first South Korean Zika case was found from a 43-year-old man on March 22. The other two Zika cases were confirmed on April 27 and April 29 respectively, from two brothers who had travelled to the Philippines together.

Zika is a virus that is primarily spread by mosquito bites, particularly risky for pregnant women as it is thought to be linked to a rare birth defect- microcephaly that causes newborn babies to have unusually small heads and damaged brains.

The Zika virus is believed not to be spread by ordinary touches between humans, but it can be transmitted through sex and blood transfusion. Cases of sexual transmission from travelers to their sexual partners had been reported from the United States and Europe.

The KCDC advised pregnant women not to travel to Zika-infected countries, while recommending fertile women delay pregnancy for at least two months after returning from those countries.

Zika was first found in Africa and spread to Asia and Lain America. The virus is spreading rapidly in Latin America, while Thailand and the Philippines are the most Zika-infected countries in Asia.
NAMING A law school after an influential Supreme Court justice is not without precedent. George Mason University certainly has the right  and clearly the incentive in the way of $30 million  to rechristen its law school in honor of the late justice Antonin Scalia. But university officials arent fooling anyone if they contend that naming the school after such a polarizing figure doesnt give it an ideological brand.

In March, less than two months after Scalias death, the university announced the name change and news of a combined gift of $10 million from the foundation of conservative billionaire activist Charles Koch and a $20 million pledge from an anonymous donor who made the gift contingent on the name change. There was immediate controversy, with opponents characterizing Scalias views on race, gender and sexual orientation as unfit for association with a diverse public university.

The Faculty Senate this week passed a nonbinding but symbolically significant resolution calling upon the administration to delay the name change until the issue can be further studied. Among the faculty concerns are whether the gifts come with strings that would give the donors undue influence over academic direction. Administration officials say the fears are unfounded. But then why the curious provision in the agreement describing the law schools dean as critical and requiring the donors to be notified of any change in leadership? And who is the donor insisting on anonymity, and why?

The $30 million is the largest financial contribution to the law school in its history, and the good that money could do in the way of new scholarships and strengthened programs should not be sniffed at, especially at a time of shrinking public support. Defenders of the name change, still subject to approval from Virginias State Council of Higher Education, are not wrong in pointing out a strain of hypocrisy in the debate, it being unlikely the liberal-leaning higher education community would have a problem if a George Soros were creating a Harry A. Blackmun School of Law. Academic freedom, after all, is about diversity of opinion.

The law school at George Mason is fairly unusual in having a libertarian- and conservative-leaning faculty and student body, and so its not illogical that it would be sought out to bear the name of a towering conservative hero. But adopting Scalias name makes a statement about the school that could have long-term implications for the type of students who apply and whether alumni decide to give. Whether thats in the public universitys best interest is a question worthy of more debate, something that Scalia likely would have relished.
The April 22 news article Queen Elizabeth II marks 90th birthday with public appearances, corgi cake discussed Her Majestys birthday celebrations. However, it should have noted that the queen has spent more than (rather than nearly) two-thirds of her life as head of state since she ascended the throne in her 20s.

Jill Roessner, Washington
In his May 3 op-ed, Trump should level with his base, Richard Cohen said that if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump looked at the demographics of his supporters, he would sneer at their economic and educational status and call them losers. But then Mr. Cohen called the middle-income, working-class people who support Mr. Trump suckers. And then to prove his enlightened view, Mr. Cohen disparaged enlisted military personnel by suggesting that the only reason they were in the military is they thought they could not succeed out there.

Mr. Trumps product is snake oil. Instead of asking why this snake oil is popular with all these suckers, Mr. Cohen mocked Mr. Trump. Perhaps these suckers feel they have been ignored, sneered at and played for fools by the establishment  and that includes the intelligentsia of both parties. Should they believe those who opened the door to global trade and illegal immigration? Should they stand in line to vote for the experts who took us into a meaningless Iraq quagmire while losing track of our country? Should they support a party that ignores their economic challenges, that abandoned the working class for identity politics and that dances to the tune of unions?

Mr. Cohen should stop calling Trump supporters suckers. He should call them Americans and use his skills to stop the alienation, fragmentation and loss of faith that are a cancer in our country.

Jack Kehoe, Burke
It wasnt precisely an act of moral courage, but House Speaker Paul D. Ryans (Wis.) comment that hes not ready to support presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump was at least . . . something.

Whether its a start or a finish remains to be revealed, but it would seem that were witnessing the beginning of the end. To wit: A Republican friend, who has abandoned her behind-the-scenes work of getting conservatives elected, called me recently to express her condolences. I feel sorry for you, she said, because you (given your job) cant ignore the collapse of Western civilization.

Now a renegade from the nominating process, she is like so many others disillusioned by the Trump movement whove slipped the noose of politics in search of meaning beyond the Beltway. But Trumps triumph, though most insiders thought it impossible, should have surprised no one. He was inevitable not because he was The One but because hes a shrewd dealmaker with deep pockets and unencumbered by a moral compass. Both his platform and style were crafted to fit the findings of extensive polling he commissioned before announcing his run.

In other words, Trump didnt write a book you loved; he wrote the book you said youd love. If people were outraged about immigration, why then hed build a wall. If they were upset about manufacturing jobs lost overseas, well fine, hed kill the trade agreements.

Trump was never about principle but about winning, the latter of which he kept no secret. What this means, of course, is that his supporters have no idea whom they nominated. He simply paid to read their minds and then invented a drug that would light up the circuit boards corresponding to pleasure and reward.

Believe me, he crooned to the roaring crowed.

Im not there right now, said the speaker, blessing himself in the sign of the cross.

Poor Ryan  a man of conscience in an unconscionable time. He wants to support the Republican nominee, but, at the end of the day, he has to answer to a higher authority. Trump, the partys standard bearer, isnt bearing the standard, Ryan said.

But what Ryan expressed as the basis for a desired meeting of the minds isnt about those standards, except the hope that Trump will behave better in the future. You know, act presidential and all that. Otherwise, Ryan is standing by the phone to hear that Trump will unify the party. How, pray tell? What would satisfy the Ryans of the party? For Trump to say, Hey, I was just kidding?

The problem, as with all relationships, is that certain words, once expressed, cant be taken back. No amount of backtracking can erase memories of what Trump really thought and said in a particular moment. It isnt only that his wildly conceived and frequently revised positions are at odds with those of leveler heads, but also Trump has embarrassed those who can still be embarrassed.

Among those with either the gumption or nothing to lose by expressing no-support for Trump are both George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush. Neither will endorse the Republican nominee. Laura Bush, a consistent voice of sanity, recently hinted at a Women in the World conference that shed rather see Hillary Clinton as president than Trump.

This is utterly treasonous to most Republicans. Not only is Clinton a Clinton, notwithstanding her Rodham-ness, but also the next president likely will select up to four Supreme Court justices. Republicans magically think that at least Trump would pick good justices.

But upon what shred of fact or fiction do they base this assumption?

Still other Republicans are expressing disapproval by vowing not to attend the party convention in July. These include the last two GOP presidential nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain, though McCain is on record saying hell support Trump, which can be viewed as loyal or merely sad.

The sads have it.

McCain seemingly has forgiven Trumps remark that he was a war hero only because he was captured. I like people that werent captured, said the anti-hero who managed to avoid service and once compared his navigation of the sexually risky 1960s to sort of like the Vietnam era.

This is the man who would become commander in chief.

Meanwhile, were told, the party that adopted Trump without really knowing him is suffering an identity crisis and facing a moment of truth.

Phooey. The GOP began digging its own grave years ago and dropped one foot in when McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. With Trumps almost-certain nomination, the other foot has followed.

Read more from Kathleen Parkers archive, follow her on Twitter or find her on Facebook.
A Detroit teachers fight for Detroit kids sign depicted in the photograph accompanying the May 4 Politics & The Nation article Detroit teachers sickout over pay closes schools for 2nd day  contradicted the result of the sickout. Calling in sick to avoid the law prohibiting teachers from striking and causing a school shutdown teach children to ensure you get what you want despite its impact on the people you serve and the system you are contractually obligated to support.

My parents were public school teachers and worked tirelessly to support their students at school, at their homes and even within our home. They worked countless uncompensated hours, staying up many nights grading papers, meeting with parents and preparing lessons. They felt their mission was to fight for the success of their students by educating them despite the limitations of the school system and housing environment. They expected the inconveniences of long hours, infrequent acknowledgments and despairing compensation. My, how much the occupation of teacher has changed from the mission of teaching.

Carl D. Dunn, Gaithersburg
Maryland Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles), a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, pushed his colleagues to extend the statute of limitations for victims to sue abusers or organizations that harbored abusers. (C.T. Wilson)

In his outstanding May 2 op-ed, The illusion of justice for sexual abuse victims, Paul Mones wrote that, for sexual abuse victims, it is not their perpetrator but the law itself that denies them justice. The laws are, of course, the statutes of limitations.

The justification for these statutes is that, after too much time, evidence can be lost, memories can fade and witnesses may not be available, all of which make it difficult for a defendant to get a fair trial. Nonsense. If anything, with the presumption of innocence, the passing of time makes it harder for the prosecution. An alleged perpetrator should be tried, regardless of how long ago the alleged crime(s) occurred. If time has made it impossible to determine guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, a not-guilty verdict could be rendered.

We dont have a statute of limitations on murder, and Canada and Britain dont have statutes of limitations on sexual abuse. We also need to abolish sexual abuse statutes of limitations. Sexual predators should never be safe from prosecution.

Vic Presutti, Dayton, Ohio

Petula Dvoraks account in her May 3 Metro column, Molested as boys, silenced by shame and fear as adults, of Maryland Del. C.T. Wilsons (D-Charles) efforts to extend the statute of limitations for sexual abuse victims, clarifies why the Catholic Church, my church, has little credibility in dealing with sexual abuse matters.

Mr. Wilsons efforts were thwarted because the Maryland Catholic Conference prevailed in persuading Maryland legislators not to extend the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases. The Virginia Catholic Conference attempted to do the same thing a few years ago, but that effort failed, thanks to the powerful testimony by survivors of clerical sexual abuse.

What is clear in this effort by the Catholic Church is that the churchs major focus is not justice for survivors but protecting the churchs financial resources and keeping abusing clerics and their enablers (the hierarchy) out of jail.

Robert Stewart, Chantilly
Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, Metros largest union, are often blamed for Metros shortcomings, but the facts from the National Transportation Safety Board hearing last week and its report tell a different story. We have been at the forefront of the safety conversation for years.

It is wrong to imply that Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority employees dont understand the safety issues of the system that we serve day in and day out. We are aware of rail operators performing visual track inspections when asked about smoke in tunnels. WMATA does not report every command and misstep to us. It is only when unfortunate events such as the fatal LEnfant Plaza incident last year happen that we discover the extent of the problem.

Our members follow the policies, procedures and practices according to Metro guidelines. Further, we applaud the NTSBs call to end the practice of train-operators investigating reports of smoke in tunnels with passengers on board.

At a public hearing last year, Local 689 President Jackie L. Jeter, then-interim General Manager Jack Requa, Metro employees, riders and safety experts all expressed the same concerns that were in the NTSB report.

After that hearing, Ms. Jeter outlined to WMATAs board the needed changes. And, shortly after the LEnfant Plaza incident, we outlined four major benchmarks Metro needed to meet immediately, which The Post reported. Local 689 has been the loudest voice calling for safety changes, and we stand ready to work with Metro to take positive long-term action to implement a safety culture that will not end when the NTSB investigation is complete.

David Stephen, Washington

The writer is communications coordinator of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689.
Regarding the April 24 Washington Post Magazine article Was Lincoln conspirator guilty? You decide in Md.:

As the author of a book on President Abraham Lincolns assassination, I can say that Mary Surratt was undoubtedly guilty of conspiring to kill Lincoln. David Herold, one of the conspirators hanged with her for the crime, said shortly before their execution, when he had nothing to gain, That old lady is as deep in as any of us. He told this to William Doster, defense counsel for Lewis Payne and George Atzerodt, who were hanged with them.

Anthony S. Pitch, Potomac
President Obamas commencement address at Howard University on Saturday rounds out, at least for me, a nine-year journalistic odyssey that began with a photo taken with then-Sen. Barack Obama at a pre-Democratic presidential debate reception on Howards campus in June 2007. The years in between have been kind to the nation in ways unimaginable at the time of that forum. Because of our 44th presidents stewardship, millions of Americans have health-care coverage, job growth has been steady, the auto industry and the economy are on the upswing, our energy resources are stronger and, despite carping from the cheap seats, the country is in a better place in the world.

Yet todays focus is where it belongs: graduation and the presidents speech. Because Howard University presidential visits have usually been momentous.

Lyndon Baines Johnson gave the keynote address at my commencement in June 1961. Anti-civil-rights violence had recently taken place in Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala.

Johnson, who was vice president at the time, denounced mob rule, telling more than 800 HU graduates that the national conscience and the Kennedy administration were on the side of morality, justice and right. But he also warned us about what was ahead, our newly minted degrees notwithstanding.

Racial cauldrons were boiling in the South. All of you in the course of your lifetime, Johnson said, are going to know, if you have not already known, injustice and unfairness, adding, I am not saying this to you merely because you are mainly Negroes and graduating from a predominantly Negro university. All men must feel injustice and unfairness in varying degrees in the course of their lifetime. But Johnson went on: What really counts is whether we live in a system that seeks to perpetuate injustice and unfairness or a system which seeks to eliminate these evil sores from the body politic. Scores of Howard graduates played major roles in treating and eliminating those evil sores.

Obama, at the time of my graduation, had two months left to go in his mothers womb.

Two years later, the New Frontier, the kingdom of Camelot, died by gunfire on a Dallas street.

That didnt prevent Johnson and Howard from meeting again.

As president, he returned to deliver the commencement address to the 1965 graduating class. The occasion was no less pivotal.

The backdrop was the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March and a speech that Johnson delivered months earlier, in which he identified his administration with the civil rights movement. Titled To Fulfill These Rights, the presidents commencement speech called for a program to achieve economic justice beyond the freedoms won through the Voting Rights Act.

Said Johnson, You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, You are free to compete with all the others, and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.

With that, Johnson launched the largest domestic reform agenda since Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal.

Obamas appearance at Howards 148th commencement comes at no less a crucial moment. The country has made enormous progress since Johnsons speeches at the 93rd and 97th commencement exercises. But the hard truth is that this years graduates will enter an America that is politically fractured and polarized by forces once thought to be on the path to extinction  forces epitomized by Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee who ascended to leader of his party by playing racial politics and catering to bigotry against immigrants, Muslims, Hispanics, women, blacks and Jews.

Trump stops at nothing. Lying, degrading people with disabilities and appealing to violence and ignorance are all in his wheelhouse. Demagogue of the greatest proportion is the way Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) described him. Tragically, Americans by the millions are eating it up.

It could make for yet another momentous presidential visit when Obama, the nations first African American president, returns to a university of black firsts to confront  as I hope he will  this most divisive force and threat to a diverse and inclusive America.

My Howard classmate, retired educator Louis A. DeFreitas Sr., commented on Obamas return to Howard and the schools contribution to Americas growth as a diverse nation by sharing a list of Howard trailblazers to Obamas presidency.

Before there was Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama, there was Howards former government department chairman and the first black Nobel winner, Ralph Bunche, and the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, Howard graduate and professor Toni Morrison.

Among other Howard public policy firsts are graduates:

Edward Brooke, first black attorney general of Massachusetts and first black U.S. senator elected since Reconstruction.

Thurgood Marshall, first black Supreme Court justice.

L. Douglas Wilder, first black elected U.S. governor.

 David Dinkins, Walter Washington and Henry Marsh, first black mayors of New York, the District and Richmond, respectively.

Benjamin O. Davis Sr., first black U.S. Army general.

 Patricia Roberts Harris, first black female ambassador.

 Mike Espy, first black member of Congress from Mississippi since Reconstruction.

 Gwendolyn Stewart King, first black Social Security commissioner and first black deputy assistant to the president (as well as, full disclosure, my wife).

There are many more Howard firsts, as there are other firsts in our diverse nation yet to come.

All of which is of little moment to the prospective Republican chieftain who would lead the nation in a race to the bottom where the bigots, sexists, homophobes and nativists dwell.

Which makes Saturdays presidential commencement address at HU all the more, well, momentous.

Read more from Colbert Kings archive.
Karen Attiah is The Posts deputy digital opinions editor.

When I learned last year that I would be going to northeastern Nigeria, I was more afraid of what my mother would say than I was of encountering Boko Haram militants.

I broke the news to her over the phone two weeks before I was to leave. I held my breath as I finished telling her about my plans. You know how I feel about Nigeria, she said, after a pause, with an exasperated sigh.

While I was growing up, my mother, Grace, rarely talked about her childhood in Nigeria. Its only in the past few years that I have come to know how she feels about her birth country. She was born in Enugu, a city in the southeastern state of Anambra, to my Yoruba grandmother, Francisca, and my Ghanian grandfather, Fred, who worked in the British civil service. At age 14, my mother fled with her family to Ghana to escape the violence of Nigerias brutal Biafra civil conflict, which killed 1 million Nigerians in the late 1960s.

My mother met my father at college in Ghana, and eventually they immigrated to the United States, settling in Dallas. My siblings and I knew my mothers life was roughly divided in two: before the war and after the war. But as I was working on a graduate school paper on the Biafra war four years ago, my mother opened up to me about the war. I called to tell her about my paper  and got a burst dam of painful memories in return.

Enugu, Nigeria, 1964: My mother, Grace (back row, second from left), and her family posed for this studio portrait in 1964, four years before fleeing Nigeria. (Courtesy of Grace Attiah)

She recalled food and water shortages. Classmates killed in bomb raids. The loyal dog they had to leave behind as the circle of violence tightened around Enugu. How for almost two years they bounced from town to town, living in abandoned homes. Finally, in 1968, my grandfather got the family out on a Red Cross evacuation flight to Accra, Ghana, where my grandmother and relatives still live.

You know, Karen, we had such a nice life before the war. Grandpa J. was part of the colonial finance ministry, so he was respected. We were like, what you might say, middle class. We had just bought a new house and we were moving our things in, and then the war. . . . Her voice trailed off. Then she got angry.

Everything was taken from us. We had to run and only take what we could carry. We had to run to forest areas to hide from shellings. . . . Some people had no food, eating lizards in the bushes! Later she told me that she sobbed uncontrollably the evening after we talked.

She has never gone back, which may be why I viewed my first trip to Nigeria as a chance for a redemption of sorts. As soon as I landed in Abuja, the capital city, I felt as though I was meeting a grandparent for the first time. The humidity of the air and the smell of the earth reminded me of my trips to visit relatives in Ghana. I was thrilled to finally set foot in my mothers birthplace, yet I couldnt help but feel a sense of sadness and resentment  that Nigeria was the grandparent who had failed to protect my mother.

The next day, I flew to Yola, capital of the northeastern Adamawa state. Over several days, I saw the catastrophic toll that the conflict with Boko Haram had taken in the northeast, particularly on women and children. As of April, about 2 million people had been displaced within Nigeria, mostly from Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. I spent hours at two food distribution sites organized by the American University of Nigeria in Yola, where thousands, mostly women, stood in lines to receive parcels of maize, rice and cooking oil. I spoke to women whose husbands had been killed and whose houses and farms had been destroyed. Despite Nigerian President Muhammadu Buharis declaration of a technical victory over the group, more than 1,000 Nigerians have been killed by Boko Haram since his inauguration last year.

My mother, a lifelong book lover, has always said that the most painful part of moving from place to place during the war was that she could not go to school. I saw for myself the devastating toll that Boko Haram has taken on education  the schools riddled with bullet holes, some even burned to the ground. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 910 schools have been destroyed. It is estimated that more than 950,000 school-age children have fled the violence, leaving them with little or no access to education. The assault on education in Nigerias already poor northeastern region will dampen development there for generations.

Perhaps selfishly, I wish I could tie this story up with a neat little bow, and happily report that, as a result of my trip, my mother is planning to return to Nigeria. She doesnt think she ever will. What home would I return to? she asked me. Ive learned that my home is wherever my family is.

Left to right, My mother Grace, her mother Francisca and me in Ghana in 2008. (Courtesy of Grace Attiah/Attiah)

Ill always feel like I met my mother and grandmother in those groups of displaced women and children in Yola. On this Mothers Day, I am eternally grateful to my mother for sharing her history with me, despite the pain. War is in me. Its a part of my makeup, my mother likes to say. Its a part of mine, too.
The European Union flag is displayed between two soccer club banners on the Royal Post Office, the seat of the office of the president of Madrid. (Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Anne Applebaum, a Post columnist, and Edward Lucas, a senior editor at the Economist, are this week launching a counter-disinformation initiative at the Center for European Policy Analysis, where they are, respectively, senior vice president and senior adjunct fellow.

Fifteen years ago, the idea that foreign disinformation might be a problem for European countries seemed ludicrous. Free media looked as triumphant as free markets; Western television and newspapers had comfortable funding and big audiences. But the business model that once supported media across the continent, indeed all across the West, no longer works. Much Western journalism is poorly resourced, and the proliferation of information has made it harder for people to judge the accuracy of what they see and read.

At the same time, authoritarian regimes, led by Russia but closely followed by China, have begun investing heavily in the production of alternatives. Because national media is often weak, it has become far easier for channels such as RT (formerly Russia Today) and Sputnik (a Russian news agency) to establish credibility in smaller European markets. But even in larger countries, the Russian use of social media as well as a huge range of online vehicles  news websites, information portals, trolls  are beginning to have an impact. Chancellor Angela Merkel tasked Germanys spy agency with investigating the Russian use of propaganda in Germany after a fake story about a girl allegedly raped by a refugee blew up into a major scandal, thanks in part to a concerted Russian online effort.

The messages have little in common with Cold War propaganda. Russia does not seek to promote itself, but rather to undermine the institutions of the West, often using discordant messages. RT pumps out scare stories about migrants, and also portrays the West as racist and xenophobic. Russian-backed websites promote conspiracy theories  9/11 was an inside job, Zika was created by the CIA  while ridiculing the excellent Western investigative journalism that revealed the ties among Russian politics, business, organized crime and intelligence.

These messages, which are picked up and used by both far-left and far-right political parties across Europe, chime with Kremlin foreign policy goals. The European Union is a particular target, and no wonder: The E.U. has been instrumental in weaning the continent away from dependence on Russian gas and in dismantling the corrupt and exploitative Russian gas-export model in Eastern Europe. NATO, which belatedly is coming to grips with the real threat that Russia poses to some of its members, is regularly cast as an aggressor.

Some countries are waking up to this, especially those that have been hardest hit. The invasion, occupation and dismemberment of Ukraine in 2014 was preceded by a highly effective propaganda blitz that fomented confusion in Russian-speaking areas and blinded both Ukrainians and Westerners to what was really going on. In response, Ukrainian organizations such as StopFake began to expose and ridicule Russian propaganda. A major project designed to teach media literacy has also been launched. A debate about the role that public broadcasters might play in reestablishing trusted sources of information in Ukraine has begun.

There have been broader attempts to tackle the problem. The European Endowment for Democracy (a much smaller counterpart to the National Endowment for Democracy) has carried out a comprehensive analysis of the Russian-language media, its reach and its impact. The European External Action Service, the E.U.s foreign-policy arm, compiles weekly disinformation bulletins, tracking the activities of the Kremlins myth-makers. NATO countries have set up a small center, based in Latvia, that responds to Russian disinformation as well.

But so far, the United States has failed to invest seriously in understanding or pushing back against this problem. There is no modern equivalent to the U.S. Information Agency, an organization dedicated to coping with Soviet propaganda and disinformation during the Cold War. Although there has been some extra funding for U.S.-backed foreign broadcasters such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty , they cannot provide a complete response.

Partly because the U.S. media market is so vast, there is still little understanding of how disinformation campaigns work here either. There is certainly no public analytical database of what Russia says, when and where. Nobody  even in the Western intelligence community  compiles transcripts. Nor do we know which elements of the Russian message are effective, who believes them and why. Its high time we learned, because other countries, notably China, are beginning to use some of the same techniques. Fifteen years ago, the free press seemed unchallengeable; 15 years from now, we may find ourselves, as Ukraine did two years ago, the targets of disinformation campaigns we are unprepared to fight.
Li Hongxia and her husband, Zhang Yazhou, in a 2013 photograph. Her husband has admitted that he strangled her but said it was a mistake. (Giulia Marchi/For The Washington Post)

The May 3 front-page article Abuse in Chinas culture of silence  illustrated the many barriers that block progress on domestic violence. From laws and cultural attitudes to training and access to services, the path to ending family violence is long  something many in the United States know well.

In addition to working on this issue in the United States, the Obama administration has made addressing violence against women a priority in U.S. foreign policy. As part of our efforts, we recently wrapped up an exchange between Americans and Chinese on how to best address domestic violence, with a focus on training.

As the tragic story of Li Hongxia demonstrated, China has a long way to go. Its new anti-domestic violence law is a necessary but insufficient step. China, with the help of its civil society, must recognize domestic violence for what it is: a crime, not a matter for women to address on their own.

No country has ended domestic violence. But breaking the silence  and opening the discussion in homes, communities and countries  take us one step closer to achieving this goal.

Cathy Russell, Washington

The writer is U.S. ambassador at large for

global womens issues.
Roxanne Roberts, in her April 29 Style article about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump (which was another negative article about his candidacy), ironically described that golden blow-dried confection he calls his hair. If Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were described in such a way, there would be another outcry about how women are subjected to superficial criticism and analyzed not for their positions on the issues but on their appearances.

The other side cannot have it both ways. Lets challenge all of our coverage to address the issues and respect the political process of considering our presidential candidates.

Renee Edson, Bethesda

As a fan of The Post, I am concerned the opinion pages may be engaging in overkill on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. For example, on April 26, the day of five state presidential primaries, we were treated to an editorial against Trump [What is Mr. Trump hiding?], a cartoon ridiculing Trump and three op-eds against Trump: one analogizing his potential future conduct to Ukrainian power-monger Viktor Yanukovych [Trumps political tactics from the East], another describing Trump as a bully who plays the victim card [The bully plays the victim] and a third suggesting Trump was engaging in a phony rebranding.

This quintuple hit on Trump may not have done much harm: Trump went on to win the five contests held that day, plus Indianas primary this week, and he did so with an overwhelming number of votes. Nevertheless, it might be sound, pragmatic policy for the opinion section to stick to one-a-day as a prescription for being more effective in its criticisms of Trump and his efforts to become president.

Victor E. Schwartz, Alexandria
Dan Sullivan, a Republican, represents Alaska in the U.S. Senate and is a member of the Armed Services Committee. He is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

When the president is in open disagreement with the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on one of the most critical issues our nation faces  whether to send our sons and daughters into combat  it should be cause for significant national concern.

President Obama has repeatedly told the American people that U.S. troops are not in combat in the Middle East. In 2010, he announced that our combat mission is ending in Iraq. He used the same words in 2014 regarding Afghanistan. More recently, he said that our mission in Syria will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.

Yet last week in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, I asked Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. if our troops in the Middle East, including in Syria, are engaged in combat. Both unequivocally said yes. To our members of the military serving overseas, Carter and Dunford were stating the obvious.

Indeed, recent reports in The Post and the Military Times describe up to 200 Marines at Fire Base Bell in northern Iraq firing artillery daily in support of Iraqi troops and killing Islamic State terrorists. Our soldiers serving as part of the Joint Special Operations Command in the Middle East conduct regular counterterrorism missions to kill and capture terrorists. Since 2014, our brave pilots have dropped approximately 40,000 bombs in Iraq and Syria in close-air-support missions focused on killing Islamic State members and destroying their infrastructure and supply operations. An additional 1,200 bombs have been dropped supporting the coalition fight in Afghanistan combating the Taliban.

Some of our service members have been killed conducting these operations, while others have been wounded. All of this is the very definition of combat.

To Carters credit, he said at the hearing: These people are in combat . . . and I think that we need to say that clearly.

Apparently, the White House didnt get the memo. This week, when asked about a Navy SEAL killed in a fierce firefight involving U.S. Special Operations forces, Kurdish commandos and Islamic State fighters, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that the relatively small number of U.S. service members that are involved in these operations are not in combat but are in a dangerous place.

Why do Obama and his White House continue to peddle the fiction that U.S. forces are not engaged in combat? Perhaps the commander in chief is truly unaware that they are, which would be troubling indeed. More likely is that because hes told the American people repeatedly that he will end wars and wont send combat troops to the Middle East, the word contortions coming from the White House are part of a twisted attempt to salvage and protect the presidents legacy.

But by spinning the truth for political purposes, the president is coming perilously close to leaving a legacy of dishonesty when it comes to our military involvement in the Middle East. And much more worrisome, such dishonesty comes with costs.

First, it diminishes the service and sacrifice of our troops and their families. Americans serving in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan know theyre engaged in combat operations. The commander in chief needs to acknowledge this fact and the bravery it entails, not disguise the true nature of their duty.

Second, it further undermines the administrations tenuous foreign policy credibility regarding its stated goal of degrading and destroying the Islamic State. While this is the correct goal, a series of missteps in the Middle East, including the presidents failure to enforce his own red line when it was crossed by Bashar al-Assad in Syria, have brought us to the point where our adversaries and our allies question U.S. credibility and resolve. Islamic State terrorists know that theyre in combat against U.S. forces, but when the president says otherwise, it signals a lack of conviction, making it harder to defeat these terrorists.

Finally, the dishonesty about the role of our troops allows our presidential candidates to duck a tough issue. Hillary Clinton repeatedly has been allowed to say, unchallenged, that she would continue the presidents policies of not sending combat troops to Syria and Iraq.

Forty-five years ago, future Secretary of State John F. Kerry, then speaking as a veteran of the Vietnam War, urged the incumbent administration to be honest about the roles our men and women in uniform were playing in Vietnam. Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he said, We veterans can only look on with amazement on the fact that this country has been unable to see there is absolutely no difference between ground troops and a helicopter crew, and yet people have accepted a differentiation fed them by the administration.

The theater has changed, but Kerrys words still resonate. For the betterment of our troops, and our country, he called for honesty then  just as we all should call for honesty now.
IT WAS an extraordinary rebuke of Donald Trump, according to various news reports. Or was it? House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said this week that he is not ready to endorse the presumptive Republican nominee  at this point. But, he added, I hope to, though, and I want to. How could Mr. Trump change the speakers mind? He must do more to unify this party to bring all wings of the Republican Party together, and then to go forward and to appeal to all Americans and every walk of life, every background, Mr. Ryan said.

While not the ringing condemnation Mr. Trump deserves, Mr. Ryans statement puts him ahead of many in his party. Some, such as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, immediately caved after Mr. Trump won the Indiana primary. Others have tried to have it both ways, supporting Mr. Trump while also distancing themselves from the billionaire. I have committed to supporting the nominee chosen by Republican voters, and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee, is now on the verge of clinching that nomination, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) said.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others have also adopted this rhetorical strategy, even as they have registered varying levels of discomfort with Mr. Trumps proposals. Their moral error is blatant: Endorsing an unprincipled and unprepared man to run the country is more dishonorable than breaking a partisan commitment. Republicans cannot evade responsibility by attempting to distinguish between supporting the Republican nominee and endorsing Mr. Trump. Even tepid endorsements count.

Other Republicans have found the backbone to say what they know  or should know  to be true: that Mr. Trump has not displayed the judgment and temperament to serve as commander in chief. Those are South Carolina Sen. Lindsey O. Grahams words, explaining why he will support neither Mr. Trump nor Hillary Clinton in November. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has taken a similar stand. Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) has not fully repudiated Mr. Trump, but he indicated he might vote for none of these candidates, an option on the Nevada ballot, in the general election. Jeb Bush said Friday he would not vote for Mr. Trump. Spokespeople for both Presidents Bush said that they would not be commenting on the election, though each has endorsed GOP nominees in past elections.

The morality of the situation demands more than Mr. Ryans well see. Yet the speaker has set standards for himself, and we expect that he will live by them. When Mr. Ryan says that Mr. Trump must appeal to all Americans, we wonder how this could ever be accomplished by a man who has mocked the disabled, attacked women in appalling terms, belittled Jews, Latinos and others, proposed banning Muslims from entering the United States and threatened political opponents, the free press and the speaker himself. According to Mr. Ryans words, swearing fealty to the GOP ideological agenda  tax cuts, smaller government, states rights and so forth  would not be enough. Mr. Trump would have to be a different person and have run a different campaign.

Mr. Ryan and Mr. Trump are set to meet next week, and Mr. Priebus wants them to patch things up. But if the speaker really meant what he said, the only way he could support Mr. Trump is if the billionaire withdrew from the race.
The April 30 Hagar the Horrible comic showed Hagar returning from plundering the rich sultan of Persia. On each arm was a woman, presumably taken from the sultans harem. This is supposed to be funny? With all of the kidnappings and rapes of women by Boko Haram and the Islamic State, and untold numbers of sexual predators worldwide who treat women as property for their pleasure, a comic such as this was appalling and had no place in The Post.

Mary Ann Ryan, Adamstown
Since Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffes (D) order restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 felons who have served their sentences, Republicans have ranted and raved with accusations of political opportunism, and now they are threatening to sue. Their refrain is that the governors decision was predicated on ensuring a victory for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Virginia.

Preventing felons from voting was an integral part of disenfranchisement laws, in addition to poll taxes and literacy tests. Virginia, like much of the South, has worked hard to end the legacy of Jim Crow. The governors actions are in line with the new, better Virginia. Those of us who have lived in the commonwealth long enough to remember how things used to be should be grateful for this tremendous step forward.

Joan Joyce, Arlington
IT IS a Washington truism that nothing gets done in an election year, particularly now that partisanship is as severe as ever in recent memory. But with all attention on a boisterous presidential race, members of Congress have managed to do a few things right lately.

A bipartisan group of senators announced a major criminal-justice-reform bill on April 28, bringing Congress a crucial step closer to repairing federal sentencing and prison policy. Critics point out that the bill is modest, watered-down from previous versions that would have eased penalties for more types of federal prisoners. For the senators behind the bill, however, these compromises were necessary to bring in votes for the policy, which would still do good.

Focusing on nonviolent offenders, the legislation would reduce penalties for low-level drug crimes and give judges more leeway in sentencing. Minor players in major drug rings, for example, would be eligible for lesser sentences. The bill would also allow some federal prisoners to earn early release by completing prison programs designed to curb recidivism. For better or for worse, the bill would not empty the nations prisons, and it would not eliminate the appalling treatment of some inmates in this country, in large part because the federal government does not control state prisons, which lock up many more people. But the bill would deal with some of the excesses of the tough-on-crime attitude of previous decades.

Theres been progress on other relatively unheralded reforms, too. The House overwhelmingly passed the Defend Trade Secrets Act, a measure that recognizes the threat of trade secret theft in a knowledge economy. The bill would give private people and companies the right to sue others in federal court for taking and misusing confidential, economically valuable information. States already allow these sorts of suits under their own laws, but the bill would provide another venue for parties seeking relief, with consistent, standardized national rules and resources to sort out complex disputes.

The House also passed the Email Privacy Act, a long-neglected but crucial update of electronic privacy laws. Because of a quirk about how telecommunications laws were written in the 1980s, the government does not need to get a warrant to demand email or data stored on the cloud, as long as it is more than 90 days old. Decades ago, anything left on someone elses server that long was considered abandoned. Now, practically everyone has all sorts of personal details sitting on remote servers for indefinite periods of time. This reform is very long overdue.

We are not about to break open the champagne and declare Washington fixed, particularly because lawmakers could fail to pass some of the bills that have advanced lately. The Senate still needs to find time to approve its criminal-justice bill, for example. Still, in a season of deep political rancor and dysfunction, these modest accomplishments are worth a cheer.
The death threats were starting to get to Constantin Querard. They had been streaming in from Donald Trump supporters, who wanted to know why Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) had won delegates at Arizonas convention even though Trump had won the state. After the deluge, finally, a nice-seeming message appeared on his Facebook page.

Im praying for you, it began.

Querard, the Arizona political consultant who had managed Cruzs delegate campaign, clicked to read the rest.

Im praying for you to get prostate cancer.

Cruzs delegates were girded for two more months of this, then a contested convention where they could force a second ballot and defeat Trump, making all the hate mail worth it.

Speaker Paul Ryan has backed away from his pledge to support whoever becomes the nominee, saying he's "not ready" to endorse Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Other GOP heavyweights, including the Bushes, are also not giving endorsements. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Instead, hundreds of Republican activists have been elected as delegates to a convention expected to be a coronation of Trump. Delegates such as Querard, who outfoxed Trump supporters at state conventions, were now trapped on a speeding Trump Train. They were legally bound to stand up and nominate him. That might be the last time they vote for him.

Im a lifelong Republican and I love the party, said Querard. But dont ask me how Ill vote in November. Ive been on the receiving end of enough death wishes where its pretty soon for me to strap on the jersey with any authenticity.

There are unhappy delegates at every party convention, but the captive audience of Trump skeptics bound for Cleveland is unique. For months, supporters of Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich worked to get their supporters elected as unbound delegates, or even as Trojan horse delegates bound to Trump on the first ballot but free to bolt if the contest continued.

[Trump turns to general election  and away from past positions]

For a few weeks, it seemed to be working. Kasich and Cruz both crowed about their ability to out-organize Trumps forces, who in Cruzs world were not capable to run a lemonade stand. As both men lost high-profile contests  Trump won all but two of them, in Utah and Wisconsin, after March 15  Cruz took to counting up his state convention victories as proof that voters were rejecting Trump.

Yet Trump turned the wins against them, telling his mega-rallies that a crooked deal was stealing his delegates. Roger Stone, a Trump ally who had promised to publish the names and hotel rooms of Trojan horse delegates, was happy to see them fail.

Many will not attend, leaving their seats to the alternates, who in most cases are Trump supporters, Stone said. I am not too concerned about their feelings.

Some Republicans in Congress could be at risk of losing seats, in part because of the party's controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump. These are some the Republicans who are feeling the "Trump effect" the most. (Deirdra O'Regan/The Washington Post)

The people who had out-organized Trump were dazed by the backlash. North Dakota did it how it was supposed to be done, said Bette Grande, a hard-charging Cruz delegate who helped him dominate that states weekend convention. The media didnt like that because it was something they didnt understand, so they bought into the lie of Trump that something unfair was going on.

Grande, like almost all of the Cruz and Kasich delegates, intended to head to Cleveland anyway. In the days since the Indiana primary, delegates have occasionally sought instructions or solace from the Cruz and Kasich campaigns. There has been no instruction to stand down, and no hint that the results can be overturned.

It is time for those who supported others in the Republican Party to come together and help Mr. Trump be the best candidate he can be, said Jim Brainard, the mayor of Carmel, Ind., whose election as a pro-Kasich delegate turned out to be one of that campaigns last coups. Its a big tent, and those of us who disagree with Trump will hopefully have an opportunity to sway his views.

[Jeb Bush and Lindsey Graham wont back Trump]

Some of the Trojan horses had only reluctantly backed Cruz or Kasich. Subba Kolla, a Realtor from Northern Virginia, had backed Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) in the states close primary, but allied with Cruz during the state convention. Cruzs forces won a smashing victory, but Kolla was resigned to backing Trump.

Im not sad, he said. I am a party loyalist. I am representing my community, the Indian American community, and I dont want to disappoint them. Most of our community supported Rubio. Now theres only Trump. I dont have any bad feelings about him.

Several other delegates said that they would attend to keep Trump and the GOP honest. Virginia state Sen. Richard H. Black (Loudoun), a Cruz delegate, said he had actually preferred Trumps America first policy to Cruzs, but intended to go to Cleveland and defend the social conservative planks of the Republican platform.

Kay Godwin, a Georgia conservative who had become a Cruz delegate, felt the same way. It wasnt the Lords plan for Ted to win, but maybe thatll be his plan next time, she said. The reason I became a Republican is because the platform is wonderful. It stands for everything that I stand for in my heart.

Still, there were holdouts. Querard knew of one alternate who no longer wanted to spend the money to go to Cleveland. Russell Donley, a former speaker of the Wyoming House who had won one of Cruzs slots, said the Trump victory made him inclined to stay home with his wife.

If Trumps short one vote, and theres an opening for Cruz, okay, then I go, Donley said. But Im an old Wyoming boy, and going to Cleveland in the summer doesnt really enthuse me.

Then there was Eric Brakey, a young state senator from Maine who had been part of a Cruz slate that triumphed so resoundingly that Gov. Paul LePage (R) denounced it. Four years earlier, Brakey had fought just as hard to become a delegate for former Texas congressman Ron Paul, only to watch the Republican National Committee overturn the state convention and replace some Paul delegates with Romney delegates. This year, Brakey was finally given a vote at the convention  and received yet another disappointment.

Donald Trump isnt who my conscience tells me to support, Brakey said. Then again, neither was Ted Cruz. I voted for Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) at the caucuses, and when I ran for delegate I said I would reflect the will of the voters. Now Im sort of jokingly telling people that Ill cast my vote for Ron Paul  four years late.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has shown no inclination to insert himself into the political controversy over filling the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. (Andrew Harnik/AP)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. last week showed he has no intention of inserting himself into the current political controversy over filling the seat on the Supreme Court left vacant by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

But in a 10-minute answer to a question in an Embassy Suites ballroom in northwest Arkansas, Roberts made clear what he does consider his job to be as the nations 17th chief justice: a fierce defender of the judiciarys independence and a firm believer in judicial restraint  albeit a kind that at times is apparent only to him.

[Roberts refuses to be drawn into controversy over Scalias replacement]

Roberts, 61 and now more than 10 years into his tenure, spoke to judges and lawyers from the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which stretches from Arkansas to North Dakota. In what were his most extended public remarks since Scalias death in February, Roberts was determined not to take sides in the fight between Republicans and Democrats over whether to make the court whole again by confirming President Obamas nominee, Judge Merrick Garland.

The Fix's Amber Phillips breaks down three ways the Merrick Garland nomination could play out. Which do you think is most likely? (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)

Roberts batted away a question about how the ideologically divided eight-member Supreme Court is functioning and refused to talk even about his own earlier observations that the courts reputation is suffering collateral damage from Washingtons partisan political gridlock.

[Roberts says political wars damage Supreme Courts reputation]

But Roberts was far more revealing when 8th Circuit Chief Judge William Jay Riley asked what the chief justice had learned from the 16 men who proceeded him.

Roberts did not need to remind the audience that his official title is chief justice of the United States.

You realize, first and foremost, your responsibility to protect the separation of powers, which is of vital importance, even in little things, Roberts said. I know that I represent you judges, here, in Washington.

Roberts has made clear that he is not a fan of the presidents State of the Union address. But he has gone every year he has been in his office, and he says his place of prominence in the front row is only proper.

If the president is going to be here and the speaker of the House is going to be here, Im going to be here, or Im not going, he said. Because I represent the judicial branch and that has to be shown [respect], even as a matter of protocol.

Robertss actions on the bench back that up. The only time he teamed up with the courts liberal justices to save a campaign finance restriction was upholding Floridas ban on judges asking directly for campaign contributions.

[States may ban judicial candidates from personal fundraising]

Judges are not politicians, even when they come to the bench by way of the ballot, Roberts wrote.

Last month, he disagreed with his colleagues who held that a statute passed by Congress to help terrorism victims win their lawsuit against Irans national bank did not intrude on the judiciarys powers.

Roberts wrote a lofty dissent that detailed and praised the framers decisions to safeguard the judiciary in the Constitution.

The authority of the political branches is sufficient; they have no need to seize ours, Roberts wrote.

That separation, Roberts said, is also the lesson to be learned from former chief justices John Marshall  the greatest hero of our profession  and Roger B. Taney  the greatest failure.

Marshalls 1803 opinion in Marbury v. Madison established that it is the judiciarys exclusive province to say what the law is. But the genius of Marshalls opinion, Roberts said, was its finding that the court lacked the power to grant William Marburys commission as a justice of the peace.

The decision was the epitome of restraint, Roberts said. Marshall said this is up to Congress to resolve. He diffused the conflict by staying out of it.

Roberts said Taney did the opposite in his landmark 1857 ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which said that slaves and their descendents could not be American citizens and thus could not sue in federal courts. Taneys view of the slavery question that was tearing the country apart was the president is not doing anything about this, Congress cannot solve this, its up to me.

He says, Congress, you do not have the power to enact the Missouri Compromise because African Americans arent people under the Constitution, Roberts continued. Its not just the shamefulness of the legal opinion, its the fact that it was an exercise of judicial activism. . . . He inserted the judiciary into most divisive political controversy in our history.

Roberts paused. So you learn that.

Robertss remarks last week were a reminder of his modest but engaging performance more than a decade ago at his confirmation hearings. But some of his most important decisions as chief justice have shown that judicial restraint is in the eye of the beholder.

Many Republicans simply will not forgive him for his majority decision in 2012 upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act. He believed it was the courts responsibility to look for a way to find the act constitutional.

But not a single fellow justice was willing to join the entirety of his compromise opinion, which eventually won five votes.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) seemed to be referring to the Obamacare decision when he said that many of my constituents believe, with all due respect, that the chief justice is part of the problem of the court being seen as political. They believe that a number of his votes have reflected political considerations, not legal ones. And certainly there are academics who agree.

Some of those academics last week were even debating whether Robertss role in saving the Affordable Care Act led to the anger in the Republican Party that gave rise to Donald Trumps success.

On the left, the charge is that Roberts has abandoned his sense of restraint when the subject is a conservative cause in which he believes. They point to his vote in striking a key part of the Voting Rights Act that had only years before been reauthorized by overwhelming majorities of Congress.

Roberts had long been a critic of a provision that required some states with a history of discrimination to have any changes in election law approved in advance by the Justice Department or federal judges.

Where was the deference to the political branches, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked in her dissent to Shelby County v. Holder.

Congress approached the 2006 reauthorization of the VRA with great care and seriousness. The same cannot be said of the courts opinion today, she wrote.

Neither of those cases is finished business.

Before the justices finish their current term next month, they will issue their fourth decision on some aspect of Obamacare. And lawsuits filed on the restrictive voting laws that some states passed in the wake of the Shelby County ruling are filling the federal courts and finding their way to the Supreme Court.

More opportunities for the court to, as Roberts said last week, do our job and mind the business that is ours under the Constitution.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been repeating some false statements over and over again. Here are the last four of his claims that the Post's Fact Checker gave Four Pinocchios. (Jenny Starrs,Michelle Lee/The Washington Post)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has been repeating some false statements over and over again. Here are the last four of his claims that the Post's Fact Checker gave Four Pinocchios. (Jenny Starrs,Michelle Lee/The Washington Post)

At the Fact Checker, we have often said we do not write fact checks to change the behavior of politicians. Fact checks are intended to inform voters and explain complicated issues.

Still, most politicians will drop a talking point if it gets labeled with Four Pinocchios by The Fact Checker or Pants on Fire by PolitiFact. No one wants to be tagged as a liar or misinformed, and we have found most politicians are interested in getting the facts straight. So the claim might be uttered once or twice, but then it gets quietly dropped or altered.

But the news media now faces the challenge of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. Trump makes Four-Pinocchio statements over and over again, even though fact checkers have demonstrated them to be false. He appears to care little about the facts; his staff does not even bother to respond to fact-checking inquiries.

But, astonishingly, television hosts rarely challenge Trump when he makes a claim that already has been found to be false. For instance, Trump says he was against the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but research by BuzzFeed found that he did express support for an attack. He said the White House even sent a delegation to tell him to tone down his statements and we found that also to be false.

Yet at least a dozen television hosts in the past two months allowed Trump to make this claim and failed to challenge him. There is no excuse for this. TV hosts should have a list of Trumps repeated misstatements so that if he repeats them, as he often does, he can be challenged on his claims.

1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

(On Thursday, Bret Baier of Fox News finally pressed Trump on his support for the Iraq War. I said very weakly, well, blah, blah, blah, yes, I guess, Trump responded.)

The online version of the Fact Checker keeps a running list of Trumps Four-Pinocchio statements. He now has 26, which accounts for nearly 70 percent of Trumps statements that have been fact checked.

Since many of these fact checks, done with my colleague Michelle Ye Hee Lee, have appeared only online, here is a summary of recent Four-Pinocchio statements made by Trump.

ISIS has the oil [in Libya]. ISIS is making a fortune now in Libya.

Trump often falsely suggests he opposed the intervention in Libya when he was actually an advocate for toppling Libyas then-dictator, Moammar Gaddafi. He also has repeatedly made the bizarre claim that the terror group known as the Islamic State has control of oil fields and is making a fortune there.

Claudia Gazzini, a Tripoli-based senior analyst at the International Crisis Group, said it is simply not true that the Islamic State has control of any Libyan oil.

1 of 45 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Trump captures the nations attention on the campaign trail View Photos The Republican candidate continues to dominate the presidential contest. Caption Businessman Donald Trump officially became the Republican nominee at the partys convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at Trump Doral golf course in Miami. Carlo Allegri/Reuters Wait 1 second to continue.

While it is true that ISIS has attacked oil fields in the Sirte basin area and destroyed key equipment there, they have not sought to keep control of the oil fields, Gazzini said. At the moment, they appear to have adopted a hit-and-run strategy. There is no evidence that they are pumping out the crude oil and certainly no evidence that they are trading it.

A review of recent news articles confirms that while some fields have been temporarily closed in response to Islamic State attacks, not a single field has been taken by the terrorist group.

There are scores of recent migrants inside our borders charged with terrorism

It took some time but we finally determined that this appears to be a bungled reference to a list from the office of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) of 30 foreign-born individuals who were arrested on charges relating to terrorism in recent years. This list is quoted in several articles and described as a partial inventory of recently implicated terrorist migrants.

We checked indictment records and looked for citizenship or immigration information, where available. The majority of the 30 cases involved naturalized U.S. citizens  people who came to the U.S. as children or had arrived before 2011.

We reviewed similar lists of cases from 2014 and 2015, involving 76 people charged with activities relating to foreign terrorist organizations. Of them, 57 were U.S. citizens, seven were lawful permanent residents, and two were refugees. The rest were visa overstays or unknown. There were both naturalized and natural-born U.S. citizens (including those of Caucasian, African American or Hispanic descent), and many of the naturalized citizens had arrived in the country as children.

In general, individuals must live in America at least five years with a green card to qualify for U.S. citizenship. The actual citizenship process can take up to a year or more. So even if Trump is counting naturalized citizens as migrants, the ones listed in these cases would not qualify as recent.

You know who started the birther movement? Hillary Clinton. Shes the one that started it. She brought it up years before it was brought up by me.

This zombie claim repeatedly has been debunked by fact checkers.

The allegation that Clinton herself was the first, or even one of the first, to question President Obamas birth certificate is simply false. Trump might have been on safer ground if he blamed her supporters for stoking the birther rumors, which do have some Democratic roots.

In spring 2008, some of Clintons supporters began circulating anonymous emails questioning Obamas citizenship. FactCheck.org and Politico cited these emails as the first time his citizenship was called into question, by a small group of diehard Clinton supporters during the Democratic primary as her path toward the nomination began to fade.

Chain emails surfaced claiming Obama was ineligible to become president because he was born in Kenya, as his mom was too young to travel by plane back to America to give birth. Others claimed Obama was refusing to release his full birth certificate because it likely contained information that he had dual Kenyan and U.S. citizenship at birth. But we found no evidence that Clinton or her campaign coordinated any of these email chains questioning Obamas citizenship.

While some have pointed to a 2008 interview on 60 Minutes in which Clinton said Obama was not a Muslim as far as I know, that quote has been taken out of context. She actually said that it was a ridiculous rumor and that there isnt any reason to doubt Obama.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called me a genius

This is an exaggeration of a mistranslation.

After Putins annual news conference in December, he was cornered by a reporter for ABC News and asked what he thought of Trump.

Heres how ABC News translated Putins remarks: Hes a very colorful person. Talented, without any doubt, but its not our affair to determine his worthiness  thats up to the United States voters.

Russian is notoriously complex to translate into English, so various news organizations rendered the key quote in slightly different ways. Instead of colorful, The Washington Post said lively. The New York Times used flamboyant.

None of that sounds anything like genius. Some news organizations, such as the Guardian newspaper, used bright. The Guardian issued a correction a day later: The word he used was yarkii, which can mean bright or brilliant, but not in the sense of intelligent; it can also be translated as colorful, vivid or flamboyant.

In other words, the Russian president said he regarded Trump as a colorful figure, which is not the same thing as someone with a 140 IQ.

No doubt about that. A colorful person may earn lots of Pinocchios; a genius does not.
President Obama delivered an impassioned call to civic action and responsibility at Howard Universitys commencement Saturday, giving an upbeat assessment of the nations trajectory but cautioning that there remains so much more work that needs to be done.

Obamas remarks at the historically black college in Washington served as a buttress not just to the inflamed campaign rhetoric about the nations health but also to heightened concerns over race relations in many black communities more than seven years into the tenure of the first African American president.

It may sound like a controversial statement  a hot take  given the current state our political rhetoric and debate, but America is a better place today than it was when I graduated from college, Obama told the graduates, decked out in blue robes, during the outdoor ceremony. It also happens to be better off than when I took office, but thats a longer story.

Although his speech was not overtly political, the president was intent on making his case, after months of doom and gloom by the candidates to replace him, that the new generation entering the U.S. workforce today has many more advantages than any before it, despite the dramatic technological and social change that has swept the country since he graduated from Columbia University in 1983.

Obama cautioned his audience of mostly young African Americans to remember history at a time when racial strife and mistrust between blacks and local police forces have wracked cities across the country in the wake of high-profile shootings of black residents.

1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Photos of President Obama giving commencement speech at Howard University View Photos The address in Washington, D.C. was the first of three commencement speeches Obama plans this spring. The president is set to speak May 15 at Rutgers University and June 2 at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Caption The address in Washington, D.C. was the first of three commencement speeches Obama plans this spring. May 7, 2016 President Obama speaks to graduating students during the commencement ceremony at Howard University in Washington. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

Race relations are better since I graduated. Thats the truth, Obama said, though he acknowledged: No, my election did not create a post-racial society. I dont know who was propagating that notion, but that was not mine.

He emphasized that racism persists, inequality persists. But I wanted the class of 2016 to open your eyes to the moment you are in.

Howard, with 10,000 students, is coming up on its 150th birthday next year and is often described as a flagship among the nations historically black universities. Obamas speech marked a significant moment for a school founded just after the Civil War and steeped in the long history of the drive for civil rights for African Americans.

The president was kicking off a series of three commencement addresses, which will continue at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. His appearance at Howard, urging the graduates to embrace the future, came as he is becoming more reflective as his presidency winds down.

Aides insist Obama is not in legacy mode and is focused on pushing his agenda until he hands over the mantle next January. But the president knows it is unlikely that a Republican-controlled Congress will enact significant new legislation in an election year. And he has had little choice but to look back as his record has become campaign fodder and reporters and others ask him to reflect on his tenure.g

The crowd at Howard greeted Obama with a warm embrace. Dressed in a graduation gown, Obama entered to raucous cheers and chants of four more years! Actress Cicely Tyson was among the others to receive, as did Obama, an honorary doctorate. In Jan. 2017, Tyson told the crowd, Obama will walk out of the White House leaving a legacy of character, integrity and resilience  for you, for you for you.

Obama was presented by former Clinton administration adviser Vernon Jordan, and one of Obamas closest aides, Valerie Jarrett, whose father graduated from Howard, joined him on stage.

As he has begun to contemplate leaving the White House, Obama has sought to promote civic engagement at a time when U.S. voting participation rates remains low among advanced democracies. And in front a predominantly black audience at Howard, the president chastised those who would not consider voting given the long and difficult civil rights struggle.

You dont have to risk your life to cast a ballot, Obama said. Someone already did that for you. Whats your excuse?

The president, in another indirect response to rhetoric from presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, also made a call for empathy and understanding of different cultures and races, including immigrants, refugees, transgendered people and the rural poor.

And he urged the crowd to be confident in your blackness. Theres no one way to be black. Take it from someone whos seen both sides of the debate about whether Im black enough.

The late musical artist Prince blew up categories. People didnt know what Prince was doing and people loved him for it.
Donald Trumps looming nomination has spurred some leaders of the conservative movement  for generations, the backbone of the GOP  to break free from a Republican Party now being rapidly reshaped by the New York billionaires incendiary tone and unorthodox populism.

The extraordinary resistance of many figures on the right this past week to Trump has not been prompted merely by objections to his temperament and fears about his electability in November. At the core has been a calculation by self-identified movement conservatives that they would rather preserve their entrenched ideological project than promote a nominee who they believe would violate their creed and ethos.

[Video: The 10 Republicans who hate Donald Trump the most ]

Its a crisis, said Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the American Conservative Union who is withholding support for Trump. If we do away with the fundamental strength of the conservative movement, which is our ideas and values and principles, then you dont have anything left but politics. A movement can survive the loss of an election cycle, but it cant survive the loss of its purpose, and thats what were battling here.

The moment potentially marks the closure of a historic half-century in Republican politics in which conservatives have accrued dominant influence  on Capitol Hill, in gubernatorial mansions, at think tanks, on talk radio and in the grass roots. Since Barry Goldwaters unsuccessful but edifying 1964 presidential run, the conservative movement has been at the crux of Republican campaigns, from Ronald Reagans 1980 sweep to the 1994 revolution to the tea partys rise in 2010.

Speaker Paul Ryan has backed away from his pledge to support whoever becomes the nominee, saying he's "not ready" to endorse Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Other GOP heavyweights, including the Bushes, are also not giving endorsements. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Yet, by taking a stand they see as a stroke of moral clarity, conservative leaders are at risk of separating their coalition from a Republican Party in which voters coast to coast have effectively shifted the center of gravity by choosing Trump as their standard bearer. In the primaries, Trump defeated a string of classically conservative candidates by peeling away many of the movements core supporters: evangelical and working-class white voters.

There is talk in various quarters about a potential independent challenge to Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, though there is no consensus candidate, and a third-party bid would be exceedingly difficult for anyone to mount at this late stage.

Freshman Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is a vocal proponent, but he is not offering himself as a candidate. Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, is involved in discussions to draft an independent conservative and huddled last week with Mitt Romney, though the former Massachusetts governor repeatedly has ruled out another White House bid.

Erick Erickson, a prominent conservative commentator, is among those urging a third-party candidate.

One of the silver linings that can come from this is that the conservative movement as an entity pulls back away from the Republican Party, Erickson said. During the Bush administration, it became a subsidiary of the Republican Party. This gives us a good opportunity as conservatives to stand on our own two feet.

The conservative resistance was expressed most prominently last week by House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, the countrys top-ranking elected Republican, who announced that he could not support Trump until the business mogul demonstrated his conservative bona fides and offered a more inclusive vision. Trump snapped back with a retort that neatly underscored his belief that movement conservatives should no longer dictate the GOP mission and platform: I am not ready to support Speaker Ryans agenda.

If theres an ideological leader of our party right now, its Paul Ryan, said former senator Judd Gregg (R-N.H.). Hes not part of the shouting crowd; hes part of the doing crowd. But the partys voters have gone with the shouting crowd. Its reflective of the failure of the doer crowd to get things done.

1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  These Republicans refuse to vote for Donald Trump View Photos And theyll tell you why. Caption And theyll tell you why. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell General Powell said at a meeting of the Long Island Association that he would be voting for Hillary Clinton, a spokeswoman confirmed Oct. 25. Powell added in an interview that he picked Clinton because I think shes qualified, and the other gentleman is not qualified. Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

[Ryan says he is not ready to back Trump, deepening GOP divide]

Indeed, Trump and Ryan are miles apart. Ryan is the architect of sweeping proposed changes to Medicare and Social Security; Trump has pledged not to touch either. Ryan supports a muscular foreign policy; Trump is proudly non-interventionist. Ryan champions free trade; Trump is an avowed opponent. Ryan defends religious freedom; Trump wants to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country. Ryan advocates bipartisan immigration reform and opposes mass deportation; Trump wants to build a wall at the Mexican border and deport the roughly 11 million immigrants who are living in the United States illegally.

Ryan and his conservative allies in elected offices nationwide still have a firm grip on the partys governing playbook and institutions. But Trump has forced a heated debate over Republican identity and whether it is synonymous with conservatism  a threat to the authority of movement conservatives.

The Ryan agenda isnt just about Paul Ryan, but its what conservatives have agreed on as the best way forward  and Trump is deviating from that in so many ways, said Lanhee Chen, a fellow at Stanford Universitys Hoover Institution who served as Romneys policy director during his 2012 presidential bid.

The big question really is, to what extent is the Trump phenomenon an aberration in policy versus some more fundamental shift? Chen asked. I tend to think of it as an aberration.

Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus has sought to broker an accord between Trump and Ryan with a planned meeting Thursday in Washington, but Trumps public comments suggest that changes by him are unlikely. Trump has said he would meet with Ryan, before we go our separate ways.

[Trump agrees to meet with Paul Ryan before we go our separate ways]

Some conservative movement figures have warmed to Trump, expressing confidence that he would surround himself with advisers of their ilk  such as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has become a trusted confidant of the candidates  and that, if Trump is elected, Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would serve as checks on his power.

The deals hes going to cut will have in the room Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, and the three of them have to agree. I sleep well at night, said Grover Norquist, president and founder of Americans for Tax Reform, who for decades has convened conservative leaders and activists.

A group of House Republicans, including several top leadership supporters, have wondered whether Ryan and other conservative leaders have fully recognized what they see as a striking shift in the electorate. A pair of committee chairmen  Reps. Bill Shuster (Pa.) and Jeff Miller (Fla.)  endorsed Trump shortly before he became the presumptive nominee.

Its not the time to be out there demanding all of these things, trying to get Trump to suddenly become Reagan, said William J. Bennett, a Ryan mentor and prominent conservative commentator. Now is the time to surround him with good people and work with him at the convention.

Norquist, who attended and praised Trumps foreign-policy address last month, said he sees limits to Trumps long-term influence on conservatism.

Youre not picking a direction for the modern Republican Party or the conservative movement with one presidential candidate, he said. There isnt some Trump wing of the party. What is Trumpism? You dont see senators and governors running under Trumpism. Theres just Trump.

[Trumps apostasies put him at odds with decades of Republican beliefs]

Especially anxious about Trumps success are conservatives who prioritize social issues and fear he would weaken the partys moral tilt. Though Trump says he is against abortion and same-sex marriage, the New Yorker rarely talks about those issues  and until only a few years ago, he held opposite positions.

I havent heard him frame things in moral terms, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said. I dont hear him speak about the Constitution. Its hard to believe he has any sort of deep conviction on life and marriage. I dont see him being guided by constitutional principles. He doesnt speak about them, ever. Thats whats troubling everyone. Hes not even speaking in the same language, politically, that we speak.

King, who had supported Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and has no plans to endorse Trump, said he and other conservative leaders would keep watch at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland to protect the partys platform from being revamped.

We run the risk of the underpinnings of our convictions being disregarded, King said.

Numerous Republicans fret that this divide could lead to certain electoral defeat for the party, up and down the ticket. Those like Gregg  a fiscal conservative who backed former Florida governor Jeb Bush and then Ohio Gov. John Kasich in the primaries and said he is in the listening phase of considering Trump  see hope for a coming together by finding areas of consensus.

At the center of Republican philosophy is market economy and fiscal responsibility, and Trump is very much in tune, Gregg said. I expect in the end thats what will draw people into a unified effort.
A 15-year-old defector from al-Shabab stands in early April in the Elman Center, a facility in Mogadishu that rehabilitates former child combatants. The boy and several others said they were forced to work as informants for the Somali intelligence agency. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

 For years they were children at war, boys given rifles and training by al-Qaeda-backed militants and sent to the front lines of this countrys bloody conflict. Many had been kidnapped from schools and soccer fields and forced to fight.

The United Nations pleaded for them to be removed from the battlefield. The United States denounced the Islamist militants for using children to plant bombs and carry out assassinations.

But when the boys were finally disarmed  some defecting and others apprehended  what awaited them was yet another dangerous role in the war. This time, the children say, they were forced to work for the Somali government.

The boys were used for years as informants by the countrys National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), according to interviews with the children and Somali and U.N. officials. They were marched through neighborhoods where al-Shabab insurgents were hiding and told to point out their former comrades. The faces of intelligence agents were covered, but the boys  some as young as 10  were rarely concealed, according to the children. Several of them were killed. One tried to hang himself while in custody.

The Somali agencys widespread use of child informants, which has not been previously documented, appears to be a flagrant violation of international law. It raises difficult questions for the U.S. government, which for years has provided substantial funding and training to the Somali agency through the CIA, according to current and former U.S. officials.





A CIA spokesman declined to comment on the issue. But in the past the U.S. government has supported Somali security institutions  despite well-known human rights violations  citing the urgent need to combat terrorist groups such as al-Shabab.

[Somalias president says al-Qaeda-backed rebels are resurgent]

The child informants were used to collect intelligence or identify suspects in some of the worlds most dangerous neighborhoods, according to their accounts.

They took me sometimes in a car and sometimes on foot and said, Tell us who is al-Shabab,  recalled one 15-year-old who said he was held by the intelligence agency. Its scary because you know everyone can see you working with them.

The teenager was one of eight boys interviewed by The Washington Post who described being forced to work as informants after leaving al-Shabab. The boys each spoke alone, through an interpreter, but their accounts were nearly identical. They said they spent years in the custody of intelligence agents and were dragged along on missions, sometimes several times a week. Occasionally, they were told to wear NISA uniforms. They were threatened with violence if they didnt cooperate, several boys said. Their parents didnt know where they were.

Somali intelligence agents called the boys far-muuq, they said  finger-pointers.

Somalias army has long recruited children as soldiers. But for years, U.N. and human rights officials found it difficult to confirm reports about a shadowy government-run center in Mogadishu, which was said to hold children used in intelligence operations. Only late last year did U.N. officials persuade Somali authorities to transfer the boys to a new rehabilitation center, where they would not be accessible to intelligence agents, according to U.N. and Somali officials. That is where The Post interviewed the children.

A group of boys sits in a class at the Elman Center on April 6. The majority of the boys were forced to work as informants for the Somali intelligence agency, some for as long as four years. (Kevin Sieff/The Washington Post)

Somalias intelligence chief denied in an interview that the boys were forced to work as informants but said that high-level child combatants were  and still are  kept in custody, because they are dangerous and have valuable knowledge. Those boys, he said, sometimes volunteer to go on missions and have yielded important information that has helped agents prevent attacks.

If a child joins al-Shabab when he is 9, by the time he is 16, he is a lion, NISAs director, Gen. Abdirahman Turyare, said in an interview. They are able to point to someone and tell us, That guy, he fought with me. 

Somalias intelligence agency continues to keep such boys for months at a time, Turyare acknowledged, in spite of a 2014 agreement to release children to UNICEF within 72 hours of their escaping al-Shabab or being apprehended.

Although details of the CIAs operations in Somalia are secret, Somali officials said the two agencies work together closely.

Theres nothing NISA does that the CIA doesnt know about, said a senior Somali official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence issues.

[2,000 miles from Syria, ISIS is trying to lure recruits in Somalia]

Easier to manipulate

During Somalias 25-year civil war, which has shifted among rebel factions, clans and Islamist groups and left hundreds of thousands dead, children have constantly been caught up in the fighting.

In 2015, UNICEF recorded more than 300 cases of children being used as soldiers by Somali forces. That practice would normally trigger a U.S. ban on most military aid, but President Obama has granted Somalia a waiver on national security grounds in recent years.

Al-Shabab, which seeks to transform the country into a hard-line Islamic state, has been even more notorious for recruiting children. In some parts of Somalia, the group has ransacked classrooms, kidnapping hundreds of children and sending them to training camps.

The international community, recognizing that child combatants needed to be assimilated back into Somali society, lobbied in recent years for a reintegration program. And the government in 2012 launched a plan that it said would provide former underage soldiers with psychological help and education.

But according to the boys interviewed in Mogadishu, the program they entered was not about rehabilitation. To their surprise, the teens were put to work gathering intelligence.

Maybe they thought because we were young we would be easier to manipulate, said one baby-faced 15-year-old who goes by the nickname Yariso, or Shorty.

The boys became such fixtures in Somali security operations that witnesses began alerting local humanitarian groups, asking, Who are these children with NISA?

In late 2015, after years of pressure from the United Nations, the children were quietly transferred from the government-run detention center to a juvenile rehabilitation facility in central Mogadishu at the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center, which is run by a nonprofit group and receives its funding from UNICEF. Thirty-three of the boys remain. Thirty-one have been released.

But international aid workers and experts suspect that the use of boys as informants continues.

One Somali security official confirmed that hundreds of children remain in NISA facilities and are used as intelligence assets. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the topic.

In Galkayo, in central Somalia, about 30 former child combatants have been kept in a one-room building since being captured in late March and have faced NISA interrogations, according to several relief workers.

In 2015, Somalia ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which outlaws the recruitment of children younger than 15 by security forces. Such recruitment is considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court. The majority of the former underage soldiers interviewed by The Post said they began working as informants before they turned 15.

Turyare, the intelligence chief, shrugged off humanitarian groups concerns.

The angle [that UNICEF] is responsible for and the angle we are responsible for is different, he said.

Other officials said the distinction between child and adult combatants is blurrier in Somalia than in Western countries. For example, in Puntland, a large, semiautonomous region in northern Somalia, the state constitution says anyone older than 14 is considered an adult.

Here we consider the body, not the age, said Maj. Gen. Mohamed Sheikh Hamud, Somalias police commissioner and former head of intelligence.

U.N. officials in Somalia declined to speak on the record about the intelligence agencys use of child informants. But Leila Zerrougui, the New York-based special representative of the U.N. secretary general for children and armed conflict, said that being an informant puts the lives of children in danger and is one of the most dangerous functions they can assume.

$2 for every suspect

During their years as informants, the boys said, they sometimes were used in operations in Mogadishu and sometimes in towns hours away. Somali agents never told the boys when they would be released from detention, the children said.

We just assumed we would be working for NISA for the rest of our lives, said one 16-year-old boy, who, like the other teens, declined to give his full name for security reasons. He agreed to be identified only by his nickname, Hanad.

Another boy, Abdullah, said he was 13 when he joined al-Shabab. By then, the majority of his classmates in a small town in southern Somalia had been recruited. The groups members didnt seem to him like terrorists. They offered protection from rival clans and other al-Shabab members.

After about two years of fighting with al-Shabab, Abdullah had had enough. He called an uncle and told him that he planned to defect. The uncle called intelligence agents to pick him up. Abdullah assumed they would interrogate him for a few days before sending him to a rehabilitation center or releasing him.

But the agents kept Abdullah in their custody for more than two years, he said.

Sometimes agents would cordon off a neighborhood and walk a few steps behind Abdullah through the area, he said. He would motion with his hand when he saw someone for the agents to arrest.

On those trips I saw a lot of family members and friends who were in al-Shabab. I knew if I picked them out, they would be in the same position as me, Abdullah said. Sometimes I said nothing. I told the agents, Ive run out of people. 

On some missions, agents gave Abdullah $2 for every suspect he pointed out, he said.

Other children said they told intelligence agents some information they thought was real  where ammunition was hidden, for example  but also made things up.

I told them what they wanted to hear, said Salam, 17. I thought that would mean I could be freed earlier.

Some boys were taken to a military court to testify against suspects, according to several of the children. A number of the boys were detained by NISA for more than four years, the teens said.

In recent years, U.N. officials received reports that children had been seen being paraded around by Somali intelligence agents. Gaining access to the boys, however, proved difficult. In 2012, a contingent of U.N. officials and foreign military officers made an appointment to visit the center where the boys were kept.

But when we arrived, NISA wouldnt let us in. They gave no reason. We could see the children through the fence outside, but we couldnt speak to them, said a military official from an African nation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident.

It would be three more years before the children were transferred to the Elman Center, a two-story building in downtown Mogadishu where the boys learn reading and writing, basic computer skills and a bit of English.

On a recent day at the center, boys crowded around a blackboard that listed several functions of a computer.

Open a file, the instructor had written. Save a file.

We still have a long way to go, but the leadership displayed by the minister of internal security to remove the children from the facility and hand them over to us for care and rehabilitation is a step in the right direction, said Ilwad Elman, the centers director of programs and the daughter of its namesake, Elman Ali Ahmed, a Somali human rights activist who was assassinated in 1996.

Abuses ignored

In 2008, the U.S. Congress passed the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, which was intended to block military assistance to countries that recruit and use child soldiers. Every year after it took effect, the State Department has found that the Somali military has been recruiting children, although there has been no mention of child informants.

But under a national interest waiver, the United States allocated $330 million to Somalia this year, much of which has gone to the security sector. Three other countries  Nigeria, South Sudan and Congo  also received a waiver in 2015 despite using underage soldiers.

A State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the waiver was granted so that the U.S. government could help Somalia develop its army and police and improve stability. While more progress is needed, the government of Somalia has taken initial steps to implement its U.N.-backed child soldier action plan, the official said.

She added that the State Department had not heard reports of the child informants.

In a letter last year to Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), CIA Director John Brennan addressed the question of how the agency reacts when one of its foreign partners is found conducting human rights abuses.

If we determine that such abuses have occurred, we carefully assess whether national security imperatives warrant continuing contact with the ally, Brennan wrote. If the relationship continues, he wrote, the CIA provides human rights training so the abuses are less likely to occur.

Critics say that in trying to crack down on a group linked to al-Qaeda, the United States and other donors have ignored human rights abuses.

Laetitia Bader, a Somalia researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the Obama administrations decision to continue providing military aid sends exactly the wrong message not only to the Somali army, but to all Somali security forces, that they can continue to use children without any consequences to their relationship with the U.S.

In Mogadishu, as the former child combatants await their release from the Elman Center, they have a strong sense of what will come next: retribution.

Once youre labeled as an informant, theres nothing for you. Where can you go? said one 17-year-old, who said he had worked with the intelligence agency since he was 14.

One boy who was released and tried to return to his neighborhood was shot at by insurgents and returned to the center, Elman said.

Some children are in such great danger because of their time as informants that we have to relocate them and their families to new regions, Elman said.

When the boys imagine their future, they think about the way people treated them during their days as informants.

You can feel all the hatred. The revenge that person wants on you. But you dont have a choice, said one 17-year-old boy with spiky hair and wide brown eyes, nicknamed Madowe.

His parents live in a part of the country under partial control of insurgents.

I have no future in Somalia, he said. I have no faith that I can live while al-Shabab is in the country.

Greg Miller and Carol Morello

in Washington contributed to

this report.

They were freed from Boko Harams rape camps. But their nightmare isnt over.

The growing U.N. scandal over sex abuse and peacekeeper babies

He once tried to fix failing D.C. schools. Now hes trying to fix Somalia

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
This 1993 photo shows former East German leader Erich Honecker with his wife, Margot, in Santiago, Chile. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images)

Margot Honecker, a much-reviled minister of education who required mandatory courses in socialist ideals and military tactics in the former East Germany, ruled during its final 18 years of existence by her husband, Erich Honecker, died May 6 in Chile, where she had spent the past 24 years in exile. She was 89.

A member of Chiles Communist Party confirmed her death to the Associated Press. No further details were available.

During her 26 years as the chief architect of East Germanys educational system, Mrs. Honecker shaped a generation of young minds and, in the process, became one of the most powerful and most feared figures in the repressive communist regime.

She was described as the Purple Witch, for the tinted wash she used in her hair, and was called the countrys most hated person, after the head of Stasi, the ruthless East German secret police.

Mrs. Honecker joined the Communist Party as a teenager and was said to be even more doctrinaire than her husband, who was in charge of building the Berlin Wall in 1961. He ruled East Germany as a virtual dictator from 1971 until 1989, the year the wall came down.

Margot Honecker in 2000. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images)

Afterward, the Honeckers took refuge in a Soviet hospital in Germany, then fled to Moscow, where they eventually found sanctuary in the Chilean Embassy, thanks to a diplomatic acquaintance.

It was an open secret that the Honeckers had been living apart for years, but in Moscow they occupied a single room at the embassy. When Erich Honecker was sent back to Berlin in 1992 to face charges that he had engineered the deaths of East Germans attempting to flee the country, some observers joked that his trial must have come as a relief.

Surely the greatest punishment for Honecker was to be cooped up in that embassy in just one room with his wife, one former East German official said at the time.

Mrs. Honecker, who was dubbed ice-cold Margot by the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, promptly took up residence in Chile, where her daughter lived.

My husband can look after himself, she said.

Erich Honeckers trial was called off when it was revealed that he had terminal cancer. He then joined his wife in Chile, where he died in 1994.

Mrs. Honecker remained unrepentant until the end, defending East Germany as something of an ideal state, in spite of its lack of basic freedoms.

Former East German first lady Margot Honecker, center, receives flowers and a communist flag from pro-communist supporters at the Chilean Embassy in Moscow in May 1992. (Yuri Kadobnov/European Pressphoto Agency)

Its a tragedy that this land no longer exists, she said in a rare interview with documentary filmmaker Eric Friedler in 2012.

As minister of education from 1963 to 1989, Mrs. Honecker shaped a program of indoctrination that began in nursery school, where pictures of the countrys leaders  including her husbands  were displayed. Teachers were expected to inform on rebellious students.

The Russian language was taught in East German schools, and there were compulsory courses extolling socialism. Beginning in the 1970s, students were required to undergo military training.

We have to defend socialism with all means, Mrs. Honecker said at a rally in East Berlin in June 1989. With words, deeds and, yes, with weapons if necessary.

Four months later, amid growing demands for political freedom, she resigned her office for personal reasons.

Afterward, documents suggested that Mrs. Honecker may have instigated a nefarious program of forced adoption in which the children of dissidents were forcibly taken from their homes to be raised by party loyalists. In spite of anecdotal evidence, Mrs. Honecker denied knowing of such a program.

Margot Feist was born April 17, 1927, in the eastern German city of Halle. Her father was a factory worker who was imprisoned by Nazi authorities because of his membership in the Communist Party.

Mrs. Honecker was a telephone operator as a young woman and quickly rose to prominence as a member of Germanys postwar Communist Party. In 1950, she became the youngest member of parliament in the newly formed East Germany.

During the early 1950s, she had an affair with Erich Honecker, a leading Communist Party official who was married at the time. Party leaders asked his wife to grant him a divorce as a patriotic duty. Erich and Margot Honecker were married in 1953, one year after their daughter was born.

Later during their marriage, the Honeckers lived separately, and both were reputed to have had numerous extramarital affairs.

In addition to her daughter, Sonja Yanez Betancourt, Mrs. Honeckers survivors include two grandchildren.

In 2000, Mrs. Honecker gave a series of interviews to Luis Corvalan, a communist political figure in Chile. The conversations, later published as a book, showed that Mrs. Honecker continued to see East Germany as a socialist paradise with no unemployment, no homelessness, no property speculation, no rent extortion.

Even though the country had a one-party system that allowed her husband to hold on to power for 18 years, Mrs. Honecker maintained that the elections were free, secret and equal.

People attempting to escape to the West, she said, were criminals who today make out that they were political victims.

When they were killed at the border by land mines or by armed guards, Mrs. Honecker showed no remorse.

There was no need for them to climb over the wall, she said in 2012, to pay for this stupidity with their lives.
Mexican drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman is escorted by authorities after his detention in Mexico City on Jan. 8. (Jose Mendez/European Pressphoto Agency)

Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, Mexicos most infamous drug lord, has left his prison. Only this time he didnt escape.

Guzman, who has twice escaped federal prison in Mexico, was transferred early Saturday from the Altiplano maximum-security prison outside Mexico City  the same prison he tunneled out of last summer  to a new lockup in Ciudad Juarez, along the border with Texas.

Mexican authorities described the transfer as part of a regular shuffling of detainees to different facilities to help prevent escapes  some 7,400 people have been moved around  a police implementation after Guzmans last breakout. They also said in a statement that they were working to reinforce security at Altiplano and Guzmans new prison, Cefereso No. 9.

But a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official, Mike Vigil, said he had been told by Mexican authorities that Guzman was moved because of fears about the security at Altiplano, considered the countrys most impenetrable prison.

He was moved strictly because of security concerns, said Vigil, a former chief of international operations who regularly follows the Mexican drug war. I know its not going to be an internal threat, because theyre watching him like a hawk. Because [President Enrique Pena Nietos] administration knows a third escape by Chapo Guzman would completely decimate the credibility of the Mexican government.

Guzmans legal team has been aggressively opposing extradition to the United States, where Guzman faces a variety of charges in several states for distribution of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, among other crimes.

Little has seeped out about how Guzman has fared inside the Altiplano prison in the four months since he was recaptured in the Pacific coast town of Los Mochis, after trying to escape a military raid by fleeing through a sewer. His new cell had better surveillance cameras  unlike the cell with the blind spot behind the shower wall that Guzman used to slip through a hole in the floor. His attorneys have told reporters that he had also been allowed fewer visitors.

Andres Granados, one of Guzmans attorneys, told the Mexican news outlet Milenio that his client had been moved without any prior notice to the legal team. Earlier this month, Guzmans visits had been suspended when the power went out in parts of the Altiplano prison where he had been held.

Vigil warned that the new prison in Ciudad Juarez was not as secure as Altiplano, and that Guzmans Sinaloa drug cartel controls that drug-trafficking territory.

The penitentiary is vulnerable, he said. Its not the best penitentiary on the planet.

A Mexican security official denied there was a security threat at Altiplano or that the government was preparing for Guzmans extradition but did not elaborate on the reasons for his transfer.

Read more:

1 of 20 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Escaped Mexican drug lord El Chapo recaptured View Photos The leader of the Sinaloa cartel, who had been locked up in what has been described as the countrys most impenetrable prison, was recaptured in western Mexico after a shootout that left five dead. Caption The leader of the Sinaloa cartel, who had been locked up in what has been described as the countrys most impenetrable prison, was recaptured in western Mexico after a shootout that left five dead. Jan. 8, 2016 This picture released by the Mexican website Plaza de Armas shows Joaquin El Chapo Guzman recaptured in a hotel in Los Mochis, Mexico. Mexican marines recaptured the fugitive drug kingpin six months after his spectacular prison break embarrassed authorities. Plaza de Armas via AFP/Getty Images Wait 1 second to continue.

El Chapo went back and forth to the U.S. after jailbreak, says drug lords daughter

Notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo recaptured months after brazen escape

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world
SYRIA

Iran reports soldiers are killed in attack

More than a dozen members of Irans elite Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed this past week during an attack by militants in northern Syria.

Iran has been one of President Bashar al-Assads strongest backers. Along with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, also backed by Iran, the country has sent fighters to battle on the side of the Syrian government.

Irans Fars News Agency quoted Hossein Ali Rezaei, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard, as saying that 13 members were killed and 21 were wounded. Another semiofficial news agency, Tasnim, quoted a Revolutionary Guard spokesman as saying that the soldiers were killed when a coalition of insurgents seized the northern village of Khan Touman from pro-government forces Friday.

Also Saturday, a fragile cease-fire in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo was extended for 72 hours, Russia said, as the Islamic State extremist group battled other militant factions near the city, Syrias largest.

 Associated Press

AFGHANISTAN

2 Romanian troops die in insider shooting

Two coalition service members died Saturday morning in southern Afghanistan in an apparent insider attack in which two men wearing Afghan security forces uniforms opened fire at an Afghan compound, coalition officials said.

Coalition troops returned fire and killed the shooters, according to a news release. Few additional details about the shooting were available, but the soldiers killed were Romanian, according to the Foreign Ministry in Bucharest. The Associated Press reported that the shooting occurred near Kandahar.

Casualties in the war in Afghanistan have plummeted since 2014 as the U.S.-led military coalition pulled back almost entirely onto a few large installations. The last coalition service member killed was

Army Staff Sgt. Matthew Q. McClintock, who was hit with enemy fire in Helmand provinces Marja district on Jan. 5.

 Dan Lamothe

Thousands protest in Warsaw: Tens of thousands of Poles staged a miles-long protest march through Warsaw, accusing the conservative Law and Justice party, which took power last year, of undermining democracy and putting Polands European future at risk. The protesters say the nationalist-minded administration is undermining democratic checks and balances and driving a wedge between Poland and its allies in the European Union, which it joined in 2004. They also say the partys euroscepticism could push Poland back into Russias sphere of influence.

Spanish journalists freed in Syria: Three Spanish freelance journalists who disappeared in Syria last July and were thought to have been kidnapped have been released, the Spanish government said. El Pais newspaper reported that the men, who had been working on an investigative report in Aleppo, were in Turkey and waiting to be returned to Spain by authorities.

Thousands in Bosnia celebrate reopening of mosque: More than 10,000 people turned out for the reopening of a mosque in Bosnia that was blown up by Christian Orthodox Serbs during the 1992-1995 war and that became a symbol of the effort to destroy Bosnias centuries-long multi-religious fabric. The Ferhat Pasha mosque was a masterpiece of 16th-century Ottoman architecture and one of the 16 mosques in the city of Banja Luka  and one of 534 throughout the country  that were destroyed during the war.

Longtime Saudi oil minister is replaced in shake-up: Saudi Arabia announced the ouster of its longtime oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, as part of a larger ongoing government shake-up. Naimi has been replaced by former health minister and Saudi Aramco board chairman Khalid al-Falih. Under a new Saudi leadership led by King Salman, one of his sons, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has largely been overseeing Saudi economic policy along with a handful of new ministers.

Egyptian court recommends death sentence for journalists: An Egyptian court recommended the death sentence for six people, including two Al Jazeera employees in absentia, for allegedly passing documents related to national security to Qatar and the Doha-based TV network during the rule of former president Mohamed Morsi. A verdict on Morsi  ousted by the military in July 2013 after one year in office  and four other defendants in the case will be announced June 18.

 From news services
Towards the end of March the University of California (UC) board of regents unanimously adopted a resolution on intolerance that claimed a growing connection between anti-Zionism, opposition to the policies of Israel, and anti-Semitism. The move was hailed by pro-Israeli groups and anti-Muslim organizations. In mid-April, the far right David Horowitz Freedom Center launched a campaign of intimidation on five campuses, publicizing the names of students and teachers that they called genocidal and allied with terrorists.

Worldwide, the allegation of anti-Semitism is being used to silence critics of militarism and imperialism in the Middle East. The events in California are occurring in the middle of a purge of the British Labour Party of officials who have publicly criticized Israel. Although the UC regents presented their resolution as a tactful compromise that defends free speech and academic freedom, it consciously laid the framework for punishing opposition to Israel.

The resolution as adopted stated Anti-Semitism, Anti-Semitic forms of Anti-Zionism, and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California. This was a revision to a draft from January that called Anti-Zionism discriminatory without qualification. The adopted formulation was left intentionally vague to allow almost any opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestine to be called anti-Semitic. In the comment period a letter signed by 130 UC faculty members described it as anti-Semitic when legitimate criticism of Israel devolves into denying Israels right to exist.

The Israel advocacy group StandWithUs hailed the regents resolution. Their CEO Roz Rothstein praised the regents decision claiming that denying Israels right to exist and opposing the rights of the Jewish people to self-determination in their homeland is racism, pure and simple. The main target of the allegations of anti-Semitism is the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement led by the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The SJP acts as a pressure group on the Israeli government, asking universities and businesses to avoid investing in Israel or selling Israeli products until Israel recognizes the right of Palestinian refugees to return, the end of the occupation of Palestine, and the equal rights of Arabs within Israel.

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz and co-founder of the Amcha Initiative, said that BDS is in virtually all of its aspects anti-Semitic. The Amcha Initiative follows the US State Department definition of anti-Semitism, which includes drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis, and denying Israel the right to exist.

Rossman-Benjamin told the New York Times that classic anti-Semitism merged with a new anti-Zionism, on campuses and praised the regents for being the first to specifically recognize that there are forms of anti-Zionism that are anti-Semitic.

Within a few weeks of the UC Regents laying out the welcome mat for allegations of anti-Semitism, the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC) staged a right-wing provocation against the SJP and the Muslim Student Association. The DHFC put up posters at five different campuses denouncing the BDS as a Hamas-inspired genocidal campaign, and listed the names of students and professors that they said have allied themselves with Palestinian terrorists to perpetrate BDS and Jew Hatred. The posters were a clear call for reprisals against specific critics of Israel.

The campuses targeted were UC Berkeley, San Diego State University (SDSU), UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz and UC Los Angeles. The DHFC had used this tactic in isolation before, but hit all five campuses in mid-April. At SDSU a hundred students protested on April 27 after the university president, Elliot Hirshman issued a statement claiming that the posters were acceptable criticism of the SJP.

Hirshman wrote in part: First, we recognize and fully support the rights of all parties to voice their positions on political issues, whether supportive or critical. We also understand that when parties adopt a specific political position they become responsible for their actions and these actions may produce criticism.

In short, Hirshman felt that if the students did not want to be called terrorists, they should not voice political opinions. In a country whose government claims the right to indefinitely detain or kill without trial anyone who supports terrorism, that allegation can have particularly severe consequences.

On May 6, David Horowitz gave a speech at SDSU at the invitation of the College Republicans. He has been a regular speaker at Californias public universities over the years, usually at the request of campus Republican clubs. In his speeches are a combination of complaining that universities are dominated by leftists and denouncing student groups like the SJP as supporting terrorism and Jew Hatred.

Horowitzs extreme positions are well within the norms of US politics. The presumptive Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, has called for a total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. Within the Republican Party debates candidates sought to outdo themselves in their support for any outrage Israel might perpetrate against the Palestinians in the name of Fighting terrorism.

These positions are also found between both contenders for the Democratic nomination. In a speech to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on March 21, Hillary Clinton said: Many of the young people here today are on the front lines of the battle to oppose the alarming Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement known as BDS. Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, especially in Europe, we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate, and undermine Israel and the Jewish people.

The same day Bernie Sanders agreed that Israel has got to be defended, has a right to exist, and that there is some level of anti-Semitism in BDS.

The World Socialist Web Site has irreconcilable class differences with BDS, which appeals to the Israeli government for a capitalist two-state solution, but to call opposition to Israel anti-Semitic is a fundamentally dishonest provocation. These slanderous accusations are being used in country after country to silence any criticism of imperialist policy in the Middle East.

Since Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the British Labour Party, he has suspended 18 party members following allegations of racism and anti-Semitism. The media frenzy and witch hunt following criticisms of Israel by some high-ranking members of the Labour Party are directed at the hundreds of thousands who voted for Corbyn imagining that as a self-described socialist he would oppose war and austerity. Instead, the pseudo-left Corbyn, like SYRIZA in Greece and Podemos in Spain, has willingly accepted every right-wing measure asked of him.
Charles Keating IV, the U.S. Navy SEAL killed during an ISIS gunfight on Tuesday, secretly eloped with fiancee Brooke Clark before he left home, the Navy tells PEOPLE.



"He got married before he deployed," Lt. Beth Teach, a Navy spokeswoman, confirms.



Although the couple planned an official wedding in November, and sent invitations to friends and family, Keating  the grandson of notorious financier Charles Keating Jr.  took steps to make sure he was married before going into harm's way, friends tell PEOPLE.



"He wanted to protect her in case anything happened to him," says a fellow SEAL.



"It was a well-guarded secret," says friend Robert Whitley, who met the couple through the San Diego wine community, where Brooke is a well-known local wine judge.



It is not uncommon for couples to get married before the service member deploys, Teach explains.



"There are certain benefits to being married, and a lot of couples put that in place as a protective measure," she says.



"Charlie may have had a feeling about this mission," the SEAL friend says. "Maybe he was just being prudent. This is a terrible loss to Brooke and to all of us."



Says the SEAL friend: "This is a comfort no one wants to rely on. But he did right by Brooke. God bless him."





Charlie Keating, Navy SEAL Killed by ISIS, Secretly Married Fiancee Before Final Deployment| Couples, Death, Marriage, Military and Soldiers



Whitley also praised his friend for making the brave decision to join the elite Navy unit.



"I so admired Charlie," Whitely says. "He could have easily taken a different path and led a comfortable life doing something else. All of us are grief-stricken."



The 31-year-old's death marks the third American service member to be killed in direct combat since U.S. forces began fighting ISIS.



Army Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, a member of Delta Force, was killed during a raid on an ISIS compound last October, and Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin of Temecula, California, was killed in action on March 19.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner are making it work for the kids.

The exes and their three children  10-year-old Violet, 7-year-old Seraphina, and 4-year-old Samuel  have been spending time together in Europe, where Affleck has been renting a place in London while filming Justice League. The entire family, along with a nanny, was also spotted in Paris, France, on Thursday, where there was no drama between Garner and Affleck.

They are excited to show the kids London, a source close to the pair tells ET. This is a great opportunity. They always support each other while the other films. He was there during filming [in Atlanta] for Miracles From Heaven.

WATCH: EXCLUSIVE  Ben Affleck Arrives in Atlanta, Where Jennifer Garner Is Filming

And despite a report by the Daily Mail sourcing an eyewitness who said Garner, 44, and Affleck, 43, were kissing in a hotel bar in Paris, our source says the two are not rekindling their romance.

They are not together, but are friends and co-parents, the source adds.

The still-close exes certainly appear to be making the most out of their time in Europe. On Thursday, the family took a stroll in the streets of Paris and visited the famous gelato shop, Amorino. Despite their celebrity status, Garner and Affleck waited in line with other customers, and were immediately recognized by some fans and even chatted with them.

They were chill and it didnt seem there was any tension between him and her, an eyewitness tells ET about the family also enjoying a leisurely hour-long lunch together at Le Carette restaurant. They didnt show any PDA. They were just out to a family lunch.

On Friday, Garner and the kids had a busy day sightseeing without Affleck, visiting the Notre Dame Cathedral, Roue de Paris, Place de la Concorde, Place de L'Opera, and Montmartre. The Alias star and her daughters were also spotted taking selfies, and playing with toy sailboats at the Jardins du Luxembourg.

Garner dressed casually for the day full of exploring, sporting a gray sweater, black trousers, and flats.

Story continues

Best Images/FAMEFLYNET

WATCH: Jennifer Garner Shows Off Killer Legs! Plus 6 More Times She Has Slayed Since Vanity Fair Tell-All

In March, Affleck called Garner a good friend during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Were good friends and were doing our best, Affleck told DeGeneres. Our kids are fabulous and were working our best for them.

Watch below:

Related Articles
A search warrant recently released by police has led investigators to believe that murdered Texas fitness instructor Terri "Missy" Bevers" and her husband were having marital and financial problems, PEOPLE learns.



Additionally, three days before she was murdered, Bevers showed her friend a private LinkedIn message from a man she didn't know that made her uncomfortable.



A search warrant released by the Midlothian Police Department on Thursday states, "They both agreed that the message was creepy and strange," the warrant states.



Bevers, 45, was found murdered on April 18 at The Creekside Church in Midlothian, Texas, where she was scheduled to teach a "boot camp" fitness class that morning. A suspect is shown in surveillance video entering the church wearing tactical gear and carrying a hammer. Bevers died of multiple puncture wounds to the head and chest, according to police.



The search warrant for Bevers' cellphone records is dated from March 1 to April 24. It pinpoints 11 "target numbers" that police deem useful in finding her killer, who remains at large.





Murdered Texas Fitness Instructor and Husband Were Having Marital and Financial Problems: Police| Death, Murder, True Crime

 Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.



The records also have led investigators to believe that Bevers and her husband were having problems.



"A portion of these messages (as well as deleted messages) recovered indicate and confirm statement and tips provided to officers of an ongoing financial and marital struggle as well as intimate/personal relationship(s) external to the marriage with identified 'target numbers,' " the warrant states.



Some of the "intimate" messages reportedly took place on LinkedIn. Because they were deleted afterward, investigators weren't able to fully recover them, the warrant states.



According to the warrant, police believe the killer communicated with Bevers on LinkedIn between April 14 and April 16. Despite this new and specific information, "we don't have a strong suspect," Midlothian Assistant Police Chief Kevin Johnson tells PEOPLE.



Although the suspect was first identified as a man, the latest warrant states that in certain parts of the surveillance video, "the suspect appears to have what has been described as a feminine sway or walk."



The document also notes that the suspect "has a distinct walk that is indicative of some type of injury which affects the right leg/foot."



Anyone who has information on the case is asked to call the Midlothian Police's tip line at 972-775-7624.
From Seventeen

The fact that Malia Obama chose to attend Harvard surprised no one. What is somewhat more unconventional, though, is her decision to take a gap year beforehand. While gap years are standard practice in Europe and Australia, on this side of the pond it's much more common to go straight from being a high school senior to a college freshman, which is a shame because how are you supposed to really know what you want to do with your life if you've never experienced it outside of a classroom? If done properly (i.e. not spent sitting around watching Netflix in your parents' basement), a gap year can be a great opportunity to get some real-life experience and learn more about who you are, thereby ultimately enriching your college experience.

And the best news is that you've got loads of options to choose from! Here are some truly awesome ones:

1. Teach English abroad.

If you've got a flair for academia, teaching English is a great way to make money while living in another country, and gives you the chance to have a meaningful cultural exchange with the people who live there. All you need to do is get a TEFL certificate, which typically only takes 3 weeks and can even be done online. Bear in mind that, as an American, it's easier to get positions in Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe than in central Europe, where the market is saturated enough that they prefer UK candidates because they don't need a work visa.

2. Travel.

This is one of the most popular options, particularly if you want to do something that requires a significant chunk of time. A friend of mine spent his gap year traveling from London all the way to China via Russia and said it was the best time of his life. Thanks to the Internet, you can supplement your income by doing some travel writing or freelance work while abroad. If you want the adventure of living in the foreign country with the structure of being in a program, though, there are lots of options at your hands.

Story continues

3. Volunteer abroad.

Want to see the world while giving back to the community? You can do volunteer work in virtually any country and in a wide variety of fields, whether your want to be a nurse at an orphanage in Russia, a medical assistant in Malta, a wildlife volunteer in the Australian rainforest, an eco-agriculturalist in Costa Rica, or something even more exotic.

4. Farm abroad.

If agricultural work is your cup of tea, farming abroad can be amazing. You can become a sheep herder in New Zealand, a cattle farmer in Australia, an apple picker on a French vineyard, and even get up close and personal with some wildlife in South America.

5. Au-pair abroad.

If you love kids and want the fun of travel with the comfort of living with a host family, being an au-pair is a great choice. It's also the best option if you specifically want to go to Europe, because if you get paid in cash and are there for less than six months you don't need to worry about a visa (and countries like Germany even offer an au-pair visa for non-EU citizens). And come on, being an au-pair in Paris for a year sounds tres chic.

6. Intern abroad.

If you know what you want to do with your life and want some hands-on experience, interning abroad could be the right move for you. There's an endless variety of opportunities in many different countries, from doing a business internship in London to a hospitality stint in Mumbai. The best part is that you can earn college credit while doing it, saving you money (and boring core classes) once you're back in school.

7. Work on a yacht.

If you dream of sailing the high seas and don't want to go the fishing route, you can earn a significant amount of money pouring lemonade iced teas on luxury yachts traveling all over the world.

8. Become a tour guide abroad.

Being a tour guide almost feels like cheating because it means that you get paid to really experience another country. Bear in mind though that this can be a challenging gig (think of all the people you have to deal with on a daily basis), but can be a great way to visit places off the beaten path by becoming, say, a safari guide in Africa.

9. Teach sports abroad.

Can you imagine doing what you love all day in a foreign country? If you're particularly skilled at a certain sport, you can put that knowledge to great use and become, say, a ski instructor in the Swiss alps, a windsurfing instructor in Australia, or any other myriad of exciting options.

10. Become a princess at Disney World right in the gold ol' USA!

You don't need to go far from home to have a memorable gap year. Volunteering at a local business or working at the neighboring amusement park can be a great way to make some extra cash, read and write, and really think about what you want from life. Even here you've got lots of options, like becoming a princess at Disney World and living out all of your childhood dreams.

Remember, the world is your oyster!
From ELLE

Ah, those first few weeks with a new baby! A beautiful time of rest, bonding, and respite from the working world. A time to step back, relax, and reevaluate what really matters in life. Sounds good, right? And popular culture props up this beautiful scene with language about "blissed out" new mothers and peacefully snoozing babies. With that kind of image in our minds, some people-especially those without kids-might find themselves feeling a little envious of this break from the 9-5 (or 6 or 7 or 8 ) world.

I've been talking about this dynamic with my facebook community of new parents. The first reaction is usually a deep belly-laugh at the idea that parental leave is some kind of vacation. For the most part, they're bone-tired of the pervasive myth that new parenthood represents a restorative time with a delightful newborn. But it's more than merely annoying: This portrayal of new parenthood creates an escape hatch on doing anything to meaningfully support new parents in America.

This portrayal of new parenthood creates an escape hatch on doing anything to meaningfully support new parents in America.

The myth of the totally fine new family gives us a sense of comfort and ease. It tells us that new parenthood is beautiful and easy, so we don't need paid family leave. It tells us that babies have a parent with them at all times, so we don't need affordable, safe childcare. It tells us mothers and fathers are physically and mentally fine, and not in any way deserving of societal support during one of the most transformative and difficult periods of a family's life. It tells us that new mothers don't need to heal from my physical wounds or that moms and dads alike require time, rest, and support to lower their chances of developing a postpartum mood disorder.

The reality is, well, much more real.

Here's mine.

That's me, in 2010. In this moment, I had mastitis (an infection of the breast that causes fever and swelling) and a painful C-section incision. It was just two days after I'd been hit by the lightning bolt of loving this small person. Five weeks before I would be felled-truly taken to the ground-by postpartum anxiety (mostly related to my looming return to work) that spiraled into the most terrifying period of my adult life. Eleven weeks before I'd go back to work. Nineteen weeks before I'd get on a plane, to Nepal, without my son (but with my breast pump).

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I shared this photo on my facebook community, and fellow parents have begun sending me their own postpartum photos, each of which is honest and beautiful.

Andrea sent a photo of herself, her baby, and her loyal dog, at three weeks postpartum.

In this photo, Andrea had her "first clogged duct, a severe case of postpartum preeclampsia, scary postpartum anxiety that wouldn't let me sleep unless I was holding my baby and gave me panic attacks every time the sun went down, and the beginning stages of an infected C-section incision."

Kate shared this photo, and an incredibly raw story.

"I labored for 39 hours. It became apparent after several more hours that my son was stuck and he was unable to be turned. We had no choice to but accept a cesarean. I had labored so hard for so long that he was wedged between my bones. I would go on to be discharged less than 48 hours later with a catheter because my bladder was damaged during surgery from the force needed to get my child out. I was given no pain medication when I left. I struggled with breastfeeding and screamed through the first couple of weeks from the pain of it.

"I was suicidal at two months postpartum."

"I had my first flashbacks and panic attack at six weeks postpartum. I was suicidal at two months postpartum. I was later diagnosed with postpartum depression and PTSD from the birth, which was exacerbated by a child who screamed 12 hours a day for 15 months and me getting about four hours of sleep each night for a year. In the end, I remember very little about the first year, just as I remember very little about this photo. I was struggling to survive moment to moment in what felt like life-threatening terror. As a result my husband also developed depression and anxiety. The first time I felt love like parents talk about, my son was about 18 months old. Let that sink in: I nursed and cared for a child that I did not particularly love for a year and a half. In the end I did fall in love with him. I nursed him for 25 months. I found the strength to carry a second child. Parenthood is nothing like what people told me (except for the part about sleep deprivationthat sh** was real).

"I was struggling to survive moment to moment in what felt like life-threatening terror."

Cristin sent this postpartum photo.

At this moment, Cristin was "sneaking a nap in a messy living room while baby sleeps, and my neglected cat sneaks in for some much missed cuddles." Not pictured: her four-year-old, just off-camera.

Jacqueline sent me her years-old photo of her and her eldest child.

Here, Jacqueline's baby "was in the NICU. I hadn't showered for a week. I had just nursed him one of the handful of times I would be able. He wouldn't latch well due to a tongue tie that went undiagnosed."

Sid shared this image at the end of a scary night.

"This was after baby spiked a 104 degree fever out of nowhere and we spent six hours in the PICU. My husband captured us collapsing to sleep right after getting home."

Cara sent me her hospital snap of her and her baby.

"This was a day after a C-section in which I regained sensationduring the middle of surgery. I was throwing up from the Percocet (puking withan abdominal wound is pretty fab) and nursing every 90 minutes, round the clock,for the first four weeks. But I'd still rather relive that day than the daybefore I returned to work."

Sydnei shared this photo.

This was shortly after my chunky monkey was born. We had a crazy night of cluster feeding. We were taking a mid morning nap to try and catch up on sleep.

***

This is maternity and paternity leave: a time of terror, joy, fear, wonder, pain, blood, and tears. A time of leaking breastmilk and sleeping for no more than two hours at a stretch. A time of your partner having to lift you out of bed.

In an era of highly curated selfies, it isn't easy to show the world what we look like at our most raw. But we want the world to see us, and know us, like this. No, we wouldn't trade a moment of it, and no, we're not complaining. We are simply showing the emotional, painful, joyful, unreal realities of new parenthood. We're doing the work of humanity, and we're asking you to see and value that work for the beautiful mess that it is.

This post has been updated.
And the lawsuit goes to  Key Access. The Oscar ceremony is invite-only, but the group behind the annual shindig says the Los Angeles ticket broker sold some ducats to this years event. Now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is suing Key Access and its owner.

In a suit filed Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court (read it here), the Academy claims the broker engaged, in the unauthorized sale and transfer of Academy Award tickets to members of the general public. And, in doing so, Defendants have used the Academys trademarks to promote and advertise the sale of those tickets. Thats a big no-no in Tinseltown.

The suit, which also names Key Access founder-owner-CEO Dave Canter as a defendant, claims the company offered tickets to the 88th Oscars on Craigslist in February, looking to get $37,000 apiece. It says a Key Access employee communicated with an unnamed third party to buy two orchestra seats for $45,000 apiece and two in the balcony for $27,500 per, and arranged for an electronic transfer of funds. The deal was not made.

The Academy sent Key Access a cease-and-desist letter on February 26 demanding that it stop offering tickets and infringing on the Oscar trademark. Defendants responded to the letter several times over the next two days, the suit claims, stating that their infringement of the Academys trademarks was inadvertent. Defendants denied offering any tickets for sale but refused to provide any information to counsel for the Academy about their communications regarding selling tickets.

The suit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages, claiming breach of contract, trademark infringement, aiding and abetting trespass and unjust enrichment. It also wants an injunction to prevent Key Access and its folks from having anything to do with the purchasing or resale of Oscar tickets. Christopher Tayback, Gary E. Gans and Aaron Perahia of Quinn Emanuel Uuquhart & Sullivan are representing the Academy in the action.

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(MONTGOMERY, Ala.)  Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore  ousted from office more than a decade ago over a Ten Commandments display  now faces possible removal from the bench over his effort to block gay marriage from coming to that state after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission on Friday filed ethics charges against Moore, saying that the state chief justice abused the power of his office and displayed disrespect for the judiciary. Moore, 69, has been automatically suspended from the bench until there is a resolution.

The charges stem from a Jan. 6 administrative order Moore sent to probate judges telling them an Alabama court order and law banning same-sex marriages remained in full force and effect even though the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges effectively legalized gay marriage six months prior.

By issuing his unilateral order of January 6, 2016, Chief Justice Moore flagrantly disregarded a fundamental constitutional right guaranteed in all states as declared by the United States Court in Obergefell, the Judicial Inquiry Commission wrote in the charges.

The chief justices order to probate judges also came even though a federal judge had enjoined probate judges from enforcing Alabamas same-sex marriage ban, the commission wrote.

The Court of the Judiciary will decide whether Moore is guilty of violating judicial ethics. If found guilty, he could face removal from office.

Moore issued a statement Friday night saying he doesnt believe the commission has authority over administrative orders and state court injunction. Moore, as he did in a press conference last week about the complaints, referenced a recent protest outside his office by gay and transgender people.

The JIC has chosen to listen to people like Ambrosia Starling, a professed transvestite, and other gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, as well as organizations which support their agenda. We intend to fight this agenda vigorously and expect to prevail, Moore said.

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The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civils rights legal advocacy group, filed the complaint against Moore that led to Fridays charges.

Moore has disgraced his office for far too long, SPLC President Richard Cohen said. Hes such a religious zealot, such an egomaniac that he thinks he doesnt have to follow federal court rulings he disagrees with. For the good of the state, he should be kicked out of office.

Moore previously served as Alabamas chief justice. The Court of Judiciary removed him from office after 2003 after he refused to comply with a federal court order to remove a boulder-sized Ten Commandments monument that he installed in the rotunda of the state judicial building.

Moore was re-elected in 2012.The fiery Republican chief justice has been an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage both on and off the bench. During a 2012 campaign stop he said gay marriage would be the ultimate destruction of our country because it destroys the very foundation upon which this nation is based. He sent a Jan. 27, 2015, letter to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley asking him to stand up to judicial tyranny after a federal judge ruled Alabamas same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional.

The chief justice held a press conference last week in Montgomery with attorney Mat Staver, who represented Kentucky clerk Kim Davis after she refused to issue marriage licenses. Moore and Staver criticized the Southern Poverty Law Center complaint as politically motivated.

Moore said he did not tell probate judges to defy a court order but was telling them that the Alabama Supreme Court order to refuse same-sex marriages had not been lifted.

There is nothing in writing that you will find that I told anybody to disobey a federal court order. Thats not what I said, Moore said last week. Asked last week if judges should be issuing licenses to gay couples, Moore said it remained for probate judge to decide.

Despite Moores January order, most Alabama counties are issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. However, a few Alabama counties have shut down marriage license operations and are not issuing them to anyone, in order to avoid giving licenses to gay couples.
A coordinated prison labor strike in as many as five Alabama correctional facilities resulted in authorities putting two prisons on lockdown this week, ABC News reported, in an attempt to draw attention to inhumane conditions and systemic deprivation within the state's prisons.

According to Solitary Watch, three organizers who have been held in solitary confinement named Kinetik, Dhati and Brother M helped organize the effort, which began at "Alabama's Holman, Staton, and Elmore Correctional Facilities. St. Clair's stoppage will begin on May 9, with Donaldson and other correctional facilities to follow soon after."

Kinetik, Dhati and Brother M are members of the Free Alabama Movement, which hopes to carry on the strike for up to 30 days depending on the willingness of authorities to negotiate.

Inmates at multiple Alabama prisons go on strike in protest against system, conditionshttp://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/05/inmates_at_multiple_alabama_pr.html ...

"We will no longer contribute to our own oppression," Kinetik told Solitary Watch. "We will no longer continue to work for free and be treated like this."

People incarcerated at the prisons are paid $0.17 to $0.30 an hour to perform a variety of functions. While some assist correctional employees in the maintenance, upkeep and staffing of prison facilities, others are engaged in manufacturing or industrial jobs which generate revenue for the correctional system from for-profit companies which rely on cut-rate prison labor. Much of that money is then sucked right back from incarcerated people in the form of heavy fees and fines

Complaints are widespread and include lack of access to reading material, dangerous living conditions, tainted food, negligent treatment of prisoners in solitary and poor health services.

Earlier this year, riots broke out at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, when 100 rioted against hellish conditions, setting fire to part of the prison. Many facilities in the state are notoriously violent.

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Footage from the riots in William C. Holman Correctional Facility.

Footage from the riots in William C. Holman Correctional Facility.

Alabama is ranked third in the country for highest number of prisoners per capita as of 2013, and the state sent "650 people per 100,000 residents to prison in 2012, the same number as in 2011," according to AL.com. Whites comprise just 38% of the prison population as of 2011, said the site, but the U.S. Census Bureau reports Alabama is nearly 70% white.

Two Alabama prisons on lockdown as inmates strike over conditions, including meals. Here are photos they sent me.pic.twitter.com/3tlbDFR18l https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Chfi23oWMAESEAv.jpg:large

"Trying to make people work for free all day, every day does not serve anyone's interest whether it's the citizens, the person who made the mistake, or his family members," an person incarcerated at William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer told the Montgomery Advertiser. "I can work for eight hours a day and my child will still go to bed hungry at night."

"The work strikes are simply the only source of power we have," he added. "We don't have political power. We don't have voting rights. We don't have political action committees. We don't have lobbyists. We don't have anything."

"Correctional staff are responding by delivering the basic services to all inmates at both facilities," the Alabama Department of Corrections told the Huntsville Times in a statement. "The facilities are secure, inmates are receiving their daily meals, and their healthcare needs are being met."

However, some people incarcerated at the prisons claim guards have responded by significantly cutting the size of meals.

Prison labor strike in Alabama; guards retaliate by cutting food rations 60% http://solitarywatch.com/2016/05/05/prison-labor-strike-in-alabama-we-will-no-longer-contribute-to-our-own-oppression/ ... via @HuonCurtispic.twitter.com/1ToxJUgIE1 https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Chv9sHVUUAIJ3eH.jpg:large

"We haven't been allowed to get any form of recreation, we're confined to only our dorms, we aren't allowed to purchase food items from [the] institution store," another person told AL.com. "This isn't just an isolated issue, it's statewide. Before long each prison will participate. Trust me, it's catching like wildfire."
If directing, acting, being married to Brad Pitt  and oh yeah, raising six kids  isn't enough, Angelina Jolie Pitt's schedule is getting even busier.



The longtime Special Envoy for the UN Refugee Agency has been expanding her humanitarian work thanks to a partnership with two British foreign policy experts, Chloe Dalton and Arminka Helic, who she first collaborated with four years ago while working on the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative, to end war zone rape.



Since then, the trio have set up a partnership  called Jolie Pitt Dalton Helic  to work on issues ranging from women's rights to refugee issues, health, education, international justice, and violence against women. "We have been officially working together for a year and are very much looking forward to continuing our joint efforts on our shared international interests," Jolie Pitt tells PEOPLE.



Bosnian-born Helic, who was a Special Adviser to former U.K. Foreign Minister William Hague, was made nominated to the House of Lords and named a Baroness in 2014. Dalton was most recently Special Adviser to the U.K. Foreign Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.







Last month the three women visited the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where Helic is a member of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims.





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In March, Jolie Pitt returned to Lebanon, where she reunited with teenage Syrian refugee Hala, who befriended her daughter Shiloh during a 2015 trip to the refugee camp in the Bekka Valley.



Prior to that, Jolie Pitt, Helic and Dalton traveled to Burma ahead of he country's national elections, where Jolie Pitt joined leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the campaign trail and talked to members of the Burmese Army about sexual violence in conflict areas.



Next up is a visit to the BBC in London on May 16 as part of a day of events to find solutions to the global refugee crisis, where Jolie Pitt will deliver the keynote speech.
A court in Istanbul sentenced journalist Erdem Gul to five years in prison and his colleague Can Dundar to five years and 10 months for revealing state secrets. Hours before the verdict, a gunman tried to kill Dundar outside the courthouse as he spoke to reporters. He was not injured and the gunman was arrested.

The very moment gunman shot at #Turkey newspaper editor outside court house. The brave woman is journalist's wife. pic.twitter.com/qYnhnf4Gs8  IrmakYenisehirlioglu (@Irmak_Ye) May 6, 2016

As we have previously reported, Dundar is the editor of Cumhuriyet and Gul, its Ankara bureau chief. Their newspaper published a story in May 2015 that alleged Turkey was shipping arms to Islamists in Syria. The government was incensed and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish leader, said: The person who wrote this news shall pay a heavy price for it, I wont just let it go. The two journalists were arrested last November and charged with espionage and revealing state secrets. The journalists denied the charges against them.

On Friday, the Turkish court found them guilty of revealing state secrets, but not guilty of the more serious charge, espionage, which carried a possible life sentence. Theyve said they will appeal the guilty verdictand will remain free pending appeal.

Their prosecution has been criticized by journalism-watchdog groups, with the Committee to Protect Journalists calling the verdict unjust.

Read more from The Atlantic:

This article was originally published on The Atlantic.
Apple last quarter sold 51.1 million iPhones, an impressive figure to be sure, but markedly lower than the 61.1 million iPhones it sold during the same quarter a year-ago. And while there are cogent explanations that put the iPhone's year over year sales decline into context, analysts and pundits - as is seemingly their nature - are opting to willfully ignore them and have instead taken to calling for Tim Cook's ouster.

While the notion of getting rid of a CEO who helped generate more revenue in a single quarter than Google, Microsoft and Facebook combined is nonsensical, the reality is Apple, at some point in the near future, will need to demonstrate to investors that there's still a lot of life left in the iPhone.

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A boost in iPhone sales can come from any number of sources. Of course, the most obvious source is the upcoming release of the iPhone 7, a device which may very well usher in a huge upgrade cycle. Another avenue for increased iPhone sales - and one which Apple has been championing to investors - is a focused expansion in India. With over 1.2 billion people, India is the second most populous country in the world. And seeing as how iPhone sales exploded once Apple expanded into China, Tim Cook recently has been intimating that Apple may experience the same boost once the company's expansion plans in India are realized.

At the surface, this line of thinking makes sense. A deeper examination, however, demonstrates that the market realities that made Apple's foray into China such a stunning success don't exist in parallel in India.

First off, Apple was recently rebuffed in its efforts to sell used (read: cheaper) iPhones in India. As an emerging smartphone market, Apple was hoping to flood India with refurbished iPhone models to help it compete against more affordably priced models from handset rivals. But for whatever reason, the Indian government last week rejected Apple's plan. Thankfully for Apple, they just released the iPhone SE which, while not as cheap as, say, a used iPhone 5s, is much more affordable than the company's flagship iPhone 6s devices.

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Second, the economic environment in India is not the same in China. India may have more than 1 billion people, but the percentage of individuals who can afford an iPhone is much smaller than it was in China when the iPhone launched there.

To this point, Roopesh Chander writes:

I think Tim Cooks outlook on the Indian market is a little too optimistic. Firstly, iPhone sales in India were never really hampered by the inavailability of LTE (or 4G as they call it here in India). Anyone who can afford an iPhone in India has access to a fast broadband internet either at home or at work, probably both. ... Third, India is indeed looking a bit like how China was in 2005 in terms of GDP per capita, but India has far less number of people who can afford an iPhone than China does. The addressable market for Apple in India is tiny, and is growing quite slowly 1. Of that, those who can afford the current year flagship will constitute a miniscule number compared to China.

Chander also points us to some interesting data from Pew Research which notes that less than 2% of Indians earn more than $20 a day.

All that said, Apple has a tough road ahead in India, and an expanded presence there is by no means a guarantee that Apple will see a discernible uptick in iPhone sales.

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Given all of the bizarre advice that analysts and pundits seem to be throwing at Apple these days, you might be forgiven for thinking that the company was in dire straits. From calls to acquire Netflix to pleas to snatch up Tesla and bring Elon Musk on board, the level of panic surrounding Apple's future might have you believe that the company is losing money and, in the span of just one quarter, has lost its ability to innovate.

That sentiment, however, couldn't be farther from the truth. Apple's most recent quarter admittedly didn't measure up to last year's earnings report, but the company still managed to post $50 billion in revenue and $10 billion in profits, more than Google, Facebook and Microsoft combined. Furthermore, with the iPhone 7 release looming, we'd all be well advised to perhaps be patient, at least for a few months, and see what type of innovations Apple has in store for us when it releases its next-gen iPhone.

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But because the fast-moving tech world has never been a realm one associates with patience, the chorus of industry analysts arguing that Apple needs to shake things up only continues to grow louder with each passing day.

Most recently, Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times published a piece arguing that Apple should try more moonshots. Moonshots, in case you're unfamiliar, is a term popularized by Google that refers to bold and brazen initiatives that almost seem too crazy, outlandish and too risky to actually pay off. Google of course prides itself on its penchant for moonshots, whether it's the work it's doing on advanced robotics, self driving cars, or the healthcare and disease prevention research it conducts via its Verily subsidiary.

With that as a backdrop, Manjoo effectively argues that Apple should take a page out of Google's playbook and perhaps dream a bit bigger than it has been in recent years.

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To thrive in the next era of tech, Apple needs to take a series of bigger, bolder risks. Apples last decade and a half, mostly under Mr. Jobs, has been defined by perfectionist focus... That attitude was perfectly suited to a particular era in tech... But the next moment in tech is likely to be dominated by data-driven online services  more products like Siri and Apple Pay, fewer stand-alone hardware innovations like the iPhone. In that environment, the slow search for precision and perfection might no longer be in Apples best interest. Mr. Cooks goal, now, should be to alter Apples governing ethos to induce a small measure of chaos into his company. It is likely that Apple is already working on some bold plans in secret (a car and a pay TV service are among several that have long been reported). The shift Im calling for would not be radical, just evolutionary. It should be more nimble and slightly more public with its experiments, and push more of them out sooner. When it releases stuff, it should move faster to fix and improve what is wrong. Above all, it should take more risks; it should say yes more often.

Manjoo's position is interesting and fair, but there are a few points worth noting.

One of the first things Steve Jobs did upon returning to Apple in 1997 was completely decimate a product line that had grown unwieldy. With Jobs at the helm, Apple focused on releasing far fewer products while ensuring that the products they did release were incredibly polished. That being the case, imploring Apple to completely turn around a business structure that helped them become one of the most valuable companies on the planet might reasonably be viewed with a fair share of skepticism.

Second, I'm all for crazy and bold ideas (or moonshots if you will) but if we look at Google, for example, it's plainly evident that none of their moonshots have paid off from a profit perspective. Not only does the company still make the vast majority of their money from advertising, but they've recently started to scale back some of their more ambitious projects because of monetization concerns.

Third, and Manjoo addresses this issue as well, is the fact that Apple is seemingly held to a double standard as far as their products go, which is to say they're not really afforded any room for failure. Even the Apple Watch, a product that outsold the iPhone in its first year, has largely been derided as a flop. Apple just sold 50.1 million iPhones last quarter and people have already been calling the iPhone 6s a dud.

That being the case, big and bold bets from Apple also run the risk of tarnishing the company's pristine brand. Nonetheless, Manjoo speculates that the risk might be well worth it.

Were in an odd time in tech. There are lots of new technologies pegged as potential next big things  artificial intelligence, virtual reality, drones, wearables, the Internet of Things  but figuring out how all these pieces should fit together to create experiences people love necessarily involves experimentation. In this environment, the best new products are not likely to be obvious. They will most likely be ridiculed at first and they may actually be kind of useless in early versions. But over time, with brainstorming and updates based on consumer feedback, you might discover something precious.

Again, these are fair and well-reasoned points. But Apple almost seems programmed to avoid this type of strategy at all costs. The company routinely works on projects and products that never see the light of day. And even products that function well are scrapped if they're not sufficiently unique. To wit, Apple for years researched an HDTV but ultimately abandoned plans to release such a product because they couldn't figure out how to sufficiently differentiate it in an already crowded marketplace. Similarly, if Apple ever does release a car - something I'm skeptical of - it stands to reason it will be completely unique and will stand apart from anything else on the market, Tesla included.

All that said, the technological landscape is never stagnant, and the business principles that governed the world of tech in 2003 are markedly different from the ones in play in 2016. Consequently, perhaps it's not entirely outlandish to expect Apple to adjust to the changing times and, maybe, heed some of Manjoo's advice.

Manjoo also clarifies that Apple's new strategy doesn't necessarily need to involve radical new products like a car; even evolutionary ideas would be a welcome change of pace.

What it doesnt have quite yet is enough of an appetite for the speed and risks that come with creating and maintaining new services. Some of its sins here have been unforgivable. Siri was one of the earliest voice-recognition technologies released to the public. It wasnt perfect when it came out and Apple has made slow improvements over time. Todays Siri is vastly more powerful than yesterdays. But it still feels like a missed opportunity. There is so much Siri should be able to do that it cannot. Why cant Siri plug into more parts of my phone? Why cant it tap into the Uber app to call a car for me, or start up HBO Now when I say, Hey, show me last weeks Game of Thrones?

I'm certainly inclined to agree. Siri is much better than it was even 2 years ago, but it still seems like there is a boatload of untapped potential lurking beneath its surface.

And perhaps that sentiment, in a broad sense, lies at the heart of Manjoo's piece; Apple, with a tremendous ecosystem bolstered by untold millions of loyal users and billions in cash, appears to be moving much more slowly than rival companies with far fewer resources at their disposal.

Make sure to hit the source link below for Manjoo's full take on the state of Apple innovation. In a time where ridiculous ideas reign supreme, it's refreshing to see a well thought out take on what Apple can do to take its business and technologies to the next level.

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Washington (AFP) - The prestigious West Point military academy has opened an inquiry after 16 black female cadets posed for a photo with fists raised in militant style.

The pose struck by the cadets, dressed in their gray uniforms while standing on the steps of barracks in late April, is seen by some critics as an implicit show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and thus a potential violation of a Defense Department rule against "partisan political activity."

West Point seeks to portray itself as a melting pot that brings together talented students from across the country, without regard for racial or ethnic differences, for elite training as future military leaders.

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Kasker, a spokesman for the academy in New York state, confirmed that the cadets were members of the current graduating class.

"Academy officials are conducting an inquiry into the matter," he said on Saturday.

The young women were following a longtime tradition at West Point, where soon-to-be graduates each year strike stern and straightlaced poses in historic style much as their predecessors have done for more than a century.

But instead of raising their sabers to the sky, as they did in another photo without controversy, the black student-officers sparked a mini-tempest by raising their fists at a school with a predominantly white and male student population.

Some active-duty officers and army veterans have complained that the pose seemed to violate Pentagon rules on avoiding political activity by paying tribute to the black nationalism of the civil rights-era Black Panthers group or to the militant tone of the present-day Black Lives Matter protests against police abuses.

But others raised their voice in defense of the women, saying that they were more "Beyonce" than "Black Panther."

Mary Tobin, a 2003 graduate of West Point who has talked with some of the students about the photograph, said the raised fists signified only unity and pride at accomplishing something -- surviving the rigors of West Point -- that few people, white or black, have done.
A photo of black female West Point cadets raising their fists spurred commenters online to call the women idiots, and the picture itself a "disgrace" that depicts "the demise of our military."

The women posed for the photo last week as part of a longstanding West Point tradition: dressing up to imitate 19th century, ultra-serious photos of West Point cadets. Some people said the girls were supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, which they say violates army code: The Department of Defense has a policy preventing service members from engaging in political activity while wearing a uniform or displaying a partisan political sign while on military land.

As of April 28, West Point has opened an investigation to determine whether the women in the photo were in violation of any code.

Online commenters have also thrown some sharp barbs at the cadets, comparing them to members of the Black Panther Party and saying politics have no place in uniform.

Source: Facebook

Former drill sergeant John Burk was one of the first to criticize the photo in a May 3 blog post. In a subsequent email to the New York Times, Burk compared the raised fists to a Nazi salute.

The raised fist's history stretches back father than the BLM and Black Panther movements. Suffragists, socialists and labor movements have all adopted the gesture at one point in time. At its core, the symbol represents solidarity and support.

But, to Mary Tobin, a 2003 West Point graduate and mentor to many of the women in the photo, the raised fist references Beyonce more than it does a black-rights movement.

"These ladies weren't raising their fist to say Black Panthers. They were raising it to say Beyonce," Tobin told the New York Times. "For them, it's not a sign of allegiance to a movement, it's a sign that means unity and pride and sisterhood. That fist to them meant you and your sisters did what only a few people, male or female, have ever done in this country."

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Twitter users raised similar points.

And to think, that former drill sergeant actual compared a raised fist to a Nazi salute on the record? What world do you live in, sir?

Complaint says raised fist is same thing as Nazi salute. GTFO! This pic is fantastic (as are these women.)https://twitter.com/markmobility/status/728897152068521985 ... https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ch2QGNJWsAAZRDc.jpg:large

West Point pic showing unity, pride & sisterhood-nothing like a nazi salute, John Burk-stop comparinghttp://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/05/07/us/raised-fist-photo-by-black-women-at-west-point-spurs-inquiry.html?emc=edit_th_20160507&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=48980905&referer= ...

But a raised fist is only a problem when Black people do it. White folks, examine yourselves. You have a problem. And it isn't Black folks.

West Point graduate and chair of its Board of Visitors Brenda Sue Fulton was the photographer of the now-infamous photo, and defended the women in it to the Army Times.

"I am sorry that someone with a blog chose to display this one photo out of context, and to call them racists," Fulton said. "When I spent time with these cadets and heard them tell their stories and laugh and joke with each other, there's no doubt in my mind how much they love West Point, they love the Army and they support each other."

On April 27, a week before Burk's blog post, Fulton shared another image from the photo shoot on her personal Twitter.

Army officials are currently investigating the photo. While Fulton understands why, she told Army Times that the investigation is not for the best reasons.

"West Point is America's college," she said. "If there is a public uproar, however ill-motivated, the leaders feel their responsibility to the public is to get all the facts."
Brasilia (AFP) - A deputy from the ruling Workers' Party has appealed to Brazil's Supreme Court in an effort to block the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff ahead of Wednesday's Senate vote.

Deputy Paulo Teixeira asked the court to annul a vote taken on April 17, saying political leaders had exercised illegal and improper pressure on their members, local news media reported Saturday.

At a plenary session on that day, an overwhelming majority of parliament (367 to 146 members) voted to launch impeachment proceedings against the leftist president, whom the opposition accuses of illegally manipulating government budget numbers to help her re-election chances in 2014.

Teixeira based his argument on the fact that the high court had on Thursday suspended the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha -- the powerful man at the center of the efforts to impeach Rousseff -- on grounds he had tried to obstruct an inquiry into his own alleged corruption in the Petrobras scandal.

Teixeira alleges that parliament leaders, under heavy pressure from Cunha, "clearly violated" the deputies' right under Brazilian law to vote freely on impeachment matters, according to their conscience and not in lockstep with their parties.

He said that several deputies had voted the way they did for fear of reprisals, including possible expulsion from their parties. Some members abstained.

But the high court appears disinclined to overturn the vote of Congress.

If opinion polls and press commentators are right, Rousseff will be removed from office by a majority vote of senators on Wednesday and will face trial on allegations of budgetary manipulation.
The 27th Amendment is the most recent amendment to the Constitution, and its existence today can be traced to a college student who proposed the idea in a term paper and was given a C by his professor for the idea.

Today marks the 24th anniversary of the amendments ratification in 1992, and it seems likely we wont see a 28th amendment for some time.

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened, the amendment reads, as approved in 1992. In short, the amendment states that a sitting Congress cant give itself a raise (or cut its pay) during its current session. Any pay raise or cut would take effect for the Congress that follows a sitting Congress.

Its not a new idea. Founding Father James Madison first proposed back in 1789 along with other amendments that became the Bill of Rights, but it took 203 years for it to become the law of the land.

In 1982, a college undergraduate student, Gregory Watson, discovered that the proposed amendment could still be ratified and started a grassroots campaign. Watson was also an aide to Texas state senator Ric Williamson.

Shortly after the amendment was ratified a decade later, New York Law School professor Richard B. Bernstein traced the journey from 1789 to 1992 in a Fordham Law Review article. Bernstein called Watson the step-father of the 27th Amendment. Watson was a sophomore at the University of Texas-Austin in 1982 and he needed a topic for a government course. Watson researched what became teh 27th Amendment and found that six states had ratified it by 1792, and then there was little activity about it.

Watson concluded that the amendment could still be ratified, because Congress had never stipulated a time limit for states to consider it for ratification. Watsons professor gave him a C for the paper, calling the whole idea a dead letter issue and saying it would never become part of the Constitution. The professor gave me a C on the paper. When I protested she said I had not convinced her the amendment was still pending, Watson told USA Today back in 1992.

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Undeterred, Watson started a self-financed campaign to get the amendment ratified. He wrote letters to state officials, and the amendment was ratified in Maine in 1983 and Colorado in 1984. The story appeared a magazine called State Legislatures, and an official from Wyoming, reading the magazine, confirmed his state had ratified the amendment, too, six years earlier.

The proposed amendment and its supporters tapped into general public anger about Congressional pay raises. Five more states ratified it in 1985, as legal experts pondered if the entire process was valid.

One issue was a Supreme Court case from 1921 called Dillon v. Gloss. In that case, the Court in a unanimous decision said that when amendments are to be proposed, the reasonable implication being that when proposed they are to be considered and disposed of presently. However, the Court didnt require Congress to put an expiration date on amendments to be ratified by the states; it only confirmed the power of Congress to do so.

In 1992, two states raced to be the 38th state to sign off on the 27th Amendment, making it a law. Alabama beat New Jersey to the punch on May 7, 1992, but New Jersey quickly voted for ratification, too.

The ratification, said Bernstein, caught Congress by surprise, with some key leaders questioning the legality of the ratification approach. However, the Archivist of the United States certified the amendment as ratified under Article V of the Constitution, and published it in the federal register. And Congress voiced its support of the amendment in a near unanimous vote.

Since then, the 27th Amendment has gotten very little publicity, expect for the occasional news story about Watsons personal quest to get it passed. But in 2014, during the fight in Congress over the federal governments budget, GOP House leaders proposed linking congressional pay to the budget debate, and it didnt take long for journalists and academics to recall the 27th Amendment.

Critics were quick to point out that withholding pay, even temporarily, would vary the compensation for Congress members, and in their opinion, presented a direct violation of the 27th Amendment. Eventually, a short-term budget compromise was reached and the bills validity under the 27th Amendment was never tested.
Among the luxury party palaces dotting the waters off Cannes during the festival this year will float one slightly more virtuous vessel: the yellow-funneled, 250-foot motor yacht Yersin, which was blessed in the presence of Prince Albert II of Monaco in June. The world's most efficient, clean and advanced ICE Class explorer superyacht (ICE designates serious ice-going vessels) was conceived and built for scientific research projects - while offering key comforts of more leisure-focused crafts - with the support of the likes of Prince Albert's foundation (luxury watchmaker Blancpain also is a partner). Yersin likely will be the scene of a few fest shindigs in Cannes, but its future holds more excursions like the one Albert's wife, Princess Charlene, hosted in June, with 11 schoolchildren from Nice observing dolphins off the coast of Monaco.

"There is a trend toward more interesting yachts, offering the potential for fuel-efficient, long-range cruising and self-sufficiency," says Peter Wilson of Marine Construction Management in Newport, R.I., which has overseen 75 superyacht builds. "Foundations operating expedition and research projects have become a fascinating area of expansion."

Yersin's wheelhouse features a print of the Belgian cartoon adventurer Tintin, a childhood hero of Fiat's.

A meeting room for press and research presentations.

Yersin's owner, French entrepreneur Francois Fiat (he and wife Genevieve Baud, a grocery and retail heiress, are involved in environmental causes), planned the craft with a focus on adventure, science and education. Named for Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin, who discovered the pathogen that caused the bubonic plague in 1894, it was built over 36 months in France's Piriou Shipyard (in collaboration with Pierre Jacques Kubis Naval Design), where until March Jacques Cousteau's Calypso was docked. Yersin carries enough diving and lab equipment for a National Geographic expedition and has a library stocked with Cousteau's films.

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Read More: Calvin Klein Cancels Annual Cannes Party

The master suite, along with another double close by, is situated one level above the main deck (where the remaining six cabins are located) and has two private recessed decks flanking it. Also on board: two gymnasiums, a massage room, hair salon and hammam. A glass sculpture in the main deck saloon portrays Prince Albert II on one side and his great-great-grandfather Prince Albert I, who inaugurated Monaco's Oceanographic Museum, on the other. A pair of 25-foot military-grade, bullet-proof Zodiac rigid inflatable Hurricanes shadow the boat at anchor - they can be used to bring guests aboard or for expeditions. Yersin also has a more refined tender - a 37-foot Wajer Osprey launch - and several toys, including kayaks and an all-terrain quad bike, available for recreation and exploration.

The intimate upper-deck theater has 15 plush seats.

Yersin features electric propulsion through Azimuth thrusters powered by generators. At a cruising speed of 11 knots, it uses only 100 gallons of diesel per hour, about half what a conventional diesel yacht would guzzle. At a slow steaming speed of 9 knots, this drops to 47 gallons per hour, allowing 40 days at sea with 40 people on board, including crew. It's available for charter, but only with a background check and a detailed research proposal; rates will vary according to the project but at a minimum will cover running costs (about $23,000 a day), with sponsorship opportunities available for scientific expeditions.

Whoever boards Yersin can enjoy large TV monitors in luxurious lounging areas as well as a 15-seat cinema. A 1,400-square-foot multipurpose platform can accommodate a reception marquee, suspended by a crane, and serve as a dance floor. If it all gets too exciting, there's a well-equipped hospital room below decks. Gin and tonic, anybody? Just don't throw the lime overboard - the vessel was designed "to make an impression but not leave a trace" in the ocean.

This story first appeared in the May 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
There's more than meets the eye in a climactic airport battle in Disney/Marvel's Captain America: Civil War.

It involved everything from shutting down an airport terminal to drones, practical explosions, digital effects, navigating airport security, unpredictable weather and cutting-edge camera technology. It all added up to a dizzying string of complexities that had to be successfully orchestrated by director of photography Trent Opaloch and the members of multiple production departments.

The airport scene from directors Anthony and Joe Russo's Civil War was filmed on a backlot at Pinewood Atlanta Studios and on location at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport - which Opaloch said was a great experience, though challenging since it was a working airport. "We shut down one terminal and we had a little postage stamp of tarmac that we could shoot on," he said. "We had to go through security after breakfast and at lunchtime. All of the equipment had to be ferried in beforehand and it was gone over with dogs and inspectors, so we had to make sure we had everything we needed because once you started shooting, you couldn't just reach into the truck and pull out something from the other side.

"We also had a tight schedule with the cast," he added. "We shot a lot of the wide footage with stand-ins and stunt doubles. If we'd get Robert Downey Jr. in for a day, we'd shoot some of his stuff, then the other side of a conversation."

Read more: 'Civil War' Writers on Introducing Spider-Man, Black Panther (Q&A)

Asked whether, when it all was over, he was Team Captain America or Team Iron Man, Opaloch responded with a laugh. "Neither. I'm team Civil War."

The majority of Civil War was lensed with the widely-used ARRI Alexa XT digital cameras, but for the airport sequence, the filmmakers upped the complexity by using the still relatively new ARRI Alexa 65, a new 6K resolution camera with bespoke ARRI lenses. (Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki was among the first to try the camera, which he used to photograph roughly 40 percent of The Revenant). Said Opaloch: "There was an idea late in preproduction to shoot Civil War entirely with the Alexa 65, but we were so close to our start date and it was such a large-scale undertaking, [so we decided] to use it for this key sequence, and use it as the testing ground for Avengers: Infinity War Parts 1 and 2, which will be shot completely with those cameras."

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Opaloch, a BAFTA nominee for District 9, will be reteaming with the Russo Brothers on the upcoming Avengers films, after having first worked with them on Captain America: The Winter Soldier. On Civil War, he put the Alexa 65 through its paces, using it on a Technocrane, Steadicam, dollies, "and a drone team did flyovers with the camera over the airport; it was incredible.

"Additionally, key grip Michael Coo developed a bungee rig system; Mark Goellnicht, our 'A' camera operator used a similar system on Mad Max: Fury Road," Opaloch continued. "Basically, it's a long bungee tube attached to a rope that will run up 30 or 40 feet; we suspend that line over the set. It allows the operators to get very dynamic and right in there with the action; it feels like handheld but they don't have the brunt of the weight of the camera."

With so much resolution and for such a big presentation format as Imax, Opaloch decided to back off a little on close-ups, tending to use medium close-ups. For wide shots, he sometimes held shots a bit longer, explaining "the great thing is there's so much information in the screen. If it's a wide shot, you might sit there a little longer, maybe with a slight camera move that allows the viewer to take it all in."

The scene also involved complex visual effects, led by VFX supervisor Dan Deleeuw. They included digital doubles, digital set extensions, and "we did explosion passes on the backlot as well."

Read more: 'Civil War' Directors Talk Third 'Captain America' Movie's Appeal to Non-Marvel Experts

It's no surprise that Opaloch said the digital color grading was particularly challenging in this sequence. "That goes a long way to achieving a cohesive look thought the sequence," he said of the grading, which was led by Marvel's go-to colorist Steve Scott (The Revenant) and his team at Technicolor. "Like any exterior sequence that is drawn out over a number of days, you get weather inconsistencies. Germany was fairly consistent. Atlanta has very dynamic weather; you would have clouds that roll in and the skies out up and you'd have this incredible biblical rain. We would flee the tarmac set and go finish another part of the sequence indoors on greenscreen."

The Alexa 65 has been now been used by a growing number of cinematographers including Opaloch; Rodrigo Prieto, for Passengers; Greig Fraser, for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story; and Tom Stern, for Sully. "The Alexa 65 is a game changer as far as being another tool that allows you to think about telling stories in a different way; it has such a huge canvas," said Oraloch. "The scale and scope of Infinity Wars is so great, I think it's going to be a fantastic match of filmmaking and technology.

"We are still catching up on lens options; I'm having weekly conversations with the guy at ARRI (who are working on lenses with additional focal lengths)," he continued. "There's a mad push to get them ready for Infinity Wars. As it stands, we are meant to have 12 Alexa 65 cameras for those films since we are shooting them back to back, and we'll need all the accessories and lenses. [When we get the script] we'll break down logistically how we'll tackle this, with how many cameras and units. It such behemoth of a project."

ARRI is also working with Imax to create a special version of the Alexa 65 aimed at Imax exhibition, though at the time of Civil War's production, the technology wasn't ready.

To meet demand, ARRI is additionally building 40 more Alexa 65 cameras for its rental facilities worldwide, which will more than double its current inventory of 30, ARRI exec Dana Ross told The Hollywood Reporter.
Despite the focus on "Team Iron Man" and "Team Cap," Captain America: Civil War revolves around the same character as the previous Cap movie: Bucky Barnes, A.K.A. the Winter Soldier. Since the character was revived and reinvented in Marvel's comic book line in 2005 by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting, he has struggled to find his place in both the comic book and movie universes - but those journeys have gone in very different directions. Spoilers for Captain America: Civil War follow.

At the end of the big screen Civil War, Bucky voluntarily submits to being returned to stasis until such a point where he can be freed from HYDRA's brainwashing - a moment that's bittersweet for fans who've held out hope that he had turned a corner in his status as living weapon at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, undoubtedly, but also one that's dramatically different from what happened to the character following his reawakening in Marvel's comic book mythology.

For the comic book Bucky, the problem wasn't getting over his brainwashing - Captain America helped with that, thanks to a Cosmic Cube (The powerful Macguffin movie audiences might remember from the first Captain America movie) - but what a former Winter Soldier does for an encore.

Read More: 'Captain America: Civil War' Ending: What's Next for Steve Rogers?

In 2006's Captain America Vol. 5 No. 21, less than a year after his re-introduction, he allied himself with a Nick Fury who'd abandoned SHIELD in an attempt to rebalance the scales after his work as an enemy agent, but that status quo was short-lived - by 2007's Captain America Vol. 5 No. 34, he had received a surprising promotion, becoming the new Captain America in the wake of Steve Rogers' apparent death.

Bucky was a different type of Captain America than his former partner - for one thing, he carried (and used) a gun - but his desire to live up to the legacy he'd inherited fueled stories for a number of years, with the concept successful enough to keep him in the outfit even after Steve Rogers was returned to life, and with the character appearing as Captain America in a number of different series including New Avengers and the "event" titles Secret Invasion, Siege and Fear Itself.

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It was Fear Itself that ended Bucky's era as Cap; in the third issue of the 2011 series, he was seemingly killed by the daughter of the Red Skull, but a later issue - the curiously numbered Fear Itself No. 7.1 - would reveal that he had escaped that fate, and gone underground to reclaim his identity as the Winter Soldier with a brand new mission: trying to solve problems and undo damage he'd created while brainwashed, which he could do in his own series: The Winter Soldier ran 19 issues from 2012 through 2013.

Thanks to the 8th issue of the 2014 event series Original Sin, Bucky earned his most out-there mission yet: safeguarding the Earth from any and all extra-terrestrial threats. That mission ran for 11 issues of the wonderfully surreal Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier series, which purposefully played with the limitations and tropes of the superhero genre; Bucky fell in love with an alien queen named Ventolin and decided to attempt to renounce violence after preventing the destruction of a planet Mer-Z-Bow. Writer Ales Kot was as playful as artist Marco Rudy in the approach to this short-lived psychedelic series, and the result is amazing.

However, all good things come to an end - even alien romances. Bucky returned to Earth in this February's Avengers Standoff: Welcome to Pleasant Hill No. 1, having been warned of a potential catastrophic event. With the assistance of Captains America - both the most recent incarnation, Sam Wilson, and the original, Steve Rogers - that was averted, but in its aftermath, Bucky ended up leading the latest incarnation of the Thunderbolts, a team of supervillains trying to go good. (Thunderbolts Vol. 3 No. 1 was released this week, to coincide with the release of Captain America: Civil War.)

What's interesting to see throughout Bucky's entire comic book career post-revival is that, even though he escaped going back on ice because of his programming, he's nonetheless just as trapped by the need to redeem himself, over and over again.

Even when the character seems to evolve beyond his past as a killer, as in the Bucky Barnes: The Winter Soldier series, publishing demands will bring him back so that he can anchor the redemptive arc of a new Thunderbolts series. True, the comic book Bucky is still running around his version of the Marvel Universe - but is he really any better off than his movie counterpart?
Saturday Morning Post: The Weekly View from Washington

The early handicapping of the coming Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton showdown has focused on the map. For Trump to have a chance of winning in November, he'll need to hold reliably Republican states and then over-perform across a swath of Rust Belt targets that lately tip Democratic: Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Even then, to get over the top, he'd need to pick up, say, Colorado and Virginia -- no small task.

Trump likely can't get there on his own. Considering the intensity of the opposition to his candidacy among key voting groups, it would help if circumstances outside the campaign broke his way. A significant economic downturn, for example, might convince voters that the country needs a radical break from Obama-era policies. And the more cataclysmic, the better for Trump, assuming such a rupture would fan the flames of discontent already animating his core supporters. But despite Friday's decidedly middling jobs report, there's no sign a major disruption is brewing. Instead, the economy looks primed to putter along for the rest of the year with growth between 1.5 and 2.5 percent. Perhaps more importantly, wages have risen 2.5 percent over the last 12 months, suggesting more workers may finally be feeling the recovery they've only been hearing about for years.

History nevertheless suggests Clinton faces headwinds in this general election. Since World War II, six non-incumbents have tried to replace a president of the same party. Only George H.W. Bush in 1988 succeeded. All three Democrats who tried -- Adlai Stevenson in 1952, Hubert Humphrey in 1968, and Al Gore in 2000 -- ran on improving economies, with unemployment rates that had each dropped about 1.5 percent over the previous four years. At least on paper, Clinton is running on a stronger record: The jobless rate has dropped 2.7 percent in Obama's second term. But a better reason to believe Clinton will prove the exception is her exceptional opponent.

Trump didn't squeeze any positive coverage out of his historic victory in the Republican primary this week. So maybe he was trying to make his own luck Thursday when he said the U.S. should save money by shorting our creditors and effectively defaulting on our debt. If investors took that threat seriously, he might just precipitate the economic crisis he needs to win. The map and the underlying strength of the recovery predict he'll have a hard time otherwise.

See original article on Fortune.com

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PureWow

It looks like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle thought their Archewell website needed a little bit of a facelift. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been keeping quite busy these days, what with a Netflix docuseries, podcasts, oh, and two young kids to take care of. However, we just noticed that the couple changed the photo on the homepage of their website, trading out the old pic for a brand-new portrait courtesy of Misan Harriman. Archewell Foundation/Misan Harriman The pic was snapped during t
SHANGHAI, May 7 (Reuters) - China's price regulator plans to launch a "large-scale and systematic" anti-trust investigation soon into foreign and local drug firms, state newspaper China Daily said, citing a source close to the regulator.

The planned probe comes after China's state planning agency, recently summoned U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, as well as a number of distribution companies and medical device manufacturers, to collect data and information, the newspaper said on Saturday.

It said that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which wants to improve order in the drug market, is collecting evidence to see whether these companies may have violated competition regulations, though there was no proof so far that any currently do.

The NDRC did not respond to calls and a fax from Reuters outside office hours seeking comment.

A spokeswoman for Pfizer said the company did not comment on media speculation or market rumours.

China is pursuing an ambitious programme of healthcare reforms to improve the public health system and to reduce its reliance on generic and more innovative drugs from overseas.

The country's fast-growing healthcare market is a magnet for global drug makers, medical device firms and hospital operators, all looking to take a slice of a healthcare bill that is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2020, according to McKinsey & Co.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Ed Davies)
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's price regulator plans to launch a "large-scale and systematic" anti-trust investigation soon into foreign and local drug firms, state newspaper China Daily said, citing a source close to the regulator. The planned probe comes after China's state planning agency, recently summoned U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, as well as a number of distribution companies and medical device manufacturers, to collect data and information, the newspaper said on Saturday. It said that the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), which wants to improve order in the drug market, is collecting evidence to see whether these companies may have violated competition regulations, though there was no proof so far that any currently do. The NDRC did not respond to calls and a fax from Reuters outside office hours seeking comment. A spokeswoman for Pfizer said the company did not comment on media speculation or market rumors. China is pursuing an ambitious program of healthcare reforms to improve the public health system and to reduce its reliance on generic and more innovative drugs from overseas. The country's fast-growing healthcare market is a magnet for global drug makers, medical device firms and hospital operators, all looking to take a slice of a healthcare bill that is expected to hit $1 trillion by 2020, according to McKinsey & Co. (Reporting by Brenda Goh; Editing by Ed Davies)
Fort McMurray (Canada) (AFP) - The center of the city at the heart of the forest fires raging through Alberta's oil sands region remains "largely intact" even though outlying neighborhoods have suffered serious damage, the authorities said Friday.

Fort McMurray's downtown area "is largely intact, the hospital is still standing, the telephone center is intact and the water treatment center is back up and running," Alberta's Premier Rachel Notley told reporters during a news conference, adding that municipal buildings and the airport also remain intact.

However, other areas of the oil city have been ravaged by the forest and brush fires that were moving east.

Firefighters have been working to save as many residential areas as possible, Notley said.

"We've been able to hold the line for the most part in those residential areas," she said.

However, the city's general outlook remains bleak.

"There is no doubt that the damage is extensive and will take many months to repair," Notley said, speaking of the "heartbreaking" devastation of barren landscapes and houses reduced to smoldering ashes.

The city of 100,000 has been completely evacuated since the authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order shortly before midnight Tuesday.

The fires have engulfed 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of forest, including at least 12,000 in the area surrounding Fort McMurray, where 2,000 homes have been destroyed.

The government has declared a state of emergency in Alberta, a province the size of France that is home to one of the world's most prodigious oil industries.

More than 1,100 firefighters are battling 49 separate blazes across the province -- seven of them totally out of control.

Overcoming the monster fires will take "weeks and weeks," Alberta fire department senior manager Chad Morrison said.

"Right now, we do really need some rain, no question about it," he said. "And even once we get rain, there's still going to be a lot of fire out there."

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The provincial government will provide around Can$100 million ($77 million US) in immediate financial assistance to evacuees, Notley said, warning it may take some time before they can return to their homes.

The aid was due to help about 80,000 people.

Earlier in the week, officials painted a devastating picture of the city's southwest, where the blaze was more violent.

Fire has destroyed some 90 percent of the Waterways neighborhood and 70 percent of Beacon Hill, city officials said. Half of the Abasand neighborhood further north was reduced to piles of ash.

The total cost from the catastrophe could reach $6 billion, according to a Bank of Montreal analyst.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in Syria killed 48 Islamic State fighters on Saturday, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said, quoting the Turkish military. F-16 and A-10 warplanes killed 44 members of the militant group and injured others in Harjalah, Delha, Baragitah and Hawar Kilis, it said. Four more members of the hardline Sunni group were killed in separate airstrikes in the Karakopru region. Gun installations and barracks were also destroyed in that attack, it said. The airstrikes were in response to increasingly frequent Islamic State attacks against opposition forces in northern Syria, Anadolu said, citing national security sources. The Turkish border town of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from Islamic State-controlled territory of Syria, has been hit by regular rocket fire in recent weeks. The Turkish military usually responds with artillery barrages into northern Syria, but officials have said it is difficult to hit mobile Islamic State targets with howitzers. Turkish officials have said they need more help from Western allies in defending the border. So far, about 20 people have been killed and almost 70 wounded in the rocket fire on Kilis, Anadolu said. (Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Conditions were worsening in a Syrian prison where nearly 800 mostly political detainees have launched a revolt, with security forces failing in an attempt to storm the facility overnight, rights groups and activists said on Saturday. The prison has been surrounded by government forces since Monday after inmates rose up and seized several guards in protest at the transfer of five detainees sentenced to death to a feared high security prison, according to rights activists in touch with inmates and with New York-based Human Rights Watch. Security forces on Friday fired dozens of tear gas bombs and used rubber bullets in an attempt to end the rebellion. Videos released by inmates on social media showed several men gasping for breath and coughing and saying they were suffocating from "poisonous gas", with gunshots heard in the background and fires breaking out in the corridors after the gas cannisters were launched. Syrian rights activist Mazen Darwish, a former detainee in the prison and in touch with prisoners said conditions were fast deteriorating with electricity and water cut for three days amid food shortages and serious medical conditions among some of the inmates. "Inmates are running out of food and water and even medicines are no longer being given to those in serious conditions," Darwish said, adding prisoners wanted the Syrian Red Crescent to mediate on their behalf after an earlier deal that released at least 46 detainees before talks broke down. Inmates have demanded the release of political detainees held without charges and say their fears mainly stem from a wave of executions that could follow if they were to be transferred to the Sadnaya military prison, north of Damascus. International rights groups say thousands of detainees are held in Syrian government prisons without charge and many of them are tortured to death, a claim denied by the authorities Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the safety of the hostages and said an attempt to retake the facility risked high casualties. This standoff should not end in a bloodbath, Nadim Houry, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying in a statement late on Friday. The situation in Syrias detention facilities and prisons is deeply unstable and prison conditions should be a priority for the international community. Syrias military field courts have secret, closed-door proceedings that do not meet basic fair trial standards, HRW said in the statement.The Syrian interior ministry has denied "reports ... about Hama central prison", but has not elaborated on the issue since Monday. Earlier this year, United Nations investigators said detainees held by the Syrian government were being killed on a massive scale amounting to a state policy of extermination of the civilian population. The Syrian conflict began in 2011 with popular protests against President Bashar al-Assad and spiraled into civil war after a crackdown by security forces. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Toby Chopra)
By Aaron Ross KINSHASA (Reuters) - Authorities in Democratic Republic of Congo said they had arrested the deputy commander of a rebel group linked to Rwanda's genocide, in a blow to a militia at the heart of two decades of conflict in the region. But in a reminder of ongoing violence in Congo's conflict-torn east, suspected rebels from another group hacked at least nine people to death near the boundary between North Kivu and Ituri provinces on Friday. General Leopold Mujyambere, the chief of staff of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), was arrested earlier this week in the eastern city of Goma during a routine police stop, government spokesman Lambert Mende said. "He was recognized (by) the security services who were there," Mende told Reuters. Mujyambere has been transferred to the capital Kinshasa, where the military justice system will decide whether to try him in Congo or extradite him to his native Rwanda, Mende added. The FDLR includes soldiers and former Hutu militiamen responsible for carrying out Rwanda's 1994 genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Its presence in Congo since the genocide has been cited by Rwanda to justify multiple armed interventions in its western neighbor, including during two regional conflicts between 1996 and 2003 that killed millions, mostly from hunger and disease. Congo's army launched a military offensive against the FDLR in February last year. The government says it has reduced the group to about 100 fighters but independent analysts say the figure is likely closer to 1,500. In a blog post, the director of the Congo Research Group at New York University, Jason Stearns, said the capture could point to divisions between the FDLR's military and political wings. "While the (Congolese) operations have had little impact on the group's command structure ... this military pressure has exacerbated internal tensions within the group which are difficult to parse but seem to be serious," he wrote. At least nine civilians were hacked to death on Friday in three villages along the boundary between Ituri and North Kivu's Beni territory, local military spokesman Mak Hazukay told Reuters. A local human rights group said at least 21 people were killed in the raids. Dozens of similar attacks in Beni since October 2014 have killed more than 500 people. The violence had calmed in recent months until Wednesday, when suspected rebels killed at least 17 civilians in an overnight raid. Hazukay said he believed the assault was carried out by Ugandan Islamist rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) who had fled combat with the army further south. The government and U.N. mission in the country have blamed almost all of the massacres over the last 18 months on the ADF, which has been operating in eastern Congo since the 1990s. Analysts say others, including some army soldiers, have also been involved. (Editing by Joe Bavier and Andrew Heavens)
By Kenny Katombe LUBUMBASHI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo opposition presidential candidate Moise Katumbi has been summoned to appear before a prosecutor on Monday to respond to accusations that he hired foreign mercenaries, his lawyer said on Saturday. Justice Minister Alexis Thambwe Mwamba ordered the national prosecutor general on Wednesday to investigate Katumbi's alleged use of mercenaries, including several retired American soldiers. Hours later, Katumbi declared himself a candidate for president in an election scheduled for November. Katumbi's lawyer, King Kasongo Mushilanama, told Reuters that his client had received a summons on Saturday to appear in the office of the prosecutor general of Congo's second city of Lubumbashi on Monday to respond to the government's charges. Katumbi will comply with the summons, he added. Katumbi has denied the charges and accused the government of resorting to smear tactics. The U.S. Embassy in the capital Kinshasa also said that it believed the accusations were false. Tensions are high ahead of the election in part because President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, has not declared whether he plans to step down this year, as required by the constitution. The poll looks likely to be postponed as the government cites budgetary and logistical obstacles to holding it on time. Critics say Kabila is deliberately delaying the vote in order to remain in power after his mandate ends. Kabila has not commented publicly on his intentions. He has instead called for a national dialogue to clear the way for elections to take place. Kasongo also said that Katumbi's farm outside of Lubumbashi was searched on Saturday by elite Republican Guard troops, who are responsible for guarding the president and securing strategic installations. Government spokesman Lambert Mende said he could not confirm the search, as it is a judicial matter, but added that Congolese law permits the use of the Republican Guard in such situations. The prosecutor general in Lubumbashi was not immediately available for comment. Katumbi governed Katanga, Congo's southeastern copper-mining heartland, from 2007 until last September when he quit Kabila's ruling party, accusing it of plotting to keep the president in power beyond a two-term limit. Dozens of people were killed in protests in January 2015 over alleged efforts by Kabila to extend his stay in power. Since then, authorities have arrested dozens of Kabila's critics on what the United Nations and human rights groups say are trumped-up charges. (Additional reporting and writing by Aaron Ross in Kinshasa; Editing by Joe Bavier and Digby Lidstone)
By Peter Gosnell SYDNEY (Reuters) - A pregnant woman who says she was raped at an Australia detention center for asylum seekers on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru cannot be forced to have an abortion in Papua New Guinea because it is unsafe and illegal, a court has ruled. Under Australia's hardline immigration policy, asylum seekers intercepted at sea trying to reach Australia are sent for processing to camps on Nauru and on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and are told they will never be settled in Australia. The harsh conditions and reports of systemic child abuse at the camps, which house asylum seekers fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq, South Asia and Africa as well as those deemed economic migrants, have drawn wide criticism from the United Nations and human rights groups. The African woman, identified in court documents only as S99, has claimed she was raped while she was in Nauru and has sought an abortion in Australia. Australian Immigration Minister Peter Dutton however ordered that she should be sent to Papua New Guinea for the procedure, Australia's Federal Court heard. Justice Mordecai Bromberg ruled late on Friday that the procedure was illegal in Papua New Guinea and that PNG lacked the medical expertise and facilities to treat several other undisclosed physiological and psychological conditions. "The abortion in Papua New Guinea made available to the applicant is attended by safety and lawfulness risks that a reasonable person in the minister's position would have avoided," Bromberg said in his 150-page judgment, a heavily redacted copy which has yet to be published. Bromberg also ruled that the woman should remain in PNG until at least May 15. A spokesman for Dutton said the court's decision was "under consideration" and foreshadowed an appeal. The woman's lawyer, George Newhouse, said PNG law prohibits abortion, although there are exemptions for when the procedure is needed to save a mother's life. Australia has been at loggerheads with PNG since the government ordered the Manus Island camp closed late last month. The camp, which holds about 850 people, had been ruled illegal by the PNG Supreme Court. The number of people trying to reach Australia is small compared with Europe but immigration has long been a hot political issue and has flared again during campaigning for likely July elections. Two people have set themselves alight this month in protest at their treatment in the Nauru camp. A 23-year-old Iranian man died and a young Somali woman is in critical condition in an Australian hospital. (Reporting by Peter Gosnell; Editing by Paul Tait)
Sarajevo (AFP) - The Ferhadija mosque in the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka reopened to worshippers Saturday, more than two decades after it was dynamited by Serb forces in 1993 at the height of the Balkans war.

"The hate has receded, confidence has grown and the reconciliation will strengthen our spirits," said Bosnia's Muslim religious leader, Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic, in front of a crowd of several thousand people.

"Muslims, Orthodox, Catholics, Jews and all the other citizens can and must build a shared, peaceful home on European soil," he said.

The heavily guarded opening ceremony was attended by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu whose country part-funded the cost of the painstaking reconstruction of the Ottoman structure, according to Turkish media.

The 16th century former UNESCO World Heritage Site was one of the foremost places of worship for Muslims in Bosnia before the 1992-1995 war that pitted Muslims and Croats against Serbs, and later Muslims against Croats.

After the war, the country was split into the Serb Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

All 14 mosques in Banja Luka were destroyed during the war, with Muslims and Croats forced out of the northern town.

During the war, 614 of Bosnia's 1,144 mosques were destroyed and 307 damaged, according to Muslim figures.

Dozens of Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches were also destroyed.

Muslims make up some 40 percent of Bosnia's 3.8 million inhabitants, while Catholic Croats and Christian Orthodox Serbs account for 10 and 30 percent respectively.

The Islamic community's efforts to lay a cornerstone to rebuild Ferhadija, also known as the Ferhat-Pasha mosque, in May 2001 sparked anti-Muslim riots that left one person dead and 30 injured.

Efforts to rebuild the mosque resumed in 2007.

In 2009, a Bosnian Serb court annulled a 33 million euro ($38 million) fine against local authorities for the wartime destruction of all 16 mosques in Banja Luka.
What Drove Eli Lilly's 1Q16 Revenue Growth?

(Continued from Prior Part)

Animal health segment

Eli Lillys (LLY) animal health company, Elanco, reported nearly flat revenues at $754.6 million in 1Q16, as compared to $749.8 million for 1Q15. This segment contributed ~15.5% of the companys total revenues. It deals with products for companion animals as well as food and other products.

Reported revenues for animal health segment

The US animal health sales increased ~10.0% to $392.4 million during 1Q16 while animal health sales outside the US markets decreased 7.8% to $362.2 million, mainly driven by the inclusion of revenues from Novartiss (NVS) animal health segment. The US revenues increased due to increased demand across both franchises of the segment while the decline in international revenues was due to the negative impact of foreign exchange. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, the revenues outside the US markets increased 5% during 1Q16.

Companion animal products

The companion animal products segment reported growth of 3% in revenues to $232.1 million in 1Q16. This was mainly driven by a 14% increase in US sales of companion animal products due to the launch of new products including Interceptor Plus and Osurnia, substantially offset by a 10% decline in sales of companion animal products outside the US markets.

Food and other products

The revenues for food and other products were nearly flat at $522.5 million in 1Q16, as compared to $524.4 million in 1Q15. The revenues were driven by 8% growth in the US sales due to increased sales of beef and poultry products. The revenue growth was offset by the negative impact of foreign exchange in sales outside the US.

Other companies like Zoetis (ZTS), the animal health arm of Pfizer (PFE), Merck and Company (MRK), and Merial, a Sanofi (SNY) company, compete with Eli Lilly on certain product mixes. Investors can consider ETFs like the Healthcare Select Sector SPDR (XLV), which holds ~3.0% of its total assets in Eli Lilly, ~7.3% of its total assets in Pfizer (PFE), ~5.4% of its total assets in Merck and Company (MRK), and ~0.8% of its total assets in Zoetis (ZTS). You can also consider the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV), which holds ~0.5% of its total assets in Eli Lilly, in order to divest company-specific risk.

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Now all us EastEnders fans know that Kat and Alfie have gone off to Ireland to search for Kats long-lost son  and we were warned that things would be getting a tad dramatic on the set of spin-off show Redwater.

BUT WE DIDNT BLEEDIN EXPECT THIS!

Copyright: [Splash]

Pictures have now emerged of actress Jessie Wallace  who plays Kat Moon (nee Slater) in the hit BBC1 show  face down in the sea, covered in blood.

So, could this mean that our beloved Kat might be about to meet her maker?

Such a shame, as shes just gone and got herself a new long-haired look.

What a waste.

Copyright: [Splash]

Anyway, the images  taken on location in Dublin - also show Kat being pulled out of the water by a mystery man, but who in actual fact is believed to be the son shes gone to Ireland to look for.

The character discovered this year that she had a son, Dermot, that she never knew about

Last year, viewers found out that not only did Kat give birth to Zoe Slater after being raped by her uncle Harry  she also had a boy.

Copyright: [Splash]

The show explained this by highlighting how young Kathleen Moon was so terrified by her experience, she blacked out when giving birth and was never told about the boy.

Her grandmother, Big Mo, along with her mother, conspired together to hide the birth and put him up for adoption without ever making Kat aware  and it was only when one of the nuns returned to see Kat this year that the character found out.

Copyright: [Rex]

The six-part series is set in the Republic of Ireland, and has been described by Shane Ritchie  who plays Kats husband Alfie Moon in the soap  as a cross between 'Broadchurch and The Wicker Man.



Sounds dark (and also friggin amazing), right?
Each night, two brothers in Pakistan suddenly become unable to talk, move, eat or drink.

After the sun goes down, they lie in a vegetative state. During the day, they are normal, playful boys.

Doctors in the capital of Islamabad, where the boys are being studied, say they have no clue as to what causes the children's mystifying behavior.

Read: High School Athlete Carries Brother With Cerebral Palsy 111 Miles to State Capitol

"We took this as a challenge," said Javed Akram, a medicine professor at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, according to The Associated Press.

"Our doctors are doing medical tests to determine why these kids remain active in the day but cannot open their eyes, why they cannot talk or eat when the sun goes down," he said while visiting the boys in the hospital.

Abdul Rasheed, 9 and his brother Shoaib Ahmed, 13. (A.P./B.K. Bangash)

The government is providing free medical care to the brothers, he said.

They belong to a poor family in a small village near Quetta. Soil and air samples have been gathered from their neighborhood. Blood samples have been collected from the boys. All will be sent overseas to be examined by specialists.

The father, Mohammad Hashim, has a simple explanation. "I think my sons get energy from the sun," he said.

Read: 5 Frat Brothers Face Murder Charges After Freshman's Hazing Death

The boys' parents are first cousins. Of their six children, two died at a young age. The other two children do not share the boys' symptoms.

Brothers Abdul Rasheed, 9, and Soaib Ahmed, 13, at a hospital in Islamabad (AP/B.K. Bangash)

Doctors don't think sunlight has anything to do with the brothers' ailment. They moved around fine during the day even if they are in a dark room, physicians said.

The boys seemed cheerful and active during a recent daytime trip to a canteen for tea. Shoaib Ahmed told The AP he wants to be a teacher when he grows up. His younger brother said he wants to become an Islamic scholar.

Story continues

Watch: Families of Brothers Separated During Holocaust Find Each Other 77 Years Later

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Donald Trump

Donald Trump took aim at one of the most progressive members of the US Senate on Friday evening, tweeting that he hopes Hillary Clinton selects "goofy Elizabeth Warren" as her running mate so he can defeat them.

Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, posted a flurry of critical tweets about Trump on Tuesday following his Indiana win, declaring that she would "fight [her] heart out" to ensure that Trump's "toxic stew of hatred & insecurity never reaches the White House."

On Friday, Trump mocked Warren's controversial claim that she is part Native American. It first drew scrutiny during her 2012 Senate race, when it was reported that she had declared at Harvard that she had Cherokee and Delaware Indian ancestry, according to Politico.

Trump called Warren a "fraud" and suggested that her ancestry records be checked.

View the tweets below:

I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth Warren as her running mate. I will defeat them both.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016

Lets properly check goofy Elizabeth Warrens records to see if she is Native American. I say shes a fraud!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016

Goofy Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clintons flunky, has a career that is totally based on a lie. She is not Native American.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 6, 2016

NOW WATCH: The real story behind Trump's taco bowl tweet





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Dozens of protesters were arrested on Friday, May 6, after clashes broke out with police at San Francisco City Hall, where demonstrators were demanding that Mayor Ed Lee dismiss San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr over police brutality and ethnic violence in the city. Police in riot gear made arrests after protesters refused to leave the building, according to reports.

Five activists, dubbed the Frisco Five, who have been on hunger strike for 16 days in an effort to unseat Suhr, were taken to a local hospital on Friday amid concerns over their deteriorating health. Credit: Instagram/marblecano
hurricane red warning flag

When Dropbox employees walked into their new office on Brannan Street last month, they were dazzled by something they hadnt seen before  a gleaming, 5-foot-tall panda statue made of chrome.

The statue was made in recognition of the company's panda mascot. It was seen as a stamp of approval, signaling to the world that Dropbox belongs in Silicon Valley's elite club, where extravagant office decor has become the norm.

But next to the statue, which one source said was rumored to cost $100,000, was a little memo that offered an interesting footnote about the sculpture:

Pandas have meant many things to Dropboxers over the years, and the idea here was to commemorate the originalit wasnt the right call, the note said. When it comes to building a healthy and sustainable business, every dollar counts. And while it's okay for us to have nice things, it's important to remember to ask ourselves, 'would I spend my own money this way?'"

The message was clear: Dropbox was ready to join the multitude of startups that have started to cut back in an effort to inch closer to profitability.

The change at Dropbox, last valued at $10 billion, shows even the most richly valued and highly funded startups are no longer immune to the changing tides of Silicon Valley. A weaker VC funding environment and freezing tech-IPO market have forced startups of all sizes to take cost-cutting measures and focus more on profits  signifying a shift in the free-spending, growth-at-all-cost culture that had seeped through Silicon Valley over the past few years.

"We're keeping the panda as a company-wide reminder of the importance of both our past and future in thoughtful spending  but it's just one example. If you spot other ways we can help Dropbox save, please share them, the note said, providing a special email address for cost-saving tips.

Here's a photo of the panda statue:

Culture of frugality

Dropbox has made other changes to its famously lavish employee perks lately, reflecting its more cutthroat attitude toward cash management.

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In a company-wide email in March, Dropbox said it was cancelling its free shuttle in San Francisco and its gym washing service, while pushing back dinner time by an hour to 7 p.m. and limiting the number of guests to five a month. (Previously it was unlimited, a big perk given its open bar on Fridays.)

Those changes will have a direct impact on Dropbox's profitability. The company wrote in the email that employee perks in total have been costing Dropbox at least $25,000 a year for each employee. Based on Dropbox's roughly 1,500 headcount, that would translate to about $38 million a year. At that scale, any kind of cost savings would help improve its bottom line. Dropbox declined to comment.

Dropbox isn't the only high-profile startup to unleash a company-wide cost-cutting campaign lately. A number of unicorn startups, worth over $1 billion, including Evernote, Jawbone, and Tango, have all gone through some form of cost cuts, whether layoffs, office closures, or reduced employee perks.

In a more extreme case, Prosper, last valued at $1.9 billion, disclosed that its CEO would forgo his entire annual salary this year, in addition to reducing its workforce.

Anaplan, a cloud-software maker that raised over $230 million, replaced its CEO in part due to a strategic shift that places more focus on becoming profitable faster.

Even a smaller player like ToutApp, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, recently announced that it would not do any paid-event sponsorships this year in an effort to embrace "operational ruthlessness" and get closer to profitability.

A lot of this has to do with the slowing venture-funding environment in Silicon Valley. Investors have become much more conservative with their money lately, and are losing patience for startups that have failed to generate returns after years of free spending.

According to research firm CB Insights, "down rounds," in which companies raise at lower valuations than previous rounds, have outpaced the number of VC-backed unicorn startups since the last quarter of 2015. A survey by First Round Capital last year showed over 95% of the founders across all stages saying the funding environment would either remain the same or get harder in 2016.

In addition, a number of VC power players, such as Benchmark Capital's Bill Gurley and Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson, have become more vocal about an impending downturn lately, telling startups to get into "belt-tightening" mode soon.

"Because of the recent changes in the financing environment, I would guess that most startups are carefully rethinking their spending and becoming more conservative with cash management," Matrix Partners' David Skok told Business Insider. "Over the long haul, thats likely to be a very good thing, and is when the great entrepreneurs will shine."

1 2016q1 unicorns vs downrounds

Big startups face the same problem

Employees at Kabam, the online-gaming startup worth $1 billion, recently felt like there was a decrease in the number of office snack stands. Although the company denies it, some believe the snack stands are now placed more sporadically in order to reduce the employees' frequency of snack consumption by making it a little harder to get to them. That came alongside news of the startup cutting nearly 8% of its workforce to narrow its focus and cut additional costs.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston

For Dropbox, the cost cuts may have less to do with the state of the VC market than with its own ambitions.

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston has repeatedly said in the past that he doesn't need to raise capital in the private market anymore.

Instead, Dropbox may want to show investors that its business is strong enough to IPO.

The public market has been brutal to tech companies in recent months, with only one tech company floating this year, an absurdly low rate for the industry.

As more investors turn their focus to profitability, startups that burned through cash at a high rate are struggling to go public at their previously set private-market valuation.

"The public market has shifted their mentality considerably around companies being cash-flow breakeven," says Menlo Ventures' Matt Murphy. "When you get to a certain stage, youre optimizing for things that public markets care about, which is earnings per share and how quickly youll get to cash flow positive."

The bigger problem for all startups, however, may be in retaining employees. As startups cut back on perks and delay their IPO, employees could grow frustrated and decide to join larger, more established companies that offer better benefits and stock liquidity. And if that starts to happen in droves, startups will have no one but themselves to blame.

"This is not just about Dropbox. Its a reflection of whats been going on in the Valley," one of our sources said. "We were overfunded. Everyone was treating us like were recession proof."

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(MEXICO CITY)  Convicted drug lord Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, who twice pulled off brazen jailbreaks and is fighting to avoid extradition to the United States, was transferred to a prison in northern Mexico near the Texas border early Saturday.

Lawyers for Guzman, who was recaptured in January, have filed multiple appeals against their client being sent to the U.S., and Mexican officials have said it could take as long as a year to reach a final ruling. There was no immediate indication that the transfer could be a sign that the process is nearing conclusion.

The Sinaloa cartel boss was moved from the maximum-security Altiplano lockup near Mexico City to a prison in Ciudad Juarez, a security official told The Associated Press, without giving a reason. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Mexicos National Security Commission said in a statement that the transfer was in line with security protocols, and it has rotated more than 7,400 inmates nationwide as part of a security strategy implemented last September.

Michael Vigil, the former head of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said Guzman was moved because of security concerns. Vigil, who said he had been briefed by Mexican officials, did not specify those concerns or say whether Mexican officials had information about possible new escape plots. He also did not specify the officials with whom he spoke.

Jose Refugio Rodriguez, an attorney for Guzman, confirmed that he was sent to the Cefereso No. 9 prison. He said Guzmans defense team was not notified beforehand, and one of his lawyers was traveling to Juarez to try to meet with their client.

I dont know what the strategy is, Refugio told The Associated Press. I cant say what the government is thinking.

He confirmed that Guzmans lawyers are still trying to block extradition.

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Guzman faces charges from seven separate U.S. attorneys offices, including in Chicago, New York, Miami and San Diego.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman in El Paso, Texas, referred inquiries to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which did not immediately respond to telephone and email messages. Messages left with representatives of the U.S. Attorneys Office and the U.S. Marshals Service in El Paso also were not returned immediately. The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment.

El Chapo first broke out of a Mexican prison in 2001. He was recaptured in 2014, only to escape the Altiplano lockup the following year through a mile-long tunnel dug to the floor of the shower stall in his cell.

Mexican marines re-arrested him in the western state of Sinaloa in January, after he fled a safe house through a storm drain.

He was returned to Altiplano, where officials beefed up his security regimen. Guzman was placed under constant observation from a ceiling camera with no blind spots, and the floors of top-security cells were reinforced with metal bars and a 16-inch (40-centimeter) layer of concrete.

___

Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Margot Honecker, the widow of former East German leader Erich Honecker and the most powerful woman in the Communist state until its collapse in 1989, died on Friday in Santiago, Chile, at the age of 89. She had been living as a recluse in Chile for more than two decades. Honecker had been suffering from cancer, TVN television station said. The Communist Party of Chile (PCC) said in a statement: "After learning of the death of Margot Honecker, this morning in our country, we send our most sincere condolences to her daughter Sonja, her family and friends." Known as the "Purple Witch" in East Germany for her tinted hair and hardline stance, Honecker served alongside her husband as minister for education for almost three decades. She was hated and feared by many East Germans but defended the cruelties of the system to her death. In 2012, she called those killed trying to escape over the Berlin Wall "stupid" for wanting to defect, defended the Stasi secret police and said her state pension of 1,500 euros a month was too small. The PCC's secretary general, Juan Andres Lagos, told TVN: "She was a person that was coherent with her political ideals and then when real socialism fell, she also led many initiatives of solidarity with the people of Latin America and Asia, which fought for their liberation." But Honecker will probably be most remembered for her suspected role in forced adoptions of children whose parents had tried to flee to the West, though she always denied this happened, and for the treatment of "difficult" children in disciplinary institutions. One of those establishments was a prison-like barracks in Torgau known as "Margot's Concentration Camp". Victims and politicians initiated legal proceedings for alleged mistreatment but these were later dropped as the statute of limitations had elapsed or for lack of proof. "She never critically reflected on what she had done. Up until her death she was a nasty, stubborn woman," Hubertus Knabe, the director of the memorial of the former Stasi prison told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. Born the daughter of a shoemaker and a factory worker in Halle in 1927, Margot Feist trained as a clerk and started out as a stenotypist before working for the Communist party's FDJ youth association. A rising star in the youth movement, she became the youngest member of the East German parliament at the age of 22. Her taste for elegant clothes made her stand out against the drab ranks of the state's other politicians. Although she became part of the Socialist Unity Party's central committee, she never made it into the all-powerful Communist Party Politburo. In 1949 she met Erich Honecker, then chairman of the FDJ and a married man. They embarked on an affair during which Margot became pregnant and gave birth to their daughter Sonja. After Sonja's birth, Erich divorced under pressure from the then-East German ruler Walter Ulbricht and married Margot, who was 15 years his junior. Known as "Miss Bildung (Education)", a pun on the German word for deformity, "Missbildung", she shaped the Socialist curriculum in schools, including the introduction of compulsory military training. She stepped down from her post in October 1989, two days after her husband resigned. The Berlin Wall fell in November and a month later Margot faced accusations of corruption and misuse of office before an investigative committee, which she denied. After German reunification, the Honeckers fled to exile in the Soviet Union in 1991 to escape criminal charges over human rights abuses committed by the government. When Erich was extradited back to Germany, Margot fled to Chile. Her husband later joined her there when his trial collapsed due to his terminal illness. He died in 1994. Margot lived largely as a recluse in Chile. On the rare occasions that she broke her silence, she showed no remorse. In her book "Discussions with Margot Honecker about the other Germany", published in 2000, she spoke of a "fair and humane social system" where there was social security, education for all, free elections, no unemployment, no homelessness and no real estate speculation. But she also said the government often failed to put decisions into practice and overestimated what it had already achieved. In 2009 she celebrated the 60th anniversary of East Germany with other Socialists in Chile. In a video of the celebrations, she is seen standing in front of its hammer-and-sickle flag, declaring that despite a propaganda campaign to discredit the state, people were now missing the old days. (Reporting by Michelle Martin, Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Angus MacSwan)
From Harper's BAZAAR

For the last decade, La Esquina has been a New Yorker's go-to for Mexican cuisine served outside of a fast-casual eatery, but without the pomp and circumstance of a fine dining establishment. Real-deal tacos here make the burrito bowl obsolete, and the friendly service is intended to remind you of a traditional Mexican fonda, where guests are greeted warmly and encouraged to stay a while, ordering one taco at a time. But, these owners get that the average New Yorker is more of a grab-and-go type of eater. Classic Mexico City concepts may be the driving force behind this place, but there's a reason tacos here are served with all their garnishes atop rather than on the side, and why they're serving guacamole by the bowl full much to their chagrin (and our delight).

La Esquina's ability to adapt to their customer's expectationsdespite their desire to replicate the fonda concept verbatimis one of their greatest strengths. "There's a level of translation when you come back to New York City," explained owner Derek Sanders, "In Mexico City, you get your tortilla, your protein and garnish it yourself, taking the time to stand in front of the truck and eat each taco, one at a time. But in New York City, there's obviously a really different speed of life. People want things done in five minutes and take their tacos back to their office. It's about keeping a respect for the cuisine, but also having it make sense for the location it's being served in."

This keen understanding of his customer had Sanders thinking quickly about how to transition a welcoming space by day into an equally inviting nightlife destination. The solution? A semi-speakeasy in their large basement level, where regulars, celebrities and savvy tourists alike entered through the restaurant's operating kitchen. "When you come to La Esquina, you're greeted pleasantly at the door, and proceed to go downstairs where you meet the hostess, who welcomes you and and sends you through to the kitchen. Then as you're walking through the kitchen all of the kitchen staff says hello, and you pass the bar where the bartenders say their greetings. In other words, by the time you sit down, our fonda idea is in full effect. You've already said hello to five people and feel really comfortable in the environment. That sort of experience translates to the idea of the downstairs being really private. There's no windows, and it becomes very transporting because whether it's raining, snowing, hot, or cold outside, it doesn't matter. You're in this world of ours-the La Esquina world-which is I think part of what makes things so fun."

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This clever ability to differentiate his customers' expectations from his inspirations and give the people what they want has kept Sanders in business for ten yearsand has now inspired him to make some changes for the restaurant's milestone anniversary. At the end of the day, creating an authentic experiencefrom the food to the customer serviceis at the core of Sanders' business, and getting back to the roots of his initial inspiration seems like a fine idea ten years in, considering that Mexico City itself is now regarded as a tourist destination rather than a risky endeavor. "Now Mexico City is a hip eating destination, but ten years ago, it really wasn't known for that. People thought it was sort of dangerous, polluted and not a place where vibrant cuisine was being created," noted Richard Ampudia, Sanders' consultant on his ten year revamp and considered by many as the godfather of Mexican cuisine due to his continuous involvement in successful Mexican restaurants from New York to Hong Kong.

Now, it's quite the contrary; The New York Times named the locale it's top spot to visit this year in it's annual 52 Places to Visit in 2016 list. And visit they didalong with La Esquina's chef, Adrian Ramirez. The three embarked on a pilgrimage to revisit the flavors and fondas that started it all for La Esquina and filled us in on the tastes and concepts making their way on to the updated menu as a result.

Much to their surprise and delight, the flavors of their beloved city seemed to change as much over their ten years in business as the city itselfand their mindset about sticking strictly to tradition. "Now chefs in Mexico City are taking the idea of a classic fonda and elevating it by utilizing different ingredients or using more sophisticated cooking techniques," says head chef, Adrian Ramirez. "They're transforming things through new ingredients, like goat cheese in tamales and kale. They're still respecting this tradition of ingredients, but taking new liberties and freedoms with the dishes, which in turn made us feel very liberated. I found that it's ok to mix things together, and come up with amazing recipes and different combinations."

So what's next for the La Esquina? A lot more tacos. "We're going to start building more taquerias in New York City," reveals Sanders. "I just think we can do it really well and better than most people out there right now." And it seems like this recent trip to Mexico City was just what they needed to gain fresh insight and feel re-energized enough to expand. "We went to Mexico City for a very specific reason in that we wanted to see the various cuisines that exist in each region, but how Mexican chefs then translate those cuisines in an urban environment of twenty-two million people. That's what we're trying to bring back to New York. It's about taking something special and cared for, but putting a new technique on it and exceeding peoples' expectations with the food we create."
Today in One Paragraph

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that Donald Trump is trying to unite the Republican Party, even as the party continues divided in its support. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said hed back Trump, while Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush said they would not. President Obama also weighed in on the presumptive GOP nominee, saying Trumps record needs to be examined. The Labor Department reported that 160,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in April. Overseas, London elected its first Muslim mayor. And North Korea held its largest political conference in decades.

Top News

Reince Priebus Defends Trump. The Republican National Committee chairman tried to relay confidence in the partys presumptive GOP nominee at an event hosted by Politicos Mike Allen, saying Trump understands that building and unifying and growing the party is the only way were going to win. (Nick Gass, Politico)

Recommended: Who Will the Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Be?

But Not Everyone Is Convinced. Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he supports Trump. And both Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush said they will not be voting for Trump or Clinton in Novembera day after House Speaker Paul Ryan said he was not ready to endorse Trump. And President Obama said the White House is not a reality show in his first public comments on the presumptive GOP nominee, adding that the press needs to focus more on the candidates policies and less on the circus. (CNN; The Hill; NBC News)

April Jobs Report. Only 160,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy last month, and the unemployment rate remained at 5 percent, according to a report from the Labor Department. Economists originally predicted the country would add as many as 240,000 jobs. (Heather Long, CNN)

London Elects Its First Muslim Mayor. Sadiq Khan, the Labour Party candidate, was elected. Khan replaces Conservative Boris Johnson who has governed the city for eight years. (William James and Elizabeth Piper, Reuters)

Story continues

Historic Conference in North Korea. Kim Jong-un hosted the countrys largest political conference, the Korean Workers Party Congress, for the first time in 36 years. Analysts believe the purpose meeting is to announce changes in personnel structure. (Bill Birtles, Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The Weekend in One Paragraph. Donald Trump will campaign in Oregon and Washington, and Bernie Sanders will be in New Jersey on Sunday.

Recommended: The Day the Republican Party Died

Follow stories throughout the day with our new Politics & Policy page. And keep on top of the campaign with our 2016 Distilled election dashboard.

Top Read

A President Trump would be a legitimate president, having been freely and fairly elected by enough Americans. He would be, as much as it pains me to say it, our president. Still, there will no doubt be a temptation to defy or otherwise undermine a democratically elected Trump. For those of us who study the Middle East, the idea of not respecting democratic outcomes is business as usual, but I never thought it would be up for debate in the United States. The Atlantics Shadi Hamid on the current tension between democracy and liberal values in America.

Top Lines

Clintons New Targets. The Democratic front-runner is seizing the moment: Shes working to persuade Republicans disillusioned by the rise of Donald Trump to join her movement. (Amy Chozick, The New York Times)

The Limits of Data Journalism. Prominent journalists like Nate Silver and Nate Cohn used data toincorrectlypredict that Donald Trump wouldnt be successful in his bid for the GOP nomination. But, The New Yorkers John Cassidy argues, data journalism is more useful in reporting than it is in predicting the future.

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Economy Update. Check out these graphs to see how the U.S. unemployment numbers vary by race, education level, and gender. (The Washington Post)

We want to hear from you! Were reimagining what The Edge can be, and would love to receive your complaints, compliments, and suggestions. Tell us what youd like to find in your inbox by sending a message to newsletters@theatlantic.com.

-Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey)

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Cairo (AFP) - An Egyptian court recommended death sentences on Saturday for six codefendants of Mohamed Morsi but not for the ousted Islamist president in their trial on espionage charges.

The presiding judge in the trial asked the mufti -- the country's official interpreter of Islamic law -- to consider death sentences for the six codefendants, saying the court would convene again on June 18 after the mufti's response.

It will then pronounce its verdict and sentence for the remaining five defendants, including Morsi, on charges of having supplied Qatar with classified documents.

Egyptian law requires the mufti to sign off on death sentences. His opinion is not binding but is usually respected by courts.

Three of the defendants sentenced to death were tried in absentia and identified by the prosecution as journalists who helped relay the documents to Qatar.

Qatar was a main backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement while he was in power between 2012 and July 2013, when the military overthrew and detained him.

He has already received sentences in three separate trials.

He has been sentenced to death for his alleged role in prison breaks and attacks on police stations during the 2011 uprising that overthrew veteran strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Morsi was one of the leaders of the Brotherhood who had been jailed during the 18-day uprising, escaping with thousands of inmates who broke out of prison.

He was also sentenced to life in prison for espionage on behalf of Iran and militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas, and received a 20 year term for deadly clashes outside the presidential palace in 2012 between his supporters and opponents.

The Qatar espionage case stems from allegations that aides passed on classified state secrets to Doha using intermediaries.

The six facing a death sentence include Ibrahim Mohamed Hilal, whom the prosecution had identified as a senior editor with the Qatar-based channel Al-Jazeera.

He is not in Egypt and was tried in absentia.

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An Al-Jazeera official said he is "an adviser" to the channel's chairman.

Another, also tried in absentia, is Jordanian citizen Alaa Omar Mohamed Sablan, identified by the prosecution as an Al-Jazeera producer.

Asmaa Mohamed al-Khatib, identified as a reporter with the pro-Brotherhood Rassd news outlet, was also sentenced to death in absentia.

They were alleged to have assisted in relaying the classified material to Doha.

Egypt had cracked down on Al-Jazeera and imprisoned three of its journalists in Cairo, including Australian Peter Greste and Canadian Mohamed Fahmy, before releasing them by presidential decree.

The defendants will be able to appeal the rulings before the court of cassation, and those tried in absentia can win a retrial if they hand themselves in.

Egyptian courts have sentenced hundreds of Morsi supporters to death since his overthrow, but many have appealed and won new trials.

A police crackdown on his supporters has killed hundreds of protesters, while a jihadist insurgency has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.
ROME (Reuters) - Egypt has handed over the mobile phone records of the head of a street vendors union to Italian investigators who are looking into the killing in Cairo of student Giulio Regeni, a legal source said on Friday. Regeni, who was doing postgraduate research into the union, was last seen by his friends on Jan. 25. His body, which showed extensive signs of torture, was found in a roadside ditch on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital on Feb. 3. Italy, which has repeatedly complained that it has not received full cooperation from Egypt over the killing, has asked for the phone records of 13 individuals as well as a mass of other information, including video from surveillance cameras. Earlier this week, the Egyptian authorities sent to Rome the records of five people, including Mohammed Abdullah, the head of the street vendors union, said the legal source, who has direct knowledge of the probe but declined to be named. The identities of the other four people whose phone data was handed over were not revealed. Italy has not said why it was seeking information about Abdullah. In the aftermath of the 2011 uprising, vendors were often used by police to attack protesters or acted as informers. Some vendors were also targeted by the police for blocking roads. Reuters was not able to contact Abdullah or the Interior Ministry on Friday, a weekend day in Egypt. A Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to comment. The legal source said Italy was also requesting help from Google about Regeni's email account. An email was sent from the account on March 23 and investigators are trying to find out who hacked into it, and why. Italy last month recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations to protest what it said was the slow pace of the investigation and the perceived lack of cooperation. Italian investigators are due to fly to Cairo on Sunday for talks with their Egyptian counterparts. Human rights groups have said the torture indicated Regeni, 28, died at the hands of the security forces, an allegation Cairo denies. Three Egyptian intelligence officials and three police sources told Reuters that Regeni was detained by police and then transferred to a compound run by Homeland Security on the day his friends say he disappeared. The Interior Ministry and Homeland Security department denied this, saying Regeni was not held by police or Homeland Security. Following the report, local media reported that two individuals filed criminal complaints asking police to investigate Reuters and its Cairo bureau chief. (Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Dominic Evans)
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Saturday sought the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and documents to Qatar. The final ruling is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion. The verdict against former president Mohamed Mursi, who is charged in the same case, was postponed to the same day. The three journalists, one Jordanian, were sentenced in absentia. Two of them work for Qatar-based broadcaster Al Jazeera. They can appeal. The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail. Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas. Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges. Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt's then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi. Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt's most organised political group. (Editing by Janet Lawrence)
CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court on Saturday recommended the death penalty for three journalists and three others charged with endangering national security by leaking state secrets to Qatar, in a ruling condemned by the Doha-based Al Jazeera channel as shocking. Jordanian national Alaa Omar Sablan and Ibrahim Mohammed Helal, who both work for Al Jazeera, and Asmaa Al Khateeb, a reporter for Rassd, a pro-Muslim Brotherhood news network, were sentenced in absentia. They can appeal. The sentence is the latest since a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood after an army takeover stripped former president Mohammed Mursi of power in 2013 following mass protests against his rule. Al Jazeera said the ruling provoked "shock and anger" and called for international action to safeguard journalists' rights to report news freely. "The death sentence against journalists is unprecedented in the history of world media and amounts to a real stab against freedom of expression around the world," the satellite channel said in a statement posted on its website. Mursi and other Brotherhood leaders, as well as leading figures from the 2011 popular uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, many of them secular activists and journalists, are now in jail. Following Saturday's ruling, a final decision is expected on June 18, after the sentence has been referred to the top religious authority, the Grand Mufti, for a non-binding opinion. Judge Mohammed Shireen Fahmy, who announced the verdict, also said that a ruling against Mursi and several others charged in the same case, would be postponed to the same date. Prosecutors in Saturday's case argued that Mursi's aides were involved in leaking sensitive documents to Qatari intelligence that exposed the location of weapons held by the Egyptian armed forces. Defence lawyers said that documents were moved out of the presidential palace to protect them during growing protests against Mursi's rule, but this process was not the responsibility of the president and the documents presented in the case show no signs of spying. "The case's documents are devoid of any type of espionage or participation in it," a defence lawyer told Reuters. Mursi has been sentenced in three other cases, including the death penalty for a mass jail break during the 2011 uprising and a life sentence for spying on behalf of Hamas. Qatar had supported Mursi, who is in jail along with thousands of Brotherhood members, many of whom have been sentenced to death on separate charges. Relations between Qatar, a Gulf Arab state, and Egypt have been icy since July 2013 when Egypt's then-army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi overthrew Mursi. Sisi says the Brotherhood poses a serious threat to security despite the crackdown, which has weakened what was once Egypt's most organised political group. (Additional reporting by Sami Aboudi, editing by Janet Lawrence and Digby Lidstone)
Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump sparred on Twitter on Friday, after the presumptive Republican nominee again attacked the Massachusetts Senators heritage, arguing that she is not part Native American.

In a series of Tweets on Friday, Warren called Trump a bully who has a single play in his playbookoffensive lies thrown at anyone who calls him out after he described her claims to Native American heritage as phony. Warrens heritage became an issue during her 2012 Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Scott Brown, and Trump has criticized her for it before.

Fridays back-and-forth is the latest in an ongoing feud between the two. Earlier this week, Warren accused Trump of building a campaign on racism, sexism, and xenophobia. Trump responded on Friday during his speech at a rally in Oregon, calling her a goofus and a basketcase.

The progressive senator, who many Democrats had hoped would run for president this year, has been a vocal critic of Trump throughout his campaign and is speculated to be a vice presidential contender.

I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth Warren as her running mate, Trump posted to Twitter on Friday. I will defeat them both.

Warren quickly hit back, calling his attacks lame and slamming the presumptive GOP nominee for racism, sexism & xenophobia.

RELATED VIDEO:
One more Empire star is officially off the market!

Kaitlin Doubleday married Devin Lucien in an intimate ceremony at the Ventana Inn in Big Sur, California, on a rainy Friday night.

WATCH: 17 TV Families Who Are Super Close in Real Life

Doubelday wore a Mark Zunino gown with floral embellishments, and the aisle was lined with pink and white roses.

Empire co-creator Lee Daniels and Doubleday's co-stars Gabourey Sidibe and Rafael de la Fuente were among the guests, who all enjoyed a variety of Winc Wines and plenty of yummy food.

Daniels was one of the first to congratulate the newlyweds, sharing a photo on Instgram of the bride and groom looking absolutely giddy as they made their way down the aisle. "Ronda got married!!!!!" he exclaimed.

Doubleday was happy to share moments from her nuptials with fans, including one of her first dances with her new husband. "Most beautiful night of my life by far. Worth every moment of stress and headache," she wrote on Instagram. "We have the most incredible friends and family and they were all here to witness our love. Thank you to all of you. You know who you are  #KaitlinDevinDay."

She also posted a beautiful shot of herself with her mom, grandmother and sister, which she shared after the nuptials on Mother's Day.

Just ahead of the ceremony, one of Lucien's groomsmen, Omer Levy, shared a very dapper shot with the husband-to-be (bowties and all!), writing, "My brotha is getting hitched tonight."

NEWS: 'Empire' Stars Trai Byers and Grace Gealey Tie the Knot in Secret Island Wedding

Another wedding party pal, Cameron Klippsten, shared a delightful sunglasses at night shot. "I love this man," he captioned the Instagram. "Congrats @devinlucien & @kaitlindday on your new beginning."

Doubleday and Lucien, a DJ based out of Los Angeles and Chicago, got engaged in Paris, France, last May. The 31-year-old actress described the evening as "the most memorable night of my life thus far."

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Lucien posted an equally adorable photo, captioning his Instagram, "SHE SAID YES!!!!!"

WATCH: The 7 Best Wedding Movies of All Time

Both newlyweds were clearly excited as their big day approached, sharing tidbits about their soon-to-be-married life on social media. On Thursday, Lucien tweeted, "Gonna be married tomorrow life is trippy that way," while Doubleday shared a shot of their wedding bands via Instagram. "Making sure they fit/mesmerized by the spark on our drive to the end of our lives! (Singles lives that is)," she captioned the snap taken from the passenger side on their way up to Central California.



gonna be married tomorrow life is trippy that way  devinlucien (@devinlucien) May 5, 2016

Two more friends, Evan Silverberg and McNair Zimbalist, shared the same photo taken at the rehearsal dinner at Big Sur Bakery later that night, with Zimbalist captioning his Instagram post, "Picture perfect wedding weekend for @kaitlindday and @devinlucien. Love you guys."

Doubleday's on-screen husband, Trai Byers, just got hitched as well. He married their Empire co-star, Grace Gealey, in a secret wedding on Grand Cayman Island last month.

Byers was one of the first to send Doubleday his well-wishes after her engagement, sharing a very enthusiastic message in the caption of her Instagram post. "Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congratulations Devin and Kaitie!!!!!!! This is epic!!! Love y'all. Show em how it's done!! So happy for you guys!!!," he wrote.

WATCH: Jimmy Fallon Pulls Off the Ultimate 'Empire' Parody -- With Some Epic Surprise Guests!

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Kim Kardashian attended a pal's wedding last weekend in Miami, where she celebrated by taking a number of risque photos of herself and many of the famous guests, who included her husband, Kanye West, and sister, Kourtney Kardashian. Get all the details on the NSFW party shenanigans in the video below.

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By Silvia Aloisi MILAN (Reuters) - Italian utility Enel has presented an informal offer to buy a majority stake in fiber network company Metroweb as part of its plans to roll out a high-speed Internet network, a source familiar with the matter said on Saturday. The offer would see Enel acquire the 54 percent stake in Metroweb currently owned by infrastructure fund F2i for around 400 million euros, valuing the whole of Metroweb at 776 million euros, the source said. The preliminary, informal bid was presented to state-owned Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), which owns the rest of Metroweb and a minority stake in F2i, the source added. Effectively, any friendly bid for control of Metroweb would need CDP's consent. Enel and CDP declined to comment. F2i said in a statement it had not received an offer for its stake in Metroweb, adding it would assess any proposal in the interest of its own investors and of the fiber network company. Rolling out a national ultra-fast broadband network is a key plank in the reformist agenda of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who has enlisted state-controlled Enel's help to achieve the goal. Taking a majority stake in Metroweb would boost Enel's ambitions because of its fiber assets and skills. Italy's biggest utility earlier this year set up Enel Open Fiber (EOF) to develop its fiber ambitions and plans to invest 2.5 billion euros ($2.85 billion) to bring ultra fast broadband into peoples' homes using its existing power network. Under the informal proposal, Enel Open Fiber and CDP would jointly manage Metroweb, the source said. However, phone group Telecom Italia is also interested in taking full control of Metroweb to boost its own plans to expand fast Internet coverage in Italy. The source said Telecom Italia was expected to present its own, rival offer for Metroweb as soon as Monday. A second source said Telecom Italia would make its offer early next week. Enel's board meets on Monday to approve first-quarter results and should also discuss the offer for Metroweb, although no statement on the matter is expected. Telecom Italia's board meets on May 13. The former state telecoms monopoly is in parallel talks with F2i and CDP to buy Metroweb for cash and in exchange for a stake in its international wholesale unit Sparkle, which may give its offer an edge over Enel's, sources have said. CDP, which controls Italy's gas and power grid companies Snam and Terna, is keen to tighten its grip on strategic networks in the country. Sparkle is deemed strategic because its submarine network transmits information between countries in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Americas. If CDP were to own a slice of Sparkle this would help the government prevent it from falling into foreign hands, especially given the growing influence of French media group Vivendi as the top investor in Telecom Italia. The decision on the fate of Metroweb is politically sensitive and the government is likely to wait until municipal elections in early June before choosing between Enel's and Telecom's offers, another source said. (Additional reporting by Stephen Jewkes and Stefano Rebaudo; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Toby Chopra)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Almost 2,000 far-right protesters marched through Berlin on Saturday to demand that Chancellor Angela Merkel step down for allowing more than a million migrants from the Middle East into Germany since last year. Under the motto 'Merkel must go', demonstrators gathered outside Berlin's central train station waving German flags and holding up posters reading "Islamists not welcome" and "Wir sind das Volk" ("We are the People"), a slogan coined by the protesters who ended communist rule in East Germany, adopted last year by the anti-Islam Pegida movement. The rally drew around 1,800 participants, police said, less than half the number organizers had expected, and the protesters were outnumbered by around 7,500 left-wing counter-demonstrators who also marched through the capital. A spokesman for the police said there had been scuffles when several left-wing demonstrators tried to break through barriers separating the two groups, and threw bottles at police. Police used tear gas and made several arrests, the spokesman said, adding that the situation had quickly been brought under control. While many Germans have welcomed the new arrivals, others say the country cannot cope with integrating them and risks losing its identity. Support for the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party has risen sharply, while arson attacks on refugee centers and sometimes violent protests have become increasingly common. (Reporting by Reuters TV and Thorsten Severin; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Fast & Furious 8 aka Fast 8 has the distinction of being the second film and the first big budget movie given the green light to shoot in Cuba since the start of improved relations between the island nation and the United States. The next installment of Universals guaranteed money-printing franchise is currently filming in Havana, and to commemorate the milestone, the production released a new set video paying tribute to the city and its people. The gist: theyre having a blast. And so was I while watching. Watch it for yourself below.

Instagram Photo

The first in what star Vin Diesel has described as a trilogy that will bring the series to close, Fast 8 is keeping the series tradition of sending the franchises globetrotting street racing enthusiasts to various exotic locals, including Iceland in addition to Cuba. (Per the first poster, the series will also see team Toretto in New York City.)

Written by Chris Morgan and directed by Straight Outta Compton helmer F. Gary Gray, Fast 8 sees core cast members Diesel, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Chris Ludacris Bridges returning along with 2Fast 2Furious co-star Eva Mendes, Tokyo Drifts Lucas Black, and Furious 7s Kurt Russell and Jason Statham. Theyre joined this time out by Charlize Theron, Kristofer Hivju and Scott Eastwood in as-yet unrevealed roles. Its set to hit theaters April 14, 2017.

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An Ivy League professor writing math equations on a plane was inadvertently involved in a flight delay on Thursday when another passenger reported his activity as suspicious.

Guido Menzio, an economics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the planewhich was flying from Philadelphia to Syracusereturned to the gate after the woman seated next to him gave a note to the flight attendant, the Associated Press reported.

Casey Norton, a spokesman for American Airlines, said the woman reported that she felt sick and wanted to get off the plane, prompting its return to the gate. As she was leaving the Air Wisconsin-operated flight, the woman expressed concerns about Menzios behavior, and an airline security official was called, Norton said.

Menzio, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, told the Associated Press that he was questioned by the pilot and an official after the plane returned to the gate.

I thought they were trying to get clues about her illness, Menzio said, according to the AP. Instead, they tell me that the woman was concerned that I was a terrorist because I was writing [strange] things on a pad of paper.

Norton said Menzio was not removed from the plane, but he got up from his seat to speak with airline officials on the jet bridge because he was concerned about the womans illness.

There was definitely a conversation about the concerns that she raised, Norton said, declining to specify what her concerns were. Anytime a customer expresses concerns we are going to look into it and determine that the flight is 100 percent safe to fly.

Menzio returned to the plane, which took off after a roughly two-hour delay, while the woman opted to take a later flight, Norton said.
Amid a campaign season in which presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to make Mexico pay for a massive border wall and has slammed foreign nations as "killing" the U.S. in trade, a former Mexican leader would like to know why Trump doesn't use American labor.

Vincente Fox Quesada, who was president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, expertly taunted the real-estate billionaire on Friday with a photo of the "handmade in China" labels on Trump ties.

"Hey @realDonaldTrump, bringing jobs back to US  does that include your ties & shirts?" Fox wrote.

Hey @realDonaldTrump, bringing jobs back to US - does that include your ties & shirts? #MadeInChinapic.twitter.com/e5SkBJC42b https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Chy5878VEAE54KG.jpg:large

It's true. Trump's line of ties and shirts are made in China, Bangladesh or other countries, while his signature suits are manufactured in China as well. His daughter, Ivanka Trump, sells a different line of clothing, which Harvard professor Robert Lawrence told CNN Money appears to be comprised exclusively of imported items.

Trump has acknowledged the seeming hypocrisy before  according to him, current U.S. trade policies mean that producing the clothing stateside is too expensive.
Fort McMurray (Canada) (AFP) - Jonathan Infante fled for his life from wildfires ravaging Canada's remote Athabasca oil-producing region, and now he and other migrant workers face the grim prospect of having to altogether leave Canada.

Their residency here is tied to their employment and if that is now gone -- literally up in smoke -- they could be forced to leave this country.

The wildfires in northern Alberta have forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.

Among the evacuees were almost two dozen distraught migrant workers who arrived late Friday at a government shelter in Edmonton, Alberta's capital.

Marco Luciano of the migrant advocacy group Coalition for Migrant Worker Rights in Canada, who was on hand to greet them, said many showed up in their work uniforms.

"They had been evacuated from work and did not have time to stop at home to pick up any of their clothes or belongings," Luciano told AFP.

"They're not sure what's coming... Because they no longer have work, their (residency) status has become precarious."

"Many are bracing for the worst," he said.

Infante's wages support a wife and two children back in the Philippines.

The Wendy's fast food restaurant in Fort McMurray where he worked is believed to have survived the wildfires, so far.

- 'Wait and see' -

"Our employer told us to wait and see," Infante said outside an evacuation center in Lac La Biche, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Fort McMurray.

According to Luciano's group, there are about 70,000 temporary foreign workers accredited in Alberta. There's no breakdown available of how many were displaced by the fires.

Fort McMurray has been a popular destination for foreign workers over the past decade.

Many work in restaurants or lodges and provide childcare -- relatively lower-paying jobs in the oil-producing region where employers say it is hard to recruit local staff.

The service industry in particular lobbied hard to ease the rules for temporary foreign workers in order to allow more into Alberta during its boom years when oil prices were higher.

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Luciano said they are facing more challenges than Canadian citizens in finding temporary accommodations until the fire situation comes under control as few have family or friends nearby who can take them in.

Many also lost their documents in the fires, and have meager savings they can tap into over the short term.

Canadian immigration officials are looking into the situation to see if exceptions could be made that would allow them to stay in Canada.

Several foreign embassies, meanwhile, have offered assistance, including replacing lost passports and expediting travel home.

Egdon Parra, who is acquainted with several migrant workers in Fort McMurray, said he hopes they will receive special consideration from Ottawa.

"It would be a calamity if they were asked to leave Canada," he said.

Parra said the workers need time to recover from the trauma of recent days.

"This has been hard for them, for everyone," he said.

"The government must understand that they are important members of the community, they contribute to the economy and they pay taxes," Parra added.

"They don't just work here, they live here too, even if it's only temporarily."
New York (AFP) - The founder of an online underworld bank that allegedly laundered billions of dollars for criminals was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Arthur Budovsky, 42, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering on January 29, three days before the scheduled start of his trial in New York.

He was also ordered to pay a $500,000 fine by US District Judge Denise L. Cote, who noted that Budovsky did not express any "genuine remorse".

"The significant sentence handed down today shows that money laundering through the use of virtual currencies is still money laundering, and that online crime is still crime," Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell for the Justice Departments Criminal Division said in a statement.

"Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky ran a digital currency empire built expressly to facilitate money laundering on a massive scale for criminals around the globe," US Attorney Preet Bharara for the Southern District of New York was quoted as saying.

Prosecutors said Costa Rica-based Liberty Reserve operated an alternative digital currency that helped cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder the proceeds of illegal activity.

The company was a "financial hub" for Ponzi scheme operators, credit card traffickers, identity thieves, hackers and other criminals, authorities said.

The system became operational in 2005. By the time it was shut down in 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than 5.5 million user accounts, including more than 600,000 in the United States, the US Department of Justice said.

Overall, it had processed more than 78 million financial transactions with a combined value of more than $8 billion.

The digital exchange mechanism, which allowed depositors to mask their identities, was similar to Bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Budovsky, who was arrested in Spain in May 2013, had renounced his US citizenship and acquired Costa Rica nationality in an apparent bid to avoid prosecution.

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As part of his plea agreement, Budovsky admitted to laundering between $250 million and $550 million in criminal proceeds linked to US-based Liberty Reserve accounts.

Six other people with ties to Liberty Reserve face charges in the case that involved police and investigators from 17 countries.

Co-defendants Maxim Chukharev and Mark Marmilev, who also pleaded guilty, were sentenced to three and five years respectively.

Two others are set to be sentenced on May 13, while another two remain at large.
London (AFP) - Swansea City all but ended West Ham United's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League with a stunning 4-1 away win at Upton Park on Saturday.

The Welsh club, hit by injuries and with little to play for having long been assured of Premier League survival, were 3-0 up inside 51 minutes courtesy of goals from Wayne Routledge, Andre Ayew and Ki Sung-Yeung.

West Ham, in their penultimate match at Upton Park before moving to the Olympic Stadium next season, pulled a goal back when Diafra Sakho's effort was finally put through his own goal by Swansea's Stephen Kingsley.

Yet far from being the cue for a Hammers revival, it was Swansea who scored again courtesy of substitute Bafetimbi Gomis's stoppage-time effort.

Defeat left sixth-placed West Ham, now just two points in front of Southampton, with a pair of tricky season-ending matches against Manchester United and Stoke City in their quest to assure themselves of at least a place in next term's Europa League.

Hammers playmaker Dimitri Payet was narrowly off target with two free-kicks and it was Swansea who opened the scoring in the 25th minute.

Ki collected the ball on the left and passed to Kyle Naughton on the right and, with the Hammers defence out of position, his cross was turned in by the unmarked Routledge.

West Ham should have equalised when Lukasz Fabianski flapped at a Payet corner but Angelo Ogbonna shot over the top from in front of an open goal.

Worse followed for the home side when Swansea, six minutes after going 1-0 up, scored a second goal that was similar in its creation to their opener.

This time Kingsley raced past Victor Moses and his cross gave Ayew a tap-in.

Six minutes after half-time Swansea made it 3-0, Modou Barrow cutting the ball back for South Korea's Ki to slot home.

West Ham eventually had a goal in the 69th minute when Sakho, via a deflection off Kingsley, stabbed in the rebound at the second attempt after Fabianski had saved Michail Antonio's header.

But the Hammers conceded another goal late on when Gomis, after good work by Ayew, beat Darren Randolph.
Seoul (AFP) - Analysis of recent satellite images suggests North Korea may be moving forward with preparations to conduct a fifth nuclear test in the near future, a US think-tank said Saturday.

The pictures, dated May 5, show closely parked vehicles at what is believed to be the test command centre, some six kilometres (four miles) south of the underground detonation site at Punggye-ri in the country's northeast.

"While the historical record is incomplete, it appears that vehicles are not often seen there except during preparations for a test," said the analysis by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Although the actual test site continues to show "low levels" of activity, the vehicle presence "suggests Pyongyang may be preparing for a nuclear test in the near future," it said.

On Friday, North Korea kicked off a rare and much-hyped ruling party congress that numerous analysts had predicted could be preceded by a fresh nuclear test.

South Korean officials have not ruled out the possibility of a test being conducted during the party conclave, which is expected to last three or four days.

North Korea has conducted four nuclear tests. The most recent was on January 6, with Pyongyang claiming it marked the country's first successful test of a powerful hydrogen bomb.

The UN Security Council responded by imposing its strongest sanctions to date over the North's nuclear weapons programme.

In his opening speech to the party congress on Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed the "magnificent" strides the country had made with its nuclear weapons programme in the face of "malicious pressure and sanctions."
Protesters called for the dismissal of San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr on Friday, May 6, as they protested outside the office of Mayor Ed Lee at City Hall. Protesters chanted, Fire Chief Suhr and Ed Lee, You cant hide as the #Frisco5 campaign continued for the 16th day. Five individuals started the campaign in April to protest against police brutality and ethnic violence in the city.

The five activists, who have been on a hunger strike for 16 days, were sent to the hospital on Friday. They vowed to continue the hunger strike until San Francisco police chief Greg Suhr resigns or gets fired. Credit: Twitter/sanasaleem
Frankfurt (AFP) - Greece has "basically achieved" the objectives of the reforms required by its creditors and its eurozone partners will begin discussing possible debt relief for the country, according to European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker.

"We are now at the time of the first review of the programme (to aid Greece) and the objectives have been basically achieved," Juncker said in an interview to be published Sunday in the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers in Germany.

Greece's creditors carried out the review intended to evaluate progress on reforms by the Athens government as it hopes to unlock the next tranche of its 86-billion-euro ($95 billion) bailout agreed in July.

The Eurogroup, comprised of the 19 finance ministers of the euro area countries, is set to meet Monday in Brussels and take up this review of Greek reforms.

They will also "start the first discussions about how to make Greece's debt sustainable in the long term", Juncker told the German papers.

Approval of the reforms is needed before any consideration of Greek debt relief, but despite months of talks, Greece's reforms have yet to win the backing of all its creditors largely due to differences between the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, which has demanded more reforms.

Juncker's comments come as Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos Saturday called on his eurozone partners to back Greece's reform package of cuts worth 5.4 billion euros, and to put aside the creditors' call for 3.6 billion euros of additional measures.

"Any package in excess of 5.4 billion is bound to be seen by both Greek citiziens and economic agents, within and beyond Greece, as socially and economically counter-productive," he wrote in a letter to the Eurogroup.

Tsakalotos warned of the price of a "failed state" if the crucial talks on Monday run aground.

At the same time IMF chief Christine Lagarde also addressed the Eurogroup in a letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, urging the ministers to take up the question of debt relief.

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Lagarde stressed the need to revise down the goal of Greece achieving a primary budget surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP in 2018, saying it was "counterproductive" to expect Athens to meet the target.

But the IMF also said there were "significant gaps" in Greece's reform offers.

Greece is under pressure as it faces a huge payment to the European Central Bank in July, with fears growing that Athens could default if the bailout funds do not come through.
SDP chief Chee Soon Juan, seen here with his wife Huang Chih-Mei, thanking the partys supporters at Bukit Gombak Stadium. (Photo: Joseph Nair)

Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan said the Bukit Batok by-election campaign was an uphill battle, given that he was up against the combined might of the media and the state machinery in an undemocratic society.

Chee said his fellow party members could hold their heads high as they had run a clean campaign, unlike the PAP which had campaigned on false headlines.

He added that he was very encouraged by the vote swing towards the SDP and also pledged to continue to be active in Bukit Batok, in order to garner more support for the party.

The political veteran won 38.8 per cent of the vote in the Single-Member Constituency, losing out to the Peoples Action Party (PAP) candidate Murali Pillais 61.2 per cent of the 23,570 valid votes cast.



This was a significant improvement on the results from the 2015 General Election, when SDP candidate Sadasivam Veriyah garnered just over 26 per cent of the vote.

After the results came in on Saturday (7 May) night, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote on Facebook: This is not just a win for Bukit Batok, but shows all Singaporeans, and others too, that the government and people are united in a building a better nation together.

Speaking to reporters at a doorstop, Chee responded to Lees comments: If you wanted to say this and you campaigned on this, and you won on this, its a very different story. But when you campaign on false headlines, what else can you say? When Wanbao does things like that and people start all these kinds of smear (efforts) and then you say you want to appeal to a better nation?

The SDP chief was alluding to a Lianhe Wanbao article that had said Chee was proud of his crazy past. The headline was later amended when Chee denied uttering that phrase.



He added in Mandarin: I cannot understand it, how the journalist and editor managed to print a headline based on something I did not say. If we had a professional media with high standards, this would be a sackable offence.

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(Video by Jeremy Ho)



The supporters speak

A party volunteer, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media, said he was disheartened as he thought Chee had a fighting chance against Murali. He added: We will carry on doing the ground work, and see what the next party objective is.

Actress Neo Swee Lin, who spoke at one of the SDPs rallies, told Yahoo Singapore that she was hopeful despite the result. I know Dr Chee will keep coming back. I have hope because there were more voting for the SDP this time, she said.

SDP supporters react following the release of the by-election results. (Photo: Joseph Nair)



Analysts weigh in

Sharing his thoughts on the by-election results, National University of Singapore political scientist Reuben Wong said: I think the SDPs vote share was disappointing for them because they were playing to win and were quite far off the mark. For me you need to hit 40 per cent.



He noted that the vote swing was not a big deal as the by-election effect in Singapore is strong, with the PAP having lost every by-election for single-seat wards since 1981.



Regarding Chees leadership of the SDP, Wong said: If he (Chee) continues leading the SDP and they continue to have these kinds of results in elections, there will probably be numbers in the party looking for a change in leadership. People dont want to be in a losing team.

He added: My suspicion is that somebody who doesnt attract that kind of negative vibe as Chee Soon Juan would have done better.

Also weighing in was Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan, who said that the SDP came out better for all their efforts in the by-election.

Given that he (Chee) was able to move one out of 10 voters who voted for the PAP just eight months ago, (which) contributed to his best electoral performance  he can claim it was a successful campaign, he said.



Despite not hitting the 40 per cent mark in terms of the vote share, Tan said the results give the Chee a good base on which he can build.



I think he (Chee) needs to stop moving around He needs to show his sincerity and commitment to one constituency, he said.


Idris Elba is in talks to star alongside Jessica Chastain in Aaron Sorkins directorial debut Mollys Game.

Chastain is in negotiations for the lead role of Molly Bloom. Stung after failing to make the Olympic team, Bloom decided to take a year off before law school and get a job as a waitress in Los Angeles. Through a bizarre set of circumstances as well as untapped entrepreneurial skills, she ended up making millions by running, for eight years, the most exclusive high-stakes poker game in the world. Her life came crashing down when 17 FBI agents armed with automatic weapons rang her doorbell.

Sorkin is also penning the script, based on Blooms memoir. Mark Gordon will produce with Amy Pascal. Leopoldo Gout will EP.

eOne and The Mark Gordon Company are financing the feature.

The casting of Jessica and Idris in the two lead roles is any filmmakers dream come true, Sorkin said. Theyre two of the greatest actors of their generation, paired for the first time, and their chemistry will be electric.

Elba starred in Netflixs critically acclaimed Beasts of No Nation, which earned him the SAG Award for best supporting actor. Since then, Elba has landed the lead role opposite Matthew McConaughey in Sonys The Dark Tower as well the Fox 2000 pic The Mountains Between Us. Elba was most recently seen in The Jungle Book, where he voiced the villain Shere Khan. Hell play another baddie in Star Trek Beyond.

Chastain most recently starred in The Huntsman: Winters War and is currently filming the gun-control thriller Miss Sloane.

Elba is repped by WME, the Headshell Management and The Artists Partnership.

CAA and WME are co-reupping rights at Cannes.

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By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - Thirteen Iranian soldiers were killed in a battle with Islamist militants over a village near the Syrian city of Aleppo, Tehran said on Saturday, in one of Iran's biggest single-day losses since it sent forces to support President Bashar al-Assad. Russia meanwhile said that a truce in Aleppo itself had been extended until Monday. Islamist forces seized Khan Touman village, about 15 km (9 miles) southwest of Aleppo, on Friday and dozens of people were reported to have been killed in the fighting. The attack was launched by an alliance of Islamist insurgents known as Jaish al-Fatah, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Iran's Fars news agency quoted a Revolutionary Guards official as saying that 13 Iranian military advisors had been killed and 21 wounded. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had confirmed from its sources on the ground the death of 20 Iranians, including 13 advisors. The monitor said that among the Iranian-backed militia fighters involved in the battles, six from Lebanon's Hezbollah Shi'ite movement and 15 Afghan Shi'ite fighters were also killed. Jaish al-Fatah and affiliates posted videos and photos on social media of what appeared to be the bodies of Iranians or Shi'ite militiamen who were killed in Khan Touman. They included footage of wallets, personal documents and Iranian currency. Iran, along with Russia, has been a principle ally of Assad in the five-year-old civil war, while Gulf Arab states and the West have supported various rebel factions. A senior advisor to Iran's Supreme Leader on Saturday reiterated Tehran's continued support of Assad in a meeting with the president in Damascus. "Iran will use all its means to fight against terrorists who are committing crimes in the region," Ali Akbar Velayati, Ayatollah Khamenei's adviser on international affairs, was quoted as saying by Fars. Iranian proxies, including Afghans and Iraqis as well as Lebanese, have been involved in Syria from as early as 2012. While Tehran previously said its support was limited to advisors, it has been more open about the extent of its role since Russia intervened on Assad's side last year. Iran has been particularly involved in campaigns around Aleppo in northwest Syria, which was the country's commercial and industrial centre before the war and is now divided between government and rebel forces. Fighting in the countryside to the south of Aleppo has escalated in recent days despite a ceasefire in city itself since Wednesday. The Russian defence ministry said a "regime of calm" truce in Aleppo and parts of Latakia province had been extended for 72 hours beginning at 1 a.m. on Saturday (2200 GMT on Friday), Syrian state news agency SANA reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring organisation, said Syrian and Russian warplanes had intensified their bombing of insurgent positions near Khan Touman. In northern Syria, U.S.-led coalition airstrikes killed 48 Islamic State fighters on Saturday, Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency said, quoting the Turkish military. The strikes were in response to increasingly frequent Islamic State attacks against opposition forces in the area, Turkisk security sources told Andadolu. The Turkish border town of Kilis, which lies just across the frontier from Islamic State-controlled territory of Syria, has been hit by regular rocket fire in recent weeks. The war in Syria has killed more than 250,000 people though, with tens of thousands unaccounted for, some say the death toll may be as high as 400,000. (Editing by Angus MacSwan)
A decorated professor of economics at the University of Pennsylvania was surprised when American Airlines pilots whisked him off of the delayed flight he had been sitting on to tell him that he had been flagged as a terror suspect.

Prof of economics at UPenn, removed from plane for Algebra (which DOES have Arabic origins). http://web-facstaff.sas.upenn.edu/~gmenzio/ pic.twitter.com/7m7wloXr0H https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ch0iD_6UUAAU9CX.jpg:large

Menzio, who according to the Washington Post was dressed in a red Lacoste sweater and blue jeans that day, had been using the time on his connecting flight to Ontario, Canada, to prepare for a talk he would be giving at Queens University on costs and price dispersion.

After he explained the situation to authorities, he was permitted to re-board the plane. The flight, in the air for just 41 minutes, was ultimately delayed by several hours.

Casey Norton, an American Airlines spokesperson, told the Washington Post that when passengers raise concerns about issues during their flight, "we try to work with them peacefully to resolve it."

Menzio told the Post that though he didn't feel he had been treated disrespectfully, he was troubled by both a "broken system that does not collect information efficiently," and its willingness to rely on "the input of people who may be completely clueless."

"What might prevent an epidemic of paranoia? It is hard not to recognize in this incident the ethos of [Donald] Trump's voting base," he said.

Read more: 'Minority Report' Is Real  And It's Really Reporting Minorities
There he is! Jenni JWoww Farley shared the first photo of her newborn son via her new app on Friday, May 7, one day after she and husband Roger Mathews welcomed him into the world.

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In the photo, the day-old baby looks to be stretching in his crib, arms and legs wriggling as he snoozes with a tiny cap on.



So blessed to welcome our precious son Greyson Valor Mathews, Farley, 30, wrote in an Instagram post. He arrived healthy at 6:03pm tonight and the most beautiful part is Roger got to deliver him with our doctor. I took so many videos and pics and want to share them all in one place. Download my app and over the next two weeks, I will be adding the most beautiful photos and videos!! #Thankful #Fulfilled #InLove #BabyMathews.

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The former Jersey Shore star later shared a repost photo of Mathews delivering their baby boy while decked out in medical scrubs.



The happy couple are already parents to 21-month-old daughter Meilani, and Farley has posted a bit recently about how she plans to assimilate this latest addition to their three-person family, even asking her BFF Nicole Snooki Polizzi for advice.



But by the looks of it, Meilani is adjusting just fine.

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Someone is excited to see her baby brother #meilanithebaker, Farley captioned an Instagram post of her daughter posing in front of an enormous, blue-frosted cake. Looks so yummy!!!!






ALMATY (Reuters) - Kazakh police derailed a fresh protest against land reforms on Saturday by detaining several activists and blocking access to the main square of Almaty, the Central Asian nation's biggest city. Hundreds of Kazakhs have taken to the streets in several cities over the last two weeks in a rare series of public dissent against President Nursultan Nazarbayev's government. Their main demand is the reversal of a legal reform aimed at launching large-scale farmland privatization, which would allow foreigners to lease local plots for up to 25 years, up from 10 years under the current regulations. Nazarbayev has tolerated little dissent in running the former Soviet republic, a major oil producer, since 1989. He relented somewhat to the recent protests this week by delaying the reform until the end of this year, but warned that further rallies would meet a tough response. On Saturday, police pre-emptively detained several political activists ahead of a planned rally, including those who had no plans to attend, one of the detainees and an opposition politician told Reuters. One activist, Mukhtar Taizhan, wrote on his Facebook page that he had been detained as he left his house in the morning and taken to a police station where he spent four hours with another activist before being released without charge. On Thursday, Taizhan wrote on Facebook that he would not take part in the protest following Nazarbayev's move. Opposition politician Amirzhan Kosanov said several other activists had also been detained but no one had been charged. "I am not stepping outside because they are waiting for me too," he told Reuters by telephone. "This looks like a pre-emptive move to ensure (activists) do not attend the protest." Dozens of police also cordoned off part of Almaty's main square where protesters planned to gather, and preventing people who were arriving one by one or in small groups from entering. Reuters correspondents saw police detain a handful of protesters who tried to evade the cordon. (Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Manila (AFP) - Philippine President Benigno Aquino warned Saturday the frontrunner in the race to replace him carried similar dangers to Hitler and would bring terror to the nation.

Anti-establishment candidate Rodrigo Duterte is the favourite to win Monday's election, with millions of Filipinos embracing his populist tirades, but Aquino and other critics have warned he is a dictator in the making.

Using a final election campaign rally to issue his harshest criticism yet, Aquino sought to draw parallels between the rise of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in Germany and what could happen under a Duterte presidency.

"I hope we learn the lessons of history. We should remember how Hitler came to power," Aquino said at the rally in Manila for his preferred successor, fellow Liberal Party stalwart Mar Roxas.

"If you allow them to oppress your fellow man and you do not speak up, you will be the next one to be oppressed."

Aquino repeated the famous quotes of Martin Niemoller, a prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken critic of Hitler and spent the last years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.

"First they came for the communists, but I did not speak out because I was not a communist... finally they came for me and there was no one left to speak up for me."

While the president said surveys showed Duterte had 30 percent support among voters, "70 percent are against him".

"Unity is the key to avoid the darkness and lead the country to a bright future," Aquino said.

"I need your help to stop the return of terror in our land. I cannot do it alone."

Duterte, 71, has gained support across all sectors of society by fashioning himself as an outsider politician who can achieve quick fixes to deep-rooted problems, particularly crime.

The mayor of the southern city of Davao has vowed to end crime within six months of his presidency by ordering security forces to kill tens of thousands of suspected criminals, then pardon himself if he was found guilty of mass murder.

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Duterte has been accused of running vigilante squads in Davao that have killed more than 1,000 suspected criminals. At times he has boasted about his involvement -- but on other occasions denied any links to the vigilantes.

Duterte has also warned as president he will shut down Congress and establish a revolutionary government if lawmakers do not endorse his policies.

Roxas is in equal second place trailing Duterte by 11 percentage points, according to the last survey released before the elections.
(Reuters) - German Marcel Kittel confirmed he was back to his best when he claimed the second stage of the Giro d'Italia in Nijmegen, Netherlands, on Saturday. Kittel, who endured an almost blank season last year because of a virus, outsprinted Frenchman Arnaud Demare and Italian Sacha Modolo. The Etixx-Quick Step rider, who now has 12 grand-tour stage wins to his name, had already won a stage on the Tour de Romandie last month. At the end of the 190-km flat ride from Arnhem, Kittel prevailed in the bunch sprint after the last breakaway rider, Giacomo Berlato, was caught by the peloton less than 10 kilometers from the finish. Dutchman Tom Dumoulin retained the overall leaders pink jersey. Sundays third stage takes the peloton over 190km from Nijmegen to Arnhem before the riders enjoy a rest day as they travel to Italy for the remainder of the three-week race. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; editing by Clare Fallon)
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NIJMEGEN, Netherlands (AP) -- Tom Dumoulin retained the overall lead of the Giro d'Italia as Marcel Kittel sprinted to victory in the second stage on Saturday.

Kittel waited to start his sprint but once the German hit the front no one could challenge him, and the Etixx-QuickStep rider had time to raise his arms in celebration as he crossed the line several bike lengths ahead of Arnaud Demare.

Sacha Modolo was third on the 190-kilometer (118-mile) route from Arnhem to Nijmegen.

It was Kittel's third stage win in the Giro. By coincidence, none of those victories have come in Italy, with his two previous successes in Belfast and Dublin in 2014.

''I'm very happy with this win,'' Kittel said. ''I was very focused on this Giro, on the start here. From now on we can be relieved and look forward to the next stage.

''I'm not a GC rider so (the pink jersey) is not my main priority. I gave everything on the time trial and I hoped for a win today to have a chance tomorrow. It's good to be in this situation but we'll focus on tomorrow and if we win then anything is possible.''

Kittel moved to third in the overall standings, one second behind Dumoulin and Primoz Roglic, who the Dutchman beat by one hundredth of a second in Friday's opening time trial.

''It was an easy day to control I think. Although maybe the two guys at the front don't agree,'' Dumoulin said. ''But we were never really in trouble and we had a really nice day in front of the home crowd ... The crowd was huge. It was incredible and I'm really glad to enjoy this in the pink jersey.''

There was an early breakaway of Omar Fraile, Giacomo Berlato, and Maarten Tjallingii, and the trio stayed clear for more than 160 kilometers.

They had an advantage of 10 minutes at one point before the sprinters' teams started working to bring them back.

Fraile and Tjallingii were the first to be caught, while Berlato went alone for a further 13 kilometers, before he was swallowed up at the end of the first of two 8.6-kilometer circuits to the finish line.

The 99th Giro continues in the Netherlands on Sunday with another sprint stage before an early rest day and a return to Italy.

The race ends in Turin on May 29.
Kristen Bell (Photo: Instagram)

Kristen Bell has done it. No, she hasnt cured cancer  shes done the next best thing: figured out how to deal with difficult people.



My kids help me see other people in a different light, says Bell, who has two daughters  Lincoln, 3, and Delta, 17 months  while chatting with Yahoo Celebrity. I meet a lot of new people through my work, and there are so many different personalities. So when someone is more difficult or sees things differently, I think to myself, This persons mom knows their shortcomings and would want me to be kind to them and treat them with patience and respect.

Its that fierce motherly instinct that led Bell to team up with Johnson & Johnson and the United Nations Foundation for the fourth annual Global Moms Relay, a digital campaign that proves small actions can lead to big changes by encouraging parents to help tackle some of the worlds most important challenges. From now until June 17, celebrities including Bell, Jennifer Lopez, Zoe Saldana, and Bryan Cranston will share their responses to the relay question: What do you wish were true for every child, everywhere? Every post, tweet, or share will trigger a $1 donation by Johnson & Johnson to one of five charitable initiatives  including UNICEF, Shot@Life, and Girl Up  up to $350,000.

In celebration of being the first to answer the Global Moms Relay question in a heartwarming video, Bell talked with Yahoo Celebrity about becoming a part of the initiative, what her two daughters are teaching her about being a mom, and how her No Kids anti-paparazzi campaign with husband Dax Shepard has helped change the celebrity media landscape.

Yahoo Celebrity: What inspired you to become a part of the Global Moms Relay?

Kristen Bell: Well, obviously Im a mom, and I believe wholeheartedly that small changes add up to a bigger impact, so Im thrilled to be part of the campaign. The true objective of the Global Moms Relay is all about bringing people together to participate and raise awareness around the idea that if you gather people together, big change can happen. As an outspoken mom, I was really excited to be the first to share a message and my ideas for what I want for children everywhere. Its something I think about often  I put my childs face on everyone I see, and it really altered my experience of how I saw people. Someone whos struggling, or snarky, or smiling  I look at them and think, That could be my kid!

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One of the things we loved about your video was how you said kids can choose who they are and discover any path in life if they have health and security. How important is it for both parents and kids to know that?

People are complex. They need opportunity, safety, and health. For me, having grown up with a mom as a nurse, I focus a lot on health and safety. I vaccinated my kids, and when I share my photos, I donate to a charity called Shot@Life that helps give vaccinations to kids in need around the globe, because if a kid isnt safe and healthy, theyre not allowed to be anything. And thats particularly true now with the disease crises going on, the displacement of 65 million people, war-torn areas  and heads of state are working to figure out how to deal with those issues. But for me, Im very grateful to live in an area where I had medical attention and vaccinations. I think of that for other kids when I see pictures in the media, and its nice to know other moms are concerned as well. Moms hold a key. The way in which their perspective changes when they become a mother enhances everything, and it really is the key to life.

Related: 8 Times Celebrity Moms Got Real About Motherhood



What kind of small action can I take that could lead to big change in the lives of children?

An entry point is going to GlobalMomsRelay.org and sharing a photo  it only takes take two seconds. And if you spend a little more time looking at the site, youll see more opportunities to get involved. Its really about cracking into everyones personal creativity, so you can find whats meaningful for you. Plus, you can go to the site, download the app, and find another charity, like Shot@Life. And theres lots of opportunities to make a difference through social media. You can donate to events on Omaze, join Crowdrise, and thread awareness through your group of friends and community. Awareness is the first step to solving a problem. The more people who know the problem, the closer we are to finding a solution. And big ideas come from sharing small stories.

Kristen and hubby Dax Shepard. (Photo: Todd Williamson/Getty Images)

A while back, you and Dax were huge in spearheading the initiative to raise awareness about paparazzi who were stalking celebrity kids for photographs, and the magazines that purchased the photos. Now that some time has passed, do you feel its gotten better, or is there more work to be done on that front?

Weve noticed a big difference in our own life  we havent been followed by paparazzi since the kids have been born. Its a huge feeling to know I saw a problem, attacked it like a mother, and actually made a difference. Ive heard from entertainers with a bigger profile that it made a difference in their lives and that their children are less paranoid because theyre not being hunted by a strange group of men and women. Culturally, I think weve evolved a little bit. When we started [the No Kids Policy], we asked a question: Are you comfortable with these photos, and are you comfortable looking at them when I tell you how theyre procured? The answer was no, and that was because moms were talking about it in the media. I think were one step closer to healthy consumerism.

Related: Sweet Photos Celeb Moms Have Shared of Their Kids

Do you have any special plans for Mothers Day?

Oh, I have no idea! Because Im a working mom, and millions of moms can relate, all I want to do is spend time with them during the weekend and watch them do what they want to do. I want to spend time with them. So if they want to play with dolls or ride bikes, I just want to experience it along with them. I dont want to be spoiled on Mothers Day; I want to spoil them.

What did you learn about motherhood from your mom, and what are your daughters now teaching you?

Every cliche Ive ever heard came true when I had kids. I had more respect for the things my mom experienced when I was growing up, and I see my mom in a different light. But my kids help me see other people in a different light. I meet a lot of new people through my work, and there are so many different personalities. So when someone is more difficult or sees things differently, I think to myself, This persons mom knows their shortcomings and would want me to be kind to them and treat them with patience and respect. Because I realize my kids could grow up to have a bad personality! And if that happens, I hope everyone treats them with patience and respect. So Im reminded of that when Im away from my kids  honor who Im dealing with, and honor their mother.
By William James and Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) - Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver, became London's first Muslim mayor on Saturday, seeing off a Conservative challenger who attempted to link him to extremism and securing a much-needed win for his opposition Labour Party. Khan's victory, which also makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital, was confirmed shortly after midnight inside London's futuristic glass and steel city hall following a day of mixed news for Labour in elections elsewhere in the country. Dealt a crushing blow in Scotland, where it came third behind the Scottish National Party and Britain's ruling Conservatives, Labour did better than expected in England, saving its left-leaning leader from an early challenge. But the big prize was the London mayor vote, which pitted Khan, 45, who grew up in public housing in inner city London, against Conservative Zac Goldsmith, 41, the son of a billionaire financier. "This election was not without controversy and I am so proud that London has today chosen hope over fear and unity over division," Khan said in a short speech after the results. "I hope that we will never be offered such a stark choice again. Fear does not make us safer, it only makes us weaker and the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city." Plaudits for Khan flooded in from as far afield as New York, whose mayor Bill de Blasio said on Twitter: "Sending congratulations to London's new mayor and fellow affordable housing advocate, @SadiqKhan." Khan's 13.6 percent margin of victory over Goldsmith was the widest in a London mayoral election in 16 years, showing that a bitter campaign marred by accusations that Khan had links to extremists and charges of anti-Semitism within Labour ranks had failed to deter his voters. The Labour lawmaker replaces Conservative Boris Johnson, who ran the city of 8.6 million people for eight years. A top campaigner for Britain to leave the EU, Johnson is seen as a contender to succeed David Cameron as party leader and prime minister. The Conservatives were keen to keep hold of the post, which does not run the City of London financial district but has influence over government in lobbying for the capital. The mayor is responsible for areas such as policing, transport, housing and the environment. Khan, looking exhausted after a much delayed result, made an emotional speech referencing his Pakistani father, who he said would have been "proud that the city he chose to call his home, has now chosen one of his children to be the mayor." ACCUSATIONS Khan held his lead in the opinion polls, despite accusations by Goldsmith that he has shared platforms with radical Muslim speakers and given "oxygen" to extremists. Khan says he has fought extremism all his life and that he regrets sharing a stage with speakers who held "abhorrent" views. The Labour Party accused Goldsmith and the ruling Conservative Party of smearing Khan. Goldsmith denied the charge, saying he had raised legitimate questions over his opponent's judgment - but the tactics do seem to have backfired, with some voters interviewed by Reuters saying they found the campaign "disgusting and slimy". While fighting those charges, Khan, a former human rights lawyer, also distanced himself from the newly elected Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, after a row over anti-Semitism. The Labour leader ordered an inquiry into charges of anti-Semitism after suspending Ken Livingstone, a political ally and a former London mayor, for saying Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism. The impact of the crisis was difficult to gauge in the election of more than 2,700 local officials and new devolved authorities in Scotland and Wales. Compared to the last regional elections in 2011, Labour's share of the vote was down 9.2 percent in Scotland and 7.6 percent in Wales, allowing a strong showing for the anti-EU UK Independence Party before a referendum on membership of the bloc on June 23. But, with fewer losses in England than expected, Corbyn was able to rally enough support to prevent an early challenge. Corbyn, who was elected as party leader last year on a wave of enthusiasm for change and an end to 'establishment politics' among mostly younger members, welcomed some of the results and said he would fight to re-establish Labour in Scotland. "We hung on and we grew support in a lot of places," he said. But he did little to quell criticism of his leadership in a party which has moved from crisis to crisis, the latest the row over anti-Semitism forcing Corbyn to suspend Livingstone. Richard Angell, director of Labour activist group Progress, said the party had to refocus on issues that concern voters. "Corbyn need to shake up his operation, kick out Ken Livingstone as a first step to nailing the anti-Semitism problem and focus on voter-friendly policy," he told Reuters. (Additional reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary in Edinburgh, Kate Holton, Paul Sandle and Andy Bruce in London, Writing by Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Mary Milliken)
Going into Saturday's action, all four second round series are four games deep. In the Western Conference, Dallas-St. Louis and Nashville-San Jose are both tied at 2-2 while Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay have 3-1 leads on Washington and the Islanders respectively.

We'll see three of the upcoming Game 5s today as St. Louis will visit Dallas at 1:00 p.m. ET, Washington will host Pittsburgh at 7:15 p.m. ET, and Nashville will play in San Jose at 10:00 p.m. ET.

Before that happens though, let's look at Friday's contest:

Dont forget, for everything NHL, check out Rotoworld's Player News, and follow @Rotoworld_ HK and @RyanDadoun on Twitter.

Editor's Note: This is your chance to try FanDuel risk free! Sign up today and if you lose your first contest, youll be refunded the entry fee up to $10. Play now.





LIGHTNING 2 ISLANDERS 1 (OT) (Tampa Bay leads 3-1)

The Islanders outshot Tampa Bay 16-6 in the first period, but emerged from that frame with just a 1-0 lead.

Kyle Okposo accounted for New York's marker. He now has two goals and eight points in 10 postseason contests.

In the second period there was an unusual incident as Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss' skate blade broke and he consequently had to get off the ice. Rookie Jean-Francois Berube replaced him for 4:47 minutes and turned aside two shots before Greiss was inserted back into the contest.

Greiss went on to stop 20 of 22 shots Friday night, but suffered his third straight loss. He has a 5-5 record, 2.32 GAA and .928 save percentage in the 2016 playoffs.

For Berube this was his first career playoff appearance. He posted a 2.71 GAA and .914 save percentage in seven regular season games.

The Islanders maintained their 1-0 lead until 7:49 of the third period when Nikita Kucherov found the back of the net for the eighth time in nine postseason games. He leads all players in goals so far in the playoffs.

Tyler Johnson assisted on Kucherov's game-tying marker to extend his point streak to three games. In nine playoff contests, Johnson has four goals and 12 points.

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Overtime proved to be short-lived as Jason Garrison scored just 1:34 minutes into it. It was his first goal and fifth point in nine playoff games.

Andrej Sustr assisted on the goal after going scoreless in his previous eight 2016 postseason contests.

Despite the Islanders' commanding lead in shots on goal in the first period, the Islanders only ended up with a 28-24 edge in that regard.

Ben Bishop turned aside 27 of those Islanders' shots, making this the second time in the last three games that he's held New York to just one goal. He now has a 7-2 record, 2.12 GAA, and .931 save percentage in nine postseason starts.

New York did have a sizeable 45-29 edge in hits, with Islanders forward Matt Martin accounting for a game-high 10 of them. That brings him up to a league-leading 60 hits in 10 games.

With one more win, Tampa Bay will reach the Eastern Conference Final for the second straight year. The Lightning have never gone that deep into the playoffs in back-to-back years before.
LONDON--Sadiq Khan became London's first Muslim mayor Saturday, as voters rejected attempts to taint him with links to extremism and handed a decisive victory to the bus driver's son from south London.

Khan hailed his victory as the triumph of "hope over fear and unity over division."

His win was the most dramatic result in local and regional elections that produced few big changes but underscored Britain's political divisions ahead of a referendum on whether to remain in the European Union.

Labour Party candidate Khan received more than 1.3 million votes -- 57 percent of the total -- to Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith's 43 percent, after voters' first and second preferences were allocated.

Turnout was a relatively high 45.6 percent, up from 38 percent in 2012.

Khan's victory seemed certain for hours from partial results, but the official announcement came past midnight -- more than 24 hours after polls closed -- after delays due to what officials called "small discrepancies" in the count.

Khan was elected to replace Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson after a campaign marked -- and many said marred -- by U.S.-style negative campaigning. Goldsmith, a wealthy environmentalist, called Khan divisive and accused him of sharing platforms with Islamic extremists -- a charge repeated by Prime Minister David Cameron and other senior Conservatives.

Khan, who calls himself "the British Muslim who will take the fight to the extremists," accused Goldsmith of trying to scare and divide voters in a proudly multicultural city of 8.6 million people -- more than 1 million of them Muslim.

The attacks, criticized by some senior Conservatives, appear not to have deterred voters from backing Khan. London has seen attacks by Islamic extremists, including July 2005 suicide bombings that killed 52 bus and subway commuters, but has avoided the level of racial and religious tensions seen in some European cities.

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"Fear does not make us safer -- it only makes us weaker," Khan said in his victory speech. "And the politics of fear is simply not welcome in our city."

Former Conservative strategist Steve Hilton told the BBC that Goldsmith's campaign had brought back "the 'nasty party' label to the Conservative party" -- and said Khan's victory sent a "positive and powerful message about London."

Even Goldsmith's sister criticized his tactics. Journalist and socialite Jemima Goldsmith tweeted: "Sad that Zac's campaign did not reflect who I know him to be - an eco-friendly, independent-minded politician with integrity."

Labour, Britain's main opposition party, performed strongly in the capital, taking more than 40 percent of Londoners' votes. That and Khan's victory were bright spots for Labour, which was pushed into third place in Scotland, where it was once dominant.

The Conservatives under popular Scottish leader Ruth Davidson became the main opposition in Scotland's Edinburgh-based parliament -- an unprecedented situation in a region that shunned the party for decades.

The pro-independence Scottish National Party secured a third term in government in the county's parliamentary elections, but failed by two seats to retain a majority. That may lessen the party's appetite to push for a new referendum on Scottish independence.

SNP Leader Nicola Sturgeon said the party had "won a clear and unequivocal mandate" and would form a minority government rather than seek a coalition.

While Labour's losses in Scotland were humiliating, the party fared less badly overall than many had predicted. It lost only a handful of council seats and held on to control of major English cities including Birmingham, Newcastle and Sunderland.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the party had "a lot of building to do" in Scotland, but had "hung on" in England. But the results will do little to soothe restive Labour lawmakers who think Corbyn's left-wing policies are a turn-off for many voters.

In Wales, which has traditionally been pro-Europe, the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party gained seven Welsh Assembly seats, and the party also won two London Assembly seats, their first ever.

Votes were also being counted in the contest for Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant power-sharing assembly. Full results there were not expected until later Saturday, but the major British Protestant party, the Democratic Unionists, appeared on course to retain its leading role in power.

Britons will vote on June 23 on whether the country should leave the European Union. Andrew Blick, a constitutional expert at King's College London, said the results underscore how difficult the referendum campaign will be, as attitudes nationally seem to be so complex.

"We don't know where the mood is," he said. "There are lots of different moods. What message do you push ahead with in the campaign when you have so many different opinions?"

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.com
By Suzanne Barlyn

(Reuters) - A new U.S. rule requiring the financial industry to identify owners of companies opening accounts includes a loophole that could spur, instead of curb, shell company abuse, transparency and anti-corruption advocates said on Friday.

The Customer Due Diligence (CDD) rule, unveiled by the Obama administration on Thursday, is meant to prevent criminals from using shell companies to hide ownership, launder money and commit other financial crimes.

But the rule leaves room for financial institutions to satisfy a requirement that they identify a shell company's "beneficial" or true owner by listing a senior manager as such a person, said Elise Bean, former staff director and chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, in a call with reporters.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman said in an email that, to meet the beneficial owner requirement, a person would have to be a high-level company official with major responsibilities who is familiar with day-to-day operations. Titles the officer could have include chief executive, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, managing member, general partner, treasurer, president or vice president, she added.

However, due diligence by financial institutions that stops at a management figure would allow individuals who set up shell companies for illicit purposes to continue to hide their identities, Bean said during the call organised by the Washington-based Financial Accountability & Corporate Transparency Coalition.

The use of shell companies to hide assets and avoid taxes is in the spotlight following a massive leak of data from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which embarrassed several world leaders and sparked government investigations around the globe into possible financial wrongdoing by the wealthy elite.

The Obama administration also proposed a bill on Thursday that would require companies to report the identities of their owners to the federal government as another move to combat shell companies.

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Treasury's CDD rule defines "beneficial owner," also known as the real company owner, as someone who owns 25 percent or more of the company. That person can also control or manage the entity. Those individuals can include a person with "significant responsibility" to manage, and can be anyone from a chief executive officer to a vice president, according to the rule.

Those individuals could be figureheads in far flung locations such as the Isle of Man or British Virgin Islands, rather than the real owners, critics of the rule said.

"The definition of a company's beneficial owner or owners must include a robust definition that includes both the concept of 'ownership' as well as 'control' to guard against bad actors using proxies to conduct business on their behalf," said anti-corruption group Global Witness in a statement.

(Reporting by Suzanne Barlyn; Editing by Andrew Hay and Richard Chang)
Mexico City (AFP) - The Mexican authorities transferred the notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to a prison in Ciudad Juarez on the US border Saturday morning in a surprise move, officials said.

Despite speculation, Guzman's transfer had "absolutely nothing" to do with his possible extradition or deportation to the United States -- where he faces extradition requests by courts in California and Texas for homicide and drug trafficking -- Eduardo Sanchez, spokesman for the president's office, told AFP.

The authorities said they moved Guzman to prevent any escape attempt during construction to strengthen his maximum-security prison in Altiplano, 90 kilometers (55 miles) from the capital Mexico City.

Considered one of the world's most powerful drug bosses, Guzman has staged two dramatic escapes from maximum-security prisons, including from Altiplano.

He arrived at the airport in Ciudad Juarez at dawn, heavily guarded by some 150 federal police officers who had arrived earlier in three planes.

Mexico did not warn the US authorities before Guzman's transfer, a US government official told AFP.

The move "surprised everyone," he said, adding that the transfer had nothing to do with the extradition process.

Guzman's lawyer Jose Refugio Rodriguez said the move is "illegal" because his defense team has launched "processes to stop him being transferred from one place to another."

- Secure Jail -

A helicopter transferred Guzman from the airport to a prison in the south of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas.

Although not classified as a maximum-security prison, it has a section for highly dangerous prisoners that is "one of the safest," a National Security Commission source said.

Military soldiers guard the prison, and the road leading to the facility is under especially heavy protection, Mexican media reported.

The former leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel -- one of Mexico's most powerful -- Guzman staged a spectacular jailbreak in July 2015, when he escaped through a hole in his jail cell's shower that led to a 1.5-kilometer (one-mile) tunnel leading outside.

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He was captured in January after months on the run in a colorful episode involving a Mexican soap opera actress and the US film star Sean Penn, who met with the drug boss in hiding.

In 2001, Guzman is believed to have hidden in a laundry basket when he escaped from another maximum security prison in Puente Grande in western Jalisco state, where he was imprisoned since 1993.

The authorities began the process of deporting him to the United States shortly after his capture in January.

President Enrique Pena Nieto has said the extradition would take place "as soon as possible."

Guzman fought the process until March, when he asked his lawyers to stop their efforts because conditions at his prison were intolerable.

He is willing to plead guilty to charges in the United States in return for a lighter sentence and confinement at a medium-security prison, his lawyer Rodriguez said.

Earlier this year, Guzman's lawyers said he was being held incommunicado and that guards were preventing him from sleeping more than two hours at a time, but said more recently that conditions had markedly improved.

The prison authorities in Altiplano had already made improvements at the facility, reinforcing points of access and perimeter security, adding cameras and monitoring command centers and prison conditions.

Guzman is accused of crimes including smuggling tons of drugs into the United States by boat, submarine, airplane and an extensive network of tunnels under the border.

A number of US jurisdictions, including New York, are vying to prosecute him.

Mexican officials have said the extradition process may take a year or more.
mexico justice 43 students

For the last eight years, Mexico has been trying to overhaul its justice system, described by many as dysfunctional, with a series of extensive reforms set to be implemented next month.

But Mexico isn't even close to being ready.

A study published on Wednesday by CIDAC, an independent Mexican think tank, said that the country needs 11 more years for the reforms to be implemented at the current pace.

The reforms, which have a constitutional deadline of June 18, replace Mexico's current system with one more similar to the US's criminal-justice system.

Mexico's old justice system operated under an inquisitorial model, meaning that trials were closed to the public and conducted primarily using written evidence and arguments. In addition, defendants were not automatically given the presumption of innocence.

The US criminal-justice system, like the system Mexico is trying to implement, uses oral trials open to the public.

Because of the slow-moving nature of written proceedings, a massive case backlog has formed in Mexico's courts. The result: a patchy and antiquated justice system that leaves some perpetrators unpunished and suspects languishing in prison awaiting trial for years.

The justice system's dysfunction was most recently seen in the government's botched attempts to get to the bottom of the apparent massacre of 43 students by a drug gang working with corrupt police in 2014.

So far, just 24 of Mexico's 32 states have adopted the reforms, according to Mexico News Daily. Mexico City was one of the nine most recent governments to begin using the new system in late February.

According to CIDAC's report, the reforms have taken so long to implement because of a failure by the state and federal governments to coordinate across institutions. The report found that the government's implementation of the new system was "uncoordinated," "carried out in isolation," and plagued by a constant turnover of authority figures.

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The result, the report found, was that each of Mexico's states and its federal district conducted their own independent and disjointed "processes of transformation," often in a hurry and without implementing "suitable rules" for the overhaul. These rushed, disparate efforts inevitably affected the success of the reforms, the report said.

mexico supreme court

Viridiana Rios, a research fellow at the Washington, DC-based think tank The Wilson Center, told Business Insider last fall that another reason the reforms are taking so long is the difficulty in helping Mexico's lawyers adapt to oral arguments. Retraining an entire profession is no minor feat, and the lawyers are often reluctant to learn an entirely new method of arguing, she said.

"They want to read and write. They don't know how to argue," she said. "Find a lawyer that has never had an oral trial, that has never been trained since he was in law school to talk in public. Then tell him that he needs to talk in public and publicly make his arguments. They are not used to that."

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has put an effort into helping Mexico retrain its lawyers, Rios said, but the three-day or weeklong sessions offered are far from adequate  especially when law schools in the US typically take two or three years to properly train a lawyer.

Further, these reforms have been lagging behind schedule for years, the report found. Mexico made its historic constitutional amendment to overhaul the legal system in 2008, in the hopes that oral arguments will help cases move more quickly. In the current system, the court backlogs are so daunting that cases are often prevented from going to trial, and police officers lack the capacity to investigate crimes thoroughly.

Rios said that because of the court system being consistently bogged down with red tape, corrupt resolutions to unsolved cases are often far easier to implement than legitimate ones.

"It's not that politics are inherently corrupt, or they'd rather be corrupt than legitimate," she said. "It's just that being legal is such a hassle, or impossible. It's the only path sometimes."

The report offered up a strategy to consolidate the reforms to ensure that they remain on pace during the next 11 years. The government must take action to integrate the separate components of the national criminal-justice sector, and be conscious of the effect these reforms have on Mexican citizens, it suggested.

Maria de los Angeles Fromow, head of SETEC, the government committee responsible for implementing the reform, defended progress on the new justice system, saying that it already covers 82% of the population. She acknowledged that next month is just a "starting point."

"There are areas that need work, we recognize that," she said after the presentation of the report.

NOW WATCH: Obama slams Trumps half-baked plan to make Mexico pay for a US border wall





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San Salvador (AFP) - A molasses spill in a river in El Salvador from a sugarcane processing plant has triggered an alert by authorities worried about the effect on fish and people along the waterway.

The civil protection service issued the alert after 3.4 million liters (900,000 gallons) of sludgy, brown, hot molasses was released into La Magdalena river near the town of Chalchuapa, 55 kilometers (35 miles) west of the capital San Salvador.

More than 450 families on or near the river depend on its waters for their daily household and farming needs.

The environment ministry said the spill occurred on Thursday.

The civil protection service said efforts were being made to try to collect the molasses.

Photos on local media websites showed workers shoveling up some of the viscous brown mess along the river bank.
La Paz (AFP) - A former partner of Bolivian President Evo Morales said Saturday that she will pursue legal action to deny him paternity rights over a child she claims is theirs.

In a case that has plunged the 56-year-old leader into scandal, Morales had claimed he fathered a child with Gabriela Zapata who later died, before changing his story to say the child never existed.

Their relationship dates back to 2007. A court ordered the leftist president to undergo a test, and he has, but Zapata says its results can't be trusted.

In court, "I am going to seek relief that includes eliminating (the president's) paternity" rights and obligations "for all the violence the government apparatus has inflicted on a child," she told Red Uno, a private television station.

"I am going to file that suit to deny paternity... so a (new) DNA test will be done on the boy."

Morales took Zapata to court in March to make her prove the boy is alive.

Compounding the scandal, Zapata has also been implicated in an alleged corruption case.

She is currently in jail pending trial on charges of money laundering, embezzlement and influence-peddling.

A former manager at Chinese engineering group CAMC, Zapata is accused of using her ties to the president to land $560 million in government contracts for the company.

The case exploded just as Bolivia prepared to hold a referendum on whether to change the constitution to allow Morales to run for a fourth term.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, went on to lose the February 21 vote -- his first electoral defeat in a decade in power.
Politics

More big-name Republicans abandon Trump  he just shrugs

Big-name GOP leaders piled on Friday against Donald Trump in an extraordinary show of Republican-vs.-Republican discontent over his winning the partys presidential nomination. Trump just shrugged it off, declaring they didnt really matter when compared to all the voters who turned out to vote for him in this years primary elections. Later in the day, two of Trumps vanquished GOP rivals, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, said they would not vote for him in November. That was a startling rejection by party leaders. Trump said he was not surprised about Bushs stance and was tersely dismissive of Graham.

The thing that matters most are the millions of people that have come out to vote for me and give me a landslide victory in almost every state. Donald Trump

Trump has grudgingly agreed to meet next week with Paul Ryan, the Republican House speaker whose statement a day earlier  he said he was not ready to embrace Trumps nomination  set off the intraparty fireworks. Trump said he had no idea if they would patch things up and it wasnt all that important anyway. Ryan said his meeting with Trump would occur next Thursday and that Trump also would meet with other House GOP leaders. Discussions will center on the kind of Republican principles and ideas that can win the support of the American people this November, Ryan said.
Beirut (AFP) - The head of medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Saturday Syria's neighbours should keep their borders open to allow people to flee the war-torn country.

"We need to ensure that the border between Syria and other neighbouring countries remains open. It is a lifeline and people should have the right to flee conflicts," Jerome Oberreit told AFP.

He was speaking after more than 28 civilians including women and children were killed in an attack on a camp for displaced Syrians in Idlib province near the closed Turkish border.

He said the incident was "an illustration that the idea of safe zones inside Syria is dangerously false".

MSF has said that last year alone, 94 air strikes and rocket attacks hit 63 hospitals and clinics that it supports in Syria.

Another 12 MSF-supported health facilities were hit this year, Oberreit said, but these were by no means the only ones hit inside the country.

"We are working in a very extreme environment and unfortunately a lot of other structures have been hit that are totally unnoticed," he said.

Just last week, the bombing of the MSF-supported Al-Quds hospital in the northern city of Aleppo left at least 55 people dead, according to the latest toll from MSF.

At least 270,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Syria's five-year war since it started with the brutal repression of anti-regime protests in 2011.

Most of the refugees are in neighbouring countries, notably Turkey which has become the biggest host country with between two and 2.5 million Syrians on its soil.

Nearly 1.2 million have taken refuge in Lebanon, according to official sources.

Roughly 630,000 people have moed to Jordan, according to the UNHCR, but the authorities there put their number at more than a million.

Both Jordan and Lebanon now have strict restrictions on the entry of Syrians into their territory.
(Photo: Bryan Huang)



Murali Pillai, the Member of Parliament (MP)-elect for Bukit Batok, said on Saturday (7 May) that he was determined to start work immediately to serve the residents of the constituency after prevailing in what he called a tough by-election.

Speaking at a news conference shortly after securing 61.21 per cent of the votes cast in the by-election, the Peoples Action Partys (PAP) candidate thanked his opponent Chee Soon Juan and the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) for putting up a well-organised campaign.

With the mandate from the residents of Bukit Batok, the lawyer said that he would start work tomorrow and begin implementing the ambitious agenda that he had unveiled during the election campaign.

"I will serve everyone despite their political affiliation and I dedicate the results to the Bukit Batok residents, whom I am serving, said Murali at the conference held at the PAPs Bukit Batok branch office.



Among his plans for the residents, Murali had said that he would build a elderly care centre, introduce a job placement programme, partner a cooperative to provide affordable healthcare and start a youth mentoring programme.



When asked about his winning margin in the by-election, Murali said that he was used to such an outcome, having contested and narrowly lost in Aljunied GRC during the 2015 General Elections.



The win gives me encouragement and there is a lot of work that needs to be done, he said.

(Video by Andre He)



PM and other ministers praise Murali

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong congratulated Murali in a Facebook post on Saturday (7 May), saying that the MP-elect has served faithfully in Bukit Batok for many years and will continue to do so.

Thank you, Bukit Batok voters, for your strong support. You have chosen an MP who is committed, trustworthy, and will go the extra mile for you, Lee said.

Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who spoke to reporters after the results were announced, said, I am happy with the result to be honest and in my mind he came stronger than expected.



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Chan Chun Sing, Minister in the Prime Ministers Office and the labour chief, pointed out that it was never easy to win a by-election. The results showed that Bukit Batok residents are satisfied with Muralis efforts to improve the constituency, said Chan.

Responding to a question about what his late father, unionist P.K Pillai, would have said to him if he was still alive, Murali said, He will have reminded me of the promise I made to the residents and if I leave, I leave with the shirt on my back.

Mixed reactions on PAPs margin of victory

Reuben Wong, political scientist from the National University of Singapore, said the electoral outcome was a strong result for the PAP, given that Murali was contesting against a veteran politician in Chee.

He added that PAP would be more confident in fielding minority candidates in single wards in future elections.

You have a minority candidate in a ward that is not known to have a large proportion of minority voters and he still won. Thats a great sign for Singapore politics so you choose (a candidate) based on competence rather than race, Wong said.

But Eugene Tan, law don from the Singapore Management University, argued that the by-election result was not a resounding victory for the ruling party.

For the PAP it is a comfortable margin of victory but when we compare it to the 73 per cent they earned (in Bukit Batok) just 8 months ago, it seems a rather poor outcome. The PAP could argue they have been able to maintain their support, Tan said.
Nepal has recalled its ambassador to India and cancelled an upcoming visit by its president to New Delhi, officials said Saturday, further straining ties between the two neighbours after months of tension.

Deep Kumar Upadhyay was recalled to Kathmandu late Friday after allegedly siding with the Nepali Congress opposition in supporting a threat by the Maoist party to topple Prime Minister K.P Sharma Oli's government, sources said.

Nepal's parliament was thrown into chaos last week after the Maoists threatened to pull out of the ruling coalition and dislodge the prime minister -- a move reportedly also backed by India. The Maoists later decided to continue supporting the government.

"He (Upadhyay) is close to Nepali Congress and seemed to play an internal role in the exercise to change the government, that was the main reason (for his recall)," an official source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Upadhyay was appointed by the former Nepali Congress-led government in April 2015.

A foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Oli did not give a specific reason for the envoy's recall.

"A government has the right to recall an envoy if he does not correctly represent the country, and the decision was taken accordingly," Gopal Khanal said.

It came as President Bidhya Devi Bhandari was forced to suspend her first official visit to India, scheduled to start Monday, after the Nepali government Friday failed to endorse the trip.

Nepal's relationship with India -- which is often accused of acting as a "big brother" to its smaller, impoverished neighbour -- has been strained since a months-long border blockade last year.

The blockade, by Nepal's Madhesi ethnic minority, came in protest at a new constitution which they said left them politically marginalised, with more than 50 people dying in clashes with police.

Kathmandu accused India of imposing an "unofficial blockade" on the landlocked nation in support of the Madhesis, who share close cultural, linguistic and family links with Indians across the border.

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Prime Minister Oli visited India in February in a bid to smooth ties.

But Guna Raj Luitel, editor of the Nepali daily Nagarik, said the latest developments suggested relations between the two countries had not improved as much as previously thought.

"Nepal should be engaged with India to strengthen our ties right now, but recent developments show diplomatic immaturity on our part," he said.

The new constitution, the first drawn up by elected representatives, was meant to cement peace and bolster Nepal's transformation to a democratic republic after decades of political instability and a 10-year Maoist insurgency.

But ongoing discussions between the government and protesting parties over the charter have failed to yield an agreement.
Sanctions that have pinched North Korea's health care system should be eased, a group of Nobel laureates said Saturday, after a rare visit to the nuclear armed state that coincided with its ruling party congress.

Embargoes on the flow of goods into the isolated country have squeezed the quality of medical care and research, they said, following visits to hospitals and labs in Pyongyang.

"You cannot turn penicillin into a nuclear bomb," Aaron Ciechanover, who won the top prize for chemistry, told a media conference in Beijing a day after returning from the visit.

"You don't pressurise via making people sicker," he said: "That's not the right way to go."

The three prize winners from Norway, Britain and Israel spent a week in the country on a humanitarian trip organisers said would be an exercise in "silent diplomacy".

Their visit came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un opened the country's first ruling party congress since 1980 by hailing its "magnificent... and thrilling" nuclear weapons programme.

World powers have tightened sanctions on the isolated state this year after Pyongyang carried out several ballistic missile launches and its fourth nuclear bomb test -- and analysts predict another could be in the works.

While the sanctions do not target medical aide, tough South Korean restrictions have stopped some medicines from reaching its northern neighbour, according to a recent report in the Washington Post.

"Many of the things the doctors would like, the professors would like, they just can't have them because of the embargo," said Richard Roberts, who won the prize for medicine.

The trio of Nobel prize winners, which also includes economics laureate Finn Kydland, visited a children's hospital, science facilities and a farm, among other sights.

The laureates described clean, modern facilities -- a stark contrast to other accounts of the country as brutally impoverished -- and two said they had invited young researchers to work in their labs.

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The few opportunities for foreigners to visit the country are tightly stage-managed, with the government carefully controlling most interactions with the North Korean people.

Planning for the trip began more than two years ago after the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation (IPF) received an unsolicited email from the Korean National Peace Committee.

South Korea's government asked the group to postpone the trip when it emerged that it would coincide with the congress, citing fears it could be "misused", IPF chairman Uwe Morawetz said, but scheduling restrictions made it impossible.
Washington (AFP) - Barack Obama visited a predominantly black college Saturday, making the case that the last decades and his presidency had brought substantial improvements for African-Americans.

Acknowledging that more needs to be done to reduce inequality, Obama took head-on the issue of race relations that have sometimes appeared to fester under his administration.

Since Obama came to office in 2009 as the first African American president, a strain of opposition to him has emerged that often appears racially driven.

Meanwhile, cities from Ferguson, Missouri to Baltimore, Maryland have exploded amid the killing of young black men at the hands of white police officers.

African-American men are still far more likely to have served time in jail and to earn less than their white peers.

But Obama insisted progress had been made. "America is by almost every measure better than it was when I graduated from college," he said, looking back to 1983.

"Race relations are better since I graduated. That's the truth. No, my election did not create a post-racial society, but the election itself and the subsequent one -- because the first one, folks might have made a mistake... was just one indicator of how attitudes have changed."

"Racism persists. Inequality persists," he told graduating students at Washington's Howard University, while offering a litany of examples of how things had changed for the better.

"When I was graduating, the main black hero on TV was Mr. T," the burly, Mohawk-wearing former professional wrestler. "Rap and hip-hop were counter-culture, underground. Now, Shonda Rhimes owns Thursday night, and Beyonce runs the world."

"We're no longer entertainers, we're producers, studio executives. No longer small-business owners, we're CEOs, we're mayors, representatives, presidents of the United States."

In a nod to the lingering problems that have spurred the Black Lives Matter movement, Obama insisted that anger at injustice was not enough.

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"You have to go through life with more than just passion for change. You need a strategy.

"I'll repeat that. I want you to have passion [but] you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness but action. Not just hashtags but votes. You see, change requires more than righteous anger."

There was also a call for young black graduates to put themselves in the minds of others, police officers who may have bias or "the middle-aged white guy" who "you may think has all the advantages, but over the last several decades has seen his world upended by economic and cultural and technological change and feels powerless to stop it."

"You got to get in his head, too," he said.

Amid an election that has seen millions of white Republican voters embrace Donald Trump's populist message, Obama tried to offer a strategy.

"There's been a trend around the country of trying to get colleges to disinvite speakers with a different point of view or disrupt a politician's rally. Don't do that. No matter how ridiculous or offensive."

"My grandmother used to tell me, every time a fool speaks, they are just advertising their own ignorance.

"Let them talk."
Siauliai (Lithuania) (AFP) - The most senior cardinal in the Vatican met NATO troops in Lithuania on Saturday, delivering a message of peace in the Baltic region amid tensions with Russia.

Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met Portuguese troops at the northern Siauliai air base which hosts NATO's Baltic air police mission patrolling the alliance's frontier with Russia.

NATO jets at the base have been scrambled with increasing frequency to intercept Russian aircraft since tensions with the West soared after Moscow's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.

"This visit is meant to be a meeting with persons who work here, and at the same time a sign of peace," the cardinal told reporters, speaking in English.

"There are so many conflicts, so many clashes between peoples and persons that really we need mercy as an instrument of pacification and understanding," he added.

Mercy is the official Vatican theme of Holy Year, which runs until the end of November.

Lithuania and fellow Baltic EU states Latvia and Estonia have been alarmed by Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for pro-Kremlin rebels in eastern Ukraine.

They have recently secured additional military resources from NATO, angering Moscow which accuses the US-led military alliance of trying to contain it ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Baltic states, who were under Soviet occupation during the Cold War, lack sufficient aircraft and allies have been guarding their skies since 2004 when the trio joined the defence alliance.

Portugal and Britain took over responsibility for providing air policing from May, offering four fighter jets each in Lithuania and Estonia.

Lithuania's foreign minister Linas Linkevicius, a vocal critic of Russia, said the cardinal's visit showed Vatican was attentive to regional security.

"It can be seen as a certain political signal taking into account the importance of this mission to the security of the Baltic states," the minister told AFP on Saturday.

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Parolin on Saturday also met Lithuania's Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius and visited the Hill of Crosses, a famous Christian pilgrimage site.

The cardinal, who is second only to Pope Francis, will celebrate mass at the central square in the capital Vilnius on Sunday and will meet the Baltic state's President Dalia Grybauskaite on Monday.

Lithuania, where 77 percent of the three-million-strong population is Roman Catholic, has invited Pope Francis to visit the country in 2018 when it celebrates the centenary of its first restored statehood.

The country has restored its independence from Moscow twice -- in 1918 and 1990.
THE PERFORMER | Keri Russell

THE SHOW | The Americans

THE EPISODE | The Magic of David Copperfield V: The Statue of Liberty Disappears (May 4)

THE PERFORMANCE | Good lord, we never want to get on Elizabeth Jennings bad side. Because in the heated moments when the pragmatic spy loses control and says what shes actually thinking, portrayer Russell is a scary force of nature. In Wednesdays episode, the Jennings halfhearted argument about EST quickly escalated into a stinging discussion of past lovers, with Russell pointedly staring down Matthew Rhys Philip as Elizabeth reminded him shed endured loss, too.

VIDEOSKeri Russell Warns Her Felicity-Era Self Against Haircut Fail  Watch Video

While an already crestfallen Philip looked the worse for wear, Russell made Elizabeth stand taller, doubling down on her anger, brazenly dredging up her husbands past infidelity and lies and loudly reminding him that only her good graces had allowed him back in the house.

When their fight was interrupted, you could feel Russell simmering with Elizabeths rage, which eventually was directed at a sulky Paige. Were sure Russell spoke words during the exchange when Elizabeth reminds her daughter how much shes screwed things up for the family, but all we could focus on was Russells intensity, how she used her entire body (that vein in her forehead!) to express the covert operatives frustration of never quite knowing whether their cover is about to be blown. Russell usually plays Elizabeth so pragmatic and reined-in, its easy to forget that the spy is a woman given to violence. Every once in a while, its nice to see the actress let the reins slip a little.

Scandal

HONORABLE MENTION

| Scandals Susan Ross may have dropped out of the White House race this week, but Artemis Pebdani won us over with her layered performance as a woman  and, more importantly, a vice president  scorned. Susans scathing words for David (I know Im amazing! Im witty and cute and funny and smarter than you! Im incredible, David. Im going to change the damn world, and thats why this is over) were long overdue, and Pebdani delivered Susans fury with all the smug satisfaction her speech deserved. That emotional breakdown in the scenes final moments, a refreshing turn for a character so often relied upon to keep things light, was the cherry on top of an already delicious performance.

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Penny Dreadful

HONORABLE MENTION

| From the moment that Christian Camargo uttered his first line in the third season premiere of Penny Dreadful, making the most of that delicious John Logan dialogue, we were putty in his hands. The sincere enthusiasm that the actor put into the way that his zoologist character, Alexander Sweet, marveled at the wonders of the animal kingdom  including the underrated sheep  was not only disarming but contagious. And, by the time Noah in his ark confessed to natural history museum guest Vanessa (Eva Green, sublime as ever) that his favorite exhibits were mostly the unloved ones, the unvisited ones, the cases that get dusty and ignored, even she couldnt help but be taken in.

The Path

HONORABLE MENTION

| In the course of just seven episodes, Hugh Dancy has made his last TV alter ego, Hannibals Will Graham, seem downright chipper in comparison to the tormented cult leader hes currently playing on Hulus The Path. As Wednesdays installment drew to a close, Cal was informed that he is not destined to take over as leader of the Meyerist Movement, after all  and, whats more, Meyerism might not even be real. In a matter of seconds, Dancy took Cal from stunned sadness to blind rage, as he murdered the man who had delivered such infuriating news. Then, as Cal cleaned up the grisly scene and washed off Silas blood in the shower, he reverted back to a scared man who seemed to recognize hed lost all control. Sure, Dancy does an excellent job of making us fear Cal, but hes even better at making us pity the man  and we applaud him for making such a messed-up character seem worthy of sympathy.

Which performances knocked your socks off this week? Hit the comments!

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Celebrity and fashion photographer Matt Irwin, who photographed numerous A-list faces including Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Brie Larson and One Direction, died unexpectedly on May 5, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Saturday (May 7). He was 36.

A representative at Irwin's photo agency Camilla Lowther Management (CLM) said in a statement to THR, "It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of British photographer, Matt Irwin. Matt's family and friends are heartbroken and have asked that their privacy be respected while they come to terms with their loss."

rest well Matt . Can't believe im writing this . Incredible person . X

A photo posted by Niall horan (@niallhoran) on May 6, 2016 at 2:18pm PDT

The statement continued, "Matt's unprecedented access to a generation of musicians, models, and actors of our time leaves behind a visual chronicle that reveals -- and pays testament to -- his infectious passion, enthusiasm and talent. Matt's passing leaves a huge gap in the fashion world and in the hearts of all those who had the privilege of knowing him." The cause of death has not been disclosed.

The British photographer was born in Southport, England on Feb. 10, 1980, and started capturing images at the age of 15 when his friend gave him a super eight camera. He began his career in fashion, working at Dazed & Confused in London as the front sections editor, according to the CLM website. His career as a photographer launched when he was approached by Dazed creative director and friend Nicola Formichetti to shoot photographs for the magazine, eventually leading to his first cover in 2007.

Matt Irwin, you were always smiling, I'm so lucky to off known you, and shooting so many fun things together. Rest in peace my friend, sending love and healing to the Irwin family. #RIPMatt

A photo posted by Rita Ora (@ritaora) on May 6, 2016 at 12:29pm PDT

Over the span of his career, Irwin photographed several celebrities, including Daisy Ridley, James Franco, Nicki Minaj, Kesha, Cara Delevingne, Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, Allison Williams, James McAvoy, Lady Gaga, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Reese Witherspoon. Among the many publications -- Elle UK, V Magazine, Vogue Russia and Vogue Japan -- in which his work appeared, Irwin scored covers for Vogue Spain and Wonderland.

Following the news of his death, the photographer's famous friends and subjects took to social media to express their sorrow and condolences on his passing, including One Direction's Niall Horan, Rita Ora and Alexa Chung.

This article originally appeared in THR.com.
Brenner (Italy) (AFP) - Several hundred young protesters clashed with Italian anti-riot police Saturday near the Austrian-Italian border during a demonstration against Vienna's proposed anti-migrant measures.

The protesters, who briefly occupied the small train station at the Brenner Pass, were confronted by police as they tried to cross the border from Italy into Austria.

Some threw stones and smoke bombs at police who responded with tear gas, an AFP photographer at the scene reported.

Two police officers were wounded and a police car was torched while several protesters were arrested, according to Italy's AGI news agency.

Vienna is threatening to resume checks on the Brenner Pass between the two countries as part of a package of anti-migrant measures if Italy does not do more to reduce the number of new arrivals heading to Austria.

But imposing controls on the Austrian border with Italy would be a "political catastrophe" for Europe, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Saturday.

The Alpine route is a major European transport corridor and a key link between the north and south of the continent, said Juncker during an interview with Germany's Funke Mediengruppe.

"This is why everything that blocks the Brenner Pass will have not just serious economic consequences, but most importantly heavy political consequences," he said.

With over 28,500 migrants arriving since January 1, Italy has once again become the principal entry point for migrants arriving in Europe, following a controversial EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkan route up from Greece.

In previous years, many migrants landing in Italy have headed on to other countries including Austria but Rome now fears it could be stuck hosting thousands of new arrivals.

On average 2,500 lorries and 15,000 cars travel daily through the Brenner Pass -- a crucial lifeline for Italy's exports to northern Europe that is already prone to delays even without border checks.

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Austria sits at the crossroads of the two major migrant routes, from the Balkans and from Italy, and saw hundreds of thousands of migrants cross its territory in 2015.

Authorities have received around 90,000 asylum applications from people fleeing war, persecution and poverty who have opted to settle in the country.

Juncker also raised the alarm over Austria's response to the migrant crisis which he said had tempted other countries to close their borders while making far-right politics "presentable" elsewhere in Europe.

"What we see in Austria we have unfortunately seen in other European countries, where (political) parties play with people's fears," he said.

The anti-immigration candidate from Austria's far-right Freedom Party, Norbert Hofer, is the favourite to win the presidential run-off election on May 22.
Photo: Yahoo Newsroom



[PHOTOS: Polling Day for the Bukit Batok by-election]

The Peoples Action Party (PAP) candidate Murali Pillai has won the Bukit Batok by-election, beating Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) chief Chee Soon Juan by garnering 61.21 per cent to 38.79 per cent of the 23,570 valid votes cast.



A total of 622 votes were rejected during the counting process.

The earlier sample count polling results for the Bukit Batok by-election showed that Pillai was leading Chee by 61 per cent to 39 per cent. This count was based on a random selection of 100 ballot papers from each polling station.



Collected votes being taken by bus to the counting centre. (Video by Sharlene Maria Sankaran)

The by-election was triggered by the sudden resignation of the wards PAP MP David Ong in March over a personal indiscretion.



In the 2015 General Election, Ong beat the SDPs candidate Sadasivam Veriyah by 73.02 per cent to 23.4 per cent based on 24,972 votes cast. Independent candidate Samir Salim Neji, who also ran, garnered just 150 votes (0.6 per cent).

Chee, who was part of the SDP team that ran for Holland-Bukit Timah GRC in 2015, took home 33.4 per cent of the 94,280 votes cast. Murali, who ran as part of the PAPs team that lost the Aljunied GRC contest in GE2015, took 49.04 per cent of the 137,474 votes cast in that race.



Watch: Release of by-election results at the PAPs Bukit Batok party office



Watch: SDP gathering at Bukit Gombak Stadium for the by-election results



Follow our coverage on Facebook and Twitter too.


Vatican City (AFP) - Pope Francis, in the modest style he has become known for, spoke on Saturday to members of an Italian medical charity working in Africa and evoked his desire to show unity with the poor.

"I ask you please to pray for me too, so that the Lord will make me each day become poorer," he told the organisation "Doctors with Africa", as he praised their work in the poorest "last mile" of healthcare systems in seven African countries.

The pontiff also stressed that heath was "not a consumer good, but rather a universal right, and therefore access to healthcare services cannot be a privilege."

But he also acknowledged that healthcare is still in many countries the privilege of the rich.

"Healthcare, especially at the most basic level, is indeed denied in many parts of the world and many regions of Africa. It is not a right for all, but rather it is still a privilege reserved to the few, to those who can afford it," he said according to a Vatican statement.

He noted that the situation in Africa was particularly critical.

"In Africa too many mothers die in child birth and too many children do not survive beyond their first month of life due to malnutrition and illnesses," he told the audience of 9,000 doctors and volunteers.

He said the medical charity was carrying out its work "with courage as the expression of a Church that is not a 'super clinic for VIPs' but rather a 'field hospital'. A Church with a great heart, close to the many wounded and humiliated of history, in the service of the poorest."

The Doctors with Africa group, also known by its Italian initials CUAMM, was founded in Italy 65 years ago by a doctor and a priest and has missions in Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, Etiopia, Angola, South Sudan and Sierra Leone.
Donald Trump answers questions from reporters at the National Federation of Republican Assemblies in Nashville regarding an investigation of the now defunct Trump University, Aug. 29, 2015. (Photo: Mark Humphrey/AP)

A federal judge in San Diego set the stage on Friday for what could be one of the strangest presidential transitions in history: He ordered that Donald Trump must go to trial starting Nov. 28 in a civil case in which he is accused of defrauding students who attended Trump University.

No doubt this will be a challenge  were in unchartered waters, said Daniel Petrocelli, Trumps lead lawyer in the case, when asked later how his client  if elected in November  would be able to balance preparing to take over the presidency with taking the witness stand in a trial that could run almost until the eve of the following Januarys inauguration.

But Petrocelli said Trump was fully prepared to testify and would even attend most, if not all of the trial in order to vindicate himself. His preference would be to be here for the entirety of the trial, Petrocelli said. He believes this case is unwarranted and he wants to defend himself fully.

The ruling today by U.S. Judge Gonzalo Curiel, during a pretrial conference on the six-year-old lawsuit, actually represented a small victory for Trump. The lawyers for the plaintiffs, arguing that justice delayed is justice denied, had asked for a trial to start as early as this summer  immediately after the Republican convention in Cleveland. There are people who are still paying off their debts for the money they paid to Trump University, said Jason Forge, a lead lawyer for the plaintiffs suing Trump.

Petrocelli, for his part, pushed back, contending that a trial over Trump University would end up becoming a media spectacle that would amount to an unwarranted intrusion on the November elections. He had asked that Curiel put the whole matter off until next February, after the inauguration, arguing that Trump, if elected, would be working around the clock during the transition to form a Cabinet. He acknowledged to Curiel that he was fully aware that a President Trump would not be able to postpone the case indefinitely, consistent with the Supreme Courts unanimous ruling that President Bill Clinton was not immune to a civil suit by Paula Jones, alleging sexual harassment.

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Curiel decided to split the difference: In an effort to accommodate Trumps political campaign, he agreed to put the trial off until after the election  but scheduled it right afterward, rather than waiting for [a] President Trump to begin his first term, thereby placing him a situation where, as a sitting president, he is taking up time as leader of the free world to sit through trial. (Anticipating difficulty in finding unbiased jurors, the judge said he may want to start jury selection even earlier than Nov. 28.)

But Trump may still find his legal troubles impinging on his campaign; he is facing a separate trial in New York state courts in a civil fraud suit, also stemming from the ill-fated Trump University, brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. (No trial date has been set on that case yet, but a spokesman for Schneiderman told Yahoo News that his office believes it could begin as early as this fall.)

The hearing today is the latest development in a case that has already erupted as a campaign issue and has threatened to shine a spotlight on Trumps business practices  including his penchant for making hyperbolic claims to consumers  at the very moment he is trying to persuade voters he can deliver on his campaign pledges to end illegal immigration, destroy the Islamic State and balance the federal budget without touching entitlements like Social Security and Medicare.

The core case revolves around the operations of a school Trump launched in 2005 with a promotional YouTube video and ads that proclaimed, I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you, Are you My Next Apprentice? and Learn from my handpicked experts how you can profit from the largest real estate liquidation in history.

Donald Trump during a 2005 news conference announcing the establishment of Trump University in New York City. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

In fact, Trump University was never an accredited educational institution, and he was later forced by state attorneys general to change its name to the Trump Entrepreneurial Initiative. The plaintiffs, former students at Trump University, allege that Trump used misleading, fraudulent and predatory practices, conning them into maxing out their credit cards and in some cases paying more than $35,000 in fees for seminars and mentoring by Trumps handpicked real estate experts. The lawsuit against the school, which is no longer in business, alleges that the seminars were little more than an infomercial and that the Trump mentors offered no practical advice and mostly disappeared.

One key issue in the case has been Trumps boasts that the courses and mentoring would be conducted by the best of the best  real estate experts he personally chose. During a deposition last December, Forge hammered away at Trump on the issue, showing the businessman a photo lineup and playing videos of some of the instructors and asking him if he could identify any of them. Trump could not, at first saying it was too many years ago for him to recognize them and then finally admitting he didnt actually know any of them. I looked at resumes and things, but I didnt pick the speakers, Trump said at one point.

Trumps lawyers have adamantly denied the charges and insisted that most students who took the courses were satisfied. On the campaign trial, Trump has vowed to never settle the case, claiming it was brought by a sleazebag law firm  a reference to Forges firm, Robbins Geller  and confidently predicted, I will win the case at the end. He has even criticized Judge Curiel, claiming he was biased against him because of his Hispanic origin. If I didnt have a hostile judge in California, this case would have ended years ago, he said during a campaign rally in Arkansas last Feb. 26. (Trump had even suggested he might move for Curiels recusal, based on his Hispanic origin, but Petrocelli told reporters today he had no plans to file such a motion.)

The case has already eaten up Trumps time on the campaign trail, forcing him to sit for two contentious last December and January in which he was grilled by Forge, prompting him to complaint at one point about harassment by the lawyer and to shoot back at another point, Lets just go to court and get this case  Im dying to go to court in this case.

It looks like he might be getting his wish.
President Barack Obama dedicated his most recent weekly address to the moms in his life and those across America in honor of Mother's Day.

The president also used the occasion as an opportunity to urge Congress to pass laws that protect mothers and to preserve such laws that are already on the books.

But first, Obama was careful to thank the mom he's closest to: first lady Michelle Obama.

"This weekend, Im going to take a little extra time to say thank you to Michelle for the remarkable way she does the most important job: being a mom," he said in a video posted by the White House a day ahead of the holiday.

Watch: President Obama Ate Bear Scraps In The Alaskan Wilderness with Bear Grylls

"And Im going to give extra thanks to my mother-in-law for the role model shes always been to Michelle and the countless selfless ways in which shes helped Michelle and me raise Malia and Sasha.

"I am incredibly lucky to have women who help me raise, love, and look after our girls," the president continued.

Obama urged all Americans to thank the "biological moms, adoptive moms, and foster moms; single moms, grandmoms and godmothers; aunts and mentors" this Sunday.

The president also urged his fellow politicians to "recommit ourselves to doing more than that."

Read: Woman Gives Birth on Interstate as President Obama's Motorcade Snarls Traffic

"That includes paid maternity and paternity leave, sick leave, accommodations for workers who are pregnant, good health care, affordable child care, flexibility at work, equal pay, and a decent minimum wage.

"We ask our mothers to do more than their fair share of just about everything. Making sure theyre treated fairly is the least we can do," Obama said.

Mother's Day was created by presidential proclamation in 1914 by President Woodrow Wilson and has since become a popular subject for presidential addresses.

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Last year, President Obama pushed for equal pay legislation in his Mother's Day address.

Watch: Why Michelle Obama Couldn't Teach Malia How to Drive

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President Obama offered a hopeful vision of the country in a speech to the graduating class of 2016 at Howard University on Saturday, while calling on students of the historically black college to channel their passion into action and emphasizing that to bring about structural change, awareness is not enough.

In a winding commencement speech, the president followed a mold he often leans on in remarks to black audiences, particularly those filled with young people: a nod to our nations racial history, a pit-stop on his presidency, and a call to pay it forward. At Howard, he tailored this message toward the campus, noting some of the famous figures who have graduated from the school, including Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and calling Howard the centerpiece of African American intellectual life and a central part of our larger American story.

This institution has been the home of many firsts, the first African American Nobel Peace Prize winner, the first black Supreme Court Justice, but its mission has been to ensure those firsts were not the last, Obama said.

Reflecting on his own time in school, the president listed the many ways in which the world has improved since he was in college. In 1983, cities were gripped with crime, the economy was stagnant, Obama recalled, even mocking the fashion of the time. Though the president acknowledged that gaps persist between African Americans and their white counterparts in educational attainment, employment, gender pay, and contact with the justice system, he said the class of 2016 is better positioned to meet the challenges ahead than generations before them.

Make no mistake class of 2016, youve got plenty of work to do, he said. But the truth is your generation is more positioned than ever to meet those challenges.

The president told the crowd of graduates, whose ages ranged from 20 to 74, that he was proud of the work done by the new guard of black Civil Rights leaders, including activists from the Black Lives Matter Movement. But the president spent a significant portion of his speech imploring the audience members to vote and remain civically aware. His speech at one point took a frustrated tone when he asked the crowd to think of the work he could have accomplished if black voters had turned out in midterm elections as they had when he was running for president.

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Passion is vital but youve got to have a strategy and your plan better include voting, he said. When we dont vote we give away our power.

Howard Universitys commencement is naturally an embodiment of black pride, and those in attendance were clearly moved to see the first black president of the United States addressing the school.

In an opening prayer, the dean of the schools Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel Dr. Bernard Richardson, called the the presidents presence the manifestation of the hope and promise, the school bestows upon the students that pass through its gates.

Obama is the first sitting U.S. president to speak at the schools commencement in 51 years. It was the presidents third address at a Historically College or University, following addresses at Morehouse College in 2013 and Hampton University in 2010.

Saturdays Howard speech was more optimistic than Obamas remarks at Morehouse, which drew criticism from some quarters for telling students to avoid making excuses for their problems. One of the things that all of you have learned over the last four years is theres no longer any room for excuses, Obama said. Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was.

At Howard, Obama focussed more on encouraging and inspiring graduates about their future prospects.

Now, its your turn, the president told the graduating class. And the good news is that youre ready.
There were no outward displays like in the series opener, but Boston's frustrations continued in its most recent game at Yankee Stadium.

Steven Wright will try to help the Red Sox avoid their first three-game sweep in the Bronx in four seasons in Sunday night's series finale against the New York Yankees.

Boston manager John Farrell had to restrain an incensed David Ortiz on Friday after the slugger took issue with umpire Ron Kulpa's strike zone in the ninth inning. Both were tossed in a 3-2 loss, and Farrell might get suspended for failing to leave the dugout following his ejection.

"Great finish to a game," he said. "I didn't want to miss it."

The anger subsided Saturday but the result was even more lopsided with the Yankees claiming an 8-2 victory. Didi Gregorius hit a three-run double in the fourth inning as New York (11-17) won back-to-back games for only the second time since April 12.

The Yankees' other win streak was April 22-23 - among four victories in their last five home games. The Red Sox (17-13) had won nine of 11 before heading to New York.

The Yankees will try to add to their successful stretch at home while claiming their first three-game sweep there against their rivals since Oct. 1-3, 2012. They can also avenge last weekend's three-game sweep at Fenway Park.

"Taking two games out of three right now against them, it feels good," New York outfielder Carlos Beltran told MLB's official website. "(Sunday), we have a chance to take three out of three. That's important for us."

Wright (2-3, 1.67 ERA) just missed pitching in that series, instead drawing the club's series opener against the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. He yielded two runs in six innings in that game, but Jose Quintana outdueled him in a 4-1 defeat.

The knuckleballer has received a combined two runs of support in his three losses and 13 in his two victories.

Roger Clemens is the only other Red Sox pitcher in the last 100 years to allow two runs or less and six or fewer hits in eight straight starts - a streak that began for Wright on July 30.

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"He's done everything we could've asked to get deep into games and low-run situations," manager John Farrell told MLB's official website. "And not just this year, this goes back to when he was in the rotation last year."

Wright is 1-1 with a 0.69 ERA in two career starts against New York and registered a 2-1 victory at Yankee Stadium in his only one last season Aug. 5. He also earned another win there while pitching the final five of a 19-inning game in April.

As in his matchup in August, Wright will be opposed by Luis Severino (0-4, 6.31 ERA). The Yankees have lost in each of the right-hander's last six starts dating to October, including five this season.

He was charged with all of Baltimore's runs in a 4-1 defeat Tuesday and made two errors in six innings. Severino has received just four runs of support this season.

The right-hander might need a strong outing soon with general manager Brian Cashman hinting that a trip to the minors could be in his future.

"If we feel that's what has to take place, that's definitely an avenue that's open," Cashman said.

Severino gave up two runs, two hits and walked none while striking out seven in his lone start against the Red Sox. Ortiz got a solo homer off him.

Yankees outfielder and former Red Sox player Jacoby Ellsbury remains day to day because of a strained muscle in his right hip. Manager Joe Girardi is hopeful he can avoid joining Alex Rodriguez and C.C. Sabathia on the disabled list.
By Paul Carsten

BEIJING (Reuters) - The death of a student following experimental cancer treatment he found through China's biggest search engine, Baidu Inc (BIDU.O), has exposed the faultlines in the company's business model, which relies heavily on income from the country's lightly regulated health sector.

Before his death, student Wei Zexi, 21, criticized the military-run hospital that provided the failed treatment for misleading claims about its effectiveness and accused Baidu, which controls 80 percent of the Chinese search market, of promoting false medical information.

This week the health ministry began an investigation into the hospital, while the internet regulator began an investigation into Baidu.

The regulators have not said what, if any, offences or regulations might have been broken and did not respond to requests for comment.

Analysts at Daiwa said regulators could be checking for compliance with China's Advertisements Law, which says medical sector advertising should not contain assertions about effectiveness.

Baidu said it was also conducting an investigation and would fully cooperate with the regulator.

It is not clear that conventional treatment - typically surgery to remove the tumor - would have cured the rare synovial sarcoma that Wei suffered from.

Reuters has not been able to reach the hospital for comment.

Baidu has come in for fierce online criticism for how it handles adverts within its search results, especially from an industry as sensitive as healthcare, which analysts at Nomura and Daiwa say provides 20 to 30 percent of its search revenues.

In 2015 search revenues were 55.7 billion yuan ($8.6 billion), or 84 percent of Baidu's total sales.

"Whatever page you're looking at on Baidu is a mess of adverts," said username FreedLiu on China's Weibo microblog, discussing Wei. "They're profiting from loads of people who don't know Baidu auctions (its search results)."

Baidu said it applied particular vigilance to healthcare customers, with screening for misleading adverts and a verification program with additional scrutiny for medical advertisers.

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"Over the years, we have proactively cleaned up the customer base," a company spokeswoman said by email.

It is not the first time the company has fallen foul of regulators and public opinion for its handling of healthcare ads and blogs, though it has not suffered substantive sanctions.

In 2008 it said it would overhaul its operations after state media said it let unlicensed medical service providers buy high search rankings. The hospital that treated Wei, however, is licensed by the Beijing municipal government.

And in January Baidu apologized for management failures when the internet regulator found illegal content in its search results and online forums, including ads for unlicensed clinics. Baidu also sold the rights to manage a disease discussion site to a company selling treatment for that illness, forum users said.

"Baidu has had issues come up about the types of medical ads they accept since 2008," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting in Beijing.

BAD PRESS

Like most search engines, Baidu places paid-for ads in its search results, but in a series of Reuters search tests it included at least twice as many ads as Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google, which is blocked in China, and placed them higher in its list.

Though Baidu marks such items as promotions, Google also highlights the word "Ad" in a yellow box.

Baidu's spokeswoman said the number of adverts on a page depended on the search subject and whether it was on PC or mobile, but declined to give specifics for healthcare-related searches.

Google's policies list a string of restrictions on healthcare advertising, and several searches by Reuters for health-related terms on the search engine produced no adverts.

Baidu's smaller local rival Qihoo 360 Technology Co (QIHU.N) said it does not support healthcare industry adverts.

Baidu said its requirements for healthcare ads "are not public information, and we can only share that with our advertising customers".

Criticism in several state media outlets this week suggests a hardening attitude in government.

"Pursuing profits is not wrong, but putting profits over helpless patients' lives is against any ethical standards," said a column in the official People's Daily on Monday.

Any decision by authorities to restrict healthcare advertising could have a material impact on Baidu's earnings, a concern that has contributed to a sharp fall in its shares in the last three sessions.

The regulator did not return requests for comment on the possibility of any such action.

Daiwa said 10-15 percent of Baidu's search revenue could evaporate under a worst-case scenario.

Even without such measures, the damage to Baidu's reputation could hit it in the pocket.

"The overwhelming negative press coverage over this incident could once again shake Internet users trust in Baidus search results, especially when people search for healthcare-related information," said Nomura.

"This would, in turn, affect the performance for healthcare-related ads on Baidu, in our view."

(Reporting by Paul Carsten; Additional reporting by Beijing Newsroom and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai; Editing by Will Waterman)
By Liz Hampton WANDERING RIVER, Alberta (Reuters) - Emergency workers in Alberta are joining a grassroots effort to rescue pets trapped in homes after a massive wildfire forced their owners to leave without them. Kevin Wonitowy, a locksmith for 20 years, said he entered the city of Fort McMurray on Saturday to pick the locks of homes with pets, after a request from the local emergency management team. The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, which oversees Fort McMurray, said on its website that it was sending teams to rescue pets at their owners' request but noted the use of a locksmith would be a last resort. Wonitowy said he would be needed for three to four days in the nearly empty city that previously housed 88,000. He will open doors for emergency workers who will take the pets to shelters. Wood Buffalo has said it is not doing interviews, and calls to officials went unanswered. Fort McMurray was evacuated with little warning on Tuesday, with residents carrying so few possessions that a nearby community set up a used-clothing station for them. Access has since been restricted, and many owners who abandoned their pets longed to reunite with them, calling on animal shelters and appealing for information online. Just days after the evacuation, some residents entered the city after they said they obtained permission from local authorities. Bryan Jones said he and a friend rescued 27 dogs and cats on Thursday. But local police and officials have said they do not want non-emergency personnel in the city, warning that there is still thick smoke and major damage. Even so, pet lovers have been making grassroots efforts to help. Angel Rowe of Leduc, Alberta, south of Edmonton, said he organized a convoy to head up to Fort McMurray on Friday evening to support people like Jones. Rowe said the convoy would be stationed outside Fort McMurray to transport the rescued pets to animal shelters. A local non-profit's website showed more than 80 animal rescue groups had opened their doors to evacuees' pets. Reunification with owners, however, may not be on the horizon for every animal. Even people who brought their pets with them during evacuation ended up unable to take care of them, said Tammy Dumais, who runs the Guardian Angel Animal Rescue Society in Edmonton. Dumais said owners who fled south have handed over at least 11 cats to her organization. (Additional reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto and Nia Williams in Calgary; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)
Fort McMurray (Canada) (AFP) - Police were still working Saturday to evacuate residents left behind in the Canadian city at the epicenter of the country's ferocious wildfire, nearly a week into the disaster.

Police going door to door are coming across isolated cases of those unwilling or unable to follow the mandatory order to evacuate the city that came shortly before midnight Tuesday, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Kevin Kunetzki said.

"We are finding the numbers are not great, but yet they still exist," he said.

"Obviously, we're concerned about their health with the amount of smoke that is in the community as well, and so we're doing whatever we can to get them out as quickly as we can."

Police found a family of five late Friday and another person unable to evacuate the city of 100,000 that has been turned into a ghost town.

"Just didn't have the ability or any means of getting out of the community," said Kunetzki, a member of the unified command set up to manage the crisis.

Police have been able to canvas only around a third of the city so far, he added.

They are directing the few homeless people discovered still inside Fort McMurray to emergency social services for placing in shelters elsewhere in Alberta province.

The authorities are also coming across some burglaries.

"We are definitely not seeing people running around with televisions and carrying them out of the area," Kunetzki said.

"One individual was arrested for a property crime by our police dog service yesterday, but crime is not rampant."

Visibility in the city is very limited thanks to heavy smoke and expected to get worse.

Still, downtown Fort McMurray remains "largely intact" even though outlying neighborhoods have suffered serious damage, according to the authorities.

Police have been escorting convoys of cars filled with people trapped to the north of the city, having sought refuge there earlier in the week.

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The government estimated that 80,000 residents of Fort McMurray have been evacuated.

Some 1,570 square kilometers (600 square miles) of Alberta's oil sands region had been devastated since the blaze began almost a week ago, officials said.

The fire grew by an additional 50 percent in less than 24 hours, and could double on Saturday.

Still, in a glimmer of positive news, the authorities have recorded no fatalities directly linked to the blaze so far.
Labour Party's Sadiq Khan has become the first Muslim mayor of the city of London, defeating Conservative nominee Zac Goldsmith by a 300,000-vote margin and shattering the latter party's eight-year hold on the city's top job.

"I can't quite believe the last 24 hours," Khan told reporters, according to the Wall Street Journal. "I'm determined to lead the most transparent, engaged and accessible administration London has ever seen, and to represent every single community and every single part of our city as mayor for Londoners."

London - what a wonderful city! Open. Free. Plural. First Muslim Mayor of London elected. Huge congratulations @SadiqKhan

Khan won with 1.3 million votes, while Goldsmith stopped just shy of one million at roughly 994,000 votes. According to the Guardian's Owen Jones, Goldsmith attempted to play to Londoners' prejudices, repeatedly attempting to insinuate a link between Khan and Muslim extremists. A recent op-ed by Goldsmith in the Daily Mail not only included a photograph of the aftermath of the 2005 terror attacks in London, but also accused Khan and his party of having ties to extremist organizations from the IRA to Hamas.

As Khan's victory became clear, former Conservative Party co-chair Sayeeda Warsi tweeted about Goldsmith's campaign, calling it "appalling" and a "dog whistle."

Our appalling dog whistle campaign for #LondonMayor2016 lost us the election, our reputation & credibility on issues of race and religion.

Lessons for us @Conservatives to learn about campaigning after awful #LondonMayor2016 1."Where there is discord, may we bring harmony"."

2."Where there is error, may we bring truth." 3."And where there is despair, may we bring hope" Mrs Ts advice needed as much today as 1979

Another Conservative leader, Andrew Boff, said the campaign reflected a "complete misunderstanding of the patchwork of faiths there are in London" and conveyed "that people who do have orthodox religious views, conservative religious views, are for some reason not welcome and won't be listened to," reported the Financial Times.

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Criticism continued to pile onto Goldsmith from his own party and others.

Goldsmith's 'smear' campaign increases the risk of terrorism, says top Muslim Toryhttp://ind.pn/1QUQULB

The Zac Goldsmith campaign was awful. What more can be said....

Any London Conservatives who *do* want to defend Zac Goldsmith's campaign? City Hall just full of Tories saying they're disgusted with him.

Had forgotten just how extraordinary this @jonsnowC4 interview with Zac on 'the race card' is from early campaignhttps://youtu.be/AXlq_zPZPqU

Zac Goldsmith tried to win London with anti-Muslim bigotry - and don't let Tories off hook http://gu.com/p/4jvyf/stw pic.twitter.com/KSOVvFlkKz https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ch3Ek7kWwAIA9Sc.jpg:large

Media really should be camped out at #zacgoldsmith's princely home to ask him why he won't apologise for racist campaign #londonhasfallen

Some pointed out similarities between Goldsmith's failed campaign and Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who in Dec. 2015 pledged to ban all Muslim entry to the country.

Sadiq Khan elected first Muslim mayor of London. Will he be allowed to come visit in the Trump administration?

I hope Trump meets @ZacGoldsmith's fate. I hope the Americans follow in the footsteps of Londoners. Here is to a tolerant world.

But it was also time for Khan and his supporters to celebrate defeating bigotry.

Congratulations to @SadiqKhan who will undoubtedly continue his human rights fight now from the London City Council #LondonVotes

"Sadiq Khan: "My dad would be so proud that the city he chose to call home has chosen 1 of his children to be Mayor""

Congratulations to @SadiqKhan who will undoubtedly continue his human rights fight now from the London City Council #LondonVotes

Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London. Congrats, @SadiqKhan. -H

This is what extraordinary societies look like. @SadiqKhan, new London mayor, in a picture possible in few places.pic.twitter.com/X09vu7m1xt https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ch24HoWVAAA2C0C.jpg:large

However, not all was bright for the Labour Party, the Wall Street Journal reported, with wider losses across the country  especially in Scotland, dealing a blow to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn's coalition.
By Rania El Gamal and Reem Shamseddine DUBAI/KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, on Saturday appointed Khalid al-Falih, chairman of the state oil giant Saudi Aramco, as its new energy minister, replacing Ali al-Naimi, who had held the post since 1995. The change is unlikely to mean a shift in Saudi oil policy, which is being crafted to a large degree by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees the kingdom's energy and economic policies, and involves building consensus among top royals based on the advice of senior technocrats. Since 2014, Saudi Arabia has led OPEC through a new survival-of-the-fittest strategy aimed at defending market share rather than reducing production to support oil prices. Riyadh believes that cheap crude alone can balance the market by stimulating demand and shutting down high-cost producers. Falih's appointment, part of a major economic shakeup, is only likely to strengthen this strategy rather than lead to any change in thinking, analysts say. "The oil policy is not Naimi's personal policy, it is the kingdom's policy," said Richard Mallinson, senior analyst at Energy Aspects. "Falih appears very firmly of the view that the market needs to be balanced through low oil prices ... All the statements about the Saudis having the capacity and being able to wait for that recovery to come, it signals that he is comfortable with the current policy." A royal decree quoted by state media said the Petroleum Ministry had been renamed the Ministry of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, and that Falih would give up his other post, that of health minister. The Ministry of Electricity has been merged into the energy portfolio, the decree said. "The appointment of Falih has been expected for some time," said Saddad al-Hosseini, a Saudi energy consultant. "He has the right industrial and executive experience to lead the reorganization of the energy and electricity sectors." WAITING IT OUT Falih has for years been considered a possible successor to Naimi, who also stepped up to the post of oil minister after heading Aramco. He is one of a handful of Saudi figures whose views are closely watched by traders and analysts for any insight into the kingdom's energy policies. "We see the market balancing sometime in 2016, we see demand ultimately exceeding supply and soaking up a lot of the excess inventory, and prices in due course will respond, regardless of when and by how much," Falih told a news conference in Riyadh in late December. "Saudi Arabia more than anyone else has the capacity to wait out the market until this balancing takes place," he said. After graduating in 1982 with a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University, Falih has spent more than 30 years in Aramco, where he was chief executive from 2009 until he was named chairman last year. Naimi took the reins at the oil ministry after a long career at Aramco, following a path by which the Saudi ruling family keeps highly experienced technical experts involved in wider energy strategy. Naimi, 80, began his career in oil at the age of 12 as an office boy at Aramco, and ends it as one of the country's highest-ranking non-royals. He becomes an adviser at the Royal Court, the decree said. Naimi has always tried to use Saudi financial muscle and oil supply scale to drive out higher-cost producers or rivals during oil market downturns. He did so while helping to steer OPEC through a minefield of instability provided by the political travails of several member countries - including wars involving Iraq and Libya, and sanctions on Riyadh's main strategic rival, Iran. (Reporting by Rania El Gamal and Reem Shamseddine; Editing by Angus McDowall and Digby Lidstone)
(Adds details)

RIYADH, May 7 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and the central bank governor in a major reshuffle of senior positions a week after announcing big economic reforms.

Salman also named new ministers to run the water, transport, commerce, social affairs, health and pilgrimage portfolios and restructured some ministries in a shake-up focused on areas where the government has promised change.

The most eye-catching change was the creation of a new Energy, Industry and Natural Resources Ministry under Khaled al-Falih. Falih was moved from the post of health minister to replace Ali al-Naimi, who has run the energy policy of the world's biggest crude oil exporter since 1995.

The Water and Electricity Ministry was broken up, with the water portfolio added to a new Environment, Water and Agriculture Ministry, and electricity added to the new energy ministry.

Major changes were also made to the kingdom's economic leadership, with Majed al-Qasbi named head of the new Commerce and Investment Ministry, and Ahmed al-Kholifey made governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the central bank.

Tawfiq al-Rabeeah, formerly commerce minister, was appointed health minister, Suleiman al-Hamdan was appointed transport minister, and the Pilgrimage Ministry was renamed the Haj and Umrah Ministry.

The royal decrees also merged the ministries of labour and of social affairs into a new department, and created a new Commission for Recreation and Culture.

(Reporting By Angus McDowall, Katie Paul, Sami Aboudi, Reem Shamseddine and Rania El Gamal; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Angus McDowall and Katie Paul RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and restructured some big ministries in a major reshuffle apparently intended to support a wide-ranging economic reform programme unveiled last week. The most eye-catching move was the creation of a new Energy, Industry and Natural Resources Ministry under Khaled al-Falih, chairman of the state oil company Aramco. He replaces the 80-year-old oil minister Ali al-Naimi, in charge of energy policy at the world's biggest oil exporter since 1995. But major changes were also made to the economic leadership, with Majed al-Qusaibi named head of the new Commerce and Investment Ministry, and Ahmed al-Kholifey made governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the central bank. The changes, announced in a series of royal decrees, go far beyond Salman's previous reshuffles since he became king in January last year, and also put the stamp of his son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, author of the Vision 2030 reform programme, on the government. Prince Mohammed's programme has been presented as a sweeping rethink of the entire way that Saudi Arabia's government and economy will function to prepare for a future that is less dependent on oil income. Some of the most important elements of the plan, which will be fleshed out in coming weeks, involve creating a massive sovereign wealth fund, privatizing Aramco, cutting energy subsidies, expanding investment and streamlining government. The plan also seeks to boost revenues by increasing the number of foreign pilgrims outside the main annual Haj, and encouraging Saudis to spend money at home by creating more entertainment opportunities. RAPID RISE Prince Mohammed's dizzying rise since his father became king has astonished Saudis and, in becoming second in the line of succession behind his cousin, he has swept past dozens of other contenders. The 80-year-old Naimi, for his part, has for two decades been the most influential man in world energy, able to move oil markets with a mere word, but his influence had appeared to decline sharply under King Salman. He has been appointed as an adviser to the royal court. Falih has long been seen as a leading contender to replace him. Like Naimi a career Aramco man, he was chief executive of the oil giant from 2009 until last year, when he was made company chairman and health minister. Whether he will play the same role as Naimi did in the Organisation for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), or in crafting Saudi oil policy, remains unclear, however. The new SAMA governor, Kholifey, is promoted from deputy governor for research and international affairs. He replaces Fahd al-Mubarak, who has held the post since December 2011. A veteran of SAMA and graduate of King Saud University in Riyadh and Colorado State University, Kholifey had also served from 2011 to 2013 as executive director for Saudi Arabia at the International Monetary Fund in Washington. He is set to take over a central bank with more limited functions than it had under his predecessor. While SAMA remains responsible for monetary policy, it will no longer act as the countrys biggest sovereign wealth fund because a larger one is being created under the Vision 2030 reforms. QUEST FOR EFFICIENCY Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf, who has held the post since 1996, remains in place. However, other economic departments have over the past year taken over some of his ministry's responsibilities. Saturday's decrees broke up the Water and Electricity Ministry, with the water portfolio added to a new Environment, Water and Agriculture Ministry, and electricity added to the new energy ministry. Those changes may help Saudi Arabia to cut subsidies, reduce domestic power and water consumption, make sure that energy pricing meshes clearly with industrial development goals, and that nuclear and solar policy are more carefully integrated. "The merging of ministries is opening the door to efficiency gains that the government is keen to enforce," said John Sfakianakis, a former adviser to the government and head of economy at the Jeddah and Geneva-based Gulf Research Centre. Two other senior economic figures, royal court adviser Yasir al-Rumayyan and former SAMA governor Mohammed al-Jasser, were appointed advisers to the Secretariat General of the Cabinet. Tawfiq al-Rabeeah, formerly commerce minister, was appointed health minister in place of Falih, Suleiman al-Hamdan was appointed transport minister, and the Pilgrimage Ministry was renamed the Haj and Umrah Ministry. The royal decrees also merged the ministries of labour and of social affairs into a new department, and created a new Commission for Recreation and Culture. (Reporting By Angus McDowall, Katie Paul, Sami Aboudi, Reem Shamseddine, Rania El Gamal and Marwa Rashad; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Dmitry Zhdannikov and Rania El Gamal

LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - It was January 2016 and oil prices had crashed to their lowest in more than a decade.

Saudi Arabia's health minister, Khalid al-Falih, a favourite to take over the oil ministry from his mentor Ali al-Naimi, was not panicking.

Falih told an audience of oil executives, bankers and policymakers at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the world's top oil exporter might benefit from oil below $30 per barrel.

It could help to speed up reform and restructure the economy, and move Saudi Arabia to a smaller and more effective government and unleash its private sector, he said.

For decades Saudi Arabia, a de facto leader of OPEC, had targeted certain oil price levels. If it did not like the price, it would try to orchestrate a production cut or increase together with its fellow OPEC members.

Things were different this time. For the first time in decades, output cuts were not on the agenda to fix the growing global glut that Saudi Arabia helped create by ramping up supply to drive higher-cost producers such as U.S. shale firms out of the market.

Also for the first time in decades, a royal rather than a non-royal - Deputy Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman - had been appointed a few month earlier to oversee Saudi oil policies and drive the massive change.

Do you not think Prince Mohammed, who is just 30, is doing it all a bit too fast for the generally conservative Saudi society, Falih was asked.

"The Royal Highness is very ambitious where he wants Saudi Arabia to be sooner rather later. I can assure you that everybody who works around him is very excited by his vision and energized by his energy," Falih told the audience.

"Some people were concerned that we were too slow in the past.. As a former runner, I can tell you that it helps to go through sprints at times to develop your muscular strengths. We are accelerating reform."

The writing was on the wall, said the executives leaving the Davos conference. Falih would soon become oil minister reporting to Prince Mohammed, who is quickly turning into the world's most powerful oil figure.

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Three months later, Prince Mohammed had a chance to showcase his might when he effectively ordered the Saudi delegation led by Naimi not to agree to a global production freeze deal with OPEC and non-OPEC Russia.

Fellow OPEC members accused Naimi, who initially said he liked the deal, of no longer speaking with the voice of authority. Three weeks later on Saturday, Naimi was gone and Falih became energy minister.

"It is an end of an era when Naimi fought hard and struggled to create a price environment which would have been good for both consumers and producers," said Gary Ross, a veteran OPEC watcher and founder of New York-based consultancy PIRA.

"We are moving to a new era where OPEC will no longer be managing the market while supply and demand will determine the price. The new Saudi oil leadership believes the market will dictate the price and that means higher volatility. We will see higher highs and lower lows," Ross said.

IMPETUS TO REFORM

Naimi, born in 1935, had orchestrated several OPEC oil output cuts and increases since taking on the oil minister job in 1995.

The former Saudi Aramco's clerk-turned-chairman saw oil priced as low as $9 per barrel during the Asian financial crisis at the end of 1990s, as high as $147 in 2008 and back to $36 several months later after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

Rumors about Naimi being finally allowed to retire have been hitting the market periodically in the past four years.

But even though the Riyadh-born and U.S.-educated Falih has long been tipped to replace Naimi, his fortunes and career kept zigzagging from Saudi Aramco's chairman to health minister until finally securing the job on Saturday - combining energy, industry and mineral resources in a new super ministry.

Falih takes the job in a much better market environment compared to January - oil prices have indeed recovered from their January lows of $27 per barrel to trade at around $45 last week on the prospect that the market has began to rebalance thanks to lower U.S. output.

Born in 1960, Falih joined Aramco in 1979, and went to study engineering at Texas A&M University in 1982 on an Aramco sponsorship program.

Falih probably knows every oil chief executive in the world as he was the key negotiator behind a Saudi initiative to jointly develop gas resources with oil majors in early 2000.

Over the past year, when Naimi was carefully choosing his words or not commenting at all, Falih has become more vocal about his views that the oil market needs to rebalance through low prices and that the Saudis have the resources to wait.

"That doesn't really point to somebody who would invest a lot of time and energy in trying to reconcile different OPEC members," said Richard Mallinson from Energy Aspects.

Falih says job creation and economic reforms are top worries for the Saudi government these days, not an obsession with oil price levels.

"Those transitions sometimes takes years, sometimes decades. The current low oil prices will give us an impetus to accelerate this," Falih said in Davos in January.

(Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi King Salman replaced his long-serving oil minister on Saturday as part of a major government overhaul which comes as the kingdom grapples with a slump in energy revenues.

The revamp follows last month's announcement of an ambitious plan to transform Saudi Arabia's economy to reduce its dependence on oil.

Ali al-Naimi, who held the post of oil minister for more than two decades, was one of the most powerful figures within the OPEC oil cartel.

But recently his influence appeared to have been curbed by the growing power of Salman's son Prince Mohammed who has taken charge of economic policy.

Naimi has been replaced by Khaled al-Falih, the longtime chief of state oil giant Saudi Aramco, who was previously health minister.

Falih takes on the enlarged portfolio of energy, industry and mineral resources, according to a royal decree announced Saturday by state media.

From 2009, he was Aramco's president and chief executive officer, in charge of about 60,000 employees at the firm which produces roughly one in every eight barrels of the world's oil supply.

There was no immediate word on who will replace Falih as Aramco chairman, but Naimi has been made an adviser to the Royal Court.

- 'Vision 2030' -

The government restructuring comes after Saudi Arabia last week unveiled a long-term reform programme dubbed "Vision 2030" to rehaul its economy that has been long-dependent on oil.

Among other changes announced Saturday, a new ministry of trade and investment was created while other ministries were merged and the electricity and water ministry was scrapped.

A new central bank governor, Ahmad al-Khalifi, was also appointed, and the king decreed the creation of a "general authority for entertainment" and another to promote culture.

Naimi, described by Forbes magazine in 2014 as "the world's most powerful oilman", oversaw a major change in policy towards the end of his tenure as OPEC refused to cut production despite a price plunge.

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Instead the kingdom focused on protecting its market share and driving out less-competitive players, including US shale producers.

Major oil producers failed to reach an agreement on freezing output in Doha last month as Saudi Arabia insisted any deal must include all OPEC members, including rival Iran, which boycotted the talks.

Naimi was born in 1935, two years before the first commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the kingdom's east.

He obtained a master's degree in geology from Stanford University and then joined Aramco, according to an official biography.

- Diversification -

He was a supervisor at an oilfield before rising through a series of management roles to become president of Saudi Aramco in 1983 and oil minister 12 years later.

He had kept his post despite two major cabinet shakeups last year under Salman, who acceded to the throne in January 2015 after the decade-long reign of King Abdullah ended.

According to an official biography, Falih, whose date of birth was not given, in 1982 earned a mechanical engineering degree from Texas A&M University in the United States.

In 1991 he graduated with an MBA from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals in his homeland.

The ambitious plan to diversify the economy away from oil was announced late last month by Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The deputy crown prince, who is also defence minister, has emerged as one of Saudi Arabia's most influential figures since being named second-in-line to the throne last year.

At the root of the long-term reform programme is the sale of less than five percent of Saudi Aramco in what officials say will be the largest-ever Initial Public Offering.

For decades, Saudi Arabia, the largest economy in the Arab world, enjoyed a windfall from its massive and easily exploitable oil reserves.

Flush with oil revenues, the nation built up enormous fiscal reserves and provided its 21 million citizens with a generous system of public employment, welfare benefits and subsidised utilities.

But analysts have long warned that the Saudi system, which counted on oil for 73 percent of state revenues last year, is deeply bureaucratic and inefficient.

Riyadh posted a record budget deficit in 2015 and a $87-billion shortfall is projected for this year.
Panama City (AFP) - Panama's reputation as a world-class financial hub is being torn apart from the double scandals of the Panama Papers and now the US designating one of its most prominent families as top money launderers for drug cartels.

"This is like a magnitude-10 earthquake for Panama's economic system and society, but it shouldn't be a surprise," said Miguel Antonio Bernal, a professor in constitutional law at the University of Panama.

"The country's image has been damaged by these scandals," said Francisco Bustamante, who used to work for the Inter-American Development Bank.

They and other analysts believe that, far from putting the scandals behind it, Panama could see them grow in the weeks and months ahead, subjecting the Central American nation to further international scrutiny and spooking investors.

The US announcement this week declaring members and associates of the Wakeds, a prominent family of Lebanese descent, to be among "the worlds most significant drug money launderers and criminal facilitators" was a bad blow on top of the Panama Papers revelations that emerged a month ago.

The US Treasury Department froze the US assets of Nidal Ahmed Waked Hatum and Abdul Mohamed Waked Fares and those of many of their businesses, which span real estate, luxury shops, hotels, a bank, media and duty-free outlets.

Colombia arrested Waked Hatum on Wednesday and said it would extradite him to the United States, where he faces money laundering and bank fraud charges.

Meanwhile, the Panama Papers revelations about how many of the world's wealthy shoved assets into offshore entities look set to deepen.

A US-based journalists' collective that has been poring over the 11.5 million documents plundered from the servers of a secretive Panamanian law firm is to release many of them online on Monday.

And the US government and European countries are stepping up measures against countries seen to be "havens" for tax avoiders and money-launderers.

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- Financial sector hit -

Panama's authorities have been trying to emphasize that they are committed to "transparency" and stamping out illegal activity.

But there is little doubt that its financial services sector -- a nexus of banks and law firms catering to clients around the world -- has been hit hard, and will struggle to recover.

As a sign of its seriousness, Panama has created a committee of international experts, headed by Joseph Stiglitz, an American economist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2011, to recommend further reforms to the sector.

In the last couple of years, it has already cracked down on bearer shares and other instruments that helped obscure ownership of companies.

Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela last month also announced that his government was willing to adopt OECD standards on sharing tax information it had long resisted. But last week he said Panama still needed "a little more time" to comply.

The financial scandals will hang heavy over the country as it finally inaugurates next month a costly and behind-schedule expansion of the lucrative Panama Canal.

Varela has invited 70 heads of state and government to the ceremony, which will see a Chinese superfreighter be the first to navigate through the bigger waterway.

The canal, along with free economic zones, ports, tourism and recognized logistics and banking sectors have underpinned economic growth of more than six percent annually in recent years -- one of the highest in the region.

Nevertheless, Panama has found it hard to shake a perception that it is a shady nest of illicit transactions.

"We can't go on as if we are privateers or pirates of the 18th century," Bernal said.

- 'Opportunity' for Panama -

The professor agreed that Panama needed to bring in changes to stop money laundering. "But the government can't do it because most of the people in it have interests in these types of operations," he said.

Analysts said the scandals could instead provide impetus for officials to ensure new reforms fall in line with international transparency standards.

"This is a golden opportunity for Panama," Bustamante said.

"No need for it to talk, it just needs to show that the law exists, that it works, and that's that," he said.

Annette Planells, head of the Independent Movement for Panama, an association fighting for better citizens' rights, said: "Panama needs to bear its share of the sacrifice to stop our institutions being used for these illegal activities."

Still, the experts said Panama's institutions were relatively weak and often riddled with corruption, and the much-criticized justice system has shown itself unwilling or unable to convict senior officials or top businessmen.

"Panama really needs to adapt to this new global reality, and we can't isolate ourselves," Planells said.
Sinead O'Connor is "amused" by Arsenio Hall's $5 million defamation lawsuit that he brought against the Irish musician in response to her accusing him in a Facebook post of being the one to supply Prince with drugs.

Arsenio Hall Sues Sinead O'Connor Over Accusation of Giving Drugs to Prince

A day following Hall's complaint that he filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, in which he says O'Connor is a "desperate, attention-seeker ... now known perhaps as much for her bizarre, unhinged internet rants as for her music," she took to Facebook to address the recent lawsuit.

"REGARDING ARSE-INIO HALL'S LAUGHABLE THREATS," O'Connor wrote in all capital letters on Friday afternoon (May 6) to begin the post.

"I'm more amused than I've ever dreamed a person could be and look forward very much to how hilarious it will be watching him trying to prove me wrong," she penned. "'I'm also very happy to notice that the DEA have taken me seriously enough to be thoroughly questioning all of Prince's friends and aides from the last thirty years as to his KNOWN history of hard drug use and where he obtained his drugs."

Billboard Cover: Sinead O'Connor on Having No Regrets, Being 'Irregular' and Resurrecting Her Career

She concluded the post by stating that she simply dislikes Hall: "I do not like drugs killing musicians. And I do not like Arsenio Hall. He can suck my dick. That is if he isn't too busy sucking someone else's dick. : )"

The drama began when O'Connor wrote in a Facebook post a week following Prince's death that the late musician was a "long time hard drug user" that "got his drugs over the decades" from Hall.

This article originally appeared in THR.com.
Singapore's ruling party on Saturday comfortably retook a parliamentary seat vacated by a member who quit over an extramarital affair.

The People's Action Party (PAP) victory in a by-election dealt a fresh blow to opposition candidate Chee Soon Juan, who has endured jail and bankruptcy in his long campaign for a more liberal Singapore.

Ruling party candidate Murali Pillai, a lawyer, won 61.2 percent of the votes against the 38.8 percent of Chee, the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party.

The PAP now holds 83 out of 89 seats in parliament after a landslide victory in last September's general election, which saw the party take 70 percent of votes.

Co-founded by late strongman Lee Kuan Yew, the party has governed Singapore continuously since the city-state gained self-rule from Britain in 1959, prior to full independence in 1965.

Its leaders say the PAP's strong stand against corruption and track record in guiding the city-state into one of Asia's most advanced economies have enabled it to stay in power.

Critics however say that uninterrupted one-party rule has stifled dissent and curbed civil and political liberties.

The contested seat in the suburban district of Bukit Batok was vacated in March when the elected MP David Ong, 54, resigned over an extramarital affair.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thanked Singaporeans for voting in the ruling party's candidate.

Lee said in a Facebook post that Murali's win showed that "the government and people are united in building a better nation together".

Chee, an internationally known dissident who has fought the PAP for greater civil and political rights, said: "I will bow, not in defeat, but... with grace."
Drug firms face industrywide probe by price regulator Updated: 2016-05-07 02:36 By Wang Yanfei(China Daily)

China's top price regulator will soon launch "large-scale and systematic" anti-trust investigations into drug companies, both foreign and domestic, after it recently summoned them to collect data and information, a source close to the regulator said on Friday.

The National Development and Reform Commission may require more drug companies to provide information after Pfizer, a US pharmaceutical company, and a number of distribution companies and medical device manufacturers were summoned, according to the source, who requested anonymity due to lack of authorization to speak on the matter.

The commission, which is in charge of China's anti-trust affairs, is collecting evidence to see whether these companies might have violated regulations regarding competition, according to the source. But this does not mean these companies have violated the law, the source said.

The NDRC could not be reached for immediate comment, and Pfizer refused to comment.

A spokesman for a foreign drug-making company, who declined to be identified, said the move led by the commission is "regular work" and that the company will work with the commission, if necessary.

The commission has prepared for a long time for the current move, which is intended to improve order in the drug market, the source said.

As China has sought to improve its public healthcare system and make its medical products and services more affordable, the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and local competitors have felt pressure that has triggered a slowdown in sales growth, Bloomberg reported on Friday.

But analysts said China should put in place a more transparent and market-oriented pricing plan as the government emphasizes lowering drug prices and improving the public health system.

Premier Li Keqiang said during an executive meeting of the State Council last month that healthcare reform has entered a crucial stage, with reducing drug prices listed among key tasks.

Li stressed the importance of establishing a drug price tracing system to improve drug management, ensure the quality of drugs and make prices transparent.

Early in January, the NDRC imposed total fines of 4 million yuan ($616,000) on five domestic pharmaceutical companies for acting in collusion to fix the prices of a common drug.

The NDRC first levied fines on the pharmaceutical industry in 2011, when two companies were ordered to pay a total of 7 million yuan in fines.
By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's Treasury said on Saturday it was bringing public finances under control despite recent "adverse political development" after Moody's affirmed the country's investment-grade credit rating but kept its negative outlook. In a statement, the Treasury said President Jacob Zuma's government would "continue to demonstrate its commitment to translate plans into concrete actions that will ensure South Africa remains an investment-grade country". Moody's announcement late on Friday -- after domestic financial markets had closed -- marked the conclusion of the ratings review for a possible downgrade of South Africa's Baa2 rating it launched in March. Nomura emerging markets analyst Peter Attard Montalto said in a brief note the move was a "marginal positive" but noted that Moody's has been more upbeat on South Africa than other credit ratings agencies. Standard & Poor's, which is expected to review South Africa in June, both rate the country BBB-, a notch lower than Moody's and the lowest investment-grade rating. A Reuters poll in April predicted that at least one of South Africa's ratings would be cut to "junk" this year, reflecting sluggish economic growth and political ructions since Zuma shook markets in December by firing Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. Zuma replaced Nene with an unknown backbencher but the impact on the rand and other assets forced him within days to recall the respected Pravin Gordhan to the post. Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas later sparked a political scandal by saying the wealthy Gupta family, which has close ties to Zuma and his family, had offered him Nene's role. Moody's said on Friday that its ratings decision was based on its assessment that South Africa "is likely approaching a turning point ... and that recent political developments, while disruptive, testify to the underlying strength of South Africa's institutions". It said a downgrade could be triggered if economic growth, which it forecasts at 0.5 percent this year, fails to revive or if the government "unduly" delayed reforms. Moody's also noted two recent court judgments against Zuma, one over misuse of public funds for his private residence, and a second that could see him face almost 800 graft-related charges. These "attest to the strength and independence of South Africa's constitution and judicial system," it said. Zuma's legal woes have raised the stakes for local elections on Aug. 3 which analysts say will be the sternest political test his ruling African National Congress (ANC) has faced since coming to power in 1994. "The local government elections ... will be a litmus test as to whether and by how much these developments are eroding the ANC's electoral support and the consequences for the robustness and clarity of economic and fiscal policy," Moody's said. (Editing by Catherine Evans)
By Karen Pierog and Dave McKinney

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago's cash-strapped public school district is not in sufficiently bad financial shape to warrant a state takeover, according to an Illinois State Board of Education staff report.

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner launched a probe of the nation's third-largest school system in February, contending it could lead to state oversight and a suspension of borrowing at debt-dependent, "junk"-rated Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

However, the report from state school Superintendent Tony Smith, posted on the board's website ahead of a monthly meeting scheduled for Wednesday, said CPS does not meet "any of the criteria" to be certified in financial difficulty.

"The district has not realized two consecutive years of negative operating fund balances nor is it forecasted in this model," the report stated.

It noted that negative operating balances are possible in fiscal 2018 and 2019.

"It's clear in our analysis CPS has financial challenges and a spending problem," state board spokeswoman Laine Evans said on Friday. "However, at this time they do not meet the criteria for certification of financial difficulty, as defined per statute. ISBE will continue to monitor the situation and the districts finances.

The state education board's recommendation undercuts a series of strident remarks made by Republican Rauner in January and February, asserting at one point the school system faced a "financial disaster" that would prevent it from remaining solvent through the end of its fiscal year in June.

The staff report also comes as Illinois remains in a crippling 11-month budget deadlock between Rauner and Democrats who control the state legislature. The impasse has hit the state's higher education and social service systems particularly hard. Illinois is the only U.S. state without a full operating budget.

Rauner's office continued to insist on Friday that CPS is in a financial mess.

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"You don't need an actuary or an accountant to know CPS has financial problems, otherwise the district wouldn't be repeatedly asking the state for an additional half a billion dollars. It's clear the district is in financial distress," said Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly in a statement.

CPS said the report vindicated the district.

"This decision demonstrates that Governor Rauner's attempts to drive CPS into bankruptcy are misguided and wrong. While CPS faces a $1 billion budget deficit next year, it can be solved if we all work together, as we are committed to doing," said a statement from CPS spokeswoman Emily Bittner.

The deficit is mostly due to escalating annual pension payments that will reach $676 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30. The district's efforts to gain an additional $480 million in state dollars to pay its pension bill became entangled in the ongoing impasse between Rauner and Democrats.

CPS officials, who have maintained the district is exempt under Illinois law from state oversight, are calling for a revamp of the state school funding formula to ensure poor children are not short-changed.

The decision not to declare the district in financial difficulty could suggest recognition by the Rauner-appointed state school board that it lacked proper legal footing to take over CPS in the first place, a Democratic legislative source said.

In April, Democratic Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an opinion that the state lacks the authority to take control of the school systems finances, including its ability to borrow to help fund operational costs.

(Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Selena Gomez kicked off her highly anticipated Revival tour Friday night (May 6) at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Events Center, opening with song "Revival" and transitioning to "Same Old Love." She started by wearing a nude bodysuit embellished with over 60,000 Swarovski crystals and then attached a deconstructed flowing black taffeta gown. Both looks were created by the relatively new brand MONSE (mon-SAY), known for its menswear inspired designs that ooze ease and sophistication.

Three Selena Gomez Beauty Tips You Need To Know: Exclusive

Having just celebrated their first birthday, MONSE, created by Oscar de la Renta alums Fernando Garcia and Laura Kim, has already been worn by stars such as Oscar winner Brie Larson, Lady Gaga, Kate Bosworth and, most recently, Sarah Jessica Parker, who collaborated with MONSE on her much talked about Alexander Hamilton-inspired Met Gala pantsuit.

Billboard Cover: Selena Gomez on Her New Chapter -- 'I've Deserved This. I Earned it. This Is All Me'

Billboard spoke to Garcia about the collaboration process between the MONSE team, Gomez and Christian Classen, the stylist of the tour. "Christian gave us the mood he and Selena wanted to give to the tour," Garcia says. "We sent his team a group of 10 sketches and were beyond flattered to hear both he and Selena loved them all. In the end, we picked her very favorite, and luckily it is opening the show."

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Gomez has become quite a fan of the young label and this is the fourth time she has worn MONSE. Gomez turned heads during Paris Fashion Week this past March wearing a modern and feminine black pantsuit with off-the-shoulder-pinstripe details from MONSE's Fall 2016 collection that drove comparisons to Audrey Hepburn. Gomez wore an elegant MONSE Spring 2016 gown at Billboard's Women in Music event this past December, made up of a silver beaded bodice and ivory ruffled skirt with a signature MONSE dress shirt detail tied around the waist.

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MONSE's feelings of admiration are mutual. "Selena has the same kind of attitude we try to give our clothes -- a sense of ease, always feminine while keeping it sexy. We believe a menswear look on a woman to be very sexy and sophisticated. I think she believes in these codes too, which is why I think we clicked and now, she is a fan of MONSE," Garcia says.
Sundance Institute has selected eight first-time filmmakers for its Directors Lab.

Frances Bodomo, Annie Silverstein, Cesar Cervantes, Boots Riley, Kibwe Tavares, Eva Vives, Sandhya Suri and Pippa Bianco are aspiring filmmakers that will work with Sundance Institute Feature Film Program founding director Michelle Satter, Labs Director Ilyse McKimmie and the artistic director Gyula Gazdag.

During the Lab the filmmakers will shoot and edit key scenes from their screenplays, working with creative advisers, professional actors and production crews.

This year's creative advisers include Sundance Film Festival founder/ actor Robert Redford, director Catherine Hardwicke, NPR's Ira Sachs and actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, among others.

The Sundance Directors Lab has launched the careers of filmmakers like Cary Fukunaga, Dee Rees and Marielle Heller. Also several films supported by the Feature Film Program premiered earlier this year at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, including Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award-winner The Birth of a Nation.

The intensive will take place May 30 to June 23 at the Sundance resort in Utah.

Read More: Sundance: 'Birth of a Nation' Sets Record With $17.5M Sale to Fox Searchlight
Tuesdays, 2-5 p.m. and Thursdays, 1-4 p.m. Continues through Dec. 22

Michael Victor II Art Library 1 NW Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield Downtown

Free and open to the public

Books & Authors

The new downtown location of the Michael Victor II Art Library is ready for patrons to explore, relax and check out books. Our specialized library collection features over 3,000 books about art and film, most of which are not available at other central Illinois libraries. The library is located on the second floor of the Broadwell Pharmacy Building on the corner of Washington and Fifth streets. Check out the online catalog and call the office for curbside book checkouts! 2175232631
As wildfires continue to ravage the countryside of Alberta, Canada, the country's Syrian refugees are doing everything they can to help families that have lost everything in the blaze.

The Alberta, Canada countryside.

The Alberta provincial government was forced to declare a state of emergency on Friday as a fire that began in the heart of the country's tar sands oil region continued to spread. A mass evacuation of the area has driven 80,000 people from Fort McMurray, and officials said Saturday that unfavorable weather conditions could cause the fire to double its current size.

Canada's resettled Syrian families are no stranger to the sort of displacement many Alberta residents are now facing.

Rita Khanchet, a Syrian woman who relocated to Calgary five months ago with her husband and son, told the Calgary Herald that she felt compelled to help those who had lost their homes in the fire.

"It's not easy to lose everything. We can understand them more than anyone in Canada. We were in the same situation," said Khanchet.

Fort McMurray, after the evacuation of 80,000 people.

According to the paper, Khanchet posted a message urging fellow refugees to do what they could to aid members of their new community. Her message was reposted to a larger Syrian support group, and suddenly offers to help started pouring in.

"[Canadians] gave us everything. And now it's time to return the favor," she wrote.

Volunteers organize water donations.

The Herald reports that refugee families, many of whom have very few possessions to begin with, are going out of their way to donate clothing, furniture and hygiene items to those affected by the fire.

"We understand what they're feeling. When you lose everything, you have to start from zero. You lose your memories, your items. It's not easy. It's something very sad. We can totally understand their feeling," Khanchet said.
Palmyra (Syria) (AFP) - The Syrian regime on Friday put on a patriotic celebration at the ancient city of Palmyra, with flag-waving and military music in a place where just last year jihadists carried out mass executions.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime was able to display its control over the world heritage site six weeks after the army, with Russian help, recaptured it from Islamic State fighters.

The event marked the centenary of Martyrs' Day, when Syrian nationalists were executed in Damascus by the Ottoman occupiers in 1916.

"We are here to celebrate those who died to save our homeland. We salute the martyrs of Syria and among them the heroes who died in this very theatre," the event's presenter said before the police and army orchestra took the stage in the ancient arena.

Last July Islamic State released a video showing the mass execution of 25 Syrian soldiers in the theatre. Bullet holes remain visible on one wall.

In a symbol of Moscow's role in the recapture of Palmyra, 20 Russian soldiers marched onto the stage waving Russian and Syrian flags.

- Propaganda coup -

The previous day, leading Russian musicians staged a classical concert in the ancient theatre in a show by the Kremlin to herald its successes in the war-torn country.

Famed conductor Valery Gergiev led Saint Petersburg's celebrated Mariinsky orchestra through pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, Sergei Prokofiev and Rodion Shchedrin in front of a crowd of Russian soldiers, government ministers and journalists.

Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes and special forces on the ground recaptured the UNESCO world heritage site from IS fighters in March, delivering a major propaganda coup for both Damascus and Moscow.

The UN cultural agency said last month that the ancient city had suffered significant damage at the hands of Islamic State fighters, but that the archaeological site retains much of its authenticity.

According to the experts, parts of the grand colonnade -- an ancient avenue -- and agora courtyard remain intact.

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But they observed "the destruction of the triumphal arch and Temple of Baal Shamin, which was smashed to smithereens".

Russian army sappers said last month they had demined the site -- known as the "Pearl of the Desert".

For Friday's event Syrian authorities bussed in delegations from throughout the country.

Between each piece of music the crowd chanted "Syria" and "the sons of the martyrs protect the leader of the nation," in reference to Assad.

However the civil war is not far away. Just 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the site Islamic State fighters are still at large.

Palmyra, northeast of Damascus, contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was once a crucial hub for trade and culture.

Until the Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011, the site was a key tourist destination.
This weekend, Capcom Pro Tour Asia makes its first stop of the year at Thaiger Uppercut in Bangkok. Weve seen what Justin Wong and the Ken players are doing in the U.S. Now its time to see the level of competition Asia will bring to the Pro Tour.



Familiar faces like Bruce GamerBee Hsiang and Martin Marn Pham will be in attendance, and well get our first look at some well-known players in Asia who rarely traveled for Ultra Street Fighter IV. Oh, and theres a wild Gootecks spotted in the Street Fighter V bracket, too.

(Photo: Michael Martin)

New game, same old Bee

If you blinked, you might have missed a few of the international players who traveled to the West to play Street Fighter V. The most notable, GamerBee, took part in the Red Bull Kumite exhibition. The former USF4 Adon player showed off his Necalli for the first time on the big stage. He had a pretty good showing, defeating Team Secrets Lee Poongko Chung Gon and Mad Catz Daigo The Beast Umehara.

GamerBees most recent appearance was the May 1 edition of the Korean 3v3 Street Fighter V Crash tournament. He managed to get in one game as the anchor for his team (which includes Poongko and Jonny Humanbomb Cheng) in the final set to qualify for the top eight winners bracket. Like a lot of players still finding their footing, GamerBees wins against tough opponents shows hes not too old for this stuff.

Gootecks world tour stops in Thailand

Ryan Gootecks Gutierrez is on something of a world tour, hoping it pays off in some global points for the CPT Leaderboards. Gootecks played in the Red Bull Kumite open qualifier, failing to make it out and placing fourth at the Kuwait Battle Royale. If Gootecks managed to secure points at Thaiger Uppercut, it will add to his total of eight points earned from Cannes Winter Clash in France back in February. While he has yet to crack a top eight back home in the U.S., the global points could be a factor later on the tour if he is in contention to qualify for Capcom Cup, as global points supersede regional points on the Capcom Pro Tour leaderboard.

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Marn returned home to Vietnam after his fourth-place finish at the recent PAX Arena exhibition (he boldly claimed he was going to win it all in an interview with Yahoo Esports.) Whether the competition is or isnt ready for him, theres no denying his nutty style of play with R. Mika makes him a threat at any tournament.

Home region advantage

Other players to watch out for include Tatsuya Haitani, who finished fourth at Final Round and seventh at NorCal Regionals in March, and Capcom Cup 2015 participants like Singapores Ghim Gackt Kee Eng, Japans top Zangief player in USF4 Hiromiki Itabashi Zangief Kumada, Takenori Tonpy Shimomura, and Sanshiro Shiro Nagai, who traveled as far as Norway in 2015 to qualify for Capcom Cup. Any of these names could fill out a killer top eight bracket.

Thaiger Uppercut will be streamed on the Team Spooky Twitch channel. You can also check out the rest of the schedule for CPT Asia events on event organizer Beast of the Easts website.

Michael Martin covers all things related to Street Fighter V and the Capcom Pro Tour. Follow him on Twitter @Bizarro_Mike.
It looks like Marvel Studios has found its screenwriting equivalent of Captain America and Iron Man in Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. After penning Captain America: Winter Soldier, which became an instant canon favorite upon its release in 2014, the duo (who had previously written Thor: The Dark World, all three Narnia movie, and the Mark Wahlberg-Dwayne Johnson action-comedy Pain & Gain) was reenlisted for the follow-up, Captain America: Civil War, now in theaters. Not only that, but theyve also been charged with reassembling Marvels A-Team in the still-to-be-titled Avengers: Infinity War, coming in 2018 and 2019.

Like any Marvel adventure, Civil War introduces new characters (i.e., Black Panther, Spider-Man, and Zemo) and conflicts (too many to name) while also continuing and/or resolving storylines from films past. The threequel also raises plenty of questions. To answer five of those, we went to Markus and McFeely for the behind-the-scenes scoop.

Warning: Big-time Civil War spoilers ahead!

1. When did Spidey come into the picture?

Marvel Studios announced that it had come to an agreement with Sony, which controls the cinematic rights to Spider-Man, in February 2015, allowing the web-slinger to join the MCU. But Markus and McFeely had been aware of the possibility as soon as the project became Civil War (sometime around Marvels Phase Three announcement in October 2014). At one point we were told, basically like, Run scenarios for a movie that Spider-Man would be in. We dont have him yet, but we might ask, Markus remembered.

Related: The Long Fight to Land Spider-Man in 'Captain America: Civil War



So we worked up some scenes and had some spots for him, and then he was out. And then relatively late in the day he came back. And because he always appeared in that recruitment section, we were able to leave that kind of baggy and self-contained, and not tied to too many other things, so he could come and go if we wanted him. Plus we could expand or contract Black Panther in the movie to sort of fill the hole if Peter Parker wasnt going to be in the movie. So we had good options.

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2. So the plan wasnt always to unveil Black Panther?

Nope. Initially the plan was to just meet T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), plain-clothed future King of Wakanda, and to save the actual Black Panther reveal for his upcoming solo movie (if another Marvel movie didnt co-opt it first). You can get a lot of good stuff out of just plain old T'Challa, Markus said. So at one point we had [T'Challa] and Spider-Man and then Spider-Man went out and we were like, 'Well, we have a guy who owns a superhero costume, lets have him put it on. So it wasnt so much that we didnt want him, its how much of this are we going to burn off in one movie?

McFeely thinks the move will ultimately pay dividends for the Boseman-starring franchise, which will start with 2018s Black Panther, directed by Creeds Ryan Coogler. Black Panther was always going to do very well, he said. But I think a lot people will be very excited because hes already been sort of presented in a movie that they were going to see anyway.

Related: Meet Black Panther: The Marvel Cinematic Universes New Breakout Hero

3. Did they consider killing Captain America?

We just saw Superman killed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and many fans wondered if Cap might have the same fate given that hes assassinated (at least temporarily) in the aftermath of the Civil War storyline in the comics. We never really went into this with the intention of killing Cap, Markus revealed. One, because he doesnt really die, so we werent going to do the time bullet [like in the comics]. And there are other movies coming, and its like, 'Are you gonna kill him? And you get crap for fake-killing people. We fake-killed [Nick] Fury [in Winter Soldier] and it worked pretty well, but At a certain point youre lessening the gravity of the movie when you kill somebody, because people are like, 'Oh now were in comic-book world because hes gonna come back. So you get more gravity out really hurting somebody. Someone like, say, War Machine.

The film does feature Brock Rumlow/Crossbones (Frank Grillo) in an early action sequence, and hes the villain who initially fires at Cap in the comics (though a brainwashed Sharon Agent 13 Carter lands the lethal shot). But the screenwriters werent trying to misdirect us, they swear. It was more that we introduced Rumlow in [Winter Soldier], Markus said. And purposely left him alive, McFeely added.

Screenwriters Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus (Getty)

4. How did Giant-Man make it into the movie?

Not all of the Avengers have standalone franchises, but Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) does. So you would have thought that Scott Langs ability to reverse-engineer his shrinking capability and blow the eff up wouldve been saved for, say, Ant-Man and Wasp. But Markus and McFeely fought to introduce Giant-Man in Civil War, and they won. Theoretically he had the power in the comic, and the ant thing can only go so far in a big roundhouse fight, Markus explained. Also when you start with 17 or however many, 12, super-powered people hitting each other, how do you ratchet it up?

McFeely said he believed directors Anthony and Joe Russo had to go a few extra rounds with Disney to assure them the Ant-Mans enlargement wouldnt come off as silly. Disney, to their credit, they were very much like, 'Lets do a real, grounded, issue-driven, superhero-conflict fight movie, Markus said. "And we were like, 'We want to put a 100-foot-tall guy in it.

Langs love interest Hope van Dyne (a.k.a. Wasp, played by Evangeline Lilly) was also included in early scripts for Civil War, but that was an entity that needed to be saved for the standalone Ant-Man world, especially given the upcoming 2018 sequel is literally called Ant-Man and the Wasp. It wouldve been gutting too much out of that franchise, Markus explained.

5. Why was Zemo so radically different from the comics version?

Simple, the comics he appeared in took place long, long ago. There are two Zemos in the comics, McFeely noted. Ones a World War II villain, and then ones his son. So hes a '60s villain. So we would really have to stretch all of that given that its the MCU and Steve is 70 years removed as opposed to when they unthawed him in the comics and its 20 years.

In the movie, it makes perfect sense that Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) is motivated from losing his father, wife, and son in the Sokovia carnage from Avengers: Age of Ultron. But the screenwriters say it wouldnt have worked if he was driven by the events of WWII. Then youre like, 'OK, this guy is weirdly resentful for something that happened to his grandfather, Markus said.

We did debate, 'Should we just take the name Zemo off of him and make him a generic guy? And its like, 'No its more fun if his name is Zemo.

Captain America: Civil War is now in theaters.
Photo: Larry Marano/Getty Images



Some things are hard to give up, no matter what you read. A few minutes in the sunshine will age you as many years, they say, but doesnt that heat feel amazing? Youve heard that a couple cocktails a week means your wrinkles will be getting in line (not in the good way) but that frosty margarita is so relaxing.

What if there was something that cut the guilt factor, just a little? What if that cocktail actually added back a few years? Anti-aGin, a gin produced by hotel chain Warner Leisure and partner Bompas & Parr, promises that its the alcoholic equivalent of a facial. The gin is chock full of anti-aging botanicals and drinkable collagenthey say it also fights cellulite.

This new Anti-aGin is 40-proof and formulated with drinkable collagen, nettle, witch hazel, chamomile (a blend that is supposed to both reduce inflammation and rejuvenate cells), gotu kola, which claims to combat cellulite and inhibit scar formation, burdock (believed to repair cracked skin), and green tea (a detoxifier). And because its still gin, it contains juniper, coriander, and angelica root. Oh, and alcohol.

Drinkable collagen is no new thing (and we are big proponents of bone broth). It started in Asia with companies like Shiseido and Kinbi selling collagen supplements in mini bottles, and those supplements soon appeared in US markets. But now were starting to see the same thing happening to alcohol: last year Japanese alcohol distributor Suntory launched a collagen beer called Precious, targeting women. Read this article to get our experts take.

Does it work? There are studies that found taking collagen helps increase skin density and hydration, like this one, from 2015. But as youd expect, doctors are hesitant to recommend drinking alcohol as a cure for anything, least of all aging. Doctors also remain skeptical on collagen supplements. Charlottes Book Expert Dermatologist Marnie Nussbaum gave us her opinion:When collagen gets into your digestive system, it gets broken down, she says, There is no real evidence that it then goes from your bloodstream to your skin. Collagen is a protein, and your body cannot tell the difference between proteins.

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Basically, when you drink to someones health youre not drinking to your own, says Dr. Tyler Hollmig, dermatologist and director of Laser and Aesthetic Dermatology at Stanford Health Care. Alcohol is known to dehydrate the skin and to induce hormones that may make the skin more red and irritable. Also, it is unclear how much collagen is absorbed and transmitted to the skin.

This new Anti-aGin probably isnt equivalent to a facial, but is it better than drinking regular gin? Maybe. If youre gonna reach for a drink, a little extra botanical boost and collagen kick might be a good thing. The only thing that seems certain is an emerging trend for healthier alcohols targeted at womena trend well be following.

MORE FROM CHARLOTTESBOOK.COM:

Shakiras Trainer On Anti-Aging Fitness

Why You Need Fatty Acids In Your Skincare

We Took Beauty Dust For A Week: Did We Get Prettier?
Madrid (AFP) - Three Spanish journalists who had been held hostage in Syria by an Al Qaeda-linked group returned on Sunday to Madrid where they were welcomed by overjoyed family members after nearly a year in captivity.

Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and Angel Sastre were flown on a Spanish defence ministry jet from Turkey to Torrejon air base near Madrid where they were greeted by Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

The three men could be seen smiling as they descended from the plane as officials held up umbrellas to shield them from driving rain, in a video released by the government.

Pampliega kissed his sister Alejandra on the forehead and gave her a hug after she ran to greet him.

"Crying from joy falls short," she said on Twitter on Saturday when the news broke that the three experienced conflict zone reporters had been released and were in good health.

The release was "possible thanks to the collaboration of allies and friends especially in the final phase from Turkey and Qatar", the Spanish government said Saturday, without giving further details.

Pampliega's mother Maria del Mar Rodriguez Vega said she planned to cook her son's favourite dish to celebrate his return -- spinach with bechamel sauce.

"He had the same voice as always, from when he was a child, he repeatedly asked me for forgiveness for what he made me go through," she said in a statement released by the Spanish branch of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, known by its French acronym RSF.

- 'Collaboration of allies and friends' -

The three journalists were kidnapped by armed men on July 13 while they travelling together in a small van in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo where they had been reporting on fighting for various Spanish media.

They were held by Al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, the Al-Nusra Front, government sources told AFP.

The trio appear to have been treated better than three other Spanish journalists who were released in March 2014 after being held for six months in Syria by the Islamic State group, Al-Nusra's rival which has executed many of its hostages, the sources added.

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When news of the kidnapping broke, a week after the journalists went missing, the families of the hostages asked the media to keep quiet.

The case was handled by Spain's National Intelligence Agency which tried to follow the kidnapped jounalists' movements in Syria and get signs that they were alive and well, according to government sources.

The kidnappers sent media outlets videos showing the Spanish journalists, including one in late April intended as "a way to increase the pressure on Madrid at a particularly sensitive time" in the talks for their release, diplomatic sources said.

The Spanish journalists shared part of their time in captivity with Japanese freelance journalist Jumpei Yasada, who went missing in Syria in the middle of last year, according to Spain's Europa Press news agency, which did not cite any sources.

Last month a video emerged of Yasuda, apparently asking for Tokyo's help in securing his release.

- Experienced journalists -

Lopez, born in 1971, is a prize-winning photographer who contributed images to AFP from several war zones, including from the Syrian conflict up until 2013 and Iraq in 2014.

Pampliega, a freelance war correspondent born in 1982, contributed to AFP's text coverage of the civil war in Syria for a period up to 2013.

A passionate reporter who tended to focus on human interest stories, he also contributed to AFP's coverage in Iraq.

Sastre, 35, has worked in trouble spots around the world, including Syria, for Spanish television, radio and press.

RSF in 2015 ranked Syria as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists along with Iraq.

It says 139 journalists died in Syria, where various armed factions have been battling President Bashar al-Assad's regime and each other since 2011.

In August 2014, Islamic State murdered US journalist James Foley, who was taken hostage in northern Syria in 2012.

The following month, the group killed fellow US journalist Steven Sotloff.

In 2015, militants from the group beheaded Japanese war correspondent Kenji Goto.
From Popular Mechanics

The Army's Black Hawk helicopters lead a hard life. Over the next decade or so the Pentagon will need to begin replacing the ubiquitous UH-60 medium-lift helos, and when it does, it will require vertical lift with similar cargo carrying capability to what it has now. And beyond that, what the Army really wants is speed.

So what's fast and can takeoff and land like a helicopter? A tiltrotor. Bell Helicopter is building a tiltrotor aircraft called the V-280 Valor for the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator project, hoping to win the contract for the Black Hawk's successor. Bell will pit the Valor tiltrotor against the Sikorsky/Boeing-built SB-1 Defiant coaxial rigid-rotor helicopter that features two rotors, one placed atop the other.

"It carries the same payload twice as fast and has twice the range."

When you think of a tiltrotor aircraft, you probably picture the Osprey. The Bell V-22 Osprey tiltrotor can cruise at 270 knots (310 mph) and has been in service with the Marines, Navy, and Air Force since 2000. But the Osprey is significantly larger and more costly than a medium-lift helicopter. Bell's Valor is considerably smaller than an Osprey with a simplified design aimed at reducing cost and weight. The V-280 name speaks to the Army's desire for velocity. Where the UH-60 cruises at 150 knots (170 mph), Bell says the Valor will do 280 knots (322 mph), and with a range of 500 nautical miles.

"It carries the same payload twice as fast and has twice the range," says Vince Tobin, vice president for advanced tiltrotor systems at Bell. "If you put the same payload on a Black Hawk, you have to stop at half the distance, and while the Black Hawk was stopping for fuel, the V-280 would be landing at its destination."

The Valor achieves that speed and range via a tiltrotor design that departs from the V-22 most notably at the wing. Instead of the complex, forward-swept dihedral wing found on the Osprey, the Valor will use a straight wing without dihedral. As with the Osprey, the wing is made of carbon fiber but rather than being constructed using a time-consuming carbon-fiber tape-strip layup, the Valor's wing is made using swaths of carbon fiber. Vince Tobin says the difference is akin to having a tailor made suit starting with thread only versus starting with bolts of cloth.

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"We've had 30 years to figure out what we did with the V-22 and how we would do things differently to get cost down," he says.

Doing things differently extends to the Valor's proprotors. On the V-22, the entire engine/gearbox/rotor assembly at the end of the wing rotates 90 degrees in-flight to transition the aircraft from vertical takeoff and landing to airplane-like forward cruise. On the Valor, the turbofan engines remain fixed, parallel to the fuselage. The proprotors and gearboxes are hinged, tilting up or down through 90 degrees via a hydraulic jackscrew mechanism.

The design pays dividends in simplicity. The Osprey had a mid-wing gearbox to transfer power to both proprotors in the event of an engine-out scenario, but the Valor has a straight shaft through the wing to transfer power. Rather than requiring necessary elements like wiring, hydraulics, and bleed-air to pass through a rotating joint as on the V-22, they simply pass straight through the wing on the V-280. The result is lighter weight and less cost.

Bell envisions a real production version of the Valor having an aerial refueling capability, but has given the plane the ability to carry fuel bladders in its fuselage, extending its range to more than 2100 nautical miles-good enough to fly from California to Hawaii, the longest deployment leg U.S. aircraft fly. Like the Black Hawk, the Valor will be unpressurized, typically operating up to altitudes of 10,000 feet in cruise. The aircrew will be the same as present medium-lift Army crews: pilot/co-pilot, and two crew-chief/gunners. The tiltrotor will accommodate the same defensive countermeasures systems as a UH-60 and the same weapons. The latter are more difficult to fire forward in airplane mode because the proprotors take up large area, but Bell is confident there's enough area between the cabin rotor disks to make it possible.

Tobin, a former Army AH-64 Apache aviator, says the Valor will be able to sustain the same kind of battle damage as a Black Hawk. The V-280 is scheduled for first flight in September of 2017 and thereafter will be evaluated against the Sikorsky/Boeing SB-1, which claims a 250-knot top speed.

Either way, the Army is speeding into the future. "When you find yourself with an unexpected threat, being able to get away from it quickly is a good thing," Tobin says.
By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, the top Republicans in the United States, plan to meet next week to try to unite their party, with both men focused on the Nov. 8 presidential election, but the Wisconsin congressman also perhaps looking further ahead. Speaker of the House of Representatives Ryan has invited Trump, this year's likely Republican presidential nominee, to meet on Thursday with Ryan and other congressional leaders on Capitol Hill, Ryan's office said in a statement on Friday. A key part of the conversation is sure to be Trump's combative, in-your-face campaign persona and Republican leaders' requests for him to tone it down, but political analysts said Ryan will have other considerations in mind, as well. One issue is likely to be his own future, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginias Center for Politics. Ryan, 46, lost his 2012 campaign for vice president as Mitt Romney's running mate. Ryan probably has serious doubts that Trump, like Romney, can win this year, Sabato said. If so, Ryan will want to find a balance between accepting Trump, 69, as the nominee and keeping some distance from him, just in case the real estate mogul's campaign ends in disaster. "Suppose Trump loses overwhelmingly. Would you want to have been siding with the captain of the Titanic, or maybe seen as someone who was begging the captain to watch out for icebergs?" Sabato said, adding that a Trump defeat could push the party in a different direction in 2020, maybe toward Ryan as the nominee. WALKING A TIGHTROPE As chairman of the Republican Party convention in Cleveland in July, Ryan's political tightrope will be especially perilous. One of his objectives will be to provide political cover for his 246 House Republicans so they can choose to embrace or run away from Trump, depending on their home districts' politics, with the goal of preserving control of the House, analysts said. Ryan dropped a bombshell on Thursday when he said he was not ready to endorse Trump until he shows he can unify the party, still reeling from a bitter primary campaign that left many establishment Republicans stunned at Trump's victory. One moderate Pennsylvania congressman, Representative Charlie Dent, said he thought most of his fellow House Republicans would be comfortable with what Ryan said, because they were "conflicted" themselves over whether to support Trump. Some Republican lawmakers worry that Trump is not conservative enough; others are more bothered by Trump's "divisive, incendiary remarks and lack of substance," said Dent, who put himself in the latter category. However, a conservative Republican congressman, Raul Labrador of Idaho, told CNN that Ryan "needs to reconsider what he's doing" concerning Trump. "A lot of people that are voting for Donald Trump are totally disaffected with what we're doing in Washington D.C., and he (Ryan) almost kind of slapped them in the face when he said what he did," said Labrador, who endorsed Ted Cruz but says he will vote for Trump now that Cruz is out of the race. As speaker, Ryan has struggled with his deeply divided colleagues over budget issues, funding the battle against the Zika virus, rescuing Puerto Rico from a debt crisis, and helping Flint, Michigan, deal with their contaminated water system. Ryan is "trying to jawbone Trump into adjusting his positions" to line up better with the party establishment, said Norm Ornstein, a resident scholar and political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. The "unprecedented" move by a congressional leader to distance himself from his party's expected nominee, Ornstein said, showed Ryan trying to mold a "less confrontational and divisive approach to minorities and a less isolationist and combative approach to our allies." In a swipe at Trump on Friday, President Barack Obama warned that occupying the Oval Office "is not a reality show." (Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Editing by Paul Tait)
Washington (AFP) - There may be much Republican hand-wringing over Donald Trump's presumptive nomination to face the Democratic candidate for the White House, but the boastful billionaire says he doesn't care, and it doesn't matter.

A growing chorus of senior Republican leaders have joined the "anyone but Trump movement," including 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and the last two Republican presidents, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush.

"Does it have to be unified?" Trump asked about the Republican Party.

"I'm very different than everybody else, perhaps, that's ever run for office. I actually don't think so," he told ABC's "This Week" in excerpts provided ahead of Sunday's broadcast.

"I think it would be better if it were unified, I think it would be -- there would be something good about it. But I don't think it actually has to be unified in the traditional sense."

A group of conservatives opposed to Trump's candidacy meanwhile announced it had launched a "formal effort" for an alternative candidate, though it stopped short of backing a contender from a third party.

"This is not just a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party; it is a battle for the future of our country," Conservatives Against Trump said in a statement.

"This week, Conservatives Against Trump launched a formal effort to identify an acceptable alternative candidate to run for president against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton."

The race is still "wide open for a qualified conservative candidate," the group of activists said.

"We will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton; but we will vote."

Trump, however, said he expected even some Democratic voters to throw their support behind him to win the general election.

"I'm going to go out and I'm going to get millions of people from the Democrats," Trump said.

"I'm going to get Bernie (Sanders) people to vote, because they like me on trade," he added, referring to the Democratic candidate in an uphill fight against Hillary Clinton to clinch the party's nomination.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump will testify after the Nov. 8 presidential election in a class-action lawsuit that accuses him and his now-defunct Trump University of defrauding people who paid up to $35,000 for real estate seminars, media reports said on Friday, citing his attorney. Court documents showed a federal judge ordered the trial to start in San Diego on Nov. 28. This raised the possibility that Trump could take the stand as president-elect but also ensured that he will not have to testify in the case while he campaigns. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee plans to attend much of the trial and would take the witness stand, Trump lawyer Daniel Petrocelli was quoted as saying by the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times. Petrocelli did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim the school lured "student-victims" into its doors, only to defraud them once their checks were cashed. Another Trump lawyer, Alan Garten, last year called the allegations totally lacking in any merit" and said that Trump would prevail in the end "whether it be by motion or at trial." Trump also faces another lawsuit in Manhattan over Trump University brought by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which Garten has said is "politically motivated." Schneiderman is a Democrat. That fraud lawsuit, filed in 2013, seeks $40 million in restitution plus penalties and other costs. (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
By Ayla Jean Yackley and Melih Aslan ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Two prominent Turkish journalists were sentenced to at least five years in jail for revealing state secrets on Friday, just hours after a gunman tried to shoot one of them outside the courthouse in Istanbul. Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, who was unscathed in the shooting, was given five years and 10 months. Erdem Gul, the newspaper's Ankara bureau chief, was sentenced to five years. They were acquitted of some other charges, including trying to topple the government. The case, in which President Tayyip Erdogan was named as a complainant, has brought widespread condemnation from global rights groups and increased fears about freedom of the press in Turkey, a NATO member and EU candidate country. Hours before the verdict was handed down, an assailant attempted to shoot Dundar. In full public view, before a courthouse, the attack marked an alarming development in a country already grappling with bombings by Kurdish insurgents and spillover of violence from neighboring Syria. The man shouted "traitor" before firing at least two shots in quick succession. A reporter covering the trial appeared to have been wounded. A Reuters witness said the assailant was detained by police. Before the shooting, he had approached reporters, saying he had been waiting since early morning and hoped Dundar would be found guilty. His motives and background were not immediately clear. "We experienced two assassination attempts in two hours: one by firearms, the other by law," Dundar told reporters following the trial. "There will always be concerns that the orders of the highest office played a role in this ruling." The two journalists are free pending appeal. The court also decided to postpone a hearing on separate charges of links to a terrorist group until the outcome of a related case. In Washington, the U.S. State Department in a statement voiced concern about the verdicts and called on Turkish authorities to "support an independent and unfettered media, which is an essential element of any democratic, open society." No one was immediately available for comment at Erdogan's office after the ruling. Dundar and Gul had faced up to life in jail on espionage and other charges for publishing footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency taking weapons into Syria in 2014. 'HEAVY PRICE' Erdogan has acknowledged that the trucks, which were stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border in January 2014, belonged to the National Intelligence Organisation and said they were carrying aid to Turkmen battling both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Islamic State. He has accused the journalists of undermining Turkey's international reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price", raising opposition concerns about the fairness of any trial. "We say the incident we covered was a crime, not our coverage," Dundar said. "And for that we were confronted by the president. He acted like the prosecutor of this case. He threatened us and made us targets." Under the ruling AK Party, which was founded by Erdogan, Turkey has seized control of opposition newspapers and broadcasters and cut the satellite feed of a pro-Kurdish channel, accusing them of terrorism-related activities. "This case isn't based on law, it's political," said Mahmut Tanal, a lawmaker from the opposition Republican People's Party. 'SYSTEM' ON TRIAL The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the verdict. "What was really on trial was the Turkish criminal system, which is guilty of gross misconduct," said the New York-based group's executive director, Joel Simon, in a statement. Journalists have been targeted in the past. Last month senior Turkish security officials were among 34 defendants put on trial accused of links to the murder of a prominent Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, a decade ago. Dink, who ran a newspaper serving Turkey's 60,000 Christian Armenians, was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Istanbul street in 2007. Gul and Dundar spent 92 days in jail, almost half of it in solitary confinement, before the constitutional court ruled in February that pre-trial detention was unfounded because the charges stemmed from their journalism. Erdogan said he did not respect that ruling. (Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Diane Craft)
Istanbul (AFP) - Two more people were detained on Saturday in connection with the attempted shooting of a Turkish opposition journalist outside an Istanbul courthouse where he was standing trial, the Dogan news agency reported Saturday.

Brandishing a pistol, an attacker fired several times on Friday at Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of leading opposition daily Cumhuriyet before being detained by police.

Dundar was unhurt in the attack, although another journalist covering the trial was lightly injured.

"You are (a) traitor. You will pay a price," the attacker, identified by Turkish media as 40-year-old Murat Sahin, reportedly shouted.

CNN-Turk reported him as saying he had wanted to teach Dundar "a lesson" and that he had acted alone. "I did not want to kill him, but I could have done it," he was quoted as saying.

Plainclothes police drew their weapons and ordered the man to lie chest down on the ground before detaining him.

"Two other people were detained today (Saturday) after the gun attack that targeted Can Dundar yesterday in front of the Istanbul courthouse," Dogan said.

The attack occurred just before Dundar was sentenced to five years and 10 months on charges of revealing state secrets. Cumhuriyet's Ankara bureau chief, Erdem Gul, was handed a five-year jail sentence.

"We know very well who showed me as a target," Dundar said after the attack, accusing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and pro-government media of whipping up a climate of hatred against him.

RSF ranks Turkey 151st out of 180 countries in its latest World Press Freedom Index.

Secular newspaper Cumhuriyet is staunchly opposed to the Erdogan government.

Its report on a shipment of arms intercepted at the Syrian border in January 2014 sparked a furore when it was published last May, fuelling speculation about Turkey's role in the Syrian conflict and its alleged ties to Islamist groups in the country.

Erdogan had reacted furiously to the allegations, personally warning Dundar he would "pay a heavy price".
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained two more suspects on Saturday over the attempted shooting of a prominent Turkish journalist as he waited outside an Istanbul courthouse for a verdict in his trial. A gunman attempted to shoot Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the secular Cumhuriyet newspaper, on Friday, hours before he was sentenced by the court to more than five years in jail for revealing state secrets. The attacker shouted "traitor" before firing at least two shots in quick succession. Dundar was unharmed but a journalist covering the trial, which has caused widespread alarm about freedom of the press in Turkey, was injured. The assailant, who has since been identified as a 40-year-old from the Anatolian city of Sivas, was detained at the scene. Turkish police detained two suspects reported to be the gunman's associates, Anadolu reported, citing police. No one was immediately available for comment at Istanbul police offices. The court sentenced Dundar to five years and 10 months and his colleague Erdem Gul to five years for publishing footage purporting to show the state intelligence agency taking weapons into Syria in 2014. They had faced up to life in prison and were acquitted of some charges, such as attempting to topple the government. The two are free pending appeal. President Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged that the trucks, stopped by gendarmerie and police officers en route to the Syrian border in January 2014, belonged to the National Intelligence Organisation. He said they were carrying aid to Turkmen battling both Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and Islamic State militants. Erdogan, who was named as a complainant in the case, has accused the pair of undermining Turkey's international reputation and vowed Dundar would "pay a heavy price", raising opposition concerns about the fairness of any trial. Under the ruling AK Party, which was founded by Erdogan, Turkey has seized control of opposition newspapers and broadcasters and cut the satellite feed of a pro-Kurdish channel, accusing them of terrorism-related activities. Journalists have been targeted in the past. Last month senior Turkish security officials were among 34 defendants put on trial accused of links to the murder of a prominent Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, a decade ago. Dink, who ran a newspaper serving Turkey's 60,000 Christian Armenians, was gunned down in broad daylight on a busy Istanbul street in 2007. (Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Digby Lidstone)
Gunmen wearing Afghan military uniforms shot dead two Romanian soldiers in the country's south Saturday, officials said, in the first insider attack on foreign troops since the Taliban launched their spring offensive last month.

The insurgents have so far not claimed responsibility for the attack in Kandahar province, which highlights long-simmering tensions between Afghan and foreign forces.

"Two Resolute Support (NATO) service members died this morning when two individuals wearing Afghan (security) uniforms opened fire... in southern Afghanistan," the military coalition said.

"Resolute Support members returned fire and killed the shooters."

The two soldiers were identified as Romanian, the defence ministry in Bucharest said, adding that the incident occurred during a training mission for Afghan police.

A third Romanian soldier was left wounded in the incident and transferred to a hospital in Germany, the ministry said in its statement.

The attack comes after the insurgents last month announced the start of their annual spring offensive, vowing "large-scale attacks" across Afghanistan.

So-called "green-on-blue" attacks -- when Afghan soldiers or police turn their guns on international troops -- have been a major problem during NATO's long years fighting alongside Afghan forces.

In a similar attack in August last year, a man wearing an Afghan military uniform shot dead two American soldiers in the southern opium-rich province of Helmand.

And in April last year an American soldier was killed in a firefight between US and Afghan troops in eastern Afghanistan.

Western officials say that most such attacks stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots.

The killings have bred fierce mistrust between local and foreign forces even as the rate of such incidents has dropped in recent years.

NATO troops have adopted special security measures in recent years to try to counter the threat.

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NATO ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014, pulling out a bulk of its troops although a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.

The Afghan military, which has been built from scratch since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, has also struggled with insider attacks, high casualty rates and mass desertions.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani recently threatened diplomatic reprisals against Pakistan if it refuses to take action against insurgent havens on its soil.

His unusually strong remarks were in response to a Taliban assault on a security services office in the heart of Kabul, which left 64 people dead in what appeared to be the deadliest attack on the Afghan capital since 2001.

The carnage on April 19 cast a pall over international efforts in recent months to jumpstart Pakistan-brokered peace talks, which stalled last summer after the Taliban belatedly confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.
MEXICO CITY, May 6 (Reuters) - A driver for ride-hailing app Uber was detained in Mexico City after a female passenger accused him of raping her, a spokeswoman from the city's prosecutor's office said on Friday.

The passenger said she was raped earlier in May after being picked up by the Uber driver in the upmarket Condesa neighborhood, said the spokeswoman, who declined to be identified. The driver was detained on Wednesday and is now being held in a prison in Mexico City, the spokeswoman said.

"We take accusations like this very seriously and thus have deactivated the platform of the driver," Uber spokesman Luis de Uriarte, who is based in Mexico, said in a statement.

He confirmed that authorities had asked the company for information about a driver and a journey made by that driver.

The company's Mexico City operation, its largest in Latin America, has often been cited by Uber officials as an example of progress for the city's decision to regulate the service. The company has more than 39,000 drivers in Mexico and more than 1.2 million active users.

In 2014, Uber was temporarily banned in New Delhi after an Indian driver was accused of rape. Uber introduced safety measures and tightened driver checks after the incident.

Mexico's Reforma newspaper reported the detention of the driver earlier on Friday.

(Reporting by Noe Torres and Christine Murray; Editing by Paul Tait)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A driver for ride-hailing app Uber was detained in Mexico City after a female passenger accused him of raping her, a spokeswoman from the city's prosecutor's office said on Friday. The passenger said she was raped earlier in May after being picked up by the Uber driver in the upmarket Condesa neighborhood, said the spokeswoman, who declined to be identified. The driver was detained on Wednesday and is now being held in a prison in Mexico City, the spokeswoman said. "We take accusations like this very seriously and thus have deactivated the platform of the driver," Uber spokesman Luis de Uriarte, who is based in Mexico, said in a statement. He confirmed that authorities had asked the company for information about a driver and a journey made by that driver. The company's Mexico City operation, its largest in Latin America, has often been cited by Uber officials as an example of progress for the city's decision to regulate the service. The company has more than 39,000 drivers in Mexico and more than 1.2 million active users. In 2014, Uber was temporarily banned in New Delhi after an Indian driver was accused of rape. Uber introduced safety measures and tightened driver checks after the incident. Mexico's Reforma newspaper reported the detention of the driver earlier on Friday. (Reporting by Noe Torres and Christine Murray; Editing by Paul Tait)
Jerusalem (AFP) - A senior United Nations official Saturday brushed aside an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a lecture on Jewish history, amid a row over a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Netanyahu said Friday he would host the lecture in response to a recent resolution of the UN's cultural body condemning Israeli "aggressions" against Muslims at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, while failing to mention the site's Jewish name Temple Mount.

The UNESCO executive board resolution, submitted by several Arab countries, was described by Netanyahu as "denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, our holiest site".

He said the lecture, to be delivered by a scholar in the coming weeks, would educate UN staff and diplomats about the site's history.

The UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, bristled at the suggestion that UN staff in Jerusalem were insufficiently educated.

"If someone wants to issue invitations they should be for Paris and addressed to the ambassadors of the member-states of UNESCO there," he said in a statement.

"UN staff in Jerusalem know the history of the region, its people and religions all too well."

Netanyahu last month slammed the "absurd" resolution for ignoring Judaism's connection 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".

After Israel's reaction, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova issued a statement stressing that "Jerusalem is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people".

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 focal point of tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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It has seen frequent clashes over fears that Israel is planning to change the rules that allow Muslims to pray there but Jews only to visit.

Netanyahu denies seeking to change the status quo.

According to Biblical tradition, the first and second Jewish temples were located at the site before being destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans.
Can Shake Shacks 1Q16 Results Set the Road for Recovery?

(Continued from Prior Part)

SHAKs operations

Unit growth is vital for a company like Shake Shack (SHAK) that is in its growth phase. Unit growth not only increases a companys top line but it also increases its visibility. By the end of 2015, Shake Shack was operating 84 units with 44 company-owned restaurants, five domestic franchised restaurants, and 35 international franchised restaurants.

Unit growth

Since 1Q15, Shake Shack (SHAK) has added ten company-owned restaurants and eight international franchised restaurants to increase its total unit count to 84. In 1Q16, Shake Shack, which forms 0.01% of the holdings of the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM), has added four more units.

In February 2016, Shake Shack opened its first unit in Oman. Later in the month, the company opened its first restaurant in Arizona, with a flagship store at Scottsdale Fashion Square. In March, the company opened its second restaurant in Phoenix and its first restaurants in Los Angeles, California, taking the total unit count to 88.

Peer comparison

In 1Q16, Panera Bread (PNRA) and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) have added 25 units and 58 units, respectively. During the same period, analysts are expecting Jack in the Box (JACK) to increase its unit count by three units.

Outlook

Overall in 2016, Shake Shack (SHAK) set a guidance to add 13 company-owned restaurants, seven international licensed restaurants, and one domestic licensed restaurant in Las Vegass T-Mobile Arena. These additions will increase the restaurant count to 104 units.

In December 2015, Shake Shack signed an agreement with SPC Group to introduce its first restaurants to Seoul, South Korea, in late 2016. Both partners have signed a development agreement to develop 25 restaurants over the next ten years.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
University of Michigan commencement

If there's one common refrain throughout college commencement speeches, it's this: "Follow your passion."

That advice can be truly inspiring for grads who already have a passion  say, medicine or law or mechanical engineering. But it can be equally distressing for those who sort of like art, and sort of like math, and sort of like foreign languages, and are sort of freaking out about having to choose.

Angela Duckworth, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, would have that second group of grads take the speaker's advice with a grain of salt.

"That advice leaves something out of the question," she told Business Insider, "which is, 'What is my passion and how do I follow something when I don't even know what it is?'"

What the speakers typically fail to mention, she said, is that "passions begin with interest and interests are not merely discovered; they're also actively developed and deepened."

In other words, a "passion" isn't simply hiding out like an Easter egg buried in the backyard, just waiting for you to unearth it. Instead, passions are often created over time, through a series of experiences.

Angela Duckworth

Duckworth's new book, "Grit," includes multiple examples of people who engaged in precisely this passion-creating process. For instance, she notes how the movie "Julie & Julia" shows a young Julia Child taking a bite of sole meuniere (a fish dish) and falling in love.

As Duckworth writes, "that ethereal morsel of sole meuniere was indeed a revelation. But her epiphany was that classical French cuisine was divine, not that she would become a chef, cookbook author, and, eventually, the woman who would teach America to make coq au vin in their very own kitchens."

When Duckworth read through Child's autobiography, she realized that the French meal was followed by a series of "interest-stimulating experiences," including meals in Paris bistros, reading through French cookbooks, and hours of cooking classes.

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All these experiences combined led to Child's passion for French cooking.

"The crucial thing to know about [interest development]," Duckworth told us, "is that it takes time, it takes effort, and it takes support from other people."

So there's hope for all those college grads who worry that they'll never be successful because they don't yet have a clear sense of their passion. But there's also work for them to do  get out there and experiment with different jobs and career fields. Your life is yours to create.

NOW WATCH: Stop focusing on other peoples success





More From Business Insider


Washington (AFP) - The top judge in the US state of Alabama was suspended on Friday after a judicial oversight body filed a complaint over his efforts to stop same-sex marriages, media reports said.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, 69, potentially faces a hearing in front of a panel of judges, lawyers and other appointees.

Sanctions could include removing him from office.

The Judicial Inquiry Commission complaint said Moore had "flagrantly disregarded and abused his authority" in trying to block same-sex marriages, media reports said.

Moore responded that the commission had no authority over the matter, saying he would fight the charges and "expected to prevail."

He accused the commission of listening to "people like (local transgender activist) Ambrosia Starling, a professed transvestite, and other gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals, as well as organizations which support their agenda."

Moore has repeatedly tried to stop same-sex marriage in Alabama. Last spring he told probate judges to ignore a federal court order striking down the state's ban on same-sex marriage.

In January, he ruled that Alabama's ban on same-sex marriages is legal and told probate judges there they had a "ministerial duty" to stop issuing licenses to gay couples.

The ruling came seven months after the US Supreme Court, in a historic 5-4 decision, held that states cannot prevent gay couples from marrying and that those that had refused to do so must now recognize such marriages.

"(Moore is) such a religious zealot, such an egomaniac that he thinks he doesn't have to follow federal court rulings he disagrees with.

"For the good of the state, he should be kicked out of office," said Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed a judicial ethics complaint that led to the Judicial Inquiry Commission action.

Most probate judges ignored Moore's orders, local media said.

Moore is known for his acts of resistance to federal authority.

He was removed as chief Alabama justice in November 2003 after refusing to give in to a judicial order to remove a monument bearing the Ten Commandments in front of the state Supreme Court.
Week Ended April 30: North American Rail Traffic Falls, Mexico Up

US rail traffic

Every Wednesday morning, the AAR (Association of American Railroads) releases the weekly rail traffic data for the previous week. The latest report is for the week ended April 30, 2016.

In this week, the total US railcars fell to just below 244,000, reflecting a double-digit fall of 14.1% from 284,000 units in the week ended May 2, 2015. In the reported week, the US intermodal traffic slumped by 8.6% to 258,000 units, from ~283,000 units during the same period in 2015.

Five out of ten carload commodity groups posted volume growth in the week ended April 30, 2016. Major commodity groups are miscellaneous railcars, grain, and motor vehicles and parts. The commodity groups that posted a fall in the reported week were coal, down by 37%, followed by petroleum products and forest products.

Canadian and Mexican rail traffic

In the latest reported week, Canadian rail traffic recorded a decline in both railcars and intermodal. They reported a fall of 11.3% in railcars in the week ended April 30, 2016, compared with corresponding period in 2015. These rail carriers recorded a fall of 4.7% in the intermodal traffic units in the latest reported week of 2016, compared with last year.

In the reported week, the Mexican railroads freight swam against the tide. Their volumes of intermodal units rose by 9.8%, along with the railcars that rose by 3.2% in the reported week. The upside in Mexican freight rail volumes compared with the fall in US and Canadian intermodal traffic is noteworthy.

North American freight traffic

There are 13 railroads that submit weekly data. These carriers handle about 95% of the total US and Canadian freight traffic. Class I railroads account for the lions share of the freight rail movement. These are:

BNSF Railway (BRK-B)

Union Pacific (UNP)

Norfolk Southern (NSC)

CSX Corporation (CSX)

Kansas City Southern (KSU)

Canadian Pacific Railway (CP)

Canadian National Railway (CNI)

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Investors can invest in the Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP), which is a growth ETF. Prominent companies in diverse industries are included in the portfolio holdings of RSP.

For more information on the last weeks rail traffic, please visit Market Realists Week Ending April 23: North American Rail Traffic Fell. In this series, we will take a look into all US Class I railroads rail traffic for the week ended April 30, 2016.

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
By Alexandria Sage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk gave a public shout-out to the sharpest minds in manufacturing this week, calling on them to come help Tesla Motors Inc build a million all-electric cars a year by 2020.

Musk says he is "hell-bent" on making the Silicon Valley automotive upstart a manufacturing powerhouse, but his vision relies on finding veteran auto engineers to ramp up volume ten-fold in four years - a challenge even for established carmakers.

Tesla on Wednesday said it would build 500,000 cars in 2018, two years ahead of schedule, and close to 1 million by 2020. The same day Tesla said its vice presidents in charge of production and manufacturing were leaving.

"You're looking at a company with significant levels of management turnover at the highest ends, people without experience in the planning, design or build of vehicles, and you expect to crank it up at those kinds of volumes?" asked Michigan-based auto manufacturing consultant Michael Tracy.

Putting aside the issue of capital requirements, auto experts point to a shortage of manufacturing engineers, whose ranks were thinning out even before the U.S. auto crisis hit in 2008.

"Its a constant issue we have in this country," said Garth Motschenbacher, director of employer relations at Michigan State University's College of Engineering.

"For the longest time manufacturing was seen as the dirty end of engineering," he said.

At the same time, Alphabet's Google and Apple are working on car programs and courting the same potential employees. So are established auto names like Ford Motor Co, General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp.

A 2015 Deloitte report found it takes three months to hire skilled engineers, and the shortage is crimping manufacturers.

Robust early reservations for the upcoming Model 3 mass-market car may have assured Musk of demand, but now comes the execution, said automotive recruiter Stephen Parkford.

"It's like reservations for a restaurant that's not open yet. You got the menu, but you don't have a chef!" he said.

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Hiring a highly proven production engineer from a traditional carmaker who arrived with his entire team could speed the process, Parkford said.

But while young engineers will jump at the chance to work for Tesla, the "by-the-numbers, disciplined manufacturing guys" with 15-20 years experience will be harder to nab, said Cuneyt Oge, president of the Society of Automotive Engineers. One key obstacle is the high price of living in Silicon Valley.

Musk needs a visionary auto industry veteran, Oge said. "But anyone with that kind of experience is going to say, 'Hey, Elon, you can't do this in two years.'"

Tesla is known for pushing the envelope on design and technology but has stumbled in manufacturing, with prior launches marked by delays and quality issues.

Traditional automakers have more human and financial resources than cash-burning Tesla: Tracy pointed to Nissan Motor Co Ltd's ability in 2004 to bring in 200 engineers from Japan to help fix quality issues at its recently opened assembly plant in Canton, Mississippi.

"Greybeards" are crucial to build and run factory systems, said Oge. "You can't just defy the laws of business physics which require you to go down a learning curve collectively to build that systems know-how," he said.

While Tesla employees may cite Musk's tirelessness and attention to detail, even bedding down inside his Fremont, California factory, others like consultant Tracy see a worrying sign.

"If Elon is sleeping in a sleeping bag in a conference room off of the final assembly line, then there's an awful lot happening in that factory that's wrong," Tracy said.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by Tom Brown)
Can you imagine Chris Evans not playing Captain America? Well, another Captain America: Civil War cast member also auditioned for the role way back when.



"I was really bummed that I didn't get Captain America," Sebastian Stan tells PEOPLE Now. "I remember getting the phone call and going, 'You were great, but it's not for you.' "



However, it all worked out for the best because he was offered the part of Bucky Barnes, Cap's best friend who appears to die in Captain America: The First Avenger only to return as the deadly HYDRA assassin Winter Soldier in Captain America: The Winter Solider.



"When they called me back again to tell me that there was this other role that I should be looking at, I was really excited because it wasn't over yet," he says.







Stan signed on to do nine movies with Marvel, which was "a little scary," he admits. "But, look, when you're working with someone like Marvel, I mean it's a blessing because the movies are different every time, so it's actually exciting to kind of come back to that," he says.





Captain America Star Sebastian Stan to a War of Civility" data-ad-channel="peoplenow" data-ad-subchannel="sharethisnow" data-auto-play="no">





Three movies in, Stan has accepted that he ended up getting the right part.



"Playing an unstable, bipolar, multiple personality disorder person is definitely up my alley," he jokes.



Captain America: Civil War is in theaters now and also stars Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Emily VanCamp, Don Cheadle, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, and Paul Rudd.
Photography by Andrew Day

Ah, senior prom. That magical time when you spend the whole day stressing over your hair and makeup before slipping into your fancy gown and dancing the night away with the friends you swear youll have forever. At least thats how I always envisioned it. For reasons that dont make much sense now, I skipped my senior prom. And for the longest time, I secretly hoped that one of my future boyfriends would take pity on me and help me recreate that teenage rite of passage, like a scene from some cheesy rom-com  but, alas, my prom dreams never came true. Until they did.

A few months ago, I realized I would need to take matters into my own hands  though not without a little help from my co-workers. And thank goodness for them because I honestly had no idea where to even begin. The dress, the hair, the makeup so much to plan! Not going to lie  one of my biggest regrets about ditching prom was missing out on the requisite pre-prom glam sesh. OK, fine, so maybe this whole idea was a bit of a vanity project for me, but isnt that the point of prom anyways? So what if I was 14 years late?

After weeks of anticipation, the big day was finally here. With my lilac Monique Lhuillier gown from Rent the Runway in tow, I headed to my hair appointment at Mizu in New York City with a rough idea of what I wanted: a whimsical updo with face-framing tendrils (what? I graduated in 02). Natch, I brought the MIMI team along with me. Because you cant get your hair done without approval from your squad, amiright?

My stylist Judy McGuiness gave me a look fit for the early aughts, but modern enough for a night out in 2016. Basically an updated version of Bianca's updo in 10 Things I Hate About You. The key to achieving this look? Plenty of ORIBE Hair Care Grandiose Hair Plumping Mousse ($22; neimanmarcus.com) and ORIBE Dry Texturizing Spray ($44; neimanmarcus.com)  a major upgrade from the aerosol hairspray I would have used to lacquer my bangs in high school. To say I was pleased with Judys masterpiece would be an understatement.

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Next stop: Blushington NYC. And you better believe I asked for the works  false eyelashes, red lipstick, and heavy contouring. Hey, you only go to prom once, right? My biggest concern about my makeup, though, was making sure it would last the entire night without settling into fine lines (because, lets be honest, I have a few more than I did at 18). To create a flawless, airy finish, my makeup artist Leanna Cho used the Temptu Air ($195; nordstrom.com), smoothing out imperfections with a beautyblender ($20; nordstrom.com).

I dont want to age myself or anything here, but the beautyblender didnt even exist when I graduated high school, which is kind of hard to believe because I literally cant remember life without it. And while airbrush foundation was a thing in the cosmetic industry, it certainly wasnt mainstream yet. So, in that respect, Im actually pretty happy I waited until 2016 to experience prom for the first time  Im convinced my makeup look would have been nothing short of cringe-worthy back then.

So after my day of pampering was complete, we Ubered down to The Gregory Hotel  the perfect backdrop for those classic prom pics that clutter my Instagram feed every #TBT. We enlisted a friend to be my date (thanks, Christian!), and even made a makeshift photo booth using some props from Party City while songs from the early 2000s blasted through my iPhone. So basically Ja Rule and J.Lo on repeat. Before long, we were in full-on pre-game party mode, and I was literally living my best life ever.

While we didnt go to an actual dance  dinner at Landmarc in Columbus Circle was the final destination  this was enough for me. And as we made our way across the street to the restaurant, a curious tourist pointed and asked aloud, "Who is she?! I dont think Ive ever felt more glam.

You may be wondering why the heck I waited so long to treat myself like the (prom) queen I am. Trust me, Ive thought a lot about it myself. Truth is, I suffered from cripplingly low self-esteem back in high school, but I hid it well. When my friends asked why I was a no-show that night in 02, I blamed it on my cynical, too-cool-for-school attitude. I convinced myself that traditional rites of passage were lame AF to make missing them less painful. I dont remember what I actually did while everyone else was at prom, but Im pretty sure it consisted of sitting alone in my room feeling sorry for myself because I didnt like the way I looked.

In hindsight, its not so much that I regret having missed prom itself (I doubt anything truly mind-blowing happened, plus I definitely made up for it in my 20s)  its that I missed it for the wrong reasons. I wish I could send a message to my 18 year old self that I was smart and beautiful and to stop punishing myself. It really does get better. But thats the beauty of getting older, right? Its never too late to start loving yourself  and its never, ever too late to go to prom.
Luxury stores are ready for their festival close-up following devastating floods that hit the Cote d'Azur during MIPCOM in October. The damage added up to more than 400 million euros (about $450 million) in Cannes alone. "We had 800 companies and shops that were affected," Mayor David Lisnard tells THR. But festival chic won't suffer, with most shops back in business and a trio of high-end brands opening new outposts - and with the euro at about $1.15, only 10 cents above its 12-year low in March 2015, there are bargains to be had, especially when you figure in the 12 percent VAT refund (well worth the extra time at the airport for a four-figure splurge).

Read More: 3 Stars, 85 Looks: A Top Stylist's Whirlwind Dressing Natalie Portman, Sienna Miller, Rachel Weisz at Cannes

DIOR

7, Boulevard de la Croisette, 04 92 98 98 00

Festivalgoers are in for double the Dior this year, as the French luxury brand moves into its new three-story digs across from the Palais, opening on the first day of the festival. Inspired by the Avenue Montaigne shop, the interior will echo the gray and white palette of that historic Parisian boutique and will feature a mural from French artist Oyoram. Shop for both men's and women's accessories and clothing, including the Diorever bag (about $3,800 for the gold version shown in the ad campaign featuring Jennifer Lawrence).

VAN CLEEF & ARPELS

17, Boulevard de la Croisette, 04 97 06 29 90

For diamonds to go with your Dior, the new Van Cleef & Arpels boutique is just 10 doors down. Previously housed inside the Majestic hotel, the luxe jeweler opened its stand-alone store in July. Akin to an art deco-inspired apartment with gold-leafed walls, velvet chairs and crystal chandeliers, the large interior is sprinkled with lounges where you can cozy up to your Alhambra pieces.

WEILL

41, Rue d'Antibes, 04 93 39 05 15

Legacy luxury brand Weill launched its second boutique (after its Champs-Elysees shop) with a Cannes flagship in late April. The Parisian company, started in 1882, was feted with an exhibition at the Musee de la Mode in Paris for its 100th birthday. The latest collection by Weill, now run by the fourth generation of the family, is all bright belted coatdresses (about $440) and bubble-gum boucle jackets (about $600), recalling Umbrellas of Cherbourg-era Catherine Deneuve.

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This story first appeared in the May 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
(Photo: Lisa Romerein/Getty Images)







By Leah Rodriguez



On New Years Eve, the thirstiest day of the year and therefore one of the most lucrative for beauty businesses, I paid $55 at a three-chaired Dominican salon for a mediocre blowout and an uneven trim. My roommate had to take her scissors out to fix it minutes before we left for a party, but still, I would argue I got more than I paid for. You cant put a dollar value on these things: Three and a half hours of brushing up on Spanish; listening to merengue and old wives tales (your hair will grow longer if a pregnant lady cuts it); not feeling like an outsider, completely.

***

In college, someone asked me if I scalped a Japanese girl, like it was supposed to be a compliment. She went to school in the South, and because she had a lot of black friends but had never seen anyone who looked like me, she figured I must be wearing a weave. Maybe another Dominican would be flattered, because many wear their long, straight hair as a badge of honor  to defend their racially mixed heritage, and deny blackness. My own grandfather credits our soft, silky manes to indigenous DNA, a claim of which Im skeptical.

Related: 6 Natural-Hair Models on Their Favorite Hair Products



The last census found 73 percent of the countrys population is of mixed African and European descent, yet many neglect to address their kinky roots. In 1937, former dictator Rafael Trujillo managed to play up the cultures ties to colonial Spain as a mechanism to justify Haitian genocide. Trujillos attempt to cleanse the population manifested itself in white beauty ideals, and the rejection of natural hair stuck. Eighty percent of the current Dominican population has West and Central African blood, according to a study conducted by CUNY, yet the countrys issues with racism linger. Thousands of Dominican Haitians were deported in last years immigration crisis.

But on the hair front, at least, things are looking up. Some Dominicans are finally embracing their curls. In 2015, the first natural hair salon opened in Santo Domingo. Natural hair has even started appearing on the runway, with models like Lineisy Montero spearheading the trend.

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I love street-style star Julia Sarr-Jamois, and model Imaan Hammam is all over my beauty Pinterest board, but Ive been getting my hair blown out since the ripe old age of 4. Thats probably also when I had my hair chemically straightened with toxic lye for the first time  which should be illegal, by the way.

You didnt fix your hair? my grandmother will ask if you dare show up on Christmas with locks that look the way they grow out of your head. Friends, usually white, wonder why I roll my eyes and get defensive when they insist I go curly more often. Growing up, I was never encouraged to wear it down and let it be. Its never felt natural to me.

***

Not even the 60s theme of my New Years Eve affair got me to tease my hair into a fro. In communities with a Dominican population, its not too hard to find an affordable salon that will give you pin-straight hair, kept intact with a doobie  not a joint, but the hairstyle Rihanna wore to the American Music Awards. In her superstitious Dominican way, my mother was convinced washing my hair regularly would make me sick. For much of my youth, my hair was bunched up in a messy topknot. Back then, it was not a deliberate status symbol of lazy cool.

Related: 3 Natural Ingredients You Probably Never Thought About Putting on Your Hair



That day, the owner of the salon shook her head and refused to provide service to a white girl who came in for a French braid. The Americans always want buns and braids, she sighed.

I seldom get my hair done at non-Dominican salons. They usually make me feel judged, and Ill walk away with a degree of regret deeper than anyone usually feels about bad bangs or misplaced layers. Once, at a salon downtown, the hairdresser asked me how I found out about the place in a tone that made me feel some type of way. The truth is that it had been featured on a biracial fashion bloggers site. (In hindsight, I realize she was probably paid to promote the spot.)

Maybe the hairdressers tone was condescending in nature; maybe I had projected my own insecurity onto his question. When a stylist isnt of color, or doesnt have similarly textured hair, I find myself apologizing nervously. My hair is so thick, sorry. But what Im really saying is, Sorry, Im not white.

Only a few weeks before New Years, I had my first experience at Dry Bar, a franchise salon that serves you an early-2000s version of Sex and the City luxury, complete with complimentary Champagne and Kelly Clarkson overhead. Not that Id ever admit it out loud, but the concept always both appealed to me and intimidated me, on the assumption that no one at such a commercial place would be equipped to tackle my rats nest. But our beauty editor was giving up a gift card because they always give her barrel curls, so I figured, why not?

When I booked the appointment, I gave an exaggerated description of my extremely dry, curly, damaged hair. The subtext: Be prepared when Lion Babe walks through the door. But then it turned out that my stylist was black. I relaxed, finally, and left feeling brand-new.

***

Even when I step into a Dominican salon and they address me in English because they assume Im African-American, I feel at home. The other women look like me; I understand their language and references. Somehow this sense of belonging and cultural experience feels worth the heat damage, the antiquated process of sitting under a hair dryer for an hour, the painful steps with different tools.



Related: Zendaya on How to Love Yourself and Your Hair



Its possible to find salons where stylists who are not of color know how to work with all kinds of textures. But honestly, I dont really care to give them my money. There needs to be a bigger, more obvious push across the market to make customers like me feel theyre not a problem, or more difficult to work with, based on a genetic trait thats out of their control. Is that so much to ask, especially when youre paying for a service?

Maybe the solution is integrating how to work with natural hair into the mandatory beauty-school curriculum. Maybe its as simple as hanging signs in salons acknowledging they dont discriminate, like those Hippies Always Welcome ones you see around beach towns.

Even at the top, theres work to be done. A few years ago, black model Jourdan Dunn took to Twitter to air her grievances about how shed been treated backstage at a Giambattista Valli fashion show: I swear some people need to learn how to do black hair/skin!

Since then, a Dry Bartype salon for natural hair has opened in New York City, and there are places, like Devachan, that make curly haired women feel like queens. But I dont want to seek out such niche establishments, especially when your average salon still sometimes charges an additional fee  the unofficial but very real black tax.

Ill continue to support businesses that feel safe, even if theyre not very glamorous, until there isnt such a wide disconnect between how we treat white and non-white hair.

***

That December 31, I sunk into a chair in a narrow hallway without a window while a young woman pulled my head down into the sink. I let her shame me into getting the deep condition to treat my split ends, and wash away any guilt I had for perpetuating oppressive beauty standards, simply by being there.

I didnt let it faze me that they were out of hot water, or that she was using cheap shampoo. Maybe it was the blaring bachata that drowned out any concerns I shouldve had. Whatever it was, I knew Id be back. We barely exchanged more than a few sentences, but I knew she understood why I wasnt ready to be the girl with big, curly hair  not just yet.





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We all need a safe place to pee, says Canadian performer and writer Ivan Coyote. And most people in wealthy countries take it for granted that theyll find one. Amid the relatively new hullabaloo over trans-friendly public restrooms, including a backlash in the form of bathroom bills, its worth remembering that public facilities have long been the site of battles over rights, identity and movements for inclusion.

Today its the fight for transgender rights, as Coyote movingly describes in the TED Talk that co-premieres today on OZY. But for decades, the public loo has been where the most intimate of rights land in the public square  and sometimes, the courts. Sharing a space of vulnerability and intimacy can invite impassioned and at times vitriolic responses, notes the ACLUs Chase Strangio. Here are some watershed eras in the water-closet history:

1950s

Buses, lunch counters, drinking fountains and, yes, toilets, were all once plastered with Whites Only signs, thanks to Jim Crow laws and some vicious rumors. (Example: White men and women would catch STDs via toilet seats if Black men and women were allowed to plant their bums on the same ones.) Despite the absurdity of the claims, protesters were vigilant and even violent when it came to shared toilet access. It wasnt until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the separate but equal doctrine in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 that the tide started to turn. Even still, some race-based battles over equal access to toilets persisted into the late 70s.

1960s

Next came the push for equal access for people with disabilities, which piggybacked on and had great inspiration from the Civil Rights movement, says David Serlin, a professor at UC San Diego who researches the politics of design. Who doesnt want to give access to the handicapped? In this case, the legal battles revolved around the cost issues of adapting spaces to accommodate them.

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But Ed Roberts, a student at UC Berkeley, wasnt having any of it. At the time, students like him, in wheelchairs and on ventilators, were expected to live at the hospital. He protested the setup, claiming that he wasnt sick, an idea that was absolutely revolutionary in 1964, says Serlin. Its because of him that we have sidewalks that slope downward at street corners, among other things now seen as commonplace. Finally, in 1968, the Architectural Barriers Act required buildings that use government money to consider handicapped inclusion from the ground up. By the mid-1970s mandates were expanded to include private institutions, too, though many companies still get by without providing handicapped access.

1970s & 1980s

Women entered the workforce in droves, jumping from 38 percent of the labor force to nearly 43 percent in a decade. Compared with the equal pay and maternity leave crusades of today, these women-in-the-workplace conversations were basic: Women deserved a place to pee. But they can thank their 19th-century predecessors, the Ladies Sanitary Association, for paving the earliest way and coining the term potty parity. Their first success with public-toilet access for women? Department store restrooms. For shoppers.

2000s & Beyond

First came the pushes to provide nursing spaces and changing tables in womens bathrooms. And then in mens bathrooms  after all, the number of stay-at-home dads in the U.S. has doubled since 1989, according to the Pew Research Centers latest data on the subject. Then came moves for single-stall bathrooms to be labeled unisex and some state legislation banning bathroom discrimination based on gender identity or sex. We think having single-stall bathrooms is this really progressive thing, but whats so innovative? Thats what we all have in our homes, says Serlin. Touche.

Today, the most emotionally charged fight arguably revolves around transgender people. How the law will reconcile nonconforming gender identity with a sex-segregated space is still playing out. As long as we see efforts to discriminate against the vulnerable, says Strangio, the fights will continue.

And yet, if history is any indication, victory seems inevitable.

Bathroom Battles

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From Esquire

Once it has dawned, the sun never sets on the Day of Jubilee. As the Times reports:

Most research suggests that the laws result in few people being turned away at the polls. But a study of the Texas ID requirement by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy released in August found that many more qualified voters, confused or intimidated by the new rules, have not tried to vote at all. "What voters hear is that you need to have an ID," said Mark P. Jones of the Baker Institute, an author of the study. "But they don't get the second part that says if you have one of these types of IDs, you're O.K." A second study, by the University of California, San Diego, concluded in February that the strictest voter ID laws-those that require an identity card with a photograph-disproportionately affect minority voters. After Mr. Gallego's narrow loss in 2014, researchers from the Baker Institute and the University of Houston's Hobby Center for Public Policy polled 400 registered voters in the district who sat out the election. All were asked why they did not vote, rating on a scale of 1 to 5 from a list of seven explanations-being ill, having transportation problems, being too busy, being out of town, lacking interest, disliking the candidates and lacking a required photo identificationMost surprising, however, was what researchers found when they double-checked that response: The vast majority of those who claimed not to have voted because they lacked a proper ID actually possessed one, but did not know it.

The case for these laws always has been a shabby concoction of various flavors of fakery. You will note that even the Times feels obligated to ignore the repeated studies that prove these laws are to combat a problem that doesn't actually exist:

Proponents, largely Republican, argue that the regulations are essential tools to combat election fraud...

This is virtually the same as saying that the proponents argue that regulations are essential tools to combat the infiltration of the polling places by agents of the Klingon Empire.

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But the most pungent of these flavors has been the technique of requiring the ID, and then either making the ID almost impossible to acquire or failing to inform the voters what kind of ID they need. In both cases, if things work the way they're designed to work, enough of the voters you're trying to screw out of their franchise just give up and stay home. Then, when the election comes out the way you want it to come out, you can shake your head sadly at how lazy said voters are. After a couple of election cycles, the frustration sets in generally and the people you don't want involved in government remove themselves from it. Then you get to write earnest op-eds wondering where civic engagement has gone. From the Times:

Texas officials say they are spending millions of dollars to help voters understand and meet the new ID requirements, including deploying mobile offices to help citizens apply for election IDs. "We just haven't seen any large-scale problem," said Alicia Pierce, the communications director for the Texas secretary of state. But in Wisconsin, Todd Allbaugh resigned as chief of staff to a leading Republican state senator last year after attending a party caucus in which, he said, some legislators "were literally giddy" over the effect of the state's voter ID law on minorities and college students. "I remember when Republicans were the ones who helped Johnson pass the civil rights bill in the '60s-not Democrats," Mr. Allbaugh said in an interview last week. "I went down to the office and said, 'I'm done. I can't support this party any more.' "

Sometimes, like history, cynicism can rhyme.

Click here to respond to this post on the official Esquire Politics Facebook page.
Kuwait City (AFP) - Yemen's government delegation pulled out of direct negotiations with representatives of the Huthi rebels on Saturday after there was no sign of progress, a member of the government delegation said.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will now have to go back to indirect negotiations in the talks that began in Kuwait on April 21.

On Thursday, Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the foes had begun discussing major political and security issues in face-to-face negotiations aimed at bringing an end to 13 months of devastating war.

But after two unproductive meetings on Saturday, "direct talks are suspended" and the UN mediator must resume separate consultations with the two sides, the government official said, blaming the Huthis for the impasse.

The rebels "went back on their word" to discuss substantive issues in three joint working groups formed under UN auspices, he said.

These were formed on Wednesday when direct talks resumed following a three-day interruption after the government delegation walked out in protest against the rebel seizure of an army camp on Sunday.

The working groups exchanged views on resolving political and security issues and the release of prisoners and detainees, in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2216.

This orders the rebels to withdraw from territory they have taken since 2014 and to surrender heavy weaponry they had seized.

However, the delegation from the rebels and their allies was demanding "prior agreement on the establishment of a transitional executive body", the government official said.

In a statement on the sabanews website, a rebel delegate said the three joint teams will resume work "after an agreement on the form of the state and the transitional authority".

Without such an agreement, the talks were "a waste of time" said the rebel delegate, adding that President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi's government was "an adversary and it is unacceptable that he embodies the state".

Each side accuses the other of not respecting the truce which has been constantly broken since it came into force on April 11.

There has been mounting international pressure to end the Yemen conflict that the United Nations estimates has killed more than 6,400 people and displaced 2.8 million since March last year.
Aden (AFP) - A Yemeni army colonel was gunned down in Aden on Saturday in the latest in a spate of assassinations of senior officers that underlines the persistent insecurity in the city.

A gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle killed Colonel Badr al-Yafei in the city's Khormaksar district, which houses diplomatic missions and the airport, a security official told AFP.

Yemen's second city is the headquarters of the government and its allies in a Saudi-led coalition as they battle Iran-backed rebels who control the capital Sanaa.

But 10 months after pro-government forces drove the rebels out of the city, they are still struggling to assert their authority over a growing presence of extremists of both Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

On Friday, the governor of Aden's Mansura prison was killed in a similar ride-by shooting.

Late last month, gunmen killed the city's traffic police chief while Aden's police chief escaped two assassination attempts in the space of a week, one of which killed four of his guards.
Laurel Fantauzzo lives in Quezon City, Philippines.

If you travel in metro Manila, locals say youre risking your life. It doesnt matter if you take a bus, a jeepney, a motorcycle with a sidecar or the train. It doesnt matter if you, God forbid, walk or bike. To move through the megalopolis is to pray youll survive. But, as my friends instructed me when I moved here, there is a special danger that comes with taking a taxi.

Look at you, my Filipino neighbors joked. A cabbies going to kidnap you and sell you into white slavery.

I laughed along with them, since Im indeed a small, pale, gay Filipina-American, with a terrible Tagalog twang whenever I attempt my mothers language. Making fun of myself is a way of surviving here. And since I appear white and from somewhere else, Filipinos tend to think Im wealthy. Im often warned Im an ideal target for crime. Behind my laughter, I quietly calculated how much it would cost to hire a full-time chauffeur, like my wealthier friends do. But my budget as a teacher and a writer wont allow for my own driver. So I bicycle when I can. But sometimes I cant show up to school last minute, sweaty, smog-soaked and dehydrated. So, on days when Im running late, I take the risk. I take taxis.

Attacks from cab drivers dont seem to follow any particular routine. The only unifying danger seems to be: Hail a cab, and get into the cab. One common warning: Cabbie attacks get worse over Christmas, when the humiliation of poverty rises.

When I get out of a taxi safely, I say a silent phrase of gratitude, like a prayer: Thank you for not shooting me in the face.

One morning this past December, a Filipina woman hailed a cab in a popular city where call center agents work for companies like Dell and IBM. Her cab driver declared a robbery. Then he shot her in the face. OK, thats rare, I tell myself. But then a few weeks later, a woman from the U.K. took a cab from Malate to Makati  another popular route, where most foreigners in the Philippines live and work and play. The cab driver shot her in the face too.

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Now, whenever I get into a cab, I tweet the identification of the taxi so my whereabouts will always be public, just in case. My Twitter feed reads like a series of secret codes: W Africa UVU 388, Lady Ella Txm 952.

During my ride, I try to relax. I look at the back of the drivers head, and at the small items he keeps on his dash. Usually theres a plastic rosary dangling. Devout drivers move their hands in the sign of the cross before our journeys begin. Some take phone calls, corresponding with their relatives in the rural provinces, and I try to pick up what theyre talking about: school tuition, forgotten birthdays, when theyll be home next.

Sometimes drivers turn their curiosity toward me. Ill see their eyes flick from the traffic-choked roads to the rearview mirror, taking me in; my short black hair, my light complexion, the tattered black backpack I clutch, filled with my student papers and the secondhand iPad worth half a cabbies monthly salary. When I get out of a taxi safely, I say a silent phrase of gratitude, like a prayer: Thank you for not shooting me in the face.

On one cab ride, a driver wont stop looking at me in the rearview mirror. I grip my bag and look out the window.

You are Italian? he asks.

Hes half right, on my fathers side. But I say, No, hoping to end his inquiry. The drivers curiosity continues. Missionary?

Taxi Driver

If you travel in metro Manila, locals say youre risking your life.

Source: Nacho Hernandez for OZY

Hindi naman, po. No way, sir, I am not a Christian missionary.

He continues his questioning, maneuvering his tiny, dented white Kia around Metro Manilas hazards: SUVs, potholes, stray dogs, suicidal jaywalkers. I decide to offer him one piece of information, hoping to quell his interest. Im Fil-Am.

Ah, Filipina-American! Your mom is Filipina, father American! he exclaims, assuming correctly. You have a husband? Children?

My neck tightens. No, I say.

He turns back to face the windshield and asks another one-word question. T-Bird?

Traffic stops for a full five minutes. The driver turns all the way around to look at me. He could be 20 or 40, in the ageless, exhausted way of Manilas working poor. He turns back to face the windshield and asks another one-word question. T-Bird?

T-Bird is an old-fashioned slang word. It means lesbian.

The driver suddenly confronts me with the choice I face daily: Come out, and risk the dangers of the Catholic country? Or lie, applying needless shame to my truth? I do not know why I answer the way I do, going against the advice of all my local Filipino friends. I feel a surge inside myself: resistance, or maybe its impatience. I dont want to believe every cab driver wants to do me harm. I want to know whats on the other side of this everyday fear.

Opo, I say. T-Bird ako. Yes sir, I am a lesbian.

The driver slaps the steering wheel. I jump. Then he begins to laugh and speak in Tagalog.

I knew it! I knew you were a T-Bird! You know what? I have a lot of T-Bird friends! You want me to help you find a girlfriend? You want a text-mate? Ill help you find a crush! I decline his assistance, but I give him a shaky grin.

I want to marry an American woman, the driver says. Maybe you can help me find a wife. Ill help you find a wife also!

When we arrive at my destination, I tip the driver 100 pesos  about $2.50. I still feel guarded. But before he drives away, the driver flashes me a peace sign. And I cant help but feel a little safer in Manila.

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The Kardashians are vacationing in Cuba, the communist island-nation less than 90 miles south of Florida. The country was recently opened up to U.S. trade and tourism. Like many families, Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kayne West, Malika Haqq, and the brood of five West and Disick kids are taking advantage of the opportunity to visit the country. But the Kardashians' apparent lack of knowledge (or disregard for) the country's fraught political and social history is  like everything about them  in full display on Instagram.

Khloe Kardashian has posted several photos documenting her visit in the country. In one of the pictures, the reality star is standing under the name "Fidel" on a wall. Fidel Castro reigned Cuba from the 1959 communist revolution to 2008, when he resigned and his brother Raul stepped in. Under his totalitarian dictatorship, economic impoverishment, political oppression, and human rights abuses have ravaged the country. For many, the name represents decades of suffering.

Havana  A photo posted by Khloe (@khloekardashian) on May 4, 2016 at 7:26pm PDT

So naturally, people are pissed about the photograph and its total disregard for Cuban history. The photo has garnered comments on Instagram accusing the Kardashian of disrespect and ignorance. "I usually love her but this picture is beyond ignorant she clearly has no idea about what's been happening over there she's just on vaca giving zero fucks," reads one comment. "You make me sick to my stomach. You have no idea what daily life is like there. How food is rationed and people are stripped of their rights," says another. Some compare it to a tacit endorsement of Hitler. "Might as well stand in front of a picture of hitler with emoji hearts in your eyes! I'm Cuban and this is fucking disrespectful," wrote one person.

Many have pointed out that the photo is painfully ironic given how Khloe has spoken up about the Armenian genocide. "This is so disrespectful on so many levels. Especially coming from a person who is always talking about the Armenian genocide, educate yourself on other cultures who have gone through similar tragedies." Another commenter said ,"This picture is disgusting. How would she feel about people glorifying and taking pictures with the names of those who assisted in the Armenian genocide?"

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Kardashian is also receiving rampant criticism on Twitter. While she has yet to address the backlash, issue a mea culpa, or delete the post altogether (as some commenters have suggested) we'll stay tuned should she speak out.

@khloekardashian the name you're standing under is the reason why a lot of my family in Cuba is living in poverty. por favor educate.  roxy moure (@roxymoure) May 5, 2016

Fidel throws people in prison for attempting to use Twitter @khloekardashian  Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 5, 2016

He's also had a lot of people killed and is a massive human rights violator but hey, viva! @khloekardashian  Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 5, 2016

@khloekardashian if you have time, be sure to visit some of Cuba's world-renowned prisons for political dissenters.  Brooke Rogers (@BrookAnglnRogrs) May 5, 2016

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As the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk is often regarded as a real-life version of Tony Stark. But truth be told, Musk isn't the only prominent CEO with two jobs and grand aspirations for space travel. While Jeff Bezos is primarily known as the CEO of Amazon, he's also the founder of Blue Origin, a privately funded spaceflight services company.

Similar to what Elon Musk is trying to do with SpaceX, Blue Origin is primarily focused on developing technologies that will allow private citizens to travel to space without breaking the bank. And though Blue Origin receives a lot less press than SpaceX, the Jeff Bezos led company this past November launched a rocket about 62 miles up into the atmosphere (the outskirts of space) and successfully managed to land it back on earth in one piece.

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At the same time, Bezos has been unusually quiet about providing specific details regarding his company's long-term plans for space travel. But in 2016, likely emboldened by Blue Origin's landing successes, Bezos has started to open up a bit more.

In a fascinating and informative piece published in The Washington Post, Bezos for the first time spoke freely and enthusiastically about his vision for commercial space travel.

Hardly an endeavor Bezos is embarking on just for fun, the Amazon CEO's interest and near-obsession with space can be traced back to his childhood.

"I wanted to start a space company from when I was a little kid, but I never expected to have the resources to do so, Bezos explained. Then I won this lottery ticket called Amazon.com. And so when Amazon became a successful company, I realized, Hey, I can actually fulfill my childhood dreams of starting a space company, and thats what I did.

What's particularly fascinating is that Bezos' vision of the future doesn't just entail humans travelling to space for quick little tourism-oriented trips, but involves, at some point in the future, "millions of people living and working in space."

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While such an idea may admittedly seem far-fetched - if not impossible - Bezos certainly didn't get to where he is today by dreaming small.

And quite naturally, making progress towards achieving Bezos' vision requires top-notch technical talent, something Blue Origin's jobs page makes no secret of.

Our hiring bar is unabashedly extreme," the page reads. "We insist on keeping our team size small (measured in the dozens), which means that each person occupying a spot must be among the most technically gifted in his or her field. We are building real hardware  not PowerPoint presentations. This must excite you. You must be a builder.

Make sure to hit the source link below for the full profile on Blue Origin and Bezos' ideas and grand plans surrounding space travel. For a company that has historically been shrouded in secrecy, the piece provides a tremendous amount of insight into the inner workings and broader goals of Blue Origin.

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Where you live drastically affects how you sleep

Where you live drastically affects how you sleep

Weve probably all experienced it at some point  jet lag and adjusting to a new time zone. After all, its a big world out there, full of different wake and sleep schedules  and maybe youre better suited to a life in Spain, staying up until midnight (if youre female) and just before midnight (if youre male). Or maybe you prefer to go to bed early, around 10:30 p.m., like those in Belgium and Australia? What if there was an app to tell you which country youre best suited for, as well as how you sleep in your home country?

Well, there is: the smartphone app ENTRAIN. And Olivia Walch, Amy Cochran, and Daniel Forger, mathematicians of the University of Michigan, did a study to help figure out where you should be laying your head (i.e., how youre sleeping in your current country). The results were just published in Science.

The data came from ENTRAIN. In the studys first year, in 2014, 8,070 peoples data was analyzed, and almost 2,000 more people joined the study in year two. All they (or you) have to do is put in the basics, like your country, time zone, age, gender, and when you get up and go to sleep. Also, it asks you for the lighting environment youre in the most  bright or low indoor or bright or low outdoor.

Light is the primary driving input to the circadian clock, and by recording your lighting history, we can simulate your bodys clock and make recommendations for behavior, states ENTRAINs website. Plus, There are differences in latitudes [which determine hours of sunlight], but theyre always engulfed by artificial light and culture, said Walch.

Instead of studying sleep and wake habits worldwide, the researchers chose the 20 countries that input the most results. In case youre curious, the winners were the U.S., Australia, Canada, the U.K., France, Spain, The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, China, Japan, Brazil, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Italy, Finland, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates.

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The studys findings? Overall, women and girls got more sleep than men and boys by about 30 minutes. For instance, in the Netherlands, women get 8.4 hours of sleep per night, the study found, while men in Singapore averaged 7.3 hours.

As for when people went to sleep and woke up, it depended on age  i.e., little kids going to bed early and getting up early. Teens, though, went to bed later and slept in. (No surprise there, right? Those were the days) The older the adults got, though, the earlier they went to bed and the earlier they got up. Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand had the earliest bedtimes, with the U.S. coming in fourth place. Americans also had the earliest wake times. But if you live in Spain or Sinapore, its another story  they went to bed last.

The more people that use ENTRAIN, the more helpful the app can be to us in the future, as well, the developers hope  including predicting ones best bedtime and recommending ways to overcome jet lag when traveling out of their time zone.

Count us in! (After we download the app and get some sleep, of course.)

Want to test it out? Go here and input your sleep and wake times and find out which country you belong in, or at least which one your sleep schedule suggests you belong in.

You can get the app here, and you can also watch a tutorial of how it works.

The post Where you live drastically affects how you sleep appeared first on HelloGiggles.
(Credit: ABC)



Warning: This story contains major spoilers for Captain America: Civil War.



When Captain America: Civil War launched in theaters last week, fans of Marvels ABC series, Agent Carter, were still waiting to find out whether consummate espionage-fighter, Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), would be assigned a Season 3 mission to serve and protect the post-World War II Marvel Cinematic Universe. The shows fate has now been decided: ABC has cancelled Agent Carter along with a slew of other shows, including Castle, The Muppets and Nashville. The millions of Marvel fans who saw Civil War last week probably had an inkling that Peggys career was drawing to a close. As revealed in the studios latest blockbuster, the founding S.H.I.E.L.D. agent  and former flame of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America  passed away quietly in her sleep in at the age of 95.

Related: Before They Were Superheroes: A Look Back on the Stars Before They Donned Their Capes

Born in 1921, Carter lived and fought through World War II, and continued to battle nefarious foes (and workplace sexism) in the ensuing years and decades. Seasons 1 and 2 of Agent Carter chronicled Peggys post-war career in New York and Los Angeles respectively. Viewers also caught a glimpse of her later in life in the opening sequence of Ant-Man, which found her still working for S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside her regular sparring partner, Howard Stark, as late as 1989. Flash-forward to 2014 and the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though, and Steve is seen visiting an Alzheimers afflicted Peggy in a Washington D.C. nursing home.

Agent Carter in her twilight years in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Credit: Marvel)

Steve is informed of Peggys passing early on in Civil War via a text message from Peggys niece, Sharon (Emily VanCamp), who has kept the Carter name alive within S.H.I.E.L.D. by becoming an agent herself. (Sharon upholds Carter tradition in other ways as well; after an extended flirtation with Cap, she and Steve finally lock lips in Civil War.) After receiving Sharons message, Steve flies to London for Peggys funeral and sits stoically through the service. Atwell herself doesnt appear in this scene, but she is memorialized in a picture that depicts Peggy in the prime of her life. And Cap feels her loss throughout the rest of the movie. At one point, he turns to his former friend-turned-international assassin-turned-tentative friend again, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), and speaks about Peggys outsized importance in his life, both in the past and when he reawakened in the present.

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Related: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Recap: Return of the Kree

Its a fine eulogy for Peggy Carter but did it mean that ABC had to bury Agent Carter? Since the show  unlike most of the Marvel movies  takes place entirely in the past, there were still plenty of stories left to tell. In fact, its mentioned in Civil War that Peggy once met John F. Kennedy, which would have given the writers a great excuse to jump ahead to her adventures in the swinging 60s.

(Credit: ABC)



On the other hand, Agent Carters ratings never equaled its critical acclaim, and the fact that Atwell booked a major role on the pilot for the ABC procedural, Conviction, always seemed to lessen the chance of her extending her stay in the Marvel universe. (Although in the Conviction casting announcement, ABC stressed that they would find a way for the actress to shoot both shows should Agent Carter have been renewed.) Fortunately, Marvel has a long memory when it comes to the characters who populate its universe, so Its likely that Peggy will continue to appear in future movies when there are flashbacks to the pre-Iron Man past. In the meantime, kudos to Civil War for giving us the chance to mourn the passing of Peggy Carter and Agent Carter: a heroine and a show ahead of their time.

Both seasons of Agent Carter can be purchased on Amazon Prime.
LUANDA, May 4 (Reuters) - Angola needs to fight money laundering and financing terrorism by focussing on ethics and morality in its banking sector the central bank's governor, Valter Filipe da Silva, said.

An international money-laundering watchdog removed Angola from its blacklist in February, after reforms that included licensing banks and setting up a monitoring agency, but banks in Africa's No. 2 oil exporter are still deemed risky.

Last year, the risk of financial crime and difficulty in monitoring clients forced Standard Chartered to stop its dollar-clearing operations in Angola. Bank of America stopped selling dollars to Angolan banks from December.

"It is necessary to place again ethics and morality in Angolan banking and must this be placed to the service of the common good," Da Silva said at an event on Tuesday.

"We must do so by implementing the prudential rules and good national practices and international and all standards to combat money laundering and terrorism financing."

The Financial Action Task Force, which sets international standards for anti-money laundering and fighting terrorist financing, had added Angola to its black list in 2010.

Angola has a dwindling amount of crude to sell as more of its oil flows to China for debt repayment, leaving little revenue for anything from oil sector development to health care.

(Reporting by Herculano Coroado; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Louise Ireland)
* Eritrea wants mining to help to kick-start economy

* Potash project is 50:50 venture with state firm

* Talks ongoing for binding deals with potash buyers

By Edmund Blair

NAIROBI, May 3 (Reuters) - Australia mining group Danakali Ltd has applied to Eritrea for a mining licence for its Colluli Potash Project, which is expected to start production in 2019, the company's chief executive said.

Eritrea, which became independent from Ethiopia in 1991 after years of fighting, wants to establish a mining industry to help to bolster its economy.

The country has deposits of gold, copper, zinc and fertiliser-ingredient potash. Its first commercial-scale mine began production in 2011.

Danakali Chief Executive Paul Donaldson said the aim was to secure project development funding, commercial offtake contracts and approvals to start construction.

"We anticipate being in production by 2019," he told Reuters.

A formal application for a licence was submitted on Monday for the potash project, a 50:50 joint venture with state-owned mining firm ENAMCO, he said.

The aim is to develop it in two stages, each with production of about 425,000 tonnes a year. The potash deposits are near the coast, making exports easier than other mines further in land that have to move ore or concentrate long distances to the main port.

Danakali had already signed memorandums of understanding for offtake agreements with potential buyers for a little more than 800,000 tonnes of sulphate of potash, Donaldson said.

He said the company had effectively got enough demand for both stages of the project and was in talks to secure binding agreements.

Eritrean miners have been digging for years for gold nuggets on deposits that stretch along the Red Sea, a geological formation known as the Arabian Nubian Shield.

But commercial-scale mining only began in 2011 from Bisha mine, a joint venture between Canada's Nevsun Resources and ENAMCO. The mine first produced gold and now produces copper from deeper seams and will soon produce zinc.

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Another gold mine, a venture between ENAMCO and a Chinese firm, was due to start commercial production at the end of March, following initial commissioning at the end of 2015.

The industry has faced hurdles in Eritrea. Executives say a slide in commodity prices has made it tougher to raise funds, particularly for an emerging player.

Bisha mine has also been faced allegations from rights groups and former workers now outside the country that the company used poorly paid workers who were on national service during construction. The government and Nevsun deny this.

(Writing by Edmund Blair. Editing by Jane Merriman)
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Chinese conglomerate HNA Group, which has been aggressively snapping up global assets, is in talks buy a controlling stake in Singapore-listed logistics firm CWT Ltd in a deal worth around $1 billion, two people familiar with the deal said.

A deal could be announced as early as next week, one of the sources said on Friday. The sources did not want to be identified as the information was not public.

CWT did not immediately respond to a Reuters query while a spokeswoman at HNA Group declined to comment.

CWT's controlling shareholder flagged a potential sale of the business last year. It had attracted interest from major private equity firms, Reuters reported in August, quoting sources.

Under the stewardship of co-founder and Chairman Chen Feng, HNA has grown into a group with nearly $100 billion in assets. It operates more than a dozen airlines including flagship Hainan Airlines Co and has launched at least $8 billion of overseas M&As so far this year.

CWT insiders, including the chairman and his family, own nearly 65 percent of the company, Thomson Reuters data shows. Shares in CWT rose 5 percent on Friday. The Singapore Exchange issued a trading query to the firm.

CWT has expanded over the past decade by growing its logistics business globally and snapping up a metals trading unit set up by Glencore's founder Marc Rich in 2011.

Last month, a division of HNA agreed to buy the owner of the Radisson hotel chain.

Chinese companies have been splurging on foreign acquisitions to sidestep slowing domestic growth. The total value of Chinese outbound acquisitions topped $100 billion for the first time last year.

(Reporting by Anshuman Daga and Saeed Azhar; Additional reporting by Mattew Miller; Editing by Stephen Coates and Ryan Woo)
By Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) - Sadiq Khan of Britain's opposition Labour Party was sworn in as Mayor of London on Saturday, becoming the first Muslim to head a major European capital after an election campaign marked by the ruling Conservatives' efforts to link him to extremism. The son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver and a seamstress, Khan defeated Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith, the son of a billionaire financier, by a record margin to secure the biggest individual mandate in British political history. The Financial Times said the result highlighted London's tolerance, a "remarkable triumph over the racial and religious tensions that have bedevilled other European capitals". "My name is Sadiq Khan and I'm the Mayor of London," the 45-year-old said to wild applause at the ceremony at Southwark Cathedral attended by the city's police chief, politicians and leaders of different faiths. Khan's election also puts a supporter of Britain remaining in the European Union at the helm of the global financial centre, even though the issue barely came up in the campaign. Goldsmith and outgoing mayor Boris Johnson favour a vote to leave when Britain holds a referendum on the issue next month. Politicians from all sides lined up to condemn the Conservative Party tactics in the race, but in the aftermath, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon refused to apologise. "In the rough and tumble of elections, you get stuff said, questions asked," Fallon told the BBC. "I think it is right that candidates for some of the most important offices in Britain do get scrutinised about their past associations." Conservatives including Prime Minister David Cameron and Fallon himself had questioned whether London would be safe under the control of Khan, a former human rights lawyer who grew up in public housing in the capital's inner city. "They used fear and innuendo to try to turn different ethnic and religious groups against each other  something straight out of the Donald Trump playbook," Khan told the Observer newspaper. Many commentators said the focus on religion had backfired in a city noted for its diversity. During the race Goldsmith had joined forces with Cameron and other senior party members to question Khan's past appearances alongside radical Muslim speakers at public events, accusing him of giving "oxygen" to extremists. During one heated session in parliament, Labour lawmakers accused Cameron of racism when he repeatedly raised the issue. CONTROVERSY, CONGRATULATIONS Khan said he had fought extremism all his life and regretted sharing a stage with speakers who held "abhorrent" views. Sayeeda Warsi, a former Conservative Party chairman, said the campaign had damaged the party's credibility on issues of race and religion, while Labour politicians called on Fallon and Cameron to stop smearing their candidate. The left-wing mayors of New York and Paris saluted Khan, as did U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. "Son of a Pakistani bus driver, champion of workers' rights and human rights, and now Mayor of London. Congrats, @SadiqKhan," Clinton said on Twitter. Sajid Javid, Britain's business secretary and a Conservative, said on Twitter: "From one son of a Pakistani bus driver to another, congratulations." Khan's victory makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital. During the campaign he had vowed to tackle the lack of affordable housing in London, oppose the expansion of Heathrow Airport and improve the transport system. The victory in London was one of the few bright spots for Labour, which endured poor results in elections elsewhere, especially in Scotland. However leader Jeremy Corbyn did not attend Khan's swearing-in ceremony. (Editing by Angus MacSwan and Diane Craft)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel urged euro zone finance ministers to start talks on debt relief for Greece, saying it made no sense to crush the green shoots of economic recovery with further austerity measures. The finance ministers of the euro zone's 19 countries are due to meet in Brussels on May 9 to discuss Greece's debt and a new set of contingency measures that Athens should adopt to ensure it will achieve agreed fiscal targets in 2018. "The euro group meeting on Monday must find a way to break the vicious circle," Gabriel, who is also Economy Minister, said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Saturday. "Everyone knows that this debt relief will have to come at some point. It makes no sense to shirk from that time and time again," he added. The International Monetary Fund wants Greece's European partners to grant Athens substantial relief on its debt, which it sees as vital for its long term sustainability. But Germany's hardline Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble opposes any debt relief, arguing it is not necessary. Thrice-bailed-out Greece needs to secure an overdue aid payment of 5 billion euros to repay IMF loans, bonds held by the European Central Bank maturing in July, and growing state arrears. "It doesn't help the people and the country to have to fight every 12 months to get new credit to pay off old loans," Gabriel said. "Greece needs debt relief." Gabriel spoke out against further austerity measures and said Athens had managed to achieve better economic growth than expected. "It makes no sense to destroy these tender shoots once again with new austerity measures," he added. (Reporting by Thorsten Severin; Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Catherine Evans)
More than 120 raids were carried out by nearly 300 law enforcement officers and prosecutors (AFP Photo/Johsn Ordonez) (AFP/File)

Guatemala City (AFP) - Security forces on Monday launched raids on one of the biggest gangs in Guatemala, arresting 72 suspected members of a cell specializing in extortion, officials said.

More than 120 raids were carried out by nearly 300 law enforcement officers and prosecutors in the south, center and northeast of the country.

"The operation is focused on fighting the scourge of extortion," the chief state prosecutor, Thelma Aldana, told a news conference.

The raids targeted members of the notorious Barrio 18 gang who formed an ring known as "Solo para Locos" ("Only for Crazies") that strongarmed public transport companies plying routes between the capital and southern coastal areas, according to the public ministry.

Aldana said the extortion cell earned nearly $400,000 a year from its illegal activities and was linked to 30 murders.

Travel on buses in Guatemala has become increasingly risky in recent years because of the rampant extortion.

A spokeswoman for the public ministry said the raids on Monday turned up weapons and ammunition, grenades and other explosives, cellphones, and cash.

She said the criminals involved usually intimidated or launched armed attacks against bus companies. The investigation leading to the arrests started a year ago.

Those arrested were charged and put in jail pending trial.

The raids took place in the central province of Guatemala, in the southern provinces of Retalhuleu, Escuintla and Santa Rosa and in Izabal, northeast of the capital.

Guatemala forms Central America's infamous "Northern Triangle" along with neighboring Honduras and El Salvador. The three countries are prey to vicious gangs that murder, extort and deal in drugs.

Some 6,000 people die in Guatemala every year in violence attributed to the gangs.
The leader of Macedonia's biggest opposition party SDSM, Zoran Zaev (C) talks to the media in Skopje on January 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robert Atanasovski)

Skopje (AFP) - Macedonia's opposition said Wednesday it would only join EU talks on resolving the country's political crisis if the government revoked an amnesty for politicians embroiled in a wire-tapping scandal and postpone June 5 elections.

President Gjorge "Ivanov has to withdraw the shameful decision on amnesty... (which is) contrary to the constitution," Zoran Zaev, leader of the main opposition Social Democrats (SDSM), told reporters.

"The parliament has to annul the June 5 date for elections," he insisted, saying the ballot should be postponed "until conditions for a democratic, fair and credible vote are met".

"Otherwise, SDSM will not participate at the (Friday) meeting in Vienna," he added.

The ruling VMRO-DPMNE conservative party has already accepted the European Union's invitation to crisis talks in Vienna.

Last week, Macedonia announced snap elections on June 5, but the opposition said it would boycott the ballot on grounds that conditions for free and fair polls had not been met -- a contention backed by the EU and the US.

Zaev has accused the ruling conservatives of corruption, massive electoral fraud and clamping down the media.

On Wednesday, he said the party had "buried the agreement" reached under EU auspices last year which was aimed at resolving the two-year political crisis in the Balkans country.

The crisis ratcheted up a gear earlier this month, when Ivanov halted a probe into more than 50 public figures suspected of involvement in corruption and a wire-tapping scandal.

The move has triggered daily street protests against Ivanov and the ruling party's leader, Nikola Gruevski.

Late Wednesday thousands of people took to the streets of Skopje and other Macedonian towns once again to show their support for the opposition. There were no reports of serious incidents.

More protests are planned for Thursday when ruling party supporters are also set to make their feeling felt on the capital's streets after a pause of several days.

Ivanov's decision to end the wiretapping probe was also condemned by Brussels and Washington. Observers said it raised questions about the rule of law in Macedonia and damaged the country's ambitions to draw closer to the EU and the US.

The former Yugoslav republic has been a candidate for EU membership since 2005, but has yet to open accession talks. It is also a candidate to join NATO since 2009.
Malaysia's largest state has gone to the polls in an election that poses a test for a ruling coalition deeply shaken by allegations of massive corruption linked to Prime Minister Najib Razak (AFP Photo/Mohd Rasfan)

Malaysia's ruling coalition romped to victory in elections in the country's largest state Saturday, providing some relief for Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is under fire over allegations of massive graft.

The vote in Sarawak, on Borneo island, has been closely watched for clues that Najib's troubles have eroded ruling-coalition support as national elections loom by mid-2018.

But parties aligned to the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) gained 17 seats, giving them a total of 72 and a resounding majority in the 82-seat state assembly, according to Malaysian media.

The BN was likely aided by its well-established political machine, a burst of government spending announcements in the polls run-up and the creation of 11 new seats in its stronghold areas.

Disunity in Malaysia's opposition may also have helped, with candidates competing head-to-head in some areas.

Najib led the BN -- in power since independence in 1957 -- to its worst-ever showing in 2013 national elections amid voter concerns over the economy, corruption and alleged government repression.

It now faces allegations billions of dollars were plundered from a debt-stricken state-owned investment fund Najib founded in 2009.

The accusations, which burst forth last year, include the revelation Najib received at least $681 million in deposits to his personal bank accounts in 2013.

Najib and the state company, 1Malaysia Development Berhad, steadfastly deny the money was syphoned from 1MDB, but the prime minister has sparked anger by shutting down investigations and sidelining critics.

A recent independent survey found most Sarawakians support the BN-aligned state government, however, and were little swayed by the Najib graft allegations.

Sarawak holds state-assembly elections out of sync with the rest of Malaysia.

Allegations of electoral abuses have marred the polls, including the redistricting exercise that created 11 new seats, which critics have labelled gerrymandering by the ruling coalition.

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The state government has also blocked opposition politicians and activists from entering to campaign, using entry controls Sarawak retained when it joined Malaysia in the 1960s.

The result may allow Najib to claim his government retains popularity despite the scandal.

But Sarawak, separated from mainland Malaysia by the South China Sea, is somewhat firewalled from political developments in the rest of the country, and only national elections can provide a clear indication of sentiment toward Najib.

Known for its vast tropical forests, mighty rivers and array of Borneo tribal communities, Sarawak is one of Malaysia's least-developed states.

It has remained so under decades of ruling-coalition government, despite abundant energy, timber and hydroelectric resources, and its government has been accused of blatant corruption.

But the BN-aligned parties who control it continue to hold sway over voters, particularly in the vast rural interior, due in part to a reputation for protecting the state's autonomy from more populous mainland Malaysia.

The ruling coalition controls 10 Malaysian states, and the opposition three.
By Jonathan Spicer and Jim Finkle

May 6 (Reuters) - In the years before hackers stole $81 million from a Bangladesh central bank account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, senior Fed security officials examined the risk of such an attack - but judged the prospect unlikely, bank sources told Reuters.

The Fed managers worried that lax security procedures and outdated technology at some foreign central banks could allow cyber-criminals to commandeer local computers and breach foreign accounts at the U.S. central bank, according to interviews with seven current and former New York Fed officials and a former U.S. government official familiar with the discussions.

Over several years, New York Fed and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials discussed the risk of an attack made using the banking system's communications network, known as SWIFT, according to Fed and government officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"The New York Fed was concerned with lots of vulnerabilities," said the former government official. "SWIFT was one of them."

But the Fed focused security resources on other priorities, such as preventing money-laundering and enforcing U.S. economic sanctions, officials with knowledge of the bank's security operations told Reuters. Fed officials took some comfort in the fact that SWIFT's security software had never been cracked, the officials said.

The immediate result of the breach for the New York Fed is a claim from the Bangladesh Bank for payment of lost funds and a potential lawsuit. Beyond that, the heist showed that the U.S. central bank long understood a potentially systemic risk to a vital global finance network, but was unable or unwilling to address it.

The New York Fed declined to comment on past security priorities or on whether it had made changes since the heist. SWIFT declined to comment.

Before the heist, some New York Fed officials considered the threat of fraudulent transfers ordered through SWIFT a "fat tail risk" - a statistical term for events with low probability but dire consequences, said one well-placed official with knowledge of the discussions. February's theft from the Bangladesh Bank fit that definition - a bold cyber heist in which thieves attempted to withdraw nearly $1 billion in dozens of requests.

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The crime rattled the banking industry because the conduit for the theft was the SWIFT network, an acronym for the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. A cooperative overseen by 20 of the world's largest central banks, SWIFT connects about 11,000 financial institutions globally that use it to order money transfers.

"What everyone is realizing right now is that no one has ever really appreciated the risk," said the person with direct knowledge of the New York Fed's deliberations.

SWIFT has said that the scheme involved altering SWIFT software on Bangladesh Bank computers to hide evidence of fraudulent transfers. Last week, SWIFT acknowledged that the Bangladesh Bank attack was not an isolated incident but one of a number of recent criminal schemes aimed at its messaging platform. SWIFT has declined to elaborate further.

Two Bangladesh Bank officials have told Reuters they believe both the New York Fed and SWIFT bear some responsibility for the failure to prevent the attack. The officials previously told Reuters that SWIFT gave Bangladesh Bank no prior warning about vulnerabilities, and the New York Fed failed to stop fraudulent orders when they reached New York.

The head of Bangladesh Bank is scheduled to meet next week with New York Fed president William Dudley and a senior executive from SWIFT to discuss the matter. SWIFT has said the attack was related to an internal operating issue at Bangladesh Bank, and the New York Fed has said it has no evidence that its systems were compromised.

Richard Dzina, head of the New York Fed's wholesale product office, in remarks at a banking conference Tuesday said bank workers "acted properly" in releasing the funds. The system was penetrated, he said, because the hackers had acquired valid credentials to order the transfers.

$80 BILLION A DAY

The New York Fed holds trillions of dollars in funds for central banks worldwide. It processes about $80 billion in fund transfers in and out of their accounts each day, according to a New York Fed official.

Security is handled by the New York Fed's Central Bank and International Account Services (CBIAS) division, a closely-guarded operation inside its fortress in lower Manhattan. CBIAS assigns risk profiles to individual countries and regions, assessing government stability, terrorism threats, and organized crime activity when deciding how to dispense cash to central banks and other official institutions, current and former Fed officials said.

In the months before the attack, the security unit was focused on bulking up its anti-money laundering protections, an initiative driven by the Board of Governors at the Fed's Washington, D.C. headquarters, according to two people familiar with the plan. Another priority was protecting the Fed's own Fedwire payments system from cyber attacks, several current and former Fed officials said.

Most transfer requests are approved automatically after computer screening. Only a few of about 2,000 daily transactions are flagged for review by employees, according to a New York Fed official.

One of the officials said automated scanners used for SWIFT payments were effective for preventing money laundering and enforcing economic sanctions - but would not defend the bank against fraudulent money transfers.

"There is a balance here that has to be struck between allowing customers to make new payments and to conduct their business in a timely manner, and also to prevent really obnoxious or obvious cases of fraud," said Shehriyar Antia, a former senior New York Fed policy advisor and analyst in the CBIAS unit.

The CBIAS system specifically checks for typographical errors - and it was a thief's typo, along with an unusually high number of requests for payments to private entities, that alerted the Fed to February's cyber attack, banking sources have told Reuters. Once alerted, the Fed suspended payments on most of the requests coming from the Bangladesh Bank, but not before the thieves extracted $81 million.

The Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh police and the FBI are investigating the attack.

A Bangladesh police official who heads the department's forensic training institute previously told Reuters that SWIFT servers at Bangladesh's central bank were vulnerable to hackers because of the absence of a firewall and a lack of basic security protocols.

LOOSE CONTROLS

Three former officials said that the New York Fed had recently focused on loose controls over terminals and other access points to the SWIFT network at foreign central banks, where bankers often order withdrawals for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The concerns focused on the possibility that banks would purchase computers implanted with malicious software or that attackers could steal or buy legitimate credentials from employees, said the former U.S. government official. An additional worry, according to two former Fed officials, was the possibility that a corrupt insider - possibly a bank employee - might have access to the SWIFT network and submit a fraudulent payment request.

Years of managing foreign central bank accounts gave some Fed officials concern that certain banks were ill-equipped to handle local security because of a lack of infrastructure investment and other procedural problems. But the Fed does not have the ability to audit the security protocols at correspondent central banks.

"The vulnerability is that central banks, even in developing countries, have a lot of money relative to their level of sophistication," said the official with knowledge of the security concerns. "It's not just Bangladesh."

(Writing by David Greising; editing by Brian Thevenot and Edward Tobin)
michael moore donald trump

Filmmaker Michael Moore has not taken Donald Trump's candidacy for president of the US lightly.

In December, leading up to the release of his latest movie, "Where to Invade Next," he told Business Insider that Trump was "absolutely going to be the Republican candidate" at a time when many in politics were still dubious about the businessman's staying power.

Now the Oscar winner behind "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11" says that everyone needs to be "deadly serious" about his run for the White House.

"I know that they [the Trump campaign] are planning to focus on Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. That's how he can win the election," he told Business Insider on Thursday. "If he can get those upper kind of Midwestern-type states, then he can pull it off."

But being the staunch liberal that he is, Moore said that he's also optimistic that whoever wins the Democratic nomination between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will defeat Trump.

"I know the statistics," Moore said. "I know that 81% of the country is either female, people of color, or young adults from 18 to 35, and [Trump] has significantly offended all three of those groups and they aren't going to vote for him."

Moore made these comments just hours before Trump tweeted this picture in celebration of Cinco de Mayo that was widely seen as offensive to Hispanics:

Happy #CincoDeMayo! The best taco bowls are made in Trump Tower Grill. I love Hispanics! https://t.co/ufoTeQd8yA pic.twitter.com/k01Mc6CuDI  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 5, 2016

So with the bizarre happenings of this political season, does Moore have any interest in doing a movie about the 2016 election?

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"There's no satirical film that I could make that would be more entertaining than the actual thing you're witnessing in real time," Moore said. "It wouldn't live up to the material they're supplying on a daily basis on TV."

"Where to Invade Next" is currently available on iTunes and will be on Blu-ray on May 10.

NOW WATCH: The real story behind Trump's taco bowl tweet





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Global warming has increasingly led to the melting of Arctic ice.

And, as the ice melts, the world's last true backwater will become a hotbed of global geopolitical competition.

The following map from Parag Khanna's book "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization" demonstrates exactly why the Arctic will become the world's next major frontier.

Largely, the competition in the Arctic will be based off of overlapping territorial claims and the region's high likelihood of having major oil and gas fields:

Arctic map

At stake in the Arctic is an estimated 15% of the world's remaining oil, up to 30% of its natural gas deposits, and about 20% of its liquefied natural gas stored in the Arctic seabed.

Additionally, a global shipping route through the Arctic should the ice clear would be significantly faster than current routes through the Suez Canal.

A potential route, running through the Arctic from Northern Europe to China, would cut shipping time by as much as 22%. This route, should the logistics work out and the correct infrastructure is put in place, would be a major economic boon for both Europe and East Asia.

By 2030, the WSJ notes, the Northern Sea Route will be passable to shipping for nine months a year.

Russia, Denmark, Norway, Canada, and the US all have partial claims to the Arctic Circle with Moscow taking the most definite steps to ensuring that it maintains its influence in the region.

As of December, Russia had finished equipping six new military bases throughout the Arctic in a move to recreate the country's military presence to levels it had during the Cold War.

The six military bases are located throughout Russia and are placed on both the country's northern shore and on outlying Arctic islands.

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The locations are now fully equipped with the materials and amenities necessary for long-term deployments of soldiers to the region.

Throughout this year, Moscow plans to begin sending hundreds of military servicemen to the Arctic bases.

NOW WATCH: Watch Russian warplanes fly dangerously close by a US Navy ship





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An Afghan policeman guards a checkpoint near the US embassy in Kabul (AFP Photo/Shah Marai)

Kabul (AFP) - The United States has warned citizens in Afghanistan of a "very high" kidnapping risk after an American citizen narrowly escaped abduction in the heart of Kabul, and an Australian aid worker was taken last week.

Katherine Jane Wilson, a well-known Australian NGO worker, was kidnapped April 28 in the city of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan.

"The US Embassy Kabul reminds US citizens that the threat of kidnapping and hostage taking continues to be very high," the diplomatic mission said in a statement Thursday.

"The US Embassy continues to take this threat seriously and advises... US citizens to take appropriate security precautions and to avoid predictable travel patterns within Afghanistan."

The statement added that an attempted kidnapping last Monday targeted several expatriates, including a US citizen. It offered no further details.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said that Canberra is working to secure the release of Wilson, but insisted Australia does not pay ransoms for hostages.

Wilson, said to be aged 60, ran an organisation known as Zardozi, which promotes the work of Afghan artisans, particularly women.

The abduction has set off alarm bells among foreign residents in Afghanistan.

Aid workers in particular have increasingly been casualties of a surge in militant violence in recent years.

In April last year the bullet-riddled bodies of five Afghan workers for Save the Children were found after they were abducted by gunmen in the strife-torn southern province of Uruzgan.